victorque supereminet omnes Ingreditur, victorque viros supereminet omnes! viros! Hic eques sistet RomaHic rem Romanam, magno turbante tumultu, nam rem, magno tumultu turbante eam; sternet Pœnos, re- Sistet eques; sternet Pœnos, Gallumque rebellem ; bellemque Gallum; suspendet: Tertiaque arma patri suspendet capta Quirino. que tertia arma capta patri Quirino. Atque hic Encas Atque hic Æneas (unà namque ire videbat egregium formâ, et fulgentibus 860 ait (namque videbat juvenem, Egregium formâ juvenem, et fulgentibus armis, armis, ire unà cum illo; sed e- Sed frons læta parum, et dejecto lumina vultu) jus frons erat parum læta, et Quis, pater, ille, virum qui sic comitatur euntem ? lumina dejecto vultu) Pater, quis est ille, qui sic comitatur Filius, anne aliquis magnâ de stirpe nepotum? virum euntem? an filius, anne Quis strepitus circa comitum ! quantum instar in est aliquis de magnâ stirpe ne potum? Quis strepitus comi atra nox circumvolat ejus ca ipso est! 865 tum est circa eum quantum Sed nox atra caput tristi circumvolat umbrâ. instar Marcelli est in ipso! sed Tum pater Anchises lacrymis ingressus obortis : put tristi umbra. Tum pater O nate, ingentem luctum ne quære tuorum : Anchises est ingressus loqui la- Ostendent terris hunc tantùm Fata, neque ultra crymis obortis: ô nate, ne Esse sinent. Nimium vobis Romana propago 870 quære ingentem luctum tuorum: Fata tantùm ostendent Visa potens, Superi, propria hæc si dona fuissent. hunc terris, neque sinent eum esse ultra. Romana propago esset visa vobis, Superi, esse nimium potens, si hæc dona fuissent propria. TRANSLATION. above the heroes all? He, mounted on his fierce steed, shall prop the Roman state in the rage of a formidable insurrection; the Carthaginians he shall humble, and the rebellious Gaul, and dedicate to father Quirinus the third triumphal spoils. And upon this Eneas says; for he beheld marching with him a youth distinguished by his beauty and shining arms, but his countenance not joyous, and his eyes sunk and dejected; What youth is he, O fater, who thus accompanies the hero as he walks? is he a son, or one of the illustrious line of his descendants? What bustling noise of attendants round him! How great resemblance in him to the other! but sable Night with her dreary shade hovers around his head. Then father Anchises, while tears gushed from his eyes, thus began: Seek not, my son, to know the deep disaster of thy kindred: him the Fates shall just show on earth, nor suffer longer to subsist. Ye gods, Rome's sons had seemed too powerful in your eyes,.. had these your gifts been permanent. What groans of heroes shall that NOTES. man commander stripped the enemy's general, whom he had slain with his own hand in the field of battle: such spoils M. Claudius Marcellus won from Viridomarus, the general of the Gauls. 859. Tertiaque arma, &c. He was the third who consecrated the spolia opima; Romulus having been the first; Cornelius Cossus, mentioned verse 841, the second. These spoils were dedicated in the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, whom Ruæus thinks here called Qui for the same reason that Janus is styled Quirinus, by Suetonius in August. XXII. and Horace IV. Ode XV. 9, because he presided over war, and because his temple was built by Romulus Quirinus. Servius, however, explains capta Quirino by qualia et Quirinus ceperat, he dedicated to Jupiter Feretrius the third spolia opima, such as Quirinus had first won from the enemy's general. 861. Egregium formâ juvenem, &c. Here Virgil comes to the noble encomium on young Marcellus, the son of Octavia, Augustus' sister, and of Caius Marcellus, whom Augustus 875 Quantos ille virum magnam Mavortis ad urbem Quantos gemitus virorum ille campus aget ad magnam urbem Mavortis! vel quæ funera tu, Tiberine, videbis, cum præ. terlabere recentem tumulum! Nec quisquam puer de Iliacâ gente tollet Latinos avos in tantum spe: nec quondam Romula tellus jactabit se tantum ullo alumno. Heu pietas! heu prisca fides! dexteraque invicta bello! non quisquam obvius tulisset se illi armato impune, seu cum pedes iret in hostem, seu foderet armos spumantis equi calcaribus. Heu puer mi serande! si quà rumpas aspera fata, tu eris Marcellus. Date lilia plenis manibus; spargam purpureos flores, saltemque accumulem animam nepotis his donis, et fungar inani munere. Sic vagantur passim totâ regione in latis campis aëris, atque lustrant omnia: TRANSLATION. 880 885 Ah that field near the imperial city of Mars send forth! what solemn funeral pomp shall you, Tiberinus, see, when you glide by his recent tomb! Neither shall any youth of the Trojan line in hope exalt the Latin fathers so high; nor shall the land of Romulus ever glory so much in any of her sons. piety! ah that faith and integrity of ancient times! and that right-hand invincible in war! none with impunity had encountered him in arms, either when on foot he rushed upon the foe, or when he pierced with the spur his foaming courser's flanks. Ah, youthful object of sincere commiseration! if by any means thou canst burst the bonds of rigorous fate, thou shalt be a Marcellus. Give me lilies in handfuls; let me strew the purple blooming flowers; these offerings at least let me heap upon my descendant's shade, and discharge this unavailing duty. Thus up and down they roam through NOTES. bad adopted, and designed for his successor in the empire; but he died in the bloom of youth. This is reckoned one of the finest passages of the whole Eneid. Augustus was so pleased with it at the time when he heard Virgil pronounce it with the rest of this book, that he ordered him a present of ten sestertia for every line, i. e. about 78 pounds of our money. 