Notes
PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION
1. The most important examples are the entries on Virgil by W.S. Teuffel in his article in Pauly's Realencyclopädie [the earliest version] VI (1852) 2644-62, and in his own Geschichte der römischen Literatur I, first published in Leipzig in 1868-9; the fifth edition was revised by L. Schwabe in 1890 and has been frequently reprinted. The basis of his judgements, and his presuppositions, are revealed by statements such as: 'Virgil is not a natural poet, nor is he a folk-poet: he is a literary poet; and he is not a literary genius, merely a talented writer. . . . And most of the shortcomings in his work stem from this fact, that he is a literary poet' (Pauly 2650-1); or, from the first edition of his Geschichte der römischen Literatur (391): 'He is too little of a genius. . . . The extreme conscientiousness of his work cannot compensate for his lack of creative power and imagination and of originality, vividness and vivacity'.
These judgements reflect the aesthetic theories of the Romantic school, and the authority of a man such as Barthold Georg Niebuhr, whose frequently quoted opinion of Virgil ( Vorträge über römische Geschichte , lectures delivered in Bonn in the winter semester of 1828/9, Isler [ed.] [Berlin, 1848] III 130) is apparent throughout. Before long, the influential Theodor Mommsen, who shared Niebuhr's aversion to Virgil, added the weight of his authority to Teuffel's views (cf. Wilamowitz, 'Theodor Mommsen: warum hat er den vierten Band der Römischen Geschichte nicht geschrieben?', in Kleine Schriften VI [1972] 31). Still more negative judgements by specialists on Virgil's Aeneid were gathered together by H.T. Plüss in Virgil und die epische Kunst (Leipzig, 1884) 1-4, which, despite its scholarly imperfections, must be regarded as a forerunner of Heinze's work.
2. A prime specimen of this type of criticism is W. Kroll, 'Studien über die Komposition der Aeneis', Fleckeisens Jahrbuch Suppl. 27 (1902) 135-69.
3. In his Leipzig inaugural lecture, 'Die gegenwärtigen Aufgaben der römischen Literaturgeschichte' ( Neue Jahrbücher 19 [1907] 161-750), Heinze announced that he intended to pursue research into the literary technique of Roman authors. The significance of this remark was immediately perceived by E. Bickel ( Bursians Jahresbericht 140 [1908] 244-7).
4. However, Heinze says little about Book 6 of the Aeneid , since Eduard Norden's commentary ( P . Vergilius Maro : Aeneis Buch VI [Leipzig 1903]) appeared at approximately the same time.
5. Published posthumously under the title 'Virgil' by A. Körte in R. Heinze, Die augusteische Kultur (Leipzig, 1930; reprinted Darmstadt, 1960) 141-56; the quotations are from pp. 151 and 152.
6. An early example is H.W. Prescott, The Development of Virgil ' s Art (Chicago, 1927; reprinted New York, 1963), in which the first part of the 'epochmaking work of Richard Heinze' appears in a new guise, 'paraphrased, rearranged, condensed and expanded' (Preface viii-ix).
7. In this context, the most important discussions are the Virgilian studies of continue
F. Klingner, which are strongly influenced by Heinze, especially his article 'Virgil als Bewahrer und Erneuerer', in Das humanistische Gymnasium 42 (1931) 123-36 (see p. 131 for Heinze), and V. Pöschl's influential Die Dichtkunst Virgils (first edn Wiesbaden, 1950; third edn Berlin and New York, 1977; translated into English by Gerda Seligson as The Art of Virgil [Ann Arbor, 1962]).
8. Expressed in the reviews by R. Helm, Berliner Philologische Wochenschrift 15 (1903) 454-60, 489-93; F. Leo, Deutsche Literaturzeitung 10 (1903) 594-6; J. Ziehen, Neue Jahrbücher 13 (1904) 644-52 (a joint review of Heinze and of Norden's commentary on Aeneid VI); G.J. Laing, AJP 26 (1905) 330-42; E. Bickel, loc. cit. (n. 3 above).
9. Unsympathetic and, in some parts, petty criticism is to be found above all in P. Jahn, Bursians Jahresbericht 130 (1906) 61-70, in the reviews mentioned on p. 70 of his article, and in the works discussed in the pages that follow (71-7).
10. F. Leo, loc. cit. (n. 8 above) 596: 'To the best of my knowledge of the secondary literature, this book is the best thing yet written about Virgil. Furthermore, it has general significance in that it is a model of thorough analysis and scholarly appreciation of a great work of literature'.
11. The most important obituaries: A. Körte, 'Worte zum Gedächtnis an Richard Heinze', Berichte der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften , philol .- hist . Klasse 81.2 (1929) 11.30; F. Klingner, 'Richard Heinze

12. F. Leo, loc. cit. (n. 8 above) 595, immediately declared that he was convinced by Heinze on this point, and regarded this 'discovery' as one of the most important conclusions of the book; so too J. Ziehen, loc. cit. (n. 8 above). H.W. Prescott (n. 6 above) 479-80 also accepted Heinze's view, though his interpretation involved certain modifications of it.
13. C.M. Bowra, 'Aeneas and the Stoic ideal', Greece and Rome 3 (1933) 8-21; id. From Vergil to Milton (London, 1945) 58-9.
14. K. Büchner, RE VIII 2 (1958) passim .
15. They were pointed out very cautiously by F. Klingner in his review of Pöschl's book on Virgil (n. 7 above) in Gnomon 24 (1952) 138; cf. K. Büchner, loc. cit. 1337-9, and Brooks Otis, Virgil : a Study in Civilised Poetry (Oxford, 1963) 405. continue
In this context it is worth mentioning that H. Dahlmann (a pupil of Heinze's) used to say that Heinze had serious doubts about publishing his book, and even considered destroying the manuscript. It was not until Georg Kaibel encouraged him and urged him to publish that he was persuaded to change his mind. Hence the dedication.
16. F. Klingner, loc. cit. (n. 15 above).
17. E.T. Merrill, Class . Jnl . 11 (1915) 511. break
1— The Fall of Troy
1.
At 3.163ff. the Penates say:
est
locus
,
Hesperiam
Grai
cognomine
di
-
5
cunt
. . .
hae
nobis
propriae
sedes
,
hinc
Dardanus
ortus
Iasiusque
pater
,
genere
a
quo
principe
nostrum
[there is a region for which the Greeks use the name Hes-
peria . . . this is our true home: from here came Dardanus and Iasius, another chieftain
of our blood, and founder of the Trojan nation]; cf. 7.205, 240. Thus Virgil (cf. G.
Wissowa,
Gesammelte
Abhandlungen
zur
römischen
Religions
-
und
Staatgeschichte
[Munich, 1904] 113 n. 3) has concluded from Dardanus' Italian origin that the
Phrygii
penates
rescued by Aeneas are themselves Italian in origin. On this tradition
see Thrämer in Pauly-Wissowa
RE
IV 2175, who is certainly right to regard Virgil
as following it, not inventing it.
2.
Ancient commentators often point this out, quite correctly: see H. Georgii,
Die
antike
Aeneiskritik
(Stuttgart, 1891) 46f., but note that he mistakenly concludes
continue
that their aim is to deflect a serious criticism of Aeneas' character. This is unfortu-
nately one of numerous places in Georgii's book where references by the
commentators to intentions of the poet that are not completely obvious are wrongly
interpreted as forms of defence.
7 3.

Proclus; we are reminded of Odysseus disguised as a beggar (his

8 4. Apollod. epit . Vat . 5.17.
5.
In what follows, I treat both Quintus and Tryphiodorus as representatives of a
tradition independent of Virgil; for my reasons see the excursus (pp. 37f.) where
there is also a fuller discussion of the mythographical tradition of the Laocoon story.
9 6. In Dio. Chrys. ( Or . 59), Odysseus begins:


Troy]: cf. Sinon, neque me Argolica de gente negabo [I will not deny that I am an
Argive]. Odysseus has been grievously offended by the Greeks,


being your friend and their enemy]: cf. Virgil 2.158, fas odisse viros [it is right that I
should hate them].
7.
Fando
aliquod
si
forte
tuas
pervenit
ad
auris
Belidae
nomen
Palamedis
et
incluta
fama
gloria
[there may perhaps have come to your ears some mention of
Palamedes, son of Belus, a king of great military renown]: cf.



lamedes, son of Nauplios. He was no ordinary or mean member of the expedition
among the army and its leaders].
10 8. Based on Livy 22.48.
9.
Cf. Varro's definition of
victus
('vanquished') quoted by Servius on 11.306.
Punic treachery is well-known (
perfidia
plus
quam
Punica
[treachery greater than
Carthaginian]) (Livy 21.9, characterizing Hannibal); cf. 22.6.12;
Poeni foedifragi
[the Carthaginians breakers of treaties] (Cic.
De
Off
. 1.38);
Afri
gens
periura
[the
Africans, a perjured people] (Virg.
Catal
. 9.51);
ipse
fons
perfidiae
. . .
Karthagi
-
nienses
[the Carthaginians . . . he very originators of treachery] (Val. Max. 9.6 ext.
1); other examples in Otto,
Sprichwörter
der
Römer
s.v.
Punicus
; cf. also E. Wölf-
flin,
Archiv
für
latein
.
Lexicogr
. 7 [1892] 135-7; for example, a similar innocent
faith in
fides
Punica
[Carthaginian trustworthiness], according to highly coloured
Roman accounts, betrayed the consul Cornelius Scipio Asina into the hands of his
enemies (Münzer, Pauly-Wissowa
RE
IV 1486). But the Romans were also inclined
to suspect perfidiousness in other enemies:
genus
Numidarum
infidum
[the faithless
race of Numidians] (Sall.
Iug
. 46.3) cf.
fallacissima
gens
[a most deceitful nation]
(Cic.
Ad
Att
. 11.7.3); the Ligurians are
insidiosi
fallaces
mendaces
[treacherous
deceitful liars] according to Cato and Nigidius (Serv. on
Aen
. 11.700); Lucanians
ut
pleraque
eius
generis
ingenia
sunt
,
cum
fortuna
mutabilem
gerentes
fidem
[like
most of their race, changing their loyalty with their fortune] (Livy 8.24.6);
perfidus
Samnis
[the perfidious Samnite] (Livy 9.3.2); the Sardinians
libertatem
a
servitute
nulla
re
alia
nisi
mentiendi
licentia
distinguendam
putant
[they believe the only
thing that distinguishes freedom from slavery is the licence to tell lies] (Cic.
Pro
Scaur
. 17.38); the Gauls are
suspecta
gens
ob
infida
multa
facinora
[a nation which is
continue
suspect because of its many crimes of faithlessness] (Livy 21.52.7), the Germans
natum
mendacio
genus
[a nation born to lie] (Vell. 2.118);
Dacorum
gens
numquam
fida
[the Dacian race is never to be trusted] (Tac.
Hist
. 3.46); the perfidy of the
Parthians was also well-known: Hor.
Ep
. 2.1.112;
Odes
4.15.23 cf. Tac.
Ann
.
13.38ff.; the Cappadocians as professional liars:
Schol
.
Pers
. 6.77; finally
pleraque
barbarorum
ingenia
[most barbarian characters] were thought to be unreliable: Livy
22.22.6.
10.
Graeci
gens
lingua
magis
strenua
quam
factis
[the Greeks, a race more
energetic in speech than in action] (Livy 8.22.8);
gens
ad
fingendum
parata
[a race
ready to invent fictions] (Val. Max. 4.7.4);
Graecula
cautio
chirographi
[a Greek,
11 i.e. unreliable, guarantee given by my own hand] known from Cic.
Ad
Fam
.:
Ep
.
7.18.1, cf.
De
Orat
. 1.47;
Pro
Flacc
. 9ff. Otto,
Sprichwörter
der
Römer
s.v.
Graecus
.
11.
More recent exegetes have contrived to find more subtleties: I am not con-
vinced of the existence of the alleged

12
12.
It is also not until this point that he divulges (
fas
omnia
ferre
sub
auras
,
si
qua
tegunt
[158] [it cannot be sin for me to expose what the Greeks are hiding]), that
the Greeks have only left in order to make a quick return and to renew the fighting
(176-82), and have not, as he had maintained at 108ff., given up the struggle out of
war-weariness. The contradiction between the two passages is entirely deliberate.
13.
When people tell lies - for example, defendants in court cases - they can
often be seen to invent a mass of apparently insignificant detail in order to give an
appearance of verisimilitude.
13
14.
E. Bethe, 'Vergilstudien I',
Rhein
.
Mus
. 46 (1891) 511ff. Followed by Sab-
badini,
Il
primitivo
disegno
dell
'
Eneide
(Turin, 1900) 19ff.
14
15.
There is no need to think that Virgil means the highest part of the citadel as
opposed to the lower part, any more than at 12.697 where Aeneas, storming Lavi-
nium,
deserit
et
muros
et
summas
deserit
arces
[left the walls and the high citadel].
16.
So too Dido (4.409) sees
arce
ex
summa
[from high on the citadel] the
Trojans on the shore preparing to leave.
15
17.
Similarly, Dido the
Queen
moves
magna
iuvenum
stipante
caterva
(1.497,
4.136) [closely attended by a numerous, youthful retinue], King Helenus
multis
comitantibus
(3.346) [with many attendants]; King Aeneas, it is true,
multis
cum
milibus
[with many thousands] but
magna
medius
comitante
caterva
(5.76) [in the
midst of a large crowd in attendance]; when Androgeos meets the Trojans in battle
magna
comitante
caterva
(2.370) [with a large crowd of attendants], this signifies
that he is the leader of the company.
16
18.
The poet clearly intended a development from
credita
res
(196) [we believed
his story] to
ducendum
ad
sedes
simulacrum
conclamant
(232) [they shouted for the
horse to be taken to its place]. Sabbadini fails to notice it when he writes (20):
allora
i
Troiani
si
persuadono
che
bisogna
introdurre
in
città
il
cavallo
.
Ma
come
se
già
prima
erano
stati
persuasi
da
Sinone?
[Then the Trojans decide that it is necessary
to bring the horse into the city. But how can that be, if they had already been
persuaded by Sinon?].
17
19.
Goethe (
Über
Laokoon
[
Werke
, 40-vol. edn] 30.317) laid emphasis on this in
interpreting the Laocoon episode in Virgil, too exclusively in my view, but correctly.
continue
The objections of Plüss (
Vergil
und
die
epische
Kunst
[Leipzig, 1884] 42ff.) do not
seem to me to get to grips with this interpretation. It is not a question of Virgil
presenting an unforgivable act of stupidity by the Trojans in a kinder light, but of
preventing their action from appearing as unforgivable stupidity. Otherwise I am in
complete agreement with Plüss on many matters. I refer you to his own discussion
of this.
20.
Schiller likes to use this effect. I am thinking of such scenes as
Wallensteins
Tod
III 16, after the long conversation between Wallenstein and the lance-corporal,
when Buttler enters; or at the end of Act III after the scene between Max and
Wallenstein when the cuirassiers storm in.
18
21.
This is the reason, according to Bethe, why the phrase
s
o
l
l
e
m
n
i
s
ad
aras
[at the altar of the cult] is ill-adapted to the situation: the sanctuary would not have
been able to survive the storm and stress of the ten years' war, or must at least have
been out of use during those years. But why should the Greeks have destroyed the
altar? And even if the altar had not been used, it remains the
ara
sollemnis
, i.e. the
place where sacrifice was offered according to established sacred custom, in con-
trast to a turf altar erected for a single sacrifice, of the kind that we often find in the
Aeneid
. Furthermore, the epithet is very suitable here, because this is the first time
the sacrifice is being offered to Neptune again at his own sacred place (perhaps
newly rededicated - does it make any difference?).
22.
It might be objected that no reader would be aware of this connection unless
he knew his Euphorion by heart. But do we know that Virgil could not assume this
familiarity among the élite of his readership? Again, after Thymoetes' advice to pull
the horse into the city, he continues
sive
d
o
l
o
seu
iam
Troiae
sic
fata
ferebdnt
(34) [perhaps out of treason or perhaps because Troy's fate was already fixed], and
he must have assumed that this would mean something to one or another of his
readers; but that would only be the case if they knew Euphorion's version (which we
know from Servius
ad
loc
.). It did not matter if the average reader missed these
allusions; they were there for the connoisseur to enjoy.
20 23. Quintus 12.480:


tered the temple of Apollo in holy Pergamon]. This is probably derived from local
tradition.
21
24.
All of this, the
falsa
gaudia
(6.513) [deluded joy], is indicated later by a
single word,
urbem
somno
vinoque
sepultam
(256) [a city buried in a sleep deepened
by
wine
]. It goes without saying that the cup circulates at festivities (
festa
fronde
[249] [with festal greenery]); this only needs to be mentioned to explain why the
surprise attack succeeds so rapidly.
22 25. Sabbadini op. cit. n. 14 above, 22.
26.
Similarly, Eurylochus' speech (
Od
. 10.251ff.) is much more concise than the
earlier narrative of Odysseus.
23
27.
Flammas
cum
regia
puppis
extulerat
,
fatisque
deum
defensus
iniquis
. . .
laxat
claustra
Sinon
(256ff.) [the king's ship displayed a fire-signal; and Sinon under the
divine protection of an unjust destiny . . . released the Greeks from their confinement].
This is now usually understood not, with Heyne (referring to Sen.
Agam
. 427,
signum
recursus
regia
ut
fulsit
rate
[when the signal for retreat shone from the
continue
king's ship]), as the signal to depart, but as the signal to Sinon; correctly, in my
opinion, for the former is a totally unimportant detail, and there is no need whatever
for it be be mentioned here in close connection with Sinon's action. The other
sources have only the fire-signal given by Sinon, or by Antenor instead of him
(schol. Lycophron 340), or by Helen: this last version is followed by Virgil (6.518)
in the speech of Deiphobus, and Virgil no doubt had this later passage in mind when
he kept this motif in reserve for it. But he obviously feels the need to establish a
connection between the fleet and Sinon, so as to explain the synchronization of their
movements, and so he reverses the traditional motif. If one thinks about it, Sinon
needs to have accurate information about the approach of the fleet, so as not to open
the horse too soon.
28.
Virgil names nine, not in the shapeless list of the mythographers, but ar-
ranged artistically in three groups of three. Of course this does not mean that there
may not have been more; there were, for example, twenty-two in Tryphiodorus' list
(152ff.), thirty plus in Quintus (12.314), while others even speak of a hundred, or
thousands. Virgil could not omit the list, since it was a standard feature of any
account of the fall of Troy. The names are in the tradition: we find Neoptolemus,
Menelaus, Odysseus, Sthenelus, Thoas and Epeos in Quintus, Acamas in Tryphio-
dorus (cf. Paus. 1.23.8), Machaon is named as coming out of the horse in the
pseudo-Hippocratic
Epistle
27, p. 318 Herch. (already quoted by Heyne as
Thes
-
salus
in

Marx); this leaves only Thessandrus unattested elsewhere. Tradition also plays a
hand in making Epeos come last, as in Quintus (329) and Tryphiodonrs (182): there
the heroes are mentioned by name as they climb into the horse, and of course Epeos
is the one who knows best how the fastening works.
29.
That, too, is tradition, Apollod.
epit
. 5.20. Elsewhere it is a ladder, see
Paulcke,
De
Tabula
Iliaca
quaestt
.
Stesichoreae
(Diss. Königsburg, 1897) 81.
24
30.
Ancient authors frequently transfer 'calmness' from the night to the moon,
the

signa [the silent night signs] (Hor. Odes 2.8.10); it is irrelevant in this passage that
the new moon was called luna silens [the silent moon]; cf. Stat. Theb . 2.58: per
Arcturum mediaeque silentia Lunae [by Arcturus and the silence of the moon at
midnight]. The adjective amica [friendly] must refer to luna , the moon that shows
them the way; if Virgil meant that they succeeded in remaining unnoticed because
of the friendly silence of the night, it would hardly be consistent to mention the
moonlight.
31. Schol. Eurip. Hec . 910:

[it was midnight, and the bright moon was rising], quoted by Callisthenes as proof
that the poet sets the destruction of Troy on the eighth day of the waning of the
moon in the month of Thargelion; F. Marx ( Rostocker Prog . [1889/90] 13) also
refers to the representation on the Etruscan mirror IV 2.CCCXCIX Gerh. of the rape
of Cassandra by Ajax, where, however, the identification of Selene is not com-
pletely certain. Hellanicus set the event on a night when the moon was full (Clem.
Alex. Strom . I p. 139 Sylb.; for this and other evidence cf. Müller, Fr . Hist . Gr . I
568; Usener , Arch . für Religionswissenschaft VII [1904] 313f.), but we do not know
whether he was following an earlier tradition. Among later writers only Petronius in continue
his
Troiae
Halosis
54 has a full moon:
iam
plena
Phoebe
candidum
extulerat
iubar
[now the full moon had shown her bright light].
25
32.
nox
atra
cava
circumvolat
umbra
(360) [black night surrounds us in hollow
darkness],
per
caecam
noctem
(397) [in the utter darkness],
si
quos
obscura
nocte
per
umbram
fudimus
insidiis
(420) [those whom in the darkness we had sent
hurrying away in the night-shadows]. Otherwise only at 621, when the bright,
heavenly vision of Venus suddenly disappears,
spissis
noctis
se
condidit
umbris
[she
vanished into the dense shadows of the night] which gives a splendid effect of
contrast; also during the flight,
ferimur
per
opaca
locorum
(725) [on we went,
keeping to the shadows].
33.
In just the same way, Virgil juxtaposes the darkness of the night and the
brightness of the moon in the Nisus episode: Euryalus' helmet betrays him to the
enemy
sublustri
noctis
in
umbra
. . .
radiisque
adversa
refulsit
(9.373) [gleaming in
the night-shadows . . . it reflected rays of light], and the moon then shows Nisus his
destination (403); in the dense wood
rara
per
occultos
lucebat
semita
calles
(383)
[only here and there was there a glimmer of a path among the hidden pathways]; on
the other hand, Nisus is hidden from his enemy by the dark shadows (411,425). The
references to light in the account of the fall of Troy have often been criticized
(probably first by Wagner,
Quaestt
.
Virg
. XXXX 2) but the correct interpretation
was first given I think by Kviçala,
Neue
Beiträge
zur
Erklärung
der Aeneis
22.
26
34.
Vit
-
on
jamais
de
mieux
amené
ni
qui
prépare
un
plus
vif
sentiment
que
ce
songe
d
'
Énée
. . .
peut
-
on
lire
cet
endroit
sans
être
ému?
[Did you ever see anything
which is better introduced or which gives rise to a more intense emotion than this
dream of Aeneas . . . can anyone read this passage without being deeply moved?].
Fénelon,
Lettre
sur
les
occupations
de
l
'
Académie
V. Chateaubriand called the
scene
une
espèce
d
'
abrégé
du
génie
de
Virgile
[a kind of encapsulation of Virgil's
genius] (
Génie
du
christianisme
II 4.11). A hint of the right interpretation is given
by Weidner, whose commentary on
Aeneid
I and II (Leipzig, 1869) is unsatisfactory
in other respects but does at least have the merit of attempting to come to a deeper
understanding of Virgil's artistic intentions.
27
35.
Cf. Otto Ludwig, 'Handlungsszenen als Zustandsbilder',
Studien
I (1891)
454.
36.
Alii
rapiunt
incensa feruntque
Pergama
[Troy is afire and the rest are looting
and pillaging]: however, this is the only reference to flames in the scene involving
Androgeos and Coroebus. Virgil has no need of the bright light of the flames here,
and the Trojans are looking for shadowy parts of the city to practise their stratagem.
37. Apollod. epit . 5.23; Procl. Iliup ., cf. Tryph. 680.
28
38.
As in Quintus' version, as well as in Virgil (and Ovid). See the excursus at
the end of this chapter. Quintus also makes the fire start during the battle: 13.82,
304, 316, 431ff., 442, 452, 458, 461.
39.
Of course it is a completely different matter when in 12.569ff. Aeneas
throws fire into the still unconquered city of Laurentum, to force it to surrender.
40.
Sigea
igni
freta
lata
relucent
(312) [the wide straits of Sigeum are lit up by
the burning]: a painter's touch, without significance for the story.
41.
Succurritis
urbi
incensae
(352) [the city which you would rescue is already
ablaze].
break
29 42. Chapter III, section 3 below.
43.
Timaeus: Wissowa,
Hermes
22 (1887) 41. The legend with slight differences
also appears in Lycophron 1263ff.; Varro ap. schol. Veron.
Aen
. 2.717; Diod. 7.2;
ps-Xen.
De
Venatione
1.15; and, in a very abbreviated form, Apollod.
epit
. 5.21.
44. Dion. Hal. 1.46ff.
30
45.
He need not, of course, have read Hellanicus himself; it is hard to believe
that Dionysius did either. Here too, both may have made use of a common source.
31
46.
Hence the very deliberate phrase
victor
Sinon
(392) [Sinon victorious]; the
Trojans and their gods are already
victi
[defeated] at the beginning of the battle (320,
354, 367; cf. 452); the enemy's sword is drawn not for battle but for murder (
parata
neci
[334] [ready for killing]). Here too, it is parallels from Roman historiography
that can throw most light on Virgil. Cicero still knows of a battle lost at Caudium
(
De
Offic
. 3.109;
Cato
maior
41); Livy will not allow anything of the kind, but
expressly denies that swords were drawn (9.5.10): everything was decided by the
ambush and the stupidity of the generals. At the Allia, in exactly the same way, the
blame is laid on the incompetence of the generals and the surprise attack of the
enemy: it does not amount to a real battle (5.38). 'Both nations and individuals feel
shame at a failure which reveals the limitation of their strength, greater than even the
greatest sense of shame that they feel when through laziness and cowardice they
have not bothered to make any effort at all: in the former case their highflown
pretensions are shattered, in the latter they remain intact' (Niebuhr,
Römische
Ge
-
schichte
III 248):
mutatis
mutandis
this may be applied to the situation here.
32
47.
To understand this passage, we should recall that very similar expressions
are used in the description of the battle-fury of Turnus when he is maddened by
Allecto (7.460-2):
arma
amens
fremit
,
arma
toro
tectisque
requirit
,
saevit
amor
ferri
et
scelerata
insania
belli
,
ira
super
[out of his wits, he roared for weapons and
hunted for them by his bedside and all through the house. In him there rioted the
bloodthirsty lust of the blade, the accursed lunacy of war, and, above all, anger]. It is
significant that Aeneas, in the grip of mindless fury, has no thought whatever for his
family here. Further discussion of this later.
48.
It is wrong to take the pointed sententia
una
salus
victis
,
nullam
sperare
salutem
(354) [nothing can save the conquered but the knowledge that they cannot
now be saved] as meaning that Aeneas hoped that desperate courage might yet be
rewarded (commentators have cited as parallels for this meaning Justin 20.3:
dum
mori
honeste
quaerunt
feliciter
vicerunt
,
nec
alia
causa
victoriae
fuit
quam
quod
desperaverunt
[while they sought to die honourably, they were fortunate enough to
conquer, and the only reason for their victory was their despair], or Hannibal's
words in Livy 21.44:
nullum
contemptu
vitae
telum
ad
vincendum
homini
ab
dis
immortalibus
acrius
datum
est
[no sharper weapon for conquering has been given to
man by the immortal gods than contempt for life]; the notion is rather 'in defeat, a
man who hopes to save his life will either flee or surrender; but for me and you,
these means of escape are not possible: for us nothing remains but death'.
33
49.
However, this particular expression may have been chosen to suggest that
Panthus held the office of chief priest, since Apollo is the special protecting deity of
Troy.
34 50. Pergameumque larem et canae penetralia Vestae . . . veneratur (5.744) [he continue
paid reverence in prayer to the God of the Homes in Troy's citadel, and to the inner
shrine of Vesta the silver-haired].
51.
Only the last two letters,
w
v
, are preserved, which excludes Anchises and
Panthus; it seems hopeless to try to guess the name (Paulcke op. cit. 70).
52.
The ancient commentators understood this correctly: see Servius on 320f. It
35 is idle to ask why a priest of
Apollo
should rescue the
sacra
from the shrine of
Vesta. In Rome there was no separate
sacerdos
Vestae
. During the sack of Rome by
the Gauls it is the Flamen Quirinalis who, together with the Vestal Virgins, rescues
the
sacra
publica
(Livy 5.36ff.); I doubt whether we should conclude from this that
there were close connections between this Flamen and the cult of Vesta.
53.
Nec
tu
plurima
,
Panthu
,
labentem
pietas
nec
Apollinis
infula
texit
(429) [and
you, Panthus, even all your holiness and Apollo's own emblem on your brow could
not save you in your falling], a clear reference to the incident in the
Iliad
(15.521)
referred to above, where the priestly status of Panthus even saved his son from
death.
54.
Wissowa, in the article in which he elucidated the tradition concerning the
Roman Penates (
Hermes
22 [1887] 29ff. [
=
Gesamm
.
Abhandl
.
z
.
röm
.
Religions
-
u
.
Stadtgesch
. 94ff.]; cf. also his article in Roscher's
Lexikon
der
Mythologie
III
1897ff.) mentions the 'vague' nature of Virgil's references, implying that he failed
to give a clear and consistent picture of them. Virgil was right not to do so: it was
difficult or even impossible to represent the mysterious Penates in such a way.
Virgil clearly follows Varro in this, as he nearly always does in sacred matters. The
double expression
sacra
patriique
penates
which (
vel
sim
.) is used most frequently
in the second book (but also simply
sacra
Troiae
[293, 717]) allows the imagination
a great deal of freedom. Vesta and the sacred flame (297) which Varro also connects
closely with the cult of the Penates, can also be thought of as included with them;
since it was hardly possible not to mention the sacred flame, but since it was also
difficult to imagine it being transported, it finds its place in Aeneas' dream-vision.
Virgil makes use of the identification of the Penates with the
magni
dei
(which is
also Varronian) when he wants to emphasize their power 3.12, cf. 8.679; the figure
of epexegesis with copula (
penates
et
magni
di
: cf. E. Norden,
Antike
Kunstprosa
2
[Leipzig, 1909] 127) appears for the third time in the expression
e ffigies
sanctae
divom
Phrygiique
penates
(3.148): if the Penates (following the traditional version:
36 Dion. Hal. 1.67) are to appear to Aeneas himself in a dream, they must be thought of
as
statues
of gods, naturally miniature ones, since they are carried around; so they
must be something like the
sigilla
[statuettes] honoured in the Roman household
cult. Varro (schol. Varron.
Aen
. 2.717) also calls them
sigilla
, and, in view of the
established use of this word, Wissowa can hardly have been right in suggesting that
he was referring to aniconic symbols (whatever Timaeus understood by his

Antiquitates . The poet was right not to embark on the speculations which Varro put
forward in other passages.
55.
For example, Frontinus
Strat
. 3.2.4: the Arcadians suddenly attack a fortress
of the Messenians
factis
quibusdam
armis
ad
similitudinem
hostilium
. . .
admissi
per
hunc
errorem
[they made some weapons to look like those of the enemy . . . they were
admitted as a result of this confusion]. Ibid. 3.11:
Timarchus
Aetolus
occiso
Char
-
soft
made
Ptolemaei
regis
praefecto
clamide
interempti
et
galeari
ad
Macedonicum
ornatus
est
habitum
:
per
hunc
errorem
pro
Charmade
in
Saniorum
portum
receptus
occupavit
[Timarchus the Aetolian, after killing Charmades, King Ptolemy's
general, dressed himself up in Macedonian fashion in the cloak and helmet of the
dead man. Through this deception he was admitted in Charmades' place into the
harbour of the Samii and took possession of it].
37
56.
It is as if Virgil wished to contrast the wicked
perfidia
[treachery] of Sinon
with the
dolus
[deception] sanctioned by martial law; although it is true that Servius
(on 381) believes that Coroebus' words
dolus
an
virtus
,
quis
in
hoste
requirat?
[against an enemy, what does it matter whether it is deception or valour?] character-
ize him as
stultus
:
cum
sit
turpis
dolo
quaesita
victoria
. [foolish, since a victory won
by deception is disgraceful]. Valerius Maximus (7.4.1) gives the ancient view of
stratagems:
illa
pars
calliditatis
egregia
et
ab
omni
reprehensione
procul
remota
[that kind of cunning is splendid. and far removed from any blame]; but the ruse
must not develop into betrayal or the abuse of a noble trust as in the case of Sinon or
the similar case of Sex. Tarquinius, who overcame Gabii
minime
arte
Romana
,
fraude
et
dolo
[by that most un-Roman of arts, trickery and deception] (Livy 1.53.4).
57. Understandably, Virgil follows the version of the story in which Cassandra is
merely dragged from the altar,
trahitur
[is dragged] (cf. Eur.
Tro
. 71:


etc.]: Töpffer in Pauly-Wissowa RE I 938); Aeneas could not mention her rape,
which was invented in Hellenistic times to make Ajax's crime seem greater. On her
chains, see Leo, Hermes 37 (1902) 44ff.; cf. also Eur. Ion 1403.
38
58.
At least, it is only in Virgil that we hear of a fight over Cassandra. Even the
representation on the Vivenzio vase (a hydria by the Kleophrades Painter in Naples,
ARV
2
189.74) does not necessarily presuppose it (a dead man lies at the feet of Ajax,
who is seizing Cassandra).
59.
It has been objected that the discovery is reported (
illi
etiam
si
quos
. . .
fudimus
insidiis
. . .
apparent
;
primi
clipeos
mentitaque
tela
adgnoscunt
[420] [we
were even confronted by some of those whom we had routed by our strategem: they
were the first to see through our deceptive weapons and shields]) only after the
account of how the Greeks, provoked by the rescue of Cassandra and reinforced by
companions who come storming up from all around, have pressed in on the Trojans.
I do not believe that one should assume (with Weidner, Conington and Deuticke)
that Virgil intended to describe two stages of the struggle: (1) Ajax and his compan-
ions fight over Cassandra in the belief that it is their fellow-Greeks who are
contesting their prey (413-9); (2) the Greeks who had previously fled reassemble
and uncover the ruse (420-3). In that case, Virgil would have had to reserve the
terrible violence of the attack, which is made vivid by the simile (416-9), for the
climax of the second stage of the struggle; and why should the
Danai
undique
collecti
[Greeks gathering from all around], the
Atridae
Dolopumque
exercitus
omnis
(413-15) [Atridae and all the Dolopian army], side so decisively with Ajax
and against the group whom they took to be their compatriots? Clearly Virgil is
thinking of those who had previously been deceived as being among the
Danai
undique
collecti
(413); we should note that even in 413-9 nothing is said of the actual
fighting (which is not mentioned until 424) but only of hostile crowds storming in.
continue
The disguise is not said to have been penetrated until the end of this description.
This is so that the defeat of the Trojans should appear to be the direct result of their
being recognized. One only has to imagine lines 420-3 inserted after 412 (as L.
Müller suggested) to see how
ilicet
obruimur
numero
(424) [weight of numbers bore
us down] will then hang in the air; quite apart from the fact that the return of those
who have previously been driven away will appear to be a mere coincidence. On the
other hand, it is, strictly speaking, true to say that, in the text as it now stands, the
explanation of the furious attack by the united Greeks appears too late (Schiller
remedied this in his German version by boldly paraphrasing
gemitu
[groaning] in
413 as 'the screams of the dying have already long betrayed us'); here, too, the poet
thought it more important to put an energetic emphasis on the dramatic
peripeteia
than to produce an absolutely faultless motivation.
60.
Penelei
dextra
(425) [by the hand of Peneleus], whereas the tradition (Paus.
10.27.1) said Neoptolemus or Diomedes. Neoptolemus is not allowed to appear until
more time can be devoted to him (469); Diomedes is not mentioned at all in the
Iliu
Persis
; is Virgil perhaps protecting the reputation of the later Italian settlers (cf.
11.225ff.)? Virgil probably simply took over Peneleus from a catalogue of heroes in
the horse (Tryph. 180).
39
61.
That there were more than the seven named is implied by
confertos
audere
in
proelia
vidi
(347) [I saw them shoulder to shoulder, dauntless for battle], cf.
socia
agmina
credens
(371); and one does not necessarily have to assume that the incom-
plete line 346 indicates that Virgil intended to name any more. Similarly in 6.773ff.
a few names of Latin cities are listed to stand for the thirty, and likewise the names
mentioned at 261ff. are only the most important ones: see above, n. 28.
40
62.
Virgil might have drawn his inspiration from Priam's words
Iliad
22.60ff.:

apart].
63. The tradition had been unanimous in speaking of

liberately replaces him with the Penates (514; 517) because he was presenting them
41 as the ancestors of Rome (according to Dion. Hal. 1.67.3 Penates can also be
translated

Roman custom, in the atrium . Scholars have rightly reminded us that Augustus
transplanted a wild palm growing outside his house in compluvium deorum Pena -
tium [into the courtyard of the Penates]. The penetralia (485) are the same as the
atria (484), as is shown by 7.59: laurus erat tecti medio in penetralibus altis [there
was a laurel in the centre of the palace, within the high-roofed innermost part];
moreover it is obvious that the Penates would be located in the penetralia : pe -
nates . . . etiam penetrales a poetis vocantur [the Penates are also called 'gods of the
interior' by poets], Cic. De Nat . Deorum 2.68;

Herceus . . . quem etiam deum penetralem appellabant [Jupiter Herceus . . . whom they
also called the god of the interior] [Paulus 101]; cf. Wissowa, Religion der Römer ,
104.8.
64.
On this type of concise
propositio
of the theme, followed by a fuller develop-
ment, see Norden 275.
65.
It is a different matter in lines 483ff.,
apparet
domus
intus
et
atria
longa
patescunt
[the interior stood revealed. A long vista of galleries was exposed] etc.
continue
(i.e. to Neoptolemus, after he has broken down part of the door). Here, certainly,
42 Aeneas is narrating from the viewpoint of others, but this is acceptable since he has
clearly imagined himself in their position. While the fighting is still raging at the
door, the women wander through the halls, and bid farewell to their beloved old
home (489f.); when the enemy break in, they take refuge at the altar; it is only then
that Aeneas can see
Hecubam
centumque
nurus
[Hecuba and her hundred
princesses] from above.
66.
To be fair, it should be said that Quintus clearly intended to make the brief
preceding speech of old Ilioneus, in which he pleads as a suppliant for his life, a foil
for Priam's words: that is to say, he did have the beginnings of an artistic purpose.
67.
Whether the tree shading the altar on the Naples hydria by the Kleophrades
Painter is intended to represent a laurel (as e.g. Baumeister,
Denkm
. I 742 asserts),
which would imply that here too Virgil is following a tradition, I am unable to
decide.
43 68. Cf. Paulcke loc. cit. n. 29 above, 39, 51.
69.
See Luckenbach,
Verhältnis
der
griechischen
Vasenbilder
zu
den
Gedichten
der
epischen
Cyclen
632; Robert,
Bild
und
Lied
(Berlin, 1881) 74.
70. Cf. Robert op. cit. 60.
44
71.
We may compare the closing words of the narrative of the
paidagogus
in
Sophocles
Electra
(757), of the messenger in
Andromache
(1161), the
Bacchae
(1151),
Heracles
(1013) etc.; on the

suited to the style of drama, see Theon Prog . II 91 Sp. Aeneas concludes (557) iacet
ingens litore truncus , avolsumque umeris caput et sine nomine corpus [his tall body
was left lying headless on the shore, and by it the head hacked from his shoulders: a
corpse without a name]. In Pacuvius (Serv. on 557 and 506) Neoptolemus captured
Priam in his palace and killed him at Achilles' tomb; tunc eius caput conto fixum
circumtulit [then he canried his head around fixed to a pole]. Virgil wanted to use
this version of the tradition, in so far as it could be reconciled with his principal
source, as it suited his anti-Greek viewpoint (cf. on combining different versions in
this way, the excursus on sources at the end of this chapter, and Norden 255f.).
Admittedly, Aeneas could not have known the facts that he narrates here (see above
p. 10) but could only visualize them from his knowledge of Neoptolemus: for it was
45 a most barbarous custom for an enemy to display as a trophy the head of a man he
has slain: cf. 9.465, the Rutuli; 12.511 Turnus. The corpse was not even allowed to
burn where it was, amidst the blazing ruins of the king's palace, but was thrown
onto the desolate shore; this completes the picture of an inhuman hatred that persists
beyond death (Seneca seized on this: magnoque Iovi victima caesus Sigea premis
litora truncus [ Tro . 140] [slain as a victim to great Jupiter you lie headless on the
shore of Sigeum], cf. ibid . 55: caret sepulcro Priamus et flamma indiget ardente
Troia [Priam lacks a tomb and has no pyre though Troy is burning]).
72.
This has been shown conclusively by, among others, Thilo (preface to his
edition XXXIff.) and Leo (
Plaut
.
Forschungen
2
[Berlin, 1912] 42.3); now Norden
(443, 447) demonstrates; that the handling of
synaloiphe
also betrays the non-Virgil-
ian origin of the lines. The language not only contains very obvious mistakes (some
of which had already been pointed out by Peerlkamp) but displays throughout an
inability to use Virgilian diction: I would point to
servantem
,
aspicio
,
erranti
,
sibi
continue
infestos
,
praemetuens
,
invisa
,
exarsere
ignes
animo
,
subit
ira
. . .
ulcisci
,
parto
trium
-
pho
,
Iliadum
turba
,
exstinxisse
nefas
,
ferebar
: all these are echoes of Virgilian
diction but are un-Virgilian in choice of word, meaning or combination, and there
are too many examples in a few lines to be explicable by chance. The most recent
defenders of the authenticity of the passage (H.F. Fairclough,
Class
.
Phil
. 1 [1906]
221ff.; Gerloff,
Vindiciae
Vergilianae
[Diss. Jena, 1911]) are no more convincing
than their predecessors; how, for example, can one justify the expression
sceleratas
poenas
by referring to
sceleratum
limen
at 6.563 (see Norden
ad
loc
.)? The 'paral-
lel' scene at the beginning of
Odyssey
20 where the hero cannot decide whether to
kill the impudent slave-girls now or later and then Athena assures him of her help,
seems to me to bear so slight a resemblance to it that I find it hard to believe that it
46 would have occurred to Virgil's interpolator - though of course it may have done.
Gerloff's main error is his mistaken conclusion concerning the facts of the trans-
mission of this passage (see now also Leo's remark,
Monolog
in
Drama
, 5.1),
moreover he does not discuss the diction. Hartmann's article in favour of the lines,
Mnemosyne
(1905) 441ff. is so rhetorical that there is no way of refuting it.
47 73. Talia i a c t a b a m (588) [such were my wild words] i.e. not simply thoughts.
74. The groan of shock at Odyssey 12.371:

[Father Zeus and ye other blessed gods] etc.


regarded as a soliloquy.
48
75.
This has already been observed by Emmenessius; the borrowing is quite
clear:
Or
. 1137:




49 we were putting to the sword a good woman, that would be an infamous murder: but
instead the woman who killed their fathers and ruined their children will pay the
penalty on behalf of all Greece . . . there will be shouting, they will light fires to the
gods, praying that many blessings should come to you and me because we shed the
blood of an evil woman . . . ] (that is what is intended by sceleratas sumere poenas )


