The Virgilian Tradition: The First Fifteen Hundred Years 9780300148312

Citation preview

THE VIRGILIAN TRADITION

This page intentionally left blank

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

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

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

To our students, past, present, and future

This page intentionally left blank

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

xv

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

xxv

This page intentionally left blank

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.

xxviii

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

xxxi

This page intentionally left blank

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.

xxxvi

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

xxxviii

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

xxxix

This page intentionally left blank

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-

2

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:

4

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

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

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

19

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

21

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

23

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.

24

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

25

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

27

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

29

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)

30

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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)

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

31

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.

32

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

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

33

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

35

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.

40

45

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,

36

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

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

37

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

39

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

41

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

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

43

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

45

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.

46

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

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

47

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

48

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

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

49

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.

50

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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.

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

51

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.

52

I. VIRGIL THE POET

5

10

‘‘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.

15

20

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.

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

53

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.

5

10

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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.

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

55

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. . . .

56

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

57

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

59

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

61

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)

62

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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.

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

63

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

65

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

67

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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.

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

69

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

71

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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.

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

73

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

75

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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)

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

77

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].

78

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

79

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

80

I. VIRGIL THE POET

‘‘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)

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

81

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.

For not even the Almighty God, who, as even the heathen acknowledge, ‘‘has supreme power over all things,’’ since He is supremely good, would ever 82

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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.

This is what a certain of their poets did: those who have read it recognize it. He told the tale of someone going down to the underworld, and, coming to the realm of the blessed, he was shown the leading men of the Romans that were C. LAT E R I N F LU E N C E A N D I M P O RTA N C E

83

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])

84

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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].

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

85

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.

86

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

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

87

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

89

(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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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.’’

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

91

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

93

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

95

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

97

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.

With a sweetness to marvel at, Solomon sang this book, which contains the peerless poetry of husband and of wife, singing, on this side and on that, the praises of the Church and of Christ, and recalls the faithful followers, male and 98

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

99

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

101

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

103

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

105

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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. . . .

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

107

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.

108

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

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

109

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

111

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

113

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

115

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

117

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],

118

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

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

119

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-

120

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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].

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

121

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

123

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

‘‘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

125

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.

126

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

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

127

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

129

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,

130

I. VIRGIL THE POET

‘‘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

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

131

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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.

5

10

15

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

133

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

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.

60

65

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

135

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-

136

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

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

137

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

139

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

141

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

143

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

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

145

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

147

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

5

10

15

20

25

30

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,

35

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

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

149

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

150

I. VIRGIL THE POET

75

80

85

90

95

100

105

110

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

115

120

125

130

135

140

142

145

150

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

151

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

155

160

165

170

175

180

184

501

505

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,

510

515

520

525

530

535

540

545

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

153

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

550

555

560

565

570

575

580

585

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

590

595

600

605

610

615

620

625

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

155

felicemque animam secum super aera duxit, immisitque Aeneam astris, quem Iulia proles indigitem appellat templisque imponit honores. Papiae VI. Idus Octobrias MCCCCXXVIII

630

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

157

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

159

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

[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

161

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

163

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

165

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

. . . 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

167

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

169

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

171

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

173

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

175

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

I. VIRGIL THE POET

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

177

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)]

178

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

181

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

[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

183

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

184

II. BIOGRAPHY

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:

A. VITAE

185

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].

186

II. BIOGRAPHY

[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

187

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

189

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

[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

191

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

193

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

195

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

197

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

199

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

201

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

203

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.

204

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

205

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,

206

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

A. VITAE

207

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

65

70

75

80

85

90

95

100

105

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 . . .

110

115

120

125

130

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

209

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

[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

211

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

213

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

215

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

217

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

219

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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,

A. VITAE

221

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.

222

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

223

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

225

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

227

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)

228

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

229

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

231

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

233

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

235

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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:

A. VITAE

237

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

239

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

241

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

243

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

245

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.

246

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

A. VITAE

247

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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.

A. VITAE

251

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

253

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

255

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

257

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

259

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

260

II. BIOGRAPHY

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.

A. VITAE

261

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

263

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:]

264

II. BIOGRAPHY

. . . 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

A. VITAE

265

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

267

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

269

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

270

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

271

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

272

II. BIOGRAPHY

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)

A. VITAE

273

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

275

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

277

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

279

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

280

II. BIOGRAPHY

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.

A. VITAE

281

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

285

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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]

A. VITAE

287

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

289

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.

290

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

291

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

293

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

A. VITAE

295

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

A. VITAE

297

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

299

[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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

301

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

303

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

305

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

307

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

308

II. BIOGRAPHY

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,

A. VITAE

309

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-

310

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

A. VITAE

311

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

313

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

315

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

317

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

319

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

321

[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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

323

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

325

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

327

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-

328

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

A. VITAE

329

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

331

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

333

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

335

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

337

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

339

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

340

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

A. VITAE

341

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

343

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

344

II. BIOGRAPHY

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.

A. VITAE

345

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

347

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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].

A. VITAE

349

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

351

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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?

A. VITAE

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

359

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

A. VITAE

361

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

363

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

365

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

367

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

369

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

371

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

373

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

375

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

377

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].

378

II. BIOGRAPHY

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-

A. VITAE

379

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

381

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

383

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

385

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

387

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

389

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

391

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

393

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

395

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

397

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

399

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

401

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

II. BIOGRAPHY

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

403

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 later echoes, see I. Frings, ‘‘Mantua me genuit—Vergils Grabepigramm auf Stein und Pergament,’’ Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 123[1998],89– 100. (Text: VVA 34) Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua rura duces.

Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders. (MP)

404

II. BIOGRAPHY

2. Statius, Silvae 4.4.51–55 See above, I.C.21. (Text and translation: Statius, Silvae, ed. and trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, LCL 206 [2003]) . . . en egomet somnum et geniale secutus litus ubi Ausonio se condidit hospita portu Parthenope tenuis ignavo pollice chordas pulso, Maroneique sedens in margine templi sumo animum et magni tumulis accanto magistri.

Look! Pursuing sleep and the genial shore where stranger Parthenope found refuge in Ausonian haven, I idly strike the slender strings; sitting on the verge of Maro’s shrine, I take heart and sing at the tomb of the great master.

3. Martial See above, I.C.20. (Text and translations, items a and b: Martial, Epigrams, ed. and trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, vol. 3, LCL 480 [1993]) a. Epigrams 11.48 Silius haec magni celebrat monumenta Maronis iugera facundi qui Ciceronis habet. heredem dominumque sui tumulive larisve non alium mallet nec Maro nec Cicero.

Silius, who possesses the acres of eloquent Cicero, honors this monument of great Maro. No other heir and proprietor of his tomb or dwelling would either Maro or Cicero choose. b. Epigrams 11.50 (49) Iam prope desertos cineres et sancta Maronis nomina qui coleret pauper et unus erat. Silius orbatae succurrere censuit umbrae, et vatem vates non minor ipse colit.

There was now only one man, a poor man, to honor Maro’s almost forsaken ashes and sacred repute. Silius decided to come to the rescue of his destitute shade, and honors the poet, no lesser poet he.

4. Pliny the Younger, Epistles 3.7.8 See above, I.C.24.

C . V I R G I L’ S R E M A I N S A N D G RAV E

405

5. Aelius Donatus, VSD 36 See below, IV.D.2. (Text: VVA 34; see above, II.A.1) Ossa eius Neapolim translata sunt tumuloque condita qui est in via Puteolana intra lapidem secundum, in quo distichon fecit tale: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua rura duces.

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. (DWO and JZ)

6. Vita Probi (probably fifth or sixth century) See above, II.A.7. (Text: VVA 199) Cuius sepulcro quod est via Puteolana, hoc legitur epigramma: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua rura duces.

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. (MC, MP, and JZ)

7. Jerome, Chronicon: Ad Olympiada 190.3 See above, I.C.30 (on Jerome) and II.A.2.a.vii (on this text). On the 190th Olympiad (= 18–17 b.c.e.). (Text: R.Helm, ed., Eusebius Werke, vol. 7, part 1, Die Chronik des Hieronymus, 2nd ed., Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte 47 [Berlin, 1956], 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: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua rura duces.

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)

406

II. BIOGRAPHY

8. Sidonius Apollinaris, Carmina 9.217–20 See above, I.C.33. (Text and translation: Sidonius Apollinaris, Poems; Letters, ed. and trans. W. B. Anderson, vol. 1, LCL 296 [1980]) non quod Mantua contumax Homero adiecit Latiaribus loquelis, aequari sibimet subinde livens busto Parthenopam Maroniano. . . .

[You won’t find in this poem] that which Mantua, defiant of Homer’s supremacy, added to Latin utterance—Mantua, soon jealous that Parthenope became her peer by possessing Virgil’s tomb. (modified by MP)

9. Eusthenius (sixth century) Eusthenius was one of the so-called Duodecim Sapientes (Twelve Wise Men), each of whom supposedly wrote a single-distich epitaph for Virgil. (Text: AL 1.2, 62, no. 508) Vergilius iacet hic, qui pascua versibus edit et ruris cultus et Phrygis arma viri.

Here lies Virgil, who in his verse tells of pastures, cultivation of fields, and the arms of the Trojan man. (JZ)

10. Pompilianus (sixth century) Another of the ‘‘Twelve Wise Men.’’ All of them are also purported to have written two-distich poems about Virgil. (Text: AL 1.2, 75, no. 565) Vergilius mihi nomen erat, quem Mantua felix edidit. Hic cineres vatis et ossa iacent. Cuius in aeternum pastoria fistula vivet, rustica mox, eadem Martia Calliope.

Virgil was my name, whom blessed Mantua produced. Here lie the bones and ashes of the poet. His shepherd’s pipe will live forever, his Muse that was then concerned with farming and finally with war. (JZ)

11. Rodulfus Tortarius (late eleventh century–circa 1122) A monk of the abbey of Fleury, Rodulfus (Raoul) was the author of De memorabilibus (On Memorable Matters) in nine books, based largely on the Facta et dicta memorabilia (Memorable Doings and Sayings) of Valerius Maximus, as well as of eleven verse letters and of poetry to honor St. Benedict and St. Maurus. C . V I R G I L’ S R E M A I N S A N D G RAV E

407

Virgil is mentioned at De memorabilibus 2.1.185–86, for which Rodulfus’s source is most likely Jerome (see above, I.C.30). (Text: Carmina, ed. M. Ogle and D. Schullian [Rome, 1933]): Insignire suum iubet hoc elego Maro bustum, Mantua me genuit, Parthenope sepelit.

Virgil orders his tomb to be distinguished with this elegiac verse: Mantua begot me, Naples entombs me. (MP)

12. John of Salisbury (circa 1115–80) See below, III.G.4; IV.X.3.d; V.A.2. John of Salisbury was both author and diplomat and, for the last years of his life, bishop of Chartres. One of his two chief works, the Policraticus (1159), has the subtitle sive de nugis curialium et de vestigiis philosophorum (or on the trifles of those connected with the Curia and on the traces of philosophers). This treatise o√ers John’s views on, among other things, political philosophy (encompassing such issues as political legitimacy, the justifiability of tyrannicide, and the nature of the state). At Policraticus 2.23 (C. C. J. Webb, ed. [Oxford, 1909], 1:132) John describes a search for Virgil’s bones (from which we may draw the implication that in 1159 the exact location of the poet’s remains was not yet viewed as confirmed). On the di≈culties of interpreting and translating the passage, see J. B. Trapp, ‘‘The Grave of Vergil,’’ Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 47 (1984), 5 n. 19. VN 101 comments succinctly: ‘‘This allusion informs us merely that Virgil’s bones were supposed to have been regarded as valuable and accessible by a Frenchman at some time before 1159.’’ There is a partial translation at VMA, 274–75. Restat tibi illius Stoici tui quaestio, quem in Apulia diutius morantem vidi, aut post multas vigilias, longa ieiunia, labores plurimos et sudores tanto infelicis et inutilis exilii questu, in Gallias Virgilii ossa potius quam sensum reportaret.

There remains the inquiry of that hardy acquaintance of yours [a certain Ludovicus] whom I noticed lingering for quite a spell in Apulia, so that, after many a wakeful night, much fasting, many tribulations, and a great deal of exertion, amid great complaining about his unfortunate and fruitless time abroad, he might bring back to France the bones rather than the meaning of Virgil. (MP)

408

II. BIOGRAPHY

13. Conrad of Querfurt Letter to Hartbert, prior of Hildesheim (circa 1196) In a report on sightseeing in Naples (see below, V.A.4), entitled Epistula Conradi cancellarii (Letter of Chancellor Conrad), Conrad describes where the bones of Virgil were allegedly kept and what marvels took place when they came in contact with the air. He o√ers no explanation for the strange phenomena, but merely claims to have experienced them firsthand. According to VN 113, Conrad’s unique account of a device to protect the city of Naples ‘‘may be related to the legendary power of Virgil’s bones.’’ (Text: Arnold of Lübeck, Chronica Slavorum 5.19, ed. I. Lappenberg, MGH Scriptores 21 [Hannover, 1868], 194) (JZ) Sunt ibidem in castro vicino in supercilio civitatis, undique mari incluso, ossa Virgilii, quae si libertati exponuntur aeris, totius facies aeris obscuratur, mare funditus evertitur et tumidis aestuat procellis, insperateque consurgit strepitus tempestatis; quod nos vidimus et probavimus.

The bones of Virgil are also there, in a fortification on the edge of the city, surrounded on all sides by the sea. If they are exposed freely to the air, the weather grows completely dark, the sea is churned from its depths and swirls from the swollen gusts, and the roar of a hurricane rises unexpectedly. This we ourselves saw and witnessed. (MP)

14. Gervase of Tilbury (after 1154–after 1222) Gervase of Tilbury is best known for his Otia imperialia (Recreation for an Emperor, 1209–14), which came to have the alternative title Liber de mirabilibus mundi (Book on the Marvels of the World). At 3.112 (see below, V.A.5) of this work Gervase provides the greatest detail yet of any author on magical powers associated with Virgil’s bones. He lays particular emphasis upon a magic book in which was written an ars notoria (a practice associated with King Solomon that sought to gain knowledge from God through mystic figures [notae], magical prayers, and angelic mediation) and he claims to have put to the test the value of the knowledge contained in the book. After Gervase, other information on the location and magical properties of Virgil’s bones is found in Alexander of Telese (see below, V.G), the Image du monde (see below, V.H), the Cronaca di Partenope (see below, V.N), and Antonio Pucci (see below, V.O): see VN 103–16. (Discussion: VN 101–3) (Text: Otia Imperialia: Recreation for an Emperor, ed. S. E. Banks and J. W. Binns [Oxford, 2002]; see also VMA, 273–74) (JZ) C . V I R G I L’ S R E M A I N S A N D G RAV E

409

Tempore regis Siculi Rogeri, quidam magister nacione Anglus, ad regem accessit, postulans aliquid a rege munifico dari. Cumque rex, illustris genere et moribus, arbitraretur aliquod a se beneficium peti, respondit: ‘‘Pete quod vis beneficium, et dabo tibi.’’ Erat enim petitor summe litteratus, in trivio et quadrivio potens et accutissimus, in fisica operosus, in astronomia summus. Ait ergo regi se non temporalia solacia petere, sed pocius quod apud homines vile putatur, ossa videlicet Virgilii, ubicumque possent inveniri infra metas regni sui. Annuit rex; et magister, acceptis litteris regiis, Neapolim venit, ubi Virgilius studium ingenii sui in multis exercuerat. Porrectis litteris populus hobedienciam parat, et ignarus sepulture, libenter annuit, quod pro inpossibili credebat existimandum. Tandem magister, arte sua ad manum ducta, repperit ossa infra tumulum in medio montis cuiusdam, ad quem nec signum scissure dignoscebatur. Foditur locus, et effoditur post longos labores tumulus, in quo invenitur continuum corpus Virgilii, at ad capud liber in quo ars notoria erat inscripta, cum aliis studii eius caracteribus. Levatur pulvis cum ossibus, et liber a magistro extrahitur. Ad hec populus Neapolitanus, attendens specialem affectionem quam habuerat Virgilius erga civitatem, timens ne ex ossium subtractione enorme dampnum civitas tota pateretur, elegit susceptum regis mandatum eludere, quam hobediendo tante urbis excidio occasionem prestare. Arbitrabatur enim eo consilio Virgilium sibi in montis archano tumulum posuisse, ne ossa eius evecta artificiorum suorum importarent interitum. Magister ergo militum cum turba civium ossa coniuncta copulat et in culleo reposita in castello maris ad urbis ipsius confinium deferunt, ubi per medias crates ferreas intueri volentibus ostenduntur. Requisitus autem magister quid de ossibus facturus erat, respondit se per coniurationes effecturum quod ad eius interrogationem ossa omnem Virgilii artem ipsi panderent; quin immo satisfactum sibi proposuit si per quadraginta dies ei ossium copia daretur. Asportato ergo libro solo, magister abiit; et nos quedam ex ipso libro, per venerabilem Iohannem Neapolitanum cardinalem, tempore pape Alexandri, excerpta vidimus, et probari verissima rerum experientia fecimus.

In the reign of Roger [II, 1095–1154] of Sicily, a certain scholar, an Englishman by birth, came before the king to ask a favor of his generosity. And when the king, noble by birth and by nature, gained knowledge that some favor was being asked of him, he answered: ‘‘Seek what favor you wish, and I will grant it to you.’’ Now the petitioner was a famous writer, extremely well versed in the trivium [the ‘‘three roads’’ of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic] and quadrivium [after the trivium, ‘‘the four roads’’ of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astron410

II. BIOGRAPHY

omy complete the seven liberal arts], a devoted student of medicine, and most adept at astronomy. He says, therefore, to the king that he would not ask for ephemeral pleasures, but rather for something that in the eyes of men would be considered valueless, namely, the bones of Virgil, wherever they could be found within his kingdom’s bounds. The king agreed, and the scholar, armed with letters from the king, made his way to Naples, where Virgil on many occasions put to work the power of his intelligence. When he presented the letters, the people were willing to obey, for, since they were ignorant of the location of the grave, they gladly agreed to what they believed must be considered impossible. Eventually, however, by applying the resources of his art the scholar discovered the bones beneath a mound in the center of a certain mountain where no sign of a breach was recognizable. The area was dug up, and with a great deal of e√ort the mound excavated in which was found the body of Virgil whole and entire, and at his head a book in which was written an ars notoria [a book of mystic notae, or figures] with other writings related to its study. The bones and the ashes were removed and the book taken away by the scholar. At this the inhabitants of Naples, recalling the great a√ection which Virgil had shown their city, and fearing that if his bones were carried o√ the whole city might su√er some terrible calamity, preferred to avoid implementing the king’s command rather than by obeying it to furnish an occasion for the ruin of so great a city. For it was their belief that Virgil had placed the mound in a secret recess of a mountain lest the removal of his bones deprive his various works of their power. The leader of the military garrison [of Naples], therefore, with a number of the citizens, collected the bones and put them in a sack and brought them to a seaside castle [of uncertain relationship to the Castello di Mare] at the edge of the city itself, where they are shown, through iron gratings, to anyone wishing to see them. When the scholar was asked what he had intended to do with the bones, he answered that he would put them to use for spells because at his questioning the bones would have revealed the whole art of Virgil himself, and he also put forward that this could be brought to a successful conclusion by him, if he were given the use of the bones for forty days. Therefore, taking only the book away with him, the scholar departed, and, by the kindness of the venerable John of Naples, cardinal [1158–83]under Pope Alexander [III, 1159–81], we have seen some extracts from the very book and have made experiments satisfactorily establishing their infallibility. (MP)

15. Dante, Purgatorio 3.25–27 See above, I.C.53. Virgil is speaking. C . V I R G I L’ S R E M A I N S A N D G RAV E

411

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. (C. Singleton, ed. and trans., Purgatorio, vol. 1 [Princeton, 1973], 25)

These lines are quoted by Domenico di Bandino in his vita (see above, II.A.35) as proof that Virgil’s bones had indeed been transferred to Naples. Although the words are supposedly spoken by Virgil himself, their authority for Domenico derives from their inclusion in Dante’s poem. Note also Purgatorio 7.6: ‘‘my bones were buried by Octavian.’’

16. Sequence about St. Paul (thirteenth–fourteenth century) These verses are imagined to have been conceived by Paul during his seven-day stay at Pozzuoli, on his way to Rome in 60 (see Acts 28.13–14). The verses were inscribed by Petrarch (see above, I.C.54) in his manuscript of Virgil in Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MS S.P. 10, 27, folio 1av, which is the oldest witness to the text of the sequence (see also below, II.F.9). Petrarch specifies that the sequence was sung at Mass on the feast of the conversion of St. Paul, but he does not indicate where he heard it. J. Brink (‘‘Simone Martini, Francesco Petrarca and the Humanistic Program of the Vergil Frontispiece,’’ Mediaevalia 3 [1977], 100) hypothesizes that Petrarch had his Virgil codex with him, before reaching Rome and his coronation, in Naples in 1341, when we know that he visited the presumed tomb. The tradition recorded in the sequence (often called a hymn) may have originated in Italy, in conjunction with Virgil’s tomb, or in France, since it also appears in the mid thirteenth century in the Old French Image du monde (Image of the World; see below, V.H.2) and thereafter in Bruno of Schönebeck’s Hohenlied (Exposition on the Song of Songs) (10310–17). St. Paul and Virgil came to be connected in various other ways. In the mid twelfth century Idung of Prüfening paired the two closely (‘‘Argument Concerning Four Questions,’’ 11, trans. Joseph Leahy, Cistercians and Cluniacs [Kalamazoo, 1977], 190; R. B. C. Huygens, ed., ‘‘Le moine Idung et ses deux ouvrages,’’ Studi Medievali, 3rd ser., 13 [1972], 357). Similarly, Gervase of Melkley, in his early-thirteenth-century Ars poetica, cited both to illustrate the rhetorical figure of antonomasia, whereby an epithet is used instead of a proper noun: Hec positio semper quandam prerogativam notare debet. Ut hic: Apostolus dicit, id est, Paulus. Poeta, id est, Virgilius (This usage must always denote a certain preeminence, as in this case: one says ‘‘The Apostle,’’ that is to say, Paul; ‘‘The Poet,’’ that is to say, Virgil) (ed. H.-J. Gräbener, Forschungen

412

II. BIOGRAPHY

zur romanischen Philologie 17 [Münster, 1965], 68). (Translation and discussion: VME 4 and 315 n. 6) The linking of Paul and Virgil made particular sense, in that both had associations with the hereafter, the former through the apocryphal Vision of St. Paul and the latter through the sixth book of the Aeneid. Jean d’Outremeuse records a legendary tradition that Paul overcame the magic statues that protected Virgil’s house and initial resting place: see below, V.P. (Discussion: B. Nardi, ‘‘Briciole virgiliane e note di storia mantovana, 1: S. Paolo alla tomba di Virgilio,’’ Atti e memorie dell’Accademia Virgiliana di Mantova, n.s. 25 [1939], 133–36; B. M. Peebles, ‘‘The Ad Maronis Mausoleum: Petrarch’s Virgil,’’ in Classical, Mediaeval, and Renaissance Studies in Honor of B. L. Ullman [Rome, 1964], 2:169–96; J. B. Trapp, ‘‘The Grave of Vergil,’’ Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 47 [1984], 3) (Text: M. Capasso, Il Sepolcro di Virgilio, Società nazionale di Scienze, Lettere e Arti in Napoli: Pubblicazioni del bimillenario virgiliano promosse dalla regione Campania [Naples, 1983], 136 n. 40). (MP and JZ) Ad Maronis mausoleum Ductus fudit super eum Piae rorem lacrimae; ‘‘Quem te, inquit, reddidissem, Si te vivum invenissem, Poetarum maxime!’’

When to Virgil’s tomb they brought him, Tender grief and pity wrought him, To bedew the tomb with tears; ‘‘What a saint I might have crowned thee, Had I only living found thee, Poet first and without peers!’’ (J. A. Symonds, Renaissance in Italy: The Revival of Learning [1877; rept., London, 1912], 46 n. 1, quoted in Edward Hutton, Naples and the Campagna revisited [London, 1958], 104)

17. Petrarch See above, I.C.54. a. Rerum familiarium libri 21.10.13 Epistle to Neri Morando da Forlì.(Text: Le familiari [Rerum familiarium libri], vol. 4, ed. V. Rossi and U. Bosco [Florence, 1942], 76).

C . V I R G I L’ S R E M A I N S A N D G RAV E

413

Flenda nempe viri sors; nam ut altissimi et divini prorsus ingenii fuerat, si vidisset Cristum aut nomen eius audivisset, quantum ego opinor, non modo credidisset in eum sed eloquio illo incomparabili Cristi preco maximus fuisset; quale aliquod de altero principe latine facundie, Virgilio poeta, cum ad eius tumulum venisset, apostolus Paulus et flevisse legitur et dixisse.

His [Cicero’s] fate is surely worthy to be wept over; for as he had been a man of the highest and entirely divine talent, if he had seen Christ or heard His name, in my opinion he would not only have believed in Him but with his peerless eloquence would have been his greatest herald, as the apostle Paul, weeping, reportedly said about the other prince of Latin eloquence, the poet Virgil, when he had arrived at his tomb. (Francesco Petrarca, Letters on Familiar Matters: Rerum Familiarium Libri, trans. A. S. Bernardo, vol. 3 [Baltimore, 1985], 186, modified by MP and JZ) b. Epistula ad Barbatum Sulmonensem (1343) To Barbato da Sulmona. (Text: Francisci Petrarchae opera omnia, Epistulae metricae 2 [Basel: Henrichus Petri, 1554], no. 7, 1348, lines 38–45) Vicina Maronis busti tui, ac tanti cinerem mens certa poetae, si quis adhuc superest longis invictus ab annis, visere, et horrifico pertusum tramite montem, Barbato monstrante meo, Baiasque tepentes Lucrinique situm, faciemque informis Averni, unde iter ad Stygias sedes, inamoenaque torvi sceptra ducis, si vera canunt.

I am sure in my mind that I beheld, with my Barbatus as guide, the places near the tomb of your Virgil and the ash of so great a poet—if anything still survives, unravaged by the passage of long years—and the mountain pierced by the dread path, the warmth of Baiae and the setting of the Lucrine lake, the appearance of formless Avernus, whence the route leads to Stygian resting places and to the loveless scepter of the fierce king, if [poets] sing the truth. (MP) c. Epistula ad Rainaldum de Libero Pago (1347) In this letter to Rinaldo Cavalchini da Villafranca, Petrarch refers to the proximity of Virgil’s and Pliny the Elder’s resting places. Virgil was supposedly buried on Mt. Falernus, to the northwest of Naples. Pliny the Elder met his end in 79 while studying the eruption of Vesuvius, to the south of the city. 414

II. BIOGRAPHY

(Text: Francisci Petrarchae opera omnia, Epistulae metricae 2 [Basel: Henrichus Petri, 1554], no. 16, 1357, lines 122–27) Non ardua busti cura animum si forte movet, cui gratius orae membra dabis, quam quae vatis tegit ossa supremi concivisque tui? Solamen dulce, quod ingens haec iuga Virgilius, Plinius tenet illa secundus: Tu medius iacuisse times?

If a trifling concern for your place of burial chances to trouble you, in what more pleasant spot will you lay your limbs than that which covers the bones of your fellow citizen, poet without peer? Consolation sweet, that mighty Virgil claims this mountain, Pliny the Elder that: Does a resting-place in between cause you worry? (MP) d. Epistula ad Barbatum Sulmonensem (1350) To Barbato da Sulmona. (Text: Francisci Petrarchae opera omnia, Epistulae metricae 1 [Basel: Henrichus Petri, 1554], no. 1, 1330, lines 21–24) . . . quotiens . . . faventibus astris reddimur Ausonie, bustum tibi forte Maronis obtigit in partem vatis, michi cessit origo, amnibus ac toto disiungimur Apennino.

As often as we return to Italy, with the blessing of the stars, it chanced that the tomb of the poet Maro was where you happen to be, his natal land has fallen to my lot: we are separated by rivers and the whole of the Apennines. (MP) e. Itinerarium Syriacum (circa 1357/58) To Giovannolo da Mandello. The cripta to which this passage refers was probably hollowed out in the time of Augustus by L. Cocceius Auctus (The Geography of Strabo, ed. and trans. H. L. Jones, vol. 2, LCL 50 [1923], 444–45; see also Petronius, Satiricon, frag. 16, in Petronii Saturae, ed. F. Buecheler [Berlin, 1904], 111). See below, V.A.5.h. For Petrarch, King Robert of Naples, and the classical remains on the north side of the bay of Naples, see also Familiares 5.4, to Giovanni Colonna (Le familiari [Rerum familiarium libri], vol. 2, ed. V. Rossi [Florence, 1934], 4–14). (Text: ed. G. Lumbroso, Memorie Italiane de buon tempo antico [Torino, 1889], 36–37) C . V I R G I L’ S R E M A I N S A N D G RAV E

415

Non longe a Puteolis, Falernus collis attollitur, famoso palmite nobilis. Inter Falernum et mare mons est saxeus, hominum manibus perfossus, quod vulgus insulsum a Virgilio magicis cantaminibus factum putat. Ita clarorum fama hominum, non veris contenta laudibus, saepe etiam fabulis viam facit. De quo cum me olim Robertus regno clarus, sed praeclarus ingenio et literis, quid sentirem multis astantibus percontatus esset, humanitate fretus regia, qua non reges modo, sed homines vicit, iocans, nusquam me legisse marmorarium fuisse Virgilium respondi, quod ille serenissimae nutu frontis approbans, non illic magiae, sed ferri vestigia confessus est. Sunt autem fauces excavati montis angustae, sed longissimae, atque atrae, tenebrosa intus, et horrifica semper nox, publicum iter in medio, mirum et religioni proximum, belli quoque temporibus inviolatum, si vera populi vox est et nullis undique latrociniis attentatum patet. Criptam neapolitanam dicunt, cuius et in epistolis ad Lucilium Seneca mentionem facit [Epistulae morales 57.1]. Sub fine fusci tramitis, ubi primo videri coelum incipit, in aggere edito, ipsius Virgilii busta visuntur, pervetusti operis, unde haec forsitan ab illo perforati montis fluxit opinio. Iuxta breve sed devotissimum sacellum supra ipsum criptae exitum.

Not far from Pozzuoli rises Mt. Falernus [Mt. Gaurus in antiquity], graced with its famous vineyard. Between Falernum and the sea is a rocky mountain, tunneled through by the hands of men, which the foolish mass of men thinks was made by Virgil’s magical incantations. Such is the repute of famous individuals that, not limited to praises based on fact, it often also creates the opportunity for myth. When once [King] Robert [the Wise of Naples (1309– 43)], famous for his rule but outstanding for his intelligence and writing skill, asked me in the presence of many what I thought of this matter, relying on the king’s humanity, in which he surpassed not only kings but humankind, drolly I answered that I had never read that Virgil was a marble mason. Approving this, with a nod of his countenance at its most benign, he avowed that there were traces there not of magic but of [the use of] iron. Moreover the entrances to the hollow in the mountain are narrow, and very far apart and black (in between remains ever dread, nightlike darkness). The public road through its midst is a marvel, verging on the awe-inspiring. It is also incapable of onslaught in times of war, if the people’s report is correct, and never lies assailable to robbery. They call it the Neapolitan Crypt. Seneca made reference to it in his letters to Lucilius. At the end of the dim track, when the heavens first begin to be glimpsed, is to be seen, on a lofty eminence, the tomb of Virgil himself, a work of some antiquity, whence has perhaps derived this belief that the mountain 416

II. BIOGRAPHY

was pierced by him. Next to this is a small but very pious shrine, above the very exit from the crypt. (MP)

18. Itinerary of a Certain Englishman (1344–45) Probably inspired by both Conrad of Querfurt (see above, II.C.13) and Gervase of Tilbury (see above, II.C.14), this text mentions the magical creation of Capua by Virgil, the Terra di Lavoro, the mountainside burial place of Virgil near Naples, and the storms associated with it. (Discussion: J. B. Trapp, ‘‘The Grave of Vergil,’’ Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 47 [1984], 5) (Text: Itinerarium, chapter 3, ed. G. Golubovich, Biblioteca bio-bibliografica della Terra Santa e dell’Oriente francescano, Serie prima: annali 4 [Quaracchi, 1923], 434–38) (JZ) Inde ad Minuanam, Tymanam, Capuam civitatem famosam ultra calcetum quod fecit Virgilius in una nocte arte sua magica per medium unius bituminis latissimi de lapidibus uniformibus et planis. Inde ad Neapolim, in Terra Laboris, immo pocius Leporis. In illa terra sunt nemora multa, quorum arbores habent omnes vites per illas saltantes, uvas producentes, que vinum reddunt copiosum. Sub arboribus solum planum est et terra pinguis et frugefera, ut dicatur de terra illa, quod scribitur in evangelio: ‘‘Semen cecidit in terram bonam et optulit fructum aliud centesimum, aliud sexagesimum’’ [Matthew 13.8]. Ex parte civitatis Neapolis, ad orientalem plagam, eminet unus mons altissimus, in quo iacet Virgilius. Ad illum locum audit nullus accedere reversurus. De quo loco quandoque surgunt tempestates civitatem pulsantes, ita ut videtur inhabitantibus quod tremit tota civitas, ac si mare fluctuans illam deglutiret.

From there to Mignano, Teano, [and] Capua, a city famous beyond the raised road that Virgil made in one night by his magic art, by means of one very broad [layer of] pitch and asphalt, of evenly sized and flat stones. From there to Naples, in the Terra Laboris, or rather the Terra Leporis [Latin leporis, charm]. In that land are many groves, the trees of which all have vines climbing on them, bearing grapes that produce wine in abundance. Beneath the trees the ground is flat, and the land is rich and fruitful, so that it may be said of that land as is written in the Gospel, ‘‘the seed fell upon good ground, and it brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold.’’ Outside the city of Naples, near the eastern shore, a very high mountain rises, in which Virgil lies buried. No one who intends to return dares approach that place. From that place storms sometimes arise to strike the city, such that C . V I R G I L’ S R E M A I N S A N D G RAV E

417

it seems to the inhabitants that the whole city trembles, as if the billowy sea would swallow it down. (JZ)

19. Boccaccio (Giovanni Boccaccio, 1313–75) Among general readers Boccaccio is justly renowned for the Decameron, which is, if we except the prose segments of Dante’s Vita nuova, the first masterpiece of Italian prose. Written in the years 1351–53 but with a dramatic date of 1348, it consists of one hundred stories which ten friends deliver to each other over a ten-day period. Made up largely of short comic tales that resemble fabliaux, the Decameron is noteworthy for its intricate characterization, complex narrative structure, and variety of style. Boccaccio also wrote a number of other works in the vernacular. Scholars, from his own day down to the present, have quarried Boccaccio for the information he assembled and the interpretations he advanced. Particularly notable is his extensive Latin treatise entitled De genealogia deorum gentilium (On the Genealogy of the Pagan Gods), in fifteen books (circa 1363–73). Boccaccio writes letters sub monte Falerno apud busta Maronis (under Mt. Falernus at the tomb of Virgil), a site he mentions having visited. a. De genealogia deorum gentilium 14.19 (circa 1363–73) In On the Genealogy of the Pagan Gods Boccaccio describes the setting in detail. (Text: Giovanni Boccaccio, Genealogie deorum gentilium libri, ed. V. Romano [Bari, 1951], 2:738–39) Virgilius autem, ingenio non minor Homero, urbe Roma, tunc rerum domina, neglecta, atque Octaviano Cesare, totius orbis principe, cuius singulari letabatur amicitia, omisso, quesivit sibi haud longe a Neapoli, Campanie inclita civitate, tunc etiam deliciis abundante et ocio, semotum locum quieto atque solitario litori proximum, ut magni spiritus homo, Iohannes Barillis aiebat, inter promontorium Posilipi et Puteolos, vetustissimam Grecorum coloniam, ad quem nemo fere, nisi eum quereret, accedebat; in quo post Georgicum carmen celestem decantavit Eneidam. Cuius selecte solitudinis Octavianus prestare testimonium volens, cum fecisset eiusdem Virgilii a Brundisio ossa referri, haud procul ab electa solitudine tumulari iussit, secus eam viam, que adhuc Puteolana dicitur, ut eo iacerent mortua cuius elegisset in vicinio vivere.

And Virgil, who was no less a genius than Homer, abandoned Rome, then mistress of the world, and deserted Caesar Octavianus, ruler of all the earth, 418

II. BIOGRAPHY

from whose friendship he took special pleasure, all to seek out a home not far from Naples, famed city of Campania, a spot even in that day abounding in beauty and comfort; and there, according to the account of Giovanni Barrilli [Neapolitan knight, lawyer, and poet], a man of much intelligence, he chose a spot calm and sequestered, near a lonely shore, between the cape of Posillipo and the oldest of Greek colonies, Pozzuoli, whither none would come except to seek him out. There, after his Georgics, he composed the divine Aeneid. And when at Virgil’s death Octavian wished to commemorate his choice of this lonely spot, he caused his bones to be brought from Brindisi and buried close by his favorite retreat near the road still called the Puteolan Way [the way to Pozzuoli], so that his bones in death might lie near where he had chosen to live. (C. G. Osgood, Boccaccio on Poetry [Indianapolis, 1956], 88–89, modified by MP) b. Epistula ad Franciscum Petrarchum (1339) To Francesco Petrarca. (Text: Giovanni Boccaccio: Opere latine minori, ed. A. F. Massèra [Bari, 1928], 111) Sed cum iam nox iret in diem, et ego penes busta Maronis securus et incautus ambularem, subito suda mulier, ceu fulgur descendens, apparuit nescio quomodo, meis auspitiis undique et forma conformis.

But when night was wending toward day, and careless and unwary I was strolling near the tomb of Maro, suddenly, all brightness like a thunderbolt’s descent, a woman appeared, I have no idea how, completely conforming in beauty to what I had anticipated. (MP) c. Epistula ad Franciscum (1374) To Francesco da Brossano. (Text: Giovanni Boccaccio: Opere latine minori, ed. A. F. Massèra [Bari, 1928], 224) Ex quo fere Arquas incognita Patavinis, nedum exteris atque longinquis nationibus, cognoscetur et orbi toti eius erit nomen in precio, nec aliter quam nos Posilipi colles etiam invisos mente colimus, eo quod eorum in radicibus locata sint ossa Virgilii, et Tomitaniam Phasinque Euxini maris extrema loca tenentia busta Peligni Nasonis, ac Smirnas Homeri, et alia similia honorabitur.

And so the name Arquà, which is nearly unknown to the inhabitants of Padua, let alone to foreign and distant nations, will be recognized and valued throughout the world [as the burial place of Petrarch], in a fashion similar to the way we C . V I R G I L’ S R E M A I N S A N D G RAV E

419

worship in our mind’s eye the hills of Posillipo, even if we have never visited them, because at their feet are buried the bones of Virgil, just as honor is o√ered to the area of Tomi and Phasis, the most remote regions of the Black Sea, because they possess the grave of Paelignian Naso, and to Homer’s Smyrna, and to other similar spots. (MP) D. THE BURNING OF THE AENEID

1. Ovid See above, I.C.1. The mentions that Ovid makes in the exilic poetry to his ‘‘obsequies,’’ from which the Metamorphoses escape, may well serve as the first (indirect) reference to, and therefore as imitation of, the story of Virgil’s wish to burn the Aeneid. The Virgilian vitae (see, for instance, VSD [II.A.1, above]) tell us that at the time of his death Virgil still intended to devote three more years to polishing the Aeneid. Upon his departure for what proved to be a fatal trip to Greece in 19 b.c.e., the poet asked Varius Rufus to burn the manuscript of the epic, should anything untoward happen to him. Ovid’s exile, therefore, has its parallels to the death of Virgil. Their poems’ lack of final polish would seem to have entered into the reasoning of each master. For Ovid, however, emulation no doubt plays a role, as the later poet draws an implicit parallel between his chef d’oeuvre and the epic masterpiece of his great predecessor. (Perhaps this is even Ovid’s way of suggesting an equivalence between himself and Virgil, by finding a parallel for himself in what was already established myth about Virgil and therefore becoming the earlier poet’s peer in creativity supported by correlative curricula vitae.) (Text, items a–d: Ovid, Tristium libri quinque, Ibis, Ex Ponto libri quattuor, Halieutica, Fragmenta, ed. S. G. Owen, OCT [1963]; translations: Ovid, Tristia; Ex Ponto, ed. and trans. A. L. Wheeler, LCL 151 [1924]) (MP) a. Tristia 1.1.117–22 Sunt quoque mutatae, ter quinque volumina, formae, nuper ab exequiis carmina rapta meis. His mando dicas, inter mutata referri fortunae vultum corpora posse meae. Namque ea dissimilis subito est effecta priori, flendaque nunc, aliquo tempore laeta fuit.

There are also thrice five rolls about changing forms, poems recently saved from the burial of my fortunes. To these I bid you [his book Tristia] say that

420

II. BIOGRAPHY

the aspect of my own fate can now be reckoned among those metamorphosed figures. For that aspect has on a sudden become quite di√erent from what it was before—a cause of tears now, though once a joy. b. Tristia 1.7.15–26, 35–40 Haec ego discedens, sicut bene multa meorum, ipse mea posui maestus in igne manu. Utque cremasse suum fertur sub stipite natum Thestias et melior matre fuisse soror. Sic ego non meritos mecum peritura libellos imposui rapidis viscera nostra rogis: vel quod eram Musas, ut crimina nostra, perosus, vel quod adhuc crescens et rude carmen erat. Quae quoniam non sunt penitus sublata, sed extant— pluribus exemplis scripta fuisse reor— nunc precor ut vivant et non ignava legentem otia delectent admoneantque mei. . . . . . . . . . . . . ‘‘Orba parente suo quicumque volumina tangis, his saltem vestra detur in urbe locus. Quoque magis faveas, haec non sunt edita ab ipso, sed quasi de domini funere rapta sui. Quicquid in his igitur vitii rude carmen habebit, emendaturus, si licuisset, eram.’’

15

20

25

35

40

[15] These verses [the Metamorphoses] upon my departure, like so much that was mine, in sorrow I placed with my own hand in the fire. Just as Thestius’s daughter [Althaea] burned her own son, they say, in burning the branch, and proved a better sister than mother, so I placed the innocent books consigned with me to death, [20] my very vitals, upon the devouring pyre, because I had come to hate the Muses as my accusers or because the poem itself was as yet half grown and rough. These verses were not utterly destroyed; they still exist—several copies were made, I think—[25] and now I pray that they may live, that thus my industrious leisure may bring pleasure to the reader and remind him of me. . . . [35] ‘‘All you who touch these rolls [of the Metamorphoses] bereft of their father, to them at least let a place be granted in your city [Rome]. And your indulgence will be all the greater because these were not published by their master, but were rescued from what might be called his funeral. And so whatever defect this rough poem may have [40] I would have corrected, had it been permitted me.’’ D. THE BURNING OF THE AENEID

421

c. Tristia 2.63–64, 555–56 Inspice maius opus, quod adhuc sine fine tenetur, in non credendos corpora versa modos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dictaque sunt nobis, quamvis manus ultima coeptis defuit, in facies corpora versa novas.

Examine[, Augustus,] the greater work [Metamorphoses], which is still kept unfinished, the book of figures transformed in ways unbelievable. . . . I sang also, though my attempt lacked the final touch, of bodies changed into new forms. d. Tristia 3.14.19–24 Sunt quoque mutatae, ter quinque volumina, formae, carmina de domini funere rapta sui. illud opus potuit, si non prius ipse perissem, certius a summa nomen habere manu: nunc incorrectum populi pervenit in ora, in populi quicquam si tamen ore mei est.

There are also thrice five books on changing forms, verses snatched from the funeral of their master. That work, had I not perished beforehand, might have gained a more secure name from my finishing hand: but now unrevised it has come upon men’s lips—if anything of mine is on their lips.

2. Pliny the Elder, Historia naturalis 7.114 See above, I.C.8. (Text and translation: Pliny the Elder, Natural History, vol. 2, ed. and trans. H. Rackham, LCL 352 [1942]) Divus Augustus carmina Vergilii cremari contra testamenti eius verecundiam vetuit, maiusque ita vati testimonium contigit quam si ipse sua probavisset.

The divine Augustus overrode the modesty of Virgil’s will and forbade the burning of his poems, and thus the bard achieved a stronger testimony than if he had commended his own works himself. (modified by MP)

3. Gaius Sulpicius Apollinaris (first half of second century) Sulpicius was a scholar and teacher among whose students were Aulus Gellius and the emperor Pertinax. The metrical summaries of Terence’s plays that are extant under Sulpicius’s name are agreed to be his work. The circumstances surrounding the poems on the preservation and on the contents of the Aeneid 422

II. BIOGRAPHY

that have been ascribed to him are more embroiled. We have two versions of a three-distich poem on the burning of the epic that is probably his. a. Aelius Donatus, VSD 38 See above, II.A.1, and below, IV.D.2. Donatus ascribes the three distichs to one Sulpicius of Carthage, who is probably identical with Sulpicius Apollinaris. The same ascription recurs in Donatus auctus (see above, II.A.37) as well as in the vitae by Domenico di Bandino (see above, II.A.35) and Sicco Polenton II (see above, II.A.38). In the Vita Probi (see above, II.A.7) the poem is ascribed to Servius Varus, which is likely to be a mistake for Marius, or Maurus, Servius (see below, IV.B). (Discussion: L. Holford-Strevens, Aulus Gellius: An Antonine Scholar and His Achievement, 2nd ed. [Oxford, 2003], 83–84) (Text: VVA 35) (JZ) 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 [see below, II.D.3.b].

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. (DWO and JZ) The first two distichs are also quoted at the conclusion of the Vita Probi (see above, II.A.7 [VVA 200]). b. Anthologia Latina For further details see D. R. Stuart, ‘‘The Source and the Extent of Petrarch’s Knowledge of the Life of Vergil,’’ Classical Philology 12 (1917), 365–404, and (on II.D.3.a–b as well as incipit ‘‘Diruta quae flammis olim Maro Pergama dixit’’) W. Schetter, ‘‘Drei Epigramme über die Rettung der Aeneis,’’ in idem, Kaiserzeit und Spätantike: Kleine Schriften 1957–1992, ed. O. Zwierlein, Sonderband zur Zeitschrift Hermes und den Hermes-Einzelschriften (Stuttgart, 1994), 466–74. (Text: AL 1.2, 121, no. 653) Carmina Vergilius Phrygium prodentia Martem Secum fatali iusserat igne mori. Tucca negat, Varius prohibet, superaddite Caesar Nomen in Aenea non sinis esse nefas. D. THE BURNING OF THE AENEID

423

O quam paene iterum geminasti funere funus, Troia, bis interitus causa futura tui.

Virgil had ordered that his songs recording the war at Troy succumb along with himself to the fires of fate. Tucca says no; Varius forbids; you, Caesar, in addition do not allow a crime to be committed against the name of Aeneas. O, Troy, how nearly you again doubled death with death, to be twice the impetus for your own destruction. (MP)

4. Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 17.10.5–7 See above, I.C.27, especially I.C.27.j (for 17.10.2–4). The philosopher Favorinus is speaking. (Text and translation: Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, ed. and trans. J. C. Rolfe, vol. 3, LCL 212 [1927]) ‘‘Nam quae reliquit perfecta expolitaque quibusque inposuit census atque dilectus sui supremam manum, omni poeticae venustatis laude florent; sed quae procrastinata sunt ab eo, ut post recenserentur, et absolvi, quoniam mors praeverterat, nequiverunt, nequaquam poetarum elegantissimi nomine atque iudicio digna sunt. Itaque cum morbo obpressus adventare mortem viderat, petivit oravitque a suis amicissimis inpense, ut Aeneida, quam nondum satis elimavisset, adolerent.’’

‘‘For the parts that he left perfected and polished, to which his judgment and approval had applied the final hand, enjoy the highest praise for poetical beauty; but those parts [of the Aeneid ] that he postponed, with the intention of revising them later, but was unable to finish because he was overtaken by death, are in no way worthy of the fame and taste of the most elegant of poets. It was for that reason, when he was laid low by disease and saw that death was near, that he begged and earnestly besought his friends to burn the Aeneid, which he had not yet su≈ciently revised.’’

5. Aelius Donatus, VSD 39–40 See above, II.A.1, and below, IV.D.2. (Text: VVA 36–37) 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. Ceterum eidem Vario ac simul Tuccae scripta sua sub ea conditione legavit, ne quid ederent, quod non a se editum esset.

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 424

II. BIOGRAPHY

earnestly, intending to burn them himself; but no one brought them, and he gave no precise stipulations in this matter. For the rest, he bequeathed his writings to the aforementioned Varius and Tucca, on the condition that they publish nothing that he himself had not revised. (DWO and JZ)

6. Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.24.6 See below, IV.C. Evangelus is speaking to Symmachus. (Text: J. Willis, ed., 2nd ed. [Leipzig, 1970]) ‘‘Immo pueri cum essemus, Symmache, sine iudicio mirabamur, inspicere autem vitia nec per magistros nec per aetatem licebat. Quae tamen non pudenter quisquam negabit, cum ipse confessus sit. Qui enim moriens poema suum legavit igni, quid nisi famae suae vulnera posteritati subtrahenda curavit?’’

‘‘On the other hand, Symmachus[, said Evangelus], when we were boys we had an uncritical admiration for Virgil, because our masters, as well as the inexperience of our youth, did not allow us to investigate his faults. That he had faults no one will honestly deny, for he himself admitted as much. As he was dying he bequeathed his poem [the Aeneid] to the flames; and why should he have done this unless he was anxious to keep from posterity whatever might be injurious to his reputation?’’ (Macrobius, The Saturnalia, trans. P. V. Davies [New York, 1969], modified by MP) E. AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPTS OF VIRGIL

1. Pliny the Elder, Historia naturalis 13.83 See above, I.C.8. By attesting to the prevalence of autographs of Virgil nearly a century after his death, Pliny o√ers tangible proof of his popularity. (Text and translation: Pliny the Elder, Natural History, vol. 4, ed. and trans. H. Rackham, LCL 370 [1945]) Ita sint longinqua monimenta: Tiberi Gaique Gracchorum manus apud Pomponium Secundum vatem civemque vidi annos fere post ducentos; iam vero Ciceronis ac Divi Augusti Vergilique saepenumero videmus.

This process [of making paper] may enable records to last a long time; at the house of the poet and most distinguished citizen Pomponius Secundus, I have seen documents in the hand of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus written nearly two hundred years ago; while as for autographs of Cicero, of the divine Augustus, and of Virgil, we see them repeatedly. (modified by MP)

E. AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPTS OF VIRGIL

425

2. Quintilian, Institutio oratoria 1.7.20 See above, I.C.19. (Text and translation: Quintilian, The Orator’s Education, ed. and trans. D. A. Russell, vol. 1, LCL 124 [2001]) Quo modo et ipsum et Vergilium quoque scripsisse manus eorum docent.

That [Cicero] himself and Virgil both used this spelling is shown by their autographs.

3. Aulus Gellius See above, I.C.27. (Text and translation, items a and b: Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, ed. and trans. J. C. Rolfe, vol. 1, LCL 195 [1927]) a. Noctes Atticae 1.21.1–2 Versus istos ex Georgicis Vergilii plerique omnes sic legunt At sapor indicium faciet manifestus et ora tristia temptantum sensu torquebit amaro [2.246–47].

Hyginus autem, non hercle ignobilis grammaticus, in Commentariis quae in Vergilium fecit, confirmat et perseverat, non hoc a Vergilio relictum, sed quod ipse invenerit in libro qui fuerit ex domo atque ex familia Vergilii: . . . et ora Tristia temptantum sensus torquebit amaror . . . [Georgics 2.246–47]

Nearly everyone reads these lines from the Georgics of Virgil in this way: At sapor indicium faciet manifestus et ora tristia temptantum sensu torquebit amaro. [But the taste will tell its tale full plainly, and with its bitter flavor will distort the testers’ soured mouths.]

Hyginus, however, on my word no obscure grammarian, in the Commentaries that he wrote on Virgil, declares and insists that it was not this that Virgil left, but what he himself found in a copy that had come from the home and family of the poet: et ora tristia temptantum sensus torquebit amaror . . . [But the bitterness of the sensation will distort the testers’ soured mouths.]

b. Noctes Atticae 2.3.5 Sed quoniam ‘‘aheni’’ quoque exemplo usi sumus, venit nobis in memoriam Fidum Optatum, multi nominis Romae grammaticum, ostendisse mihi librum Aeneidos secundum mirandae vetustatis, emptum in Sigillariis viginti aureis, quem ipsius Vergili fuisse credebatur.

But apropos of the inclusion of ahenum among my examples [of authors’ insertion of the aspirate h], I recall that Fidus Optatus, a grammarian of 426

II. BIOGRAPHY

considerable repute in Rome, showed me a remarkably old copy of the second book of the Aeneid, bought in the Sigillaria for twenty pieces of gold, which was believed to have belonged to Virgil himself. See also Noctes Atticae 9.14.7 and 13.21.4 for further discussions of Virgil’s handwriting. F. VIRGILIAN IMAGES The broad category ‘‘Virgilian images’’ includes portraits of the poet as well as imagery inspired by his works. The term ‘‘portraiture’’ evokes modern notions of realistic similitude, Virgil as he is described in the early vitae (see above, II.A). Although ancient texts refer to Roman portrait busts of Virgil, none with a verifiable identification has survived. Portraiture became more abstract during the late antique and medieval periods, and representations of Virgil emphasized his actions and deeds rather than his features. The celebrated poet became successively a prophet, wise man, magician, guide, humiliated lover, and courtly cleric. In addition to portraits of the poet, images based upon Virgil’s Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid also survive, sometimes accompanying Virgil’s texts, but other times appearing elsewhere, even outside books altogether. Virgil-inspired imagery is extant in many media, such as mosaic, oil painting, ivory, and vellum, and while the number of objects preceding the twelfth century is surprisingly sparse, it increases tremendously from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. The person of Virgil the poet, in all his medieval guises, and the content of his poetry both exerted an enormous influence, and the goal of this survey is to include at least passing reference to the major as well as some of the minor examples of Virgilian imagery from the centuries following his death to the year 1500. (DJ)

1. Ancient Textual References to Portraits of Virgil No portraits contemporary with Virgil’s life have survived that can be positively identified as the poet, but there are numerous references to the commemorative images of him that did once exist. a. Seneca the Younger, Epistulae morales 58.20 See above, I.C.7. (Text and translation: Seneca the Younger, Epistulae morales, ed. and trans. R. M. Gummere, vol. 1, LCL 75 [1917]) Ille cum reddere Vergilium coloribus vellet, ipsum intuebatur. Idea erat Vergilii facies, futuri operis exemplar.

When the artist desired to reproduce Virgil in colors he would gaze upon Virgil himself. The ‘‘idea’’ was Virgil’s outward appearance, and this was the pattern of the intended work. F. V I R G I L I A N I M A G E S

427

b. Martial 14.186 Quoted above, I.C.20.t. c. Pliny the Younger, Epistles 3.7.8 Quoted above, I.C.24.a. d. Suetonius See above, I.D.2. In his Vita Caligulae (Life of Caligula) 34.2 Suetonius writes (Text and translation: Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars, ed. and trans. J. C. Rolfe, vol. 1, LCL 31 [1913]): Cogitavit etiam de Homeri carminibus abolendis, cur enim sibi non licere, dicens, quod Platoni licuisset, qui eum e civitate quam constituebat eiecerit? Sed et Vergili ac Titi Livi scripta et imagines paulum afuit quin ex omnibus bibliothecis amoveret, quorum alterum ut nullius ingenii minimaeque doctrinae, alterum ut verbosum in historia neglegentemque carpebat.

[Caligula] even thought of destroying the poems of Homer, asking why he should not have the same privilege as Plato, who excluded Homer from his ideal commonwealth. More than that, he all but removed the writings and busts of Virgil and of Titus Livius from all the libraries, railing at the former as a man of no talent and very little learning, and at the latter as a verbose and careless historian. e. Historia Augusta (late fourth century) The title is a modern invention defining a collection of biographies of Roman emperors, and of others who held supreme power, from 117 to 284. The most plausible arguments place the date of its composition circa 390 (see below, V.A.1). The life of Severus Alexander (circa 209–35, emperor from 222 until his death) tells of his devotion to Virgil (31.4). (Text and translation: Scriptores historiae Augustae, vol. 2, ed. and trans. D. Magie, LCL 140 [1967–68]) (MP) Vergilius autem Platonem poetarum vocabat eiusque imaginem cum Ciceronis simulacro in secundo larario habuit, ubi et Achillis et magnorum virorum. Alexandrum vero Magnum inter optimos et divos in larario maiore consecravit.

He used to call Virgil the Plato of poets and he kept his portrait, together with a likeness of Cicero, in his second sanctuary of the Lares, where he also had portraits of Achilles and the great heroes. But Alexander the Great he en428

II. BIOGRAPHY

shrined in his greater sanctuary along with the most righteous men and the deified emperors.

2. Late Antique Textual Reference to Portraits of Virgil (circa 450) Epistula Rustici ad Eucherium (Letter of Rusticius to Eucherius) The epistle, which survives in a single manuscript, is addressed by an otherwise unknown Gallic priest named Rusticus to Eucherius, monk of Lérins and bishop of Lyon, who was active in the first half of the fifth century. (Discussion: M. Vessey, ‘‘Epistula Rustici ad Eucherium: From the Library of Imperial Classics to the Library of the Fathers,’’ in Society and Culture in Late Antique Gaul, ed. R. Mathisen and D. Shanzer [Aldershot, 2001], 178–97. For further commentary, see S. Timpanaro ‘‘Note all’Anthologia Latina,’’ Maia 15 [1963], 386–94.) (Text: K. Wotke, ed., CSEL 31 [1894], 198–99; for the poem, see AL 1.2, 369, no. 948) Sed dum haec tacitus mecum revolvo, occurrit mihi quod in bibliothecis studiosi saecularium litterarum puer quondam, ut se aetatis illius curiositas habet, praetereundo legissem. Nam cum supra memoratae aedis ordinator ac dominus inter expressas lapillis aut ceris discoloribus formatasque effigies vel oratorum vel etiam poetarum specialia singulorum autotypis epigrammata subdidisset, ubi ad praeiudicati eloquii venit poetam, hoc modo orsus est: Vergilium vatem melius sua carmina laudant, in freta dum fluvii current, dum montibus umbrae lustrabant convexa, polus dum sidera pascet, semper honos, nomenque tuum laudesque manebunt [Aeneid 1.607–9].

But while I silently ponder to myself these things, I remember what I read en passant as a boy—since curiosity is a mark of that age—in the library of a scholar of secular literature. For since the proprietor and owner of the aforementioned dwelling had attached individual epigrams to the model-likenesses of each of either the rhetors or also the poets, in the row of portraits formed and shaped from mosaics and variegated waxes, when he reached the poet of unimpeachable eloquence, he began thus: His own poems praise the poet Virgil best: While rivers run into the sea, while shades survey the mountains’ slopes, while the heavens feed the stars, your honor, your name, your praises will ever endure. (MP)

3. Late Antique Virgilian Imagery Various attempts have been made, most of them unconvincing, to identify anonymous classical busts as Virgil on the basis of descriptions in the early F. V I R G I L I A N I M A G E S

429

vitae. The earliest extant portraits of Virgil are third- and fourth-century mosaics excavated in the outer reaches of the Roman empire, and the generalized features they portray are sometimes identified by labels. a. Trier ‘‘Monnus-Mosaic’’ (third century) During the third century, Trier (Augusta Treverorum) was developed as an imperial residence. In the mid-1880s, an elaborate mosaic was uncovered on the plot of land that was being cleared for a new museum. The signature spelled out in the central panel, ‘‘Monnus fecit’’ (Monnus made [this]), prompted the appellation ‘‘Monnus-Mosaic’’ for this complex floor mosaic. The surviving portions represent a configuration of theatrical masks and personifications of the signs of the zodiac, the months, and the seasons interspersed between the nine Muses with accompanying authors and poets. Eight octagons around a single octagon create the geometric format of this mosaic, and each octagon pairs a muse with the exemplary recipient of her inspiration. Calliope, the muse for epic literature, stands with Homer and a personification of Ingenium (natural talent) in the central octagon. Smaller framed squares separate the central and radiating octagons, and these contain labeled bust portraits of Greek and Latin authors. A young Virgil keeps good company with Ennius, Hesiod, Livy, Cicero, Menander, and two unknowns. Virgil appears as a beardless young man with the word Vergilius divided on either side of his head and Maro spelled out below. Since the octagon adjacent to him has been completely destroyed, there is no way of knowing how his image might have corresponded with a particular pairing of muse and recipient. A literary example of authors and muses combined with a cosmological understanding of the cyclical rotation of time can be found in the allegorical prosimetrum (a text that alternates between prose and verse) by Martianus Capella, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii (The Marriage of Philology and Mercury): see below, IV.Q.12. (Discussion: P. Ho√mann, Römische Mosaike im Rheinischen Landesmuseum Trier: Führer zur Dauerausstellung [Trier, 1999]; P. Ho√mann, J. Hupe, and K. Koethert, eds., Katalog der römischen Mosaike aus Trier und dem Umland [Trier, 1999]; R. W. Daniel, ‘‘Epicharmus in Trier: A Note on the Monnus-Mosaic,’’ Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 114 [1996], 30–36; Trier Kaiserresidenz und Bischofssitz: Die Stadt in spätantiker und frühchristlicher Zeit [Mainz am Rhein, 1984]; W. H. Stahl and R. Johnson, Martianus Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts, vol. 2: The Marriage of Philology and Mercury [New York, 1977]; K. Parlasca, ‘‘Die römischen Mosaiken in Deutschland,’’ RömischeGermanische Forschungen 23 [1959], 40–44; F. Hettner, ‘‘Zu den römischen Altertümern von Trier und Umgegend III, Das Mosaik des Monnus,’’ West430

II. BIOGRAPHY

deutsche Zeitschrift 10 [1891], 248–60; W. Studemund, ‘‘Zum Mosaik des Monnus,’’ Jahrbuch des Kaiserlich Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 5 [1890], 1– 5; F. Hettner, ‘‘Das Mosaik des Monnus in Trier,’’ Antike Denkmäler 1 [1889], 35–38) b. Hadrumentum Mosaic A North African floor mosaic from the ancient town of Hadrumentum, now Sousse, in Tunisia, depicts a full-length Virgil in the seat of honor between two standing muses. On the poet’s right, the muse, wearing a plainly colored robe and holding an unrolled scroll, is usually identified as either Calliope for epic or Clio for history. The muse who stands on Virgil’s left and wears a brightly patterned robe props her chin in her hand and holds the mask that identifies her as Melpomene, the tragic muse. No labels within the image name the seated, beardless man, but the partially opened scroll on his lap reveals the eighth line of the Aeneid, Virgil’s invocation to an unnamed muse, Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso (Aeneid 1.8). (Discussion: K. M. Dunbabin, Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World [Cambridge, 1999]; idem, The Mosaics of Roman North Africa [Oxford, 1978]; Louis Foucher, Des Mosaïques, feuille no. 57 de l’Atlas archéologique: Sousse [Tunis, 1960]) c. Low Ham Villa Mosaic The third- and fourth-century mosaics that survive in Britain depict scenes from Virgil’s Aeneid rather than images of the poet. This fourth-century floor mosaic, uncovered in the frigidarium (cooling-room in the bath) of the Low Ham villa in Somerset, portrays early episodes from the love a√air of Dido and Aeneas. Four scenes from the Aeneid are arranged around a central octagon that frames a portrayal of Venus standing between two cupids. Lifting her slender arms, the goddess drapes a long cloth down behind her; its dark color provides a stark foil for the simple lines of her nude body. Both cupids hold torches, but the cupid on the left aims his at the ground, whereas the cupid on the right holds his upright. The long panel on the left of Venus depicts a hunting scene with Dido, Aeneas, and Ascanius upon galloping horses, and in the right panel Trojan ships sail into Carthage and Achates departs as an emissary to Dido. Simple compositions mask emotionally volatile subject matter in the smaller sections above and below the central octagon: in one, Venus provokes trouble by sending Cupid as Ascanius to Dido; in another, Dido and Aeneas passionately embrace each other. The darkly outlined figures enact their story against a plain white background with only the trees on either side of the embracing couple to o√er a hint of landscape. Although these images portray early and enjoyable moments of the Dido and Aeneas story, reference F. V I R G I L I A N I M A G E S

431

is made to the pain as well as the joy of love by the cupid in the central panel who aims his torch down at the ground. The presence of this mosaic in a private setting has been understood to represent the thriving classical tastes in Roman Britain and the continued strength of classical learning in the fourth century. (Discussion: S. Scott, Art and Society in Fourth-Century Britain, Villa Mosaics in Context [Oxford, 2000]; Martin Henig, The Art of Roman Britain [Ann Arbor, 1995]; J. M. C. Toynbee, Art in Britain under the Romans [Oxford, 1964]) d. Frampton Mosaic A fourth-century floor mosaic with a scene from the Aeneid once existed at Frampton villa but has since perished. This mosaic decorated the floor of a small room o√ the side of the main hall, where a larger mosaic depicted Bellerophon and Pegasus slaying the Chimaera. After being excavated in the eighteenth century, the mosaics were copied as watercolor drawings, which were the basis for engravings published in the early nineteenth century. In the smaller mosaic, four square-framed scenes surround a central image of Bacchus, one of which portrays Aeneas holding a spear and plucking the golden bough. This scene occurs both in Aeneid 6.210–11 and in Ovid’s Metamorphoses 14.113–15 (see above, I.C.1.i.iv). Only two of the other three scenes survived in enough detail to be identified as Cadmus slaying the serpent of Mars and Perseus overcoming the sea monster. Personifications of the four winds are framed in round medallions set into the corners, and interlocking squares in the lowest portion of the mosaic might have contained an image of Venus and a series of aquatic beasts. The combination of Aeneas plucking the Golden Bough with these other scenes has been understood in terms of life beginning and ending with various paths to salvation and rebirth, an intriguing interpretation when compared with the slightly later Christian imagery that appears in the villa. (Discussion: M. Henig, ‘‘James Engleheart’s Drawing of a Mosaic at Frampton, 1794,’’ Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society 106 [1984], 143–46; D. J. Smith, ‘‘Mythological Figures and Scenes in Romano-British Mosaics,’’ in Roman Life and Art in Britain, ed. J. Munby and M. Henig [Oxford, 1977], 105–94) e. Lullingstone Mosaic A villa mosaic from Lullingstone, Kent, dated circa 330–60, contains an elegiac couplet that alludes to Virgil’s Aeneid: Invida si tauri vidisset Juno natatus / iustius Aeolias isset adusque domos (If jealous Juno had seen the swimming of the bull, with more justification she would have gone to the home of Aeolus). This inscription runs across the top of a scene depicting Jupiter as a bull 432

II. BIOGRAPHY

absconding with Europa. The creator of the mosaic implies that this act of infidelity—not mentioned by Virgil—should be added to the others cataloged in book 1 of the Aeneid that provide the emotional catalyst for Juno’s rage and that spark the ensuing events. This subtle reference assumes on the part of the viewer a comfortable familiarity with the Aeneid. The Europa floor mosaic decorates an apsidal dining room that extends back from the central hall of the villa. Similar to the pavements at Frampton, a large mosaic depicting Bellerophon and Pegasus killing the Chimaera covers the floor of this central room, though busts of the four seasons rather than personifications of the winds occupy the four corners. Although the mosaics vary in subject matter, the decorative floors of these fourth-century countryside villas take for granted a certain familiarity with Virgil’s works. The rural location of these villas should not induce a judgment of ‘‘rustic’’ tendencies, for the wealthy owners of these homes were well educated, as their choice to decorate lavishly using mosaics with mythological and literary imagery attests. Most of the mosaics adorned public portions of the villas, either reception or dining halls, where they were on display to visitors. Additional evidence of a continued appreciation for Virgil’s works in Roman Britain includes a third-century coin of Carausius whose legend, expectate veni, might echo Aeneid 2.283; a fragment of tile with the inscription Campanus, conticuere omnes, the opening words of Aeneid 2; and fragments of wall painting at the Otford Villa, Kent, which depict portions of a body and part of an inscription, bina manu, a phrase used in Aeneid 1.313, 7.688, and 12.165. (Discussion: D. Perring, The Roman House in Britain [London, 2002]; O. Wattel-de Croizant, Les Mosaïques représentant le mythe d’Europe (premier au sixième siècles): Évolution et interprétation des modèles grecs en milieu romain [Paris, 1995]; G. W. Meates, The Roman Villa at Lullingstone, Kent, vol. 1: The Site [London, 1979]; A. A. Barrett, ‘‘Knowledge of the Literary Classics in Roman Britain,’’ Britannia 9 [1978], 307–13) f. The Virgilius Vaticanus Although it is possible that the mosaics at Low Ham and Frampton were modeled upon images in manuscripts, the earliest surviving Virgilian manuscript with images, the Virgilius Vaticanus (Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. lat. 3225, also known as the schedae Vaticanae), is dated circa 400. This manuscript does not survive unscathed, but fifty narrative images adorn its folios, nine for the Georgics and forty-one for the Aeneid. On the basis of stylistic and paleographical analysis, it is generally agreed that the Virgilius Vaticanus was made in Rome and that its images reflect the illusionistic style popular in fourth-century Roman painting. (Discussion: D. H. Wright, The F. V I R G I L I A N I M A G E S

433

Roman Vergil and the Origins of Medieval Book Design [Toronto, 2001]; idem, The Vatican Virgil: A Masterpiece of Late Antique Art [Berkeley, 1993]; A. Novara, ‘‘Virgile ‘latin’ ’’ and ‘‘Virgile illustré,’’ Mise en page et mise en texte, du livre manuscrit, ed. H.-J. Martin and J. Vezin [Paris, 1990], 147–54, 155–62; T. B. Stevenson, Miniature Decoration in the Vatican Virgil: A Study in Late Antique Iconography [Tübingen,1983]; F. Mütherich, ‘‘Die illustrierten VergilHandschriften der Spätantike,’’ Würzburger Jahrbucher für die Altertumswissenschaft NF 8 [1982], 205–21) g. The Virgilius Romanus The Virgilius Romanus, or Codex Romanus (Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. lat. 3867), dates to approximately 500, a century after the Virgilius Vaticanus, and the nineteen miniatures preserved in its leaves—seven for the Eclogues, two for the Georgics, and ten for the Aeneid—are more problematic than those in the earlier manuscript. When the miniatures of the two manuscripts are compared with each other, those from the Virgilius Romanus follow conventions generally considered to be more ‘‘medieval,’’ with a flattening of the figures and setting, an emphasis on large features and exaggerated gestures, and a simplification of line. The skill and style displayed in the miniatures are often deemed inferior to the formal rustic capitals inscribed on the high-quality parchment of the manuscript, and locations in the provinces outside of Rome have been posited for their creation. The number of Virgil manuscripts with rustic capitals led scholars in the Carolingian period to designate the script itself as litterae Virgilianae (Virgilian letters). (Discussion: D. H. Wright, Codicological Notes on the Vergilius Romanus (Vat. lat. 3867) [Vatican City, 1992]; C. Eggenberger, ‘‘Die Miniaturen des Vergilius Romanus, Codex Vat. Lat. 3867,’’ Byzantinische Zeitschrift 70 [1977], 58–90; E. Rosenthal, Illuminations of the Vergilius Romanus: Stylistic and Iconographical Analysis [Zurich, 1972]) 1. An author portrait of Virgil does not survive in either of these manuscripts. However, a faint o√set at the beginning of book 7 of the Aeneid in the Virgilius Romanus has been considered indicative of a now lost author portrait. (Discussion: K. Weitzmann, ‘‘Book Illustration of the Fourth Century,’’ Studies in Classical and Byzantine Manuscript Illumination, ed. H. Kessler [Chicago, 1971], 115) 2. Three images from the manuscript have also been discussed as author portraits of Virgil, but there is no firm evidence to support this assumption. The portraits are three of seven images preceding the Eclogues. All three rectangular-framed scenes depict a man seated with a book lectern and a 434

II. BIOGRAPHY

closed capsa, a round container made to store scrolls, on either side of him. Wearing a white robe, the beardless figure holds on his lap what appears to be a scroll. These three images correspond with Eclogues 2, 4, and 6, and they alternate with images of shepherds from Eclogues 1, 3, 5, and 7. Rather than representing the poet Virgil, these figures possibly continue in the vein of the shepherd images by portraying the character who is reciting the poem. A poet named Corydon delivers Eclogues 2, and a rubric, Poeta Corydon, appearing immediately below the image, identifies the figure, just as the abbreviation, Poe, in the margin designates his text. 3. The pair of miniatures on folios 44v and 45r that open Georgics 3 will prove relevant for later Virgilian objects. Both square-framed images contain a scattered arrangement of sheep, goats, horses, flowers, leafy sprigs, and a shepherd’s shack. These pastoral elements are drawn across the surface of the page in a random and scattered design that is frequently compared with contemporary mosaics. This depthless arrangement, at odds with the illusionistic style of Roman painting found in the Virgilius Vaticanus, occurs first and then consistently with pastoral imagery and motifs. (Discussion: I. Lavin, ‘‘Hunting Mosaics of Antioch and Their Sources: A Study of Compositional Principles in the Development of Early Medieval Style,’’ Dumbarton Oaks Papers 17 [1963], 181–282) (DJ) h. Baths of Zeuxippos A statue of Virgil is said to have formed part of the decoration of the Baths of Zeuxippos in Constantinople, built apparently by Septimius Severus and enlarged by Constantine the Great. The statue perished in a fire in 532, but before its destruction it became the last of several dozen bronze statues listed by Christodorus of Koptos (circa 500) in a collection of brief hexameter descriptions that forms book 2 of the Greek Anthology: And he stood forth—the clear-voiced swan dear to the Italians, Virgil breathing eloquence, whom his native Echo of Tiber nourished to be another Homer. (The Greek Anthology, ed. and trans. W. R. Paton, vol. 1, LCL 67 [1916])

Several of the other statues depict characters who appear in the Aeneid, at least one of whom, Entellus, may be Virgil’s invention. The conjunction in one statue of Entellus with Dares refers to their boxing competition, which formed part of the games celebrated in Aeneid 5.362–484. For further details see The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, ed. A. Kazhdan (Oxford, 1991), s.v. ‘‘Vergil,’’ 2159–60 (entry by P. Agapitos, A. Kazhdan, and A. Cutler). Virgil’s Aeneid 3.301–5 is quoted in Justinian’s Digestum: see B. H. Stolte, ‘‘ ‘Arma virumque cano’ in Byzantium,’’ in Polyphonia Byzantina: Studies in Honour of Willem J. F. V I R G I L I A N I M A G E S

435

Aerts, ed. H. Hokwerda, E. R. Smits, and M. M. Woesthuis, Mediaevalia Groningana 13 (Groningen, 1993), 105–9. For a detailed discussion, with full bibliography, of Virgil’s fortunes in the ancient Greek world after his demise, see G. D’Ippolito, ‘‘Grecia,’’ EV 2, 801–4. (MP and JZ)

4. Flabellum of Tournus (ninth century) Virgil’s poetry had a great impact on the poets and scholars of Charlemagne’s court, as the numerous copies and commentaries on his work attest, but Virgilian imagery dating from this time is surprisingly rare. What has survived, the so-called Flabellum of Tournus, more than compensates for an otherwise disappointing dearth of quantity. A flabellum is a fan used to keep flies away from the altar and Eucharist during Mass. Christian liturgical practices included fans in the early Middle Ages, and though the flabellum fell out of use in the West by the later Middle Ages, it continued to be used in eastern ceremonies. Only a few medieval fans or portions of fans still exist, but they do not resemble the ninth-century fan from Tournus, which comprises a cylindrical ivory handle, a wooden box covered with carved ivory panels, and a long strip of vellum folded into pleats inside the box. When fully opened, it wraps around the box to form a complete circle. (Discussion: H. Richardson, ‘‘Remarks on the Liturgical Fan, Flabellum or Rhipidion,’’ The Age of Migrating Ideas: Early Medieval Art in Northern Britain and Ireland, ed. R. M. Spearman and J. Higgitt [Edinburgh, 1993], 27–34; D. Gaborit-Chopin, Flabellum di Tournus [Florence, 1988]; idem, Ivoires du Moyen Âge [Paris, 1978], 56–60; L. E. A. Eitner, Flabellum of Tournus [New York, 1944]) The handle, divided into three sections by round green beads, is carved with simple fluting and grapevines heavy with fruit and inhabited by birds and animals. This lush decoration corresponds visually with two of the ivory panels on the box and with the bands of foliation painted onto the vellum fan. It also corresponds thematically with the other two sides of the box, which contain six images based on Virgil’s Eclogues. a. Set within a carved border of fluted and twisted columns and foliate decoration painted dark brown and green, each panel is carved with exquisite detail to portray a great deal of subject matter. As Eitner succinctly describes the first panel, ‘‘the exiled shepherd Meliboeus has come to bid his friend Tityrus farewell and found him reclining amid his cattle in the shadow of a beech, playing his song in praise of Amaryllis. . . . Tityrus guards his cattle, Meliboeus his flock of goats, and in his scant loin cloth 436

II. BIOGRAPHY

Tityrus lounges under the tree and blows his tune, indi√erent to Meliboeus who holds one of his animals by its horns and seems only to be waiting for the end of Tityrus’s song to complain of his latest calamity.’’ b. The simpler composition of the second panel depicts a satyr and a partially clothed young man confronting each other amidst goats and trees, a scene associated with the meeting of Gallus and Pan from Eclogues 10. c. The lowest panel depicts a quiet view of a single, modestly covered shepherd who clasps his lifted knee and glances over his shoulder at two cows behind him, a scene associated with Eclogues 2, where Corydon sings his lamentation for Alexis. d. Only two of the three panels on the opposite side of the box depict bucolic imagery. In the lowest panel, a shepherd leans against his sta√, propping his chin on his hand and crossing his legs as he listens to the figures wearing revealingly short capes and playing their pipes on either side of him, a scene identified as the contest between Menalcas and Damoetas before Palaemon in Eclogues 3. e. The central panel depicts a pair of emotional shepherds confronting each other, whom Eitner identifies as either Damon and Alphesiboeus from Eclogues 8 or Menalcas and Mopsus singing a threnody for the dead Daphnis in Eclogues 5. f. The topmost panel contains a non-pastoral scene in which five men wearing togas gather around a single man seated on an architectural throne and facing directly out of the image. This is interpreted as a ceremonial scene possibly corresponding with Virgil’s address to his patron Alfenus Varus in Eclogues 6. If so, the figure standing in the lower left corner might represent Virgil in the act of reciting his poetry. The seemingly odd juxtaposition between a liturgical object and Virgilian pastoral imagery can be explained in terms of prophecy and inspiration. The Virgil panels help to conceal the vellum fan folded inside the box. When the fan opens to display painted images of saints, the Virgin, and Christ, the two Virgil panels are hidden from view. The flabellum exemplifies the traditional interpretation of Virgil’s Eclogues 4 as a prophecy of Christ, for just as the classical poem allegorically reveals a Christian prophecy, the Virgil panels physically reveal Christian imagery (see below, III.C). Since none of the panels portrays Eclogues 4, poetic inspiration might be the common theme. Virgil invokes Apollo and his handmaids the Muses in his Eclogues, and though this literary practice continued during the Middle Ages, the source of inspiration frequently evolved into the Holy Spirit for Christian Latin poets. This shift reflects a biblical influence, where winds accompanied the Word as it F. V I R G I L I A N I M A G E S

437

became flesh, as well as an adaptation of the long-standing metaphorical connection between inspiration and breathing. In classical use aspiratio meant ‘‘a physical breath’’ or ‘‘the wind,’’ but in Christian poetry it gained a sense of divine inspiration. Medieval discussions of the Muses maintain this link between inspiration and the wind, but the Muses, relocated from their classical dwellings in Mt. Parnassus to a heavenly alignment with the planets, bestow their inspiring breezes from the heavens. The flabellum box contains images of Virgil’s Eclogues, which are in part concerned with poetic inspiration, and the fan itself creates breezes over the altar as Mass is being said, when the Word again appears as flesh. The inspiration of divine prophecy becomes the heavenly winds that indicate a divine presence over the altar during Mass. (Discussion: J. Ziolkowski, ‘‘Classical Influences on Medieval Latin Views of Poetic Inspiration,’’ in Latin Poetry and the Classical Tradition: Essays in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, ed. P. Godman and O. Murray [Oxford, 1990], 15–38; E. Schröter, Die Ikonographie des Themas Parnass vor Raphael. Die Schrift- und Bildtraditionen von der Spätantike bis zum 15-Jahrhundert [Hildesheim, 1977]; E. Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art [New York, 1972], 70) (DJ)

5. Virgil on a Wooden Bowl (circa 1310–40) An image of Virgil appears on a wooden bowl from the cathedral in Halberstadt, Germany. The wooden bowl itself is not unusual, but its decorative scheme of fourteen poets, philosophers, and even physicians is an interesting choice for this liturgical object. A circle divided into four equal sections is painted on the inner center of the bowl, and a three-quarter-length image of a young, unbearded Virgil appears in one section, with Ovid, Juvenal, and Plato in the others. Each figure has an individualized countenance, and each holds a scroll with his name inscribed on it. Short inscriptions from their written work also accompany the figures. Ten framed medallions appear around this inner circle; these contain portraits of Cicero, Aristotle, Diogenes, Hippocrates, and Galen, among others. The exact function of this bowl is undetermined, but it might have been used to take up alms or to carry the consecrated or unconsecrated host. (Discussion: U. Bednarz, Kostbarkeiten aus dem Domschatz zu Halberstadt [Halle an der Saale, 2001], 88–89) (DJ)

6. Illuminated Aeneid, 800–1500 Isolated manuscripts survive from the tenth to twelfth centuries which contain single images or small groups of images drawn with the text initials. The earliest extensive cycle appears in the early-thirteenth-century manuscript of Heinrich 438

II. BIOGRAPHY

von Veldeke’s adaptation of the Old French Roman d’Énéas (see below, III.J). During the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, most images associated with the Aeneid are found not in texts of Virgil’s work, but in historical writings, such as the Histoire d’Énée (see below, II.F.13.a), that include the events of the Aeneid. Elaborate image cycles become more common in the fifteenth century from both northern Europe and Italy. (Discussion: LPLC) a. Carolingian Manuscripts Not a single extant Virgilian manuscript with images survives from the ninth century, despite the number of ninth-century manuscripts of Virgil’s works and commentaries on his works. This lack might be due to the vagaries of time, or perhaps to an unspoken preference for poetry without imagery. Many of the extant manuscripts were written as school texts, in which case costly images would be neither appropriate nor especially helpful. 1. A single leaf (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 8093, fol. 68v) from a mid-ninth-century manuscript containing portions of the Aeneid and texts about Virgil suggests that imagery occasionally decorated manuscripts of Virgil’s poetry. Though most of the paint has been scraped o√, the image on this leaf is still recognizable as a drawing for Eclogues 1, and its source was probably a late antique decorated manuscript similar to the Virgilius Vaticanus or Virgilius Romanus. (Discussion: F. Mütherich, ‘‘Ein verlorener karolingischer Vergil-Codex,’’ 2000 Jahre Vergil: Ein Symposion, ed. V. Pöschl [Wiesbaden, 1982], 189–96) 2. A di√erent pattern of Virgilian influence is seen in the illuminations of the Vivian Bible (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 1, fol. 386v), a decorated Bible made at the highly productive scriptorium of St. Martin of Tours in 846. Carolingian glosses in the margins of the Virgilius Vaticanus place this manuscript at St. Martin’s scriptorium during the ninth century. As scribes commented on its texts, artists traced figures such as Aeneas and Achates drawn on folio 45v and reproduced these figures in Bibles, specifically on the frontispiece for Paul’s Epistles on folio 386v of the Vivian Bible. The incorporation of late antique images accords with the more general Carolingian e√ort to recreate ancient artistic traditions, but one interpretation suggests that the Virgilian nature of these images was especially appealing, and that their relocation into a biblical setting shifts the nature of the frontispiece from a Judaic to an imperial Roman context. This shift would then emphasize parallels between the Carolingian and Roman Empires. (Discussion: H. Kessler, ‘‘An Apostle in Armor and the Mission of Carolingian Art,’’ Arte medievale 4 [1990], 17–41; D. H. Wright, ‘‘When the Vatican F. V I R G I L I A N I M A G E S

439

Virgil was in Tours,’’ Studien zur mittelalterlichen Kunst 800–1250: Festschrift für Florentine Mütherich zum 70. Geburtstag [Munich, 1985], 53–66) b. Tenth-Century Manuscript One tenth-century manuscript (Naples, Biblioteca nazionale, MS Vindob. lat. 6) survives as the only evidence for the continuation of the late antique image tradition. Written in Beneventan script, this manuscript contains the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid with the Servian commentary, as well as the post-Virgilian prologue to the books of the Aeneid (see above, I.C.2). A single historiated initial begins the Eclogues, and additional decorated initials, often with zoomorphic or interlaced patterns, begin each book of the Georgics and of the Aeneid. Relatively simple imagery of abbreviated or anonymous figures embellishes the prologues to Georgics, books 1 and 2 and Aeneid, books 6, 10, and 11, and four narrative scenes are at the beginning of the ten Eclogues and Aeneid, books 1, 2, 4, and 12. For now, it remains unknown whether these images were copied from a Carolingian manuscript or an earlier source, or if they were devised by the artist. (Discussion: H. Belting, Studien zur Beneventanischen Malerei [Wiesbaden, 1968], 137–43; P. Courcelle, ‘‘La tradition antique dans les miniatures inédites d’un Virgile de Naples,’’ Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’École française de Rome 56 [1939], 249–79; E. A. Loew, ‘‘Virgil in Southern Italy, Facsimiles of Eight Manuscripts of Virgil in Beneventan Script,’’ Studi Medievali [= Virgilio nel Medio Evo], n.s. 5 [1932], 43–49) 1. The Eclogues begins with a small narrative scene composed of two men and several animals arranged before a tree whose trunk and branches form the T of Tityre. 2. In several examples, figures form the shape of the letters with their bodies. The P for prologue 1 of book 1 of the Aeneid, folio 44v, is a standing man whose body forms the vertical and whose opened scroll, held in an arc in front of him, creates the loop. 3. A half-length figure gestures toward the opening of the prologue of book 2, folio 55r, to form the letter C with his arms. 4. The opening of book 2 on folio 55v also begins with a C, but in this case the figure forming the letter is Aeneas, who bows before a crowned and enthroned Dido. 5. Dido appears a second time but more casually, seated on a pillow and leaning back on one arm to form the letter A at the beginning of book 4. Her robes are almost sheer, and she looks back over her shoulder at Aeneas, who is represented as a head without a body. Both scenes of Dido and Aeneas contain labels identifying them, whereas the figures with scrolls or 440