872. Mavortis ad urbem. Rome, sacred to Mars, the father of Romulus and Remus. 874. Tumulum præterlabere recentem. It was the ancient custom to raise sepulchral monuments on the banks of rivers. Thus En. III. 312. 878. Heu pietas! heu prisca fides! He deplores the loss that virtue, and integrity, and valour, sustained by his death; agreeable to which is the chaaracter given of him by Velleius Paterculus: Sane, ut aiunt, ingenuarum virtutum, lætusque animi et ingenii, fortunæque in quam alebatur capax. And Seneca calls him, Adolescentem animo alacrem, ingenii potentem; sed et frugalitatis continentiæque, in illis aut annis, aut opibus, non mediocriter admirandum; patientem laboris, voluptatibus alienum; quantumcunque imponere illi avunculus, et, ut ita dicam, inædificare voluisset, laturum. 883. Tu Marcellus, &c. At hearing this line Octavia is said to have swooned away. Vir Ante urbem in luco falsi Simoentis ad undam gil, whose great talent lies in moving the soft Libabat cineri Andromache, &c. and tender passions, artfully forbears men chises duxit natum, incendit per quæ singula postquam An- Quæ postquam Anchises natum per singula duxit,' que ejus animum amore veni. Incenditque animum famæ venientis amore, entis famæ, exin memorat viro Exin bella viro memorat quæ deinde gerenda; 890 quæ bella deinde sint gerenda; Laurentesque docet populos, urbemque Latini; docetque eum Laurentes po facilis exitus datur veris um 895 pulos, urbemque Latini; et Et quo quemque modo fugiatque feratque laborem. quo modo fugiatque feratque Sunt geminæ Somni portæ ; quarum altera fertur quemque laborem. Sunt geminæ portæ Somni; quarum Cornea; quâ veris facilis datur exitus umbris : altera fertur esse cornea, quâ Altera candenti perfecta nitens elephanto; bris: altera nitens, perfecta Sed falsa ad cœlum mittunt insomnia Manes. candenti elephanto; sed quâ His ubi tum natum Anchises, unàque Sibyllam ad cœlum. Tum ubi Anchises Prosequitur dictis, portâque emittit eburna, prosequitur natum Ænean, Sibyllamque unà his dictis, emittitque eos eburnâ portâ, Manes mittunt falsa insomnia TRANSLATION. all the Elysian regions in spacious airy fields, and survey every object: through each of which when Anchises had conducted his son, and fired his soul with the love of future fame, he next recounts to the hero what wars he must hereafter wage, informs him of the Laurentine people, and of the city of Latinus, and by what means he may surmount or shun every toil. Two gates there are of sleep, whereof the one is said to be of horn; by which an easy egress is given to true visions: the other shining, as being wrought of white ivory; but through it the infernal gods send up false dreams to the upper world. When Anchises had addressed this discourse to his son and the Sibyl together, and dismissed them by the ivory gate, the hero speeds NOTES. tioning the name of Marcellus till the very last. 393. Sunt geminæ Somni porta. This fiction is borrowed from the nineteenth book of Homer's Odyssey, where Euryclea recounts to Ulysses in disguise a vision she had of his speedy return home; but she is apprehensive that it may be false, because there are many delusive dreams as well as true ones; which she thus expresses in poetical language, according to Mr. Pope's translation: Immur'd within the silent bow'r of sleep, that the whole of this episode concerning the infernal regions is mere fiction: Vult autem intelligi falsa esse omnia quæ dixit. But is it to be imagined that so judicious a poet would thus with one dash of his pen destroy all the fine compliments he had paid to Augustus, and the whole body of the Roman nation, by tell ing them that all was fictitious? Besides, he could never pronounce the whole vision false, since he has interwoven into it a prophecy of the principal events and most indisputable facts of the Roman history: so that, however it may be accounted a dream, it can never be reckoned a false one, since here is a mixture of something real and something visionary, which is the very nature of a true dream. Ruæus is somewhat more modest, and alleges that Virgil only signifies by this allegorical circumstance, that what he had said concerning the infernal regions was to be deemed fabuloas. But what necessity was there for that hint? Who was in danger of being deceived, or taking his system for true doctrine? It is certain, that neither Virgil himself, nor any reader of common sense, even among the Romans, believed one word of the matter, as we may infer particularly