[it surely must not come about that Menelaus should thrive while your father and
you and your sister die; that he should have your home after taking his bride by
Agamemnon's spear]. The questions occiderit ferro Priamus [shall Priam have
fallen by the sword?] etc. are very clumsily substituted for Euripides' pattern of
clauses, and are weak imitations of such passages as 4.590: pro Iuppiter! ibit hic et
nostris inluserit advena regnis? [Ah, Jupiter! Is this stranger to make a mock of my
realm, and calmly go?] (where ire and inludere have not yet taken place) and 9.783:
unus homo . . . tantas strages i m p u n e per urbem ediderit? iuvenum primos tot
miserit Orco? [ will a single man have dealt such slaughter all over your town,
unpunished? Will he have sent so many of your finest youth to Orans?].

has been cited as a parallel for Troiae et patriae communis Erinys (573) [an aveng-
ing deity, a curse alike to Troy and to her homeland], but the source is clearly Or . continue
1388:

well-built citadel of Troy] (referring to Helen's beauty), and the Phrygii ministri
[Trojan servants] of 581 may also derive from the Orestes .
76. Conington, following Ti. Donatus, also considered this.
77.
quis
indomitas
tantus
dolor
excitat
iras
. . .
non
prius
aspicies
ubi
. . .
liqueris
Anchisen?
[what great bitterness rouses such ungovernable fury? . . . ought you not
first to see where you have left Anchises?].
50 78. Already in Homer ( Od . 14.68) Eumaeus says


tribe had perished utterly, since she has loosened the knees of many warriors].
79. Andromache:


dareus, you are no child of Zeus . . . may you perish, since you have destroyed the
glorious plains of Troy because of your beautiful eyes] ( Tro . 766; cf. Androm . 105,
248); Hecuba ( Tro . 1213).
80.
For example, Pylades in
Orestes
, see n. 75 above; Peleus (
Androm
. 602); the
chorus in
Electra
(479); Iphigenia (
Iph
.
Taur
. 356; the chorus at 439f.); Teucer (
Hel
.
72)

see the hateful image of the woman, the murderess who killed me and all the
Achaeans]. Virgil's Tyndaridis facies invisa [the hated image of the Tyndarid] is
strongly reminiscent of this.
52
81.
The difficulties in presenting this whole scene are admittedly alleviated by
the fact that it is Venus who describes the activities of the individual gods, while
Aeneas himself uses only words of a very general nature to describe his vision
(
apparent
dirae
facies
inimicaque
Troiae
numina
magna
deum
[622] [there were
revealed the shapes of dread, the giant powers of gods not friendly to Troy]).
82.
Iliad
20.47ff., beginning with Eris; Ares and Athena shout, each urging their
own side on to battle; Poseidon makes the earth tremble, so that Hades is frightened
and starts up from his chair; Zeus sends great peals of thunder from on high.
83.


citadel, and again, speeding along Simois over Callicolone].
54 84. Wörner in Roscher's Lex . I 185.
85. Tryph. 651:


the old man and his son, stole away Aeneas and Anchises, and took them far from
their homeland to Ausonia].
86.
The words
miraculo
magis
[more by a miracle] in Cassius Hemina's account
of the departure (schol. Veron. 2.717), and

the flames] in the Sibylline Oracle (5.9, 12.9) probably also belong to this tradition.
When Ovid says ( Ex P . 1.1.33) cum foret Aeneae cervix subiecta parenti dicitur ipsa
viro flamma dedisse viam [when Aeneas bore his father on his shoulders, the very
flames, they say, made a path for the hero], this can no longer be regarded as a
vague echo of Virgil, in the light of the other examples.
55 87. 8.524, 9.630.
56 88. The early commentators called it an auspicium maximum , Serv. on 693; we continue
know that any signs from heaven, not only lightning, counted as auspices.
89.
Servius points out that in the case of the youthful Servius Tullius this sign
was interpreted by Tanaquil as foretelling his future glory,
perita
caelestium
prodi
-
giorum
mulier
[a woman skilled in heavenly portents] (Livy 1.34.9); and again in
the case of Iulus' great descendant, Augustus,
Aeneid
8.680.
90.
De
Div
. 1.47, 106. Cf. also the prayer of the augurs in Livy 1.18:
Iuppiter
pater
:
si
est
fas
hunc
Numam
Pompilium
. . .
regem
Romae
esse
,
uti
tu
signa
nobis
certa
adclarassis
. . . [Father Jupiter, if it is fated that this Numa Pompilius should be
king in Rome, grant us a clear and certain sign].
57 91. Mommsen, Staatsrecht I 102.1.
92. Mommsen op. cit. 105.4.
93.
The earliest evidence is probably a coin from Aineia (sixth century; Bau-
meister,
Denkm
. Fig. 1015); then, apart from numerous pictorial representations,
58 Hellanicus (Dion. Hal. 1.46.4); also Naevius, who includes Anchises' wife as well
in the group leaving Troy: Servius on 3.10.
94.
She was called Eurydice in early epic (Paus. 10.26.1) and still in Ennius
(
Ann
. 37V). We do not know when or by whom Creusa was substituted; there was a
Creusa among the prisoners in Polygnotus' picture in the Lesche at Delphi (Paus.
loc. cit.; Robert,
Iliupersis
8); Apollodorus knows her as a daughter of Priam (3.12,
5.6: Hellanicus? Robert 62); Livy names her as Aeneas' wife (1.3), as do Dion. Hal.
(3.31.4), Pausanias loc. cit., schol. Lycophron 1263 etc. Our epitome of Apollodorus
does not mention Aeneas' wife in the departure scene (5.21), nor does Tryphiodorus
(651), nor significantly, since he gives such a wealth of detail in his narrative,
Quintus (13.300-52).
95.
The
Tabula
Iliaca
depicts the departure at two moments, at the city gate and
at the ship. At the city gate a woman can be seen between Ascanius and Aeneas, in
an attitude of mourning; she is unnamed but can surely be none other than Aeneas'
wife. Below, at the ship, this woman is no longer there: in other words she has been
lost between the two scenes (Paulcke op. cit. n. 29, 41.73f.). Pausanias (10.26.1)
records a tradition in which Creusa, as Aeneas' wife, was saved from slavery by
Aphrodite and the Mother of the Gods. If we combine the two traditions we come
close to Virgil; it is quite possible that Stesichorus had already shown Creusa,
59 unable to follow quickly enough and in danger of being taken captive, being saved
by a well-disposed divinity, just as he showed Hecuba being rescued by Apollo,
who carried her off to Lycia. According to a later tradition, Priam's daughter
Laodice also escapes captivity by a miracle: the earth swallows her up (Lycophron,
probably also Euphorion). Euripides uses this motif in the
Orestes
: Helen, just at the
moment when she is about to be put to death,


(1494f.) [she vanished from the chambers through the house, whether by magic
potions or the arts of magicians or stolen by the gods]. In later stories it is not
uncommon for a divinity to rescue a person from death or some other misfortune by
carrying them off: Leucippus (Parthen. 15), Britomartis (Antonin. 40); Byblis saved
from suicide by nymphs and turned into their

with them] (Antonin. 30). For similar beliefs in a later period see Rohde, Psyche II 2
375ff. Whether the Great Mother already plays a rôle in Stesichorus is doubtful; for continue
the early epic Robert rightly rejects the possibility (op. cit. n. 69, 62); but in any case
her intervention was not a motif created by Virgil.
96. In the same way the god Romulus-Quirinus appears to Julius Proculus


before] (Plut. Rom . 28). Similarly in Ovid, who however may have had the Virgil
passage before him, pulcher et humano maior . . . " prohibe lugere Quirites ' . . . iussit et
in tenues oculis evanuit auras ['handsome and larger than a human . . . 'do not let the
Romans grieve', he said, and vanished from their sight into thin air] ( Fast . 2.503).
97. Since female


the goddess on earth, the same is naturally true in her divine abode, and her servants
there enjoy immortality; by chance, we even know one of the


1078). Aphrodite abducts Phaethon


temple, a divine spirit] (Hesiod, Theog . 990). Galinthias becomes Hecate's


98.
11.586
cara
mihi
comitumque
foret
nunc
una
mearum
[she could have been
one of my companions still, and still dear to me].
60
99.
We might well believe that Virgil was thinking of the account of the rape of
Ganymede in the Homeric hymn to Aphrodite:




solable grief filled the heart of Tros: he did not know whither the heaven-sent wind
had caught up his dear son. Thereafter he mourned him always, unceasingly: but the
guide, slayer of Argus, told him everything on Zeus' orders, how his son would be
deathless and ageless like the gods]. Apart from this information, Tros is also
compensated with

turns to joy.
63 100. Leo, Deutsche Litt . Ztg . (1903) 595.
101.
nec
spes
opis
ulla
dabatur
[no hope of assistance remained]: Sabbadini is of
the opinion (op. cit. n. 14, 24) that this originally meant that there was no possibility
of helping Creusa: 747-800 would then be a later addition as a result of which these
words now have the inappropriate meaning that Aeneas was considering resuming
the fight, something that was quite out of the question in the circumstances. I do not
see why we should not take
spes
opis
quite literally ('hope for aid or support'):
Aeneas and his men have done what they could, no help is to be expected from man
or god, there is nothing left to do but make a final withdrawal. It is perfectly natural
that at this decisive moment he should think yet again 'supposing by some miracle
we could still be saved!', and yet be convinced at the same time that there was no
further spark of hope. Sabbadini's other alleged contradictions (Aeneas speaks of
portae
at 730 and 803, but of
porta
at 752; 748
curva
vallis
, whereas previously a
tumulus
had been named as the meeting-place) are even less persuasive.
102.
Set out in detail by Kehmptzow,
De
Quinti
Smyrn
.
fontibus
et
mythopoeia
(Diss. Kil. 1891), and in the review of this work by Noack,
Gött
.
Gel
.
Anz
. (1892)
769-812. On Tryphiodorus see Noack,
Hermes
27 (1892) 457-63;
Rhein
.
Mus
. 48
continue
(1893) 420-32. Since this excursus was written, the commonly held view mentioned
above has been contested by Kroll,
Studien
über
die
Komposition
der
Aeneis
in
Festschrift
C
.
F
.
W
.
Müller
zum
70
.
Geburtstag
gewidmet
(
=
Fleckeisens
Jahrbuch
64 Suppl. 27 [1900]) 161-9; similarly Norden,
Neue
Jahrbücher
7 (1901) 329 n. 1.
Both authors have, in my opinion, interpreted the relationship correctly, but for the
purpose of their argument they only refer briefly to the decisive factors. Since the
question is of such importance I thought it necessary to present my own more
detailed discussion none the less. Recently, P. Becker (
Rhein
.
Mus
. 68 [1913] 68-90)
has argued again for Quintus' dependence on Virgil; I have taken his main argu-
ments into account in what follows in so far as they refer to the passages under
consideration; Becker has also attempted to show that Quintus' account of the duel
between Achilles and Memnon (2.396ff.) makes use of the duel between Aeneas
and Turnus, and that his account of the boxing match (4.284ff.) draws on the
corresponding scene in
Aen
. 5. I do not refute that here, since I believe that any
unbiased reader will realize that Becker fails in his attempt.
103.
At this point Virgil is closer in the details to the version of Apollodorus
65 than Quintus is:


they had fled], nos abisse rati et vento petiisse Mycenas . . . iuvat ire et Dorica castra
desertosque videre locos litusque relictum (25-8) [we thought they had sailed for
Mycenae before the wind . . . we enjoyed going to look at the Greek camp and the
deserted space and the shore they had left].
66
104.
Quintus' narrative is clumsy, but that is what he means (cf. 39f., where it
would be bold to take

does not utter a word until he is tortured (cf. Koechly, Prolegomena p. xxxi); if that
was what he meant, Quintus' narrative would be even clumsier, for he would have
failed to mention what according to this interpretation is the main point, that Sinon
is silent until he pretends that the cruel tortures have forced him to speak; lines
370ff. and 387f., which say that he spoke as he did despite the torture, would then be
the height of clumsiness.
105.
This is not Virgil's invention, see p. 6 above; nevertheless it could of course
have been missing in the outline of the plot used by Quintus. It is certainly not to be
concluded from the absence of Priam that Quintus took an anti-Trojan position.
106.
He gives no explanation at all in the narrative itself, although, as Becker has
pointed out to me, in Odysseus' preceding speech we read


until our enemies drag us into the city, thinking they are bringing an offering to
Tritonis]: though of course they could not rely on this. In Apollodorus the horse is
pulled into the city before they discuss what to do with it.
67
107.
There is a verbal echo: in Virgil, Sinon has remained behind
in
utrumque
paratus
,
seu
versare
dolos
seu
certae
occumbere
morti
(61-2) [ready for either
outcome, whether success in his deceptions or certain death]; in Quintus he says



to die at the hands of the enemy or to escape, bringing great glory to the hopes of the
Argives]. It is not an unusual idea, and it could easily have occurred to the two continue
authors independently. Tryphiodorus gives the same remark to Odysseus:



infamous disgrace by a bloody death]; cf. also e.g. Eurip. Or . 1149ff. Nor is any-
thing proved by the comparison of undique visundi studio Troiana iuventus
circumfusa ruit certantque inludere capto (63-4) [anxious to look at him, the young
Trojans came hastening up and gathered round, outdoing each other in mockery of
the captive] with


rounded him from all sidles, standing round him].
108.
Nor is the change, that Sinon was not, as he perhaps was shown on the
Tabula
Iliaca
(the interpretation of the scene leaves room for a good deal of doubt),
led into the city
in
chains
; the version of the story that he had taken from his epitome
had itself already made this impossible.
69
109.
This warning was not given until the horse was already standing on the
citadel; Apollodorus, Virgil and Tryphiodorus are all agreed on this (although in
Apollodorus the debate about what to do with the horse also comes afterwards; and
only in his version does Cassandra interrupt this debate, and in Tryphiodorus the
most that may be doubted is whether he is referring to the moment when the horse
was pulled in; but in any case it is already inside the city); in Hygin.
Fab
. 108 Priam
70 has already given the command to bring the horse in and declared a joyous festival.
On the
Tabula
Iliaca
Cassandra meets the procession at the city gate; this does not
necessarily imply the existence of another version: the matter has obviously already
been decided here too. Quintus selects an even later moment when the festival is
already in full swing. He had to make this change, because he had put the renewal of
Laocoon's warnings and the miraculous serpents at the other point, as we have seen.
He and Tryphiodorus have some features in common, but hardly enough to suggest
a common source. These considerations tell against Becker's interpretation (op. cit.
n. 64, 86), which is factually incorrect in some parts and incomplete in others.
110. Rhein . Mus . 46 (1891) 517.
111.
Becker (op. cit. 85) disputes this: 'The god has given his first warnings
through
the
mouth
of his priest to no effect, now he gives a clearer warning
through
punishing
him
'. Becker does not adduce any analogies for a warning in the form of
the
punishment
of a faithful servant through whose mouth the god has spoken; it
would, I think, be hard to find one.
112.
Nor did the ancient commentators on Virgil know anything of it; they
simply contrast the
historia
and the Virgilian version. Anyone who is familiar with
the mythological capabilities of these scholiasts will not wish to draw conclusions
here based on their silence.
71
113.
For a different attempt at a solution, which I find unsatisfactory, see Wag-
ner,
Apollod
.
epit
.
Vat
. 233.
72 114. See above p. 32.
115. Cf. also Iliad 20.344,


great marvel that I see with my eyes . . . here lies my spear on the ground, and I see no
sign of the man at whom I threw it]. break
73 116. Cf. Wörner in Roscher Lex . I 182.
117.
Becker (op. cit. 87) is however quite wrong to think that in his description
of the death of Priam Quintus, writing from a point of view directly opposite to that
of Virgil, 'carefully avoided anything that might arouse sympathy, indignation or
revulsion'; that is exactly what the description at 244ff. is intended to do. Nor does
Pyrrhus believe what Priam says, but exults that he is taking away his enemy's
dearest possession, his life (239f.); Becker has obviously overlooked this.
74
118.
conversa
cuspide
(81) [he swung his lance round], by which Virgil cannot
have meant a trident. The only example in the
Thesaurus
where
cuspis
=
tridens
is
Ovid's
deus
aequoreas
qui
cuspide
temperat
undas
[the god who controls the waves
of the sea with his trident] (
Met
. 12.580); that is a completely unambiguous meto-
nymy, quite unlike the use of
cuspis
in our passage.
75 119. [Longinus] On the Sublime 9.14.
120.

[daughter of Boreas, she was reared in distant caves among her father's storm-
winds] (Soph. Antig . 983);

seven-chambered cave of Boreas] (Callim. Del . 65).
121.
This trident and its purpose are known to Lucan also:
si
rursus
tellus
pulsu
laxata
tridentis
Aeolii
tumidis
inmittat
fluctibus
eurum
(2.456) [even if the earth,
opened again by Aeolus with his trident, let loose the East wind on the swollen
waves]; it would be a remarkable coincidence if he had substituted it for Virgil's
lance on his own initiative.
76
122.
There are no significant correspondences in the details in Virgil and
Quintus. When he describes the mountain of the winds, Quintus lays emphasis on
the sounds they make:


ing noisily in their hollow cave, and ever the dreadful roaring din echoed around],
whereas Virgil emphasizes the character of the personified winds: vasto rex Aeolus
antro luctantis ventos tempestatesque sonoras imperio premit ac vinclis et carcere
frenat ; illi indignantes magno cum murmure montis circum claustra fremunt (52-6)
[in the great spaces of a cavern they wrestle, and hurricanes roar: but Aeolus, the
king who rules them, confines them in their prison, disciplined and curbed. They
race from door to bolted door, and all the mountain reverberates with the noise of
their resentment]. Virgil could have drawn the inspiration for this portrayal of
Aeolus from a word of Apollonius, in whose epic Hera sends Iris to Aeolus


clear sky] and tells him to hold back the winds except for Zephyrus


123.
85f. ~
Od
. 5.295f.; 87 ~
Od
. 10.122; 88f. ~
Od
. 5. 293f.; 90 ~
Od
. 12.415;
91 ~
Od
. 5.305,
Il
. 15.628, Apollon. 2.580; 92-101 ~
Od
. 5.297, 306-10; 102 ~
Od
.
5.313; 103 ~
Il
. 15.627; 105 Apollon. 2.583; on 106f. see above; 113ff. ~
Od
.
12.411ff.; 118f. ~
Od
. 12.67f.
77
124.
furit
aestus
harenis
[the billows are seething with sands] can be paralleled,
for example, in Sophocles
Antig
. 585


ima exaestuat unda verticibus nigramque alte subvectat harenam [the bottom continue
of the sea seethes and swirls and spews up black sand from its depths.
78
125.
Liedloff (
De
tempestatis
. . .
descriptionibus
quae
apud
poetas
Romanos
saec
.
I
post
Chr
.
leguntur
[descriptions of storms in Roman poets of the first century BC],
Diss. Leipzig [1884] 17 n. 1) long ago pointed this out, and listed details from the
description of the peaceful part of the voyage; comparable passages from the
ec
-
phrasis
[desription] of the storm are:
undasque
miscent
imber
et
fluctus
suas
[the
rain and the waves mingle their waters] (Seneca,
Ag
. 490),


se classis premit et prora prorae nocuit et lateri latus [the fleet crushes itself, one
prow damages another, one ship's side another] ( Ag . 497),


another] (Quintus 517), nil ratio et usus audet . . . remus , effugit manus [reason and
practice are of no avail . . . the oar slips from their hands] ( Ag . 507, 509),


[thrown about helplessly, in their confusion they could not lay their hand on the oar]
(Quintus 497), terraque et igne victus et pelago iacet [he lies overcome by land and
fire and the sea] ( Ag . 556),

whelmed at once by the land and in the barren sea] (Quintus 589).
126.
See Liedloff op. cit. 4; it is only by chance (Athen. 8.338a) that we know
that the description of this storm by Timotheus in his
Nauplius
was famous. We may
add Philetas, in whose poem Odysseus tells Aeolus


capture of Troy and how their ships were scattered while they journeyed from Ilium]
(Parthen. 2), and Callimachus, who included the story in the first book of his Aitia
(schol. Iliad 13.66). We should also remember the extravaganza Nauplius in
Heron's mechanical theatre.
127. Ehrwald, Philol . 53 (1894) 729.
79
128.
Schneidewin indicated this in his observation on Hippolytus (
Refutat
.
omn
.
haeres
. ed. Duncker-Schneidewin, 252) and on Epiphanius
Adv
.
Haer
. vol. II Book
I.21.3, as Knaack has opportunely reminded us:
Rhein
.
Mus
. 48 (1893) 632; see now
also Norden 254.
129. Immisch, Rhein . Mus . 52 (1897) 127.
130.

Argives]; Homeric

then the Trojans will have to pay for their impious act. This is a long way from
Virgil's iamdudum sumite poenas : hoc Ithacus velit et magno mercentur Atridae
80 (2.104-5) [it is more than time for you to be taking vengeance on me: how that
would please the Ithacan, and what would the sons of Atreus not give in return for
it!], because in that case their evil intention is carried out by an enemy's hand. break
2— The Wanderings of Aeneas
83 1. Cf. also Sabbadini, Studi critici sulla Eneide (Lonigo, 1889) 107.
85
2.
W.H. Roscher,
Studien
zur
vergleichenden
Mythologie
der
Griechen
und
Römer
I:
Apollo
und
Mars
(Leipzig, 1873) 82ff.;
Ausführliches
Lexikon
der
gr
.
und
röm
.
Mythologie
(Leipzig, 1884-1937) I.440f.
3. Strabo 6.257.
4.
This is clear from Statius
Silv
. 4.8.47
tu
,
ductor
populi
longe
migrantis
,
Apollo
[thou, Apollo, leader of a people migrating far].
5.
A similar idea seems to underlie Euripides
Helen
147, where Teucer wishes to
learn from the prophetess Theonoe


ship with a favourable wind to sea-girt Cyprus, where Apollo decreed that I should
found a city].
86
6.
So Schüler,
Quaestiones
Vergilianae
(Diss. Greifswald, 1883) 8ff., rightly,
even though he does not support his conclusions with adequate reasoning;
contra
,
Conrads (
Quaest
.
Vergil
., Trier, 1863) and Georgii (
Über
das
dritte
Buch
der
Ae
-
neide
in
Festschrift
zur
4.
Säkulärfeier
der
Univ
.
Tübingen
[Stuttgart, 1877] 65ff.)
had previously argued that it was the earliest of the books; similarly Kroll (op. cit.
[in ch. 1 n. 102] 157ff.). Sabbadini, who agreed with Schüler in
Studi
Critici
105ff.,
later modified his view in
Il
primitivo
disegno
dell
'
Eneide
(Turin, 1900) 30ff., in
which he argues that Book 3 was written at the very beginning, in a simple narrative
form, but was re-worked at a later stage and put into the mouth of Aeneas; I do not
need to add anything to what Helm has said against this hypothesis (
Bursians
Jahresberichte
113 [1902] 50). For the rest, I hope that the exposition of my own
view will make it unnecessary to engage in polemic against other individuals - for this
reason too I do not defend my view against Karsten,
Hermes
39 (1904) 259f.; I will
only say that he has unfortunately more than once misunderstood me and argued
87 against statements which are far removed from my own position. Gercke in his book
Die
Entstehung
der
Aeneis
(Leipzig, 1913) has recently revived Conrads' thesis and
suggests that Book 3 was written after 7 and 8, and indeed after the whole of the
second half of the
Aeneid
, while still being the earliest of the books in the first half
(apart from a preliminary sketch for 4). In my view, not only is Gercke's interpreta-
tion of individual details highly debatable, but I also believe that the method which
he uses in this case and throughout the whole of his book is wrong. It is futile to argue
step by step when his standpoint is so completely different from my own (Gercke
almost entirely ignores the artistic considerations, whereas I consider them to be of
essential importance); I therefore refrain here as elsewhere from arguling with him,
and refer to my detailed review of his book which will shortly appear in the
Anzeigen
der
Göttinger
Gesellschaft
der
Wissenschaften
(117 [1915] 153-71).
break
88
7.
It is worth mentioning that the same idea occurs in Ovid's letter from Dido:
certus
es
. . .
quaeque
ubi
sint
nescis
Itala
regna
sequi
['are you determined . . . and to
seek the Italian kingdoms, when you do not know where they are'] (
Heroides
7.9);
non
patrium
Simoenta
petis
,
sed
Thybridas
undas
. . .
utque
latet
vitatque
tuas
ab
-
strusa
carinas
vix
tibi
continget
terra
petita
seni
['it is not the Simois of your
homeland you seek, but the waters of the Tiber . . . and the land you seek is so hidden,
so remotely avoiding your ships, that you will hardly reach it as an old man'] (ibid.
145). In Book 3 Aeneas also once (500) mentions Thybris as his destination; at that
point, his knowledge of the name is totally inconsistent with the plan of the book;
for it cannot be merely by chance that Helenus mentions neither Thybris (which
does not appear at all elsewhere in Book 3) nor Latium nor Laurentum in his
prophecy: at 389 he says mysteriously
secreti
ad
fluminis
oram
[by the shore of a
remote river]. Of course there can be no question of the information being deliber-
ately conveyed

instance: that device is used to avoid tiresome narration or recapitulation of earlier
events, which cannot be the case here. Thus when Thybris is mentioned at line 500 I
can only regard it as an oversight on the part of the poet, who had not completely
cleared his mind of his earlier idea. I am not convinced that the passages in Books 1,
4 and 6 which mention Latium and the Tiber are the result of the same oversight,
since in those books there is no indication that Aeneas does not know the where-
abouts of his new home.
89
8.
In Creusa's speech the definite indication of the distination could easily have
been omitted;
matre
dea
monstrante
viam
[with my goddess mother showing the
way] in Book 1 is a piquant addition to the scene, but does not affect its essential
content; in Book 4 Apollo of Delos might just as well have appeared.
9.
Comparison of the similar lines 1.530-3 and 3.163-6 also shows that Book 3
was written after Book 1; the reference to
fama
is as suitable in the mouth of
Ilioneus as it is awkward in the mouth of the prophesying Penates; therefore the
lines in Book 3 were taken from Book 1, which had already been composed. I do not
agree that the reverse can be proved by the line
terra
antiqua
,
potens
armis
atque
ubere
glebae
(1.531 = 3.164) [an ancient land with might in her arms and in her
fertile soil] (Kroll,
Neue
Jahrbücher
vol. 11 [1908] 522 n. 3): in order to ward off
the suspicion that the Trojans have planned a raid on Libya (527f.), Ilioneus is
anxious to make Dido understand their real destination, and so has good reason to
praise the land in which they hope to gain a new kingdom (this contrast with the
sedes
paratae
[a place awaiting us] in Sicily is hinted at in line 557 and would
probably have been made explicit when the half-line 534 was completed).
90
10.
Hinc
Dardanus
ortus
,
huc
repetit
iussisque
ingentibus
urget
Apollo
Tyrrhe
-
num
ad
Thybrim
et
fontis
vada
sacra
Numici
(240) [in it Dardanus was born, and to
it we are recalled by Apollo who presses us onwards by his peremptory decrees
towards Etruscan Tiber and the holy spring-water of Numicus]: these lines are fully
consistent with the references in Books 2, 4, 5 and 6.
11. Paus. 10.10.6:

had answered him with an impossibility].
91
12.
It is true that an attempt has been made (by Fulda,
Fleckeisens
Jahrbuch
155
[1897] 213f.) to reconcile the versions in Books 3 and 7: he argues that Aeneas, not
continue
completely reassured by Helenus' comforting words about Celaeno's oracle, turned
to Anchises, who, on his deathbed, gave him the true and undeceptive oracle of
Apollo; the poet leaves the reader to deduce this from his narrative, in other words

to pass over this suggestion in silence, but since not only Karsten (op. cit. n. 6,
262f.) but also the author of a recently published Würzburg dissertation (V. Hensel-
manns, Die Widersprüche in Vergils Aeneis [Aschaffenburg, 1914]) accepts Fulda's
interpretation, I will explain why I find it completely untenable: (1) there is no point
or meaning in the alleged addition: Helenus' prophecy loses its value and import-
ance if Aeneas does not believe in every word of it but continues in doubt and 'in
this difficulty' turns to his father. Moreover, this does not get him any further: the
enigma, how devouring ones tables could possibly be a precondition for founding a
city, remains unsolved. The fear of starvation remains, and even if Anchises speaks
positively ( tum sperare domos . . . [then you may hope for a home]) and Celaeno
negatively ( non ante quam . . . [not until]) this takes him no further forward than
Helenus, who had said clearly enough ( nec tu mensarum morsus horresce futuros :
fata viam invenient [394-5] [and be not appalled by the fear of gnawing your tables:
Destiny will find a way] that Celaeno's condition will not stand in the way of his
reaching the end of his journey. (2) The cases of Virgilian

in silence] which I cite in Part II ch. 3.11 and to which Karsten appeals, are quite
different from this: there, the fact which has not been mentioned can be inferred in
toto from the narrative itself; whereas here the most important thing, that Aeneas
remained anxious despite Helenus' reassurance, and that Anchises finally calmed him
92 down, is only a hypothesis based on a combination of this passage with the narrative
in Book 3, and no reader who does not know Book 3 is going to imagine in Book 7
that something has happened previously without being mentioned. (3) From the
artistic point of view it would be impossible to understand why, if Celaeno's
prophecy had already been composed, Virgil did not return to it in Book 7 instead of
introducing Anchises: there can be no doubt that the portent is much more effective
when it proves that the enemy's threat is hollow than when it fulfils the prediction of
a friend. That is why Helenus' speech deliberately leaves the meaning of Celaeno's
threat unexplained: it only assures them that fata viam invenient [Destiny will find a
way].
13.
So Fabius Pictor: Cauer,
Die
römische
Aeneassage
von
Naevius
bis
Vergil
(
Fleckeisens
Jahrbuch
Suppl. 15 [1887] 104ff.).
14.
Thus Dion. Hal. 1.56. Varro
De
Ling
.
Lat
. 5.144
hinc
post
XXX
annos
oppidum
conditum
Alba
;
id
ab
sue
alba
nominatum
;
haec
e
navi
Aeneae
quom
fugisset
Lavinium
,
XXX
parit
porcos
[hence after 30 years the town of Alba was
founded: this was given its name from a white sow which after fleeing from Aeneas'
ship to Lavinium, bore 30 piglets] (cf.
Res
Rust
. 2.4.18):
ex
hoc
prodigio
post
Lavinium
conditum
annis
XXX
haec
urbs
facta
propter
colorem
suis
et
loci
naturam
Alba
Longa
dicta
[as a result of this portent this city was built 30 years after the
foundation of Lavinium and called Alba Longa because of the colour of the sow and
the character of the place]. Here
quom
fugisset
Lavinium
[after fleeing to Lavinium]
should perhaps be interpreted in accordance with Dionysius, 'the place where Ae-
neas subsequently founded Lavinium'; in which case Dionysius follows the version
continue
of the tradition represented by Varro.
93 15. In Fabius Pictor; according to Dionysius op. cit. it was


glade] or according to others


senting one of his country's gods]. The situation with these

same as in Virgil: Aeneas, overcome by anxiety, has gone to sleep in the open air on
the future site of Lavinium, to which the sow has led him.
16.
Line 46,
hic
locus
urbis
erit
,
requies
ea
certa
laborum
[this spot shall be the
place for your city, and there you shall find sure rest from your toils] (= 3.393, as
43-45 = 3.390-392) is lacking in M and P, and in R and later MSS it is doubtless
interpolated from Book 3, as is shown by the sense, quite apart from these facts
concerning the textual tradition. R and later MSS are inclined to insert interpolations
from parallel passages, as can be demonstrated elsewhere: cf. 2.76, 4.273, 528,
9.121, 10.278, 872, 12.612f., but this particular interpolation may also have been
prompted by the way in which line 47 is loosely attached to the previous line by
ex
quo
, which can easily be taken as temporal in sense [from which time], as by Heyne
and Norden 197, or as
ex
hoc
prodigio
[from this portent] by analogy with Varro's
words cited in n. 14 above.
96
17.
His
accensa
super
iactatos
aequore
toto
Troas
. . .
arcebat
longe
Latio
,
multos
-
que
per
annos
errabant
acti
fatis
maria
omnia
circum
(1.29-32) [such were the
causes of her fury: and so it was that the Trojans were tossed in storm over all the
ocean; and still she kept them far from Latium, wandering for years at the mercy of
the fates from sea to sea about the world].
18.
Mene
incepto
desistere
victam
nec
posse
Italia
Teucrorum
avertere
regem?
(37-8) ['I, vanquished? I, to abandon the fight? Lacking even the strength to keep
Troy's prince from making Italy?'].
19.
Una
cum
gente
tot
annos
bella
gero
(47) [I have been making war for all
these years on a single clan]: this, however, also includes the Trojan war.
97
20.
Sabbadini (op. cit. 27) considers these lines to be a later interpolation spun
out of 8.60ff.: he has not produced any convincing arguments on this point, nor
indeed for his entire hypothesis that the prophecy should be reduced to an original
nucleus (374 to 395; 410 to 413; 429 to 432; 462ff.). The landing at the Promuntu-
rium Minervae 531ff. is alleged to be inconsistent with the command of Helenus at
381-3: surely far more so with lines 396ff., which Sabbadini 28 strangely misunder-
stands. He says that the 89 lines of the prophecy do not agree with its description as
pauca
[a few] at 377: but what he says there is
pauca
e
multis
,
quo
tutior
hospita
lustres
aequora
[only a few of many truths, that you may voyage the more safely
over foreign seas], and in fact Helenus does omit a lot, e.g. Polyphemus, the burning
of the ships, the death of Palinurus. He speaks only of
things
which
it
is
useful
for
98
Aeneas
to
know
in
advance
, so that he can act on them. Therefore he says nothing,
for example, of the death of Anchises or, consequently, of the visit to the Under-
world, which is closely connected with Anchises' death according to Book 6 as we
have it: and when Aeneas says
nec
vates
Helenus
,
cum
multa
horrenda
moneret
,
hos
mihi
praedixit
luctus
,
non
dira
Celaeno
(3.712) [Helenus the seer never foretold this
grief to me among all his many dread warnings, nor did foul Celaeno], his words do
continue
not express surprise that he had not been told of it, but simply say that the loss of his
father was a greater sorrow than all those that had been prophesied. Helenus also
says nothing of the sea-storm and the forced landing in Africa - not, as Karsten (op.
cit. 289) suggests, because when Virgil was writing Book 3 he had not yet planned
the narrative of Book 1 and Book 4, but because Aeneas can do nothing to avert that
disaster, except to appease Juno where possible, as Helenus advises him to (433f.);
in this advice and in the reason that Helenus gives for it I see an unambiguous
reference to the sea-storm. That Helenus is not more explicit at this point is quite
sufficiently motivated by lines 379f. as far as the content is concerned, and artisti-
cally simply by the fact that it would only spoil the effect of the narrative in Book 1
not to imagine Aeneas and his men as surprised by events.
100
21.
Henselmanns (in the dissertation referred to in n. 12 above, 30f.) argues that
Aeneas and his men did not really want to settle in Thrace: 'Thrace was visited by
their neighbours the Trojans only as a
hospitium
[a 'stop-over'] (cf. 3.15.61), and
Book 3 (18ff.) says that a city was founded there merely to provide a historical
explanation for Aenos in Thrace or for Aenea in Chalcidice.' How can it be
only
'as
a
hospitium
' (which Virgil does not say) and at the same time the foundation of a
city? Why should Aeneas found a city, since he can hardly have done it to provide a
historical explanation for the Thracian Aenea? When, after the discovery of Poly-
dorus' murder, Aeneas consults the Trojans, like a consul asking the senate for its
sententia
[opinion], their verdict is
scelerata
excedere
terra
(3.60) [to leave this
wicked land], showing that they had previously intended to remain there. Hensel-
manns' objection 'that for such a nearby and familiar country to be the promised
land lies clearly outside the range of such (!) prophecies, which generally refer to
some distant, unknown locality' only holds good on the assumption that Creusa's
prophecy has already been made: but the whole plan of Book 3 excludes this
possibility. In what follows I shall disregard the misunderstandings and errors of this
dissertation.
102 22. Serv. on 3.148. Dion. Hal. 1.67.
23.
The geographical details are as vague here as for the foundation in Thrace,
for which see below.
mox
et
Leucatae
nimbosa
cacumina
montis
et
formidatus
nautis
aperitur
Apollo
(274-5) [presently there appeared the cloud-capped headland
of Leucate, and Apollo's temple which seafarers hold in dread] - that can only be
the temple of Apollo on the southernmost tip of Leucas -
hunc
petimus
fessi
et
parvae
succedimus
urbi
(276) [being weary, we head for this place and go up to the
little city]: by
urbs
(a) Virgil either meant the city of Leucas, or else (b) he assumed
the existence of a city of Actium and thought it was controlled by Apollo Leucatas,
or else (c) he meant Anactorium; in any case, even if he had a clear picture of it in
his own mind, he did not think it important to create such a picture in the reader's
mind. Servius' interpretation of it as Ambracia is improbable in the extreme.
24.
This motivation (and
de
Danais
victoribus
[taken from the victorious
Greeks] on the dedicatory inscription) relies on the reader's awareness of the con-
trast, that at the very place where Aeneas celebrates with games
medios
fugam
tenuisse
per
hostes
[that they had safely escaped their enemies], his greatest de-
scendant set up the Agon [games] in memory of his greatest victory.
103 25. Dion. Hal. 1.51. break
104 26. Varro ( de familiis Troianis ) in Serv. on 2.166.
27.
According to Varro's account, the cult statue of the Nautii (the
simulacrum
aeneum
Minervae
,
cui
postea
Nautii
sacrificari
soliti
sunt
[the bronze statue of
Minerva, to which the Nautii subsequently used to sacrifice], Festus 178 ed. Mueller
[Leipzig, 1880] 166) would have to be the Palladium, although the official view,
also represented by Varro himself in the
Antiquitates
(Wissowa,
Hermes
22 [1887]
40), was that the Palladium was among the
sacra
Vestae
[sacred objects of Vesta]. If
Virgil had followed the former account, he would have been denying the existence
of the
Palladium
Vestae
. On the other hand, it is obvious that he could hardly accept
the notion that there were two Palladia, which was plainly an emergency explana-
tion invented by those who included the Palladium among the
sacra
rescued from
Troy. The only course open to him was to say nothing about it.
105 28.


to me to bring up in my palace, fearing that Troy would be taken] Hecuba 1133 =
hunc Polydorum . . . infelix Priamus furtim mandarat alendum Threicio regi , cum iam
diffideret armis Dardaniae cingique urbem obsidione videret (49ff.) [when the hap-
less Priam, realizing that Troy was condemned to a long siege, had begun to lose
faith in Trojan arms, he had secretly entrusted Polydorus . . . to the care of the King of
Thrace]; furtim [secretly] and auri cum pondere magno [with a heavy store of gold]
echo Hecuba 10:

me my father secretly sent much gold]; dum fortuna fuit (16) [in the days of her
prosperity] = 1208

29.
In recent works one occasionally reads that Lutatius Catulus had an account
of the foundation in Thrace similar to Virgil's; this error goes back to Heyne, who
quoted (excursus 1 to Book 3) as from the
Historiae
of Q. Lutatius what comes in
the
Origo
gentis
Romanae
9 shortly after a quotation from 'Lutatius', but is actually
of course from Virgil.
30. See also Norden 166.
31.
There is, for example, the murder of Pyrrhus by the Delphians in Eurip.
Andr
. 1128ff., or that of Achilles himself by the Trojans (schol. Eurip.
Tro
. 16), or
of Leucippus by the companions of Daphne, Parthen. 15.
106
32.
A more distant parallel is the metamorphosis of the Heliades (Ovid,
Met
.
2.359f.) where bleeding results from an attempt to free their bodies from the bark
during the transformation. In the story of Eurypylus (ibid. 8.762), the only parallel
known to Servius, the bleeding of the tree is probably a detail added by Ovid; it does
not appear in Callimachus.
33.
At 7.81 and 270
monstra
is used of the
prodigia
, which at 58 are called
portenta
deum
.
34.
For an account of Aeneas as founder of Aineia and Ainos see Schwegler,
Römische
Geschichte
(Tübingen, 1853-8) I.301 n. 7. Virgil is apparently thinking of
Ainos, because that is where Polydorus' burial-mound was to be seen (Plin.
N
.
H
.
4.11, 43); but
procul
[far off] in line 13, the mention of Lycurgus and the name
107

might lead one to think rather of Aineia. Against Ainos, Servius (on line 16) objects
that it already occurs in Homer ( Iliad 4.520), and therefore it cannot have been continue
founded by Aeneas, which is why Virgil avoids the name. The Aeneas legend had
been linked with Chalcidice since very ancient times, whereas Aeneas as the
founder of Ainos is known only to Pomponius Mela (2.2.8); one should not rely on
Servius'
Aenum
constituit
ut
multi
putant
[he founded Aenus, as many people
believe], and it is not impossible that he was influenced by Virgil, just as Virgil is
indubitably the source for Ammian. Marc. 22.8 (
Aenus
qua
diris
auspiciis
coepta
moxque
relicta
ad
Ausoniam
veterem
ductu
numinum
properavit
Aeneas
[Aenus
which was started under dire auspices and presently abandoned, and Aeneas under
divine guidance hastened to ancient Ausonia] and the
Origo
gentis
Romanae
9.4.
35.
69ff.: they depart
ubi
prima
fides
pelago
placataque
venti
dant
maria
et
lenis
crepitans
vocat
auster
in
altum
[as soon as we could trust the ocean, when winds
offered us smiling seas and the whisper of a breeze invited us onto the deep]: this is
most naturally taken as referring to the beginning of the sailing season in the spring,
since there has not been any mention of a previous storm which has now calmed
down (as at 5.763). Also
litora
complent
[they crowd to the beach] in 71 shows that
the Trojans are thought of as living in the new city.
108
36.
There are many individual phrases that are clearly reminiscences of the
Greek, most of them already noticed. In Aeneas' first speech
quis
te
casus
d
e
i
e
c
-
t
a
m
c
o
n
i
u
g
e
t
a
n
t
o
excipit
(317) [what has fate done to you since you fell
from the high estate of such a great husband] reminds us of Hector's words to
Andromache (
Iliad
6.462)


husband to ward off the day of slavery]. Andromache begins by saying how fortu-
nate Polyxena is, to have escaped slavery by death: similarly in Euripides Tro . 630
she says of Polyxena:


happier fate than mine, although I live] and 677:



Don't you think the death of Polyxena a lesser evil than mine?]; in his account of her
fate Virgil may have had in mind the account that Andromache herself gives in the
prologue to Euripides' play of that name (see Conington on 328); me famulo famu -
lamque Heleno transmisit habendam (329) [he passed me on to be mate to Helenus,
two house-slaves together], differs on a point of fact: this is to characterize Pyrrhus
as the man who disposes of his slave-girl with the total arbitrariness of a master.
With the question ecqua tamen puero est amissae cura parentis (341) [can the child
remember the mother whom he lost?] compare Hecuba's question about Polydorus

