[520] Repeated 11. 248.
[521] Maxumus. Comp. Livy 29. 17, of the Locrian embassy, “senatu dato, maxumus natu ex iis” (then follows the speech). There is an aged Ilioneus in Q. Smyrn. 13. 181 foll. killed by Diomed. Ilioneus is employed as spokesman again in the parallel passage, 7. 212 foll. Weidner connects the calmness of Ilioneus with his age, comparing 7. 194, to which add 12. 18.
[522] The appeal is to one, to whom heaven has granted what they are seeking, to pity those whose case resembles her own, and to one who has founded civilization in the midst of barbarism, to put a stop to barbarous outrage. ‘Novam urbem:’ see on v. 298.
[523] Gentis superbas, i. e. the Africans, not the Carthaginians, to whom ‘gentis’ would not be applicable. See 4. 41 (where possibly “infreni” may illustrate ‘frenare’ here), 320. It must be admitted, however, that so far as ‘frenare’ goes, it would point rather to Dido's government of her own people. Henry thinks Ilioneus speaks of the two operations in which he has seen Dido engaged, directing the building of the city and legislating (vv. 507, 508).
[524] Maria omnia vecti: this accus. of the thing along or over which motion takes place is a Grecism, Jelf, Gr. Gr. 558. 1. Comp. 5. 627, “freta . . . terras . . . ferimur.” Ilioneus speaks similarly of the wanderings of the Trojans, 7. 228.
[525] Infandos, unspeakable, and so, horrible; not, as Heyne thinks, lawless, a sense which the word does not appear to bear. The Carthaginians were treating the Trojans as pirates. “Prohibent a matribus haedos,” G. 3. 398.
[526] Heyne takes ‘propius’ as more closely; do not judge us by appearances. But it seems rather to mean, as Taubmann understood it, “praesentius,” incline thy ear to hear our case. Comp. 8. 78, “propius tua numina firmes.” The Trojans are called “pii” 3. 266., 7. 21.
[527] Venimus populare, vertere, like “parasitus modo venerat aurum petere,” Plaut. Bacch. 4. 3. 18, an instance which may show that the construction is not merely a poetical Grecism, though the supine is undoubtedly more usual than the inf. ‘Populare’ seems here to refer to slaughter, as distinguished from pillage (‘ad litora vertere praedas’). This is a sense however derived from the context, not, as Wagn. thinks, inherent in the word. Attius (Astyanax fragm. 1) has “Qui nostra per vim patria populavit bona.”
[528] Vertere. Comp. note on “avertit,” v. 472, and on “vertuntur,” v. 158.
[529] Such violence belongs not to our nature (“pio generi,” v. 526), nor such daring to our vanquished condition. Comp. the legal sense of ‘vis.’ Not very unlike is “vim crescere victis,” 12. 799.
[530] This line is imitated from Enn. A. 1. fr. 21 (quoted by Serv. and Macrob., Sat. 6. 1), “Est locus, Hesperiam quam mortales perhibebant.” For the construction comp. v. 12 above.
[531] Terra antiqua, a land old in story. For ‘potens armis atque ubere glaebae’ (where ‘potens’ seems to belong more naturally to the first), comp. G. 2. 173, “Magna parens frugum, Saturnia tellus, Magna virum.” ‘Ubere glaebae:’ οὖθαρ ἀρούρης, Il. 6. 141.
[532] ‘Oenotrii’ Med., ‘Oenotri’ Rom. rightly. The Greek is Οἴνωτροι.
[533] Gentem, the nation, for the land. Comp. the Homeric δήμῳ ἔνι Τρώων, Od. 8. 220. There were many accounts of the eponymous Italus, for which see Serv. Thuc. 6. 2 makes him a king of the Sicels. One legend made Oenotrus his brother.
[534] The reading ‘hic’ is supported against ‘huc’ apparently by all the best MSS., and Serv. The sense is of course the same with either reading, while ‘hic’ is the more difficult, ‘huc’ the simpler. See on 4. 46, where there is a similar variety, and comp. 4. 237, “hic nostri nuntius esto.” One inferior MS. fills up the line “huc cunctis [fuit?] ire voluntas.”
