[780] Comp. above v. 482., 4. 553.
[781] Nec exsaturabile (‘neque’ Pal., Med. corrected, &c.) was restored by Heins., from Med. and others for ‘et inexsaturabile.’ The MSS. sometimes vary between simple adjectives with negatives prefixed and adjectives compounded with negatives, e. g. “non piger” and “impiger,” “non felix” and “infelix.” With the sense comp. above v. 608., 7. 298. ‘Exsaturabilis’ seems found nowhere else.
[782] Caesar B. C. 1. 9 has “ad omnia se descendere paratum.” See other instances of this use of the word in Forc. The usual combination seems to be ‘descendere ad,’ which is here found in some of the MSS. of Serv. Gossrau well comp. “Ire in lacrimas” 4. 413, “ad miseras preces decurrere” Hor. 3 Od. 29. 59. So also Tac. A. 1. 12, “Senatu ad ultimas obtestationes procumbente.”
[783] Pietas, as Aeneas had endeavoured to propitiate Juno 3. 547. It might however be extended to other acts of piety not affecting Juno, 6. 405.
[784] The change of the nom. is harsh, as we are not warned of it by a change in the gender. ‘Iovis inperio:’ Jupiter had declared himself favourable to Aeneas in Book 1, and had checked Juno afterwards by sending him away from Carthage. ‘Fatisque’ Med., Rom., Pal., ‘fatisve’ fragm. Vat., Gud. It signifies little which we adopt. The command of Jove and the will of destiny are naturally combined, tending as they do the same way, and as naturally distinguished. “Infractaque constitit ira” Ov. M. 6. 626. With the general language of the line comp. Juno's own words 7. 297, “At, credo, mea numina tandem Fessa iacent, odiis aut exsaturata quievi.”
[785]
Media de gente: Juno is not
satisfied with having torn Troy as it were
out of the heart of Phrygia. “‘Exedisse’
muliebriter dictum,” says Serv., which is
perhaps the best way of accounting for
Virg.'s use of so harsh a metaphor, at the
same time that he was probably thinking,
as Heyne well suggests, of the taunt of the
Homeric Zeus to Hera Il. 4. 34 foll.:
“εἰ δὲ σύγ᾽ εἰσελθοῦσα πύλας καὶ τείχεα
μακρὰ
ὠμὸν βεβρώθοις Πρίαμον Πριάμοιό τε
παῖδας,
ἄλλους τε Τρῶας, τότε κεν χόλον ἐξακέσαιο.
”
[786] ‘Traxe,’ an abbreviated form, like “exstinxti” 4. 682, “vixet” 11. 118. So “abstraxe” Lucr. 3.650. Its strangeness has led to many alterations in the MSS., some of which, including Med. a m. pr., write the word in full, ‘traxisse,’ regardless of the verse, while others, adopting ‘traxisse’ omit ‘nec.’ Pal. and fragm. Vat. originally had ‘traxere.’ With the expression ‘trahere per poenam’ Ruhkopf comp. Eur. Iph. T. 257, διὰ πόνων ἄγει. Comp. also 3. 315, “vitam extrema per omnia duco.” The old punctuation continued the sentence to ‘reliquias:’ Torquil Baden on Sen. Herc. F. p. 32 proposed to put a stop at ‘omnem,’ continuing ‘Reliquias Troiae, cineres atque ossa, peremptae;’ and Wagn. has improved on this by removing the comma after ‘ossa’ Gossrau points ‘nec poenam traxe per omnem Reliquias Troiae,’ fortifying himself by the authority of Med., which on questions of punctuation is worth very little. The objection to this, as to the old pointing, is that it makes too subtle a distinction between ‘reliquiae,’ the remains after the destruction of Troy, and ‘cineres atque ossa,’ the remains of those remains, which have survived subsequent persecution.
[788] ‘Let her be well assured that she has reasons, for I know of none.’ Serv. says “Bene supprimit: contra ipsam enim sunt quae Iuno in decimo [v. 92] exsequitur, ‘me duce Dardanius Troiam expugnavit adulter?’”
[789] It seems better to remove the comma which many editions place after ‘undis,’ as ‘Libycis in undis’ refers rather to ‘excierit’ than to ‘testis,’ though the latter combination might be defended, if necessary.