II. BIOGRAPHY

those gesturing toward the text are unlabeled and represent non-narrative entities separate from the content of the text. 6. Book 11 begins on folio 156r with another seemingly non-narrative figure, a frontal bust, bearded and wearing elaborate robes, and drawn within a circular interlace border. His features resemble those of Aeneas. 7. In the initial on folio 168v for book 12, Aeneas, mounted on horseback, tramples and spears the body of Turnus fallen below. This figure is also bearded and wears robes similar to those in book 11. c. Eleventh-Century Manuscript A single manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Canon. class. lat. 50) made in southern Italy survives as the sole illuminated Aeneid from the eleventh century. Most of the initials in this text are drawn with foliate or interlace patterns, but the A opening book 1 of the Aeneid is decorated with two busts, and the U opening book 8 contains the upper body of Turnus holding a standard of war. (Discussion: LPLC 25) d. Twelfth-Century Manuscripts 1. The sole surviving illuminated Aeneid from the twelfth century (Klosterneuburg, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 742) o√ers no hint of the veritable flood of imagery about to appear. Three small images decorate the initials of books 1, 5, and 7 of the Aeneid in this Austrian manuscript. Aeneas, represented in contemporary twelfth-century armor, rides his horse within the A of book 1, and he stands up in a small boat in the beginning of book 5. (Discussion: LPLC 27–28) 2. In the sixteenth century, Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) mentions in passing another manuscript of the Aeneid (no longer extant) that was illuminated by Giovanni Alighieri in 1198. (Discussion: P. Brieger, M. Meiss, and C. S. Singleton, Illuminated Manuscripts of the Divine Comedy, Bollingen Series 81 [Princeton, 1969], 1:86; J. W. Bradley, A Dictionary of Miniaturists, Illuminators, Calligraphers, and Copyists [London, 1887–89], 1:22) e. Thirteenth-Century Manuscripts In the illuminated examples that survive from the thirteenth century, the vernacular redactions of the Aeneid contain more elaborate imagery than the Latin versions of the text. 1. A French manuscript (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 7936), written about 1200 and containing the Latin text of the Aeneid as well as of Statius’s Thebaid and Lucan’s De bello civili (On the Civil War, also known as F. V I R G I L I A N I M A G E S

441

the Pharsalia), continues in the tradition of beginning each book with an historiated initial. Small narrative scenes within the initials depict the ancient characters as thirteenth-century knights and ladies in contemporary architectural settings. Aeneas sits as an armored knight before the gates of a walled city in the initial A of book 1, and even the assembly of the gods that opens book 10 presents the divinities as if they were thirteenth-century people. (Discussion: LPLC 29–33; F. Avril, ‘‘Un Manuscrit d’auteurs classiques et ses illustrations,’’ in The Year 1200: A Symposium [New York, 1975], 261–82) 2. The absorption of the Aeneid into contemporary courtly society, as made apparent in the historiated initials, had already occurred by the 1160s in texts, when the Aeneid was adapted into Anglo-Norman as the Roman d’Énéas. (Discussion: below, III.I, as well as VME; N. Henkel, ‘‘Vergils Aeneis und die mittelalterlichen Eneas-Romane,’’ in The Classical Tradition in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Proceedings of the First European Science Foundation Workshop on the Reception of Classical Texts [Spoleto, 1995], 123– 41; J. Monfrin, ‘‘Les translations vernaculaires de Virgile au moyen âge,’’ in Lectures médiévales de Virgile: Actes du Colloque organisé par l’École française de Rome [Rome, 1985], 189–249) By 1174 Heinrich von Veldeke (see below, III.J), consulting the Aeneid itself in the process, had adapted the Roman d’Énéas (see below, III.I) into a Germanic dialect, and in the early thirteenth century the German Eneit inspired one of the most elaborate cycles of images to have survived since ancient times. The Berlin manuscript of Heinrich’s adaptation (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, MS germ. fol. 282) contains seventy-one full-page images, most of which are divided into two horizontal registers that portray individual scenes. Drawn against a background of two-toned colored blocks, nearly all the figures wear contemporary clothing except Aeneas, whose more elaborate robes might be an attempt to portray an ancient style of dress. These energetic images di√er from their predecessors in number, size, and the nearly ubiquitous presence of inscribed scrolls carried by the figures. (Discussion: H. Fromm, Eneasroman: Die Berliner Bilderhandschrift mit Übersetzung und Kommentar [Frankfurt am Main, 1992]; D. Diemer and P. Diemer, ‘‘Zu den Bildern der Berliner Veldeke-Handschrift,’’ Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst 43 [1992], 19–38; K. Clausberg, ‘‘Spruchbandreden als Körpersprache im Berliner Äneïden-Manuskript,’’ Künstlerischer Austausch, Artistic Exchange, Akten des XXVIII. Internationalen Kongresses für Kunstgeschichte, Berlin, 15.–20. Juli 1992, 2 [Berlin, 1992], 345–55; idem, ‘‘Spruchbandaussagen zum Stilcharakter: malende und gemalte Gebärden, direkte und indirekte Rede in den 442

II. BIOGRAPHY

Bildern der Veldeke-Äneïde sowie Wernhers Marienliedern,’’ Städel-Jahrbuch 13 [1991], 81–110; LPLC 38) f. Fourteenth-Century Manuscripts Imagery of the Aeneid occurs in both Latin and vernacular manuscripts from the fourteenth century. Only two examples are mentioned here to demonstrate di√erent approaches to these images. 1. There is little that visually di√erentiates fourteenth-century historical and literary images portraying the story of the Aeneid, as can be seen from an illuminated Latin Aeneid (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Canon. class. lat. 52) painted in Bologna, perhaps in the school of Niccolò di Giacomo. (Discussion: LPLC 109–12; O. Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, vol. 2 [Oxford, 1970], 14) 2. A Venetian manuscript (Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. lat. 2761) from the second half of the fourteenth century breaks from the long tradition of Latin texts decorated with historiated initials. Its imagery is drawn into the margins around the text, and the figures are often labeled. (Discussion: V. Zabughin, Vergilio nel Rinascimento Italiano da Dante a Torquato Tasso: Fortuna, studi, imitazioni, traduzioni e parodie, iconografia, vol. 1 [1921; rept., Trent, 2000]; LPLC 113–20) g. Fifteenth-Century Manuscripts Fifteenth-century illuminated manuscripts of Virgil’s works, especially those made in Italy, tend to have lavishly sumptuous decoration that reflects the wealth and social standing of their patrons. The sheer splendor of these works contrasts sharply with the simplicity of printed woodcut cycles that appeared in the early years of the sixteenth century. (Discussion: F. Anzelewsky, ‘‘Zu den Illustrationen der ‘Opera’ Vergils von 1502,’’ Wolfenbütteler Beiträge: Aus den Schätzen der Herzog August Bibliothek 8 [Frankfurt, 1988], 21–29; B. Schneider, ‘‘ ‘Virgilius pictus’—Sebastian Brants illustrierte Vergilausgabe von 1502 und ihre Nachwirkung,’’ Wolfenbütteler Beiträge: Aus den Schätzen der Herzog August Bibliothek 8 [Frankfurt, 1988], 202–62) 1. During the fifteenth century, the painted miniatures exhibit the styles and habits of Renaissance artists, but they are still influenced by the medieval commentary traditions (see below, IV.G–U). Images in the Neapolitan manuscript known as the Valencia Virgil (Valencia, Biblioteca universitaria, MS 837) incorporate allegorical interpretations similar to the twelfth-century commentary attributed to Bernardus Silvestris (see below, IV.Q), in which Dido is understood as libido and luxuria (lust and lechery). F. V I R G I L I A N I M A G E S

443

(Discussion: A. Wlosok, ‘‘Textkritische Marginalien und allegorisierende Illustrationen im Vergilcodex 837 der Universitätsbibliothek in Valencia,’’ in The Classical Tradition in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Proceedings of the First European Science Foundation Workshop on ‘‘The Reception of Classical Texts’’ [Spoleto, 1995], 75–110; J. J. G. Alexander, The Painted Page: Italian Renaissance Book Illumination, 1450–1550 [London, 1994], 112; A. Wlosok, ‘‘Gemina Pictura: Allegorisierende Aeneisillustrationen in Handschriften des 15. Jahrhunderts,’’ in The Two Worlds of the Poet: New Perspectives on Virgil, ed. R. M. Wilhelm and H. Jones [Detroit, 1992], 408– 32; J. Courcelle, ‘‘Les illustrations de L’Éneide dans les manuscrits du dixième siècle au quinzième siècle,’’ Lectures médiévales de Virgile: Actes du Colloque organisé par l’École française de Rome [Rome, 1985], 395–409) 2. In many cases the patrons, calligraphers, and artists are welldocumented figures, and information about them lends additional understanding to the manuscripts and images. Giovanni di Cosimo de’ Medici, a Florentine nobleman, received a copy of Virgil’s works (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Plut. 39.7, known as the Codex Mediceus) written by the notary Ser Gherardo del Ciriagio, and decorated by an artist identified with Bartolomeo Varnucci, both of whom were a≈liated with the professional bookshop of Vespasiano in Florence. White vinework, typical Florentine decoration, surrounds the text of Eclogues 1, and a half-length portrait of Virgil wearing white-trimmed robes appears in the initial T. Virgil is painted again in the A that opens book 1 of the Aeneid, and here he wears red robes with a brown mantle and red hood held in place by a laurel wreath. In both images, the ancient poet is clothed as a wise teacher, similar to how he appears in the manuscripts of Dante’s Inferno. (Discussion: A. C. de la Mare, ‘‘Vespasiano da Bisticci as Producer of Classical Manuscripts,’’ in Medieval Manuscripts of the Latin Classics: Production and Use, Proceedings of the Seminar in the History of the Book to 1500, Leiden, 1993, ed. C. A. ChavannesMazel and M. M. Smith [Los Altos Hills, Calif., 1996], 166–207; A. Garzelli, ‘‘Micropittura su temi Virgiliani prima e dopo Apollonio di Giovanni: Apollonio, Giovanni Varnucci, Mariano del Buono e altri,’’ Scritti di storia dell’arte in onore di Federico Zeri [Milan, 1984], 147–62) 3. Professional bookshops hired professional scribes, and often the calligrapher was considered just as important as, if not more so than, the artist. An illuminated copy of Virgil’s works, circa 1466–68, is attributed to the well-known calligrapher Bartolomeo Sanvito of Padua (1435–1518), and its three full-page miniatures are identified with Marco Zoppo. These images provide a single frontispiece for the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid, and they are painted with an interesting new approach to illuminating Virgil. 444

II. BIOGRAPHY

Instead of narrative scenes from the poems, scenes of Orpheus, Cerberus fighting, and the Triumph of Mars introduce Virgil’s poetry. The miniatures of Orpheus and the Triumph are lovely metal-point drawings on dyed parchment, a deliberately classicizing technique reminiscent of late antique and Carolingian manuscripts. (Discussion: J. J. G. Alexander, The Painted Page: Italian Renaissance Book Illumination [London, 1994], 154–55; G. M. Canova, ‘‘Marco Zoppo e la Miniatura,’’ in Marco Zoppo, Cento 1433–1478 Venezia: Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi sulla pittura del Quattrocento padano, Cento, 8–9 ottobre 1993, ed. B. G. Vigi [Bologna, 1993], 121–35) 4. A manuscript (London, British Library, MS King’s 24), dating circa 1490 and attributed to the Paduan calligrapher Bartolomeo Sanvito, was made for Lodovico Agnelli, who became archbishop of Cosenza in 1497. The images in the manuscript were perhaps painted by Gaspare da Padua, though it has been posited that Sanvito himself contributed to the decoration. (Discussion: J. J. G. Alexander, The Painted Page: Italian Renaissance Book Illumination [London, 1994], 110–11) 5. Apollonio di Giovanni was a fifteenth-century artist who seemed to have either a special interest or a particular talent in the realm of Virgilian imagery. He is credited with completing the miniatures in an unfinished manuscript of Virgil’s works that dates circa 1450–60. Though he painted miniatures, he is better known as a painter of cassone panels, four of which survive (New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, James Jackson Jarves Collection, 1871.34 and 1871.35; Hannover, Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Landesgalerie; Paris, Musée de Cluny; and Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Bequest of Mrs. Martin Brimmer). The elaborate scenes from the Aeneid on these panels reflect the continuing influence of various medieval commentaries. (Discussion: J. K. Morrison, ‘‘Apollonio di Giovanni’s Aeneid Cassoni and the Virgil Commentators,’’ Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin [1992], 27–47; E. H. Gombrich, ‘‘Apollonio di Giovanni: A Florentine Cassone Workshop seen through the Eyes of a Humanist Poet,’’ Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 18 [1955], 16–34) 6. Images from a Dutch manuscript dating circa 1470 (The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, MS 76 E 21) can be traced to the school of the painter Guillaume Vrelant, who worked in Bruges. These full-page miniatures often combine several narrative scenes within a larger set, and their unusual iconography has been interpreted as the artist’s break from standard fifteenth-century representations to present a more ‘‘personal’’ approach to Virgil. Vrelant did follow the well-established tradition of painting the figures and settings as contemporary rather than antique, as is especially apparent in the last image, on folio 255r, where a crowned F. V I R G I L I A N I M A G E S

445

Aeneas, wearing a cape over metal armor and holding a scepter, stands before a draped cloth of honor. A double arch frames Aeneas, before whom six people respectfully kneel and fold their hands, as if in prayer. Several armed men stand to his side, a small dog sits at attention in the foreground, and an arched doorway leads outside to a distant landscape. Nothing could look less Roman than this scene of Aeneas, powerful and triumphant. (Discussion: LPLC 141–49; L. M. J. Delaissé, A Century of Dutch Manuscript Illumination [Los Angeles, 1968], 74) 7. One Virgilian manuscript (Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Pal. lat. 1632) was commissioned as a gift to commemorate the wedding of Philip, Count Palatine, to Margaret of Bavaria in 1474. Though these historiated initials are not especially resplendent examples of fifteenthcentury decoration, the painter chose to portray the quieter moments of the epic; Dido speaks with her sister Anna, but never meets Aeneas face to face. (Discussion: LPLC 135–39) 8. The most celebrated examples are those whose images depart from the apparent pictorial traditions and represent a unique approach to the text. The fifteenth-century French manuscript of Virgil now in Harvard University’s Houghton Library (MS Richardson 38) is just such an example of an individual interpretation of Virgil. The story of Dido and Aeneas is recreated in five scenes organized into two registers framed and set into the lower half of the text column. Dido wears a fashionably tall wimple and speaks to her sister Anna in the beginning of book 4, where she refers to both Jove and Erebus at lines 25–26. Both deities, painted as two nude figures, appear within the scene. The scenes depicting Aeneas’s encounters with the Sibyl once again demonstrate how classical themes and motifs were represented in a contemporary fashion. The female prophet greatly resembles fifteenth-century Madonnas, and Aeneas o√ering a sacrifice is actually Aeneas kneeling in prayer before an altar with the sheep. (Discussion: LPLC 191–202; H. Swarzenski, Illuminated and Calligraphic Manuscripts: An Exhibition held at the Fogg Museum and Houghton Library, February 14–April 1, 1955 [Cambridge, Mass., 1955]) (DJ)

7. Virgil in Mantua From the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries, Virgil’s reputation south of the Alps di√ered from his legendary standing to the north. In Italy from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries, Virgil was connected with particular locations that in some cases writers, artists, and audiences knew directly. It is only in his birthplace of Mantua, however, that images of Virgil the poet have survived. 446

II. BIOGRAPHY

a. Early-Thirteenth-Century Mantuan Sculpture An early-thirteenth-century sculpture in Mantua depicts a man seated at a desktop with writing instruments laid out before him. The statue dates to the 1220s and is carved from red Veronese marble, a material whose value suggests that the statue’s original location was a covered and protected area, possibly the town hall of the Palazzo della Ragione. It was moved to the Palazzo Ducale in the eighteenth century. Virgil sits before a plain square backdrop and holds a feather pen in his right hand and an inkwell in his left hand. His bearded features are nondescript, and he wears a mantle, a tunic, and a simple cap. A slight twist in his body pulls the robes diagonally across his legs to add a sense of movement to the otherwise static composition. (Discussion: W. Liebenwein, ‘‘Princeps Poetarum. Die mittelalterlichen Vergil-Bilder in Mantua,’’ in 2000 Jahre Vergil: Ein Symposion, ed. V. Pöschl, Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 24 [Wiesbaden, 1983], 108–51) b. Mid-Thirteenth-Century Mantuan Sculpture A second Mantuan sculpture dates to the mid thirteenth century and seems to remain in its original setting on the outer wall of a thirteenth-century palazzo. In this version, Virgil’s hands lie empty and still above the book and inkwell on the desktop. His rigidly frontal posture lacks the animated twist of the earlier statue, but equally nondescript features look straight ahead. A scalloped border decorates his mantle and cap, and he sits between two columns arranged within an architectural niche. The pointed gable above him was added later, and the plaque below him bears an inscription praising the three men who presumably commissioned the sculpture. An inscription along the outer edge of the lap-desk leaves no doubt of his identity: Virgilius Mantuanus Poetarum Clarissimus (Mantuan Virgil, most splendid of poets). Both sculptures were erected as public monuments rather than private decorations, and both retain the sense of Virgil as a writer, though his clothing shifts his livelihood from that of celebrated ancient poet to that of a contemporary jurist and schoolmaster in Mantua. Perhaps this identity reflects an influence of Virgil as he appears in the Dolopathos text by John of Alta Silva (see below, V.A.3). (Discussion: R. Signorini, ‘‘Two Notes from Mantua,’’ Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 41 [1978], 317–21) c. Thirteenth-Century Mantuan Coin In the mid thirteenth century, especially in the wake of the death of Frederick II in 1250, Mantua began to assert its independence. The sudden appearance of coins in addition to sculpted examples of Virgil suggests that the city was actively promoting Virgil, its celebrated son, as a patron. A coin minted in F. V I R G I L I A N I M A G E S

447

1257 portrays Virgil seated at a desk on one side, and pairs an anonymous bishop with St. Peter on the other side. (Discussion: S. L. Cesano, ‘‘Numismatica Virgiliana,’’ Studi Medievali [= Virgilio nel Medio Evo], n.s. 5 [1932], 145– 53) (DJ)

8. Virgil and Dante The Mantuan Virgil blends ancient poet with contemporary magister (teacher/ schoolmaster), an identity that reappears in representations of Virgil as a guide in the first two canticles of Dante’s Divine Comedy. More than 600 manuscripts of the poem survive from the fourteenth century, and within fifty years of its completion fifteen commentaries on it were written. A number of these surviving manuscripts are illuminated, and the canon of subjects was fairly well established by the mid fourteenth century. Dante selected Virgil as his guide through the underworld, and when he narrates their meeting, he describes his own experiences with Virgil’s poetry rather than the physical appearance of the poet (see above, I.C.53.a). He refers to Virgil as his true master and teacher with words and phrases associated with poetic inspiration that recall the inscription along the desk of the Mantuan sculpture, ‘‘Glory and light of the poets.’’ (Discussion: J. Schewski, ‘‘Illuminated Manuscripts of the Divine Comedy: Botticelli and Dante Illustration in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries,’’ in Sandro Botticelli: The Drawings for Dante’s Divine Comedy, ed. H.-T. Schulze Altcappenberg [London, 2000], 312–17; M. Roddewig, Dante Alighieri, Die göttliche Komödie: Vergleichende Bestandsaufnahme der Commedia-Handschriften [Stuttgart, 1984]; P. Brieger, M. Meiss, and C. S. Singleton, Illuminated Manuscripts of the Divine Comedy, 2 vols., Bollingen series 81 [Princeton, 1969]) a. Chantilly Manuscript The Chantilly manuscript, circa 1345 (Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS 597), is one of the earliest surviving manuscripts with imagery, and its first folio visualizes Dante’s textual allusions to Virgil, providing a source of inspiration and guidance. Painted in the opening initial is a portrait of Dante seated at a desk and looking up across the two text columns at a half-length figure of Virgil painted in a quatrefoil in the outer margin. The two authors make eye contact across the page, and Virgil gestures back toward Dante in acknowledgment. In a bas-de-page image below the commentary text on folio 34r, Virgil appears as a guide for the character of Dante. The ancient poet is portrayed as a bearded, older man, a wise prophetic figure who wears the ermine-trimmed mantle and robes typical of a fourteenth-century Italian schoolmaster. This manuscript was probably presented by the writer, a Carmelite known as Fra Guido da Pisa, 448

II. BIOGRAPHY

to Lucano Spinola, a member of a powerful Genoese family. (Discussion: P. Brieger, ‘‘Pictorial Commentaries to the Commedia,’’ in Illuminated Manuscripts of the Divine Comedy, vol. 1, Bollingen series 81 [Princeton, 1969], 96; M. Meiss, ‘‘Primitifs italiens à l’Orangerie,’’ Revue des arts 6 [1956], 139–48) b. Poggiali Codex The omission of a physical description of Virgil in the poem allows for artistic freedom in representations of Dante’s ancient master and guide, but generally Virgil was depicted as the older magister, bearded and wise, in contrast to the younger figure sculpted in Mantua. Variations do occur, such as in the Poggiali Codex (Florence, Biblioteca nazionale centrale, MS Palat. 313), which is the earliest surviving illuminated version (probably 1330s) of the Inferno and contains the commentary by Jacopo di Dante. The artist of the small images framed and set within the text columns depicts both Virgil and Dante as young and beardless men. c. Yates Thompson Manuscript A second fairly common variation represents Virgil without a hat, as he was painted by Priamo della Quercia in a mid-fifteenth-century manuscript (London, British Library, MS Yates Thompson 36). Virgil’s clothing and general demeanor construct a contemporary and seemingly non-mythical persona for the ancient poet, one that belies his actual role as visionary guide through hell. (Discussion: M. Meiss, ‘‘The Yates Thompson Dante and Priamo della Quercia,’’ Burlington Magazine 106 [1964], 403–12) d. London Manuscript A manuscript dating circa 1370 (London, British Library, MS Add. 19587) emphasizes the other-worldly and extraordinary aspect of Virgil when he is first glimpsed by Dante, a departure from the standard iconography of Virgil as a contemporary magister. In this Neapolitan manuscript Virgil appears within a glowing mandorla. Normally reserved for visionary images of Christ or the Virgin Mary, this elliptical frame encloses Virgil within a frame of light and lends mystery to his presence. e. Rimini Manuscript At the opposite end of the spectrum from this visionary appearance, a bearded and slightly balding Virgil in an early-fifteenth-century manuscript (Rimini, Biblioteca civica Gambalunga, MS 4.I.II.25) looks like a wild man, hatless and wearing only a simple robe draped over one shoulder, leaving the other shoulder and portions of his gaunt chest exposed. F. V I R G I L I A N I M A G E S

449

f. Botticelli’s Divine Comedy Interest in Dante’s work declined during the early decades of the fifteenth century, when classical Latin studies overshadowed vernacular Italian, but by midcentury various artists were drawn back to Dante’s work. Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510) began a series of large-scale narrative scenes of the Divine Comedy, and ninety-three of the drawings survive and are divided between collections in Berlin (Kupferstichkabinett, MS Hamilton 201) and the Vatican (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Reg. lat. 1896B). The original intent for these large sheets, which contain six text columns on the reverse side of the imagery, may have been to bind them along the top edge as a deluxe edition. Botticelli began the project around 1480 but died before completing it. Some color was applied to the images, and the portrait of Virgil, with long curly brown beard and blue robes, was fairly traditional. (Discussion: R. Owen, ‘‘Dante’s Reception by Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-Century Illustrators of the Commedia,’’ Reading Medieval Studies 27 [2001], 163–225; Sandro Botticelli: The Drawings for Dante’s Divine Comedy, ed. H.-T. Schulze Altcappenberg [London, 2000]; P. Dreyer, Dantes Divina Commedia mit den Illustrationen von Sandro Botticelli [Zurich, 1986]; K. Clark, The Drawings by Sandro Botticelli for Dante’s Divine Comedy [New York, 1954]) g. Baccio Baldini Engravings One of the first engraved series of images to be published with a printed edition of Dante’s work was based upon the drawings by Botticelli. Various editions had already been printed by the time Nicolò di Lorenzo della Magna in Florence published his 1481 edition with engravings now attributed to Baccio Baldini and with Cristoforo Landino’s commentary on the text (see below, IV.V). The two men appear much the same in the engravings as they do in the manuscript tradition; Virgil is bearded and wears a long ermine-trimmed robe. Another edition, published in Brescia by Bonino de’ Boninis, included woodcuts rather than engravings; and a third edition, printed in Venice by Bernardo Benali and Matteo Codecà, contains greatly simplified woodcuts that label Virgil and Dante with their initials over their heads. (Discussion: P. Keller, ‘‘The Engravings in the 1481 Edition of the Divine Comedy,’’ in Sandro Botticelli: The Drawings for Dante’s Divine Comedy, ed. H.-T. Schulze Altcappenberg [London, 2000], 326–33; L. S. Malke, ‘‘Das Fortwirken von Botticellis Miniatur—Unterzeichnungen in illustrierten Commedia—Drucken ‘figurò lo Inferno e lo mise in stampa,’ Dantes Göttliche Komödie: Druck und Illustrationen aus sechs Jahrhunderten [Leipzig, 2000], 17–44; An jenem Tage lasen wir nicht weiter: Illustrationen zu Dantes Göttlicher Komödie aus den Beständen der USB Köln, ed. D. Schirra [Cologne, 2000]) 450

II. BIOGRAPHY

h. Capella Nuova, Cathedral of Orvieto Dante’s descriptions of hell and the illuminations accompanying his text exerted their own influence on artists who were painting scenes outside of manuscripts and separate from his text. Between 1499 and 1504, Luca Signorelli painted a Last Judgment scene in the San Brizio Chapel, also known as the Capella Nuova, in Orvieto. Below the Judgment imagery he painted framed portraits of authors surrounded by cameolike scenes taken from their work. These authors are not labeled, and there is still some debate about their exact identities. The figure with long, disheveled gray hair, sometimes identified and even reproduced as Virgil, writes in a book but looks up and over his shoulder at the Last Judgment painted above him. Recent arguments suggest that this rather wild-looking man actually represents John, upon whose Book of Revelation the Judgment imagery is based. If this identification is correct, the portrait to be identified as Virgil is the figure whose shortly cropped hair is crowned with a laurel wreath. Four scenes depicting Aeneas, Hercules, Theseus, and Orpheus are painted into the medallions around him, figures who are mentioned in book 6 of the Aeneid when Aeneas is about to descend into the underworld. (Discussion: J. B. Riess, Luca Signorelli and the San Brizio Chapel, Orvieto [New York, 1995]; R. M. San Juan, ‘‘The Function of Antique Ornament in Luca Signorelli’s Fresco Decoration for the Chapel of San Brizio,’’ Revue d’art Canadienne 12 [1985], 235–41; Virgilio nell’arte e nella cultura europea, ed. M. Fagiolo [Rome, 1981], 75) i. Cathedral in Florence It has been argued that the four ‘‘prophet’’ figures, circa 1410–20, from the facade of the cathedral in Florence actually represent the four poets Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Petrarch. (Discussion: A. M. Kosegarten, ‘‘Florentiner Statuen von ‘Uomini illustri’ aus dem frühen Quattrocento. Versuch über die Fassade von S. Maria del Fiore,’’ Niederdeutsche Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte 38 [1999], 41–91) (DJ)

9. Virgil and Petrarch a. Simone Martini’s Frontispiece for Petrarch Dante made Virgil his guide, the voice of reason and a source of wonder and inspiration. Francesco Petrarch (see, as well, above, I.C.54) also studied Virgil’s works, and his appreciation was made visual by the celebrated painter Simone Martini. Petrarch’s own manuscript of Virgil (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MS S.P. 10, 27 [formerly A 49 inf.]), included with works by Statius, Horace, and others, was stolen in 1326 but recovered in 1338 (facsimile: F. V I R G I L I A N I M A G E S

451

G. Galbiati, ed. [Milan, 1930]). Upon its return, Petrarch commissioned a painting from Martini to insert as a frontispiece in the book, and the result is a spectacular interpretation of Virgil the poet in terms of fourteenth-century ideas of poetic creation. In the upper right corner of the image, Virgil reclines against a tree and props an open book in his lap. Represented as a bearded older man wearing long white robes and crowned with a laurel wreath, he lifts a feather pen and tilts his head back to gaze up into the sky, caught in a moment of contemplative reverie before writing the inspired words. Servius (see below, IV.B) reveals him to the reader not only by his commentary, which is included in the manuscript, but also by his action of drawing aside a checked curtain that hangs from a rod painted across the entire image. A soldier or knight with a sheathed knife on his belt and a long spear in his right hand stands behind Servius. Below them to the left, a farmer prunes a small orchard of trees, and in the center a shepherd milks one of four sheep. The curtain rod and plaid curtain are not the only artificial notes in this otherwise Edenic landscape; two scrolls unfurled and held open by a pair of red- and blue-winged hands are painted below Virgil. The couplets inscribed on each scroll and a third verse in the lower margin are identified as written by the hand of Petrarch himself. The first couplet reads: Itala praeclaros tellus alis alma poetas Sed tibi Graecorum dedit hic attingere metas. Italy, dear land, you nurture the famous poets, But this man has enabled you to attain the eminence of the Greeks.

A certain amount of nationalistic pride blends with a pastoral reference to the land as nourishment for the poet, a verbal parallel to Martini’s lush landscape of trees and flowering fields. The second couplet reads: Servius altiloqui retegens archana Maronis Ut pateant ducibus pastoribus atque colonis. Servius unveiling the secrets of Virgil the eloquent, So that they may be plain to knights, shepherds, and farmers.

This reference to knights, shepherds, and farmers has been interpreted in several ways: as the three social groups for whom Servius wrote, the three allegorical stages of Virgil’s life, the three levels of poetry written by Virgil, or even as the three rhetorical styles exemplified in the language of the Eclogues (shepherd), Georgics (farmer), and Aeneid (knight) as diagrammed by John of Garland’s ‘‘Virgilian Wheel’’ (see below, IV.S). (Discussion: A. Martindale, Simone Martini [Oxford, 1988]; M. L. Lord, ‘‘Petrarch and Vergil’s First 452

II. BIOGRAPHY

Eclogue: The Codex Ambrosianus,’’ Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 86 [1982], 253–76; J. Brink, ‘‘Simone Martini, Francesco Petrarca and the Humanistic Program of the Vergil Frontispiece,’’ Mediaevalia 3 [1977], 83–117; C. J. Campbell, ‘‘ ‘Symoni nostro senensi nuper iocundissima.’ The Court Artist: Heart, Mind, and Hand,’’ in Artists at Court: Image-making and Identity, 1300–1550, ed. S. J. Campbell, Fenway Court 31 [Boston, 2004], 33–45) b. Apollonio di Giovanni’s Frontispiece Petrarch wrote the Trionfi in Italian between 1350 and 1374, and in the mid fifteenth century Apollonio di Giovanni illuminated a version of this work (Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS 1129). Since he is the same artist who illuminated manuscripts of Virgil’s works and who painted cassone panels with Virgilian imagery, it is hardly surprising to find that he added a Virgilian reference to the allegorical frontispiece for the Triumph of Fame. A neatly labeled Virgil stands in a line along with Aristotle, Hercules, and Samson. These four men represent strength and virtue, but Aristotle and Samson are also frequently included with Virgil in representations of men who were thought to have fallen because of love. (Discussion: A. Ortner, ‘‘I Trionfi del Petrarca: Origine e sviluppo del tema nell’arte Fiorentina,’’ Rivista di Storia della Miniatura 5 [1999], 81–96; Immaginare l’autore: Il ritratto del letterato nella cultura umanistica, ed. G. Lazzi and P. Viti [Florence, 2000]) (DJ)

10. Portraits of Prophetic Virgil and the Sibyl Since the fourth century, when Constantine and Lactantius interpreted Virgil’s Eclogues 4 as a prophecy of Christ, numerous medieval authors included Virgil among those who foresaw the birth of Christ (see below, III.C). Yet other authorities, such as Augustine, regarded the Cumaean Sibyl, whose prophetic song is mentioned early in the Eclogues, as being the true prophet. The images identified as Virgil the prophet reflect the ambiguity of this textual tradition. (Discussion: D. Potter, Prophets and Emperors: Human and Divine Authority from Augustus to Theodosius [Cambridge, Mass., 1994]) a. Liturgical Drama During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, there circulated a sermon falsely attributed to Augustine that contained a list of prophets and prophecies foretelling the birth of Christ. The sermon, entitled Sermo 4: Contra Iudaeos, paganos et Arianos (Against Jews, Pagans, and Arians), has been ascribed to Quodvultdeus, bishop of Carthage (437–54). The text is most readily available in PL 42, 1117–30, but the classic presentation of it is in K. Young, The Drama of the Medieval Church (Oxford, 1933), 2:125–32. The sermon F. V I R G I L I A N I M A G E S

453

exercised considerable later influence. For example, explicit discussions of it, with mentions of Virgil, appear in Cosmas of Prague, Chronica Bohemorum 1.4 (ed. PL 166, 64B) and Peter of Blois, Contra perfidiam Judaeorum, chapter 38 (ed. PL 207, 669–70). This Ordo prophetarum formed the basis for a liturgical drama commonly performed during Christmastide. One of the earliest surviving manuscripts of the Ordo is the thirteenth-century troper-hymnary from the cathedral of Laon (Laon, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 263). It begins with descriptions of various prophets and their attributes: Ysaias: barbatus, dalmatica indutus, stola rubea per medium verticis ante et retro dependens . . . Virgilius: cum cornu et calamo, edera coronat [sic], scriptorium tenens . . . Sibilla: veste feminea, decapillata, edera coronata, insanienti simillima (Isaiah: bearded, clothed in a dalmatic, with a red stole hanging down the middle of the head in front and in back . . . Virgil: with inkhorn and pen, crowned with ivy, holding a case for pens . . . Sibyl: in womanly attire, disheveled, crowned with ivy, most like someone mad). This description suggests that both Virgil and the Sibyl had recognizable iconographic attributes, and that they were considered as prophets separate from each other. (Discussion: K. Young, Drama of the Medieval Church [Oxford, 1933], 2:125–51) b. Thirteenth-Century Psalter The pseudo-Augustinian sermon and dramatic text have been cited as evidence for identifying as Virgil a figure in a Jesse Tree painted into a thirteenthcentury psalter (Wolfenbüttel, Herzog-August Bibliothek, MS Helmst. 568, fol. 6v). The image of the Jesse Tree originates in the Old Testament Book of Isaiah (11.1): ‘‘And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root,’’ a verse interpreted as the earthly lineage of Christ. This image portrays Jesse reclining with a stalk rising from his loins. David and Solomon, both Old Testament kings and ancestors of Christ, and the Virgin sit within the forked branches of this tree, and a half-length image of Christ appears at the top. Fourteen additional figures appear within vegetal frames and lunettes around the rectangular border, and all of them hold scrolls inscribed to define their relationship to Christ. In the lower right lunette a beardless figure wearing a unique headdress holds a scroll whose inscription is not biblical, but rather a classical quotation from Virgil’s Eclogues 4.7, Iam nova progenies (Now a new generation). On the basis of this inscription, the figure has been identified as Virgil, but its smooth features seem more feminine than those of the other prophets. Perhaps this figure is not Virgil, but instead the Sibyl. (Discussion: A. Watson, Early Iconography of the Tree of Jesse [London,

454

II. BIOGRAPHY

1934]; E. Mâle, ‘‘Virgile dans l’art du moyen âge français,’’ Studi Medievali [= Virgilio nel Medio Evo], n.s. 5 [1932], 325–31) c. Twelfth-Century De laudibus sanctae crucis A twelfth-century manuscript of the didactic work De laudibus sanctae crucis (On the Praises of the Holy Cross) (Douai, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 340) contains a simple version of the Jesse Tree, in which the Sibyl and not Virgil joins the ranks of the prophets. Only David and the Virgin are set within the stalk, as if they were a physical part of the tree that grows above their heads to Christ’s seat. Four square frames stacked on either side of the tree contain the prophets of Christ’s birth: on the right are David, John the Baptist, Isaiah, and Jeremiah; on the left are Habakkuk, Solomon, the Sibyl, and Ezekiel. Each prophet is neatly labeled, leaving no doubt that the only female figure is the Sibyl. d. Ingeborg Psalter Queen Ingeborg, the Danish wife of King Philip Augustus of France, owned a psalter that was made circa 1195 (Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS 9 [formerly 1695]) and that contains a prefatory cycle of images. On folio 14v a full-page miniature of the Jesse Tree separates Old Testament scenes from those of the New Testament. The Sibyl is included with five other prophets painted on either side of the elegantly simple tree, but here she holds a scroll with the inscription Omnia cessabunt, tellus confracta peribit (All things will cease, and the earth, destroyed, will perish). This is not a line from Virgil’s Eclogues 4; instead, it comes from a poem (incipit ‘‘Iudicii signum tellus sudore madescet’’) attributed to the Sibyl and quoted by Augustine (De civitate Dei 18.23). (Discussion: F. Deuchler, Der Ingeborgpsalter [Berlin, 1967]) e. Strasbourg Cathedral Virgil may have regularly featured among the prophets lining entryways of Gothic cathedrals in France and Germany, his presence now forgotten as the centuries have worn away any possible identifying labels. One of the jamb figures on the central portal of the western facade of Strasbourg Cathedral has been argued to represent Virgil the prophet. The portal program follows a conception similar to that of the painted Jesse Trees, with a central trumeau column sculpted as the Virgin holding the infant Christ, flanked by jamb sculptures of five prophets on either side. All ten figures hold scrolls, and most of the bearded prophets are bent and twisted within their tightly confined niches, but the central prophet to the right of the Virgin is exceptional for its

F. V I R G I L I A N I M A G E S

455

still, serene quality. The beardless figure has been identified as Virgil, and his robes fall straight, without folds or excess drapery. Only his left arm bends up toward his chest while his scroll hangs forgotten at his side. Gazing ahead into the distance, his face is calm and youthful below a hat similar to Jewish caps in contemporary depictions. Although there is a tradition of Virgil accompanying the prophets, the golden age described in his Eclogues 4 might have held an additional appeal to nobility in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Strasbourg. A second figure in this line of five is also intriguing. Beardless and separated from Virgil by only one prophet, this figure has feminine features. A band of ribbon holds its pleated robes against its chest while a second swath of material drapes across the lower skirt in a fashion similar to the Sibyl’s robes in the twelfth-century De laudibus sanctae crucis image. She could be understood plausibly as the Sibyl, accompanying Virgil and assuming her place among the prophets of the Incarnation. (Discussion: N. Gramaccini, ‘‘Eine Statue Vergils im Strassburger Prophetenportal,’’ in Studien zur Geschichte der Europäischen Skulptur im 12./13. Jahrhundert, ed. H. Beck, K. Hengevoss-Dürkop, and G. W. Kamp [Frankfurt, 1998], 739–61) f. Zamora Cathedral In the Cathedral of St. Salvatore in Zamora, Spain, an image of a rather feminine Virgil is one of a series of portraits carved in the choir stalls. The halflength figure, wearing an elaborately wrapped headdress and carrying both a book and a scroll, appears with the titulus Vergilius Bucol. 4. (Discussion: L. Suttina, ‘‘L’e≈gie di Virgilio nella Cattedrale di Zamora,’’ Studi Medievali [= Virgilio nel Medio Evo], n.s. 5 [1932], 342–45; M. Gómez-Moreno, Catalogo Monumental de España [Madrid, 1927]) g. Siena Cathedral The pavement laid in the fifteenth century in the cathedral in Siena depicts each of the Sibyls as a full-length figure framed in the bays of the side aisles. The Cumaean Sibyl, identified by a label beneath her feet, is portrayed as an older woman holding a branch and several books and wearing a wrap-around headdress similar to that worn by the Sibyl in the De laudibus sanctae crucis manuscript (see above, II.F.10.c). A stack of books leans haphazardly at her feet, and a quotation from Eclogues 4 is written in a panel set behind her. An inscription below her feet reads: Sibylla Cumana cuius meminit Virgilius Eclog. IV (The Cumaean Sibyl, whom Virgil recalls in the fourth Eclogue). (Discussion: Virgilio nell’arte e nella cultura europea: Roma-Biblioteca nazionale centrale, 24 settembre/24 novembre 1981 [Rome, 1981], 87; E. Carli, Il Duomo di Siena [Genoa, 1979], 143–54) 456

II. BIOGRAPHY

h. Fifteenth-Century Altarpiece A fifteenth-century altarpiece places Virgil and the Sibyl close to each other within the larger subject of the Virgin and Christ child standing on top of Solomon’s throne. An elaborate architectural structure full of personifications and biblical figures extends to either side of the Virgin. Both Virgil and the Sibyl hold long inscribed scrolls and appear to the right of the Virgin. A second pagan prophet, Albumasar, is also paired with a Sibyl and set on the other side of the Virgin. These two pagans occupy prominent places on either side of the steps leading up to the Virgin and Christ. (Discussion: A. Stange, Deutsche Malerei der Gotik, vol. 2: ‘‘Die Zeit von 1350 bis 1400’’ [Berlin, 1936], 128–31) (DJ)

11. Virgil as Magician An interesting counterfoil to Virgil and the Sibyl as prophets is the persona of Virgil as a magician, though these two identities might not have been as disparate during antique and medieval times as they seem today. The understanding of poet and prophet were closely aligned, and prophecy itself was discussed as a magical skill. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Virgil accumulated a lengthy list of extraordinary skills and abilities (see below, V.A). Images of Virgil the magician, such as those in the copies of the German Weltchronik by Jans Enikel (see below, V.I), have been reproduced in previous studies. (See the tables in J.-U. Günther, Die illustrierten mittelhochdeutschen Weltchronikhandschriften in Versen [Munich, 1993], 495–676; VN, 260.) (DJ)

12. Virgil in the Basket From the numerous examples of Virgil’s magical abilities one particular story, known simply as ‘‘Virgil in the basket’’ (see below, V.C), is extracted and repeated in a variety of media and settings. The examples chosen here tend to be from northern Europe. Although this iconography probably originated in northern European texts and was absorbed into the courtly tradition, it also became common south of the Alps. The image of Virgil hanging in his basket is depicted on birthing dishes, cassone panels, and various other small objects. Some of these objects are understood as corresponding with a growing interest in Rome and the antique world, while others function as didactic examples of what not to do. Eventually, the image of Virgil in a basket finds its way back to the literary realm of the ancient poet when it appears on the decorated title page of a 1529 edition of Virgil’s works printed by ‘‘Ioannes Parvus’’ (Jean Petit). (Discussion: J. Berlioz, ‘‘Virgile dans la littérature des exempla (douzième au quinzième siècles),’’ in Lectures médiévales de Virgile: Actes du Colloque F. V I R G I L I A N I M A G E S

457

organisé par l’École française de Rome [Rome, 1985], 65–120; G. F. Koch, ‘‘Virgil im Korbe,’’ in Festschrift für Erich Meyer zum 60. Geburtstag, 29 Oktober 1957: Studien zu Werken in den Sammlungen des Museums für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, ed. W. Gramberg [Hamburg, 1959], 105–21) a. St. Pierre, Caen The story and image of Virgil in the basket cautioned against the seductive powers of love, and the humiliated Virgil is in good company on a carved capital in St. Pierre, Caen, that dates to the mid fourteenth century. Also carved onto the capital are Aristotle, the ancient philosopher and tutor of Alexander the Great, and the medieval knights Gawain and Lancelot. Virgil and Aristotle were frequently paired in this context. Both were illustrious men who, despite their intelligence and achievement, became powerless in the face of love. Aristotle’s humiliation is graphically depicted by his position on all fours while the lover of his tutee, Phyllis (sometimes known as Campaspe), rides on his back. All four men provide powerful reminders of the unpleasant outcomes of succumbing to fleshly desires. (Discussion: S. L. Smith, ‘‘The Power of Women Topos on a Fourteenth-Century Embroidery,’’ Viator 21 [1990], 203–28; N. H. Ott, ‘‘Minne oder amor carnalis? Zur Funktion der Minnesklaven-Darstellungen in mittelalterlicher Kunst,’’ in Liebe in der deutschen Literatur: St. Andrews-Colloquium 1985, ed. J. Ashcroft, D. Huschenbett, and W. H. Jackson [Tübingen, 1987], 107–25. See also E. Mâle, ‘‘Virgile dans l’art du moyen âge français,’’ Studi Medievali [= Virgilio nel Medio Evo], n.s. 5 [1932], fig. 2.) b. Ivory Marriage Casket This scene of Virgil was absorbed into the general repertoire of courtly and chivalric imagery, as is demonstrated by its appearance on an ivory marriage casket dating circa 1300–1340. In addition to several tournament scenes, the casket is decorated with the Siege of the Castle of Love, the fountain of youth, and various knightly activities. On the front panel of the box, Virgil hangs in his basket behind the familiar image of Phyllis mounted on Aristotle. This combination of iconography has been interpreted as contrasting purity and lust as well as old age and youth. (Discussion: D. J. A. Ross, ‘‘Allegory and Romance on a Mediaeval Marriage Casket,’’ Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 11 [1948], 112–42. See also G. F. Koch, ‘‘Virgil im Korbe,’’ in Festschrift für Erich Meyer zum 60. Geburtstag, 29 Oktober 1957: Studien zu Werken in den Sammlungen des Museums für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, ed. W. Gramberg [Hamburg, 1959], 106, fig. 1.)

458

II. BIOGRAPHY

c. Malterer Tapestry In the early fourteenth century, the Malter family in Freiburg commissioned an embroidery that contained nine biblical and courtly scenes depicting the power of women (Freiburg im Breisgau, Augustinermuseum, Inv. Nr. 11508). Stitched quatrefoils frame before-and-after depictions of great men who were subverted by love: Samson first with the lion, then having his hair shorn by Delilah; Aristotle first being distracted by his books, then being ridden by Phyllis; and Virgil first o√ering, with a courtly motion, his glove to the woman in the tower, then hanging suspended outside of the tower. Following these ancient examples, the medieval Iwein first fights Ascalon, then exchanges a ring with Lunete. The final quatrefoil depicts a woman seated with a unicorn resting its head in her lap. It remains open to debate whether the tapestry emphasizes the power of love as beneficial or whether it continues, albeit playfully, in the misogynist tradition of the ‘‘slave of women’’ topos. (Discussion: J. A. Rushing Jr., Images of Adventure: Ywain in the Visual Arts [Philadelphia, 1995], 219–39; S. L. Smith, ‘‘The Power of Women Topos on a Fourteenth-Century Embroidery,’’ Viator 21 [1990], 203–28) (DJ)

13. Virgilian Imagery in Non-Virgilian Texts Aeneid-inspired imagery can be found in fourteenth-century historical texts such as the Histoire ancienne, Histoire d’Énée, and Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, where scenes from the Aeneid are included as (supposedly) historical events. (Discussion: E. Leube, Fortuna in Karthago: Die Aeneas-Dido-Mythe Vergils in den romanischen Literaturen vom 14. bis zum 16. Jahrhundert, Studien zum Fortwirken der Antike 1 [Heidelberg, 1969], 30–40) a. Histoire d’Énée (fourteenth century) A French manuscript (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS fr. 301) of the Histoire d’Énée (Story of Aeneas) provides an example of how Virgil’s Aeneas and Dido were considered historical as much as poetic figures. Many miniatures are painted into this manuscript, and the scene portraying Dido’s suicide is especially graphic, with Dido falling upon her sword on the left as Aeneas and his warriors hoist their sails on the right. (Discussion: M. Desmond, Reading Dido: Gender, Textuality, and the Medieval Aeneid [Minneapolis, 1994], 21; LPLC 101–4; M. Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry, vol. 2 [London, 1968], 142)

F. V I R G I L I A N I M A G E S

459

b. Carmina Burana (early to mid thirteenth century) Generally, the images and objects discussed so far have shown a direct link with Virgil and his works. Two other manuscripts, however, both of them collections of songs and lyrical poetry, forge a more subtle connection with the ancient poet: the Carmina Burana (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 4660; see also below, III.E.7) and the Manesse Codex (discussed below). The Carmina Burana compiles Latin and Middle High German songs on a variety of subjects, such as drinking songs, love songs, and dawn songs. 1. An image in this manuscript similar to that found in the Histoire d’Énée depicts Aeneas’s departure and Dido’s suicide. Painted on folio 77v to accompany the poem written on folio 75, a two-part scene portrays Dido impaled and Aeneas sailing away (see below, III.E.7). 2. A pastoral influence, derived in great part from Virgil’s Eclogues, can be discerned in songs in which poets sit in lush outdoor settings to contemplate their love, their lack of love, or their craft. The visual equivalent of this fecund setting is painted on folio 64v as a vibrant if somewhat odd landscape full of uniquely shaped trees and vegetation. Although there are no people in this image, numerous animals and birds inhabit the colorful forest. (Discussion: J. Walworth, ‘‘Earthly Delights: The Pictorial Images of the Carmina Burana Manuscript,’’ in The Carmina Burana: Four Essays, ed. M. H. Jones [London, 2000], 71–85; Faksimile-Ausgabe der Handschrift der Carmina Burana (Clm 4660 der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek in München), ed. Bernhard Bischo√ [Munich, 1967]) c. Manesse Codex (1300–1340) The Manesse Codex (Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek, MS Pal. Germ. 848), produced in Zurich, compiles Middle High German poetry from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries and uses full-page images to introduce the work of each poet. Of the 137 images in the manuscript, some function as formulaic author portraits, and others portray scenes described in the poems. As with the Carmina Burana, there are two separate examples of Virgilian influence in this manuscript. (Discussion: M. Curschmann, ‘‘Pictura laicorum litteratura? Überlegungen zum Verhältnis von Bild und volkssprachlicher Schriftlichkeit im Hoch- und Spätmittelalter bis zum Codex Manesse,’’ in Pragmatische Schriftlichkeit im Mittelalter, ed. H. Keller, K. Grubmüller, and N. Staubach [Munich, 1992], 211–29; C. Brinker and D. Flühler-Kreis, Die Manessische Liederhandschrift in Zürich, Ausstellungskatalog 12. Juni bis 29. September 1991 [Zurich, 1991]; E. Mittler and W. Werner, Codex Manesse, Katalog 460

II. BIOGRAPHY

zur Ausstellung [Heidelberg, 1988]; H. Frühmorgen-Voss, Text und Illustration im Mittelalter: Aufsätze zu den Wechselbeziehungen zwischen Literatur und bildender Kunst [Munich, 1975]) 1. Herr Kristan von Hamle lived in the early thirteenth century, and his portrait depicts him in the familiar position of sitting in a basket that is being drawn by a woman up the side of a tower. Based upon the iconography of Virgil in a basket, the image appears as one of many examples of love-driven actions. It may be that in this case, the woman will not leave him suspended, but rather continue to turn the wheel that draws him up. 2. The second example of Virgilian influence is not obvious, but it demonstrates the longevity of certain pictorial traditions as well as the importance of what might seem to be simply decorative. Heinrich von Veldeke was also a lyric poet whose works are included in the Manesse Codex. Heinrich’s portrait depicts an idealized young man with features indistinguishable from those of the many other poets in this manuscript. He sits casually on a small grassy knoll in a moment of quiet repose, his very stillness suggesting that his mind is not lost in pointless reverie but actively tracing out thoughts and ideas. Several other authors sit in a similar pose, but the exploding design of birds and flowers around Heinrich is unusual. This floral e√usion, scattered randomly across the page, does not place Heinrich within a natural arboreal setting, such as that painted by Simone Martini, but creates around him an artificial realm whose abstract pattern ultimately recalls the work of Virgil and reminds the reader of Heinrich’s adaptation of the Roman d’Énéas (see below, III.J). The closest visual analogue to this style is the double frontispiece for Georgics 3 in the late antique Virgilius Romanus manuscript. This particular decorative style of flora and fauna scattered randomly across a surface was fairly common in late antique imagery, where it was used almost exclusively for pastoral motifs. Similar examples appear in secular and religious mosaics and manuscripts. While a direct link between the Manesse Codex and antique sources cannot be firmly established, a similar decorative style based on late antique imagery appears in some examples of twelfth- and thirteenthcentury Creation imagery. When Heinrich adapted the Old French Roman d’Énéas (see below, III.I), he achieved his visual connection with Virgil through pastoral, not epic, imagery. The Manesse Codex does not contain any portion of Heinrich’s Eneasroman, but the project was well known and admired. Heinrich’s portrait is the only image in the entire codex to contain the unique decoration that recalls antique pastoral themes. This style of decoration appears occasionally in religious imagery, specifically in Creation scenes such as God making animals or Adam assigning names for them. Even F. V I R G I L I A N I M A G E S

461

without direct evidence to link these ideas, the overlap of themes and the repetition of a particular visual style are compelling. (Discussion: P. H. Jolly, Made in God’s Image: Eve and Adam in the Genesis Mosaics at San Marco, Venice [Berkeley, 1997]; H. Cooper, Pastoral: Mediaeval into Renaissance [Ipswich, UK, 1977]; A. Kracher, Millstätter Genesis und Physiologus Handschrift, Vollständige Facsimileausgabe der Sammelhandschrift 6/19 des Geschichtsvereines für Kärnten im Kärntner Landesarchiv, Klagenfurt [Graz, 1967]; H. Voss, Studien zur Illustrierten Millstätter Genesis [Munich, 1962]) (DJ)

14. Conclusion The most cohesive aspect of the Virgilian tradition in the fifteen centuries following his death is the nearly constant presence of his work in courts, schools, libraries, and private homes. An equivalent tradition of imagery exists neither for the poet nor for representations of his work. The survival of late antique mosaics and manuscripts suggests that Virgil and his works were known and appreciated by individuals. They reveal a close connection between his poetry and imagery, with certain scenes already being extracted and appearing elsewhere. The quantity of Virgilian imagery decreases over the next eight centuries, and in general only single and isolated examples survive from before the year 1200. These objects become all the more compelling in their singularity, for they o√er interpretations of Virgil and his works that may not have entered into the literary tradition. After 1200, images and objects survive in su≈cient quantity to permit discussion of a tradition; and once a tradition exists, it is reasonable to seek out examples that distinguish themselves from the norm. Virgil acquires multiple personas, and his work undergoes numerous transformations, both of which are reflected in the imagery. As Virgil’s personas multiply, it is not the iconography of the poet but rather the unusual placement of these images that provokes speculation. When Virgil in a basket is carved onto the capital of a church column, he stands as a warning against fleshly temptations, whereas when he is stuck in a basket on a tapestry or wedding casket, the mood seems more playful. Eventually he and his basket end up on the frontispiece of a sixteenth-century edition of his work, where poet and unfortunate lover are reunited, if they were ever truly separated. Even when there are many images of Virgil, there is no standard portrait of his features. Virgil’s face adapts to his persona, and he shifts from an elderly and bearded wise man to a fresh-faced and almost callow youth. When he reappears as a poet in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the images are just as varied and reflect traditions of the preceding centuries.

462

II. BIOGRAPHY

This question of how much in these mythical portrayals is true to Virgil’s original identity as an ancient poet remains unanswerable. Are the didactic exempla more e√ective for their use of a preexisting figure? Does the understanding of ‘‘the poet’’ and his occupation change with the development of the troubadour and Minnesang traditions? Whatever the answers, these inventive interpretations of Virgil the poet and of his works demonstrate a level of engagement that is at once respectful, playful, and compelling. (DJ) G. VIRGIL AS PHILOSOPHER AND COMPENDIUM OF KNOWLEDGE Aelius Donatus (VSD 35; see above, II.A.1) notes that the poet, at the time of his death, wished to devote no more than three years to polishing the Aeneid, ut reliqua vita tantum philosophiae vacaret (so that the remainder of his life would be free for philosophy only). The association of Virgil with philosophy, which is to say, the intimate connection between poetry and philosophy perceived in his work by those responding to it, begins early and remains strong even to the present day.

1. Seneca the Younger See above, I.C.7. Epistulae morales 108 and Dialogi 10.9.2 are meditations on the meaning of Georgics 3.66–67.

2. Macrobius See below, IV.C. (Discussion: N. Marinone, ‘‘L’immagine di Virgilio in Macrobio Teodosio,’’ in Cultura latina pagana fra terzo e quinto secolo dopo Cristo: Atti del convegno (Mantova, 9–11 ottobre 1995), Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana di Scienze Lettere e Arti Miscellanea 6 [Florence, 1998], 201–11) (Text, items a–d: J. Willis, ed., 2nd ed., Bibliotheca Teubneriana [Leipzig, 1970]) a. Saturnalia 3.2.7 Est profundam scientiam huius poetae in uno saepe reperire verbo, quod fortuito dictum vulgus putaret.

One can often discover the depth of this poet’s [Virgil’s] knowledge from a single word, which the untutored would suppose to be a chance expression. (MP) b. Commentarii in somnium Scipionis 1.6.44 This passage from the Commentary on the Dream of Scipio deals with the significance of the numbers 3 and 4 in relation to the composition of the soul. G. VIRGIL AS PHILOSOPHER

463

. . . unde Vergilius nullius disciplinae expers plene et per omnia beatos exprimere volens ait, . . . o terque quaterque beati [Aeneid 1.94].

. . . whence Virgil, schooled in every branch of study, when he wishes to call people fully and completely blest, says: ‘‘O three and four times blest.’’ (MP) c. Commentarii in somnium Scipionis 1.9.8 Hoc et Vergilius non ignorat, qui, licet argumento suo serviens heroas in inferos relegaverit, non tamen eos abducit a caelo, sed aethera his deputat largiorem [Aeneid 6.640], et nosse eos solem suum ac sua sidera [Aeneid 6.641] profitetur, ut geminae doctrinae observatione praestiterit et poeticae figmentum et philosophiae veritatem.

Virgil is not unaware of this, too [that heroes have kingly authority], for although he banishes his heroes to the underworld according to his plan, he does not deprive them of the sky, but assigns them an ‘‘ampler ether’’ and states that ‘‘they know their own sun and stars of their own,’’ thus giving evidence of his twofold training, the poet’s imagination and the philosopher’s truth. (modified by MP) Augustine, at Confessions 1.13.20–21, uses similar language. d. Commentarii in somnium Scipionis 1.15.12 On the fact that the moon loses the ability to give o√ light during an eclipse. Quod sciens Vergilius disciplinarum omnium peritissimus ait, defectus solis varios lunaeque labores [Georgics 2.478].

Virgil, most skilled in all branches of study, knows this when he speaks of ‘‘the many eclipses of the sun, the many e√orts of the moon.’’ (MP)

3. Servius, In Vergilii Aeneidos librum sextum commentarius, praefatio See below, IV.B. (Text: Thilo-Hagen, 2:1) Totus quidem Vergilius scientia plenus est, in qua hic liber possidet principatum, cuius ex Homero pars maior est. Et dicuntur aliqua simpliciter, multa de historia, multa per altam scientiam philosophorum, theologorum, Aegyptiorum, adeo ut plerique de his singulis huius libri integras scripserint pragmatias.

Indeed all of Virgil is overflowing with knowledge, in which this book [Aeneid 6] claims preeminence, the greater part of which is Homeric. Some matters 464

II. BIOGRAPHY

are told in a straightforward manner, many from history, many concern the deep knowledge of philosophers, of students of religion, of Egyptians, to the point that a number [of commentators] have written whole treatises from the individual topics of this book. (MP)

4. (Pseudo-)Bernardus Silvestris, Commentum super sex libros Eneidos Virgilii, praefatio 1 See below, IV.Q. (Text: Commentum quod dicitur Bernardi Silvestris super sex libros Eneidos Virgilii, ed. J. W. Jones and E. F. Jones [Lincoln, Nebr., 1977], 757) Gemine doctrine observantiam perpendimus in sua Eneide Maronem habuisse, teste namque Macrobio: et veritatem philosophie docuit et ficmentum poeticum non pretermisit. Si quis ergo Eneida legere studeat, ita ut eius voluminis lex deposcit, hec in primis oportet demonstrare, unde agat et qualiter et cur, et geminam observationem in his demonstrandis non relinquere.

We maintain that in his Aeneid Virgil held allegiance to double aspects of learning, as indeed Macrobius says: ‘‘He taught the truth of philosophy, and he did not neglect the poetic imagination.’’ Therefore, anyone who wishes to read the Aeneid as the terms of this work demand must first of all indicate the intention, the mode, and the objective of the work and then not fail to observe this double point of view in discussing these matters. (Commentary on the First Six Books of Virgil’s Aeneid, trans. Schreiber and Maresca, 3, modified by MP)

5. Roman de Thèbes (circa 1150) The anonymous Old French Roman de Thèbes is the oldest complete roman antique (romance of antiquity). It was written by a Norman cleric. It survives in versions of between 10,000 and 15,000 octosyllabic lines, all of them hewing closely to Statius’s Thebaid, although the romance prefaces the story of the Seven against Thebes with an account of Oedipus. The prologue of the Roman de Thèbes, before enjoining those in the audience who are not sophisticated (which the poet specifies to mean knights or clerics) to be still and listen as he applies his learning, invokes Virgil as an exemplary sage. (Text: Le Roman de Thèbes, lines 1–16, ed. L. Constans [Paris, 1890], 1:1–2) (JZ) He who is wise ought not to conceal it; instead, he ought to show his mind, so that when he has gone from the world, he may be remembered forever for it. [5] If Lord Homer and Lord Plato and Virgil and Cicero had concealed their wisdom, there would have been no talk of them thereafter. Therefore I do not wish to silence my mind, [10] to hold back my wisdom; instead, it

G. VIRGIL AS PHILOSOPHER

465

gives me joy to tell something worth remembering. Now those of every vocation may go off, if they are not clerics or knights, [15] for they can listen as well as the ass to harp playing. (JZ)

Virgil is also mentioned with Homer, though in a less prominent place in the text, in the Oxford manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Digby 23 [second quarter of the twelfth century]) of the Chanson de Roland (Song of Roland), laisse 189 (lines 2615–16), in an odd reference to the great age of the Emir of Babylon. (Text, translation, and discussion: Song of Roland, ed. G. J. Brault, 2 vols. [University Park, 1978], 1:271, 2:158–59) (JZ)

6. John of Salisbury See above, II.C.12. John of Salisbury writes, in Policraticus 6.22, that Virgil sub imagine fabularum totius philosophiae exprimit veritatem (expresses the truth of all philosophy under the guise of stories). John contends that in the Aeneid Virgil explores the innermost secrets of all philosophy. (Discussion: EM 4:239) Similarly, at Policraticus 2.15 (Text: C. C. J. Webb, ed. [Oxford, 1909], 1:90): Arborum namque labentibus foliis, insomniorum vanitas dominatur: quod et Virgilius in libro in quo totius philosophiae rimatur archana, sensisse visus est, dum labentia folia apud inferos variis somniis oneravit [see Servius on Aeneid 6.282–84: Thilo-Hagen 2.49–50].

For when the leaves are falling [in autumn] the folly of false dreams holds sway, a fact that Virgil also seemed to have noted, in the book [the Aeneid ] in which he investigates the mysteries of all philosophy, when in the underworld he burdened the falling leaves with various types of dreams. (MP)

7. Alexander Neckam, Commentarii in Canticum canticorum 2.17 See below, V.A.6. In his Commentary on the Song of Songs Neckam designates Virgil as philosophus (see R. W. Hunt, The Schools and the Cloister: The Life and Writings of Alexander Nequam [1157–1217] [Oxford, 1984], 53 n. 60).

8. Boccaccio, De genealogia deorum gentilium (On the Genealogy of the Roman Gods) 14.10 (Text: Vincenzo Romano, ed., 2 vols., Scrittori d’Italia 200–201 [Bari, 1951], 2:710) Quis enim . . . tam demens tamque vecors erit, qui, legens in Buccolicis Virgilii: ‘‘Namque canebat uti magnum per inane coacta’’ [Eclogues 6.31], una 466

II. BIOGRAPHY

cum non nullis in hanc sententiam sequentibus carminibus; et in Georgicis: ‘‘Esse apibus partem divine mentis et haustus’’ [4.220] cum applicitis ad hoc; et in Eneida: ‘‘Principio celum et terras camposque liquentes’’ [6.724] cum annexis, ex quibus merus phylosophie succus exprimitur, non videat liquido Virgilium fuisse phylosophum et arbitretur eruditissimum hominem ob ostentandam eloquentiam suam, qua profecto plurimum valuit, Aristaeum pastorem in penetralia terre ad [Cyrenem] matrem deduxisse, aut Eneam, ut patrem videret, ad inferos, absque abscondito sub fabuloso velamine intellectu scripsisse?

For who . . . will be so foolish and idiotic that, when reading in the Bucolics of Virgil ‘‘For he sang how, through the great void [seeds] were thrust together’’ together with the verses which follow on this same theme; and in the Georgics: ‘‘[Some have said that] bees possess a share of the divine mind and draughts [of ether]’’ with the relevant lines; and in the Aeneid: ‘‘In the first place [a spirit within nourishes] the heavens and the earth and the liquid plains’’ with neighboring lines, from which the pure essence of philosophy is tapped, he would not see clearly that Virgil was a philosopher and would think that this most learned of men, for the sake of exhibiting his rhetorical skill in which his power was enormous, would have led the shepherd Aristaeus into the depths of the earth to his mother [Cyrene], or Aeneas into the underworld to see his father, or that he wrote [such passages] without some depth of meaning hidden beneath the veil of myth? (C. G. Osgood, Boccaccio on Poetry [Indianapolis, 1956], 52–53, modified by MP) H. VIRGIL AS WORTHY OF VENERATION AND DIVINE

1. Tacitus See above, I.C.22. Dialogus 13 and 20 attest to the immortal status that Virgil’s work was early awarded. They parallel and confirm the worship given his gravesite that is documented for the poet Silius Italicus, older contemporary of Tacitus.

2. Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.24.13 See below, IV.C. (Text: J. Willis, ed., 2nd ed. [Leipzig, 1970]) Sed nos, quos crassa Minerva dedecet, non patiamur abstrusa esse adyta sacri poematis, sed arcanorum sensuum investigato aditu doctorum cultu celebranda praebeamus reclusa penetralia.

But we, whom coarse wit ill befits, would not su√er the sanctuary of this sacred poem to remain closed, but should examine the approaches to its hidden meanings and o√er its inmost shrine for the worship of the learned. (MP) H. VIRGIL AS WORTHY OF VENERATION

467

3. Servius See below, IV.B. In his comment on Aeneid 3.349, Servius calls Virgil a divinum poetam (divine poet). See H. Bloch, ‘‘The Pagan Revival in the West at the End of the Fourth Century,’’ in The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century, ed. A. Momigliano (Oxford, 1963), 210: ‘‘[The Saturnalia’s] main purpose is to present Virgil’s Aeneid, we might be so bold as to say, as a pagan Bible. Servius’s monumental commentary on the poem indirectly serves the same purpose.’’ It should be pointed out, as well, that the Christian Bible, at least in its Latin version, was also in the process of being assembled, and harmonized, by Jerome contemporaneously with the writing of Macrobius and with Proba’s (see below, III.A.5) use of Virgil to explicate biblical themes. The two textual systems matured in tandem and not a little dialogically. (Text: Thilo-Hagen 1:404) . . . unde apparet divinum poetam aliud agentem verum semper attingere.

. . . whence it appears that the divine poet, [even when] with another aim, always reaches the truth. (MP)

468

II. BIOGRAPHY

III VIRGIL’S TEXTS AND THEIR USES As the products of Rome’s most esteemed poet, Virgil’s works inspired many subsequent creative e√orts. One of the most extraordinary responses is the so-called Virgilian cento, a poem stitched together from complete or partial lines or phrases to form a sort of literary patchwork that is at once original and completely borrowed. Our surviving examples, which range widely in subject matter, reach their acme in the fourth century in both secular and Christian literature. The former is represented by Ausonius’s brilliant, obscene Cento nuptialis (Nuptial Cento), the latter by Faltonia Betitia Proba’s Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi (Virgilian Cento on the Praises of Christ), on the life of Christ and its biblical background. Like most great literature, Virgil’s writings were early on paid the compliment of parody. In his case it is largely limited to taking o√ individual lines for their content or expression (we have no equivalent of Alexander Pope’s Dunciad for the Aeneid). The Eclogues in particular seemed vulnerable to verbal burlesque. One of them, however, the fourth, had an intellectual life of a di√erent sort, of special importance to students of the afterlife of Virgil’s writings. We will see that immediately upon the poem’s publication, the identity of the boy, at whose advent, and from whose career, the world will be blessed with continuous peace and plenty, was treated allegorically, and that the sons of Asinius Pollio, the poem’s dedicatee, were, according to Servius, among the prime contenders to claim for themselves the honor of the disguise.

This trend toward allegory took a deeper turn in the early fourth century, when first Lactantius and then, in greater detail, his student, the emperor Constantine the Great, both converts to Christianity, interpreted the boy as the Christ child. This reading of the poem, supported by its dramatic date of 40 b.c.e., helped foster the position of Virgil as a pagan prophet, on a par for the pagan world with the Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament. It also fostered the notion of Virgil himself as a proto-Christian, as close as a pagan Roman could get to Christianity, and as near to sanctity as one could come, without knowledge of revelation. The liminal status of Virgil the human being, and the power of his fourth Eclogue to anticipate the force of Christianity, is nowhere more beautifully put than by Dante’s Statius in the twenty-second canto of Purgatorio. There, after paraphrasing Eclogues 4.5–7, he proclaims Virgil as the source of his Christianity as well as of his poetic inspiration. It is easy to see how the aura of holiness that surrounded Virgil, the omniscient poet-philosopher (see above, II.G), together with the worship of his grave at Naples (see above, II.C), could give rise to the various legends of Virgil the necromancer that sprang up in the Neapolitan area beginning in the twelfth century (see below, V). The texts of Virgil exerted their power in other directions as well. Selected figures and events in his poetry had important histories of their own beyond their Virgilian source. One of these is Orpheus, whom Virgil’s friend Horace styled ‘‘sacer interpresque deorum’’ (the holy expounder of the gods, Ars poetica 391). Virgil’s portrait of Orpheus, found toward the end of the fourth Georgic, influenced a host of poets, philosophers, and musicians, ranging from Ovid, writing soon after Virgil, through Boethius, in late antiquity, and Politian, in the fifteenth century, to Stéphane Mallarmé and Rainer Maria Rilke, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. (Discussion: Charles Segal, Orpheus: The Myth of the Poet [Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989]) Another is the figure of Dido, the central character of the fourth book of the Aeneid but whose presence is felt throughout the work. Again the first writer to exhibit the influence of Virgil’s extraordinary portrait is Ovid, in Heroides 7 and in the Metamorphoses, and, again, this force extends over a wide range of the arts. Finally, two events from the sixth book of the Aeneid, the plucking of the golden bough and Aeneas’s descent into the underworld, are widely used as vehicles for allegory in the tradition of commentary. (For a full but unanalytic catalogue of evidence for the penetration of Virgil’s texts into the writings of Church fathers and Christian poets, see P. Courcelle, Lecteurs païens et lecteurs chrétiens de l’Énéide, vol. 1: Les témoignages littéraires [Paris, 1984].) (MP)

470

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

A. VIRGILIAN CENTO Writers of Virgilian centos (the word cento, borrowed from the Greek, means ‘‘patchwork’’) take recognizable segments from Virgil’s oeuvre and piece them together to form a new whole. Products of a deep memory for Virgil’s texts on the part of their creators, they also depend for full e√ect on their readers’ parallel memory of Virgil’s writings. Besides the centos of Ausonius (see below, III.A.4), Geta (see below, III.A.2), and Mavortius (see below, III.A.7), there remain preserved nine others on non-Christian themes with the following titles: Narcissus, Hercules et Antaeus (Hercules and Antaeus), Progne et Philomela (Procne and Philomela), Europa, Alcesta, Hippodamia, De panificio (On the Baker), De alea (On Dicing), and Epithalamium Fridi (Wedding Poem of Fridus). (Discussion: F. E. Consolino, ‘‘Da Osidio Geta ad Ausonio e Proba,’’ Atene e Roma 28 [1983], 133–51; R. Lamacchia, ‘‘Centoni,’’ EV 1, 733–37; G. Salanitro, ‘‘Osidio Geta e la poesia centonaria,’’ ANRW 2/34.3 [1997], 2314–60; S. McGill, ‘‘Tragic Vergil: Rewriting Vergil as a Tragedy in the Cento Medea,’’ Classical World 95 [2002], 143–61. See S. McGill, Virgil Recomposed: The Mythological and Secular Centos in Antiquity [Oxford, 2005], for a full discussion of the nonreligious centos.)

1. Petronius See above, I.C.13.e.

2. Hosidius Geta and African Centos (second century c.e.) Hosidius, who is likely to have been an African, is the author of Medea, the first full-length Virgilian cento, in 461 hexameters. All the characters in this tragedy express themselves in Virgilian hexameters. (Text: Rosa Lamacchia, ed., Hosidius Geta: Medea Cento Vergilianus [Leipzig, 1981]) Probably written after Hosidius’s are two other anonymous centos, also thought to be African, definitely written before about 534. One is the De panificio (On the Baker), in 11 hexameters, with a lacuna of indeterminate length at the beginning, and the De alea (On Dicing), in 112 hexameters. (Discussion and text: S. McGill, Virgil Recomposed: The Mythological and Secular Centos in Antiquity [Oxford, 2005], 56–70, 131–35)

3. Tertullian (Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, circa 169–circa 240) Admired by Augustine, Tertullian was one of the first apologists for Christianity and a formative influence on the development of theology in the West. Although he relied uniquely upon the Bible for authority, Tertullian could not A. VIRGILIAN CENTO

471

help but confront the secular poet upon whom much of education and culture still rested. The following excerpt is from his De praescriptione haereticorum, also known as De praescriptionibus adversus haereticos (Concerning Objections against Heretics, circa 200), chapter 39, in which he comments on centos known to him, including the no longer extant Pinax Cebetis (The Table of Cebes), by an unnamed relative. (Text: PL 2, 52C–53A) Vides hodie ex Virgilio fabulam in totum aliam componi, materia secundum versus, versibus secundum materiam concinnatis. Denique Osidius Geta Medeam tragoediam ex Virgilio plenissime exsuxit. Meus quidem propinquus ex eodem poeta inter caetera styli sui otia Pinacem Cebetis explicuit.

You see in our own day, composed out of Virgil, a story of a wholly di√erent character, the subject matter being arranged according to the verse, and verse according to the subject matter. In short, Hosidius Geta has most completely extracted his tragedy of Medea from Virgil. A near relative of my own, among some leisure production of his pen, has composed out of the same poet The Table of Cebes. (P. Holmes, The Writings of Tertullian, The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325, ed. A. Roberts and J. Donaldson, vol. 3 [1905; rept., Ann Arbor, 1993], 262, modified)

4. Ausonius (Decimus Magnus Ausonius, circa 310–circa 394) A native of Bordeaux, Ausonius wrote some twenty books of poetry in a variety of meters, the best known of which is Mosella, a description of the Mosel River in 483 hexameters. Below are two episodes, the first complete, the second partial, besides a sentence from the introduction and a segment from the envoi, of his Cento nuptialis (Nuptial Cento, circa 374). His cento is itself a response to a lost nuptial cento written by Emperor Valentinian (364–75), at whose behest Ausonius wrote his own. (Discussion: G. O’Daly, ‘‘sunt etiam Musis sua ludicra: Vergil in Ausonius,’’ in ‘‘Romane memento’’: Vergil in the Fourth Century, ed. R. Reese [London, 2004], 141–54) (Text: Decimi Magni Ausonii Opera, no. 18, in The Works of Ausonius, ed. R. P. H. Green [Oxford, 1991], 132–39; commentary, 518–26) a. Praefatio Piget equidem Vergiliani carminis dignitatem tam ioculari dehonestasse materia.

No doubt I felt displeasure in degrading the excellence of Virgil’s poetry with such facetious matter. (MP)

472

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

b. ‘‘Descriptio egredientis sponsae’’ 33–45 Of the eighteen quotations from Virgil in the passage ‘‘Description of the Bride Going Forth,’’ the largest number, as is the case for the poem as a whole, come from the first book of the Aeneid. The remainder are distributed throughout the epic with one in addition from the third Georgic, as the following list of correspondences documents: line 33 = Aeneid 4.136, Aeneid 10.132; 34 = Aeneid 7.53; 35 = Aeneid 1.315, Aeneid 12.65; 36 = Aeneid 12.66; 37 = Aeneid 7.251, Georgics 3.215; 38 = Aeneid 7.812; 39 = Aeneid 7.813, Aeneid 5.566; 40 = Aeneid 5.567, Aeneid 1.319; 41 = Aeneid 3.483; 42 = Aeneid 1.650, Aeneid 2.591; 43 = Aeneid 2.592, Aeneid 10.16; 44 = Aeneid 6.208, Aeneid 1.503; 45 = Aeneid 2.457, Aeneid 1.506. Tandem progreditur Veneris iustissima cura, iam matura viro, iam plenis nubilis annis, virginis os habitumque gerens, cui plurimus ignem subiecit rubor et calefacta per ora cucurrit, intentos volvens oculos, uritque videndo. Illam omnis tectis agrisque effusa iuventus turbaque miratur matrum. Vestigia primi alba pedis, dederatque comam diffundere ventis. Fert picturatas auri subtemine vestes, ornatus Argivae Helenae [qualisque videri] caelicolis et quanta solet Venus aurea contra, talis erat species, talem se laeta ferebat ad soceros solioque alte subnixa resedit.

35

40

45

At last Venus’s most rightful care comes forth, already ripe for a husband, already of full age for marriage, [35] wearing the look and garb of a virgin over whom a great blush has spread its fire and su√used her burning cheeks, moving her eyes in concentration, inflaming with her vision. All the young, streaming from house and field, and the throng of mothers marvel at her. [Displaying] the glistening traces of her foot, [40] she had given her hair for the winds to spread. She wears a robe embroidered with threads of gold, adornment [worthy of] Grecian Helen: of beauty and stature such as golden Venus is wont to appear amid the gods, such did she seem, in such happiness she approached [45] her husband’s parents and sat supported on a lofty throne. (MP) c. ‘‘Imminutio’’ 101–9 The correspondences in the passage ‘‘The Deflowering’’ with Virgil’s poetry are as follows: line 101 = Aeneid 11.631, Aeneid 6.268; 102 = Georgics 3.267, Aeneid 3.240; 103 = Aeneid 10.892, Aeneid 9.398; 104 = Aeneid 10.699, Aeneid A. VIRGILIAN CENTO

473

12.748; 105 = Aeneid 7.362, Aeneid 6.406; 106 = Eclogues 10.27; 107 = Aeneid 12.312, Aeneid 7.66; 108 = Aeneid 3.658; 109 = Aeneid 10.788. Postquam congressi sola sub nocte per umbram et mentem Venus ipsa dedit, nova proelia temptant. Tollit se arrectum, conantem plurima frustra occupat os faciemque, pedem pede fervidus urget. Perfidus alta petens ramum, qui veste latebat, [see below, IV.W.4.a] sanguineis ebuli bacis minioque rubentem nudato capite et pedibus per mutua nexis, monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum, eripit a femore et trepidanti fervidus instat.

105

After they had come together in night’s solitary darkness and Venus herself brought them energy, they put fresh battling to the test. He holds himself erect: though she mightily struggles in vain, he takes possession of her face and features, in eagerness he presses foot against foot. [105] Treacherously seeking the depths he snatches from his thigh his rod, which was hiding under his clothing, crimsoned with elderberry’s blood-red and with vermilion, with head uncovered and with feet mutually intertwined—a dread monster, hideous, huge, eyeless—and eagerly presses upon her, anxious. (MP) d. To His Dedicatee, Paulus Ausonius here refers to earlier authors of obscene verse [see below, IV.W.4.b– 5.a]. Quid etiam Vergilium Parthenien [VSD 22; see above, II.A.1] dictum causa pudoris qui in octavo Aeneidos, cum describeret coitum Veneris atque Vulcani, a¯isxrosemnían decenter immiscuit? Quid? In tertio Georgicorum de summissis in gregem maritis nonne obscenam significationem honesta verborum translatione velavit? Et si quid in nostro ioco aliquorum hominum severitas vestita condemnat, de Vergilio arcessitum sciat. Igitur cui hic ludus noster non placet, ne legerit, aut cum legerit obliviscatur, aut non oblitus ignoscat. Etenim fabula de nuptiis est: et velit nolit aliter haec sacra non constant.

What also of Virgil, called ‘‘Parthenias’’ [the Maiden] by reason of his modesty, who in the eighth book of the Aeneid, when he describes the intercourse of Venus and Vulcan, has gracefully intermingled aischrosemnia [avoidance of obscenity]? Further, in the third book of the Georgics, when dealing with the admission of breed-males into the herd, has he not clothed an obscene meaning in innocent metaphor? And if the demure primness of certain people condemns anything in this sport of mine, let them realize that it is imported from Virgil. Therefore, he whom our jeu d’esprit bothers shouldn’t read it, or, 474

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

once he has read it, he should forget it, or, if he has not forgotten it, he should grant it pardon. For it is the story of a wedding, and, like it or not, the rites are just as recounted. (MP)

5. Proba (Faltonia Betitia Proba, flourished circa 385–87) The influence of Virgil on longer epic was pervasive in late antiquity, as can be determined from a study of poets such as Juvencus (active circa 430) and Prudentius (348–circa 413). But stylistic influence reaches an altogether different level in the cento, of which Proba’s Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi (Virgilian Cento on the Praises of Christ) became and remained the best known. Proba composed a lost epic on the civil conflict between Constantius II, who ruled from 337 until his death in 361, and Magnentius, a usurper whom the emperor defeated at the battle of Mursa in 351. (Discussion: D. Shanzer, ‘‘The Date and Identity of the Centonist Proba,’’ Recherches augustiniennes 27 [1994], 75–96; Roger Green, ‘‘Proba’s Cento: Its Date, Purpose and Reception,’’ Classical Quarterly 45 [1995], 551–63) Her Cento Vergilianus relates the story of the Creation, as told in the Book of Genesis, and the life of Christ. Isidore of Seville (circa 560–636; see above, I.C.37), at Etymologiarum libri 1.39.26, in his definition of cento, refers to Proba in language reminiscent of Tertullian (see above, III.A.3): Denique Proba, uxor Adelphi, centonem ex Vergilio de fabrica mundi et evangeliis plenissime expressit, materia conposita secundum versus, et versibus secundum materiam concinnatis.

Further, Proba, wife of Adelphus [prefect of Rome in 351], produced most fully a Virgilian cento on the making of the world and on the Gospels, with subject matter ordered according to the verse, and with verse arranged according to the subject matter. (MP) Proba’s may be the earliest surviving cento handling a Christian topic and is certainly the most famous, but it is not unique. The three other centos on Christian topics are Pomponius’s Versus ad gratiam Domini (Verses to the Grace of the Lord; see below, III.A.6), Mavortius’s De ecclesia (On the Church; see below, III.A.7.b), and the anonymous De verbi incarnatione (On the Incarnation of the Word; see below, III.A.8). Furthermore, Proba’s Cento Vergilianus may also be set within the context of the so-called Bible epics, written in Latin hexameters and often influenced heavily by Virgil. (Discussion of Virgil’s influence on the Bible epic of Juvencus: V. E. Borrell, Las palabras de Virgilio en Juvenco, Aurea saecula 6 [Barcelona, 1991]; M. Roberts, ‘‘Vergil and the Gospels: The Evangeliorum libri IV of Juvencus,’’ in ‘‘Romane A. VIRGILIAN CENTO

475

memento’’: Vergil in the Fourth Century, ed. R. Rees [London, 2004], 47–61) (Text, items a–d: K. Schenkl, ed., CSEL 16.1 [1888], 568–609; translations: E. Clark and D. Hatch, The Golden Bough, The Oaken Cross, The Vergilian Cento of Faltonia Betitia Proba [Chico, Calif., 1981]) a. Dedication to Emperor Arcadius (383–408) Romulidum ductor, clari lux altera solis, eoa qui regna regis moderamine iusto, spes orbis fratrisque decus: dignare Maronem, mutatum in melius divino agnoscere sensu, scribendum famulo quem iusseras. Hic tibi mundi principium formamque poli hominemque creatum experiet limo, hic Christi proferet ortum, insidias regis, magorum praemia, doctos discipulos pelagique minas gressumque per aequor, hic fractum famulare iugum vitamque reductam unius crucis auxilio reditumque sepultae mortis et ascensum pariter sua regna petentis. Haec relegas servesque diu tradasque minori Arcadio, haec ille suo semini, haec tua semper accipiat doceatque suos augusta propago.

5

10

15

Guide of Romulus’s descendants, the bright sun’s second light who guide the eastern realms in fair and lawful government, you, the empire’s hope and your brother’s glory: deign to renew an old acquaintance—Maro, changed for the better with sacred meaning, [5] whom you commanded that your servant write. Here will be set forth for you in verse the world’s beginning, heaven’s shape, and mankind made from clay. Here will be revealed Christ’s birth and Herod’s plot, the magi’s gifts, the disciples who were taught; also the perils of the sea, and the walk upon it; [10] here slavery’s broken yoke, and life brought back by help of the one cross; also, the return from death’s burial, as well as the ascension of the Christ as he departed for his kingdom. Reread this poem, keep it safe through time, and hand it down to the younger Arcadius, then he to his own sons. [15] May your august posterity always receive this poem well and teach it always to their families. (modified by MP) b. Proba Forgoes Pagan Epic The correspondences in this passage (47–55) with Virgil’s poetry are as follows: line 47 = Eclogues 1.31, Georgics 4.3; 48 = Aeneid 9.777; 49 = Georgics 1.387, Aeneid 8.378; 50 = Georgics 4.328, Aeneid 4.287; 51 = Aeneid 6.267; 476

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

52 = Georgics 3.553, Aeneid 9.186; 53 = Aeneid 9.187; 54 = Aeneid 5.71, Aeneid 5.304; 55 = Georgics 4.475–76. Line 48 refers directly to Aeneid 9.777, where Turnus kills the poet Cretheus, but indirectly to Aeneid 1.1, Arma virumque cano. Thus Proba’s reference exhibits her surface renunciation of the Aeneid and of pagan themes while at the same time putting Virgil to the fullest use for Christian purposes. Namque—fatebor enim—levium spectacula rerum semper equos atque arma virum pugnasque canebam et studio incassum volui exercere laborem. Omnia temptanti potior sententia visa est pandere res altas terra et caligine mersas. Inque dies aliquid iam dudum invadere magnum mens agitat mihi nec placida contenta quiete est. Ore favete omnes laetasque advertite mentes, matres atque viri pueri innuptaeque puellae.

