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AENEAS AT THE SITE OF ROME

By W.

WARDE fowler
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LONGMANS, GREEN AND

AENEAS AT THE SITE OF ROME

OBSERVATIONS ON THE EIGHTH BOOK

OF THE AENEID

BY

W.

WARDE FOWLER,

M.A., LL.D. Edin.

"
;

We

live

by hope

And by desire we see by the glad light And breathe the sweet air of futurity, And so we live, or else we have no life." Wordsworth.

[SECOND EDITION, REVISED]

B.

H.

OXFORD BLACKWELL, BROAD STREET

NEW YORK LONGMANS, GREEN
:

& CO.

MCMXVIII

MY EVER HELPFUL FRIEND

R. S.
" Amicus certus

CONWAY
cernitur." Ennius.

in re incerta

PREFATORY NOTE
All through the eighth Aeneid we seem,
and
this like

Aeneas, to be breathing " the sweet air of futurity,"

gives

the book a distinctive freshness

It

seems fit reading for us to-day. Before the war the air we breathed was somewhat stagnant; it was not fragrant with the thought of better things, great things, to come, of old faults and failings overcome and put away, of a coming reign, far distant perhaps, but coming, of truth, beauty, and goodness. But now, after all that has been done and suffered in the last three years, we may breathe " the sweet air of futurity " with enjoyment and trust. In these three years we have had as many escapes as those of Rome depicted on the Shield of Aeneas, yet the good sense and courage of our people have survived them all. I should like to think that any educator using this book may find
its fellows.

among

some help
to the

in

it

for the Hfting

up

of the hearts of his

pupils to look forward with good sense

and courage

many
2,

perils yet to

be overcome.

W. W.
July
1917.

F.

Vll

NOTE TO REPRINT, MAY,

This
little

1918

volume has brought me many welcome letters and friendly criticisms from Mr. J. W. Mackail, Professor Conway, the Bishop of Durham, Mr. C. E. Freeman, Mr. Gilbert Watson (an old Oxford pupil), and others. Both in the text, especially on p. 47, where I have rewritten a paragraph, and in an Appendix at the end of this edition, I have taken advantage of these criticisms, and wish here to offer

my

best thanks to

all

my

correspondents.
is

They

all

help

me

steadily,

knowledge of Virgil which though still imperfect enough.

to a

growing
F.

||

W. W.

Vlll

CONTENTS
PAGES

Introductory Note

i-6

Text of Aeneid VIII

Observations

-----

7-3 ^

32-130

IX

AENEAS AT THE SITE OF

ROME
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
This book
is

not, I suppose, a favourite with

It

most

readers of Virgil.

has not the splendid drive of the second, fourth, and sixth books, each of which tells a great story, and goes straight through with it; its plan can hardly be expressed in two or three words, like the plans of those great poems. Toit

gether with the seventh book,

serves as quiet
is

preparation for the war and bloodshed that

coming.

The poet seems

to wish to put off this

bloodshed as long as possible; beyond doubt it was the least congenial part of his work.^ As I read now through the last six books, I find much interest in the discovery of constant efforts on the part of the poet to escape his fate the necessity of describing

but of a succession of scenes passing happily and naturally one into another. The interview between Aeneas and the river-god; the voyage up the Tiber to the
consists, not of a single story,
site

Homeric battles. The eighth book

of

Rome: the
^

reception

by Evander and the

story of Cacus: the walk through the

Cp. Boissier, " Horace
I

Rome

that

et Virgile," p. 318.

Aeneas
:

at

the Site of

Rome

was to be the start for Agylla, with the forebodings about young Pallas: the scene between Vulcan and
Venus: the forging of the shield

these

are

all

though for a lover of Virgil they make up a varied and delightful

loosely

somewhat

strung together,

our poet knew how to give a quiet book a grand ending; for the Shield, though (as I
whole.
think) in part unfinished, leaves the
satisfied,

And

modern reader
reader en-

and must have

left

the

Roman

tranced.

It strengthens the sense of futurity that

pervades the whole book, and which has induced me to steal from their context the lines of Wordsworth which are printed on the title-page. These scenes and pictures teem with local allusions and delicate Roman touches; no book of the Aeneid is so full of them. This is, in fact, the most Roman of all the books. The Roman imagination, such as it was (and there was probably more of it than we fancy), would respond warmly to the idealisation of the greatest of Italian rivers, to the legend of Cacus, to the picture of the seven hills

would it respond to the tender relation of father and son so strongly brought out here in Evander and his beautiful stripling Pallas, destined to die, as we can guess, even if we know nothing of what is coming. The relation of host and guest (hospitium), and of military guardian and ward (contubernium) are also Nor is religion to be found here, as we shall see.
before
there.
Still

Rome was

more

heartily

wanting; the

spirit of it

breathes about the site of

lines (351 ff.)

Rome,

as in the

memorable
2

where the

Aeneas

at

the Site of
is

Rome

great cult of the Capitol

dimly foreseen among

this

the mists of old Italian

religio.

most readers is that the divine machinery, the Homeric use of the gods in the story, is less evident and wearisome here than in most of the others. The
Another advantage that

book has

for

Tiber-god does not,

think,

distress
is

us,

as

the

Olympian

deities so often do;

he

a local influence,
of

a spirit of the country, a legitimate impersonation

of geographical facts.

The interview

Venus and

Vulcan is here the only piece of typical divine machinery; and it is kept well under control, and is almost overshadowed by the magnificent description of the Cyclopes at work.
It is not, indeed, in divine figures,

but in

human

Evander and Pallas are real human beings with true and tender souls. Aeneas himself seems to me more human, if less heroic, in this book than elsewhere; the Roman surroundings are acting on the poet. There are tender touches, too, of humble life such as Virgil knew and loved. The late Dr. Verrall
ones,

that Virgil

is

here rejoicing.

noticed this, in a valuable bit of writing kindly sent

to

me by

Professor Conway.^

The good prince

Evander, waked by the swallows under his thatch (viii. 455), and walking, with his dogs for guards, to debate policy with his early-risen guest, is more to Virgil, is touched with more love, than all those wonders and splendours of Cyclopian art with
1

The National Home-Reading Union

Jf.

{Special

Course

Magazine), No. 65, pp. 2^

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

which the simple scene is so vividly contrasted. Even Vulcan himself comes in for this homely treatment. " Very early, right after the middle watch of the night, does he quit his bed, even at that hour when a woman awakens the slumbering ashes of her fire, a woman on whom lies the burden to live by her distaff and spinning of thread; of night-time she makes work-time; and plies her maids with the long, long task till dawn, that she may be able to keep her honour for her spouse and
*

to

rear her little

children.'

From Homer

still,

from ApoUonius Rhodius, and one knows not from whom beside, come hints, materials, helps for this simile, which is not a simile at all, in the common sense of the term. But neither Homer, nor any known author before Virgil, nor perhaps any since, would have put it here, or could have touched it to so tender an issue." Dr. Glover, in his volume on Virgil, calls Aeneas the most solitary figure in literature, and compares him to Marcus Aurelius, the solitary and conscientious imperial sage. There is some truth in this, and the comparison is at least an interesting one. He means, I think, that Aeneas finds little social joy in life; his thoughts and anxieties are
His fidus Achates is a somewhat shadowy figure; he is far from being for Aeneas what Horatio is for Hamlet; he is the ahThis loneliness of mind, str action of comradeship. setting in more especially after the death of his nursed in his
breast.
father, explains,

own

by

contrast, Aeneas' passionate love

Aeneas
for Dido.

at

the Site of

Rome

Then

for a brief interval of sunshine his

is

doomed to close once more, never again to be stirred by a woman's love. Like the later Roman gentleman, he was affectionate
heart Ues open, but

even tender-hearted, towards his son, and other boys like Pallas and Lausus, but romance has left him for ever. Yet in this eighth book he is less lonely than elsewhere; he is never alone, after the He is a first few lines of it, either in body or mind. human being full of hope, and conscious of a great future. In Evander he finds someone to revere, in Pallas someone to love. The atmosphere of Rome is around him, and the Shield prophetically enriches his being; he is not, like Marcus Aurelius, a lonely figure with no future before him. The last line of the book forbids us the comparison Aeneas is to live
;

for ever in the glorious destiny of his descendants.

The place

of this

book among the others

is

best

understood if we think of the condition of the Mediterranean world when the Aeneid was being written. Augustus had soldered together the two halves of that world by his victory at Actium, after some years in which disruption threatened to be permanent the centre point, the pivot on which the whole system moved, was Italy, with Rome as its heart and brain, the seat of its life and power. Italy had been reached in the sixth book, and in the seventh its various peoples had been mustered to oppose the stranger who came by the will of Jupiter and the decrees of Fate to rescue the country from chaos and barbarism; but so far
;

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

Aeneas had not touched Roman soil. It must have given the poet some trouble to devise a plan which should bring him to Rome, show him the scenes of Rome's future life, and forecast for him the perilous history of his descendants. He had to think not only of the proud Roman himself, but of a world of Graeco-Roman critics and readers: he had to remember Augustus, the saviour of the Empire, and the ideas that were in his mind for
securing
its

prosperity.

The plan adopted seems to me to be wonderfully happy and complete. Aeneas was to find his way to Rome by Rome's own river; then to be the
founder of a city on the site of Rome, Evander the Greek, with a name of good omen. Admitted at once to a Graeco-Roman cult at the famous ara maxima of Hercules, he enters into hospitium with his host, and into the tenderest friendship with him and his son. Marching out to meet the enemy, with Evander's son at his side, he bears on his shoulder a magic shield, on which are pictured the critical moments of the greater city that was to be, ending with that happiest of all scenes for the Roman of Virgil's day, the great naval
guest of the
first

battle of Actium, the

all

most momentous, perhaps,

of

the battles of the world.

The plan was unquestionably a happy one; whether it was executed happily each reader must
decide for himself.
follow, there

Among

the observations that

will help

may

be two or three which

6

him

to a favourable conclusion.

p.

VERGILI MARONIS

AENEIDOS
LIBER
Vt
belli

VIII

signum Laurenti Turnus ab arce extulit et rauco strepuerunt cornua cantu, utque acris concussit equos utque impulit arma, extemplo turbati animi, simul omne tumultu coniurat trepido Latium saevitque inventus effera. dnctores primi Messapns et Vfens contempt or qne deum Mezentius undique cogunt
auxilia et latos vastant cultoribus agros.

mittitur et

magni Venulus Diomedis ad urbem

10

qui petat auxilium, et Latio consistere Teucros,

advectum Aenean classi victosque penatis inferre et fatis regem se dicere posci,
edoceat, multasque viro se adiungere gentis

Dardanio

et late Latio increbrescere

si

nomen

fortuna sequatur, 15 eventum pugnae cupiat, manifestius ipsi

quid struat his coeptis, quern,

quam Turno

regi aut regi apparere Latino.

Talia per Latium.

quae Laomedontius heros

cuncta videns magno cur arum fluctuat aestu, atque animum nunc hue celerem nunc dividit illuc 20 in partisque rapit varias per que omnia versat,
7

Aeneas
sicut

at the Site of

Rome

aquae tremulum labris ubi lumen aenis sole repercussum aut radiantis imagine lunae omnia pervolitat late loca, iamque sub auras
erigitur

summique

ferit

laquearia tecti.

25

nox

erat et terras animalia fessa per

omnis

alituum pecudumque genus sopor altus habebat, cum pater in ripa gelidique sub aetheris axe Aeneas, tristi turbatus pectora bello, procubuit seramque dedit per membra quiet em. 30 huic deus ipse loci fluvio Tiberinus amoeno populeas inter senior se attoUere frondes visus (eum tenuis glauco velabat amictu carbasus, et crinis umbrosa tegebat harundo),
turn sic adf ari et curas his demere dictis
*

35

deum, Troianam ex hostibus urbem qui revehis nobis aeternaque Pergama servas,
sate gente

exspectate solo Laurenti arvisque Latinis,

hie tibi certa domus, certi (ne absiste) penates;

neu

belli terrere

minis; tumor omnis et irae

40

concessere deum.

iamque

ne vana putes haec fingere somnum, litoreis ingens inventa sub ilicibus sus triginta capitum fetus enixa iacebit, alba, solo recubans, albi circum ubera nati. 45
tibi,

[hie locus urbis erit, requies ea certa laborum,]

ex quo ter denis urbem redeuntibus annis Ascanius clari condet cognominis Albam.

haud

incerta cano.

nunc qua ratione quod

instat

expedias victor, paucis (adverte) docebo.

50

Arcades his
qui regem

oris,

genus a Pallante profectum,

comites, qui aigna secuti,

Euandrum

Aeneas

at the

Site of

Rome
urbem
55

delegere locum et posuere in montibus

Pallantis proavi de
hi

nomine Pallanteum. bellum adsidue ducunt cum gente Latina;

et foedera iunge.

hos castris adhibe socios

ipse ego te ripis et recto flumine

ducam,

adversum remis superes subvectus ut amnem.

surge age, nate dea, primisque cadentibus astris

lunoni fer
persolves.

rite preces,

iramque minasque
mihi victor honorem
flumine cernis

60

supplicibus supera votis.

ego

sum pleno quem

stringentem ripas et pinguia culta secantem, caeruleus Thybris, caelo gratissimus amnis.
hie mihi

magna domus, celsis caput

urbibus, exit.' 65
reliquit.

Dixit, deinde lacu fluvius se condidit alto

ima petens; nox Aenean somnusque

lumina
'

surgit et aetherii spectans orientia solis

rite cavis

undam de

flumine. palmis

sustinet ac talis effundit

nymphae, unde est,

ad aethera voces 70 Laurentes nymphae, genus amnibus

tuque, o Thybri tuo genitor

accipite

cum

flumine sancto,

Aenean et tandem arcete periclis. quo te cumque lacus miserantem incommoda nostra fonte tenet, quocumque solo pulcherrimus exis, 75
semper honore meo, semper celebrabere donis, corniger Hesperidum fluvius regnator aquarum.
adsis o
sic

tantum

et propius

tua numina firmes.'

legit

memorat, geminasque

de classe biremis
80
oculis mirabile

remigioque apt at, socios simul instruit armis.

Ecce autem subitum at que

strum,

mon-

Aeneas

at the Site

of

Rome

Candida per silvam cum fetu concolor albo procubuit viridique in litore conspicitur sus: quam pius Aeneas tibi enim, tibi, maxima luno, mactat sacra ferens et cum grege sistit ad aram. 85 Thybris ea fluvium, quam longa est, nocte tume-

ntem
leniit, et tacita refluens ita substitit

mitis ut in

morem

unda, stagni placidaeque paludis

sterneret aequor aquis,

ergo iter incept um

remo ut luctamen abesset. celerant. rumor e secundo 90

labitur uncta vadis abies, mirantur et undae,

miratur nemus insuetum fulgentia longe scuta virum fluvio pictasque innare carinas. oUi remigio noctemque diemque fatigant et longos superant flexus, variisque teguntur arboribus, viridisque secant placido aequore
sol

95
silvas.

medium caeli conscenderat igneus orbem cum muros arcemque procul ac rara domorum tecta vident, quae nunc Romana potentia caelo 100 aequavit, tum res inopes Euandrus habebat.
ocius advertunt proras urbique propinquant.

Forte die soUemnem

ante urbem in luco.

illo

rex Areas honorem

filius

Amphitryoniadae magno divisque ferebat

Pallas huic

una,

105 una omnes iuvenum primi pauperque senatus tura dabant, tepidusque cruor fumabat ad aras.
ut celsas videre rates atque inter

opacum

adlabi

nemus

et tacitis

incumbere remis,

terrentur visu subito cunctique relictis

consurgunt mensis. audax quos rumpere Pallas iii sacra vetat raptoque volat telo obvius ipse,
10

Aeneas

at
*
:

the Site of

Rome
?'

et procul e tiimulo

iuvenes, quae causa subegit

?

ignotas temptare vias

*

quo
?

tenditis

inquit.
fertis

qui genus

unde domo

pacemne hue

an
115

arma

?'

turn pater Aeneas puppi sic fatur ab alta

paciferaeque
'

manu ramum

praetendit olivae:

Troiugenas ac tela vides inimica Latinis, quos illi bello profugos egere superbo. Euandrum petimus. ferte haec et dicite lectos

Dardaniae venisse duces socia arma rogantis/

obstipuit tanto percussus
*

120

nomine Pallas: egredere o quicumque es/ ait coramque parentem

'

adloquere ac nostris succede penatibus hospes.* excepitque manu dextramque amplexus inhaesit. progressi subeunt luco fluviumque relinquunt. 125

Turn regem Aeneas dictis adfatur amicis: optime Graiugenum, cui me Fortuna precari et vitta comptos voluit praetendere ramos, non equidem extimui Danaum quod ductor et Areas quodque a stirpe fores geminis coniunctus Atridis;
*

sed

mea me

virtus et sancta oracula

divum

131

cognatique patres, tua terris didita fama, coniunxere tibi et fatis egere volentem. Dardanus, Iliacae primus pater urbis et auctor,
Electra, ut Grai perhibent, Atlantide cretus,

135

advehitur Teucros; Electram

edidit, aetherios

maximus Atlas

umero qui
est,

sustinet orbis.

vobis Mercurius pater

at

quem Candida Maia

140

Cyllenae gelido conceptum vertice fudit;

Maiam, auditis si quicquam credimus, Atlas, idem Atlas generat caeli qui sidera tollit.
II

Aeneas
sic

at

the Site of

Rome

ab uno. his fretus non legates neque prima per artem temptamenta tui pepigi me, me ipse meumque obieci caput et supplex ad limina veni. 145 gens eadem, quae te, crudeli Daunia bello
scindit se sanguine
;

genus

amborum

insequitur; nos

si

pellant nihil afore credunt

quin
et

omnem Hesperiam
mittant,

penitus

sua

sub

iuga

mare quod supra teneant quodque adluit accipe daque fidem. sunt nobis fortia bello
Dixerat Aeneas,
ille

infra,

150

pectora, sunt animi et rebus spectata inventus.'

os oculosque loquentis
te, f ortissime
!

iamdudum et totum tum sic pauca refert

et

lustrabat lumine corpus,

'
:

ut

Teucrum,
155
!

accipio agnoscoque libens

ut verba parentis

vocem Anchisae magni vultumque recordor nam memini Hesionae visentem regna sororis Laomedontiaden Priamum Salamina petentem
protinus Arcadiae gelidos invisere
finis,

tum mihi prima genas

;

vestibat flore invent as,

160

mirabarque duces Teucros, mirabar et ipsum Laomedontiaden sed cunctis altior ibat Anchises. mihi mens iuvenali ardebat amore compellare virum et dextrae coniungere dextram; accessi et cupidus Phenei sub moenia duxi. 165 ille mihi insignem pharetram Lyciasque sagittas discedens chlamydemque auro dedit intertextam, frenaque bina mens quae nunc habet aurea Pallas, ergo et quam petitis iuncta est mihi foedere dextra, 170 et lux cum primum terris se crastina reddet, auxilio laetos dimittam opibusque iuvabo.
12

Aeneas

at the Site

of

Rome

interea sacra haec,

quando hue

venistis amici,

annua, quae differre nefas, celebrate faventes nobiscum, et iam nunc sociorum adsuescite mensis.' Haec ubi dicta, dapes iubet et sublata reponi 175
pocula gramineoque viros locat ipse
sedili,

praecipuumque toro
accipit

et villosi pelle leonis

Aenean solioque

invitat acerno.

turn lecti iuvenes certatim araeque sacerdos

179

viscera tosta ferunt taurorum, onerantque canistris

dona laboratae Cereris, Bacchumque ministrant. vescitur Aeneas simul et Troiana inventus
perpetui tergo bovis et lustralibus extis.

Postquam exempta fames

edendi,

et

amor compressus
185

rex Euandrus

non haec soUemnia nobis, has ex more dapes, hanc tanti numinis aram vana superstitio veterumque ignara deorum
ait:
'

imposuit: saevis, hospes Troiane, pericHs

servati facimus meritosque

novamus

honores.

iam primum

suspensam hanc aspice rupem, disiectae procul ut moles desert aque montis 191 Stat domus et scopuli ingentem traxere ruinam.
saxis

hie spelunca fuit vasto

summota

recessu,

semihominis Caci facies quam dira tenebat, solis inaccessam radiis; semperque reeenti 195 caede tepebat humus, foribusque adfixa superbis ora virum tristi pendebant pallida tabo. huie monstro Volcanus erat pater illius atros ore vomens ignis magna se mole ferebat. attulit et nobis aliquando optantibus aetas 200 auxilium adventumque dei. nam maximus ultor
:

13

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

tergemini nece Geryonae spoliisque superbus

Alcides aderat taurosque hac victor agebat

vallemque boves amnemque tenebant. at furis Caci mens effera, ne quid inausum 205 aut intractatum scelerisve dolive fuisset, quattuor a stabulis praestanti corpore tauros avertit, totidem forma superante iuvencas. atque hos, ne qua forent pedibus vestigia rectis, Cauda in speluncam tractos versisque viarum 210 indiciis raptos saxo occultabat opaco. quaerenti nulla ad speluncam signa ferebant. interea, cum iam stabulis saturata moveret Amphitryoniades armenta abitumque pararet, discessu mugire boves atque omne querelis 215
ingentis,

nemus e t colle s clagi^orgj' elinci^^ una boum vocem vastoque sub antro mugiit et Caci spem custodita fefellit.
impleri
reddidit
hie vero Alcidae furiis exarserat atro
felle dolor, rapit

arma manu nodisque gravatum

221

robur, et aerii cursu petit ardua montis.

tum primum

nostri

Cacum

videre timentem

turbatumque oculi; fugit ilicet ocior euro speluncamque petit, pedibus timor addidit
ut sese inclusit ruptisque
deiecit

alas,

immane
et arte

catenis

225

saxum, ferro quod

paterna

pendebat, fultosque emuniit obice postis, ecce furens animis aderat Tirynthius omnemque

accessum lustrans hue or a ferebat

et illuc,

dentibus infrendens. ter totum fervidus ira lustrat Aventini montem, ter saxea temptat
limina nequiquam, ter fessus valle resedit.

230

14

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

stabat acuta silex praecisis undique saxis

speluncae dorso insurgens, altissima visu, dirarum nidis domus opportuna volucrum.

