NOTES. In many instances, in the following notes, the authority is given by the letters, D. M. ECLOGUE I. AFTER the battle of Philippi, which decided the fate of the republican party of Rome, and placed the empire in the power of the Triumviri, Mark Antony, Lepidus, and Cæsar Octavianus,'afterwards Augustus; these three agreed to confiscate, for the benefit of their troops, all the landed estates of eighteen Roman colonies. Early in the 713th year of Rome, this oppressive plan was put in execution. Among these devoted colonies was Cremona; the inhabitants of which were charged with the crime of adherence to the party of Brutus and Cassius. This territory was found insufficient for the rapacity of the soldiery to whom it was assigned, and that of Mantua was added, though no such delinquency was imputed to its inhabitants. Among the persons thus driven from their possessions, as has been stated in his life, was Virgil who, having had his property restored by Augustus, is here represented, under the name of Tityrus, in quiet possession of it. Melibus represents another Mantuan, who, after his expulsion, is driving his little flock before him, and approaching the spot where Tityrus is reclining. He commences the dialogue by expressing his astonishment that Tityrus is thus at his ease, exempt from the general calamity. 1. Tityre: Tityrus is a name borrowed from Theocritus; Idyl. iii. 2. It does not appear, however, that this name, or any of those that are usually prefixed as titles to the Eclogues, were so prefixed by Virgil himself. 2. Meditaris practise:' from μEXTά. The interchange of the consonants d and is not unfrequent, as in 'Oducciùs, Ulysses; dáxpvμa, lacryma. This verb, in its application to a musical instrument, means 'to practise, to play the same tune, or part of the same tune, over and over.' -Silvestrem musam: woodland lay.'—Avenâ: the rude instruments of music, used by the shepherds of antiquity, were formed of various materials; among others, of wheat or oat stalks, or of reeds shortened to unequal lengths, and joined together side by side with wax. rustica quondam Fistula disparibas paulatim surgit avenis. Ovid. Met. viii. 192. The most simple consisted of a single reed. That of Tityrus seems to have been a simple pipe of one straw, as it is called calamo agresti in the 10th verse. Sic 4. Lentus: at your ease:' syncopated from the part. pass. of lenio. 5. Amaryllida: Amaryllis is a name also borrowed from Theocritus, Idyl. iii. 1. The belief that under this name a secret allusion was made to the city of Rome, Servius thinks to be without foundation : as allegory, or hidden meaning, is rarely admitted in bucolic poetry. The pastoral appears more beautiful by considering Amaryllis simply as the shepherd's mistress, whose charms he is celebrating at his ease.-Silvas: governed by per understood. 6. Melibae: formed from λé and Bowv; a herdsman.-Deus: the poet calls Cæsar a god, for restoring his possessions to him. This is indeed extravagant adulation, but not unsuited to the times; as Oct. Cæsar and his colleagues in the Triumvirate had deified his uncle C. Julius Cæsar the preceding year. 9. Errare: that is, pasci; to graze at large.' In the same manner, to stray is employed by Milton: "In russet lawns and fallows grey, Where the nibbling flocks do stray." 13. Protenus: porrotenus, Serv. 'forward.' In the same sense protinus, or more correctly, protenus is used in En. x. 340. Protinus hasta fugit.-Eger:grieving, afflicted.'-Duco: Melibœus, whilst employed in driving before him the other goats, was, with difficulty, 'leading' one of them by a cord. 15. Silice in nudâ : on the bare rock. Silex, usually masc., is here fem.; and likewise Æn. viii. 233. 6,603,1.9; 15. Leva: stupid, infatuated.' It is used in the same sense, Æn. ii. 54; also by Horace, A. P. 301. 17. Tactas de calo: struck with lightning.' 18. Cornix in several MSS. this line is not found; in others, added in posterior writing. Professor Martyn thinks it an imitation of Ecl. ix. 15. by some interpolator. A similar occurrence appears from Cicero, De Divin. i. to have given the augurs room to prognosticate a favourable conclusion. Quid habeat augur, cur a dextrâ, corvus, a sinistra, cornix, faciat ratum? 19. Da: tell, explain.'-Iste deus: the pronouns hic, iste, and ille may be thus distinguished; hic deus, is this god of mine, or whom I mentioned; iste deus, is that god of yours; and ille deus, that god of his, theirs, or of any third person. 21. Nostra: 'to Mantua.' 22. Depellere: for pellere, 'to drive.' 24. Noram: I thought.' 26. Viburna: from vico, to bind ;' a shrub applied to that purpose. The difference which Tityrus had expected to find between Rome and Mantua, was that of extent. The resemblance, he thought, would be nearly that which is observed between a young animal and its dam: but he was deceived: the two cities differed in nature; as much as a cypress and an osier. 28. Libertas: the agriculture of Italy was then carried on, not by the hands of hired labourers, but of slaves; of this unhappy class, Tityrus is represented as one; not that Virgil or his father was really a slave; but he speaks of the oppression at home, in his own country, as a kind of slavery which disheartened him.-Inertem: 'feeble; past labour.' Slaves were seldom enabled to redeem, themselves till they had attained an advanced period of life. 30. Post: here, and again, verse 68, used adverbially. 33. Pecult this term was applied to the private property of slaves, which they were allowed to acquire and retain: of this, during his connexion with Galatea, he was careless, and cherished no hope of freedom. After her departure, with a more frugal mate probably, he attained his object. 