with discordibus armis: in the country is righteousness and peace, elsewhere might and discord prevail.

461. si non...] Imitated from Lucr. 2. 24 seq. foribus superbis, 'proud portals'; cf. Hor. Epod. 2. 7 superba civium | potentiorum limina.

462. salutantum] It was the duty of clients to attend the levee of their patron in the early morning (cf. Mart. 4. 8. 1 prima salutantes atque altera conterit hora), and this salutatio became one of the most irksome duties (officia) of the humble citizen or client. vomit, 'disgorges'; cf. the use of vomitoria for entrances' to theatres.

463. nec...] 'nor do they gape (in admiration) at doors inlaid with splendid tortoise-shell'; the nom. to inhiant is 'the husbandmen,' who never see such sights.

464. inlusasque...] and robes tricked (i.e. fancifully embroidered) with gold.' inlusas, for which some good MSS. give inclusas (='covered with '), suggests contempt; cf. fucatur, veneno, corrumpitur. Ephyreïaque aera: Corinthian bronzes were famous and highly valued by Roman collectors.

465. Assyrio veneno] Assyrian drugs,' i.e. Phoenician purple, Assyrian' being often used loosely for 'Syrian.' venenum need not necessarily have a bad sense (see Conington) but certainly suggests one, and there is exactly the same scornful use in Hor. Ep. 2. 1. 206 quid placet ergo? | lana Tarentino violas imitata veneno.

466. casia] Here the tree, cf. 4. 30 n. The use of clear (i.e. pure) oil' is not 'corrupted' with Oriental perfumes.

468. latis otia fundis] 'ease mid broad domains'; the phrase does not suggest the leisure which the owner of vast estates (latifundia) may enjoy, but the satisfaction of contemplating at ease a broad expanse of country as opposed to the feverish activity and confined life of cities.

469. vivi] 'natural' as opposed to artificial fountains; cf. 3. 449 viva sulpura; Aen. 1. 167 vivoque sedilia saxo 'seats in the natural rock'; 3. 688 vivo saxo. Tempe the ideal valley of ancient poetry and so used = 'a valley,' cf. Cic. ad Att. 4. 15. 5 Reatini me ad sua тéμπη duxerunt.

470. molles somni] Cf. Ecl. 7. 45.

:

471. non absunt] Litotes. lustra ferarum: suggesting the delights of the chase.

472. patiens operum] Cf. 223 patientem vomeris unci.

473. sacra deum, sanctique patres] 'gods revered and sires reverenced,' i. e. obedience to the laws of duty (1) to God

extrema... :

and (2) man, the commandment to 'honour thy father' representing the whole of the second table of laws. the legend was that, as the human race gradually fell away from the virtues of the golden age, the deities gradually quitted earth, and that Justice (Astraca; Ov. Met. 1. 150 ultima caelestum terras Astraca reliquit) lingered until the last ; Virgil here makes her as she quitted earth plant among husbandmen her latest footsteps,' because among them were found the last traces of primeval innocence. Cf. Ecl. 4. 6.

475-489. For myself my first prayer to the Muses is that they would grant me to expound the secrets of nature, but if my blood runs too cold for such a task, then be it mine to woo ingloriously the fields, the rivers, and the forests.

475. me vero...] For Virgil's poetic ideal cf. Ecl. 6. 31 n. primum contrasted with sin 483; cf. the Gk. use of μáλioтa μév followed by el dè μń, where the first clause describes something eminently desirable but scarcely possible of attainment, and the second what is less desirable but possible. ante omnia strengthens primum, though some take it with dulces. Musae, i.e. not merely as the goddesses of song but also of learning and science, cf. μουσική, Μουσεῖον, and the derivation of Μοῦσα = Movoa, mens.

=

476. sacra fero] 'I bring holy offerings' (cf. Aen. 3. 19; 5. 59), i.e. as their worshipper or priest (cf. Horace's description of himself Od. 3. 1. 3 as Musarum sacerdos).

477. caelique vias et sidera] A sort of hendiadys, 'the paths of heaven and the stars' being='the paths of the stars in heaven.' Virgil may have had particularly in mind the Paivóμeva, an astronomical poem of Aratus (flor. 270 B.C.).