235 amnem, ad incumbebat prona laevum iugo hanc, ut

dexter in adversum nitens concussit et imis

avulsam
impulit
;

solvit radicibus, inde repente

impulsu quo maximus intonat aether,

240

dissultant ripae refluitque exterritus amnis.

at specus et Caci detecta apparuit ingens

umbrosae penitus patuere cavernae, non secus ac si qua penitus vi terra dehiscens
regia, et

infernas reseret sedes et regna recludat

superque immane barathrum 246 cernatur, trepident immisso lumine Manes. ergo insperata deprensum luce repente inclusumque cavo saxo atque insueta rudentem desuper Alcides telis premit, omniaque arma advocat et ramis vastisque molaribus instat. 250 pericli, ille autem, neque enim fuga iam super uUa
pallida, dis invisa,

faucibus ingentem

fumum

(mirabile dictu)

evomit involvitque domum caligine caeca prospectum eripiens oculis, glomeratque sub antro fumiferam noctem commixtis igne tenebris. 255 non tulit Alcides animis, seque ipse per ignem praecipiti iecit saltu, qua plurimus undam fumus agit nebulaque ingens specus aestuat atra.
hie

Cacum

in tenebris incendia

vana vomentem
261

corripit in

nodum complexus,

et angit inhaerens

siccum sanguine guttur. panditur extemplo foribus domus atra revulsis abstractaeque boves abiurataeque rapinae
elisos oculos et

15

Aeneas
protrahitur.

at

the Site of

Rome

caelo ostenduntur, pedibusque informe cadaver

nequeunt expleri corda tuendo 265 terribilis oculos, vultum villosaque saetis pectora semiferi atque exstinctos faucibus ignis, ex illo celebratus honos laetique minores servavere diem, primusque Potitius auctor

domus Herculei custos Pinaria sacri. 270 banc aram luco statuit, quae maxima semper dicetur nobis et erit quae maxima semper, quare agite, o iuvenes, tantarum in munere laudum
et

cingite fronde

comas

et

pocula porgite dextris,

communemque
dixerat,

deum et date vina volentes.' Herculea bicolor cum populus umbra 276
vocate

velavitque comas foliisque innexa pependit,

et sacer implevit

dextram scyphus.

ocius

omnes
280

in

divosque precantur. Devexo interea propior fit Vesper Olympo.

laeti libant

mensam

iamque sacerdotes primusque Potitius ibant pellibus in morem cincti, flammasque ferebant. instaurant epulas et mensae grata secundae dona ferunt cumulantque oneratis lancibus aras. tum Salii ad cantus incensa altaria circum 285 populeis adsunt evincti tempora ramis, hie iuvenum chorus, ille senum, qui carmine laudes Herculeas et facta ferunt: ut prima novercae monstra manu geminosque premens ehserit anguis, ut bello egregias idem disiecerit urbes, 290 duros mille labores Troiamque OechaUamque, ut rege sub Eurystheo fatis lunonis iniquae
tu nubigenas, invicte, bimembris, Hylaeumque Pholumque, manu, tu Cresia mactas 16
pertulerit.
*

Aeneas
prodigia et
te Stygii

at

the Site of

Rome

295 tremuere lacus, te ianitor Orci ossa super recubans antro semesa cruento nee te uUae facies, non terruit ipse Typhoeus arduus arma tenens; non te rationis egentem Lernaeus turba capitum circumstetit anguis. 300 salve, vera lovis proles, decus addite divis, et nos et tua dexter adi pede sacra secundo.' talia carminibus celebrant; super omnia Caci speluncam adiciunt spirantemque ignibus ipsum. consonat omne nemus strepitu collesque resultant. Exim se cuncti divinis rebus ad urbem 306 perfectis referunt. ibat rex obsitus aevo, et comitem Aenean iuxta natumque tenebat ingrediens varioque viam sermone levabat. miratur facilisque oculos fert omnia circum 310 Aeneas, capiturque locis et singula laetus exquiritque auditque virum monimenta priorum. turn rex Euandrus Romanae conditor arcis: haec nemora indigenae Fauni Nymphaeque tenebant gensque virum truncis et duro robore nata, 315 quis neque mos neque cultus erat, nee iungere tauros aut componere opes norant aut parcere parto, sed rami atque asper victu venatus alebat. primus ab aetherio venit Saturnus Olympo arma lovis fugiens et regnis exsul ademptis. 320 is genus indocile ac dispersum montibus altis composuit legesque dedit, Latiumque vocari
'

vastum Nemeae sub rupe leonem.

maluit, his

quoniam

latuisset tutus in oris.

17

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome
325

aurea quae perhibent illo sub rege fuere saecula: sic placida populos in pace regebat, deterior donee paulatim ac decolor aetas
et belli rabies et

amor

successit habendi.

manus Ausonia et gentes venere Sicanae, saepius et nomen posuit Saturnia tellus; turn reges asperque immani corpore Thybris, a quo post Itali fluvium cognomine Thybrim diximus; amisit verum vetus Albula nomen.
turn

330

me pulsum

patria pelagique extrema sequentem

Fortuna omnipotens et ineluctabile fatum his posuere locis, matrisque egere tremenda 335 Apollo.' Carmentis Nymphae monita et deus auctor Vix ea dicta, dehinc progressus monstrat et aram et Garment alem Romani nomine port am quam memorant, Nymphae priscum Carmentis honorem, vatis fatidicae, cecinit quae prima futuros 340 Aeneadas magnos et nobile Pallanteum. hinc lucum ingentem, quem Romulus acer asylum rettulit, et gelida monstrat sub rupe Lupercal Parrhasio dictum Panos de more Lycaei. nee non et sacri monstrat nemus Argileti 345 test at ur que locum et letum docet hospitis Argi. hinc ad Tarpeiam sedem et Capitolia ducit
aurea nunc, olim silvestribus horrida dumis. iam tum religio pavidos terrebat agrestis dira loci, iam tum silvam saxumque tremebant. 350 hoc nemus, hunc inquit frondoso vertice coUem (quis deus incertum est) habitat deus; Arcades
*
'

ipsum
18

Aeneas

at the

Site of

Rome

credunt se vidisse lovem, cum saepe nigrantem aegida concuteret dextra nimbosque cieret.

haec duo praeterea disiectis oppida muris, 355 reliquias veterumque vides monimenta virorum. hanc lanus pater, banc Saturnus condidit arcem;

laniculum huic,

illi

fuerat Saturnia

nomen/

ad tecta subibant pauperis Euandri, passimque armenta videbant

talibus inter se dictis

Romanoque foro et ut ventum ad sedes,

lautis
*

mugire Carinis.
'

361

haec

inquit

limina victor

Alcides subiit, haec ilium regia cepit.

aude, hospes, contemnere opes et te quoque finge deo, rebusque veni non asper egenis.'
dixit, et angusti subter fastigia tecti

dignum
365

ingentem Aenean duxit stratisque locavit eff ultum f oliis et pelle Libystidis ursae nox ruit et fuscis tellurem amplectitur alis.

At Venus baud animo nequiquam exterrita mater Laurentumque minis et duro mota tumultu 371 Volcanum adloquitur, thalamoque haec coniugis
aureo
incipit et dictis
'

dum

divinum aspirat amorem: bello Argolici vastabant Pergama reges

375
miseris,

debita casurasque inimicis ignibus arces,

non ullum auxilium

artis

non arma rogavi

opisque tuae, nee te, carissime coniunx, incassumve tuos volui exercere labores,

quamvis
et

et

Priami deberem plurima

natis,

380 nunc lovis imperiis Rutulorum constitit oris: ergo eadem supplex venio et sanctum mihi numen
19

durum Aeneae

flevissem saepe laborem.

Aeneas
arma

at

the Site of
te
filia

Rome

rogo, genetrix nato.

Nerei,

te potuit lacrimis Tithonia flectere coniunx.

aspice qui coeant populi, quae moenia clausis

385 ferruin acuant portis in me excidiumque meorum.' dixerat et niveis hinc atque hinc diva lacertis

cunctantem amplexu moUi fovet. ille repent accepit solitam flammam, notusque medullas
intravit calor et labefacta per ossa cucurrit,

390

non secus atque olim tonitru cum rupta corusco

ignea rima micans percurrit lumine nimbos.

formae conscia coniunx. tum pater aeterno fatur devinctus amore: quid causas petis ex alto ? fiducia cessit 395 quo tibi, diva, mei ? similis si cura fuisset, tum quoque fas nobis Teucros armare fuisset; nee pater omnipotens Troiam nee fata vetabant
sensit laeta dolis et
*

stare

decemque

alios

Priamum

superesse per annos.

et nunc, si bellare paras atque haec tibi mens est, quidquid in arte mea possum promittere curae, 401

quod fieri ferro liquidove potest electro, quantum ignes animaeque valent, absiste precando
viribus indubitare tuis/

ea verba locutus

optatos dedit amplexus placidumque petivit

coniugis infusus gremio per

405

soporem. Inde ubi prima quies medio iam noctis abactae curriculo expulerat somnum, cum femina primum, cui tolerare colo vitam tenuique Minerva impositum, cinerem et sopitos suscitat ignis 410 noctem addens operi, famulasque ad lumina longo
exercet penso, castum ut servare cubile

membra

coniugis et possit parvos educere natos:

20

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome
illo

haud secus ignipotens nee tempore segnior mollibus e stratis opera ad fabrilia surgit. insula Sicanium iuxta latus Aeoliamque
erigitur

415

Liparen fumantibus ardua saxis, quam subter specus et Cyclopum exesa caminis antra Aetnaea tonant, validique incudibus ictus auditi referunt gemitus, striduntque cavernis 420

Chalybum et fornacibus Volcani domus et Volcania nomine

stricturae

ignis anhelat,
tellus.

hoc tunc ignipotens caelo descendit ab alto. Ferrum exercebant vasto Cyclopes in antro, Brontesque Steropesque et nudus membra Pyra^ cmon. 425 his informatum manibus iam parte polita fulmen erat, toto genitor quae plurima caelo deicit in terras, pars imperfecta manebat. tris imbris torti radios, tris nubis aquosae
addiderant, rutuli tris ignis et
fulgores
alitis Austri.

430

nunc terrificos sonitumque metumque miscebant open flammisque sequacibus iras. parte alia Marti currumque rotasque volucris
instabant, quibus

quibus excitat urbes; aegidaque horriferam, turbatae Palladis arma, 435 certatim squamis serpentum auroque polibant conexosque anguis ipsamque in pectore divae Gorgona desecto vertentem lumina coUo. tollite cuncta inquit coeptosque auferte labores, Aetnaei Cyclopes, et hue advertite mentem: 440
ille

viros,

'

arma

acri faeienda viro.

rapidis,

nunc manibus

nunc viribus usus, omni nunc arte magistra.

illi

praecipitate moras.'

nee plura effatus, at

21

Aeneas
ocius incubuere
sortiti.

at the Site

of

Rome
445

omnes pariterque laborem

fluit

aes rivis aurique metallum

vulnificusque chalybs vast a fornace liquescit.

ingentem clipeum informant, unum omnia contra tela Latinorum, septenosque orbibus orbis
impediunt.
aera lacu.
alii

ventosis foUibus auras

alii

accipiunt redduntque,

stridentia tingunt

450

gemit impositis incudibus antrum. illi inter sese mult a vi bracchia toUunt in numerum versantque tenaci forcipe massam. Haec pater Aeoliis properat dum Lemnius oris, Euandrum ex humili tecto lux suscitat alma 455 et matutini volucrum sub culmine cantus. consurgit senior tunicaque inducitur artus et Tyrrhena pedum circumdat vincula plantis. tum lateri atque umeris Tegeaeum subligat ensem demissa ab laeva pantherae terga retorquens. 460 nee non et gemini custodes limine ab alto praecedunt gressumque canes comitantur erilem. hospitis Aeneae sedem et secreta petebat sermonum memor et promissi muneris heros.
nee minus Aeneas se matutinus agebat. filius huic Pallas, illi comes ibat Achates,
congress! iungunt dextras mediisque residunt

465

aedibus et
*

licito

tandem sermone
ductor,

fruuntur.

rex prior haec

maxime Teucrorum

quo

sospite

numquam

equidem Troiae victas aut regna fatebor, 471 nobis ad belli auxilium pro nomine tanto exiguae vires hinc Tusco claudimur amni, hinc Rutulus premit et murum circumsonat armis.
res
;

22

Aeneas

at the

Site of

Rome

sed tibi ego ingentis populos opulentaque regnis 475 iungere castra paro, quam fors inopina salutem

hue te poscentibus adfers. baud procul hinc saxo incolitur fundata vetusto urbis Agyllinae sedes, ubi Lydia quondam
ostentat.
fatis

480 banc multos florentem annos rex deinde superbo imperio et saevis tenuit Mezentius armis. quid memorem infandas caedes, quid facta tyranni
gens, bello praeclara, iugis insedit Etruscis.
effera
?

di capiti ipsius generique reservent

mortua quin etiam iungebat corpora vivis componens manibusque manus atque oribus tormenti genus, et sanie taboque fluentis complexu in misero longa sic morte necabat. at fessi tandem cives infanda furentem armati circumsistunt ipsumque domumque, obtruncant socios, ignem ad fastigia iactant. ille inter caedem Rutulorum elapsus in agros
confugere et Turni defendier hospitis armis. ergo omnis furiis surrexit Etruria iustis,

485
ora,

490

494 regem ad supplicium praesenti Marte reposcunt. his ego te, Aenea, ductorem milibus addam. toto namque fremunt condensae litore puppes signaque ferre iubent, retinet longaevus haruspex fata canens: o Maeoniae delecta inventus, flos veterum virtusque virum, quos iustus in host em
'

fert dolor et

merita accendit Mezentius

ira,

501

nuUi fas Italo tantam subiungere gentem: externos optate duces.' tum Etrusca resedit hoc acies campo monitis exterrita divum.
ipse oratores

ad

me

regnique coronam

505
c

23

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

cum

sceptro misit
castris

mandatque

insignia Tarcho,

succedam

Tyrrhenaque regna capessam.

sed mihi tarda gelu saeclisque effeta senectus invidet imperium seraeque ad fortia vires,

natum

exhortarer, ni mixtus matre Sabella

510

hinc partem patriae traheret.

et generi fata indulgent,

tu, cuius et annis

quem numina
atque

poscunt,
fortissime

ingredere,

Teucrum

Italum

ductor.

hunc

tibi praeterea, spes et solacia nostri,

Pallanta adiungam; sub te tolerare magistro

militiam et grave Martis opus, tua cernere facta
adsuescat, primis et te miretur ab annis.

515

Arcadas huic equites bis centum, robora pubis lecta dabo, totidemque suo tibi munere Pallas.' Vix ea fatus erat, defixique ora tenebant 520 Aeneas Anchisiades et fidus Achates, multaque dura suo tristi cum corde putabant, ni signum caelo Cytherea dedisset aperto. namque improviso vibratus ab aethere fulgor cum sonitu venit et ruere omnia visa repente, 525 Tyrrhenusque tubae mugire per aethera clangor, suspiciunt, iterum atque iterum fragor increpat
ingens.

arma inter nubem caeli in per sudum rutilare vident

obstipuere animis
*

regione serena
et pulsa tonare.

530 agnovit sonitum et divae promissa parentis, tum memorat ne vero, hospes, ne quaere profecto
alii,
:

sed Troius heros

quem casum
hoc signum

portenta ferant: ego poscor.

Olympo

cecinit

missuram diva
24

creatrix,

Aeneas
si

at

the Site of

Rome

bellum ingnieret, Volcaniaque arma per auras laturam auxilio. 536 miseris hen quant ae caedes Laurentibus instant mihi, poenas Turne, quas dabis quam multa sub
!

undas scuta virum galeasque et fortia corpora volves, Thybri pater poscant acies et foedera rumpant/ Haec ubi dicta dedit, solio se toUit ab alto 541
!

et

primum

Herculeis sopitas ignibus aras

hesternumque larem parvosque penatis laetus adit; mactat lectas de more bidentis Euandrus pariter, pariter Troiana iuventus. 545 post hinc ad navis graditur sociosque revisit,
excitat,

quorum de numero qui

fertur

sese in bella sequantur

praestantis virtute legit; pars cetera prona

aqua segnisque secundo defluit amni, nuntia ventura Ascanio rerumque patrisque. 550 dantur equi Teucris Tyrrhena petentibus arva; ducunt exsortem Aeneae, quern fulva leonis pellis obit totum praefulgens unguibus aureis.

Fama

volat

parvam

subito vulgata per

urbem
555

ocius ire equites Tyrrheni ad limina regis.

vota metu it timor et maior Martis iam apparet imago.

turn pater
'

duplicant matres, propiusque periclo

Euandrus dextram complexus euntis

si

haeret inexpletus lacrimans ac talia f atur

o mihi praeteritos referat

luppiter annos,

560

eram cum primam aciem Praeneste sub ipsa stravi scutorumque incendi victor acervos et regem hac Erulum dextra sub Tartara misi, nascenti cui tris animas Feronia mater 564
qualis

25

Aeneas

at the

Site

of

Rome

(horrendum dictu) dederat, terna arma movenda (ter leto sternendus erat cui turn tamen omnis abstulit haec animas dextra et totidem exuit armis) non ego nunc dulci amplexu divellerer usquam, nate, tuo, neque finitimo Mezentius umquam huic capiti insult ans tot ferro saeva dedisset 570 funera, tarn multis viduasset civibus urbem.
;

at vos, o superi, et

divum tu maxime
:

rector

luppiter, Arcadii, quaeso, miserescite regis

et patrias audite preces
si

numina vestra
si

incolumem Pallanta mihi,

si

fata reservant,

575

vivo et venturus in unum vitam oro, patior quemvis durare laborem. sin aliquem infandum casum, Fortuna, minarjs,
visurus

eum

nunc, nunc o liceat crudelem abrumpere vitam, dum curae ambiguae, dum spes incerta futuri,

580

dum

te,

care puer,

mea

sola et sera voluptas,

complexu teneo, gravior neu nuntius

vulneret.'

auris

haec genitor digressu dicta supremo fundebat: famuli conlapsum in tecta ferebant. lamque adeo exierat portis equitatus apertis 585 Aeneas inter primos et fidus Achates, inde alii Troiae proceres, ipse agmine Pallas in medio chlamyde et pictis conspectus in armis, qualis ubi Oceani perfusus Lucifer unda, quem Venus ante alios astrorum diligit ignis, 590 extulit OS sacrum caelo tenebrasque resolvit. stant pavidae in muris matres oculisque sequuntur

pulveream nubem et fulgentis acre catervas. oUi per dumos, qua proxima meta viarum, armati tendunt; it clamor, et agmine facto 26

595

Aeneas
quadripedante

at

the Site of
sonitu

Rome
quatit

putrem

ungula

campum.
est ingens gelidiim lucus

religione

prope Caeritis amnem, patrum late sacer; undique coUes

inclusere cavi et nigra

nemus

abiete cingunt.

Silvano fama est veteres sacrasse Pelasgos,

600

arvorum pecorisque
qui primi
finis

deo,

lucumque diemque,

aliquando habuere Latinos, hand procul hinc Tarcho et Tyrrheni tuta tenebant castra locis, celsoque omnis de colle videri iam poterat legio et latis tendebat in arvis. 605 hue pater Aeneas et bello lecta inventus succedunt, fessique et equos et corpora cur ant.

At Venus aetherios inter dea Candida nimbos dona ferens aderat; natumque in valle reducta
ut procul egelido secret um flumine vidit,
talibus adfata est dictis seque obtulit ultro:
*

610

en perfect a mei promissa coniugis arte munera: ne mox aut Laurentis, nate, superbos aut acrem dubites in proelia poscere Turnum.' dixit, et amplexus nati Cytherea petivit, 615 arma sub adversa posuit radiantia quercu. ille deae donis et tanto laetus honore expleri nequit at que oculos per singula volvit, miraturque interque manus et bracchia versat terribilem cristis galeam flammasque vomentem, fatiferumque ensem, loricam ex acre rigentem, 621 sanguineam, ingentem, qualis cum caerula nubes solis inardescit radiis longeque refulget turn levis ocreas electro auroque recocto, hastamque et clipei non enarrabile textum. 625
27

Aeneas
illic

at the

Site

of

Rome

res Italas

Romanorumque triumphos
inscius aevi
illic

haud vatum ignarus venturique

fecerat ignipotens,

genus omne futurae stirpis ab Ascanio pugnataque in ordine bella. fecerat et viridi fetam Mavortis in antro 630 procubuisse lupam, geminos huic ubera circum ludere pendentis pueros et lambere matrem impavidos, illam tereti cervice reflexa mulcere alternos et corpora finger e lingua. nee procul hinc Romam et raptas sine more Sabinas
consessu caveae, magnis Circensibus
addiderat, subitoque
actis,

636

novum

consurgere bellum

Romulidis Tatioque seni Curibusque severis. post idem inter se posito certamine reges armati lovis ante aram paterasque tenentes 640 stabant et caesa iungebant foedera porca. haud procul inde citae Mettum in diversa quadrigae distulerant (at tu dictis, Albane, maneres !), rapt abat que viri mendacis viscera TuUus per silvam, et sparsi rorabant sanguine vepres. 645 nee non Tarquinium eiectum Porsenna iubebat accipere ingentique urbem obsidione premebat: Aeneadae in ferrum pro libertate ruebant. ilium indignanti similem similemque minanti aspiceres, pontem auderet quia vellere Codes 650 et fluvium vinclis innaret Cloelia ruptis. in summo custos Tarpeiae Manlius arcis stabat pro templo et Capitolia celsa tenebat, Romuleoque recens horrebat regia culmo. atque hie auratis volitans argenteus anser 655
porticibus Gallos in limine adesse canebat;

28

Aeneas
Galli per

at

the Site of

Rome

dumos aderant arcemque tenebant

dono noctis opacae:
atque aurea
vestis,
ollis

defensi tenebris et

aurea caesaries

virgatis lucent sagulis, turn lactea colla

aiiro innectuntur,

660

duo quisque Alpina coruscant

nudosque Lupercos

gaesa manu, scutis protecti corpora longis.

hie exsultantis Salios

lanigerosque apices et lapsa ancilia caelo

extuderat, castae ducebant sacra per
pilentis

urbem

665

matres in mollibus. hinc procul addit Tartareas etiam sedes, alta ostia Ditis, et scelerum poenas, et te, Catilina, minaci pendentem scopulo Furiarumque ora trementem, secretosque pios, his dantem iura Catonem. 670 haec inter tumidi late maris ibat imago
aurea, sed fluctu

spumabant caerula cano, et circum argento clari delphines in orbem aequora verrebant caudis aestumque secabant. in medio classis aeratas, Actia bella, cernere erat, totumque instructo Marte videres
fervere Leucaten auroque effulgere fluctus.