from Cicero: Dic, quæso, num te illa terrent; triceps apud inferos Cerberus, Cocyti fremitus, transvectio Acherontis, mento summam aquam attingens siti enectus Ille viam secat ad naves, sociosque revisit; ille Eneas secat viam ad na900 fert se recto litore ad portum ves, revisitque socios; tum Caïeta. Anchora jacitur de prorâ, et puppes stant litore. TRANSLATION. his way to the ships, and revisits his friends; then steers directly along the coast for the port of Caieta; where when he had arrived, the anchor is thrown out from the forecastle, and the sterns rest upon the shore. NOTE. Tantalus, &c. The other exclaims in reply, Adeone me delirare censes, ut ista esse credam? And in another place: Qua est anus tam delira, quæ timeat ista? Acherontia templa, alta Orci, pallida Leti obnubila, obsita tenebris, loca. But, how little soever the poet believes of what he writes, it is still his business to deliver his fictions and allegories with all the air and assurance of truth, and endeavour to impose the belief of them upon his reader; and to go about to undeceive him, by taking off the mask, and intimating, that some parts of his narration are mere fable, which he himself disbelieves, is quite bungling and unpoetical. Those interpreters would therefore have done much better to acknowledge their ignorance of the poet's meaning, than to father upon him such impertinence and absurdity. I shall on ly offer, by way of conjecture, that as Virgil in this whole episode, seems to have had an eye to the Platonic philosophy; by sending his hero through the ivory gate, by which lying dreams ascend to this earth, he might pos sibly mean, that thus far Eneas had been admitted to see the naked truth, had the true system of nature laid open to his view, and the secrets of futurity unveiled; but henceforth he was returning to his former state of darkness, ignorance, and error: and therefore is dismissed from those regions of light and truth, by the ivory gate, in company with deluding dreams and mere shadows, which are to attend him, with the rest of mankind, in their progress through life. ORDO. P. VIRGILII MARONIS Tu quoquè, Caïeta, Æneia ENEIDOS, LIBER SEPTIMUS. Tu quoquè litoribus nostris, Æneïa nutrix, nutrix, moriens dedisti æter- Eternam moriens famam, Caieta, dedisti; nam famam nostris litoribus; Et nunc servat honos sedem tuus, ossaque nomen et nunc tuus honos servat hanc Hesperia in magnâ, si qua est ea gloria, signat. sedem, nomenque signat tua Osɛa in magna Hesperia, si ea At pius exsequiis Æneas ritè solutis, as, exsequiis nutricis ritè so est qua gloria. At pius Ene- Aggere composito tumuli, postquam alta quiêrunt lutis, aggere tumuli composito, quora, tendit iter velis, portumque relinquit. postquam alta æquora quieve- Aspirant auræ in noctem; nec candida cursum runt, tendit iter velis, relinquit que portum. Auræ aspirant in noctem; nec candida luña negat cursum: 5 TRANSLATION. THOU too, Caieta, nurse to Æneas, expiring here, gavest to our coasts immortal fame; and now thy honour here resides, and the name Caieta points to thy ashes in Hesperia the great, if that be any glory to thy departed ghost. And now that her funeral obsequies in due form were paid, and the grave raised high in decent order, the pious Æneas, soon as the swelling seas were hushed, sails on his destined course, and leaves the port behind. The gales breathe fair at the approach of night; nor does the silver moon oppose his NOTES. Latinus entertains Eneas, and promises him his only daughter, Lavinia, the heiress of his crown. Turnus, who was her lover, favoured by her mother, and stirred up by Juno and Alecto, breaks the treaty which was made, and engages in the quarrel Mezentius, Camilla, Messapus, and other neighbouring princes; whose forces, and the names of their commanders, are particularly related. 1. Tu quoque. This refers to what the poet had told us before of Misenus having a sepulchrai monument raised to his honour on the coasts of Italy, in those lines of the former book that immediately precede the description of the infernal regions, verse 232. At pius Eneas ingenti mole sepulchrum Imponit, suaque arma viro, remumque,tubamque, Monte sub aërio, qui nunc Misenus ab illo Dicitur, æternumque tenet per secula nomen: In connexion with which these verses follow: Tu quoque litoribus nostris, Æneïa nutrix, Eternam moriens famam, Caïeta, dedisti. 2. Caïeta, now Gaeta. 3. Servat honos sedem tuus. Some make this an hypallage for sedes servat honorem tuum; but the reader will judge if it is not more natural to explain it as in the translation; or perhaps it means, that Caïeta's name honoured, preserved, and protected the place. 4. Hesperia in magnâ. Italy was called Hesperia Magna, or the Great, in contradistinction to Spain, which was denominated Hesperia the Less. 6. Aggere composito tumuli. The earth, raised up into a heap over the corpse or ashes, is called agger tumuli, agger signifying any eminence: as agger viæ, Æn. V. 273. and agger ripe, En. VI. 106. 8. Candida Luna, the silver moon. As the sun from his flaming brightness is called au |