Vergil, Aeneid II 77-104

Manuscripts: M 77-89, 90-104 | P 77-93, 94-104

Sinon’s tale. He had come to Troy as a companion and relative of Palamedes: when Ulysses had compassed Palamedes’ death, he had openly exhibited his anger and so himself incurred the hatred of Ulysses, who endeavors to destroy him—but why go on, he asks, if they hate all Greeks: let them kill him and so gratify Ulysses and the Atridae (Page).

77–80: he begins by telling the truth and gradually shades off into absolute fabrication (Carter).

77: cuncta equidem: Cuncta is emphatic by its initial position (C-R). Equidem makes the whole expression more forcible, like our “I will, indeed I will” (G-K). fuerit quodcumque: fuerit, future perfect (G-K). Servius restates as quīcumque mē sequātur ēventus, “whatever outcome may follow me” (Chase); “whatever may come of it” (Storr); “come what may” (Austin).

78: vēra: predicative with cuncta (C-R), with adverbial force, = vērē (Storr), “and truly,” “truthfully” (C-R). Observe the word’s emphatic position: last in the sentence and first in the line (Sidgwick). mē…gente: supply esse (Pharr) for indirect discourse (AG 577): “that I am by birth a Greek” (Comstock). Argolicā: in answer to the question in line 74 (G-K). Here in its proper sense (cf. 95), not simply “Greek” (Austin).

79–80: hoc prīmum: a sort of parenthesis (Conington): “thus much for preface” (Storr). Supply dictum estō: i.e., let this compromising fact be stated once and for all (G-K). By first making a true statement of an undoubted fact, but one which a desperate man might have denied, Sinon wins the confidence of the Trojans, who are now more likely to believe the rest of his story (Pharr). Sinōnem: = mē, used for the rhetorical effect; “Others may be liars, but not Sinon” (Pharr). Fingō is stronger than faciō: she “has moulded” him into misery, but shall never mould him into falsehood (Conington). vānum, mendācem: Vānum, one who asserts what is not the fact, from ignorance, folly, or mistake; mendācem, one who does so from a desire to deceive (H-H). improba: emphatic, “for all her malice,” or “let her do her worst” (Storr); “malicious as she is.” Fortune may pass all bounds of what is fair towads him (this is the basic idea of improbus), but she shall not be allowed to “smear” his character (Austin).

81: fandō: “in talk” (Page); “in conversation” (C-R); “in hearsay” (H-H). aliquod sī forte…nōmen: = sī forte aliquā nōmen (Storr); “if perchance any [mention of the] name” (Pharr); “any such name” (G-K); “some mention of [Palamedes’] name” (C-R). Notice the artful diffidence of sī forte and aliquod (Page). Sinon has now begun to answer the question quō sanguine crētus?: but he does it in a roundabout way, with a long involved sentence in purposely involved style, and giving no precise personal information about himself (Austin).

82: Bēlīdae: “descendant of Belus” (Sidgwick). Descent and relationship may be indicated by “patronymics” (AG 244) having the suffixes -adēs or -idēs / -īdēs. These are Greek masculine nouns of the first declension, of which the genitive singular and nominative plural end in -ae (C-R). Palamedes was a remote descendant of Belus the Egyptian king (Storr). Palamēdis: A post-Homeric character who exposed the feigned madness of Ulysses when that hero was shirking the Trojan War (Storr). incluta: “spread abroad”; nominative case with glōria (C-R). fāmā: “the talk” about his renown (G-K); ablative of respect / specification (AG 418) with incluta (Pharr). Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides all wrote plays on the subject of Palamedes. As treated by Euripides in his Palamedes the story represented Palamedes (who was credited with a number of useful inventions) as a man of superior knowledge exposed to the jealousy of the crowd. The Cypria, according to Pausanias, represented Palamedes as having been strangled while fishing by Ulysses and Diomedes; but Vergil has followed the common tradition that he was put to death, after trial, by the whole Greek army (Conington).

 83: falsā sub prōditiōne: “under a false and treacherous charge” (G-K); “on false information.” The falsa prōditiō consisted in a forged letter of Priam, which Ulysses had himself hidden in the tent of Palamedes: on this false charge he was condemned as a traitor (prōditor), but falsa prōditiō cannot mean “a false charge of treachery” as some take it (Page). Pelasgī: a mere synonym for “Greeks” (Austin); a learned synonym for Graeci (Horsfall).

