hunc saltem everso iuvenem succurrere saeclo ne prohibete! satis iam pridem sanguine nostro Laomedonteae luimus periuria Troiae; 500 iam pridem nobis caeli te regia, Caesar, invidet, atque hominum queritur curare triumphos; quippe ubi fas versum atque nefas: tot bella per orbem, tam multae scelerum facies; non ullus aratro dignus honos; squalent abductis arva colonis, et curvae rigidum falces conflantur in ensem. hinc movet Euphrates, illinc Germania bellum; 500. Hunc saltem :' as the gods had snatched away Caesar. 'Saeculum' answers exactly to 'the age.' ['Iuvenem :' he was only nineteen when he began his career in 44 B.C., as he observes himself, Mon. Ancyr. 1, and his youth is emphasized by Cicero ('adulescens vel puer potius,' etc.) and Virgil E. 1 43, writing not long after. Later writers continue the idea, as Virgil here, Horace Od. I ii 41 (probably B.C. 29): a hieroglyphic inscr. at Philae, dated B.C. 29, calls him 'the beautiful youth,' and his youthful head appears on his coins after 27 B.C. Contrast Shakespeare's 'peevish schoolboy.'] 502. Hor. (Od. 111 iii 21) indulges in the same affectation of antiquarian superstition, a spirit to which it must be allowed that the Aeneid itself ministers. [But Hor., as Mommsen has shown, concealed a political meaning under the antiquarianism of Od. III 3; Virgil's allusion here to Troy seems purely learned and literary.] The line itself is nearly repeated A. IV 541. 504. This was written probably before Octavian had enjoyed his triple triumph in B.C. 29, though he had had more than one ovation. But Virg. speaks to him, as Forb. remarks, as if to live on earth were synonymous with to triumph. Yet there is something strange in the expression 'human triumphs,' unless we suppose the poet to intend some still more extravagant compliment. Perhaps the feeling may be that the human victor was all but a god (Res gerere et captos ostendere civibus hostis Attingit solium Iovis et caelestia temptat,' Hor. Ep. 1 xvii 33), but that Caesar might rise higher. Hor. treads closely in the steps of Virg. Hic magnos potius triumphos, Hic ames dici pater atque princeps' (Od. I ii 49). 506 599 'Quippe' assigns the reason why heaven grudges Caesar to so thankless a sphere. 'Versum,' inverted, not overturned. Comp. Hor. Epod. v 87, 88. 'Venena magnum fas nefasque non valent Convertere humanam vicem,' [Ov. M. vi 585, 'fasque nefasque confusura ruit.'-H. N.] 506. Aratro' is probably dative. 'The plough has none of its due honour.' Honos erit huic quoque pomo,' E. II 53. But it might possibly be the abl. The plough is thought worthy of no honour.' The language is like A. VII 635, 'Vomeris huc et falcis honos, huc omnis aratri Cessit amor.' Here and in the two following lines the subject of the Georgics is kept before the eye. 507. 'Squalent,' [grow hard and rough for want of ploughing.] 'Abductis,' taken away to serve as soldiers. Keightley. 508. Curvae' and 'rigidum' seem to be opposed, and 'rigidum' to refer to the straight Roman sword. [Formantur' for 'conflantur' Nonius p. 380, and Servius on A. XII 304, both in a note on the word 'rigidus.'-H. N.] 509. [It is doubtful if this refers to any particular wars. The Parthian frontier was continuously unquiet from 40 to 31; in the West, Agrippa crossed the Rhine in 38, and Carrinas repulsed the Suebi at an unknown date between (probably) 37 and 30 (Dio LI 21). Most edd. suppose Virg. here to allude to 38: Mr. Nettleship preferred 32, to which date he conjecturally assigned the success of Carrinas, and Ribbeck (Prol. p. 16) took a similar view. But the events of the year, a Parthian foray and (if we admit it) the victory of Carrinas were unimportant. The wording of the line resembles E. 1 62, and the meaning vicinae ruptis inter se legibus urbes probably is (as Serv. says) 'undique bellum 510. Vicinae urbes :' [Dio L 6 clearly implies that some Italian cities, esp. those in which veterans of Antony were settled, gave trouble to Octavian: such a city was Bononia.-H. N. The words, however, need be no more than the antithesis of the preceding line.] Ruptis inter se legibus,' breaking the laws which bound them together. Legibus,' the laws of civil society. Forb. comp. A. VIII 540, 'Poscant acies et foedera rumpant.' 511. 'Impius' is emphatic; most of the wars of the time were connected directly or indirectly with the civil conflict. 512. Carceribus: the 'carceres' were stalls at the end of the circus, with gates of open wood work, which were opened simultaneously to allow the chariots to start. 513. [Addunt in spatio:' so Med. 510 514 (omitting in '), Gud., the Berne scholia, the Bamberg and Munich MSS. of Quintilian VIII iii 78, the Vaticanus of Serv., and Sil. XVI 373 (imitating this line) 'Iamque fere medium evecti certamine campum In spatio addebant.' The Berne scholia explain thus: 'propria vox circi, equi enim cursus spatio addere dicuntur' (H. N.). Rom. has 'addunt spatia;' Med. late corr. and most MSS. of Serv. 