being half closed: perhaps with half-hushed utterance' will do as a translation.

411. cubilibus] Not put carelessly for nests,' but suggesting that the time is evening and that they are about to retire to rest.

412. nescio qua...] 'gladdened beyond their wont by some mysterious charm.' Aratus D. 274 has xalpei кÉ TIS włσαITO.

413. inter se...] 'they chatter with one another amid the leaves; 'tis delightful when the rain has cleared away to go back to...'; the clause iuvat...nidos explains parenthetically the reason of the birds being so noisy, viz. that after a wet day in the fields a fine evening at home proves cheerful and exhilarating. The charm of Virgil's description consists largely in the way he speaks of the birds as though they were human beings. iuvat: strongly emphatic, cf. 2. 37 n.

415. haud...] Virgil here rejects the theory that birds are gifted with an intelligence and foresight greater than belongs to men, because they can foretell the weather: he explains their conduct, as Lucretius and the Epicureans and modern science would do, on natural grounds, stating that they are extremely sensitive to changes in the condition of the atmosphere, in fact that their physical organisation makes them excellent barometers.

Elsewhere Virgil accepts the Stoic doctrine of an anima mundi or living principle which permeates the universe and is the source of life (and consequently of intelligence) both in men and animals. Editors wrongly suppose that he rejects this doctrine here, for Virgil certainly makes his birds living and intelligent, which is all the anima mundi can do for them: what he denies is that either 'god' or 'destiny' has granted them an intelligent power to read the future beyond what is given to men.

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haud quia sit: non quod, non quia, non quo are used with the subjunctive when the reason denied is conceptive, not real,' Pub. Sch. Lat. Gr. § 175: here Virgil dismisses the reason assigned as imaginary and unreal.

divinitus, fato: 'God' and 'fate' are often sharply con trasted as representing the opposite ideas of free agency and fixed law, but in Latin fatum (from fari) is often used for the 'expression' or 'utterance of the divine will,' and 'God' and 'fate' correspond to one another as the lawgiver to the law. So here divinitus and fato are not, as Conington thinks, contrasted as referring to different theories, but refer to the same power which governs nature first as a personal agent, secondly

as impersonal law-'neither have the gods given them intelligence nor fate foresight superior (to men).'

417. verum] Strictly after haud quia should follow verum quod or sed quod, introducing the clause which gives the real reason. Virgil, however, vigorously omits quod, and simply states the true explanation not as a reason but as a fact.

418. Iuppiter uvidus Austris] 'Heaven wet with the South winds,' which bring rain. Iuppiter is continually used for the sky,' e.g. sub love in the open air': he is the father of the bright sky,' Diupater, the root di or div being that which appears in dies, dius, etc.

419. denset...] makes thick what was but now rare, and loosens (rarefies,' Kennedy) what was thick,' i.e. makes the air first thick and heavy with moisture and then clear by its removal.

420. vertuntur species animorum] 'the phases of their minds change,' i.e. in accordance with the changes in the weather. The word species is used with great skill. Virgil wishes to describe the effect produced on the birds as due to a mere change of the physical condition of the atmosphere, and therefore he selects a word which is often used of things impalpable (e.g. a vision, a phantom), but which is used also of the shape, aspect,' appearance' of material things, and so suggests that the soul or mind of the birds has an 'aspect' or 'shape' which changes in the atmosphere can affect. Probably Virgil conceived of the animus as something possessing substance, though of an extremely fine and ethereal nature.

Similarly motus is skilfully chosen, being equally capable of a material sense='movements' or a spiritual sense='emotions.' 421. nunc alios, alios...] 'now their hearts feel other movements, others (they felt) while the wind was driving up the clouds'; put for the more usual nunc alios concipiunt motus, quam quos (concipiebant) dum nubila ventus agebat.

424-460. The sun and moon, however, give the surest indications of the weather. When the new moon is dim and the sky between her horns black, there will be heavy rain, but if she is red, wind; but if on the fourth day she rises clear and bright, the whole month will be fine and sailors come safe into harbour. The sun both at his rising and setting is a most trusty guide. When he rises covered with spots and his disc seems hollow, look out for heavy rain from the south; when at daybreak his rays are seen breaking in different directions through thick clouds, or when the dawn is pale, hail-storms will damage the vines. At sunset a bluish hue upon his face threatens rain, a fiery one east

wind, but spots and a red fiery colour indicate wind and bad weather for sailors; but if both in the morning and the evening his face is bright the weather will be fine and calm.

424. lunasque sequentes ordine] 'the phases of the moon that follow (one another) in (due) order.' The moon alters her aspect every day throughout the month, and the plural lunae seems used to describe these 'aspects of the moon.'

427. luna...] 'If, when first she collects her returning fires (i.e. at the new moon), the moon shall have embraced black air with dim horns....' Kennedy well explains :-'When the new moon is very clear, besides the bright crescent which reflects the sun's rays, the rest of the orb is dimly seen by the rays reflected from the earth and back from the moon. This phenomenon is referred to in the Scotch ballad of Sir Patrick Spence :

"I saw the new moon late yestreen,

Wi' the old moon in her lap."

If the air is vaporous, the earth's rays are lost to sight, and the moon appears as described by Virgil here.'

430. at si...] but if she shall have suffused her face with maiden blushes.' The ordinary construction would be os rubore suffundere, but it is equally accurate to write ruborem ore suffundereto pour (or cause to spread) from below a blush on her face.' The peculiarity of a blush is that it seems to spread over the face from below, and, though we should speak of a blush spreading, the ancients would naturally talk of a person 'spreading a blush' or 'making it spread on the face,' just as they talk of a person making his hair stand on end.'

