Dulcibus idcirco fluviis pecus omne magistri 445.] Comp. 1. 272 note. 446.] "Ipse aries etiam nunc vellera siccat," E. 3. 95, where accidental immersion is spoken of. 447.] Missus' like 'missa Pado,' 2. 452 note. For this sense of defluit' Forcell. instances Curt. 9. 8. "sumtis ducibus amnis peritis, defluxit ad insulam;" Suet. Nero 27,"quoties Ostiam Tiberi deflueret." Keightley suggests that the detail may be meant to convey a precept of washing the sheep in running water rather than in pools. 448.] Amurga,' 1. 194. Cato (96) says the ointment should be a compound of 'amurga,' water in which lupines have been boiled, and lees of wine, to which Col. (1. c.) adds white hellebore, if the ointment is used as a cure, not as a preventive. They add that the sheep are to be left in this condition two or three days, and then washed in the sea or in salt water. Varro (2. 11) prescribes wine and oil, mixed, according to some, with white wax and hogs' lard. Virgil's list of ingredients is much more formidable than either. Many of them, Keightley remarks, are needless, as in nearly all the receipts to be met with in ancient writers, and in those among ignorant people with ourselves. Comp. Dict. A. s. v. 'Theriaca.' Virgil does not say whether he means the ointment as a preventive or as a cure; the mention of hellebore and the omission of the subsequent direction about washing would lead us to infer the latter, if any reliance could be placed on his precision of expression. 'Contingunt:' see on v. 403. 445 450 455 Marius Victorinus, and Macrob. Sat. 5. 14. Many other copies, including Med. and Rom., have 'et sulfura viva,' which looks like a correction to avoid the hypermetric dactyl, such as has been introduced elsewhere in similar cases. See further on 2. 69. 'Viva,' ǎπуроv, native sulphur, as opposed to 'factitium' or 'mortuum,' πεvowμivov. The use of sulphur is mentioned Geop. 18. 15. 450.] Idaeas,' because of the pines on Ida, A. 5. 449., 10. 230. The use of pitch for the scab is recommended by Pliny 24 7, and by Didymus in Geop. 18. 8, and Col., for cuts received in shearing. “Pinguis unguine,' soft and yielding. Wax can only be made so by the addition of oil" (Keightley). 451.] Gravis:' see on v. 415. Both black and white hellebore are recommended by the various writers. 'Bitumen :' Pliny recommends a mixture of bitumen and pitch, Tooάopaλroc. 452.] The sense seems to be, ' a favourable crisis in the disease is never so nigh at hand,' the language being worded so as to combine the notion of a remedy with that of a turn in the complaint. Fortuna laborum' occurs again A. 7. 559 in a similar sense, 'any crisis in the work before us.' Germ. quotes Prop. 1. 17. 7, "Nullane placatae veniet fortuna procellae ?" where however the addition of placatae' makes it an attributive genitive. 453.] Potuit' seems merely a poetical amplification, though the context speaks of unwillingness to perform the operation. 'Rescindere:' "Ense secent lato volnus, telique latebram Rescindant penitus,” A. 12. 389. 454.] Tegendo:' see on E. 8. 71. Germ. comp. Lucr. 4. 1068, "Ulcus enim vivescit et inveterascit alendo." 455.] Adhibere manus, χειρουργεῖν, Abnegat, aut meliora deos sedet omina poscens. which, according to Diog. L. 3. 85, con- 456.] Heins. restored aut' for 'et' from the best MSS. For 'omina' Med., Rom., and others have 'omnia,' which may possibly be defensible on the analogy of such expressions as "omnia fausta precari," and Horace's "Siccis omnia nam dura Deus proposuit" (1 Od. 18. 3); but no instance is quoted for the combination meliora omnia,' and in any case 'omina' is less colloquial and more poetical. The confusion is a frequent one; see on A. 2. 182. With the general sense comp. Soph. Aj. 581, οὐ πρὸς ἰατροῦ σοφοῦ Θρηνεῖν ἐπῳδὰς πρὸς τομῶντι πήματι. 457.] Dolor apparently of the 'scabies,' which has become aggravated and violently inflamed, so as to produce fever, though it is possible that Virgil may have passed without notice to another complaint. Col. (1. c.), referring to this passage, merely says "febricitantibus ovibus." Balantum,' 1. 272 note; "venit pigris balanti bus aegror," Lucr. 6. 1132. 458.] Artus depascitur,' A. 2. 215. 459.] Incensos aestus :' comp. the Greek καῦσος, πυρετός. 460.] 