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The date of the fourth Eclogue is fixed by that of Pollio's consulship (40 B.C.), the eighth may with almost equal certainty be assigned to 39, and the tenth has with much probability been referred to 37. The date of the seventh is unknown, and that of the sixth quite uncertain, though it is often connected with the third and ninth and thought to be a little later than them.

Suetonius (Vita Vergilii, 25), and after him Servius, say that Virgil wrote the Eclogues in three years: a statement probably based on the fact that the first Eclogue may be assigned to 40, and the last to 37 B.C.'

Schaper (Quaestiones Vergilianae, i), followed by Baehrens, believes that the fourth, sixth, and tenth Eclogues were written in the year 27-25 B.C. and inserted by Virgil in a second edition of the Bucolica. I agree with Ribbeck in thinking that there are no solid grounds for this hypothesis. There is no hint in Suetonius or any other ancient authority of a second edition of the Eclogues. The fourth Eclogue was referred by all the ancient commentators to the consulship of Pollio, the name of Pollio stands in the text, and can only be removed by violence. There is nothing again, either in the style or the matter of the sixth or tenth Eclogues, which can fairly be held to justify so strange a breach with an excellent historical tradition.-H. N.

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1 [Deuticke (Jahresbericht 1896, 356) also doubts the three years. He observes that the Eclogues are said to have been written in 3 years, the Georgics in 7 (3 + 4), and the Aeneid in 11 (7 + 4), and suspects this symmetry.]

2 Servius, in his Life, says, it is true, 'carmen Bucolicum . . . . eum constat triennio scripsisse et emendasse.' But the word emendasse (used also by Servius of the Georgics) means only that Virgil put the finishing touch to the Eclogues, as he was prevented by death from doing to the Aeneid.

[Ribbeck, in the preface to his last edition (Lipsiae, 1895), gives B.C. 42-39 as the dates within which the Eclogues were written; he assigns the first to the summer of 41, the ninth to the autumn of the same year, the sixth a little later, the fourth to 40, the eighth to the early autumn of 39. Most recent writers agree more or less with him, as indeed all must who accept the statements that Virgil XXVIII annos natum bucolica edidisse' and 'triennio scripsisse.' M. Sonntag, Vergil als bukolischer Dichter (Leipzig, 1891) has tried to show that the carrying out of the land confiscations of B.C. 41 lasted some years, and that the first Eclogue may be assigned to the spring of B.C. 38: he supposes that six of the poems were written in 39, and I, VI, IX, and X added in 38 or 37. There is no real evidence for these conclusions, and Deuticke, Ribbeck, and other good critics very rightly reject them. Even the suggestion that E. I can be put as late as 38 seems improbable, though Deuticke inclines to accept it. Appian writes as if the settlement of the veterans in 41 B.C. had to be carried out at once, and a delay of three years is incredible.]

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THE historical groundwork of this Eclogue is the assignment of lands in Italy by the triumvirs to their veterans, in 41 B.C. Place had to be found without delay for upwards of 170,000 men (Appian, Bell. Civ. v 5), and universal confiscation resulted. The 'spoliation,' says Mr. Merivale (History of the Roman Empire, vol. iii p. 222), 'spread from the suburban lands to remote tracts, from municipal to private possessions. Even loyalty to the Caesarian party proved of no avail: the faithful Mantua shared the fate of its neighbour, the disaffected Cremona; and the little township of Andes, Virgil's birthplace, in the Mantuan territory, was involved in the calamities of its metropolis.' The story, as told in Servius' Commentary, is that Virgil went to Rome on the seizure of his property, and obtained from Octavian a decree of restitution, which however was rendered ineffectual by the violence of the new occupant, referred to in the ninth Eclogue, so that a second appeal for protection had to be made. [This is the traditional account, accepted by most modern critics. It is however possible, as is argued in the excursus to the ninth Eclogue, that the ninth Eclogue is earlier in time than the first, and that there was only one eviction (referred to in the ninth Eclogue) and one restoration (referred to in the first).-H. N.]

