[468] Tota urbe from the whole city.
[469] Med. a m. p. and Gud. corrected have ‘consilium,’ a common confusion: Ribbeck however adopts it, perhaps supposing that the council had been already broken up. But we may well conceive that the older and more peace-loving sat and would have stayed on after Turnus and his friends had departed. ‘Pater’ lengthened as in 5. 521: see Excursus to Book 12.
[470] The early editions have ‘turbatus pectore,’ which is found in none of Ribbeck's MSS.
[471] Ultro, without waiting to have him forced upon him.
[472] Generumque adsciverit urbi is well explained by Wagn. from 7. 367, “Si gener externa petitur de gente Latinis,” the city and the king being identified. Comp. v. 105 above. Heyne strangely wished to change ‘urbi’ into ‘urbis,’ constructing it with ‘portas,’ and Peerlkamp conj. ‘adsciverit ultro Dardanium Aenean generum, atque acceperit urbi,’ prosaically enough: Ribbeck however so far follows him as to make ‘adsciverit’ and ‘acceperit’ change places.
[473] Praefodiunt portas, “ante portas fossas faciunt,” Serv. Forc. quotes only one other instance of the word, “ostendit quod iam praefoderat aurum” Ov. M. 13. 60, where it means ‘buried beforehand.’ Canon. has ‘fossas’ for ‘portas.’ Heyne thinks the stones and stakes are wanted for a “vallum,” Wagn. that they are to be used as offensive weapons, comp. vv. 891 foll. “Tum magni ponderis saxa et praeacutas trabes in muro collocabant,” Caesar, B. G. 2. 29.
[475] “Muros cinxere corona” 10. 122.
[476] “Vocat lux ultima victos” 2. 668. ‘Labor ultimus’ like “Troiae supremum laborem” 2. 11, though the notion here seems rather to be of active exertion than of suffering.
[477] The temple of Pallas was doubtless in the citadel at Laurentum, as at Troy (2. 166) and at Rome. See Il. 6. 297, which Virg. has copied. So “Tritonidis arcem” 2. 226. ‘Summas,’ like “delubra summa” 2. 225, seems to mean not the top of the building, but the building standing on a height.
[478] Subvehitur of mounting a height. Virg. probably thought of the Roman matrons and their “pilenta,” as Serv. remarks. ‘Magna caterva,’ abl. of circumstance.
[479] Dona ferens is explained by Serv. of the “peplus” (1. 480): but this seems unnecessary.
[480] “Caussa mali tanti” 6. 93. There is considerable variety of reading, the transcribers endeavouring with more or less success to get rid of the hiatus. Rom. has ‘malis tantis,’ Med. a m. p. ‘mali tantis’ (which, if anything beyond a mere mistake, may be an attempt to give ‘tantis’ the sense of “tot”), while some inferior copies have ‘tanti atque,’ the reading before Heins., and even ‘tantique.’
[481] Succedunt, enter the temple.
[482] ‘De limine:’ probably from the door of the “cella,” which they would not enter. It does not show their haste, as Serv. thinks, but simply points to the usual custom, as Heyne rightly explains it. Some copies, including one of Ribbeck's cursives, have ‘de pectore.’
[483] This and the two following lines are translated closely from Il. 6. 305—307. Serv. mentions two readings, ‘praeses’ and ‘praesens,’ and Ribbeck's MSS. are divided between them: but “praesens belli” would be a doubtful construction. The order before Heins. was ‘belli praeses.’
[484] “‘Frange manu telum,’ aut tua manu, aut in eius manu tela confringe,” Serv. The first is clearly right. ‘Praedonis’ 7. 362.
[485] Effundere of throwing on the ground 12. 276. In 10. 574., 12. 532, it is used of hurling from a chariot. Macrob. Sat. 5. 3 quotes the passage with ‘sub ipsis,’ a mistake which may have arisen from an apparent slip in Serv.'s note.
[486-531] ‘Turnus arms and hastens to the field. He is met by Camilla, who offers to go and meet the Trojans while he protects the city. He suggests that she should meet the Tuscan cavalry, while he occupies a mountain pass along which the Trojan infantry are coming: and this he proceeds to do.’