675

hinc augustus agens Italos in proelia Caesar

cum
laeta

patribus populoque, penatibus et magnis

dis,

stans celsa in puppi, geminas cui tempora fiammas

vomunt patriumque aperitur vertice sidus.

cui, belli insigne

681

parte alia ventis et dis Agrippa secundis

arduus agmen agens:

superbum,
685

tempora navali fulgent rostrata corona, hinc ope barbarica variisque Antonius armis, victor ab Aurorae populis et litore rubro, Aegyptum virisque Orientis et ultima secum
29

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

Bactra vehit, sequiturque (nefas) Aegyptia coniunx.

una omnes ruere ac totum spumare reductis convulsum remis rostrisque tridentibiis aequor.
alta petunt
;

690

pelago credas innare revulsas

*

Cycladas aut montis concurrere montibus altos, tanta mole viri turritis puppibus instant. stuppea flamma manu telisque volatile ferrum
spargitur, arva

nova Neptunia caede rubescunt. regina in mediis patrio vocat agmina sistro, 696 necdum etiam geminos a tergo respicit anguis. omnigenumque deum monstra et latrator Anubis
contra

Neptunum

et

tela tenent.

saevit

Venerem contraque Minervam medio in cert amine Mavors 700

caelatus ferro, tristesque ex aethere Dirae,

gaudens vadit Discordia palla, quam cum sanguineo sequitur Bellona flagello. Actius haec cernens arcum intendebat Apollo desuper omnis eo t err ore Aegyptus et Indi, 705 omnis Arabs, omnes vertebant terga Sabaei.
et scissa
:

ipsa videbatur ventis regina vocatis

vela dare et laxos iam iamque immittere funis,

illam inter caedes pallentem morte futura
fecerat ignipotens undis et lapyge ferri,

710

contra autem

magno maerentem

corpore Nilum

pandentemque sinus et tota veste vocantem caeruleum in gremium latebrosaque flumina victos.
at Caesar, triplici invectus

Romana triumpho
715

moenia, dis

Italis

maxima
omnibus

ter

votum immortale sacrabat, centum totam delubra per urbem.

plausuque fremebant
chorus,

laetitia ludisque viae

in templis

matrum
30

omnibus arae;

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome
720

ante aras terrain caesi stravere iuvenci. ipse sedens niveo candentis limine Phoebi

dona recognoscit populorum aptatque superbis

postibus; incedunt victae longo ordine gentes,

quam
hie

variae Unguis, habitu tarn vestis et armis.

Nomadum

genus

et discinctos

Mulciber Afros,
725

hie Lelegas Carasque sagittiferosque Gelonos

tinxerat;

Euphrates ibat iam mollior undis, extremique hominum Morini, Rhenusque bicornis, indomitique Dahae, et pontem indignatus Araxes. Talia per cHpeum Volcani, dona parentis, miratur rerumque ignarus imagine gaudet 730 attollens umero famamque et fata nepotum.

31

Lines 1-5:
"

Ut

belli

signum Laurenti Turnus ab arce

extulit et rauco strepuerunt cornua cantu,

utque acris concussit equos utque impulit arma,

extemplo turbati animi, simul omne tumultu

coniurat trepido Latium saevitque iuventus
effera."

The

much
force

discussion.

third of these lines has been the subject of Dr. Henry says: " The entire
of the passage perishes
if

and excellence

we

understand, with Servius,^ the equos and arma of Turnus' own horses and arms." Henry puts us on the right track, but his language is, as often, too strong and dogmatic. If he means that the picture
in Virgil's

mind

is

not that of an ordinary

human

Turnus whipping his steeds and clashing his spear and shield, he is right; the tumuUus is much too great and general to be the result of such a Turnus getting into his chariot and making a noise. But he evidently means more and I feel sure that a Roman could not have understood the words " concussit equos " and " impulit arma " in an abstract sense
;

Servius' notion that there

is

an allusion to the

stirring
vigila)

of the ancilia

by the Consul before a war {Mars 32

seems to

me

unnecessary.

Aeneas
as

at the

Site of

Rome

meaning simply war and the " commotion of men, arms, and horses." Equi and arma were definite things for the Roman mind and must be so
for ours.

The passages cited by Dr. Henry from Ovid, Lucan, and Statins, seem to me of Httle force, and
take this opportunity of expressing my feeUng that these quotations from later poets, while often
I

interesting in themselves, should always be accepted

with

caution

in

explaining

Virgil.

Virgilian

phrase loses

much

of its living force

and imitated

in the Silver Age.

when taken up The process is the

Lucan and the
even obscure

exact opposite of the relation of Virgil and Ennius;

Virgil increases the lustre of Ennius,
rest diminish the lustre of Virgil, or

his meaning.

It is far better to
as,

own

interpreter,

indeed,

make Virgil his Henry usually does;

but here he has forgotten a really enlightening passage in the twelfth book. I must quote this passage in full it seems to me to show exactly how Virgil thought of Turnus in these later books:
;

"

Turnus ut Aenean cedentem ex agmine vidit

turbatosque duces, subita spe fervidus ardet; poscit equos atque arma simul, saltuque superbus emicat in currum et manibus molitur habenas. multa virum volitans dat fortia corpora leto, seminecis volvit multos aut agmina curru proterit aut raptas fugientibus ingerit hastas. qualis apud gelidi cum flumina concitus Hebri sanguineus Mavors clipeo increpat atque furentis bella movens immittit equos, illi aequore aperto ante Notos Zephyrumque volant, gemit ultima pulsu

33

Aeneas
.

at

the Site of

Rome

Thraca pedum circumque atrae Formidinis ora

talis

Irae Insidiaeque, dei comitatus, aguntur; equos alacer media inter proelia Turnus

fumantis sudore quatit, miserabile caesis hostibus insultans; spargit rapida ungula rores sanguineos mixtaque cruor calcatur harena."
(xii.

323-340-)

Let US remember that we left Turnus at the very end of the seventh book, moving in the region of the supernatural. His helmet was a supernatural one; it carried a Chimaera that breathed out flame like Etna, flame that grew fiercer and more grisly as the wearer plunged deeper into the fight. ^ So, too, in the passage just quoted he is like the god of

and the urging of the horses and the clashing of arms are idealised by the comparison. I believe that Virgil is thinking of him in the same way in the passage we are considering. Turnus is
himself,
idealised; he is for the time at least a

war

superman,

and
too.

his helmet, horses,

and arms, are

is

all idealised

descended from an Italian deity, Pilumnus, and has a sister who is

Turnus,
divine;

we must remember,

Juno addresses her

as

dea

Turni
138).

sic est

adfata sororem diva

deam

" Extemplo " (book xii.

In these later books the light in which the characters are seen is not quite that of ordinary

human
our

nature; in this Virgil follows

Iliad, xiii.

own

298 ff.). War seems to Poet has apparently felt the need:
1

Homer {e.g., demand it, and

" Gathering of the Clans," p. 82.

34

Aeneas
'*

at

the Site of

Rome

that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, And monarchs to behold the swelling scene. Then should the warlike Harry, like himself. Assume the port of Mars, and at his heels. Leashed in like hounds, should famine, sword, and
for
fire,

a Muse of

fire.

Crouch for employment."

[Prologue
to

"

Henry V .")

Line

12.

postpone

all

discussion of Virgil's
till

use of the words fatum and fortuna the last line of this book.

we come

to

Lines 22
" sicut

ff.\

aquae tremulum labris ubi lumen aenis sole repercussum aut radiantis imagine lunae omnia pervolitat late loca, iamque sub auras
erigitur

summique

ferit

laquearia tecti."

worth while to think this simile well over. and compare it with its original in Apollonius Rhodius, iii. 756 /.
It is
TTVKva Se ot KpaBtq (TTqOkiav h'rocrOev WvieVj
ijeXiov

ws TLS T

8ofJ.OL<s

ivLTTakXerai atyXri,
vov
'

vSaro? k^aviovda, rh
t]k

Srj

rje

XijSrjTt

irov

1/

yavAct Kk^vrat

rj

S'

evOa kol v6a

iOKeiy (Trpo<j>a\Lyyi TLva(T(rTat dLara-ovcra,

<Bs

8k Kal kv (TTT^Oeo-crL Kkap kXeXc^cro Kovprjs.

note the following points.

First, the flickering

compared by Apollonius to the palpitations of the heart, by Virgil to the agitated wavering of the mind; and anyone who has experienced both
light is

35

Aeneas
which
is

at

the Site of

Rome
deciding

these troubles will have

little difficulty in

the best comparison.

is

the simile

to

me

In the inferior poet almost unpleasant in Virgil it is

;

absolutely true and telling.

Secondly, in spite of
is

the beauty of
inferior in

the Greek, the craft of words

ApoUonius; it is like Swinburne's verse compared with Milton too subtle and verbose. Thirdly, what a world of difference is there, in its appeal to humanity, between the woman of the magic myth, and the leader of the hosts of Fate,

still

for a

moment

hesitating

tates again; but at this

He hardly ever hesimoment the simile exactly

!

represents the fluctuations of an anxious

solitude

mind

in

when you have no power to control the flash of thought, to fix the mind on any given point. ^ Note that Aeneas is still up and watching but at last he lies down to rest, and then
and
at night,
;

the river-god comes to him.

" Sole repercussum," the reading of all MSS.,
is

undoubtedly what Virgil wrote, and if German editors like to blame him for it they are welcome to do so; but when they propose to read repercusso they only show their own want of Virgilian feeling. As Henry says, " It would not be Virgil's thought or picture if there were not a difficulty somewhere in the expression." I entirely agree with him that " imagine lunae " is simply equivalent to ** luna," and answers to " sole " without any complication.
have written about this simile is in complete disagreement with the late Professor Tyrrell,
1

find that

what

" Latin Poetry," pp. 141 #.

36

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

I have explained my view of Lines 31 to 80. these Hnes in an article in the Classical Review for December, 1916, the leading points in which I here

reproduce.
1

believe that Virgil

had a more

scientific idea of

the Tiber than

believe that he

we

usually

credit

him

with.

had in his mind the whole basin of the Tiber, and not only the main stream which bears that name. This would be not unnatural in a man who had passed his early years in the greatest river-system in Italy, and not on the main stream
Padus, but on or near a powerful affluent. In those days, too, he had read Lucretius, where he found a rational account of a water-system not so very far from the truth as we know it ^ an account which neglected the vulgar idea of a river, and touched on the physical relation of land and water in a way that would be sure to attract an inquiring mind like Virgil' s.^ Lucretius tries to answ^er the question how the balance of water in a river-basin
of the
;

Lucr., V. 261

cp. vi. 608.

Virgil's interest in the first

of these passages is strongly suggested

by his expression " caput urbibus" in line 65, formed on Lucretius' "caput
amnibus."
2

Cp. also Aen.

" sed

ix.

30

Ov., Fasti,

ii.

597.

V. 264:

toUitur in

primum quicquid aquai summaque fit ut nil umor abundet,

partim quod validi verrentes aequora venti diminuunt radiisque retexens aetherius sol, partim quod suhtev per terras diditur omnes.
percolatur enim virus, retroque remanat materies umoris, et ad caput amnibus omnis

convenit," etc.

37

Aeneas
is
is
;

at the Site

of

Rome

preserved and the interesting point in his answer that the water gets back again from the sea to

Apparently he thought that it goes back underground; he had an idea of an underground system of channels and reservoirs, which dimly answers to what we know as the permeation of rocks by rain-water and the formation of springs. Such an underground system may have been originally suggested to Greek inquirers by the disappearance of streams in the limestone districts of If one river had secret chambers within Greece. the earth into which it could suddenly retire, why not others ? What limit could there be of such chambers ? Greek fancy seized on the idea, and
the springs. created the pretty

myth

of

the identity of the

River Alpheius and the

Sicilian

Arethusa,
271).

and

others of the kind, of which Strabo has an elaborate

account and criticism in his sixth book

(p.

Now,

Virgil

knew

well this idea of an underground

it

water-system, and has used

his fourth Georgic (363
ff.).

with great
is

effect in

Aristaeus

admitted
too, are

to its marvels in a miraculous way,

of the world:

and we,

treated to a magnificent scene, the water-chambers

" iamque domum mirans genetricis et umida regna speluncisque lacus clauses lucosque sonantis ibat, et ingenti motu stupefactus aquarum, omnia sub magna labentia flumina terra spectabat diversa locis, Phasimque Lycumque, et caput unde altus primum se erumpit Enipeus,

unde pater Tiberinus

et

unde Aniena

fluenta. ..."

38

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

In the eighth book this grand scene recurs to his mind; Tiberinus (Hne 66) vanishes into an underground reservoir {lacus) ima petens : and then

Aeneas addresses him, not knowing where in all his water-system he may be, from his many springs to his mouth:
" quo te cunque lacus miserantem incommoda nostra fonte tenet, quocunque solo pulcherrimus exis,

semper honore meo, semper celebrabere donis,"

All this water-system
is

etc.

his abode, his domus, as

in the fourth Georgic the

abode of Cyrene.
the Tiber; and
I

umida regna were the His domus is the whole basin of

convinced that this is the real meaning of the word in line 65, which has given the commentators so much trouble: " Hie mihi magna domus, celsis caput urbibus, exit " (Here the great water-system in which I dwell has its outlet to the sea). We must not separate too sharply the deity from the river he was the river, and could quite well speak of his watery habitation as having its doorway at the spot where he appears to Aeneas. Look
;

am

again at lines 74, 75:

"

quo

te cunque lacus miserantem incommoda nostra fonte tenet, quocunque solo pulcherrimus exis."

Here in meaning as
1

my

view, exis^ has exactly the same in 65: " Wherever a reservoir beneath

Exire can, of course, be used of the mouth of a river; the Nile " in maris exit aquas " (Ov. " Amores," ii. 13, It is used also of an overflow, as in the fine simile 10). in Aen. ii. 496. The river flows out at its source, or when

39

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

the earth holds a spring for thy supply: at whatever spot thou, now in the full beauty of a glorious river, hast thy outlet to the sea, I will ever do thee

honour and give thee sacrificial offerings." But there is yet a difficulty. How can the basin of the Tiber be described as " celsis caput urbibus "? These three words, in my view, are in apposition to domus and amplify it, as both Virgilian rhythm and manner demand. I hope we may also agree that there is no direct allusion here to Rome, of which there is as yet no thought the river-god's prophecy does not proceed beyond the foundation of Alba " Magna domus " cannot be at the same time the house of the river-god and the future city of Rome. And yet, if we take domus as the water-system which is at the same time the god and the god's habitation, as the sky was at the same time Jupiter and Jupiter's dwelling, it is at first sight hard to see how it can also be thought of as celsis caput
;

urbibus.
It is

hardly enough to recall the relation of the

cities of this region to its

many
celsis

streams; yet

it is

reminds us of the lines in the second Georgic,^ lines which their poet must often have dwelt on with satisfaction:
it floods,

helpful to do so.

The word

is

leaves its channel for the sea. Ostium the place of outlet, the doorway of the house of the river-

or

when

it

deity exitus, like exire, is used for the actual debouchment, as in Festus (p. 214, Lindsay) " Ostiam urbem ad exitum Tiberis in mare fluentis."
; :

Georg.,

ii.

155

ff.

40

Aeneas
tot congesta

at

the Site of

Rome

" adde tot egregias urbes

operumque laborem, praeruptis oppida saxis, fluminaque antiquos subterlabentia luuros."

manu

It is true

enough that these

cities

found their help

and protection in the rivers; but to explain the word caput in hne 65 we must range a little further.

What

did caput

not mainly the a wide and varied meaning, and perhaps the best way to see this at a glance is to consider what is

mean for a Roman ? Certainly human or any other head. It had

meant by
his

demmutus} If a free man " loses head," he loses his life and power as a citizen;
capita
this expression

and

may

well have been centuries

than the city-state of Rome. These two words, " life " and " power," do indeed very well
older

express the

damage a

Roman man by

idea of caput.

If

you wanted to

cursing him, you directed your

curses at his head, as the citadel of his life and power. " Caput belli " (Liv. xxvi. 7) is the city

and power to a confederacy at war. amnibus " is the head or In Lucretius power of water, which, continually renewed within or beneath the earth, gives life and power to the
that gives
life

" caput

So we, too, speak of a water-system of the world. head of water; and Mr. Belloc has lately taken to
'^

writing of a " head of shell "

i.e.,

an army
of
*

its life

and power.

a reservoir giving Pliny uses the word

the Pontus, noting the opinion of some geo-

Festus, p. 61, Lindsay. A friend reminds me of Lucr. v. 293, where "lucis caput " is a spring or fount of light.
*
"

41

Aeneas

at the

Site

of

Rome

graphers that it acts as a reservoir for the whole Mediterranean (Nat. Hist., iv, 93).

Now,

if

Virgil

had been

in the habit of writing as

to,

the ordinary

human

being would expect him

he

would no doubt have written "caput amnibus"; even Bentley, though no ordinary human being, plagued by the difficulty of the line, proposed " Tuscis caput amnibus " as the true reading. But Virgil was not wont to write as one would expect him to, and here he wished to do something better than state a geographical fact. The Italy that he had in his mind was an Italy ennobled by the works of man; he is thinking of those egregiae urbes as
existing at the time of Aeneas, before

Rome

was;
lifts

and by one of his bold strokes the meaning out of the region
achievement.

of
of

language he

into the higher poetical plane of

mere geography human life and

The great water palace of the rivergod is what gives life and power to the cities; for if the Tiber and its tributaries had not been there, the cities would be wanting too.
Lines 68
ff.
:

" Surgit et aetherii spectans orieatia Solis

lumina, rite cavis undam de flumine palmis sustinet ac talis effundit ad aethera voces:"

Aeneas takes running or living water from the river in the palms of his hands, and lifts them towards heaven, before praying to the Nymphs and It is possible that the water is here the Tiber.
the material of
sacrifice, for

prayer without sacri-

42

Aeneas
fice

at

the Site of
in the

Rome
Roman
religion,^

was almost unknown

and the objects of prayer are here deities of water. It does not seem possible, however, to explain the ritual with certainty but we may compare the pretty
;

story of Claudia, the suspected vestal virgin,

who

boldly helped to haul the ship ashore that was bring-

She rushed forward, filled the palms of her hands with water, thrice dashed it about her head and then thrice raised her hands in prayer (cp. Aen. ix. 22 ^.). Then she prayed to the goddess, and no harm came to her. The learned Dr. Eitrem quotes this story from Ovid in his work on " Opferritus und Voropfer der Griechen und Romer," but I fear that not much is gained by it
ing Cybele to
in explaining VirgiFs account.^

Rome.

Lines Si
" Ecce

ff.:

autem subitum atque oculis mirabile monstrum, Candida per silvas cum fetu concolor albo procubuit viridique in litore conspicitur sus quam pius Aeneas, tibi enim, tibi maxima luno, mactat sacra ferens et cum grege sistit ad aram."
of
iii.

The peculiar stress here laid on the duty prayer to Juno is fully explained by book
435 /.

" Religious Experience of the Roman People," p. 181. * P. 90. Ov., Fasti, iv. 315. I see, however, that on p. Ill he says that Virgil's ritual has nothing to do with Ovid's; he thinks that in the former water was the thing
*

offered,

and compares Serv., Camenae of water and milk).

Eel. vii. 21 (sacrifice to the

So, perhaps, in Aen. ix. 22.

43

Aeneas
"

at

the Site of

Rome

unum

illud tibi, nate dea, proque omnibus iinum praedicam et repetens iterumque iterumque monebo,

lunonis magnae primum prece numen adora, lunoni cane vota libens dominamque potentem supplicibus supera donis sic denique victor Trinacria finis Italos mitter^ relicta."
:

In both passages the words magna and maxima are not cult-titles, but only indicate her great powers. Great indeed they were, but not irresistible, for

she could only delay the Fates, not alter

But even delay might be for Aeneas a personal failure and a disappointment; so he is to be constantly attacking her with prayer and sacrifice. He must lose no chance, and here was a victim handy, and one of good omen.^
them.^

This idea of the duty of trying to appease a The usual hostile deity is not without interest. prayer and sacrifice was addressed to deities who had been established in the city under a covenant (pax) with its inhabitants. The local gods of foreign communities could only be brought over to Rome

by the process

of evocatio, as

was Juno

of Veil, or

the deities of Carthage in the third Punic war.^

But the Juno

of the

Aeneid

is

not a local deity, and

is

the idea of persistent prayer to her

not strictly
sistit

Roman.
"
1

Mactat sacra ferens

et

cum

grege

ad

See Miss Matthaei in CI. Quarterly, 191 7, p. 15. For the sow as victim of Juno (on Kalends only), see Macrob., i. 15, 19. 3 See my " Rel. Exp.,** p. 206.
2

44

Aeneas
aram."
There
is

at

the Site of

Rome

no need to explain these words as a varepov irporepov. Mactare does not necessarily mean to slay a victim, though in later Roman
history
it

often does

mean

this.

Like immolare,
of the rite in

it

originally referred to

some part

the material of sacrifice, not necessarily, means, an animal, was hallowed for acceptance by
a deity. ^
"

which by any

He

consecrates the sow for the honour

of the deity, carrying the sacred apparatus in his

hand, and brings her with her progeny to the altar/

Those who believe that Virgil had some knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures^ may allow themselves to think here of Abraham's ram, and in the next few lines, where Tiber stays his current for the benefit of the invaders, the crossing of the Jordan will not unnaturally occur to them.
Lines 86
"
ff.
:

Thybris ea fluvium,

nocte tumentem leniit, et tacita refluens ita substitit unda, mitis ut in morem stagni placidaeque paludis sterneret aequor aquis, remo ut luctamen abesset. ergo iter inceptum celerant riimore secundo. labitur uncta vadis abies, mirantur et undae, miratur nemus insuetum fulgentia longe scuta virum fluvio pictasque innare carinas. olH remigio noctemque diemque fatigant, et longos superant flexus, variisque teguntur

quam

longa

est,

arboribus, viridisque secant piacido aequore silvas.

sol

medium

caeli

conscenderat igneus orbem

1 See " Rel. Exp.," pp. 182 ff., and Marquardt, " StaatSverwaltung," iii. 180, note 9. 2 See Virgil's Messianic Eclogue, pp. 10^

ff.

45

Aeneas

at the

Site

of

Rome

procul ac rara domorum tecta vident, quae nunc Romana potentia coelo aequavit, turn res inopes Euandrus habebat.
ocius advertunt proras urbique propinquant."

cum muros arcemque

This charming picture should need no comment;

but, unluckily,
it

contains two lines which have

been so much discussed that I cannot pass them over here. I advise every student to learn the whole passage by heart; if he lets Virgil's lines become in this way a part of his mental being, he will probably come to a right conclusion about them. The first of these lines is 90. I have restored the old punctuation of it; in the Oxford text
a full-stop
considering
all
is

placed after the word celerant}

that has been written about

After
it

all

and

the parallel passages quoted, I have come to the conclusion that rumore secundo stands to the pre-

ceding words exactly as clamore secundo stands to the preceding words in the simile of the cranes in
X. 266.2

storm,

j^5^ g^g ^Yie cranes fly before the black cheering themselves with their cries, so

the rowers start on their course with quickened

pace, cheering themselves with the musical sounds

used

all

over the world by boatmen and

is is

sailors.^

The

cheerfulness

the result of the discovery that

;

the river

not opposing them hence the line begins

j&rst

1 Heyne was the Henry follows him.

to

make the

alteration;

Dr.

