The Virgilian Tradition: The First Fifteen Hundred Years

THE VIRGILIAN TRADITION

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THE VIRGILIAN TRADITION THE FIRST FIFTEEN HUNDRED YEARS

JAN M. ZIOLKOWSKI

AND

MICHAEL C. J. PUTNAM,

EDITORS

Ya l e U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s / N ew H a v e n & L o n d o n

Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook.

Published with assistance from the Loeb Classical Library Fund, Brown University, and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. Copyright ∫ 2008 by Yale University. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Designed by Mary Valencia and set in Galliard Oldstyle and Meridien types by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Printed in the United States of America by Sheridan Books. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Virgilian tradition : the first fifteen hundred years / Jan M. Ziolkowski and Michael C. J. Putnam, editors. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-300-10822-4 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Virgil—Criticism and interpretation—History. 2. Latin poetry—History and criticism— Theory, etc. 3. Rome—In literature. I. Ziolkowski, Jan M., 1956– II. Putnam, Michael C. J., 1933– pa6825.v57 2007 873%.01—dc2 2006037753 Frontispiece: figure 1. Miniature to illustrate Aeneid 4 (Dido and Aeneas; Aeneas and Dido’s outing; Aeneas’s departure; suicide of Dido); figure 2. Miniature to illustrate Aeneid 6 (Aeneas and the Cumaean Sibyl with burial of Misenus; twin doves reveal the golden bough; Aeneas in the underworld). A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. 10

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To our students, past, present, and future

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CONTENTS

List of Illustrations Preface

xxi

Rules of the Edition Acknowledgments Introduction

xxvii xxix

xxxiii

List of Abbreviations I

xx

xxxvii

VIRGIL THE POET

1

A. Virgil on Himself 2 1 Georgics 2 2 Letter to Augustus 4 B. Contemporary Response 1 Lucius Varius Rufus 5 2 Horace 7 3 Agrippa 12 4 Propertius 12 5 Domitius Marsus 13

5

C. Later Influence and Importance 14 1 Ovid 14 2 ‘‘Ille ego qui quondam gracili modulatus avena’’ 3 Appendix Vergiliana 25 4 Seneca the Elder 27 5 Velleius Paterculus 29 6 Quintus Remmius Palaemon 29 7 Seneca the Younger 30 8 Pliny the Elder 33 9 Lucan 34 10 Calpurnius Siculus 35 11 First Einsiedeln Eclogue 35 12 Laus Pisonis 36 13 Petronius 37 14 Columella 40 15 Pompeian Gra≈ti 42 16 Masada Papyrus 44 17 Vindolanda Writing-Tablets 44 18 Silius Italicus 45 19 Quintilian 46 20 Martial 48 21 Statius 56 22 Tacitus 59 23 Florus 60 24 Pliny the Younger 62 25 Juvenal 63 26 Apuleius 65 27 Aulus Gellius 65 28 Avienus 71 29 Ammianus Marcellinus 71 30 Jerome 72 31 Augustine 73 32 Claudian 86 33 Sidonius Apollinaris 87 34 Ennodius 88 35 Cassiodorus 89 36 Gregory of Tours 90 37 Isidore of Seville 91 38 Aldhelm 92 39 Alcuin 96 viii

CONTENTS

22

40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57

Ermoldus Nigellus 100 Welsh Battle of the Trees 101 Ermenrich of Ellwangen 102 Modus Ottinc 105 Fulbert of Chartres 106 Donizo 107 Peter Abelard 111 Otto of Freising 111 ‘‘Archpoet’’ 113 Walter of Châtillon 114 Alan of Lille 115 Chrétien de Troyes 128 Jacob van Maerlant 129 Dante 130 Petrarch 132 Chaucer 145 Christine de Pizan 146 Ma√eo Vegio 147

D. Virgil as Performed or Declaimed 1 Tacitus 162 2 Suetonius 162 3 Probus 163 4 Lucian 164 5 Macrobius 164 6 Performances of the Eclogues 164 7 Servius 165 8 Augustine 165 9 Fulgentius 166 10 Venantius Fortunatus 166 11 Virgil and Musical Notation 167

162

II BIOGRAPHY: IMAGES OF VIRGIL A. Vitae 179 1 Vita Suetonii vulgo Donatiana (VSD ) 2 Jerome 199 3 Vita Servii 202 4 Vita Focae 205 5 Vita Philargyrii I 212

179

181

CONTENTS

ix

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39

Vita Philargyrii II 220 Vita Probi 225 Expositio Donati 227 Expositio Monacensis I 229 Expositio Monacensis II 230 Periochae Bernenses I 236 Periochae Bernenses II 237 Periochae Gudianae 242 Periochae Tegernseenses 243 Periochae Vaticanae 246 Vita Aurelianensis 248 Vita Bernensis I 249 Vita Bernensis II 250 Vita Bernensis III 251 Vita Gudiana I 252 Vita Gudiana II 256 Vita Gudiana III 259 Vita Leidensis 260 Vita Monacensis I 263 Vita Monacensis II 269 Vita Monacensis III 274 Vita Monacensis IV 275 Vita Noricensis I 278 Vita Noricensis II 280 Vita Parisina II 281 Vita Vaticana I 281 Vita Vaticana II 282 Vita Vossiana 289 Zono de’ Magnalis 292 Domenico di Bandino 303 Sicco Polenton I 321 Donatus auctus 345 Sicco Polenton II 369 Vita Laurentiana 396

B. Virgil’s Birthday: Ides of October as Sacred 1 Pliny the Younger 403 2 Martial 403 3 Ausonius 404

x

CONTENTS

403

C. Virgil’s Remains and Grave 404 1 Epitaph 404 2 Statius 405 3 Martial 405 4 Pliny the Younger 405 5 Aelius Donatus 406 6 Vita Probi 406 7 Jerome 406 8 Sidonius Apollinaris 407 9 Eusthenius 407 10 Pompilianus 407 11 Rodulfus Tortarius 407 12 John of Salisbury 408 13 Conrad of Querfurt 409 14 Gervase of Tilbury 409 15 Dante 411 16 Sequence about St. Paul 412 17 Petrarch 413 18 Itinerary of a Certain Englishman 417 19 Boccaccio 418 D. The Burning of the Aeneid 420 1 Ovid 420 2 Pliny the Elder 422 3 Gaius Sulpicius Apollinaris 422 4 Aulus Gellius 424 5 Aelius Donatus 424 6 Macrobius 425 E. Autograph Manuscripts of Virgil 1 Pliny the Elder 425 2 Quintilian 426 3 Aulus Gellius 426 F.

425

Virgilian Images 427 1 Ancient Textual References to Portraits of Virgil 427 2 Late Antique Textual Reference to Portraits of Virgil 429 3 Late Antique Virgilian Imagery 429 4 Flabellum of Tournus 436 5 Virgil on a Wooden Bowl 438

CONTENTS

xi

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Illuminated Aeneid 438 Virgil in Mantua 446 Virgil and Dante 448 Virgil and Petrarch 451 Portraits of Prophetic Virgil and the Sibyl 453 Virgil as Magician 457 Virgil in the Basket 457 Virgilian Imagery in Non-Virgilian Texts 459 Conclusion 462

G. Virgil as Philosopher and Compendium of Knowledge 1 Seneca the Younger 463 2 Macrobius 463 3 Servius 464 4 (Pseudo-)Bernardus Silvestris 465 5 Roman de Thèbes 465 6 John of Salisbury 466 7 Alexander Neckam 466 8 Boccaccio 466 H. Virgil as Worthy of Veneration and Divine 1 Tacitus 467 2 Macrobius 467 3 Servius 468 III VIRGIL’S TEXTS AND THEIR USES A. Virgilian Cento 471 1 Petronius 471 2 Hosidius Geta and African Centos 3 Tertullian 471 4 Ausonius 472 5 Proba 475 6 Pomponius 480 7 Mavortius 480 8 De verbi incarnatione 481 9 Thierry of St. Trond 481 B. Virgilian Parody 485 1 Early Detractors 485 2 Cornificius Gallus 486 xii

CONTENTS

471

469

467

463

3 Servius

487

C. Eclogues 4 487 1 Lactantius 488 2 Constantine I 491 3 Augustine 496 4 Jerome 499 5 Christian of Stavelot 6 Peter Abelard 501 7 Jean de Meun 502 8 Dante 503

500

D. Orpheus 503 1 Ovid 504 2 Martial 506 3 Boethius 507 4 Fulgentius 510 5 (Pseudo-)Bernardus Silvestris

510

E. Dido 511 1 Ovid 511 2 Tertullian 522 3 Bobbio Epigrams 522 4 Macrobius 524 5 Jerome 524 6 Augustine 525 7 ‘‘O decus, O Libye regnum’’ 528 8 ‘‘Anna soror ut quid mori’’ 531 9 Dante 534 10 Petrarch 535 11 Boccaccio 536 12 Chaucer 542 F.

Descent into the Underworld 543 1 Servius 543 2 (Pseudo-)Bernardus Silvestris 544

G. Golden Bough 544 1 Macrobius 544 2 Servius 545 3 (Pseudo-)Bernardus Silvestris 4 John of Salisbury 548

547

CONTENTS

xiii

H. Florilegia

550

I.

Roman d’Énéas 550 1 Dido 551 2 Golden Bough 572

J.

Heinrich von Veldeke 576 1 Dido 577 2 Descent into the Underworld

598

K. Middle Irish Wanderings of Aeneas 1 Historical Prologue 609 2 Dido 610 3 Golden Bough 615

608

L. Virgil in Medieval Icelandic 616 1 Trojan Horse 618 2 Serpentine Simile 621 3 Trojan Horse (Rationalized) 621 4 Thor Substituted for Jupiter 621 IV COMMENTARY TRADITION

623

A. Tradition of Commentary before the Fourth Century 1 Quintus Caecilius Epirota 626 2 Gaius Iulius Hyginus 627 3 Quintus Asconius Pedianus 627 4 Lucius Annaeus Cornutus 627 5 Marcus Valerius Probus 628 6 Velius Longus 628 7 Aulus Gellius 628 8 Aemilius Asper 628 B. Servius 628 1 Comment on Aeneid 4 2 Allegory 631

630

C. Macrobius 636 1 Rhetorical Devices 637 2 Oratorical Skill 637 3 Greek Models 639 4 Roman Models 639 5 Knowledge of Astronomy and Philosophy xiv

CONTENTS

639

626

6 Pontifical Law 640 7 Augural Law 641 D. Other Commentators of the Fourth or Fifth Century 1 Iunius Philargyrius 641 2 Aelius Donatus 642 3 Tiberius Claudius Donatus 644 E. Priscian F.

649

Fulgentius

660

G. Virgilius Maro Grammaticus

672

H. Scholia Bernensia on Eclogues 4

674

I.

Old Irish Glosses on Philargyrius 1 Comment on Eclogues 4.19 699 2 Comment on Eclogues 4.28 699 3 Comment on Eclogues 4.34 699 4 Comment on Eclogues 4.40 699 5 Comment on Eclogues 4.42 699 6 Comment on Eclogues 4.44 700 7 Comment on Eclogues 4.45 700 8 Comment on Eclogues 4.50 700

J.

Carolingian Commentary on Eclogues 6

698

K. Carolingian Glosses on the Aeneid L. Old High German Glosses

N. Introductions to the Eclogues 1 Argumenta 707 2 Accessus 711 O. ‘‘Master Anselm’’

700

704

705

M. Introduction to the Latin Homer

P.

641

705

707

717

Platonizing Directions in Virgilian Allegory 1 Opening Notes 722 2 Glosses on the Aeneid 724

721

Q. (Pseudo-)Bernardus Silvestris 726 1 Preface to Commentary on Aeneid 727 2 Comment on Aeneid 1.52 728 CONTENTS

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3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Comment on Aeneid 1.412, 446 728 Comment on Aeneid 2.1 729 Comment on Aeneid 3 730 Comment on Aeneid 4 730 Comment on Aeneid 5.1, 114 733 Comment on Aeneid 6.6 734 Comment on Aeneid 6.13, 34 735 Comment on Aeneid 6.42 736 Comment on Aeneid 6.455 737 Introduction to Martianus Capella 2.70–86, 93–104, 114–24

R. Conrad of Hirsau

739

S. John of Garland 744 1 Parisiana poetria 1.124–34 745 2 Parisiana poetria 1.394–405 745 3 Parisiana poetria 2.87–123 746 T. Nicholas Trevet

750

U. Aeneid Commentary of Mixed Type 1 Opening of Book 6 774 2 Orpheus and Eurydice 782 3 Golden Bough 786

773

V. Cristoforo Landino 793 1 Introduction on the Nature of Poetry 2 On Allegorical Interpretation 799 3 Dido and Aeneas 802 4 Golden Bough 807

794

W. Virgilian Obscenity 811 1 Quintilian 811 2 Aulus Gellius 812 3 Ausonius 813 4 Diomedes 813 5 Marius Plotius Sacerdos 813 6 Macrobius 814 7 Servius 814 X. Allegorical Topoi 815 1 Evolution of Civilization 816 2 Vita contemplativa, voluptuosa, and activa xvi

CONTENTS

817

737

3 Development of a Human Life 817 4 Physics and Philosophy 822 5 Eclogues 1–3 and the Three Natural Lives V

VIRGILIAN LEGENDS

823

825

A. Virgil the Magician 829 1 Sortes Vergilianae 829 2 John of Salisbury 830 3 John of Alta Silva 831 4 Conrad of Querfurt 848 5 Gervase of Tilbury 851 6 Alexander Neckam 855 7 Wolfram von Eschenbach 857 8 Perlesvaus 858 9 Dante 858 10 Johannes Gobi Junior 859 11 Boccaccio 859 B. Magic Figurines and Statues 860 1 Apocalypsis Goliae 860 2 Cino da Pistoia 861 3 ‘‘On the Perfection of Life’’ 862 4 ‘‘Salvation of Rome’’ 867 5 Huguccio of Pisa 869 6 ‘‘About a Statue at Rome’’ 871 C. Virgil in the Basket and Virgil’s Revenge 1 Guiraut de Calanson 875 2 ‘‘Deeds of the Romans’’ 876 3 Juan Ruiz 878 4 Giovanni Sercambi 879 5 Virgilessrímur 881 6 Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini 888 7 Virgil and Ovid as Rivals 889

874

D. Visions Involving Virgil 891 1 Anonymous of Ferrières 891 2 John of Salerno 893 3 Rodulfus Glaber 895 4 Everhelm (and Onulf) 896 CONTENTS

xvii

5 Hildebert of Lavardin 897 6 Vision of Virgil in Hell 897 7 Georgian Passion of St. Pansophios of Alexandria E. Virgil in Preaching 903 1 Exemplum Invoking Virgil 2 John of Lathbury 904 F.

901

903

Fusions of Lives and Legends 1 Vincent of Beauvais 907 2 John of Wales 912 3 Conrad of Mure 916 4 (Pseudo-)Walter Burley 919

907

G. Alexander of Telese 921 1 On Aeneas’ Founding and Virgil’s Lordship of Naples 2 Address to King Roger 922 H. Image du monde 923 1 First Redaction 923 2 Second Redaction 925 I.

Jans Enikel

J.

Adenet le Roi

926 932

K. Oracle of the Three Letters 934 1 Marvels of Virgil 934 2 Tales of the Carthaginians 935 L. Noirons li Arabis

937

M. Renart le contrefait 942 1 Virgil’s Wonders and Virgil in the Basket 2 Virgil’s Revenge 944 N. Cronaca di Partenope O. Antonio Pucci P.

943

945

953

Jean d’Outremeuse

955

Q. Virgil’s Journey to the Magnetic Mountain R. Bonamente Aliprandi

xviii

CONTENTS

990

988

922

S. Baena Songbook 1 No. 38 1000 2 No. 226 1000 3 No. 227 1001 4 No. 533 1001 5 No. 377 1001

1000

T. Gutierre Díaz de Games U. Life of Virgil

1002

1003

V. ‘‘Olde Deceyte of Vergilius’’ List of Contributors Text Credits Index

1023

1025

1029

1033

CONTENTS

xix

ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Miniature to illustrate Aeneid 4 (Dido and Aeneas; Aeneas and Dido’s outing; Aeneas’s departure; suicide of Dido) 512 2. Miniature to illustrate Aeneid 6 (Aeneas and the Cumaean Sibyl with burial of Misenus; twin doves reveal the golden bough; Aeneas in the underworld) 543 3. John of Garland, Parisiana poetria, chapter 2, Rota Virgilii 624 4. The three columns and three styles of Virgil’s Wheel (Latin) 747 5. The three columns and three styles of Virgil’s Wheel (English) 748 6. Rota Virgilii 748 7. Virgil’s Wheel 749

PREFACE

In 1997 one of the present collaborators saw into print a reissue of Domenico Comparetti’s Vergil in the Middle Ages (VMA), published more than a century ago but still indispensable. That event led us to begin thinking about extending its scope in a joint venture that would bring together materials relating to Virgil from his own time to the Renaissance. Initially we set our sights on assembling Latin texts and on producing English translations of ancient testimonia pertaining to Virgil and of materials on legends of Virgil that Comparetti had touched upon and that had been reedited in appendixes to the most recent Italian edition of his masterwork. Even that amount of material was substantial, but each time we submerged ourselves for a while in one corpus we discovered other, adjacent and entangled corpora. For instance, even a modest gathering of postclassical attestations to the influence and importance of Virgil and his poetry contributed more than a hundred pages. Furthermore, that section turned out to need a pendant in the form of another devoted to particular ways of reading the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid. Early on we realized that the staggering array of ‘‘lives,’’ many of which had been translated only into German, others never at all, would need to be submitted as a group. At the same time we understood that of the many commentaries on Virgil’s poetry, only a few examples within our chosen time frame, of varying dates and unrepresentative of most documents in the tradition, were accessible in any modern language.

The scope and organization of the project evolved partly in response to the contents of assemblages that preceded ours. The Enciclopedia Virgiliana (EV), an Italian resource to which all Virgilianists are indebted, o√ers in the second half of its fifth and final volume a medley of texts, all but one in their original languages. In turn, the encyclopedia absorbed materials that had been found in earlier gatherings of testimonia, legends and lore, and vitae. Particularly for the legendary material, Pasquali’s revision of VMA (1937–41) belonged to its constituents. In the vitae, the work of Bayer (VV) remains indispensable, and, even since we began our undertaking, the newer edition of vitae by Brugnoli and Stok (VVA) has taken its place in the same pantheon of utility and ineluctability. Despite the help that existing resources a√orded us, we had to venture unguided again and again into poorly mapped, or even uncharted, areas. The vast body of commentaries and translations will become truly navigable only once the relevant entry in the Catalogus translationum et commentariorum has been published. For the time being, the understandable and at the same time paradoxical fact remains that the poet who was the most widely read in the millennium and a half under examination in this anthology has not received attention proportionate to his importance: if the manuscripts of Virgil’s poems themselves are a daunting forest, then the glosses, commentaries, and other interpretations that his poetry has received deserve to be called a primordial jungle. The quantity of material is overwhelming, but it is considerably less daunting than the complexities entailed in sorting it, since despite their fundamental conservatism the commentary traditions proliferate and interact constantly. For whom have we done this work? Obviously, as scholars committed to the study of Virgil, we have wanted to facilitate the research e√orts of our peers and successors. We trust that by virtue of having within convenient reach the texts, translations, and basic information provided here, and thus having been spared some of the time-consuming drudgery involved in tracking down and coming to terms with dispersed and sometimes di≈cult texts, they will be in a position to take the next steps more easily. Yet this compendium is not intended alone, or even primarily, for those toiling in libraries, real or virtual. If it serves solely as a reference work, we will have failed in our mission. Rather, we hope that it will be seen as a warehousesized toyshop for students and their teachers. In our experience, those who encounter Virgil in the original Latin or in translation often become interested in his millennia-long afterlife—what later poets made of him, how his works were taught in basic Latin classes, what was known of his life, what stories were told about him, and so forth—but are thwarted by lack of materials from pursuing those interests. Commentaries are a case in point: most who delve xxii

PREFACE

into the reception of Virgil know that the Aeneid elicited Neoplatonic explications in both the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Sometimes such students can procure serviceable translations of two or three of the biggest names among such interpreters (for example, [pseudo-]Bernardus Silvestris and Cristoforo Landino), but they are hard-pressed to lay their hands on English versions of lesser-known commentators. The Latin texts are sometimes not easy even for professionals to locate. Nor do we have in mind just those who work forward from the ancient context of language and history. Many medievalists, to say nothing of those who develop a passion for Renaissance or modern literature, have not studied or even read Virgil’s works but become aware of the pivotal role that the Roman poet has played in the development and growth of many vernacular literary traditions. We hope that the anthology will contain much to appeal to the postclassically minded. To this day there continue to be sharp disagreements among cognoscenti as to important political or philosophical tendencies of Virgil’s poems, especially the Aeneid. It is no understatement that Virgil means many di√erent things to many di√erent people—and the range of significance that readers have extracted from his poems was even greater in the past. We hope that those using this anthology will find their appetites whetted to explore outward from their own areas of concern into aspects of the Virgilian tradition that they have not yet made their own. The coeditors are Latinists, but although tendrils of their interests extend outward and sometimes intertwine culturally and chronologically as well as linguistically and literarily, the fact remains that one is planted mainly in antiquity (and now Neo-Latin) and the other in the Middle Ages. As a consequence, we approached the project with di√erent and carefully negotiated perspectives. For instance, because the documentation from the first few centuries is scattered and short, Putnam had to taxonomize finely as he assembled evidence, and for consistency’s sake later texts are sometimes broken into discrete categories rather than being presented continuously; whereas the character of the later medieval material led Ziolkowski more often to o√er texts in their entirety or at least in extensive swatches, a procedure that has the disadvantage of allowing overlaps with other texts to be missed if su≈cient crossreferences are not inserted. Thus the anthology reflects the outlooks of both a scholar who reads from Virgil forward and one who works backward to the Roman poet of poets. Yet comprehending both points of view in a single work has seemed to us an advantage, in that it sets before our readership a diptych that unites much of what is attractive about not only antiquity and the Middle Ages but also classical and medieval studies. PREFACE

xxiii

The collaboration has required compromise. For instance, with a view to our intended broad readership we decided to abandon the referential shorthand used by classical scholars and instead to spell out the full titles of classical works, and to adopt a similar procedure for the medieval vernaculars (whether Italian, Middle English, Old Norse, or Old Irish, to take a few examples). By the same token, our headnotes are by necessity often compressed, but we hope that they give enough succinct guidance in both the texts and the bibliography they identify to enable readers with no special expertise to discover further resources. Yet we have also aimed not to disappoint the experts. To the uninformed, many of the names and titles will seem arcane when they are first encountered (and some of the texts will remain hauntingly obscure even after being read in translation); but the headnotes provide at least brief illumination about the date, location, and other activities of the authors, the nature and significance of the texts, and signposts toward the best and most recent scholarship (whether or not it is in English). Since the initial stages this project has swollen to roughly a thousand pages of Latin texts and English translations from Latin, Greek, Italian, French, Provençal, Spanish, Dutch, German, Icelandic, Irish, Welsh, and other languages. It even has a Latin translation of a medieval Georgian text. Despite its physical girth and cultural breadth, the anthology could not contain everything pertaining to the first millennium and a half of the Virgilian tradition. Those who work closely with any of the categories represented in this book will be able to cite omissions. Yet we trust that users of The Virgilian Tradition will focus upon what is at hand rather than hunt for what is absent. Not only is our gathering of materials vastly more substantial than what has been made available in the past in appendixes to such requisite resources as VMA or EV, but in addition it makes most of these materials accessible in translations into a modern language. Even this description does the volume a disservice, since it is concerned not solely with texts but also, though to a more limited extent, with visual art and music. This anthology can be used in many ways. A reader who comes to it with particular questions is likely to find categories of texts that answer them. For instance, someone might wish to review the information about performances or declamations of Virgil’s works, about portraits of Virgil, about representations of scenes from his poetry in ancient and medieval art, or about traditions concerning the location of his physical remains. In each of these cases the table of contents and indexes will point to the relevant pages. Although some materials, especially the biographies (vitae) of Virgil, cannot be dated precisely, the texts and translations in most categories have been arranged in chronological

xxiv

PREFACE

order. Consequently a reader who wants to gain a sense of how Virgil and his poetry were received in a given time can find examples relatively easily. In the sections on Virgil’s texts and their use and on the commentary tradition, limitations of space have allowed us to include only selections from full commentaries on his individual works. Just as our segment on Virgilian legends springs from Comparetti’s essential volume, here the single most useful starting point is the work of Pierre Courcelle (LPLC) on the early readership of Virgil, whether consisting of pagans or Christians. By the same token, we could not include characteristic treatments of each and every grammatical or rhetorical feature in Virgil’s poetry discussed in the commentary tradition. The vitae and the selections from the commentaries in themselves suggest a fair idea of what elicited comment. An anthology of this sort cannot conceivably comprehend all relevant texts and parts of texts. Although most entries include both Latin texts and English translations (or simply the latter in the case of vernacular sources), some merely refer to passages not quoted, though available in modern editions. These entries (the first such occurs at I.C.1.i.i, among the excerpts from Ovid’s ‘‘Aeneid’’) are presented as a compromise; they guide interested readers to passages that are germane to the topic in question without serving up the material anew. The editors’ decision to indicate rather than substantiate in these cases devolves from their understanding of the main goals of the present undertaking. Once one of us had a conversation with a colleague about all the wonderful experiences a certain poet of Mantua had caused him to have—the books and articles he had enjoyed reading and writing, the trips he had made to participate in conferences and congresses, the classes he had taken and taught. In the end he said, gratefully, ‘‘Virgil has been very good to me.’’ Virgil has treated us well too, and in this stout volume we seek to return the favor. Beyond repaying a poet who has meant much to us, we hope to enable the interaction with the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid to continue and even to grow livelier in a millennium still young. That impulse has led us to dedicate this e√ort to our students, past, present, and future. But ‘‘our’’ is too restrictive. These pages are for all those who study Virgil. If their number and enthusiasm are increased by the availability of these materials, we will be more than satisfied. To facilitate future study and research that make use of this volume, supplementary materials will be posted at VirgilianTradition.org.

PREFACE

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RULES OF THE EDITION

A typical entry presents the life dates of the author or the approximate date of composition, a brief discussion, the text itself (if it is Latin), and a translation. The discussion provides a brief bibliography and the source of the text (if Latin) or of the translation (in the case of another original language). If both the Latin and the English translation are from the same source, only one indication is given. The discussion is followed by the initials of the contributor. In cases of original translation or modification of an existing translation, the contributor’s initials follow the translation. For serial excerpts from a single author or source (such as the Ars amatoria), the text source is cited only in the first entry. When translations have been drawn from published sources, any substantive changes are acknowledged at the end of excerpts. Quotations of Virgil within new translations of commentaries generally follow the well-established texts of modern editions (for example, Fairclough). In a few instances, the English of Virgilian quotations within published translations reprinted here has been modified to conform to a standard version chosen by the editors. In contrast, trivial changes in spelling (from ‘‘dreamt’’ to ‘‘dreamed’’ and the like) and punctuation have been made silently to bring the translations into line with the editorial style of this work. In Latin texts capitalization and, to a degree, punctuation have been modified to conform to American practices. Thus sentences begin with capital letters, double quotation marks indicate direct speech, and single quotation

marks set o√ embedded quotations or speech within speech. Otherwise punctuation tends to follow the edited sources. Paragraphing of both texts and previously published translations has been changed as necessary to enable correspondence between the Latin and the English. We use the text and translation of Virgil’s works by Fairclough throughout; however, the standard Latin edition is P. Vergili Maronis Opera, ed. R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford, 1969). Putnam and Ziolkowski came to the project with di√erent habits in the handling of orthography and in the application of brackets in Latin texts. Their decision was to conform to Putnam’s practices. Accordingly, they have standardized the so-called consonantal u to v. In other matters of spelling, the conventions of the editions followed have been maintained, except that Latin words (such as Deus for God, Latinus for Latin, Romanus for Roman, and so forth) have been capitalized for consistency with English. Also in accord with Putnam’s practices, the coeditors of this volume use angle brackets ([ ]) to designate words, letters, or other material that appears in manuscripts but that should be disregarded in reading the text. Angle brackets with ellipsis points are also used to indicate when omissions have been made. Square brackets ([ ]) enclose words, letters, or other material that has been added to what appears in manuscripts or texts. Thus the brackets in the Latin texts in the present volume serve the opposite functions from what they do in EV, Bayer’s edition of the ‘‘Vergil-Viten’’ (VV), and VVA, to name a few examples. Within Latin texts square brackets have also been used to identify the sources of quotations or references; these citations are not repeated at the parallel points in the English translations. The dagger (†), the mark also known as obelus or obelisk, has been employed to signal words or phrases that seem to be corrupt.

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RULES OF THE EDITION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In practical terms, Putnam had oversight of the computer files until the final stage of not quite a year, when they passed into the hands of Ziolkowski. Putnam secured permissions for texts, while Ziolkowski dealt with all the contributors and obtained illustrations. Both of us have many acknowledgments to make. From the Cambridge end of the axis, expressions of gratitude are due in abundance. In the early phases of the work, Lenore Parker keyboarded large amounts of Latin text and sometimes handwriting that did not merit the name of longhand. In addition to owing thanks to her, Ziolkowski is also indebted to both the graduates and undergraduates in the Department of the Classics at Harvard University. The quality of the students in one course motivated him to involve a half-dozen of them in the toil of translating medieval lives of Virgil. Their names may be found at the end of this collection; their initials follow the items they translated or cotranslated. Away from Harvard, Ziolkowski is grateful to the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, for providing a tranquil and inspirational setting in which to see the book into print. Also at Harvard, a series of research assistants helped over the years by tracking down books and articles in the library. They have included Rachel Ahern, Kamila Lis, and Lambrina Mileva. The first-mentioned also collaborated in the modernization of one selection. More recently, Jonathan Gnoza helped considerably with the proofreading of Latin and the vetting of translations, especially in the vitae. Although his name will be found at the end of

several items he translated, his meticulousness has improved the entire section of lives. Rob Cio≈ took on the delicate and demanding task of cleaning what amounted to digital muck in the Augean stables, by removing or altering all sorts of codes that had accumulated over the years and that needed to be removed or altered to ready the manuscript for submission. In the crucial final months, the hardest and longest toil toward ensuring that the many di√erent pieces cohered as a book in their style and format came from Thomas Kozachek. Where one of the authors had provided too much information or another too little, he worked tactfully toward achieving consistency. In the process he made many felicitous suggestions for making the book-to-be more accessible to a broad readership, while not sacrificing its value for scholars. Outside his department, the Harvard-based editor owes a major debt of gratitude to more than a dozen other Virgiliophiles, covering the spectrum from former undergraduate students through emeriti, all of whom acquiesced immediately and enthusiastically when asked to provide texts and/or translations. Names of those who were immediately involved in the entries are listed among the contributors at the end of the volume and will not be repeated here—but sincere appreciation is owed to all of them. Patrick Ford, in the Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures, provided guidance and correctives about the brief entry on a Welsh text, for which he also produced a translation. Beyond the contributors, we should thank Mario Geymonat and Luca Cadili, who allowed their coeditor, David Daintree, to furnish a section of their Latin for a selection. Virginia Brown consented to the use of two Latin texts for the entry on the Eclogues in the twelfth century. Traugott Lawler agreed to the use of his John of Garland text, translation, and diagrams. Aires Nascimento was alacritous in permitting us to use his text of Trevet. Thomas Herbert Stahel, S.J., gave his permission to reproduce the translation of Landino from his Ph.D. dissertation. The late Brady Gilleland authorized the incorporation of his John of Alta Silva translation. A. K. Bowman provided swift and helpful information on the appearance of Virgil on Vindolanda tablets. Fabio Stok gave freely and generously his consent for us to use his Latin texts. David Townsend accorded rights for an entry on Walter of Châtillon. As well as all of the above, Putnam would like to thank, in particular, Kitty Pucci, for computer help o√ered benignly and unstintingly over several years, and Ruthann Whitten, for ever remaining a center of sanity in the midst of potential chaos. John Jacobs was a thoughtful, e≈cient research assistant. To the readers for Yale University Press both editors are thankful. Ralph Hexter and Craig Kallendorf o√ered not only encouragement but also detailed suggestions. The former pointed us toward his own text and discussion of the fabliau-like encounter between Virgil and Ovid. xxx

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The generosity and graciousness of all these individuals, when added to the energy and enthusiasm of the contributors listed at the end, evidence a passionate commitment to Virgil’s poetry that both editors hope this anthology will foster in a new millennium. Publication of these volumes has been supported generously by the Loeb Classical Library Fund. Professor Richard Thomas, former chair of the Department of the Classics at Harvard University, backed the project both intellectually and practically from its earliest stages. The publication would not have been possible without a grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation (we owe thanks to George Labalme and honor the memory of Patricia Labalme). We are also most grateful for support from the Brown University O≈ce of Research and Professor Andries van Dam, former Vice President for Research, and from its Department of Classics, Professor Deborah Boedeker, chair.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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INTRODUCTION

It would be impossible to document exhaustively Virgil’s extraordinary legacy to Western letters. What The Virgilian Tradition o√ers is a series of starting points, or angles of vision, for the study of Rome’s greatest poet and of the heritage he conveyed, from his contemporary world until the fifteenth century of the common era. The book is divided into five major segments. The first part, devoted to Virgil the poet, is a chronological survey, necessarily selective, of the way Virgil has appeared to, and has exerted influence upon, writers of the nearly one and a half millennia stretching from Augustan Rome to Renaissance Italy. It begins with a brief exploration of what Virgil tells us about himself and of what we know about his relationship to his fellow intellectuals and to those in power— the emperor himself and his staunch advocate Marcus Agrippa. It concludes with a discussion of the public presentation of his work in the ancient world and of the musical notations that suggest how his poetry was sung during the Middle Ages. The second part is concerned with Virgil’s biography, broadly conceived. By far its longest section is devoted to a detailed review of the vitae that have come down to us. The survey, which in this case aims at completeness, takes us from the lives written by Aelius Donatus and his student Jerome, dating from the mid to late fourth century, to those of Italian humanists of the fifteenth century. We then investigate, in individual segments, certain aspects of his vita that claimed particular attention—his deathbed wish to burn the Aeneid, for

example, the later honoring of his birthday, the worship of his grave—and probe as well how he was thought to look as a person both by the ancients themselves and by those who in later centuries imagined him and his work in a variety of art forms. Under this rubric we also consider separately Virgil’s role, over the same stretch of time, as a philosopher of such depth as to appear worthy of respect as quasi-divine. The third part collects evidence about how Virgil’s writings were received and put to use. Sometimes this takes the form of parody. In other cases, Virgil’s texts are disaggregated and used in centos—poems that meld elements drawn from throughout the corpus of his writings to form quite di√erent unities and are therefore at the same time completely Virgilian and completely novel. Sometimes we watch the influence of whole poems (Eclogues 4, for instance, the so-called Messianic eclogue). On other occasions our focus lies on segments of larger works (Aeneas’s descent into the underworld, for example, and the description of the golden bough, both drawn from Aeneid 6). Two characters have sections of their own: Orpheus, whose tale dominates the conclusion of the Georgics; and Dido, perhaps the single most influential figure in Virgil’s poetry. These sections trace their e√ect, as conceived by Virgil’s imagination, on later writers and writings—a journey that takes us in its course to medieval France, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Iceland. In part four we investigate what we call the commentary tradition, which is to say, how Virgil was understood and explained over centuries of scholarship. The sweep of Virgilian exegesis, which began while the poet was still alive, is as long as it is varied. Again we move chronologically, from the earliest expositors up to the great fifteenth-century Florentine intellectual Cristoforo Landino. Of special significance are the development and flourishing of allegorical interpretations of Virgil’s poetry, particularly, again, of the fourth of the Eclogues and of segments of the Aeneid. Such an approach begins early and peaks in the work of Fulgentius in the sixth century and of (pseudo-)Bernardus Silvestris in the twelfth. The variety of o√erings under this heading, where we also include documentation and evaluation of supposed moments of Virgilian obscenity, testifies to the devoted scrutiny to which Virgil’s writings were continually subjected. The last part centers on the tradition of legends associated with Virgil. It is readily understandable how someone who, because of Eclogues 4, was ranked as a pagan prophet anticipating the birth of Christ and is therefore on a par with the Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament could also become associated with the world of witchcraft and wonderworking. As early as the second century Virgil’s writings may have been used in a form of sortilege: questions were asked of them, and the answers interpreted in oracular fashion. Yet it was xxxiv

INTRODUCTION

not until the twelfth century, and particularly in the area of the Bay of Naples (but extending geographically well beyond it), that the plethora of tales highlighting Virgil’s powers as a magician sprang up. It is plausible to maintain— such was their universality and heterogeneity—that for a period of two centuries and even into the Renaissance the legends about Virgil held as much sway over the contemporary imagination as did his poetry. Many of the themes that interweave in these co-optings of Virgil have their start in the century and a half subsequent to his death. Allegorization of his texts, for instance, which was of prime importance for his interpretation from late antiquity through the high Middle Ages and beyond, had an early start. Though the Aeneid was the primary focus of allegory for the medieval period, the Eclogues early on piqued the interest of readers curious to discern contemporary figures hidden behind the fanciful names of Virgil’s shepherds. If we can judge from tantalizing notes in Servius and other scholiasts, the identity of the boy addressed in the fourth of the Eclogues was the subject of discussion soon after the book’s publication, around 37 b.c.e. This penchant for identifying the personages behind Virgil’s characters takes a fully allegorical turn by the time we reach Calpurnius Siculus, in the middle of the next century (in his fourth eclogue, for instance, Tityrus clearly stands for Virgil and Corydon for Calpurnius himself). In Quintilian and Martial, soon afterward, allegorization of the Eclogues seems a matter of course. And such was the force of the Georgics that Columella, writing two generations after the poet’s death, felt the need to respond to one of the poem’s expressed lacks by writing, as the tenth book of his own prose work De re rustica (Res rustica), an hexameter poem on gardens and gardening. But the mere fact that Virgil’s second masterpiece is a didactic poem is already mirrored knowingly by Ovid in his poetic progress, idiosyncratically paralleling that of Virgil, from ‘‘lighter’’ verse (Amores, Heroides) to didactic (Ars amatoria, Fasti) to epic (Metamorphoses). But other aspects of the Virgilian legacy were also firmly established by the mid first century c.e. Propertius, writing around 25 b.c.e., some six years before the Aeneid was issued, assures us of the poem’s greatness, which in his view surpasses even that of Homer’s Iliad. By the time of Petronius, but doubtless from its moment of publication, the text itself was sacrosanct and not to be tampered with, although it was never immune from parody and other types of subversion. Seneca the Younger regarded Virgil as a philosopher and as an authoritative source of information on questions of grammar. Quintilian esteemed him for his moral quality along with his aesthetic excellence. A reverence for Virgil’s spiritual value was accompanied by a realization of the quasi sacrality of the remaining tangible evidence connected with his life. His tomb in Naples was an object of care and veneration by Silius Italicus, INTRODUCTION

xxxv

who, along with Martial, considered his birthday, October 15, a date to be hallowed as if it belonged to a divinity. Pliny the Elder and Quintilian knew manuscripts written in Virgil’s hand, and Aulus Gellius had a friend who prized a manuscript that may have been owned by the poet. The implicit association of Virgil with divinity and therefore, tangentially, with superhuman power surfaces dramatically in the abundance of legends associated with his person during the late medieval period. This aspect of the Virgilian tradition wanes in the fourteenth century as figures of the intellectual stature of Petrarch bring to bear a scientific scrutiny on its exaggerations and entertaining absurdities. But the dawn of the Renaissance itself initiates a renaissance of interest in Virgil, with its own special combination of philological and philosophical concerns, as his influence continues to possess the imaginations of poets and scholars alike in a new age.

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INTRODUCTION

ABBREVIATIONS

AL AL (1982) ANRW

AO

CIL CSEL EM EV

Anthologia latina 1.1–2, ed. F. Bücheler and A. Riese, Bibliotheca Teubneriana (Leipzig, 1894–1906). Anthologia latina 1.1, ed. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, Bibliotheca Teubneriana (Stuttgart, 1982). Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung, ed. Hildegard Temporini, part 1: Von den Anfängen Roms bis zum Ausgang der Republik; part 2: Principat (Berlin, 1972–). W. Maaz, ‘‘Ein alliterierendes Orakel in Hs. Wien, ÖNB lat. 1625 (saec. XIII/XIV): Zu einem unbekannten Detail der Sage vom Vergilius Magus,’’ in Scrinium Berolinense Tilo Brandis zum 65. Geburtstag, vol. 2, ed. P. J. Becker, E. Bliembach, H. Nickel, R. Schipke, and G. Staccioli (Berlin, 2000), 1011–20. Corpus inscriptionum latinarum (Berlin, 1863–). Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum (Vienna, 1866–). H. de Lubac, Exégèse médiévale: Les quatre sens de l’Écriture, 4 vols. (Paris, 1964). Enciclopedia virgiliana, ed. F. della Corte, 6 vols. in 5 (Rome, 1984–91). Vol. 5, part 2, contains testimonia, vitae, Italian translations, and other ancillary material.

Fairclough

FLP GL IE

LCL LMV

LPLC

MGH NPNF

OCT PL PLM PLRE RE

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Virgil, Eclogues, Georgics, Aeneid I–VI, ed. and trans. H. R. Fairclough, 3rd ed., rev. G. P. Goold, LCL 63 (1999); Aeneid VII–XII, Appendix Vergiliana, ed. and trans. H. R. Fairclough, LCL 64 (2000). The Fragmentary Latin Poets, ed. E. Courtney (Oxford, 1993). Grammatici latini, ed. H. Keil (Leipzig, 1855–80; rept. Hildesheim, 1981). F. C. Tubach, Index exemplorum: A Handbook of Medieval Religious Tales, FF Communications 204 (Helsinki, 1981). Loeb Classical Library (London, New York, Cambridge, 1912–). Lectures médiévales de Virgile: Actes du Colloque organisé par l’École française de Rome, Rome, 25–28 octobre 1982, Collection de l’École française de Rome 80 (Rome: École française de Rome, 1985). P. Courcelle and J. Courcelle, Lecteurs païens et lecteurs chrétiens de l’Énéide, vol. 2: Les manuscrits illustrés de l’Énéide du dixième au quinzième siècle, Mémoires de l’Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, n.s. 4 (Paris, 1984). Monumenta Germaniae Historica (Hannover and Berlin, 1826–). A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, 1st ser., ed. P. Scha√ (New York, 1886–90); 2nd ser., ed. P. Scha√ and H. Wace (New York, 1890–1900). Oxford Classical Text Patrologiae cursus completus, Series Latina, ed. J.-P. Migne (Paris, 1844–64). Poetae latini minores, ed. F. Vollmer and W. Morel (Leipzig, 1909, 1935). The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, ed. A. H. M. Jones and J. R. Martindale (Cambridge, 1970–92). Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, ed. A. Pauly, G. Wissowa, and W. Kroll (Stuttgart, 1893–).

ABBREVIATIONS

Thilo-Hagen

Verfasserlexikon

VMA

VMA (Pasquali) VME

VN

VSD VV

VVA VVVC

Servii grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii, vol. 1: Aeneidos librorum I–V commentarii (Leipzig, 1881); vol. 2: Aeneidos librorum VI–XII commentarii (1884); vol. 3.1: In Vergilii Bucolica et Georgica Commentarii, ed. G. Thilo (1887); vol. 3.2: Appendix Serviana, ed. H. Hagen (1902). Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon, ed. K. Ruh and B. Wachinger, 10 vols. (Berlin and New York, 1978–99). D. Comparetti, Vergil in the Middle Ages, trans. E. F. M. Benecke, rept. ed., with introduction by J. Ziolkowski (Princeton, 1997). D. Comparetti, Virgilio nel medio evo, 2 vols., 3rd ed., ed. G. Pasquali (Florence, 1937–41). C. Baswell, Virgil in Medieval England: Figuring the Aeneid from the Twelfth Century to Chaucer, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 24 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995). J. W. Spargo, Virgil the Necromancer: Studies in Virgilian Legends, Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature 10 (Cambridge, 1934). Vita Suetonii vulgo Donatiana. ‘‘Vergil-Viten,’’ ed. K. Bayer, in Vergil Landleben, ed. J. Götte and M. Götte, 2nd ed. (Munich, 1977), 211–395, 654–763. Vitae Vergilianae antiquae, ed. G. Brugnoli and F. Stok (Rome, 1997). V. Brown, ‘‘Vitae Vergilianae in Virgilian Commentaries,’’ in Style and Tradition: Studies in Honor of Wendell Clausen, ed. P. Knox and C. Foss, Beiträge zur Altertumskunde 92 (Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1998), 174–98.

ABBREVIATIONS

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I VIRGIL THE POET

Evidence for the power exerted by, and the importance of, Virgil’s poetry is available already from his contemporary world and, in the case of the Aeneid, even before its publication at his death in 19 b.c.e. From his lifetime on, the impact of Virgil’s influence on writers and thinkers has been immense. What we o√er here is a chronological survey of that inheritance, a survey that is of necessity selective on two counts. First, from the hundreds upon hundreds of authors and works on whom Virgil had a profound e√ect, we have culled about fifty to serve as exemplars for the many that must remain unanalyzed. Second, even within the oeuvres of those authors chosen for inclusion, we have often had to discriminate. Pagan writers, such as Seneca the Younger, Quintilian, and Aulus Gellius, for example, refer to Virgil with regularity, in detail or merely in passing. Similarly, for Augustine in the Christian era, he is a constant presence and, in spite of the fact that revelation could not be his, the touchstone against which the distinguished father of the Church often takes the measure of his own ideas. What follows, then, is a representative collection of ‘‘appreciations’’ of Rome’s greatest poet, spanning the period from Virgil’s lifetime through 1428, when Ma√eo Vegio published his Supplementum to the Aeneid. Virgil himself is an appropriate beginning, with two selections, one drawn from his poetry, and the other being the only surviving example of his correspondence. The second section is devoted to contemporary response, from fellow poets and others who knew him and his work, and from those who had the task of

passing his writing on to posterity. Ovid, premier poet of the next generation, initiates the lengthy final survey, which documents significant examples of the manifold ways in which Virgil’s work was received over the years. Each century, from the first b.c.e. to the fifteenth c.e., is represented, and there is an almost equal division between prose and poetry. This continuum, as well as the diversity of authors and texts involved, attests both to Virgil’s enduring popularity and to the many di√erent modes in which he has been read and interpreted over the course of time. As with any great author, the ways in which Virgil has been assimilated and represented speak to the varying interests of those attracted to him, but most especially to the multiform genius of the poet himself. A. VIRGIL ON HIMSELF (Publius Vergilius Maro, 70–19 b.c.e.) (Further information: L. D. Reynolds, ed., Texts and Transmissions: A Survey of the Latin Classics [Oxford, 1983] [see, in particular, the entries ‘‘Virgil,’’ by L. D. Reynolds, 433–36, and ‘‘Appendix Vergiliana,’’ by M. D. Reeve, 437–40]; S. Timpanaro, Per la storia della filologia virgiliana antica, Quaderni di ‘‘Filologia e critica’’ 6 [Rome, 1986]; P. Hardie, The Epic Successors of Virgil: A Study in the Dynamics of a Tradition [Cambridge, 1993]; N. Horsfall, ed., A Companion to the Study of Virgil [Leiden, 1995]; C. Martindale, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Virgil [Cambridge, 1997]; P. Hardie, Virgil, Greece and Rome: New Surveys in the Classics 28 [Oxford, 1998]; W. Suerbaum, ‘‘Hundert Jahre Vergil-Forschung: Eine systematische Arbeitsbibliographie mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der ‘Aeneis,’ ’’ in ANRW 2/31.1 [1980], 3–358, updated and condensed in Vergils Aeneis: Epos zwischen Geschichte und Gegenwart [Stuttgart, 1999], 385–410; S. Timpanaro, Virgilianisti antichi e tradizione indiretta [Florence, 2001])

1. Georgics 4.559–66 (30 b.c.e.) Instances of Virgil’s employing the first person, singular or plural, as possible references to the author as well as to the narrator are scattered throughout his works. (First-person references in the Aeneid can be found at 1.1; 7.1, 41–45, 733; 9.446–47; 10.793; 12.910–11.) But the end of the fourth Georgic is one of the few places in Virgil’s work where the context in which the speaking ‘‘I’’ is placed gives some assurance that the poet is addressing us in propria persona (the uses of vidi at Georgics 1.193 and 197 and of memini at Georgics 4.125 also bear the appearance of Virgil talking in person, the first for its claims of au-

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I. VIRGIL THE POET

topsy, the second by its appeal to the narrator’s own memory, especially in a didactic poem). He allows us to date the writing of his words to 30–29 b.c.e. and to locate the future Augustus in the East (see the details in Cassius Dio, Roman History 51.18) and himself in Naples, where we know that he had at least one dwelling. He also reminds us that he was the author of the Eclogues (also known as the Bucolics), and, by virtually quoting the opening line of Eclogues 1 in the last verse of the fourth Georgic, he forges a close bond between the two works, however di√erent in genre. At Eclogues 5.85–87, Virgil drops a hint that he may, in his first work, hide himself under the veil of allegory. There Menalcas, one of the poem’s two protagonists, gives to his fellow singer, Mopsus, a reed pipe that ‘‘taught us’’ formosum Corydon ardebat Alexin (Corydon burned for handsome Alexis) and cuium pecus? an Meliboei? (Whose flock is this? Is it Meliboeus’s?), which is to say, the major portion of the opening lines of the second and third of the Eclogues, standing for the poems themselves. The fact that Quintilian (Institutio oratoria 8.6.46–47, quoted below, I.C.19.e) considered the absent shepherdsinger Menalcas, in Eclogues 9 (10, 15), to be a stand-in for Virgil lends further support for the possibility of figuration. Moreover, by having Apollo, in the opening line of Eclogues 6, address the speaking ‘‘I’’ as Tityrus, Virgil may be suggesting that other appearances of a character with that name throughout the Eclogues are meant to conjure up the poet Virgil for his readers. But it is left for later generations more openly to follow up any latent suggestions of allegory. (Text and translation: Fairclough) (MP) Haec super arvorum cultu pecorumque canebam et super arboribus, Caesar dum magnus ad altum fulminat Euphraten bello victorque volentis per populos dat iura viamque adfectat Olympo. Illo Vergilium me tempore dulcis alebat Parthenope studiis florentem ignobilis oti, carmina qui lusi pastorum audaxque iuventa, Tityre, te patulae cecini sub tegmine fagi.

So much I sang in addition to the care of fields, of cattle, and of trees, while great Caesar thundered in war by deep Euphrates and bestowed a victor’s laws on willing nations, and essayed the path to heaven. In those days I, Virgil, was nursed by sweet Parthenope, and rejoiced in the arts of inglorious ease—I who toyed with shepherds’ songs and, in youth’s boldness, sang of you, Tityrus, under the canopy of a spreading beech.

A. VIRGIL ON HIMSELF

3

2. Letter to Augustus (circa 25 b.c.e.) Virgil’s correspondence with Augustus is one of the few means by which to place the poet himself in his contemporary social setting. Three apparent fragments survive, one from Virgil to Augustus, two from the emperor to the poet. The first is quoted in its context by Macrobius (see below, IV.C), Saturnalia 1.24.10–12. (Text: J. Willis, ed., 2nd ed., Bibliotheca Teubneriana [Leipzig, 1970], 1:129–30; translation: The Saturnalia, trans. P. V. Davies [New York, 1969]) ‘‘Si in hac opinione es,’’ inquit Symmachus, ‘‘ut Maro tibi nihil nisi poeticum sensisse aestimetur, licet hoc quoque eidem nomen invideris, audi quid de operis sui multiplici doctrina ipse pronuntiet. Ipsius enim Maronis epistula, qua compellat Augustum, ita incipit: ego vero frequentes a te litteras accipio; et infra: de Aenea quidem meo, si mehercle iam dignum auribus haberem tuis, libenter mitterem, sed tanta inchoata res est ut paene vitio mentis tantum opus ingressus mihi videar, cum praesertim, ut scis, alia quoque studia ad id opus multoque potiora impertiar. Nec his Vergilii verbis copia rerum dissonat, quam plerique omnes litteratores pedibus inlotis praetereunt, tamquam nihil ultra verborum explanationem liceat nosse grammatico.’’

‘‘If, according to this opinion of yours,’’ says Symmachus, ‘‘Virgil should be regarded as having no feeling for anything but poetry (and though you even grudge him the title of poet), listen to what he himself has to say about the many kinds of learning that his work contains. For there is a letter from Virgil himself, addressed to Augustus, that begins thus: ‘I am getting many letters from you’ (and goes on) ‘as for my Aeneas, if I now had anything at all worthy of your hearing, I should gladly send it; but so vast is the subject on which I have embarked that I think I must have been almost mad to have entered upon it; all the more so since, as you know, there are other and much more important studies that claim from me a share in the work.’ What Virgil says here is not inconsistent with that wealth of material which almost all the literary critics carelessly pass by with ‘dusty feet’—as though a grammarian were permitted to understand nothing beyond the meanings of words.’’ (modified by MP) The two other fragments make clear the importance to the emperor of Virgil’s poetry, especially the Aeneid. (Commentary: H. Malcovati, ed., Imperatoris Caesaris Augusti operum fragmenta [Turin, 1967, 21–22], Epistolae, frags. 35–36) The first (frag. 35, from Priscian [GL 2.533.13]) reads Excucurristi a Neapoli (You have run o√ from Naples). The second (frag. 36, VSD 30– 31 [VVA 31–32; see below, II.A.1]) involves paraphrase as well as quotation:

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I. VIRGIL THE POET

Aeneidos vixdum coeptae tanta exstitit fama, ut Sextus Propertius non dubitaverit sic praedicare: Cedite, Romani scriptores, cedite Grai: nescio quid maius nascitur Iliade [Carmina 2.34.65–66: see below, I.B.4].

Augustus vero, nam forte expeditione Cantabrica aberat, supplicibus atque etiam minacibus per iocum litteris efflagitaret, ‘‘ut sibi de Aeneide,’’ ut ipsius verba sunt, ‘‘vel prima carminis upograf ˘ h´ vel quodlibet kvlon ˜ mitteretur.’’

Even when scarcely begun, the reputation of the Aeneid was so great that Sextus Propertius did not hesitate to prophesy thus: Give way, Roman authors; give way, Greeks: something greater than the Iliad is being born.

Indeed, Augustus (for, as it happened, he was away on an expedition in Cantabria) pressed him goodnaturedly in his letters, with entreaties and also with threats, ‘‘that you send me’’ (to employ his own words) ‘‘your first sketch of the Aeneid, or whatever swatch of it you will.’’ (DWO and JZ) Other ancient sources refer to Augustus’s correspondence with Virgil without quoting it. Most important is Tacitus, Dialogus 13.3 (quoted below, I.C.22). Claudian (see below, I.C.32) also refers to the emperor’s correspondence with Virgil in Carmina minora 40.23–24 (395 c.e.), addressed to Olybrius, consul of 395. (Text: Claudian, Carmina, ed. J. B. Hall, Bibliotheca Teubneriana [Leipzig, 1985], 395) Dignatus tenui Caesar scripsisse Maroni. Nec tibi dedecori sit mea Musa. Vale.

Augustus found it worthy to write to humble Virgil. May my Muse not cause you shame. Farewell. (MP) B. CONTEMPORARY RESPONSE

1. Lucius Varius Rufus (circa 70–15 b.c.e.) Varius was Virgil’s friend and, along with Plotius Tucca, his literary executor. He wrote a poem in hexameters De morte (On Death) and according to Horace (Satires 1.10.43) was a notable writer of epic. His tragedy, Thyestes, was performed in 29 b.c.e. at games presented by Augustus during his triple triumph to celebrate victories at Actium and elsewhere. None of his writings survive. (Discussion: A. Hollis, ‘‘Virgil’s Friend Varius Rufus,’’ Proceedings of the Virgil Society 22 [1996], 19–33) B. CONTEMPORARY RESPONSE

5

Tucca and Varius are addressed in the first and seventh selections, respectively, of the Catalepton, fifteen epigrammatic poems that form a gathering within the so-called Appendix Vergiliana (see below, I.C.3). These two may be by Virgil, but the authenticity of the remainder is more dubious. a. Quintilian, Institutio oratoria 10.3.8 On Quintilian’s many other comments on Virgil, see below, I.C.19. (Text and translation: Quintilian, The Orator’s Education [M. Fabi Quintiliani: Institutionis oratoriae libri duodecim], ed. and trans. D. A. Russell, vol. 4, LCL 127 [2001]) Vergilium quoque paucissimos die composuisse versus auctor est Varius.

Varius too tells us that Virgil wrote very few verses in a day. b. Aelius Donatus, VSD 41–42 On Aelius Donatus, see below, IV.D.2. For the passage immediately preceding this one (VSD 39–40), see below, II.D.5. For the full context see II.A.1, below. (Text: VVA 37–38) Edidit autem auctore Augusto Varius, sed summatim emendata, ut qui versus etiam imperfectos, si qui erant reliquerit. Quos multi mox supplere conati non perinde valuerunt ob difficultatem, quod omnia fere apud eum hemistichia absoluto perfectoque sunt sensu, praeter illud: ‘‘Quem tibi iam Troia’’ [Aeneid 3.340]. Nisus grammaticus audisse se a senioribus aiebat, Varium duorum librorum ordinem commutasse, †et qui nunc secundus sit in tertium locum transtulisse,† etiam primi libri correxisse principium, his versibus demptis: ‘‘Ille ego . . .’’ [see below, I.C.2]

However, Varius published [his writings], on the authority of Augustus, but revised only in a cursory fashion, with the result that he even left unfinished verses, if there were any. Many soon endeavored to complete these lines in the same style, but they did not succeed; the task was too di≈cult, for nearly all of the half-lines were freestanding and complete with regard to sense, except this: ‘‘Whom Troy to you now . . .’’ Nisus the grammarian used to say that he heard from older men that Varius changed the order of two books, and that which then was second he moved into third place, and also that he smoothed out the beginning of the first book by subtracting these lines: ‘‘I am he . . .’’ (DWO and JZ) c. Jerome On Jerome himself, see below, I.C.30. For the passage from his translation of the Chronicon of Eusebius of Caesarea (the so-called father of Church history), see below, II.A.2.a.viii. 6

I. VIRGIL THE POET

d. Servius On Servius and his commentary, see below, IV.B. (Text: Thilo-Hagen 1:2) Augustus vero, ne tantum opus periret, Tuccam et Varium hac lege iussit emendare, ut superflua demerent, nihil adderent tamen. . . .

Yet Augustus, lest so great a work perish, commanded Tucca and Varius to prepare it for publication with this proviso, that they take away the redundant but add nothing. . . . (MP) We may compare Jerome, writing to Paulinus of Nola around 400 c.e. about his approach to translating the Bible into Latin (Epistles 85.3, quoted below, II.A.2.e).

2. Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65–8 b.c.e.) Horace was a contemporary and friend of Virgil, and a master poet in a variety of genres. He wrote collections of Satires (circa 35–30 b.c.e.), a book of Epodes (circa 30 b.c.e.), four gatherings of Carmina (1–3, 23 b.c.e.; 4, circa 13 b.c.e.), the Carmen saeculare (17 b.c.e.), and two books of Epistles (1, circa 20 b.c.e.; 2, 18–12 b.c.e.), as well as the Ars poetica (12 b.c.e.). Horace gives us a strong sense of Virgil the person, but he also shows himself deeply responsive to the power of the other poet’s verse, especially in the initial two odes excerpted below (items e and f). The first is a meditation on the potential destructiveness of progress and of man’s ambition. It is suitably addressed to a poet embarked on writing an epic in which the sweep of history is regularly challenged by human emotionality. The second, on the death of Quintilius, reminds Virgil that even the power of Orpheus, which he so brilliantly described in the fourth Georgic, did not finally surmount death. (MP) a. Satires 1.3.29–34 (Text and translations, items a–d: Horace, Satires, Epistles, and Ars poetica, ed. and trans. H. R. Fairclough, rev. ed., LCL 194 [1929]) Iracundior est paulo, minus aptus acutis naribus horum hominum; rideri possit eo quod rusticius tonso toga defluit et male laxus in pede calceus haeret: at est bonus, ut melior vir non alius quisquam, at tibi amicus, at ingenium ingens inculto latet hoc sub corpore.

He is a little too hasty in temper, ill suited to the keen noses of folk nowadays. He might awake a smile because his hair is cut in country style, his toga sits ill, and his loose shoe will hardly stay on his foot. But he’s a good man, none better; but he is your friend; but under his uncouth frame are hidden great gifts. B. CONTEMPORARY RESPONSE

7

These lines were taken in antiquity to be a portrait of Virgil. See pseudoAcron (in Pseudoacronis scholia in Horatium vetustiora, vol. 2, ed. O. Keller [Leipzig, 1904], 38)—the name given in the fifteenth century or later to a congeries of scholia, perhaps from the fifth century, that survive in the margins of Horace texts—on line 31: Hic dicitur pulsare Virgilium, quia indecori et corporis et habitus fuit.

Here [Horace] is said to twit Virgil for unseemliness both of toilet and of dress. (MP) b. Satires 1.5.39–49 In the following passage Horace mentions being met at Sinuessa by the threesome of Plotius, Varius, and Virgil. A dedication by Philodemus in a Herculaneum papyrus (PHerc. Paris 2.18–23) adds to the same three not Horace but Quintilius: ‘‘This then is what we would like to say on these matters and on calumnies in general, O Plotius and Varius and Virgil and Quintilius.’’ (Translation and discussion of papyrus: R. F. Thomas, Virgil and the Augustan Reception [Cambridge, 2001], 60–62) Postera lux oritur multo gratissima; namque Plotius et Varius Sinuessae Vergiliusque occurrunt, animae, qualis neque candidiores terra tulit, neque quis me sit devinctior alter. O qui conplexus et gaudia quanta fuerunt. Nil ego contulerim iucundo sanus amico. Proxima Campano ponti quae villula, tectum praebuit et parochi, quae debent, ligna salemque. Hinc muli Capuae clitellas tempore ponunt. Lusum it Maecenas, dormitum ego Vergiliusque; namque pila lippis inimicum et ludere crudis.

40

45

Most joyful is the next day’s rising, for at Sinuessa there meet us [40] Plotius, Varius, and Virgil, the most honest souls earth ever bore, to whom none can be more attached than I. O the embracing! O the rejoicing! Nothing, so long as I am in my senses, would I match with the joy a friend may bring. [45] The little house close to the Campanian bridge put a roof above our heads, and the state purveyors, as in duty bound, furnished fuel and salt. Next, at Capua, our mules lay aside their saddlebags at an early hour. Maecenas goes o√ to ball-playing, Virgil and I to sleep, for such play is hard on the sore-eyed and the dyspeptic. (modified by MP)

8

I. VIRGIL THE POET

c. Satires 1.6.52–55 The addressee is Gaius Cilnius Maecenas, counselor of Augustus and patron of Virgil and Propertius as well as of Horace. He was introduced to Horace in 38 b.c.e. and some five years later made a gift to him of property in the Sabine Hills, east of Rome. . . . Felicem dicere non hoc me possim, casu quod te sortitus amicum; nulla etenim mihi te fors obtulit: optimus olim Vergilius, post hunc Varius dixere, quid essem.

Fortunate I could not call myself as having won your friendship by some chance; for it was no case of luck throwing you in my way; that best of men, Virgil, some time ago, and after him Varius, told you what manner of man I was. (modified by MP) d. Satires 1.10.44–45, 81–83 . . . Molle atque facetum Vergilio adnuerunt gaudentes rure Camenae. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Plotius et Varius, Maecenas Vergiliusque, Valgius et probet haec Octavius optimus atque Fuscus et haec utinam Viscorum laudet uterque.

To Virgil the Muses rejoicing in rural life have granted the smooth and the polished. . . . Let but Plotius and Varius approve these verses; let Maecenas, Virgil and Valgius; let Octavius and Fuscus, best of men; and let but the Viscus brothers give their praise. e. Carmina 1.3.1–8 (Text and translation: Horace, The Odes and Epodes, ed. and trans. C. E. Bennett, LCL 33 [1914]) Sic te diva potens Cypri sic fratres Helenae, lucida sidera, ventorumque regat pater obstrictis aliis praeter Iapyga, navis, quae tibi creditum debes Vergilium finibus Atticis: reddas incolumem precor et serves animae dimidium meae.

May the goddess who rules over Cyprus, may Helen’s brothers, gleaming fires, and the father of the winds, confining all but Iapyx, guide you so, O ship, B. CONTEMPORARY RESPONSE

9

which owes to us Virgil entrusted to you, guide you so that you will bring him safe to Attic shores, I pray you, and preserve the half of my own soul. (modified by MP) f. Carmina 1.24.5–12 In this ode Horace laments a friend whom he (like Jerome [see below, II.A.2.a.vi] and the Vita Probi [see below, II.A.7]) calls simply Quintilius, whereas some other sources assign him additionally the cognomen Varus. Jerome makes him a Cremonan by origin, a fact that raises the possibility that he and Virgil were classmates. Alternatively, Quintilius Varus has been conflated with Publius Alfenus Varus. He seems also to have become confused with the poet Varius. (Discussion: R. G. M. Nisbet and M. Hubbard, A Commentary on Horace Odes Book 1 [Oxford, 1975], 278) One twelfth-century school text raises the possibility that Quintilius was actually Virgil’s brother. (Text: K. Friis-Jensen, ‘‘Horatius liricus et ethicus: Two Twelfth-Century School Texts on Horace’s Poems,’’ Cahiers de l’Institut du moyen-âge grec et latin, Université de Copenhague 57 [1988], 118) Ergo Quintilium perpetuus sopor urget; cui Pudor et Iustitiae soror incorrupta Fides nudaque Veritas quando ullum inveniet parem? Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit, nulli flebilior quam tibi, Vergili. Tu frustra pius, heu, non ita creditum poscis Quintilium deos.

Thus does the sleep that knows no waking lie heavy on Quintilius! When shall Honor, and Justice’s sister, Loyalty unshaken, and candid Truth ever find a peer to him? Many are the good who mourn his death; but no one more than you, O Virgil. In vain, despite your fond devotion, do you ask the gods to give Quintilius back, entrusted to this mortal life, alas! on no such terms. (Horace, The Odes and Epodes, ed. and trans. C. E. Bennett, LCL 33 [1914], modified by MP) g. Carmina 4.12.13–28 (Text: Horace, The Odes and Epodes, ed. and trans. C. E. Bennett, LCL 33 [1914]) Adduxere sitim tempora, Vergili. Sed pressum Calibus ducere Liberum si gestis, iuvenum nobilium cliens, nardo vina merebere.

10

I. VIRGIL THE POET

15

Nardi parvus onyx eliciet cadum, qui nunc Sulpiciis accubat horreis, spes donare novas largus amaraque curarum eluere efficax.

20

Ad quae si properas gaudia, cum tua velox merce veni: non ego te meis inmunem meditor tinguere poculis, plena dives ut in domo. Verum pone moras et studium lucri nigrorumque memor, dum licet, ignium misce stultitiam consiliis brevem: dulce est desipere in loco.

25

The season has brought on thirst, Virgil. If you are anxious to broach a vintage pressed at Cales, [15] my protégé of noble youths, you will win the wine with ointment. A small jar of ointment will lure the cask, which now reclines in Sulpicius’s vaults, munificent in giving fresh hopes and [20] adroit at purging the bitterness of cares. If you are in a rush for these festivities, come quickly with your barter. I have no thought, like a wealthy man whose house is full, to share with you my cups’ liquid without a gift. [25] But put aside delays and ambition for gain, and, mindful of the flames that harbor blackness, while the chance remains blend fleet folly with your wit: sweet is unwisdom at the proper time. (MP) Though there has been debate about whether Horace’s addressee is in fact the poet Virgil, the ancient commentator Porphyrio had no doubt about the attribution, as his remark on the opening line attests: Vergilium adloquitur (he addresses Virgil). The commentator goes on to quote Aeneid 8.403 shortly thereafter (see Pomponi Porfyrionis: Commentum in Horatium Flaccum, ed. A. Holder [Innsbruck, 1894], 155). h. Epistles 2.1.245–47 (Text and translations, items h and i: Horace, Satires, Epistles, and Ars poetica, ed. and trans. H. R. Fairclough, rev. ed., LCL 194 [1929]) At neque dedecorant tua de se iudicia atque munera quae multa dantis cum laude tulerunt dilecti tibi Vergilius Variusque poetae. . . .

But Virgil and Varius, those poets whom you [the emperor Augustus] love, discredit not your judgment of them nor the gifts that, to the giver’s great renown, they have received. . . .

B. CONTEMPORARY RESPONSE

11

i. Ars poetica 53–55 . . . Quid autem Caecilio Plautoque dabit Romanus ademptum Vergilio Varioque?

Why indeed shall Romans grant this license [of adding new words to the Latin language] to Caecilius and Plautus, and refuse it to Virgil and Varius?

3. Agrippa (Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, circa 64–12 b.c.e.) Agrippa was a lifelong friend and adviser, especially in military matters, of Augustus, whose daughter Julia he married in 21 b.c.e. See below, III.B.1.b.

4. Propertius (Sextus Propertius, circa 50–after 16 b.c.e.) Propertius was one of a quartet, along with Gallus (of whose work we have only fragments), his contemporary Tibullus, and the slightly younger Ovid, of writers of subjective erotic elegy during the years of the Augustan principate. His four books date most likely from 28, 25, 22, and 16 b.c.e., respectively. In the quotation below, from Carmina 2.34.59–80, lines 67–76 deal with the Eclogues, 77–78 with the Georgics, and 61–66 with the Aeneid (these are the first allusions to the second and third of Virgil’s works). It is not out of the question that lines 65–66 are tinged with irony, coming as they do from the selfstyled Roman Callimachus, a poet for whom anything ‘‘large’’ was anathema. In any case, the lines (also quoted above, I.A.2) mark at least implicitly the beginning of a tendency to compare the poetic achievements of Homer and Virgil. (For other such juxtapositions, see below, I.C.1.k, I.C.11–12, I.C.13.d, I.C.18, I.C.19.b, I.C.21.c, I.C.25.a, I.C.25.d. The commonplace is attested in the vita and commentary traditions from VSD 46 [see below, II.A.1] and Macrobius, respectively. For a short list of appearances in Medieval Latin literature, see Lexikon des Mittelalters 8 [Stuttgart, 1999], 1525. For discussion of the pairing in late antiquity and the Renaissance, see A. Wlosok, ‘‘Zur Geltung und Beurteilung Vergils und Homers in Spätantike und früher Neuzeit,’’ in idem, Res humanae—res divinae: Kleine Schriften, ed. E. Heck and E. A. Schmidt, Bibliothek der klassischen Altertumswissenschaften NF, 2. Reihe 84 [Heidelberg, 1990], 476–98.) (Text and translation: Propertius, Elegies, ed. and trans. G. P. Goold, LCL 18 [1990]) Me iuvet hesternis positum languere corollis, quem tetigit iactu certus ad ossa deus; Actia Vergilium custodis litora Phoebi, Caesaris et fortes dicere posse rates, 12

I. VIRGIL THE POET

60

qui nunc Aeneae Troiani suscitat arma iactaque Lavinis moenia litoribus. Cedite, Romani scriptores; cedite, Grai: nescioquid maius nascitur Iliade. Tu canis umbrosi subter pineta Galaesi Thyrsin et attritis Daphnin harundinibus, utque decem possint corrumpere mala puellas missus et impressis haedus ab uberibus. Felix, qui vilis pomis mercaris amores! huic licet ingratae Tityrus ipse canat. Felix intactum Corydon qui temptat Alexin agricolae domini carpere delicias! Quamvis ille sua lassus requiescat avena, laudatur facilis inter Hamadryadas. Tu canis Ascraei veteris praecepta poetae, quo seges in campo, quo viret uva iugo. Tale facis carmen docta testudine quale Cynthius impositis temperat articulis.

65

70

75

80

Let it please me to loll amid the garlands of yesterday, [60] for the god of unerring aim has pierced me to the bone; [the pleasure of] Virgil is to be able to sing the shores of Actium with Apollo their guardian and the brave ships of Augustus, Virgil who now stirs up the arms of Trojan Aeneas and the walls founded on the Lavinian shores. [65] Give way, Roman authors; give way, Greeks: something greater than the Iliad is being born. You sing beneath the pinewoods of shady Galaesus, of Thyrsis and Daphnis, with his well-worn pipes, and how ten apples [70] or the gift of a kid fresh from the udder of its dam may lead girls astray. Happy you who can buy your love cheaply with apples! To her, unkind though she be, even Tityrus may sing. Happy Corydon who tries to steal virginal Alexis, the plaything of his rustic master. [75] Though the poet is weary and rests from his piping, he is praised by the compliant nymphs. You sing the precepts of the old bard of Ascra [Hesiod], in what soil flourishes the corn, on what ridge the grape grows green. You accomplish such a song as [80] Apollo attunes with fingers placed upon his skilled lyre. (modified by MP)

5. Domitius Marsus (died after 19 b.c.e.) Domitius Marsus was the premier writer of epigram during the Augustan era. The following couplets form the heading for the Vita Tibulli (Life of Tibullus) in Suetonius, De poetis (On the Poets). (Text: FLP 303–4) B. CONTEMPORARY RESPONSE

13

Te quoque Vergilio comitem non aequa, Tibulle, mors iuvenem campos misit ad Elysios, ne foret aut elegis molles qui fleret amores aut caneret forti regia bella pede.

You also, Tibullus, young as you were, unjust death sent to the Elysian fields as companion to Virgil, so that there would not be anyone to weep for soft loves in elegiac verse or with brave beat [that is, in hexameters] to sing the battles of kings. (MP) C. LATER INFLUENCE AND IMPORTANCE

1. Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso, 43 b.c.e.–17 c.e.) Born at Sulmo, in the Abruzzi mountains, Ovid spent his life in Rome but was exiled by Augustus in 8 c.e. to Tomis, on the Black Sea, where he died, probably in 17. He is the author of numerous works, including the Amores, probably first published between 25 and 16 b.c.e., with a second edition around 1 b.c.e.; Heroides, love letters of ‘‘heroines’’ and, in three cases, their lovers’ initiating epistles, written between 16 and 1 b.c.e. (the authenticity of some is debated); Ars amatoria and Remedia amoris, three books followed by a single one, on the art of love and the cure for love, circa 1 b.c.e.–2 c.e.; Metamorphoses, an epic in fifteen books, on ‘‘changes,’’ circa 8 c.e., but perhaps revised after the pronouncement of, or during, the poet’s exile; Fasti, a versified ‘‘calendar’’ of six books devoted to the first six months of the year, circa 8 c.e.; poetry written in exile: Tristia, five books of ‘‘sadnesses,’’ written circa 9–12 c.e., and Epistulae ex Ponto, four volumes of letters from Pontus, circa 13–16 c.e. A generation younger than Virgil, Ovid was the first author to experience the earlier poet’s three masterpieces as canonical texts. He rivals Virgil generically in only three works, the didactic Ars amatoria and Fasti, and the epic Metamorphoses. (The last is Ovid’s only poem written in dactylic hexameter, the sole meter that Virgil employs.) But, however di√erent they are in content and tone from their Virgilian counterparts, the challenge Virgil presented to Ovid’s own brilliant imagination was an important part of their begetting. (See J. Farrell, ‘‘Ovid’s Virgilian Career,’’ Materiali e discussioni per l’analisi dei testi classici 52 [2004], 41–55.) a. Amores 1.15.25–26 (Text, items a–e: Ovid, Amores, Medicamina faciei femineae, Ars amatoria, Remedia amoris, ed. E. J. Kenney, 2nd ed., OCT [1995])

14

I. VIRGIL THE POET

Tityrus et fruges Aeneiaque arma legentur, Roma triumphati dum caput orbis erit . . .

Tityrus and crops and the arms of Aeneas will be read as long as Rome will be head of the world she has conquered. . . . (MP) Already at Amores 1.1.1 Arma (arms), as the opening word of an hexameter, is a signpost for epic and for the Aeneid in particular, as the remainder of the distich makes clear. b. Amores 3.15.7 Mantua Vergilio gaudet, Verona Catullo. . . .

Mantua rejoices in Virgil, Verona in Catullus. (MP) c. Ars amatoria 3.337–38 . . . et profugum Aenean, altae primordia Romae, quo nullum Latio clarius extat opus.

. . . and exiled Aeneas, origin of lofty Rome, than which no more famous work has appeared in Latium. (MP) d. Remedia amoris 367–68 Et tua sacrilegae laniarunt carmina linguae, pertulit huc victos quo duce Troia deos.

You also, under whose leadership Troy conveyed her conquered gods here, your poems impious tongues have mutilated. (MP) e. Remedia amoris 395–96 Tantum se nobis elegi debere fatentur, quantum Vergilio nobile debet epos.

Elegy admits it owes to me as much as noble epic owes to Virgil. (MP) f. Tristia 2.533–38 Tristia 2 is Ovid’s book-length defense, addressed to Augustus, for his writing of erotic verse. Hence he allows himself a salacious take on the Aeneid. (Text, items f–h: Ovid, Tristia. Ex Ponto, ed. and trans. A. L. Wheeler, LCL 151 [1924]) Et tamen ille tuae felix Aeneidos auctor contulit in Tyrios arma virumque toros nec legitur pars ulla magis de corpore toto quam non legitimo foedere iunctus amor.

C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

15

Phyllidis hic idem teneraeque Amaryllidis ignes bucolicis iuvenis luserat ante modis.

And yet the blessed author of your Aeneid brought his ‘‘arms and the man’’ to a Tyrian couch, nor is any part of the whole work more read than the love consummated in an illegitimate union [between Dido and Aeneas]. The same man had as a youth written in the measures of pastoral playful verse of the passion of Phyllis and tender Amaryllis. (modified by MP) g. Tristia 4.10.51–52 Vergilium vidi tantum: nec avara Tibullo tempus amicitiae fata dedere meae.

Virgil I only saw, and greedy fate gave to Tibullus no time for friendship with me. (modified by MP) Compare the epigram of Domitius Marsus (see above, I.B.5), on the deaths of Virgil and Tibullus. h. Epistulae ex Ponto 3.4.83–86 Res quoque tanta fuit, quantae subsistere summo Aeneadum vati grande fuisset onus. Ferre etiam molles elegi tam vasta triumphi pondera disparibus non potuere rotis.

The theme too was great enough to have formed a heavy burden even for the mighty bard of the Aeneadae. Moreover soft elegiacs could not support the weight of so vast a triumph [for Tiberius’s putative victory over the Germans] upon their uneven wheels. (modified by MP) i. Ovid’s ‘‘Aeneid’’ (Metamorphoses 13.623–14.608) (Text and translations: Ovid, Metamorphoses, ed. and trans. F. J. Miller, 3rd ed., rev. G. P. Goold, vol. 2, LCL 43 [1984]) i. The journey from Troy (Metamorphoses 13.623–39, 705–34) ii. Dido (Metamorphoses 14.75–81) Hunc ubi Troianae remis avidamque Charybdin evicere rates, cum iam prope litus adessent Ausonium, Libycas vento referuntur ad oras. Excipit Aenean illic animoque domoque non bene discidium Phrygii latura mariti Sidonis; inque pyra sacri sub imagine facta incubuit ferro deceptaque decipit omnes. 16

I. VIRGIL THE POET

75

80

[75] When the Trojan vessels had successfully passed this monster [Scylla] and greedy Charybdis too, and when they had almost reached the Ausonian shore, the wind bore them to the Libyan coast. There the Sidonian woman received Aeneas hospitably in heart and home, doomed ill to endure her Phrygian lord’s departure. [80] On a pyre, built under pretense of sacred rites, she fell upon his sword; and so, herself disappointed, she disappointed all. iii. Sicily, Ischia, Cumae (Metamorphoses 14.82–106) iv. Sibyl and Anchises (Metamorphoses 14.106–19) . . . At illa diu vultum tellure moratum erexit tandemque deo furibunda recepto ‘‘magna petis,’’ dixit, ‘‘vir factis maxime, cuius dextera per ferrum, pietas spectata per ignes. Pone tamen, Troiane, metum: potiere petitis Elysiasque domos et regna novissima mundi me duce cognosces simulacraque cara parentis. Invia virtuti nulla est via.’’ Dixit et auro fulgentem ramum silva Iunonis Avernae monstravit iussitque suo divellere trunco. Paruit Aeneas et formidabilis Orci vidit opes atavosque suos umbramque senilem magnanimi Anchisae; didicit quoque iura locorum, quaeque novis essent adeunda pericula bellis.

110

115

The Sibyl held her eyes long fixed upon the earth, then lifted them at last and, full of mad inspiration from her god, replied: ‘‘Great things do you ask, you man of mighty deeds, whose hand, by sword, whose piety, by fire, has been well tried. [110] But have no fear Trojan; you shall have your wish, and with my guidance you shall see the dwellings of Elysium and the latest kingdom of the universe; and you shall see your dear father’s shade. There is no way denied to virtue.’’ She spoke and showed him, deep in Avernal Juno’s forest, a bough gleaming with gold, [115] and bade him pluck it from its trunk. Aeneas obeyed; then saw grim Orcus’s possessions, and his own ancestral shades, and the aged spirit of the great-souled Anchises. He learned also the laws of those places, and what perils he himself must undergo in new wars. v. Caieta (Metamorphoses 14.154–57, 441–44) Talia convexum per iter memorante Sibylla sedibus Euboicam Stygiis emergit in urbem

155

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17

Troius Aeneas sacrisque ex more litatis litora adit nondum nutricis habentia nomen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . urnaque Aeneia nutrix condita marmorea tumulo breve carmen habebat: ‘‘Hic me Caietam notae pietatis alumnus ereptam Argolico quo debuit igne cremavit.’’

While thus along the hollow way the Sibyl told her story, [155] out of the Stygian world they emerged near the Euboean city. Making due sacrifices here, Trojan Aeneas next landed on a shore that did not yet bear his nurse’s name . . . and Aeneas’s nurse, buried in a marble urn, had a brief epitaph carved on her tomb: ‘‘Here me, Caieta, snatched from Grecian flames, my pious son consumed with fitting fire.’’ vi. Arrival at Tiber and war (Metamorphoses 14.445–58) Solvitur herboso religatus ab aggere funis, et procul insidias infamataeque relinquunt tecta deae lucosque petunt, ubi nubilus umbra in mare cum flava prorumpit Thybris harena; Faunigenaeque domo potitur nataque Latini, non sine Marte tamen. Bellum cum gente feroci suscipitur, pactaque furit pro coniuge Turnus. Concurrit Latio Tyrrhenia tota, diuque ardua sollicitis victoria quaeritur armis. Auget uterque suas externo robore vires, et multi Rutulos, multi Troiana tuentur castra, neque Aeneas Evandri ad moenia frustra, at Venulus frustra profugi Diomedis ad urbem venerat. . . .

445

450

455

[445] Loosing their cables from the grass-grown shore, they kept far out from the treacherous island, the home of the ill-famed goddess, and headed for the wooded coast where shady Tiber pours forth his yellow, silt-laden waters into the sea. There did Aeneas win the daughter and the throne of Latinus, Faunus’s son; [450] but not without a struggle. War with a fierce race is waged, and Turnus fights madly for his promised bride. All Etruria rushes to battleshock with Latium, and with long and anxious struggle hard victory is sought. Both sides augment their strength by outside aid; [455] and many defend the Rutuli and many the Trojan camp. Aeneas had not gone in vain to Evander’s home, but Venulus had vainly sought the city of the exiled Diomede. 18

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vii. Return of legates, metamorphosis of Aeneas’s ships, Aeneas’s final victory (Metamorphoses 14.566–77) Spes erat, in nymphas animata classe marinas posse metu monstri Rutulum desistere bello: perstat, habetque deos pars utraque, quodque deorum est instar, habent animos; nec iam dotalia regna, nec sceptrum soceri, nec te, Lavinia virgo, sed vicisse petunt deponendique pudore bella gerunt, tandemque Venus victricia nati arma videt, Turnusque cadit: cadit Ardea, Turno sospite dicta potens; quam postquam barbarus ensis abstulit et tepida latuerunt tecta favilla, congerie e media tum primum cognita praepes subvolat et cineres plausis everberat alis.

570

575

After the fleet had been changed to living water nymphs, there was hope that the Rutuli, in awe of the portent, would desist from war. But the war went on, and both sides had their gods to aid them, and, what is as good as gods, they had courage, too. And now neither a kingdom given in dowry, [570] nor the scepter of a father-in-law, nor you, Lavinian maiden, did they seek, but only victory, and they wage war out of shame of backing away. At length Venus saw her son’s arms victorious, and Turnus fell. Ardea fell, counted a powerful city in Turnus’s lifetime. But after the barbarian sword had killed him [575] and the city’s warm ash hid its ruins, from the confused mass a bird flew forth of a kind never seen before, and beat the ashes with its flapping wings. viii. Deification of Aeneas (Metamorphoses 14.598–608) . . . litus adit Laurens, ubi tectus harundine serpit in freta flumineis vicina Numicius undis. hunc iubet Aeneae, quaecumque obnoxia morti, abluere et tacito deferre sub aequora cursu; corniger exsequitur Veneris mandata suisque, quicquid in Aenea fuerat mortale, repurgat et respersit aquis; pars optima restitit illi. Lustratum genetrix divino corpus odore unxit et ambrosia cum dulci nectare mixta contigit os fecitque deum, quem turba Quirini nuncupat Indigitem temploque arisque recepit.

600

605

[Venus] came to the Laurentian coast, where the river Numicius, winding through beds of sheltering reeds, pours its fresh waters into the neighboring C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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sea. [600] She bade the river god wash away from Aeneas all his mortal part and carry it down in his silent stream into the ocean depths. The horned god obeyed Venus’s command and in his waters cleansed and washed quite away whatever was mortal in Aeneas. His best part remained to him. [605] His mother sprinkled his body and anointed it with divine perfume, touched his lips with ambrosia and sweet nectar mixed, and so made him a god, whom the Roman populace styled Indiges and honored with temple and with sacrifice. Ovid o√ers the first attempt to bring closure to the complex ending of Virgil’s epic. For detailed analyses of his ‘‘Aeneid’’ see J. Solodow, The World of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Chapel Hill, 1988), 110–56; S. Casali, ‘‘Altre voci nell’ ‘Aeneide’ di Ovidio,’’ Materiali e discussioni per l’analisi dei testi classici 35 (1995), 59–76; S. Hinds, Allusion and Intertext (Cambridge, 1998), 104–7; R. Thomas, Virgil and the Augustan Reception (Cambridge, 2001), 78–83. j. The Story of Anna Perenna (Fasti 3.523–656) We o√er a representative selection. (Text and translations: Ovid, Fasti, ed. and trans. J. G. Frazer, LCL 253 [1951]) i. Anna, Dido’s sister, departs from Carthage (Fasti 3.545–60) Arserat Aeneae Dido miserabilis igne, arserat exstructis in sua fata rogis; compositusque cinis, tumulique in marmore carmen hoc breve, quod moriens ipsa reliquit, erat: praebuit Aeneas et causam mortis et ensem. Ipsa sua Dido concidit usa manu. Protinus invadunt Numidae sine vindice regnum, et potitur capta Maurus Iarba domo, seque memor spretum, ‘‘thalamis tamen’’ inquit ‘‘Elissae en ego, quem totiens reppulit illa, fruor.’’ Diffugiunt Tyrii, quo quemque agit error, ut olim amisso dubiae rege vagantur apes. Tertia nudandas acceperat area messes, inque cavos ierant tertia musta lacus: pellitur Anna domo lacrimansque sororia linquit moenia: germanae iusta dat ante suae.

545

550

555

560

[545] Poor Dido had burned with the fire of love for Aeneas; she had burned, too, on a pyre built for her doom. Her ashes were collected, and on the marble of her tomb was this short stanza, which she herself dying had left: Aeneas caused her death and lent the blade: [550] Dido by her own hand in dust was 20

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laid. Straightway the Numidians invaded the defenseless realm, and Iarbas the Moor captured and took possession of the palace; and remembering how she had spurned his suit, ‘‘Lo, now,’’ quoth he, ‘‘I enjoy Elissa’s bridal bower, I whom she so often repelled.’’ [555] The Tyrians fled hither and thither as each one chanced to stray, even as bees often wander doubtingly when they have lost their king. For the third time the reaped corn had been carried to the threshing floor to be stripped of the husk, and for the third time the new wine had poured into the hollow vats, when Anna was driven from home and, weeping, left her sister’s walls; [560] but first she paid the honors due to her dead sister. ii. Flight to Melita, then to Latium (Fasti 3.601–18) Iam pius Aeneas regno nataque Latini auctus erat, populos miscueratque duos. Litore dotali solo comitatus Achate secretum nudo dum pede carpit iter, aspicit errantem nec credere sustinet Annam esse: ‘‘Quid in Latios illa veniret agros?’’ Dum secum Aeneas, ‘‘Anna est!’’ exclamat Achates: ad nomen voltus sustulit illa suos. Heu! Fugiat? Quid agat? Quos terrae quaerat hiatus? Ante oculos miserae fata sororis erant. Sensit et adloquitur trepidam Cythereius heros (Flet tamen admonitu motus, Elissa, tui): ‘‘Anna, per hanc iuro, quam quondam audire solebas tellurem fato prosperiore dari, perque deos comites, hac nuper sede locatos, saepe meas illos increpuisse moras. Nec timui de morte tamen, metus abfuit iste. ei mihi! credibili fortior illa fuit. . . .’’

605

610

615

By this time pious Aeneas had gained the kingdom and the daughter of Latinus and had blended the two peoples. While, accompanied by Achates alone, he paced barefoot a lonely path on the shore with which his wife had dowered him, [605] he spied Anna wandering, nor could he bring himself to think that it was she. Why should she come into the Latin land? thought he to himself. Meantime, ‘‘It’s Anna!’’ cried Achates. At the sound of the name she looked up. Alas! should she flee? what should she do? where should she look for the earth to yawn for her? [610] Her hapless sister’s fate rose up before her eyes. The Cytherian hero perceived her distress and accosted her; yet did he weep, C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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touched by memory of you, Elissa. ‘‘Anna, by this land that in days gone by you used to hear a happier fate had granted me; [615] and by the gods who followed me and here of late have found a home, I swear that they did chide my loiterings. Nor yet did I dread her death; far from me was that fear. Woe’s me! her courage surpassed belief. . . .’’ iii. Deification at the Numicius (Fasti 3.653–54) Ipsa loqui visa est ‘‘placidi sum nympha Numici: amne perenne latens Anna Perenna vocor.’’

[She] herself appeared to speak: ‘‘I am a nymph of the calm Numicius. In a perennial river I hide, and Anna Perenna is my name.’’ k. [pseudo-Ovid], Argumenta Aeneidis, praefatio 1–4 These spurious verses, which purport to be by Ovid but are clearly later, preface a series of summaries of the twelve books of the Aeneid. They are to be found in one of the most famous of the early manuscripts of Virgil, Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. lat. 3867, dating from the fifth century (for further detail see below, II.F.3.g). They bring to the surface the emulation of, and parallelisms between, the later poet and the earlier, at which Ovid himself hints, especially in the exilic poetry. The couplets also exemplify the ‘‘inferiority’’ topos initiated by Statius (see below, I.C.21). (Text: AL [1982], 1, no. 1) Vergilius magno quantum concessit Homero, tantum ego Vergilio, Naso poeta, meo. Nec me praelatum cupio tibi ferre, poeta; ingenio si te subsequor, hoc satis est.

As much as Virgil yielded to mighty Homer, so much do I, the poet Ovid, [yield] to my Virgil. Nor is it my wish to relate that I am preferred to you, O poet. If my talent is second to yours, this is su≈cient. (MP)

2. ‘‘Ille ego qui quondam gracili modulatus avena’’ The verses that follow this incipit (I am he who once tuned my song on a slender reed), probably Tiberian in date (14–37 c.e.), are found in Aelius Donatus’s Vita Vergilii (Life of Virgil, VSD 42; see below, II.A.1) and in Servius’s preface to his commentary on the Aeneid (Thilo-Hagen 1.2). Donatus writes that the grammaticus (teacher of language) Nisus (first century c.e.) had heard a senioribus (from older people) that Varius had eliminated the verses from the opening of Aeneid 1. The opening phrase, ille ego qui, is used three times by Ovid (Tristia 4.10.1 [9–12 c.e.], Epistulae ex Ponto 1.2.131 [13 c.e.], and 4.3.13 [circa 16 c.e.]), 22

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as well as by Statius (Silvae 5.5.38 [95 c.e.]). R. A. B. Mynors (ed., P. Vergili Maronis: Opera, OCT [1969], xii n. 2) refers with approval to the suggestion of E. Brandt (‘‘Zum Aeneis-Prooemium,’’ Philologus 83 [1927–28], 331–35) that the lines were placed under an e≈gy of the poet at the start of a volumen of his work, but R. G. Austin (‘‘Ille Ego Qui Quondam,’’ Classical Quarterly 18 [1968], 107–15) doubts Brandt’s suggestion, because such an ‘‘inscription’’ should be self-contained and not end in midsentence. (Further discussion: R. G. Austin, ed., P. Vergili Maronis: Aeneidos: Liber Primus [Oxford, 1971], 25– 27, on Aeneid 1.1–7, with further bibliography; P. A. Hansen, ‘‘Ille Ego Qui Quondam . . . Once Again,’’ Classical Quarterly 22 [1972], 139–49; J. Fairweather, ‘‘Ovid’s Autobiographical Poem, Tristia 4.10,’’ Classical Quarterly 37 [1987], 181–96, especially 187; S. Koster, Ille ego qui: Dichter zwischen Wort und Macht [Erlangen, 1988]; L. Gamberale, ‘‘Preproemio,’’ EV 4, 259–61) For images of the poet attached to manuscripts, see Martial 14.186 (quoted below, I.C.20.t). On Arma virum(que) as a tag for the opening of the Aeneid, and therefore for the epic as a whole, or at least as important words, see for example Propertius 2.34.63 (quoted above, I.B.4); Ovid, Tristia 2.534 (quoted above, I.C.1.f); Seneca, Epistulae morales (Moral Epistles) 113.25 (see below, I.C.7); Persius, Satires 1.96; and Martial 8.55(56).19 (see below, I.C.20.k) and 14.185.2 (see below, I.C.20.s). Compare Macrobius, Saturnalia 5.2.8. Augustine (De musica 3.2.3) calls the epic’s opening words pervulgatissima (he refers to the poem’s initial lines also at 4.16.31, 5.3.3, and 5.9). Ovid’s indirect allusion to Aeneid 1.1 at Amores 1.1.1–2 assumes his reader’s knowledge of the opening line of the epic for appreciation of his wit: Arma gravi numero violentaque bella parabam / edere . . .

Arms, and the violent deeds of war, I was making ready to sound forth—in weighty numbers . . . (Discussion: G. B. Conte, The Rhetoric of Imitation: Genre and Poetic Memory in Virgil and Other Latin Poets [Ithaca, 1986], 85–86) (See also I.C.15, I.C.31.c.i, I.C.55, I.C.57, I.D.3, II.A.1, II.A.3, II.A.12, II.A.23, II.A.35, II.A.37, II.A.38, III.A.5.b, IV.F, IV.O, IV.X.3.b.) (Text and translation: Ovid, Heroides and Amores, ed. and trans. G. Showerman [New York, 1931]; 2nd ed., rev. G. P. Goold, LCL 41 [1977]) In the grammatical tradition, Arma virumque became emblematic of all articulate utterance. It appears at the opening of Priscian’s extremely influential Institutiones grammaticae (1.1, ed. GL 2 [1859] 5): Vocis autem differentiae sunt quattuor: articulata, inarticulata, literata, illiterata. Articulata est, quae coartata, hoc est copulata cum aliquo sensu mentis eius, qui loquitur, profertur. Inarticulata est contraria, quae a nullo C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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affectu proficiscitur mentis. Literata est, quae scribi potest, illiterata, quae scribi non potest. Inveniuntur igitur quaedam voces articulatae, quae possunt scribi et intellegi, ut: ‘‘Arma virumque cano.’’

There are four di√erent kinds of utterance: articulate, inarticulate, literate, and illiterate. The articulate is that which is pronounced with a close fit, which is to say, connected with some mental sense of the person who speaks. Inarticulate is the opposite, which emanates from no mental viewpoint. Literate is that which can be written; illiterate, that which cannot be written. Therefore certain utterances are devised to be articulate, which can be written and understood, as ‘‘Of arms and the man I sing.’’ (JZ) Inspired by Priscian, the early-eleventh-century schoolmaster Egbert of Liège incorporated a short poem on the same topic into his verse textbook, the Fecunda ratis (The Richly Laden Ship) (1 [‘‘Prora’’ (The Prow)], lines 1545– 48, ed. E. Voigt [Halle an der Saale, 1889], 194–95). Including the Virgilian tag in his own incipit, Egbert wrote: De quattuor vocibus ‘‘Arma virumque cano’’ commendat scire caracter; Mugitum et strepitum nec mens nec littera prodit; Sibilus et gemitus nam scire datur sine scripto; Quamuis sint elementa ‘‘coax,’’ non scire potes quid.

On the Four Forms of Utterance Writing commits to knowledge ‘‘Of arms and the man I sing’’: neither the mind nor the written letter transmits bellowing or noise; indeed, it is granted to know hissing and moaning without writing; although there may be elements in a [frog’s] ‘‘croak,’’ you cannot know what they are. (JZ) An amusing and emphatic instance of play on the opening of the Aeneid appears in the fourth-century Epigrammata Bobiensia (see below, III.E.3), no. 47. (Text: W. Speyer, ed., Bibliotheca Teubneriana [Leipzig, 1963], 58) De matrimonio grammatici infausto ‘‘Arma virumque’’ docens atque ‘‘Arma virumque’’ peritus non duxi uxorem, sed magis arma domum. Namque dies totos totasque ex ordine noctes litibus oppugnat meque meumque larem atque ut perpetuis dotata [a] matre duellis arma in me tollit nec datur ulla quies. Iamque repugnanti dedam me, ut denique victus iurger ob hoc solum, iurgia quod fugiam.

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I. VIRGIL THE POET

On the Unfortunate Marriage of a Grammarian Teaching ‘‘Of arms and the man’’ and expert in ‘‘Of arms and the man’’ I brought home not a wife but rather arms. Indeed, every day and every night in succession she assaults me and my dwelling with strife, and, as if dowried by her mother with uninterrupted war, she bears arms against me and no rest is granted. So I will surrender to her as she opposes me, so that conquered at last I may be scolded for this alone, that I take flight from quarrels. (JZ) On a larger scale, the tripartite division of Virgil’s works, with their three di√ering subjects and styles, initiates a pattern that from then on was followed in diverse ways by both Virgil’s poetic emulators and his interpreters (see below, IV.S and IV.X). For a manuscript that reveals how the questionable attribution of these ‘‘opening lines’’ was sometimes reflected in their placement on folios with the text of the Aeneid, see VME 43, plate 2. (Text and translation: Fairclough 1:261) Ille ego qui quondam gracili modulatus avena carmen et egressus silvis vicina coegi ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono, gratum opus agricolis, at nunc horrentia Martis . . .

I am he who once tuned my song on a slender reed, then, leaving the woodland, compelled the neighboring fields to serve the husbandman, however grasping, a work welcome to farmers: but now of Mars’s bristling . . .

3. Appendix Vergiliana According to Aelius Donatus (VSD 17–19; see below, II.A.1), Virgil in his youth wrote, among other poems, Catalepton et Priapea et Epigrammata et Diras, item Cirim et Culicam, cum esset annorum XXVI . . . scripsit etiam de qua ambiguitur Aetnam (Catalepton and poems to Priapus and Epigrams and Dirae, likewise the Ciris and the Culex, when he was twenty-six. . . . He also wrote the Aetna, whose authenticity is in doubt). With additional shorter poems these were collected and transmitted as a unity under the title Appendix Vergiliana. Two of the Catalepton, addressed to Varius and Tucca, may be genuine, as may be another pair addressed to Octavius Musa, who was linked by Horace with Varius, Tucca, and Virgil at Satires 1.10.81–82 (see above, I.B.2.d). The total Appendix in modern editions consists of thirteen poems. The order of the Oxford Classical Text (ed. W. Clausen, F. Goodyear, E. J. Kenney, and J. Richmond [Oxford, 1967]) is as follows: Dirae (Curses), Lydia (a lover’s lament), Culex (brief epic on a gnat killed by a shepherd whose life he C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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had saved), Aetna (on the Sicilian volcano), Copa (on the hostess of an inn for travelers), Elegiae in Maecenatem (laments on the death of Maecenas, patron of Virgil, Horace, and Propertius and confidant of Augustus), Ciris (another brief epic telling of the daughter of Nisus of Megara, who betrays her father out of love for Minos and su√ers transformation into a bird), Priapea (poems to the salacious god of gardens), Catalepton (from the Greek for ‘‘slender’’ or ‘‘trifling’’: a motley grouping of generally brief poems on a variety of topics), Moretum (The Ploughman’s Lunch), De est et non (On [the Pythagorean] Yes and No), De institutione viri boni (On the Good Man), and De rosis nascentibus (On Budding Roses). Apart from the Appendix Vergiliana, the number of pseudepigrapha that circulated under Virgil’s name remained modest, especially in comparison with Ovid. Yet there were occasional pseudo-Virgiliana. For instance, Ademar of Chabannes, who flourished around 988–1034, classed a ‘‘Debate of Spring and Winter’’ (Conflictus veris et hiemis) as Virgil’s, and a death lament for Emperor Henry III, with the incipit Caesar, tantus eras, quantus et orbis (Caesar, you were as great as is the world), was taken to be a lament for Augustus (see below, V.T). (For other pseudo-Virgiliana, see below, V.R.) By the time of Lucan (see below, I.C.9) and, a generation later, of Martial and Statius (see below, I.C.20, I.C.21), the Culex was considered the creation of the young Virgil. Its genuineness is doubted by most modern scholars, not least because of its apparent echoes of Ovid. But, as the mock-epic story of an insect’s ‘‘heroic’’ death while saving a shepherd’s life, and of his adventures in the underworld, it is plausibly considered the first extant example of poetic parody of Virgil. Since its opening line seems to echo the initial verse or verses of both the sixth Eclogue and the spurious but near-contemporary introductory lines to the Aeneid quoted above, the parody embraces both Virgilian pastoral and epic. The introductory hexameters (1–10) of the Culex are addressed to an Octavius who is perhaps to be understood as Octavianus, the future Augustus. (Text and translation: Fairclough) (MP and JZ) Lusimus, Octavi, gracili modulante Thalia atque ut araneoli tenuem formavimus orsum; lusimus: haec propter culicis sint carmina docta, omnis ut historiae per ludum consonet ordo notitiaeque ducum voces, licet invidus adsit. quisquis erit culpare iocos Musamque paratus, pondere vel culicis levior famaque feratur. posterius graviore sono tibi Musa loquetur nostra, dabunt cum securos mihi tempora fructus, ut tibi digna tuo poliantur carmina sensu. 26

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We have trifled, Octavius, while a slender Muse marked the measure, and lo! like tiny spiders, have fashioned our thin-spun task. We have trifled: let our Gnat’s song be a learned one, that for all its sportive mood the whole plot of the story and the speeches of the heroes be consistent with tradition, whatever carping critic be present. Let the man ready to blame our playful Muse be deemed lighter than even our Gnat in weight and name. In time to come our Muse will speak to you in graver tones, when the seasons yield me their fruits in peace, that you may find her verses polished and worthy of your taste.

4. Seneca the Elder (Lucius Annaeus Seneca, circa 50 b.c.e.–circa 40 c.e.) Seneca the Elder, so called to distinguish him from his illustrious son who bore the same name, came to Rome at an early age from Corduba (modern Córdoba). Of his writings we have preserved, virtually complete, five books of Controversiae, hypothetical cases-at-law debated as part of forensic training, and one of Suasoriae, rhetorical exercises in the form of public orations imagined given at particular historical events. Both works, also known collectively as the Declamationes, were probably written in the fourth decade of the first century c.e. (MP) a. Controversiae 3, praefatio 8 In this excerpt and the one that follows, Seneca is addressing his three sons. (Text and translation: Seneca the Elder, Declamations, ed. and trans. M. Winterbottom, vol. 1, LCL 463 [1974]) Ciceronem eloquentia sua in carminibus destituit; Vergilium illa felicitas ingenii in oratione soluta reliquit. . . .

Cicero lost his eloquence when he wrote poetry, the felicity of Virgil’s touch deserted him in prose. . . . b. Controversiae 7.1.27 (Text and translations, items b, d, and e: Seneca the Elder, Declamations, ed. and trans. M. Winterbottom, vol. 2, LCL 464 [1974]) Montanus Iulius, qui comes fuit [Tiberii], egregius poeta, aiebat illum imitari voluisse Vergili descriptionem: nox erat et terras animalia fessa per omnis, alituum pecudumque genus, sopor altus habebat [Aeneid 8.26–27].

At Vergilio imitationem bene cessisse, qui illos optimos versos Varronis expressisset in melius: desierant latrare canes urbesque silebant; omnia noctis erant placida composta quiete [frag. 10, FPL, 242–43]. C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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Julius Montanus, who was a friend [of Tiberius] and an outstanding poet, said that [Cestius] had intended to imitate Virgil’s description: ‘‘It was night, and over all the earth tired creatures, birds and beasts, were held in deep sleep.’’ Virgil, however, had [according to Montanus] been fortunate in his imitation, for he had rendered for the better those excellent lines of Varro [of Atax]: ‘‘Dogs had ceased to bark, the cities were still, everything was settled in the quiet calm of night.’’ c. Suasoriae 1.12 On Maecenas praising the quality of Virgil’s restraint in Aeneid 10.128 and 8.691–92. d. Suasoriae 2.20 On Virgil’s excellence in turning the catch phrase belli mora concidit Hector. Sed, ut sciatis sensum bene dictum dici tamen posse melius, notate prae ceteris quanto decentius Vergilius dixerit hoc quod valde erat celebre, ‘‘belli mora concidit Hector’’ [FLP 331]: Quidquid ad adversae cessatum est moenia Troiae, Hectoris Aeneaeque manu victoria Graium haesit [Aeneid 11.288–90].

Messala aiebat hic Vergilium debuisse desinere quod sequitur: et in decimum vestigia rettulit annum [Aeneid 11.290]

explementum esse; Maecenas hoc etiam priori conparabat.

But, to let you see that a well-expressed idea can all the same find a better expression, notice particularly how much more fittingly Virgil put this popular phrase, ‘‘Hector, brake on war, has fallen’’: ‘‘Whatever pause there was by the walls of hostile Troy, it was by Hector’s hand and Aeneas’s that victory was stayed for the Greeks.’’ Messalla used to say that Virgil should have stopped there, and that what follows, ‘‘and retreated from them till the tenth year,’’ is merely a stopgap. Maecenas thought this as good as what goes before. e. Suasoriae 3.4–7 On various imitations of Virgil, in particular 3.7. Hoc autem dicebat Gallio Nasoni suo valde placuisse; itaque fecisse illud quod in multis aliis versibus Vergilii fecerat, non subripiendi causa, sed palam mutuandi, hoc animo ut vellet agnosci; esse autem in tragoedia eius: Feror huc illuc, vae, plena deo [Medea, frag. 2, in Tragicorum Romanorum fragmenta, ed. O. Ribbeck (Leipzig, 1897)]. 28

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Gallio used to say that his friend Ovid had liked [the phrase plena deo, not found in Virgil’s extant work] very much and as a result had done with it what he had done with many other verses of Virgil, not intending to filch it, but rather to borrow it openly in order for his borrowing to be noticed. Indeed in his tragedy there is ‘‘Alas, I am borne here and there, filled with the god.’’ (MP) f. Suasoriae 4.5 On the quality of Aeneid 4.379–80 and 2.553. g. Suasoriae, frag. 3 (Text: VSD 29, in VVA, 30–31) . . . ut Seneca tradidit Iulium Montanum poetam solitum dicere, involaturum se Vergilio quaedam, si et vocem posset et os et hypocrisin: eosdem enim versus ipso pronuntiante bene sonare, sine illo inanes esse mutosque.

. . . but then Seneca relates what the poet Iulius Montanus was wont to say, that there were certain things he would steal from Virgil, if he could also have his voice, appearance, and delivery: for indeed, lines that sounded well when Virgil himself read them were lifeless and flat without him. (DWO and JZ)

5. Velleius Paterculus (circa 20 b.c.e.–circa 30 c.e.) Velleius, soldier and partisan of the emperor Tiberius, is the author of a twovolume history (Historiae) of Greece and Rome, written circa 30 c.e. From Historiae 2.36 (Text and translation: Velleius Paterculus, [Historiae], ed. and trans. F. W. Shipley, LCL 152 [1924]): Paene stulta est inhaerentium oculis ingeniorum enumeratio, inter quae maxime nostri aevi eminent princeps carminum Vergilius Rabiriusque et consecutus Sallustium Livius Tibullusque et Naso, perfectissimi in forma operis sui.

It is almost folly to enumerate men of talent who are beneath our eyes, among whom the most important in our age are Virgil, the prince of poets, [Gaius] Rabirius [see Ovid, Ex Ponto 4.16.5], Livy, who follows close upon Sallust, Tibullus, and Naso [Ovid], each of whom achieved perfection in his own branch of literature.

6. Quintus Remmius Palaemon (flourished under Tiberius [died 37 c.e.] and Claudius) Remmius Palaemon, teacher of the satirist Persius (34–62), was a grammarian famed for his hauteur. This piece of self-praise is apparently the first use of a C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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Virgilian name in a manner approaching allegory. Palaemon (Eclogues 3.50– 53) is the judge of a singing contest between the shepherds Menalcas and Damoetas. (Text and translation: Suetonius, De grammaticis 23, in Suetonius, vol. 2, ed. and trans. J. C. Rolfe, LCL 38 [1997]) Arrogantia fuit tanta, ut M. Varronem porcum appellaret; secum et natas et morituras litteras iactaret; nomen suum in Bucolicis non temere positum, sed praesagante Vergilio, fore quandoque omnium poetarum ac poematum Palaemonem iudicem. . . .

He was so presumptuous that he called Marcus Varro a hog; declared that letters were born with him and would die with him; and that it was no accident that his name appeared in the Bucolics, but because Virgil divined that one day a Palaemon would be judge of all poets and poems.

7. Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca, circa 4 b.c.e.–65 c.e.) Philosopher and poet, Seneca was the author of twelve Dialogi (Moral Essays), of uncertain date, and of twenty volumes of Epistulae morales (Moral Epistles), written circa 63–64 c.e. and comprising over a hundred letters. He also wrote a treatise, Naturales quaestiones (Natural Questions), as well as eight tragedies. He dubs Virgil Vergilius noster (our Virgil) on at least seven occasions in the Epistulae (21.5, 70.2, 84.3, 86.15–16, 92.9, 95.68–69, 115.4–5). a. Dialogi 8 = De otio 1.4 On Virgil as vir disertissimus. b. Dialogi 10 = De brevitate vitae 9.2 Here Virgil is unnamed. Seneca draws attention to one of Virgil’s most proverbial, melancholy sentiments, likening human beings and animals through their common mortality. (Text: Seneca, Moral Essays, ed. and trans. J. W. Basore, vol. 2, LCL 254 [1932]) Clamat ecce maximus vates et velut divino instinctus salutare carmen canit Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi prima fugit. . . . [Georgics 3.66–67]

Watch how the greatest bard cries out and, as if inspired with godlike utterance, sings a saving song: ‘‘For poor mortals the best days of our lives are ever the first to flee. . . .’’ (MP)

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c. Dialogi 11 = De consolatione ad Polybium 8.2 Polybius, a freedman of the emperor Claudius, had translated Homer into Latin and Virgil into Greek. (Text and translation: Seneca the Younger, Moral Essays, ed. and trans. J. W. Basore, vol. 2, LCL 254 [1932]) Tunc tibi litterae tuae tam diu ac tam fideliter amatae gratiam referant, tunc te illae antistitem et cultorem suum vindicent, tunc Homerus et Vergilius tam bene de humano genere meriti, quam tu et de illis et de omnibus meruisti, quos pluribus notos esse voluisti quam scripserant, multum tecum morentur; tutum id erit omne tempus, quod illis tuendum commiseris.

Then let your books, so long and so faithfully loved, repay your favor, then let them claim you for their high priest and worshipper, then let Homer and Virgil, to whom the human race owes as much as they and all men owe to you, whom you wished to become known to a wider circle than that for which they wrote, be much in your company; the time that you entrust to their safeguarding will be safe indeed. d. Moral Epistles i. Epistulae morales 21.5 Seneca adopts the depiction of the friends Nisus and Euryalus as an analogy for his friendship with Lucilius and for that of Epicurus with Idomeneus. (Text and translations, items i and ii: Seneca the Younger, Epistulae morales, ed. and trans. R. M. Gummere, vol. 1, LCL 75 [1917]) On the philosopher’s ability to immortalize. Quod Epicurus amico suo potuit promittere, hoc tibi promitto, Lucili. Habebo apud posteros gratiam, possum mecum duratura nomina educere. Vergilius noster duobus memoriam aeternam promisit et praestat: Fortunati ambo! si quid mea carmina possunt, nulla dies umquam memori vos eximet aevo, dum domus Aeneae Capitoli immobile saxum accolet imperiumque pater Romanus habebit [Aeneid 9.446–49].

That which Epicurus could promise his friend, this I promise you, Lucilius. I shall find favor among later generations; I can take with me names that will endure as long as mine. Our poet Virgil promised an eternal name to two [of his figures], and is keeping his promise: Blessed by fortune, both! If my songs have any power, no day will ever draw you away from time that remembers, while the house of Aeneas will rest near the firm rock of the Capitolium and father Romanus will possess ruling power. (modifed by MP)

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ii. Epistulae morales 58.5 After quoting three examples of Virgil’s use of obsolete or archaic language, Seneca o√ers the first recorded evidence that Virgil was used as a canonical text for the teaching of ‘‘grammar’’—a major role he holds henceforth, through the Middle Ages and beyond. See below, I.C.25.c, on Juvenal, Satires 7.225–27. Non id ego nunc hac diligentia, ut ostendam, quantum tempus apud grammaticum perdiderim, sed ut ex hoc intellegas, quantum apud Ennium et Accium verborum situs occupaverit, cum apud hunc quoque, qui cotidie excutitur, aliqua nobis subducta sint.

It is not my purpose to show, by this array of examples, how much time I wasted in the classroom of the grammaticus; I wish you to understand how many words, which were current in the works of Ennius and Accius, have become moldy with age; while even in the case of Virgil, whose works are explored daily, some of his words have been filched away from us. (modified by MP) iii. Epistulae morales 58.20 On an artist’s rendering of Virgil with coloribus. See below, II.F.1.a. iv. Epistulae morales 86.15 (Text and translation: Seneca the Younger, Epistulae morales, ed. and trans. R. M. Gummere, vol. 1, LCL 75 [1917]) Te quoque proteget illa, quae tarda venit seris factura nepotibus umbram [Georgics 2.59],

ut ait Vergilius noster, qui non quid verissime, sed quid decentissime diceretur aspexit nec agricolas docere voluit, sed legentes delectare.

And you too will be shaded by that tree which ‘‘slow of growth will produce shade for grandsons to come,’’ as our Virgil says. Virgil sought, however, not what was nearest to the truth, but what was most appropriate, and aimed, not to teach the farmer, but to please the reader. (modified by MP) v. Epistulae morales 94.28 Seneca quotes Aeneid 10.284, audentes fortuna iuvat (fortune favors the brave). The manuscripts of Virgil leave the hexameter incomplete. Seneca, however, immediately adds piger ipse sibi opstat (but the coward stands in his way), o√ering evidence, it has been said, that the text of the epic already contained variant, or even dubious, readings.

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vi. Epistulae morales 108.24–29 On Virgil as a source of philosophical thinking (ad philosophiam, 25); see below, II.G.1. Seneca again quotes Georgics 3.66–67 (see above, I.C.7.b).

8. Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus, 23/24–79) Pliny the Elder (not to be confused with his nephew and adopted son, Pliny the Younger) wrote a monumental compendium of contemporary knowledge in thirty-seven books, the Historia naturalis (Natural History), in 77/78. The prolific encyclopedist died during the eruption of Vesuvius. a. Historia naturalis, praefatio 22 (Text and translation: Pliny the Elder, Natural History, vol. 1, ed. and trans. H. Rackham, LCL 330 [1938]) Scito enim conferentem auctores me deprehendisse a iuratissimis et proximis veteres transcriptos ad verbum neque nominatos, non illa Vergiliana virtute, ut certarent, non Tulliana simplicitate, qui de re publica Platonis se comitem profitetur. . . .

For you must know that when collating authorities, I have found that the most professedly reliable and modern writers have copied the old authors word for word, without acknowledgment, not in that valorous spirit of Virgil, for the purpose of rivalry, nor with the candor of Cicero, who in his Republic declares himself a companion of Plato. . . . b. Historia naturalis 7.114 See below, II.D.2. c. Historia naturalis 13.83 See below, II.E.1. d. Historia naturalis 14.18 (Text and translation: Pliny the Elder, Natural History, vol. 4, ed. and trans. H. Rackham, LCL 370 [1945]) Iam inventa vitis per se in vino picem resipiens, Viennensem agrum nobilitans Taburno Sotanoque et Helvico generibus, non pridem haec inlustrata atque Vergilii vatis aetate incognita, a cuius obitu XC aguntur anni.

A vine has now been discovered that of itself produces a flavor of pitch in the wine: this vine gives celebrity to the territory of Vienne by the varieties of

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Monte Taburno and of the Sotani and Helvii; it has become famous only recently and was unknown in the period of Virgil, who died ninety years ago. e. Historia naturalis 14.7 Vergilium praecellentissimum vatem (Virgil, most extraordinary of bards) on georgic matters. f. Historia naturalis 18.300 Magno Vergilii praeconio (on the great authority of Virgil) for the burning of stubble [Georgics 1.85]. g. Historia naturalis 22.160 Infelix dictum est Vergilio lolium. . . .

Darnel was called unfruitful by Virgil [Georgics 1.153]. h. Historia naturalis 28.19 Pliny refers to Eclogues 8.64–109, where the mention of carmina as magic charms is prominent. (Text and translation: Pliny the Elder, Natural History, vol. 8, ed. and trans. W. H. S. Jones, LCL 418 [1963]) Hinc Theocriti apud Graecos, Catulli apud nos proximeque Vergilii incantamentorum amatoria imitatio.

And so Theocritus among the Greeks, Catullus and quite recently Virgil among ourselves, have represented love charms in their poetry.

9. Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, 39–65) Though Lucan, the son of Seneca the Younger’s brother, was a prolific writer, we have preserved only ten books, the last of which is unfinished, of an epic that the manuscripts entitle De bello civili (On the Civil War) but that he himself calls Pharsalia nostra (9.985) (our narrative of [the battling at] Pharsalus), where Caesar defeated Pompey in 48 b.c.e. The quotation is from Suetonius, De poetis (On Poets; Vita Lucani [Life of Lucan] 1). (Text and translation: Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, The Lives of Illustrious Men, ed. and trans. J. C. Rolfe, vol. 2, LCL 38 [1914]) M. Annaeus Lucanus Cordubensis prima ingenii experimenta in Neronis laudibus dedit quinquennali certamine, dein civile bellum, quod a Pompeio et Caesare gestum est, recitavit . . . ut praefatione quadam aetatem et initia sua cum Vergilio comparans ausus sit dicere: ‘‘Et quantum mihi restat ad Culicem?’’ 34

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Marcus Annaeus Lucanus of Cordoba made his first appearance as a poet with a eulogy of Nero at the emperor’s quinquennial contests, and then gave a public reading of his poem on the civil war waged between Pompey and Caesar . . . so that in a kind of introduction [to the De bello civili], comparing his time of life and his first essays at writing with those of Virgil, he had the daring to ask: ‘‘How far, pray, do I fall short of the Gnat?’’ This is the first mention of the pseudo-Virgilian Culex. See the Appendix Vergiliana (see above, I.C.3), Martial 14.185 (see below, I.C.20.s), and Statius, Silvae 1, praefatio and 2.7.73–74 (see below, I.C.21.a–b). The sarcasm of Lucan’s final remark well suits the youth of the poet, but also points, more seriously, to his position as the most original of the poetic followers of Virgil in the first century c.e.

10. Calpurnius Siculus (flourished probably circa 54) Calpurnius is the author of seven eclogae (pastoral poems) with allusions that seem most likely to refer to the initial years (54–57) of the reign of the emperor Nero. His Eclogues 4.158–63 is apparently the first instance in which Virgil is directly allegorized as Tityrus. (Text and translation: Minor Latin Poets, ed. and trans. J. W. Du√ and A. M. Du√, vol. 2, LCL 284 [1935]) Corydon is addressing Meliboeus. . . . nam tibi fas est sacra Palatini penetralia visere Phoebi. Tum mihi talis eris, qualis qui dulce sonantem Tityron e silvis dominam deduxit in urbem ostenditque deos et ‘‘spreto’’ dixit ‘‘ovili, Tityre, rura prius, sed post cantabimus arma.’’

For you have the right to visit the holy shrine of the Palatine Phoebus. Then you shall be to me such as [Virgil] was who brought Tityrus of tuneful song from the woods to the queen of cities, showed him the divine powers, and said, ‘‘We will scorn the sheepfold, Tityrus, and will sing, first, of farmlands, but, later, of the weapons of war.’’

11. First Einsiedeln Eclogue (circa 55–65?) This is the first of two pastoral poems (Carmina bucolica), dating plausibly from the reign of Nero, which are called the Einsiedeln Eclogues because they are preserved in only one manuscript, from the library of a monastery in Switzerland (Einsiedeln, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 266, tenth century). C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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Virgil, the poet flatteringly suggests, pales before the accomplishments of Nero, especially his Troica (for details, see commentators on Juvenal, Satires 8.221). It was gossiped that during the conflagration at Rome in 64 the emperor read or sang from it an episode detailing the capture of Troy (see Tacitus, Annales 15.39; and Suetonius, Vita Neronis 38). Carmina 1.38–49 (Text: Consolation à Livie: Elégies à Mécène; Bucoliques d’Einsiedeln, ed. J. Amat [Paris, 1997]): Tu quoque Troia sacros cineres ad sidera tolle atque Agamemnoniis opus hoc ostende Mycenis. Iam tanti cecidisse fuit! gaudete, ruinae, et laudate rogos: vester vos tollit alumnus! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . plurima barba albaque caesaries pleno radiabat honore. Ergo ut divinis implevit vocibus aures, candida flaventi distinxit tempora vitta Caesareumque caput merito celavit amictu. Haud procul Iliaco quondam non segnior ore stabat et ipsa suas delebat Mantua cartas.

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You too, O Troy, raise your hallowed ashes to the stars, and display this work to Agamemnon’s Mycenae! [40] Now has it proved of such value to have fallen! Rejoice, you ruins; praise your funeral pyres: your nursling raises you up. . . . [As he was singing] his full beard and white hair shone in undimmed honor. [45] So when [Homer] filled the poet’s ears with accents divine, he embellished his fair brow with a golden circlet and veiled the emperor’s head with deserved attire. Hard by stood Mantua [birthplace of Virgil], erstwhile as forceful as the lips that sang of Ilion; but now with her own hands she began to tear her writings to shreds. (Minor Latin Poets, ed. and trans. J. W. Du√ and A. M. Du√, vol. 2, LCL 284 [1935], modified by MP)

12. Laus Pisonis The Laus Pisonis (Praise of Piso) is a panegyric credibly addressed to Gaius Calpurnius Piso, who directed the abortive plot against Nero in 65 and committed suicide at its failure. Lines 230–37 (Text and translation: Minor Latin Poets, ed. and trans. J. W. Du√ and A. M. Du√, vol. 2, LCL 284 [1935]): Ipse per Ausonias Aeneia carmina gentes qui sonat, ingenti qui nomine pulsat Olympum Maeoniumque senem Romano provocat ore, forsitan illius nemoris latuisset in umbra,

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quod canit, et sterili tantum cantasset avena ignotus populis, si Maecenate careret. Qui tamen haut uni patefecit limina vati nec sua Vergilio permisit numina soli. . . .

The very bard who through Italian peoples makes his poem on Aeneas resound, the bard who in his mighty renown treads Olympus and in Roman accents challenges the old man Maeonian [Homer], perchance his poem might have lurked obscure in the shadow of the grove, and he might have but sung on a fruitless reed unknown to the nations, if he had lacked a Maecenas. Yet it was not to one bard only that he opened his doors, nor did he entrust his divinities to Virgil alone. . . .

13. Petronius (Gaius Petronius, early first century–66 c.e.) Petronius is the author of the Satyricon, the first Latin novel of which we have substantial segments preserved. It details in picaresque fashion the exploits of Encolpius, who lives under the curse of the god Priapus. We possess excerpts from three of its books, the most famous episode of which is the so-called Cena Trimalchionis (Trimalchio’s Banquet). It is likely that the author is to be identified with the Petronius who served as Nero’s elegantiae arbiter (arbiter of elegance) and was forced to commit suicide in 66 (see Tacitus, Annales 16.18– 19). (Text and translations, items a, b, and d: Petronius, Satyricon; Seneca, Apocolocyntosis, ed. and trans. M. Heseltine [Petronius] and W. H. D. Rouse [Seneca], rev. E. H. Warmington, LCL 15 [1969]) a. Satyricon 6–7 The encounter of Petronius’s hero with the aged ‘‘prophet’’ and procuress is an amusing ri√ on Aeneas’s meeting with Venus, his goddess mother, in the first book of the Aeneid (314–417). The passage illustrates not only the degree to which Encolpius imagines himself acting within an epic context but also how the Aeneid in particular, some eighty-five years after its author’s death, served as an influence on prose as well as poetry, and as a source of inspiration for parodic as well as ‘‘serious’’ literature. Encolpius is the narrator. Itaque quocunque ieram, eodem revertebar, donec et cursu fatigatus et sudore iam madens accedo aniculam quandam, quae agreste holus vendebat, et ‘‘Rogo’’ inquam ‘‘mater, numquid scis ubi ego habitem?’’ Delectata est illa urbanitate tam stulta et ‘‘Quidni sciam?’’ inquit, consurrexitque et coepit me praedicere. Divinam ego putabam et. . . . Subinde ut in locum secretiorem venimus, centonem anus urbana reiecit

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et ‘‘Hic’’ inquit ‘‘debes habitare.’’ Cum ego negarem me agnoscere domum, video quosdam inter titulos nudasque meretrices furtim spatiantes. Tarde, immo iam sero intellexi me in fornicem esse deductum.

So wherever I went, I kept coming back to the same spot, till I was tired out with walking, and dripping with sweat. At last I went up to an old woman who was selling country vegetables and said, ‘‘Please, mother, do you happen to know where I live?’’ She was charmed with such a polite fool. ‘‘Of course I do,’’ she said, and got up and proceeded to lead the way. I thought her divine. . . . And when we had got into an obscure quarter the obliging old lady pushed back a patchwork curtain and said, ‘‘This should be your house.’’ I was saying that I did not remember it, when I noticed some naked whores walking cautiously about among placards of price. Slowly, indeed too late, I became aware that I had been taken into a bawdy house. (modified by MP) b. Satyricon 68 Virgil has long since been considered the author of a standard text with which one does not tamper, as here, for example, by contaminatio with lesser literary forms, or by inappropriate presentation, whether in manner of delivery or in choice of setting. (The poet had himself set the standard for reciting his works.) Encolpius is again the narrator. Interim puer Alexandrinus, qui caldam ministrabat, luscinias coepit imitari clamante Trimalchione subinde: ‘‘Muta.’’ Ecce alius ludus. Servus qui ad pedes Habinnae sedebat, iussus, credo, a domino suo proclamavit subito canora voce: ‘‘Interea medium Aeneas iam classe tenebat’’ [Aeneid 5.1]. Nullus sonus unquam acidior percussit aures meas; nam praeter errantis barbariae aut adiectum aut deminutum clamorem miscebat Atellanicos versus, ut tunc primum me etiam Vergilius offenderit.