50

55

For—yes, I shall confess—I used to sing the spectacles of trivial themes; always horses, arms of men I told, their wars, and eagerly wished to toil at a senseless task. [50] As I tried out all of these, a better purpose seemed for me to open up themes deep in earth, mist-veiled. Day upon day my mind kept goading me to set myself to some important subject, and my mind was not content with calm repose. [55] Mothers and men, youths and maids unwed, be silent, all, and turn attentive minds to me. (modified by JZ) c. Eden’s Forbidden Tree The correspondences in this passage (148–71) with Virgil’s poetry are as follows: line 148 = Aeneid 2.21, Georgics 2.81; 149 = Aeneid 7.692; 150 = Aeneid 7.608, Aeneid 3.700; 151 = Aeneid 11.591, Aeneid 6.141; 152 = Aeneid 11.849, Aeneid 1.260; 153 = Georgics 2.315; 154 = Eclogues 8.48, Aeneid 3.461; 155 = Georgics 3.216 (Aeneid 4.211, Aeneid 4.570, Aeneid 11.734), Aeneid 11.354; 156 = Georgics 1.168; 157 = Aeneid 3.518, Aeneid 10.176; 158 = Aeneid 8.322, Aeneid 6.677; 159 = Aeneid 6.678, Aeneid 4.232 (Aeneid 4.272); 160 = Aeneid 6.255; 161 = Aeneid 1.365 (Aeneid 6.638), Aeneid 1.693; 162 = Aeneid 1.694; 163 = Georgics 2.149; 164 = Georgics 4.18, Georgics 4.100; 165 = Georgics 4.101, Eclogues 9.41; 166 = Eclogues 9.42; 167 = Georgics 4.109; 168 = Aeneid 6.658, Georgics 1.127; 169 = Georgics 1.128; 170 = Aeneid 9.446, Eclogues 1.16; 171 = Aeneid 11.267, 5.523. ‘‘Est in conspectu ramis felicibus arbos, quam neque fas igni cuiquam nec sternere ferro, religione sacra numquam concessa moveri.

150

A. VIRGILIAN CENTO

477

Hac quicumque sacros decerpserit arbore fetus, morte luet merita: nec me sententia vertit. Nec tibi tam prudens quisquam persuadeat auctor conmaculare manus—liceat te voce moneri— femina, nec te ullius violentia vincat, si te digna manet divini gloria ruris.’’ Postquam cuncta pater, caeli cui sidera parent, conposuit, legesque dedit camposque nitentes desuper ostentat, tantarum gloria rerum. Ecce autem primi sub limina solis et ortus devenere locos, ubi mollis amaracus illos Floribus et dulci adspirans conplectitur umbra. Hic ver purpureum atque alienis mensibus aestas, hic liquidi fontes, hic caeli tempore certo dulcia mella premunt, hic candida populus antro inminet et lentae texunt umbracula vites. Invitant croceis halantes floribus horti inter odoratum lauri nemus ipsaque tellus omnia liberius nullo poscente ferebat. Fortunati ambo, si mens non laeva fuisset coniugis infandae: docuit post exitus ingens.

155

160

165

170

‘‘There is, in view, a tree with fruitful boughs; to topple it with flame or blade is sacrilege. [150] On sacred principle it does not su√er interference. Whoever robs this tree of hallowed fruit will pay with death deserved: no sentiment has swayed me. Let no counselor, however wise, persuade you to pollute your hands. I grant that you be warned with Woman—that one word—[155] and let no creature’s passion get the best of you, if glory from the godly fields, befitting you, awaits.’’ After the Father, whom heaven’s stars obey, assigned each thing its place, he gave out laws, and from above displayed the shining plains, the Father, glory of so great a world. [160] When, see! Just at the sun’s first wakening, they reached a place where tender, fragrant marjoram wrapped them about with blooms and pleasant shade. Here is rosy spring, and summer out of season; flowing fountains; here at heaven’s determined time [165] sweet honey swells; here white poplar overhangs the cave, and pliant vines plait full the shady nooks. Breathing with golden blooms, the gardens lure amid a pungent grove of bay, and earth herself keeps bringing forth all things in rich profusion and without request. [170] O blissful pair, had not the mind of wife—the impious wife—been misdirected; afterward the grievous exodus instructed them. 478

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

d. The Crucifixion For an example of the di√erence between pagan and Christian, or, better, secular and religious, appropriation of Virgil, compare the use of Aeneid 7.66 (pedibus per mutua nexis) by Proba at 618 with Ausonius’s Cento nuptialis 107 (see above, III.A.4.c). In both cases the transmutations, in both tone and content, are virtuosic—Ausonius’s generic in large measure (from epic to lyric-comic), Proba’s in terms of epic heroism, with pagan assimilated to Christian, Aeneas to Jesus, and so forth. The correspondences in this passage (607–24) with Virgil’s poetry are as follows: line 607 = Aeneid 8.97; 608 = Aeneid 1.509 (Aeneid 1.535, Aeneid 3.590), Aeneid 9.192; 609 = Aeneid 9.193 / Aeneid 11.240, Aeneid 2.74 (Aeneid 3.608); 610 = Aeneid 10.150, Aeneid 10.397; 611 = Aeneid 10.398, Georgics 3.523; 612 = Aeneid 10.501, Aeneid 2.64; 613 = Aeneid 7.519, Aeneid 7.520; 614 = Aeneid 12.462, Aeneid 1.594; 615 = Aeneid 2.167; 616 = Aeneid 11.5; 617 = Aeneid 6.217, Aeneid 2.217; 618 = Aeneid 6.314, Aeneid 7.66; 619 = Aeneid 6.223, Aeneid 5.74; 620 = Aeneid 6.624; 621 = Aeneid 10.717, Eclogues 6.23; 622 = Aeneid 1.132; 623 = Aeneid 1.136; 624 = Aeneid 2.650. (Discussion: J. Schnapp, ‘‘Reading Lessons: Augustine, Proba, and the Christian Détournement of Antiquity,’’ Stanford Literary Review 9 [1992], 99–123) Sol medium caeli conscenderat igneus orbem, cum subito acciri omnes, populusque patresque, exposcunt farique iubent, quo sanguine cretus quidve petat quidve ipse ferat. Praeclara tuentis facta viri mixtus dolor et stupor urguet inertis— nescia mens hominum—certantque inludere capto. Tum vero raptis concurrunt undique telis. tollitur in caelum clamor cunctique repente corripuere sacram effigiem manibusque cruentis ingentem quercum decisis undique ramis constituunt spirisque ligant ingentibus ipsum, tendebantque manus pedibus per mutua nexis— triste ministerium—sequitur quos cetera pubes, ausi omnes inmane nefas ausoque potiti. Ille autem inpavidus ‘‘Quo vincula nectitis?’’ inquit. ‘‘Tantane vos generis tenuit fiducia vestri? post mihi non simile poena commissa luetis.’’ Talia perstabat memorans fixusque manebat.

610

615

620

The molten sun had climbed the sky to noon when all at once the elders and the people demanded that he be fetched and they ordered him to speak: What is his A. VIRGILIAN CENTO

479

lineage? [610] What is his intent? What does he have to o√er them? Resentment mixed with apathy urged on the idle men who watched his famous deeds—man’s mind is ignorant—and they vied among themselves to mock their captive. Then in fact, grabbing weapons from everywhere, they rushed him. Shouts rang to heaven, [615] and all impulsively laid hands upon the sacred symbol, and with bloody hands set up a massive oak, its branches lopped away all around, and bound him with great coils. Then they stretched his hands, made one foot fixed upon the other—a sad attendance—the leaders whom the rest, the young men, followed. [620] All dared commit a monstrous wrong, and, what they dared to do, succeeded in. Yet he, undaunted, said, ‘‘What makes you tie these bonds? Has such great loyalty to your kind possessed you? Some day, for wrongs committed, you will pay with punishment unlike this one to me.’’ Recounting this, he stood a≈xed and there remained. (modified by JZ)

6. Pomponius An author named Pomponius composed an eclogue of 132 hexameters based completely on Virgil. The poem, with the incipit ‘‘Tityre, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi,’’ is fragmentarily preserved in Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Pal. lat. 1753 (785–800). Known alternatively as Cento Tityri (Cento of Tityrus) and Versus ad gratiam Domini (Verses to the Grace of the Lord), it takes as its basis Eclogues 1 and presents a dialogue, on Christian doctrine, between Tityrus and Meliboeus, using verses from the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid. Recent study suggests that the poem is to be dated between 322 and 370. The poem was known later (for a later mention, see below, V.F.1) mainly owing to its inclusion in Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiarum libri 1.39.26, immediately following the discussion of Proba (quoted above at III.A.5). (Text: K. Schenkl, ed., CSEL 16.1 [1888], 609; AL 1.2, 189–93, no. 719a) Sic quoque et quidam Pomponius ex eodem poeta inter cetera stili sui otia Tityrum in Christi honorem conposuit: similiter et de Aeneidos.

So too one Pomponius composed, among other trifles he penned, a ‘‘Tityrus’’ in honor of Christ, and likewise too from the Aeneid. (JZ) Isidore’s is the sole attestation for the centonist’s name. (Discussion: S. McGill, ‘‘ ‘Poeta arte christianus’: Pomponius’s Cento Versus ad Gratiam Domini as an Early Example of Christian Bucolic,’’ Traditio 56 [2001], 15–26) (JZ)

7. Mavortius (Vettius Agorius Basilius Mavortius, late fifth–early sixth century) Mavortius was probably the consul of 527 and possibly the author of two Virgilian centos. (See PLRE 2.736–37.) 480

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

a. Iudicium Paridis (The Judgment of Paris) This cento of 42 lines shows parallels to the Epithalamium Fridi (Wedding Poem of Fridus) of 68 lines by Luxorius, who wrote in Vandal Africa in the late fifth or early sixth century. (Text: AL 1.1, 39–41, no. 10) (Trans. M. Rosenblum, A Latin Poet among the Vandals, Records of Civilization: Sources and Studies 62 [New York, 1961], 164–69) It has also been compared with six other so-called mythological centos, which like it are all preserved in the Codex Salmasianus but which are anonymous: Hippodamia, 162 lines; Narcissus, 16 lines; Hercules et Antaeus (Hercules and Antaeus), 16 lines; Progne et Philomela (Procne and Philomela), 24 lines; Europa, 34 lines (with an apparent lacuna of unknown length), and Alcesta, 162 lines (without counting a lacuna of undetermined length). (Discussion: S. McGill, Virgil Recomposed: The Mythological and Secular Centos in Antiquity [Oxford, 2005], 71–91) (Texts: S. McGill, Virgil Recomposed, 135–47, 150–52) b. De ecclesia The 110-hexameter On the Church, with the incipit ‘‘Tectum augustum ingens’’, is preserved in the Codex Salmasianus, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 10318 (seventh–eighth century). (Discussion: M. L. Ricci, ‘‘Motivi ed espressioni bibliche nel centone virgiliano ‘De Ecclesia,’ ’’ Studi italiani filologici 35 [1963], 161–85) At its initial recitation Mavortius was proclaimed Maro iunior (younger Virgil). His response was a six-line extemporaneous coda, stitched together from quotations of the Eclogues and Aeneid. (Text: AL 1.1, 56–61, nos. 16–16a; K. Schenkl, ed., CSEL 16.1 [1888], 621–27)

8. De verbi incarnatione The 111-hexameter cento On the Incarnation of the Word, with the incipit ‘‘Omnipotens genitor tandem miseratus’’, is extant in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 13047 (ninth century). The title, not original, dates to the first printed edition, of the early eighteenth century. Formerly attributed to Coelius, or Caelius, Sedulius (a Christian Latin poet active in the first half of the fifth century), the poem is now considered anonymous. It presents a church service, including a brief sermon. (Text: K. Schenkl, ed., CSEL 16.1 [1888], 615–20)

9. Thierry of St. Trond (died 1107) Abbot of St. Trond in Limbourg, Thierry (also called Theodorich) was also a poet. Besides versifying Julius Solinus’s (circa 250 c.e.) Collectanea rerum memorabilium (Gallery of Wonderful Things), he wrote a number of saints’ lives. The poem quoted here is a lament for a dead dog that declares in its A. VIRGILIAN CENTO

481

closing lines its indebtedness to the pseudo-Virgilian poem Culex (The Gnat). Although it is not a full-blown cento (the cento genre ceased to be cultivated after late antiquity), it has been rightly called a pastiche. Some correspondences with Virgil’s poetry are in lines 9 (Aeneid 6.494, 12.728, 12.920), 12 (Aeneid 5.801, 6.766), 31 (Aeneid 10.558), 39 (Aeneid 1.287), and 46 (Aeneid 7.543). Line 50 alludes overtly to Ovid, Amores 2.6.48, and 56 to Virgil, Aeneid 1.1. (Text: J. G. Préaux, ‘‘Du Culex de Virgile à son pastiche par Thierry de Saint-Trond,’’ in Présence de Virgile: Actes du Colloque des 9, 11 et 12 décembre 1976, ed. R. Chevallier [Paris, 1978], 195–208) ‘‘Flete canes, si flere vacat, si flere valetis; Flete canes: catulus mortuus est pitulus.’’ ‘‘Mortuus est Pitulus, Pitulus quis?’’ ‘‘Plus cane dignus.’’ ‘‘Quis Pitulus?’’ ‘‘Domini cura dolorque sui. 5 Non canis Albanus nec erat canis ille Molossus Sed canis exiguus sed brevis et catulus. Quinquennis fuerat; si bis foret ille decennis, Usque putes catulum, cum videas modicum. Muri Pannonico vix equus corpore toto, 10 Qui non tam muri quam similis lepori. Albicolor nigris faciem gemmabat ocellis.’’ ‘‘Unde genus?’’ ‘‘Mater Fresia, Freso pater.’’ ‘‘Quae vires?’’ ‘‘Parvae satis illo corpore dignae, Ingentes animi robore dissimili.’’ 15 ‘‘Quid fuit officium? Numquid fuit utile vel non?’’ ‘‘Ut parvum magnus diligeret dominus. Hoc fuit officium domino praeludere tantum.’’ ‘‘Quae fuit utilitas?’’ ‘‘Non nisi risus erat. Nullus eum stantem, nullus non risit euntem 20 [ . . .] Difficilis facilis, sevus modo nec mora mitis Audax magnanimus, mox piger et pavidus; Exiguo magnum morsu qui leserat ursum, Exigui muris pertimuit strepitum. Credo Vertumnis quotquot sunt natus iniquis [Horace, Satires 2.7.14] 25 Par fuerat nulli, dispar et ipse sibi.’’ Qualis eras, dilecte canis, ridende dolende, Risus eras vivens, mortuus ecce dolor. Quisquis te vidit, quisquis te novit, amavit 30 Et dolet exitio nunc, miserande, tuo. Forsan corvino posuisti membra sepulchro Inmeritus certe vermibus esca fore. 482

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

Care canis, plangende nimis, te nostra poesis Deficit in titulo, namque cares tumulo. Non tamen inde reus tuus in te Theodericus, Non fueram presens, cum moriturus eras. Sed quid obest laudi functorum, non tumulari? Tot tantique viri mole carent tumuli. En Cato vir celebris, famam qui terminat astris, Dicitur exilem non meruisse scrobem. Et domitor mundi, mundo metuendus ab omni Pompeius parvo conditus est loculo; Thessalia caesus sanctissimus ille senatus Vulturis esca fuit: quid meritis nocuit? Virtus non bustis includitur atque sepulchris, Sed convexa poli replet et ampla soli. In tumulando tamen quoddam reor esse levamen, Hinc avibus vel aequis facta sepulchra legis. Psitacus Ovidii tumulo tituloque superbit, Quod dixit moriens lingua ‘‘Corinna, vale.’’ Magnus et exequias regali funere dignas Claro Buchephalo fecit equo Machedo; Eius et ad laudem preclaram condidit urbem Illius aequivocam nomine Buchephalam. Et culicem magni celebravit Musa Maronis Et culicis titulum iunxit ad ‘‘Arma virum.’’ Morte sua vitam servaverat ille poetae, Quem Maro dum peremit, nulla sepulchra dedit. Sed facit aeternum carmen per secula clarum, Exiguusque culix versibus est celebris. At titulum Pituli nolo cessisse Maroni: Nobilitabo canem, Virgilius culicem.

35

40

45

50

55

60

‘‘Weep, dogs, if you have time to weep, if you are able to weep, weep, dogs: the pup Peewee is dead.’’ ‘‘Peewee is dead? Who was Peewee?’’ ‘‘More worthy than a dog.’’ ‘‘Who was Peewee?’’ ‘‘The chief concern and grief of his master. [5] He was not a large dog—not an Alban [or Albanian] dog, nor a Molossian dog—but a slight dog and a short pup. He was five years old. If he were twenty years old, still you would think him a pup when you saw how modest he was in size. He was scarcely equal to a A. VIRGILIAN CENTO

483

Pannonian mouse in his whole body; [10] he was similar not so much to a mouse as to a hare. White in color, he bejeweled his face with black eyes.’’ ‘‘From which breed was he born?’’ ‘‘His dam was a Frisian, as was his sire.’’ ‘‘How much strength did he have?’’ ‘‘Quite little, but suited to that body; his courage was great, but his physical might was a di√erent matter.’’ [15] ‘‘What was his function? Was it a useful one or not?’’ ‘‘That his large master should love a small dog—that was his duty, to play before his master.’’ ‘‘What was the use of that?’’ ‘‘There was none, if not laughter! No one failed to laugh at him as he stood or as he moved: [20] [whatever he tried, there was laughter at seeing him.] He was now inflexible, now flexible; savage in one instant and gentle in the next; bold and great-spirited, but then lazy and frightened. The creature who had hurt a great bear with a puny bite was terrified at the peeping of a puny mouse. [25] I believe that he, a creature born when every single Vertumnus [god of the changing year] was discontented, was equal to none and was unequal even to himself.’’ Such as you were, beloved dog, to be laughed at and grieved over; you were laughter while you were alive, but look at the grief when you have died! Whoever saw you, whoever knew you, loved you [30] and grieves now over your demise, pitiable dog. Perhaps you deposited your limbs within the tomb of a raven’s maw; to be sure, you did not deserve to be food for worms. Dear dog, all too much to be lamented, my poetry fails you as an epitaph, for you have no tomb. [35] Yet your Thierry is not guilty of this toward you: I was not present when you were on the point of dying. But what hindrance does the lack of burial pose to praise of the dead? Many great men lack the mound of a burial site. For example, Cato, a celebrated man, who brings his fame to the stars, [40] is said as an exile not to have earned a grave. And Pompey, conqueror of the world, to be feared by the whole world, was buried in a small nook. That most sacred member of the senate, slain in Thessaly, was food for a vulture: how did that harm his due rewards? [45] Virtue is not enclosed in graves and tombs, but it fills the vaults of heaven and the ample spaces of the earth. Nevertheless I am of the opinion that there is a certain solace in the act of burial. Hence you read that tombs were made for birds and horses. Ovid’s parrot took pride in his burial mound and epitaph, [50] because the last words on his tongue as he died were ‘‘Farewell, Corinna!’’ And the great Macedonian [Alexander the Great] arranged for his renowned horse Bucephalus a funeral procession fit for a king’s burial, and in his praise founded an exceedingly famous city, called by the identical name Bucephala. 484

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

[55] The muse of great Maro even celebrated a gnat and appended the epitaph of the gnat to ‘‘arms and the man.’’ In dying the gnat saved the life of the poet. As it happened Maro gave the gnat no tomb, but he made an eternal song, renowned throughout the centuries, [60] and the slight gnat is famous on account of his verses. I do not wish to yield to Maro as regards an epitaph for Peewee: I will ennoble my dog, just as Virgil did his gnat. (J. Ziolkowski, Talking Animals: Medieval Latin Beast Poetry, 750–1150 [Philadelphia, 1993], 272–73, modified) B. VIRGILIAN PARODY Parody pays the texts it imitates the roundabout compliment of acknowledging that they are already well known to readers. Here it serves as one further means of illustrating the popularity of Virgil’s works, even from their moment of publication. The examples that follow are drawn from throughout his writing.

1. Early Detractors a. Numitorius An otherwise unknown contemporary of Virgil. (Discussion: R. Scarcia, ‘‘Gli antibucolica di Numitorio,’’ Rivista di cultura classica e medioevale 11 [1969], 169–89) The lines parodied in this passage are Eclogues 1.1—‘‘Tityre, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi’’ (You, Tityrus, reclining under the protection of a spreading beech)—and Eclogues 3.1–2: Menalcas: Dic mihi, Damoeta, cuium pecus? an Meliboei? Damoetas: Non, verum Aegonis; nuper mihi tradidit Aegon.

Menalcas: Tell me, Damoetas, whose flock? Is it that of Meliboeus? Damoetas: No. It’s Aegon’s. Aegon gave it to me the other day. (MP) (Text: VSD 43, in VVA 38–39) 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?’’

sequentis: ‘‘Dic mihi Damoeta: cuium pecus, anne Latinum? Non, verum Aegonis nostri sic rure loquuntur.’’

Virgil never wanted for detractors. And no wonder, for neither, in fact, did Homer. After the publication of the Bucolics, a certain Numitorius wrote a kind of 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 B. VIRGILIAN PARODY

485

‘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.’’ (DWO and JZ) b. Carvilius Pictor The conclusion of Georgics 1.299, quoted below, is ‘‘hiems ignava colono’’ (winter is a time of laziness for the farmer). The reference of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (see above, I.B.3) to Maecenas may come from Agrippa’s autobiography, only a few fragments of which survive. Carvilius Pictor is otherwise unknown. (Text: VSD 43–44, in VVA 39–40) Alius recitante eo ex Georgicis: ‘‘Nudus ara, sere nudus’’ [1.299], subiecit: ‘‘habebis frigore febrem.’’ 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.

When this line from the Georgics—‘‘Plow naked and sow naked’’—was being recited, someone else added, ‘‘You will catch a fever from the cold.’’ 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. (DWO and JZ) c. Herennius and Perellius Faustus The authors cited are unknown and seem to deal as much with literary borrowings as with parody per se. (Text: VSD 44–45, in VVA 40) Herennius tantum vitia eius, Perellius Faustus furta contraxit. Sed et Q. Octavi Aviti ∞Omoioteleútvn octo volumina quos et unde versus transtulerit continent.

Herennius collected only his defects, Perellius Faustus only what he had stolen. But Quintus Octavius Avitus’s eight volumes of Correspondences include both the lines that are derivative and their sources. (DWO and JZ)

2. Cornificius Gallus Otherwise unknown. (See FLP, 285–86; and G. Wissowa, RE 4, 1, cols. 1628– 29, under Quintus Cornificius [no. 8].) As cited by Cledonius (GL 5.43), he takes Virgil to task in the following verse: Hordea qui dixit, superest ut tritica dicat.

Whoever has said barley, it remains for him to say wheat. (MP) 486

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

According to Servius auctus (see below, IV.B) a later and longer version of the ‘‘original’’ Servius text, on Georgics 1.210, where it is also quoted, the verse was created as a jibe by Virgil’s contemporary poetasters Bavius and Maevius (see Eclogues 3.90 and, for the second, Horace, Epodes 10.2). See Thilo-Hagen 3.1:180.

3. Servius See below, IV.B. a. Comment on Eclogues 2.23 [22]: ‘‘lac mihi non aestate novum, non frigore defit’’ (new milk fails me not, summer or winter) (Text: Thilo-Hagen 3.1:21) Sane hunc versum male distinguens Vergiliomastix vituperat ‘‘lac mihi non aestate novum, non frigore defit,’’ id est, semper mihi deest.

By means of quite wrong punctuation a ‘‘Vergiliomastix’’ [Scourge of Virgil] censures ‘‘fresh milk isn’t mine in the summer, nor in the winter: it’s missing,’’ which is to say, I never have it. (MP) b. Comment on Aeneid 5.521: ‘‘[ostentans] artemque pater arcumque sonantem’’ (father [Acestes], displaying his skill and his resounding bow) (Text: Thilo-Hagen 1:631) Culpat hoc Vergiliomastix: artem enim in vacuo aere ostendere non poterat: quamquam dicant periti posse ex ipso sagittariorum gestu artis peritiam indicari.

A ‘‘Vergiliomastix’’ [Scourge of Virgil] finds fault with this: for one cannot display art in the empty air: although the skilled say that the skillfulness of their art can be shown by the very movement of archers. (MP) C. ECLOGUES 4 The fourth Eclogue concerns a boy at whose birth nature is miraculously productive and whose growth to manhood brings with it the end of human crime, which begets war, and the start of a time of spontaneous beauty in nature at which the heavens rejoice. The dramatic date of Virgil’s poem (40 b.c.e.) and its content were interpreted by Church apologists, beginning in the early fourth century, as a prediction of the advent of Christ. As a rule, theologians distinguished between the Cumaean Sibyl, who speaks the verses in question, and Virgil, the pagan poet who did not appreciate their prophetic content; but not all writers were so punctilious. As a result Virgil was sometimes considered a prophet of Christ’s coming, on a par for the pagan world with the prophets, like Isaiah, of the Old Testament [see above, II.F.10]. C. ECLOGUES 4

487

Such an interpretation added further confirmation to the long-held notion of Virgil’s work as a series of sacred, vatic, omniscient texts, and served as fuel for the legends that were to evolve around the figure of Virgil himself, especially as magician and necromancer. If we can trust the evidence of Servius auctus (see below, IV.B) commenting on Eclogues 4.11 (Thilo-Hagen 3.1:46), allegorical interpretation of the puer (boy) was already an accepted option as early as the generation after Virgil. According to Servius, Asinius Gallus (41 b.c.e.–33 c.e.), son of Asinius Pollio (76 b.c.e.–4 c.e.), told the learned Asconius Pedianus (3–88 c.e.; see also below, IV.A.3) that Gallus himself was the child in question. The year of Gallus’s birth is based on Servius’s remark that he was born Pollione consule designato (when Pollio was consul-designate), that is, the year before his consulship in 40 b.c.e., the apparent date of the poem. Servius also mentions another, otherwise unknown, son of Pollio, Saloninus, who made the same claim. For detailed bibliography of discussions of allegory in the Eclogues, see M. Schanz and C. Hosius, Geschichte der römischen Literatur (Munich, 1935), 2:20–41; and J. W. Jones Jr., ‘‘The Allegorical Traditions of the Aeneid,’’ in Vergil at 2000: Commemorative Essays on the Poet and His Influence, ed. J. D. Bernard, AMS Ars poetica 3 (New York, 1986), 107–32. (Discussion: W. Schmid, ‘‘Tityrus christianus,’’ Rheinisches Museum 96 (1953), 101–65; P. Courcelle, ‘‘Les exégèses chrétiennes de la quatrième églogue,’’ Revue des études anciennes 59 [1957], 294–319; EM 4:247–52; S. Benko, ‘‘Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue in Christian Interpretation,’’ ANRW 2/31.1 [1980], 646–70; G. Lobrichon, ‘‘Saint Virgile auxerrois et les avatars de la quatrième églogue,’’ in LMV 357–74; VMA 96–103; Verfasserlexikon 10:259–60)

1. Lactantius (Lucius Caelius [Caecilius] Firmianus, also called Lactantius, circa 240–circa 320) Lactantius, a North African by birth, was summoned by Diocletian (died circa 312) to Nicomedia to teach rhetoric, but he lost his position during the persecution of 303 because he had converted to Christianity. He was a friend of Constantine I ‘‘the Great’’ (272/73–337) and tutor of his eldest son, Crispus. He is the author of many works in prose and poetry, the most influential of which is Divinae institutiones (Divine Institutions, circa 303–13), an apology in seven books for, and an introduction to, Christianity. Lactantius expresses his admiration of Virgil at Divinae institutiones 1.5.11: nostrorum primus Maro (Maro first among us). He regarded Virgil as a monotheist and ascribed to him a prescience about basic truths of Judaism and Christianity. Lactantius was the first to bring the fourth Eclogue into Christian tradition as evidence of Sibylline prophecy. He seems to have credited the 488

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

Cumaean Sibyl and not Virgil himself with prophetic power. (Discussion: L. J. Swift ‘‘Lactantius and the Golden Age,’’ American Journal of Philology 79 [1968], 153–55; A. Wlosok, ‘‘Zwei Beispiele frühchristlicher ‘Vergilrezeption’: Polemik [Lact., div. inst. 5, 10] und Usurpation (Or. Const. 19–21),’’ 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], 437–44) The following excerpt is from Divinae institutiones 7.24. (Text: S. Brandt, ed., CSEL 19 [1890], 658–63) Nunc reliqua subnectam. Veniet igitur summi et maximi Dei filius, ut vivos ac mortuos iudicet. . . . Terra vero aperiet fecunditatem suam et uberrimas fruges sua sponte generabit, rupes montium melle sudabunt, per rivos vina decurrent et flumina lacte inundabunt: mundus denique ipse gaudebit et omnis rerum natura laetabitur erepta et liberata dominio mali et impietatis et sceleris et erroris. Non bestiae per hoc tempus sanguine alentur, non aves praeda, sed quieta et placida erunt omnia. Leones et vituli ad praesepe simul stabunt, lupus ovem non rapiet, canis non venabitur, accipitres et aquilae non nocebunt, infans cum serpentibus ludet. Denique tum fient illa quae poetae aureis temporibus facta esse iam Saturno regnante dixerunt. Quorum error hinc ortus est, quod prophetae futurorum pleraque sic proferunt et enuntiant quasi iam peracta. Visiones enim divino spiritu offerebantur oculis eorum et videbant illa in conspectu suo quasi fieri ac terminari. Quae vaticinia eorum cum paulatim fama vulgasset, quoniam profani a sacramento ignorabant quatenus dicerentur, conpleta esse iam veteribus saeculis illa omnia putaverunt, quae utique fieri conplerique non poterant homine regnante. Cum vero deletis religionibus impiis et scelere compresso subiecta erit Deo terra, Cedet et ipse mari vector nec nautica pinus mutabit merces, omnis feret omnia tellus. Non rastros patietur humus, non vinea falcem; robustus quoque iam tauris iuga solvet arator [Eclogues 4.38–41].

Tunc et Molli paulatim flavescet campus arista incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva et durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella. Nec varios discet mentiri lana colores, ipse sed in pratis aries iam suave rubenti murice, iam croceo mutabit vellera luto, sponte sua sandyx pascentis vestiet agnos. Ipsae lacte domum referent distenta capellae ubera nec magnos metuent armenta leones [Eclogues 4.28–30, 42–45, 21–22]. C. ECLOGUES 4

489

Quae poeta secundum Cymaeae Sibyllae carmina prolocutus est. . . . Vivent itaque homines tranquillissimam et copiosissimam vitam et regnabunt cum Deo pariter, reges gentium venient a finibus terrae cum donis ac muneribus, ut adorent et honorificent regem magnum, cuius nomen erit praeclarum ac venerabile universis nationibus quae sub caelo erunt et regibus qui dominabuntur in terra.

Now I will add the rest. The Son of the most high and mighty God will come, therefore, to judge the living and the dead. . . . The earth, in truth, will disclose its fecundity and will produce the richest crops of its own accord. Mountain rocks will ooze with honey, wines will flow down through the streams, and rivers will overflow with milk. The world itself will rejoice and the nature of all things will be glad, since the dominion of evil and impiety and crime will have been broken and cut o√ from it. Beasts will not feed on blood during this time nor birds on prey, but all things will be quiet and at rest. Lions and calves will stand together at the manger to feed; the wolf will not steal the sheep; the dog will not hunt; hawks and eagles will not do harm; a child will play with snakes. Then, there will take place those things which the poets said happened in the golden times when Saturn was reigning. Their error arose from this, because the prophets generally give out and pronounce the happenings of the future as though they were already finished. Visions were presented to their eyes by the Divine Spirit, and they saw those as though they were happening and taking place within the bounds of their sight, as it were. When rumor had carried their prophecies abroad little by little, since those who were not initiated to the revelation did not know to what purpose they were spoken, they thought that all those things had been completed in past ages; but certainly, these things could not have taken place and been completed under the reign of man. However, when the false religions are destroyed and crime is checked and the earth is subjected to God, ‘‘the trader himself will quit the sea, and the ship of pine will not exchange wares. Every land will bear all things. Earth will not endure the harrow, nor vines the pruning hook. Then also the sturdy ploughman will undo the yokes from his oxen.’’ Then, also, ‘‘little by little the field will grow yellow with soft corn and the reddening grape will hang from uncultivated brambles and hard oaks will drip dewy honey, and wool will not learn the deceit of varying hues, but of his own accord the ram in the fields will change his fleece, now to sweetly blushing crimson, now to a golden orange. Spontaneously vermilion will clothe the grazing lambs. Goats will bring home udders swollen with milk, and the herds will not fear mighty lions.’’ The poet spoke these things according to the songs of the Cumaean 490

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

Sibyl. . . . Men will enjoy, therefore, the most tranquil and most abundant life, and they will reign together with God. Kings of the nations will come from the ends of the earth with gifts and presents to adore and honor the great king, whose name will be famous and venerable to all peoples which will be under heaven and to the kings who will rule the earth. (M. F. McDonald, Lactantius: The Divine Institutions [Washington, D.C.,1964], 530–33)

2. Constantine I (Flavius Valerius Constantinus) Constantine (272/73–337) was the first emperor to give toleration and imperial favor to Christianity. He did so in the years following his defeat of Maxentius in 312 at the Milvian bridge, up the Tiber from Rome, especially through the so-called Edict of Milan in 313. (It was later given out that, before entering battle, he had seen a cross in the sky accompanied by the words In Hoc Signo Vinces [under this sign you will be victorious], the initial letters of which would be an anagram for the name of Jesus if the Latin letters were taken to be the Greek ones they resembled.) In 325 at Nicaea Constantine called together the assembly that has been styled the first ecumenical council, from which resulted the so-called Nicene Creed. His Oratio ad coetum sanctorum (Speech to the Gathering of the Saints) was delivered in Greek in 323 and preserved in the writings of Eusebius of Caesarea (circa 260–339), who also wrote his biography. Eusebius refers to the speech and to the fact that he will append a copy of it to his vita of Constantine (Vita Constantini 4.32, trans. A. Cameron and S. Hall [Oxford, 1999], 165). (Against Constantinian authorship, see M. Geymonat, ‘‘Un falso Cristiano della seconda metà del IV secolo [sui tempi e le motivazioni della Oratio Constantini ad sanctorum coetum],’’ Aevum Antiquum 1 [2001], 349–66.) The passion of St. Artemius, dux Aegypti (general of Egypt), gives testimony that the messianic interpretation of the fourth Eclogue remained known in the East after the time of Constantine I. To prove the truth of the Christian faith, the martyr cites ‘‘the responses of the gods whom you worship, the Sibylline prophecies and writings, and the poetry by the Roman Virgil that you call the Bucolics’’ (Text: Patrologiae cursus completus, series Graeca 115, ed. J.-P. Migne, col. 1193). (MP and JZ) Paragraphs 19–20 are quoted. (Discussion: A. Wlosok, ‘‘Zwei Beispiele frühchristlicher ‘Vergilrezeption’: Polemik [Lact., div. inst. 5, 10] und Usurpation [Or. Const. 19–21],’’ 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], 444–55; E. D. Floyd, ‘‘Eusebius’ Greek version of Vergil’s Fourth Eclogue,’’ in The Politics of Translation in the C. ECLOGUES 4

491

Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. R. Blumenfeld-Kosinski, L. von Flotow, D. Russell [Ottawa, 2001], 57–67) (Text: Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte 7 [= Eusebius 1 (1902), ed. A. Heikel, 149–92]) Many, however, who admit that the Erythraean Sibyl was really a prophetess, yet refuse to credit this prediction, and imagine that someone professing our faith, and not unacquainted with the poetic art, was the composer of these verses. They hold, in short, that they are a forgery, and alleged to be the prophecies of the Sibyl on the ground of their containing useful moral sentiments, tending to restrain licentiousness, and to lead man to a life of sobriety and decorum. Truth, however, in this case is evident, since the diligence of our people has made a careful computation of the times; so that there is no room to suspect that this poem was composed after the advent and condemnation of Christ, or that the general report is false, that the verses were a prediction of the Sibyl in an early age. For it is allowed that Cicero was acquainted with this poem, which he translated into the Latin tongue, and incorporated with his own works. This writer was put to death during the ascendancy of Antony, who in his turn was conquered by Augustus, whose reign lasted fifty-six years. Tiberius succeeded, in whose age it was that the Savior’s advent enlightened the world, the mystery of our most holy religion began to prevail, and as it were a new race of men commenced: of which, I suppose, the prince of Latin poets speaks this: Now a new people is sent down from heaven on high [Eclogues 4.7].

And again, in another passage of the Bucolics: Muses of Sicily, let us sing of matters slightly grander [Eclogues 4.1].

What can be clearer than this? For he adds: The last age of Cumaean song now has come [Eclogues 4.4],

evidently referring to the Cumaean Sibyl. Nor was even this enough: the poet goes further, as if irresistibly impelled to bear his testimony. What then does he say? The great order of the ages is born afresh. Now also the Virgin returns, the kingdoms of Saturn return [Eclogues 4.5–6].

Who, then, is the virgin who was to come? Is it not she who was filled with, and with child of, the Holy Spirit? And why is it impossible that she who was with child of the Holy Spirit would be, and ever continue to be, a virgin? This king, too, will return, and by his coming lighten the sorrows of the world. The poet adds:

492

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

Chaste Lucina, look kindly on the boy just now being born, for whom the iron age will first give place and a golden race will spring up throughout the world [Eclogues 4.8–10].

We perceive that these words are spoken plainly and at the same time darkly, by way of allegory. Those who search deeply for the import of the words, are able to discern the Divinity of Christ. But lest any of the powerful in the imperial city might be able to accuse the poet of writing anything contrary to the laws of the country, and subverting the religious sentiments that had prevailed from ancient times, he intentionally obscures the truth. For he was acquainted, as I believe, with that blessed mystery which gave to our Lord the name of Savior: but, that he might avoid the severity of cruel men, he drew the thoughts of his hearers to objects with which they were familiar, saying that altars must be erected, temples raised, and sacrifices offered to the newborn child. His concluding words also are adapted to the sentiments of those who were accustomed to such a creed, for he says: He will accept the life of the gods and will see heroes consorting with gods and himself will be seen by them [Eclogues 4.15–16];

evidently meaning the righteous. He will rule over a world made peaceful by his father’s virtues. But for you, child, the earth will pour forth with no tilling, as its first gifts, ivy wandering everywhere about, with foxglove and the bean plant mingled with smiling acanthus [Eclogues 4.17–20].

Well indeed was this admirably wise and accomplished man acquainted with the cruel character of the times. He proceeds: Goats will bring home udders swollen with milk, and the herds will not fear mighty lions [Eclogues 4.21–22].

Truly said: for faith will not stand in awe of the mighty in the imperial palace. Of itself your birthplace will pour forth harmless flowers. The snake, too, will die, and the deceitful poison herb will die. Assyrian nard will grow everywhere [Eclogues 4.23–25].

Nothing could be said more true or more consistent with the Savior’s excellency than this. For the power of the Divine Spirit presents the very cradle of God, like fragrant flowers, to the newborn people. The serpent, too, and the venom of that serpent, perishes, who originally beguiled our first parents, and drew their thoughts from their native innocence to the enjoyment of pleasures, that they might experience that threatened death. For

C. ECLOGUES 4

493

before the Savior’s advent, the serpent’s power was shown in subverting the souls of those who were sustained by no well-grounded hope, and ignorant of that immortality which awaits the righteous. But after that he had suffered, and was separated for a season from the body that he had assumed, the power of the Resurrection was revealed to man through the communication of the Holy Spirit: and whatever stain of human guilt might yet remain was removed by the washing of sacred lustrations. Then indeed could the Savior bid his followers be of good cheer and, remembering his Resurrection, worthy of adoration and glory, expect the like for themselves. Truly, then, the poisonous race may be said to be extinct. Death himself is extinct, and the truth of the Resurrection sealed. Again, the Assyrian race is gone, which first led the way to faith in God. But when he speaks of the growth of amomum everywhere, he alludes to the multitude of the true worshippers of God. For it is as though a multitude of branches, crowned with fragrant flowers, and fitly watered, sprang from the self-same root. Most justly said, Maro, you wisest of poets, and with this all that follows is consistent: But as soon as you can read the praises of heroes and the deeds of your father and comprehend the meaning of courage . . . [Eclogues 4.26–27]

By the praises of heroes, he indicates the works of righteous men: by the virtues of his Father he speaks of the creation and everlasting structure of the world: and, it may be, of those laws by which God’s beloved Church is guided, and ordered in a course of righteousness and virtue. Admirable, again, is the advance to higher things of that state of life which is intermediate, as it were, between good and evil, and which seldom admits a sudden change: Little by little the field will grow yellow with soft corn [Eclogues 4.28],

that is, the fruit of the Divine law springs up for the service of men. And the reddening grape will hang from uncultivated brambles [Eclogues 4.29].

Far otherwise has it been during the corrupt and lawless period of human life. And hard oaks will drip dewy honey [Eclogues 4.30].

He here describes the folly and obduracy of the men of that age; and perhaps he also intimates that they who suffer hardships in the cause of God, shall reap sweet fruits of their own endurance. Nevertheless a few traces of our ancient deceit will remain, which will order men to make trial of the sea in ships, 494

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

to gird towns with walls, to cleave the ground with furrows. Then there will be another Tiphys and another Argo that carries chosen heroes; wars there will be, too, and mighty Achilles will again be sent to Troy [Eclogues 4.31–36].

Well said, wisest of bards. You have carried the license of a poet precisely to the proper point. For it was not your purpose to assume the functions of a prophet, to which you had no claim. I suppose also he was restrained by a sense of the danger that threatened one who should assail the credit of ancient religious practice. Cautiously, therefore, and securely, as far as possible, he presents the truth to those who have faculties to understand it; and while he denounces the munitions and conflicts of war (which indeed are still to be found in the course of human life), he describes our Savior as proceeding to the war against Troy, understanding by Troy the world itself. And surely he did maintain the struggle against the opposing powers of evil, sent on that mission both by the designs of his own providence and by the commandment of his Almighty Father. How, then, does the poet proceed? After this, once time has given you the strength of manhood . . . [Eclogues 4.37]

That is, when, having arrived at the age of manhood, he shall utterly remove the evils that encompass the path of human life, and tranquilize the world by the blessings of peace: The trader himself will quit the sea, and the ship of pine will not exchange wares. Every land will bear all things. Earth will not endure the harrow, nor vines the pruning hook. Then also the sturdy plowman will undo the yokes from his oxen; and wool will not learn the deceit of varying hues, but of his own accord the ram in the fields will change his fleece, now to sweetly blushing crimson, now to a golden orange. Spontaneously vermilion will clothe the grazing lambs. . . . Enter on your mighty honors—now the time will soon be at hand—dear offspring of the gods, mighty seed of Jupiter. Behold how the earth nods with curved weight, look at the lands, the stretches of the sea, the depth of heaven. Behold how all things rejoice in the coming age. Would, then, that the last part of a long life might remain for me and whatever breath of inspiration will be sufficient to sing your deeds. Neither Thracian Orpheus nor Linus shall defeat me in song, though his mother give aid to the one and his father to the other, Calliope to Orpheus, handsome Apollo to Linus. Even Pan, were he to vie with me and Arcadia be the judge, even Pan would admit his defeat, were Arcadia to be the judge [Eclogues 4.38–45, 48–59].

C. ECLOGUES 4

495

Behold [says he] how the mighty world and the elements together manifest their joy. (Eusebius, Church History, Life of Constantine the Great, Oration of Constantine to the Assembly of the Saints, Oration of Eusebius in Praise of Constantine, trans. E. C. Richardson, NPNF 2/1 [1890], 575–77)

3. Augustine See above, I.C.31. a. Epistles 104.3.11 (409) To Nectarius (from Calama, near Hippo). (Text: A. Goldbacher, ed., CSEL 34.2 [1898], 590) Inde praecisis omnibus dilationibus ad illius gratiam confugiendum est, cui verissime dici potest, quod carmine adulatorio nescio cui nobili dixit, qui tamen ex Cumaeo tamquam ex prophetico carmine se accepisse confessus est: Te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri, inrita perpetua solvent formidine terras [Eclogues 4.13–14].

Hoc enim duce solutis omnibus dimissisque peccatis hac via ad caelestem patriam pervenitur, cuius habitatione cum eam tibi amandam, quantum potui, commendarem, admodum delectatus es.

Thus without delay we ought to flee at once to the grace of Him to whom we may address with perfect truth the words that [the poet] addressed in laudatory song to some illustrious man, who declared that he had taken the lines from a Cumaean song as if it were prophetic: ‘‘With you as our leader, the obliteration of all remaining traces of our sin will deliver the earth from perpetual alarm.’’ For with him [Jesus] as our leader, all sins are blotted out and forgiven; and by His way we are brought to the heavenly fatherland, the thought of which as a dwelling place, when I praised it to you as much as I was able, as a setting worthy of love, pleased you greatly. (Augustine, Works of St. Augustine: The Confessions and Letters, trans. J. G. Cunningham, NPNF 1/1 [1886], 431, modified) b. Epistles 137.3.12 (412) To Rufius Antonius Agrypnius Volusianus (prefect of Rome, 416). In 137.1.2 Augustine refers to Volusianus as quoting Eclogues 4.61: Matri longa decem tulerunt fastidia menses (ten months have brought your mother long travail) and later he himself quotes two lines of the same poem. (Text: A. Goldbacher, ed., CSEL 44 [1904], 114) Quod ergo ad magisterium eius adtinet, quis nunc extremus idiota vel quae abiecta muliercula non credit animae immortalitatem vitamque post mor496

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

tem futuram? Quod apud Graecos olim primus Pherecydes Syrius cum disputavisset, Pythagoram Samium disputationis illius novitate permotum ex athleta in philosophum vertit. Nunc ergo, quod Maro ait et omnes videmus, ‘‘amomum Assyrium vulgo nascitur’’ [Eclogues 4.25]. Quod autem ad adiutorium gratiae pertinet, quae in Christo est, ipse est omnino ‘‘Quo [sic] duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri, inrita perpetua solvent formidine terras’’ [Eclogues 4.13–14].

As to the e√ects produced by His instruction, is there now even an imbecile, however weak, or a silly woman, however low, that does not believe in the immortality of the soul and the reality of life after death? Yet these are truths that, when Pherecydes the Assyrian for the first time maintained them in discussion among the Greeks of old, moved Pythagoras of Samos so deeply by their novelty, as to make him turn from the exercises of the athlete to the studies of the philosopher. But now what Maro said we all behold: ‘‘The balsam of Assyria grows everywhere.’’ And as to the help given through the grace of Christ, in Him truly are the words of the same poet fulfilled: ‘‘With you as leader, the obliteration of all traces of our sin that remain will deliver the earth from perpetual alarm.’’ (Augustine, Works of St. Augustine: The Confessions and Letters, trans. J. G. Cunningham, NPNF 1/1 [1886], 478) c. De civitate Dei 10.27 (413–26) (Text and translation: Augustine, City of God, vol. 3, ed. and trans. D. S. Wiesen, LCL 413 [1968]) Non enim te decepisset, quem vestra, ut tu ipse scribis, oracula sanctum immortalemque confessa sunt; de quo etiam poeta nobilissimus poetice quidem, quia in alterius adumbrata persona, veraciter tamen si ad ipsum referas, dixit: Te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri, inrita perpetua solvent formidine terras [Eclogues 4.13–14].

Ea quippe dixit quae etiam multum proficientium in virtute iustitiae possunt propter huius vitae infirmitatem, etsi non scelera, scelerum tamen manere vestigia, quae non nisi ab illo salvatore sanantur de quo iste versus expressus est. Nam utique non hoc a se ipso se dixisse Vergilius in eclogae ipsius quarto ferme versu indicat, ubi ait: Ultima Cumaei venit iam carminis aetas [Eclogues 4.4].

Unde hoc a Cumaea Sibylla dictum esse incunctanter apparet.

For he would not have played you false, whose holiness and immortality, as you yourself say in writing, have been acknowledged by your oracles. And the most renowned of poets also said of him by poetic symbolism, be it noted, for it was anC. ECLOGUES 4

497

other’s portrait that he sketched, and yet it was a true description if applied to Christ himself: ‘‘With you as leader, the obliteration of all traces of our sin that remain will deliver the earth from perpetual alarm.’’ Clearly he speaks of such traces as may well linger, in those who are making great progress in the virtue of righteousness, because of the insecurity of our life here. There may be no more crimes, but there are traces; and such things have no healing except by the savior of whom these verses speak. For clearly Virgil indicates that he did not deliver these verses as his own when he says in the fourth line, I think, of the same eclogue: ‘‘The final age has come as Cumae’s song foretold.’’ On this evidence we may without hesitation declare that these are the words of the Sibyl of Cumae. d. Epistles 258.3 (uncertain date) To Marcianus. (Text: A. Goldbacher, ed., CSEL 57 [1911], 609) Nam omnino non est, cui alteri praeter Dominum Christum dicat genus humanum: Te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri, inrita perpetua solvent formidine terras [Eclogues 4.13–14].

Quod ex Cymaeo, id est, Sibyllino carmine se fassus est transtulisse Vergilius, quoniam fortassis etiam illa vates aliquid de unico salvatore in spiritu audierat, quod necesse habuit confiteri.

There is none other at all, save the lord Christ, to whom the human race can say: With you as our leader, the obliteration of all remaining traces of our sin will deliver the earth from perpetual alarm.

Virgil confessed to adopting this thought from the Cumaean, that is, the Sibylline, prophecy, and perhaps that seer too had heard some message in her spirit about the only Savior, which she had of necessity to confess. (Writings of Saint Augustine, The Fathers of the Church, vol. 13: Letters, trans. W. Parsons [Washington, D.C., 1964], 253, modified by MP) e. Epistulae ad Romanos inchoata expositio 3 The Unfinished Explanation of the Epistle to the Romans comments on Romans 1.1–2. (Text: PL 35, 2089) Fuerunt et prophetae non ipsius, in quibus etiam aliqua inveniuntur, quae de Christo audita cecinerunt, sicut etiam de Sibylla dicitur. Quod non facile crederem, nisi quod poetarum quidam in Romana lingua nobilissimus, antequam diceret ea de innovatione saeculi, quae in Domini nostri Iesu Christi regnum satis concinere et convenire videatur, praeposuit versum dicens: ‘‘Ultima Cumaei venit iam carminis aetas’’ [Eclogues 4.4]. 498

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

There were indeed prophets who were not his [Christ’s] in which some things can be found pertaining to Christ, as it is also said of the Sibyl. This I would not easily believe were it not for the fact that a certain most noble poet before saying in the Roman language those things about the renewal of the world which seem to fit su≈ciently the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, prefixes a verse that goes like this: ‘‘The last age of Cumaean song has now arrived.’’ (MP) f. De civitate Dei 18.23 Augustine also comments on the prophecies of the Erythraean, or Cumaean, Sibyl.

4. Jerome, Epistles 53.7 (394) To Paulinus of Nola. On Jerome, see above, I.C.30. Jerome’s final quotation (Aeneid 2.650) in Epistles 53.7 (see also above, I.C.38.d) refers to Proba, Cento Vergilianus 624 (see above, III.A.5). At Vita Pauli 9 (PL 23.25A) he had earlier posited a parallel use of Virgil by himself. (Text: I. Hilberg, ed., CSEL 54, 2nd ed. [1996], 453–54) Sola scripturarum ars est, quam sibi omnes passim vindicent: ‘‘scribimus indocti doctique poemata passim’’ [Horace, Epistles 2.1.117]. Hanc garrula anus, hanc delirus senex, hanc soloecista verbosus, hanc universi praesumunt, lacerant, docent, antequam discant. Alii adducto supercilio grandia verba trutinantes inter mulierculas de sacris litteris philosophantur, alii discunt—pro pudor!—a feminis, quod viros doceant, et, ne parum hoc sit, quadam facilitate verborum, immo audacia disserunt aliis, quod ipsi non intellegunt. Taceo de meis similibus, qui si forte ad scripturas sanctas post saeculares litteras venerint et sermone conposito aurem populi mulserint, quicquid dixerint, hoc legem Dei putant nec scire dignantur, quid prophetae, quid apostoli senserint, sed ad sensum suum incongrua aptant testimonia, quasi grande sit et non vitiosissimum dicendi genus depravare sententias et ad voluntatem suam scripturam trahere repugnantem. Quasi non legerimus Homerocentonas et Vergiliocentonas ac non sic etiam Maronem sine Christo possimus dicere Christianum, quia scripserit: Iam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna, iam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto [Eclogues 4.6–7],

et patrem loquentem ad filium: Nate, meae vires, mea magna potentia solus [Aeneid 1.664],

et post verba Salvatoris in cruce: C. ECLOGUES 4

499

Talia perstabat memorans fixusque manebat [Aeneid 2.650].

Puerilia sunt haec et circulatorum ludo similia, docere, quod ignores, immo, ut cum Clitomacho loquar, nec hoc quidem scire, quod nescias.

The study of scripture is the only one that all everywhere claim for themselves: ‘‘Learned and untaught, we everywhere write poems.’’ The chattering crone, the witless old man, the wordy solecist, tout le monde presupposes it, tears it apart, teaches it before learning it. Some, with puckered brow weighing words of grandeur in the presence of women without consequence, philosophize about holy writ; others—for shame!—learn from women what they teach men, and, lest this not su≈ce, expound to others with a certain ease, nay boldness, of language what they themselves do not understand. I remain silent about people like myself who, if by chance they come to holy scripture after secular literature and in ordered speech soothe the ear of the people, think that whatever they have said is the law of God and do not deign to learn what the prophets, what the apostles felt, but attach inept evidence to their own feelings, as if this were a grand accomplishment and not the most corrupt mode of speaking: to distort the intentions of scripture and to tug it, though it resist, toward their own inclination. We wouldn’t even read centos made up of Homer and Virgil this way, nor could we say that even Virgil was a Christian without Christ because he had written: ‘‘Now the Virgin returns, the kingdom of Saturn returns. Now a new race will spring up in the whole world,’’ and father saying to son: ‘‘Son, you alone my strength, my mighty power,’’ and after the words of the Savior on the cross: ‘‘Speaking thus he abided and remained held in place.’’ These are childish views and akin to the sport of quacks: to teach what you don’t know, or rather, to speak along with Clitomachus, not even to know that which you don’t know. (MP)

5. Christian of Stavelot (after mid ninth century) The belief in Virgil’s prophetic powers did not disappear in the early Middle Ages. In his commentary on Matthew (Expositio in Matthaeum evangelistam, chapter 46), the exegete Christian of Stavelot (formerly known by the inauthentic name of Druthmar) equates the role of Virgil among the gentiles with that of prophets among the Jews. He probably composed the commentary, extant in more than six manuscripts, around 865. (Text: PL 106, 1427B) Audierunt quia Jesus transiret [Matthew 20.30]. Judaei audierunt per prophetas, gentes quoque non per omnia ignoraverunt, sed sophistae eorum similiter denuntiaverunt. Unde est illud Maronis: Jam nova progenies coelo dimittitur alto [Eclogues 4.7]. 500

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

Et Sibylla inquit: E coelo rex adveniet Christus per saecla futurus. [Augustine, De civitate Dei 18.23, ‘‘Iudicii signum tellus sudore madescet,’’ 2]

‘‘[Two blind men] heard that Jesus passed by.’’ The Jews heard by way of prophets; the gentiles too were not in all respects unknowing, but rather their wise men likewise gave notice. Whence is that utterance of Maro: ‘‘Now a new o√spring is sent down from high heaven.’’ And the Sibyl says: ‘‘From heaven will come a king to be Christ forever.’’ (JZ)

6. Peter Abelard (1079–1142) Abelard (see also above, I.C.46), though one of the preeminent medieval scholastic philosophers, is known to history primarily because of his love a√air with his pupil Heloise and its bitter consequences. He tells the story in his famous Historia calamitatum (The Story of My Misfortunes), which prompts his former love and wife, now a nun, to write to him. Thereupon begins the correspondence proper between Heloise and Abelard. The following, with omission of the Virgilian lines themselves, is from the sixth of the letters they exchanged (Letter 7, with the Historia included in the count). Abelard also quotes generous excerpts from the first seventeen lines of Eclogues 4 at Theologia ‘‘scholarium’’ (Theology ‘‘of Scholars,’’ so called from its incipit) 1.191, line 2325, in Petri Abaelardi opera theologica, vol. 3, ed. E. Buytaert and C. Mews, Corpus Christianorum: Continuatio mediaevalis 13 (Turnhout, 1987); and in Theologia Christiana 1.128, line 1738, in ibid. (Text: J. T. Muckle, ‘‘The Letter of Heloise on Religious Life and Abelard’s First Reply,’’ Mediaeval Studies 17 [1955], 272) Hoc profecto Sibyllae vaticinium, ni fallor, maximus ille poetarum nostrorum Virgilius audierat atque attenderat cum in Ecloga quarta futurum in proximo sub Augusto Caesare, tempore consulatus Pollionis, mirabilem cuiusdam pueri de caelo ad terras mittendi, qui etiam peccata mundi tolleret, et quasi saeculum novum in mundo mirabiliter ordinaret, praecineret ortum, admonitus, ut ipsemet ait, Cumaei carminis vaticinio, hoc est, Sibyllae, quae Cumaea dicitur. Ait quippe sic quasi adhortans quoslibet ad congratulandum sibi et concinendum seu scribendum de hoc tanto puero nascituro in comparatione cuius omnes alias materias quasi infimas et viles reputat, dicens [... Eclogues 4.1–2, 4–7]. Inspice singula Sibyllae dicta et quam integre et aperte Christianae fidei de Christo summam complectatur. Quae nec divinitatem eius nec humanitatem, nec utrumque ipsius adventum, nec utrumque iudicium prophetando vel scribendo praetermisit; pri-

C. ECLOGUES 4

501

mum quidem iudicium quo iniuste iudicatus est in passione et secundum quo iuste iudicaturus est mundum in maiestate.

This prophecy of the Sibyl, unless I am mistaken, Virgil, that greatest of our poets, had certainly heard and paid heed to, when he predicted, in the fourth Eclogue, that, in the imminent future, during Pollio’s consulship under Augustus Caesar, the miraculous birth would occur of a boy, to be sent from heaven to earth, who would also take away the sins of the world and would miraculously ordain, as it were, a new age in the world, warned, as he himself says, by the prophecy of Cumaean song, that is of the Sibyl who is called ‘‘of Cumae’’ [literally, Cumaean]. Thus indeed she speaks, as it were, urging everyone to rejoice for himself and to sing or write about this extraordinary boy soon to be born, in comparison to whom she considers all other matters, as it were, insignificant and valueless, saying [...]. Watch each word of the Sibyl, and how wholly and openly she embraces the sum of the Christian faith in Christ. She has not passed by in her prophecy and in her writing either his divinity, or his humanity, or each of his two advents, or his double judgment. For first is the judgment, which was unjustly judged during his passion, and the second, in which he will in majesty justly judge the world. (MP)

7. Jean de Meun (died before 1305) The Roman de la Rose (Romance of the Rose) is a sprawling composition, the first part of which was apparently composed by Guillaume de Lorris (otherwise unknown, born circa 1210) and the much longer continuation by Jean de Meun (who is sometimes argued to have written the whole poem). De Meun translated into Old French Vegetius’s Epitoma rei militaris (Summary of Military Matters), Boethius’s De consolatione philosophiae (On the Consolation of Philosophy), the letters of Abelard and Heloise, and assorted other Latin texts (some of which are lost), but he is known best for the Romance of the Rose. In the following passage, Lady Nature (the personification of nature) refers to the opening lines of Virgil’s fourth Eclogue as if they had been pronounced by the Sibyl herself. (Text: Le Roman de la Rose, ed. F. Lecoy, vol. 3, Les classiques français du moyen âge 98 [Paris, 1970], 75, lines 19133–46) ’’In past times this incarnation was described by many prophets, both by Jews and by pagans, so that we might better appease our hearts and that we might endeavor more to believe that the prophecy be true; for in Virgil’s Bucolics we read this saying of the Sibyl, instructed by the Holy Spirit: ‘Already a new lineage has been sent down to us from high heaven to set on the right way the people, who have lost their way; from it the age of iron will come to an end and that of gold will spring up in the world.’ ’’ (JZ) 502

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

8. Dante See above, I.C.53. a. De monarchia 1.11.1 (Text: De monarchia, ed. A. C. Volpe [Modena, 1946], 52) Preterea, mundus optime dispositus est cum iustitia in eo potissima est. Unde Virgilius commendare volens illud seculum quod suo tempore surgere videbatur, in suis Bucolicis cantabat Iam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna [Eclogues 4.6].

‘‘Virgo’’ namque vocabatur Iustitia, quam etiam Astream vocabant; ‘‘Saturnia regna’’ dicebant optima tempora, que etiam ‘‘aurea’’ nuncupabant.

Moreover, the world is best disposed when justice is most potent in it. For this reason Virgil, wishing to praise that age which was visibly rising in his own day, sang in his Bucolics: Now even the Virgin returns, now the kingdom of Saturn returns.

By ‘‘Virgin’’ he meant Justice, who was also called Astraea. By ‘‘Saturnian kingdoms’’ they meant the best ages, which they also called the golden. (MP) b. Purgatorio 22.63–73 The speaker is the poet Statius. ‘‘You [Virgil] it was who first sent me toward Parnassus to drink in its caves, and you who first did light me on to God. You were like one who goes by night and carries the light behind him and profits not himself, but makes those wise who follow him, when you said, ‘The ages are renewed; Justice returns and the first generation of man, and a new progeny descends from heaven’ [Eclogues 4.5–7]. Through you I was a poet, through you a Christian.’’ (C. Singleton, ed. and trans., Purgatorio, vol. 1 [Princeton, 1973], 239)

D. ORPHEUS Though the tale of Orpheus was known in Greece from at least the sixth century b.c.e., it was Virgil who, in the fourth Georgic (453–527) gave the myth the form that was imitated and varied in later Western literature. In his text we find the consummate poet-singer who charms the denizens of the underworld and their ruler into allowing him to bring Eurydice, his dead wife, back to earthly life, so long as he does not look back at her during the journey upward. Human passion triumphs over miraculous artistry as he turns toward her and loses her again. We next find him ‘‘soothing tigers and leading oaks with his song’’ (Georgics 4.510), the ‘‘hero’’ of culture par excellence. He is torn apart by maenads for his abjuration of sex with women, and Virgil’s final D. ORPHEUS

503

manifestation of the Orphic voice in the Georgics is akin to the first, as he laments, for a second time, his lost beloved. Orpheus is mentioned again at Aeneid 6.119. Though he is not named, he appears for a final time in Virgil’s depiction of the Elysian Fields, at Aeneid 6.645–47. According to Statius (Silvae 2.7.59; see above, I.C.21, where lines 73–80 of the same poem are quoted), Lucan wrote a work of which Orpheus was also the subject. (Discussion: J. B. Friedman, Orpheus in the Middle Ages [Cambridge, 1970], 117; S. Boynton, ‘‘The Sources and Significance of the Orpheus Myth,’’ Early Music History 18 [1999], 47–74, on di√erences among Virgil, Ovid, and Boethius)

1. Ovid As in the case of his version of the Aeneid (see above, I.C.1.i), Ovid absorbs Virgil’s powerful account of the Orpheus legend only to make it his own. Among other di√erences, he varies the manner of Eurydice’s death, gives us the actual song of Orpheus before the powers of the underworld, which Virgil suppresses, and o√ers quite a di√erent version of the singer’s demise. (Text and translations, items a, c, and f: Ovid, Metamorphoses, ed. and trans. F. J. Miller, 3rd ed., rev. G. P. Goold, vol. 2, LCL 43 [1984]) a. Wedding and Death of Eurydice (Metamorphoses 10.8–10) Exitus auspicio gravior: nam nupta per herbas dum nova naiadum turba comitata vagatur, occidit in talum serpentis dente recepto.

The outcome [of the wedding] was worse than the beginning, for while the bride was strolling through the grass with a group of naiads, she fell dead, smitten in the ankle by a serpent’s tooth. b. Orpheus’s Lament in the Underworld and Second Loss of Eurydice (Metamorphoses 10.17–63) c. Orpheus and Pederasty (Metamorphoses 10.78–85) Tertius aequoreis incusum Piscibus annum finierat Titan, omnemque refugerat Orpheus femineam Venerem, seu quod male cesserat illi, sive fidem dederat; multas tamen ardor habebat iungere se vati, multae doluere repulsae ille etiam Thracum populis fuit auctor amorem in teneros transferre mares citraque iuventam aetatis breve ver et primos carpere flores.

504

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

80

85

Three times had the sun finished the year and come to watery Pisces; and Orpheus had [80] shunned all love of womankind, whether because it had gone so ill with him, or because he had so given his troth. Still, many women felt a passion for the bard; many grieved for their love repulsed. He set the example for the peoples of Thrace of giving his love to tender boys, and [85] enjoying the springtime and first flower of their youth. d. Orpheus’s Song to Trees, Beasts, and Birds about Illicit Love (Metamorphoses 10.148–739) e. Orpheus’s Dismemberment at the Hands of the Cicones (Metamorphoses 11.1–43) f. Mourning for Orpheus and Reunion with Eurydice (Metamorphoses 11.44–66) Te maestae volucres, Orpheu, te turba ferarum, te rigidi silices, te carmina saepe secutae fleverunt silvae, positis te frondibus arbor tonsa comas luxit; lacrimis quoque flumina dicunt increvisse suis, obstrusaque carbasa pullo naides et dryades passosque habuere capillos. Membra iacent diversa locis, caput, Hebre, lyramque excipis: et (mirum!) medio dum labitur amne, flebile nescio quid queritur lyra, flebile lingua murmurat exanimis, respondent flebile ripae. Iamque mare invectae flumen populare relinquunt et Methymnaeae potiuntur litore Lesbi: hic ferus expositum peregrinis anguis harenis os petit et sparsos stillanti rore capillos. Tandem Phoebus adest morsusque inferre parantem arcet et in lapidem rictus serpentis apertos congelat et patulos, ut erant, indurat hiatus. Umbra subit terras, et quae loca viderat ante, cuncta recognoscit quaerensque per arva piorum invenit Eurydicen cupidisque amplectitur ulnis; hic modo coniunctis spatiantur passibus ambo, nunc praecedentem sequitur, nunc praevius anteit Eurydicenque suam, iam tuto, respicit Orpheus.

45

50

55

60

65

D. ORPHEUS

505

The mourning birds wept for you, Orpheus, the throng of beasts, [45] the flinty rocks, and the trees which had so often gathered to your songs; yes, the trees shed their leaves as if so tearing their hair in grief for you. They say that the rivers also were swollen with their own tears, and that naiads and dryads alike mourned with disheveled hair and with dark-bordered garments. [50] The poet’s limbs lay scattered all around; but his head and lyre, O Hebrus, you did receive, and (a marvel!) while they floated in midstream the lyre gave forth some mournful notes, mournfully the lifeless tongue murmured, mournfully the banks replied. And now, borne onward to the sea, they left their native stream [55] and gained the shore of Lesbos near the city of Methymna. Here, as the head lay exposed upon a foreign strand, a savage serpent attacked it and its streaming locks still dripping with the spray. But Phoebus at last appeared, drove o√ the snake just in the act of biting, [60] and hardened and froze to stone, just as they were, the serpent’s widespread, yawning jaws. The poet’s shade fled beneath the earth, and recognized all the places he had seen before; and, seeking through the blessed fields, found Eurydice and caught her in his eager arms. Here now side by side they walk; [65] now Orpheus follows her as she precedes, now goes before her, now may in safety look back upon his Eurydice. (modified by MP)

2. Martial See above, I.C.20. At Martial’s hands, Orpheus makes an appearance before spectators as part of the celebrations for the opening of the new Flavian amphitheater, known as the Colosseum. Though Martial makes frequent references to Virgil, his two poems concerning Orpheus contain no direct allusions to the earlier poet. Nevertheless it is a plausible hypothesis that his readers would have been amused by the di√erence in the presentations by the two poets. (Discussion: J. P. Sullivan, Martial: The Unexpected Classic [Cambridge, 1991], 102–3; J. W. Spaeth, ‘‘Martial and Virgil,’’ Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 61 [1930], 19–28) (Text and translation, items a and b: Martial, Epigrams, ed. and trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, vol. 1, LCL 94 [1993]) a. Liber de spectaculis (Book on the Spectacles) 24 (21) (80 c.e.) Quidquid in Orpheo Rhodope spectasse theatro dicitur, exhibuit, Caesar, harena tibi. Repserunt scopuli mirandaque silva cucurrit,

506

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

quale fuisse nemus creditur Hesperidum. Affuit immixtum pecori genus omne ferarum et supra vatem multa pependit avis, ipse sed ingrato iacuit laceratus ab urso. Haec tantum res est facta par≤ i˘storían.

Whatever Rhodope is said to have watched on Orpheus’s stage, the arena, Caesar [Titus], displayed to you. Crags crept and an astonishing forest ran along, such as the grove of the Hesperides is believed to have been. Every type of fierce creature, mingled with meek, was at hand, and many a bird was suspended above the bard. But he himself lay torn by a thankless bear. This matter alone was done contrary to the legend. (modified by MP) b. Liber de spectaculis 25 (21b) Eurydice is imagined as sending a bear to get Orpheus back. Orphea quod subito tellus emisit hiatu ursam invasuram, venit ab Eurydice.

Since earth with sudden gaping sent forth a she-bear to attack Orpheus, it came from Eurydice. (modified by MP)

3. Boethius (Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, circa 480–524) Appointed first consul and later magister o≈ciorum (master of ceremonies) by the Ostrogothic King Theodoric, Boethius was eventually implicated in a conspiracy and finally put to death. The most famous of his writings is De consolatione philosophiae (On the Consolation of Philosophy), written in prison during the months before his execution (523–24). Its five books, which consist of a dialogue between the speaker and Philosophy, are in the form of Menippean satire, which is to say, alternating segments of prose and verse. Boethius, anticipating the work of Fulgentius (see below, III.D.4), exposes allegory that he finds latent in Virgil’s treatment of the Orpheus legend. De consolatione philosophiae, book 3, meter 12 (Text and translation: Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy, ed. and trans. S. J. Tester, LCL 74 [1973]) Felix qui potuit boni fontem visere lucidum, felix qui potuit gravis terrae solvere vincula. Quondam funera coniugis vates Threicius gemens,

5

D. ORPHEUS

507

postquam flebilibus modis silvas currere mobiles, amnes stare coegerat iunxitque intrepidum latus saevis cerva leonibus, nec visum timuit lepus iam cantu placidum canem, cum flagrantior intima fervor pectoris ureret, nec qui cuncta subegerant, mulcerent dominum modi, inmites superos querens infernas adiit domos. Illic blanda sonantibus chordis carmina temperans, quidquid praecipuis deae matris fontibus hauserat, quod luctus dabat impotens, quod luctum geminans amor, deflet Taenara commovens et dulci veniam prece umbrarum dominos rogat. Stupet tergeminus novo captus carmine ianitor, quae sontes agitant metu ultrices scelerum deae iam maestae lacrimis madent; non Ixionium caput velox praecipitat rota et longa site perditus spernit flumina Tantalus; vultur, dum satur est modis, non traxit Tityi iecur. Tandem, ‘‘Vincimur!’’ arbiter umbrarum miserans ait, ‘‘Donamus comitem viro emptam carmine coniugem; sed lex dona coerceat, ne, dum Tartara liquerit,

508

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

fas sit lumina flectere.’’ Quis legem det amantibus? Maior lex amor est sibi. Heu, noctis prope terminos Orpheus Eurydicen suam vidit, perdidit, occidit. Vos haec fabula respicit, quicumque in superum diem mentem ducere quaeritis; nam qui Tartareum in specus victus lumina flexerit, quidquid praecipuum trahit, perdit, dum videt inferos.

50

55

Happy was he who could look upon the clear fount of the good; happy who could loose the bonds of heavy earth. [5] Of old the Thracian poet mourned his wife’s sad death, he who before had made the woods so nimbly run and rivers stand with his weeping measures, [10] and the hind’s fearless flank lay beside savage lions, nor was the hare afraid to look upon the hound, made peaceful by his song; when grief burned [15] yet more fierce and hot his inmost heart, and measures, that subdued all else, soothed not their master, complaining of inexorable gods above he approached the halls below. [20] There modulating gentle songs on the sounding lyre—all that he drew from the foremost springs of his goddess mother, all that his unquelled grief bestowed and [25] love, that doubles grief, makes his laments; he moves Taenarian hearts, and with sweet prayer asks pardon of the lords of Hades’ shades. Taken by his strange song [30] the doorkeeper three-headed Cerberus stands benumbed; goddess-avengers of men’s crimes who make the guilty quake with fear now full of sadness melt in tears; [35] Ixion’s swift wheel no longer spins his head; and Tantalus, tormented by long thirst, scorns stooping to the water; the vulture, while he is filled with Orpheus’s measures, stops tearing at Tityus’s liver. [40] At last ‘‘We are overborne’’ in pity says the ruler of the shades; ‘‘we grant the man his wife to go with him, bought by his song; yet let our law restrict the gift, that, [45] while he Tartarus quits, he shall not turn his gaze.’’ Who can give lovers laws? Love is a greater law unto itself. Woe! By the very boundaries of night [50] Orpheus his Eurydice saw, lost, and killed. To you this tale refers, who seek to lead your mind into the upper day; [55] for he who overcomes should turn back his gaze toward the Tartarean cave, whatever excellence he takes with him he loses when he looks on those below.

D. ORPHEUS

509

4. Fulgentius See below, IV.F. Fulgentius’s ‘‘Fabula Orphei et Euridicis’’ (Story of Orpheus and Eurydice) appears in his Mitologiae (Mythologies) 3.10. (Discussion: J. B. Friedman, Orpheus in the Middle Ages [Cambridge, 1970], 89, 226 n. 7) (Text: R. Helm, ed. [Leipzig, 1898], 77) Orpheus Euridicem nimfam amavit; quam sono citharae mulcens uxorem duxit. Hanc Aristeus pastor dum amans sequitur, illa fugiens in serpentem incidit et mortua est. Post quam maritus ad inferos descendit et legem accepit, ne eam conversus aspiceret; quam conversus et aspiciens iterum perdidit. Haec igitur fabula artis est musicae designatio. Orpheus enim dicitur oreafone, id est, optima vox, Euridice vero profunda diiudicatio.

Orpheus loved the nymph Eurydice, and, charming her with the sound of his lyre, he took her for wife. When, in love, the shepherd Aristaeus pursued her, she in her flight stepped on a snake and died. Her husband went down to the lower world after her and accepted the ruling that he should not turn back and look on her; but because he did turn back and look at her he lost her a second time. Now this legend is an allegory of the art of music. For Orpheus stands for oreafone, that is, matchless sound, and Eurydice is boundless judgment. (MP)

5. (Pseudo-)Bernardus Silvestris, Comment on Aeneid 6.119: Si potuit manis accersere coniugis Orpheus (If Orpheus availed to summon his wife’s shade) See below, IV.Q. (Discussion: J. B. Friedman, Orpheus in the Middle Ages [Cambridge, 1970], 230) (Text: Commentum quod dicitur Bernardi Silvestris super sex libros Eneidos Virgilii, ed. J. W. Jones and E. F. Jones [Lincoln, Nebr., 1977], 54) Per Orpheum ergo sapientem et eloquentem accipimus. Unde Orpheus quasi orea phone dicitur, id est, bona vox. Filius Apollinis et Calliopes i.e. sapientiae et eloquentiae. . . . Calliope autem, id est, optima vox dicta est eloquentia quia vocem disertam efficit. Habet citharam, orationem rethoricam, in qua diversi colores quasi diversi numeri resonant.

And so we understand Orpheus to be wise and eloquent. Whence he is called Orpheus, as if orea phone, that is, bona vox [good voice]. He is said to be the son of Apollo and Calliope, that is, of wisdom and eloquence. . . . She is called Calliope, that is, optima vox [the best voice], because eloquence makes the voice skillful. Orpheus has a harp, that is, rhetorical speech, in which diverse colors resound as if diverse strings. (Commentary on the First Six Books of Virgil’s 510

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

Aeneid by Bernardus Silvestris, trans. E. G. Schreiber and T. E. Maresca [Lincoln, Nebr., 1979], 53–54, modified by MP) E. DIDO Though her story is Greek in origin, and her meeting with Aeneas possibly already to be found in the Bellum Punicum of Naevius (flourished last quarter of third century b.c.e.), the first original Latin epic, it is Virgil who gives her adventures the tragic dimension that influenced authors from Ovid to Chaucer and beyond. Dido, known as Elissa while in Tyre, has fled in exile from her native city, after her husband, Sychaeus, was killed by Pygmalion, her brother. She now rules the city of Carthage, which she is building in Libya. Her ongoing story is told in the first and fourth books of the Aeneid, where we find Aeneas, shipwrecked on the shore near Carthage, made by the machinations of Venus and Juno to fall in love with its queen, who has received him hospitably. Though constrained by a vow to her late husband, Dido nevertheless confesses to her sister, Anna, that she has fallen in love with the handsome stranger. After a macabre wedding ceremony, which Dido considers binding, fate takes a negative turn when Iarbas, a local king and rejected suitor for Dido’s hand, appeals to Jupiter to intervene. The king of the gods sends Mercury to earth to compel Aeneas to accept his Roman destiny. Dido learns of his decision to depart, pleads unsuccessfully with him to remain at least briefly, and commits suicide after he sets sail. Her final appearance in the Aeneid occurs in the world of the dead (6.450–76), where, happily reunited with her Tyrian husband, she wordlessly scorns her absconding lover.

1. Ovid See above, I.C.1. Heroides 7 is a letter purportedly written by Dido to Aeneas. The poem as a whole subjects the heroic values of Aeneas, and of the Aeneid, to close, often negative, scrutiny, a daring strategy on the part of the young Ovid, given the epic’s presumed closeness to Augustus. The pun on auctor at 105 looks to Aeneas as ‘‘suitable authority’’ for deception, but also implies dialogue with Virgil, who could also be said to deceive because he ‘‘manufactured’’ the deception as ‘‘author’’ of the Dido-Aeneas a√air. (Text and translation: Ovid, Heroides; Amores, ed. and trans. G. Showerman [New York, 1931]; 2nd ed., rev. G. P. Goold, LCL 41 [1977]) Sic ubi fata vocant, udis abiectus in herbis ad vada Maeandri concinit albus olor.

E. DIDO

511

Figure 1. Miniature to illustrate Aeneid 4 (Dido and Aeneas; Aeneas and Dido’s outing; Aeneas’s departure; suicide of Dido), Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Richardson 38 (France, Loire Valley, circa 1465–70), fol. 135v (by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University). For a color reproduction of this image, see the frontispiece.

Nec quia te nostra sperem prece posse moveri, alloquor (adverso movimus ista deo); sed merita et famam corpusque animumque pudicum cum male perdiderim, perdere verba leve est. Certus es ire tamen miseramque relinquere Dido, atque idem venti vela fidemque ferent? 512

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

5

Certus es, Aenea, cum foedere solvere naves, quaeque ubi sint nescis, Itala regna sequi? Nec nova Carthago, nec te surgentia tangunt moenia nec sceptro tradita summa tuo? Facta fugis, facienda petis; quaerenda per orbem altera, quaesita est altera terra tibi. Ut terram invenias, quis eam tibi tradet habendam? Quis sua non notis arva tenenda dabit? Scilicet alter amor tibi restat et altera Dido, quamque iterum fallas, altera danda fides. Quando erit ut condas instar Carthaginis urbem et videas populos altus ab arce tuos? Omnia ut eveniant, nec di tua vota morentur, unde tibi, quae te sic amet, uxor erit? Uror ut inducto ceratae sulpure taedae, ut pia fumosis addita tura focis. Aeneas oculis vigilantis semper inhaeret; Aenean animo noxque quiesque refert. Ille quidem male gratus et ad mea munera surdus, et quo, si non sim stulta, carere velim; non tamen Aenean, quamvis male cogitat, odi, sed queror infidum questaque peius amo. Parce, Venus, nurui, durumque amplectere fratrem, frater Amor; castris militet ille tuis! Aut ego, quem coepi (neque enim dedignor), amorem, materiam curae praebeat ille meae! Fallor, et ista mihi falsae iactatur imago; matris ab ingenio dissidet ille suae. Te lapis et montes innataque rupibus altis robora, te saevae progenuere ferae, aut mare, quale vides agitari nunc quoque ventis, qua tamen adversis fluctibus ire paras. Quo fugis? Obstat hiems: hiemis mihi gratia prosit! Aspice, ut eversas concitet Eurus aquas. Quod tibi malueram, sine me debere procellis. Iustior est animo ventus et unda tuo. Non ego sum tanti (numquid censeris inique?) ut pereas, dum me per freta longa fugis. Exerces pretiosa odia et constantia magno, si, dum me careas, est tibi vile mori.

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

E. DIDO

513

Iam venti ponent, strataque aequaliter unda caeruleis Triton per mare curret equis. Tu quoque cum ventis utinam mutabilis esses! Et, nisi duritia robora vincis, eris. Quid, quasi nescires, insana quid aequora possint, expertae totiens tam male credis aquae? Ut, pelago suadente viam, retinacula solvas, multa tamen latus tristia pontus habet. Nec violasse fidem temptantibus aequora prodest; perfidiae poenas exigit ille locus, praecipue cum laesus Amor, quia mater Amorum nuda Cytheriacis edita fertur aquis. Perdita ne perdam timeo, noceamve nocenti neu bibat aequoreas naufragus hostis aquas. Vive, precor! Sic te melius quam funere perdam; tu potius leti causa ferere mei. Finge, age, te rapido (nullum sit in omine pondus!) turbine deprendi: quid tibi mentis erit? Protinus occurrent falsae periuria linguae et Phrygia Dido fraude coacta mori. Coniugis ante oculos deceptae stabit imago tristis et effusis sanguinolenta comis. Quid tanti est ut tum ‘‘merui, concedite!’’ dicas quaeque cadent, in te fulmina missa putes? Da breve saevitiae spatium pelagique tuaeque; grande morae pretium tuta futura via est. Haec minus ut cures, puero parcatur Iulo! Te satis est titulum mortis habere meae. Quid puer Ascanius, quid commeruere Penates? ignibus ereptos obruet unda deos? Sed neque fers tecum, nec, quae mihi, perfide, iactas, presserunt umeros sacra paterque tuos. Omnia mentiris; neque enim tua fallere lingua incipit a nobis, primaque plector ego. Si quaeras, ubi sit formosi mater Iuli, occidit a duro sola relicta viro. Haec mihi narraras et me movere. Merentem ure: minor culpa poena futura mea est. Nec mihi mens dubia est, quin te tua numina damnent: per mare, per terras septima iactat hiems. 514

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

Fluctibus eiectum tuta statione recepi vixque bene audito nomine regna dedi. His tamen officiis utinam contenta fuissem, nec mea concubitu fama sepulta foret! Illa dies nocuit, qua nos declive sub antrum caeruleus subitis compulit imber aquis. Audieram vocem: nymphas ululasse putavi; Eumenides fati signa dedere mei. Exige, laese pudor, poenas, violataque lecti iura nec ad cineres fama retenta meos, vosque, mei manes, animaeque cinisque Sychaei ad quem, me miseram, plena pudoris eo. Est mihi marmorea sacratus in aede Sychaeus; appositae frondes velleraque alba tegunt. Hinc ego me sensi noto quater ore citari; ipse sono tenui dixit ‘‘Elissa, veni!’’ Nulla mora est, venio, venio tibi debita coniunx; sum tamen admissi tarda pudore mei. Da veniam culpae: decepit idoneus auctor; invidiam noxae detrahit ille meae. Diva parens seniorque pater, pia sarcina nati, spem mihi mansuri rite dedere viri. Si fuit errandum, causas habet error honestas; adde fidem, nulla parte pigendus erit. Durat in extremum vitaeque novissima nostrae prosequitur fati, qui fuit ante, tenor. Occidit internas coniunx mactatus ad aras et sceleris tanti praemia frater habet. Exul agor, cineresque viri patriamque relinquo, et feror in dubias hoste sequente vias. Applicor his oris, fratrique elapsa fretoque quod tibi donavi, perfide, litus emo. Urbem constitui lateque patentia fixi moenia finitimis invidiosa locis. Bella tument; bellis peregrina et femina temptor vixque rudis portas urbis et arma paro. Mille procis placui, qui me coiere querentes nescioquem thalamis praeposuisse suis. Quid dubitas vinctam Gaetulo tradere Iarbae? praebuerim sceleri bracchia nostra tuo.

90

95

97a 97b

100

105

110

115

120

125

E. DIDO

515

Est etiam frater, cuius manus impia poscit respergi nostro, sparsa cruore viri. Pone deos et quae tangendo sacra profanas: non bene caelestes impia dextra colit. Si tu cultor eras elapsis igne futurus, paenitet elapsos ignibus esse deos. Forsitan et gravidam Dido, scelerate, relinquas parsque tui lateat corpore clausa meo. Accedet fatis matris miserabilis infans, et nondum nato funeris auctor eris, cumque parente sua frater morietur Iuli, poenaque conexos auferet una duos. ‘‘Sed iubet ire deus.’’ Vellem vetuisset adire, Punica nec Teucris pressa fuisset humus! Hoc duce nempe deo ventis agitaris iniquis et teris in rabido tempora longa freto? Pergama vix tanto tibi erant repetenda labore, Hectore si vivo quanta fuere forent. Non patrium Simoenta petis, sed Thybridis undas: nempe ut pervenias quo cupis, hospes eris. Utque latet vitatque tuas abstrusa carinas, vix tibi continget terra petita seni. Hos potius populos in dotem, ambage remissa, accipe et advectas Pygmalionis opes. Ilion in Tyriam transfer felicius urbem resque loco regis sceptraque sacra tene! Si tibi mens avida est belli, si quaerit Iulus, unde suo partus Marte triumphus eat, quem superet, ne quid desit, praebebimus hostem. Hic pacis leges, hic locus arma capit. Tu modo, per matrem fraternaque tela, sagittas, perque fugae comites, Dardana sacra, deos, (sic superent, quoscumque tua de gente reportat Mars ferus, et damni sit modus ille tui, Ascaniusque suos feliciter impleat annos et senis Anchisae molliter ossa cubent!) parce, precor, domui, quae se tibi tradit habendam. Quod crimen dicis praeter amasse meum? Non ego sum Phthia magnisve oriunda Mycenis, nec steterunt in te virque paterque meus. 516

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

130

135

140

145

150

155

160

165

Si pudet uxoris, non nupta, sed hospita dicar; dum tua sit Dido, quidlibet esse feret. Nota mihi freta sunt Afrum plangentia litus; temporibus certis dantque negantque viam. Cum dabit aura viam, praebebis carbasa ventis; nunc levis eiectam continet alga ratem. Tempus ut observem, manda mihi: certior ibis, nec te, si cupies, ipsa manere sinam. Et socii requiem poscunt, laniataque classis postulat exiguas semirefecta moras. Pro meritis et siqua tibi debebimus ultra, non spe coniugii tempora parva peto, dum freta mitescunt et amor, dum tempore et usu fortiter edisco tristia posse pati. Si minus, est animus nobis effundere vitam; in me crudelis non potes esse diu. Aspicias utinam quae sit scribentis imago! Scribimus, et gremio Troicus ensis adest, perque genas lacrimae strictum labuntur in ensem, qui iam pro lacrimis sanguine tinctus erit. Quam bene conveniunt fato tua munera nostro! Instruis impensa nostra sepulcra brevi. Nec mea nunc primum feriuntur pectora telo; ille locus saevi vulnus Amoris habet. Anna soror, soror Anna, meae male conscia culpae, iam dabis in cineres ultima dona meos. Nec consumpta rogis inscribar Elissa Sychaei, hoc tantum in tumuli marmore carmen erit: Praebuit Aeneas et causam mortis et ensem; ipsa sua Dido concidit usa manu.