" fugiuntque notos clamore secundo."

See Classical

Review,
3

May, 1918, p. 65. E.g., in Borneo; see " The Pagan Tribes of Borneo,"
i.,

vol.

p. 132.

46

Aeneas
with "Ergo."
boats, as

at

the Site of

Rome

It is

the

men who are cheerful, not the

to suggest

Henry seems

the words rumore secimdo of

when he takes the ripphng noise made

as the boats cut through the water.

which some editors, from Servius downwards, have wished to refer to

The other doubtful

line is 96,

the shadows of trees in the water.

edition
I

In

my

first

Henry, in my opinion, had demolished that view once for all. His long note is an admirable lesson in Latin literature, and I still find it difficult to disagree with him. But after much meditation and correspondence, I do not feel so sure as I did. The whole picture is an imaginative one the poet goes a little beyond his
said that
:

waves and unwonted woods " marvel at the shields and painted hulls, and his fancy may have travelled yet a little further. This is one of those passages of Virgil about which dogmatism will always be unsafe the best commentator is our own feeling as we read a feeling that need by no means be always the same. This happy voyage brought them, at noon of the day following their start by night, to a point whence they could see the site of Rome and Evander's scanty settlement. This point is just below the Aventine, where the marmorata is marked in any map of Rome; but they would not land here, for the Aventine stood between them and the settlement. Putting on a spurt, they made for the lower ground beyond the hill, which seemed likely to be
habit in

making the

"

their natural landing-place (" Ocius advertunt pro-

47

Aeneas
ras

at the Site

of

Rome

urbique propinquant "). This was what in Roman days was known as the navalia, the usual landing-place, adjoining the Forum boarium and close to the Circus maximus. Here, too, was the ara maxima of the Hercules cult, where Evander's son Pallas was at that moment sacrificing. He

saw the boats approach; the rowers now resting on their oars, as they glided at an " easy " to the shore
(" tacitis
is

incumbere remis,"

line io8).

This " easy

*'

a necessity of the situation, as anyone will see at once who will contemplate for a few minutes a

good

Rome, showing the course of the Tiber, for otherwise the boats must run into the bank; yet the commentators, one and all, so far as I know, take " incumbere remis " as meaning (as of course it often does mean) that they bent on
of the site of

map

their oars in the act of pulling.

understands rowing, stands alone in translating " resting on their silent

oars," bere "

Mr. Mackail, who and knows the geography,

remarks that " incumis used in exactly this way just below in the story of Cacus, where the big tower-like rock " prona iugo laevum incumbebat ad amnem " (236). The sense of the words, and the picture they call '* up, will be just the same whether we read " tacitis with Servius and a minority of manuscriptal authority, or " tacitos " with the great MSS. M, P and R. But the Oxford editor has adopted the former reading, and I have no doubt he is right. The boats glide on under the impetus of their last strokes, but the oars are silent and at rest. 48

and

in a letter to

me

Aeneas
Lines 103
ff.

at

the Site of

Rome

" Forte die sollemnem

illo rex Areas honorem Araphitryoniadae magno divisque ferebat ante urbem in liico."

What
spirits

divi

are these

think they are such

be in the hicus spirits, perhaps, unknown and unnamed; just as below (line 352) he
as

may

writes of an
religious

unknown
hill.

deiis

inhabiting the nemus on

the Capitoline

Virgil is reflecting the

Roman

cover the whole ground in sacrifice and prayer, in case any numen should have
instinct

to

reason to complain of neglect.

Cp. 279, and

iii.

19,

where the divi are coupled with Venus. Note that there is no real distinction in Virgil between deus and divus. One might imagine that deus was more a real deity than divus, since the deified Caesars were called divi, not dei ; but in xii. 138 Juno is called diva and Juturna dea, and of these two Juno was Varro, in a of course the most truly a goddess. fragment of the De Ling. Lat. (ed. Miiller, p. 265),
wrote:
" Ita

respondeant cur dicant deos,

dixerint divos."

cum

omnes antiqui
of Servius

From

comment

on

v. 45, I

gather that neither Varro nor

in the

the scholars of his day had any sure notion of a

difference of

meaning

two words.

Lines 105, 106:

"

Una omnes iuvenum primi pauperque senatus tura dabant, tepidusque cruor fumabat ad aras."
in general offer incense as a preliminary

The people

purification, as in the ritual of the ludi saeculares,

49

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

just after Virgil's death, suffimenta were distributed

same purpose ("Rel.Exp.,"44i). Only magistrates and priests could actually sacrifice and pray. By tura Virgil probably means herbs culled in the neighbourhood, and used as oriental incense was in later days. Pliny tells of a herha Sahina, which " brathy appellata a Graecis
to the people for the
. .

a multis in suihtu pro ture adsumitur."^

The mention
connexion with
tioned

of cruor in io6 is interesting, since

is

the blood of victims

hardly ever alluded to in

sacrifice proper.
it is

Roman

If

men-

by poets

or historians,

always either in
iii.

rural Italy, as in
7),

Horace twice

(Od.,

22, iv. 11,

or in

barbarous countries, as in Ovid,

iii.

" ex

Ponto,"
'*

The latest investigator of 2, 54. " Opferritus can produce no evidence of its use
is strictly

in ritual that

Lines 127 ff. This speech of Aeneas may seem to some of us rather comical, with its cheap mytho-

Roman.^

logy and genealogical nonsense.

nonsense in
it is

its relation to

But it is not really the whole poem, in which

In order to understand why it is there, we must be clear why it was desirable in Virgil's time to claim a common origin for Greek and Trojan, such as now at last

inserted with a definite intention.

we

are ourselves beginning to discover, though with

an archaeological proof instead of a mythical one. " The Dardanians who founded the Troy of the Mycenaean age were and this is hardly questioned

Quoted by Eitrem,

op.

cit.,

p. 210.

(Plin. xxiv. 102.)

Eitrem, " Opferritus und Voropfer," p. 435.

50

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

branch of the Phrygian stock, who were themselves sharers in the great thrust of the nations from the north. The Phrygian language was closely akin to the Greek, and the two nations had

now

come down together, or nearly same time, from the Danube Valley." ^
doubtless
It
is

at the

necessary to insist on the fact, however

it

be to those who know, that in Virgil's time the Empire was almost as much Greek as it was Roman. Augustus had reunited the Greek and Roman elements, the east and the west, which for a time had been sundered under sinister EgypEvery educated Roman was bilintian influence. gual, and Greece was his intellectual, and also his spiritual, home. The religion of the age was mainly Greek in forms of thought, though the Roman forms An excellent way of realising of worship lived on. the mixture is to study the ritual of the secular games of the year 17 B.C., and the hymn written by Horace for that occasion; both ritual and hymn
obvious
declare the

may

undoubted fact that the religion of the Romans was henceforward to be even in outward

expression a

Romano- Hellenic

one,

cosmopolitan character Empire (** Rel. Exp.," 443).

the

of

answering to the whole vast

Now, Aeneas was not a Roman, and to make the hero of the Aeneid and the ancestor of Augustus a Greek, would be more than the Romans of that day would easily put up with. But the situation might
1

Leaf,

amborum

History," p. scindit se sanguine ab uno."

"

Homer and

72.

" Sic

genus

51

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

be saved by inventing for him a common descent from deities both Greek and Trojan. Professor Nettleship has admirably explained the whole history of the belief of the Romans about their descent from Aeneas and their relation to the Greeks (" Vergil," pp. 50, 51). When the Greeks first came to know anything at all of Rome, they claimed her as Greek. That was in the fourth century B.C.; but when in the third century, from Pyrrhus onward, Greeks became the enemies of Rome, it was the legend of Aeneas and the Trojan descent that became popular at Rome. " Pyrrhus regarded himself as the descendant of Achilles; the Romans answered by claiming descent from the ancient and inveterate enemies of Greece. The anti-Grecian interest dominant with the Romans at this time seized upon a religious symbol (the Penates) which was soon made the centre of a developed legend; and the story of the foundation of Rome, not through the instrumentality of Trojan captives, but by the first of the surviving Trojan princes, Aeneas, had assumed full shape by the end of the third century B.C., and formed part of the Henceforth Roman history of Fabius Pictor. they cherished the Trojan legend as a matter of public policy, and professed, indeed, to be guided by it in their dealings with the East." There may even be, as Nettleship suggests, a Trojan reason for the arrival of the religion of Mithras at Rome in later days. But this is a doubtful point. But in the second century B.C. there grew up a
.

52

Aeneas
fresh

at the
for

Site of

Rome
Greek,
against

enthusiasm

everything

which reaction was hopeless. In the last century B.C. we find a tendency to represent the Trojans as Hellenes, and in Virgil's own time the Greek historian Dionysius gave this tendency very definite Thus, this speech of Aeneas exactly utterance.^

by giving the speaker a substantial claim to be where he was, an invader of Italy. This claim is a double one. The first
represents the ideas of the age

part of

it,

in lines 131-134, appeals to the oracles,

the

common

descent, the

fame

of

Evander, and the

The second part is in 147-150; the enemy, uncivilised and cruel, will conquer all Italy, unless Trojans and Greeks agree on an allivirtus of Aeneas.

ance, such as
Italian
tribes.

may

bring civilisation to the rude

all

arguments combine to suggest an immediate friendly understanding between Aeneas and Evander. This is why Aeneas comes himself, instead of sending legati: "me, me ipse meumque obieci caput et supplex ad limina veni."
In him is represented the common descent of the peoples that are destined to rescue Italy from barbarism, and secure for her a great career in the world.
Lines 172
ff.
:

Thus

" interea sacra haec,

quando hue

venistis amici,

annua, quae differre nefas, celebrate faventes nobiscum, et iam nunc sociorum adsuescite mensis."

In keeping with the object of Aeneas in his speech, as I explained it above, Virgil here introduces what
1

Dion. Hal.,

i.

58.

53

Aeneas
was
in reality a

at

the Site of

Rome

Greek worship; for, in spite of many attempts, no one has yet proved the existence of an Italian Hercules. This worship came from Greek cities in Campania by way of Tusculum: its ritual was Greek; the practice of giving tithes, with which it was associated, was apparently not Italian. Perhaps it would be better to call it a Mediterranean cult, as indeed it was, and in which respect it
well suited Virgil's need.-^

that the great altar of

was also convenient Hercules, famous throughout

It

have been close to the spot where Aeneas landed from his boats.^
history, should
I

Roman

may

also notice here that in the story that

any story in literature, it is highly probable that Virgil was not using, as has often been supposed, a Latin form of the famous myth of Hercules and the stolen cattle, but taking an old Italian deity of fire, Cacus by name, and endowing him with the attributes of the volcanic deity Typhoeus, borrowed from Homer and Hesiod.^ This idea of Cacus as a fire-monster is
follows, a story told as brilliantly as

extremely useful monograph on " The Myth of Hercules at Rome," by John Garrett Winter, University of Michigan (the Macmillan Company, New York) may be referred to for a careful examination of the abstruse subject, with sane conclusions.
1

An

2
3

"

Festivals," pp. 193 ff. This seems to me to be proved

Roman

satisfactorily

by

On p. 258 is a reasonable Winter, op. cit., pp. 231 ff. account of the connexion of the Cacus myth with the
ara
"

maxima
Reduced to
its outlines,

Livy's version

tells of

a purely

54

Aeneas
peculiar to Virgil,

at

the Site of

Rome

and comes almost beyond doubt from Typhoeus, whom Virgil must have been thinking of at the time, since he mentions him in line 298.
Cacus with the attributes of the Greek Typhoeus, thereby connecting Rome with Campania and Sicily, Vesuvius and Etna. As the region about Rome was actually
clothes the obscure

He

Roman

and traditionally him to call upon

tine as a volcanic

volcanic,
his

was not impossible for readers to imagine the Avenit

hill.

In line 173 Virgil uses the language of

later

Rome, a Rome of settled institutions, such as priests and annual worships. He might be poetically
justified in this,

but the invitation to foreigners to share in these is a bold innovation, only justified by the desire to emphasise the alliance of Greek and Trojan, and to clinch the argument of Aeneas, just uttered, that Greeks and Trojans were really one

race.

The presence

of strangers at religious rites

Greek god who comes to the Tiber side and institutes sacrifices at the ara maxima, initiating into the ritual the These sacrifices were known to differ Potitii and Pinarii. from the usual Roman sacrifices in that they were said to be performed Graeco ritu. At this point the myth must have ended in its earliest form. A later generation sought a reason for the sacrifice, and found it in the recovery of the cattle that were a familiar and indispensable feature These cattle must have been stolen, of the Geryon myth.

and Cacus,

originally a disparate deity,

of the thief.

The myth

of

("acus were thus originally

was given the role Hercules and the myth of two wholly distinct myths,
in later times."

fused by the

Romans themselves
55

Aeneas
in ancient Italy

at

the Site of

Rome
ill-

was considered dangerous and

omened.^
Lines 182, 183:
" Vescitur

Aeneas simul et Troiana iuventus Perpetui tergo bovis et lustralibus extis."

exta

were those parts of the body of the victim which were examined for omens, and then placed on the altar [exta porricere) and these parts, in the ritus Romanus, were certainly not eaten
;

The

either
*'

by

priest or worshipper.

the cult of Hercules at

ritu

But we know that the ara maxima was not

Graeco " (" Roman Festivals," 194); and, as the Greeks had no such

Romano," but
is

" ritu

scruple, Virgil

quite justified in writing after the

That by exta he means the parts placed on the altar seems clear from Livy's account (i. 7), with which may be compared Varro, Ling. Lat., vi. 54 (a passage unluckily somewhat mutilated). What Virgil meant by liistralihus I do not feel Evidently Servius did not know; but his sure. note is useful as showing that he understood the word exta as I understand it in this context. But whatever its technical meaning, if it had one, lus-

Homeric

fashion.

tralibus

be taken as indicating that the exta were holy, as having been on the altar. There is an article in the Archiv filr Religion swissenschaft for 1909, pp. 461 ff., which reviews the practice of primitive peoples in regard to sacrificial

may

meals.
1

See **Rel. Exp.," pp. 32

j^F.

56

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

Lines 185 ff.: " rex Euandrus ait non haec sollemnia nobis, has ex more dapes, hanc tanti numinis aram vana superstitio veterumque ignara deorum
: '

imposuit: saevis, hospes Troiane, periciis servati facimus meritosque novamus honores."

These lines seem a little odd in the mouth of Evander, who was himself a settler in Italy from a foreign land. But Virgil makes him speak like a

Roman

of later times, expressing the strong

Roman
State,

feeling against deities not belonging to the spot,

unless they were especially invited as were

by the

Juno of Veii, and Cybele in the second Punic war. The curious word superstitio is here explained by Virgil in his usual manner by the words veterum ignara deorum, which imply rather contempt and
seems here to mean a standing over or passing over, and may be paralleled wdth an occasional use of the word supersedeo, as, for example, in Suetonius (Aug., 93), where Augustus " in peragranda Aegypto paulo deflect ere ad visendum Apin super sedit " (i.e.,
It

neglect than simple ignorance.

omitted).^

here no doubt an allusion to Augustus' distrust of new foreign worships, especially

Secondly, there
Isis,

is

that of

which had been showing

itself

while the

Aeneid was being written; he tolerated old foreign cults, " ceteras contemptui habuit " (Suet. Aug.,
1

For
ii.

superstitio, see

Mayor's

ed. of Cic, de

Nat Deorum,

vol.
is

184.

But

convincing.

I do not think that Mayor's conclusion See " Rel. Exp.," 345 and 355.

57

Aeneas
93).

at the

Site of

Rome

The same

feeling is also
ff.).

Shield (hnes 696

Here

it

emphasised in the may be as well to

games of 17 B.C., though half the ritual is not Roman, there was no vana superstitio ; there were no Greek deities but the good old ones, long inhabitants of the city. So, too, with the cult of the ara maxima : it was not superstitio, for it had filtered through Italian and Latin cities, and established itself within the sacred boundary of the city. And line 188 seems to suggest that it was the result of the fulfilment of
that, in the secular

remember

a vow,

like so

many

other

Roman

worships.^

Lines 190-272: The Story of Cacus.

^Virgil

has

hardly had his due from the critics as a teller of stories. Sellar, who had a chilling habit of comparing him with Homer, gives him some credit for

but does not mention this story, nor does Heinze in his " Epische Technik." I am inclined to think that the art is so perfect as to conceal itself from the critic no less than from the ordinary reader. What shall we say of Pastor Aristaeus, of the sack of Troy, of Nisus and EuryaThese stories are full lus, of the death of Camilla ? of concentrated energy, of swift motion, of tender feeling, of intense human interest and that of Cacus, though it naturally has less of the last two qualities

powers

of narration,^

than the
1

rest, is

among

the best-told stories of the

is
ff.)

" Meritos

novamus honores "

ib.

voti reus.

("Rel. Exp.," pp. 202

230.

the language of a For the advent of

Hercules to Rome,
2

P. 359 (cd. 3).

58

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

marvellous that literature can show. It reminds me of Wandering Willie's Tale in Redgauntlet, of which
a friend of mine used to say that it was the best short story ever told; and its insertion in the whole epic is even more skilfully contrived than is Scott's It was a favourite with the story in his novel.

Romans, or Livy, Propertius, and Ovid/ besides Virgil, would hardly have taken the trouble to tell it in their several ways; the ara maxima, the Forum boarium, the Aventine, could not be mentioned in Roman narrative without some allusion to one or other form of the far-famed story of Hercules and the oxen. Virgil braced himself to the effort, and began by a stroke which lifts him far above the level of the other story-tellers. He makes Evander tell
the story, not as a legend, hut as a thing that actually

own time, to commemorate which " It attests a the great altar had been erected. rescue from a superhuman destructive monster, who robbed and slew our men and cattle. It
happened in
his

chanced that the great Hercules, himself a superhuman wonder-worker, came this way, that Cacus robbed him too, and paid the penalty with his life." The telling of this story only takes about seventy lines, of which not one is either weak or superfluous. It runs swiftly to its climax and a terrible climax

it

the revelation of the monster's lair, the last struggle with the fire-spouting fiend and ends
is:

quickly,

as all good stories should. When it is done, Evander calls on his audience to join in cele*

Liv.,

i.

7: Ov., Fasti,

i.

543

j^.;

Prop.,iv. 9.

.59

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

brating the glories of Hercules and in singing his praises: " Consonat omne nemus strepitu collesque
resultant.'*

Lines 233/.:
stabat acuta silex praecisis iindique saxis speluncae dorso insurgens, altissima visu,

dirarum nidis domus opportuna volucrum. hanc, ut prona iugo laevum incumbebat ad amnem,
dexter in adversiim nitens concussit et imis avulsam solvit radicibus, inde repente impulit; impulsu quo maximus intonat aether, dissultant ripae refluitque exterritus amnis."

What was

the picture in Virgil's

mind when he

wrote these lines ? Dr. Henry seems to me to have entirely misapprehended it; but the question which he begins by asking is an essential one, and I will begin by answering it myself. The river, Virgil says, was on the left. On the left of what ? Right and left, used of inanimate objects, must be relative to some human being that human being may be an imaginary person looking up or down the stream, or it may be an actual person e.g., I myself on the Thames Embankment, or Hercules in the story I have no doubt looking up or down the Tiber. whatever that in these lines it was an actual person and that as the river was on his i.e., Hercules He was looking, in left, he was looking upstream. fact, towards his own cattle and the settlement of Evander, rather than turning his back upon these
;

essential things.

Now,

in these lines Hercules hurls into the river

60

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

(though Henry denies that it fell into the river at all)^ a tower of rock which leaned towards or over On the left means on the that river on the left.
of Hercules, because he is the only person pictured as in action at the moment. Hercules must,
left

then, have been looking

up the river, with the big rock between himself and it, he being on the right Thus, coming of the rock, and the river on the left.
from the right
i.e.,

of

it

("

dexter
(" in

"),

he pushed

it

in

the opposite direction

towards the river with it, hurled it over the precipice. Where does Virgil imagine this rock to have been, and the cave which it guarded ? His own language convinces me that it was on the steep side of the hill where it falls to the river; and this seems to have been the traditional site of the cave. Solinus^ in the third century a.d., a good authority, identified it with the Salinae, which, as we know, were under the steep cliff of the Aventine at its northern corner, where the Porta Trigemina stood in hisThis statement of Solinus makes me torical times. ^
to me to be obsessed by his own he finds himself, naturally, in opposition critical powers; to received interpretations (here Servius, Heyne, Forbiger, Conington). And he supports his view by quotations from Ovid, Silius, and Claudian, which (as I have said before) rather hinder than help us in discovering the picture in Virgil's mind.
1

adversum and, after a mighty struggle

nitens ")

Dr.

Henry here seems

Solinus,

i.

8.

Hiilsen- Jordan,

Romische
61

Topographic,

III.

172,

note 51.

Aeneas
that
I

at

the Site of

Rome
mind
is

fairly confident that the picture in Virgil's

have described.

The cave was on the steep

side of the Aventine, looking

and quite near to on the site of which Hercules was pasturing his oxen. This would account in the story for the ease with which Cacus contrived to filch the four oxen without
tenancy of the big rock by dirae volucres, which, as Virgil would know, would be likely to build their nests on the river side
detection
too, for the

down on the river, what was later the Forum boarium,

perhaps,

of the

hill,

as the safer

and more

profitable one.

Line 240:
" Dissultant ripae, refluitque exterritus amnis."

This

is

only a strong

way

of

describing

what

actually happens

small stream the

;

when you hurl a wash of the water

big stone into a drives the banks

what was bank before is flooded, and the new banks are much farther apart. At the same time the stone hinders the downfiowing water, and for the moment forces it backwards. The
back
i.e.,

effort of

imagination

lies in

the relative size of rock

and

river.

Lines 241
"

ff.

At specus et Caci detecta apparuit ingens regia, et umbrosae penitus patuere cavernae, non secus ac si qua penitus vi terra dehiscens
infernas reseret sedes et regna recludat

superque immane barathrum cernatur, trepident immisso lumine Manes."

pallida, dis invisa,

62

Aeneas

at the

Site

of

Rome
I

On

these fine lines Conington remarks that they

are imitated from

this to

Homer

(IHad, xx. 6i).

mention

show how easy

Virgil imitate

it is

to sHp into the or

way

of

making

Homer,

some other

poet,

simply because he takes a hint from them.

are Homer's lines:
TravTcs
8'

Here

k(T(TLOvro TroSes 7roA,V7rt8aKO? "ISry?

