Vergil, Aeneid IV 31-53

Manuscripts: M | P 31-46, 47-53 | R 31-36, 37-53 | G 31-37

Anna urges her not to let idle sentiment hinder her happiness; though she has refused many suitors, that is no reason for resisting a true affection; the dangerous situation too of her newly-founded realm suggests an alliance, which will ensure prosperity and glory; she must pray for the blessing of heaven and plead with Aeneas to delay his departure (Page).

31: magis dīlēcta: “oh [sister], dearer [to me]…” (G-K); vocative. lūce: ablative of comparison, = quam vītā (AG 406) (Frieze). “Than the light [of life]” (F-B). sorōrī: supply tuae: “to your sister”; more expressive than mihi (Frieze); dative of agent (AG 375) (Pharr).

32: sōlane...iuventā: “Will you, solitary through your whole youth, pine away with grief?” literally, “Will you be wasted away grieving?” (Frieze); Sōla maerēns and carpēre go closely together: it is “by sorrowing in solitude that she will waste away” (Page). Observe the proper use of -ne, which must be attached to the word which the speaker feels to be most important. It is Dido’s loneliness that first arouses Anna’s pity, and next to this the fear that she will always be lonely; the juxtaposition of the two adjectives sōla perpetuā is effective, and maerēns carpēre balances them. The lovely vowel-sounds in the line should be noted (Austin). sōla: i.e., as a widow (Carter). The lonliness of Dido is emphasized in 4.82: sola; 4.330: deserta; 4.467; 4.543; in 4.616 she prays a like fate for Aeneas. Life’s three strongest natural affections are filial, conjugal, and parental love; of the first of these, in Dido’s case, we learn nothing; of the second she has been abruptly robbed, while the third she has never had opportunity to enjoy; it is in this that not a little of the pathos of her history lies (Pease). perpetuā iuventā: = per tōtam iuventam or perpetuō in iuventā (Warman). “All your youth long” (G-K). Iuventā is an ablative of time when (AG 423), modifying the phrase maerēns carpēre (Frieze); practically equivalent to an accusative of duration of time (Pharr). carpēre: future passive indicative, alternate form of carpēris (Pharr); “will you waste away” (G-K).

33: Veneris nec praemia: “the joys of love” (Pharr); note the postponement of nec, a mannerism chiefly for metrical convenience (Austin). nōris: future perfect, syncopated form of nō(ve)ris with the force of a future (Frieze).

34: id: “that,” viz. what you are talking about–remaining unwedded (Page). I.e., the fact that you are abstaining from love and marriage; used here as the direct object of cūrāre (Frieze). cinerem...mānēs: i.e., of the dead Sychaeus (Warman); both nouns are accusative subjects of cūrāre in indirect discourse. A reply to Dido’s protestation above (lines 28, 29): the ashes and the shade of Sychaeus can have no interest in her actions now (G-K). mānēs sepultōs: hypallage = mānēs sepultī, “the spirit of the buried (one)” (Stephenson); “ashes or the buried ghost.” Cinis is the material part of the dead man, mānēs his ghostly part; both parts are equally buried and both can be outraged and torn from the grave. The poet uses the three words cinerem, mānēs, sepultōs to emphasize the idea of something which, being destroyed, dead, and buried, is utterly incapable of concern in what goes on among the living (Page). The dead, says Anna, have no mind to make the living unhappy: and that Sychaeus still thinks of Dido’s happiness is shown in 6.474. Dido has her own life to lead (Austin).

35: estō: future imperative of sum (AG 449): “and if they did” (G-K); “so be it” (Pharr); “granted (that)...,” referring to what follows (Frieze), but has no grammatical connection with them (F-B). “Granted that no suitors have hitherto moved you…you need not therefore resist an acceptable lover” (Page). Impatiently; “have it your own way,” she argues, “up to a point, but why fight against your own happiness?” (Austin). marītī: “suitors” (G-K), i.e., would-be husbands (Carter). aegram: supply tē: “sick,” i.e., with sorrow for Sychaeus (Page). “While you mourned for your husband” (during the time immediately following his death) (Pharr); used in the sense of the misery of the mind (Austin); “in your grief” (Frieze). Anna suggests that Dido is no longer aegra over her husband’s death (Warman).

36: Libyae: “(here) in Libya,” genitive of source (Chase), or locative, place where; in poetry the names of countries and large islands are sometimes found in the locative, while in prose they are almost always expressed with ablative (Pharr). Tyrō: either ablative of place where (= in Tyrō) (Pharr) or an ablative of source / origin (= ā Tyrō, “from” or “of Tyre”) (AG 403); equivalent here to the adjective Tyriī (Frieze). Along with Libyae, defines marītī (35) (Chase). dēspectus Iarbās: supply est (F-B). Anna names him as the most persistent of Dido’s suitors; dēspectus well shows the queen’s grand manner in dealing with such presumption (Austin).