(Eurip. Hec . 92). Reminiscences of Telemachus' visit to Sparta ( Od . 4.130, 149;
15.125f.) are woven into her parting words at 486ff.: see the commentators.
109
37.
There are clear indications in the Andromache scene and the subsequent
meeting with Helenus that these episodes were unfinished, quite apart from the
half-lines at 316 and 340 - the latter is the only one in the
Aeneid
in which the
sentence is even left incomplete. Thus Virgil certainly wrote line 348,
et
multum
lacrimas
verba
inter
singula
fundit
[talking with many tears at every word], and was
of course able to do so despite
laetus
[joyful] in 347, but on the other hand I doubt
continue
whether the line would have remained in this form if it was to follow immediately
after 344f. Again, the reception and hospitality given to the
Teucri
(which Virgil
writes at 352 instead of the usual
socii
[my men], because
socia
urbe
[a city of
friends] follows) might perhaps have been revised, although there is no justification
for the objections raised against
illos
[them] in 353, since Aeneas is here indeed
speaking of the
populus
[people], to whom Helenus gives a great feast
porticibus
in
amplis
[in a spacious colonnade], just as at the reception in Dido's palace only the
proceres
[leaders] are present, while the
populus
feasts on the shore (1.633). In
general, as so often happens, scholars have used the established fact that the scenes
have not received their final polish to make quite unjustified criticisms that greatly
overshoot the mark (for example, Georgii op. cit. 76ff.).
Hector
ubi
est?
(312)
['where is Hector?'] has been criticized, but it is magnificent; after all, if the dead
are appearing, Andromache thinks, then it is Hector above all that she may expect to
see. (Dante felt the beauty of this passage, as is shown by his imitation in
Inferno
10.58f.) Equally unobjectionable are the questions that Aeneas asks at 317ff. He
says explicitly -
incredibilis
fama
(294) [an incredible rumour] - that at first he
could not believe the rumour that Helenus and Andromache were ruling in Chaonia;
and the assertion that he would not have landed on Pyrrhus' shores unless he
had
believed it is quite arbitrary: it is clearly stated that he heard this rumour only after
he had landed. The assumption that Aeneas gave an account of Creusa's fate which
has fallen out of the text (Ribbeck) is just as mistaken as the assumption that Virgil
on revision would have given a better reason for Andromache's knowledge of
Creusa (Georgii); we have seen again and again in Book 2 that Virgil was no pedant
in these matters. It is also obvious that Virgil does not mean that Andromache put
one question after another without waiting for an answer, as 337ff. implies if we
take it literally; but who would seriously expect the poet to give us Aeneas'
answers? In the departure scene, Helenus' speech to Anchises comes very awk-
wardly in the middle of the list of gifts; I should be surprised if nobody has yet
suggested putting lines 472-81 before 463: this would at least be preferable to the
violent surgery that others have inflicted on the whole of this passage. The warning
at 477-9 has quite rightly been criticized: Helenus had already said all this in much
greater detail. Or should Anchises be supposed not to have been present when the
prediction was delivered in the temple of Phoebus? In fact, Virgil has completely
110 ignored Anchises throughout the whole of this scene, just as he remained in the
background during the questioning of Apollo on Delos. That is perfectly under-
standable: Anchises, the crippled old man, never acts independently, but only
advises or commands, or prays as the head of the family (265, 528), here
stans
celsa
in
puppi
[high on the quarter-deck], as at 2.699:
se
tollit
ad
auras
adfaturque
deos
[raising himself and looking upwards he prayed to the gods]. But Virgil felt that,
since he was after all the head of the family, he should not be completely ignored
throughout the extended Helenus scenes, and he therefore inserted lines 472-81 as
an afterthought; in fact Helenus did not actually have anything important to say to
Anchises, and so the advice in 477ff. is, in my view, merely temporary padding.
Virgil introduced Anchises again as the supreme commander, without realizing that
after 356ff. special arrangements for the departure were no longer necessary. 482
should follow 471, or even better 469 - perhaps 470f. were inserted only to provide
continue
a basis for what follows: the guest-gifts are given at the moment of departure,
whereas the provision of men (the
duces
are, as Wagner has already perceived, the

[lackeys], who could not be called duces ), horses, sailing equipment and weapons
had probably been seen to earlier. The arms of Neoptolemus are reserved for Ae-
neas; it is a kind of compensation for the defeated hero that he is now able to wear
the armour of his enemy.
38.
Virgil was also thinking of Phineus' prediction in Apolloniu 2.311: hence
prohibent
nam
cetera
Parcae
scire
Helenum
farique
vetat
Saturnia
Iuno
(379-80)
[the rest the Fates do not allow Helenus to know, and Saturnian Juno forbids his
prophesying] =


whatever is pleasing to the gods, I will not conceal']. Apollonius gives a more
personal reason for the withholding of information by the prophesier (see Hensel,
Weissagungen in der alexandr . Poesie [Diss. Giessen, 1908] 27): Phineus is still
being punished for having once revealed too much of Zeus' decrees to mankind.
Virgil could not accept the idea that Zeus begrudged mankind full knowledge of the
future,

knowledge of the will of the gods] (Ap. Rhod. 2.316); he prefers to motivate it
mythically, on the grounds of Hera's enmity.
39. See above p. 46.
111 40. See above p. 45.
112
41.
To a certain extent, the ground for Achaemenides' description of Poly-
phemus has been prepared by the description of a natural horror: all through the
night after they have landed, Aeneas' men hear the roaring of Etna and see its fires,
without realizing where these terrifying phenomena come from.
42.
Dion. Hal. 12.22. We need not discuss here whether the Lycophron scholia
are right to see Odysseus in the Nanos mentioned at
Alexandra
1244, with whom
Aeneas forms an alliance in Etruria (cf. Geffcken,
Timaios
'
Geographie
des
Westens
,
Phil
.
Untersuch
. 13 [Berlin, 1892] 44).
43.
It is clear from the name Achaemenides that he did invent him: a Greek
writer - and any source would necessarily have been Greek - would hardly have
given a companion of Odysseus this characteristically Persian name; the Roman
poet may have been led astray by its similarity to Achaeus.
44.
This emotional interest sharply differentiates the scene from the narrative in
Apollonius 2.1092ff., the rescue of the sons of Phrixus by the Argonauts. On the
surface the resemblance is unmistakable, and Virgil may have received the initial
impulse for his creation from this passage: like Achaemenides, the sons of Phrixus
are helplessly marooned on an island which is haunted by dangerous creatures (the
birds of Ares); the dialogues also run very similarly to those in Virgil. But there is
113 no connection between the birds of Ares and the shipwrecked men -- the encounter
might just as well have taken place on any other island - nor does Apollonius
attempt to extract any pathos from the situation in which the sons of Phrixus find
themselves. Furthermore, the dramatic effect is spoilt by the fact that the reader is
told in detail beforehand what the Argonauts later learn from Argus. Compare in
particular Virgil's description of Achaemenides' arrival with the dry words of
continue
Apollonius


first].
114
45.
The ethos of Aeneas' parting words to Helenus and Andromache is indeed
the ethos of the whole book:
vivite
felices
,
quibus
est
fortuna
peracta
iam
sua
;
nos
alia
ex
aliis
in
fata
vocamur
(493-4) [live, and prosper, for all your adventures are
past. We are called ever onwards from destiny to destiny].
break
3— Dido
115
1.
I should not, however, wish to assert this as confidently as the majority of
recent scholars have done. Of course, all that we know about Naevius in this
connection is preserved in Servius' comment on 4.9:
cuius
filiae
fuerint
Anna
et
Dido
Naevius
dicit
[whose daughters, Naevius says, were Anna and Dido]. We
might well assume
a
priori
that when Naevius first mentioned Carthage he also told
the story of its foundation. And it is certainly worth observing that Macrobius states
(6.2.31) that Virgil borrowed the tempest, Venus' lament and Jupiter's reassurance
in Book 1 from Naevius, but says nothing at all about Dido in this context, whereas
at 5.17.4 he makes Virgil responsible for distorting the Dido tradition and spoiling
the popular image of her purity, without mentioning any predecessor. But these
arguments
ex
silentio
are not strong enough to prove that Naevius did not recount
the story (as Lucian Müller, assumed: see L. Müller,
Q
.
Ennius
,
Eine
Einleitung
in
das
Studium
der
röm
.
Poesie
[St Petersburg, 1884] 147, and
Q
.
Ennii
carminum
reliquiae
[St Petersburg, 1884] XXIII). From Servius' comment on 4.682:
Varro
ait
non
Didonem
sed
Annam
amore
Aeneae
impulsam
se
supra
rogum
interemisse
[Varro says it was not Dido but Anna who was driven by love of Aeneas to kill
herself on the pyre] it does not follow with absolute certainty that Varro was
correcting the version that appears in Virgil; however, the most likely explanation
for his remarkable statement is that Varro, in an attempt to reconcile the historical
tradition with the poetical, asserted that, since Dido had killed herself for another
reason, then the woman whom Aeneas loved, if indeed he did leave any such person
behind in Carthage, can only have been Dido's sister Anna; this expedient would be
rather like his favourite method of assuming homonyms in order to reconcile two
mutually exclusive versions of a legend. If so, then Varro must have believed that
the tradition was more than mere poetic fiction. Unfortunately, it is impossible to
establish whether Ateius Philologus in his essay
An
amaverit
Didun
Aeneas
[Whether Aeneas loved Dido] (Charisius I p. 127 K cites this title from Pliny) dealt
116 with this alternative version, or whether he investigated the historical basis of the
tradition of Aeneas' and Dido's love (which in my view is more likely). But if the
tradition did already exist in the Republican period, then certainly Naevius is the
poet most likely to have created it (so too Meltzer - following Niebuhr and others -
in Roscher's
Lex
. I.1013); bold and shaky hypotheses of another kind are found in E.
Wörner,
Sage
von
den
Wanderungen
des
Aeneas
(Leipzig, 1882) 17ff. E. Maass
implausibly traces Ovid's story of Anna (
Fast
. 3.545ff.) back to Naevius (
Commen
-
tatio
mythographica
[Greifswald, 1886] XVII), although Naevius had no reason to
continue
mention Anna's eventual fate, and furthermore, if he had used this story, the episode
would hardly have suited the purpose which we may assume lay behind his version,
that of presenting the Punic War to some extent as the revenge of Dido's people for
Aeneas' cruel behaviour. In Ovid, Dido's heiress makes peace with Aeneas, and
Dido's people are not mentioned.
2.
Apart from Malalas (ed. Dindorf [Bonn, 1831]) 162 and Cedrenus (ed. Bekker,
[Bonn, 1838]) 1.246, who both depend on Virgil. The story has been attributed to
Timaeus, wrongly, as shown by Geffcken,
Timaios
'
Geographie
des
Westens
, 47f.,
and others.
117
3.
If Dido was the subject of the sentence
blande
atque
docte
percontat
quo
pacto
Troiam
urbem
reliquerit
[persuasively and artfully she asks how he left the
city of Troy]; against this, see F. Leo,
Geschichte
der
römischen
Literatur
(Berlin,
1913) 1.82 n. 8. There is no possibility that Aeneas then told his story in reply: we
know from the fragments that the passage was in the third person (F. Noack,
Hermes
27 [1892] 437).
4.
Did Virgil perhaps have in Philetas a predecessor in this innovation? He had
narrated in his
Hermes
(Parthen. 2), taking his cue from
Odyssey
10.14, how Aeolus


their ships were scattered as they voyaged from Ilium] from Odysseus, and how
Aeolus' daughter Polymele had fallen in love with the hero. We do not know what
Naevius made of the narrative-device (see above). Ovid ( Ars Am . 2.127) has Odys-
seus narrating Troiae casus [the fortunes of Troy] to Calypso: apparently his own
invention (on the model of Virgil; compare his iterumque iterumque [again and
again] with Aen . 4.19ff.) for the sake of the very Ovidian punchline.
118
5.
A great contrast to this is Propertius 1.15.11:
multos
illa
(
Calypso
)
dies
in
-
comptis
maesta
capillis
sederat
iniusto
multa
locuta
salo
[for many days she
(Calypso) sat there sadly, with hair unkempt, making many a complaint to the cruel
sea] etc. Propertius takes this behaviour for granted, and there is no need to postulate
any specific Hellenistic model for him. Some wretched late author, however, in a
stupid attempt to parallel the Dido story, made the goddess Calypso herself commit
suicide for love (Hygin.
Fab
. 243).
119
6.
Cf. Norman Wentworth de Witt,
The
Dido
Episode
in
the
Aeneid
of
Virgil
(Diss. Chicago, 1907), where (38ff.) there is a good discussion of the dramatic
character of the episode.
7.
Comparison with the detailed narrative in Justin 18.4 is instructive, in that
Justin provides evidence which shows how consciously Virgil strives here to pro-
duce an emotional effect, to arouse pity for Dido and indignation against Pygmalion.
Hence the repeated emphasis on Dido's love for Sychaeus and Pygmalion's cruel
deception after he had killed him, which is revealed to Dido only by the pitiful
appearance of his ghost (1.343-56); similarly, the intensification of the crime:
ante
aras
[before the altar],
incautum
superat
[he caught him off his guard],
inhumati
coniugis
[her unburied husband], and Pygmalion's epithets:
scelere
ante
alios
imma
-
nior
omnis
[a monster of unmatched wickedness],
impius
[impious],
securus
amorum
germanae
[not concerned for his sister's love],
multa
malus
simulans
(361)
[with many cruel pretences]; the tyrant is hated or feared by his own people. That
continue
the victim himself discloses the crime is hardly Virgil's own invention:


the appearance of the murdered Polydorus in Euripides' Hecuba . Justin's narrative
runs: Elissa diu fratrem propter scelus aversata ad postremum dissimulato odio
mitigatoque interim vultu fugam tacita molitur [for a long time Elissa hated her
brother because of his crime; but finally she concealed her hatred and while putting
on a calm expression she silently planned her flight]; in a much more dramatic way
Virgil allows the unhappy woman to be deceived at first by the apparition into
120 believing that her lost husband is still alive, and then the apparition itself suddenly
destroys the illusion, whereupon she immediately prepares for flight. The flight
itself is described very briefly; navis quae forte paratae corripiunt onerantque auro
(362-3) [they hastily seized some ships which happened to be ready for sailing, and
loaded them with the gold], whereas, in Justin, Dido deceives first her brother and
then his messenger - which also involves playing an impious trick with the manes of
her husband; if Virgil found that in his source (cf. Conington, introduction p. xl,
although his interpretation is not entirely correct), he has deliberately omitted the sly
deception and we can easily see why: it would have been a jarring note in his
description of the heroic wife. If Sychaeus is given a prominent rôle, it is because
this is

same reason it is also emphasized that he was Dido's first husband (345), which is
not particularly relevant to Venus' narrative at this point.
8.
Virgil has borrowed Homer's comparison of Nausicaa with Artemis leading
the nymphs in their dance (1.498ff. cf.
Od
. 6.102ff.); this is a miscalculation, as
Probus clearly explains in a well-known passage of sharp criticism (Gellius 9.9);
contrast the skilful adaptation of the comparison by Apollonius in 3.875ff.
121
9.
The mist that has veiled him like Odysseus in the city of the Phaeacians and
like Jason until he reaches the palace of Aietes (Ap. Rhod. 3.210) now melts away.
Incidentally, it is a misinterpretation of
iamdudum
erumpere
nubem
ardebant
[they
had long felt eager to break free from the cloud] at 580 to paraphrase it as 'the two
men, burning with eagerness to make themselves visible, but incapable of doing so
before the magic has disappeared of its own accord' as Cauer does (P. Cauer,
Grundfragen
der
Homerkritik
2 [Leipzig, 1909] 341). We have already been told at
122 line 514 that Aeneas and Achates had wanted to become visible,
avidi
coniungere
dextras
ardebant
[they were in burning haste to clasp their comrades' hands]: they
cannot do so, because
res
incognita
animos
turbat
[the mystery of it all perturbs
them]. As soon as Achates says at lines 582ff. that there is no longer any danger, the
mist disappears. It is clear from the question
quae
nunc
animo
sententia
surgit?
['What are the feelings that now arise in your mind?'] that it depends only on their
free will. Tasso's imitation,
Gerus
.
Lib
. 10.48f. is very instructive for understanding
this passage of Virgil.
10.
His model is of course
Od
. 6.229f., although in Homer natural means (bath-
ing, oiling, clothing) enhance Odysseus' physical appearance, and these, so to speak,
merely make Athena's influence visible. Virgil, as so often, makes the detail more
abstract and therefore less immediately convincing, refined and carefully considered
though it is. Apollonius 3.918ff. is not as good.
11. E. Rohde, Der griechische Roman und seine Vorläufer 3 (Leipzig, 1914) continue
159. So Virgil himself earlier:
ut
vidi
ut
perii
[as I saw her so I was lost] (
Ecl
. 8.41),
an effect spoilt by the author of the
Ciris
429f. Also Catullus 64.86:
hunc
simulac
cupido
conspexit
lumine
virgo
regia
. . .
non
prius
ex
illo
flagrantia
declinavit
lumina
[as soon as the royal maiden saw him with desirous eyes, . . . she would not turn her
burning eyes away from him until . . . ] etc. Hellenistic love poetry was in its turn
following the example of comedy: Terence,
Phormio
111,
Eunuch
. 2.3 etc.
123
12.
The fact that Virgil only hints allusively at Aeneas' love and says very little
about his sorrow at parting arises primarily from his fear of dwelling on the weak-
ness of his hero. At the same time the artistic consideration of carefully preserving
the unity of the narrative means that Dido must be kept firmly in the foreground: cf.
'Composition' in Part II, ch. 4. I admit that this restraint causes the poet to make
sacrifices (see Drachmann's criticism of my arguments:
Nordisk
tidskrift
for
filol
. 14
[1905] 64): the reader is not explicitly informed about Aeneas' own feelings, and
learns about them in less detail than he might wish. But I cannot agree with Drach-
mann's view that the entire narrative is absurd and lacking in motivation. 'Aeneas
cannot become involved in a cheap liaison simply to pass the time, nor can he fall
seriously in love and then refuse to marry, nor can he possibly leave a broken
marriage behind him. All this was quite clear to Virgil; nevertheless there were
important reasons why he could not omit the episode . . . knowing this, we can under-
stand why Virgil is silent where he should have spoken, and why he uses his gods
instead of natural psychology.' But Virgil's Aeneas really is sincerely in love; the
poet states this clearly enough, in my view, to anyone sensitive to his hints, although
he does show consideration for his hero, since this is not a heroic deed but a
weakness: for Aeneas forgets his mission because of love, and furthermore does
wrong to Dido. According to de Witt (op. cit. n. 6 above, 28ff.) Virgil settled for the
124 'cheap liaison': 'Aeneas did not love Dido . . . it only makes matters worse that he felt
and confessed a certain affection for her.' But it is Virgil, not one of his characters,
who calls Aeneas and Dido
amantes
[lovers] at 4.221; the phrase
quando
optima
Dido
nesciat
et
tantos
rumpi
non
speret
amores
(291) [for in her ignorance and
goodness of heart Dido would never suspect that so deep a love could possibly be
broken] is part of Aeneas' own thoughts; in the Underworld Aeneas still speaks to
Dido
dulci
amore
(6.455) [with tender love]; and I see no reason whatever in all
these cases to understand
amor
as anything other than 'love', totally sincere love.
When Juno confides her plan to Venus before the hunt,
tua
si
mihi
certa
voluntas
(4.125) [if I may be sure of your compliance], Venus agrees:
non
adversata
petenti
adnuit
[to this proposal she raised no objection]: this is not a case of 'using the
goddess instead of natural psychology' - in this respect my conception of the
Virgilian gods differs radically from Drachmann's - but symbolizes the psychologi-
cal process which a realistic narrator would describe in everyday language. To the
sensibilities of a modern reader, Aeneas' behaviour may easily seem heartless and
unchivalrous, particularly if his parting words at 333ff. are not understood as Virgil
intended: Aeneas,
obnixus
curam
sub
corde
premebat
[straining to master the agony
within him] forces himself with difficulty to suppress his feelings and to allow only
his reason to speak, because he knows that this is the only way that he can remain in
control of himself. Aeneas' mastery of his deepest emotions for the sake of the will
of the gods is expressed succinctly but, provided that we take Virgil's words
continue
seriously, perfectly adequately in 345f. and 440ff. In any case, it is clear that
Aeneas' feelings are nothing like as intense as Dido's. A woman can be over-
whelmed by a love that verges on madness, but, in Virgil's view, it is not possible
for this to happen to a man worthy of the name; reason, or duty, will always prevail
in the end. In this Virgil can follow the literary tradition with a clear conscience, for,
as de Witt rightly explains, there can be
insanus
amor
[mad love] on the man's part
in comedy, pastoral and elegy, but not in heroic poetry. I should add that Virgil
certainly does not wish to make Aeneas appear innocent; but his guilt lies in begin-
ning, not in ending, the affair. For further discussion see the section on 'Characters',
Part II, ch. 2.1a below.
13. E. Rohde, op. cit. 159 n. 4.
14.
paulatim
abolere
Sychaeum
(720) [began gradually to dispel all thought of
Sychaeus].
125
15.
It has often been remarked what a great difference there is between the
emotional scene involving Venus and Amor in Virgil and the gaudy and flirtatious
piece of miniature painting that is its equivalent in Apollonius: see for example
Sainte-Beuve,
Etude
sur
Virgile
(Paris, 1857) 306ff.; we shall return to this in
another context.
16.
I do not understand why this emphasis on her fidelity to her first husband
should be regarded as 'arbitrary' (Drachmann op. cit. 65); perhaps because not all
widows in a similar position would take this attitude? But Dido is not like everyone
else, either in this matter or in any other. If we may discuss another passage at this
point, this also applies to Drachmann's remark about Dido's thoughts of revenge
(see above p. 104): 'Virgil has presented the whole course of events in a way that
would make a wish for personal revenge on Dido's part seem completely natural
and justifiable. Virgil's rejection of this motive is another example of his arbitrari-
ness.' But Virgil has portrayed Dido in such a way that the
inhumanitas
involved in,
for example, killing Ascanius and serving his dismembered limbs to his father as a
Thyestian meal, would not appear natural, however justifiable or not one might
consider such an act to be.
126 17. Cf. J. Marquardt, Privatleben der Römer 2 (Leipzig, 1886) 42.
18.
Livy 10.23.9; further evidence in G. Wissowa,
Religion
und
Kultur
der
Römer
2 (Munich 1912) 258 n. 2.
19.
It is true that he had separated from her, allegedly
pertaesus
morum
perversi
-
tatem
eius
[tired of her shrewish disposition] (Suet.
Aug
. 62), and Ovid explains
Livia's second marriage by saying that she alone was worthy of Augustus, and no
other man was worthy of her - i.e. not even her first husband (
Trist
. 2.161, cf.
Fast
.
1.65).
127
20.
This point has now been developed by H. Ahlers,
Die
Vertrautenrolle
in
der
griechischen
Tragödie
(Diss. Giessen, 1911), although he offers little more than a
chronological survey of the material.
21. For example, the

(Antonin. Liberalis 1.4); of Smyrna (id. 34.2), of Arsinoe (id. 39.3); in every case
she acts as a go-between. An extended example in the neo-Hellenistic style is Carme
in the Ciris , which, if we follow Sudhaus' happy conjecture ( Hermes 42 [1907]
491), is largely based on the Smyrna of Helvius Cinna. break
128
22.
The first conversation between Dido and Anna (6-55) was explained as a
later addition by C. Schüler,
Quaest
.
Virgil
. (Diss. Greifswald, 1883) 24ff.; Sab-
badini took up this idea and extended Schüler's conclusions to other scenes
(
L
'
Eneide
commentata
libri IV, V, VI [Turin, 1898] ixff.). His chief objection to that
conversation is that the
pax
[peace] which they seek at the altars in lines 56ff. is
something quite different from the
venia
[pardon] for which Dido is to beseech the
gods in line 50: it is release from the torments of love. This cannot be right: the
pax
that Virgil mentions here is part of the established terminology of Roman religion
and could never be understood as anything other than the
pax
deorum
[peace of the
gods]. For lines 65ff. see below; for the chronological framework see Part II, ch.
2.III.c) 'Time and Place'; it is not worth discussing the argument that in their second
conversation (416ff.) Dido does not reproach Anna for her exhortations.
23.
To secure a friendly relationship with the gods, to gain their
pax
ac
venia
129 [peace and their pardon], is the purpose of every prayer and sacrifice, if a god has
shown by
prodigia
or the like that he is angry (during a pestilence
unam
opem
aegris
corporibus
relictam
,
si
pax
veniaque
a
diis
impetrata
esset
,
credebant
[they
believed the only hope left for their ailing bodies was if they secured peace and
pardon from the gods] [Livy 1.31.7]; similarly
iussi
cum
coniugibus
ac
liberis
supplicatum
ire
pacemque
exposcere
deum
. . .
matres
crinibus
templa
verrentes
ve
-
niam
irarum
caelestium
finemque
pesti
exposcunt
[3.7.7] [they were ordered to go
and pray with their wives and children, and to ask for the peace of the gods . . . the
matrons, brushing the temples with their hair, asked for pardon from the divine
anger and an end to the plague]; cf. 4.30.10, 7.2.1 etc.; cf.
Aen
. 3.261), or if a person
fears that he may arouse divine anger by a future action
pacem
veniamque
precata
deorum
dearumque
,
si
. . .
silenda
enuntiasset
[praying for the peace and pardon of the
gods if she had proclaimed what should have been left unsaid] (Livy 39.10), or if
some danger threatens, for which people wish to assure themselves of divine assist-
ance, for example in battle (Cic.
pro
Fonteio
13.30:
illae
[i.e.
ceterae
gentes
as
opposed to the Gauls]
in
bellis
gerendis
ab
dis
immortalibus
pacem
ac
veniam
petunt
[they (i.e. other nations) in waging war ask for peace and pardon from the
immortal gods]: the
litatio
[the obtaining of favourable omens] during a sacrifice is a
guarantee that it will be granted [Livy 6.1.12]:
quod
non
litasset
. . .
neque
inventa
pace
deum
. . .
abiectus
hosti
exercitus
Romanus
esset
[since he had not obtained
favourable omens, and a Roman army had been thrown to the enemy without the
peace of the gods being obtained]; 12.7; 41.9 etc.). So too Cicero in the solemn
prooemium of his speech
pro
Rabirio
2.5:
ab
love
optimo
maximo
ceterisque
dis
deabusque
immortalibus
. . .
pacem
ac
veniam
peto
[I ask for peace and pardon from
Iuppiter Optimus Maximus and from all the other immortal gods and goddesses].
Similarly, and finally, in the prayer of the whole Roman people to the new god
Romulus:
pacem
precibus
exposcunt
,
uti
volens
propitius
suam
semper
sospitet
progeniem
[by their prayers they ask for peace, so that he may always safeguard his
own progeny willingly and propitiously] (Livy 1.16.3); cf. also
Aen
. 3.144, 370.
24.
spirantia
consulit
exta
[she consults the still breathing vitals], line 64; they
are called
vates
[seers] in the following line; thus it is a question of
hostiae
consult
-
atoriae
[victims for religious consultation], as Servius correctly explains in his
comment on 56 (cf. Wissowa 419), and the
vates
correspond to the
haruspices
.
break
130
25.
heu
vatum
ignarae
mentes
(65) [how ignorant are the minds of seers!] is
explained by Servius as
ignarae
amoris
reginae
[ignorant of the queen's love], and
in my view that is the only correct interpretation. That is also how the words were
understood by other authors in antiquity, as shown by the imitations observed by
Forbiger on Silius'
Punica
8.100:
heu
sacri
vatum
errores
[oh, the accursed delu-
sions of seers] (in his version of the story of Dido) and Apuleius
Metam
. 10.2:
heu
medicorum
ignarae
mentes
[oh, the ignorant minds of doctors]: in both cases, those
involved have no idea of what it is really all about. In Virgil, the
vates
must believe
that Dido is only anxious to overcome some religious scruple, and that is indeed the
reason for her sacrifice, but it is not the true cause of the torment and agitation in
Dido's emotions, which have already been described in lines 1-9 and which become
more and more intense independently of the acts of sacrifice.
26. Terence, Eun . 636ff.
27.
mediaque
in
voce
resistit
(76) [she checked herself with the words half-
spoken]: cf. Ap. Rhod. 3.686:

continue speaking].
28. Ap. Rhod. 3.453:



his voice rang in her ears, and the honeyed words which he spoke].
29. E. Rohde, op. cit. n. 3, 168.
30. Longus 1.13.6:

11.73:

Virg. Ecl . 2.70: semiputata tibi frondosa vitis in ulmo est [your vine is half-pruned
on the leafy elm] (cf. already Sappho fr. 102 Lobel-Page; Hor. Odes 3.12.3).
131
31.
Juno's attempt to override the decrees of fate in order to help Dido and
Carthage drives Dido to her death and in the end causes the destruction of Carthage;
it is quite possible that, as Conway says in his lecture
The
teaching
of
Virgil
(London, 1912) (of which he kindly sent me a copy), the careful reader is intended
to notice this; but surely this would only make him realise how wrong it is to oppose
fate in this way. Conway attempts to find references to the marriages which Au-
gustus forced on his family and friends for political reasons, but I am not convinced.
32.
Conway op. cit. rightly draws attention to the strong contrast, which seems to
be deliberately emphasized, between the narratives of Apollonius and Virgil; this
brings out the tragic aspect of their night of love more clearly.
132
33.
See now E. Penquitt (
De
Didonis
Vergilianae
exitu
[Diss. Königsberg,
1910]) with good discussions of details, particularly the sacred objects. However, I
cannot say that I agree with his 'rhetorical' analyses of Dido's speeches; see the
section 'Rhetoric' in Part II, ch. 3.III.10.
34.
The attempts to prove that this entire passage has been thoroughly revised,
and to reconstruct an earlier version (Schüler op. cit. 27ff., Sabbadini op. cit. x ff.
and
II
primitivo
disegno
dell
'
Eneide
[Turin, 1900] 43ff., F. Vivona,
Riv
.
di
.
Filol
. 26
[1898] 428ff.) seem to me to be totally misconceived. It is only the chronology of
the events against which valid objections can be made: on this see 'Time and Place'
in Part II, ch. 2.IIIc). As for the other objections, there are some apparent oversights
on the part of the poet that are open to criticism, e.g. after
decrevit
mori
(475) [she
continue
decided to die] Dido takes the same decision again at 534ff. (although I consider that
this is sufficiently motivated by lines 531ff., and from the technical standpoint it is
easy to understand why Virgil places this recapitulation of Dido's motives immedi-
ately before she commits suicide). We might ask why Dido did not kill herself as
soon as the funeral-pyre was built (although to my mind it is quite clear that,
however firm her resolve, she only proceeds to carry it out after Aeneas' departure,
which irrevocably extinguishes every hope): the second intervention of Mercury
might be criticised as superfluous (which it may well be as far as the narrative is
concerned, but not from a technical point of view, see below 'Structure of the
Action' (Part II, ch. 2.IIIb.2). But even if all these objections were justified, they do
not prove anything at all about the original form of the book and its re-writing; all
these hypotheses are based on the presupposition that there was at least some stage
133 at which the poet must have arranged his material in exactly the way that the critic
concerned would have wished.
35.
Reitzenstein's article (
Hermes
35 [1900] 86ff.) has made it impossible to
doubt that the original of Catullus 64 was an Alexandrian poem.
134
36.
Her first reaction is to feel that the cruellest thing is his apparent intention to
leave her secretly: cf. Eur.
Med
. 575f.:


ought to have persuaded me first, before making this marriage, instead of keeping it
secret from your friends']. The reference to the data dextera quondam [your right
hand once given to me] at 307 is not adequately motivated by the earlier narrative, at
least not as well as

great pledge of the right hand clasped] in Medea 22. Her pleas are reminiscent of
Tecmessa's words of entreaty and the general sense of her whole speech


you] (Soph. Ajax 514); with fuit aut tibi quicquam dulce meum [if anything about
me gave you pleasure] cf. ibid. 520:


experience]. infensi Tyrii (321) [the Tyrians are hostile] - why? surely because she
has set foreigners above her compatriots, rather like Ovid's Phyllis in Heroides 2.82:
quod ferar externum praeposuisse meis [because I am said to have preferred a
foreigner to my own people] etc.; cf. also Medea 495:


questions are modelled, on those of Medea in that passage. Her rhetorical point
hospes , hoc solum nomen quoniam de coniuge restat (323-4) ['Guest, since this is
the only name left instead of husband'] seems to be developed from the famous
pointed phrase of Callimrnachus' Phyllis (fr. 556, Loeb edn):


483). Her concluding words are reminiscent of Hypsipyle, who lets Jason leave
since she has confident hope of a son (Apollonius 1.888ff.).
37. The Homeric phrase

['the shining sea and steep crags gave you birth'] had been used again and again in
so many forms (even by Virgil himself in Ecl . 8.43), but Virgil had no qualms about
using the formula again because he was achieving a different effect by contrasting it
with diva parens Venus [Venus your divine parent]; for similar passages see Riese continue
on Cat. 64.155: Ariadne says the same of Theseus.
num
lumina
flexit?
(369) [did he
turn his eyes?]; cf.
Med
. 470:

your friends in the face when you have wronged them], though in a different sense.
135 nusquam tuta fides [nowhere is faith secure]; cf. Med . 492:

[faith in your oaths is gone]. The complaint that the gods are not giving any support,
which was originally based on the fact that a broken oath had gone unpunished
( quamquam nil testibus illis pro feci [ Ecl . 8.20] [although their witness has bene-
fitted me not at all], cf. Asclepiades AP 5.52:


Med . 412:

gods]) appears in a different form here, since there is no oath to appeal to. It is only
at this point, when she is no longer expecting any gratitude, that Dido first explicitly
mentions all her services to Aeneas; previously she had only alluded to them in the
phrase si quid de te merui (317) [if I ever did you a service] cf. Med . 476:

etc. [I rescued you]; Ariadne in Cat. 64.149: certe ego te in medio versantem turbine
leti eripui etc. [surely I rescued you when you were swirling in a whirlpool of
death]; Phyllis, Ov. Heroides 2.107: quae tibi . . . longis erroribus acto Threicios
portus hospitiumque dedi etc. [I who gave you a harbour in Thrace and hospitality
after your long wanderings]. The ethos of the proud neque te teneo . . . i , sequere
Italiam ['I am not holding you . . . go, quest for Italy'] is that of Iliad 1.173:


away by all means, if that is what you want: I am not pleading with you to stay for
my sake']. The threat at 385ff. resembles Ap. Rhod. 3.704:


dear children and be your hateful Fury hereafter, come from Hades], but is even
closer to Medea's words at 4.383:



when you are worn out by toils: may the fleece, borne on the winds, go down to
nether darkness as insubstantial as a dream: and may my avenging Furies drive you
forthwith from your homeland']. Moreover, in Virgil's lines, the two concepts, that
the dead walk the earth (there is no allusion here to violent deaths, cf. Ovid Ibis
141ff.) and that they inhabit the underworld (Lucr. 4.41: ne forte animas Acherunte
reamur effugere aut umbras inter vivos volitare [lest we happen to think that souls
may escape from Acheron or that ghosts hover about among the living]), are not
regarded as incompatible. The words sequar atris ignibus absens [though far away, I
shall pursue you with flames of blackest pitch] at 389 refer, as Penquitt (op. cit.)
rightly says, to the living Dido, but there is certainly no reference to magic here (if
Virgil had intended that he would have expressed it more explicitly and in some
better way); the first of the explanations that Servius gives ( alii " furiarum facibus '
dicunt , hoc est ' invocatas tibi immittam diras ' [some explain 'with the torches of the
Furies' that is, 'I shall summon the Furies and send them to attack you']) is the
correct one: Dido identifies herself ( sequar [I shall pursue you]) with her curses, and
thinks of these as Furies (Erinyes), who certainly do not restrict their vengeance to
cases of murder (many examples in Rapp's article in Roscher's Lex . I. 1322ff.).
38. Dido does not however humble herself as much as Ariadne in the Alexan- soft
drian poem which can be reconstructed from Cat. 64.158ff. and Nonnus
Dion
.
46.386ff., who would have gone with her lover as his servant if she could not go
with him as his wife (Euripides' Medea only pretends to humble herself at 312ff.). It
is also obvious why Dido does not make this last attempt herself, but sends her
sister, and the passage in which she tries to persuade herself that this ploy is likely to
be successful -
solam
nam
perfidus
ille
te
colere
,
arcanos
etiam
tibi
credere
sensus
;
sola
viri
mollis
aditus
et
tempora
noras
(421-3) [for that traitor was never really
attentive to anyone but you; you alone had his full confidence, and only you ever
knew just how and when to approach this hard man tactfully] - is one of great
136 beauty. We can also hear her bitter awareness that she herself can never have
possessed Aeneas' full trust; otherwise how could he deceive her so cruelly now?
The poet leaves it to our imagination to decide how much of Dido's statement is
true: that, too, is the technique of drama. Dido's words at the end of her speech -
quam
(
veniam
)
mihi
cum
dederit
cumulatam
morte
remittam
(436) [and when he has
granted it (this indulgence) to me, I shall repay the debt, with the interest, in death] -
cannot mean that she has already taken the decision to kill herself, nor that she
expects to die of love after Aeneas' departure (as Penquitt suggests, 24ff.); she
motivates her request for a delay by saying that she would not be able to survive the
sudden separation (419ff.) and must first get used to the idea (
dum
mea
me
victam
doceat
fortuna
dolere
[until my fortune can teach me submission and the art of
grief]). The meaning of her obscure words would have been quite clear if Virgil had
written
cumulatam
vel
morte
remittam
[i.e. even in death]; I believe the meaning to
be 'I will reward it in good measure, even with my life' - although a precise
situation in which Aeneas (or Anna, if Virgil wrote
dederis
[you have granted],
which I do not believe) could ask for Dido's life is not envisaged. Cf. Terence,
Phormio
165:
ut
mihi
liceat
tam
diu
quod
amo
frui
,
iam
depecisci
morte
cupio
[in
order to be allowed to enjoy my love for so long, I am prepared to trade my death for
it].
39.
The way in which Virgil shows that death is the only possibility is derived
from Soph.
Ajax
460: I am hated by all, gods, Greeks, Trojans.



shall I face my father Telamon when I come before him? . . . but shall I go to the
Trojan walls . . . ? This cannot be . . . ' etc.]. Then Medea (admittedly in a different
context)


wretched daughters of Pelias?' etc.]. And hence Ariadne in Cat. 64.177: nam quo me
referam? . . . Idaeosne petam montes? . . . an patris auxilium sperem? . . . coniugis an fido
consoler memet amore? ['For where am I to go? . . . To the Idaean mountains? Can I
hope for help from my father? . . . Or can I console myself with the loyal love of my
husband?']. The rhetorical use of the formula by C. Gracchus (Cic. De Orat . 3.214)
quo me miser conferam , quo vertam? [Where can I go in my distress, where can I
turn?] etc. was famous; strangely enough, he is borrowing from the no doubt widely
known words of Ennius' Medea (fr. 231 Ribbeck): quo nunc me veriam? quod iter
incipiam ingredi etc. ['Where can I turn now? what road can I start to take? . . . '].
40. The idea in 604ff. comes from Apollonius 4.391:


to the ship and to cut up everything completely and to fall herself into the raging
fire]. The curses (the form si tangere portus . . . necesse est et sic fata Iovis pos -
cunt . . . at etc. [if he must reach harbour and that is required by Jupiter's ordinances . . .
nevertheless] is modelled on Od . 9.522:


return home to his own land and see his friends, may he come late']) again occur
137 first in Soph. Ajax 835:

to my aid the stern, long-striding Furies . . .]. In Apollonius they take the form of a
threat cf. Cat. 64.193: Eumenides . . . huc huc adventate , meas audite querellas etc.
[you Eumenides, come here, come here and listen to my complaints] and Phyllis

curses on the head of Demophoon] (Apollod. epit . 6.16). A similar suicide is that,
for example, of Euopis,


her misfortune]; (Parthenius 31; quoting Phylarchus). These deathbed curses are
always fulfilled; so here: the reader who half knows, half suspects this, will sense
that Dido's death is an important event not only in the story of Aeneas, but in the
history of the Roman empire, and his reactions will go far beyond sympathy for
Dido as an individual. On the significance of the curse (for which see Conway, op.
cit. 17, whose criticisms of my earlier comments are entirely justified) for the
understanding of Aeneas' attitude see below in Part Two, the section on 'Character'
(Part II, ch. 2.I.a2); for its place in the whole work see the section on 'Composition',
Part II, ch. 4.
41.
This corresponds with Ajax's prayer in Sophocles (827) that Zeus will let
Teucer be the first to find his body: the only difference is that Dido is not concerned
about burial, but wants to ensure that her eyes will be closed by her nearest and
dearest.
42.
Incubuitque
toro
(650) [she cast herself down on the bed],
os
impressa
toro
(659) [burying her face in the bed]; this is how Deianeira dies too:



bridal couch, goodbye for ever'] ( Trach . 917). Euripides provided the precedent for
this in Alcestis' farewell


(175) [rushing into the bedroom and falling upon the bed . . . 'O bed on which I gave
up my maidenhood farewell. I do not hate you. I am the only one you have de-
stroyed']. Virgil had already recalled this last phrase at 496: lectumque iugalem quo
peril [the bridal bed which was my ruin]. The situation however is close to that in
the Trachiniae : as Hyllus is fetched by the

here:

by the two-edged sword], illam . . . ferro conlapsam aspiciunt comites ensemque cru -
ore spumantem (663-5) [her servants saw her where she had fallen on the blade,
with blood foaming about the sword]; then come the lamentations of the close
relative who rushes to the scene: sinu germanam amplexa fovebat cum gemitu
(686-7) [she clasped her sister to her breast and fondled her, sobbing],


groaning and groaning]. The magnificent vixi et quem dederat cursum fortuna
peregi , et nunc magna mei sub terras ibit imago (653) [I have lived my life and
finished the course which Fortune allotted me. Now my wraith shall pass in state to
the world below] is a touch of purely Roman heroism; Virgil perhaps got the idea
from its opposite:

earth before it is my fate to leave this life] (Soph. Antig . 896, cf. 916ff.). It is well
known that the wish si litora tantum etc. (657) [if only the Dardan ships had never
reached my coast], which seems natural here, is almost formulaic:


that the ship Argo had never skimmed across the blue Symplegades to the land of
Colchis] ( Med . 1f.) cf. Ap. Rhod. 4.32; Cat. 64.171: utinam ne . . . Gnosia Cecropiae
tetigissent litora puppes [would that the Athenian ships had never touched the
shores of Cnossos] is taken over by Virgil practically verbatim . Sabbadini's view,
that the speeches 607-29 and 651-62 cannot both have appeared in the original
138 version because their dominant moods are different, has already been discussed on
n. 34 above, 109.
43.
On the use of monologue in the
Aeneid
see the section on 'Speech' below,
Part II, ch. 3.III.
44.
Vultum
demissa
(1.561) [with lowered eyes] (modelled on Apollonius' Hyp-
sipyle,

his Medea, 3.1008) may therefore be regarded as an error of judgement.
139 45. See above n. 16 above, 110.
46. Lamentation 548-51. Then a touch of regret, 596ff.
47.
Cic.
De
Off
. 1.25.88:
nec
vero
audiendi
qui
graviter
inimicis
irascendum
putabunt
idque
magnanimi
et
fortis
viri
esse
censebunt
;
nihil
enim
laudabilius
,
nihil
magno
et
praeclaro
viro
dignius
placabilitate
atque
clementia
[nor must we listen to
those who may think that one ought to be very angry with one's enemies and
consider that appropriate to a great-hearted and good man; nothing is more praise-
worthy, nothing more worthy of a great and outstanding person than clemency and a
willingness to be placated].
48.
Arceophron in Hermesianax (Antonin. Liberalis 39), Iphis (Ovid
Met
.
14.696ff.), the