TToAfcS

KoX KOpV(f)aty TpiOiDV T

ISSetcrcv S' VTrVpdv
Seicras 8' Ik

KOi

VT^C?

AxatCOV.

ava^

evepiov 'AtSwvevs,
H'V ^ vizepOev

dpovov aXro kol lax^y

yalav avapp-q^eie riotretSawv evocrtxOoyv,

OLKta 8k dvr^TOL(Ti KOL dOavaTOLcri
cr/jte/oSaAe
'

cfiavetrj

ei'pwevra, to. re cTTvyeovcn Oeoi Trep.

Here you may say that there is a hint given and taken viz., the idea that a great shock may reveal

But there the debt to Homer ends, for the Greek and Roman infernal regions are by no means alike, and Virgil here abides by the Roman. There no king reigned, for Orcus, often supposed to be such a king, was only an old Italian
the infernal regions.

Hades, used in later times to represent the Greek Plutus. The spirits of the dead, Manes, let us remember, dwelt dimly and almost impersonally below,^ and on three days of the year might come up and roam about. The opening of the cavern roof seems to me to be compared to the opening of the mundus unless, indeed, we are to suppose that Virgil did not know of the mundus,
for

name

See Wissowa, R.K., 310; " Rel. Exp.," 85 and 386; and for the idea of the mundus J.R.S., vol. ii. 25 ff., article on " Mundus patet."
1

63

Aeneas
which
Dr.
*'

at

the Site of

Rome
book
vi.
is,

is

unlikely.

The Hades

of

of

course, quite different.

Verrall
is

remarks that

this

passage,

unlike

mysterious and religiously suggestive. The picture of hell opened, when attached to the person and worship of Hercules, the conqueror of death, the man made God, acquires the possibility and suggestion of a human significance. We can hardly help thinking of the spirits in prison
* '

Homer's,

is

and, indeed, there can be little doubt that Virgil here working on the lines of some actual belief,

one of these mysteries with which mature paganism then teemed."^ I agree; but I think that the origin
of the belief

on which he

is

working was that of the

mujidus.

Lines 271, 272:

"

Hanc aram

luco statuit,

dicetur nobis, et erit

quae maxima semper quae maxima semper."

it

The scene
riverside,

as Virgil imagined

was

close to the

where poplars were growing on the bank, and within was a nemus (see line 305), where there was a natural or artificial clearing (lucus) in the marshy woodland. The poplars, with their foliage of two colours (bicolor), of white and green,^ supplied the sacred garlands. This tree must have been the
National Home-Reading Union {Special Course Magazine), No. 68, p. 25, Dr. Verrall's language about Hercules is perhaps too strong; but it may find support
1

In

and 362-365. The two colours are well shown in the plate alba in Sowerby's " British Botany."
in lines 301, 302,
2

of

Populus

64

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

white poplar, which is not uncommon in England, and may frequently be noticed showing the white under-surface of its leaves during windy weather in summer. (See Johns' " Forest Trees of Great
Britain," vol.
i.

p.

357.)

But why

this tree

was

sacred to Hercules no one seems to know.

In the charming scene of sacrifice and song that

follows, the student of

Roman

religion

would wish

to
or

know whether Virgil is going upon facts of ritual I will therefore go indulging his own invention.
some extent into
are
his details, which, so far as I
strictly

to

can judge,

Roman,

or

old

Graeco-

Roman.
"

Devexo interea propior fit Vesper Olympo. iamque sacerdotes primusque Potitius ibant pellibus in morem cincti, flammasque ferebant. instaurant epulas et mensae grata secundae dona ferunt cumulantque oneratis lancibus aras.
turn Salii ad cantus incensa altaria circum

populeis adsunt evincti tempora ramis, hie iuvenum chorus, ille senum, qui carmina laudes Herculeas et facta ferunt. ..."

First let us notice that this

fice;

is

that

is

proved by the

first line

an evening sacriquoted above,

and by the torches (flammas). On the other hand, the rite that was going on when Aeneas arrived was a noontide one, and was followed by a meal, as is made plain by lines 97-106. The interval was filled up by Evander's story of Cacus; and one reason for the insertion of this story may have been a desire to conform to old Roman practice in separa65

Aeneas
ting the

at

the Site of

Rome

two chief parts of the day's religious work. For if we examine the ritual of the Arval Brethren, which Augustus was reorganising while Virgil was
devoting himself to the Aeneid, we find a clear analogy with the order of the day described here. In the Arval rites there was a sacred meal at noon,

and

later, after

rest,

the priests went on to the

which must have taken place towards evening, and was followed by the singing of the famous Arval hymn, and by another meal. As a rule, in Roman rites the sacrifice and meal took place in the morning, and the exta, after being cooked, were laid on the altar in the afteraltar for the chief sacrifice,

noon.^

In the rite Virgil

is

describing the sacrifice of

oxen was at noon, and the exta, or such parts of them as had not been eaten, were laid on the altar towards evening. This must be the meaning of the words " cumulant oneratis lancibus aras," and so Servius explains them. At the same time the other offerings were renewed^ and another meal partaken of. When the priests have done their work, clad in skins according to the most ancient
Henzen, Acta Fratr. Arv. pp. 26 and 28 jf.) " Rel. Exp.," 181 and 435^2 " Instaurant epulas et mensae grata secundae dona fenint." Mensa is here the sacred table found in all cults, as well as the altar; the latter was used only for animal (Marq., 165). Mensa sacrifice, the former for fruits, etc. secunda here is not " a second meal," but like placabilis ara, of good omen for the worshipper. So at least it seems to me.
1

66

Aeneas
fashion,

at

the Site of

Rome

retained in historical times only at the

and sing as they dance round the altar. They are in two divisions of old and young, a fact for which Virgil is the only authority;^ but he would not be likely to invent it, and it is quite in keeping with Roman practice.
Lupercalia, the Salii appear

On

the whole, then, there

to
conflict

is

nothing in Virgil's

picture

custom.

with well-established Roman True, Macrobius^ makes one of his learned

prosers accuse Virgil of

two

errors: of bringing in

the use of poplar for garlands, and of introducing the

Salii,

who

properly belonged to the worship of

But then he makes another learned person defend Virgil, and the defence is quite complete. No doubt, he says, the bay is used in the worship of
Mars.

a recent innovation, introduced since the bay-tree was planted on the Aventine hard by; before that it was the poplar
is

Hercules, but that

quite

which Hercules loved, and which Virgil seems to imagine growing on the bank of the river. Secondly, he tells us that Salii took part in the worship of Hercules at Tibur, a fact which is confirmed by the

Whether the Roman Sahi ever danced and sang round the ara maxima,
evidence
of

inscriptions.^

Diomedes
Sat.
iii.

said so in the fifth century a.d., but he

it

may have
2

learnt
12,

from

Virgil.

1 J".

Macrobius quotes a by one Octavius Hersennius; also Ant. Gnipho, the tutor of Julius Caesar (iii. 12, 7^).
Wissowa, R.K., 555, note 2. book on the Salii of the Hercules
3

cult at Tibur

67

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

as Virgil describes,

must remain doubtful; but he

can be convicted of nothing worse than bringing them from Tibur to Rome with a view to picturesque
effect,

and

to find a place for the

itself

hymn

that follows.
its

The hymn

was, of course, simply Greek in

is right, if

subject-matter, but here again Virgil

we

accept the conclusion of recent scholars that there

was no genuine
Greek
cities of

Italian Hercules,

of the great altar

had found his Sicily and Campania.

and that the god way thither from

Lines 314
of

Latium.

Though Evander
Italy generally.
of

jf.

Virgil's idea of the ancient history

is

here speaking of the

are worth a
little

site of

Rome

only, the ideas he expresses apply to

Latium and
tradition

They

attention, for they probably represent

common Latin
scholars.

and certain views

Roman

The earliest life, he thinks, was that of the Fauni, and of wild men sprung from trees; whether he means that these two classes were identical is not
shows the common belief well,^ and Virgil was no doubt thinking of him. Virgil's idea seems to be that these primitive men dwelt on the hill-tops, not practising agriculture, but getting their food either by hunting or by gathering the fruit of the trees among which they lived. Such forest peoples are at the present day the Yeddahs of Ceylon, who, like these primitive Italians, know no law and no civilisation.
perfectly
clear.

Lucretius

Then Saturnus, deity

1

oi agriculture,
;

whom

Virgil

iv.

580^

V.

925^.

68

Aeneas
folk

at

the Site of

Rome

naturally identifies with Kronos, brought this wild

down from

their hilltops to the plain of Latium,

;

and taught them agriculture a Golden Age followed, which in time gave way to degeneracy, " et belli rabies et amor successit habendi." Next came a period of immigration, in which successive invaders gave new names to the land. Who were these invaders ? Names do not count for much, but he mentions Ausonians and Sicanians. Lastly came Greeks, with Evander himself as leader. The Etruscans are not mentioned, for at that time they had not reached either Rome or Latium. Now let us compare this account with the most recent views of archaeologists e.g., Peet and Modest ow, representing many others. The earliest
anything were, as in Europe generally, palaeolithic men, who lived apparently in much the same state as Virgil's
inhabitants of Italy of
indigenae.

whom we know

Were

there any survivors of these, or

any

traces of their

memory
was
still

in historical times

great part of Italy

in Virgil's time,

and

am

wild woodland even inclined to think that the

popular traditions that gathered round the name Faunus indicate a possible survival into historical
times of a few of such primitive
people living on the
1

folk.^

Then came the long age of neolithic men, a

hills,

pastoral

but descending into plains

See "

Roman

Festivals," p. 264; Mannhardt, " Antike

j^^.;

Wald und

Feldkulte," 113

Ridgeway, "Early Age

of

Greece," i. 173 ff.', Lawson, " Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion," p. 244.

69

Aeneas

at the

Site of

Rome

such as that of Latium, and there probably beginning agriculture.

It is here,
I

think, that

we must put

Virgil's

Golden Age, which seems to belong to the later

period of the indigenous peoples, before the migrations began.

that this
of a

throw out the suggestion charming myth of a Golden Age repreI

may

just

sents ideally the earliest experiments in agriculture

still

pastoral people, in virgin soils teeming

with productive power, which afterwards became

weakened by a natural process of decay.^ Then comes the period of immigration. Of the Ausones we know nothing, but the Sicani whom Virgil mentions are among the traditional immigrants accepted by many good archaeologists. Modestow makes them a branch of the Ligures,^
themselves a neolithic people, passing under different names as they moved from the north-west into the These are by many believed to form the peninsula.
basis of the Latin population.

Then followed the

people from the terremare of Northern Italy,

who

formed at

least

the upper stratum of the Italic

peoples of historical times; and lastly

came the

mysterious Etruscans.
.

Ovid, Met.,
"

i.

log

jf.

(of

the Golden Age):

Mox

etiam fruges

tellus inarata ferebat

Nee renovatus ager

gravidis canebat aristis."

Nee renovatus without a season of rest. account of German agriculture in his day
26).
2

Cp. Tacitus'
("

Germania,"
ff.

" Introduction a I'Histoire

Romaine," pp. i2y

70

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

What
sion

strikes us here is the clear

between the periods of grants both in Virgil and in the archaeologists, though the latter, as might be expected, are not agreed about its details.
Line 334. To " Fortuna omnipotens et ineluctabile fatum," as the force which brought Evander to Latium, he adds the prophecies of Carmenta^ and
Apollo.

and broad diviindigenae and immi-

Such an overwhelming force

of fate

may

seem rather unnecessary in the case

of

Evander;

but in his destiny is included that of Aeneas, for with Evander begins the history of Rome at Rome, The Greek and Trojan founders are now to walk round the site of Rome together, and Virgil wishes to inspire his reader with the sense of the power of destiny as he proceeds.

Lines 337^. The Walk through the Site of Rome.^ It was a great stroke of the poet to bring Aeneas
:

up the

Tiber, for he

knew

that

by the

river alone

he

could land him exactly where, almost at a glance, he could see every essential feature of the site, every spot most hallowed by antiquity in the mind
Carmenta is here spoken of as the mother of Evander, which is startHng. She must have come with him from Arcadia, the home of rural Nymphs, and have settled in Rome, where she died. Dionys., i. 31; Strabo, p. 230
^

(where she appears as Nikostrate). Plutarch (Romulus, 21) calls her wife of Evander, but everywhere else e.g., Quaest. Rom., 56 mother.

" Social Life at

The following paragraph is Rome," pp. 2 ff.

71

slightly altered

from

my

Aeneas
of

at

the Site of
day.
"

Rome

Roman

of

Virgil's

follows comprised the whole site

life

The walk that of the heart and

of the city as

it

was

to be, all that lay under the

steep sides of the three almost isolated hills

Capitoline, Palatine,

the

and Aventine.
it

The poet knew

that he need not extend

hills,

to the other so-called

Esquiline,
Caelian.

which come down as spurs from the plain

of

the

Campagna

Quirinal,

Densely populated as those were in his own days, they were not essential organs of social and political life; the pulse of Rome was to be felt beating most strongly in the space between them and the
river,

where, too, the oldest and most cherished associations of the Roman people, mythical and

historical, were fixed," Where exactly Virgil imagined Evander's settlement to have been is not quite clear to me; perhaps it was not quite clear to him, nor was it worth while to trouble his readers about it. The only certain point, as we shall see, is that Evander himself dwelt in the very heart of the Rome that was to be, and just where Augustus had taken up his abode in Virgil's own time, on the northern edge of the Palatine, where it sloped to the Sacred Way leading down to the

Forum Romanum.

When
who
is

they

first set

out on this walk, Evander,

represented by Livy as an old

talks, as
site,

man
seen,

of culture

and knowledge,^

we have
and
7.

about the

ancient history of the

progress was slow.

of

But now

Latium, and their they turn to look

M.
72

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

at the altar of his mother Carmenta, where after-

wards was the famous gate which bore her name.^ This was close to the river, and, standing here and looking away from it, they would see up the valley, between the Palatine and Capitoline hills, into the hollow which afterwards became the Forum, and beyond it to the Argiletum. Evander first points out the slopes of the Capitoline covered with dense wood, where Romulus afterwards placed his sanctuary for refugees ;2 and then, on the steep side of the Palatine, the Lupercal where the she -wolf was Straight ahead was the wooded to nurse the twins. dell bringing a little stream down into the Forum,

and known

in historical times as the Argiletum.

Next, Aeneas was led forward to the foot of the Capitol, then covered with trees and brushwood. Here the poet makes a fine stroke which must have
delighted the

Romans

of his

own

day.

We know
this

not, said Evanijr,

what deity inhabits

j^^.

wood;

we know that there is one, my anxious " Roman Festivals," pp. 290
1

people feel

Virgil knew better than to attempt an allusion to the temple of " Veiovis inter duos lucos," with which the asylum was popularly associated (" Roman Festivals," 122); he covers the whole Capitoline hill with a wood, and leaves it to his reader to fix the " asylum " where he will. Why does he call Romulus acer ? The reader of Livy's account of Romulus will easily see why; he was represented in the legend as a determined man of action, bent on turning his neighbours to account in laying a sure founda^

new city. See, too, the third and fourth chapters of the comparison of Theseus and Romulus in Plutarch's Lives. Cp. 441, of Aeneas.
tion for his

"^

73

Aeneas

at

the Site of
it,^

Rome

and some of my Greeks from Arcadia believe that they have here beheld their own Zeus, as they knew him amid cloud and
the consciousness of

storm in their own mountains.

cast of the greatest of

Roman
of

Truly a noble foreworships Here, too,

1

an ancient settlement founded by Saturnus on the hill-top, and couples with it another on the hill beyond the Tiber which bore the name of Janus, and bears it to this
the learned king
tells

day.

Now Evander

leads his guest to his

own

dwelling,

and there can be no doubt where this was. A single datum makes this quite clear. It was at a point where the cattle of Evander could not only
be heard, but seen,, as they pastured both in the Forum and on the Carinae. The position of the Carinae has now been placed beyond doubt; it is
the
line

name

for the crest

faces, at

and steep slope

of the Esqui-

a distance of about 300 yards, the north-west side of the Palatine and the summa
sacra via just beneath
it,

which

where the Arch

of Titus

now

Evander and his guest could not have seen the herds on the Carinae until they reached this point; but here they would be able to see the
stands.

both places, as Virgil says in line 360.2 Here they were just at the entrance to Evander 's home, which we must imagine to have been on the
cattle in
1

For the meaning of

' '

religio, see

" Rel. Exp.," index

s.v.

Talibus inter se dictis ad tecta subibant pauperis Evandri, passimque armenta videbant

Romanoque

foro et lautis mugire Carinis."

74

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

edge of the Palatine immediately above them,^ and certainly not on the site of the later Regia, which

was down below, close to the Temple of Vesta, a point from which the herds on the Carinae could certainly not be seen. Evander calls his dwelling sedes, and only uses Regia to point the contrast between Hercules the mighty and the humble reception he submitted to so gladly. ^ " This was
he got in the way of a king's dwelling." If the reader who has not been in Rome will study Lanciani's walk through the Sacra Via,^ keeping a careful eye on the map which accompanies it, he
all

will easily realise the situation of

Evander's home.

To do

so

is

important, for

it

explains

what

I believe

to be a clear intention of the poet which the

com-

mentators have never noticed. This was almost the exact spot where stood the abode of Augustus, of which Suetonius^ tells us that it was comparatively modest and unpretending. He lived at first close to the Forum, but after
his return

Now, we
^

29 B.C., on the Palatine. know, from Ovid's account of the arrival

to
in

Rome

" Talibus inter se dictis ad tecta subibant;" i.e., they talked in this way as they went along uphill to Evander's dweUing. The idea of a walk uphill is suggested by subibant, and made certain for a Roman by the mention of the cattle on the Carinae. Cp. ix. 9; " sceptra Palatini

sedemque
2

petit Evandri."

" ut

ventum ad sedes, 'haec' inquit, * limina victor Alcides subiit, haec ilium regia cepit.' "
and Excavations
75
of
*

" Ruins

Ancient Rome," pp.

Aug., 72.

190 #.

Aeneas
of his

at

the Site of
this

Rome

was the very first building to meet the traveller when he had left the summa sacra via and the Temple of Jupiter Stator to enter the Palatine after the temple of Vesta and the Regia have been passed,
in
;

book

Rome, that

"

Inde petens dextram, porta est, ait, ista Palati, Hie Stator, hoc primum condita Roma loco est. Singula dum miror, video fulgentibus armis Conspicuos postes tectaque digna deo."^
last lines allude to the house, aedes, as
it,

These two

he

was Ovid's cue to magnify, and which had doubtless become grander during the thirty years or more that divided the eighth book of the Aeneid from the third book of the Tristia. But Suetonius insists that the house was never really magnificent or in any way conspicuous,^ and this falls in entirely with the general policy and practice of Augustus as head of
himself called
of

Augustus, which

it

the State.

Before leaving Ovid,

let

us notice that

he marks this as the site of the earliest Rome; and " tecta digna deo " suggests that he may have been thinking of the very passage of Virgil that we are
discussing.

Now let

us look at the famous passage that imme-

diately follows in Virgil, of which

that he was lost in admiration of

^

Dryden wrote it;^ " I contemn

Rom.
Topogr.,

Tristia,
74.

iii.

i.

25

ff.;

Hiilsen- Jordan,

iii.

" Postea in Palatio, sed nihilominus aedibus modicis Hortensianis, et neque laxitate neque cultu conspicuis."
^
^

Quoted by Conington

in his note.

76

Aeneas
the world
translate
"

at the
I

Site
it,

of

Rome
I

when
":

think of

and myself when

it

Aude, hospes, contemnere opes, et te quoque dignum Finge deo, rebusque veni non asper egenis."
to say
is

What he means
came here

this:

" Hercules once

to help us, even a son of Jupiter,

and did

not despise this humble abode. Do thou bravely follow his example. His divinity needed no out-

ward show; so reckon thyself like him, as worthy of divinity, and be capable of despising vulgar wealth." Now we see what Virgil is really thinking of while he lets his fancy roam back to the imaginary days
Evander. These noble words were as applicable, when they were written, to Augustus as to Aeneas. Deo is best taken, as Servius and Heyne took it, as meaning divinity in the abstract, not that of any particular god. Hercules it cannot be, for he was not fully deus when he arrived at Rome, and the te quoque puts him in the same position as Aeneas. Dr. Henry dogmatically condemned the view I
of

accept,

and suggested Jupiter as the deus alluded to. Line 301, which he did not quote, might have given him some support; but I have a strong feeling that
is

deus

here, as so often in the poetry of the time,

divinity in the abstract.^

Lines 366

ff.

" dixit, et angusti subter fastigia tecti

ingentem Aenean duxit stratisque locavit

effultum
^

foliis."
i.

So

e.g.

in Hor., Od.,

3, 21,

i.

" 34, 15;

Roman

Ideas

of Deity,'* p. 150.

77

Aeneas

at the

Site

of

Rome
to line 461,
for

Was Aeneas
we
find that

lodged in the same house as his host,

it

or in another hard

by ? was not

If

we look on

in the

same house;

Evander with
visit his

his

dogs leaves his

et

own

threshold to

guest in his sedes

be natural enough, for we house to contain guest-rooms, and we must imagine, as surely Virgil did, small dwellings like the hut of Romulus, with only one story. Mr. Page, however, remarks that, as Aeneas was in the same house, the statement that Evander goes from the threshold to meet him must be a slip. Not at all; lines 366^. by no means necessarily imply that Aeneas had been taken to a spare room in Evander's house. The dwelling of Romulus was standing on the Palatine in Virgil's time, and he must have been thinking of it; it was a mere hut with a roof of thatch or reeds, and could not possibly suggest spare bedrooms.^
^

This seems to cannot suppose Evander's

seer eta.

In Ovid, Fasti,
**

iii.

183,

Mars

tells

the poet that

Quae

fuerit nostri, si quaeris, regia nati,

Aspice de canna straminibusque

domum

"

the hut was of wattles with a straw roof. Dionysius also had seen it in Augustus' time (i. 79). Cp. HiilsenJordan, iii. 39, Burn, " Rome and the Campagna," p. 156. Apparently it resembled in shape the hut-urns now
i.e.,

familiar to archaeologists.

Someone may ask what is meant by " mediis aedibus " in 467: does not that show that one house only was in The whole passage Virgil's mind ? I do not think so.
2

(454-468) has a largeness about it which forbids me to think of chambers in a small hut-dwelling. I prefer to
see the

two

friends meeting in the

open

air,

as

would be

78

Aeneas
Lines 419/.:

at

the Site of

Rome

" validique incudibus ictus

auditi referunt gemitus, striduntque cavernis

stricturae

chalybum

et fornacibus ignis anhelat."

as in 446, " vulnificus chalybs vasta fornace liquescit." I believe,

I

write chalybum with a small

c,

though
chalybs

own

cannot prove

it,

that in each line

means a pig
it:
**

of iron, the first

form taken by
Servius
stricturas pro

the metal in the process of manufacture.

so understood
ferri

chalybum posuit

massis."