37–38: triumphīs dīves: “rich / abounding in triumphs,” because many warlike tribes and chiefs living there continually engaged in internal wars (Frieze), and the warlike tribes which Dido had to conquer in it (Page). A reference to the victories won by the Numidians and others over their neighbors; Anna stresses the power of those whom Dido has scorned (Austin). Vergil perhaps is thinking of the many triumphs later celebrated by Roman generals for their victories in Africa, triumphīs being an ablative of respect / specification (AG 418) with dīves (Pharr). The phrase bears a double meaning and is intended also to suggest to Roman ears such “triumphs” as the victory of Zama (202 B.C.) and the conquest of Carthage (146 B.C.) (Page).

38: placitōne amōrī: = amōrī quī placuit (Page). “A love that is agreeable,” “a love that is pleasing (to you)” (Pharr). A perfect passive participle of the impersonal verb placet, but used in an active sense, instead of a relative clause; this is the important word in the sentence, as is the -ne attached to it (see note on line 32): “Now that a love has pleased you, will you even struggle against it?” (Austin). pugnābis: = resistēs (Pharr). Pugnāre governs a dative object (amōrī), on the analogy of other verbs of contending, both Latin and Greek (F-B).

 39: venit in mentem: supply tuam: “does it not occur to you?” (Pharr). cōnsēderis: perfect subjunctive in an indirect question (AG 574, 575), which is to be taken as the subject of vēnit: “what sort of people (i.e., how fierce and hostile) they are in whose territory you have settled” (Pharr). arvīs: supply in; ablative of place where (AG 429). Dido had bought a strip of land from her neighbors, perhaps from Iarbas himself (Austin).

40 ff: Anna goes on to give reasons why Dido should seek the consolation and protection of another husband (Warman).

40–42: Hinc…hinc: “from this side…from that side” (Pharr). Note the effective anaphora, suggestive of the peril which repeatedly arises to harass Dido. Gaetulae urbēs: The Gaetuli dwelt in the country south of Numidia. Some of them retained their nomadic habits, and others dwelt in villages (urbēs) composed of huts (Frieze). genus: in loose apposition to the sense of “people” implied in urbēs (Stephenson). bellō: ablative of specification, “in (respect to) war” (AG 418).

41: Numidae īnfrēnī: possibly a play on words, denoting that the Libyans rode their horses without bridles and that they were a wild, fierce, unrestrained (i.e., unbridled) tribe (Pharr). They were therefore more formidable as they could use both arms freely as they rode (Stephenson). Īnfrēnus and īnfrēnis (10.750) were probably coined by Vergil (Austin). inhospita Syrtis: the “Syrtes” were the great sandbanks off Cyrenaica, proverbial for their dangers; the perilous sea-approach still further isolated Dido (Austin). Like īnfrēnī (above), inhospita refers (1) to the inhospitable nature of the Syrtis and (2) to the similar character of those who dwelt near it (Page), who made their living by robbing shipwrecked ships (Carter). cingunt: supply tē (Pharr).

42: sitī: ablative of cause (AG 404) with dēserta, “a region deserted due to its dryness” (Frieze), or ablative of quality (AG 415) equivalent to an adjective, “the thirsty desert” (Stephenson); “a land of desert drought” (Page), and hence affording no retreat or assistance (G-K).

42–43: lātēque furentēs Barcaeī: supply sunt (Pharr): “and the widely roving fiends of Barca” (Stephenson). Furentēs is not “furious,” but “mad,” “wild”; latē furentēs is equivalent to a compound adjective (“far-ranging”) (Austin).

43: Barcaeī: Barca is a celebrated city in Cyrenaic Pentapolis (from which Hamilcar Barca and other Carthaginian leaders came) (Page). The wild tribes of the desert here hinted at–like the modern Bedouins–would alarm the imagination still more than a regular force (G-K). Editors are annoyed by what they call Vergil’s “loose geography” (Barca is 700 miles from Carthage); but he is not writing a guide-book (Austin).

quid dīcam: potential subjunctive (AG 445); the rhetorical praeteritiō or paraleipsis, a favorite device for bringing a long list to a close (Page). Often used, as here, to vary a catalogue: the speaker mentions what he says there is no need to mention. Anna reminds Dido of what she knows, that her brother is plotting his revenge upon her (Austin). Tyrō: ablative of place from which (AG 427), “from Tyre.” The idea of motion from is implied in surgentia (Frieze).

44: germānīque minās: germānī = Pygmalion (Pharr). Added by way of epexegesis, to define more particularly the nature of the looming wars (Frieze). This is one of the fifty-seven unfinished lines in the Aeneid, all of which give a complete sense, except 3.340. These lines plainly result either from Vergil’s method of composition, or from the unfinished state of the poem at his death, or from both causes together.

45–46: dīs...carīnās: “to my mind, it was with the blessing of the gods, by Juno’s grace, that the ships of Ilion bore their course hither on the wind” (Austin).

45: dīs auspicibus, Iūnōne secundā: ablatives absolute (AG 419); i.e., through divine intervention. equidem: “in fact” (G-K). reor: occurs six times in Vergil, putō never; obviously putō was felt to be rather casual in tone (Austin). Iūnōne: As Juno is the guardian of Carthage, if she has favored the coming of the Trojans, it must be for some good to her people. Juno has herself been instrumental in bringing Aeneas here (Carter). Anna does not know how Juno hated Aeneas, and her words are full of tragic irony (Austin).

