has prevented me from using it for more than about one half of the Fourth.

As subsidiary works, bearing on the subject of the Georgics, I have consulted Dickson's "Husbandry of the Ancients," and Dr. Daubeny's recently published "Lectures on Roman Husbandry;" but my knowledge has, I fear, not been always sufficient to enable me to use them with effect. The grammar to which I have most frequently referred is Madvig's; the lexicon, Forcellini's.

The life of Virgil is extracted from Mr. Long's article 'Virgilius,' in the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography. I have to return my best thanks for the favour not only to Mr. Long himself, but to the proprietors of the book.

The editions of the classics to which I have referred have been in general the best and latest, when my library happened to contain them. For the Greek dramatists I have followed Dindorf; for Pindar, Bergk or Schneidewin; for Hesiod, commonly Göttling; for Dion Cassius, Reimar; for Xenophon and Appian, the editions published in Teubner's series. For Plautus, I have followed those editions where the lines are numbered by Acts and Scenes, not as preferring that practice, which appears not to have been sanctioned by antiquity, but because neither Ritschl nor Fleckeisen, who adopt the other plan, has completed his edition; for Propertius, Paley; for Lucretius, Lachmann; for the other Latin poets, Weber's "Corpus Poetarum;" for the fragments of the Latin dramatists, Ribbeck; for those of Ennius, Vahlen; for those of Lucilius, Gerlach; for Cicero, mostly Verburg; for the elder Pliny, the Variorum of 1669; for the Scriptores Rei Rusticae, sometimes Gesner, sometimes Schneider; for the Latin grammarians, Keil; for Festus, Müller; for Nonius, generally Gerlach and Roth. This list is perhaps not quite complete, but I think it contains nearly all those authors the references to which are

likely to vary according to the editions used. I fear there may be some cases found in which I have used an edition not named in it; but the notes have been written at various places, a large portion of them indeed during vacations, when I have been absent from Oxford, and have in consequence only had a certain number of my own books about me.

I must not conclude without speaking of my obligations to Mr. Long and his lamented colleague. To their supervision are due the removal of many errors from these sheets, and the accession of some new information. While, however, their criticisms have been of the greatest service to me, they have at the same time very considerably abated the confidence with which I offer this volume to the public. Where so much has been successfully questioned, I cannot but be afraid that there remains behind much more, not only open to dispute, but actually erroneous. I shall be very grateful to any reader who will help me towards accuracy by pointing out my mistakes. Meantime, I may perhaps put in a plea for indulgence on account of the wide field over which the notes extend. A body of several thousands of propositions on a great variety of subjects can hardly fail to yield a large percentage of error.

JOHN CONINGTON.

LIFE OF VIRGIL.

(EXTRACTED FROM MR. LONG'S ARTICLE VIRGILIUS,' IN THE DICTIONARY OF GREEK AND ROMAN BIOGRAPHY AND MYTHOLOGY.)

P. VIRGILIUS, or VERGILIUS MARO, was born on the 15th of October, B.C. 70, in the first consulship of Cn. Pompeius Magnus and M. Licinius Crassus, at Andes, a small village near Mantua in Cisalpine Gaul. The tradition, though an old one, which identifies Andes with the modern village of Pietola, may be accepted as a tradition without being accepted as a truth. The poet Horace, afterwards one of his friends, was born B.C. 65; and Octavianus Caesar, afterwards the emperor Augustus, and his patron, in в.c. 63, in the consulship of M. Tullius Cicero.

Virgil's father probably had a small estate, which he cultivated: his mother's name was Maia. The son was educated at Cremona and Mediolanum (Milan), and he took the toga virilis at Cremona on the day on which he commenced his sixteenth year, in B.C. 55, which was the second consulship of Cn. Pompeius Magnus and M. Licinius Crassus. On the same day, according to Donatus, the poet Lucretius died, in his fortyfirst year. It is said that Virgil subsequently studied at Neapolis (Naples) under Parthenius, a native of Bithynia, from whom he learned Greek (Macrob. Sat. v. 17); and the minute industry of the grammarians has pointed out the following line (Georg. i. 437) as borrowed from his master:

"Glauco et Panopeae et Inoo Melicertae."

(Compare Gellius xiii. 26.)

He was also instructed by Syron, an Epicurean, and probably at Rome. Virgil's writings prove that he received a learned education, and traces of Epicurean opinions are apparent in them. The health of Virgilius was always feeble; and there is no evidence of his attempting to rise by those means by which a Roman gained distinction, oratory and the prac

a

tice of arms. Indeed, at the time when he was born, Cisalpine Gaul was not included within the term " Italy," and it was not till B.C. 89 that a Lex Pompeia gave even the Jus Latii to the inhabitants of Gallia Transpadana, and the privilege of obtaining the Roman civitas by filling a magistratus in their own cities. The Roman civitas was not given to the Transpadani till B.C. 49. Virgil therefore was not a Roman citizen by birth, and he was above twenty years of age before the civitas was extended to Gallia Transpadana.

It is merely a conjecture, though it is probable, that Virgilius retired to his paternal farm, and here he may have written some of the small pieces which are attributed to him, the Culex, Ciris, Moretum, and others. The defeat of Brutus and Cassius by M. Antonius and Octavianus Caesar at Philippi, B.C. 42, gave the supreme power to the two victorious generals; and when Octavianus returned to Italy, he began to assign to his soldiers lands which had been promised them for their services (Dion Cass. xlviii. 5, &c.). But the soldiers could only be provided with land by turning out many of the occupiers; and the neighbourhood of Cremona and Mantua was one of the districts in which the soldiers were planted, and from which the former possessors were dislodged (Appian, Bell. Civ. v. 12, &c.). There is little evidence as to the circumstances under which Virgil was deprived of his property. It is said that it was seized by a veteran named Claudius, or Clodius, and that Asinius Pollio, who was then governor of Gallia Transpadana, advised Virgil to apply to Octavianus at Rome for the restitution of his land, and that Octavianus granted his request. It is supposed that Virgilius wrote the Eclogue which stands first in our editions, to commemorate his gratitude to Octavianus Caesar. Whether the poet was subsequently disturbed in his possession and again restored, and whether he was not firmly secured in his patrimonial farm till after the peace of Brundusium, B.C. 40, between Octavianus Caesar and M. Antonius, is a matter which no extant authority is sufficient to determine.

Virgil became acquainted with Maecenas before Horace was, and Horace (Sat. i. 5, and 6. 55, &c.) was introduced to Maecenas by Virgil. Whether this introduction was in the year B.C. 41, or a little later, is uncertain; but we may perhaps conclude from the name of Maecenas not being mentioned in the Eclogues of Virgil, that he himself was not on those intimate terms with Maecenas which ripened into friendship, until after they were written. Horace, in one of his Satires (Sat. i. 5), in which he describes the journey from Rome to Brundusium, mentions Virgil as one of the party, and in language which shows that they were then in the closest intimacy. The time to which this journey relates is a matter of some difficulty, but there are perhaps only two times to which it can be referred, either the events recorded in Appian (Bell.