But what does he mean by stricturae chalybum ? One thing, I think, is pretty clear that strictura and fornax are two parts of the machinery of the forge (or possibly the same part ?). Fornax was a

well-known term for an oven or furnace, but no one, ancient or modern, has been able to tell us for certain what strictura was. Writers later than Virgil are plainly in doubt about the word; Nonius^ simply guesses, quoting this line only, that it must mean a spark or sparks. Pliny's account''^ of ironfounding is unsatisfactory, and he leaves us quite in doubt as to strictura. It is better to try the pre-Virgilian authors; and we may get something from each of the two surviving passages in which
natural in the Italian climate, and then returning to the house of Evander, and sitting just within the doorway. It was, of course, summer time, as we know from the fact that the trees were green and the poplar leaves were out. * P. 26, Onions. ^ xxxiv. 143.

79

Aeneas
the word occurs.

at the Site

of

Rome
ut scinferventi ferro.

Lucilius^ has " crebrae

tillae in stricturis,

quod genus ohm

This suggests the emission of sparks during some part of the manufacturing process, and answers fairly well to the stridunt of 420. Varro
helps us
X.
still

..."

more; he

is

quoted by Servius on Aen.

illic [i.e., in the island of Elba] 174: ferrum, sed in stricturam non posse cogi nisi trans-

" Nasci

Populoniam." This must mean that the ore of Elba could not be made into pig-iron there, but had to be brought over to the mainland to be manufactured at Populonia. Cogi in stricturam may mean constraining the ore into the form of pigs (the oblong lumps ready for further forging), by means of moulds or runs. In an interesting paper in the Treasury for May, 1917, called " The Sussex Pig," which gives an account of the ancient Sussex forges, I read that " before the mouth of the furnace lay the sand-beds in which the molten metal was run to be cast into shape as pigs." The

vectum

in

word

strictura itself

suggests

constraint

i.e.,

the

forcing or squeezing of the metal into certain chanStringo nels or runnels, as in 445, " fiuit aes rivis." is no doubt a difficult word, and bears a variety of

meanings which it is not easy to trace to a common origin; but Mr. Page quotes a line from Persius (ii. 66) in which it is used of iron manufacture, though inaccurately, I think: " Stringere venas ferventis massae crudo de pulvere." Servius, too, " on this line says that strictura is terra ferri in
^

Fragm.|io5, Baehrens.

80

Aeneas
massam
coacta,"

at

the Site of

Rome

which agrees with the language of Varro just quoted. Perhaps on the whole it will be safe to translate " smelting " with Mr. Page, though we do not know exactly what the process was which
is

indicated.

Line 427. The thunderbolts, Virgil tells us, might be hurled by Jupiter from any quarter of the sky (" toto quae plurima caelo deicit in terras ").

Conington remarks that

plurima.
Servius

toto carries

out the idea of

it

knew

better;

he says that
lore,

means
I

all

the sixteen parts or regions of the sky.

think he remembered the Etruscan

which

Virgil

had picked up from Varro, Nigidius, or some such authority. Jupiter was said to dwell in all the sixteen regions,^ and if so he could certainly shoot from them all.
Lines 454-456:
"

Haec pater
et

Aeoliis properat

dum Lemnius

oris

Euandrum ex hiimiU

tecto lux suscitat alma matutini volucrum sub culmine canius.''^^

There has been a most amusing controversy about these lines, in which I feel not incompetent to take a part. Reading without commentators, I should
Martianus Capella, i. 46. See Thulin, " Die Gotter " des Martianus Capella und der Bronzeleber von Piacenza (" Rel. Versuche und Vorarbeiten," III. i. 16 ff.), who quotes Servius on this passage as good authority. 2 I do not need to point out the wonderful contrast between these lines and the fierce forging scene which precedes them; in no part of the poem is such another contrast to be found.
1

81

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

never have doubted that the birds alluded to are the swallows feeding noisy nestlings on the beams of the roof of a windowless humble dwelling, knowing well as I do how loud and vigorous their chatter-

But Heyne asked whether swallows can wake up a sleeper, and whether we should not think of cocks, which had already been suggested by Servius.
ing
is

as the light begins to

show

in the east.

Wagner
remarks

in his edition of Heyne's Virgil solemnly " that he had heard " homines rusticanos

affirm that they

have been awakened by swallows,

and decides

in favour of the swallow tribe.

Henry, who liked to be by himself or in a minority, remarks that " cock-crow not swallowcrow is meant, according to immemorial saws, and is
this,

On

already indicated in the verse

itself

by sub culmine,

time the cock-roost, while the swallows were content to lodge under the " eaves." But for this use of culmine " from all time he only quotes Corippus,^ who in the sixth century A.D. wrote in praise of Justinian. Varro does not use the word in his account of the poultry-yard, and old Cato knew little or nothing of poultry-yards. But, Henry goes on, the matter is placed beyond all doubt by Silius, xiv. 20 (of the Straits of Mesall

the culmine being from

sina)

" Sed spatium

quod dissociat consortia terrae latratus fama est (sic arta intervenit unda) et matutinos volucrum transmittere cantus
in

'

For Corippus, see Wilamowitz Gegenwart," vol. viii., p. 202.

^

" KuJtur

der

82

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

" Where he must be a very determined swallowite

who
takes the meaning to be that the twittering of swallows can be heard across the straits." No doubt, Silius is thinking of Virgil's line, but his

words have no force in determining Virgil's meaning. If he meant cocks, it does not follow that Virgil did. Certainly the swallows could not be heard across the straits, and I imagine it is doubtful whether cocks could be heard, either. Henry adds that the cock's " song " is preeminently the morning song with all poets, ancient and modern; which is a strong statement, seeing that there are no cocks in Homer or in Hesiod. But he quotes from Sophocles a passage which I have known by heart for more than half a century, yet never dreamt that cocks were alluded
to in
it:
(OS

"^[Juv

y^Srj

XafJiTTpov 7]\lov creXas

ioa

Ktvet

^BkyixaT

opvtOoiv

aracfiT].

(Electra i8.)

Nor did Sophocles

is

so intend

it,

am

sure.
!

Long

after Sophocles a scholiast said so, alas

and that

a very different thing. Sophocles knew little or nothing about fowls, while the scholiast did. The domestic fowl did not reach Greece till the sixth century B.C., and was not introduced into Italy
until the fifth century
1

at

earliest.^

Cato in the

Newton, "Dictionary of Birds," p. 291; D'Arcy Thompson, " Glossary of Greek Birds," pp. 20 ff.; StorrBest, " Varro on Farming," p. 291, note.

83

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

second century only just mentions it.^ Probably the advance in fowl-keeping after the time of Cato, and especially under the early Empire, unduly associated the cock with the dawn in the minds of learned commentators who had never heard the morning songs of wild birds in the country, as undoubtedly Virgil had. I may just add that cocks do not necessarily begin to " sing " at dawn, as swallows do. A cock may begin at midnight or at

any time, or may, as Marcellus says

sing
I

in

**

Hamlet,"

all

night long.

should be ashamed to write thus at length about so trivial a question, if I were not convinced, by
realising the out-of-door life of a southern climate,

that both Virgil and Sophocles were thinking of the

musical chatter of swallows heard through unglazed

windows, and not of the raucous and annoying crowing of the domestic cock.
Lines 447 /. Ingentem clipeum informant, unum omnia contra tela Latinorum, septenosque orbibus orbes
'

impediunt."

These last words have been explained in different ways. The same phrase is used, with alternos instead of septenos, of the movements of the boys in book V. 584, and that passage is not without a
^

De

agric, 88.
far

Varro, R.R.,

iii

9,

shows that poultry

had become

gallicinium had

more important in his day. By his time become a word for the time before dawn,

according to Serv., Aen., ii. 268, but is not found in Varro See Marquardt, " Privatleben," 247, note. L.L., vi. 4-7.

84

Aeneas
bearing on
this.

at

the Site of
if

Rome
not mistaken,

There,

am

impediunt is used metaphorically in the sense of weaving, for in weaving the threads are fixed so as to hold fast, to prevent their coming loose, and this is undoubtedly the root meaning of the word. In the same way the boys weave an orderly series of movements, held together by a
plan.

In the passage before us

it

seems to

me

that

impediunt has the meaning of holding together, though not in the sense of weaving and, as there is only one way in which the layers of the shield can be held together securely viz., by a strong rim or
;

circumference
*'

think Henry

is

right

in

taking

orhes of the seven layers

and orbibus

of the rims.

Impedire has here its very usual meaning^ of bind, invest, surround with, in the manner of a hoop or

means the concentric rings or hoops which bound the body all round the margin,
ring.
.

Orbibus

one overlapping the other round the body, whether solid or spoked, of a cart Nothing can be more manifest than the wheel. necessity of this outer ring or felloe, to keep the seven flat disks in their places, and from shifting or separating at their edges, nothing more happy
like

so

many

felloes,

Henry does not quote any instances of this usage. The usual meaning of impedire is, of course, to fetter, restrain, a meaning very close to the one given above,
^

as
i.

may

be seen,

e.g.,

in such a passage as Rhet.

ad Herenn.,
fixed

I, init: " negotiis familiaribus

impediti "

i.e.,

up

at home.

85

Aeneas

at the

Site

of

Rome

than the use of impediunt to express this fact." For the triple rim of a shield he quotes two passages
of

Homer:

II.

xviii.

478 {which

is

more

realistic

than Virgil's account) and 11. xi. 32. These words have also been taken to mean that there were circles on the surface of the shield, in which were to be placed the scenes described at the end of this book but this seems to me to destroy the unity of thought in the lines we are discussing.
;

Virgil could never

"

unum

have thought of jumping from omnia contra tela Latinorum " to patterns
shield.

on the surface of the

Lines 520^.:

" Vix ea fatus erat, defixique ora tenebant Aeneas Anchisiades et fidus Achates, multaque dura suo tristi cum corde putabant, ni signum caelo Cytherea dedisset aperto."

The pathos

of this passage,

which

is

very delicate,

seems to have been altogether missed. The commentators do not seem to have discovered it. Why does Virgil call Aeneas Anchisiades here ? Why are he and Achates sad ? Why is the word putabant used ? Evander has just, apparently without misgiving

moment, given his son into the charge of Aeneas, and seems to lay special stress upon the boy's name, which is the last word of line 519. Pallas was the hope and comfort (514) of his father's old age; and by this time he was well known to Aeneas, for he was the first to accost the stranger when he
at the

86

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

reached the site of Rome. Their relation as guardian and pupil (contubernium) is beautifully pictured in X. 159^., where the voyage from the Etrus-

can coast
"

is

described:

Hie magnus sedet Aeneas secumque volutat

Pallasque sinistro adfixus lateri iam quaerit sidera, opacae noctis iter, iam quae passus terraque marique."^
belli varios,

eventus

The effect on Aeneas of the death of his pupil and the boy's funeral are told with much touching tenderness later on. Pallas is in some sense the hero of these books (viii.-xi.), and even to the very end of the poem he is not forgotten, for but for him and
Turnus might have escaped death. If the books had been thoroughly revised, his importance in the story might perhaps have been still more
his belt

obvious.

Now, the poet knew what was coming, while the

reader does not; but Virgil wishes his reader to see

that Aeneas has an intuition of the boy's fate, an

which soon passes to Evander (568 ff.), and he puts in the word Anchisiades with that object. As in the more famous passage in x. 822,
intuition
Passages like this go far to convict Sellar of misjudging Virgil very seriously (pp. 361 ff. of his volume on Virgil). The Scotch critic made the serious mistake, which the Germans and Mr. Gladstone have also made, of j udging a poet by comparison with others born in other lands and other ages. That means that they read him with one eye upon Homer, or, strange to say, in this case
^

upon Spenser.

8y

Aeneas
it

at the
is

Site

of

Rome

betrays what

passing in the hero's mind.^

Aeneas slays Lausus, pity seizes him for the lad's father, and he thinks of his own father Anchises, who might so easily have lost his son. Here, too, pity seizes him for Evander, for the life of Pallas was in jeopardy, and he was responsible to Evander for it. I believe that the patronymic is used here just as in the tenth book, and that the cloud passing over the hero's mind was mainly anxiety for the son of his host. There was no other real reason
out of keeping with the character of Aeneas after the descent into Hades.^
for depression,
it

When

and

is

Just below, after the sign from Venus, he cheers up Evander, yet seems to hint at a possible misfortune which may affect him: *' ne quaere profecto Quem casum portenta ferant; ego poscor." Putabant dura indicates, I think, a premonitory sadness, of which the death of Pallas would be the explanation. Putabant does not mean that he meditated about the perils of the campaign, but that the forebodings about Pallas forced themselves on his mind. Let us look at vi. 331 ff., where puto is used
in the

same sense and

is

also

accompanied by the

patronymic.
fate of
1

Aeneas is contemplating the unhappy the unburied dead:

"

At vero ut vultum

vidit morientis et ora, ora modis Anchisiades pallentia miris. ..."

can never forget the thrill that went through me when the meaning of Anchisiades was first made plain to me by
1

my tutor,
2

H. Nettleship. See"Rel. Exp.," p. 422. 88

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

" constitit Anchisa satus et vestigia pressit

multa putans sortemque animo miseratus iniquam."

Anchisa satus ? His father was safe in his grave, and has just been placated; but he is thinking of what might have been, and of his own possible fate. He sees two Trojans whom that fate had overtaken in their wanderings; but between him and his
father,
still

Why

by the grace of the gods, the relation was intact. Then Palinurus salutes him and begs

for the burial of his body, and, divining the current

of his thoughts, calls

him by

his father's

The meaning of the patronymic here is by line 364, in which he appeals to Aeneas not only by his father, but also by his young son.^ I may mention two other passages in which the patronymic is used with much the same object.
In
vi.

name (348). made certain

126 Aeneas has been telling the Sibyl

all

about

terms of tender affection, so that she appropriately addresses him as Tros Anchisiades. And again in x. 250, when the Nymphs into which the ships have been changed have been talking about their home on Mount Ida, and his mind goes back to the old days and the old haunts, no wonder Virgil calls him Tros Anchisiades The tender relation of father and son is, of course, strong throughout the Aeneid nay, is one of the leading thoughts in it;^ the word pietas contains
his father in
!

" Per genitorem oro, per spes surgentis eripe me his, invicte, malis."

luli,

Even Mezentius felt it in his passionate way (x. 844 j^.) a noble passage, every word in which is worth careful weighing.
2

g^

Aeneas

at the

Site of

Rome

that meaning as well as devotion to the decrees of

Fate or Jupiter. The affection of mother and son is less obvious, but not absent, if we think of Euryalus in ix. 287, who could not bear to see his mother in tears, and left her without a farewell embrace when he went out to face a deadly peril. This was not cowardice, or dulness of heart, as Dr. Henry seems to think; it is Virgil's knowledge of a boy's mind that is here shown. The same thing has happened

many
full

times, I

am

sure, in the present war.

With

acceptance of his boyish friend's feeling, the still younger Ascanius sheds tears as he thinks of the
love of his
" atque

own

parents
patriae strinxit pietatis imago,"

animum

where patria pietas is no doubt the love of both father and mother, the familv affection. Roman virtues were masculine rather than feminine, but the loving care of a mother is not wanting in Roman story (cp. ix. 473 ff.)\ and at this very moment Augustus was doing his best to restore the old
family
life

in

Roman

society.^

There is yet another sacred relation to be remembered here, that of hospitium. What made the death of Pallas so painful to Aeneas was not only the thought of fatherhood, and of the trust with which Evander had charged him, but the fact that Pallas and his father had been the first of all Italians
There are some interesting remarks on this subject in the last few pages of Lecky's " History of European
^

Morals," vol.

ii.

90

Aeneas
to

at the

Site of

Rome

welcome him to their home and to form a personal and political alliance with him.^ For we know on good old Latin authority that the relation between host and guest was a stronger bond than any other but that of the relation of father and son.These old Italian blooms unfold themselves in Virgil's poetry if we read it with a knowledge of things Roman, as well as with a knowledge of

human
Lines

nature.

has been written about these lines, and many questions raised. Conington has for once an interesting note, referring to Mr. Gladstone's strictures on Virgil for allowing Venus to send Venus.

Much

524

ff,\

The Heavenly Sign given by

even from an Italian point of view, in complaining that Venus could not do such work, or at any rate never did it; the Etruscan lore of lightning shows no trace of her as a thunderer. But Conington is equally right in arguing that she could easily get Jupiter,
lightning.^

Gladstone

was

right

Seex. 515 #
" Pallas, Evander, in ipsis

omnia sunt
tunc
adiit,

oculis,

mensae quas advena primas

dextraeque datae."

2 To realise the force of hospitium, the best way is to read Gellius, Noct. Att., v. 13, with its quotations from Cato and Masurius Sabinus [temp. Tiberius). The latter wrote: " In officiis apud maiores ita observatum est, primum tutelae, deinde hospiti, deinde clienti, turn cognato, postea adfini." 3 " Studies," vol. iii., p. 523.

91

Aeneas
for her.

at

the Site of

Rome
a difficulty

the chief dealer in these munitions, to do the job

We

certainly need not

make

here

if

Virgil did not.

Nor, again, in the grand line 526 (" Tyrrhenusque tubae mugire per aethera clangor ") need we trouble ourselves about the word Tyrrhenus. Mr. Page says that the epithet here is used " merely to give literary

ornament, though somewhat awkwardly, as there has been so much reference to the actual Etruscans.'* Henry thinks of one individual Tyrrhenus who invented the trumpet, and appeals to Silius v. 10. Let me once more protest against his use of the later poets in explaining Virgil; they had not Virgil's mind, and they, too, often spoil him by their borrowings and allusions. Henry is quite wrong here,
as anyone will allow
of the trumpet.^

who knows

the frequent allu-

sion in the Greek dramatists to the Etruscan origin

In any case an epithet like this is not otiose or flat because it is conventional; on the contrary, it carried the bilingual Roman back
to the Greek literature on which his literary intelligence

was

built;

and

it is

a grand word, placed

line.

emphatically at the beginning of the

One other point before we leave this episode. Does Virgil mean that the arms destined for Aeneas were themselves actually shown him in the sky ? Henry emphatically says No; all that Virgil means
is

the shape and sound of battle in the sky, so often

reported both in ancient and modern history, and

^

Many

of

them
ii.,

are

collected

in
6.

Miiller-Deecke's

" Etrusker/* vol.

p. 207, esp.

note

92

Aeneas

at

the Site of
*'

Rome
ii.

described by Milton in

Paradise Lost," book

533 ff. But commentators from Servius downwards have recognized the arms of Vulcan, and line 535 supports them. Whether the actual material armour was up there in the cloud, or only a semblance and promise of it, does not much matter. The reader may take his own view of the spirit of the passage, and will doubtless remember that he is reading poetry, poetry which at this point is alternating with curious effect between the realistic and the sublime, the human and the supernatural.
Lines 541 /.
"

Haec ubi dicta dedit, et primum Herculeis

solio se toUit

ab alto

sopitas ignibus aras excitat, hesternumque larem parvosque penatis

laetus adit; mactat lectas de

more

bidentis

Euandrus

pariter, pariter

Troiana iuventus."

These
culties.

lines present several small

but serious
altar

diffi-

To begin
In 465

with, where
fire ?
jf.,

the " Herculean "

happened.
after rising,
in the

with Let us be clear what has Aeneas and Evander meet

was the

and

sit

down for a talk

mediis aedihus,

i.e.,

house of Evander, or the lodging of Aeneas, or in the open courtyard between the two. While they were talking appeared the sign from heaven, which they saw through the open door or went out But as in 541 to see; again it matters little which. Aeneas is said to have risen from his seat, they seem to have been indoors during the thunderstorm, or at the threshold. Certainly they were on the Pala-

93

Aeneas
tine, if I

at

the Site of

Rome

was
altar

right in

my

description of their walk,

spoken of cannot be the great altar of Hercules, which was far away by the river; Virgil would never have allowed a stranger to offer the morning sacrifice there. And the Lar and Penates must be those of Evander, in his house on
the Palatine.

and the

what does the word Herculeis mean ? Remembering that Hercules had been in that house, and had left his traces there in many ways,^ I can
Then,

understand the word, though not without difficulty But in the next line hesternum larem is to me still more difficult. It was apparently so puzzling to Roman readers that another reading, externum,' had appeared before Servius' time, which he rightly hesternum larem as the lar rejects, interpreting to whom sacrifice had been offered the previous day in other words, Aeneas, leaving his own lodging, went to the house of Evander, where they sacrificed This is certainly possible. But a passage together. in book V. {y^zff-)* which closely resembles the one before us, has raised a suspicion in my mind which I feel rather unwillingly compelled to mention here.
' '

'

'

"

Haec memorans cinerem

Pergameumque larem
et

et sopitos suscitat ignes

canae penetralia Vestae farre pio et plena supplex veneratur acerra."

See R. Peter in Myth. Lex., s.v. Hercules, pp. 2291 and 2901 ff. One story was that Pallas was the son of He was also believed to be the Hercules (Dionys., i. 43). ancestor of the gens Fabia (Ov., Fasti,' ii. 237), through a daughter of Evander (Silius, vi. 627).
1
'

94

Aeneas
Is
it

at

the Site of

Rome
two words

possible that a displacement of

in

in

viii.

two successive lines found its wa}^ into the text 542-43, and that we should read
" et

primum

hesternis sopitas ignibus aras

excitat, hercvUeumque

larem parvosque penates

laetus adit"?

would have an epithet attached to it after Virgil's own manner in the Aeneid; cp. ix. 259:
If SO, lar
*

Assaracique larem et canae penetralia Vestae.' The metaphorical use of lar (as in Georg. iv. 43, of the bees' home) is not, I think, to be found in the
prophetic

poem
a

of the

Roman

state.

Aeneid
import.

is

word

of serious religious

Lar in the and historical

Line 562: " scutorumque incendi victor acervos."

This line shows that the custom of destroying booty, and especially arms, which has only lately

been satisfactorily explained, was still known in Virgil's time, or he would not have alluded to it. Strange to say, S. Reinach in his ample discussion of the question does not mention this passage.^ He gives us, however, a sufficient amount of evidence, partly from Roman authors, partly from the Bible, that spoils were taboo and could not be used by their captors, but must be hung in the air, or thrown into water, or burnt. He gives us, also,
1

" Cultes, Mythes, et Religions,"

iii.

223

ff.

and

reff.

The passage

in Orosius, v. 16, 5, is especially interesting.