170

175

180

185

190

195

Thus at the summons of fate, casting himself down amid the watery grasses by the shallows of the Maeander, sings the white swan. Not because I hope you may be moved by prayer of mine do I address you (for with god’s will adverse, I have begun the words you read); [5] but because, after wretched losing of what I deserve, of reputation, and of purity of body and soul, the losing of words is a matter slight indeed. Are you resolved nonetheless to go, and to abandon wretched Dido, and shall the same winds bear away from me at once your sails and your promises? Are you resolved, Aeneas, to break at the same time from your moorings and from your pledge, [10] and to follow after the fleeting realms of Italy, which lie you know not where? And does newE. DIDO

517

founded Carthage not touch you, nor her rising walls, nor the scepter of supreme power placed in your hand? What is achieved, you turn your back upon; what is to be achieved, you ever pursue. One land has been sought and gained, and ever must another be sought, through the wide world. [15] Yet, even should you find the land of your desire, who will give it over to you for your own? Who will deliver his fields to unknown hands to keep? A second love remains for you to win, and a second Dido; a second pledge to give, and a second time to prove false. When do you think it will be your fortune to found a city like to Carthage, [20] and from the citadel on high to look down upon peoples of your own? Should your every wish be granted, even should you meet with no delay in the answering of your prayers, from where will the wife come to love you as I? I am all ablaze with love, like torches of wax tipped with sulfur, like pious incense placed on smoking altar-fires. [25] Aeneas my eyes cling to through all my waking hours; Aeneas is in my heart through the quiet of the night. It is true he is an ingrate, and unresponsive to my kindnesses, and were I not foolish I should be willing to have him go; yet, however ill his thought of me, I hate him not, but only complain of his faithlessness, [30] and when I have complained I do but love more madly still. Spare, O Venus, the bride of your son; lay hold of your hard-hearted brother, O brother Love, and make him serve in your camp! Or let me who started (and I feel no shame at having done so) supply the love and he the fuel for my a√ection. Ah, vain delusion! [35] The fancy that flits before my mind is not the truth; far different his heart from his mother’s. Of rocks and mountains were you begotten, and of the oak sprung from the lofty cli√, of savage wild beasts, or of the sea— such a sea as even now you look upon, tossed by the winds, [40] on which you are nonetheless making ready to sail, despite the threatening floods. Where are you flying? The tempest rises to stay you. Let the tempest be my grace! Look you, how Eurus tosses the rolling waters! What I had preferred to owe to you, let me owe to the stormy blasts; wind and wave are juster than your heart. [45] I am not worth enough (why do I not wrongly rate you?) to have you perish flying from me over the long seas. It is a costly and a dear-bought hate that you indulge if, to be free of me, you account it cheap to die. Soon the winds will fall, and over the smooth-spread waves [50] Triton will course with sea-blue steeds. O that you too were changeable with the winds! And, unless you exceed the oak in hardness, you will be so. Why, as though you knew not the power of the raging seas, do you so foolishly trust the waters whose might you have so often felt? [55] Even should you loose your cables when the seas invite voyaging, there are nonetheless many woes to be met on the vasty deep. Nor is it well for those who have broken faith to tempt the billows. There is the place that exacts penalty for faithlessness, above all when it is Love who has 518

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

been wronged, for it was from the sea, [60] in the waters of Cythera, so runs the tale, that the mother of the Loves arose, unclothed. Undone myself, I fear lest I be the undoing of him who is my undoing, lest I bring harm to him who brings harm to me, lest my enemy be wrecked at sea and drink the waters of the deep. O live; I pray it! Thus shall I see you worse undone than by death. You shall rather be reputed the cause of my own doom. [65] Imagine, pray, imagine that you are caught (may there be nothing in the omen!) in the sweeping of the storm: what will be your thoughts? Straight will come rushing to your mind the perjury of your false tongue, and Dido driven to death by Phrygian deceit. Before your eyes will appear the features of your deceived wife, [70] heavy with sorrow, with hair streaming, and stained with blood. What now can you gain to recompense you then, when you will have to say: ‘‘I have deserved it! Grant me forgiveness!’’ and when you will have to think that whatever thunderbolts fall were hurled at you? Grant a short space for the cruelty of the sea, and for your own, to subside; your safe voyage will be great reward for waiting. [75] Though you disregard these considerations, only let little Iulus be spared! For you, enough to have the credit for my death. What has little Ascanius done, or your Penates, to deserve ill fate? Have they been rescued from fire only to be overwhelmed by the wave? Yet neither are you bearing them with you, nor did the sacred relics which are your pretext ever [80] rest on your shoulders, nor did your father. You are false in everything; and I am not the first your tongue has deceived, nor am I the first to feel the blow from you. Do you ask where the mother of pretty Iulus is? She perished, left behind by her unfeeling lord! [85] This was the story you told me, and it was warning enough for me. Burn me; I deserve it! The punishment will be less than befits my fault. And my mind doubts not that you, too, are under condemnation of your gods: over sea and land you are now for the seventh winter being tossed. You were cast ashore by the waves, and I received you in a safe anchorage, [90] and, scarcely knowing your name, I gave you my throne. Yet would that I had been content with these kindnesses and that the story of our union were buried! That dreadful day was my ruin, when sudden downpour of rain from the deep-blue heaven drove us to shelter in the lofty cave. [95] I had heard a voice: I thought it was the howl of the nymphs. It was the Furies sounding the signal of my doom. Exact the penalty of me, O purity undone, and rights of the marriage bed, which I violated, and my good repute, which I did not maintain unto my death, and you, my shades, and the soul and ashes of Sychaeus, to whom, sick at heart and filled with shame, I make my way. Standing in a shrine of marble is an image of Sychaeus that I hold sacred. [100] Green fronds are placed about E. DIDO

519

it, and fillets of white wool cover it over. From within it four times have I heard myself called by a voice well known; it was he himself crying in faintly sounding tone: ‘‘Elissa, come!’’ I delay no longer, I come; I come, your wife, your own by right; I am late, but this is for shame of my fault confessed. [105] Forgive me my o√ense! He was worthy who caused my fall. He draws from my sin its hatefulness. That his mother was divine and his aged father the burden of a loyal son gave hope that he would remain my faithful husband. If it was my fate to err, my error had honorable cause; [110] if only he keeps faith, I shall have no reason for regret. The lot that was mine in days past still follows me in these last moments of life, and will pursue to the end. My husband fell in his blood before the altars in his very house, and my brother possesses the fruits of the monstrous crime. [115] I myself am driven into exile, and I leave behind the ashes of my lord and my homeland, and I am borne along perilous ways with my enemy in pursuit. Upon these shores I land; escaped from my brother and the sea, I purchase the strand that I gave, perfidious man, to you. I established a city and laid about it [120] the foundations of wide-reaching walls that stir the jealousy of neighboring realms. Wars threaten; a stranger and a woman, I am assailed by wars, and scarcely can I rear rude gates to the city and make ready my defense. A thousand suitors cast fond eyes on me, and have joined in the complaint that I preferred the hand of some stranger love. [125] Why do you not bind me forthwith, and give me over to Gaetulian Iarbas? I would submit my arms to your shameful act. There is my brother, too, whose impious hand clamors to be sprinkled with my blood, as it is already with my lord’s. Lay down those gods and sacred things: [130] your impious touch profanes the holy creatures! If it was fated for you to worship the gods that escaped the fires, the gods regret that they escaped the fires. Perhaps, too, it is Dido soon to be a mother, O evildoer, whom you abandon now, and a part of your being lies hidden in myself. [135] To the fate of the mother will be added that of the wretched babe, and you will be the cause of doom to your yet unborn child. With his own mother will Iulus’s brother die, and one fate will bear us both away together. ‘‘But a god gives orders to depart.’’ Would that he had forbidden you to arrive, [140] and that Punic soil had never been pressed by Teucrian feet! Is this, we are to understand, the god under whose guidance you are tossed about by unfriendly winds, and pass long years on the surging sea? It would scarcely require such toil to return again to Pergamum, were Pergamum still what it was while Hector lived. [145] It is not the Simois of your fathers that you seek, but the waves of the Tiber: and yet you know that should you arrive at the place you wish, you will be but a stranger. And the land of your quest so 520

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

hides from your sight, so draws away from contact with your keels, that it will scarcely be your lot to reach it in old age. Cease, then, your wanderings! Choose rather me, and with me my dowry, these peoples of mine [150] and the wealth of Pygmalion I brought with me. Transfer your Ilion to the Tyrian town, and give it thus a happier lot, and enjoy the kingly state and the scepter’s holy right. If your soul is eager for war, if Iulus must have field for martial prowess and the triumph, [155] we shall find him foes to conquer, and nothing shall lack. Here there is place for the laws of peace, here place, too, for arms. Do you only, by your mother I pray, and by the weapons of your brother, his arrows, and by the divine companions of your flight, the gods of Dardanus (so may those rise above fate whom [160] savage Mars has saved from out your race, so may that be the limit of your misfortunes, and so may Ascanius fill happily out his years, and the bones of old Anchises rest in peace!), do you only spare the house which gives itself without condition into your hand. What can you charge me with but love? [165] I am not of Phthia nor sprung of great Mycenae, nor have I had a husband and father who have stood against you. If you shame to have me your wife, let me not be called bride, but hostess. Provided she be yours, Dido will endure to be what you will. Well do I know the seas that break upon African shores; [170] they have their times of granting and denying the way. When the breeze permits, you shall give your canvas to the gale; now the light seaweed detains your ship by the strand. Entrust me with the watching of the skies; you shall go later, and I myself, though you desire it, will not let you stay. [175] Your comrades, too, demand repose, and your shattered fleet, but half refitted, calls for a short delay; by your past kindnesses, and by that other debt which I still, perhaps, shall owe you, with no hope of wedlock, I ask for a little time—while the sea and my love grow calm, while through time and wont [180] I learn the strength to endure my sorrows bravely. If you yield not, my purpose is fixed to pour forth my life; you cannot be cruel to me for long. Could you but see now the face of her who writes these words! I write, and the Trojan blade is ready in my lap. [185] Over my cheeks the tears roll, and fall upon the drawn steel— which soon shall be stained with blood instead of tears! How fitting is your gift in my hour of fate! You furnish forth my death at a cost but slight! Nor does my heart now for the first time feel a weapon’s thrust; [190] it already bears the wound of cruel love. Anna my sister, my sister Anna, wretched sharer in the knowledge of my fault, soon shall you give to my ashes the last boon. Nor when I have been consumed upon the pyre, shall my inscription read: ‘‘Elissa, wife of Sychaeus.’’ Yet on the marble of my tomb there shall be but these lines: [195] ‘‘From Aeneas came the cause of her death, and from him E. DIDO

521

the blade; from the hand of Dido herself came the stroke by which she fell.’’ (modified by MP and JZ)

2. Tertullian See above, III.A.3. Tertullian, perhaps because he was a native of Carthage, is the first to establish Dido as a paragon of chastity, who prefers death to a second marriage, whether her suitor be Iarbas, as here, in De exhortatione castitatis (On the Encouragement of Chastity) 13, or, more familiarly, Aeneas (as, for instance, in Ad nationes [To the Nations] 2.9). The more than half a dozen passages where he asserts this interpretation of her tale are listed by A. S. Pease, ed., Publi Vergili Maronis: Aeneidos: Liber Quartus (Cambridge, 1935), 66. (Discussion: J.-M. Poinsotte, ‘‘L’image de Didon dans l’Antiquité tardive,’’ in Énée et Didon: Naissance, fonctionnement et survie d’un mythe, ed. René Martin [Paris, 1990], 43–54; S. Freund, Vergil im frühen Christentum: Untersuchungen zu den Vergilzitaten bei Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Novatian, Cyprian und Arnobius, 2nd ed., Studien zur Geschichte und Kultur des Altertums NF, 1. Reihe, Monographien, 16 [Paderborn, 2003], 32–100) (Text: Tertullian, De exhortatione castitatis, ed. H.-V. Friedrich [Stuttgart, 1990]) Erunt nobis in testimonium et feminae quaedam saeculares, ob univiratus obstinationem famam consecutae; ut Dido, quae profuga in alieno solo, ubi nuptias regis ultro optasse debuerat, ne tamen secundas experiretur, maluit e contrario uri quam nubere [1 Corinthians 7.9].

Certain pagan women will also bear witness for us, who gained their reputation because of adherence to the concept of having one husband; like Dido: an exile in a foreign land, when she ought willingly to have sought marriage with the king, nevertheless, lest she undergo a second marriage, preferred on the contrary to be burned rather than to wed. (MP)

3. Bobbio Epigrams The so-called Epigrammata Bobiensia form one segment of a miscellany contained in Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. lat. 2836 (fifteenth– sixteenth century). The epithet Bobiensia stems from the present manuscript’s derivation from an original, now lost, emanating from the northern Italian monastery of Bobbio. The seventy-two poems seem to have been collected around 400. Some of them are ascribed to a senator, Julius (or Junius) Naucellius (probably born in the early fourth century), details of whose life are known solely from seven letters (Symmachus, Epistles 3.10–16) addressed to him by the fourth-century statesman, orator, and epistolographer Quintus Aurelius Symmachus (circa 340–402). Of particular interest is number 45, an 522

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

expanded translation of an anonymous Greek epigram found in the Anthologia Graeca (16.151; The Greek Anthology, ed. and trans. W. R. Paton, vol. 5 [Cambridge, 1918], 248–49). Also known as the Palatine Anthology, this gathering, assembled in Constantinople around the end of the tenth century and expanded in the early fourteenth, collects Greek epigrams composed from the fifth century b.c.e. to the Middle Ages. See also above, II.F.3.h, for further examples of how Virgil himself, and figures in the Aeneid, served as subjects for Greek epigrams. (Discussion: Epigrammata Bobiensia: Introduzione ed edizione critica, ed. F. Munari [Rome, 1955], especially 17–46; for the Greek background, S. Mariotti, in RE, Supp. 9 [1962], 37–64) (Text: Epigrammata Bobiensia, ed. W. Speyer, Bibliotheca Teubneriana [Leipzig, 1963], 55–56) In Didonis imaginem ex Graeco Illa ego sum Dido vultu, quam conspicis, hospes, assimulata modis pulchraque mirificis. Talis eram; sed non, Maro quam mihi finxit, erat mens, vita nec incestis laeta cupidinibus: namque nec Aeneas vidit me Troius umquam, nec Libyam advenit classibus Iliacis; sed furias fugiens atque arma procacis Iarbae servavi, fateor, morte pudicitiam, pectore transfixo, castus quod perculit ensis, non furor aut laeso crudus amore dolor. Sic cecidisse iuvat: vixi sine vulnere famae; ulta virum, positis moenibus, oppetii. Invida cur in me stimulasti, Musa, Maronem, fingeret ut nostrae damna pudicitiae? Vos magis historicis, lectores, credite de me, quam qui furta deum concubitusque canunt falsidici vates, temerant qui carmine verum humanisque deos assimulant vitiis.

5

10

15

For a Statue of Dido, from the Greek O stranger, I, Dido, am myself the image which you see, beautiful and brilliantly represented. Such I was. But my character was not that which Maro fabricated for me, nor did my life take pleasure in unchaste lust. [5] For neither did Trojan Aeneas ever see me, nor did he reach Libya with his Ilian fleet. But, escaping the passion, and the force, of my suitor Iarbas, I profess that I saved my chastity by death. It was a chaste sword that pierced my stricken breast, [10] not madness or the savage grief of scorned love. To have died thus is my gratification. I lived without maiming my reputation. I died having avenged my E. DIDO

523

husband, with my city established. Why, envious Muse, did you urge Maro against me, that he fabricate my loss of chastity? [15] O readers, rather place your belief concerning me with writers of history than with those mendacious bards who sing of the stolen pleasures of the gods, who defile the truth in poetry, and represent the immortals with the vices of men. (MP)

4. Macrobius, Saturnalia 5.17.5–6 See below, IV.C. (Text: J. Willis, ed., 2nd ed. [Leipzig, 1970]) Quod ita elegantius auctore digessit, ut fabula lascivientis Didonis, quam falsam novit universitas, per tot tamen saecula speciem veritatis obtineat et ita pro vero per ora omnium volitet, ut pictores fictoresque et qui figmentis liciorum contextas imitantur effigies, hac materia vel maxime in effigiandis simulacris tamquam unico argumento decoris utantur, nec minus histrionum perpetuis et gestibus et cantibus celebretur. Tantum valuit pulchritudo narrandi ut omnes Phoenissae castitatis conscii, nec ignari manum sibi iniecisse reginam, ne pateretur damnum pudoris, coniveant tamen fabulae, et intra conscientiam veri fidem prementes malint pro vero celebrari quod pectoribus humanis dulcedo fingentis infudit.

And here he [Virgil] has arranged the subject matter so much more tastefully than his model [the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius] that the story of Dido’s passion, which all the world knows to be a lie, has nevertheless for all these years been regarded as true. For it so wings its way, as truth, through the lips of all, that painters and sculptors and those who represent human figures in tapestry take it for their theme in preference to any other, when they fashion their likenesses, as if it were the one subject that gave pleasure; nor do actors ever fail to perform the story with gestures and song. Indeed, the beauty of Virgil’s narrative has so far prevailed that, although all are aware of the chastity of the Phoenician queen and know that she laid hands on herself lest her chastity be called into question, still they shut their eyes to the fiction, suppress in their minds the evidence of the truth, and extol as true the tale which the charm of a poet’s imagination has implanted in the hearts of mankind. (Macrobius, The Saturnalia, trans. P. V. Davies [New York, 1969], modified by MP)

5. Jerome, Commentarius in Michaeam prophetam 2.6 (circa 392) See above, I.C.30. In one passage in his Commentary on the Prophet Micah, Jerome links Virgil with St. Paul as inveighing against women. (Text: PL 25.1279d) Sed et poeta sublimis (non Homerus alter . . . sed primus Homerus apud Latinos): 524

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

. . . varium et mutabile semper femina [Aeneid 4.569–70].

But also the exalted poet [Virgil] (not a second Homer . . . but a premier Homer among the Latins) [says]: ‘‘A woman is always a fickle and changeable thing.’’ (MP)

6. Augustine See above, I.C.31. a. Confessions 1.13 (Text and translation: Augustine, Confessions, trans. W. Watts [1631], rev. W. H. D. Rouse, vol. 1, LCL 26 [1912]) Nam utique meliores, quia certiores, erant primae illae litterae, quibus fiebat in me et factum est et habeo illud, ut et legam, si quid scriptum invenio, et scribam ipse si quid volo, quam illae, quibus tenere cogebar Aeneas nescio cuius errores, oblitus errorum meorum, et plorare Didonem mortuam, quia se occidit ab amore, cum interea me ipsum in his a te morientem, Deus, vita mea, siccis oculis ferrem miserrimus. Quid enim miserius misero non miserante se ipsum et flente Didonis mortem, quae fiebat amando Aenean, non flente autem mortem suam, quae fiebat non amando te, Deus, lumen cordis mei et panis oris intus animae meae et virtus maritans mentem meam et sinum cogitationis meae? Non te amabam, et fornicabar abs te, et fornicanti sonabat undique: ‘‘Euge, euge.’’ Amicitia enim mundi huius fornicatio est abs te et ‘‘Euge, euge’’ dicitur, ut pudeat, si non ita homo sit. Et haec non flebam, et flebam Didonem extinctam ferroque extrema secutam [Aeneid 6.457], sequens ipse extrema condita tua relicto te, et terra iens in terram: et si prohiberer ea legere, dolerem, quia non legerem quod dolerem. Talis dementia honestiores et uberiores litterae putantur quam illae, quibus legere et scribere didici. Sed nunc in anima mea clamet Deus meus, et veritas tua dicat mihi: non est ita, non est ita; melior est prorsus doctrina illa prior. Nam ecce paratior sum oblivisci errores Aeneae atque omnia eius modi, quam scribere et legere. At enim vela pendent liminibus grammaticarum scholarum, sed non illa magis honorem secreti quam tegimentum erroris significant. Non clament adversus me quos iam non timeo, dum confiteor tibi quae vult anima mea, Deus meus, et adquiesco in reprehensione malarum viarum mearum, ut diligam bonas vias tuas, non clament adversus me venditores grammaticae vel emptores, quia, si proponam eis interrogans, utrum verum sit, quod Aenean aliquando Karthaginem venisse poeta dicit, indoctiores nescire se respondebunt, doctiores autem etiam negabunt verum esse. At si quaeram, E. DIDO

525

quibus litteris scribatur Aeneae nomen, omnes mihi, qui haec didicerunt, verum respondent et secundum id pactum et placitum, quo inter se homines ista signa firmarunt. Item si quaeram, quid horum maiore vitae huius incommodo quisque obliviscatur, legere et scribere an poetica illa figmenta, quis non videat, quid responsurus sit, qui non est penitus oblitus sui? Peccabam ergo puer, cum illa inania istis utilioribus amore praeponebam vel potius ista oderam, illa amabam. Iam vero unum et unum duo, duo et duo quattuor odiosa cantio mihi erat, et dulcissimum spectaculum vanitatis equus ligneus plenus armatis, et Troiae incendium, atque ipsius umbra Creusae [Aeneid 2.772].

For those first rudiments were better, because more certain (seeing that by them that skill was and is wrought in me, that I am able to read what I find written, and of myself to write what I will), than these latter; by which I was forced to commit to memory the wanderings of I know not what Aeneas, while I forgot my own; and to bewail dead Dido, because she killed herself for love; when in the meantime (wretch that I was) I with dry eyes endured myself dying toward you, O God my life. For what can be more miserable than a wretch that pities not himself; one bemoaning Dido’s death, caused by loving of Aeneas, and yet not lamenting his own death, caused by not loving you, O God, light of my soul, bread of the internal mouth of my soul, and firmest knot, marrying my soul and the bosom of my thoughts together? I did not love you, and I committed fornication against you, while in the mean time every one applauded me with ‘‘Well done, well done!’’ But the love of this world is fornication against God: which so applauds and encourages a spiritual fornicator, that it is even a shame for a man to be otherwise. But I bemoaned not all this; but dead Dido I bewailed, that killed herself by falling upon the sword: I myself following these lower creatures of yours, forsaking you; and myself being earth, hastening to the earth. But if I were forbidden to read these toys, how sorry would I be, for that I might not read that which would make me sorry. Such madnesses were esteemed to be more commendable and fluent learning than the learning to write and read. But let my God now cry unto my soul, and let your truth say unto me: It is not so, it is not so; that first kind of learning was far better. For behold I am readier to forget the wanderings of Aeneas, and all such toys, than I am to read and write. True it is that there are curtains at the entrance of grammar schools; but they signify not so much the cloth of state to privacy, as serve for a blind to the follies committed behind them. Let not these masters now cry out upon me, whom now I am out of fear of; while I confess to you, my God, what my soul delights in; and rest contented with the reprehension of my own evil 526

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

ways, that I may love your good ones. Let not those buyers or sellers of grammar exclaim upon me, for that I ask them, whether that of the poet be true, that Aeneas ever came to Carthage: the unlearned will answer, they know not; and the learned will deny it to be true. But if I ask them with what letters Aeneas’s name is written, every one that has but learned so far, will pitch upon one truth, according to the agreement and will whereby men at first made rules for those characters. If I should ask again, which of the two would be most incommodious to the life of man to forget; to write and read, or, these poetical fictions; who sees not what any man would answer, that had not quite forgotten himself ? I o√ended therefore being but a boy, when in my a√ection I preferred those vain studies to these more profitable: or rather, indeed, I utterly hated these, and was in love with those. But then, one and one makes two, two and two makes four, was a harsh song to me; but the wooden horse full of armed men, and the burning of Troy, and the ghost of Creusa, was a most delightful spectacle of vanity. b. De civitate Dei 9.4 Augustine, agreeing with Servius on Aeneid 4.443–44, takes both tears and mind as referring to Aeneas. Most modern commentators refer the mind to Aeneas but the tears to Dido and Anna. (Text and translation: Augustine, City of God, vol. 3, ed. and trans. D. S. Wiesen, LCL 413 [1968]) Ambo sane, si bonorum istorum seu commodorum periculis ad flagitium vel facinus urgeantur, ut aliter ea retinere non possint, malle se dicunt haec amittere quibus natura corporis salva et incolumis habetur, quam illa committere quibus iustitia violatur. Ita mens ubi fixa est ista sententia nullas perturbationes, etiamsi accidunt inferioribus animi partibus, in se contra rationem praevalere permittit; quin immo eis ipsa dominatur eisque non consentiendo et potius resistendo regnum virtutis exercet. Talem describit etiam Vergilius Aenean, ubi ait: Mens immota manet, lacrimae volvuntur inanes [Aeneid 4.449].

Both [Stoics and Peripatetics], it will be agreed, if pressed to commit some shameful or criminal action on pain of forfeiting these good things or advantages, say that they would rather give up what is necessary for the safety and welfare of the body than give in and be guilty of acts that do violence to righteousness. So the mind in which this principle is firmly rooted permits no perturbations, however they may a√ect the lower levels of the soul, to prevail in it over reason. No, on the contrary, the mind itself is their master and, when it will not consent but rather stands firm against them, upholds the sovereign rule of virtue. Such a one is Aeneas, as described by Virgil in the words His mind remains unshaken, the tears roll forth in vain. E. DIDO

527

7. ‘‘O decus, O Libye regnum’’ The Latin text of ‘‘O decus, O Libye regnum’’ (O Glory, O Realm of Libya) survives in three manuscripts. The most famous is the Codex Buranus (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 4660, fols. 75r–75v), containing the Carmina Burana, of which it is number 100. Recent research suggests that the manuscript was copied in southern Tyrol in the third decade of the thirteenth century. The other two manuscripts are Bavarian and Austrian, from the twelfth and first half of the thirteenth centuries, respectively. The poem is most likely of French origin. Peter Dronke has established that the strangely spelled words hai dolant and achidolant in the manuscripts represent botched attempts by German-speaking scribes to render the Old French ahi dolante (ah, woe), which is attested in French romances as early as Chrétien de Troyes (circa 1140–91; see above, I.C.51) and which is presented here as Achi dolant. Dronke suggests a dating of 1130–50 (‘‘Dido’s Lament: From Medieval Latin Lyric to Chaucer,’’ in Intellectuals and Poets in Medieval Europe, Storia e letteratura 183 [Rome, 1992], 431–56). (Text: Carmina Burana, ed. A. Hilka and O. Schumann, 1/2 [Heidelberg, 1941], 135–36) (JZ) 1. O decus, o Libye regnum, Carthaginis urbem! O lacerandas fratris opes, o Punica regna! 2a. O duces Phrygios, o dulces advenas, quos tanto tempore dispersos equore iam hiems septima iactaverat ob odium Iunonis, Scyllea rabies, Cyclopum sanies, Celeno pessima traduxerat ad solium Didonis;

2b. Qui me crudelibus exercent odiis, arentis Libye post casum Phrygie quos regno naufragos exceperam! me miseram! quid feci, que meis emulis, ignotis populis et genti barbare, Sidonios ac Tyrios subieci!

3. Achi dolant! Achi dolant! Iam volant carbasa! Iam nulla spes Didonis! Ve Tyriis colonis! 528

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

plangite, Sidonii, quod in ore gladii deperii per amorem Phrygii predonis! 4a. Eneas, hospes Phrygius, Iarbas, hostis Tyrius, multo me temptant crimine, sed vario discrimine. Nam sitientis Libye regina spreta linquitur, et thalamos Lavinie Troianus hospes sequitur! Quid agam misera? Dido regnat altera! Hai, vixi nimium! Mors agat cetera! 5a. Anna, vides, que sit fides deceptoris perfidi? Fraude ficta me relicta regna fugit Punica! Nil sorori nisi mori, soror, restat, unica. 6a. Fulget sidus Orionis, sevit hiems Aquilonis, Scylla regnat equore. Tempestatis tempore, Palinure, non secure classem solvis litore!

4b. Deserta siti regio me gravi cingit prelio, fratris me terret feritas et Numadum crudelitas. Insultant hoc proverbio: ‘‘Dido se fecit Helenam: regina nostra gremio Troianum fovit advenam!’’ Gravis conditio, furiosa ratio, si mala perferam pro beneficio! 5b. Sevit Scylla, nec tranquilla se promittunt equora; solvit ratem tempestatem nec exhorret Phrygius. Dulcis soror, ut quid moror, aut quid cessat gladius? 6b. Solvit ratem dux Troianus; solvat ensem nostra manus in iacturam sanguinis! Vale, flos Carthaginis! hec, Enea, fer trophea, causa tanti criminis!

7. O dulcis anima, vite spes unica! Phlegethontis, Acherontis latebras

E. DIDO

529

ac tenebras mox adeas horroris, nec Pyrois te circulus moretur! Eneam sequere, nec desere suaves illecebras amoris, nec dulces nodos Veneris perdideris, sed nostri conscia sis nuntia doloris!

[1] O glory, O realm of Libya, city of Carthage—O a brother’s riches to be torn apart, O Punic realms! [2a] O Phrygian leaders, O sweet newcomers whom, scattered for so long a time, seven winters had tossed on the ocean because of Juno’s hate—the wrath of Scylla, the gore shed by the Cyclopes, and, worst of all, Celaeno, had led you to Dido’s throne— [2b] they who vex me with cruel hatred, they whom I received when they were shipwrecked in the realm of parched Libya after the fall of Troy: woe is me, what have I done, I who subjected the people of Sidon and Tyre to my rivals, to unknown peoples, and to a barbarous race? [3] Ah, grieving, grieving: now their sails fly, now Dido’s hope is nothing! Woe to you, Tyrian settlers! Lament, Sidonians, because I have perished on the point of a sword, for love of the Phrygian pirate! [4a] Aeneas, the Phrygian guest, and Iarbas, the Tyrians’ enemy: they put me to the test with one and the same wrong but with a di√erent crisis: now the queen of thirsting Libya is spurned and abandoned, and the Trojan guest pursues the wedding chambers of Lavinia! What am I, wretch, to do? Another Dido reigns! Alas, I have lived too much—let death handle the rest! [4b] A region abandoned to thirst rings me with grievous battle: the ferocity of my brother and the cruelty of the Numidians terrify me. They mock me with this saying: ‘‘Dido has made herself a Helen—our queen coddles a Trojan newcomer in her lap!’’ A grievous position, reasoning run riot, if I should endure wrongs for doing right! [5a] Anna, do you see of what sort is the faith of this faithless deceiver? 530

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

After abandoning me by a contrived deceit, he flees the Punic realms! One and only sister, nothing remains for your sister except to die. [5b] Scylla rages and the ocean waters do not promise to be calm. The Phrygian looses his vessel and does not shudder at the storm! Sweet sister, why do I delay, or why does the sword loiter? [6a] The constellation of Orion gleams, the wintry squall of Aquilo rages, Scylla reigns on the ocean—in time of storm, Palinurus, you do not loose the fleet safely from the shore. [6b] The Trojan leader looses his vessel, may our hand loose the sword to shed blood. Farewell, flower of Carthage! Aeneas, you bear o√ these trophies, the cause of so great a wrong! [7] O sweet soul, one and only hope of life, soon may you approach the lair of Phlegethon and darkness of Acheron, a horror, and may the fiery circuit of the sun not delay you. Follow Aeneas, and do not desert the gentle enticements of love, and do not destroy the sweet knots of Venus: be aware of our grief, be messenger of it. (JZ)

8. ‘‘Anna soror ut quid mori’’ (Sister Anna, Why Do I Delay) Another anonymous Latin poem, probably written in the late twelfth century and extant in a single manuscript, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Add. A 44, folios 30r–30v. (Discussion: P. Dronke, ‘‘Dido’s Lament: From Medieval Latin Lyric to Chaucer,’’ in Intellectuals and Poets in Medieval Europe, Storia e letteratura 183 [Rome, 1992], 439–40; VME 187–89) (Text: A. Wilmart, ed., ‘‘Le Florilège mixte de Thomas Bekynton,’’ Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies 4 [1958], 35–37) (JZ) 1a.

Anna soror ut quid mori tandem moror? Cui dolori reservor misera? O ha nimis aspera vitae conditio! Mortis dilatio mihi mors altera.

1b. Ut exponat me tormentis, vela donat ille ventis; non horret maria. O ha fides Phrygia, o fides hospitis, quae sic pro meritis rependit odia!

E. DIDO

531

2.

Abit ille, quaerens Scyllae se vel Charybdi tradere. Aquiloni quam Didoni magis elegit credere. Festinat classem solvere cum foedere; nec datae memor dexterae dat temere. Vela fidemque ventis.

3a.

Hospes abi: quid elabi furtive fugam rapere, quid laboras? Dido moras nullas festinat nectere; sub brumae tamen sidere vult parcere tibi prolique tenerae nec tradere vos Nerei tormentis.

3b. Quid, Aenea, natum dea te iactas Cypride? Ha perfide, genus quid iactitas? Vultus quos astruit illa redarguit mentis atrocitas. Parentem serenissimo vultu promittis Cypridem; sed matrem tibi tigridem teste fateris animo. 4a.

Sed querelis his crudelis hospes non flectitur. Quid igitur, quid restat, miserae? Quid agam, misera? Mors agat cetera. Mors mihi vivere. Mors vitae claudat orbitam, mors mali tollat cumulos. Insignes ferat titulos, qui sic delusit hospitam. 532

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

4b. An expectem destrui quae statui urbis novae moenia? Nos odia dirae cingunt Libies. Hinc Yarbas aemulus Numadumque populus, inde fratris rabies nos odiis et proeliis infestat. 5.

Meos quoque Tyrios iam dubios iam offensos video; displiceo meis ipsis civibus. Urbe tota canitur: ‘‘Dido spreta linquitur suis ab hospitibus; de Phrygio suffragio 6.

nil restat.’’

Ipsa me perdidi: quid Phryges arguo? Maerori subdidi vitam perpetuo. Heu me miseram: igni credideram; nunc uri metuo.

7.

Quanta sit sentio mihi conditio supplicii, ni gladii fruar obsequio. 8.

O luce clarior, Anna pars animae, his quibus crucior me malis adime. Quousque patiar? ne semper moriar, me semel perime.

[1a] Sister Anna, why do I delay at such length to die? For what grief am I in my wretchedness being kept? O all too harsh a state of life! The delay of death is another death for me. E. DIDO

533

[1b] To expose me to torments, that man gives his sails to the winds; he does not shudder at the seas. Ha! O Phrygian faith, O faith of a guest, which thus repays hate for kind deeds! [2] That man goes o√, seeking to surrender himself to Scylla or Charybdis. He opts to trust in Aquilo rather than Dido. He hastens to loose the fleet . . . together with his agreement; and mindless of a handshake he rashly throws the sails and good faith to the winds. [3a] Guest, go o√: why do you endeavor to slip o√, why to take flight stealthily? Dido makes haste to weave no delays; and yet, under skies of a winter storm she wishes to spare you and your tender son and not to hand you over to the torments of Nereus. [3b] Why, Aeneas, do you boast that you are born of the goddess Venus? Ha, faithless man, why do you bandy about your lineage? That ferocity of mind gives the lie to what your appearance implies. With your calm appearance you proclaim that Venus is your parent; but with your heart as witness you acknowledge that your mother was a tigress. [4a] But the cruel guest is unswayed by these laments. What then, what then remains for me in my wretchedness? What am I, wretched, to do? Let death handle the rest. To live is death for me. Let death close the circuit of life, let death take away the masses of wrong. Let him bear o√ marks of distinction, who thus deceived his hostess. [4b] Or should I wait to see destroyed the walls of the new city which I build? The hatred of dire Libya encircles us. On this side the enemy Iarbas and the Numidian people, on that the rage of my brother threatens us with hatred and battles. [5] I see my Tyrians too now filled with doubt, now hateful: I displease my own citizens. It is sung in the whole city: ‘‘Dido is spurned and abandoned by her guests; of Phrygian favor nothing remains.’’ [6] I have destroyed myself: why rebuke the Phrygians? I have subjected my life to everlasting sorrow. Alas, wretch that I am: I had trusted in fire; now I fear to be burned. [7] I perceive how great a state of torment will be for me, if I do not employ the service of a sword. [8] O Anna, brighter than light, better part of my soul, take me from these evils with which I am tormented. How far will I su√er? So that I not die forever, kill me at once. (JZ)

9. Dante See above, I.C.53. At Inferno 5.61–62 Dante lists Dido among the lustful and refers to her as 534

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

‘‘she who killed herself out of love and broke faith with the ashes of Sychaeus.’’ Dante also mentions Dido at Inferno 5.85, Paradiso 8.9, and Paradiso 9.97–98.

10. Petrarch, Rerum senilium libri 4.5 (1364–67) For additional excerpts from Petrarch’s letter to Federigo of Arezzo (circa 1310–after 1367) in his Letters of Old Age, see above, I.C.54.d. (Text: Franciscus Petrarcha, ‘‘Frederico Aretino, ‘De quibusdam fictionibus Virgilii’ ’’ [‘‘Letter to Federigo Aretino, ‘On Certain Creations of Virgil’ ’’], in Francisci Petrarchae: Opera Omnia [Basel: Henrichus Petri, 1554], 869–71) Nunc ad ea quae supersunt redeo, Troiae scilicet incendium, et convivium Didonis, atque ut ab ultimo ordiar, unde orsus est Maro, primum omnium Didonem reginam conditricem Carthaginis, castam feminam fuisse, si aliunde nesciremus, magnus testis est Hieronymus, non sacrarum modo, sed et secularium literarum peritissimus, in eo libro, quem adversus Iovinianum [Adversus Iovinianum 1.43] hereticum scripsit, mille compactum confertumque historiis, neque vero Aeneam ac Didonem coaetaneos fuisse, aut se videre potuisse, cum trecentis annis, aut circiter haec post illius obitum nata sit, norunt omnes, quibus aut ratio temporum, aut Graiae Punicaeque historiae notitia ulla est, non hi tantum, qui commentarios in Virgilium, sed qui libros Saturnalium legerunt [Macrobius: see above, III.E.4], neque Aeneam aliquando Carthaginem venisse, secundo Confessionum Augustinus meminit [see above, III.E.6], totam aut Didonis historiam, originemque Carthaginis, Trogus Pompeius, seu Iustinus explicuit, libro historiarum XVIII. Sed quid rei manifestissimae testes quaero? Quis enim nisi pars vulgi sit, quis usquam, quaero, tam indoctus, ut nesciat Didonis et Aeneae fabulam confictam, verique locum inter homines, non tam veri avidos, quam decore, et venustate materiae et dulcedine, atque arte obtinuisse, fingentis usque adeo, ut iam tristes et inviti verum audiant, ac perscripta dulcis possessione mendacii spolientur?

Now I return to what remains, namely, the conflagration of Troy and Dido’s banquet. To begin with the latter where Maro started, even if first of all we did not know from other sources that Dido, the founder and queen of Carthage, was a chaste woman, Jerome provides high authority, thoroughly familiar not only with sacred writings, but with secular ones, in that book, crammed and packed with a thousand stories, which he wrote against the heretical Jovinian. But Aeneas and Dido were not contemporaries, nor could they have seen one another, since she was born three hundred years, or thereabouts, after his death. All those who have any acquaintance with chronology or with Greek or E. DIDO

535

Punic history know this, not only those who have read commentaries on Virgil, but those who have read the books of the Saturnalia. In the second book of his Confessions Augustine remarks that Aeneas never went to Carthage. The entire story of Dido and the origin of Carthage is told in the eighteenth book of the history of Pompeius Trogus, or Justin. But why am I seeking authorities for something so clear? For who, except common folk, who anywhere, I ask, is so uneducated as not to know that the tale of Dido and Aeneas is fabricated, and that it has gained the status of truth among men, eager not so much for truth as for the grace and charm of the subject matter, and for the sweetness of the poet’s artistry? They press their inventiveness to the point that, sadly and unwillingly, they hear the truth, and the writings are deprived of the forbidden possession of the sweet lie. (Petrarch, Letters of Old Age: Rerum senilium libri I–XVIII, trans. A. S. Bernardo, S. Levin, and R. A. Bernardo, vol. 1 [Baltimore, 1992], 147, modified by MP)

11. Boccaccio Boccaccio wrote De claris mulieribus (On Famous Women) during 1361–62. It contains the stories of 104 women from Eve down through the ages to his contemporary Joanna I (1326–82), queen regnant of Naples (1343–82). Boccaccio also touches upon Dido in his De casibus virorum illustrium, Amorosa visione, De genealogia deorum gentilium, and Esposizioni sopra la Comedia di Dante. He deserves particular note for his attempts to present Dido as an embodiment of chastity. (Discussion: M. L. Lord, ‘‘Dido as an Example of Chastity,’’ Harvard Library Bulletin 17 [1969], 22–44 and 216–32; A. Wlosok, ‘‘Boccaccio über Dido—mit und ohne Aeneas,’’ Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 30 [1984, for 1982–84], 457–70) a. ‘‘De Didone seu Elissa Cartaginensium regina’’ Boccaccio’s treatment in ‘‘On Dido or Elissa, Queen of the Carthaginians’’ (De claris mulieribus 42) di√ers significantly from the one in De genealogia deorum gentilium (entry b, below). Presented here are 14–16, 23–24, 26. (Text and translation: Giovanni Boccaccio, Famous Women, ed. V. Brown, I Tatti Renaissance Library 1 [Cambridge, Mass., 2001], 166–81) Quo concesso atque adveniente Enea Troiano nunquam viso, mori potius quam infringendam fore castimoniam rata, in sublimiori patrie parte, opinione civium manes placatura Sicei, rogum construxit ingentem et pulla tecta veste et cerimoniis servatis variis, ac hostiis cesis plurimis, illum conscendit, civibus frequenti multitudine spectantibus quidnam factura esset. Que cum omnia pro votis egisset, cultro, quem sub vestibus gesserat, exerto ac castissimo apposito pectori vocatoque Syceo inquit: ‘‘Prout vultis cives 536

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

optimi, ad virum vado.’’ Et vix verbis tam paucis finitis, summa omnium intuentium mestitia, in cultrum sese precipitem dedit et auxiliis frustra admotis, cum perfodisset vitalia, pudicissimum effundens sanguinem, ivit in mortem. O pudicitie inviolatum decus! O viduitatis infracte venerandum eternumque specimen, Dido! In te velim ingerant oculos vidue mulieres et potissime Christiane tuum robur inspiciant; te, si possunt, castissimum effundentem sanguinem, tota mente considerent, et he potissime quibus fuit, ne ad secunda solum dicam, sed ad tertia et ulteriora etiam vota transvolasse levissimum! Quid inquient, queso, spectantes, Christi insignite caractere, exteram mulierem gentilem, infidelem, cui omnino Christus incognitus, ad consequendam perituram laudem tam perseveranti animo, tam forti pectore in mortem usque pergere, non aliena sed sua illatam manu, antequam in secundas nuptias iret? Antequam venerandissimum observantie propositum violari permicteret. . . . Erubescant igitur intuentes Didonis cadaver exanime; et dum causam mortis eius excogitant, vultus deiciant, dolentes quod a membro dyaboli Christicole pudicitia superentur; nec putent, dum lacrimas dederint et pullas assumpserint vestes, defuncto peregisse omnia. In finem usque servandus est amor, si adimplere velint viduitatis officium. Nec existiment ad ulteriora vota transire; quod nonnulle persepe faciunt, potius ut sue prurigini, sub ficto coniugii nomine, satisfaciant, quam ut sacro obsequantur connubio, impudicitie labe carea[n]t. Quid enim aliud est tot hominum amplexus exposcere, tot inire, quam, post Valeriam Messalinam, caveas et fornices intrare. . . . Didonem igitur exanguem cum lacrimis publicis et merore cives, non solum humanis, sed divinis etiam honoribus funus exercentes magnificum, extulere pro viribus; nec tantum publice matris et regine loco, sed deitatis inclite eisque faventis assidue, dum stetit Cartago, aris templisque excogitatis sacrificiis coluere.

[The reprieve from immediate marriage to the king of the Massitani] was granted. Thus even before the arrival of the Trojan Aeneas (whom she never saw), Dido had already decided to die rather than violate her chastity. In the highest part of the city she built a great pyre; this the people believed she had constructed in order to appease the shade of Sychaeus. Dressed in a black robe, she performed the various rites, o√ered many sacrifices, and mounted the pyre in the presence of a great throng watching to see what she would do. When she had completed all the ceremonies, Dido took out the knife that she had brought under her clothing. Placing it against her chaste breast and calling out E. DIDO

537

to Sychaeus, she said: ‘‘In accordance with your wish, my people, I go to my husband.’’ Hardly had she finished uttering these few words when, to the great sorrow of all the spectators, she threw herself headlong onto the knife. The vital organs were pierced and she died, shedding her pure blood as the onlookers rushed vainly to her aid. What glory there is in inviolate chastity! O Dido, venerable and eternal model of unsullied widowhood! I wish that women who have lost their husbands would turn their eyes upon you and that Christian women in particular would contemplate your strength. If they can, let them meditate upon how you shed your chaste blood—especially women for whom it is a trivial matter to drift into second, third, and even more marriages. These women, marked with the emblem of Christ—what will they say, I wonder, when they see before them a foreign woman, a pagan, an unbeliever, to whom Christ was completely unknown, go to her death for the sake of fleeting reputation? Rather than marry again, rather than break her holy resolve, she died by her own hand, steadfast in spirit, unshaken in her determination. . . . Let the women of today blush, then, as they contemplate Dido’s lifeless body. While they ponder the reason for her death, let them bow their heads in sorrow that Christian women are surpassed in chastity by a woman who was a limb of Satan. Let them not think that by mourning and dressing in black they have executed all the duties owed to the dead. Love must be maintained to the end if they want to fulfill the obligations of widowhood. Nor should they think of contracting another marriage; this some do under the false name of matrimony more to satisfy their passion than to observe its sacramental character and avoid the defilement caused by lust. In fact, how can seeking and having intercourse with so many men di√er from frequenting the brothels after the example of Valeria Messalina. . . . And so Dido’s countrymen, amid public mourning and grief, honored her in death as best they could and staged a magnificent funeral at which she was accorded both human and divine honors. While Carthage stood, they venerated her with altars, temples, and special sacrifices, not only as their common mother and their ruler, but also as an illustrious goddess and their constant protector. b. De genealogia deorum gentilium 14.13 (Text: Genealogie deorum gentilium libri, ed. Vincenzo Romano, vol. 2, Scrittori d’Italia 201 [Bari, 1951], 721–22) Quod autem Virgilio obiciunt, falsum est. Noluit quippe vir prudens recitare Didonis historiam; sciebat enim, ut talium doctissimus, Didonem hones-

538

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

tate precipuam fuisse mulierem, eamque manu propria mori maluisse, quam infixum pio pectori castimonie propositum secundis inficere nuptiis. Sed, ut artificio et velamento poetico consequeretur quod erat suo operi oportunum, composuit fabulam in multis similem Didonis historie; quod . . . veteri instituto poetis conceditur. Posset tamen quis dignus responsione et forsan tu ipse, princeps, perquirere: ad quid hoc necessarium erat Virgilio? Cui ut digne responsum sit, dico eum in hoc a quadruplici causa tractum. Primo, ut in eo stilo, quem in Eneida sumpserat, poeticum sequeretur morem, et potissime Homeri, cuius fuit in eo poemate imitator. Nam poete non, historiographi faciunt, qui a quodam certo principio opus exordiuntur suum, et continua atque ordinata rerum gestarum descriptione in finem usque deducunt (quod cernimus fecisse Lucanum, quam ob causam multi eum potius metricum historiographum quam poetam existimant), verum artificio quodam longe maiori aut circa medium historie, aut aliquando fere circa finem inchoant quod intendunt, et sibi adinveniunt causam recitandi, quod ex precedentibus omisisse videbantur; ut in Odyssea Homerus, qui quasi circa finem errorum Ulixis eum naufragum in litus Pheycum delatum scribit, et ibidem Alcinoi regi recitantem quicquid illi ante diem illam post discessum a Troia contigerat, inducit. Quod volens Virgilius facere, cum Eneam a litore Troiano fugientem scripsisset post erutam civitatem, non adinvenit aptiorem locum, ad quem eum deduceret, ante quam Italiam intraret, Africano litore; eo enim usque semper inter Grecos hostes navigaverat. Et cum litus Affrum in tempus usque illud a rusticis et agrestibus atque barbaris hominibus incoleretur, ut eum ad personam veneratione dignam deduceret, et aqua reciperetur, et cuius hortatu Troianorum casus suosque recitaret, nec aliam preter Didonem, que, et si non tunc, multa tamen post secula loca illa incoluisse creditum est, comperiens, Didonem, tanquam si iam venisset, eius hospitam fecit, et, ut legimus, eius iussu sua suorumque infortunia recitavit. Secundo, quod sub velamento latet poetico, intendit Virgilius per totum opus ostendere quibus passionibus humana fragilitas infestetur, et quibus viribus a constanti viro superentur. Et cum iam non nullas ostendisset, volens demonstrare quibus ex causis ab appetitu concupiscibili in lasciviam rapiamur, introducit Didonem generositate sanguinis claram, etate iuvenem, forma spectabilem, moribus insignem, divitiis abundantem, castitate famosam, prudentia atque eloquentia circumspectam, civitati sue et populo imperantem, et viduam, quasi ab experientia Veneris concupiscentie aptiorem. Que omnia generosi cuiuscunque hominis habent animum irritare,

E. DIDO

539

nedum exulis atque naufragi et incognitam regionem deiecti atque subsidio indigentis. Et sic intendit pro Didone concupiscibilem et attractivam potentiam, oportunitatibus omnibus armatam. Eneam autem pro quocunque ad lubricum apto et demum capto. Tandem ostenso quo trahamur in scelus ludibrio, qua via in virtutem revehamur, ostendit, inducens Mercurium, deorum interpretem, Eneam ab illecebra increpantem atque ad gloriosa exhortantem. Per quem Virgilius sentit seu conscientie proprie morsum, seu amici et eloquentis hominis redargutionem, a quibus, dormientes in luto turpitudinum, excitamur, et in rectum pulchrumque revocamur iter, id est, ad gloriam. Et tunc nexum oblectationis infauste solvimus, quando, armati fortitudine, blanditias, lacrimas, preces, et huius modi in contrarium trahentes, constanti animo spernimus, ac vilipendentes omittimus. Tercio curat Virgilius in laudibus Enee ad honorem Octaviani Cesaris Iuliorum genus extollere; quod peragit, dum illum lascivias et immunditias carnis et muliebres delicias robore mentis spernentem atque calcantem ostendit. Quarto intendit sublimare Romani nominis gloriam, quod satis facit, dum execrationes moriture Didonis describit. Nam per eas bella Cartaginensium cum Romanis et triunphi, quos ex eis Romani consecuti sunt, intelliguntur, in quibus Romanum nomen satis extollitur. Et sic non mendax fuit Virgilius, ut minime intelligentes existimant, nec alii etiam, si qui sint, eo modo fingentes.

But their objection to Virgil—that no wise man would ever consent to tell the story of Dido—is false. With his profound knowledge of such lore, he was well aware that Dido had really been a woman of exceptional integrity, who would rather die by her own hand than taint the vow of chastity fixed deep in her pious heart by a second marriage. But that he might attain the proper e√ect of his work by artifice and the mantle of poetry, he composed a story in many respects like that of this historic Dido . . . according to the privilege of poets established by ancient custom. Possibly someone more worthy of a reply than my opponents—perhaps even you, O prince [King Hugo of Cyprus]—may ask to what purpose this was necessary for Virgil. By way of fitting answer let me say that his motive was fourfold. First, that in the same style which he had adopted for the Aeneid he might follow the practice of poets, particularly Homer, whom he imitated in this poem. For poets are not like historians, who begin their account at some convenient starting place and describe events in the unbroken order of their occurrence to the end. (Such, we observe, was Lucan’s method; wherefore 540

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

many think of him rather as an historian in meter than a poet.) But poets, by a far nobler device, begin their proposed narrative in the midst of events, or sometimes even near the end; and thus they find excuse for telling preceding events which seem to have been omitted. Thus Homer, in the Odyssey, begins his writing, as it were, near the end of Ulysses’ wanderings and shows him wrecked upon the Phaeacian shore, then has him tell King Alcinous everything that had happened to him hitherto since he left Troy. Virgil chose the same method in describing Aeneas as a fugitive from the shore of Troy after the city was razed. He found no place so appropriate on which to land him before he reached Italy as the coast of Africa; for up to that point he had been sailing continuously among his enemies the Greeks. But since the shore of Africa was at that time still the home of rude and barbarous rustics, he desired to bring his hero to somebody worthy of admiration who might receive him and urge him to tell of his own fate and that of the Trojans. Such a one above all he found in Dido, who, to be sure, is supposed to have dwelt there not then, but many generations later; yet Dido he presents as if already living there, and makes her the hostess of Aeneas; and we read how at her command he told the story of his own troubles and those of his friends. Virgil’s second purpose, concealed under the mantle of poetry, was to show with what passions human frailty is infested, and the strength with which they are subdued by a steady man. Having illustrated some of these, he wished particularly to demonstrate the reasons why we are carried away into wanton behavior by the passion of concupiscence; so he introduces Dido, a woman of distinguished family, young, fair, exemplary in behavior, rich, famous for her chastity, ruler of her city and people, of conspicuous wisdom and eloquence, and lastly, a widow, and thus from former experience in love, the more easily disposed to that passion. Now all these qualifications are likely to excite the mind of a highborn man, particularly an exile and castaway thrown destitute upon an unknown shore and in need of help. So he represents in Dido the attracting power of the passion of love, prepared for every opportunity, and in Aeneas one who is readily disposed in that way and at length overcome. But after illustrating the sham by which we are allured toward crime, he points the way of return to virtue by bringing in Mercury, messenger of the gods, to rebuke Aeneas and call him back from such indulgence to deeds of glory. By Mercury, Virgil means either pangs of conscience, or the reproof of some persuasive friend, either of which rouses us from slumber in the mire of turpitude, and calls us back into the fair and even path to glory. Then we burst the bonds of unholy delight, and, armed with fortitude, we unfalteringly spurn all seductive flattery, tears, and prayers, that might lead us in an opposite direction, and abandon them as worthless. E. DIDO

541

Virgil’s third purpose is to extol, through his praise of Aeneas, the gens Julia (Julian tribe) in honor of Caesar Octavianus; this he does by showing him resolutely and scornfully setting his heel upon the wanton and impure promptings of the flesh and the delights of women. It is Virgil’s fourth purpose to exalt the glory of the name of Rome. This he accomplishes through Dido’s execrations at her death; for they imply the wars between Carthage and Rome, and prefigure the triumphs which the Romans gained thereby—a su≈cient glorification of the city’s name. Thus it appears that Virgil is not lying, whatever the unthinking suppose; nor are the others, if there are any who compose in the same manner. (C. G. Osgood, Boccaccio on Poetry [Indianapolis, 1956], 67–69, modified by MP)

12. Chaucer (Geo√rey Chaucer, circa 1343–1400) Although active as a man of a√airs, Chaucer (see above, II.C.55) was also the most accomplished Middle English poet. His fame rests primarily on The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories narrated by pilgrims en route to the cathedral at Canterbury. The collection is incomplete and not fully revised, but those qualities have not diminished its success. It survives in some eighty complete or partial manuscripts. Another work of Chaucer’s maturity is Troilus and Criseyde (circa 1385), a novelistic retelling in verse of the story of Troilus and his faithless beloved. His lesser-known works include translations of the Roman de la Rose (not entire: see above, III.C.7), to which he refers in the prologue to the Legend of Good Women, and of Boethius’s prosimetrum De consolatione philosophiae (On the Consolation of Philosophy, into Middle English prose: see above, III.D.3). As his connection with these two works suggests, Chaucer was widely read in French and Latin as well as Italian literature. The Legend of Good Women was purportedly written after Troilus and Criseyde, to atone for the latter’s treatment of women. It includes a long list of heroines, among whom Dido is the third. For his account Chaucer drew on his knowledge of Virgil and his successors, from Ovid on. (Discussion: Marilynn Desmond, Reading Dido: Gender, Textuality, and the Medieval ‘‘Aeneid’’ [Minneapolis, 1994]; VME 249–69) (Text: L. D. Benson, ed., The Riverside Chaucer [Boston, 1987]) Another Middle English author who handles the story of Dido and Aeneas is John Gower (circa 1330–1408). In recasting the story as an exemplum (a short narrative used to point a moral) in the lengthy poem entitled Confessio amantis (The Lover’s Confession), Gower evidences a familiarity with the commentary by Servius. (Text: G. C. Macaulay, ed., Early English Text Society, extra ser. 82 [Oxford, 1900], 4:77–146) 542

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

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), Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Richardson 38 (France, Loire Valley, circa 1465–70), fol. 174v (by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University). For a color reproduction of this image, see the frontispiece.

F. DESCENT INTO THE UNDERWORLD

1. Servius, Comment on Aeneid 6.131: Tenent media omnia silvae (Woods claim everything in between) See below, IV.B. On the woods through which Aeneas must pass. (Text: Thilo-Hagen 2:28) ‘‘Tenent media omnia silvae’’: Causam reddit cur non facilis sit animarum regressus, quia omnia polluta et inquinata sunt: nam per silvas tenebras et lustra significat, in quibus feritas et libido dominantur. F. D E S C E N T I N T O T H E U N D E RW O R L D

543

‘‘Woods claim everything in between’’: He o√ers a reason why the return of souls isn’t easy, since all things are polluted and stained: for by ‘‘woods’’ he means ignorance and debauchery in which animality and lust hold sway. (MP)

2. (Pseudo-)Bernardus Silvestris, Comment on Aeneid 6 See below, III.G.3 and IV.Q. On Aeneas’s descent into the underworld. (Text: Commentum quod dicitur Bernardi Silvestris super sex libros Eneidos Virgilii, ed. J. W. Jones and E. F. Jones [Lincoln, Nebr., 1977]) Quoniam in hoc sexto volumine descensus Enee ad inferos enarratur, idcirco in primis de locis inferorum et de descensu intueamur et quia profundius philosophicam veritatem in hoc volumine declarat Virgilius, ideo non tantum summam, verum etiam verba exponendo in eo diutius immoremur.

Since in this sixth book Aeneas’s descent into the underworld is narrated, let us therefore consider first the places of the underworld and the descent; and since Virgil propounds philosophic truth more profoundly in this book, let us linger at greater length not only on a summary of the book but on interpreting individual words in it. (Commentary on the First Six Books of Virgil’s Aeneid by Bernardus Silvestris, trans. E. G. Schreiber and T. E. Maresca [Lincoln, Nebr., 1979], 758, modified by MP) G. GOLDEN BOUGH

1. Macrobius, Saturnalia 5.19.2 See below, IV.C. Macrobius quotes the philosopher and teacher Lucius Annaeus Cornutus (see below, IV.A.4). (Text: J. Willis, ed., 2nd ed. [Leipzig, 1970]) Hanc Vergilius non de nihilo fabulam fingit, sicut alias doctissimus Cornutus existimat, qui adnotationem eius modi adposuit his versibus: unde haec historia ut crinis auferendus sit morientibus, ignoratur: sed adsuevit poetico more aliqua fingere ut de aureo ramo.

Now this tale [of Iris cutting o√ a lock from the dying Dido’s hair] is not pure invention on Virgil’s part, as Cornutus (in other respects a very learned man) holds in the following note which he appended to the passage: ‘‘The origin of this story of the need to take a lock of hair from the dying is not known, but Virgil was accustomed to imagining some matters after the manner of poets, as, for example, in regard to the golden bough.’’ (Macrobius, The Saturnalia, trans. P. V. Davies [New York, 1969], 368)

544

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

2. Servius See below, IV.B. a. Comment on Aeneid 6.136–37: Latet arbore opaca / aureus . . . ramus (There lies hidden on a dark tree a golden bough) (Text: Thilo-Hagen 2:30–31) Licet de hoc ramo hi qui de sacris Proserpinae scripsisse dicuntur, quiddam esse mysticum adfirment, publica tamen opinio hoc habet. Orestes post occisum regem Thoantem in regione Taurica cum sorore Iphigenia, ut supra [on Aeneid 2.116] diximus, fugit et Dianae simulacrum inde sublatum haud longe ab Aricia collocavit. In huius templo post mutatum ritum sacrificiorum fuit arbor quaedam, de qua infringi ramum non licebat. Dabatur autem fugitivis potestas, ut si quis exinde ramum potuisset auferre, monomachia cum fugitivo templi sacerdote dimicaret: nam fugitivus illic erat sacerdos ad priscae imaginem fugae. Dimicandi autem dabatur facultas quasi ad pristini sacrificii reparationem. Nunc ergo istum inde sumpsit colorem. Ramus enim necesse erat ut et unius causa esset interitus: unde et statim mortem subiungit Miseni: et ad sacra Proserpinae accedere nisi sublato ramo non poterat. Inferos autem subire hoc dicit, sacra celebrare Proserpinae. De reditu autem animae hoc est: novimus Pythagoram Samium vitam humanam divisisse in modum Y litterae, scilicet quod prima aetas incerta sit, quippe quae adhuc se nec vitiis nec virtutibus dedit: bivium autem Y litterae a iuventute incipere, quo tempore homines aut vitia, id est, partem sinistram, aut virtutes, id est, dexteram partem sequuntur: unde ait Persius traducit trepidas ramosa in compita mentes [Satires 5.35]. Ergo per ramum virtutes dicit esse sectandas, qui est Y litterae imitatio: quem ideo in silvis dicit latere, quia re vera in huius vitae confusione et maiore parte vitiorum virtus et integritas latet. Alii dicunt ideo ramo aureo inferos peti, quod divitiis facile mortales intereunt. Tiberianus aurum, quo pretio reserantur limina Ditis.

Although those who are reported to have written about the sacred rites of Proserpina assert about this bough that it is something allegorical, nonetheless common opinion holds as follows: after killing King Thoas in the land of the Tauri, Orestes fled, as we reported above, with his sister Iphigenia, removed from there the image of Diana, and placed it not far from Aricia. After the ritual of sacrifices had been changed in her temple, there was a certain tree from which it was not permitted to break o√ a bough. However, authority was granted to fugitives that if anyone could take away a bough from it, he would

G. GOLDEN BOUGH

545

fight in single combat with the priest of the temple, himself a fugitive; for the priest there was a fugitive, on the model of the original flight. What is more, the opportunity of fighting was granted by way of reenacting, as it were, the original sacrifice. Therefore it now took its color from that. For the bough was needed so as to be the cause of one death. For this reason he adds immediately the death of Misenus, and he could not proceed to the sacred rites of Proserpina unless the bough had been removed. Moreover, approaching the underworld means celebrating the sacred rites of Proserpina. What is more, this is to be said about the return of the soul: we know that Pythagoras of Samos divided human existence in the manner of the letter upsilon [represented as a Y], which is to say, that the first part of life is uncertain, insofar as it has not given itself yet over to vices or virtues; but the splitting into two routes of the letter Y begins from young manhood, at which time people pursue either vices, which is to say, the left side, or virtues, which is to say, the right side. For this reason Persius says ‘‘brings over trembling souls into boughlike crossroads.’’ Therefore by the bough he says that virtues must be followed, which is imitation of the letter Y. On this account he says that it lies hidden in the woods, because indeed in the confusion of this life and in the greater part of vices virtue and wholeness lie hidden. On this account others say that the underworld is sought with a golden bough, because mortals perish readily through riches. The poet Tiberianus [late third or early fourth century c.e.] speaks of ‘‘gold, by price of which the thresholds of Dis are opened.’’ (JZ) b. Comment on Aeneid 6.295: Tartarei quae fert Acherontis ([The road] that leads to Tartarean Acheron) (Text: Thilo-Hagen 2:53) Sequitur illud Pythagoricum, dicens tenuisse eos viam post errorem silvarum, quae vel ad vitia vel ad virtutes, ut diximus, ducit.

He follows that Pythagorean notion, saying that, after wandering in the woods, they kept to the road which, as we said [on Aeneid 6.136], leads either to virtues or to vices. (MP) c. Comment on Aeneid 6.477: Arva tenebant ultima ([And now] they reached the farthest fields) (Text: Thilo-Hagen 2:72) Sed dixit quantum ad Y pertinet litteram: in his enim quae dixit mixta sunt virtutibus vitia, in his autem quae dicturus est nocentum poenas a piorum segregat meritis. Nam inferi, ut diximus supra, humanam continent vitam,

546

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

hoc est animam in corpore constitutam [on Aeneid 6.127]. Haec autem quae dixit mixta esse manifestum est: licet enim in viris fortibus laudetur virtus, est tamen vituperabile alienum imperium caedibus occupare; item amare privignum crimen est, virtus maritum.

But he had said how much [the journey] relates to the letter Y: in these [verses] that he uttered vices are commingled with virtues, but in these that he is about to utter he separates the punishments of the wicked from the rewards of the holy. For the underworld, as we said above, contains human life, that is, the soul positioned in the body. It is clear, moreover, that these which he has uttered are commingled: for though virtue be praised in brave men, nevertheless to seize someone else’s empire by carnage is worthy of censure; likewise to love a stepson is a crime, a husband, a virtue. (MP)

3. (Pseudo-)Bernardus Silvestris, Comment on Aeneid 6.136–37 See above, III.F.2, and below, IV.Q. The lines in question are: Accipe quae peragenda prius. Latet arbore opaca aureus et foliis et lento vimine ramus.

Hear what must first be done. There lurks in a shady tree a bough, golden in leaf and pliant stem. (Discussion: VME 120–30) (Text: Commentum quod dicitur Bernardi Silvestris super sex libros Eneidos Virgilii, ed. J. W. Jones and E. F. Jones [Lincoln, Nebr., 1977], 58–59) Ramus integumentis vocatur quodlibet quod in diversa scinditur ut virtutes, vicia, scientie. Ramus ergo aureus hoc loco intelligitur philosophia quia quemadmodum ramus per alios furcatur, ita philosophia quasi quidam stipes in duas alias, scilicet theoricam et practicam que rursus in alias secernuntur. . . . Hic ramus est in arbore. Arborem Pitagoras appellavit humanitatem que in duos ramos, id est, in virtutem et vitium se dividit. Cum enim in initio continuat, deinceps quidam in dextrum, quidam in sinistrum, id est, quidam in vitium, quidam in virtutem se dividunt. Hec autem arbor gravedine carnis opacca est. Quia humanitas ad modum arboris dividitur, ideo hoc loco arbor vocatur et a Pitagora per y caracterem furcate arboris formam habentem figuratur.

By the coverings [of allegory] anything which is split into diverse parts (such as the virtues, the vices, and knowledge) is called a branch. Therefore the golden bough is here interpreted as philosophy, since just as a branch has smaller divisions, so too philosophy is like a tree with trunk subdivided into G. GOLDEN BOUGH

547

two di√erent areas, namely, theoretical and practical, which in turn are divided into others. . . . This bough is on a tree. Pythagoras called humanity a tree which is divided into two branches, that is, into virtue and into vice. For although they are joined together in the beginning, some people divide themselves to the left and some to the right, that is, some toward vice and some toward virtue. This tree is shaded by the heaviness of the flesh. Since humanity is divided like a tree, so here it is called a tree, and it is depicted by Pythagoras as the letter U, forked like a tree. (Commentary on the First Six Books of Virgil’s Aeneid by Bernardus Silvestris, trans. E. G. Schreiber and T. E. Maresca [Lincoln, Nebr., 1979], 758, modified by MP)

4. John of Salisbury, Policraticus 8.25 See above, II.C.12 and below, IV.X.3.d and V.A.2. John of Salisbury compares the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Bible with the golden bough in Virgil’s Aeneid. (Text: C. C. J. Webb, ed. [Oxford, 1909], 2:420–21) Nec vereatur quis ad arborem scientiae boni et mali manum extendere primae prohibitionis exemplo, quia exulem et erroneum ad illam invitavit ille qui docet hominem scientiam [Psalms 93.10] et iuxta promissionem propheticam ignaro indicat quid sit bonum [Micah 6.8]. In arbore ergo scientiae quasi quidam virtutis ramus nascitur, ex quo tota vita proficientis hominis consecratur. Neque enim ad genitorem vitae, Deum scilicet, alter redit, nisi qui virtutis ramum excisum de ligno scientiae praetendit. Sed qui cito avellet ramum, cum vel ipsam arborem, id est, quid fieri oporteat, perpauci noverint? Numquid ramus facile innotescet, ubi prae multitudine desipientium et male agentium ipsa arbor occulitur? Hoc ipsum forte sensit et Maro, qui, licet veritatis esset ignarus et in tenebris gentium ambularet, ad Eliseos campos felicium et cari genitoris conspectum Eneam admittendum esse non credidit, nisi docente Sibilla, quae quasi siòw boulh´ consilium Iovis vel sapientia Dei interpretatur, ramum hunc Proserpinae, quae proserpentem et erigentem se a vitiis vitam innuit, consecraret. Ait ergo: Accipe quae peragenda prius. Latet arbore opaca aureus et foliis et lento vimine ramus Iunoni infernae dictus sacer; hunc tegit omnis lucus et obscuris claudunt convallibus umbrae. Sed non ante datur telluris operta subire auricomos quam quis decerpsit ab arbore fetus. Hoc sibi pulchra suum ferri Proserpina munus instituit; primo avulso non deficit alter aureus, et simili frondescit virga metallo [Aeneid 6.136–44]. 548

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

140

Plane quid penarum lateat in terrenis vel quid in his possit mereri solus agnoscit qui de arbore scientiae ramum bonae operationis avellit. Eoque avulso alter non deficit, quia quo amplius exercentur, eo magis subcrescunt et proficiunt scientiae et virtutes. Non tamen eatenus Maronis aut gentium insisto vestigiis ut credam quempiam ad scientiam aut virtutem propriis arbitrii sui viribus pervenire. Fateor gratiam in electis operari et velle et perficere [Philippians 2.13]; ipsam veneror tamquam viam immo revera viam quae sola ducit ad vitam et quemque boni voti compotem facit.

Let no one fear to stretch out his hand to the tree of knowledge of good and evil on account of the precedent of the original injunction, because the wandering exile has been invited to it by the one who teaches man knowledge and who points out (according to the promise of the prophet) to the unknowing what is good. Therefore, on the tree of knowledge a bough of virtue (as it were) comes to life. On the basis of it the entire life of a person as he moves forward is hallowed; for no one else returns to the creator of life, which is to say, God, except him who holds out the bough of virtue cut o√ from the tree of knowledge. But who will pluck away the bough, since very few know even the tree itself, that is, what it is fitting to do? Does the bough become known readily, when the tree itself is concealed on account of the throng of fools and wrongdoers? By chance Maro himself was aware of this very thing. Although he was ignorant of the truth and walked in the shadows of the pagan peoples, he did not believe that Aeneas was to be admitted to the Elysian fields of the blessed and into the sight of his dear father, unless, at the instruction of the Sibyl (who is interpreted as sios boule, ‘‘counsel of Jupiter’’ or ‘‘wisdom of God’’), he dedicated this bough to Proserpina, who signifies life creeping forward and raising itself from vices. Therefore he says: Hear what must be accomplished first. There lies hidden on a dark tree a bough, golden in both leaf and pliant twig, called sacred to Juno of the underworld [Proserpina]; this all the grove hides and shadows enclose in dark vales. [140] But it is not granted to enter the concealed places of the earth before someone has plucked from the tree its golden-leafed shoot. Beautiful Proserpina established that this would be borne to her, as her gift; when the first has been torn o√, another one of gold is not wanting, and the branch leafs out with the same metal.

Plainly he alone who plucks from the tree of knowledge the bough of good works recognizes what punishments lie hidden in earthly things or what can be earned in their opposites. And when it has been plucked, another is not wanting, because the more knowledge and virtues are applied, the more they grow and avail. Yet I do not follow so hard upon the heels of Maro or the pagans as to believe that anyone arrives at wisdom or virtue by his own strength of judgment. I acknowledge that grace works upon both will and completion G. GOLDEN BOUGH

549

among the chosen; I respect this as the road—on the contrary, as truly the only road that leads to life and that grants possession of good wishes to everyone. (JZ) H. FLORILEGIA If the cento embodies the Virgilianism characteristic of late antiquity, the florilegium manifests the devotion to the poet that was common in the Middle Ages, perhaps particularly in the twelfth century. Florilegia are assemblages of ‘‘purple passages’’ (important in style, content, or both) from authors, often classical poets. Although the collections known as the Florilegium angelicum and Florilegium Gallicum were associated especially with the school of Orléans, they came to be studied and copied throughout Europe. Virgil is not always the most quoted poet, but excerpts from his texts are usually well represented. (Discussion: B. L. Ullman, ‘‘Virgil in Certain Medieval Florilegia,’’ Studi Medievali, n.s. 5 [1932], 59–66; B. Munk Olsen, ‘‘Vergil i middelalderen,’’ Museum Tusculanum 32–33 [1978], 96–107; VME 35–36; Verfasserlexikon 10:256) I. ROMAN D’ÉNÉAS (circa 1160) Freely adapted from Virgil’s Aeneid, the Old French Roman d’Énéas (Romance of Aeneas: 10,156 verses) belongs to an important subgenre of medieval French romance known as the Romances of Antiquity. This group includes the anonymous Roman de Thèbes (circa 1150, adapted from the Latin Thebaid of Statius: see above, II.G.5); the Roman de Troie, by Benoît de Sainte Maure (1165, adapted from the accounts of the Trojan war by supposed eyewitnesses from each side, Dares of Phrygia and Dictys of Crete); and three shorter tales (or lays) that draw on episodes in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, one of which, Philomena, has been attributed to Chrétien de Troyes (see above, I.C.51). All these texts were composed in rhyming octosyllabic couplets, a sort of standard twelfth-century (non-lyrical) form that anticipates prose narrative. The Énéas survives in a number of manuscripts, notably the oldest, MS A (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Plut. 41.44), dating from the late twelfth or early thirteenth century, and the latest, MS D, dating from the fourteenth century (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS fr. 60). Much of the Virgilian mythological scheme has been eliminated, although the anonymous romancer does follow the weft of the Aeneid. Though the basic plot and structure are intact, the religious, political, and dynastic aims (the Latin epic’s august pretext) have been subsumed and subtly converted for his Norman-Angevin patrons. To reach his audience more e√ectively, the romancer has transformed many characters and situations into a medieval con550

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

text. At the same time, counterbalancing the many suppressions, the medieval poet has inserted significant amplifications on, for example, the Judgment of Paris (structurally and thematically crucial to his story), as well as many ‘‘marvels of antiquity,’’ which draw on a panoply of ancient sources. His visionary story of reciprocal love, in which Aeneas (called Eneas in the Old French) becomes enamored of his future bride Lavinia, draws principally on Ovidian sources and intersects with the battlefield scenes in the later sections, clashes in Italy between native Rutulians and newly arrived Trojans. Myopic modernday critics have censured this romance as a travesty or betrayal of Virgil, but that simplistic view has been dismissed. The partial translation below follows the edition by Aimé Petit, based on MS D, which has not been put into English before. Thus it di√ers from the version by John Yunck, which follows MS A, as edited by Salverda de Grave. For the aims of this volume, the translation focuses upon the episodes of Dido and the golden bough. The former (lines 220–2229) begins with Aeneas’s post-storm harangue to his men on the coast of Carthage and ends with Dido’s death and epitaph, just before the beginning of book 5. The latter (lines 2346– 2643) concludes just before a description of Cerberus. (Discussion: R. J. Cormier, ‘‘Synchronizing Myth: Transmission and Continuity in the Judgment of Paris Episode [Roman d’Énéas, verses 99–182],’’ Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae 8 [2001], 135–58) (Text and translation from MS A: Énéas: Roman du douzième siècle, ed. J.-J. Salverda de Grave, Classiques français du moyen âge, 2 vols. [Paris, 1925–27]; ‘‘Énéas’’: A Twelfth-Century French Romance, trans. J. Yunck [New York, 1974]) (Text: Le Roman d’Énéas: Edition critique d’après le manuscrit B.N. fr. 60, traduction, présentation et notes, ed. A. Petit, Lettres Gothiques [Paris, 1997]; selections now translated, R. B. Palmer, Medieval English and French Legends: An Anthology of Religious and Secular Narratives [Glen Allen, VA, 2006], 165–282) (RC)

1. Dido (lines 220–2229) [220] ‘‘Lords and noble knights, dread not, though at sea you experienced misfortune, suffering, and fear, for you will remember all this later with pleasure. Whoever travels to a foreign land to win success and advantage, comes to profit only by bearing life’s miseries. He who suffers a little misfortune, and misses out on all his desires, will appreciate more his later achievements. Distress, suffering, and trouble will show the way to our kingdom, in Lombardy, the realm promised us by Jupiter. Our large numbers and limited means now require a search for food in this savage land, so uncultivated, undeveloped, and quite uninhabited.’’ [244] My lord Aeneas then chose four brave and bold men to reconnoiter I. ROMAN D’ÉNÉAS

551

and report what they could learn of the land and of its inhabitants. The messengers departed in order to explore the countryside, traveling through hill and dale, woodland and plain, but to no avail: they found no one, nothing alive except some animals. They advanced across the forest and entered a path that led to the main road. [260] They marched along the paved high road until they discovered the town of Carthage, ruled by the consummate Lady Dido, a woman whose royal regime was unrivaled. She was a native not of Carthage but rather of Tyre. Her husband, named Sychaeus, was murdered by her rapacious brother, anxious to seize her wealth, who then sent his sister into exile. With a throng of followers, Dido fled across the sea, carrying away a great treasure of fabric, vestments, silver, and gold. Once within this land she very cunningly asked the reigning prince to sell her only enough territory that could be covered by a bull’s hide. The unsuspecting prince accepted the deal. Dido cut the skin into thin strips and measured out enough land all around to build a fortified town. Then, through wisdom, power, and valor, she subjugated the land and its chieftains. [294] Called Carthage, the town, fearlessly impregnable and ingeniously situated on the seaside coast of Libya, faced huge swamps, large ponds, and trenches all staked up, palisaded, and dug out in the Libyan manner—with enclosures, barriers, and raised bridges to add more protection. Beyond that, even the approach to Carthage meant difficult crossings. At the corner overlooking the water there was a massive natural rock, and beyond rose the ramparts of dark marble, white, indigo, and vermilion stone. All this was meticulously and grandly laid out—in marble and adamant. The walls were made of pillars, built with ornament and niches—all constructed so as to appear like trompe l’oeil. Thus were the exterior walls painted but without vermilion and without azure. On the town side the road led to where there were vaulted colonnades of copper, with pillars of marble. The enclosed town walls were high and quite thick, of stones sealed up with iron and lead, and all mortared with blood, so that they could be knocked over by neither iron nor steel nor stone nor rock, by neither pick nor hoe nor shears. The walls were hard and resistant: near each of three mid-wall perches there rose a thick and solid tower—this was the overall structure of the ramparts. The town possessed four extremely solid entryways all made of ivory, sculpted so densely that the seams were obscured. The four gates had hinges and hinge plates of silver, and above each sat a tower and keep. Four chieftains guarded the towers, each holding his land and fief therefrom, headquartered and lodged there with one thousand key knights, gathered in case of need. Within the town were marble palaces holding one thousand citi552

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

zens, intrepid before an attacking army, steadfast in a siege. The townsfolk were wealthy beyond measure, the town opulent with abundant wares. Expensive imported miniver and ermine were sold there, as well as silk featherbeds and coverlets, heavy multicolored silks, costly curtains and carpets, taffeta, ribbed silks, and princely materials, in addition to precious and authentic purple furs. It would be impossible to imagine the wealth found in this town. In the sea close by were caught certain rather small and quite rare fish, their short tails cut open to let red droplets run out: this is how the precious purple Carthaginian dye was made, while the black came from crocodiles that existed on a neighboring island. The town was extraordinarily wealthy, lacking in nothing, with an abundance of supplies and foodstuffs brought in from afar both for those inland and those near the sea. Seen from a distance—with its vast breadth and width—along with the palace chimneys, the town had no equal in wealth. It was enclosed by walls and the entrance was guarded by a keep, furnished with a stairway of a thousand steps not of wood but of marble. Down below lay the playing field for pagan festival games, where townsfolk gathered for amusement. [406] At one corner of the town Dido had established her fortress: the castle was girded with high walls, many towers, and mangonels. At the entrance [ . . . ] the gates were all ivory and the sculpture all inlaid, but so much gold was present that it was apparent within the work as well. With just a thousand knights as fiefs, the porter himself, powerful and wealthy, wore only vair, miniver, and ermine. The main tower with high thick walls rested upon a grayish cliff, offering abundant protection, security, and provisions for any siege or assault. Up above, on the highest floor, dwelled the lady of Carthage. [430] The palace was extraordinarily magnificent, a work constructed with noble art. Gilded paintings hung everywhere, representing the seven arts, the sky, the earth and the sea, and everything else imaginable. Made of cypress was the whole framework, so befitting the distinguished lady. Neither Darius nor Octavius nor Nero nor Julius Caesar possessed so much. Better than any king’s or emir’s, the table of honor and benches—with ebony legs, inlaid gold, and ivory—stood against the gable. In the middle sat the royal throne, crystal inlaid with gold, along with a silver footstool decorated below by two carved lion cubs. The dais where the lady sat to eat was ingeniously made. Near the wall behind it and placed there by the queen grew a huge, unpruned golden vine stock—all of fine sculpted tendrils and branches. The branches curled out artistically and harmoniously, decked with marvelous and rich clusters of very diverse and precious stones. [464] Above the table, the vine was finely and brilliantly sculpted, its I. ROMAN D’ÉNÉAS

553

stake of silver supporting the vine shoot. Inhabiting the trellis were ten thousand large and small birds, all of highly refined gold—the smallest worth a fortress. The vine itself was huge and entirely hollow, with torches on top. The wind made the birds sing and flit, each according to its size, and the very unusual sound made one wonder whether it was the plucking of a harp or hurdy-gurdy one heard. Each bird sang in its own way when the lady was seated at table, and whether she remained there or left, they all would chirp away ceaselessly, and the whole palace would resound in deafening song. Throughout the ample and spacious hall were the knights’ tables, constructed from a tree that dripped incense. When the queen dined there was no door or doorman, for she would have rather been captured or dead than close up a portal or doorway or even brandish a staff or pole to secure her garrison. The hall had numerous windows and many apartments of stone, below which was the cellar with many other features. Dido had erected this town according to Lady Juno’s wish, as she was worshipped there, and thus Carthage’s sovereign fame would last as an empire without end. The capitol and the senate were established to make judgments and legal edicts, and the government was later transferred to Rome. At this time the town was unfinished: Dido was still reinforcing the walls and towers. Now the messengers sent by Aeneas, to learn about the queen and the land, finally arrived in the town. In its midst, the queen was very intently constructing a great temple dedicated to Juno, filled with considerable wealth, much gold and silver. She stood now just in front, enfolded in Alexandrian purple fitted close to her naked flesh. The queen wore an expensive mantle of white ermine, covered with Tyrian cloth of quality, bordered in sable. Her hair in ribbons and crowned in gold, Dido, the most beautiful, courtly, and wise, held a golden staff as she admonished the workers and directed her citizens. The Trojan messengers came before her, and Ilioneus, the wisest, spoke first: ‘‘Lady, the unfortunate ones from Troy have escaped to your shores. The Greeks have captured the town, destroyed its walls and towers, and killed the king and the lords. Led by our brave, wise, and courtly king, Lord Aeneas, we fled by night. We are in sore need of help, as our goal is Lombardy, where we hoped to land. But out there on the high seas, an extremely wicked storm met us, its wind so hostile that we lost one of our twenty ships and it cut us off from a part of our company. We still do not know if they are drowned or lost. The stormy winds blew us to these shores, and Lord Aeneas sent us here to seek protection. War is not our business, so we beg you to allow us to remain long enough to repair and refit our ships. May we then be secure among your people until we have favorable winds?’’ [576] Dido the Tyrian replied: ‘‘Indeed I know of the Trojan adventure, 554