'addunt in spatia,' and so Ribbeck, Conington, and most edd. since Burmann, who explain it as = 'addunt (se) in spatia,' throw themselves on the course, or ‘addunt (gradum)' or 'addunt (spatia) in spatia.' The ellipse, which must be assumed with either reading ('spatio' or 'spatia'), seems unparalleled.] 514. Fertur equis,' like aσrou o Big pέpovov, Soph. El. 725. Comp. A. I 476. For 'audit' comp. Hor. Ep. 1 xv 13, equi frenato est auris in ore;' and for currus (= equus) audit,' Pind. Pyth. 11 21, рμata πɛiσiɣáλiva, and below III 91. Serv. suggests that the charioteer hurried on by the furious horses is Octavian, who cannot bridle the evils of the age; but this hardly agrees with v. 500. 6 LIBER SECUNDUS. THE subject of this book is the culture of trees, especially of the vine, but there is no great regularity in the mode of treatment. Virgil opens with an enumeration of the different ways of propagating trees, natural and artificial, so as to indicate the magnitude of the theme; then he shows how art can improve upon nature, and recurs to the manifoldness of his subject, dwelling especially on the innumerable varieties of vines. Without much relevancy he talks of trees indigenous to different countries, and is thence drawn into an eulogy (vv. 136-176) of Italy, which he does not fit with any practical application. The question of the aptitudes of various soils (vv. 177 foll.) is treated more widely than the subject of the book requires, embracing the choice of corn and pasture land as well as of ground for planting trees. For the next 160 lines (vv. 259420) the poet seems to be thinking exclusively of the vine or of trees planted in the 'arbustum' as its supporters. He does not distinguish between the different modes of rearing the vine, but appears to assume that the 'arbustum' will be adopted. He speaks of the vine and its supporters almost indifferently, as objects more or less of the same culture, so that, while keeping the former prominently before him, he feels himself at liberty to use general language, or even to confine his language to the latter, as metrical convenience or poetical variety may suggest; a manner of speaking which renders this part of the book peculiarly difficult, at least to an unprofessional commentator. The olive, which was put forward prominently in the programme of the book, is disposed of in a very few lines (vv. 420-425), as requiring hardly any culture. The other fruit-trees (vv. 426-457) are dismissed even more briefly, and the remaining trees receive a very hasty recommendation to the cultivator, backed with an assurance that they are even more useful to man than the vine. In the celebrated digression (vv. 458 foll.) which concludes the book, the laborious aspect of a country life, elsewhere so prominent, is kept out of sight, and we hear only of ease, enjoyment, and plenty. Its interest as bearing on the tastes of the poet himself has been noticed in the general Introduction to the Georgics. The beauties of this book have always been admired, and deservedly so. They are most conspicuous in the digressions; but the more strictly didactic part contains innumerable felicities of expression, though it may be doubted whether in general they do not obscure the practical meaning as much as they illustrate it-whether in fact they do not constitute the strongest condemnation of that school of poetry of which they are so illustrious an example. [The debt of Virgil to Lucretius is perhaps even greater in this book than in the other Georgics: examples are quoted by Mr. Munro on Lucr. I 78, III 449.] As in the case of Book I, we can say nothing of the date. Vv. 171, 172 seem to have been written just after Actium; but the passage to which they belong is precisely one which may have been introduced after the bulk of the poem was composed. [Vv. 497 foll., 505 foll., may allude to the events of 33-32 B.C.-H. N.] HACTENUS arvorum cultus et sidera caeli, nunc te, Bacche, canam, nec non silvestria tecum 1-8. Thus far of tillage and seasons: now of the vine, the trees of the plantation, and the olive. May the patron of the vine assist me, helping the poet as he helps the vine-dresser." I. Arvorum cultus is the general subject of Book 1; 'sidera caeli' refers to vv. 204-258, and perhaps to the prognostics which occupy the latter part of that book. 'Hactenus,' sc. 'cecini.' Comp. Aesch. Cho. 143, μiv pèv xvxàs táode, tous d' ἐναντίοις Λέγω, κτλ. Rom. is wanting from this line to v. 215, and till v. 138 Med. is the only extant first-class MS. (except Ver. 92-117). 2. Virgulta:' Voss and Wagn. rightly observe that the forest-trees are introduced principally as forming the supporters of the vine, so that there may be a special propriety in tecum.' ['Virgulta pro infelicibus arboribus posuit, quibus in Italia vites cohaerent.' Berne schol. and Serv. -H. N.] Virgulta,' a number of twigs, hence applied to bushes and low or young trees, which here seem to be taken as the type of such trees as the husbandman cultivates. 'Silvestria' seems to be used vaguely. 