35. Ingrate from which he returned without money. Though Tityrus carried to market the produce of his dairy, and his fat cattle, he never could return home full-handed. 37. Amarylli: Melibus calls to mind the grief of Amaryllis, the cause which he now perceives to have been the absence of Tityrus, and breaks out in this exclamation. 38. Poma: this name is given, in general, to fruit growing on trees. 40. Vocabant: the gods were sometimes invoked, as if at a distance, with loud prayers. Geo. i. 347. During the absence of Tityrus, these circumstances Melbous had observed, and had been unable to account. for them.-Arbusta: these were spots of ground in which elms and other trees were planted at distances from each other of about forty feet; the boughs of these were trimmed, and vines trained round them, named arbustivæ vites. Colum. de Arb. iv. 42. Præsentes: 'propitious; favouring; assisting personally." 43. Juvenem: Cæsar Octavianus was then about twenty-two years of age. Decreverat senatus ne quis eum puerum diceret, ne majestas tanti imperii minueretur. Serv. 44. Cui....fumant: to whom-in whose favour, I have vowed twelve sacrifices yearly.' Tityrus speaks of the future as present, having already commenced these sacrifices (one probably each month) which he had vowed. 45. Responsum....dedit....petenti : this does not imply that any conversation had passed, or any application been made, personally, by Tityrus to Cæsar Octavianus. The response of a protecting divinity, verse 46, is given to the inquiry of his worshipper, solicitous as to his master's fate and his own. In dubiis responsa petunt. En. vii. 86. Voss. 46. Submittite: jugo, understood. D. 49. Junco the poet gives no favourable description of this spot, either in point of health, beauty, or fertility. The passage may be understood two ways; either as descriptive of Tityrus's farm (by which Virgil's is understood), or, more probably, that he had a farm sufficiently large and fertile, surrounded by the farms of others, whose upland he terms naked rock;' and that bordering on the lake, 'a reedy fen.' "Andes, where was situated Virgil's farm, is said traditionally to be the modern village Pietole, distant from Mantua three miles." Eustace's Classical Tour in Italy. i. 102. 50. Graves....fatas: heavy with young.' D. 52. Flumina nota: twelve miles below Mantua, the Mincius (Mincio) falls into the Po, (Eustace, i. 103.) and near the town forms a lake. Under the term, flumina, the poet more probably refers to the smali streams crossing his domain, than to these rivers, Ecl. v. 84. Geo. iv. 54. Voss. 53. Frigus.. .... opacum: 'coolness in the shade.' 54. Hinc.... susurro: the sentence may be thus placed: Hinc sepes, a limite vicino, quæ semper depasta est quod ad florem salicti Hybleis apibus, sæpè levi susurro suadebit tibi inire somnum. A boundary hedge is planted with willows: to these the bees resort, whose gentle humming lulls to sleep. The epithet, Hyblæan, is applied to them on account of the superior quality of the honey produced in that district of Sicily-Florem depasta: a Græcism; as, os humerosque deo similis. En. i. 589.-Salicti: contracted from saliceti. D. 57. Frondator: in order to assist the ripening of the grape, he is represented as clearing away the leaves, and pruning. See Geo. ii. 400. -Ad auras: to the breezes." 58. Tua cura: your favourites;' tua cura Lycoris. Ecl. x. 22. 62. Ante: Tityrus expresses the extent of his obligation, which he never can forget.-Pererratis .... finibus: each people, passing their own boundary, shall occupy the other's country. This could only be effected by the previous conquest of the Romans, whose territory intervened. Tityrus, therefore, means to represent the impossibility of this occurrence. 63....65. Ararim.... Tigrim: the names of rivers flowing in distant regions, could not, as has been observed, be familiar to an Italian peasant: possibly, for this reason, his geography has been made purposely incorrect. Parthia proper, bounded N. by the Caspian, E. by Bactriana, S. by the deserts of Caramania, W. by Media, was separated by the latter country, and by part of Syria, from the Tigris. On the other hand, the Arar, now the Saone, is a river of Gaul, and joins the Rhone, near the present city of Lyons. To this it has been replied, that the Parthians might, and did in fact, make inroads and conquests as far as the Tigris; and the Germans, as far as the Saone: though these rivers were not within their territory, respectively, yet they flowed in countries which each had conquered. 65. Afros: the preposition omitted; according to the Greek idiom. Melibus proceeds to contrast his own and his fellow exiles' fate to that of Tityrus. 66. Crete.... Oazem: Melibaus speaks of his expelled countrymen as destined to wander in countries at the extremities of the earth. Crete could hardly be reckoned among these: yet in that island, a town named Oaxis is twice mentioned by Herodotus, iv. and from that town, Apollonius Rhodius, and Varro, as cited by Servius, take epithets for the island; no sufficient proof, indeed, appears that any river there ever bore this appellation. Servius thinks the Oxus, a Bactrian river, is meant; and that creta, signifies the chalk,' or 'white clay,' by which its stream was discoloured. Ad flumen Oxum perventum est: hic, quia, limum vehit, turbidus semper et insalubris potu. Quint. Curt. vii. 10. Though rapidum crete, is an unusual idiom, the interpretation o. Servius is adopted by Voss. No passage in the Eclogues has given birth to more debate, and it must remain in considerable doubt. 6 |