Meanwhile a boy from Alexandria, who was handing hot water, began to imitate a nightingale, and made Trimalchio shout, ‘‘Oh! change the tune.’’ Then there was another joke. A slave, who was sitting at the feet of Habinnas, began, by his master’s orders, I suppose, suddenly to cry in a loud voice: ‘‘Now with his fleet Aeneas held the main.’’ No sharper sound ever pierced my ears; for besides his making barbarous mistakes in raising or lowering his voice, he mixed up Atellan verses with it, so that Virgil jarred on me for the first time in my life. c. Satyricon 111–12 Here the poet Eumolpus quotes Aeneid 4.34 and 38–39, as the widow’s maid plays Anna to the Dido of the widow of Ephesus, urging the latter to yield to the 38

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blandishments of a soldier who has come upon her mourning beside the corpse of her husband. d. Satyricon 118 Eumolpus’s speech indicates that for the Romans Virgil has become the equivalent of Homer, just as Horace has of the lyric poets of archaic Greece. ‘‘Ceterum neque generosior spiritus vanitatem amat, neque concipere aut edere partum mens potest nisi ingenti flumine litterarum inundata. Refugiendum est ab omni verborum, ut ita dicam, vilitate et sumendae voces a plebe semotae, ut fiat ‘odi profanum vulgus et arceo’ [Horace, Carmina 3.1]. Praeterea curandum est, ne sententiae emineant extra corpus orationis expressae, sed intexto vestibus colore niteant. Homerus testis et lyrici Romanusque Vergilius et Horatii curiosa felicitas.’’

‘‘But nobler souls do not love such coxcombry [the conceit of orators who think themselves poets], and the mind cannot conceive or bring forth its fruit unless it is steeped in the vast flood of literature. One must flee from all diction that is, so to speak, cheap, and choose words divorced from popular use, putting into practice ‘I hate the common herd and hold it afar.’ Besides, one must take care that the thoughts do not stand out from the body of the speech: they must shine with a brilliancy that is woven into the material. Homer proves this, and the lyric poets, and Roman Virgil, and the studied felicity of Horace.’’ (modified by MP) e. Satyricon 132 The earliest appropriation of Virgilian lines or phrases to form a pastiche seems to be here (see also below, III.A). Encolpius, the narrator within the story, who is a victim of the wrath of the god Priapus, draws on two full lines (Aeneid 6.469–70), the last three and a half feet of Aeneid 9.436, and a variation of the opening of Eclogues 5.16, to describe his penis, which has failed him in trying circumstances. In culling Virgil for use in a salacious context, Petronius not only anticipates, with great wit, more elaborate examples of such borrowing, but might also be seen to o√er evidence, in the mid first century c.e., of the already ongoing fascination with documenting supposedly indecent moments in Virgil’s poetry (see also IV.W). (Text: Petronius, Satyricon; Seneca, Apocolocyntosis, ed. and trans. M. Heseltine [Petronius] and W. H. D. Rouse [Seneca], rev. E. H. Warmington, LCL 15 [1969]) Haec ut iratus effudi, illa solo fixos oculos aversa tenebat, nec magis incepto vultum sermone movetur quam lentae salices lassove papavera collo. C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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But, though I upbraided [it] thus, she [it], turned away, was holding her [its] eyes steady, nor was she [it] more moved in her [its] expression at the speech he had begun than bending osiers or poppies on their drooping neck. (MP)

14. Columella (Lucius Iunius Moderatus Columella, flourished circa 60) Columella is the author of De re rustica (On Agriculture; circa 60–65) in twelve books, the most extensive Roman agricultural manual that we have preserved; and De arboribus (On Trees), in a single book. De re rustica is in prose save for the tenth book, devoted to gardens, a subject that Virgil, in the fourth Georgic, says that he must omit for want of space. In fact, Columella’s first lines of verse deliberately echo Virgil’s words at Georgics 4.147–48 (Text: Fairclough): Verum haec ipse equidem spatiis exclusus iniquis praetereo atque aliis post me memoranda relinquo.

But I, barred by these narrow bounds, pass by these matters, and leave them for others after me to recall. (MP) In opting to become one of the later ‘‘others,’’ Columella implicitly accepts the master’s challenge to be his heir. He confirms the intimacy with numerous borrowings from his predecessor, and he writes in a spirit of self-disparagement, averring modesty for himself as creator as he faces the limitations of his subject matter, and o√ering praise for his model that barely conceals the audacity of the undertaking: to be the Virgil of horticulture less than a century after the death ‘‘of the greatly revered poet’’ (vatis maxime venerandi, 10, praefatio 3). The first quotation is from the book’s preface, followed by its initial and final lines. The first group not only closely echoes Georgics 4.147–48, but also carefully alludes to the initial verses of the first, third, and fourth Georgics. The concluding hexameters recall the opening line of the second Georgic as well as the boast of 2.174–76 (Text: Fairclough): . . . tibi res antiquae laudis et artem ingredior sanctos ausus recludere fontis, Ascraeumque cano Romana per oppida carmen.

For you [Italy] I undertake a theme and a craft of ancient praise, having dared to unseal the sacred fountains, and I sing the song of Ascra [the poetry of Hesiod] throughout towns belonging to Rome. (MP) By advertising the initial verses of all four books of the Georgics in his own demarcating lines, Columella lays claim, for whatever purpose and to whatever degree, to the whole poem that he is supplementing. (Text: Columella, On Agriculture, vol. 3: On Trees, ed. and trans. E. S. Forster and E. H. He√ner, LCL 408 [1955]) 40

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a. De arboribus 10, praefatio 3–4 Quare cultus hortorum, quoniam fructus magis in usu est, diligentius nobis, quam tradiderunt maiores, praecipiendus est: isque, sicut institueram, prosa oratione prioribus subnecteretur exordiis, nisi propositum meum expugnasset frequens postulatio tua, quae praecepit, ut poeticis numeris explerem Georgici carminis omissas partes, quas tamen et ipse Vergilius significaverat, posteris se memorandas relinquere. Neque enim aliter istud nobis fuerat audendum, quam ex voluntate vatis maxime venerandi: cuius quasi numine instigante pigre sine dubio propter difficultatem operis, verumtamen non sine spe prosperi successus aggressi sumus tenuem admodum et paene viduatam corpore materiam, quae tam exilis est, ut in consummatione quidem totius operis annumerari veluti particula possit laboris nostri, per se vero et quasi suis finibus terminata nullo modo conspici.

The cultivation, therefore, of gardens, since their produce is now in greater demand, calls for more careful instruction from us than our forefathers have handed down; and I should be adding it in prose to my earlier books, as I had intended to do, had not your repeated appeals [of his dedicatee, Silvinus] overruled my resolve and charged me to complete in poetic numbers those parts of the Georgics which were omitted by Virgil and which, as he himself had intimated, he left to be dealt with by later writers. For indeed I ought not to have ventured on the task, were it not in compliance with the wish of that greatly revered poet, at whose instigation, which almost seemed a divine summons— tardily, no doubt, owing to the di≈culty of the task, but all the same not without hope of a prosperous result—I have undertaken to deal with material which is very meager and almost devoid of substance and so inconsiderable that in my work taken as a whole it can only be accounted as a small fraction of my task, and taken by itself and confined within its own limits it cannot by any means make much of a show. (trans. E. S. Forster and E. H. He√ner, LCL 408]) b. De arboribus 10.1–5 Hortorum quoque te cultus, Silvine, docebo, atque ea, quae quondam spatiis exclusus iniquis, cum caneret laetas segetes et munera Bacchi, et te, magna Pales, necnon caelestia mella, Vergilius nobis post se memoranda reliquit.

I will teach you, Silvinus, the cultivation of gardens, and those matters that, barred by narrow bounds, when he sang of happy crops and of the gifts of Bacchus, and of you, Pales [Roman tutelary divinity of shepherds and herds], as well as heaven’s honey, Virgil left to us to be recalled after him. (MP) C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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c. De arboribus 10.433–36 Hactenus hortorum cultus, Silvine, docebam siderei vatis referens praecepta Maronis, qui primus veteres ausus recludere fontes Ascraeum cecinit Romana per oppida carmen.

Thus far, Silvinus, I was teaching you the cultivation of gardens, calling to mind the precepts of the sublime poet Maro, who, daring first to unseal fountains of old, sang the song of Ascra throughout towns belonging to Rome. (MP)

15. Pompeian Graffiti Some of the oldest witnesses to the text of Virgil are found on the walls of Pompeii. Even though this testimony is of little help in establishing the text of Virgil’s poems, it does provide eloquent evidence of how quickly those poems became widely known, at least in the area of the Bay of Naples, where the poet lived for many years. The text of the Aeneid must have circulated soon after Virgil’s death in 19 b.c.e. Surviving Pompeii’s burial under the ash of Vesuvius’s eruption a century later, in 79 c.e., are lines from Virgil’s poetry in the form of gra≈ti in sixty-one places around the city. As the table below shows, each of the poems is represented: six lines of the Eclogues (found in thirteen places), one line of the Georgics (found in two places), and eighteen lines of the Aeneid (found in forty-six places). In many cases, the gra≈ti seem barely to rise to the level of citation. The first line of book 2 of the Aeneid is often reproduced, yet in eight of the thirteen instances it is cited only by its first word, conticuere, the poetic syncopation of conticuerunt (all fell silent). In other cases, however, the evidence allows us to infer more. The first line of book 1, famous even in antiquity (see CIL 2.4967), was parodied as fullones ululamque cano non arma virumque (Launderers and the owl I sing, not arms and the man [CIL 4.1913]). The owl was the symbol of fullones, whose activities are depicted under the watchful eye of such a bird on the ‘‘Pilaster of the Fullers’’ in the laundry of Veranius Ipseus in Pompeii. Although most of the citations are anonymous, not all are. Zosimus signed his composition, which begins with a reminiscence of Eclogues 3.1: det mihi damoeta felicior quam phasiphae haec omnia. scripsit zosimus (‘‘If Damoeta should give all these to me, I would be happier than Pasiphae,’’ Zosimus wrote [CIL 4.5007]). Narcissus, too, identifies Priam’s admonition from Aeneid 2.148 as his own written work: quisquis es amissos hin[c iam ob]liviscere graios. scribit narciss[us] (‘‘Whoever you are, from here on forget the lost Greeks,’’ Narcissus writes [CIL 4.1841]). Still, the most significant facts are the large number of citations, their wide distribution in the 42

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city, and the pervasive knowledge they represent. We know that Virgil was revered by Roman gentlemen with a su≈cient supply of villas and leisure to hone their appreciation. The Pompeian gra≈ti give us a glimpse of another audience for which Virgil’s poetry was something to be scratched into the wall of a temple during an idle moment. This memorial to Virgil is perhaps due less to reverence than to the e√ectiveness of the Roman system of education, which so quickly made the verses of Virgil like a song one cannot get out of one’s head. (See CIL IV: Inscriptiones parietariae Pompeianae Herculanenses Stabianae, ed. C. Zangemeister, R. Schoene, et al. [Berlin, 1871–1970], for a complete list of the inscriptions and wax tablets; M. Della Corte, ‘‘Elementi Virgiliani nell’epigrafia pompeiana,’’ Rivista Indo-Greco-Italica di filologia, lingua, antichità 14 [1930], 97–100; and idem, ‘‘Virgilio nell’epigrafia pompeiana,’’ Epigraphica 2 [1940], 171–78, from which the table below is taken. Aeneid citations are from R. P. Hoogma, Der Einfluss Vergils auf die Carmina Latina Epigraphica: Eine Studie mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der metrisch-technischen Grundsätze der Entlehnung [Amsterdam, 1959]; J. L. Franklin Jr., ‘‘Vergil at Pompeii: A Teacher’s Aid,’’ Classical Journal 92 [1997], 175–84.) (MS)

NUMBER OF POEM

PASSAGES

INSCRIPTIONS

Eclogues Eclogues Eclogues Eclogues Eclogues Eclogues Georgics Aeneid Aeneid Aeneid Aeneid Aeneid Aeneid Aeneid Aeneid Aeneid Aeneid Aeneid Aeneid Aeneid Aeneid Aeneid

2.21 2.56 3.1 5.72 7.44 8.70 1.163 1.1 1.135 1.192 1.234 1.242 1.468 1.469 2.1 2.14 2.148 3.239 4.223 5.389 6.119 6.823

1 4 3 1 1 3 2 13 3 1 1 1 1 1 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

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NUMBER OF POEM

PASSAGES

INSCRIPTIONS

Aeneid Aeneid Aeneid

7.1 9.269 9.404

2 2 1

16. Masada Papyrus (circa 73–74 c.e.) A papyrus fragment from Masada (Masada II, no. 721), the citadel in Israel above the Dead Sea, besieged and captured by the Romans in 73–74 c.e., contains two quotations from Latin poetry, one of which is Aeneid 4.9: An]na [s]or[o]r quae me susp[ensam insomnia terrent

Anna, my sister, what visions terrify me in my anxiety! (MP) Though it is unlikely to be an exercise, the purpose of the writing is unknown. Nevertheless its importance for the di√usion of Virgil’s works is clear, resting as it does on the fact that ‘‘it may be the earliest manuscript witness to Virgil, and is certainly the earliest that can be dated with certainty’’ (Masada II, 33). For the initial publication, which contains full discussion of Virgil’s several appearances in first- and second-century c.e. papyri, see Masada II: The Yigael Yadim Excavations 1963–65: Final Reports: The Latin and Greek Documents, ed. H. M. Cotton and J. Geiger (Jerusalem, 1989), 31–35. For a listing, with bibliography, of early appearances on papyrus of Virgil’s poetry, see Corpus papyrorum latinarum, ed. R. Cavenaile (Wiesbaden, 1958), 7–70. On eight of the Latin-Greek texts of Virgil, see R. Seider, ‘‘Beiträge zur Geschichte und Paläographie der antiken Vergilhandschriften,’’ in Studien zur antiken Epos, ed. H. Görgemanns and E. A. Schmidt (Meisenheim, 1976), 129–72. Nine citations from and references to Virgil’s Aeneid in the great trove of papyri from Oxyrhynchus in Egypt (among which is a Greek paraphrase of Aeneid 4.661– 705 and 5.1–6) are listed by J. Krüger, Oxyrhynchos in der Kaiserzeit: Studien zur Topographie und Literaturrezeption, Europäische Hochschulschriften, ser. 3, Geschichte und ihre Hilfswissenschaften 441 (Frankfurt am Main, 1990), 340, no. 118. Further general information is provided by W. Berschin, Greek Letters and the Latin Middle Ages: From Jerome to Nicholas of Cusa, trans. J. C. Frakes (Washington, D.C., 1988), 292 n. 81, 331 n. 56. (MP and JZ)

17. Vindolanda Writing-Tablets (circa 85–130) Since 1973 more than 600 writing-tablets have been discovered at Vindolanda, near Hadrian’s Wall, the limes (frontier) of the Roman empire in the north of 44

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Britain. Tablet 118 contains, on one side, the draft of a letter, on the other, a version of Aeneid 9.473: interea pavidam volitans pinnata per urbem . . .

Meanwhile winged [Fame], flying through the frightened city . . . (MP) The tablet dates from period 3 of the occupation of Vindolanda, which is to say, circa 97–102/3, and is most likely an example of a writing exercise. It is perhaps to be associated with the papers of the prefect Flavius Cerealis. It further attests to the wide di√usion of Virgil’s work at the turn of the second century c.e. The tablet is published in The Vindolanda Writing-Tablets (Tabulae Vindolandenses II), ed. A. K. Bowman and J. D. Thomas (London, 1994), 65–67. The editors discuss (66), with bibliography, evidence for the use of Virgil’s works in military contexts and elsewhere in the initial centuries of the Roman Empire. Tablet 452 contains, on front and back, the opening line of the Aeneid. The fact that the two hands are di√erent suggests that it documents a writing exercise. See The Vindolanda Writing-Tablets (Tabulae Vindolandenses III), ed. A. K. Bowman and J. D. Thomas (London, 2003), 160. A fragment, Inv.no.02-38A(d), has Georgics 1.125, ‘‘ante Iovem nulli subigebant arva coloni’’ (before Jove’s day no tillers subdued the land), a hexameter that could have had particular relevance at the frontier of the Roman empire. For a brief and provisional account, see R. Birley and T. Birley, in Vindolanda Excavation Reports, vol. 1, ed. A. Birley (2003), 110–2. Another quotation that has been tentatively identified is Aeneid 7.373. Even earlier than the Vindolanda writing-tablets is the Itálica brick. This small brick, discovered in Santiponce (Itálica), near Seville in Spain, has inscribed on it the first two lines of Virgil’s Aeneid. The hand, a cursive majuscule similar to that found in the Pompeian gra≈ti (see above, I.C.15), is firstcentury, perhaps from the 50s. The motivation behind the inscription is a matter of conjecture, with the likeliest possibility being that it was written playfully by a person who chose as text the first lines to come to mind—already the most famous in Latin literature. The brick provides incidental support for the reading ‘‘Lavinaque’’ (and Lavinian), as opposed to ‘‘Laviniaque,’’ in Aeneid 1.2. See R. Carande Herrero and C. Fernández Martínez, ‘‘Virgil on a Brick from Itálica,’’ Mnemosyne 58 (2005), 277–82. (MP and JZ)

18. Silius Italicus (circa 26–circa 103) Silius Italicus (see also below, I.C.20, I.C.24, and II.C.3.a–b), an accomplished orator, was the last consul appointed by Nero (in 68). In retirement C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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he composed (circa 100) the Punica, devoted to events of the Second Punic War. It is the longest extant classical Latin poem, in seventeen books containing over 12,000 lines. Punica 8.591–94 (Text and translation: Silius Italicus, Punica, ed. and trans. J. D. Du√, vol. 1, LCL 277 [1934], modified): Certavit Mutinae quassata Placentia bello, Mantua mittenda certavit pube Cremonae, Mantua, Musarum domus atque ad sidera cantu evecta Aonio et Smyrneis aemula plectris.

Piacenza, though crippled by the war, vied with Modena, and Cremona sent forth her sons in rivalry with Mantua—Mantua, the home of the Muses, raised to the skies by immortal verse and a match for the lyre of Homer.

19. Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, circa 35–circa 95) A renowned teacher of rhetoric, Quintilian numbered Pliny the Younger [see below, I.C.24] among his students. His only genuine surviving work is Institutio oratoria (Training in Oratory, circa 90), in twelve books. Virgil, whom he mentions on scores of occasions, is his authority on many subjects. (Text and translations: Quintilian, The Orator’s Education, ed. and trans. D. A. Russell, vols. 1, 3, and 4, LCL 124, 126, 127 [2001]) a. Institutio oratoria 1.7.20 See below, II.E.2 b. Institutio oratoria 1.8.5 Quintilian reads Virgil for his ethical value and not for any particular ‘‘Romanness’’ of content. He is a purveyor of proper standards for the budding rhetor to emulate. We might compare Quintilian’s designation of Ovid twice as lascivus (self-indulgent) (10.1.88 and 93)—a moral, not a literary, appraisal. See further 10.1.85, on Homer and Virgil as providing an auspicatissimum exordium (most auspicious introduction) for a survey of Greek and Roman authors, and 12.11.26–27 on their supreme quality as poets. Ideoque optime institutum est, ut ab Homero atque Vergilio lectio inciperet, quamquam ad intelligendas eorum virtutes firmiore iudicio opus est; sed huic rei superest tempus, neque enim semel legentur.

The practice of making reading start with Homer and Virgil is therefore excellent. Of course it needs a more developed judgment to appreciate their virtues; but there is time enough for this, for they will be read more than once.

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c. Institutio oratoria 8.3.24 On Virgil’s exquisite lexical judgment. Eo . . . ornamento acerrimi iudicii P. Vergilius unice est usus.

. . . Virgil, with his perfect taste, has made unique use of that form of ornament [archaizing words]. d. Institutio oratoria 8.3.47 See below, IV.W.1 e. Institutio oratoria 8.6.46–47 On Virgilian allegory. Sine tralatione vero in Bucolicis. . . . Hoc enim loco praeter nomen cetera propriis decisa sunt verbis, verum non pastor Menalcas sed Vergilius est intellegendus.

A form without metaphor is seen in the Bucolics [Quintilian quotes Eclogues 9.7–10]. . . . In this passage, everything is explicit in the words except for the proper name, but it is not the shepherd Menalcas but Virgil who is meant. f. Institutio oratoria 9.2.64 On Virgil’s use of emphasis. Est emphasis etiam inter figuras, cum ex aliquo dicto latens aliquid eruitur, ut apud Vergilium: Non licuit thalami expertem sine crimine vitam degere more ferae? [Aeneid 4. 550–51]

Quamquam enim de matrimonio queritur Dido, tamen huc erumpit eius adfectus ut sine thalamis vitam non hominum putet, sed ferarum.

Emphasis is a figure too, when a hidden meaning is extracted from a phrase, as in Virgil’s Could I not have lived a life unwedded, free of any crime, like some wild beast?

For, though Dido complains of marriage, her feelings nevertheless break out at this point, so that she thinks an unwedded life fit for beasts rather than for humans. g. Institutio oratoria 9.3.8 Here Quintilian quotes Eclogues 4.62–63, the text of which has been much discussed over the centuries. The question has been raised as to whether

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Quintilian’s ‘‘misquotation’’ resulted from his misremembering Virgil or from corruption present already in the textual tradition. (Discussion: J. P. Small, Wax Tablets of the Mind [London, 1997], 222) h. Institutio oratoria 10.1.85–86 Book 10, chapter 1, is devoted to a parallel history of Greek and Roman literature for students of rhetoric. Idem nobis per Romanos quoque auctores ordo ducendus est. Itaque ut apud illos Homerus, sic apud nos Vergilius auspicatissimum dederit exordium, omnium eius generis poetarum Graecorum nostrorumque haud dubie proximus. Utar enim verbis isdem quae ex Afro Domitio iuvenis excepi, qui mihi interroganti quem Homero crederet maxime accedere ‘‘secundus’’ inquit ‘‘est Vergilius, propior tamen primo quam tertio.’’ Et hercule ut illi naturae caelesti atque inmortali cesserimus, ita curae et diligentiae vel ideo in hoc plus est, quod ei fuit laborandum, et quantum eminentibus vincimur, fortasse aequalitate pensamus.

We must follow the same order with the Roman authors too [as we did with the Greeks]. And so, as Homer did among the Greeks, so here Virgil will a√ord us the most auspicious beginning. There is no doubt that, of all epic poets, Greek or Roman, he comes next after Homer. Let me quote the words I heard from Domitius Afer when I was a young man. I had asked who he thought came nearest to Homer; ‘‘Virgil is second,’’ he replied, ‘‘but nearer to the first than to the third.’’ Indeed, though we must yield to Homer’s divine and immortal genius, there is more care and craftsmanship in Virgil, if only because he had to work harder at it; and maybe our poet’s uniformly high level compensates for his inferiority to Homer’s greatest passages. i. Institutio oratoria 10.3.8 See above, I.B.1, Lucius Varius Rufus.

20. Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis, 38/41–101/4) Martial is Rome’s most famous writer of epigrams, the twelve books of which (Epigrammaton libri XII), published between 86 and 101–2, form his masterpiece. These were preceded in time by a book of poems devoted to the opening of the Colosseum in 80 (Liber de spectaculis), and two books, dating 83–85, attached to the core collection as books 13–14, entitled Xenia and Apophoreta, poems nominally to serve as labels for presents given on the Saturnalia. He

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mentions Virgil more than twenty times. (Text and all translations but a, c, and f: Martial, Epigrams, ed. and trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, vols. 1–3, LCL 94, 95, 480 [1993]) a. Epigrams 1.61.1–2 (circa 86) Verona loves the work of its native son, the doctus poeta Catullus (see below, I.C.20.d), who uses hendecasyllables more than any other meter, just as Mantua does that of Virgil. For syllabas Shackleton Bailey reads sillybos (parchment tags for papyrus rolls). Verona docti syllabas amat vatis, Marone felix Mantua est. . . .

Verona loves the syllables of its learned bard, Mantua is blessed in its Maro. . . . (MP) b. Epigrams 1.107.3–4 (circa 86) To Lucius Julius, on the poet’s need for leisure in order to write. Otia da nobis, sed qualia fecerat olim Maecenas Flacco Vergilioque suo. . . .

Give me leisure, I mean such leisure as Maecenas once made for his Flaccus [Horace] and for his Virgil. c. Epigrams 3.38.7–10 (87) To a certain Sextus with pretensions. ‘‘Si nihil hinc veniet, pangentur carmina nobis: audieris, dices esse Maronis opus.’’ insanis: omnes gelidis quicumque lacernis sunt ibi, Nasones Vergiliosque vides.

‘‘If nothing comes [of pleading cases], we’ll write poetry. Only give it ear, you will say that it’s the work of Maro.’’ You’re crazy. All the folk you behold here, in their chilly cloaks, are Nasos [Ovids] or Virgils. (MP) d. Epigrams 4.14 (circa 88) A poem for Silius Italicus (see above, I.C.18), who has the first word (Sili) as Virgil does the last (magno . . . Maroni). Martial is to Catullus as Silius to

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Virgil. Catullus (circa 84–circa 54 b.c.e.) was Rome’s greatest writer of short verse of the Republican period. He is here singled out as a writer of epigrams, which constitute the last third of his corpus. Sili, Castalidum decus sororum, qui periuria barbari furoris ingenti premis ore perfidosque astus Hannibalis levisque Poenos magnis cedere cogis Africanis: paulum seposita severitate, dum blanda vagus alea December incertis sonat hinc et hinc fritillis et ludit tropa nequiore talo, nostris otia commoda Camenis. nec torva lege fronte, sed remissa lascivis madidos iocis libellos. Sic forsan tener ausus est Catullus magno mittere Passerem Maroni.

5

10

Silius, ornament of the Castalian sisterhood, who crush with mighty mouth the perjuries of barbarian rage and Hannibal’s perfidious wiles, [5] forcing the light Carthaginians to yield to the great Africani [the Scipios]: lay aside your gravity for the nonce, and while December goes hither and thither with his seductive hazard and on all hands the doubtful dice boxes clatter and tropa plays with the naughtier knucklebones, [10] lend your leisure to my Muses. Be your brow not grim but relaxed as you read my little books, all steeped in wanton jests. Thus, it may be, did tender Catullus venture to send his Sparrow to Maro. e. Epigrams 5.5.7–8 (circa 88) Martial lays claim to a place in the Palatine library near Domitius Marsus and Catullus. Martial flatters Domitian by associating a youthful work of the emperor, on the siege of the Capitolium in 69, with the Aeneid. The word cothurnatus, here and in I.C.20.i, below, associates Virgil with tragedy in a transgeneric sense. His is an epic permeated by ‘‘tragic’’ elements. Ad Capitolini caelestia carmina belli grande cothurnati pone Maronis opus.

Next to the godlike song on the Capitoline war place the great work of buskined Maro.

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f. Epigrams 5.16.11–12 (circa 89) Sed non et veteres contenti laude fuerunt, cum minimum vati munus Alexis erat.

But the men of old were not only content with praise, when Alexis was the least of presents for a bard. On ‘‘Alexis’’ see VSD 9 (see below, II.A.1): Cibi vinique minimi, libidinis in pueros pronioris, quorum maxime dilexit Cebetem et Alexandrum, quem secunda Bucolicorum ecloga Alexim appellat, donatum sibi ab Asinio Pollione, utrumque non ineruditum, Cebetem vero et poetam.

He [Virgil] was sparing of food and wine. With regard to sexual pleasure, he was partial to boys. He loved Cebes and Alexander most of all. Alexander, whom he calls Alexis in the second of the Bucolics [see Eclogues 2.1, 6, 19, 56, 65, 73], was a gift to him from Asinius Pollio. Both of them were far from unlearned; in fact, Cebes was a poet as well. (DWO and JZ) Though the name ‘‘Alexis’’ (Alexander) appears at Propertius 2.34.73 (see above, I.B.4), Martial’s, in this poem and at 6.68, 7.29, and 8.56 (55), quoted below, are the first mentions of Alexander as an actual person and particular favorite of the poet. Further instances of the allegory are to be found at Apuleius, Apologia 10 (see below, I.C.26) and in Servius’s (see below, IV.B.) comment on Eclogues 2.15. g. Epigrams 6.68.5–6 (90) To Eutychos, on the death of the boy Castricus. Hic tibi curarum socius blandumque levamen, hic amor, hic nostri vatis Alexis erat.

He was the partner of your worries and your soothing solace, he was your love, the Alexis of our bard. h. Epigrams 7.29.7–8 (93) To Thestylus, a lover of the poet Voconius Victor, to whom ‘‘Martial’’ is about to read. On Domitius Marsus, see above, I.B.5, and below, I.C.20.k. et Maecenati, Maro cum cantaret Alexin, nota tamen Marsi fusca Melaenis erat.

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Nevertheless even to Maecenas, when Maro sang of Alexis, was Marsus’s dusky Melaenis known. i. Epigrams 7.63.5–6 (circa 91) To Silius Italicus (see above, I.C.18). Sacra cothurnati non attigit ante Maronis implevit magni quam Ciceronis opus. . . .

He did not put his hand to buskined Maro’s mysteries before he filled the measure of great Cicero’s work. j. Epigrams 8.18.5–8 (circa 93) To Cerrinus, an epigrammatist who, appropriately, refrains from publication. Sic Maro nec Calabri temptavit carmina Flacci, Pindaricos nosset cum superare modos, et Vario cessit Romani laude cothurni, cum posset tragico fortius ore loqui.

So Maro did not attempt the lyrics of Calabrian Flaccus, though he was capable of surpassing Pindar’s measures, and yielded the glory of the Roman buskin to Varius, though he could have spoken more boldly than Varius in the tones of tragedy. k. Epigrams 8.55 (56) (93) On a poet’s need for patronage. On ‘‘Arms and the Man’’ standing for the Aeneid, see above, I.C.1.a and I.C.2. Temporibus nostris aetas cum cedat avorum creverit et maior cum duce Roma suo, ingenium sacri miraris deesse Maronis nec quemquam tanta bella sonare tuba. Sint Maecenates, non deerunt, Flacce, Marones Vergiliumque tibi vel tua rura dabunt. Iugera perdiderat miserae vicina Cremonae flebat et abductas Tityrus aeger oves: risit Tuscus eques paupertatemque malignam reppulit et celeri iussit abire fuga.

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‘‘Accipe divitias et vatum maximus esto; tu licet et nostrum’’ dixit ‘‘Alexin ames.’’ Adstabat domini mensis pulcherrimus ille marmorea fundens nigra Falerna manu, et libata dabat roseis carchesia labris, quae poterant ipsum sollicitare Iovem. Excidit attonito pinguis Galatea poetae, Thestylis et rubras messibus usta genas; protinus ‘‘Italiam’’ concepit et ‘‘Arma virumque,’’ qui modo vix Culicem fleverat ore rudi. Quid Varios Marsosque loquar ditataque vatum nomina, magnus erit quos numerare labor? Ergo ego Vergilius, si munera Maecenatis des mihi? Vergilius non ero, Marsus ero.

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Since our grandsires’ epoch yields to our own times, and Rome has grown greater with her leader [Domitian], you wonder that sacred Maro’s genius is lacking and that no man sounds of wars with so mighty a trumpet. [5] Let there be Maecenases, Flaccus, and we shall not want for Maros: your own countryside will give you a Virgil. Grieving Tityrus had lost his acres close to hapless Cremona and was bemoaning his ravished sheep: the Tuscan knight [Maecenas] smiled and drove back malignant poverty, [10] telling her be o√ and quickly. ‘‘Take riches and be greatest of poets,’’ he said; ‘‘you may even love my Alexis.’’ That beauteous lad was standing by his master’s board pouring the dark Falernian with a hand as white as marble [15] and o√ering goblets tasted by rosy lips, lips that might stir Jove himself. The astonished poet forgot buxom Galatea and Thestylis with her red cheeks tanned by the harvests. Forthwith he conceived ‘‘Italy’’ [that is, the Georgics] and ‘‘Arms and the Man,’’ [20] though his prentice lips had but lately mourned the Gnat. Why should I speak of Varius and Marsus and other names of poets made rich, whom it would be great labor to enumerate? Well then, shall I be a Virgil if you were to give me the gifts of a Maecenas? I shall not be a Virgil; I shall be a Marsus. l. Epigrams 8.73 (93) Istanti, quo nec sincerior alter habetur pectore nec nivea simplicitate prior, si dare vis nostrae vires animosque Thaliae et victura petis carmina, da quod amem.

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Cynthia te vatem fecit, lascive Properti; ingenium Galli pulchra Lycoris erat; fama est arguti Nemesis formosa Tibulli; Lesbia dictavit, docte Catulle, tibi: non me Paeligni nec spernet Mantua vatem, si qua Corinna mihi, si quis Alexis erit.

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Istantius, than whose heart no one is accounted truer and of snowier sincerity, if you wish to give strength and courage to my Thalia and seek verses that will live, give me something to love. Cynthia made you a poet, lusty Propertius; fair Lycoris was Gallus’s genius; beauteous Nemesis is the fame of clear-voiced Tibullus; Lesbia dictated your verse, learned Catullus. My poetry neither the Paelignians nor Mantua will spurn, if I find a Corinna [Ovid’s girl in the Amores] or an Alexis. m. Epigrams 10.21.3–4 (94/95) To Sextus, whose poetry needs Apollo to interpret it. The poetry of Gaius Helvius Cinna (first century b.c.e.) was of such obscurity that it was already in need of commentaries upon publication. Non lectore tuis opus est, sed Apolline libris: iudice te maior Cinna Marone fuit.

Your books don’t need a reader; they need Apollo. In your opinion Cinna was greater than Maro. n. Epigrams 11.48 (circa 96) See below, II.C.3.a. o. Epigrams 11.50 (49) See below, II.C.3.b. p. Epigrams 11.52.16–18 (97) To Julius Cerialis, invited to the poet’s for dinner. The rura (countryside) of the addressee (with a pun on the relation of his name to the goddess Ceres) ranks next to that of Virgil, that is, the Georgics. Plus ego polliceor: nil recitabo tibi, ipse tuos nobis relegas licet usque Gigantas, rura vel aeterno proxima Vergilio. 54

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I promise something more: I’ll recite nothing to you, though you may read me your ‘‘Giants’’ on and on or your poems of the countryside, that rank next to immortal Virgil. q. Epigrams 12.3 (4).1–4 (circa 98) On Maecenas as Virgil’s patron. Quod Flacco Varioque fuit summoque Maroni Maecenas, atavis regibus ortus eques, gentibus et populis hoc te mihi, Prisce Terenti, fama fuisse loquax chartaque dicet anus.

What Maecenas, knight sprung from ancient kings, was to Flaccus and Varius and supreme Maro, this, Priscus Terentius, loquacious fame and paper grown old shall declare to all races and peoples that you were to me. r. Epigrams 12.67 See below, II.B.2. s. Epigrams 14.185 (circa 84) To read the Culex is the poetic equivalent of playing with nuts at the Saturnalia. See above, I.C.3. Vergili Culex Accipe facundi Culicem, studiose, Maronis, ne nucibus positis ‘‘Arma virumque’’ legas.

Accept, studious reader, the Gnat of eloquent Maro; no need to read ‘‘Arms and the Man’’ when you put away your nuts. t. Epigrams 14.186 (circa 84–85) By conjoining poems 185 and 186, Martial seems here to initiate the topos in which the epic genius is said to have produced trifling as well as noble works. (The two preceding epigrams, 183 and 184, treat Homer in the same fashion by juxtaposing the [pseudo-Homeric] Batrachomyomachia [Battle of the Frogs and Mice] with the Iliad.) Vergilius in Membranis Quam brevis immensum cepit membrana Maronem! ipsius vultus prima tabella gerit.

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How small a quantity of parchment has comprised vast Maro! The first leaf bears his own countenance. u. Epigrams 14.195 (circa 84–85) Tantum magna suo debet Verona Catullo, quantum parva suo Mantua Vergilio.

Great Verona owes as much to her Catullus as does tiny Mantua to her Virgil.

21. Statius (Publius Papinius Statius, circa 45–96) Statius is author of two epics: the Thebaid, in twelve books, dealing with the tale of the Seven against Thebes (91/92); and the fragmentary Achilleid, on the life of Achilles, published after the poet’s death. In between, Statius produced thirty-two miscellaneous poems in five books entitled Silvae, issued between 92 and 96. For Statius, see also II.C.2. Mention should be made of Gaius Valerius Flaccus, the third great writer of epic under the Flavian dynasty (69–96). We cannot be more exact in his dating than to say that he mentions the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 and is dead by around 95. His unfinished poem, the Argonautica, breaks o√ after a lengthy segment of its eighth book. The poem is most indebted to the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius and, in its last four books, to all who wrote about the Medea legend from Euripides to Seneca the Younger. Though Valerius Flaccus makes no direct reference to Virgil, the presence of Virgil and of the Aeneid nevertheless looms large in the background as a stimulus for Valerius’s imagination. (Discussion: P. Hardie, The Epic Successors of Virgil [Cambridge, 1993], especially 83–91; R. T. Ganiban, Statius and Virgil: The Thebaid and the Reinterpretation of the Aeneid [Cambridge, 2007]) a. Silvae 1, praefatio (92) The final references are to what Statius presumably considers juvenilia of Virgil and Homer. On the topos of epic poets producing light as well as serious verses, see above, on Martial (I.C.20.t) 14.185–86. On the Culex see above, I.C.3. (Text and translations, items a–e: Statius, Silvae, ed. and trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, LCL 206 [2003]) Quid enim [opus eo tempore hos] quoque auctoritate editionis onerari, quo adhuc pro Thebaide mea, quamvis me reliquerit, timeo? Sed et Culicem legimus et Batrachomachiam etiam agnoscimus. . . .

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For why [should they (the Silvae) too] be burdened with the authority of publication [at a time] when I am still anxious about my Thebaid, although it has left my hands? But we also read ‘‘The Gnat’’ and even recognize ‘‘The Battle of the Frogs.’’ . . . b. Silvae 2.7.73–80 (circa 93/94) To Polla, widow of the poet Lucan (see above, I.C.9), on his birthday. The lines quoted are part of an apostrophe by the muse Calliope to the poet himself. Haec primo iuvenis canes sub aevo ante annos Culicis Maroniani. Cedet Musa rudis ferocis Enni et docti furor arduus Lucreti et qui per freta duxit Argonautas et qui corpora prima transfigurat. Quin maius loquar: ipsa te Latinis Aeneis venerabitur canentem.

All this you shall sing as a young man in early life before the age of Maro’s ‘‘Gnat.’’ Bold Ennius’s untutored Muse shall yield, and the high frenzy of skilled Lucretius, and he that led the Argonauts through the seas, and he that transforms bodies from their first shapes. Nay, a greater thing I shall utter: Aeneis herself shall do you reverence, as you sing to the men of Latium. Earlier in the poem, at line 35, Statius commands Virgil’s birthplace: Baetim, Mantua, provocare noli.

Mantua, challenge not Baetis. Baetis, the modern Guadalquivir, flows past Córdoba, Lucan’s birthplace in southern Spain. In his hyperbolic praise of De bello civili (also known as Pharsalia), Statius sees the paragon of Roman epics doing obeisance to the younger poet’s work. At the conclusion of his Thebaid (see below, I.C.21.g), Statius is more circumspect and more apparently in line with tradition. c. Silvae 4.2.1–10 (circa 95) Regia Sidoniae convivia laudat Elissae qui magnum Aenean Laurentibus intulit arvis, Alcinoique dapes mansuro carmine monstrat aequore qui multo reducem consumpsit Ulixem: ast ego, cui sacrae Caesar nova gaudia cenae nunc primum dominamque dedit contingere mensam, C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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qua celebrem mea vota lyra, quas solvere grates sufficiam? Non, si pariter mihi vertice laeto nectat odoratas et Smyrna et Mantua lauros, digna loquar.

He that brought great Aeneas to the fields of Laurentum extols the royal feast of Sidonian Elissa [Dido], and he that wore out Ulysses with much seafaring portrays Alcinous’s repast in immortal verse. But I, now that for the first time Caesar has granted me novel joy of his sacred banquet, granted me to attain to his imperial board, with what lyre am I to celebrate my answered prayers, what thanks shall I avail to render? Not though Smyrna [birthplace of Homer] and Mantua [birthplace of Virgil] both were to bind holy laurel on my happy head should I find fitting utterance. d. Silvae 4.7.25–28 To Vibius Maximus. Quippe te fido monitore nostra Thebais multa cruciata lima temptat audaci fide Mantuanae gaudia famae.

For it is with you as my trusty counselor that my Thebaid, tortured by much filing, essays with daring string the joys of Mantuan fame. e. Silvae 5.3.61–63 (circa 96) Atque tibi moresque tuos et facta canentem fors et magniloquo non posthabuisset Homero, tenderet aeterno [et] Pietas aequare Maroni.

And as I there [at an imagined altar built to honor his deceased father] sang your ways and deeds, Piety perhaps would have accounted me not inferior to mighty-mouthed Homer and striven to match me with immortal Maro. f. Thebaid 10.445–48 (circa 91/92) The poet’s envoi to Dymas and Hopleus is a bow to Virgil’s authorial address to Nisus and Euryalus at Aeneid 9.446–49. We have hence a double act of emulation, in story line and in the special rhetoric of presentation, a night adventure (in the tradition of Iliad 10 and Aeneid 9) concluding with a fourline apostrophe. The Virgilian verses are cited above, at I.C.7.d.i. (Text, items f–g: P. Papini Stati, Thebais et Achilleis, ed. H. W. Garrod, OCT [1965]) 58

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Vos quoque sacrati, quamvis mea carmina surgant inferiore lyra, memores superabitis annos. Forsitan et comites non aspernabitur umbras Euryalus Phrygiique admittet gloria Nisi.

You too are blessed, though my songs soar from a lowlier lyre, and will outdo the mindful years. Perchance, too, Euryalus will not scorn his comrade shades, and the glory of Trojan Nisus will allow them admittance. (MP) g. Thebaid 12.816–17 (circa 91/92 c.e.) To his poem, three lines before its conclusion. Vive, precor; nec tu divinam Aeneida tempta, sed longe sequere et vestigia semper adora.

Live, I pray, and do not rival the immortal Aeneid but follow afar and always venerate its footsteps. (modified by MP) These lines seem to initiate the ‘‘inferiority’’ topos, of poets’ pronouncing their inability to compete with Virgil as paragon. Yet in the act of praying away any apparent rivalry between his epic and the Aeneid, Statius in fact adopts and adapts the language that Virgil gives to Aeneas as he tells Dido of his departure from Troy when he lost his wife Creusa (Aeneid 2.711): . . . et longe servet vestigia coniunx.

. . . and let my wife follow our steps at a distance.

22. Tacitus (Publius Cornelius Tacitus, circa 56–circa 120) The literary career of Tacitus, Roman statesman and wide-ranging author, began with three minor works: the Agricola, a biography of his father-in-law, Gnaeus Iulius Agricola, dating from 98; the Germania, an ethnographic treatise on Germany, also dating from 98; and the Dialogus de oratoribus (Dialogue on Orators), dating circa 101/2, on the contemporary decline in oratory. His reputation as an historian rests primarily on the Historiae and Annales (entitled in the manuscript tradition Ab excessu divi Augusti [From the Death of Deified Augustus]). The first of these (written circa 110), of which only the initial four and a quarter books survive, covered the years from 68 to probably 96. The second, written during the subsequent decade, covered the years 14 to 68. Of a total of at least sixteen, only eight complete books have come down to us along with fragments of three others. In Dialogus 12.6–13.3, below, the speaker is the dramatist Curiatius Maternus. Virgil is here viewed as the poetic equivalent of the statesman Augustus. We C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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may also note Dialogus 20.5 (on the baleful influence of Lucius Accius [170– circa 86 b.c.e.] and Marcus Pacuvius [220–circa 130 b.c.e.] on oratory by comparison to what emanates from the sacrarium [shrine] of Horace, Virgil, and Lucan) and 23.2 (on archaizers, who prefer Lucretius to Virgil). (Text and translation: Tacitus, Dialogus de oratoribus, ed. and trans. W. Peterson, LCL 35 [1946]) (MP) ‘‘. . . plures hodie reperies qui Ciceronis gloriam quam qui Vergilii detrectent: nec ullus Asinii aut Messallae liber tam inlustris est quam Medea Ovidii aut Varii Thyestes. ‘‘Ac ne fortunam quidem vatum et illud felix contubernium comparare timuerim cum inquieta et anxia oratorum vita. Licet illos certamina et pericula sua ad consulatus evexerint, malo securum et quietum Vergilii secessum, in quo tamen neque apud divum Augustum gratia caruit neque apud populum Romanum notitia. Testes Augusti epistulae, testis ipse populus qui auditis in theatro Vergilii versibus surrexit universus et forte praesentem spectantemque Vergilium veneratus est sic quasi Augustum.’’

‘‘ . . . and today you will find a larger number of critics ready to disparage Cicero’s reputation than Virgil’s, while there is no published oration of Asinius [Pollio] or Messalla so celebrated as the Medea of Ovid or the Thyestes of Varius. ‘‘Nor should I hesitate to contrast the poet’s lot in life and his delightful literary companionship with the unrest and anxiety that mark the orator’s career. What though in his case a consulship be the crown of all the contests and lawsuits he so dearly loves: for my part I would rather have the seclusion in which Virgil lived, tranquil and serene, without forfeiting either the favor of the late Augustus, or popularity with the citizens of Rome. This is vouched for by the letters of Augustus, and by the behavior of the citizens themselves; for on hearing a quotation from Virgil in the course of a theatrical performance, they rose to their feet as a man, and did homage to the poet, who happened to be present at the play, just as they would have done Augustus himself.’’

23. Florus (Publius Annius Florus, active circa 80–circa 122) Florus is the author of a dialogue entitled Vergilius orator an poeta (Was Virgil an Orator or a Poet?), transmitted by a single manuscript, of which only the three initial paragraphs survive. There he tells us that he was an African by birth and that as a young man he competed at Domitian’s Capitoline Games. When he failed to win, he left Rome and settled at Tarraco, in Spain. (For the Latin text, with a French translation, introduction, and notes, see Florus, Oeuvres, ed. P. Jal, 2 vols. [Paris, 1967], 2:95–120.) 60

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The language of the dialogue’s opening sentence echoes the initial words of Cicero’s De oratore, a discussion in three books of the formation of the perfect orator, while the theme suggested by the title recalls the content of the early segments of Tacitus’s Dialogus (see above, I.C.22). What might have followed is only hinted at by the narrator’s description of his interlocutor as a vir, ut postea apparuit, litteris pereruditus (man quite learned in letters, as later became clear). The content of the subsequent dialogue, however, might be adumbrated by the introductory sentences to chapter 1 of the fifth book of Macrobius’s Saturnalia (see below, IV.C). (Text: J. Willis, ed., 2nd ed., Bibliotheca Teubneriana [Leipzig, 1970]) Post haec cum paulisper Eusebius quievisset, omnes inter se consono murmure Vergilium non minus oratorem quam poetam habendum pronuntiabant, in quo et tanta orandi disciplina et tam diligens observatio rhetoricae artis ostenderetur. Et Avienus, ‘‘dicas mihi,’’ inquit, ‘‘volo, doctorum optime, si concedimus, sicuti necesse est oratorem fuisse Vergilium, siquis nunc velit orandi artem consequi, utrum magis ex Vergilio an ex Cicerone proficiat?’’

After this Eusebius paused for a little while; but in the meantime there was a murmur of talk among the rest of those present, and a general agreement to hold Virgil no less eminent as an orator than as a poet, so great was the knowledge he showed of oratory and so careful his regard for the rules of rhetoric. Then, turning to Eusebius, Avienus said: ‘‘Tell me, please, my learned friend—if we admit, as indeed we must, that Virgil was an orator—from which of the two would one who nowadays wished to become proficient in the art of oratory derive the greater profit: from Virgil or from Cicero?’’ (Macrobius, The Saturnalia, trans. P. V. Davies [New York, 1969]) Whether or not Publius Annius Florus is to be equated with, or distinguished from, the historian Lucius Annaeus Florus, who wrote Epitome bellorum omnium annorum DCC (Abridgment of All the Wars of Seven Hundred Years), or the poet Annius Florus, who exchanged verses with the emperor Hadrian, continues to be a matter of scholarly debate. (Discussion: for the exchange with Hadrian see Historia Augusta, Vita Hadriani [Life of Hadrian] 16.3–4 [see below, II.F.1.e]; for other verses by Florus, see AL 1.1, 121–22, nos. 87–89, and 200–202, nos. 245–52. For further details see F. R. D. Goodyear, ‘‘Florus,’’ in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, vol. 2: Latin Literature, ed. E. J. Kenney and W. Clausen [Cambridge, 1982], 664–66, and, for practical details, 898–900; C. Di Giovine ‘‘Floro,’’ EV 2:542–43; M. von Albrecht, A History of Roman Literature, vol. 2 [Leiden, 1997], 1411–20.) (MP) C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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24. Pliny the Younger (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, circa 61–circa 112) Nephew and adopted son of Pliny the Elder (see above, I.C.8), he died in o≈ce as the emperor Trajan’s legate to Bithynia. To literary historians he is known as the writer of Epistles, nine books on miscellaneous topics, written in the years up to 109, and a tenth containing his correspondence with the emperor, from 98 into his governorship. (Text and translations: Pliny the Younger, Letters and Panegyricus, vol. 1, ed. and trans. B. Radice, LCL 55 [1972]) a. Epistles 3.7.8 To Caninius Rufus, equestrian landowner from Como. For Pliny, the sacredness of Virgil’s tomb was parallel to the sacredness of the poet and of his writing. On Silius, who starved himself to death about 103, see above, I.C.18. Multum ubique librorum, multum statuarum, multum imaginum, quas non habebat modo, verum etiam venerabatur, Vergili ante omnes, cuius natalem religiosius quam suum celebrabat, Neapoli maxime, ubi monimentum eius adire ut templum solebat.

In each [of the houses of Silius Italicus] he had quantities of books, statues, and portrait busts, and these were more to him than possessions—they became objects of his devotion, particularly in the case of Virgil, whose birthday he celebrated with more solemnity than his own, and at Naples especially, where he would visit Virgil’s tomb as if it were a temple. b. Epistles 5.3.6 To Titius Aristo, well-known lawyer and counsel to the emperor Trajan. The goodness of Virgil the man is echoed in the quality of his writing, which set ethical standards for the Roman world. The letter concerns the versiculi, light verses of an obscene character, that Pliny has written. He appeals to Virgil, first and foremost, as a genius of the highest order who did not scorn the writing of amatory poetry. The reference is probably to poems included in the Catalepton (see above, I.C.3). Ovid (Tristia 2.533–38), when discussing Virgil’s poetry with love as a theme, refers only to the Eclogues and to the fourth book of the Aeneid. (Discussion: H. Krasser, ‘‘Extremos pudeat rediisse—Plinius im Wettstreit mit der Vergangenheit: zu Vergilzitaten beim jüngeren Plinius,’’ Antike und Abendland 39 [1993], 144–54; P. Schenk, ‘‘Formen von Intertextualität im Briefkorpus des jüngeren Plinius,’’ Philologus 143 [1999], 114–34)

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Inter quos vel praecipue numerandus est P. Vergilius, Cornelius Nepos et prius Accius Enniusque. Non quidem hi senatores, sed sanctitas morum non distat ordinibus.

In the latter class [of good men] Virgil, Cornelius Nepos, and, before their date, Accius and Ennius must rank high: it is true they were not senators, but moral integrity knows no class distinctions.

25. Juvenal (Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis, circa 67–after 127) Juvenal is Rome’s last and, in the opinion of many readers, greatest writer of satire. He is author of sixteen poems (the last of which remains unfinished) in five books, published during the second and third decades of the second century. (Text: Persius and Juvenal, Saturae, ed. W. V. Clausen, OCT [1959]) a. Satires 6.434–37 (circa 118) The misogynist Juvenal’s rant here is against the manly ‘‘bluestocking.’’ He singles out for special contempt the woman’s presumptuousness in comparing Homer and Virgil. Such comparison, to which Juvenal also adverts in Satires 11.180 (see below, I.C.25.d), can be found in Propertius (see above, I.B.4), Quintilian (I.C.19.h), and Macrobius (IV.C.3), among others. Illa tamen gravior, quae cum discumbere coepit laudat Vergilium, periturae ignoscit Elissae, committit vates et comparat, inde Maronem atque alia parte in trutina suspendit Homerum.

But harder to take is the woman who, as soon as she begins to recline at table, praises Virgil, pardons Dido soon to die, and pits poets against each other and compares them, hanging Maro in one scale, Homer in the other. (MP) b. Satires 7.66–71 (circa 120 c.e.) These lines, plus the preceding ten, are quoted by Petrarch in his Collatio laureationis (Coronation Oration) to describe the hardships of the poet’s vocation (see below, I.C.54.c). The reference in the last line is to Allecto’s bucina dira (dread horn) at Aeneid 7.519–20, which arouses the Latin world to war. Magnae mentis opus, nec de lodice paranda attonitae, currus et equos faciesque deorum aspicere et qualis Rutulum confundat Erinys.

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Nam si Vergilio puer et tolerabile desset hospitium, caderent omnes a crinibus hydri, surda nihil gemeret grave bucina.

It is the task of a noble mind, one not troubled at the cost of a coverlet, to behold the chariots, the horses, and the features of the gods and such a Fury as dismays the Rutulian [Turnus]. For had Virgil possessed no slave and no decent dwelling, all the snakes would have fallen from the [Fury’s] locks, and her soundless horn would have groaned without force. (MP) c. Satires 7.225–27 . . . dummodo non pereat totidem olfecisse lucernas quot stabant pueri, cum totus decolor esset Flaccus et haereret nigro fuligo Maroni.

. . . if only it isn’t wasted to have smelled as many lamps as there were students [the teacher will manage to survive], when Flaccus [= Horace] was completely darkened and grime was clinging to blackened Maro. (MP) Horace and Virgil have long since become standard works for the grammaticus to use in teaching. It is debated whether lines 226–27 refer to manuscripts or to portrait busts. The scholiasts favor the former. On Satires 7.226, see Scholia in Iuvenalem vetustiora (ed. P. Wessner [Leipzig, 1931], 134): Codex [H]oratii et Virgilii, in quibus legebant. . . . Quia et [H]oratius et Virgilius nigri coloris dicuntur fuisse, ideo diasyrtice dixit detrahendo.

[Juvenal is referring to] the manuscript of Horace and Virgil in which they read. . . . Since both Horace and Virgil are said to have been dark skinned, he has thus spoken disparagingly for the sake of detracting. (MP) Horace amusingly predicts a parallel fate for himself in Epistles 1.20.11. d. Satires 11.179–81 (circa 125) Juvenal refers once to the ‘‘singing’’ of Virgil. Nostra dabunt alios hodie convivia ludos: conditor Iliados cantabitur atque Maronis altisoni dubiam facientia carmina palmam.

My feast today will provide di√erent entertainment: the creator of the Iliad will be sung and the songs of lofty-toned Maro, which contest the palm with his. (modified by MP) A comparable reference appears in a poem Epigramma or De perversis suae aetatis moribus by a Paulinus who was perhaps bishop of Béziers (died after 409) (Text: PL 61, 970D): 64

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Non vitium nostrum est, Paulo et Salmone relicto, Quod Maro cantatur Phoenissae, et Naso Corynnae, Quod plausum accipiunt lyra Flacci, aut scena Terenti? Nos, horum nos causa sumus: nos turpiter istis Nutrimenta damus flammis: culpane caremus?

Is it not our fault that, with the writings of Paul and Solomon forsaken, Virgil to the woman of Carthage and Ovid to Corinna are sung, that the lyre of Horace or the stage of Terence receives applause? We are the cause, we (I say) of these things: in our baseness we give food to these flames; do we lack blame? (JZ)

26. Apuleius (Lucius Apuleius, circa 125–circa 170) Apuleius’s most famous work is the Metamorphoses (commonly entitled in English The Golden Ass), in eleven books, the only complete surviving classical Latin novel. We also have preserved the Florida, a collection of excerpts from his declamations, and the Apologia (circa 158/59), his defense against the charge of misusing magic. From Apologia 10 (Text: Pro se de magia [Apologia], ed. V. Hunink [Amsterdam, 1997], 43): Quanto modestius tandem Mantuanus poeta, qui itidem ut ego puerum amici sui Pollionis bucolico ludicro laudans et abstinens nominum sese quidem Corydonem, puerum vero Alexin vocat.

How much more modestly [behaves] the Mantuan bard, who in the same way as I, praising the slave-boy of his friend Pollio in the play of pastoral song and withholding names, calls himself Corydon but the boy Alexis. (MP)

27. Aulus Gellius (circa 125/28–circa 180) Gellius is the author of Noctes Atticae (Attic Nights), written circa 175, in twenty largely complete books. The work consists in general of short chapters that serve as a compendium of Gellius’s reading on a wide variety of topics. The whole is a major source of information for the evolution of Latin literature and especially for the early history of its criticism and transmission. What follows is a modest selection of Gellius’s references to Virgil, which number in the dozens. (Text and translations: Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, ed. and trans. J. C. Rolfe, vols. 1–3, LCL 195, 200, 212 [1927]) a. Noctes Atticae 2.6.1–6 Gellius defends Virgil’s lexical choices against certain grammatici, among them Lucius Annaeus Cornutus (see below, IV.A.4). The same three passages are C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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also discussed at Macrobius (see below, IV.C), Saturnalia 6.7.4–9, where Servius answers the objections of Avienus in language adapted from Gellius. Nonnulli grammatici aetatis superioris, in quibus est Cornutus Annaeus, haut sane indocti neque ignobiles, qui commentaria in Vergilium composuerunt, reprehendunt quasi incuriose et abiecte verbum positum in his versibus: Candida succinctam latrantibus inguina monstris Dulichias vexasse rates et gurgite in alto a! timidos nautas canibus lacerasse marinis [Eclogues 6.75–77].

‘‘Vexasse’’ enim putant verbum esse leve et tenuis ac parvi incommodi nec tantae atrocitati congruere, cum homines repente a belua immanissima rapti laniatique sint. Item aliud huiuscemodi reprehendunt: Quis aut Eurysthea durum aut inlaudati nescit Busiridis aras? [Georgics 3.4–5]

‘‘Inlaudati’’ parum idoneum esse verbum dicunt neque id satis esse ad faciendam scelerati hominis detestationem, qui, quod hospites omnium gentium immolare solitus fuit, non laude indignus, sed detestatione execrationeque totius generis humani dignus esset. Item aliud verbum culpaverunt: Per tunicam squalentem auro latus haurit apertum [Aeneid 10.314],

tamquam si non convenerit dicere ‘‘auro squalentem,’’ quoniam nitoribus splendoribusque auri squaloris inluvies sit contraria. Sed de verbo ‘‘vexasse’’ ita responderi posse credo: ‘‘Vexasse’’ grave verbum est factumque ab eo videtur, quod est ‘‘vehere,’’ in quo inest vis iam quaedam alieni arbitrii; non enim sui potens est, qui vehitur. ‘‘Vexare’’ autem, quod ex eo inclinatum est, vi atque motu procul dubio vastior est. Nam qui fertur et rapsatur atque huc atque illuc distrahitur, is vexari proprie dicitur, sicuti ‘‘taxare’’ pressius crebriusque est quam ‘‘tangere,’’ unde id procul dubio inclinatum est, et ‘‘iactare’’ multo fusius largiusque est quam ‘‘iacere,’’ unde id verbum traductum est, et ‘‘quassare’’ quam ‘‘quatere’’ gravius violentiusque est. Non igitur, quia volgo dici solet ‘‘vexatum esse’’ quem fumo aut vento aut pulvere, propterea debet vis vera atque natura verbi deperire, quae a veteribus, qui proprie atque signate locuti sunt, ita ut decuit, conservata est.

Some grammarians of an earlier time, men by no means without learning and repute, who wrote commentaries on Virgil, and among them Annaeus Cornutus, criticize the poet’s use of a word in the following verses as careless and negligent: 66

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That, her white waist with howling monsters girt, dread Scylla vexasse [knocked about] Ulysses’ ships amid the swirling depths, and, piteous sight! the trembling sailors with her sea-dogs rent.

They think, namely, that vexasse is a weak word, indicating a slight and trivial annoyance, and not adapted to such a horror as the sudden seizing and rending of human beings by a ruthless monster. They also criticize another word in the following: Who has not heard of king Eurystheus’s pitiless commands and altars of Busiris, the inlaudati [unpraised]?

Inlaudati, they say, is not at all a suitable word, but is quite inadequate to express abhorrence of a wretch who, because he used to sacrifice guests from all over the world, was not merely ‘‘undeserving of praise,’’ but rather deserving of the abhorrence and execration of the whole human race. They have criticized still another word in the verse: Through tunic squalentem [rough] with gold the sword drank from his pierced side,

on the ground that it is out of place to say auro squalentem, since the filth of squalor is quite opposed to the brilliance and splendor of gold. Now as to the word vexasse, I believe that the following answer may be made: vexasse is an intensive verb, and is obviously derived from vehere, in which there is already some notion of compulsion by another; for a man who is carried is not his own master. But vexare, which is derived from vehere, unquestionably implies greater force and impulse. For vexare is properly used of one who is seized and carried away, and dragged about hither and yon; just as taxare denotes more forcible and repeated action than tangere, from which it is undoubtedly derived; and iactare a much fuller and more vigorous action than iacere, from which it comes; and quassare something severer and more violent than quatere. Therefore, merely because vexare is commonly used of the annoyance of smoke or wind or dust is no reason why the original force and meaning of the word should be lost; and that meaning was preserved by the earlier writers, who, as became them, spoke correctly and clearly. b. Noctes Atticae 2.16 Gellius discusses Aeneid 6.760–66, noting the disagreement between two critics, Caesellius Vindex (student of early Latin, probably Hadrianic in date) and Sulpicius Apollinaris (native of Carthage and teacher of Gellius), on its interpretation. Surviving verse summaries of the Aeneid are wrongly ascribed to the latter (incipit: Arma virumque canit vates Iunonis ob iram, C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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in PLM 4.169; compare Arma virumque canit mira virtute potentem, PLM 4.173). c. Noctes Atticae 5.8.1–3, 6–7 Gellius defends Aeneid 7.187–88 against the strictures of Hyginus (see below, IV.A.2). Ipse Quirinali lituo parvaque sedebat subcinctus trabea laevaque ancile gerebat [Aeneid 7.187–88].

In his versibus errasse Hyginus Vergilium scripsit, tamquam non animadverterit deesse aliquid hisce verbis: ipse Quirinali lituo.

‘‘Nam si nihil’’ inquit ‘‘deesse animadverterimus, videtur ita dictum, ut fiat ‘lituo et trabea subcinctus,’ quod est’’ inquit ‘‘absurdissimum; quippe cum lituus sit virga brevis in parte, qua robustior est, incurva, qua augures utuntur, quonam modo ‘subcinctus lituo’ videri potest?’’ Immo ipse Hyginus parum animadvertit sic hoc esse dictum, ut pleraque dici per defectionem. . . . Sic igitur id quoque videri dictum debet: ‘‘Picus Quirinali lituo erat,’’ sicuti dicimus: ‘‘Statua grandi capite erat.’’ Et ‘‘est’’ autem et ‘‘erat’’ et ‘‘fuit’’ plerumque absunt cum elegantia sine detrimento sententiae. Here, wielding his Quirinal augur-sta√, girt with scant shift and bearing on his left the sacred shield, Picus appeared enthroned.

In these verses Hyginus wrote that Virgil was in error, alleging that he did not notice that the words ipse Quirinali lituo lacked something. ‘‘For,’’ said he, ‘‘if we have not observed that something is lacking, the sentence seems to read ‘girt with sta√ and scant shift,’ which,’’ says he, ‘‘is utterly absurd; for since the lituus is a short wand, curved at its thicker end, such as the augurs use, how on earth can one be looked upon as ‘girt with a lituus ?’ ’’ As a matter of fact, it was Hyginus himself who failed to notice that this expression, like very many others, contains an ellipsis. . . . So then it would seem that the phrase in question ought to be interpreted as ‘‘Picus was with the Quirinal sta√,’’ just as we say ‘‘the statue was with a large head,’’ and in fact est, erat, and fuit are often omitted, with elegant e√ect and without any loss of meaning. d. Noctes Atticae 6.17.8–9 Gellius discusses Virgil’s use of obnoxius at Georgics 1.395–96 and 2.438–39 and its misinterpretation by an unnamed grammarian. e. Noctes Atticae 6.20.1–2 Gellius tells the story of Virgil’s alteration of Nola to ora (region) at Georgics 2.224–25. 68

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Scriptum in quodam commentario repperi versus istos a Vergilio ita primum esse recitatos atque editos: talem dives arat Capua et vicina Vesevo Nola iugo;

postea Vergilium petisse a Nolanis, aquam uti duceret in propincum rus, Nolanos beneficium petitum non fecisse, poetam offensum nomen urbis eorum, quasi ex hominum memoria, sic ex carmine suo derasisse ‘‘oram’’ que pro ‘‘Nola’’ mutasse atque ita reliquisse: et vicina Vesevo ora iugo.

Ea res verane an falsa sit, non laboro; quin tamen melius suaviusque ad aures sit ‘‘ora’’ quam ‘‘Nola,’’ dubium id non est. . . .

I have found it noted in a certain commentary that the following lines were first read and published by Virgil in this form: Such is the soil that wealthy Capua plows and Nola near Vesuvius’s height.

That afterward Virgil asked the people of Nola to allow him to run their city water into his estate, which was nearby, but that they refused to grant the favor which he asked; that thereupon the o√ended poet erased the name of their city from his poem, as if consigning it to oblivion, changing Nola to ora [region] and leaving the phrase in this form: The region near Vesuvius’s height.

With the truth or falsity of this note I am not concerned; but there is no doubt that ora has a more agreeable and musical sound than Nola. . . . f. Noctes Atticae 7.6 Gellius studies Aeneid 6.14–15 and again takes Hyginus to task for ill-founded criticism, here of the phrase praepetibus pennis (on forward wings). g. Noctes Atticae 9.9.4–17 Virgil is examined as ‘‘translator’’ of Theocritus and Homer. The passages compared are Eclogues 3.64–65 with Theocritus, Idyll 5.88–89, Eclogues 9.23– 25 with Idyll 3.3–5, and Aeneid 1.498–502 with Homer, Odyssey 6.102–8. h. Noctes Atticae 9.10 Gellius ponders the supposed indecency of Aeneid 8.404–6. See further below, IV.W.2.

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i. Noctes Atticae 12.2.10. Gellius quotes, with disapproval, a fragment from the twenty-second book of the Epistulae morales (Moral Epistles) of Seneca the Younger (see above, I.C.7). Gellius, himself notable as an archaist, quotes Seneca chastising Virgil for flattering the archaists of his own era by making bows to Ennius, epicist of the first half of the second century b.c.e. ‘‘Vergilius quoque noster non ex alia causa duros quosdam versus et enormes et aliquid supra mensuram trahentes interposuit, quam ut Ennianus populus agnosceret in novo carmine aliquid antiquitatis.’’

‘‘Our Virgil too admitted certain verses that are harsh, irregular, and somewhat beyond the proper measure, with no other motive than that a community devoted to Ennius might recognize some flavor of antiquity in the new poem.’’ (modified by MP) j. Noctes Atticae 17.10.2–4 Gellius here quotes the sophist and philosopher Favorinus (circa 85–155). After this passage, Favorinus continues with a lengthy comparison of Pindar, Pythian Odes 1.21–26 with Aeneid 3.570–77, largely in denigration of the latter. For the bear-cub analogy, see further Aelius Donatus (below, II.A.1 [VSD 22]). The analogy is also used twice by Aelius Donatus’s student Jerome (see below, II.A.2.c and II.A.2.d). For further citations of Gellius see also below, IV.A.7 (Noctes Atticae 1.21.1–2) and II.E.3.a–b (Noctes Atticae 2.3.5). ‘‘Amici . . . familiaresque P. Vergili in iis, quae de ingenio moribusque eius memoriae tradiderunt, dicere eum solitum ferunt parere se versus more atque ritu ursino. Namque ut illa bestia fetum ederet ineffigiatum informemque lambendoque id postea, quod ita edidisset, conformaret et fingeret, proinde ingenii quoque sui partus recentes rudi esse facie et imperfecta, sed deinceps tractando colendoque reddere iis se oris et vultus lineamenta. Hoc virum iudicii subtilissimi ingenue atque vere dixisse, res,’’ inquit, ‘‘indicium facit.’’

‘‘The friends and intimates of Publius Vergilius, in the accounts that they have left of his talents and his character, say that he used to declare that he produced verses after the manner and fashion of a bear. For he said that as that beast brought forth her young formless and misshapen, and afterward by licking the young cub gave it form and shape, just so the fresh products of his mind were rude in form and imperfect, but afterward by working over them and polishing them he gave them a definite form and expression. That this was honestly and truly said by that man of fine taste,’’ said he, ‘‘is shown by the result.’’ 70

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28. Avienus (Postumius Rufius Festus Avienus, flourished mid fourth century) According to a comment on Aeneid 10.272 in Servius (see below, IV.B), Avienus (or Avienius) iambis scripsit Vergilii fabulas (wrote [now lost] tales from Virgil in iambs), which is to say, he went through the metrical exercise of transforming poetry originally composed in dactylic hexameter into iambic trimeters.

29. Ammianus Marcellinus (circa 330–95) The last of the great Roman historians, Ammianus was a Greek speaker born in Antioch. His Rerum gestarum libri (Books of History), commonly called Historiae, completed circa 391, originally comprised thirty-one volumes detailing the history of Rome from the accession of the emperor Nerva in 96 to the fourth century. Books 14–31, which span the years 353–78, survive. a. Historiae 15.9.1 At virtually the midpoint in his history, Ammianus may be forging a direct link between himself and Virgil as he alludes to the poet’s narrator, speaking in the first person, describing the task that confronts him in recounting the second half of the Aeneid. (Text and translations, items a–c: Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman History, vol. 1, ed. and trans. J. C. Rolfe, LCL 300 [1935]) Proinde quoniam—ut Mantuanus vates praedixit excelsus—‘‘maius opus moveo’’ [Aeneid 7.44–45] maiorque mihi rerum nascitur ordo, Galliarum tractus et situm ostendere puto nunc tempestivum. . . .

Now since—as the lofty bard of Mantua said of old—‘‘a greater task I undertake,’’ and a greater train of events arises before me, I think now a suitable time to describe the regions and situation of the Gauls. . . . (modified by MP) b. Historiae 17.4.5 Is est (si recte existimo) Gallus poeta, quem flens quodam modo in postrema Bucolicorum parte Vergilius carmine leni decantat.

He was, if I am right in so thinking, the poet Gallus, whom Virgil laments in a way in the final segment of the Bucolics and celebrates in gentle verse. (modified by MP) c. Historiae 19.9.7 . . . ut ait poeta praeclarus ‘‘longo proximus intervallo’’ [Aeneid 5.320].

[Craugarius compared to Antoninus] as the eminent poet says, ‘‘next by a long interval.’’ C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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d. Historiae 31.4.6 Ammianus quotes Georgics 2.105–6 (with truduntur in place of the manuscripts’ turbentur). (Text: Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman History, vol. 3: Excerpta Valesiana, ed. and trans. J. C. Rolfe, LCL 331 [1940]) . . . ut eminentissimus memorat vates . . .

. . . as the most outstanding of poets recalls . . . (MP)

30. Jerome (Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, circa 347–420) A student at Rome of Aelius Donatus (see below, IV.D.2 and II.A.1), Jerome became one of the great Christian apologists, particularly influential as the author of the standard version of the Vulgate, the Latin Bible (384). Throughout his productive life his love of classical learning and literature never left him. (In his famous letter 22 he tells of a dream in which Christ rebukes him for being more Ciceronian than Christian.) Among his many correspondents was Paulinus, pupil of Ausonius (see below, III.A.4), poet and bishop of Nola. For other references to Jerome see under II.C.7, III.C.4, and III.E.5. a. Additamenta (circa 380) Commentary on passages in the Chronicon of Eusebius of Caesarea dealing with the life of Virgil (see below, II.A.2.a). b. Liber quaestionum Hebraicarum in Genesim, praefatio (circa 391–92) (Text: PL 23, 983A) Qui in principiis librorum debebam secuturi operis argumenta proponere, cogor prius respondere maledictis, Terentius quippiam sustinens, qui comoediarum prologos in defensionem sui scenis dabat. Urgebat enim eum Luscius Lanuvinus, nostro Luscio similis, et quasi publici aerarii poetam furem criminabatur. Hoc idem passus est ab aemulis et Mantuanus vates, ut cum quosdam versus Homeri transtulisset ad verbum, compilator veterum diceretur. Quibus ille respondit magnarum esse virium clavam Herculi extorquere de manu [see below, IV.A.3, and VSD 46, II.A.1].

I, who ought at the beginnings of the books to set forth the arguments of the work to follow, am compelled first to respond to negative remarks. I follow a hint from Terence, who o√ered the prologues of his comedies in defense of his dramaturgy. For Luscius Lanuvinus [writer of fabulae palliatae, second century b.c.e.], like our Luscius, went after the poet and charged him with 72

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thievery from the public treasury. Even the bard of Mantua su√ered this same thing from his rivals, so that, when he had translated word for word certain verses of Homer, he was called a plunderer of the ancients. His reply to them was that it takes great strength to wrench Hercules’ club from his hand. (MP)

31. Augustine (Aurelius Augustinus, 354–430) Augustine, born at Thagaste in Numidia, studied in Milan, where he converted to Christianity in 386. He returned to North Africa in 388, was ordained priest in 391, and became bishop of Hippo, a post he held from circa 396 until his death. Virgil, whom he both loved and seemed to scorn, is a constant presence in his prolific writings, one against whose works he feels constantly drawn to test his own genius. (Discussion: H. Hagendahl, Augustine and the Latin Classics, 2 vols. [Goteborg, 1967]; S. MacCormack, The Shadows of Poetry: Vergil in the Mind of Augustine, Transformation of the Classical Heritage 26 [Berkeley, 1998]; G. A. Müller, Formen und Funktionen der Vergilzitate bei Augustin von Hippo, Studien zur Geschichte und Kultur des Altertums NF, 1. Reihe, Monographien,18 [Paderborn, 2003]) His most famous writings are Confessionum libri tredecim (The Confessions), a thirteen-book monologue on his spiritual development, addressed to God (written 397–401); and De civitate Dei (The City of God), a vindication, in twenty-two books, of the Christian Church in its triumph over paganism (412/13–426/27). Other works quoted below, in chronological order, are: De ordine (On Providence; 386); De musica (On Music; 387–89); De doctrina Christiana (On Christian Teaching; 396–427); Contra Faustum Manichaeum (Against Faustus the Manichaean; 398–400); De Trinitate (On the Trinity; 399–420); Locutiones in Heptateuchum (Questions on the Heptateuch; 419); De natura et origine animae (On the Nature and Origin of the Soul; 419); Enchiridion (Handbook; 421–23); De cura pro mortuis gerenda (On the Care of the Dead; 421–22). a. General References i. De ordine (Text: P. Knöll, ed., CSEL 63 [1922], 138) Omnia nostrae lucubrationis opuscula in hanc libelli partem contulimus nihilque a me aliud actum est illo die, ut valetudini parcerem, nisi quod ante cenam cum ipsis dimidium volumen Vergilii audire cotidie solitus eram.

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We garnered into this part of the notebook all the points of our nocturnal discussion. In order to spare my strength, nothing more was done by me that day, except that it was my custom to go over half a book of Virgil with them before the evening meal. (MP) ii. Confessions 1.13 See below, III.E.6.a. iii. Confessions 1.14 (Text: J. O’Donnell, ed. [Oxford, 1992]) Cur ergo graecam etiam grammaticam oderam talia cantantem? Nam et Homerus peritus texere tales fabellas et dulcissime vanus est, mihi tamen amarus erat puero. Credo etiam Graecis pueris Vergilius ita sit, cum eum sic discere coguntur ut ego illum. Videlicet difficultas, difficultas omnino ediscendae linguae peregrinae, quasi felle aspergebat omnes suavitates graecas fabulosarum narrationum.

Since this was the case, why did I likewise hate the literature (as well as the language) of Greece, that sings of such matters? For Homer too is skilled at weaving such tales and is most delightfully truthless. Nevertheless to me as a boy he seemed to be harsh. I believe that so is Virgil to Greek schoolboys, when they are compelled to learn him, as I was compelled to learn Homer. For assuredly the di≈culty, the di≈culty of learning a foreign language, sprinkled with gall all the pleasures of those fabulous Greek stories. (MP and JZ) iv. De civitate Dei 1.3 (Discussion: G. Clark, ‘‘City of God(s): Virgil and Augustine,’’ Proceedings of the Virgil Society 25 [2004], 83–94) (Text and translation: Augustine, City of God, vol. 1, ed. and trans. G. E. McCracken, LCL 411 [1957]) Nempe apud Vergilium, quem propterea parvuli legunt ut videlicet poeta magnus omniumque praeclarissimus atque optimus teneris ebibitus animis non facile oblivione possit aboleri. . . .

Without question Virgil has [earned the honors bestowed on him]—and they read him in their early years precisely in order, yes, in order that when their tender minds have been soaked in the great poet, surpassing all in fame, it may not be easy for him to vanish from their memory. . . . v. De civitate Dei 10.1 Augustine quotes Aeneid 1.12 as the writing of quidam Latini eloquii magnus auctor (a certain great master of Latin speech). 74

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b. On the Declaiming of Virgil i. Confessions 1.17 Augustine tells of his youthful declaiming of Juno’s opening speech in Aeneid 1. (Text: J. O’Donnell, ed. [Oxford, 1992]) Sine me, Deus meus, dicere aliquid et de ingenio meo, munere tuo, in quibus a me deliramentis atterebatur. Proponebatur enim mihi negotium, animae meae satis inquietum praemio laudis et dedecoris vel plagarum metu, ut dicerem verba Iunonis irascentis et dolentis quod non possit Italia Teucrorum avertere regem, quae numquam Iunonem dixisse audieram. Sed figmentorum poeticorum vestigia errantes sequi cogebamur et tale aliquid dicere solutis verbis quale poeta dixisset versibus. Et ille dicebat laudabilius, in quo pro dignitate adumbratae personae irae ac doloris similior affectus eminebat, verbis sententias congruenter vestientibus.

Allow me, my God, to tell you something of the ways in which I wasted in absurdities your gift of my intelligence. For a task was set for me that greatly bothered my spirit, because of the praise to be awarded, or out of fear of disgrace or of a drubbing. My assignment was to recite the words of Juno [Aeneid 1.37–49], angry and resentful because she could not turn aside the king of the Trojans [Aeneas] from Italy [Augustine’s language draws on Aeneid 1.38], words which I had heard that Juno never spoke. But we were forced, in our wandering course, to pursue the traces of poetic fictions, and to declaim in prose what the poet had uttered in verse. And he declaimed to greater praise, he in whom the expression of anger and resentment stood out as more plausible in accord with the dignity of the character mimed, with words aptly clothing the sentiments. (MP and JZ) ii. De natura et origine animae 4.7.9 (Text: C. F. Vrba and J. Zycha, eds., CSEL 60 [1913], 389) Amicus quidam meus iam inde ab adulescentia, Simplicius nomine, homo excellentis mirabilisque memoriae, cum interrogatus esset a nobis, quos versus Vergilius in omnibus libris supra ultimos dixerit, continuo celeriter memoriterque respondit. Quaesivimus etiam superiores ut diceret: dixit. Et credidimus eum posse retrorsus recitare Vergilium; de quocumque loco volvimus, petivimus ut faceret: fecit. Prosa etiam de quacumque oratione Ciceronis, quam memoriae commendaverat, id eum facere volvimus: quantum volvimus sursus versus secutus est. Cum ammiraremur, testatus est Deum nescisse se hoc posse ante illud experimentum. Ita, quantum ad memoriam pertinet, tunc se eius animus didicit et, quandocumque disceret, nisi temptando et experiendo non posset. C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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A certain man who from his youth has been a friend of mine, named Simplicius, is a person of accurate and astonishing memory. I once asked him to tell me what were the last lines of all the books of Virgil; he immediately answered my question without the least hesitation, and with perfect accuracy. I then asked him to repeat the preceding lines; he did so. And I really believe that he could have repeated Virgil line after line backward. For wherever I wished I made trial whether he could do it, and he did it. Similarly in prose, from any of Cicero’s orations, which he had learned by heart, he would perform a similar feat at our request, by reciting backward as far as we wished. Upon our expressing astonishment, he called God to witness that he had no idea of this ability of his previous to that trial. So far, therefore, as memory is concerned, his mind only then learned its own power; and such discovery would at no time be possible except by trial and experiment. (Augustine, De natura et origine animae 4.7.9, NPNF, 1st series, vol. 5: Works of St. Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings, trans. P. Holmes and R. E. Wallis [New York 1887], 358) c. On Virgil as Exemplar for Meter i. De musica 2.2.2 Augustine uses all or part of Aeneid 1.1–7 in metrical analyses also at De musica 3.2, 4.16, 5.3, and 5.9. (Text: PL 32, 1101) Magister. Dic mihi deinceps, quod ad sonum versus attinet, quid intersit utrum dicam ‘‘Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris’’ an ‘‘qui primis ab oris’’? Discipulus. Mihi vero utrumque, quantum ad illam dimensionem pertinet, idem sonat. Magister. At hoc mea pronuntiatione factum est, cum eo scilicet vitio, quod barbarismum grammatici vocant; nam primus longa est et brevis syllaba, primis autem ambae producendae sunt; sed ego ultimam earum corripui, ita nihil fraudis passae sunt aures tuae.

Teacher. Then tell me, insofar as it concerns the verse’s sound, what di√erence does it make whether I say Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris or qui primis ab oris ? Student. Both sound the same to me as far as measure is concerned. Teacher. And that’s because of my pronunciation, with a fault, of course, which grammarians call a barbarism. For primus is made up of a long and a short syllable. And in primis both ought to be long; but I shortened the last one, and so your ears were correct. (MP) ii. De doctrina Christiana 2.136 (Text and translation: Augustine, De doctrina Christiana, ed. R. P. H. Green [Oxford, 1995]) 76

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Non enim sicut primam syllabam ‘‘Italiae,’’ quam brevem pronuntiaverunt veteres, voluit Vergilius [longam] et longa facta est, ita quisquam potest efficere cum voluerit ut ter terna aut non sint novem aut non possint efficere quadratam figuram. . . .

Virgil wanted the first vowel of Italia [Aeneid 1.2 and elsewhere]—traditionally pronounced short—to be long, and made it long; but nobody can bring it about by willing it that three threes are not nine, or that they fail to make a squared number. . . . d. Virgil and Lexical Exegesis i. De ordine 2.12.37 The abstruse questions of grammarians are illustrated by Augustine with an absurd example. Though the phrase matris . . . Euryali occurs at Aeneid 9.474– 75, she herself is never named. (Text: P. Knöll, ed., CSEL 63 [1922], 173) Aut in quo nostros familiares graviter miserari soleo, qui si non responderint, quid vocata sit mater Euryali, accusantur inscitiae, cum ipsi eos, a quibus ea rogantur, vanos et ineptos nec curiosos audeant appellare.

Or the case in which I always feel great pity for those of our acquaintance who are accused of ignorance if they cannot answer what the name of the ‘‘mother of Euryalus’’ was, since they, in turn, would not dare to call their questioners vain, foolish, or meddlesome. (MP) ii. Locutiones in Heptateuchum 4.47 Augustine is commenting on Numbers 14.31. (Text: J. Zycha, ed., CSEL 28.1 [1894], 588) Usitatum esset: ‘‘A qua vos abscessistis’’; nunc vero et ‘‘quam abscessistis’’ dictum est novo more et additum est ‘‘ab ea,’’ sicut scripturae loqui solent. Sicut est: ‘‘penitusque sonantis / accestis scopulos’’ [Aeneid 1.200–1], id est, ‘‘accessistis scopulos,’’ non ait ‘‘ad scopulos’’; et: ‘‘devenere locos’’ [Aeneid 6.638], non ait ‘‘ad locos.’’ Ita ‘‘quam abscessistis,’’ non ait ‘‘a qua abscessistis.’’

That would be customary: ‘‘From which you had departed’’; but now in a new usage ‘‘which you had departed’’ is said, and ‘‘from it’’ is added, as is the usual language of scripture. Just as: ‘‘you approached [Scylla’s] deep-resounding crags,’’ that is, ‘‘you approached the crags,’’ he does not say ‘‘to the crags’’; and ‘‘they reached the places,’’ he does not say ‘‘to the places.’’ So: ‘‘which they had departed’’; he does not say ‘‘from which they had departed.’’ (MP)

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iii. Contra Faustum Manichaeum 22.25 (Text: J. Zycha, CSEL 25 [1891–92], 619) Similes sunt, qui in magnis ista reprehendunt, pueris inperitis in schola, qui cum pro magno didicerint nomini numeri singularis verbum numeri singularis esse reddendum, reprehendunt latinae linguae doctissimum auctorem, quia dixit: ‘‘Pars in frusta secant’’ [Aeneid 1.212]. Debuit enim, inquiunt, dicere: ‘‘secat.’’ Et quia norunt religionem dici, culpant eum, quia geminata l littera dixit: ‘‘relligione patrum’’ [Aeneid 2.715, 8.598]. Unde non absurde fortasse dicatur in genere suo, quantum distant schemata et metaplasmi doctorum a soloecismis et barbarismis inperitorum, tantum distare figurata facta prophetarum a libidinosis peccatis iniquorum. Ac per hoc sicut puer in barbarismo reprehensus si de Vergilii metaplasmo se vellet defendere, ferulis caederetur, ita quisquis cum ancilla suae coniugis volutatus Abrahae factum, quod de Agar prolem genuerit, in exemplum defensionis adsumpserit, utinam non plane ferulis, sed vel fustibus coercitus emendetur, ne cum ceteris adulteris aeterno subplicio puniatur.

Those who fault these things in the great [prophets] are like uneducated school boys, whose learning consists in the important rule, that if the nominative is singular, the verb must also be singular; and so they find fault with the most learned Latin author, because he said pars in frusta secant [some cut (it) into pieces]. He should, they say, have written secat. Again, knowing that religio is spelled with one l, they fault him for writing relligio when he said relligione patrum. Hence it may with reason be said, that as the poetical usage of words di√ers from the solecisms and barbarisms of the unlearned, so, in their way, the figurative actions of the prophets di√er from the impure actions of the vicious. Accordingly, as a boy guilty of a barbarism would be whipped if he pled the usage of Virgil, so anyone quoting the example of Abraham begetting a son from Hagar, in defense of his own sinful passion for his wife’s handmaid, ought to be corrected not by caning only, but by severe scourging, that he may not su√er the doom of adulterers in eternal punishment. (NPNF, 1st series, vol. 4, trans. R. Stothert, 282–3, modified by MP) iv. Enchiridion 2.8 Commenting on the di√erence between timere and sperare, Augustine compares Lucan with Virgil, to the latter’s advantage. (Text: PL 40, 234) Quae duo quidam distinguens ait: ‘‘Liceat sperare timenti’’ [Lucan, De bello civili 2.15]. Non autem ab alio poeta quamvis meliore proprie dictum est: Hunc ego si potui tantum sperare dolorem [Aeneid 4.419].

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Denique nonnulli in arte grammatica verbi huius utuntur exemplo ad ostendendam impropriam dictionem et aiunt: ‘‘sperare dixit pro timere.’’

A certain poet distinguishes these two words when he says: ‘‘Allow the fearful to hope.’’ But another poet, though superior, o√ends propriety in writing: ‘‘If I have been able to hope for so great a grief.’’ And some grammatical writers [as, for example, Servius on Aeneid 4.419] use this case to exemplify improper diction and write: ‘‘The poet has used ‘hope’ instead of ‘fear.’ ’’ (MP) v. Enchiridion 13.44 (Text: PL 40, 253) Sed ideo etiam ipsi peccato mori plerumque dicuntur, cum procul dubio non uno, sed multis peccatis omnibusque moriantur . . . quia etiam per singularem numerum pluralis numerus significari solet, sicut ait ille: . . . uterumque armato milite complent [Aeneid 2.20],

quamvis hoc multis militibus fecerint.

But even these are said to die to sin, though doubtless it is not to one sin that they die but to all the many sins they have committed . . . for the singular number frequently serves to indicate the plural, as in the line ‘‘They fill its womb with an armed soldier,’’ when in fact it took many soldiers to accomplish this. (MP) vi. Epistles 17.2 (390 c.e.) To the grammarian Maximus of Madaura. At Epistles 17.3 and on four other occasions, Augustine discusses, in whole or in part, Aeneid 8.319–25, dealing with Saturn’s founding of a golden age in Latium. (Text: A. Goldbacher, CSEL 34.1 [1895], 41) Habes quod suscenseas Vergilio tuo, qui Herculem vestrum ad sacra, quae illi ab Evandro celebrantur, invitat hoc modo: Et nos et tua dexter adi pede sacra secundo [Aeneid 8.302].

‘‘Secundo pede’’ optat ut veniat. Ergo venire optat Herculem Namphamonem, de quo tu multum nobis insultare dignaris.

You have reason for being displeased with your Virgil, who in this manner gives your Hercules an invitation to the sacred rites celebrated in his honor by Evander: ‘‘Come graciously, with favoring foot, to both us and the rites in your honor.’’ He wishes him to come ‘‘with favoring foot.’’ That is to say, he wishes Hercules to come as Namphamo [an early African Christian martyr], about whom you deign to o√er us many an insult. (MP) C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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vii. De Trinitate 15.16.25 (Text: PL 42, 1079) Quapropter ita dicitur illud Dei verbum, ut Dei cogitatio non dicatur, ne aliquid esse quasi volubile credatur in Deo quod nunc accipiat, nunc recipiat formam, ut verbum sit, eamque possit amittere atque informiter quodam modo volutari. Bene quippe noverat verba et vim cogitationis inspexerat locutor egregius, qui dixit in carmine: . . . secum volutat eventus belli varios [Aeneid 10.159–60],

id est, cogitat.

Wherefore that word of God is so called as not to be called a thought of God, lest it be believed that there is anything in God that can be, as it were, changeable, so that it at one time takes on, at another withdraws a form, so as to be a word, and can lose that form and in some way be contemplated formlessly. Certainly that outstanding speaker knew his words well and considered the power of thought, who said in his poem ‘‘he ponders with himself the varying issues of war,’’ which is to say, he thinks [of them]. (MP) e. Virgil and Biblical Exegesis i. De civitate Dei 15.19 The references are to Aeneid 1.284 and 3.97. Augustine uses the same parallel between the house of Jacob and the domus Assaraci (house of Assaracus) also at Locutiones in Heptateuchum 5.28. (Text and translations, items i and ii: Augustine, City of God, vol. 6, ed. and trans. W. C. Greene, LCL 416 [1969]) Sive autem domus Dei dicatur sive templum Dei sive civitas Dei, id ipsum est nec abhorret a Latini eloquii consuetudine. Nam et Vergilius imperiosissimam civitatem domum appellat Assaraci, Romanos volens intellegi, qui de Assaraco per Troianos originem ducunt, et domum Aeneae eosdem ipsos quia, eo duce Troiani cum Italiam venissent, ab eis condita est Roma. Imitatus namque est poeta ille litteras sacras, in quibus dicitur ‘‘domus Iacob’’ iam ingens populus Hebraeorum.

But whether we call it the ‘‘House of God’’ or the ‘‘Temple of God’’ or the ‘‘City of God,’’ it is all the same and not at variance with idiomatic Latin usage. For Virgil too refers to the supreme imperial city as the ‘‘house of Assaracus,’’ by which he means the Romans, who derive their origin from Assaracus through the Trojans. And he refers to these same Romans as the

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‘‘house of Aeneas’’ because Rome was founded by the Trojans after they had come to Italy under the leadership of Aeneas. In so doing, that celebrated poet followed the practice of holy scripture, where the Hebrew people is called the ‘‘house of Jacob’’ even after it has grown enormous. ii. De civitate Dei 20.24 Nam et illud quod scriptum est, stellas de caelo esse casuras [Matthew 24.29], praeter quod potest multo probabilius et aliter intellegi, magis ostendit mansuros esse illos caelos, si tamen stellae inde casurae sunt; cum vel tropica sit locutio, quod est credibilius, vel in isto imo caelo futurum sit, utique mirabilius quam nunc fit. Unde et illa stella Vergiliana facem ducens multa cum luce cucurrit [Aeneid 2.694], et Idaea se condidit silva [paraphrase of Aeneid 2.696, Idaea . . . se condere silva].

For even the saying of scripture, that ‘‘the stars are to fall from heaven,’’ apart from the fact that it may with far greater probability be understood in another sense, shows rather that those heavens are to remain, if the stars really are to fall from them. The expression, then, either is figurative, as is more credible, or refers to something that will certainly be more astounding than anything in our day and will take place in this lowest heaven, like that star in Virgil that ‘‘coursed trailing bright light in a tail behind’’ and hid itself in the wood of Ida. iii. Locutiones in Heptateuchum 6.10 The scriptural reference is to Joshua 8.18. (Text: J. Zycha, ed., CSEL 28.1 [1894], 616) Hoc interpres Symmachus scutum appellasse perhibetur; septuaginta autem interpretes, secundum quos ista tractamus, qui posuerunt gaeson, miror si et in Graeca lingua hastam vel lanceam Gallicanam intellegi voluerunt: ea quippe dicuntur gaesa, quorum et Vergilius meminit, ubi ait de Gallis in scuto Aeneae pictis: duo quisque Alpina coruscant gaesa manu [Aeneid 8.661–62].

This the translator Symmachus was said to call ‘‘shield’’; as for the seventy translators [that is, authors of the Septuagint, the Alexandrian Greek rendering of the Hebrew Bible], whom we are following as we treat of these matters, who used the word gaeson: I wonder if they wished ‘‘spear’’ in the Greek language or Gallic ‘‘lance’’ to be understood, for these are indeed called gaesa, as Virgil himself recalls, when he says concerning the Gauls depicted on the shield of Aeneas: ‘‘Each brandishes two Alpine javelins in his hand.’’ (MP)

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f. Virgil and Theological Exegesis i. De civitate Dei 2.10 The reference, which occurs again at De civitate Dei 8.18, is to the Fury Allecto, who at Aeneid 7.338 is said to possess mille nocendi artes (a thousand tricks of harm). (Text and translations, items i and ii: Augustine, City of God, vol. 1, ed. and trans. G. E. McCracken, LCL 411 [1957]) . . . pro quibus se etiam colendos mille nocendi fallendique artibus interponunt [maligni spiritus] . . .

. . . [men] for whom [evil spirits] substitute themselves as objects of worship by a thousand harmful and deceitful tricks . . . ii. De civitate Dei 2.29 At Sermo 105.7 (Carthage, 410–11) Augustine quotes Aeneid 1.278–79, along with Georgics 2.497, non res Romanae perituraque regna (not the Roman state and doomed kingdoms), to refute Virgil’s words, with a strong ad hominem attack. The lines are also quoted, in part, at De civitate Dei 3.13, 5.12, and 5.19. Nunc iam caelestem arripe, pro qua minimum laborabis, et in ea veraciter semperque regnabis. Illic enim tibi non Vestalis focus, non lapis Capitolinus, sed Deus unus et verus nec metas rerum nec tempora ponit, imperium sine fine dabit [Aeneid 1.278–79].

Lay hold without delay on the heavenly fatherland, which will cost you but the slightest toil and will enable you to reign in the true sense and forever. There you will have no fire of Vesta, no Capitoline stone, but the one true God No times, no bounds will set to action But grant an empire without end.

iii. Enchiridion 3.11 The reference, which occurs also at De consensu evangelistarum 1.12.18, is to Aeneid 10.100. In both texts (and at Macrobius, Saturnalia 6.2.26) we find summa instead of prima, which has equal manuscript authority and is preferred by most editors of Virgil. (Text: PL 40, 236) Neque enim Deus omnipotens, quod etiam infideles fatentur, ‘‘rerum cui summa potestas,’’ cum summe bonus sit, ullo modo sineret mali aliquid esse in operibus suis, nisi usque adeo esset omnipotens et bonus, ut bene faceret et de malo.

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permit any evil to exist in His works, were not His power and goodness such that even out of evil He can do good. (NPNF, 1st series, vol. 3, trans. J. F. Shaw, 240, modified by MP) iv. Contra Iulianum 3.17.32 This travesty of Aeneid 12.948–49 is Augustine’s only allusion to the epic’s final lines. (Text: PL 44, 719) Poenus disputator, quod me contumeliose tuus defensor [Iulianus] appellat, Poenus, inquam, disputator, non ego, sed Cyprianus Poenus, ‘‘te hoc vulnere’’ Poenus ‘‘immolat et poenam scelerato ex’’ dogmate ‘‘sumit.’’

A Punic debater, as your defender [Julian of Eclanum (circa 386–454)] insultingly names me, a Punic debater, I say, not I, but Punic Cyprian, ‘‘slays you with this blow, and demands punishment from the polluted’’ dogma. (MP) v. Enchiridion 5.17 (Text: PL 40, 239) Et fortasse ideo apud illum summum poetam loquens quidam miser amator: ‘‘Ut vidi,’’ inquit, ‘‘ut perii, ut me malus abstulit error’’ [Eclogues 8.41], quoniam est et error bonus, qui non solum nihil obsit, verum etiam prosit aliquid.

And perhaps it is for such a reason that the best of poets makes a certain wretched lover say: ‘‘When I saw [you], how I perished! What an evil mistake swept me away,’’ for there is a mistake that is a good one that not only does no harm, but even is of advantage. (MP) g. Virgil and the Denigration of Ancient Rome i. [Augustine?] Sermo 374.2 On the Feast of the Epiphany. (Text: PL 39, 1667) Hoc poeta quidam eorum fecit: recognoscunt ista qui legerunt. Narravit quendam apud inferos descendisse atque in beatorum regionem venisse demonstratosque ille Romanorum principes nascituros, quos iam ipse, qui haec scribebat, natos noverat. Praeterita enim narravit, sed quasi futura essent praedicta, conscripsit. Sic et vos, inquiunt nobis pagani, vidistis haec omnia fieri et scripsistis vobis codices, in quibus haec legantur tamquam praedicta.

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going to be born, whom he himself, who was writing these things, knew had already been born. For he was telling of past events, but he had written of them as if they were being foretold in the future. In the same way you also, the pagans say to us, have seen all these things happening and you have written for us volumes in which these things are read about as having been foretold. (MP) At Sermo 105.10 (PL 38, 623), Augustine imagines Virgil telling of ‘‘selling’’ lying words to the Romans. ii. De cura pro mortuis gerenda 3 (Text: J. Zycha, ed., CSEL 41 [1900], 624) Ac primum utrum intersit aliquid ad inferendam vel augendam miseriam post hanc vitam spiritibus hominum, si eorum corpora sepulta non fuerint, non secundum opinionem utcumque vulgatam, sed potius secundum religionis nostrae sacras litteras est videndum. Neque enim credendum est, sicut apud Maronem legitur, insepultos navigando atque transeundo inferno amne prohiberi, quia scilicet ‘‘nec ripas datur horrendas et rauca fluenta transportare prius quam sedibus ossa quierunt’’ [Aeneid 6.327–28]. Quis cor Christianum inclinet his poeticis fabulosisque figmentis, cum dominus Iesus . . . nec capillum capitis eorum [Christianorum] adserat periturum [Luke 21.18]. . . .

And first, whether it makes any di√erence in causing or increasing misery after this life to the spirits of men, if their bodies be not buried, this must be looked into, not in the light of opinion however common but rather in the light of the holy writings of our religion. For it must not be believed, as is read in Maro, that the unburied are prevented from navigating and crossing the infernal stream, because certainly ‘‘it is not granted [him, that is, Charon] to carry [them] over the dread banks and the hoarse waters until their bones have found quiet resting places.’’ Who may incline a Christian heart to these poetical and incredible inventions when the lord Jesus . . . asserts that not a hair of their [the Christians’] head shall perish? (NPNF, 1st series, vol. 3, trans. H. Browne, 540, modified by MP) iii. De civitate Dei 1.6 Augustine links Virgil with Sallust’s judgment (Catilina 9.5) that accepta iniuria ignoscere quam persequi malebant ([the Romans] when wronged preferred to pardon rather than exact vengeance) and to refute that as well. (Text and translations, items iii and iv: Augustine, City of God, vol. 1, ed. and trans. G. E. McCracken, LCL 411 [1957])

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Quid ergo per multas gentes, quae inter se bella gesserunt et nusquam victis in deorum suorum sedibus pepercerunt, noster sermo discurrat? Romanos ipsos videamus, ipsos, inquam, recolamus respiciamusque Romanos, de quorum praecipua laude dictum est: parcere subiectis et debellare superbos [Aeneid 6.853],

et quod accepta iniuria ignoscere quam persequi malebant: quando tot tantasque urbes, ut late dominarentur, expugnatas captasque everterunt, legatur nobis quae templa excipere solebant, ut ad ea quisquis confugisset liberaretur. An illi faciebant et scriptores earundem rerum gestarum ista reticebant? Ita vero, qui ea quae laudarent maxime requirebant, ista praeclarissima secundum ipsos pietatis indicia praeterirent?

Why, then, must I run through all the nations that waged war and never spared the vanquished when found in the divine sanctuaries? Let us examine the Romans themselves—let us, I say, consider and reflect upon these very Romans who are especially renowned in that they are said to spare the subjected and war down the proud, and in that they preferred to forgive an injury rather than to avenge it. When, in their expansion of power, they overthrew many great cities, is there ever any reference to temples that they were accustomed to set apart so that anyone who fled to them won his freedom? Or though they had the practice, did their historians say nothing about it? Would they really have been so neglectful, when their great quest was for items to praise, as to pass over such magnificent proofs of religious feeling according to their standards? (modified by MP) At De civitate Dei 5.12 Augustine again quotes Aeneid 6.853, now with its six preceding lines (along with 1.279–85 and 8.646–48 and 703), as evidence for the lust for domination that in fact dominated Rome. Augustine stresses proprias Romanorum artes regnandi atque imperandi et subiugandi ac debellandi (the peculiarly Roman art of reigning and commanding and subjugating and beating down nations in war) and omits discussion of pacique imponere morem (and to impose a custom for peace) and parcere subiectis (to spare the vanquished). Line 853 alone is also quoted at De civitate Dei 1, praefatio. Alcuin (see below, I.C.39), in Epistles 178, also quotes together both the Virgil and Augustine passages. iv. De civitate Dei 3.11 Unde non usquequaque incongrue quamvis fabulosis, tamen veritati similibus mores daemonum describuntur carminibus poetarum. Nam Camillam Diana doluit apud Vergilium [Aeneid 11.836–49] et Pallantem moriturum Hercules flevit [Aeneid 10.464–65].

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Which proves that, however mythical the fictions of poets may be, they still present a likeness of truth and depict the behavior of the demons in a way that is not in all respects inaccurate. In Virgil, Diana grieves for Camilla and Hercules weeps for Pallas soon to die. h. Miscellaneous i. De civitate Dei 14.3 Augustine quotes Aeneid 6.730–34 on the origin and makeup of the human soul. The same lines are quoted, in whole or in part, on ten other occasions in De civitate Dei, and Aeneid 6.735–42 is cited at De civitate Dei 21.13. ii. De civitate Dei 14.5 This passage o√ers a long analysis of Aeneid 6.719–21, on the rebirth of the dead into a new life. See also De civitate Dei 21.3 and 22.26 as well as Sermo 241.5 (below, I.D.8). iii. De civitate Dei 19.12 In this passage, Augustine discusses at length the Cacus episode of Aeneid 8 (193–267). See also Contra academicos 3.10.22.

32. Claudian (Claudius Claudianus, circa 370–circa 404) Claudian (see also above, I.A.2), a native of Alexandria, who lived his final decade in Italy and turned from Greek to Latin as vehicle for his writing, produced an abundance of verse in many genres. Along with epic and invective, he wrote panegyrics for, among others, his patron, the emperor Honorius (384–423), and the latter’s notorious minister, Stilicho (circa 365–408), as well as some fifty shorter poems (Carmina minora). Virgil, whose influence seems sometimes even to override the Christianity Claudian might be expected to make more manifest, is mentioned at Carmina minora 23.11–20 (probably published after Claudian’s death), addressed to a certain quaestor Alethius. (Discussion: C. Ware, ‘‘Claudian, Vergil and the two battles of Frigidus,’’ in Romane memento: Vergil in the Fourth Century, ed. R. Rees [London, 2004], 155–71) (Text: Claudian, Carmina, ed. J. B. Hall, Bibliotheca Teubneriana [Leipzig, 1985], 357) Orpheos alii libros inpune lacessunt nec tua securum te, Maro, fama vehit; ipse parens vatum, princeps Heliconis, Homerus iudicis excepit tela severa notae.

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Sed non Vergilius, sed non accusaret Homerus: neuter enim quaestor, pauper uterque fuit. En moveo plausus! en pallidus omnia laudo, et clarum repeto terque quaterque ‘‘sophos’’! Ignoscat placidus tandem flatusque remittat et tuto recitet quod libet ore: placet.

Others attack the books of Orpheus with no adverse consequences, nor does your reputation, Maro, support you unperturbed. Homer, the very father of bards, the prince of Helicon, sustained the harsh barbs of the censor’s mark. But neither Virgil nor Homer would point a finger, for neither was a quaestor and both were poor. Watch how I applaud! Watch how in my terror I praise everything and loudly for a third and fourth time cry ‘‘bravo’’! Calm at last, let him grant pardon and cease his tirades and with carefree voice recite whatever he wants: I applaud. (MP)

33. Sidonius Apollinaris (Gaius Sollius Modestus Apollinaris Sidonius, circa 430–circa 487/88) One of the major political and religious figures of fifth-century Gaul, Sidonius is the author of a book of twenty-four Carmina (circa 469), including panegyrics and a variety of occasional pieces, as well as of nine books of Epistles. He mentions Virgil more than twenty times. On four occasions (Carmina 4.1; Epistles 1.5.5, 2.2.14, 8.9.5) he assumes that the figure of Tityrus in the Eclogues stands for Virgil himself. a. Carmina 4.1–8 (Text, items a and b: Sidonius Apollinaris, Poems; Letters, ed. and trans. W. B. Anderson, vol. 1, LCL 296 [1980]) Tityrus ut quondam patulae sub tegmine fagi volveret inflatos murmura per calamos, praestitit adflicto ius vitae Caesar et agri, nec stetit ad tenuem celsior ira reum; sed rus concessum dum largo in principe laudat, caelum pro terris rustica Musa dedit; nec fuit inferius Phoebeia dona referre: fecerat hic dominum, fecit et ille deum.

That Tityrus, once upon a time, under the protection of a spreading beech could pour forth his melodies through his breath-filled reed, Caesar granted

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him in his time of trial the right to life and to his farm, nor did his proud wrath endure against a humble culprit. But the rustic Muse, while it o√ers praise to a bounteous prince for fields restored, has granted heaven in exchange for a piece of earth. Nor was the bestowal of Apollo’s gifts a lesser recompense: this one had made him lord of land, but that one made the other a god. (MP) b. Carmina 23.145–46 quid vos eloquii canam Latini, Arpinas, Patavine, Mantuane. . . .

Why should I sing you of Latin utterance, of the man from Arpinum [Cicero], the man from Padua [Livy], the Mantuan. . . . (MP) c. Epistles 9.15.46–49 In these verses Sidonius refers (as he does also in Carmina 9.217–19) to the rivalry between Homer and Virgil. The equivalence drawn between Mantua and the Veneto recurs in Macrobius (Saturnalia 5.2.1) and Servius (see below, II.A.3). (Text: Sidonius Apollinaris, Poems; Letters, ed. and trans. W. B. Anderson, vol. 2, LCL 420 [1980]) . . . limans faceta quaeque sic poemata, Venetam lacessat ut favore Mantuam Homericaeque par et ipse gloriae, rotas Maronis arte sectans compari.

. . . [Proculus, a contemporary poet, also mentioned by Ennodius] polishing all his well-wrought poems so as to challenge the Veneto’s Mantua for favor, himself equal to Homer’s repute as he follows Maro’s chariot with like skill. (MP)

34. Ennodius (Magnus Felix Ennodius, 474–521) Ennodius was bishop of Pavia (512–21). He wrote a declamation, imagined to be uttered by Dido at the departure of Aeneas, and five epigrams on a certain Vergilius (De quodam stulto qui Vergilius dicebatur). (Text: W. Hartel, ed., CSEL 6 [1882], Liber carminum, 598) a. Carmina 2.118 In tantum prisci defluxit fama Maronis, ut te Vergilium saecula nostra darent.

The repute of ancient Maro has sunk to such a depth that our age presents you as Virgil. (MP) 88

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b. Carmina 2.119 Si fatuo dabitur tam sanctum nomen homullo, gloria maiorum curret in obprobrium.

If so holy a name is given to a fatuous nonentity, the glory of our ancestors will turn to shame. (MP) c. Carmina 2.120 Captivo stultus congaudet stemmate vatis. Non est Vergilius, dicitur iste tamen.

The fool rejoices in the ancestry as a poet he has claimed. He isn’t Virgil; nevertheless so he is called. (MP) d. Carmina 2.121 Externo quotiens vocitaris nomine, demens, si tibi sunt sensus, prospice ne venias.

As often as you are called by a name not your own, idiot, if you have any sense, see to it that you don’t come near. (MP) e. Carmina 2.122 Cur te Vergilium mentiris, pessime, nostrum? Non potes esse Maro, sed potes esse moro.

Why do you lie, wretched creature, that you are our Virgil? You can’t be Maro, but you can be fool [moro]. (MP)

35. Cassiodorus (Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator, circa 480–circa 575) Active in a√airs of state for most of his early career, around 552 he founded the double monastery of Castellum-Vivarium near Scylacium (modern Squillace). There he collected, revised, and annotated a variety of important manuscripts. Chief among his works, some of which have great historical importance, are two books of Institutiones (written after 551) and a compendium of sacred (Liber primus divinarum litterarum) and profane (Liber secundus saecularium litterarum) knowledge, the second book of which consists largely of a discussion of the seven liberal arts. (Discussion: A. Minicucci, ‘‘De Vergilio apud Cassiodorum,’’ Studi umanistici Piceni 3 [1983], 223–29) a. Institutiones 1.1.8 A similar proverb, without the particular reference, is to be found in Jerome (see above, I.C.30), Epistles 107.12 (Text: I. Hilberg, ed., CSEL 55, 2nd ed. [Vienna, 1996], 303): ‘‘et grandis esse prudentiae aurum in luto quaerere’’ C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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(and it is a matter of great skill to search for gold in mud). The proverb reappears later (Ermenrich of Ellwangen [see below, I.C.42]; Donatus auctus [see below, II.A.37]). (Text, items a and b: Cassiodorus, Institutiones, R. A. B. Mynors, ed. [Oxford, 1937]) Cui et illud convenienter aptari potest quod Vergilius, dum Ennium legeret, a quodam quid faceret inquisitus respondit: ‘‘Aurum in stercore quaero.’’

That remark may also be applied appropriately to him which Virgil, while he was reading Ennius, gave as answer when asked by someone what he was doing: ‘‘I am searching for gold in a heap of dung.’’ (MP) b. Institutiones 2, praefatio 4 Mathematicam vero Latino sermone doctrinalem possumus appellare; quo nomine licet omnia doctrinalia dicere possimus quaecumque docent, haec sibi tamen commune vocabulum propter suam excellentiam proprie vindicavit, ut Poeta dictus intellegitur apud Graecos Homerus, apud Latinos Vergilius, Orator enuntiatus apud Graecos Demosthenes, apud Latinos Cicero declaratur, quamvis multi et poetae et oratores in utraque lingua esse doceantur.

In the Latin language we can call mathematics theoretical. Though by this token we can call theoretical all studies that teach, nevertheless because of its excellence this discipline has claimed the word wholly for itself, just as when ‘‘the Poet’’ is mentioned, among Greek writers Homer is understood, among Latin Virgil, and when reference is to ‘‘the Orator,’’ among Greeks Demosthenes is meant, among Latins Cicero, although many are shown to be both poets and orators in each language. (MP) c. Institutiones 2.3.15 Cassiodorus quotes eight times from Virgil, drawing on six books of the Aeneid for examples illustrating types of commonplaces (topica). See also below, III.H.

36. Gregory of Tours (circa 539–94) Gregory, bishop of Tours, belonged to the Gallo-Roman nobility. He wrote many works of hagiography and exegesis, but he is known primarily for his Historiae Francorum (History of the Franks), in ten books, which relates the history of the world from the Creation until the fall of the Roman empire, before turning to the Franks themselves. In Historiae 4.46 Gregory tells of a slave who became educated alongside his master in the writings of Virgil. The mention of mathematics (which eventually comes to designate astrol90

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ogy and/or magic) fits with a number of earlier and later texts (see below, VSD 15 [II.A.1], Vita Philargyrii I [II.A.5], Sicco Polenton (First Redaction) [II.A.36], Donatus auctus [II.A.37], Sicco Polenton (Second Redaction) [II.A.38], and Gervase of Tilbury [II.C.14, V.A.5.a, and V.A.5.h]). Later in the same paragraph Gregory shows his own familiarity with Virgil by quoting Aeneid 3.56–57. He also quotes Aeneid 1.46–47 at Historiae 2.29 and 1.101–2 and Aeneid 1.118 at Historiae 4.30, and paraphrases Aeneid 8.148–49 at Historiae 9.6. In the first preface to the first of his Miraculorum libri VIII (Eight Books of Wonders), Gregory elaborates Jerome’s commonplace (of rejecting Cicero) by repudiating both the crafty arguments of Cicero and the false stories of Virgil (B. Krusch, ed., MGH, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 1.2 [1885], 487–88). (Text: Gregory of Tours, Historiarum libri decem, ed. R. Buchner, 2 vols. [Darmstadt, 1955–56]) (MP and JZ) De Andarchi vero interitu locuturus, prius genus ordire placet et patriam. Hic igitur, ut adserunt, Filices senatoris servus fuit; qui ad obsequium domini depotatus, ad studia litterarum cum eo positus, bene institutus emicuit. Nam de operibus Virgilii, legis Theodosianae libris artemque calculi aplene eruditus est. Hac igitur scientiam tumens, dispicere dominos coepit. . . .

I will now tell of the death of Andarchius, but first I wish to describe his background and place of origin. According to report, then, he was the slave of Felix, a man of senatorial rank. Designated personal servant to his master, he joined with him in literary studies and excelled in learning. For he gained a full education from the works of Virgil, from the books of the Theodosian code, and from the study of mathematics. Pu√ed up by this knowledge, he began to despise his masters. . . . (MP)

37. Isidore of Seville (circa 560–636) Beyond being bishop of Seville, Isidore wrote histories, exegetic and dogmatic treatises, and encyclopedic works. The last of the ancient lexicographers, Isidore compiled Etymologiarum sive originum libri XX (Twenty Books of Etymologies or Word Origins) during the first quarter of the seventh century. The entry conpilator is found at Etymologiarum libri 10.44. (Text: W. M. Lindsay, ed., OCT [1911]) (MP and JZ) Conpilator, qui aliena dicta suis praemiscet, sicut solent pigmentarii in pila diversa mixta contundere. Hoc scelere quondam accusabatur Mantuanus ille vates, cum quosdam versus Homeri transferens suis permiscuisset et conpilator veterum ab aemulis diceretur. Ille respondit: ‘‘Magnarum esse virium clavam Herculi extorquere de manu.’’

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Conpilator: one who mixes words from elsewhere with his own, like dealers in paint who are wont to pound and mix di√erent elements together with a pestle. Once the bard of Mantua stood accused of this vice when in the act of translation he mingled verses of Homer with his own and was proclaimed a plunderer of the ancients by his rivals. He answered: ‘‘It takes great strength to wrench his club from the hand of Hercules.’’ (MP)

38. Aldhelm (circa 630/40–709) The first, and one of the most influential, men of Latin letters born in England, Aldhelm was first abbot of Malmesbury (circa 673–705) and then bishop of Sherborne until his death. Among his works are Carmina ecclesiastica, poems on the dedication of churches and altars; Epistula ad Acircium (Letter to Acircius, pseudonym of King Aldfrith of Northumbria [686–705])—a miscellany that consists of a discussion of the number 7 followed by two expositions on meter, De metris (On Meters) and De pedum regulis (On the Rules of Feet), between which are inserted one hundred Enigmata (Enigmas) in hexameters; a treatise De virginitate (On Virginity), with versions in both prose and poetry, as well as other epistolae and poems. Aldhelm was familiar not only with Virgil, but also with the commentary tradition, most probably ‘‘a commentary on Vergil’s Eclogues and Georgics which had prefixed to it Donatus’s Life of Vergil.’’ (Discussion: C. E. Murgia, ‘‘Aldhelm and Donatus’s Commentary on Vergil,’’ Philologus 131 [1987], 289–99) Although it has been sometimes suggested that Virgil was little known in Anglo-Saxon England, the cases of Aldhelm and his slightly younger contemporary Bede support the opinion that Virgil was well known to at least some authors. (Existing translations: Aldhelm, The Prose Works, trans. M. Lapidge and M. Herren [Cambridge, 1979]; idem, The Poetic Works, trans. M. Lapidge and J. L. Rosier [Cambridge, 1985]) (Discussion: on Aldhelm and Virgil, A. Orchard, The Poetic Art of Aldhelm [Cambridge, 1994]; on Bede, N. Wright, ‘‘Bede and Virgil,’’ Romanobarbarica 6 [1981–82], 361–79) (Text, items a–e: R. Ehwald, ed., MGH Auctores antiquissimi 15 [Berlin, 1919]) (MP and JZ) a. De metris 9 The source of the quotation and the origin of the book’s title are unknown, but at lines 3–4 the (pseudo-Virgilian) author draws for inspiration on the conceit expressed at Catullus, Carmina 95.7–8 and Horace, Epistles 2.1.267–70, addressed to the emperor Augustus. (See AL 1.2, 151, no. 675.) (Text: Ehwald, 80) 92

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Vergilius item libro, quem Pedagogum praetitulavit, cuius principium est Carmina si fuerint te iudice digna favore, Reddetur titulus purpureusque nitor; Si minus, aestivas poteris convolvere sardas Aut piper aut calvas hinc operire nuces,

sillibam elisit dicens Durum iter et vitae magnus labor.

Likewise Virgil, in his book entitled Pedagogus, whose beginning is: ‘‘If in your judgment my verses are worthy of approval, a title and the shimmer of purple will be given them; if not, you will be in a position to wrap the summer’s sardines and to clothe with them either pepper or smooth nuts,’’ elided a syllable when he said: ‘‘Hard is the road and great the e√ort of life.’’ (MP) b. De metris 10 (Text: Ehwald, 82–83) Qui sunt versus exametri dactilici? Qui tantum sex pedibus dactilicis constant praeter bella et facta heroum quodlibet aliud continentes, ut, puta, sunt bucolica et georgica ceteraque huiusmodi. Qui sunt exametri heroici? Qui bella et heroum res gestas complectuntur, velut est Ilias Homeri vel Aeneidos Vergilii vel [libri] Lucani proelia Caesaris et Pompei decantantis.

Which are lines of dactylic hexameter? They consist of only six feet of dactyls containing anything except wars and the deeds of heroes, as, please understand, the Eclogues and the Georgics and other similar material. What are heroic hexameters? Those that embrace wars and the exploits of heroes, such as the Iliad of Homer or the Aeneid of Virgil or the [books of] Lucan singing of the battles of Caesar and Pompey. (MP) c. De metris 10 The line attributed to Lucan is part of the so-called Epitaphium Lucani attached to major manuscripts of Lucan (see Lucanus: De bello civili, ed. C. Hosius [Leipzig, 1913], 338). It is first attested here by Aldhelm, but may well document a more ancient tradition imputing rivalry to Lucan’s emulation of Virgil. For Jerome and the Chronicon of Eusebius, see below, II.A.2. For the epitaph of Virgil, see below, II.C.1. (Text: Ehwald, 88–89) Chronica Eusebii Vergilium imminente metu mortis cecinisse tradunt et epigramma, quod epitafium vocatur, ad suprema exequiarum funera composuisse dicendo Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc; C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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scanditur ita: mantua. megenu. itcala. brirapu. erete. netnunc. Quem Lucanus aemulans his verbis imitabatur dicens Corduba me genuit, rapuit Nero, proelia dixi. . . .

The Chronicon of Eusebius tells that Virgil, with the fear of death looming over him, gave voice and composed an epigram, which is called an epitaph, for the last rites of his funeral, saying: ‘‘Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, [Parthenope] now holds me.’’ This scans: mantua. megenu. itcala. brirapu. erete. netnunc. In rivalry Lucan imitates him when he says: ‘‘Cordova begot me, Nero snatched me away, I sang of wars.’’ . . . (MP) d. De pedum regulis i. ‘‘De peone tertio’’ (On the Third Paeon) For the Cento Vergilianus of Proba, see below, III.A.5. The form Vergiliocento, egregious in this context, where Proba discusses meter, had already been used by Jerome (see above, I.C.30) at Epistles 53.7 (I. Hilberg, ed., CSEL 54, 2nd ed. [Vienna, 1996], 454). (Text: Ehwald, 188) Infinitivus . . . modus . . . mancipatur tempore praesenti et praeterito ut stimulare stimulasse . . . unde Proba inter poetas clarissima in exordio Vergiliocentonis quamvis apocriforum frivola sub specie prophetica continentis, sed tamen legitimam exametri regulam servantis eleganter deprompsit dicens Iam dudum temerasse duces pia foedera pacis.

The infinitive . . . conforms in the present and perfect tense, as ‘‘urge’’ and ‘‘urged’’ . . . whence Proba, most famous woman among poets, in the introduction to her Vergiliocento, though comprising trifles of apocryphal writing under the guise of prophecy, but nevertheless observing the correct rule of the hexameter, produced an elegant example when saying: ‘‘For a long time leaders had defiled the holy compacts of peace.’’ [Proba, Cento Vergilianus, 1] (MP) ii. ‘‘Allocutio excusativa ad regem’’ (Explanatory Speech to the King) Aldhelm takes Georgics 3.10–12 as evidence from Virgil that none of his Latin predecessors had written the equivalent of the Georgics, though Hesiod and Homer (for which there is no evidence) had. (Text: Ehwald, 202) Non enim hoc proferendo horrendis superciliorum iaculis me vulnerandum arbitror neque dirissima elationis turgidae falarica confixum perhorresco, si paulisper de gratuita divini muneris gratia, quae singulis quibusque non meritorum praecurrentium praerogativa, sed caelestis beneficii munificentia confertur, fretus domino glorier, siquidem illustris ille, qui dicebat 94

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Primus ego in patriam mecum, modo vita supersit, Aonio rediens deducam vertice Musas; Primus Idumaeas referam tibi, Mantua, palmas [Georgics 3.10–12],

(et longiuscule idem poeta et infra prosequitur: iuvat, inquit, ire iugis, qua nulla priorum Castaliam molli devertitur orbita clivo) [Georgics 3.292–93]

hoc, inquam, ille versificans significari voluit, nullum ante se Latinorum Georgica Romulidis scripsisse, quamvis Hesiodus et Homerus et ceteri Graeci disertitudinis facundia freti et Argolicae urbanitatis privilegio praediti quadrifariam agriculturam lingua Pelasga deprompserint.

For I do not think that I should be wounded by the horrendous shafts of haughtiness for publishing this, nor do I tremble [at the thought of being] pierced by the most dreadful projectile of swollen pride, if, relying on the Lord, I glory for a moment in the grace of God’s freely bestowed gift, which is granted to all individuals not as their due from past merits, but by the generosity of heaven’s kindness, since that illustrious one [Virgil] who said: ‘‘Provided life remain, as I return I will be the first to bring with me in triumph to my fatherland the Muses from the Aonian peak; I will first bring back Idumaean palms for you, Mantua’’ (and a little farther below the same poet continues: ‘‘It is my delight,’’ he says, ‘‘to roam the ridges where no predecessors’ track slopes to Castalia on gentle incline’’)—by putting this into verse, I say, he wished to signify that no one of the Latins before him had written a Georgics for the descendants of Romulus, although Hesiod and Homer and other Greeks, relying on their rhetorical skill and endowed with the privilege of Argive elegance, produced a fourfold work on agriculture in the Pelasgian tongue. (MP) e. De virginitate 52 For Aldhelm, an analogy from Virgil’s poetry is a perfectly apt source of auctoritas (authority) in the telling of a Christian saint’s life. (Text: Ehwald, 310) Quo rumore clarescente et larvatos et comitiales ac ceteros valitudinarios pristinae sanitati restituit; sed et marsum, qui virulentos natrices ad sacrae virginis laesionem incantationum carminibus irritabat—ut poeta ait, Frigidus in pratis cantando rumpitur anguis [Eclogues 8.71]—

diris spiris involutum perniciter eripuit.

As the reputation [of St. Anatolia] grew in fame, she restored to their former state of health those prey to demons and epileptics and others su√ering from disease; moreover, she nimbly snatched the wizard, who with his charms and incantations was inciting poisonous adders to injure the holy Virgin—as the C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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poet [Virgil] says, ‘‘the chill snake in the meadows is burst by the song of spells’’—from their deadly coils when he became enwrapped. (MP)

39. Alcuin (circa 735–804) Born into a noble Northumbrian family, Alcuin became one of the luminaries of the so-called Carolingian renaissance. From the school of York, he was called in 782 by Charlemagne, sole king of the Franks since 771, to join the group of scholars in the king’s circle and to instruct the king himself. On the basis of his teaching, Alcuin produced treatises on grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic. In 796 he was appointed abbot of Tours, where he lived until his death. Although at one point he repudiated his taste, Alcuin was known for his love of Virgil’s poetry; the author of his vita described him as caring more for Virgil than for the Psalms. In discussing the library of York, Alcuin named three pagan poets, ‘‘Maro Virgilius, Statius, Lucanus.’’ (Versus de patribus, regibus, et sanctis Euboricensis ecclesiae 1554–57, ed. and trans. P. Godman, Alcuin: The Bishops, Kings, and Saints of York [Oxford, 1982], 124–27) Of the grammarians he identified immediately after them, a few he may have had in mind as much for their commentaries (or the commentaries that circulated under their names) on Virgil’s poetry as for their treatises on grammar proper. In addition to being a great bibliophile, Alcuin was a prolific writer in both prose and verse. (Discussion: EV 1, 87–89; L. Holtz, ‘‘Alcuin et la réception de Virgile du temps de Charlemagne,’’ in Einhard: Studien zu Leben und Werk, ed. H. Schefers [Darmstadt, 1997], 67–80) a. Epistles 13 (791–92) Alcuin scolds Ricbod, bishop of Trier, for his perverse love of Virgil. (Discussion: Verfasserlexikon 10:258) (Text: E. Dümmler, ed., MGH Epistolae 4 [1895], 39) Aut amor Maronis tulit memoriam mei? O si mihi nomen esset Virgilius, tunc semper ante oculos luderem tuos, et mea dicta tota pertractares intentione, et iuxta proverbium illius essem apud te ‘‘Tunc felix nimium, quo non felicior ullus.’’ Quid faciam? An meam doleo infelicitatem, quia non sum, quem diligis? An tuam laudo sapientiam, quia diligis illum qui non est? Flaccus recessit, Virgilius accessit, et in loco magistri nidificat Maro? Hoc dolens dictavi, vel propter oblivionem mei, vel propter absentiam tui, paululum ferociori pumice cartam terens, ut vel iratus aliquid rescriberes: quia bos laesus fortius figit ungulam. Incipe vel te defendere, vel me offen96

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dere, ut intellegam studium, in quo otium istius anni exercuisti. Et quo thesauro cor impleris tuum, pande nobis, ut tecum gaudeamus in bono tuo. Utinam evangelia quattuor, non Aeneades duodecim, pectus compleant tuum, et ea te vehat quadriga ad caelestis regni palatium, ubi est honor indeficiens et regnum sempiternum, ubi pro me intercedere, credo, memor eris; qui te, ut illuc venires, exhortari gaudebam.

Or has love of Virgil taken away remembrance of me? Would that my name were Virgil; then I would always sport before your eyes, and you would treat my words with full attention, and according to his saying, I would be in your eyes ‘‘then very happy, with no one happier’’ [see also Aeneid 4.657; 9.772]. What shall I do? Shall I grieve at my misfortune, that I am not the one whom you love? Shall I praise your wisdom, that you love someone who does not exist? Has Flaccus [Alcuin] withdrawn, has Virgil arrived, and does Maro make his nest in the master’s spot? In my grief I have composed this, either because of your forgetfulness of me, or because of your absence, rubbing the paper with pumice a bit more intensely, so that, even in your anger, you might write something in return: for the ox when hurt plants its hoof the more firmly. Begin either to defend yourself, or to give me o√ense so that I may learn the study to which you devoted the leisure of this year’s time. And reveal for us the treasure-house from which you fill your heart, so that we might rejoice with you in your felicity. Would that the four gospels, rather than the twelve books of the Aeneid, were to fill your heart, and that that four-horse chariot would carry you to the palace of the kingdom of heaven, where there is abiding honor and eternal rule, where, it is my belief, you will remember to intercede on my behalf—I who was taking joy in urging you to come there. (MP) b. Epistles 178 (799) To Charlemagne, on his way to Rome for his coronation by Pope Leo III. (Text: E. Dümmler, ed., MGH Epistolae 4 [1895], 294) Parce populo tuo Christiano, et ecclesias Christi defende, ut benedictio superni regis te fortem efficiat super paganos. Legitur quendam veterum dixisse poetarum, cum de laude imperatorum Romani regni, si rite recordor, cecinisset, quales esse debuissent, dicens: Parcere subiectis et debellare superbos [Aeneid 6.853];

quem versiculum beatus Augustinus in libro de civitate Dei multa laude exposuit. Quamvis magis nobis adtendendum sit evangelicis praeceptis, quam Virgiliacis versibus. Nam et ipsa veritas ait: ‘‘Beati misericordes C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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quoniam ipsi misericordiam consequentur’’ [Matthew 5.7]; et alibi: ‘‘Estote misericordes, sicut et pater vester caelestis misericors est’’ [Luke 6.36].