46: hunc cursum: “their course hither” (Pharr); i.e., to this place (Carter). ventō: driven by the wind rather than intentionally (Pease). Ablative of means (AG 409), “with / before the wind” or ablative of cause (AG 404), “due to the winds” (Austin). carinās: Vergil often figuratively uses parts of the ship for the whole, e.g., prora, puppis, trabs, and carina (Pease).

47: Quam urbem hanc cernēs: quam = quālem (G-K); urbem = predicate apposition (G-K); supply surgere (Pharr): “how great a city, this (one here), you will see (rise up)!” tū: emphatic (Vergil could have written quam, soror, hanc urbem); if Dido marries Aeneas, it will be her act that has brought added greatness to Carthage. Hanc is deictic, as Anna sweeps her hand towards the city (Austin). quae surgere rēgna: understand cernēs: “what a (great) kingdom (you will see) arise! (Pharr). Usually surgo is used of the growth of more tangible objects, like the walls of a city (Pease).

48: coniugiō tālī: = sī tālem coniugem habēbis (Warman). “With / by reason of such a union” (Page). Ablative of cause (AG 404) (Pharr); ablative of attendant circumstances, or ablative absolute (AG 419). The learner will have seen by this time that the ablative cannot accurately be divided off into its various categories, because an author himself often did not know which one he was using, any more than we determine exactly the shade of meaning in which we use a common preposition (G-K). Teucrum: = Teucrōrum (Pharr).

49: Pūnica: note how the word balances Teucrum in the previous clause, and note also the interlaced word-order (synchesis) in the line (Austin). quantīs rēbus: = quanta fortūna! (F-B). Ablative of attendant circumstances (AG 419) or possibly dative, “By / to what achievements will the Carthaginian glory raise itself! (Frieze); “How grandly shall Punic glory lift its head!” (Stephenson); “To what heights of achievement…!” (Pharr); “With how great fortune!” (Page). Vergil’s readers would surely reflect on what the greatness of Carthage was to mean to Italy (Austin).

50: Tū: both in lines 47 and 50, is used to impress the advice more forcibly (Frieze). modo: this is essentially a conversational word, and is common with an imperative in lively talk (Austin). posce deōs veniam: veniam, “favor,” i.e., in order to avert the evils presaged by her dreams (cf. 9) (Page), dreams which might seem to indicate the opposition of the gods, and hence their favor must be won (Carter). Posce is a verb of primarily religious content; Anna recommends that Dido request the indulgence of the gods for her forgetfulness of Sychaeus and of her pledge to him (Austin). deōs veniam are two accusatives governed by a verb of asking (posce) (AG 396) (Pharr). sacrīs lītātīs: lītāre was originally an intransitive verb, “to sacrifice with favorable omens,” “to win the favor of the gods by sacrifice,” with dative of the god and ablative of the thing sacrificed; it is used later, as here, in an active sense with the accusative of the sacrifice (Stephenson). “After sacrifice duly offered” (Page); “after making holy offerings.” Dido is to propitiate the gods, because of the ill-omened dreams (line 9) (F-B). Dido has to expiate her fault, and the words are an extension of posce deōs veniam (Austin).

51: indulgē hospitiō: i.e., give full play to your feelings of hospitality (Carter); hospitiō is the dative object of indulgē. causās innecte morandī: “find...reason upon reason for delay,” literally “weave a string of delays” (Stephenson); “interweave pretexts for (his) lingering.” “Reasons” and “pretexts” are so often akin that causa, “a cause” or “reason,” is frequently used as “a false cause” or “pretext” (Page). morandī: gerund in the genitive (AG 504).

52: dum: “as long as,” “until” (Carter). The repetition of dum, with or without asyndeton, is a characteristic Vergilian touch; cf. 1.453–454, 1.494–495; 4.436; 8.580–581; 11.671–672 (Pease). caelum: “the weather” (G-K). pelagō: supply in; ablative of place where (AG 429) (Stephenson). dēsaevit: “rages to the end,” “rages its fill” (Page). Dē- with verbs gives them a stronger force (Warman). The compound implies the working out of a process to its natural end (Austin). aquōsus: either as a predicate “brings rain,” or as an attribute “watery, stormy,” in which case a verb must be supplied from dēsaevit to Orion. Both the rising (midsummer) and the setting (November) of Orion are spoken of as attended with storms (hiems) (Stephenson). Cf. 1.535: nimbōsus Oriōn (“rainy / stormy Orion”) (Page).

53: quassātaeque rātēs: supply sunt: “the ships have been shattered (by the storm and still unrepaired)”; cf. 1.551: quassātam…classem (Page). Quassāre is often used of a shipwreck. The implication is “while his ships are being refitted” (Austin). nōn tractābile caelum: supply est (Pharr): “the sky is obdurate,” i.e., the weather is hopeless, so bad that nothing can be made of it (Page).