Part 57 (1/2)

[42] G. ii. 486. The literary reminiscences with which Virgil a.s.sociated the most common realities have often been noted. Cranes are for him _Strymonian_ because Homer so describes them. Dogs are _Amyclean_, because the _Laco_ was a breed celebrated in Greek poetry. Italian warriors bend _Cretan_ bows, &c.

[43] _c.u.m canerem reges et praelia Cynthius aurem Vellit, et admomuit Pastorem t.i.tyre, pingues Pascere oportet oves, deductum dicere carmen._ (E. vi. 3).

[44] _En erit unquam Ille dies tua c.u.m liceat mihi dicere facta._ (E.

viii. 7).

[45] _Mox tamen ardentes accingar dicere pugnas Caesaris_, &c. (G. iii.

46). The Caesar is of course Augustus.

[46] This eagerness to have their exploits celebrated, though common to all men, is, in its extreme development, peculiarly Roman. Witness the importunity of Cicero to his friends, his epic on himself; and the ill- concealed vanity of Augustus. We know not to how many poets he applied to undertake a task which, after all, was never performed (except partially by Varius).

[47] Except perhaps by Plato, who, with Sophocles, is the Greek writer that most resembles Virgil.

[48] Virgil, like Milton, possesses the power of calling out beautiful a.s.sociations from proper names. The lists of sounding names in the seventh and tenth Aeneids are striking instances of this faculty.

[49] It is true this law is represented as divine, not human; but the principle is the same.

[50] Niebuhr, Lecture, 106.

[51] For example, Sall.u.s.t at the commencement of his _Catiline_ regards it as authoritative.

[52] Cf. Geor. ii. 140-176. Aen. i. 283-5; vi. 847-853; also ii. 291, 2; 432-4; vi. 837; xi. 281-292.

[53] _Loc. cit._

[54] Observe the care with which he has recorded the history and origin of the Greek colonies in Italy. He seems to claim a right in them.

[55] This word, as Mr. Nettles.h.i.+p has shown in his Introduction to the Study of Virgil, is used only of Turnus.

[56] xi. 336, _sqq_. But the character bears no resemblance to Cicero's.

[57] There are no doubt constant _rapports_ between Augustus and Aeneas, between the unwillingness of Turnus to give up Lavinia, and that of Antony to give up Cleopatra, &c. But it is a childish criticism which founds a theory upon these.

[58] _ton katholon estin_, Arist. De Poet.

[59] ”Urbis...o...b..s.”

[60] _Suggestions Introductory to the Study of the Aeneid_.

[61] The Greek heroic epithets _dios, kalos, agathos_, &c. primarily significant of personal beauty, were transferred to the moral sphere. The epithet _pius_ is altogether moral and religious, and has no physical basis.

[62] _Pater ipse colendi; haud facilem esse viam voluit_, and often. The name of Jupiter is in that poem reserved for the physical manifestations of the great Power.

[63] The questions suggested by Venus's speech to Jupiter (Aen. 1, 229, _sqq._) as compared with that of Jupiter himself (Aen. x. 104), are too large to be discussed here. But the student is recommended to study them carefully.

[64] Like Dante, he was held to be _Theologus nullius dogmatis expers_.

See Boissier, _Religion des Romains_, vol. i ch. iii. p. 260.

[65] Aen. xii. 882.