Virgil in Ecl . 8.59; Narcissus (Conon 24). Rohde, Gr . R . 80f. collects these pas-
sages. Cf. the suicides, successful or unsuccessful, in the ancient novel, Hermes 34
(1899) 497 n. 2.
140 49. Rohde, op. cit. n. 2, 121.
50.
Perhaps Phyllis in Callimachus, although in this case it also seems to have
been the result of a feeling that she had been unbearably insulted:
et
amoris
impa
-
tientia
et
quod
se
spretam
esse
credebat
[both because of impatience with her love,
and because she felt she had been spurned] (Serv. on
Ecl
. 5.10).
51.
I cite a few of the many examples: Oenone allowed Paris to go to his death.
Byblis (Parthen. 11 [= Apollonius]


suffering, and also feelling she was responsible for Caunus' desertion of her];
Cleoboea:


excessive love] (Parthen. 15); Euopis:

and shame] (Parthen. 31; quoting Phylarchus).
141
52.
We may well ask why all these complicated preparations for Dido's death
are necessary. Could she not simply sit on the
lectus
iugalis
[marriage-couch], like
Deianeira, and plunge the sword into her heart? We might put the same question to
the historical Dido, and will have to answer it on her behalf: she wanted to die not in
secret and alone, as though she had something to be ashamed of, but in a way that
would show all her people that Dido knew how to keep faith. This (hypothetical)
motivation does not, however, appear in Virgil: Dido builds the pyre secretly
pene
-
trali
in
sede
[right inside the palace], and there is nothing particularly glorious about
suicide in this context. I believe that the traditional, arresting picture of Dido offer-
ing herself to Hades with all the pomp and magnificence of a sacrifice to the dead
haunted Virgil's imagination, and it was only later that he discovered the concepts
which would motivate the effect that he was aiming at, summarised in the phrase
sic
sic
iuvat
ire
sub
umbras
(660) [this, this is the way I wish to go beneath the earth]:
the fire shall consume with her all the
exuviae
[relics] of her faithless lover and
(since Dido's palace naturally stands high up on the citadel) the flames will be seen
by Aeneas from the sea as he sails away and abandons her,
secum
ferat
omina
mortis
(662) [may he take with him the evil omens of my death]. Sabbadini excludes
everything connected with the magic ceremony (474-503, 509-21) from his hypo-
thetical 'first draft', because in his view Anna did not originally take part in the
construction of the pyre: 'Everything that Dido asks Anna to do in lines 494-7, she
does herself in lines 504-8.' But that is not true of the main task, the construction of
the pyre; besides, it is obvious that neither Dido nor Anna would have personally
carried up the
lectus
iugalis
[marriage-couch]: Anna would have instructed slaves to
do it. In that case, Dido can have seen to the
exuviae
[relics] personally, laying them
on the
torus
[couch]; and even on the strictest interpretation this is compatible with
others having actually placed all these objects on the pyre.
53.

she will perform a rite to dissolve her vows] (Timaeus 566 fr. 23 Jacoby); placatura
viri manes inferiasque ante nuptias missura [professing to placate the ghost of her
dead husband and to make a sacrifice to his shade before her marriage (sc. to
Iarbas)] (Justin. 18.6).
142
54.
Hence the ambiguous phrase
sacra
Iovi
Stygio
quae
rite
incepta
paravi
perficere
est
animus
(638) ['It is my intention to complete certain rites to Stygian
Jupiter, which I have formally prepared and begun']. It is not clear whether in the
mind of the
sacerdos
[priestess] the magic sacrifice is intended to arouse love in
Aeneas or to destroy it in Dido: this obscurity has been discussed by Dedo,
De
antiquorum
superstitione
amatoria
(Diss. Greifswald, 1904) 47ff. and by Penquitt
op. cit. 38ff., 51ff. Lines 480 and 487ff. mention both alternatives; the burning of the
exuviae
[relics] and
effigies
[portrait] seems to refer only to the latter, but the
mention of the love-charm

the former. It is hardly a case of simple confusion arising from carelessness: prep-
arations for the burning of the exuviae and effigies were essential to Dido's purpose
(see p. 105); the other alternative is mentioned to Anna so as to make her believe in continue
it - only the possibility of keeping Aeneas in Carthage could really justify such
mighty preparations and such haste. Lines 512-16 seem to have been added as an
afterthought:
quaeruntur
[are sought] and
quaeritur
[is sought] are out of place in
this context, and
ipsa
[she herself] in line 517 follows on from 509-11 more natu-
rally than from 513-16: Virgil later expanded the passage about the magic rites, no
doubt because he wanted these other alternatives to play their full part, without
being any more concerned about the resulting lack of clarity than in the passage
discussed above on p. 101. It is highly unusual, in my view, to divide the magic
sacrifice into two: the action in lines 509ff., which according to line 638 is prepara-
tory (
sacra
rite
incepta
perficere
est
animus
[I intend to complete the rites formally
begun]), and the main action at which the
hostiae
(639-40) [victims] are actually to
be sacrificed: here it is very clear why Virgil has departed from normal practice.
55.
It is also worth noting that Barce and Anna apparently believe in the power
of magic, but not Dido: otherwise she could have attempted to use it in earnest. This
shows that Virgil himself did not believe in it, any more than Horace did.
56.
The concept of Medea the magician, who was the only person who could
render harmless the dragon who guarded the Golden Fleece, has become fused in
Virgil's mind with the Hesperides, a connection which Apollonius (4.1399) had
already made; Virgil uses the past forms
dabat
and
servabat
because he is thinking
of the death of the dragon described by Apollonius. It is easy to see why the

also be given to serpents so as to render them harmless (Herzog, Hermes 29 [1894]
143 625); however, this does not answer Ribbeck's objection, that this particular dragon's
task is to stay awake, and so he ought not to be put to sleep. But Virgil's intention
was to emphasize the power of the priestess; like the maga [witch] in Tibullus who
dicitur sola feros Hecatae perdomuisse canes (1.2.52) [is reputed to be the only one
to have tamed the dogs of Hecate], the maga here too could control the dragon just
as well as Medea could. Remember that Apollonius (3.532) said of her



checked the stars and paths of the sacred moon] = sistere aquam fluviis et sidera
vertere retro (489) [to stay the current of a river and reverse the movement of stars],
where the final climax spoils the sense of the magic (a divine power may stop the
passage of time - as for example in the case of Zeus and Alcmene - but it is hardly
possible to make it run backwards). For the same reason Virgil also adds mugire
videbis terram et descendere montibus ornos (490-1) [you will see the earth bellow-
ing and rowan trees marching down from the mountains]: this is not an actual
magical practice, but the phrase credits the witch with the effect of the arrival of
Hecate herself, sub pedibus mugire solum et iuga coepta moveri silvarum (6.256)
[the ground bellowed beneath their feet and the slopes of the forest-clad mountains
began to move]. One may contrast this description with the magic effects in another
passage of Virgil, those mentioned by the country girl in Ecl . 8, the invocation of
snakes in Marsus, the werewolf, the excantatio frugum [the removal of crops by
enchantment]: those belong to the everyday magic of the peasants as opposed to
heroic magic.
57. She strews the mola (517) [sacred meal] on the fire herself: in Theocritus continue
(2.18, cf. Virgil Ecl . 8.82) this is done by a serving-girl.
58. This was already observed by the ancient commentators: see Servius ad loc .
59.
It is Aeneas' sword: so Ajax kills himself with Hector's sword.
Ensem
. . .
non
hos
quaesitum
munus
in
usus
(647) [his sword . . . a gift not sought for such a use as
144 this] has been thought to be irreconcilably incompatible (see Conington
ad
loc
.)
with
exuvias
ensemque
relictum
(507) [the clothes and the sword he had left behind]
for the hypercritical reason that, in one passage, the sword 'belongs' to Aeneas, and,
in the other, to Dido, and this leads to the further objection that a sword is not a
suitable gift for a lady. It will not have been formally handed over; Aeneas hung up
his weapons in their bedchamber at Dido's request (
quaesitum
), a pledge, as it were,
of his love (cf.
Ecl
. 8.94) - it is difficult to imagine a clearer symbol of the total
surrender of a warrior - and received from Dido in return a richly decorated sword
and Tyrian garment (261).
60. Ajax 901 (chorus):

O King, your fellow-sailors']. With the preceding words compare Ajax 910:


['you met a bloody death all on your own, unprotected by your friends: and I so
stupid, so completely unknowing, noticed nothing']. break
4— The Games
146
1.
It would require much more convincing arguments to prove that Virgil even
for a moment contemplated such a gross misjudgment as those advanced by Kettner
('Das fünfte Buch des Aeneis',
Zeitschr
.
für
den
Gymnasialw
. 33 [1879] 641-53; his
views, which develop those of Conrad and Ribbeck, are criticized by Schaper), who
actually believes that the essential content of Book 5 - the games, and the burning of
the ships - originally formed a separate book which contained the end of Aeneas'
narrative, and that Book 6 followed immediately on from Book 4. Furthermore,
Aeneas could not have narrated the burning of the ships in the form in which it now
stands, with Iris' speech in her own words - that would have been a serious infringe-
ment of the technical conventions of first-person narrative which Virgil always
strictly observes - and yet one phrase of Iris' (
septima
post
Troiae
excidium
iam
vertitur
aestas
[5.626] [it is now the close of the seventh summer since Troy's
overthrow] compared with 1.755:
nam
te
iam
septima
portat
. . .
aestas
[for it is now
the seventh summer of your travels]: on which see the section on 'Time and Place'
below Part II, ch. 2.III.c) constitutes one of Kettner's main arguments for what he
believes to be the original setting of the narrative. Two other objections have already
been met by H.T. Plüss (
Vergil
und
die
epische
Kunst
, Leipzig [1884] 160 n. 1, 165
n. 1). There is another passage which might be of some importance in this connec-
tion: at 6.338 there is a reference to Palinurus
qui
Libyco
nuper
cursu
. . .
exciderat
continue
puppi
[who had lately fallen from the ship's stern during the voyage from Libya]. It
has been suggested that this can only have been written when Virgil intended that
147 the Trojans should sail direct from Carthage to Cumae, without stopping again in
Sicily. For my part, I agree with the view of Conrad, that the version of the Pa-
linurus scene in Book 6 shows that Virgil wrote Book 5 later; not because the
narratives of Books 5 and 6 are not entirely consistent with each other (that would
not in itself entail any conclusion about the chronology) but because the account in
Book 6 does not presuppose that Palinurus' death has already been mentioned in
Book 5. Virgil wrote Book 6 without taking into account what would have to be
included in Book 5, just as he introduced the
prodigia
in Books 7 and 8 as some-
thing completely new, without thinking of the preparation for them which he
subsequently provided in Book 3. We must always bear in mind that Virgil origin-
ally composed his books to be recited separately. When Virgil, as Suetonius tells us
(p. 61, 17ff. Reifferscheid; cf. Serv. on 6.861), first recited Books 2, 4 and 6 to
Augustus and his family, his audience would have known about Aeneas' visit to
Libya, but not about his visit to Sicily: hence
Libyco
cursu
[on the journey from
Libya].
2.
It is easy to see how important it is from an artistic point of view that Aeneas,
despite his original intention, is forced by the storm to take refuge in Sicily, and how
much clumsier it would have been if he had had to say to Palinurus at the beginning
of Book 5: 'Steer towards Drepanum; I would like to celebrate funeral-games in
honour of my father'. Virgil avoided anything as awkward as this; instead he took
care to introduce the idea gradually. From the point of view of narrative it is just as
important that Aeneas, who must have been anxious to complete his journey as
quickly as possible after the long delay at Carthage, does not interrupt the voyage of
his own free will. Finally, it would be impossible to improve on the way that the
storm is motivated: after Dido's warning of the winter storms and her prophecy of
the dangers of the sea it would have been artistically impossible for Aeneas to be
148 given a smooth voyage to Cumae.
149 3. Dion. Hal. 1.52.
4.
Augustus did not permit women to watch boxing matches at any rate: Suet.
Aug
. 49.
150
5.
Virgil places the foot-race (which Homer brings in after the boxing and
wrestling matches) first among the contests on dry land. Leo,
Deutsche
Litt
.
Zeitung
24 (1903) 595, points out that by making this change, Virgil is putting the foot-race
152 in the position that it occupied in the Olympic Games and those modelled on them.
154 6. H.T. Plüss, Neues Schweizer Museum VI (1867) 41.
7.
In Book 9 Virgil introduces Nisus and Euryalus with a great amount of detail,
without reminding the reader that they have already appeared. This is perhaps the
most striking example of a technique which we often find him using: see Part II, ch.
3.1.6 'Exposition of the characters'. I no longer believe that this shows that Virgil
had not yet conceived, or at least not yet completed, the scene in Book 5 when he
was writing Book 9; at any rate, another motif from Book 5, the
matres
[mothers]
who stay behind in Acestes' city, had already reached its final form when he wrote
the episode in Book 9: see 9.216ff., 285, 492.
8. 353ff. His words are intended to be lighthearted, but they conceal a number of continue
rhetorical tricks:
si
tanta
sunt
praemia
victis
[if there are such prizes for the losers] -
but not for all -
et
te
lapsorum
miseret
[and you have pity on those who fall] - but
only the competitor who fell because he was tripped;
ni
me
quae
Salium
fortuna
inimica
tulisset
[except that I was involved in the same bad luck as Salius] - but in a
very different way.
155
9.
This had already occurred at Sulla's victory celebrations, Asconius (ed. A.C.
Clark 93) but it seems to have been so incompatible with contemporary Roman
156
mores
that Cicero was able to pour bitter scorn on his rival Antonius for partici-
pating in them (
In
Toga
Candida
fr. 14.26 Müller).
10.
Tac.
Ann
. 14.20:
quid
superesse
,
nisi
ut
corpora
quoque
nudent
[
proceres
Romani
]
et
caestus
adsumant
easque
pugnas
pro
militia
et
armis
meditentur
[this
was the limit, unless they (the Roman nobility) were to strip and put on boxing
gloves and practise this type of fighting instead of warfare and military training].
157
11.
Recent critics (who however cannot appeal to the authority of Heyne, who
concludes his discussion [III
4
857]
absolvendus
itaque
in
hoc
Maro
crimine
neglecti
temporum
ordinis
[therefore Virgil should be acquitted of the charge of neglecting
chronology in this episode]) have suggested that Virgil had no definite idea of Iulus'
age and had only the vaguest conception of his character generally. In fact, at the
time of the fall of Troy, Ascanius is a small boy; his mother can still just manage to
pick him up, but he is quite capable of walking a considerable distance; we may
158 therefore conclude that Virgil thought of him as between four and five years old. If
we calculate that the Trojans spend exactly seven years wandering over the seas, then in
Carthage he will be between eleven and twelve years old, and in Latium one year
older. Is there any detail that actually contradicts this scheme? Can a boy, the son of
a hero, not ride at this age? Can he not be taken hunting (always under careful
supervision, of course, since he is a royal child; the poet also mentions a guardian in
passing at 5.546 and 9.649)? Can he not wish that he might encounter a boar? Can
he not shoot an enemy (with divine help, as Virgil is careful to point out)? Or is he
too old for a lady like Dido to decently take him on her lap? I must say that I see
nothing whatever in all this that is incompatible with poetic truth. 'But', it may be
objected, 'if he attends the council of leaders in Book 9 and gives instructions
himself to the messenger who is sent to his father, he must surely be wiser than his
years'. Precisely: that is just what Virgil himself says:
ante
annos
animumque
gerens
curamque
virilem
(9.311) [he bore beyond his years the mind and responsibility of a
man]. Virgil had seen for himself how a nineteen-year-old could put the most experi-
enced and mature to shame when it was a matter of presence of mind and common
sense.
12.
Iulus, says Jupiter, will found Alba Longa and move the royal capital to that
site, where it will remain for three hundred years
gente
sub
Hectorea
[under a
dynasty of Hector's kin], as Virgil puts it, avoiding any such phrase as
sub
Iuli
gente
[under a dynasty descended from Iulus]. Iulus never appears in Virgil as the ancestor
of the Alban kings, though admittedly he never expressly denies him that rôle either.
Virgil follows that geneaology which we may assume was regarded as the standard
one during the reign of Augustus, since Verrius Flaccus, too, amongst others (Festus
340 = Lindsay [Teubner] 460), argued for it. According to this version, the Alban
kings were descended from Silvius, the son of Aeneas and Lavinia (
Silvius
. . .
unde
continue
genus
Longa
nostrum
dominabitur
Alba
[6.766] [Silvius . . . founder of our dynasty
which shall rule from Alba Longa];
unde
is of course not temporal but goes closely
with
genus
), not from Iulus, who did in fact found Alba but was not the ancestor of
the genealogical line of Alban kings. Virgil does not mention that Iulus (or his son
of the same name) had to give place to Silvius, or why he did so, or what compensa-
tion they received (though there is a hidden allusion for the well-informed reader at
12.189ff.; see E. Norden,
Neue
Jahrbücher
7 [1901] 281), nor does he need to. We
know how the official version of the legend came to accept this account (Schwegler,
Röm
.
Gesch
. I 337); but this somewhat artificial fabrication, which on any interpre-
tation would imply that Iulus was displaced, was quite unsuitable for Virgil's poem,
and if Iulus is 'suppressed' in the parade of heroes in Book 6 (to use A. Gercke's
phrase,
Neue
Jahrbücher
7 [1901] 110), that is because he can hardly be mentioned
together with Silvius without at least some reference to their relationship: on a
practical level this silence is justified by the fact that it is both impossible and
unnecessary for Iulus to be shown to his father in the underworld. Furthermore, to
159 the best of my knowledge, the Iulii are
never
said to be descendants of the Alban
kings, nor therefore of Romulus (who ever heard of a son of Romulus?). Ovid, who
says that the family of Silvius was descended from Iulus (
Fasti
4.39ff.) clearly
assumed that this was through a collateral line, as his expression
unde
(i.e. a
Iulo
)
domus
Teucros
Iulia
tangit
avos
[through whom (i.e. Iulus) the Julian house goes
back to Trojan ancestors] makes clear; again, he never calls Romulus the ancestor of
Augustus, although he not only had plenty of opportunity to do so in the
Fasti
, but
also plenty of inducement on account of the well-known tradition that traced Au-
gustus' ancestry back to the founder of Rome. One member of the Julian family,
Proculus, appears in the Romulus legend; but he is not related to the kings, only

13. Cf. also Norden op. cit. in the previous note, 263.
162
14.
The spectators are also referred to in the following passages: during the foot
race (338, 343), during the boxing match (369, 385, 450), during the archery contest
(491, 529) and finally during the
lusus
Troiae
(555, 575f.): this means that the vivid
picture of the excited and interested crowd of spectators is maintained throughout.
However, in this respect; Virgil has done no more than his Homeric model: cf.
Iliad
23.728, 766, 784, 815, 822, 840, 847, 869, 881.
164 15. Perhaps he was influenced by critics of Homer. The scholia on 23.857 say



spurious because it would be better if Achilles did not say this beforehand, as though
he knew in advance what was going to happen by chance].
16.
According to H. Georgii,
Die
antike
Aeneiskritik
259, Virgil only wished to
surpass his predecessor in the number, four instead of two: 'though the result
amounts to no more than a miss for the first competitor and a shot in the air together
with a miracle for the fourth'. As though the important thing there was the number
of shots, rather than the increase in excitement from the first competitor to the
second to the third, and then the unexpected shot by which the third is surpassed by
the fourth. Georgii thinks that it is ridiculous, childish and absurd, that Acestes
shoots into the air,
ostientans
artem
arcumque
sonantem
(521) [proving that he
continue
might have skill yet, and could make a strong bow twang]; but the Virgiliomastix
who denied the possibility of
artem
in
vacuo
aere
ostentare
[showing off ones skills
by shooting into thin air] had already been refuted by the ancient experts (Servius'
periti
):
posse
ex
ipso
sagittariorum
gestu
artis
peritiam
indicari
[it is possible to
assess the technical skill of archers simply on the basis of their bodily posture];
against
arcum
sonantem
[make a strong bow twang] even the Virgiliomastix had no
objection, for, as every child knows, you can shoot higher with a good bow than
with a feeble one.
165
17.
It has been attacked by Plüss,
Virgil
und
die
epische
Kunst
125ff.; however, I
cannot agree with his own interpretation, either in general or in detail; what he
regards as a matter of minor importance, its connection with Acestes and Sicily
(135f.) seems to me (as it did to Ribbeck,
Gesch
,
d
.
röm
.
Dichtung
. II 96) the only
thing that really matters.
166
18.
nec
maximus
omen
abnuit
Aeneas
(530-1) [but their exalted prince Aeneas
accepted the omen]: that does not mean that he relates it to himself; just as the other
spectators recognize it as a divine sign - hence
superos
precati
[they sent up a
prayer to the holy gods] - so does Aeneas; it is he who is celebrating the games, and
is, as we might say, the presiding magistrate of the games, and in that capacity there
was no need for him to give the sign an official interpretation; and he could have
ignored it in deciding the outcome of the contest.
167
19.
Contrast the frequency with which the title of king which is absent in Book 5
is used in, for example, Book 8 of Evander: 53, 102, 126, 185f. etc. When Virgil was
writing Book 1, he envisaged a Sicilian kingdom ruled by Acestes, and Sicilian
towns (549, 558): this shows that at that stage he had not yet planned the way in
which events develop in Book 5 as we now have it.
20.
As Virgil says explicitly,
gaza
l a
e
t
u
s
agresti
excipit
(40) [he gave them a
joyous welcome with his
rustic
treasure]; Acestes' outward appearance,
horridus
in
iaculis
et
pelle
Libystidis
ursae
(37) [looking wild in his African bearskin and with
his cluster of javelins] is in keeping with this. The
comites
Acestae
(301) [comrades
of Acestes] are
adsueti
silvis
[from woodland homes]. According to Dion. Hal. 1.9
this is how the aborigines of the very earliest times used to live:


villages, and scattered].
21.
The obvious model for this passage, Calchas' interpretation of the omen at
Aulis, should be enough to prevent us from taking these words to mean 'it was only
later that the seers discovered the meaning', i.e. after the
exitus
ingens
[great out-
come] had taken place.
Sera
omina
is the Homeric

( Iliad 2.324), which Cicero too ( De Div . 2.30.64) translates as portenta sera . Inter-
pretation ex eventu [after the event] is certainly not the business of the vates ; anyone
can do that; conversely, vates canunt is the technical term for prophecy, and in
particular for the interpretation of an omen by seers who are summoned for that
specific purpose: see e.g. Livy 1.45.5; 55.6; 2.42.10; 5.15.4; 7.6.3 etc. Virgil's
hysteron proteron docuit . . . cecinere does not constitute an obstacle to this interpreta-
tion; the poet mentions first what matters most to him. Similarly, we should take
magno futurum augurio monstrum (522-3) as 'which was to prove extremely signifi-
cant'; this does not refer to any later repetition of the omen. break
169 22. I refer the reader to Plüss 148f. for a good discussion of this.
170 23. 34, 40, 58, 100, 107, 210, 236, 283, 304, 515, 531, 577. break
5— Aeneas in Latium
171
1.
For details cf. F. Cauer,
Die
römische
Aeneassage
(Jahrb. Suppl. XV), al-
though this contains much with which I cannot agree. The author makes no attempt
to throw any light on the aims and methods that are peculiar to Virgil.
172
2.
In Cato, Lavinia seems to have played no part at all; Servius on 6.760 claims
that his account is based on Cato, but, as Jordan (
Prolegomena
XXVIIIf. following
Niebuhr) correctly argues, there is no truth in this. Cf. Servius auctus on 1.259,
where the
Historia
is cited for the same account. Cauer's attempt to rescue the
greater part of that account for Cato (op. cit. 117; see also n. 26, 116) fails com-
pletely; the only material that can be ascribed to Cato is that which corresponds with
the scholia on 4.620, to which Servius refers with
ut
supra
diximus
[as we have said
above].
173
3.
The narrative of Justin 43.1 is almost identical; in his version Lavinium is
founded only after the death of Turnus and Latinus. Appian's version has survived
only in short, unreliable excerpts (
Reg
. 1 fr. I.1), from which however it is clear that
continue
Aeneas was on good terms with Latinus and that it was only after his death that he
had to fight against Turnus and Mezentius.
4.
Thus Probus already noted that when the Latin army (which he imagines as
being inevitably duty-bound to unconditional obedience to its king) joins Turnus,
their action contradicts Latinus' refusal to fight (7.600): schol. Veron. on 9.368.
Servius' reply (cf. Georgii,
Die
antike
Aeneiskritik
n. 16 above, 137, 412) shows that
7.600 was the passage which he objected to, not the
regis
(
Latini
)
responsa
[replies
of the king (Latinus)] of 9.369 which according to the more complete version of
Servius was the reading
in
omnibus
bonis
[in all the good manuscripts]: in his reply
he takes no notice at all of this reading (which is certainly wrong in any case).
Moreover, it is clear that Virgil wished to motivate the appearance of the cavalry
which was demanded by his version of the situation; for Turnus (9.4) has certainly
left Ardea, with his foreign auxiliaries (Messapus, 9.27) and the
agrestes
Latini
[Latin country folk] (
Tyrrhidae
, 9.28); he has sent out a Rutulian cavalry division
under Volcens from Laurentum on a tour to mobilize the infantry of the cities
(367ff.); while these are getting into rank and file to march out, the Rutulians go on
ahead to their king to report to him.
176 5. As Servius rightly remarks on 12.31.
6.
Here, too, Virgil based his version on tradition: Faunus, who delivers an
oracle to Latinus in a dream, corresponds with


sius 1.57, commands Latinus, who is determined to fight Aeneas,



For their arrival would bring a great benefit to Latinus and an advantage that all the
original inhabitants would share]. Virgil puts particular emphasis on this, because it
helps us to understand how Latinus can suddenly offer his daughter to a stranger;
that is why he strengthens his motivation with the miraculous signs that lead Latinus
to consult the dream-oracle. Furthermore, I doubt whether such a thing as Faunus'
dream-oracle ever actually existed; it would have been the only trace of incubation
in Italy in early times, and in Virgil's account we can see the fusion of three
concepts: (1) the prophetic nymph, Albunea, (2) the voice of Faunus resounding in
the grove (95), (3) the

receive divine revelation], which is not linked with Faunus' prophecy anywhere else
except in Ovid, Fast . 4.649, whose account does not seem to me to be genuinely
Italian to any extent: the association of Somnus and Faunus is similar to that of
Hypnos and Asclepius, the ascetic practices borrowed from Greek ritual etc. Above
all, sleeping on the ground would only be intelligible in the case of an oracle of a
chthonic divinity: and Faunus was no such thing. Besides, as W. Buchmann, De
Numae regis Romanorum fabula (Diss. Leipzig, 1912) 42ff., has shown, the idea of
a prophetic dream, even without incubation, is alien to Roman religious belief.
7.
It is perhaps surprising that at the meeting of the council of the Latins Turnus'
opponent Drances (11.343ff.) makes no reference to the oracle, and even Latinus
does not mention it to Turnus before 12.27; this cannot be a deliberate concealment
after the clear statement at 7.102ff. We might infer that Virgil had simply forgotten
177 this motif during the intervening books: but this cannot be the case, as we can see if
continue
we compare
fatalem
Aenean
manifesto
numine
ferri
admonet
ira
deum
tumulique
ante
ora
recentes
(11.232) [the anger of the gods, witnessed by the freshly-made
grave-mounds before their eyes, already warned them that Aeneas was clearly by
divine warrant a man of destiny], with
hunc
illum
poscere
fata
et
reor
et
si
quid
veri
mens
augurat
opto
(7.272) ['it is my belief, and, if my intuition comes near to
divining the truth, it is also according to my wish that it is Aeneas to whom Fate is
pointing']: thus Latinus' original belief that the oracle referred to Aeneas is con-
firmed by the result of the battle
manifesto
numine
[clearly by divine warrant]; it
must therefore have been in doubt until then. In fact, Amata had interpreted Faunus'
words in such a way as to make them refer to Turnus (7.367f.), and the ambiguity of
the phrasing (which is not obvious in the oracle) makes it clear that Virgil had
envisaged this possibility from the start:
conubiis
Latinis
(7.96) [a Latin marriage-
union] can refer to Latins in a narrower or wider sense, so it may not include the
Rutulians; instead of an unambiguous phrase such as 'over the sea', or 'the foreign
suitor will come from Asia', the oracle says only
externi
generi
[suitors from
another land]. So I think in fact that Virgil felt that this was sufficient to justify not
introducing the oracle into that meeting of the council; his real reason was of course
technical and artistic, namely his desire to present the opposition between Drances
and Turnus in purely human terms, with no supernatural motivation. Another objec-
tion that has been raised is that Turnus is not told anything about the oracle until
shortly before his death, through the words of Latinus at 12.27, whereas according
to 7.102ff. it was generally known throughout Ausonia. However, I do not believe
that the words
sine
me
haec
haud
mollia
fatu
sublatis
aperire
dolis
,
simul
hoc
animo
hauri
['let me then speak plainly and tell you my thoughts, however painful they
may be to express; and do you take my meaning earnestly to heart'] are to be taken
as implying that Latinus was now telling Turnus something completely new; it
would be foolish to imagine that he would not have heard anything about the oracle
in all the discussions which must have taken place before the outbreak of the war.
Servius comments percipiently on
hoc
loco
intellegimus
Turnum
dolore
voluisse
in
aliqua
verba
prorumpere
(22) [in this passage we are aware that Turnus, because of
his grief, wants to break into speech], which is confirmed by
ut
primum
fari
potuit
sic
institit
ore
(47) [as soon as he could speak, he began to say]. Latinus points out to
Turnus that there are other distinguished Latin maidens and hints (
nec
non
aurum
-
que
animusque
Latino
est
['and besides, I, Latinus, have gold, and a generous
spirit']) that he himself will provide the dowry: no wonder that the noble youth is
furious. Latinus holds him back:
sine
me
haec
etc. ['Please let me speak to you quite
frankly for once'],
simul
hoc
animo
hauri
['and take this to heart'], and now he
states what he believed in the first place, and what he believes even more strongly
now after all his misfortunes: 'the gods did not permit me to take you as a son-in-
law; I tried to do it nevertheless - and you see the result. It is impossible to oppose
the marriage with Aeneas; it will happen sooner or later, whether your life is
sacrificed or not'.
179 8. 1245f.; cf. Geffcken, Timaios ' Geographie des Westens (n. 42 above, 93) 44.
182
9.
Compare, for example,
una
cum
gente
tot
annos
bella
gero
(1.47) ['I have
been making war for all these years on a single clan'] with
nil
linquere
inausum
quae
potui
infelix
,
quae
memet
in
omnia
verti
,
vincor
ab
Aenea
(7.308) ['after
continue
forcing myself in my failure to shrink from no humiliation, after leaving no means
untried, I am vanquished, and by Aeneas']. The piling up of rhetorical devices
indicates that her emotions are now stronger:
num
capti
potuere
capi?
num
incensa
cremavit
Troia
viros
etc. (7.295-6) ['Could they stay in the trap when it closed?
Could even Troy in flames burn up the Trojans? No'].
183
10.
See Wilamowitz, Euripides'
Herakles
I
2
(Berlin, 1895) 123. Lyssa is hated
by the gods, as are the Erinyes in Aeschylus (
Eum
. 350, 366); Virgil intensifies this
idea by making his Allecto hated even by Pluto and the sisters of Hell, 327f. The
184 reason given for this, besides her horrible appearance, is
tot
sese
vertit
in
ora
[so
many are the countenances which she assumes], which is precisely what she does in
the episodes that follow. That ability is generally ascribed to another spirit of hell,
Empusa, but cf. the invocation


Wess . (C. Wessely, Wiener Denkschrift 37 [1889] 2798).
185
11.
omnis
. . .
ardor
agit
nova
quaerere
tecta
(393) [every heart . . . now blazed with
the same passion to look for a new dwelling place]: cf.
Bacch
. 33-6;
deseruere
domos
(394) [they forsook their homes]: cf.
Bacch
. 217-20:



leaf-clad mountains] ( frondosis montibus [387] [on the leaf-clad mountains])

dances] ( lustrare choro [391] [around you she dances]): ipsa [ Amata ] inter . . .
medias . . . canit . . . torvumque repente clamat (397) [in the centre of them
Amata . . . sang . . . suddenly she roared like a beast]: cf. Bacch . 689:


the Bacchae, raised a cry]; capite orgia mecum (403) [take to the wild rites with
me]: cf. Bacch . 34:

ritual]; an even closer parallel is the expression

take up his wild rites] in the hypothesis to the tragedy. stimulis agit Bacchi (405)
[drove her by the goads of Bacchus] cf. Bacch . 119:

by Dionysos]. Admittedly most of these expressions will recur in more or less the
same form in any description of maenads.
12.
There have been attempts to explain the apparent contradiction by supposing
that at first Amata is pretending, and later Bacchus punishes her by really driving
her mad. But there is nothing in the text to support this; it would require at the very
least that we should be told at 405 that Bacchus is acting in conjunction with
Allecto.
13.
Wilamowitz,
Herakles
II
2
196. Also in Aeschylus'
Xantriae
Lyssa gave a
speech

sessed]. The transition from Bacchic ecstasy to true madness is of course a gradual,
uninterrupted process.
186
14.
In the denunciation of Hispala (Livy 39.13) it was alleged
viros
v
e
I
u
t
mente
capta
cum
iactatione
fanatica
corporis
vaticinari
;
matronas
Baccharum
habitu
crinibus
sparsis
cum
ardentibus
facibus
decurrere
ad
Tiberim
,
demissasque
in
aquam
faces
,
quia
vivum
sulphur
cum
calce
insit
,
integra
flamma
efferre
[men
were throwing themselves about like fanatics and uttering prophecies,
as
though
their minds were possessed; married women dressed as maenads, with their hair
continue
streaming out all dishevelled, were running off to the Tiber with blazing torches;
they plunged the torches into the water, and because there was live sulphur and lime
inside them, they were still alight when they pulled them out]: in other words, the
miracle was exposed as a conscious deception. So too a Christian denies that


furore mentito et sequestrata pectoris sanitate circumplicatis vos anguibus atque ut
vos plenos dei numine ac maiestate doceatis caprorum reclamantium viscera oribus
dissipatis [the Bacchanalia . . . in which you pretend to be mad and you entrust the
sanity of your hearts to the control of another; and then you let snakes wind them-
selves around you and, so that it looks as if you are possessed by the power and
majesty of a god, you tear open the flesh of goats with your teeth, and the goats
scream out against you].
15.
Stat.
Silv
. 2.7.124; various pieces of evidence, including sarcophagi, show
that the traditional version was generally known. The far-fetched theories of M.
Mayer,
Hermes
20 (1885) 123 may be ignored: maenadism seems to be 'totally
opposed to the duties and vocation of the female sex' : Rapp,
Rhein
.
Mus
. 27 (1872)
21. It is worth noting that in Virgil no unmarried girl other than Lavinia joins the
thiasos
; everywhere (393, 400, 580) he speaks specifically of
matres
. This corre-
sponds with historical examples of the Greek practice, which has also left its mark
on the descriptions of mythical
thiasoi
: Rapp,
art
.
cit
. n. 21, 12.
16.
Was Virgil thinking of the scene in the
Troades
where Cassandra brandishes
187 the torches


the marriage song for herself (308ff.)?
17.
The phrase used by Apollodorus 2.27 of the Proetides. It is characteristic of
Macrobius' authoritarian attitude that it is precisely the

queen and her women to which he took exception: regina de penetralibus reveren -
188 tiae matronalis educitur . . . bacchatur chorus quondam pudicus et orgia insana
celebrantur [the queen is lured out from the inner rooms where a respectable matron
should stay . . . her troop of women, hitherto modest, rave like bacchants, and cel-
ebrate crazy rites].
18.
That is what is meant by
postquam
visa
satis
primos
acuisse furores
c
o
n
s
i
-
l
i
u
m
q
u
e
omnemque
domum
vertisse
Latini
[and now, seeing that insanity was
afoot and that the edge which she had given it was keen enough, since she had
already contrived to overturn the
plan
, and the home of Latinus . . . ] at 406; this of
course does not refer to a real change of mind on the part of Latinus.
19.
Nevertheless, the phrase that follows,
placida
cum
nocte
iaceres
(427) [while
you are lying in night's kindly peace] would cause total confusion: for it would
betray the fact right at the beginning that the dream was a dream, whereas Turnus
proceeds to reply to the real Calybe. I regard Klouçek's emendation
iacerem
[while
I was lying] as self-evident.
189
20.
cura
tibi
divom
effigies
et
templa
tueri
:
bella
viri
pacemque
gerant
,
quis
bella
gerenda
[your responsibility is to watch over the temples of the gods and their
statues. It is for men to wage war and make peace: for it is for them to make war]:


the spindle . . . for war will be men's concern]. Only someone who had failed to continue
understand the point of the phrase
quis
bella
gerenda
[it is for them to make war]
would propose that it should be deleted; the expression is ambiguous, meaning first
'concern about war (and peace)' and also 'wage war': furthermore, it is only in
relation to this phrase that Allecto's final words
bella
manu
letumque
gero
[in my
hand I bear war and death] achieve their full effect, for they give it yet a third
meaning.
21.
So too in Aeschylus'
Xantriae
Hera appeared in the guise of a priestess (fr.
168 Nauck
2
).
190
22.
duri
agrestes
(504) [the hardy country-folk],
indomiti
agricolae
(521) [the
dogged farmers]. In order to understand the events as Virgil intended, it is in my
view important that we should dismiss from our minds all thoughts of the meek and
pious shepherds of the
Eclogues
and
Georgics
, and remember rather the suspicious,
xenophobic, coarse angry
rusticus
[rustic] of the real world, who resorts to throwing
stones or brandishing a sword at every insult, real or imagined (Cassius in Cic.
Ad
Fam
. 16.19.4:
scis
quo
modo
[
Pompeius
]
crudelitatem
virtutem
putet
;
scis
quam
se
semper
a
nobis
derisum
putet
;
vereor
ne
nos
r
u
s
t
i
c
e
gladio
velit

[You know how Pompey thinks cruelty is a virtue; you know how often he thinks
we have insulted him; I am afraid that he will want to answer our mockery with the
sword, like a countryman ]; this was a type that was certainly well known to Virgil
from his own observation and experience. Ribbeck has collected the testimonia on
the traditional characteristics of Greek and Roman farmers ('Agroikos',
Abh . d . sächs . Gesellsch , d . Wiss . 10.1 [1885]), and those that we have mentioned are
frequently referred to.
191
23.
By contrast, the rich Galaesus, the big landowner among the shepherds and
farmers, keeps his head and wants to sue for peace (535).
24.
Ovid may have written
Met
. 10.121ff.:
tu
pabula
cervum
ad
nova
,
tu
liquidi
ducebas
fontis
ad
undam
,
tu
modo
texebas
varios
per
cornua
flores
[you led the stag
to fresh pastures, you led it to the waters of the clear fountain; at times you would
weave a mixed garland of flowers for his antlers] with Virgil 488f. in mind: (Silvia)
mollibus
intexens
ornabat
cornua
sertis
pectebatque
ferum
puroque
in
fonte
lavabat
[wreathing his antlers with soft garlands to decorate him, and grooming him, wild
creature though he had been, and bathing him in pure water]: but the Greek original
must have had something very similar, and also certainly supplied Ovid with the
lines that immediately follow,
nunc
eques
in
tergo
residens
[now sitting, on his back
like a horseman] etc. Virgil has made the tame stag, originally sacred to the nymphs
(we should remember Artemis' sacred stag at Aulis), into a domestic pet and there-
fore has him fed in the house (
mensaeque
adsuetus
erili
[490] [regularly at the
master's table]): Ovid has probably preserved the original version here, when he
speaks of Cyparissus taking the stag out to graze.
193
25.
However, Virgil was also certainly influenced by the consideration that a
Fury should not be allowed to come into contact with the sanctuary. In this respect
he is correcting Ennius.
196
26.
ut
belli
signum
Laurenti
Turnus
ab
arce
extulit
,
et
rauco
strepuerunt
cornua
cantu
(8.1) [Turnus hoisted the war-flag on the Laurentine citadel, and trumpets
blared out their harsh music]: cf. Lersch,
Antiquitates
Virgilianae
(48). Apart from a
few useful observations on points of detail, this book is spoilt by the author's
continue
tendency to explain everything in Virgil by tracing it back to a Roman context and
saying virtually nothing about Homeric imitation.
27.
7.513, 519, 628, 637; 8.2; 9.394, 503; 11.192 (cf. 184 Tarchon), 424. Cf.
8.526 in connection with the sign from heaven which makes Aeneas decide to turn
to the Etruscans for help:
Tyrrhenus
que
tubae
mugire
per
aethera
clamor
[the
clarion note of an Etruscan trumpet seemed to bray across the sky].
28.
Naturally this was already remarked on in antiquity: scholiast on
Iliad
18.219.
197
29.
Virgil has only Italian cavalry divisions (
alae
) [Volscians 11.604, 868, Etrus-
cans 11.730, Arcadians 11.835]; as Servius (on 9.368) already observed, the 300
riders of Volcens correspond in number to the cavalry attached to an ancient Roman
legion.
198
30.
Similarly, in Book 10, Mezentius fights on foot at first, and only mounts his
horse when his wound makes it impossible for him to continue on foot; this leads to
the peculiar situation where Aeneas on foot fights against a mounted warrior
(10.883-94).
199
31.
On how Graf arrived at this conclusion from the iconographic tradition, in
contradistinction to the views of Welcker, Benndorf, Löschcke (
Bonner
Studien
255), see Pauly-Wissowa
RE
I 1780. Unfortunately we know nothing at all about the
Amazonis
of Domitius Marsus, not even whether it was available to Virgil.
32.
Compare for example, what Quintus of Smyrna, who depicts Penthesilea as a
rider, manages to do with this rewarding subject: Penthesilea mounts her horse,
1.666; she carries quiver and bow, 338; Achilles tries to pull the wounded Amazon
off her horse and pierces both horse and woman with his spear, 600; and that is all.
The rest of the battle is described just like any other. We are not even told whether
Penthesilea's twelve female companions are on horseback.
200
33.
We have an exactly analogous case in, for example,
Iliad
8, where Hector
descends from his chariot to meet Teucer (320) and soon afterwards (348) is back in
it again, without the poet having found it necessary to mention the obvious fact that
he had remounted. The phrase used of Camilla,
pedem
reportat
(764) [took to her
heels], is no more to be taken literally than
circuit
(761) [he moved around] or
subit
(763) [he moved nearer] when used of Arruns, who immediately
celeris
detorquet
habenas
(765) [swiftly guided his reins]. It hardly needs to be said that Camilla,
wearing no armour and protected only by a
parma
[small shield] is not making her
way on foot
medio
agmine
(762) [in the centre of the battle]. If we must be pedantic
we would do better to ask where Camilla gets a sword from (711), since we know
that she does not carry one herself, nor does anyone use one at any other point in the
whole cavalry battle.
34.
In Book 9 he rides to the enemy camp [see p. 160 above), but then naturally
proceeds to fight on foot, as in the attack on the camp at the beginning of Book 10.
However, when he is pursuing the phantom of Aeneas (10.645ff.), the poet says
nothing of his chariot: this sacrifice is imposed by the Homeric situation, for it
would have made no sense for Turnus to get down from his chariot before his
opponent was ready to fight, nor are we supposed to imagine Turnus in his chariot in
pursuit, and unsuccessful pursuit at that, of a phantom that moves on foot.
201 35. That is a striking detail; perhaps Virgil was thinking ( pace Aristarchus) of continue
Achilles' four horses in
Iliad
8.185; it is well known that no other
quadriga
appears
in Homeric battles. When Latinus (12.162) drives out in a four-horse chariot to
conclude the treaty, it is a royal privilege, which was reinterpreted by the Romans
and retained in the form of the triumphator's
quadriga
: thus (Dion. Hal. 2.34)
Romulus triumphs

that by mounting a four-horse chariot he might preserve the dignity befitting a king].
202
36.
Besides
hastile
[spear-shaft] (9.402; 10.795; 11.650 etc.) and the general
terms
telum
[weapon],
ferrum
[iron],
missile
[missile], he also has
spiculum
[pointed
weapon] (10.888; 11.676 etc.),
iaculum
[thrown weapon] (10.323, 342; 12.354 etc.),
lancea
(12.375) [lance],
cuspis
[spike] (10.484, 733; 11.691 etc.), and, like the
Homeric

