absurd in Heyne to say, that the bay-leaves were daubed with bitumen, which is a hard substance.-83. in Daphnide, i. e. (says Jahn, following Servius) "éπì Aápvidi super Daphnidis effigiem." Voss and Forbiger understand it in the same manner; but as this goes on the supposition of the limus and cera of v. 80 being images, we feel inclined with Wagner to take in Daphnide as equivalent to propter Daphnidem. At all events it is to be understood as the éri Aéλpide in the corresponding place of Theocritus. 85-90. She now describes the violence of the love which she wishes the preceding charms to infuse into Daphnis.Talis amor, sc. teneat: see v. 89.-86. bucula, heifer, a diminutive of bos it is said. We doubt however if ulus, ula, was a diminutive in the ancient language. Romulus was apparently the same as Romus, Catulus as Catus, Brutulus as Brutus.-87. Propter aquae rivum, beside a stream of water. -88. Perdita, an epiphonema, like the Homeric vηín, and should therefore be enclosed in commas.-decedere nocti, as if ordered by night to depart.—89. nec sit mihi, etc. The usual language of lovers, who declare they will never forgive a slight, yet never can keep their resolution. Comp. Ter. Eun. i. 1. In the whole of this stanza we may observe the perturbation of the speaker: carried away by her passion, she omits in the commencement the verb after amor; and then after qualis, instead of saying tenet buculam, she says cum bucula fessa procumbit, and does not think of the verb teneo till she comes to the end, where she is obliged to repeat talis amor. 91-94. Another charm is that of burying under the threshold of her door such articles belonging to Daphnis as she possessed. V. 87. Propter aquae rivum, sub ramis arboris altae.-Lucr. ii. 30. Varius, ap. Macrob. vi. 2. V. 91. Τοῦτ ̓ ἀπὸ τᾶς χλαίνας τὸ κράσπεδον ὤλεσε Δέλφις, Θέστυλι, νῦν δὲ λαβοῖσα τὺ τὰ θρόνα ταῦθ ̓ ὑπόμαξον Τᾶς τήνω φλιᾶς καθυπέρτερον.—Theoc. ii. 53. This was supposed to exercise a magic power of attraction. See Aen. iv. 495 seq.-exuvias, whatever one put off (exuit) was an exuvia, clothes, arms, etc. The word was chiefly used of the skins of animals.—93. debent (sc. ducere, from next verse) mihi. They ought, according to magic rules, to attract him. 95–100. Has herbas atque haec venena, a hendyadis for has herbas venenatas. See on ii. 8.-Ponto, i. e. in Colchis, the country of Medea.-96. Ipse. In this word, as often in our own himself, there is implied an expression of dignity or superiority: Moeris himself, the great Moeris.-97. His, with these, by the power of these. The three following were usual feats of magicians, and are frequently mentioned by Tibullus. and the other Latin poets. The change into a wolf is what in the middle ages was called becoming a war-wolf, the superstition having probably come down from the ancients. The earliest mention of it is the Arcadian legend of the change of Lycaon. Petronius (62) describes the process of becoming a war-wolf. The story of Saul and the witch of Endor is the earliest notice of the evocation of the dead. There was a special law in the Twelve Tables against charming away other people's crops of corn. Our own unfortunate witches were accused of charming away the butter out of the churn.99. alio, to another place. This word is given in the dictionaries as an adverb, but improperly, for it is plainly a dative of alius. As this word, beside its ordinary gen. alius, made also one in i and ae, as aliae pecudis, Cic., aliae partis, Liv., so it also made a dat. in o and ae, of which the latter occurs in Plautus and Gellius.—messes, i. q. frumenta. "Sata in futu ram messem."-HEYNE. 101-104. All her charms hitherto employed having proved unavailing, she has recourse to one which seems to have been thought of the greatest efficacy, that of throwing ashes into a running stream with the head averted. The reason of this V. 101. Ηρι δὲ συλλέξασα κόνιν πυρὸς ἀμφιπόλων τις Ριψάτω εὖ μάλα πᾶσαν ὑπὲρ ποταμοῖο φέροισα, charm, like that of so many others, is unknown.-rivo, the dat. for in rivum, see on ii. 30.—102. Trans caput, the Greek vwèρ kepaλýv.—nec respexeris. This was an essential part of such charms, lest the operator should be terrified or injured by whatever might appear. Cave respexis, fuge et operi caput, Plaut. Most. ii. 2, 88. Hoc novies dicit nec respicit, Ov. Fast. v. 439.-103. nihil ille deos, etc., 'He cares not for the gods that witnessed his perjury, and my previous charms have had no effect on him.' 105-109. When she goes to the altar to take up the ashes for her last charm, a spontaneous flame springs up from among them; and while she is pondering on this favourable sign, the watch-dog begins to bark, announcing the approach of some one, who proves to be Daphnis.-106. dum ferre moror, while I have delayed taking them away.—Bonum sit, may it prove a good omen.-107. Nescio quid certe est, it is something certainly, though I know not what. Doering would punctuate this verse thus, Nescio quid.