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

how the Greeks took and ravaged the whole land, for I myself have experienced all that. Stand assured in this country: I warrant that none of my people will harm you. And if your lord wishes to come here, tell him for me that I’ll welcome him as if to a homecoming.’’ [590] Filled with joy by these words, the envoys rejoiced and took their leave, returning to the shore. Lord Aeneas saw and approached them, saying: ‘‘What have you found?’’—‘‘Protection.’’—‘‘And which?’’—‘‘Carthage.’’— ‘‘Did you speak to the king?’’—‘‘Not at all.’’—‘‘Why?’’—‘‘There is no lord.’’— ‘‘What?’’—‘‘It’s Lady Dido who wields the power.’’—‘‘Did you speak to her?’’—‘‘Yes.’’—‘‘Does she pose a threat to us?’’—‘‘In faith, not at all.’’—‘‘And what did she say then?’’—‘‘She promises us protection, safety, and nothing to fear. So spoke the Tyrian lady: that you may, if you wish to remain and sojourn in this Libyan land, repair and refit your ships, and if anyone makes war against you, she will aid you in taking revenge. It is through us that she will welcome you, together in her tower. You will benefit from her hospitality until a fair wind blows.’’ With joyful heart Lord Aeneas heard this, thanked and praised his gods, and honored them with a sacrifice. While the messengers traveled the land, the ships they thought lost came to port. Each had cast anchor, and all were found except one, swallowed by the storm and now forgotten. Lord Aeneas was overjoyed at the news of recovering all his ships but one. Good Fortune was now his—to his delight—that same Fortune which formerly had abandoned him. This is why one should not despair or be too dismayed over bad luck or difficulty, nor on the other hand rejoice overmuch in happiness. Balance in all matters is best, for neither does difficulty nor happiness last long, as Fortune wheels around swiftly, and he who laughs in the morning may very well weep at night. [642] Aeneas took his knights, some forty along with the messengers, leaving the others at the strand until his return from Carthage. His son, Ascanius, the very young boy, stayed behind as well. Aeneas was a tall knight, brave and handsome, his figure noble and well built, his blond hair curly, and his face, aspect, and appearance thoroughly valiant. His chest was full and flanks slender, slim, and well shaped. He wore a taffeta from Andros, sewn finely with golden thread, his mantle was gray, and his silken shoes were adorned with rosaces. Mules were brought down from the ships, and Aeneas mounted up with his lords, taking the road to Carthage quite close to the shore. They trotted along until they saw the royal tower, the walls, towers, and palace: the town had a warlike look. [668] When Aeneas saw it, he slowed his trot to an amble, the better to perceive the town. The Trojans traveled such that they entered within and, passing the streets, arrived inside the castle, then dismounted before the I. ROMAN D’ÉNÉAS

555

tower, the steps of which Aeneas climbed. Dido came to him then, and fair Aeneas greeted her thus: ‘‘May God save the Tyrian lady who has received within her walls the unfortunate Trojans to assuage their travails. You are the first to take pity upon our torments and ruin—may the gods reward you for it!’’ Dido led them up the tower to the imperial palace, and Aeneas had never seen a lovelier one. He examined the gold and the paintings, the main dais and the decor, all the clusters, and the marvelous birds in the trellis. In his view the queen was most courtly and exceedingly wealthy. [698] His Trojans were amazed and said to each other: ‘‘The lady’s worth and wisdom are exemplary, to live so nobly! Behold her hall and people, elegant, courtly, and refined. She must govern well to have such fine citizens here.’’ On a bench Aeneas and Dido were sitting together when she said: ‘‘Sire, what destiny brought you to this country? Since the Greeks vanquished you, the gods must have wanted to crush you indeed. Why do they hate you so? And yet you are their descendant as the son of Anchises. Near the Trojan stream Venus your mother gave you birth, and Cupid, lord and master of love, is your brother. These two divinities should improve your fate. Since I heard about you and heard of your history, I realize how wellborn you are. I, too, have undergone great torment, difficulty, travail, and awful suffering, before coming to this land. By myself I have learned how much I should take pity on those in distress. If you wish to remain here, know this: I will grant sumptuous hospitality both to you and to your people, and indeed will hold Trojans as dear as I do Tyrians.’’ Lord Aeneas was overjoyed by the promise granted him by the queen, and in the name of all the gods thanked her warmly. To those who remained at the shore the lady sent an abundance of bread and wine, meat, poultry, and venison. [744] Aeneas ordered one messenger to the strand to tell his son to come too, and to bring along the priceless enameled necklace that had been given by Lord Polynices to Amphiaraus’s wife for having denounced her husband, who, to escape the battle, was hiding (for he knew well that if he fought, he would die and never return from Thebes). A crown of refined gold he asked for as well and an expensive Thessalian silk cloth, sewn and embroidered with gold. Once Aeneas commanded it, the messenger departed from Carthage and kept going right down to the shore by the boats, where the boy had stayed with his father’s chieftains. [766] Aeneas was now inside Carthage, where Dido offered him a most agreeable visit. But mother Venus was anxious and doubtful about her son. This visit she feared greatly as well as for her son’s safety, because of Juno’s hostility. She came then to her son, the god of love, saying: ‘‘Son Aeneas is in Libyan Carthage, a wild land, and I am afraid of these wild people who may 556

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

treat him cruelly. He is staying with the queen and now has sent for his son. If ever you cared for me, go now, take on his character and features, his clothes and his appearance, and I shall keep the boy with me.’’ She had him take the precious objects to be given as presents. ‘‘Take them with you and offer them to the lady, and when she takes you in her arms and kisses you sweetly, with your flame and your blandishments you will breathe your love into her. She will fuss over the gifts and even more over your inspiration.’’ The god of love obeyed, took on the boy’s semblance, his exact bodily and facial features, his clothing and allure. Venus took the boy away that night and kept him with her. [800] The god headed off to Carthage with the messenger and the presents; into the hall he entered, and went right up to join his false father, whom he acknowledged and embraced, and then he kissed the queen. He offered her the precious items, those magnificent gifts. These the lady fixed upon, having never seen such extravagance nor anything she loved so much as those objects and the child. She could not satisfy herself with holding and staring at them. So fascinated was she by both the handsome child and the presents that soon it was dinnertime, so Dido ordered water brought forward. In the hall entrance there was a magical statue with white silver inlay. At its mouth it held a horn of white ivory encrusted with gold, which sounded ‘‘water time’’ as the queen prepared to wash her hands. This was the rallying sign for the families residing out beyond, on the outside, and they all flocked in together from every direction, as no door or portal stood closed. [830] Once the assembly had arrived, the hall was filled with commotion as the servants and servers, seneschals and cupbearers stepped forward; one hundred excellent youths covered the tables with cloths, servers brought on bread, knives, salt shakers, and spoons. A golden basin was brought for the queen to wash her lily-white hands; Aeneas held her sleeves and then washed his own hands. To aid him there were various servants—counts and dukes and sons of kings. He climbed to the table of honor, and when Dido took her own place, with the exciting lad before her, then up against her, all the birds on the trellis began to sing. Lord Aeneas was amazed and loved the chirping much more than all he had seen so far in the palace. At the meal, the queen was served by sixty kitchen boys, and as many carried out the wine in carafes and fine golden cups: spiced wine it was, superb claret, mead, and aromatic hyssop wine. The queen’s table was covered with expensive vessels: every cup and saucer was encrusted with gold, while the assembly was served in silver vessels. The unimaginably countless number of abundant dishes more than satisfied all present, a profusion that was theirs merely for the asking. I. ROMAN D’ÉNÉAS

557

The meal over, Dido began to marvel over both the valuable gifts and the handsome boy. Overwhelmed and seduced by the gods, she unknowingly held one in her lap and played and toyed with him again and again, endlessly kissing and hugging, crazed with love and out of control. She thought the child was mortal, but he was the love god who had plunged her into a profound frenzy. As she kissed and embraced him, he set her afire with love’s flames, piercing her heart, and through her lips he breathed into her a rage for love. [892] The queen did not realize what poison she had drunk; her feelings changed immensely, while the Trojan himself again and again glanced at her tenderly. Already she had altogether forgotten her spouse. The servings finished and the bird chant ended, the queen remained on the dais, surrounded only by worthy chieftains. The remaining assembly retired, and she asked her guest to tell her all about the fall of Troy and that story of betrayal. [906] A profound silence fell upon the palace as Aeneas began to tell her of the siege and name all the chieftains, attackers and attacked, tournaments and jousts, assaults and massacres, defeats and captures. So he told her how Hector perished and was ransomed for three times his weight in gold. [916] And he told how three times he had been dragged around the fortress of Troy, about the treason of the horse in which the soldiers were hidden, how the Greeks abandoned it and how the Trojans welcomed it, and how the town was taken in violence, destroyed, burned, and sacked. He told her of his acts of bravery, prowess, and exploits, of his escape from the Greeks to freedom, as ordained by the gods. His narrative was arranged a bit to avoid the shame of having it said that he fled out of cowardice. Then he recounted the great travails and pains, the endless difficulty and suffering he had endured before reaching this land. He told her about his father’s death before reaching Sicily’s port. All in the palace were silent, listening to him intently. Aeneas smiled softly and then spoke these words to her: ‘‘Lady,’’ he said, ‘‘I recall my cruel suffering and my sadness, which I can in no way describe without a crushing chagrin. Remembering that despair I would prefer to say nothing. But since it pleases you, a single episode will be told: The story I will relate will be truthful—I was there, I saw it all, I know it fully well. [954] ‘‘Troy was an extraordinary town, overflowing with goods and vast in dimensions—a day’s journey to cross its breadth. When Menelaus besieged us because of Paris’s wrongdoing, he found us fiercely resistant, with many good knights willing to fight to the death, so that he lost a lot of his army. A truce of peace was made more than once, and we had periods of rest 558

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

thereby. I have no need to recount the endless battles and combats we fought —you have heard them all before. But the precise manner in which we were destroyed has been perhaps less well recounted: know that we were the victims of a betrayal. [974] ‘‘When Menelaus held his imposing nine-year siege and realized that neither force nor constraint would capture us, he was about to retreat, but the treacherous Ulysses promised him to attempt success through some sort of ruse. And if he couldn’t take the town in that way, no further delay in departure was expected. He had an enormous wooden horse built, and, to move it, it was mounted on fifty sets of wheels. The insides were carefully carved out and fitted with large platforms. There were as well five compartments, and each, no matter how small, held one hundred knights. [992] ‘‘The horse was filled up with bold and hardy knights, armed to the teeth, while the others turned to leave for a neighboring island, rowing swiftly to their locale, to hide there. On the day of the army’s departure the whole town of Troy rejoiced greatly. The gates were opened, and knights and citizens began to go out, as did King Priam, whom we all followed, all in jubilation, as we visited all the emplacements and tents of the Greek camp. One pointed to the other, ‘Here was the king’s pavilion, there was Achilles’ and there Ulysses’, and here is where the tourneys were held.’ All stared and saw the barriers, palisades, and ditches that divided the camp from the town. [1018] ‘‘The king studied the horse, uncertain whether it was for good or ill that the Greeks had built it so close to the town. Many talked about and observed it from all sides, each guessing its use but truly ignorant of the truth. It would have been quite different if we had known what was held within: every single occupant would have been slaughtered or cut to pieces or else burned up inside the horse. Before the main gate, as we were looking at its features, the shepherds brought forward a man they had found naked in a ditch. He it was whom the Greeks left there, and he it was who tricked all of us. [1040] ‘‘King Priam addressed him first, asking his name, his background, and who had mistreated him. We listened to him intently and urged him on, so we could hear every word he spoke, while he wept false tears. He didn’t care about his life, which he had exposed to such risks, and he abandoned himself to death only to dupe and betray us. Audaciously he sighed to the king: ‘Sire, I am from Greece, but it is quite irritating that you won’t take revenge on me, for I have no hope to live. I know I’ll soon be done, and it’s just as he wanted—that Ulysses who took to loathing and persecuting me. He was angry with me unjustly, as he had killed an uncle of mine, and I I. ROMAN D’ÉNÉAS

559

quarreled with him over it. And I told him that if I ever got home, I’d never rest or repose until I had avenged him. He was powerful and had me captured, refusing to free me without pledges. He had me imprisoned and thus placed in great misery for a long time. This was until one day when Menelaus called a council and complained that he could endure no longer his absence from Greece, that he had stayed in Troy long enough, even though a fair wind had failed to take him home: every single time in fact that he climbed aboard his ship, the wind would wither on him. Confronted thus with contrary winds, the king was counseled to have their pontiff ask of all the gods how to return home. [1090] ‘‘ ‘Whereupon they asked Calchas, a famous and renowned prophet, who, bedecked with crosier and stole, sacrificed to and consulted the gods. The truth was revealed to him in due order. The next day, they approached the prophet and asked what they should do; he replied, on behalf of the gods, that their departure was impossible without appeasing a king of the gods, Aeolus, to whom a Greek should be sacrificed. Thereupon everyone was thrown into panic, for each feared for his life, dreading his own condemnation to death. They were to draw lots to determine which one would be the victim of fate and thus free all the others. But Ulysses called me up and declared that I, for my actions, should be deprived of life. There was no discussion, and each one who feared for himself willingly accepted my fate. I was taken, completely nude, and my hands were bound behind my back. As you can observe here and now, I was miserably treated. All the priests of their religion spoke their magic over me as I was led to the altar. Salt, wine, oil, flour, and ashes were sprinkled on my head, while I stretched out my neck and saw death looming. But then a dispute broke out between two bold army chieftains; the king went to them forthwith, along with the others, and I was left all alone. So I fled far into the woods. What they wanted to do to me, they did to another, I think, for they were reconciled with the god of the winds, who granted them a favorable breeze. They left to return home, and I remained here in misery, having won very little lifetime thereby, because I see my death approaching. It is my wish and desire that I should die here among you. It frustrates me indeed not to be dead, if it can happen now.’ [1148] ‘‘After his disclosures the traitor was quiet, and we were all taken with pity for this unfortunate soul. He was immediately unbound and given clothes by the king, who spared him out of compassion and said that he should fear no harm whatsoever. Then he asked about the horse, about its construction and immense size. Sinon the turncoat replied to the king: ‘Sire,’ he said, ‘I will tell you all the secrets of the Greeks, for I will hate them forever and will not return home if I can live in peace among you. 560

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

[1166] ‘‘ ‘Now it seems that everyone knew the truth about the decision of the gods, that Troy would never perish as long as the Palladium remained within its walls. For the goddess of war, Pallas Athena, always supported and protected you unfailingly, and her image was adored and venerated among you. Through an opening in the wall there came one night a servant of Ulysses along with Tydeus’s son and, as you know, stole away your Palladium and brought it back to the army. The statue was the object of Trojan worship, and Pallas became angry with us, a source of intense suffering. All the prophets and magicians and religious pontiffs together told the king that he should immediately seek reconciliation with the goddess. This is why they built the horse, and they were to do so in such a way that Pallas’s image, all armed with lance sword and shield, would ride it. The master builder worked quite quickly, and whoever sees the horse may wonder why it was made with such gigantic dimensions. I can most gladly tell you the reason why the traitorous Greeks did it: They made the horse this immense so that you would not be able to take it inside, for it possesses great protective power (as the villains knew) and will bring luck to the place where it dwells. The stolen Palladium drew its strength only from inside the town walls, just as the horse’s value would too, but since the scoundrels were doubly spiteful, they realized that if the horse found its way within your ramparts, it would be a source of great honor and joy, a safeguard against suffering.’ [1216] ‘‘We believed his words, and not a single soul opposed bringing in the horse. As the gate was small and the object enormous, one hundred feet of rampart walls had to be demolished so that it could be dragged in with ropes: with gusto three thousand men pulled from the front, the same number pushed and leveraged. Within the town the horse was brought in great joy, while girls in front sang away to the tune of harps and hurdy-gurdies. Exulting and jubilant, we brought our very own destruction into Troy. It was left before the temple, with Sinon beneath, and, around midnight, once we had all gone off to sleep, he who knew about the structure’s plan, its entries and exits, opened them; all those enclosed within came out, shouting a Greek battle cry, and then set the town on fire. Those who had carefully feigned to leave the day before, returned to port that night, and saw the flames of the town. They all came to these parts and entered noisily with no impediment, finding no soul whatsoever to ransom, only to eliminate. The massacre was so unspeakable, I could not describe a tenth of it: King Priam was butchered by the Greeks, Helen dragged from her tower and handed back to her husband. I witnessed the great carnage and assembled a number of my people, throwing myself into the melee. My wife, Creusa, followed I. ROMAN D’ÉNÉAS

561

behind, trying to hold me back, but I got so involved in the skirmish that I lost her right away. I was totally distraught, for I never saw her again. At that point, I would have gladly let myself be killed. But my mother, Venus, on behalf of the deities, came to tell me to depart for the land whence our ancestor Dardanus came. I realized that I had no choice, and my mother made me retreat and take twenty ships out to sea. My suffering has not ceased since then as I encountered terrible setbacks along the way.’’ Then Aeneas told how his father died when he learned of such miserable fate. [1280] As Aeneas was relating his story, the queen found daunting how his plight, suffering, and troubles had caused endless sorrows. She looked at him tenderly under the rule of Love. For it was Love that irritated and needled her, made her sigh and flush. At bedtime she prepared the beds and led him to the chamber where the beddings were all plush with nice covers and sheets. Now very fatigued, Aeneas retired, while the queen covered him, though separation was quite painful for her. Four counts led her away to her chamber, where a thousand noble servant girls, daughters of kings and counts, took care of the queen at bedtime. In the darkened chamber, Lady Dido could scarcely forget the one over whom the love god had distressed her. She began to think of him and recall his face, body, and appearance, his words, gestures, and manner of speaking, the battles Aeneas had described to her. Nothing could get her to sleep; she tossed and turned, lost consciousness then stretched, breathed, sighed, and yawned; greatly tormented and tortured was she, all atrembling, shuddering, and shivering. Her heart hesitated and faltered. The lady suffered great agony, forgot herself as she thought to lie next to him in bed, holding him naked in her arms. She embraced her bedcovers, finding there no comfort or love. She kissed her pillow a thousand times, all out of love for the knight, thinking that the absent one was right there in her bed. But he was not; he was elsewhere, though she spoke with him as if he could hear. In her bed she felt for him, groping, but when she did not find him, slapped herself, weeping aloud in great despair, wetting her sheets with tears. The queen tossed and turned, from back to stomach, and, with no outcome in view, she was greatly agitated, spending the night in cruel pain and endless pangs. She had no idea what had come over her; she had drunk a mortal poison, not knowing who that child was that she held and hugged so closely, and it had caused her such rage. She could not help smarting over the too long night, thinking never to see day again. Once she did see dawn break she arose but called upon no servant or chambermaid, as a mortal passion inflamed her. [1352] Love’s flames consumed her such that she came to her sister:— ‘‘Anna, I am dying, I am going to cease living, my sister.’’—‘‘What’s wrong?’’ 562

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

—‘‘My heart is breaking.’’—‘‘Are you sick?’’—‘‘No, I’m in perfect health.’’— ‘‘So what’s wrong with you?’’—‘‘I feel weak from love and cannot hide that I am in love.’’—‘‘And who is it then?’’—‘‘I will tell you, in faith, it’s the one . . .’’ She was about to name him, but she swooned and could not speak. [1362] When she came to, she spoke again: ‘‘The one who suffered so many troubles, the Trojan warrior whom Fortune exiled and who arrived here yesterday. I believe he belongs to Priam’s line, a celestial pedigree, and he certainly seems noble. Last evening I could not keep from hugging and embracing his most courteous son. Never once since my departure from Tyre and my Lord Sychaeus’s death have I given love a thought, until now. I have never seen a man, no matter how wellborn, powerful, valiant, or wise, over whom I felt or acted this way, until this one, who, brought here by fate, has set my heart aflame and inspired my mortal rage. Clearly I am dying of love for him. Had I not pledged to love my spouse for the rest of my life, I would now make him my lover. But since I gave my word to the first, I’ll not break it for the second, for death would be better than betrayal and faithlessness. I wish to keep my faith, and may the earth beneath me swallow me up alive, or the fatal fires of heaven consume me, should I give to any other that love I promised my lord. This I gave him to possess and cherish, and I shall not do wrong by loving some other man, no matter the pain. I’ll have nothing to do with him, I had never met him before and do not know him, except that I heard about him and heard him called Aeneas.’’ [1408] When she recalled and named him, she flushed and fainted, near death now. Anna her sister comforted her: ‘‘My lady, why die of shame? The affection you feel for your lord—now long dead—is of no use to you. You are wasting your youth in grief: you no longer feel a desire for him, nor will you bear him a child, nor in fact do you gain any tender love from him or a sweet smile, or even protection or help. This is a very insane love! Since you can neither profit nor lose from him, why should you suffer on his account? You’ll never draw any good from the dead; only the living will bring you pleasure now. There is no recourse in death; do what you please with the living. It’s insane to deprive yourself over the deceased, for the comforting truth is: let the dead be with the dead, the living with the living. Who will sustain your town, your land, and your inheritance? Neither fiefdom nor kingdom can long be maintained by a woman, and with no other support she will find it hard to be obeyed. She cannot bear up under the heavy burdens a war might bring on. [1440] ‘‘This land is very hostile and war threatens on every side. You have made an enemy of every chieftain in the land, because you did not deign to wed anyone from this vast kingdom. Rather, you held them in I. ROMAN D’ÉNÉAS

563

contempt, and thus they hate you. They stalk you on every side and will strike you down sooner or later. Since you love this one, make him your lord, one who will uphold your power with his great prowess. I swear a god brought him here for your benefit. Since you are amazed by your love for him, do you believe you can surmount it in any way whatsoever? For nothing prevails against love. Should you take him as lord, your own rule will increase and Carthage’s fame will grow. To conceal your plan, just tell him to stay with us through the winter, to repair his ships, for now is not a good time to cross the sea. This is how you can keep him here and afterward take your pleasure.’’ [1468] If the lady had already been afire, her sister added fuel. She was smitten by love and desire which the other augmented, with very little comfort. If the queen had never longed for or loved him, her sister would have encouraged it. [1476] From endless and ceaseless love the queen was fervent. Still uncertain now of his love, she took the Trojan by the hand, walked him through the town to show him her wealth, her fortress, and her palace. She was quite unable to keep still, questioning him again and again about a thousand petty things, seeking only pretexts to talk to him. She asked him questions a thousand times, endlessly and ceaselessly. Then she would stop in the midst of her conversation, ignorant of deed or word and losing her head as well as the sense of her discourse. Love has taken a wise woman and turned her silly. [1494] She had excelled in governing and in waging war: now love made her forget her command and responsibility. Her enemies laid the land waste, and she cared not about the land or the war or anything else—except for that love which now vexed her. All her people got very bad management from her: without her support or aid none mounted the towers and ramparts. The domain was abandoned, and unfinished construction, some high, some low, hung in suspense. She had given it all up for Aeneas, leaving her kingdom in apathy. And everyone complained. [1512] Those from Tyre suffered a downfall because of the Trojan’s visit. Dido forsook the faithful supporters of the realm. In torment and distress now was the queen, restless day and night, unable to sleep or close her eyes, for she lived in great pain and torture, not capable of declaring her love to the warrior. She would not live long without a change in attitude, or else she would either avow her love to him or die first from the endless torment, but she dared not reveal her feelings. [1528] One morning, for diversion and to smother her pain, she decided to go hunting in the forest. For love can be a very cruel obsession when one is inactive or inert, and whoever seriously wishes to be free of and far from it 564

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

should keep busy with another distraction: when one concentrates on another subject, love comes to mind less quickly. [1540] The queen ordered up her huntsmen and had hunters saddled up, taking horns, bows, and greyhounds, plus dogs, boarhounds, and bloodhounds. The town and the household reeled and resounded with these preparations, from the tumult and all the barking; and youths came from everywhere bearing bows, quivers, and arrows. The queen sported a fullbody, marvelous, and costly gold-striped vermilion cloak, with a precious, gold-festooned, and threaded mantle, and her head was adorned with an orphrey band. Out of her treasury she took and hung about her neck a gilded quiver with one hundred pure gold-tipped arrows whose shafts were of cornel wood. With a bow of pure laburnum wood to hand, she descended the tower and, surrounded by a great crowd, was escorted from the hall by three dukes. [1566] At the foot of the stairs awaited her beloved, Lord Aeneas, surrounded by his men. When he saw the Tyrian woman, he thought she was Diana reborn, the supreme huntress, so much did Dido resemble the goddess. At the sight he flushed out of love for her. As she came down the steps, her horse—covered in gold and purple—was readied, and her beloved helped her mount up. The Trojan was extremely well decked out for a forest outing, quiver on his shoulder and his bow to hand, so that he looked very noble and resembled a dazzling Phoebus Apollo. Without pause he mounted up and took her horse by the reins to escort the lady—she who had suffered greatly for her love was now overcome with joy thereby. They very soon arrived in the forest and, hunting until noontime, captured much game. [1590] At that point there suddenly arose a huge storm with thunder, rain, and darkness, causing everyone to feel insecure. It turned the valiant into cowards, the boldest trembled in fear, and they fled in all directions, leaving no pair standing together, except the queen and Aeneas. These two did not separate, and he did not abandon her, nor she him. So far and wide did they flee that they came to a grotto where they dismounted. [1603] Behold the two of them together and alone now. He took his will of her without much force, and she hardly refused him, consenting to his desire, just what she had wanted for so long. [1610] Now their love was noticed, for never since her spouse’s death had the lady acted shamefully. They returned together to Carthage town, and she was overtly exultant and joyful, hiding nothing at all, calling him her husband, and thus disguising her betrayal. She disdained the comments, public or private, and henceforth Aeneas did whatever he pleased with her. [1622] Rumor traveled throughout the land that he had dishonored her. I. ROMAN D’ÉNÉAS

565

Rumor is that wonderful-awful creature, always vigorous and restless, with a thousand mouths for talking, a thousand wings for flying, and a thousand ears for listening, to hear some marvel to spread around, always on the prowl for some tidbit to blow up into a major affair, amplifying here and there, more and more, and making it all believable, whether truth or falsehood. From a trifle it concocts a plethora of tales, exaggerating as it goes, and with a scrap of truth it constructs so many lies that they appear as in a dream. In the end it exaggerates such that nothing truthful remains in the story. At first it speaks ever so sweetly, in secret and with discretion; then it goes off raising its voice higher and louder all along, at which point the item begins to be publicized and spoken of openly. [1650] Throughout Libya, Rumor broadcast the lady’s betrayal, saying how that Trojan man came, how Dido kept him with her in Carthage, and how he was now making her live in debauchery. The two spent the winter months in decadence, thinking of nothing else. The lady deserted her duties, as nothing else interested her, and he, well, he neglected his mission. They each behaved foolishly. [1662] In all Libya the lady’s name was defamed and vilified. And when it was discovered by the palace chieftains, dukes, and counts, whom she had rejected as spouses, they considered themselves humiliated to have all been spurned in favor of a man of much lower standing, not even a count or a king. Among them they complained, and not unjustly, that he who trusts a woman is indeed foolish. They did not keep their word, and she who seemed wise became in fact foolish. Dido had said that she had promised her love to her lord, who was now dead, and that she would respect and keep to him for the rest of her life. But now another does his will with her, and now she has broken her word, betrayed the pledge made to her lord. How foolish to trust a woman! She quickly forgot the dead man, discarding him, and must not have loved him very much, since she now was taking all her pleasure with the one who is living. [1688] Dido now possessed all that she wished: pleasure with the Trojan, openly, as desired. Overtly, Aeneas kept her in full and prolonged contentment, unwilling to break away, though he forgot his own mission and neglected his path. Everything took a turn for the worse since he supposes as his both the woman and the land. [1698] One day he was inside Carthage, and from the gods came a messenger, commanding him to prepare his ships, abandon the Tyrian woman and the Libyan shores, leave his ways, and set off now for Lombardy. This was not his land nor his fiefdom, and the gods had other plans for him. [1708] Aeneas was overwhelmed by the pronouncement, and knew he 566

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

must leave, could stay no longer, though parting from the queen weighed heavily upon him. He was torn, demoralized, and anxious, woefully at odds within himself: he could in no way ignore the divine message and order, and yet he feared leaving the lady lest she kill herself. He feared it might turn to her great harm, and yet he had to do what the gods ordered. But still he remained in total confusion whether to tell the lady or to steal away secretly. He feared that if he should tell her, his departure from her would be inordinately delayed. He prepared his fleet, hoping to steal away, having alerted his people that at first wind he would lead the ships out. This [news] filled his followers with delight, for this visit irritated them all: not a one wished to stay on, each desiring very much to leave, except he who might have preferred to remain. But he left out of obligation, just as the gods ruled. Furtively he had his ships loaded with everything they needed, and he thought to fool the lady. But the queen noticed, for lovers are always suspicious, living in constant fear and doubt, day and night uncertain. Rumor did not tarry but revealed the betrayal to the lady, how he was readying his ships and wished to steal away in flight. [1754] Once the queen knew, she got no rest until she spoke to him. Sitting at his side, she sighed and wept, contending thus: ‘‘Tell me, sir, what have I done to make you want to destroy me?’’—‘‘What is this then?’’—‘‘Are you not loading up your ships?’’—‘‘Me?’’—‘‘You! Where are you off to?’’— ‘‘No, of course I’ll leave in view of everyone.’’—‘‘Why are you deceiving me so? Are you abandoning me in this way?’’—‘‘I can no longer remain here.’’— ‘‘Why?’’ she said.—‘‘The gods are contrary to it.’’—‘‘Oh! Alas, what a misadventure! Why didn’t I kill myself before? What good was my devoted and warm welcome, the generous hospitality poured upon you in Carthage? I will never cease repeating that you have devised a scandalous deception and extraordinary perfidy, aiming to leave like a thief and assassin. How could you think of such a thing? Might you not have asked for leave? Did you not think to have pity on me? This way I would not have to learn of all this today, from your own lips. Woe to whoever loves a Trojan man! [1784] ‘‘Are these then the thanks and gratitude that I deserve from you, since nothing can keep you here—neither Dido herself (who will die from this) nor ties of friendship, nor tender mercies or pity? Have you thought at least how rash it is to sail out in such bad weather? It’s winter, a time of ugly conditions, and not the time to embark. Let winter pass first, and the water will be more calm. I wish to beg you, beg you I say, in the name of all the gods, who now are all angry with me, out of friendship and love, to take pity on me. You’ll bear enormous guilt if I die because of your wrong, lest you not comfort me in some way. All those I’ve refused to take as spouse hate me I. ROMAN D’ÉNÉAS

567

because of your love, and every single chieftain in the land opposes me on your account; so many fearsome enemies all conspire to disinherit me. No help will I have, near or far, and you are failing me in this need, and once they have waged war against me, I’ll be run out of this land. I fear them indeed, but it is more for your love that I despair, and if my feelings do not change soon, I shall die. Much do I dread your departure and think thereby to have no respite from death, no consolation whatsoever. Had I just a child by you that resembled you even a little, whom I could kiss and hug and embrace for you, that might console me over your parting; then it might be easier to take. But it seems that I shall have nothing of the sort to comfort and ease my sorrow. I am positive that I shall die when I see you leave me. [1832] ‘‘Sire, why have you betrayed me?’’—‘‘I have not done so, dear friend.’’—‘‘Have I ever harmed you in any way?’’—‘‘You have only been most accommodating.’’—‘‘Was it I who devastated Troy?’’—‘‘No, it was the Greeks.’’—‘‘Was I to blame?’’—‘‘No, the gods planned it.’’—‘‘And was it I who killed your father?’’—‘‘No, my lady, I swear it.’’—‘‘Why, then, sire, are you fleeing from me?’’—‘‘I am not to blame.’’—‘‘Who is, then?’’—‘‘It is part of the divine plan, predicted and destined, that I travel to Lombardy, there to restore Troy. [1846] ‘‘Thus have they proclaimed and ordered, but for my own part, and had there been no such command but my own wishes, and if matters depended on me alone, I should never leave this land. Were it not for divine will and if there had survived a few souls from the Greek massacre, I would have directed them to rebuild the walls of Troy, and if my own wishes fitted in with fate, I should never have wished to leave you. I leave in spite of myself and, I assure you, reluctantly. I realize that you have treated me magnanimously, and I thank you for it. You perceived my discouragement and took great pity, for which, if I cannot repay you, at least I will never forget, will remember forever, and will love you more than life itself. If I leave, I swear it is with reluctance. Set aside these useless complaints that overwhelm me and through which you only torment yourself.’’ [1874] Still rapt with Love, the queen looked askance at him, her face now flushed, now blanched with anger. Love had completely inflamed her, and she spoke now like a madwoman: ‘‘Never was your claim of divine descent genuine, for you are exceedingly cruel and false; never was your claim of human progeny honest; rather you were born from a rock and raised by savage tigers or some forest beast. You are indeed ruthless and inhuman, hard-hearted and blind, truly unpitying. Oh! Alas! What am I saying now? Since I cannot have him, I surrender. I speak for naught as he hears me not and responds less. I feel my death approaching nigh, as my tears do not stir 568

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

him, nor do my sighs or words. What am I saying? It’s pure folly. My loud complaints moved him to shed not a single tear; he didn’t even look me in the eye, so he cares not a jot if I suffer. He never hinted in the least that I might hold some interest for him. Since he has brought me no comfort, alas, why am I not already dead? He and I have experienced all this very differently: I am dying from love, he is indifferent; I am filled with anguish, he is at peace. [1910] ‘‘Since we do not share feelings in common, Love has treated me inequitably. If only he felt the love I feel, we should never separate. He searches ceaselessly for those mendacious oracles, saying a divine order provided and commanded that he save himself and travel to Lombardy. Those gods, in tireless deliberations, must care a lot for him if they besiege him so, without end, sending him there. But, my word, can they really mind whether he stays or goes? If he says that the gods oversee him so much and that he does nothing without their approval, then why do they angrily stalk him so much, whether on land or on the sea? He had to suffer their enmity continuously before he got here, and when he arrived he was shipwrecked. How foolish I was to receive him with hospitality, for now I regret it, and justly so. He took his will of me and refuses to stay now no matter what the appeal. Since I cannot keep him here, let him go, and I must then die.’’ She wept, moaned, and sighed, wishing to speak again, but fell into a faint and lost consciousness. Her attendants carried her away to her paved chamber. [1946] Lord Aeneas wept tears to placate the queen, though unsuccessfully. Delay was no longer an option, as the command of the gods (no matter whom it might disturb) had to be obeyed. [1952] The Trojans were leaving Carthage: to the ships they went by the shore, ready to leave, and, favored with a particularly good wind, raised anchor, floated out, and set sail. Dido went up to her rooms, to the uppermost windows, from which she observed the fleet in readiness, and she felt tremendous chagrin. Seeing her beloved leave, she took to moaning, weeping, crying out, and screeching, not valuing her own life any more: love knows not reason or poise, and the queen thought once again to try a prayerful request. ‘‘Anna, I am dying from chagrin. Sister, see them there departing, with Aeneas urging them on. He wishes to stay here not a minute longer. Go, tell him this: it was not I who destroyed his homeland or killed his father. I only gave to him generously, but ask him to grant me one last favor. I am not asking him to give up leaving for Lombardy, but just to stay a while with me, for my solace.’’ [1982] Her sister plied back and forth, again and again, but the hero did not change his plans; the Trojans were hastily preparing to set sail. Dido I. ROMAN D’ÉNÉAS

569

swooned, flushed, and, having organized her own death, declared: ‘‘Anna, on second thought, I have decided on a wiser course of action. There is a witch nearby for whom the most difficult chore is an easy task; she can enchant the dead, divine, and cast lots, cause the sun to hide itself at noon and return to the east, or even the moon similarly; she can make birds speak or water run backward—all these acts she can perform repeatedly, night and day, three or four times a week. From the underworld this seer can call up the Furies, who bring her magical auguries; she can hack down mountain oaks, capture and tame snakes, cause the earth to roar beneath your feet, and uses her expertise for enchantments and magical arts. She can also cause one to hate or to love any thing or person. She told me that she could make the hero return, or else make me forget him, so that I would care to love him no longer. She also said that I should raise a giant pyre, place on it all the clothing he had given, along with the sword he left me, as well as the bed where he dishonored me. These she said I should burn and destroy entirely, and she, in her turn, through her magical arts and spectacular sorcery, will cause my love-anguish to cease. Secretly, then, in a chamber, set up a pyre for me, and place upon it these clothes of the Trojan, his arms and armor, and the bed where we tasted our delight. Naught of his possessions do I wish to keep. I will have the witch brought in, and you should prepare for me the necessary ritual sacrifice.’’ Anna went to prepare the pyre just as the lady had ordered it, though she knew not nor did she sense why it was ordered. [2038] Dido remained in her tower to observe the hero, who was already out to sea. Love exhausted and maltreated her, causing her to swoon, shiver, shudder, and sweat; then she wrung her hands and tore at her hair. One hundred times or more she waved her white ermine sleeve to gesture to him, but the gestures had no effect on him: Aeneas could not turn around now, unable to counter the divine order. Dido hailed him and signaled him, as Love pushed and afflicted her, but clearly would not abate until she took a very severe fall. [2054] Seeing the hero leave, and also that Love was dragging her toward death, she began to sigh and complain to herself alone: ‘‘Alas, misery! Will he indeed leave thus? Why don’t I kill myself then? Since he has cast me off, should I not despise my own life? [2062] ‘‘The gods have taken no mercy on me: I should not tarry to take my life. Never will I have any satisfaction from him who is already far off from the port. I think I shall never see him again, and he won’t ever return to this land. Since I shall never have any benefit from him, why did he ever come here, and why did I come to know him? Why did he approach

570

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

these shores, and why did I welcome him to Carthage? Why did he take me to bed, and why did I break faith with my spouse? Why did Love conquer me in this way? [2076] ‘‘So now I have not kept my word, and from that lover I possess nothing. For a meager reward have I betrayed the faith I had kept so long. But it is now the same for me, whether it was a capital fault or a minute one; I broke my word as if we had been lovers forever. Now that he will not take me as wife, shall I go off and beg those other chieftains I had all along rejected? Shall I behave so ignominiously? When they wished to marry me I disdained them, and now is it my turn to beg? No, indeed, I should prefer to die. There is no other solution!’’ [2092] So much did she lose herself in laments, and so lively were the Trojans in their sailing, that Dido could no longer make out the distant ships. She thought to die from chagrin: she tore at her face and pulled at her hair. Her people, too, felt great vexation; no one was able to speak to her, and all were unable to comfort her. She hastened to the private chamber where her sister had raised the pyre Dido had called for. The queen had called for her earlier, and then had her dismissed, for she did not wish her sister to be present, nor to oppose nor to encumber the plan she was devising. [2110] All alone now in the chamber, with no one to deter her from the insane act she wished to commit, she drew out the Trojan’s sword: he offered it, never thinking she would lose her life thereby. She held the naked weapon and struck herself beneath the breast, falling at once onto the pyre prepared by her sister, and she lay down onto the bed covered with the Trojan’s garments, rolling in her own blood, and murmured: ‘‘Cherished garments that I kept as long as God wished, I cannot reach out to them, yet wish to give up my life upon them. [2128] ‘‘To my sorrow did I ever see these garments, for they represented the beginning of my own death and destruction: I loved too foolishly, the reverse of what I had hoped. Upon these clothes and upon this bed of shame I wish now to end my life. It is here that I shall leave my kingdom and my power, leaving Carthage with no heir, for my good name and my fame are all lost. But I shall not die altogether forgotten, for at least among Trojans I will be remembered forever. [2142] ‘‘I was once full of prowess and wisdom, until Love inspired this rage in my heart. I should have been quite content had he not reached my country, that traitorous Trojan for whose love I am going to give up my life. He took my life quite unjustly, yet I pardon him now of my death, and as a sign of perfect accord I kiss herewith these garments. I do pardon you, Sir

I. ROMAN D’ÉNÉAS

571

Aeneas.’’ Dido kissed the bed and all the covers, and now that she had lost so much blood, her voice rattled, halted, and broke. As death gripped her she sighed and breathed with great difficulty. [2160] When Anna came and saw and realized what had occurred—the sword in the body and blood spurting forth—she would have struck herself, had her attendants not held her back. She wept, shouted and screamed, ripped at and pulled her hair. ‘‘Alas,’’ she moaned, ‘‘unfortunate sister! I myself prepared the means by which she took her life! O sister, is this the sacrifice you asked me to arrange? Was it for this sad end? It was I who killed you, but indeed, unwittingly, as I did what you asked, though I see how you deceived me. I am filled with regret, though it’s too late. O sister, is this then the means you imagined, planned, and found to make this love of yours less painful? And wherever is that sorceress so skilled in spells who was supposed to conjure up forgetting for you? I have indeed ill served you, because it is my fault you are dead. [2188] ‘‘The witch should have used her magic to grant you that forgetting. Instead, this is a very ugly enchantment before me now. You drank a mortal poison to forget the hero, and now you will never more remember your love for the Trojan.’’ Her sister felt deep chagrin and thought her heart would break. [2198] Dido was mortally struck down, and death stung and pressed upon her, and at the same time the flames burned up and consumed her members. She could utter only one single word: ‘‘Aeneas.’’ The fire had devoured so much of her body that it caused her soul to depart. Dido’s once white skin, so fair and tender, could not resist the blaze: the blackened flesh burned and smoldered, melting away forthwith. All those present, her attendants and chieftains, were dejected and grieved aloud, regretting the loss of her valor, her wisdom, and her power. [2214] When her body had turned to ashes, her sister took them and placed the Tyrian lady in a tiny urn. They carried her right into the temple and interred her with great honors. Then they constructed a truly magnificent and striking tomb of nielloed enamel, inscribed with her epitaph. The words say: ‘‘Here lies Dido, who took her own life because of love; never was there a better pagan, if only she had not known such a solitary love and had not loved so recklessly. Her wisdom served her for naught.’’ (RC)

2. Golden Bough (lines 2346–2643) [2346] Aeneas leapt from his ship and went on foot to seek the Sibyl, taking only Achates with him. They walked until they reached the priestess’s temple, at the entrance of which she sat, all hoary and unkempt, her 572

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

face very pale and flesh dark and wrinkled. Before her stood the heroes, and Aeneas addressed her thus: ‘‘My lady, the gods to whom I am related have sent me to you. Born in now toppled Troy, I must travel by their order to speak to my father in the underworld. Without your guidance, it will not be possible for me to go. Once Orpheus, Hercules, and Theseus went, and several mortals escaped the creatures of the infernal realm. I implore you to lead me there now without delay.’’ [2372] When the Sibyl heard that he wished to descend to the underworld, she raised her eyebrows, opened her deep-set eyes, dissected him with a ferocious and most frightening glance, shook her hoary head, and answered the Trojan in this way: ‘‘Sire, this indeed is the main entrance to the vast underworld. Descent is quite easy but the return more difficult; a plethora of entrants go down night and day, but very few can come back up. Without a skilled escort, the return is arduous. Yet given the divine plan and your father’s command, I will guide you to him and bring you back in full security. But if you wish on two occasions to cross the underworld river and come back from that shadowy land, you must seek out a branch of pure gold, found uniquely in these woods. Then you must present the bough to the underworld queen. You will not find any iron or sharp steel shears to cut it, as it will easily snap off, if Jupiter grants and wishes you to follow this path. If not, know that the bough cannot be pulled off and none can do so, whether with iron or steel. Once the bough is snapped off, another grows to replace it. Without it, return from the infernal hosts is strenuous, so if you can find the bough and bring it to me, I shall willingly accompany you forthwith.’’ [2416] Aeneas turned and entered the forest, and in the woods he sought the branch, while praying to all the gods. His mother, the goddess of love, showed him the tree where the branch was—it was a remarkable revelation of tremendous significance. When he saw it, he rejoiced, pulled at it lightly, and in that instant another just like that one replaced it. Aeneas exulted in glory, went back to the Sibyl, and showed her the golden bough. She prepared a sacrifice to the gods of the underworld and prayed to them in reverence. [2434] There was a deep, extremely repulsive, fetid cave, the ugliest in the world, wide and large its entrance and surrounded by woods, and with black and dirty water—a pit of horror, one breath of which would kill in an hour. Whenever birds flew over and inhaled the terrible smell, they would fall dead at once, so said the people of the land. That is the infernal entry where night and day arrivals press in, but for the return trip there is no rush. Once the soul leaves and is separated from the body, it must reach and pass through that opening. I. ROMAN D’ÉNÉAS

573

[2454] Aeneas and the Cumaean priestess-seer both arrived at the cave, and she spoke to him briefly with these words: ‘‘Warrior, hear me, this is the infernal descent: now you must be brave and fearless if you wish to come back up. All the dead go down there to Pluto’s fateful empire, where he rules supreme with his goddess-queen Proserpina. The gods of heaven have no power here whatsoever. Since we aim to descend into the underworld, we should take this route, but do not be frightened by all that you shall see. As there is little light in the underworld, take out your naked sword and follow my lead this way.’’ The Sibyl gave him an ointment she had to offset the smell and protect him from the air he would breathe. Aeneas drew his sword at once and followed the Sibyl as she strode forward on her way through the darkness and numbing silence. After a few steps, they perceived a large group: Death and Suffering, Hunger and Famine and Fear, Sickness, Sad Old Age and Cowardice, Indolence, Death’s Work and Deception, Laments, Sorrows and Wickedness, Torment, Pain and Deceit, Discord and Enmity, Mortal Battle and Merciless War, and Sleep, the cousin of Death. There a very ancient and many-branched tree grew, ugly and mossy, from which there hung leaves of dreams, frauds, and lies. They remain in the underworld during the day, but at night flit above ground. [2502] Greatly afraid was the Trojan as they advanced; they passed through then and discovered hideous monsters—great and ugly and very horrible. Close by they were, and Aeneas, thinking to slay one, brandished his sword, but the Sibyl spoke to him thus: ‘‘There is no need for that, as you’ll never touch any of those incorporeal creatures, and it is pointless to draw your sword against them. Know this: it was not for striking that I told you to take the weapon from the scabbard, but rather, given its brightness, to be able to walk among these shadows.’’ [2518] They proceeded along the depths of the valley until they reached the infernal waters—deep, black, and loathsome—where the press of the assembled throng gathered. Charon was the god of the crossing, acting as ferryman. Old, repugnant, and wizened he was, and hoary and wrinkled. His face emaciated and withered, his hair tousled and ruffled, huge ears all hairy, eyebrows thick and disheveled, eyes red as burning coals, and his beard and mustache were more than ample. He was in charge of the old boat, which was rotted, terribly broken-down, stitched, and patched up. To this riverbank hastened the dead from every direction, for no soul takes its rest until it is safe at this haven. Those buried rightly and appropriately were carried across this water by Charon, but none returned: he welcomed some and abandoned others right there. At the bank a huge crowd pressed for-

574

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

ward, but those unburied remained disappointed, as they could not pass over if the body remained without a burial place. [2552] In amazement, Aeneas heard, saw, and listened to the great assemblage, then queried the Sibyl: ‘‘Lady, please tell me what is happening at this bank? The people arrive from all directions and assemble there in a crowd, and over there I see a ferryman who pilots endlessly; from that enormous crowd at the entrance, I see him pushing away some and taking on others.’’ The priestess replied to him: ‘‘This is the infernal river and the marsh that the gods dare not cross or perjure. The multitude you see are souls that cannot pass over if the body remains uninterred, and they must wander and not cross for one hundred years. For those who have the right and whose body has a sepulcher, the pilot has no other task but to take them across, since their return will never occur. When they have crossed, they drink a little from the marsh water—called the river Lethe—and once they do they have forgotten everything: all is gone, with no remembrance of whatever they did on earth.’’ The two delayed no more and approached the bank. [2590] Discerning Aeneas’s shining weapon, Charon noticed, saw, and distinguished them, and was the first to speak to them: ‘‘Well now,’’ said he, ‘‘who are you to venture all armed into this tenebrous kingdom? Say why you have come and what you seek here. This is the inhuman underworld, where disembodied and lonely souls dwell. Never has a mortal approached without wishing us great harm. [2604] ‘‘Lord Hercules once came and carried off our gatekeeper, just dragged him away all bound up, and it was a great nuisance for him to return to our realm. And then Lord Theseus came, accompanied by Pirithous, intending to dishonor the underworld king by abducting his queen. Since all have come to harm us, no man has entered whom we should wish to find praiseworthy or in any way believable. Now stay there! Your visit is useless, since I shall not ferry you, nor shall you ever cross to the other bank.’’ Aeneas was troubled by these words, but the Sibyl rejoined: [2620] ‘‘Wait now, this is Aeneas: he has come not to harm or injure you with dishonor or provocation, but rather to speak to his father, so you should let him pass through in all confidence. The gods have sent him, and—doubt it not—he comes to this province on their behalf, as he can prove here and now with a sign.’’ [2630] Aeneas drew out the branch that he had beneath his mantle. Seeing it, the ferryman was appeased and turned his vessel toward the hero. He pushed away the souls now keen to enter and welcomed Aeneas and his

I. ROMAN D’ÉNÉAS

575

guide into the boat, but because of the great load weighing down the craft, it leaked water in through the cracks. Charon rowed and steered, reaching the other bank, and the two left the vessel and arrived at the door. (RC)

J. HEINRICH VON VELDEKE (before 1150–circa 1190) The element Veldeke in the name of this poet associates him with a place called Veldeke (Velker molen), not far from Hasselt, in the modern Belgian province of Limburg, and Maastricht, in the Netherlands. Both key components in his name are preserved in a handful of assorted spellings, a fact significant mainly because it relates to the larger concern of whether Heinrich should be considered German (Heinrich von Veldeke) or Dutch (Heinric or Hendrik van Veldeke). The debate over ‘‘The Veldeke Problem’’ goes beyond present-day cultural rivalries to bear on the fundamental nature of the poet’s principal composition, the Eneit (also known as the Eneide), since it cuts to the question of the original language in which the poem was composed, either a form of Middle High German or Old Limburgian (a Low German dialect that was spoken in what is now the province of Limburg, in the southern Netherlands, as well as in adjacent parts of Germany and Belgium). All extant manuscripts of the Eneit are in forms of German, but reconstructions of the original dialect have been attempted repeatedly by scholars. Whatever his protonationality and language, Heinrich, Heinric, or Hendrik —whom we will henceforth call Veldeke to avoid partisanship in the dispute of claims—is known for a few love lyrics that survive solely in High German; for a hagiographic poem entitled St. Servatius that is extant in Old Limburgian (fragmentarily), New Limburgian (in its entirety), and High German; and, above all, for his Eneit, a poem that exudes knowledge of Virgil’s Aeneid; the Virgilian commentator, Servius; the pseudo-contemporaries of the Trojan War, Dares of Phrygia and Dictys of Crete; and Ovid, as well as of the anonymous Old French Roman d’Énéas (see above, III.I) and Middle High German literature. The knowledge of Latin sources suggests that he received education in a cathedral or monastic school, but no specifics are known. His familiarity with courtly literature and its precursors in both French and Germanic vernaculars signals his connections with the nobility. The Eneit occupies an important place in Middle High German literature, because of the homage paid to Veldeke by other poets such as Gottfried von Strassburg (flourished 1210), Wolfram von Eschenbach (flourished first half of the thirteenth century: see below, V.A.7), and others. Well into the fifteenth century, the Eneit provided the best way for German speakers who did not know Latin to become acquainted with the story told in the Aeneid. It survives complete in seven manuscripts. 576

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

According to what Veldeke reports, he wrote roughly four-fifths of the poem between 1170 and 1174 but was unable to complete his work until around 1185 because the manuscript of it was misappropriated during a wedding celebration, taken o√ to Thuringia, and not regained for nine years. Veldeke had connections with the church of St. Servatius in Maastricht, but he seems to have received most of his patronage from noble patrons, such as Countess Agnes of Loon (died after 1175) and Landgrave Hermann I of Thuringia (died 1217). The following translation is a revision of Heinrich von Veldeke, Eneit, trans. J. W. Thomas, Garland Library of Medieval Literature, series B, vol. 38 (New York, 1985). Reference has been made to the translation by R. W. Fisher (Heinrich von Veldeke, Eneas: A Comparison with the Roman d’Énéas, and a Translation into English, Australian and New Zealand Studies in German Language and Literature 17 [Bern, 1992]). (Discussion: S. M. Johnson, ‘‘Henrich von Veldeke: Eneide,’’ in A Companion to Middle High German Literature to the Fourteenth Century, ed. F. G. Gentry [Leiden, 2002], 415–29) (Text: Henric van Veldeken, Eneide, vol. 1, ed. G. Schieb and T. Frings, Deutsche Texte des Mittelalters 58 [Berlin, 1964]) (JZ)

1. Dido (lines 1–2528) [1] You might indeed have heard how King Menelaus besieged mighty Troy with a powerful force when he wanted to destroy it because of Paris, who had taken his wife from him. He was determined not to leave until it was conquered. There was great distress at the time the city fell, as many mighty palaces built of marble and many a fine house were reduced to ruins and many men and women died wretchedly. Very few of all those people survived; King Priam and four of his sons were slain early in the battle. It could not be otherwise, because there was no hope for anyone, neither the healthy nor the sick, after the Greeks entered the city. They seized Helen, returned her to Menelaus, and tore down Troy. [33] At the south end of the city lived a nobleman whom I can name: Duke Aeneas, whose wife was the king’s daughter. He saved his life. The great Virgil tells us that he was of the race of the gods, that his mother was Venus, the goddess of love, and that Cupid was his brother. Before Menelaus won the victory and avenged the injury done him by destroying Troy, Lord Aeneas had learned from the gods that he was to escape and journey across the sea to Italy, which the warrior knew to be the birthplace of Dardanus. Then he saw the city burning. Old Dardanus was the first man to fortify Troy and, to the vexation of many, surround it with walls. [67] Confronted by this sad state, Aeneas was deeply troubled. He J. HEINRICH VON VELDEKE

577

gathered his friends, both relatives and vassals, and told them the truth that had been prophesied by the gods and revealed to him: that he could not defend himself and should save his life. He declared to his comrades who wanted to fight that they would all die. ‘‘My dear friends,’’ he said, ‘‘however dangerous it might be, I shall follow your advice at all times. So tell me your will and what seems best to you after what you have heard. Should we escape or go back, avenge our friends, and die with honor? Whatever all of you want and dare to support me with, I’ll help you do if I can.’’ When many of them saw that their lives were at stake, they thought it better to leave the country at once than to delay and gain fame by dying. [105] The day on which he had to leave Troy with his men while it was being laid waste was a sad one for Aeneas, but he lived far from where the Greeks were setting fires—at that time it was more than ten miles—and he could not punish them. Although the destruction was fast approaching, he was fortunate in that he was able to get away with all his wealth and go where he wished, for not far from his palace he found twenty ships of which he had heard, all well stocked with food and supplies. The Greeks who had brought and left them there were away in the battle. [127] Aeneas could do nothing better than to bring his goods and treasure to the ships and tell all his vassals who wanted to journey with him to hurry. He ordered that his father, who was too old to walk, be carried, and he led his son by the hand. Aeneas thus left the country to save his life, but he lost his wife before they came to the ships. I don’t know who took her from him. When he left the city, Lord Aeneas had three thousand shields and as many knights. Their plan went into effect as soon as they came to the ships: they lifted the anchors from the sand, and the land breeze drove them far out into the sea, which greatly pleased some of the army. [156] At that time the goddess Juno was very angry at Aeneas and wanted to do him harm because of the golden apple that Paris had given to Venus. This was the source of all the wrath that led to the destruction of Troy, which—so Virgil tells us—was the vengeance taken for the abduction of Helen by Paris with the aid of a grateful Venus. His deed brought on great trouble. Aeneas now had to suffer for Juno’s displeasure and hostility, since she opposed him with violent storms when he sailed forth and wanted to go where he should. Indeed the books say that she caused him to wander aimlessly seven full years on the sea and kept him far from the land he sought. It [his seeking the land] was not to her liking, and so he suffered great trials. [184] Once she showed him her power very roughly, tormenting him three days and nights with thunder, wind, rain, and hail. Then the nails of 578

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

their strong ships broke, and the sails, masts, oars, and spars. The goddess Juno wanted to kill them all, but only one of the ships sank: all the men and beasts on board were drowned. Aeneas lamented ever having come out there, instead of dying honorably at Troy with Paris, and said that he would always regret not having been slain beside the king and the king’s children. The ships were scattered widely by the wind—they had to drift, since the waves kept them from holding any other course. Many a mother’s son was in constant fear from morning to night. They had to ride out the storm thus until, on the fourth day, the wind died down, the great waves ceased to swell, and the sea, which had formerly been so rough, became calm and smooth. [224] When Aeneas saw the waters subside, the worthy warrior raised his head and caught sight of the land of Libya with its high mountains. Rejoicing that Fortune had heard him, he encouraged his men to persevere, row landward, and anchor in whatever harbor was to be found. This was news they were glad to hear. They sprang to the sides in order to get underway at once, manfully worked with their arms and hands, and came at last to the shore. As soon as they reached land, disembarked, and got onto solid ground, they made themselves as comfortable as they could. Then, so I have heard, the exiles counted their ships: only seven were there, no more, of the twenty that had left the walls of Troy together. [259] After entering the harbor, Aeneas found that the area around it was barren. He therefore sent couriers inland, twenty brave knights, to learn what country it was and bring him word as to whether there was any place to buy food and supplies. The wise Ilioneus commanded the group that rode forth. The warriors wandered aimlessly in the forest until they came to a road. They did not stop then but followed it until they came out of the forest, where they made a most welcome discovery, for a large city—strongly fortified and beautiful—could plainly be seen from there. It was Carthage, which was built and founded by Lady Dido, who ruled the land as a queen should. I’ll tell you what has been written about her coming. [294] She was driven out of Tyre. She came to that country, as I have heard and can well tell you. Her husband was Sychaeus, whom her brother had slain. The latter did her much harm through no fault of her own, because he wanted the land to be his alone when he had banished his sister. Since her brother had become her enemy, she took a great store of treasure and a small army and sailed across the sea, landing at Libya and presenting herself to the lord she found there and who held power there. She asked him shrewdly to sell her a little piece of his broad land at whatever place she wished, as much as a bull’s hide would cover. People were still rather simple then. It seemed J. HEINRICH VON VELDEKE

579

a trivial matter, so the lord, swayed by treasure, promised the lady that he would sell her the land. He sorely regretted this later, for it brought him much distress. [325] The lady had one of her men get a bull’s hide and cut it into a single, narrow strip. Then she got a peg, ordered it placed in the ground, and tied the strip to it. This done, she took the rest in her own hands and walked around with it until the strip enclosed a very large circle. Thereupon Dido had a mighty fortress built, with high walls and towers, which was nothing for her because she was very rich. She managed her affairs with such skill that she reached the point where all of Libya, its mountains and valleys, was subject to her: the country and its inhabitants served her, and she met no one there who dared resist her. [354] It would take too long to tell how the fortress was built, so we shall leave out much that Virgil says of it in his books and shorten the account to a moderate length. It had seven gates, at each of which resided a count who was to defend the splendid city with three hundred knights if someone tried to invade it. They held their fiefs for this purpose and were ruled by their fellow resident, the mighty queen. There were stately towers at Carthage— exactly seven hundred, they say. Whoever is surprised at this and wants to look it up should go to the books that are called the Aeneid: he can be sure of it after reading such testimony as is written there. [383] Carthage was rich and lay near all kinds of wealth. Whatever one wanted that existed anywhere, in the water or on the ground, could be found by looking there, for the area had a great deal of everything that came from either the land or the sea. With the wide, deep sea on one side and a large river on the other, the city in between was so strongly protected that it did not fear in the least all the armies in the world. At one end, by the sea, Dido had high strong towers, where her quarters were. A magnificent palace stood there and splendid rooms magnificently furnished. Since she was very wise and had vast wealth, she was greatly feared. Dido built a temple in honor of Juno close by her dwelling and paid the goddess much homage there. She honored her diligently, at all times of the day, so that Juno would make famed Carthage the capital of the whole earth, with all the lands subject to it. However, things turned out otherwise, for it was Rome that afterward had such power and received tribute from many lands. This happened much later, as many people are well aware. [433] When the couriers saw the fortress, they asked the people they found there what city it was and who ruled over it and the surrounding land. The people they met there and whom they asked said that it was Carthage and was governed by Lady Dido. Having learned this, they agreed 580

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

that they wanted to go to her, and further inquiries brought them before the lady, who was in a chamber beside the great hall. The mighty Dido greeted them in a friendly manner when they came, and they thanked her for her kindness and trust. They did their best to assure her of their goodwill and declared that they wanted help, counsel, and peace. Ilioneus told why they had come. [466] ‘‘Lady,’’ he said, ‘‘you surely know, at least I believe you must have heard, how Troy was destroyed, how many people were captured (of whom few survived), and how my lord Aeneas departed with some others—which has caused him and his companions much grief for these seven years. The gods directed him to go to Italy but could not help him get there, so we have been kept away from that land. Fierce storms have greatly hindered us, as we have been driven in all directions by the winds and have almost died in the waves. We once saw to our sorrow one of our ships sink and our men drown. Juno has taken harsh vengeance on us. The boards and nails of our ships are broken, the sails are torn, the masts and oars are in splinters, and the halyards and anchor lines are rent. Some of our ships barely reached land and have found a harbor here in your country. My lord has sent us with the request that you will show him kindness and be pleased to let him recover here, repair his ships, and wait for favorable weather. He and all of us will be subject to you as you wish—we have endured great hardships on the wide sea.’’ [517] ‘‘I am very glad that you have come,’’ answered Dido. ‘‘I have indeed heard what happened at Troy when Menelaus won the victory and am sure it is true. I can well believe that you have long suffered great distress, for I know something of misfortune, exile, and such a journey by sea, since I was forced into exile before God provided for me here. I was not born here. Tyre is my country. To him who sent you, Lord Aeneas, I will give whatever wealth and render whatever honor and service he will accept, and will freely offer him that which I have never before offered any man in the world. If he should want to give up his wandering, of which the lord has done enough, and live here—since God has sent him to this country—I will share with him people, land, and all you see about you. However, if he does not want to do that, I and my friends, the city and the land, treasure and clothing will be at his disposal as long as he remains. [554] ‘‘I thank the gods who sent him here. He and his men shall have enough of everything the earth ever produced: if they will take it, I will gladly give plenty to all at no cost as long as I live. I’ll put him up in one of my chambers and treat him as well as myself. I’ll try to see to it that no man ever got a better reception from a woman.’’ J. HEINRICH VON VELDEKE

581

[573] The couriers were delighted to have Dido speak so cordially, for this was what they needed. Taking leave of the lady, they rode away from the court and back down to where Aeneas was. In the meantime the ships had arrived that the wind had driven away and that they had believed lost in the storm. All the vessels lay there together except the one that had gone down with their companions and was lost forever. But everyone was happy that the others had come. [594] Aeneas had climbed up a mountain when he had become impatient for the return of those he had sent out to search the land for such news as he would like to hear. Now he saw the couriers approaching and, as soon as they were near, went to meet them with a friendly and joyful greeting. ‘‘What did you find?’’ he asked. [609] ‘‘All we need.’’—‘‘What then?’’—‘‘Carthage.’’—‘‘And what is that?’’ —‘‘It is a city here.’’—‘‘For God’s sake, go on! Is it far away?’’—‘‘No, it is close by.’’—‘‘Did you find the king there?’’—‘‘It has no king.’’—‘‘How is that?’’— ‘‘The mighty Lady Dido is its ruler.’’—‘‘Did you speak with her?’’—‘‘Yes, we did.’’—‘‘How did you find her?’’—‘‘She is well supplied.’’—‘‘What did she offer us?’’—‘‘All we need.’’—‘‘Does she mean it?’’ [621] ‘‘Yes, she does. She received us cordially and wants you to know that you are welcome to stay with her as long as you wish. She will show you that she is glad to see you. Nothing can harm you here, nor will you lack anything that one could ask for: if you turn to her, you will get whatever you desire. She will treat you with great respect and give you plenty of supplies without payment. Should you want to live in comfort, she will lodge you in one of her chambers and entertain you well in her hall.’’ Aeneas was pleased. [640] When he heard the report, he went back to his men openly and with a happy heart. He told them that the couriers had returned and what he had heard. Then Aeneas asked their advice as to whether he should go to the city. Everyone was glad that Lady Dido had wanted to send him this message and quickly counseled him with one voice to leave at once. He decided to do so, since all agreed, and ordered that those knights be summoned who were to accompany him. Without waiting any longer, they put on fine clothing, of which they had brought so much from their homeland, and adorned themselves with different kinds of splendid ornaments. [670] After all were dressed as lords should be, Aeneas chose five hundred knights out of the army he had brought overseas. He knew their virtues well—that they could speak properly, had good manners, and were excellent people —and each was at his disposal. Some were handsome enough to be fit to go before a king. We are told that they took many fine Castilian 582

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

horses, fast and stately, as well as many beautiful Arabians. When he was ready to leave for the city, Aeneas was splendidly attired, as was his custom: he was rich and of such a pleasing appearance that no description could do him justice. He ordered those who remained with the ships to sail for the walls of the city, which they were glad to do; then he and his men rode off grandly in a gleaming troop. [705] On his arrival, Aeneas found the city charming inside and out. No army could have taken it by force. Riding in with his warriors, the bold hero saw before him broad streets with many fine houses and lofty marble halls on both sides. On both sides there were ladies and maidens, decked out in their best finery, who wanted to look at him. They did not need to ask who the leader was, for the famous Aeneas was so much more splendid than the others that it was easy to recognize him. When Aeneas came to where the mighty Dido was, she received him and his men cordially. She kissed him and then made them all so comfortable that they lacked nothing. Whatever they wished was done for them. [739] As soon as Aeneas had entered the city and gone to Dido’s palace, his mother, Venus, and his brother, Cupid, caused the lady to fall in love with him with a passion as great as that which any woman ever felt for a man. She was to show this in a way that brought her great distress, for she gave up her life and died wretchedly because of a love that was much too strong. Hear how it happened. [755] After the hearty welcome by Dido and her countrymen, Aeneas sent couriers from the city to the ships to get his son, Ascanius. In addition, famous Aeneas arranged other matters. He ordered his chamberlain to bring him at once a large golden goblet that one of his vassals had in keeping and a fine ermine mantle that was as white as a swan. On the outside the mantle had a wide sable trim, as brown as a bear, and samite. It reached to the feet, and had been painstakingly made. He had brought it with him overseas. To search for a better one anywhere would be useless. He also asked him to bring two bracelets, a ring, a golden brooch—skillfully set and decorated with gold—and a gorgeous lady’s gown, the like of which had never before been seen in the country. It was splendid and of dalmatic silk. Queen Hecuba wore it when she was crowned. It could not have been better. Aeneas made it clear for whom these things were intended and sent them to Lady Dido as soon as they arrived. What she gave in return was so immoderate that it would have been better for her if she had refrained. [805] In the meantime, just before the boy Ascanius was to ride to the court, Lady Venus touched his lips with her fire and thereby gave him such a power of love that the first one to kiss him afterward would begin to burn J. HEINRICH VON VELDEKE

583

and be tormented, secretly and openly, with the fire of love. Dido paid dearly for this when the child arrived at the court and she caught it from him. Hear the strange tale. When Ascanius the youth went to the lady, he was very attractive. She took him in her arms and kissed him on the lips. She fell victim to the spell at once, and the fire of love was fanned to a heat that no one who has not been consumed by it can comprehend. The goddess Venus thus sent a mighty love to Dido’s palace, which caused the lady to forget herself. Aeneas was sitting beside her when she began to burn. He was a handsome, charming man, and she now could not help falling in love with him. It seemed to the lady a long time before he realized this, for love had fully conquered her. [849] Aeneas did not know that Dido was very fond of him, because she concealed in her heart the great impatience with which passion tormented her. She did not dare begin to broach the subject of love to him first. Whatever she had to endure after Venus shot the arrow into her heart, she was careful to keep to herself, but the mighty Dido suffered greatly. Sir Cupid also came with his torch and, day and night, held the flame against her wound. She was in great distress, and those who noticed saw that she kept changing color rapidly. One moment she was red, then pale; now hot, now cold. She was sorely injured by love and had to learn now what she had never known before. It was most painful to her. [880] When the meal was ready and she came to the table, she and her guests, the greatest and the least, were served in a fitting manner. With great courtesy they were given everything they could wish in her room and in the dining hall. The mighty Lady Dido had arranged everything with those on duty. For Aeneas was a very welcome guest, as were all his companions. One could not have kept count of the dishes or the drinks. Plenty of everything one could think of was placed before them with decorum. The feast left many a Trojan well pleased. Lady Dido and Sir Aeneas then went to a place she liked and sat down together. Here she asked him engagingly to tell her the whole story of how Troy was captured. [910] ‘‘You have chosen a topic that saddens me,’’ he said, ‘‘but since you desire it, my lady, I shall be glad to relate just what happened. I know it well, and no one can inform you better than I, for I saw and heard it. Indeed, I am acquainted with everything. When Alexander Paris took the wife of Menelaus, it was the cause of great evil and brought misfortune to many. Troy was very large. It extended for a three-day journey along the sea and was a day’s journey in width. At the time we were besieged we were bold and daring. We had more brave men than any king ever had in a fortress. Whether one believes this or not, it is the truth. 584

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

[936] ‘‘The Greeks found us brave and ready for battle on any occasion, mounted or on foot. We had plenty of time for this indeed, since we were besieged for ten years. There were periods of over a year, for which truces were arranged, when we went out to them and were well received and they came to us and bought our goods. We went thus back and forth. After they had suffered many losses and had learned that there was no way for them to defeat us, they agreed among themselves to leave. However, when this had been decided and they were about to do so, Ulysses—whom we shall always curse—stopped them. He said that he wanted to try a new ruse he had conceived. Then he directed them to labor night and day to build a huge horse of wood, which they were willing to do. It was high, wide, and cleverly constructed. We are told, and you may be sure of this, that it had fifty levels, which brought us all to grief, because it concealed five thousand knights of their army. [977] ‘‘As soon as all this was finished, the rest of the host set out to sea and sailed to an island where they lay hidden and appeared later. When morning came and daylight broke and the marvel was seen, it was soon learned that the army had departed. When this was heard in the city, King Priam rode forth with his men. The enemy had gone, and we were glad that it had turned out this way. But there was treachery to come. Our warriors found a man, bound and naked, who lied like a devil and deceived us all. They led him before the king without delay. He acted sick and lamented pitifully, as if he were badly frightened; his teeth chattered. Seeing this, the king thought him a poor wretch and felt sorry for him. He ordered him untied and given clothing. Then the man was asked where the army had gone and why he had remained behind. He began to weep and tremble. [1017] ‘‘ ‘My lord,’ he answered, ‘I am a Greek and sick with fear. And my recovery will be a hard one, because I shall die now; I’m sure of it. That was the wish of Ulysses, who killed my uncle. This pained me greatly: I was both angry and grief-stricken. Since I often said that I would avenge him if I got the chance, Ulysses ordered that I be seized and wanted to kill me. When this was done,’ continued the scoundrel Sinon, ‘he held me prisoner until the Greeks were to offer sacrifices in praise of all the gods. Then it was commanded that a Greek be slain in order that the mighty Aeolus, king of the winds, would be merciful and send them back across the sea to their homeland. [1044] ‘‘ ‘Since there was no one in the entire host so helpless as I, they chose me; Ulysses was behind it. I almost lost my life then. He and his men led me forth, and I was prepared for the sacrifice. My head was washed with oil and wine, and flour and ashes were scattered over it. I was never in such J. HEINRICH VON VELDEKE

585

desperate straits: I saw the one who was to cut off my head standing beside me with drawn sword. I had bent down. He ordered me to stretch out my neck and prepared to strike. [1065] ‘‘ ‘Just then an uproar arose in the army. When the king became aware of it, he hurried off and all the others with him, and left me there alone. No one remained with me. Since I now had the chance, I fled quickly. I don’t know whom they killed. Yet they sacrificed someone in my place and gained favorable wind: Aeolus allowed them to cross the sea. They have wanted to go for over a year, ever since they realized that they would never take the mighty city so long as Lady Pallas was so greatly honored in it. Now they have gone, as you indeed have heard, and you don’t need to be concerned as to where they went.’ [1091] ‘‘The king then had him questioned about the horse we saw: what it was supposed to be and why it was built there. In answer he told us a complete lie that he had ready, and we were taken in by it. The lie came easily to him. [1100] ‘‘ ‘It is true,’ he said, ‘that the goddess Pallas was incensed at what the Greeks did with evil intent. It was pure folly. They caused her image in the city to be destroyed, and she has well avenged it. The deed has since brought trouble to everyone, the timid and the brave, and they wanted to atone for it with an act of penance. They had the steed built large and tall and intended to place on it a statue of Pallas in armor. But this plan was abandoned for the plain reason that the master-builder who began the work died. There is nobody else who has his skill. They made it very large so that you could not possibly bring it into the city. I’ll tell you why. There is a sacred power in it of such strength that whichever city it rests in will be famous for its victories and prosperity, if one keeps it whole.’ [1137] ‘‘Thus the villain deceived us. He was cunning and insidious. We thought we were acting for the best. He called himself Sinon, but in fact it was Ulysses himself. We were deceived and suffered great harm by doing his will. We foolishly believed everything he said, which brought grief, distress, and great loss upon us. His tale pleased us, and we took it for a good omen. After discussing the matter, we became so pleased that we broke down fifty feet of wall and pulled the horse inside. No one spoke against this, but it was madness and recklessness. In our folly we then cleared a road fifty feet wide for it and, since it moved on wheels, had it brought to a broad, long courtyard in front of our temple. A vast throng received it there with tambourines, stringed music, and songs of praise. Everyone was delighted, which we shall always regret. [1175] ‘‘There was great rejoicing until people at last had had enough and 586

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

became so tired and exhausted that sleep drove them away and the horse remained alone. When those inside saw that they had the place to themselves, they opened up doors in the belly and flanks of the horse and hurried out. They occupied the whole city and did whatever they wished. They were well armed, and we were asleep; moreover they had on hand five thousand knights, a large army. Most of the city therefore was seized without resistance. It need not have been thus if God had granted that we be saved. They razed and burned and sent flames on high. When the fire was seen by the many troops that had sailed off in the ships, the mighty host quickly returned, unfortunately before we had begun our defense anywhere. It was thus that the city was captured. [1213] ‘‘When it had come to the point that no one survived who tried to defend himself, I determined to save my life, for this was the command of my kindred, the gods. When I learned of that and saw the city lying in ruins and knew I would die if I remained, I left with a splendid army of three thousand men. I intended to sail over the wide sea to Italy, but managed with great effort only to get here to your land, as you have indeed heard.’’ [1231] Dido was surprised at how Troy was conquered and destroyed, but she did not really care what Aeneas said as long as he kept talking. She was afraid that the time and the place would fail her. She did not hurry him, but found it more pleasant to sit beside him and talk with him. For her it was more restful than lying in bed and not seeing him. Indeed, she was in such a state of mind that she could have sat by him all night and would have forgotten everything on earth. After Aeneas had talked at length and was to go to where his bed was waiting, the lady was filled with grief—as the poem tells us—for she did not want to part from him. [1257] When it was time to leave, she could not get up without Aeneas’s help, which was very agreeable to her: she thought his hand very gentle. Then Dido led the warrior to sleeping quarters where there were wellfurnished beds that were smooth and soft. She went in with him and asked the chamberlains if his bed was comfortable. She had ordered that it be splendid. The coverlet was of purple material and marten fur: it could not have been better. The white sheet was finely woven, white, and immaculate. The bed was wide and soft. The quilt was of samite, well padded with down, the undercover of leather supple and firm. On this bed the guest was to sleep, and she did not begrudge him anything. A taffeta quilt lay under the bed on the straw. Lady Dido had sent all the splendid bedding there. The bolster was of costly silk, the pillow of fine samite. Aeneas thanked her for it. [1293] She ordered that the candles be set down, since she wanted to have some entertainment. So many candles were burning that one could see J. HEINRICH VON VELDEKE

587

as well then as at midday. It was also warm enough, because she had arranged for dry wood to be brought in so that there could be fire without smoke. Though suffering greatly from the pangs of love, Dido still knew how to preserve well her esteem. She commanded that the lord and all his vassals be given as much wine and spiced wine as they wanted; Aeneas said that he was very grateful for her kindness to him. She often looked at him with fond eyes. The brooches and bracelets that he had given her were as dear to her as life itself. [1317] When it was becoming late, time for her and her men to leave and for Aeneas to get the rest he wanted, she reluctantly departed. She would have liked to remain longer. Still, she went off to her quarters where she told her maids-in-waiting, who thought it very late, to hurry and put her to bed in a fitting manner. Mindful of her comfort, they brought her to her bed. It was made up with an elegant silk counterpane that was suitable for her. Having got there and lain down, Dido sent all those away, women and girls, who usually stayed with her, for she wanted to be alone. The love was all too near that had so rudely seized her and now deprived her of sleep. [1345] As she was thinking, her bed seemed too hard, although it was really very soft. Everything Dido touched or saw distressed her. After she had lain there a while and her tiredness had steadily increased, she turned herself around so that her head was at the foot of the bed. Only Aeneas, who was always on her mind, could still her pain. She sat up and began to do one thing after another. Then she got out of bed and lay on the floor. ‘‘What will become now of poor Lady Dido!’’ she exclaimed and pled for mercy to Cupid and Venus, the brother and mother of Aeneas. [1367] Dido brushed the gleaming bracelets across her eyes and kissed the ring. She was sure she would never recover. When she began to think of Aeneas, she wanted to make the time pass somehow. That was her sole aim, for the more she thought of him, the worse she felt. Aeneas did not know that she was struggling thus with love and had no rest the whole night. She longed for day. [1385] Sorely troubled, she perspired and trembled and suffered great distress. ‘‘How long will this last?’’ she asked herself. ‘‘What have I done to the day? Who has led it astray that it is so late in coming? I am sure that this is the longest night there ever was. Oh how unlucky it was for me that Paris ever went to seize Helen and thus brought about the destruction of Troy! It is being cruelly and painfully avenged on me. Oh! What good are my honor, good sense, and reason? Now that I have come to this state, I can only hope that Venus will have pity on me. Only her mercy can bring about my recovery.’’ 588

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

[1409] Love caused her to ponder long over her condition. The night passed. Just at daybreak, after the first cockcrow, Lady Dido lay down on her bed, and her eyes closed. She clasped the counterpane tightly in her arms and dreamed of her guest. She thought it was the stately Aeneas and often pressed it to her lips. She acted very strangely. After awakening, she lay there a while before she realized that Aeneas was not beside her. When she did she felt very bad, even worse than before. She was not better at all. She got up without knowing how and sat down beside her bed. Then she took her fillet, gown, shoes, and everything else she was to put on, dressed herself, and sadly went out, which was most unusual. It was because of Aeneas that she acted thus. [1444] Dido went into the room where the women were lying in bed. They were all startled to see her, for it was still early morning. She was in great distress. She spoke privately to her sister Anna, led her back to her chamber, and fell down on the bed. She lamented her weakness and complained that she had not slept the whole night. She sighed deeply and didn’t look at all well. ‘‘I shall lose everyone’s respect,’’ she said. ‘‘Lady Dido, sister,’’ replied Anna, ‘‘why is that? Tell me what is wrong.’’ ‘‘Sister, I am almost dead.’’ ‘‘When did you become sick?’’ ‘‘Sister, I am healthy, but still cannot recover. How can that be?’’ ‘‘Lady, I think it is love.’’ ‘‘Yes, yes, sister, and madness.’’ ‘‘Why are you acting like this, dear Lady Dido? Why do you want to perish thus? You don’t need to die of love. It is quite possible for you to get well. There is surely a remedy. There is not a man on earth who could not easily be yours, who would not be happy if you deigned to love him. You must change your mind.’’ [1481] ‘‘My condition is not what you think,’’ answered Dido. ‘‘The truth is that I ought to change my mind and would like to, but I can’t. As you know very well, I declared an oath to my husband Sychaeus, who gave me great wealth and honor, that I would never take another husband no matter what happened to me.’’ [1494] ‘‘You speak of your husband all too much and unnecessarily,’’ said Anna, ‘‘because he has long been dead. Why do you say that? How would it help him for you to die so foolishly? There is no reason for you to give up your life because of him. He can’t reward you for it. You must spare yourself. What you say will do no good. Lady, forget about this promise and take my advice. That would be wiser. Now tell me, who is the lucky man whom God has honored with your love? Let me know and I shall be glad to counsel you, J. HEINRICH VON VELDEKE

589

for I indeed wish you well. What if I know how to help you? Just give me his name: it is high time.’’ [1521] ‘‘I won’t conceal it from you, sister,’’ replied Dido, ‘‘but will entrust to you my honor and my life. Advise me. It is the man who has no equal. I must tell you his name however much I am ashamed, although it pains me greatly to do so. His name,’’ she said, ‘‘is Ae-,’’ then, after a pause, ‘‘ne-.’’ Before she got out ‘‘-as,’’ Anna knew very well who it was. [1535] ‘‘Of all the men I have ever seen,’’ said Anna, ‘‘as far as I can recall, he is the most handsome. He is a distinguished Trojan of noble ancestors and, like them, does everything right in word and deed. He is splendid and so charming that no one could be angry at him. He is brave and good: whatever you do for him will not be wasted. You have made a fortunate choice. The gods have sent him here for your benefit.’’ [1553] ‘‘Why are you praising him like this?’’ asked Dido. ‘‘Don’t you know that it is wrong? He is too fine and handsome for me. No matter who advised you to do so, you need not commend him to me. The more you extol him, the harder my heart pounds within me and melts for his love.’’ [1563] ‘‘If I have done wrong, my lady,’’ replied Anna, ‘‘I shall be glad to make up for it. But if I were to find fault with this lord, I would be lying, and I do not want to deceive you. If you will control your feelings, I’ll tell you what to do. We must let him know about your love in a suitable manner.’’ [1575] ‘‘I am ready,’’ said Dido. ‘‘God knows that I would gladly let him learn of it if I could do so in such a way that he would not think badly of me. But I don’t know how. I am very much afraid both to try it and not to try it.’’ [1586] ‘‘What use is talk, then,’’ replied Anna, ‘‘if you won’t act accordingly? It will not dishonor you to look at him in a friendly manner. In this way you don’t need to confess that you love him until he thinks of it himself. He is no simpleton. What do you know about it? Perhaps he is very fond of you, bearing love in his heart with manly patience without saying anything. Women are weaker than men. What if he can conceal his feelings and endure pain better than you? You suffer more from a bad day than he from a bad year.’’ ‘‘Oh, sister,’’ said Dido sadly, ‘‘if that were true, I could indeed recover; otherwise I must perish.’’ [1607] It was decided. Both women were firmly determined to furnish the lord with the best of everything, and if they saw that he wanted love from Dido and sought it, she would give it to him, for she wanted to very much. Yet, despite his cordial reception and the honor he was shown, Aeneas was resolved in heart and mind that nothing would induce him to remain there permanently and renounce the fame for which he was being sent to Italy. He 590

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

intended to go there, but kept it to himself. If Lady Dido had known, she would have been very unhappy. It was kept absolutely secret from her. She was, however, to suffer grief and pain. [1636] The lady was eager to serve the beloved guest who had bound her heart firmly and forever with the bonds of love. She was often in his company and, had it not been for the onlookers, would have gladly been with him constantly. She was never at ease except when talking to him and listening to his replies, which she liked to hear whatever they might be. She dared not tell him frankly what she thought about day and night or to let him know of her love. She didn’t want to confess it, but would have been happy to see him desire and strive to win it. [1659] When Aeneas had been there for some time, Lady Dido had still not managed to contrive the love affair she wanted. Late one evening, therefore, after this had gone on longer than she liked, she decided to go for a ride in the forest the next morning to listen to the hounds and shorten the hours, something she really needed. She therefore sent word to the huntsmen to get ready, for she wanted to ride into the forest whether the weather was warm or cold, and wanted the hunt to begin before it was fully light. She made her preparations early in the morning. [1687] Mighty Lady Dido was splendidly adorned in clothing that she could readily obtain in that country, garments that were suited to her station and looked very fine on her: they were trimmed with gold and precious stones. Her blouse was white, dainty, and carefully sewn. It had a lot of gold embroidery and clung to her body. She was a beautiful woman and could not have looked better. Her pelisse was ermine, white and very valuable, the throat blood-red, the sleeves narrow and not wide, over it green samite tailored to fit her. It was beautifully picked out and adorned with pearls and braids that were suitable. She insisted on this. It looked lovely on her. Her belt was also silk and gold, made just as she wanted it, and very costly. [1719] Lady Dido’s mantle was grass-green samite, lined with the best downy ermine and trimmed with a broad band of brown sable. Since she was to go hunting on horseback, it was not long. She knew what she was doing. Her hair was decked with an elegant ribbon that wound around it. Then they brought her a hat that was covered with green samite and a border of silk and gold thread. This is true and not a lie. She was eager to leave so that they could begin the hunt. I don’t know how many maids were ready to go with her. She was annoyed that she could not ride off at once. She had had two gold spurs buckled on. When she and her men came to the gate, they found Aeneas and his retinue there: a splendid company had come with him. He knew about the hunt, for Dido had sent him word of it. J. HEINRICH VON VELDEKE

591

The metal of her riding gear was red gold and bright as the sun, which pleased her. There was much gold, and their attire was silken. When she met Aeneas, she felt much better. He helped her mount. [1759] As soon as she was in the saddle, mighty Aeneas took her horse by the bridle and led it. She was delighted and would not have missed this for anything. Lady Dido had a fine hound on a leash. She would not let a servant stroke or pet it, for she wanted to lead it herself, although this wasn’t necessary. Its muzzle and one ear were black, the other ear was red, and the rest was white as ermine. It was an excellent creature. She wound the leash around her arm, loosely so that it did not pinch her. It was strong, rather long, and braided of silk that could not cut her hand or arm or tear her clothing. The collar went well with the leash. It was neither too narrow nor too wide and was lined with samite that was sewn on tightly. If he had wanted the hound, she would have given it to her guest before they left the city. [1791] Lady Dido was pleased to have Aeneas and his Trojans riding with her. She resembled Diana, the goddess of the hunt, but her heart was tender with love for the lord. She let him know this before they returned. He rode like the high god Phoebus, and desire tormented her. Those who knew the way directed them toward the hounds that were running before them. They had great sport that day and caught a lot of game, which made everyone happy. They could often see the deer fleeing. [1812] Then, about midday, a fearful thunderstorm burst from the clouds, bringing lightning and strong winds, and the game was frequently seen on the run. The hunting party dispersed in all directions. The rain and hail beat down, and it blew so fiercely that the lady was forgotten. No one knew where she went except Aeneas, with whom she was glad to be alone. They saw a sturdy tree with thick foliage and galloped up to it. The stately warrior helped her down. That which had long been desired was destined to happen. [1834] Aeneas drew the lady under his mantle and found her beautiful. He embraced her, and all his flesh and blood became warm. He had manly courage and thereby gained the upper hand. He then took her to be his own. It was a pretty spot, and the two were alone there with no one near. Lovingly he asked her to permit freely what she herself desired. When she refused, he followed the counsel of Venus and laid her down. Since she could not defend herself, he did what he wanted with her, but gallantly so as to retain her favor. We know well how that goes. [1857] After it happened as you have heard and they were to ride away, her clothing had become wet quickly, but she felt much better than if she 592

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

had remained at home. The game had been hunted down. The man who shoots to his advantage has a pleasant hunt. As soon as the sky was clear and the rain had ceased, Aeneas took her in his arms and lifted her into the saddle. The rich Dido had repaid him lovingly for all his troubles. She was now both happy and contrite. I’ll tell you why she was happy: because she was healed of the wound that had caused her to suffer keenly while she concealed it from Aeneas. She was contrite because she had given in to him so quickly and after so few entreaties. It was great misery that forced her to yield. She would have died otherwise, for the joy she lost when she was wounded would never have returned. That is the way with love. As most people know, the one it wounds can recover only with its help. [1895] Dido’s pain was somewhat eased, but the wound from Cupid’s arrow was not yet healed. For a while she and Aeneas carefully concealed what had happened: that she had thus entrusted her reason and honor to him. Nevertheless, how they found peace then could not be kept secret for long. When it became known that Lady Dido had taken Aeneas as her lover, she publicly declared herself his bride and arranged a lavish wedding, for she wanted to excuse the impropriety of what she had done in the forest. Then she became bold and openly did his will. [1919] When the news got out, the lords of the land were very angry with Dido. They considered it a great scandal, for they had indeed been told how it came about and also had heard the disdainful words with which she had expressed her annoyance at the lords who had ventured, publicly or in private, to seek her as a wife. She did not care for any of them and had rejected them all. She said that she had renounced marriage for the sake of her first husband. This made her many enemies who hated her and constantly plotted against her honor. They spoke to her scornfully after Aeneas became her husband and declared that it was only fitting for her to choose a Trojan refugee. But when it was done, she put personal esteem and advantage aside and was indifferent to what they said. [1953] Not long after Aeneas had thus gained love and power there, with everything subject to him, the gods sent him bad tidings: that he and his men were to depart. The message was clear, and there was no way out if he was ever to survive; he was not to wait, but should prepare to leave without delay, as soon as the wind was favorable. This saddened him. Aeneas dared not rebel, but secretly took counsel with those friends who were to advise and direct him. He ordered that his ships be provisioned, equipped and prepared, and properly rigged. He did it secretly, for he bore in mind that Lady Dido would be very unhappy if she learned of it. He did not know how to manage so that things would go well and he would get away. He was J. HEINRICH VON VELDEKE

593

afraid that she would intervene if she found out, and he would be obliged to stay and delay his departure. It pained him to leave, but still he had to go. It could not be avoided. [1995] Dido had no idea that he would ever leave her as long as they lived, but it was only a short time until the news of his preparations leaked out. When it reached her, she was crushed by grief. On first hearing of it, she nearly died on the spot, though this did not happen till later, when she took her own life. It was nevertheless soon enough, indeed, much too soon. When it reached the point that she heard it herself, she went straight to Aeneas. Quite beside herself, she sat down abruptly next to him. She cried bitterly and asked, ‘‘Will you win honor by wanting to take my life? How can that ever become you? It is a wretched slight to me.’’ [2022] ‘‘God forbid that I should do such a thing,’’ he replied. ‘‘Oh! Oh!’’ she exclaimed. ‘‘You are preparing to do just that.’’ ‘‘I’ll gladly refrain,’’ he said. ‘‘You intend to leave,’’ she answered, ‘‘stealthily, like a thief.’’ ‘‘Lady,’’ he replied, ‘‘I don’t like it. It is painful for me to do so.’’ ‘‘Who is forcing you to?’’ she asked. ‘‘The gods will not allow me to stay here.’’ ‘‘You give me up quickly,’’ she said. ‘‘Lady, I cannot change matters.’’ [2034] ‘‘Alas, for the wrong I have done with you!’’ she continued. ‘‘It is destined to turn out badly for me. And it is my own fault. How have I lost your favor in this strange manner? Alas, that I was ever born! I may soon regret it. I must pay dearly for the affection that led me to give you wealth and honors ever since our first meeting.’’ [2047] ‘‘Lady, do not weep any more,’’ said the noble Aeneas sadly, ‘‘for your lament pains me beyond measure. May God reward you for all the kindness that you have so often shown me. If the decision were mine, I would never part from you. I doubt if God will ever send me where I shall find such joy as I am leaving behind me here. Moreover, I never knew a woman in whom I found more love and loyalty. Therefore, dear lady, my heart aches to leave you.’’ [2067] ‘‘Why try to console me with words that cannot help me?’’ replied Lady Dido. ‘‘Alas that I ever saw you! What makes me so very fond of you, now that you want to leave me? That is a great injustice. Why should so much anguish be reserved for me? I did not counsel the destruction of Troy. What does it mean? Spare your hate for him who did. I did not kill your father.’’