The speakers in the Eclogue are two shepherds, one of whom is enjoying rustic life, singing of his love and seeing his cattle feed undisturbed, when he is encountered by the other, who has been expelled from his homestead and is driving his goats before him, with no prospect but a cheerless exile. This is simple enough, but it is complicated by an unhappy artifice. The fortunate shepherd is represented as a farm slave who has just worked out his freedom: and this emancipation is used to symbolize the confirmation of the poet in his property. The two events, with their concomitants, are treated as convertible with each other, the story being told partly in the one form, partly in the other. See vv. 41 foll. and notes. This confusion arises from the identification of the shepherd and the poet, spoken of in the Introduction to the Eclogues : but in the present case its very grossness has prevented its being observed by the editors, who suppose Tityrus, like Moeris in Ecl. IX, to be Virgil's 'vilicus,' who goes to Rome to purchase his liberty of his master, and there hears from Octavian that his master's property is safe-a cumbrous hypothesis, and not really reconcilable with the language of the Eclogue. The earlier commentators, such as La Cerda and Catrou, did not feel this difficulty, but they created one for themselves in the shape of an allegory, according to which Tityrus' two partners, v. 30, stand for Rome and Mantua respectively. Trapp, in rejecting the allegory, himself supposes that the change of partners is intended to intimate a change of parties, Virgil's abandonment of the cause of the republicans for that of the triumvirs.

The scenery, as in other Eclogues, is confused and conventional, the beeches (v. I), caverns (v. 75), mountains (v. 83), and rocks (vv. 15, 47, 56, 76) belonging to Sicily, while the marshy river (v. 48) is from Mantua. See Introduction to the Eclogues. In other respects the poem appears to be original, only the names Tityrus, Galatea, and Amaryllis, being borrowed from Theocritus.

M. TITYRE, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi
silvestrem tenui Musam meditaris avena;
nos patriae fines et dulcia linquimus arva:
nos patriam fugimus; tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra
formonsam resonare doces Amaryllida silvas.

T. O Meliboee, deus nobis haec otia fecit.

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1-5. How is it that while I am wandering an outcast from my native fields, you are lying in the shade and singing like a happy shepherd of your mistress?

1. Of the three principal MSS., the Medicean, Palatine, and Roman, the first is defective till E. vi 48.

Tityrus (Tirupog) is one of the Theocritean shepherds (Theocr. III i foll.). The word is said to be the Doric form of Σάτυρος, being applied in the same way to designate a short-tailed ape. Another account, that it means a reed, was also received among the ancient critics (Schol. on Theocr. l. c.,), and is supported by the words τιτύοινος (αὐλός), τιτυριστής; but these may be explained by supposing that the name had come to have a conventional sense as a rustic minstrel. [Servius says, 'Laconum lingua tityrus dicitur aries maior qui gregem anteire consuevit.'-H. N.]

2. Silvestrem,' pastoral; as 'silvae is used for pastoral poetry, IV 3. Forbiger observes that the Italians pasture their cattle in summer among the woody slopes of the mountains. 'Silvestrem Musam is from Lucr. IV 589, Fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere Musam.'

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['Tenui,' 'humili' (Serv.) 'subtili' (Schol. Bern.).-H. N.] Comp. Agrestem tenui meditabor harundine Musam,' VI 8, where it is evident from the context that tenui' is meant to be in keeping with agrestem,' and to suggest simplicity and humility, at the same time that it is a natural epithet of the reed, like 'fragili cicuta,' v 85.

'Musam' the Muse had come to be used for the song personified as early as Sophocles and Euripides, and the usage is frequent in Theocr.

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'Avena,' not a straw (which would be absurd), but a reed, or a pipe of reeds, hollow like a straw. stipula,' of a reed, III 27, though the word there is designedly contemptuous. Milton, however, in his Lycidas talks seriously of the oaten flute,' as he talks contemptuously of pipes of wretched straw.'

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3. 'Patrios fines,' v. 67.

4. He repeats the contrast in an inverse order, so that we shall perhaps do best to put with Jahn a semicolon after v. 2, a colon after v. 3. Gebauer, p. 55, well remarks that this repetition is after the manner of Theocritus, comparing Theocr. IX 1-6, where the editors have been too ready to suspect interpolation. Comp. also Theocr. VIII 28-32.

Fugimus,' pɛuyoμev, are banished. 'Lentus'='securus.' Comp. Ovid, Her. XIX 81, 'Certe ego tum ventos audirem lenta sonantis.'