84: insontem īnfandō indiciō: īnfandō indiciō is ablative of means (AG 409), “on monstrous evidence” (Storr); “by wicked testimony” (Chase). Observe the indignant hammer-like emphasis of the repeated in- (parechesis—three consecutive words beginning with the same syllable (Storr)), combined as it is with a double elision (Page), expressing well the tones of outraged innocence (Storr). quia bella vetābat: conative imperfect (AG 471c), “tried to stop” (G-K); “used to oppose” (Comstock).  It gives the real reason for persecuting him; if it were the reason they assigned we should have vetāret (Page). An invention on the part of Sinon to win the favor of the Trojans toward the memory of his friend and therefore toward himself (Carter).

85: dēmīsēre…lūgent: Note the two contrasted clauses put side by side without any conjunction (asyndeton) by a frequent Latin idiom: “innocent, infamously betrayed the Greeks did to death, [but] now when dead they lament” (Page). dēmīsēre necī: dēmīsēre = dēmīsērunt; necī = ad necem (Pharr): compare other such phrases as dēmittere Orcō; dēmittere umbrīs; dēmittere Erebō, etc. (Carter). A high-sounding phrase (Austin). cassum lūmine: supply vītae; ablative of separation (AG 381), “bereft of light,” i.e., dead (Page). An interesting phrase, again in the grand style of pathos (Austin).

86: illī: dative of reference (AG 376); emphatic by position (Pharr); “it was to him that my father sent me” (C-R). et: “and besides”; with intensive force (Carter). comitem: “[as] a companion” (Pharr). cōnsanguinitāte: ablative of respect / specification (AG 418) with propinquum (Pharr): “nearly related in blood” (H-H); “[as] a kinsman” (Comstock).

87: pauper…mīsit: clever suggestions of Sinon to arouse pity and to excuse his part in the war by saying that he had been sent when he was a mere child and that his father was forced to this action by his poverty. Going to war as a “soldier of fortune” was a common method among the ancients of gaining wealth (Pharr). in arma: = ad bellum or “to the profession of arms” (H-H); “for warfare” (C-R). prīmīs ab annīs: = ab initiō bellī (H-H) or “from my earliest youth” (Pharr). In context, clearly Sinon means his first years (sc. of manhood), not the war’s. The children of 138 are clearly inconsistent, but after fifty lines have passed, that matters not at all (Horsfall).

88–89: dum stābat…conciliīs: = dum [Palamēdēs] [in] rēgnō incolumī stābat et [in] conciliīs rēgum [Danaōrum] vigēbat (Pharr); “so long as he [Palamedes] retained his royal dignity with influence unimpaired [literally, stood safe in] and had weight in the councils of the [Greek] princes” (Comstock). dum stābat: dum with indicative = “while” (AG 556) (H-H): “as long as”; “so long as he remained” (C-R); “while he flourished,” the opposite of iacēre (Storr). rēgnō: = rēgiā dignitāte (Conington): here rather “royalty” than “kingdom” (Page); ablative of respect / specification (AG 418) with incolumis (Pharr). rēgum: the princes or leaders of contingents banded against Troy (C-R). conciliīs: in other MSS consiliīs, although the general sense is the same (Sidgwick): conciliīs signifies an assembly in general, consiliīs a select deliberative body. The latter seems decidedly preferable, as the addition of rēgum shows. Deliberative ability was the special virtue of Palamedes (Conington). Supply in; ablative of place where (AG 594) (Pharr). et nōs gessimus: “we also enjoyed…” (Howson). Nōs really refers to the narrator only (C-R); plural for singular, not boastful, but a sad reflection on former happiness (Austin). “We too,” i.e., his servants (Carter). Compare gerere honōrem, gerere auctōritātem, etc. (Conington).

90: invidiā Ulixī: Invidiā is ablative of cause (AG 404), “through the malice of Ulysses” (Comstock). Ulysses is said to have borne a special grudge against Palamedes, because the latter detected his pretended madness when he was trying to avoid going to the Trojan War (Pharr). postquam: “but after” (Comstock). pellācis: perhaps “glib”; persuasively deceitful, “smooth.” The word occurs here only in classical Latin (cf. Ausonius, Epitaphia 12.4: captus pellācis Lartiadae īnsidiīs); fallācis (P) is clearly unsound and very tame (Austin). It describes one who lures (pellicit) another on to crime (Page). Clearly enough a Vergilian coinage (Horsfall).