(11.667) [pinewood], cornus [cornel cherry] (9.698; 12.267), robur (10.479) [oak],
cf. myrtus (7.817) [myrtle].
37. On this see the section on 'Composition' in Part II, ch. 4.
203 38. Marquardt, St . V . II 344.
204 39. Lersch op. cit. n. 26 above, 69, 186.
206
40.
Virgil generally based his similes on those in Greek epic, but the first simile
in the
Aeneid
(1.148), on which he lavishes even more artistic skill than usual, in
thrice three lines, is drawn from a Roman context (although even in this case there is
something similar in Homer:
Iliad
2.144). When he compares a stormy and a calm
sea with a rebellious and a pacified crowd, he is reversing a simile that was popular
in Rome: Cic.
pro
Cluentio
138:
intellegi
potuit
id
quod
saepe
dictum
est
:
ut
mare
,
quod
sua
natura
tranquillum
sit
,
ventorum
vi
agitari
atque
turbari
,
sic
populum
Romanum
sua
sponte
esse
placatum
,
hominum
seditiosorum
vocibus
ut
violen
-
tissimis
tempestatibus
concitari
[it was easy to understand what has frequently been
remarked: just as the sea, which is calm by nature, is made rough and turbulent by
the force of the winds, so the Roman people is naturally calm, but the speeches of
revolutionaries can start them up, like the most violent storms]. Cf. Preiswerk in
Iuvenes
dum
sumus
, Festschr. (Basel, 1907) 32 (he cites a simile from Demosthenes
Fals
.
Leg
. 19.136 which is not an exact parallel).
208
41.
In other cases where a death is not described but is left to the reader's
imagination, it is clear that the poet has hesitated to put the horror into words. Thus
209 in 2.526ff. he describes how Neoptolemus pursues Polites brandishing his spear and
trying to clutch him with his hand, then Polites collapses and meets his death: Virgil
passes over the fatal thrust in silence; nor at 2.225 does he say in so many words that
Laocoon is killed by the snakes; he passes over the fatal blow which Dido inflicts on
herself (above p. 105); and Palinurus does not say that he was murdered on the shore
by marauders (6.361) (see Norden
ad
loc
.). It would of course be out of place to
transfer this principle to descriptions of battle.
42. Similarly (3.286) he dedicates the shield of Abas to Apollo.
210
43.
immania
pondera
baltei
(10.496) [his heavy, massive swordbelt] on which
the foul deed of the Danaids is engraved in gold: its prototype is the
telamon
[sword-strap] of Hercules in
Odyssey
11.609ff. It is also called a
cingulum
(9.360;
12.942), but it must not be confused with the real
cingulum
militiae
[military belt]
which is worn around the waist: see 9.364; 12.941.
44. 10.531, 557, 592, 599, 897. Virgil has taken great care that, in the scene of continue
fighting before the death of Pallas (310-44), he does not behave in this way. At
211 10.517 Virgil makes Aeneas take eight of the enemy alive, so that he can sacrifice
them at Pallas' funeral-pyre (11.81); this has been criticized as an imitation of
Homer that is out of character with the
pietas
of Virgil's hero. But Virgil knew that
it had been an early Roman custom (Varro in Serv. on 3.67); moreover during his
own lifetime Augustus had sacrificed 300 Persian prisoners-of-war at Caesar's
funeral (V. Gardthausen,
Augustus
und
seine
Zeit
I [Leipzig, 1891] 209); surely he
would have had this in mind when he included this in his work?
45.
For the following cf. H. Nettleship,
Lectures
and
Essays
(Oxford, 1885)
108ff.
46.
sed
ea
animi
elatio
,
quae
cernitur
in
periculis
et
laboribus
,
si
iustitia
vacat
pugnatque
non
pro
salute
communi
sed
pro
suis
commodis
,
in
vitio
est
;
non
modo
enim
id
virtutis
non
est
,
sed
est
potius
immanitatis
omnem
humanitatem
repellentis
[but as for the elation of the spirits, which can be seen to drive a man through toils
and perils, if there is no just cause involved, and a man fights, not for the preserva-
tion of his people, but for his own advantage, then that is wrong; for not only is that
nothing to do with valour, but rather it is characteristic of outrageous behaviour that
denies every kind of human feeling] (Cic.
De
Off
. 1.19.62).
212 47.


are headstrong and eager in advance of danger, but at the moment of danger they
hold back; whereas brave men are keen in action, although quiet beforehand]
(Aristotle Eth . Nic . 3.10, 1116a7).
48.
'It is most remarkable how closely Virgil imitates Homer in the duel between
Aeneas and Turnus . . . it is modelled almost
verbatim
on the duel between Achilles
and Hector (
Iliad
22.248ff.) . . . . At the end Turnus (932f.) pleads with Aeneas for a
decent burial in almost the same words as Hector (
Iliad
22.337f.)': Cauer op. cit.
n. 1 above, 181. He has failed to perceive how great a difference there is here, and it
was precisely on his readers' familiarity with Hector's last words that Virgil was
relying in order that this contrast should achieve its maximum impact.
213
49.
Cato in Macrob.
Sat
. 3.5.10 (fr. 12P.). There is a rather different version in
Dionysius 1.65.
50. The motif comes from Apollonius where Idas says:




spear, which brings greater glory in battle to me than to any other man - indeed,
Zeus is less help to me than my spear - let it know that I shall suffer no painful
wound, nor will Idas fail to follow it up and gain a victory, not even if a god should
fight against him']; Idmon then reproaches him for

gods]: this contemptor divom [scorner of gods] too was later punished for his
arrogance.
51.
Another certain example is
nec
mortem
horremus
nec
divom
parcimus
ulli
(10.880) ['I have no horror of death, and set no value on any god']. More dubious is
Nunc
morere
,
ast
de
me
divom
pater
atque
hominum
rex
viderit
(743) ['Now die. As
for me, the Father of Gods and King of Men will decide']. As Servius correctly
continue
remarks, the fact that Mezentius speaks the words
subridens
[smiling], excludes the
possibility that Virgil carelessly allowed his
contemptor
deum
to lapse into pious
devotion at this point; but the interpretation transmitted by Servius '
viderit
utrum
Mezentio
possit
nocere
ille
quem
vos
deorum
et
hominum
creditis
esse
rectorem
'
['let that person whom you believe to be the ruler of gods and men see whether he
can harm Mezentius'] is perhaps too artificial. Still, there is, in my opinion, an
element of contempt in
viderit
, here as frequently elsewhere; this would define the
tone of
divom
pater
atque
hominum
rex
[the Father of Gods and King of Men] as 'let
him kill me - see if I care'.
215
52.
As we can deduce from Servius on 1.317, the story of Camilla's youth is
based in part on the tale of Harpalyce (see O. Crusius in Roscher I.1835; G. Knaack,
Rhein
.
Mus
. 49 [1894] 526-31, who however presses the comparison too far). Other
elements may be derived from a local Volscian legend (see now R. Ritter
De
Varrone
Vergilii
. . .
auctore
[Diss. Halle, 1901] 391ff.). However, Virgil is not com-
pletely successful in combining the character that he has derived from this source
with that of a Penthesilea: purple robe, golden hair-clasp and golden bow suit an
Amazon queen but not a virgin huntress who has grown up in the wild (11.570) and
has always lived there (843). Penthesilea rules over a nation of women: but how did
Camilla come by a bevy of companions-at-arms (655, 805, 820), when she had
acquired her unique character only because she had been brought up with her exiled
father in the loneliness of the forest? And how is it that she has become the leader of
her people, although her father, the Volscian king Metabus, had been driven out of
his country by his subjects, and forbidden to enter any of their cities (567)? On the
reason for this discrepancy see the section on 'Speech' in Part II, ch. 3.III.
53.
C
a
e
c
a
sequebatur
totumque
i
n
c
a
u
t
a
per
agmen
f
e
m
i
n
e
o
praedae
et
spoliorum
ardebat
amore
(781f.) [
blind
to all else, in a
girl
'
s
hot passion for
plundering those spoils she was ranging
heedlessly
about the battle-lines].
216
54.
It has been suggested that Virgil was reading
Iliad
10 again when he was
composing his own Book 9: Mnestheus' lionskin (306) is derived from
Iliad
10.177;
217 Ascanius' sword (303) from 255; Turnus' steed (269) from 322; the detail that
Rhamnes' sword-strap had been given in return for hospitality (361) from the leather
helmet given in return for hospitality in
Iliad
10.268; the reference in Nisus' prayer
to his father Hyrtacus (406) from the reference in Diomedes' prayer to his father
Tydeus (285); and do not the names Rhamnes, Remus and Rhoetus recall the name
of Rhesus? There is yet another echo: in the Ascanius episode the young bullock
with gilded horns which he promises to Jupiter (627ff.) is derived from Diomedes'
vow to Athena (294).
55.
It is only on Ascanius that Virgil's narrative (257ff.) dwells longer than
necessary; this is to enable us to hear about the
primitiae
[first fruits] which he
promises in the council before we hear about his
primitiae
in the actual battle
(590ff.). Aeneas' absence is used to good effect in both cases. This maintains the
childlike character of Ascanius, see above p. 128.
56.
The poet does not make them do this pointlessly, 'merely because Odysseus
and Diomedes had done it' in
Iliad
10 (F. Cauer op. cit. n. 1 above, 180), but for the
same reasons as in their case. Diomedes even has to be restrained by Athena from
slaughtering still more of the enemy, which would endanger both himself and his
continue
friend. Every ancient reader would have understood how he felt. And there is a great
218 difference between the lack of caution of inexperienced youths and the carelessness
of an experienced warrior like Diomedes. Nisus' ambition is not satisfied with a
single task. The poet has taken pains to prepare us for this (186ff.), and he has also
made sure that Nisus shall appear more level-headed than Euryalus (322, 354). If
Virgil had decided to provide an additional motive for the bloodbath by making
Nisus and Euryalus fight their way through the enemy camp, that would have been
unnecessary as well as incompatible with the facts: it cannot be deduced from
lato
te
limite
ducam
(323) ['I will lead you forward along a clear, broad lane'] nor from
via
facta
per
hostis
(356) ['our way through the foe is clear now']. Anyone who goes
through enemy lines has to hack his way through them with his sword; Nisus would
have thought it shameful to creep through without leaving any trace of his passage. I
am even more reluctant than usual to regard this as an

Virgil's part, for everything in this episode is motivated with special care, almost,
we might suppose, in deliberate contrast to the slapdash details which abound in
Iliad 10. Virgil has already told us about the friendship of Nisus and Euryalus in
Book 5 (pp. 126f. above) (and note the contrast!); it is from that book that we know
that Nisus is a fast runner, as he is here too (368); his successes with throwing the
spear (411, 417) are credible in the light of his passion for hunting (178, 407); and
this also explains his knowledge of the surrounding countryside (245). In the moon-
light Euryalus' helmet gleams and shows the way to Nisus, while the darkness of the
dense wood conceals him but conversely hinders Euryalus' escape (384). And how
can Nisus find him again in the wood? audit equos (394) [he heard horses]. The
author of Book 10 of the Iliad had had great difficulty in finding a plausible motive
for Diomedes and Odysseus to leave the camp, and it fits rather awkwardly into the
context. In this respect too, Virgil was no mere thoughtless imitator. We might find
it surprising that not one of Rhesus' Thracians woke during the bloodbath. Virgil
had forestalled any objection by introducing the detail that the soldiers are stretched
out in drunken sleep (316, 335, 350, cf. 165), and this has already been prepared for
by Turnus' words laeti bene gestis corpora rebus procurate viri (157) ['See to your
comfort, warriors, happy in the day's success'].
219
57.
However, in my opinion it is unlikely that Virgil and his audience would
have taken the same view of Nisus' action as we do. Nisus' fault lies in failing to
complete his mission despite Euryalus' death, and we would regard this as derelic-
tion of duty, although we might arrive at this verdict only after a certain amount of
reflection. To be carried away by passion is more characteristic of the Mediter-
ranean temperament than our own, but even we northerners hardly realize that in a
similar situation, the emotional scene when Max Piccolomini rides to his death in
Schiller's
Wallenstein
, it is even more flagrant dereliction of duty. Imagine Nisus in
some safe hiding-place watching his friend being killed, too sensible to attempt to
fight in vain against overwhelming odds, and going on to obey orders and complete
his mission - a Nisus who behaved like that would have been regarded as a charac-
ter lacking in warmth and lacking in love. Here is the verdict on this episode by a
modern writer who was Virgilian in spirit, Bernardin de St Pierre: 'Virgile a ren-
fermé dans une seule action les premiers devoirs de la vie sociale, que les moralistes
n'ont mis qu'en maximes isolées' [Virgil has enshrined in a single action the
continue
fundamental duties of social life, which moralists have only expressed in isolated
maxims] (
Oeuvres
10 [1826] 180).
220
58.
C. Robert,
Studien
zum
Ilias
(Berlin, 1901) 337, pointed out that grouping by
pairs is prevalent in the
aristeia
of Diomedes; the origin of this, as he rightly
observes, lies in the pairs, warrior and driver, in each chariot. It is the same in the
aristeia
of Agamemnon: in
Iliad
11.91ff. Agamemnon kills three pairs, including
two pairs of brothers; he is confronted by a fourth pair, Iphidamas and Coön, the
sons of Antenor, at 221ff. This continues at 310ff.: Diomedes and Odysseus form a
pair: they kill three pairs; Diomedes then wounds Hector, but is himself wounded by
Hector's brother Paris. At 420ff. Odysseus kills four men; then, with the pair of
brothers Charops and Socos, his score matches that of Agamemnon. Meanwhile, at
300ff. Hector kills nine men in three lines of verse, three per line, which is surely not
just coincidence. The number three plays a rôle in the
aristeia
of Patroclus: at
16.399ff. he kills first three single fighters, then three times he kills three together;
then at 684ff. he again kills three together three times, and immediately before his
death at 785 he three times kills nine. The deliberate crescendo is unmistakeable.
There is nothing like it in Books 13 and 14 (apart from the end of Book 14, 508ff.).
59.
Hellenistic poets certainly deliberately followed this principle in the case of
long lists of names. It is certainly clear for example in Tibullus' description of the
221 Golden Age (1.3.37ff.): first two pairs of lines about voyages, in the first of which
pinus
[ship] is the subject, in the second
navita
[sailor]; then a pair of lines on each
of the following topics: animal-breeding - the subjects are
taurus
[bull] and
equus
[horse]; securing one's property - the subjects are
domus
[house] and
lapis
[stone];
nutrition - honey and milk; and finally two pairs of lines each with four subjects,
unity and peace, war and sea-travel. Here the increasing compression reflects in-
creasing excitement.
223
60.
Although it has no significance for the course of the battle, it is significant
for the general purpose of Book 9, since it shows the ancestor of the Julian
gens
avenging the people's honour. The scornful speech of Numanus (9.598ff.) (which
also gives a picture of archaic Latin customs - modelled in fact on Spartan customs,
for according to learned Romans [Cato? ap. Servius on 8.638; but cf. Jordan
Prole
-
gomena
]) a distant Roman connection with the Sabines made



love of war, their plain life-style, and their austerity in all the activities of their lives]
(Dion. Hal. 2.49); cf. the old Lucanian principles of education in Justin 23.1.8,
quibus et Spartani [ liberos ] instituere soliti erant [by which the Spartans also were
accustomed to educate (their children)]) and the Trojans' situation is reminiscent of
the scornful speech of the Etruscan beneath the walls of the Roman camp in Livy
(2.45.3), which is certainly based on more detailed (poetic?) sources.
224
61.
This resembles an incident in the Punic War:
cum
refugientem
[
sc
.
Hanniba
-
lem
]
ad
urbem
Tauream
Claudius
sequeretur
,
patenti
hostium
portae
invectum
per
alteram
stupentibus
miraculo
hostibus
intactum
evasisse
[when Claudius followed
him (Hannibal) as he fled to the city of Taureas, he was carried in at one of the enemy
gates, which was open, and came out through another unscathed, and the enemy were
amazed at his miraculous feat], says Livy 23.46, on the authority of 'certain annals'.
break
62.
9.67ff. So that Turnus and his men can try to set fire to the ships without first
storming the camp, Virgil situates the fleet near the camp, but not defended by it,
and depicts it as protected on the landward side by a mere wall, not by a proper
defensible fortification. Drachmann,
Nord
.
tidskr
f
.
filol
14. (1905) 69 is right to
correct me by interpreting 9.69f. (
classem
quae
lateri
castrorum
adiuncta
latebat
,
aggeribus
saeptam
circum
et
fluvialibus
undis
[the fleet which lay hidden close
under the flank of the encampment, fenced on one side by an earth-pier built round
it, but elsewhere by nothing but the river waves]) in this sense. This also explains
225 why Turnus hopes that the attack on the fleet will lure the Trojans out from their
walls, and also why the men in the encampment cannot protect the fleet against fire.
The poet does not state the topographical reasons that caused this separation of the
fleet from the camp. After the Romans land at Aspis, Polybius (1.29) particularly
emphasizes that they begin the siege


a ditch and fence].
63.
But not, as some have believed, that they are already in the camp; on the
contrary, Cymodocea says that Turnus intends to prevent them from entering the
camp,
medias
illis
opponere
turmas
ne
castris
iungant
(239) ['to confront them
squarely with his own main squadrons before they can join the Trojan camp']; nor
do the Arcadians play any part in the fighting when they land; see n. 66 below.
64.
turmas
invasit
agrestis
Aeneas
,
omen
pugnae
stravitque
Latinos
(310)
[Aeneas charged against the levies of country-folk, a good augury for the fortune of
the fight, and he struck the Latins down]; Servius connects this with 8.7:
undique
cogunt
auxilia
et
latos
vastant
cultoribus
agros
[they mustered their levies from all
around, stripping fields of their cultivators over a wide area], but surely it refers to
the inadequate armour of Turnus' allies, e.g. the
legio
agrestis
(7.681) [levy of
countrymen] from Praeneste: 'Aeneas attacks them first, rightly believing that it is
here that he will be most successful, and so begin the battle with a good omen',
Brosin
ad
loc
.
226
65.
Aeneas kills two of the seven sons of Phorcus; the third son wounds Achates;
Virgil breaks off at this point, but we can see what is going to happen.
66.
The narrative suffers from lack of clarity at this point. The Arcadian cavalry
had been forced by the difficulty of the terrain to dismount, and they found them-
selves at a disadvantage because they were not accustomed to fighting on foot. So it
is obvious that they did not take part in the fighting at the ships: so much can be
deduced from the strongly emphasized phrase
parte
ex
alia
(362) [elsewhere on the
field], and from the contrast between the Arcadians and Turnus at 238f. But it
remains unclear whether Pallas, who has come by sea with Aeneas (190), sees the
Arcadian cavalry only from afar -
vidit
Latio
dare
terga
sequaci
(365) [he saw that
the Arcadians were turning in flight before the pursuing Latins], or whether he has
already joined up with them; in either case we ought to be told at some point or
other about his fighting his way through to them.
Vidit
[he saw] would appear to
support the former interpretation (particularly if we compare it with the passage
where Tarchon is trying to restore courage to his companions who have taken flight:
inter
caedes
cedentiaque
agmina
fertur
equo
[11.729] [he charged on horse-back
amid the carnage where the ranks were in retreat]), but the narrative that follows
continue
would appear to support the latter. Nor is the topography entirely clear. I confess
that I am as baffled by Brosin's attempt to explain it (in his note on 362) as I am by
Virgil.
228
67.
This corresponds very well with the picture which we have formed of Tar-
chon from his conduct in the battle at the ships (10.290), where he has no patience
for careful disembarkation of the troops, and orders his ships to be rowed straight
towards the beach, regardless of the danger of damaging them. The words with
which he encourages his comrades are reminiscent of Brasidas' words during the
landing at Pylos: he orders his sailors not to spare the ships,


them aground and disembark in any way possible, in order to gain control of the
men and of the position] (Thuc. 4.12). The Thucydides passage was famous as a
masterpiece of vivid description: Plut. De glor . Athen . 3, cf. Lucian De conscr . hist .
(How to write history) 49.
229
68.
Once Turnus has sent Idmon with the message to Aeneas, he goes into the
palace, calls for his horses, puts on his armour, takes up his shield and sword, and
finally brandishes his spear and utters threatening words -
totoque
ardentis
ab
ore
scintillae
absistunt
,
oculis
micat
acribus
ignis
(81-106) [fire glittered in his flashing
eyes, and all his face showed the fierce heat within, a heat to send sparks flying] etc.
All this is modelled on the scene of the arming of Achilles in
Iliad
19.364ff.; Virgil
does not even omit lines 365-8, which were rejected by Aristarchus as spurious, but
works them in at a suitable point (but without the gnashing of teeth,


schol. A. ad loc .). In fact, it is not in the least remarkable that Turnus, who has to go
to fight early the next morning, should try out his weapons the evening before (this
is Servius' explanation - it would be nice if Virgil had been explicit in the same way
here), and brandish his spear (at Apollonius 3.1262 Jason practises leaping and
brandishing his spear before battle), and it would certainly make sense to do so
while there was still time to make sure his equipment was in good order and to
remedy any faults. Furthermore, line 76 makes it quite clear that the encounter will
take place the next morning, which prevents the reader from making the false
assumption that this encounter will come immediately after line 112. (We should
also note how very different this is from the description of the arming of Turnus at
11.486.) Nevertheless, the final arming before the actual combat is so much more
important than these preliminary exercises that we must ask ourselves why Virgil
did not do the same as Homer and Apollonius and describe that moment. It seems
that he was more interested in the character of Turnus than in the factual details of
arming: on the eve of the duel, immediately after the decision has been made, he is
so consumed by raging lust for battle that he cannot wait to brandish his weapon
against the opponent he hates so much; in the morning, just before the fight, his
230 passion has ebbed away (see p. 167 above). Aeneas, by contrast, remains
unchanged.
69. See p. 167 above.
70.
So as to make this appear plausible, Virgil has avoided saying anything
earlier about the general feelings of the Latins, or their hatred of Turnus. Only
Turnus himself sees
sua
nunc
promissa
reposci
,
se
signari
oculis
(12.2) [that they
continue
were demanding that his spontaneous offer should now be made good, and they
were singling out him alone] - but who 'they' are is not stated. Previously, however,
it was the widows and orphans of the fallen Latins who had demanded that there
should be a duel (11.215); only Drances allied himself to their cause. Nothing at all
of this kind is ever said of the Rutulians.
71.
His intervention has been prepared for at 11.429, where Turnus reassures the
Latins after the news of Diomedes' refusal to ally himself with their cause:
at
Messapus
erit
felixque
Tolumnius
[sc.
auxilio
]
et
quos
tot
populi
misere
duces
['yet
Messapus will (sc. aid us), and fortunate Tolumnius too, and so will other chieftains
whom these many nations have sent]. That the
augur
Tolumnius is identical with
this
dux
[chieftain] Tolumnius ought never to have been doubted: compare Picus,
who was both augur and king, 7.187f. (cf. Cicero
De
Div
. 1.89), and Rhamnes,
rex
idem
et
regi
Turno
gratissimus
augur
(9.327) [he was himself a king, and also a
seer, whom King Turnus loved]; Tolumnius may be one of the princes allied to
Messapus. Turnus does not rely on him in vain, as we can see when he casts his
spear, but
felix
[fortunate] contains bitter dramatic irony, for Tolumnius is fortunate
in that his spear strikes home, but he loses his life as a result, 12.460.
232
72.
We have already discussed most of this. There is also the phrase
vulgi
variare
labantia
corda
(223) [the feelings of the
multitude
were changeful and
insecure]: the
vulgus
[multitude] is fickle and just as quickly moved to sudden anger
(11.451) as to sudden sympathy; again, Juturna appears in the semblance of Camers,
who is highly respected as a member of a distinquished family as well as for his
personal qualities; a further incitement is her appeal to the Latins' honour, love of
freedom, ambition, and inveterate hatred of the Etruscans.
233 73. The scheme is thus ABCBA.
234
74.
The poet often reminds us of them later in the narrative: 730, 744, 768, 918,
928. Cf. our comments on the funeral games, p. 131 above.
75.
coniectis
eminus
hastis
(711) [while still far apart, they cast their spears]: no
Homeric poet would have dared to conclude the essential first phase of the duel in
235 only three words, leaving us to deduce from the silence of the narrator that each
spear had missed its target.
76. On this see Part II, ch. 2.II.I Jupiter and Fate.
77.
Motivated in 739ff.:
postquam
arma
dei
ad
Volcania
ventum
est
mortalis
mucro
. . .
dissiluit
[but as soon as he faced instead divine weapons forged by Vulcan
himself, the mortal blade . . . flew into splinters]: we might suppose, at the first
stroke; but it was sound enough to start with:
crebros
ensibus
ictus
congeminant
(713) [they redoubled their sword-strokes and smote again].
break
1— The Creative Method
240
1.
It hardly needs saying that Virgil regarded both the fall of Troy and the
settlement of Latium by Aeneas as historical facts; in his time the only matter of
uncertainty was the extent to which the details were reliable, and even Livy, who is
continue
unusually sceptical about these events, is prepared to believe most of them. Diony-
sius cites the

different points along all the coasts as proof of the accuracy of his own version of
the errores Aeneae [wanderings of Aeneas], just as, for example, Strabo 1.2.39 cites
similar

Argonauts.
2. E. Rohde, Griech . Rom . (Leipzig, 1876) 97f.; Norden 112f.
3. 1.59

[for singers tell of Caineus, who, though still alive, perished at the hands of Cen-
taurs, etc.].
241
4.
dicuntur
(64.2) [they are said],
fertur
(19) [it is said],
perhibent
(76, 124) [they
relate],
ferunt
(212) [they say].
5.
Odes
1.7.23:
Teucer
. . .
fertur
vinxisse
[Teucer is said to have bound],
fertur
Prometheus
(16.13) [Prometheus is said];
Epp
. 1.18.43:
putatur
Amphion
[Amphion
is thought];
Odes
3.5.41: of Regulus' return to Carthage:
fertur
[he is said].
6.
Just as in the passage from the
Georgics
that we have just mentioned the
reference to
fama
follows a question put to the Muse, so too in
Aeneid
1.15:
fertur
occurs in the account of the reasons for Juno's anger, which the Muse had been
asked about; at 9.79 the poet addresses the Muses before the strange metamorphosis
of the ships:
dicite
:
prisca
fides
facto
,
sed
fama
perennis
[tell me: there is only
ancient warrant for the event, but the memory (
fama
) of it never dies], probably in
the sense of Livy 7.6.6.
fama
standum
est
,
ubi
certam
vetustas
derogat
fidem
[we
must rely on tradition (
fama
) when the passage of time has removed all reliable
accounts] and then continues (9.82) with
fertur
, at 7.37 Erato had been asked
explicitly only about the situation in Latium at the time of Aeneas' arrival, but when
Virgil proceeds to introduce his account of Latinus' descent from Faunus and
Marica with
accipimus
[we are told] he does not of course intend us to assume that
this is distinct from what is revealed by the Muse. Such a distinction, however, is
implied when Virgil imitates Homer's invocation of the Muses which precedes the
Catalogue of Ships,


and you know all things; but we only hear what men say, and know nothing] ( Iliad
2.485f.) = et meministis enim , divae , et memorare potestis ; ad nos vix tenuis famae
perlabituraura [for you are divine, and you have the gifts of memory and story; but
only the faintest echo of the tale has come down to me] ( Aeneid 7.645); but Homer's
contrast between divine omniscience and human ignorance is changed in Virgil into
a contrast between established tradition, memoria , and obscure rumours. Moreover,
in my view it is far from certain that every time Virgil invokes the Muse or appeals
to tradition he does in fact use them as his source: on the contrary, it is very likely
that the metamorphosis of the ships (9.79ff.), for example, is Virgil's own invention,
but he does not wish the reader to be aware of it. The invocation of the Muse with no
reference to tradition at 9.525 (cf. 12.500), is purely Homeric imitation.
7.
For example at 12.735 Virgil reports a
fama
which directly contradicts his
own earlier account (90ff.).
242
8.
It is significant that in the catalogue of the Latin allies it is the unmistakably
mythical elements (and only these) which are said to be derived from the tradition:
continue
e.g. Caeculus 7.680:
omnis
quem
credidit
aetas
[whom every generation since has
believed] to be a son of Vulcan, Oebalus 734:
quem
generasse
Telon
Sebethide
nympha
fertur
[whom it is said that Telon begot by the nymph Sebethis],
ferunt
(765) [they tell] of the miracle whereby Hippolytus is brought back to life, and
similarly, in the second catalogue (10.189) of the metamorphosis of Cycnus. Again,
Latinus' descent from the god Faunus is introduced with
accipimus
[we are told]
(see above); so too with Picus
is
parentem
te
Saturne
refert
[he
claimed
you, Saturn,
as his grandfather]; and even Aeneas expresses himself with similar caution on the
subject of his and Evander's family-tree:
ut
Grai
perhibent
[as the Greeks relate]
and
auditis
si
quicquam
credimus
(8.135, 140) [if we believe what we are told];
similarly,
utperhibent
(4.179) [so men say] of the genealogy of Fama. We should
remember that Asclepiades


i.e. mythical history, namely genealogy] (Sextus Adv . gramm . 253). Other mythical
digressions which should be mentioned in this context are the story of Daedalus'
flight ( ut fama est [6.14] [as the story goes]) and the labyrinth ( fertur [5.588] [it is
said]); the city of Ardea is said ( dicitur [7.409]) to have been founded by Danae;
even the characters in the poem use the same phrases, e.g. Helenus (3.416) and
Aeneas (3.551, 578). In the Nekyia (the visit to the Underworld) the poet desires
audita loqui (6.266) [to tell what has been told to me], cf. Norden ad loc .); however,
in the parallels from visionary revelation-literature which Norden cites, the author
usually refers to particularly reliable sources to confirm his account; Virgil differs
from these authors, and from Socrates in Plato Protag . 524:


true], since he rarely states his own belief in what he has heard from others; the
nearest he comes to doing so is when he feels it necessary to ask the gods of the
Underworld for permission to divulge what they have told him); it is only in giving
information about dreams - where they live, and the gates through which they leave
the Underworld - that he adds ferunt (6.284) [they say] and fertur (893) [it is said].
The account of young Ascanius' intervention in the battle at 9.590ff. verges on the
miraculous and is therefore introduced with dicitur [it is said]. Servius comments on
accipimus at 7.48: propter varias opiniones hoc adiecit [he adds this because opi-
nions varied]; this may be true of some instances in Apollonius (Orpheus' descent
from Calliope 1.24, Augeias' descent from Helios 172, the death of Tiphys 2.856),
but F. Leo, Hermes 42 (1907) 68f., rightly denies that this is true of Virgil, including
quam fama secutast [who has acquired the reputation] at Ecl . 6.74.
9.
This is true of the great majority of the examples that we have given; we may
add
fertur
(9.82) [it is said], which introduces the conversation of the Great Mother
with Jupiter which precedes the main action.
Dicitur
(4.208) [it is said] which Virgil
uses of Iarbas' prayer to Jupiter is a similar case: it is not mythical, but the poet is
with Dido and Aeneas in Carthage, as it were; meanwhile, anything that is happen-
ing at a distance is known to him only by hearsay.
243
10.
si
credere
dignum
est
(6.173) [if we can believe such a deed] of the story of
Misenus and Triton; he had used the same words of the story of Pan and Luna which
he believed to be equally unworthy of a deity (
Geo
. 3.391). Apollon. 1.154, referring
to Lynceus' miraculous eyesight, adds

On





as one who is discussing natural phenomena, he appears not to be in total agreement
with it: so he has added 'if it is true', which is an indication of uncertainty, or of
doubt]. This is also true to a certain degree of Virgil's relationship with the myths
concerning the gods: we shall see below that, as far as possible, he avoids anything
which would contradict religion as interpreted by the philosophers. The painful
question tantaene animis caelestibus irae [can Gods in heaven be capable of such
rancour?] is almost the same as

244 11. Wilamowitz, Euripides : Herakles I 2 84 note.
245
12.
Cf., for example, Norden 252ff. on Polyboetes, the Trojan priest of Demeter,
mentioned at 6.484.
246
13.
When Virgil invented some mythical detail which had no precedent in the
traditional versions, the critics remarked on it; opinions seem to have varied about
whether he was justified. Cornutus (in Macrob. 5.19.1) commented on 4.698:
unde
haec
historia
ut
crinis
auferendus
sit
morientibus
,
ignoratur
[we do not know the
origin of this story, that a lock of hair must be taken (sc. by Proserpine) from those
on the point of death] (and in this case there was every justification for the question,
because the poet writes as if it was generally known),
sed
adsuevit
poetico
more
aliqua
fingere
ut
de
aureo
ramo
(6.136) [but Virgil frequently invents certain de-
tails, as poets are wont to do, as for example in the case of the golden bough]; in
other words he did not deny the poet the right to invent such details. Others passed
stricter judgement: Servius on 3.46 defends the invention in the episode of Poly-
dorus by citing the example of Romulus' spear:
vituperabile
enim
est
poetam
aliquid
fingere
,
quod
penitus
a
veritate
recedat
[for it is blameworthy for a poet to invent
anything that is utterly remote from the truth], and 9.81 (the metamorphosis of the
ships),
figmentum
hoc
licet
poeticum
sit
,
tamen
quia
exemplo
caret
,
notatur
a
criticis
[although this is a poetic fiction, nevertheless it is castigated by the critics,
because it is unprecedented]. That is the theory which Horace follows:
ficta
volup
-
tatis
causa
sint
proxima
veris
:
ne
quodcumque
volet
poscat
sibi
fabula
credi
,
neu
pransae
Lamiae
vivum
puerum
extrahat
alvo
[fictions intended to give pleasure
should remain close to the truth, so you should not expect people to believe anything
you like to put in your story, nor should you depict a live child emerging from
Lamia's belly after she has eaten it] (
Ars
Poetica
338). The rule that the poet must
consider probability throughout his narrative (Servius comments on 11.554 [Camilla
tied to her spear]:
Probus
de
hoc
loco

passage: 'an implausible invention']) therefore applies also to mythical material: the
reader is prepared to accept the familiar but tends to quibble at the unfamiliar. Cf.
now E. Stemplinger, Das Plagiat in der griechischen Literatur (Leipzig, 1912) 102.
247
14.
See Hyginus in Gellius 10.16 on the anachronism of Palinurus' reference to
Velini
portus
(6.366) [harbour of Velia], and the alleged confusion in the lines about
the conquerors of Greece (6.838); Hyginus believes that Virgil would have cor-
rected these errors in the course of his final revision. See Norden 112ff.
15. Servius on 1.382: hoc loco per transitum tangit historiam , quam per legem continue
artis poeticae aperte non potest ponere . . . Lucanus namque ideo in numero poetarum
esse non meruit, quia videtur historiam composuisse, non poema
[in this passage he
touches in passing on a matter of history, which because of artistic principles he
cannot narrate plainly . . . . For this reason Lucan does not deserve to be counted as a
poet, because he seems to have written a history, not a poem].
16.
Servius on 1.267:
ab
hac
autem
historia
ita
discedit
Vergilius
,
ut
aliquibus
locis
ostendat
,
non
se
per
ignorantiam
,
sed
per
artem
poeticam
hoc
fecisse
[Virgil
departs from the historical tradition at this point, but in such a way as to demonstrate
in a number of passages that he has done so, not through ignorance, but for artistic
and poetic reasons]. This is just like Strabo's defence of Homer against accusations
of

17. For example, Servius on 1.363, 487, 491, 3.256.
18.
Norden rightly observes that the emphatic phrase that Virgil uses of Theseus
in the Underworld,
sedet
aeternumque
sedebit
(6.617) [he sits, and so will sit for
ever], indicates that he is rejecting an alternative version of the myth.
248
19.
Amongst the latter I would include, for example, his use of Pacuvius' version
of the death of Priam (see p. 59 n. 71 above); Dido's statement
nec
patris
Anchisae
cineres
manisve
revelli
(4.427) ['I never tore up Anchises' grave to disturb his ashes
and his spirit'] - according to tradition, that is what Diomedes had done; the trans-
formation of Mezentius' demand for the
primitiae
[first-fruits] into a blasphemous
prayer (10.773; see p. 165 above); and so forth.
20.
The following passages are taken from Strabo's introduction, which anyone
who wishes to understand Virgil is well advised to read; it gives us some idea of
what Virgil's views on Homer and on epic poetry would have been. His main point
is:



a historical event, and embellished it with mythological inventions, and he treated
the wanderings of Odysseus in the same way; but it is not Homer's habit to attach
some idle miraculous tale to something that has no truth in it]. Similarly he refutes
Eratosthenes' contention that


division of poetry into




ness . . . and that of myth is to please and to astonish] (1.2.17, reporting the views of
Polybius) - this is almost identical with the well-known division of

[narrative] into


Adv . gramm . 263, where



In Latin this is historia , fabula , argumentum : Cic. De invent . 1.27 and elsewhere.
All this is to be found in Homer; as an example of

he cites his descriptions of battles.
253
21.
See also the excellent remarks of W.J. Sellar,
The
Roman
poets
of the
Augustan
age
:
Virgil
3
(Oxford, 1897) 87ff.
254 22. Macrobius 5.13.40: sed haec et talia ignoscenda Vergilio , qui studii circa continue
Homerum
nimietate
excedit
modum
[but we should forgive Virgil for this and other
such things, since it is his excessive enthusiasm for Homer that has led him to
overstep the mark].
23.
Even his admirer Asconius was not happy:
quod
pleraque
ab
Homero
sump
-
sisset
;
sed
hoc
ipsum
crinmen
sic
defendere
assuetum
ait
: '
cur
non
illi
quoque
eadem
furta
temptarent?
verum
intellecturos
,
facilius
esse
Herculi
clavam
quam
Homero
versum
subripere
' [that he had taken a great deal from Homer; but he said that he
was in the habit of defending himself against this particular charge as follows: 'Why
didn't they themselves try to commit the same thefts? then they would discover that
it was easier to steal the club from Hercules than to steal a line from Homer.'] (Suet.
66). This implies that Asconius' criticism does not refer to imitation in general, only
to
the
furta
[theft] of various lines. In Virgil's time, after small-scale poetry in the
Hellenistic style had reached its full maturity at Rome, and, as the
Ciris
shows, had
by no means died out, the opposition that had been expressed by Callimachus and
his school against the great Hellenistic imitations of Homeric epic will certainly
have been directed against the
Aeneid
as well; and just as the Alexandrians had
formerly mocked their contemporaries for their unscrupulous borrowing of Homeric
phrases, so too Virgil's 'thefts' from Homer may have been used by his critics to
brand his work as 'cyclic' [derivative epic].
The
furta
[thefts] of Perellius Faustus
and the
Homoeon
Elenchon
libri
[Books of Critical Enquiries into Similarities] of
Octavius Avitus also had their predecessors at Alexandria: Porphyry (in Eusebius
255
Praep
.
Evang
. 10.3) assembled a whole series of writings about the

of famous authors; the list of examples given there of Antimachus' thefts from
Homer is the closest analogy to Macrobius' collection. See now Norden 359, note 1
and Kroll, Neue Jahrbücher (1903) 8 and the survey of literature on