=

478. defectus solis] 'failings,' i.e. eclipses. Cf. Aen. 1. 742 hic canit errantem lunam solisque labores, where solis labores is exactly defectus solis. Of course defectus and labores both describe exactly the same phenomenon, viz. a partial obscuration of the light of the sun or moon by the earth's shadow; but defectus failings' or 'fadings' describes it literally, while labores 'sufferings' gives it an imaginative or poetical character.

479. alta] Proleptic: 'the seas swell high bursting their barriers and again sink back into themselves (i.e. into their former place).' Thuc. 3. 89 notes the connection of great inroads of the sea in Euboea and elsewhere with earthquakes (oeouoi, cf. tremor terris), and Virgil seems to indicate the same connection. For obicibus cf. Psalm civ. 9.

482. tardis] The 'slow' nights are those of winter, whose departure some 'delay checks, just as something makes the

In 1. 32 tardis mensibus seems

winter suns 'hasten' to sink. ='summer months,' and Servius here gives tarde venientibus, aestivis, but this seems unnatural.

=

484. frigidus...] The allusion is to the famous saying of the poet-philosopher Empedocles αἷμα γὰρ ἀνθρώποις περικάρδιον EσTi vonua. The heart was often regarded as the seat of intelligence (cf. excors, vecors, ¿phy, opóviμos), and the materialistic school of Empedocles therefore connected the intellect with the supply of blood to it; cf. Goethe's phrase ohne Phosphor kein Gedanke. At the same time Virgil's phrase suggests a contrast with such ordinary ideas as 'poetic fire,' 'the fire of genius,' etc.

486. amem] i.e. not merely feel an affection for them but express it in verse. o, ubi..., 'O for the fields of Spercheus..., O for some one to place me in the cool vales.... !' It is difficult to say what is the exact grammar of this rapturous outburst ; o marks a wish, and perhaps we may explain o (sim), ubi...o (sit), qui... O that I may be where..., O for some one to... !' The Spercheus is a river in South Thessaly flowing into the Malian Gulf through the rich plain of Larissa (Hor. Od. 1. 7. 11).

487. bacchata] 'traversed in their revels by.' Two points deserve notice (1) the passive use of the deponent participle, for which cf. 1. 450 n., and (2) the use of bacchor transitively in the secondary sense traverse with revelry.' Cf. Aen. 3. 125 bacchatamque iugis Naxon; Eur. Ion 463 πaρà xoрevoμévų τρίποδι ‘honoured in dances.

490-512. Blessed indeed is he who can pierce the secrets of nature and trample beneath his feet the dread of death, but happy too is he who worships the rural gods. Ambition, strife and war, poverty and wealth do not move him. He lives in peace on the fruits of the earth, while others face the sea and the sword in the pursuit of wealth, or in their passion for applause pass through guilt to exile and disgrace.

490. felix] = cudaiμwv, much stronger than fortunatus in 458 and below in line 493. Undoubtedly in these lines Virgil is primarily thinking of Lucretius, whose special aim it was, following in the steps of his master Epicurus, 'to understand the nature of things' (Lucr. 3. 1072 naturam...cognoscere rerum), and by thus explaining their causes to 'trample under foot superstition (Lucr. 1. 78 religio pedibus subiecta) and banish the fear of hell (Lucr. 3. 37 et metus ille foras praeceps Acherontis agendus). At the same time the language will also bear a wider application to Epicurus himself or any great teacher of the same school.

491. fatum] here = 'death,' which according to Epicurus concerns us not a jot,' since when we are dead we have wholly ceased to be; cf. Lucr. 3. 830 seq.

492. strepitum] Probably of the cries of the damned; cf. Aen. 6. 557 hinc exaudiri gemitus et saeva sonare | verbera. avari, because it seizes upon all men; cf. Is. v. 14 'hell hath... opened her mouth without measure.'

495. populi fasces] i.e. the honours which the people can bestow; see Dict. Ant. s. v. fasces. Throughout this passage the two things which are chiefly contrasted with rural peace and contentment are ambition and avarice. non purpura regum | flexit, i.e. kings in all their splendour cannot excite his hopes or fears. Neither people nor princes have any power over him; like the 'just man in Horace (Od. 3. 3. 2) non civium ardor prava iubentium, | non vultus instantis tyranni | mente quatit solida.