Spare your Christian people, and defend the churches of Christ, so that the blessing of the supernal king may ensure your bravery over the pagans. We read that a certain poet of old, when, if I remember rightly, he had sung the praise of the emperors of the kingdom of Rome, pronounced what sort they ought to be, saying: ‘‘Spare the subjected and war down the proud’’—a verse that the blessed Augustine expounded with much praise in his book On the City of God [De civitate Dei 1.6, quoted above, I.C.31.g.iii]. Although we ought to pay more attention to the teachings of the evangelists than to the verses of Virgil. For the truth itself says: ‘‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy’’; and elsewhere: ‘‘Be you merciful, just as your father in heaven is also merciful.’’ (MP) Alcuin, however, can make positive use of Virgil’s verse when it suits him, in lines addressed the next year (800) to the emperor in Rome (Carmina 45.67– 68, in E. Dümmler, ed., MGH Poetae 1 [1881], 259): erige subiectos et iam depone superbos, [compare Aeneid 6.853] ut pax et pietas regnet ubique sacra.

Raise up the downtrodden and now overthrow the proud, so that peace and holy piety may everywhere reign. (MP) c. Carmina 78 The eight-hexameter ‘‘Expositum Alcuini in Canticum canticorum’’ (Alcuin’s Introduction to the Song of Songs) is a poem that serves in some manuscripts to introduce this book of the Bible, to which Alcuin also wrote a commentary, entitled Compendium in Cantica canticorum (ed. PL 100, 642–64). Alcuin labels as false the poetry of Virgil, in contrast to the salvational doctrine in the Song of Songs. (Text: E. Dümmler, ed., MGH Poetae 1 [1881], 299) Hunc cecinit Salomon mira dulcedine librum, qui tenet egregias sponsi sponsaeque camenas, ecclesiae et Christi laudes hinc inde canentes, et thalami memorat socios sociasque fideles. Has, rogo, menti tuae, iuvenis, mandare memento: cantica sunt nimium falsi haec meliora Maronis. Haec tibi vera canunt vitae precepta perennis, auribus ille tuis male frivola falsa sonabit.

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female, of the wedding. Remember, I pray, my child, to entrust this poem to your mind. These songs are better than those of lying Maro. These true ones sing for you the teachings of eternal life. He will sound forth wicked and worthless lies in your ears. (MP) See also Epistles 309.15 (E. Dümmler, ed. MGH Epistolae 4 [1895], 475) for a further reference to Virgiliacis . . . mendaciis (Virgil’s lies) as well as the following quotation from the somewhat later Vita Alcuini (Life of Alcuin) 16, ascribed to an anonymous of Ferrières. (See also below, V.D.1.) (Text: W. Arndt, ed., MGH Scriptores 15.1 [Hannover, 1887], 193). Legerat isdem vir Domini libros iuvenis antiquorum philosophorum Virgiliique mendatia, quae nolebat iam ipse nec audire neque discipulos suos legere: ‘‘Sufficiunt,’’ inquiens, ‘‘divini poetae vobis, nec egetis luxuriosa sermonis Virgilii vos pollui facundia.’’ Contra quod praeceptum temptavit Sigulfus Vetulus secrete agere, unde post erubuit publice. Advocans namque suos, quos tunc filios nutriebat, Adalbertum et Aldricum, iussit coram se secretissime Virgilium legere, interdicens eis, ne quis ullo modo sciret, ne forte ad patris Albini notitiam perveniret. Albinus autem solito eum more ad se vocans, ait: ‘‘Unde te habemus, Virgiliane? Cur coepisti ac voluisti contra meam voluntatem et consilium me ignorante agere, ut Virgilium legeres?’’ Sigulfus vero se ad pedes eius proiciens, stultissime se egisse confessus, humiliter poenituit. Cuius satisfactionem benigne pius pater post increpationem recepit, monens eum, ne ultra tale aliquid ageret. Testatur vir Deo dignus adhuc superstes Aldricus abbas, nec se nec Adalbertum cuiquam hoc innotuisse, sed usque tunc, sicut eis praeceptum fuerat, omnimodis siluisse.

This same man of God [Alcuin] had as a youth read the books of the ancient philosophers and the lies of Virgil, which he himself now wished neither to hear nor his disciples to read. ‘‘The poets of God are enough for you, nor do you need to be corrupted by Virgil’s extravagant eloquence.’’ Sigulfus Vetulus [later abbot of Ferrières] tried to act in secret against this directive, which was the cause later of his public blushing. For calling his sons Adalbert and Aldric, whom he was then rearing, he ordered them to read out Virgil in the deepest secrecy before him, laying a command on them that no one in any way find out lest by chance it come to the attention of father Albinus [Alcuin]. Albinus, however, as was his wont, calling [Sigulfus] to him, says: ‘‘How are we to treat you, Virgilian? Why did you begin, why did you wish, in my ignorance, to act contrary to my wish and my counsel, that you might read Virgil?’’ Sigulfus, throwing himself at Alcuin’s feet, humbly o√ered repentance, having confessed that he had behaved most foolishly. After rebuking him, the holy C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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father gently accepted his apology, warning him not to do such a thing again. Abbot Aldric, a man worthy of God, still survives and bears witness that neither he nor Adalbert brought this to anyone’s attention, but even then was always silent about the matter, as he had enjoined on them. (MP) For further information on the Vita Alcuini, see below, V.D.1. See also Vita Alcuini 5: Virgilii amplius quam psalmorum amator conceditur puer Albinus.

The boy Albinus [Alcuin] was deemed more a lover of Virgil than of the Psalms. (MP)

40. Ermoldus Nigellus (flourished 820–35) Ermoldus Nigellus, originally from Aquitaine, was a member of the court of Louis the Pious (778–840), who banished him to Strasbourg circa 825. His poetry, which consists of a long discussion of Louis and his achievements in four books (2,649 verses), and two short verse epistles (100 and 111 distichs) addressed to Louis’s son, Pepin (797–838), are largely attempts to regain the favor of the king. (Text, items a–c: E. Faral, Ermold Le Noir [Paris, 1964]) a. Carmen in honorem Hludowici Caesaris 1.50–57 The full title of the poem reads: In honorem Hludowici Christianissimi Caesaris Augusti Ermoldi Nigelli exulis elegiacum carmen (The Elegiac Poem of Ermoldus Nigellus, the Exile, in Honor of Louis, the most Christian Caesar Augustus). In this passage Ermoldus o√ers an example of the insu≈ciency topos: not even Virgil would be capable of singing the deeds of Louis, nor would anyone deserve a Virgil more than Louis. The reference to Virgil is all the more striking for appearing in a poem heavily influenced by Ovid’s exilic poetry. (Text: Faral, 6–8) Non ego gestorum per singula quaeque recurram: nec fas, nec potis est, nec valet ingenium. Si Maro, Naso, Cato, Flaccus, Lucanus, Homerus, Tullius et Macer, Cicero, sive Plato, Sedulius nec non Prudentius atque Juvencus, seu Fortunatus, Prosper et ipse foret, omnia famosis vix possent condere cartis atque suum celebre hinc duplicare melos.

I shall not run through each of your deeds, one by one. It is neither correct nor possible, nor is my talent up to the task. If Virgil, Ovid, Cato, Horace, Lucan, Homer, Tullius, Macer, Cicero, Plato, Sedulius, Prudentius, Juvencus, For100

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tunatus, and even Prosper himself were at hand, they could scarcely record all your deeds in writing of repute or double their honored oeuvre on the basis of them. (MP) b. Carmen Nigelli Ermoldi exulis in honorem gloriosissimi Pippini regis 189–90 In this verse epistle to Pepin, Virgil figures in a list of both pagans and Christians who, like Ermoldus, su√ered exile. Virgil appears between Ovid and the apostle John. (Text: Faral, 216) Ipse poeta Maro, patrio spoliatus honore, versibus en reditum, arte redemit agros.

See how the poet Virgil himself, deprived of his ancestral estate, obtained his return by his verses, his acres by his artistry. (MP) c. Epistula II ad eundem Pippinum1–4 Once again, Ermoldus attempts to ingratiate himself with King Pepin I of Aquitaine by o√ering to play the role of a Virgil to Augustus. (Text: Faral, 218) Sunt mihi praeterea (nam, rex venerande, fatebor) carmina parva, paro quae recinenda tibi. Carminibus prisci quondam placuere poetae: carmine Naso placet atque poeta Maro.

I still have some small songs—for I will confess it, venerable king—which I am preparing to be recited to you. Poets of old once gave pleasure with their songs: Ovid pleases with his song and the poet Virgil. (MP)

41. Welsh Battle of the Trees The Battle of the Trees, alternatively The Army of the Trees (Cad Goddeu), is a Welsh poem, perhaps to be dated to the ninth century and related to the fourth branch of the Mabinogi (also known as the Mabinogion), a collection of prose stories from medieval Welsh manuscripts. Extant uniquely in the so-called Book of Taliesin (Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Peniarth MS 2), it is in the voice of the poet and sage Taliesin. In it Taliesin tells of a battle fought between Gwydion and Bran and won when the former brought the trees of the forest to life to fight for him. In a vatic crescendo, Taliesin concludes the poem with a mention of the ‘‘prophecy of Virgil.’’ Presumably these words refer (directly or indirectly) to Eclogues 4, which was often interpreted as indicating the Roman poet’s foreknowledge of Christ’s coming. The associations of Virgil with magic that became widespread throughout Latin Christendom from the twelfth century onward also took root in Wales. A C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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reference to Virgil’s magic book (the Books of Pheryllt) appears in a seventeenthcentury manuscript version (Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Peniarth MS 111, fols. 1–12 [dated 1607]) of the prose tale ‘‘Hanes Taliesin,’’ in which Ceridwen is described as knowing ‘‘the art of the books of Virgil’’ (gelfyddyd llyfrau Pheryllt); through this art she can cast a spell to make her son wise. (Text: ‘‘Hanes Taliessin,’’ in P. K. Ford, ed., Ystoria Taliesin [Cardi√, 1992], 133) An earlier version of the tale, ‘‘The Tale of Gwion Bach’’ (translated by P. K. Ford, Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales [Berkeley, 1977], 162), does not name Virgil. The fourteenth-century Welsh lyric poet Dafydd ap Gwilim makes two allusions to Virgil as magician. In one case (poem 32, line 32) he describes the patterns on a garland of peacock feathers that his beloved has given him as ‘‘mirrors from Virgil’s fairs.’’ In another instance (poem 84, line 58) he calls his beloved an enchantress and claims that her harp has a frame not made of wood but rather ‘‘conjured by Virgilian art.’’ (Text and translation: R. Bromwich, Dafydd ap Gwilim: A Selection of Poems [(Llandysul), 1982], 38–39.) In modern Welsh, Virgil’s standing as a magician has become embedded in the standard words for pharmacist (√eryllydd), the place for picking up a prescription (√eryllfa), and the profession of pharmacist (√erylliaeth, also an older academic designation for chemistry), all of which derive directly from his name. (For a translation of the entire Cad Goddeu, see P. K. Ford, trans., Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales, 183–87. The translation of the closing lines, below, is new.) (Discussion: J. Wood, ‘‘Virgil and Taliesin: The Concept of the Magician in Medieval Folklore,’’ Folklore 94 [1983], 91–104) (JZ) Sage of the prophets, prophesy to Arthur. There is that which is formerly: what has been they could see. And one comes to pass from the meaning of the Flood. And the crucifying of Christ, and afterward Doomsday. A resplendent golden gem I shall enchant brilliantly, And I shall be high-spirited because of the prophecy of Virgil. (P. K. Ford)

42. Ermenrich of Ellwangen (circa 814–74) Ermenrich, monk of Ellwangen, in Swabia, was bishop of Passau (866–74). He wrote lives of the Anglo-Saxon monk Sualo and of Bishop Hariolf of Langres, as well as a lengthy letter to Grimald, then abbot of St. Gall (circa 850–55) and former schoolmaster at Reichenau. The Epistula ad Grimaldum abbatem (Letter to Abbot Grimald), preserved in St. Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 25 (tenth 102

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century), pp. 3–70, contains much derivative information on the trivium, as the three verbal arts of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic were known. In a few passages on Virgil that stand in close proximity (chapters 24–26), Ermenrich first reports on a vision of Virgil that he had and then proceeds to a long denunciation of the misguided stories told by Virgil and other ancient poets. Following Cassiodorus’s Institutiones (see above, I.C.35.a), he also relates that Virgil declared he sought gold in the dung of Ennius. Ermenrich’s remarks about Virgil make evident familiarity with the Vita Noricensis I (see below, II.A.28), written in Reichenau. (Discussion: W. Suerbaum, ‘‘Ein heidnischer Klassiker als ‘Dünger’ christlicher Bildung, Quellen und Bedeutung des Vergil-Bildes bei Ermenrich von Ellwangen,’’ in Panchaia: Festschrift für K. Thraede, Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum, Ergänzungsband 22 [Münster, 1995], 238–50) (Text: E. Dümmler, ed., MGH Epistolae 5, Karolini aevi 3 [1899], 561–64) (JZ) [24] Saltim vel Maronis Musas cernere, vel ipsum licentiam da. Nolo tamen ipsum videre, quem credo in pessimo loco manere, et quia terret me visus eius. Sepe vero quando legebam illum, et post lectionem capiti subponebam, in primo sopore, qui post laborem solet esse dulcissimus, statim affuit monstrum quoddam fuscum, et per omnia horribile, interdum gestabat codicem, interdum calamum ad aures, veluti scripturus aliquid, ridebat ad me, vel, quia dicta eius legebam, irridebat me. Ast ego evigilans signabam me signaculo crucis, librum eius longeque proiciens iterum membra dedi quieti. Sed nec sic cessavit fantasma ipsius terrens me, ferens tridentem, nescio utrum Plutonis domestici eius, an alicuius alterius pre manibus, facie furva solos dentes candidos ostendit: quamque comminationem illius similiter in nomine Domini signatus contempsi, veluti ludum eius ante risibilem pro nihilo habui. Quod si omnes dii eius tales sunt, qualem se ipse finxit, et de quibus mira ac varia canit, detestandi sunt penitus, licet legantur eorum gesta. Quis enim sanum sapiens pro risu non habet, quod refert idem Maro nigellus de Iove et Iunone? . . . Sed hec omnia et cetera aliorum poetarum gentilium figmenta quam falsa sint et sterilia, facile perpendit quisquis catholicam fidem tenet. [25] Scripsit tamen supradictus larvula in honore Octaviani Cesaris tria opera, sive pro adquirendis agris, seu pro civibus, suadentibus amicis ut scriberet, Cornelio Gallo et Quintiliano Varo, Emiliano Macro poeta et Asinnio Pollione, Valerio Flacco et Mecenate dispensatore, qui tunc apud Cesarem optime valebant. Nam in Bucolicis secutus est Theocritum Siciliensem, qui septem eglogas scripsit. In Georgicis vero Hesyodum Ascreum, de loco ita vocatum, qui duos de cultura terrae libros conscripsit. In Eneadibus autem Homerum secutus est, qui XL duobus libris gesta Grecorum adversus C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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Troiam refert. Linquamus, pater, iam linquamus Maronem cum Sinonte suo mendacissimum, et in Stige pessima palude cum Apolline et Musis suis sepultum. Ibi etiam ludant coram eo, quantum cupiat, filie Plutonis et Noctis, Parce et Eumenides, ex contrario dicte, eo quod minime parcant et non sint bone dee. Quarum nomina sunt: Cloto, id est, evocatio, Lachesis, id est, sors, et Atropos, id est, sine ordine. Et ut longo tempore in tali balneo sedeat, Fata sua, que et Furie dicuntur, id diiudicant: Allecto, Thesyphone, et Megera. Celestis rex maledicat talia figmenta. Et qui hec eadem nominare valeo, nisi supra compositorum equorum, qui redam tuam trahunt, stercora decidentia. Unde non immerito Ennius poaeta [sic] a quodam interrogatus, quid quereret in Marone, respondit: ‘‘Aurum,’’ inquiens, ‘‘in stercore quero.’’ Et quia, prout nosti, sicut stercus parat agrum ad proferendum satius frumentum, ita dicta paganorum poetarum licet feda sint, quia non sunt vera, multum tamen adiuvant ad percipiendum divinum eloquium. . . . Quapropter non est multum mirandum, si et tu plus gnoscis quam Plato et Maro, quorum neuter ad tantam scientiam pervenire potuit, ut sciret Deum.

[24] At least grant permission to see either Virgil’s Muses or Virgil himself. Yet I do not wish to see him, because I believe he dwells in a very bad place and because the sight of him frightens me. In fact, often when I would read him and would set him beneath my head after reading, in the first stage of sleep, which is usually the most delightful after toil, a certain dark monster, dreadful in all respects, would at once be present. Sometimes he would carry a manuscript, sometimes a pen behind his ears, as if he was about to write something. He would smile at me, or, because I was reading his words, he would jeer at me. But I, awakening, would make the sign of the cross over myself, and, casting his book far o√, I gave my limbs once again to sleep. But the phantasm of that man did not cease frightening me, bearing before his hands a trident, I know not whether of his household servant Pluto or of someone else; he showed only white teeth in his dark face. And, likewise making the sign of the cross in the name of the Lord, I showed contempt for his threatening, as if I held his playing, more than laughable, of no account. But if all the gods are such as he, as he postured himself, and about whom he sings marvelous and manifold things, they are to be despised completely, although their deeds may be read. Indeed, what man who knows what is wholesome does not consider laughable what the same Maro—the little black one—relates about Jupiter and Juno? . . . But whoever holds to the catholic faith can easily appraise how untrue and barren are all these fictions and the rest by other pagan poets. [25] Yet the aforementioned apparition wrote in honor of Emperor Octavian three works for the sake either of acquiring his fields or of his 104

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fellow citizens, with his friends persuading him to write—Cornelius Gallus, Quintilianus Varus, Aemilianus Macer the poet, Asinius Pollio, Valerius Flaccus, and the steward Maecenas, who at that time were most highly esteemed by the emperor. Moreover, in his Eclogues he followed Theocritus the Sicilian, who wrote seven eclogues; in the Georgics, to be sure, Hesiod the Ascraean, so called after the place [Ascra], who wrote two books on agriculture. Furthermore, in the Aeneid he followed Homer, who relates in forty-two books the deeds of the Greeks against Troy. Let us abandon, father, abandon now Virgil, most false with his Sinon and buried in the Styx, the worst of swamps, with Apollo and his Muses. There too let them play before him, as much as he wishes, the daughters of Pluto and Night, the Parcae [=Fates] and Eumenides [=Furies], so called by antiphrasis, because they hardly spare [parcant] and they are not good goddesses [eu = good]. Their names are Clotho, which is to say, ‘‘the summoning’’; Lachesis, which is ‘‘one’s lot’’; and Atropos, which is ‘‘at random.’’ And that he should rest a long time in such a stew, his Fates, who are also called Furies (Allecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera), decide it. May the king of heaven curse such fictions. Is there anything I can call these same fictions, if not the falling dung of the horses mentioned above, which draw your carriage? Hence the poet Ennius rightly replied, when asked by a certain person what he sought in Virgil, saying, ‘‘I seek gold in dung.’’ And because, as you know, just as dung readies the field for producing grain better, so are the sayings of the pagan poets, though foul, because they are not true, yet they aid much in apprehending God’s eloquence. . . . Therefore it is not greatly to be marveled at if even you know more than Plato and Virgil, neither of whom could attain such knowledge as to know God. (JZ)

43. Modus Ottinc The Modus Ottinc is the eleventh of the Carmina Cantabrigiensia (Cambridge Songs), dating from circa 1000. They are so called because they are found within a manuscript (Gg. 5.35) presently located in Cambridge, University Library, but originally put together around the middle of the eleventh century in the Abbey of St. Augustine at Canterbury. The following verses form the seventh and final strophe. (Text and translation: J. Ziolkowski, The Cambridge Songs (Carmina Cantabrigiensia), Garland Library of Medieval Literature, ser. A, vol. 66 [New York, 1994]) Finem demus modo, ne forte notemur ingenii culpa tantorum virtutes ultra quicquam C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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deterere, quas denique Maro inclitus vix equaret.

Let us now put an end to this tune, lest perchance, for want of talent, we be blamed for detracting in any way from the virtues of such great men; for even renowned Virgil would scarcely be equal to their virtues. The allusion in 3–6 to Horace, Carmina 1.6.9–12, documents the sophistication of the medieval poet: . . . dum pudor inbellisque lyrae Musa potens vetat laudes egregii Caesaris et tuas culpa deterere ingeni.

. . . while modesty and the powerful Muse of the unwarlike lyre forbid [me], for want of talent, to detract from the praises of Caesar’s excellence and yours. (MP) Horace’s ode is a recusatio in which he refuses to sing the (epic) praises of Agrippa and Augustus, leaving this pleasant task to Varius, a contemporary Homer (Maeonii carminis alite, bird of Maeonian song, 2). Our author’s allusion promotes several levels of interpretation. First, by placing his recusatio at the end, he suggests that he has already in fact sung the praises of the first three emperors who bore the name Otto. This hint in turn implies that he surpasses Horace, by doing what Horace shies away from, which is to say, the writing of epic deeds in lyric verse. It also implies that he is a type of Virgil, presenting material in lyric form that Virgil would have put forward in epic. If our author surpasses Horace and becomes the equivalent of Homer-Varius-Virgil, then Otto is a new Aeneas-Augustus, and the poem that tells of his doings becomes a type of Aeneid. (MP)

44. Fulbert of Chartres (circa 970–1028) Fulbert was master of the school of Chartres, which he helped make famous, and later (1006) its bishop. Beyond being active in ecclesiastic administration, Fulbert was the author of sermons, treatises, letters, and poetic opuscula on a wide variety of subjects. Poem 136, which has no title, is usually considered a fragment, but the repetition of me in mecum and the chiasmus that takes the reader from Argolici to Latini in line 1 and then from Virgilius to Homerus, from Greek to Latin and then back again, suggests that we should read the lines as a whole. The unity is 106

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enhanced by the play on virga (magician’s wand as well as schoolmaster’s rod), which also unifies the opening and closing lines through figura etymologica with the name Virgilius (the connection is made at least as early as the VSD; see below, II.A.1). The three lines survive uniquely in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 14167. (Text: The Letters and Poems of Fulbert of Chartres, ed. F. Behrends [Oxford, 1976]) Me non Argolici docuit sed virga Latini, Constat enim Grecum quod praecipis enucleandum. Mecum Virgilius, nequaquam lusit Homerus.

The rod that taught me was a Latin’s, not a Greek’s, for the Greek in which you instruct me needs explanation. It was with Virgil that I played, not Homer. (MP)

45. Donizo (circa 1070–after 1136) Donizo was first a monk and eventually abbot of the small cloister at Canossa, near Parma. His Vita Mathildis (Life of Mathilda), as modern editors have entitled a work that seems to have originally borne the title De principibus Canusinis (On the Princes of Canossa), is a panegyric on Marquess Mathilda (died 1115) and her ancestors, to praise her for having founded his monastery. The poem (2,934 verses, mainly leonine hexameters), composed around 1115, makes mention of Virgil in a topos at the very beginning (see below, a). Later it has the less commonplace feature of a dialogue (see below, b), a well-mannered debate (urbana altercatio) between personifications of Canossa and Mantua, in which the cities dispute each other’s claims to fame. The text (1.715–16) incorporates the epigram with the incipit Nocte pluit (It rained [all] night; for other uses of it, see below, II.A.32, II.A.34, II.A.37–38, and IV.N.2), which was known before Aldhelm of Malmesbury. (Discussion: F. Ermini, ‘‘La memoria di Vergilio e l’altercatio tra Canossa e Mantova nel poema di Donizone,’’ Studi medievali, n.s., 5 [1932], 187–97; Donizone, Vita di Matilde di Canossa, preface by V. Fumagalli, trans. P. Golinelli [Milan, 1987]) (Text, items a and b: U. Bellocchi and G. Marzi, ed. and trans., Matilde e Canossa: Il poema di Donizone, Monumenti 24 [Modena, 1970], 94, 132–36) (JZ) a. Vita Mathildis 1.62–64 Principium libri de principibus Canusinis Plurima scribentur metra de quibus ut memorentur. Vivus si Plato foret hactenus ipseque Maro, innumeros versus daret illis fingere tempus istud de nostris ducibus. . . .

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The Beginning of the Book about the Princes of Canossa Many verses will be written about them, that they may be kept in memory. If Plato were still alive and Maro himself, these times would cause them to compose countless verses about our dukes. . . . (JZ ) b. Vita Mathildis 1.676–742 Mantua Respondit Parce michi quaeso; video te tangere caelum. Canossa Dicit Parco tibi valde; mecum cane carmina saltem, ex domino nostro Bonefacio, velut opto. Mantua Respondit Quid, proba, dixisti? Metra plurima te sine finxi. Immemor es forsan metrorum me fore portam. Dulcis amica mea, generavi namque poetam Virgilium, certum super omnes edere versus. Canossa Dicit Ore tuo dampnas temet nimium, mea fallax; numquid non nosco quantum tibi pertinet autor Virgilius? Quippe genitus de te fuit ipse, Sed sufferre tuum nequit opprobrium, sibi durum, olim quod vilis per regem sustinuisti. Cantat nempe metrum de te, quod scis bene mecum: ‘‘Mantua vae, miserae nimium vicina Cremonae’’ [Eclogues 9.28]. Ut te cognoscas, statim recolam tibi causas. Antonius quidam commovit Caesaris iram; propter eum rura sua perdidit alta Cremona, Cesare dante quidem; tua militibus dedit idem. Te conculcatam dimittens Titirus, auras nostras et silvas, montes petiit quoque villas, castaneasque bonas comedebat mitia poma. Haec tibi sint nota, Maronis dicitur aula hactenus et silva, per quam pascebat ovillas. Ast et Balista mons nascitur hanc prope silvam, in quo Virgilius titulum facit hoc modo scriptum: ‘‘Monte sub hoc lapidum tegitur Balista sepultus, nocte die tutum carpe viator, iter.’’ [AL 1.1, 212, no. 261] Hic Balista latro fuit ingens, haec quoque Maro propterea scripsit, quia mortuus extitit illic.

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680

685

690

695

700

Ex hoc quod scimus, potes et tu discere visu. Si quid habes dubii, lege primi carmina libri ipsius, et statim tu non mea dicta negabis. Quando te fugit miseram, prope me cucurrit, quae meditans finxit, michi primitus haud tibi dixit. Ergo qua fronte potes illum quaerere? Nonne perrexit Romam regni rogitare coronam liber ut esse queat? Sibi quam dedit ilico Cesar cognovit postquam sapientis carmina docta. Hoc tu nolo neges, recolo tibi metra repente: ‘‘Nocte pluit tota, redeunt spectacula mane, divisum imperium cum Iove Cesar habes.’’ [pseudo-Virgil, in AL 1.1, 212, no. 256] Hec Maro pauca iecit regis in aula; cumque reperta forent, rex cuidam fecit honorem qui se laudabat quod fecerat haec metra cara. Titirus inde dolens iterum conscripsit eosdem versus, sic pulchre de facta fraude refundens: ‘‘Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honorem. Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves, sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes.’’ [pseudo-Virgil, in AL 1.1, 212, no. 257] Hos pariter iactans in eadem Cesaris aula, non latuit regem, quis carmina tanta referret. Imperat ante suum Maronem ducere vultum, prestat quaeque rogat, libertatem sibi donat. Ad te qui iussu remeavit Cesaris huius; sed non quod poscit, quisti dare tu sibi, nosti. Nam repetens agros ceu iusserat induperator, Arrius est quidam centurio motus in ira eius habens agros, occidere quaerit ut atrox Virgilium, fluvius sed Mincius abdidit illum. Se iactans mortem vitavit ibi, sed et hostem. Cesaris ad vultum repedavit qui cito rursum; rexque viros claros tres secum misit ut agros restituant illi, fecere quod insimul ipsi. Tu sibi nec vitam servasti, rura nec ipsa: desine iactari iam te, iam Mantua, vanis laudibus ex istis; vacuae sunt ceu tibi dixi; pone supercilia, mecum contendere vita.

705

710

715

720

725

730

735

740

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Mantua Replies: Spare me, I beg you; I see that you touch the sky. Canossa Says: Definitely, I spare you; but at least sing songs with me because of our Lord Boniface [Mathilda’s father], as I ask you. Mantua Replies: What, good woman, did you say? I have composed many verses without you. [680] Perhaps you are forgetting that I am the gateway to verse. My sweet friend, I in fact gave birth to the poet Virgil, who certainly is capable above all others in making verses. Canossa Says: With your own mouth you damn yourself all too much, my fallacious friend; don’t I know how much the author Virgil belongs to you? [685] Certainly he was born of you, but he could not bear your disgrace, which was hard for him, that you once endured basely through the king. Indeed, he sings about you a verse that you know as well as I do: ‘‘Woe, Mantua, all too close to wretched Cremona.’’ [690] So that you may understand yourself, I will recall the reasons for this at once. A certain Antony aroused the wrath of Caesar. On account of Antony noble Cremona lost her lands, because Caesar gave them to his soldiers; he gave yours to them too. Tityrus, leaving you when you were downtrodden, [695] sought out our atmosphere and woods, mountains, and farms, and would eat good chestnuts and sweet fruits. May these facts be known to you: even today the wood where he pastured his sheep is called ‘‘the hall of Maro,’’ and near this wood rises Mt. Valestra [Canossa presents the place-name Marola as being derived from Maronis aula, and assumes that the name of Mt. Valestra comes from Balista], [700] on which Virgil composed an inscription written as follows: ‘‘Beneath this mount of stones Balista is covered and buried: walk your route safely, traveler, by night and by day.’’ This Balista in fact was a great robber; Virgil wrote these words for this purpose, because Balista died there. [705] By seeing for yourself you too can learn what we know. If you have any doubt, read the poems of his first book, and immediately you will deny my declarations no more. When he fled you in your wretchedness, he ran to me; what he composed when musing, he addressed to me in the first place—not at all to you. [710] And so with what e√rontery can you claim him? Didn’t he set o√ for Rome to entreat the crown of the empire so that he might be able to be free? Caesar granted it to him at once after he became aware of the learned poems of the wise poet. Since I do not want you to deny this, I recall for you straightway the verses: [715] ‘‘It rained all night, the games return with the morning: Caesar has joint rulership with Jove.’’ Virgil cast those few words into the palace of the king; and when they had been found, the king paid honor to a certain man who vaunted himself for having composed these precious verses. [720] Tityrus, pained by this, wrote the same verses again, recasting them beautifully with reference to the deceit that had been done: ‘‘I composed these humble verses; another took the 110

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honor. So you do not wear fleece for yourself, sheep. So you do not make honey for yourself, bees.’’ [725] He tossed these verses likewise inside the same palace of Caesar; the identity of the person who had o√ered such great poetry did not escape the king. He commanded that Maro be led into his presence. He delivered all that the poet asked; he gave him his freedom. He [Virgil] went back to you at the bidding of this Caesar; [730] but you know that you could not give him what he required. For returning to his fields as the emperor had ordered, a certain centurion, Arrius, who occupied Virgil’s fields, was aroused to anger; he strove [assuming quaerit ut conceals quaesiit] in his ferocity to slay Virgil, but the river Mincio hid him. [735] Hurling himself there, he avoided death as well as his enemy. He traveled back again quickly to the presence of Caesar, and the king sent with him three important men to restore the fields to him, which they did promptly. You saved for him neither his life nor the actual lands: [740] cease now to vaunt yourself, Mantua, with empty praise because of these matters; they are devoid of substance, as I have said to you; put aside your haughtiness, avoid arguing with me. (JZ)

46. Peter Abelard On Abelard, see III.C.6, below. In Theologia Christiana 112 Abelard accepts, but varies, the equation made by Macrobius (Commentum in Somnium Scipionis 1.14.14) of the spiritus (spirit) and mens (mind), which Virgil’s Anchises finds inherent in the universe (Aeneid 6.726–27), with the Platonic anima mundi. The words of Virgil therefore serve for him as an involucrum (see below, IV.P) that adumbrates the presence of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, as a cosmic force. (Text: E. Buytaert, ed., Petri Abaelardi Opera Theologica, vol. 2, 118, Corpus christianorum: continuatio mediaevalis 12 [Turnhout, 1969]) Haec quidem omnia tam Vergilii quam Macrobii verba facile est iuxta propositum nostrum ad nostrae fidei tenorem accomodare, nec aliter ea convenienter exponi.

Indeed according to our purpose it is easy to adapt all these words, of Virgil as well as of Macrobius, to the sense of our faith, nor can they be consistently explained in another way. (MP)

47. Otto of Freising (circa 1114–58) Otto is a major medieval historical thinker. An aristocrat by birth, he ended his ecclesiastical career as bishop of Freising (1138–58), near Munich. He narrated (1157–58) the deeds of his nephew, Frederick I Barbarossa, only two C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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books of which were finished at his death. His chief work, Chronica sive historia de duabus civitatibus (Chronica, or the History of Two Cities), in eight books, concluding with the year 1146, is based on the notion of two communities, one of the faithful (‘‘The City of God’’ or ‘‘The City of Christ’’) and one of the condemned (‘‘The City of the Earth’’ or ‘‘The City of the Devil’’). (Text: Ottonis episcopi Frisingensis Chronica, ed. A. Hofmeister, MGH Scriptores rerum Germanicarum [Hannover, 1912]) a. Chronica 1.25 Anno ab imperio Nini DCCCLXX raptam fuisse Helenam coniurationemque factam adversus Troiam ferunt. Hinc decennalis obsidio famosumque sequitur Troiae excidium. Quod qui scire desiderat, legat Homerum eiusque imitatorem Pindarum seu Virgilium. Hinc Romanorum gentem duxisse originem ab Enea profugo et, ut ipse adulatur, viro forti—ut vero ab aliis traditur, patriae proditore ac nicromantico, utpote qui etiam uxorem suam diis suis immolaverit—, scribit Virgilius. . . . Diffusis longe lateque per orbem Troianis Antenor quoque fundator extitit Patavi. Unde Virgilius: Antenor potuit mediis elapsus Achivis Illiricos penetrare sinus atque ultima tutus Regna Liburnorum et fontem superare Timavi [Aeneid 1.242–44].

Et infra: Hic tamen ille urbem Patavi sedesque locavit [Aeneid 1.247].

Et Lucanus: ‘‘Patavique truces.’’ Quarum quidam Galliae urbem Pictavim, nonnulli Baioariae Pataviam, alii vero Venetiae Paduam, quae et Patavium, putant. Quod et verisimilius est et sensui Virgilii accommodatius. . . . Haec Romani regni principia aureis seculis, id est, sine luxu inherti bellorumque turbulentia, sub Saturno inchoata Laurenti fuere. Verum abhinc ferrea successit aetas.

In the year 870 after the reign of Ninus they say that Helen was raped and that a compact was sworn against Troy. There followed a ten-year siege and the famous destruction of Troy. Who wishes to know further, let him read Homer and his imitator Pindar or Virgil. Virgil writes that the Roman people drew its origin from Aeneas, an exile [see also Aeneid 1.2] and, to flatter him, a brave man— though there is another tradition that he was a traitor to his fatherland and a necromancer, as indeed someone who even o√ered his wife in sacrifice to his gods. After the Trojans had been scattered far and wide over the earth, Antenor was also the founder of a city, Patavium. Whence Virgil [writes]: 112

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Antenor, slipping out from the midst of the Greeks, was able in safety to make his way into the bays of Illyria and pass beyond the farthest bounds of the kingdom of the Liburni and the fountain of Timavus.

And further: Here he established the city of Patavium as his dwelling-place.

And Lucan mentions the ‘‘wild Patavians.’’ From these certain people think of the Gallic city of Pictavia [Poitiers], some of Patavia [Passau] in Bavaria, but others of Padua in the Veneto. This seems closer to the truth and more appropriate to the sense of Virgil. . . . These beginnings of the kingdom of Rome took their start at Laurentum under Saturn in the golden age, that is, in a time without enervating luxury and the turmoil of war. But after this followed the age of iron. (MP) b. Chronica 1.26 Virgil deals with the change from aurea saecula (golden times) to a more decadent era primarily at Aeneid 8.324–27. Eneas enim in Italiam navibus ex Frigia transvectus Latini regis filiam accepit, gravique inter ipsum et Turnum ob hoc bellorum orto discrimine humano cruore aurea secula in ferrum commutari docuit. Quod Virgilius, utrum veraciter vel adulationis fuco fallaciter, pulcherrimo versuum ordine prosequitur. Haec de Troianorum profugis dicta sufficiant.

For Aeneas, sailing aboard ship to Italy from Troy, married the daughter of King Latinus, and when, because of this, matters reached a serious crisis in war between himself and Turnus, he showed how with the shedding of human blood the golden age changed to iron. Virgil illustrates this, whether in truth or falsely under the guise of flattery, in a beautiful sequence of verses. These words should su≈ce for the Trojan exiles. (MP)

48. ‘‘Archpoet’’ (flourished 1159–65) We can glean little about the author of the ten powerful poems that come down to us under the name of the Archpoet save that his patron was Rainald of Dassel (died 1167), archchancellor of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and later archbishop of Cologne (1159–67). The following poem is a recusatio in which the Archpoet declines a request from Rainald that he write an epic in praise of the emperor (died 1190). (Text and discussion: Die Gedichte des Archipoeta, ed. and trans. H. Krefeld, Schriften und Quellen der alten Welt 41 [Berlin, 1992]) Poem 4, incipit Archicancellarie, vir discrete mentis, stanzas 4–5: C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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Iubes angustissimo me tractare seriem quas neque Virgilium annis quinque scribere

spacio dierum augustarum rerum, posse nec Homerum constat esse verum.

Vis, ut infra circulum bella scribam forcia que vix in quinquennio vel tu, vatum maxime,

parve septimane breviter et nane, scriberes, Lucane, Maro Mantuane.

You [Archchancellor Rainald] command that, within the briefest period of days, I deal with a chain of solemn events [the military campaigns of Frederick in Italy], which it is agreed neither a Virgil nor a Homer could write of in five years. You wish that within the confines of a week I should write in brief and stunted form of brave wars what you, Lucan, would scarcely write in five years or you, Virgil of Mantua, greatest of poets. (MP)

49. Walter of Châtillon (circa 1135–circa 1190) Walter, born near Lille, was for a while a member of the chancery of Henry II of England (1133–89). Teacher, lawyer, and diplomat, he was also the author of a wide variety of lyric and satiric poems as well as of the Alexandreis, an epic on the deeds of Alexander the Great in ten books of hexameter verse which held a prominent place in university arts curricula for several centuries after its publication. The following is excerpted from the poem’s prose preface. (Discussion: J.Y. Tilliette, ‘‘Insula me genuit: L’influence de l’Énéide sur l’épopée latine du douzième siècle,’’ LMV 121–42; N. Wright, ‘‘ ‘Semper honos nomenque tuum laudesque manebunt’: Virgil and Twelfth-Century Epic?’’ Proceedings of the Virgil Society 24 [2001], 11–29) (Text: M. Colker, ed., Galteri de Castellione Alexandreis [Padua, 1978]) Non enim arbitror me esse meliorem Mantuano vate, cuius opera mortali ingenio altiora carpsere obtrectantium linguae poetarum ac mortuo derogare praesumpserunt, quem, dum viveret, nemo potuit equipare mortalium. Sed et Hieronymus noster, vir tam disertissimus quam Christianissimus, qui in singulis prefationibus suis emulis respondere consuevit, manifeste dat intelligi nullum apud auctores superesse securitatis locum cum virum tam nominatae auctoritatis pupugerit stimulus emulorum.

Indeed, I hardly think myself superior to the bard of Mantua: though his works exceeded mortal capability, they were denigrated by the tongues of carping poets, who presumed to slander when he was dead one whom none among mortals equaled while he lived. But our Jerome, a man as distinguished 114

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for his eloquence as for his Christian piety, who was accustomed to answer his rivals in his various prefaces, makes it clear that there remains to authors no place of safety, since the goad of his competitors stung even a man of such acknowledged authority. (The Alexandreis: A Twelfth-Century Epic, trans. D. Townsend [Peterborough, Ontario, 2006])

50. Alan of Lille (circa 1125/1130–1203) Born at Lille (and an outspoken rival of Walter of Châtillon, who was associated with the same town [see above, I.C.49]), Alan spent much of his life studying and teaching at Paris before joining the Cistercians. He earned the title doctor universalis on the basis of his great learning, which is reflected in the broad sweep of his writings, including works on practical and speculative theology, sermons, a preaching manual, a theological dictionary, a guide for confessors, and a polemic against heretics. Alongside an interest in the new learning that was spreading during the twelfth century, and a solid command of patristic literature, Alan manifested an appreciative knowledge of the Latin classics in general and of Virgil’s poetry in particular. (JZ) a. De planctu naturae 5.32 (perhaps 1160–65) In On the Complaint of Nature, Alan describes in alternating meters and prose (the form known as prosimetrum) how the perversions of humanity (which he embodies in male-male sexuality) have inverted the normal order of things and damaged nature. Much of the text takes the form of a dialogue between Lady Nature and a visionary, who expresses himself in the first person. In one of the meters, Nature enumerates the ways in which love turns the world topsyturvy; among the usual relations turned upside-down, a poetaster scorned by Virgil (Eclogues 3.90) arrogates to himself the Mantuan’s proficiency as a poet, while the latter languishes. (Text: N. Häring, ed., Studi medievali, 3rd ser., 19 [1978], 843) (JZ) Carmina dat Bavius, musa Maronis hebet.

Bavius makes poetry, the muse of Maro grows dull. (JZ) b. Anticlaudianus (1181–83) In the first half of the Anticlaudianus, his later hexameter epic (which could be considered loosely a sequel to the earlier prosimetrum), Alan makes frequent mention of Virgil. On a mountain at the center of Nature’s garden, described C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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in Anticlaudianus 1.142, there stands a hall with a mural, which depicts (among many other things) how Virgilii musa mendacia multa colorat / et facie veri contexit pallia falso (Virgil’s muse camouflages many lies and weaves cloaks for falsehood with the appearance of truth). In 2.86, Lady Reason asserts in a speech that the divine mind is won over only by sincere prayer, not by rhetoric or hypocrisy such as musa Maronis (the muse of Maro). Later in the same book (2.358 and 361–62), the poet describes how the seven liberal arts, personified, have mastery of all the arts, so that they can compose ut Maro dictat (as Maro does) and imitate abyssum Virgilii (the profundity of Virgil). In book 4 Alan describes the five horses, embodying the five senses, that pull the chariot ridden by Prudence in her voyage to obtain a soul for the New Man; the fourth, representing taste, is humble in comparison with the others, but Non omnis . . . erit . . . mutus quem nescit musa Maronis (not everyone will be mute whom the muse of Maro does not recognize, 4.170–71). In 5.371, Alan lists the aspects of worldly wisdom that lose force just before Prudence, accompanied by Theology, enters heaven; mutescit musa Maronis (the muse of Maro grows mute). In the remainder of the nine-book poem Virgil is not mentioned explicitly by name. (Text: R. Bossuat, ed., Alain de Lille: Anticlaudianus, Textes philosophiques du Moyen Age 1 [Paris, 1955]) (JZ) c. Sermo de Trinitate Alan’s preoccupation with Virgil is not restricted to his belles lettres but also appears in his sermons. In his Sermon on the Trinity, Alan claims on the basis of two lines in Aeneid 6 (724 and 726) that Virgil had knowledge of the Holy Spirit as it is evident in Genesis 1.1–2 and John 1.1. (Text: M. T. d’Alverny, ed., Alain de Lille: Textes inédits [Paris, 1965], 255) (JZ) Virgilius etiam noster de Spiritu sancto mentionem facit, cum ait: ‘‘Principio celum terras camposque liquentes / . . . / Spiritus intus alit.’’

Even our Virgil makes reference to the Holy Ghost, when he says: ‘‘In the beginning the Spirit within nourishes heaven, earth, and watery plains.’’ (JZ) d. Facilis descensus Averni [sic] The fascination with Aeneid 6 takes even more emphatic form in another sermon, which goes so far as to make lines from Virgil’s poem its point of departure. The sermon Easy Is the Descent to Hell begins with the Sibyl’s warning to Aeneas that he will find the descent into Avernus easy, but the return a di√erent matter altogether. Alan moves on to a discussion of Pythagoras’s invention of the letter Y, a mystic symbol of man’s free will. Alan’s sermon takes as its basis the theological dimension of free will, a gift of God that Adam 116

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abused in choosing the path of sin. Redemption and the possibility of a return to the correct path come from Christ alone. Alan expands upon the theme of man’s descent into hell by discussing the three downward steps taken by Adam —desire, avarice, and pride—and the fourfold nature of hell itself. Though Alan departs considerably from Virgil’s Avernus in his detailed discussion of the Christian hell, he takes care to emphasize his interpretation of the Sibyl’s words: the path of sin is undertaken easily, but abandoned only through the intercession of Christ. The precise date and location of the sermon’s delivery are unknown, though it was intended to be given at Easter. D’Alverny holds that it is likely to have been written at the end of Alan’s career (circa 1185– 1200). The technical language of the sermon argues for a scholarly audience. The text of the sermon is preserved in two manuscripts: Toulouse, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 195 (first half of the thirteenth century), which contains Alan’s Ars praedicandi (Art of Preaching) and two di√erent collections of his sermons; and Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. lat. 10807 (circa 1200), an earlier but more fragmentary collection that seems to have descended from the same archetype as the Toulouse manuscript. (Text: M. T. d’Alverny, ‘‘Variations sur un thème de Virgile dans un sermon d’Alain de Lille,’’ in Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire o√erts à André Piganiol, ed. R. Chevallier, 3 [Paris, 1966], 1517–28) (JL) Facilis descensus Averni [sic] . . . Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras Hoc opus, hic labor est . . . [Aeneid 6.126, 128–29]

Archana secreti Pitagoras non ignarus, interne philosophie nectare debriatus, humane conditionis statum volens depingere, byfurcam litteram, Y scilicet, adinvenit, sub cuius figura hominis statum depinxit, dignitatemque secretorum indignis velavit figuris, a vilitate secretum defendens, studiosis vero ad intelligentiam scientie peritioris admittens. Sunt autem diverse species figurarum sive litterarum, quibus ad rei comprehensionem humanum ingenium invitatur. Est enim littera laicalis, que laico compatitur, ut pictura. Est littera clericalis, que clericum instruit, ut orthographia. Est littera phisici, que phisicum docet, ut pictagorica figura. Est littera sacramentalis, que theologum monet, ut ecclesie sacramenta. Prima mutescit, secunda barbutit, tertia loquitur, quarta eloquitur. Prima est quasi muta, secunda tamquam semivocalis, tertia velud vocalis, quarta, ut ita loquar, ypervocalis. Predicta autem Y et clericum instruit, dum orthographie deservit, et docet phisicum, dum nature figurat secretum, et monet theologum, dum theologie demonstrat archanum. Iuxta quod theologie deservit, humani arbitrii naturam portendit, qua Deus ante peccatum primum hominem privilegio C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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insignivit. Y littera tractum habet cui innititur, et a tertio procedens in duos ramos velud in duo brachia dividitur. Alter sursum erigitur; unus descendit, alter ascendit; ad cuius similitudinem Y mistica, id est, humani arbitrii natura in primi hominis corde designata libere voluntati tamquam trunco innitebatur, et in velle bonum et malum tamquam in duo brachia dividebatur. Alter ramus, scilicet velle malum, arescebat in terris, alter vero, scilicet velle bonum, florescebat in caelis; alter spondebat paradisum, alter minabatur infernum. Primus igitur homo in hoc bivio constitutus duplicem arbitrii libertatem adeptus, per alteram poterat debaccari cum brutis, per alteram meditari cum angelis. Altera tamen libertas liberior, altera vero utilior; una ad malum absolutior, altera vero ad bonum determinatior. Primus igitur homo alteri libertati liberas commitens [sic] habenas, promptiorem partem elegit, que vix auferetur ab eo [Luke 10.42]. ‘‘Abiit ergo in consilio impiorum,’’ male concupiscendo, ‘‘in via peccatorum, male operando; stetit in cathedra pestilentie’’ [Psalms 1.1], peccatum fallaciter execrando. Abiit de patria in exilium; de portu lapsus est in naufragium; de securitate ruit in precipitium; de innocentia demissus in vitium. O negociator incautus! O mercator mercenarius! Pro auro cuprum; pro purpura saccum, pro gemma vitrum, pro vita mercatur interitum. Descendit de Sion in Babilonem, in Iericho de Ierusalem, ‘‘et incidit in latrones’’ [Luke 10.30]. Qui sunt isti latrones in quos incidit, nisi affectus carnales, terrene voluptates, mundane cupiditates, que sunt tamquam sirenes in usque exitium dulces; que sunt lete tristitie, tristes letitie; que sunt dulces amaritudines, et amare dulcedines; que tamquam latrunculi insidiantes homini devianti eum in ornamentis datorum naturalium vulneraverunt, vestimentisque bonorum generalium spoliaverunt. Quoniam ille cuius ante peccatum omnis lapis pretiosus sapientie et scientie fuerat cooperimentum predicta ornamenta perdidit per peccatum, miserieque et calamitatis induit cilicium. Cui ‘‘in lacu miserie’’ [Psalms 39.3] constituto ait Dominus compatiendo: ‘‘Adam, ubi es?’’ [Genesis 3.9] Quod est: Ubi eras ante peccatum? In gratia. Ubi futurus eras, si non peccasses? In gloria. Ubi es post peccatum? In pena. Ubi eras ante peccatum? In stadio. Ubi futurus, si non peccasses? ‘‘In bravio’’ [1 Corinthians 9.24]. Ubi constitutus es post peccatum? In universali dampno. Habuisti libertatem abeundi, amisisti potestatem redeundi. Potes peccatis deorsum descendere, per te non potes sursum ascendere; quoniam facilis descensus animi, ‘‘sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras, hoc opus, hic labor est.’’ Videamus quomodo primus homo descendit, intueamur in quam Avernum se demisit. Primus descensionis gradus fuit concupiscentia; vidit enim primus homo pomum visu delectabile et ad vescendum suave [Genesis 3.6],

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et concupivit. Secundus gradus descensionis et inferior fuit avaritia, quia voluit esse preditus omni scientia. Ultimus gradus et infimus superbia fuit, quando in suum actorem peccatum superciliose retorsit. Primus gradus quasi positivus; secundus comparativus; tertius superlativus. Hic malus, hic peior, pessimus ille fuit. Est autem infernus quadruplex, ad quem primi hominis factus est descensus. Est enim infernus gehennalis, de quo dictum est: ‘‘Eripe me de inferno inferiori’’ [Psalms 85.13]. Est infernus mundialis, id est, huius mundi miseria, de quo dictum est: ‘‘Eripe animam meam ab inferno’’ [Psalms 6.5; 16.13]. Est infernus temporalis, id est, humani corporis angustie et illecebra, de quo dictum est ab Apostolo: ‘‘Quis me liberabit de corpore huius mortis?’’ [Romans 7.24] Est infernus ignorantie culpabilis, de quo dictum est: ‘‘Sedentibus in regione umbre mortis, lux orta est eis’’ [Isaiah 9.2]. In primo, nulla redemptio; in secundo, potest esse remissio; in tertio, peccati excusatio; in quarto, mors phisica. Ad primum, facilis descensus, sed difficile est revocare gradum, quoniam vestigia nulla retrorsum. Ad ceteros vero descensus facilis . . . [there is a small blank space in the text of both MSS here] Quantum ad infernum humani corporis . . . [there is another blank space here] cum tamen anima humani corporis ergastulum ingreditur, de facili passionibus et carnis illecebris compatitur; in carnis illecebris, id est, in infernum, per compassionem demittitur, ei igitur facilis descensus est, sed revocare gradum, hic [sic] opus, hic labor est. Potest enim per se a statu sue dignitatis abire, sed non per se ad eundem redire. Per se declinare potest in via, sed non per se restauratur in via. Est enim spiritus per se vadens, sed non per se revertens [Psalms 77.39], non enim volentis vel currentis, sed solius Dei miserentis [Romans 9.16]. Primo autem inferno ceteri non inveniuntur dissimiles, sed in plerisque consimiles. In primo inferno est sinus Abrahe, in quo ante Christi adventum sanctorum anime quiescebant beata spe consolate. In hoc inferno est ‘‘fletus et stridor dentium’’ [Matthew 8.12], est alternatio penarum a calore ignium ad algorem nivium. In hoc inferno preter exteriorum penarum insultus, conscientie vermis animum corrodit interius. A simili, in inferno mundialis miserie, quasi sinus Abrahe, sinus est defectus tribulationis mundane, in quo sancti adhuc in mundo peregrinantes, spe eterne patrie consolati quiescunt, qui tamen conquerendo dicunt: ‘‘Super flumina Babylonis illic flevimus et sedimus dum recordaremur te, Sion’’ [Psalms 136.1]. In hoc inferno est fletus et stridor dentium eorum qui in dampno propriarum rerum conqueruntur et in morte amicorum inconsolabiliter lamentantur; contra proximos dentibus strident, et in singulis adversitatibus quasi desperando

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lugent. In hoc inferno alternantur pene, quia transitus fit de calore luxurie ad algorem avaritie. Peccatores etiam in libro conscientie quod egerunt legunt, eosque conscientiarum aculei pungunt. In tertio inferno, id est, in corpore humano, est sinus Abrahe, depositio carnalis concupiscentie in quo anime adhuc exulantes in corpore quiescunt, corpus tamen mente exuentes sepe tendunt ad celestia; ibi fletus est et stridor dentium, dum anime in corporibus site variis speciebus passionum cruciantur illecebrarumque importunitatibus affliguntur. Ibi est penarum varietas dum anima incarcerata in corpore aut calore acute febris succenditur, aut gelu quartane febris constringitur. Huic inferno non deest conscientie vermis quo vexatur animus peccatoris. Infernus etiam ignorantie suum habet sinum Abrahe, illum scilicet ignorantie defectum qui provenit non ex culpa actuali, sed ex reatu originali, in quo quiescunt fideles adhuc peregrinantes in via, quia in certitudine spei quodam modo fruuntur scientia; ibi dolor ex culpabili ignorantia proveniens fletum parit, stridoremque dentium acuit; ibi caloris pena, contra bonum irasci, pena frigoris in omissione boni; ibi non conscientie, sed ignorantie vermis peccatoris animum demollitur et ut se cognoscat non patitur. Itaque in infernum mundialem descendit primus homo per peccatum, in infernum gehennalem, ruit per meritum; in infernum corporalem, decidit per consensum; in infernum ignorantie, per contemptum. Ad hoc descendere facile, sed gradum revocare difficile. Ad hoc ergo ut lapsus surgeret, mortuus viveret, morbidus convalesceret, opportunum erat ut ille nasceretur in carne qui suo proprio opere ad illum statum ascenderet, unde ille descenderat, illum gradum adiret, unde ille abierat, qui temperantia pugnaret contra concupiscentiam, largitate decertaret contra avaritiam, humilitate contra superbiam dimicaret. Oportebat etiam ut illum refelleret demonis sillogismum, quo fallaciter deceperat prothoplaustum. Demon enim primi hominis invidens dignitati, pravam suggestionem proposuit, legis transgressionem assumpsit, ex qua eternam dampnationem intulit. Necesse ergo fuit ut Dei filius misterium redemptionis nostre proponens carnem assumeret, ex qua humani generis salutem eternam concluderet. Opus etiam erat ut labores nostros ferret, dolores sustineret natura, ut labore labor, dolore dolor per naturam nostram in qua simile simili curaretur. Descendit igitur Dei filius in mundi miseriam miserando, demissus in mundi passionem mundo compatiendo; delapsus est in labore hominis homini condolendo; vulneratus est medicus, ut convalesceret vulneratus; infirmatus est sanus, ut sanaretur infirmus. Temperantia concupiscentiam temperavit, largitate avaritiam castigavit; humilitate su-

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perbiam refrenavit. Que enim maior largitas quam se ipsum pro nobis offerre? ‘‘Seipsum exinanivit’’ [Philippians 2.7], Patri ‘‘usque ad mortem’’ [Philippians 2.8] obedivit, et si dicere audeam, non solum in ipso fuit largitas, sed etiam laudabilis prodigalitas, que in Christo non culpam patravit, sed gratiam; humanoque generi salutem concludens, demonis sillogismo institit, gloriosum problema eliciens hominem Deum fecit; sicque secundus Adam priori Ade quasi per antiphrasim respondens, per contrarium contraria, per simile curavit similia. Primus ascendit per superbiam, descendit in penam, ruit in mortem eternam, consecutus est gehennam. Secundus Adam descendit in humilitatem; ascendit crucis passionem; adeptus est vitam eternam per resurrectionem; in patriam intronisatus est celestem. Sicque pius pastor ovem errabundam reportavit ad caulam, eam errantem reduxit ad viam, peregrinum revexit ad patriam, inglorium suscitavit ad gloriam. Igitur secundum triplicem hominis statum ad instar cuiusdam abecedarii triplex littera humane nature velud cuidam carte est impressa UYX. Ante peccatum enim U scripta fuit in corde hominis, cum homo fruebatur arbitrii libertate; post peccatum vero Y denotata fuit in fronte, cum homo erat sub peccati necessitate; post redemptionem, vero, Christo auctore, completam X littera que est dominice crucis figura in hominis signata est pectore. Unde: Signatum est super nos ‘‘lumen vultus tui, Domine’’ [Psalms 4.7]. Prima fuit signum pugne, secunda, miserie, tertia, victorie. Prima fuit signum libertatis; secunda, servitutis; tertia, deliberationis. Fratres karissimi, ad similitudinem Ade secundi ‘‘omnia omnibus’’ [1 Corinthians 15.28] facti, compatiamur infirmis, condescendamus egrotis, instemus concupiscentie, contradicamus superbie. Virtutum instantiis demonis astutias refellamus, bonorum operum instantia eius infirmemus instantias; cum Christo descendamus in vallem humilitatis, ascendamus constanter crucem tribulationis, ut consequamur vitam eternam, resurgendo a vitiis, maxime temporibus hiis, quibus Christus resurrexit a mortuis. Imitemur resurrectionem Christi, resurrectione mentali, ut nostra resurrectione eius resurrectionem testificemur, et in eorum numero numerari mereamur, de quibus dictum est: ‘‘Multa corpora sanctorum’’ [Matthew 27.52], quasi diceretur: ‘‘sic celebremus paschales dies transeundo de vitiis ad virtutes.’’ Sunt enim festa paschalium gaudiorum in quibus ille verus Dei agnus occiditur, eiusque postes sanguine consecrantur [Exodus 12.7]. Si descendimus in infernum culpabilis ignorantie, a quo egredi difficile, laboremus ut egrediamur a cecitatis sepulcro, in mane fidei resurgentes cum Christo, ut illum sollempniter versum cantare possimus pro nobis: ‘‘Et nox sicut dies illuminabitur in deliciis meis’’ [Psalms 138.11].

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Est autem ignorantia culpabilis, nescire bonum actu experientie; est autem ignorantia laudabilis, nescire malum, usus ratione. Est autem ignorantia universalis, nescire utrumque scientie perceptione. Prima postulat penam; secunda meretur coronam; tertia precatur veniam. In primam primus Adam descendit; ad secundam secundus Adam ascendit; in tertia totum humanum genus ruit. In has ignorantias culpe et pene delapsi sunt illi qui ab Ierusalem in Emaus peregrinantes in hac die peregrinati sunt visu corporeo, peregrinati sunt animo. Viam iustitie habentes, in via deviabant a via, in via invii, in lumine ceci, in vita mortui, in ardore frigidi; cum peregrinis ibat peregrinus celestis, et tamen cognitione peregrinabatur ab eis. Et notandum, fratres, quod non immerito in Epiphania Christi de peregrinis agitur, ubi legitur magos tres ab oriente venisse, ut verum orientem invenirent, a natalibus locis peregrinatos esse, ut illum qui de celo peregrinatus erat in terra acciperent; nec sine causa in resurrectione de peregrinantibus tractatus constitutur, ubi de illis qui peregrinabantur localiter, qui peregrinabantur sensualiter, qui peregrinabantur materialiter loquitur. Per hoc enim significatum est quod ille in carnem venit, qui a celis peregrinabatur per incarnationem; ab hominibus per cognitionem [Luke 24.31]; a terris, per resurrectionem. Per hoc etiam duplex figuratur peregrinatio, una celestis, altera terrestris; una abeundi, altera redeundi; una qua peregrinamur in via, altera qua exorbitamus in invia. Sunt enim qui in via peregrinantes, ad viam iustitie aspirant, qui in exilio existentes, ad patriam vite suspirant, quos tres reges Christum querentes significant. Sunt alii qui peregrinantes in solo, peregrinantur a polo, qui deviant in mundo isto, peregrinantes a Christo, quos significant illi qui ab Iherusalem in Emaus sunt peregrinati. Nos ergo, si peregrinamur a Christo per cognitionem, ascendamus ad Christum per elemosinam et orationem; hospitemur eum in pauperibus, reficiamus in indigentibus; frangamus panem esurientibus, ut in fractione cognoscatur Deus Christus. Frangant scientes panem Scripture mendicantibus; frangant predicatores panem vite audientibus; frangant divites panem vite indigentibus, ut in mensa celesti cum Abraam, Ysaac et Iacob recumbere mereamur [Matthew 8.11]. Quod nobis prestare dignetur. . . . Easy is the descent to Avernus . . . But to recall one’s steps and pass out to the upper air, This is the task, this the toil!

When Pythagoras—hardly ignorant about the mysteries of what is hidden, but intoxicated by the nectar of inner philosophy—wished to depict the state of man’s condition, he devised the two-pronged letter Y. Through its shape he depicted the state of man, and he concealed the gravity of these secrets from 122

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the unworthy through signs, preventing them from becoming cheap while at the same time allowing access to those eager to understand this specialized knowledge. There are various types of signs and letters that invite the human intelligence to understanding. There is lay literacy, which is suitable for the laity, as is a picture. There is clerical literacy, which instructs the clergy, as does orthography. There is also the literacy of the physician, which teaches the physician, as does the Pythagorean sphere [which allows the physician to conjecture the outcome of an illness]. And there is the literacy of the sacraments, which directs the theologian, as do the sacraments of the Church. The first of these types of literacy is silent, the second stammers, the third speaks, and the fourth speaks eloquently. One might say that the first is a mute, the second a semivowel, the third a vowel, and the fourth, so to speak, a hypervowel. The aforementioned Y instructs the clergy (because it belongs to orthography), teaches the physician (since it symbolizes a mystery of nature), and advises the theologian (because it demonstrates a mystery of theology). It serves theology in that it symbolizes the nature of human will, which God granted as a privilege to the first man prior to his sin. The letter Y has a stem that supports it, and it proceeds from this third limb into two branches, as if divided into two arms. One arm is raised aloft; one goes down, the other up. In the same fashion the mystic Y—that is, the nature of human judgment as it was designated in the heart of the first man—rested on free will like a trunk, and it was divided into good will and bad, as if they were two arms. One of the branches, bad will, withered on the earth, while the other, good will, flowered in heaven. One promised paradise while the other threatened hell. Therefore the first man, established at this parting of two roads, gained a twofold freedom of choice. Through one path he could revel with brutes, through the other he could contemplate with angels. One freedom was freer, but the other was more useful. One was abandoned to evil; the other was restricted to good. Thus the first man, giving the reins freely to one sort of freedom, chose the easier part, which would not be taken from him. Desiring wickedly, ‘‘he therefore departed into the counsel of the ungodly’’ and, behaving wickedly, ‘‘in the way of sinners, he stood [sic] in the chair of pestilence,’’ wrongly cursing his sin. He departed from his fatherland into exile. Away from the port, he foundered in shipwreck. He fell from safety into ruin; from innocence he passed into sin. Oh incautious trader! Oh mercenary tradesman! He trades gold for copper, purple for sackcloth, jewels for glass, life for death. He descends from Zion into Babylon, to Jericho from Jerusalem, ‘‘and he falls among robbers.’’ C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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Who else are these robbers among whom he falls but carnal dispositions, earthly pleasures, worldly desires, which are like sirens, sweetly leading to death? These are happy sorrows, sorrowful joys, sweet bitterness, and bitter sweetness. They are like bandits who lie in wait for the wandering man, wound him in the ornaments of his natural gifts, and despoil him of the garments of universal goods. Since he—before whose sin every precious stone of wisdom and knowledge had been covered over—lost these ornaments through sin, he put on the hair shirt of wretchedness and calamity. To this man, set in ‘‘the pit of misery,’’ the Lord in his compassion said, ‘‘Adam, where art thou?’’ which is to say, ‘‘Where were you before sin?’’ In grace. ‘‘Where would you have been if you had not sinned?’’ In glory. ‘‘Where are you after sin?’’ Being punished. ‘‘Where were you before sin?’’ In the race. ‘‘Where would you be if you had not sinned?’’ Receiving the prize. ‘‘Where have you been placed after your sin?’’ In universal punishment. You had the freedom to leave; you lost the power to return. Through your sins you can descend below, but you cannot ascend upward on your own, because ‘‘easy is the descent’’ of the soul, ‘‘but to recall one’s steps and pass out to the upper air, this is the task, this the toil.’’ Let us see in what manner the first man descends. Let us examine that Avernus into which he plunged. The first step of his descent was desire. For the first man saw that the apple was ‘‘delightful to behold’’ and ‘‘good to eat’’ and he desired it. The second and lower step of his descent was avarice, because he wished to be endowed with every kind of knowledge. The last and lowest step was pride, when he haughtily turned his sins back against his maker. It is as if the first step were the positive degree, the second comparative, and the third superlative. This one is bad, that one worse, and the last the worst of all. It is a fourfold hell into which the descent of the first man was made. For there is the hell of Gehenna, about which was said, ‘‘Deliver me out of the lower hell.’’ There is the worldly hell—that is, the misery of this world—about which was said, ‘‘Deliver my soul from hell.’’ There is the temporal hell—that is, the aΔictions and enticements of the human body—about which the apostle said, ‘‘Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’’ There is the hell of blameworthy ignorance, about which was said, ‘‘To those dwelling in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen.’’ In the first hell there is no redemption. In the second remission of sin is possible. In the third there is pardon for sin. In the fourth there is physical death. Easy is the descent to the first hell, but it is di≈cult to retrace one’s step, since there are no tracks leading back. The descent to the others is easy . . . but as for the hell of the human body . . . when the soul enters the prison-house of the human body it easily submits to the passions and enticements of the flesh. Through this submission it is cast down into the snares of the flesh, that is, into hell. Thus for the spirit 124

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‘‘easy is the descent, but to recall one’s steps—this is the task, this the toil.’’ For it is able of its own accord to depart from the condition of its own worthiness, but it cannot return to this condition of its own accord. By itself it can turn aside from the path, but it is not restored to the path by itself. For it is ‘‘a wind that goeth’’ by itself, but ‘‘returneth not’’ of its own accord, ‘‘not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.’’ Other things are found in the first hell that are not dissimilar, but rather, in many places, similar. In the first hell there is the bosom of Abraham, in which the souls of the saints rested before the coming of Christ, consoled with a blessed hope. In this hell are ‘‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’’ and a variation in torments from the heat of flames to the chill of snows. In this hell, in addition to the insults of external torments, the worm of conscience gnaws at the soul from within. Similarly, in the hell of worldly su√ering there is a bosom of respite from worldly tribulation—like the bosom of Abraham—in which the saints rest who are still pilgrims in the world, consoled by the hope of their eternal fatherland. They nonetheless speak out plaintively, ‘‘Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept when we remembered you, Zion.’’ In this hell is the weeping and gnashing of teeth of those who lament the loss of their own possessions and lament inconsolably the deaths of friends. They gnash their teeth at their neighbors, and amid each adversity they grieve as if in desperation. In this hell there is an alternation of punishments because there is a transition from the heat of luxury to the chill of avarice. Moreover, sinners read in the book of conscience what they have done, and the goads of conscience prick them. In the third hell—that is, in the human body—there is the bosom of Abraham that consists in the setting aside of carnal desire. Here the souls of those who are still in the exile of the body may rest; yet in stripping the body from the mind they often reach for the heavens. There are weeping and gnashing of teeth because the souls located in bodies are tormented by di√erent kinds of su√ering and are aΔicted by troubling enticements. There is variation in punishment because the soul imprisoned in the body is either burned by the heat of an acute fever or frozen by the chill of a quartan fever. Nor does this hell lack the worm of conscience that torments the soul of the sinner. The hell of ignorance also has its bosom of Abraham that consists of freedom from ignorance, which arises not from active wrongdoing but from original sin. Here rest the faithful who are still pilgrims on the road, because in the certainty of their hope they enjoy knowledge in some way. There pain which arises from blameworthy ignorance gives rise to weeping and incites the gnashing of teeth. There the punishment of heat is anger against the good C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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while the punishment of cold consists in the omission of the good. There it is the worm not of conscience but of ignorance that wears away the soul of the sinner and does not su√er him to know himself. Thus the first man descends into the hell of the world through his sin. He falls into the hell of Gehenna through his own deserving and into the hell of the body through his own assent. He falls into the hell of ignorance through disregard. It is easy to descend to it but di≈cult to retrace one’s step. Thus, so that the fallen man might rise, the dead man live, the sick man become well, it was fitting that he should be born in the flesh who, by his own action, could rise to that place from which he had fallen; that he might approach that step from which he had departed; that he might struggle against desire through temperance; that he might overcome greed through generosity and vanquish pride through humility. It was fitting that he should refute the syllogism of the devil, by which he had deceitfully tricked the first man. For the devil, looking with ill will on the worthiness of the first man, made a wicked suggestion; he undertook to break the law and thus gave occasion to eternal damnation. It was thus necessary that the Son of God, setting forth a divine mystery for our redemption, should assume the flesh, in consequence of which he could bring about the eternal salvation of the human race. For his task was that he should bear our burden and undergo our su√ering in nature, so that toil might be treated with toil, pain with pain in our nature, in which like is cured with like. Therefore the Son of God descended with pity into the wretchedness of this world; he went down into the su√ering of the world because he had compassion for it; he came down to the toil of men because he pitied mankind. The physician was wounded so that wounded he might regain his strength. A healthy man was made sick so that he could be made well. He tempered desire through moderation; he checked greed through generosity. He reined in pride with humility. For what greater generosity is there than to o√er himself for us? ‘‘He emptied himself,’’ he obeyed his father ‘‘even unto death,’’ and, if I dare to say it, it was not only generosity that was in him, but also a praiseworthy extravagance, which in Christ did not incur blame, but rather favor. Achieving salvation for the human race, he applied himself to the devil’s syllogism and, drawing out this glorious problem, he made a man God. Thus a second Adam, responding to the first through a kind of contradiction, cured like with like and contrary with contrary. The first Adam rose through pride, descended into punishment, fell into eternal death, and attained Gehenna. The second Adam descended into humility, mounted to the su√ering of the cross, attained eternal life through resurrection, and was enthroned in his heavenly fatherland.

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Thus the dutiful shepherd carried the wandering sheep back to the fold, brought it back to the path when it strayed, carried the pilgrim back to the fatherland, and roused the inglorious to glory. Therefore, as befits the threefold state of man, in the fashion of a particular alphabet, the triple letter of human nature is stamped, as if on a page: UYX. For before his sin, when he still enjoyed free will, U was written in the heart of man. After his sin, though, Y was marked on his forehead, when man was under the necessity of sin. After the completion of our redemption by the agency of Christ, X, the letter that is the sign of the cross of the Lord, was marked on the breast of man. Whence ‘‘The light of thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us.’’ The first was the sign of battle, the second of wretchedness, the third of victory. The first was the sign of freedom, the second of slavery, the third of choice. Dearest brothers, made ‘‘all in all’’ in the likeness of the second Adam, let us have compassion for the infirm; let us help the sick; let us resist desire; let us oppose pride. Let us refute the devil’s cleverness through the force of virtue and let us strengthen its presence through the power of good works. Let us descend with Christ into the valley of humility; let us ascend with steadfastness the cross of tribulation so that we may attain eternal life, rising up from our sins, especially in these times, when Christ rose from the dead. Let us imitate the resurrection of Christ in our own mental resurrection, so that we can bear witness to his resurrection through our own, and so that we may deserve to be counted among that number about whom it was said ‘‘Many bodies of the saints,’’ as if it were said: ‘‘Let us celebrate Easter by passing from vices to virtues.’’ For it is the days of the Easter celebration in which the true lamb of God is killed, and the doorposts are consecrated with his blood. If we descend into the hell of blameworthy ignorance, from which it is di≈cult to depart, let us toil to depart from the tomb of blindness, rising with Christ in the morning of faith, so that we may solemnly sing that verse for ourselves: ‘‘And night shall be my light in my pleasures.’’ Blameworthy ignorance is that which does not know the good through the conduct of experience, whereas laudable ignorance does not know evil through the exercise of everyday activity. Universal ignorance is to know neither one through the mental grasp of knowledge. The first demands punishment, the second earns the crown, the third asks for pardon. The first Adam descended into the first; the second Adam ascended into the second; the entire human race has fallen into the third. Into these ignorances of guilt and punishment slipped down those who, while they traveled from Jerusalem to Emmaus, wandered in the vision of both body and spirit. Although they had the path of justice, on

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the path they departed from the path, aimless on the path, blind in the light, dead in life, cool in their ardor. With the travelers went a heavenly traveler, and yet he traveled away from them in understanding. And let it be noted, brothers, that it is fitting that we deal with travelers on the Epiphany of Christ, when we read that three magi came from the East to find the true East; that they traveled from their native lands to receive on earth the one who had traveled from heaven. Nor is it without cause that there is discussion of travelers at the resurrection, when mention is made of those who travel spatially, those who travel in the senses, and those who travel materially. Through this was signified that he entered into the flesh who departed from heaven through the incarnation, departed from man when he was recognized, and departed from the earth through his resurrection. Through this a twofold kind of traveling is signified: one heavenly and the other earthly, one of departing and the other of returning, one in which we travel on the path, another in which we turn aside from the path into trackless ways. For there are those who are pilgrims on the road, who aspire to the path of justice, who live in exile, who yearn for the fatherland of life; and these are signified by the three kings who seek Christ. There are others who wander on the earth, who are in exile from heaven, who go astray in this world, traveling away from Christ; and these are signified by those who traveled from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Therefore if we stray from Christ in our understanding, let us rise up to Christ through almsgiving and prayer. Let us receive him with the poor. Let us refresh him along with the needy. Let us break bread for the hungry, so that Christ the Lord is recognized in the breaking. Let the learned break the bread of scripture for those who beg; let those who preach break the bread of life for their listeners; let the rich break the bread of life for the destitute, so that we might deserve to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, at the heavenly table. May God see fit to grant this to us. (JL)

51. Chrétien de Troyes (second half of twelfth century) Chrétien de Troyes was an Old French poet known best for his courtly romances, especially the account of Lancelot’s adventures entitled Chevalier de la charrette (Knight of the Cart). He seems to have flourished in secular courts, enjoying the patronage first of Countess Marie of Champagne (1145–98) and later of Count Philip of Flanders (1142–91), but his displays of learning suggest that he was trained as a cleric in a cathedral school. Although it can be argued whether Chrétien knew Virgil’s Aeneid well in the original Latin, or whether he met it at second hand through the anonymous Old French Roman d’Énéas (see below, III.I), it seems beyond dispute that he 128

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was very familiar with the story. In the romance entitled Erec et Enide, Chrétien uses the story of Dido and Aeneas, particularly in the following ecphrasis of episodes from the story of Aeneas that were carved into ivory saddlebows on a palfrey that Enide (the heroine) rides late in the romance (lines 5282–5305). (Discussion: F. Beggiato, ‘‘Chrétien de Troyes,’’ EV 1, 769–70; G. A. Beckmann, ‘‘Les premiers vers du Cligès,’’ in Romania: Revue trimestrielle consacrée à l’étude des langues et des littératures romanes 122 [2004], 202–5) (Text: Chrétien de Troyes, Erec et Enide, ed. M. Roques, Les romans de Chrétien de Troyes 1, Les classiques français du moyen âge [Paris, 1973], 161) (JZ) I can tell you truly of the bridle, the breaststrap, and the saddle, that the workmanship of them was both fine and handsome: the entire breaststrap and bridle were replete with emeralds; the saddle was made in another style, covered with a costly cloth; the saddlebows were of ivory, and there was carved the story of how Aeneas came from Troy, how in Carthage Dido received him with great joy in her place, how Aeneas deceived her, how she killed herself because of him, how Aeneas then conquered Laurentum and all of Lombardy, of which he was king his whole life. The workmanship was refined and well carved, all adorned with fine gold. A Breton sculptor who had made it put more than seven years into carving it; he attended to no other project; I do not know for what he sold it, but he ought to have had great reward for it. (JZ)

52. Jacob van Maerlant (circa 1230–circa 1300) Beyond being one of the most prolific versifiers in medieval Europe, Jacob van Maerlant is often conventionally tagged as the ‘‘father of all Dutch poets.’’ Despite his multifarious achievements as an author, little is known about his life. Probably Flemish by birth, he returned to Damme in Flanders in his old age. Most of his adulthood he spent as a sexton (whence the epithet de Coster that is occasionally applied to him) in Maerlant, on the island of Voorne. He is probably known best for didactic poems, of which the unfinished Spieghel Historiael (1285–88), a translation of Vincent of Beauvais’s Speculum historiale (The Mirror of History; see below, V.F.1), is the most extensive. His other didactic poems include Der Naturen Bloeme (Flowers of Nature, about 1270), a versified natural history based on Thomas of Cantimpré’s (circa 1201–circa 1270) De natura rerum (On the Nature of Things, about 1270), and the Rijmbijbel (Rhymed Bible, 1271). In addition to the didactic poetry, he wrote strophic poems, such as Van de Vijf Vrouden (On the Five Joys). Maerlant’s earliest extant works are long narrative poems. Alexanders Geesten (Deeds of Alexander, early 1260s) is based on Walter of Châtillon’s C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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Alexandreis; see above, I.C.49. A poet who knew his school auctores inside and out, Maerlant shows his knowledge of Virgil most pyrotechnically in his thoroughgoing reelaboration of the Troy romance (Roman de Troie) by Benoît de Saint-Maure (active 1160–70). The Historie van Troyen (History of Troy), composed around 1263–64, invokes Virgil explicitly as an authority for the Troy story on at least a score of occasions (595, 19571, 30272, 30278, 31437, 31503, 31554, 31584, 32379, 33233, 33336, 33476, 34978, 34990, 35854, 37553, 37654, 38757, 38786, 40853). Equally important, the romance relies in its content ever more heavily on Virgil as it progresses. By the end, it draws exclusively on Virgil rather than on Benoît. The following extract, from the conclusion of the poem, o√ers testimony to Virgil’s vital role in the myth of Trojan origins that was pervasive in Western Europe. (Discussion: Gert de Ceukelaire, ‘‘Watter Virgilius boecke af segghen. Beschouwingen bij de Aeneisbewerking in de Historie van Troyen,’’ Millennium 5 [1991], 116–29. A splendid contextualization of Maerlant and his work is found in F. van Oostrom, Maerlants Wereld [Amsterdam, 1996].) (Text: Dit is die Istory van Troyen van Jacob van Maerlant, ed. N. de Pauw and E. Gailliard, 4 vols. [Ghent, 1889]) (JZ) Thereafter he [Eneas = Aeneas] was king for more than forty years in Latium, as I read in Virgil. When he was old, he had a son named Sisamus; and his [Sisamus’s] son, Ascanius, founded the good city Alba, which afterward Romulus had called Rome, after his own name. Consequently, then, the Latins descend from the Trojans; and all the emperors who have worn the crown in Rome have been born from [that line]. It was foretold long in advance that the Trojans would overcome their distress, however great it was. (JZ)

53. Dante (Dante Alighieri, 1265–1321) Dante was born in Florence but died in exile in Ravenna. He is known primarily for his extraordinary epic, Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy), written in Italian, describing a journey that he takes for a week at Easter 1300 and that leads him through hell (Inferno), purgatory (Purgatorio), and heaven (Paradiso). For the first canticle and most of the second, where knowledge of Christian revelation is unnecessary, Virgil is his guide. He is succeeded by the poet’s beloved Beatrice for most of the final segment. Dante is also the author, among other works, of Convivio (The Banquet), a commentary on canzoni (lyric poems) both allegorical and literal, which he had written earlier, devoted to philosophy. (Discussion: R. Hollander,

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‘‘Virgil,’’ in The Dante Encyclopedia, ed. R. Lansing [New York, 2000], 862– 65) (MP) a. Inferno 1.67–87 Virgil describes himself. ‘‘No, not a living man, though once I was and my parents were Lombards, both Mantuans by birth. I was born sub Iulio, although late, and I lived at Rome under the good Augustus, in the time of the false and lying gods. I was a poet, and I sang of that just son of Anchises, who came from Troy after proud Ilium was burned. But you, why do you return to so much woe? Why do you not climb the delectable mountain, the source and cause of every happiness?’’ ‘‘Are you, then, that Virgil, that fount which pours forth so broad a stream of speech?’’ I answered him, my brow covered with shame. ‘‘O glory and light of other poets, may the long study and the great love that have made me search your volume avail me! You are my master and my author. You alone are he from whom I took the fair style that has done me honor.’’ (C. Singleton, ed. and trans., The Divine Comedy, vol. 1 [Princeton, 1970], 7–9)

b. Inferno 4.100–2 Dante is welcomed as a fellow poet by Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucan, and Virgil. A similar grouping (Virgil, Ovid, Homer, Lucan, and Statius) is identified by Chaucer (see I.C.55), who personifies his Troilus and Criseyde poem (5.1791–92) and asks it to kiss the steps where these poets walk. c. Inferno 20.113 Dante’s Virgil refers to the Aeneid as l’alta mia tragedia (my high tragedy). d. Purgatorio 3.25–27 Dante mentions Virgil’s tomb (see below, II.C.15). e. Purgatorio 21.91–102 The poet Statius (see above, I.C.21) speaks of his debt to Virgil. ‘‘Men yonder still speak my name, which is Statius. I sang of Thebes, and then of the great Achilles, but I fell on the way with my second burden. The sparks which warmed me from the divine flame whereby more than a thousand have been kindled were the seeds of my poetic fire: I mean the Aeneid, which in poetry was both mother and nurse to me—without it I had achieved little of worth; and to have lived yonder when Virgil lived I would consent to

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one sun [= a year] more than I owe to my coming forth from exile.’’ (C. Singleton, ed. and trans., Purgatorio, vol. 1 [Princeton, 1973], 231)

f. Paradiso 6.28–48 The speaker, Justinian (483–565), ruler of the Eastern empire from 527 to his death, answers Dante’s question regarding who he was. (The sacrosanto segno is the aquila, the eagle borne on Roman standards and ill-treated by Ghibellines and Guelphs alike.) ‘‘Here ends, then, my answer to the first question; but its condition constrains me to add a certain sequel to it, in order that you may see with how much reason they move against the sacred standard, both those that take it for their own and those that oppose it. See what great virtue made it worthy of reverence, beginning from the hour when Pallas died to give it sway. You know that it made its stay in Alba for three hundred years and more, till at the end, when the three fought against the three for it still. And you know what it did, through seven kings, from the wrong of the Sabine women down to the woe of Lucretia, conquering the neighboring peoples round about. You know what it did when borne by the illustrious Romans against Brennus, against Pyrrhus, and against the rest, princes and governments; whence Torquatus and Quinctius, named from his neglected locks, the Decii and the Fabii, acquired the fame which I gladly embalm.’’ (C. Singleton, ed. and trans., Paradiso, vol. 1 [Princeton, 1975], 61)

g. Paradiso 15.26 Dante speaks of Virgil as nostra maggior musa (our greatest muse), in a context referring to Aeneid 6.684–88 and quoting Anchises’ own words at 6.835, sanguis meus (my blood). h. Convivio 4.26–28 On the Aeneid and the Ages of Man (see below, IV.X.3.e). (Discussion: U. Leo, ‘‘The Unfinished Convivio and Dante’s Rereading of the Aeneid,’’ Mediaeval Studies 13 [1951], 41–64)

54. Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca, 1304–74) Petrarch, born in Arezzo, received his basic schooling at Carpentras, near Avignon. He was a frequent traveler and in April 1341 received the poet’s laurel crown on the Capitolium from the Senate and people of Rome. He is one of the great writer-scholars of the early Renaissance. His most famous work is the collection of Rime sparse (Scattered Rhymes; also entitled Canzoniere [Song132

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book]), addressed to his beloved Laura, but he was a prolific author in both prose and poetry, in Latin and, at least for poetry, in the vernacular. The Africa, his nine-book Latin hexameter epic devoted to events of the Second Punic War, is greatly indebted to Virgil, to whom he refers indirectly at 1.50. At Africa 3.425 Virgil is an unnamed aliquis (someone) who dares to accuse Dido of illicit passion; nevertheless, at line 579 of the same book Petrarch quotes Arma virumque (Aeneid 1.1) at the start of an hexameter. His copious correspondence is preserved in four separate collections. On the famous manuscript of Virgil (the so-called Virgilius Ambrosianus), which Petrarch owned and in which he entered glosses at di√erent points in his life, see below, II.F.9. (Discussion: G. Billanovich, ‘‘Il Virgilio del giovane Petrarca,’’ in LMV 49–64; F. Stok, ‘‘Il Virgilio del Petrarca,’’ in Preveggenze umanistiche di Petrarca: Atti delle giornate petrarchesche di Tor Vergata (Roma/Cortona 1–2 giugno 1992), Testi e studi di cultura classica 11 (Pisa, 1993), 171–212.) (MP) a. Rerum familiarium libri 24.11 Written at Mantua. Robert of Anjou died in 1343. (Discussion: M. Rener, Petrarca ludens. Anmerkungen zu Petrarcas Briefen an die Klassiker unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Briefes an Vergil (Fam. XXIV, 11), Wolfenbütteler Renaissance Mitteilungen 16 [1992], 100–19) (Text: Le familiari [Rerum familiarium libri], vol. 4, ed. V. Rossi and U. Bosco [Florence, 1942], 251–53) Ad Publium Virgilium Maronem heroycum poetam et latinorum principem poetarum. Eloquii splendor, Latie spes altera lingue, clare Maro, tanta quem felix Mantua prole Romanum genuisse decus per secula gaudet, quis te terrarum tractus, quotus arcet Averni circulus? An raucam citharam tibi fuscus Apollo percutit et nigre contexunt verba sorores? An pius elysiam permulces carmine silvam Tartareumque Elicona colis, pulcerrime vatum? Et simul unanimis tecum spatiatur Homerus solivagique canunt Phebum per prata poete, Orpheus ac reliqui, nisi quos violenta relegat mors propria conscita manu sevique ministri obsequio, qualis Lucanum in fata volentem impulit—arterias medico dedit ille cruento supplicii graviore metu mortisque pudende; sic sua Lucretium mors abstulit ac ferus ardor longe aliis, ut fama, locis habitare coegit.

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qui tibi nunc igitur comites, que vita, libenter audierim, quantum vero tua somnia distent et vagus Eneas portaque emissus eburna; an potius celi regio tranquilla beatos excipit, ingeniisque arrident astra serenis post Stygios raptus spoliataque Tartara, summi regis ad adventum, magno certamine victor impia qui pressit stigmatis limina plantis stigmatisque potens eterna repagula palmis fregit et horrisono convulsit cardine valvas? Hec ego nosse velim. Tu, mundo siqua silenti umbra recens nostra veniet tibi forsan ab ora, quis tria cara tibi loca nunc totidemque libellos exitus excipiat, nostris simul accipe verbis. Parthenope infelix rapto gemit orba Roberto, multorumque dies annorum sustulit unus prospera; nunc dubiis pendet plebs anxia fatis, innocuamque premunt paucorum crimina turbam. optima finitimo quatitur sine fine tumultu Mantua, magnanimis ducibus sed fulta, recusat invicta cervice iugum, civilibus usa illa quidem dominis, externi nescia regni. Hic tibi composui que perlegis, otia nactus ruris amica tui, quonam vagus avia calle fusca sequi, quibus in pratis errare soleres, assidue mecum volvens, quam fluminis oram, que curvi secreta lacus, quas arboris umbras, quas nemorum latebras collisque sedilia parvi ambieris, cuius fessus seu cespitis herbam presseris accubitu, seu ripam fontis ameni; atque ea presentem michi te spectacula reddunt. Que patrie fortuna tue, pax quanta sepulcri audisti. Quid Roma parens? hoc querere noli, hoc melius nescire puta; melioribus aurem ergo adhibe et rerum successus disce tuarum: Tityrus ut tenuem senior iam perflat avenam, quadrifido cultu tuus ut resplendet agellus, ut tuus Eneas vivit totumque per orbem et placet et canitur, tanto quem ad sidera nisu tollere conanti mors obstitit invida magnis 134

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principiis; miserum Eneam iam summa premebant fata manu iamque ore tuo damnatus abibat, arsurumque iterum pietas Augusta secundis eripuit flammis, quem non morientis amici deiecti movere animi, meritoque supremas contempsisse preces evo laudabitur omni. Eternum, dilecte, vale nostrosque rogatus Meonium Ascreumque senes salvere iubeto.

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To Publius Virgilius Maro, Epic Poet and Prince of Latin Bards O luminary of eloquence, other hope of the Latin tongue, illustrious Maro, whom Mantua rejoices to have begotten as a Roman o√spring [5] who will be an ornament to the Roman name throughout the centuries, what earthly tract, which circle of Avernus keeps you from us? Does swarthy Apollo pluck his harsh lute for you, do the black sisters inspire your verses? Or do you dutifully charm the Elysian groves with your song [10] and inhabit the Tartarean Helicon, O most splendid of bards? And does Homer, who was of one mind with you, roam with you? And do Orpheus and other poets wander alone through the meadows, singing the praises of Phoebus, all but those whom a self-inflicted and violent death and servile homage to a cruel lord have banished to another region? [15] Such was Lucan, who was driven willingly to his death, o√ering his artery to the doctor out of fear of a more painful and bloody punishment and a shameful death; such was Lucretius, whose death and savage fury, they say, compelled him to dwell in places apart. [20] Who then are your present companions, how is your life, I would gladly hear. How far from the truth were your dreams, and how far has wandering Aeneas emerged from the ivory portal? Or rather does a peaceful region of the heavens contain the blessed spirits, and do the stars smile upon the peaceful shades of the illustrious, following the conquest of the Stygian abodes, [25] and the plundering of the Tartarean regions by the coming of the highest king who, victorious in the great struggle, crossed the ungodly threshold with pierced feet, and in His power crushed the eternal bars of hell with His pierced hands, and tore the gates asunder from their horrid-sounding hinges? [30] All this I should like to know. If any shade from this world of ours should perchance visit you and your silent world, receive from him news I have sent about the three cities dear to you and the fate of your three works. Unhappy and bereaved Naples mourns the death of Robert, [35] and a single day has destroyed the fruits of many years. Now her people await anxiously its doubtful destiny, and the crimes of a few are being visited upon an innocent population. Excellent Mantua is shaken by the endless disturbances of her neighbors, yet, supported by her high-minded leaders, [40] C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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she refuses to submit her unconquered head to the yoke, truly enjoying her own native lords and ignoring foreign rule. It is here I have composed what you are reading, and have enjoyed the friendly repose of your rural fields. I wonder by what path in your wanderings you sought the unfrequented glades, through what meadows you were wont to stroll, [45] what river shore you pursued, what recess in the curving banks of the lake, what shady groves, what forest strongholds. And I wonder too what hilly turf you sought, where in your weariness you pressed your elbow upon the grass or upon the bank of a charming spring. [50] Such sights bring you vividly to my eyes. You have heard the fate of your native city, and the degree of peace that surrounds your tomb. What is happening in Mother Rome? Ask not this, consider it better not to know. Therefore lend your ear to better things, and learn of the great success of your works. [55] Tityrus, though old, still blows upon his slender reed pipe, and through your fourfold cultivation your fields still glitter; your Aeneas lives and is loved and celebrated throughout the world. With much e√ort you strove to raise him to the stars, but death, envious of such solid foundations, opposed your attempts. [60] Already the Fates were pressing upon your unhappy Aeneas, and he was about to depart, condemned by your own lips, when the mercy of Augustus once again snatched him on the brink of destruction from these second flames. Augustus was not moved by the dejected spirits of his dying friend, [65] and justly will he be praised for all time for having denied your last wishes. Farewell forever, O beloved one; and greet for me our elders, the Maeonian and the Ascraean. (Francesco Petrarca, Letters on Familiar Matters, vol. 3, trans. A. S. Bernardo [Baltimore, 1985], 340–41) b. Rerum familiarium libri 5.6 To Cardinal Giovanni Colonna. (Text: Le familiari [Rerum familiarium libri], vol. 2, ed. V. Rossi [Florence, 1934], 21) . . . Ego itaque tanto concursu, tantaque clarorum hominum intentione suspensus, ut grande aliquid visurus, oculos intenderam; dum repente, quasi laetum quiddam accidisset, plausus inenarrabilis ad coelum tollitur. Circumspicio, et ecce formosissimus adolescens, rigido mucrone transfossus, ante pedes meos corruit. Obstupui; et toto corpore cohorrescens, equo calcaribus adacto, tetrum atque tartareum spectaculum effugi, comitum fraudem, spectatorum saevitiam, et lusorum insaniam identidem accusans. Haec gemina pestis, pater optime, quasi per manus tradita a maioribus ad posteros semper crescendo pervenit, eoque progressa est, ut iam dignitatis ac libertatis nomen habeat licentia delinquendi. Sed de his hactenus: nam et tragicum opus est, et multa super his inter obstinatos cives verba iam per-

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didi. Minime vero mirabere amicos tuos tanto avaritiae praemio proposito in ea urbe vinctos esse, in qua hominem innoxium occidere, ludus est. Quam licet unam ex omnibus Virgilius dulcem vocet, non inique tamen, ut nunc est, Bistonia notasset infamia. Heu fuge crudeles terras, fuge litus avarum! [Aeneid 3.44]

Ego quidem et de hac, pater, dictum illud accipiam: et nisi aliud audieris, ante triduum, vel infectis rebus, effugisse me credito in Cisalpinam primum Galliam, inde in Transalpinam, et ad te, qui omne tempus, omne mihi, praeter aequoreum, delectabile iter facis. Vale. Neapoli, Kal. Decembris.

And so I, curious about so great a crowd and about the passionate interest of well-known people, thinking that I was about to view something great, focused my attention on the spectacle. Suddenly, as if something very delightful had occurred, thunderous applause resounded. I looked around, and to my surprise I saw a most handsome young man lying at my feet transfixed by a sharp pointed sword that emerged from his body. I stood there astounded, and my whole body shuddering, I spurred my horse and fled from the infernal spectacle, angry at my friends’ deceit, at the cruelty of the spectators, and at the continued madness of the participants. This twin plague, dear father, as if inherited from our ancestors has reached subsequent generations in an ever increasing tempo, and the reason for it is that the license for committing crime has now acquired the name of dignity and freedom. Let this su≈ce, for it is a tragic matter, and I have already wasted many words speaking of it with the obstinate citizens. Indeed you would hardly be astonished that your friends, o√ering as they do such a prize for greed, should be prisoners in that city where killing innocent men is considered a game, a city which Virgil indeed does call the most delightful of all, but as it stands now would not be considered unequal to Thrace in infamy: ‘‘Alas flee the cruel lands, flee the greedy shore.’’ I certainly accept these words as relating to this city; and unless you hear otherwise, expect me to leave within three days to flee, even if my business remains unfinished, first to Cisalpine Gaul, and then to Transalpine Gaul and to you, who always cause all my trips to be delightful unless they are by sea. Farewell. Naples, Kalends of December [1343]. (Francesco Petrarca, Letters on Familiar Matters, vol. 1, trans. A. S. Bernardo [Albany, 1975], 250) c. Collatio laureationis (Rome, April 8, 1341) The Collatio laureationis (Coronation Oration), is apparently the first instance in which a secular, in this case pagan, text replaces scripture as subject of a

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sermo, and in which the poet usurps the role of priest as interpreter. (Text: Scritti inediti di Francesco Petrarca, ed. A. Hortis [Trieste, 1874], 311–12, 315– 16, 318) . . . ‘‘Sed me parnasi deserta per ardua dulcis / raptat amor.’’ Verba hec ab illustrissimo et omnium maximo poeta georgicorum tertio scripta sunt, quorum prima pars indicat propositi mei non facilem laborem, secunda subiungit non mediocrem studiose mentis ardorem. Primum ex eo apparet quid me parnasi deserta per ardua ubi notare oportet pro parnasi pro ardua pro deserta. Secundum ex eo quod dulcis raptat amor, ubi attendendum pro amor et pro dulcis amor et pro rapere valens amor. Et nimirum consequens est ista connexio et alterum pendet ex altero quisquis enim per ardua deserta parnasi cupit ascendere necesse habet amare quod cupit quisquis amat ascensum ad consequendum studio quod mente diligit procul dubio preparatior est. Cum studium sine amore atque aliqua mentis magna delectatione et voluptate quadam optatos non producat effectus. . . . Unde tibi ista tanta fiducia ut novis et insuetis frondibus capitolia romana decorares nonne vides quanti negocii susceperis scandere per ardua deserta parnasi et inaccessum musarum nemus. Video dilectissimi homines video inquam romani cives hec omnia sed me parnasi deserta per ardua dulcis raptat amor ut incipiens dixi cuius amoris tanta vis est apud me ut per eum omnes difficultates quantum ad presens propositum meum spectat aut vicerim aut vicisse mihi videar. Hinc igitur rursus secunda principalis particula premisse propositionis exoritur ex eo, scilicet quod post laborem ascendendi per ardua deserta parnasi. Sequitur mox commemoratio efficientis cause quia dulcis raptat amor. Ubi videndum quod sicut difficultatem illam ex tribus velud radicibus consurgentem ostendimus sic affectus iste animi victor difficultatis illius ex tribus quoque radicibus exoritur, quarum prima est honor reipublice secunda decor proprie glorie tertia calcar aliene industrie. . . . Ut ergo hoc secundum cum priore coniungam integrescat versus ille Virgilii cuius partem dimidiam precedentibus adaptavi ut dicamus: vincet amor patrie laudumque immensa cupido [Aeneid 6.823].

. . . Sed me Parnasi deserta per ardua dulcis / raptat amor [But sweet desire sweeps me over the lonely heights of Parnassus]. These words are written in the third book of the Georgics [lines 291–92] of the greatest and most illustrious of all poets. The phrase ‘‘me Parnasi deserta per ardua’’ suggests the di≈culty of the task I have set myself [the poet’s calling]—and we should note the force of the several words ‘‘Parnasi’’ and ‘‘ardua’’ and ‘‘deserta.’’ The phrase ‘‘dulcis raptat amor’’ suggests the ardent eagerness of a studious mind—and we should note the force of ‘‘amor’’ in itself, of ‘‘dulcis amor,’’ and of ‘‘amor’’ having the power 138

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to urge one upward. This di≈culty and this eagerness are closely related, and are dependent each upon the other: for he who undertakes to climb the ‘‘ardua deserta Parnasi’’ must indeed long intensely for that which he seeks to attain; and he who loves to climb is doubtless the better prepared thereby to attain through study that in which his mind delights. For study without longing and without great mental pleasure and delight cannot attain the desired results. . . . [Someone might say:] ‘‘Whence do you draw such confidence that you would decorate the Roman Capitol with new and unaccustomed laurels? Do you not see what a task you have undertaken in attempting to attain the lonely steeps of Parnassus and the inaccessible grove of the Muses?’’ Yes, I do see, my dear sirs; I do indeed see this, Roman citizens, ‘‘Sed me Parnasi deserta per ardua dulcis / raptat amor,’’ as I said at the outset. For the intensity of my longing is so great that it seems to me su≈cient to overcome all the di≈culties that are involved in my present task. The second portion of my first theme springs from this, that after the reference to the toilsome ascent ‘‘per ardua deserta Parnasi,’’ there follows the mention of the e√ective cause of that ascent ‘‘dulcis raptat amor.’’ And here it is to be noted that just as the di≈culty has been shown to rise, as it were, from three roots [the inherent di≈culty of the task, ill fortune besetting the poet, the fact that men are in general taken with material things], so the disposition of the spirit which is victorious over that di≈culty rises also from three roots, which are, first, the honor of the Republic [that is, the city of Rome]; second, the charm of personal glory; and third, the stimulation of other men to a like endeavor. . . . To join the first point and the second, let me now quote in its entirety that line of Virgil the first half of which I have already quoted: ‘‘Vincet amor patriae laudumque immensa cupido’’: ‘‘Love of his fatherland will conquer [him] and an immense lust for praise.’’ (E. H. Wilkins, Studies in the Life and Works of Petrarch [Cambridge, 1955], 301, 304–5) d. Rerum senilium libri (Letters of Old Age) 4.5 (August 23 [1364–67], at Pavia) Federigo of Arezzo (circa 1310–after 1367) was the recipient of two letters from Petrarch (one of which is quoted below), whose influence lies behind his four surviving sonnets and metrical epistle. (Text: Fran. Petrarcha Frederico Aretino, ‘‘De quibusdam fictionibus Virgilii’’ [Letter to Federigo of Arezzo, ‘‘On Certain Creations of Virgil’’], in Francisci Petrarchae: Opera Omnia [Basel: Henricus Petri, 1554], 869–71) Sunt qui moralem sensum apud Virgilium quaerunt, sic est enim, quisque suum tendit in finem, in quem id maxime animum intendit, itaque de una eademque re, pro varietate utentium, varii captant effectus. . . . C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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Laboriosum fateor utrumque opus, seu materiam scilicet seu virtutem, sub poetica nube quaerentium, ita demum, si noscendi ardor a principio usque in finem protendet indaginem. Vix enim mortali ingenio fieri potest, ut cuncta conveniant, neque ea quidem, ut opinor, scribentium fuit intentio. Sed ut omissis aliis, ad ipsum de quo quaeris Virgilium revertar, cuius finis ac subiectum, ut ego arbitror, vir perfectus est. Quae perfectio vel sola, vel praecipua ex virtute conficitur, apud eum quidem, inquisitionem moralem utilissimam censeo, tum quia vitae unicum ornamentum, tum quia primam scribentis intentionem sequitur. Et quae de Virgilio dixi, de Homero dixerim, uno enim calle gradiuntur aequis passibus. In eo igitur, de quo quaeris, loco ut iam tandem quod petis expediam, videri mihi solent venti illi, nihil aliud quam irarum impetus et concupiscentiae, motusque animi in pectore subterque praecordia habitantes, et humanae vitae requiem, quasi quibusdam tempestatibus tranquillum aliquod mare turbantes. Aeolus autem ipsa ratio regens frenansque irascibilem et concupiscibilem appetitum animae, quod ni faciat, ut Virgilius ipse ait: maria ac terras caelumque profundum quippe ferant rapidi secum verrantque per auras [Aeneid 1.58–59]. Hoc est sanguinem et carnem atque ossam ipsamque postremo animam, illa terrestris, haec caelestis originis, quippe ferant rapidi secum in mortem scilicet ac ruinam. Speluncae atrae quibus ille abditos facit, quod nisi cavae et latebrosae partes hominis sunt ubi secundum Platonicam dimensionem, suis sedibus passiones habitant, pectus et ilia. Superaddita moles caput est, quod rationi sedem Plato idem statuit. Aeneas vir fortis ac perfectus, de quo paulo supra dixi. At Achates cura, virorum comes illustrium, et sollicitudo et industria. Silva vero vita haec, umbris atque erroribus plena, perplexisque tramitibus atque incertis et feris habitata, hoc est difficultatibus et periculis multis atque occultis, infrutuosa et inhospita, et herbarum nitore et cantu avium et aquarum murmure, id est, brevi et caduca specie, et inani ac fallaci dulcedine rerum, praetereuntium atque habitantium accolarum oculos atque aures. Interdiu leniens ac demulcens, lucis in finem horribilis ac tremenda, adventuque hiemis caeno foeda, solo squalida, truncis horrida, frondibus spoliata. Venus obvia, silvae medio, ipsa est voluptas, circa tempus vitae medium, ferventior atque acrior, os habitumque virgineum gerit, ut illudat insciis. . . . Haec Aeneae genetrix fertur quod etiam viri fortes ex voluptate generantur, et quod singularis quaedam illi fuerit venustas, qua exul atque inops, castis etiam oculis placuisse describitur, haec eadem formosae viduae, quorum ex primo libidinis incentivum, ex secundo libertas oritur delinquendi, suum objicit Aeneam, magnis iactatum casibus, incendio ac naufragio elapsum, uno tantum Achate comitatum, et fusca nube circumdatum, quae quidem nubes, hac mistica nube reconditur, quod inter140

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dum accidit, ut solius fama virtutis exciti, sub obtentu primum humanitatis ac misericordiae moveantur animi, ad ferendam opem miseris egentibus. Considerata, postmodum, et conspecta illorum nobilitate ac forma, velum illud scinditur, et filius Veneris nudus remanet, turpiterque incipit amari. Ipse quoque nonnunquam flectitur, quia difficile est etiam perfectis, excellenti rerum specie non moveri, praesertim ubi se amari senserit, atque appeti. . . . Hic Mercurius eloquii dux, ab Iove missus, meliora sequi admonet Aeneam, et ille licet passionatus, magnoque animum labefactus amore, paret tamen imperio caelesti, adversante nequicquam voluptate ipsa, et blando usu nec inexpertum relinquente aliquid, quo dilecti habitus trahi possit. . . . Ille vero diu licet inter deliberandum fluctuatus . . . alta in mente, et certo proposito conquiescens, quia scilicet consilii firmioris electio, quasi quidam terminus est laboris . . . ubi religioni primum data opera, patrio more sacrificans, sanctum iubet salvere parentem . . . illic vero alterius vitae statu, quantum fieri potest cognito, ac praeclarae posteritatis ingenti spe concepta . . . mox difficultatum victor omnium, minoribus ereptam procis, coniugio sibi perpetuo propriam facit, unde illi suboles posteritasque clarissima, summi conditrix imperii, moderatrix pacis, miseratrix humilium, atque insolentium debellatrix. Huius siquidem puellae, cuius de connubio certatur, pater animus, mater vero sponsae animi caro, quoniam utriusque ex actibus gloria nasci solet . . . Mater virginis . . . in patibulo se suspendit, quia caro intelligens gloriam cessisse virtuti, nec ullum iam suis affectibus locum videns, ipsa se perimit. . . . Proinde Aeneas advena, id est, virtus, seu vir fortis, carnis victor, iam facilem ac sequacem hastam manu arripit, libransque felicius ac certius, competitorem suum indigenum, carnalem humi sternit affectum, parsurus forsan supplici, eoque concupiscentia naturalis ac propterea excusabilis videatur, nisi conspectis insignibus quae Pallanti suo, id est, adolescentiae generosae, quem occidit, eripuit, exarsisset. Hunc igitur in vindictam illius interficit, quo perempto iam tranquillus regnat, relictoque regi filio, post abitum mortali debitum, opinionem divinitatis assecutus, et materia vatum factus, in ore hominum vivit.

There are those who seek a moral sense in Virgil, according to this pattern: each one aims toward his own goal, and concentrates deeply upon it, and thus from one and the very same thing several interpretations are obtained because of di√erences among those dealing with it. . . . I admit it is hard work either way, whether we seek the natural meaning or the moral one, under the mist of poetry—that is, if a passion for knowledge stretches the search from the beginning to the end of a work. For it is scarcely possible for a human intellect to make everything fit; nor was that in my opinion the intention of writers. C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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Leaving others aside, however, I shall return to Virgil, the very one you ask about, whose aim and subject, as I see it, is the perfect man. Such perfection is fashioned, either solely or primarily, from virtue. I consider a moral examination of his work very useful because this is an adornment without parallel, and because it follows the writer’s main intention. And what I have said about Virgil, I would say about Homer, for both walk the same pathway with matching strides. Thus, finally to explain what you are seeking in the passage you ask about [where Virgil describes Aeolus and his storm winds], to me those winds have always seemed to be nothing but the impulses of lust and wrath, and the emotions dwelling in the breast and beneath the heart, disturbing the serenity of human life, as if they were storms that disturb the calm sea. But Aeolus is reason itself, controlling and restraining the soul’s appetite toward wrath and lust. As Virgil himself says, did [Aeolus] not, [the winds] would surely bear wildly o√ with them the seas, lands, and heaven’s depths, and sweep them through the air. That is, they would of a certainty snatch up and carry away with them our blood, flesh, bones, and finally the soul itself, the former being all of earthly origin and the latter celestial, toward death and destruction. The dark caverns where he has them hidden, what are they if not the hollow and hidden parts of a man, the chest and vitals where, according to Platonic doctrine, the passions have their seat? The mountain placed over [them] is the head, which Plato likewise declared the seat of reason. Aeneas is the strong and perfect man of whom I spoke a little earlier. But Achates is worry, the companion of illustrious men, and anxiety and diligence. The wood [into which Aeneas enters after landing at Carthage] is this life, full of shadows and uncertainties, confusing and unsure byways, inhabited by wild beasts, that is, beset with many hidden trials and perils. Sterile and repellant, at times it confronts and soothes the ears and eyes of passersby and of local inhabitants with the lush greenery, the songs of birds and the murmuring of waters, that is, the short-lived and frail image, the empty and deceptive sweetness of things. Calming and soothing during the daylight, the wood becomes horrifying and terrible as light draws to a close, and with winter’s approach, it turns ugly with mud, its soil scru√y, bristling with stumps, and stripped of foliage. In the midst of the wood appears Venus. She is lust, which is hotter and keener around midlife, and assumes a maidenly semblance and garb to deceive the ignorant. . . . She is called the mother of Aeneas because even great men are begotten of lust, and because he had such rare comeliness that, though an exile and in need, he is described as being attractive even to chaste eyes. It was this same Venus who presented her Aeneas hidden in a dark cloud with only Achates as a companion, after being bu√eted by great calamities and surviving fire and shipwreck, to a beautiful widow, from the first of which [beauty] lust 142

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finds its origin, from the second [widowhood] the freedom to transgress. That cloud is indeed hidden under this mystic cloud, for often it happens that, roused by the reputation of virtue alone, minds are at first prone to bring help to needy wretches under the pretext of humanity and compassion. Later, when their nobility and beauty have been viewed and examined, the veil is torn open, and Venus’s son is left exposed, and becomes the object of base love. At times he too is led astray because it is di≈cult even for a perfect man not to be swayed by the brilliant appearance of things, especially when he realizes that he is loved and desired. . . . Then Mercury, the god of eloquence, sent by Jove, warns Aeneas to set his sights on better things. Though under passion’s sway and shaken in his mind by his great love, he still obeys the command from heaven, despite the vain opposition of pleasure itself and ingratiating habit which leaves nothing untried so that the disposition of the beloved could be controlled. . . . Granted that he wavered a long time in making up his mind . . . within the depths of his lofty mind and in his firm purpose he found repose since, as we know, arriving at a firm decision is, as it were, the end of distress. . . . [Upon reaching Sicily] he attends first to religion; sacrificing in the traditional way, he pays his respects to his venerable father. . . . [In the underworld] he comes to know as much as can be known about the state of the next life, and conceives an immense hope of famous progeny. . . . [In Latium] once he has overcome all obstacles and snatched [Lavinia] from her lesser suitors, he soon makes her his own in everlasting marriage, from which he begets the most celebrated o√spring and posterity, the founder of the greatest empire, guardian of peace [paraphrasing Aeneid 6.853], merciful to the humble, and conqueror of the proud—inasmuch as the father of this girl, whose marriage is fought over, is the mind, and her mother [Amata] the flesh, that is, the mind’s bride since glory is usually born from the actions of both. . . . The maiden’s mother . . . hangs herself on the gibbet because when the flesh understands that glory has been awarded to virtue and sees that there is no longer a place for its passions, it does away with itself. . . . Accordingly [at the conclusion] Aeneas, the foreigner (that is, virtue or the brave man victor over the flesh), grabs with his hand the spear that is now easy and pliant, and brandishing it with great success and precision, knocks his native rival [Turnus], [who stands for] carnal passion, to the ground. He would perhaps have spared his suppliant foe, since lust is natural and thus excusable, had he not taken fire from seeing the emblems seized from his Pallas, that is, the nobility of youth, whom [Turnus] had killed. To avenge this, Aeneas slays Turnus and, with his death, rules in peace, leaving his son as heir to the throne; following death, unavoidable for a mortal, he obtained the reputation of divinity, and, becoming the subject of poets, he lives C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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on in the mouths of man. (Francesco Petrarch, Letters of Old Age: Rerum senilium libri I–XVIII, trans. A. S. Bernardo, S. Levin, and R. A. Bernardo, vol. 1 [Baltimore, 1992], 141–47, modified by MP) e. Secretum 1.124 (circa 1350) The interlocutors are Petrarch and Augustine, who appears to him in a dream. (Text: Secretum: Il mio segreto, ed. E. Fenzi [Milan, 1992], 194–96) Franciscus. . . . Hec ille. Ego autem, singula verba discutiens, audivi indignationem, audivi luctamen, audivi tempestates sonoras, audivi murmur ac fremitum. Hec ad iram referri possunt. Audivi rursum regem in arce sedentem, audivi sceptrum tenentem, audivi imperio prementem et vinclis ac carcere frenantem; que ad rationem quoque referri posse quis dubitet? Attamen, ut de animo atque ira animum turbante dici omnia constaret, vide quid addidit: mollitque animos et temperat iras [Aeneid 1.57].

Augustinus. Laudo hec, quibus abundare te video, poetice narrationis archana. Sive enim id Virgilius ipse sensit, dum scriberet, sive ab omni tali consideratione remotissimus, maritimam his versibus et nil aliud describere voluit tempestatem, hoc tamen, quod de irarum impetu et rationis imperio dixisti, facete satis et proprie dictum puto.

Francesco. . . . Thus the poet [after quoting Aeneid 1.52–57]. And I, analyzing the words one by one, heard indignation, I heard strife, I heard the sound of storms, I heard rumbling and roaring. These can be ascribed to anger. I heard in turn the king sitting in his fortress, I heard him holding his scepter, I heard him taming with his imperial power and reining in with bonds and imprisonment. Who may doubt that these [images] can refer to reason? Nevertheless, that it be agreed that all this was said about the mind and about anger setting it in turmoil, note what he added: ‘‘And he soothes their minds and tempers their anger.’’ Augustine. I praise these mysteries of poetic narrative with which I see you overflow. Yet, whether Virgil himself was aware of this as he wrote or whether, quite distant from every consideration of this type, he wished in these verses to describe nothing other than a storm at sea, I think that what you have said about the violence of anger and the control of reason was said with much wit and aptness. (MP) f. Rerum familiarium libri 9.5.15 and 13.6.28–29 On Virgil as a magician. 144

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g. Invectiva contra eum qui maledixit Italie 1182–84 Petrarch interprets saevus, applied to Hector at Aeneid 1.99 and to Aeneas at Aeneid 12.107, as magnus (powerful) rather than crudelis (cruel). (Discussion: C. Kallendorf, In Praise of Aeneas: Virgil and Epideictic Rhetoric in the Early Italian Renaissance [Hanover, N.H., 1989], 50) (Text: Opere latine, ed. A. Bufano, 2 vols. [Turin, 1975], 1182–84) h. ‘‘Egloge prime titulus: Parthenias’’ 12–17 (Bucolicum carmen) (circa 1347) Both the name Parthenias and the genre are clear bows to Virgil and to the Eclogues (Bucolica). (Text: Petrarch’s Bucolicum Carmen, Egloge prime titulus: Parthenias, ed. T. Bergin [New Haven, 1974], 2, 4) . . . Dulcissimus olim Parthenias michi, iam puero, cantare solebat Hic, ubi Benacus, vitrea pulcherrimus alvo, Persimilem natum fundit sibi. Venerat etas Fortior; audebam, nullo duce, iam per opacum Ire nemus, nec lustra feris habitata timebam. . . .

