of an onion or leek, and hence it has received the name of Cipollino marble. Among many allusions to these marbles in the Latin poets, we may quote Mart. IX. lxxvi. 6. Idem beatas lautus extruit thermas De marmore omni, quod Carystos invenit, Quod Phrygia Synnas, Afra quod Nomas mittit the Numidian marble was yellow, (Giallo antico.) 15. (Nemora in domibus,) The Romans usually had gardens and shrubberies (viridaria) behind their houses, which were surrounded by peristyles or colonnades, where they might sit or walk about, sheltered from the noontide heat. So Hor. Ep. I. x. 22. Nempe inter varias nutritur silva columnas, and C. III. x. 5. Audis, quo strepitu ianua, quo nemus Inter pulchra satum tecta remugiat. 15. (Sacros imitantia lucos,) i. e. in thickness and extent. 16. (Auratæ trabes.) The beams forming the lacunar or fretted ceiling. Compare Prop. III. ii. 9. Quod non Tænariis domus est mihi fulta columnis, Nec camera auratas inter eburna trabes. 17. (Erythræo litore.) The Persian gulf or sea of Oman, celebrated in ancient, as in modern times, for its pearl-fisheries. Hence Erythræi lapilli are pearls. 27. (Pro dulci reditu,) sc. in gratiam et ad priores sensus amoris, (D.) This explanation is extremely harsh; it is much better to understand with the old commentators, that the poet is addressing his absent mistress. 21. (Mentes hominum curæque levantur.) This form of expression belongs to the construction which grammarians term Zeugma. It consists in employing a single verb with reference to different objects, although it properly applies only to the one which is nearest to it, or applies to one of the objects in a sense different from that which it bears when applied to the other. Thus, in the above line, a double meaning must be assigned to levantur, since mens levatur will signify "the mind is eased or refreshed;" curæ levantur, cares are removed," the general idea of relieving from a load, forming the connecting link. We find, however, frequently in the poets much more violent examples of this figure. Thus Tib. I. iv. 65. Quem referent Musæ, vivet, dum robora tellus, Where vehet strictly applies to aquas alone. So Virg. Æ, ii. 320. Sacra manu, victosque deos, parvumque nepotem ............... Where trahit cannot apply to the sacra and deos, which Æneas carried. Again Æ. XII. 435. Disce, puer, virtutem ex me verumque laborem. ......... ..... We may learn how to bear fortune, but cannot be said discere fortunam. Even in prose this construction sometimes occurs. Thus Cic. Ep. Att. X. 4. Fortuna florentissima illi, nos duriore conflictati sumus. In Ovid the use of a verb, with a double meaning, sometimes approaches to what we should call a pun. Thus in Met. II. 505, he tells how Arcas was on the point of slaying, in ignorance, his mother Callisto, who had been turned into a bear; but just as he was launching his javelin, Arcuit omnipotens: pariterque ipsosque nefasque i. e. Sustulit nefas prevented the guilty deed-Sustulit ipsos raised mother and son to the skies. When there are several nominatives in a sentence, and one common verb, which is made to agree only with the nearest nominative, the construction is sometimes termed Zeugma by grammarians, as in Virg. Æ. V. 343. Tutatur favor Euryalum, lacrymæque decoræ. So Liv. III. 7. Deserta omnia, sine capite, sine viribus, Dii præsides ac fortuna urbis tutata est. and IX. 11, Samniti populo omnes, quos in potestate habuit, aut pro eis pax debetur. 28. (Non meus deus,) i. e. inimicus, iratus. XII. 83. Compare Ov. Her. Quod si forte virum non dedignare Pelasgum, and Hor. Epod. IX. 30, of the flight of Antony. Ventis iturus non suis. and Ov. Met. IV. 373. Vota suos habuere deos 29. (Lydius aurifer amnis.) The Pactolus, now corrupted by the Turks into Bagouly. Its sources were in Mt. Tmolus, it flowed under the walls of Sardes, and fell into the Hermus. The Tagus and the Pactolus are constantly celebrated by the ancient poets, on account of their golden sands. Thus Virg. Æ. X. 141. Mæonia generose domo: ubi pinguia culta and Juv. S. XIV. 298, of the shipwrecked merchant. Sed cuius votis modo non suffecerat aurum 35. (Tristes.) Stern-inexorable. 