The Roman gates had a bust of Janus on either side the arch, with a pathway on either side, the one for egress, the other for ingress.

26. THE FABII. Cf. Livy II. 48-50.

1. Idibus] The 'Faunalia,' or festival of Faunus, was celebrated on the Ides of February, and also on the Nones of December, Hor. Od. III. 18.

2. insula] The island in the Tiber contained the temple of Faunus, which was built by the Ediles with the funds arising from fines, and consecrated A.U.C. 509. By adding ubi rumpit aquas,' the poet shows that the end of the island is meant, where it first meets the current. Paley.

3,4. Niebuhr (R. H. II. 192) thinks that the Fabian clan, disgusted by the obstinate refusal of their brother Patricians to grant the just claims of the commonalty, retired with their clients, and a part of the Commons, and founded a colony on the banks of the Creměra, in Etruria. They left Rome on the Ides of February, A.U.C. 275, and were cut off by the Tuscans on the 18th of the following Quinctilis [July . Ovid poetically blends the two dates in

one.

The number of the Fabii is always given, as in the text, as 306.

5. One clan had taken upon itself to represent the resources and responsibilities of the whole State. So Livy says: "familia una subiit civitatis onus.'

6. gentiles manus] "the hands of a single clan." The gens Fabia was one of the clans [gentes], of which the Patrician order at Rome was composed.

professa] "volunteered: " line 5 explains this epithet.

7. miles generosus] "the highborn soldiery."

9. "There is a pathway close to the right-hand Janus of the Carmental

I

13. tetigere] "reached."

15. loco] "at a convenient spot." Locus' sometimes has a pregnant sense, equivalent to kарós, or locus opportunus,' as in Hor. Epist. I. 7, 57: "properare loco."

22. arma

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сиса parant] "they," i. e. the Tuscans, concert a surprise." Compare 'cæcum vallum,' Cæs. B. C. I. 28," a covered palisade;" cæcum vulnus,' Lucret. IV. 1116, a concealed wound: " also " a wound in the back," because such wounds are concealed, Virg. Æn. IX. 733; cæca domus,' Cic. Orat. 67, "a house without windows," cæcum crimen,' Liv. 45, 31, 66 an uncertain charge."

23. ultima] sub. spatia.

27. Compare Virg. Æn. II. 304, where the same image is employed. 32. alter] i. e. they had no fear of ambush.

37. Construe' pauci' with 'fortes:' with 'millia' sub. hoininum.'

39. Laurentum Was a town of Latium, famous for wild boars; whence Bentley reads 'Laurens aper,' in Hor. Ep. V. 28, for the commonplace currens aper.'

45. Herculeæ] The Fabian clan claimed descent from Hercules through Evander.

46. consuluisse ut] "provided

that."

48. Niebuhr, ut supra, shows that the Fabius who remained at Rome must have been a grown man at this time. He thinks he stayed behind, because he differed from his family in politics.

*The translator in "Bohn" absurdly renders this line: "The nearest path is by the right hand postal of the Carmental

gate" as if it could make any difference, as to the contiguity of a spot several miles from Rome, whether the Fabii passed through the right or the left passage of the gateway.

27. CACUS.

At the period when Hercules, as he was driving the oxen of Geryon from the isle of Erytheia, visited Italy, Evander, an exile from Arcadia, ruled over a part of the country. The neighbourhood in which he lived had long been devastated by Cacus, whom Ovid here describes as a fearful giant, who made himself the terror of the land by his robberies and murders. In the eighth Eneid, 190 seqq., Evander tells Æneas much the same story about Cacus as that related here by Ovid, who probably had Virgil's lines in view, and also the ninth elegy of the fifth book of Propertius.

1,2. exsul] Evander. The next line was probably suggested to Ovid by the horrors of his own place of exile.

4. Arcade] "the Arcadian:" i. e. Evander.

5. Erytheïdas] "of Erytheia.” The tenth task of Hercules was to bring the oxen of Geryon from the isle of Erytheia to Eurystheus. Erytheia was on the south-west coast of Spain. applicat] "lands." Applico' is properly used of bringing a ship to land: as in Propert. I. 20, 20: "Mysorum scopulis applicuisse ratem."