Once sweetest Parthenias [Virgil] was wont to sing to me, then a boy, here, where most beautiful Benacus [Lake Garda] in its crystalline depths pours forth an o√spring similar to itself. But a bolder time followed. I dared without a guide now to make my way through a darkening wood, nor did I fear lairs inhabited by animals of the wild. . . . (MP)

55. Chaucer (Geo√rey Chaucer, circa 1343–1400) See also below, III.E.12. In The House of Fame (late 1370s), lines 140–467, Chaucer’s narrator tells of ‘‘seeing’’ the story of the Aeneid (lines 239–432 are devoted to Dido). The passage below presents lines 140–50. (Discussion: VME, 220–48) Virgil is mentioned at lines 378, 449, and 1244. Lines 143–48, which render Aeneid 1.1–3, are the first lines of the epic to be translated into English (more than a century and a half before the first full translation, by Gavin Douglas [circa 1475–1522], in 1513). (Text: Chaucer, The House of Fame, ed. N. R. Havely [Durham, 1994], 42–43) But as I roamed up and down, I found on a wall a plate of brass on which was written: ‘‘I will now tell, if I am able, of the arms and also the man that came, through his fate an exile from the country of Troy, with full great

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suffering to Italy and to the shores of Lavinium . . .’’ And then anon began the story, as I shall tell you all. (MP)

56. Christine de Pizan (1365–circa 1430) Christine de Pizan was not French by birth but came from near Bologna at around the age of fourteen, nor was she the first woman to write in French, but she could be fairly called the first woman residing in France and writing in French who supported herself as a professional writer. After acquiring an early grounding in learning, she married at sixteen and put aside scholarship. A decade later she found herself a widow (with responsibility for three children and her own widowed mother) and turned to writing for solace and support. One of her many compositions was Cité des dames (City of Women), which could be considered an adaptation and expansion of Boccaccio’s De claris mulieribus (On Famous Women) (see below, III.E.11). In it she includes a chapter on the Virgilian centoist Proba (see below, III.A.5) in which she o√ers her perspectives on the compositional techniques and significance of the text. (Text: Old French edition, E. J. Richards, in Christine de Pizan, La città delle dame, translated into Italian [Milan and Trent, 1997], 156, 158) (JZ) Here is told of Proba the Roman: Proba the Roman, wife of Adelphus, was of equally great excellence, and was Christian. She had such a noble intellect and loved and applied herself so much to study that she had sovereign knowledge of the seven liberal arts and was a sovereign poet. By dint of great study she gave frequent attention to the books of the poets, especially Virgil and his expressions, which were in her memory for all purposes. Once she had read those books and poems with great application of her intellect and thought, and seeing that she took heed of their signification, it occurred to her in her thinking that one could describe in pleasing and substance-filled verses, according to the ten books, the whole of scripture and the stories of the Old and New Testaments. ‘‘Certainly,’’ as the author Boccaccio says, ‘‘it is not unastonishing that such a lofty idea could enter a woman’s mind. But,’’ as he says, ‘‘it was a much more wondrous thing to bring the idea to fulfillment.’’ Then the aforesaid woman, very eager to put her notion into effect, set her hand to the task. Now that woman ran through, which is to say, skimmed and read, the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid, as are entitled the books Virgil composed, and now she would take from one part entire verses, now from another she would tap small pieces. With wondrous craftsmanship and subtlety she composed entire verses in good order. She put together small pieces and paired and joined them while respecting the rules, craft, and measures of the feet and 146

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the joining together of verses. Without making a slip she organized them with such great mastery that no man could have done better. In this fashion she had her book begin with the beginning of the world, and following all the stories of the Old Testament and New she came to the sending of the Holy Spirit to the apostles. She brought the books of Virgil into such order with all this that the person who did not know her method of composition would think that Virgil had been prophet and evangelist alike. For these reasons, Boccaccio likewise says, ‘‘Great esteem and praise are due to this woman; for it is clearly apparent that she had a true and complete understanding of the sacred books and the volumes of divine scripture, something that does not happen often to many great clerics and theologians of our day.’’ This very noble woman wished that the aforesaid work of hers, which had been made and composed by her effort, be called Cento. In spite of the fact that the effort required by this work, on account of its length, should have taken a man’s lifetime, not nearly so long passed in her attention to this poem; on the contrary, she produced many other outstanding and most praiseworthy books. One among the rest that she composed in verse was also entitled Cento, because of the hundred (cento) verses that are contained in it. She took the expressions and verses from the poet Homer; from this one can conclude to her praise that she not only knew Latin literature but also knew Greek perfectly. In hearing of this woman and her affairs, Boccaccio says, ‘‘Women ought to take great pleasure.’’ (JZ)

57. Maffeo Vegio (Maphaeus Vegius, 1407–58) Ma√eo Vegio, native of the Lombard town of Lodi, wrote some fifty works of poetry and prose. He crowned his scholarly career with an account of the antiquities to be found in the church where he was canon from 1443 until his death, the Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter, in Rome. He is important to Virgilians as the author of a Supplementum to the Aeneid in the form of a thirteenth book, which he wrote as a student at the University of Pavia in 1428. From 1471 on, for the better part of two centuries, it was attached to many editions of Virgil’s epic. It was translated by Gavin Douglas as part of his Scottish version of the Aeneid (1513) and appended to the first rendering of the Aeneid in English, that of Thomas Phaer (1510–60), who at his death had completed a translation of the first nine books, brought to a conclusion by Thomas Twyne in 1583–84. For surveys of the reception of Virgil in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Italy, see C. Kallendorf, In Praise of Aeneas: Virgil and Epideictic Rhetoric in the Early Italian Renaissance (Hanover, N.H., 1989); and V. Zabughin, Vergilio nel Rinascimento Italiano da Dante a Torquato Tasso, C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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2 vols. (Bologna, 1921–23; rept. Trent, 2000). (Text: Das Aeneissupplement des Ma√eo Vegio, ed. B. Schneider [Weinheim, 1985]. On pp. 136–38 Schneider prints an eighty-nine-line fragment by Vegio’s slightly older contemporary Pier Candido Decembrio [1392–1477], written also to ‘‘supplement’’ the Aeneid.) (MP) Maphaei Vegii Laudensis Aeneidos: Liber XIII Turnus ut extremo devictus Marte profudit effugientem animam medioque sub agmine victor magnanimus stetit Aeneas, Mavortius heros, obstupuere omnes gemitumque dedere Latini, et durum ex alto revomentes corde dolorem concussis cecidere animis, ceu frondibus ingens silva solet lapsis boreali impulsa tumultu. Tum tela infigunt terrae, et mucronibus haerent, scutaque deponunt umeris, et proelia damnant, insanumque horrent optati Martis amorem. Nec frenum nec colla pati captiva recusant et veniam orare et requiem finemque malorum. Sicut acerba duo quando in certamina tauri concurrant largo miscentes sanguine pugnam cuique suum pecus inclinat, sin cesserit uni palma duci, mox quae victo pecora ante favebant nunc sese imperio subdunt victoris et ultro, quamquam animum dolor altus habet, parere fatentur, non aliter Rutuli, licet ingens maeror adhausit pectora pulsa metu caesi ducis, inclita malunt arma sequi et Phrygium Aeneam foedusque precari pacis et aeternam rebus belloque quietem. Tunc Turnum super adsistens placido ore profatur Aeneas: ‘‘Quae tanta animo dementia crevit, ut Teucros superum monitis summique Tonantis imperio huc vectos patereris, Daunia proles, Italia et pactis nequicquam expellere tectis? Disce Iovem revereri et iussa facessere divum. Magnum etiam capit ira Iovem, memoresque malorum sollicitat vindicta deos. En ultima tanti meta furoris adest, quo contra iura fidemque Iliacam rupto turbasti foedere gentem. Ecce suprema dies aliis exempla sub aevum 148

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venturum missura, Iovem ne temnere frustra fas sit et indignos bellorum accendere motus. Nunc armis laetare tuis! Heu, nobile corpus, Turne, iaces. At non tibi erit Lavinia parvo, nec dextra tamen Aeneae cecidisse pudebit. Nunc, Rutuli, hinc auferte ducem vestrum; arma virumque largior atque omnem deflendae mortis honorem. Sed quae Pallantis fuerant ingentia baltei pondera, transmittam Evandro, ut solacia caeso haud levia hoste ferat Turnoque exultet adempto. Vos memores tamen, Ausonii, melioribus uti discite bellorum auspiciis. Ego sidera iuro: Numquam acies, numquam arma libens in proelia movi, sed vestris actus furiis defendere toto optavi, et licuit, Troianas robore partes.’’ Nec fatus plura Aeneas se laetus ad altos vertebat muros et Troia tecta petebat. Una ipsum Teucrorum omnis conversa iuventus exultans sequitur, volucresque per arva pedum vi quadrupedes citat, incusans acri ore Latinos ignavosque vocans. Strepit altus plausibus aether. Et quamvis inhumata rogis dare corpora surgat ingens cura animo sociosque imponere flammis, maius opus tamen Aeneas sub pectore volvens primum aris meritos superum mandabat honores. Tum pingues patrio iugulant ex more iuvencos immittuntque sues niveasque in templa bidentes purpuream effuso pulsantes sanguine terram. Viscera diripiunt et caesum in frusta trucidant denudantque gregem, et flammis verubusque remittunt. Tum vina effundunt pateris et dona Lyaei accumulant. Plenis venerantur lancibus aras. Tura ignes adolent; onerata altaria fumant. Tum plausus per tecta movent magnumque Tonantem extollunt Veneremque et te, Saturnia Iuno, —iam placidam et meliorem ingenti laude fatentur— Mavortemque ipsum. Tum cetera turba deorum in medium affertur summis cum vocibus altos perlata ad caelos. Ante omnes mitior unus Aeneas duplices mittebat ad aethera palmas,

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et puerum pauca ore dabat complexus Iulum: ‘‘Nate, in quo spes una patris, per tanta viarum quem variis actus fatis discrimina duxi, ecce inventa quies, ecce illa extrema malorum aerumnis factura modum acceptissima semper atque optata dies, quam dura in bella vocatus saepe tibi diis auspicibus meminisse futuram iam memini. Nunc te, quam primum aurora rubebit crastina, sublimem Rutulorum ad moenia mittam.’’ Dehinc sese ad gentem Iliacam volvebat amico continuans vultu et placida sic voce locutus: ‘‘O socii, per dura et densa pericula vecti, per tantos bellorum aestus duplicesque furores armorum, per totque hiemes, per quicquid acerbum, horrendum, grave, triste, ingens, et quicquid iniquum, infaustum et crudele foret, convertite mentem in melius! Iam finis adest: Hic meta laborum stabit, et optatam Latia cum gente quietem iungemus. Dabit inde mihi Lavinia coniunx bello acri defensa Italo cum sanguine mixtam Troianam transferre aeterna in saecula gentem. Unum oro, socii, Ausonios communibus aeque ferte animis, et vos socerum observate Latinum! Sceptrum idem sublime geret; sententia mentem haec habet; at bello vos et praestantibus armis discite me et pietate sequi. Quae gloria nobis cesserit, in promptu est; sed caelum et sidera testor: Qui vos tantorum eripui de clade malorum idem ego sub maiora potens vos praemia ducam.’’ Talibus orabat, variosque in pectore casus praeteritos volvens partamque labore quietem haud parvo nimium ardenti exundabat amore in Teucros, gravibus tandem evasisse periclis exultans. Velut exiguis cum ex aethere gyrans incubuit pullis et magno turbine milvus insiliens avido ore furit stragemque minatur, tum cristata ales concusso pectore mater consurgit misero natorum exterrita casu, rostrum acuit totisque petit conatibus hostem

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et multa expulsum vi tandem cedere cogit, dehinc perturbatos crocitans exquirit et omnes attonitos cogit pro caris anxia natis et tanto ereptos gaudet superesse periclo, non secus Anchisa genitus mulcebat amicis Troianos dictis, antiquum corde timorem flagrantisque agitans curas et gaudia longis tandem parta malis, et quae perferre molestum ante fuit, meminisse iuvat. Verum altior idem ingenti et clara Aeneas supereminet omnes virtute excellens, et pro tot numina donis exorat summisque Iovem cum laudibus effert. Interea Rutuli magnum et miserabile funus exanimumque ducem tulerant sub tecta frequentes correpti maerore animos largumque pluentes imbrem oculis; et iam lato clamore Latinum defessum et varios agitantem pectore casus complerant. Qui postquam altos crebrescere questus et Turnum ingenti confossum vulnere vidit, haud tenuit lacrimas; dehinc maestum leniter agmen corripuit manibus verbisque silentia ponens. Ceu spumantis apri quando per viscera dentes fulmineos canis excepit praestantior omni ex numero, tunc infausto perterrita casu cetera turba fugit latrantum atque ore magistrum circumstans querulo pavitat magnoque ululatu infremit, at commota manu dominique iubentis ore silet gemitumque premit seseque coercet haud aliter Rutuli suppressa voce quierunt. Tum sic illacrimans rex alto e corde Latinus [lines 143 and 144 are now considered spurious] incipit: ‘‘O fragilis ruitura superbia sceptri! O furor, o nimium dominandi innata cupido, mortales quo caeca vehis? Quo gloria tantis inflatos effers animos quaesita periclis? Quot tecum insidias, quot clades, quanta malorum magnorum monimenta geris? Quot tela, quot enses ante oculos, si cernis, habes! Heu, dulce venenum et mundi letalis honos! Heu, tristia regni

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munera, quae haud parvo constent, et grandia rerum pondera, quae numquam placidam promittere pacem nec requiem conferre queant! Heu, sortis acerbae et miserae regale decus, magnoque timori suppositos regum casus pacique negatos! Quid, Turne, ingenti Ausoniam movisse tumultu et dura Aeneadas turbasse in bella coactos, quid iuvat et pactae violasse optata quietis pignora? Quae tibi tanta animo impatientia venit, ut Martem cum gente deum iussuque Tonantis huc vecta gereres nostrisque expellere tectis ultro instans velles et natae solvere foedus pollicitae genero Aeneae et me bella negante dura movere manu? Quae tanta insania mentem implicuit? Quotiens te in saevi Martis euntem agmina sublimemque in equo et radiantibus armis corripui et pavitans cedentem in limine frustra temptavi revocare et iter suspendere coeptum! Inde ego quanta tuli, testantur moenia tectis semirutis magnique albentes ossibus agri et Latium toto defectum robore et ingens exitium fluviique humana caede rubentes et longi trepidique metus durique labores, quos totiens senior per tanta pericula cepi. At nunc, Turne, iaces! Ubinam tam magna iuventae gloria et excellens animus? Quo splendidus altae frontis honos? Quonam illa decens effugit imago? Ah, quantas Dauno lacrimas acrisque dolores, Turne, dabis! Quanto circumfluet Ardea fletu! Sed non degeneri et pudibundo vulnere fossum aspiciet; saltem hoc miserae solamen habebit mortis, ut Aeneae Troiani exceperis ensem.’’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . At puerum pater immotis spectabat Iulum luminibus vultum admirans moresque Latinus et graviter puerili ex ore cadentia verba maturumque animum ante annos, et multa rogabat permixtas referens voces. Dehinc oscula figens dulcia complexum manibus vinctumque fovebat, et nimium exultans felicem et munere divum 152

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donatum Aeneam pro tali prole ferebat. Postquam epulis compressa fames, traducere longam incipiunt fando et labentem fallere noctem, nunc duros Troiae casus gentesque Pelasgas, nunc fera Laurentis memorantes proelia pugnae, quo primum diffusae acies, quo tela vicissim pulsa loco, qui primus ovans invaserit agmen fulmineumque ardens in equo madefecerit ensem. Praecipue Tros Aeneas seniorque Latinus magnorum heroum Latiique antiqua potentis gesta recensebant fugientemque horrida nati arma sui Saturnum Italis latuisse sub oris; hinc Latium dixisse genusque in montibus altis composuisse vagum legesque et iura dedisse et Bacchi et frugum cultus; dehinc tecta secutum esse paterna Iovem, utque Electra Atlantide cretus Iasio Idaeas caeso Phrygiae isset ad urbes Dardanus, et Corytho multa cum gente profectus; utque insignem aquilam dono et Iove patre superbus Hectoreae gentis signum, illustresque tulisset primus avum titulos, Troianae stirpis origo. Talibus atque aliis inter se longa trahebant tempora. Tum fremitus laetaeque per atria voces alta volant, strepitu ingenti tectum omne repletur. Dant lucem flammae et lato splendore coruscant. Consurgunt Phryges, et cithara resonante sequuntur Ausonii et plausum ingeminant seque agmine toto permiscent variantque pedes raptimque feruntur. Et iam festa novem largo conubia luxu attigerant celebrata dies; tum maximus heros Aeneas urbem curvo signabat aratro fundabatque domos et amictas aggere fossas. Ecce autem, fatu haud parvum, diffundere flammam ingentem et fulgore levem et se nubibus altis miscentem e summo Lavinia vertice visa est. Obstipuit pater Aeneas duplicesque tetendit ad caelum cum voce manus: ‘‘Si, Iuppiter, umquam gens monitis Troiana tuis terraque marique paruit imperiisque libens, si, numina, vestras si metui coluique aras, per si quid agendum est,

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quod restat, placidam felici afferte quietem augurio et firmate malisque imponite finem!’’ Talia iactantem circumstitit aurea mater se Venerem confessa almo et sic edidit ore: ‘‘Nate, animo pone hanc curam et meliora capesse signa deum gaudensque bonis succede futuris. Nunc tibi parta quies, nunc meta extrema laborum, nunc tandem optatam componunt saecula pacem. Nec flammam ad caelos perlatam e vertice carae coniugis horresce; at constantem dirige mentem. Namque erit illa, tuum celebri quae sanguine nomen Troianosque auctura duces ad sidera mittat. Haec tibi magnanimos sublimi prole nepotes conferet, egregiis qui totum laudibus orbem complebunt totumque sua virtute potentes sub iuga victoresque trahent, quos gloria summo Oceanum transgressa ingens aequabit Olympo; quos tandem post innumera atque illustria rerum gesta deos factura vehet super aethera virtus. Hanc flammam ventura tuae praeconia gentis designant; hoc Omnipotens e culmine signum sidereo dedit. At tantarum in munere laudum, quam statuis, dicas a nomine coniugis urbem. Praeterea sacros Troia ex ardente penates ereptos compone nova intra moenia et altos infer ad aeternum mansuros tempus honores. Hi, tibi mira feram, tanto urbis amore trahentur, ut vecti ad sedes alias loca prima Lavini sponte sua repetant iterumque iterumque reversi. O felix, quem tanta manent! Dehinc pace tenebis sub placida gentem Iliacam. Post fessus et aevo confectus tandem Elysias socer ibit ad umbras. Succedes sceptro atque Italis dominabere leges communes Teucrisque ferens. Tum laetus ad altum te mittes caelum. Sic stat sententia divum.’’ Dixit, et inde leves fugiens se vexit in auras. Aeneas tanto stupefactam nomine mentem percussus divae peragit mandata parentis. Et iam compositos felici in pace regebat Dardanidas. Et iam decedens sceptra Latinus 154

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liquerat, et pius Aeneas successerat, omnem Ausoniam lataque potens dicione tenebat. Iam paribus Phryges atque Itali se moribus ultro et socia ingenti firmabant pectora amore concordique aequas miscebant foedere leges. Tum medio Venus exultans se immisit Olympo ante Iovem et complexa pedes sic ore locuta est: ‘‘Omnipotens genitor, qui solus ab aethere summo cuncta moves, qui res hominum curasque recenses, dum Teucros traheret fortuna inimica, recordor, spondebas finem aerumnis rebusque salutem. Nec tua me promissa, pater, sententia fallit; namque omnes gaudere sacra tris pace per annos viderunt Italae nummo discrimine partes. Verum ad siderei missurum culmina caeli pollicitus magnum Aenean meritumque ferebas illaturum astris. Quid nunc sub pectore versas? Iamque optat matura polos Aeneia virtus.’’ Olli hominum sator atque deum dedit oscula ab alto pectore verba ferens: ‘‘Quantum, Cytherea, potentem Aeneam Aeneadasque omnes infessus amavi et terra et pelago et per tanta pericula vectos, nosti, et saepe equidem indolui commotus amore, nata, tuo, tandemque malis Iunone secunda imposui finem. Nunc stat sententia menti, qua ductorem alto Phrygium succedere caelo institui, et firma est; numeroque inferre deorum constat, et id concedo libens. Tu, si quid in ipso mortale est, adime, atque astris ingentibus adde. Quin si alios sua habet virtus, qui laude perenni accingant sese et gestis praestantibus orbem exornent, illos rursum super aethera mittam.’’ Assensere omnes superi nec regia Iuno abnuit, at magnum Aenean suadebat ad ipsum efferri caelum et voces addebat amicas. Tum Venus aerias descendit lapsa per auras Laurentumque petit. Vicina Numicius undis flumineis ibi currit in aequora harundine tectus. Hunc corpus nati abluere et deferre sub undas, quicquid erat mortale, iubet. Dehinc laeta recentem

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Ma√eo Vegio of Lodi Book XIII of the Aeneid When Turnus, beaten in the final bout of war, poured forth his fleeting life, and amid the host stood great-souled Aeneas, War’s victorious hero, all the Latins, benumbed, uttered a moan [5] and, venting harsh sorrow from the core of their beings, gave way in despair. Their minds were bu√eted, as happens when a mighty grove is stricken by the north wind’s swirl and its leaves fall. Then they stab their spears into the ground and slump on sword hilts. They lower shields from shoulders, and curse the conflict, [10] shuddering at the crazed passion for Mars they once desired. They do not refuse to brook either the reins or neck-yokes of the captured, and pray for pardon, for peace, and for an end to evil. So it is when two bulls charge toward one another, into the bitterness of strife, [15] mingling their struggles with a slather of gore—his herd champions each—but should the palm of success fall to the lot of one lord, soon the cattle, which before o√ered allegiance to the vanquished, now humble themselves to the victor’s sway, and, though deep sorrow grips their spirits, they willingly profess their submission: so the Rutuli, though vast grief engulfs their hearts [20] and fear assails them at the slaughter of their lord, prefer to obey the weaponry of fame, and Aeneas of Troy. They solicit for their world the compact of peace and, in place of war, enduring calm. Then, bestriding Turnus from above, Aeneas speaks from serene lips: ‘‘What was this vast madness that ripened in your mind, o√spring of Daunus, so that you futilely presumed to drive out of Italy [25] and of the dwellings that were their due the Trojans who had journeyed here at the behest of the gods above and at the command of the Thunderer on high? Learn to honor Jove and to fulfill the dictates of the gods. Anger grasps even mighty Jove and retribution stirs the gods who remember evildoings. [30] See, now at last the end is at hand of your wild madness through which, a√ronting proper right and trust, you brought trouble on the Trojan people by breaking the treaty. Take note, your last days will serve as warning to others in time to come that it is wrong in vain to scorn Jove’s ordinance and [35] set aflame the worthless frenzy of war on war. Take joy, now, in your weapons! I grieve for you lying there, Turnus, a noble corpse. But Lavinia will not be yours at a small cost! Nevertheless no shame will come to you from having perished at Aeneas’s right hand. Rutulians, it is time to bear forth hence your lord. Weapons and 156

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corpse I bestow, [40] along with every honor due to a death worthy of lamentation. But the baldric’s heavy weight, once Pallas’s, I will convey to Evander that he might feel some weight of consolation in the slaughter of the foe, and revel in Turnus’s demise. Do you, Italians, yet learn through remembrance to employ more worthy excuses for venturing on war. [45] I myself take an oath on the stars: it was never my pleasure to thrust my soldiery, never my own weapons, into battle, but, driven by your madness and with due mandate, I chose with all my strength to safeguard the interests of Troy.’’ Saying no more Aeneas gladly turned toward the lofty palisade [50] and sought the Trojan tents. In jubilation all the Trojan youths turned to follow together with him, and with forceful feet spur their swift horses through the fields, assailing the Latins with biting words and proclaiming them cowards. The lofty heavens resound with their cheers. [55] And although intense concern looms in his mind to place the unburied bodies of his comrades on their pyres and ignite the fires, nevertheless, in prudence attentive to a weightier task, Aeneas first o√ered appropriate honors on the altars of the gods. Then, after the manner of their forefathers, they sacrifice fattened bullocks, [60] and into the shrines herd hogs and snow-white sheep that splash the crimsoned earth with gushing blood. They slay and skin each animal, wrench forth its entrails, butcher the carcass into morsels, and give them over to spits and to the flames. Then they heap up the gifts of Bacchus and pour out wine from bowls. [65] They worship the altars with brimming platters. Fires burn incense, the laden platforms smoke. Then jubilation spreads through the homes and exalts the mighty Thunderer, and Venus, and you, Saturn’s Juno—with the might of their praise they declare her now serene and of more kindly mien—and Mars himself. [70] Then the remaining company of divinities, summoned to the ceremony, is raised to the lofty heavens with bravo after bravo. Peerless Aeneas, excelling all in gentleness, lifted both hands toward the sky and, embracing young Iulus, briefly spoke: [75] ‘‘My son, alone the hope of his father, whom I, driven by the vicissitudes of fate, guided through the vast crises of our wanderings, behold, we have discovered rest. Behold the day, finale of our evils, making an end to our trials, the day, ever yearned for and most welcome. As I was summoned into war’s cruelty, [80] I now recollect that I often reminded you that it would come to pass under auspicious gods. As soon as first tomorrow’s dawn will glow red, it will be time for me to send you in glory to the Rutulian ramparts.’’ Then, turning with friendly glance toward the crowd of Trojans, he continued thus in serene tones: [85] ‘‘O comrades, who have traveled through cruel, constant dangers, through massive surges of war and the redoubled madness of fighting, through a siege C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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of tempests, through whatever harsh, dread, oppressive, piteous, threatening might come our way, whatever unjust, accursed, and savage, turn your thoughts to better things! [90] Now the conclusion is at hand. Here will be the end-goal of our trials. We will join with the Latin people in the peace for which we have yearned. Thence will my wife Lavinia, sheltered through the bitter war, grant me to transmit the destiny of the Trojan people, commingled with Italian blood, into all ages to come. I ask one thing, comrades: [95] in justice treat the Italians with kindred minds, and grant respect to our fatherin-law, Latinus. He will wield the glorious scepter. This my mind has decreed. But, as warriors, learn to emulate me, both in the excellence of your soldiering and in your piety. The glory that has accrued to us is plain to see. [100] But I will call the heavens and the stars to witness: I, who have rescued you from the calamity of such great evils, will myself, in power, guide you to still greater rewards.’’ Such was his prayer. As he pondered in his thoughts the diverse perils now past and peace procured through dint of e√ort, [105] he brimmed with a blaze of warmth toward his beloved Trojans, jubilant at the formidable dangers they have at last passed beyond. Just as when a kite, circling from the heavens, has careened toward tiny nestlings and, swooping down in a tremendous whirl, shrieks greedily and threatens mayhem, then the wattled mother hen, [110] heart shaken in terror from the grievous peril to her young, rises up, whets her beak, and, assailing the foe with all her e√ort, compels it with full force finally to yield. Then, cackling away, worried for her young, [115] she seeks out the bewildered brood and herds the troubled throng, glad for their survival, snatched from the brink of disaster: so the son of Anchises soothed the Trojans with friendly words, going over and over in his heart his prior fear and burning worries, as well as the joys at last brought forth from a stretch of evils. [120] He gains pleasure in the memory of what before was a trial to withstand. Aeneas towers in stature, surpassing all in the depth and renown of his goodness. He o√ers prayers of thanksgiving to the gods for their profusion of gifts and extols Jupiter with the highest praise. [125] Meanwhile the amassed Rutulians had brought into the city the lifeless body of their leader, majestic and worthy of sorrow, their minds in the throes of grief, their eyes flooding over with weeping. And now the intensity of their keening had filled Latinus, exhausted and pondering many a danger. [130] After he heard their deep groans keep swelling and saw Turnus pierced through with a gigantic wound, he did not at all hold back his tears. Then gently he took charge of the cortege, calling for silence by gesture and by word. [135] As when a hound, better than all the pack, has taken in through his vitals the blazing teeth of a frothing boar, then the remainder of the baying 158

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troop, terrified by the unfortunate turn of fate, takes flight and, all atremble, with a yelp encircles its keeper and barks, howling away, yet, responsive to its master’s gesture and words of command, [140] it grows still, suppresses its groaning and regains control: in such a manner the Rutulians silence their talk. Then tearfully, from his heart’s depths, King Latinus begins: [145] ‘‘How precarious is the scepter’s transient pride! O wildness, O native lust for overweening power, whither in your blindness do you drag us mortals? Whither, Glory, wooed by a succession of hazards, do you drive our swaggering minds? How many traps, how many defeats, what boundless reminders of evil do you sport? [150] How many spears, how many swords do you behold, if you have eyes to see? Alas, the entrancing poison and deadly worship of worldly things! Alas, the dire duties of ruling power, steadfast at great cost, and the fraught weightiness of a√airs, which can never pledge the calm of peace or bestow tranquillity! [155] Alas, the bitter, piteous lot that graces kings, the risks of royalty, jeopardized by ample fear and bereft of peace! What pleasure was it, Turnus, to have shaken Italy with mighty turmoil, to have provoked the sons of Aeneas, under compulsion, toward war’s cruelty? [160] What pleasure also to have breached the longed-for trust in a peace for which we had covenanted? What massive unquietness possessed your mind to wage war with o√spring of the gods who voyaged hither at the command of the Thunderer, and of your own volition willingly to assail and expel them from our abodes, to sunder the promised pledge of my daughter to my son-in-law Aeneas and, [165] against my stated wish, rouse cruel war with your hand? What grand insanity entangled your wits? How often did I rebuke you, lofty on your steed, your weapons aglimmer as you marched toward fierce Mars’s troops, and, in my fright, [170] on the threshold vainly attempt to call you back and to halt the course that you had begun? What ordeals I have since withstood our walls, houses half-collapsed, attest, and broad fields glistening white with bones, Latium deprived of all its manhood, devastation everywhere, streams crimsoned with human slaughter, [175] the long and trembling fear, the harsh trials that I, though aged, so often experienced through such great perils. And now, Turnus, you lie in state! Where is your youth in all its grandeur, your superiority of mind? Whither the glistening glory of your lofty brow? Whither has fled that sign of grace? [180] Ah, what weeping, Turnus, what bitter sorrows will you bring to Daunus! With what a stream of tears will Ardea flow! Yet it will not behold you pierced, in shame, by an ignoble wound. At least he will have this solace for the sadness of your death: you received the sword of Aeneas of Troy.’’ . . . But father Latinus fixed his gaze intently on young Iulus, marveling at his attractiveness and behavior, at the adult discourse that flowed from his C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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youthful lips, at his mind mature beyond its years. He asked him about many things, moving from topic to topic. [505] Then he o√ered him gentle kisses as he clung to him fondly in warm embrace. In his gladness he gave thought to Aeneas’s good fortune, vouchsafed such an o√spring by the benison of heaven. After their hunger was satisfied by the repast, [510] they begin by conversation to pretend away the long passage of the night—now recalling to mind Troy’s bitter demise and the Grecian tribes, now the savage conflicts of the Laurentine war, where the first battle lines were drawn, where weapons in turn on turn were hurled, who first in fervor plunged into the marshaled foe [515] and with gusto slathered his flashing sword with equine blood. Above all Aeneas of Troy and aged Latinus recounted the exploits of mighty heroes from a time gone by, of Latin power, of how Saturn was hidden away on Italy’s shores to escape his son’s hostile pursuit, whence he entitled it ‘‘Hiding Land’’ [Compare the etymological wordplay at Aeneid 8.322–23 on Latium (Latium) and latuisset (lurking)], [520] how he organized the people that roamed the high hills, codified for them rights and laws, and the cultivation of wine and crops, how afterward Jupiter entered his father’s dwelling, how Dardanus, sprung from Electra, daughter of Atlas, after the death of Iasius set out from Cortona with a large following and made his way to the cities of the Troad under Ida, [525] and how, taking pride in his father Jupiter and his gift, had chosen the stalwart eagle as emblem for the descendents of Hector, he, the founder of the Trojan nation and inaugurator of its forefathers’ renowned honors. With such and other topics they stretched out night’s length. [530] Then shouts of joy rush rumbling through the lofty halls, and a mighty roar fills the whole palace. Torches bring their light and glisten with expansive glow. The Trojans jump to their feet, the Latins follow, as the cithara resounds. The applause intensifies as they merge together into a single assembly, [535] vary the rhythms of their dance, and yield to the frolic. And now the celebration of the wedding festivity, in a spectacle of abundance, had extended nine days. Then Aeneas, greatest of heroes, with the curved plow outlined his city, established houses and trenches surrounded by an embankment. [540] But look, memorable to tell: Lavinia, from the crown of her head, seemed to pour forth a huge flame, nimble in its brightness and soaring into the clouds above. Father Aeneas, astonished at the magnificence of the image, stretched forth both his hands to heaven and spoke: ‘‘If ever, Jupiter, the Trojan people willingly respected [545] your portents and your mandates, both on land and on sea, if I, heavenly powers, revered and worshipped your altars, by whatever else in the o≈ng remains to be e√ected, a√ord us, confirm for us, peace’s halcyon time, bring our evils to a close.’’ 160

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[550] While he was thus exclaiming, his golden mother embraced him. Declaring herself Venus, she spoke these words of care: ‘‘My son, put this worry from your mind, lay claim to the gods’ more propitious omens, and, glad at heart, enter upon your auspicious future. Now peace is granted to you, now at last is the end of your su√erings. [555] Finally, now, the ages accept the covenant of peace long craved. Have no fear of the flame carried to the heavens from the crown of your dear wife’s head. Stand firm, with mind assured. For she it will be who enhances your line’s repute with glorious o√spring and exalts the heroes of Troy to the stars. [560] She will bequeath you high-souled descendants with august progeny, whose extraordinary praise will fill earth’s whole orb, which in its entirety, victors through the power of their courage, they will draw under the yoke. Their glorious grandeur, surpassing the bounds of Ocean, will find its measure in the heights of Olympus. [565] Nobility, their source of godhead, in the wake of countless valorous deeds accomplished, will lead them beyond the heavens. This flame heralds the signal achievements of your people; the Almighty has furnished this token from his starry precincts. As gesture for such acclaim to be yours, [570] give the city you are founding your wife’s name. Furthermore arrange within the new walls the blessed Penates, snatched from the flames of Troy, and tender them distinguished honors to endure for all time. I will tell you something extraordinary: they are captivated by such a√ection for the city that, though displaced to other posts, [575] of their own will they seek Lavinium, their original settlement, returning to it again and yet again. Blessed by fortune, great things await you! In the time ahead you will rule the Trojan people in the calm of peace. In due course your father-in-law, tired and undone with age, will depart for the shades of Elysium. You will succeed to the throne, [580] your rule will establish laws shared by Italians and Trojans. Then, rejoicing, you will yourself ascend to the lofty heavens. So have the gods decreed.’’ Words finished, she took her leave in flight to the sprightly breezes. [585] Aeneas, his mind stunned in amazement at such fame, carried out the commands of his goddess mother. And so he reigned over the Trojans, united in the blessings of peace. Then, when holy Aeneas had succeeded to the throne after Latinus’s departure in death, his power held broad sway over all of Italy. [590] It was a time when Trojans and Italians willingly strengthened the bonds of their alliance through the sharing of customs and through deepening a√ection; harmony through equality of law was their united agreement. Then a rejoicing Venus made her way into the presence of Jupiter at the center of Olympus, embraced his feet, and spoke: [595] ‘‘Almighty sire, who from heaven’s zenith solely guide the a√airs of all, and scan man’s enterprises and his cares, it is my memory that, when ill-fortune held the Trojans in its grip, you C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

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promised them security and an end to trouble. Your judgment’s pledge never failed me, father. The whole of Italy, distinctions vanished, [600] has watched all take delight in three years of holy peace. You also gave solemn assurance that for his quality you would convey noble Aeneas to the peak of the glittering heavens and bear him to the stars. What are you pondering in your heart? [605] Now Aeneas’s virtue in its fullness lays claim to the celestial pole.’’ The father of men and gods kissed her and from his inmost heart spoke: ‘‘From my very words, goddess of Cythera, you knew how much I loved stalwart Aeneas and all his followers, as they fared through such great perils whether on land or on sea, and, [610] touched by your love, my child, indeed I grieved for them time and again. At last with Juno’s approval I put an end to their woes. My mind’s decree, my determination that the Trojan leader should enter the lofty heavens, stands steady. To accept him within the congress of the gods is the decision. It is one I gladly grant. [615] Yours the task to erase what might remain mortal in him, and to engage him to the mighty stars. Also, if others possess his excellence, who encompass themselves with immortal praise and embellish the universe through outstanding feats, I will convey them in turn beyond the Aether.’’ All the gods granted approval. [620] Nor did royal Juno demur. To complement her words of friendship, she urged that Aeneas be borne to heaven itself. Then Venus slips sliding down the breezes of air and seeks Laurentum. There the Numicius, [625] veiled in reed, courses with the ripples of his stream into the nearby sea. She commands him to wash away from her son’s body whatever is mortal and to carry it beneath his waves. Then in happiness she conducted the fresh, blessed soul with her above the air, and fixed Aeneas among the stars. [630] His Julian o√spring entitle him Indiges [native god] and in his temples o√er the honors of his cult. Pavia, October 10, 1428 (Ma√eo Vegio, Short Epics, trans. M. C. J. Putnam, I Tatti Renaissance Library 15 [Cambridge, Mass., 2004]) D. VIRGIL AS PERFORMED OR DECLAIMED

1. Tacitus Dialogus 13.2 (quoted above, I.C.22), on audience response in the theater to a quotation from Virgil.

2. Suetonius (Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, circa 70–circa 130) Lawyer and friend of Pliny the Younger, Suetonius held three important secretarial posts under the emperors Trajan and Hadrian, by whom it appears he 162

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was summarily dismissed around 122. These positions gave him full access to the imperial archives. He is the author of De vita Caesarum (On the Life of the Caesars), twelve biographies of emperors from Caesar to Domitian (see below, II.F.1.d). Of his De viris illustribus (On Famous Men), lives of Roman men of letters, we have preserved complete only De grammaticis et rhetoribus (On Scholars and Orators). A number of poets’ lives, usually attached to manuscripts of their work and found in varying states of abridgment, are most likely drawn from it, as is the vita of Virgil that is transmitted to us under the name of Aelius Donatus (see below, IV.D.2 and II.A.1). Vita Neronis (Life of Nero) 54 (Text and translation: Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, The Lives of Illustrious Men, ed. and trans. J. C. Rolfe, vol. 2, LCL 38 [1914]): Sub exitu quidem vitae palam voverat, si sibi incolumis status permansisset, proditurum se partae victoriae ludis etiam hydraulam et choraulam et utricularium ac novissimo die histrionem saltaturumque Vergili Turnum.

Toward the end of his life, in fact, [Nero] had publicly vowed that if he retained his power, he would at the games in celebration of his victory give a performance on the water organ, the flute, and the bagpipes, and that on the last day he would appear as an actor and dance ‘‘Virgil’s Turnus.’’

3. Probus Under the name of Marcus Valerius Probus (see below, II.A.7, IV.A.5) circulated a commentary on the Eclogues and Georgics that contains a section in which the commentator interprets Virgil’s use of the words cano and carmen as indicating the sort of delivery he foresaw for the given poem. (Text: ThiloHagen 3.2:328) Qua pronuntiatione quaeque ecloga legi debeat, sic ordinabitur, quoniam in ipsis, quae cantanda putat, carminis facit mentionem; si non putat, huius omnino nominis non meminit. Adeo secunda ecloga cantanda erat: ait in principio: ‘‘O crudelis Alexi, nihil mea carmina curas?’’ [Eclogues 2.6] Sed in tertia, usque quo cantanda non fuit, praetermisit; at ubi cantandum erat: Ab Iove principium Musae: Iovis omnia plena, Ille colit terras, illi mea carmina curae [Eclogues 3.60–61].

Et in reliquis eclogis hoc idem licet animadvertere. Nam Georgica quomodo pronuntiarentur, statim ostendit dicendo: ‘‘Hinc canere incipiam’’ [Georgics 1.5]. Item Aeneida quoniam plasmate legi volebat, ait: ‘‘Arma virumque cano’’ [Aeneid 1. 1].

With what sort of delivery each eclogue ought to be read will be determined in this way, seeing that he makes mention of song in the very ones he thinks are D. VIRGIL AS PERFORMED OR DECLAIMED

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to be sung; if he does not think so, he does not recall this word at all. In fact the second eclogue was to be sung: he says in the beginning, ‘‘O cruel Alexis, you care nothing for my songs?’’ But in the third, up through where it was not to be sung, he omitted the word; but when it was to be sung, [he said]: From Jove begins my Muse: all things are full of Jove; He looks after the earth; he takes care of my songs.

It is possible to notice this same fact in the rest of the Eclogues. For he reveals at the outset how the Georgics are to be delivered, saying: ‘‘Hence I will begin to sing.’’ Likewise, seeing that he wished the Aeneid to be read with modulation, he said: ‘‘Of arms and the man I sing.’’ (JZ)

4. Lucian (born circa 120) Lucian was a major figure of the ‘‘Second Sophistic,’’ as is called the period circa 60–230, when declamation became the dominant form of rhetoric in the Greek-speaking world. He includes in Saltatio (The Dance), as part of a description of a dancer’s repertoire, ‘‘the wandering of Aeneas and the love of Dido.’’ (Text and translation: Lucian, [Opera omnia], vol. 5, ed. and trans. A. M. Harmon, LCL 302 [1968], 256–57) (JZ)

5. Macrobius See below, IV.C. Saturnalia 5.17.5. For the larger context, see below, III.E.4. (Text: J. Willis, ed., 2nd ed., Bibliotheca Teubneriana [Leipzig, 1970]) . . . nec minus histrionum perpetuis et gestibus et cantibus celebretur.

. . . nor is [Dido] extolled the less continuously in both movements and songs of performers. (JZ)

6. Performances of the Eclogues a. Aelius Donatus See below, IV.D.2. VSD 26. Iunius Philargyrius’s (see below, IV.D.1) Explanatio in Bucolica Vergilii: Prooemium employs the same wording, with the substitution of cantatores for cantores and of recitarentur for pronuntiarentur. (Text: Thilo-Hagen 3.2:7–8) Bucolica eo successu edidit, ut in scaena quoque per cantores crebro pronuntiarentur.

He published the Bucolics with such success that even on stage singers delivered them frequently. (DWO and JZ) 164

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b. Servius, Comment on Eclogues 6.11 See below, IV.B. (Text: Thilo-Hagen 3.1:66) Dicitur autem ingenti favore a Vergilio esse recitata, adeo ut, cum eam postea Cytheris meretrix cantasset in theatro, quam in fine Lycoridem vocat, stupefactus Cicero, cuius esset, requireret.

[Eclogues 6] is also said to have been recited by Virgil with enormous success, to such a degree that, when afterward the courtesan Cytheris, whom he lastly calls Lycoris, had sung it in the theater, the astonished Cicero asked whose it was. (MP) c. Jerome See above, I.C.30. In a letter that bewails the self-indulgent attachment of the clergy to pagan writers (Epistles 21.13 = p. 123, lines 19–21), Jerome refers in passing to the singing of the Eclogues. (Text: I. Hilberg, ed., CSEL 54, 2nd ed. [Vienna, 1996], 123–24) At nunc etiam sacerdotes Dei, omissis evangeliis et prophetis, videmus comoedias legere, amatoria bucolicorum versuum verba canere, tenere Vergilium, et id quod in pueris necessitatis est, crimen in se facere voluntatis.

But now we see God’s priests, having neglected the Gospels and the books of the prophets, reading comedies, singing lovemaking words of verses in the Eclogues, and holding fast to Virgil, and committing in themselves as a crime of desire what is in boys a matter of necessity. (JZ)

7. Servius See below, IV.B. In spite of the references to Virgil’s own recitation of his poetry, the evidence about the style of his delivery is tantalizingly vague. A case in point is Servius’s observation on Aeneid 4.323. (Text: Thilo-Hagen 1:521) Dicitur autem ingenti adfectu hos versus pronuntiasse, cum privatim paucis praesentibus recitaret Augusto; nam recitavit voce optima primum libros tertium et quartum.

Virgil is reported moreover to have delivered these verses with great passion when he recited them to Augustus, with few people present; for he recited in the finest voice first the third and fourth books. (JZ)

8. Augustine See above, I.C.31. Sermo 241. In a sermon preached in 411, Augustine spoke ‘‘during Eastertide, on D. VIRGIL AS PERFORMED OR DECLAIMED

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the Resurrection of the Body, against the Pagans.’’ In a passage that exercised a great influence, Augustine introduces a quotation of Aeneid 6.719–21 by describing how one pagan author (he refrains coyly from naming Virgil) articulated his horror at the idea of bodily resurrection. (Text: PL 38, 1135–36) Exhorruit quidam auctor ipsorum, cui demonstrabatur, vel qui inducebat apud inferos demonstrantem patrem filio suo. Nostis enim hoc prope omnes; atque utinam pauci nossetis. Sed pauci nostis in libris, multi in theatris, quia Aeneas descendit ad inferos, et ostendit illi pater suus animas Romanorum magnorum venturas in corpora.

A certain pagan author took fright, when this [notion] was pointed out to him, or when he brought onto the stage a father pointing it out to his son among the nether shades. Indeed, almost all of you know this—and would that few of you did! But few of you know from books, many from the theater, that Aeneas descended to the nether shades and his father showed him the souls of great Romans who would come into bodies. (MP and JZ)

9. Fulgentius See below, IV.F. In the Expositio Virgilianae continentiae (Explanation of the Content of Virgil), Fulgentius (mid or late sixth century) summons up Virgil to explicate to him the meaning of the Aeneid. Before beginning his explanation, Virgil strikes the pose of an orator. (Discussion: A. Corbeill, Nature Embodied: Gesture in Ancient Rome [Princeton, 2004], 50–51, 60–61) (Text: R. Helm, ed. [Leipzig, 1898], 86) Itaque compositus in dicendi modum erectis in iotam duobus digitis tertium pollicem comprimens ita verbis exorsus est.

And so, striking an oratorical pose, with two fingers forming an iota and pressing together against them a third, the thumb, he began to speak. (JZ)

10. Venantius Fortunatus (Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus, circa 540–circa 600) Born in Italy but resident in France from 565 until his death, Venantius was a prolific Christian Latin poet whose hymns include Pange lingua and Vexilla regis. In Carmina 7.8.25–26 he mentions a reading of Virgil, which presumably took place from volumes still housed then in the Bibliotheca Ulpia. (Text: F. Leo, ed., MGH Auctores antiquissimi 4.1 [Berlin 1881], 162) si sibi forte fuit bene notus Homerus Athenis aut Maro Traiano lectus in urbe foro 166

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. . . if perchance to him was Homer well known at Athens or Virgil read at Rome in the Forum of Trajan . . . (MP)

11. Virgil and Musical Notation The earliest extant examples of measured music (and of secular song) printed from movable type are lines from Horace, Lucan, Ovid, and Virgil that serve as illustrations in the section on Harmonia (Harmony) in Grammatica brevis (A Concise Grammar), a grammar book by Pescennio Francesco Negro (born 1452) published in Venice (Theodorus Herbipolensis, March 21, 1480). But long before the invention of the printing press, Virgil’s poetry was being written with musical notation—and presumably was being sung as well. More than two dozen passages of Virgil’s poetry survive with musical notation from the tenth through the twelfth centuries. These instances o√er a reminder of how di√erent the experience of encountering Virgil could have been to the audiences of medieval manuscripts. In addition, they suggest how complexly musical notation, in the form of ‘‘neumes,’’ could relate to other types of markers that were being developed to give directions about the delivery and comprehension of poetry. During these same three centuries musical notation came into play with other systems of signs that scribes used to help elucidate the nature and meaning of di≈cult Virgilian passages, particularly speeches. With regard to the reception of notated texts, our picture of how the text of Virgil was experienced in medieval classrooms remains frustratingly limited and hazy. The almost axiomatic assumption that the juxtaposition of oral delivery and literature is a contradiction in terms is nothing new, but rather dates to antiquity, which has left few and tantalizingly vague testimonia about the specifics of actio and pronuntiatio (delivery). A case in point is Servius’s observation on Aeneid 4.323 (see above, I.D.7). Virgil’s recitation was expressive, putting on display his voice and his facility in imparting emotions. The action of recitation often has as its basis a written text. Nonetheless, whereas reading may be termed a visual act, recitation seems generally to be an oral one—and usually one performed from memory. Did Virgil’s recitation involve a physical text? Was it a matter of reading aloud, as plain and simple as reading aloud ever is? Or did it incorporate features of cantillation or even of song? After all, Macrobius suggested that at least the story of Dido (whether or not that means Virgil’s poetry is another question) was sung by actors (see below, III.E.4). Such questions, unanswerable as Servius may leave them, are not merely academic. In seeking to understand how texts such as the Aeneid would have been received in their own day, we must reflect upon how their authors may well have shaped their style—their very language—to make their poems more D. VIRGIL AS PERFORMED OR DECLAIMED

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e√ective in recitation. And beyond the nature of the reception that such writings underwent in their own times, we must evaluate what would have happened to them in their later transmission. A great puzzle is what form Servius or (maybe even more intriguingly) his medieval readers would have thought that Virgil’s oral performance of this portion of the Aeneid had taken. Under certain conditions the qualities of the texts that lent themselves well to recitation in antiquity may have provoked chanting and singing in later periods. In one German manuscript of the tenth–eleventh century (Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár 7, fols. 97v–98r) Servius’s report of how Virgil recited the Aeneid is placed prominently as the final line in a gloss atop a folio side that, immediately beneath it, has an early form of musical notation for the very stretch of the epic to which it pertains. If the medieval producers and users of the manuscript believed that the Aeneid was meant, in at least some of its parts and on at least some occasions, to be sung, then they may have resorted to their own native cultures for analogues and inspirations in imagining what the nature of that singing should be. Doing so would have been consonant with the mediation between classical Latin and older Germanic that happens sporadically between the lines in the same passages, in which a few words are glossed in a Germanic vernacular. Thus the Latin compellat (accosts) in Aeneid 4.304 is explained in the interlinear space above it as ‘‘gruotta’’ (greets), infensi (hostile) in 321 as ‘‘orbulgan’’ (angered), and capta (vanquished) in 330 as ‘‘briuechan’’ (destroyed) The same manuscripts that accompany Virgilian texts with neumes are also central in the literary reception of the texts and often display heavy signs of consultation and supplementation. For instance, a ninth-century manuscript of Virgil now in Paris (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 7925) that may have originated in Limoges contains, in addition to neumes, annotations in Tironian notes, a Latin shorthand that was revived during the ninth century. After Priscian, Virgil was the ancient author whose writings were most frequently accompanied by glosses recorded in this form of stenography. Another example involves a tenth-century north Italian codex now in the Laurentian library in Florence (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Ashburnham 23) containing a text of Virgil that was first corrected (by adding omitted syllables of Latin above the lines) and then neumed by one and the same later hand. Like at least ten manuscripts with neumed texts of classical poetry, this codex contains marking to indicate how the syntax of especially challenging passages would be construed if the words were read in normal prose. Such signs are commonly designated ‘‘construe marks’’ or ‘‘construction marks’’ in modern paleographic terminology. The indicators were intended to communicate how words (particularly in verse) were to be reor168

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dered into an order closer to that of normal Latin prose (ordo naturalis)—or perhaps closer to the word order of the pupils’ native language. A tabulation of the passages in Virgil with neumation that have been identified to date reveals that many of them—fifteen—were speeches. The salience of speeches among the neumed passages suggests that musical notation accompanied direct address in particular. As seen below (IV.D.3.d), much of the Interpretationes Vergilianae that Tiberius Claudius Donatus wrote in the late fourth or early fifth century focuses upon the speeches. Against this backdrop, it seems only natural that teachers, musicians, and others should have gravitated toward the poems and sections of poems that have always been especially favored and studied, because of their emotional intensity and literary quality. To exemplify the way in which neuming can undo the tangle of speeches within speeches, consider Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 18059 (second quarter of the eleventh century, from Germany). Folio 183r presents two columns of text. The left column begins with Aeneid 2.24 and concludes with 2.74. The progression in this stretch of Virgil’s epic is intricately imbricated. Aeneas is narrating the fall of Troy. The midpoint of the fifty lines in this column falls in the speech that Laocoön makes to his fellow Trojans in a failed attempt to dissuade them from receiving the wooden horse into their city. The speech commences without any more warning than the exclamation Ó (Aeneid 2.42), which bears here what appears to be an accent mark (as it often does)—comparable in this usage to the upside-down exclamation mark that in the punctuation of Spanish precedes an exclamation. The reader is given a verbal cue to the impending speech by the interlinear gloss above Et procul (Aeneid 2.42 and from afar): ‘‘Dixit’’ (He said). (In Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 9344 [first half of the eleventh century, from Echternach in present-day Luxembourg], fol. 55r, similar attention is paid to signaling the start of the speech by the gloss ‘‘Scilicet inquit’’ [Obviously, he says].) Much more explicit guidance is forthcoming in the neumes, which commence at O miseri (O wretched) and run through the whole of the speech, to end in a melismatic flourish over the words Sic fatus (Aeneid 2.50 So saying), which indicate the transition out of direct address. The same holds true in 69–72, where the whole of Sinon’s speech is neumed (including—as is commonly the case—the word inquit, which in antiquity would have been by itself, even if postpositively, a su≈cient ‘‘flag’’ that the passage was direct address). The manuscript of this passage is speckled with glosses to elucidate meaning in general, especially by untangling syntax. Thus a marginal gloss to line 44 explains ‘‘Ordo: dona Danaum, non dolis Danaum.’’ An interlinear gloss to 42 supplies a verb and connects an otherwise unattached phrase to the addressees of the speech: the half line in question is que tanta insania cives (What wild D. VIRGIL AS PERFORMED OR DECLAIMED

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frenzy is this, citizens?), and the gloss is ‘‘est in vobis’’ (it is in you). The telegraphic Sic notus Ulixes? (Aeneid 2.44 Is it thus you know Ulysses?) begs for information about what the word sic assumes, and a gloss reveals ‘‘est nobis dolosus’’ (He is deceitful to us). When the vocabulary would have posed challenges, paraphrase or expansion in Latin was not always the most economical option. Consequently the glossator simply supplied the corresponding words in Old High German (Bavarian dialect). For example, he explicated machina (engine of war) in 46 as ‘‘girusti’’ (equipment) and desuper (from above) in 47 as ‘‘vonopani’’ (from above). The latter word must have often occasioned trouble, since it was also glossed in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 9344, with the phrase ‘‘in urbem’’ (against or upon the city). Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 18059, folio 221r, displays neumation that operates similarly. Beginning shortly after Virgil’s description of Ilian women who are making great wailing (Aeneid 11.37), it runs throughout Aeneid 11.42–58, blanketing the whole of Aeneas’s lament for Pallas—even, once again, the word inquit, since it and other indications of speech such as ait are usually neumed when they occur within speeches that are neumed. For example, see Prague, Národní knihovna (National Library), MS VIII.H.9 (1627) (first half of the twelfth century, from Germany), folios 4r–4v, in which ait in Lucan 1.300 is neumed; or St. Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 863 (first half of the tenth century, from St. Gall), p. 212, in which the same verb is neumed in Lucan, De bello civili 8.746. Such words had acted in the guise of quotation marks in the classical period, since Latin speakers then were habituated to encountering—after the sentence in question had started—words that conveyed major information about the nature of the communication. But in the changed linguistic situation of the Latin Middle Ages, verbs of this type were not always su≈cient by themselves, especially when they were not positioned before the speech actually began. Accordingly, a glossator undertook additional measures to highlight the exordium of the speech in Aeneid 11. In the left margin of the Munich MS is a gloss, spotlighted by a mark that is potentially confusing for being neumelike. As in the earlier case, the gloss—repeating Servius verbatim—is a small beacon to alert the reader that the adjacent passage is a speech. The gloss on ‘‘tene’’ inquit explains that inquit is repetitive, since Virgil has stated in the preceding line that Aeneas is speaking (fatur): ‘‘Iteratio est, nam supra ait ‘lacrimis sic [recte, ita] fatur obortis’ ’’ (Aeneid 11.41 It is repetition, for above he said ‘‘speaks thus, amid welling tears’’). This insight was far more necessary when the Latin text lacked the single and double quotation marks that figured in the punctuation of both the preceding sentences. Another approach, less labor-intensive than neumation but purveying 170

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much less information about delivery and also requiring activity outside the text frame, would have been to mark the commencement of a speech within a speech with a marginal drawing of a small hand with one finger pointing toward the passage and the others balled in a fist. In medieval manuscripts this kind of a hand, designated manicula from the Latin word for a small hand (or manicule from the French derivative of the Latin), often drew attention to important passages. Such marking may be the function of the manicula that points to the first word in Hector’s speech to Aeneas in Aeneid 2.289 in the German manuscript Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár 7 (tenth– eleventh century), folio 73v; the preceding folio side (73r) contains neumation for the lines that lead up to this speech (Aeneid 2.274–86). A manicula is found in the same manuscript on folio 99r, at the end of Aeneid 4.422, two lines before another neumed passage (Aeneid 4.424–34). Not unexpectedly, the frenzy of Dido in the fourth book of the Aeneid, as it reveals itself in harangues to Aeneas and Anna as well as in a monologue, garnered more attention from neumators than any other episode in any classical Latin poem. (For plates, see Combarieu, as well as Riou, ‘‘Chronologie et provenance’’ [cited below], plate VI 2, which reproduces Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 239 [middle third of the ninth century, from eastern France], fol. 42v = Aeneid 4.651–58.) No fewer than four substantial stretches of Dido’s words were neumed. Three manuscripts contain neumation for Dido’s final speech, which begins at Aeneid 4.651. Only one provides notation all the way through her last words in 4.662. In the other two the neumation ceases at the end of 4.658. It is possible that the shorter versions came about as a result of a mnemonic failure, one that is almost feasible to reconstruct: line 659 begins with the word dixit (she spoke), line 663 with dixerat (she had spoken). But the mise en page of one shorter version suggests that, whatever reason led to the notation of only part of the speech, the scribe knew where it would conclude: Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 239, folio 42v, has an oversized initial D in the word Dixit in line 659, as if to denote a major textual division. At the other end of the passage, the neumation starts out pyrotechnically: the first syllable of dulces, the initial word in 651, has above it a veritable Catherine wheel of neumes, in the manner of a melisma. Even before the notation begins, anyone approaching the passage would be alerted that it is a speech, because an Ó (an O with an acute accent) is written in the left margin to bring home that the phrase dulces exuviae is a vocative (O relics once dear). Part of the attraction that the speeches of Dido exerted would have been the spectrum of emotions they covered: pathos, which has been rightly identified as a basic constituent of the Aeneid, is nowhere more salient than in the fourth book. At the same time, as rhetorical objects the speeches are supremely D. VIRGIL AS PERFORMED OR DECLAIMED

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complex—and the complexity extends even to their metrical workings. Dido’s speeches are riddled with distinctive prosodic features, such as elisions in unusual positions in the line, atypical line endings, and anomalous caesuras. The prosody and the psychology are inextricable. The two preoccupations, of grasping both the emotions and the rhetoric, come to the fore in the glosses and comments that can be found in the environs of some neumed passages. A case in point is Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 21562 (end of the twelfth century, from Germany), folio 122r, which transmits Aeneid 4.424–35 with neumes. With the paragraphing and quotation marks in today’s editions and translations, the shifting from Virgil’s address to Dido and editorializing to the reader (408–12), through the resumption of the narration (413–15), and into Dido’s pleading speech to Anna (416–36) can be followed without any headscratching. In the medieval manuscripts other sorts of cues were needed—and provided—to forestall baΔement. Thus the rhetorical question by the narrator, which might otherwise perplex unwary readers, is set o√ by a large colored initial at line 408. At the line’s end appears the caption ‘‘Poeta alloquitur Didonem’’ (The poet addresses Dido) just to obviate any chance of confusion. Virgil’s concluding editorial comment improbe Amor, quid non mortalia pectora cogis! (O tyrant love, to what do you not drive the hearts of men?) in 412 elicits the caption ‘‘Exclamatio a poeta contra amorem’’ (Outburst by the poet against love). In Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 305 (early twelfth century, from Germany), folio 106r, the same verse bears the same caption with, in addition, a manicula so that no one consulting the manuscript would fail to take note of the dangers immanent in love. For the musical notation of such passages to have died out by 1200 may seem unexpected and even paradoxical, since the so-called twelfth-century Renaissance was favorable for both education and the copying of the classics. A few plausible explanations come to mind, although it is important to avoid any facile conclusions about a process that involved (to degrees we have not yet understood fully) complex changes in both music and notation. One is that the learning of basic Latin and the learning of chant were drifting apart. Another possible reason is that tastes were changing in music, away from monophony toward polyphony—and consequently away from forms that could be notated with neumes between lines or in the margins. For the new music, new notation and more spacious formats for text were essential. Both the old music and the old way of notating it became lost arts. Or, to look at the situation from a slightly di√erent perspective, notation in the twelfth century became almost universally diastematic, and music that had been purveyed mainly by cantors, librarians, and teachers failed to make the passage into a 172

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notational system that provided more exact information about pitch and less about interpretative nuances to its users. The neumed classics persisted for a while in the German-speaking centers where nondiastematic notation remained in use. A third explanation is that as music grew in importance, composers grew less willing to confine themselves to the awkwardnesses of a verse system that had varying numbers of syllables and a meter out of step with the rhythmic meters in vogue in their own day. This unwillingness would help to account for the appearance of vernacular songs and rhythmic Latin texts based on the same episodes in the Aeneid that had been neumed not long before. (Discussion: J. Combarieu, Fragments de l’Enéide en musique, d’après un manuscrit inédit. Fac-similés phototypiques précédés d’une introduction [Paris, 1898]; H. Rumphorst, ‘‘Zur musikalischen Gestaltung der Verse Aeneis 4, 424–436 im Cod. Guelf. 66 Gud. Lat. f. 20vb1,’’ in Vergil. Handschriften und Drucke der Herzog August Bibliothek, ed. B. Schneider [Wolfenbüttel, 1982], 28–34; J. Ziolkowski, ‘‘Nota Bene: Why the Classics were Neumed in the Middle Ages,’’ Journal of Medieval Latin 10 [2000], 74–114; idem, ‘‘Between Text and Music: The Reception of Virgilian Speeches in Early Medieval Manuscripts,’’ Materiali e discussioni per l’analisi dei testi classici 52 [2004], 107–26; idem, Nota Bene: Reading Classics and Writing Songs in the Early Middle Ages, Publications of The Journal of Medieval Latin 7 [Turnhout, 2007], passim.) (JZ) List of Virgil Manuscripts with Musical Notation Four inclusions that may be dubious, because the association of the melody with the poetry in the manuscript is in question, are marked with asterisks (*). Y.-F. Riou, ‘‘Chronologie et provenance des manuscrits latins neumés,’’ Revue d’histoire des textes 21 (1991), 113, designates these passages in Virgil as having marginal (not interlinear) notation, which he is not certain pertains to the text. A di√erent question is raised by two passages in Aeneas’s long narration about the fall of Troy and the wanderings of his men in books 2 and 3 of the Aeneid; whereas three other passages from within the narration are accounts of speeches by others, these two are directly in Aeneas’s voice. Whether passages from such a long narrative speech should be equated with other shorter speeches is open to debate, but the former have been included in the count here. The bracketed letter and number following the library classmark indicates the identifier assigned to the manuscript in B. Munk Olsen, L’étude des auteurs classiques latins au onzième et douzième siècles, 3 vols. (Paris, 1982–89). The bracketed information about date and localization pertains to the neumes. When preceded by ‘‘R,’’ it is drawn from Riou. He indicates within parentheses D. VIRGIL AS PERFORMED OR DECLAIMED

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when his localization di√ers from that of preceding scholarship, which in most cases means Munk Olsen. Items that are listed as appearing only in Munk Olsen are often passages with markings that Riou regarded as nonmusical, such as scansion marks. I have decided to err on the side of inclusiveness. Information about date and localization that follows the abbreviation T&T relates to the text and refers to Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. L. D. Reynolds (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983). Information about date that indicates ‘‘Korhammer’’ is based on the work on construe marks found in M. Korhammer, ‘‘Mittelalterliche Konstruktionshilfen und altenglische Wortstellung,’’ Scriptorium 34 (1980), 18–58. Eclogues 4.39: Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, MS Vindob. lat. 5, fol. 16v, col. 1, line 16 [B.150 (added by Riou)] Eclogues 7.1–5 (opening, in narration by Meliboeus): Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 9344, fol. 3r [C.189] [R: first half of eleventh century, from Echternach (western Germany or eastern France)]; 7.1–3 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 7930, fol. 19r [C.174] [R: first half of eleventh century, from eastern France or Reims region? (France, East?)] Georgics 1.351: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 9344, fol. 41v (a paraphrase or cento) [C.189 (added by Riou)] [R: first half of eleventh century, from Echternach (western Germany or eastern France)] Georgics 1.391–92: Naples, Biblioteca nazionale, MS Vindob. lat. 5, fol. 16, col. 1, lines 1–2 [B.150 (added by Riou)] Aeneid 1.1–3: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 3088-XI, fol. 122v [B.166] Aeneid 1.76–77 (Aeolus): Naples, Biblioteca nazionale, MS Vindob. lat. 5, fol. 27r, col. 2, line 18 [B.150 (added by Riou)] [R: early tenth century, from southern Italy] Aeneid 1.191: Naples, Biblioteca nazionale, MS Vindob. lat. 5, fol. 27r, col. 2, line 34 [B.150 (added by Riou)] [R: early tenth century, from southern Italy] Aeneid 1.320: Naples, Biblioteca nazionale, MS Vindob. lat. 5, fol. 26v, col. 1, line 23 [B.150 (added by Riou)] [R: early tenth century, from southern Italy] Aeneid 2.42–50 (Laocoön, as reported by Aeneas): Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Ashburnham 23, fol. 16v [B.54] [R: tenth century, from northern Italy (Germany, perhaps Switzerland)]; Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 18059, fol. 183r [C.129 (Munk Olsen indicated neumes 174

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already at 2.41)] [R: second quarter of eleventh century, from Germany]; Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 8069-II, fols. 42r–42v [C.182] [R: eleventh century, from southwest France (France)]; 2.42–49: Brussels, Bibliothèque royale, MS 5325–5327, fol. 4 [B.23] [R: second or final third of ninth century, probably from northern France]; Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 9344, fol. 55r [C.189] [R: first half of eleventh century, Echternach (Germany, West, or France, East)]. Aeneid 2.69–72 (Sinon, as reported by Aeneas): Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 18059, fol. 183r [C.129] [R: tenth–eleventh century, from Germany]; Naples, Biblioteca nazionale, MS Vindob. lat. 5, fol. 40v [B.150 (added by Bobeth)] [R: beginning of the tenth century, Italy, South]; Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 8069-II, fol. 42v [C.182] [R: eleventh century, from southwestern France (France)] Aeneid 2.274–87 (vision of Hector, as narrated by Aeneas): Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 239, fol. 12r [B.14 (b)] [R: middle third of ninth century, from eastern France]; Klosterneuburg, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 742, fol. 53r [C.72] [R: second half of twelfth century, from Germany, perhaps Austria (Germany?)]; Naples, Biblioteca nazionale, MS Vindob. lat. 5, fols. 46r–46v, col. 1–2 [B.150 (added by Riou)] [R: early tenth century, from southern Italy]; 274–86 Brussels, Bibliothèque royale, MS 5325–27, fols. 46v–47r [B.23] [R: middle third of ninth century, from eastern France]; Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár 7, fol. 73r [B.29] [R: tenth–eleventh century, from Germany]; Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Ashburnham 23, fols. 20v–21r [B.54] [R: tenth century, from northern Italy (Germany, perhaps Switzerland)]; Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 18059, fol. 184r [C.129 (added by Riou)] [R: second quarter of eleventh century, from Germany]; Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 8069-II, fol. 44r [C.182] [R: eleventh century, from southwestern France (France)]; Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Reg. lat. 1671, fols. 69v–70r [B.248] [R: second half of tenth century, Franco-English (England)] [VME, pp. 287 (with further bibliography) and 324 n. 59: ‘‘s. X second half, England, probably Worcester’’]; 274 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 7929-I, fol. 126v [B.12 (added by Riou)] [R: ninth century, from France, Fleury-sur-Loire] [T&T ninth century, from Fleury] [also contains Servius auctus: see below, IV.B.] (This listing would appear to be on the basis of the words Ab illo, which are written with neumes marginally on a folio side with Aeneid 12.844–67); 274–75 and 281–82 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F.1.16, p. 114 [B.153 (added by Riou)] [R: tenth–eleventh century, from Germany]; 274–76 Wolfenbüttel, Herzog-August Bibliothek, MS Gudianus latinus 66 (4370), fol. 10v [B.280] [R: first half of eleventh century, from eastern France (St.D. VIRGIL AS PERFORMED OR DECLAIMED

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Vaast d’Arras, France, or Lorsch, Germany)]; Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Reg. lat. 2090, fol. 57v [C.253] [R: eleventh–twelfth century, from southern Italy]; 274–83 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 9344, fols. 58r–58v [C.189] [R: first half of eleventh century, from Echternach (western Germany or eastern France)]; 275, 281, 283, 286 Trent, Biblioteca comunale, MS 1660 TC, p. 115 [C.225] [R: eleventh century, from Germany (western Germany or Austria)] Aeneid 2.673–78 (Iulus, as reported by Aeneas): Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 18059, fol. 186r [C.129] [R: second quarter of eleventh century, from Germany] Aeneid 3.1–3 (narration by Aeneas): Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Reg. lat. 1495, fol. 30r [B.241] [R: tenth–eleventh century, from eastern France] Aeneid 4.296–330 (Dido): Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár 7, fols. 97v–98r [B.29] [R: tenth–eleventh century, from Germany]; 305–11 Klosterneuburg, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 742, fols. 72r–72v [C.72] [R: second half of twelfth century, from Germany, perhaps Austria (Germany?)]; 4.314–24 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 18059, fol. 192r [C.129] [R: second quarter of eleventh century, from Germany] Aeneid 4.368–78 (Dido): Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 18059, fol. 192r [C.129] [R: second quarter of eleventh century, from Germany]; 368–75 Trent, Biblioteca comunale, MS 1660 TC, p. 159–60 [C.225] [R: eleventh century, from Germany (western Germany or Austria)] Aeneid 4.424–36 (Dido): Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Ashburnham 23, fol. 51v [B.54] [R: tenth century, from northern Italy (Germany, perhaps Switzerland)]; Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 305II, fol. 106r [C.121 (added by Riou)] [R: early twelfth century, from Germany]; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F.1.16, p. 128 [B.153 (added by Riou)] [R: tenth–eleventh century, Germany]; Trent, Biblioteca comunale, MS 1660 TC, p. 161 [C.225 (added by Riou)] [R: eleventh century, Germany (Germany, West, or Austria)]; Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, 66 Gudianus latinus (4370), fol. 20v [B.280] [R: first half of eleventh century, from eastern France (St.-Vaast d’Arras, France, or Lorsch, Germany)]; Wroc™aw, Uniwersytet Wroc™awski-Biblioteka uniwersytecka, MS Rehd. 135, fol. 115r [added by Riou] [R: late twelfth century, from Germany]; 424–34 Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár 7, fol. 99v [B.29] [R: tenth–eleventh century, from Germany]; Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 18059, fol. 192v [C.129] [R: eleventh century, second quarter, Germany]; Kremsmünster, Stiftsbibliothek, Fragm. III/154, fol. 1r [C.76 (in Munk Olsen but not in Riou)]; 424–35 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 21562, fol. 176

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122r [C.130 (added by Riou)] [R: late twelfth century, from Germany]; 429– 30 London, British Library, MS Additional 21910, fol. 33r [C.92 (added by Riou)] [R: mid twelfth century, from Germany] Aeneid 4.651–62 (Dido): Klosterneuburg, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 742, fol. 76v [C.72] [R: second half of twelfth century, from Germany, perhaps Austria (Germany?)]; Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 18059, fol. 193v [C.129] [R: second quarter of eleventh century, from Germany]; 650–53 London, British Library, Additional 21910, fol. 35r [C.92] [R: mid twelfth century, from Germany]; 651–58 Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 239, fol. 42v [B.14 (b) (added by Riou)] [R: middle third of ninth century, from eastern France]; Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Ashburnham 23, fol. 55v [B.54] [R: tenth century, from northern Italy (Germany, perhaps Switzerland)] Aeneid 7.534–35: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 7925, fol. 104v– 105r [B.170 (added by Riou)] [R: second quarter of ninth century, from central France] (Korhammer: second half of ninth century) Aeneid 8.98: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 7925, fol. 109v [B.170] [R: second quarter of ninth century, from central France] (Korhammer: second half of ninth century) Aeneid 8.560–67 (Evander): Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 8069-II, fol. 83v [C.182] [R: eleventh century, from southwest France (France)]; 560–63 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F.1.16, p. 160 [B.153 (added by Riou)] [R: tenth–eleventh century, from Germany]; Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 9344, fol. 134r [C.189] [R: first half of eleventh century, from Echternach (western Germany or eastern France)]; Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, 66 Gudianus latinus (4370), fol. 42r [B.280 (added by Riou)] [R: first half of eleventh century, from eastern France (St.-Vaast d’Arras, France, or Lorsch, Germany)] Aeneid 8.672–73: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 7925, fol. 116v [B.170 (added by Riou)] [R: second quarter of ninth century, from central France] (Korhammer: second half of ninth century) Aeneid 8.714–15: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 7925, fol. 117r [B.170 (added by Riou)] [R: second quarter of ninth century, from central France] (Korhammer: second half of ninth century) *Aeneid 10.377–80 (includes end of speech by Pallas): Naples, Biblioteca nazionale, MS Vindob. lat. 6, fol. 148v [B.151] [R: tenth century, from southern Italy] *Aeneid 10.818–22: Naples, Biblioteca nazionale, MS Vindob. lat. 6, fol. 154v [B.151] [R: tenth century, from southern Italy] *Aeneid 10.861–64: Naples, Biblioteca nazionale, MS Vindob. lat. 6, fol. D. VIRGIL AS PERFORMED OR DECLAIMED

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155v [B.151] [R: tenth century, from southern Italy] (in Munk Olsen, but not in Riou) Aeneid 11.42–58 (Aeneas): Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 18059, fol. 221r [C.129] [R: second quarter of eleventh century, from Germany] *Aeneid 11.467–503 (includes last line of speech by Turnus and first two of speech by Camilla): Naples, Biblioteca nazionale, MS Vindob. lat. 6, fol. 162v [B.151 (added by Riou)] [R: tenth century, from southern Italy] Aeneid 12.945–46: Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Ashburnham 23, fol. 181v [B.54] [R: tenth century, from northern Italy (Germany, perhaps Switzerland)]

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I. VIRGIL THE POET

II BIOGRAPHY IMAGES OF VIRGIL

A. VITAE As a figure who was elevated even during his lifetime to be the canonical author of Latin literature, Virgil became the focus of much biographical interest. The number of biographical materials produced in late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the humanistic era is vast, and their interrelationships and evolutions tend to be complex. The biographical writings on Virgil often impose upon his life schemes that relate strongly to the tripartite division of his principal works, the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid. The course of his life was seen to have been threefold, as is evident in the epitaph cited already in Donatus’s Life of Virgil (VSD 36 [see below, II.A.1]), the earliest extant vita of the poet: ‘‘Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders.’’ Beyond Virgil’s own poetry, the ultimate source of much information and pseudo-information contained in late antique and medieval lives of Virgil is the lost ‘‘life’’ of the poet that Suetonius included in the section ‘‘De poetis’’ (On Poets) of his De viris illustribus (On Famous Men), which was probably written in the early years of the second century—in other words, within a century and a half after Virgil’s death. This vita probably assembled all the information on Virgil’s life, not yet in the form of systematic biographies, that was available to Suetonius when he wrote. Parts of the contents of this vita ultimately reached the Middle Ages indirectly through two channels.

The earlier is the life by Aelius Donatus, who was a well-known grammarian active in Rome around the middle of the fourth century. This life is sometimes tagged the Vita Donatiana but more conventionally assigned the siglum VSD (as it is in this anthology), for Vita Suetonii vulgo Donatiana, which gives credit to Suetonius and Donatus alike. The VSD is usually found in manuscripts preceding Donatus’s preface to his commentary on the Eclogues. The VSD survives in thirty-three manuscripts of which fourteen are thirteenth century or earlier. It appears not to have been attributed to Donatus in witnesses earlier than the twelfth century, although in one ninth- or tenth-century manuscript it is preceded by a dedicatory letter (Epistula ad Munatium) that bears the name Aelius Donatus. The vocabulary and style of the VSD are consistent to a very high degree with those of Suetonius’s surviving writings; this consistency adds weight to the idea that Donatus’s life is in the main identical with the one written by Suetonius. The VSD seems to have enjoyed its greatest successes first during the Carolingian revival and then during the Renaissance. Two other texts are closely related to the VSD. One is an abridgment that survives in six manuscripts, all but one of them twelfth-century. The other is a vita that is found in thirty-eight manuscripts together with Donatus’s preface to the Eclogues. The later conduit for knowledge of the lost vita by Suetonius is Jerome, who appears to have had access to both the life by Suetonius and the VSD (the influence of the latter is not surprising, since Donatus was his teacher). From the two works Jerome excerpted the passages that he included in his own works, especially in his translation of the Chronicon by Eusebius of Caesarea. Although five later lives rely on Jerome as their main source, more than a half-dozen draw, either directly or indirectly, not upon Jerome but upon Servius, who relied in turn upon the VSD. Servius’s life of Virgil is extant in dozens upon dozens of manuscripts, often prefixed to his commentary. Servius was not the only late antique grammarian to produce a vita that survived into the Middle Ages, but few of the other vitae appear to have exercised much influence, and all drew largely upon the VSD. These are the life by Focas, and the ones associated with Probus and Philargyrius. The one exception is the so-called Vita Bernensis I (The First Bern ‘‘Life’’), which survives in nearly three dozen manuscripts from the fourteenth century or earlier. From the Middle Ages we have a number of lives, all of which rest on the life by Donatus, the life by Servius, or the excerpts of Jerome. These lives tend not to have their authors identified in the manuscripts and to be named instead in Latin, sometimes bewilderingly, after the cities and towns where they are located or the collections in which they are held. For example, the Vitae Gudianae (in the Gudianus class of manuscripts in Wolfenbüttel), the Vitae Mo180

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nacenses (Munich), the two Vitae Noricenses (from the Benedictine monastery of St. Paul in Carinthia, Austria: Carinthia overlaps roughly with the ancient Noricum), the Vita Aurelianensis (Orléans), the Vita Parisina II (Paris), and the Vita Vossiana (in the Vossianus class in Leiden) all exist each in only a single manuscript, while the Vita Leidensis (Leiden) is found in two. In this collection, the lives are arranged in three sets. The first are lives associated (rightly or wrongly) in their very titles with specific scholars of antiquity and late antiquity, such as Donatus, Jerome, Servius, Probus, Focas (or Phocas), and Philargyrius (or Filargirius). After these come more than twenty medieval items that are anonymous, di≈cult to date precisely, and named after the cities where their manuscripts were or are located. These items include not only vitae but also expositiones (systematic lives that formed part of a literary-critical system: see below, II.A.8) and periochae (systematic questions, known alternatively by the Latin term circumstantiae: see below, II.A.11–15). The collection of lives concludes with a half-dozen texts, most of them quite long, produced in the fourteenth century. This final grouping is arranged chronologically. The penultimate of these—the so-called Donatus auctus— brings us full circle to the late antique lives. Though termed a ‘‘humanistic’’ life, it expands the VSD with a variety of other material. (Discussion: W. Suerbaum, ANRW 2/31.2 [1981], 1165–86) (Text: Major collections of vitae are VV; EV 5.2, 427–540, nos. 80, 90, 95–96, 147–48, 218–22, 273–75, 280– 83, 286–90, 331, 343, 366–69, 372–76, 378–81; and VVA. The Latin followed initially in translating most of the vitae, expositiones, and periochae included here was VV, but later permission was granted to use VVA.) (JZ)

1. Vita Suetonii vulgo Donatiana (VSD) (fourth century) Aelius Donatus taught grammar at Rome around the middle of the fourth century. He is not to be confused with the Tiberius Claudius Donatus (active around 400) who wrote Interpretationes (see below, IV.D.3). The most influential grammarian of his time, Aelius Donatus counted among his many students none other than Jerome. Among Donatus’s extant works of grammar are the Ars minor, which earned recognition as the most important grammar textbook for nearly a millennium in the Latin West, and the Ars maior, a more extensive grammar treatise. In the Middle Ages the former in particular made Donatus’s name a byword for the art of grammar itself. Like many other Latin ‘‘arts of grammar,’’ Donatus’s contains extensive quotations from Latin authors; among them, Virgil is quoted far more often than any other. In addition to these grammars, Donatus’s surviving works include a commentary on the A. VITAE

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comedies of Terence and, last but not least, a commentary on Virgil (composed before 363), much of which has been lost. Apart from the dedicatory letter and the preface to the Eclogues, all that remains is the Vita Vergilii (Life of Virgil). The VSD contains parts that have been called the Expositio Donati (Exposition by Donatus). This section, which led a life of its own as a separate work, is the first extant text to distribute the contents of the Suetonian life in the literary-critical format known technically as expositio (see below, II.A.8). A version of this translation, which includes the additional materials that were included in the so-called Donatus auctus (the vita of Donatus as expanded by a humanist scholar) can be found online as: Aelius Donatus, Life of Virgil, trans. David Wilson-Okamura (1996), http://www.virgil.org/vitae/a-dona tus.htm. In this volume the additional materials have been translated separately (see below, II.A.37). (Discussion: N. Horsfall, ‘‘Virgil: His Life and Times,’’ in A Companion to the Study of Virgil, ed. N. Horsfall, Mnemosyne Supplement 151 [Leiden, 1995], 1–25, who considers the reliability of the VSD; F. Stok, ‘‘Virgil between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,’’ International Journal of the Classical Tradition 1 [1994], 15–22, discusses the fortunes and permutations of the VSD up to 1600) (Text: VVA 17–56; VV 214–40) (JZ) [1] P. Vergilius Maro Mantuanus parentibus modicis fuit ac praecipue patre, quem quidam opificem figulum, plures Magi cuiusdam viatoris initio mercennarium, mox ob industriam generum tradiderunt egregieque substantiae silvis coemendis et apibus curandis auxisse re[c]ulam. [2] Natus est Cn. Pompeio Magno M. Licinio Crasso primum conss. Iduum Octobrium die in pago, qui Andes dicitur et abest a Mantua non procul. [3] Praegnans eum mater somniavit enixam se laureum ramum, quem contactu terrae coaluisse et excrevisse ilico in speciem maturae arboris refertaeque variis pomis et floribus. Ac sequenti luce cum marito rus propinquum petens ex itinere devertit atque in subiecta fossa partu levata est. [4] Ferunt infantem, ut sit editus, neque vagisse et adeo miti vultu fuisse, ut haud dubiam spem prosperioris geniturae iam tum daret. [5] Et accessit aliud praesagium, siquidem virga populea more regionis in puerperiis eodem statim loco depacta ita brevi evaluit tempore, ut multo ante satas populos adaequavisset; quae ‘‘arbor Vergilii’’ ex eo dicta atque etiam consecrata est summa gravidarum ac fetarum religione et suscipientium ibi et solventium vota. [6] Initia aetatis Cremonae egit usque ad virilem togam, quam XVII anno natali suo accepit isdem illis consulibus iterum duobus, quibus erat natus, evenitque ut eodem ipso die Lucretius poeta decederet. [7] Sed Vergilius a Cremona Mediolanum et inde paulo post transiit in urbem. 182

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[8] Corpore et statura fuit grandi, aquilo colore, facie rusticana, valetudine varia; nam plerumque a stomacho et a faucibus ac dolore capitis laborabat, sanguinem etiam saepe reiecit. [9] Cibi vinique minimi, libidinis in pueros pronioris, quorum maxime dilexit Cebetem et Alexandrum, quem secunda Bucolicorum ecloga Alexim appellat, donatum sibi ab Asinio Pollione, utrumque non ineruditum, Cebetem vero et poetam. [10] Vulgatum est consuesse eum et cum Plotia Hieria. Sed Asconius Pedianus [see below, IV.A.3] adfirmat, ipsam postea maiorem natu narrare solitam invitatum quidem a Vario ad communionem sui, verum pertinacissime recusasse. [11] Cetera sane vita et ore et animo tam probum constat, ut Neapoli ‘‘Parthenias’’ vulgo appellatus sit, ac si quando Romae, quo rarissime commeabat, viseretur in publico, sectantes demonstrantesque se suffugere[t] in proximum tectum. [12] Bona autem cuiusdam exsulantis offerente Augusto non sustinuit accipere. [13] Possedit prope centiens sestertium ex liberalitatibus amicorum, habuitque domum Romae Esquiliis iuxta hortos Maecenatianos, quamquam secessu Campaniae Siciliaeque plurimum uteretur. [14] Parentes iam grandis amisit, ex quibus patrem captum oculis et duos fratres germanos, Silonem impuberem, Flaccum iam adultum, cuius exitum sub nomine Daphnidis deflet [Eclogues 5.20]. [15] Inter cetera studia medicinae quoque ac maxime mathematicae operam dedit. Egit et causam apud iudices unam omnino nec amplius quam semel: [16] nam et in sermone tardissimum ac paene indocto similem fuisse Melissus tradidit. [17] Poeticam puer adhuc auspicatus in Ballistam ludi magistrum ob infamiam latrociniorum coopertum lapidibus distichon fecit: Monte sub hoc lapidum tegitur Ballista sepultus; nocte die tutum carpe, viator, iter. [AL 1.1, 212, no. 261]

Deinde Catale[p]ton et Priapea et Epigrammata et Diras, item Cirim et Culicem, cum esset annorum X[X]VI. [18] Cuius materia talis est: Pastor fatigatus aestu cum sub arbore condormisset et serpens ad eum proreperet e palude, culex provolavit atque inter duo tempora aculeum fixit pastori. At ille continuo culicem contrivit et serpentem interemit ac sepulcrum culici statuit et distichon fecit: Parve culex, pecudum custos, tibi tale merenti funeris officium vitae pro munere reddit [Culex 413–14].

[19] Scripsit etiam, de qua ambigitur, Aetnam. Mox cum res Romanas inchoasset, offensus materia ad Bucolica transiit, maxime ut Asinium Pollionem, Alfenum Varum et Cornelium Gallum celebraret, quia in distributione agrorum, qui post Philippensem victoriam veteranis triumvirorum A. VITAE

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iussu trans Padum dividebantur, indemnem se praestitissent. [20] Deinde Georgica in honorem Maecenatis [scripsit], qui sibi mediocriter adhuc noto opem tulisset adversus veterani cuiusdam violentiam, a quo in altercatione litis agrariae paulum afuit quin occideretur. [21] Novissime Aeneidem inchoavit, argumentum varium ac multiplex et quasi amborum Homeri carminum instar, praeterea nominibus ac rebus Graecis Latinisque commune, et in quo, quod maxime studebat, Romanae simul urbis et Augusti origo contineretur. [22] Cum Georgica scriberet, traditur quotidie meditatos mane plurimos versus dictare solitus ac per totum diem retractando ad paucissimos redigere, non absurde carmen se more ursae parere dicens et lambendo demum effingere. [23] Aeneida prosa prius oratione formatam digestamque in XII libros particulatim componere instituit, prout liberet quidque, et nihil in ordinem arripiens. [24] Ac ne quid impetum moraretur, quaedam imperfecta transmisit, alia levissimis versibus veluti fulsit, quos per iocum pro tibicinibus interponi aiebat ad sustinendum opus, donec solidae columnae advenirent. [25] Bucolica triennio, Georgica VII, Aeneida XI perfecit annis. [26] Bucolica eo successu edidit, ut in scaena quoque per cantores crebro pronuntiarentur. [27] Georgica reverso post Actiacam victoriam Augusto atque Atellae reficiendarum faucium causa commoranti per continuum quadriduum legit, suscipiente Maecenate legendi vicem, quotiens interpellaretur ipse vocis offensione. [28] Pronuntiabat autem cum suavitate, cum lenociniis miris. [29] [Ac] Seneca tradidit Iulium Montanum poetam solitum dicere, involaturum se Vergilio quaedam, si et vocem posset et os et hypocrisin: eosdem enim versus ipso pronuntiante bene sonare, sine illo inanes esse mutosque. [30] Aeneidos vixdum coeptae tanta exstitit fama, ut Sextus Propertius non dubitaverit sic praedicare: Cedite, Romani scriptores, cedite Grai: nescio quid maius nascitur Iliade [Carmina 2.34.65–66].

[31] Augustus vero, nam forte expeditione Cantabrica aberat, supplicibus atque etiam minacibus per iocum litteris efflagitaret, ut ‘‘sibi de Aeneide,’’ ut ipsius verba sunt, ‘‘vel prima carminis upograf ˘ h´ vel quodlibet kvlon ˜ mitteretur.’’ [32] Cui tamen multo post, perfectaque demum materia, tres omnino libros recitavit, secundum quartum et sextum; sed hunc notabili Octaviae adfectione, quae, cum recitationi interesset, ad illos de filio suo versus: ‘‘Tu Marcellus eris’’ [Aeneid 6.883], defecisse fertur atque aegre focilata. [33] Recitavit et pluribus, sed neque frequenter et ea fere de quibus ambigebat, quo magis iudicium hominum experiretur. [34] Erotem librarium et libertum eius exactae iam senectutis tradunt referre solitum, quondam eum in recitando duos dimidiatos versus complesse ex tempore. Nam

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cum hactenus haberet: ‘‘Misenum Aeoliden’’ [Aeneid 6.164], adiecisse: ‘‘quo non praestantior alter,’’ item huic: ‘‘Aere ciere viros,’’ simili calore iactatum subiunxisse: ‘‘Martemque accendere cantu’’ [Aeneid 6.165], statimque sibi imperasse, ut utrumque volumini adscriberet. [35] Anno aetatis quinquagesimo secundo impositurus Aeneidi summam manum statuit in Graeciam et in Asiam secedere triennioque continuo nihil amplius quam emendare ut reliqua vita tantum philosophiae vacaret. Sed cum ingressus iter Athenis occurrisset Augusto ab oriente Romam revertenti, destinaretque non absistere atque etiam una redire, dum Megara vicinum oppidum ferventissimo sole cognoscit, languorem nactus est, eumque non intermissa navigatione auxit ita, ut gravior aliquanto Brundisium appelleret, ubi diebus paucis obiit XI Kal. Octobr. Cn. Sentio Q. Lucretio conss. [36] Ossa eius Neapolim translata sunt tumuloque condita, qui est via Puteolana intra lapidem secundum, in quo distichon fecit tale: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua rura duces [see below, II.C.1].

[37] Heredes fecit ex dimidia parte Valerium Proculum fratrem alio patre, ex quarta Augustum, ex duodecima Maecenatem, ex reliqua L. Varium et Plotium Tuccam, qui eius Aeneidem post obitum iussu Caesaris emendaverunt. [38] De qua re Sulpicii Carthaginiensis exstant huiusmodi versus: Iusserat haec rapidis aboleri carmina flammis Vergilius, Phrygium quae cecinere ducem. Tucca vetat Variusque simul; tu, maxime Caesar, non sinis et Latiae consulis historiae. Infelix gemino cecidit prope Pergamon igni, et paene est alio Troia cremata rogo.

[39] Egerat cum Vario, priusquam Italia decederet, ut si quid sibi accidisset, Aeneida combureret; [a]t is ita facturum se pernegarat. Igitur in extrema valetudine assidue scrinia desideravit, crematurus ipse; verum nemine offerente, nihil quidem nominatim de ea cavit. [40] Ceterum eidem Vario ac simul Tuccae scripta sua sub ea conditione legavit, ne quid ederent, quod non a se editum esset. [41] Edidit autem auctore Augusto Varius, sed summatim emendata, ut qui versus etiam imperfectos, si qui erant, reliquerit. Quos multi mox supplere conati non perinde valuerunt ob difficultatem, quod omnia fere apud eum hemistichia absoluto perfectoque sunt sensu, praeter illud ‘‘Quem tibi iam Troia’’ [Aeneid 3.340]. [42] Nisus grammaticus audisse se a senioribus aiebat, Varium duorum librorum ordinem commutasse, †et qui nunc secundus sit in tertium locum transtulisse,† etiam primi libri correxisse principium, his versibus demptis:

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Ille ego qui quondam gracili modulatus avena carmina et egressus silvis vicina coegi, ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono, gratum opus agricolis, at nunc horrentia Martis arma virumque cano [see above, I.C.2].

[43] Obtrectatores Vergilio numquam defuerunt, nec mirum, nam nec Homero quidem. Prolatis Bucolicis Numitorius quidam rescripsit Antibucolica, duas modo eclogas sed insulsissime parŒdhsaw, ´ quarum prioris initium est: Tityre, si toga calda tibi est, quo tegmine fagi? [compare Eclogues 1.1],

sequentis: Dic mihi, Damoeta: cuium pecus, anne Latinum? Non, verum Aegonis nostri sic rure loquuntur [compare Eclogues 3.1–2].

Alius recitante eo ex Georgicis [1.299]: ‘‘Nudus ara, sere nudus,’’ subiecit: ‘‘habebis frigore febrem.’’ [44] Est adversus Aeneida liber Car[v]ili Pictoris, titulo ‘‘Aeneidomastix.’’ M. Vip[s]anius a Maecenate eum suppositum appellabat novae cacozeliae repertorem, non tumidae nec exilis, sed ex communibus verbis atque ideo latentis. Herennius tantum vitia eius, Perellius Faustus furta contraxit. [45] Sed et Q. Octavi Aviti ∞Omoioteleútvn octo volumina, quos et unde versus transtulerit, continent. [46] Asconius Pedianus [see below, IV.A.3] libro, quem contra obtrectatores Vergilii scripsit, pauca admodum obiecta ei proponit, eaque circa historiam fere et quod pleraque ab Homero sumpsisset; sed hoc ipsum crimen sic defendere assuetum ait: ‘‘Cur non illi quoque eadem ‘furta’ temptarent? Verum intellecturos facilius esse Herculi clavam quam Homero versum surripere.’’ Et tamen destinasse secedere, ut omnia ad satietatem malevolorum decideret. [47] Quoniam de auctore summatim diximus, de ipso carmine iam dicendum est, quod bifariam tractari solet, id est, ante opus et in ipso opere. Ante opus titulus causa intentio. ‘‘Titulus,’’ in quo quaeritur cuius sit, quid sit; ‘‘causa,’’ unde ortum sit et quare hoc potissimum ad scribendum poeta praesumpserit; intentio, in qua cognoscitur, quid efficere conetur poeta. In ipso opere sane tria spectantur: numerus ordo explanatio. [48] Quamvis igitur multa ceudepígrafa, id est, falsa inscriptione sub alieno nomine, sint prolata, ut Thyestes tragoedia huius poetae, quam Varius suo nomine edidit, et alia huiusmodi, tamen Bucolica liquido Vergilii esse minime dubitandum est, praesertim cum ipse poeta, tamquam hoc metuens, principium huius operis et in alio carmine suum esse testatus sit dicendo: Carmina qui lusi pastorum audaxque iuventa, Tityre, te patulae cecini sub tegmine fagi [Georgics 4.565–66].

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[49] Bucolica autem et dici et recte dici, vel hoc indicio probasse suffecerat, quod eodem nomine apud Theocritum censeantur; verum ratio quoque monstranda est. Tria genera pastorum sunt, quae dignitatem in bucolicis habent, quorum minimi sunt qui a¯ipóloi dicuntur a Graecis, a nobis caprarii; paulo honoratiores qui mhlonómoi poiménew, id est, opiliones dicuntur; honoratissimi et maximi, qui boukóloi, quos bubulcos dicimus. Unde igitur magis decuit pastorali carmini nomen imponi nisi ab eo gradu, qui fere apud pastores excellentissimus invenitur? [50] Causa dupliciter inspici solet, ab origine carminis et a voluntate scribentis. [51] Originem autem bucolici carminis alii ob aliam causam ferunt. Sunt enim qui a Lacedaemoniis pastoribus Dianae primum carmen hoc redditum dicant, cum eidem deae per bellum, quod toti Graeciae illo tempore Persae inferebant, exhiberi per virgines de more non posset. [52] Alii ab Oreste circa Siciliam vago id genus carminis Dianae redditum loquuntur, et redditum per ipsum atque pastores, quo tempore de Scythia Taurica cum sorore profugerat, subrepto numinis simulacro et celato in fasce lignorum unde Fascelinam Dianam perhibent nuncupatam, apud cuius aras Orestes per sacerdotem eiusdem numinis Iphigeniam sororem suam a parricidio fuerat expiatus. [53] Alii Apollini nomíŒ pastorali scilicet deo, qua tempestate Admeto boves paverat. [54] Alii Libero nympharum et satyrorum et id genus numinum principi, quibus placet rusticum carmen; [55] alii Mercurio Daphnidis patri, pastorum omnium principis et apud Theocritum et apud hunc ipsum poetam. [56] Alii in honorem Panos scribi putant peculiariter pastoralis dei, item Sileni, Silvani, atque faunorum. [57] Quae cum omnia dicantur, illud erit probabilissimum, bucolicum carmen originem ducere a priscis temporibus, quibus vita pastoralis exercita [est], et ideo velut aurei saeculi speciem in huiusmodi personarum simplicitate cognosci, et merito Vergilium processurum ad alia carmina non aliunde coepisse nisi ab ea vita, quae prima in terris fuit. Nam postea rura culta et ad postremum pro cultis et feracibus terris bella suscepta. Quod videtur Vergilius in ipso ordine operum suorum voluisse monstrare, cum pastores primo, deinde agricolas canit, et ad ultimum bellatores. [58] Restat ut, quae causa voluntatem attulerit poetae Bucolica potissimum conscribendi, considerare debeamus. Aut enim dulcedine carminis Theocriti ad imitationem eius illectus est, aut ordinem temporum secutus est circa vitam humanam, quod supra diximus, aut cum tres modi sint elocutionum, quos xarakt˜hraw Graeci vocant, i¯sxnów qui tenuis, mésow qui moderatus, adrów ˘ qui validus intelligitur, [59] credibile erit Vergilium, qui in omni genere praevaleret, Bucolica ad primum modum, Georgica ad secundum, A. VITAE

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Aeneidem ad tertium voluisse conferre. [60] An ideo potius Bucolica scripsit, ut in eiusmodi poemate, quod et paulo liberius et magis varium quam cetera est, facultatem haberet captandae Caesaris indulgentiae repetendique agri, quem amiserat ob hanc causam: [61] occiso in curia die [III] Iduum Martiarum C. Caesare, cum Augustum Caesarem paene puerum sibi veterani non abnuente senatu ducem constituissent, exorto civili bello Cremonenses cum ceteris eiusdem studii adversarios Augusti Caesaris adiuverunt. [62] Unde factum est, ut cum victor Augustus in eorum agros veteranos deduci iussisset, non sufficiente agro Cremonensium Mantuani quoque, in quibus erat etiam poeta Vergilius, maximam partem finium suorum perdidissent, eo quod vicini Cremonensibus fuerant. [63] Sed Vergilius merito carminum fretus et amicitia quorundam potentium centurioni Arrio cum obsistere ausus esset, ille statim, ut miles, ad gladium manum admovit, cumque se in fugam proripuisset poeta, non prius finis persequendi fuit, quam se in fluvium Vergilius coniecisset atque ita in alteram ripam enatavisset. Sed postea, et per Maecenatem et per triumviros agris dividendis Varum, Pollionem et Cornelium Gallum fama carminum commendatus Augusto, et agros recepit, et deinceps imperatoris familiari amore perfruitus est. [64] Intentio libri quam skopón Graeci vocant, in imitatione Theocriti poetae constituitur, qui Siculus ac Syracusanus fuit. Est intentio etiam in laude Caesaris et principum ceterorum, per quos in sedes suas atque agros rediit, unde effectus finisque carminis et delectationem et utilitatem secundum praecepta confecit. [65] Quaeri solet, cur non ultra quam decem eclogas conscripserit, quod nequaquam mirum videbitur ei, qui consideraverit varietatem scenarum pastoralium ultra hunc numerum non potuisse proferri, praesertim cum ipse postea circumspectior Theocrito, ut ipsa res indicat, videatur metuere, ne illa ecloga, quae ‘‘Pollio[ni]’’ inscribitur, minus rustica iudicetur, cum id ipsum praestruit, dicens: Sicelides Musae, paulo maiora canamus [Eclogues 4.1],

[66] et item similiter in aliis duabus facit. Illud tenendum esse praedicimus, in Bucolicis Vergilii neque nusquam neque ubique aliquid figurate dici, hoc est per allegoriam. Vix enim propter laudem Caesaris et amissos agros haec Vergilio conceduntur, cum Theocritus simpliciter conscripserit, quem hic noster conatur imitari. [67] Sequitur id, quod in ipso carmine tractari solet, id est, numerus ordo explanatio. [68] Numerus eclogarum manifestus est, nam decem sunt, ex quibus proprie bucolicae septem esse creduntur, quod ex his excipiantur ‘‘Pollio,’’ ‘‘Silenus’’ et ‘‘Gallus.’’ Prima igitur continet conquestionem publicam, privatam 188

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gratulationem de agro, et dicitur ‘‘Tityrus’’; secunda amorem pueri, et dicitur ‘‘Alexis’’; tertia certamen pastorum, et dicitur ‘‘Palaemon’’; quarta genethliacum, et dicitur ‘‘Pollio’’; quinta e¯ pitáfion, et dicitur ‘‘Daphnis’’; sexta metamorfvseiw ´ et dicitur ‘‘Varus’’ vel ‘‘Silenus’’; septima delectationem pastorum, et dicitur ‘‘Corydon’’; octava amores diversorum sexuum et dicitur ‘‘Damon’’ vel ‘‘Farmaceutria’’; nona propriam poetae conquestionem de amisso agro et dicitur ‘‘Moeris’’; decima desiderium Galli circa Volum[i]n[i]am Cytheridem et dicitur ‘‘Gallus.’’ [69] Quod ad ordinem spectat, illud scire debemus, in prima tantum et in ultima ecloga poetam voluisse ordinem reservare, quando in altera principium constituerit, ut in Georgicis ait: Tityre, te patulae cecini sub tegmine fagi [4.566],

in altera ostenderit finem, quippe cum dicat: Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem [Eclogues 10.1].

Verum inter ipsas eclogas naturalem consertumque ordinem nullum esse certissimum est. Sed sunt qui dicant, initium Bucolici carminis non ‘‘Tityre’’ [Eclogues 1.1] esse, sed: Prima Syracusio dignata est ludere versu [Eclogues 6.1].

[70] Superest explanatio, quam in ordinem digeremus, cum praedixerimus illud imprimis tenendum esse: bucolicum poema usque adeo ab heroico charactere distare, ut versus quoque huius carminis suas quasdam caesuras habeant et suis legibus distinguantur. [71] Nam cum tribus his probetur metrum: caesura scansione modificatione, non erit bucolicus versus, nisi in quo et primus pes partem orationis absoluerit, et tertius trochaeus fuerit in caesura, et quartus pes dactylus magis quam spondeus partem orationis terminaverit, [et] quintus et sextus pes cum integris dictionibus fuerint, quod tamen Vergilius a Theocrito saepe servatum victus operis difficultate neglexit, [72] in solo principio incertum industria sive casu bucolico versu posito. Nam ‘‘Tityre’’ dactylus pes partem orationis absoluit; ‘‘Tityre tu patulae recubans’’ tertium trochaeum circa praepositionem quamvis de composita dictione conclusit; ‘‘Tityre tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi’’ quartum spondeum pro dactylo cum parte orationis exhibuit; ‘‘tegmine fagi’’ integrum comma perfecit, cuius rei diligentiam licet in Theocriti multis versibus admirari.

[1] Publius Vergilius Maro was a Mantuan of humble parentage, especially with regard to his father: some have reported that he was an artisan who was a potter, many that he was at first the employee of a viator [a minor o≈cial whose main task was to summon people who had to appear before magistrates] A. VITAE

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named Magus and then a son-in-law on account of his industry, and that he built up a fortune of no mean substance by buying up woodlands and tending bees. [2] [Virgil] was born on the Ides of October, during the first consulships of Gnaeus Pompeius the Great and Marcus Licinius Crassus [October 15, 70 b.c.e.], in a village called Andes, not far from Mantua. [3] While pregnant with him, his mother dreamed that she gave birth to a laurel branch, which took root when it touched the earth and sprang up on the spot into the form of a full-grown tree, stu√ed with diverse fruits and flowers. And the following day, while she was making for the neighboring country spot with her husband, she turned aside from the path and delivered herself by childbirth in an adjacent ditch. [4] They say that when the child was born, he did not cry, and so mild was his countenance that even then he gave no small reason to hope that his birth would prove to be auspicious. [5] Another omen was added to this when the poplar sprout that was immediately planted in the same place, according to the custom of the region in cases of childbirth, grew up so fast that it stood level with the poplars planted long before. It was called on that account the tree of Virgil, and it was in fact made sacred by the greatest reverence of pregnant women and new mothers who took and fulfilled vows there. [6] He spent the first years of his life at Cremona, until he assumed the toga of a man, which he received seventeen years after his birth, at which time those same two men who had been consuls at the time of his birth were again consuls; as it happened, the poet Lucretius passed away that same day. [7] But then Virgil made his way from Cremona to the city of Milan, and from there he went a short time afterward to Rome. [8] He was large in person and stature, with a swarthy complexion, the face of a peasant, and uneven health, for he su√ered very much from pain in his stomach, throat, and head; indeed, he often spat up blood. [9] He was sparing of food and wine. With regard to sexual pleasure, he was partial to boys. He loved Cebes and Alexander most of all. Alexander, whom he calls Alexis in the second of the Bucolics, was a gift to him from Asinius Pollio. Both of them were far from unlearned; in fact, Cebes was a poet as well. [10] It is also circulated that he frequented Plotia Hieria. But Asconius Pedianus maintains that she herself, when older, made a habit of relating that Virgil had in fact been invited by Varius to share her but that he had refused obstinately. [11] Clearly it is agreed that in the rest of his life he was so upright, in both word and thought, that he was commonly known as Parthenias in Naples. Whenever he was seen in public at Rome, through which he passed very rarely, he would seek refuge in the nearest house from those who followed him and pointed him out. 190

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[12] What is more, when Augustus o√ered him the property of a certain exile, Virgil could not bear to accept it. [13] Thanks to the generosity of his friends, he had almost ten million sesterces, and he owned a house in Rome on the Esquiline, next to the gardens of Maecenas, although he most often used a retreat in Campania and Sicily. [14] Virgil lost his family when he was full grown, among them his father, who had lost his eyesight, and two full brothers: Silo, who died as a boy; and Flaccus, as an adult, whose passing he lamented under the name Daphnis. [15] Among other studies, he bestowed his labor on medicine and especially on mathematics. He even argued a case before the judges, once and once only. [16] For Melissus reported that [Virgil] was very slow in speaking and almost like someone who had not been schooled. [17] It was at this time that while still a boy he made a beginning in the art of poetry and composed a distich on Ballista the gladiator-master, who was buried under rocks for the infamy of highway robberies: Ballista is covered, buried under this mountain of stones; by night and by day take your route in safety, traveler.

After this—when he was only twenty-six—he composed the Catalepton, Priapea, epigrams, and Dirae, along with Ciris and Culex. [18] The argument of this last runs as follows: when a shepherd, wearied by the heat, had fallen asleep under a tree and a serpent from the marsh was slithering up to him, a gnat flew out and stung the shepherd between the temples. At once the shepherd crushed the gnat and slew the serpent—but he also erected a tomb for the gnat and composed this distich: O tiny gnat, a shepherd o√ers you, who are so deserving, the rite of death in exchange for the gift of life.

[19] [Virgil] also wrote a poem about Aetna, though its authorship is still a matter of debate. Later, after he had made a start on Roman subjects, he became vexed by the material and switched to the Bucolics, primarily in order to honor Asinius Pollio, Alfenus Varus, and Cornelius Gallus, because they had kept him from being penalized in the distribution of lands after the victory at Philippi, when the lands on the other side of the Po were divided among the veterans by order of the triumvirate. [20] After that, he published the Georgics in honor of Maecenas, who lent him aid—though he was but little known to him—against the violence of a certain veteran, by whom he was nearly killed in an argument over a land dispute. [21] Lastly, he commenced work on the Aeneid: a varied and complex theme; the equivalent, as it were, of both Homeric poems; having an equal share, moreover, in Greek and Latin names and objects; and, what concerned him A. VITAE

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most, which would encompass at one and the same time the origins of the city of Rome and of Augustus. [22] It is reported that, while he was composing the Georgics, he would dictate every day a great number of verses that he had thought out in the morning and that he would, in revising them throughout the day, reduce them to a very small number, saying not unreasonably that he brought his poem into being in a fashion not unlike a she-bear’s and that then he licked it into shape. [Animal lore, as found in the Physiologus and later bestiaries, held that bear cubs were born unformed and that the mother bear had to ‘‘lick them into shape.’’] [23] As for the Aeneid, he followed the policy of first drafting it in prose and then divided it into twelve books, which he composed as poetry bit by bit, so that he could do each part as it seized his fancy, taking up nothing in order. [24] Lest anything should impede his momentum, he would let certain things pass unfinished; others he propped up, as it were, with lightweight verses, which he jokingly said were placed there as struts, to hold up the edifice until the solid columns arrived. [25] The Bucolics he finished in three years, the Georgics in seven years, and the Aeneid in eleven. [26] He published the Bucolics with such success that even on stage singers delivered them frequently. [27] Virgil read the Georgics for four days straight to Augustus, who had returned after his victory at Actium and was staying at Atella for the sake of resting his throat; Maecenas took his place reading whenever Virgil himself was impeded by the failure of his voice. [28] Nonetheless, his recitation was attractive and strangely seductive. [29] But then Seneca relates that the poet Iulius Montanus was wont to say that there were certain things he would steal from Virgil, if he could also have his voice, appearance, and delivery: for indeed lines that sounded well when Virgil himself read them were lifeless and flat without him. [30] Even when scarcely begun, the reputation of the Aeneid was so great that Sextus Propertius did not hesitate to prophesy thus: Give way, Roman authors; give way, Greeks: something greater than the Iliad is being born.

[31] Indeed, Augustus (for, as it happened, he was away on an expedition in Cantabria) begged him with supplicatory and even jokingly threatening letters, ‘‘that you send me,’’ to employ his own words, ‘‘your first sketch of the Aeneid, or whatever swatch of it you will.’’ [32] Much later, when he had refined his subject matter, he finally recited three whole books for Augustus: the second, fourth, and sixth—and this last one to the notable distress of Octavia, who, being present at the recitation, is said to have fainted at the lines about her son that begin ‘‘You shall be Marcellus,’’ and to have been revived only with di≈culty. [33] He also gave recitations to larger audiences, though 192

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not often, and especially of those lines about which he was unsure, the better to make trial of people’s opinions. [34] They say that Eros, his secretary and freedman, would report in his old age that on one occasion Virgil completed two half-finished lines ex tempore during a recitation. For when he reached ‘‘Aeolian Misenus,’’ he added ‘‘who was unsurpassed’’; likewise to this, ‘‘in stirring up men with the trumpet,’’ he attached ‘‘and in kindling them to war with song,’’ casting it o√ with a similar fervor. And at once he commanded Eros to write down both on the scroll. [35] In his fifty-second year, Virgil decided to retire to Greece and Asia [Minor], in order to put the finishing touches on the Aeneid. He meant to do nothing but revise for three straight years, so that the remainder of his life would be free for philosophy only. But while he was making his journey, in Athens he met up with Augustus, who was returning to Rome from the East, and he decided not to retire, but in fact to return with Augustus. While he was getting to know the nearby town of Megara under a strongly blazing sun, he became ill. Because he did not suspend the sea travel, his sickness grew so much worse that it was considerably more serious when he put ashore at Brindisi. He passed away there, after a few days, on September 21 [19 b.c.e.], during the consulships of Gnaeus Sentius and Quintus Lucretius. [36] His bones were transported to Naples and buried in a tomb, which is on the road to Pozzuoli, less than two miles out from the city; on the tomb he composed a distich as follows: Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders.

[37] He bequeathed half of his estate to Valerius Proculus, his brother by another father; a quarter to Augustus; a twelfth to Maecenas; and the rest to Lucius Varius and Plotius Tucca, the two who corrected the Aeneid at Caesar’s behest after Virgil’s death. [38] Verses of the following sort are extant on the subject by Sulpicius of Carthage [see below, II.D.3.a]: Virgil had given instructions that it was to be destroyed by consuming fire, the poem that sang of the Phrygian prince. Tucca and likewise Varius refuse; you, greatest Caesar, do not allow the destruction; you look out for the narrative about Latium. Luckless Pergamum nearly fell in a second fire, and Troy was almost consumed on another pyre.

[39] Before leaving Italy, Virgil had arranged with Varius to burn the Aeneid if anything befell him; but [Varius] had insisted that he would not do so. For this reason, when his health was failing, [Virgil] demanded his scroll cases earnestly, intending to burn them himself; but no one brought them, and he gave no precise stipulations in this matter. [40] For the rest, he bequeathed his writings to the aforementioned Varius and Tucca, on the condition that they A. VITAE

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publish nothing that he himself had not revised. [41] Nevertheless, Varius published them, on the authority of Augustus, but revised only in a cursory fashion, with the result that he even left unfinished verses, if there were any. Many soon endeavored to complete these lines, but they did not succeed on account of the di≈culty, for nearly all of the half lines in the poem were freestanding and complete with regard to sense, except this: ‘‘Whom Troy to you now . . .’’ [42] Nisus the grammarian used to say that he heard from older men that Varius changed the order of two books, and that which now is second he moved into third place, and also that he smoothed out the beginning of the first book by subtracting these lines: I am he who once tuned my song on a slender reed, then, leaving the woodland, compelled the neighboring fields to serve the husbandman, however grasping, a work welcome to farmers: but now of Mars’s bristling arms and a man I sing. . .

[43] Virgil never wanted for detractors. And no wonder, for neither, in fact, did Homer. After the publication of the Bucolics, a certain Numitorius wrote Anti-Bucolics in response: two eclogues only, but the most insipid of pastiches. The first begins thus: O Tityrus, if the toga keeps you warm, what is ‘‘the raiment of a beech’’ for?

followed by: Tell me, Damoetas: ‘‘to whom doth this herd belong?’’ That can’t be Latin. No, that’s just the way they talk out in Aegon country. [Even in Virgil’s time, the adjective cuius in the first line of Eclogues 3 was markedly archaic, a quality closely related to the rusticity that Numitorius seems to imply. Aegon, like Damoetas, is a character in Virgil’s poem.]

When this line from the Georgics was being recited—‘‘Plow naked and sow naked’’—someone else added, ‘‘You will catch a fever from the cold.’’ [44] There is also Carvilius Pictor’s critique of the Aeneid, entitled Aeneidomastix [scourge of the Aeneid]. Marcus Vipsanius would complain that [Virgil] was put under the yoke by Maecenas in order to invent a new kind of a√ectation, neither bombastic nor overly humble, but constructed of common words and therefore not obvious. Herennius collected only his defects, Perellius Faustus only what he had stolen. [45] But Quintus Octavius Avitus’s eight volumes of Correspondences include both the lines that are derivative and their sources. [46] In a book that he wrote as a response to Virgil’s detractors, Asconius Pedianus set forth a few of their objections, especially those concerning his plot and the fact that he took most [of his material] from Homer; but he says that [Virgil] used to defend this very crime as follows: ‘‘Why is it that they, too, do not attempt the same ‘thefts’? Indeed, they will perceive that it is easier to steal the club of Her194

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cules than a line from Homer.’’ Nevertheless, he decided to retire [according to Pedianus], in order to trim everything to the satisfaction of his ill-wishers. [47] Seeing that we have spoken generally about the author, now it is time to speak about the poem itself. A poem is usually treated in two parts: that is, the part before the work, and the part within the work itself. Before the work, there is the title, the cause, and the intention. The title is that in which we seek whose it is and what it is; the cause, its origin and, in particular, why the poet ventured to write it; the intention, that in which it is discerned what the poet endeavored to achieve. Within the work itself, we observe, to be sure, three things: the number [of the books], the order [of the books], and the explication. [48] So then, although there are many pseudepigrapha, that is, works that are put out with a false title, under another’s name, such as our poet’s tragedy Thyestes—which Varius published under his own name—and other works of this sort, yet it is scarcely to be doubted that the Bucolics are clearly Virgil’s, especially since the poet himself, as if fearing this very thing, gave testimony also in another poem that the beginning of this work was his by saying, I, who played at shepherd’s songs, and emboldened by youth sang of you, O Tityrus, under the protection of the spreading beech. [Eclogues 1 begins with the lines ‘‘Tityrus, reclining under the cover of a spreading beech, / you do reverence to the woodland muse with a slender pipe.’’]

[49] Moreover, that [such poems] are called bucolics—and rightly so called —would be proven su≈ciently by the fact that they are designated by the same name in Theocritus. Nevertheless, the principle should be given. There are three kinds of herdsmen that have standing in things pastoral. The least of these are called aipoloi by the Greeks, caprarii [goatherds] by us. Somewhat more esteemed are those known as m¯elonomoi poimenes [sheepgrazing herdsmen], that is, opiliones [shepherds]. The greatest and best-esteemed are the boukoloi, which we call bubulci [oxen-drivers]. So then, where could you find a more fitting term for pastoral song, than from that rank which is found superior specifically among herdsmen? [50] The cause is usually investigated along two lines: according to the origin of the poem, and according to the desire of the writer. [51] But as to the origin of bucolic song, some refer it to one source and others to another. For there are those who say that this song was first rendered to Diana by herdsmen from Sparta, since it was not possible for the song to be presented by virgins to this same goddess, as the custom had been, because the Persians were attacking the whole of Greece at that time. [52] Others say that a song of this kind was o√ered up to Diana by Orestes while he was wandering around Sicily, and that he and the shepherds o√ered it up when he fled with his A. VITAE

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sister from Taurian Scythia. (He had stolen an image of the goddess and hidden it in a bundle of sticks, which is why—they say—she is addressed as Fascelina Diana. Orestes had been purified from parricide at her altars by his sister, Iphigenia, who was the priestess of the goddess.) [53] Others say that a song of this kind was o√ered up to Apollo Nomios [Apollo of the Herdsmen] at the time when he pastured sheep for Admetus. [54] Still others say that it was o√ered up to Liber, the prince of nymphs, satyrs, and divinities of that type who take pleasure in country song. [55] Others think that it was for Mercury, the father of Daphnis, who is the best of all shepherds in Theocritus and also in this very poet of ours. [56] Others think that it was written in honor of Pan, the special god of shepherds. In the same manner, others think it was written in honor of Silenus, Silvanus, and the fauns. [57] When all is said and done, it will be most probable that bucolic song derives its origin from ancient times, when men led their lives as herdsmen. That is probably why we recognize in the simplicity of characters of this sort a kind of golden age; and it was rightly on account of this quality that Virgil began with nothing less than the lifestyle that first appeared on earth, before moving on to other kinds of poetry. For afterward fields were cultivated, and finally wars were undertaken for the cultivated and fertile lands. This is what Virgil seems, in the very order of his works, to have wanted to show, when he sang first of herdsmen, then of farmers, and finally of warriors. [58] We still need to consider what cause prompted the poet’s desire to write the Eclogues first. For either he was enticed to imitate Theocritus by the sweetness of his song, or he followed the order of the ages with regard to human existence, as we said above. Or, since there are three styles [modi]—what the Greeks call charakteres—ischnos, which is understood to mean ‘‘meager’’ [tenuis]; mesos, ‘‘moderate’’ [moderatus]; and hadros, ‘‘powerful’’ [validus]— [59] one might think that Virgil desired to devote his Bucolics to the first style, his Georgics to the second, and the Aeneid to the third, in order to distinguish himself in every genus of poetry. [60] Or rather, he wrote the Bucolics so that in a poem of this sort, which is a little freer and more varied than other sorts, he might have an opportunity to capture Caesar’s favor and regain his land, which he had lost for this reason: [61] after Gaius Caesar was cut down in the senate building on the Ides of March [March 15], the veterans appointed Augustus Caesar—he was practically a boy—as their leader, not without the Senate’s approval. Nevertheless, as civil war was breaking out, the Cremonans, along with the others of the same persuasion, gave aid to Augustus Caesar’s adversaries. [62] When he had won, Augustus ordered his veterans to settle on the lands of the Cremonans, but since their land was not su≈cient, the Mantuans, among whom the poet Virgil was still living, also lost the better part of 196

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their territory, because they were neighbors to the Cremonans. [63] But Virgil, relying on the worth of his poems and the friendship of certain powerful men, made bold to stand in the way of Arrius the centurion, who immediately reached for his sword (since he was a soldier), and when the poet rushed out to flee, the pursuit did not end until Virgil had thrown himself into a river and thus swum across to the other bank. But afterward, with the help of Maecenas as well as the three o≈cers in charge of land division, Varus, Pollio, and Cornelius Gallus, when he had gained Augustus’s favor through the reputation of his poetry, he received back his fields, and from that time on he enjoyed the emperor’s intimate a√ection. [64] The intention of the book, what the Greeks call its skopos, is found in the imitation of the poet Theocritus, who was a Sicilian and a resident of Syracuse. The book is also intended to praise Caesar and the other leading men who helped him to regain his residences and his lands. Wherefore the purpose and intention of this poem is to produce both pleasure and utility, in accordance with the rules. [65] It is often asked, why did he not write more than ten eclogues? This [the limit of ten] will seem no cause for wonder, if one has considered that the variety of pastoral scenes was not able to be extended beyond this number, especially since the poet himself, more cautious than Theocritus, seems to have feared that the eclogue entitled ‘‘Pollio’’ would be judged ‘‘less rustic,’’ as the thing itself indicates when he prefaces it by saying: Muses of Sicily, let us sing of somewhat ampler subjects,

[66] and he does likewise in two others. We say at the outset, keep this in mind: in the Bucolics of Virgil, something is said figuratively (that is, allegorically) neither nowhere nor everywhere. These things are hardly to be conceded to Virgil on account of the praise of Caesar and the loss of his lands, since Theocritus (whom our poet was striving to imitate) composed in a manner that was plain and simple [that is, Theocritus did not employ allegory]. [67] It follows now to consider what is usually handled in the poem itself: that is, the number, order, and exposition [of the parts]. [68] The number of eclogues is obvious, for there are ten, of which seven are bucolics properly so called, because the ‘‘Pollio,’’ the ‘‘Silenus,’’ and the ‘‘Gallus’’ are to be treated as exceptions. So then, the first Eclogue contains public complaint and private thanksgiving on the subject of the land; it is called the ‘‘Tityrus.’’ The love of a boy forms the content of the second Eclogue, which is called the ‘‘Alexis.’’ The third contains a contest between herdsmen and is called the ‘‘Palaemon.’’ The fourth contains a poem to celebrate a birth and is called the ‘‘Pollio.’’ The fifth contains an epitaph and is called the ‘‘Daphnis.’’ The A. VITAE

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sixth contains tales of metamorphosis and is called the ‘‘Varus’’ or the ‘‘Silenus.’’ The recreation of herdsmen forms the content of the seventh Eclogue, which is called the ‘‘Corydon.’’ Romantic relationships between the opposite sexes form the content of the eighth Eclogue, which is called the ‘‘Damon’’ or ‘‘The Sorceress.’’ The ninth Eclogue contains the poet’s own appeal for his lost land and is called the ‘‘Moeris.’’ The pining of Gallus for Volumnia Cytheris [an actress and mistress of Mark Antony] forms the content of the tenth Eclogue, which is called the ‘‘Gallus.’’ [69] With regard to the order of the books, it is important to know that the poet wished to maintain a sequence only in the first Eclogue and the last: just as in the one, he established the beginning—as he says in the Georgics, I sang of you, O Tityrus, under the protection of the spreading beech

so in the other he indicates the end, by saying, Concede to me this final labor, Arethusa.

For the remaining Eclogues, however, it is quite certain that there is no natural, connected order. But there are those who would say that the beginning of this bucolic song is not ‘‘Tityrus’’ but She first deigned to play with the verse of Syracuse.

[70] This leaves the exposition, which we shall handle in due course, although we will say in advance that this must be maintained first and foremost: bucolic poetry di√ers from the heroic mode in this, that the lines of such poetry have certain kinds of caesura peculiar to themselves and are distinguished by their own rules. [71] For a meter, of course, is determined according to these three criteria: caesura, scansion, and fixed pattern. A verse will not be bucolic unless there is diaeresis in the first foot, unless a caesura follows a trochee in the third foot, unless the fourth foot is a dactyl [rather than a spondee] with diaeresis, and unless its fifth and sixth feet constitute an unbroken expression. [Trochaeus here probably means nothing more than ‘‘a long syllable followed by a short syllable.’’ Used in this sense, it is possible to think of a dactylic foot as ‘‘containing’’ a trochee. The fourth-foot diaeresis described here is commonly referred to as bucolic diaeresis. The ‘‘expression’’ is ‘‘unbroken’’ here because (a) the first syllable of the fifth foot coincides with the beginning of a word, owing to the aforementioned bucolic diaeresis, and (b) the enjambment of a single word is extremely rare, suggesting an implicit prohibition on the practice.] But what Theocritus for the most part observed, Virgil disregarded, conquered by the di≈culty of the task. [72] Only at the beginning did he place a bucolic verse [Tityre tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi], and whether this was deliberate or accidental is uncertain. For the dactyl Tityre coincides with the end of a word. ‘‘Tityre | tu patu|lae recu|bans’’ includes a trochee in the third 198

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foot on the prefix re-, although it must be treated in isolation from the rest of a compound word. ‘‘Tityre | tu patu|lae recu|bans sub | [tegmine | fagi]’’ shows a spondee instead of a dactyl in the fourth foot, with diaeresis. Tegmine fagi completes a whole phrase; a marvelous attentiveness to this can be observed in many of Theocritus’s verses. (DWO, with revisions by JZ)

2. Jerome Jerome (see above, I.C.30), who studied under the grammarian (and Virgilianist) Aelius Donatus (see above, II.A.1, and below, IV.D.2), alluded frequently to Virgil. The first eight extracts below come from Jerome’s Chronicon, his translation of the Chronicon by Eusebius of Caesarea (circa 260–circa 340), which included many quotations from the Suetonian life of Virgil. The ninth is from the preface to his Liber quaestionum Hebraicarum in Genesim (Book of Hebrew-related Questions on Genesis), the tenth from the preface to his Commentariorum in epistolam ad Galatas libri tres (Three Books of Commentaries on the Epistle to the Galatians), the eleventh from the preface to his Commentariorum in Zachariam prophetam ad Exsuperium Tolosanum episcopum libri duo (Two Books of Commentaries on the Prophet Zachary to Bishop Exsuperius of Toulouse), and the twelfth from one of his letters. These extracts exercised great influence upon readers and writers who had access to the VSD itself as well as upon those who did not. (Discussion: VV 742–45) (JZ) a. Chronicon (Text: R.Helm, ed., Eusebius Werke, vol. 7, part 1: Die Chronik des Hieronymus, 2nd ed., Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jarhhunderte 47 [Berlin, 1956]; VVA 5–8) i. Ad Olympiada 177.3–4 From Eusebius’s discussion of the 177th Olympiad (= 70–60 b.c.e.). (Text: Helm, 153a) Vergilius Maro in pago, qui Andes dicitur, haut procul a Mantua nascitur, Pompeio et Crasso consulibus Idibus Octobribus.

Vergilius Maro is born in the region that is called Andes, not far from Mantua, on the Ides of October [October 15] under the consulships of Pompey and Crassus. (JZ) ii. Ad Olympiada 180.2 From Eusebius’s discussion of the 180th Olympiad (= 59–58 b.c.e.). (Text: Helm, 154h) A. VITAE

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Vergilius Cremonae studiis eruditur.

Virgil is educated through studies at Cremona. (JZ) iii. Ad Olympiada 181.4 From Eusebius’s discussion of the 181st Olympiad (= 53–52 b.c.e.). (Text: Helm, 155e) Vergilius sumpta toga Mediolanium transgreditur et post breve tempus Romam pergit.

Virgil, having assumed the toga of manhood, crosses over to Milan and a short time later proceeds to Rome. (JZ) iv. Ad Olympiada 186.2 From Eusebius’s discussion of the 186th Olympiad (= 35–34 b.c.e.). (Text: Helm, 159h) M. Bavius poeta, quem Vergilius in Bucolicis notat, in Cappadocia moritur.

The poet Marcus Bavius, whom Virgil brands in his Bucolics, dies in Cappadocia. (JZ) v. Ad Olympiada 187.1 From Eusebius’s discussion of the 187th Olympiad (= 32–31 b.c.e.). (Text: Helm, 162h) Cleopatra et Antonius semet interficiunt et Aegyptus fit Romana provincia. Quam primus tenuit C. Cornelius Gallus, de quo Vergilius scribit in Bucolicis.

Cleopatra and Antony kill themselves, and Egypt becomes a Roman province, which Gaius Cornelius Gallus, about whom Virgil writes in the Bucolics, was the first to hold. (JZ) vi. Ad Olympiada 189.2 From Eusebius’s discussion of the 189th Olympiad (= 23–22 b.c.e.). (Text: Helm, 165a) Quintilius Cremonensis Vergilii et Horatii familiaris moritur.

Quintilius [Varus] of Cremona, a close friend of Virgil and Horace, dies. (JZ) vii. Ad Olympiada 190.3 From Eusebius’s discussion of the 190th Olympiad (= 18–17 b.c.e.). (Text: Helm, 165h) Vergilius Brundisii moritur Sentio Saturnino et Lucretio Cinna conss. Ossa eius Neapolim translata in secundo ab urbe miliario sepeliuntur titulo istius modi supra scripto, quem moriens ipse dictaverat: 200

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Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua rura duces [see below, II.C.1].

Virgil dies at Brindisi under the consulships of Sentius Saturninus and Lucretius Cinna. His bones, carried over to Naples, are buried at the second milepost from the city, with an epitaph of this sort written above, which he himself had dictated as he was dying: Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders. (JZ)

viii. Ad Olympiada 190.4 From Eusebius’s discussion of the 190th Olympiad (= 17–16 b.c.e.). (Text: Helm, 166e) Varius et Tucca, Vergilii et Horatii contubernales, poetae habentur inlustres, qui Aeneidum postea libros emendarunt sub lege ea, ut nihil adderent.

Varius and Tucca, close friends of Virgil and Horace, are considered to be excellent poets, who afterward edited the books of the Aeneid on this condition, that they add nothing. (JZ) b. Liber quaestionum Hebraicarum in Genesim, praefatio (Text: PL 23, 983A) Qui in principiis librorum debebam secuturi operis argumenta proponere, cogor prius respondere maledictis, Terentii quippiam sustinens, qui comoediarum prologos in defensionem sui scenis dabat. Urgebat enim eum Luscius Lanuvinus nostro Luscio similis, et quasi publicii aerarii poetam furem criminabatur. Hoc idem passus est ab aemulis et Mantuanus vates, ut cum quosdam versus Homeri transtulisset ad verbum, compilator veterum diceretur. Quibus ille respondit magnarum esse virium clavam Herculi extorquere de manu.

I, who ought at the beginnings of the books to set forth the arguments of the work to follow, am compelled first to respond to negative remarks. I follow a hint from Terence, who o√ered the prologues of his comedies in defense of his dramaturgy. For Luscius Lanuvinus, like our Luscius, went after the poet and charged him with thievery from the public treasury. Even the bard of Mantua su√ered this same thing from his rivals, so that when he had translated word for word certain verses of Homer, he was called a plunderer of the ancients. His reply to them was that it takes great strength to wrench Hercules’ club from his hand. (MP) c. Commentariorum in epistolam ad Galatas libri tres, praefatio (Text: PL 26, 427C [399D]) A. VITAE

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Nec labore et diligentia compensare queo eloquii tarditatem: quod de Vergilio quoque tradunt, quia libros suos in modum ursorum fetum lambendo figuraverit.

I cannot compensate for my slowness of utterance either with e√ort or with diligence, which they say was the case with Virgil because he fashioned his books in the manner of bears, by licking the cub. (JZ) d. Commentaria in Zachariam, praefatio (Text: PL 25, 1571A) Unde et de Vergilio traditum est, quod libros suos quasi ursorum fetus composuerit et lambendo fecerit esse meliores, qui durarent in memoriam sempiternam, et necessitatem metri libera oratione complerent.

Whence it is even said of Virgil that he composed his books like the o√spring of bears, and by licking made them better, so that they would last forever and so that from a prose version they might fill the needs of the meter. (JZ) e. Epistles 85.3 This passage resonates with similar remarks in VSD 40 and Vita Servii (see below) on remaining faithful to a preexisting text. (Text: PL 22, 753) Unde necessitate compulsus sum transferre libros, in quibus mali plus quam boni est, et hanc servare mensuram, ut nec adderem quid nec demerem, Graecamque fidem Latina integritate servarem.

Whence I am constrained to translate books in which there is more bad than good, and to maintain this standard, that I neither add anything nor take anything away, and that I faithfully preserve the Greek while maintaining the integrity of the Latin. (MP and JZ)

3. Vita Servii (late fourth–early fifth century) Servius (see below, IV.B) was a grammarian and possibly also a rhetorician who produced, among other works, a commentary on Virgil. He was active in the last quarter of the fourth century and the beginning of the fifth. His Expositio, which is found prefixed to his commentary on the Aeneid (confusingly, the commentary as a whole is designated an expositio or explanatio in the manuscripts), streamlines as follows the literary-critical system followed in the presentation of biographical details: (1) life of the poet, (2) title of the work, (3) quality of the poem, (4) intention of the author, (5) number of books, (6) order of books, and (7) explanation. Servius’s system was widely adopted, as in the exposition with which the Vita Gudiana I (see below, 202

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II.A.20) opens; in the two so-called Expositiones Monacenses (see below, II.A.9– 10); and in ‘‘Master Anselm’’ (formerly Expositio Monacensis III: see below, IV.O). (Discussion: W. Suerbaum, ‘‘Das Ille-ego-Proömium der Aeneis und Halbverse Vergils als Schutz vor Plagiat: Zu einer neuen karolingischen Paraphrase der Servius-Vita Vergils,’’ in Studien zur alten Geschichte. Siegfried Lau√er zum 70. Geburtstag am 4. August 1981 dargebracht von Freunden, Kollegen und Schülern, ed. H.-J. Kalcyk, B. Gullath, and A. Graeber, 3 vols., Historica 2 [Rome, 1986], 969–88) (Text: VVA 149–57; VV 242–44) (JZ) In exponendis auctoribus haec consideranda sunt: poetae vita, titulus operis, qualitas carminis, scribentis intentio, numerus librorum, ordo librorum, explanatio. Vergilii haec vita est. Patre Vergilio matre Magia fuit. Civis Mantuanus, quae civitas est Venetiae. Diversis in locis operam litteris dedit; nam et Cremonae et Mediolani et Neapoli studuit. Adeo autem verecundissimus fuit, ut ex moribus cognomen acciperet; nam dictus est Parthenias, omni vita probatus. Uno tantum morbo laborabat; nam inpatiens libidinis fuit. Primum ab hoc distichon factum est in Ballistam latronem: Monte sub hoc lapidum tegitur Ballista sepultus: nocte die tutum carpe viator iter [AL 1.1, 212, no. 261].

Scripsit etiam septem sive octo libros hos: Cirin, Aetnam, Culicem, Priapeia, Catalepton, Epigrammata, Copam, Diras. Postea ortis bellis civilibus inter Antonium et Augustum, Augustus victor Cremonensium agros, quia pro Antonio senserant, dedit militibus suis, qui cum non sufficerent, his addidit agros Mantuanos, sublatos non propter civium culpam, sed propter vicinitatem Cremonensium, unde ipse in Bucolicis: Mantua vae miserae nimium vicina Cremonae [Eclogues 9.28].

Amissis ergo agris Romam venit et usus patrocinio Pollionis et Maecenatis solus agrum, quem amiserat, meruit. Tunc ei proposuit Pollio ut carmen bucolicum scriberet, quod eum constat triennio scripsisse et emendasse. Item proposuit Maecenas Georgica, quae scripsit emendavitque septem annis. Postea ab Augusto Aeneidem propositam scripsit annis undecim, sed nec emendavit nec edidit, unde eam moriens praecepit incendi. Augustus vero, ne tantum opus periret, Tuccam et Varium hac lege iussit emendare, ut superflua demerent, nihil adderent tamen, unde et semiplenos eius invenimus versiculos, ut ‘‘hic cursus fuit’’ [Aeneid 1.534] et aliquos detractos, ut in principio; nam ab ‘‘armis’’ non coepit, sed sic: Ille ego qui quondam gracili modulatus avena carmen et egressus silvis vicina coegi, ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono, gratum opus agricolis, at nunc horrentia Martis arma virumque cano [see above, I.C.2] A. VITAE

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et in secundo hos versus constat esse detractos: aut ignibus aegra dedere. iamque adeo super unus eram, cum limina Vestae servantem et tacitam secreta in sede latentem Tyndarida aspicio; dant clara incendia lucem erranti passimque oculos per cuncta ferenti. Illa sibi infestos eversa ob Pergama Teucros et Danaum poenam et deserti coniugis iras praemetuens, Troiae et patriae communis Erinys, abdiderat sese atque aris invisa sedebat. Exarsere ignes animo; subit ira cadentem ulcisci patriam et sceleratas sumere poenas. ‘‘Scilicet haec Spartam incolumis patriasque Mycenas aspiciet, partoque ibit regina triumpho, coniugiumque domumque patres natosque videbit, Iliadum turba et Phrygiis comitata ministris? Occiderit ferro Priamus? Troia arserit igni? Dardanium totiens sudarit sanguine litus? Non ita. Namque etsi nullum memorabile nomen feminea in poena est, habet haec victoria laudem. Extinxisse nefas tamen et sumpsisse merentis laudabor poenas, animumque explesse iuvabit †ultricis famam et† cineres satiasse meorum.’’ Talia iactabam et furiata mente ferebar, cum mihi se non ante [alias] [Aeneid 2.566–89]

[Periit autem Tarenti in Apuliae civitate. Nam dum Metapontum cupit videre, valetudinem ex solis ardore contraxit. Sepultus est autem Neapoli, in cuius tumulo ab ipso compositum est disticon tale: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua rura duces [see below, II.C.1].]

In the explanation of authors, these things ought to be considered: the life of the poet, the title of the work, the kind of poem, the intention of the writer, the number of books, the order of the books, and the explanation. This is the life of Virgil. He had a father named Virgil and a mother named Magia. He was a citizen of Mantua, which is a city in Venetia. He studied literature in various places; namely, he studied in Cremona and Milan and Naples. He was, however, so very modest that he received a nickname for his character; namely, he was called Parthenias, excellent in all his life. He su√ered from only one disease, namely, he was not able to control his lust. This distich against the brigand Ballista is the first that he made: Ballista is covered, buried under this mountain of stones; by night and by day take your route in safety, traveler.

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He wrote the following seven or eight books too: Ciris, Aetna, Culex, Priapeia, Catalepton, Epigrams, Copa, and Dirae. Afterward, when civil wars had broken out between Antony and Augustus, the victorious Augustus gave the Cremonans’ fields to his soldiers because they [the Cremonans] had been on Antony’s side; but when these fields did not su≈ce, he added to them the Mantuan fields, taken not because of any fault of the citizens but because of their proximity to the Cremonans’, wherefore he himself [Virgil says] in the Bucolics: Woe to you, Mantua, too close to wretched Cremona.

