[729] Dona poetically for “donum” 2. 36, 189. Χρυσὸς . . . δῶρα θεοῖο Il. 21. 165. Peerlkamp conj. ‘Volcania dona,’ which is actually found in MS. Balliol.
[730] It would be possible to take ‘rerum’ with ‘ignarus:’ ignorant as he is of the real events, he is charmed with their portraiture (which is Lessing's view, Laocoon c. 18, and perhaps that of Serv.): but to connect it with ‘imagine’ is more after the manner of Virg.
[731] Famam et fata 7. 79, a sort of hendiadys for a glorious destiny. The line was attacked in Serv.'s time as superfluous and modern in its tone, and later critics have complained of it as epigrammatic and Ovidian. But the only thing artificial about it, the substitution of the subject of the shield for the shield itself, is paralleled by Heyne from 10. 497: and both the rhythm and the thought of the line are dignified and emphatic. ‘Facta,’ the reading of some MSS., including one of Ribbeck's cursives, is very inferior.