Stemplinger op. cit. (p. 213 n. 13 above) 6ff.
256
24.
I have pointed this out repeatedly, e.g. on p. 30ff., 32, 36ff., 74f., 78f., 82,
108 n. 8, 117 n. 44, 120 n. 59 etc; it is not the purpose of this book to provide an
exhaustive analysis of it. In recent years it has become fashionable for scholars to
track down such imperfections in the
Aeneid
. Unfortunately, most of them do so
without paying any attention to Virgil's special intentions, which provide an expla-
nation for many of his alleged mistakes: e.g. Georgii frequently in his
Antike
Aeneiskritik
; K. Neermann,
Über
ungeschickte
Verwendung
homerischer
Motive
in
der
Aeneis
(Plön, 1882); P. Cauer,
Zum
Verständnis
der
nachahmenden
Kunst
des
Virgil
(Kiel, 1885); W. Kroll op. cit. (p. 63 n. 102 above; on which see the reviews
by Deuticke in the
Jahresberichte
d
.
philol
.
Vereins
[1901] and Helm,
Bursians
Jahresberichte
[1902], answered by Kroll,
Lit
.
Zentralblatt
[1903] '746). Virgil's
independence in his immitations has been excellently discussed several times by
Plüss (op. cit. n. 25 below) e.g. on pp. 38f. (as also by, e.g. Sainte-Beuve); but he is
stretching his point too far when at pp. 342ff. he regards Virgil as an imitator only in
257 the sense that every great poet imitates; this loses sight of the peculiar nature of
Virgil's creation, and displaces the centre of gravity of his achievement.
25.
Plüss in his article 'Das Gleichnis in erzählender Dichtung' (
Festschrift
zur
258 49.
Philol
.-
Vers
. [1907] 53; cf. also Sellar op. cit. n. 21 above, 4.13ff.) rightly
emphasizes that in his similes, too, where, as we have already observed, Virgil fre-
quently takes his material from others, it is not a matter of mindless mechanical
continue
imitation: the poet nearly always re-shapes his material in his own individual
259 manner. This question deserves detailed examination, but a few examples will illus-
trate what is characteristically Virgilian in this area. Turnus hastens, splendidly
arrayed, into battle
qualis
ubi
abruptis
fugit
praesepia
vinclis
tandem
liber
equus
etc. (11.492-3) [like some stallion which has broken his tether and, free at last,
gallops from his stall]: in its externals the simile is very like that in
Iliad
6.506ff.;
but in the
Iliad
Paris had to be roused from deep sleep by Hector's reproaches,
whereas Turnus was unwillingly attending the council which was to decide on war
or peace, and he rushes out as soon as the approach of the enemy is announced.
Again, at
Iliad
15.582ff. Antilochus kills Melanippus and leaps onto his body to
strip it of its armour, but when Hector comes rushing up he retreats to his own side


done harm, who has killed a dog or a herdsman tending his cattle, and takes to flight
before a crowd of men has gathered to pursue him]. At 11.809ff. Virgil uses this
simile for Arruns, who hides fearfully amongst the soldiers after he has killed
Camilla unobserved, as the wolf priusquam tela inimica sequantur . . . occiso pastore
magnove iuvenco [before any threatening weapons can pursue him, when he has
killed a shepherd or a large bullock] runs to the mountains: Virgil greatly enriches
the psychological content of the simile. The helmet and shield of Diomedes shine as
brightly as Sirius, Iliad 5.4: so too do the helmet and shield of Aeneas at 10.272, but
here we are told of its effect on the enemy; Sirius is described as sitim morbosque
ferens mortalibus aegris [the star that brings thirst and disease to suffering hu-
manity], and Virgil adds the detail of the doom-laden comet: this enhances not only
the visual impact of the simile, but also its psychological content. In this last
instance, without the simile Virgil would not have been able to continue, haud
tamen audaci Turno fiducia cessit [but the daring of Turnus never quailed; he was
firmly confident . . . ]; it can often be demonstrated that the context of a simile con-
tains references to the simile itself, even if they might be omitted without damaging
the structure of the narrative; this fact prevents me from agreeing with Norden 206
that Virgil inserted the similes into his finished draft at a later stage; nor do I think
that they are put in merely ornatus causa [for decorative effect], or, for that matter -
in the majority of cases - in order to heighten the three-dimensional effect of a
scene, and to make it more like real life. Their chief purpose is to convey either the
passionate emotions of the person to whom the simile refers, emotions which cannot
be conveyed by ordinary means, or to make us feel more vividly the effect that
something extraordinary has produced upon the person who experiences it. There is
only one simile in Book 3; this is not, in my view, because the book was never
finally revised, as Norden believed, but because of the unusual nature of its contents
and of its narrative method.
260
26.
Virgil himself wrote to Augustus
tanta
incohata
res
est
,
ut paene
vitio
mentis
tantum
opus
ingressus
mihi
videar
,
cum
praesertim
ut
scis
alia
quoque
studia
ad
id
opus
multoque
potiora
inpendam
[I have started on an enterprise of such magnitude,
that I am inclined to think that it was almost some kind of mental aberration to have
embarked on such a vast work, especially since, as you know, there are other and
much more important fields of study to which I must devote myself in order to
continue
achieve that work] (Macrob. 1.24.11). However, he was referring not only to
research into history and antiquarian matters, but also, and perhaps above all, into
philosophy.
27. See also, for example, p. 189 n. 54 above.
28. Georgics 3: proem; see E. Norden, Neue Jahrbücher 7 (1901) 315ff.
261
29.
Suet. 61R. Servius' comment on 4.323:
cum
privatim
paucis
praesentibus
recitaret
Augusto
,
nam
recitavit
primum
libros
tertium
et
quartum
[when he recited
it in private to Augustus and a few others; for he recited Books
3
and
4
first] should
not be regarded as contradicting Suetonius on this point; Book 6 is not mentioned
here because it was irrelevant to this particular passage; Servius himself mentions
the recitation in his note on 6.861. It was Book 2, not, as Servius says, Book 3 (this
might be a deliberate correction): this is supported by our conclusions concerning
the chronological relationship of the two books. But the most likely explanation, to
my mind, is that Virgil chose these three books because they were the first to be
finished. What other reason could there be for omitting, for example, Book 1? This
is also entirely compatible with the information concerning the individual sections:
prout
liberet
arripuit
[he took them up just as it suited his fancy]; it is obvious why
he was enticed to polish and complete these three books before the others. Of course
this does not mean that he had not started on any of the other books at this date - the
four remaining years of Virgil's life would hardly have been long enough to write
nine whole books - but even if Book 1, for example, had in all essentials been
completed by then, too much of it would still have been
imperfectum
[unpolished]
for it to be recited in public.
30.
Aeneida
prosa
prius
oratione
formatam
digestamque
in
X11
libros
particu
-
latim
componere
instituit
prout
liberet
quidque
et
nihil
in
ordinem
arripiens
[he first
wrote the
Aeneid
in the form of a prose draft, and divided it into 12 books; then he
began to compose individual sections, taking them up just as it suited his fancy, and
in no particular order].
31.
ut
ne
quid
impetum
moraretur
quaedam
imperfecta
transmisit
,
alia
levissimis
verbis
velut
fulsit
,
quae
per
iocum
pro
tibicinibus
interponi
aiebat
ad
sustinendum
opus
,
donec
solidae
coluimnae
advenirent
(ibid.) [and so that nothing should hold up
the flow of his work, he left some sections unpolished, and other parts were held
together, so to speak, by very unsubstantial words, which he used to say jokingly
were inserted like wooden props to support the structure until the solid columns
arrived]. Note also Suetonius' account of the way in which Virgil worked on the
Georgics
(ibid.):
traditur
cotidie
meditatos
mane
plurimos
versus
dictare
solitus
ac
per
totum
diem
retractando
ad
paucissimos
redigere
[it is said that it was his habit
every day to compose in the morning and dictate a large number of verses, and then
to spend the rest of the day working over them and reducing them to a very small
number].
262 32. See above p. 136 n. 1.
263
33.
Conrad has the distinction of being the first to point this out,
Quaestiones
Virgilianae
(Progr. Trier [1863] XV111:
singulos
libros
iam
patet
singula
quasi
corpora
esse
suo
quodque
nomine
,
ceterorum
ratione
non
habita
confecta
et
quod
ad
res
et
materiam
attinet
quodammodo
perfecta
et
ad
finem
perducta
[it is now
clear that each individuall book is, so to speak, an individual entity in its own right,
continue
composed without regard to the other books, and so far as subject-matter and
material are concerned, more or less finished and brought to completion]. Cf. also
Wilamowitz,
Homer
.
Untersuchungen
(Berlin, 1884) 117 note; C. Schüler,
Quaes
-
tiones
Vergilianae
(Diss. Greifswald, 1884) 15 etc.; Kroll op. cit. (p. 63 n. 102,
p. 148), although I must say that I strongly disagree with both his interpretation of
the facts and his views on their consequences.
264 34. Callimachus rejects the

himself, fr. 1.3 Pf.; see C. Dilthey, De Callim . Cydippa (Leipzig, 1863) 25. 'The
frequently cited phrase

makes much better sense from the standpoint of the listener than from that of the
librarian or the reader,' R. Reitzenstein, Epigramm und Skolion (Giessen, 1893) 2. break
2— Invention
266 1. Cf. our earlier discussion of the countryfolk, p. 154.
2. Addison has pointed out ( Spectator 351 [April 12, 1712]) how skilfully Virgil continue
has removed everything from the
prodigium
that might detract from the dignity of
heroic epic: 'the prophetess, who foretells it, is an hungry Harpy, as the person who
discovers it, is young Ascanius . . . . Such an observation, which is beautiful in the
mouth of a boy, would have been ridiculous from any other of the company.' This
remark is very much in the spirit of Virgil. Dionysius (1.55) puts the phrase into the
mouth of one of the


3.
te
,
mea
quem
spatiis
propioribus
aetas
insequitur
,
venerande
puer
[
you
,
267 whose age is not so far in advance of mine, admirable youth] says Ascanius to him
at 9.275. When he goes on to add
nulla
meis
sine
te
quaeretur
gloria
rebus
;
seu
pacem
seu
bella
geram
,
tibi
maxima
rerum
verborumque
fides
[never shall I desire
to win in my career any fame which you do not share, whether I am at war or peace,
and in all that I say or do I shall above all rely on you], Virgil is subtly hinting at a
relationship similar to that which existed between Augustus and his exact contem-
porary Agrippa.
4.
He is introduced as
audax
[daring] on his first appearance (8.110, cf. 10.379,
458).
5. For details see above p. 169.
6. Aristotle ( Rhet . 2.12f.) gives a character sketch only of the

and the


merely the

7.
As, for example, Evander, who is modelled on Homer's Nestor; this charac-
teristic of his is very suited to the atmosphere of the whole of Book 8. Aristotle,
Rhet
. 1390a 6, mentions it as typical of

268
8.
Livy 3.48.8: . . .
cetera
,
quae
in
tali
re
muliebris
dolor
,
quo
est
maestior
i
n
b
e
c
i
l
l
o
a
n
i
m
o
,
eo
miserabilia
magis
querentibus
subicit
[and other things
which grief makes women utter on such an occasion: for,
on
account
of
the
weak
-
ness
of
their
nature
, women are more inclined to sorrow, and therefore their
lamentations are correspondingly more pitiful];
parvis
mobili
rebus
animo
muliebri
(6.34.7) [a woman's nature, which it takes very little to upset]. The laments of
Euryalus' unfortunate mother are so heart-rending that the Trojan commanders have
her taken to one side to protect the morale of the army (9.498-502). We are re-
minded of the situation in Rome after the battle of Cannae, where the
clamor
lamentantium
mulierum
[the noisy weeping and wailing of the women] increased
the confusion, and the
patres
had to take care
ut
tumultum
ac
trepidationem
in
urbe
tollant
,
matronas
publico
arceant
continerique
intra
suum
quamque
limen
cogant
,
comploratus
familiarum
coerceant
[so as to bring the uproar and terror in the city to
an end, to forbid women from appearing out of doors, and force all of them to stay
inside their houses, and keep family mourning within reasonable limits] (Livy
22.55). Cf. also
Aeneid
11.147: when the mothers see Pallas' funeral procession,
maestam
incendunt
clamoribus
urbem
[their shrieking set the city ablaze with sor-
row].
269
9.
quam
super
adventu
Teucrum
Turnique
hymenaeis
femineae
ardentem
cu
-
raeque
iraeque
coquebant
(7.344) [who was already in a feverish turmoil with a
woman's thoughts of anxiety at the arrival of the Trojans and rage at the wedding
planned for Turnus].
10. Euryalus is a loving son, but the idea that he should preserve his own life for continue
the sake of his mother cannot hold him back from a dangerous situation which offers
him an opportunity to win glory. Evander is the very type of a loving father, but he
values his son's renown even above his son's life (8.55).
270
11.
'
L
'
Andromaque
d
'
Hector
agenouillée
sur
une
tombe
vide
,
gardant
un
amour
unique
et
la
fidélité
du
coeur
dans
l
'
involontaire
infidélité
d
'
un
corps
d
'
esclave
[Andromache, the wife of Hector, kneeling on an empty tomb, keeping alive a love
that is unique, faithful in her heart even though her captive body is forced to be
unfaithful]' - Jules Lemaître,
Les
Contemporains
(Paris, 1886) 6.276.
12.
The ancients were careful to note the way in which Homer characterized
Greeks and barbarians; there are an enormous number of scholia on this topic (R.
Dittenberger,
Hermes
40 [1905] 459-68); so too, for example, Plutarch
Quomodo
adolescens
29d, which is of course dependent on earlier interpretations of Homer.
Virgil seems to have played with the idea of drawing a similar contrast between the
civilized Trojans and the barbarian tribes of Italy,
populosque
ferocis
contundet
(1.263) [and shall overthrow fierce peoples],
gens
dura
atque
aspera
cultu
debel
-
landa
tibi
Latio
est
(5.730) [when you come to Latium you will have to defeat in
war a hardy nation, wild in its ways]; however, hardly any of this survived as an
active ingredient in the final version.
13. See above pp. 6-7.
271
14.
Servius on 11.700:
Ligures
autem
omnes
fallaces
sunt
,
sicut
ait
Cato
in
secundo
originum
libro
[all Ligurians are deceitful, as Cato says in the second book
of his
Origines
]. So too Nigidius ap. Servius on 11.715:
Ligures
qui
Appenninum
tenuerunt
,
latrones
insidiosi
fallaces
mendaces
[the Ligurians who live in the Ap-
pennines are brigands, tricksters, traitors, liars]. Cf. Cic.
Pro
Cluentio
72: Staienus
(
qui
esset
totus
ex
fraude
et
mendacio
factus
) [whose whole character was a tissue of
deception and mendacity] chose
Paetus
out of the
cognomina
of the Aelian gens
ne
si
se
Ligurem
fecisset
,
nationis
magis
quam
generis
uti
cognomine
videretur
[
to
avoid adopting the name Ligur; for that name might be taken to indicate the race that
he belonged to rather than his family]: this shows that it was a widely-held view.
272
15.
It is well known that many readers have sensed this; though none has ex-
pressed it more concisely or fluently than Saint-Évremont (in
Réflexions
sur
nos
traducteurs
). But some of the customary criticisms are unjust (for example, that
Aeneas does not behave like Odysseus during the sea-storm; Virgil has provided a
perfectly satisfactory motivation for this); others are misguided, in that they accuse
Virgil of failing to portray a hero when he was not trying to do so. It is a quite
different question whether Virgil has succeeded in realizing his actual intention to
the full.
273
16.
I am delighted that Leo refers to the view which underlies the discussion that
follows as an 'observation which is important for the interpretation of the whole
Aeneid
' (
Deutsche
Litteratur
-
Zeitung
[1903] 595); I hope I may be permitted to
mention this since
Kroll
,
Neue
Jahrbücher
21 (1908) 518, states that 'no support has
been forthcoming for this interpretation' of mine.
274
17.
Aeneas is guilty, not because he abandons Dido - for he is obeying a divine
command - but because he betrays Dido's trust by entering into a relationship with
her when he must know that it neither can nor should become permanent. He is
therefore guilty of Dido's death and has to suffer heavily for it: the curses that Dido
continue
calls down upon him with her dying breath are fulfilled (4.652ff.). The chivalrous
nature of Virgil's conception of a man's obligations to a woman is clearly seen here;
275 Conway was, I believe, the first to point this out; see above p. 115 n. 40.
276 18. Cf. also Plüss op. cit. p. 215 n. 25, 165.
19.
Cf. Norden
ad
loc
., who points out that
praecipere
[anticipate] is a technical
term used by the Stoics: Cic.
De
Off
. 1.80f.:
fortis
animi
et
constantis
est
non
perturbari
in
rebus
asperis
. . . ;
quamquam
hoc
animi
,
illud
etiam
ingenii
magni
est
p
r
a
e
c
i
p
e
r
e
cogitatione
futura
et
aliquanto
ante
constituere
,
quid
accidere
pos
-
sit
in
utramque
partem
[it is characteristic of a brave and resolute spirit to remain
unperturbed in difficult times . . . ; yet it demands not only great courage, but also
great intellectual powers, to
anticipate
what is going to happen, by means of reflec-
tion, and to decide in advance what may happen for better or for worse].
20.
tristi
turbatus
pectora
bello
(8.29) [his whole heart agitated by the horror of
the war], where
turbatus
does not mean 'bewildered' but 'agitated', cf.
turbatae
277
Palladis
arma
(8.435) [arms for Pallas when she is aroused].
21.
disce
puer
virtutem
ex
me
verumque
laborem
,
fortunam
ex
aliis
. . .
te
animo
repetentem
exempla
tuorum
et
pater
Aeneas
et
avunculus
excitet
Hector
(12.435ff.)
['From me, my son, you may learn what is valour and what is strenuous toil: as for
what good fortune is, others must teach you that . . . in due time you must recall in
your thought the examples set you by your kindred. Your father was Aeneas and
your uncle was Hector. Let that be your inspiration']. He could not have adopted
such a tone in Book 2. I am well aware that a modern reader might wish that Virgil
had made his intentions more explicit. For example, at the beginning of Book 8, in
order to motivate the appearance of Tiberinus he has depicted Aeneas' anxious
mood in stronger terms than befits his overall intention. But because Virgil, as
narrator, never declares his intention in so many words, we should not assume that
he did not have one: he never makes any clear statements of this kind: he tells his
278 story and leaves the rest to the reader's judgement.
22.
E.g. Truculentus; Demea in the
Adelphi
. The material that H. Steinmann,
De
artis
poeticae
veteris
parte
quae
est

collected from the scholia under the heading de morum mutatione (64ff.) [on charac-
ter change] refers almost entirely to the origin, growth and dwindling of

[emotions].
23.
I can now add in support of my view the article by K. Holl, 'Die schriftstel-
lerische Form des griechischen Heiligenlebens'
Neue
Jahrbiicher
29 (1912) 406 -
an excellent piece of work in so far as I am able to judge it. Here Holl analyses
Athanasius' biography of St Antony the Hermit as a means 'of illustrating his ideal:
the height of the goal that his hero achieves is shown by his ascent to it step by step.'
The closest precedent for this ideal is that of the perfect Gnostic in Clement of
Alexandria, and this in turn points back 'to a much earlier ideal, the Greek concep-
tion of the perfect wise man', in fact to the form in which this ideal was presented by
Posidonius - it is clear that it is reasonable to compare Virgil with Athanasius in this
respect. Holl regards Antisthenes' Heracles as the supreme example within the
literary development of the ideal figure: we may regard him as a precedent for
Virgil's Aeneas at least in so far as Antisthenes, like Virgil, cast his hero 'as a
standard of moral behaviour for mankind' (Wilamowitz,
Euripides
:
Herakles
I
2
continue
[repr. Darmstadt, 1959] 107): the idea that we have attributed to Virgil is therefore
not something totally unprecedented.
279
24.
Seneca
Epist
. 41.2:
bonus
vir
sine
deo
nemo
est
;
an
potest
aliquis
super
fortunam
nisi
ab
illo
adiutus
exsurgere?
ille
dat
consilia
magnifica
et
erecta
[No
man can attain virtue without the help of god. Can anyone rise above the whims of
fortune unless he is aided by him? It is he who inspires us with splendid and lofty
advice]. This 'god' is within us; mythical imagery represents a god as a being with
whom a man is confronted.
25.
The best illustration of how Virgil intended the 'trials' of his hero to be
understood can be found in a passage in Seneca
Dial
. 1 (
de
Providentia
). 4:
pros
-
perae
res
et
in
plebem
et
in
vilia
ingenia
deveniunt
:
at
calamitates
terroresque
mortalium
sub
iugum
mittere
proprium
magni
viri
est
. . .
deus
quos
probat
,
quos
amat
,
indurat
,
recognoscit
,
excercet
(cf. 5.725, where Anchises addresses his son
nate
Iliacis
e
x
e
r
c
i
t
e
fatis
) . . .
verberat
nos
et
lacerat
fortuna
:
patiamur
;
non
est
saevitia
:
certamen
est
,
quod
si
saepius
adierimus
,
fortiores
erimus
.
solidissima
corporis
pars
est
quam
frequens
usus
agitavit
:
praebendi
fortunae
sumus
,
ut
contra
illam
ab
ipsa
duremur
.
paulatim
nos
sibi
pares
facit
.
contemptum
periculorum
adsiduitas
periculi
dabit
. . .
quid
miraris
bonos
viros
,
ut
confirmentur
,
concuti?
non
est
arbor
solida
nec
fortis
nisi
in
quam
frequens
ventus
incursat
.
ipsa
enim
vexa
-
tione
constringitur
et
radices
certius
figit
.
fragiles
sunt
quae
in
aprica
valle
creverunt
. [Success comes even to the common man, and to men of low intel-
ligence; but only a truly great man can triumph over the terrors and disasters that
beset the life of man . . . God hardens, inspects and disciplines those whom he loves
and approves (cf.
Aen
. 5.725 where Anchises addresses his son [son,
disciplined
by
the heavy burden of Troy's destiny]) . . . We may be thrashed and tortured by fortune:
we must put up with it. It is not cruelty: it is a contest; and the more often we are
involved in it, the stronger we shall be. The sturdiest part of the body is that which is
kept active by constant use. We should offer ourselves to fortune, so that we may be
hardened against her by fortune herself. Gradually she will train us to be a match for
herself. Constant encounters with danger will breed contempt of danger . . . why then
are you surprised that virtuous men are tossed hither and thither to develop their
strength? A tree is never sturdy unless it is constantly buffeted by the wind. For it is
precisely this violent agitation that makes it tighten its grip, and fixes its roots more
firmly in the earth. The vulnerable trees are those which have grown in a sheltered,
sunny valley].
280 26. p. 166.
282 27. Cf. above p. 84.
287
28.
In her love and longing for Aeneas
tota
vagatur
urbe
furens
(68) [she
roamed distraught through all her city], heedless of her
fama
(91) [reputation]; when
she hears what Aeneas intends to do,
totam
incensa
per
urbem
bacchatur
,
qualis
commotis
excita
sacris
Thyias
(300) [she ran in excited riot through the whole city,
like a Bacchant excited to frenzy as the emblems of Bacchus are shaken]; note the
intensification of the language; note also the poet's view that the way in which
Dido's despair (like Amata's) expresses itself is in her

conduct]: she forgets modesty and morality. In the Ciris the love-lorn Scylla, a
respectable young girl who would have concealed her love from all around her, is continue
described as being 'like a Thracian maenad or a priestess of Cybele',
infelix
virgo
tota
bacchatur
in
urbe
[the unhappy maiden roamed the whole city like a Bacchant]
(
Ciris
167). Here is another example which shows how little the imitator understood
289 his model.
29.
On the other hand, there is a great deal of action in Theocritus' first
Idyll
,
290 even when Daphnis himself is speaking.
30. Cf. Aristotle's analysis of





ness to someone in need, not in return for anything, and not for the advantage of the
helper himself, but for that of the person helped. Kindness is great if shown to
someone who is in extreme need or needs something important or hard to get, or
who needs it at an important and difficult juncture; or if the helper is the only, the
first, or the chief person to give help]. It would not be surprising if Virgil had used
analyses of this kind: think of Horace's rem tibi Socraticae poterunt ostendere
chartae [the pages of the Socratics will provide you with material] ( Ars Poetica
291 310), and Kiessling's quotations from Cic. De Orat . 1.12.53 in his note ad loc .
31.
I need only refer you to the rightly famous exposition of the religious content
of the
Aeneid
in Boissier,
La
religion
romaine
d
'
Auguste
aux
Antonins
1.248ff., and
can save myself the trouble of explaining how my interpretation relates to his.
32. Suet. 17 Reifferscheid:

292

33. A unique case, which stands alone, of clothing philosophical-theological
293 (actually Stoic) doctrine in mythical garb is Virgil's eschatology: for this see Nor-
den's introduction to Book 6, which, to my mind, has established beyond question
that Virgil follows Posidonius closely here.
34.
omnipotens
(2.689; 4.220; 5.887 etc.); Allecto uses this epithet of Juno to
Turnus, although it is not true (7.428); the inhabitants of Soracte also regard Apollo,
their
summus
deum
[highest of the gods], as
omnipotens
(11.785, 790): that is an
ethnic belief.
35.
hominum
rerumque
aeterna
potestas
(10.18) [eternal sovereignty over men
and over all the world];
qui
res
hominumque
deumque
aeternis
regis
imperiis
(1.229) [disposer, by eternal decrees, of all life human and divine];
rerum
cui
prima
potestas
(10.100) [who holds first authority over the world].
36.
sic
fata
deum
rex
sortitur
volvitque
vices
,
is
vertitur
ordo
(3.375) [so are the
lots of destiny drawn by the king of the gods: so does he set events to roll their
course]. In as much as the lord of fate is the king of the gods, then instead of
fata
Iovis
(4.614) [Jupiter's ordinances] one could say, less
accurately
,
fata
deum
[the
ordinances of the gods] (2.54, 257, 3.717, 6.376, 7.50, 239), almost equivalent to
'will of the gods', and then also, but quite exceptionally, of a single divinity:
fata
lunonis
(8.292) [the ordinances of Juno] are said to have imposed the labours on
Hercules. It is rhetorical antithesis in Juno's great monologue (7.293) when she says
fatis
contraria
nostris
fata
Phrygum
[my will opposed by the Phrygian destiny],
where
fata
means first 'will' and then 'fate'. Virgil felt the etymological connection
with
fari
[to speak]; this can be seen both from 1.261:
fabor
enim
. . .
et
volvens
continue
fatorum
arcana
movebo
[I shall speak . . . and turning the scroll of the Fates, awake
their secrets] and from the frequent equation with
fas
[divine law] (1.206; 2.779;
6.438; 9.96; 12.28) and opposition to
infandum
(7.583) [not to be spoken],
infandum
bellum
contra
fata
deum
[an unspeakable war contrary to the will of the gods], cf.
294 1.251
infandum
of that which goes against Jupiter's commandment.
37.
sed
fatis
incerta
feror
,
si
Juppiter
unam
esse
velit
Tyriis
urbem
Troiaque
profectis
(4.110) ['but I am subject to the Fates, whose design is obscure to me:
would Jupiter wish the Tyrians and the emigrants from Troy to own a city in
common?']. Also
nec
Iovis
imperio
fatisque
infracta
quiescit
(5.784) [neither the
fates nor Jupiter's own command can break her opposition] where both are set on an
equal level by the copulative
que
. On 10.31ff. see below n. 43.
38.
7.313 (Juno is speaking):
non
dabitur
regnis
,
esto
,
prohibere
Latinis
atque
immota
manet
fatis
Lavinia
coniunx
:
at
trahere
atque
moras
tantis
licet
addere
rebus
['I shall not be allowed, I grant it, to bar Aeneas from his throne in Latium,
and Lavinia, by unalterable destiny, will still be his bride. Yet I may prolong the
process, and cause delay in events so momentous']. 11.587 (Diana makes no attempt
to rescue her dearly beloved Camilla):
quandoquidem
fatis
urgetur
acerbis
[since
295 fate now bears heartlessly against her].
39.
The development of Juno's attitude is worth studying. In Book 1 she still
believes that she can influence
fata
(i.e. Jupiter's will) by her own actions; in Book 7
she renounces this hope, but makes very little attempt to cool her vengeance, al-
though she must know that this does not comply with Jupiter's will; in Book 10 she
attempts to defend her action at first with sophistic argument, saying that it does not
contravene
fatum
; 10.611 she gives up all resistance of her own, but still hopes for a
change in Jupiter's intentions; at the end of Book 12 she finally abandons that hope
and only asks for
nulla
fati
quod
lege
tenetur
[what is not covered by any law of
296 fate].
40.
Seneca
Quaest
.
Nat
. 2.37:
nos
quoque
existimamus
vota
proficere
salva
vi
ac
potestate
fatorum
.
quaedam
a
diis
immortalibus
ita
suspensa
relicta
sunt
,
ut
in
bonum
vertant
,
si
admotae
diis
preces
fuerint
,
si
vota
suscepta
:
ita
non
est
hoc
contra
fatum
sed
ipsum
quoque
in
fato
est
[we too believe that prayers have force if
they do not impair the force and power of fate. For some things have been so left in
suspense by the immortal gods that they may turn to our advantage if prayers are
directed to the gods and vows are undertaken. As a result this is not opposed to fate
but is itself also in fate]. Nothing can happen, naturally, which goes against
fatum
;
when (4.696) it is said of Dido
nec
fato
merita
nec
morte
peribat
[she perished
neither by destiny nor by a death deserved], this is equal to
fatali
morte
[by a fated
death] in ordinary speech; see Norden,
Hermes
28
(1893) 375 n. 1. The opposite is
vivendo
vici
mea
fata
(11.160) [I have outlived my span, victor over my fate], which
nobody would take literally.
41.
It is very difficult to decide what Virgil was thinking when he interpolated
into the last duel (12.725) the
psychostasia
[weighing of souls] modelled on Homer
(
Iliad
10.209f.): Jupiter places in the two pans of the scales
fata
diversa
duorum
,
quem
damnet
labor
et
quo
vergat
pondere
letum
[the differing fates of the two
champions, to decide which one should come happy from the ordeal, and whose
weight should bring death swinging down]. It is true that it is not stated that Turnus
continue
is now fated to fall: at 10.624ff. Juno was still allowed to hope that he might live,
and at 12.157 she still believes that it is possible; but if we therefore assume that
Turnus' fate is now finally being decided by Jupiter's will, then the image is not
very suitable, since the most that could happen is for the fight to remain undecided;
the total scheme makes it impossible for Aeneas to fall now to
letum
[death].
Nevertheless, that assumption does seem to be the only one possible; as the preced-
ing passage shows, Virgil is striving with all his means to make the reader feel the
same excitement and tension as the onlookers, who knew that this was the moment
of decision and waited breathlessly; in myth the symbol of this decision is the
psychostasia
, and the representation of this symbol seemed to Virgil so valuable for
his purpose that he ignored, or overruled, any reasons not to use it. Whether he had
noticed that Homer also had Zeus already surrendering Hector before the psychosta-
sia (167-85) we do not know. In any case here, too, Virgil's concern was to maintain
the tension, and therefore he deviates from Homer in not saying which way the
balance went; that will be revealed by the result.
42.
tanton
placuit
concurrere
motu
,
Iuppiter
,
aeterna
gentis
in
pace
futuras?
(12.503) ['Jupiter! Did you indeed ordain that nations who were to live together
afterwards in everlasting peace should clash in such violence?'].
297
43.
When (10.8) Jupiter says
abnueram
bello
Italiam
concurrere
Teucris
:
quae
contra
vetitum
discordia?
['I had withheld my permission for Italy to meet Trojans
in combat of war: why is there this rebellion against my prohibition?'] and then
adveniet
i
u
s
t
u
m
pugnae
,
ne
arcessite
,
tempus
['the
due
time for battle will come;
hasten it not'], and finally
quandoquidem
Ausonios
coniungi
foedere
Teucris
haud
licitum
(105) ['since it has not proved permissible for Ausonians to join in compact
with Trojans'], there is no doubt that this contradicts the prophecy given in Book 1
to Venus:
bellum
ingens
geret
Italia
populosque
ferocis
contundet
moresque
viris
et
moenia
ponet
(263) [he shall fight a great war in Italy and overthrow proud peoples.
He shall establish for his warriors a way of life and walls for their defence]; not only
because the war was there prophesied as arranged by
fatum
, i.e. by Jupiter's own
will - one could, at a pinch, explain this by the fact that Jupiter's knowledge of the
future does not always have to coincide with his personal preferences, as in so many
theological systems, but also because there the war is teleologically motivated as an
integral part of Jupiter's plan: the necessity to force culture on the still barbarous
Latins. This motive was later dropped completely by Virgil. There is a contradiction
here; we should not try to cover it up, nor should we simply write it off as careless-
ness. We can explain it as the result of the difficulties described above; even Virgil
could not master them completely. The assembly of the gods has often been
criticized as a passage which imitates Homer in a mechanical, uncritical way, but I
would say that, on the contrary, it is just there that one can find evidence of a great
deal of heart-searching about the material and the form: this has been shown splen-
didly by A.B. Drachmann in his penetrating monograph
Guderne
hos
Virgil
(Copenhagen, 1887) 130ff., where the only thing that I find lacking is a more
detailed study of the actual role of
fatum
in the gods' speeches. Venus refers, on
behalf of her protégé, to
fatum
, which he learnt from an oracle, and which she
regards as identical with Jupiter's
iussa
[commands]; she regards Juno's actions as
an impertinent attempt to lay down new
fata
(34ff.). Juno, for her part, is careful not
continue
to cross Jupiter or attack his plans. She merely denies that
fatum
, which she admits
that Aeneas followed to Latium, had any effect on what he then proceeded to do
there, and makes him himself responsible for the resulting misfortune. Jupiter, who,
of course, is the highest authority in matters of
fatum
, could utter a command, stop
the conflict and end the war; but then the poem would be over. That is why Jupiter
has to choose to
allow
fatum
to be decided by the course of events, as if this could
convince Juno of her (real or ostensible) error better than his own word could. For
his part, all he will promise is not to interfere again, so that the test can proceed
298 without interference. Of course this also prevents the goddesses from taking a hand
in the battle. (Drachmann, [149f.] explains very clearly why this prohibition is not
expressly stated.) After Aeneas' successes, Juno declares herself convinced, in
299 answer to Jupiter's ironic question (606ff.).
44.
It is probably to make this reference clear that
hoc
regni
(78) [this power] is
explained further by 1.80:
nimborumque
facis
tempestatumque
potentem
[you give
me power over storm-clouds and storms].


301 Antiqu . Rer . Div . 2 p. 215.
45.
fatalem
Aenean
manifesto
numine
ferri
admonet
ira
deum
tumulique
ante
ora
recentes
(11.232) [the anger of the gods, witnessed by the freshly made grave-
mounds before their eyes, already warned them that Aeneas was clearly by divine
302 warrant a man of destiny] (cf. 12.27ff.).
46.
Remember Anchises' words
sequor
et
qua
ducitis
adsum
,
di
patrii
(2.701) ['I
follow, gods of our race, and wherever you lead, there shall I be']: or
divum
ducunt
qua
iussa
sequamur
(3.114) ['let us take the path shown by divine command'],
cedamus
Phoebo
et
moniti
meliora
sequamur
(188) ['Let us trust Apollo, accept his
warning and follow a better course']. Also Aeneas 4.340:
me
sifata
meis
paterentur
ducere
vitam
auspiciis
. . .
recidiva
manu
posuissem
Pergama
victis
['If my destiny
had allowed me to guide my life as I myself would have chosen . . . I should have
re-founded Troy's fortress to be strong once more after her defeat'] and
Italiam
non
sponte
sequor
(361) ['It is not by my own choice that I voyage onward to Italy']; but
then
mea
me
virtus
et
sancta
oracula
divom
. . .
fatis
egere
v
o
l
e
n
t
e
m
(8.131) ['my
own valour, holy oracles from gods . . . brought me here in
willing
obedience to my
destiny']. So Nautes had urged him, when he was thinking of remaining in Sicily,
fatorum
oblitus
[forgetful of the fates],
quo
fata
trahunt
retrahuntque
sequamur
(5.709) ['we should accept the lead which destiny offers, whether to go forward or
not']. Too late, Turnus goes the right way:
iam
,
iam
fata
,
soror
,
superant
. . .
quo
deus
et
quo
dura
vocat
Fortuna
sequamur
(12.676) ['at this very moment sister, fate is
prevailing over us . . . Let us follow where God and our own hard fortune call'].
47.
intuemini
enim
horum
deinceps
annorum
vel
secundas
res
vel
adversas
,
invenietis
omnia
prospere
evenisse
sequentibus
deos
,
adversa
spernentibus
['Con-
sider the successes and the setbacks of this period of years, and you will find that
everything turned out well for those who complied with the gods and badly for those
who spurned them'] (Livy 5.51, from a speech of Camillus, one example from
303 many).
48. Suet. Aug . 94.
49. Ibid. 91. break
50. Ibid. 96.
48. Suet. Aug . 94.
49. Ibid. 91. break
50. Ibid. 96.
48. Suet. Aug . 94.
49. Ibid. 91. break
50. Ibid. 96.
304
51.
Of course this, too, did have some connection with contemporary beliefs:
Apollo is personally supposed to have literally led Augustus' ships to victory at
Actium.
305
52.
Propertius 4.4.68 of Tarpeia:
nescia
vae
Furiis
accubuisse
novis
;
nam
Vesta
. . .
culpam
alit
et
plures
condit
in
ossa
faces
[not knowing, alas, that she has
lain down with new Furies: for Vesta . . . fed her guilt and buried more firebrands in
her bones], where Rothstein rightly draws a comparison with the Allecto scene.
306
53.
Cauer (
Grundfragen
der
Homerkritik
2
, 339) asks: 'What natural causes? I
can't see any.' But they are not hard to see in what Allecto says: if one imagines that
her words are a soliloquy spoken by an offended Turnus, and that his answer is his
other, calmer, inner voice speaking, Allecto's consequent overwhelming
ira
[anger]
and its effect represent the victory of emotion - and all the psychological motivation
is present to drive Turnus to fight.
307
54.
Propertius 1.3.45:
dum
me
iucundis
lapsam
Sopor
inpulit
alis
[until sleep
brushed my sinking form with his pleasant wings].
55.
These references to divine intervention, without further details -
Iuno
viris
animumque
ministrat
(9.764) [Juno gave him new spirit and new strength],
Iovis
monitis
Mezentius
succedit
pugnae
(10.689) [warned by Jupiter, Mezentius took up
the fight] etc. - do not contradict Homeric usage:
Iliad
16.656:



308
56.
There is nothing wrong with this as such (see previous note); but if it is only
to be a straightforward divine intervention with no detailed description, Jupiter need
not send Mercury to Carthage, he could do it himself. Also, this is a most unusual
example in that the desired effect is not for the immediate present but for the future.
57. Plut. De tranquillitate animi 465b:



controlling the passions: wise men should give heed to them before the passions
arise so that, being prepared well in advance, their help may be more effective].
58.
Cauer objects (op. cit. 337) 'There is no process here which can be explained
in human terms', meaning that Aeneas is not persuaded and inwardly convinced as
Achilles was by Athena. It seems to me only too human that Aeneas follows the
command of the

still pulls him in the other direction; in this struggle, the heart's inclination is not
won over but suppressed by force, and it could not be better symbolized than by the
fact that Mercury achieves his ends by divine authority, not by persuasion.
309 59. Iliad 1.220:


ignore Athene's words]: on which Plutarch Quomodo adolesc . 26e comments




eradicate his anger, nevertheless before doing anything irreparable, he set it aside
and checked it by making it obedient to reason]. That this manner of interpreting continue
was of much earlier date, even in Rome, goes without saying; for Hermes as

is enough to refer to Reitzenstein, Zwei religionsgeschichtliche Fragen (Strassburg,
1901). The equation is a standard one in Homeric exegesis:

'speech', sometimes 'reason'. For example, Hermes is sent to accompany Priam on
the way to Achilles because