Having lost his fields, he therefore came to Rome, and, using the patronage of Pollio and Maecenas, he alone earned back the field that he had lost. Then Pollio suggested to him that he write a bucolic poem, which it is agreed he wrote and edited in three years. Likewise, Maecenas suggested the Georgics, which he wrote and edited in seven years. Afterward he wrote the Aeneid, suggested by Augustus, in eleven years, but he neither edited nor published it; consequently, as he was dying, he instructed that it be burned. Augustus, however, in order that so great a work might not perish, commanded Tucca and Varius to edit it according to this rule, that they remove superfluous material but add nothing, wherefore we find his [Virgil’s] half-finished verses, such as ‘‘here was the course,’’ and some removed, such as at the beginning; for he began not from ‘‘arms’’ but thus: I am he who once tuned my song on a slender reed, then, leaving the woodland, compelled the neighboring fields to serve the husbandman, however grasping, a work welcome to farmers: but now of Mars’s bristling arms and a man I sing . . .

and it is agreed that the following verses in the second book were removed: [Aeneid 2.566–89] [[Virgil], however, died at Taranto, a city in Apulia. For while he was desiring to see Metapontum, he weakened his health from the burning of the sun. He was buried, however, at Naples; on his tomb is the following distich, composed by himself: Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me: I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders.] (JG)

4. Vita Focae (late fourth–early fifth century) This vita is preserved in a single manuscript of the ninth century (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 8093, fol. 37), where it lacks its ending (it breaks o√ with the illness of Virgil at Brindisi). It is in verse (107 hexameters, preA. VITAE

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ceded by a proemium of six strophes of sapphics that follow the Horatian model). In the main it o√ers a generally unoriginal but occasionally fanciful redoing of the VSD (see above, II.A.1), particularly (but not exclusively) the Suetonian part. The manuscript ascribes the vita to Focas (= Phocas), a Latin grammarian who was active in Rome. Another work by Focas, the Ars de nomine et verbo (On the Noun and the Verb), has a verse preface (six elegiac distichs). As far as dating is concerned, nothing more specific has been determined than that Focas lived before Priscian, who cites him, and after Donatus, whom Focas cites. These circumstances would place him in the late fourth or early fifth century. The vita reveals an indebtedness also to the commentaries on the Eclogues by Donatus and Servius, as well as to the Vita Philargyrii I (see below, II.A.5). The claim in line 30 that Virgil’s father was named Maro also appears in the Expositio Monacensis I (see below, II.A.9). Two of the marvels associated with the birth of Virgil, namely, the bees that bring him honey as a babe and the poplar that grows from the sand, recur in the Georgian Passion of St. Pansophios of Alexandria (see below, V.D.7). (Discussion: G. Brugnoli, ‘‘Osservazioni sulla Vita Vergilii di Foca,’’ Maia 40 [1988], 153–57; José Luis Vidal, ‘‘La Vita Vergiliana de Focas, biografía y poesía de escuela,’’ Excerpta philologica: revista de filología griega y latina de la Universidad de Cádiz 1 [1991], 801–12) (Text: VVA 163–69: compare VV 292–98) (JZ) Vita Virgilii incipit a Foca grammatico urbis Romae versibus edita. Praefatio O vetustatis memoranda custos, regios actus simul et fugaces temporum cursus docilis referre, aurea Clio, tu nihil magnum sinis interire, nil mori clarum pateris, reservans posteris prisci monumenta saecli condita libris. Sola fucatis variare dictis paginas nescis, set aperta quicquid veritas prodit, recinis per aevum simplice lingua. Tu senescentes titulos avorum flore durantis reparas iuventae, militat virtus tibi, te notante crimina pallent. Tu fori turbas strepitusque litis effugis dulci moderata cantu,

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5

10

15

nec retardari pateris loquellas compede metri. His fave dictis! Retegenda vita est vatis Etrusci modo, qui perenne Romulae voci decus adrogavit carmine sacro. Vita Virgilii Maeonii specimen vatis veneranda Maronem Mantua Romuleae generavit flumina linguae. Quis facunda tuos toleraret Graecia fastus, quis tantum eloquii potuisset ferre tumorem, aemula Vergilium tellus nisi Tusca dedisset? Huic genitor figulus Maro nomine, cultor agelli, ut referunt alii, tenui mercede locatus, sed plures figulum. Quis non miracula rerum haec stupeat? Dives partus de paupere vena enituit: figuli suboles nova carmina finxit. Mater Polla fuit Magii non infima proles, quem socerum probitas fecit laudata Maroni. Haec cum maturo premeretur pondere ventris, ut solet in somnis animus ventura repingens anxius e vigili praesumere gaudia cura, Phoebei nemoris ramum fudisse putavit. O sopor indicium veri! Nil certius umquam cornea porta tulit. Facta est interprete lauro certa parens onerisque sui cognoverat artem. Consule Pompeio vitalibus editus auris et Crasso tetigit terras quo tempore Chelas iam mitis Phaethon post Virginis ora receptat. Infantem vagisse negant. Nam fronte serena conspexit mundum, cui commoda tanta ferebat. Ipse puerperiis adrisit laetior orbis: terra ministravit flores et munere verno herbida supposuit puero fulmenta virescens. Praeterea, si vera fides, set vera probatur, laeta cohors apium subito per rura iacentis labra favis texit dulces fusura loquellas. Hoc quondam in sacro tantum mirata Platone indicium linguae memorat famosa vetustas. Set Natura parens properans extollere Romam et Latio dedit hoc, ne quid concederet uni. Insuper his genitor, nati dum fata requirit, populeam sterili virgam mandavit harenae, tempore quae nutrita brevi, dum crescit, in omen altior emicuit cunctis, quas auxerat aetas. Haec propter placuit puerum committere Musis

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et monstrare viam victurae in saecula famae. Tum Ballista rudem lingua titubante receptum instituit primus, quem nox armabat in umbris grassari solitum: crimen doctrina tegebat. Mox patefacta viri pressa est audacia saxis. Incidit titulum iuvenis, quo pignera vatis edidit. Auspiciis suffecit poena magistri: ‘‘Monte sub hoc lapidum tegitur Ballista sepultus: nocte die tutum carpe viator iter’’ [AL 1.1, 212, no. 261]. Nos tamen hoc brevius, si fas simulare Maronem: ‘‘Ballistam sua poena tegit, via tuta per umbras.’’ [‘‘Hic Ballista iacet: certo pede perge viator.’’ ‘‘Carcere montoso clausus Ballista tenetur: securi fraudis pergite nocte viri.’’ ‘‘Quid trepidas tandem gressu pavitante viator? nocturnum furem saxeus imber habet.’’ ‘‘Ballistae vitam rapuit lapis: ipse sepulcrum intulit. Umbra nocens pendula saxa tramit.’’ ‘‘Crimina latronis dignissima poena coercet: duritiam mentis damnat ubique lapis.’’] Hinc culicis tenui praelusit funera versu: ‘‘Parve culex, pecudum custos tibi tale merenti funeris officium vitae pro munere reddit’’ [Culex 413–14]. Tum tibi Sironem, Maro, contulit ipsa magistrum Roma potens, proceresque suos tibi iunxit amicos: Pollio Maecenas Varus Cornelius ardent, te sibi quisque rapit, per te victurus in aevum. Musa refer quae causa fuit componere libros. Sumpserat Augustus rerum moderamina princeps. iam necis ultor erat patriae, iam caede priorum perfusos acies legitur visura Philippos. Cassius hic Magni vindex et Brutus in armis intereunt. Victor nondum contentus opimis emeritas belli spoliis ditasse cohortes proscripsit miserae florentia rura Cremonae, totaque militibus pretium concessa laborum praeda fuit. Violenta manus bacchata per agros. Non flatus non tela Iovis non spumeus amnis non imbres rapidi quantum manus impia vastant. Mantua, tu coniuncta loco, sociata periclis: non tamen ob meritum miseram vicinia fecit. Iam Maro pulsus erat, set viribus obvius ibat fretus amicorum clipeo, cum paene nefando ense perit. Quid dextra furis? Quid viscera Romae sacrilego mucrone petis? Tua bella tacebit posteritas ipsumque ducem nisi Mantua dicat! 208

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Non tulit hanc rabiem doctissima turba potentum. Itur ad auctorem rerum: quid Martius horror egerit, ostendunt, qui tam miseranda tulisset. Caesaris huic placido nutu repetuntur agelli. His auctus meritis cum digna rependere vellet, invenit carmen, quo munera vincere posset: praedia dat Caesar, quorum brevis usus habendi: obtulit hic laudes, quas saecula nulla silescunt. Pastores cecinit primos: hoc carmine consul Pollio laudatur ter se revocantibus annis composito. Post haec ruris praecepta colendi quattuor exposuit libris, et commoda terrae edocuit geminis anno minus omnia lustris. Inde coturnato Teucrorum proelia versu et Rutulum tonuit: bissena volumina sacro formavit donata duci trieteride quarta. Sed loca quae vulgi memoravit tradita fama aequoris et terrae statuit percurrere vates, certius ut libris oculo dictante notaret. Pergitur. Ut Calabros tetigit, livore nocenti Parcarum vehemens laxavit corpora morbus. Hic ubi languores et fata minacia sensit . . .

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Here Begins the Life of Virgil Written in Verse at Rome by the Grammarian Focas Preface O guardian of the past, worthy of remembrance, skillful at recalling both the deeds of kings and the fleeting circuits of time, golden Clio, [5] you allow nothing great to perish, you su√er nothing worthy to die, keeping for the future the monuments of an age long-past preserved in books. You alone do not think to alter [10] pages with counterfeited words, but whatever the plain truth brings forth, you sing it anew through the ages with a plain voice. You restore the aging honors of our ancestors with the flower of enduring youth. [15] Virtue soldiers for you, and crimes grow pale under your gaze. You shun the crowds of the forum and the din of lawsuits, temperate in sweet song, nor do you allow words to be hindered [20] by the bonds of verse. Look with favor on these words! Now the life of the Etruscan bard is to be revealed, who claimed eternal glory for the language of Romulus through his sacred song. Life of Virgil [25] Revered Mantua brought forth a likeness of the Maeonian bard, Maro, a stream of the Romulian tongue. Who could bear your pride, eloquent Greece, who could endure such swollen speech, had not the rival land of Tuscany produced Virgil? [30] His father was a potter named Maro, or the A. VITAE

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farmer of a modest plot, as others report, hired for a meager salary, but to most a potter. Who would not be astounded at such miraculous things? A rich o√spring shone forth from a poor vein. The potter’s scion fashioned new songs. [35] His mother, Polla, was not the least of the progeny of Magius, whom praiseworthy virtue made the father-in-law to Maro. When she was weighed down with the ripe weight of her womb, as the mind, picturing in dreams things to come, is accustomed from wakeful care anxiously to anticipate joys, [40] she seemed to deliver a bough from the grove of Phoebus. Oh, sleep presaging truth! Nothing more certain did the gate of horn ever bring forth. Through the prophetic laurel his mother was made certain and recognized the craft of her burden. Brought forth into the life-giving air when Pompey was consul [45] with Crassus, he touched the earth, at the time when Phaethon, now mild, retreats to the Claws [of Scorpio, which extend into the astrological sign of Libra and which fits with Virgil’s supposed birthday of October 15] behind the face of Virgo. They say that he, as an infant, did not cry, but with a peaceful brow he beheld the world, to which he brought so many pleasing things. The world itself quite happily smiled upon his childbirth: [50] the earth supplied flowers, and, growing green with the gift of spring, it laid a grassfilled cushion beneath the child. Moreover, if the assurance is true, as later it was proved true, a broad cohort of bees, suddenly swarming through the land, covered his lips with honeycombs as he lay there, before he poured forth sweet song. [55] Celebrated antiquity, having marveled at this formerly only in holy Plato, recalls the token of spoken art. But mother Nature, hastening to exalt Rome, gave this to Latium also, so that it would not be inferior to any other in any way. Moreover, his father, as he inquired after the fate of his son, [60] planted in the sterile sand a poplar branch, which, nourished for a brief time as it grew, towered high over all those that age had increased, and this height was an omen. On account of these things it was decided to entrust the boy to the Muses and to show him the path of fame that would last through the ages. [65] So then Ballista first gave instruction to the uncultivated boy with his stammering tongue; by night he was accustomed to take up arms and to prowl in the shadows: learning covered his guilt. His audacity, soon revealed, was punished with stones. The youth cut an inscription by which he made known the pledges of the poet he would become. [70] The punishment of the master su≈ced for favorable beginnings: ‘‘Ballista is covered, buried under this mountain of stones; by night and by day take your route in safety, traveler.’’ We, however, will put this more briefly, if it is right to imitate Maro: ‘‘Ballista is covered by his own punishment, the road through the shadows is safe.’’ 210

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[75] ‘‘Here lies Ballista: proceed with a sure step, traveler.’’ ‘‘Ballista is held, enclosed in this mountain prison: At night proceed safe from harm, men.’’ ‘‘Why, I ask, do you tremble with fearful step, traveler? A stony rain holds the nocturnal thief.’’ [80] ‘‘A stone snatched away Ballista’s life; it also brought him his grave. The guilty shade passes by the hanging rocks.’’ ‘‘A most worthy penalty restrains the crimes of this thief: everywhere stone condemns hardness of heart.’’ Thereupon he used a gnat’s death as a premise in a refined verse: [85] ‘‘O tiny gnat, a shepherd o√ers you, who are so deserving, the rite of death in exchange for the gift of life.’’ Then mighty Rome herself, Maro, brought you to Siro as a teacher and joined her nobles to you in friendship. Pollio, Maecenas, Varus, and Cornelius blaze; [90] each one grasps you for himself, gaining eternal life through you. Muse, tell me why he composed his books. Augustus had taken up government, as emperor; now he was the avenger of his father’s death; now an army is chosen to see Philippi covered with the blood of his forefathers. [95] Cassius, avenger of Pompey, and Brutus fell here in arms. The victor, not yet satisfied to have enriched his veteran cohorts with the glorious spoils of war, proscribed the flowering lands of wretched Cremona, and all was granted as booty to his soldiers [100] as a reward for their toils: a violent band raged through the fields. No winds, no weapons of Jove, no frothy stream, no sudden rains wreak havoc as great as that impious band. Mantua, close to that place, you also shared the dangers; though undeservedly, your closeness made you wretched. [105] Now Virgil had been driven out; yet, supported by the shield of his friends, he ventured against these forces, when he almost was felled by a wicked sword. Why do you rage, hand? Why do you strike at the heart of Rome with your unholy blade? Your wars and your leader himself posterity will keep silent if Mantua does not tell of them. [110] The very learned crowd of the powerful did not bear this savagery. Going to the source of it all, they showed what the horror of Mars had done and what sort of man had su√ered such lamentable things. With the quiet assent of Caesar his fields are restored to him. Blessed with these kindnesses, since he wished to make worthy repayment, [115] he devised a poem by which he would be able to surpass these gifts: Caesar bestows lands, the possession of which is brief, but he o√ered praises which no age would silence. First he sang of shepherds. The consul Pollio was praised in this poem, completed when three years had run their course. [120] After this he laid out in four books the guidelines for working the land, and he taught all the benefits of the earth in two lustral periods, minus one year. Then in a tragic measure he thundered forth the battles of the Teucrians and Rutulians: twice six volumes [125] he shaped as gifts to his sacred leader, within a A. VITAE

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space of twelve years. But the places that popular tradition recalled, on water and land, the poet decided to visit, so that, as his eyes informed him, he might note them with more certainty in his books. He proceeded. As he reached Calabria a raging sickness, [130] caused by the injurious envy of the Fates, slackened his limbs. Here, when he felt his weakness and his impending doom . . . (JL)

5. Vita Philargyrii I (second half of fifth century) This text is ascribed to Iunius Philargyrius (with the alternative orthographies of Filargyrius and Philagrius), a grammarian who seems to have been active in the second half of the fifth century (see below, IV.D.1 and IV.H–I). Much of Philargyrius’s achievement as a commentator is known only through the long extracts on the Eclogues and Georgics that were absorbed in later scholia. In addition, two redactions of an Explanatio in Bucolica Vergilii, both of them introduced by a vita of the poet, are extant in manuscripts of the Carolingian period that circulated under his name. Vita Philargyrii I, also known as Vita Philargyriana I, is the more extensive of the vitae in these two redactions. It is deeply indebted to the VSD, but it makes both cuts and additions. Among the latter stands out the incorporation of quotations from Jerome. Although the Vita Philargyrii I does not introduce much new information, it does indicate the level of attention that scholars paid to the study of Virgil in late antiquity. Both Vita Philargyrii I and II survive in three manuscripts of the ninth and tenth centuries. (Discussion: VV 732–40, 742–45) (Text: VVA 175–86; VV 298–312) (JZ) In nomine Dei summi in Bucolica pauca ordinantur fona: Virgilius in operibus suis secutus est diversos poetas, Homerum in Aeneidis, Theocritum in Bucolicis, Hesiodum in Georgicis. Et cum Georgica scriberet, traditur cotidie meditatus a mane plurimos versus dictasse solitus ac per totum diem retractando ad paucissimos redigere. Tres modi locutionum sunt, quos characteras Graeci vocant, ICXNOC, qui tenuis, mesos, qui moderatus, adros, qui validus intellegitur. Tribus modis carmen inducitur. Est enim modus dramaticos, est exegematicos, est mictos. Dramaticos est, in quo personae inducuntur; exegematicos, qui et didascalicos dicitur, in quo poeta solus loquitur; mictos est ex utroque constans. Virgilius Maro Mantuanus parentibus modicis fuit ac praecipue patre tenui. Quidam opificem figulum, plures magistri cui[us]dam viatoris initio mercennarium et silvis colendis ac apibus recurandis operam dedisse tradiderunt. Natus est sub Gneio Pompeio Magno et Marco Licinio Crasso 212

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consule, Iduum octavo die in pago qui Andes dicitur haut procul a Mantua. Praegnans autem mater eius somniavit enixam se laurum ilico in speciem maturae arboris refertaeque variis pomis ac floribus transfiguratam, et cetera vidisse in somnis de eodem puero, quae hic non sunt. Initia aetatis Cremonae transegit usque ad virilem, quam septimo decimo anno a natali suo suscepit, evenitque, ut eo ipso die Lucretius poeta decederet. A Cremona ad Mediolanum, et inde paulo post transiit ad urbem. Corporis statura fuit grandi, aquilino colore, valitudine varia; nam plerumque a stomacho ac dolore capitis laborabat, sanguinem merum saepe reiecit. Neque minimae libidinis in pueros proprios, sed proni amoris, quorum alterum maxime dilexit Cebetem et Alexandrum, quem secunda Bucolicorum ecloga Alexin appellat, donatum sibi ab Asinio Pollione. Cetera autem vita et animo et ore praeter avaritiam probus fuit, unde et bona cuiusdam exulantis offerente Augusto non sustinuerat accipere. Ac si quando Romae, quo rarissime coibat, viseretur in publico, sectantes demonstrarent, fugiebat in proximum tectum. Habuitque domum Romae Esquiliis iuxta hortos Maecenatianos, quamquam secessu Campaniae Siciliaeque plurimum uteretur. Parentes iam grandis amisit, ex quibus patrem captum oculis et duos fratres germanos Silonem impuberem, Flaccum iam adultum, cuius exitium sub nomine Daphnidis deflet. Inter cetera studia medicinae quoque et maxime mathematicae operam dedit. Egit et causam apud iudices unam omnino, non amplius quam semel; nam et in sermone tardissimus ac paene indoctus. Sed poeticam adhuc auspicatus in Balistam ludi magistrum, qui erat in Calabria ob infamiam latrociniorum coopertum lapidibus, distichon fecit; distichon autem duorum versuum clausula, quam in poemate brevem sententiam dicimus: Monte sub hoc lapidum tegitur Ballista sepultus: nocte die tutum carpe viator iter [AL 1.1, 212, no. 261].

Deinde Catalepton et Priapeia et Epigrammata et Diras, item Cirim, Culicem, cum esset annorum XVI, cuius materia talis est: pastor fatigatus aestu cum sub arbore pro calore dormisset et serpens ad eum proreperet a palude, culex provolavit atque inter duo tempora aculeum fixit pastori; at ille continuo culicem contrivit et serpentem interemit ac sepulcrum culicis statuit et distichon fecit: Parve culex, pecudum custos tibi tale merenti funeris officium vitae pro munere reddit [Culex 413–14].

Scripsitque Bucolica rogatu consulum quorundam, per quos in sedes suas et in agros rediit. Exorto enim civili bello inter Augustum et Cassium, Brutum et Antonium, cuius copias contra Augustum Cremonenses A. VITAE

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susceperunt, factum est, ut victor Augustus in eorum agros veteranos deduci iuberet milites et non sufficiente agro Cremonensium Mantuani quoque, in quibus erat poeta Virgilius, maximam partem finium perdidissent, eo quod vicini Cremonensibus fuerunt. Sed Virgilius merito carminum fretus, amicitia quorundam potentium et fama commendatus, ab Augusto amissos agros recepit et deinceps imperatoris familiari amore perfunctus est. Virgilius in operibus suis diversos secutus est. In imitatione enim Theocriti poetae Siculi et Syracusani scripsit Bucolica in laudem Caesaris et principum ceterorum, per quos agri redditi sunt, Asinii scilicet Pollionis Alphenique Vari et Cornelii Galli. Scripsit Georgica in honorem Maecenatis, qui sibi mediocriter adhuc ignoto opem tulit. Nam cum veterano centurioni resistere ausus esset Virgilius, statim, ut miles adprehendens gladium in fugam coegit poetam, eum finis persequendi non fuit, priusquam in fluvium Virgilius se coniecisset et in alteram ripam transnatasset. In Georgicis Hesiodum, qui de Ascra insula fuit. Novissime scripsit Aeneida in honorem Caesaris, ut virtutes Aeneae, ex cuius genere cupiebat esse, suo carmine ornaret, Homerum secutus. Bucolica triennio scripsit, quae et eo successu edidit, ut in scena quoque per cantores crebro [pro]nuntiarentur. Georgica septem annis, Aeneida undecim annis scripsit. Obtrectatores Virgilio numquam defuerunt nec mirum; nam nec Homero quidem, eo quod pleraque ab Homero sumpsit, unde, cum quosdam versus ad verbum transtulisset, compilator veterum diceretur. Sed hoc ipsum crimen sic disperdere consuevit; cur non illi quoque eadem furta temptarent? Verum intellecturos facilius esse clavam Herculi extorquere de manu, quam Homero versum subripere. Virgilius anno Augusti vicesimo quinto Brundisi moritur Sentio Saturnino et Lucretio Cinna consulibus. Ossa eius Neapolim translata in secundo ab urbe miliario sepeliuntur titulo huiusmodi superposito, quem ipse moriens dictaverat: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua rura duces [see below, II.C.1].

Varius et Tucca Virgilii et Horatii contubernales poetae habentur inlustres, qui Aeneidos postea libros emendaverunt sub ea conditione, ut nihil delerent. Quoniam de auctore diximus, de ipso carmine dicendum. Quamvis igitur multa alia inscriptione sub aliena sint prolata et Varius sub nomine suo edidit, tamen Bucolica liquido Virgilii esse minime dubitandum, praesertim cum ipse poeta, tamquam hoc metuens, principium huius operis et in alio carmine suum esse testatus sit dicendo: 214

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Carmina qui lusi pastorum audaxque iuventa, Tityre, te patulae cecini sub tegmine fagi [Georgics 4.565–66].

Bucolica autem et dici et recte dici vel hoc indicio probari suffecerat, quod eodem nomine apud Theocritum censeantur, verum ratio quoque monstranda est. Tria genera pastorum sunt, qui dignitatem in Bucolicis habent, quorum minimi caprarii, paulo honoratiores opiliones, honoratissimi bucolici. Unde igitur magis decuit pastorali carmini nomen imponi, nisi ab eo gradu, qui fere apud pastores excellentissimus est inventus? Quaeri solet, unde originem ducit bucolicum carmen. Nonnulli a Lacaedaemoniis originem sumpsisse opinantur. Namque transgresso Xerxe in Graeciam rege Persarum, cum Spartanae virgines sub hostili metu neque egredi urbem neque pompam chorumque colere potuerunt aramque Dianae de more exercere, turbae pastorum, ne sine religione praeterirent, eundem usum inconditis cantibus celebraverunt appellaveruntque bucolicum a bubus. Alii ab Oreste circa Siciliam vago id genus carminis Dianae redditum, sed ipsum atque pastores dicunt, quo tempore de Scythia Taurica cum sorore profugerat, subrepto numinis simulacro et [ce]lato in fasce lignorum, unde et Fascelinam Dianam perhibent nuncupatam, apud cuius aras Orestes per sacerdotem eiusdem numinis Iphigeniam, sororem suam, a parricidio fuerat expiatus. Alii Apollini Nomio, pastorali scilicet Deo, qua tempestate Admeti boves paverat. Alii Libero, nympharum et satyrorum et id genus numinum principi, quibus placet rusticum carmen. Alii Mercurio, Daphnidis patri, pastorum omnium principis. Alii in honorem Panos peculiariter scribi putant. Plerique a Syracusanis primum compositum. Quae cum omnia dicantur, illud erit probatissimum, bucolicorum carmen originem ducere a priscis temporibus, quibus vita pastoralis exercebatur. Quaeritur, quo ordine Virgilius sua carmina composuerit. Et merito non aliunde coepit nisi ab ea vita, quae prima in terris fuit. Nam postea rura culta et postremum pro cultis terris bella suscepta, quod videtur Virgilius in ipso ordine operum suorum voluisse monstrare, cum pastores primo, deinde agricolas canit et ad ultimum bellatores. Ergo incultam primum et pastoralem vitam hominibus fuisse Bucolicis indicat, post necessarias mortalibus fruges, et usum agrorum inventum Georgicis ostendit, perinde cupiditate possidendi extensione finium ad arma usque perventum est. Ut tres modi locutionum sunt, quos characteras Graeci vocant, tenuis, moderatus, validus, credibile erit Virgilium, qui omni genere scientiae praevaleret, Bucolica ad primum modum, Georgica ad secundum, Aeneida ad tertium voluisse conferre. Intentio libelli, quem scopon Graeci vocant, in imitatione Theocriti poetae constituitur, qui Siculus ac Syracusanus fuit, et in laudem Caesaris et A. VITAE

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principum ceterorum, per quos, ut supra diximus, in sedes suas atque agros rediit. Effectus finisque carminis et delectationem et utilitatem secundum praeceptum continet. Quaeri solet, cur non ultra quam X eclogas scripsit. Quod nequaquam mirum videbitur, qui consideraverit varietatem scaenarum pastoralium ultra hunc numerum non potuisse proferri, cum ipse poeta circumspectior Theocrito, ut ipsa res indicat, videatur metuere, ne illa ecloga, quae ‘‘Pollio’’ inscribitur, minus rustica iudicetur, cum [non] id ipsum praestruit.

In the name of the highest God a few remarks on the Bucolics are set forth: Virgil followed various poets in his works—Homer in the Aeneid, Theocritus in the Bucolics, Hesiod in the Georgics. When he was writing the Georgics, he is reported to have been accustomed every day to think out and dictate very many verses from the early morning on, but, by revising them throughout the day, to reduce them to very few. There are three styles of speech, which the Greeks call charakteres: ischnos, which is understood as ‘‘meager’’; mesos, as ‘‘middle’’; and adros, as ‘‘vigorous.’’ A poem is introduced in one of three ways. There is the dramatic style, the narrative style, and the mixed style. The dramatic is when characters are introduced, the narrative (which is also called didactic [didascalicos]) is when the poet alone speaks, and the mixed style comprises each of the two. Virgilius Maro, of Mantua, was of modest parents and had an especially poor father. Some teachers have handed down that he was a potter, still more that he was at first the hired worker of an o≈cial agent and that he looked after the upkeep of the woods and the care of bees. He was born on the eighth day of the Ides [an error for the Ides of October] under the consulships of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Marcus Licinius Crassus in the district that is called Andes, not far from Mantua. His mother, when she was pregnant, dreamed that she gave birth to a laurel, which was instantly transformed into the appearance of a fully grown tree filled with various fruits and flowers, and she saw other things in dreams about the same child, but these are not mentioned here. He passed the first part of his life at Cremona, up until the time when he assumed the toga of manhood, which he received when he was seventeen; it happened that on that same day the poet Lucretius died. From Cremona he traveled to Milan, and a little bit after that to Rome. He was large in bodily stature, of swarthy complexion, and of varying health. For he often su√ered from stomach pains and headaches and frequently vomited up pure blood; nor was he of moderate sexual passion toward his own boy slaves, but was instead inclined to desire them, of whom he loved Cebes and Alexander most of all; in his second Bucolic he calls the latter Alexis, who had 216

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been given to him by Asinius Pollio. In the rest of his life he was upright in both mind and speech, and free from avarice. For this reason he declined to accept even the goods of a certain exile when Augustus o√ered them to him. And if he was ever seen in public at Rome, where he very rarely walked about, he would flee into the nearest building when people would follow him and point him out. He kept a house at Rome on the Esquiline hill near the gardens of Maecenas, though he spent most of the time in seclusion in Campania and Sicily. When he was already grown up he lost his family, among them his father, who had lost the use of his eyes, and his two brothers: a boy, Silo; and Flaccus, who was already an adult, for whose passing he wept under the name of Daphnis. Among his other pursuits he also gave attention to medicine and especially to mathematics. He argued a lawsuit before judges once in all, and not more than once. For he was very slow in his speech, almost like an uneducated person. When he had just undertaken poetry, he made a distich about Ballista, a schoolmaster who in Calabria had been covered with rocks because of the disgrace of his robberies. A distich is a clausula made up of two verses, which in poetry we call a condensed thought: Ballista is covered, buried under this mountain of stones; by night and by day take your route in safety, traveler.

Then he wrote the Catalepton, verses about Priapus and Epigrams, and the Dirae, as well as the Ciris and the Culex, when he was sixteen years old. The subject of this last work is as follows: when a shepherd, worn out from the heat, was sleeping under a tree because of the heat, and a snake had slithered up to him from the marsh, a gnat flew up and stung him between the temples; the shepherd immediately crushed the gnat and killed the snake; he then built a tomb for the gnat and composed this distich: O tiny gnat, a shepherd o√ers you, who are so deserving, the rite of death in exchange for the gift of life.

He wrote the Bucolics at the request of certain consuls, through whose agency he had been able to return to his home and lands. For after the civil war that had arisen between Augustus and Cassius as well as between Brutus and Antony—whose forces the citizens of Cremona had supported in opposition to Augustus—it happened that the victorious Augustus ordered that his veteran soldiers be settled in their fields, and, since the land of the Cremonans was not su≈cient, the citizens of Mantua, among whom was the poet Virgil, also lost the greater part of their territory because they were neighbors of the Cremonans. But Virgil, relying on the worth of his poetry, recommended both by his friendship with certain powerful men and by his renown, received back his lost lands from Augustus and thereafter enjoyed an intimate friendship with the emperor. A. VITAE

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Virgil followed various poets in his works. He wrote the Bucolics in imitation of Theocritus, a poet of Sicily—in fact, of Syracuse—in praise of Caesar and of the other leaders through whose agency his land had been returned to him—namely, Asinius Pollio, Alfenus Varus, and Cornelius Gallus. He wrote the Georgics in honor of Maecenas, who had given help to him when he was still somewhat unknown. For when Virgil had dared to resist a veteran centurion, the latter, being a soldier, had at once snatched up his sword and compelled the poet to flee. Indeed, the pursuit did not end until Virgil had thrown himself into a stream and had swum across to the other bank. In the Georgics he imitated Hesiod, who was from the island of Ascra. He wrote the Aeneid last of all, in honor of Caesar, with the result that he expanded upon the virtues of Aeneas, of whose lineage the emperor wished to be, in the poem. In this he followed Homer. He wrote the Bucolics in three years, which he published with such success that they were frequently recited on stage also by singers. He wrote the Georgics in seven years, the Aeneid in eleven. Virgil never lacked detractors—which is not surprising, for, indeed, Homer did not either—for the reason that he took many things from Homer. On this account, when he translated certain verses word-for-word, he was called a plunderer of the ancients. He defended himself against this charge thus: why had they not also attempted the same thefts? Then they would understand that it was easier to wrench the club of Hercules from his hand than to snatch a verse from Homer. Virgil died at Brindisi in the twenty-fifth year of Augustus’s reign, when Sentius Saturninus and Lucretius Cinna were the consuls. His bones were carried to Naples and buried at the second milestone from the city with the following inscription, which he himself had dictated as he was dying, placed above: Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders.

Varius and Tucca are held to be illustrious fellow poets of Virgil and Horace, and they afterward edited the books of the Aeneid, on the condition that they remove nothing. Since we have spoken of the author, we must speak of the poetry itself. Although, therefore, many other works have been handed down under other names and Varius published under his own name, nevertheless it is clearly not to be doubted that the Bucolics are the work of Virgil, especially since the poet himself—as if he were worried about this—testified that the beginning of this work was his in another poem, saying: 218

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I, who played the songs of shepherds and, bold in my youth, sang of you, Tityrus, under the protection of the spreading beech.

That such poems are called bucolics—and rightly they are so called—has been su≈ciently proven by the fact that they are given this title by Theocritus; a reason, however, should also be given. There are three types of shepherds that are honored in pastoral poems; the least of them are called capriarii [goatherds], those with somewhat more esteem are called opiliones [shepherds], and the most esteemed are bucolici [oxen-drivers]. Therefore, how could it be more fitting than that the name of a pastoral poem should be taken from this rank, which is found to be the highest among almost all shepherds? The origin of bucolic poetry is often sought out. Some think it originated among the Spartans. For when Xerxes, the king of the Persians, crossed over into Greece, and the Spartan virgins, because of fear of the enemy, could neither leave the city, nor lead a procession or a chorus, nor sacrifice at the altar of Diana in the customary fashion, crowds of shepherds—so that they might not omit this religious practice—performed the same ceremony with unpolished songs, a type of song which they called bucolicum, from bos [ox]. Others say that this type of song was o√ered to Diana by Orestes (both from him and from shepherds), who was wandering near Sicily at the time when he had fled from Taurian Scythia with his sister; for he had stolen an image of the goddess and hidden it in a fascis [bundle of sticks]. This is why, they say, Diana is addressed as ‘‘Fascelina.’’ Orestes had been purified from parricide at her altars by a priestess of this goddess, his sister Iphigenia. Others say [that it was a song to] Apollo Nomios—that is, the god of shepherds—at the time when he pastured the cattle of Admetus. Others say [that it was a song to] Liber, the leader of nymphs and satyrs and spirits of this kind to whom rustic poetry is pleasing. Others [say that it must be related to] Mercury, father of Daphnis, foremost of all shepherds. Others judge that it was written especially to honor Pan. Many think it was first composed by the Syracusans. When all of this has been said, it is likeliest that bucolic poetry traces its origin to times gone by, when the pastoral life was practiced. It is asked in what order Virgil composed his poems. And it is fitting that he began at no other place than from that type of livelihood which was first available to men. For it was only afterward that fields were cultivated and lastly that wars were undertaken over these cultivated lands, which Virgil seems to have wanted to show in the very order of his poems, since he sings first of shepherds, then of farmers, and finally of warriors. Therefore he points out in the Eclogues that men first led an uncultivated and pastoral life; in the Georgics he shows that afterward crops necessary for mortals and the cultivation of A. VITAE

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fields were discovered; then that the desire to possess by expansion of territory led all the way to warfare. There are three styles of speech, which the Greeks call charakteres: ischnos, which is understood as ‘‘meager’’; mesos, as ‘‘middle’’; and adros, as ‘‘vigorous.’’ It is believable that for this reason Virgil, who was very skillful in every branch of knowledge, wished to compose the Eclogues in the first style, the Georgics in the second, and the Aeneid in the third. The intention of this book, which the Greeks call the scopos, lies in its imitation of the poet Theocritus, who was a Sicilian and a Syracusan, and in its praise of Caesar and the other leading men through whose agency, as we said above, he returned to his home and his lands. The e√ect and good of this poem rests in its pleasing nature and its utility, according to the precept. It is often asked why he did not write more than ten eclogues. This will not seem at all surprising when one considers that the variety of pastoral scenes was not able to be extended beyond this number, though the poet himself, in a more circumspect fashion than Theocritus—as the matter itself indicates— seems to have feared that the eclogue entitled ‘‘Pollio’’ might be judged too little rustic, which [objection] he forestalled in advance. (JL)

6. Vita Philargyrii II As its name indicates, Vita Philargyrii II is also ascribed to Iunius Philargyrius (or Filargyrius or Philagrius), the grammarian of the second half of the fifth century (see below, IV.D.1 and IV.H–I). This is the shorter of the two and relies more heavily on the extracts from Jerome’s Chronicon (see above, II.A.2). It is similar to Vita Gudiana II (see below, II.A.21), except that it combines components of a life with part of a commentary on the Georgics, not the first Eclogue. Bayer schematizes it as follows (VV 756): A short vita along the lines of Jerome’s biographical extracts (see above, II.A.2) A collection of triads Introduction to the Georgics, drawn largely verbatim from Servius Introduction to the Aeneid, building on the sequence of Virgil’s works Enumeration of the constituents of the Servian system, expanded with triads Introduction to the Eclogues, leading to an argumentum Bucolicorum Details for an explication of the Eclogues Expropriation of Virgil’s property

As can be seen, the text is a hodgepodge assembled from parts of various preceding commentaries. This vita survives with Vita Philargyrii I in three manuscripts of the ninth and tenth centuries. (Discussion: VV 742–45, 755– 56) (Text: VVA 187–92. The final four paragraphs have been supplied from the fullest version, in VV 384–90 [here: 390].) (JZ) 220

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Virgilius Maro in pago, qui Andes dicitur, haut procul a Mantua, nascitur Pompeio et Crasso consulibus [nono Tholomaei regis anno, cui apud Aegyptum Cleopatra in regnum successit]. Virgilius Brundisi moritur XI Kal. Oct. Sentio Saturnino et Lucretio Cinna consulibus, Augusti Caesaris XXVI regni anno, ante annos XVI Christi nativitatis. Ossa eius Neapoli translata in secundo ab urbe miliario sepeliuntur titulo huiusmodi superscripto, quem ipse moriens dictavit: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua rura duces [see below, II.C.1].

Humile, medium, magnum; phisica, ethica, logica; Bucolica, Georgica, Aeneades; naturalis, moralis, rationalis; pastor, operator, bellator. Physica, ethica, logica; propter naturam, propter usum, propter doctrinam. Virgilius in operibus suis diversos secutus est poetas, Homerum in Aeneidis, quem licet intervallo longo secutus est; Theocritum in Bucolicis, a quo non longe abest; Hesiodum in Georgicis. Hic autem Hesiodus fuit de Ascra insula, qui scripsit ad fratrem suum Persen librum quem appellavit Arcaia memoros, id est, Opera et Dies. Hic autem continet, quemadmodum agri et quibus temporibus sint colendi. Ingenti autem arte egit, ut potentiam nobis sui ingenii indicaret coartando lata et angustiora dilatando; nam cum Homeri et Theocriti in brevitatem scripta collegerit, unum Hesiodi librum divisit in quattuor, quod ratione non caret; nam omnis terra quadrifaria: aut arvus, id est, sationalis, aut consitus, id est, aptus arboribus, vel pascuus, qui herbis et animalibus vacat, aut floridus, in quo sunt horti apibus congruentes et floribus. Alii autem duos tantum Georgicorum male dicunt, dicentes terrae operam esse, quam primi continent duo libri, nescientes tertium et quartum, licet georgica non habent, tamen ad utilitatem rusticam pertinere. Nam et pecora et apes habere studium est rusticum, licet possimus agriculturam in his duobus agentibus invenire; nam farrago sine cultura non nascitur, et in hortis colendis non minorem circum terras constat impendi laborem, et hi libri didascalici sunt, unde necesse est, ut ad aliquem scribantur. Nam praeceptum doctoris et discipuli personam requirit, unde et ad Maecenatem scripsit, sicut Hesiodus ad Persen, Lucretius ad Memmium. Sane agriculturae huius praecepta non ad omnes pertinent terras, sed ad solum situm Italiae, praecipue Venetiae teste ipso Virgilio, qui ait ‘‘tibi res antiquae’’ usque ‘‘ingredior’’ [Georgics 2.174–75], cum de Italia diceret. [‘‘Quid faciat laetas segetes’’ [Georgics 1.1], quid terras pingues efficiat. ‘‘Segetem,’’ pro terra posuit, ut ‘‘Horrescit seges ensibus’’ [Aeneid 7.526], vel sentibus. ‘‘Pingues terras’’ ut paulo post dicit: cinis, intermissio arandi,

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incensio stipularum, stercoratio. ‘‘Laetas’’: nam fimus, qui per agros iacitur, vulgo laetamen vocatur. ‘‘Quo sidere’’ [Georgics 1.1], id est quo tempore, quia ex sideribus tempora colliguntur.] Iuxta eos, qui opus Virgilii altius volunt animadvertere. Hic ordo: Virgilium iuxta ordinem vitae mortalium carmina composuisse. Primum incultam et pastoralem vitam hominibus fuisse Bucolicis indicavit; postea necesse fuisse mortalibus fruges agrorum, et usum inventum Georgicis ostendit. Ubi cupiditatem possidendi ex contentione finivit, ad arma usque perventum est. Sed argumentum de armis fuit, ut in honore Caesaris Aeneae virtutes, ex cuius genere esse cupiebat, suo carmine ornaret. Nam et primis erroribus, qui ad similitudinem carminis Homeri descripti sunt, [nam] paria sunt et numero et magnitudine periculorum virtutis indicia. In aliis vero sex libris, unde in Italia primi armorum conflictus, quantae gentes ad proelium excitatae, quanti duces ante Turni occasum. Titulus, causa, intentio, numerus, ordo, explanatio. Utilitas legendi, iucunditas audiendi. Modus tenuis, moderatus, praevalidus: tenuis in Bucolicis, moderatus in Georgicis, praevalidus in libris Aeneae. Incipiunt Bucolica in laudem Caesaris et principum ceterorum, per quos agri redditi sunt. Asinii Pollionis Alphenique Vari et Cornelii Galli. Georgica in honorem Maecenatis, qui sibi opem tulit. Novissima autem [Aeneis] in honorem Caesaris, qui ex genere Aeneae fuit. Bucolica triennio scripsit, Georgica VII annis, Aeneida XI. Argumentum Bucolicorum. Tiberius Caesar Iulius et Antonius contra Cassium Brutum civile bellum gesserunt. Inde milites victoris Augusti et Antonii agros Transpadanorum et Cremonensium et Mantuanorum rapuerunt. Inde Virgilii ager ademptus est, quem Asinius Pollio iubente Caesare restituit, in cuius honorem Bucolica scripsit. Eclogam composuit gratiarum actionem continentem, in qua sibi personam induit Tityri et Meliboei alicuius Mantuani profugientis et felicitatem Virgilii admirantis. Pastores ovium et bovum carmina invicem exponentes induxit. Tityrus ergo ovium pastor, Meliboeus bovum. Opiliones, qui haedos pascunt, [bubulci], qui boves. Tityrum Virgilium dicit, Meliboeum Cornelium Gallum, unum de Mantuanis, quibus sunt agri adempti. Tityrum arietem vel hircum Siculi dicunt. Asinius Pollio, Alphenus Varus et Gallus missi sunt agrum militibus dividere; iam veteranis constitutis ergo omnibus Mantuani expulsi sunt. Virgilio ob summum ingenium sua loca data sunt. Ideo itaque in eorum laudem dicit. Meliboeus, id est, Cornelius, Tityrus, id est, Virgilius.

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Virgil was born in a region that is called Andes, not far from Mantua, during the consulships of Pompey and Crassus, in the ninth year of the reign of King Ptolemy, whom Cleopatra succeeded as sovereign in Egypt. Virgil died at Brindisi on September 21, during the consulships of Sentius Saturninus and Lucretius Cinna, in the twenty-sixth year of Caesar Augustus’s reign, and sixteen years before Christ’s birth. His bones were moved to Naples and buried at the second milestone from the city, with the following inscription, which he himself dictated as he was dying, written upon it: Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders.

Humble, middle, and high styles; physics, ethics, logic; Bucolics, Georgics, Aeneid; natural, moral, and rational [teaching]; shepherd, worker of the land, warrior. Physics, ethics, logic; on account of nature, on account of usefulness, on account of instruction. In his works, Virgil followed several di√erent poets: in the Aeneid he followed Homer, even though there was a long interval of time between them; in the Bucolics, he followed Theocritus, who had lived not so long before him; in the Georgics, he followed Hesiod, who was from the island of Ascra and wrote a book addressed to his brother Perses, which he entitled Arcaia memoros, that is, Works and Days. This book contains advice on how and when fields are to be cultivated. Virgil set about his work with great skill, in order to show us the power of his intellect through abridging what was lengthy and expanding what was concise. For though he compressed the writings of Homer and Theocritus into a shorter form, he divided one book of Hesiod into four books. He had good reason for doing this, for all land falls into one of four categories. It is either arvus, arable land, or consitus, suitable for trees, or pascuus, land left free for plants and grazing livestock, or floridus, land in which there are gardens suitable for bees and flowers. There are, however, others who wrongly say that there are only two books of Georgics. They say that agriculture is contained in the first two books, but they do not appreciate that the third and fourth books, even though they have no georgics [that is, agriculture] in them, are nevertheless concerned with activities that are useful in the country. For keeping livestock and bees is a country occupation. We could also find material in these two books for those engaged in agriculture. For fodder for cattle does not grow without proper care, and it is a well-known fact that in horticulture one must be equally painstaking with regard to the land. These books are didactic, and it follows that they must be written for a particular addressee. For the instruction of a teacher demands the presence of a pupil. Virgil wrote [his Georgics] for Maecenas, just A. VITAE

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as Hesiod wrote for Perses and Lucretius for Memmius. Of course, the teachings on agriculture here do not apply universally to all lands, but are specific to the region of Italy, and in particular the region of Venice. We have Virgil’s own word for this, for he is talking about Italy when he says: ‘‘It is for you that I enter upon themes of ancient [praise and skill].’’ [‘‘What makes the crops happy’’: what makes the land rich. He uses the word segetes in place of terra [land], as in horrescit seges ensibus [the crops bristle with swords] or sentibus [with bramble]. [To make] land rich, as he says shortly after this, [the following procedures are required]: ash, a break from cultivation, the burning of stubble, and manuring. Laetas [happy, lush]: for manure, which is spread over the fields, has the colloquial name laetamen [muck, dung]. ‘‘Under which star’’: that is, in what season, since seasons are calculated by means of the stars.] According to those who want to give closer attention to Virgil’s work, this is the sequence: Virgil composed his poems to correspond with the sequence of human life. In the Bucolics, he points out that men at first lived a pastoral life without agriculture; in the Georgics, he shows that afterward crops became necessary for human beings, and the practice of agriculture was discovered. When he described the desire to take possession of things through conflict, it came to the stage of warfare. Warfare, however, was the theme of his poem so that he could embellish the virtues of Aeneas in his poem to honor Caesar, who wanted to be a descendant of Aeneas. For this was also Virgil’s intention in the first wanderings of Aeneas, which are modeled on Homer’s poem. For the signs of [Aeneas’s] virtue are equal both in number and in the greatness of dangers [to those of Odysseus]. But in the other six books, Virgil explains the origins of the first armed conflicts in Italy, the greatness of the tribes who were mobilized for battle, and the power of the leaders before the fall of Turnus. Title, cause, intention, number, order, explanation. Usefulness for reading, pleasure in hearing. Humble, well-balanced, and strong styles; humble in the Bucolics, well-balanced in the Georgics, strong in the Aeneid. The Bucolics begin with praise for Caesar and the other leading men— Asinius Pollio, Alfenus Varus, and Cornelius Gallus—who brought about the restitution of Virgil’s land. The Georgics were written in honor of Maecenas, who provided him with assistance. His last work, the Aeneid, was written in honor of Caesar, who was from the stock of Aeneas. He wrote the Bucolics in three years, the Georgics in seven, the Aeneid in eleven. The subject matter of the Bucolics: Tiberius Caesar Julius and Antony fought a civil war against Cassius Brutus. When Augustus and Antony were victorious, their soldiers seized the land belonging to the people on the other side 224

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of the Po, the Cremonans and the Mantuans. As a result, Virgil’s land was confiscated; but at Caesar’s bidding Asinius Pollio restored the land, and Virgil wrote the Bucolics in Pollio’s honor. He composed an eclogue containing an expression of gratitude, in which he assumes the guise of Tityrus and Meliboeus, a certain Mantuan who is fleeing and marvels at Virgil’s happiness. He introduced shepherds and cowherds, who recite their songs in alternation. So Tityrus is a shepherd, Meliboeus a cowherd. Those who pasture young goats are called opiliones while those who pasture cattle are called bubulci. Tityrus represents Virgil, and Meliboeus represents Cornelius Gallus, one of the Mantuans whose lands were confiscated. Sicilians use the word Tityrus to denote a ram or he-goat. Asinius Pollio, Alfenus Varus, and Cornelius Gallus were sent to allot the land to the soldiers. Once all the veterans had been established on the land allotted to them, the Mantuans were expelled. On account of his extraordinary talent, Virgil was given back his land. It is for this reason that he praises them. Meliboeus stands for Cornelius, Tityrus stands for Virgil. (TM and JZ)

7. Vita Probi (probably fifth or sixth century) The Vita Probi (Life by Probus) is so called because it opens a commentary on the Eclogues and Georgics (see above, I.D.3) that was ascribed in the tituli of the manuscripts to the grammarian Marcus Valerius Probus (circa 25–before 105: see below, IV.A.5). Despite the ascription, the commentary is generally believed not to have been the work of Probus (which has been lost, apart from traces in other commentaries) but rather a conglomeration produced from various commentaries. The Vita Probi as it exists in the manuscripts today (and in the present edition and translation) is not the vita that originally accompanied the pseudoProbus commentary, and internal evidence suggests strongly that it was not by Probus, but rather by another writer, probably from the fifth or sixth century, who drew on various sources (one of which may have been a vita by Probus himself). These sources would appear to include Servius, Servius Danielis (an expanded form of Servius, also known as Servius auctus), the VSD (see above, II.A.1), and the Vita Focae (see above, II.A.4). The Vita Probi introduces only a few new tidbits to the biographical tradition, such as the explicit naming of Virgil’s mother as Magia Polla and the identification of Virgil as adhering to the Epicurean creed. Otherwise it belongs mainly to the tradition of the VSD. The text survives complete in manuscripts of the fifteenth and sixteenth A. VITAE

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centuries. (Edition and discussion: L. Lehnus, ‘‘Verso una nuova edizione del commento virgiliano attribuito a Probo. La vita Vergilii,’’ Scripta Philologa 3 [1982], 179–211) (Discussion: VV 698–709; M. Giose≈, Studi sul commento a Virgilio dello Pseudo-Probo, Pubblicazioni della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell’Università di Milano 143 [Florence, 1991]; F. Hurka, ‘‘Überlegungen zur Vita Vergiliana Probiana,’’ Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 147 [2004], 172– 89) (Text: VVA 197–200; VV 246–48) (JZ) P. Vergilius Maro natus Idibus Octobris Crasso et Pompeio consulibus matre Magia Polla, patre Vergilio rustico vico Andico, qui abest a Mantua milia passuum XXX, tenui facultate nutritus. Sed cum iam summis eloquentiae doctoribus vacaret, in belli civilis tempora incidit, quod Augustus adversus Antonium gessit; primumque post Mutinense bellum veteranis [agros cedere coactus], postea restitutus beneficio Alfeni Vari, Asinii Pollionis et Cornelii Galli, quibus in Bucolicis adulatur, deinde per gratiam Maecenatis in amicitiam Caesaris ductus est. Vixit pluribus annis liberali in otio, secutus Epicuri sectam, insigni concordia et familiaritate usus Quintilii, Tuccae et Vari. Scripsit Bucolica annos natus VIII et XX, Theocritum secutus, Georgica Hesiodum et Varronem. Aeneida ingressus bello Cantabrico—hoc quoque ingenti industria—ab Augusto usque ad sestertium centies honestatus est. Decessit in Calabria annum agens quinquagesimum et primum heredibus Augusto et Maecenate cum Proculo minore fratre. Cuius sepulcro, quod est in via Puteolana, hoc legitur epigramma: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua rura duces [see below, II.C.1].

Aeneis servata est ab Augusto, quamvis ipse testamento damnat, ne quid eorum, quae non edidisset, extaret, quod Servius Varus hoc testatur epigrammate [see below, II.D.3.a]: Iusserat haec rapidis aboleri carmina flammis Vergilius, Phrygium quae cecinere ducem. Tucca vetat Variusque simul; tu, maxime Caesar, non sinis et Latiae consulis historiae.

Publius Vergilius Maro was born on the Ides of October [October 15] when Crassus and Pompeius were consuls, from his mother Magia Polla and his father, the farmer Vergilius, in the village Andes, which was thirty miles from Mantua. He was raised in modest circumstances. But when he was already studying with the most prominent teachers of eloquence, the civil war, which Augustus waged against Antony, impinged on his life. At first [having been constrained to surrender his fields] to the vet226

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erans after the war of Mutina and afterward having recovered them through the kindness of Alfenus Varus, Asinius Pollio, and Cornelius Gallus (whom he praises in the Bucolics), he was then, by the favor of Maecenas, brought into friendship with Caesar. He lived many years in the leisure of a free man, following the Epicurean creed, enjoying the distinguished sympathy and intimacy of Quintilius, Tucca, and Varius. He wrote the Bucolics when he was twenty-eight years old, and followed Theocritus. He wrote the Georgics in the manner of Hesiod and Varro. Having begun the Aeneid during the war with the Cantabri—and this also with great enterprise—he was honored by Augustus to the extent of ten million sesterces. He died in Calabria in his fifty-first year; Augustus and Maecenas were his heirs, with Proculus his younger brother. This epigram is to be read on his tomb, which is along the road to Pozzuoli: Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders.

The Aeneid was saved by Augustus, although Virgil himself had stipulated in his will that nothing which he had not published should exist. Servius Varus [see below, II.D.3.a] also attests to this in the following epigram: Virgil had ordered that these songs, which sang of the Phrygian leader, be destroyed in flames. Tucca and Varius both forbid it; you, greatest Caesar, do not allow it and you take heed of Latium’s history. (DJ and JZ)

8. Expositio Donati (fourth century) Bayer classified as vitae formulares (systematic lives) those which formed part of a literary-critical system (in which case he designates them expositiones) and those which are divided up into systematic questions (in which case he calls them periochae). The Expositio Donati, which refers to Aelius Donatus (see below, IV.D.2, as well as above, II.A.1), is the first extant text to distribute the contents of the Suetonian life in a system that Bayer outlined as follows: A. The author B. The poetry I. Before the work 1. Title 2. Motivation a. Source of the poetry b. Goal of the writer A. VITAE

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i. Imitation of Theocritus ii. Chronological order iii. Three types of style iv. Securing the good graces of Caesar v. The argument of the Eclogues 3. Intention a. Imitation of Theocritus b. Praise of Caesar c. Why he wrote only ten eclogues d. Allegory II. In the work itself 1. Number 2. Order 3. Explanation The title could be rendered in English as The Exposition by Aelius Donatus (excerpted from the VSD, 47, 50, 67). (Discussion: VV 713–15) (Text: VV 250) (JZ) Quoniam de auctore summatim diximus, de ipso carmine iam dicendum est, quod bifariam tractari solet, id est, ante opus et in ipso opere. Ante opus titulus causa intentio: ‘‘titulus,’’ in quo quaeritur, cuius sit, quid sit; ‘‘causa,’’ unde ortum sit et quare hoc potissimum sibi ad scribendum poeta praesumpserit; ‘‘intentio,’’ in qua cognoscitur, quid efficere conetur poeta. ‘‘Causa’’ dupliciter inspici solet, ab origine carminis et a voluntate scribentis. Sequitur id, quod in ipso carmine tractari solet, id est, numerus ordo explanatio.

Seeing that we have spoken generally about the author, now it is time to speak about the poem itself. A poem is usually treated in two parts: that is, the part before the work, and the part within the work itself. Before the work, there is the title, reason, and intention. The title is that in which we seek whose it is and what it is; the reason, for what reason it was created and why the poet decided that this particular work should be written by him; and the intention, in which it is recognized what the poet seeks to accomplish. The reason is customarily examined in two parts, one concerning the origin of the poem and the other, the intention of the writer. Then follows that which is customarily handled in the poem itself, which is to say, the number, order, and exposition. (DJ and JZ)

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9. Expositio Monacensis I The so-called First Munich Expositio is attested in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Monacensis 40 Inc. s. a. 1253 m, folio hh viii verso (fifteenth– sixteenth century). It covers only the first five of the seven divisions found in Servius’s Expositio. (Discussion: VV 714–15) (Text: VV 256–59) (JZ) Servianum preceptum animadvertentes expositione nonnulla praelibant: vitam auctoris, titulum operis, qualitatem carminis, intentionem scribentis et numerum librorum. Vita poete est: Fuit namque Mantuanus patre Marone, Maya matre. Mantua et diversis in locis operam litteris dedit; nam et Cremone et Mediolani et Neappoli studuit. Postea amissis agris Romam venit et suo ingenio divino favorem Cesaris, principum ac populi totius sibi comperavit. Tandem in Brundisio nature concessit et iussu Augusti eius ossa—prout ipse optavit— Neappolim translata sunt sepultaque via Puteolana intra lapidem secundum. Et suo sepulchro id distichon, quod fecerat, inscriptum est: Mantua me genuit, Callabri [sic] rapuerunt, tenet nunc Partenope; cecini pascua rura duces [see below, II.C.1].

Titulus est Aeneis, deductum nomen ab Enea, sicut a Theseo Theseis. Casus genetivus est Eneidos, accusativus Eneida, nec credendum est Eneida accusativum pluralem esse, sed singularem. Qualitas carminis est tenor heroycus. Carmen enim heroycum est et actus mixtus, ubi et poeta loquitur et alios inducit loquentes; stilus grandiloquus, qui constat alto sermone magnisque sententiis. Intentioque ad honorem Augusti Cesaris Iuliorum genus extollere, quod peragit, dum Eneam, a quo genus duxit Augustus, lascivias et inmundicias carnis muliebresque delicias robore mentis spernentem et calcantem ostendit. Libri Eneidos sunt duodecim, in quorum primo proponit Virgilius et se commendat [see above, I.C.2], qui neque ludicra nec turpia, sed spectata elegerit.

Those who heed Servius’s precept anticipate some things in the presentation: the life of the author, the title of the work, the nature of the poem, the intention of the writer, and the number of books. The life of the poet is: well then, he was a Mantuan; his father was Maro and his mother Maya. He devoted himself to scholarship in Mantua and various other places, for he studied in Cremona, Milan, and Naples. Afterward, when his fields had been lost, he went to Rome and with his divine genius earned for himself the favor of Caesar, of the leaders, and of all the people. Finally he yielded to nature in Brindisi, and by the order of Augustus his bones, just as he himself wished, were transferred to Naples and buried along the road to A. VITAE

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Pozzuoli within the bounds of the second milestone. This distich, which he had composed, is carved on his tomb: Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders.

The title is the Aeneid, a noun derived from Aeneas, just as Theseid [literally, Theseis] is from Theseus. The genitive case is Aeneidos, accusative Aeneida, and it should not be believed that Aeneida is an accusative plural, but rather singular. The nature of the poem is heroic conduct; for it is a heroic poem and it is of mixed representation, where the poet both speaks and introduces other speakers; the style is lofty, which consists of high-flown words and grand ideas. And the intention is to elevate the family of the Julians to honor Augustus Caesar; he accomplishes this, as he shows Aeneas, from whom Augustus traced his descent, rejecting and trampling with strength of mind the licentiousnesses and impurities of the flesh and the delights of women. There are twelve books of the Aeneid; in the first of them Virgil introduces himself and commends himself, who chose neither ridiculous nor shameful topics, but distinguished ones. (DJ and JZ)

10. Expositio Monacensis II (twelfth century) Among the vitae edited and translated in VV (260–69) is a text that is identified as coming from Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 18451, folio 24 (fifteenth century [1494]). Despite the impression given in VV, the text is not a fifteenth-century vita but in fact a late redaction of the prologue to the ‘‘Master Anselm’’ commentary on the Eclogues (see below, IV.O). The attribution of this commentary, as well as of the closely related commentaries on the Georgics and Aeneid, to Anselm of Laon (died 1117) rests on tenuous evidence: a single note in the commentary states: Hoc magister Ansellus vel Anselmus dicebat (Master Ansell or Anselm used to state this). As is apparent, not only is the Anselm in question not further identified, but in addition it is not clear that, whoever he may have been, this Anselm was the author or organizer of the commentary. Credit for clarifying the situation goes to Virginia Brown, who recognized in Expositio Monacensis II ‘‘a somewhat shortened version of the accessus to the Eclogues commentary attributed to Anselm [of Laon]’’ (see ‘‘A TwelfthCentury Virgilian Miscellany-Commentary of German Origin [Vatican MS. Pal. lat. 1695],’’ in Scire litteras: Forschungen zum mittelalterlichen Geistesleben Bernhard Bischo√ gewidmet, ed. S. Kraemer and M. Bernhardt [Munich, 1988], 82 n. 25). 230

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With regard to the matter of content, this Expositio follows the seven-part schema found in the Expositio by Servius, except that it adds further gradations within the first heading and appends new categories at the end as well: I. Life of the poet A. Parentage B. Place of birth C. Place of schooling D. Morals E. What he wrote and 8. 9. 10. 11.

Material Intention Utility Source

(Discussion: VV 714–15) (Text: VV 260–69) (JZ) Commendatio Virgilii Testatur Servius, quod solebant in principiis auctorum antiquitus septem inquiri: vita scilicet poete, titulus operis, qualitas carminis, scribentis intentio, numerus librorum et ordo, explanatio et quae est eius vel ipsa narratio. In vita poetae 5 queruntur: a quo sit natus, ubi natus sit, ubi studuit, quales mores habuit, quid composuit. Virgilius itaque patre Figulo matreque Maya natus fuit: Figulus quidem est nomen non professionis, sed proprium. Natus fuit Montue, quae est civitas Venetie. Studuitque Chremone, Neapoli, Mediolani, ultimo vero Athenis: unde Oratius in libro odarum in oda, in qua navem prosequitur: Navis, quae [tibi] credi[tum] debes Virgilium [Carmina 1.3.5–6] etc.

Fuit autem adeo morum honestate praeditus, ut Parthenias appellabatur, id est, vir omni vita probatus, excepto quod uno tantum laborabat vitio: nam impacientis dicitur extitisse libidinis; unde Iuvenalis in satira prima 3y: Nam si Virgilio puer[e] et delectabile desit [Satires 7.69 et tolerabile desset]

etc. Fecit namque Virgilius multa modica carmina, videlicet †othioreia,† Culicem, Priapeia et Moretum, sed tria grandia opera addidit. Siquidem Anthonio et Cleopatra devictis [Cremonensibus] cum satellites suos remunerare disponeret Augustus, agros Cremonensium impertitus est, sed hi A. VITAE

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non sufficerent, additi sunt agri Mantuanorum propter vicinitatem; unde in sequentibus: Mantua ne [sic] misere vicina nimium [sic] Cremone [Eclogues 9.28]

Virgilius itaque inter ceteros Mantuanos amissis agris compulsus est ire Romam ibique interventu Polionis et Mecenatis familiaritatem Cesaris nactus est solusque emeruit agros sibi restitui. Unde et ipse in scriptis suis Polioni, Mecenato et Augusto veneranter assurgit. Nam et in favorem Pollionis Buccolica scripsit, que triennio comple[vi]t, elimavit et edidit; Georgica autem in honorem Mecenati, et ea septem annis complevit, emendavit et edidit; post in Eneida undecim annos composuit, sed morte praeventus nec correxit nec edidit. Precepit incendi igne; Augustus, ne tantum opus deperiret, viros etiam duos peritissimos ad corrigendum ea lege adhibuit, ut de suo nil adderent, sed superflua rescinderent; unde invenimus in Eneyda quosdam versus semiplenos, quosdam omnino demptos. Titulus vero prioris libri est: ‘‘Publii Virgilii Maronis liber Buccolicorum incipit.’’ Bucolicum dicitur a boum custodia, non quia ibi de bobus agat, sed ab [in]digniore parte rusticane posessionis intitulavit. Ita et distinctiones ab indigniore: ae scilicet capra; egle enim Grece capra dicitur Latine, et logos sermo; inde egloga, id est, caprinus vel de capris sermo. Sed qualitas carminis humilis est stilus. Sunt etenim apud autores tres modi dicendi, quos alii figuras, alii stilos, ali[i] caracteres appellant: humilis stilus, mediocris et altus. Humilis est, quum quis de humilibus personis et humilium personarum gestis humilibus agit verbis; mediocris, quum de mediocribus personis et earum gestibus mediocribus prosequitur verbis, ut in Georgicis; altus [qui aliquo], quum de altis personis et earum factis altis aliquis agit verbis, ut in Eneyda. Nam Bucolica humili, Georgica mediocri, Eneida altiore genere conscripsit. Et hoc fecit Virgilius ymitando tres modos vite humane: primus fuit vilis et pastoralis vita in agris et montibus; deinde repererant homines arare et serere et altiores opes aquirere; postea alii alios in bella petere. Intentio scribentis est in hoc opere pure sincere scribere. Si vero quamque allegoriam ministrat scilicet divinas et nobiles personas introducit, hoc fecit extra legem buccolici carminis, videlicet intentionem agrorum suor[u]m sibi restituendorum, et ita ante restitutionem agrorum bucolice scripserat, vel etiam familiaritatis, quam apud Augustum nactus erat, merendo obtinende. Numerus namque librorum hic perquirendus non est, quia ibi non est ordo. Ubi enim non est numerus, non est ordo. Sed de eglogis plerique dubitaverunt, quia tamen prosint; incertum tamen est, quo ordine a Virgilio sint disposite. Explanatio vero in sequentibus comprobabitur. 232

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Cum haec autem antiquitus quaerantur, modo perpauca in inytiis eius[que] sufficiant, scilicet materia, intentio, utilitas et origo. Materia, inquam, huius operis est vulgares et personae pastorales in singulis eglogis hic introducte. Sed intentio scilicet, ut ymitaretur Theocritum Syracusanum, meliorem Mopso et ceteris, qui Bucolica conscripserunt. Utilitas namque huius operis, quam quidam intentionem vocant, est ingenio delectare et scientia prodesse. De origine autem buccolici carminis multifarie sunt opiniones. Quidam namque dicunt, quod hoc tempore Orestes, [cum] cum sorore sua de Thaurica regione simulacrum Phascilidis Diane [rapuisset], assumptis sibi quibusdam nautis et convocatis aliquibus pastoribus ymnos in honore Diane decantavit, et exinde apud rusticos permansisse. Diana autem dicitur Phascillis, quia simulacrum eius ab Oreste et sorore sua fugientibus ex Cithia ad Ciciliam fasciadis, id est, sub arboribus et stipulis abscondebatur. Alii autem dicunt, quod hoc genus carminis bucolici non Diane [inventum est], sed Appolloni Nomio, [cum mercede] sua spoliatus armenta regis Admeti pavit. Notandum etiam item eglogas primas mere rusticanas, quas Theocritum ymitando scripsit Virgilius. In tribus vero, que sunt supra, item a lege buccolici carminis, sed cum excusatione discessit, in natalitio scilicet †Polonini† et in †theoia scretit† et apotheosi Iulii Cesaris, ut per altiora interposita agens placere possit. Et intelligendus est Virgilius ex altiori parte nomina personarum in eglogis introductarum effecisse, id est, finxisse: ut Melibeus ‘‘curam agens boum’’ et Titirus ‘‘altior aries’’ interpretatur, Coridon, id est, ‘‘dulce canens,’’ Alexis sive ‘‘responsionem ferens.’’ In comediis invenitur: nam Pamphilus id est ‘‘totus amans,’’ Gliceriumque ‘‘dulcis’’ intellegitur, Philomena, id est, ‘‘amabilis.’’ Usus namque Virgilius est in eglogis suis tribus generibus dicendi: distico, dragmatico et mistico. Disticum est, ubi autor totum loquitur et nil per personas introductas, ut clare in Georgicis. Dragmaticon, ubi nil ex se, sed totum per personas introductas, ut in thevero [read ‘‘theatro’’]. Misticum vero est, ubi mixtim auctor et persone introducte, ut in Eneyda. Et his tribus generibus Virgilius utitur in Bucolicis; nam in egloga prima et 3a dragmatico utitur, in 2a mistico, distico vero in 4t[a] et aliis. Et haec pro introductione brevi in opus bucolicum inpraesentarium sufficiunt.

Commendation of Virgil Servius attests that, when beginning to consider authors, people from long ago were accustomed to inquire into seven questions, namely, the life of the poet, the title of the work, the nature of the poem, the intention of the writer, the A. VITAE

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number of books and their order, the explanation, and that which is of the work itself, in other words, the narrative itself. In the life of the poet five things are examined: from whom he was born, where he was born, where he studied, what morals he had, and what he composed. Virgil thus was born from his father Figulus and his mother Maya; Figulus is in fact not the name of his profession but his own, personal, name. He was born in Mantua, which is a city in the Veneto. He studied in Cremona, Naples, and Milan, but lastly in Athens; for this reason Horace says in the book of odes, in the ode in which he follows the ship: Ship, which owes Virgil entrusted to you

and so forth. Moreover Virgil was endowed with such moral worthiness that he was called ‘‘Parthenias,’’ that is, a man excellent in his whole way of life, except that he struggled with only one vice; for he is said to have been immoderate in lust; hence Juvenal wrote in the first satire of his third book: For if Virgil had not had a boy slave or delightful

and so forth. Virgil wrote many poems of moderate length, namely, the [Aetna], the Culex, the Priapic poems, and the Moretum, but he added three long works. When, after Antony and Cleopatra had been vanquished, Augustus arranged to reward his supporters, he distributed to them the fields of the Cremonans; but those were not su≈cient, and so the fields of the Mantuans were added because of their closeness; for that reason Virgil says in the following verses: Mantua, truly all too near to wretched Cremona.

And thus, having lost his fields (together with the rest of the Mantuans), Virgil was compelled to go to Rome and there with the intervention of Pollio and Maecenas acquired friendship with Caesar, and he alone earned the restoration of the fields to himself. Consequently, he reverently shows respect for Pollio, Maecenas, and Augustus in his writings. For he wrote the Bucolics in favor of Pollio; he completed, polished, and published them in three years. He wrote the Georgics in honor of Maecenas and completed, revised, and published them in seven years; and afterward he composed the Aeneid in eleven years, but prevented by death, he neither corrected nor published it. He ordered that it be burned by fire; Augustus, lest so great a work perish, engaged two most skilled men to correct it with the stipulation that they add nothing of their own, but that they trim the superfluous parts; for this reason we find in the Aeneid some half-finished verses, some removed entirely. The title of the first book is: ‘‘Here begins the book of Bucolics by Publius Virgilius Maro.’’ It is called ‘‘bucolic’’ from the tending of cattle, not because he deals there with cattle, but rather he named it on the basis of the more respect234

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able part of a farmer’s possessions. So too there are derivations from the less worthy part, that is to say, ae [goat], for egle in Greek means capra [she-goat] in Latin, and logos is sermo [talk], hence egloga, that is, a goatish talk or a talk about goats. But the nature of this poem is the humble style. There are in the authors three types of speaking, which some call figures, others call levels of style, and still others call characters: the humble style, the middle style, and the high style. The humble style is when someone writes about humble people and the doings of humble people in humble words; the middle style is when someone proceeds with middling people and their doings in middling words, as in the Georgics; the high style is when someone writes about great people and their deeds in lofty words, as in the Aeneid. For he wrote the Bucolics in the humble style, the Georgics in the middle style, and the Aeneid in the higher style. And Virgil accomplished this by imitating the three modes of human life: first there was the simple life of herdsmen in the fields and mountains; then men found out how to plow and plant and acquire greater wealth; and finally to challenge each other to war. The intention of the writer is to write in this work with pure sincerity. But if he supplied some sort of allegory, namely, if he introduced divine and noble characters, he did this beyond the rule of bucolic songs, obviously for the intention of having his fields restored to him, and thus before the restitution of the fields he had written in a bucolic manner, or even for the intention of keeping through merit the friendship that he had acquired with Augustus. The number of books is not to be investigated here, because there is no order. For where there is not a number, there is not an order. But many have had doubts about the Eclogues. Although they are useful, it is, however, uncertain in which order they were arranged by Virgil. The narration, however, will be provided in the following. Since these questions have been posed since ancient times, now let very few responses su≈ce at its beginning, namely, the material, the intention, the utility, and the origin. The material of this work, I say, is the common people and herdsmen introduced here in each eclogue. But the intention is evidently to imitate Theocritus the Syracusan, who is better than Mopsus and the rest who wrote bucolics. The utility of this work, which some call the intention, is in fact to delight with its genius and to be useful with knowledge. There are diverse opinions concerning the origin of the bucolic poem. There are in fact those who say that Orestes, [at the time when] he with his sister [had taken away] the image of Diana Phascilis [sic] from the region of A. VITAE

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the Tauri, having taken certain sailors to help him and having called together some shepherds, sang hymns in honor of Diana, and from that beginning the custom endured among the countryfolk. Diana, however, is called Phascillis [sic] because her image was hidden in bundles, that is, underneath trees and stalks, by Orestes and his sister when they took flight from Scythia to Sicily. Others, however, say that this type of bucolic song [was invented] not for Diana, but for Apollo Nomios when he, despoiled [of his pay], took to pasture the cattle of King Admetus. It should also be noted that the first eclogues, which Virgil wrote in imitation of Theocritus, are purely country in tone. But in three, which are raised above this tone, he diverged from the rule of bucolic song but with an excuse; obviously, in the birthday poem for Pollio and in [ . . . ] and in the apotheosis of Julius Caesar, so that by treating these topics among the others he might be able to bring pleasure through loftier ones. And it should be understood that Virgil constructed, that is, contrived the names of people introduced in the Eclogues on a more elevated basis: for example, Meliboeus is translated as ‘‘taking care of cattle’’ and Tityrus is interpreted as ‘‘the higher ram,’’ and Corydon is ‘‘sweet singing,’’ or Alexis is ‘‘bearing a response.’’ This is found in the comedies, for Pamphilus is ‘‘all loving’’ and Glycerium is understood as ‘‘sweet,’’ Philomena is ‘‘lovable.’’ Virgil used three types of speech in his Eclogues: the didactic, the dramatic, and the mixed. The didactic is when the author says the whole thing and nothing through the introduction of other characters, as is clear in the Georgics. The dramatic is when [he says] nothing in his own voice but the whole thing through characters that he has introduced, as in the theater. The mixed, however, is when the author and introduced characters speak in a mixed fashion, as in the Aeneid. And Virgil employs these three types in the Bucolics, for in the first and third Eclogues he employs the dramatic, and in the second the mixed; but the didactic in the fourth and others. And for the present these things are su≈cient for a short introduction to the bucolic work. (DJ and JZ)

11. Periochae Bernenses I These periochae (systematic questions) are included in Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 165, folio 54r (ninth century). (Discussion: VV 716–18) On John the Scot as the inventor of the system, see below, II.A.13. (Text: VV 272–74) (JZ) Salva interim expositione Servii enodemus VII periochas secundum Iohannem Scottum utentes proprietate Achivi sermonis. Hae enim debent requiri in capite uniuscuiusque auctoris vel libri: tíw• tí• dióti• pvw• ˜ po˜u• póte• póyen. Cum enim dicitur tíw• prósvpon, id est, persona requiritur; cum vero tí• 236

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prãgma, id est, res; dicendo dióti, [id est] a¯itía, id est, causa, quare fecerit; pvw• ˜ trópow, id est, modus, quomodo videlicet composuerit; po˜u• tópow, id est, locus, quo ediderit artem: Romae scilicet vel Mantuae; póte• xrónow, id est, tempus, quo composuerit; sed sciendum, quia tempore Octav[ian]i composuerit; póyen, [id est] u¡ lhn, id est, materies investigatur: si quidem de exicio Troiae et de erroribus Aeneae et bellis Aeneida scripsit. His ita breviter explanatis enucleemus septem periochas secundum Servii expositionem, quae studiose debent requiri.

Putting aside for the time being the introduction by Servius, let us sort out the seven periochae according to John the Scot, using the proper signification of the Greek language. These must be asked at the start of any author or book: who, what, why, how, where, when, and from what. For when ‘‘who’’ is said, the prosopon, that is, the person, is sought; when it is ‘‘what,’’ the pragma, that is, the object; by saying ‘‘why,’’ the aitia, that is, the cause, why he did it; ‘‘how,’’ the tropos, that is, the mode, namely, how he composed it; ‘‘where,’’ topos, that is, the place where he published the work, namely, Rome or Mantua; ‘‘when,’’ chronos, that is, the time when he composed it, but it must be known that he composed in the time of Octavian; and ‘‘from what,’’ hylen, that is, the material, is investigated. Indeed he wrote the Aeneid about the destruction of Troy and the wanderings and wars of Aeneas. After these matters have been explained briefly, let us untangle according to the introduction of Servius the seven points, which ought to be examined studiously. (DJ and JZ)

12. Periochae Bernenses II This text was formerly known as the Argumentum Bernense. It deals with place, time, person, friends and rivals, and imitation. Like other later texts (see below, IV.R), it mentions the poets Bavius and Maevius for the contempt in which Virgil held them in Eclogues 3.90–91. (On the traditions associated with these two poetasters, see M. W. Herren, ‘‘Bavius and Maevius: ‘Duo Pessimi Poetae Sui Temporis,’ ’’ in Anglo-Latin and Its Heritage: Essays in Honour of A. G. Rigg on His 64th Birthday, ed. Siân Echard and Gernot R Wieland, Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin 4 [Turnhout, 2001], 3–15.) These systematic questions are included in Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 167, folio 1r. This ninth-century manuscript also contains the Vitae Bernenses I–III. (Discussion: VV 716–18) (Text: VV 282–90) (JZ) Locus et tempus et persona his Virgilianis artibus ita ab autenticis auctoribus indicata sunt, quod prima earum pars, id est, Bocolica et Georgica, in Parthenope, quae et Cuma et Neapolis dicitur, scripta est, sicut ipse in fine Georgicorum dicit:

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Illo Virgilium me tempore dulcis alebat Parthenope studiis florentem ignobilis oti, carmina qui lusi pastorum audaxque iuventa, Tytire, te patulae cecini sub tegmine fagi [4.563–66].

Aeneidorum vero libros XII heroici carminis Romae scripsisse putatur, postquam amicitiam Caesaris adeptus est. Alii vero potius in Mantua eos scripsisse autumant, ut ex verbis eius in principio tertii libri Georgici carminis declaratur ita dicen[ti]s: Primus ego in patriam mecum, modo vita supersit, Aonio rediens deducam vertice Musas, primus Ydumeas referam tibi, Mantua, palmas et viridi in campo templum de marmore ponam [3.10–13].

Sane sciendum est Virgilium XXIIII annorum fuisse, quando Bocolica scripsit, unde in fine Georgicon ait: ‘‘audaxque iuventa’’ [4.565] et reliqua, quod Bocolicum triennio perfecit et emendavit. Item proposuit Mecenas ei, ut Georgica scriberet, quod et fecit annis VII et emendavit. Deinde ab Augusto postulatus scripsit Aeneidorum libros annis XI, quos nec emendavit nec edidit, unde iam moriens eos praecepit incendi. Augustus vero iussit Varo et Tucae, ut eosdem corrigerent hac lege, ut superflua demerent et nihil adderent, unde et semiplenos eius versiculos invenimus, ut illud: ‘‘huc cursus fuit’’ [1.534 hic cursus fuit] et aliquos detractos, ut in principio. Nam non ab armis coeperat, sed sic: Ille ego qui quondam gracili modulatus avena carmen et egressus silvis vicina coegi, ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono, gratum opus agricolis, at nunc horrentia Martis arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris . . . [see above, I.C.2]

Hos versus constat esse detractos. Tempus vero Caesaris Augusti his libris ascribitur, qui LVI annis et mensibus VI regnavit, ut Eusebius refert [Chronicon, Ad Olympiada 184, trans. Jerome, ed. Helm, 7/1: 157], a quo omnes [imperatores] ‘‘Augusti’’ apud Romanos dicti sunt. Persona quoque Virgilii hisdem deputatur. Idem igitur praefatus Virgilius tribus speciebus propriis praenotatur, id est, praenomine cognomine agnomine, ut Puplius Virgilius Maro, et de certis causis has easdem accepit. Puplius enim sive a poplite grandi dictus est, seu quod puplicis, id est, manifestis atque regalibus rebus narrandis dignus sit. Virgilius a virga laurea, quam mater eius per somnium se peperisse viderat, vocatus est sive, ut alii volunt, ut a vere Vergilius quasi vere gliscens, id est, crescens sit nominatus. Erat enim magnae philosophiae praeclarissimus praeceptor et multi238

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plex, sicuti vernalia incrementa. Porro Maro a colore dicitur; interpretatur enim niger sive, ut alii volunt, eloquens sive, ut plurimi putant, pater eius nominatus est Maro. Hic idem tempore consulum Pompei et Crassi in pago, qui Andes dicitur, haut procul a Mantua nascitur. Septimus tunc annus Ptolomaei in Egipto fuit. XVI autem ante incarnationem Domini nostri Iesu Christi anno Brondisi moritur XI Kal. Octobris in [X]XXVI anno Octaviani. Sed consentientibus Saturnino et Lucretio Cynna consulibus ossa eius Parthenope, quae nunc Necapolis dicitur, translata sunt et in secundo ab urbe miliario sepulta sunt, epitaphio huiusmodi desuper inscripto, quod vivens sibi composuit ipse: Mantua me genuit, Calubri rapuere, tenet nunc Partenophe; cecini pascua rura duces [see below, II.C.1].

Virgilius in operibus suis diversos secutus est poetas: id est, Theocritum Siracusanum in Bucolicis, qui fuit in Siracussa civitate Siciliae praeceptor et non longe ante Virgilium erat; Hesiodum Ascreum in Georgicis; qui de Ascrea insula Ascraeus vocatus est, qui ad fratrem suum Persen librum composuit, quem appellavit ƒerga kaì hméraw, ˘ id est, opera et dies; Homerum vero in Aeneidis, qui excidium Troiae Graece composuit et longo intervallo ante Virgilium fuit. Ille in laudem Graecorum, hic [hoc] autem in gloriam Romanorum conscripsit. Homerus in XLVIII libris stilum elicuit, Virgilius vero quasi breviando in XII perstrinxit. Item Theocritus VII eclogas scripsit, ut Virgilius dicit in secunda ecloga: Est mihi disparibus septem compacta cicutis fistula, Dametas dono mihi quam dedit olim, et dixit moriens: te nunc habet ista secundum [2.36–38].

Virgilius vero X eglogas scripsit, ut ipse in tertia testatur: Quod potui, puero silvestri ex arbore lecta aurea mala decem misi, cras altera mittam [3.70–71].

Item Hesiodum Ascraeum, ut diximus, imitatus est in Georgicis, sicut ipse alligorice in VI ecloga ait: Dixerit: hos tibi dant calamos, en accipe, Musae, Ascreo quos ante seni, quibus ille solebat cantando rigidas deducere montibus ornos [6.69–71].

Et in II libro Georgici carminis ait: Ascreumque cano Romana per oppida carmen [2.176].

Qui Hesiodus de agricultura fecit librum, id est, de seminatione farris et de plantatione vitis et arborum et de pastu et cura pecorum. A. VITAE

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Scripsit autem haec eadem Georgica in honorem Mecenatis, qui unus ex amicis eius erat. Nam amici Virgilii hi fuisse dicuntur, id est: Emilius Macer, Gentilius Varus, Mecenas, Cornilius Gallus, Assinius Pollio. Aemuli autem eius hi fuerant: Cornificius Gallus, qui pessimus poeta fuit, quem allegorice in his eglogis subsannat, sicut est in VII, quando eum Codrum vocat: Pastores edera crescentem ornate poetam Arcades, invidia rumpantur ut ilia Codro [7.25–26]

et reliqua; Bavius quoque et Mevius, quos in tertia vituperat: Qui Bavium non odit, amet tua carmina, Mevi, atque idem iungat vulpes et mulgeat hircos [3.90–91].

Istos praefatos allegorizando saepe subsannat.

The place, time, and character in the works of Virgil have been set forth by reliable authorities in such a way that the first of his works—namely, the Bucolics and Georgics—were written at Parthenope, which is also called Cumae and Naples, just as the poet himself states at the end of the Georgics: At that time sweet Parthenope nourished me, Virgil, as I flourished in the pursuit of ignoble leisure, I who played the songs of shepherds and, bold in my youth, sang of you, Tityrus, under the protection of the spreading beech tree.

He is thought to have written the twelve books of the Aeneid, a heroic poem, at Rome, after he had obtained the friendship of Augustus. Others say, however, that he wrote this work in Mantua instead, as is stated in the words of the poet at the beginning of the third book of the Georgics, when he says: I will be the first, as long as there is life left to me, to lead the Muses into my fatherland with myself as I return from the Aonian height, the first to bring the Idumean [Judaean] palms to you, Mantua, and I will place a temple of marble in the green field.

Naturally, it should be recognized that Virgil was twenty-four years old when he wrote the Bucolics; and so, at the end of the Georgics he says audax iuventa [bold in my youth] and the rest because he had completed and corrected the Bucolics in three years. Likewise, Maecenas proposed to him that he write the Georgics, which took him seven years to complete and correct. Then, when he was asked by Augustus, he wrote the books of the Aeneid in eleven years, but he neither corrected nor published them; and so, when he was dying, he ordered them to be burned. Augustus, however, ordered Varus and Tucca to correct them with the stipulation that they should remove any superfluous parts but add nothing, for which reason we find both half-completed verses such as huc cursus fuit [hither was the course] and some that were removed, as at the beginning. For he did not begin with arma, but in this way: 240

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I am he who once tuned my song on a slender reed, then, leaving the woodland, compelled the neighboring fields to serve the husbandman, however grasping, a work welcome to farmers: but now of Mars’s bristling arms and a man I sing, who first from the shores of Troy . . .

It is agreed that those verses were removed. The time of Caesar Augustus is assigned to these books. He ruled for fiftysix years and six months, as Eusebius relates, and from his name each of the emperors was called ‘‘Augustus’’ by the Romans. The character of Virgil is also gauged in these same sources. For the aforesaid Virgil is designated with three particular indications, that is, by his praenomen, cognomen, and agnomen, as Puplius Virgilius Maro, and he received each of them for a specific reason. He was called Puplius either because of his large poples [knee] or because he was worthy to tell of things that were puplicus [public], that is, evident, and kingly. He was called Virgilius [Virgil] either from the virga [shoot] of laurel to which his mother saw herself give birth in a dream, or—as others wish it—he was named Virgil from the word ver [spring], as if vere gliscens [swelling in spring], that is crescens [growing] in spring. For, as a teacher of important philosophy, he was widely known and multifaceted, just like the growths of spring. He was, furthermore, called Maro because of his complexion; for this word is understood by some to mean ‘‘black,’’ while others hold it to mean ‘‘eloquent,’’ and most people believe that his father was named Maro. This same Virgil was born in the time of the consuls Pompey and Crassus in the district that is called Andes, not far from Mantua. It was the seventh year of King Ptolemy in Egypt. In the sixteenth year before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ he died at Brindisi on the twenty-first of September in the twenty-sixth year of Octavian’s rule. But, with the agreement of the consuls Saturninus and Lucretius Cinna, his bones were brought to Parthenope, which is now called Naples, and were buried at the second milestone from the city; written above them was the following epitaph, which he had written for himself when he was alive: Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me: I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders.

In his works Virgil followed the examples of many di√erent poets—namely, in the Bucolics, Theocritus of Syracuse, who was a teacher from the town of Syracuse in Sicily and lived not long before Virgil; in the Georgics, Hesiod of Ascra, who is so called after the island of Ascra, who wrote for his brother Perses a book that he called Erga kai hemerai, which is Works and Days; and, in the Aeneid, Homer, who wrote in Greek about the destruction of Troy and lived A. VITAE

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long before Virgil. The former wrote in praise of the Greeks, the latter for the glory of the Romans. Homer extended his writing into forty-eight books, while Virgil, as if by abridging, limited himself to twelve. Likewise, Theocritus wrote seven eclogues, as Virgil says in the second of his Eclogues: Seven unequal reeds make up my pipes, which Damoetas once gave to me as a gift, and he said, as he was dying, ‘‘you are the second to possess them.’’

Virgil himself wrote ten eclogues, as he attests in the third: Ten golden apples, as many as I could, picked from a tree in the forest, I have sent to a boy, and I will send more tomorrow.

Likewise, he imitated Hesiod of Ascra, as I have said, in the Georgics, just as he himself says allegorically in the sixth Eclogue: He spoke: ‘‘The Muses give you these reeds (take them), which earlier they gave to the old Ascraean, and by playing them he was accustomed to lead down the rigid ash trees from the mountains.’’

And in the second book of the Georgics he says: ‘‘I sing the song of Ascra throughout Roman towns.’’

For Hesiod had written a work about agriculture—that is, about the sowing of seed, the planting of vines and trees, and the pasturing and maintenance of flocks. Moreover, Virgil wrote these same Georgics in honor of Maecenas, who was one of his friends. For the friends of Virgil are said to have been these men, namely, Emilius Macer, Gentilius Varus, Maecenas, Cornilius Gallus, and Assinius Pollio. His rivals, however, were these men: Cornificius Gallus, who was a dreadful poet, whom he mocks allegorically in the Eclogues, as in the seventh when he calls him ‘‘Codrus’’: Arcadian shepherds, adorn the rising poet with ivy, so that Codrus’s groin will burst with envy,

and so forth. He disparages Bavius and Maevius in the third: Whoever does not hate Bavius, let him love your songs, Maevius, and let him yoke together foxes and milk he-goats.

These men he often derides allegorically. (JL)

13. Periochae Gudianae (ninth century) The periochae (systematic questions) in a ninth-century Wolfenbüttel manuscript (Gudianus Fol. 70), excerpted from the text known as Expositio Gudiana and Vita Gudiana I (see below, II.A.20), identify John the Scot (Johannes 242

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Scotus Eriugena, died circa 877) as the inventor of the system. The ultimate source for this system can be found in Greek in Hermagoras of Temnos (flourished circa 150 b.c.e.), whose model was taken up in the Latin West most influentially first by Augustine and later by Alcuin. The questions and topics in the system are as follows:

quis (who) quid (what) cur (why) quomodo (how) quando (when) ubi (where) quibus facultatibus (with what skills)

person topic cause manner time place material

Other periochae that follow this model are the Periochae Bernenses and the Periochae Tegernseenses, all of which show traces of familiarity with Greek versions. (Discussion: VV 716–18) (Text: VVA 216; VV 272–73) (JZ) Set Iohannes Scottus has breviter scripsit periochas dicens: quis, quid, cur, quomodo, quando, ubi, quibus facultatibus. Quis scripsit? Virgilius. Quid scripsit? Bucolicum carmen. Cur scripsit? Ut laudem redderet Pollioni et Mecenati sive Octaviano. Quomodo scripsit? Humili, mediocri, grandiloco caractere. Quando scripsit? Temporibus Octaviani. Ubi scripsit? Mantuae. Quibus facultatibus fecit? Eorum, quos imitatus est, videlicet Theocritum in Bucolico, Isiodum in Georgicis, Omerum in Eneidis.

But John the Scot wrote these periochae briefly, saying: who, what, why, how, when, where, and with what skills? Who wrote it? Virgil. What did he write? A bucolic poem. Why did he write? To give praise to Pollio and Maecenas or Octavian. How did he write? In the humble, middle, and grand styles. When did he write? In the time of Octavian. Where did he write? In Mantua. What skills did he use? Those belonging to the people he imitated, namely, Theocritus in the Bucolics, Hesiod in the Georgics, and Homer in the Aeneid. (DJ and JZ)

14. Periochae Tegernseenses These periochae are in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 18059, folio 162v (eleventh century, second quarter), a manuscript that also contains musical notation for parts of the Aeneid. (Discussion: VV 716–18) (Text: EV 5.2, 468, no. 290; VV 274–78) A. VITAE

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In exponendis libris autenticis VII periochae, id est, circumstantiae sunt requirendae: Quae, ut Graeco utamur eloquio, s[eptem] s[unt]: TIS, TI, DIATI, POS, POU, POPE, PATEN, ut haec ipsa ore Latino absolvamus: quis, quid, cur, quomodo, ubi, quando, unde. Ergo ad illud, quod interrogatur TIS, id est, quis, respondetur: prosopa, id est, persona auctoris, ut quis scripsit? Virgilius videlicet Virgilii et Maiae filius, dictus a virgula populi, quae sicut in vita eius legitur, cum, eo nato, in loco puerperii eius secundum morem provinciae depacta fuisset, brevi ita convaluit, ut multo ante satas populos quam celerrime ex crescendo adaequaverit. Cetera de vita eius quae hoc loco dicenda sunt, quia in expositore eius Servio leguntur, et in Bucolicis succincte iam praelibata sunt, quia plurimum habent verbositatis et parum utilitatis, praetermittimus. Secunda periocha est TI, id est, quid. Ad quam interrogationem redditur EKTIA, id est, res quae titulo ipsius operis declaratur. Scripsit enim libros Aeneidum. Qui titulus a feminino patronimico formatur: ab Aenea enim femininum patronimicum est, Eneis sicut a Theseo Theseis. Inde libri Eneidum, non, ut falso quidam codices habent, Aeneidorum. Tertia periocha est DIATI, id est, cur. Respondetur et pragma, id est, causa, quare scripserit: quia videlicet laudare volebat Augustum, cuius multa beneficia fuerat consecutus, describere etiam gesta Romanorum; nam si quis diligenter inspiciat, omnes pene Romanas historias in hoc opere licet breviter commemoratas inveniet, maxime in libro VI[I] inferni et in aspidiopia, id est, in scuti factura. Unde apud antiquos ‘‘gesta populi Romani’’ iste liber vocabatur. Quarta periocha est POS, id est, quomodo. Ad quod redditur tropus, id est, modus. Modi autem locutionum tres sunt: humilis, mediocris et grandiloquus, quos Virgilius in suo opere tenuit: humilem in Bucolicis, mediocrem in Georgicis, grandiloquum in Aeneidis. Quinta periocha est POU, id est, ubi. Respondetur topos vel locus, ut ubi scripsit? partim Cremone, partim Neapoli, partim Rome. Sexta periocha est pope [sic], id est, quando? Ad quam interrogationem respondetur chronos, id est, tempus. Fuit autem iste tempore Augusti Octaviani, sub ipsa tempora Dominicae incarnationis. Septima periocha est paten [sic], id est, unde. Ad quod respondetur yle, id est, materies, ut unde scripsit: de excidio videlicet Troiae et de erroribus Aeneae, quos passus est, donec veniret ad Italiam.

In explaining authoritative books, one must inquire into seven periochae or systematic questions, which—to use the Greek—are these seven: tis, ti, diati, pos, pou, pope, paten; to put them in Latin, quis, quid, cur, quomodo, ubi, quando, unde [who, what, why, how, where, when, from what]. 244

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So in response to the question that is asked with tis, that is, ‘‘who?’’ one gives the prosopa, that is, the person of the author, as ‘‘Who wrote this?’’ Namely, Virgil, the son of Virgil and Maia, so called from the virgula [little shoot] of poplar that, as we read in Virgil’s biography, had been planted upon his birth and in the place of his birth, according to the custom of the province, and then grew so much in so short a time that, due to its growth, as quickly as possible it equaled in height the poplars planted long before. We pass over the other things that are to be said about his life at this point, since we can read about them in Virgil’s commentator Servius; moreover, they have already been given concisely in the Bucolics, and they are very wordy but hardly useful. The second attribute is ti, that is, ‘‘what?’’ In response to this question one gives the ektia, that is, the matter that is set forth in the title of the work itself. Now, Virgil wrote books of the Aeneid. This title is formed from the feminine patronymic: for the feminine patronymic from Aeneas is Aeneis, just as Theseis is from Theseus. So, they are the books of the Aeneis, not the Aeneida, as some books incorrectly call it. The third attribute is diati, that is, ‘‘why?’’ One responds by giving the pragma, that is, the reason why he wrote: namely, to praise Augustus, from whom he had received many favors, and because he wanted also to describe the deeds of the Romans; for if one looks at the poem carefully, one will find in this work almost the whole of Roman history, though concisely recalled, especially in book six (the one about hell) and the aspidiopia, that is, the making of the shield. Consequently, that book used to be called ‘‘The Deeds of the Roman People’’ by the ancients. The fourth attribute is pos, that is, ‘‘how?’’ One responds to this by giving the tropus, that is, the manner. Moreover, there are three manners of speaking: the lowly, the middle, and the grand, which Virgil used in his work: the lowly in the Bucolics, the middle in the Georgics, and the grand in the Aeneid. The fifth attribute is pou, that is, ‘‘where?’’ One responds by giving the topos, or place, as ‘‘Where did he write?’’ Partly at Cremona, partly at Naples, partly at Rome. The sixth attribute is pope, that is, ‘‘when?’’ In response to this question, one gives the chronos, that is, the time. Moreover, Virgil lived in the time of Augustus Octavian, not long before the time of the Incarnation of the Lord. The seventh attribute is paten, that is, ‘‘from what?’’ One responds to this by giving the yle, that is, the material, as ‘‘From what did he write?’’ From the fall of Troy and Aeneas’s wanderings, which he endured until he came to Italy. (JG) A. VITAE

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15. Periochae Vaticanae These periochae (systematic questions) are in Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Reg. lat. 1669, folio 192r (tenth century). This manuscript contains on its earlier folios Virgil’s Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid, with the commentaries of Servius in the margins. Folio 192, which came from another manuscript, was placed to be the final folio as an end leaf. On its recto are double columns with a miscellany, one of which is the periochae. They are written in a late-ninth-century Carolingian hand, with possible insular features. Like the Vita Gudiana I, the Periochae Vaticanae credit John the Scot with being the author of seven periochae. Whereas in the Vita Gudiana I these periochae are given as Latin words, in the Periochae Vaticanae they are written in Greek. The lists are virtually identical. Though closely related to each other, the Vita Gudiana I and the Periochae Vaticanae owe their similarities to common descent, quite possibly from a lost life of Virgil composed earlier in the ninth century. (Discussion: C. E. Finch, ‘‘Fragments of a New Vita Vergiliana in Codex Reg. Lat. 1669,’’ American Journal of Philology 95 [1974], 56–61) (Text: EV 5.2, 466–67, no. 288) (JZ) Salva expositione Servii enodemus VII periochae secundum Iohannem Scottum, quae in libris autenticis sunt requirendae, utentes proprietate Achivi sermonis: YIS, id est, quis; YI, quid; DIAYI, cur; POS, quomodo; POU, ubi; VYH, quando; PAYHN, unde. YIS, id est, quis? Ad quam interrogationem redditur, prosopa, id est, persona, ut quis scripsit? Virgilius. Cum qua etiam vita illius, id est, ZI. YI, id est, quid? Ad quod respondetur ERGIA, id est, res, ut quid scripsit? Aeneida, titulum operis demonstrantes. DIAYI, id est, cur? Redditur pragma, id est, causa, ut cur scripsit? Ideo scilicet, ut laudaret Octavianum Augustum, simul etiam ut historiam describeret Romanae gentis, quod maxime in illo libro ubi aspidopiam, id est, facturam scuti commemorat, adverti potest. Unde apud antiquos gesta populi Romani iste liber vocatur. POS, id est, quomodo? Ad quod redditur tropos, id est, modus. Modi audilocutionum tres sunt: humilis, mediocris et grandilocus. Quos Virgilius in suo opere tenuit, humilem in Bucholicis, mediocrem in Georgicis, grandilocum in Aeneidis. POU, pu, id est, ubi? Respondentur topos, id est, locus, ut ubi scripsit? Partim Cremonae, partim Neapoli, partim Romae. VYH POPH, id est, quando scripsit? Ad hanc interrogationem respondatur kronos, id est, tempus. Fuit enim iste tempore Octaviani Augusti et sub ipsa tempora Dominicae nativitatis. PAYHN, pathen, id est, unde? Requirit ylen, id est, materiam, ut unde scripsit? De excidio videlicet Troianae gentis et de his quae Aeneas passus est donec ad Italiam venit.

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De vita autem poetae pauca sunt dicenda, quia nec talis fuit ut imitari debeat, nec ut in aeterna memoria reponi debeat. Sciendum autem Virgilium congruum humanae vitae tenuisse ordinem in componendis opusculis. Nam prima vita hominum pastoralis fuit: sicut Virgilius primo Bucolica scripsit. Deinde agriculturae studuit: sicut Georgica secundo composita sunt. Crescente itaque populi multitudine, simul belli amor increvit: unde Aeneida tercio loco ponuntur bellorum plena. Composuit autem B[ucolica] tribus annis, G[eorgica] VII, Eneida XI. Dictus est autem Partenites, id est, virgineus: fuit enim verecundissimus adeo ut in publico videri nollet.

Putting aside the commentary by Servius, let us unfold John the Scot’s seven points of summary into which one must inquire for authoritative books, and let us use the terms proper to Greek: this, that is, who; thi, what; diathi, why; pos, how; pou, where; othe, when; pathen, from what. This, that is, ‘‘who?’’ In response to this question, one gives the prosopa, that is, the person, as ‘‘Who wrote it?’’ Virgil. Also with the life, that is, the zi, of the man. Thi, that is, ‘‘what?’’ To this, one responds with the ergia, that is, the thing, as ‘‘What did he write?’’ The Aeneid, as we show the title of the work. Diathi, that is, ‘‘why?’’ One gives the pragma, that is, the cause, as ‘‘Why did he write?’’ Namely, in such a way that he might praise Octavian Augustus and at the same time describe the history of the Roman people, a thing which can be best observed in that book where he recalls the aspidopia, that is, the making of the shield. For that reason, that book is called ‘‘The History of the Roman People’’ among the ancients. Pos, that is, ‘‘how?’’ In response to this, one gives the tropos, that is, the manner. There are three manners of speaking: the lowly, the middle, and the grand. Virgil put all of them in his work: the lowly in the Bucolics, the middle in the Georgics, and the grand in the Aeneid. Pou, pu, that is, ‘‘where?’’ One responds with the topos, that is, the place, as ‘‘Where did he write?’’ Partly at Cremona, partly at Naples, partly at Rome. Othe, pope, that is, ‘‘When did he write?’’ To this question one responds with the kronos, that is, the time. Indeed, [Virgil] was in the time of Octavian Augustus and shortly before the very time of the birth of Our Lord. Pathen, pathen, that is, ‘‘from what?’’ One is seeking the yle, that is, the material, as ‘‘From what material did he write?’’ Namely, from the fall of the Trojan people and the things that Aeneas su√ered until he came to Italy. Few things, however, must be said about the life of the poet, because he was not such a man that one should imitate him nor that his life should be kept in eternal remembrance. It must be known, though, that Virgil, in composing his works, followed a progression that matches human life. For the first human

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lifestyle was pastoral: so Virgil wrote the Bucolics first. Then people studied agriculture: so the Georgics were composed second. And so, when the human population was growing, at once love of war grew too: consequently, the Aeneid, full of wars, is put in the third place. Moreover, he wrote the Bucolics in three years, the Georgics in seven, and the Aeneid in eleven. Moreover, he was called Partenites, that is, virginal: for he was so modest that he did not want to be seen in public. (JG)

16. Vita Aurelianensis This life of Virgil survives in a single manuscript, Orléans, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 259 (215) (tenth century). The same manuscript contains not only Priscian’s Partitiones but also commentaries on it. (Edition: M. Glück, Priscians Partitiones und ihre Stellung in der spätantiken Schule [Hildesheim, 1967], 217– 18, 225–33, 237–49) The vita is heavily indebted to Servius (see below, IV.B), especially the preface to the commentary on the Aeneid, the preface to the Eclogues, and the Vita Servii (see above, II.A.3). (Text: EV 5.2, 465) (JZ) Aeneis Grece patronimicum est. [...] Neque enim ita exorsus est ille Aeneida. Primo enim triennio condidit Bucolicam. Bucolica ab omnibus dicitur non quod alia non insint rusticis animalia, sed quod illa praecipua sint eis. Deinde Georgicam septennio perfecit, Aeneida vero componens spacium XI consumpsit. Quod tamen morte praeventus corrigere nequivit, ideoque eum aboleri voluit et iussit incendi. Quod amator arcium Octavianus comperiens, adhibitis et sapientioribus illius temporis, ut superflua quoque recidentes nichil ibi adderent, praecepit. Unde est emistichium ‘‘Hic illius arma, / hic currus fuit’’ [Aeneid 1.16–17]. Prudenter vero et racionabiliter egit, ne quis illius laborem subripere gestiens, nomen certi auctoris demendo eidem operi[s], suum mallet. Isdem vero Virgilius subtiliter agens haec a se perfecta quamquam inelimata cunctis in carmine monstrare curavit dicens. Ita enim exorsus est Aeneida: Ille ego qui condam gracili modulatus avena carmen et egressus silvis vicina coegi [a]ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono, gratum opus agricolis, et nunc horrentia Martis arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris . . . [see above, I.C.2]

‘‘Aeneid’’ is a Greek patronymic. . . . For so he did not begin with the Aeneid. For first he created the Bucolics in a period of three years. The Bucolics are so called by all people not because rustic people lack other animals, but because they [cattle] are chief among the animals. Then he completed the Georgics in seven years, but he spent eleven years composing the Aeneid. He was not, however, able to edit this because he was prevented by death, and so he wanted 248

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it to be destroyed and ordered it to be burned. Octavian, a lover of the arts, when he found this, engaged the counselors and very wise men of that time to add nothing there, but also to remove the superfluous parts. Consequently there is the hemistich: ‘‘Here were her weapons, here her chariot.’’ He acted prudently and reasonably so that no one wishing to steal Virgil’s toil might rather want his own name on the work by removing the name of the real author. But this same Virgil, acting with precision, took care by speaking in the poem to show everyone that these, though unpolished, had been composed by him. For so he began in the Aeneid: I am he who once tuned my song on a slender reed, then, leaving the woodland, compelled the neighboring fields to serve the husbandman, however grasping, a work welcome to farmers: but now of Mars’s bristling arms and a man I sing, who was the first from the shores of Troy. (JG)

17. Vita Bernensis I As mentioned already, many vitae are anonymous and have been given names after the cities and towns where they are now located or the collections in which they are held. The Vita Bernensis I is a case in point, being associated with Bern because that is the city where one of the most important among the many manuscripts with its text is located. This vita is included in Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 167, folio 2v, a ninth-century manuscript that also contains the Vitae Bernenses II and III and the Periochae Bernenses II. Hollis Ritchie Upson points out that the manuscript may have come from Auxerre and that it ‘‘shows strong traces of an Insular archetype’’ (see ‘‘Medieval Lives of Vergil,’’ Classical Philology 38 [1943], 103–11). The text is attested in nearly three dozen other manuscripts as well. The Vita Bernensis I was created to accompany an edition of the pseudoVirgilian Culex, but it became separated and copied as an autonomous text. It is extant in more than twenty manuscripts, from the ninth century through the fifteenth. Confusingly, the Vita Bernensis I has also been called the Libellus-Vita. The Vita Bernensis I occupies an unusual position among the early lives. Though indebted loosely to the tradition of earlier vitae, it contains features found in no or very few others. Chief among the features characteristic of it are that Virgil is identified as having been an eques (member of the knightly class), as having studied under the orator [Marcus] Epidius (compare the Vita Monacensis II: see below, II.A.25), and as having received special consideration from Caesar Augustus because of their having been students together; and it gives special prominence to a citation of Eclogues 1.6. (Discussion: VV 709–13) (Text: VVA 205–7; VV 248) (JZ) A. VITAE

249

De nobilitate ac die atque tempore nativitatis atque longitudine temporis vitae Publii Virgilii Maronis discipuli Epidii oratoris incipit. Publius Virgilius Maro, genere Mantuanus, dignitate eques Romanus, natus Idibus Octobribus Gneo Pompeio et Marco Crasso consulibus. Ut primum se contulit Romae, studuit apud Epidium oratorem cum Caesare Augusto, unde cum omnibus Mantuanis agri auferrentur, quod Antonianis partibus favissent, huic solo concessit memoria condiscipulatus, ut et ipse poeta testatur in Bucolicis dicendo: ‘‘deus nobis haec otia fecit’’ [1.6].

In quibus ingenium suum expertus est, favorem quoque Caesaris emeruit. Ac deinde Georgica conscripsit et in his corroborato ingenio eius Aeneida conscripsit, cui finem non potuit imponere raptus a fatis; et ideo inveniuntur apud eum versus non peracti, quibus non supervixit ad replendum. Vixit annos LII amicitia usus imperatoris Augusti et aliorum complurium probatissimorum virorum. Vita Virgilii finit.

On the nobility and day and time of birth and length of time of life of Publius Virgilius Maro, a student of Epidius the orator, [this work] begins. Publius Virgilius Maro, from Mantuan stock, a Roman knight in rank, was born on the Ides of October when Gnaeus Pompeius and Marcus Crassus were consuls. As soon as he betook himself to Rome, he studied under the orator Epidius with Caesar Augustus; for this reason, when the fields were confiscated from all the Mantuans because they had favored Antony’s faction, memory of companionship in school granted dispensation to him alone, as the poet himself testifies in the Bucolics, saying: God made this leisure for us.

He tried his skill in these verses and also earned the favor of Caesar. And then he wrote the Georgics, and having consolidated his skill in them he wrote the Aeneid, which he was unable to bring to completion, having been snatched away by the Fates; and therefore unfinished verses are discovered in his book, which he did not survive long enough to complete. He lived fiftytwo years, enjoying the friendship of Emperor Augustus and of very many other most highly esteemed men. The life of Virgil is finished. (DJ and JZ)

18. Vita Bernensis II This vita is included in Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 167, folio 2v, a ninthcentury manuscript that also contains the Vitae Bernenses I and III and the Periochae Bernenses II. (Discussion: VV 742–45) (Text: VV 328)

250

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Virgilius Brundissi moritur XI. Kal. Octimbris, sed consentientibus Saturnino et Lucretio consulibus ossa eius Necapoli[m] translata in III. ab urbe miliario sepiliuntur, Augusti Cessaris vicessimo VI. anno, ante annos XVI nativitatis Christi, titulo huiusmodi suprascripto, quem moriens ipse dictavit: Mantua me genuit, Calubri rapuere, tenet nunc Partenophe; cecini pascua rura duces [see below, II.C.1].

Virgil dies at Brindisi on the eleventh day before the Kalends of October [September 21], but with the consuls Saturninus and Lucretius consenting, his bones, carried over to Naples, are buried at the third milepost from the city in the twenty-sixth year [of the rule] of Augustus Caesar, sixteen years before the birth of Christ. Above [his bones] was written this kind of epitaph, which he himself dictated as he was dying: Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders. (MC and JZ)

19. Vita Bernensis III This vita is included in Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 167, folio 2v, a ninthcentury manuscript that also contains the Vitae Bernenses I and II and the Periochae Bernenses II. (Discussion: VV 745–46) (Text: EV 5.2, 456–57, no. 220; VV 348–50) (JZ) Incipiunt Bocolica in laudem Caessaris et principum ceterorum, per quos agri rediti sunt: Assinii Pollionis, Alfini Vari et Cornilii Galli; Georgica in honorem Caessaris et Mecenatis, qui sibi opem tulit; novissime Aeneadem in honorem Caesaris et Mecenatis, qui ex genere Aeneae fuit. Bocolica triennio scripsit, Georgica VII annis, Aeneadem XI. Haec est causa conscriptionis: quia alio tempore inter Romanos exortum est bellum invicem inter Iulium Caesarem et Brutum Casium. Iulius ergo Romae regnabat, Brutus vero in inferioribus Italiae partibus regnans bellum Iulio afferebat, cuius sub potestate Virgilius fuit. Et superato Bruto Iulius defecit regnumque suum Octaviano Augusto, sororis suae filio, id est, Octaviae, moriens dedit. Qui regno accepto in hereditatem Bruti suos consules mittit, e quibus unus erat Antonius, qui contradicere Caesari studivit. Et inter Antonium et Octavianum bellum exortum est, et Antonius superatus fugit in Affricam, et Virgilius secum perrexit exul in Alexandriam. Et ibi coniunctus est Antonius Cleopatrae et adiumentum ab ea postulavit. Et ipsa cum classibus magnis venit. Et his victis Octavianus victor exstitit. Virgilius ergo, cum amicitiam Caessaris voluisset et hereditatem iterum tenere cupiisset, carmina illa facere studivit.

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Et in suis carminibus III nobiles poetas insimulavit: Teocritum in eclogis, Essiodum in Georgicis, Homerum in XII libris. In duobus autem libris invenit Georgica et protendere eos usque ad IIII fecit. Bocolica boum cultura vel boum custodia; egloga est excerptio vel gratiarum actio vel elogium.

The Bucolics begin in praise of Caesar and of the rest of the leading citizens through whom lands were returned: Asinius Pollio, Alfenus Varus, and Cornelius Gallus; the Georgics in honor of Caesar and Maecenas, who gave him [Virgil] help. Finally, the Aeneid begins in honor of Caesar and Maecenas, who was from the o√spring of Aeneas. He wrote the Bucolics in three years, the Georgics in seven, the Aeneid in eleven. This is the cause of the composition: because in another time a war arose among the Romans mutually between Julius Caesar and Brutus Casius. Now, Julius was ruling in Rome, but Brutus, ruling in the lower parts of Italy, was waging war against Julius. Virgil was under the power of Julius. After Brutus was conquered, Julius grew weak and, as he was dying, gave his realm to Octavian Augustus, the son of his sister, namely, Octavia. After Octavian received the rule, he sends his consuls into the inheritance of Brutus; one of them was Antony, who had been eager to oppose Caesar. And war arose between Antony and Octavian, and Antony, having been overcome, fled into Africa, and Virgil went on with him to Alexandria as an exile. And there Antony formed a liaison with Cleopatra and asked her for help. And she came with her great fleets. And when they had been conquered, Octavian emerged as the victor. Now, Virgil, since he wished for the friendship of Caesar and since he desired to possess his inheritance again, was eager to compose those songs. And in his songs he emulated three noble poets: Theocritus in the Eclogues, Hesiod in the Georgics, Homer in the twelve books. Moreover he found the Georgics in two books and made them stretch out to four. Bucolica [means] ‘‘the tending of cattle’’ or ‘‘the guardianship of cattle’’; an egloga is an excerpt or an expression of thanks or a praising. (MC and JZ)

20. Vita Gudiana I Along with the two other so-called Vitae Gudianae, the Vita Gudiana I is a life contained in the ninth-century Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, MS Gudianus Fol. 70, folio 1r, columns 1–2. In the parlance of VV, its opening section is an expositio, to which Bayer gives the name Expositio Gudiana. In the exposition the text reduces to a simplified format (following the Servian system) a number of the topics covered in more di√use fashion in the so-called Expositio Donati (see above, II.A.8). Its closing section is Periochae Gudianae (see above, II.A.13). (Discussion: VV 742–45) (Text: VVA 213–16; VV 250–56) (JZ) 252

II. BIOGRAPHY

Iniciis librorum VII periochae, id est, circumstantiae, sunt requirendae: vita poetae, titulus operis, qualitas carminis, intentio scribentis, numerus librorum, ordo librorum, explanatio. De vita poetae primum dicamus. Iste Virgilius Mantuanus fuit genere, patre Figulo et matre Maia genitus et omni virtute probabilis, excepto quod impatiens erat libidinis. Fuit et verecundissimus, adeo ut de ipsa sui verecundia cognomen sibi sortiretur: nam Partenias, id est, Virgilius, dictus est; Partenos enim Graece, virgo dicitur Latine. Cum vero pater et mater eius iter agerent, mater eius ventre admonita declinavit a puplico et peperit puerum, quem nominavit Virgilium a virga lauri sive, ut alii dicunt, populi, quam ibi fixit. Quae virga brevi tempore convaluit et in mirae altitudinis arborem excrevit. Quod cum rettulisset suo fratri Lucrecio, intellexit eum futurum esse magnum ingenio vel arte. Ipse vero multis in locis studuit, partim Cremonae, partim Neapoli, partim Mediolani. Deinde multos composuit libros. Fecit disticon, id est, carmen duorum versuum, in Balistam, id est, contra Balistam latronem ita: Monte sub lato lapidum tegitur Ballista sepultus; nocte die tutum carpe viator iter.

Fecit et aliud disticon ad culicem: Parva culex, pecudum custos tibi tale merenti funeris officium pro vitae munere reddit [Culex 413–14].

Scripsit et Bucolicam ad similitudinem Teocriti Creci poetae, Georgicam ad similitudinem Esiodi, Aeneida ad similitudinem Omeri. Cum igitur bellum civile inter Octavianum et Antonium ortum fuisset, Cremonenses partibus Antonii faverunt. Sed Octavianus potitus victoria Antonium interfecit et agros Cremonensium suis militibus distribuit et cum non sufficerent, addidit eis agros Mantuanorum, non quod illi peccassent, sed quia vicini erant Cremonensibus. Inde idem Virgilius: Mantua ve miserae nimium vicina Cremonae [Eclogues 9.28].

Inter quos et Virgilius perdidit suos agros et ob istam causam abiit Romam atque auditorio Pollionis et Mecenatis, qui erant tunc clarissimi consules non solum agros recipere meruit, sed et familiaritatem Octaviani obtinuit. Admonente vero Pollione scripsit Bucolicam in tribus annis et emendavit. Et ortante Mecenate scripsit Georgicam in VII annis et emendavit. Praecipiente vero Octaviano scripsit Aeneidam in XIcim annis, nec emendavit: unde ipse moriens praecepit, ut totus incenderetur liber. Sed Octavianus tantum opus non paciens perdere praecepit, ut Tuca et Varro, qui erant tunc nobilissimi poetae, tali emendatione emendarent, ut superflua quaeque auferrent et de suo nihil adderent: unde et dimidii versus ibi inveniuntur. A. VITAE

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Titulus operis est Bucolicum Carmen, et dicitur apo tu bucon, id est, a cura boum vel a custodia, quia, quamvis ibi poeta de aliis loquitur animalibus, tamen a bubus nominavit suum carmen, quia boves aput rusticos praecipua sunt animalia. Qualitas carminis. Tres sunt caracteres: humilis, mediocris, grandilocus, quos Virgilius commemorat: humili in Bucolica, mediocri in Georgica, grandiloco in Aeneida scripsit. Intentio scribentis. Ut laudaret Pollionem et Mecenatem, scilicet agris receptis; vel aliter, ut imitaretur Teogritum in Bucolicis, Isiodum in Georgicis, Omerum in Aeneidis. Numerus librorum. Quamvis X habentur eglogae in Bucolicis, tamen unum conficiunt librum. In Georgicis enim IIII sunt libri, in Aeneidis multo plures. Ordo librorum facile videtur, quamvis antiqui de ipso ordine multum contenderent. Explanatio est, quam in manu tenemus. Set Iohannes Scottus has breviter scripsit periochas dicens: quis, quid, cur, quomodo, quando, ubi, quibus facultatibus. Quis scripsit? Virgilius. Quid scripsit? Bucolicum carmen. Cur scripsit? Ut laudem redderet Pollioni et Mecenati sive Octaviano. Quomodo scripsit? Humili, mediocri, grandiloco caractere. Quando scripsit? Temporibus Octaviani. Ubi scripsit? Mantuae. Quibus facultatibus fecit? Eorum, quos imitatus est, videlicet Theocritum in Bucolicis, Isiodum in Georgicis, Omerum in Eneidis. Explicit Proaemium.

In the beginnings of the seven books are seven periochae [systematic questions] to be investigated: the life of the poet, the title of the work, the nature of the poem, the intention of the writer, the number of books, the order of books, and the explanation. Let us speak first concerning the life of the poet. This Virgil was Mantuan by descent, born from a father Figulus and a mother Maia and proven in every virtue, except that he was unable to resist sexual desire. He was extremely modest, to such an extent that he won a byname for himself on account of that very modesty of his. For he was called ‘‘Parthenias,’’ that is, Virgilius; for partenos in Greek means virgo in Latin. When his father and mother were making a journey, his mother, alerted by her [pregnant] belly, turned away from public view and bore a boy, whom she named Virgil from a virga [shoot] of laurel, or, as others say, of the poplar tree, which she planted there. The shoot became strong in a short time and grew into a tree of wondrous height. When she had told this to 254

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her brother Lucretius, he understood that he [Virgil] would be great by genius or skill. Virgil studied in many places, partly in Cremona, partly in Naples, and partly in Milan. Then he composed many books. He made a distich, that is, a poem of two verses, against Ballista, that is, in opposition to the robber Ballista, thus: Ballista is covered, buried under this mountain of stones; by night and by day take your route in safety, traveler.

He also wrote another distich for a gnat: O tiny gnat, a shepherd o√ers you, who are so deserving, the rite of death in exchange for the gift of life.

Virgil also wrote the Bucolics after the manner of Theocritus, the Greek poet; the Georgics after the manner of Hesiod; and the Aeneid after the manner of Homer. Well then, when civil war had arisen between Octavian and Antony, the Cremonans favored Antony’s faction. But Octavian, having gained victory, killed Antony and distributed the fields of the Cremonans to his soldiers and, since they were not su≈cient, added to them the fields of the Mantuans, not because they had committed any wrong, but because they were neighbors to the Cremonans. Hence Virgil wrote: Mantua, alas, all too close to wretched Cremona.

Among these [Mantuans] Virgil, too, lost his fields and on this account went away to Rome and in a judicial hearing before Pollio and Maecenas, who were then very well-known consuls, he not only earned the return of the fields, but also obtained the close friendship of Octavian. At the prompting of Pollio, he wrote and revised the Bucolics in three years. At the encouragement of Maecenas he wrote and revised the Georgics in seven years. At the bidding of Octavian, he wrote the Aeneid in eleven years, but he did not revise it. For this reason, when he was dying, he instructed that the entire book should be burned. But Octavian, not su√ering that so great a work should be destroyed, bade that Tucca and Varrus, who were then most excellent poets, should revise it according to the principle that they would cut out whatever was superfluous and add nothing of their own. For this reason, halffinished verses too are found there. The title of the work is ‘‘bucolic poem,’’ and it is so called apo tu bucon, that is, from the care of cattle or from the custody, because although the poet spoke there about other animals, nevertheless he named his song after the cattle, because cattle are the main animals among country people. The register of the poem. There are three types of register: humble, middle, A. VITAE

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and lofty, which Virgil commemorates: he wrote with the humble style in the Bucolics, the middle in the Georgics, and the lofty in the Aeneid. The intention of the writer: to praise Pollio and Maecenas for the return of the fields, or otherwise, to imitate Theocritus in the Bucolics, Hesiod in the Georgics, and Homer in the Aeneid. The number of books. Although there are ten eclogues in the Bucolics, nevertheless they constitute one book. In the Georgics there are four books, in the Aeneid many more. The order of the books is easily seen, though the ancients argued much about that order. The explanation is that which we hold in our hands. In any case, John the Scot wrote these periochae briefly saying: who, what, why, how, when, where, with what means. Who wrote it? Virgil. What did he write? A bucolic poem. Why did he write? In order to render praise to Pollio and Maecenas or Octavian. How did he write? In the humble, middle, and lofty styles. When did he write? In the time of Octavian. Where did he write? In Mantua. With what means did he write? With those of the people whom he imitated, namely, Theocritus in the Bucolics, Hesiod in the Georgics, and Homer in the Aeneid. Here ends the proemium. (DJ and JZ)

21. Vita Gudiana II This life assembles components of a vita with part of a commentary on the first Eclogue. Bayer identifies its chief constituents as: 1–4 5–22 23–32 33–45 45–57

A short vita along the lines of the life that can be reconstructed from Jerome’s biographical extracts (see above, II.A.2) Explication of the Eclogues (etymology and source) Account of the composition of the Eclogues (reason for writing) Further explanations of words Identification of characters with people (Tityrus is Virgil).

Along with the two other Vitae Gudianae, the second one is contained in the ninth-century Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, MS Gudianus Fol. 70, folio 3v, column 1– folio 4r, column 1. (Discussion: VV 755) (Text: VVA 217–19; VV 378–82) (JZ) Vita Virgilii poetae incipit. Virgilius genere Mantuanus in pago, qui Andes dicitur, haut procul a Mantua nascitur Pompeio et Crasso consulibus. Pompeius captis Iherusolimis tributarios Iudeos facit. Virgilius Chremone studiis eruditur. 256

II. BIOGRAPHY

Bucolica, ut ferunt, inde dicta est, a custodia boum, id est, apò ¯ tvn ˜ boukólvn, id est, a cura boum. Praecipua enim animalia sunt aput rusticos boves. Huius autem carminis origo varia est. Nam alii dicunt eo tempore, quo Cherces Persarum rex invasit Greciam, cum omnes intra muros laterent nec possent more solito Diane sacra persolvi, pervenisse ad montes Lacones rusticos et in eius honorem ymnos dicisse, unde natum ab illis rusticis carmen bucolicum aetas posterior elima[na]vit. Alii dicunt, quod cum Orestes Diane simulacrum ex Chitia adveeret, Sticiliam [sic] tempestate esse delatum, completoque anno Diane festum celebrasse collectis nautis et aliquibus pastoribus convocatis, et exinde permansisse aput rusticos consuetudinem. Alii nec Diane neque Oresti set Apollini hoc carmen dedicatum dicunt, quo tempore Ameti regis pavit armenta. Alii rusticis nominibus [read ‘‘numinibus’’] a pastoribus hoc asserunt carmen, ut faunis, nimphis ac sat[y]ris. Hic est quoque huius carminis titulus. Causa ergo scribendi Bucolicam hec est: occiso Iulio Cesare Augustus filius eius, id est, Octavianus, contra persecutores patris et Antonium bellum movit. Victoria potitus Cremonensium agros, qui contra eum senserant, militibus suis dedit, qui cum non sufficerent, etiam Mantua[norum] iussit distribui, non propter culpam sed propter vicinitatem, unde dicit Virgilius: Mantua ve misere nimium vicina Chremone [Eclogues 9.28]

inter quos agri Virgilii sunt adempti. Set cantando postea recipere meruit ab Octaviano et suis senat[or]ibus. Titirus dicitur maior yrcus, ex hirco et ove natus, et est dux gregis. Per illum ergo intellegitur Virgilius, qui fuit quasi dux Mantuanorum, quando ab Hoctaviano agros sibi suisque impetravit. Melibeus apo ton meliton, id est, a meditatione: secum enim fugiens meditabatur, quomodo suam dimittebat regionem. Vel Melibeus dicitur apò ¯ tvn ˜ mhlvn, ´ id est, a curis boum. Bucolica apò ¯ tvn ˜ boukólvn, id est, a custodia boum. Titirus a Greca aethimologia descendit. Inter ‘‘patulum’’ et ‘‘patentem’’ distantia est: ‘‘patulum,’’ quae ab omnibus videtur et nec clauditur nec latet, sicuti est mons et arbor; ‘‘patens’’ est, quae clauditur et aperitur, sicut est ostium et fenestra. ‘‘Egogla’’ dicitur quasi ‘‘egaloga,’’ quia ‘‘ega’’ dicitur capra, ‘‘logos’’ sermo: inde ‘‘egogla’’ dicitur sermo de capris. Inducitur etiam pastor iacens sub arbore securus et otiosus datque operam cantilene, alter vero, qui cum gregibus ex suis pellitur finibus, qui cum Tytirum inspexisset iacentem, ita locutus est: ‘‘Tytire’’ et cetera. Et hoc loco Tytirum sub persona Virgilii debemus intelligi, non tamen ubique set ubi exigit ratio. Quod autem eum sub fago dicit iacere, allegoria est onestissima, quasi sub protectione est vel sub arbore glandifera, quae fuit victus causa. Antea enim homines glandibus A. VITAE

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vescebantur: unde fagus dicta est apò ¯ tvn ˜ fágvn, hoc etiam videtur dicere: iaces sub umbra fagi in agris tuis, tuas retentas possessiones, quibus aleris, sicut etiam glandibus alebantur antea antiqui.

Here Begins the Life of the Poet Virgil Virgil, a Mantuan by stock, was born during the consulships of Pompey and Crassus in a district that is called Andes, not far from Mantua. Pompey captured Jerusalem and made the Jews tributaries of Rome. Virgil was educated through studies at Cremona. It is said that the word bucolics received its name from the tending of cattle, that is, apo ton boukolon [from cowherds], that is, from looking after cattle. For among country folk cattle are the most important animals. But there are various accounts of the origin of this poetry. For some say that at the time in which Xerxes, the king of the Persians, invaded Greece, when all [the Greeks] were hiding within the city walls and could not carry out in the customary fashion the sacrifice to Diana, Spartans from the country came to the mountains and sang hymns in her honor. Hence a later age came to the conclusion that bucolic poetry was created by these country people. Others say that when Orestes was conveying Diana’s statue from Scythia, he was driven o√ course into Sicily by a storm. A year later he assembled the sailors and summoned some shepherds to celebrate the festival of Diana, and from then on the custom persisted among country folk. Others say that this song was dedicated neither to Diana nor to Orestes, but to Apollo, at the time when he took to pasture the cattle of King Admetus. Others claim that this poetry was dedicated by shepherds to the divinities of the countryside, for example, to fauns, nymphs, and satyrs. This is also a title for this poem. The reason, then, for writing the Bucolics is as follows. When Julius Caesar was killed, his son, that is, Octavian, waged war against his father’s attackers and Antony. Once he had secured victory he gave to his soldiers the fields of the Cremonans, who had been opposed to him. Since these were insu≈cient, he ordered that [the land] of the Mantuans also be divided up, not because Mantua was at fault, but because of its proximity to Cremona. For this reason Virgil says: Mantua, alas, all too close to wretched Cremona.