91: haud ignōta: with ignōta supply vōbīs (i.e., you all know the story) or mihi (i.e., I speak things not from mere hearsay) (H-H); = bene nōta (Comstock): litotes (C-R), “what is well known” (C-R), “this is no secret” (Comstock). To win confidence, he weaves in well-known facts (G-K). superīs concessit ab ōrīs: supply Palamēdēs; used euphemistically for “he died” (Pharr), “he met his death” (C-R); “he left the shores of earth” (Comstock); “he left the upper regions” (H-H), i.e., “from this world above,” literally “from the upper coasts.” The idea of ōrae is that of a dividing line which separates the world above from the world below (Page). A deeply moving Vergilian phrase (Austin).

92: adflīctus: “in deep distress” (Comstock); “crushed” (Page). vītam…trahēbam: “I dragged on life in gloom and grief” (Page). The same phrase is used of the wretched Achaemenides among the Cyclops (3.646–647) (Carter). in tenebrīs: “in obscurity,” contrasts with nōmenque decusque (Conington).

93–94: mēcum: “privately,” “in secret” (Pharr); “alone by myself” (G-K); “in my own heart” (H-H). indignābar…nec tacuī: Nec tacuī refers to the previous line and implies “nor was I contented with giving vent by myself to my indignation (C-R). Observe the change of tense marking the sudden outbreak—“I kept in my heart brooding wrathfully over…and then I broke [my] silence” (Page).

94–96: mē prōmīsī ultōrem: “I promised myself [as] avenger” (Pharr). Indirect discourse dependent on prōmīsī. Mē…ultōrem (to which prōmīsī gives a future sense) = mē ultūrum [esse] and so stands for a future apodosis (direct discourse: ultor erō = ulciscar); the protasis is tulisset, remeāssem (direct discourse: tulerit, remeāverō) (G-K).

94: dēmēns: “downright mad” (H-H); “in my madness” (C-R). fors sī qua tulisset: The pluperfect subjunctives tulisset and remeāssem (95) are due to indirect discourse (AG 583).

95: remeāssem: = reme[āv]issem by syncope. patriōs…ad Argōs: as often, = Graeciam (Comstock). The word is treated as if it were a Latin word, accusative from Argī, Argōrum, the nominative however is not found (Sidgwick). His real country was Euboea (Conington).

96: verbīs: supply meīs (Pharr); “by my threats” (Howson); ablative of means (AG  409) (H-H). Opposed to tacuī (94): i.e., by speaking out I made myself a bitter enemy [to Ulysses] (Conington). odia: supply Ulixis (Pharr). The poetic plural (C-R). mōvī: “I aroused” (Comstock).

97: hinc: supply erat, “from this [came]” (C-R); “hence”: the word may mean “from this time” or “from this cause,” and Vergil takes advantage of its double meaning (Page). prīma malī lābēs: “the first slip towards disaster” (Austin); “the first step in my ruinous downfall” (Howson). The manner in which Vergil varies the ordinary phrase “beginning of trouble” deserves notice. Lābēs is “a slipping,” or “falling down,” the commencement of a downward career (Page). Misfortune is represented as a gradual subsidence or sinking (lābor, lābī) to ruin. Mihi is dative of reference (AG 376) (G-K).

97–99: Ulixēs…terrēre…spargere…quaerere: Ulixēs is the nominative subject of historical infinitives (AG 463) (Pharr). Historical infinitives express the act simply with no idea of time, naturally used of habitual or repeated acts (as here); of confused or rapid incidents; or of feelings with no definite end or beginning (Sidgwick). Translate them as though indicative mood (C-R).

98: crīminibus: “charges,” “accusations” (Carter). terrēre: supply mē (Pharr); “kept terrifying [me]” (Page).

98–99: spargere vōcēs ambiguās: “scattered doubtful hints” (Comstock) or “rumors” (Pharr). A perfect description of the dissemination of slander. Spargere describes both a “scattering” which seems to be haphazard and also the “sowing” of seed which is intended to bring forth a hundredfold. In vulgum (“among the rabble”) refers to the ground in which the seed is thrown and where it is sure to germinate: ambiguās is used of words which may mean something or nothing, so that the speaker can repudiate them while the hearer is sure to understand their real meaning (Page).