Iliad 24.486; Zeus sends him to Aegisthus:


accordance with virtue] (schol. Od . 1.38); the

ceived from Hermes is the


311 (schol. Od . 10.305).
60.
There is no parallel in Homer for the way in which the Great Mother reveals
herself in 9.110. A wonderful light breaks over the sky, people think they see
Idaeos
choros
[Idaean bands], and the goddess lets her voice be heard but does not become
visible or give her name. The only comparable feature is perhaps the voice of Apollo
which sounds from the
adyton
[shrine] on Delos (3.93ff.). This very thing however,
the voice of a divinity making itself heard from its sanctuary, is not infrequently
reported by the historians, e.g. Livy 6.33.5, Tac.
Hist
. 5.13, Cic.
De
Div
. 1.45.101.
61.
Cf. Cauer op. cit. 343f., who here modifies his earlier attempt (disputed e.g.
by Robert,
Studien
zum
lias
353) to establish a chronological order of forms of
appearance. He now regards the appearance of the gods in their own form to be
312 archaic in most cases, and later imitation in others.
62.
So, too, the apparition of the Penates, which stands on the boundary between
dream and waking vision, 3.172ff.
63.
It is different in the case of Turnus and Juturna 12.631, 676; the two are
closer, brother and sister - Juturna was raised to the status of an immortal nymph by
Jupiter - and that may be the reason why Turnus recognizes her and speaks to her
313 without her immediately withdrawing from his sight.
64.
There, as Leo,
Geschichte
der
lateinischen
Litteratur
1.179 n. 2 points out,
314 Ennius' dream of Ilia has served as a model.
65.
n
e
c
s
o
p
o
r
i
l
l
u
d
e
r
a
t
,
sed
coram
adgnoscere
voltus
velatasque
comas
praesentiaque
ora
videbar
(173) [
This
could
be
no
dream
. I seemed to
recognize, there before me, their garlanded hair, and their lips as they spokel: for the

between vision and dream, see Deubner, De incubatione capita quattuor (Leipzig,
1900) 5 etc.
66. Somn . Scip . 1.3.8; cf. Deubner 3ff.
67.
curas
his
demere
dictis
(3.153) [relieved my anxiety with these words],
in
curas
animo
diducitur
omnis
(5.720) [his thoughts were distracted by every kind of
anxiety],
tristi
turbatus
pectora
bello
procubuit
(8.29) [his whole heart distracted by
316 the horror of the war, he lay down].
68. Mommsen, Staatsrecht 1.79 n. 1.
69.
However Helenus is probably also an expert in the
praepetis
omina
pinnae
317 (3.361) [omens of the bird on the wing].
70.
See Drachmann op. cit.; there are also some good comments in G. Ihm,
Vergilstudien
I (Progr. Gernsheim, 1902).
break
71.
aethere
summo
[heaven's height] and
vertice
caeli
[zenith of the sky] (1.223,
225);
superis
in
sedibus
(11.532) [dwellings on high];
caelo
alto
(10.633) [high heaven].
72.
Iovis
in
tectis
(10.758) [in the house of Jupiter],
tectis
bipatentibus
(5) [the
halls opening in two directions].
318 73. 1.663; 4.92; 5.780.
319 74. Werke , 11.191.
324
75.
Specially emphasized by
hic
primum
Fortuna
fidem
mutata
novavit
(604) [at
this moment Fortune first veered, and turned treacherously against the Trojans].
325
76.
This is not described but implied by line 405:
si
te
nulla
movet
tantae
pietatis
imago
[if the sight of fidelity so strong has no power to move you].
326
77.
magnis
exterrita
monstris
deriguit
visu
in
medio
(3.307) [unnerved by the
shock, suddenly, as she looked, she stiffened].
78.
obstipuit
primo
aspectu
(1.613) [at her first sight (of Aeneas) she was awe-
struck].
79.
procul
ex
celso
miratur
vertice
montis
. . .
occurrit
(5.35) [looking from a dis-
tant mountain-crest, he observed with wonder . . . and came to meet them].
80.
terrentur
visu
subito
cunctique
relictis
consurgunt
mensis
(8.109) [they were
alarmed at the sudden sight, and as one man they arose, leaving their banquet].
327
81.
ingentem
comitum
adfluxisse
novorum
invenio
admirans
numerum
(2.796) [I
was surprised to find their number increased by a great concourse of new arrivals].
328
82.
It occurred to me that Virgil perhaps thinks of Camilla as arriving in Laurentum
only at this moment, which would be all the more fitting because he has not used her
in the fighting up to this point;
occurrit
portis
sub
ipsis
[she met him hard by the
gate] would fit in well with this, as would the opening words of Diana's speech
(555). The Homeric analogy would be the late entrance of Penthesilea. But even if
one ignored her inclusion in the catalogue (7.803), I believe that when Turnus
speaks of Camilla's support (11.432), he would expressly say that she had not
actually arrived yet.
331
83.
For example, I feel that it was unnecessary to make Mercury prepare for
Aeneas' friendly reception in Carthage (1.297), since this reception could be ex-
plained satisfactorily in human terms; but one can also feel the same about the
motivation of Dido's love by the intervention of a god (cf. Boissier,
Nouvelles
promenades
archéologiques
303), and we only notice this example less because we
are familiar from other literature with the intervention of Amor.
84. Chrysippus in Plut. De Stoic . rep . 47 (fr. 997); the

which underlies an unhappy incident, is indeed divine, but not


recipient]; for this the mortal is responsible.
332
85.
There is no such divine motivation during the storm at the beginning of Book
5, but the participants themselves infer it:
hand
equidem
sine
mente
,
reor
,
sine
numine
divom
adsumus
et
portus
delati
intramus
amicos
(55) ['we have come to
land and entered this friendly harbour, and for my part I see in this the intention and
the will of the gods'].
334 86. The speech of Appius, Livy 5.3-6, is a good example of this.
87. A good example is the reception of Sextus Tarquinius in Gabii, Livy 1.53ff.
336 88. The idea that Aeneas could simply look for the queen in her own palace continue
clearly did not occur to Virgil; he can only visualize the meeting as a ceremonial
audience, and for the scene a temple devoted to the
curia
[assembly], like Latinus'
building, 7.170ff. Aeneas could guess the function of the temple but hardly that
Dido was due to come at that very moment.
338
89.
Virgil wants to show that the new arrivals are not complete strangers to the
king (he also knows that Dardanus is of Italic descent [5.205]); this is to prepare the
way a little for his rapid agreement and offer of marriage. Aristarchus had found it
extremely unlikely that Alcinous would offer Odysseus his daughter in marriage
when he hardly knows him: schol.
Od
. 7.311.
340
90.
In the Doloneia it is different: there the enemy scouts are bound to come
upon the Greeks because they are on the same path; also this is no chance encounter,
since Dolon was sent out at this precise time.
343
91.
Noack,
Hermes
27 (1892) 422, puts at least the opening of the Temple of
War on to the second day after Aeneas' arrival - this is very unlikely in practical
terms; the poet leaves the question open.
92.
Until line 83 we think that we are hearing about one day only, and I cannot
see a different meaning for
instaurat
diem
donis
(63) [she celebrates the day with
offerings]. However,
nunc
. . .
nunc
[now . . . now] in 74 and 77 could refer to repeated
actions, and the words
aut
gremio
Ascanium
genitoris
imagine
capta
detinet
(84) [or
she held Ascanius close to her, under the spell of his resemblance to his father]
cannot possibly refer to the same night on which Dido
sola
domo
maeret
vacua
[she
mourned, lonely in the empty hall]: likewise, the statement (86ff.) that the construction-
work on the city has been interrupted - apparently because Dido takes no interest in
it any more - would only make sense if a longer period had elapsed.
344
93.
Unless one assumed that the
prodigia
- e.g.
exaudiri
voces
et
verba
vocantis
visa
viri
,
nox
cum
terras
obscura
teneret
(460) [she heard cries, as of her husband
calling her, when night held the world in darkness] and
agit
ipse
furentem
in
somnis
ferus
Aeneas
(465) [she had nightmares of a furious Aeneas pursuing her] - occur as
early as before the first conversation with Aeneas, where Dido
praesensit
motus
futuros
(297) [divined his intended deceit in advance]. But this assumption finds no
confirmation in the poet's words.
94.
The distance is approximately the same as that between Delos and Crete: that
takes three days making good speed (3.117). The even longer voyage from Drepa-
num to Cumae seems from Virgil's account to have been completed in a day and a
night, although here again we can only work this out ourselves because at 5.835
there is an indication of the time which the plot forced upon him.
345
95.
But Virgil is careful not to place Segesta on the coast: at 1.570 and 5.35
Segesta is not mentioned. Uncertainty in geographical matters is illustrated by Ae-
neas' Thracian foundation (above p. 81): neither he nor the great majority of his
readers had any clear idea of this district.
96.
The greatest haste is also so fully justified by the situation of the Trojan
camp that Deuticke's assumption (
Virgils
Gedichte
III
9
on line 147) that Virgil has
Aeneas spending one night in the Etruscan camp does not seem to me to be required
by the plot. Nor can I share his later objection (Appendix p. 287) that perhaps we
should not count days at all; the question of how many hours the Etruscan and
Arcadian horsemen have taken to come from Caere to the neighbourhood of the
continue
Trojan camp (10.238) will not have been considered by Virgil; but this is not on the
same level as the division of the action into particular days and nights.
97.
One sunrise is omitted, on the day that the Trojans, as we have to assume,
stay in Caieta, 7.1; this is not reported, but is revealed partly by the apostrophe to
346 Caieta, partly afterwards when it is recalled at the moment of departure. There is
also no mention of the sunrise at the beginning of 6: that may have some connection
with the fact that Books 5 and 6 were not written consecutively.
98.
tum
Stygio
regi
nocturnas
incohat
aras
(6.252) [now he began the nocturnal
altar-rite to the king of Styx];
adspirant
aurae
in
noctem
nec
candida
cursus
luna
negat
(7.8) [favouring breezes blew onwards into the night, and a radiant moon
blessed their voyage];
Thybris
ea
fluvium
,
quam
longa
est
,
nocte
tumentem
leniit
(8.86) [then did Tiber make smooth his heaving flood for the whole length of that
night].
99. Wilamowitz, Homerische Untersuchungen (Berlin, 1884) 87.
100.
Anna says
indulge
hospitio
causasque
innecte
morandi
,
dum
pelago
de
-
saevit
hiems
et
aquosus
Orion
,
quassataeque
rates
,
dum
non
tractabile
caelum
(51)
['Entertain your guest freely, weaving pretexts for keeping him here while his ships
are still damaged, and winter and Orion the rain-bringer spend their fury on the
Ocean under a forbidding sky'].
101.
quin
etiam
hiberno
moliris
sidere
classem
,
et
mediis
properas
aquilonibus
ire
per
altum
(309) ['You labour at your fleet under a wintry sky, in haste to traverse
the high seas in the teeth of the northerly gales']. On 3.285 see n. 102 below.
102.
This is probably due to the general idea that sea-voyages are made in the
summer. Or did Virgil (as Ribbeck thought) extend to an individual year the idiom
whereby
aestas
is
used to mean 'year'? Sophocles does something similar with


347 season/year as to length of time] ( Trach . 69), alongside

season/year] at 825); but I know no Latin parallels. From 1.535: cum subito adsur -
gens fluctu nimbosus Orion in vada caeca tulit [when suddenly at the rising of
Orion, star of storms, the seas ran high and carried us onto invisible shoals] it has
been deduced that Virgil is indicating summertime, in agreement with 755, because
Orion rises at midsummer (Ovid Fast. 6.719); but adsurgens [rising] will hardly
refer to the actual rising of the constellation, but rather to its threatening upsurge as
in adsurgit ira [anger rises] etc.), by poetic analogy with the swelling tide ( fluctibus
et fremitu adsurgens Benace marino [you, Benacus, surging with waves and roaring
like the sea] [ Geo . 2.160]). Virgil was certainly not thinking of a particular date
when Orion rises, let alone (as Heyne suggests) working out its time for the latitude
of Carthage; all he knows of Orion is that it belongs to the horrida sidera [fierce
constellations] (Pliny N . H . 18.278) and he uses it appropriately, in the same way as
other Roman poets do (Gundel, De stellarum appellatione et religione Romana
348 [Giss, 1907] 181), when he is speaking of a storm.
103.
This is Schüler's view,
Quaest
.
Verg
. 6 (cf. also Deuticke in his appendix to
3), and he also provides a good rebuttal of Conrads' attempt to fit the wanderings
349 into a mere two years.
104.
If he had written
octava
[eighth] this would have indicated that he had
actually calculated it; the number seven is one that Virgil uses very often (as does
continue
Homer: Diels,
Festschr
.
für
Gomperz
[Vienna, 1902] 10); seven times the snake
coils round the tomb of Anchises (5.85), from seven oxhides the
caestus
[leather
boxing-thongs] of Entellus is manufactured (404), seven Athenians had to be sent to
the Minotaur every year (6.21), with seven ships Aeneas lands in Libya (1.170),
seven layers make up the shield of Aeneas (8448) and that of Turnus (12.925),
seven sons of Phorcus fight against Aeneas (10.329), twice seven nymphs belong to
Juno (1.71). After seven, the round numbers nine and twelve are used most fre-
350 quently; the number eight does not occur in Virgil at all.
105.
On the chronological liberties that Virgil takes in the treatment of the
tradition see also above p. 199f.
106.
See also Plüss 81 on the carelessness with which the distances on the
Trojan plain are dealt with in Book 2. Tryphiodorus is much more careful in this
matter: when the horse is pulled into the city


351 rivers and unlike the plains].
107.
Norden (133ff.) shows that the information about the Sibyl's Cave and
Apollo's temple which Virgil gives in 6 are quite compatible with the real locality;
but unless he knew that locality a reader would hardly be able to visualize a clear
picture of it. On the vagueness of Virgil's topography of the Underworld see Norden
207, 215, 266: here too there is nothing to indicate that the poet did not visualize it
clearly himself; but he is not interested in helping the reader to visualize it.
108.
Münzer has rightly pointed out (
Cacus
der
Rinderdieb
[Progr. Basel 1911]
22) that there is a lack of clarity in the way that the scene is imagined in the Cacus
story:
aerii
cursu
petit
ardua
montis
(8.221) is only intended to mean, in my opi-
nion, 'he ran up to the steep high mountain', i.e. in the direction of the cave; but
from which point Cacus
speluncam
petit
[makes for his cave] we are not told, and
352 the visual aspect of the whole scene suffers from this.
109. On the fleet's separation from the camp see above p. 192 n. 62.
110.
Left and right cannot of course be meant from the standpoint of the Trojans
as they face the enemy. The enemy had surrounded the entire wall in the night
(
obsidere
portas
cura
datur
Messapo
et
moenia
cingere
flammis
[9.159] [Messapus
was assigned the duty of posting pickets to watch, blocking the gates, and girding
the walls with a circle of watch-fires]: this field-camp is called
Laurentia
castra
[the
353 camp of the Laurentines] [10.635, 671, cf. 9. 371,451]); when they now advance to
storm the camp, whichever side they approach is 'in front' of the defenders. More-
over if Virgil, as I assume, did name left and right from the Tiber's current, this was
not because he was familiar with naming river-banks left and right as we do (cf.
Stürenburg, 'Die Bezeichnung der Flussufer bei Griechen und Römern', in:
Festschr. der 49. Philologenvers. [Dresden, 1897] 289), but because he is in Rome
354 and following the course of the Tiber down towards Ostia in his thoughts.
111.
Of course local historians have succeeded in locating this grove precisely: it
lay about one kilometre outside the city on Monte Abetone near the course of the
Vaccino. See Rosati,
Cere
e
suoi
monumenti
(Foligno, 1890) 13.
break
3— Presentation
357
1.
4.402; 7.528, 586; 9.30, 668, 791; 10.96, 264, 356, 405, (714); 11.297, 456,
659; 12.365, 587.
358
2.
In 9.80ff. on the occasion of the metamorphosis of the ships, there is a report
of the conversation which the Great Mother had with Jupiter when Aeneas was
building the fleet; the scholia remark
sane
haec
narratio
tertii
libri
erat
,
sed
dilata
est
,
ut
hic
opportunius
redderetur
. . .
potest
igitur
aut

aut hysteroproteron [of course this narrative belonged to the third book, but it was
deferred in order to be related here at a more appropriate point . . . it may be regarded
as an omission (passing over in silence) or a hysteron proteron]. So this is concerned
with reference back, which is very rare; it is not a criticism of the unadorned brevity
of the narrative in Book 3, as Georgii thinks ( Aeneiskritik 394). Of course, Servius'
opportunius [at a more appropriate point] is an understatement; in the first-person
narrative of Book 3 the Olympian scene would have been quite impossible.
3.
An example, from the Telemachia,
Odyssey
2.382ff., which is narrated in
great detail: Athena brings Telemachus' travelling-companions together and bor-
rows Noemon's ship.
359 4. Diodorus, for example, often refers to the demands of

when he does not want to go into further detail: 4.5.4; 4.68.6; cf. 1.8.10; 1.9.4.
Dionysius finds that Thucydides lacks proportion in his narrative: de Thucyd . 13ff.
360
5.
The boldest example of this is probably 6.40:
talibus
adfata
Aenean
(
nec
sacra
morantur
iussa
viri
)
Teucros
vocat
alta
in
templa
sacerdos
[thus she ad-
dressed Aeneas. With no delay the Trojans offered the commanded sacrifice. The
Sibyl as priestess then invited them into the temple on the height]: there the sentence
is not even interrupted by the sacrifice of the seven bullocks and seven sheep. But
Virgil's main concern here was to get the action moving; a long interpolation would
have left the Sybil's first entrance isolated; also, in 236ff. there is going to be a
much more important sacrifice which would not have made any impression if it
seemed to be repeating the first. Less noticeable is 211:
vatis
portat
sub
tecta
Sibyllae
(
ramum
) [he carried it (the bough) to the home of the prophetic Sibyl]. In
contrast, the brief allusion
exin
bella
viro
memorat
etc. (890f.) [he next told him of
the wars . . . ] clashes with the narrative style completely and would surely have been
excised during revision: on this see Norden 44ff., who has not been rebutted by
Drachmann,
Nord
.
tidskr
.
f
.
filol
. XIII 128ff. The strangest thing is Drachmann's
assumption that Virgil inserted lines 890f. only from conscientiousness, so that the
continue
prophecy made by Helenus 3.458ff. should be fulfilled; but it is
not
fulfilled, since it
is Anchises who prophesies, and not the Sibyl as Helenus had said. There is doubt-
less a connection between the Sibyl's oracle at 83ff. and Helenus' prediction; since
the Sibyl's oracle is permitted to provide exact information and detailed advice on
conduct only on matters of ritual, one may question whether Virgil was right to use
for Helenus' prediction, in a slightly altered form, the lines specially written for
Anchises' prophecy. On the origin of the doublet 6.83ff. and 890ff. I disagree with
Norden: see below, p. 351f.
361
6.
It is significant that Apollonius, 4.1126f., does describe the preparations for
the nuptials of Jason and Medea in great detail, and also says what he thinks of it,
but skates over the actual event out of modesty, 1168:


though they melted in sweet love, they feared that the judgement of Alcinous might
be fulfilled].
362 7. Quintilian 6.2.32:

tur , quae non tam dicere videtur quam ostendere : et affectus non aliter , quam si
rebus ipsi intersimus , sequentur [

and evidentia , and which seems not so much to state as to show: and our emotions
will ensue just as if we were ourselves present at the events]. He then gives
examples from the Aeneid : excussi manibus radii revolutaque pensa (9.476) [the
shuttle leapt from her hands and her skein of wool untwined]; levique patens in
pectore vulnus (11.40) [in the smooth breast the gaping wound]; the horse at Pallas'
funeral positis insignibus it lacrimans guttisque umectat grandibus ora (11.89) [his
trappings laid aside, walked weeping and wetting his face with great tear-drops].
Similar examples, above all in detailed descriptions: Troilus, hanging from his
empty chariot-seat, the reins still in his hands, his neck and hair scraping the ground,
his lance pointing backwards and drawing a furrow in the dust (1.477): Priam's
death: Neoptolemus drags him trembling, skidding on the blood of his slain son, as
far as the altar: he grabs him by the hair with his left hand, with his right he plunges
the sword into his side up to the hilt (2.550). Compare Achaemenides' account of
the Cyclops' ghastly meal with the narrative in the Odyssey , or - where instead of a
host of details the

lines about Tityos in Virgil (6.595) with those in Homer. Such passages are the best
illustration of Lucian's famous remark, De hist . 57, about Hellenistic detail:






ing (by contrast with Homer), how many words would he have used to bring the
water right up to Tantalus' lips? And how many words to whirl Ixion round?];
(rightly understood by Dilthey, De Callim . Cyd . 22).
8. Sellar has made some good remarks about this, Virgil 410ff.
366
9.
extulerat
lucem
[had brought forth its light] is supposed to have been used at
11.183 because the passage goes on to deal with the
efferre
[carrying out] of the
dead;
Tithoni
croceum
linquens
Aurora
cubile
(4.585) [Aurora leaving the saffron
bed of Tithonus], because Aeneas is leaving Dido; on 2.801 Servius maintains that
surgebat
Lucifer
[the day-star was rising] refers to the fact that
de
patria
discedit
continue
Aeneas
i.e.
surgit
[Aeneas was leaving his homeland, i.e. was rising]. More on this
in Georgii,
Aeneiskritik
145, who again mistakenly sees criticism where there is
none, and also fails to recognize what is true in Pollio's remark.
10.
I will give just a brief note on this subject of variation; more than that
belongs to a theory of expression. Ancient epic follows the principle that events
which naturally recur without noticeable variation should always be reported in the
same way, with the same words. Apollonius already took care to avoid these stereo-
typed phrases; Virgil goes even further. When describing the making of the shield,
Homer always starts with the manufacturer, only varying - yes, Homer does vary
with deliberate art - the choice of verb. Similarly, Apollonius varies the standard
introductory formula in his description of Jason's garment (1.780ff.) Virgil begins
his description of the shield 8.628 with
fecerat
Ignipotens
. . .
fecerat
et
. . . [Vulcan had
made . . . he had also made . . . ],
addiderat
(637) [he had added], but then changes to
367 simple description:
stabant
(641) [there stood],
distulerant
(643) [had laid aside],
iubebat
(646) [he ordered],
aspiceres
(650) [you might have seen],
stabat
(653) [he
stood],
cernebat
(656) [he saw], and interrupts this only twice by returning to
Vulcan (
extuderat
. . .
addit
[665] [he had hammered out . . . he added],
fecerat
Igni
-
potens
[710] [Vulcan had made]), with whom he also concludes the whole (
fixerat
[726] [he had fashioned]). In the Homeric Catalogue of Ships the introductory
formula does frequently vary, for no obvious reason, and without avoiding exact
repetition. Apollonius (1.23ff.), uses variations wherever possible for all the words
of coming and going and amplifies plain positives with negative formulae, also
finding unusual forms for both, without aiming at any poetic effect. Virgil is more
like him than like Homer when he describes the leaders by their manner of arrival,
not by their outward appearance; we shall show below how he tries to make the list
more interesting in this way; in the introductory formulae, too, among the verbs of
coming and the negative formulae there are also visual images: Aventinus display-
ing his victorious horses on the grass (655); Messapus' peoples who have not fought
for many years are called to arms and once again he handles his sword (691);
Halaesus yokes the horses to the chariot (723); Turnus is a head taller than all the
others (783); not one introductory formula is repeated exactly, and even when the
content is nearly the same the sentence-structure is varied - this is made easier by
the small number of participants. However, variation is also sought in the naming of
the peoples and tribes; not only is this intended to contrast with the Homeric sim-
plicity of

helps to fill the reader's mind with pictures instead of loading his memory with
names (e.g. 797ff.: qui saltus Tiberine tuos sacrumque Numici litus arant Rutulos -
que exercent vomere collis Circaeumque iugum , quis luppiter Anxurus arvis
praesidet , et viridi gaudens Feronia luco ; qua Saturae iacet atra palus gelidusque
per imas quaerit iter valles atque in mare conditur Ufens [those who ploughed vales
beside Tiber and Numicus' holy banks, or worked with their ploughshares Rutulian
hills, Circeii's promontory, farmlands where Jupiter of Anxur presides, and Feronia,
in her green woodland's delight; and others who had homes where lies Satura's
black marsh and where chill Ufens seeks out his course low in the valleys till he
hides within the sea]). Ancient critics noticed the striving after variation and re-
marked perceptively that it was not necessarily an improvement on Homer: Macrob. continue
5.15.14:
in
catalogo
suo
curavit
Vergilius
vitare
fastidium
,
quod
Homerus
alia
ratione
non
cavit
eadem
figura
saepe
repetita
. . .
hic
autem
variat
velut
dedecus
aut
crimen
vitans
repetitionem
. . .
has
copias
fortasse
putat
aliquis
divinae
illi
simplicitati
praeferendas
,
sed
nescio
quomodo
Homerum
repetitio
illa
unice
decet
:
est
ingenio
antiqui
poetae
digna
enumerationique
conveniens
quod
in
loco
,
mera
nomina
rela
-
turus
,
non
incurvavit
se
neque
minute
torsit
deducendo
stilum
per
singulorum
varietates
,
sed
stat
in
consuetudine
percensentium
tamquam
per
aciem
dispositos
numerans
,
quod
non
aliis
quam
numerorum
fit
vocabulis
[in his catalogue Virgil
took care to avoid tedium, whereas Homer by a different reasoning did not avoid it
but frequently repeated the same formula. Virgil introduced variety, avoiding repeti-
tion as a vice or a fault. Some people may judge Virgil's abundance preferable to
Homer's simplicity: but somehow the repetition uniquely suits Homer, as worthy of
the genius of the ancient poet and appropriate to his catalogue: so that where he had
mere names to relate, he did not deviate or make minute contortions in refining his
style by varying the individual instances, but like a man conducting a military
review, he consistently lists the warriors ranged in line of battle and merely using
words for numbers]. However if this is supposed to imply a criticism of Virgil, that
368 would be to overlook the fact that Virgilian
variatio
[variation] is required, here too,
by the style of the whole epic, and that
repetitio
[repetition] would have had to be
regarded as affected, archaic and unbefitting his style; secondly, and more import-
ant, that Virgil is striving after visual effects, i.e. does
not
want to give a
straightforward list. How Virgil steers away from identical introductions in the
Games was noted above p. 123f.
369
11.
I recommend the description of the death of Apsyrtus (4.921ff.); see further,
for example, above p. 93 n. 44. One more parallel: we have already compared the
funeral of Idmon in Apollonius with the funeral of Misenus; the accounts of each
death are equally characteristic of the two writers. From Apollonius we learn (2.817)
that Idmon was a soothsayer but that his art did not save him. Idmon was walking by
the river when a boar (which is described in detail) dashed out of a reed-bed and
crashed into his hip, tearing through sinew and bone; he fell to the ground scream-
ing. The boar was killed by Pallas and Idas; the troubled companions carried the
dying Idmon to the ship; he passed away in their hands. The narrative may not be
very skilfully arranged, but it is completely clear and factual, displaying no attempt
to rouse pathos. In Virgil, the account of the actual event (6.162) is short and in the
form of a later recapitulation; all the weight is placed on the feelings of the other
participants. Aeneas and Achates had been warned by the Sibyl that they would find
a corpse on the shore; sad, and worried as to who it will be, they go to the shore;
there they see Misenus lying,
indigna
morte
peremptum
[dead by an unmerited
death]. What is then said in his praise -
quo
non
praestantior
alter
aere
ciere
viros
etc. [excellent beyond all others in stirring hearts with his trumpet of bronze], he had
been Hector's brother-in-arms, then the
fortissimus
heros
[most valiant hero] had
joined Aeneas' retinue - is not intended to stir our pity for the dead man but to make
us feel Aeneas' loss; the account of his death, including the word
demens
[in utter
folly], shows how Misenus' challenge seems to Aeneas, and with him the poet; he
then lingers on the feelings of the survivors:
ergo
omnes
magno
circum
clamore
fremebant
,
praecipue
pius
Aeneas
[so all in loud voices raised the cry, Aeneas the
continue
True above them all]; they then go
flentes
[weeping] to the burial. Apollonius, too,
avoids the stereotyped Homeric lines and, like Virgil, coins for example new para-
phrases for daybreak; but try and establish a connection between these paraphrases
and the situation! See 1.519, 1273; 2.164, 451, 722, 1288:


1223; 4.183, 883, 978, 1168, 1711).
370
12.
The place where he goes furthest is probably 4.445ff. in the address to Eros:

great bane, a great curse to men . . . ].
371 13. 1.712, 719; 4.68, 450, 529.
372
14.
This
fortunati
ambo
[fortunate pair] is particularly effective as it contrasts
with the passage preceding it which has just moved us to pity the pair.
15.
Virgil has a similar insertion at 12.500:
quis
mihi
nunc
tot
acerba
deus
,
quis
carmine
caedes
. . .
expediat
[what god can now set forth for me in story all the
horrors, all the various deeds of death . . . ], to which he adds a personal expression of
feeling:
tanton
placuit
concurrere
motu
,
luppiter
,
aeterna
gentis
in
pace
futuras
[did
you indeed ordain that nations who were to live together in everlasting peace should
clash in such violence?]: here we see his religious sense clashing with his political
sympathies.
373
16.
Naturally this was particularly necessary in Aeneas' narrative, e.g. 3.280,
502; on the other hand, a well-motivated example is the allusion in Helenus' words
hac
casti
maneant
in
religione
nepotes
(409) [your descendants, if they would be
pure of conscience, must stay faithful to this rite].
17.
mox
Italus
Mnestheus
,
genus
a
quo
nomine
Memmi
(5.117) [he was to
become the Italian Mnestheus, and his name originated the family name of Mem-
mius] (also 121, 568, cf. 10.145).
18. That is the custom in Hellenistic aetiology: Norden 193.
374 19. Cf. Norden 113.
20. 4.283; 9.67, 399; 12.486.
21.
E.g. 10.133, 219, 322, 570. Servius on 4.152:
et
bene
hac
particula
utitur
;
facit
enim
nos
ita
intentos
ut
quae
dicuntur
putemus
videre
[he makes good use of
this particle, since he makes us so involved that we seem to see what is being
described].
376
22.
in
medias
res
non
secus
ac
notas
auditorem
rapit
[he hurries the reader into
the midst of events as if they were already known] (Horace,
Ars
Poetica
, 147).
23.


himself] (schol. A on Iliad 20.40); see W. Bachmann, Die ästhet . Anschauungen
Aristarchs I (Nürnberg, 1902) 9f.
380
24.
The present discussion had reached its present shape when Zielinski's thor-
ough and important work appeared:
Die
Behandlung
gleichzeitiger
Ereignisse
im
antiken
Epos
,
erster
Teil
(
Homer
), in
Philologus
Suppl. vol. 8 (1899-1901) 40549. It
confirms many of my findings: for example, it supplies the Homeric analogy for
something which seemed most remarkable to me, the connection of Book 9 with
Book 8 (above p. 305). I should have liked to pursue this by comparing Virgil's
technique here with Homer's, but since Zielinski has already worked on this and
continue
plans to publish his findings I shall of course refrain from doing so. His expositions
have helped me to sharpen my conclusions.
384
25.
Virgil observes a very similar practice when the action moves to a place that
has to be described. For example, at 1.158 it does not say: they landed in Libya at a
place shaped by nature to be a peaceful harbour: there was a sheltered bay there,
etc.; Virgil says:
Libyae
vertuntur
ad
oras
.
Est
in
secessu
longo
locus
etc.:
huc
Aeneas
subit
[they set course for the coast of Africa. There is a haven there at the
end of a long sound etc . . . . Into it Aeneas moved up]. Cf. 3.13, 73, 210 (here the
name of the Strophades is given beforehand: this makes the new beginning in this
case all the more striking:
Strophades
stant
Graio
nomine
dictae
[the Strophades are
fixed, called by this Greek name], 570; 5.124; 7.170, 563; 8.416; 11.522). Also
comparable is
limen
erat
caecaeque
fores
(2.453) [there was a secret access through
a concealed entrance],
turris
erat
vasto
suspectu
et
pontibus
altis
(9.530) [there was
a tower, a dizzy sight from below, with high-level bridges]. Also in 7.601, a new
beginning,
mos
erat
Hesperio
in
Latio
[there was a custom in Latium, the western
land] etc. Cf. Norden 132. A different technique at 1.52; 7.83.
26. I am using Zielinski's terms, op. cit. 412.
386
27.
A peculiarly complicated example is to be found in Book 11, where four
actions (or strictly speaking five, but Aeneas' expedition does not come into con-
sideration) go forward in parallel. At 449 we hear that the Trojan cavalry is
advancing towards Laurentum. At 520 Turnus sends his men against them, and sets
out himself on a different path towards Aeneas: the latter action is followed to its
end (530f.):
huc
iuvenis
nota
fertur
regione
viarum
arripuitque
locum
et
silvis
insedit
iniquis
[hither the young leader hurried by tracks whose direction he well
knew. He seized the position and settled down to wait in the confined space of the
woods]: and since its later consequences are thus anticipated, it disappears now from
the picture. The other two, however, have to be thought of as proceeding further
while (
interea
[meanwhile]) the conversation of Diana with Opis takes place (532-
96); here the narrative shifts, and (597) returns to its steady advance:
at
manus
interea
muris
Troiana
propinquat
[meanwhile, a division of Trojans drew near to
the city wall]. However, in order not to have to shift again when the enemy is
mentioned, we remain on the Trojan side and
see
the enemy advance:
apparent
(605) [they appear]; after that the narrative can deal with both sides (
uterque
[608])
at once.
387 28. See section III (Speeches) 7, pp. 324ff.
29. On similar examples in Homer see Zielinski op. cit. 432ff.
388
30.
In particular the comparison with 1.374:
ante
diem
clauso
componet
Vesper
Olympo
[the star of evening would surely close heaven's gate, and set the day to
sleep, before the end] argues for it.
31.
There is no doubt that Virgil often uses
interea
in this sense (cf. Hand,
Tursellinus
,
seu
de
particulis
Latinis
commentarii
[Leipzig, 1829-45] 3.416); e.g.
6.703 certainly does not mean that Aeneas caught sight of the Lethean grove while
he was vainly trying to embrace his father, cf. also 3.568; 8.213; 9.159; 11.182 and
12.842 should probably also be understood in the same way. Ovid
Fasti
3.39:
dixerat
(
Silvia
)
et
plenam
non
firmis
viribus
urnam
sustulit
;
implerat
,
dum
sua
visa
refert
.
i
n
t
e
r
e
a
crescente
Remo
crescente
Quirino
caelesti
tumidus
pondere
continue
venter
erat
:
quominus
emeritis
exiret
mensibus
annus
restabant
nitido
iam
duo
signa
deo
[Silvia spoke, and lifted the urn with faltering strength: she had filled it
while recounting her vision. Meanwhile, as Remus and Quirinus both grew, her
stomach was swollen with its divine burden: the shining god still had two signs
remaining before the year could complete its months and make its exit]. Here
interea
bridges a space of ten months. Cf.
Fasti
3.465.
32.
Virgil took a different way out in 1.579, but still did not achieve total clarity.
The scene can only have been played out like this in the poet's mind: immediately
389 after Dido's words Aeneas and Achates, who had been veiled in mist until then,
become visible. Before that happens, however, we have to be told the feelings of
both of them; when he says
his
animum
arrecti
dictis
. . .
iamdudum
erumpere
urbem
ardebant
[her speech startled them . . . they had long felt eager to break free from the
cloud] he is really recapitulating, and we are doubtless intended to think of Achates'
words as simultaneous with those of Dido (to which he makes no reference). But in
order to make that perfectly clear, in 586 he should have shown that Dido's speech
was ending at the same time.
33.
The description which ensues also gives rise to objections. The recapitulation
at 10.148-56 had not dealt with everything: Virgil did not let slip the splendid
opportunity to insert here the catalogue of the Etruscan auxiliary troops, and he adds
to it the description of the night-voyage (156-62); we leave Aeneas and Pallas in an
inactive situation: Aeneas worried about the result of the war, Pallas at his side, free
390 of care about the future, looking at the stars and listening to the extraordinary
adventures of his new friend. After the catalogue, the appearance of the nymphs
should get the action going again; but instead of reminding us of the situation as it
was described before, and linking on to it, Virgil makes a fresh start and calmly
narrates that day is over, it is already midnight etc.; except that now Aeneas himself
sits at the helm, since his worries are keeping him awake, and oversees the man-
oeuvring of the sails. Of course, doing this, he can neither give himself up to worry
about the future nor make use of Pallas' company: the need to describe the same
situation a second time has led to inconsistency.
392
34.
10.148ff., where Virgil avoids a recapitulation in the pluperfect by starting
afresh at an earlier point and beginning a new continuous narrative, is discussed
above p. 306.
393
35.
Naturally this happens even more often with unimportant matters, such as
the coming and going of characters which is made clear by subsequent events;
Norden 145 has collected the examples of this in Book 6.
395
36.
Cf. the remarks in the scholia, particularly in Eustathius, collected in Adam,
Die
aristotelische
Theorie
vom
Epos
nach
ihrer
Entwicklung
bei
Griechen
und
Römern
(Wiesbaden, 1889) 41ff.
37.
I remind you of Callimachus' Hymn to Delos and the Bath of Pallas (also,
the crow in the Hecate told of both past and future things, Wilamowitz,
Gött
.
Nachr
.
[1893] 734), Theocritus' Heracliscus, Catullus' wedding of Peleus and Thetis,
Hera's prophesying in the Hellenistic source of Quintus' Oenone episode (Rohde,
Gr
.
R
. 110, 5 and above p. 36). This manner is at its most extreme in poems such as
Lycophron's
Alexandra
, and the
Apollo
of Alexander the Aetolian; the source of
Horace
Odes
1.15 also belongs here. One may doubtless assume that in countless
continue
poems which eulogized rulers by listing the deeds of their ancestors, or praised cities
by describing their

enabled the greatest degree of flattery to be introduced without the speaker seeming
to be saying it himself. That is probably why Ennius, in the first book of his Annales ,
made use, like Virgil, of a prediction by Jupiter to show where the action would
finally lead. Apollonius, too, often has events being foretold although they lie
outside the framework of the poem: thus Glaucus (1.1315f.) predicts the future of
Heracles and Polyphemus, Hera (4.809f.) the union of Achilles with Medea, Jason
interprets the dream of Euphemus (4.1747); in other places (see L. Hensel, Weissag -
ungen in der alexandrinischen Poesie [Diss. Giessen, 1908] 54f.) the poet himself
points to the future. All this has to do not with the content of the poem but with the
people in it, in fact mostly the minor characters; it is therefore very different from
Virgil's technique as discussed above.
397
38.
84-6: the winds break loose,
insequitur
clamor
virum
(87) [there follows the
shouting of the men] etc.; 88-90: night and thunder-storm, 91: consequences for the
sailors, 92: for Aeneas, 94-101: his speech, 102-5: what happened next; 106-7: two
lines of description, then the action advances until 123.
39.
Look at the short description of the situation which Aeneas finds when he
wakes (310-12); also Virgil's refusal to give a detailed description of the scenes of
terror at 361.
398
40.
The description seems to have been inserted later, with the sole purpose of
introducing the series of kings, who had to be included in the poem in one way or
another. The temple is called
Laurentis
regia
Pici
(171) [the palace of Laurentine
Picus], whereas one had to deduce from 61ff. that Latinus was the first to settle the
area and had founded Laurentum. According to 177ff. the ancestors of Latinus
include Italus, Sabinus, Janus and Saturnus: only the last-named stands in the genea-
logy given in 47ff., and Faunus, who is named as Latinus' father there, is omitted
here. One should note that 194 follows on from 169 without a gap, and 192ff. only
repeat what was said in 168ff.
41.
10.496: Pallas' sword-belt: that is meant to be fixed in the memory because it
plays a role in Turnus' death later. 7.785: Turnus' helmet (the firebreathing
Chimaera symbolizing Turnus'
ardor
et
ira
[burning anger], the story of Io which
shows the revenge of Juno, Turnus' patron-goddess). On the portrayal of outstand-
ing individual pieces of armour, always serving to colour the action in a particular
way, see p. 162f. above.
400
42.
Since Virgil laid great importance on the steady advance of the action, I do
not believe that he failed to notice the 'fineness of his model', i.e. that the shield in
Homer is described in the making, not when complete; but the second alternative
postulated by Lessing can hardly be true either ('The things which he wanted to
show on the shield seemed to him to be of a nature which did not permit depiction');
even if the shield had been shown in the making, the prophecies could still not have
been shown as 'uttered by the god' but would still have to be 'explained by the
poet', just as happens in Homer. It remains true however, that Homer narrates and
Virgil - so far as
form
is concerned - is describing; that the action advances in
Homer and stands still in Virgil; Plüss' objections (270ff.) do not seem to me to
meet this point. But it has often been said that Virgil had to portray the shield as
continue
complete principally because he needed this description to round off his book;
moreover, as Plüss rightly remarks (284), this connects the depicted scenes more
closely with Aeneas than if the shield were shown to us in the smithy of the
Cyclopes.
401
43.
This is even more true of the whole shield, and the many attempts to recon-
struct it (yet another in W. Volkmann,
Untersuchung
zu
Schriftstellern
des
klassischen
Altertums
I [Progr. Breslau, 1906]; see below (p. 366 n. 9); his other
theories) are totally fruitless; one really should face the fact that this is a work of art
in a poetic, and not a concrete, sense, as Plüss and others have correctly explained.
Virgil himself has stated clearly enough in lines 626-9, particularly in
genus
omne
futurae
stirpis
ab
Ascanio
pugnataque
in
ordine
bella
[all the lineage of future
descendants, with the wars which they would fight in due order] (of which only a
very few are in fact named in what follows), that the shield contains a large number
of pictures which he will not describe in detail. I am pleased to find that Robert
(
Studien
zur
Ilias
[Berlin, 1901] 17) returns to the view that Homer, too, in describ-
ing the shield was only vaguely thinking of a real object, so that any attempt to
reconstruct that is also without basis. The 'kaleidoscopic' quality of many Homeric
images is absent in the descriptions of, for example, Apollonius (1.730ff.) and
Moschus (
Europa
44ff.); the figures and groups described there may not be visual
but they are always definite; that is also usually the case in Virgil.
402
44.
Daedalus
ipse
dolos
tecti
ambagesque
resolvit
caeca
regens
filo
vestigia
(6.29) [Daedalus himself guided the sightless footsteps by means of a thread and
unlocked the building's treacherous, winding ways].
ter
circum
Iliacos
raptaverat
Hectora
muros
exanimumque
auro
corpus
vendebat
(1.483) [three times he had
dragged Hector round the walls of Troy and he was selling his lifeless body for
gold].
Penthesilea
. . .
mediis
in
m
i
l
i
b
u
s
ardet
(1.491) [Penthesilea blazed . . . in the
midst of thousands].
45.
vidi
atro
cum
membra
fluentia
tabo
manderet
et
t
e
p
i
d
i
tremerent
sub
dentibus
artus
(3.626) [I have seen him chew their limbs, all dripping and blackened
with clotting blood, and their joints quiver,
still
warm
, as his jaws closed].
46.
Cf. also the case discussed above (p. 30) where, it is true, the apparition had
a different origin, but what we said about it will help us understand why Virgil did
not object to a lack of visual quality.
403 47. E.g. of the younger Ajax

with a linen corslet];


to Ilium] of Niseus,

the Abantes.
48.
Lausus 650, Aventinus 666, Catillus and Coras 674, Umbro 751, Turnus
785ff., Camilla 814ff.
49. Kaibel, Hermes XXII (1887) 511.
50.
Consider the conversations which Aeneas conducts in the Underworld with
404 Palinurus and Deiphobus (and, before the beginning of the second periegesis, with
Anchises), and compare them with the lengthy conversations of Odysseus with
Teiresias, his mother and Agamemnon.
406 51. Horace's judgement ( Ars Poetica 149): quae desperat tractata nitescere continue
posse
relinquit
[he leaves aside what he despairs of treating in such a way as to
make it shine] would therefore apply to Virgil even more than to Homer.
407
52.
Servius on 1.689:
sane
notandum
,
quod
interdum
ubi
inducit
minorem
festi
-
nantem
parere
,
maiori
respondentem
eum
non
facit
,
ut
hoc
loco
Cupidinem
,
ut
in
quarto
, '
ille
patris
magni
parere
parabat
imperio
'
et
in
septimo
'
exin
Gorgoneis
Allecto
infecta
venenis
' [it should of course be observed that sometimes when he
(Virgil) introduces an inferior hastening to obey, he does not present him replying to
his superior; as in this case Cupid, and in Book 4 'he prepared to obey the command
of the mighty father' and in Book 7 'straightway Allecto, charged with her Gorgon-
poisons']. Also schol. Veron. on 7.341:
haec
sine
ulla
lectionis
intercapedine
pronuntianda
sunt
,
quia

que illam perfecto officio induxit loquentem [these events are to be narrated without
any interval of speech, because he introduces this 'non-speaking character' because
of her haste to do harm and for that reason he introduces her as 'speaking' by the
performance of her duty]. Naturally it would not occur to any of the ancient critics
to criticize the introduction of 'mute characters' as Georgii (323) suggests:


introduce 'mute characters' into tragedy] (schol. Iliad 1.322), and there are plenty of
them in Homer. No fault is found with these passages; the ancient critics were
aware, as we are, that they were unusual, and they were looking, as we are, for an
explanation: it is to be hoped that ours is better than pointing to the festinatio [ haste ]
of the messenger.
408
53.
nate
,
meae
vires
,
mea
magna
potentia
solus
. . .
ad
te
confugio
et
supplex
tua
numina
posco
[Son, you alone are my strength, and all my might is in you . . . now I
appeal to you, and humbly pray to your divine majesty for aid] (Venus, 1.664);
hunc
mihi
da
proprium
. . .
laborem
,
hanc
operam
,
ne
noster
honos
infractave
cedat
fama
loco
[do a service for me, and grant me your efforts, to prevent my worship and my
renown from suffering injury and taking second place] (Juno, 7.331).
54.
This serves to achieve a definite effect in both cases: when Venus addresses
Amor we see not the mischievous boy portrayed by Apollonius but the cosmic
power, the god who is mighty despite his youth; when Juno pleads, we see how far
her hatred has driven her (
dubitem
haud
equidem
implorare
quod
usquam
est
[7.311] [I am not one to refrain from asking aid from any power, anywhere]): she
lowers herself to
plead
with the hated demon of hell.
409
55.
hic
qui
forte
velint
rapido
contendere
cursu
,
invitat
pretiis
animos
et
prae
-
mia
ponit
(291) [here he issued invitation and offered prizes to anyone who might
wish to compete in speed of foot];
protinus
Aeneas
celeri
certare
sagitta
invitat
qui
forte
velint
et
praemia
ponit
(485) [Aeneas forthwith invited any who wished to
compete with the swift flight of the arrow, and he named the prizes].
56.
9.737-9, 741f., 747f., 10.441-3, 449-51, 481, 581-3, 649f., 773-5, 811f.,
875f., 878-82, 11.715-7, 12.889-93 (this latter is the longest of these speeches: but
here Aeneas is trying to make Turnus stand and fight instead of running away),
894f. The scornful speech of Numanus (9.598-620), is long because of the situation.
57. E.g. 10.524-9.
414 58. A. W. Schlegel put it very well, Werke XI (Vienna, 1822-5) 193f.
59. When Hephaestus ( Iliad 18.394ff.) tells Charis the story of his rescue by continue
Thetis and Eurynome, it is not because she needs to know about it at that moment,
but because Homer's audience needs to be told the relationship of piety in which the
god knows that he stands to his petitioner.
415
60.
Juno speaking about Minerva's revenge on the Greeks (1.39), Venus' speech
about Antenor (1.242), about Dido (1.341), Dido's speech about Teucer's presence
in Sidon (1.619), Priam about Achilles (2.540), Achaemenides' speech containing
the story of Odysseus visiting Polyphemus (3.623), Neptune about the rescue of
Aeneas before Troy (5.803), the Sibyl about the Aloides and Salmoneus (6.582),
Charon about Hercules and Theseus (6.395), Latinus about Dardanus (7.205), Tib-
erinus about the Arcadian settlement (8.51), Diomedes about the