431. vento] 'when there is wind': really an abl. of the instrument; wind makes Phoebe blush. Notice how skilfully the moon is called Phoebe in this connection.

436. votaque...] and the sailors brought safe to land shall pay their vows upon the shore.' A vow is made by a person in peril, and is a promise to offer something to some deity if the deity brings him safe out of the peril; when he is delivered from the peril, he becomes voti reus 'a debtor in regard to his vow,' and is bound to 'pay his vow' votum solvere by making the promised offering.

437. Glauco...] Tradition states that this line is from Parthenius, a poet who taught Virgil Greek-Γλαύκῳ καὶ Νηρεῖ (or Νηρηϊ) καὶ Ἰνώῳ Μελικέρτη. It is clearly intended as an imitation of a Greek hexameter. For the hiatus Glauco et cf. Hom. II. 17. 40 Пáv0w év Xeipeσow, but this is the only instance in Virgil where a syllable is allowed to remain long before

hiatus when in thesis (i.e. when the beat of the verse is not on it); for Panopēde ět cf. 281 n.

442. conditus in nubem] 'hiding' or 'burying himself in a cloud' in nubem is used because the sun is not described as 'hidden in a cloud,' but as 'retiring into a cloud' (cf. 438 se condet in undas) immediately after his appearance. conditus

is not strictly past, cf. 206 n.

medioque...: lit. and shall have shrunk back with the centre of his disc.' Aratus has кoîλos éεidóμevos, and Pliny says concavus oriens sol pluvias praedicit.

443. ab alto] 'from the deep.' Conington's note is curious : 'the sense "from the deep" is truer to nature, "from on high' perhaps more like Virgil.

446. pallida... croceum] The 'pallor' of the swarthy Italian is rather a yellow than a white hue: so here in connection with croceum it is clear that a yellow light is described. Cf. Ecl. 2. 47 n.

447. The description of the dawn is Homeric, cf. Il. 11. 1; Od. 5. 1 Ἠὼς δ' ἐκ λεχέων παρ' ἀγαυοῦ Τιθωνοῖο | ὤρνυτο.

448. male tum...] 'vainly then will the vine-leaves shield the ripening clusters.'

449. Note the accommodation of sound to sense: SO thickly rattling on the roofs dances the bristling hail.'

450. hoc etiam...] 'this also, when now he departs after traversing the sky, it will be more profitable to remember, for (then) we often see...': the clauses introduced by nam explain hoc, and specify what that is which deserves attention in an evening, viz. the colouring of the sun's orb. So in Greek an explanatory yap frequently follows a demonstrative pronoun, and may be rendered 'that is to say,' 'namely,' or omitted entirely, e. g. Il. 8. 148 τόδ' αἰνὸν ἄχος...ἱκάνει, Εκτωρ γάρ ποτε phoe this grief...touches me, (namely that) Hector will one day say.'

Others explain hoc as referring generally to what precedes, and being the sun's significance' or 'the rules just given,' but this is very harsh. They also say that etiam goes with magis, but this seems impossible considering the order of the words, and although Aratus has ἑσπερίοις καὶ μᾶλλον Èπíτρеже σýμασi ToÚTOs, it does not follow that etiam...magis is a translation of κal μâλλov: if Virgil reproduces the κaí at all, it is by the emphatic position of magis.

emenso Olympo] lit. 'the sky having been traversed.' The part. past of many deponent verbs is allowed to have a passive

meaning for the sake of convenience, e.g. 2. 487 bacchata, comitatus accompanied,' veneratus' worshipped,' detestatus 'abhorred.'

454. inmiscerier] An archaic form of the inf. passive occasionally found in the poets, cf. dicier, laudarier.

456. fervĕre] An older form of the verb; so elsewhere 4. 262 stridit; 556 stridère; Aen. 4. 909 fervĕre; 6. 827 fulgere. Cf. Munro Lucr. 2. 41; 6. 160.

non illa...moneat: many editors say that this is not a prohibition, but that moneat is potential, 'on such a night no one would advise' or 'could advise.' There is no doubt however that the sentence is prohibitive, and 'that non is constantly used with the subjunctive where, according to the ordinary rule, ne would be expected, if a particular part of the sentence is to be emphasised' (Con. Virg. Aen. 12. 78 n.); here illa is markedly emphatic, the meaning being 'not on such a night let any one advise me,' cf. 3. 140 n.; Aen. 12. 78 non Teucros agat in Rutulos... nostro dirimamus sanguine bellum not the Trojans let him lead against the Rutuli ... with our own blood let us decide the war.

458. cum referetque diem condetque relatum] 'when he both restores and, after restoring, closes the day.' The repetition of referet and relatum seems intended to mark that the force of the sign consists in its occurring twice on the same day; the sun must be bright when he brings back the day, and also bright when he closes the same day which he brought back brightly.

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459. frustra terrebere nimbis] Not = 'you will be frightened by rain-clouds but without rain,' but 'your fear of rain-clouds will be idle,' i.e. there will be no clouds at all, but a brisk 'clear' (claro 460) north wind.

461-497. Finally the sun is never false; he always indicates the weather truly, and not the weather only but coming tumults, treasons, wars. He pitying Rome, when Caesar was murdered, hid his bright head in lurid darkness. But indeed at that time earth also and sea, beasts and birds gave signs. Then Aetna poured forth fire and molten rocks; Germany heard the clash of weapons in the air; the Alps quaked. Voices were heard in

groves, phantoms were seen, beasts spoke, rivers stood still, the earth gaped, sacred images broke into sweat. Then too the majestic Eridanus desolated the land with floods; the entrails of victims were threatening, wells ran blood, and cities echoed at night with the howl of wolves, while never did thunderbolts fall oftener from a clear sky or so many comets blaze. There