tela inter media atque adversos detinet hostes; a, tibi ne teneras glacies secet aspera plantas! 45 ibo, et, Chalcidico quae sunt mihi condita versu 50 carmina, pastoris Siculi modulabor avena. recommended by the whole tone of the passage, 'Would I had been a peaceful shepherd, living my life and loving my love! but military madness has made me a soldier, and my love has easily left me.' Heyne read 'te' from a conjecture of Heumann, supposing that Lycoris had gone after a soldier lover, leaving Gallus to pastoral poetry and sorrow. Nunc,' as things are, used frequently to contrast an actual state with a hypothesis. Forb. comp. Tibull. I x 11 foll. 'Tunc mihi vita foret . . . nunc ad bella trahor,' where the subject as well as the expression is more or less similar. ... 46. Tantum' seems best taken as equivalent to tantam rem,' the object of 'credere,' as 'credita res,' A. 11 196, of a thing believed. Would that I might find myself unable to believe it!' Heyne comp. Tibull. III iv 82, A ego ne possim tanta videre mala !' 'Procul tantum (VI 16 note) would be out of place here; the harshness of separating the words would be great, and tantum' with 'nives vides' would be exceedingly weak. Serv. says on this line that these verses are really Gallus' own, extracted from his poems; but he does not say where the extract begins or ends. 47. Humboldt (Cosmos, vol. ii, Sabine's trans.) instances the uniform language of the Romans about the savageness and physical discomforts of the Alps as a proof of their insensibility to beauty of scenery. So there is nothing in the Prometheus to show that Aeschylus felt with any distinctness the sublimity of the landscape, on which a modern poet could hardly have failed to dwell. steeled Lycoris against Gallus' love would lead her to brave Alpine snows. Comp. such passages as Hor. Od. 1 iii 9 foll. 48. Voss comp. Prop. I viii 7, Tu pedibus teneris positas fulcire pruinas, Tu potes insolitas, Cynthia, ferre nives?' Emm. comp. Ov. M. 1 508, 'ne prona cadas, indignave laedi Crura secent sentes,' which seems to show that Virg. here is expressing a caution rather than a wish. 50-61. I will turn my poems into pastorals, and record my love on the barks of trees; I will hunt with the nymphs and the shepherds, in the hope-a vain hope---of cure.' 50. Gallus had translated Euphorion of Chalcis, whose poems were chiefly mythological and of the Alexandrine school. He was popular in the time of Cicero, who complains (Tusc. 111 19) of his being preferred to Ennius by the taste of the day, and elsewhere (De Div. 1164) speaks of his obscurity, a common Alexandrian vice, which, however, seems to have recommended him to Tiberius (Suet. Tib. 70). As he is said to have been imitated also by Tibullus and Propertius, his elegiac poems may have been those most in favour at Rome: and these accordingly may have been the poems which Gallus put into Roman dress (possibly in his elegies to Lycoris), and which he now proposes to adapt to the pastoral model of Theocritus. (For other conjectures see Heyne's Excursus.) How the adaptation was to be made is not very easy to see, unless we suppose that Gallus was to speak of himself and his sufferings in pastoral phraseology, changing his actual circumstances into the accidents of a shepherd's life, as Virg. has done for him in this Eclogue. ['Calchidico' Med. Pal., and so Ribbeck.-H. N.] 51. 'Modulabor,' v 14. The image by which the change is expressed is that of setting to tune or playing verses already composed. certum est in silvis, inter spelea ferarum 52. Spelea, omýλaia, Ciris, 466 it seems not to occur again till Claudian (B. Get. v. 354), who doubtless copied Virgil. 53. Malle,' rather than live a soldier's life. 'Pati,' absolutely. 'Disce sine armis Posse pati,' Lucan v 313, Et nescis sine rege pati,' Id. IX 262, quoted by Emm.— as we say, 'to get through life. 'Amores' used as Ovid uses it as the title of his poems. It may have been the title of Gallus' elegies; the words of Serv. (v. 1) are amorum suorum de Cytheride libros scripsit quattuor.' With the whole passage comp. Prop. 1 18. For carving verses on trees see v 13. 54. Heyne comp. Ov. Her. v 23, 'Et quantum trunci, tantum mea nomina crescunt: Crescite, et in titulos surgite recta meos.' Perhaps Virg. may mean, as Voss thinks, not merely that the verses will grow with the tree, but that the passion will increase. 55. He will throw himself into the hunting part of a shepherd's life (11 29 note). Mixtis Nymphis,' a common variety for mixtus." 'Mixtoque insania luctu,' A. x 871. The nymphs of the wood and mountain would take part in the chase, as when they attend on Diana, Od. VI 105. 