38. (Orcus.) Pluto. Orcus, in the purer Latin writers, like Hades, among the earlier Greeks, is always a person, not a place. The passages quoted against this doctrine are not decisive. TIBULLUS. BOOK III. ELEGY V. INTRODUCTION. THE poet suffering under a protracted fever, addresses some friends who were visiting the hot springs of Etruria. He laments the hard fate which seemed to be impending over him, while still in his youthful prime, declares himself unconscious of any act of impiety which might have provoked the wrath of heaven, and implores the deities of the infernal regions to defer the period of death until his cheek shall have become pale and wrinkled with old age. He concludes by good wishes for his friends, and entreats them not to forget him, but to offer up sacrifices for his recovery. 1. 2. Etruria was celebrated in ancient, as it is in modern times, for its hot springs. Among the most famous of these were the Aquæ Cæretanæ now the Bagni di Sasso, in the neighbourhood of the important city of Agylla or Care; the Aquæ Pisanæ, now the Bagni di Pisa, within a few miles of Pisa, the still celebrated Pisa; the Aquæ Tauri, now Bagni di Ferrata, near Centumcellæ, or Trajani Portus, (Civita Vecchia,) &c. The poet gives no hint of the particular spot he alludes to, but many of these are situated near the sea, and the proverbial insalubrity of this low lying coast of Tuscany, (the Maremma,) in hot weather, will sufficiently explain the meaning of the second line. 3. This line is exceedingly obscure; the chief difficulty lies in the word maxima. Two interpretations have found favour in the eyes of commentators. 1. Broukhusius, Scaliger, and others, believe that Baie is here a general term for hot baths, and must not be restricted to the famous sources near Naples, which usually bear that name xar'oxǹv, and understand "But at this season, first among hot springs, on account of its holy waters," sacris lymphis being the ablative of cause. A decisive objection to this interpretation is, that we have no proof that the Romans ever did employ the word Baiæ as a general appellation for all hot baths; and even if they had done so occasionally, no 1 Strabo V. Val. Max. I. vi. poet would have used an expression so ambiguous as this would have been, when opposed to the Etruscis undis of the preceding couplet. 2. Wunderlich considers maxima as equivalent to maior. "But at this season superior to the holy springs of Baiæ;" but it is vain to tamper so rudely with maxima. Heyne rejects vss. 2 and 3 altogether, as spurious, which will certainly enable us to escape the difficulty. Lastly, a variety of conjectural emendations have been proposed, by far the simplest and best of which is to substitute proxima for maxima; these two words are frequently confounded in MSS., and if this change be made, the sense of the whole passage will be perfectly satisfactory. "You are residing at the Etrurian Sources, which, during the dogdays, indeed, are not to be approached; but in the present season of spring rank next to the holy waters of Baiæ." 4. (Se remittit,) sc. ex frigore. Compare Ov. Fast. IV. 126. Vere nitent terræ, vere remissus ager, and Horace, C. I. IV. 1. Solvitur acris hyems...and 10,...flore, terræ quem ferunt solutæ, 5. (Denuntiat) implies the communication of some disagreeable or threatening intelligence. Prop. IV. iii. 61. Ille dies hornis cædem denuntiat agnis. 6. (Parce nocere.) See note on vs. 43 of this Epistle. 8. (Laudanda... Dea.) The rites of the Bona Dea, to which no male creature was admitted. Compare Tib. I. vi. 22. Sacra Bonæ maribus non adeunda Deæ. With regard to the Bona Dea, see the remarks on the goddess Vesta, in the notes on Ov. Fast, VI. 419. Extracts p. 101. Compare also Cic. de Harusp. respons. c. 17. 9. (Infecit pocula,) “drugged a bowl." Compare Virg. G. II. 128. Pocula si quando sævæ infecere novercæ. 11...14. The general meaning of these lines is—I have never been guilty of any heinous impiety, either in deed or word, so as to merit the wrath of heaven. 17, 18. With regard to this couplet, and the conclusions drawn from it, see life of Tibullus, p. 6, and life of Ovid, p. 35. Compare Ov. Am. II. XIV. 23, when speaking of prema 19, 20. ture death, L |