95

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

examples of the breaking of this taboo and its consequences/ and of the gradual wearing away of the old scruple under stress of circumstances, as in Livy, xxiii. 14. He acknowledges his debt here to the Danish antiquary Worsaae, who has thus explained the great quantity of mutilated armour found in Danish peat-bogs. Reinach gives his explanation on p. 243, and it is probably the right one. These arms were supposed in primitive times to be possessed of magical and mischief -making powers; they belonged to strange people of whom one knew little or nothing anyhow, nothing good. The feeling is, in fact, the same as that about the captives, of which I have written in an article called *' Passing under the Yoke."^ If the captive strangers were subjected to a magical ceremony, they might be dismissed without doing

harm

and so, if you destroyed the arms, there was an end of their mischief-making
to their captors
;

power.

Line 574: " Numina vestra." As in i. 666, I imagine that in the plural the word means " acts nay, in both there of will "; in the latter passage is a reminiscence of the true nature of the old Italian deity, who was thought of rather as a series of manifestations of will-power than as a personal (See^'Rel. Exp.," 118.) god

See his paper, p. 233. Cp. ix. 364 j^; Classical Review, March, 1913.

x.

700 and 776.

96

Aeneas
Line 578:

at

the Site of

Rome

" sin aliquem infandum casum, Fortuna, minaris."

keeping a consideration of Fate for the end of the book, I may here notice that this use of Fortuna is interesting, as immediately following a prayer to Jupiter. For Evander, Fortuna was omnipotens in line 334, and apparently equivalent
I

Though

am

Fatum. So here Fortuna is a force beyond the power of Jupiter to control, and, in fact, seems to be Fatum viewed in the concrete rather than the abstract, Fatum in action at a given moment. It is very nearly the Polybian use of rvxVy for which I
to

may
bute

refer to

my

"

Roman

Ideas of Deity," p. 69.

Here, too, note that Virgil seems to dislike to attri-

any rate unnecessary evil, to Jupiter, and that Fortuna saves him from the necessity. The word infandum could not be used of anything Jupiter does,^ but we have it used here of a possible
evil, at

action of Fortuna.

The speech
is

of

Evander which contains these

lines

very interesting, not only because of its pathos and tender Italian feeling, but because it helps to link together the points of the story that is coming. Pallas is fixed henceforth in the reader's memory, and when his sad story is taken up again in the
Cp. vii. 583, and i, 251, where the word is used of events contrary to the will of Jupiter. The unnecessary loss of a son could hardly be attributed to him. On " " Jupiter's goodness, see Dr. Glover's Virgil (ed. 2),
^

pp.

277^
97

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

tenth book, this picture of the old father remains with us.

Then
in

follows the last of the succession of scenes

which the story of this book is told. We have had the voyage up the Tiber, the sacrifice to Hercules (with the tale of Cacus), the walk round the site of Rome, the morning service, the heavenly sign from Venus, the return to the boats, and the prayer of Evander. Now we have in the last place the march out to Agylla, on which Henry has an excellent note. He compares it with a parallel scene in the fourth book, where Dido and Aeneas set forth in perfect happiness and splendour of equipment to the hunting-party that was to prove so fatal. On both scenes the poet has lavished his powers of description. " To a reader unacquainted with the sequel both pictures are as gay and exhilarating as they stand to
for the second, or
it

him who reads the story

be for the hundredth time, in the saddest contrast to the grim catastrophes by which their sunny morning brightness is so soon, so very soon, to be overcast, and for ever
extinguished."

may

Lines 600^.:
" Silvano

fama est veteres sacrasse Pelasgos, arvorum pecorisque deo, lucumque diemque,
finis

qui primi

aliquando habuere Latinos."

What

exactly Virgil meant in using the

it is

name

Pelasgos here

impossible to say.

In the second

q8

Aeneas

at

the Site of
it

Rome
and here he

book he seems to use

for Greeks;^

perhaps be supposed to use it for Etruscans. But whether he uses it in a racial sense at all may be doubted. Dr. Leaf seems to me to have shown that in Homer it has no racial meaning, but indicates, like the

may

the relation

Welsh " in its various forms, between an invading and an invaded

word

"

people, in the tongue of the former. ^

Virgil

simply mean that an invading people Etruscans, perhaps found a clearing here, made by primitive

may

inhabitants,

who had

set

up a

festival to the half-

wild deity Silvanus, one that always seems to haunt

the borderland between woodland and cultivation.^

There was an old tradition of Pelasgoi in this southwest corner of Etruria, which is preserved by Dionysius;^ but this is not the place for any discussion of the many passages which bear upon this old ethnological puzzle. It will be found discussed in " Modestow's Introduction a THistoire Romaine,"

PP 439 #.
Lines 621
ff.\

" loricam ex acre rigentem, sanguineam, ingentem, quails cum caerula nubes soils inardesclt radlls longeque refulget."

83 and 106. " Troy," chapter vU., passim.

ii.

3
*

For Silvanus, see "Rel. Exp.," 132, 142. Dlonys., i. 27, and Modestow, p. 444. See also Korte

in Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. Etrusker.

99

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

Conington tells us that this simile is from Apollonius Rhodius, iv. 125, where of the golden fleece
it is

said that
. .

it

was
V<f)\r]

evaXiyKiov,

i]T

dviovTO<s

rjekiov cfikoyeprjcrtv epevOerat OLKTivea-criv.

suppose we may assume that Virgil had this passage in his mind; but he has improved on it in a subtle manner. Apollonius likens the fleece to a cloud *' that blushes red with the fiery beams of the rising sun." Virgil is not thinking of a fleece, but of a supernatural breastplate of bronze; and bronze is a material that (even without being supernatural) can take a variety of tints according to the light in which it is seen. Thus, Servius thought of the
I

rainbow in the cloud, and the idea is worth consideration. But on the whole I think that what the poet's mind saw was a grey-blue ground colour shot through with blood-red light. Apollonius thought of a red cloud at sunrise; Virgil thinks of a dark cloud with ruddy light flashing through it.

Henry says
bad
effect,

of

Virgil's

lines

that the final

occurring nine times in two lines and a half has a

but that it may have been meant to awe of the cuirass. I think it probable that some effect was intended; whether successfully or not may be doubtful.
inspire

Line 626 to end of book: The Shield of Aeneas. 1 am strongly of opinion that it is futile to deal with principles, and to look this descfif^tijoh

^~

PAMPBELL COLLECTION

Aeneas
for divisions or

at

the Site of

Rome

compartments on the surface of the shield, into which the various scenes might be The same may be said, in my view, of the fitted. shield of Achilles in the Iliad, and certainly of the mantle of Jason in Apollonius Rhodius,^ which last Once we is a comparatively feeble performance. lose the right mood in reading the Homeric shield, we spoil it, and surely the right mood is that of
interest in

human
how

life

actually going on, as

it

were,

under our eyes.

puzzle out

He who

allows himself to try and

these scenes of

human

life

could be

compressed into a metallic surface is simply wasting his time. In Virgil's shield the attention of the Roman reader was to be absorbed by successive
pictures of

be the
the

last

Roman history, and that reader would man to inquire how they fitted in within
nor need

shield's rim;

we attempt

that un-

necessary task.2

The main point of distinction between the shields of Achilles and Aeneas has been well put by Sellar:^ The Shield of Achilles presents to the imagination the varied spectacle of human life sowing and
*'

reaping, a city besieged, a marriage festival, etc.

the Shield of Aeneas presents the most

crises in the annals of

momentous
in the

Rome, culminating
Virgil's

great triumph of Augustus."

1

scenes can

Book i. 720 ff. See Heinze, " Vergil's epische Technik," p. 394, who quotes C. Robert to the same effect in regard to the Homeric
2

shield.
^

"

Roman

Poets of the Augustan Age": Virgil,

p. 323.

lOl

Aeneas

at the

Site

of

Rome

never for non-Romans have the same charm as Homer's; they lack the universal element. But if only, when we reach this point, we have clothed ourselves to some extent with the Roman spirit, they may warm us with a sense of human achievement such as they were certainly meant to inspire.

The
is

best

way

to acquire this sense of things

Roman
!

to read straight through the

poem untroubled by

commentators; and how few of us ever do that I have done it more than once, just as I have read through Shakespeare's plays and poems almost unharassed by other reading; and the two undertakings have been great epochs in my life. This human achievement, then, though Roman only, is for two or three reasons worth most careful attention. As Dr. Glover has remarked, Virgil here gave for the first time its literary expression to the triumph of a nation politically, racially, and geographically one, over clan

and

city.

" It

is

not the

victory of

Rome

so

much

as of Italy that Virgil

thinks of in describing the Battle of Actium."^

This sudden

a principle of nationality, glorified by Virgil, might be compared with the rise of the German Empire in the nineteenth century, and f her Professors and the extravagant self-praise men of letters, but for two circumstances which saved the Roman poets from anything so poisonous
rise of
.

as
1

German Chauvinism.

One

of these is the sad-

" Virgil," (ed. 2), pp. 106 In 678 Augustus ff. leads " Italos in proelia"; in 715 he " dis Italis votum immortale sacrabat." Cp. xii. 827.

102

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome
A
second

ness of the time, and the entirely wholesome feeling

of relief, not of triumph, that succeeded.

circumstance was that, unlike Germany, Rome Greece was recognised and revered her teachers. always before her, supplying ideas and models, and the Romans could not claim the great Greeks as
belonging to their

own

race, as the

childishly deludes himself into

modern German fancying that Dante

and Shakespeare, and apparently all great men, must be Germans, because Germany alone is capable
them. Now I wish to ask the question, On what principle does Virgil choose the scenes from Roman history represented on the shield ? He might have chosen great victories, such as Beneventum, Zama, Pydna, Magnesia, but passed them over; was it only because they did not offer him scenes suitable to the kind of dramatic representation that he wished for ? Certain it is that he did not choose either victories or triumphs until he came to his own Even in the sixth book, in the great list of time. Roman heroes, conquerors of the triumphant sort are not too prominent, and it ends with the escape of Rome from the dire attack of Hannibal, and with lamentation over the Civil War. Here in the eighth book we have a long list, not so much of triumphs, as of escapes from terrible perils both moral and material, ending with the Battle of Actium, the most wonderful escape of all, the escape from a broken empire and the threatened dominion of an Oriental queen in alliance with an unscrupulous
of producing

103

Aeneas
Roman,

at

the Site of

Rome
wisdom

the impersonation of self-seeking magnifiof the State.

cence, of individual passion as against the

and order

These escapes or critical moments are as follows; they are introduced, we may notice, by the supernatural escape of the twins from destruction: 1. The escape of the Romans of the Palatine from the fruit of their own unscrupulousness, by a treaty with the more civilised and moral Sabines, confirmed by sacrifice at the altar of Jupiter 2. The escape of Rome from the attempt of Mettus of Alba to destroy her by treachery, which meets

with due punishment.

The escape of Rome from the Etruscan yoke of Tarquin and the attack of Porsena: Rome fighting for liberty, and barely escaping at the
3.

bridge.
4.

The escape from the Gauls on the

illustrates the
spirit of

Capitol,

which

good fortune rather than the

Rome. 5. After an awkward interruption about religious matters comes the escape from Catiline and revolutionary anarchy. We may note that Augustus was
conquering

born in that year of salvation. 6. Last and greatest, the escape from Oriental monarchy, for.ign religion, a Roman renegade, and a fatal division of the Empire. The triumph at the end (714 jf.) is a triumph over barbarians who were menacing the Roman system the new Augustan system of peace and morality. " By none so

well as

by

Virgil

was voice given to the

104

inspiring

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

become, by righteousness, the shaping mould of humanity; and if the prophecy was not fulfilled exactly as it
expectation, that the

Roman Empire might

was conceived, yet

ground."^

neither

did

it

fall

to

the

The last sixty lines, containing the Battle of Actium and the triumph, are full of enthusiasm, and seem to be highly finished work. Henry
Nettleship threw out a suggestion that they

may

have been written soon after the battle, and adapted from a poem in prai-e of Augustus which Virgil seems to have projected when he wrote the introduction to the third Georgic: (46^.)
"

ardentis accingar dicere pugnas Caesaris et nomen fama tot ferre per annos Tithoni prima quot abest ab origine Caesar."
is

mox tamen

a good deal to be said for this conjecture, though more than conjecture it can never be. In my view, there is a curious contrast between the finished workmanship of these last sixty lines, and what I may almost call the ragged
I

think there

condition of the presentation of the earlier scenes. I am disposed to look upon that presentation as
unfinished work, and will point out two or three In the first place, line reasons for this conclusion.

and Ribbeck's suggestion that we should place it after hne 641 hardly mends To me it seems a line left on the margin matters.
654^
is

quite out of place,

Verrall, op.

cit.,

p. 13.

"

Romuleoque

recens horrebat regia culmo."

105

Aeneas
for insertion
if

at the

Site of

Rome

occasion served, which has crept into the text in the wrong place. Again, Unes 663-666^

come in very abruptly and awkwardly. Servius saw this, and tried to explain it by saying that priests very properly follow closely on temples. But they do not follow closely; the Capitoline temple is mentioned ten lines back, and is there introduced somewhat awkwardly. These lines look to me as if Virgil had put in the ancient priesthoods and their
attributes, not for Servius* reason,

but at the request of Augustus, bringing his scenes from old Roman history to a sudden end for this purpose. Between the attack of the Gauls in 390, and the conspiracy of Catiline in 63 B.C., there is a big gap; and the most wonderful escape that Rome experienced, that from Hannibal's invasion, is left a complete blank.
It is just possible that Virgil, finding

at line 663 that he

his historical

was getting into

difficulties, left

scenes rather abruptly,

sketched a

conclusion for

them with

Catiline arid Cato,

and

went on to add the sixty

he had finished long before, leaving the transitions to be worked up later a task to which he never returned.
lines

" hie exsultantes Salios nudosque Lupercos

lanigerosque apices et lapsa ancilia caelo extuderat, castae ducebant sacra per urbem
pilentis

matres in moUibus."
has no

The passage

usually quoted here, Liv. v. 25,

relation to the invasion of the Gauls.

106

Aeneas
Lines 666
ff.
:

at the

Site of

Rome

" hinc procul addit

Tartareas etiam sedes, alta ostia Ditis, et scelerum poenas, et te, Catilina, minaci

pendentem scopulo, Furiarumque ora trementem, secretosque pios, his dantem iura Catonem."

On

the introduction of Catiline and Cato, Dr.

Glover has a good remark. ^ He suggests that, as Virgil was seven years old in the year of the conspiracy, it may have been the first public event of which he took any notice; for there was some disturbance in Cisalpine Gaul at the time, and there may have been an expectation that Catiline would break through in that direction. ^ "As he grew

would learn more of what Catiline's rising had meant, and with other Italians he would learn to hate Sulla and Sulla's men. And then, as
older, Virgil

Caesar rose, Virgil with all the Transpadanes would watch with eager interest the
the star of the
first

career with which their

citizenship,

own

destiny, their

Roman

was involved."

Glover does not notice in connexion with these lines the familiar fact that Caesar was pracDr.

on the same side as Catiline in that year, and that Cato was always his bitterest enemy; so that it would seem rash to introduce Catiline as a criminal and Cato as a hero immediately before the great victory of Caesar's adopted son. But the fact is
tically

that Catiline represented the cause of disorder and

1

" Virgil" (ed.

Sail., Cat.,

2), p. 23.

42 and 56.

107

Aeneas
social anarchy,

at

the Site of

Rome

which JuHus in his later years, and Augustus throughout his life, were systematically crushing out; while Cato was the hero of the cause of order and morality which Augustus was trying to associate with his own government, if not with that of Julius. And we must remember that the death of Cato had greatly impressed the Roman world, and that such feelings could not well be repressed even if the poets had wished it. Horace in the first ode of his second book marks the popular view, which passed on into succeeding generations,
as

may

be seen in Plutarch's Life of Cato.^

Line 671:
"

Haec

inter tumidi late maris ibat

imago

aurea. ..."

seems to be that the two scenes of the Roman priests and the regions of Tartarus were at opposite sides of the Shield, and that between them there was an open space of sea, surrounded by a circle of lively dolphins, with the battle going on within the circle. The sea was golden; the foam and the dolphins were silver.
Virgil's idea

Valerius assume that the younger Cato is meant. expresses the same feeling about Cato in many passages in the next generation, and Velleius (ii. 35) has
^

Maximus

much

to say of Cato's virtue, though, oddly enough, nothing of his death.

108

Aeneas
Lines 6yS
"
ff.:

at

the Site of

Rome

Hinc augustus agens

Italos in proelia Caesar

cum patribus populoque, penatibus et magnis dis, stans celsa in puppi, geminas cui tempora flamraas laeta vomiint patriumque aperitur vertice sidus."
These
lines

are interesting for several reasons

First, their stern simplicity is in

keeping with the

habits and wishes of Augustus, and in striking contrast with the varied magnificence of his enemies.

But the divine

obvious,
of the

attributes

of

the conqueror

are

in

the

shape of the double flame and

the star, the religious electricity, as

favoured of heaven.

Henry calls He, by the way,

it,

is

quite right in insisting that this double flame be-

longed to the temples, and not to the helmet of Augustus (cp. 684, of Agrippa). The word geminas
indicates duplication, as so often in religious matters

we have
is

just seen the

(line 556),

matrons doubling their vows and the duplication of altars and victims

familiar to us in Virgil.^
it

The

star

is

also a sign

of divinity;

belongs more especially to Julius, as

i.

287 and on this passage, but there was also a legend of a star which had guided Aeneas to Italy, and was thus a part of the family tradition of the Julii.^ This religious electricity is expressed also in the word augustus, which properly means " sanctioned
Servius
tells

us in his notes on

Eel. V. 65; Aen. iii. 66, 315, v. 77. Cp. the gemini ungues of 697. ^ See Servius (from Varro) on Aen., ii. 801.
^

109

the Site of

Aeneas
I

at

Rome
*'

by religious authority," and

as an adjective

therefore of good omen.^

it

should myself prefer to write

here

augustus,"

and not as a name.^ It is too far away from Caesar in the line and the name Augustus was not assumed until more than three years after the battle of Actium i.e.y in January, 27 B.C. Virgil does not use Augustus as a name in the Georgics; the hero is simply Caesar. Now, if, as Nettleship suggested, this part of the Shield was in its original form written for another poem soon after the battle, the word may have been placed where it is simply to give religious colouring to the whole passage, which it does most effectually. ." " Hinc augustus agens Italos in proelia Caesar.
;
.

am

not in the habit of indulging in conjectures,

but I may express an opinion that this line may perhaps have been responsible for the adoption of the famous name. If Caesar knew the passage, he must have instantly seen how well suited to his policy
the epithet was.
Professor

Conway

tells

me

in a letter that he

is

delighted with the suggestion that the lines should be written " Hie augustus agens Italos in praelia

be helpful to remember that augustus in this picture probably

Caesar."
that
it
^

He adds
i.

"

may

Ovid, Fasti,

609

" Sancta vocant augusta patres. Augusta vocantur templa sacerdotum rite dicata manu."
2

and

Norden on Aen., vi. 792, is of opinion that there, in our line, and in Hor., Od., ii, 9, 19, the word was
an appellative.

felt still as

no

Aeneas
represents

at

the Site of

Rome

a physical (but of course significant) largeness of the figure in the representation, like
the figures of the chiefs in the Shield of Achilles:
KaA.(i>

Kol fxeydko) crvv rev^ecrtv w? t Oedj

irep,

just as arduus agmen agens

of Agrippa, a

few

lines

farther on, represents his outstanding position high

on the poop of the Admiral's ship. The adjective in both places is exactly the right part of speech. The connexion with augeo, always present, and paralleled by the far more than physical meaning
of auctus

(honoribus, etc.),

preserved the original

is

notion of greatness, physical and other, which

letter for letter

that of the Vedic ojas, neuter substantive, identical

with Latin augus." On the words cum pafribus populoque Servius has an unusually good note. He says that the poet is taking pains to show that the war is iushim helium i.e., that it is one against the external enemies of

Italy,

who

are threatening

to

destroy her;^ the

Senate and People are therefore represented as supporting the champion of the State, together with the

more especially bound up with its life. If there were ever any doubt in the mind of a Roman as to the justice of the cause that was victorious at Actium, these four lines should have dispelled it.
gods
are

who

Line 679:

" Penatibus

et

magnis
(iii.

dis."

Virgil

gives Augustus the

same

religious outfit that

12).

he had

given to Aeneas
^

when

leaving Troy

Much,

See Greenidge, "

Roman
Ill

Public Life," p. 157.


Aeneas
but to
little

at

the Site of

Rome

purpose, had been written about Aeneas

and the Penates, till in 1886 Wissowa cleared up the whole question by carting away rubbish and applying good criticism to what remained. This criticism he has lately reprinted in a volume of collected
can here only briefly indicate the result. In the temple of the Penates on the Velia (just where stood the house of Evander) were two figures representing the Penates of the Roman State in
papers;^
I

the guise of the Dioscuri, according to the

common

practice of using Greek artistic types to represent

Roman

deities.

Greece as ally attached itself to the Penates, for Varro tells us that there was an inscription on the base of the statue, Magnis Dts.^ A story, apparently starting from the annalist Cassius Hemina in the time of the younger Scipio, identified both Penates and Dioscuri with the magni di of Samothrace and other stories arose explaining how Dardanus took them from Samothrace to Phrygia i.e., Troy and how
;

But the Dioscuri were known in the Great Gods,^ and this same title natur-

Aeneas again took them from Phrygia to

1

Italy.*

Gesammelte Abhandlungen," pp. 9S ff' Pausanias, i. 31, viii. 21,4. 3 Serv., Aen., iii. 12: " Varro quidem unum esse dicit penates et magnos deos, nam in basi scribebatur Magnis Diis." * Macrobius, iii. Another form of the story 4, J ff. identified the magni di with the Penates of Lavinium, the reputed reUgious mother of the Roman State (Preller, " Rom. Mythologie," 6S1 ff.), which were said to be small i.e., aniconic images of a mysterious character. sigilla
2

"

(See Wissowa, op.

cit.,

p.

no.)