'Inter ima... pedis,' from the ankle or between the hoofs, according to Col. 1. c., who adds that blood is also taken from under the eyes or from the ear ('maxime de capite,' Varro). It is not clear, nor does it much signify, whether 'inter ima pedis' is to be connected with 'ferire' or with 'salientem.' 'Salientem' is transferred from the blood to the veins, as the veins are said 'currere,' Pers. 3. 91. 461.] The first syllable of Bisaltae' is lengthened also by Öv. M. 6. 117, Claudian Laud. Stil. 1. 134, shortened by Gratius 523. 462.] The line is expressed as if it re 460 465 ferred exclusively to the Gelonus,' who however has really only to do with the 'deserta Getarum,' Rhodope belonging to the Thracian Bisaltae. Fugit' seems merely to express the migratory habits of the people, who, as Keightley reminds us, were horsemen. 463.] They drink (mares') milk coagulated with horses' blood.' This custom is recorded of the Massagetae by Stat. Ach. 1. 307. Horace (3 Od. 4. 24) attributes the practice of drinking horses' blood to the Spanish Concani. Pliny (18. 10) says that the Sarmatians mixed millet with the milk or the blood of mares. The milk of mares is a common beverage of savage tribes, from Homer's Hippemolgi downwards. Virgil is likely enough to have mistaken the people, even if he be right about the custom. 464-477.] If you observe a sheep fond of shade, languid in feeding, loitering, given to lying down, kill it before it infect the rest. The spread of disease is fearfully rapid, sweeping off not individuals but whole flocks. Witness what took place in the Alpine district of Noricum and Timavus, where the pastures are still desolate.' 464.] The epithet molli' marks the reason why the shade is sought, and so reflects back, as Voss remarks, on the seeker. 465.] Summas' may be meant to mark the daintiness of the feeder, though it would be sufficiently appropriate in any case to the grazing of cattle. 466.] He uses nearly the same words to express the effect of disease which he had employed E. 8. 87, 88 to denote that of love. 467.] 'Solam' may mean that it retires alone, or it may really refer to 'nocti,' as the only thing that has the power to make it retire. Continuo culpam ferro compesce, prius quam 470 475 Spemque gregemque simul, cunctamque ab origine gentem. 468.] Instead of introducing the antecedent to 'quam' he changes the sentence. Serv. and some of the old editors understood culpam' of the fault of neglect against which the shepherd was to guard, remarking "habere morbum culpa non est." Virgil however evidently expects his shepherd to feel with Henry Taylor's huntsman, "The dog that's lame is much to blame; It is not fit to live." The meaning of course is that the sheep is to be killed, not, as the Delphin editor thinks, that the disease is to be exterminated by cutting. 469.] So 'volgus' of the common herd of deer, A. 1. 190. Incautum' is doubtless meant to suggest the notion of a reckless mob, at the same time that it expresses the danger of the sheep. Lucr. (2.920) talks of "volgum turbamque animantum." Forb. 470.] The comparison seems to be not between the frequency of storms at sea and the number of the diseases of cattle, but between the quick rush of a storm-wind and the rapid spread of each of the various diseases. 'Creber' then will be taken closely with agens hiemem,' like "creberque procellis Africus," A. 1. 85. 'Aequora,' the reading of one MS., approved by Heins. and Heyne, is rightly condemned by Wagn. as disturbing the comparison. Aequore' may mean either along the ocean, or from it, like "ruit oceano nox," A. 2. 250. 6 6 472.] Aestiva,' military summer-quarters, is transferred to sheep, because they were frequently pastured in different places in summer and in winter. "Mihi greges in Apulia hibernabant, qui in Reatinis montibus aestivabant," Varro 2. 2. So Pliny (24. 6) speaks of "montium aestiva." Here the quarters are further put for their occupants. 473.] Spemque gregemque:"" agnos cum matribus," Serv. Ab origine gentis' occurs A. 1. 642 of the foundation of a people. Here it seems to mean that the destruction is root and branch, sweeping off all generations alike. 474.]Sciat,' 'let him know,' i. e. let him bear witness from his knowledge to the fact I speak of, like "orw in Greek, Aesch. Choeph. 602. 475.] Castella' are the fortified dwellings of the Alpine tribes, Livy 21. 