[homecomings] of the Greeks and the metamorphosis of his companions into birds
(11.261). Speeches which have narration as their sole or most important aim -
Sinon, Palinurus, Deiphobus etc. - naturally do not belong here.
61.
o
mihi
praeteritos
referat
si
Iuppiter
annos
,
qualis
eram
cum
primam
aciem
Praeneste
sub
ista
stravi
(8.560-1) [Oh, if only Jupiter would bring back to me the
years which are gone and make me as I was when beneath Praeneste's wall I
brought down their front rank] =
Iliad
11.670:


vigorous as I was when strife arose between me and the Eleans]. But the Homeric
tale extends over nearly a hundred lines, Virgil's over only seven lines, and as if to
make the insertion even less obvious, the sentence is continued at 568 from where it
left off.
416
62.
These lines cannot possibly be regarded as a parenthesis inserted into the
speech by the poet himself; that would be without parallel not only in Virgil but, as
far as I know, in the whole of ancient epic; and one will look in vain in Virgil for
similar peculiarities. And how was the ancient reader supposed to perceive that this
was the intention of the poet?
63.
The use of her name in 11.537:
neque
enim
novus
iste
Dianae
venit
amor
[for
this love which Diana bears to her is nothing new] and 582:
sola
contenta
Diana
aeternum
. . .
amorem
colit
[she finds complete happiness in Diana alone . . . and cher-
ishes unending love] might be acceptable, although in the following examples (such
as 12.56:
per
si
quis
Amatae
tangit
honos
animum
[by any regard for Amata which
can touch your heart]) the mention of the name is more justified since it creates
greater pathos (on this now see Norden 259f.). But we cannot understand it in
donum
Triviae
(566) [the gift to Diana], and it is completely incomprehensible that
Diana, who has protected young Camilla when she was summoned by Metabus,
does not say this of herself in the first person: I regard this as irrefutable evidence
that the narrative was not originally written for Diana to speak.
64. See p. 189 n. 52 above.
65.
Ribbeck considered from line 537
neque
enim
to 584
intemerata
colit
to be a
later addition. He has drawn the wrong boundaries, at the very least, since, as
Sabbadini (
Studi
critici
87) rightly emphasizes, the words
cara
mihi
comitumque
foret
nunc
una
mearum
(586) [she could have been one of my companions still, and
still dear to me] can never have followed directly upon
cara
mihi
ante
alias
(537)
[dear to me beyond all others]. Furthermore, if one did assume that the passage in
question was composed later, this would still not explain the strangely impersonal
continue
form of the narrative. Thus Sabbadini will be right to regard the narrative as com-
posed earlier than the rest of Book 11. However, the speech can never have
consisted only of lines 535, 536 and 587-94; the poet must have intended from the
start to explain the motivation of Diana's intervention. As far as I can see, this
leaves only the possibility that, because the material particularly attracted him,
417 Virgil wrote this little epyllion at an early stage of his work, before he had visualized
Camilla the warrior, the splendidly accoutred Volscian queen; and at that time he
did not spare a thought as to how the episode might be incorporated; that later, when
he was writing Book 11 and came to Diana's speech, he inserted the finished piece
as it was, without adapting it to the new context and to the new character which he
had given Camilla meanwhile. That he would not have left things like this can only
be a supposition, which stands and falls with my conviction of Virgil's conscien-
tiousness where artistry and technique are concerned.
418
66.
per
patrios
manis
et
spes
surgentis
Iuli
te
precor
,
hanc
animam
serves
gnatoque
patrique
[by your father's spirit and by all your hopes of Iulus now
growing to manhood, spare this life of mine for my son and for my father]. This may
be developed from Hector's plea (
Iliad
22.338)


but it is characteristic of Virgil to have developed the simple thought, 'I beg you for
the sake of what you hold most dear' into something completely different.
420
67.
This is usually a term of contempt applied by enemies to the Trojans: Juno
4.103 and 7.294; Amata 7.358, 363; Allecto 7.430; Turnus 7.579; 9.134; 11.403;
12.75, 99; Numanus 9.599, 617; the matrons of Laurentum 11.484.
421
68.
This observation was also used by the interpreters of Homer, to explain
contradictions between what someone said and the rest of the narrative: schol.
Iliad
18.175:



mutilate Patroclus, one must realise that she is not revealing the truth but motivating
him to be angry with the barbarians]. Hera's dispatch of Iris to Achilles is the model
for the scene in Virgil (9.1ff.), the dispatch of Iris to Turnus for the purpose of

Homeric

p. 305.
422 69. A real


to achieve something quite different from what it says, cf. Servius on 33, 42, 60.
Servius also regards as rhetorical Latinus' speech (11.302ff.), which conceals an
attack on Turnus: on 11.312: excusatio haec ostendit obliquam esse in Turnum
orationem Latini [this releasing from blame indicates that Latinus' speech is ob-
liquely directed at Turnus], i.e. a

end of Turnus' speech, on 11.434 he says utitur ductu (

promittit se singulari certamine dimicare velle , cum nolit [he is making use of a
leading argument (posturing): for he obliquely professes to wish to fight in single
combat, when in fact he does not].
70.
Italiam
petiit
fatis
auctoribus
,
esto
,
Cassandrae
impulsus
furiis
(10.67f.) [the
fates encouraged him to sail for Italy. All right! He was actuated by Cassandra's raving].
break
423
71.
E.g. Quintil. 2.17.20:
orator
cum
falso
utitur
pro
vero
,
scit
esse
falsum
eoque
se
pro
vero
uti
;
non
ergo
falsam
habet
ipse
opinionem
sed
fallit
alium
.
nec
Cicero
,
cum
se
tenebras
offudisse
iudicibus
in
causa
Cluentiana
gloriatus
est
,
nihil
ipse
vidit
[an orator, when he substitutes falsehood for the truth, is aware of the falsehood and
of the fact that he is substituting it for the truth. He deceives others but not himself.
When Cicero boasted that he had thrown dust in the eyes of the jury in the Cluentius
case, he was far from being blinded himself].
72.
On 9.136:
sunt
et
mea
contra
fata
mihi
[I have a destiny of my own]. If in
fact this does refer to a particular divine command and not merely to a general belief
that right will prevail, then Turnus could well be referring to the command given to
him by Juno in a dream:
ipsa
palam
fari
omnipotens
Saturnia
iussit
(7.428) [the
Saturnian queen, the almighty, herself commanded me to say this], as well as to Iris'
warning which promised victory (9.6ff.). On the other hand, Servius is perhaps right
to see a deliberate untruth in the report of the Latins to Diomedes
multas
viro
se
adiungere
gentes
(8.13) [that numerous peoples were joining Aeneas]: though per-
haps it would be even closer to the truth to call it a deliberate exaggeration and
distortion of what the Trojan messenger Ilioneus said at 7.236ff.:
multi
nos
populi
. . .
et
petiere
sibi
et
voluere
adiungere
gentes
[many nations and races have
sought alliance and wished to join us].
73. Schol. on Iliad 1.299:

taking her away after giving her] as against the attempt of Zenodotus to do away
with the


[since you (singular) wish to take her away]:


all of them together as if he was unaware who was responsible for taking her away]
(following the reading of Lehrs and Friedländer).
424
74.
Pallas
exurere
classem
Argivum
atque
ipsos
potuit
submergere
ponto
(1.39)
[Pallas Athene was able to gut the Argives' fleet with fire and drown all of them].
75.
For further examples I am now able to refer you to Norden's analysis of the
speeches in Book 6. However, I consider that Norden applies the rhetorical
sche
-
mata
[figures] too rigorously. I believe that Virgil himself would not have felt that it
suited his own style to compose the
sermones
[conversations] of his characters
according to the
schema
of the
orationes
[rhetorical speeches]. When, in a conversa-
tion, one of the two participants, before giving his own message or presenting his
own story, immediately replies to the other's words, as for example Aeneas to the
Sibyl (103-5) or Palinurus (347f.) and Deiphobus (509f.) to Aeneas, it can hardly be
called a proem in the technical sense; nor do I think that lines 116-23 in Aeneas'
speech, which are very closely connected with 110-16, or Palinurus' requests to
Aeneas 363-71, can be regarded as separate from the actual

called an epilogue. When Palinurus starts by refuting Aeneas' mistaken assumption,
425 and then narrates what has really happened to him and what he is now suffering, and
finally adds the plea to be rescued from his misery, this arrangement arises directly
from the subject-matter and there is no need to explain it by reference to rhetorical
doctrines; nor do I believe that Deiphobus' narrative (509-30) would have turned out
any differently if Virgil had never heard of any rules concerning

logue] and


of the art, I do not mean special instructions about the arrangement and execution of
the
partes
orationis
[parts of a speech] so much as the general rules, that there must
be a
lucidus
ordo
[clear arrangement], that the end needs a climax, etc.
76.
If Virgil, as Servius reports, recited lines 323-6
ingenti
adfectu
[with great
feeling], one can be sure that at the words
saltem
si
qua
mihi
de
te
suscepta
fuisset
426
ante
fugam
suboles
(327) [at least, if I had a son of yours, conceived before you
left . . . ] he changed to a completely different tone of voice, softer, more tender,
melancholy.
77.
When (4.337), after Aeneas has started by expressing his gratitude, he intro-
duces his actual defence with
pro
re
pauca
loquar
[I shall speak briefly of the facts],
this exception is well motivated: he was on the point of losing control -
dum
memor
ipse
mei
,
dum
spiritus
hos
regit
artus
[for as long as I have consciousness and breath
of life controls my movement] - and is, as it were, reminding himself to keep calm
and to explain.
78.
When he turns away from Drances; this is the transition to the second part:
nunc
ad
te
et
tua
magna
,
pater
,
consulta
revortor
[now, sire, I return to you and to
your weighty proposal], and then discussion of three possibilities:
si
. . . (411-8),
sin
. . .
(419-33),
quod
si
. . . (434-44).
427
79.
See the material in C. Hentze, 'Die Monologe in den homerischen Epen',
Philol
. 63 (1904) 12ff. Leo's discussion of the question ('Der Monolog in Drama',
Abh
.
d
.
Gött
.
Ges
.
d
.
Wiss
. X. 3 [1903] 2ff.) has led me to a thorough reappraisal.
80.
For example, Penelope's lament (
Od
. 20.61), which is really a soliloquy but
is introduced as a prayer to Artemis.
81. E.g. Iliad 2.3, 10.5, 14.16, 16.646, Odyssey 4.116.
82.
Iliad
11.404 Odysseus, 17.91 Agamemnon, 21.553 Agenor, 22.99 Hector:
the decision is introduced each time by the line

428

that a

the speaker finishes the expression of his feelings by coming to some sort of deci-
sion, as in Achilles' expression of amazement ( Iliad 21.54ff.:


spear]), and other examples mentioned in the next note.
83.
Iliad
18.6: Achilles faced with the news of the death of Patroclus; 21.54:
Achilles at the sight of Lycaon, believed dead; and, very similar, 20.344: after the
departure of Aeneas; 22.297: Hector after the disappearance of the supposed Dei-
phobus: here the monologue is not explicitly designated as such; he says merely


words are explicitly described as an address to the

84.
On the other hand, Achilles' words (
Iliad
20.425f.), introduced with the
words

nuinely emotional cry, not a monologue.
85.
The necessary words at the end of Poseidon's action are clothed in the form
of an address to the distant Odysseus, like Zeus' address to the distant Hector (
Iliad
17.201), and, shortly after, to Achilles' horses.
86.
It is certainly also intended to be regarded as an intensification when in Book
1 we are told Juno's thoughts (
haec
secum
[37] [these words to herself],
talia
continue
flammato
secum
dea
corde
volutans
[507] [debating so with herself in her fiery
429 brain]), whereas in Book 7 we hear her actual words (
haec
effundit
pectore
dicta
[297] [she spoke a torrent of words],
haec
ubi
dicta
dedit
[323] [having spoken so]):
Virgil makes a sharper distinction than Homer between this monologue forced out
by emotion, and her calm, reflective conversation with herself.
87.
An even closer comparison than with Euripides is with Seneca, for example
in the monologue of Juno which begins the
Hercules
: that probably indicates that
Virgil has learnt something from post-Euripidean tragedy.
88.
Here, too, the arrangement is very calculated and schematic, particularly in
Book 7: (1) Establishing the theme of
indignatio
: 293, 294. (2) A backward glance
at what has happened, divided into two parts by the

tion] at credo (297f.) [I suppose]): Aeneas in Troy 294-7, Aeneas on his wanderings
299-303. (3) Result for the present time, with an argumentum ex contrario [argu-
ment by contrast]: 304-10. (4) Prediction of the future: 310-22.
89. On the monologue of Aeneas interpolated at 2.577 see above p. 26f.
90. 3.464, 636, 770; 4.30.
430
91.
E.g. 5.700-3; 9.399-401; using indirect speech and then continuing in the
form of a report: 4.283ff., in imitation of the Homeric


this seemed to him the better course].
92.
Iliad
24.725 etc. over Hector's body, cf. 19.287, 315 over the body of
Patroclus. 22.430:

women in vehement lamentation], 476 (Andromache)


women].
431
93.
Aeneas' brief words after the death of Palinurus (5.870f.) may also be cited
here.
94.
In individual cases, it will still not always be easy to distinguish between
traditional elements in the poetic language, and borrowings from the theory and
practice of fine writing. For example, Norden (386) believes that the influence of
rhetoric on Latin writers is shown by Virgil's frequent habit of putting together
several nouns, each qualified by one adjective, in such a way that two such pairs of
words often contrast with each other, or form a chiasmus. But when I see this
stylistic device used often by Theocritus in his non-bucolic poems (e.g. 17.29, 32,
34f., 37; 18.26ff., 43ff.; 22.40ff.), and never more often - together with chiasmus -
than in the short Aeolic

432 used to such an extent as it is in Catullus, particularly in the glyconics of his
marriage-song (61, 9-13, 101-9), it seems to me that a different explanation is called
for. (See now R. Gimm, De Vergili stilo bucolico quaest . sel . [Diss Leipzig, 1910]
63). Moreover, as far as I can see, the doubling and piling-up of adjectives serves
quite different purposes in oratory, for example that of Cicero, and in the poetry of
Theocritus and the Roman

antithesis or


95.
The ancient critics were even worse in this respect; there is nothing more
unsatisfactory and boring than, for example, Macrobius' discussion of Virgilian
pathos from the standpoint of the rhetoric of the schools.
break
433
96.
However, as time passes I have become very doubtful whether in these cases
one should not regard the epideictic poem rather than the epideictic speech as
Virgil's model. But this question cannot be pursued here; I hope to deal with it
thoroughly in another context.
97.
I therefore consider it misguided when, for example, Penquitt explains, in the
dissertation mentioned above (p. 112 n. 33), that in writing the speeches of Dido
(4.307ff. or 534ff.) Virgil was following
declamatorum
scholasticorum
praecepta
de
suasoria
data
[the rules of scholastic declaimers on the subject of persuasive
speeches], just because the separate thoughts can be listed under the well-known



possible] etc. One would only be able to say that it follows the rules of rhetoric if, as
434 is sometimes possible with Ovid, one could show that the whole structure of the
speech is governed by these

sentence of a suasor [advocate] in the present-day German Reichstag as

[just],

rhetoric. break
4— Composition
437 1. See above, p. 3.
2.

[an end . . . is that which naturally follows something else . . . but is not itself followed
by anything else] ( Poetics 7.1450b 29).
3.
We should remember the judgement of the ancient critics on the second half
438 of Sophocles'
Ajax
, schol. 1123:


the drama after the death (of Ajax) he lapsed into bathos and dissipated the tragic
tension].
439 4. Conway has pointed out the significance of the curse, see above p. 115 n. 40.
440
5.
This replaced lines 890-2, which would have had to be discarded during a
revision: see above p. 63 n.99. I cannot believe that Virgil ever conceived of having
both the Sibyl's prophecy and that of Anchises; one could hardly find another place
where he has so brutally killed one motif with another, both in the
same
form. It
seems to me most probable that Virgil started by working out the showpiece of the
whole book, Anchises' great speech, and wrote the opening scenes later, after the
change of plan.
442
6.
Another splendid example is the enumeration of sinners who are punished in
Tartarus (6.562f.), analysed by Norden 271f.
7.
Deuticke correctly gives the grouping as ABABA; there are some perceptive
comments on the choice and arrangement of characters in Belling,
Studien
über
die
Kompositionskunst
Virgils
in
der
Aeneis
(Leipzig, 1899) 17ff. Cima's idea (
Analecta
Latina
[Milan, 1901] 5) that the Republican heroes of the second group, 824ff., had
all made the same patriotic sacrifice as Brutus, is very far-fetched and in the case of
the Drusi, for example, the facts would have to be distorted to fit it.
443
8.
Only Cossus actually belongs to the second group; cf. Belling, 21. The time of
Serranus cannot be established: Klebs in Pauly
RE
2.2095.
9.
In the parallel piece to the Parade of Heroes, the description of the shield in
Book 8, it was possible to have a simpler arrangement: there it is a question of a
small number of pictures, each needing to be seen separately and to have its own
effect. There is therefore a simple division into two parts, nearly equal in length,
showing that they are intended to balance each other: pictures from the mists of
prehistory and pictures from the bright light of the present day; the first row is
rounded off with a mention of the Salii and the Luperci, the most ancient survivals
continue
of the worship of the early Romans; the other row ends with a picture of present-day
worship, Augustus' festival of victory and peace. Homer had presented a picture of
the world which was complete in itself; Virgil wants to do the same thing in a
different way: the first row of pictures is set on earth, the main scenes of the second
row are set in the
arva
Neptunia
(695) [Neptune's acres], which therefore have to be
described first in a relatively detailed way (in four lines); between the two, to
complete the picture, the
Tartareae
sedes
,
alta
ostia
Ditis
[the habitations in Tar-
tarus, and Pluto's tall gateway] are inserted, understandably briefly and only where
they concern Roman affairs (Catiline, Cato). Volkmann's hypothesis (above p. 340
n. 43) that what we see is two descriptions of the shield (626-74 and 626-9 plus
675-728), of which the second was intended by the poet to replace the first, already
runs aground on the fact that Virgil cannot possibly ever have considered repre-
senting the sea on his shield without including any people in the scene; and anyone
who knows Virgil's habits of composition will regard it as equally impossible that
444 he could ever have intended finishing his description of the shield with Tartarus (which
of course is not to be thought of as representing 'Air', as Volkmann suggests) and the
empty lines 671-4.
10.
Why are these placed between the close neighbours Sabines and Aequi?
Surely only because Virgil believed that it would make the division into pairs more
obvious.
11.
The Etruscan catalogue in Book 10 is divided differently: eight generals, the
first four from Etruria itself (here, too, the geographically most distant are set in the
middle), the second four (symmetry requires that
Cinyrus
or
Cunarus
[186] be the
name of a general) from outside, two Ligurians and two Mantuans.
445
12.
Let us compare the reason for the questions: Odysseus asks out of pure
curiosity - the poet needs no better motivation to bring the stories to the hero; in
Aeneas' case what is essential always is a strong emotional interest.
13.
It is different in the rare cases where
ensemble
scenes of people with equal
447 rights to the limelight are required; then Virgil preserves the unity of the scene by
keeping the different groups before our eyes all the time. Look at the scene of the
departure from Troy in this light: in addition to the two men, Creusa and Iulus also
had to be considered (preparation 597ff., then 651, 666, 673ff., 681ff., 710f., 723ff.,
747; it is only in 636 that one might wish that their presence were mentioned more
explicitly); or the boat-race in Book 5, which was studied from this viewpoint above
(p. 131).
448
14.
It is true that this lack of completeness suited Virgil very well here; if he had
had Aeneas taking part in the action at the court of Latinus, the already none too
simple action would have become considerably more complicated.
452
15.
The prediction by Neptune:
tutus
quos
optas
portus
accedet
Averni
,
unus
erit
tantum
,
amissum
quem
gurgite
quaeret
,
unum
pro
multis
dabitur
caput
(813) ['he
shall reach the harbour by Avernus, which you have chosen as his destination, and
you will mourn one Trojan only lost at sea, one life given to the depths for many'],
seems to me to be the heart of the scene. The death of Palinurus was not to be a
chance occurrence - that would have gone against Virgil's artistic principles -; if
his death, borrowing from known religious concepts, was to be regarded as a vi-
carious sacrifice, that could only be stated by the mouth of a god, so Virgil invented
continue
the scene between Venus and Neptune (Drachmann [p. 278 n. 43 above, 133] says
the same) and developed it in detail into a kind of parallel-scene to that between
Juno and Aeolus in Book 1. A difficulty which resulted from this and which Virgil
will have noticed for himself (without being able to do anything about it): the god's
guarantee had to be given visible expression, and this happens when he calms the
sea; on the other hand, Aeneas would not have set out on a stormy sea; this means
that from 763f. to 820f. no real progress is apparent. Moreover, critics keep saying
that there is a clear contradiction in the fact that Neptune speaks of only
one
sacrifice, but subsequently, in addition to Palinurus, Misenus also dies in the sea;
but, I do not understand how anyone can ignore the fact, established briefly and
clearly by Heyne, that Neptune is speaking only of the crossing to Italy (see above),
so that the death of Misenus, which happens
after
the landing, has nothing at all to
do with it. Heyne, for his part, has then objected (and others have drawn further
conclusions from it), that Aeneas and Achates are not certain to whom the words of
the Sibyl apply:
iacet
exanimum
tibi
corpus
amici
(heu nescis )
totamque
incestat
corpore
classem
(149) [the body of your friend - alas! though you know it not - is
lying lifeless, and defiling all your fleet with the taint of death], instead of immedi-
ately thinking of Palinurus: but he had died somewhere in the sea far, far away from
Cumae, and they would certainly not expect to find his body on the shore now, a
piaculum
[an expiatory offering] for Aeneas' men and for himself. For the important
thing is clearly the need for purification, not that some friend of Aeneas is still
unburied: this also removes the contradiction which Norden criticized (p. 177).
453 16. See above p. 209ff.
454
17.
By 'fairly important characters' I do not, for example, mean Achaemenides,
whose later disappearance struck ancient critics of Virgil as
incongruum
[incon-
gruous] (Servius 3.667, cf. Georgii), or Caieta, the nurse of Aeneas, who is not
mentioned until she dies, 7.1.
18. Above p. 309.
19. Cf. above p. 257.
455 20. See Heyne ad loc . and on 10.238.
456
21.
In these cases there is also the possibility that Virgil had Homeric analogies
in mind: at
Iliad
21.277 Achilles refers to a prophecy by his mother, that he will fall
at Troy from a shot by Apollo; this has not been mentioned earlier although there
was ample opportunity.
22.
sic
fatur
lacrimans
classique
inmittit
habenas
(6.1) [So spoke Aeneas, weep-
ing. Then he gave his fleet rein]; an imitation, noticed long ago, of
Iliad
7.1:




23.
That this introduction is different from the recapitulations in Books 7 and 9
has been shown convincingly by Karsten,
Hermes
39 (1904) 271, causing me to
change my mind.
457 24.

been laid down by Aristotle as the criterion for the length of a tragedy ( Poetics
1450b 50) and of an epic (1450a 33); it is obviously also of extreme importance for
composition and was certainly also emphasized by the later theorists of poetry.
458
25.
I can therefore, on principle, give only limited approval to the attempt made
by Belling (in the book mentioned above [p. 365 n. 7] and in the
Festschrift
for
continue
Vahlen [Berlin, 1900] 267) to find a symmetrical structure within single books,
quite apart from Belling's misguided attempt to lay great weight on the exact
numerical equality of groups of lines. On this cf., for example, B. Helm,
Bursians
Jahresbericht
113 (1902) 44ff.
26.
On 7-12 see p. 143f. above; in the first part, Books 1 and 4 frame the two
books of the Aeneas narrative, while Books 5 and 6 are closely connected to each
other.
27.
Books 1-12: up to the return home, 13-24: Ithaca; in the first part, Books 1-4:
Telemachus, 5-8: from Calypso to the Phaeacians, 9-12: Odysseus' narrative; in the
second part, 13-16: up to the plan to murder the suitors, 17-20: Odysseus with the
suitors, 21-4: execution of the plan from the

Vahlen, Abh . d . Berlin . Akad . (1886) 1, attempted to show hexadic division in the
Annals of Ennius.
462 28.

quickly sates an audience and drives tragedy from the stage] (Aristotle Poetics 24
1459b 31).
29. Above, p. 334 n. 10.
30. Above, p. 316f.
31. Chapter 3, p. 332 n. 5
32.
He does this without pedantic exactness but aims at an almost schematic
regularity. Dreams: Book 2 Hector, 3 Penates, 4 Mercury, 5 Anchises, 7 Allecto, 8
Tiberinus. Divine apparitions: 1 Venus, 2 Venus, 3 Mercury, 5 Iris, 7 Allecto, 8
Venus, 9 Apollo, 10 Nymphs, 12 Juturna. Scenes in Olympus: 1 Juno and Aeolus;
Venus and Jupiter; Venus and Amor, 4 Juno and Venus, 5 Venus and Neptune, 7
Juno and Allecto, 8 Venus and Vulcan, 9 the Great Mother and Jupiter, 10 Assembly
463 of the Gods; Jupiter and Hercules; Jupiter and Juno, 11 Diana and Opis, 12 Juno and
Juturna; Jupiter and Juno. Prophecies about Aeneas' kingdom and his future: 1
Jupiter, 2 Creusa, 3.158 Penates, 4.229 Jupiter, 5 Acestes' shot, 6 Parade of Heroes,
7.98 Faunus, 8 Aeneas' shield, 9.642 Apollo, 10.11 Jupiter, 12.836 Jupiter. General
fighting, once in each book, see above p. 156f. Duels fought: 9 Turnus and Pan-
darus, 10 Turnus and Pallas; Aeneas and Lausus; Aeneas and Mezentius, 11 Camilla
and the Ligurian, 12 Aeneas and Turnus. Speeches by the leaders: 9 Turnus; Mnes-
theus, 10 Tarchon; Turnus; Pallas, 11 Aeneas; Turnus, 12 Tolumnius; Aeneas; this
contrasts with seven, for example, in
Iliad
15.
33.
For example, compare the dreams of Aeneas with one another: 2.270; 3.147;
4.554; 8.26.
34. Above, p. 78f.
35. Above, p. 123f.
36. Above, p. 78.
464 37. I am thinking mainly of the gradual and slowly prepared

ognition] of the land destined by fate, which is described 7.107ff.; cf. Aristotle
Poetics 16.1455a 10:



they saw the place they reasoned that that was where they were fated to die: for they
had been exposed there]. break
38.

Allecto, the metamorphosis of the ships, the Dira etc.
39. Aristotle 24.1459b 13:


[for of his two poems one, the Iliad , is simple and involves pathos, the Odyssey is
complex and involves character] and, naturally,

465 40. Above, p. 290.
41. Above, p. 260.
42.
I do not deny that in a few cases the striving for richness has detracted from
simplicity and clarity: for example the

by being overworked; see above p. 150f. break
5— Virgil's Aims
1.
Of course, Aristotle himself did not express it in this form; his deep-reaching
doctrine of the

trivialized very soon even in his own school. He does sometimes already use the
later keyword: Poetics 25.1460b 23:



something impossible has been represented, this is a fault: but if (the poetic art)
achieves its true object, then this is acceptable: and it does this if either the passage
in question or some other passage is thereby made more striking] (cf. also 14.1454a
4; 16.1455a 17). This does have a very close connection with his theory of pathos :
the


of which there are doubtless many more (Kroll, Neue Jahrbiicher 21 [1908] 521, 3)
adduces more for



gedy) one must astonish and play upon the feelings of the audience by the most
persuasive arguments in the circumstances]. Similarly in Strabo 1.2.17 (



De Sublim . 15.2:




vividness]: Plutarch, Quo modo adulesc ., 17a:


vious to everyone that a mythical fabrication has been produced to please or
astonish the listener]: ibid. 25d:



and unexpected features, which produce great astonishment and great delight]: Ps-
Plutarch de vita Homeri 5 :


sents gods conversing with men not only for the sake of pleasing and astonishing the
listener but in order . . . ]: ibid. 6:



[in him the narration of events is deliberately unexpected and fabulous in order to
fill the hearers with anguish and astonishment, and to make the account startling]:
Eustathius, Odyssey proem 1379:



that they may give pleasure to their audience and also astonishment]. In some
Alexandrian circles

467 important; Eratosthenes names

sole aim, and truly one can hardly imagine that he or Callimachus imagined


Alexandrian grammatical source:


dutifully speaks of

much calmer terms than in the passage cited in the text, Epist . 2.1.211), but when he
is discussing the general aim of literature he speaks only of delectare (333) [to
please]; Horace's agreement with Eratosthenes is probably not a mere coincidence,
since he also comes close to him in the ad Pisones when discussing the usefulness of
poetry, on which see below p. 387 n.14.
2. Quom . adol . 25d and vita Hom . 6, both cited in the previous note.
469
3.
Macrob. (
Sat
. 4.2), most exceptionally, places the two aims next to each other:
oportet
ut
oratio
pathetica
aut
ad
indignationem
aut
ad
misericordiam
dirigatur
quae
a
Graecis

either at indignation or at pity, which are called


cf. Quintilian 6.2.24; Polybius on Phylarchus 2.56:



put frightening scenes before the eyes]; Dion. Hal. de Thucyd . 15:


savage and frightening and worthy of pity ]. They are very frequently combined in
this way.
471
4.
See Schwartz, 'Fünf Vorträge über den griechischen Roman', 114ff.,
Hermes
32 (1897) 560ff., P. Scheller,
De
hellenistica
historiae
scribendae
arte
(Diss. Leip-
zig, 1911) 57ff. Among the surviving historical works, Justin reveals this tendency
most clearly; see E. Schneider,
De
Pompei
Trogi
historiarum
Philippicarum
consilio
et
arte
(Diss. Leipzig, 1913)
passim
. The relationship of Livy's narrative technique
to Virgil's has been pointed out several times by Witte in his essay on Livy,
Rhein
.
Mus
. 65 (1910) 270-305, 359-419.
472
5.
See, for example, how Phylarchus has portrayed the torture of Aristomachus;
he has not shown us the actual torture, which would have been

but has described the effect which the screams issuing from the torture-chamber at
night had on the people living round about:



were incredulous, and some in indignation at what was being done ran towards the
house] (Polybius 2.59).
6.
Cf. the instructive compilation by Ed. Zarncke, 'Der Einfluss der griechischen
Literatur auf die Entwicklung der römischen Prosa', in
Commentat
.
Ribbeckianae
(Leipzig, 1888) 267. Ennius' role in the poetic shaping of earlier Roman history is
over-valued here, in my opinion.
7. There is a good discussion of it in the work by Scheller mentioned above (n. 4). break
8. 9 (p. 337.22 Usener):


9. 10 (p. 338.6): 'Thucydides has been criticized on this point',



that not the least important aspect of good arrangement is to take one's beginning
where nothing could be imagined as coming before, and one's end where nothing
more would seem to be needed just the Aristotelian requirements for Epic].
10. 15 (p. 347.5):

473




cities, enslavement of citizens and other similar disasters: and sometimes he makes
the events so savage and terrible and pitiful that he leaves nothing further for
historians or poets to add: but sometimes he makes them so trivial and small etc.].
474
11.
His period firmly believed that eschatological myth should have a moral
effect; for example, Diodorus says significantly 1.2.2:



the fact that their subject-matter is fictitious, play an important part in promoting
piety and justice among men]. It is true that his purpose of


be better served by Egyptian eschatology than by Hellenistic, which had lost all
credibility through its unbelievable storytelling (1.93.3). How Epicureanism also in
its own way valued

Lucretius (3.978ff.).
475
12.
This can be seen most clearly in Livy's proem:
hoc
illud
est
praecipue
in
cognitione
rerum
salubre
ac
frugiferum
,
omnis
te
exempli
documenta
in
inlustri
476
posita
monumento
intueri
;
inde
tibi
tuaeque
rei
publicae
quod
imitere
capias
,
inde
foedum
inceptu
foedum
exitu
,
quod
vites
(10) [the most helpful and useful aspect of
the study of history is that one can observe the record of every kind of behaviour
placed on a clear memorial: and from it one can deduce both for oneself and for
one's country what to imitate, and what to avoid as being bad in its inception and
bad in its results]. Exactly similar is Diodorus 1.2.8; Dionysius 1.6 wishes to give
the ancients the praise due to them, thereby encouraging their descendants to show
themselves worthy of their forbears; Strabo 1.1.23 considers his




Cornelius Nepos have rightly been cited in this context by Norden, Neue Jahrbücher
7 (1901) 266. Peter, Die geschichtliche Literatur der römischen Kaiserzeit (Leipzig,
1897) II.218, deals with utility as the goal of the historian, but does not discriminate
enough between different periods or distinguish moral improvement from practical
application for the politican, or from the conduct of life in general: in this sense, and
not in the moral sense, history is also called magistra vitae (mistress of life) by
Cicero, De Orat . 2.9.36. break
13.
The theoretical requirement that historiography should have a moral effect
by presenting good and bad examples must go back a long way, as Scheller (op. cit.
74ff.) has shown (contrary to my earlier opinion): it goes back to Isocrates, and is
known to Polybius, among others. But when the latter mentions it, he is clearly
thinking mainly of the moral effect on the politician (e.g. 16.22a; 30.6), and Sem-
pronius Asellio is thinking of the same thing when (in Gellius 5.18.9) he accuses the
annalists that they
neque
alacriores
. . .
ad
rem
publicam
defendundam
neque
seg
-
niores
ad
rem
perperam
faciundam
. . .
commovere
possunt
[are unable to make people
either more active to defend the state or more recalcitrant to act wrongly]. More-
over, this theory had hardly any practical effect on, for example, the history written
by Polybius; even less on that of Sallust, who in the proem to
Jugurtha
(45) likewise
mentions the role of historiography in providing models, but himself serves com-
pletely political, not moral aims (Lauckner,
Die
kiinstlerischen
und
politischen
Ziele
der
Monographie
Sallusts
über
den
Jug
.
Krieg
[Diss. Leipzig, 1911] 24). About
Posidonius' attitude to this question I do not yet dare venture an opinion.
14.
Aristotle, who left the moral effect of poetry undiscussed, may have ob-
served correctly for his own time: he was definitely shown to be right for later years.
477 The early Stoa, on the other hand, preserving the legacy of Cynicism, did not
renounce the use of poetry in the service of philosophical edification, and the Hymn
of Cleanthes is a practical example of his aesthetic theory



of the divine] (Philodemus de Mus . 4.28.10). The Stoic concept of poetry is given by
Strabo in his polemic against Eratosthenes, which recognizes as its goal only




sense our first philosophy, introducing us to life from our childhood, and teaching us
pleasurably about character and feelings and actions]: as far as I know, this doctrine
had no further influence on the practice of poetry (but much on the exegesis of
Homer: Diogenes of Babylon in Philod. Rhet . 2 p. 111; suppl. XXXII, Krates,
Wachsmuth p. 21 etc.). Even Horace, who, in his letter to Augustus, is so eloquent
in defence of the moral effect of poetry, seems in his ad Pisones , following some
grammarian as his source, to place among the prodesse [advantages] and utile
[usefulness] of poetry the effects of single

rather than the influence of exempla [moral example]; similarly, at a later date,
Sextus Empiricus, who himself takes poets to be

or of little use] (

tain] [ adv . math . 1.297]), contradicts the teaching of the Grammarians ,


[poetry provides many incentives to wisdom and a happy life], and does not take this
to indicate the moral effect of poetry in general, but only of


479 15. Wilamowitz, Reden und Vorträge 3 , (Berlin, 1913) 267.
480
16.
For example in Venus' speech about Antenor when she lingers over the
mirabilia
[wonders] of Timavus; derivation of names: Chaonia in Andromache's
continue
narrative (3.334): Pallanteum in Tiberinus' instructions (8.54); Argyripe in the ac-
count by Venulus (11.246); Samothrace in Latinus' greeting (7.208); Italia in
Ilioneus' address (1.532); cf. 3.702 on Gela. Also, Jupiter's remark about the name
Iulus (1.268) belongs here. After all this, one will have to recognize as Virgilian the
allusion to the

Venus' information to Aeneas (1.367); Virgil did not want to miss the chance of
rounding off the story of Dido, but he feels as if it is not entirely appropriate to the
situation and makes Venus break off, as if she feels the same, after only a quick
reference to the legend of how cunning Dido was when she bought the land. More-
over, the common habit of including the etymology of names in Roman poetry goes
back a long way: Naevius explained the names Palatium and Aventine, fr. 27.29B;
Ennius cannot refrain, in the prologue to his Medea (208R), from burdening the
casual reference to the Argo with its etymology, etc.
483 17. Schol. BT on Iliad 22.227:

extraordinary that she, a goddess, should mislead Hector].
484
18.
Apollo speaks (3.90):
tremere
omnia
visa
repente
,
liminaque
laurusque
dei
totusque
moveri
mons
circum
[suddenly everything seemed to quake, even the god's
entrance door and his bay-tree; the whole hill appeared to move around us]. Hecate
approaches:
sub
pedibus
mugire
solum
et
iuga
coepta
moveri
silvarum
(6.256) [the
ground bellowed beneath their feet, the slopes of the forest-clad mountains began to
move].
19. ' Vom Erhabenen ', Werke VII, 276 ed. Kurz (Leipzig, 1885).
485
20.
Hercules occupies a midway position, since he was a hero and is now a god.
Virgil's re-shaping of the Cacus legend (8.185ff.), which Münzer's excellent ana-
lysis has now made completely clear (see above p. 285 n. 108), is absolutely
characteristic in its tendency towards both the


[astonishing]. Cacus the thieving goatherd (Livy) or bandit/robber (Dion. Hal.)
Cacus is not an opponent worthy of the god; Virgil gives him divine descent and
makes him a monstrum , comparable with Polyphemus and other monsters of saga
(cf. Münzer 43f.). In the historians, the natives support Cacus against Hercules, and
it is only afterwards that Dionysius, to explain the Hercules cult, introduces the
motivation that there was joy at the death of the robber; in Virgil, Cacus is the terror
of the neighbourhood, a murderous monster (there is intensification of the frightful,
particularly in the description of the cave [193ff. and 241ff.]); this puts Hercules'
feat of rescue into the right light, this

Ara Maxima [Great Altar]. This new conception of the characters is matched by the
action: (1) The cattle-rustling is not a jape carried out by Cacus captus pulcritudine
boum [captivated by the beauty of the cattle] (Livy), but is seen by Evander as the
peak of impertinence and criminal behaviour ( furiis Caci mens effera , ne quid
inausum aut intractatum scelerisve dolive fuisset [Cacus who in his insane ingenuity
wished to leave no act of crime or fraud undared or unattempted]): it is a sin against
the god, whom the sinful monster wants to harm. On the other hand, if possible,
Hercules must not appear to have been tricked, or to be worried about the loss of a
few cattle: as a result we are not told how the theft was successful (Dion. Hal.:

efforts he lay down and gave himself up to sleep] while the oxen were grazing continue
untended; even worse in Livy:
fessum
via
procubuisse
.
ibic
um
eum
cibo
vinoque
gravatum
sopor
oppressisset
[tired of travelling he lay down: and there when sleep
overcame him, heavy with food and wine . . . ]); we do not see Hercules count his
cattle like a smallholder, and look in vain for the missing ones (line 212 and
abiuratae
rapinae
[263] [the plunder he was forced to renounce]) show that Virgil
had before him a version similar to that of Dionysius: it is obvious why he adds the
broken oath), and we do not hear of his anger until the sound of the stolen cow
lowing in Cacus' cave tells him that a crime has been committed (the trick by which
Dionysius has Hercules discovering the deception could of course not be used by
Virgil). (2) Virgil lays most weight on describing the fight, in contrast to earlier
versions, as Münzer has shown: whereas other versions have Cacus taking up a
defensive position and then simply being killed by Hercules' club, Virgil invents an
action full of dramatic movement: Cacus flees into his cave; at this point, Evander
and his men are introduced as onlookers, and nothing can portray the overpowering
stature of Hercules more strikingly than
tum
primum
Cacum
nostri
videre
timentem
turbatumque
oculi
[then for the first time our eyes witnessed Cacus afraid and in a
panic] (Virgil cares little about topographical clarity compared with pathetic effect,
see p. 285 n. 108 above); tension is created by the failure of Hercules' first attempt
to reach Cacus, which is frustrated by the work of the god Vulcan (who thus still
486 ranks higher than the god-in-the-making), after which his superhuman strength
(233-40) and his courage (256-81) arouse even more admiration; the effect of the
sight of the slain monster on the onlookers makes a powerful finale: see p. 127
above. The success of Virgil's reshaping of the story was, as Münzer shows very
clearly, similar to the success of his retelling of the Dido legend: the historians reject
it; the poets (Propertius and Ovid) do not copy every detail, it is true, but they do
drop the human Cacus in favour of the monster. Ovid goes even further than Virgil
in connecting Evander with Hercules, by making the hero a guest of Evander before
he performs his deed of rescue: Virgil would not have countenanced this, since it
would then have been Hercules' duty, even without being personally insulted, to rid
his host of the monster: it is only after the fight that
haec
limina
victor
Alcides
subiit
(362) [Hercules in the hour of victory bowed his head to enter this door] (Münzer
12, n. 15), before that he had only paused to allow his hungry herd to graze (213).
487
21.
Achilles and Odysseus were the model for this, but the
ethos
is different
here: Achilles wishes that he were not dying shamefully in the water but at the hand
of the bravest of men; the imitative author of the
Odyssey
says, in coarser fashion:

burial honours, and the Achaeans would have carried my renown]. In Aeneas'
words, quis ante ora patrum Troiae sub moenibus altis contigit oppetere [whose
fortune it was to die under the high walls of Troy before their parents' eyes]
everyone will hear the sentiment of dulce et decorum est pro patria mori [it is a
pleasant and a fine thing to die for one's country], which cannot subsist in the


488
22.
For tears as a sign of noble humanity, see
sunt
lacrimae
rerum
et
mentem
mortalia
tangunt
(1.462) [there are tears for the world's distress, and a sympathy for
short-lived humanity]. Anyone who is surprised that there is so much weeping in
Virgil, and thinks that it proves a particular melancholy on the part of the poet
continue
should read some of Cicero's speeches or some books of Livy: in this respect we
should not judge a Roman by our own conventions.
488 23. Schol. B on Iliad 18.346:


introduce the petty and the trivial in a dignified manner and to recount it in a noble
style requires great and marvellous skill]. Further see Römer, Die exeget . Schol . d .
Ilias im cod . Ven . B (Munich, 1879) XII.
24. Cf. Simcox, Latein . Litt . I.273.
490
25.
Livy seeks to arouse a similar feeling before the account of the battle of
Zama (30.32):
ad
hoc
discrimen
procedunt
postero
die
duorum
opulentissimorum
populorum
duo
longe
clarissimi
duces
,
duo
fortissimi
exercitus
,
multa
ante
parta
decora
aut
cumulaturi
eo
die
aut
eversuri
etc. [next day, the two most famous
generals by far, the two bravest armies of the two richest nations go forward into
battle, to crown or to overturn on that day their many glorious achievements of the
past . . . ].
break