Part 40 (2/2)

Ut c.u.m carceribus sese effudere quadrigae,

it has been argued that Georgic i, at all events, must have appeared before the first Book of the Satires. Ribbeck supposes that the lines of the Georgics may have been seen or heard by Horace before the appearance of the poem, and imitated by him. But is it likely that Horace would have appropriated an image from an _unpublished_ poem? Is it not as probable that Virgil was the imitator here, as in other pa.s.sages where he uses the language of contemporaries, e.g. of Varius, Ecl. viii. 88?

273 Compare the contrast drawn by him between Ennius and the contemporary 'Cantores Euphorionis,' Tusc. Disp. iii. 19.

274 Cf. also W. F. Teuffel's History of Roman Literature, chap. i. note 1.

275 'You sing the lore of the old poet of Ascra, of the field on which the corn, the hill on which the grape grows.' iii. 32. 7778.

276 'The city which is called Rome, O Meliboeus, I thought, in my folly, was like this city of ours.'

277 'For safe the herds range field and fen, Full-headed stand the shocks of grain.'

278 'Now each man basking on his slopes Weds to the widowed trees the vine.'

279 'Thy era, Caesar, which doth bless Our plains anew with fruitfulness.' Martin.

280 Compare Merivale's History of the Romans under the Empire, chap.

xli. 'The tradition that Maecenas himself suggested the composition of the Georgics may be accepted, not in the literal sense which has generally been attached to it, as a means of reviving the art of husbandry and the cultivation of the devastated soil of Italy; but rather to recommend the principles of the ancient Romans, their love of home, of labour, of piety, and order; to magnify their domestic happiness and greatness, to make men proud of their country on better grounds than the mere glory of its arms and the extent of its conquests. It would be absurd to suppose that Virgil's verses induced any Roman to put his hand to the plough, or to take from his bailiff the management of his own estates; but they served undoubtedly to revive some of the simple tastes and sentiments of the olden time, and perpetuated, amidst the vices and corruptions of the Empire, a pure stream of sober and innocent enjoyments, of which, as we journey onward, we shall rejoice to catch at least occasional glimpses.'

281 E.g.

Aus_im_ vel tenui vitem committere sulco;

and again,

Neve _tibi_ ad solem vergant vineta cadentem, etc.

282 De Senectute, xv. xvi.

283 'What makes the cornfields glad, beneath what constellation, Maecenas, is right to turn up the soil, and wed the vine to the elms,'-

284 De Re Rustica, i. 2.

285 Georg. ii. 145, etc.; Aen. iii. 537.

286 'Nec dubium quin, ut ait Varro, ceteras pecudes bos honore superare debeat, praesertim autem in Italia, quae ab hoc nuncupationem traxisse creditur, quod olim Graeci tauros ?ta???? vocabant.'

287 'Although neither Calabrian bees produce honey for me, nor does my wine grow mellow in a Formian jar, nor fleeces grow rich in Gallic pastures.' Compare too

Ego apis Matinae More modoque, etc.

The importance of honey as a source of wealth is referred to by Mommsen in his History of Rome, book v. chap. xi. 'A small bee-breeder of this period sold from his thyme-garden, not larger than an acre, in the neighbourhood of Falerii, honey to an average annual amount of at least 10,000 sesterces (100_l._).'

288 'Illis enim temporibus proceres civitatis in agris morabantur.'

Columella.

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