112

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

Virgil seems to distinguish Penates

Varro identified them. What is that they are identified with the Penates of the Julian family, and these, again, are identified with the Penates of the Roman State, according to the shrewd poUcy of Augustus, exemphfied also in his dealings with the Lares.
Lines 696, 697:
" regina in mediis patrio vocat

and di magni; more important is

agmina

sistro,

necdum etiam geminos a

This means
literally

tergo respicit anguis."

twin snakes, as in 289 of this book and ii. 203; and behind it is, no doubt, the widely spread superstition about twins, of which I have said something elsewhere.^ I entirely agree with Henry that Virgil is not here thinking of the
asp with which Cleopatra committed suicide, for that was neither a twin nor one of two nor could it
;

an omen, any more than the single snake which Allecto put into the bosom of Amata. I am glad to see that Mr. Page, in the last and best school edition of these books, says that Henry's view " deserves consideration." But he does not quote what seems to me Henry's most convincing evidence, the " respice ad haec " of vii. 454.^ " Look
act as
1

" Virgil's Gathering of the Clans," p. 52. 2 " turn flammea torquens

lumina cunctantem et quaerentem dicere plura reppulit, et geminos erexit crinibus angues, verberaque insonuit rabidoque haec addidit ore en ego victa situ, quam veri effeta senectus
'

arma
bella

inter

respice ad haec

regum falsa formidine ludit: adsum dirarum ab sede sororum,

:

manu letumque

gero.*

"

113

Aeneas

at the

Site of

Rome

behind you," that is, " at what I have to show you viz., the ominous horrors, and above all the twin snakes, foreboding war and death for Turnus," as in our passage the twin snakes forbode death to the Oueen, and as in the second book the twin serpents meant death to Laocoon. Whoever will read carefully the whole passage about Allecto (445-455) will in all probability come round to the view that twin snakes are a mysterious omen of death. I add the following from Henry (p. 776): '* Even modern superstitions are not without their

two snakes, apparitors

"

of hell

and Satan, as

in the

Christmas carol of Dives and Lazarus:

'

As

out upon a dayDives sickened and died. There came two serpents out of hell Thereto his soul to guide.' "
it fell

Compare the two devouring

fed with daily oblations of

serpents,

which were

human

blood, in the
iii.

Emir's

tale in Scott's "

Talisman," ch.

Lines 698, 699

"

Omnigenumque deum monstra et latrator Anubis contra Neptunum et Venerem contraque Minervam."
first of

In the

these lines
(or

am

inclined to accept

Lachmann's conjecture
wrote
Niligenum,
as

suspicion)

that Virgil

choice of

M^ has nigenumque. The Neptune, Venus, and Minerva, to repreis

sent Italian deities,

rather puzzHng; but

ii.

(i)

they

were
iii.

Trojan deities (Serv., Aen., 3; and for Minerva Pallas ii. 188), and 114
all also

241 and

(2)

we need

Aeneas
was the beginning

at

the Site of

Rome

not be thinking too

of

much of antiquities: Actium new things. Apollo and Nep-

tune stand respectively for Western culture and the command of the Mediterranean, while Minerva probably means wisdom and reason, as opposed to the
irrational

Egyptian deities. She had been for some time treated as Athene rather than the old ItaUan Minerva.^

crowd

of

with iron, not gold or silver, to suit the fierce and warlike nature of the " Tristes ex aethere Dirae:" spirits of evil god. omen hovering in the air. Virgil may, as Heyne thought, have remembered the Keres of Hesiod's Shield, line 24. present at a battle and contending for the possession of the fallen. (See Conington's note, and for the Keres, Gilbert Murray, " Four Stages of Greek Religion," p. 48.)
Line 701.
,

" Caelatus ferro:"

Lines 711-713:
" Contra

autem magno maerentem corpore Nilum pandentemque sinus et tota veste vocantem caeruleum in gremium latebrosaque flumina victos."
peculiarity of these lines
is

The

that they will

apply equally well to a statue of the Nile, such as the famous one in the Vatican, or to the actual river itself. Henry's very long note on this passage is well w^orth careful reading, though he does not seem quite to grasp this fact. Think of the reclining statue, and all the language fits it, for tota
^

See Wissowa, Rel. uud Kult., ed.

2, p.

255.


Aeneas
veste

at

the Site of

Rome
open

means that the

folds of the drapery are

wide to receive the fugitive fleet; think of the river itself, and these words mean that the fleet might find refuge in its creeks and recesses, clothed with reeds and other cover. Those who read the accounts
of the destruction of the

German

cruiser Konigs-

berg in the sinus of the East African river in 1915

once recognise the appropriateness of Virgil's language to a flying ship making for the protection I will hazard the conjecture that of a sedgy river. the poet originally wrote the lines in this latter i.e., sense, and later on adapted them to the shield to the necessity of imagining a statue of the river.
will at

Lines 714^.: " At Caesar, triplici invectus Romana triumpho moenia, dis Italis votum immortale sacrahat, maxima ter centum totam delubra per urbem.
laetitia ludisque viae

plausuque fremebant:
chorus,

omnibus

in templis

matrum

omnibus arae:

ante aras terram caesi stravere iuvenci."

Heyne was here

cied that, in the
Virgil

guilty of an absurdity; he fanfirst

three fines quoted above

consecrate, on the days of

made Augustus

he was destined to consecrate during the remainder of his reign Now, the triumph i.e., during the next forty years. took place in August, 29; and only one temple was consecrated at that time, and that one not to an Italian god, but to Divus lulius. True, the next year, in his sixth consulship, Augustus began to restore the old temples, and accomplished this work 116
his triumph, all the temples that

Aeneas
to the

at

the Site of

Rome

number

of eighty- two.

But the Hues quoted

;

above

absolutely forbid us to think of consecra-

tions understood (so to speak) proleptically

they

form a graphic account of what happened on the three days of the triumph and no others. And apart from this, sacrare votum cannot, in my humble opinion, based on a large experience of Roman
religious language,

mean

" consecrate temples

(or

anything else) that you have vowed." Votum " sacrare can only mean to make a solemn vow with special religious meaning or sanction"; as legem sacrare (in the form lex sacrata) is "to make a solemn covenant with another party," or as foedus
sacrare (Liv., xxxviii. 33^)
is

" to

make

a treaty, and a vow,

secure

it

by some

religious form."

We
either

are not told that Augustus

made such

by Dio Cassius
"
tell

in the

by himself Monumentum Ancyranum"; what these

or Suetonius, or

accounts

us

is

naturally the fulfilment rather

than the undertaking of vows. But that he did form the intention, at this time, of restoring old temples and building new ones there is no doubt; whether he fixed his intention by a votum is uncerMy own opinion is that tain, but likely enough. these lines were written before the return of Caesar in 29 (see below on 720), and that Virgil was imagining things which may or may not have happened at the time of the triumphs. In any case we may translate thus: " He made a solemn vow for the eternal
Foedus quod in Capitolio, quod Olympiae, quod in arce Athenis sacratum fuisset." Cp. Aen. xii. 141. 117
^

"

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

glory of the Italian gods, that he would erect shrines three hundred in number in all parts of the city."

maintain that the picture conveyed in these lines is greatly ennobled by this interpretation of votum immortale sacrabat. The joy in the streets, the resounding cheers, and the religious enthusiasm, follow naturally, not only on a sense of deliverance from the menace of Oriental tyranny, but on a conviction that a new pax deorum is about to be
I

established.^

And

the same picture

is

cleared of

the absurdity of supposing that Caesar actually

dedicated an immense number of temples in a single day, or even in three days.

Line 718:
**

Omnibus

in

tempUs matrum chorus, omnibus arae."

Perhaps a warning
the temple building.

may not
It

be out of place against

the notion that in templis necessarily means inside

would, of course, have been

impossible for matrons to dance and sing, or altars

to reek with sacrifice, within the temple, as

we under-

stand that word.

In front of

all

temples, so far as

we know, was an open

space, sometimes called area,

as in the case of the Capitoline temple, where was the altar of sacrifice; tables [mensae), for " un-

bloody" offerings might be within the building itself. The word templum, too, did not necessarily imply that the limits of the sacred enclosure coincided with the walls; not only in front, but all round the
1

See"Rel. Exp.," lib

p. 431.

Aeneas
building, there

at

the Site of

Rome

must have been a space consecrated by the pontifices after inauguratio by the augurs.^ The matrum chorus reminds us of the prominent part taken at the ludi saccular es in 17 B.C. by matronac : see the Acta of these games (C.I.L., vi I doubt if there is any 32,323, sees. 108, 112, 123).
direct reference

to the forms of supplicatio, as is

generally assumed

by commentators.

Lines 720
"

ff.

Ipse sedens niveo candentis limine Phoebi dona recognoscit populorum aptatque superbis postibus: incedunt victae longo ordine gentes," etc.
lines

These
Georgic.
if

have a decided resemblance to those

to,

already referred

at the beginning of the third

am

and both, not mistaken, date from about the same

are imaginative pictures,

Both

time, the picture in the Shield being, of course, the

In the Georgic, Virgil imagines great games like those of Greece going on beside the river Mincius, with Caesar as the presiding genius
later of the two.
^

On

this subject see

Marquardt, " Staatsverwaltung,"

iii.

163 and 156, note 5. Mark especially the reference to Vitruvius, iv. 5 (the sacrificer faced east, so as to see

orientem caelum): Wissowa, Rel. u. Kult., ed. 2, p. 475, and Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. Ara. So, in the ritual of the Fratres Arvales, the arae were not in aede Henzen, Acta
:

19 and

143.

Even

in the oldest places of worship in the

city, sacella, as

was

in the open: Gell. vii. 12, 5,

they were most usually called, the altar from Trebatius.

119

Aeneas
illi

at

the Site of

Rome
tenebit;

" in medio mihi Caesar erit

templumque

victor ego et Tyrio conspectus in ostro centum quadriiugos agitabo ad flumina currus."

And
' *

again:

ipse caput tonsae foliis ornatus olivae

dona feram. iam nunc sollemnis ducere pompas ad delubra iuvat caesosque videre iuvencos."

Then come the

pictures of battles

carved on the doors of the temple, in

poet announces
his

and conquests Egypt with the

Nile conspicuous, and in the Far East.

Then the

intention of keeping for the

present to woodland and pasture, yet,

"

ardentes accingar dicere pugnas Caesaris, et nomen fama tot ferre per annos Tithoni prima quot abest ab origine Caesar,"

mox tamen

where the words of the second of these lines may perhaps remind us of the last line of the eighth book. In the Shield the grand show is in Rome, and seems to be a triumph, yet has some of the features
of a supplicatio
;

its

centre point a temple, not yet

dedicated at the time of the actual triumph, where

the conquered peoples freely offered their
Virgil
gic.
gifts,

as

had pictured himself doing

This picture
is,

in the third Geor-

taken hisput anyfmore than the other. whatever he liked on the Shield; and he chose to put Augustus enthroned in an unfinished temple, accepting the willing offerings of peoples coming from the far limits of the Empire. The question may be asked whether this grand
surely, not to be
torically

Virgil could

120

Aeneas
picture

at

the Site of

Rome

was drawn before or Augustus in 29 B.C. and the

followed.
said, that
I
it

after the return of

triple

triumph that am disposed to think, as I have already was a fragment of the poem projected

and that it may in its original form have been written between 31 and 29 B.C. The year 29 was i.e., before the triumph.^ one of general holiday, and Virgil's tone, both in the third Georgic and in the Shield, resounds with joy and exultation; both pictures seem to me to have the same stamp of vigorous freshness, suggesting that they belong to that year of happiness and
in the third Georgic, line 46,
rejoicing.

Lines 729-731 (the last lines of the book)

" Talia per

clypeum Volcani, dona

parentis,

miratur rerumque ignarus imagine gaudet attollens h.\xnieio faynamque et fata nepotura."

have postponed a note on the difficult subject of Virgil's idea of Fate till we have come to the last of the ten occurrences, in this book, of the words fatum ox fata. These will be found in lines 12, 133,
I

292,

In the 334, 398, 477, 499, 512, 575, 731. there for Classical Quarterly appeared January, 1917,

a careful and interesting discussion of this subject by Miss L. E. Matthaei (pp. nff-)- In the Classical

Review for 1910 (pp. 169 ff.) there was a shorter paper full of valuable material, on " The Conception of Fate in the Aeneid," by Professor Maclnnes.
See H. Nettleship, " Vergil/* Lives of Vergil," p. 58.
1

p.

71,

and " Ancient

121

Aeneas
Still

at the

Site

of

Rome
15)

further back, in a paper on the teaching of

touched on and has added to the remarks he then made much illuminating matter both in correspondence and in personal intercourse with me. Thus, even in England alone, without having recourse to German learning, I have been able to
Virgil,

Professor

Conway

(pp.

14,

this question,

find

much

to

add

to

what

have already written

on the subject.^

The ten passages in our book are all very much of the same kind; they represent the Stoic idea of
" the positive principle which brings order into the universe," the " desire or instinct of all

Fate,

things to seek their riXo^ or appointed end, which

both Plato and Aristotle postulated as the basis of their thought. "^ What was, in Virgil's mind, the origin, meaning, nature, of this force, and how far he identified it with a personal deity, we cannot be sure; he had not fully faced the problem, but was postponing it till his poem was completed, when he would be free to turn his mind to philosophy.^ Miss Matthaei does indeed write of the " philosophy of the poem," as if Virgil had really tried to formulate some scheme. But these great problems of human life and thought cannot be neatly dealt with by

any

of us, least of all

by a poet

like Virgil,

who had

a constant sense of mystery in the universe, finding expression in many different ways.
1

2 3

" Rel. Exp.," 411, 424; " Roman Ideas of Deity," 77. Matthaei, op. cit., pp. 22, 23. Suet., " Vita Vergilii," ch. 35.

122

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

As the Aeneid grew

in the course of years, the

point of view from which the poet looked on Fate

changed from time to time, according to his own mood while writing, or to the context immediately in hand, and he not unfrequently puts into the mouth of a speaker in the action a view which need not be assumed to be his own. Very often, as in
several

passages

of

this

book,

there

is

distinct

reference to oracular utterances, partial revelations

of a will of

vealed

in

and essence is unrethese the word fatum shows traces of the

which the
its

secret

etymology, as the spoken word. Once more, as in the last line of this book (" attoUens
influence
of

humero /amawque

et fata

nepotum

"),

there

is

often

a close relation implied between the divine and human action which together bring about a result;
*'

famam

et fata "

seem to

indicate, as also in

vii.

79,

the divine and

Virgil

human deeds (R.S.C.). And

aspects of the same glorious

lastly
it

is

clear

that

for

Fate was a moral force, if only we allow the development of Rome and Italy, as a force in the world, to be one for good, and not for evil. Virgil,

Augustus and most of his contemporaries, recovering from the pessimism of the previous generation, undoubtedly held this destiny of Rome to be a force for good, in spite of many back-currents His optimism begins with the fourth Eclogue, is
like

strong in the Georgics, stronger

this is

still

in the Aeneid;
et fata

one side of the meaning of "

famam

"

in 731.

He

as a

Jew

believed in the genial destiny of Rome believed in the kingdom of the Messiah.

1^3

Aeneas
But there
is

at

the Site of

Rome

another way of looking at the philosophy of the Aeneid, on which Miss Matthaei has laid almost too much stress. She calls Virgil a pessimist, and the Aeneid a pessimistic poem.^ What she means is that, apart from the Fate which brings order into the universe, we find in the Aeneid that individual human beings have their own fates, often running counter with each other, some of them
benevolent, others cruel.

a cruel fate that

beloved son.

is

In the eighth book it is hanging over Pallas and threatendoubt, this cruelty of
fate

ing his father in his old age with the death of a

No

is

baffling, and, as so often in the present war,

seems

thus to increase the poignancy of human suffering.'^ But this does not make either Virgil or his poem in

any true sense

of the

word

pessimistic

a word

so

much

vogue just now that incautious writers are apt to employ it without mature reflection. And
in

the individualisation of the idea of destiny was surely a feature of our poet's time; it was entirely
in keeping with current ideas of the individual soul

and the astrology that was then beginning to exercise great power over men's minds. In the previous two or three generations there had been
1

Op.

cit.,

p. 13,

twice over,
that, at the funeral of

Professor

Conway reminds me

(xi. 164 ff.), his father claims that the lad's life is not thrown away: " caesis Volscorum millibus ante Ducentem in Latium Teucros cecidisse iuvabit." It is thus that he seeks to adjust the fate of the individual to the Destiny which is a force for good in the world, as we are so many of us doing at the present hour.

Pallas

124

Aeneas
so

at

the Site of

Rome

many sad examples of the cruel fate of individuals, often men and women of great gifts and virtues, that in such a poem as the Aeneid it was impossible
that such shadows should not be reflected.^
greatest example in the

The

poem

is

of course that of

and defied it by suicide. But these shadows, though here and there they darken the water, have no effect whatThe ever on its clear and refreshing substance. " sweet sense of futurity " which I have noticed in the eighth book runs all through the poem, filling the mind of the Roman reader with hope and
Dido,
rebelled against her fate

who

confidence.

no question of passion or rebellion against fate. We see Aeneas submitting himself to a power which is here almost the same as his own conscience; affected once or twice, as any other human being would be, by a momentary anxiety, yet looking steadily forward
is

In the eighth book there

to the goal in front of him, sure of his

line 12
1

own

right-

eousness in the conduct of an arduous

life.

In

he asserts that he

is

claimed by the fates as

Ideas of Deity," p. 72, for the influence of fortuna on such a man as Cicero. I may here note that the editor of our Oxford text has sought, with doubtful success, to distinguish between Fortuna as almost equivalent to Fatum, and fortuna in the ordinary sense of the
incalculable element in

Cp. "

Roman

human

life,

by printing the word

Fortuna and fortuna respectively. Cp. in this book 334 and 578, with 15 ("si fortuna sequatur "). It would perhaps be safer to write both fatum and fortuna consistently without the capitals.

125

Aeneas

at the

Site of

Rome

King of Latium; in 131 he adds that his own virtus and the holy oracles of the gods have brought him a willing traveller and guest to Evander's doors.* In 334 Evander claims the same authority for his position in Latium, and the whole context shows
that in obeying the decrees of fate he, too, has

followed his
Stoicism,
if

own conscience. All this is excellent we choose to call it so, but it is also the

natural instinct of humanity responding to the call

of that stern lawgiver

who

" wears the

Godhead's

believed in " The destiny, and yet refused to be a slave to it.

grace."
Stoic

most

benignant

The

has power to recognise the rational order of the world, and to adopt it as his own. By the exercise of his own powers, the authority which reason gives him, he is able to control his own inner life and to accept events as the outcome of God's will, and by this attitude to attain to perfect freedom. "^ In the last line of the book Fate is again a moral force, but is looked at from the point of view of Virgil himself, as one living when the destiny of Rome is already largely accomplished. It is a glorious line,
rational will of
^

man

" Sed

mea me

virtus et sancta oracula

divum

cognatique patres, tua terris didita fama, coniunxere tibi et fatis egere volentem."
See Matthaei, op.
p. 70.
^ Matheson, Epictetus (translation). Introduction, p. 18; Glover, Virgil, p. 200. So exactly in Wordsworth's " Excursion," near the end of " Despondency corrected."

cit.,

20; Fowler, "

Roman Ideas of

Deity,"

126

Aeneas
and
All
to write

at

the Site of
it is

Rome

more about
is this,

quite needless for those

who have
I will

entered into the spirit of the whole poem.

say

that those

who

are

members

of

a great Empire,
liberty

now
of

struggling for the principle of

and

civihsation, conscious of a great mission

in the world,

and

an overwhelming claim upon

them

to blot out the shortcomings of the past

by

a sense of duty ever more enlightened, will recogAeneid and its religion are not things peculiar to Hellenistic Greece or Imperial Rome, but represent the finest instincts of human nature striving to realise the will of God by faith and obedience. They are not merely matters of curiosity and research, but stand for an abiding
nise that the philosophy of the

principle of

human

life.

Many

of us

may have

felt

our faith wavering in hours of sadness and bereavement, when we see our loved ones sacrificed for a result still doubtful: what cruel fate has done this ? we ask, sorrowing, as Evander and Aeneas sorrowed bitterly for the death of the boy Pallas. But it is no conflict of the individual with Fate that pains us; it is the loss of a precious life used and spent in the service of the everlasting Righteousness.
I

write thesfe last lines on the day which has brought

us the welcome news of the adhesion of the great Republic of the West to our just cause, an event which gives us fresh confidence in its justice, fresh

hope

for

humanity.
1917.

April

4,

127

APPENDIX
Lines 213^.
" Interea,
stabulis saturata moveret Amphitryoniades armenta abitumque pararet, discessu mugire boves atque omne querelis impleri nemus et colles clamore relinqui."
is

cum iam

What

the

meaning
f

of the last three words, colles

clamore relinqui

My

former pupil, Mr. Gilbert

Watson, drew my attention to a difficulty here which I had not noticed, and has written to me at length about it. Can it mean simply that the oxen, leaving their laager by the river, where was afterwards the forum boarium, were passing the Palatine and Aventine hills, and that their lowing as they advanced was heard in the cave of Cacus and answered ? (The route of Hercules in Italy seems to have been from north to south, sothat he would leave the site of Rome by what was afterwards the valley of the Circus maximus; see Heyne's ** Excursus on Hercules in Italy.") If we give the present infinitive its full

force,

think this

may be

all

that

Virgil

me.

means, and so does Mr. Mackail, as he tells The oxen had just started, and as they passed 128

Aeneas

at

the Site of

Rome

along between Palatine and Aventine, and to^vards what was later the Porta Capena, they would be Perhaps the best comclose to the den of Cacus.

mentator

good map of the site of Rome. But from Servius downwards there has been a
is

feeling that clamore relinqui

cp. 305,
^'

may

suggest an echo

Consonat omne nemus

v. 150.

strepitu collesque

Mr. Watson iii. 554 Mr. Sidgwick's note on the line also suggests as a possible meaning ** the hills were left behind with the sound" i.e., the echo lingered in the hills. But whether this can really be got out of the Latin may be doubted, and the text is certain. The only way would be, as Mr. Watson suggests, to take relinqui as meaning that the hills were "left" by the sound after it had struck them and been reflected as an echo the translation then would be, " the lowing echoes from the hills."
resultant."

also aptly quotes G.

and Aen.

have strongly expressed the opinion that the description of the Shield of Aeneas should not be dealt with on plastic principles, and that it is waste of time to look for compartments on the surface of the shield into which the scenes might be fitted. Professor Conway tells me that he differs entirely from this view, believing that not only the shield of Aeneas but that of Achilles were conceived by the poets as actual works of art, and suggested by such works known to them. I hope he may elaborate this view, and produce the necessary evidence for it.
100
ff I

On pp.

129

Aeneas
Line 731

at the Site

of

Rome

(last line of

the book)

Mr. Mackail makes the interesting suggestion that Virgil had in his mind the idea that Aeneas bears up the fortunes of Rome as Atlas bears up the world in 137 and 141 of this book, and in iv. 482, to which I may add *^ Paradise Lost," ii. 301^. (of Beelzebub)
:

"

deep on

his front

engraven
;

Deliberation sat and public care

And

princely counsel in his face yet shone,

;

Majestic though in ruin

sage he stood

With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear The weight of mightiest monarchies. ..."

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