Virgil’s land was among the properties confiscated. But by singing he later earned the restitution of his land from Octavian and his senators. Tityrus is the word for the larger ram, which is born from a ram and a ewe and is the leader of the flock. By this figure is to be understood Virgil, who was something like the leader of the Mantuans when he secured from Octavian the fields for himself and his people. The name Meliboeus is derived apo ton meliton [from bees], that is, from meditation. [As pointed out in VV 381, 258

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mélitta (bee) is evidently confused with meléth (concern, deliberation).] For in his flight, he deliberated with himself about how he was giving up his territory; or Meliboeus is so called apo ton melon, that is, from the tending of cattle. [The proper translation would be ‘‘from sheep.’’] Bucolica is derived apo ton boukolon, that is, from guarding cattle. Tityrus stems from Greek etymology. There is a di√erence between patulus [spreading] and patens [open]: [a thing described as] patulus is visible to all, is not closed, and is not hidden, such as a mountain and a tree, while [a thing described as] patens is opened and closed, such as a door and a window. Egogla [= Ecloga] is more or less egaloga, since ega means ‘‘goat,’’ and logos means ‘‘word, discourse.’’ Hence Egogla means ‘‘discourse concerning goats.’’ Virgil also introduces a shepherd, who is lying carefree and idle beneath a tree and devotes himself to a song. But another [character is introduced], who is being driven with his herds from his own land and who, when he had seen Tityrus lying there, spoke as follows: ‘‘Tityrus’’ and so forth [Eclogues 1.1]. In this context we must understand Tityrus to represent Virgil; this is not the case everywhere, but when reason demands it. But when he says that he lies sub fago [beneath a beech tree], the allegory is especially worthy of honor; [it is] as if he were under the protection of Caesar or beneath a tree that produces mast, which was there as a means of sustenance. In times of old people used to feed on beech; for this reason the fagus [beech tree] derives its name apo ton phagon. This also seems to have the following meaning: you lie beneath the shade of the beech tree, on your land you have back your possessions, which provided you with nourishment, in the same way as beechnuts provided nourishment to men of old. (TM and JZ)

22. Vita Gudiana III Along with the two other Vitae Gudianae, this life is contained in the ninthcentury Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, MS Gudianus Fol. 70, folio 4v, column 1. (Discussion: VV 742–45) (Text: VVA 220; VV 328–30) (JZ) Virgilius poeta genere fuit Mantuanus natus Idibus Octobribus in oppido prope Mantua. Cremone studiis litterarum eruditus Ravennam pergens togam sumsit. Togatus vero non parvo post tempore Romam adiit. Toga autem vestis est magistrorum, quia illa non utebantur vulgares homines sed solummodo magistri. Favorem Caesaris et militum eius emeruit. Potitus gratia et amicitia senatorum, Partenope ivit, in qua civitate miro ordine carmina sua composuit: Partenope civitas est Calabriae. Carmina autem sua composita Brundisium attinxit, sed Brundisii moritur: Brundisii civitas est Campaniae. Ossa vero illius Neapolim translata et secundo miliario ab urbe in bivio mira magnificentia condita sunt. Sepulcrum vero illius miro ordine A. VITAE

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compositum est, in quo epitaphium, quod vivens composuit, insertum est ita continens: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere tenet nunc Partenope; cecini pascua rura duces [see below, II.C.1].

The poet Virgil was by descent a Mantuan, born on the Ides of October in a town near Mantua. Having been educated at Cremona through the study of literature, he proceeded to Ravenna and assumed the toga. But having received the toga, he went to Rome after a not-brief period. The toga is the dress of schoolmasters, since common people did not use it, but only the schoolmasters. Virgil earned the favor of Caesar and of his soldiers. He gained the goodwill and friendship of senators. He went to Parthenope, where he composed his songs in a wondrous order. Parthenope is a city in Calabria. But having composed his songs, he arrived at Brindisi, but he dies at Brindisi. The city of Brindisi is in Campania. But his bones were carried over to Naples and were interred with grand splendor at the crossroads at the second milepost from the city. His tomb was put together in wondrous order. On his tomb, the epitaph which he composed while alive was inscribed containing this: Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders. (MC and JZ)

23. Vita Leidensis Even more than the Vita Monacensis I and the Vita Bernensis III, the Vita Leidensis (also known as the Vita Montepessulana) provides details from events before Caesar’s death to account for the origins of the civil war. The ultimate source for the information—most of it misinformation—in all three would appear to be the Vita Probi (see above, II.A.7). The Vita Leidensis is extant in two manuscripts, Montpellier, Bibliothèque municipale, MS Montepessulanus 358 (ninth/tenth century) and Leiden, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, MS Vossianus F. 79 (end of ninth century). (Discussion: W. Suerbaum, ANRW 2/31.2 [1981], 1220–26) (Text: VVA 245–48; VV 344–48) (JZ) Tempore illo gubernante Iulio Caesare imperium regnavit Brutus Casius super duodecim plebes Tuscorum. Et exortum est bellum inter Iulium Caesarem et Brutum Casium, cum quo Virgilius erat, superaturque Brutus a Iulio. Post hoc Iulius occiditur a senatu scabellis subpedaneis et successit in regno eius filius sororis suae Octaviae Octavianus Augustus, qui regno accepto in hereditate Bruti suos consules misit, ex quibus unus erat Antonius, qui illis praeerat, quique bellum postea Caesari dedit Augusto et superatus in terra bis, propter quod cum classibus eum in mare superavit Augustus, postea autem exul effectus in Aegyptum fugit, reginae Aegypti Cleopatrae

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auxilium petens Virgilio secum comitante. Quod etiam adeptus est sibique coniuncta est iure matrimonii. Post hoc Antonius et Cleopatra cum classibus magnis in Italiam venerunt. Cleopatra autem in navis suae prora duxit duos serpentes, ut eam serpentes percussissent, si esset victa. Et postquam Antonius cum Cleopatra navali bello in Acteo litore victi sunt, semetipsos desperatione necaverunt. Caesar autem cum Romam victor venisset, agros militum et amicorum Antonii suis militibus divisit. Cum vero Virgilius agro esset privatus [u]t inimicus Caesari, amici autem sui de potentibus Octaviani, nominibus Emilius Macer Gentilius Varus Mecenas Cornelius Gallus Asinius Pollio miserunt ad eum, ut sua postulasset per laudes Cesaris. Inimici vero ipsius erant Cornificius Gallus Bavius et Mevius. Nobilis igitur poetas insimulatus est Virgilius in suis carminibus: Teocritum Siculum in Eglogis, Esiodum [Ascreum in G]eorgicis, Homerum in XII libris Aeneidae. Bocolica nominativus pluralis neutri generis con[positus a] nomine, quod est ‘‘bos,’’ et a verbo ‘‘colo,’’ vel a bovum cultura, et adiectivum nomen est Bocolica, id est, Carmina. Appellantur autem Bocolica a maiore parte, quamvis opilionum caprariorumque in his sermones et cantica inseruntur, et illa Eglogis continentur. Egloga Graece, Latine ‘‘excerptio’’ dicitur, eo quia collecta de multis historiis et fabulis fit. Georgica quoque pluralis nominativi nomen est, Graece compositumque: ge enim Graece, Latine ‘‘terra’’ dicitur; orge vero vel orgion ‘‘cultus’’ vel ‘‘cultura’’ intellegitur, et adiectivum nomen est Georgica, id est, Carmina. XII vero libri Aeneidae propter narrationem Aenee dicuntur et posteritatis eius, et dicitur ‘‘Aeneidos’’ sub genere patronymici, id est, Aeneae nepotis, quod est Caesar, in cuius honore XII libri scripti sunt. Tres autem principales partes scientiae in his artibus deprehenduntur, hoc est fisica ethica loica: fisica naturalis in Bocolicis, ethica moralis in Georgicis, loica rationalis in XII libris. Invocatio narratio praefatio. Quia tres species omnes poetae in suis artibus habent, hic etiam deprehenduntur. Praefatio est, ut ‘‘Arma virum cano’’ [Aeneid 1.1]; invocatio, ut ‘‘Musa mihi causas’’ [Aeneid 1.8]; narratio, ut est ‘‘Urbs antiqua fuit’’ [Aeneid 1.12]. Anteponendum tres caracteres esse: unum, in quo tantum poeta loquitur, ut est in Georgicon; aliud drammaticon, in quo nunquam poeta loquitur, ut est in comedis et tragodis; tertium mixtum, ut est in Aeneide, nam poeta illic et postea introductae personae loquuntur. Quod in Virgilio deprehenditur omne; aut enim ex persona sua loquitur aut ex persona alterius, quod dramaticon dicitur, aut ille ipse loquitur et aliae secum personae introductae.

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Bucolica igitur et Georgica in Partenope civitate, quae tria nomina habuit, Parthenope Cumae et Necapolis, scripta sunt; duodecim vero libri Rome.

At that time, when Julius Caesar was governing the empire, Brutus Cassius ruled over the twelve peoples of the Tuscans. And a war arose between Julius Caesar and Brutus Cassius, with whom Virgil was allied. And Brutus was overcome by Julius. After this Julius was killed by the Senate with footstools, and the son of his sister Octavia, Octavianus Augustus, succeeded him in power. After having accepted the rule, he [Octavian] sent into Brutus’s inheritance his consuls, one of whom was Antony, who was their leader and who afterward waged war against Caesar Augustus and, having been overcome twice on land, because Augustus conquered him on the sea with his fleets, afterward, however, having been sent into exile, fled into Egypt seeking the help of Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, Virgil being with him as a companion. Antony in fact acquired the help, and she was joined with him through the law of marriage. After this Antony and Cleopatra came to Italy with great fleets. Cleopatra, however, put into the prow of her ship two snakes, so that they would strike her if she should be conquered. And after Antony and Cleopatra were conquered in the naval battle near the shore of Actium, they killed themselves in despair. When Caesar, however, came to Rome as the victor, he divided up the fields of the soldiers and friends of Antony for his own soldiers. But although Virgil was deprived of his land and was an enemy of Caesar, his friends from among the potentates of Octavian, with the names Aemilius Macer, Gentilius [read ‘‘Quintilius’’] Varus, Maecenas, Cornelius Gallus, Asinius Pollio, nonetheless sent for him so that he might ask for his property by praising Caesar. But his enemies were Cornificius Gallus, Bavius, and Maevius. Therefore Virgil emulated the noble poets in his poems: the Sicilian Theocritus in the Eclogues, Hesiod of Ascra in the Georgics, Homer in the twelve books of the Aeneid. Bocolica is a nominative plural of neuter gender composed from the noun bos [cow] and from the verb colo [to tend] or from bovum cultura [the raising of cattle], and bocolica is an adjective modifying a noun, that is, carmina [songs]. Moreover, they are called Bocolica after the greater part, even though the conversations and songs of shepherds and goatherds are inserted in them and they are contained in the Eclogues. The Greek egloga means excerptio [selection] in Latin, since it has been collected from many histories and tales. Georgica is also a noun of the plural nominative and a Greek compound: for ge in Greek means terra [land] in Latin; but orge or orgion is understood as cultus [cultivation] or as cultura [tending], and georgica is an adjective, that is, modifying carmina [songs]. But the twelve books of the Aeneid are so called because of its narra262

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tion of Aeneas and his posterity, and it is called Aeneidos according to the patronymic form, that is, the descendant of Aeneas, that is, Caesar, in whose honor the twelve books were written. Moreover, three principal parts of knowledge are subsumed in these works; that is, physics, ethics, and logic: physics is the natural science in the Bucolics, ethics is the moral science in the Georgics, logic is the rational science in the twelve books. The invocation, the narration, the preface. Since all poets have these three forms in their arts, here also they are included. The preface is there, as in Arma virum cano; the invocation, as in Musa mihi causas; the narration, as in Urbs antiqua fuit. It must first be posited that there are three styles: one in which only the poet speaks, as in the Georgics; another is dramatic, in which the poet never speaks, as in comedies and tragedies; the third is mixed, as in the Aeneid, for the poet speaks as well as the characters after they have been introduced. All of this is included in Virgil. For he speaks either in his own voice or in the voice of another, which is said to be dramatic, or he himself speaks and other persons with him who have been introduced. Therefore the Bucolics and the Georgics were written in the city of Parthenope, which has the three names: Parthenope, Cumae, and Necapolis [Naples], but the twelve books were written in Rome. (MC and JZ)

24. Vita Monacensis I The Vita Monacensis I is contained in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 15514, folios 89r–91v, a manuscript of the tenth century and of uncertain origin. (Discussion: H. R. Upson, ‘‘Medieval Lives of Vergil,’’ Classical Philology 38 [1943], 104; W. Suerbaum, ANRW 2/31.2 [1981], 1220) (Text: VVA 225–31; VV 330–40) (JZ) Pompeio et Crasso consulibus anno Ptholomei regis Aegypti octavo in pago Andensi in villa quae Andis dicitur iuxta Mantuam nascitur Virgilius, quem alii de Romanis alii de Mantuanis parentibus natum autumant: infimis tamen, quia pater illius figulus fuit Istimicon nomine. Mater eius Maia vocatur, quae de eo pregnans fertur in somnis vidisse se enixam virgam lauream et subito in magnitudinem terebinti crevisse. Quae cum fratri suo Lucretio poetae somnium retulisset, ait ad eam: ‘‘Paries’’ inquit ‘‘cito filium, qui licet non de magno sit genere, habebitur tam clarus aut de aliquo artificio aut de poematibus aut de quolibet opere mirando, unde, nato, illum oportet poetis exhiberi; et quia virgam vidisti, a virga Virgilius vocabitur.’’ Unde et postea Publius Virgilius Maro vocatus est: ‘‘Publius’’ praenomen est a poplite grandi vel, ut alii, a publica re, id est, regali; ‘‘Virgilius’’ a virga vel, ut alii, ‘‘vere gliscens’’ propter scientiam eructuantem [sic] et viridem; ‘‘Maro’’ autem niger vel eloquens dicitur. Hic primum Cremona civitate in A. VITAE

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Italia eruditus, deinde Mediolanio, ut ipse ait, sumpta toga Mediolano egreditur. Post breve tempus Romam venit. Tempore igitur quo Iulius Caesar regnabat in Italia, Brutus Casius XII plebes Tuscorum regebat, id est, inferiores partes Italiae, partesque Virgilii [iu]dicabat. Inter praefatos reges ortum est bellum. Haut multo post victoriam Iulius captam moriens regna haec nepoti suo Octaviano sorori suae Octaviae filio tradidit. Hic Antonio consuli suo Moniachim dedit sorore[m] suam coniugem, sub cuius potestate Virgilius erat. Sed Antonius tertio rebellans despecta sorore eius Alexandriam pergit habens consiliarium et poetam Virgilium in comitatu. Qui accepta Cleopatra Arabiam dote dedit auxiliante sibi Hispania Affrica Syria Aegypto et media parte Italiae a Roma usque ad mare meridianum Cremona et Mantua. Partibus vero Caesaris consenserunt Vesigotia Germania Hilliricum Rhetia et Pannonia et omnis Silicia et insulae Tyrreni maris et media Italia a Roma usque ad Alpes et usque ad vicinum mare, Ephiro cum Roma et Ravenna cum ceteris civitatibus. Antonius quidem Octaviano Caesari navale bellum intulit iuxta Acteum litus ducens exercitum secum et Cleopatram habentes duos serpentes in prora navis, ut si victoriam Caesaris sensissent a serpentibus interimerentur, et tali desperatione perierunt. At victor Caesar Romam redit et statim misit Cornelium Gallum, vero Appinum, et Asinnium Pollionem milites suos, ut hereditatem Antonii et amicorum eius, hoc est Cremonam civitatem, suis militibus dividerent; et quia non sufficerent, illis addita est Mantua, unde erat Virgilius. Tunc Mantua Cornelio Gallo data est et Andis, Virgilii villa, Claudio Arrioni, qui voluit Virgilium occidere, nisi flumen in alteram partem natasset. Post quae amici et condiscipuli Virgilii, consules Caesaris et poetae Aemelius Macer, Gentilius Varus, Mecenas, Cornelius Gallus et Asinnius Pollio suaserunt Virgilium, ut per laudem Caesaris peteret hereditatem suam. Quam cum per Assinnium Pollionem impetrasset, devenit ad amicitiam Caesaris. Tandem petentibus Romanis, cum scirent Graecos pompantes vicisse originem Romanorum in libris Homeri praecipue de eversione Troiae, unde Roma initium sumpsit, ut habuissent solatium Romani, scripsit Virgilius adversus Graecos de fortitudine et origine Romanorum cum opere Aeneae filii Anchisae et qualiter Aeneas primo Romam petivit et fortitudine sua superato Turno obtinuit. In quibus narratur opulentia virtus et maiestas Caesaris et quomodo ille a multis saeculis prophetatus sit. Maxime Gentilius Varus ista hortatus fuerit, cui in eius honore Virgilius scripturum promittit XII libros dicens: [Inter VI eglogas dicens:]

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. . . Tunc tibi dicere laudes Vare tuas [Eclogues 6.6–7].

Isti inimici Virgilii adversabantur illi: Cornificius, Clodius, Mebeus, Vabeus, Archades et Meuvius. Si quaeris locum ubi primum scribere inchoaverit exordium librorum, dico verum, Bucolica et Georgica in Partenope civitate, quae Cyma et Neapolis et Necapolis vocatur. Ibidem primam partem sui libri scripsit. XII vero libros Aeneidos heroici carminis postquam amicitiam Caesaris adeptus est Rome scripsit; alii tamen Mantua hoc scripsisse putant. Quo, inquies, tempore quidem? Augusti, inquam, Caesaris, a quo re[ge]s Romanorum coeperunt Augusti vocari, qui regnavit annis LVI et mensibus VI. Qua ex causa, nosse vis? Pro postulatione hereditatis suae ad laudem Caesaris in honore Assinnii Pollionis Bucolica scripsit. Item in laude Caesaris et honore Mecenatis Georgica edidit. Item in laude Cae[saris] petentibus Romanis XII libros Aeneidos composuit. Bucolica plurale nomen est generis neutri, ab eo quod est ‘‘bos’’ et verbo ‘‘colo’’ compositum, et est adiectivum nomen. Bucolica, id est, boum cultura. Isiodus dicit: Bucolica pastorale carmen, quod Siracusani a pastoribus opinantur esse compositum. Alii a Lacedemone transeunte [e]Xerse rege Persarum in Traciam et cum Spartanae virgines metu hostili urbem egredi non auderent, nec pompam quarumcumque agrestium in honore Dianae exercerent, turba pastorum, ne religio periret, eandem in cottidianis cantibus celebrarunt. Appellatur autem bucolicum a maiori parte. Bucolicum, id est, boum cultura, quam[quam] opilionum et cantica in his inserantur. Haec Bucolica egloga continet: egloga enim Graece, Latine ‘‘excerptio’’ sive ‘‘gratiarum actio’’ et ‘‘conloquium’’ dici potest, propter collectionem de multis libris vel historiis seu fabulis in unam fabulam collecta veluti epistola. Georgicon plurale nomen est compositum: Ge enim Graece, Latine ‘‘terra’’ dicitur; Orgin vel orgon Graece, Latine ‘‘culmen’’ vel ‘‘cultura’’ intellegitur, et est nomen, Geor[gi]ca carmina, id est, terrarum cultura. Eneidos patronimicum est et genitivus: nepos Cesaris, propter narrationem Aeneae et posteritatis eius. Quales auctores assimilatus est Virgilius? Teocritum Siracusanum in Bucolicis, qui VII eglogas narrat typice dicens: Est mihi disparibus septem compacta cicutis [Eclogues 2.36].

Virgilius X. Isiodum Ascreum in Georgicis, qui duos libros composuit de agricultura, unum de semine farris et plantatione vitis et arborum, alterum de pastu pecorum et iumentorum et de pastu vel cura apium. Econtra

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Virgilius scribit quatuor propter quatuor species agriculturae. Ager enim ‘‘arvus’’ dicitur propter arandum et ‘‘consitus’’ propter insertas arbores et vites in ordine positas aut ‘‘pastus’’ propter pastum pecorum et iumentorum aut ‘‘florens’’ propter flores collectos in agro convenienti ad pascendas apes. In XII vero libris Omerum imitatus est, qui praecellit omnes poetas Graecorum, inter quorum poemate XLIIII libros de insigni[bu]s eorum operibus et praecipue de [e]versione Troiae conscripsit. Haec contra Virgilius undecim libros composuit in laude Roma[no]rum. Quot sunt partes principales scientiae? In poemate Virgilii tres: physica, id est, naturalis, in Bucolicis; ethyca, id est, moralis in Georgicis; loyca, id est, rationalis, in XII libris Aeneidos.

Under the consulships of Pompey and Crassus, in the eighth year of King Ptolemy of Egypt, in a village that is called Andes, in the Andean region next to Mantua, Virgil is born. Some say that he was born from Roman parents, others from Mantuan ones, but nonetheless from low-born ones since his father was a potter with the name Istimicon. His mother is called Maia. While pregnant with him, she is said to have seen, in her sleep, herself having given birth to a laurel bough, which right away grew to the size of a terebinth. When she had recounted her dream to her brother, the poet Lucretius, he said to her, ‘‘You will soon give birth to a son who, while he may not be of noble stock, will nevertheless be held as famous because of some skill or because of poetry or because of some sort of wondrous work. Therefore, it is appropriate that he, after he is born, be presented to poets and, since you saw a virga [bough], he will be called Virgil from virga.’’ And therefore he was afterward called Publius Virgilius Maro. His first name, Publius, is from large poplis [knee] or, as some [say], from publica res [republic], that is, ‘‘royal.’’ Virgilius [comes] from virga [wand] or, as some [say], [from the phrase] vere gliscens [growing in the spring: see Eclogue 10.74] because of his overflowing and vigorous knowledge. Maro, however, is said to be ‘‘black’’ or ‘‘eloquent.’’ He was educated in Italy first in the city of Cremona, then in Milan, and, as he himself says, after having assumed the toga, he leaves Milan. A short time later he comes to Rome. Now then, at that time when Julius Caesar was ruling in Italy, Brutus Cassius was ruling the twelve peoples of the Tuscans, that is, the lower parts of Italy, and he inherited those of Virgil. War arose between the aforementioned kings. Not long after he took the victory, Julius, as he was dying, handed over these realms to his nephew Octavian, the son of his sister Octavia. He gave his sister Moniachis to his [co-]consul Antony as a bride. Virgil was under [Antony’s] power. But Antony, having spurned [Caesar’s] sister and rebelling for the third time, proceeded to Alexandria, having Virgil in his retinue as 266

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adviser and poet. [Antony], having received Cleopatra as wife, gave [her] Arabia as a dowry, with Spain, Africa, Syria, Egypt, the middle part of Italy from Rome all the way to the southern sea, Cremona, and Mantua giving him aid. But to Caesar’s faction gave their support the land of the Visigoths, Germany, Illyria, Raetia, Pannonia, and all of Sicily and the islands of the Tyrrhenian sea and the middle of Italy from Rome all the way to the Alps and the nearby sea, with Ephirus being with Rome and Ravenna with the rest of the commonwealths. Antony in fact waged a naval war against Caesar Octavianus near the shore of Actium, leading with him his army and Cleopatra; they had two snakes in the prow of the ship so that, if they learned of a victory for Caesar, they would be killed by the snakes. And they died in such desperation. But Caesar, the victor, returned to Rome and immediately sent Cornelius Gallus, indeed an Appine [the Latin reading vero Appinum could be a garbling of Varus Alphenus], and Asinius Pollio, his soldiers, to distribute to their soldiers the inheritance of Antony and his friends, namely, the community of Cremona. And since these [lands] were not su≈cient, to them was added Mantua, from which Virgil came. Then Mantua was given to Cornelius Gallus, and Andes, Virgil’s villa, to Claudius Arrio; the latter intended to kill Virgil, had he not swum across a river to the other side. After these things, the friends and fellow pupils of Virgil, the consuls and poets of Caesar, Aemilius Macer, Quintilius Varus, Maecenas, Cornelius Gallus, and Asinius Pollio persuaded Virgil to seek his inheritance by praising Caesar. When he had obtained this through Asinius Pollio, he entered into friendship with Caesar. At length, at the request of the Romans—since they knew the Greeks took pride in having outdone the origin of the Romans in the books of Homer, especially about the destruction of Troy whence Rome took its beginning—so that the Romans might console themselves, Virgil wrote about the courage and origin of the Romans together with the deeds of Aeneas, son of Anchises, and how Aeneas first sought Rome and by his bravery obtained it after overcoming Turnus. In these books, the opulence, the courage, and the majesty of Caesar is told, and how Caesar was predicted for many centuries before. Quintilius Varus in particular had encouraged these undertakings; Virgil promised this man that he would write twelve books in his honor, saying in the sixth Eclogue: Then to pronounce your praises for you, Varus.

These enemies of Virgil were opposing him: Cornificius, Clodius, Mebeus, Vabeus, Archades, and Mavius. If you seek the place where he first started to write the beginning of his A. VITAE

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books, I tell the truth: [he began] the Bucolics and Georgics in the city of Parthenope, which is [also] called Cumae, Naples, and Necapolis. In that same place he wrote the first part of his book. After he acquired the friendship of Caesar, however, he wrote the twelve books of the heroic poem, the Aeneid, in Rome. Some, however, think that he wrote it in Mantua. When, you ask [did Virgil write]? I will say, [in the time] of Caesar Augustus, after whom the kings of the Romans began to be called Augustus; he ruled for fifty-six years and six months. Now you wish to know for what reason? To request his inheritance he wrote the Bucolics in praise of Caesar and in honor of Asinius Pollio. Likewise, he produced the Georgics in praise of Caesar and in honor of Maecenas. Likewise, in praise of Caesar and at the request of the Romans he composed the twelve books of the Aeneid. Bucolica is a plural noun of the neuter gender that is composed from bos [cow] and from the verb colo [cultivate] and is an adjective. Bucolics means ‘‘the raising of cattle’’: Isidore says this. The Bucolics is a pastoral poem which the Syracusans suppose to have been composed by shepherds. Others [think] that it is from Lacedaemon when Xerxes, king of the Persians, crossed into Thrace [northern Greece] and when the Spartan maidens did not dare to leave the city out of fear for the enemy, when they did not perform the procession of all the countrywomen in honor of Diana, a throng of shepherds celebrated this same goddess in daily songs lest the religion perish. It is, however, called bucolicum by a majority. Bucolicum means ‘‘tending of cattle,’’ although the songs of shepherds are incorporated in them too. The bucolic eclogue contains these things. Egloga in Greek can be called excerptio [selection] or gratiarum actio [expression of thanks] and conloquium [conversation] in Latin, on account of the collection from many books, histories, or tales which is gathered into one tale as if it were a letter. Georgicon is a plural compound noun: for the Greek ge is the Latin terra [land]; the Greek orgin or orgon is understood to be the Latin culmen [summit] or cultura [cultivation], and [so] the name is georgica carmina, that is ‘‘the cultivation of lands.’’ Eneidos is a patronymic and is genitive, as ‘‘the grandchild of Caesar,’’ on account of the narration of Aeneas and his posterity. Which authors did Virgil emulate? He emulates Theocritus the Syracusan in the Bucolics; Theocritus narrates seven eclogues, saying characteristically: I have a pipe assembled of seven unequal stalks of hemlock.

For Virgil it is ten. In the Georgics he emulates Hesiod of Ascra, who composed two books about agriculture, one about the sowing of wheat and the planting 268

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of the vine and of trees, another about the pasturing of livestock and beasts of burden and the feeding and keeping of bees. On the other hand, Virgil writes four [books] because of the four types of agriculture. For field is called arvus because it is arandum [to be tilled], and it is called consitus [sown] because trees have been planted and vines placed in a row, or it is called a pastus [pasture] because of the pasturage of cattle and mules, or [it is called] florens [flowering] because of the flowers collected in the field that is suited to the feeding of bees. But in twelve books he emulated Homer, who surpasses all the poets of the Greeks amidst whose poetry he wrote forty-four books about their distinguished works and especially about the fall of Troy. To match these [books], Virgil composed eleven books in praise of the Romans. How many principal parts of knowledge are there? In the poetry of Virgil there are three: physics, which is natural science, in the Bucolics; ethics, which is moral, in the Georgics; and logic, which is rational, in the twelve books of the Aeneid. (MC and JZ)

25. Vita Monacensis II The Vita Monacensis II and III (for the latter, see below, II.A.26, and IV.O) give evidence of the legends that burgeoned around the figure of Virgil. Both of these vitae connect Virgil’s magical activities with Naples, and both show a debt to Alexander Neckam (see below, V.A.6). (Discussion: VV 751–54) Both texts were thought until recently to have been transmitted uniquely, this one in the fifteenth-century Munich, Staatsbibliothek, clm 4393, folios 200v–201v. Suerbaum regarded this text as a true vita rather than an accessus, but he pointed out that the text o√ered in VV is a composite (ANRW 2/31.2 [1981], 1241–53). The last section (VV 374–76) is drawn from Conrad of Mure (from after 1210 to 1281), Fabularius (see below, V.F.3). Although the Vita Monacensis II dates from after Petrarch (whom it cites), it also includes substantially earlier material. It is unusual, though not unique, in placing Virgil’s studies in Greece not at the end of his life but instead in his youth. (On related manuscripts and a longer form of the Vita Monacensis II, see VVVC 177 and 181–82.) (Text: EV 5.2, 506–7, no. 372; VV 370–76) (JZ) Virgilius omnium poetarum clarissimus Mantue est natus ex matre Maia et patre Figulo rustico in quodam loco, qui tunc dicebatur Audos, nunc vero Pictola. Natus est autem die 15 Octobris consulibus Magno Pompeio et Crasso existentibus; qua die Lucrecius magnus poeta mortuus est, quasi pronosticum, quod cesserit adventui tanti poete. Mater vero dum esset praegnans, sompniavit se parere virgam de lauro confertam variis pomis cito crescentem et multum fructificantem. Et sequenti die, dum extra manseolum iter arripiens versus civitatem dolores senciens partus divertit ad A. VITAE

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quandam foveam, ibidem habens pro obstitrice Figulum virum eius, patrem Virgilii, genuit infantem. Qui parentibus futuram de se spem gestiens non vagiit neque ploratus emisit, sed—sicut ait in Bucolicis Incipe, parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem [Eclogues 4.60]

et Incipe, parve puer, cui non risere parentes—[Eclogues 4.62]

futuram parentibus de eo voluptatem quibus potuit nutibus ac gestibus demonstravit. Nam mos patrie fuerat, quotiens aliquis nascebatur, quod parentes plantarent arborem, qua fortunam cognoscere possent nascentis. Nam si arbor plantata pulcra et durativa efficiebatur, vitam hominis fore longam autumabant, sed ramis et frondibus bene ornata hominem maxime fame ac virtutum operatorem effici credebant. Et sic de aliis, et ideo pater Virgilii filio nato plantavit quandam populum, que bene citoque crevit et frondes atque ramos multiplices exposuit ita, quod cunctis esset altior atque amenior, et dicta est arbor Virgilii. Tanti fuit extimata arbor illa ratione maxime excrescente ac frondium et ramorum emissione, quod parturientes mulieres sua in ea appenderent vota supplicantes, ut, quemadmodum Maia citum atque delectabilem habuerit partum, et ipsis talis partus contingeret facilis. Et vocatus est Virgilius, quia pater plantavit in ipsius partu virgam populeam. Item dicitur Virgilius, quia mater sompniavit se parere virgam. Natura omnes vires congessit, ut Virgilium virum singularis ingenii ac probitatis in lucem educeret, et fuit enim excellentissimi ingenii et tante admiracionis, quod ab omnibus Parthenius diceretur, id est, bene tenens vel perciens; vel a Partenose, id est, cum virtute probatus. Quem et Partheniam Franciscus Petrarcha vocitans prima egloga sua dixit: Dulcissimus olim Parthenias michi iam puero cantare solebat [Petrarch, Bucolicum carmen 1.12–13: see above, I.C.54.h].

Item primo studuit Cremone, deinde in Mediolano, post hec transtulit se Neapolim, a qua profectus est Athenas. Ibi omni scientia fuit instructus. Tractavit enim celestia et terrestria, philosophica, moralia, astrologica, visibilia, invisibilia, theologica, rethoricalia et grammaticalia. Dicta enim sua possunt exponi grammaticaliter, rethoricaliter, historialiter sive litteraliter, allegorice, moraliter et anagogice. Adeo enim sunt praegnancia dicta sua, quod omnem paciuntur exposicionem, quia omnia sunt in eis inclusa. Item et, quia naturalibus mirabiliter praeditus magicas artes sequutus [est], memoratu digna multa fecit. Parthenope in portu, quae Campanos

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respicit, fecisse muscam eneam, ut dicitur, quae omnes alias muscas procul abigebat. Item macellum ipsum Virgilium construxisse fertur, ut nulla caro ibi putresceret. Narrat etiam Allexander quidam historiographus [Alexander Neckam: see below, V.A.6] de Virgilii eximia prudencia: carnes potentia quadam herbarum quingentis annis servate sunt saporis optimi et suavissimi. Item in fovea quadam prope Neapolim tanta erat multitudo sanguisugarum, quod tam homines quam cetera animalia per eas male vexarentur. Has arte sua Virgilius confecit sanguisugam auream qua in fovea proiecta omnes fugavit. Qua post multa annorum curricula extracta sanguisuge eandem iterum invaserunt foveam et totam molestaverunt civitatem. Illa autem rursus proiecta iterum sunt liberati. Item ortum unum confecisse dicitur, in quo numquam plueret. Virgilius, qui et Maro atque Publius appellatur, ‘‘teste Donato [see above, II.A.1], doctissimus poetarum, vir magne philosophie, genere Mantuanus, factus amicissimus Octaviano Augusto’’ [Conrad of Mure: see below, V.F.3], natus Ydibus Octobris Gneo Pompeio et Mar[c]o consulibus studuit cum Octaviano sub Epidio oratore. Unde etiam, cum Octavianus agros auferret omnibus Mantuanis et ipsos militibus in stipendium distribueret, quia Antonio faverant Mantuani, huic soli concessit memoria condiscipulatus suos agros. Vixit autem Virgilius annis quinquaginta duobus. Et sic librum Eneidis morte praeventus ad plenum non correxit; nam ibidem inveniuntur versus incompleti. Et dicitur a Virgiliis stellis, quia in ortu earum ortus est; quae alio nomine dicuntur Plyades a matre, alio nomine Athlantides a patre, alio nomine Asperides ab insula Hesperia. Iste Virgilius Rome, Neapoli et alias multa mirabilia et incredibilia per artem magicam fecisse memoratur. Et nota, quod circa incarnationem Christi eminentiores poete, historiographi et philosophi fuisse comprobantur, sicut patet in multis.

Virgil, the most famous of all poets, was born at Mantua to a mother Maia and a father Figulus, a farmer, in a place that was then called Andes, but which is now known as Pictola. He was born, moreover, on the fifteenth day of October when Pompey the Great and Crassus were consuls. On that same day the great poet Lucretius died, as if a sign that he yielded at the arrival of such a great poet. While his mother was pregnant, she dreamed that she gave birth to a laurel bough that, laden with various fruits, grew quickly and brought forth much fruit. And on the following day, as she was making her way out of the little house toward the city, she felt the pangs of birth and turned to a nearby A. VITAE

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ditch, where she had no midwife but her husband, Figulus, the father of Virgil, and here she gave birth to the infant. He, wishing his parents to know of his future glory, neither whined nor wailed, but—as he said in the Eclogues: Begin, little child, to recognize your mother with a smile

and Begin, little child, at whom your parents have not smiled—

he showed his parents with nods and gestures (as he was able) the future pleasure they would have from him. Now, it was the habit of his homeland, whenever someone was born, for the parents to plant a tree, by which they could know the fate of the growing child. For if the tree that was planted showed itself to be attractive and durable, they would judge that the child would have a long life, but if the tree was well adorned with leaves and branches, they believed that the man would have the greatest fame and would accomplish great deeds. So it had been concerning others, and hence the father of Virgil planted for his newborn son a poplar, which grew well and quickly and put forth such fronds and manifold branches that it was higher and prettier than all the others, and it was called the tree of Virgil. Because of its extremely burgeoning pattern of growth and its putting forth of fronds and branches, that tree was held in great regard, so much so that mothers who were due to give birth would hang on it their votive o√erings in supplication that, just as Maia had had a quick and joyous delivery, so too theirs would be an easy delivery. And he was called Virgil because his father planted a poplar branch at the birth of the same. Likewise he was known as Virgil because his mother dreamed that she gave birth to a branch [virgam]. Nature mustered all her forces in order to make Virgil shine, a man of singular intellectual power and uprightness, and he was of such outstanding talent and such wondrousness that he was called by all ‘‘Parthenius,’’ that is, ‘‘holding himself well’’ or ‘‘setting in motion’’; or from Partenose, that is, ‘‘proven with virtue.’’ Francesco Petrarca addresses him as Parthenias when in his first Eclogue he says: Most sweetly once was Parthenias wont to sing to me when I was a boy.

So, he studied first at Cremona, then in Milan, after which he moved to Naples, whence he set out for Athens. There he was trained in every branch of knowledge. He dealt with matters celestial and terrestrial, philosophical, ethical, astrological, visible, invisible, theological, rhetorical, and grammatical. His sayings can be explained grammatically, rhetorically, historically or literally, allegorically, morally, and anagogically. For so filled with meaning are his

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sayings, that they lie open to every interpretation, because everything was included in them. And likewise, since he who was so marvelously furnished by nature followed the arts of magic, he performed many deeds worthy of mention. In the port of Parthenope, which faces Campagna, he made—as is said—a brass fly, which drove all other flies far away. So too it is reported that Virgil himself built a market hall, with the property that no meat there would go bad. Alexander, a historiographer, tells of the extraordinary cleverness of Virgil: meats preserved their exquisite taste and freshness for five hundred years through a certain property of herbs. Likewise, in a ditch near Naples there was such a throng of bloodsucking leeches that human beings as well as other creatures were sorely aΔicted by them. By means of his magic Virgil made a golden bloodsucker, and by throwing this into the ditch he put all the bloodsuckers to flight. Many years later, when that [golden] bloodsucker had been taken out of the same ditch, the bloodsuckers invaded the ditch again and did harm to the entire citizenry. Once again the [golden] bloodsucker was thrown into the ditch, and again the citizens were delivered from the crisis. Likewise he is said to have made a garden in which it never rained. Virgil, who is also called Maro and Publius, ‘‘was the most learned of poets, as Donatus testifies, a man of great philosophical knowledge, of Mantuan stock, who became the bosom friend of Octavian Augustus’’ and was born on the Ides of October in the consulships of Gnaeus Pompeius and Marcus [Crassus]; he was a student with Octavian under the orator Epidius. Consequently, when Octavian expropriated the lands of the Mantuan people and gave them out to his troops as a pension because the Mantuans had sided with Antony, he let Virgil alone keep his fields, because he remembered their time together at school. Moreover, Virgil lived to be fifty-two years old. And so, forestalled by death, he did not correct the text of the Aeneid to the point of completion; for therein are found unfinished verses. And he took his name from the stars known as the Virgiliae because he was born at their rise; these stars are also known by another name, the Pleiades, from their mother, or by the name Atlantides, after their father, or by yet another name, Hesperides, which comes from the island of Hesperia. Now this Virgil is remembered for having done many wonderful and unbelievable deeds through his skill in magic, at Rome, Naples, and elsewhere. And note that very prominent poets, historians, and philosophers are confirmed to have existed around the time of Christ, as is apparent in many sources. (PLS and JZ)

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26. Vita Monacensis III (late fourteenth–early fifteenth century?) The vita is transmitted in a single manuscript of the fifteenth century, Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 18451, folio 129v. For the dating of the life, see Fabio Stok (‘‘La ‘Vita di Virgilio’ di Zono de’ Magnalis,’’ Rivista di cultura classica e medioevale 33 [1991], 165). This vita may be an excerpt from the Sophologium of Jacques Legrand (Jacobus Magni, died circa 1425), a tripartite compilation (love of wisdom and sciences; love of theological, cardinal, and capital virtues; and knowledge of the three social orders) that can be dated to 1398–99 (see VVVC 177). In any event, it is exceptional for the number of anecdotes that it incorporates about the legendary Virgil. (Text: EV 5.2, 507, no. 373; VV 376–78) (JZ) Poete enim plures famosi erant, inter quos Virgilius claruisse fertur, qui poetarum fuit clarissimus, ut inquit Augustinus [in libro] 5 de civitate Dei capitulo 3. Qui Virgilius dictus est a virga, eo quod matri eius somniavit se peperisse quandam virgam, quae usque ad celum pertingeret, quod nil aliud fuit, nisi quia Virgilium paritura erat, qui loquendo de altis celum pertingeret, prout ayt Hugo [Huguccio of Pisa: see below, V.B.5.b]. Hic autem Virgilius in philosophia et in necromantia peritissimus erat, mirabiliaque eum fecisse refert Allexander in libro de naturis rerum [Alexander Neckam: see below, V.A.6]. Dicit enim, quod, cum civitas Nepolitana peste sanguisugarum vexaretur, liberata est proiciendo sanguisugam vel yrundinem auream in fundo putei; [et] evolutisque postmodo multis diebus praedicta yrundo de puteo exempta est et mox tota civitas repleta est yrundinibus seu sanguisugis nec sedata est pestis, antequam sanguisuga in puteum remitteretur rursum. De eo idem refert, quod pontem aeneum [contrast V.A.6 ‘‘aerium’’; V.F.2 ‘‘aereum’’; V.F.4 ‘‘aureum’’] construxit et Romae Palatium solem[m]ne edificavit nomine Coliseum, in quo cuiuslibet regionis ymago ligneam componam [read ‘‘campanam’’] tenebat in manu, et quotiens aliqua regio Romanis rebellabat, mox componam ymago illius regionis pulsavit et miles eneus in ponte dicti Palatii stabat et hasta vibravit in illam partem, quae regionem illam respiciebat. Hoc etiam idem narrat Hugo [Huguccio of Pisa: see below, V.B.5.a]. Verum licet arti necromantie non debeatur, operibus tamen Virgilii admiratio debetur, eiusque subtilitas huiusmodi narracionibus declaratur.

There were indeed many renowned poets, and among these Virgil is reported to have been especially distinguished. He was the most illustrious of the poets, as Augustine states in book 5, chapter 3, of De civitate Dei. 274

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He was named Virgil after virga [shoot], because his mother dreamed that she had given birth to a shoot that reached up as far as heaven. This could only have meant that she was about to give birth to Virgil, who, as Hugo says, reached heaven by speaking on lofty matters. This Virgil was moreover very knowledgeable in matters of philosophy and necromancy, and Alexander, in his book De naturis rerum [On the Natures of Things], relates that he performed wondrous deeds. For he says that when the city of Naples was being aΔicted by a plague of bloodsucking leeches, it was freed by the casting of a golden bloodsucker or leech into the well. Many days afterward, the aforesaid leech was removed from the bottom of the well, and soon the whole city was inundated once again with leeches or bloodsuckers. The plague did not abate until the leech was cast back into the well. With regard to [Virgil], the same [Alexander] relates that he erected a bridge of bronze and built in Rome a ceremonial palace, called the Colosseum, in which a statue of every region [of the empire] held in its hand a wooden gong. Whenever a region was rebelling against the Romans, the statue of that region struck the gong immediately, and a bronze soldier on the bridge of the aforementioned palace stood and shook his spear in that direction which faced that region. This is also recounted by Hugo. Though no admiration is due to the art of necromancy, nevertheless admiration is owed to the works of Virgil, whose exquisite craftsmanship is clear in narratives of this type. (JZ)

27. Vita Monacensis IV This vita, preserved in a single manuscript of the fifteenth century (Munich, Staatsbibliothek, clm 18451, fol. 1r), brings together such heterogeneous elements that Bayer hesitated to label it a life. Its chief constituents are:

1–9 10–12 13–34

35–47

Triads Chronology of Virgil’s life Beginning of commentary on the Eclogues (title, etymological explication of names, short characterization of contents of first Eclogue, identification of Virgil with Tityrus) Continuation of introduction to Eclogues with explanation of Virgil’s motivation in composing the text.

(Discussion: VV 756) (Text: EV 5.2, 507, no. 374; VV 390–94) (JZ) Tres sunt seu fuerunt modi vivendi. Primus fuit, quo homines vixerunt vita pastorali, qua vescebantur de glandibus, et illam vitam voluit Virgilius A. VITAE

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in opere Buccolico scribere. Secundus fuit, quo homines in vita eorum invenerunt frumenta et agriculturam, et illam describit Virgilius in Georgicis. Tertius fuit non solum inveniendo frumenti et agriculturae, sed et metalli, de quo homines instituerant pecuniam, et exinde insurrexerunt bella, quam vitam describit in altioribus suis operibus, id est, in Eneyde. Nota: Virgilius mortuus est 13 annis ante nativitatem Christi, et natus est anno 11. pro imperio Augusti, et vixit 39 annis sub eius imperio. Publii Maronis Virgilii poete clarissimi Buccolicorum egloga prima incipit. Publius praenomen est; unde, si plures essent Virgilii, additum tale nomen facit discretionem. Maronis cognomen, quod ab eventu sibi accepit, quia niger fuit; inde morum, id est, nigrum sepe invenitur. Poete clarissimi nomen est meritus. Buccolicorum nomen libri, ut testatur Servius in principio. Prima, quia sequuntur plures. In hac prima egloga introducuntur duo pastores, quorum alter secutus est otium, alter vero cum gregibus suis patriam relinquens. Per quorum alterum otiantem intellegitur Virgilius, qui amissos agros recuperaverat et de eorum gaudebat restitutione; per fugientem autem intelligitur quidam Mantuanus conquerens de agrorum amissione. Quaedam etiam personarum praeterea propria nota: Otians namque dicitur Titirus, qui li[n]gua Lacona ‘‘aries altior’’ interpretatur. Exulans vero Melibeus, qui eadem li[n]gua intellegitur ‘‘curam agens boum.’’ Merito ergo per Titirum Virgilius hic accipitur, quia, sicut aries fortior est in grege, ita Virgilius doctus existat inter ceteros Montuanos. Per Melibeum recte quidam Montuanus intellegitur, qui tam de bonis quam de agris solicitabatur suis. Causa scribendorum Buccolicorum haec est: Cum post occisum 3 yduum Maii die in senatu Cesar[em] Augustus eius filius contra percussores parentis et Anthonium bella civilia inmovisset, victoria potitus Cremonensium agros, qui contra eum senserant, ut [stipendium] militibus suis dedit. Qui cum non sufficerent, etiam Montuanorum iussit distribui, non propter civium culpam, sed propter vicinitatem; Virgilius: Mantua ne [sic] misere nimium vicina Cremone [Eclogues 9.28].

Perdito ergo agro unde Virgilius Romam venit et potentium familiaritate[m] meruit, ut agrum suum reciperet. Ad quem recipiendum profectus [est] ab Arrio, qui eum tenebat, pene est interemptus, ni effugisset.

There are, or were, three ways of living. In the first, human beings lived a pastoral life and gained nourishment from nuts; Virgil wanted to describe that way of life in his Bucolic work. In the second, men discovered grain and agriculture, and Virgil describes that way of life in the Georgics. The third 276

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involved not only the discovery of grain and agriculture, but also of metal, from which men minted money, which in turn led to war. This is the life that Virgil describes in his higher works, that is, in the Aeneid. Note: Virgil died thirteen years before the birth of Christ, in the eleventh year before Augustus came to power, and lived under his sovereignty for thirty-nine years. Here begins the first eclogue of the Bucolics of Publius Maro Virgilius, the most illustrious poet. Publius is a first name: wherefore, if there were many Virgils, the addition of this name would allow one to distinguish between them. ‘‘Maro’’ is a nickname which he received from the circumstance that he had a dark complexion. Hence one often finds the word morum, that is, ‘‘black.’’ He earned the name ‘‘most illustrious poet.’’ Bucolics is the name of the book, as Servius testifies at the beginning. It is called the first because there are more to follow. In this first eclogue, two herdsmen are introduced. One of them has achieved leisure, but the other is abandoning his homeland with his flocks. The one who is at leisure represents Virgil, who had received back the land which he had lost and was rejoicing at its restitution; but the herdsman who is fleeing represents a Mantuan who is lamenting the loss of his land. Note, too, the proper names of the characters. For the herdsman who is at leisure is named Tityrus, which in the Laconian dialect means ‘‘higher ram,’’ while the exile is named Meliboeus, which in the same dialect means ‘‘a man who tends oxen.’’ So there is justification for taking Tityrus to represent Virgil here, for just as the ram stands out among the flock through its strength, so the learned Virgil stands out among the other Mantuans for his learning. It is right to take Meliboeus to represent a certain Mantuan, who is just as worried about his property as he is about his fields. This is the reason why Virgil wrote the Bucolics: after the assassination of Caesar in the Senate on the third day of the Ides of May, Augustus, his son, waged war against his father’s assassins and Antony. When Augustus gained victory, he gave the land of the Cremonans, who had been opposed to him, to his soldiers [as a reward]. When these were not su≈cient, he ordered that [the land] of the Mantuans also be divided up, not because of the fault of the citizens, but because of their proximity; as Virgil says: Poor Mantua, indeed all too close to Cremona.

After losing his land, therefore, Virgil came to Rome and earned the friendship of the men in power, with the result that he received his land back. When he set out to get back the land from Arrius, who was occupying it, he would have been killed had he not fled. (TM and JZ) A. VITAE

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28. Vita Noricensis I This is one of two lives contained in a manuscript of a Benedictine monastery in Carinthia, in southwest Austria: St. Paul in Lavanttal, MS Samblasianus 86, folios 1r–1v (ninth century). This manuscript, which appears to have been a schoolbook, was written at Reichenau. The text opens with a short list of systematic questions, which are often designated today as periochae. The vita ends with a discussion of the three styles of writing. The terminology it uses merits comparison with what is found in the Periochae Vaticanae (see above, II.A.15) and Vita Gudiana I (see above, II.A.20). The three styles are found in a number of other vitae, such as VSD (see above, II. A.1), the Vita Philargyrii I (see above, II.A.5), the Vita Vossiana (see below, II.A.33), and Domenico di Bandino (see below, II.A.35), as well as in commentators, such as Conrad of Hirsau (see below, IV.R, but with di√erent Latin terms. Donatus also gives the Greek terms, which the Latin ones translate). (Discussion: H. R. Upson, ‘‘Medieval Lives of Vergil,’’ Classical Philology 38 [1943], 104; W. Suerbaum, ANRW 2/31.2 [1981], 1238–39, 1242–43) (Text: VVA 237–39; VV 340–44) (JZ) Locus tempus persona in hac arte Aeneidos quaerendi sunt et causa scribendi, certum est. Nam Mantua locus huius libri; in tempore Caesaris Augusti scriptus; persona Virgilii filii figuli, cui Stimichon nomen erat, et Maiae sororis Lucretii. Hic autem tres species proprietatis habuit, id est, Puplius Virgilius Maro. ‘‘Puplius’’ a puplite grandi vel a publica re. ‘‘Virgilius’’ a virga laurea, id est, mater eius praegnas fuit, vidit se ipsam enixam fuisse virgulam lauream, quae tam cito in virgam lauream coram crevit magnitudine teribinti. Maia retulit Lucretio fratri suo poetae claro, et dixit ei: ‘‘Mox filium paries, et quoniam de semine regali praegnas es, non de triumphis clarus erit puer, sed de artificio aliquo vel poematis vel alicuius operis clarus habebitur; et postquam natus fuerit, debes eum ducere ad poetas et Virgilium oportet te nominare.’’ ‘‘Maro’’ eloquens intelligitur. Eusebius dicit [Chronicon, translated and expanded by Jerome: see above, II.A.2]: ‘‘Virgilius Maro in pago qui Andes dicitur haut procul a Mantua nascitur Pompeio et Craso consulibus’’ [see above, II.A.2.a.i]; ‘‘Virgilius Cremonae studiis eruditur’’ [see above, II.A.2.a.ii]; ‘‘sumpta toga Mediolanium ingreditur et post breve intervallum pergit Romam’’ [see above, II.A.2.a.iii]; ‘‘Virgilius in Brundisi moritur Sentio Saturnino et Lucretio Cinna consulibus. Ossa eius Necapoli translata in secundo ab urbe miliario sepeliuntur, titulo huiusmodi suprascripto, quem moriens ipse dictaverat: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthinope: cecini pascua rura duces’’ [see below, II.C.1]. [See above, II.A.2.a.vii]

Causa civilis belli inter Octavianum Augustum et Marcum Antonium iuxta Acteum litus gesti, in quo versus est Antonius cum Cleopatria in fugam et 278

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Caesar victor Romam pervenit et agros militum et amicorum Antonii militibus suis divisit. Villa quoque propria Virgilii, qui consiliarius familiaris et poeta Antonii fuit, quae villa Andes dicitur, Claudio Arioni centurioni data est, cum Mantua data est Cornilio Gallo, Cremona non sufficiente militibus. Hi sunt amici Virgilii de potentibus Octaviani: Emilius Macer, Quintilius Varus, Micenas, Cornilius Gallus, Asinius Pollio. In laudem et honorem Caesaris eo iubente XII libros Aeneidos scripsit. Homerus XLII libros in laudem Graecorum scripsit, Virgilius vero XII in laudes Romanorum scripsit. Patientiam autem sui ingenii nobis ostendit coartando lata et angustiora delatando. Aeneis, quod de Aenea narrat. Varus et Toca Virgilii et Horatii contubernales poetae, qui Aeneidos postea libros emendaverunt sub ea condicione, ut nihil adderent. Tria genera carminum sunt: humile eloquium, ut Bucolicon; medium eloquium, ut Georgicon; magnum eloquium, ut Aeneidon. Phisicam secutus in Bucolicis, ethicam in Georgicis, in Aeneidis loycam.

The place, time, and person, as well as the cause of writing, certainly are to be sought in the artistry of the Aeneid. Now, Mantua is the place of this book; it was written in the time of Caesar Augustus; the person is that of Virgil, the son of a potter whose name was Stimichon and of Maia, the sister of Lucretius. Moreover, he had three types of proper names, that is, Puplius Virgilius Maro. Puplius from puplite [large knee] or from publica re [republic], Virgilius from the virga laurea [laurel branch], that is, his mother was pregnant; she saw that she had given birth to a little laurel shoot, which grew very quickly right in front of her into a laurel branch with the size of a terebinth. Maia recounted [this vision] to her brother Lucretius, a famous poet, and he said to her: ‘‘Soon you will give birth to a son, and whereas you are pregnant by a royal seed, the boy will not be famous because of [military] triumphs, but he will be held in renown because of some talent in poetry or in some other work. And after he is born, you ought to bring him to the poets. And it is appropriate that you call him Virgil.’’ Maro is understood [to mean] ‘‘eloquent.’’ Eusebius says: ‘‘Virgilius Maro is born in the region that is called Andes not far from Mantua under the consulships of Pompey and Crassus’’; ‘‘Virgilius is educated through studies at Cremona’’; ‘‘after assuming the toga of manhood, he proceeds to Milan, and after a short interval he goes on to Rome’’; ‘‘Virgil dies in Brindisi during the consulships of Sentius Saturninus and Lucretius Cinna. His bones, carried over to Naples, are buried at the second milepost from the city; above [them] was written this sort of epitaph, which he himself had dictated as he was dying: Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders.’’ A. VITAE

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Because of the civil war between Octavian Augustus and Mark Antony waged near the shore of Actium, in which Antony was put to flight with Cleopatra, Caesar both came victorious to Rome and divided up the farms of the soldiers and friends of Antony for his own soldiers. Also [among these] was the villa belonging to Virgil, who was an intimate adviser and a poet of Antony, a villa that is called Andes and that was given to the centurion Claudius Arrio when Mantua was given to Cornelius Gallus because Cremona was not su≈cient[ly large] for his soldiers. These are the friends of Virgil from among the powerful people in Octavian’s regime: Aemilius Macer, Quintilius Varus, Maecenas, Cornelius Gallus, Asinius Pollio. For the praise and honor of Caesar who was bidding [it be done, Virgil] wrote the twelve books of the Aeneid. Homer wrote forty-two books in praise of the Greeks, but Virgil wrote twelve in the praises of the Romans. However, he shows us the patience of his genius by condensing expansive things and by expanding on condensed ones. It is called the Aeneid because it tells about Aeneas. Varus and Toca, intimates of Virgil and Horace, were the poets who afterward edited the books of the Aeneid on the condition that they not add anything. There are three types of song: humble speech like the Bucolics, middle speech like the Georgics, high speech like the Aeneid. Virgil pursued physics in the Bucolics, ethics in the Georgics, logic in the Aeneid. (MC and JZ)

29. Vita Noricensis II This life is the second of two vitae contained in a manuscript of a Benedictine monastery in Carinthia, in southwest Austria: St. Paul in Lavanttal, MS Samblasianus 86, folios 1r–1v, a manuscript of the ninth century. Interestingly, this vita refers to Virgil’s uncertain parentage, which is also mentioned in the Vita Focae (see above, II.A.4) and in the Georgian Passion of St. Pansophios of Alexandria (see below, V.D.7). (Discussion: H. R. Upson, ‘‘Medieval Lives of Vergil,’’ Classical Philology 38 [1943], 103–11) (Text: VVA 240; VV 324) (JZ) Puplius Virgilius Maro natus est in Idibus Octobris Pompeio et Craso consulibus genere Tusco Mantuae civitatis vico Andes nomine, ubi eum mater Maia genuit ante triennium quam Lucretius poeta deciderat. Quis pater eius fuit incertum est. In eo loco, ubi est conceptus, palmes est positus, qui in arboris speciem crevit, qui indicio fuit mirae claritatis. Eum erudivit Balesta cives. Ubi Romam venit ad notitiam Caesaris, statim factus est amicus. Virgilium nempe propterea parvuli legunt, ut videlicet poeta magnus omnium praeclarissimus atque optimus teneris ebibitus animis non facile

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oblivione possit aboleri [Augustine, De civitate Dei 1.3: see above, I.C.31.a.iv], secundum illud Horatii: Quo semel est imbuta recens, servabit odorem testa diu [Epistles 1.2.69–70].

Publius Virgilius Maro was born of Tuscan stock on the Ides of October [October 15] in the consulships of Pompey and Crassus in a village in the municipality of Mantua, Andes by name, where his mother, Maia, bore him three years before the poet Lucretius died. It is uncertain who his father was. In that place where he was conceived, a bough was placed that grew into the form of a tree, which served as an indication of great renown. The citizen Ballista educated him. When he came to Rome to the notice of Caesar, he immediately became his friend. Little children of course read Virgil for the reason that the great poet, the most renowned and best of all, when absorbed by tender minds, may not be easily obliterated by forgetfulness. According to the dictum of Horace: A jar will keep for a long time the scent in which it was steeped when it was new. (MC and JZ)

30. Vita Parisina II This vita is V.C.2, below. 31. Vita Vaticana I This vita survives uniquely in Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. lat. 1577, folio 1r, from the fourth quarter of the fourteenth century. The text includes a peculiar reference to the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at Mt. Levant. The name may be a corruption of the mons Leucata (Leucate) that Virgil mentions at Aeneid 3.274–75 and that he identifies with Actium (which lay not far to the north of Leucata) there and at Aeneid 8.677. (Discussion: W. Suerbaum, ANRW 2/31.2 [1981], 1182–83) (Text: EV 5.2, 505, no. 369) Publii Virgilii Maronis poete civis Mantuani equitisque Romani Bucolicorum liber incipit. Preposito libri titulo est sciendum quod Publius est prenomen, Maro proprium eius nomen, Virgilius agnomen. Nam ipsius mater illo pregnans somniavit se lauream virgam parere a qua Virgilium eum cognominavit, portendente quod ex se nasciturus sua sapientia semper vireret et in perpetua memoria haberetur. Hic vero Mantue, patre Figulo matre Aynata nomine natus Idibus Octobribus Gneo Pompeio et Marco Crasso consulibus. Ut primum se Romam contulit ibi studuit in rhetoricis sub Epidio oratore. Postea vero studium suum perfecit in Grecia, unde tandem egregius phylosophus et poeta Mantuam est regressus.

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Eo vero tempore suscitatis bellis civilibus inter Octavianum Cesarem Augustum adversus Antonium interfectorem Cesaris, ipso Antonio cum Cleopatra regina Egipti devicto penes Levantem montem Actii littoris ultra Epirhum et Pheaces insulam, volens Octavianus retribuere militibus suis, inter quos erat Arius tiranus avidissimus, ei Cremonam concessit, qui vicinam Mantuam aviditate tirannica etiam occupavit. Quam ob rem Virgilius omnibus suis possessionibus sic amissis accessit Romam ubi Polione Mecenateque mediantibus Octaviani familiaritatem adeptus, vel ut aliis placet, gratia condiscipulatus quem ambo audierant sub Epidio ei cognitus et receptus omnia bona sua recuperavit et alia insuper obtinuit ab eodem, sicut satis aperte infra in textu tangitur.

The book of Bucolics by Publius Virgilius Maro, poet, citizen of Mantua, and Roman knight, begins. The title of the book having been set forth, it must be known that Publius is a praenomen, Maro his own name, and Virgilius an agnomen. For his mother, pregnant with him, dreamed that she gave birth to a laurel branch, after which she gave him the cognomen Virgil, and that was a sign that the one about to be born from her would always be strong with respect to his wisdom and would always be remembered. This man indeed was born at Mantua, of a father named Figulus and a mother Aynata, on the Ides of October, when Gnaeus Pompeius and Marcus Crassus were consuls. As soon as he went to Rome, he there studied rhetoric under the orator Epidius. Afterward, though, he completed his studies in Greece, whence he finally returned to Mantua as an outstanding philosopher and poet. At that time, though, after civil wars had broken out between Caesar Octavianus Augustus and Antony, the murderer of Caesar, and after Antony himself was conquered together with Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, near the Levant mountain of the shore of Actium beyond Epirus and the island of Phaeacia, Octavian, wishing to reward his soldiers, among whom was the very greedy and tyrannical Arius, gave Cremona to him, who seized nearby Mantua too, out of his tyrannical greed. Consequently Virgil, having thus lost all his possessions, went to Rome; there, having gained the friendship of Octavian through his intermediaries Pollio and Maecenas, or, as others prefer to think, known and received by Octavian because they had been fellow students under Epidius, whom they both heard teach, Virgil recovered all his goods and received from him others in addition, a matter that is touched on openly enough in the text below. (JG)

32. Vita Vaticana II This text survives uniquely in Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. lat. 1577, folios 49r–50v, from the middle of the fourteenth century. (Discus282

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sion: W. Suerbaum, ANRW 2/31.2 [1981], 1183) (Text: EV 5.2, 503–4, no. 367) Nunc quod attinet ad autorem dicitur hoc opus composuisse in villa Puteolorum apud Neapolim ei ab Augusto donata in quo annis XII pro librorum numero laboravit. Quo composito volens oculate videre plurima que in eo descripserat ut verius et elegantius ipsum corrigere posset se ad varias partes conferens adversa valitudine propter sinistra multa et ardorem solis contracta decessit relicto testamento quo disponebat opus illud mandari flammis. Verum Augustus auctoritate sua imperatoria abrogans testamento mandavit Tuce et Vario ut opus illud Maronis ita corrigerent ut penitus nichil adderent sed que viderent minus bene posita et supervacua resecarent. Quin obedientes imperatori reciderunt versus quattuor in principio censentes tam humilem introitum operi tanto non fore condecens. Incipiebat enim sicut hic prope conscribitur: Ille ego qui quondam gracili modulatus avena carmen et egressus silvis vicina coegi ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono arma virumque cano, etc. [see above, I.C.2]

Visum enim est eis elegantius congruentiusque principium ut cum in eo libro tractandum esset de rebus bellicis inciperet Arma, ecc [sic]. Reciderunt quoque de secundo libro quam plures versus qui visi sunt eis tendere potius ad onus quam ad honorem Enee cum diceret impetum quem habuit occidendi Helenam quam invenit in templo dee Veste sedentem apud aram flamme Vestalis pro sua tutela. Sed cum omnes predictos versus recidissent predicti emendatores nichil utique observantes mandatum Augusti Cesaris addiderunt, unde plurima emisticha sive imperfecti versus inveniuntur in hoc volumine quos ipsi perficere noluerunt. Versus autem quos supra dictum est ademptos fuisse de secundo libro istius operis, videlicet qui sequebantur versum dicentem ‘‘ad terram misere aut ignibus egra dedere,’’ sunt isti quamquam viciati culpa scriptorum, videlicet: [Aeneid 2.567–89]. Abrogatio autem testamenti Virgilii per quod mandabat opus Eneidos utpote non correctum exuri solenniter facta per Octavianum Cesarem Augustum autoritate sua imperatoria patet versibus infrascriptis quos alii dicunt ab Ovidio mandato imperatoris compilatos, alii ab eodem Octaviano compositos. Nam dicitur fuisse admodum literatus et industriosus plurimum in poesi ad quam erat inclinatissimus, unde processit quod cum vetere proverbio ‘‘pares paribus facillime copulentur,’’ ipse virtutis amator atque scientie quoscumque illustres in scientia viros habere potuit ad se coegerit et foverit magnis premiis et honoribus. Inter quos, ut alios preteream, quoniam de poesi nunc agitur, fuerunt (quos ut de plurimis paucos brevitatis A. VITAE

283

causa recenseam) Mecenas, Agripa, Virgilius, duo Visci, Messalla, Bibuli duo, Furni duo, Fannius Candidus, Naso, qui tamen certa causa que movit impatienter Octavianum, ab eo tandem in Ponto insula relegatus est. Precipuus autem illi fuit Mecenas ob summam taciturnitatem arcanorum, Agrippa vero propter laboris patientiam et modestiam. Versus autem quibus abrogavit Virgili testamento sunt ist videlicet: Ergone supremis potuit vox improba verbis Tam dirum mandare nefas? ergo ibit in ignes Magnaque doctiloqui morietur Musa Maronis? A scelus indignum! solvetur littera dives Et poterunt spectare oculi, nec parcere honori Flamma suo? †Ductumque† operi servabit amorem? Pulcher Apollo, veta! Musae prohibete Latinae! Liber et alma Ceres, succurrite! Vester in armis Miles erat, vester docilis per rura colonus. Nam docuit, quid ver ageret, quid cogeret aestas, Quid pater autumnus, quid bruma novissima ferret. Munera telluris larga ratione notavit, Arbuta formavit, sociavit vitibus ulmos, Curavit pecudes, apibus sua castra dicavit. Illum, illum Aenean nesciret fama perennis, Docta Maroneo caneret nisi pagina versu! Haec dedit, ut pereant, ipsum si dicere fas est! ‘‘Sed legum est servanda fides; suprema voluntas Quod mandat fierique iubet, parere necesse est.’’ Frangatur potius legum reverenda potestas, Quam tot congestos noctesque diesque labores Auferat una dies, supremaque verba parentis Amittant vigilasse suum. Si forte supremum Erravit iam morte piger, si lingua locuta est Nescio quid titubante animo, non sponte sed altis Expugnata malis odio languoris iniqui, Si mens caeca fuit: iterum sentire ruinas Troia suas, iterum cogetur reddere †voces†? Ardebit miserae narratrix fama Creusae Sentiet appositos Cumana Sibylla vapores? Uretur Tyriae post funera vulnus Elissae Et iurata mori, ne cingula reddat, Amazon? Tam sacrum solvetur opus? Tot bella, tot enses In cineres dabit hora nocens et perfidus error? Huc huc, Pierides, date flumina cuncta, sorores; Exspirent ignes, vivat Maro ductus ubique Ingratusque sui studiorumque invidus orbi Et factus post fata nocens. Quod iusserat ille Si vetuisse meum satis est post tempora vitae, 284

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5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Immo sit aeternum tota resonante Camena Carmen, et in populo divi sub numine nomen Laudetur vigeat placeat relegatur ametur! [AL 1.2, 145–48, no. 672]

40

Virgilius ultra predicta tria excellentia opera composuit per modum iocosi exercitii opuscula plurima ut verisimile credi debet in flore iuventutis, quorum que michi se ad memoriam reducuntur hic notare censui non absurdum. Composuit enim opuscula De rosis, De viro bono, De copa, De moreto, De est et non et De Priapo. Composuit insuper epitaphium disticum Baliste latronis qui lapidatus sub coniectorum lapidum congerie fuit sepultus, in hunc modum, videlicet: Monte sub hoc lapidum tegitur Balista sepultus. Nocte dieque tuum [sic] carpe viator iter [AL 1.1, 212, no. 261].

Composuit insuper tetrasticon pulcrum valde, quod est hoc, videlicet: Sus, iuvenis, serpens casum venere sub unum. Sus moritur ferro, serpens pede, virque veneno. Anguis, aper, iuvenis pereunt vi, vulnere, morsu. Hic fremit, ille gemit, sibilat hic moriens [AL 1.1, 148, no. 160].

Composuit et aliud iocosum tetrasticum in Heliam vetulam, hoc videlicet: Si memini fuerant tibi quattuor Helia dentes. Expulit una duos tussis et una duos. Iam secura potes totis tussire diebus. Nil istic quid agat tercia tussis habet [Martial, Epigrams 1.19].

Dicitur composuisse istud Hexasticon supra suis operibus quod non credo quia nondum publicaverat Eneida pro autentica, nec vir ut erat modestus ita de se dixisset. Verum amans illius opera in nomine eius composuit, videlicet: Maeonium quisquis Romanus nescit Homerum, Me legat, et lectum credat utrumque sibi. Illius immensos miratur Graecia campos. At minor est nobis, sed bene cultus ager. Hic tibi nec pastor nec curvus deerit arator. Haec Grais constant singula, trina mihi [AL 1.2, 150, no. 674a (formerly 788)].

Preterea dicitur edidisse in honorem Octaviani, cui nondum erat notus, cum tota nocte pluvisset et mane fuisset natus filius Octaviano, facta celi serenitate clarissima, disticon istud, videlicet: Nocte pluit tota redeunt spectacula mane. Divisum imperium cum Iove Cesar habet [AL 1.1, 212, no. 256].

Quod quidem, cum clam in cancellaria deposuisset, et unus ex scribis, dicens illud composuisse, multum acceptus factus esset Octaviano, Virgilius, A. VITAE

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ita scribens ut sequitur, proiecit clam in cancellaria. Quam scripturam, cum alii scribe repperissent, habentes rem suspectam, presentarunt ipsam Mecenati, qui eam dedit illi qui se iactaverat de compositione distici suprascripti, ut illa carmina emistica percompleret. Qui, cum nesciret, nec alii ea perficerent, Virgilius, trepide accedens, accepit scripturam et inhesitanter complevit emistica. Unde Mecenas, eum diligens, in amicitiam conciliavit Octaviano, qui eum summe appreciavit et honoravit. Metra fuerunt ista, videlicet: Hos ergo versiculos feci tulit alter honores Sic vos non vobis Sic vos non vobis Sic vos non vobis Sic vos non vobis

mellificatis apes nidificatis aves velera fertis oves fertis aratra boves

Now for something that pertains to the author. It is said that he composed this work in the villa at Pozzuoli, near Naples, that had been given to him by Augustus; he worked on this poem for twelve years, corresponding to the number of books. Having composed it, since he wanted to see with his own eyes the very many things that he had described in it so that he might be able to correct it more truthfully and elegantly, he went to various places; and as he went, he passed away because of ill-health acquired through many unfavorable conditions and the burning of the sun. He left behind his will, in which he arranged that his famous work be tossed into the fire. But Augustus, nullifying the will through his imperial authority, bade Tucca and Varius to correct that work by Maro in this way, that they add nothing at all but cut out the things that they saw as poorly placed and unnecessary. So, obeying the emperor, they removed four verses at the beginning because they thought that so humble an introduction would not be fit for so great a work. For it used to begin as it is written here: I am he who once tuned my song on a slender reed, then, leaving the woodland, compelled the neighboring fields to serve the husbandman, however grasping, a work welcome to farmers: but now of Mars’s bristling arms and a man I sing . . .

For it seemed to them a more elegant and fitting start that it begin ‘‘Of arms . . .’’ and so forth, because this book deals with war. They also removed from the second book as many verses as seemed to them to contribute to a burden of guilt rather than to the honor of Aeneas, since that part talked about the impulse that Aeneas had to kill Helen, whom he found sitting in the temple of the goddess Vesta at the altar of the vestal fire for her protection. And when the aforesaid editors removed all the aforesaid verses, in observation of 286

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the command from Augustus Caesar, they added nothing, wherefore very many half-verses or incomplete verses are found in this work; they did not want to complete such verses. But the verses that were said above to have been removed from the second book of the work, namely, those verses that followed that verse saying ‘‘sent to the earth or gave sick to the flames,’’ are the following, though they are corrupted by the fault of the writers, namely: [These verses, attested solely by Servius, are now often regarded as spurious.] The nullification of Virgil’s will, through which he was ordering that the work of the Aeneid be burned on the grounds that it was incomplete, done solemnly by Caesar Octavianus Augustus through his imperial authority, is evident from the verses written below, which some say were written by Ovid at the command of the emperor, others say were composed by Octavian himself. For it is said that he was truly a man of letters and diligent most in poetry, to which he was most inclined, wherefore it followed that, since—as the old proverb says—equals are most easily connected to equals, this lover of virtue itself and of knowledge gathered around himself whichever outstanding men in knowledge he was able to get, and he showed them his favor with great rewards and honors. To pass over others, since I am now talking about poetry, among them were—so that, for the sake of brevity, I may list a few of the many—Maecenas, Agrippa, Virgil, the two Visci, Messalla, the two Bibuli, the two Furnii, Fannius Candidus [alternatively, an adjective referring to eloquence, intelligence, or complexion], and Naso, who in the end was nevertheless banished to the island of Pontus by Octavian for some reason that rubbed Octavian the wrong way. Moreover, Maecenas was foremost in Octavian’s eyes because he kept the strictest quiet about secrets, but Agrippa because of his endurance of toil and modesty. Moreover, the verses in which he nullified Virgil’s will are these, namely: So, was the wicked voice able to order so terrible a sin with his last words? So, will the great Muse of Maro, who speaks in an educated manner, go into the flames and die? Alas, unworthy crime! Will the rich literature be destroyed? [5] Will the eyes be able to watch? Will the flame not be able to spare its own honor? And will he preserve the love aroused for the work? Handsome Apollo, forbid that! Latin Muses, prevent that! Bacchus and nourishing Ceres, help! Yours was the soldier in arms, yours the teachable farmer in the fields. [10] For he taught what the spring does, what the summer compels, what father autumn and, last of all, winter bring. He made note of the gifts of the earth with his plentiful account; he guided the growth of the strawberries, he joined elms to vines, he took care of the cattle, he assigned their fortresses to the bees. [15] Everlasting fame would not know that Aeneas, if the erudite page were not singing with Maro’s verse! He o√ered these so that they might perish, if it is right to say! ‘‘But faithfulness to the laws must be preserved; it is necessary to obey that which the last will commands and orders to be done.’’ [20]

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Let the venerable power of the laws be broken rather than that one day destroy the toil accumulated through so many nights and days and that the last words of the author dismiss protection of himself. If by chance the man, now careless because of death, made a mistake at his end; if his tongue, [25] not according to his own free will but overcome by enormous evils and with hatred of his unjust sickness, said something when his spirit was faltering; if his mind was blind, would Troy be compelled to feel its own destruction again, to utter cries again? Will the storytelling fame of wretched Creusa burn? [30] Will the Cumaean Sibyl feel the heat placed around her? Will the wound of Tyrian Elissa be burned after her funeral, along with the Amazon sworn to die, so that she might not give up her belt? Will so holy a work be destroyed? Will a harmful hour and treacherous mistake put so many wars and so many swords onto the ashes? [35] Here, here put all your rivers, daughters of Pierus, sisters [the Muses]; let the flames go out; let Maro live, brought everywhere, unpleasant to himself and begrudging his e√orts to the world and having become harmful after death. If it is enough for me to have forbidden that which he had ordered after the span of his life, [40] let the song be eternal while the whole poem resounds, and among the people, according to the will of a god, may his name be praised, be thriving, be pleasant, be bequeathed, be loved.

Besides the three aforesaid excellent works, Virgil composed very many short works in the manner of a joking exercise when he was in the flower of youth, as one ought to believe to be the case. Out of these poems, I thought it not absurd to list here those which stick in my memory. Namely, he composed these little works: On Roses, On the Good Man, On the [Syrian] Hostess, The Ploughman’s Lunch, On ‘‘Yes’’ and ‘‘No,’’ and On Priapus. In addition, he composed a distich as the epitaph of Ballista the brigand, who was stoned under a pile of rocks thrown all together and buried, in this way, namely: Ballista is covered, buried under this mountain of stones; by night and by day take your route in safety, traveler.

In addition, he composed a very beautiful four-line poem, which is this, namely: A pig, a young man, and a snake came under one misfortune. The pig dies by the sword, the serpent under the foot, and the man from venom. The snake, pig, and young man perish by force, a wound, and a bite. This one growls, that one groans, this one hisses as it dies.

He composed also another funny four-line poem against Helia, an old woman, namely this: If I remember, you had four teeth, Helia. One cough carried away two teeth, another cough the other two. Now you can cough without worry all day; the third cough has nothing that it might carry away.

[Virgil] is said also to have composed this Hexasticon in addition to his own works; but I do not believe that Virgil really wrote this, because he had not yet 288

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published the Aeneid; and a man as modest as he was would not have spoken like that about himself. But fond of Virgil, he composed works in Virgil’s name, specifically: May any Roman who does not know Maeonian Homer read me, and may he believe that both have been read by him. Greece marvels at Homer’s endless plains. Our field is smaller, but well cultivated. Here you will lack neither shepherd nor stooping plowman. For the Greeks these matters coexist one by one, for me, in three.

Besides, in honor of Octavian, to whom he was not yet known, when it had rained all night, and when a son had been born to Octavian in the morning, after the calmness of the sky had become most bright, Virgil is said to have published that distich, namely: It rained all night, the games return with the morning: Caesar has joint rulership with Jove.

When Virgil had put this down secretly in the chancellery, and one of the secretaries, saying that he composed it, had come to be on very intimate terms with Octavian, then Virgil wrote as follows below and secretly threw it into the o≈ce. When some other secretaries had found this piece of writing, since they were already suspicious about this matter, they presented it to Maecenas, who gave it to the one who had boasted about making the aforesaid distich, so that he might complete those half-finished verses. Since he didn’t know how to do that, and since no one else had completed them, Virgil walked up trembling, took the piece of writing, and completed the half-lines without hesitation. Consequently Maecenas, fond of him, won for him the friendship of Octavian, who held him in very high esteem and honored him. The verses were these, namely: I, therefore, made these little verses; another has carried o√ the honors. So, it is not for yourselves that you So, it is not for yourselves that you So, it is not for yourselves that you So, it is not for yourselves that you

make honey, bees. build nests, birds. bear wool, sheep. lead the plows, cattle. (JG)

33. Vita Vossiana This vita is contained in Leiden, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, MS Vossianus F. 12, part g, which is from the ninth century. E. K. Rand discovered this text and identified this part of the manuscript as being ‘‘the missing last quaternion of the famous MS Orléans 295.’’ (See H. R. Upson, ‘‘Medieval Lives of Vergil,’’ Classical Philology 38 [1943], 104.) After a succinct account of Virgil’s life (printed separately in VV 326–27), A. VITAE

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the Vita Vossiana o√ers periochae (labeled Periochae Vossianae in VV 278–83). The categories treated in this version are place, time, person, cause, friends and enemies, imitation, and the three parts of knowledge (or philosophy). In the manuscript the periochae follow immediately upon the brief section that is strictly biographical and that is indebted, directly or not, to Jerome’s translation of Eusebius’s Chronicon: see above, II.A.2.a.i-iii and vii. (Discussion: VV 716–18, 742–45) (Text: VVA 265–67) (JZ) Virgilius Maro in pago, qui Andis dicitur, nascitur haud procul a Mantua Gneo Pompeio et Marco Crasso consulibus. Hic Cremonae studiis eruditus, deinde sumpta toga Mediolanum transgreditur et post breve tempus Romam pergit et in Brundis [sic] moritur et in Vto ab urbe miliario sepelitur et ossa eius Neapoli translata sunt titulo eius inscripto quem ipse moriens dictaverat: Mantua me genuit Calabri rapuere tenet nunc Portonope [sic]; cecini pascua rura duces [see below, II.C.1].

Locus in quo Virgilius edidit suas artes est Partonope et Mantua. In Partonope quippe quae alio nomine dicitur Neapolis sive Cu[cu]me scripsit Bucolica et Georgica. XIIcim libro[s] Aeneidos in Mantua edidit. Tempus: in tempore Octaviani sedecim annis labentibus de regno eius. At tribus annis scripsit Bucolica, septem Georgica, undecim Aeneida. Qui simul ducti fiunt XXI. Publius dictus est a re publica, quia honorabilis apud Cesarem habebatur; Virgilius a virga somnii materni, quia Maia mater illius somniavit parere virgulam crescentem in magnam arborem, et abiens ad fratrem suum Lucretium interpretatorem somniorum, qui interpretatus est illi parituram magnum versificatorem, cuius sapientia cunctis panderetur principibus; Maro dictus est a cognatione generis sui vel ab [h]abitu faciei, quia, ut quidam dicunt, niger erat. Causa conscriptionis eius fuit causa civilis belli, quod fuit inter Octavianum Caesarem et Antonium Nigrum. Victores itaque milites Octaviani Transpadanorum et Cremonensium et Mantuanorum rapuerunt agros, eo quod Antonianis partibus favissent. Inde Virgilio ager ademptus est, quem Asinius Pollio iubente Caesare restituit, in cuius honore Bucolica conscripsit. Aeglogam composuit gratiarum actionem continentem, in qua sibi personam induit Tytiri et Moeliboei alicuius Mantuani fugientis et felicitatem Virgilii admirantis. Isti sunt amici eius per quorum consilium suam fecit artem: Emilius Macer, Quintilius Varus, Cornelius Gallus, Asinius Pollio et Mecenas. Inimici vero eius: Bavius, Mevius et Cornificius.

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Hos imitatus est in sua arte: Teocritum Siracusanum in Bucolicis, Isiodum Ascreum in Georgicis, Homerum in Aeneidis coangustando lata et dilatando angusta. Nam cum Teocriti dicta in brevitatem collegerit, unum Isiodi librum divisit in IIIIor, quia inspexit quatuor divisiones terrae: arvum, consitum, pascuum, floridum agrum. Tres partes in hac arte inveniuntur: phisica in Bucolicis, id est, naturalis, ethica in Georgicis, id est, moralis, loica [= logica] in Eneidis, id est, rationalis. Tria quoque sunt genera locutionum, id est, humile, medium et sublime. Animadvertere debemus Virgilium iuxta ordinem vitae mortalium carmina composuisse, primum incultam et pastolarem [sic] vitam hominibus fuisse in Bucolicis indicavit. Postea necesse fuit mortalibus fruges, et usum agrorum mortalibus inventum Georgicis ostendit. Ubi cupiditatem habendi ex contentione finivit, et ad arma usque pervenit. Argumentum de armis fuit ut in honore Caesaris Aeneae virtutes, ex cuius genere esse cupiebat, suo carmine ornaret.

Virgilius Maro was born in the region that is called Andes not far from Mantua under the consulships of Gnaeus Pompey and Marcus Crassus. He was educated through his studies at Cremona. Then, after he assumed the toga, he traveled over to Milan and a short time later proceeded to Rome. He died at Brindisi and was buried at the fifth milepost from the city, and his bones were carried over to Naples with his epitaph inscribed [on his tomb] that he himself had dictated as he was dying: Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders.

The place in which Virgil produced his works is Parthenope and Mantua; in Parthenope, which by another name is called Naples or Cumae, he wrote the Bucolics and Georgics; he produced the twelve books of the Aeneid in Mantua. The time: [he lived] during the time of Octavian, when sixteen years of his reign had passed. He wrote the Bucolics in three years, the Georgics in seven, and the Aeneid in eleven—which altogether make twenty-one years. He was called Publius from res publica [the republic], because Caesar held him in high esteem. The name Virgil derived from the branch that appeared in his mother’s dream, because his mother Maia dreamed that she gave birth to a shoot, which grew into a large tree, and when she went to her brother Lucretius, who was an interpreter of dreams, he foretold that she would give birth to a great writer of verses, whose wisdom would be made plain to all princes. He was called Maro either because it was a family name or from the aspect of his appearance, since he was, as some say, swarthy. The occasion for his composition was the outbreak of the civil war that took A. VITAE

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place between Octavius Caesar and Antonius Niger. And so the victorious soldiers of Octavian seized the lands of those who lived beyond the Po, the citizens of both Mantua and Cremona, because they had supported the Antonine faction. For this reason Virgil was deprived of his land, which Asinius Pollio restored to him at Caesar’s behest. In honor of the latter he composed the Bucolics. He composed one eclogue that included his thanks in this regard, in which he took on the role of both Tityrus and Meliboeus, a fugitive from Mantua marveling at the luck of Virgil. The following were his friends, according to whose advice he practiced his art: Aemilius Macer, Quintilius Varus, Cornelius Gallus, Asinius Pollio, and Maecenas. His enemies were Bavius, Maevius, and Cornificius. In his works he imitated the following: Theocritus of Syracuse in the Bucolics, Hesiod of Ascra in the Georgics, and Homer in the Aeneid, by condensing expansive parts and by expanding dense parts. For while he had compressed the words of Theocritus into a smaller work, he divided Hesiod’s one book into four, as he saw four divisions of land, namely, land suitable for plowing, for growing plants, for pasturing animals, for producing flowers. Three parts [of knowledge] are found in his works: physics in the Bucolics, that is, natural science; ethics in the Georgics, that is, morality; and logic in the Aeneid, that is, the science of rationality. There are also three levels of style— humile [the lowly], medium [the middle], and sublime [the lofty]. We must also realize that Virgil composed his poems in accordance with the progression of the life of mortals. In the Bucolics, he implied that the life of mortals had initially been uncultivated and pastoral; afterward crops became necessary for men, and he shows in the Georgics that the discovery of the cultivation of land and the desire for possession had led to conflict, and indeed all the way to warfare. The subject matter of warfare was present so that he might glorify Aeneas’s acts of bravery in order to honor Caesar, who wished to be of the same stock as Aeneas. (JL)

34. Zono de’ Magnalis (active first half of fourteenth century) Zono de’ Magnalis (Cione di Romeo da Magnale) was attached to a grammar school of Montepulciano, near Siena in Tuscany. He wrote a commentary on the Aeneid, completed at the latest in 1336, that enjoyed very wide di√usion. The vita of Virgil by Zono, which survives in two manuscripts, is closely related to this commentary, which is preceded in some manuscripts by a preface and accessus. As Fabio Stok has demonstrated, in the vita Zono evidences not only an awareness of many sources (even more of the Vita Servii than of VSD: see 292

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above, II.A.1 and 3) but also an ability to discriminate among them rather than simply to assemble them, as had been the case with many of his predecessors. In a sense this combination of qualities makes Zono a precursor of Sicco Polenton (see below, II.A.36 and II.A.38) and the author of the Donatus auctus (see below, II.A.37), both of whom worked almost a century after him. At the same time Zono remains more open to the Virgil of legends than would many of his successors. For instance, he proves himself to be familiar with the Salvation of Rome (see below, V.B.4) as described by (pseudo-)Walter Burley (circa 1275–after 1344) in his De vita et moribus philosophorum (On the Lives and Habits of the Philosophers: see below, V.F.4), which in turn was based on the account given by Vincent of Beauvais (see below, V.F.1). He characterizes Virgil as both a magician and an astrologer. (Text: F. Stok, ‘‘La ‘Vita di Virgilio’ di Zono de’ Magnalis,’’ Rivista di cultura classica e medioevale 33 [1991], 145–81) (JZ) Et quia hic tanta opera composuit, conveniens est scire vitam tanti hominis vel poete. Ad cuius evidentiam est sciendum quod Virgilius fuit de Mantua civitate, sita in Lombardia, circumdata lacu quodam. Et non fuit de civitate sed de quodam suburbio nunc vocato Pietola, sed tunc vocabatur Andes. Fuit natus Gneo Pompeio Magno et Marco Crasso consulibus, Idibus Octobris (ita quod facta ratione fuit natus XV die Octobris), et eadem die Lucretius magnus poeta mortuus est, quasi pronosticum quod cessavit adventui tanti poete. Fuit Virgilius natus parvis parentibus, scilicet matre, que vocabatur Maia, et patre, qui vocabatur Figulus; et est Figulus hic nomen proprium, non officii. Qui Figulus fuit dives rusticus et bonus agricola sciens bene curare pecudes apes et alia animalia; et ideo nimirum si Virgilius bene scripsit de talibus, quia a patre traxit originem. Mater vero, dum esset pregnans, somniavit se parere virgam de lauro confertam variis pomis cito crescentem et frondentem et multum fructificantem. Et tunc sequenti die, dum iret ad aliud rus cum marito suo, sentiens dolores partus divertit ad quandam foveam et ibi peperit et maritus eam iuvit sicut scivit et potuit. Et quia mos fuit antiquorum quod, quando aliquis nascebatur, plantarent aliquam arborem ad sciendum de fortuna nascentis (nam si arbor bene durabat et crescebat, debebat diu vivere, et si bene frondebat, debebat esse magne fame), sic de aliis: et ideo pater Virgilii etiam plantavit quandam populum, que bene crevit et fronduit mirabiliter et dicta est arbor Virgilii et recepit exuvias populi, quia sub ea faciebant sua sacrificia, propterea quod pulcra arbor erat et mirabilis ratione crescentie, et precipue mulieres parturientes appendebant in ea arbore sua vota ut cito A. VITAE

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parerent, sicut Maia cito habuerat filium in tali loco. Et dicitur quod, quando natus fuit, non vagiit, ut daret bonam spem parentibus. Et hoc ipse forte volens exprimere dixit in Bucolicis: ‘‘Incipe, parve puer, cui non risere parentes’’ [Eclogues 4.62] etc. Et vocatus est Virgilius, quia mater somniavit se parere virgam et ideo voluit ut Virgilius vocaretur, et est etiam dictus Maron, quia fusci coloris fuit (nam maron idem est quam fuscum sive nigrum, inde quidam populi dicti sunt Mauri a maron, quia nigri, sicut Gallici dicti sunt a galac, quod est album). Et fuit Virgilius magni ingenii et bene morigera[t]us, inde Partheneus dictus est, id est, bene tenax vel patiens; vel a Parthonope, id est, omni virtute probatus. Et dicunt quod primo studuit Cremone, deinde transtulit se Mediolanum, postea Neapolim, deinde Athenas et ibi omni scientia fuit instructus et fuit magnus magicus; multum enim se dedit arti magice ut patet ex illa egloga: ‘‘Pastorum Musam Damonis et Alphysibei’’ [Eclogues 8.1]. Et a principio sue pueritie fecit multa opera. Nam in sexto decimo anno fecit librum de culice sive tafano, qui continet quod rusticus quidam dormiebat et culex pupugit eum, qui morsu culicis excitatus ducens manum interfecit culicem. Et cum Virgilius, hoc videns, inspexit serpentem venientem ad rusticum, a quo interfectus fuisset rusticus nisi excitatus fuisset per culicem, ob talem beneficium culicis composuit librum sic dicendo: Parve culex, pecudum custos tibi tale merenti, funeris officium vitae pro munere reddo [Culex 413–14].

Et fecit epitaphium Baliste magni latronis dicens: Monte sub hoc lapidum tegitur Balista sepultus, nocte dieque tutum carpe viator iter [AL 1.1, 212, no. 261].

Fecit etiam plura alia opera, scilicet Ethnam, Cilicas, Priapea, Catalecton, Copam, Diras, Moretum antequam faceret Bucolicam, Georgicam et Eneidam. Que opera in luce non sunt. Dum vero Virgilius esset Athenis, transtulit se Romam, et causa fuit discordia exorta inter Octavianum Cesarem et Antonium Lucium. Unde sciendum est quod superato Pompeio Magno et subiugatis Egiptiis a Cesare et mortuo Catone in Libia et aliis multis Romanis, qui cum Iuba erant, et mortuo Gneo Pompeio apud Mundam in Ispania Sexto Pompeio exercente piraticam facultatem in Sicilia, Cesar rediit Romam. Et III anno consentiente senatu mortuus est ipse Cesar in Capitolio a Bruto et Cassio XXV vulneribus; verum est quod unum vulnus fuit iteratum sive dupplicatum. Et tunc Brutus et Cassius recesserunt ab urbe, quos Antonius Marcus vexilifer Cesaris insecutus est usque in Emathiam. Sed senatores miserunt in auxilium 294

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Bruti et Cassii duos consules et Ottavianum nepotem Cesaris, qui erat XVIII annorum, contra Antonium; et pro tanto ivit, quia dictum est sibi quod non poterat aliter placere Romanis nec haberet locum in urbe nisi iret in auxilium Bruti et Cassii. Ivit ergo, et Brutus et Cassius habuerunt conflictum et illi consules scilicet Hircus et Pansa fuerunt interfecti et Ottavianus fuit captus. Sed Catulus vir nobilis tractavit concordiam inter Ottavianum et Antonium et diviserunt sibi mundum. Nam Antonius retinuit sibi Asiam sive partem orientalem. Catulus vero habuit Affricam, Ottavianus vero habuit Europam sive partem occidentalem. Antonius vero Lucius, frater Antonii Marci, hoc videns ait: ‘‘Inter se isti diviserunt mundum et partes sibi acceperunt, et nichil mihi dederunt.’’ Nolens infestare partem fratris fecit cum quibusdam Lombardis conspirationem in Ottavianum et cepit Mutinam faventibus sibi Cremonensibus et diu illam tenuit; sed oppressus fame propter obsidionem fugit Perusium et ibi fame devinctus mortuus est. Tunc Ottavianus distribuit militibus suis veteranis bona Cremonensium, et quia illa non sufficiebant, distribuit etiam eis bona Mantuanorum, non ratione delicti, quia non deli[n]querant in eum, sed ratione vicinitatis, ut omnes essent uno loco. Et ideo dictum est: ‘‘Mantua ve misere nimium vicina Cremone’’ [Eclogues 9.28]. Et tunc bona Virgilii data fuerunt Ario centurioni. Qua de causa Virgilius spoliatus bonis suis conpulsus est venire Romam et fretus est auxilio Polionis et Vari et Galli, qui fuerant magni cives Romani et poete. Ad cuius Polionis honorem Virgilius fecit Bucolicam, licet in ea ex incidenti commendet Ottavianum, Varum et Gallum. Et incepit eam in XVII anno vite sue et in tribus annis complevit et correxit eam. Et etiam fretus est auxilio Mecenatis, ad cuius honorem composuit Georgicam et in septem annis complevit eam et correxit. Postea vero ductu istorum devenit in notitiam Ottaviani hoc modo. Nam dum Virgilius spatiaretur in palatio ubi debebant fieri ludi teatrales, ad quos venturus erat Ottavianus, et tota nocte pluisset et mane esset tempus serenum, composuit duos versiculos et ibi reliquit. Quibus pernotatis Ottaviano, ipse voluit scire quis composuisset. Tunc Cornificius emulus Virgilii ait se fecisse et re premiatus fuit. Quo remunerato Virgilius cum alia vice iterum deberent fieri predicti ludi, scripsit primos versus, quibus Cornificius fuit remuneratus; et fuerunt hi versus: Nocte pluit tota, redeunt spectacula mane, divisum imperium cum Iove Cesar habet [AL 1.1, 212, no. 256].

Deinde addit: ‘‘Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores,’’ et item subdidit quartum: ‘‘Sic vos non vobis.’’ Quibus inventis et pernotatis Ottaviano

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perquirenti quis fecit, iterum Cornificius obtulit se fecisse. Tunc Ottavianus ait: ‘‘Perfice hos versus imperfectos’’; qui nescivit perficere. Tunc Virgilius auxilio Polionis et aliorum introductus dixit se fecisse et perfecit illos hoc modo: Sic vos non vobis Sic vos non vobis Sic vos non vobis Sic vos non vobis

nidificatis aves mellificatis apes vellera fertis oves fertis aratra boves [AL 1.1, 212, no. 257].

Deinde habita notitia Ottaviani, petiit restitui sibi bona sua. Quibus restitutis venit Mantuam et cepit petere bona sua quae tenebat Arius centurio et quia Virgilius habebat secum triumviros, qui triumviri habebant providere et distribuere veteranis, cepit petere et alacri facie petebat sua bona. Sed Arius evaginato gladio persecutus est Virgilium usque ad Mincium fluvium et eum interfecisset, sed Virgilius deiecit se in aquam et permeavit fluvium et hoc commemorans tangit in Bucolicis ubi dicit: ‘‘aries [etiam] nunc vellera siccat’’ [Eclogues 3.95], in egloga ‘‘Quo te Meri pedes’’ [Eclogues 9.1] ibi ‘‘Heu, cadit in quemquam’’ [Eclogues 9.17]. Et tunc Virgilius reversus est Romam. Et Ottavianus hoc audiens, nolens turbare suos veteranos, providit sibi per aliam viam. Sed nichilominus sic impetravit postea a principe quod ipse et omnes alii Mantuani restituti fuerunt. Sed tunc non potuit fieri quia Ottavianus erat occupatus bello. Nam Antonius Marcus audita morte fratris, convocavit omnes orientales et Brutum et Cassium et reginam Egipti scilicet Cleopatram, et venit ad Atium promontorium, quod nunc dicitur Negroponte, contra quos ivit Ottavianus cum suo apparatu et primo devicit illos navali bello, secundo terrestri. Quibus superatis Cleopatra apposuit aspides ad mammillas et mortua est. Et Ottavianus ivit ad Parthos et subiugavit eos et refixit signa Romanorum a templis, que Parthi fixerant morte Crassi, et etiam subiugavit omnes orientales. Et ita Ottavianus cepit regnare in XVIII anno et regnavit XII annis pariter cum Antonio, sed ipso devincto imperavit Ottavianus toti mundo universo XIV annis. Et totus mundus fuit in pace, cuius tempore natus est Christus. Ad cuius Ottaviani honorem Virgilius composuit librum Eneidos et incepit a laudibus Enee et aliorum Troianorum, ut magis eum commendaret. Nam Ottavianus ferebat se Troianum, quia nepos Cesaris natus ex sorore vel nepote eius non per rectam lineam, vel ferebat se Troianum, quia Cesar adoptaverat eum sibi in filium, et Cesar fuit de descendentibus Enee, qui replevit Italiam populo. Et sic ex laude Enee et aliorum Troianorum ipse etiam laudabatur. Et in componendo hoc opus Virgilius insudavit XII annis et non complevit nec correxit hoc opus, sicut quod multi dicunt. Sed Fulgentius [see 296

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below, IV.F] vult quod complevit, quia incepit a principio vite et tendit usque ad mortem et post mortem nichil est ultra et, quia liber terminatur in morte Turni, ideo completum est opus. Sed hoc non videtur, quia adhuc restat de themate promisso, quia nichil dixit de Lavinia, cum tamen proposuerat se dicturum, tantum dixit: ‘‘Laviniaque littora,’’ et non dixit quomodo habuit Laviniam et Laurentum. Et dato quod perfecit, morte preventus non emendavit opus suum. Fertur enim quod Virgilius, scripto isto opere, ivit in Greciam volens morari ibi aliquo tempore et librum suum corrigere. Et occurrit Ottaviano redeunti de partibus orientalibus, cum domuisset omnes illos, et voluit reducere Virgilium secum Romam, ut haberet copiam de eo. Quo sequente Ottaviano cepit Virgilius aegritudinem de mense septembris in civitate Megarum; que Megare fuerunt civitas Nisi regis cuius capillum aureum Silla filia eius, capta amore regis Minoys obsidentis Megares, evulsit et sibi dedit Minoy. Quo facto capta fuit civitas; nam fatatum erat quod civitas numquam capi poterat donec Nisus haberet illum capillum in capite. Tandem navigando Virgilius pervenit Brundusium et ibi mortuus est. Alii dicunt quod ibi magis fuit gravatus et deinde venit Tarentum et ibi mortuus est. Condito testamento, in quo reliquit quod ossa sua essent delata Neapolim, et sic factum est et sepultus fuit in via Puteolana, qua itur ad villam, que dicitur Puctiolo. Fuit enim olim consuetudo, ut sepulcra fierent in viis et campis. Sed mox non invenitur illud sepulcrum, quia forte eversum est totum monumentum, cuius epitaphium fuit: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua rura duces [see below, II.C.1].

Hoc est: natus fui Mantue, mortuus sum in Calabria et sepultus Neapoli, et cecini, id est, scripsi, pascua, id est, Bucolicam, rura, id est, Georgicam, duces, id est, Eneidam. Parthonope erat Neapolis sic dicta a quadam virgine ibi regnante vel sepulta. Sed postea dicta est Neapolis a neos quod est novum et polis civitas, quasi nova civitas. Nam Ottavianus devincto Antonio post victoriam rediens pervenit ad istam transiens; et videns eam pulcram sed parvam amplificavit eam et dilatavit muros, et tunc que prius dicebatur Parthonope dicta est Neapolis, quasi nova civitas. Ultimum scito quod de bonis suis Virgilius partem reliquit Ottaviano, partem Varo et Tucho et aliis poetis. Et habuit domos Rome in Exquiliniis in illo loco iuxta ortos Mecenatis. Et iuxta Neapolim habuit multas et magnas possessiones, ubi multum morabatur. Et raro morabatur Rome propter nimium concursum gentium sibi occurrentium. Immo cum semel veniret

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Romam oportuit eum declinare et effugere ad quemdam locum, quia tantus erat concursus gentium quod oppressisset eum. Et fuit grandis cum aquilino colore, id est, rusticano sive fusco, et patiebatur frequenter in stomaco et multo ciens ex faucibus sanguinem spuebat. Sed per medicinam se iuvabat; erat enim magnus medicus et astrologus. Vixit autem annis quinquaginta duobus et reliquit in testamento quod Varus et Tuchus deberent comburere omnia opera sua scilicet Bucolicam Georgicam et Eneidam, quia nolebat laudari nisi per Eneidam. Sed Ottavianus noluit quod combureretur, quia, licet voluntas testatoris debebat pro lege servari, potius voluit quod ibi frangeretur lex, quam tantum opus combureretur. Et fecit versus ad excusationem Vari et Tuchi non servantium voluntatem testatoris cum essent commissarii eius. Et idem dixit Ottavianus Varo et Tucho, ut corrigerent Eneidam hoc modo, ut nichil de suo adderent, sed si quid videretur superfluum, detraherent. Et ideo invenietis in hoc opere quandoque unum solum verbum, quandoque dimidium versum et quandoque plus et quandoque minus.

Because he wrote such great works, it is proper to know the life of such a great man and poet. As evidence for this, know that Virgil was from the city of Mantua in Lombardy, surrounded by a lake. He was not from the city but from a suburb now called Pietola, but then called Andes. He was born when Gnaeus Pompey the Great and Marcus Crassus were consuls, on the Ides of October [October 15], and on the same day that the great poet Lucretius died, like an augury that he yielded to the arrival of so great a poet. Virgil was born of humble parents, his mother named Maia, and his father named Figulus; and Figulus here is a proper name, not a trade [since figulus can mean ‘‘potter’’]. This Figulus was a rich countryman and a good farmer knowing how to care for flocks, bees, and other animals; and so it is no surprise that Virgil wrote well on these subjects, because he was the son of such a father. His mother, when she was pregnant, dreamed that she bore a branch of laurel that, covered with various fruits, grew quickly and sprouted leaves and bore much fruit. Then on the following day, when she went to another farm with her husband, feeling the pains of labor she turned aside to a pit and there gave birth, and her husband helped her as he knew and was able. Because it was a custom of the ancients that, when someone was born, they planted a tree to know the fortune of the newborn (for if the tree lasted and grew well, he was to live a long life, and if it sprouted leaves nicely, he was to be very famous), and so on other points. And so Virgil’s father also planted a poplar, 298

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which grew well and sprouted leaves in a remarkable way, and it was called the tree of Virgil and received the o√erings of the people, because they used to make their sacrifices under it, because it was a beautiful tree and marvelous in the way of its growth, and pregnant women in particular used to hang their votive o√erings on that tree that they might have quick births, as Maia had had her child quickly in that place. It is said that, to give great hope to his parents, he did not wail when he was born. He himself, perhaps wishing to express this, said in the Bucolics: ‘‘Begin, small boy, on whom your parents did not smile,’’ and so forth. He was called Virgil, because his mother dreamed that she bore a branch and so she wished him to be called Virgil, and he was also called Maron, because he was of a swarthy color (for maron [related to English maroon] is the same as ‘‘swarthy’’ or ‘‘black’’; thus some people are called Moors from maron, because they are black, just as Gallici [the people of Gaul] are named from galac [that is, milk, in Greek], which is white). Virgil was a great talent and compliant, whence he was called Partheneus, that is, ‘‘firm’’ or ‘‘patient’’; or from Parthonope, that is, proved in every virtue. They say that he first studied at Cremona, then he moved to Milan, afterward to Naples, and then to Athens. There he was taught every science and became a great magician; for he gave much of his attention to the magic art, as is apparent from that eclogue: ‘‘Muse of the shepherds Damon and Alphysibeus.’’ From his earliest childhood he wrote many works. For in his sixteenth year he wrote a book about a gnat or gadfly, which tells that a farmer was sleeping and a gnat bit him. Aroused by the bite of the gnat, he struck with his hand and killed the gnat. When Virgil, seeing this, saw a snake coming against the farmer, by which the farmer would have been killed if he had not been aroused by the gnat, for such a good deed of the gnat he wrote the book, saying: ‘‘O tiny gnat, a shepherd o√ers you, who are so deserving, the rite of death in exchange for the gift of life.’’ And he wrote an epitaph of Ballista, a great highwayman, saying: ‘‘Ballista is covered, buried under this mountain of stones; by night and by day take your route in safety, traveler.’’ He also wrote many other works, namely, the Aetna, the Cilicae [sic], Priapea, Catalecton [sic], Copa, Dirae, and Moretum before he wrote the Bucolics, Georgics, and Aeneid. These other works have not survived. While Virgil was in Athens, he moved to Rome, and the reason was the quarrel that arose between Caesar Octavianus and Antonius Lucius. From which it is to be recalled that Caesar returned to Rome after Pompey the Great was conquered, after the Egyptians were subjugated by Caesar, after Cato and many other Romans who were with Juba died in Libya, after Gnaeus Pompeius [elder son of Pompey the Great] died in Munda in Spain, and while Sextus Pompeius A. VITAE

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[younger son of Pompey the Great] was acting as a pirate in Sicily. Three years later, with the agreement of the Senate, Caesar was killed on the Capitoline by Brutus and Cassius with twenty-five wounds. But it was one wound which was repeated or doubled. Then Brutus and Cassius retreated from the city, and Mark Antony, the standard-bearer of Caesar, followed them to Emathia. But the senators sent to aid Brutus and Cassius against Antony two consuls and Octavian, Caesar’s nephew, who was eighteen years old. For this reason he went, because he was told that he could not otherwise please the Romans nor have a place in the city unless he came to the aid of Brutus and Cassius. He therefore went, and Brutus and Cassius fought a battle; those consuls, Hircus and Pansa, were slain; and Octavian was captured. But a nobleman, Catulus, arranged a treaty between Octavian and Antony, and they divided the world among themselves. Antony kept for himself Asia or the eastern part, Catulus held Africa, and Octavian kept Europe or the western part. Seeing this, Antonius Lucius, the brother of Mark Antony, said: ‘‘They divided the world among themselves and received a part for themselves, and they gave me nothing.’’ Not wishing to invade the part of his brother, he conspired with certain Lombards against Octavian and captured Modena with the inhabitants of Cremona aiding him and held it for a long time. But oppressed by famine because of a siege, he fled to Perugia and died there, overcome by hunger. Then Octavian distributed to his veteran soldiers the property of the inhabitants of Cremona, and because that was not enough, he distributed to them the property of the inhabitants of Mantua, not because they were guilty of crime, not because they had acted against him, but because of its vicinity, so that all [the soldiers] might be in one place. And so it has been said: ‘‘Alas, Mantua, too close to wretched Cremona.’’ Then the property of Virgil was given to the centurion Arius. For this reason Virgil, bereft of his property, was forced to go to Rome and depended on the aid of Pollio and Varus and Gallus, who were important Roman citizens and poets. In honor of this Pollio Virgil wrote the Bucolics, although in them in passing he praised Octavian, Varus, and Gallus. He began them in his seventeenth year and finished and corrected them in three years. Also depending on the aid of Maecenas, he composed the Georgics in his honor and completed and corrected them in seven years. Afterward, under their leadership he made the acquaintance of Octavian in the following way. For while Virgil was walking on the Palatine, on which there were to be theatrical performances to which Octavian was to go (and all night it had rained and in the morning the weather was clear), he wrote two verses and left them there. When they were brought to the notice of Octavian, he wished to know who had composed them. Then Cornificius, a rival of 300

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Virgil, said that he had written them and was in fact rewarded. When Cornificius was rewarded, Virgil, when at another time there were to be the aforementioned performances, wrote the first verses for which Cornificius had been rewarded; and these were the verses: ‘‘It rained all night, the games return with the morning: Caesar has joint rulership with Jove’’; then he added: ‘‘I wrote these verses; another received the prize,’’ and also added a fourth verse: ‘‘So, it is not for yourselves that you . . .’’ When these were discovered and brought to the notice of Octavian, he asked who wrote them, and again Cornificius o√ered that he had written them. Then Octavian said: ‘‘Finish these incomplete verses,’’ which he did not know how to do. Then, with the aid of Pollio and others, Virgil was introduced and said that he had written them, and he completed them in the following way, So, it is not for yourselves that you So, it is not for yourselves that you So, it is not for yourselves that you So, it is not for yourselves that you

build nests, birds; make honey, bees; bear wool, sheep; lead the plows, cattle.

Then, having made the acquaintance of Octavian, he asked him to restore his property to him. When it was restored, he went to Mantua and began to seek his property, which the centurion Arius held, and because Virgil had with him the triumvirs, who as triumvirs had to provide and distribute property to veterans, he began to seek his property and sought it with sharp mien. But Arius drew his sword and pursued Virgil all the way to the river Mincius and would have killed him, but Virgil threw himself into the water and passed through the river and recalling this touched on the subject in the Bucolics where he said: ‘‘now the ram dries his wool,’’ in the eclogue that begins ‘‘Where do your feet take you, Moeris?’’ in the passage ‘‘Alas, he falls into someone.’’ Then Virgil returned to Rome. Octavian, hearing this, was unwilling to disturb his veterans, but provided for him in a di√erent way. Nevertheless, Virgil afterward gained from the emperor what he had sought, that he and all the other Mantuans had all their property restored. But this could not be done at that time since Octavian was occupied with war. For Mark Antony, when he learned of the death of his brother, called together all the eastern peoples, Brutus, Cassius, and the queen of Egypt, Cleopatra, and came to the promontory of Actium, which is now called Negroponte. Octavian came against them with his forces and defeated them first in a naval battle, and then in a land battle. When they were conquered, Cleopatra put asps to her breasts and died. Octavian went against the Parthians, defeated them, and took back the Roman standards from the temple, which the Parthians had hung there at the death of Crassus, and also he A. VITAE

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conquered all the eastern peoples. And so Octavian began to rule in his eighteenth year and ruled twelve years together with Antony, but when he was conquered, Octavian ruled the whole world for fourteen years. The whole world was at peace, at which time Christ was born. Virgil wrote the book the Aeneid in honor of Octavian and began with praise of Aeneas and the other Trojans, so that he might most honor him. For Octavian maintained that he was a Trojan because, as a nephew of Caesar, he was born from Caesar’s sister or niece (though not through a direct line), or maintained that he was a Trojan because Caesar had adopted him as a son, and Caesar was a descendant of Aeneas, who filled Italy with his people. Thus from praise of Aeneas and of the other Trojans Octavian himself was being praised. In writing this book Virgil worked twelve years and did not complete or correct it, as many say. But Fulgentius maintains that he finished it, because he began at the beginning of life and brought it to death, and after death there is nothing more, and because the book ends with the death of Turnus, so the work is complete. This does not seem correct, because a promised theme still remains to be treated, insofar as he has said nothing of Lavinia, although he had proposed to speak of her, he said only ‘‘Lavinian shores,’’ and he did not tell how Aeneas took Lavinia and Laurentum. Granted that he finished it, he did not, prevented by his death, correct his work. It is said that Virgil, when he had written this work, went to Greece because he wished to stay there for some time and correct his book. He met Octavian returning from the eastern regions when he had conquered all of them. He wished Virgil to return with him to Rome so that he might have his literary talents. While Octavian was following him, Virgil began to get sick in the month of September in the city of Megara. (This Megara was the city of King Nisus. Scylla, his daughter, captured by love of King Minos, who was besieging Megara, cut o√ the king’s golden hair and gave it to Minos. When she had done this the city was taken; for it was fated that the city never could be taken as long as Nisus had that hair on his head.) [The parenthetical material glosses Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.1–10.] At last Virgil reached Brindisi by ship and died there. Others say that he became more ill there and then went to Taranto and died there. In his will he left a provision that his bones should be carried to Naples. This was done, and he was buried on the Pozzuoli road, where it led to the village which is called Pozzuoli. For it was formerly the custom that tombs be placed on the roads and in the fields. But soon that tomb was not found, because by chance the whole monument had been overturned. His epitaph was ‘‘Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders.’’ Parthenope 302

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was Naples, so called from a virgin who was ruling there or buried there. But afterward it was called Naples from neos, which means ‘‘new,’’ and polis, which means ‘‘city,’’ that is, ‘‘new city.’’ For Octavian, having conquered Antony and returning after his victory, came passing through that town, and when he saw that it was beautiful but small, he enlarged it and widened the walls, and then what was formerly called Parthenope was called Naples, that is, a ‘‘new city.’’ Finally, know that Virgil left part of his property to Octavian, part to Varus, Tucca, and other poets. He had a house at Rome on the Esquiline in that place next to the gardens of Maecenas, and in nearby Naples he had many great properties where he often stayed. Rarely did he stay at Rome because of the great crowd of people who came to meet him. Indeed, when he had once come to Rome, he had to turn aside and flee to a certain place because the crowd of people was so great that it oppressed him. He was tall with aquiline color, that is, rustic or swarthy. He often had stomach trouble, and often he used to spit blood, discharging it from his jaws. But he helped himself by the use of medicine; for he was a great doctor and astrologer. He lived fifty-two years and left a request in his will that Varus and Tucca should burn all his works, namely, the Bucolics, Georgics, and Aeneid, because he did not wish to be praised except through the Aeneid. But Octavian was unwilling that it be burned because, although it was the law that the will of the testator ought to be carried out, he wished rather that the law be broken in this case than that such a great work be burned. He wrote verses to excuse Varus and Tucca for not keeping the wishes of the testator when they were the will’s executors. Likewise, Octavian said to Varus and Tucca that they should correct the Aeneid as follows: that they should add nothing on their own, but if something seemed superfluous they should remove it. For this reason you will find in this work sometimes only one word, sometimes half a verse, sometimes more, sometimes less. (JH)

35. Domenico di Bandino (1335–1418) Though Aretine by birth, Domenico di Bandino spent most of his life in Florence as a notary and teacher of grammar and the arts. His major book— the fruit of around a half century of toils—was a compendious encyclopedia, entitled Fons memorabilium universi (Wellspring of Things Memorable in the Universe), that incorporated a number of alphabetically organized lexica. The third of the three volumes that constitute the fifteenth-century Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Aedil. 170–72, contains the section of A. VITAE

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the Fons with biographies De viris claris (On Famous Men); it is in this section that the life of Virgil is found, on folios 400v–404v. The vita is typical of Domenico’s modus operandi in stitching together swatches of information from a multitude of authors, both ancient (from Virgil himself on through late antique commentators such as Servius [see below, IV.B.], Donatus [see above, II.A.1, and below, IV.D.2], and Macrobius [see below, IV.C]) and medieval (from Bede’s De temporibus through Alan of Lille’s Anticlaudianus [see above, I.C.50] and Gervase of Tilbury’s Otia imperialia [Recreation for an Emperor], also known as Liber de mirabilibus mundi [see below, II.C.14]). Domenico’s most recent source, though unacknowledged, is thought to be Zono de’ Magnalis (see above, II.A.34). The vita hews closely to conventional biographical material, especially VSD, but Domenico interpolates information freely from various other authors. In connection with Virgil’s death and burial he includes Gervase of Tilbury’s story of the Englishman who sought out the poet’s bones, and he concludes with a section on Virgil’s deeds as a sorcerer. (Discussion: R. Sabbadini, Le scoperte dei codici latini e greci ne’ secoli XIV e XV: Nuove ricerche col riassunto filologico dei due volumi, Biblioteca storica del Rinascimento 2 [Florence, 1914], 179–90; F. Stok, ‘‘Il Virgilio di Domenico di Bandino,’’ Giornale italiano di filologia 44 [1992], 3–28) (Text: EV 5.2, 509–12, no. 376) (JZ) Virgilius poetarum eximius non tantum melliflui oris, sed celestis ingenii vates, natus est secundum Bedam libro de temporibus, et Servium, et Donatum eiusdem nobilissimos expositores, et quos in hoc capite mistim sequar ubicumque non posuero alias allegationes externas. Natus, inquam, fuit illo tempore, quo Pompeius Magnus et M. Licinius Crassus erant consules. Sed quia aliter videtur sentire Dantes dicens in primo canto Inferni: ‘‘Nacqui sub Julio ancor che fussi tardi’’ [1.70], nota scriptum quod edidi super Inferno Dantis. Modicis ferme parentibus Mantuanis, patre Virgilio secundum Bedam, quem fuisse opificem figulum plures tradunt. Alii multi asserunt quod figulus fuerit nomen proprium, non officii. Dicunt etiam non urbis sed cuiusdam propinqui ruris fuisse incolam, quod tunc Andes nostro vero seculo Piectola nomen habet, distatque a Mantua itinerando per terram stadiis IX, sed itinerando per aquam 16. Huius ingenii celsitudinem plurima praesagia monstraverunt. Nam dum Magia mater eum gestaret in utero, se laureum ramum somniavit enixam, quem contacta terra excrevisse conspexit in speciem maturae arboris refertaeque variis pomis et floribus infinitis. Ac sequenti luce rus propinquum adiens cum marito, sentiens partus signa, devertens ab itinere in proxima fossa partu levata est. Feruntque infantem editum non vagisse, eodemque die Lucretium poetam eximium decessisse. Ferunt et aliud praesagium. 304

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Nam virga populea more regionis ibidem posita, ita brevi coaluit tempore, quod multo ante satas populos adaequasset. Quae ‘‘arbor Virgilii’’ ex eo dicta atque gravidarum religione sacrata est. Deinde teste Eusebio [see above, II.A.2.a.ii–iii] et Beda in libro de temporibus [chapter 6, in PL 90, 544A], cum Iulius Caesar Gallos et Britanos et Germanos vinceret, Virgilius iam Mantuae eruditus se Cremonam transtulit ad maiora litterarum studia. Ubi moratus est usque ad virilem togam, quam IX anno suae nativitatis accepit. Inde se transtulit Mediolanum. Deinde contendunt multi quod ivit Athenas, quod in loco autentico numquam memini me legisse. Scio tamen quod tanta[m] scientiae profunditatem adeptus est, ut de ipso dixerit Ovidius in libro de remediis amorum: ‘‘Omnia divino monstravit carmine vates’’ [not Ovid, but the final line in a tetrastich summary of Georgics 3: AL 1.1 (1982), 12–13, no. 2.III]. Et vere laus ista Maroni competit, primo dicendo omnia, quia de caelestibus, terrestribus, visibilibus et invisibilibus scripsit. Ipso de se dicente circa finem secundi libri Georgicorum: ‘‘Me vero primum dulces ante omnia Musae, / quarum sacra fero ingenti perculsus amore, / accipiant caelique vias et sidera monstrent, / defectus solis varios lunaeque labores, / unde tremor terris, qua vi maria alta tu[m]escunt / obicibus ruptis rursusque in se ipsa residant, / quid tanto oceano properent se tingere soles / hiberni, vel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet’’ [2.475–82], et caetera. Sed quia laus in proprio ore sordescit, audi Sextum Propertium scribentem de Virgilio: ‘‘Credite [for ‘‘cedite’’] Romani scriptores, credite [for ‘‘cedite’’] Gray, / nescio quid maius nascitur Yliade’’ [2.34.65–66]. Et Ovidius in libro de remediis: ‘‘Et tua sacrilegae laniarunt carmina linguae, / quo nullum Latio clarius extat opus’’ [Remedia amoris 367, Ars amatoria 3.338]. Et Macrobius libro secundo super Somnium Scipionis: ‘‘Quaeramus, inquit, quid Virgilius Maro dicat quem nullius umquam disciplinae error involuit’’ [Commentum 2.8.1]. Et prius, in primo libro, dixerat ipse idem Macrobius [Commentum 1.6.44]: ‘‘Virgilius nullius disciplinae expers volens beatos plene ac perfecte dicere, ‘o ter quaterque beati dixit’ [Aeneid 1.94].’’ Et in libro Saturnalium contra Evangelium phylosophum Virgilio detrahentem: ‘‘Evangele, dixit, haec est Maronis gloria ut nullius laudibus crescat, nec vituperationibus minuatur. Sed tu in hac opinione es ut Maro nihil nisi poeticum senserit, audi quid de operis multiplici doctrina ipse pronuntiet. Eius namque Maronis Epistula sic incipit ad Augustum: ego a te frequenter litteras accipio, et subdit: ‘de Enea quidem meo si hercle [i]am dignum auribus haberem tuis, libenter mitterem. Sed tanta inchoat[a] res est ut pene vitio mentis [mentis] tantum opus aggressus mihi videar’ [Commentum 1.24.8–11]. Nec hi[s] Virgilii verbis copia rerum dissonat.’’ A. VITAE

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Quoque iuventus erudiabatur in illo. Dicente Augustino in primo libro de civitate Dei [1.3, modified]: ‘‘Virgilius poeta magnus omniumque praeclarissimus tenerisque praeclarissimus ebibitur annis, ne facile oblivione mandetur, iuxta id Flacci Oratii: ‘Quo semel inbuta recens servabit odorem / Testa diu’ ’’ et caetera [Epistles 1.2.69–70]. Augustinum roborat tragedus Seneca, dicens in Troade [633, reading ‘‘animus’’ for ‘‘annis’’]: ‘‘Dediscit annis sero quod didicit diu.’’ Nec spernendus est maximus vates dicens in primo canto primae canticae: ‘‘O se tu quel Virgilio e quella fonte / che spandi di parlare sì largo fiume, / vagliami illongo studio e lgrande amore / che fatto ma cercar il tuo volume’’ [Inferno 1.79–80, 83–84]. Et Sordellus ad eundem dixit in VII canto Purgatorii: ‘‘O gloria dilatini, disse, per cui / mostro cio che poeta lalingua nostra, / opresgio eterno delloco onde io fui, / qual merito o qual grazia meti mostra / si son dudire letue parole degno, / dimi sevieni dInferno o de qual chiostra’’ [16–21, reading ‘‘potea’’ at 17]. Ergo has omnes laudes intelligas Virgilio de carminibus suis datas, dicente Seneca in III libro declamationum: ‘‘Magna quoque ingenia non plus quam in uno dicendi opere floruerunt. Nam Virgilium illa ingenii felicitas in oratione soluta reliquit, Ciceronem eloquentia sua in carminibus destituit’’ [a version of 3, pr. 8]. Idque notanter dixit Ovidius ‘‘divino carmine’’ [compare Virgil, Eclogues 6.67], idem Seneca dixit in libro de brevitate vitae ad Paulinum: ‘‘Homerus et Virgilius valde de humano genere meriti, multum ac diu morentur tecum. Nam tutum est omne tempus, quod illos legendo commiseris’’ [De consolatione ad Polybium 8.2, modified]. Marcus autem Valerius Martialis dixit in Epygrammatibus VIII libro scribendo ad Flaccum: ‘‘Sint Mecennates non deerunt, Flacce, [Marones] / Virgiliumque tibi vel tua rura dabunt. / Ergo ero Virgilius, si munera Mecennatis / des michi. Virgilius non ero, Marcus ero. / Iugera perdiderat miserae vicina Cremonae, / flebat et abductas Tityrus egit oves. / Risit Tuschus eques, paupertatemque malignam / reppulit et celeri iussit abire fuga. / Accipe divitias sed vatum maximus esto. / Protinus Italiam concepit arma virumque, / qui modo vix Culicem fleverat ore rudi’’ [8.55(56).5–6, 23–24, 7–11, 19–20, with variations]. Contra dixit Ovidius: ‘‘divino [...] carmine’’ [Pseudo-Ovid, in AL 1.1 (1982), 12–13, no. 2.III]. Scribit namque Tullius in oratione pro Aulo Licinio Archyta poeta: ‘‘Sic a summis hominibus eruditissimisque accepimus, ceterarum rerum studia praeceptis doctrina et arte constare, poetam vero natura ipsa valere et mentis viribus excitari inflammarique quodam divino spiritu. Quare Ennius poetas sanctos appellat, quod quasi aliquo deorum munere repleti esse videantur. Est nempe sanctum hoc poetae nomen quod nulla umquam barbaries v[i]olavit’’ [Pro archia poeta 8.18–19]. Nota eodem libro VII capite [chapter 8] Homerus [sic]. Subiunxit deinde 306

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vates, de quo dixit Rabanus libro III de naturis rerum [De universo 3.2, in PL 111, 66B]: ‘‘quo gentilitas vates appellabat, nostri prophetas vocant quasi praefatores. Nam porro fatum et de futuris vera predicunt.’’ Nota plene in libro de rebus memoria dignis capite vates: ‘‘Dictos a vi mentis vates dixere priores’’ [see Isidore, Etymologiarum libri 7.12.15 and 8.7.3]. Ob hoc fuerunt poete honoratissimi apud omnes, eis pedetentim subtracta in tantum fuerunt munera et honores, quod Ovidius dixerit in .3. de arte: ‘‘Quid queritur sacris nisi tantum fama poetis, / hoc votum nostri summa laboris habet. / Cura deum fuerant olim regumque poetae, / praemiaque antiqui magna tulere chori / (aliter chori poetarum), Sanctaque maiestas et erat venerabile nomen / vatibus, et largae saepe dabantur opes. / Ennius emeruit, Calabris in montibus ortos [the space for fifteen letters is left at this point]. Edere sine honore iacent Opertaque [sic] doctis / cura vigil Musis nomen inertis habet. / Et Famae vigilare iuvat: quis nosset Homerum / Ylios eternum si Latuisset opus’’ [Ars amatoria 3.403–14, modified]. Nunc de nominibus ac forma corporis disseramus. Fuit Virgilius proprium nomen eius a virga, quam, ut diximus, mater se somniavit enixam. Maro dictus fuit a mauron, quod est nigrum, nam ipse fuit coloris fusci, unde et Mauri populi quidam fusci coloris appellati sunt, sicut Gallici a galath, quod album est. Aliis quibusdam placet Maronem dici quasi mare, quia multorum adventu fluminum numquam crescit, nec decresceret etiam si nullum flumen illuc duceret aquas suas. Ita Virgilius nec laudibus crescit, nec vituperationibus diminuitur. Statura eius fuit mediocris ad grandem proxima. Sed habuit faciem rusticanam. Valitudo fuit varia. Nam saepius in stomacho ac dolore capitis laborabat. Cibi et vini parcus, fuitque adeo tota vita probatus, quod vulgo in Neapolitana urbe Parthenias diceretur, id est, verecunda virgo. Uno tantum vitio laborat, quia impatiens libidinis fuit et in pueros pronior, quod Iuvenalis tetigit dicens in .7. sua satira: ‘‘Nam si Virgilio puer et tollerabile desit / hospitium, caderent omnes a crinibus hydri’’ [7.69–70]. Servius autem dicit super secunda egloga Virgilium tantum .3. amasse, Alexandrum scilicet, quem sibi donavit Pollio, et Cebethen puerum, et Hyenam puellam, quos a M[e]cennate asserit accepisse. Ne[c] eius libidinem ascondunt carmina quae sub titulo virgiliano didici: ‘‘Si memini fuerant tibi quatuor, Ylia, dentes, / expulit una duos tussis et una duos. / Nunc tussire potes totis secura diebus. / Nil istic quid agat tertia tussis habet’’ [Martial, Epigrams 1.19]. Veniamus tandem ad scripta eius. Virgilius .16. anno, cum vidisset pastorem a morsu culicis expertum ictuque occidentem culicem qui a superveniente colubro fuisset occisus, edidit prima carmina: ‘‘Parve culex, pecudum custos tibi tale merenti / funeris officium vite pro munere reddit’’ [Culex 413–14]. A. VITAE

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Etiam composuit epythafium Baliste, sicarii pessimi, sub his verbis: ‘‘Monte sub hoc lapidum tegitur Balista sepultus[:] / Nocte dieque tutum carpe viator iter’’ [AL 1.1, 212, no. 261]. Pretereo alia eius iuvenilia, festinans ponere mature maturiora eius opera. Buccolicam quidem stilo infimo, Georgicam mediocri, et Eneidam tragico stilo factam. Omnes tres stilos igitur seu elocutionum modos, quos habuerunt rhectores et poete pro qualitate negotiorum et personarum, in suis operibus complexus est. Posset etiam dici quod varietatem vivendi triplicem consideraverit, primam scilicet pastoralem, in qua rudes homines colentes nemora vivebant herbis pomis et lacte pecudum, ad quod representandum Buccolicam primo scripsit. Considerans consequenter agrestem vitam, quando homines egressi antra silvarum ad agros colendos versi pro mitiori victu, docuit agriculturam. Noscens tertio quod ex divisione agrorum nate sunt lites, facta bella, constructa oppida et odia inter concives exorta sunt, Eneydam edidit. Et vere hoc sensisse videtur poeta noster cum primo pastores, mox agriculas, et ultimo cantaverit bellatores. In his tribus operibus poetas varios secutus est: in Bucolicis quidem Teocritum Syracusanum, Esyodum in Georgia [sic], ac in Eneyda tam proxime secutus est Homerum, quod Asconius Pedianus [see below, IV.A.3], teste Donato in expositione Virgilii, ei saepius exprobaverit quod versus Homericos suis operibus inseruisset. Ac fertur Virgilius respondisse magnarum esse virium de manu Herculis clavam tollere, addebatque saepius: ‘‘Cur non eadem furta tamptatis [sic]?’’ Sic vir sapiens quod ad eius detractionem dicebatur in sui gloriam ipse vertebat. Volendo tum scire ad cuius gloriam, unumquemque librorum scripserit, advertas quod occiso Iulio Cesare, Octavianus (prout plene dixi eodem libro virorum agendo de Octaviano) eius filius adoptivus contra percussores patris plurima bella gessit. Et tandem potitus victoria contra M. Antonium, quid [sic] ob insanum amorem Cleopatre repudiaverat Octaviam prudentissimam mulierum et sororem Octaviani, Cremonensium agros, qui contra eum arma sumpserant, militibus suis dedit. Sed cum non sufficerent, his addidit Mantuanos, non propter culpam civium, sed propter vicinitatem Cremonae, unde ipse dixit in .9. egloga: ‘‘Manthova ve misere nimium vicina Cremonae’’ [9.28]. Ergo agris perditis Romam venit et u[s]us patrocinio Mecennatis et Asini Pollionis, Varronis et Cornelii Galli, solus agros recuperavit. His ergo fautoribus potuit Maro dicere quod Ovidius in .3. libro Ponticorum ad fautores suos dixit in his carminibus: ‘‘Tunc igitur meriti morietur gratia nostri, / cum

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cinis assumpto corpore factus ero. / Fallor et illa mee superabit tempora vite, / si tamen a memori posteritate legar’’ [3.2.27–30]. Tunc Pollio carminum fama motus, Virgilio proposuit ut Buccolicum carmen scriberetur. Quod in triennio scripsit et emendavit, cum esset .28. annorum natu, unde ipse circa finem libro georgicorum: ‘‘Audaxque iuventa / Titire te patulae cecini sub tegmine fagi’’ [4.565–66]. Deinde rogatu Mecennatis in anno septimo similiter scripsit et correxit Georgicam. Ultimo in XI anno ab Augusto propositam sibi Eneydam fecit. Quam ut fert communis opinio nec complevit nec emendavit. Sed ut imperatori adularetur miscuit mendacia multa veris. Dicente Anticlaudiano libro primo de beato puero: ‘‘Virgilii musa mendacia multa colorat / Et facile veri contexit pallia falso’’ [Alan of Lille, Anticlaudianus 1.142–43, reading facie for facile at 143]. Recitavitque Augusto tamen .3. libros, secundum et quartum et sextum. Sed hunc notabili Octaviae defectione, quae cum interesset illi recitationi, et ventum esset ad illa carmina de suo filio, ‘‘Tu Marcellus eris’’ [Aeneid 6.883– 86] etc., ferunt defecisse per sincopim, et quod satis egre refocillata fuerit. Cum tandem venisset ad etatem LI annorum, impositurus Eneyde summam manum, statuit in Greciam se conferre, triennioque continuo nil aliud facere quam emendare, ut reli[n]quam vitam phylosophiae daret. Sed, ut scribit Donatus, cum ingressus iter occurrisset Augusto redeunti ab Oriente, ipsum redire coegit. Qui dum Megaram, vicinum oppidum, ferventissimo sole cognoscit, a langore capitis atque stomachi lesus, febrilem calorem incurrit. Sed non intermissa navigatione magis semper febris invaluit. Tandem Brundusium appulit, ubi secundum Donatum post paucos dies obiit, .12. Kal. octobris, et .27. anno imperii Augusti. Petrarca autem profitetur eum obisse Tarenti, prout scripsi libro eodem capite Tarentum. Ossa eius Neapolim translata sunt, et in tumulo alto condita intra secundum lapidem ad radices cuiusdam montis via Puteolana cum tali epytaphio: ‘‘Manthova me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc / Parthanope; cecini pascua rura duces’’ [see below, II.C.1]. Hoc quidem affirmat ipse Virgilius dicens apud Dantem in .3. cantu Purgatorii: ‘‘Vespro egià cola dove sepolto / lecorpo dentralquale i facea ombra / Napoli la edabranditio e tolto’’ [3.25–27]. Ibi post haud longe a Virgiliano tumulo fuit sepultus Plinius Veronensis, qui scripsit Hystoriam naturalem. Ysidarus [recte Jerome] autem minor in cronicis suis anno inquit imperii Augusti .27. Virgilius Brundusii moritur [see above, II.A.2.a.vii]. Sed Mantue, ubi natus fuerat, sepultus tale in tumulo habuit epythaphyum: ‘‘Hoc est Musarum lumen per saecula clarum, / stella poetarum non veneranda parum.’’ Prima tamen opinio tenetur magis. Quam confirmat Gervasius in suo libro Otiorum imperialium [see below,

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II.C.14] sub ista verborum forma: anno Domini millesimo centesimo undecimo, tempore Ruggerii regis Siculi, quidam natione Anglicus, instructus liberalibus valde doctus, et in mathamaticis, magica et astronomia summus, regem adiit postulans munus sibi a rege dari, quod apud homines vile esset, ossa Maronis, scilicet ubicumque invenirentur sub regia dictione. Rex benigne adnuit. Ergo susceptis regis litteris Neapolim venit, ubi porrecta censura regia, respondit populus istius Virgiliani tumuli quod quereret et portaret. Ille vero peritia sue artis fecit mox repertum sepulcri fodi. Sunt facile igitur inventa ossa Virgilii, et ars notoria sub capite ipsius, cum quibusdam aliis caracteribus eiusdem studii. Confestim ergo liber et pulvis cum Virgilianis ossibus tollitur a magistro. Sed fama rei novitate vociferans populo memoravit quanta dudum benefitia Maro Neapolitanis contulerit. Elegit igitur frustrari potius scripta regis quam se tam ingratissimum demonstrare. Qua propter magister militum cum turba civium ossa magistro abstulit, et ne unquam possit casus similis evenire, reliquias illas posuit in castro maris, sito ad confinium dicte urbis. Ut per medias crates ferreas intueri volentibus ostenderentur, interrogatus magister quid de ossibus facturus erat, respondisse fertur fecisse per artem, quia ossa illa eum docuissent omnem Virgilii artem. Quin etiam subiunxit suo proposito satisfieri si .40. diebus ossa illa in sua potestate teneret. Libro tandem solo concesso ei, ceteris frustratus, abiit. Redeo ad Maronem. Virgilius secundum Donatum ordinans ultimam voluntatem, heredem fecit pro dimidia parte Valerium Proculum fratrem suum sed ex alio patre genitum, ex quarta fecit Augustum, ex duadecima Meccennatem, ex reliqua Varum poetam et Tuccam, qui Eneydam post eius obitum iubente Augusto emendaverunt, dicente Petrarca in X.a egloga [Bucolicum carmen 10.295–300: see above, I.C.54.h]: ‘‘Ille ubi pastoris properatum funus amati / flevit in expletum carmen mandasse duobus / fertur et angusta limam sub lege dedisse: / iusso alacres instare operi rerumque suarum / immemores [...] laudemque alii sibi velle laborem.’’ Egerat tunc Virgilius cum Varo priusquam ab Italia discesisset, ut si quid ei accidisset adversi, Eneydam ur[e]ret. Quod tamen se facturum negavit Varus. Quoque in extrema valitudine optavit Virglius [sic] ut Eneyda cremaretur, sed nemine illum offerent[e] servatus est. Quoque dixit Sulpitius Cartaginiensis: ‘‘Iusserat hoc rapidis aboleri carmine flamis, / Virgilius Frigium que cecinere ducem, / Tucca vetat Varusque simul, tu maxime Cesar / non sinis et Latie consulis hystorie, / infelix gemino cecidit prope Pergamon igni, / et pene est alio Troia cremata rogo’’ [see below, II.D.3.a]. Redeo tandem ad correctores. Qui, prout refert Nisus se audisse a seniori-

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bus, duorum librorum ordinem mutaverunt, ut qui nunc secundus est tertius fuerit, abstuleruntque a principio hec carmina: ‘‘Ille ego qui condam gracili modulatus avena, / carmen egressus silvis vicina coegi, / ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono, / gratum opus agriculis at nunc horrentia Martis / arma virumque cano’’ [see above, I.C.2]. His positis videamus consequente quedam opera eius magica. Scribit Gervasius .9. et XI capitibus sui libri de mira[bilibus] [see below, V.A.5.a], et mira concordans cum Elynando in .26. libro [quoted in Vincent of Beauvais: see below, V.F.1]: ‘‘Virgilius dicens magico artificio in Neapolitana porta aeneam erexit muscam tante virtutis, quod dum in eodem loco manxit [n]ulla musca spatiosam civitatem ingressa est.’’ Alibi vero legi quod cum M. Marcellus nepos Augusti summe delectaretur in avibus capiendis, ab eo quesivit Virgilius ut[e]rum vellet armari avem ad predam omnium volatilium aut muscam pro exterminatione muscarum, eas abigentem a Neapolitana urbe. Et preelegit hanc de consilio Augusti, quem ipse consuluit. In pariete macelli eiusdem Neapolitane urbis affixit frustum carnis tantae efficace, quod illo stante in pariete ulla numquam caro saporem vel olfatum vel intuitum aspicientis offendit. Fecit super porta Dominica ex parte dextera humanum caput de marmore Pario, cuius aspectus tenebat risum, ac in sinistra de simili marmore aliud caput fecit oculis quidem torvis flentisque multum ac infelicis ostendens, et quisquis urbem intrabat ex parte dextra omnia feliciter implebat vota, intrantibus vero a parte sinistra omnis infelicitas accidebat. Hoc faciebat credi simulata versutia spirituum immundorum, magis quam essentialis eventus rerum, cum omnia sint firmissima in voluntate Dei, dicente apostolo: ‘‘Omnia sunt in voluntate tua, nec est qui tuae possit resistere voluntati’’ [compare Esther 13.9]. Erat in confinio eiusdem civitatis ex opposito mons Virginius, in cuius declivo inter prerupta saxorum gravi aditu Virgilius ortum fecerat, multis generibus herbarum consitum. Inter quas herbas lucis erat, quam tangentia bruta pecora recipiebant acutum lumen. In eodem erat ymago enea tenens ad os buccinam, quam quotiens ventus oppositus subintrabat, multae utilitatis sonitum emitebat. Noscas igitur ad pleniorem notitiam quod in confinio Neapolitane urbis era[t] mons excelsus, infixus mari. Huic de mense Maii noxius exibat fumus, quique ignitos eruptabat lapides, quique accensa lingua, ob quod diu vulgus censuit spiraculum Ditis esse. Flante ergo Noto adustus pulvis fructus ac segetes exurebat. Ex quo iam fertile solum ad sterilitatem venerat. At Virgilius, miseratus Neapolitanos et regionem, in opposito monte erexit statuam tenentem ad os buccinam, ut ad primum sonitum canentes tube Nothus repulsus in magica pelleretur. Nunc vero

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statua illa vel aetate consumpta vel invidorum surrepta malitia, saepe illa regio dispendiis antiquis leditur. Hunc ortum ferunt fuisse aer[e]a clausura septum. Nec introitum alicui patuisse nisi cui Virgilius permittebat. Addunt Virgilium in eadem Napolitana urbe construxisse Nolarium inpulsu campanarum mobile. In Romana urbe mirabilem columnam erexit, prout scripsi in eodem libro virorum agendo de Caesare primo imperatore sub rubrica de sepoltura Caesaris. Possem talia vilia referre quae tractus ad alia expedienda pretereo. Comperio tamen sic tantam magice peritiam accepisse, dum die quadam non tam magnus sed dilectissimus Octaviano Neapolim graderetur, vidit agricolam secus viam altius fodientem caput eneum forma venustissima reperisse, quod parvo pretio Virgilius mercatus est. Sed cum posuisset in ipsa biblioteca sua, sequentique nocte vocasset Virgilium, admiratus quisnam esset interrogavit. Ad quem: ‘‘Spiritus honorati dudum phylosophi sum, clausus quidem hoc ergastulo mille annis teque mire supra mortales instruam si me pones in libertate.’’ Tunc Maro: ‘‘Cum me instruxeris iure posse spiritus solvere atque ligare universa, testor munera que te a carcere tuo solvant.’’ Sic ergo doctus Virgilius [et] vitreo parato vase, in quo eum clausit, perpetuo illum tenuit carceratum.