7. domus Tegeæ a] i. e. the house of Evander, who came from Tegea, in Arcadia. 'Huic,' in this line, and 'heros,' line 5, of course refer to Hercules.

9. Tirynthius] Tiryns was a town of Argolis, in which Hercules was educated.

12. aversos] Cacus had dragged them "by the tail" into the cavern, in order that it might seem, from the marks of their hoofs, that they had come out of the cavern. Virgil also

15. pro corpore] "in proportion to his bulk,” κατὰ τὸ σῶμα.

19. ora]"human faces."

21. servatâ male] "having been ill-kept: "i. e. lost. Paley says: "the sense is, Hercules was going away minus his two bulls, when the bellowing of the lost animals to the herd as it passed the cave aroused his attention. Accipio revocamen, like the Greek déxoμai Tov olwvòv, said when any one acts on a hint dropped or an expression used, which can be interpreted as an omen." 22. furta] "the stolen oxen." 25. ille] i. e. Cacus. 26. juga bis quinque] pair of oxen."

27. hic] scil. Hercules.

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ten

cœlum, etc.] Hercules was fabled to have taken for a while the place of Atlas, who supported heaven on his shoulders: Ovid, Her. IX. 17.

31. collata]" conflicting." 33. patrias] Vulcan was the father of Cacus.

male fortis] "brave to little purpose."

35. Typhoëa] Typhoeus, a giant, imprisoned under Mount Etna in Sicily. 37. occupat] "closes with him," i. e. anticipates the blow before harm can be inflicted. Cf. Propert. V. 4, 84.

"Nec mora: vocales occupat ense canes." It is nearly the Greek plável, or Kyxάvew. Paley.

Alcides] A name of Hercules, from his paternal grandfather Alceus.

adducta] "drawn towards him: " as the act of striking. In 'trinodis 'we have a poetical definite for an indefinite. 39. ter quater] "three or four times."

28. THE IMMORTAL GLORY OF
POETRY.

3. The construction is [quid objicis] me non sequi, etc.

6. Ovid was desired by his father in early life to attach himself to the calling of a lawyer, but his poetical tastes revolted against the profession.

7. mortale, etc.] Ovid here addresses his slanderer, telling him that his work is perishable.

9, 11. Mæonides] Homer: so called from Mæonia, reputed by some to have been his native country.

Ascræus] Hesiod, the Greek poet of agriculture, born at Ascra in Boeotia. 13. Battiades] Callimachus, the Alexandrine poet, who belonged to the celebrated family of the Battiada of Cyrene. He flourished about 260 B.C. Ovid's opinion that he showed more art than genius can only be justified as a criticism of his hymns: his epigrams are among the cleverest in the Greek Anthology, and his elegies were much admired, as we know from Quintil. X. 1, 58.

15. cothurno] See note on Ovid 9, 3.

31. 'Quum,' when used adversatively, i. e. to express a kind of comparison between two propositions, takes a subjunctive.

patientis] "enduring."

37. myrtum] the myrtle was sacred to Venus: and amorous subjects are Ovid's favourite theme.

29. THE SAME SUBJECT, TREATED BY PROPERTIUS.

1, 2. Propertius, representing himself as a priest of the Muses [Musarum sacerdos,' Hor. Od. III. 1, 3] invokes the shades of Callimachus [see Ovid 28, note 13], and the sacred rites of Philetas of Cos, an elegiac poet of celebrity, whom Propertius elsewhere says he imitated in preference even to Callimachus.

3, 4. Paley thinks ingredior' refers to nemus:' and that 'ferre' is one of those final infinitives, which are more Greek than Latin. Dr. Kennedy, with Hertzberg, refers 'per,' which is elsewhere also used by Propertius for

construe thus: 'ferre Graios choros per Itala orgia,'" to introduce Greek choirs into Italian festivals," i. e. to represent Greek poetry in Latin measures. The metaphor commenced in sacra' is evidently sustained in 'orgia' and 'choros.'

21, 22. P. Terentius Varro, surnamed Atacīnus, from the river Atax, in Gallia Narbonensis, his native country, born B.C. 82, author of the Argonautics.

primam ratem] the Argo. Esonio duci] Jason, son of Æson. See Myth. Dict.