—Certe est et, etc., i. e. nescio quid, sc. audio. Certe est, sc. Daphnis. We prefer the former, as more simple and natural.-Hylax, barker, from iλaкTéw.— 108. Credimus? do I believe? is it a reality?. —an quì ămant: see on ii. 53.—somnia fingunt, form dreams for themselves, i.e. take their hopes and wishes for realities.—109. Parcite, etc., ‘it is not so; he is really coming; no more charms are required.' OBSERVATIONS. Date.-There can be little dispute about the date of this eclogue; for Pollio, to whom it is dedicated, led his army into Dalmatia toward the end of the year 712-14, and he was evidently on his return after his victories when the eclogue was composed. The date therefore is 713-15. Subject. This eclogue contains the songs of two shepherds, each on a different subject. It thus differs from the fifth, while, in not being amœbæic, it is distinguished from the third and seventh. It was perhaps the two songs in the seventh Idyll of Theocritus that suggested this construction. The first song has no prototype in Theocritus, but it contains some imitations of him; the second is a plain, but inferior, copy of his second Idyll. Characters. It is merely said that the two swains were shepherds. In their songs, of course, they each assume a character. Scenery.-There is nothing to indicate the scenery of the place where the two shepherds sang. That of the first song seems to be our poet's usual ideal one, as we find mountains (30, 59) and the sea in it (59). The scene of the second seems to be, as we have observed, the impluvium or innercourt of a house. ECLOGUE IX.—MOERIS. ARGUMENT. MOERIS, the steward or bailiff of a proprietor named Menalcas, who was a poet, as he is on his way to the town where the person who had gotten possession of Menalcas' lands resided, with some kids to his new master, is overtaken by a neighbouring swain named Lycidas, to whom he relates the misfortunes of himself and his former master. As they proceed, they sing various fragments of Menalcas' poetry. NOTES. 1. Quo te pedes? sc. ducunt, as appears by the following ducit. Ad diaetam tuam ipsi me...pedes ducunt, Plin. Ep. vii. 5. When one verb is, as it were, thus contained in another, the more usual way is to omit the verb in the second member. Spohn gives from Horace the two following as examples of the process in the text. Saepe velut qui currebat fugiens hostem (S. i. 3, 9), i. e. saepe velut qui hostem fugiens currebat, currebat ille, and Qui mercenarius agrum Illum ipsum mercatus aravit (S. ii. 6, 12), i. e. illum ipsum mercatus erat.— urbem, the town, as in i. 20, without any mention of its name. The critics, as there, supply Mantua, but with as little reason. 2-6. The perturbation of Moeris, caused by his grief and indignation, is finely marked by the abrupt and involved manner in which he commences his reply. He gives no direct answer to the question of Lycidas, but utters at once what lay heavy on his mind.—vivi pervenimus, I have lived to see. Literally, I have come alive to, etc.-advena, a stranger.3. quo, to where, to that condition. It is an old dat. of qui, and is governed of pervenimus. Cf. i. 72. The reading of most MSS. is quod, which is adopted by Heyne, Voss and Jahn. Wagner and Forbiger prefer quo, which is that of three, or rather four, MSS. The sense of the whole passage is this: 'O Lycidas, I have lived to come to that state which I never apprehended, that a stranger should get possession of my land and turn me out of it.' Wagner thinks that vivi is used, because the usual way in which soldiers got possession of lands was by slaying the owners or driving them out by the right of war, whereas this was a new mode, namely that of seizing the lands of quiet inoffensive people. But surely this is refining too much.-nostri agelli, of our (i. e. my) land. The first person plural is here, as usual, used for the singular, as appears by pervenimus. The slaves then, as old servants do now, spoke of their master's property as their own.-4. Haec mea sunt. This was the legal form of asserting one's right to a thing: see on i. 47.—coloni, owners. The original meaning of colonus is cultivator, farmer. Cic. de Or. ii. 71.—5. victi, tristes, overcome, obliged to yield to force, and therefore obeying with a sorrowful heart. The asyndeton here is very effective.-Fors, i. e. Fortuna, though these words are not exactly equivalent; for Donatus (on Ter. Phorm. v. 6, 1) says, Aliud Fortuna est, aliud Fors Fortuna. See Ov. Fast. vi. 773, with our note.-6. quod nec vertat bene: as we would say, 'May it be his poison! may it choke him!' Quod, with some lost neuter noun answering to the Greek xpñua understood, may, as here, be used after a plural. Vertat bene, instead of the common reading bene vertat, is the reading of the Medicean and three other MSS. Terence says, Quae res tibi vortat male, Adelph. ii. 1, 37, and Quae quidem illi vortat male, Phorm. iv. 3, 73. The other reading Wagner thinks arose |