Virgil, bard outstanding among poets not only for the honeyed flow of his speech but for his heavenly intelligence, was born—according to Bede in his book De temporibus, and Servius, and Donatus, the noblest of his commentators, and whom, mingled together, I will follow in this chapter wherever I will not make reference to other sources—was born, I say, at the time when Pompeius Magnus and Marcus Licinius Crassus were consuls. But since Dante seems to feel otherwise when he says, in the first canto of Inferno: ‘‘I was born under Iulius, though late,’’ take note of what I have written above about Dante’s Inferno. His parents were Mantuans of rather modest means; his father, according to Bede, was Virgil, who many allege was a figulus [potter]. Many others claim that Figulus was his own name, not the name of his trade. They also say that he was a resident not of the city but of a certain country spot nearby which then had the name Andes but in our time is called Piectola. It lies nine stadia from Mantua for those journeying by land, sixteen by water. Many omens indicated the loftiness of his intelligence. For while his mother Magia was carrying him in her womb, she dreamed that she gave birth to a laurel branch which she saw grow, after it had touched the ground, into the shape of a mature tree loaded with di√erent fruits and numberless flowers. The following day, as she made her way to the neighboring countryside with her husband, she felt birth pangs, and, departing from the path, she gave birth in a nearby ditch. They say that the newborn uttered no cry, and that the remark312

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able poet Lucretius died on the same day. They also tell of another omen. A poplar branch, planted there according to the region’s custom, grew strong so quickly that it equaled in height poplars planted long before. For this reason it was called the tree of Virgil and was worshipped as sacred in the religious practice of the pregnant. According to Eusebius and to Bede, in his book De temporibus, at the time when Caesar was conquering the Gauls, the Britons, and the Germans, Virgil, whose education had begun at Mantua, then betook himself to Cremona to study letters more intensely. There he stayed until he received the toga of manhood, in the ninth year after his birth. From there he made his way to Milan. Many claim that he then went to Athens, something that I never remember reading in any authority. Nevertheless I am aware that he gained such a depth of knowledge that Ovid could say about him, in his book Remedia amoris: ‘‘The bard expounded all matters in his godlike song.’’ In truth this praise suits Maro, as the first to tell of all matters, because he wrote about things in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible [compare the description of God the Father in the Nicene Creed]. As he says about himself near the end of the second book of the Georgics: ‘‘But as for me, first before all may the sweet Muses, whose holy emblems I bear, receive me, stricken with a mighty love, and show the ways and stars of heaven, the varying settings of the sun and the e√orts of the moon, whence the earthquakes, with what force the deep seas swell and break their barriers and sink back again into themselves, why winter suns are in such haste to dip themselves in the ocean, or what delay stands in the way of slow nights.’’ And the rest. But because praise from one’s own mouth is tainted, listen to Sextus Propertius writing about Virgil: ‘‘Give way, Roman authors; give way, Greeks: something greater than the Iliad is being born.’’ And Ovid in his book Remedia amoris: ‘‘Impious tongues mutilate your poetry, than which no more famous work appears in Latium.’’ And Macrobius, in his second book on the Somnium Scipionis: ‘‘Let us inquire,’’ he says, ‘‘what Virgilius Maro says, a poet who has never been caught in error on any subject.’’ And earlier, in the first book, the same Macrobius had said: ‘‘Virgil schooled in all subjects, when he wished to express that men were fully blessed in all respects, said ‘O three and four times blessed.’ ’’ And in the book of the Saturnalia, attacking the philosopher Evangelus who was disparaging Virgil, ‘‘Evangelus,’’ he said, ‘‘Virgil’s renown is such that no one can add to it by praise or detract from it by disparagement. . . . But you are of the opinion that Virgil had no thought for anything but poetry . . . listen to what he himself says about the many kinds of learning which his work entailed. For there is a letter of his, addressed to Augustus, which begins with these words: ‘I am getting many letters from you’ and goes A. VITAE

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on: ‘as for my Aeneas, if I by God now had anything at all worthy of your hearing, I would gladly send it; but so vast is the subject on which I have embarked that I think I must have been almost mad to have entered upon it. . . .’ What Virgil says here is consistent with his wealth of material. . . .’’ The young began their education with him. Augustine speaks in the first book of De civitate Dei: ‘‘the great poet Virgil, most famous and best of all, is drunk during the tender years of youth, so that he cannot easily be relegated to oblivion. In the words of Horatius Flaccus [= Horace]: ‘A jug will preserve for a long time the fragrance with which it is initially steeped.’ ’’ And the rest. Seneca the tragedian supports Augustine when he says in the Troades: ‘‘The mind unlearns slowly what it has learned for a long time.’’ Nor should we ignore the greatest of poets when he says, in the first canto of his first canticle: ‘‘Are you, then, that Virgil, that fount which pours forth so broad a stream of speech? . . . May the long study and the great love that have made me search your volume avail me!’’ And Sordello said to Virgil in the seventh canto of Purgatorio: ‘‘O glory of the Latins, said he, through whom our tongue showed forth its power, O eternal praise of the place whence I sprang, what merit or what favor shows you to me? If I am worthy to hear your words, tell me if you come from hell, and from which cloister.’’ Accordingly you should understand that all these praises were given to Virgil because of his poetry, as Seneca [the Elder] says in the third book of his Declamationes: ‘‘For great geniuses do not flourish in more than one type of rhetoric. The felicity of Virgil’s touch deserted him in prose, Cicero lost his eloquence when he wrote poetry.’’ Ovid said it strongly: ‘‘godlike song.’’ Seneca said the same thing in his book De brevitate vitae addressed to Paulinus: ‘‘Homer and Virgil, to whom the human race owes an enormous amount . . . remain much in your company for a long time. For all the time that you give over to reading them will indeed be safe.’’ Also Marcus Valerius Martialis said in the eighth book of Epigrams, writing to Flaccus: ‘‘Let there be Maecenases, Flaccus, and there will be no lack of Marones. Even your own countryside will yield a Virgil. . . . Will I then be a Virgil if you o√er me the gifts of a Maecenas? I will not be a Virgil, I will be a Marcus. . . . Tityrus had lost his acreage near wretched Cremona, he wept and drove sheep that had been appropriated. The Tuscan knight smiled and drove back spiteful poverty and ordered it to take flight quickly. ‘Take riches and be the best of poets.’ Forthwith he conceived ‘Italy’ and ‘Arms and the Man’ though he had scarcely finished weeping for his ‘Gnat’ in unpolished verse.’’ By contrast Ovid spoke of ‘‘godlike song.’’ For Cicero writes in his speech on behalf of the poet Aulus Licinius Archytas: ‘‘Thus we have it from the highest and most learned men, while the pursuit of the other arts is based on rules and knowledge and technique, a poet draws on 314

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nature itself for strength and is roused to activity by the force of his mind and is inflamed by a certain godlike inspiration. Consequently, Ennius calls poets holy because they seem to be filled with, as it were, a certain gift of the gods. Without doubt this repute of the poet is holy because no brutishness has corrupted it.’’ Note the mention of Homer in the seventh chapter of the same book: He then added vates [bard], about which Rabanus spoke in book 3 of De rerum naturis [On the Natures of Things, also known as De universo (842–46)]: ‘‘Whom the pagan world named bards, ours calls prophets, which is to say, predictors. For they also foretell what is fated and the truth about the future.’’ Note fully in the heading vates [bard] in his book De rebus memoria dignis [On Matters Worthy of Memory]: ‘‘Earlier authorities have said that vates [bards] received their name a vi mentis [from force of mind].’’ For this reason poets were held in the highest honor by all, but gradually their rewards and honors were to a notable degree taken from them, as Ovid said in his third book of the Ars amatoria: ‘‘What is sought by holy bards except only reputation? The whole of our e√orts has this as its goal. Poets were once the care of gods and of kings, and choruses of old [or choruses of poets] gained great rewards. The majesty of poets was holy, their reputation venerable, and abundant wealth was often bestowed on them. Ennius, sprung from the mountains of Calabria, won a place. . . . Ivy lies without honor, and wakeful e√ort undertaken for the learned Muses possesses the reputation of sloth. Yet wakeful pursuit of Fame has benefits: Who would know of Homer if the Iliad, a work ever to endure, lay hidden?’’ Now let us discuss his names and his bodily appearance. Virgil, his proper name, is derived from the virga [shoot] to which, as we said, his mother dreamed that she gave birth. He was called Maro from mauron, which means ‘‘black,’’ for his complexion was dark, whence also Moorish peoples of dark color were named, just as Gauls were named from galath, which means ‘‘white.’’ Certain others hold that the name Maro is equivalent to mare [sea] because it never increases even with the addition of many rivers, nor would it shrink even if no river should supply it with water. So Virgil never gains in prestige from praise, nor is he diminished by slander. His height was middling, approaching tall. He had the features of a rustic. His health was variable. He quite often ailed in his stomach and from headaches. He was sparing in food and wine. His life was so completely upright that in the city of Naples he was commonly called ‘‘Parthenias,’’ which is to say, ‘‘modest virgin.’’ He su√ered from only one vice: he failed to control his sexual appetite and was especially inclined toward boys, a fact which Juvenal touches on in his seventh satire when he says: ‘‘For had Virgil possessed no slave and A. VITAE

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no decent dwelling, all the snakes would have fallen from the [Fury’s] locks.’’ Servius, however, concerning the second Eclogue, says that he loved only three: Alexander for sure, whom Pollio gave him, and the boy Cebes, and the girl Hyena, whom he states that he received from Maecenas. Nor do poems that I learned under the label of Virgil hide his lust: ‘‘If I recollect, Ylia, you had four teeth. One cough popped out two, and one cough two. Now you can cough for ever and a day without worry. A third cough has nothing there for it to do.’’ Let us turn at last to his writings. In his sixteenth year, Virgil, when he had witnessed a shepherd, who had been bitten by a gnat, with a blow kill the gnat, though the shepherd would have been killed by the assault of a water snake, he published his first poetry: ‘‘O tiny gnat, a shepherd o√ers you, who are so deserving, the rite of death in exchange for the gift of life.’’ He also composed an epitaph for Ballista, the worst of cutthroats, in these words: ‘‘Ballista is covered, buried under this mountain of stones; by night and by day take your route in safety, traveler.’’ I pass by his other juvenilia in my hurry to give su≈cient time to his more mature works. The Bucolics was crafted in humble style, the Georgics in middle, and the Aeneid in tragic. Thus he embraced in his works all three styles, or modes of expression, that orators and poets have at their disposal to express the nature of actions and of characters. It could also be said that he contemplated the threefold variety of ways of life. The first, naturally enough, is pastoral. In it uncivilized men who inhabit the woods live on grasses, fruit, and sheep’s milk. To represent this he first wrote his Bucolics. After this, he pondered agriculture, devoting his attention to the life of farming, when for a more gentle source of sustenance men abandoned the caves of the forest and devoted themselves to the cultivation of fields. Realizing, in the third place, that strife arose from the division of fields, that wars came about, cities were built, and hatred sprang up among fellow citizens, he published the Aeneid. This it seems is what our poet felt when he first sang of shepherds, then of farmers, and lastly of warriors. In his three works he followed various poets: in the Bucolics he especially followed Theocritus of Syracuse, Hesiod in the Georgics, and in the Aeneid he followed Homer so closely that Asconius Pedianus, according to the testimony of Donatus in his Commentarii Vergiliani [Commentary on Virgil], reproved him quite often for inserting verses of Homer into his work. Virgil is said to have answered that it takes great strength to seize the club from the hand of Hercules, and he regularly added: ‘‘Why do you not attempt these same thefts?’’ In this way the wise man turned to his own credit what was said to his disparagement. If you wish to know to whose renown he wrote each one of his books, you might notice that, after the murder of Julius Caesar, Octavian, his adopted son, 316

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waged very many wars against the murderers of his father, as I have discussed at length when treating of Octavian in my De viris claris [On Famous Men]. When at last he gained victory over Mark Antony, who because of his demented love for Cleopatra had divorced Octavia, most prudent of women and sister of Octavian, he gave to his soldiers the fields of the Cremonans who had taken up arms against him. But when these did not prove su≈cient, he added to these the lands of Mantua, not because of any fault of the citizens but because of their proximity to Cremona. Consequently, he himself says in the ninth Eclogue: ‘‘Mantua, alas, too close to pitiable Cremona.’’ Therefore, his land lost, he came to Rome, and, under the patronage of Maecenas and Asinius Pollio, Varro, and Cornelius Gallus, he alone recovered his land. Consequently, these men being his supporters, Maro was able to say in these poems what Ovid in the third book of his Pontica said to his: ‘‘So then gratitude for the service that I rendered will die when I have become ashes, my body having been usurped. I am wrong: gratitude will outlive the span of my life if after all I will be read by a posterity that remembers.’’ Then Pollio, moved by the repute of his poetry, proposed to Virgil that he write the Bucolics. He wrote and polished this over a three-year period when he was twenty-eight years of age. Hence he writes near the end of the book of Georgics: ‘‘And bold in my youth I sang of you, Titirus, under the protection of the spreading beech.’’ Then, at the request of Maecenas, he similarly wrote and corrected the Georgics over a seven-year period. Finally, over eleven years he crafted the Aeneid, which had been suggested to him by Augustus. This, as common opinion has it, he neither completed nor polished. But to flatter the emperor, he mingled many falsehoods with truth. In its first book, ‘‘On the Blessed Boy,’’ the Anticlaudianus says: ‘‘Virgil’s muse glosses many lies and from the appearance of truth weaves cloaks for falsehood.’’ He also read aloud to Augustus three books: the second, fourth, and sixth. The reading of the sixth book was notable for the fainting of Octavia. They say that she, being present at that reading, when it came to the verses about her son, ‘‘You will be Marcellus’’ and what follows, fell in a faint and was with some di≈culty brought back to life. When he had reached the age of fifty-one, readying himself to put the final touches on the Aeneid, he decided to travel to Greece and do nothing for the next three years other than refine [the Aeneid], so that he could devote the rest of his life to philosophy. But, as Donatus writes, when he was at the start of his trip he met Augustus, who was on his way back from the east and compelled Virgil to return. While Virgil was visiting Megara, a nearby town where the sun shone strongly, he became ill with weakness in his head and stomach, and he came down with an intense fever. Because he didn’t interrupt his sea A. VITAE

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journey, the fever grew ever stronger. At last he reached Brindisi, where (according to Donatus) he died after a few days, on September 21, in the twentyseventh year of the reign of Augustus. But Petrarch avows that he died at Taranto, just as I wrote in the same book under the heading ‘‘Taranto.’’ His bones were transferred to Naples and were placed in a lofty tomb at the base of a mountain within the second milestone on the road to Pozzuoli, with the epitaph: ‘‘Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders.’’ Virgil himself in fact a≈rms this when he says, in the third canto of Dante’s Purgatorio: ‘‘It is now evening in the place where the body is buried within which I made shadow; Naples has it, and it was taken from Brindisi.’’ Later Pliny of Verona [the Elder, of Como; see above, I.C.8], who wrote the Historia naturalis [Natural History], was buried there at no great distance from Virgil’s sepulcher. The lesser Isidore says in his Chronicon [that] in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Augustus, Virgil died at Brindisi. But buried at Mantua, where he was born, Virgil had this epitaph on his tomb, that is: ‘‘Light of the Muses, famous throughout the ages, star of poets, mightily to be worshipped.’’ But the first opinion is better regarded. Gervase, in his book Otia imperialia [Recreation for an Emperor], under ‘‘The Shape of Words,’’ confirms that in the year of our Lord 1110, during the reign of King Roger [II, 1095–1154] of Sicily, a certain Englishman, deeply learned in the liberal arts, superb in mathematics, magic, and astronomy, came before the king to ask a favor of him, something that in the eyes of men would seem but small, to wit, the bones of Virgil, wherever he should be able to find them in the king’s dominion. The king kindly consented, and the scholar, armed with letters from the king, betook himself to Naples. There, when he presented the king’s commendation, the people obeyed and took him to the very grave of Virgil that he sought. Through the knowledge of his art, the scholar caused the tomb, which had soon been found, to be dug up. Thus the bones of Virgil were easily discovered, and under his head an ars notoria [a book of mystic notae, or figures] with certain other marks of such study. Immediately then the book and dust along with the bones of Virgil were removed by the scholar. But rumor, proclaiming the novelty of the event, reminded the people of how many good works Maro had for a long time conferred on the inhabitants of Naples. The people therefore preferred to disregard the king’s command rather than to show themselves so ungrateful. Wherefore the leader of the soldiers with a throng of citizens took away the bones from the scholar and, to prevent a similar situation from ever happening, put the remains in the Castello di Mare at the border of the aforesaid city, where they were shown, protected by iron bars, to anyone who wished to see them. When the Englishman was asked what 318

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he had intended to do with the bones, he is said to have answered that he would have made a spell so that the bones would have taught him all the art of Virgil. He even added that he would accomplish his objective if he should hold control over the bones for forty days. He took his leave with only the book granted him, disappointed in the rest. [See below, II.C.14.] I return to Maro. Virgil, according to Donatus, as he put together his last will, made Valerius Proculus, his brother born from a di√erent father, heir of half his estate, Augustus heir of a quarter, Maecenas of a twelfth. The rest went to Varus the poet and Tucca, who under orders from Augustus polished the Aeneid after his death, as Petrarch says in his tenth Eclogue: ‘‘He, when he had wept for the untimely death of a beloved shepherd, is said to have entrusted his uncompleted poem to two people and to have asked them to bring it to perfection under a tight stipulation. Eager to commence the task enjoined upon them and forgetful of their own a√airs, [they could have been seen dealing masterfully with the work of another] and desiring praise for someone else and toil for themselves.’’ Virgil had arranged with Varus, before he departed from Italy, that if anything bad happened to him he should burn the Aeneid. Nevertheless, Varus said that he wouldn’t carry that through. Also, as he lay dying, Virgil wished that the Aeneid be burned, but no one o√ered to do that, and it was saved. Sulpicius of Carthage likewise said [see below, II.D.3.a]: ‘‘Virgil had given instructions that it was to be destroyed by consuming fire, the poem that sang of the Phrygian prince. Tucca and likewise Varus refuse; you, greatest Caesar, do not allow the destruction; you look out for the narrative about Latium. Luckless Pergamum nearly fell in a second fire, and Troy was almost consumed on another pyre.’’ I return finally to the emenders. As Nisus says that he had heard from his elders, they changed the order of two books so that what was the third is now the second, and they took away these verses from the beginning: ‘‘I am he who once tuned my song on a slender reed, then, leaving the woodland, compelled the neighboring fields to serve the husbandman, however grasping, a work welcome to farmers: but now of Mars’s bristling arms and a man I sing . . .’’ [see above, I.C.2]. These finished, let us next examine certain magical works of his. Gervase, in the ninth and eleventh chapters of his book De mirabilibus [mundi] [On the Marvels of the World] [see below, V.A.5], in astonishing agreement with Helinand in his twenty-sixth book [see below, V.F.1], writes: ‘‘Speaking with the skill of a magician Virgil set up on a gate in Naples a bronze fly of such power that, while it remained in the same spot, no fly entered the broad expanse of the city.’’ Elsewhere I have also read that, when M. Marcellus, A. VITAE

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nephew of Augustus, was taking special pleasure in bird-catching, Virgil asked him whether he would like a bird to be fitted out so as to prey on all flying creatures, or a fly to banish flies, driving them from the city of Naples. On the advice of Augustus, whom he consulted, he chose the latter. On the wall of a meat market in this same city of Naples he attached a piece of meat with such power that, as long as it kept its place on the wall, no meat troubled the taste, smell, or sight of an onlooker. On the right side above the Dominican Gate he carved from Parian marble a human head, whose features smiled, and on the left he carved another head out of the same marble, and he presented it with the fierce eyes of a wretch who wept a great deal. Whoever entered the city from the right side found all his prayers brought successfully to fruition, but to those entering from the left side every misfortune occurred. He did this that the cunning of unclean spirits might be believed to be feigned, rather than as the actual outcome of a√airs, since everything lies most firmly in the will of God, as the apostle says: ‘‘All things are according to Your will, and there is no one who is able to resist Your will.’’ On the border of the same city and opposite it was Monte Vergine, on whose slope in the midst of sheer rock Virgil had made a garden di≈cult to approach and planted with many types of herbs. Among these is the luce plant. When brute livestock touch it they receive sharp eyesight. On the same mountain was a bronze statue holding a trumpet in its mouth. Whenever wind blew directly into this, it gave forth a sound of great value. To understand this better you should know that on the edge of the city of Naples there was a lofty mountain fixed in the sea. Harmful smoke issued from this during the month of May. It spewed fiery rocks and a tongue of flame on account of which the populace for a long time thought that this was the vent of hell. When the south wind blew, burned dust scorched the crops and fields, and as a result fertile soil became sterile. Pitying the Neapolitans and their land, Virgil erected a statue holding a trumpet to its lips on a mountain opposite, so that at the first sound of the trumpet’s music, the south wind might be magically repulsed and banished. With the statue now worn away either by time or by the sly wickedness of the envious, that region is often troubled by its old aΔictions. They say that this garden was bounded by a bronze enclosure. The entrance opened for none save whom Virgil permitted. They tell also that in the same city of Naples Virgil constructed a belfry movable by the ringing of its bells. In the city of Rome he raised a marvelous column, as I wrote in the same De viris claris in dealing with Caesar, the first emperor, under the heading ‘‘Burial of Caesar.’’ I would be able to tell of such commonplaces, which I pass by for the sake of explaining other matters. Nevertheless I find that he acquired great knowledge of magic. One day, when he 320

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was not as great but rather most esteemed by Octavian, while he was traveling to Naples, he saw that a farmer, as he dug deeply by the side of the road, had discovered a bronze head with a most charming shape, and Virgil bought it for a small price. He placed this in his library. When on the next night it called out to him, Virgil in astonishment asked who he was. He replied: ‘‘I am the longhonored spirit of a philosopher, penned for a thousand years in this prison. I will teach you marvelously beyond mortals if you set me at liberty.’’ Then Maro said: ‘‘When you have taught me duly to be able to release spirits and to bind the universe, I bear witness to the boon that might release you from your prison.’’ Thus spoke the learned Virgil, and he held him forever imprisoned in a glass vase ready at hand, in which he enclosed him. (MP)

36. Sicco Polenton I (1426) Sicco Polenton was an Italian humanist, who was born in 1375 or 1376 and died in 1447. The first redaction of this Vita Vergilii appears in the third book of the incomplete draft of the first edition of his De scriptoribus illustribus latinae linguae (On Famous Writers of the Latin Language), which is found in Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS Riccardianus 21 (1426), folios 23v–30v. This first redaction of the biography of Virgil is noteworthy in distancing itself at the outset from Virgil the magician. (Discussion: F. Stok, ‘‘Il rinascimento della biografia virgiliana,’’ Studi umanistici Piceni 2 [1991], 229–39) (Text: EV 5.2, 518–22, no. 378) (JZ) Publii Virgilii Maronis Mantuani poete excellentissimi vita, a plerisque contra dignitatem viri, contra veritatem rei magijs et obs[o]letis rebus, [per] fabulam a ceteris vero tacta, magis quam satis explicata est. Nos autem in presentia non brevitate illa non femineis fabulis delectati, sumus facturi secus. Rem quidem omnem, quemadmodum par est ac solemus in aliis, quantum solerti investigatione nostra decerpere ac decernere poterimus, veram dignam integram absolvemus, et suis a penatibus principium capiemus. Macrobius enim, vir multarum literarum et facundie non jeiune, in eo libro qui est de Saturnalibus inscriptus [Saturnalia 5.2.1], in quo memoriter et utiliter multa et varia bona scitu docuit atque in sermonem dixit, tandem isto de poeta verba facturus, Venetum ipsum ac rusticanum vocat. Habetur eadem apud Servium sententia; neque vero est omnium quisquam, qui usquam sit hac de re loquutus, qui non assentiat viro huic, et si aliquis ingenio scientia litteris eloquentia poeta nobilissimus esset, tamen fuisse et faciem et parentes penitissime rusticanos. Natus quidem est in agro Mantuano qui Venetie cum regionis esset Oc[to]nus enim Tiberis et fatidice Mantos filius tenus Padum in terra Jtalie A. VITAE

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[sic] civitatem condidit, quam de matris nomine Mantuam pro summa gloria et sempiterna memoria vocitavit. Hanc esse in provincia Venetie veteres omnes dicunt, hoc namque Servius, hoc Ysidorus [Isidore, Etymologiarum libri 15.1.59], hoc et Plinius [Pliny the Elder], qui isto presertim in genere studii et diligentie ceteris locupletior, scribunt. Verum tres et varia in regione provincias fuisse olim nomine hoc Venetias appellatas constat. Una hic ista nostra est, quam flumen Adua et Histria terminavit. Alteram esse scriptores memorant apud Gallos in Oceano quidem Lugdunensis Galie, ad conspectum insule eius, quam veteres Britaniam nos Angliam vocitamus, scriptores plurique tradunt populos fuisse quos tum Venetos appellarent (hos istos audio Galos Britones in presentia vocari). Potentia horum grandis fuit atque tanta. Testimonio Jullii Celsi [read ‘‘Cesaris: Commentarii de bello Gallico’’ 3.7–16] et Tranquilli [not precisely in Suetonius, ‘‘De vita Caesarum 1’’] utar, in ea maritima regione quod etiam Julio Cesari potentissimo Romanorum duci et felicissimo imperatori et omnem Galiam opprimenti, adversari magno animo et armis auderent, quod locupletissimi populi essent ac pleni operibus arte usu, amplissime navigarent portusque ac omnes qui in eo mari essent vectigales haberent. Tertia esse et utrisque longe antiquior in Paflagonia memoratur (ea minoris Asie pars est). Ibi enim populi alteri sunt Eneti nominati, unde Veneti nostri orti et habentur et sunt. Hi namque per seditionem patria pulsi, cum rege Philomene auxiliares Priamo cum benivolentia tum mercede bello Troiano fuere. Capta vero eversaque Troia et rege amisso, cum victores Greci in ceteros sevitum irent, ducem Antenorem sequentes sequti sunt et cum eo vagi et incerti sedis hanc istam ad regionem nostram, que ut annales et monumenta vetustatis loquuntur tunc Euganea vocaretur, delati nomen province mutavere itaque oblitterato Euganeorum nomine regio hec inde atque diutissime Venetia, populi Veneti appellati. Ea vocatio et genti et province ipso ab excidio Troie in Athilam usque annos prope mille quingentos mansit. Post Athilam vero, non quidem ut soleret prius Venetia provincie nomen, verum sicud in presentia unius modi hoc isto in tractu Italie civitatis est. Id autem vetus regionis nomen illi civitati datum, quod provincie huius duces ac melioris fortune viri crebro adventu barbar[or]um profligati atque fuerunt Athila ferocissimo Hunorum regi perteriti, undique collectis opibus confugere in eum locum in quo Venetie urbis, in presentia et florentissima senatu est et amplissima dominatu. Nam aquis latissime circumseptus locus est et omni ab hostili impetu premunitus. Urbis autem illa, quantum coniectura et ratione ulla percipio, propterea Venetie appellata, quod multitudo istuc non ullo certo duce non una modo 322

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ex urbe sed universa ex regione collecta consedisset. Hinc loco nomen ortum ut Venetie diceretur, quod ibi profugi Veneti habitarent. Hec urbis eius condendi causa et mea pro sententia nominis habendi fuit. Neque vero provincie modo nomen verum etiam termini passim variati detruncatique. Regionis namque huius, quam ut dixi Venetiam veteres appellarent, termini erant Adua flumen et tractu longo ad mare extens[u]m in Dalmatas finiebant, Padum quoque nobilissimi Italie flumen, hinc Alpes (inde Germanis proximas) continebant. Denique [B]ergomum civitatem montanam et quicquid est urbium montium et plani agri inter eas, quas dixi fines, atque Histriam ipsam, ea regio que Venetia diceretur antiquissimo instituto et dictione capiebat. Huius rei autorem precipuum Plinium [Historia Naturalis 3.18–19, in Natural History, vol. 2, ed. and trans. H. Rackham, LCL 352 (1938)] habeo. Padum vero flumen dictionis Venete appellatum, etiam Sextus Propercius [Carmina 1.12.3] et qui eo posterior est Lucanus [De bello civili 4.134] tradunt. Mantuam item esse regionis Venetie civitatem Servius [ed. Thilo-Hagen 1:1] poete nostri diligentissimus interpres scribit. Novo autem rerum eventu vetustissimum id Venetie nomen quem admodum dixi, perdiu iam quatuor [sic] in presentia supra mille [sic] anni sunt, una sibi modo civitas vendicavit provincie vero, pars Marchia Tarvisina dicta, pars in qua ipsa de qua loquimur Mantua dictionis Lombarde facta. At vero cum ista de provincia, quam ut dixi maiores nostri Venetiam nominarent, Mantua civitas habetur. Natus poeta Maro est in villa, que civitati proxima tunc Andes, postea vero atque in presentia Pletule dicta est. H[i]c clarior parentibus quam loco fuit: utrumque habuit fortunis arte genere tenuem. Mater quidem Maya, pater Virgilius ipse aut Publius nomine principali dicti. Pater etate prima fictilia fecit, inde viatoris mercenarius; mox pro aspectu bono et solertia gener factus est. Diligentior hinc singulari quadam industria in emendis silvis et tractandis apibus, egregie quas apud socerum invenisset opes auxit, fortuna denique meliori usus ac ditior passim factus. Virgilium, quem iam haberet filium, puerum litteris erudiendum dedit. Natus est Maro Idibus Octobris, id fuit paulum post dominatum Sile, parum ante natos Catonem Uticensem et Oratium Venusinum, condite autem urbis tunc anus erat VI.C.LXXXI, Cn. Pompeo Magno et M. Lucio Crasso primum consulibus. Nec sine presagio, ut de maximis futuris viris haberi solet, nativitas Maronis data. Quippe gravide matri per quietem visum se ramum lauri parere, qui satus mox vehementer ecresceret pomaque ac flores varios et delectabiles ederet. Hec somnio per noctem. Die autem sequenti, ut solent rustica re soliciti, in agrum vir et uxor profecti sunt. Venter forte maturus erat atque ita maturus quod parenti in agro parere prope coacta sit. Secessit pene in A. VITAE

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subiectam fossam quod ca[u]sa ibi nulla nec aptior locus esset, atque puerum urgente hora mariti solum et nature adiuta presidio enixa est. Infans vero utero egressus vagitum, ut solent nascentes pueri, non vagivit. Sed letabundus facie, quantum etas pate[te]retur, edocuit facile quantus futurus vir et poeta foret. Adde maius quod mater leviata partu, non quidem somnio ut prius, verum re ipsa vera, ut in puerperiis regio ea soleret, eodem in loco natus esset, populeam virgam sevit, quae brevi etiam veteribus ad maximis adequata est. Res hec summam in religionem ducta atque ita ducta, quod arborem ipsam Virgilio dicarint consecrarintque. Matres autem tanta veneratione colluerunt, ut que enixe queve pregnantes essent ad eam veluti divinum ad numen ritu gentium vota darent. Denique enutritus puer et ulnis matris egressus, studia literarum Cremone primum egit. Togam etiam virilem ibi sumpsit septimum ac decimum annum nactus, id autem evenit forte quod anno illo consules idem Pompeius et Crassus qui etiam cum nasceretur essent. Omen ut et optimum omen acceptum, quod Lucretius, qui etate illa excellentissimi ingeni et amplissime autoritatis ac nominis poeta esset, obiret mortem ipso die, amatorio hic poculo hausto, in morbum rabiemque conversus est atque gladio ad postremum pro remedio se peremit. Toga sumpta Virgilius adolescens Mediolanum primo inde Romam, anno qui ante bellum civile Cesaris et Pompei quartus esset. Postea Neapolim profectus est, in studiis autem literarum multum ope[re] ac diligentie artibus omnibus liberali homine dignis sed precipue mathematicis ac medicine dedit. Florentibus etiam ac poeticis ardentissime studuit atque dicendi genus omne mirabili ingenio et diligentia complexus est. Oratorie autem [caus]am, ut solerent docti unam modo egit eamque gestu, voce, dictione non uti optasset multum grata acceptaque. Nam etsi dicendi instituta et omnem eloquentis rationem quantum ullus potuit, arte et ingenio percepisset, tamen veluti natura prohibitus soluta in dictione aut [read ‘‘haud’’] multa cum gratia versaretur. Poetica vero in re omnium confessione omnis etatis ac memorie omnium latinorum clarissimus princeps evasit, quod artem diligentiam ingenium delectatio adiuvaret innatum, quia natura artificium metri faciendi ac poetandi esset. Versus plurique [sic] ab eo per adolescentiam scripti memoranter habentur et nonnulli duobus eque versibus: disticon de Culice et de Ballista fecit, versus etiam in surripientem sua octo sunt, de Ludo duodecim, de monosillabis est et non disceptatio versibus quinque ac viginti scripta, de Viro bono ac sapiente sex ac viginti, de Copa Sirisca octo et triginta, de Rosis unum et quinquaginta, de Moreto centum et viginti tres versus fecit, de Pria[p]o liber unus est, de Ethna monte Siculo etiam scripsisse creditur. Sed 324

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hactenus puerilia et per etatem primam ludebunde scripta. Denique amplioris elegantie ac dignitatis materiam agressus, canere primum regum bella cepit. Cuiusmodi autem reges hi essent, neque memorat ipse clare neque auctor ullus. Etiam veterum ac doctorum non dubium est fuisse illos, plurique Albanos sunt, quidam Romanos coniectati. Utri fuerint nichil facio. Nam in presentia id esse nobis satis existimo, memorasse quod, post ea que ingenii experimenta essent et puerilia viderentur, canere ante omnia regum bella cepit. At vero non perseveravit, sed illis missis scribere[t] pastoriam rem delegit. Consilii huius auctor Asinius Polio esse fertur, Romanis enim rebus morte Julii Cesaris deturbatis, quod rem publicam hinc optimates restituere studerent, inde Marcus Antonius eius seculi funesta pestis opprimere molliretur Octavianum, quod adesset, qui, etsi adolescens non timendus videretur, splendore tamen Cesarei nominis ac favore plebis ad vindicandum necem avunculi et ad capiendum dominatum arderet. Is veteranorum manu patrumque auctoritate consilio favore adiutus, M. Antonium, qui verba interim ferentibus ceteris Mutinam obsideret, turpiter defugavit, Brutum obsedione liberavit, Cremonensium agrum, quod Antoniane factionis esset, veteranis militibus qui auxiliares sibi hoc bello fuissent, ad favorem, ad benivolentiam [sic], ad premium militie assignavit. Ad eam rem equius sortiendam, Cremonensi agrum in supplementum aducere Mantuanum, qui vicin[u]s ac nimium vicinus esset. Quo effectum est, quod Maronis poete nostri praedia, que Mantuano agro haberet, Ario devenirent. Erat hic militum fortunae humilioris capud. Maro autem egre animo quod ager paternus se innucuo et invicto quemadmodum preda hostilis iste nescio quo a milite, quam celerrime rei sue vendicande causa ad amicos confugit operavitque consilio eorum qui virtutem suam illam usque ad diem non multis cognitam, quibus possent verbis amplissimis et laudibus exornarent commendarentque quod Cesareas litteras impetravit cum quibus Mantuam plenus spe rediret. Miles autem nichili fecit has litteras atque poetam instantius sua repetentem interemisset, ni pede celeri fugiens Mincium flumen proximum enatasset. Poeta vero, velut homo qui togatus, qui inermis, qui otio assuetus esset, facile horridi et armati militis [gladio] cecidisset, quod manu non lingua, ense non cartis nec legibus ageretur, et datum predium miles uti primum fidei et virtutis sue debitum armis et quibus posset insidiis tueretur. Impar itaque Maro iterum Romam pergit. Aderat fautor sibi ante alios Mecenas, aderat Cornelius Gallus omnes, aderat Asinius Polio, aderat Varrus Quintilius. Hi clari omnes homines et ornatissimi viri et apud principem Octavianum primarii ac fer[r]e principes civitatis laudatores et A. VITAE

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conservatores rerum suarum et dignitatis ante alios extiterunt idque autoritate sua et diligentia efficerunt quod minus arma quam littere valuerunt. Istis namque fautoribus poetae et demptos agros ricepit [sic] et singularem ad amicitiam strictamque familiaritatem cum Cesare imperatore venit. Octavianus quidem erga litteratos viros qui poete presertim essent, omnium principum facile benignissimus fuit princeps, et ceteros omnes qui sunt, qui fuerunt, qui erunt in hoc genere humanitatis virtute, sapientia, gloria superavit. Huius igitur ad beneficij gratiam, referendamque re aliqua sempiterna, sicut par erat et dignum poete ac grato viro, scripturus quicquam Virgilius rogatus est a Polione oratore et consulari ac excelenti viro, rem quemadmodum etiam fecit pastoriam canere. Itaque, studiosus placere sibi, qui de se meritus bene foret, Eglogas decem scripsit, annos tunc haudquaquam plures octo et viginti agebat. Buccolicum autem opus hoc scribere aggressus triennio perfecit, imitatus Teocritum Siracusium qui mirabilis eo in genere apud Grecos poeta esset. Enimvero, quamvis res pastoritia videatur, habet tamen tantum sanguinis ac nervorum, quod assequi multum gratie rari isto in genere potuere, age, poeta noster, in eo, quemadmodum in ceteris facile omnium iudicio princeps, tantum successus et glorie pro mirabili suo ac divino ingenio eloquentia studio assecutus est, quod Buccolica sua et domi aperitis ac huiusce rerum studiosis et magistris summa pro dignitate celebrata, et foris ad populum more gentium in scena per cantores habitu, ut solerent, pastorio sepius ac multo cum plausu recensita et decantata sint. Cicero, qui eloquentie Romane princeps est, et iam senex eglogam illam que ad Varrum est, et ‘‘Prima Siracusio’’ [Eclogues 6.1] incipit, cum in teatro cantare audivit, et admiratus elegantiam eius ac dignitatem, satis atque satis cuius esset perquisivit obstupefactusque vehementer tandem verbis his cum sui tum poete laudandi causa usus est: ‘‘Magne spes altera Rome’’ [Aeneid 12.168]. Que ne tanto a viro suam ad laudem dicta perirent, Virgilius poeta ultimo Eneidis libro ad personam Ascanij referens memorie sempiterne dedit, versu isto dicens: ‘‘Et puer Ascanius magne spes altera Rome’’ [Aeneid 12.168: ‘‘Et iuxta’’ instead of ‘‘Et puer’’ (compare 1.267, 4.156, 10.236)]. Hoc enim Servius [contrast Servius on Aeneid 1.269, in Thilo-Hagen 1: 98–99] et qui veteres sunt poete huius commentatores tradunt et fuisse ac memorant ipsa quoque temporum ratio et virorum dignitas persuadet. Verum enimvero satis soleo mecum admirari esse nimis vere a plerisque dictum, presertim a Servio, qui doctus esse vir et ante alios poete huius copiosus vitae scriptor et acuratus interpres, Maronem cecinisse Buccolica receptis agris, qui bello Philippensi facto dempti essent ac militibus ve326

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teranis dati. Quippe nemo est, qui nusquam erret: sibi enim bona sua (cum venia loquar) et rerum gestarum ordo et dimensio temporun adversatu[r], bellumque id fuisse Mutinense non Philippense docet. Rem ta[me]n g[r]amus [= tangamus] manu, ne dixisse ista per calumniam et sompnio videamur, civilium quidem bellorum, que C. Julio Cesare interempto fuere, omnium primum fuisse Mutinense scriptores omnes una voce uno testimonio sine controversia ulla tradunt; bellum id secuta est funesta illa triumviralis pestis, qua sunt publice libertatis studiosi cives boni ac Cicero ipse, qui rei huius dux ac princeps esset, proscripti, cesi, necati. Affrica [read ‘‘Afflicta’’?] vero urbe malis istis atque mortuo Cicerone, tunc in bellum ad Philippense itur. Pretermitto reliqua bella, neque nominavi bellorum seriem, sed ordinem explico quod sit in presentia nobis satis atque satis demonstrasse, id minime quemadmodum scribunt illi, post bellum Philippense fuisse. Est quidem sole illustrissimo clarius, Ciceronem post Philippense bellum, quod, ante prorsus iam obisset diem quam dicunt, eglogam ‘‘Prima Siracusio’’ [6.1] neque laudare potuisse neque audire. Nobis quoque testis egregius adest eius ipsius Maronis etas, juvenem quidem se ipsum utpote, cum ‘‘audax sibi iuventa’’ [Georgics 4.565, with ‘‘sibi’’ for ‘‘-que’’] esset, scripsisse Eglogas memorat. Idque fatentur ipsi annorum eum octo et viginti et Servius et commentatores reliqui Buccolica cecidisse ferunt. At vero Philippensi bello annos iam supra duos et triginta natus erat. Mutinensi autem bello haudquaquam plures octo et viginti habebat. Neque vero parum adiumenti et fidei prebet L. Florus [see above, I.C.23], vir multe autoritatis et inter eos qui Romanorum memorabilia facta breviter et cum dignitate dixere non ieiunus. Alterum quidem bellum post Mutinense concitatum scribit ex divisione agrorum quos Cesar Octavianus ad militie pretium veteranis daret. Hoc namque, ut paucis expediam, bellorum ordo, hoc, ut dixi, Maronis etas. Hoc viri doctissimi Flori testimonium, hoc denique omnis ratio persuadet. Pro[pterea] verius esse dictum existimo haud quaquam bello Philippensi sed Mutinensi exacto, Cremonenses Mantuanosque agros veteranis datos; Maroni tunc [cum] essent restitut[i], Eglogas tunc ad gratiam referendam scriptas ‘‘Prima Siracusio’’ [Eclogues 6.1] tunc vivo Cicerone auditam laudatamque. Cum igitur ita sit, ut dixi, deinceps ad reliqua gradiamur. Postea vero quam pastoricia cecinisset, collendi agri [no]tionem etiam metro dixit hortatu eum Mecenatis, qui, ut memoravi, beneficio sibi et singulari benivolentia devinctus esset. Georgica scripsit de agraria disciplina. Operis huius libri quatuor sunt in quibus perficiendis Esiodum illum ornatissimum et vetustissimum apud Grecos poetam imitatus est atque A. VITAE

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septennium laboravit. Idque in eo delimando non temere neque [in]consulte observavit quod meditatus que vis esset uti ad buccam seu mentem venirent, quo posset artificio primo licet non satis laborato colligeret, postea vero emendaret sensim atque, ut dicere solebat, ipse lambendo ursino more plenus ingenio et arte dignam et limatam ad formam effingeret. Opus tandem perfectum Augusto res suas avide et multa cum dilectatione audienti recitavit. Sed cum fesso interdum sibi Mecenas vices legendi susciperet, cognita eius vis pronuntiandi inter utrumque et varietas est, quod recitante Virgilio quod aures audientium quam maxime delectarent[ur], eadem, legente Mecenate, quamquis erudito homine ac spectato, inania et muta viderentur, quod Maro cum lenociniis et suavitate quadam ac mira cum suavitate, Mecenas vero insulse et inepte pronunciaret. Tandem vero ac ultimo Eneidam rem gratam acceptamque Augusto libris uti sunt duobus ac decem fecit, hoc autem in opere que in genere maius ceteris est ac magis egregium verbis rebus sententijs, id est, a Virgilio certo quodam consilio et industria observatum, quod rem omnem soluta primum oratione collegit, disposuit, scripsit, postea vero in metrum vertit. Atque opus id tanta diligentia et arte fecit, quod si non minus vere quam sepe dicimus in eo et peditare agnum et natare camellum. Lectio namque eius non uti a plurisque putatur futilis inanis puerilis, verum sane ipsam taceo mirabilem eloquentiam et dignitatem versus, pulcherrimarum rerum narratione iocunda introrsus autem sanctissimis moribus et institutis plena, ut quemadmodum Greci Homerum poetarum principem sic Latini Virgilium venerentur, atque summa pro excellentia et singulari dignitate ac principatu ipsum unum poetam vel nomine tanto merito et optimo jure vocent. Rei namque huic, que arte, rebus, dignitate magna esset, ingenij, temporis opere multum dedit, neque vero minus uno ac decem annis consumarit. Opus autem vix ceptum ante quam celo ipsum fama laudibus multis ac maximis adequaret. Multa enim et a multis poetis ac clarissimis et doctis viris eius ad laudem et summam ad laudem non ficto animo, non blexo ore, non frigida lingua, non adulanter, sed consulte vere scite enarrata et celebrata sunt. Que et si possent pro eius laude ac inmortali gloria memorari, nostro tam est arbitratu et licentia satis in presentia et laudabunde fuerit pro testimonio referre decantatum a Sexto Propertio illustris facundie et ingenij multj poeta, carmen hoc: ‘‘Cedite, Romani scriptores, cedite, G[r]ai: / nescioquid maius nascitur Jliade’’ [Carmina 2.34.65– 66: see above, I.B.4]. Erat quippe visendi operis huius apud omnes expectatio magna, et Augustus, etiam longe supra quam viro militari et rebus bellicis impedito prin-

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cipi ac maximo imperatori licere debere putaretur, fama mirabili inflamatus est atque ita inflamatus quod ipsa e Cantambria (Hispanie hec regio est) atque ipsis e medijs bellorum curis sepius ad eum scriberet litteris interdum precatorias aliquando etiam per iocum minaces rogitaret quod ad se huius quicquam istius tanti operis cepti mitti. Responsionum poete unum extat, hec est [see above, I.A.2]: ‘‘P. Virgilius Maro Octaviano Cesari salutem dicit. Ego vero frequentes a [te] litteras accipio. De Enea quidem meo si mehercule iam dignum quid auribus haberem tuis libenter mitterem, sed tanta incohata res est ut pene vitio mentis tantum opus ingressus michi videar; cum presertim ut scis alia quoque studia ad id opus multaque potiora impartiar.’’ Tandem vero sibi reverso et multo desiderio ac veluti quadam gravida quadam voluntate cupienti atque id sepius requirenti etsi res neque perfecta neque conpleta esset, tamen precibus fatigatus recitavit libros tres utpote secundum tertium sextum, tantaque suavitate voce gestu pronunciavit quod Marcelli nomine recitato qui aderant se alius alium oculis lacrimosis aspicerent atque omnes mirabilem ad pietatem et fletum commoti silentium imperarent vixque finem adesse dicente ipso progredi paterentur. Recitante autem ipso versum illum ‘‘Tu Marcellus eris’’ [Aeneid 6.883], Ottavia Augusti soror et Marcelli huius mater, capta dulci recordatione nominis eius jocundissimi filij qui adulescens optime indolis et amplissime spei diem obisset, ut solent femine ac precipue matres, lacrimis et pietatis plena cecidit exanimis vixque medi[co]rum p[r]ius iussu consilijs [a]uxilijs remediis levata et restituta est. Age vero tantum excellentie et autoritatis isto in viro fuit quod etiam qui poete ac docti poete viderentur, Maroni ascriberent poemata que autquaquam [read ‘‘haudquaquam’’] ab eo verum ab ipsis excogitata ac scripta forent. Ordinis huius etiam Varrus [Lucius Varius Rufus: see above, I.B.1] familiaris eius ac poeta non ignobilis memoratur. Is namque Thiestem tragediam suam veluti factam a Marone inscripsit vulgavitque. Proba [see below, III.A.5] quoque Adelphi magnifici et consularis viri uxor, longe postea nata sed mulier apud etatem suam pudicitia litteris honestate primaria, versus hoc isto nostro ex poeta tanto cum artificio et ratione collegit atque suapte disposuit quod Maronem ipsum canere non Eneam quidem suum verum divina quadam mente et consilio preditum omnem patrum et Christi vitam ac testamenti utriusque facta putes. Eadem femina Greci etiam sermonis gnara idem apud Grecos ex Homero perfecit versibus namque alienis in rem suam versis mundi originem fortunas patrum Christi adventum ac vite sue historiam omnem verbis apud Grecos [Homeros] Homericis, apud nos Virgilianiis, quam brevissime et multa cum dignitate ac ordine complexa

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est, quam ob rem cognomentum et traditum, ut quemadmodum solent qui ludum huiusce ludunt, ipsa etiam sit Centona singulari quadam pro laude ac excellentia vocitata. Fuerunt etiam qui virtuti eius ac glorie inviderent et adminuendam et obscurandam suam laudem que singularis et nimia videretur, ut solent improbi contra bonos, invidiosissime latrarent et quibus possent maledictis et conviciis lacerarent sanctum et integerrimum nomen suum. Varij quidem varia obicere. Sed id crebrius et a pluribus obiectum vulgatumque quod ex Homero illustrissimi Greci nominis poeta suo usui vendicasset atque usurpasset, multa ipse autem patienter omnia et animo bono ferre, nilque aliud quam hoc unum et id quidem urbane ac facete respondere: ‘‘Experirentur modo ipsi quam facile Homero subtraherent, quam difficilius eripere versum Homero quam Herculi clavam esset.’’ Ceterum studio delimandi operis quod Augusti gratia de suo Enea cecinisset, secedere in Greciam placuit, ut sicut optaret postea solutus daret philosophie et quiere reliquum tempus vite sue quod iam senesceret et otium amaret. Sed cogitatum fata, que inimiciter consiliis nostris adversantur flexere aliorsum, quam et animo voluisset et consilio statuisset. Navigans enim in Octavianum incidit, qui Oriente vel domito vel pacato rediens forte apud Athenas esset. Jpso uti mos et fas erat reverenter ac debite salutato censuit equum esse Romam cum eo revenire. Nam et Augustus presentia eius ac sapientia delectatus ipsum redire secum et desiderio multo et animo amico vidit, quod amice cum eo et familiariter loqui obversarique gauderet. Rediens autem vehe[me]ntius fervente sole vir iam etate gravis et otio non laboribus assuetus, langore apud Megar[a]m correptus est. Neque vero ob id navigationem intermisit. Inde morbo passim acuto iam sine spe langoris vite vix Brondusium seu, ut malunt alii, Tarentum applicuit, denique paucos ibi moratus dies [ex]cessit vita XI kalendas octobrias annum agens tertium supra quinquaginta Gn. Sextio Saturnino et Q. Lucretio Cinna consulibus anno quarto ante natam virginem, que postea deplena filium pudicissimo ventre Christum Iesum hominem ac Deum verum et concepit et peperit. Annus vero imperii Octaviani iam profligato et turpem ad mortem coacto M. Anthonio prope duodecimus erat. Inde apud Neapolim maximo cum honore, uti gentium ritus et honoris dignitas sua de[be]ret, ad lapidem secundum sepultus est Puteolana via. Mox autem disceptatio cremandi Eneidis orta, rem in periculum ac litem aduxit recordatio voluntatis eius quod proficiscens in Greciam, quasi futuri mali presaga mente, stricte precatus esset Tuccam familiarem suum ac poetam tunc egregium ac doctum virum, si quid adversi opere non delimato 330

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eveniret, id presto cremaret. Urgebat etiam quod moriens deferri ad se scrinea sepius postulasset ut sicut animo statuisset igne non delimatum opus quasi vita non dignus assumeret. Contentionem hanc diremit Cesar ipse servari enim ut par erat, opus iussit dari tamen Tucce ac Varro qui poete docti et Maronis familiares amici mentem eius haberent emendarentque ac lege quod nichil aderent minuerent modo que superflua iudicarent. Ab his itaque viris et poetis duobus egregijs et amicis suis jussu et autoritate imperatoris Enea suus emendatus est. Quatuor namque ex principio libri primi versus dempti. Ex libro autem secondo post Priami mortem versus tres et viginti abrasi. Commutatus item ut plerrique [sic] volunt librorum ordo, ut qui liber nunc tertius ab eo constitutus esset, secundus ab his et nunc locatus sit. Maro tamen de opere ipse cremando nichil penitus testamento cavit. Heredes autem fecit ante alios ex quadrante Augustum, ex uncia Mecenatem, ex sextante poetas quibus precipue amicaretur Tuccam et Varrum, ex semisse Valerium Proculum uterinum fratrem quod patre mortuo iterum nupta mater hunc filium ex viro altero concepisset, dudum enim sed iam Marone maturo pater captus oculis et fratres duo Flaccus et Silo ventre uno et patre nati obierant. Opes autem cum patris hereditate cum amicorum beneficentia et liberali[ta]te ad centies sextertium habuit. Domus eius Rome in Exquiliis iuxta ortos Mecenatis fuit quod huic viro quem admodum a se ita domo vicinus esse et proximus studuisset. Raro tamen in urbe habitavit, aliquando in Sicilia, sepius Campano in agro moratus est, tum quod vir otio et libris datus, frequentias hominum et clientelas vento plenas libens effugeret, tum quod ipsum per maxime oblectaret predium quod eggregium et amenum sibi et magnitudine et pulchritudine apud Nolam esset. At vero irrigandi huius causa, Nolani gens popularis ac virtutis nescia, rigantj poete dare aquam noluere. Quamobrem Maronem vehementissime indignatum ferunt atque mox derasisse de suo veluti de vite libro nomen Nole quod in Georgicis iam pro memoria et laude sempiterna scripsisset versu isto: ‘‘Talem dives arat Capua et vicina Vesevo / No[1]a iugo’’ [2.224–25], verbo enim commutato ‘‘ora’’ pro ‘‘Nola’’ dixit. Modestie alioquin et iracundie parcus. Cibi quoque ac vini modicus ambicionis vacuus prorsus atque ita vacuus et illa a re penitus alienus, quod Romam si quando pergeret frequentatas vias, quantum posset, ac loca celebria devitaret atque interdum se proximas in edes ocultaret ne, ut soleret, transiens digito veluti admirabilis ac divinus quidam homo pro summa excelencia monstraretur. Et Neapolis Pergemias (alias Parthemias id est) probatus vita cognomento vocatus est. Neque vero avaricie minus quam ambicionis hostis. Bona quidem exulis que donare sibi Augustus offeret constanter et animo magno repudiavit, quod sicut est arbitraretur A. VITAE

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esse tempore ac omni bono non licere habere quicquam quod iusto a domino et innocuo forte a viro ereptum esse. Proceritate autem poeta noster communem staturam excessit. Color ei aquilinus fuit natura nimius. Non prosperam habuit valitudine[m]. Quidem vesatus est sepe quod modo stomacum interdum fauces aliquando caput doloret. Ex famulicio dilexit maxime Cebetem et Allexandrum quod ante alios pueri aspectu et ingenio grati nec imperiti essent. Profitebatur Cebes poeticam Allexander gramaticam. Hunc sibi donatum a Pollione in Buccolicis Alexim vocat. Ex poetis autem qui erant multi (florebat tunc quam maxime ordo poetarum), amicum habuit ac singulari benivolentia familiarem Q. Oratium Flaccum, qui satirus tunc poeta esset ac rei poetice et etate illa egregius artifex et magister.

The life of Publius Virgilius Maro, a Mantuan and the most excellent poet, treated by many writers with magic and hackneyed material at the expense of the man’s dignity and of the truth of the matter, by the rest as fiction, has been set forth more than enough. We in the present, however, are not beguiled by that brevity nor by such old wives’ tales; we are going to do things di√erently. For certain we will complete all the matter truthfully, worthily, and wholly, in the same way as we are accustomed to do in the case of others, insofar as we can gather and reach a determination through our careful examination; and we will make a beginning with his household and family. For Macrobius, a man of great erudition and creative eloquence, in that book which is entitled Saturnalia, in which he taught and put into words in a memorable and useful fashion many di√erent things that are good to know, being at last on the point of making some remarks about this poet, says that he was a peasant from Veneto. Servius was of the same opinion; and of all those who have discussed the subject, there is no one who does not concur with Macrobius and say that while he was the noblest of poets in genius, knowledge, literary culture, and eloquence, he was nonetheless, in appearance as in parentage, a bona fide country bumpkin. He was born on the Mantuan plain, which was part of Venetia and its demesnes, for Ocnus, the son of the Tiber and the soothsaying Manto, founded as far as the Po in the land of Italia a city, which he called Mantua after his mother’s name for her supreme glory and eternal remembrance. All the ancients say that this city was in the province of Venetia, as in fact write Servius, Isidore, and also Pliny, who especially in that type of study and thoroughness is more reliable than the rest. Indeed it is agreed that there had been three provinces in various regions that had once been known by this name, Venetia. One of these is our Venezia, which the river Adda and the peninsula Istria bounded. 332

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Writers recall that there was another in the Atlantic among the Gauls, in Gallia Lugdunensis, within view of that island which the ancients called Britannia, but which we know as Anglia; while the better part of writers submit that there were peoples whom they then called the Veneti (I hear that these are now called Welsh Britons). Their power was vast and considerable. I shall use the testimony of Julius Caesar and of Suetonius, that in that maritime region they dared to oppose with great courage and arms even Julius Caesar, the most powerful leader of the Romans and the most blessed emperor, when he was reducing to submission all of Gaul; for they were a most wealthy tribe and full of works, skill, and means, sailed very widely, and held as tributary every harbor there was in that ocean. The third, and by far older than either of the other two, is said to have been in Paphlagonia, which is a part of Asia Minor. For there were other peoples there called the Eneti, from whom our Venetians both are held to have arisen and did arise. These were in fact driven from their homeland through sedition, when under King Philomen they were the allies of King Priam, as much out of goodwill as for hope of profit, during the Trojan War. Now after Troy had been taken and razed and the king dispatched, when the victorious Greeks went to take violent action against the rest, the Eneti followed those who followed the chieftain Antenor. Wandering and hopeless, they came with him to this region of ours, which as annals and monuments of antiquity say was then called Euganea, and, having been brought here, they changed the name of the province and thus, having blotted out the name of the Euganeans, they called this region thenceforward Venetia, and so it has been called for a very long time, while the natives are known as Venetians. That name for both the people and the province lasted from the fall of Troy itself until Attila the Hun, almost fifteen hundred years. Now after Attila, the name of the province was not as hitherto Venetia, but rather as in the present this name is of one sort for the city in this region of Italy. However, that old name of the region [was] given to that city because the leaders of this province and men of a better lot were ruined by frequent incursions of barbarians and panic-stricken at the most savage king of the Huns, Attila, and fled from everywhere with all their belongings and settled in that place where the city of Venice now is, at present flourishing most astonishingly with a senate and a very extensive dominion. For the place is surrounded on all sides by water and hence protected from the onslaught of every enemy. In any case, that city, as far as I can tell from conjecture and reason, is called Venetia on that account, because that multitude settled there not under a single leader nor coming from a single city, but gathered from the whole region. Hence the name for the place arose in such a way that it is called A. VITAE

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Venetia, because the Veneti fleeing there inhabited it. This was the reason the city was founded and the reason it has that name, in my opinion. In truth, not only the name of the province but also its bounds have become indiscriminately altered and bastardized. For the bounds of this region, which as I have said the ancients called Venetia, were the river Adda, and they were bounded by the long stretch toward the sea that extended to the Dalmatian coast; they also used to encompass the Po, the noblest river in Italy, and on this side the Alps (then near the Germans). In short, that region which was called Venetia by most ancient practice and manner of speech took in the mountain city of Bergamo and whatever of the mountain cities and plains lay between them, which I have said were the boundaries, and Istria itself. I cite Pliny as my distinguished authority for this matter. Also Sextus Propertius and Lucan, who came after him, attest that the river called the Po was in the Venetian district. Likewise Servius, that most sedulous commentator on our poet, writes that Mantua was a city of the Venetian region. In a novel outcome of events, however, one city in the province has claimed for itself alone that very ancient name of Venetia, as I just said, for a very long time: as of now it has been more than four thousand years. It is the part called the Marches of Treviso, the part where the very Mantua of which we speak belonged to the Lombard domain. But in fact Mantua, along with that city, is considered to be part of that province which our forebears called Venetia, as I have said. The poet Maro was born in a country house, which was close to the city known at that time as Andes, but thereafter and today as Pletule. He was nobler in his parents than in his place of birth: each of the parents he had was modest in fortune, expertise, and extraction. His mother was called Maya, his father Virgilius himself or Publius, as a first name. In his earliest youth his father was a potter, then the servant of a magistrate’s attendant. Before long he became a son-in-law by adoption, owing to his fine appearance and his cleverness. From this time on, rather diligent with an outstanding earnestness in clearing woods and husbanding bees, he increased noticeably the substance he had found in the household of his father-in-law, and in short enjoyed a better fortune and became gradually richer. He handed over Virgil, the son he now had, to be educated in letters as a boy. Maro was born on the Ides of October, shortly after the rule of Sulla [Lucius Cornelius Sulla, circa 138–78 b.c.e.)], and as shortly before the birth of Cato of Utica and Horace of Venusia. It was then the 681st year after the founding of the city, when Gnaeus Pompey the Great and Marcus Lucius Crassus were consuls. The birth of Maro was not without omen, as is wont to happen when men who are destined to be great are born. Indeed, it seemed to his pregnant 334

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mother, while she was sleeping, that she was giving birth to a bough of laurel, which, once planted, soon grew quickly and brought forth various delightful fruits and flowers. This [was seen] in a dream at night. On the following day, however, as those whose business is country work are accustomed to do, husband and wife set out into the field. Her womb was by chance at the point of maturity; was so mature, in fact, that she was very nearly forced to give birth in the field. She walked aside, almost into a nearby ditch, because there was no hut or place better suited, and in her hour of delivery, assisted only by the help of her husband and nature, she bore her child. The infant did not emerge from the womb wailing, as children being born are accustomed to wail. But the happiness in his face, so far as his age would allow, showed readily how great a man and poet he was to be. What is more, his mother, having been relieved by giving birth, not in a dream as stated before but in reality, just as that region was accustomed to do after the birth of a child, in the same place where her son had been born she planted a poplar branch, which in a short time equaled even the biggest old trees. This phenomenon led to the height of religiosity, so much so that they dedicated that tree to Virgil and consecrated it. Further, mothers worshipped there with such veneration that those who were in labor or pregnant made vows to the tree as if to a divinity, according to pagan ritual. At length the boy, having been nourished and having left his mother’s arms, first pursued the study of letters at Cremona. There he also assumed the toga of manhood at age seventeen, which happened also to be the year in which the consuls were the same Pompey and Crassus who had been consuls also when Virgil was born. It was an omen, and was interpreted favorably, that Lucretius, who in that generation was the poet of the most outstanding genius and of the widest authority as well as reputation, died on that very day; having drunk a love philter, he worsened with disease and deterioration and finally ran himself through with a sword as a final remedy. After assuming his toga, Virgil spent his adolescence first at Milan, then at Rome, in the fourth year before the civil war of Caesar and Pompey. Thereafter he set out for Naples, and amid his literary studies, he gave a great deal of e√ort and care to every art worthy of a free man, but particularly to mathematics and medicine. Amid these flourishing studies he devoted himself most ardently to poetry and embraced every manner of speech with remarkable virtuosity and diligence. As scholars are accustomed to note, however, he pleaded only one oratorical case, using gestures, voice, and diction that were not very pleasant or welcome as he intended. For even if as much as anyone he mastered the principles of speaking and the whole method of eloquence, and comprehended them with skill and natural talent, nevertheless as if forestalled by his A. VITAE

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nature he fared in prose without much grace. In the field of poetry, though, by universal acknowledgment he emerged as the most renowned leader of all Latin writers of every generation and all remembered history, because his delight in poetry furthered his innate skill, diligence, and genius, and because his metier was the craftsmanship of contriving meter and making poetry. A great many verses written by him in adolescence have been committed to posterity, and some were in couplets: he made the distich about the gnat and the one about Ballista as well as those eight verses against the person stealing his words; twelve verses about the games, a disquisition on the monosyllables ‘‘yes’’ and ‘‘no’’ written in twenty-five verses, twenty-six verses on the ‘‘Good and Wise Man,’’ thirty-eight on the Syrian Hostess [Copa Syrisca], fifty-one on the Roses, one hundred twenty-three on ‘‘The Ploughman’s Lunch’’ [Moretum]; and one book on Priapus. He is also believed to have written about Etna, the mountain in Sicily. But to this point these things were written for sport in his boyhood and during the first part of life. At length, having reached material of greater elegance and worthiness, he undertook to sing at first the wars of kings. However, neither he himself nor any other author recalls clearly of what sort these kings were. Yet even among the ancient and learned there is no doubt that they existed; many conjectured that they were Alban, others that they were Roman. I make no attempt to decide which of the two views is correct. For I deem it enough for us at present to remember that after the works that were essays of his genius and seem to be juvenilia, Virgil began to sing the wars of kings before all else. But actually he did not continue in this vein: with these subjects put aside, he chose to write pastoral poetry. Asinius Pollio is reportedly the source of this plan, for the public a√airs of Romans had been thrown into confusion by the death of Julius Caesar; on the one hand, the foremost citizens were eager to restore the republic, while on the other, Mark Antony, the deadly plague of his age, strove to overwhelm Octavian. For Octavian was reputedly there with hostile intent, who, though indeed he seemed to be a harmless youth, nonetheless desired to avenge his uncle’s death and seize power with the favor of the plebs and the glitter of Caesar’s name. Aided by the might of the veterans and the authority, advice, and goodwill of the Senate, he put to shameful flight Mark Antony, who was (as the rest relate) in the meantime laying siege to Modena; he liberated Brutus from siege; and he assigned the plain of the Cremonans, because it was of Antony’s faction, to the veteran soldiers who were his allies in this war, for the favor, benevolence, and recompense of the military. In order to dispose of this matter with equitability, he added the plain of Mantua as a supplement to that of Cremona, since it was nearby, indeed too much so. In the process it came about that the property of our poet Maro, which he 336

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possessed on the Mantuan plain, went to Arius. He was the head of a humbler lot of soldiers. However, Maro flew as fast as he could to his friends for the sake of protecting his property, troubled in spirit because his inherited land had been taken from him—he who had done no harm and was not among the conquered—by some soldier as if he were an enemy and it were booty. He labored with the help of the advice of those who embellished and commended his virtue, which was at that time not widely acknowledged, in the most ample words and praises that they could. In this way he obtained a letter from Caesar, with which he returned filled with hope to Mantua. The soldier, however, did not value this letter at all and would have killed the poet when he sought again all the more pressingly the return of what was his, if Virgil had not run away and swum out in the nearby river Mincius. Now the poet, like a man who wears a toga, unarmed and accustomed to peace, would quickly have fallen to the sword of the fierce and armed soldier, because matters were being decided by the hand rather than by the tongue, by the sword rather than by the pen or by law, and the soldier was protecting the farm he had been given as the just reward of his own fealty and bravery with what arms and ambushes he could. Therefore, being unequal to such a contest, Maro went to Rome again. Now, Maecenas was there, a supporter of his before any else, and also Cornelius Gallus, Asinius Pollio, and Varrus Quintilius. Now these, famous men all, most distinguished, the closest to Augustus the emperor, and almost the leading men of the polity, stood out as praisers and protectors of his a√airs and dignity, and with their diligence and authority they brought it about that arms counted for less than letters. With such supporters as these he both received back his seized fields and entered into a singular friendship and a close intimacy with the emperor Caesar. Octavian in fact was of all leaders the most kindly and readily disposed toward those lettered men who were poets especially, and he exceeded in virtue, wisdom, and glory all other men who have been, are, and will be in the human race. Therefore, to show gratitude for his act of kindness, and to record it in an everlasting form (as was just and worthy for a grateful man who was a poet), Virgil, as he was about to write something, was asked by Pollio, that orator, onetime consul, and excellent man, to compose poems about pastoral a√airs, as he [Pollio] did. So, desirous of pleasing the man who had treated him so well, Virgil wrote the ten Eclogues, when he was not yet twenty-eight years old. Having set out to write this bucolic work, he finished it in the space of three years, imitating Theocritus of Syracuse, who was the premier poet among the Greeks in this genre. To be sure, although it appears a pastoral thing, it nevertheless has a lot of A. VITAE

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blood and nerves, insofar as few poets were able to obtain much grace in that genre; well, in it, just as in the judgment of everyone he was easily the best in other genres, our poet achieved so much success and glory with his marvelous and divine genius, eloquence, and diligence, that his Bucolics were celebrated equally for their extreme worthiness in homes by those knowledgeable and studious in matters of this sort and by teachers, and outside among the people (as is the way of pagans) they were recited and sung on stage by singers in pastoral garb (as was customary) quite often and to much applause. Cicero, the leading figure in Roman eloquence, was already an old man when he heard someone in a theater recite that eclogue which is addressed to Varus and begins ‘‘Prima Siracusio,’’ and admiring its elegance and worthiness, he sought time and again to discover whose it was, and in his mighty astonishment he at last spoke these words, to praise himself no less than the poet: ‘‘the other hope of mighty Rome.’’ Lest these words spoken by so great a man in his admiration be lost, the poet Virgil, making them refer to the character Ascanius in the last book of the Aeneid, committed them to eternal memory, saying in that verse: ‘‘And the boy Ascanius, the second hope of mighty Rome.’’ Indeed, Servius and the other ancients who wrote commentaries on this poet maintain and recollect that this was so, and then the coincidence of the lifetimes and the status of those two men endorse the idea. But now to be sure, I am very prone to marvel to myself that it is said, quite truly, by many—especially by Servius, who was a learned man, an accurate interpreter of and a copious commentator on the life of this poet, above all others—that Maro composed the Bucolics after his fields, which were taken away in the wake of the war at Philippi and awarded to veteran soldiers, had been recovered. Of course, there is no man who never goes astray: for, let me say it with grace, both the sequence of events and the extent of time run counter to the good case Servius makes, and it teaches that the war in question was at Modena, not at Philippi. Let us touch upon this matter with our pen, lest we seem to have written these things as a calumny and in a dream: that indeed all writers, with a single voice, with a single testimony, and without any controversy whatsoever, hand down that of all the civil wars which broke out at the assassination of Julius Caesar, the first was at Modena. This war was followed by that scurrilous plague of a triumvirate, by which the good citizens (and Cicero himself, who was leader and chief of these) who wanted the restoration of public liberty were proscribed, slain, and destroyed. Now, the city [of Rome] being aΔicted, these evils present, and Cicero dead, they went to war at Philippi. I will omit the rest of the battles, nor have I here set forth the order of the battles, but I will unfold the order so that it may be at present enough for our 338

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purpose and enough to have demonstrated that it hardly occurred after the battle at Philippi, as others write. It is clearer than the noon sun that Cicero could have neither praised nor heard the eclogue ‘‘Prima Syracosio’’ after the war at Philippi, because (as they say) he had incontrovertibly already perished before that day. Also present as an outstanding witness is the age of Maro himself, seeing that he recalled that he had written the Eclogues as a young man, when ‘‘bold youth was his.’’ And his twenty-eight years themselves bear witness and Servius along with the other commentators reports that the Bucolics occurred at that time. But in truth he had been born thirty-two years before the war at Philippi. At the time of the war at Modena, however, he had not yet attained more than twenty-eight years. But Lucius Florus o√ers no small help and reliability, being a man of great authority, and not trifling among those who related in brief and with dignity the memorable deeds of the Romans. He writes in fact that another battle was joined after that at Modena over the division of the fields that Caesar Octavianus had given to the veterans as a reward for their military service. For this, to set it forth in brief, is the order of the wars; this, as I said, is the age of Maro. The testimony of Lucius Florus, a most learned man, and, in fact, all reason, endorse this view. Besides, I by no means at all find it more plausible that the fields of Cremona and Mantua were granted to veterans after the war at Philippi rather than after the one at Modena; for when these lands were restored to Maro, then the Eclogues were written to give thanks, and it was then that the eclogue beginning ‘‘Prima Syracosio’’ was heard and praised by Cicero, who was alive at that time. Since these things are so, as I said, let us move on to the rest in succession. Now after he had sung of pastoral things, he declared his intention of putting the topic of agriculture into verse, at the urging of Maecenas, who, as I have mentioned, was bound to him by ties of patronage and unusual goodwill. Virgil wrote the Georgics about the art of agriculture. There are four books of this work, in completing which he imitated the famous Hesiod, a very ancient and respected poet among the Greeks, and it took him seven years. And in polishing it, he observed neither rashly nor unadvisedly that he would gather together whatever he had thought out as it came to his mouth or head as he could (although in the first application of his craft it was not adequately worked through), but afterward he would revise gradually and, as he himself used to say, in the manner of a she-bear licking her cubs into shape, he would fashion the verses with his genius and skill into a worthy, finished form. At last he recited the completed opus to Augustus, who heard the recital of his own deeds greedily and with great pleasure. But when Maecenas took a turn as a substitute for Virgil, who sometimes became tired, it was acknowledged that A. VITAE

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there was a di√erence in the force of delivery between the two of them, because when Virgil was reciting, the ears of his audience were as pleased as could be, whereas while Maecenas was reading the same material, although he was a man of learning and distinction, it seemed empty and inexpressive; what Maro read with charm and some sweetness, even a marvelous sweetness, Maecenas in contrast declaimed insensitively and incompetently. At last, as his final work, he created the Aeneid in twelve books, material that pleased and gratified Augustus. Moreover, in this work he wrote in a genre superior to the others and more excellent in language, matter, and thought, which indeed is acknowledged by the careful planning and industry of Virgil himself, inasmuch as he assembled, arranged, and wrote all the material first in prose, and thereafter put it into meter. And he wrought that work with such diligence and skill that we say no more than truthfully that in it a lamb walks and a camel swims. [The same proverb is found in Alan of Lille, Liber in distinctionibus dictionum theologicalium, in PL 210, 870D–871A: Natare, proprie. Notat profundum sacrae Scripturae non attingere, unde dicitur quod sacra Scriptura est fluvius in quo et agnus pedat et camelus natat, id est simplex su≈cienter instruitur et sapiens profundum sacrae Scripturae attingit (Literally, to swim. It means not to attain the depths of sacred scripture, for which reason it is said that sacred scripture is a river in which both the lamb treads and the camel swims, which is to say, the simple person is adequately informed and the wise attains the depths of sacred scripture).] For few think it futile, empty, or childish matter to read, but indeed I shall remain silent about the miraculous eloquence and stateliness of the verse, pleasing in the unfolding of the most splendid events, inwardly also full of the most sacred ways and institutions, so that as the Greeks worship Homer as the chief of their poets, so do the Latins Virgil: for his highest excellence, unique stateliness, and preeminence they call him with ample cause and very good reason the one poet even by name. For to this material, which was extensive for its subject, its artistry, and its stateliness, he gave much of his talent, time, and e√ort, and in fact it took him no less than eleven years. Yet the work was scarcely undertaken before fame raised him to heaven with much celebration of the highest kind. For many things have been relayed and celebrated by many poets and many of the most famous and learned men to his praise, indeed the very height of praise, not in bad faith, not with a stammering mouth, not with a frozen tongue, not slavishly, but deliberately, truly, and knowledgeably. And if they could be recounted for his glory and his undying fame, so it is in our judgment and authorial license enough for now, and will be laudatory, to bring forward as testimony this poem sung by Sextus Propertius, a poet of

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famous wit and great talent: ‘‘Give way, Roman authors; give way, Greeks: something greater than the Iliad is being born.’’ Everyone felt great eagerness to see this work, of course, and even Augustus, far beyond what was thought permissible for a military man, a leader entangled in the business of war and a very great emperor, was excited by the marvelous report—so excited, in fact, that from Cantabria itself (this is a part of Spain) and from the very midst of the cares of battles, he very often wrote to Virgil in his letters and asked insistently, sometimes with requests, other times —as a joke—with threats, that whatever had been completed of this great work be sent to him. Of the poet’s replies one is extant, and this is it: ‘‘P. Virgilius Maro bids greetings to Caesar Octavianus. I receive many letters from you. As for my Aeneas, if I now had anything at all worthy of your hearing, I should gladly send it; but so vast is the subject on which I have embarked that I think I must have been almost mad to have begun it; all the more so since, as you know, there are other and much more important studies which claim from me a share in the work.’’ At length, however, as Augustus returned to the subject and yearned for it passionately and even with something like an obsession, and asked frequently for the work even if the material had not been finished or completed, Virgil, worn out by his demands, recited three books, that is, the second, third, and sixth, and with such sweetness, voice, and gestures did he deliver it that when the name of Marcellus was spoken, those who were present looked at one another with tears in their eyes, and everyone was stirred to a strange sense of pietas and wept; they ordered silence and were scarcely able to last till the end was at hand, as Virgil recited. Moreover, as he was reading that verse which begins ‘‘Tu Marcellus eris,’’ Octavia, sister of Augustus and the mother of Marcellus, spellbound by the sweet incantation of the name of her most beloved son, who lost his life while yet an adolescent of the best inborn character and the greatest promise, filled with tears and maternal love swooned and fainted, as women and especially mothers are wont to do, and she was scarcely lifted up and revived with the commands, counsel, help, and remedies of doctors. Now in truth there was so much excellence and authority in that man that even those who seemed poets, and learned poets at that, ascribed to Maro poems that had been thought out and written not by him, but by themselves. To this order even Varus, his close associate and no mean poet himself, is remembered to belong. For he entitled and published his Thyestes as if it had been composed by Maro. In addition, Proba, the wife of Adelphus, a splendid man of consular rank, born long after Virgil but a woman foremost in her age

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for chastity, erudition, and respectability, gathered verses from this poet of ours with great artistry and method and arranged them as hers in such a way that you would think Maro himself had in fact sung not his own Aeneas but rather, endowed with a prophetic mind and knowledge, the whole life of our forefathers and Christ, as well as the deeds of both Old and New Testament. That same woman, who also knew Greek, performed the same operation on the verses of Homer, turning the words of another into her own subject; she encompassed as succinctly as possible and with much stateliness and order the origin of the world, the fortunes of the fathers, the advent of Christ, and the whole history of His life, in the words the Greeks call Homeric, but which we know as Virgilian: hence a nickname has been rendered, so that, in the same way that those who play this game of hers are wont, she is even called Centona, for her singular praise and excellence. There were also those who envied his greatness and glory, and they most jealously barked out, in order to diminish and obscure his praise, as is the way of evil men against good men, since his work seemed unjustly exceptional and excessive to them and with what they could muster of maledictions and abuse, they tore at his holy and most irreproachable name. Di√erent men raised di√erent complaints. But it was commonly objected and broadcast that he had stolen and usurped for his own use many things from Homer, that poet of the most illustrious Greek name, all of which, however, Virgil bore patiently and with good humor, and said in reply nothing other than this one response— and at that an urbane and witty one: ‘‘They should try for themselves how easy it is to borrow from Homer, but how much more di≈cult it is to take a single verse from Homer than the club from Hercules.’’ Moreover, in his zeal to polish the work that he had composed for the sake of Augustus about his own Aeneas, he decided to go o√ to Greece, so that as he wished he could devote himself to philosophy after he had finished the work and rest for the remainder of his life, for he was now growing old and he loved repose. But the Fates, which oppose our plans implacably, redirected him elsewhere than he had wanted in his soul and had determined in his plans. For upon sailing out he ran into Octavian, who was returning from the East, which had been reduced to peace or submission, and by chance stopped in Athens. As was his habit and his duty, Virgil greeted him with reverence and ritual and judged it right and proper to return to Rome with him. Indeed Augustus, who enjoyed Virgil’s company and wisdom, regarded the prospect of Virgil’s returning with him with pleasure and good spirit, since he rejoiced to speak with him and to have him before his eyes on a friendly and familiar basis. As he was returning, however, Virgil, now heavy with age and accustomed rather to repose than to action, as the sun was blazing forth quite powerfully, 342

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was seized with sickness around Megara. Yet he did not interrupt his sailing on this account. The sickness became severe everywhere and he was now without hope, owing to the feebleness of his life force. He scarcely reached Brindisi or, as others would have it, Taranto, and at last after lingering a few days there he gave up the ghost on the eleventh day before the Kalends of October [September 21] in his fifty-third year, when Gnaeus Sextus Saturninus and Quintus Lucretius Cinna held the consulship, in the fourth year before the birth of the Virgin, who thereafter became pregnant and in her most chaste womb conceived and gave birth to her son, Christ Jesus, man and true God. There had been nearly twelve years of the rule of Octavian since Mark Antony had been conquered and driven to his disgraceful death. Then Virgil was interred at Naples with the greatest honor, as pagan ritual and the stateliness of his honor warranted, at the second milestone of the road to Pozzuoli. But soon the dispute over the burning of the Aeneid arose; the reading of his will put the matter into danger and contention. For, when he was setting out for Greece, as if he had foreseen his imminent demise, he urgently enjoined his friend Tucca, who was an eminent poet and learned man of that time, that he should burn the work at once if some adversity should befall Virgil before it had been polished. He was often insistent too as he lay dying that his writing boxes be brought so that, as he had resolved in his mind, he might consign the unpolished work to the flames as being unworthy of existence. Caesar himself stopped this argument from going further, for, as was reasonable, he instead bade the work be given to Tucca and Varus, who as learned poets and close friends of Maro would know his mind and might emend on the principle of adding nothing and eliminating only what they judged to be superfluous. Therefore, his Aeneas was edited by these two men, both eminent poets and friends of his, by order and on authority of the emperor. Four verses were taken out of the beginning of the first book. What is more, out of the second book, after the death of Priam, twenty-three verses were erased. Likewise the order of the books was altered, as many would have it, so that the book which he had made the third was placed second by his friends even as now. Maro did not provide anything further in his will concerning the burning of the work. Now, as regards his heirs, he made over a fourth to Augustus before all others, a twelfth to Maecenas, a sixth to the poets who loved him especially, Tucca and Varius, a half of the rest to Valerius Proculus, his half brother. (At his father’s death his mother had after her remarriage given birth to this son by another husband. For a long time after Maro had already attained his majority, his father, who had lost his sight, and his two brothers Flaccus and Silo, born to one mother and father, had died.) His wealth, moreover, along with his A. VITAE

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inheritance from his father and the beneficence and generosity of his friends, amounted to ten million sesterces. His house at Rome on the Esquiline was next to the gardens of Maecenas because he was eager to be near and close to this man, as personally, so too in his home. Yet he lived only rarely in the city. He stayed sometimes in Sicily, more often in the Campanian plain; in part because as a man given over to leisure and books, he gladly fled from the meetings of men and clients full of hot air, and partly because the estate that pleased him most of all, as it was outstanding and pleasant to him in both its great size and its beauty, was in Nola. But truly, for the sake of irrigating this place, the common herd of Nola, ignorant of his virtue, were unwilling to give the poet water for watering. On that account they say that Maro was most violently displeased and soon struck out the name of Nola from his book as from his life, for in the Georgics he had written it in this verse for eternal praise and remembrance: ‘‘Such [soil] rich Capua and Nola near the ridge of Vesuvius plow,’’ for by switching a word, he wrote ora instead of Nola. Otherwise he was reserved and sparing of anger. In addition he was moderate in matters of food and drink; devoid of ambition—and so devoid of it and completely foreign to it, that if even he walked the crowded streets to Rome, he avoided as much as possible the most populous thoroughfares and now and then hid himself in the nearest building lest, as was accustomed to happen as he passed by, he be pointed out by someone’s finger for an admirable and divine man on account of his excellence. And at Naples he was called by the nickname ‘‘Pergemias’’—elsewhere it is ‘‘Parthemias’’ [both forms are corruptions of Parthenias]—for the moral correctness of his life. He was no less a foe of avarice than of ambition. Indeed, he consistently and magnanimously refused an exile’s goods, which Augustus o√ered to give him, because (as it is) he held the opinion that it was only temporary and not right for a good man to have anything that had been seized from a just owner and perhaps an innocent man. Further, in height our poet exceeded the common stature. His complexion was by nature extremely swarthy. He did not enjoy good health. In fact, he was often vexed by his health: sometimes his stomach hurt, at other times his throat, at still others his head. Of his household he most loved Cebes and Alexander, because these boys were pleasing in looks and talent and not unskilled, before all other boys. Cebes excelled in poetry, Alexander in grammar. The latter, a gift from Pollio, he called Alexis in the Bucolics. Further, out of the many poets of that time (for at that time the order of poets was flourishing to the greatest degree), he had a friendship and an intimate acquaintance of unusual benevolence with Quintus Horatius Flaccus [= Horace], who was a

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satirical poet of the period and an outstanding craftsman and teacher of poetic skill in that epoch. (PLS and JZ)

37. Donatus auctus (second quarter of fifteenth century) Donatus auctus is a humanistic life, based on the VSD with many interpolations. Indeed, it may have been a deliberate falsification of the VSD. It is likelier that this life drew upon a variety of sources to fill gaps in the VSD. Some of these materials are familiar from many other vitae, but others are unparalleled and appear to be authentically late antique. Such, to name a few examples, are the anecdotes that relate to Asconius Pedianus, Quintus Cornificius, and the Epicurean Siro. Whatever motivations lay behind the Donatus auctus, it can be dated between the first and second redactions of the De scriptoribus illustribus latinae linguae (On Famous Writers of the Latin Language) of Sicco Polenton (see F. Stok, Prolegomeni a una nuova edizione della Vita Vergilii di Suetonio-Donato, Supplemento al Bollettino dei classici 11 [Rome, 1991], 196–200). Found in at least thirty-eight codices and also in early printed forms, it became the standard life of Virgil included in printed editions until the eighteenth century. (Discussion: VV 746–51) (Text: VVA 77–134) In both the Latin text and the English, expansions of the VSD that are unique to Donatus auctus (as per VV 350–70) have been set in italics. (JZ) P. Virgilius Maro parentibus modicis fuit et praecipue patre, quem quidam opificem figulum, plures Magi cuiusdam viatoris initio mercennarium, mox ob industriam generum tradiderunt; quem cum agricolationi reique rusticae et gregibus praefecisset socer, silvis coemundis et apibus curandis reculam auxit. Natus est Cn. Pompeio Magno et M. Licinio Crasso primum consulibus Iduum Octobrium die in pago, qui Andes dicitur, qui abest a Mantua non procul. Praegnans mater Maia, cum somniasset enixam se laureum ramum, quem compactum terrae coaluisse et excrevisse illico in speciem maturae arboris refertae variis pomis et floribus, sequenti luce, cum marito rus propinquum petens, ex itinere divertit atque in subiecta fossa partu levata est. Ferunt infantem, ut sit editus, neque vagiisse et adeo miti vultu fuisse, ut haud dubiam spem prosperioris geniturae iam tum indicaret. Et accessit aliud praesagium, siquidem virga populea more regionis in puerperiis eodem statim loco depacta ita brevi coaluit, ut multo ante satas populos adaequasset; quae ‘‘arbor Virgilii’’ ex eo dicta atque etiam consecrata est summa gravidarum ac fetarum religione suscipientium ibi et solventium vota.

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Initia aetatis, hoc est usque septimum annum, Cremonae egit et XVII anno togam virilem cepit illis consulibus iterum, quibus natus erat, evenitque ut eodem ipso die Lucretius poeta decederet. Sed Virgilius a Cremona Mediolanum et inde paulo post Neapolim transiit ubi, cum litteris et Graecis et Latinis vehementissimam operam dedisset, tandem omni cura omnique studio indulsit medicinae et mathematicis. Quibus rebus cum ante alios eruditior peritiorque esset, se in urbem contulit statimque, magistri stabuli equorum Augusti amicitiam nactus, multos variosque morbos incidentes equis curavit. At ille in mercedem singulis diebus panes Virgilio ut uni ex stabulariis dari iussit. Interea a Crotoniatis pullus equi mirae pulchritudinis Caesari missus dono fuit, qui omnium iudicio spem portendebat virtutis et celeritatis immensae. Hunc cum aspexisset Maro, magistro stabuli dixit, natum esse ex morbosa equa et nec viribus valiturum nec celeritate, idque verum fuisse inventum est. Quod cum magister stabuli Augusto recitasset, duplicari sibi in mercedem panes iussit. Cum item ex Hispania Augusto canes dono mitterentur, et parentes eorum dixit Virgilius, et animum celeritatemque futuram. Quo cognito mandat iterum augumentari Virgilio panes. Dubitavit Augustus, Octaviine filius fuerit, an alterius, idque Maronem aperire posse arbitratus est, quia canum [et] equi naturam parentesque cognorat. Amotis ergo omnibus arbitris, illum in penitiorem partem domi vocat et solum rogat, an sciat quisnam esset, et quam ad felicitandos homines facultatem haberet. ‘‘Novi,’’ inquit Maro, ‘‘te Caesarem Augustum et ferme aequam cum diis immortalibus potestatem habere, ut, quem vis, felicem facias.’’ ‘‘Eo animo sum,’’ respondit Caesar, ‘‘ut, si verum pro rogatu dixeris, beatum te felicemque reddam.’’ ‘‘Utinam,’’ ait Maro, ‘‘interroganti tibi vera dicere queam!’’ Tunc Augustus: ‘‘Putant alii me natum Octavio, quidam suspicantur alio me genitum viro.’’ Maro subridens, ‘‘Facile,’’ inquit, ‘‘si impune licenterque quae sentio loqui iubeas, id dicam.’’ Affirmat Caesar iureiurando, nullum eius dictum aegre laturum immo non nisi donatum ab eo discessurum. Ad haec oculos oculis Augusti infingens Maro, ‘‘Facilius,’’ ait, ‘‘in ceteris animalibus qualitates parentum mathematicis et philosophia cognosci possunt, in homine nequaquam possibile est; sed de te coniecturam habeo similem veri, ut, quid exercuerit pater tuus, aperire possim.’’ Attente expectabat Augustus quidnam diceret. ‘‘Quantum rem ego intelligere possum, pistoris filius es,’’ inquit. Obstupuerat Caesar et statim, quo id [p]acto fieri potuerit, animo voluebat. Interrumpens Virgilius, ‘‘Audi,’’ inquit, ‘‘quo pacto id coniicio: cum quaedam enuntiarim praedixerimque, quae intelligi scirique non nisi ab eruditissimis summisque viris potuissent, tu princeps orbis item et item panes in mercedem dari iussisti, quod quidem aut pistoris aut nati pistore officium erat.’’ ‘‘At deinceps,’’ inquit Caesar, ‘‘non a pistore sed a rege magnanimo dona feres.’’ Placuit Caesari facetia illumque plurimi fecit et Pollioni commendavit. Corpore et statura fuit grandi, aquilino colore, facie rusticana, valitudine varia: nam plerumque ab stomacho et faucibus ac dolore capitis laborabat, 346

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sanguinem etiam saepius eiecit, cibi vinique minimi. Fama fuit libidinis pronioris in pueros fuisse, sed boni ita eum pueros amare putaverunt, ut Socrates Alcibiadem et Plato tà paidiká. Verum inter omnes maxime dilexit Cebetem et Alexandrum, quem secunda Bucolicorum egloga Alexim appellat, donatum sibi ab Asinio Pollione, utrumque non ineruditum: nam Alexandrum grammaticum, Cebetem vero et poetam. Vulgatum est consuevisse eum cum Plotia Hieria; sed Asconius Pedianus [see below, IV.A.3] affirmat, ipsum postea maioribus natu narrare solitum, invitatum quidem a Varo ad communionem mulieris, sed pertinacissime abstinuisse. Cetera sane vita, et ore, et animo, tam probum fuisse constat, ut Neapoli ‘‘Parthenias’’ vulgo appellaretur, ac si quando Romae, quo rarissime commeabat, viseretur in publico, sectantes demostrantesque se subterfugere in proximum tectum. Bona autem cuiusdam exulantis, offerente Augusto, non sustinuit accipere. Possedit prope centies sestertium ex liberalitatibus amicorum, habuitque domum Romae in Esquiliis iuxta ortos Maecenatianos, quamquam secessu Campaniae Siciliaeque plurimum uteretur. Quaecumque ab Augusto peteret, repulsam numquam habuit. Parentibus quotannis aurum ad abundantem altum mittebat, quos iam grandis amisit, ex quibus patrem captum oculis et duos fratres germanos, Silonem impuberem, Flaccum iam adultum, cuius exitum sub nomine Daphnidis deflet [Eclogues 5.20]. Inter cetera studia, ut superius dixi, medicinae quoque ac maxime mathematicae operam dedit. Egit et causam unam omnino nec amplius quam semel. Sermone tardissimum ac paene indocto similem fuisse Melisius tradidit. Poeticam puer adhuc auspicatus in Balistam ludi magistrum, ob infamiam latrociniorum coopertum lapidibus, distichon fecit: Monte sub hoc lapidum tegitur Balista sepultus. Nocte die tutum carpe, viator, iter [AL 1.1, 212, no. 261].

Deinde Moretum et Priapeiam et Epigrammata et Diras et Culicem, cum esset annorum XV. Cuius materia talis est: pastor fatigatus aestu, cum sub arbore obdormivisset, et serpens ad illum proreperet, e palude culex praevolavit atque inter duo tempora aculeum fixit pastori. At ille continuo culicem contrivit et serpentem interemit, ac sepulchrum culici statuit et distichon fecit: Parve culex, pecudum custos, tibi tale merenti funeris officium vitae pro munere reddit [Culex 413–14].

Scripsit etiam, de qua ambigitur, Aetnam. Et mox, cum res Romanas inchoasset, offensus materia ad Bucolica transiit, maxime ut Asinium Pollionem, Alpheum Varum et Cornelium Gallum A. VITAE

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celebraret, quia in distributione agrorum, qui post Philippensem victoriam veteranis triumvirorum iussu trans Padum dividebantur, indemnem se praestitissent. Deinde Georgica honori Maecenatis, qui vixdum noto opem tulisset adversus veterani Claudii militis—ut alii putant, Arii centurionis— violentiam, a quo in altercatione litis agrariae parum abfuit quin occideretur. Novissime Aeneidem aggressus est, argumentum varium et multiplex et quasi amborum Homeri carminum instar, praeterea nominibus ac rebus Graecis Latinisque commune et in quo, quod maxime studebat, Romanae simul urbis et Augusti origo contineretur. Cum Georgica scriberet, traditur quotidie meditatos mane plurimos versus dictare solitus ac per totum diem retractando ad paucissimos redigere, non absurde carmen se ursae more parere dicens et lambendo demum effingere. Aeneida prosa prius oratione formatam digestamque in XII libros particulatim componere instituit, ut quidam tradunt. Alii eius sententiae sunt, ut menti habuerit quattuor et XX libros usque Augusti tempora scripturum atque alia quidem percursurum, Augusti vero gesta diligentissime executurum. Quippe qui, dum scriberet, ne quid impetum moraretur, quaedam imperfecta reliquit, alia levissimis versibus scripsit, quos per iocum pro tigillis interponi a se dicebat ad sustinendum opus, donec solidae columnae advenirent. Bucolica biennio Asinii Pollionis suasu perfecit. Hic Transpadanam provinciam regebat, cuius favore agros suos, cum veteranis distribuerentur, Virgilius non amisit. Hunc Pollionem maxime amavit Maro et ab eo magna munera tulit, quippe qui, invitatus ad prandium, captus pulchritudine et diligentia Alexandri Pollionis pueri, eum dono accepit. Huius Pollionis filium, C. Asinium Gallum, oratorem clarum et poetam non mediocrem, miro amore dilexit Virgilius. Is transtulit Euphorionem in Latinum et libris quattuor amores suos de Cytheride scripsit. Hic primo in amicitia Caesaris Augusti fuit, postea, in suspicionem coniurationis contra illum ductus, occisus est. Verum usque adeo hunc Gallum Virgilius amarat, ut quartus Georgicorum a medio usque finem eius laudem contineret; quam postea, iubente Augusto, in Aristei fabulam commutavit. Georgica septennio Neapoli, Aeneida, partim in Sicilia partim in Campania, XI annis confecit. Bucolica eo successu edidit, ut in scena quoque per cantores crebra pronuntiarentur. At, cum Cicero quosdam versus audisset, et statim acri iudicio intellexisset non communi vena editos, iussit ab initio totam eglogam recitari; quam cum accurate pernotasset, in fine ait: ‘‘Magnae spes altera Romae’’ [Aeneid 12.168], quasi ipse linguae Latinae spes prima fuisset et Maro secunda; quae verba ipse postea Aeneidi inseruit. Georgica, reverso ab Actiaca victoria Augusto atque Atellae reficiendarum virium causa commoranti, per continuum quatriduum legit suscipiente Maecenate legendi vicem quotiens interpellaretur ipse vocis offensione. Pronuntiabat autem cum suavitate, lenociniis miris. Seneca tradidit 348

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Iulium Montanum poetam solitum dicere involaturum se Virgilio quaedam, si et vocem posset, et os, et hypocrisim. Eosdem enim versus, eo pronuntiante, bene sonare, sine illo inanescere, quasi mutos. Aeneidos vixdum coeptae tanta extitit fama, ut Sextus Propertius non dubitarit sic praedicare: Cedite, Romani scriptores, cedite Grai: nescio quid maius nascitur Iliade [Carmina 2.34.65–66].

Augustus vero, cum iam forte expeditione Cantabrica abesset, supplicibus atque etiam minacibus per iocum litteris efflagitaret, ut sibi de Aeneide, vel prima carminis hypographa vel quodlibet colon mitteret, negavit; cui tamen multo post, perfecta demum materia, tres omnino libros recitavit, secundum, quartum et sextum; sed hunc praecipue ob Octaviam, quae, cum recitationi interesset, ad illos de filio suo versus: ‘‘Tu Marcellus eris’’ [Aeneid 6.883] defecisse fertur, atque, aegre focillata, dena sestertia pro singulo versu Virgilio dari iussit. Recitavit et pluribus sed neque frequenter, et ferme illa de quibus ambigebat, quo magis iudicium hominum experiretur. Erotem, librarium et libertum eius, exactae iam senectutis, tradunt referre solitum, quondam in recitando eum duos dimidiatos versus complesse ex tempore: ‘‘Misenum Aeolidem’’ [Aeneid 6.164], adiecisse ‘‘quo non praestantior alter’’; item huic ‘‘Aere ciere viros’’ [Aeneid 6.165], simili calore iactatum, subiunxisse ‘‘Martemque accendere cantu,’’ statimque sibi imperasse, ut utrumque volumini ascriberet. Bucolica Georgicaque emendavit. Anno vero LII, ut ultimam manum Aeneidi imponeret, statuit in Graeciam et Asiam secedere triennioque continuo omnem operam limationi dare, ut reliqua vita tantum philosophiae vacaret. Sed, cum aggressus iter Athenis occurrisset Augusto ab oriente Romam revertenti, una cum Caesare redire destinavit. At, cum Megaram vicinum oppidum visendi gratia peteret, languorem nactus est, quem non intermissa navigatio auxit, ita ut gravior in dies, tandem Brundusium adventarit, ubi diebus paucis obiit X Kal. Octobr. Cn. Sentio Q. Lucretioque consulibus. Quo, ut gravari morbo se sentiret, scrinia saepe et magna instantia petivit crematurus Aeneida. quibus negatis, testamento comburi iussit, ut rem inemendatam imperfectamque. Verum Tucca Varusque monuerunt id Augustum non permissurum. Tunc eidem Varo ac simul Tuccae scripta sub ea conditione legavit, ne quid ederent, quod a se editum non esset, et versus etiam imperfectos, si qui erant, relinquerent. Voluit etiam eius ossa Neapolim transferri, ubi diu et suavissime vixerat, ac extrema valitudine hoc ipse sibi epitaphium fecit distichon. Translata igitur iussu Augusti eius ossa, prout statuerat, Neapolim fuere, sepultaque via Puteolana intra lapidem secundum, suoque sepulchro id distichon, quod fecerat, inscriptum est: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua, rura, duces [see below, II.C.1].

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Heredes fecit ex dimidia parte Valerium Proculum, fratrem ex alio patre, ex quarta Augustum, ex duodecima Maecenatem, ex reliqua L. Varum et Plotium Tuccam, qui eius Aeneidem post obitum, prout petiverat, iussu Caesaris emendarunt. Nam nullius omnino sententia crematu Aeneis digna visa fuit. De qua re Sulpicii Carthaginiensis extant huiusmodi versus: Iusserat haec rapidis aboleri carmina flammis Virgilius, Phrygium quae cecinere ducem. Tucca vetat Varusque simul; tu, maxime Caesar, non sinis et Latiae consulis historiae. Infelix gemino cecidit prope Pergamos igni, et paene est alio Troia cremata rogo [see below, II.D.3].

Extant et Augusti de ipsa eadem re versus plures et clarissimi, quorum initium ita est: Ergone supremis potuit vox improba verbis tam dirum mandare nefas? ergo ibit in ignes, magnaque doctiloqui morietur Musa Maronis? [AL 1.2, 145–46, no. 672],

et paulo post: Sed legum est servanda fides; suprema voluntas quod mandat, fierique iubet, parere necesse est. Frangatur potius legum veneranda potestas, quam tot congestos noctesque diesque labores hauserit una dies [AL 1.2, 147, no. 672].

Et ea quae sequuntur. Nihil igitur auctore Augusto Varus edidit, quod et Maro praeceperat, sed summatim emendavit, ut, qui versus etiam imperfectos, si qui erant, reliquit. Hos multi mox supplere conati, non perinde valuerunt ob difficultatem, quod omnia fere apud eum hemistichia, praeter illud ‘‘Quem tibi iam Troia’’ [Aeneid 3.340], sensum videantur habere perfectum. Nisius grammaticus audisse se a senioribus dicebat, Varum duorum librorum ordinem commutasse, et, qui tunc secundus erat, in tertium locum transtulisse; etiam primi libri correxisse principium, his versibus demptis: Ille ego qui quondam gracili modulatus avena carmen et egressus silvis vicina coegi, ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono, gratum opus agricolis, at nunc horrentia Martis arma virumque cano [see above, I.C.2].

Nec Virgilius, qui columen linguae Latinae fuit, caruit obtrectatoribus. In Bucolicis duas tantum eglogas, sed insulsissime, Paro quidam deridet et sic ridendo incipit: Tityre, si toga calda tibi est, quo tegmine fagi? [compare Eclogues 1.1],

sequentis: 350

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Dic mihi, Damoeta: cuium pecus, anne Latinum? Non. Verum Aegonis nostri sic rure loquuntur [compare Eclogues 3.1–2, VSD 43].

Alius, recitante eo ex Georgicis: ‘‘Nudus ara, sere nudus,’’ subiecit, ‘‘habebis frigora, febrem’’ [1.299]. Est adversus Aeneida liber Carbilii Pictoris, titulo Aeneidomastix. M. Vipranius [sic] eum a Maecenate suppositum kakotel˜h appellat repertoremque dicebat neque tumidum neque exilem, sed communibus verbis opus illud confecisse. Herennius vitia eius tantum contraxit, Perillius Faustinus furta. Sunt Quinti Octavii Aviti volumina, quibus annotantur, quos et unde versus transtulerit. Asconius Pedianus [see below, IV.A.3], libro quem contra obtrectatores Virgilii scripsit, pauca admodum ei obiecta proponit, et potissimum quod non recte historiam contexuit, et quod pleraque ab Homero sumpserit. Sed hoc ipsum crimen sic defendere assuetum ait: ‘‘Cur non illi quoque eadem furta tentarent? Verum intellecturos facilius esse Herculi clavam, quam Homero versum surripere’’; et tamen destinasse secedere, ut omnia ad satietatem malivolorum decideret. Refert etiam Pedianus benignum cultoremque omnium bonorum atque eruditorum fuisse et usque adeo invidiae expertem, ut, si quid erudite dictum inspiceret alterius, non minus gaudere ac suum fuisset; neminem vituperare, laudare bonos, ea humanitate esse, ut, nisi perversus maxime, quisque illum non diligeret modo, sed amaret. Nihil proprii habere videbatur. Eius bibliotheca non minus aliis doctis patebat ac sibi, illudque Euripidis antiquum saepe usurpabat: ‘‘Communia amicorum esse omnia’’ [Terence, Adelphoe 803]. Quare coaevos omnes poetas ita adiunctos habuit, ut, cum inter se plurimum invidia arderent, illum una omnes colerent, Varus, Tucca, Horatius, Gallus, Propertius. Anser vero, quoniam Antonii partes secutus est, illum non observasse dicitur; Cornificius ob perversam naturam. Gloriae vero adeo contemptor fuit, ut, cum quidam versus quosdam suos sibi ascriberent eaque re docti haberentur, non modo aegre non ferebat, immo voluptuosum id sibi erat. Illud non tulit: cum enim distichon, qui laudem felicitatemque Augusti continebat, fecisset, valvisque non nominato auctore infixisset, is erat huiusmodi: Nocte pluit tota, redeunt spectacula mane. Commune imperium cum Iove Caesar habet [AL 1.1, 212, no. 256],

diu quaeritans Augustus, cuiusnam hi versus essent, eorum factorem non inveniebat. Bacillus vero poeta quidam mediocris, tacentibus aliis, sibi ascripsit, quamobrem donatus honoratusque a Caesare fuit. Quod aequo animo non ferens Virgilius iisdem valvis affixit quater hoc principium: ‘‘Sic vos non vobis.’’ Postulabat Augustus, ut hi versus complerentur, quod, cum frustra aliqui conati essent, Virgilius, praeposito disticho, sic subiunxit:

A. VITAE

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Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honorem: Sic vos non vobis Sic vos non vobis Sic vos non vobis Sic vos non vobis

nidificatis aves. vellera fertis oves. mellificatis apes. fertis aratra boves [AL 1.1, 212, no. 257].

Quo cognito, aliquamdiu Bacillus Romae fabula fuit, Maro vero exaltatior. Cum Ennium in manu haberet, rogareturque quidnam faceret, respondit se aurum colligere de stercore Ennii. Habet enim poeta ille egregias sententias sub verbis non multum ornatis. Interroganti Augusto, quo pacto civitas feliciter gubernaretur, ‘‘Si prudentiores,’’ inquit, ‘‘temonem tenuerint et boni malis praeponantur itaque optimi suos habeant honores, nulli tamen aliorum iniusti quicquam fiat.’’ At Maecenas: ‘‘Quid,’’ inquit, ‘‘Virgili, satietatem homini non affert?’’ ‘‘Omnium rerum,’’ respondit, ‘‘aut similitudo aut multitudo stomachum faciunt praeter intelligere.’’ Item rogavit: ‘‘Quo pacto quis altam felicemque eius fortunam servare potest?’’ ‘‘Si, quantum honore ac divitiis aliis praestantior sis, tanto liberalitate et iustitia alios superare nitaris.’’ Solitus erat dicere, nullam virtutem commodiorem homini esse patientia, ac nullam asperam adeo esse fortunam, quam prudenter patiendo vir fortis non vincat. Quam sententiam in quinto Aeneidos inseruit: Nate dea, quo fata trahunt retrahuntque sequamur; quicquid erit, vincenda omnis fortuna ferendo est [5.709–10 superanda].

Cum quidam eius amicus Cornificii in eum maledicta et inimicitias sibi enarraret, ‘‘Quam putas,’’ inquit, ‘‘huiusce malivolentiae causam? Nam neque unquam Cornificium offendi et eum amo. An,’’ inquit, ‘‘Hesiodi sententiae non meministi ubi ait: Architectum architecto invidere, et poetam poetae? De malis,’’ inquit, ‘‘Graecus ille intellexit, nam boni eruditiores amant. Sed magna cum mea gloria et laude vindictam in manu habeo. Maiore enim cura virtuti intendam, atque, quo elegantior ego fiam, eo vehementius ipse invidia rumpetur.’’ Erat Augusto familiaris Philistus quidam, orator et poesim mediocriter doctus, cui multiplex variumque ingenium erat, qui omnium omnia dicta reprehendere conabatur, non ut verum dignosceret, quod Socrates facere consuevit, sed ut eruditior videretur. Hic Virgilium, ubicumque convenire dabatur, maledictis salibusque vexabat. Quare saepe ille aut tacibundus discedebat, aut suffusus pudore tacebat. Verum, cum, Augusto audiente, elinguem illum diceret et causam, etiam si suam haberet, defendere nequire, ‘‘Tace,’’ inquit, ‘‘rabula: nam haec mea taciturnitas defensorem causarum mearum Augustum fecit et Maecenatem, et ea tuba, cum volo, loquor, quae ubique et diutissime audietur. Tu loquacitate, non modo aures hominum, sed muros rumpis.’’ Augustus vero Philistum gravi vultu increpavit. Tunc Maro: ‘‘Si tempus,’’ inquit, ‘‘Caesar, tacendi hic sciret, raro loqueretur. Tacendum enim semper est, nisi cum aut taciturnitas tibi noceat, aut oratio aliis prosit. Nam qui contendit, et contentionis finis utilis non est, stultis illum annumerandum sapientes putant.’’ 352

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Posteaquam Augustus summa rerum omnium potitus est, venit sibi in mentem an conduceret tyrannidem omittere et omnem potestatem annuis consulibus et senatui rempublicam reddere. In qua re diversae sententiae consultos habuit Maecenatem et Agrippam. Agrippa enim utile sibi fore, etiamsi honestum non esset, relinquere tyrannidem longa oratione contendit, quod Maecenas dehortari magnopere conabatur. Quare Augusti animus et hinc ferebatur et illinc, erant enim diversae sententiae variis rationibus firmatae. Rogavit igitur Maronem, an conferat privato homini, se in sua republica tyrannum facere. ‘‘Omnibus ferme,’’ inquit, ‘‘rempublicam occupantibus molesta ipsa tyrannis fuit et civibus, quia necesse erat propter odia subditorum aut eorum iniustitiam magna suspicione magnoque timore vivere. Sed si cives iustum aliquem scirent, quem amarent plurimum, civitati id utile foret, si in eo uno omnis potestas esset. Quare, si iustitiam, quod modo facis, omnibus in futurum, nulla hominum facta compositione, distribues, dominari te, et tibi conducet, et orbi. Benivolentiam enim ita omnium habes, ut deum te, et adorent, et credant.’’ Eius sententiam secutus, Caesar principatum tenuit. Audivit a Silone praecepta Epicuri, cuius doctrina socium habuit Varum. Et quamvis diversorum philosophorum opiniones libris suis inseruisset, de animo maxime videatur ipse [fuit] Academicus: nam Platonis sententias omnibus aliis praetulit. Nunc quoniam de auctore summatim diximus, de ipso carmine dicendum videtur, quod bifariam tractari solet, hoc est ante opus et in ipso opere. Ante opus: titulus, causa, intentio: titulus, in quo quaeritur cuius sit, quid sit; causa, unde ortum sit et quare hoc potissimum sibi ad scribendum poeta praesumpserit; intentio, in qua cognoscitur quid efficere conetur poeta. In ipso opere sane tria spectantur: numerus, ordo, explanatio. Quamvis igitur multa ceudograf˜h, id est, falsa inscriptione, sub alieno nomine sint prolata, ut Thyestes tragoedia huius poetae, quam Varus edidit, et alia huiuscemodi, tamen Bucolica liquido Virgilii esse minime dubitandum est, praesertim cum ipse poeta, tamquam hoc metuens, in principio Aeneidos et in alio carmine suum esse testatus sit, sic dicens ‘‘Ille ego qui quondam’’ [see above, I.C.2] et reliqua, et: Carmina qui lusi pastorum audaxque iuventa, Tityre, te patulae cecini sub tegmine fagi [Georgics 4.565–66]

Bucolica autem et dici et recte appellari, vel hoc solum indicium suffecerat, quod hoc eodem nomine apud Theocritum censeantur. Verum ratio quoque monstranda est. Tria sunt pastorum genera, quae dignitatem in Bucolicis habent, quorum minimi sunt qui a¯ipóloi dicuntur a Graecis, id est, caprarii; paulo honoratiores, qui poiménew, id est, oviliones dicuntur; honestissimi et maximi boukóloi, quos bubulcos dicimus. Unde igitur magis decuit pastorali carmini nomen imponi, nisi ab eo gradu, qui apud pastores excellentissimus invenitur?

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353

Causa dupliciter inspici solet, ab origine carminis et a voluntate scribentis. Originem autem Bucolici carminis alii ob aliam causam ferunt. Sunt enim, qui a Lacedaemoniis pastoribus Dianae primum carmen hoc redditum dicant, cum eidem deae propter bellum, quod toti Graeciae illo tempore Persae inferebant, exhiberi per virgines de more non posset. Alii ab Oreste, circa Siciliam vago, id genus carminis Dianae redditum loquuntur per ipsum atque pastores, quo tempore de Scythia cum Pylade fugerat, surrepto numinis simulacro et celato in fasce lignorum, unde Fascelidem Dianam perhibent nuncupatam, apud cuius aras Orestes per sacerdotem eiusdem numinis Iphigeniam sororem suam a parricidio fuerat expiatus. Alii Apollini Nomio, pastorali scilicet deo, qua tempestate Admeti boves paverat. Alii Libero, nympharum et satyrorum et eiusdem generis numinum principi, quibus placet rusticum carmen. Alii Mercurio Daphnidis patri pastorum omnium principi, et apud Theocritum, et apud hunc ipsum poetam. Alii in honorem Panos scribi putant peculiariter pastoralis dei, item Sileni, Silvani atque faunorum. Quae cum omnia dicantur, illud erit probatissimum, Bucolicorum carmen originem ducere a priscis temporibus, quibus vita pastoralis exercita erat, et ideo velut aurei saeculi speciem in huiusmodi personarum simplicitate cognosci, et merito Virgilium, processurum ad alia carmina, non aliunde coepisse, nisi ab ea vita, quae prima in terris fuit. Nam postea rura culta, et ad postremum pro cultis et feracibus terris bella suscepta, quod videtur Virgilius eum ipsum ordinem operum suorum voluisse monstrare, cum pastores primo, deinde agricolas canit, et ad ultimum milites belli. Restat ut, quae causa voluntatem attulerit poetae Bucolica potissimum conscribendi, consideremus. Aut enim dulcedine carminis Theocriti et admiratione eius illectus est; aut ordinem temporum est secutus erga vitam humanam, ut supra diximus; aut tres modos elocutionum, quos xarakt˜hraw Graeci vocant, i¯sxnów, qui tenuis, [ad]rów, ˘ qui validus, mésow, qui moderatus intelligitur. Credibile erat Virgilium, qui in omni genere praevaluerit, Bucolica primum, Georgica secundum, Aeneida tertium voluisse conscribere. An ideo potius primo Bucolica scripsit, ut in eiusmodi carmine, quod et paulo liberius et magis validum quam cetera est, facultatem haberet captandae Caesaris indulgentiae repetendique agri, quem amiserat ob hanc causam: die tertio Iduum Martiarum C. Caesare interfecto, cum Augustum Caesarem paene puerum veterani non abnuente senatu sibi ducem constituissent, exorto civili bello Cremonenses cum ceteris eiusdem studii adversarios Augusti Caesaris adiuverunt. Unde factum est, ut, cum victor Augustus in eorum agros veteranos deduci iussisset, non sufficiente agro Cremonen354

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sium, Mantuani quoque, in quibus erat poeta Virgilius, maximam partem suorum finium perdiderunt, eo quod vicini Cremonensibus fuerant. Sed Virgilius, Augusti familiaritate suoque carmine fretus, centurioni Arrio obsistere ausus est. Ille statim, ut miles, ad gladium manum admovit, cumque se in fugam proripuisset poeta, non prius finis persequendi fuit, quam se in fluvium Virgilius coniecisset. Sed postea, et Maecenate et Pollione et ipso etiam Augusto faventibus, agros suos recepit. Intentio libri, quam skopón Graeci vocant, imitatione Theocriti poetae constituitur, qui Siculus et Syracusanus fuit. Est intentio etiam in laude Caesaris, et principum ceterorum, per quos in sedes suas rediit, unde, ut, et delectationem, et utilitatem finis contineret, secundum praecepta confecit. Quaeri solet, cur non plures quam decem eglogas conscripserit. Quod nequaquam mirandum videbitur ei, qui consideraverit aetatem scenarum pastoralium, quae ultra hunc numerum non potest proferri; praesertim cum ipse poeta, circumspiciens Theocritum, ut ipsa res indicat, videatur metuere, ne illa egloga, quae ‘‘Pollioni’’ inscribitur, minus rustica videatur, cum ipsam praestruat dicens: ‘‘Sicelides Musae, paulo maiora canamus’’ [Eclogues 4.1], et item similiter in aliis duabus facit. Illud tenendum esse praediximus in Bucolicis Virgilii, neque nusquam neque ubique aliquid figurate dici, hoc est per allegoriam. Vix enim propter laudem Caesaris et amissos agros haec Virgilio conceduntur, cum Theocritus, quem hic noster toto studio imitari conatur, simpliciter omnino conscripserit. Quod in ipso carmine tractari solet, est numerus, ordo, explanatio. Numerus eglogarum manifestus est; nam decem sunt, ex quibus proprie Bucolicae septem esse creduntur; nam tres ultimae proprie Bucolicae non debent dici, ‘‘Pollio’’ scilicet, ‘‘Silenus’’ et ‘‘Gallus.’’ Prima igitur continet conquestionem publicam et privatam gratulationem de agro, et dicitur ‘‘Tityrus.’’ Secunda amorem pueri, et dicitur ‘‘Alexis.’’ Tertia certamen pastorum, et dicitur ‘‘Palaemon.’’ Quarta genethliacum, et dicitur ‘‘Pollio.’’ Quinta epitaphium, et dicitur ‘‘Daphnis.’’ Sexta metamorphosim, et dicitur ‘‘Varus’’ vel ‘‘Silenus.’’ Septima [Pharmaceutria] [delectationem pastorum et dicitur ‘‘Corydon’’]. Octava amores diversorum sexuum, et dicitur ‘‘Damon’’ [vel ‘‘Pharmaceutria’’], nona continet poetae conquestionem de amisso agro, et dicitur ‘‘Moeris.’’ Decima desiderium Galli, et dicitur ‘‘Gallus.’’ Quod ad ordinem spectat, illud scire debemus, in prima tantum et ultima egloga poetam voluisse ordinem reservare, quoniam in altera principium constituit, ut in Georgicis ait: Tityre, te patulae cecini sub tegmine fagi [4.566],

in altera ostendit finem, quippe qui dicat: A. VITAE

355

Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem [Eclogues 10.1].