[486] Cingi of arming v. 536 below, 2. 510, 520, 749, where however the arms are expressed: here they have to be inferred from ‘in proelia.’ Perhaps Virg. may have meant to translate ζώννυσθαι Il. 11. 15. ‘Certatim,’ with emulous speed, as if he was vying with some one. A MS. of Macrob. Sat. 5. 10, where the line is quoted, has ‘certatum.’
[487] Iamque adeo 5. 268. It is difficult to decide between ‘Rutulum’ and ‘rutilum,’ the latter of which is found in Rom. and originally in one of Ribbeck's cursives, as well as in the MSS. of Macrob. l. c. and 6. 7, and Gell. 2. 6. 22. On the one hand ‘Rutulus,’ as Wagn. remarks, is constantly spelt ‘Rutilus’ in MSS. (even by Rom. in 7. 472): on the other, nothing is known of Rutulian breastplates (unless we suppose the ‘thorax’ to be called so simply as worn by Turnus: comp. 9. 521 note), while “rutilare arma” is found 8. 529, “rutilis squamis” G. 4. 93, and the cuirass of Aeneas, as Gossrau remarks, is called “sanguinea” 8. 622, and compared to a sun-lit cloud. Val. F. 7. 620, cited by Forb., has “rutilum thoraca,” which at any rate seems to show how he understood Virg. The nearest parallel in Hom. seems to be Il. 16. 134, where Patroclus puts on the breastplate ποικίλον, ἀστερόεντα, ποδώκεος Αἰακίδαο. On the whole it seems best to read ‘rutilum’ with Wakef., Gossrau, and Ribbeck, as the bright appearance of Turnus is put forward prominently by Virg. Wakef. also preferred ‘inductus,’ which is found in some MSS., but none of Ribbeck's. Lersch § 30 distinguishes the “lorica” of chain or quilted mail from the ‘thorax’ of solid metal, supposing the mention of the latter here to be an inaccuracy for variety's sake. The arming of Turnus may be imitated from Hom. (e. g. 3. 330 foll., 11. 15 foll.): but the resemblance is of the most general kind.
[488] “Suras incluserat auro” 12. 430.
[489] “Laterique Argivum adcommodat ensem” 2. 393.
[490] Turnus comes down from the citadel (where, as Serv. suggests, he may possibly have been with Amata and Lavinia) to the plain, like Paris Il. 6. 512. “Summa decurrit ab arce” 2. 41. ‘Fulgebat aureus,’ as Wagn. remarks, only means that he shone like gold (comp. G. 4. 370, “saxosusque sonans Hypanis”). It may conceivably have been suggested by Hom. l. c. τεύχεσι παμφαίνων ὥστ᾽ ἠλέκτωρ ἐβεβήκει, ἠλέκτωρ being associated with ἤλεκτρον.
[491] “Omnia praecepi” 6. 105.
[492]
Closely rendered from the wellknown
simile Il. 6. 506 foll. Pope thinks
the comParison more applicable to Paris,
Heyne to Turnus. Enn. A. inc. fr. 51,
quoted by Macrob. Sat. 6. 3, had already
rendered Hom.'s lines as follows:
“Et tum, sicut equus, qui de praesepibus
actus
Vincla suis magnis animis abrupit et
inde
Fert sese campi per caerula laetaque
prata
Celso pectore, saepe iubam quassat simul
altam,
Spiritus ex anima calida spumas agit
albas.
”
[493] It seems better to restore the comma placed after ‘aperto’ by Heyne and omitted by Wagn., so as to make ‘potitus’ a finite verb, and v. 494 the apodosis. The pleonastic use of ‘ille’ seems generally to belong to cases where it is subjoined to the finite verb, not where it introduces it (in G. 2. 435 “illae” is probably emphatic, as we should say ‘even they’): Hom. throws the mention of the mares to the end of the sentence, and his εἰρομένη λέξις can hardly be pleaded as an authority for any particular mode of punctuation in Virg. Some MSS. (none of Ribbeck's) have ‘potitur.’
[494] Pastus armentaque equarum is apparently ἓν διὰ δυοῖν, a translation of ἤθεα καὶ νομὸν ἵππων.
[495] Virg. apparently means, ‘having bathed, as is his wont, in the well-known stream,’ which he would not have done while he was tied up. Hom. probably means the same thing, though, as he does not put the bathing as an alternative to the pursuit of the mares, it is not easy to say. “Perfusi flumine” G. 2. 147.
