The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age: Virgil Part 45

437 Diomedes, quoted by Teuffel.

438 Rumoresque serit varios ac talia fatur. Aen. xii. 228.

Furius in decimo: Rumoresque serunt varios et multa requirunt.

Nomine quemque vocans reficitque in proelia pulsos. Aen. xi.

731.

Furius in undecimo: Nomine quemque ciet; dictorum tempus adesse Commemorat.

Deinde infra: Confirmat dictis simul atque exuscitat acres Ad bellandum animos reficitque ad proelia mentes.

439 Pro Arch. 11.

440 Ep. ad Att. i. 16: 'Epigrammatis tuis, quae in Amaltheo posuisti, contenti erimus, praesertim quum et Chilius nos reliquerit, et Archias nihil de me scripserit; ac vereor, ne, Lucullis quoniam Graec.u.m poema condidit, nunc ad Caecilianam fabulam spectet.'

441 Also one on his exile.

442 Epist. ad Q. Fratrem, lib. ii. 16.

443 'Though anxious to do so, worthy father, I have not strength enough; for it is not every one who can describe the lines bristling with pikes, nor the Gauls dying in the fight with broken spear point, or the wounded Parthian falling from his horse.'

444 'Nor should I choose rather to write prosaic discourses than to treat of historic deeds, and to describe the scenes of other lands and rivers and castles perched on mountains, and barbarous realms, and the wars brought to an end over the whole world under thy auspices.'

445 'Or whether gorged with rich tripe (_al._ with huge paunch distended) Furius will spit his white snows over the Alps in winter-time.' The 'Furius' mentioned here is supposed to be M.

Furius Bibaculus, the reputed author of a poem on the Gallic War, as well as of the Epigrams, 'referta contumeliis Caesarum,' of which Tacitus speaks (An. iv. 34).

446 'While bl.u.s.tering Alpinus strangles Memnon, and disfigures and bemires the source of the Rhine by his description.'

447 Sat. i. 10. 46.

448 'Such love songs Varro too composed after finishing his Jason, Varro, the great pa.s.sion of his own Leucadia.'

449 Schwabe, Quaestiones Catullianae, p. 279.

450 'For my strain seems not yet to be worthy of Varius or Cinna, but to be as the cackling of geese amidst the melody of swans.'

451 Mentioned by W. S. Teuffel. Perhaps the best known poem in our own literature of this type is 'The Campaign' of Addison.

452 'Who takes on himself to write the story of Augustus' deeds, who perpetuates to distant ages the memory of wars waged and the peace concluded?'

453 'If our song be of the woods, let the woods be worthy of a consul.'

'I must essay a way by which I too may be able to rise above the ground, and to speed triumphant through the mouths of men.'

454 'So vast a toil it was to build up the Roman people.'

455 'And now the mighty Aeneas shall rule over the Trojans, and his children's children who may be born hereafter.'

456 'Aeneas with those belonging to him starting for Hesperia.'

457 Schwegler, Romische Geschichte, vol. i. p. 298.

458 The account here given of the development of the legend is taken from Schwegler, Romische Geschichte.

459 The growth of this legend is discussed with learning and ability by Professor Nettleship in his 'Vergil,' pp. 4661.

460 Suetonius says of the Emperor Claudius, 'Iliensibus, quasi Romanae gentis auctoribus, tributa in perpetuum remisit, recitata vetere epistula Graeca Senatus populique Romani Seleuco regi amicitiam et societatem ita demum pollicentis, si consanguineos suos Ilienses ab omni onere immunes praest.i.tisset.' For these and other official recognitions of the connexion between Rome and Ilium, see Schwegler, Romische Geschichte, vol. i. p. 305 et seq.

461 Mommsen (book iii. ch. 14) quotes these two lines from an Epigram composed in the name of Flamininus:-

???e?da? ??t?? ??? ?p??tat?? ?pase d????

??????? te??a? pa?s?? ??e??e??a?.

462 Livy, xxv. 12.

463 Aen. v. 117123.

464 'When old Priam fell beneath the Pelasgian host.'

465 'From Jove is the origin of our race: in Jove, as their fore-father, the Dardan youth exults; our king himself the Trojan Aeneas is of the high lineage of Jove.' Aen. vii. 219221.

466 'Lo the star of Caesar sprung from Dione hath advanced'-'wreathing his brows with the myrtle sacred to his mother.' Cf. Sic fatus velat materna tempora myrto. Aen. v. 72.

467 'There shall be born of an ill.u.s.trious line a Trojan Caesar, destined to make ocean the boundary of his empire, the stars the boundary of his fame, Julius, a name handed down from mighty Iulus.'

Aen. i. 286288.

468 'Oxus forgetting the bright speed he had In his high mountain cradle in Pamere.'

Sohrab and Rustum.

469 Cf. Hor. Od. iii. 17. 24:-

Quando et priores hinc Lamias ferunt Denominatos, et nepotum Per memores genus omne fastos, etc.

470 'The place was called Ardea long ago by our fathers: and now Ardea, a name of might, haunts the spot.'

471 'And after suffering much in war too, before he could found a city, and find a home for his G.o.ds in Latium-from whom is the Latin race, and the lords of Alba, and the walls of lofty Rome.'

472 'Nay, but it is Poseidon, the girdler of the earth, that hath been wroth continually with quenchless anger for the Cyclops' sake whom he blinded of his eye.' Butcher and Lang.

473 'Who in understanding is beyond mortals and beyond all men hath done sacrifice to the deathless G.o.ds who keep the wide heaven.' Butcher and Lang.

474 Lucret. iii. 836.

475 'There was a city of old, dwelt in by settlers from Tyre, Carthage,-that this should hold the empire of the world, if by any means the fates should allow, is even then the fond desire and purpose of the G.o.ddess. Yet she had heard that a new race was issuing from Trojan blood, destined hereafter to overthrow the Tyrian towers,-and from them should spring a people, wielding wide sway, and of proud prowess in war, who should come to lay waste Libya-so did the Parcae roll on the circling events.'

476 'There shall come a fitting time for fight, seek not to hasten it on, when fierce Carthage shall hurl against the Roman towers a mighty ruin, through the open gateways of the Alps.'

477 'There remains deeply rankling in her heart the memory of the decision of Paris, and of the wrong of her slighted beauty, of the hated family, and the honours of the ravished Ganymede.'

478 'Through varied accidents, through so many perils, we hold our course to Latium, where the Fates reveal to us a peaceful settlement.'

479 'Who should hold sea and land in universal sway.'