594

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

[2083] ‘‘God knows you didn’t, lady. He died a natural death. And how could you have advised what was done by the Greeks who tore down Troy in angry vengeance? You are innocent of all that. And no man was ever so devoted to you as I.’’ [2092] ‘‘Oh, Lord Aeneas, if that were true, there would be a better story than the one which will go about the land: that I should kill myself.’’ [2097] ‘‘No, no, lady,’’ he answered, ‘‘for the sake of the great devotion you have shown me. I know what you have in mind. Don’t do it! You are still a young woman and still have a good life. Don’t end it! The loss would be too great. May God reward you for all you have done for me. Unless you spare yourself, you can’t recover. Nothing else will help.’’ [2111] ‘‘What good is the excuse you offer in claiming to love me? I don’t know what it means that you show me such great enmity that you want to leave me and go on your way. I am grieved and angered. My devotion has been wasted. I’m very sorry I honored you so highly and gave you so much material aid. You talk about your gods and excuse yourself by saying that you are only following their directions—they who showed no regard for you when you and your army were tossed on the sea and they let you suffer. You did not profit then by being their kin, and you are not concerned with my welfare when you act like this and are so eager to take their advice. [2137] ‘‘I can easily see,’’ she continued, ‘‘that my words are useless now that you won’t stay here longer simply to please me. However, I would think you would do so for your own sake, out of love for your own life, for you might well perish if you leave at this time. The winds are high, and the sea is fearsome. Don’t let your anger at me cost you your own life. Reconsider it.’’ [2152] ‘‘Lady,’’ replied Aeneas, ‘‘what good would that do? If I am not destined to live, there is no help for it. Were I able to oppose the gods, I would gladly have done so.’’ [2157] As soon as she heard that he would not change his mind, she fainted. He held her in his arms until she recovered and then said fondly, ‘‘It pains me deeply, lady, to part from you, but I have no choice. I would never leave if it were up to me. I must live in sorrow because of my love for you. For God’s sake, pardon the wrong I am doing; the gods force me to it.’’ [2175] ‘‘Why are you pretending so?’’ demanded Lady Dido. ‘‘It doesn’t help a bit. You soon tired of me. I’m sorry that I ever saw you! I have neither child nor kinsman in this land, and I have incurred great disgrace since I took you as my husband. All the lords whom I earlier rejected are angry at me and don’t want me at all any more. If I should live, they would drive me away or burn and destroy my land. I could not defend myself because I am at

J. HEINRICH VON VELDEKE

595

fault. I would be much better off if God had allowed me to get a child from you when I forgot my honor. Sad to say, I did not. I shall never forgive my heart for having so foolishly led me to choose you.’’ [2201] He grieved and she wept. How clearly she showed him that she bore intense love! After she had pleaded at length, she began to rail at him. ‘‘I must suffer for having honored you,’’ she cried, ‘‘for you have brought me great sorrow in return, and I can find no trace of pity in you. That is a calamity for me, the cause of my ruin. Once everyone who knew me was fond of me. Now you can find my disgrace amusing. You are the offspring of dragons, not of people, for you have no compassion and your heart is without love. The goddess Venus was never your mother. It was my eternal misfortune to take you for a husband, since you have betrayed me like this. You were raised by wolves. You see me weeping and tormented and have no pity, for your heart is of stone.’’ [2231] Finally, after much of this talk, Aeneas and his men had to depart, whether she liked it or not. He had all his ships made ready, and, when they came to the harbor, the lord had the ships cast off. When they had put out to sea, the wind, which filled the sails they had raised, drove them away. [2245] That was the saddest day Lady Dido had ever seen. She was quite beside herself and fainted again and again. Her grief affected her deeply. She had kept none of the ladies-in-waiting with her except her sister Anna, whom she now sent off with evil designs. [2256] ‘‘Sister,’’ she said, ‘‘did you see this wonder? You may well declare that I was destined for much suffering. Do you see that faithless Aeneas is departing, who was dearer to me than life itself? There is a woman in the city who can do remarkable feats of magic: her like has never been seen. I have known her for a long time. You must bring her to me. She knows much of love and medicine and has studied philosophy diligently. Indeed, she is so learned that there never has been a wiser woman. She also understands the natures of the planets and, like the prophets, can see in the stars what is to happen. She knows many strange things and, if she wishes, can make the moon go down when it is unfavorable and can take away the sun’s light. Bring her to me, dear sister. She shall advise me what to do so that Aeneas will become hateful to me and my heart will cease loving him, for it is burning within me. [2293] ‘‘Sister,’’ continued Lady Dido after a pause, ‘‘I am suffering so much because of this beloved and detested man that I don’t know how to tell it rightly. If I did, I could not, and if I could, I would not, because I cannot in justice blame anyone. I must avenge my hardships on myself, for I cannot claim that somebody else has wronged me. Stand by me now, Anna, 596

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

as a sister should. The woman I asked you for, bring her to me with kindness and tact. I must make an offering to the god of love and to the goddess Venus so that she will have mercy on me, and for this, sister, a great hot fire is required. I may soon lament to God that I know so much about it.’’ She had wood brought and built a fire under it. She was acting very strangely. [2323] As soon as the flames began to rise, Lady Dido sent Anna for all of Aeneas’s gifts. She said that she didn’t want to live unless she burned everything, also the bedding on which she and Aeneas lay when they made love. Anna went to where the things were and quickly returned with them. When this was done, Dido told her to go and bring the woman without delay, remembering her great distress. Dido was pale as death, because she intended to do something ghastly. When Anna brought back what she had been sent for, it was immediately burned. She locked the door behind her sister and violently vented her anger. Aeneas had left behind a horn and a costly sword, and she cooled her wrath on them. She threw the horn and the scabbard into the flames, then paused to brood over her sorrow. Her distress was great. [2355] ‘‘O Aeneas,’’ said Dido sadly, ‘‘how powerful I was when I first saw you. How much I regret that I ever got to know you or saw you in this country. I must pay dearly for it. But I won’t scold you, since you are not to blame. You were fond enough of me, but I loved you beyond measure. Now you have left me to sorrow in my house. Your mother, Venus, and your brother, Cupid, have made me very unhappy and have so confused my heart that my reason does not help me. O brutal Love, how you have conquered me! My tongue cannot say what I feel. O honor and possessions, joy and wisdom, power and wealth! I had these in full measure, and now, to my great sorrow and injury, it is a terrible misfortune that it should end so. I am heavily burdened. My distress is such that I can neither stand nor walk, lie nor sit. I am dying of heat, yet I suffer from cold and do not know the cause. Fate has dealt grimly with me, and I cannot go on living like this.’’ [2395] Mighty Lady Dido continued woefully, ‘‘How badly things are going for me, that I am now burning up inside. Oh how terrible is the love that burns me monstrously with its fire. I will be spoken of with words forever, since I must pierce the heart that betrayed me. Why didn’t I kill myself when I first began to feel this pain and was foolish enough to take the stranger as my husband, a man who did not come here because of me? If I had killed myself then, none of my friends would have needed to lament me, because my loss and my disgrace would have been cut in two. But now my disgrace is well known throughout the land, and my great loss must become known, for I will not live on.’’ J. HEINRICH VON VELDEKE

597

[2433] When she said this, Lady Dido drove the sword into her heart. Though a wise woman, she was nevertheless foolish to go thus to her death. It was madness: excessive love forced her to it. As she made the thrust, she sprang forward and fell into the flames. The blood that flowed from her wounds dried, because the fire was very hot. Her wimple and clothing quickly burned away; her flesh melted, and her heart was consumed. Just before she died she said: ‘‘Lord Aeneas, you were born for my ruin, for I have wretchedly lost my life because of you. But I will forgive your offense, I cannot be angry with you.’’ [2448] Suspecting nothing, her sister returned with the woman for whom she had been sent and found the room locked. After she had tapped on the door and rattled the knocker for a while, she became perturbed. She looked through a hole and saw the queen lying dead and consumed in the fire. Anna’s heart fell. Anna was very sad. [2461] ‘‘O Dido!’’ she exclaimed. ‘‘Dear sister, noble woman, why did you die, and so horribly! Alas, that I was ever born! I may well lament the rest of my life that I left you so long and did not watch over you better. You killed yourself for love of a man, which was madness. You loved him too strongly and therefore lost life and honor. I have good cause to sorrow.’’ [2477] Anna wailed and cried out. Wildly she ran for a chamberlain. As soon as the news was heard in the city, many people came who wanted to look at Lady Dido. Knights and ladies on whom she had bestowed wealth and honor wept bitterly. No one was admitted but the loyal servants, who put out the fire—unfortunately too late. When they came together, they decided to collect all the ashes of the flesh and bones of the noble woman. She who had been tall before she had been wounded by love was now very small. They put the ashes in a golden urn, which was then placed in a costly casket. This was the evil end to which her judgment led her. I’ll tell you what the casket was: a deep prase [a green-colored quartz], green as grass, that had been skillfully hollowed out. Her name and how she died were engraved on it in golden letters. This is what they said: ‘‘Here lies the famous and mighty Lady Dido who wretchedly took her own life because of love, which was strange, because she had formerly been very wise.’’ Aeneas could not believe that she would have so little control over her grief as to let love force her to such a dreadful deed.

2. Descent into the Underworld (lines 2529–3740) [2529] The lord and his men were then far out on the high sea. Parting was painful for him, but he did not know that the devil had led the lady to take her life. Nevertheless both he and his followers were sad. They rode 598

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

before a fearful gale until they came to the land where Aeneas’s father lay buried. They landed on the very anniversary of his death, and the lord celebrated it with a splendid ceremony. The following night his father appeared to him. [2548] ‘‘Aeneas,’’ he said, ‘‘my son, listen to what I say and do not take it lightly, because you need to learn why I came here from hell. The gods, the highest and the lowest, have sent me. I come to encourage you and tell all that lies before you, what you are to do, and how everything will turn out. For this you must thank the gods, who wish me to say that they have not forgotten you. You are to leave part of your people here. See to this today. Take those with you, Aeneas, my son,’’ he said, ‘‘whom you know to be brave, fit for battle, and otherwise able to serve you. Those whom age has robbed of wisdom and strength you should settle here in a manner worthy of you. You should depart only in the manner I advise. Although it will seem much belated, you shall overcome all difficulties and gain great wealth in Italy, the land to which the gods have sent you. You will become very powerful there. You must speak with me in hell before you cross the sea. Still, you may be certain that everything will happen just as it has been foretold. Whatever has been allotted you will not be taken away. You will surely reach your goal. [2595] ‘‘Aeneas, my son,’’ he continued, ‘‘nothing can be unless the gods will it. Now obey their command and all their wishes. Go to see the Sibyl. You will doubtless find her at her home in Cumae. She will take charge of you, prepare you fully in all these matters, accompany you, and bring you back again, alive and well. There I shall tell you and let you see all that will befall you and your offspring. Did you understand me well, dear son? I can stay no longer, for the cockcrow approaches. There is no help for it. Do without delay what I have told you.’’ [2621] He spoke up again: ‘‘Aeneas, you must be sure to do this at once, and do not think that you are in danger. I know things will go well with you, though I tell you truly that you must suffer hardships and distress.’’ As soon as he finished speaking, Anchises vanished quickly before his eyes, and Aeneas had no idea where he had gone when the discussion ended. When he had heard the speech, the bold hero was both happy and sad to hear that it would be so. The words pleased and comforted his spirits, when he heard that he would indeed reach his destination and gain wealth and power there. On the other hand, his father’s command that he journey to hell was disheartening, and he would not have done it if he had not been unwilling to disobey. As it was, he had to go. [2653] The order that he descend to hell seemed dreadful to Aeneas. The J. HEINRICH VON VELDEKE

599

following morning, when he went to talk with his intimate advisers, he told them of the orders he had received except for the journey to hell, which he kept to himself and concealed. He repeated everything else and got their advice as to what was to be done. He listened wisely and in private to their counsel on whether to leave there the people who were unable to be of help and could not fight or endure great hardships. They thought it wise for him to do this. With their aid he therefore chose a place by the sea. He commanded that it be well fortified, and gave it to those who were to remain. It was both large enough and strong enough. Meanwhile the lord set out on his journey, which was to fill him with dread. [2687] Then he went to where the Sibyl was. When he found her and saw her, the noble warrior was afraid of her, I assure you, for she was hideous. Nevertheless, he approached her and looked at her closely. She was like no other woman. Indeed, he had never seen such a creature in his life. Those who have read the book will agree with me that she could not have been more dreadful. The woman was sitting bareheaded in a temple, as Virgil tells us. Her long, gray hair was tangled, so that we may well compare it to a horse’s mane. The lady wore dreary clothes. She held a book in her hand and was reading it when Aeneas found her. Aeneas looked at her. [2717] He regarded her closely. Curly moss hung out of her ears—she could not hear unless one shouted—and her eyes were set deep under long gray brows that drooped down to her nose. Her body was gruesome. He had never known a woman so strange and frightful. Her mouth was black and deathlike; she sat as if her whole life were without joy; her teeth were sparse and were long and yellow; her neck and throat were dark and wrinkled. Her hands and arms were skin and bone. She sat there, bent over and in shabby clothing. When the hero had regarded her carefully, he greeted her. [2745] As soon as she heard him, the woman replied very cordially and asked Aeneas to have a seat beside her. This pleased him. When he sat down, he told her his name and his family, where he was going, and why he had come to her. After learning his need and his purpose, the Sibyl answered him. She said, ‘‘Noble warrior, it’s a fearful thing that you have undertaken. However, if you are indeed a messenger of our masters, the gods, who have sent you here, and if they wish to command it, I desire no payment. I shall go with you, guard you well, and bring you back alive and healthy. The way is well known to me. I have been there occasionally. Whatever I can do for you, I shall gladly offer. I will guide you well.’’ [2777] Aeneas remained silent. The Sibyl continued, ‘‘Since you have to make the journey and do so of necessity, I shall tell you what you must have, what you can’t do without. Be very serious, for you need to be. You need a 600

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

certain branch. If you are able to obtain it, I shall accompany you down to hell and bring you back again. The branch is such, this you should know, that no one will need to point it out. It doesn’t resemble any other branch, and there is only one of its kind in the world. It is rather small, but is so tough that no one can tear a twig from it, and no weapon the sun ever shone on can cut it off. I’ll say this, however: if the matter you have undertaken is destined to go well and if the gods permit, then you will indeed find it. You may be sure that the gods will send you to where it is and that it will be yours. Lift it gently out of the earth, and another just like it will at once appear in its place.’’ [2821] After this had been said, the wise and renowned Aeneas had to set out for the branch, as she had commanded. He made an offering to honor and gain the favor of the gods, so that they would show him the way. He entreated them earnestly. They sent him right to where the twig was. He pulled it out with his hand and at once saw another like it standing there. Aeneas then returned to the Sibyl. He had accomplished this part of his task; he left the rest to fate. [2841] After the warrior had brought the branch to the Sibyl, she considered carefully what else he should have, because she wanted to guide him as a dear friend. She gave him an herb and ordered him to eat it, for it would make his journey much easier. Both of them ate some: she said it kept one safe from the stench of hell. Aeneas thanked her for advising him so well that neither the evil odor nor the smoke could harm him. She also gave him a good, costly salve that was effective against hell’s fire, which would not harm him if he smeared himself with it. When this was done, and both were ready for the journey, she told him to take his bare sword in hand and hold it under his cloak. She had a good reason for this. She wanted him to bring the weapon with him so that when he came to the darkness in hell, it would light his way safely. Aeneas did as she wished, not neglecting anything she told him to do. [2881] Commending themselves to the gods, they set out at nightfall. They concealed their journey from their companions. After they had walked for some time, they came to a pit that was long and wide, dark and deep, and stank horribly. A flaming river flowed into the depths. The Sibyl knew it well, but Aeneas did not and was frightened, which was not surprising. He heard the stream burn and roar dreadfully as it rushed downward, and the smoke was so thick that he could not see. Although he dared not admit it, mighty Aeneas was very afraid. [2907] The Sibyl could easily see that he was badly frightened and assured him that he had nothing to fear. ‘‘It is not far from here to the first J. HEINRICH VON VELDEKE

601

entrance. I will gladly tell you about the pit that leads in here. It is the entrance to hell. All men and women ever born, rich and poor, must hurry into this pit as soon as they are cut off from life up here on earth. None can avoid it. It has been this way since the beginning. Justice is dispensed by Pluto and his ancient consort, Lady Proserpina. The authority is his; he has the power.’’ [2933] As she was speaking, Aeneas’s troubles began, for she would not delay any longer. The lord followed her closely wherever she went. The descent was terrifying, and he did not like it at all: he didn’t know how he managed to get to the bottom. When they were down below, Aeneas saw countless numbers of men and women who were shrieking, wailing, and running. They were naked. They ran up and down the bank of the burning river that flowed there. Their suffering in the darkness was very great. They suffered great cold from the ice and snow. Dragons, lions, and serpents attacked them, and leopards tormented them. They bit them, tore their flesh to shreds, and gnawed their bones, leaving many bloody wounds. The people had to endure such torment constantly, and no injury could kill them because they were already dead to this world. Their pain was unending, and it was always night. On seeing this misery, Aeneas asked about the people and what it all meant. [2977] The old Sibyl told him that these were souls, some of whom had come many years ago, whose lives had been taken through their own hand. They had to suffer pain and hardship until the ruler thought it was time for them to be transported across the river. Aeneas became sad, and the poor creatures moved him to pity. [2991] When he had heard this, the Sibyl and her companion continued on their way, observing and hearing wondrous things. When they came to the river called Phlegethon, the son of Anchises saw something very strange. The famous hero Aeneas saw that a black and unsightly, old and broken boat was crossing over. In it the bold hero saw a terrible ferryman who was taking the wretched throng across the water. He rowed mightily day and night, without rest, and never sat or lay down. He was a devil, not a man, and was named Charon. There were many unhappy people there for whom he cared nothing. There was much crowding forward as he came to the landing. The oar that he held in his hand was very long. He struck the souls with it. He gave them many a painful prod, for the oar that he used to steer the boat was large and of gleaming steel. His hands were black. Since he knew very well which ones were to remain there, he quickly let in those whom he was supposed to take across and fiercely drove the others back. He gave them many a heavy blow. When Aeneas saw this, the Trojan asked the Sibyl what it was about. 602

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

[3035] ‘‘I’ll tell you truly about the man who steers the ship,’’ she said. ‘‘Those whom he lets on the ship and ferries over have completed the penance imposed on them here. Take note of that, Aeneas, my friend. However, those he glares at so terribly, drives back, and doesn’t let into the boat have not done enough and must suffer longer before they are allowed to cross.’’ [3049] Aeneas then carefully observed what the ferryman looked like. He regarded him closely. He hated both men and women, and seemed as if he wanted to kill them all. His whole body was covered with shaggy, curly hair; his head behind looked like a leopard’s; and his eyes gleamed like fire. He was monstrous in front and behind. His eyebrows resembled thorns, and his hands and feet had sharp claws. All who knew him had to fear him. His teeth were long, large, and red; his mouth was fierce; and he had the tail of a dog. He was a dreadful traveling companion. His mouth was surly. His appearance was horrible. One may well believe that the famous Aeneas feared him when he saw him. ‘‘Are we to get into the boat?’’ asked the Trojan. [3079] ‘‘Yes,’’ replied the Sibyl. ‘‘But you must remain silent—don’t say a word—and do just as I tell you. Show me the branch.’’ Then they walked toward the landing. [3085] When Aeneas had approached and gone to the boat, the illtempered rogue, Charon, received him angrily. ‘‘What kind of man is this who wants to get into the boat?’’ he cried. ‘‘I’ll stop that. I’ll not let him cross over into my lord’s realm. No one in human form ever came here for our benefit. I don’t want you doing as Phocus does, who managed to capture our gatekeeper and lead him off. Whomever I let on my ship, I will know better than that. He’ll be barred from this boat as long as I can do anything about it. Famous Orpheus, the renowned harpist, also came here once. He wanted to take his wife away and almost died in the attempt. I’ve said enough. If you don’t change your mind and leave at once, you may get a blow that can break your back.’’ [3117] ‘‘Charon,’’ said the Sibyl then, ‘‘stop your hostile talk and be quiet. It is the noble Aeneas, and he must indeed get into the boat. His father was the old Trojan Anchises, to whom he has come by order and protection of our highest gods and those down here. Don’t argue. Just take us over and say nothing.’’ She let him see the branch, the token of authority. [3132] As soon as Charon saw this token, he became servile, moved his boat toward them, and let them both aboard. When Aeneas boarded, the boat looked as if it would sink. His spirits fell. There was also much misery about him, a great press of souls, and a strong stench of pitch. The water that leaked through the hull boiled and burned, and everyone was J. HEINRICH VON VELDEKE

603

frightened. With much anxiety, however, they reached the bank and disembarked. Here Aeneas saw something that seemed strange to him: as soon as they were ashore, all the souls who had crossed with him hurried to a pool and crowded around it. He asked the Sibyl why they did this. [3158] ‘‘I’ll tell you the reason for it,’’ she replied. ‘‘The water is called Oblivio and is of such a nature that they can recall nothing at all, either great or small, of their former life after they drink it. They lose their memory. [3167] ‘‘Aeneas,’’ the prophetess continued, ‘‘you have come to a place where your human wits can help you little. The place you are in is such that during your journey thus far you have not met with such darkness as you will soon encounter. Aeneas, bold hero, there will be no light at all. But do not be afraid, for I shall lead you and provide you with whatever your heart desires. Bring forth your sword, and watch how I go before you. Carry your sword bare and light your way with it. I know well the customs of this hellish place. Now your peril requires that you follow me carefully.’’ He did as she commanded. [3193] After she said this, they went on to where they saw many wonders, for in a short time they came to the gates. Here they found Cerberus, the gatekeeper of hell. Famous Aeneas was afraid when he saw him lying there so fiendishly. He would not go nearer. You would not believe how terrible he appeared. He had three heads, large and horrible, and he looked terrifying. He was in charge of the gate. His eyes glowed like coals; fire shot from his mouth and reeking smoke from his nose and ears, as you will learn. How strong and hot was he? Enough so that Sibyl and Aeneas were scalded by the heat. His teeth gleamed like iron in the fire. He was monstrous, the devil’s bile. He was shaggy all over; not like the other beasts one sees, but as I shall tell you. His body was covered with snakes: short and long, large and small, even on the arms, legs, hands, and feet. We can tell you, because we have read it in books, that he had very sharp claws instead of fingernails. He spewed foam from his mouth that was hot, pungent, and bitter. He was a poor companion. [3239] At the sight of the people hell’s gatekeeper began to rage with fury. He did not remain lying down, but sprang up fiercely and opened his jaws wide: his breath stank horribly. He was shaped like a dog in front and behind. As he bristled in anger, the snakes and serpents that covered him hissed and screamed, making such a frightful noise that all hell shook. There was a great clamor as the devil leaped forward. Aeneas was afraid and was sorry he had come. The wise Sibyl was soon aware of this and softly uttered certain words that caused him and all the hideous creatures that hung from him at once to fall fast asleep, so that they did not make another sound. Then 604

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

she and the lord went through the gates, leaving Cerberus behind them, lying quietly, rolled up like a ball. [3273] Just as they entered, they encountered in one part of hell many little infants who had died unborn with their mothers. They were in great distress and crying loudly. Famous Aeneas was deeply grieved when he noticed their pitiful appearance and terrible suffering. They lay there naked, and their misery seemed to him very great. Having seen this, he went on to where he found many who had died of love. Among them he could make out Lady Dido, who had killed herself so pitifully because of him. He regarded her sadly and would have liked to express his sorrow at her death, but she turned her head away and would not look at him. She was pained that this should have happened to her and felt disgraced. [3307] After observing this, they moved on again, wherever their going might take them. They came upon a great throng that had perished in knightly combat. King Adrastus was there with Polynices and Tydeus, Hippomedon and Parthenopaeus, Amphiaraus and Capaneus, all of whom had met death at Thebes. Aeneas also saw a large number of Trojans whom he knew well: King Priam and his son King Troilus, Paris and Hector, the wise Antenor and the courtly Athamas, and many others I cannot name. The sight made him feel ashamed, for he thought it dishonorable that he, Duke Aeneas, had left friends and kinsmen lying slain in Troy. At the same time he came upon a multitude of the Greeks who had destroyed Troy in revenge for the wrong done to them. He knew many of them. I’ll tell you who was there: Menelaus, Agamemnon, Achilles, the kindhearted Ajax, and the young Protesilaus, whom Aeneas remembered well as the first slain before the walls. This was his reward for his journey. A host of other Greeks was present. [3354] On the left Aeneas then saw a large fortified city that looked very forbidding and sinister, as indeed it should. The walls were iron and glowed with fire. It was terrible. A torrent flowed from it, fiery and mighty, called Phlegethon. It was the broad river of hell, and its water was murky. Coming closer, he heard much weeping and lamenting within and asked the Sibyl, who led him there, to tell him about the city, those who were wailing and weeping, and what the lamentation meant which he heard within. She answered that she would do so, since he wanted to know. [3381] ‘‘I’ll tell you truly, my friend Aeneas,’’ said the prophetess. ‘‘That is the true hell, just as you see it. There is only night within; never will there be nor can there be daylight. I know very well that the souls inside suffer such torment that neither man nor woman could reveal even the hundredthousandth part of the truth. Those who must stay there have to endure great distress. All the time this is made clear to them among the hellhounds. The J. HEINRICH VON VELDEKE

605

lord of the city is called Rhadamanthus. He causes the souls much pain. Mercy and kindness are unknown to them. They burn day and night in the fire and suffer all kinds of torment. The fire is not like that of earth. It burns fiercely, but without light, and is horrible. Compared with it, earthly fire is as water. The souls fall into the abyss. They must atone for their sins over and over, day and night. They have no prospect of being delivered from their pain, for their torment is eternal. There death lives on endlessly. Pain and anguish, constant strife and conflict are there at all times, along with deathless torture. All those whose deeds on earth cause them to be thrown in there must suffer shame and disgrace, for they have fear and grief together without cessation or end. [3440] ‘‘It is not thus with mortals. When he has a foreboding of evil and becomes afraid because he knows he must endure the evil, his fear vanishes as soon as he feels the pain, for it changes his attitude. When the flesh is subject to violence and is harmed, fright ceases as suffering begins. However, these souls in the abyss always feel both torment and dread, such as no living being on earth can describe but I, who went there and saw it myself. Lady Tisiphone led me there. May God reward her for bringing me out again! How often I have thought of what strange things I found there. I was glad to get away. [3471] ‘‘Aeneas, my fellow traveler,’’ she continued, ‘‘I cannot tell you what misery I saw there, where Rhadamanthus torments the souls. He often recounts their crimes to them, and day and night he reproaches them for their sins. The villain is as malicious as he can be. Tantalus is standing there in water up to his neck and is nevertheless tortured by thirst. Although he is in water that flows close by his mouth, he cannot drink it. He constantly suffers so much from hunger that he would like to die, but he cannot. He must struggle on in misery even though he would a thousand times rather be dead. Apples and other food hang down in front of his mouth, and when he gently bites at any of it with his mouth, it moves away quickly so that he cannot get it. This causes him torment day and night, and he knows full well that it will never end. [3508] ‘‘Nearby those giants who wanted to climb up to heaven, dispossess the gods, and force them to leave are also tortured. They pay dearly for their arrogance. They did many remarkable things. One of them presumed to think that the goddess Diana would love him and that he could win her as his wife. His name is Tityus. Rhadamanthus is inflicting a dire punishment on him. The miserable wretch is lying on his back while vultures sit on his chest and incessantly devour his heart. They fight over their wounded prey and never leave him, for whatever they eat grows back at once. He lies stretched out and suffers great anguish because there will never be any relief 606

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

for him. He must endure the torture. His torment is unending. All this Minos determined, who undertook the task by carefully assessing by lot, one by one, the punishments of hell—so numerous that they could never be conveyed to anyone on earth who might try to count them.’’ [3553] When this was said, Sibyl and Aeneas went on, leaving hell and its lord, Rhadamanthus, on the left. First, however, Sibyl told her companion to leave the branch there and to do as she told him. He stuck it in the earth at the crossroad as she requested, and they took the path to the right. She had him leave the twig so that he would know where he was when they returned. He was then to take it again, as the others had done who had gone there before. Soon they came to a beautiful place. There Lord Aeneas found his father, the wise old Anchises. The warrior rejoiced. I’ll tell you the name of the place where he met him and later parted from him: the Elysian fields. The hero saw more kinds of splendor there than anyone can imagine. [3589] When he went to his father, he received him lovingly and gave him a fond welcome. ‘‘Aeneas, my son,’’ he said, ‘‘I tell you truly: that you have gone to this trouble at my request and have come as our masters commanded will serve you well with respect to both wealth and honor. The gods asked that you come, and by doing so you have gained their favor.’’ [3604] Aeneas wanted to kiss his father, but the latter said, ‘‘No, my son. Although I appear to have substance, no one can touch me. I am only a spirit, as you well know.’’ With these words Anchises led him to a beautiful little stream of clear water that flowed over a bed of precious stones. There he told him and let him see everything that would happen to him—his sorrows and joys, all his descendants, and how each of his race ended—and he showed him distinctly the battles he later fought and how he settled in the land of Italy, where he bravely established himself in the face of great difficulties. He also showed him, without holding back anything, the cities he founded: first Albane [Alba Longa], a splendid city, then many others. He showed him his son who was still unborn. Aeneas enjoyed seeing this. It was a strange experience. [3642] ‘‘Do you see that youth standing there with a spear?’’ asked Anchises. ‘‘You may well want to know who he is, because I brought you here for his sake. The beautiful Lavinia, your dear wife and the daughter of King Latinus, will bear him for you. He will be called Silvius up there on earth and will be born in the wilderness: this you should know for certain. [3656] ‘‘My son,’’ said Anchises, ‘‘did you understand me? From the line of Silvius will come a hero called Silvius Aeneas, who in fact will resemble you closely in complexion and hair. He will have a son named Aeneas, who long ago was assigned to your stock, and he will become the father of a J. HEINRICH VON VELDEKE

607

noble race, all mighty and famous warriors, who will be kings. Remember this: one of them will be the renowned and powerful Romulus, who will rule the land with vigor, build Rome, and give it his name. He will live in splendor, for Rome is to be the chief city of the entire world. You may well be pleased that your descendants are to conquer the world. Their power will be so great that all countries will pay tribute to the Roman empire. [3691] ‘‘Aeneas,’’ continued Anchises, ‘‘you will indeed be happy at what you have learned here: that your family is to rise to such high honor. Now you must return to your men, and, when you sail off, you will pass quickly over the wide sea.’’ Old Anchises spoke, ‘‘Son, remember what I tell you now. You will nevertheless be short of food before you reach that land across the waters, so that you and your army of bold heroes for hunger will eat your dishes and tables as meat, fish, and other food. When you do this, son, you will have come to the place where you will remain the rest of your life. You must defend yourself at all costs against anyone who tries to drive you off. Once there, you must bravely carry out your plan and fortify yourself as best you can. This will be prudent.’’ [3729] Anchises was silent. Aeneas and the Sibyl then took leave of him and hurried from hell, in which they had traveled day and night. When the Sibyl brought her companion back to his men—who were concerned at his absence —she said farewell, and departed. So our tale tells us. (modified by WC)

K. MIDDLE IRISH WANDERINGS OF AENEAS (twelfth century) Imtheachta Aeniasa (The Wanderings of Aeneas) is a prose translation just over 3,000 lines long. The text survives in three manuscripts. The oldest manuscript, from the Book of Ballymote (Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 P 12), dates to the last decade of the fourteenth century and was edited by George Calder (1907). Calder was not aware of the two other manuscripts, dating to the fifteenth century (Dublin, University College [formerly Killiney, Franciscan House of Studies] MS A 11, and Dublin, King’s Inns Library, MS 13). The three manuscripts, albeit not directly dependent on one another, appear to agree quite closely (Poppe, The Irish Aeneid, 31). Calder was under the impression that the composition of the text did not greatly predate the Book of Ballymote text; in fact, the language of composition predates the manuscript by more than two hundred years. Without a detailed linguistic study it may not be safe to assign even an approximate date, but on the basis of the verbal system and the state of the infixed pronouns, the text dates fair and square to the Middle Irish period and certainly predates 1200; a date in the first half of the twelfth century has been suggested (Murphy, ‘‘Vergilian Influence,’’ 380). 608

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

The Wanderings of Aeneas is one of six classical texts translated into Irish between 1000 and 1200. The others are Statius’s Achilleid and Thebaid; Lucan’s De bello civili (On the Civil War); the anonymous fifth- or sixth-century Troy ‘‘journal’’ De excidio Troiae historia (History of the Destruction of Troy), ascribed to Dares of Phrygia, a fictive eyewitness of the war; and, finally, the account of Alexander the Great from the third book of Paulus Orosius’s earlyfifth-century Historia adversus paganos (History against the Pagans). This choice of texts betrays the Irish translators’ interest in historiographical material as well as their penchant for heroic epic. The influence of native saga style on the translations has been commented on. The interest in these classical texts as sources for the history of pagan antiquity is evident from the historical prologue of The Wanderings of Aeneas, which is based on non-Virgilian sources including Dares, and takes a less favorable view of Aeneas. The story of Aeneas’s exile is told in chronological order, beginning with the fall of Troy. Rather than restructuring Virgil’s narrative, however, the Irish adaptor supplies the missing information from Dares, retaining Aeneas’s own account of his travels at Dido’s court (Poppe, The Irish Aeneid, 7). (Discussion: G. Murphy, ‘‘Vergilian Influence upon the Vernacular Literature of Medieval Ireland,’’ Studi Medievali 5 [1932], 372–81; E. Poppe, The Irish Aeneid: The Classical Epic from an Irish Perspective. A New Introduction to Imtheachta Aeniasa [Dublin, 1995]. Though not specifically about The Wanderings of Aeneas, the best comprehensive overview of the Latin-Gaelic interface in the Middle Ages is W. B. Stanford, ‘‘Towards a History of Classical Influences in Ireland,’’ Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy C3 70 [1970], 13– 91.) (Text: Imtheachta Aeniasa, G. Calder, ed. and trans., Irish Texts Society 6 [London, 1907], with very literal translation) (BH)

1. Historical Prologue (lines 1–62) [1] When the Greeks had finished plundering and sacking and destroying Troy, the royal city of Phrygia and capital of all Asia in importance and dignity, the Greek kings came to the hill of Minerva in Troy, where they all gathered in one place. Agamemnon, their high king, asked them what decision they should reach with regard to those who had betrayed the city. Some of the Greeks said that they should not keep faith with them, ‘‘for it was not out of love for us that they betrayed their city, but out of fear, and in order to save themselves; they did us harm as long as they were able to, and they would do it again if they could.’’ Then Nestor spoke. [ . . . ] [41] ‘‘It should be clear to you that Aeneas’s friendship for you, were he to stay in Troy, would be not a whit better than Priam’s friendship was for the Greeks. Woe to the Greeks if they believe Aeneas, for Aeneas will always remain K. MIDDLE IRISH WANDERINGS OF AENEAS

609

an enemy to us Greeks. Countless Greek soldiers and warriors and battle champions fell by his hand in the 167 battles fought against us in the defense of Troy.’’ When the Greeks heard Nestor’s speech, the counsel they voiced and resolved on was to lay Troy waste and drive out the traitors, but not to kill them, since Pyrrhus had vouched his honor to spare them in return for delivering up the city. Agamemnon then ordered Aeneas and Antenor, by counsel of the Greeks, to leave Troy uninhabited. Antenor was to go to Illyricum, a country located to the west, between Greece and Italy. Aeneas and all his followers went to Mt. Ida, a mountain on the shore of the Mediterranean, and they came to a beautiful forest there. The forest provided them with timber for shipbuilding, and Aeneas had twenty ships constructed there. When he had finished building the fleet, he set out on the Mediterranean with the first fair weather at the beginning of summer. He was accompanied by his old father Anchises, his son Ascanius, and all his comrades. Theirs was a sad leavetaking, gloomy, tearful, anxious, and sorrowful. They were not leaving of their own free will. Wretched were their laments and their wails and the smiting of hands, as they looked back on their country and their native land from which their enemies had driven them. (BH)

2. Dido (lines 329–931) After being separated from Aeneas and shipwrecked near Carthage, Aeneas’s companions Ilioneus and others approach Dido to ask for her protection. [329] When they had come into the presence of the queen, Ilioneus addressed her and said: ‘‘Take pity, queen, on these wretched Trojans, tossed by the winds across many an ocean. We come to your land and territory having been shipwrecked. Do not allow our ships to be burned, but have mercy on this pious race, for we have come here with no evil intent. Give us leave to stay in this port until we have repaired our ships and oars. We had a pious king: no one could match him in courage and valor; no one was braver in battle than he. If Aeneas our king is alive, and if he joins us, he will set out for Italy, our destination. If not, we will go back to Sicily, to Acestes.’’ Dido replied: ‘‘We have heard of the land of Troy, and of the Trojans, and I welcome you. You will find hospitality here, and be given land and territory. You can stay here until Aeneas joins you, and Aeneas, too, will get a hero’s welcome if he comes.’’ When Aeneas heard this, he promptly cast off the cover of invisibility and stepped out toward them into the bright light. He was fair, handsome, noble, captivating. He had fair hair the color of gold, a beautiful ruddy counte610

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

nance, and deep-set shining eyes. Venus, his mother, bathed his face in the splendor of love and made him appear like a god, so that everyone who saw him fell in love with him. He addressed the queen and said: ‘‘You alone, queen, are taking pity on our trouble and our wretchedness and are welcoming us into your home and into your city. We are not able to repay your kindness, but may the gods of heaven reward you for the favor you show us. The fame and renown and great praise of your good deeds will live, as long as streams and rivers, mountains and ancient forests endure.’’ When Aeneas had said those words, Ilioneus, Serestus, Gyas, Cloanthus, and Antheus went toward him and happily joined him, rejoicing to find their lost comrade. Dido fell silent when she saw that sight. ‘‘If you are Aeneas, the son of Anchises and of the goddess Venus,’’ she said, ‘‘we have heard of your accomplishments and intelligence, your honesty and courage and valor, your nobility and generosity. You are welcome here with us.’’ After that Dido ordered twenty cows and twenty steers, twenty flitches of pork, and twenty sheep with their lambs to be sent to those remaining on the ships, but Aeneas himself she took with her into her own royal palace. It was a magnificent building they entered: there were many draperies of silk and satin there, and embroidered coverings of every color; many embossed drinking horns, goblets, and other ancient cups of gold and silver, served by boys of noble lineage. There were many kinds of delicious food served generously on graceful dishes with inlays of silver and white gold, and garnet gemstones of every color. Many old intoxicating liquors, made from every kind of drink, were being served to that gay noble company, which Dido, daughter of Belus, their illustrious young queen, had gathered around her. That palace was indeed a place of delight. Then Aeneas sent Achates to the ship to fetch Ascanius, and instructed him to bring some gifts for Dido back from the ship: the fringed purple cloak that Helen had brought with her from Mycenae; and the royal scepter of gold that used to belong to Ilione, daughter of Priam; and a necklace of gold. When Venus, the mother of Aeneas, learned that Ascanius had been sent for, she went to see Cupid, son of Jupiter, because of the great esteem the pagans had for him. She asked him to assume the shape of Ascanius and in that shape to accompany Achates to see Dido, so that he might instill love for Aeneas in Dido’s heart. Cupid promised to do her bidding. Then Venus put Ascanius into a deep sleep and moved him asleep to the top of Mt. Idalia. Cupid, son of Jupiter, however, in the guise of Ascanius joined Achates. Carrying Dido’s presents, they came to her throne, where the lords and K. MIDDLE IRISH WANDERINGS OF AENEAS

611

nobles of Tyre and Troy were gathered around Dido and Aeneas for a pleasant splendid feast. Having inspected the gifts, Aeneas presented them to Dido. Dido marveled at them, as did the nobles of the palace, and all praised the presents, and the queen was very grateful. Dido summoned Cupid to her in the shape of Ascanius, and made him welcome, because she thought it was Ascanius himself; little did she know it was really Cupid. Mindful of the promise he had given to Venus, Cupid instilled love for Aeneas in Dido’s heart, so that the greatness and intensity of her love for him became unbearable. Tyrians and Trojans rejoiced, and that night was spent in gladness and good cheer. Dido’s heart was full of love, and she delighted in talking to Aeneas because of the greatness of her love for him. She asked him much about the tales of Priam and Hector and Memnon, and she wanted to know what kind of man Diomede was, and Achilles, and how they had prevailed against Troy in the end, and how he himself had escaped from there, and what lands he had traveled in before he reached Africa. When Dido asked Aeneas for those tales, everyone became quiet, the courtiers anticipating the stories that Aeneas was about to tell. Aeneas replied to Dido, daughter of Belus: ‘‘I am loath to tell these stories, queen, and it is painful for me, because telling them I remember anew my sorrow and grief and sadness. But since it is your wish, I will briefly tell you some part of my story. [. . .] [664] ‘‘We came away from there through great danger and shipwreck until we reached you, queen. This, then, is the gist of the story you have asked me to tell. Remembering that story fills me with great sorrow and grief, and I would have been slow to tell it, if it weren’t for your noble spirit.’’ Aeneas and Dido passed the night with those tales. Listening to Aeneas was the best entertainment Dido could wish for in her heart, and the intensity of her great love for Aeneas became unbearable, until it would not let her eat or sleep. When the next morning came, she spoke to her trusted sister Anna, saying: ‘‘Faithful sister, he is noble, stately, and highborn, this man; his features are fair and his words are sweet. He has great courage and valor, yet he is gentle and charming. How easy it is to love him: he is surely descended from the gods. Had I not determined after my first husband’s death not to take another man, I have so much love for him that I could marry him, if I were not ashamed of myself. Dear sister, since we are talking in confidence, I don’t want to hide from you that my love for Aeneas has taken away my sense and my reason. But for all that I would rather the ground would swallow me alive than that I should disgrace myself.’’ 612

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

And Queen Dido wept bitterly until her tunic was wet with tears. When Dido had finished speaking, her sister Anna replied, saying: ‘‘Beloved sister, although a host of the kings and princes of Africa came to woo you, you refused them all, and no one found favor with you. Now that you have found one who has won your heart and who is worthy of you, one for whom you feel unconquerable love, you should banish anxiety and care. Enjoy your country and your wealth, living a life of pleasure, grace, and delight, and marry the man you love; it is the only cure for your anxiety and apprehension, and will restore your pleasure and joy in life.’’ [. . .] [705] The words Anna had spoken fanned the love in Dido’s heart. She became restless and took to walking about in the city; love for Aeneas consumed her and did not let her stay still in any one place. She brought Aeneas with her everywhere she went, and showed him her treasure and her wealth and all her belongings, gold and silver, satin and silk, drinking horns and goblets, and much other wealth besides. She often tried to speak to Aeneas to confess her great love for him, but out of modesty she could not bring herself to do so. Nothing would please her but talking to Aeneas and hearing his tales. Her mind would not let her rest; she found no peace sitting up or lying down, sleeping or eating, and she could accomplish nothing: the excess of her love for Aeneas took her reason away and drove her to distraction. The thought entered Dido’s mind to go hunting, with Aeneas in her company, and Aeneas agreed. Then Queen Dido daughter of Belus set out to meet the hunt, and she was beautiful to behold. She was riding on a lively horse, with a well-made saddle on it. She wore a tunic of variegated colors, with a border of red gold around it. She carried a golden quiver. The youth of Tyre and of Sidon was gathered around her. When they had reached the mountain, they arranged the course of the hunt. Everyone was assigned his proper place, and the game was driven from the mountain toward them. While the hunt was in full swing, the weather broke; a thunderstorm with hail showers, thunder, and lightning came down on them. Everyone dispersed and, unable to continue the hunt, fled home, overcome by fear and dread. Aeneas and Dido were left alone together and, looking for shelter, came to a nearby cave, and the two of them consummated their union there, since they were wretched. Meanwhile, the goddess who keeps an eye on everyone, that tell-tale, Fama, daughter of Terra, was watching them. [. . .] [742] The goddess Fama told the inhabitants of Africa that Aeneas and Dido had married, and she told the same thing to King Iarbas. Iarbas was furious at that report; he felt greatly insulted that Dido should reject him and marry Aeneas instead. This is what he did: he offered great sacrifices to Jupiter, and complained of K. MIDDLE IRISH WANDERINGS OF AENEAS

613

Dido’s treatment. [. . .] [757] When Jupiter heard Iarbas’s prayer he said to Mercury: ‘‘Go and speak to Aeneas, who is with Dido building her city. Tell him: ‘Leave this city and go to Italy.’ For it is in Italy that he is destined to fight valorous bloody battles and to forge for himself a kingdom; out of Italy he will gain the high sovereignty over the entire world for his descendants. Let him therefore go to Italy, and let him not stay in Carthage, since it is in Italy that good fortune awaits him and his descendants after him.’’ Then Mercury set out to deliver that message. He donned his feather cloak, and he traversed sea and land with equal ease. In his hand he held his messenger’s staff; with one end he could kill, with the other revive anything it touched. He went to where Aeneas was busy building the city, wearing a purple fringed tunic, and carrying in his hand a gold-hilted sword inlaid with garnet gemstones. [. . .] [789] Then the goddess Fama, daughter of Terra, came to Dido and told her that the Trojans were readying the fleet and that Aeneas was going away to Italy. She was terrified when she learned that news; her reason forsook her, and she was possessed by frenzy and madness. She went to Aeneas and said: ‘‘Cruel and inconstant man! Did you think you could get away from me like that, without my noticing? Will you not recall our mutual love and friendship? You know well that I will die of love for you if you leave me, as you intend to. Don’t you realize that you are venturing out with your fleet in time of great bad weather? For the sake of these tears I shed, and of my anguish, and for the sake of the tender bond that has been between us, and our mutual love, take pity on me and don’t leave me. Don’t go, if you have any respect or concern for me.’’ [. . .] [840] Then Dido fell silent and wept bitterly, until her tunic was wet with her tears. She turned away from Aeneas then and headed back to her palace, and her maids attended her and laid her on her bed, for she had fallen into a swoon and fainted after returning from talking to Aeneas. Though Aeneas was reluctant to part with Dido, and longed to do what she wanted, and even though leaving her seemed like rending body from soul, he nevertheless obeyed the command of the gods and went to his fleet. The Trojans carried all their belongings with them to their ships, and Aeneas joined them there. [. . .] [890] Then the light of morning dawned, and the queen rose early in her chamber. She saw the shoreline and the sea stretching before her, and saw that the landing places were empty and the fleet was sailing away over the ocean. She beat her breast three times, and tore her hair, and burst out weeping. She cried: 614

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

‘‘Ochón och! They are gone now. Gods of heaven and earth, how shamefully have we been deceived by the treacherous man who came to us! [. . .] [910] May the gods of heaven avenge the wrong he has done me, since I cannot avenge myself. If the gods have really decreed that he reaches Italy, may his life there be difficult. May the gods cause stubborn violent warlike opposition against him by the tribes of Italy, rising against him sharply, angrily, bloodily, in violent martial battles. May they gain victory over him, and kill his people before his eyes without his being able to save them. May he himself be killed then, and may his body be left to the dogs and ravens and birds of the air, with no one to bury him, in revenge for what he has done to me. This is my dying legacy to you, Tyrians: that there will be everlasting war between that race of Trojans bound for Italy and you, your sons and grandsons.’’ After Dido had said all that, she went to the bedroom where she used to sleep with Aeneas; she got into the bed in which they used to lie, and she wept. Then she raised herself up in bed, and, baring the sword that was in her hand, she fell upon it and killed herself, because she preferred death to a life without Aeneas. When Dido’s people saw what she had done, they began to cry and keen, and their lamentations could be heard to the high heavens. Dido’s sister Anna came and took her sister’s head in her lap, and she wept, sad and sorrowful because of her sister’s death. And that was the end of the love of Aeneas and Dido. (BH)

3. Golden Bough (lines 1259–1454) [1259] Sibyl the prophetess answered: ‘‘It is easy for you to enter Hades, for the doors of Hades are always open: it is coming back out that is difficult. But if, for all that, you still wish to go there and find Anchises, first go into the forest. In the middle of the forest there is a tree with golden foliage; if you find that tree, tear off a branch. If the gods assent, another branch will grow immediately in its place. If they do not, you will not be able to cut any part of it, either by hand or with iron, however much you try.’’ [. . .] [1275] Then Aeneas went into the forest to look for the golden branch, as the Sibyl had instructed him, and he began to pray to Venus to show him the branch he was looking for. It was not long before he saw two doves fluttering about until they settled on the ground before him. He knew then that it was Venus who had sent him the birds to guide him on his way; he was to follow the birds wherever they went. The doves flew before him, hovering low, and he followed them until he came upon the tree with the golden K. MIDDLE IRISH WANDERINGS OF AENEAS

615

leaves. When Aeneas had reached the tree on which the doves were sitting, he broke off a branch and rejoiced; the foliage was as if it were fashioned of gold. He returned with the branch to the Sibyl’s dwelling. As he had been instructed by the Sibyl, he offered sacrifice to the gods of Hades, and when he had finished, he sent his people away to the ships. He alone stayed on with the Sibyl to venture together on their journey to Hades, for the gods of Hades did not like anyone except the dead to come to Hades. When everyone had left, the Sibyl said to Aeneas: ‘‘Tonight you must act boldly,’’ she said, ‘‘and you need to take courage. Evil and fearsome is this road we are venturing on.’’ Then the Sibyl went before him into the forecourt of Hades, and Aeneas followed her bravely and with a bold heart. [. . .] [1344] Then the Sibyl and Aeneas came to the ferry across the river Acheron. Charon turned toward them with a fierce angry hostile mien, and said: ‘‘What has brought you here, Aeneas, a corporeal being, alive and armed, in defiance of the command of the gods of Hades? Leave, and do not come here again. Go back to the place you have come from.’’ The Sibyl said to Charon, ‘‘Leave off your present intention, for this man has not come to do you wrong, but to speak with his father, Anchises, who is in Hades. Show Charon your golden branch, Aeneas, since he does not seem well-disposed toward us at present.’’ When Charon saw the branch, his fury subsided, and he steered the boat toward Aeneas. Aeneas and the Sibyl got in the boat with him, and they crossed the river to the other side. Cerberus rushed toward them, the fierce frightful hound of Orcus, but the Sibyl threw him his share of food, and the dog became quiet after that, so that Aeneas and the Sibyl could pass by him unhindered. [. . .] [1449] After Anchises had finished showing Aeneas the great multitude that would be descended from him in Italy, the Sibyl and Aeneas bade farewell to Anchises, and left Hades by the ivory door. Then the Sibyl returned to her cave, and Aeneas went to his fleet; and of all that he had seen he remembered nothing but a faint vision, like a man waking from a dream, or one brought back from the verge of death. (BH)

L. VIRGIL IN MEDIEVAL ICELANDIC (thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries) In medieval Iceland, interest in Virgil’s poetry centered on the Aeneid; no evidence exists for awareness of the Eclogues and Georgics there. Because of the Icelandic taste for tales of doomed heroism and courageous struggles against heavy odds, the part of the Aeneid that received the most attention was the 616

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

account of the fall of Troy in book 2. The Trojan War was of su≈cient interest in Iceland to warrant the production of three di√erent redactions of a saga called Trójumanna saga (Saga of the Troy-Men): mid thirteenth century in the case of the Alpha redaction, somewhat later in the thirteenth century for the Beta redaction, and early fourteenth century for the third redaction (which is found in the literary compilation named Hauksbók, after its creator, Haukr Erlendsson, an Icelander who died in Norway in 1334). The anonymous redactors of this saga drew on sources other than Virgil, chiefly on the prose De excidio Troiae historia (History of the Destruction of Troy, fifth or sixth century), falsely ascribed to Dares of Phrygia, a Trojan priest of Hephaestus (mentioned in Homer, Iliad 5.9). They supplemented this rather laconic and dry account with other works concerning the Trojan War, such as the Ilias latina (a Latin epitome of the Iliad in 1,070 hexameters that is conventionally dated to the first century c.e. and has been ascribed to Baebius Italicus), Ovid’s Heroides, and Virgil’s Aeneid. The most extensive Virgilian passage in any redaction of this saga is the passage that occurs in both the Beta and Hauksbók redactions after the end of the Daretian account of how the Greeks won the war. (Text: J. Louis-Jensen, ed., Trójumanna saga, Editiones Arnamagnaeanae, series A, vol. 8 [Copenhagen, 1963]. Because the text at this point is substantially the same in both redactions, only the Hauksbók passage is translated below.) The Daretian approach is rationalistic, avoiding marvels and the supernatural in its telling of the Trojan War, and omitting even the stratagem of the Trojan horse as being too unlikely and impractical. Though the Beta redactor and, following his lead, Haukr Erlendsson adhere quite faithfully to Daretian tradition through most of the saga, they evidently felt the need to follow up the rationalized Daretian account with an alternative account that includes the Trojan horse and devotes considerable attention to Aeneas. Book 2 of the Aeneid is clearly the source of the account of Troy’s fall presented below. The account of Troy’s fall in the Alpha redaction of the saga is very di√erent. The Alpha redactor did not append an alternative Virgilian account of the fall of Troy to his Daretian account; he simply followed the course of events set down in De excidio Troiae historia, but with a single Virgilian interpolation: a brief statement mentioning, rather incongruously, a wooden horse filled with troops. (Text: J. Louis-Jensen, ed., Trójumanna saga: The Dares Phrygius Version, Editiones Arnamagnaeanae, series A, vol. 9 [Copenhagen, 1981]) At two other points in the narrative, however, the Alpha redactor inserted two descriptive details that closely resemble details in the Aeneid. Both are concerned with the Greek warrior Neoptolemus, or Pyrrhus, as he is also known, and are inspired by Virgil’s description of him in book 2. In the translations of L. V I RG I L I N M E D I EVA L I C E LA N D I C

617

passages from the Alpha redaction below, the specifically Virgilian content is italicized to distinguish it from the surrounding Daretian narrative. LouisJensen calls the Alpha redaction the Dares of Phrygia (Dares Phrygius, in her usage) version because it adheres most closely to De excidio Troiae historia and includes the fewest interpolations from other sources. (RE)

1. Trojan Horse (Text: Hauksbók redaction, ed. J. Louis-Jensen [1963], 215–33) Here ends the saga that Dares told, and this saga is thought to be the most truthful, for he was present there [in the Trojan War] and had certain knowledge. But the others who have told this story were descendants of Aeneas, and they speak more sparingly of his treacheries and his dishonorable dealings with his kinsmen. And that seems disingenuous to most wise men. But men know that the noblest bloodline in the world is that which descends from him and Creusa, daughter of King Priam: that of the Caesars, who are the rulers of the whole world. Now the Romans say that after Pyrrhus had killed Penthesilea, the Turks [that is, the Trojans] had retreated inside the city and would not venture outside for any of the Greeks’ taunts. Then King Agamemnon held an assembly and said to his men that he thought the city was too difficult to take by force, and it would never be vanquished except through trickery. And they would gain the victory only when the Troy-men were no longer taking shelter inside the city. And he thought it most advisable to go home to Greece. And he said that King Priam would remember that the Greeks had come to Troy. And when he had finished speaking, there were many who wanted to depart, but those who had lost friends or brothers-in-arms would rather lay down their lives than depart. Then Ulysses spoke; he had long kept silent, so that no one could get a word out of him for many days. ‘‘To me it seems inadvisable to go away, since we have now come to the point in time when the gods promised we would gain the victory.’’ And then everybody wanted to abide by his counsel. He then had an artisan fashion a horse of prodigious size. It was fashioned so that many men and weapons could fit inside it. Beneath it were many sturdy wheels, and, even filled with men, it could be rolled in any direction. And a few days after it was completed, Agamemnon held an assembly of the Greeks, so close to the city that the Troy-men could hear what they were saying. King Agamemnon announced their departure and thanked the men for their support and courage. Then he gave every man leave to return to his homeland, and the assembly was adjourned. They took down all their tents and set sail that same night. And they 618

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

sailed to a small island and anchored their ships near it. It was steep and towering, and their ships could not be seen from the city. But the horse stood near the city, and Ulysses and many armed knights were inside the horse. But a few days later the Troy-men saw a man running from the sea to the city. He was scantily clad, and his hands were bound behind his back. He had a blindfold on, but it had slipped off his eyes somewhat. The man was terrified and kept twisting from side to side as he ran. The men of the city seized him and asked what sort of man he was. ‘‘I swear by Pallas,’’ he says, ‘‘that I shall not lie in what I say to you. First, I am a Greek, as you can see, and I am called Sinon; I am a friend of Ulysses, and I expect no mercy from you.’’ They asked him why he had come there, and for what purpose. ‘‘What can I tell you? I fled from death, but I expect it shortly.’’ They answered that if he wanted to purchase his life, he should tell them what they wanted to know. ‘‘It started,’’ says Sinon, ‘‘with the king making arrangements with the army that I disliked, and I spoke up against them. But Ulysses is proudminded and holds grudges, as I have now experienced. At first he made as if he had nothing against me, but I often found that he put me into deadly danger more than into opportunities for honor, and when we were ready for the homeward journey and an adverse wind rose against us, Calchas said what Ulysses had planned for him to say: that a sacrifice should be made to the god of hell. Then Ulysses said that it would not be acceptable without a human sacrifice, and a death must take place in honor of the god. And by Ulysses’ advice it was arranged so that my lot came up, and he acted as if it grieved him, but he said that he would not break the law even if he had to lay down his own life. I was then brought to shore and prepared for slaughter, just as you see me now. But as the saying goes, everyone has one friend among his enemies, and so a man cut my bonds, and here I am now partly bound still, as you see. But I ran away and wriggled as I ran to loosen the blindfold from my eyes. And when I turned in this direction they did not dare follow me. Now it seems more fitting to me that you, rather than friends and close kinsmen, should take my life, though there is little honor in killing me, bound and alone as I am. And I have no expectation of being avenged afterward; rather, they will rejoice when they hear of my death.’’ Then all the chief counselors came, and it seemed advisable to them that he should be condemned to death, and they said some trickery must be going on. Then King Priam answered, ‘‘I am old now, and have few days left in my life, and to me it seems no honorable deed to kill him. He was persecuted because they believed him to be our friend; I will grant him mercy.’’ The man thanked him for sparing his life. L. V I RG I L I N M E D I EVA L I C E LA N D I C

619

Then Priam said, ‘‘I am curious to know why they did not burn the horse, such a treasure.’’ ‘‘Because of the gods, they did not dare. And if the horse enters the city, the city will never be vanquished.’’ The king asked, ‘‘Why did they make this horse?’’ ‘‘Ulysses sacrificed to the gods and the gods said that a horse like this one should be fashioned, and victory would follow whoever had it. They intend to come back again for the horse, and they went away elsewhere by means of witchcraft or artifice.’’ And when Sinon had said this, the lords gathered together. And it seemed fit to them, if this information were reliable, that they should act immediately and bring the horse into the city and have victory for themselves. Then a priest answers that it would be bad luck for them all if the horse entered the city, but the people are enraged and want to bring the horse into the city. And now they bring ropes and haul it to the city by means of winches, and there was such a great clamor that no one could hear what anyone else said. Then the priest went to the temple to make inquiries. Then two serpents wriggled from under the altar and killed his sons. That seemed to him an ill omen, and he said that more would follow. Then he went forth with great clamor proclaiming that they should not bring the horse into the city and that warriors were inside the horse, but they cried out against him and said that he was of no importance, and they proceeded onward. And when they reached the city gate with the horse, it could not enter the city unless the gate was broken down. And that was done, and it was never mended again. They placed the horse on the highest summit of the city, and there was much going to and fro, and they rejoiced over it, and were hopeful and serene. And they went to sleep that night very drunk with wine, and they feared nothing for themselves. But those who were inside the horse were prepared to carry out the plan they had previously made. The Greeks landed with all their troops and marched with their host drawn up to the city gate, which was open. And the Trojans had broken it themselves for the sake of the horse. And when all the Greeks had entered the city, and Ulysses and his men had climbed out of the horse, then trumpets summoned the troops, and now they overrun the houses and burn them and kill the men. And Aeneas awoke and saw the whole city burning. He arms himself and tries to reach the king. Then he sees the dreadful onslaught against Ilium itself, which was the most splendid part of the city, and all the city’s splendor was laid low. Then he sees where Pyrrhus is going, attacking Ilium. He is wielding a 620

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

broad-ax, and, as Aeneas said, he was more like a demon than a man. He leaps over body after body and strikes with both hands. He is covered with blood. He reaches the altar that was consecrated to Thor [for Jupiter: see below, III.L.4] and kills everyone who meets his dreadful ax. He killed Polydamas the son of Priam, and after that killed Priam himself in front of Thor’s altar. And when Aeneas saw him cut down, he felt that he would rather die than flee. But then he remembered the prophecy that he would have to go to Italy and that the most powerful men would descend from him, men such as no others in the world. And therefore he departed with his father and his son. (RE)

2. Serpentine Simile Though this scene takes place before the sack of Troy, at an earlier point in the war, when Pyrrhus is about to attack Penthesilea, the serpentine simile is inspired by Virgil’s description of Pyrrhus’s appearance during the sack of Troy. Later in the saga when Pyrrhus’s involvement in the sack of Troy is mentioned, other aspects of Virgil’s description of him occur. (Text: Alpha redaction, ed. J. Louis-Jensen [1981], 65) Now Neoptolemus Pyrrhus takes up all his father’s war-gear, which was so glorious that one could scarcely find its like even though one sought widely through the world. And when he was arrayed in these arms, he leaps onto his horse, as full of zeal and wrath as a serpent is of venom. (RE)

3. Trojan Horse (Rationalized) In this account the Trojan horse is not dragged into the city by the Trojans; this alteration of Virgil’s story makes the inclusion of the wooden horse rather pointless. The De excidio Troiae historia, falsely ascribed to Dares of Phrygia, contains a rationalized occurrence of the equine motif—the horse’s head set as a sign to show the gate by which the Greeks should enter the city—which the Alpha redaction includes along with the wooden horse. (Text: Alpha redaction, ed. J. Louis-Jensen [1981], 73) Polydamas explained how they should lead their entire army to the city by night, and he said a horse’s head would be set over the gate by which they were to enter the city. And a horse had been made of wood; it had been placed by the city gate. And they put some troops in it to open up the city gate that night and lead in the Greeks. (RE)

4. Thor Substituted for Jupiter Both in this redaction of the saga and in the Beta and Hauksbók redactions, the name Thor is substituted for Jupiter because Thor is the Norse god of L. V I RG I L I N M E D I EVA L I C E LA N D I C

621

thunder. Such substitutions are routine whenever a suitable Norse equivalent can be found for an Olympian god who enters into the story of Troy. (Text: Alpha redaction, ed. J. Louis-Jensen [1981], 75) None of the Greeks was more furious than Neoptolemus Pyrrhus. First he killed King Priam at Thor’s altar and then each of the others. Each now fell dead among the others in his seat or his bed. Neoptolemus had a great broad-ax and struck with both hands, one over the other. And most people would think that he was not human as he attacked, covered with blood, all through the night. (RE)

622

I I I . V I R G I L’ S T E X T S A N D T H E I R U S E S

IV COMMENTARY TRADITION Quintus Caecilius Epirota, a freedman of Cicero’s friend Atticus, is reported by Suetonius to have begun lecturing on Virgil already by about 25 b.c.e. Likewise, Hyginus, a freedman of Augustus, is said to have written criticism of Virgil’s poetry. These two exemplify the intense interest that Romans showed in commenting upon Virgil’s works almost as soon as they became available to a reading public. In surviving texts, commentary on Virgil sometimes appears in the midst of notes on various authors and topics. Such is the case with the Noctes Atticae (Attic Nights) of Aulus Gellius (born between 125 and 128 c.e.) (see above, I.C.27). Macrobius’s Saturnalia is comparable in that it purports to record dialogues on the evening before the festival of Saturn (probably in 383) covering a number of topics; Virgil has particular prominence, not surprisingly, since he is represented as epitomizing knowledge of grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, and religion (see above, II.G.2 and II.H.2, and below, IV.C). Full-scale commentaries on the poems of Virgil are quite varied in the goals they set for themselves. The most renowned and influential Virgil commentary is that of Servius, the fourth-century grammarian. (A character by the name of Servius takes part in Macrobius’s Saturnalia, where he is identified as being a young man.) Servius left a commentary that would appear to have incorporated much of the best of his predecessors, most notably Aelius Donatus, whose work was subsequently lost (apart from the dedicatory epistle, the vita of Virgil that was based on Suetonius, and the introduction to the Eclogues: see above,

Figure 3. John of Garland, Parisiana poetria, chapter 2, Rota Virgilii, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Lat. Misc. D. 66 (formerly Admont, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 637: German, late fourteenth or early fifteenth century), fol. 8r (by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford)

624

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

II.A.1). Servius’s commentary survives in two main forms, the longer being an expansion from a later date (probably seventh or eighth century) supplemented with additional material from Donatus’s lost commentary and other sources. This longer and later form is designated Servius auctus or Servius Danielis, after Pierre Daniel, who published it for the first time in 1600. Both forms approach Virgil’s poems line by line, sometimes even word by word, focusing on matters of grammar and Latinity, history, and religion. The literary interpretation is concerned more with identifying Virgil’s sources of inspiration in earlier poetry than with presenting an overall interpretation of any given poem. Active at approximately the same time as Servius (fourth to fifth century) was a commentator conventionally known as Iunius Philargyrius. Neither commentator mentions the other. Like Servius’s commentary, Philargyrius’s Explanatio in Bucolica Vergilii (Exposition of Virgil’s Eclogues) is transmitted in longer and shorter versions, usually designated I and II. Two later commentaries, both anonymous, the Scholia Bernensia (Bern Scholia) on the Eclogues and Georgics and the Brevis expositio (Brief Exposition) on the first and part of the second book of the Georgics, appear to rely heavily on Philargyrius. His commentary reveals a tendency to explain the Eclogues in terms of political allegory. Not to be confused with Aelius Donatus—and no relation to him—Tiberius Claudius Donatus was the late-fourth- or early-fifth-century author of Interpretationes Vergilianae (Virgilian Commentaries), a line-by-line commentary on the Aeneid dedicated to his son. Unlike the commentary of Servius, Donatus’s work is essentially a prose paraphrase of the poem that aims to study comprehensively the rhetorical continuity of the Aeneid. The Interpretationes Vergilianae o√er extensive observations on the emotions and outlook of the principal characters in the epic. Politically, Donatus views the Aeneid as being a sustained panegyric of Aeneas and hence also of Augustus. Probably because Donatus was not a professional grammaticus and instead favored a rhetorical approach, his commentary exercised virtually no influence in the subsequent grammar school tradition, particularly in contrast to Servius’s ‘‘best-seller.’’ Whereas Tiberius Claudius Donatus set himself deliberately in counterpoint to the scholastic tradition, Priscian, who lived and taught in Constantinople in the late fifth and early sixth centuries, toed the line in representing the approach taken to Virgil by schoolmasters. Although Priscian has been best known since the twelfth century for his eighteen-book Institutiones grammaticae (Principles of Grammar), he occupies a prominent place in the Virgilian tradition for his Partitiones (Enumeration of the Parts of Speech), or Praeexercitamina (Preparatory Exercises)—exemplary grammatical exercises based on the first lines of each of the twelve books of the Aeneid. The Praeexercitamina o√ers one of the I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

625

closest approaches we can gain to the actualities of how Virgil was read in grammar schools. Occasionally Servius (see below, IV.B) and Philargyrius (see above, II.A.5– 6) o√er allegorical interpretations of episodes in Virgil. The mid- or late-sixthcentury Fabius Planciades Fulgentius (see below, IV.F) produced an Expositio Virgilianae continentiae (Explanation of the Content of Virgil) that goes beyond mere allegorical moments to unfold instead a sustained allegorical interpretation of the Aeneid. In so doing, he anticipates e√orts that would be made by at least two later commentators, first Bernardus Silvestris, or pseudoBernardus Silvestris, in the twelfth century (see below, IV.Q), and Cristoforo Landino (1424–98) in the fifteenth (see below, IV.V). All three of these authors construe the first six books in Neoplatonic terms, as describing the maturation of the hero from early sin and confusion to eventual grace and understanding; all three accord particular weight to the sixth book, as the culmination of the maturing process that holds their interest above all else in the Aeneid. Although the sheer number of surviving manuscripts confirms that commentaries of the Servian type ruled the grammatical roost, the allegorical interpretations exercised a sway much greater than a simple count of extant copies would suggest. Part of their influence derived from the ways in which aspects of their approach to the Aeneid percolated into more traditional interpretation, as can be seen in the excerpts from the ‘‘Aeneid Commentary of Mixed Type’’ (see below, IV.U); even more of it can be traced in the responses to Virgil of great poets, who were less concerned with the minutiae that Servius relished than with the overall meaning of his poetry, which—whether we find their results agreeable and convincing or not—was the paramount concern of the allegorical interpreters. Whether allegorizing or not, commentaries on Virgil became a staple of medieval libraries and classrooms. As the early-eleventh-century schoolmaster Egbert of Liège commented pithily in the Fecunda ratis (The Richly Laden Ship) (1 [‘‘Prora’’ (The Prow)], lines 923–24, ed. E. Voigt [Halle a. S., 1889], 154): ‘‘Qui sine commento rimaris scripta Maronis, / Inmunis nuclei solo de cortice rodis’’ (You who delve into Virgil’s writings without a commentary gnaw at the shell of an untouched kernel). (JZ) A. TRADITION OF COMMENTARY BEFORE THE FOURTH CENTURY

1. Quintus Caecilius Epirota (first century b.c.e.) Caecilius was a freedman of Cicero’s friend Atticus (110–32 b.c.e.), living under Augustus. The discussion is from Suetonius, De grammaticis 16.3. 626

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

(Text: Suetonius, De grammaticis et rhetoribus, ed. R. Kaster [Oxford, 1995], 20–22) Primus dicitur Latine extempore disputasse, primusque Vergilium et alios poetas novos praelegere coepisse; quod etiam Domiti Marsi versiculus indicat: Epirota, tenellorum nutricula vatum.

He is said to have been the first to hold extempore discussions in Latin, and the first to begin lecturing on Virgil [circa 25 b.c.e.] and other modern poets; the latter point is also suggested by the line of Domitius Marsus: Epirota tenellorum nutricula vatum (Epirota, the dear nurse of delicate little bards). (The Lives of the Caesars, vol. 2: The Lives of Illustrious Men, ed. and trans. J. C. Rolfe, LCL 38 [1914], modified by MP)

2. Gaius Iulius Hyginus (early–late first century b.c.e.) Hyginus was a freedman of Augustus (Suetonius, Vita Augusti 20.1) and head of the Palatine library. In Suetonius (De grammaticis 20) he is reported to have written criticism of Virgil’s poetry (Grammaticae Romanae fragmenta, ed. G. Funaiolo [Leipzig, 1907], 528–33, frags. 3–11). Suetonius leaves unclear whether the criticism took the form of ‘‘a line-by-line commentary, or a work dealing with discrete quaestiones (including textual problems), or (less likely) both’’ (Suetonius, De grammaticis et rhetoribus, R. Kaster, ed. [Oxford, 1995], 24). In Noctes Atticae Gellius (see above, I.C.27) cites Hyginus’s work both as commentaria in Vergilium (1.21.2, commentaries on Virgil) and as (at least four) libri de Vergilio (16.6.14, books on Virgil). See also Noctes Atticae 10.16, on Aeneid 6.365–66 and other instances of Virgil’s supposed chronological errors.

3. Quintus Asconius Pedianus (3–88 c.e.) Asconius Pedianus wrote Contra obtrectatores Vergilii (Against the Detractors of Virgil). See VSD 46 (see above, II.A.1) as well as Grammaticae Romanae fragmenta, ed. G. Funaiolo (Leipzig, 1907), 544 (under Perellius Faustus). He is singled out as the source for the anecdote, attributed to Virgil, that it would be easier to snatch his club from Hercules than a verse from Homer.

4. Lucius Annaeus Cornutus (born circa 20 b.c.e.; banished by Nero in 68) A Stoic philosopher, Cornutus was a teacher of Persius and Lucan (see above, I.C.9) and a friend of Silius Italicus (see above, I.C.18), to whom one of his A. TRADITION BEFORE THE FOURTH CENTURY

627

Commentarii Aeneidos (Commentaries on the Aeneid) is addressed (Charisius 1, in GL 1, 125, lines 16–18). His commentaries are also mentioned by Gellius (see above, I.C.27).

5. Marcus Valerius Probus (circa 35–circa 100) Suetonius devotes De grammaticis 24 to Probus, also mentioned often by Gellius. For works on Virgil misattributed to him, see above, I.D.3; II.A.7; M. Giose≈, Studi sul commento a Virgilio dello Pseudo-Probo, Pubblicazioni della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell’Università di Milano 143 (Florence, 1991); and Suetonius, De grammaticis et rhetoribus, ed. R. Kaster (Oxford, 1995), 28, no. 3.

6. Velius Longus (early second century) He wrote a commentary on the Aeneid (GL 7, 39–41).

7. Aulus Gellius See above, I.C.27. Gellius is included for his mentions of earlier commentators. Note in particular Noctes Atticae 2.6.1 (on Cornutus and other grammatici), 7.6 (on Hyginus), and 6.20.1 (citing quodam commentario, a certain commentary).

8. Aemilius Asper (late second–early third century) Asper is not mentioned by Suetonius or Gellius. Jerome (see above, I.C.30), Contra Rufinum 1.16 (Apologie contre Rufin, ed. and trans. P. Lardet [Paris, 1983], 46), speaks of Aspri in Vergilium commentarios (the commentaries of Asper on Virgil); and Augustine (see above, I.C.31), De utilitate credendi (On the Usefulness of Believing) 17 (J. Zycha, ed., CSEL 25 [1891]), lists him among those who o√er necessary help so that quilibet poeta (a certain poet, which is to say, Virgil) may be understood. (Discussion: A. Tomsin, Étude sur le commentaire virgilien d’Aemilius Asper [Paris, 1952]; J. Zetzel, Latin Textual Criticism in Antiquity [New York, 1981], 28 [Caecilius], 31–36 [Hyginus], 36–37 [Asconius], 38–41 [Cornutus], 41–54 [Probus], 55–74 [Gellius]) B. SERVIUS (Marius, or Maurus, Servius Honoratus, late fourth–early fifth century) Servius was roughly contemporary with Macrobius (see below, IV.C), who in his Saturnalia introduces him as a young man at the time of its dramatic 628

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

date, probably 383. Both authors manifest the penchant for antiquarianism, and especially the interest in Virgil, of many contemporary Roman aristocrats. Macrobius supplies our best portrait of him. At Saturnalia 1.2.15 he describes his interlocutor as ‘‘iuxta doctrina mirabilis et amabilis verecundia’’ (a man remarkable for his learning and lovable for his modesty), and at 6.6.1 he o√ers a more detailed account of his scholastic abilities. (Text: J. Willis, ed., 2nd ed. [Leipzig, 1970]; translation: The Saturnalia, trans. P. V. Davies [New York, 1969]) ‘‘Figuras vero quas traxit de vetustate, si volentibus vobis erit, cum repentina memoria suggesserit, enumerabo. Sed nunc dicat volo Servius quae in Vergilio notaverit ab ipso figurata, non a veteribus accepta, vel ausu poetico nove quidem sed decenter usurpata. Cotidie enim Romanae indoli enarrando eundem vatem, necesse est habeat huius adnotationis scientiam promptiorem.’’

‘‘If it is your wish [continued Caecina=Publilius Caeionius Caecina Albinus], I will hasten to search my memory to form a list of the figurative expressions that Virgil has borrowed from ancient authors, but at present I should like Servius to tell us of those which he has noted as being of the poet’s own invention and not taken from old writers—or, if so taken, then taken with all a poet’s daring and given a new but apt turn. For, thanks to his daily discourses on our poet to Roman intellectuals, Servius is bound to have readier knowledge for a commentary of this kind than anyone else.’’ (modified by MP) The judgment on his pedagogical prowess is rea≈rmed at Saturnalia 1.24.8, where we are told that Servius priscos . . . praeceptores doctrina praestat (surpasses the teachers of former times in learning). His skill as a commentator on Virgil’s inventiveness and idiosyncracies of expression is confirmed at Saturnalia 1.24.20: Avienus, ‘‘Non adsumam mihi,’’ ait, ‘‘ut unam aliquam de Vergilianis virtutibus audeam praedicare, sed audiendo quaecumque dicetis, siquid vel de his mihi videbitur vel iam dudum legenti adnotandum visum est, opportunius proferam. Modo memineritis a Servio nostro exigendum ut quidquid obscurum videbitur quasi litteratorum omnium longe maximus palam faciat.’’

Avienus [see above, I.C.28] said: ‘‘I shall not take it upon myself to dare to praise any single one of Virgil’s virtues, but, by listening to whatever you have to say, if any remark of yours or anything in my long reading of the poet suggests an observation, I shall make it, as the occasion for it may arise. Only remember that it is to our friend Servius that we must go for an explanation of any obscurity, since of all literary critics he is far the greatest.’’ (modified by MP) Still extant among the works of Servius are treatises such as his Commentarius in artem Donati (Explanation of Donatus’s Art of Grammar), De centum B. S E RV I U S

629

metris (On a Hundred Di√erent Meters), and De metris Horatii (On the Meters of Horace); but best known is his commentary on Virgil, in the order Aeneid, Eclogues, and Georgics. In all these commentaries he relied a great deal on earlier Virgilian scholarship, especially that of Aelius Donatus (see below, IV.D.2), whom he names only when he disagrees with him. In e√ect, Servius brought together the work of earlier scholars who had studied Virgil for four centuries. More than half of his notes are concerned with linguistic problems: the meaning of di≈cult or unusual words, forms, and constructions. Others name and clarify rhetorical figures. Only a third are non-linguistic. Many of these identify historical and literary allusions (Servius quotes frequently from classical authors such as Terence, Cicero, Sallust, Lucan, Statius, and Juvenal). Others explain philosophy, obsolete religious customs, and historical context. Very isolated are those which could qualify as psychological, in trying to prove consistency in Virgil’s portrayal of characters. Virtually none of the notes discusses aesthetics or literary form. His commentary on the Aeneid became standard early, and Virgilian scholarship remains deeply indebted to it. In the seventh or eighth century someone supplemented Servius with additional material from another ancient commentary, perhaps that of Aelius Donatus. The expanded commentary has come to be called Servius auctus or Servius Danielis. (Discussion: On the influence of Servius in the Middle Ages, see VME 47–53 and below, IV.U) The samples of Servius’s work that follow are of two types. The first is an overview of the fourth book of the Aeneid that serves as an introduction to his line-by-line commentary. The second examines various types of allegory that he finds in the epic. (Discussion: R. Kaster, Guardians of Language: The Grammarian and Society in Late Antiquity [Berkeley, 1988], 169–97; R. J. Starr, ‘‘Vergil’s Seventh ‘Eclogue’ and Its Readers: Biographical Allegory as an Interpretative Strategy in Antiquity and Late Antiquity,’’ Classical Philology 90 [1995], 129– 38; D. P. Fowler, ‘‘The Virgil Commentary of Servius,’’ in The Cambridge Companion to Virgil, ed. C. Martindale [Cambridge, 1997], 73–79; R. J. Starr, ‘‘Aeneas as the Flamen Dialis? Vergil’s Aeneid and the Servian Exegetical Tradition,’’ Vergilius 43 [1997], 63–70; Servius: Commentary on Book Four of Virgil’s ‘‘Aeneid’’: An Annotated Translation, trans. C. M. McDonough, R. E. Prior, and M. Stansbury [Wauconda, Ill., 2004]; J. W. Jones Jr., ‘‘Allegorical Interpretation in Servius,’’ Classical Journal 56 [1961], 217–26) (MP and JZ)

1. Comment on Aeneid 4 (Text: Thilo-Hagen 1:459) Apollonius Argonautica scripsit et in tertio inducit amantem Medeam; inde totus hic liber translatus est. Est autem paene totus in affectione, licet in fine 630

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

pathos habeat, ubi abscessus Aeneae gignit dolorem. Sane totus in consiliis et subtilitatibus est; nam paene comicus stilus est; nec mirum, ubi de amore tractatur. Iunctus quoque superioribus est, quod artis esse videtur, ut frequenter diximus; nam ex abrupto vitiosus est transitus. Licet stulte quidam dicunt hunc tertio non esse coniunctum—in illo navigium, in hoc amores exsequitur—non videntes optimam coniunctionem; cum enim tertium sic clauserit factoque hic fine quievit [Aeneid 3.718], subsecutus at regina gravi iamdudum saucia cura [Aeneid 4.1], item paulo post nec placidam membris dat cura quietem [Aeneid 4.5]; nam cum Aenean dormire dixerit, satis congrue subiunxit ut somno amans careret. [Servius auctus: Alii subitum transitum factum tradunt, quia non ostendit convivium dissolutum; sed hoc subtiliter fecit, quia etiam alia convivia eam habuisse describit post ubi degressi lumenque obscura vicissim (Aeneid 4.80).]

Apollonius [of Rhodes, third century b.c.e., author of the Hellenistic era’s great epic] wrote the Argonautica and in the third book introduces the lover Medea: from that episode the book as a whole is transferred. It consists moreover almost entirely of love, although at the end it has su√ering, when the departure of Aeneas engenders grief. It is quite entirely given over to counsels and fineness of perceptions. The style is indeed almost comic—and small wonder, when the topic is love. The book is also connected to its predecessors, which seems to be the nature of poetic craft, as we have frequently observed; for an abrupt transition is flawed. Although some people foolishly say that this book is not connected to the third—for in the former he describes a sea voyage, while in the latter, loves—they do not see the superb connection. For when he closed the third, ‘‘and making an end was still,’’ he concluded: ‘‘But the queen, long since smitten with a grievous pain’’ and likewise a little afterward: ‘‘and the pain does not grant calm rest to her limbs.’’ For since he said that Aeneas was sleeping, quite aptly he added that the lover [Dido] was deprived of sleep. Others report that the transition took place suddenly, because he did not show the party breaking up: but he did this with fine judgment, inasmuch as he describes that she held other dinner parties: ‘‘Then when all have gone their ways and in turn the dim moon sinks her light . . .’’ (JZ)

2. Allegory a. Historical On Servius’s treatment of history, see D. B. Dietz, ‘‘Historia in the Commentary of Servius,’’ Transactions of the American Philological Association 125 (1995), 61–97. B. S E RV I U S

631

i. Comment on Eclogues 1.1: Tityre, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi (Tityrus, you reclining under the protection of the spreading beech) (Text: Thilo-Hagen 3.1:4–5) . . . et hoc loco Tityri sub persona Vergilium debemus accipere; non tamen ubique, sed tantum ubi exigit ratio. . . . A lite, o Virgili, sub protectione Augusti securus quiescis [Servius auctus].