Verum inter ipsas eglogas pastoralem conscriptumque ordinem nullum esse certissimum est. Sed sunt qui dicant initium Bucolici carminis non ‘‘Tityre’’ [Eclogues 1.1] esse, sed: Prima Syracusio dignata est ludere versu [Eclogues 6.1].

Superest explanatio, ad quam antequam veniamus, illud dixerim, tenue esse bucolicum carmen et usque adeo ab heroico charactere distare, ut versus quoque huius carminis suas quasdam caesuras habeat et suis legibus distinguatur. Nam, cum tribus probetur metrum, caesura scansione modificatione, non erit bucolicus versus nisi in quo, et pes primus partem orationis absoluerit; et tertius trochaeus fuerit in caesura; et quartus pes dactylus magis quam spondeus partem orationis terminaverit; quintus et sextus pes ex integris dictionibus fuerit. Quod Virgilius, a Theocrito saepe servatum, victus operis difficultate, neglexit. In solo principio, incertum industria an casu, has caesuras servaverit: nam ‘‘Tityre’’ dactylus partem orationis absoluit; ‘‘tu patu lae recu,’’ tertium trochaeum, quamvis de composita dictione conclusit; ‘‘bans sub’’ quartum spondeum pro dactylo; cum subiunxit ‘‘tegmine fagi,’’ terminatis partibus orationis, integrum comma perfecit. Cuius rei diligentiam licet in Theocriti ferme omnibus versibus admirari. Qui supra dicta acri iudicio diligenterque considerarit, facile intelliget, quae in Georgicis intentio, quisque finis fuerit, nec minus etiam in Aeneide.

Publius Virgilius Maro was of humble parentage, especially with regard to his father: some have reported that he was an artisan who was a potter, but the majority say that he was employed by a viator [a minor public o≈cial whose main task was to summon people who had to appear before magistrates] named Magus and soon became a son-in-law on account of his hard work; and that, when his father-in-law had put him in charge of the farming, agriculture, and flocks, he made the small business larger by buying up woodlands and tending bees. [Virgil] was born on the Ides of October, during the first consulships of Gnaeus Pompeius the Great and Marcus Licinius Crassus [October 15, 70 b.c.e.], in a village called Andes, not far from Mantua. While pregnant with him, his mother, Maia, dreamed that she gave birth to a laurel branch, which, when it had been planted in the ground, sprung up and on that spot grew into the form of a full-grown tree, stu√ed with diverse fruits and flowers. And the following day, while she was making for the neighboring country spot with her husband, she turned aside from the path and delivered herself of her child in the adjacent ditch. They say that when the child was born, he did not cry, and so mild was his countenance that even then he gave 356

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no small reason to hope that his birth would prove to be auspicious. Another omen was added to this, when the poplar sprout that was immediately planted in the same place—according to the custom of the region governing childbirth—grew up so fast that it stood level with the poplars planted long before. It was called on that account the tree of Virgil, and it was in fact made sacred by the greatest reverence of pregnant women and new mothers who took and fulfilled vows there. He spent the beginning of his life, that is, until the seventh year, at Cremona and assumed the toga of manhood in his seventeenth year, when those men who had been consuls at the time of his birth were again consuls; as it happened, the poet Lucretius passed away that same day. But Virgil made his way from Cremona to the city of Milan, and from there a short time afterward he passed on to Naples. Here, when he had devoted extraordinary e√ort to both Latin and Greek literature, he immersed himself with his full e√ort and enthusiasm in mathematics and medicine. When he was more learned and more skilled in these subjects than other men, he betook himself to the city and at once gained the friendship of Augustus’s equerry and cured the many and various ills that had befallen the horses. And the master ordered bread to be given to Virgil for pay every day, as he would do for one of his stable-boys. Meanwhile a foal of wonderful beauty was sent by the men of Croton as a gift for Caesar; one which, in the judgment of all men, carried the hope of great strength and speed. When Maro saw it, he told the equerry that it had been born of an ill mare and would possess neither great strength nor great speed: and it was found that this had been the case. When the equerry repeated this to Augustus, the latter bade that the bread given to Virgil as pay be doubled. Similarly, when dogs were sent from Spain as a gift to Augustus, Virgil correctly told the state of their parents as well as what their spirits and their speed would be. When this became known Augustus again directed that the bread for Virgil be increased. Augustus was uncertain as to whether he was the son of Octavius or of another, and he decided that Maro would be able to lay the matter open, because he had known the nature and the pedigree of the dogs and the foal. Therefore, after sending away all witnesses, Augustus summoned Maro to the innermost part of his house and, once they were alone, asked him whether he knew who Augustus really was and what capacity he had to make men happy. ‘‘I know,’’ said Maro, ‘‘that you are Caesar Augustus and that you have a power nearly equal to that of the immortal gods, with the result that you can make whom you choose happy.’’ ‘‘I am minded,’’ answered Caesar, ‘‘to make you blessed and happy, if you have answered my question truthfully.’’ Said Maro, ‘‘I wish to be able to answer your question with the truth!’’ Then Augustus: ‘‘Some think me the son of Octavius, while others suspect that I was born to another man.’’ Maro, smiling, said, ‘‘It is easy; if you bid me speak my opinion freely and with impunity, I A. VITAE

357

will say it.’’ Caesar assured him by swearing an oath that he would take amiss nothing Virgil said—on the contrary, that Virgil would not depart without receiving a gift from him. Whereupon Maro locked his eyes with Augustus’s eyes and said: ‘‘It is quite easy to discern the qualities of the parents in other creatures, by the use of philosophy and mathematics. In regard to a human being it is not in the least possible. However, I have a conjecture regarding you which is like the truth, that I may lay open that which your father did by profession.’’ Augustus waited expectantly to hear what he would say. ‘‘Insofar as I am able to understand the matter,’’ said Maro, ‘‘you are a baker’s son.’’ Caesar was stunned and at once began to consider to himself in what manner this could have happened. Virgil broke in and said: ‘‘Hear,’’ he said, ‘‘on what basis I make this conjecture. When I proclaimed and foretold things that could be understood and known by none but the most learned and superior minds, you, the prince of the world, again and again ordained that I receive bread as pay. And that was the action of a baker, or a baker’s son.’’ ‘‘But from now on,’’ said Caesar, ‘‘you will receive the gifts not from a baker, but from a magnanimous king.’’ That little bit of raillery pleased Caesar, and he made much of Virgil and commended him to Pollio. He was large in person and stature, with a swarthy complexion, the face of a peasant, and uneven health, for he su√ered very much from pain in his stomach, throat, and head; indeed, he often spat up blood. He was sparing of food and wine. The rumor was that he was very inclined in sexual desire toward boys. But the good think he loved boys the way Socrates loved Alcibiades and Plato his favorites. But among all he most loved Cebes and Alexander. Alexander, whom he calls Alexis in the second of the Bucolics, was a gift to him from Asinius Pollio. Both of them were far from unlearned; in fact, Alexander was a grammarian, and Cebes was a poet as well. It is also circulated that he had intercourse with Plotia Hieria. But Asconius Pedianus maintains that Virgil himself used to say afterward to his elders that he had in fact been invited by Varus to share her but that he had refused obstinately. Clearly it is agreed that in the rest of his life he was so upright, in both word and thought, that he was commonly known as Parthenias in Naples. Whenever he was seen in public at Rome, through which he passed very rarely, he would seek refuge in the nearest house from those who followed him and pointed him out. Moreover he could not bear to accept the property of a certain exile, when Augustus o√ered it to him. Thanks to the generosity of his friends, he had almost ten million sesterces, and he owned a house in Rome on the Esquiline, next to the gardens of Maecenas, although he most often used a retreat in Campania and Sicily. Whatever he asked from Augustus, he never received a rebu√. Every year he sent his relatives gold for ample support; when he was already an adult, he lost them, among them his father (who had lost his eyesight) and 358

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two full brothers: Silo, who died as a boy, and Flaccus, as an adult, whose passing he lamented under the name Daphnis. Among other studies, as I said above, he studied medicine and especially mathematics. He even argued a case before the judges, once and once only. For Melissus reported that [Virgil] was very slow in speaking and almost like someone who had not been schooled. While still a boy he made a beginning in the art of poetry and composed a distich on Ballista the gladiator-master, who had been buried under rocks for the infamy of highway robberies: Ballista is covered, buried under this mountain of stones; by night and by day take your route in safety, traveler.

After this—when he was only fifteen—he composed the Moretum, Priapea, Epigrams, Dirae, and Culex. The argument of this last runs as follows: when a shepherd, wearied by the heat, had fallen asleep under a tree and a serpent was slithering up to him, a gnat flew out from the marsh and stung the shepherd between the temples. At once the shepherd crushed the gnat and slew the serpent—but he also erected a tomb for the gnat and composed this distich: O tiny gnat, a shepherd o√ers you, who are so deserving, the rite of death in exchange for the gift of life.

[Virgil] also wrote a poem about Etna, about which there is still much debate. Later, after he had made a start on Roman subjects, he became vexed by the material and switched to the Bucolics, primarily in order to honor Asinius Pollio, Alfenus Varus, and Cornelius Gallus, because they had kept him from being penalized in the distribution of lands after the victory at Philippi, when the lands on the other side of the Po were divided among the veterans by order of the triumvirate. After that, he published the Georgics in honor of Maecenas, who lent him aid—though he was but little known to him—against the violence of a certain veteran soldier, Claudius—but others think it was Arius the centurion—by whom he was nearly killed in an argument over a land dispute. Lastly, he began work on the Aeneid: a varied and complex theme; the equivalent, as it were, of both Homeric poems; a story shared by the Greeks and Latins with regard to names and deeds; and (what concerned him most) which would encompass at one and the same time the origins of the city of Rome and of Augustus. It is reported that while he was composing the Georgics, he would dictate every day a great number of verses that he had thought out in the morning and that he would, in revising them throughout the day, reduce them to a very small number, and that he said not unreasonably that he brought his poem into being in a fashion not unlike a she-bear’s and that then he licked it into A. VITAE

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shape [see above, II.A.1]. As for the Aeneid, he began to compose it [in verse] bit by bit only after he had drafted it in prose and divided it into twelve books, as some say. Others are of the opinion that he had in mind to write twenty-four books up to the time of Augustus, and in fact to run quickly through other topics, but to provide most meticulously an account of the deeds of Augustus. Certainly, while he was writing the Aeneid, lest anything should impede his momentum, he would let certain things pass unfinished; others he propped up, as it were, with lightweight verses, joking that they were placed there as struts, to hold up the edifice until the solid columns arrived. He finished the Bucolics in two years, at the pleading of Asinius Pollio. This man was in charge of the province beyond the river Po. On account of his favor, Virgil did not lose his fields, when they were given out to veterans. Maro loved this Pollio very deeply and received great gifts from him. For example, when he was invited to a feast and was captivated by the beauty and consideration of Alexander, one of Pollio’s boyslaves, Pollio gave him to Virgil as a gift. Virgil also loved with marvelous attachment the son of Pollio, Gaius Asinius Gallus, an eminent orator and no mean poet. Gallus translated Euphorion into Latin and wrote four books on his amours with a certain Cytheris. At first, he was in friendship with Augustus Caesar. Later on, however, he was indicted on suspicion of conspiracy against him and was killed. Actually, Virgil loved this Gallus so much that the fourth Georgic from midpoint to end contains his praise, which afterward at Augustus’s bidding he transformed into the myth of Aristaeus. He finished the Georgics in seven years at Naples; the Aeneid, completed partly in Sicily, partly in Campagna, took him eleven years. He published the Bucolics with such success that on stage too singers delivered them frequently. But once, when Cicero had heard some verses and at once understood with his keen judgment that they were of no ordinary stamp, he asked for the whole eclogue to be read aloud from the beginning. When he had absorbed it accurately, he said at the end: ‘‘The second great hope of Rome,’’ as if he had been the first hope of the Latin language and Virgil was the second; Virgil later included these words in the Aeneid. Virgil read the Georgics for four days straight to Augustus, who had returned from his victory at Actium and was resting in Atella for the sake of recovering his strength; Maecenas took his place reading whenever Virgil himself was impeded by the failure of his voice. Nonetheless, Virgil’s recitation was attractive and strangely seductive. Seneca reported that the poet Iulius Montanus used to say that there were certain things he would steal from Virgil, if he could also have his voice, appearance, and delivery: for indeed lines that sounded well when Virgil himself read them were lifeless and flat without him. Even when scarcely begun, the reputation of the Aeneid was so great that Sextus Propertius did not hesitate to prophesy thus: 360

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Give way, Roman authors; give way, Greeks: something greater than the Iliad is being born.

Indeed, when Augustus (for, as it happened, he was away on an expedition in Cantabria) demanded of him in his letters, with entreaties and also jokingly with threats, ‘‘that he send to him the first draft of the Aeneid or some section of it,’’ [Virgil] denied [his request]. Much later, when he had refined his subject matter, he finally recited three whole books for Augustus: the second, fourth, and sixth—and this last one especially on account of Octavia, who (being present at the recitation) is said to have fainted at the lines about her son, ‘‘You shall be Marcellus,’’ and, having been revived only with di≈culty, decreed that Virgil was to be given ten thousand sesterces for every verse he wrote. He also gave recitations to larger audiences (though not often), and especially of those lines about which he was unsure, the better to make trial of people’s opinions. They say that Eros, his secretary and freedman, now in old age would report that on one occasion during a reading Virgil completed two halffinished lines ex tempore. For when he reached ‘‘Aeolian Misenus,’’ he added ‘‘who was unsurpassed’’; likewise to this, ‘‘in stirring up men with the trumpet,’’ he attached ‘‘and in kindling war with song,’’ casting it o√ with a similar fervor. And at once he commanded Eros to write down both on the scroll. [The following passage is a heavily adapted form of VSD, rather than an entirely new interpolation.] He revised the Eclogues and Georgics. In his fiftysecond year, so as to put the finishing touch to his Aeneid, he resolved to go o√ to Greece and Asia Minor and to give for three years straight all his attention to filing it down, so that the remainder of his life might be free for philosophy only. But when he had set out on the journey to Athens, he ran into Augustus coming back to Rome from the east, and he decided to return together with Caesar. But when he went to visit the nearby town of Megara, he was struck down by a faintness, which the uninterrupted sea-voyage had not helped, in such a way that, sicker from day to day, he reached Brindisi, where he died a few days later, on the tenth day before the Kalends of October [September 22], in the consulships of Gnaeus Sentius and Quintus Lucretius. When he realized that he was worsening with disease, he called often and with great insistence for his writing-cases in order to burn the Aeneid. His requests being refused, he directed in his will for it to be burned as an imperfect and incomplete thing; yet Tucca and Varus warned that Augustus would not hear of it. Then he consigned his writings to Varus and Tucca both, on the condition that they would not publish anything that had not been published by him himself, and that they would leave any unfinished verses (if there were any) as they were. He also wanted his bones to be transferred to Naples, where he had lived long and most pleasantly, and at the height of his sickness he wrote this epitaph for himself, a distich. By order of Augustus

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his bones were moved to Naples, as he himself had directed, and buried on the road to Pozzuoli within the second milestone; and upon his grave is inscribed this distich, which he had composed: Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders.

He bequeathed half of his estate to Valerius Proculus, his brother by another father; a quarter to Augustus; a twelfth to Maecenas; and the rest to Lucius Varus and Plotius Tucca, the two who at Caesar’s behest corrected the Aeneid after his death, as he [Virgil] had asked. For in the mind of no one at all did the Aeneid seem worthy of being burned. Verses of the following sort by Sulpicius of Carthage [see below, II.D.3] are extant on the subject: Virgil had given instructions that it was to be destroyed by consuming fire, the poem that sang of the Phrygian prince. Tucca and likewise Varus refuse; you, greatest Caesar, do not allow the destruction; you look out for the narrative about Latium. Luckless Pergamum nearly fell in a second fire, and Troy was almost consumed on another pyre.

There are also extant very many renowned verses by Augustus on the same subject, of which the beginning is as follows: And so could the outrageous voice in its last words command So drastic a misdeed? And so, shall the excellent Muse of eloquent Maro Go into the flames and perish?

And somewhat later: But belief in the laws must be preserved; it is necessary To obey what the last wish commands and orders to be done. No, let the venerable majesty of the laws be broken rather Than that one day might swallow up the accumulated labors Of so many nights and days.

And so forth. At Augustus’s bidding, therefore, Varus edited nothing, which is as Virgil himself had instructed, but revised only in a cursory fashion, with the result that he even left unfinished verses, if there were any. Many soon endeavored to complete these lines, but they did not succeed; the task was too di≈cult, for nearly all the half-lines were free-standing and complete with regard to sense, except this: ‘‘Whom Troy to you now . . .’’ Nisius the grammarian used to say that he heard from older men that Varus changed the order of two books, and that which then was second he moved into third place, and also that he smoothed out the beginning of the first book by subtracting these lines: I am he who once tuned my song on a slender reed, then, leaving the woodland, compelled the neighboring fields to serve the husbandman, however grasping, 362

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a work welcome to farmers: but now of Mars’s bristling arms and a man I sing . . .

Virgil, who was the pillar of the Latin language, never wanted for detractors. Against the Bucolics, a certain Paro mockingly wrote eclogues—only two, but the most insipid of parodies. The first begins by mocking thus: O Tityrus, if the toga keeps you warm, what is ‘‘the raiment of a beech’’ for?,

followed by: ‘‘Tell me, Damoetas: ‘to whom doth this herd belong?’ That can’t be Latin!’’ ‘‘No, that’s just the way they talk out in Aegon country’’ [see above, II.A.1].

When this line from the Georgics was being recited—‘‘Naked plow and naked sow’’—someone else added, ‘‘you will catch a fever from the cold.’’ There is also Carbilius Pictor’s critique of the Aeneid, entitled Aeneidomastix [Aeneid-Whip]. Marcus Vipranius calls him [Virgil] kakoteles, ‘‘put under the yoke’’ by Maecenas, and used to say that he was the inventor of a new kind of a√ectation, neither bombastic nor overly humble, but constructed of common words and therefore not obvious. Herennius collected only his defects, Perellius Faustus only what he had stolen. But Quintus Octavius Avitus’s eight volumes include both the lines that are derivative and their sources. In a book that he wrote as a response to Virgil’s detractors, Asconius Pedianus set forth a few of their objections, especially those concerning his plot and the fact that he took most [of his material] from Homer; but he says that [Virgil] used to defend this very crime as follows: ‘‘Why is it that they, too, do not attempt the same ‘thefts’? Indeed, they will perceive that it is easier to steal a club from Hercules than a line from Homer.’’ Nevertheless, he decided—according to Pedianus—to retire, in order to trim everything to the satisfaction of his illwishers. Pedianus also reports that he was kindly and a devotee of all good and learned men, and was so free of envy that, if he beheld a well-educated phrase from another, he was no less happy than if he had written it himself; that he disparaged no one, praised good men, and had such humanity that anyone, aside from an extremely disturbed individual, not only esteemed but loved him. He seemed to own nothing of his own; his library was not less open to other men of learning than to himself, and he often quoted an old saying of Euripides: ‘‘Everything is communal among friends.’’ Therefore he had developed such an attachment to every poet of his generation, that when they burned most with jealousy among themselves, they still were devoted to him: Varus, Tucca, Horace, Gallus, Propertius. Anser, who once took sides with Antony, is said not to have paid him any attention. Cornificius did not either, because of his perversity. Virgil was so much a despiser of glory that, when someone appropriated some of his verses and was deemed wise for the result, not only did he not take it badly, but it was A. VITAE

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even a pleasure to him. This one thing he could not bear: when he made a distich, which contained praise and the happiness of Augustus, and posted it anonymously on the folding-doors—it ran as follows: It rained all night, the games return with the morning: Caesar has joint rulership with Jove—

Augustus, long seeking to know whose verses these might be, could not find out their author. A certain Bacillus, a mediocre poet, claimed them for himself, since no one else did. On account of this he was honored and given gifts by Augustus. Virgil did not take this with equanimity; he posted this line-opening four times on the same doors: ‘‘So, it is not for yourselves that you.’’ Augustus wanted these verses to be finished. When others had tried in vain to complete it, Virgil subjoined the following to the foregoing distich: These verses have I made; another reaped the reward. So, it is not for yourselves that you So, it is not for yourselves that you So, it is not for yourselves that you So, it is not for yourselves that you

build nests, birds. bear wool, sheep. make honey, bees. lead the plows, cattle.

When this became known, Bacillus became a byword in Rome for some time. Maro became only more honored. Once, when he held his Ennius in one hand and was asked what he was doing, he answered that he was gathering gold from the manure of Ennius. For indeed that poet had outstanding maxims hidden beneath words not very refined. When Augustus asked him by what arrangement the civic state was most felicitously to be governed, ‘‘If the most foresighted control the axle,’’ he said, ‘‘and the good are preferred to the wicked, then the best should hold the posts of honor, but nothing unjust would happen to anyone of the other sort.’’ But Maecenas asked: ‘‘What brings men no oversatiety, Virgil?’’ He answered, ‘‘Of all things either similarity or quantity causes distaste—except for understanding.’’ Again he asked: ‘‘How can one preserve his high and happy fortune?’’ ‘‘If you strive to exceed others as much in generosity and justice as you excel others in honor and wealth.’’ He was accustomed to say that no virtue was more advantageous for mankind than patience, and that no lot was so bitter that the brave man could not overcome it by dint of cleverly enduring. This opinion he inserted into book 5 of the Aeneid: Son of a goddess, let us follow where the Fates drag us, back and forth; Let what will happen happen: every lot must be overcome with endurance.

When one of his friends told him the slanders and animosities of Cornificius against him, he said, ‘‘What do you think is the basis of his ill disposition? For I’ve never done Cornificius wrong and I love the man; yet,’’ he said, ‘‘do you not remember the phrase of Hesiod, where he says that the architect will envy the architect and the 364

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poet the poet? That Greek understood that in bad men; for the good love more informed men. Yet with my great glory and praise I have my revenge in hand. For I search after excellence with greater probity; and the more eloquent I become, the more violently will that man burst from his jealousy.’’ There was a certain friend of Augustus, Philistus, a public speaker and a man of middling knowledge about poetry, whose genius, however, was various and manysided. He tried to criticize every word of every other writer, not so as to illuminate the truth, as Socrates was accustomed to do, but rather to seem more learned. He annoyed Virgil with curses and witticisms whenever they happened to meet. So Virgil often either left the room in silence or kept quiet, blushing with embarrassment. When Philistus, being within earshot of Augustus, said that Virgil was incapable of eloquence and could not speak in his own defense, even if the cause was his own, Virgil said, ‘‘Be quiet, you ranter; for this silence of mine has made Augustus and Maecenas the defenders of my cause, and I speak when I wish with that trumpet, which will be heard everywhere and for a very long time. With your garrulousness you break not only the eardrums of men but even walls.’’ What is more, Augustus rebuked Philistus with a grave look. Then Maro said: ‘‘If, Caesar, this man recognized the time for being silent, he would speak rarely. For one should always keep silence, except when silence will hurt you or speech will benefit others. For wise men think that that man who contends and whose contention has no useful goal is to be numbered among the foolish.’’ After Augustus had attained supreme command of the entire world, the question came to his mind whether it would be of use to give up autocracy and to restore full power to the one-year consuls and [the administration of ] the republic to the Senate. In this matter he had Maecenas and Agrippa resolved on di√erent opinions. For in a lengthy oration Agrippa had argued that it would be useful to him, even if it were not entirely honorable, to give up the dictatorship; but Maecenas tried to dissuade him from this with all his strength. Consequently, the mind of Augustus was tugged now this way, now that. For the divergent opinions had been backed up with various reasons. He therefore asked Maro whether it was suitable for him, a private citizen, to make himself dictator in his republic. He answered, ‘‘For almost everyone who took hold of the republic and for the citizens tyranny itself was harmful, because it was necessary to live in great suspicion and great fear, on account of the hate of those subjected and the injustice they su√ered. But if the citizens knew some just man, whom they loved deeply, it would be in the best interest of the civic body if all power were concentrated in that one person. Consequently, if you apportion in the future (as you do now) justice to everyone without causing any strife to be made between people, your sole dominion will be useful to both you and the world. For you so have the goodwill of all that they both love you like a god and believe you are a god.’’ Caesar followed his advice and took the principate. From Siro he [Virgil] heard the precepts of Epicurus, in whose doctrine he had a A. VITAE

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companion in Varus. And although he inserted into his books the opinions of di√erent philosophers, on questions about the soul he most seems to be an Academic; for he preferred the opinions of Plato before all others. Now, since we have spoken summarily about the author, it seems that we must speak about the poem itself, which is usually treated in two parts: that is, the part before the work, and the part within the work itself. Before the work, there are the title, the cause, and the intention. The title is that in which it is asked whose work it is, and what it is; the cause, its origin and, in particular, why the poet ventured to write it; the intention, that in which it is discerned what the poet endeavored to achieve. Within the work itself, we observe, to be sure, three things: the number [of the books], the order [of the books], and the explication. So then, although there are many pseudepigrapha (that is, works that are put out with a false title, under another’s name), such as our poet’s tragedy Thyestes —which Varus [for Varius] published—and other works of this sort, yet it is scarcely to be doubted that the Bucolics are clearly Virgil’s, especially since the poet himself (as if fearing this very thing) gave testimony in the beginning of the Aeneid and also in another poem that this [the Bucolics] is his, as he thus says, ‘‘I am that one who formerly’’ and the rest, and: I who played at shepherd’s songs, and, emboldened by youth, sang of you, O Tityrus, under the protection of the spreading beech.

Moreover, that [such poems] are called bucolics—and rightly so called—is proven su≈ciently by the fact that they are designated by the same name in Theocritus. Nevertheless, the reason, too, should be given. There are three kinds of shepherds that have standing in things pastoral. The least of these are called aipoloi by the Greeks, caprarii [goatherds] by us. Somewhat more esteemed are those known as poimenes [shepherds], that is, opiliones [shepherds]. The greatest and best-esteemed are the boukoloi, which we call bubulci [oxen-drivers]. So then, where could you find a more fitting term for pastoral song, than from that rank which is found superior among herdsmen? The cause is usually investigated along two lines: according to the origin of the poem and according to the desire of the writer. Di√erent people, however, assign di√erent causes to the origin of bucolic song; some refer it to one source and others to another. For there are those who say that this song was first rendered to Diana by herdsmen from Sparta, since it was not possible for the song to be presented by virgins to this same goddess (as the custom had been) on account of the war which the Persians were waging at that time upon the whole of Greece. Others say that a song of this kind was o√ered up to Diana by Orestes while he was wandering around Sicily, for 366

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himself and the shepherds, when he fled with Pylades from Scythia. (He had stolen an image of the goddess and hidden it in a bundle of sticks, which is why—they say—she is addressed as Fascelina Diana. Orestes had been purified from parricide at her altars by his sister, Iphigenia, who was the priestess of the goddess.) Others say that a song of this kind was o√ered up to Apollo Nomios [Apollo of the Herdsmen], namely, a pastoral god, at the time when he pastured the cattle of Admetus. Still others say that it was o√ered up to Liber, the prince of nymphs, satyrs, and divinities of that type who take pleasure in country song. Others think that it was for Mercury, the father of Daphnis and the prince of all shepherds in Theocritus and also in this very poet of ours. Others think that it was written in honor of Pan, a particularly pastoral god. In the same manner, others think it was written in honor of Silenus, Silvanus, and the fauns. When all is said and done, it is most probable that bucolic song derives its origin from ancient times, when men made their living as herdsmen. That is probably why we recognize in the simplicity of characters of this sort a kind of golden age; and it was rightly (on account of this quality) that Virgil began with nothing less than the world’s first way of life, before moving on to other kinds of poetry. For afterward fields were cultivated, and finally wars were undertaken for cultivated fields and fertile land; these are the facts that Virgil seems to have wanted the order itself of his works to show, when he sang first of herdsmen, then of farmers, and finally of the soldiers of war. We still need to consider what cause prompted the poet’s desire to write the Eclogues first. For either he was enticed by the sweetness of Theocritus’s poetry and admiration for him, or he followed the order of the ages with regard to human existence, as we said above, or the three modi [styles] of speech—what the Greeks call charakteres: ischnos, which is understood to mean ‘‘plain’’ [tenuis]; hadros, ‘‘vigorous’’ [validus]; and mesos, ‘‘well-balanced’’ [moderatus]. It is plausible that Virgil desired to write his Bucolics in the first style, his Georgics in the second, and the Aeneid in the third, in order to distinguish himself in every genus of poetry. Or rather, he wrote the Bucolics first so that, in a poem of this kind (which is somewhat freer and stronger than his other poems), he might gain an opportunity to capture Caesar’s favor and regain his land, which he had lost for the reason that follows. On the third day after Gaius Caesar was murdered in the senate building on the Ides of March [March 15], when the veterans appointed Augustus Caesar (he was practically a boy) as their leader— and not without the Senate’s approval!—as civil war was breaking out, the Cremonans, along with some others of the same persuasion, gave aid to Augustus Caesar’s adversaries. Wherefore it happened that, when the victorious Augustus ordered his veterans to settle on the lands of the Cremonans, and since their land was not su≈cient, the Mantuans—among whom was the poet A. VITAE

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Virgil—also lost the better part of their territory, because they were neighbors to the Cremonans. But Virgil, relying on the friendship of Augustus and on his own poetry, made bold to stand in the way of Arrius the centurion. He immediately reached for his sword, since he was a soldier, and when the poet rushed out to flee, the pursuit did not end until Virgil had thrown himself into a river. But afterward and with the help of Maecenas, Pollio, and even Augustus himself, he got his fields back. The intention of the book, what the Greeks call its skopos, rests on imitation of the poet Theocritus, who was a Sicilian and a resident of Syracuse. The book is also intended to praise Caesar and the other leading men who helped him to regain his residences and his lands. Wherefore he completed [this poem] according to the rules, so that it might provide pleasure and serve a useful end. It is often asked why he did not write more than ten eclogues. This will seem no cause for wonder, if one has taken into account the scope of his pastoral dramas, which is not able to be extended beyond this number, especially since the poet himself, surveying Theocritus, as the matter itself indicates, seems to have feared that the eclogue entitled ‘‘Pollio’’ would be judged less rustic, for he prefaces it by saying: ‘‘Muses of Sicily, let us sing of somewhat greater subjects,’’ and he does likewise in two others. We say at the outset, keep this in mind: in the Bucolics of Virgil, something is said figuratively (that is, allegorically) neither nowhere nor everywhere. These things are hardly to be conceded to Virgil on account of the praise of Caesar and the loss of his lands, since Theocritus, whom our poet was striving to imitate with great zeal, composed in a manner that was plain and simple. It follows now to consider what is usually handled in the poem itself: that is, the number [of the books], the order [of the books], and [their] exposition. The number of eclogues is obvious, for there are ten, of which seven are believed to be bucolics properly so called, because the last three, namely, the ‘‘Pollio,’’ the ‘‘Silenus,’’ and the ‘‘Gallus,’’ should not be said to be bucolics properly so called. So then, the first [Eclogue] contains public complaint and private thanksgiving on the subject of the land; it is called the ‘‘Tityrus.’’ The love of a boy forms the content of the second, which is called the ‘‘Alexis.’’ The third contains a contest between herdsmen and is called the ‘‘Palaemon.’’ The fourth contains a poem to celebrate a birth and is called the ‘‘Pollio.’’ The fifth contains an epitaph and is called the ‘‘Daphnis.’’ The sixth contains a metamorphosis and is called the ‘‘Varus’’ or the ‘‘Silenus.’’ [The recreation of herdsmen forms the content of] the seventh [Eclogue], [which is called the ‘‘Corydon’’]. Loves between the opposite sexes form the content of the eighth, which is called the ‘‘Damon’’ [or ‘‘The Sorceress’’]; the ninth contains the poet’s own appeal for his lost land and is called the ‘‘Moeris.’’ The pining of 368

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Gallus [see above, II.A.1] forms the content of the tenth [Eclogue], which is called the ‘‘Gallus.’’ With regard to the order [of the books], it is important to know that the poet wished to maintain a sequence only in the first Eclogue and the last, since in the one, he established the beginning as he says in the Georgics: I sang of you, O Tityrus, under the protection of the spreading beech,

and in the other he indicates the end by saying: Concede to me this final labor, Arethusa.

Among the Eclogues themselves, however, it is quite certain that there is no natural, connected order. But there are those who would say that the beginning of this bucolic song is not ‘‘Tityrus’’ but: She first deigned to play with the verse of Syracuse.

This leaves the exposition, which we shall handle in due course, although we will say in advance that this must be maintained: bucolic poetry is delicate and di√ers from the heroic mode in this, that the lines of such poetry have certain kinds of caesuras peculiar to themselves and are distinguished by their own rules. For since a meter, of course, is determined according to these three criteria—caesura, scansion, and fixed pattern—the verse will not be bucolic unless there is diaeresis in the first foot, unless a caesura follows a trochee in the third foot, unless the fourth foot is a dactyl (rather than a spondee) with diaeresis, and unless its fifth and sixth feet constitute an unbroken expression. But what Theocritus for the most part observed, Virgil disregarded, conquered by the di≈culty of the task. Only at the beginning did he place a bucolic verse [Tityre tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi], and whether this was deliberate or accidental is uncertain. For the dactyl Tityre coincides with the end of a word; tu patulae recu closes the third trochee, though from a compound phrase; bans sub is a spondee in the fourth in place of a dactyl; when he subjoined tegmine fagi, he made a perfect phrase by ending the parts of speech. It is possible to observe attentiveness in the same regard in almost all the verses of Theocritus. He who has contemplated the foregoing with keen judgment and attentiveness will easily understand what the intention and the final aim was in the Georgics, no less so in the Aeneid. (Translation of the VSD by DWO, revised by JG and JZ, and of the expansions unique to the Donatus auctus, which have been set in italics, by PLS, revised by JG and JZ)

38. Sicco Polenton II (1437) A little more than a decade after writing the first redaction, Polenton (see above, II.A.36) completed a second of De scriptoribus illustribus Latinae linguae. A. VITAE

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Although the content is similar in many elements, he revised thoroughly. For instance, he removed the opening comments on Virgil the magician that had stood out in the first redaction. His references to sources are more detailed and trustworthy, and his style more polished. For his closing mention of Asconius Pedianus, see above, II.A.37, and below, IV.A.3. Polenton’s autograph (Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Ott. lat. 1915) was edited by B. L. Ullman (Rome, 1928, 73–90) and reprinted in EV 5.2, 528–33, no. 381. (JZ) Sicconis Polentoni Liber Scriptorum Illustrium Latinae Linguae Secundus, Explicit et Incipit Tertius ad Filium Polydorum Feliciter Absolvimus Ovidium et Martialem Coquum, poetas quippe illustres ac suo in genere excellentes, superiori libro, Polydore mi suavissime fili. Hoc autem libro memorare Virgilium et, qui eius contemporaneus fuit, Horatium statuimus. Equidem dicemus de ipsis ac caeteris, neque vero nimium multi sunt qui deinde hanc usque nostram ad memoriam clari poetae Latini nominis floruerunt. Sed purgandus est primum locus iste, ne vitio quisquam nobis attribuat ac criminetur, quod veluti obliti ac nescii ordinis praeposuerimus et Nasonem et Martialem Coquum Horatio atque Virgilio, qui essent ante illos cum tempore tum dignitate ponendi. Nempe id oblivione non venit, sed fecimus ducti persuasione Antonii Baratellae, concivis Patavini nostri, qui sane grammaticus est doctus atque facilitate metri faciendi prope alter Ovidius. Nobis autem id sequi consilium placuit, quod visum sit consentaneum ordini, si libro alio poetas amatorios, alio Virgilium et Horatium memoramus. Sed defuturos non speramus qui nostra calumnientur et mordeant. Quid enim nobis, qui sumus haudquaquam eruditi satis, vel sperandum vel metuendum sit, facile docent maiorum exempla. Quibus monemur scriptorum neminem omnium calumniatoribus caruisse. Nam, ut minores praeteream, ipsum in Hieronymum, qui sanctimonia morum, qui eloquentia, qui sapientia perfloreret et maximus haberetur, latrare sunt permulti ausi. Sed in quem plures sunt quam ipsum in speculum eloquentiae Ciceronem invecti? Hoc nanque devitare neque vivus nec mortuus potuit, qui esset doctissimus, Cicero, ne incideret in linguas hominum qui eum strictis dentibus remorderent. Nec fuit nescius ipse futurum quod eius scribendi labor in varias reprehensiones incurreret. Quippe fuerunt qui eum reprehenderent multi. Sed aliis displicebat quod functus tanta in urbe muneribus amplis adeo se animo abiecisset quod philosophiae libellos et instituta tractaret, quasi turpe esset ac non liceret ulli versari in litteris qui summos magistratus obisset. Reprehendebant alii quod ea scriberet quae haudquaquam suo e fonte hausta sed dudum iam Graecis a doctoribus et tradita et inventa essent. 370

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Criminabantur alii quod suis in dialogis colloquentes induceret homines qui illis de rebus disputarent quarum ipsi aut ignari penitus aut certe parum eruditi essent. Alios quoque ac doctos viros inventos constat qui dicerent ipsum in compositione peccasse. His namque tumidus, fractus, redundans esse atque in repetitione nimius videbatur. Quid dixerim? Compositio illius ipsius qui et compositionis et omnis eloquentiae Latinae est magister ac princeps propalam vel apud eum ipsum et a Calvo et suo a familiari Bruto reprehensa est. Vitia quoque orationis suae ut crimen locis pluribus Asinius Pollio insectatur. Martianus Capella [see below, IV.Q.12] suis in Nuptiis Philologiae rhetoricam introducens Ciceronem scribit, etsi maiestate sua ac longo tempore defendatur, vitiosissimum tamen in clausulis reperiri eundemque turbare numeros quadam permixta confusione dicit. Enimvero qui detraherent, criminarentur, increparent neque Cicero nec scriptor quisquam quamvis doctissimus caruit. Hanc enim, quantum opinor, ad criminandi licentiam trahit multos invidia. Aliquos vana quaedam delectatio incitat. Alios stulta ducit opinio quod se, quo magis detrahunt aliis, eo doctiores videri ac dignos laude maiori putent. Inest aliis tanta severitas ac delicatus gustus ut laudent nihil quod parte omni non sit optimum perfectumque summe atque integerrimum videatur. Quippe omnium nemo qui scripsit unquam, ut ipsa docet experientia ac Hieronymus refert, id vitavit, quod detractoribus careat. Proinde si erunt qui mea reprehendant, aequo animo id ferre constitui, presertim quod sim haudquaquam ex illis qui aut invidis careant aut eo sint studio, ingenio, facultate provecti quod nihil reprehendendum, nihil non summa laude dignum, nihil non perfectissimum habeant. Sed hoc libro Virgilium, deinde Horatium, uti est propositum, postremo extra ordinem magistratus Romanos qui rei publicae praeesse solerent, rem scitu haud inutilem, videamus. Parentes igitur Maro habuit rusticos. Fictilia pater fecit primum, deinde viatoris mercenarius atque tandem bono quodam pro aspectu, ingenio, solertia gener factus est. Mercaturam egit deinde sed felicior in emendis silvis et tractandis apibus, quas apud socerum invenit, fortunas auxit. Patri nomen Virgilius, matri Maia fuit. Ipse vero P. Virgilius Maro appellatus est. Nascitur Maro haud multum post tempora dominatus Syllae [sic], Idibus Octobriis, Gn. Pompeio et L. Crasso consulibus. Annus erat tunc ab urbe condita VIe LXXXI. Nec sine presagio natus est Maro noster. Quippe gravidae matri per quietem visum se parere lauri ramum, qui mox vehementer excresceret pomaque ac flores varios et delectabiles ederet. Haec somnio per noctem visa. Die autem qui eam secutus est noctem, ut solent rustica re soliciti, in agrum summo diluculo vir et uxor profecti sunt. Venter forte maturus erat atque ita A. VITAE

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maturus quod patenti in agro atque ipsa in via parere prope coacta sit. Vix mariti auxilio secessit proximam in fossam. Nulla erat ibi casa, nullum tugurium, nullus idoneus magis locus. Omnia caelo et terra patebant. Denique puerum urgente hora mariti solum et naturae adiuta suffragio enixa est. Infans vero utero egressus vagitum, ut solent nascentes pueri, nullum dedit sed facie letus, quantum aetas pateretur, edocuit quantus futurus vir ac poeta esset. Mater autem leviata partu populeam virgam, ut in puerperiis gentium ritus exigeret, quo in loco erat natus puer, sevit. Is ramus mirum in modum ac prope subito crescens in arborem se veteribus etiam ac maximis adaequavit. Ea res in admirationem atque religionem adeo ducta est ut eam Virgilio consecrarent et quae pregnantes peperissent ad eam colendam quasi divinum ad numen pergerent ac vota darent. Maro autem apud parentes in villa tunc Andos, postea Pletulae appellata educatur puer. Rus est illud Mantuano in agro et Mantuae civitati propinquum. Mantuam vero antiquam esse in terra Italia civitatem et flumini Pado vicinam eandemque ab Oeno, Tusci amnis et fatidicae Mantos filio, conditam ac Mantuam e matris nomine appellatam sententia multorum est. Qui vero haec dil[i]gentius investigant Oenum Mantuae conditorem fatentur, filium autem Tusci amnis et fatidicae Mantos negant. At vero ob eam rem a poeta Virgilio fatidicae Mantos et Tusci amnis filium appellatum dicunt, quod gente Tuscus esset Oenus polleretque divinandi arte quam Graeci mantiam appellarent. Nostram vero ad rem illud constat, Mantuam Aetruscorum esse coloniam eandemque ab Oeno Aetrusco deductam ante bellum Troianum esse. Qua vero in provincia est, eam nunc Lombardiam sed tunc Venetiam appellabant. Ita enim erat apud veteres Italia provinciis distributa ut quae hoc in angulo est provincia, ea quondam Venetia vocaretur, quod Antenorem ducem eversa Troia secuti qui e Paflagonia venerant Eneti primum, deinde Veneti vocarentur. Nomine gens prisca quae ista tenerent loca Euganei appellati. Histriam quidem et quicquid est agri et urbium Adriaticum ad mare atque deinde in Aduam usque flumen provinciae huius longitudo capiebat. Latitudo vero flumen Padum amplectens se ad montes usque qui Alemanos ab Italis dirimunt extendebat. Mantuam vero fuisse provinciae Venetae, ut reliquos taceam, et Servius, egregius Maronis interpres, et Macrobius, non ieiunus auctor, in eo libro qui Saturnalium est inscriptus tradit. Padum quoque Venetae dicionis esse solere refert Lucanus bellum scribens civile verbis istis: ‘‘Sic Veneto stagnante Pado.’’ [De bello civili 4.134 correctly ‘‘Venetus’’]. Refert item, quem amatorios inter poetas nominavi, Propertius suam ad Cinthiam ita scribens: ‘‘Tam multa illa meo divisa est milia lecto, / quantum Hippanis Veneto dissidet Eridano’’ [Carmina 1.12.3–4]. 372

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Casibus autem variis, uti sunt mutabilia quaeque, eo ventum est ut provinciae huius et nomen et termini mutati sint. Quod autem provinciae huius vetus soleret nomen esse, id tenet modo intimo in sinu Adriatici maris sita urbs senatu, opibus, dominatu pollens. Ea quidem Venetiae plurali numero appellatur. Alteram quoque Lugdunensi in Gallia provinciam esse quae Venetia vocaretur auctores memorant quidam. Haec Britaniam prospectans Occeano adiacet. Iulius Caesar ipsam, quod terra marique florens tergiversari auderet, se domuisse suis in Commentariis memorat. Caeterum, ut est visa aetas idonea, Virgilium puerum pater iam ditior factus litteris erudiendum dedit. Cremonae prima egit studia Maro. Togam etiam virilem, ut mos erat gentium, ibi sumpsit. Togam vero vestem illam veteres appellabant quae exterior ac longa vestes alias tegeret, eandemque togam a tegendo dici Nonus Marcellus scribens de proprietate verborum tradit. Utebantur ea Romani cives presertim qui versabantur in foro ac periti erant. Mulieribus quoque uti genere illo vestimenti licebat. Annos septem ac decem agebat Maro cum togam sumpsit. Tum forte iterum, qui fuerant cum nasceretur, consules Gn. Pompeius et L. Crassus erant. Quo autem die toga est a Marone sumpta, eodem Lucretius, qui esset poeta excellens, vita defunctus est. Eruditior tandem factus Maro Cremona Mediolanum, Mediolano Romam, Roma Neapolim perquirens studia profectus est. Annos quattuor ante bellum quod civile Iulius Caesar cum Pompeio gessit Romam venit. In studiis autem litterarum operam liberalibus artibus sed precipue mathematicis ac medicinae dedit. Rei quoque oratoriae ac poesi ardentissime studuit. Dicendi quidem artem et metro et prosa in omni genere mirabili quodam ingenio, diligentia, cognitione amplexus est. Causam vero, ut solerent qui periti oratores essent, in foro egit modo unam. Nec illam quidem multa cum gratia habuit, quod, etsi quae dicendi essent instituta omnia artemque omnem eloquentiae, quantum ullus posset, et studio et ingenio percepisset, ei tamen obstaret natura atque ita obstaret ut nihil oratione soluta gratum satis audientibus diceret. Quippe sibi non vox, non dictio serviebat. Gestus denique nullus accommodatus erat. Poetica vero in re confessione omnium excelluit cunctos. Natus enim atque formatus ipsa a natura ad poesim videbatur. Inerat quoque sibi delectatio quaedam summa faciendi metri. Artem vero ita erat assecutus ut nihil ei deesset quod vel tradi ullo perito a magistro vel colligi ullo a iuvene docili ac studioso posset. Versus ab eo facti per adolescentiam cum iocandi tum exercendi ingenii causa feruntur multi. Habentur etiam nonnulli qui grati sunt audientibus et quadam eius pro memoria ac reverentia conservantur. Generis huius in Balistam, qui magister ludi ob infamiam latrociniorum A. VITAE

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lapidibus obrutus esset, disticon fecit: ‘‘Monte sub hoc lapidum tegitur Balista sepultus; / nocte die tutum carpe, viator, iter’’ [AL 1.1, 212, no. 261]. Culici quoque, qui pastorem ne a serpente dormiens laederetur aculeo excitasset, disticon scripsit: Parve culex, pecudum custos tibi tale merenti funeris officium vitae pro munere reddo [Culex 413–14].

Versus preterea fecit de Ludo XII, de monosyllabis est et non quinque et XX, de Viro bono et sapiente sex et XX, de Copa Sirisca VIII et XXX, de Rosis unum et L, de Moreto CXXIII. De Priapo liber est unus. De Aethna, monte Siculo, versus etiam scripsisse fertur. Valvis quoque aulicis hos Maro affixit versus: Nocte pluit tota, redeunt spectacula mane; commune imperium cum Iove Caesar habet [AL 1.1, 212, no. 256].

Iam quidem sopita triumvirali peste solus imperabat Augustus. Auctorem vero, quod sine nomine scripti essent et laudes continerent Octaviani, cum perquireret Caesar, se falso poetarum e turba quidam Bacillus nomine appellatus professus est. Atque ob eam rem et laudes et dona suscepit. Erat hic poeta quidem sed haudquaquam amplius quam mediocres inter poetas habendus. Maro autem id tulit aegre. Atque valvis iisdem repetitum quater hoc principium versus ‘‘sic vos non vobis’’ inscripsit. Neque vero his patefecit nomen. Qui autem suos esse istos profiteretur atque compleret Augusto multum ac diu perquirente inventus est nemo. Tum Maro nomen apposuit suum atque subiunxit: ‘‘Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honorem. Sic vos non vobis nidificatis aves. Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves. Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes. Sic vos non vobis fertis aratra boves. Iuppiter in caelis, Caesar regit omnia mundo’’ [AL 1.1, 212, no. 257].

Proinde Bacillus multam in ignominiam ac odium incidit, quod falso nomen suum quos dixi versibus inscripsisset. Qui autem verus esset auctor Maro a cunctis atque ipso a Caesare summe laudatus est. Haec atque alia ludibunde ab eo per risum et iocum scripta feruntur. Materiam vero amplioris dignitatis aggressus primum canere regum bella coepit. Ea tamen in re non perseveravit multum. Interea vero dum versaretur in litteris Cremonensem agrum Octavianus dedit militibus veteranis, quod eorum opera esset apud Mutinam et fusus et fugatus Antonius. Romana erat tunc colonia Cremona. Ea quidem simul et Placentia Gallorum in odium, quo anno secundum bellum Punicum oriebatur, deductae sunt. Missi autem qui militibus datum a Caesare agrum 374

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aequo iure dividerent triumviri, cum Cremonensis non sufficeret, Mantuanum coherentem finibus adiecerunt. Tum vero qui Maronis erat Mantuano in agro relictus sibi a patre fundus Arrio datus est. Ductabat ordines iste et militum fortunae humilioris caput erat. Maro igitur animo aeger, quod se innocuo qui esset ager suus quasi praeda hostilis militi datus esset nec apud triumviros remedium inveniret, confugit Romam. Amicorum ibi favore litteras impetravit quibus ademptum sibi fundum restitui iuberet Caesar. Has ferens litteras magna cum spe recuperandi agri Mantuam rediit. Sed contempsit litteras miles atque poetam sua instantius repetentem agressus interfecisset, ni pede celeri fugiens Mincium flumen proximum enatasset. Neque vero Maronem occidere difficile erat, quod ille miles assuetus armis, hic togatus atque inermis esset, nec res lingua sed manu et gladio ageretur. Praedium quidem miles datum sibi ut premium virtuti ac fidei suae debitum tuebatur, Maro autem quod suum esset hereditario iure ac litteris Caesaris repetebat. In aetatem iam creverat Maro. Nempe annos tum ferme octo et XX agebat. Sed virtus sua illum in diem cognita paucis erat. Denique litterae quae faverent sibi nihili factae sunt. Proinde reversus ad Caesarem iterum qui aderant amicos faventes ac propicios habuit. Favit nanque sibi C. Mecenas, favit Cornellius Gallus, favit Asinius Pollio, favit Varrus. Erant hi primarii apud Caesarem omnes et poetam quantis poterant laudibus extollebant. Denique factum est horum benivolentia et favore quod minus arma quam litterae valuerunt. Demptos quidem suos recepit agros Maro. Atque deinde Caesari cognitus brevi singularem eius ad benivolentiam et familiaritatem venit. Octavianum inter amicos amatosque habuisse Virgilium tradit Sex. Aurelius [Pseudo-Sextus Aurelius Victor (circa 320–after 389), Epitome de Caesaribus, 1.16, ed. Franz Pichlmayer (Leipzig, 1911), 134]. Erat quidem Octavianus in litteris presertim oratoriis ac metris faciendis haud mediocriter eruditus. Litteras enim caluit summe atque benignus erga peritos supra omnes fuit. Quippe superavit cunctos hac ista in laude atque ita superavit ut eius favore, gratia, premio suos per dies excitata ingenia atque floruisse poetarum studia videantur. Maro igitur huius ad beneficii gratiam referendam excolendamque memoria sempiterna quicquam scribere dignum poetae ac viro grato constituit. Tum quidem rogatus a Pollione, qui amicus eius ac vir peritus esset, canere pastoria coepit. Annos ista in re scribenda tres consumpsit. Scriptae ab eo quae habentur Eglogae decem sunt. Imitatus est Theocritum Syracusium, qui mirabilis hoc in genere apud Graecos poeta fuit. Res nanque pastoricia est sed tantum sanguinis ac nervorum habet quod in ea tractanda A. VITAE

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multum gratiae assequi perrari possint. Virgilius autem hoc in genere, quemadmodum in caeteris, facile omnium iudicio apud Latinos princeps fuit. Tantum enim et laudis et gloriae pro mirabili suo ingenio et studio assecutus est quod Bucolica sua et domi a studiosis rerum istarum peritisque a magistris summa pro excellentia celebrata et foris apud populum more gentium in scena per cantores habitu, ut solerent, pastorio saepius ac multo cum plausu recensita et decantata sint. Cicero quoque, eloquentiae Romanae princeps atque iam senex, eglogam illam quae ad Varrum est et ‘‘Prima Syracusio’’ [6.1] incipit cum in theatro cantaretur, audivit et admiratus metri elegantiam et dignitatem rei perquisivit auctoris nomen obstupensque vehementer his tandem verbis poetae laudandi causa usus est: ‘‘Magnae spes altera Romae’’ [Aeneid 12.168]. Quae suam ad laudem tanto a viro dicta, ne oblivione perirent, Virgilius postea ultimo Aeneidis libro ad personam Ascanii referens, ut scribit Servius [contrast Servius on Aeneid 1.267, in ThiloHagen 1: 98–99], memoriae sempiternae dedit versu isto: ‘‘Et puer Ascanius magnae spes altera Romae’’ [Aeneid 12.168: ‘‘Et iuxta’’ instead of ‘‘Et puer’’ (compare 1.267, 4.156, 10.236)]. Sed quae sunt a me dicta veteranis de militibus Cremonensi donatis agro quod Mutinensi bello rem bene gessisset, ea Donatus et Servius, duo grammatici illustres ac summi, fuisse bello Philippensi scribunt. Hac enim de re utrumque ita locutum invenio ut post Philippense bellum scripta esse a Marone Bucolica videantur. Quod adeo est vero contrarium ut vel non laudatum, ut tradunt, a Cicerone Virgilium vel agro donatos milites re bene gesta, ut dixi, bello Mutinensi prorsus oporteat. Altero enim stante ruere alterum necesse est. Equidem ista non criminandi eos qui grammatici optimi ac periti essent causa (alienum esse hoc a me velim) sed memorandi veri ac venia cum bona dicam. Quippe nemo est qui nusquam erret. Tritum quidem est proverbium neminem omnium pergentium ire adeo prudentem quin longo itinere cespitet nusquam esse. Sed rem tangamus manu ne dixisse ista per calumniam aut somnium videamur. Octavianum gessisse bella ordine isto quinque, Mutinense, Philippense, Perusinum, Siculum, Achaicum et Tranquillus et qui Augusti gesta scribunt docti omnes una voce, uno testimonio, uno consensu tradunt. Primum igitur omnium bellum fuisse Mutinense apud peritos controversia nulla est. Id funesta trimviralis [sic] pestis mox secuta est. Tum quidem res publica eversa penitus. Tum proscriptorum expositae tabulae. Tum qui erat optimatum princeps recuperandaeque libertatis consilium ac spes una, Cicero, occisus est. Itur deinde Philippense ad bellum, quo Brutus et Cassius victi atque occisi sunt. Reliqua taceo quae deinde bella gessit Octavius, quod ea nostrum ad institutum nihil attineant. 376

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Quae autem memoravi de pugna Mutinensi, de peste triumvirali, de bello Philippensi, ideo memoravi, quod ea impossibile doceant esse ipso temporum ordine Ciceronem, qui ante bellum Philippense obisset diem, laudare quae postea scripserit Virgilius potuisse. Atque illud Cicero hoc ad propositum in epistolis memorat, ob rem bene gestam Mutinensi pugna senatum decrevisse ut qui veteranorum militum ea cecidissent pugna, hi perpetuam ad laudem sepelirentur de publico; qui vero superessent vivi, hi donarentur agro. Adest quoque Maronis aetas. Se quidem cum ‘‘audax sibi iuventa’’ [Georgics 4.565 ‘‘audaxque iuventa’’] esset scripsisse Eglogas refert. Bello autem Philippensi haud iuvenis sed vir maturus annos iam natus duos et XXX erat. Clarius igitur sole constat nec impugnari, quantum existimo, re ulla potest, si ordinem attendimus rerum, veteranos milites tum donatos agro cum apud Mutinam rem bene gessissent, Maronem deinde restituto sibi, qui erat demptus, fundo scripsisse Bucolica, Ciceronem posteaquam audivit Maronis eglogam collaudasse. Haec quidem si Mutinense referuntur ad bellum, sine scopulo in quam dixi sententiam suis pedibus eunt; sin Philippense ad bellum referre placet, id sustineri, si fas est dicere, praesidio nullo potest, quod Maronis egloga sit a Cicerone laudata. Proinde id unum stabile et firmum manet, si Maronis eglogam laudatam a Cicerone fatemur, ut bellum id fuisse haudquaquam Philippense sed Mutinense dicamus. Neque vero ab his dissentio prorsus qui, cum certus inter Eglogas ordo sit nullus, primam omnium scriptam ab eo ‘‘Prima Syracusio’’ [6.1] esse putant. Sed iam tandem ad reliqua transeamus. Absolutis igitur Bucolicis, quae his de rebus tractant quibus de loqui boum custodes et pastores solent, Maro ad Georgica venit. Nomen id e Graeco sumptum rem agrariam denotat nec colendi modo agri opus hoc sed arborum etiam pecorumque et apum rationem tradit. Hac in re Maro imitatur Hesiodum, Graecum utique poetam antiquumque atque illo in genere excellentem. Sed quod ille uno libro, hic quattuor explicavit. Hi sunt ad C. Mecenatem inscripti. Nam, ut memoravi, hunc virum ob beneficium restituti fundi singulari benivolentia coluit. Septennium operi huic perficiendo Maro dedit. In eo vero delimando hac lege usus fertur, quod versus, uti venirent ad buccam, quam multos mane colligeret, deinde per diem retractaret illos recoqueretque singulatim atque, ut dicere solebat ipse, lambendo ursino more omni cum ingenio, arte, studio paucissimos ad versus dignamque ac delimatam ad formam effingeret. Opus id perfectum recitavit Augusto; ipsum enim avide audiebat Caesar. Fesso autem interdum Virgilio (nam continuum quatriduum recitavit aliquando) succedebat Mecenas. Tum est tanta varietas in pronunciando visa ut opus haudquaquam idem sed aliud esse ferme quod recitaret Maro, aliud A. VITAE

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quod Mecenas audientibus videretur. Enimvero quae recitabat Maro, ea mira cum delectatione et auribus attenti qui aderant audiebant. Pronunciabat quidem Virgilius cum lenociniis et suavitate quadam. Mecenas vero cum vices legendi susciperet, etsi spectatus vir alioquin ac doctus esset, adeo tamen acerbe adeoque insulse ac inepte legebat ut quae recitaret ipse, ea nullo sale condita sed muta esse atque inania viderentur. Postremo autem Virgilius Aeneidam, omnium maximum ac pulcherrimum opus gratumque et acceptum Augusto, coepit. Primum rem omnem soluta oratione composuit, deinde in metrum vertit, idque artificio tanto perfecit quod in eo, ut dici solet, et agni peditant et camelli natant. Caesarum enim aspectu primo originem et laudes ac gesta populi Romani canit. Verum si corticem palpas, ea suavis est atque iocunda. Si medulam inspicis et plane degustas, ea plena optimi saporis ac sapientiae magnae est. Si eloquentiam tangis, ea tanta est ut in poeta oratorem esse cognoscas. Si metri elegantiam dignitatemque consideras, hic caeteros qui Latini sint poetas excellit. Si denique omnia colligis, ipsum esse unum apud Latinos, ut est Homerus apud Graecos, qui principetur ac poeta sit omni iure ac merito appelandus vides. Scripti ab eo operis huius libri XII sunt. Annos vero in eis perficiendis XI posuit. Ut vero coepit hoc opus idque amicis, ut fieri solet, videndum exhibuit, tanta eius increbuit fama ut ipsum caelo ferme qui viderent omnes laudibus adaequarent. Multa sunt multis a doctis sane viris atque poetis summam eius ad laudem dicta. Propertius nanque, qui poeta esset egregius et bonus iudex, ut preteream caeteros, quid sentiret hoc isto de opere his versibus patefecit: Cedite, Romani scriptores, cedite Grai: nescio quid maius nascitur Iliade’’ [Carmina 2.34.65–66: see above, I.B.4].

Erat quippe apud omnes visendi eius expectatio magna. Augustum vero mirabilis fama adeo inflammavit desiderio videndi ut mediis e bellorum curis atque ipsis e castris (nam gerebat tunc in Catambros bellum: Hispaniae populi isti sunt Pyrineis montibus et Gallis vicini) litteras nunc precatorias, nunc etiam, sed istas per iocum, minatorias scriberet, ut ad se quicquam coepti operis destinaret. Responsionum poetae ad Caesarem, quae meas ad manus venit, haec una est: ‘‘P. Virgilius Maro Octaviano Caesari sal. d. Ego vero frequentes a te litteras accipio. De Aenea quidem meo, si me hercle iam dignum quid hauribus [sic] haberem tuis, libenter mitterem. Sed tanta incohata res est ut pene vitio mentis tantum opus ingressus mihi videar, cum presertim, ut scis, alia quoque studia ad id opus multoque potiora impartiar. Vale’’ [see above, I.A.2].

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Reverso autem Romam Augusto et multo desiderio ac veluti gravida quadam voluntate petenti Virgilius, quamquam esse non satis purgata res suo videretur iudicio, tamen ne differendo Caesari displiceret, libros tres, utpote secundum, quartum, sextum, ut scripti erant, ostendit, legit, recitavit tanta cum suavitate, voce, gestu quod, ubi illos ad versus qui sunt ad finem sexti ac memorant Marcellum venit, qui aderant omnes se alius alium obstupentes ac lacrimosi conspicerent. Adeo quidem sunt omnes ad pietatem, ad commiserationem, ad luctum commoti ut ne legeret amplius saepius exorarent, vixque finem adesse dicente ipso progredi paterentur. Aderat forte Marcelli huius mater et Augusti soror Octavia. Ea, cum recitarentur illi versus, Heu, miserande puer, si qua fata aspera rumpas, tu Marcellus eris. Manibus date lilia plenis [Aeneid 6.882–83],

adeo capta est dulci recordatione nominis sui iocundissimi filii, qui adolescens optimae indolis et amplissimae spei obisset diem, quod lacrimis ac dolore plena, ut matres solent, in terram exanimis procidit nec sine medicorum auxilio, consilio, remedio levata et restituta est. Neque vero beneficii ingrata fuit sed tanti fecit nomen filii esse memoriae sempiternae datum quod dena sextercia pro singulo versu dari dono poetae iuberet. Virgilius autem perraro apud amicos atque tunc illa modo de quibus ulla sibi esse dubietas videretur, ut cuiusque audiret iudicium, recitavit. Caeterum huius emendandi operis studio secedere in Graeciam atque in Asiam ire pergere statuit trienniumque alia re nulla impeditus delimandis modo his libris dare, ut deinde quod vitae reliquum superesset, id totum philosophiae, ocio, quieti daret. Iam enim senescebat Maro atque, ut solent senes, rerum fastidio fatigatus ocium liberum et tranquillitatem animi perquirebat. Sed quae animo cogitasset, ea prope omnia, ut saepe mortalibus accidit, flexerunt aliorsum fata. Quippe in Graeciam ex proposito navigans forte apud Athenas, quo primum declinare statuerat, in Caesarem incidit. Oriente namque domito Romam tunc revertebatur Augustus. Maro igitur ad eum, quod plenus victoriis princepsque orbis ac sibi familiaris esset, uti erat par visendum, salutandum, congratulandum accessit. Denique mutato consilio Romam eocum redire constituit. Ipsum quoque benigne excepit Augustus atque ipsius presentia et colloquio delectatus, quod magnis semper de rebus et pulcherrimis loqueretur, regredi secum animo libens vidit. Tum quidem quam maxime sol fervebat. Hinc enim vir, iam aetate gravis nec his coloribus assuetus, apud Megaram (oppidum id Athenis proximum erat) letali morbo correptus est. Neque vero navigationem intermisit sed perseverans dietim magis atque magis elanguit. De-

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nique Brondusium delatus eam in aegritudinem venerat quod spes iam nulla salutis erat. Paucos quidem ad dies vita defunctus est. Quippe mortem obiit Maro Brondusii XI Kallendas Octobres Gn. Sextio Saturnino et Q. Lucretio Cinna consulibus, anno imperii Octaviani post exactam triumviralem pestem XII. Quadriennium id fuit ante natam virginem beatam quae Deo plena ac semper virgo verum Deum et hominem peperit Iesum Christum. Inde vero Neapolim delatus ad secundum lapidem via Puteolana sepultus est. Monumento autem sunt hi versus inscripti: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua, rura, duces’’ [see below, II.C.1].

Edendis autem in libris ordinem temporum et gravi et magno consilio secutus est Maro noster. Primum enim Bucolica edidit, quod primi seculi homines armenta curarent nec delicatis vescerentur cibis sed ad esum aut feras caperent aut fructus arborum, glandem, poma et huius modi reliqua quae terra produceret ultro colligerent. Deinde Georgica scripsit, quod proscindere terram aratro serereque ac putare vitem industria hominum postea didicit. Postremo autem cupido habendi agros excitavit bella quae urbes ac regna subvertunt. Hinc enim sibi scribere Aeneidam animus persuasit. Verum cremandi operis huius, ut vita excessit, magna disceptatio exorta est. Rem nanque in litem ac periculum traxit recordatio voluntatis suae, quod proficiscens in Graeciam, quasi futuri mali presagam mentem haberet, Varrum obstrinxerat prece ut, si quid adversi opere non delimato accideret, id, ne quis minus purgatum haberet igni combureret prorsus. Facturum tamen se id negaverat Varrus. Contentionem hanc diremit Caesar. Servari nanque iussit opus emendarique hac lege, ut, qui Maronis essent familiares ac poetae docti, Varrus et Tucca nihil adderent, abraderent modo si qua esse superflua iudicarent. Hac de re Sulpicii, Carthaginensis poetae, sunt versus isti: Iusserat haec rapidis aboleri carmina flammis Virgilius, Phrygium quae cecinere ducem. Tucca vetat Varrusque simul. Tu, maxime Caesar, non sinis et Latiae consulis historiae. Infelix gemino cecidit prope Pergamon igni, et prope [for ‘‘paene’’] est alio Troia cremata rogo [see below, II.D.3].

Facti quoque a Nasone qui habentur nonnulli atque ipso ab Augusto unus de viginti feruntur versus. Servatum igitur est opus egregium magnoque periculo ac ipso incendio liberatum. Additum vero nihil est usquam nec quidem qui dimidiati sunt versus ab his qui emendarent, Tucca et Varro, completi. Dempti vero e principio libri primi quattuor isti versus, 380

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Ille ego qui quondam gracili modulatus avena carmen et egressus silvis vicina coegi, ut quamvis avido paterent [sic] arva colono, gratum opus agricolis. At nunc horrentia Martis’’ [see above, I.C.2],

ut qui versus esset quintus, ‘‘Arma virumque cano’’ is, primus esse operis videatur. Ex libro item secundo qui erant post Priami mortem et occidendae Helenae consilium memorabant (tres quidem sunt versus supra XX) dempti. Ordinem quoque librorum quidam ita commutatum putant ut qui ab eo tertius constitutus esset, ipsum illum secundum ordine habeamus. Testamento autem isto de opere cavit nihil Virgilius. Heredes vero fecit ex quadrante Augustum, ex uncia Mecenatem, ex sextante Tuccam et Varrum, ex semisse Valerium Proculum, uterinum fratrem, quod Virgilii patre mortuo iterum nupta mater hunc filium ex viro altero habuisset. Patrem vero oculis captum et quos fratres duos germanos haberet, Sillonem impuberem et Flaccum iam adultum, unis prope diebus aetate iam grandis amiserat. Flaccum enim deflet egloga quinta Bucolicorum sub nomine Daphnis. Opes autem cum paterna hereditate tum amicorum liberalitate ad centies sextertium habuit. Annos vixit duos et quinquaginta Maro. Domum habuit Romae in Exquiliis iuxta ortos Mecenatis. Raro tamen habitavit in urbe, plurimum Neapoli. Saepe in agro Campano, aliquando in Sicilia obversatus est. Vitabat libens frequentias hominum. Clientelas quoque ac loca celebria fugiebat. Pergens autem ire per urbem, quoniam id eveniret raro, quasi admirabilis et divinus monstrabatur digito. Ipse vero, ne multitudo ipsum videntium hominum sequeretur, se in quas poterat sedes proximas occultabat. Quippe ambitionis, avariciae, invidiae fuit expers. Versus alienos cum recitari audiret, aut laudabat summe aut vituperabat nunquam. Neque vero extollebat se si laudarentur sui. Alieno se mirum in modum abstinuit. Bona quidem exulis, quae ultro donare sibi Augustus offerret, recusavit constanter. Dicebat enim sibi non licere habere quod iusto a domino ablatum esset. Rerum autem suarum erga omnes liberalis fuit. Dicebat enim Euripidis e sententia omnia amicorum esse communia. Proinde Neapoli saepe obversans Parthemias, hoc est vita probatus, appellabatur vulgo. Nolanis autem subinimicatus est paulum, quod petenti sibi aquam suum ad irrigandum praedium dare pertinacius recusassent. Hanc vero ob rem quasi magna lacessitus iniuria Nolae nomen, quod Georgicorum secundo ita scripserat libro ‘‘Talem dives arat Capua et vicina Vesevo / Nolae iugo’’ [2.224–25], abrasit prorsus. Ipsum autem ita reformavit versum ut ‘‘ora’’ pro ‘‘Nola’’ commutato nomine habeamus. Statura Virgilius magnus fuit. Corpore grandis fuit. Colore subniger fuit. A. VITAE

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Faciem vero habuit rusticanam. Vexabatur saepe valitudine varia. Stomachum quidem interdum, fauces aliquando, caput saepe dolebat. Sanguinis etiam vomitum passus est. Cibi autem et vini modicus, omni denique vita modestus ac temperatus fuit. Plusculum modo quam liceret pronior in libidinem fertur. Ex famulicio dilexit ante alios Cebetem et Alexandrum. Amasse istos quidam turpem ob libidinem, aliqui bonam ob indolem, uti Alcibiadem amavit Socrates, opinati sunt. Nempe doctus erat uterque. Grammaticam enim Alexander, poeticam vero profitebatur Cebes. Alexandrum enim sibi donatum a Pollione egloga secunda Alexim vocat. In studiis quidem poetas nominis Latini adeo excellit Maro quod illo in ordine principetur cunctis atque singularem et summam ob excellentiam, uti de Aristotele qui philosophum, aut de Cicerone qui oratorem, ita de Virgilio loqui qui poetam nominet videatur. Eius tamen ad famam obscurandam tum ante, tum posteaquam obisset diem impetus multi facti. Quippe non defuit quae in eum latraret ubique gliscens invidia. Arguere quidam historiam, aliqui grammaticam reprehendere conati sunt. His Bucolica, illis Georgica, aliis Eneis displicet. Collegit furta Macrobius [compare Saturnalia 6.1.2–7, where Furius Albinus discourses on Virgil’s cooptations from earlier authors]. Detexit vitia Servius [compare VSD 44 ‘‘Herennius tantum vitia eius, Perellius Faustus furta contraxit’’: see above, II.A.1]. Ex Homero ac poetis multis sumpsisse versus obiecerunt quidam. Maronem autem his respondisse constat: cur assumere illi ex Homero versus non tentarent? Futurum enim dicebat, si experirentur, quod intelligerent difficilius esse versum Homero quam Herculi clavam eripere. Fuerunt etiam qui scripta eius ut sua mutato nomine ederent. Nec, qui suus erat familiaris, Varrus sibi arrogare quaedam abstinuit. Contra vero poetae huius obtrectatores Asconius Pedianus [see below, IV.A.3] scripsit. Neque oblitus sum audiri solere qui hoc de poeta narrent multa quae sunt a nobis ideo pretermissa, quod esse illa contra dignitatem viri, contra veritatem facti, rebusque magiis ac absoletis plena dictaque per fabulam ac femineas nugas putem. Erit igitur de Virgilio dictum hoc loco satis.

Here Ends the Second Book of Sicco Polenton’s On Famous Writers of the Latin Language and Begins, with Good Luck, the Third, to his Son Polydorus We treated of Ovid and Martial Coquus, certainly illustrious poets and excellent in their own right, in the preceding book, Polydorus, my sweetest son. In this book, however, we have decided to remember Virgil and his contemporary, Horace. In truth we will speak of them and others, nor indeed are there too many who have flowered from that time down to our remembrance as Latin poets of renown. 382

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But first this passage must be justified, lest someone impugn us or accuse us of being at fault that, as if forgetful and ignorant of their sequence, we have put both Naso [Ovid] and Martial the Cook before Horace and Virgil, since Virgil and Horace should be placed before the other two as much for their chronological position as for their worth. Surely it did not emerge from forgetfulness, but rather we did so under the influence of Antonius Baratella [lived 1385–1448], a fellow citizen of our Padua, who is indeed a learned grammarian and nearly another Ovid when it comes to making meter with ease. Moreover, it pleased us to follow this plan, since it seemed suitable to their rank, if we treat of the amatory poets in one book, Virgil and Horace in another. But we do not have much hope for the future generation that will chew us up and calumniate us. For why we should fear or hope, we who are by no means erudite enough, the examples of our elders readily instruct. By them we are warned that no writer has ever been without his calumniators. For, to omit lesser people, quite a few dared to bark at Jerome himself, who flourished and was held in the highest regard for the purity of his manners, his eloquence, and his wisdom. But against whom have more opponents ranted than against Cicero himself, the mirror of eloquence? For Cicero, who was a most learned sort of man, neither living nor dead was able to avoid falling onto the tongues of men who chewed him up with bared teeth. He was not ignorant that in the future as well his laborious writing style would bring down various reproaches upon him. Indeed there were many who scolded him. He displeased some because, having discharged the highest o≈ces in so great a city, he abandoned himself to the intellect to deal with the books and precepts of philosophy, as if it were shameful and illicit for anyone who had achieved the highest o≈ces of state to be engaged in literature. Others rebuked him because he wrote things that had by no means been drawn from his own inspiration but had instead been invented and passed down for a long time by the wise men among the Greeks. Others found fault with him for often including in his dialogues interlocutors who argued about things of which they had either no knowledge at all or very little information. It is agreed too that other learned men were to be found who claimed that he erred in his composition. To these men indeed he seems bombastic, broken, redundant, and all too repetitious. What should I say? The composition of this very man who is master and prince of all eloquence and composition in Latin was faulted publicly and in his own home both by Calvus and by his own friend Brutus. Asinius Pollio too reproves the flaws in his style as a crime in many passages. Martianus Capella, when introducing rhetoric in De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii [The Marriage of Philology and Mercury], writes that Cicero, even if he may be defended by A. VITAE

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his majesty and antiquity, is found to be most flawed in clausulae, and he says that he disturbs the rhythm with mixed-up confusion. Obviously neither Cicero nor any writer however learned has ever lacked critics who find fault, carp, and cavil. So far as I am concerned, envy is in fact what leads many to this liberty of criticizing. Some are spurred on by an empty pleasure. Others are led by a foolish notion whereby they think that the more they detract from others, the more learned and praiseworthy they seem to be. There is in others such great severity and such refined taste that they praise nothing that does not seem best, most whole, and perfect in every part. Surely no one who ever wrote, as experience itself teaches and Jerome tells us, has gone without having detractors. On that account, if there are some who find fault with my writings, I am prepared to bear it with equanimity, especially as I am by no means one of those who either lack envious foes or are so advanced in talent, skill, and ability that they will have nothing to be criticized, nothing that is not worthy of the highest praise, nothing that is not perfect. But in this book, as has been proposed, let us look at Virgil, then Horace, in the last resort Romans outside the rank of the magistracy who were wont to dominate the republic, a thing it helps to know. Now then, Maro had peasant parents. At first his father made pottery, then became the paid assistant of an o≈cial agent, and at last a son-in-law on account of his good-looking face, his intelligence, and his skill. Thereafter he dealt in trade but was happier in cutting wood and keeping bees, which he found at his father-in-law’s, and he increased his fortunes. His father’s name was Virgilius, his mother’s Maia. The man himself was called Publius Virgilius Maro. Maro was born not long after the time of Sulla’s dominance, on the Ides of October, when Gnaeus Pompeius and Lucius Crassus were consuls. That was the 681st year since the founding of the city. Nor was our Maro born without an omen. Indeed, it seemed to his pregnant mother while she slept that she gave birth to a laurel branch, which soon grew e√usively and put forth various delectable fruits and flowers. This appeared in a dream by night. Then, on the day that followed that night, as those who are preoccupied with agricultural matters are wont to do, husband and wife set out into the field at the very break of day. By chance her womb was mature, and so mature, in fact, that she was nearly forced to give birth there in the open field and very road. With her husband’s help she just managed to turn into a nearby ditch. There was no house there, no cottage, no more suitable place. Everything was exposed to the sky and the earth. Finally, as her hour approached, aided solely by her husband and nature, she brought forth the boy. But the infant did not come wailing out of the womb, as children are wont when they are born, but had a happy look on his face, so far as his age 384

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allowed, which showed how great a man and poet he would become. His mother, however, relieved of her burden, planted a poplar branch in the space where her son had been born, in order to perform the pagan rites attending birth. The branch began to grow wondrously and almost immediately into a tree, and it equaled the old and even the largest trees. This fact became the object of so much admiration and religious feeling that they [the locals] consecrated the tree to Virgil, and pregnant women who had given birth came to cultivate the tree as if it were a divinity and gave o√erings to it. At any rate, Maro was raised in his boyhood in the home of his parents in a village at that time called Andos and afterward Pletulae. That country is on the Mantuan plain and near the settlement of Mantua. It is the opinion of many that ancient Mantua was a settlement in the land of Italy, neighboring the river Po, and was founded by Oenus, the son of prophesying Manto and a Tuscan river, and that Mantua is so called after his mother. Those who have investigated the matter more thoroughly claim that Oenus was the founder of Mantua but deny that he was the son of the Tuscan river and prophesying Manto. But on that account they say that he was called the son of prophesying Manto and the Tuscan river by the poet Virgil, because by origin Oenus was Tuscan and excelled in the art of divination, which the Greeks call mantia. It stands that our opinion is this, that Mantua was a colony of Etruscans, and that the same was founded by the Etruscan Oenus before the Trojan War. The province in which it stands they now call Lombardy but back then Venetia. For Italy was so divided into provinces by the ancients, that the province that is in this corner was formerly called Venetia, because the people who came from Paphlagonia and followed their leader Antenor hither at the overthrow of Troy were first called Enetians, thereafter Venetians. The previous people that had held those places was called by the name Euganei. The length of this province occupied the peninsula of Istria and whatever land and cities were along the Adriatic Sea and from there up to the Adda River. The breadth, encompassing the river Po, stretches out to the mountains that separate the German peoples from the Italians. Both Servius, that excellent interpreter of Maro, and Macrobius, not a bad authority, in that book which is called the Saturnalia (and I will omit other authors), pass down that Mantua was of the province of Venetia. Lucan, too, in writing his De bello civili [On the Civil War] states with these words that the Po is wont to be under Venetian authority: ‘‘So the Venetian [sic] on the overflowing Po.’’ Likewise Propertius, whom I have named in my catalogue of the amatory poets, makes reference to it when writing to his Cynthia as follows: ‘‘By so many miles is she separated from my bed, as the river Hypanis [in Sarmatia] is far from the Venetian Po.’’ Furthermore, by various vicissitudes, as all things are mutable, it has come A. VITAE

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to the point that both the name and the bounds of this province have been changed. Moreover, what used to be the name of this province is held now by the city located on an innermost bay of the Adriatic sea, a city prospering in its senate, wealth, and dominion. To be precise, it is called Venetiae, in the plural number. There is another province called Venetia in Lugdunensian Gaul, as some ancient authors tell. This lies on the Atlantic Ocean, facing Britannia. Julius Caesar recalls in his commentaries [De bello Gallico] that he subdued it, when flourishing by land and sea it dared to equivocate. Well then, as his age seemed suitable, his father, having now become richer, had the boy Virgil educated in literature. Maro made his first studies at Cremona. There he also assumed the toga of manhood, as was the custom of the pagans. The ancients called that garment a toga, which covered the other clothes, as it was long and worn on the outside, and Nonus Marcellus, writing on the proper use of words, transmits that the toga was so called from the act of tegendo [covering]. They were used especially by Roman citizens who were active in the forum and were experts in law. It was permitted for women also to use that kind of clothing. Maro was seventeen when he assumed the toga. By chance at that time Gnaeus Pompeius and Lucius Crassus were consuls again, as they had been at the time of his birth. Moreover, on the same day that Maro assumed his toga, Lucretius, who was a glorious poet, departed from life. Maro became wiser and wiser as he moved from Cremona to Milan, from Milan to Rome, and from Rome to Naples, pursuing his studies. Four years before the civil war that Julius Caesar waged against Pompey, Virgil came to Rome. In his study of letters he devoted himself to the liberal arts but particularly to mathematics and medicine. He studied the art of rhetoric and poetry with the greatest zeal. He embraced the art of speaking in both meter and prose in every genre with remarkable talent, application, and comprehension. He pleaded in the forum as those who were skilled orators were wont to do, only one case. Nor in fact did he do it with much grace, because even if he had grasped by zeal and genius all the existing precepts of speaking and all the craft of eloquence, as much as any man could have, his nature nevertheless prevented him, and prevented him so much that in his prose speech he said nothing pleasing enough for his listeners. Indeed, neither his voice nor his diction helped him. Even his gestures were of little use. But in the making of poetry, by common assent, he surpassed everyone. For he seemed to be born and shaped by nature herself for poetry. There was in him, too, the highest faculty for pleasure in the making of verse. He was indeed so zealous of the art that he lacked nothing which could be gleaned from any skilled teacher or absorbed by a docile and zealous pupil. The verses made by 386

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him in his adolescence, as much as an exercise of his talent as for the sake of pleasure, are said to be many. Some even still exist that are pleasing to their readers and are preserved for the sake of remembering him and for his honor. Of this type he made a distich against Balista, a schoolmaster who was killed with stones for the infamy of his thefts: ‘‘Balista is covered and buried beneath this mound of stones; pick your way safely, traveler, by night or day.’’ He also wrote a distich to the gnat that awoke a shepherd with a sting lest he be harmed in his sleep by a serpent: ‘‘O tiny gnat, a shepherd o√ers you, who are so deserving, the rite of death in exchange for the gift of life.’’ Besides these he made twelve verses on ‘‘Game,’’ twenty-five on the monosyllables ‘‘yes’’ and ‘‘no,’’ twenty-six on the ‘‘Good and Wise Man,’’ thirty-eight on the Syrian Hostess, fifty-one on Roses, one hundred and twenty-three on ‘‘The Ploughman’s Lunch’’ [Moretum]. There is one book on Priapus. He is also said to have written verses about Etna, the Sicilian mountain. To the palace doors, too, Maro attached these verses: ‘‘It rains all night, the games return in the morn; Caesar has joint imperium with Jove.’’ Already Augustus ruled as sole leader, since the triumviral pestilence had been suppressed. When Caesar sought to discover the author, since they were written anonymously and contained praise of Octavian, from the throng of poets someone named Bacillus claimed falsely that he was the author. Wherefore he received both praises and gifts. This man was in fact held to be a poet but not at all higher than the circle of mediocre poets. Maro, moreover, took it badly. And on the same doors he inscribed this beginning of a verse four times in repetition: ‘‘So, it is not for yourselves that you . . .’’ But in these too he did not reveal his name. Although Augustus sought long and hard, no one was found who acknowledged those verses as his and completed them. Then Maro put up his name and added: ‘‘I made these little verses, but another took the credit: So, it is not for yourselves that you build nests, birds. So, it is not for yourselves that you bear wool, sheep. So, it is not for yourselves that you make honey, bees. So, it is not for yourselves that you lead the plows, cattle. Jupiter rules all things in heaven, Caesar all things in the world.’’

Consequently Bacillus fell into great scorn and ignominy, because he had falsely put his name to the verses, as I have said. The rightful author of the verses, Maro, was honored highly by all and even by Caesar himself. These and other things are said to have been written playfully by him for laughter and amusement. He arrived at a subject of greater dignity first when he began to sing the wars of the kings. In this matter, however, he did not continue for a long time. A. VITAE

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In the interim, while he was becoming versed in literature, Octavian gave the plain of Cremona to the veteran soldiers, because through their e√orts at Modena Antony had been routed and put to flight. At that time Cremona was a Roman colony. In fact it and Piacenza had been colonized, as defenses against the hatred of the Gauls, in the year in which the Second Punic War began. A commission of three was sent to distribute equitably to the soldiers the land granted by Caesar; when the plain of Cremona proved insu≈cient, they added the Mantuan plain, which adjoined its bounds. Then indeed the estate in the Mantuan plain that was Virgil’s and had been left to him by his father was granted to Arrius. Arrius was a centurion and headed soldiers of a humbler station. Maro, sick at heart, therefore fled to Rome, because though he was guiltless his field had been given to a soldier like an enemy’s booty and he found no remedy from the triumvirs. There, through the favor of his friends, he obtained letters in which Caesar commanded that his stolen land be returned to him. Carrying these letters he went back to Mantua with great hope of recovering his field. But the soldier scorned the letters and, attacking the poet who was insistently seeking back his property, would have slain him if the latter had not taken flight with swift feet and swum out into the nearby river Mincius. Nor would it have been di≈cult to kill Maro, since that soldier was used to arms, while he was unarmed and wore a toga, and the business was transacted not with words but with hand and sword. The soldier in fact regarded the estate granted him as the deserved prize for his courage and fealty, whereas Maro sought the return of what was his by the law of inheritance and with the letters from Caesar. Maro had already come of age. To be sure, at that time he was nearly twenty-eight years old. But his virtue had been recognized by few up to that time. In the event, the letters that had favored him were set at naught. Therefore, going back to Caesar, he again had present friends who were supporters of his and well disposed. Indeed, Gaius Maecenas favored him, as did Cornelius Gallus, Asinius Pollio, and Varus. These men were all the closest to Augustus and extolled the poet with as much praise as they could. In the end their benevolence and favor showed that the pen is mightier than the sword. Maro recovered his fields that had been taken away. And then, acknowledged by Caesar, he came shortly to be on a very familiar and warm footing with the man. Sextus Aurelius reports that Octavian had Virgil among his friends and loved ones. Octavian was by no means poorly educated in literature, especially in rhetoric and making verses. He was skilled in literature most of all and was kindly to its experts above all men. Certainly he overcame all others put together in this praise, so much so that by his favor, grace, and largesse, genius and the labors of poets seem to 388

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have been encouraged and flourished throughout his days. So Maro decided to write something worthy of the poet and a grateful man to give thanks for the benefits he received from Augustus and to cultivate him in undying remembrance. Then, [as he had been] requested by Pollio, who was a friend of his and a knowledgeable man, he began to sing pastoral. It took him three years to write this. The writings by him that are called the Eclogues are ten. He imitated Theocritus of Syracuse, who was a marvelous poet in this genre among the Greeks. Now, the subject is pastoral, but it has so much blood and sinews in it that very few could attain much grace in treating of it. However, in this genre—as in the rest—Virgil was easily foremost among Latin poets, in the opinion of all. So much praise and glory accrued to him for his marvelous genius and study that his Bucolics were both celebrated privately for their excellence by those enthusiastic about such interests and by expert masters, and were recited and sung aloud, very often and to much applause, outdoors among the people in the pagan manner onstage by singers in shepherds’ garb (as was the custom). Cicero too, chief of Roman eloquence and now aged, heard that eclogue which is dedicated to Varus and begins ‘‘Prima Syracosio,’’ when it was sung in the theater, and in his admiration for the elegance of the meter and the stateliness of the piece asked to know the name of the author; mightily surprised, he used these words at last in praise of the poet: ‘‘the other hope of mighty Rome.’’ Lest words spoken by so great a man in praise of him perish in oblivion, Virgil later gave them to everlasting memory in the last book of the Aeneid, when he refers to the character Ascanius, as Servius writes, in this verse: ‘‘And the boy Ascanius, the second hope of great Rome.’’ But what I said about the veterans’ being granted the territory of Cremona because they had done well in the war of Modena, Donatus and Servius, two renowned and distinguished grammarians, write that it was in the war of Philippi. Concerning this matter I find thus that each of the two says that the Bucolics seem to have been written by Virgil after the war of Philippi. This is to such an extent contradictory that it must surely be the case either that Virgil was not praised by Cicero (as they relate) or that the soldiers were granted land on account of having performed well in the war of Modena (as I said). If the one stands, the other must necessarily fall aside. For my part I will make those statements not to find fault with them, since they were the best and proven grammarians—I would hope that this would be foreign to my nature —but with indulgence instead to remember the truth. Certainly there is no one who nowhere makes a mistake. It is in fact an old saw that there is no one of all who make their way who moves so foresightedly that in a long route he nowhere stumbles. A. VITAE

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But let us make the matter tangible, lest we seem to have said these things slanderously or in a fog. Both Suetonius and all the learned men who wrote the deeds of Augustus relate with one voice, one testimony, and one consensus that Octavian waged five wars in this sequence: Modena, Philippi, Perusia, Sicily, and Achaia. There is no debate among the knowledgeable, therefore, that the first war of all was that of Modena. The deadly pestilence of the triumvirate followed it immediately. Then in fact the republic was completely overturned; next, the tablets listing the proscribed were made public; then he who was the leading figure among the aristocrats, the plan and sole hope for regaining freedom, Cicero, was slain. Consequently the war of Philippi was waged, in which Brutus and Cassius were conquered and slain. I will keep silent about which wars Octavian waged thereafter, because they have no connection with our purpose here. What I recalled about the fight at Modena, about the pestilence of the triumvirate, and about the war of Philippi, I did for the reason that they prove it impossible by the very chronological sequence that Cicero, who died before the war of Philippi, could have praised what Virgil wrote afterward. And Cicero in this connection recalls in his letters that on account of the deed well done in the fight at Modena the Senate decreed that those veterans who had fallen in that fight would be buried to everlasting praise at public cost, while those who survived still living would be granted land. So the lifetime of Virgil is at hand. In fact he relates that he wrote the Eclogues when bold youth was his. Moreover at the time of the war of Philippi he was hardly a youth but a mature man of thirty-two. Therefore it is clearer than daylight and cannot be assailed—in my opinion —by any fact, if we pay heed to the sequence of events, that the veterans were then granted land when they had done well at Modena and that Virgil thereafter wrote the Bucolics after the farm which had been taken away was restored to him—and that Cicero praised Virgil’s Eclogues after he heard it. If indeed these things refer to the war of Modena, they proceed without obstacle on their feet to the opinion I initiated; but if it pleases instead to relate it to the war of Philippi, it can be upheld (if I may be allowed to say) by no support that Virgil’s eclogue was praised by Cicero. Accordingly this one thing remains stable and unshakable, if we admit that Virgil’s eclogue was praised by Cicero, that we should say that that war was in no way the war of Philippi but of Modena. I do not disagree altogether with those who think, since there is no sure sequence in the Eclogues, that the one written first of all by him was ‘‘Prima Syracosio.’’ But now at length let us pass on to the rest. After the Bucolics had been completed, therefore, which treat of those things of which cowherds and 390

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shepherds are wont to speak, Maro came to the Georgics. The name, which is taken from the Greek, signifies the subject of agriculture, but this work hands down not only the work of cultivating land but also the keeping of trees, flocks, and bees. In this subject matter Maro imitates Hesiod, certainly an ancient Greek poet who excelled in that genre. But what the latter set forth in one volume, Maro set forth in four. They are dedicated to Gaius Maecenas. For, as I have recalled, he cultivated this man with singular goodwill on account of the kindness of having had his fields returned to him. Maro gave seven years of his life to completing this work. In polishing it he is said to have applied this rule, that he gathered verses aplenty in the morning, as they came to his mouth, then throughout the day he scaled them back and reconceived them one by one, and then, as he himself was wont to say, in the manner of a bear licking her cubs into shape, with all his genius, skill, and devotion he molded them into very few verses and into a worthy and finished form. When the work was completed, he recited it to Augustus; for Caesar avidly heard him. But now and then, when Virgil grew tired (for sometimes he read for the space of four days without a break), Maecenas would take over. Then there was, apparently, such great variety in their delivery that the work did not seem to listeners to be the same work at all, but virtually one thing when Maro was reciting it, another when Maecenas did. To be sure, what Maro recited those who were present heard with wondrous pleasure and attentive ears. Assuredly Virgil declaimed with embellishments and euphony; whereas Maecenas, when he took turns at reading, although he was in other respects distinguished and educated, read so stridently, so insipidly, and so incompetently that what he read seemed to be dull, inarticulate, and trivial. At last, however, Virgil began the Aeneid, the greatest and most beautiful work of all and the one most pleasing and welcome to Augustus. First he composed the whole subject in prose; then he turned it into verse and perfected it with such skill that in it, as is often said, lambs walked and camels swam [see above, comment in II.A.36]. For he sings at first sight of the origin and praise of the Caesars and of the deeds of the Roman people. Truly if you stroke the bark, it is smooth and pleasing. If you inspect the marrow and taste it freely, it is full of the best flavor and great wisdom. If you touch upon its eloquence, it is such that you recognize the orator in the poet. If you consider the elegance and stateliness of the meter, he excels the other Latin poets. If at last you take everything together, you see that he is the one among the Latins —as Homer is among the Greeks—who comes first of all and who should be called poet with all justice and desert. The books of this work written by him number twelve. He spent eleven years in writing them. As he began the work and showed it to be seen by his friends, as was normal A. VITAE

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then, his fame grew so much that all who saw it praised it almost to the skies. Many things were said in its great praise by many poets and learned men. For instance Propertius, who was an exceptional poet and a good critic (I will omit the others) laid bare in these verses what he felt about this work: ‘‘Give way, Roman authors; give way, Greeks: something greater than the Iliad is being born.’’ There was certainly great expectation among everyone of seeing it. Its remarkable reputation so inflamed Augustus with the desire to see it that from amid the very cares of war and the camps themselves (for he was waging war then against the Cantabri: those people of Spain are neighbors to the Pyrenees and the Gauls) he wrote letters, now entreating, now—but only in jest— threatening, that Virgil pack o√ something of the work in progress to him. Of the replies of the poet to Caesar that have come into my hands, I have this one: ‘‘Publius Virgilius Maro greets Caesar Octavianus. I indeed get many letters from you. About my Aeneas: if by God I had something worthy of your ears at the moment, I would gladly send it, but so enormous a subject has been undertaken that it almost seems to me I have begun this work out of a mental shortcoming, especially since, as you know, I am devoted to other, much more important studies for this work as well. Yours,’’ and so forth. But to Augustus, who returned to Rome and entreated with great desire and with (as it was) an overpowering will, Virgil, although in his judgment the work was not su≈ciently cleaned up, yet unwilling to risk angering Caesar by begging o√, showed, read, and recited three books, which is to say, the second, the fourth, and the sixth, as they had been written, and did so with such suavity, tone, and gesture that when he came to those verses at the end of the sixth book which remember Marcellus, all present looked at each other in astonishment and with tears in their eyes. In truth, everyone was so moved to piety, to pathos, and to grief that they often begged him to read no further, and they scarcely su√ered him to proceed, when he said that the end was near. By chance the mother of this Marcellus was present, Augustus’s sister Octavia. When those verses were declaimed, ‘‘Alas, boy to be pitied, if ever you might burst the harsh bonds of fate, you will be Marcellus. Give lilies with full hands,’’ she was so seized by sweet recollection of the name of her most beloved son, who perished in his adolescence full of the greatest promise and marvelous talent, that, filled with tears and sorrow—as mothers are wont to be—she fell forward in a faint to the floor and was not raised and restored until the doctors had given assistance, advice, and medicines. Nor was she ungrateful for the service, but, because she put great value on the fact that the name of her son was accorded everlasting remembrance, she bade that the poet be given as reward ten thousand sesterces for every single line. Virgil, however, 392

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recited extremely seldom before friends and then only to hear someone’s opinion about those things about which there seemed to him to be some doubt. For the rest, he decided to depart for Greece and travel in Asia Minor out of a desire to emend and correct the work and, hindered by no other matter, to give three years to polishing these books alone, whereafter he would give what remained of his life completely to philosophy, leisure, and rest. For Maro was now growing old, and, as is the wont of old men, fatigued by disgust at worldly things, he sought to achieve unencumbered ease and a tranquil spirit. But the things that he had contemplated in his mind were nearly all twisted by the Fates in another direction, as often befalls mortals. For example, in accordance with his plan he sailed to Greece; at Athens, where he had decided to stop first, he ran into Augustus. For, the East having been tamed, Augustus was then heading back to Rome. Therefore Maro went to call on him, to greet him, and to congratulate him, as was fitting, for he was full of victories, prince of the world, and his friend too. At length, his plans having been altered, he decided to return to Rome with him. Augustus greeted him warmly also and because he delighted in his presence and conversation, since he spoke ever of great and most beautiful things, gladly saw him returning with him. Now, just then in fact the sun blazed with the greatest possible heat. At this the man, already heavy with age and unused to this climate, was seized around Megara (a town that was very near to Athens) with a deadly fever. Yet he did not call a halt to his sailing, but by persevering he worsened his health more and more from day to day. Finally, having been conveyed to Brindisi, he had come into the state of illness at which there is no longer any hope of health. A few days later he gave up the ghost. Maro died at Brindisi on September 21, when Gnaeus Sextius Saturninus and Quintus Lucretius Cinna were consuls, in the twelfth year of Octavian’s empire since the triumviral plague had been driven out. It was four years before the birth of the Blessed Virgin who, full of God and forever a virgin, bore the true God and man Jesus Christ. Thereafter, having been moved to Naples, he was buried at the second milestone of the road to Pozzuoli. On the monument these verses were inscribed: ‘‘Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders.’’ In publishing his books our Maro followed the progression of time with a plan both noble and great. For first he produced the Bucolics, because the men of the first age cultivated cattle and did not feed on refined foods but for eating either caught wild beasts or gathered fruits, mast, edible plants, and the rest of this kind that the earth willingly brought forth. Then he wrote the Georgics, A. VITAE

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inasmuch as afterward the industry of men taught how to slice the earth with a plow and how to plant and prune the vine. Finally, however, the desire of owning land stirred up wars, which overturn kingdoms and cities. Hence his mind persuaded him to write the Aeneid. Now a great dispute arose over the burning of his work, as his life expired. The testimony of his will led it into disagreement and danger, since when he set out for Greece, as if he had a presentiment of some imminent evil, he bound Varrus with an oath to burn the poem in a fire right away, lest someone have a less finished version of it, if some misfortune should occur, the work not yet polished. But Varrus said that he would not do this. Caesar put an end to the contention. For he bade the work be preserved and emended with this proviso, that Varrus and Tucca, who were close acquaintances of Virgil and learned poets, were to add nothing, but could erase only if they judged that something was superfluous. There are these verses about this matter by Sulpicius, a poet from Carthage: ‘‘Virgil had given instructions that it was to be destroyed by consuming fire, the poem that sang of the Phrygian prince. Tucca and likewise Varrus refuse. You, greatest Caesar, you do not allow the destruction; you look out for the narrative of Latium. Luckless Pergamum nearly fell in a second fire, and Troy was almost consumed on another pyre.’’ There are also some verses that are held to be by Naso [Ovid], and nineteen lines are said to be by Augustus himself. Therefore, the extraordinary work was preserved and saved from great danger and from the very fire. In truth nothing was at any point added to it, and the verses that were halffinished were not completed by these men, Tucca and Varrus, who were editing the poem. These four verses were removed from the beginning of book 1: ‘‘I am he who once tuned my song on a slender reed, then, leaving the woodland, compelled the neighboring fields to serve the husbandman, however grasping, a work welcome to farmers: but now of Mars’s bristling,’’ with the result that the fifth verse, ‘‘Arms and a man I sing,’’ seems to be the first. Likewise, out of the second book some twenty-three verses were removed that were after the death of Priam and that recalled the plan to kill Helen. Some people think too that the order of the books was so changed that what Virgil had as his third book, we have as the second in the sequence. Virgil, however, mentioned nothing in his will about this work. He made Augustus heir to a quarter of his goods, Maecenas to a twelfth, Tucca and Varrus to a sixth, Valerius Proculus, his stepbrother, to a half. For when Virgil’s father died, his mother, who remarried, had this child from her second husband. When already advanced in age Virgil had lost within a few days of each other his father, who had lost his eyesight, and his two full brothers: Sillo, who was still beardless; and Flaccus, who was already of age. For he wept for 394

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Flaccus, under the name Daphnis, in the fifth eclogue of the Bucolics. As a result partly of his inheritance, partly of the liberality of his friends, he had an estate to the amount of ten million sesterces. Maro lived to be fifty-two years old. He had a home in Rome on the Esquiline, near the gardens of Maecenas. Yet he rarely lived in the city, but most of all at Naples. He often stayed in the Campanian plain, sometimes in Sicily. He gladly avoided throngs of men. He also fled clients and crowded places. Moreover, if he was making a trip through the city, which rarely happened, he was prone to be pointed at as an admirable and quasi-divine person. For his part, he would hide himself in whatever places nearby were available, lest the crowd of men who saw him follow him. To be sure, he had no part in ambition, avarice, or jealousy. When he heard the verses of another recited, he either praised them to the skies or spoke no criticism at all. Nor would he praise himself if his works were praised. He held himself back from what belonged to another in a marvelous way. He constantly turned down the belongings of anyone proscribed, which Augustus kept o√ering spontaneously to give him. For he said that it was not lawful for him to have anything that had been taken away from its proper owner. Moreover, he was generous to everyone with his own things. For he quoted from the saying of Euripides that everything is shared between friends. Consequently, when he appeared often publicly at Naples, he was popularly called ‘‘Parthemias,’’ which means ‘‘well-reputed in life.’’ He, however, was a little bit exasperated with the inhabitants of Nola, because they quite stubbornly refused to give him water when he asked for water to irrigate his plot of land. On this account, as if he had been dealt a great wound, he immediately struck the name ‘‘Nola,’’ which he had thus written in the second book of the Georgics: ‘‘Such [soil] rich Capua and Nola near the ridge of Vesuvius plow.’’ He reformed the verse at once so that we read, by a change in the noun, ora for Nola. Virgil was tall in stature; he had a big body. He was somewhat dark in complexion. He had a farmer’s face. He was often aΔicted by ill-health. Sometimes in fact his stomach hurt, sometimes his throat, often his head. He also su√ered from vomiting blood. He ate and drank in moderation, in every detail led a modest life, and was temperate. Only he is said to have been a little more susceptible to lust than was deemed appropriate. Of his household he loved Cebes and Alexander before the others. Some say that he loved boys out of shameful lust, others that he did so for their fine character, as Socrates did Alcibiades. Surely both were learned. For Alexander was proficient in grammar, Cebes in poetry. Alexander, who had been given to him by Pollio, he calls Alexis in the second Eclogue. In his studies Maro so excelled poets of the Latin name that in that order he A. VITAE

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is the prince of all, and for his singular and utmost excellence; just as one seems to speak of Aristotle when one says ‘‘philosopher,’’ or of Cicero when one says ‘‘orator,’’ so one seems to speak of Virgil when one says the word ‘‘poet.’’ Many attempts have been made to obscure his reputation, both before and after he departed from life. Certainly there has been no lack of envy, ever eager to bark out against him. Some have tried to find fault with his historical information, others with his command of grammar. Some dislike the Bucolics, others the Georgics, others still the Aeneid. Macrobius made a collection of his thefts. Servius uncovered his flaws. Certain people have objected that he took verses from Homer and many other poets. It is agreed, however, that Maro responded to them thus: Why don’t they try to take verses out of Homer? For he said that in time, if they tried, they would understand that it is more di≈cult to steal a verse from Homer than his club from Hercules. There were even some who passed o√ his writings as their own under a di√erent name. Nor did Varrus refrain from taking some for himself, although he was his friend. Asconius Pedianus wrote against the besmirchers of this poet. I am not unaware that they are often heard who tell about this poet many things which go unmentioned by me, because I think such matters impugn the dignity of the man and the truth of the matter, and I take them as full of superstitious and hackneyed things, spoken through fables and womanish trifles. Enough has been said about Virgil at this point. (PLS and JZ)

39. Vita Laurentiana The Vita Laurentiana is extant in Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Mediceo-Palat. 69, which was copied in 1403 by one Petrus d’Alvernia, who is identified as having been librarius universitatis Parisiensis (librarian of the University of Paris). He is not the same as any other Petrus d’Alvernia who has been identified, such as two who are attested at the end of the thirteenth century in Paris. In any case, the Petrus d’Alvernia who wrote out the text in this manuscript does not seem to have been its author. The codex contains illustrations to accompany the openings of the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid. The text of the three works is accompanied by scholia drawn from Servius and Philargyrius, as well as interlinear glosses. The Vita Laurentiana is written out between the Georgics and the Aeneid. The Vita Laurentiana draws upon the Vita Bernensis I (see above, II.A.17); Servius’s prefaces to the Eclogues and Georgics; Jerome’s Chronicon (see above, II.A.2.a); and Irish vitae. (Text and discussion: F. Stok, ‘‘La Vita Laurentiana di Virgilio,’’ Quaderni di Sandalion 6 [1990], 223–30) (JZ) Virgilius Publius Maro Mantuanus equ[i]es Romanus dignitate natus Idibus Octobr. Gneo Pompeio et Marco Crasso consulibus. De nomine patris 396

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siletur, sed creditur patrem eius fuisse op[i]ficem figuli et nomen matris eius Maia, cui pregnanti videbatur per sompnium quod peperisset arborem laurum et illa arbor dilatata in longissimas crevisset frondes. Et fertur quod ille fuisset statura longa et gracilis habens infirmitatem in stomaco nec non in dolore capitis laborans ac frequenter sanguinem vomens et cotidie meditans a mane usque ad vesperum faciens innumerabiles versus et relegendo ac considerando ad paucos iterum redigebat. Ut primum se contulit Romae studuit apud Epidium oratorem cum Cesare Augusto. Unde cum omnibus Mantuanis agri tollerentur ob hoc quod Mantuanis partibus favisse[n]t huic solo concessit memoriam condiscipulatus ut ipse poeta testatur dicens ‘‘Deus nobis hec otia fecit’’ [Eclogues 1.6]. Sicut enim superius dictum est natus fuit temporibus Pompei, qui Pompeius Hierosolimam veniens capta urbe et reserato templo usque ad sancta sanctorum accedit et Hyrcano pontificatum concessit. Sub ipso [nascitur sicut docet] nascitur Virgilius in pago qui Endis dicitur, haud procul a Mantua, et Cremone studiis enutritur. Huic Pompeio qui imperator dictus est successit Iulius Cesar cuius tempore Virgilius sumpta toga Mediolanum transgreditur et post breve tempus Romam pergit. Iulius in curia occiditur cui successit Ottovianus Augustus qui regnavit annos quinquaginta sex. Tricesimo anno regni eius moritur Virgilius, vixit vero annos quinquaginta duos, amicitia usus imperatoris Augusti et aliorum plurimum probatissimorum. Igitur secutus est Virgilius in arte sua diversos poetas. In Bucolicis duos libros fecit. In Georgicis Hesiodum qui ad fratrem suum per sompnium librum composuit, iste vero in quatuor copulavit. Homerum in Eneidis qui duodecim libros mirifico decore composuit. Pulcre enim Virgilius ordinem carminis supposuit incipiens ab ea parte primitus que prima inter homines fuit. Secundam artem posuit de agricultura quia legitur vixisse homines a principio de glande et lacte. Postea colebant terram et vivebant de fructibus eius. Tertiam artem posuit sicut in novissimo tempore probatur esse de bellis. Scripsit autem Bucolica ad laudem Cesaris et quatuor principum eius qui restituebant agros illis hominibus a quibus astracti erant sicut et Virgilio fuit. Quorum sunt hec nomina Cornelius Gallus, Asinius Pollio, Adfinus Varus, Emilius Macer. Bucolica, id est, carmina pastorum a poron bolocon dicta sunt, id est, a custodia boum, precipua enim sunt animalia apud rusticos boves. Huius carminis origo varia est, nam alii dicunt eo tempore quo Xerses Persarum rex invasit Greciam cum omnes intra muros laterent nec possent more solito Diane sacra persolvi, pervenisse rusticos ad montes Locanum et in eius honore hympnos dedisse unde natum carmen etas posterior elimavit. Alii non A. VITAE

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Diane sed Apollini Nomio qui pastor dicitur Latine consecratum carmen hoc volunt quo tempore Admeti regis pavit armenta. Alii rusticis numinibus dicatum a pastoribus hoc asserunt carmen ut faunis, nimphis ac satyris similia. Hysidorus [Etymologiarum libri 1.39.16] ait Bucolicum carmen Siracusis primo compositum a pastoribus quidam opinantur, nonnulli a Lacedemone. Nam transeunte in Trachiam Xerse rege Persarum cum Spartane virgines sub hostili metu neque urbem egredi neque pompam chorumque agrestem de more Diane exercerent, turba pastorum, ne religio deperiret, hos inconditis cantibus celebrarunt. Appelatur autem Bucolicon maiori parte, quamvis opilionum caprariorumque sermones et cantica in his inserantur. Et hic est huius carminis titulus, nam ista in exponendis auctoribus requirenda feruntur: poet[e] vita, titulus operis, qualitas carminis, intencio scribentis, numerus librorum, ordo librorum et expositio vel explanatio. Qualitas autem carminis est hec scilicet humilis caracter. Tres enim sunt, humilis, medius, grandiloqu[u]s, quos omnes in hoc invenimus poeta. Nam in Eneida grandilocum habet in Georgi[c]a medium, in Bucolica humilem pro qualitate negociorum et personarum, nam persone hic rustice sunt simplicitate gaudentes a quibus nihil altum debet requiri. Ad carmen Bucolicum vero debet quartus pes terminare partem oracionis, qui pes si sit dactilus, meliorem efficit versum ut est ‘‘Nos patrie fines et dulcia linquimus arva’’ [Eclogues 1.3]. Primus etiam pes secundum Donatum est et dactilus esse debet et terminare partem oracionis ut ‘‘Tytire’’ [Eclogues 1.1]. Quam legem Theocritus vehementer astruit, Virgilius non adeo. Ille enim in paucis versibus ab ista ratione deviavit, hic tamen in paucis secutus est. Terentius cum hoc de metro diceret ait ‘‘Plurimos hoc pellet Sicule telluris alumnus’’ [recte Terentianus Maurus (late second–early third century C.E.), De litteris, de syllabis, de metris 2127, ‘‘Plurimus hoc pollet,’’ in Keil, GL 6:389] ‘‘Noster rarus eo pastor Maro’’ [De litteris, de syllabis, de metris 2132, in Keil, GL 6: 389]. Intencio poete hec est ut imitetur Theocritum Siracusanum meliorem Moscho et ceter[o]s qui Bucolica scripserunt. Unde est ‘‘Prima Siracusio dignata est ludere versu’’ [Eclogues 6.1] et aliquibus locis per allegoriam agit gracias Augusto vel aliis nobilibus quorum favore amissum agrum recoepit. In qua re tantum dissentit a Theocrito, ille enim ubique simplex est, hic necessitate compulsus aliquibus locis miscet figuras quas perite etiam plerumque ex Theocriti versibus facit, quos illi ab illo dictatos constat simpliciter. Hoc autem sit poetica urbanitate. Sic Iuvenalis [Satires 2.100] ‘‘Actoris aurunci spolium’’ [Aeneid 12.94] nam Virgilii versum de hasta dictum figurate ad spolium transtulit. Et causa scribendorum Bucolicorum hec est. Cum post occisum tertio 398

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Idus Martiarum die in senatu Cesarem Augustum eius filius contra percussores patris et Anthonium civilia bella movisset, victoria potitus Cremonensium agros qui contra eum senserant militibus suis dedit. Qui cum non sufficerent, eciam mantuanorum iussit distribui, non propter culpam sed propter vicinitatem. Unde est ‘‘Mantua ve misere nimium vicina Cremone’’ [Eclogues 9.28]. Perdito ergo agro, Virgilius Romam venit et potentium favore meruit ut agrum suum solus reciperet, ad quem accipiendum profectus ab Ario centurione qui eum tenebat esse[t] pene interemptus nisi se precipitasset in Mincium, unde est allegoricos ‘‘Ipse aries etiam nunc vellera[t] sictat’’ [Eclogues 3.95 ‘‘siccat’’]. Postea ab Augusto missis tribus viris et ipsi integer ager est redditus, et Mantuanis pro parte. Hinc est quod cum in prima egloga legimus eum recepisse agrum, postea tamen querelantem invenimus ut Audieras, et fama fuit. Sed carmina tantum nostra valent, Licida, tela inter Martia quantum Chaonias dicunt aquila veniente columbas [Eclogues 9.11–13].

Nec numerus hic dubius est, nec librorum ordo quippe cum unus sit liber: de eglogis multi dubitant que licet decem sint, incertum tamen est, quo ordine scripte sint. Plerique duas certas volunt, ipsius testimonio ultimam ut ‘‘Extremum hunc Arethusa mihi concede laborem’’ [Eclogues 10.1]. In Georgicis [4.566] ‘‘Titire te patule cecini sub tegmine fagi.’’ Alii primam illam volunt ‘‘Prima Siracusio dignata est ludere versu’’ [Eclogues 6.1]. Dictus est Virgilius Publicus a publica, id est, p[o]pulari vel [si]civili facundia, vel voto parentum, vel Publius dictus est quod in populo publicus, id est, clarus, haberetur secundum matris sompnium. Virgilius autem a virga nominatus est, siquidem matris illius, ut diximus, quando pregnans erat, de ipso mirabile vidit sompnium. Ei namque ostensum est virgam lauream fuisse enixam que subito in floridam virgam coram ipsa matre creverat. Fertur autem genitrix tale sompnium Lucretio[s] poete fratri Virgilio scilicet retulisset, qui valde admirans ipsam mox interpretatus est visionem. Paries, inquid, filium qui non de triumphis bellicis sed de reliquo artificio aut poematis aut alicuius secte clarus habebitur. Et propterea postquam is natus fuerit ab ipsis incunabulis ad poetarum scolam te illum transmittere oportet ac de ipsa virga quam videras Virgilium nominare memento. Porro Maro Virgilius a patre Marone dictus est. Interpretatus est autem Maro ‘‘gaudens’’ vel ‘‘hylaris,’’ grece enim mara ‘‘gaudium’’ sonat, vel Maro quasi mero dictus est ob vinolenciam. Adeo autem poeta verecundus fuit, ut ex moribus cognomen acciperet, nam Parthenias dictus est: [omni] vita probatus, sed uno tantum morbo laborarat, quia impatiens libidinis fuit. Primo a disticho cepit facto in Balistam latronem: ‘‘Monte sub hoc [monte sub hoc] A. VITAE

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lapidum tegitur Balista sepultus, / Nocte die tutum carpe viator iter’’ [AL 1.1, 212, no. 261]. Scripsit etiam septem vel octo libellos qui habentur a multis.

Virgilius Publius Maro of Mantua, of the rank of Roman knight, was born on October 15 during the consulships of Gnaeus Pompeius and Marcus Crassus. The name of his father is not known, but it is believed that he was a potter. The name of his mother was Maia. During her pregnancy it seemed to her in a dream that she had given birth to a laurel tree and that that tree, as it grew, spread out into quite long branches. He is said to have been tall and thin, with a delicate stomach, su√ering headaches and frequently spitting blood. He gave himself daily to contemplation from morning to evening, and though he wrote countless verses, after rereading and reflection, he in turn reduced them to a few. When he first took himself to Rome, he studied with the orator Epidius, as did Caesar Augustus. As a result, when lands were expropriated from all the Mantuans because they had favored the Mantuan parties, for Virgil alone Augustus kept in mind their time of study together, as the poet himself bears witness when he says: ‘‘A god made this leisure for us.’’ As was said above, he was born in the time of Pompey, who, coming to Jerusalem after the capture of the city and the opening of the temple, approached even into the holy of holies and granted the pontificate to Hyrcanus. During Pompey’s consulship Virgil was born in a village that is called Endis, not far from Mantua. His education was fostered at Cremona. Julius Caesar, who was called emperor, was the successor of this Pompey. At this time, Virgil, after assuming the toga, makes his way to Milan and shortly thereafter reaches Rome. Octavian Augustus succeeded Julius, who is killed in the Curia. He reigned for fifty-six years. Virgil dies in the thirtieth year of his rule. He lived fifty-two years, having enjoyed the friendship of the emperor Augustus and of many other most upright men. In pursuing his art Virgil followed di√erent poets. He made two books of Bucolics. In the Georgics he expanded on Hesiod, who had written one book to his brother in a dream, into four; in the Aeneid, on Homer, who had written twelve books of an astonishing grace. Virgil established a suitable order for his poetry, starting with that area which was originally of first concern for mankind. As his second subject he applied his art to agriculture because it is said that men in the beginning lived on acorns and milk. Afterward they tilled the soil and lived o√ its produce. As his third subject he applied his art to warfare, as is appropriate for the most recent times. He wrote the Bucolics in praise of Caesar and four of his princes who restored their lands to those men from whom they had been taken, as was also the case with Virgil. The names of these are Cornelius Gallus, Asinius Pollio, Adfinus Varus, Aemilius Macer. 400

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Bucolica, which is to say, ‘‘songs of shepherds,’’ derive their name from poron bolocon, that is, ‘‘from the care of cattle,’’ for cattle are special animals for countryfolk. The origin of this type of song is debated. Some say that at the time when Xerxes, king of the Persians, invaded Greece, when everyone hid within the walls and could not perform the usual rites for Diana, countrymen came to the mountains of the Lucanians and sang hymns in her honor. From this sprang a song to which a later age gave polish. Others assert that this poem, sung in Latin, was dedicated not to Diana but to Apollo Nomios, who is said to have been a shepherd when he tended the herds of King Admetus. Others claim that the song was meant by shepherds to honor rural divinities such as fauns, nymphs, and satyrs. Isidore says that it is the opinion of some that bucolic poetry was first composed by shepherds at Syracuse, of some, at Sparta. For while Xerxes, king of the Persians, was making his way into Thrace, when Spartan girls, out of fear of the enemy, could neither leave the city nor perform the customary procession and rustic dance for Diana, a throng of shepherds celebrated the rite in unpolished verse, lest it perish. Most call it Bucolicon [Cattle Song], although the language and melodies of shepherds and goatherds are added to it. And this is the title of this song, for these are what must be asked for in the elucidation of an author: the life of the poet, the title of the work, the nature of the poem, the purpose of the writer, the number of books, their order, and the exposition or explication. We may be certain that the nature of this song is its unelevated style. For there are three, humble, middle, grand, all of which we find in this poet. For in the Aeneid he possesses the grand style, in the Georgics the middle, in the Bucolics the humble, given their sorts of actions and roles. Here the roles are rustic, delighting in simplicity, from whom nothing lofty ought to be expected. In the carmen bucolicum the fourth foot ought to finish a part of speech; if the foot is a dactyl, it makes a better verse, as, for example, ‘‘We are leaving the bounds of our fatherland and our sweet plowlands.’’ According to Donatus the first foot ought also to be a dactyl and finish a segment of speech, as Tytire [Tityrus]. This law Theocritus strongly honored, Virgil not so much. For the former strayed from this rule in only a few verses, but the latter followed it in but a few. Terentius, when he speaks of this meter, says: ‘‘The nursling of the land of Sicily beats this rhythm in the majority of verses,’’ ‘‘our shepherd Maro the more rarely.’’ This is the purpose of the poet: to imitate Theocritus of Syracuse rather than Moschus and others who wrote Bucolics. Whence we have ‘‘[our Muse] first deigned to sport in Syracusan verse,’’ and in certain spots under the guise of allegory he o√ers thanks to Augustus or to other nobles, by whose favor he recovered the land he had lost. In this matter only he disagrees with TheoA. VITAE

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critus, for Theocritus is everywhere straightforward. Virgil, by force of circumstances, in some spots adds figures of speech, which he often skillfully fashions from the verses of Theocritus, which it is plain were virtually dictated by the one to the other. This may be a question of poetic urbanity. In the words of Juvenal: ‘‘the loot of Actor of Aurunca,’’ for he has transferred a verse of Virgil, spoken about a spear, to a figurative ‘‘trophy.’’ This is the reason for the writing of the Bucolics. On the third day after the killing of Caesar on the Ides of March, Augustus, his son, declared civil war against the murderers of his father and against Antonius. Victory in hand, he gave to his soldiers the lands of the Cremonans, who sided against him. When these did not su≈ce, he ordered the fields of the Mantuans also to be distributed, not because of any fault but because of proximity. Whence we have ‘‘Mantua, alas, too near pitiable Cremona.’’ And so, with his land lost, Virgil came to Rome, and, through the good o≈ces of those in power, he alone obtained his land back. Having set out to receive it, he would nearly have been killed by the centurion Arius, who possessed it, had he not plunged into the Mincius. He puts it allegorically: ‘‘Even now the ram himself is drying o√ his fleece.’’ After this, with the dispatch of three men by Augustus, his land whole and entire was restored to him and in part to the Mantuans. From this comes what we read in the first Eclogue that he received his land. Nevertheless afterward we find him complaining that: ‘‘You had heard, and that was the rumor. But our songs, Lycidas, have as much force amidst the weapons of Mars as they say do doves of Chaonia at the arrival of an eagle.’’ The number here is not in doubt, nor indeed is the order of books, since there is only one book. Many raise doubts about the Eclogues: though they are ten in number, it is nonetheless uncertain in which order they were written. Most people consider that two are certain. By his own testimony the last is ‘‘Arethusa, grant me this final e√ort.’’ In the Georgics, ‘‘Tityrus, I sang of you under the protection of the spreading beech.’’ Others consider as the first that one: ‘‘our [Muse] first deigned to sport in Syracusan verse.’’ Virgil was called Publicus from his ability to speak in public, to the people or the citizens, or by the wish of his parents, or he was called Publius because he was considered ‘‘public,’’ which is to say, famous, to the people because of the dream of his mother. But the name Virgil comes from virga [shoot] because, as we have said, of the extraordinary dream his mother had had about him when she was pregnant. For it was revealed to her that she had given birth to a shoot of laurel that suddenly, in the presence of the mother herself, grew into a flourishing tree. It is said that his mother related this dream to Lucretius, that is to say, the brother of the poet, who in intense admiration soon explained the very vision: ‘‘You will give birth,’’ he said, ‘‘to a son who will be 402

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considered famous not from triumphs in war but from his future skill in the art of poetry or of philosophy. Besides, after he is born, it is requisite for you to take him from the very cradle to the school of poets and remember to name him Virgil from the very branch that you saw.’’ Furthermore Virgil is called Maro from his father Maro. Maro is interpreted to mean ‘‘rejoicing’’ or ‘‘cheerful,’’ for in Greek mara means ‘‘joy,’’ or Maro, that is mero, takes its meaning from wine drinking [merum, ‘‘unmixed wine’’]. The poet was so modest that he received his cognomen from his behavior, for he was called ‘‘Parthenias’’ [virgin]. His life was thoroughly upright. He su√ered only from one disease: he did not control his sexual appetite. His first distich he directed against Ballista, a brigand: ‘‘Ballista is covered, buried under this mountain of stones; by night and by day take your route in safety, traveler.’’ He wrote seven or eight books, which are in the possession of many. (MP) B. VIRGIL’S BIRTHDAY: IDES OF OCTOBER AS SACRED

1. Pliny the Younger, Epistles 3.7.8 See above, I.C.24. Pliny details how the poet Silius demonstrates his devotion to Virgil by celebrating his birthday and visiting his grave, as if he were divine.

2. Martial, Epigrams 12.67 (circa 98, probably addressed to Silius Italicus) See above, I.C.18 (Silius), I.C.20 (Martial). To Martial, and presumably to Silius, Virgil is implicitly a god, parallel to Mercury and Diana. He has the power to make sacred, and by the end of the poem the poet has wittily given him his own month—Maiae Idus anticipates Augustis Idibus, which becomes Octobres Idus and then Maronis Idus. We watch the m and a sounds leading almost acrostically, and certainly alliteratively, from Maiae and Augustis to Maro, magni, and Maronis. (Text and translation: Martial, Epigrams, ed. and trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, vol. 3, LCL 480 [1993]) Maiae Mercurium creastis Idus, Augustis redit Idibus Diana, Octobres Maro consecravit Idus Idus saepe colas et has et illas, qui magni celebras Maronis Idus.

The Ides of May created Mercury. Diana returns on the Ides of August. Maro made sacred the Ides of October. May you often keep these Ides and those, you who celebrate great Maro’s Ides. B . V I R G I L’ S B I RT H D AY

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3. Ausonius, Genethliacos 9 See below, III.A.4. While varying Martial 12.67, in lines 22–25 of these Birthday Greetings Ausonius likewise implies the poet’s divinization. (Text: The Works of Ausonius, ed. R. P. H. Green [Oxford, 1991], 24–25) Idus alma dies, geniis quoque culta deorum: Sextiles Hecate Latonia vindicat Idus, Mercurius Maias, superorum adiunctus honori. Octobres olim genitus Maro dedicat Idus.

The Ides is an auspicious day, observed too by the genii of gods. In Sextilis Hecate, Leto’s daughter, claims the Ides; in May, Mercury, who was raised to the ranks of the gods. October’s Ides are hallowed by the birth of Maro long ago. (Ausonius, [Opera omnia], ed. and trans. H. G. Evelyn White, vol. 2, LCL 115 [1921]) C. VIRGIL’S REMAINS AND GRAVE For a detailed discussion and a comprehensive list of citations, see M. Capasso, Il Sepolcro di Virgilio, Società nazionale di Scienze, Lettere e Arti in Napoli: Pubblicazioni del bimillenario Virgiliano (Naples, 1983). The history of the search for Virgil’s tomb is the subject of J. B. Trapp, ‘‘The Grave of Vergil,’’ Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 47 (1984), 1–31 (with app. 1–14 for illustrations); and J. B. Trapp, ‘‘Virgil and the Monuments,’’ Proceedings of the Virgil Society 18 (1986), 1–17, especially 4. See also VMA, 273–89.

1. Epitaph (probably written by a contemporary) For discussion of the epitaph (VSD 36; see above, II.A.1) and its imitations, see A. S. Pease, ‘‘Mantua me genuit,’’ Classical Philology 35 (1940), 180–82. For its echo in a second-century gra≈to from Rome, see A. W. Van Buren, ‘‘News Items from Rome,’’ American Journal of Antiquity 38 (1934), 478 and fig. 4. For its la