5. 'Resonent mihi Cynthia silvae,' Prop. I xviii 31, probably in imitation.

[Formonsam, Asper, p. 115. Keil: 'formosam,' Pal. Rom. Gud. ; for Med. see VII 38.-H. N. See Wölfflin's Archiv v 196. The 'n' is not phonetic, but belongs to the original suffix: Brugmann's Grundriss, i p. 202, § 238.]

6-10. These rural liberties I owe to one whom I shall ever own as a god.'

6. Meliboeus is explained by Servius, ὅτι μέλει αὐτῷ τῶν βοῶν: analogy would rather point to μέλi as the first part of the compound. Perhaps the name was sug gested by the geographical Meliboea, and adopted simply from its connexion with Bouc. Comp. Alphesiboeus.

namque erit ille mihi semper deus; illius aram saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus. ille meas errare boves, ut cernis, et ipsum ludere, quae vellem, calamo permisit agresti. M. Non equidem invideo; miror magis: undique totis usque adeo turbatur agris. en, ipse capellas protenus aeger ago; hanc etiam vix, Tityre, duco. hic inter densas corylos modo namque gemellos, spem gregis, a, silice in nuda conixa reliquit.

'Otia,' peace: comp. Hor. A. P. 199, 'apertis otia portis.' The 'deus' is Octavian. This is probably mere hyperbole, though it heralds the adulation which treated a living emperor as a god. [See p. 21.-H. N.]

7. Eris mihi magnus Apollo,' III 104. 'Shall be honoured by me as a god,' softening the expression of the preceding line. Serv. comp. Lucan's adulation of Nero (163), Sed mihi iam numen.'

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Aram,' Theocr. Epig. 5, Bwpor d' αἱμάξει κεραὸς τράγος οὗτος ὁ μαλλός.

9. Ille (mihi) permisit boves errare et ipsum ludere,' the infinitives standing in place of an accusative. This must not be confounded with our idiom, 'he permitted my cattle to feed at large and me to play,' where 'cattle' and 'me' are datives.

"Errare' implies security, as in Hor. Epod. 11 13 (quoted by Emmenessius), Prospectat errantis greges.' In E. 11 21 it implies wealth.

10. 'Ludere,' frequently used of poetry, VI I, Hor. Od. I xxxii 2, half slightingly, as of a relaxation. So mailɛiv.

11-18. Well, I do not grudge you your lot, but I wonder-such peace in the midst of such troubles. You see me wearily driving my flock-one of them has just dropped her young dead-not but that I might have foreseen this. But tell me about this god of yours.'

II. 'Magis' used for 'potius,' as in Lucr. II 428, 869, Catull. LXVIII 30, where as here one assertion is rejected and another substituted; not this, but rather that.' [See Munro, Lucr. 1 612.]

• Non equidem invideo, κοντοι τι φθονέω, Theocr. 1 62, which however refers to giving a present.

12. Turbatur,' the soldiers are spreading confusion. Rom. and Pal. have 'turbamur,' which is an old variant and was adopted by Heinsius. But it is condemned

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by Serv., and Quintilian (1 iv 28) and Consentius, p. 372, give 'turbatur.'

'Ipse' contrasted with 'undique totis agris.'

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13. Protenus,' onwards; the primary meaning of the word. [ Protinus' Rom. 'Protenus' Pal. and Gud. as in Georg. IV I and so Serv., who explains the word as 'porro tenus,' seems to have read in his copy or copies. Nonius, p. 375 s.v. protinus,' says that wherever Virg. has protenus,' he uses it in the sense of porro, sine intermissione, continuo,' and quotes this passage among others. An artificial distinction was made by some grammarians between 'protenus' and 'protinus,' it being supposed that 'protenus' was used of place, 'protinus' of time (Caper De Orth. p. 100, Keil, Schol. Bern. here). The notion may have arisen from the variation of spelling found in the text of Virg. A similar distinction is made by Fest. 258 between 'quatenus' and 'quatinus.'-H. N.]

'Aeger' applies probably both to body and mind. < Duco,' the rest he drove before him, this one he leads by a cord.

14. Gemellos :' Emmen. quotes Theocr. I 25, III 34, where didvμaróкoç is the epithet of a goat. Such goats were especially valuable from their quantity of milk.