496. et infidos] Closely connected with what precedes : ambition leads to contention, setting brother against brother. There is also a reference to the civil wars and the division which they caused in families; cf. Lucr. 3. 70-72. opposite picture cf. 533 Remus et frater.

For the

497. The Dacians had sided with Antony, and the Dacian prince Cotiso was defeated by M. Crassus 30 B.C. (Hor. Od. 3. 8. 18 occidit Daci Cotisonis agmen); but they formed a constant source of uneasiness (Hor. Od. 3. 6. 13 paene occupatam seditionibus delevit urbem Dacus; Sat. 2. 6. 53 numquid de Dacis audisti), and were not reduced to a Roman province until Trojan conquered them A.D. 101-106.

498. res...]i.e. domestic and foreign policy. The 'crumbling monarchies,' such as Armenia, which in a condition of semiindependence under titular princes formed a large portion of the Roman Empire, were by their feuds and internal disorders a cause of constant anxiety to Roman statesmen.

499. The countryman neither knows the 'pain of pity' nor the curse of envy,' because in the country there are neither poor nor rich. His good fortune consists not in being without pity but in having no pitiable people around him. There is no selfish indifference' (Conington) in the first part of the line, nor is Virgil 'unwilling to assign pity to the rustic,' as Servius puts it, but he simply states that he is spared the pain of witnessing the wretchedness of the poor. habenti= TEXOVT 'the rich.'

501. ferrea iura] iron laws'; the phrase suggests both their hard character and also the bronze tablets on which they

were set up; that these actual metal tablets are in Virgil's mind is clear from his use of vidit.

502. insanumque...] See Class. Rev. Oct. and Dec. 1896. "The "mad forum," the flat paved space filled with its seething crowd, is actually present to Virgil's inner eye; and as part of the same picture, the vast mass of the great Record office (tabularium) across its upper end, a silent background to the shouting orators and surging mob below.'-J. W. Mackail. This tabularium was attached to the temple of Saturn and contained all public records; it was the visible symbol of Rome's world-wide activity and empire.

503. caeca] 'unknown.'

504. penetrant...] '(others) explore the halls and thresholds of kings,' i.e. become courtiers. limina, like our word 'ante-chamber,' suggests the idea of waiting to be admitted, cf. Hor. Epod. 2. 7 superba civium | potentiorum limina; Pers. 1. 108. Some take regum = 'great men,' 'patrons,' as it often is in Horace (e.g. Ep. 1. 7. 37), but this use of the word seems conversational and unheroic.

Professor

505. hic petit] 'one assails a city with ruin.' Seeley suggested to Conington that Virgil here glances at Caesar, in 507 at Crassus, and 508 at Pompey (cf. Lucan 1. 133 plausuque sui gaudere theatri), and doubtless as he wrote the poet had some such figures before his mind, but his sketch of them is clearly not designed to admit of exact identification. Kennedy gives for 505-6 Cinna, Marius, Sulla, Catiline; for 507 Lucullus, Crassus; for 508 Hortensius, Cicero; for 510 Pompey and his partisans.

506. gemma] 'in a jewelled cup'; cf. Aen. 1. 728 hic regina gravem gemmis auroque poposcit | inplevitque mero pateram. Sarrano Tyrian, the Hebrew name for Tyre being Tsor or Zor. 507. incubat] 'broods over'; cf. Aen. 6. 610 aut qui divitiis soli incubuere repertis.

508. hic...] 'one is dazed and spellbound by the Rostra (i.e. by the speakers there), another all agape the applause enraptures that redoubles again and again through the theatre from people and senators.' stupet, attonitus, hiantem all express the poet's scorn for such a man. The cunei are the wedge-shaped blocks' into which the rows of seats were cut up by the gangways; see Dict. of Ant. s. v. theatrum.

509. enim seems to be here merely a strongly affirmative particle emphasising geminatus, cf. 104 neque enim; Aen. 8. 84 quam pius Aeneas tibi enim, tibi, maxima Iuno | mactat 'to thee, even thee'; and the common use of enimvero. Some