. . . and here we should understand Virgil under the mask of Tityrus; nevertheless, this is not the case everywhere but only when reason demands. . . . O Virgil, you rest unthreatened, apart from strife, under the protection of Augustus. (MP) Servius’s comment on Eclogues 10.31 also sees both Virgil and Gallus as love poets allegorized as shepherds. ii. Comment on Eclogues 1.4: in umbra (under the shade) (Text: Thilo-Hagen 3.1:5) Allegorice sub tutela imperatoris Augusti.

Allegorically, under the guardianship of the emperor Augustus. (MP) iii. Comment on Aeneid 1.292: Remo cum fratre Quirinus iura dabunt (Quirinus [the deified Romulus] will give laws with his brother Remus) (Text: Thilo-Hagen 1:108) Alii volunt per hos Romanos intellegi. Vera tamen hoc habet ratio, Quirinum Augustum esse, Remum vero pro Agrippa positum, qui filiam Augusti duxit uxorem, et cum eo pariter bella tractavit . . . nam adulans populus Romanus Octaviano tria obtulit nomina, utrum vellet Quirinus, an Caesar, an Augustus vocari.

Others want Romans to be understood through these [Remus and Quirinus]. This surely can be reasoned as true: Quirinus is Augustus, and Remus is in the stead of Agrippa, who married the daughter of Augustus and with whom he waged war side by side . . . for the Roman people, in its adulation, o√ered Octavian three names—whether he would wish to be called Quirinus, or Caesar, or Augustus. (MP) We may compare Suetonius, Vita Augusti (Life of Augustus) 7; and Dio Cassius, Roman History 53.16. Both authorities o√er Romulus, not Quirinus, as the title in question. The latter was applied only to the deified Romulus. b. Physical i. Comment on Aeneid 1.47: et soror et coniunx (both sister and wife) (Text: Thilo-Hagen 1:32) 632

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

Physici Iovem aetherem, id est, ignem volunt intellegi, Iunonem vero aerem, et quoniam tenuitate haec elementa paria sunt, dixerunt esse germana. Sed quoniam Iuno, hoc est aer subiectus est igni, id est, Iovi, iure superposito elemento mariti traditum nomen est.

Natural scientists wish Jupiter to be understood as ether, that is to say fire, and Juno as air, and since these elements are equal in their thinness, [the physicists] have said that they are siblings. But since Juno, that is air, is located beneath fire, that is Jupiter, rightly the title of husband is given to the element that is placed on top. (MP) ii. Comment on Aeneid 6.893: sunt geminae somni portae (there are twin gates of sleep) (Text: Thilo-Hagen 2:122–23) Physiologia vero hoc habet: per portam corneam oculi significantur, qui et cornei sunt coloris et duriores ceteris membris: nam frigus non sentiunt, sicut et Cicero dicit in libris de deorum natura. Per eburneam vero portam os significatur a dentibus. Et scimus quia quae loquimur falsa esse possunt, ea vero quae videmus sine dubio vera sunt. Ideo Aeneas per eburneam emittitur portam.

But there is a physiological reason for this: by the gate of horn are meant the eyes that both are the color of horn and are hardier than the other parts of the body, for they do not experience cold, as Cicero also says in his work on the nature of the gods. But by the ivory gate is meant the mouth with its teeth. And we know that what we say can be false, but the things that we see are without a doubt true. And so it is that Aeneas is sent out through the gate of ivory. (MP) c. Moral On the moral education of the soul for the present world with its complex interlarding of virtues and vices. i. Comment on Aeneid 6.127: noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis (night and day the threshold of dark Dis lies open) (Text: Thilo-Hagen 2:27–28) Ergo hanc terram in qua vivimus inferos esse voluerunt, quia est omnium circulorum infima, planetarum scilicet septem . . . et duorum magnorum. Hinc est quod habemus et novies Styx interfusa coercet [Aeneid 6.439]: nam novem circulis cingitur terra. Ergo omnia quae de inferis finguntur, suis locis hic esse conprobabimus. B. S E RV I U S

633

Therefore [Virgil’s words] mean that this earth on which we live is ‘‘below,’’ because it is lowest of all the circles, that is, of the seven planets . . . and of the two great [circles]. It is from this that we have ‘‘and the ninefold Styx, poured round, pens [the souls] in,’’ for the earth is girded by nine circles. Therefore everything that is made up about the underworld we will prove to exist here [in the world above] in their own locations. (MP) ii. Comment on Aeneid 6.395: in vincla petivit (he sought to enchain) (Text: Thilo-Hagen 2:62) Quod autem dicitur traxisse ab inferis Cerberum, haec ratio est, quia omnes cupiditates et cuncta vitia terrena contempsit et domuit: nam Cerberus terra est, id est, consumptrix omnium corporum.

This is the reason why [Hercules] is said to have dragged Cerberus from the world below: since he scorned and subdued all earthly lusts and every vice: for Cerberus is the earth, that is, the consumer of all bodies. (MP) iii. Comment on Aeneid 6.596–97: per tota novem cui iugera corpus / porrigitur (whose body is stretched over nine whole acres) (Text: Thilo-Hagen 2:82) Quantum ad publicam faciem, magnitudinem ostendit corporis; sed illud significat, quia de amatore loquitur, libidinem late patere.

On the surface this illustrates the hugeness of [Tityus’s] body, but that signifies, given that [Virgil] is talking about a lover, that lust is widely rampant. (MP) d. Euhemerism Euhemerism is the understanding of the gods as human beings of outstanding quality. i. Comment on Aeneid 8.319: ab aetherio venit Saturnus Olympo (Saturn came from heaven on high) (Text: Thilo-Hagen 2:245) Hoc dicit secundum poeticum morem; nam Saturnus rex fuit Cretae, quem Iuppiter filius bello pepulit. Hic fugiens ab Iano rege, qui urbem habuit, ubi nunc Ianiculum, est susceptus, qui regnabat in Italia. Quem cum docuisset usum vinearum et falcis et humaniorem victum, in partem est admissus imperii et sibi oppidum fecit sub clivo Capitolino, ubi nunc eius aedes videtur.

He says this according to poetic custom; for Saturn was a king of Crete whom Jupiter, his son, expelled in war. After his flight he was received by King Janus, 634

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

who possessed a city where the Janiculum is now, who was ruling over Italy. When [Saturn] had taught him the use of vineyards and of the pruning hook and a more humane way of living, he was admitted to a share of the ruling power and built a town for himself under the slope of the Capitolium, where now his shrine is to be seen. (MP) ii. Comment on Aeneid 10.551: silvicolae Fauno Dryope quem nympha crearet (whom the nymph Dryope bore to forest-dwelling Faunus) (Text: Thilo-Hagen 2:448) Faunus hoc loco quidam rusticus intellegendus est, non deus, sicut supra Anxyr, quem legimus Iovem.

In this section Faunus is to be understood as a certain man of the countryside, not as a god, just as above on Anxyr [comment on Aeneid 7.799], whom we read about as Jupiter. (MP) e. Roman Religious Ritual i. Comment on Aeneid 4.103: Phrygio servire marito (to serve a Trojan husband) (Text: Thilo-Hagen 1:482) Quoque omnis iste mos coemptionis et citra nominis nuncupationem dotis datae taxatione expediretur, quae res in manum conventio dicitur, subiunxit dotalesque tuae Tyrios permittere dextrae [Aeneid 4.104]. Quid est enim aliud [’’permittere] dextrae,’’ quam in manum convenire? Quae conventio eo ritu perficitur, ut aqua et igni adhibitis, duobus maximis elementis, natura coniuncta habeatur: quae res ad farreatas nuptias pertinet, quibus flaminem et flaminicam iure pontificio in matrimonium necesse est convenire. Sciendum tamen in hac conventione Aeneae atque Didonis ubique Vergilium in persona Aeneae flaminem, in Didonis flaminicam praesentare.

Also so that the whole custom of coemptio [fictive ‘‘sale’’ of the bride] might be set forth without even explicitly naming it, by means of an estimation of the dowry given—what [coemptio] is called conventio in manum [the passing of a woman into the control of her husband]—he has added dotalesque tuae Tyrios permittere dextrae [and (let her) yield her Tyrians to your right hand as a dowry]. For what else is permittere dextrae than in manum convenire [to come into the charge of]? This conventio is accomplished in that manner so that nature—because fire and water, the two greatest elements, have been introduced—may be considered to share in the ceremony [see also Aeneid 4.160– 68]. This pertains to farreatas nuptias [marriage by confarreatio, during which B. S E RV I U S

635

bride and groom apparently o√ered a loaf made of wheat], through which it is necessary that, according to pontifical ritual, the flamen [priest] and flaminica [priest’s wife] come together in marriage. In this conventio of Aeneas and Dido it must be understood that in all details Virgil is presenting the flamen in the person of Aeneas, the flaminica in the person of Dido. (MP) Servius’s note on Georgics 1.31 presents a similar discussion. S. Treggiari (Roman Marriage [Oxford, 1991]) o√ers detailed discussions of convenire in manum (16–17) and confarreatio (21–24). ii. Comment on Aeneid 4.262: laena (cloak) (Text: Thilo-Hagen 1:512–13) Alii togam duplicam, in qua flamines sacrificant infibulati . . . veteri enim religione pontificum praecipiebatur inaugurato flamini vestem, quae laena dicebatur, a flaminica texi oportere . . .

Others [call the laena] the double-folded toga clothed in which the priests, clasped with brooches [of bronze], o√er sacrifice . . . for according to ancient priestly ritual it is ordained that, when a priest is chosen by augury, his cloak, which is called a laena, should be woven by the priest’s wife. (MP) C. MACROBIUS (Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, late fourth–early fifth century) Macrobius is probably to be identified with the Theodosius who was pretorian prefect of Italy in 430 (PLRE 2, s.v. Theodosius, nos. 8 and 20; see, in particular, A. Cameron, ‘‘The Date and Identity of Macrobius,’’ Journal of Roman Studies 56 [1966], 25–38). Apart from a fragmentary work, De di√erentiis (On Distinctions), on the di√erences between Greek and Latin verbs, Macrobius is the author of two books that well illustrate the intellectual vigor of contemporary Rome. The first is a detailed commentary on the so-called Somnium Scipionis (Dream of Scipio) that brilliantly concludes Cicero’s De re publica (On the Republic). Neoplatonic in essence, it serves as a major vehicle for transmitting knowledge of ancient sciences to the Western Middle Ages. The second is the Saturnalia, a dialogue in seven books, some of which are fragmentary, set during the Saturnalia (the festival of Saturn, held on December 17), probably of 383. It covers a wide variety of topics, but central among them is the poetry of Virgil, which is cited more than seven hundred times. Macrobius uses it primarily as an educational document of the highest authority, not as an historical epic of heroism with overtones of Roman hegemony. At Saturnalia 1.24.5 Quintus Aurelius Symmachus makes the distinction between the use of Virgil’s work instituendis . . . pueris (for the instruction of 636

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

schoolboys) and alia illis altiora (higher ends than that), which is presumably the goal of the Saturnalia itself. This is to say that the Saturnalia looks beyond Virgil’s works as mere grammatical textbooks to teach us through a study of both the technical skills and the erudition of a master poet. At Saturnalia 1.16.12 Virgil is described as omnium disciplinarum peritus (skilled in every discipline), and at 3.11.9 he is styled poeta aeque in rebus doctrinae et in verbis sectator elegantiae (a poet in equal pursuit of learned subject matter and of elegance of expression). For further comments by Macrobius on Virgil’s prodigious wisdom and infallible learning, see Commentarii in somnium Scipionis (Commentary on the Dream of Scipio) 1.6.44: Vergilius nullius disciplinae expers (Virgil schooled in all the arts), and 2.8.1: Vergilius, quem nullius umquam disciplinae error involvit (Virgil, a poet who has never been caught in error on any subject). (Discussion: J. Rauk, ‘‘Macrobius, Cornutus and the Cutting of Dido’s Lock,’’ Classical Philology 90 [1995], 345–54) The program of the work’s content is set out in Saturnalia 1.24, which is followed in the outline below, with further documentation from elsewhere in the work. On the near contemporaries who are mentioned in items 1–7, see the brief biographies of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus (see above, III.E.3), Vettius Agorius Praetextatus, Virius Nicomachus Flavianus, Eusebius, and Eustathius in Macrobius, The Saturnalia, trans. P. V. Davies (New York, 1969), 4–10. (Text, items 1–7: J. Willis, ed., 2nd ed., Bibliotheca Teubneriana [Leipzig, 1970]; translations: Macrobius, The Saturnalia, trans. P. V. Davies [New York, 1969])

1. Rhetorical Devices (Saturnalia 1.24.14) See also Saturnalia 4.2–6. ‘‘. . . spondeo violentissima inventa vel sensa rhetoricae in Vergiliano me opere demonstraturum . . .’’

‘‘ . . . I [Symmachus] propose to point out the most forcible of the rhetorical devices and conceits that are to be found in Virgil’s work . . .’’

2. Oratorical Skill a. Saturnalia 1.24.14 ‘‘ . . . Eusebio autem, oratorum eloquentissimo, non praeripio de oratoria apud Maronem arte tractatum, quem et doctrina et docendi usu melius exsequetur.’’

‘‘ . . . I [Symmachus] do not take away from Eusebius [perhaps the Alexandrian rhetorician], that most eloquent of orators, the opportunity to deal with Virgil’s skill in oratory, a theme that—thanks to his learning, and experience as a teacher—he will handle better than I.’’ (modified by MP) C. MACROBIUS

637

b. Saturnalia 5.1.7 ‘‘Quattuor sunt,’’ inquit Eusebius, ‘‘genera dicendi: copiosum in quo Cicero dominatur, breve in quo Sallustius regnat, siccum quod Frontoni adscribitur, pingue et floridum in quo Plinius Secundus quondam et nunc nullo veterum minor noster Symmachus luxuriatur. Sed apud unum Maronem haec quattuor genera reperies.’’

‘‘There are four kinds of style,’’ says Eusebius, ‘‘the copious, of which Cicero is master; the concise, in which Sallust is supreme; the dry, a term applied to the style of Fronto; and the rich and ornate, formerly indulged in exuberantly by the younger Pliny and today by our friend Symmachus, who is second to none of the men of old in its use. But Virgil is the one writer in whom you will find all of these four kinds represented.’’ c. Saturnalia 5.1.18–20 The bestowal on Virgil of four styles instead of the ordinary three underscores the unique position Virgil held for grammarians. ‘‘Videsne eloquentiam omnium varietate distinctam? Quam quidem mihi videtur Vergilius non sine quodam praesagio, quo se omnium profectibus praeparabat, de industria permiscuisse idque non mortali sed divino ingenio praevidisse: atque adeo non alium secutus ducem quam ipsam rerum omnium matrem naturam, hanc praetexuit velut in musica concordiam dissonorum. Quippe si mundum ipsum diligenter inspicias, magnam similitudinem divini illius et huius poetici operis invenies. Nam qualiter eloquentia Maronis ad omnium mores integra est, nunc brevis, nunc copiosa, nunc sicca, nunc florida, nunc simul omnia, interdum lenis aut torrens: sic terra ipsa hic laeta segetibus et pratis, ibi silvis et rupibus hispida, hic sicca harenis, hic irrigua fontibus, pars vasto aperitur mari. Ignoscite nec nimium me vocetis, qui naturae rerum Vergilium comparavi. Infra ipsum enim mihi visum est, si dicerem decem rhetorum qui apud Athenas Atticas floruerunt stilos inter se diversos hunc unum permiscuisse.’’

‘‘You see [Eusebius says]—do you not?—that the use of all these varied styles is a distinctive characteristic of Virgil’s language. Indeed, I think that it was not without a kind of foreknowledge that he was preparing himself to serve as a model for all, that he intentionally blended his styles, acting with a prescience born of a disposition divine rather than mortal. And thus it was that with the universal mother, Nature, for his only guide he wove the pattern of his work— just as in music di√erent sounds are combined to form a single harmony. For in fact, if you look closely into the nature of the universe, you will find a striking resemblance between the handiwork of the divine craftsman and that of our 638

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

poet. Thus just as Virgil’s language is perfectly adapted to every kind of character, being now concise, now copious, now dry, now ornate, and now a combination of all these qualities, sometimes flowing smoothly or at other times raging like a torrent; so it is with the earth itself, for here it is rich with crops and meadows, there rough with forests and crags, here you have dry sand, here, again, flowing streams, and parts lie open to the boundless sea. I beg you to pardon me and not charge me with exaggeration in thus comparing Virgil with nature, for I think that I might fairly say that he has combined in his single self the diverse styles of the ten Attic orators, and yet not say enough.’’

3. Greek Models (Saturnalia 1.24.18) See also Saturnalia 5.2–22. Eustathius deinde, ‘‘maxime,’’ inquit, ‘‘praedicarem quanta de Graecis cautus et tamquam aliud agens modo artifici dissimulatione, modo professa imitatione transtulerit. . . .’’

Then Eustathius [perhaps the Greek Neoplatonist of Cappadocia] says, ‘‘I should give the highest praise to his use of Greek models—a cautious use and one that may even have the appearance of being accidental, since he sometimes skillfully conceals the debt, although at other times he imitates openly. . . .’’

4. Roman Models (Saturnalia 1.24.19) See also Saturnalia 6.1–5. Furius Albinus alterum fovens Praetextati latus iuxtaque eum Caecina Albinus, ambo vetustatis adfectionem in Vergilio praedicabant, alter in versibus, Caecina in verbis.

[Caeonius] Furius Albinus was placed on the other side of Praetextatus, and next to him Caecina. Both spoke highly of the way in which Virgil strove to profit by the works of earlier [Latin] writers, Furius referring to lines and passages, Caecina to single words.

5. Knowledge of Astronomy and Philosophy a. Saturnalia 1.24.18 ‘‘ . . . ni me maior admiratio de astrologia totaque philosophia teneret, quam parcus et sobrius operi suo nusquam reprehendendus aspersit.’’

‘‘[I would praise Virgil’s Greek models (says Eustathius)] did I not admire even more his knowledge of astronomy and of the whole field of philosophy, and the sparing and restrained way in which he makes occasional, and everywhere praiseworthy, use of this knowledge in his poems.’’ C. MACROBIUS

639

b. Saturnalia 1.24.21 His dictis et universo coetui complacitis, Praetextatus cum in se conversa omnium ora vidisset, ‘‘philosophia,’’ inquit ‘‘quod unicum est munus deorum et disciplina disciplinarum, honoranda est anteloquio, unde meminerit Eustathius primum sibi locum ad disserendum omni alia professione cedente concessum.’’

These proposals [for analysis of Virgil] were unanimously accepted, and Praetextatus, seeing that all were looking toward him, said: ‘‘Philosophy, the discipline of disciplines, is the gods’ unequaled gift to man. It must therefore have the honor of being our first topic. Let Eustathius remember, then, that all other discourses give place to his and that he is to open the discussion.’’ c. Saturnalia 5.2.2 ‘‘Cave,’’ inquit, ‘‘Evangele, Graecorum quemquam vel de summis auctoribus tantam Graecae doctrinae hausisse copiam credas, quantam sollertia Maronis vel adsecuta est vel in suo opere digessit. Nam praeter philosophiae et astronomiae amplam illam copiam, de qua supra disseruimus, non parva sunt alia quae traxit a Graecis et carmini suo tamquam illic nata conservit.’’

‘‘My good Evangelus,’’ says [Eustathius], ‘‘don’t suppose for a moment that any Greek author, however eminent, drew as much from the resources of Greek learning as Virgil’s skill and intelligence enabled him to acquire therefrom and embody in his work. For in addition to that ample store of philosophy and astronomy, which has been the subject of our earlier discussions [in book 3, now lost], there are other and by no means inconsiderable borrowings from the Greek, which he has introduced into his poems as though they naturally formed part of them.’’

6. Pontifical Law (Saturnalia 1.24.16) See also Saturnalia 3.1–6. Et Vettius: ‘‘Equidem inter omnia quibus eminet laus Maronis hoc adsiduus lector admiror, quia doctissime ius pontificium tamquam hoc professus in multa et varia operis sui parte servavit et, si tantae dissertationi sermo non cesserit, promitto fore ut Vergilius noster pontifex maximus adseratur.’’

And Vettius [said]: ‘‘Of all the high qualities for which Virgil is praised my constant reading of his poems leads me, for my part, to admire the great learning with which he has observed the rules of the pontifical law in many di√erent parts of his work. One might well suppose that he had made a special study of this law, and if my discourse does not prove unequal to so lofty a topic, I undertake to show that our Virgil may fairly be regarded as a Pontifex Maximus.’’ 640

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

7. Augural Law (Saturnalia 1.24.17) Post hunc Flavianus, ‘‘Apud poetam nostrum,’’ inquit, ‘‘tantam scientiam iuris auguralis invenio ut, si aliarum disciplinarum doctrina destitueretur, haec illum vel sola professio sublimaret.’’

After him Flavianus says, ‘‘I find in our poet such knowledge of augural law that, even if he were unskilled in all other branches of learning, the exhibition of this knowledge alone would win him high esteem.’’ See also Saturnalia 3.1–12, for example, 3.7.1–2: ‘‘Ea quoque quae incuriose transmittuntur a legentium plebe non carent profunditate. Nam cum loqueretur de filio Pollionis, id quod ad principem suum spectaret adiecit: ipse sed in pratis aries iam suave rubenti murice, iam croceo mutabit vellera luto [Eclogues 4.43–44].

Traditur autem in libris Etruscorum, si hoc animal insolito colore fuerit inductus, portendi imperatori rerum omnium felicitatem.’’

‘‘There are passages too in Virgil [said Praetextus] that the ordinary reader passes over carelessly, although they have a depth of hidden meaning. Thus when he was speaking of Pollio’s child, the poet introduced a reference to Augustus in the lines ‘but of his own accord the ram in the fields will change his fleece, now to sweetly blushing crimson, now to a golden orange.’ For it is handed down in the books of the Etruscans that, if a ram present an unusual color, it is an omen of general prosperity for the ruler.’’ Servius (see above, III.B.3), on Eclogues 4.43, uses similar language (Text: Thilo-Hagen 3.1:50): Hoc in honorem vel laudem Augusti refert. Traditur enim in libris Etruscorum si hoc animal miro et insolito colore fuerit infectum, omnium rerum felicitatem imperatori portendi.

This he relates to honor or praise Augustus. For it is handed down in the books of the Etruscans that if this animal were imbued with a strange or unusual color, that would be an omen of general prosperity for the ruler. (MP) D. OTHER COMMENTATORS OF THE FOURTH OR FIFTH CENTURY

1. Iunius Philargyrius (second half of fifth century) Neither Philargyrius nor Servius (see above, IV.B and II.A.3) mentions the other. We have extant under the name of Philargyrius (see above, II.A.5–6; and below, IV.H–I) an Explanatio in Bucolica Vergilii (Exposition of Virgil’s D. OTHERS OF FOURTH OR FIFTH CENTURY

641

Eclogues), transmitted in longer and shorter versions, usually designated I and II (or A and B). (Text: Thilo-Hagen 3.2:1–189; shorter and longer versions of the Explanatio are printed in adjacent columns, labeled respectively I and II) Philargyrius influenced heavily such later commentaries as the Scholia Bernensia (Bern Scholia: see below, IV.H) on the Eclogues and Georgics and the Brevis expositio (Brief Exposition, text: Thilo-Hagen 3.1:193–320). The importance of the Philargyrius commentaries may be gauged by the existence of Old Irish glosses on Philargyrius (see below, IV.I). (Discussion: G. Funaioli, Esegesi virgiliana anticha [Milan, 1930], 192–232) The commentator’s penchant for political allegory can often be misleading (for example, the introductions to Eclogues 1 and 9 have Meliboeus in the former and Lycidas in the latter standing for Cornelius Gallus), but it can on occasion be suggestive. Eclogues 9.24–25 warns Tityrus against the aggressiveness of the he-goat: . . . et inter agendum occursare capro (cornu ferit ille) caveto.

. . . and while driving [the goats to water] beware of running up against the he-goat. He butts with his horn. In his gloss Philargyrius first equates the goat with a soldier and then identifies the soldier with the Varus, that is, Alfenus Varus, mentioned in the subsequent two lines and said by Aelius Donatus (VSD 19) and by Servius (on Eclogues 9.27) to have been one of those in charge of land distributions to veterans after the battle of Philippi. Et militem cave: gladio ferit. Militi Varo dicit.

And beware of the soldier: he strikes with his sword. He says ‘‘soldier’’ for Varus. (MP)

2. Aelius Donatus (flourished fourth century) Aelius Donatus was the teacher of Jerome (circa 347–420; see above, I.C.30) and the most influential grammarian of his century (see also II.A.1). He wrote two treatises on grammar as well as one commentary on Terence, which survives heavily abridged, and another on Virgil. Of the last-mentioned, we have the dedicatory epistle to Lucius Munatius, the vita (probably drawn from the much earlier Vita Vergilii [Life of Virgil] that Suetonius included in his De poetis), and the introduction to the commentary on the Eclogues. Other material from Donatus’s commentary on Virgil’s oeuvre (Commentarii in Virgilium) found its way into Servius, especially the expanded version known as Servius auctus or Servius Danielis. (Discussion: D. Daintree, ‘‘The Virgil Com642

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

mentary of Aelius Donatus—Black Hole or ‘Éminence grise’?’’ Greece and Rome 37 [1990], 65–79; G. Brugnoli, ‘‘Il consolidamento della glossa virgiliana nella programmazione di Elio Donato,’’ Cultura Latina pagana fra terzo e quinto secolo dopo Cristo, Atti del convegno, Mantova, 9–12 novembre 1995 [Florence, 1998], 161–200) (Text: VVA 15–16) (MP and JZ) a. Letter to Lucius Munatius Inspectis fere omnibus ante me qui in Virgilii opere calluerunt, brevitati admodum studens quam te amare cognoveram, adeo de multis pauca decerpsi, ut magis iustam offensionem lectoris expectem, quod veterum sciens multa transierim, quam quod paginam compleverim supervacuis. Agnosce igitur saepe in hoc munere collaticio sinceram vocem priscae auctoritatis. Cum enim liceret usquequaque nostra interponere, maluimus optima fide, quorum res fuerant eorum etiam verba servare. Quid igitur adsecuti sumus? Hoc scilicet, ut his adpositis quae sunt congesta de multis, admixto etiam sensu nostro, plus hic nos pauca praesentia quam alios alibi multa delectent. Ad hoc etiam illis de quibus probata transtulimus, et attentionem omnium comparavimus in electis, et fastidium demsimus cum relictis. Tu igitur id quod nobis praescripseras utrum processerit specta. Si enim haec grammatico, ut aiebas, rudi ac nuper exorto viam monstrant ac manum porrigunt, satis fecimus iussis; si minus, quod a nobis desideraveris, a te ipse deposces.

After reviewing nearly all those who before me were skilled in the work of Virgil, quite concerned with the brevity I have learned that you appreciate, I have excerpted a few details from many, so that I might await the just annoyance of the reader, because knowingly I had omitted many details of earlier worthies rather than because I have filled up my page with superfluities. Recognize therefore in this amalgam of a gift the truthful voice of ancient authority. For although it was permitted us to make insertions of our own throughout, we preferred to preserve with the utmost fidelity also the words of those whose facts were [presented]. What therefore have we accomplished? This for certain: with these things put in place that are gathered from the many, with our own sensibility added to the mixture, the small assemblage here at hand delights us more than an abundance of detail does others elsewhere. To this end also, as to those facts which we have transmitted with our approval, we both have gained the attention of all for what was chosen, and have removed any annoyance at what was omitted. Do you therefore examine whether that which you had prescribed for us has proved successful. For if these show the way and stretch out the hand to a grammaticus, as you said, unfinished and recently embarked [on his teaching career], we have satisfactorily fulfilled D. OTHERS OF FOURTH OR FIFTH CENTURY

643

your commands; if not, please ask of yourself [and supply] what you have found wanting in us [in our e√orts]. (MP) b. Vita Vergilii See above, II.A.1. c. Introduction to Commentary on the Eclogues See VVA 41–58.

3. Tiberius Claudius Donatus (late fourth–early fifth century) Tiberius Claudius Donatus wrote the Interpretationes Vergilianae (Virgilian Commentaries), a line-by-line commentary on the Aeneid, dedicated to, and written for, his son, Tiberius Claudius Maximus Donatianus. Unlike the commentary of Servius, with its detailed interest in grammar and in matters of history and religion, Donatus’s work is essentially a prose paraphrase of the poem, which seeks to study comprehensively the epic’s rhetorical continuity. The Interpretationes Vergilianae comprises twelve books, each one devoted to a book of the Aeneid. The commentary seems to have experienced at least a modest success during the Carolingian era, to judge by the three manuscripts from the period that survive. One, Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Plut. 45.15, was written in the abbey of St. Martin of Tours, most likely during the early years of Alcuin’s abbacy. Another, Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Reg. lat. 1484, belonged to Lupus of Ferrières (circa 805–after 862), who revised the text and made corrections. The third and oldest (around 800) is also in the Vatican: MS Vat. lat. 1512, from Luxueil. (Discussion: R. J. Starr, ‘‘An Epic of Praise: Tiberius Claudius Donatus and Vergil’s Aeneid,’’ Classical Antiquity 11 [1992], 159–74; M. Giose≈, ‘‘Ritratto d’autore nel suo studio: osservazione a margine delle Interpretationes Vergilianae di Tiberio Claudio Donato,’’ in E io sarò la tua guida. Raccolta di saggi su Virgilio e gli studi virgiliani, ed. M. Giose≈ [Milan, 2000], 151–215) (Text, items a–e: Tiberi Claudi Donati: Interpretationes Vergilianae, ed. H. Georgii, 2 vols. [Leipzig, 1905–6]) (JZ) a. Proemium to Aeneid 1 (Interpretationes Vergilianae 1.2.7–25) Donatus sets out his genre. Primum igitur et ante omnia sciendum est quod materiae genus Maro noster adgressus sit; hoc enim nisi inter initia fuerit cognitum, vehementer errabitur. Et certe laudativum est, quod idcirco incognitum est et latens, quia 644

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

miro artis genere laudationis ipse, dum gesta Aeneae percurreret, incidentia quoque etiam aliarum materiarum genera conplexus ostenditur, nec ipsa tamen aliena a partibus laudis; nam idcirco adsumpta sunt, ut Aeneae laudationi proficerent. Hoc loco quisquis Vergilii ingenium, moralitatem, dicendi naturam, scientiam, mores peritiamque rhetoricae disciplinae metiri volet, necessario primum debet advertere quem susceperit carmine suo laudandum, quantum laborem quamque periculosum opus adgressus sit. Talem enim monstrare Aenean debuit, ut dignus Caesari, in cuius honorem haec scribebantur, parens et auctor generis praeberetur; cumque ipsum secuturae memoriae fuisset traditurus extitisse Romani imperii conditorem, procul dubio, ut fecit, et vacuum omni culpa et magno praeconio praeferendum debuit demonstrare.

First, therefore, and before everything, we must understand what was the type of subject matter that our Maro dealt with; for unless this is understood right at the start, we will make a serious mistake. For certainly it is the genus laudativum [type reserved for praise]. This remains hard to perceive and concealed, because he himself—such is the astonishing artistry of his type of praise— while he is telling the tale of Aeneas’s deeds, is shown to have also incorporated other types of subject matter that occurred to him, though these nevertheless were not alien to the functions of praise. For these were also adopted that they might advance the glorification of Aeneas. In this area, whoever wishes to take the measure of Virgil’s intelligence, his moral stature, the nature of his utterance, his knowledge, the traits and skillfulness of his eloquence, of necessity ought first to attend to whom he has seized upon for praise in his poetry, how great an e√ort and how fraught with peril the task he undertook. For he had a duty to show Aeneas to be of such a sort that he be presented as a worthy ancestor and forebear of Caesar [Augustus] in whose honor these words were written. And since he was about to hand on to the memory of those following him the fact that Aeneas was the founder of the Roman empire, as without doubt he did, it was his duty to show him as both free from any fault and worthy of presentation with great fanfare. (MP) b. Comment on Aeneid 2.350–55 (Interpretationes Vergilianae 1.195.1–16) Sensum loci istius, quo facilius intellegatur, ordinamus hoc modo: iuvenes, fortissima pectora, quae sit rebus fortuna videtis, excessere omnes adytis arisque relictis dii quibus imperium hoc steterat, frustra succurritis urbi incensae: si vobis audendi extrema cupido certa sequi, moriamur et in media arma ruamus; una salus victis nullam sperare salutem. Intellectus sic accipiendus est: iuvenes quidem estis fortissimi et de fiducia virtutis in

D. OTHERS OF FOURTH OR FIFTH CENTURY

645

bellum prompti cupitis adversis patriae subvenire, sed auxilium vestrum incensae quid proderit? Non est igitur frustra laborandum vel maxime cum ea quam dii sui deseruerunt qui eius imperium tuebantur, et quoniam in omnibus praeventi sumus, moriamur si non pro ipsa, vel post eius interitum et in armatos ruamus voluntate promptissima; una enim salutis via est victis, si salutem quam tueri non possunt desperando contemnant.

We set out in this way the sense of the passage so that it can be more easily understood: youths, bravest of hearts, you see where our fortune rests: all the gods, through whom the might [of Troy] had stood, have withdrawn, their shrines and altars abandoned; you o√er help in vain to the city in flames. If your desire is assured to dare the ultimate, let us die and let us rush into the midst of the weapons. The one mode of safety for the conquered is to hope for no safety. Its sense must be grasped thus: you are indeed the bravest of youths, and from trust in your courage you are ready for battle to provide relief for your fatherland against its foes, but what good will be your help when it is on fire? One must therefore not struggle to the utmost, in vain, [on behalf of a fatherland,] when its gods who were protecting its might have deserted, and, since we are in all respects thwarted, if we may not die on her behalf, at least after her demise let us rush, even against our armed opponents, with the utmost willingness. For this is the one road to safety for the conquered, if they think nothing of the safety that they are not able to protect in their despair. (MP) c. Comment on Aeneid 4.12–13: Aeneas and Dido (Interpretationes Vergilianae 1.357.9–19) Tanta in illo viro constantia est, ut appareat illum diis esse progenitum. Argumentum additur, ut hoc ipsum firmaret quod volebat adserere: degeneres, inquit, animos timor arguit, hoc est si degener esset, humilitatis suae conscientia premeretur. Ecce quantum laudabat quae alieno hoc est Cupidinis arbitrio ducebatur, non somno. Sed hic poetae favor est, qui omni occasione virtutes Aeneae meritaque commendat. Inter bona eius ponit quod non amavit ipse ut vulgaris, ut turpis, sed amatus est, neque amatus ab ea quae esset pudoris abiecti, sed ab ea quae petita esset consilio Veneris et Cupidinis fraude.

There is such steadfastness in that man [Aeneas] that it is clear he was sprung from the gods. Proof is added [by Virgil] so as to support the very matter he wished to assert: fear, he says, reveals minds of base origin, which is to say: if someone is lowborn, realization of his lowly condition would be suppressed. Watch how much he praises a woman who is led along by the will of someone else, namely, of Cupid, not by a dream. But this results from the admiration of 646

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

the poet, who on every occasion praises the virtues and merits of Aeneas. He places among his noble traits the fact that he himself didn’t fall in love, like a plebeian, someone of low birth, but that he was an object of love, nor was he loved by a woman who had abandoned her modesty but by one who was a victim of Venus’s plot and the deceit of Cupid. (MP) Compare the comment on Aeneid 1.719–22 (Interpretationes Vergilianae 1.139.29–140.13): Novus enim amor inferri non posset, nisi vetus primo fuisset exclusus, qui ipse, quoniam sensibus Didonis altius insederat, non semel hoc est non uno inpulsu, sed paulatim potuit aboleri. Et cui amor coniugalis novus propter Sychaei memoriam vehementer horrebat sensim potuit in praesentis amores induci, vel maxime quia aliquanto tempore desierat videre cuius amore tenebatur. Interea sciendum est induci Didonem castam, divitem, pulchram, idcirco deceptam per Cupidinem, ut etiam in eo existimationem non tantum ipsius Didonis verum etiam Aeneae poeta conservet, ne illum ignobilis femina proiecti pudoris sponte amasse aut provocata muneribus videatur aut ille malis subversus innumeris de amoribus inlicitis cogitasse.

A new love could not be introduced unless the old were first eliminated, which love, because it was more deeply embedded in Dido’s feelings, couldn’t itself be banished at once, that is by a single blow, but little by little. And she, for whom a new conjugal love was very much an object of horror because of her memory of Sychaeus, was able bit by bit to be drawn into a fresh love, especially because for some time she had ceased to behold him by whose love she was held. And so one must understand that Dido was introduced as chaste, rich, beautiful, and deceived by Cupid, so that even in this the poet keeps intact our favorable opinion not only of Dido herself but also of Aeneas, lest either an ignoble woman, modesty abandoned, might appear to have fallen in love with him, spontaneously or lured by gifts, or lest he, beset by countless misfortunes, might appear to have given thought to illicit amours. (MP) d. Comment on Aeneid 4.276–77: What Aeneas Might Have Said to Mercury (Interpretationes Vergilianae 1.390.7–25; 391.1–2) Non expectavit responsum Mercurius, sed finem suis verbis inponens ante discessit. Medius sermo dividitur, qui exoriri potest inter duos vel pluris, cum sibi invicem proponunt invicemque respondent. Hoc fieri Mercurius non passus est; non enim ad hoc fuerat missus, ut peractis mandatis referret etiam ipse responsum. Quod igitur esse medium potuit dimisit et abscessit, vel maxime quia, si aliquid ab Aenea vellet audire vigilantis [comma moved from before ‘‘vigilantis’’], vox fuerat necessaria, quam mortali non licuit

D. OTHERS OF FOURTH OR FIFTH CENTURY

647

habere cum deo. Quod si fieri ullo modo sineretur, adsisteret Aeneas partibus suis diceretque se uxorium non esse, utpote qui nullam haberet uxorem, hiemis causa interim apud Carthaginem remansisse quassatis navibus et nondum conpositis, adhuc navigandi copiam non habere, nulla ope sua iuvari Carthaginem, filio quoque Iunonem invidere, non se, vi maris ad Carthaginem, non voluntate conpulsum, cum iam prope teneretur Italia, nihil se struere, hoc est nihil moliri vel disponere, quod fili commodis obstaret aut suis. . . . Haec utique dicerentur, si responsionem hominis deus praesens potuisset accipere.

Mercury did not await a response, but bringing his words to an end he withdrew before [it]. A speech is divided in the middle which can take its start between two or more people, when they put things forth in turn and answer in turn. Mercury did not allow this to happen, for he had not been sent for the purpose that, after he had carried out his orders, he should also himself bring back a response. Therefore he left o√ at what could be considered [the speech’s] midpoint and withdrew, especially because, if he had wished to hear anything from Aeneas on the qui vive, it would have required a voice, which a mortal is not permitted to have with a god. But if it were somehow allowed to happen, Aeneas would take a stand on his own behalf and would say that he wasn’t uxorious, as is clear since he didn’t have a wife; and that for the meantime, on account of the winter, he had remained in Carthage since his ships had been battered and not yet repaired; that he still didn’t have the opportunity to set sail; that Carthage was o√ered no help from his resources; also that Juno, not he himself, was envious of his son; that he was driven to Carthage by the force of the sea, not by his own will, when Italy was now nearly in his grasp; that he devised, that is, that he engineered or arranged, nothing that would stand in the way of his son’s or his own interests. . . . These would certainly have been his words, if the epiphanic god had been able to receive the answer of a human. (MP) e. Comment on Aeneid 12.950: The Epic’s, and Donatus’s, Conclusion (Interpretationes Vergilianae 2.641.21–642.1–4) Et cum ad umbras concideret moriens, dolebat tamen se perdidisse lucem et Aeneae Laviniam reliquisse. Magna carminis ordinatio, magna laudantis industria; qui enim ab ipso principio [operis sui Aen]eae laudem omnibus libris [executus est, ha]nc usque ad Turni mortem [consulto perduxit] egregia inventione [currente, ut cessa]ntibus universis solus Ae[neas cum solo pugnar]et. Si enim in con[fuso omnium bello, Aeneae] licet virtute [cecidisset, posset videri necem] illam plu[rimorum adminiculo provenisse. S]epa[ravit igitur hos laudator egregius, ut s]peci[alis gloria in solius Aeneae

648

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

meritis perm]aneret et ipse esset ultor iniuriae suae cui Lavinia et matrimonium debebatur.

And when Turnus was falling in death toward the shades, he was nevertheless grieving that he had lost his life and left Lavinia to Aeneas. The climactic arrangement of the poem is notable, as is the great diligence of the poet giving praise; for from the very beginning of his [work], in all its books, he [has persisted in] praise of Aeneas, and [purposefully], with a magnificent [flow] of invention, has led us up to this death of Turnus, so that, with all others [yielding place], Aeneas alone [might fight with him alone.] For if, [in war’s total confusion,] he had fallen, even though by the courage of [Aeneas, it could seem that his death came about by the support of very many people. Our extraordinary eulogist, therefore, has separated them so that special glory remains for the worthiness of Aeneas alone,] and so that he himself is the avenger of the injury to him, to whom Lavinia and marriage were due. (MP) E. PRISCIAN (Priscianus Caesariensis, fifth–sixth century) Latin grammarians of late antiquity and the Middle Ages undergirded many of their assertions with citations of the most important authors. Among these authors (who tended also to include Terence, Cicero, and Horace), Virgil was cited far more often than any other. Consequently it is not surprising to discover that he influenced strongly not only Donatus but also Priscian, the other Latin grammarian who held preeminence for a millennium to come. Priscian, who lived and taught in Constantinople, produced a very large corpus of Latin grammatical works. The longest of his extant treatises is the Institutiones grammaticae (Foundations of Grammar), which covers orthography, the eight parts of speech recognized in ancient Latin grammar, and syntax. This eighteen-book ars grammatica enjoyed enormous success and is extant in more than 1,000 medieval manuscripts. Of the many Latin prose writers and poets who are cited extensively in the Institutiones grammaticae, Virgil is by a substantial margin the most quoted. The considerably shorter Institutio de nomine et pronomine et verbo (Elements of the Noun, Pronoun, and Verb) summarizes the main features of inflecting parts of speech—participles as well as nouns, pronouns, and verbs. Priscian’s Partitiones duodecim versuum Aeneidos principalium (Enumeration of the Parts of Speech in the Opening Verses of the Twelve Books of the Aeneid ) comprises a dozen grammatical exercises, each based on the first line of a book of Virgil’s Aeneid. In these exercises the content of Virgil’s epic appears to be irrelevant to Priscian, since his analysis is grammatical (and to a E. PRISCIAN

649

lesser extent metrical), but his choice of text was obviously governed by Virgil’s preeminence in the curriculum of grammar school readings. Although Servius’s commentaries (see above, IV.B) show that the interpretation of poetry—foremost among which was Virgil’s Aeneid—remained in late antiquity the most prestigious activity of grammarians, it had to be preceded by other, more elementary studies. Better than any other text we have, the Partitiones gives insights into the ways in which, for more than a millennium and a half, pupils in grammar school would have received their first exposure to the text of the Aeneid. Indeed, it almost allows us to eavesdrop on a schoolmaster working with pupils as they read lines of the epic for the first time. It takes the form of occasional imperatives, more frequent brief questions, and many meticulously detailed responses. The question-and-answer form a√ords only slight relief from the exhaustive, and exhausting, thoroughness of the wordfor-word parsing. The treatise suggests that pupils learning Latin were taught to approach Virgil’s epic from the point of view of its morphology, syntax, and especially its lexicon before beginning even rudimentarily to grapple with its literary features. Every word in every line is made the occasion for review, in inflecting Latin word forms and in word building. Although its influence was not as great as that of either Priscian’s Institutiones or his Institutio, the Partitiones was nonetheless an important and successful text in the Middle Ages. It survives in seventy manuscripts. It received occasional commentary, most notably in the ninth century by Remigius of Auxerre (circa 841–circa 908). One of the manuscripts typifies the kind of close attention that Virgil received in a late-tenth-century school setting. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 9344, contains, along with an incomplete copy of the Partitiones, the works of Virgil with more than nine hundred interlinear and marginal glosses in Old High German (see below, IV.L) on the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid. (Discussion: E. Glaser and C. Moulin-Fankhänel, ‘‘Die althochdeutsche Überlieferung Echternacher Handschriften,’’ in Die Abtei Echternach 698–1998, ed. M. C. Ferrari, J. Schroeder, and H. TrauΔer [Luxembourg, 1999], 112) The following passage, which takes as its basis the first line of book 12 of the Aeneid—Turnus ut infractos adverso Marte Latinos (when Turnus [sees] the Latins broken through a reversal in war)—is the concluding exercise in the Partitiones. (Discussion: M. Glück, Priscians Partitiones und ihre Stellung in der spätantiken Schule [Hildesheim, 1967]; M. Passalacqua, ‘‘Le Partitiones di Prisciano nella tradizione medievale e umanistica,’’ in MOUSA: Scritti in onore di Giuseppe Morelli, ed. P. D’Alessandro [Bologna, 1997], 371–80) (MSS: C. Jeudy, ‘‘La tradition manuscrite des Partitiones de Priscien et la version longue du commentaire de Rémi d’Auxerre,’’ Revue d’histoire de textes 1 [1971], 123–43; 650

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

M. Passalacqua, ‘‘I codici medievali delle Partitiones priscianee,’’ in Manuscript and Tradition of Grammatical Texts from Antiquity to the Renaissance, ed. M. De Nonno, P. De Paolis, and L. Holtz [Erice, 1997], Edizioni dell’Università degli Studi di Cassino, vol. 1[Cassino, 2000], 243–56) (Text: GL 3 [1859], 511–15; see also Priscian, Opuscula, ed. M. Passalacqua, vol.2: Institutio de nomine et pronomine et verbo: Partitiones duodecim versuum Aeneidos principalium, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, Sussidi eruditi 48 [Rome, 1999]) (JZ) Turnus ut infractos adverso Marte Latinos. Scande versum. Turnus ut | infrac | tos ad | verso | Marte La | tinos. [210] Quot caesuras habet iste versus? Unam. Quam? Semiquinariam, Turnus ut infractos. Quot figurarum est? Decem. Quare? Quia habet duos dactylos et tres spondeos. Tracta singulos pedes. Turnusut dactylus ex una longa et duabus brevibus et cetera. Quot partes orationis habet iste versus? Sex, Turnus ut infractos adverso Marte Latinos. Quot nomina? Quattuor, Turnus adverso Marte Latinos. Quid aliud habet? Unum participium, infractos, et unum adverbium, ut. Tracta singulas partes. Turnus quae pars orationis est? Nomen. Quale? Proprium. Cuius est speciei? Univocae: significat enim nomen proprium regis Rutulorum et appellativum piscis palustris. Fac ab eo quod est Turnus derivativum. Quomodo Saturnus Saturnius, sic debet etiam esse Turnus Turnius; patronymicum Turnides, quomodo Priamus Priamides. Quare secundae est [211] declinationis, Turnus Turni? In us correptam desinentia propria secundae sunt declinationis excepto Venus Veneris: praeterea Ligus Liguris, quod potest et proprium esse et gentile; et si sit proprium, masculinum est solum, hic Ligus huius Liguris; si gentile est, invenitur commune, hic et haec Ligus Liguris. Quare Turnus Turne facit vocativum? Quia omnia in us desinentia secundae in e faciunt vocativum exceptis propriis quae i habent ante us, quae per apocopam proferunt vocativum, ut Virgilius o Virgili pro Virgilie, et Mercurius o Mercuri pro Mercurie (ideoque accentus [212] manet paenultimus, quamvis brevis sit paenultima syllaba. Ex quibus enim aliqua subtrahitur syllaba, si integra manet illa in qua est accentus, integrum servat etiam accentum, ut hic et haec Arpinatis perfectum circumflexum habuit paenultima syllaba, quae mansit in concisione: dicimus enim hic et haec Arpinas. Similiter si dicamus munit pro munivit, circumflectitur nit, quia integra dictione supra se habuit circumflexum. Sic etiam tuguri pro tugurii acutum debet habere.). Et Terenti pro Terentie, Sallusti pro Sallustie. Euphoniae tamen causa vel metri est quando nominativis utuntur pro vocativis, ut deus pro dee et fluvius pro fluvie, ut Virgilius in VIII Aeneidos ‘‘corniger Hesperidum fluvius regnator aquarum’’ [Aeneid 8.77]; et populus pro popule, ut Lucanus in secundo ‘‘degener o E. PRISCIAN

651

populus, vix saecula longa decorum’’ [De bello civili 2.116]. Unum autem invenitur appellativum solum, quod et in i et in e vocativum profert, ut filius o fili et o filie. Ut quae pars orationis est? Adverbium. Quid est adverbium? Pars [213] orationis quae adiecta verbo significationem eius explanat atque implet. Adverbio quot accidunt? Tria, species significatio figura. Cuius est significationis ut? Hic temporalis: accipitur enim pro postquam. Quando autem significat ¡ina Graecam coniunctionem, loco coniunctionis accipitur causalis. Est tamen etiam similitudinis adverbium. Solet autem ei adici etiam i tam coniunctionem significanti quam adverbium. Adicitur ei etiam nam et invenitur optandi adverbium, utinam. Igitur ut et uti significat adverbium [214] quidem, quando tempus vel similitudinem vel qualitatem sive interrogationem, id est, quando quomodo significat; quando vero ¡ina vel o¡ti Graecam coniunctionem significat, coniunctionis loco accipitur. Compositum autem ab uti utinam adverbium est optandi, ut diximus. Praeterea utique pro videlicet affirmandi est adverbium. Quem habet accentum? [215] Ut et uti et utinam praepositiva gravantur per omnes syllabas, subiunctiva autem generalem accentum servant. Sciendum tamen, quod ut quoque invenitur etiam pro optandi adverbio, ut Terentius in Phormione ‘‘ut illum di deaeque omnes perdant’’ [Eunuchus 2.3.11 (302)]. Cum vel quoque compositum tam ut quam uti similitudinis adverbium faciunt, velut et veluti, ut Virgilius in primo Aeneidos ‘‘ac veluti magno in populo cum saepe coorta est / seditio’’ [1.148–49]. Infractos quae pars orationis est? Participium. Quid est participium? [216] Pars orationis partem capiens nominis partemque verbi. Cuius est generis? Masculini, casus accusativi, temporis praeteriti, significationis passivae. Cuius est formae? Perfectae, numeri pluralis, figurae compositae ex duobus integris. Et nota, quod inveniuntur saepe participia ex verbis, quae non ex duobus integris componuntur, integra in utraque parte inventa; ut infringor ex integro est et corrupto, tamen infractus ex duobus integris fit. Ideoque possumus non a verbis ea declinata accipere, [217] sed magis a sese composita. Similiter impingo impactus, contingo contactus. Similiter perficio perfeci, deficio defeci, conficio confeci. Nec mirum in verbis et participiis hoc inveniri, cum etiam in nominibus possunt huiuscemodi compositiones esse; ut idem tam masculinum quam neutrum ex duobus est corruptis, eiusdem vero ex integro et corrupto, et e contrario alteruter ex duobus integris, alterutrius ex corrupto et integro. Declina activum. Indicativo infringo infringebam infregi infregeram infringam; [218] imperativo praesenti infringe infringat infringamus infringite infringant, futuro infringito tu, infringito ille, infringitote, infringant 652

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

vel infringunto; optativo utinam infringerem infregissem infringam; subiunctivo cum infringam infringerem infregerim infregissem infregero; infinitivo infringere, infregisse, infractum ire vel infracturum esse. Gerundia vel participialia infringendi infringendo infringendum infractum infractu. Participia veniunt ab activo praesentis infringens, futuri infracturus. Declina passivum eius. Infringor infringebar, infractus sum vel infractus fui, infractus eram vel infractus fueram, infringar; imperativo praesenti infringere infringatur infringamur, infringimini infringantur, futuro infringitor tu, infringitor ille, infringiminor, infringantur vel infringuntor; optativo utinam infringerer, infractus essem vel infractus fuissem, infractus ero vel infractus fuero; infinitivo infringi, infractum esse vel infractum fuisse, infractum iri. [219] Nomen verbale masculinum infractor, femininum infractrix, ipsa res infractio et infractus et infractura. Ostendimus enim saepe, quod participia activa futuri temporis feminina etiam pro ipsa re accipiuntur, ut pictura usura natura iunctura: sic etiam fractura. Rarissime in or rerum nomina inveniuntur, ex quibus magis verba nascuntur, non ex verbis nomina, ut labor laboro, color coloro, amor amo, honor honoro. Dic alia composita. Confringo perfringo defringo suffringo effringo. Cur frango fregi facit praeteritum? Quia tertiae coniugationis verba in go desinentia r antecedente, si sint simplicia, praeteritum in si faciunt, ut mergo mersi, spargo sparsi, alia vero in xi, ut pingo pinxi, tingo tinxi, rego rexi: unde ex eo composita [220] pergo perrexi, surgo surrexi, exceptis lego legi et ex eo compositis, quando eandem significationem servant, ut relego relegi, perlego perlegi; mutata autem significatione in xi, ut diligo dilexi, intellego intellexi, neglego neglexi. Excipiuntur similiter frango fregi, pango pegi vel pepigi, ex quo impingo impegi. Excipiuntur etiam tango tetigi et pungo pupugi vel punxi et ago egi et ex eis composita. Cur infractus? Quia omnia in gi vel in xi praeteritum perfectum facientia per ctus faciunt participium, ut legi lectus, dixi dictus, tetigi tactus, sanxi sanctus. Excipiuntur flexi flexus, fluxi fluxus. Adverso quae pars orationis est? Hic nomen est, quia caret tempore, [221] unde licet etiam comparativum eius facere adversior et superlativum adversissimus. Quale est hoc nomen? Appellativum. Cuius speciei? Adiectivae qualitatis est et mobile et derivativum a participio, id est, participiale est. Fac ab eo aliud derivativum. Adversarius adversaria adversarium. Declina verbum. Adverto advertis advertit et cetera. Dic eius [222] frequentativum. Adversor adversaris vel adversare adversatur, quod ab activo factum est deponens, quamvis adverto et advertor aliam significationem habeant. Scis autem, quod omnia frequentativa primae sunt coniugationis et plerumque a participio praeteriti solent fieri, versus verso E. PRISCIAN

653

versas, adversus adversor adversaris, exceptis in go vel in sco desinentibus. Illa enim a praesenti faciunt frequentativa, ut ago agito et lego legito et scisco sciscitor et nosco noscito. Viso enim visis et lacesso lacessis et arcesso arcessis non primae sed tertiae coniugationis inveniuntur. Frequentativa primae sunt coniugationis et inchoativa tertiae et meditativa quartae. Dic [223] composita alia ab eo quod est verto. Averto converto everto subverto animadverto praeverto, et paene cum omnibus praepositionibus indubitabilibus invenitur, circumverto anteverto. Et notandum, quod adverbia quoque inveniuntur non solum obliquis casibus nominum masculinorum vel femininorum sed etiam ipsi nominativo similia, ut adversus, quod quidam, quia accusativo coniungitur, magis praepositionem existimaverunt. Versus quoque suppositum localibus nominibus adverbium esse invenitur, ut Italiam versus, Galliam versus, Hispaniam versus, Siciliam versus, Graeciam versus. Sallustius tamen etiam praepositionem ei anteposuit in Catilinario, [224] ‘‘in Galliam versus’’ [Bellum Catilinae 56]. Exadversum quoque compositum, ut Terentius in Phormione ‘‘exadversum tonstrina erat quaedam’’ [1.2.38–39 (88–89)]. A deverto fit derivativum deverticulum: Terentius ‘‘postquam ad ipsum veni deverticulum’’ [Eunuchus 4.2.7 (635) ubi . . . devorticulum]. Deversorium quoque dicitur locus in quo devertimus. Versus quoque litterarum ordinatio inde dicitur, vel quod vertimus stilum a fine ad initium [vel ab initio ad finem], vel quod antiqui a dextera parte in sinistram et a sinistra in dexteram scribebant. Vertigo quoque et vertex a verto verbo fiunt et Vertumnus deus et Verticordia [compositum] dea. Marte quae pars orationis est? Nomen. Quale? Proprium. Cuius [225] speciei? Primitivae. Fac ab eo derivativum. Martius Martia Martium. Est et Martiaticus Martiatica Martiaticum dicere, unde stipendia militum Martiatica dicuntur. Inde derivatur etiam Mavors, ex quo Mavortius. Dicitur tamen Maspiter, Martis pater, quomodo Diespiter, hoc est diei pater, Iuppiter. Hic et haec Martialis et hoc Martiale: potest tamen et proprium esse Martialis. Quid interest inter proprium Martialis et appellativum? [226] Quod, si proprium sit, masculinum est et ablativum in e terminat; si autem appellativum sit, commune est et ablativum in i terminat, quomodo Iuvenalis Felix. Cur Mars Martis facit? Quia in ls vel ns vel rs desinentia interposita ti faciunt genetivum, ut puls pultis, mons montis, ars artis, exceptis differentiae causa frons, quando folium significat, frondis (frons enim capitis frontis) et lens, quando pullos pediculorum significat, lendis; quando autem significat legumen, lens lentis. Praeterea glans glandis, [227] cuius quidam nominativum et genetivum similem esse voluerunt. Libripens quoque, quia a pendo verbo componitur, consonantem verbi servavit, libripendis. Praete-

654

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

rea a corde composita d habent in genetivo secundum genetivum simplicis, concors concordis, discors discordis, vecors vecordis. Latinos quae pars orationis est? Nomen. Quale? Derivativum, [228] generis masculini, numeri singularis, figurae simplicis. Cuius speciei? Derivativae. Potest tamen esse et proprium regis, soceri Aeneae, et gentile a Latio Latinus, et possessivum, Latinus ager. Latium autem vel a latendo vel a latitudine est nominatum. A Latino Latinitas, a Latio derivatur etiam Latius et Latiaris. Fac compositum. Latinigena, quomodo Troiugena Graiugena. Sed in eis geminatio i mutavit sequentem i in u alternitatis causa pro Troiigena et Graiigena Troiugena et Graiugena faciens.

Turnus ut infractos adverso Marte Latinos. Scan the line: Turnus ut | infrac | tos ad | verso | Marte La | tinos. [210] How many caesuras does this line have? One. Which? Penthemimeral, after Turnus ut infractos. How many metrical units does it contain? Ten. Why is that? Because the first five feet have two dactyls and three spondees. Deal with each foot individually. Turnusut is a dactyl comprising one long and two shorts, and so forth. How many parts of speech does this line contain? Six. How many nouns? Four: Turnus, adverso, Marte, and Latinos. What else does it contain? One participle, infractos, and one adverb, ut. Deal with each part of speech individually. What part of speech is Turnus? Noun. Which type? Proper noun. Of which class? Synonymous, since it signifies the proper name for the king of the Rutulians and the common noun for a marshland fish. Produce a derivative of Turnus. As Saturnus produces Saturnius, so too Turnus ought to produce Turnius. The patronymic should be Turnides, by analogy with Priamus and Priamides. Why is it of the second [211] declension, Turnus in the nominative and Turni in the genitive? Word endings in -us with a short vowel are proper to the second declension, with the exception of Venus Veneris and furthermore Ligus Liguris, which can be both a proper noun and one referring to nationality. If it is proper, it is only masculine, hic Ligus huius Liguris; if it refers to nationality, it is found to be common, hic et haec Ligus Liguris. Why does Turnus produce the vocative Turne? Because all words ending in -us of the second declension make a vocative in -e except proper nouns that have an i before us, which produce the vocative by apocope, as in Virgilius Virgili instead of Virgilie and Mercurius Mercuri instead of Mercurie. (For that reason the accent [212] remains on the penult, even though the penultimate syllable is short. In fact, in words from which some syllable is subtracted, if that syllable on which the accent falls remains intact, it keeps its accent intact. For example, the masculine and feminine forms of

E. PRISCIAN

655

Arpinatis had a complete circumflex on the penultimate syllable, which remained that way in the cutting; for we say Arpinas in the masculine and feminine. Likewise, if we should say munit instead of munivit, nit receives a circumflex because it had a circumflex over itself in the full word. So too tuguri in place of tugurii ought to have an acute.) Likewise Terenti instead of Terentie, Sallusti instead of Sallustie. Yet there are times when people use nominative forms instead of vocatives, for the sake of euphony or meter, as deus instead of dee and fluvius instead of fluvie. For example, Virgil in the eighth book of the Aeneid writes: corniger Hesperidum fluvius regnator aquarum [horned stream, ruler of Hesperian waters]. Similarly, populus is used instead of popule, as when Lucan writes in the second book [of De bello civili]: Degener o populus, vix saecula longa decorum [O degenerate people, scarcely would it befit . . . long centuries]. However, only one common noun is found that produces a vocative in both -i and -e, which is filius, o fili and o filie. Which part of speech is ut? Adverb. What is an adverb? A part [213] of speech that, when added to a verb, explains and fills out its meaning. How many are the attributes of an adverb? Three: its specific nature, meaning, and form. What is the meaning of ut? In this case it is temporal, in that it is understood in place of postquam [after]. However, when it has the meaning of the Greek conjunction hina, it is understood in lieu of a causal conjunction. And yet it is also an adverb used in similes. In addition, the letter i is customarily added to it when it has the meaning of a conjunction as well as of an adverb. Nam is also added to it, and the resulting compound is found to be an optative adverb, utinam. Therefore ut and uti have an adverbial meaning [214] in fact when either signifies a time, likeness, quality, or interrogative, that is, when or how; but when either has the meaning of the Greek conjunctions hina or hoti, it is understood in lieu of a conjunction. The adverb utinam, which is composed from uti, is optative, as we stated. Moreover, utique in place of videlicet is an adverb of a≈rmation. What accent does it have? [215] Ut and uti and utinam, when they come before, are weighted equally on all their syllables, but when they come afterward, they retain the generic accent. Yet it must be known that ut is also found in place of the optative adverb, as, for example, Terence in Phormio: ut illum di deaeque omnes perdant [Would that all the gods and goddesses might destroy him]. Combined with vel also, ut as well as uti produce an adverb used in similes, velut and veluti, as Virgil in the first book of the Aeneid: ac veluti magno in populo cum saepe coorta est seditio [and often as a revolt has arisen in a great nation]. What part of speech is infractos? Participle. What is a participle? [216] A part of speech that takes the part of a noun and the part of a verb. Of which gender is it? Masculine, accusative case, past tense, passive. Of what form is it? 656

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

Perfect, plural in number, in form composed of two unaltered elements. Note also that participles are often devised out of verbs that are not composed from two unaltered elements, though they are found to be unaltered in each part; whereas infringor takes its form from an unaltered element [in] and an altered one [fringor], infractus takes its form from two unaltered elements. For that reason we can accept that they are not conjugated from verbs [217] but rather composed from themselves. It is the same with impingo impactus and contingo contactus and with perficio perfeci, deficio defeci, and conficio confeci. Small wonder that this is to be found in verbs and participles, when compounds of this type can be found also in nouns. For instance, idem—masculine as well as neuter— is composed of two altered elements, but eiusdem of an unaltered and an altered one. In contrast, alteruter is composed of two unaltered elements, alterutrius of an altered and an unaltered. Conjugate the active of the verb. In the indicative, infringo infringebam infregi infregeram infringam. [218] In the present imperative, infringe infringat infringamus infringite infringant; in the future imperative, infringito (second-person singular), infringito (third-person singular), infringitote, infringant or infringunto. In the optative, utinam infringerem infregissem infringam. In the subjunctive, infringam infringerem infregerim infregissem infregero. In the infinitive, infringere, infregisse, infractum ire or infracturum esse. The gerunds or the supines are infringendi infringendo infringendum infractum infractu. The active present participle is infringens, the future is infracturus. Conjugate its passive. Infringor infringebar, infractus sum or infractus fui, infractus eram or infractus fueram, infringar. In the present imperative, infringere infringatur infringamur infringimini infringantur; in the future imperative, infringitor (second person), infringitor (third person), infringiminor, infringantur or infringuntor. In the optative, utinam infringerer, infractus essem or infractus fuissem, infractus ero or infractus fuero. In the infinitive, infringi, infractum esse or infractum fuisse, infractum iri. [219] The masculine verbal noun is infractor, the feminine infractrix, the action itself is infractio, infractus, and infractura. For we often show that feminine future active participles are taken in place of the action itself, as for example pictura, usura, natura, and iunctura, and so too fractura. Very rarely nouns of actions are found ending in -or, from which the verbs are derived and not the nouns from the verbs, as labor laboro, color coloro, amor amo, honor honoro. Give other compounds. Confringo perfringo defringo su√ringo and e√ringo. Why does frango produce the preterite fregi? Because verbs of the third conjugation ending in -go with a preceding r produce a preterite that ends in -si if they stand alone, as in the cases of mergo mersi, spargo sparsi. In fact, others produce a preterite that ends in -xi, as in the cases of pingo pinxi, tingo tinxi, and E. PRISCIAN

657

rego rexi. For this reason the compound verbs [220] derived from it follow the pattern pergo perrexi and surgo surrexi, with the exception of lego legi and compound verbs derived from it, when they retain the same basic meaning, as for example relego relegi and perlego perlegi. When their meaning is changed, they produce a preterite that ends in -xi, as for example diligo dilexi, intellego intellexi, and neglego neglexi. Similar exceptions are frango fregi and pango pegi or pepigi, from which is derived impingo impegi. Also excepted are tango tetigi, pungo pupugi or punxi, and ago egi as well as compound verbs that are derived from it. Why infractus? Because all verbs producing a perfect preterite in -gi or in -xi produce a participle in -ctus, as in the cases of legi lectus, dixi dictus, tetigi tactus, and sanxi sanctus. Flexi flexus and fluxi fluxus are exceptions. What part of speech is adverso? Here it is a noun, because it lacks tense. [221] For this reason it is possible also to form its comparative adversior and superlative adversissimus. What sort of noun is this? A common noun. Of what class? It has the quality of an adjective, is capable of being modified, and is derived from a participle, which is to say, it is participial. Produce some word derived from it: adversarius, adversaria, adversarium. Conjugate the verb: adverto advertis advertit and so forth. Tell [what is] its [222] frequentative form: adversor, adversaris or adversare, adversatur, because a deponent has been made out of the transitive verb (although adverto and advertor have di√erent meanings). What is more, you know that all frequentatives are of the first conjugation and that very often they are customarily formed from the past participle: versus leads to verso versas and adversus to adversor adversaris. The exceptions are those ending in -go or in -sco, in that those form frequentatives on the basis of the present, as ago leads to agito, lego to legito, scisco to sciscitor, and nosco to noscito. Viso visis, lacesso lacessis, and arcesso arcessis are found to be not of the first but of the third conjugation. Frequentatives are of the first conjugation, inceptives of the third, and desideratives of the fourth. Say [223] other compounds of verto: averto converto everto subverto animadverto praeverto. In addition, it is found with almost all indisputable prepositions, such as circumverto and anteverto. It should be noted not only that adverbs are found in the oblique cases of masculine or feminine nouns, but also that there are those like the nominative itself, as for example adversus (which certain grammarians, because it occurs in conjunction with an accusative, considered instead a preposition). Versus is also found to be an adverb appended to place-names, as in the examples Italiam versus, Galliam versus, Hispaniam versus, Siciliam versus, and Graeciam versus. Yet Sallust placed a preposition before it in his War with Catiline, [224] where he has the phrase in 658

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

Galliam versus [in the direction of Gaul]. There is also a compound exadversum, as Terence shows in Phormio: exadversum tonstrina erat quaedam [opposite was a barbershop]. From deverto is formed the derivative deverticulum: Terence writes: postquam ad ipsum veni deverticulum [after I came to the actual turning]. The place in which we ‘‘turn o√ the road for lodging,’’ devertimus, is also called ‘‘the place where you go when you turn o√ the road,’’ deversorium. On this same basis an arrangement of letters is also called a ‘‘verse,’’ versus, either because we turn, vertimus, the stylus from the end to the beginning or because the ancients used to write from the right side to the left and from the left to the right [boustrophedon]. Vertigo and vertex are also formed from the verb verto, as are the god Vertumnus and the goddess Verticordia [a compound]. What part of speech is Marte? A noun. Of what type? Proper. Of which [225] class? It is a base stem. Make a derivative of it: Martius Martia Martium. It is also possible to say Martiaticus Martiatica Martiaticum, for which reason the salaries of soldiers are called ‘‘Martiatic’’ [martial]. From it is derived also Mavors, from which is formed the adjective Mavortius. He is called Maspiter, ‘‘Father Mars,’’ as Jupiter is called Diespiter, which is to say, Diei pater. Martialis is masculine and feminine, Martiale neuter—and Martialis can be a proper noun. What is the di√erence between the proper noun Martialis and the common noun? [226] If it is proper, it is masculine, and the ablative ends in -e; but if it is a common noun, it has the same endings for the masculine and feminine, and its ablative ends in -i, like Iuvenalis and Felix. Why does Mars produce Martis? Because words ending in -ls, -ns, or -rs form their genitive by interposing the letters ti, as in the cases of puls pultis, mons montis, and ars artis. The exceptions are for the sake of a distinction, as frons, when it means ‘‘a leaf,’’ forms the genitive frondis (whereas frons, when it means ‘‘forehead,’’ forms the genitive frontis), and lens, when it means ‘‘a nit,’’ forms the genitive lendis; but when it means the legume, it has the forms lens lentis. Moreover, glans glandis, [227] of which some grammarians claimed the nominative and genitive to be identical. Also libripens, because it is a compound from the verb pendo, kept the consonant of the verb in the genitive form libripendis. Moreover, nouns composed from corde [heart] have a d in the genitive in accordance with the genitive of the base word, hence concors concordis, discors discordis, and vecors vecordis. What part of speech is Latinos? Noun. Of what type? A derivative [228] of the masculine gender, singular number, and simple form. Of what class? Derivative. Yet it can be also the proper noun of a king, the father-in-law of Aeneas; an ethnic name, Latinus from Latium; and a possessive, Latinus ager, ‘‘the field belonging to Latium.’’ Latium is so called either from latendo [hiding] or from latitudine [breadth]. From Latinus is derived Latinitas; from Latium are deE. PRISCIAN

659

rived also Latius and Latiaris. Make a compound: Latinigena [of Latin birth, a Latin], in the same manner as Troiugena [of Trojan birth, a Trojan] and Graiugena [of Grecian birth, a Greek]. But in them the doubling of the i changed the following i into a u for the sake of alternation, producing Troiugena and Graiugena instead of Troiigena and Graiigena. (JZ) F. FULGENTIUS (Fabius Planciades Fulgentius, mid or late sixth century) Little certain is known about Fulgentius, who lived in North Africa; he cannot be identical with the bishop and saint Fulgentius of Ruspe (467–532), as some medieval and modern scholars have believed. His four surviving works are Mitologiae (Mythologies), a collection of Greek myths with allegorical interpretations and an elaborate prosimetrical preface; De aetatibus mundi et hominis (On the Ages of the World and Man), a short universal history observing certain peculiar formal constraints; Expositio sermonum antiquorum (Explanation of Archaic Words), a list of obscure words with definitions and illustrative quotations; and, most important for Virgilian reception, the Expositio Virgilianae continentiae (Explanation of the Content of Virgil). In a brief preface to the Expositio, Fulgentius explains that while both the Eclogues and Georgics touch on mystic matters, these are too dangerous to disclose (for reasons he leaves unclear); he will therefore confine his analysis to the Aeneid. After briefly invoking the Muses he summons up the shade of Virgil himself and persuades him to elucidate the poem’s hidden meaning. Virgil is initially depicted as an inspired seer, but soon takes on the persona of a pedantic schoolmaster. He displays an attitude of tolerant condescension toward his ‘‘student’’ Fulgentius, who occasionally interrupts to add confirmatory evidence from scripture, chide the poet for his departures from Christian dogma, or prevent him from digressing. Fulgentius is the first surviving author to give a global allegorization of the Aeneid. While reading the epic as a moral allegory of education and growth in virtue, he also shows awareness of other approaches to the poet’s works: examination of the Aeneid as a specimen of epideictic rhetoric, Christian interpretation of the fourth Eclogue, and the biographical approach found in Servius and other commentators. His own analysis relies heavily on etymologies, often from Greek (of which his knowledge is superficial, perhaps secondhand). His Latin has pretensions to elegance but is marred by redundancy and frequent solecisms. (Text: adapted, especially in orthography, from Fulgentius, Opera, ed. R. Helm, Bibliotheca Teubneriana [Leipzig, 1898], 86–107) (GH) ‘‘In omnibus nostris opusculis physici ordinis argumenta induximus, quo per duodena librorum volumina pleniorem humanae vitae monstras660

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

sem statum. Denique ideo talem dicendi exordium sumpsimus: ‘Arma virumque cano’ [Aeneid 1.1], in armis virtutem, in viro sapientiam demonstrantes; omnis enim perfectio in virtute constat corporis et sapientia ingenii. . . . Et quamvis oportuerit secundum dialecticam disciplinam primum personam edicere sicque personae congruentia enarrare, quo prima poneretur substantia, deinde accidens substantiae, ut primum virum sic etiam arma edicere (virtus enim in subiecto est corpore): sed quia laudis est adsumpta materia, ante meritum viri quam ipsum virum ediximus, quo sic ad personam veniretur iam recognita meriti qualitate. . . . Sed quo cognoscas me plenius laudis adsumpsisse materiam, vide quid in sequentibus dictum sit, et quod ‘fato profugus’ et ‘vi superum,’ quo intenderemus fortunae fuisse culpam, non virtutis debilitatem ut fugiret, et deos quam sapientiam esse culpabiles ut pericula sustentaret. . . . ‘‘Nam ut tuis saturantius aliquid adhuc satisfaciamus ingeniis, trifarius in vita humana gradus est: primum habere, deinde regere quod habeas, tertium vero ornare quod regis. Ergo tres gradus istos in uno versu nostro considera positos, id est: ‘arma,’ ‘virum,’ et ‘primus’: ‘arma,’ id est, virtus, pertinet ad substantiam corporalem, ‘virum,’ id est, sapientia, pertinet ad substantiam sensualem, ‘primus’ vero, id est, princeps, pertinet ad substantiam censualem, quo sit ordo huiusmodi: habere, regere, ornare. Ergo sub figuralitatem historiae plenum hominis monstravimus statum, ut sit prima natura, secunda doctrina, tertia felicitas. . . . Ergo et [in] infantibus quibus haec nostra materia traditur isti sunt ordines consequendi, quia omne honestum docibile nascitur, eruditur ne naturae vacet commoditas, ornatur etiam ne donum doctrinae inane sit. . . . ‘‘Omisso ergo antilogii circuitu coepti operis adgrediamur exordium. . . . Naufragium posuimus in modum periculosae nativitatis, in qua et maternum est pariendi dispendium vel infantum nascendi periculum. . . . Nam ut evidentius hoc intellegas, a Iunone, quae dea partus est, hoc naufragium generatur. . . . Nam et cum septem navibus evadit, quo ostendatur septenum arithmeticum numerum harmonicum esse partui. . . . Mox ut terram tangit, matrem videt nec agnoscit, plenam designantes infantiam quia a partu recentibus matrem videre datur, non tamen statim cognoscere meritum contribuitur. Dehinc nube conseptus socios cognoscit, adloqui non potest; vide quam evidens crepundiorum mos, dum adest inspiciendi potestas et deest loquendi facultas. Huic quoque Acaten ab initio coniungimus et post naufragium armigerum et in nube aeque conclusum; Acates enim Grece quasi acon etos, id est, ‘tristitiae consuetudo.’ Ab infantia enim erumnis coniuncta est humana natura. . . . At vero animum pictura inani quod pascit [see Aeneid 1.464], certum puerile studium refert; infantia enim videre novit, sentire F. F U L G E N T I U S

661

vero quid videat nescit, sicut in picturis est visibilitas, deest sensibilitas. Dehinc ad epulas accipitur et citharae sono mulcetur; parvulorum quippe mos est nihil amplius quaerere quam delectari sono et saturari cibo. Nam denique nomen eiusdem citharezantis considera; Iopas enim Grece quasi siopas dictus est, id est, ‘taciturnitas’ puerilis. Infantia enim blandiloquis semper nutricum cantibus oblectatur; unde et ‘crinitum’ eum posuimus vertici muliebri simillimum [see Aeneid 1.740]. Tunc etiam Cupidinem videt; cupere enim ac desiderare aliquid semper accedit infantiae. . . . ‘‘In secundo vero libro et tertio avocatur fabulis quibus puerilis consueta est avocari garrulitas. Nam in fine tertii libri Ciclopas videt Achemenide monstrante; acos enim Grece ‘tristitia’ dicitur, ciclos Grece ‘circulus’ vocatur. Ergo pueritia, quoniam pes ‘puer’ Grece dicitur, iam timore nutritorum feriata tristitiam cogitandi nescit et vaginam puerilem exercit. Ob hanc rem etiam Ciclops unum oculum in fronte habere dicitur, quia nec plenum nec rationalem visum puerilis vagina portat et omnis aetas puerilis in superbia erigatur ut Ciclops. Ideo in capite oculum, quod nihil nisi superbum et videat et sentiat. Quem sapientissimus Ulixes extinguit, id est: igne ingenii vana gloria cecatur. . . . Nam ut ordo se evidenti manifestatione delucidet, tunc patrem sepelit. Adcrescens enim iuvenalis aetas paterni vigoris respuit pondera. . . . ‘‘Feriatus ergo animus a paterno iudicio in quarto libro et venatu progreditur et amore torretur, et tempestate ac nubilo, velut in mentis conturbatione, coactus adulterium perficit. In quo diu commoratus Mercurio instigante libidinis suae male praesumptum amorem relinquit; Mercurius enim deus ponitur ingenii; ergo ingenio instigante aetas deserit amoris confinia. Qui quidem amor contemptus emoritur et in cineres exustus emigrat; dum enim de corde puerili auctoritate ingenii [libido] expellitur, sepulta in oblivionis cinere favillescit. ‘‘In quinto vero paternae memoriae contemplatione adtractus ludis iuvenalibus exercetur. Et quidnam aliud est nisi ut iam prudentior aetas paternae memoriae exempla secuta liberalibus corpus exerceat causis. Nam vide quia et pugillationem exercent, id est, virtutis artem Entellus et Dares peragunt; entellin enim Grece ‘imperare’ dicimus, derin ‘cedere’; quod et magistri in disciplinis faciunt. Tunc etiam et naves ardescunt, id est, instrumenta periculosa, quibus aetas tempestivis iactationum cursibus flagitatur et velut procellis periculorum cottidie quatitur. Igne ingenii superexcellente haec omnia consumuntur et scientia astutiae coalescente in favillam oblivionis sopita commigrant. Sed hoc incendium Beroe efficit quasi ‘veritatis ordo.’ ‘‘At vero in sexto ad templum Apollinis adveniens ad inferos discendit; Apollinem deum studii dicimus (ideo et Musis additum). Ergo postposito 662

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

lubricae aetatis naufragio et Palinuro omisso—Palinurus enim quasi planon orus, id est, ‘errabunda visio’ . . . ad templum Apollinis, id est, ad doctrinam studii, pervenitur; ibique de futurae vitae consultatur ordinibus et ad inferos discensus inquiritur, id est: dum quis futura considerat, tunc sapientiae obscura secretaque misteria penetrat. ‘‘Sepeliat ante et Misenum necesse est; misio enim Grece ‘horreo’ dicitur, enos vero ‘laus’ vocatur. Ergo nisi vanae laudis pompam obrueris, numquam secreta sapientiae penetrabis; vanae enim laudis appetitus numquam veritatem inquirit, sed falsa in se adulanter ingesta velut propria reputat. Denique etiam cum Tritone bucino atque conca certatur. Vides enim quam fixa proprietas; vanae enim laudis tumor ventosa voce turgescit, quem quidem Triton interimit quasi tetrimmenon quod nos Latine ‘contritum’ dicimus; omnis ergo contritio omnem vanam laudem extinguit. . . . Ut certius tibi planiusque liquescat quod dictum est, Carineum posuimus eius corpus igne cremasse; carin enim Grece ‘gratiam’ dicimus, eon vero ‘seculum’ nuncupamus. Gratia ergo saecularis vanae gloriae necesse est sepeliat cineres. ‘‘Sed tamen non antea discitur cognitio secretorum, nisi quis ramum decerpserit aureum, id est, doctrinae atque litterarum discatur studium. Ramum enim aureum pro scientia posuimus memores quia et mater mea ramum se somniat genuisse et Apollo cum ramo depingitur. . . . At vero aureum quod diximus, claritatem facundiae designare voluimus. . . . Nam et nos in Bucolicis ideo ‘mala aurea decem’ [Eclogues 3.71 aurea mala decem] posuimus, scilicet decem Eglogarum politam facundiam. . . . ‘‘Ergo . . . ramum aureum, id est doctrinam, adeptus inferos ingreditur et secreta scientiae perscrutatur. Sed in vestibulo inferorum luctus, morbos, bella, discordiam, senectutem atque egestatem videt. Quando ergo omnia in animo aut corde viri considerantur nisi percepto doctrinae studio et altiori scientia penetrata caligine? Tunc enim agnoscitur et inertis somnii ventosa delusio et senectutis propinquior ad mortem vicinia et bellum, avaritiae seminarium, et morbus, indigestionis et inmodestiae soboles, et scandala, ebrietatis germina, et famem, pigritiae et torporis vernaculam. ‘‘Ergo discendit ad inferos atque illic et poenas malorum et bonorum retributiones et amantum considerans tristes errores oculatus inspicit testis. Denique nauta Carone deportante transit Acherontem. Ideo et hic fluvius velut aestus habet ebullientes iuvenilium actuum; ideo et cenosus, quia non habent iuvenes digesta liquidaque consilia; Acheron enim Grece ‘sine tempus’ dicitur, Caron vero quasi ceron, id est, ‘tempus,’ unde et Polidegmonis filius dicitur; Polidegmon enim Grece ‘multae scientiae’ dicitur. Ergo dum ad tempus multae scientiae quis pervenerit, intemporales gurgitum cenositates morumque feculentias transit. F. F U L G E N T I U S

663

‘‘Deinde Tricerberum mellitis resopit offulis; Tricerberi enim fabulam iam superius exposuimus in modum iurgii forensisque litigii positam. . . . Ergo tunc iurgii calumnia discitur et venalis lingua in alienis negotiis exercetur, dum studii doctrina proficerit, sicut in advocatis nunc usque conspicitur. Sed melle sapientiae scandali dulcoratus resipiet rancor. ‘‘Deinde in secretis considerationibus admissus virorum fortium contemplatur imagines, id est, virtutis insignia monimentaque considerat. Ibi etiam et Deiphobi inspicit poenam; Deiphobus enim Grece aut quasi dimo fobus aut velut demo fobus, id est, aut ‘terroris timor’ aut ‘puplicus timor.’ Ergo qualislibet timor sit, iuste amputatis et manibus et oculis et auribus pingitur, illa videlicet ratione quod omnis timor nec quod videat sentit nec quod audiat scit nec quod gerat [sine manibus] novit. Denique et in somnis occiditur a Menelao; Grece enim Menelaus quasi mene lau, id est, ‘virtus populi’; quae quidem virtus omnem timorem semper somno deditum interficit. ‘‘Illic etiam et Dido videtur quasi amoris atque antiquae libidinis umbra iam vacua. Contemplando enim sapientiam libido iam contemptu emortua lacrimabiliter penitendo ad memoriam revocatur. ‘‘At vero dum ad locum illum venitur, ubi dicimus: ‘Porta adversa ingens solidoque adamante columnae, / vis ut nulla virum, non ipsi excindere ferro / caelicolae valeant, stat ferrea turris ad auras’ [Aeneid 6.552–54], vide quam evidentem superbiae atque tumoris imaginem designavimus. . . . Denique ibi etiam Gigantas videt et Ixionem et Salmoneum, omnes superbiae poena damnatos, nec non et Tantalum; Tantalus enim Grece quasi tean telon, id est, ‘visionem volens’; omnis enim avaritia ieiuna fruendi usu solae visionis imagine pascitur. Sed his locis iudex Radamantus Gnosius ponitur; Radamantum enim Grece quasi ta remata damonta, id est, ‘verbum domantem,’ gnoso enim ‘sentire’ dicitur: ergo qui verborum impetum dominari scit, hic superbiae et damnator est et contemptor. Denique Aeneas hoc strepitu terretur; vir enim pius superbiae voces et malorum poenas effugit ac pavescit. ‘‘Deinde ramum aureum postibus devotis infigit et ita Elisium ingreditur, quo clareat, dum perfectionem omisso iam labore discendi [ . . . ] memoriae quae in cerebro est sicut in postibus perpetue infigenda. Elisium ingreditur campum—elisis enim Grece ‘resolutio’ dicitur—id est, feriatam vitam post magistrianum timorem. Sicut enim inferni Proserpina regina est, ita scientiae regina memoria est, quae in elisis proserpens dominatur perenniter mentibus. Huic ergo doctrinae aureum ramulum dedicatur. . . . ‘‘Sed in Elisiis campis primum Museum videt, quasi Musarum donum, excelsiorem omnibus, qui ei etiam patrem ostendit Anchisen et Letheum fluvium, patrem scilicet ad tenendum gravitatis morem, Letheum vero ad

664

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

obliviscendam pueritiae levitatem. Denique ipsum nomen Anchisae considera; Anchises enim Grece quasi ano is scenon, id est, ‘†patrium† habitans unus.’ Deus enim pater, rex omnium, solus habitans in excelsis, qui quidem scientiae dono monstrante conspicitur. Nam et vide quid filium docet: ‘Principio caelum ac terram camposque liquentes / lucentemque globum lunae Titaniaque astra’ [Aeneid 6.724–25]. Vides ergo quia sicut Deum creatorem oportuit et de secretis naturae mysteriis docet [et] reduces iterum animas [iterum de vita] demonstrans et futura ostendit.’’ Ad haec ego: ‘‘O vatum Latialis authenta, itane tuum clarissimum ingenium tam stultae defensionis fuscare debuisti caligine? Tune ille qui dudum in Bucolicis mystice persecutus dixeras: ‘Iam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna; / iam nova progenies caelo promittitur alto’ [Eclogues 4.6–7 ‘‘demittitur alto’’], nunc vero dormitanti ingenio Academicum quippiam stertens ais: ‘Sublimes animas iterumque ad tarda reverti / corpora’ [Aeneid 6.720–21]?’’ . . . Ad haec ille subridens, ‘‘Si,’’ inquit, ‘‘inter tantas Stoicas veritates aliquid etiam Epicureum non desipissem, paganus non essem; nullo enim omnia vera nosse contingit nisi vobis, quibus sol veritatis inluxit. Neque enim hoc pacto in tuis libris conductus narrator accessi, ut id quod sentire me oportuerat, disputarem et non ea potius quae senseram lucidarem. Audi ergo quae restant. ‘‘In septimo vero Caieta nutrice sepulta, id est, magistriani timoris proiecta gravidine—unde et Caieta dicta est quasi ‘coactrix aetatis’; nam et apud antiquos caiatio dicebatur puerilis caedes . . . nam [in] evidenti monstratur quia in modum disciplinae posita est, dum diximus: ‘Aeternam moriens famam Caieta dedisti’ [Aeneid 7.2]; disciplina doctrinae quamvis studendo desciscat, aeternum tamen memoriae semen hereditat. Ergo pedagogantis suspectione sepulta ad desideratam olim pervenitur Ausoniam, id est, ad boni crementa, quo omnis sapientum voluntas avida alacritate festinat— Ausonia enim apo tu ausenin, id est, ‘cremento’—sive etiam quod usque in hac aetate crementa sint corporum. Denique tunc et uxorem petit Laviniam, id est, ‘laborum viam’; ab hac enim aetate unusquis suis utilitatum emolumentis laborum asciscit suffragia; unde et filia Latini dicta est. . . . Latinus enim quasi a ‘latitando’ dictus, quod omnis labor diversis in locis latitet. . . . ‘‘Deinde in octavo Evandri auxilium petit; eu andros enim Grece ‘bonus vir’ dicitur. Ergo iam perfectio virilis humanae bonitatis societatem inquirit, a qua bonitatis virtutes, id est, Herculis gloriam, audit, quemadmodum Cacum occiderit, quod nos Latine ‘malum’ dicimus. Deinde arma Vulcania, id est, igniti sensus munimina adversus omnem malitiae temptamentum induitur.