[535] Subito adsurgens fluctu, rising with a sudden swell. ‘Orion adsurgens fluctu’ is another of those artifices noticed on vv. 381, 508, the word ‘adsurgens’ being intended to combine the rising of the star and the rising of the wave. For ‘adsurgens fluctu’ in the latter sense comp. G. 2. 160 and note; for the former comp. Val. Fl. 5. 566, “Qualibus adsurgens nox aurea cingitur astris.” We are reminded here rather of the follower of Hesiod and Aratus than of the imitator of Homer. The inconsistency was felt in Serv.'s time, many, as he says, putting the superfluous question why the rising of Orion is mentioned when the tempest was raised by Juno; to which he replies that Ilioneus was not aware of the facts which the poet learned from the Muse. Elsewhere storms are connected with the setting of Orion (7. 719, Hor. 1 Od. 28. 21., 3. 27. 17, Epod. 10. 10), as here with the rising. The rising of Orion is about midsummer (Pliny 18. 68), which agrees with the time here, v. 756.
[536] Procacibus, boisterous. Eupolis, quoted by Julius Pollux ap. Cerdam, calls the winds ἀσελγεῖς. Lucr. 6.111 has “petulantes aurae,” and Hor. 1 Od. 26. 2, “protervi venti.” ‘Penitus:’ above v. 512.
[537] Superante salo, either, the sea overpowering us (“vicit hiemps” v. 122) or the waves rising high. The former, implying that they were unable to make head and were driven before the wind, is perhaps more in accordance with the context; but both may be intended: comp. 2. 311 note. Henry thinks ‘salum’ is used here and 2. 209 in its technical sense of the sea near the shore, for which see Forc.
[538] Pauci, a poor remnant. Comp. 6. 744, “pauci laeta arva tenemus.” ‘Adnavimus,’ floated or drifted: comp. 4. 613., 6. 358. In prose the word is used of an ordinary approach to land; but Virg. doubtless meant something more. ‘Vestris oris’ is epexegetical of ‘huc:’ see on E. 1. 53.
[539] The first half of this line is said by Macrob. (Sat. 6. 1) to be taken from Furius (probably of Antium), whom according to the same authority Virg. largely imitated, “Quod genus hoc hominum, Saturno sancte create.” This confirms Wagner's punctuation, which places an interrogation after ‘hominum,’ instead of continuing the construction to ‘permittit.’ ‘Quod genus’ is probably to be explained by ‘quae patria,’ not, as might be argued from v. 542, by supposing ‘hominum’ to be emphatic. For ‘quae tam barbara permittit,’ comp. G. 2. 315, and note. ‘Patria morem permittit’ is equivalent to “terra morem sibi proprium permittit:” see on G. 1. 52, and comp. v. 51 above. There is the same notion in Catull. 10. 14, “quod illic Natum dicitur esse.”
[540] There is a pathetic force in ‘hospitio;’ we are barred even from the welcome which the shore gives the shipwrecked man. Serv. refers to Cic. pro Rosc. Am. 26, “Nam quid est tam commune, quam spiritus vivis, terra mortuis, mare fluctuantibus, litus eiectis?” Comp. Ilioneus' language 7. 229 foll.
[541] Prima terra, on the edge of their territory. “Primi litoris oram” G. 2. 44.
[542] ‘If you are so strong as to defy human indignation.’ It is his cue to recognize the great power of Carthage. ‘Mortalia arma,’ i. q. “mortalium arma,” G. 3. 319, note.
[543] Sperare in the sense merely of expectation, like ἐλπίζειν, is common. There is no occasion to understand ‘fore.’ ‘But expect gods who forget not the righteous or unrighteous deed.’ “Deos sperare” occurs Plaut. Cas. 2. 5. 38, Mil. 4. 5. 10, Cist. 2. 3. 52 in a somewhat different sense. ‘Fandi atque nefandi’ is from Catull. 62 (64). 406, “Omnia fanda nefanda malo permixta furore.” It is hard to say whether ‘fandum’ and ‘nefandum’ thus coupled should be taken in the supposed old sense of the gerundive, as a present participle, and so as strictly equivalent to ‘fas’ and ‘nefas,’ or understood in the ordinary way, things that may or may not be spoken. With the general sense comp. Od. 2. 66., 9. 269 foll. Virg may conceivably have thought of Catull. 28 (30). 11, “Si tu oblitus es, at di meminere, at meminit Fides.”
