[418] For ‘corripuere’ see note on G. 3. 104. ‘Qua semita monstrat,’ like “qua te ducit via,” v. 401. Elsewhere ‘via’ and ‘semita’ are opposed, as ‘a main road’ and ‘a bye-path’ (see Forc.); here ‘via’ is general, ‘semita’ particular.
[419] Plurimus urbi imminet, ‘hangs with mighty mass over the city.’ Heyne comp. “plurima cervix,” G. 3. 52.
[420] The words ‘adversas adspectat’ may contain a notion of the height of the buildings rising to meet the mountain which looks down on them.
[421] Comp. Od. 7. 43, where Ulysses first sees the city of the Phaeacians. Virgil too may have had his eye on Apoll. R. 3. 215 foll. ‘Molem,’ the vast buildings. Hor. 3 Od. 29. 10, “Fastidiosam desere copiam et Molem propinquam nubibus arduis.” ‘Magalia,’ apparently the same as “mapalia” G. 3. 340, where see note. The word, which is a Punic one, occurs again 4. 259, Plaut. Poen. prol. 86. In these two places it seems simply to mean suburbs (comp. the fragments of Sall. and Cassius Hemina cited by Serv.); here there is evidently a disparaging sense intended, as we should say, mere huts. The contrast, as Serv. remarks, is in the poet's own mind, not in that of Aeneas. Comp. 8. 360.
[422] Strepitum, the hum of the crowded streets. “Omitte mirari beatae Fumum et opes strepitumque Romae,” Hor. l. c. ‘Strata viarum’ is from Lucr. 1.315 (where see Munro), 4. 415. ‘Paved streets.’ The expression, which, as Madv. (§ 284, obs. 5) remarks, hovers between the partitive notion and that of quality, is used more boldly by Lucr. than by Virg., e. g. “prima virorum.”
[423] A semicolon is commonly placed at ‘Tyrii;’ but ‘insto’ is found with an infin. 2. 627, Lucr. 4.998. ‘Pars—pars:’ part are at work on the fortifications, part on the houses. Such seems the general distinction; but there is no occasion, with Forb., to suppose that ‘muri’ must be the walls of the citadel, as if ‘pars’ could only mean a party actually engaged in the same work on the same spot. It is doubtful whether ‘ducere muros,’ which occurs here and in Hor. 4 Od. 6. 23, means ‘to trace’ or ‘to build’ (carry) the wall. Serv. quotes a fragment from Sall. Hist. 2 (“Murum ab angulo dextri lateris ad paludem haud procul remotam duxit”) which makes for the latter interpretation; and so the Greek phrase ἐλαύνειν τοῖχον, which occurs, according to one reading, in a passage of Hom. (Od. 7. 86), immediately following that which Virg. has just been imitating.
[424] Moliri, ‘to build,’ as in 3. 132, Hor. A. P. 399. ‘Arcem,’ the citadel proper, as distinguished from the ‘arces,’ v. 420. ‘Subvolvere saxa,’ to roll them up to the eminence on which the citadel was being built.
[425] Optare, ‘to choose,’ as in 3. 119, 132. There is a reading ‘aptare,’ found in some MSS., including Rom. as originally written, and rather preferred by Henry, seemingly without reason. ‘Sulco’ is generally taken as the trench for the foundations. Lersch however (Antiqq. Vergg. § 19) understands ‘optare’ of choosing with auspices, and ‘concludere sulco’ of drawing a trench of demarcation round the houses, supposing that Virg. has transferred the solemnity of founding a city to the foundation of private dwellings. Henry makes ‘tecto’ general, so as to include citadel as well as private houses, supposing the distinction marked by ‘pars —pars,’ to be between actual building and laying out.
[426] Heyne and Ribbeck think this line spurious, as interrupting the enumeration of buildings; but legislation (“iura dare”) is mentioned in nearly the same connexion 3. 137., 5. 758. Virg. was probably thinking of the republican institutions of Rome and her colonies, without considering how this action of the people was to be reconciled with the authority of Dido (comp. v. 507). ‘Sanctus’ is the regular epithet of the Roman senate. ‘Iura magistratusque legunt’ is a zeugma, “iura constituunt magistratusque legunt,” as Forb. gives it.
[427] Effodiunt appears to be strictly correct, as the harbour of Carthage, which Serv. calls Cothon, was artificial. ‘Theatri’ is the reading of Med., ‘theatris’ of Rom., Pal. (originally), and fragm. Vat.; but the latter would be too great an exaggeration, and may easily have sprung from ‘portus,’ and ‘scaenis.’ For ‘alta’ fragm. Vat. has ‘lata,’ which Ribbeck adopts; but Weichert seems right in saying that the repetition of ‘alta,’ v. 429, is excused by the change of meaning.
[428] Ribbeck follows fragm. Vat. in reading ‘petunt’ for ‘locant,’ apparently regarding the latter as introduced from 4. 266; but such a thing is hardly probable in the face of authorities so independent as Med., Pal., and Rom. In the previous line he adopts ‘hinc’ from a quotation in Nonius, p. 340, who however has ‘locant,’ while fragm. Vat. apparently has ‘hic,’ so that not much can be made out of this coincidence. The temporary wooden theatre of M. Aemilius Scaurus had a ‘scaena’ of three stories, supported by 360 columns, Pliny 36. 15.
[430] Qualis apes exercet labor, ‘like the busy labour of bees.’ ‘Aestate nova:’ comp. G. 4. 52, note. ‘In the first bright days of summer,’ when the hive, awakened from its winter torpor, is busiest and most like a young colony. These lines are repeated with slight variations from G. 4. 162—169; a reference to which passage proves that the divisions here introduced by ‘cum’ imply, not different times, but different parties, and so are parallel to the different occupations of the Carthaginians. The variations are ‘liquentia’ for ‘purissima,’ and ‘dulci’ for ‘liquido;’ the first necessitated the second, and was natural in a passage where bees and honey are not the main subject celebrated, but only an illustration.
[432] Liquentia, from “līqui,” not from “lĭquere,” Lucr. 4.141.
[437] The want of a city is the key-note of the whole Aeneid. Aeneas envies the Carthaginians as he envies Helenus and Andromache, 3. 493 foll. For the indicative ‘surgunt’ comp. G. 2. 458 foll.
[438] ‘As he looks up to the battlements of the city;’ he having now descended the hill.
[439] Comp. Od. 7. 39 foll., 139 foll., where Ulysses walks invisible through the Phaeacians. ‘Infert se saeptus,’ like “sese tulit obvia,” v. 314 above.
[440] Miscet probably borrows ‘se’ from the previous line, as no other instance is quoted of its intransitive use.
[441-493] ‘Aeneas enters a grove, where a temple is in building to Juno. There he sees represented the various incidents of the Trojan war.’
