[634] Atque ubi was restored by Heins. for ‘ast ubi,’ which is the reading of inferior MSS.
[635] Antiquas seems merely an epithet of affection. Serv. says “‘antiquas:’ caras: ambitiose dixit.”
[636] Primum, as Gossrau remarks, receives some light from a story told by Serv. from Varro's work “Rerum Humanarum,” to the effect that the Greeks allowed Aeneas and others to take with them what they valued most: that while others chose their treasures, he chose his father: that his filial piety was rewarded by the permission to make a second choice, when he selected the Penates; and that after this second proof of unselfishness the conquerors left him free to take with him what he liked. This story was not likely to be adopted by Virg., who would feel that it in some sort compromised the prowess of his hero; but it may very well have influenced his language here. ‘Primum’ then will mean that Aeneas thought of saving his father before saving any other person or thing, so that it had best be made to agree with ‘quem.’ ‘Montis:’ Ida, vv. 801 foll. ‘Primumque petebam,’ whom I first addressed, or, to whom I first made my way.
[637] Guellius and Cerda are, I suspect, right in conjecturing ‘exscissa.’ “Exscindere urbem,” “gentem” &c. occur repeatedly in Virg., and “exscidium” too is common; but “excidere” is never used by him in this sense except here and in 12. 762, where one MS., the Parrhasian, gives “exscissurum,” unless we are to follow fragm. Vat. in reading “excidisse” 5. 785. It is at least singular that the only two instances in which this use of the word is supported by the weight of the MSS. should be instances of participles, where the difference amounts to little more than a difference of spelling. The spelling “excidium,” which seems to have taken general possession of the MSS., may have arisen from a false etymology: see on 1. 22. Comp. also the fluctuations between “abscindo” and “abscido.”
[638] Integer aevi 9. 255. So “aevi maturus” 5. 73.
[639] Suo emphatic. Anchises says in fact that his very inability to fly without aid is a reason why he should not fly at all. “Mole sua stat” 10. 771. There seems to be an imitation of Il. 23. 629, εἴθ᾽ ὣς ἡβώοιμι, βίη τέ μοι ἔμπεδος εἴη.
[640] Agitate fugam seems nearly = “fugam moliri” v. 108 above. One MS. fills up the line with the words ‘et rebus servate secundis.’
[642] Satis &c. In prose we might have had “satis superque est quod vidimus” &c. The allusion of course is to the destruction of Troy by Hercules and in the time of Laomedon.
[643] Superavimus v. 597. ‘Una,’ in the form of “semel,” has to be supplied to ‘captae urbi.’
[644] This line was omitted in Med., doubtless by accident, and had to be added in the margin. See on G. 2. 433. ‘Sic’ is probably to be taken with ‘positum,’ ‘just as I am:’ we may however comp. the emphatic ‘sic, sic’ with which Dido apparently stabs herself 4. 660, as well as “sic ut te posita crudelis abessem,” ib. 681. Comp. also G. 4. 303, “Sic positum in clauso linquunt,” of the slain calf. ‘Positus’ of the dead, like κεῖσθαι: see Forc.: and so ‘corpus.’ ‘Adfati’ seems to refer to the “conclamatio” rather than to the “acclamatio” (see on 1. 219); but it is difficult to say. They are to treat him as if he were already dead, and leave him.
[645] The words ‘ipse manu’ are so frequently connected by Virg. in the sense of doing a thing with one's own hand, that it seems impossible to give them any other sense here. ‘Miserebitur hostis’ on the other hand is more naturally understood of death from an enemy than of an enemy's abstaining from maltreating the dead; and the words of Aeneas v. 661 rather favour the same view. Forb. therefore seems right in supposing that Anchises means to follow Priam's example, mingling in the battle and provoking his death. Comp. “meruisse manu” above v. 434. Anchises is infirm, but we need not suppose that the blast of the thunder had actually incapacitated him from motion, as he is able to accompany Aeneas on his seven years' voyage. For ‘miserebitur hostis’ Serv. aptly comp. 9. 495., 10. 676.
[646] Exuviasque petet indicates that the enemy might kill him for other reasons than pity. ‘Sepulchri est’ was the reading before Pierius. In calling the loss of a tomb a light one, Anchises is speaking as a world-wearied old man, not as one who consciously realized the belief of the heroic time.
[647] The story was that Anchises was struck (some said killed) by lightning for divulging his intercourse with Venus. See Hom. Hymn to Aphrodite, vv. 287 foll. ‘Inutilis,’ as Achilles Il. 18. 104 calls himself in his inaction ἐτώσιον ἄχθος ἀρούρης. ‘Annos demoror’ seems rightly explained by Serv. “quasi festinantis diu vivendo detineo,” though there is still room for question whether the notion is that of deferring the day of doom or of acting as it were as a clog upon time by passing a feeble spiritless dead-alive existence. Comp. 3. 481 “fando surgentis demoror austros,” and Horace's “Impudens Orcum moror” 3 Od. 27. 50.
[648] Divom pater atque hominum rex 1. 65.
[649] Ventis seems to be an extension of the notion of ‘adflavit,’ which expresses the effect of the “vapor” or heat of the thunderbolt. So Lucr. 5.567, “calidum membris adflare vaporem,” of fire; and again 6. 221 he speaks of things struck by lightning as “gravis halantes sulfuris auras,” though he immediately afterwards adds “ignis enim sunt haec, non venti signa neque imbris.” Virg. too may have thought of the wind of the thunderbolt's motion: see on 1. 35. Any distinct doctrine, like that of the wind's being the cause of the thunder or lightning, on which Lucr. enlarges 6. 96 foll., is less likely to have been in his mind, though in A. 8. 430 he makes wind one of the component parts of lightning, that which gives it speed. ‘Contigit’ like “de caelo tactas” E. 1. 17 note.
