of this mission (XI. 225-295). Diomedis ad urbem: Argyripa (afterwards called Arpi), a town in Apulia, is meant. The tradition was that Diomede, having impiously wounded the goddess Venus in the Trojan war, had been prevented from returning to his home after the downfall of Troy and, after much suffering, had at last reached Apulia in Italy. Here he was kindly received by king Daunus and, as a reward for his services in a war waged by that monarch against the Messapians, received a gift of territory. Within this new domain he founded several towns, among them Argyripa. 10. consistere and the following infinitives (except posci) are in indirect discourse after edoceat. II. victos Penatis inferre: in victos lurks a diplomatic compliment to the prowess of Diomede in the Trojan war. 13. multas gentis: Turnus here, through his envoy, warns Diomede of what is to be apprehended rather than of what is actually taking place. 14. viro Dardanio: as Dardanus was reputed to be of Italian origin, the circumlocution vir Dardanius seems to be used intentionally here in explanation of the eagerness with which the neighboring tribes are represented as flocking to the standard of Aeneas. late increbrescere nomen: that the phrase (vir Dardanius) is on everybody's tongue. 15. struat: aims at. = 16. pugnae belli. ipsi: i. e., Diomede. eventum pugnae : if Turnus is defeated in the impending struggle, Diomede's own domains will next fall a prey to the invader. 17. Note the ceremonious repetition of regi at the close of this formal address. 18-35. Aeneas, sorely perplexed by the threatening aspect of affairs, lies down to rest late at night on the banks of the Tiber. Here the river god appears to him. 19. magno curarum fluctuat aestu: tosses on a sea of perplexities. Cf. Shakspere's "a sea of troubles." 20-1. These verses occur also in IV. 285–6, where Aeneas, who has been ordered in a vision to depart from Carthage, is balancing the personal claims of Dido with the positive commands of Jupiter. 22. aquae limits lumen; translate in water. labris: loc. abl. 23. sole imagine solis; cf. imagine lunae. The dancing image = on the walls and ceiling is viewed as produced by reflection from the image in the water. 25. summi laquearia tecti: the paneled ceiling. laquearia designates the enclosed spaces, or sunk panels, often richly carved and painted, produced by the crossing of the beams which formed the framework of the ceiling. 26-7. These lines suggest the fuller picture of a tranquil night scene contained in IV. 522-7: Nox erat, et placidum carpebant fessa soporem corpora per terras, silvaeque et saeva quierant aequora, cum medio volvuntur sidera lapsu, cum tacet omnis ager, pecudes pictaeque volucres, quaeque lacus late liquidos quaeque aspera dumis rura tenent, somno positae sub nocte silenti. Cf. also Milton, Paradise Lost, IV. 598–603. "Now came still evening on, and twilight gray Had in her sober livery all things clad: Silence accompanied; for beast and bird, They to their grassy couch, these to their nests, Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale ; She all night long her amorous descant sung." = : alitum. 27. alituum 28. gelidi sub aetheris axe: i. e., in the cool night air under the open sky. axis is strictly the straight line, extending from pole to pole, on which the celestial sphere appears to turn; then, by metonymy, it is used to designate the overarching sky. 30. dedit per membra: a poetic locution, apparently suggested by such expressions as somnus diditur per membra. For the usual construction with do, see passage cited in foot-note. 31. ipse in person. fluvio amoeno may be connected with se attollere, the god being represented as rising from the waters of the river; but in VII. 30, where the same expression occurs, fluvio seems to be an ablative of description. Preferably so here. 32. populeas: note the quantity of the 'o': pōpulus, poplar; populus, people. senior: sea and river gods are usually represented by the poets as aged. 34. carbasus: according to Pliny carbasus is a fine variety of linen first made in Spain. It is made, he says, of flax which thrives best on river banks. Hence it is appropriately made the material of the drapery of Tiberinus. harundo: a fringe of reeds about the head, in addition to the bluish-gray drapery (glauco amictu) before mentioned, formed a characteristic feature of the received poetic conception of a river god. Cf. passage cited in foot-note. 35. This verse occurs also in II. 775 and III. 153. In both cases, as here (see v. 33), some form of visus precedes, and the infinitives adfari and demere may be considered as depending on this, the intervening expression being taken parenthetically. Others prefer to treat these as historical infinitives. 26-35. The student should note the tenses of the main verbs in this passage. Those which present a picture, as the night scene on the river bank and the appearance of the river god, are in the imperfect tense (erat, 26, habebat, 27, velabat, 33, tegebat, 34); those, on the other hand, which state what occurred amid these surroundings are in the historical perfect tense (procubuit and dedit, 30, visus [est], 33). 36-65. The river god declares that Aeneas has at last reached the end of his wanderings and the seat of his permanent abode; and, in confirmation of this assurance, predicts that he will presently behold a white sow with a litter of thirty young lying on the river bank. He urges Aeneas to visit the Arcadian king Evander at Pallanteum, among the neighboring hills, for the purpose of forming an alliance, and promises to aid him in the journey thither. 