'Lustrare' need not refer specially to dancing, as Voss thinks, though that may have been the motion in the chase (comp. A. I 499). With the passage generally comp. G. III 40 foll. 56. 'Aut' merely distinguishes the actual chase from its preliminaries. So A. I 322, errantem . . succinctam aut spumantis apri cursum clamore prementem.' 55 61 57. 'Parthenios' agrees with the Arcadian scenery. 'Canibus circumdare See on VI 56. saltus,' G. I 140. 58. Lucosque sonantis,' with the cry of the hunt (G. III 43). The words recur G. IV 364, where the noise is that of water. 59. Partho' and 'Cydonia' (Gnosia spicula,' A. v 306, the Cretan reeds being especially good for arrows) are probably literary epithets (note on 1 54). 'Cornu' for a bow of horn, A. VII 497. See the description of Pandarus' bow, Il. IV 105 foll. 'Torquere,' improperly used of shooting an arrow, as in A. v 497. 60. In the full burst of enthusiasm he feels he is deluding himself (Heyne). 'Sint' was adopted by Heyne after Heins. from Med.; Wagn. justly regards this as a case of the confusion of numbers, common even in the best MSS. (see on VI 30), 'haec' having been wrongly supposed to refer to 'spicula.' [See also Ribbeck, Prolegomena, p. 207.] 61. Ille,' whom we know so well-too well to think him capable of pity. So 'illum,' v. 64. 62-69. No, woodland and song are delusions after all; love is not to be baffled by the most violent change of scene-we have only to give way.' 62. 'Iam' expresses that the change of feeling is already begun. 'Amadryades,' the nymphs of v. 55. 'Rursus' is restored by Wagn. here and in 63 from Pal., Rom. and Med. corr. with the remark that in the best MSS. 'rursum' is generally found only before a vowel. [Ribbeck following Med. pr. m. has rusum' here, rursus' in 63.] 65 ipsa placent; ipsae rursus concedite silvae. Gallo, cuius amor tantum mihi crescit in horas, 'Concedite: Concedite atque abscedite, omnes de via decedite,' Plaut. Amph. III iv 1: less courteous than 'vivite silvae,' VIII 59. 64. He is not one on whom any hardships of ours (vv. 62, 65) can work a change.' Both hardship and effort seem included in labores' here. 'Mutare,' of effecting a change in a person, A. v 679, XII 240. The sentiment resembles Horace's 'Caelum non animum,' etc. 65. From Theocr. VII III, where the subject is a menace to Pan. The Hebrus, spoken of by Hor. Ep. 1 iii 3 as nivali compede vinctus,' was, as Forb. remarks, one of the first ice-bound rivers which the Romans had encountered in their expeditions. Virg. may be thinking of hunting in winter, as in v. 56, but there is nothing to fix it definitely. 66. Memphin carentem Sithonia nive,' Hor. Od. III xxvi IO. The second syllable is long in Hdt. VII 122, but shortened by Lycophron v. 1357 and the Latin writers. 'Aquosae,' as Wagn. observes, is an epithet of an Italian rather than of a Thracian winter. 'Dum pelago desaevit hiemps et aquosus Orion,' A. IV 52. Torquet aquosam hiemem,' A. iv 671. 'Frigoribus mediis' belongs to this line as well as the former, as Hebrumque' to show. See however G. II seems 119. 67. When the elm is parched to the quick,' 'liber being the inner bark. 'Liber moriens,' however, is a somewhat extravagant expression. 68. Should ply a shepherd's calling in Aethiopia,' as Pan in Theocr. VII 113 is told παρ' Αιθιόπεσσι νομεύοις, with reference rather to his own habits than to their fitness for the country. 'Versemus,' perhaps a translation of the Greek Tolɛiv: though the word was doubtless chosen to express the long weary wanderings of a shepherd in the desert: see G. III 339 foll. 'Cancri:' 'Aestus erat mediusque dies, solisque vapore Concava litorei fervebant bracchia Cancri,' Ov. M. x 126. 69. Since love conquers every thing, change of climate, occupation and all, why should I hold out?' Med. has 'vincet,' Rom. ' vicit.' 70-77. 'So much for my pastoral song for Gallus; may it be worthy of my evergrowing love for him! A shepherd must not remain in the shade too long, and the flock must be driven home.' 70. 'Divae:' see on v. 9. 71. 'Hibisco,' 11 30. Basket-work is the shepherd's employment for idler hours; see 11 71. The object of the 'fiscella' is shown by the imitation in Tibull. III 15, "Tum fiscella levi detexta est vimine iunci, Raraque per nexus est via facta sero.' See also Col. VII 8. 72. Slight as this is, you will make it of highest worth for Gallus,' will give it a peculiar charm in his eyes: 'quae Maxima semper Dicetur nobis, et erit quae maxima semper,' A. VIII 271. 73. My love for Gallus grows as fast, hour by hour, as the alder in spring.' Ursinus comp. Pind. Nem. VIII 40, avžεтuι δ ̓ ἀρετά, χλωραῖς ἐέρσαις ὡς ὅτε δένδρεον goo. Pal. has 'hora.' quantum vere novo viridis se subicit alnus. 75 wholesome; but Heyne refers to Apoll. R. IV 156, where Medea uses a branch of juniper as the vehicle for sprinkling her drugs on the dragon's eyes, as a proof that the ancients thought there was something prejudicial about it. 