atque utinam ex vobis unus vestrique fuissem aut custos gregis aut maturae vinitor uvae ! certe sive mihi Phyllis sive esset Amyntas 35 40 45 seu quicumque furor,-quid tum, si fuscus Amyntas? et nigrae violae sunt et vaccinia nigra— mecum inter salices lenta sub vite iaceret : serta mihi Phyllis legeret, cantaret Amyntas. hic gelidi fontes, hic mollia prata, Lycori, hic nemus hic ipso tecum consumerer aevo. nunc insanus amor duri me Martis in armis tela inter media atque adversos detinet hostes: tu procul a patria-nec sit mihi credere tantum. Alpinas ah, dura, nives et frigora Rheni me sine sola vides. ah te ne frigora laedant! ah tibi ne teneras glacies secet aspera plantas! ibo, et Chalcidico quae sunt mihi condita versu carmina pastoris Siculi modulabor avena. certum est in silvis, inter spelaea ferarum, malle pati, tenerisque meos incidere amores arboribus crescent illae, crescetis amores. interea mixtis lustrabo Maenala Nymphis, aut acres venabor apros. non me ulla vetabunt frigora Parthenios canibus circumdare saltus. iam mihi per rupes videor lucosque sonantes ire, libet Partho torquere Cydonia cornu : 50 55 55 spicula-tamquam haec sit nostri medicina furoris, 60 aut deus ille malis hominum mitescere discat! iam neque Hamadryades rursus neque carmina nobis ipsa placent; ipsae rursus concedite silvae. non illum nostri possunt mutare labores : haec sat erit, divae, vestrum cecinisse poetam, dum sedet et gracili fiscellam texit hibisco, Pierides: vos haec facietis maxima Gallo, Gallo, cuius amor tantum mihi crescit in horas, quantum vere novo viridis se subicit alnus. surgamus. solet esse gravis cantantibus umbra, iuniperi gravis umbra, nocent et frugibus umbrae. ite domum saturae, venit Hesperus, ite capellae. 65 70 75 NOTES. ECLOGUE I. AFTER the defeat of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi (B. C. 42) the Triumvirs promised to assign to their veterans the lands of eighteen Italian cities. Among these cities was Cremona, but its territory proving insufficient the soldiers either received or seized upon that of the neighbouring Mantua (Ecl. 9. 28), and among others Virgil's father was ejected from his farm at Andes. Virgil applied for help to C. Asinius Pollio (see Ecl. 4 Intr.), the legate of Transpadane Gaul, and was by him advised to proceed to Rome and make a personal appeal to Octavianus. His appeal was successful and the farm was restored. This Eclogue is a dialogue between two shepherds: Tityrus, who represents Virgil, is described as reposing at his ease in the fields among his sheep, when Meliboeus, who has just been ejected from his farm, enters driving before him his weary and unhappy flock. Although Tityrus represents Virgil, he is in the main an imaginary character and only speaks for the poet occasionally. So too the scenery of the Eclogue is purely imaginary, and does not in any way describe the country round Mantua. 1-10. M. You, Tityrus, enjoy leisure and sing of love on your own farm: we are driven from our dear country. T. To a god, Meliboeus, I owe it all—a god to whom I shall ever pay reverence due. 1. tu... nos patriae : nos patriam ... tu] Notice the marked antithesis between tu and nos repeated in inverse 33 |