Vergil, Aeneid I 418-440

Manuscripts: M 418-436, 437-440 | P 418-437, 438-440 | R 418-432, 433-440 | F 419-439, 440 | G 418

Aeneas and Achates quickly go ahead, and from a hilltop they marvel at the sight of the Tyrians building their city, as busy and as disciplined as bees (Austin). 

418: corripuere viam: “swiftly pursued” (Frieze). “They have sped on their way.” The verb corripere is properly “to snatch up” (F-B). qua: “whither” (Carter).

419: plurimus urbi imminet: “looms in a mass over the city” (F-B). plurimus: “very high” (Frieze). Adverbial, “hangs massive over” (Walpole). = altissimus, belongs to collem but is drawn into the relative clause (Wetherell). urbi: dat. after imminet (Robertson) (AG 366).

420: adversas...arces: “the towers that face it,” i.e., are rising opposite (F-B). aspectat: Vergil uses aspectare as equivalent to spectare ad or in (Carter). A striking way of representing the stateliness of the towers; the mountain, though higher, “looks them in the face” (Conway).

421: molem: “the massive structures,” or “mass of buildings” (Frieze). magalia quondam: “once a group of huts,” i.e., where huts once stood (F-B).

422: strata viarum: “the paved streets” (Williams). The form of expression ( = stratas vias) emphasizes the mode of construction. In portae and viae the poet is thinking of the famous gates of Rome and the great roads which converged upon the city from all parts of Italy (F-B). It is an instance of a partitive genitive dependent upon a neuter adjective. In such constructions the partitive genitive notion often disappears, as in the present case, and the neuter adj. merely expresses the quality of the thing (P-H).

423–25: “eagerly the Tyrians press on, some to build walls, etc.” (F-B). pars...pars: in apposition with Tyrii (F-B). instant: sc. operi. Then ducere etc. will be historical infinitives, representing pictorially the process of the work. Vergil regularly begins a description with a brief general statement and then fills in particulars, cf. e.g. 15, 54, 159, 210, 257, 347 (Conway). ducere: this and the four infinitives in the two next lines depend upon instant. Some editors, placing a semicolon after Tyrii, make them historical infinitives (Chase) (AG 463).

423: ducere: “extend” (Walpole).

424: moliri: “build” (Walpole). arcem: is the citadel proper (Walpole).

425: tecto: “for a dwelling.” Dative of purpose (F-B) (AG 382.2). A private house, as distinguished from the public buildings (Carter). concludere sulco: Supply eum; “to inclose (the place chosen) with a furrow”; i.e., a plowed line marking, according to the Roman custom, the limits of the estate, or, as we should say, “house-lot.” Some, however, understand here a trench for the foundation-wall of a building (Frieze).

426: legunt: this implies, with iura, a verb like constituunt (“enact”). It is an example of zeugma (F-B).

427: portus…effodiunt: literally true, the harbour of Carthage being artificial (Walpole). [add image] alta: “deep” (F-B). theatris: here again it is the Roman idea of a complete city, which the poet has in view. In Vergil’s day a theater was an essential feature of every Roman city (F-B). Theaters did not exist at the period of the foundation of Carthage; but Vergil seems here, as well as in the account of the paintings below (466–493), and not unfrequently elsewhere, to have had his own times in view (Frieze).

429: scaenis decora alta futuris: “lofty adornments for the future stage.” scaenis is dative of reference (AG 37). alta: “lofty.” This word means “extending vertically,” “up” or “down,” according to the point of view. The stage was usually decorated with columns in the rear (Frieze).

430: qualis...labor: the corresponding talis is not expressed (F-B). The antecedent being supplied, the sentence will be talis labor eos exercebat qualis apes exercet. The English idiom omits the noun, labor, in the second clause (Frieze). aestate nova: “in early summer” (F-B).

431: sub sole: “in the sunshine” (Chase).

432: liquentia: from liquor, not liqueo (F-B). mella stipant: this expression seems to be explained by the words following, dulci distendunt nectare cellas, but it is possible that Vergil uses mella of the pollen or bee-bread. Every bee-keeper has seen the bee go back into the cell and unload the pollen from his pollen-baskets; very soon afterward another bee will go into the same cell head first and carefully pack down (stipo) the lumps of plastic pollen just deposited there (F-B).

433: stipant: “mass together” (Jerram); “pack” (Sidgwick).

434: venientum: = venientium (F-B) (AG 121b.2). I.e., of those that come to the hive from time to time (Knapp). agmine facto: “in a marshalled band,” abl. abs. (Robertson).

435: fucos: “drones” (F-B). Order: arcent fucos, ignavum pecus, etc. (Chase).

436: fervet opus: “the work is briskly carried on” (Robertson). thymo: abl. after redolent (Robertson) (AG 403). The honey of Southern Europe is extremely fragrant of thyme and other high-scented flowers (Chase).

437: fortunati: understand sunt (Bennett). iam: “even now”; in contrast with the fortune of Aeneas, whose promised walls of Lavinium (258) are not yet begun (Frieze). quorum: the antecedent is ei understood, the subject of sunt (Bennett).

438: suspicit: “looks up at.” We thus learn that Aeneas has descended from the hill (419) (F-B).

439: mirabile dictu: “wonderful to relate,” dictu supine in u from dico (Robertson) (AG 510).

440: medios: supply viros (Frieze). miscet: supply se (Frieze). viris: “with the people.” Dative (F-B) (AG 413a note). ulli: for ab ullo (Frieze). Poetical dat. of the agent with cernitur (Chase) (AG 375a).