99: vulgum: masculine here only in Vergil (for metrical convenience (C-R)); otherwise Vergil uses the neuter form vulgus (AG 48a) (Carter). quaerere arma: supply in mē: i.e., an opportunity to use violence against me (Pharr); “sought aid [against me]” (Sidgwick); “sought allies as a conspirator (conscius)” (Conington); “sought weapons [to destroy me].” The “weapons” are the natural weapons of Ulysses—guile and treachery (Page). Conscious of his guilt (conscius), he began to seek arms of defense against him (i.e., Palamedes) who might be his accuser (G-K), in order to prevent his own accusation and punishment (C-R). cōnscius: supply suī malī, “conscious of his guilt” (Pharr); “alive to his guilt,” or “as a conspirator” (Howson); “by secret plot” (Sidgwick).

100: nec requiēvit enim: “and indeed he rested not” (Comstock); “nor indeed did he rest” (Sidgwick). nec enim (“in fact”) is strongly asseverative. We are nearing the first climax of the long fiction (Horsfall). Calchante ministrō: ablative absolute (Pharr): “with Calchas as his accomplice / for his tool” (C-R). Calchas is the priest and soothsayer of the Greeks (Sidgwick), by whose advice the Greeks built the horse (Storr). He later committed suicide because he found himself surpassed by Mopsus in the art of prophecy (Carter). The aposiopesis is a stroke of art; it seems more significant than any words could have been, and in reality gives Sinon time to invent a probable conclusion to his story (Storr). Notice the skill with which Sinon breaks off just when he has fully aroused their interest and curiosity (Page).

101: sed ego…autem: pleonastic (AG 640) and colloquial (G-K); observe the emphasis denoted by the pronoun as though to say “who am I to be telling you this?” (Pharr). Sed autem is a conversational phrase, common in Plautus and Terence, and artfully introduced here to give a natural tone to the words: “but indeed why do I…?” (Page). haec ingrāta: supply dicta vōbīs (Pharr). revolvō: probably a metaphor from a thread revolving on the spindle or from turning over the pages of a scroll (H-H): “Why do I reopen these thankless pages?” (Howson); “Why harp on this unwelcome tale?” (Storr); “Why do I unroll these bitter recollections?” (H-H).

102: quidve moror: supply vōs, “or why waste your time?” (Storr); “or why do I delay you?” (G-K); “or why postpone my doom?” (Comstock). ūnō ordine habētis: ūnō ordine is ablative of manner (AG 412): “hold in one rank,” “deem alike” (Page); “reckon in one class” (Howson); “regard as of one class,” “regard as alike” (C-R). Achīvōs: “Greeks” (Sidgwick).

103: idque audīre sat est: supply mē Achīvum esse (Storr); id = “the fact that I am a Greek” (Howson). –que, “and if,” a continuance of the conditional clause (Carter); “and [if] to bear that name [i.e., the name of Greek] is enough” (Page); Audīre is here used as equivalent to the passive of nōmināre (Carter). iamdūdum: = quam prīmum (Howson), “at once” (Comstock). Iamdūdum implies that they have been long eager to do it (G-K); “long since [due]” (Chase). It refers to past time, when joined to the imperative, which refers to future time, forms a combination as forcible as it is illogical; it emphasizes the command with a reproach, = sūmite poenās iamdūdum sūmendās (Wagner).  

104: hoc: pronounce as hōc, making a long syllable (Pharr); i.e., my death (Comstock). Ithacus: = Ulixēs (Pharr), who was the king of the island Ithaca, off the western coast of Greece (Sidgwick). velit: subjunctive; apodosis (conclusion) (AG 512) of future less vivid with the protasis (conditional class) omitted (AG 516): “this, the chief of Ithaca would wish,” with the conditional clause sī hoc faciātis understood (H-H). magnō mercentur: “would pay a great price for it” (Howson). A clever suggestion; the Trojans would please their own bitterest foes, Ulysses and the sons of Atreus, if they should put Sinon to death. Magnō, ablative of price (AG 417), used substantively (AG 288) (Pharr). Atrīdae: a patronymic (AG 244), “the sons of Atreus,” i.e., Agamemnon and Menelaus (C-R).