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The use of namque' so late in the sentence is of course peculiar to poetry (comp. A. v 733), though it is placed second in a sentence by Livy and later prose writers, unlike nam,' which in prose always comes first. ['Corulos' Rom. corylos' Pal.-H. N.]

15. The kids, being dropped on the stony soil, not on grass, would die soon after birth. Comp. G. 111 297.

'Spem gregis,' spemque gregemque simul' G. III 473, 'spem gentis' IV 162. 'Silice in nuda' expresses the character

saepe malum hoc nobis, si mens non laeva fuisset, de caelo tactas memini praedicere quercus.

set tamen, iste deus qui sit, da, Tityre, nobis. T. Urbem, quam dicunt Romam, Meliboee, putavi stultus ego huic nostrae similem, quo saepe solemus 20 pastores ovium teneros depellere fetus.

sic canibus catulos similes, sic matribus haedos noram, sic parvis componere magna solebam.

of the soil, like 'lapis nudus,' v 47. To understand it (with Keightley) of the road paved with silex' is scarcely consistent with 'inter densas corylos.'

'Conixa,' stronger than the ordinary 'enixa,' denotes the difficulty of the labour. 16. From the parallel passage, A. II 54 (note), it would seem that non' goes with 'laeva,' not with 'fuisset.' 'Laevus,' Gk. oxaιóg, in the sense of folly.

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17. Memini praedicere,' Madvig, Lat. Gr. § 408 b, obs. 2.

'De caelo tangi,' Livy xxXV 7, etc. The striking of a thing or person by lighting was an omen of evil: Cic. De Div. I 10-12. Hence the practice of enclosing the 'bidental.' Pomponius says, on the authority of the lost works of ancient Grammarians, that the blasting of fruitbearing trees was ominous, that of the olive being supposed to forebode barrenness, that of the oak banishment. If this could be established, it would fix the 'malum hoc' to be Meliboeus' exile, not the loss of the goat's twins.

After this line some editions insert, 'Saepe sinistra cava praedixit ab ilice cornix; but the verse is unknown to all Ribbeck's MSS. It is evidently made up from IX 15.

18. Da' for 'dic,' as 'accipe' for 'audi' (Serv.). ‘Da... quae ventrem placaverit esca,' Hor. S. 11 viii 5.

'Qui:' [what (god) that god of yours is. In such sentences' quis' is usually noun, who, and 'qui' is usually adj., what or what sort (='qualis,' as E. 11 19, G. I 3). But the two are often interchanged: here 'qui' is which of the gods, while in A VII 38 'quis' is adj. ='qualis' (contrast Cic. Att. Vi i 23). See Madvig § 88 and the examples in Neue-Wagener Formenlehre II 430-436.]

19-25. Why, I used to think Rome differed from Mantua only as a dog does from a puppy, but I found it was much

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21. Depellere,' or, in the full expression, depellere a lacte,' is to wean, III 82, VII 15, G. III 187, etc. and some take it so here, reading 'quoi' for 'quo,' or even rendering 'quo,' 'for' instead of 'to which.' But the sense requires something equivalent to going to the city. 'Pellere,' for driving a flock, is found in

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compellere,' 11 30, etc. The 'de' need not be explained by supposing that Andes was on a hill: it denotes the destination, as in deducere,' 'demittere navis (in portum),' etc. It may have been the custom in Columella's time to sell lambs very young, and it may be the custom now to sell them so young that they are obliged to be carried to the butcher: but these observations, though valuable as illustrations of the text, must not be allowed to override it. Keightley thinks Virg. may have misapprehended the technical sense of the word, not being a practical man. It might also be sug gested that he may have wished to combine the notions of weaning and taking to market.

22. ['Haedos' Rom., 'aedos' Pal. Gud.-H. N.]

23. It may be questioned whether 'parvis componere magna' means to compare cities with dogs and goats, i.e. to argue from the latter to the former, or to compare the larger member of a class with the smaller: but the latter is more natural, and recommended by 'solebam.' 'Sic' then becomes emphatic; 'such were the comparisons I made.' Hdt. II 10 has σμικρὰ μεγάλοισι συμβαλέειν, Thuc. IV 36, μipov μɛyáλy ɛikáσai. 'Si parva licet componere magnis,' G. IV 176, of the bees and the Cyclopes.

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