3. Hesiod, as reported by Pliny XV 3, said that the 'sator' (perhaps the sower) of an olive never saw its fruit. Theophr. De Caus. Plant. I 9 called the olive dvaaving contrasting it with the vine. Hence Varro 1 41 recommends that it should not be raised from seed (see below, vv. 56 foll.). 4. Huc' may be elliptical, like deupo: but 'veni,' v. 7, smooths over the ellipse, which is at least unusual. Pater: Omnem deum necesse est inter sollemnis ritus patrem nuncupari; quod Lucilius in deorum concilio inridet (Sat. 19, Müller): Nemo ut sit nostrum, quin aut pater optumu' divum, Aut Neptunu' pater, Liber, Saturnu' pater, Mars, 5 9 Ianu', Quirinu' pater, siet ac dicatur ad unum,' Lactant. IV 3. Compare the equally general application of avaž to the gods of Greece. Virg., while showing his ritual learning and giving the invocation an air of pontifical solemnity, doubtless thought of Bacchus as patron of men and giver of increase to the fruits of the earth. Tuis hic omnia plena:' Virg. fancies himself surrounded by the gifts of autumn, of which he is going to sing. To conceive of him as meaning that he actually writes in autumn would be less natural. A modern poet (Keats at the opening of Endymion is an instance) might introduce such a personal specification. 5. Tibi' seems to express the acknowledgment of nature to its author and sustainer; see 1 14 and v. 15 below. 'Autumno' may be temporal or constructed with 'gravidus' in the sense of the fruits of autumn, like oπúρа. 8. Mecum' comp. 'Ignarosque viae mecum miseratus agrestis,' I 41, and 'una,' v. 39 below. Med. has direptis;' see I 269. 'Coturnis:' Vell. P. 11 82, of Antonius, 'Cum redimitus hedera coronaque velatus aurea et thyrsum tenens coturnisque succinctus curru velut Liber pater vectus esset Alexandriae.' Bacchus was represented with hunting buskins, which would naturally form part of his fawn-skin dress. Virg., professing to write with a view to practice, identifies the poet with the husbandman, and invokes Bacchus at the opening of his subject, as if the aid he required were in the vine-dresser's occupation. namque aliae, nullis hominum cogentibus, ipsae pars autem posito surgunt de semine, ut altae ut cerasis ulmisque; etiam Parnasia laurus hos natura modos primum dedit; his genus omne 20 divisions. The first division (vv. 10-21), generation without the help of man, is subdivided into spontaneous generation (vv. 10-13), generation by seed (vv. 1416), and generation by suckers (vv. 1719). Nullis hominum cogentibus' really specifies the first division, though it nominally belongs only to its first subdivision. 'Arboribus creandis,' like 'habendo pecori,' 1 3. The law of the production of trees is various.' Natura' note on v. 20. 10. Virg. is supposed by Heyne and others to refer here to production by invisible as distinguished from visible seeds, agreeably to a distinction made by Varro I 40. 11. 'Ipsae' and 'sponte sua,' in spite of a subtle distinction attempted by Voss, are a tautology. Veniunt,' I 54. 12. 'Curva' calls attention to the bends of the river, and shows that the trees grow along its side. The scanty notices of the 'siler' do not enable us to identify it it is conjectured to be the osier. See Keightley, Flora Virg. [and Bubani, p. 105, who enumerates various identifications but accepts none.] 13. 'Salicta' is for salices.' 14. Posito de semine,' deposited casually, dropping from trees. The words themselves, like 'seminibus iactis,' v. 57, might refer to any kind of sowing, but in each case they are determined by the context. At the same time, as Virg. says nothing in the rest of this passage about sowing by the hand, we may suppose that he regarded it as virtually men tioned in the mention of dropped seed, and not worth particularizing separately, being the lowest form of human co-operation with nature. 15. 'Nemorum' is probably partitive, 'maxima nemorum' being equivalent to 'maxima arborum nemorensium.' See v. 534 below. ['Nemorum': Isid. XVII vii 6, ' sunt nemora arbores maiores;' Stat. Silv. v i 49, 'vitem Ulmus amat miscetque nemus; Lucan III 395, 'procumbunt nemora.' H. N.] 'Iovi,' like' tibi,' v. 5. 16. 'Quercus,' Dodona. The oracles were drawn either from the murmuring of the foliage or from the notes of the pigeons (E. IX 13). 17. Pullulat ab radice,' etc. propagation by natural suckers, called 'pulli' by Cato LI, pulluli' by Pliny XVII 65. 19. Se subicit,' E. x 74. 20. Primum,' before man had tried experiments. Natura' seems used strictly, opposed to'usus,' not generally, as in v. 9 where it means the natural principle of growth, whether assisted by cultivation or not. Or we may lay stress on 'dedit,' and contrast what is asked or extorted from nature with what she gives unsolicited. Lucr. (V 1361 foll.) speaks similarly, though in less detail, of sowing and planting as suggested by nature. 'His,' by these modes. 'To these they owe their verdure.' 21. ['Silvarum,' bushes, 1 76 note.] Fruticum,' shrubs, trees without trunks. Nemorumque sacrorum' denotes merely a poetical division. |