'Nocent et frugibus umbrae,' G. I 121. The fact seems mentioned here as a shepherd's way of confirming his statementIt is bad singing in the shade: why, shade does harm to the crops.' 77. For the turn of the line comp. I 74, VII 44; for the sense, VI 85, 86. NOTE ON THE SCENERY ABOUT MANTUA. Readers of Eustace's Classical Tour through Italy may remember that while asserting that 'Virgil's pastorals ought in general to be considered not as pictures of real scenery.... but as mere lusus poetici composed in imitation of Theocritus,' he excepts the descriptive passages in the First, Seventh, and Ninth Eclogues, and discovers the place 'qua se subducere colles incipiunt, mollique iugum demittere clivo' in the neighbourhood of Valeggio, 'near which town they (the hills) begin to subside, and gradually lose themselves in the immense plain of Mantua.' There, and nowhere else on the banks of the Mincius, he finds the rocks, crags, and mountains of the first Eclogue. (Tour, vol. i pp. 217 foll., third edition.) I have applied to Mr. Keightley on the subject, and have pleasure in extracting part of the answer with which he has favoured me. 'All I can tell you is that on my arriving in Mantua in company with two French gentlemen, whose sight was better than mine, we all ascended the Torre di Gabbia to view the surrounding country, which I swept with a good opera-glass, and we came, without a moment's hesitation, to the conclusion expressed in p. 15 of my Virgil. I had intended walking out to Pietola, but from the view I had of it I saw that it would be quite a work of supererogation. Next day a gentleman who resided in Cremona accompanied us to Milan, when, finding that he was a sportsman and was in the habit of traversing the country in all directions, I asked him about rocks, etc., and he assured me there was no stone at all in the plain-nothing but gesso, sulphate of lime.' I ought also to mention that, according to Eustace, the "spreading beech" still delights in the soil and adorns the banks of the Mincius in all its windings.' So far as Virgil is concerned, it is obvious that the question is an unimportant one, as it is admitted on both sides that the scenery of the Eclogues is generally Theocritean, but that the actual features of the Mantuan district are represented in one or two exceptional instances. ON THE LATER BUCOLIC POETS OF ROME, ESPECIALLY CALPURNIUS AND NEMESIANUS. IF bucolic poetry found no cultivators at Rome before the time of Virgil, it does not seem to have enjoyed much more popularity afterwards. Wernsdorf (Poetae Latini Minores, vol. ii, praef. pp. vi, vii), who wonders that it should not have flourished more among a people originally sprung from shepherds and preserving the recollection of their origin by annual festivals, and inclines to lay the blame on the luxurious temper of the great city, as being naturally antagonistic to a taste for rustic simplicity, is sufficiently explicit in his testimony to the fact, stating that no trace can be discovered of the existence of any bucolic writer after Virgil earlier than Calpurnius, while the pastoral poets of a later period, with the exception of Nemesianus, who, in his view, as we shall see, is not really one of them, are inelegant and hardly worth reprinting. Calpurnius and Nemesianus themselves cannot be said to stand high in the list of post-Augustan authors; but as they happen to fall within the classical period, as commonly understood, and conform more closely than their successors to the Theocritean or Virgilian type, perhaps a brief account of them may not be unacceptable. At the outset we are met by a critical question, affecting the authorship of the works which bear their name. These amount jointly to eleven pastorals, most of them averaging less than one hundred lines. All of them were assigned by the five first editions, following the majority of the MSS., to a single writer, T. (or, as the first edition gives it, after one MS., C.) Calpurnius Siculus. The sixth edition, 'impressum Parmae per Angelu Ugoletu,' without a date, but referred by Ulitius to the year 1500, made a division of the authorship, attributing the seven first pastorals to Calpurnius, the remaining four to [M. Aurelius Olympius] Nemesianus, on the authority of a 'most ancient and correct' MS. from Germany belonging to Thadaeus Ugoletus. It also prefixed a title to the bucolics of Calpurnius, inscribing them to this same Nemesianus. This arrangement seems to have been followed almost unhesitatingly by subsequent editors till the time of Janus Ulitius, who, in his Venatio Novantiqua (Elzevir, 1645, an edition of the didactic writers on hunting, |