37. revehis nobis: according to tradition, Dardanus, the founder of the houses of Priam and Aeneas, went to Phrygia originally from Corythus, an ancient town in Etruria; cf. passage cited in foot-note. aeterna: an instance of what is called the proleptic (anticipatory) use of the adjective. The meaning is not thou preservest the imperishable Pergama,' but thou renderest Pergama imperishable by preserving it.' 38. exspectate: why? Cf. the oracular response (cited in footnote) received by King Latinus at the shrine of his father Faunus. 39. certi penates repeats the thought of certa domus with added strength because of its sacred suggestions. ne absiste, neu terrere : prohibitions are often expressed in poetry by ne with the present imperative. How in prose? A. and G. 269. a. 40. tumor: sc. animi. irae deum illustrated by the storm raised by Aeolus at the request of Juno, I. 50-123. 41. There are in the entire poem fifty-eight unfinished verses, three of which (vv. 41, 469, 536) occur in the present book. Although the pauses produced by these unfinished verses are often significant, bringing a period to an effective close or marking a transition, it is not to be supposed that Vergil intended to leave these verses incomplete. If he had lived to give the final touches to the poem, these gaps would undoubtedly have been closed. 42. vana haec fingere somnum: that these are the delusive suggestions of sleep. Iam tibi inventa iacebit: you shall straightway find lying. 45. Note the importance given to the color by the emphatic position of alba and albi, the one at the beginning of the verse, the other after the caesural pause. 46. urbis Lavinium, to be named from Aeneas's future wife Lavinia, daughter of Latinus. 43-6. These verses are identical with III. 390-3, except that in the present passage we have hic locus urbis erit in place of is locus urbis erit. In the third book the words occur in a prediction of the prophet Helenus, who is telling Aeneas where he is to build his city; and the portent of the white sow and her thirty young is there left uninterpreted. The identity of the language in the present passage serves to recall Helenus's prediction, and to convince Aeneas that he is not dreaming, but is in the personal presence of the river god. Sus alba, as appears from vv. 47-8, prefigures the city of Alba, which, according to the legend, derived its name from the white sow, though in reality probably from the color of the rock on which it was built. Triginta capitum prefigures the thirty years that are to intervene between the founding of Lavinium and the founding of Alba. The object of Helenus was to point out the site of the future city merely, so that the verse beginning is locus urbis erit was essential to his purpose; the object of Tiberinus, on the other hand, is to interpret the prodigy, and in view of this purpose the verse beginning hic locus urbis erit is superfluous if not confusing. For this reason Conington brackets this verse, being further supported in so doing by the fact that it is wanting in certain manuscripts. 47. ex quo: if v. 46 be retained, sc. loco and translate: starting out from this place (Lavinium). If v. 46 be rejected, which seems preferable, sc. prodigio and translate: in conformity with this portent. ter denis = triginta. The distributives are often used as cardinals in poetry, particularly when multiplied by a numeral adverb, in which case the objects are considered in groups. redeuntibus annis: apparently an unconscious appropriation from Lucretius, as the event referred to is to take place after the expiration of thirty years. For this meaning the present participle is unsuitable. See Conington's note on the passage. 49. haud limits incerta; non would have limited cano. 51. Arcades: the Arcadians, as Greeks, would naturally be viewed by Aeneas as enemies; but the prophecy of the Sibyl (cited in the foot-note to v. 56) has already prepared the way for the alliance now to be suggested. 52-4. According to a widespread tradition, mentioned also by Livy (I. 5), Evander, an Arcadian prince, had migrated with some Pelasgians to the shores of the Tiber, and there, on the hill afterwards called Palatinus, had built a town Pallanteum, named from his ancestor Pallas. 52. secuti sc. sunt. 53. montibus: i. e., the Palatine and neighboring hills. 55. ducunt rather than gerunt because the war was protracted. gente Latina Rutulis, as appears from v. 146. 57. ripis: (within, i. e.,) between the banks. recto flumine: following the course of the stream. 58. subvectus (sub, from below upward): the proper word for sailing against the current. 59. primis cadentibus astris: i. e., at break of day. 60. iramque minasque is apparently inconsistent with vv. 40–1. See, however, VII. 313-6, where Juno expressly abandons as useless her efforts to prevent Aeneas from establishing himself in Latium, but perseveres in her determination to interpose delay by exciting wars against him: Non dabitur regnis, esto, prohibere Latinis, 64. caeruleus has no reference to the actual color of the waters of the Tiber, which would be expressed by flavus, but is used here as the customary descriptive epithet of sea and river gods. Cf. glauco amictu, v. 33. |