25. Tityrus' refers to Virgil's Bucolics: fruges' to his Georgics.

29. Gallus, a Roman poet, addressed by Virgil in his tenth Eclogue, author of four books of elegies, in honour of his mistress Lycoris. He was afterwards prefect of Egypt, to which there is, perhaps, a covert allusion in Eoïs.'

5-9. The poet says "there will be many bards to sing the military glories of Rome; I therefore prefer to follow a new track, and to write for the amusement of my countrymen in times of peace:" tuas laudes,' i. e. 'bellicas virtutes,' is opposed to 'pace,' and 'multi' to intactâ viâ.' In the words 'Bactra futura' Propertius alludes to the expedition against the Parthians undertaken B.C. 20. Paley.

9. Propertius, III. 26, 44, similarly opposes 'mollis,' as representing elegiac or amatory poetry, to 'durus,' as representing heroic lays.

Pegasides] Musæ, from their steed Pegasus. Non faciet' corresponds to the English idiom, "will not do for. "

11, 12. An ellipse must be mentally supplied. '[It is true that detractors are never wanting, when a poet attempts a new and unbeaten track;] yet,' etc. Paley.

13. The meaning is: 'When poems become old, they are always more valued than when new.' Paley.

15, 16. pulsas] "stormed." Hæmonio viro] Achilles, against whom the rivers Scamander and Simois fight in Homer's Iliad.

17. Propertius here confounds the Mount Ida of Crete, fabled as the birthplace of Jove, with the Ida of Troas.

22. bis capta] "primum ab Hercule ipso, sub Laomedonte, qui ei equos promissos denegârat, deinde sub Priamo, ope sagittarum Herculis, quæ Philoctetæ obtigerant." Kuinoel.

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Etæi dei refers to Hercules, whose funeral pyre was lit on Mount Eta. 28. Lycio deo] Apollo, qui Lyciæ tenet Dumeta natalemque silvam," Hor. Od. III. 4, 62. In 'vota probante,' Barth detects an allusion to the recent admission of the poems of Propertius into the Palatine Library. 30. sustinuisse] "to have arrested." Cf. Ovid, F. V. 660.

31. See Note on Ovid. 7, 10. Thebas agitata] 'driven to Thebes.'

per artem] is opposed to 'per vim.' 34. rorantes] i. e. dripping from the sea. Cf. Virg. B. VII. 37. Galatea was a Nereid: she appears in the 6th and 11th Idyls of Theocritus as the love of Polyphemus.

35. miremur] ought we to wonder ?'

37. Quod] "As for the fact that," etc. 39, 40. Phæacas] Alluding to the gardens of Alcinous, the happy ruler of the Phæacians, in the isle of Scheria, as described by Homer, Od. VI.: "Nor does the stream of the Marcian aquæ. duct water artificial grottoes." The water of this aquæduct, constructed B.C. 144, was highly esteemed for its clearness.

30. ON THE DEATH OF TIBULLUS.

1. mater] Aurora. The dewdrops of the morn were poetically fabled to be the tears of Aurora for Memnon. Ovid, Met. XIII. 622.Thetis was the mother of Achilles.

3. indignos] "innocent," lit. unworthy to mourn: because the death of Tibullus was premature.

4. ex vero] He alludes to the derivation of Elegeïa from ëλeyos, "lamentation."

5. tui vates operis] Id est Sacrorum tuorum antistes. [priest of your rites]; utopus' et 'operari' proprie de sacris. Burmann.

tua fama] "the source of your

fame."

6. Tibullus wrote love-poetry: hence the son of Venus is represented as attending his funeral with all the insignia of mourning.

12. concutiente] "convulsive." 13. fratris] Eneas was the brother of Cupid, as he was a son of Venus.

sic]i.e. with these signs of mourning.

16. juveni inguen] "the youth's thigh." Adonis is alluded to. It is remarkable that, when an action is done to part of the body, the party suffering is signified by the dative, in Latin, whereas the English language prefers a possessive pronoun or a possessive case; e. g. 66 tuo viro oculi dolent," Ter., "your husband's eyes are weak."

17. At] is used in stating an objection: "yet," "nevertheless."