[790] The language closely follows 1. 133, 134, “Iam caelum terramque meo sine numine, Venti, Miscere, et tantas audetis tollere moles?” Venus' language however has a slightly more colloquial air than Neptune's, as she speaks under feminine excitement and refers to an event which, being some time past, need not be characterized so exactly. In 1. 134, as there remarked, Neptune may refer to the mountains of waves: Venus evidently means no more than ‘What a coil she made!’ ‘Maria omnia caelo miscuit’ is one form of the proverbial expression, the other form of which is given in 1. 133. Juv. combines the two 2. 25, “Quis caelum terris non misceat et mare caelo?” In another passage he has “clames licet et mare caelo Confundas” (6. 283).
[792] Comp. generally Neptune's speech 1. 132 foll.
[793] For ‘per scelus,’ the reading before Pierius, found in one of Ribbeck's cursives, was “pro scelus!” So “produxit” and “perduxit” are confounded E. 1. 73. Heyne gives a choice of interpretations, ‘per scelus’ with ‘exussit,’ i. q. “sceleste,” and ‘per scelus actis.’ The latter seems best. Ruhkopf comp. such expressions as δἰ ὕβρεως μολοῦσαι, ἀγόμεναι, &c., Heyne “Gens humana ruit per vetitum et nefas” Hor. 1 Od. 3. 26.
[794] Subegit Aeneam. ‘Classe amissa’ is of course exaggerated, though she qualifies the words in v. 796, if the interpretation adopted in the note there is correct. There is the same spirit of exaggeration in her language 1. 251, where she talks of “navibus amissis,” though she doubtless knew at the time that only one ship was really lost.
[795] Ignotae is another touch of exaggeration, as elsewhere the Trojans speak of Sicily as familiar and friendly, above vv. 24, 28 foll., 630. But she may call it so with reference to the separation between Aeneas and those left behind, who will be strangers to him henceforth. ‘Ignota terra’ is read by Med., Gud. a m. pr., first Mentelian, &c.: but the dat. which is found in fragm. Vat. is more poetical and less obvious, and so more likely to have been altered. Rom. exhibits the error in its transitional state, reading ‘ignotae terra,’ and the original reading of Pal. was perhaps ‘ignota terrae.’
[796] There is even more variety of opinion about ‘quod superest’ here than in v. 691 above. Heyne, who placed a semicolon after ‘superest,’ seems to have regarded it as i. q. ‘ceterum,’ to which Wagn. objects that the request which follows, so far from being an afterthought, is the main object of Venus' speech. This objection is not quite conclusive, as there might even be a dramatic propriety in the request so introduced. Venus has been carried on by her impetuosity into an enumeration of Juno's crimes, and now bethinks herself of what she wants to have done, at the same time that she may purposely adopt a phrase which rather disguises her anxiety about the main point. Such a defence however can hardly be urged against other views equally reconcilable with the language, and not requiring to be reconciled with the context. Henry understands it to mean ‘all that is now possible for us to obtain from you in this our distressed condition,’ which would agree with the common interpretation of the words in v. 691, “all that is left for you to do in order to ruin us utterly.” But Neptune's help was really worth far more to them than this, though it may again be replied that it suits Venus' purpose to extenuate the boon. Two other interpretations are mentioned by Wagn., “quod superest de classe,” or “de sociis,” and “quod superest de itinere.” The former brings the passage into conformity with what appears on the whole the best view of v. 691, at the same time that it supplies a subject for ‘dare,’ which would otherwise perhaps be too obscure with ‘tibi’ following. Besides, the latter is open to one or two objections of its own: it is not suggested by the immediate context, which speaks of the burning of the ships, the Aeolian storm having been dismissed in v. 792: perhaps also it makes Venus assume too readily that their journey is near its end, as if distance and tempests had been the only causes of its prolongation. I think then that ‘quod superest’ is to be explained of the remaining ships and their crews, and that the probabilities of this interpretation here and in v. 691 may fairly be said to strengthen each other.
[797] Most editors take ‘tibi’ as an ethical dative, virtually equivalent to ‘I pray;’ but the instances they quote are, as Forb. admits, not strictly parallel, and there can be no doubt that such a use of the word in a connexion like this would create a very awkward ambiguity. With Ladewig then I accept Heyne's first explanation, “dantur proprie vela ventis: nunc ea Neptuno quasi creduntur.” So perhaps in 12. 263 “profundo,” in G. 2. 41 “pelago” may be the dat. after “dare vela.” We have already had a bolder innovation on the usual expression in 3. 9, “dare fatis vela.”
[798] Ea moenia has to be explained from the previous knowledge of Neptune, as no city has been mentioned. Comp. 3. 100, “quae sint ea moenia quaerunt,” where the reference is scarcely more direct. With ‘dant’ comp. v. 737 above.