33, Hor. 4 Od. 14. 11, referred to by Forb. The Timavus (E. 8. 6, A. 1. 244) is called 'Iapys' from the neighbouring country Iapydia. 476.] Regna pastorum,' E. 1. 70. 478-497.] This district was once visited by a pestilence which destroyed beasts of every kind, wild and tame. The symptoms were various; at one time the animals were parched up, at another they melted away. The victim died at the altar, or when slaughtered its body was found useless for augurial purposes. Calves died grazing or in their stalls: dogs went mad and swine were choked.' 478.] We know nothing of the epidemic described, or the time at which it happened, but it seems to have left a sufficiently terrible recollection behind it to induce Virgil to select it as a subject for a companion picture to that of the great plague of Athens at the end of the sixth book of Lucr. Serv. supposed the pestilence to be the same as that of Athens, which he declares spread into Italy, evidently an entirely gratuitous supposition. Other poets attempted similar descriptions, e. g. Ov. M. 7. 523 foll., who treads in the steps of Lucr. and Virgil, Lucan 6. 80 foll. 'Morbo caeli,' like 'vitio aeris,' E. 7. 57. Miseranda' occurs as an epithet of 'lues' A. 3. 137, which more or less resembles this passage. 479.] Tempestas is explained by Et genus omne neci pecudum dedit, omne ferarum, Nec via mortis erat simplex; sed ubi ignea venis 'morbo caeli,' the complaint being ascribed to the season. Comp. letifer annus,' A. 3. 138, and the preliminary passage to the description in Lucr. (6. 1090—1137). where diseases are referred to the state of the air. 'Toto... aestu:' the full force of an unusually hot autumn, a time proverbial for sickness, was brought to bear on the atmosphere, causing or aggravating the distemper. 480.] Perhaps Ladewig is right in supposing 'Neci' to be personified in such passages as the present, 4. 90, A. 2. 85, &c. (a remark extending to 'Morti,' A. 5. 691., 10, 662, 'Leto,' A. 5. 806, &c.), as if 'Orco' or 'Plutoni' had been used; but the use of 'dare exitio' in Lucr. 5. 95, 1000, shows that the supposition is not necessary (comp. also id. 6. 1144, "morbo mortique dabantur," which Virgil doubtless had before him here). Where the personification is little more than a metaphor, not much is gained by attempting to discriminate it from a metaphor of the ordinary sort. It is possible that it may have been more vividly present to a writer's mind at one time than at another, even where the expression employed is precisely the same; but criticism in such cases is apt to lose itself in over refinement, especially when exercised on a poet like Virgil, who is always in search of some artistic variety, and has no definite muster-roll of mythological personages or philosophical abstractions as part of his general belief. 481.] So Lucr. 6. 1126, speaking generally of diseases, "Aut in aquas cadit, aut fruges persidit in ipsas, Aut alios hominum pastus pecudumque cibatus." The absence of the copulative after 'infecit,' of which Wagn. complains, is doubtless meant to mark the close connexion of the two parts of the verse, the falling of the pestilence on the drink and food of the animals being coupled as a single event with that which it aggravated and partly caused, the death of the animals themselves. Virgil has imitated the structure of a line which is similarly placed at the opening of the description in Lucr. (6. 1140), "Vastavitque vias, exhausit civibus urbem." Tabo' is used 480 485 partly doubtless as associated with 'tabes,' partly, as Keightley remarks, to express the analogy between the corruption of the juices of the herbage and that of human blood in death or disease. 482] In the following lines Virgil apparently means to describe the disease as going through two opposite stages, parching fever being succeeded by a sort of liquefaction. 'Nec via mortis erat simplex then will mean generally that the course of the disease was not uniform, as Keightley takes it, rather than that there was more than one way, as a comparison of 2. 73 would seem to suggest. There is still however room for difference about' via mortis,' which might either mean the path by which death approaches, or that which leads to death. Other passages where similar expressions occur (e. g. Ov. M. 11. 792, Tibull. 1. 3. 50., 10. 4, Prop. 4. 7. 2) are in favour of the latter sense. 483.] The fever is called 'sitis' from its effect. 'Venis omnibus acta,' 'coursing through every vein.' 'Adduxerat artus:" from the shrinking of the skin in fever. Heyne quotes "adducta cutis " from Ov. M. 3. 398, Forb. "macies adduxerat artus from Ov. Heroid. 11. 27, and “ossaque nondum Adduxere cutem" from Lucan 4. 288. "In manibus nervi trahere," Lucr. 6. 1190. 481.] 'Rursus' of a change, as in v. 138. For a similar description comp. Lucr. 6. 1203, "Corruptus sanguis expletis naribus ibat: Huc hominis totae vires corpusque fluebat," and the rhetorical account of death from the bite of a 'seps,' Lucan 9. 767 foll. 485.] Minutatim' occurs Lucr. 2. 1131., 5. 1384., 6. 1191. Here it means literally 'piecemeal.' 486.] In honore deum medio,' in the middle of a sacrifice. "Inter sanctos ignis, in honore deorum," A. 3. 406. This technical sense of 'honos' is frequent in Virgil, A. 1. 49, 630, &c. Whether the hostia' was a bull, as Heyne thinks, or a sheep, according to Voss, there seems nothing to determine. Stans ad aram,' 2. 395 note. Lanea dum nivea circumdatur infula vitta, 487.] Circumdatur' is probably to be taken strictly,' is being put round the head.' For the difference between 'infula' and 'vitta,' see Dict. A. s. vv. 'Vitta' may be either abl. of quality with 'infula,' or of the instrument with circumdatur,' though the latter would be awkward, as suggesting another construction. 488.] Ministros,' the attendants who had the charge of the victim, as in Lucr. 1. 90, called in Greek dolo (Aesch. Ag. 231). 'Cunctantis' is explained by 'ante' in the next line. The same picture is given by Ov. M. 7. 593 foll. 490.] 'Inde,' from that victim, connected with 'inpositis fibris.' 'Fibris,' 1. 484 note. The refusal of the flame to kindle, here arising from the state of the animal, was a bad omen. Comp. Soph. Ant. 1006. 491.] This seems to introduce a new thought, the deficiency or corruption of some part of the interior of the animal, what was called ' exta muta (Heyne). Cerda comp. Ov. 1. c. (v. 600), "Fibra quoque aegra notas veri monitusque deorum Prodiderat." 492.] Suppositi,' because the throat was cut from beneath. "Supponunt alii cultros," A. 6. 248. The present line is almost repeated by Ov. (v. 599). 493.] The thin gore (‘ieiuna,' opp. 'pinguis') just dyes the surface of the sand. 494.] The herbage was tainted, as Wagn. remarks, so that laetis' merely denotes luxuriance, answering to 'plena ad praesepia.' The misery of the scene is indefinitely heightened by their dying in the midst of plenty. 495.]" 'Linquebant dulcis animas," A. 3. 140, the μελιήδεα or μελίφρονα θυμόν of Homer and Hesiod. "Reddebant vitam," 490 495 496.] "Catulorum blanda propago," Lucr. 4. 997. The epithet here is in contrast to 'rabies.' 497.] The ' angina,' άγχη or βράγχος, is a disease of swine, Aristot. H. A. 8. 21. 'Obesis' seems to express the swelling of the throat, as Serv. takes it, though applicable enough to the natural state of the animal. 498-514.]Racers fell sick, lost their appetite, and became restless, their ears drooping, and breaking out into cold sweat, their skin parched; afterwards as the disease advanced, their eyes glared, they breathed with difficulty, gore flowed from their nostrils, and their throats swelled. The only remedy was a draught of wine; but in time this maddened them, and they tore their own flesh in death.' 6 498.] Infelix studiorum' seems to be an expression of the same kind as those mentioned on 1. 277, but it is not easy to fix its exact meaning. A horse might be called 'felix studiorum' either as feeling pride in his occupation, or as having attained success in it, and the negative of either would suit the sense here, as though already a victor, he might still be unhappy, as having been cut off from further triumphs. Anyhow there seems more force in taking the words together than in accepting the punctuation of Heyne, who connects 'studiorum with ' inmemor.' Comp. "seri studiorum" Hor. 1 S. 10. 21. Inmemor herbae,' E. 8. 2. Ov. M. 7. 543, imitating this passage, has "Degenerat palmas, veterumque oblitus honorum Ad praesepe gemit, fato moriturus inerti." 499.] Fontisque avertitur:' a rare construction, perhaps modelled on the Greek |