F. F U L G E N T I U S

665

Vulcanus enim quasi bulen cauton, id est, ‘ardens consilium,’ dicimus. Ideo illic etiam omnes Romanorum depictae virtutes sunt, quod in sapientiae consulto munimine felicitates omnes aut conveniunt aut praevidentur. . . . ‘‘In nono vero ipsis armis adiutus contra Turnum pugnat; Turnus enim Grece quasi turos nus dicitur, id est, ‘furibundus sensus’; contra omnem enim furiam sapientiae atque ingenii arma reluptant. . . . Exhinc etiam Mezentium contemtorem deorum interficit; Deus enim omnia bona fieri et praestat et imperat, sed animus qui est in corpore medius contemnendo bona non complet reluptatque bonis inlesione sua. Cuius ausus ledentes quasi Lausum filium eius vir sapiens interimit; dehinc ipsum animum vincit. . . . Victor tunc demum trutanae aequa lance morum gravitate ponderatur ac disponitur. Deinde Iuturna bello discedere praecipitur, quae currum etiam fratris regebat; Iuturna enim in modum perniciei ponitur quod diuturne permaneat. Ergo furibundae mentis pernicies soror est; currum vero eius quod regit et eum de morte protelat, certe, pernicies quod furorem diu producere novit ne finiatur. . . . Ideo et ipsa inmortalis dicitur, Turnus vero mortalis dicitur; furor enim animi cito finitur, pernicies vero diuturna perseverat.’’

‘‘In each book of my poem I have introduced material of an allegorical nature, so as to display the entire course of human life in the twelve individual books. It is for this reason that I chose the opening line ‘Of arms and the man I sing,’ suggesting by ‘arms’ strength and by ‘man’ wisdom. For complete perfection consists in bodily strength and intellectual wisdom. . . . And although according to the principles of formal logic it would have been proper first to introduce the person and then to detail the characteristics of the person, so that the substance should come first, then its contingent attributes—that is, to put ‘man’ first, then ‘arms’ (for strength is an attribute present in a subject)—yet because I had embarked upon a poem of praise, I introduced the man’s character before the man himself, so that when one reaches the man himself one will already know his character. . . . But in order to recognize more clearly that I have embarked on a poem of praise, note what is said in the following lines: ‘forced by fate’ and ‘compelled by the gods,’ so that we should understand that it was fortune’s fault, and not for lack of courage, that he fled, and that the gods, and not wisdom, were responsible for his enduring all those perils. . . . ‘‘And to satisfy your curiosity a little further, there is in human life a threefold sequence: first possession, then the proper employment of that possession, and finally the rewards that follow such employment. And observe that these three stages are contained in a single line of mine, that is, ‘arms,’ ‘man,’ and ‘first.’ For ‘arms,’ that is, strength, refers to physical powers; ‘man,’ that is, 666

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

wisdom, refers to intellectual powers; while ‘first,’ that is, leader, refers to worldly power, so that the sequence is as follows: possession, employment, reward. Thus under the guise of a fiction I have shown the entire course of human life, so that there is, first, natural ability; second, education; third, happiness. . . . So too for the children for whom this work of mine is intended, these are the stages to follow, for every good child is born with a capacity for learning, is educated lest its natural capacity should go to waste, and is rewarded, lest the gift of education should have been for naught. . . . ‘‘But setting aside this lengthy introduction, let me turn to the opening of the work. . . . I meant the shipwreck to symbolize the risks of childbirth, in which there is both danger for the mother in giving birth and peril for children in being born. . . . And so that you might better understand this, the shipwreck is set in motion by Juno, who is the goddess of childbirth. . . . Again, he escapes with seven ships, by which it is shown that the number 7 is propitious to birth. . . . As soon as he makes land, he sees his mother, but does not recognize her, an obvious indication of infancy, because newborn children are able to see their mother, but not at once to recognize her. Then, concealed in a cloud, he recognizes his comrades, but cannot speak to them; note how typical this is of the state of infants, who have the power of vision but not the faculty of speech. And I paired him with Achates right from the beginning, both as his squire after the shipwreck and enclosed along with him in the cloud. For Achates in Greek is, as it were, acon etos, that is, the ‘habit of sadness.’ For human beings are joined to sorrows from infancy. . . . But the fact that he ‘feeds his mind’ on a ‘mere picture’ unmistakably represents the habits of children; for the infant can see, but not touch what it sees, just as in pictures there is visibility, but not palpability. Next he is invited to dinner and is lulled by the sound of the cithara. For it is typical of small children that they want only to be pleased by sounds and filled with food. And consider the name of the cithara-player. For Iopas in Greek is, as it were, siopas, that is, the ‘silence’ of a child. For the infant is always delighted by the soothing songs of its nurses; which is why I have depicted him as ‘wearing his hair long’ like that on a woman’s head. Then he sees Cupid [Desire]; for it is a constant characteristic of infants to long for and desire something. . . . ‘‘In the second and third books he is distracted by stories, which is what normally distracts a chattering child. And at the end of the third book he sees the Cyclopes, with Achaemenides as his guide. For acos means ‘sadness’ in Greek, and a circle in Greek is called ciclos [kyklos]. Thus a child—for a child is called pes [pais] in Greek—freed from fear of his nurses, does not know sad thoughts and is wayward. For this reason the Cyclops is said to have only one eye in his forehead, because the wayward child has neither full nor rational vision, and F. F U L G E N T I U S

667

children are high and mighty like a Cyclops. This is why the eye is in his head, because he sees and hears nothing but pridefulness. And the wise Ulysses slays him, that is: vain self-satisfaction is blinded by the fire of the intelligence. . . . And to make things absolutely crystal clear, he goes on to bury his father. For a growing youth shrugs o√ the burden of paternal discipline. . . . ‘‘Released from his father’s control, then, in the fourth book he goes a-hunting and feels the burning of lust and while driven by a storm and clouds—as it were, in confusion of mind—commits adultery. And after dallying there for a long while, at Mercury’s instigation he abandons the lustfulness which he wrongly embraced. For Mercury represents the god of intelligence. Thus at the instigation of intelligence the youth deserts the bounds of lust. And once it has been rejected, desire perishes and, having burned itself out, is turned to ash. For when [lust] is expelled from the youth’s heart at the bidding of intelligence, it gutters in the ashes of oblivion. ‘‘In the fifth book, impelled by thoughts of his father’s memory, he takes part in the games of youth. And what does this mean but that the prudent youth, following the example of his father’s memory, employs his body in worthy occupations. For notice that, among other things, Entellus and Dares engage in boxing, that is, they practice the art of virtue. For entellin means ‘to order’ in Greek, derin, ‘to beat’; which is what teachers do in the classroom. Then too they burn the ships, that is, the dangerous instruments in which youth was blown by the tempestuous surges of billows and shaken daily, as it were, by perilous storms. All of these are consumed by the overpowering fire of intellect, and as knowledge increases they pass quietly into the ashes of oblivion. But the person who kindles this fire is Beroe, standing for truth [Beroe = veritatis ordo]. ‘‘Now in the sixth book he arrives at the temple of Apollo and descends to the underworld; Apollo we interpret as the god of learning (this is why he is associated with the Muses). So when the shipwrecks of youthful instability have been put behind him, and when Palinurus has been cast away—for Palinurus is, as it were, planon orus, that is, ‘roving eye,’ . . . he arrives at the temple of Apollo, that is, the pursuit of learning; and there he consults about the course of his future life and seeks a route down to the underworld—that is, when a man thinks about the future, he gains access to the abstruse and hidden mysteries of wisdom. ‘‘And first he has to bury Misenus. For misio in Greek means ‘abhor,’ and enos means ‘praise.’ Thus unless you lay to rest the pomposity of false praise, you will never penetrate the secrets of wisdom. For an appetite for false praise will never seek out truth, but it treats as accurate the falsehoods heaped upon it by flattery. Again, he challenges Triton with a horn and conch shell. And you see 668

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

how appropriate this is; for the arrogance of false praise is pu√ed up by windy words, but is slain by Triton, as it were, tetrimmenon, or, as we say in Latin, ‘contrite.’ For contrition extinguishes false praise. . . . To underline still further what I have just said, I have made Carineus cremate his body with fire. For carin in Greek means ‘grace,’ while eon means ‘age.’ And it is fitting that the grace of age should lay to rest the ashes of vainglory. ‘‘Yet understanding of things hidden will not be achieved unless one plucks the golden bough, that is, unless learning and letters are mastered. For I meant the golden bough to symbolize knowledge, recalling that my own mother dreamed that she gave birth to a bough—and Apollo is depicted with a bough as well. . . . And I described it as golden, because I wanted to symbolize the nobility of eloquence. . . . So too I inserted in my Bucolics a reference to ‘ten golden apples,’ symbolizing the polished eloquence of the Eclogues themselves. ‘‘And so [having obtained] the golden bough, that is, learning, he visits the underworld and examines closely the mysteries of knowledge. But at the threshold of the underworld he sees grief, sickness, wars, discord, old age, and poverty. And when are all these things considered in a man’s heart and mind, if not when he has acquired learning and when darkness has been pierced by deeper knowledge? For then he becomes conscious of the empty delusions of passive sloth and the approach of old age, which is next door to death; and war, the product of avarice; and disease, the o√spring of gluttony and dissipation; and scandals, the fruit of drunkenness; and hunger, the foster child of sloth and torpor. ‘‘So he descends to the underworld, and there as an eyewitness he contemplates the punishments of evildoers and the rewards of the good and the tragic lapses of lovers. Then he crosses Acheron, with the boatman Charon as his conveyor. And this river has turbulent waves, as it were, the turbulent behavior of young men. And it is represented as muddy because young men do not possess well-thought-out and clear ideas. And Acheron in Greek means ‘without time,’ while Charon is, as it were, ceron, that is, ‘time,’ which is also why he is the son of Polidegmon. For Polidegmon in Greek means ‘of much learning.’ Thus when someone comes to the time of much learning, he passes beyond foul and untimely confusion and moral squalor. ‘‘Then he lulls Cerberus to sleep with honeyed sops. For the story of Cerberus I have explained above [Mitologiae 1.6, ed. Helm, p. 20.10] as symbolizing lawsuits and legal disputation. . . . For at this stage litigious libels are mastered, and the hired speaker busies himself with other people’s a√airs and profits from his learning—as we see in lawyers to this very day. But the foulness of scandal tastes better when sweetened by the honey of wisdom. ‘‘Then, initiated into deeper wisdom, he sees the shades of great men, that F. F U L G E N T I U S

669

is, he contemplates the glories and triumphs of virtue. There too he observes the punishment of Deiphobus; for Deiphobus in Greek is either dimo fobus or demo fobus, that is, either ‘fearful terror’ or ‘public terror.’ Anyway, whatever sort of terror it is, it is rightly depicted as being deprived of hands, eyes, and ears, because fear does not know what it sees, or recognize what it hears, or realize what it does [without hands]. And he is killed in his sleep by Menelaus. For Menelaus in Greek stands for mene lau, that is, ‘public virtue.’ And this virtue destroys fear, which is always given over to sleep. ‘‘And there too Dido is seen, symbolizing the shade of lust and the desire of old, now powerless. For when wisdom is meditated upon, the lust that had perished from disdain is grievously recalled to mind through repentance. ‘‘But when he comes to that point where I say, ‘A great gate stands opposite and columns of solid adamant, so that no human power, not even the gods themselves, could break it with weapons; an iron tower rises into the air’—well, just look at what a manifest image of pride and arrogance I have painted. . . . And there he sees the Giants, and Ixion, and Salmoneus, all of them damned as a punishment for pride, and Tantalus as well; for Tantalus in Greek is, as it were, tean telon, that is, ‘desiring an appearance.’ For avarice, deprived of the power of enjoyment, feeds on the mere appearance of what it sees. Now, Rhadamanthus of Cnossus is set as judge over these realms. For Rhadamanthus in Greek is, as it were, ta remata damonta, that is, ‘controlling his words’; gnoso means ‘to understand.’ So he who knows how to control the force of his words condemns pride and despises it. And Aeneas is terrified by this sound, because the pious man fears and shies away from the words of pride and the punishments of evil men. ‘‘Then he fixes the golden bough to the hallowed gateposts and thus enters Elysium, so as to show that after one is through with the hard work of learning, [and has attained] mastery, [the lessons learned] should be fixed forever in the memory, which is situated in the mind, as if upon doorposts. He enters the Elysian fields—for elisis is Greek for ‘relaxation’—that is, a life of relaxation after being intimidated by his teachers. For just as Proserpina is the queen of the underworld, so the queen of knowledge is memory, making its way [proserpens] into the minds of those who have been released and ruling over them forever. And it is to her that the golden bough of learning is dedicated. . . . ‘‘But in the Elysian fields he first sees Musaeus, representing the gift of the Muses [Musarum donum], towering above the others, and he also points out to him his father, Anchises, and the river Lethe—his father symbolizing the attainment of responsibility, and Lethe the forgetting of childish frivolities. And consider that name, Anchises: Anchises stands for the Greek ano is scenon, that is, ‘one dwelling [on high]’; for there is one God, the father, the king of 670

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

all, dwelling alone on high, who in fact is seen when revealed by the gift of knowledge. And look at what he teaches his son: ‘In the beginning the sky and the earth and the expanses of sea and the shining globe of the moon and the Titanian stars.’ Observe, then, that as befits the Creator he teaches about the hidden mysteries of nature, displaying souls returning once more, and reveals things yet to come.’’ At this point I interrupted: ‘‘O chiefest of Latin bards, how could you have darkened your brilliant mind with the shadows of such a foolish assertion? You who once in the Eclogues, speaking allegorically, said: ‘Now the Virgin returns, the reign of Saturn returns; now a new child is sent forth from heaven on high’—have you now put your brain to sleep and, mouthing some Platonic dogma, tell us that ‘the souls on high return again to their dull bodies’?’’ . . . At this he smiled and said, ‘‘If among all these Stoic truths I did not also show a touch of Epicureanism, I would not be a pagan; for no one can know the truth of all things except those of you on whom the sun of truth has shone. But I did not hire on as the narrator of your work in order to argue about what I ought to have meant, but rather to reveal what I did mean. So listen to the rest of what I have to say. ‘‘In the seventh book when he has buried his nurse Caieta, that is, when he has unburdened himself of fear of his teachers—and this is why she is named Caieta, as it were the coactrix aetatis [compeller of youth]; for among the ancients corporal punishment was called caiatio. . . . And it is made perfectly clear that she symbolizes education, when I say: ‘In death, Caieta, you have left immortal glory behind.’ For even when he ceases from formal study, the learned man inherits the eternal seed of memory. Thus having cast o√ awe of his instructor, he reaches the long-desired land of Ausonia, that is, the growth of virtue, to which wise men willingly hasten as fast as they can—for Ausonia is derived apo tu ausenin, that is, from ‘growth’—perhaps also because the body continues to grow up until this age. Then he seeks Lavinia as his wife, that is, laborum viam [the route of labor]; for from this age everyone seeks the aid of labor for the increase of his resources. Which is why she is said to be the daughter of Latinus . . . for Latinus is named as it were a latitando [from lurking], because labor lurks in di√erent places. . . . ‘‘Then in the eighth book he seeks the aid of Evander. For eu andros is Greek for ‘good man.’ Thus manly perfection seeks the company of good men, from whom it hears the virtues of goodness, that is, the glory of Hercules, and how he killed Cacus, or ‘evil’ as we say in Latin. Then he dons the arms of Vulcan, that is, the protection of a mind alert against every temptation of evil. For

F. F U L G E N T I U S

671

Vulcan means as it were bulen cauton, that is, ‘bright-burning counsel.’ All the virtues of the Romans are depicted there for that reason, because in the judicious safeguard of wisdom all happiness is embodied or prefigured. ‘‘In the ninth book with the help of these arms he fights against Turnus. For Turnus is equivalent to the Greek turos nus, that is, ‘raging mind.’ For the arms of wisdom and intelligence contend against every sort of rage. . . . After this he also kills Mezentius, who ‘scorns the gods.’ For God both directs and makes it possible for all good things to come into being, but the soul that is medius [inside] the body by scorning good things does not comply, and resists what is good, to its own hurt. Its laedentes ausus [harmful acts of presumption] the wise man slays in the person of his son Lausus. Then he triumphs over his own soul. . . . He is then weighed and judged the victor by the impartial balance of the scales by the weight of his character. Then Juturna, who was driving her brother’s chariot, is ordered to exit the battle. For Juturna symbolizes destruction, which remains diuturne [for a long time]. Thus destruction is the sister of a raging mind. But the fact that she drives his chariot and speeds him away from death—this is clearly because destruction can prolong furor so that there is no end to it. . . . This is why she is called immortal, while Turnus is called mortal; for the mind’s rage is quickly finished, but the damage it does remains and is long-lasting.’’ (GH) G. VIRGILIUS MARO GRAMMATICUS (flourished circa 650) Virgilius is the author of two incomplete and enigmatic works, Epitomae, in fifteen sections, and eight Epistles, modeled on the Ars maior and Ars minor of Aelius Donatus, respectively (see above, II.A.1). Although his time of activity has been dated variously between the fifth and ninth centuries, it is now widely accepted that he flourished around 650. As for place of activity, an old assumption that Virgilius came from Toulouse has long been contested by a proposal of Irish origin. What follow are the first two, the beginning of the third, and the eighth segments of Epitomae 15 (‘‘De catalogo grammaticorum’’), extant in only four complete manuscripts. (Discussion: M. W. Herren, ‘‘Virgil the Grammarian: A Spanish Jew in Ireland?’’ Peritia 9 [1995], 51–71) (Text: Virgilius Maro Grammaticus, Epitomi ed Epistole, ed. G. Polara [Naples, 1979]. A more recent edition is Virgilius Maro Grammaticus, Opera omnia, ed. B. Löfstedt [Munich, 2003].) 1. Primus igitur fuit quidam senex Donatus apud Troeam, quem ferunt mile [sic] vixisse annis; hic cum ad Romulum, a quo condita est Roma urbs, venisset, gratulantissime ab eodem susceptus quattuor continuos ibi fecit annos, scolam construens et innumerabilia opuscula relinquens, in quibus 672

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

problismata proponebat dicens: quae sit mulier illa, o fili, quae ubera sua innumeris filiis porregit, quae quantum suxa fuerint, tantum in ea inundant?, hoc est sapientia; quid interest inter verbum et sermonem et sententiam et loquelam orationemque?, verbum est omne quod lingua profertur et voce; sermo autem, cuius nomen ex duobus verbis conpossitum est, hoc est serendo et monendo, comptior ac diligentior fit; sententia vero quae sensu concipitur; porro loquela est quando cum quadam eloquentia dictionis ordo protexitur; oratio est quando usque ad manuum artem discribendi oratorius sermo perveniat. 2. Fuit itidem apud Troeam quidam Virgilius eiusdem Donati auditor, qui in discribendis versibus diligentissimus erat, qui LXX volumina de ratione metri scribens et epistolam ad Virgilium Assianum misam de verbi explanatione. Tertius Virgilius ego. 3. Nam Virgilius Assianus praedicti discens fuit, vir admodum ministratorius sanctis viris ut numquam in sede eum vocantis sermo inveniret; hunc vidi meis oculis, et puerulo mihi notas caraxavit; hic scribsit librum nobilem de duodecim Latinitatibus. . . . 8. Erant praeterea tres Vulcani, unus in Arabia, alius in India, tertius in Affrica, quos Aeneas meus praeceptores habuit, quorum libros meditante notaria arte in lucidam discriptionem transtulit. In quibus repperit quod vir quidam Maro fuerit prope diluvium, cuius sapientiam nulla narrare saecula potebunt; unde Aeneas cum me vidisset ingeniosum hoc me vocabulo iussit nominari dicens: hic filius meus Maro vocabitur, quia in eo antiqui Maronis spiritus redivivit.

1. There was an aged man by the name of Donatus, at Troy, who lived, they say, for a thousand years. When he came to Romulus, the founder of the city of Rome, he was received with the greatest rejoicing and stayed there for four years. During this time he built up a school and left innumerable works in which he posed various riddles, saying: ‘‘My son, who is the woman who o√ers her breasts to countless o√spring, and however much they are sucked they flow just as richly?’’ The answer is Wisdom. ‘‘What is the di√erence between verbum [word], sermo [speech], sententia [sentence], loquela [utterance], and oratio [discourse]?’’ Whatever the tongue and voice produce is word; speech, however, which gets its name from the combination of two words, serendo [sowing] and monendo [admonishing], is more ornate and diligent; a sentence is what is conceived with one’s sense; an utterance is when the sequence of speech is woven with a certain degree of eloquence; and discourse is when oratorical speech reaches right up to the point of elaboration with the hands. 2. Likewise at Troy was one Virgilius, a pupil of Donatus. He was extremely G. VIRGILIUS MARO GRAMMATICUS

673

energetic at copying out verses. It was he who wrote seventy books on meter and a letter on the verb sent to Virgilius of Asia. The third Virgilius is myself. 3. Virgilius of Asia was the student of the aforesaid. He was a man so solicitous to the needs of holy persons that a call never found him sitting idly. I saw him with my own eyes, and when I was a boy he wrote out signs for me. He wrote a splendid book on the twelve Latins. . . . 8. There were in addition three Vulcans, one in Arabia, another in India, and a third in Africa. My Aeneas had them as his teachers and made a fair copy of their books via the art of shorthand. In them he found that there was a man called Maro near the Flood whose wisdom no age will be able to relate. Hence, when Aeneas saw that I was possessed of a modicum of wit, he ordered that I should be called by this name, saying: ‘‘This my son shall be called Maro, for in him the spirit of the ancient Maro has come back to life.’’ (V. Law, Wisdom, Authority and Grammar in the Seventh Century [Cambridge, 1995], 112, 115) H. SCHOLIA BERNENSIA ON ECLOGUES 4 (assembled in ninth century) The so-called Bern Scholia consist of an anonymous marginal commentary on the Eclogues and part of the Georgics, found in Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 172, a ninth-century codex written in Carolingian minuscule and known as ‘‘Floriacensis’’ after the monastery of Fleury, its place of origin. There are clearly related sets of glosses in MSS 165 and 167 of the same library, but the portion in MS 172 is the most complete and extensive and must form the basis and the bulk of any future edition of the Scholia Bernensia. Other material exists that is related, though less closely so. First are two texts, conventionally ascribed to Philargyrius (see above, IV.D.1), that bear the title Explanatio in Bucolica Vergilii (Exposition of Virgil’s Eclogues), usually designated I and II. (Text: Thilo-Hagen 3.2:1–189) Second is an anonymous and incomplete Brevis expositio (Brief Exposition) of the first and part of the second book of the Georgics. (Text: Thilo-Hagen 3.2:193–320) The two Explanationes and the Brevis expositio are each contained in three manuscripts: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 11308 and MS lat. 7960; and Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Plut. 45.14. Related material is said to be found wholly or partly in more than seventy di√erent codices. (See G. Funaioli, Esegesi virgiliana antica [Milan, 1930], 11–18.) The portmanteau term Scholia Bernensia presents a misleading impression of the homogeneity of the material. The oldest and most important of the codices appear to have been written at such centers as Auxerre and Reims in northern France, but the evidence of abbreviations, orthography, and even

674

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

occasional glosses in Old Irish (see below, IV.I) demonstrates that their archetypes came from an Irish center, whether on the continent or in Ireland itself. It is generally accepted that an influential precursor of our commentary was one compiled by Adomnán, abbot of Iona (died 704), incorporating a body of material that he in turn derived from Philargyrius, an otherwise unknown pagan commentator of the putative Milan school. The existence of the so-called Milan school is purely hypothetical, being based entirely on glosses that appear in the Scholia Bernensia between the commentaries on the Eclogues and the Georgics: Haec omnia de commentariis romanorum congregavi, id est, Titi Galli et Gaudentii et maxime Iunilii Flagrii mediolanenses [sic]. Iunilius Flagrius Valentiano Mediolani (I assembled all these notes from the commentaries of the Romans, namely, Titus Gallus, Gaudentius, and [chiefly] Junilius Flagrius of Milan. Junilius Flagrius to Valentianus of Milan). From these glosses most scholars have concluded that Flagrius is probably a misspelling of Filargirius (Philargyrius: see above, II.A.5–6 and IV.D.1), to whom many of the glosses of the Scholia Bernensia are explicitly ascribed, and that the apparently Milanese background of at least two of those named argues for the existence of a school of Virgilian commentary based at Milan. Nevertheless, research suggests that the authentic Milanese content is, in reality, far smaller than has been previously imagined, and the contribution of Irish and Carolingian scholars correspondingly greater. Commentaries such as the Scholia Bernensia were not copied and transmitted with the same reverence that was accorded to classical literary works. Rather they were constantly subjected to modification, deletion, and interpolation at the discretion of the scholar—or mere scribe—who copied them, in accordance with the perceived needs of those for whom they were intended. It follows, then, that the established methods of textual criticism, by which an ancient and original literary work is reconstructed from the extant manuscripts, cannot be employed in the handling of commentaries and glosses, for no single antique original may ever have existed. To put it another way, each new commentary may draw heavily upon one or more original sources, but it is itself a new and unique composition assembled from a diversity of material of varying age and value (some doubtless contemporary), at the compiler’s discretion. Where does a new commentary begin—or how does an old one end? It further follows that the final printed edition of a commentary must not conceal the true character of the manuscript (or manuscripts) from which it is derived, and that the modern editor ought to resist the temptation to fabricate a coherent and integrated commentary by padding it out with borrowings from Servius, for example, in order to avoid obscurity. The reality is that the

H. SCHOLIA BERNENSIA ON ECLOGUES 4

675

scribe may have written as a matter of deliberate choice what we would regard as unintelligible. These di≈culties are well illustrated in the edition of the Scholia Bernensia commentary on Eclogues 4 that follows. The commentary incorporates much disparate material, uncritically and without any attempt at assimilation: successive glosses often contradict one another. Accordingly, the letters a, b, and so forth have been assigned to indicate when a gloss is apparently independent from adjacent ones. As an example of scribal uncertainty, is Pollio’s son to be called Salonius or Saloninus? Clearly, the most recent scribe was uncertain, choosing purposefully, it would seem, to alternate between the two in the hope of being right at least half the time. The promiscuous ascription of the title Lucina to both Juno and Diana is another example of a reluctance to commit to a particular interpretation. Some very basic glosses (for example, 4d, 9b, 13b, and 26) are surely included for the benefit of the monastic schoolroom and for the use of people whose first language was not Latin. If we are looking for traces of the Milanese school we shall not find them here. The alternative Christian interpretation of some lemmata is of great interest. Obviously it is a late addition to the tradition, as is clear from its normal placement as the final note (2d is a good example). Though the language of the gloss is fractured, it contains a grain of ancient common sense. The bald reference to Christ was probably felt to be an easy way out by the scribe who wrote it. Finally, the Scholia Bernensia are rarely impressive as a source of botanical information. Is this evidence of their compilation well to the north of the Mediterranean world, where the plants described were totally unfamiliar? See, for example, 2c, 19b, and 25c. The word liqueat (27a and 53b) must mean liceat, but does this represent a significant dialectal variation, or simply the eccentric spelling of a single scribe? Many will find the Scholia Bernensia a collection of half-understood and illassorted notes on the work of a great poet. Some will see them as the product of a benighted age. But they do show that readers tried, with the pathetically limited aids available to them, to follow their predecessors in the great tradition. And they probably show that at least some of the poetry of Virgil was used to teach Latin to monastic novices in Ireland and Britain in the early Middle Ages. (Text: Scholia Bernensia in Vergilii Bucolica et Georgica, ed. L. Cadili, D. Daintree, and M. Geymonat, 2 vols. to date [Amsterdam, 2003–]) (DD) [fol. 10v] [left margin] a. Hanc eglogam scriptam esse aiunt in Asinium Pollionem. Quidam in filium eius Saloninum, alii in ipsum Caesarem. Saloninus dictus a Salonis, ci-

676

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

vitate Dalmatiae, nam Pollio pro consule Dalmatiae constitutus progenuit eum. b. In hac egloga solus poeta loquitur de restauratione novi seculi. Hoc est Saturni regnum aureum sub Octaviano adulanter restauratur, quod secundum Christianos ad novum testamentum per Christum et Mariam renovatum de pravato convenit. Hanc eglogam alii dicunt in laudem Pollionis eum fecisse, alii autem in filium eius Salonium, qui ab eo nomen accipit quod illo tempore pater eius Salonas expugnavit. Alii in laudem Caesaris sive Marcelli filii Octaviae. [right margin] c. In hac egloga simpliciter poeta canit genesim renascentis mundi sub Caesaribus. d. In hac egloga poeta duobus modis Augusto adolatur, habundantia rerum et carminis modulamine. e. In hac egloga palingenesiam inducit, id est, mundi iterum infantiam. f. Haec egloga sic habetur quasi in Sicilia. g. Haec egloga aliquando sic habetur quasi in agro, ut ‘‘Non omnis arbusta iuvant’’; aliquando in urbe, [ut] ‘‘Incipe, parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem.’’ h. Haec egloga non proprie bucolicon dicitur. Novi seculi interpretatio quod praedixit Sibylla. [left] 1a. ‘‘Sicilides’’: Siciliae facit mentionem quia Theocritum Siculum imitatur in bucolicis. 1b. ‘‘Musae’’: vocativus casus. 1c. ‘‘Paulo maiora’’: maiorem laudem. [right] 1d. ‘‘Sicilides Musae’’: Musas Siculas invocat, quoniam Siculus fuit Theocritus quem in bucolicis imitatur. 1e. ‘‘Sicilides’’: id est, Sicilienses. 1f. ‘‘Paulo maiora canamus’’: quia novum seculum de quo dicturus est vetus praecellit. [left] 2a. ‘‘Omnis’’: pro omnia. 2b. ‘‘Non omnis arbusta iuvant’’: id est, non omnis delectat pastorale carmen. Iuvat: delectat. 2c. ‘‘Myricae’’: genus frutecti. [right] 2d. ‘‘Non omnis arbusta iuvant’’: ac si alligorice diceret: ‘‘non omnes

H. SCHOLIA BERNENSIA ON ECLOGUES 4

677

populi laudem emunt’’ vel vicem laudis suae reddunt. Ideo regnum Octaviani et consules laudabo et cantabo [et cantabo]; vel omnia ad Christum referuntur. 2e. ‘‘Myricae’’: virgultum infructuosum; alligorice carmina humiliora. [left] 3a. ‘‘Si canimus silvas’’: si de rusticis rebus scribimus. 3b. ‘‘Consule’’: Pollione qui praeerat agris dividendis. [right] 3c. ‘‘Si canimus silvas’’: id est, sic animus meus digne silvas, id est, pastorale carmen expediat, vel sic animus Pollionis silvas diligat, hoc est carmen meum. 3d. ‘‘Silvae sint consule dignae’’: id est, possim et ego in bucolicis digne aliquid de Pollione scribere, qui utique erat designatus consul eo tempore quo agris praeerat dividendis. [left] 4a. ‘‘Ultima’’: supprema. 4b. ‘‘Cymaei’’: Sibylliaci. 4c. ‘‘Cymaei’’: quia Sibylla quattuor deorum descripsit regna, quae ‘‘Cymaea’’ dicitur de monte Cymo, et haec est Sibylla quae de Christo cecinit multa. Sed melius Hesiodi carminis quo Cymaeus de Cyme Asiae civitate dicitur. 4d. ‘‘Aetas’’: tempus. [right] 4e. ‘‘Ultima Cymaei’’: alii Sibyllam quae Cymaea fuit intellegunt, quae quattuor secula libris suis digessit: aureum, argenteum, aereum et ferreum. Alii verius Hesiodum qui aput Cymem urbem Asiae vixit quique per ordinem, ut Sibylla, deorum regna scripsit et ait regna in caelo esse diversa: primum Saturni fuisse aureum; deinde Iovis argenteum; Neptuni aeneum; ferreum postremo Apollinis. Hoc sequitur Virgilius regnum, quod posteritatem significat et ad Apollinem pertinere ait, et in honorem Caesaris quia Apollinem se Augustus vult accipi. 4f. ‘‘Ultima Cymaei carminis’’: quod Cymae Sibylla descripsit, in quo praedixit futuris seculis tempora meliora. [left] 5a. ‘‘Magnus ab integro’’: ab origine, de novo, ab initio, denuo. Hoc est, ut fuerunt bona, ita et nunc erunt. 6a. ‘‘Virgo’’: Iustitia inter rusticos morata, fugiens mores hominum malos, in caelum abisse fertur et nunc redisse. 6b. ‘‘Virgo’’: Iustitia quae decrevit propter hominum conversationes; vel Terra, quae nunc frugifera sicut et tunc; vel, secundum nos, Maria. 678

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

[right] 6c. ‘‘Iam redit et virgo’’: id est, incorrupta Iustitia, quae fugiens malos hominum mores in caelum dicitur abisse. 6d. ‘‘Redeunt saturnia regna’’: quae credebantur aurea fuisse. Quattuor etenim secula dixerunt extitisse, id est, aureum, argenteum, aereum, ferreum. Ergo aureum dictum est esse redditurum. [left] 7a. ‘‘Progenies’’: Saloninus vel Augustus vel Christus vel Marcellus, Octaviae filius. 7b. ‘‘Caelo’’: a caelo vel de caelo, quia volebat eum credi a diis genitum, vel per hoc Pollioni adolatur dum eum habere dicit honorem deorum. [right] 7c. ‘‘Iam nova progenies’’: Salonium dicit, filium Pollionis, qui multis cum prodigiis natus esse dicitur, et risisse statim, et locutus esse, et XX digitos in manibus habuisse, et nono die obisse, unde propter praesentia mala, cupiditate temporum meliorum, coniciebat alium seculum secuturum. [left] 8a. ‘‘Tu’’: Diana. 8b. ‘‘Puero’’: Phoebo vel Salonino. 8c. ‘‘Quo ferrea primum’’: gens laboriosa, vel lex vetus, vel aemulos Romanorum compescet puer. [right] 8d. ‘‘Tu modo nascenti puero casta fave lucina’’: id est, Salonio fave, Diana, quam nascentes pueros in lucem educere putabant. 8e. ‘‘Quo ferrea primum’’: id est, desinit ferreum seculum ut oriatur aureum. 9a. ‘‘Gens aurea’’: Romani in deliciis, aut aurea domus Romae, vel nova lex aurea. [left] 9b. ‘‘Desinet’’: cessabit. 10a. ‘‘Lucina’’: id est, Diana, quae apud Latinos Lucina dicitur, apud Graecos Ilithyia. 10b. ‘‘Lucina’’: dea quae parturientibus lucem praebere dicitur, quae duas lampades duasque pupillas habere dicitur, quod nascentibus pueris lucem perennem det, vel quod luci praesit. [right] 10c. ‘‘Tuus’’: o Diana. 10d. ‘‘Iam regnat Apollo’’: quia dixerunt Apollinem quandoque regnaturum, qui frater Dianae putabatur vel per Apollinem Caesarem vult intellegi. H. SCHOLIA BERNENSIA ON ECLOGUES 4

679

[left] 11a. ‘‘Teque’’: adolatur consulem. [right] 11b. ‘‘Teque adeo decus hoc’’: ad Pollionem loquitur, ac si diceret, haec bona tuo consulatu provenient. 11c. ‘‘Inibit’’: incipiet. 12a. ‘‘Magni’’: longi, vel pro populis intellegendum est lucida opera quasi dies habentibus. [left] 12b. ‘‘Procedere’’: venire. 12c. ‘‘Magni menses’’: duodecim qui ante decem fuere, vel magni menses pro magnis populis. 13a. ‘‘Te duce’’: te veniente, o Salonine. 13b. ‘‘Te duce’’: te principe. [right] 13c. ‘‘Sceleris’’: peccatorum. 13d. ‘‘Sceleris vestigia’’: proscriptiones Sullanae et Caesarianae, vel corpus liberatum a peccatis significat, quia tempore Augusti Salvator venit. 13e. ‘‘Sceleris nostri vestigia’’: mali mores, si quod est vestigium sceleris, unde est magna formido. 14a. ‘‘Solvent’’: homines. [left] 14b. ‘‘Solvent terras’’: id est, si quod vestigium sceleris remansit, unde est magna formido, solvetur. Vel scelera pro bellis posuit, quae cessatura dicit. Vel proscriptiones Sullanas et Caesarianas dicit esse solvendas, et hoc de Augusto vult intellegi. 14c. ‘‘Formidine’’: Pollionis. 15a. ‘‘Ille’’: Caesar. 15b. ‘‘Deum vitam accipiet’’: adfirmat Caesarem esse inmortalem. [right] 15c. ‘‘Ille deum vitam accipiet’’: de Salonio dicit; deorum vitam habebit. [left] 16a. ‘‘Permixtos heroas’’: potestates caelestes. [right] 16b. ‘‘Permixtos heroas’’: quos dicebant deos de hominibus fieri. [left] 17a. ‘‘Pacatumque reget orbem’’: si de Salonio, paterna virtute reget Salonas; si de Caesare virtute Iulii reget terrarum orbe. [right] 17b. ‘‘Reget’’: Octavianus orbem, Saloninus Dalmatas, vel Caesar Ro680

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

manos, vel Christus Christianos. Aliter, quia Iulius Caesar orbem terrarum pacasse videtur, qui Augustum sororis suae filium in heredem imperatoremque reliquit. [fol. 11r] [left] 18a. ‘‘At tibi prima puer’’ et reliqua: id est, ‘‘tibi, Saloni, inculta munus dabit’’ vel ‘‘nullo colente terra tibi munuscula sponte praebebit.’’ 18b. ‘‘Munuscula’’: apte diminutive; tamquam puero munuscula dicit. [right] 18c. ‘‘Nullo cultu’’: sine humano cultu, vel dono magorum. [left] 19a. ‘‘Errantes passim’’: passim serpentes. [right] 19b. ‘‘Baccare’’: genus herbae florisve iucundi odoris. [left] 20a. ‘‘Ridenti’’: laeto vel patenti. [right] 20b. ‘‘Colocasia’’: herba aput Alexandrinos vastae radicis, cibo digna, et in Aegypto circa Nilum nascitur. 20c. ‘‘Acantho’’: [ . . . ] herbae vel floris purpurei. [left] 21a. ‘‘Ipsae referent’’: ipsae capellae per se ultro, non per pastores. [right] 21b. ‘‘Distenta’’: plena. [left] 22a. ‘‘Magnos’’: feroces. [right] 22b. ‘‘Nec metuent’’: mansuescent enim. 22c. ‘‘Magnos leones’’: homines feroces. [left] 23a. ‘‘Blandos flores’’: non omnes blandos sed ex omnibus meliores. 23b. ‘‘Cunabula’’: initia generis. Cunabulum genus arboris, in quo pueri conantur molimina gressuum. 24a. ‘‘Occidet’’: abscondetur. 24b. ‘‘Fallax herba’’: herba aconitana quae in Sardinia nascitur, quam si quis comederit, moritur; alibi autem nata, somnium tantum hominibus facit. [right] 24c. ‘‘Occidet et serpens’’: id est, non orientur noxiae pestes Assyrium [read ‘‘Sirius’’] et Serpens, signa nocifera in caelo, qui occidere dicuntur. H. SCHOLIA BERNENSIA ON ECLOGUES 4

681

[left] 25a. ‘‘Occidet Assyrium’’: id est, abscondetur nocivum Syrii sidus, vel Assyrium amomum ubique nascitur. [right] 25b. ‘‘Vulgo’’: ubique, passim, promiscue. 25c. ‘‘Amomum’’: genus floris quod tantum in Parthia nascitur, quo amomum unguentum conficitur. [left] 26a. ‘‘At’’: verum. 26b. ‘‘Simul’’: cum. 26c. ‘‘Heroum laudes’’: Pollionis et Caesaris, vel duodecim libros Aeneidum. [right] 26d. ‘‘Laudes heroum’’: id est, ‘‘laudes Pollionis vel Caesaris canere poteris, cum ad virilem togam perveneris,’’ vel ‘‘scriptas ab aliis legere.’’ [left] 27a. ‘‘Legere’’: liqueat canere. 27b. ‘‘Iam legere’’: fuit enim Pollio nova carmina faciens velut Christus in templo. 28a. ‘‘Paulatim’’: sine studio hominum terra fructus reddet. [right] 28b. ‘‘Flavescet’’: omnia tibi dulcia. [left] 29a. ‘‘Rubens’’: matura. [right] 29b. ‘‘Sentibus uva’’: vineis, arbustis. [left] 30a. ‘‘Sudabunt’’: effluent. [right] 30b. ‘‘Roscida mella’’: quia mel ex rore colligitur, aut quia cum rore de caelo cadit. [left] 31a. ‘‘Pauca tamen’’: sive Gallorum sive Gothorum proturbationem prophetat, sed verius Parthicam, de qua portas iam clausas legimus duodecim annos. [right] 31b. ‘‘Priscae vestigia fraudis’’: antiquae discordiae, astutiae hominum. 31c. ‘‘Priscae fraudis’’: vetera bella, raptusque coniugum, et perfidiae ospitum remanebunt.

682

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

[left] 32a. ‘‘Temptare’’: pro temptabunt. 32b. ‘‘Thetim’’: mare. [right] 33a. ‘‘Iubeant’’: cogant. [left] 34a. ‘‘Alter’’: alligorice Antonius. [right] 34b. ‘‘Tiphys’’: gubernator navis Argo, qui in Ponto cum superiore parte navis perisse dicitur in loco qui Symplegas dicitur. 34c. ‘‘Argo’’: navis aput Danaos, eiusdem Tiphys [gubernator]. [left] 35a. ‘‘Delectos heroas’’: id est, fortes viros. 35b. ‘‘Delectos’’: pro electis dixit, qui Argonautae dicti sunt et cum Iasone Colchos profecti. [right] 35c. ‘‘Altera bella’’: imperii tui. [left] 36a. ‘‘Troiam’’: Italiam vult intellegi per longiorem sensum, quia a Troianis est constituta. 36b. ‘‘Achilles’’: Pyrrhus Epirota de genere Achillis, vel Pyrrhus qui contra Romam dimicavit. Alligorice Antonius. [right] 36c. ‘‘Ad Troiam’’: ad Asiam. 36d. ‘‘Achilles’’: de Augusto Caesare id est, Octaviano dicit. Iulius enim Caesar, cum Octaviano per testamentum nomen suum et regnum tradidit, etiam Troiam eum iussit restaurare. [left] 37a. ‘‘Hinc ubi iam formata aetas’’: quasi tunc puer esset Augustus vel non natus ita dicit. [right] 37b. ‘‘Virum te fecerit’’: vel ad puerum Salonium loquitur, quasi diceret ubi adoleveris vel ubi virilem togam sumpseris; vel ad Augustum, quasi puer esset tunc Octavianus, sive non natus esset, ita vaticinatur. [left] 38a. ‘‘Cedet et ipse mari vector’’: id est, is qui merces vehit dabit locum mari, nec necesse erit negotiari quia omnia in omnibus terrae locis habundabunt. 38b. ‘‘Nec nautica pinus’’: ‘‘non indiget navigare quia omnia ad te ferentur.’’ Pro timore et pro honore regni eius haec omnia dicuntur.

H. SCHOLIA BERNENSIA ON ECLOGUES 4

683

[right] 38c. ‘‘Cedet et ipse mari’’: abstinebit mari, sponte advenient. 38d. ‘‘Vector’’: pro vectores, vel [. . .] 38e. ‘‘Cedet’’: omnia tibi cedent, quamvis primo putaveris bella. 38f. ‘‘Nautica pinus’’: nautarum navis. Omnia habundabunt. [left] 39a. ‘‘Merces’’: pro mercedes. 39b. ‘‘Feret’’: procreabit. 40a. ‘‘Rastros’’: aratra, vel 40b. ‘‘Rastros’’: quibus operiuntur grana. [right] 40c. ‘‘Non vinea falcem’’: non amputabitur. [left] 41a. ‘‘Robustus arator tauris iuga solvet’’: propter ubertatem terrae infatigabilis non iniciet se labori. [fol. 11v] [left] 42a. ‘‘Varios colores’’: plagae enim signum aput gentiles creditur diversos colores in uno vellere esse. [right] 42b. ‘‘Mentiri’’: fucata lana mentitur alios colores. 43a. ‘‘Aries’’: arietem pro omni pecore dicit et per arietem ceterum pecus vult intellegi. [left] 43b. ‘‘Suave’’: adverbium. 44a. ‘‘Murice’’: tinctura purpurea, vel rubra tinctura, vel flos. 44b. ‘‘Croceo luto’’: hyacintho colore, vel genus floris. [right] 44c. ‘‘Croceo luto’’: id est, tinctura crocei coloris. 44d. ‘‘Mutabit’’: id est, natura sua ex alio in alium colorem. Haec omnia pro habundantia rerum dicuntur. [left] 45a. ‘‘Sponte sua’’: nemine serente; hyperbolice loquitur. [right] 45b. ‘‘Sandyx’’: genus herbae rubeae, cuius radices infantes cum coxerint tabularum ceras ex eis tingunt, unde et ‘‘sandines’’ vel ‘‘sandices’’ vestes dicuntur. [left] 46a. ‘‘Talia’’: praedicta.

684

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

46b. ‘‘Talia secla suis’’: id est, dixerunt concordes Parcae fusis suis, id est, cum fusis suis haec statuerunt, in quibus putabantur fata continere. [right] 47a. ‘‘Parcae’’: Parcae enim fata hominum per fusos suos exposuerunt, alia nendo, alia texendo, alia rumpendo, ut Lucanus ait [De bello civili 3.19]. [left] 48a. ‘‘Adgredere o’’: Salonine. [right] 48b. ‘‘Adgredere magnos honores’’: id est, incipe ascendere. [left] 49a. ‘‘Cara deum soboles’’: deum pro deorum posuit. Hoc vel ad Saloninum puerum loquitur vel ad Octavianum, quos vult a diis horiginem trahere. [right] 49b. ‘‘Magnum iovis incrementum’’: id est, cui Iuppiter magnum dederit incrementum, hoc est augmentum, aut est incrementum Iovis, ut in numerum deorum accesserit. [left] 49c. ‘‘Iovis’’: de gente eius. 49d. ‘‘Incrementum’’: sive hominibus sive diis. 50a. ‘‘Convexo’’: vecto, rotundo, vexato. [right] 50b. ‘‘Nutantem’’: exultantem gaudio aut trementem sub onere. 51a. ‘‘Tractus’’: latitudinem. 51b. ‘‘Profundum’’: excelsum. [left] 52a. ‘‘Laetentur ut omnia’’: laetatur mundus in adventu tuo. 53a. ‘‘O mihi’’ et cetera: id est, ‘‘o si mihi vitae spatium esset sufficienter, tua facta canerem.’’ [right] 53b. ‘‘Vitae’’: quo vita mihi liqueat. [left] 55a. ‘‘Nec Thracius Orpheus’’: de Thracia, Calliopae Musae et Oeagri filius, qui tantum putatur cithara potuisse ut ab inferis Eurydicen coniugem revocaret. Huic Orpheo mater Calliopea. [right] 56a. ‘‘Nec Linus’’: hic dicitur fuisse Apollinis et Psamathis filius, Thebis oriundus, qui cursum solis lunaeque et omnium astrorum omniumque rerum carmen scripsit versibus non infacundis.

H. SCHOLIA BERNENSIA ON ECLOGUES 4

685

[left] 56b. ‘‘Atque huic’’: Lino. 58a. ‘‘Pan etiam Arcadia’’: ubi maxime colitur. [right] 58b. ‘‘Iudice’’: iudicante. 58c. ‘‘Mecum si iudice certet’’: quae possit etiam victori favere. [left] 60a. ‘‘Incipe parve puer’’ et reliqua usque ‘‘cubili est’’: horum versuum, nisi in nimis doctos inciderent, facilis erat intellectus. Profecto enim nihil aliud dicit quam hoc: incipe puer parentibus iucundus esse et risu cognoscere matrem. Sed curiosi aliud putant. [right] 60b. ‘‘Risu cognoscere’’: quoniam sic videntur filii parentes suos agnoscere, cum ultro eis adrident, quod post quadragesimum diem faciunt. Sin vero ante quadragesimum diem riserint, indicium mortis est. 61a. ‘‘Decem menses’’: quia mares in decimo mense nascuntur, feminae vero in nono. 62a. ‘‘Cui non risere parentes’’: Iuppiter sine concubitu dicitur de capite suo Minervam genuisse, Iuno Vulcanum claudum, cui propter deformitatem abiecto nec Iuppiter illi nec Iuno adrisit. Nec epulis eum Iuppiter accepit, nec Minervae matrimonio copulatus est. Loquitur autem ad Salonium puerum ne, si parentibus non adriserit, Vulcano similia patiatur. Putabant autem ex hominibus duabus ex causis deos fieri: si aut mensas cum diis habeant, aut uxores deas ducant; unde ait Aeolus Iunoni, ‘‘Tu das epulis accumbere divum’’ [Aeneid 1.79]. Proinde, nobilibus pueris editis, in atrio domus Iunoni Lucinae lectus, Herculi mensa, ponebatur. Sive hoc vult dicere: incipe parve puer iucundus esse et [et] agnoscere risu matrem, quia qui parentes suos non laetificaverant, vitae fructum non receperunt, id est, vitales non fuerunt. [left] 63a. ‘‘Nec deus hunc mensa, dea nec dignata cubili est’’: Iuppiter et Iuno, cum ex altercatione sine coitu filios se debere suscipere [putarent] Iuppiter de capite edidit Minervam, Iuno Vulcanum claudum. Hic praecipitatus de caelo arti fabrili operam dedit, fecit sellam miram in qua, cum Iuno sedisset, dicitur haesisse. Quae cum rogaret ut solveretur, ille petit ut suos parentes ostendisset. Adrisisse dicitur Iuno, unde ille matrem agnovit. 63b. ‘‘Nec deus’’ et reliqua: hii sunt qui parentes suos non laetificaverunt, vitaeque fructum non ceperunt, hoc est hi vitales non fuerunt. Tamquam [ . . . ] deos qui epulis et conubiis praesint, sed hi parentes suos adfligunt, quod Vulcano factum est; non enim Minervae matrimonio copulatus est.

686

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

63c. ‘‘Nec deus’’: Iuppiter, quia de convivio eum trusit, vel Hercules de mensa sua. Hoc alligorice ad Saloninum refertur, quasi in convivio deorum non esset, cum cito obisset. Nonnulli ad Christum. 63d. ‘‘Nec deus’’: quia epulis et conubiis deos praeesse putaverunt. 63e. ‘‘Dea’’: Minerva, Iuno vel Venus, quia nuptias Veneris petierat, sed ab illa contemptus est, id est, Vulcanus historialiter.

[fol. 10v] [left margin] a. It is said that this eclogue was written about Asinius Pollio. Some say it concerns his son Saloninus, some Caesar himself. Saloninus was named after Saloni [sic], a city of Dalmatia, for Pollio was proconsul of Dalmatia at the time of his son’s birth. b. In this eclogue the poet soliloquizes about the restoration of the new age. That is to say—and this is flattery—that the golden age of Saturn is being restored under Octavian, though the Christians, following the New Testament, believe that its restoration from corruption was due to Christ and Mary. Some say that [Virgil] wrote this eclogue in praise of Pollio, while others say it was written for his son Salonius, whose name derived from the fact that his father at that time had conquered Salonae. Others [suggest that it was written] in praise of Caesar or of Marcellus, son of Octavia. [right margin] c. In this eclogue the poet confines his theme to the rebirth of a world restored under the Caesars. d. In this eclogue the poet flatters Augustus in two ways, namely, by the richness of imagery and the beauty of the verse. e. In this eclogue he introduces [the idea of] rebirth, or the world made young again. f. This eclogue is set in Sicily. g. Sometimes this eclogue has a rural setting, as in ‘‘Not everyone do orchards delight’’; sometimes it is urban: ‘‘Begin, baby boy, to recognize your mother with a smile.’’ h. It is incorrect to call this eclogue ‘‘bucolic.’’ It is an exposition of the new age, which the Sibyl foretold. [left] 1a. ‘‘Sicilian’’: he mentions Sicily because in his bucolic poems he is imitating the Sicilian Theocritus. 1b. ‘‘Muses’’: vocative case. 1c. ‘‘Somewhat greater’’: greater praise.

H. SCHOLIA BERNENSIA ON ECLOGUES 4

687

[right] 1d. ‘‘Sicilian Muses’’: he invokes the Sicilian Muses because Theocritus, whom he imitates in the Bucolics, was a Sicilian. 1e. ‘‘Sicilian’’: that is, of Sicily. 1f. ‘‘Let us sing somewhat greater’’: because the new age, which will be his theme, is greater than the old. [left] 2a. ‘‘Every’’ [omnis]: understand ‘‘all’’ [omnia]. 2b. ‘‘Orchards do not please everyone’’: that is, pastoral poetry does not please everybody. ‘‘Pleases’’: ‘‘delights.’’ 2c. ‘‘Tamarisks’’: a type of bush or shrub. [right] 2d. ‘‘Orchards do not please everyone’’: as if he were to say allegorically: ‘‘all men do not seek the praise of the people, nor do they repay them for the praise they themselves receive. Therefore I shall praise and proclaim Octavian and the consuls in song.’’ Alternatively, all these things refer to Christ. 2e. ‘‘Tamarisks’’: a thicket of sterile bushes; allegorically, inferior poetry. [left] 3a. ‘‘If we sing of the woods’’: if we write about rural themes. 3b. ‘‘A consul’’: Pollio, who was in charge of redistributing rural lands. [right] 3c. ‘‘If we sing of the woods’’: that is, may my mind fittingly sing of the woods, that is, pastoral poetry, or may Pollio’s mind love the woods: that is the theme of my verse. 3d. ‘‘Woods worthy of a consul’’: that is, may I be able to say something fitting about Pollio in my bucolic songs, seeing that he was elected consul at the very time that he was in charge of land distribution. [left] 4a. ‘‘Last’’: loftiest. 4b. ‘‘Cumaean’’: pertaining to the Sibyl. 4c. ‘‘Cumaean’’: because the Sibyl who was named Cymaea after Mt. Cymos described the reigns of four gods; this is the Sibyl who prophesied at length about Christ. But [there is] a better explanation: this is that it relates to the poetry of Hesiod, who is called Cymaeus after Cyme, a city of Asia. 4d. ‘‘Age’’: time. [right] 4e. ‘‘Last . . . Cumaean’’: some understand this [to refer to] the Sibyl known as ‘‘Cymaean’’ [sic], who in her books set forth the four ages: golden, silver, bronze, and iron. Others, more correctly, to Hesiod who lived at Cyme, a city of Asia, and who, like the Sibyl, wrote about the kingdoms of the gods in 688

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

sequence and asserted that there were di√erent kingdoms in heaven: the first, he said, was the golden age of Saturn; then [came] the silver age of Jove; then the bronze of Neptune; finally the iron age of Apollo. Virgil follows this reign, which symbolizes the modern or contemporary world, and says that in referring to Apollo it honors Augustus Caesar, because he wanted to be recognized as Apollo. 4f. ‘‘Last of Cumaean song’’: that which the Cumae[an] Sibyl described, in which she foretold better times for future ages. [left] 5a. ‘‘Great . . . anew’’: from the beginning, anew, from the start, afresh. That is, as things were once good, so will they now be good again. 6a. ‘‘Virgin’’: Justice, dallying among country people, fleeing the evil customs of men, is said to have gone to heaven and now to have returned again. 6b. ‘‘Virgin’’: Justice, who gave judgment on the basis of the lives men lived. Or earth, which is fruitful now as it once was. Or according to us, Mary. [right] 6c. ‘‘Now the Virgin returns’’: this is Justice undefiled, who, it is asserted, fled from the evil customs of men and took refuge in heaven. 6d. ‘‘The reign of Saturn returns’’: that period in which gold was believed to have been dominant. For [the ancients] said that there were four ages that came into being—gold, silver, bronze, and iron. It is the golden age, which is said to be returning. [left] 7a. ‘‘Generation’’: Saloninus or Augustus or Christ or Marcellus, son of Octavia. 7b. ‘‘Heaven’’: by heaven or from heaven, because he wanted people to believe that he was begotten by the gods, or possibly he here praises Pollio by saying that he was honored by the gods. [right] 7c. ‘‘Now a new generation’’: he means Salonius, son of Pollio, who is said to have been born amidst many prodigies, to have laughed and spoken as soon as he was born, to have had twenty fingers, and to have died on the ninth day. It is because of these su√erings, and in the hope of better times to come, that he anticipated that another age was going to appear. [left] 8a. ‘‘You’’: Diana. 8b. ‘‘The boy’’: Phoebus or Saloninus. 8c. ‘‘Under whom the iron first’’: people born for labor; or the old dispensation; or perhaps [it means that] the boy will curb those who are jealous of the Romans. H. SCHOLIA BERNENSIA ON ECLOGUES 4

689

[right] 8d. ‘‘Only you, chaste Lucina, smile upon the child being born’’: that is, ‘‘Diana, give favor to Salonius’’; for they believed that it was Diana who brought baby boys into the light of day. 8e. ‘‘Under whom the iron first’’: that is, the iron age comes to an end so that the golden age can be born. 9a. ‘‘Golden race’’: the Romans amidst their luxuries, or the golden house at Rome [the so-called Domus Aurea, a palace built by Nero], or the new golden law. [left] 9b. ‘‘Will leave o√ ’’: will cease. 10a. ‘‘Lucina’’: that is Diana, who is known to the Latins as Lucina, to the Greeks as Ilithyia. 10b. ‘‘Lucina’’: the goddess who is said to give light to those being born, and to have two eyes and two pupils, so that she can bestow lasting light on boys at their birth. Or perhaps [she is thus named] because she is mistress of light. [right] 10c. ‘‘Your’’: understand Diana [vocative]. 10d. ‘‘Apollo now reigns’’: because they said that Apollo, who was believed to be Diana’s brother, would one day come to reign; or through Apollo he means Caesar to be understood. [left] 11a. ‘‘And when you’’: he praises the consul. [right] 11b. ‘‘And when you this glory’’: he speaks to Pollio, as if to say, ‘‘these good things will happen during your consulship.’’ 11c. ‘‘Will embark on’’: will begin. 12a. ‘‘Great’’: long-lasting, or perhaps we should understand it as referring to the [Roman] people, whose works are as splendid as their days. [left] 12b. ‘‘To move forward’’: arrive. 12c. ‘‘Great months’’: [there are now] twelve months, though formerly there were ten; or else ‘‘great months’’ stands for ‘‘great peoples.’’ 13a. ‘‘Under your leadership’’: at your coming, O Saloninus. 13b. ‘‘Under your leadership’’: with you as our leader. [right] 13c. ‘‘Of sin’’: of lapses. 13d. ‘‘Traces of sin’’: the proscriptions of Sulla and Caesar; or else he means the body freed from lapses, because the Savior came during the time of Augustus. 690

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

13e. ‘‘Traces of our sin’’: evil habits; there is good reason to be terrified if there remain any traces of sins. 14a. ‘‘Will release’’: mankind. [left] 14b. ‘‘Will release the earth’’: that is, if any trace of sin remains—a terrifying possibility—it will be wiped out. Alternatively, ‘‘sins’’ stands for ‘‘wars,’’ which he says are about to cease. Or else he means that the proscriptions of Sulla and Caesar are going to come to an end, and he hopes that this will happen under Augustus. 14c. ‘‘Dread’’: of Pollio. 15a. ‘‘That one’’: Caesar. 15b. ‘‘Will receive divine life’’: he asserts that Caesar is immortal. [right] 15c. ‘‘That one will receive divine life’’: he speaks of Salonius, who will inherit the life of the gods. [left] 16a. ‘‘Heroes mingled’’: the heavenly powers. [right] 16b. ‘‘Heroes mingled’’: those men reputed to have become gods. [left] 17a. ‘‘And will rule the world made peaceable’’: if this refers to Salonius, [it means that] he will rule Salonae with his father’s strength; if to Augustus, that he will rule the world by the strength of Julius Caesar. [right] 17b. ‘‘Will rule’’: Octavian will rule the world, or Saloninus Dalmatia, or Caesar the Romans, or Christ the Christians. Another interpretation: Julius Caesar seems to have pacified the world by leaving his sister’s son Augustus to be his heir and head of state. [fol. 11r] [left] 18a. ‘‘But for you child’’ and the rest: that is, ‘‘to you, Salonius, the uncultivated [earth] will give her gifts,’’ or ‘‘the earth will o√er her gifts to you, of her own will, and without the need for husbandry.’’ 18b. ‘‘Gifts’’: properly diminutive; he is speaking of gifts appropriate to a little boy. [right] 18c. ‘‘With no cultivation’’: without human cultivation, or by the intervention of magicians. [left] 19a. ‘‘Straggling everywhere’’: creeping everywhere. H. SCHOLIA BERNENSIA ON ECLOGUES 4

691

[right] 19b. Baccare: a sweet-smelling variety of herb or flower. [left] 20a. ‘‘Laughing’’: happy or freely accessible. [right] 20b. ‘‘Colocasia’’: an herb with a very large root, familiar to the Alexandrians, good for eating, which is grown on the banks of the Nile in Egypt. 20c. ‘‘Acanthus’’: [. . .] of an herb or purple flower. [left] 21a. ‘‘They themselves will bring back’’: the she-goats themselves, of their own will, not compelled by the herdsmen. [right] 21b. ‘‘Swollen’’: full. [left] 22a. ‘‘Large’’: savage. [right] 22b. ‘‘And will not fear’’: for they will grow gentle. 22c. ‘‘Great lions’’: savage people. [left] 23a. ‘‘Alluring flowers’’: not all alluring, but better for the most part. 23b. Cunabula: the trappings of babyhood. A cunabulum is a type of wooden frame in which boys first learn to walk. 24a. ‘‘Will perish’’: will disappear. 24b. ‘‘The false herb’’: the herb aconite, which grows in Sardinia and which is fatal to anybody who eats it; but the kind that grows elsewhere merely causes men [bad] dreams. [right] 24c. ‘‘The serpent too will perish’’: that is, noxious plagues will not occur— not Sirius or the serpent, harmful heavenly signs, which are supposed to be deadly. [left] 25a. ‘‘Will perish Assyrian’’: this refers to the baneful star Syrius; or, Assyrian balsam grows everywhere. [right] 25b. ‘‘All over the place’’: everywhere, commonly, all about. 25c. Amomum: a type of flower that grows only in Parthia, from which a balsam is manufactured. [left] 26a. ‘‘Yet’’: but.

692

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

26b. ‘‘At once’’: with. 26c. ‘‘Praises of heroes’’: [praise] of Pollio and Caesar; or, the twelve books of the Aeneid. [right] 26d. ‘‘Praises of heroes’’: this means, ‘‘you will be able to sing the praises of Pollio or Caesar, when you come to man’s estate’’; or ‘‘to read praises written by others.’’ [left] 27a. ‘‘Recall’’: evidently, ‘‘to sing.’’ 27b. ‘‘But . . . read’’: for Pollio used to compose new poems, as Christ did in the temple. 28a. ‘‘Little by little’’: the earth will bear fruit without human e√ort. [right] 28b. ‘‘Will yellow’’: for you all things will be sweet. [left] 29a. Ruddy: ripe. [right] 29b. ‘‘Grapes on brambles’’: on vines, thickets. [left] 30a. Will sweat: will flow forth. [right] 30b. ‘‘Dewy honey’’: because honey is gathered from dew; or because it falls from heaven with the dew. [left] 31a. ‘‘Yet a few’’: he is foretelling the invasion of either the Gauls or the Goths; or more probably the Parthian invasion, as a result of which, we read, the gates were closed for twelve years. [right] 31b. ‘‘Traces of ancient deceit’’: of ancient discord, of the deceitfulness of mankind. 31c. ‘‘Of ancient deceit’’: old strife, the rape of men’s wives, and the betrayal of hospitality are things that will endure. [left] 32a. ‘‘To attempt’’: for ‘‘they will attempt.’’ 32b. ‘‘Thetis’’: the sea. [right] 33a. ‘‘Command’’: compel. [left] 34a. ‘‘A second’’: allegorically, Antony.

H. SCHOLIA BERNENSIA ON ECLOGUES 4

693

[right] 34b. ‘‘Tiphys’’: the helmsman of the Argo who is said to have drowned in the Black Sea, at a place called Symplegas, together with the upper part of his ship. 34c. ‘‘Argo’’: a Greek ship, of which Tiphys [was helmsman]. [left] 35a. ‘‘Chosen heroes’’: that is, courageous men. 35b. ‘‘Chosen’’: he has used this word to mean ‘‘selected.’’ They were known as Argonauts and they sailed to Colchis with Jason. [right] 35c. ‘‘A second war’’: of your reign. [left] 36a. ‘‘Troy’’: he means us to understand Italy in a wider sense, because it was founded by Trojans. 36b. ‘‘Achilles’’: Pyrrhus of Epirus, of the stock of Achilles, or perhaps a Pyrrhus who fought against Rome. Allegorically, Antony. [right] 36c. ‘‘To Troy’’: to Asia. 36d. ‘‘Achilles’’: he is speaking of Augustus Caesar, that is, of Octavian. In fact Julius Caesar ordered Octavian to restore Troy, when he bequeathed his name and his kingdom to him. [left] 37a. ‘‘Then, when you are fully grown’’: he speaks as if Augustus were then a boy or not born. [right] 37b. ‘‘Has made you a man’’: he is addressing the boy Salonius as if to say, ‘‘when you grow up,’’ or ‘‘when you assume the toga of manhood’’; or perhaps it is a prophecy to Augustus, as if Octavian were a boy or not born. [left] 38a. ‘‘And even the trader will withdraw from the sea’’: that is, he who carries freight will give up going to sea, and there will be no need to engage in commerce, for all parts of the earth will be bountifully supplied with all things. 38b. ‘‘Nor the wooden ship’’: ‘‘there is no need to go to sea, for everything will come to you.’’ These remarks are inspired by awe and respect for his rule. [right] 38c. ‘‘And even will withdraw from the sea’’: he will avoid the sea, [and goods] will be produced of their own accord. 38d. ‘‘Trader’’: singular for plural, or [. . .] 38e. ‘‘Will give way’’: all things will yield to you, although you would have first thought of wars. 694

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

38f. ‘‘Wooden ship’’: the sailors’ vessel; everything will be abundant. [left] 39a. Merces [trade]: singular for plural. 39b. ‘‘Will bear’’: will give birth to. 40a. ‘‘Harrows’’: plows, or— 40b. ‘‘Harrows’’: the tool by which crops are planted in the earth. [right] 40c. ‘‘Not the vine the pruning hook’’: it will not be cut. [left] 41a. ‘‘The sturdy plowman will release the bulls from the yokes’’: he will not need to labor because of the fruitfulness of the tireless earth. [fol. 11v] [left] 42a. ‘‘Varied colors’’: for the pagans believe that di√erent colors in the one fleece are a portent of catastrophe. [right] 42b. ‘‘Fakes’’: wool when dyed ‘‘fakes’’ various colors. 43a. ‘‘Ram’’: he uses ‘‘ram’’ to mean the whole flock and wants the rest of the flock to be understood here by the ram. [left] 43b. ‘‘Charming’’: used adverbially. 44a. Murice: purple or red dye; or else a flower. 44b. ‘‘Sa√ron yellow’’: of the color of hyacinth; or a species of flower. [right] 44c. ‘‘Sa√ron yellow’’: that is, of a crocus-yellow hue. 44d. ‘‘Will change’’: that is, [it changes] in its own nature from one color to another. All these [words] refer to the rich variety of things. [left] 45a. ‘‘Of its own will’’: sown by nobody; it is said by way of hyperbole. [right] 45b. Sandyx: a class of reddish herb, whose roots children use, when they have boiled them, to color the wax of wax tablets; similarly clothes are called sandines or sandices. [left] 46a. ‘‘Such as’’: mentioned previously. 46b. ‘‘Ages such as these’’: that is, ‘‘the Fates have spoken to spindles,’’ which means that they have ordained these things by means of their spindles, on which they were thought to put together the decrees of fate. [right] 47a. Parcae: for the Fates revealed the destiny of mankind by means of their H. SCHOLIA BERNENSIA ON ECLOGUES 4

695

spindles, the first by spinning, the second by weaving, the third by cutting, as Lucan says. [left] 48a. ‘‘Enter on, O’’: O Saloninus [to indicate the subject of the imperative]. [right] 48b. ‘‘Enter on great honors’’: that is, start to achieve greatness. [left] 49a. ‘‘Dear o√spring of the gods’’: the poet uses ‘‘god’’ for ‘‘gods.’’ He addresses this either to the child Saloninus or to Octavius, both of whom he wishes to depict as descended from gods. [right] 49b. ‘‘Great increase of Jupiter’’: that is, when Jupiter gives o√spring to somebody it is called ‘‘an increase.’’ Alternatively, he is called the o√spring of Jove because he has been numbered among the gods. [left] 49c. ‘‘Of Jupiter’’: of his stock. 49d. ‘‘Increase’’: appropriate for either men or gods. 50a. ‘‘Arching’’: conveyed, round, troubled. [right] 50b. Nutantem: leaping for joy, or else trembling under a burden. 51a. ‘‘Expanse’’: breadth. 51b. ‘‘Far-reaching’’: lofty. [left] 52a. ‘‘How everything rejoices’’: the world rejoices at your coming. 53a. ‘‘O for me’’ and so forth: that is, ‘‘O if only the span of my life were long enough to sing your praise.’’ [right] 53b. ‘‘Of life’’: ‘‘if life were to permit me.’’ [left] 55a. ‘‘Neither Thracian Orpheus’’: Orpheus of Thrace, son of the Muse Calliope and Oeagrus, whose mastery of the cithara was thought to be so great that he could recall his wife Eurydice from hell. Calliope was his mother. [right] 56a. ‘‘Nor Linus’’: he is said to have been the son of Apollo and Psamathe, born in Thebes, who wrote in expressive verse a poem about the orbits of the sun, the moon, the stars, and the universe. [left] 56b. ‘‘And to the other’’: to Linus. 58a. ‘‘Even Pan, with Arcadia’’: where he is chiefly worshipped.

696

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

[right] 58b. ‘‘As judge’’: with him giving judgment. 58c. ‘‘Compete with me as judge’’: this judge [referring to Arcady] would also favor the victor. [left] 60a. ‘‘Begin, little boy’’ and the rest up to ‘‘with her bed’’: the meaning of these lines was simple, until they came into the domain of those who are too clever. Surely his meaning is nothing other than this: ‘‘Little boy, be a joy to your parents, and acknowledge your mother with a smile.’’ But meddlesome people think otherwise. [right] 60b. ‘‘To recognize with a smile’’: because children appear to recognize their parents, after they are forty days old, by spontaneously smiling at them. But if they smile before the fortieth day, that is a portent of death. 61a. ‘‘Ten months’’: because males are born in the tenth month, females in the ninth. 62a. ‘‘Upon whom [his] parents have not smiled’’: Jupiter is said to have begotten Minerva from his own head, without intercourse. Juno [in the same way bore] the lame Vulcan, on whom, rejected as he was for deformity, neither Jove nor Juno smiled. Jupiter never received him at dinner, nor was he married o√ to Minerva. [The poet] is speaking to the boy Salonius, [warning him] that unless he smiles on his parents, he might su√er [a fate] like Vulcan’s. The [ancients] thought that men could be transformed into gods for two reasons: if they shared a table with gods, or they took goddesses to wife. So Aeolus says to Juno, ‘‘You grant [me] to feast at the table of the gods.’’ Accordingly, when noble boys were born, a couch was set up for Juno Lucina in the atrium of the house, and a table for Hercules. Alternatively, he may mean, ‘‘Little boy, start being pleasant and recognize your mother with a smile, because those who do not gladden their parents never receive life’s fruit,’’ that is, never become fully ‘‘vital.’’ [left] 63a. ‘‘No god has honored him with his table, and no goddess with her bed’’: Since Jupiter and Juno, following an argument, [thought] that they ought to be able to produce sons without intercourse, the former brought forth Minerva from his head, and the latter bore Vulcan, who was lame. This [Vulcan], cast out of heaven, devoted himself to the manual arts and constructed a miraculous chair to which Juno is said to have stuck when she sat down. When she asked to be set free, he demanded that she tell him who his parents were. The story goes that she laughed, at which point he recognized her as his mother.

H. SCHOLIA BERNENSIA ON ECLOGUES 4

697

63b. ‘‘No god’’ and the rest: these are they who have not made their parents happy, nor received life’s rewards, which means that they have not become ‘‘vital’’ as do the gods who preside at feasts and weddings, but instead these aΔict their parents, as happened to Vulcan, for he was not united in marriage to Minerva. 63c. ‘‘No god’’: Jupiter, because he expelled him from his company, or Hercules, who expelled him from his table. This refers allegorically to Saloninus, as if he had not been in the company of the gods at the time of his early death. Others [see it] as a reference to Christ. 63d. ‘‘No god’’: because they thought that gods presided at feasts and weddings. 63e. ‘‘Goddess’’: Minerva, Juno, or perhaps Venus, because he had sought to marry her but had been rejected. This is Vulcan, according to the story. (DD) I. OLD IRISH GLOSSES ON PHILARGYRIUS (mid eighth–ninth century) The Explanatio in Bucolica Vergilii of Iunius Philargyrius (see above, IV.D.1 and IV.H) is one of many Latin texts with Old Irish glosses. Mainly one- or two-word equivalents of a single Latin word, they more often explain words in Virgil (the lemmata) than they do words in Philargyrius’s commentary. The glosses on the fourth Eclogue that follow are primarily synonyms designed to give a quick equivalent for a di≈cult or unusual word. Because the words are often rare in Old Irish as well, many times the meaning of the Old Irish word must be inferred from the Latin. The manuscripts of the glosses are associated with an Irish milieu not just in language but also in two other ways. Paleographically, their exemplars used abbreviations characteristic of Irish scribes, such as the H-shaped symbol for autem. In addition, the gloss on Eclogues 3.90 in Explanatio 1 refers to Adomnán (died 704), abbot of Iona and author of a life of St. Columba and a description of the Holy Land. The gloss reads: De Mevio vero nihil reperi, ut Adamnanus ait (I have indeed found nothing about Maevius, as Adomnán says). The Latin text indicates in which of the Explanationes (1 or 2) the gloss occurs and in which manuscript or manuscripts (N, P, or L). (Discussion: C. Beeson, ‘‘Insular Symptoms in the Commentaries on Virgil,’’ Studi Medievali 5 [1932], 81–100; B. Ó Cúiv, ‘‘Medieval Irish Scholars and Classical Latin Literature,’’ Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 81C [1981], 239–48; R. Ho√man, ‘‘Some New Facts Concerning the Knowledge of Vergil in Early Medieval Ireland,’’ Études celtiques 25 [1988], 189–212; D. Ó Cróinín, ‘‘The Irish as Mediators of Antique Culture on the Continent,’’ in Science in Western and Eastern Civilization in Carolingian Times, ed. P. Butzer and D. Lohrmann 698

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

[Basel, 1993], 41–52; D. Daintree, ‘‘Virgil and Virgil Scholia in Early Medieval Ireland,’’ Romanobarbarica 16 [1999], 347–61) (Texts, items 1–8: ThiloHagen 3.2:80–87 [Iunius Philargyrius, Explanatio in Bucolica Vergilii in Servius]; W. Stokes and J. Strachan, eds., Thesaurus palaeohibernicus, vol. 2 [Cambridge, 1903]; P.-Y. Lambert, ‘‘Les gloses celtiques aux commentaires de Virgile,’’ Études celtiques 23 [1986], 81–128) (MS)

1. Comment on Eclogues 4.19: errantis hederas passim cum baccare tellus (the earth . . . ivy wandering everywhere with valerian) ‘‘Cum bacchare,’’ id est, boedin genus herbae (floris) et odoris iucundi. [1; NPL]

‘‘With baccar,’’ that is, valerian, a kind of plant (a flower) also of pleasant scent.

2. Comment on Eclogues 4.28: molli paulatim flavescet campus arista (the field gradually yellows with the pliant grain) ‘‘Paulatim flavescet’’ blaicfithir, id est, sine studio hominum terra fructus tradet. ‘‘arista’’ broth. Omnia tibi erunt duplicia. [1; NPL]

‘‘Gradually yellows,’’ yellows, that is, the earth will bear fruit without the industry of men. ‘‘An ear of grain,’’ grain. All things will be doubled for you.

3. Comment on Eclogues 4.34: alter erit tum Tiphys et altera quae vehat Argo (then there will be a second Tiphys, and a second Argo to carry) ‘‘Tiphis,’’ id est, magnus gubernator navis Argo, id est ind nau, qui in Ponto cum posteriore parte navis dicitur perisse. [1; NPL]

‘‘Tiphys,’’ that is, the great helmsman of the ship Argo, that is, the boat, who is said to have been lost with the stern of the ship in the Black Sea.

4. Comment on Eclogues 4.40: non rastros patietur humus, non vinea falcem (the earth will not endure rakes, nor the vine the pruning hook) ‘‘Rastros’’ dainthech, id est, non seretur terra. [1; P]

‘‘Rakes,’’ harrow, that is, the land will not be sown.

5. Comment on Eclogues 4.42: nec varios discet mentiri lana colores (and wool will not learn to feign various colors) I. OLD IRISH GLOSSES ON PHILARGYRIUS

699

‘‘Mentiri,’’ id est, tucrecha, fusca enim lana mentitur alium colorem. [1; NPL]

‘‘Feigns,’’ that is, invents, for dark wool feigns another color.

6. Comment on Eclogues 4.44: murice, iam croceo mutabit vellera luto (will change its fleece with purple, now with saffron yellow) ‘‘Croceo,’’ id est, glas vel tinctura vel purpura vel flos [1; P]

‘‘Sa√ron,’’ that is, color or dye or purple or flower.

7. Comment on Eclogues 4.45: sponte sua sandyx pascentis vestiet agnos (vermilion will clothe of its own will the grazing lambs) ‘‘Sandix,’’ genus herbae rossei coloris, id est, glaus [2; NL]

‘‘Vermilion,’’ a kind of plant of rosy color, that is, color.

8. Comment on Eclogues 4.50: Aspice convexo nutantem pondere mundum (Behold the world swaying with its tottering dome) ‘‘Convexo,’’ id est, cruind vel digas. ‘‘Nutantem,’’ id est, digeses, aut exultantem gaudio, an trementem sub onere. [1; P]

‘‘Dome,’’ that is, round or lofty. ‘‘Tottering,’’ that is, digeses, either rejoicing with praise or trembling under a burden. (MS) J. CAROLINGIAN COMMENTARY ON ECLOGUES 6 (ninth century) The following excerpt is taken from the manuscript Chartres, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 13, most of which was devoted to Jerome’s commentaries on Abdias (Obadiah) and Matthew. The first eight folios, however, contained part of an unrelated commentary on the Eclogues written as questions and answers and reminiscent of Priscian’s Partitiones (see above, IV.E) and Alcuin’s schoolroom dialogues (see above, I.C.39). In 1907 Charles Legendre published a transcription of the legible parts of the commentary on Eclogues 6, along with a facsimile of folio 6r. Because the Chartres library was destroyed on May 26, 1944, Legendre’s text and facsimile are the only extant evidence for the manuscript. Our selection comes from the folio in Legendre’s facsimile, and we have followed his practice of italicizing abbreviated words and indicating supralinear additions. Our selection comments on Eclogues 6.54–58:

700

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

ilice sub nigra pallentis ruminat herbas aut aliquam in magno sequitur grege. ‘‘Claudite, nymphae, Dictaeae nymphae, nemorum iam claudite saltus, si qua forte ferant oculis sese obvia nostris errabunda bovis vestigia.’’

[The bull] chews the pale grass beneath the dark ilex or follows some other [cow] in the large herd. ‘‘Close, O nymphs, you Dictaean nymphs, now close the glades of the woods, if perhaps some wandering tracks of the bull bring themselves to meet our eyes.’’ The commentary moves through the poem in sense units encompassing two or three lines. The discussion usually begins with questions designed to clarify the syntax, then o√ers two or three synonyms for important words, and finally moves on to di≈cult words and to more general reflections. The scribe of this commentary made extensive use of Tironian notes, a system of abbreviating Latin words named after Cicero’s secretary Tiro. These abbreviations were widely used in antiquity and were intensely studied in eighth- and ninth-century Francia (these are the notae that Charlemagne recommended as basic knowledge in his Admonitio generalis of 789). Notae were used by secretaries in taking dictation from an author composing a work, by students in the classroom, and often by readers making notes in the margins of manuscripts. (Discussion: D. Ganz, ‘‘Carolingian Manuscripts with Substantial Glosses in Tironian Notes,’’ in Mittelalterliche volkssprachige Glossen, ed. R. Bergmann, E. Glaser, and C. Moulin-Fankhänel (Heidelberg, 2001), 101– 7) (Text: C. Legendre, Études Tironiennes: Commentaire sur la sixième Églogue de Virgile, Bibliothèque de l’École des hautes études 165 [Paris, 1907]) (MS) [54–55] Quaeritur quid in duobus sequentibus versibus agat? Objurgat eam, ostendens quasi non amantem se diligat, unde quod amenter agat.’’ ‘‘Aut sequitur.’’ Ubi? ‘‘In magno grege.’’ Quid? ‘‘Aliquam.’’ Quid subauditur? Vaccam. En ubi ‘‘gregem’’ de bubus ait hic, vel intelligetur ‘‘gregem’’ boves; nos tamen proprie armenta dicimus, quanquam quorumlibet animalium multitudo sit ‘‘grex’’; ut Cicero in Philippicis: ‘‘Fudit apotecas, cecidit greges armentorum’’ [Philippics 3.12.31: compare Servius, comments on Eclogues 6.55]. Juxta quod de bubus nunc dicitur hic grex. ‘‘Sequitur,’’ appetit, quaerit, investigat. In quo quid? Objurgatio. Quoniam ita ac si diceret: ‘‘Habes aliquid spei, quia ille quem diligis scit amare, sed, licet sciat amare, non te.’’ [55–56] ‘‘Claudite, o nymphae Dicteae.’’ Quid? ‘‘Saltus.’’ Cujus? ‘‘Nemorum’’ [above: ‘‘subauditur ne latius possit vagari’’]. ‘‘Jam claudite, o nymphae,’’ vel sic absolute, vel iterum ‘‘saltus nemorum,’’ aut primo absolute

J. CAROLINGIAN COMMENTARY ON ECLOGUES 6

701

‘‘claudite, o nymphae Dicteae,’’ et postea ‘‘jam claudite, o nymphae’’ [above: ‘‘Dicteae’’]. Quid? ‘‘Saltus.’’ Quorum? ‘‘Nemorum.’’ Dictis mons est in Creta ubi Passiphe dicitur taurum amasse; a quo possessive ‘‘Dicteae nymphae’’ ejus montis praesidentes. ‘‘Nemorum,’’ lucorum. ‘‘Claudite,’’ obstruite, offirmate, oppilate. ‘‘Saltus,’’ densitas arborum alta; hic [above: ‘‘locos incultos, silvestres, vel pastus nemorum’’]. Repetitum ‘‘jam claudite’’ pro majori affectu claudendi. Quod a persona Passiphes est accipiendum, ut Silenus dicat eam hoc aliquando dixisse; haec Passiphes sunt verba, sicque loquebatur ea aliquando. Ex ‘‘a virgo’’ [above: ‘‘superiori’’] huc usque, Sileni locutio; modo Passiphes. [57–58] ‘‘Si qua forte ferant.’’ Qui? ‘‘Obvia vestigia.’’ Quid? ‘‘Sese’’ [erasure: perhaps ‘‘errabunda’’]. Qualia se ferant? ‘‘Errabunda.’’ Cujus? [above: ‘‘bovis’’]. Cui? ‘‘Oculis nostris.’’ ‘‘Si qua,’’ vel pro ‘‘si,’’ vel ‘‘si qua,’’ si quo modo, id est, si aliquo modo [above: ‘‘vel si aliqua ratione’’], vel ‘‘si qua,’’ si alicubi, ut ‘‘qua’’ adverbium loci per locum. Sed quidam ad ‘‘vestigia’’ ducunt ‘‘si qua’’; quod si sit, oculis ipsius loquitur esse si qua cujus vestigia. Unde quod trocheus in initio qui nequit in heroico carmine nisi in fine esse. ‘‘Forte,’’ adverbium dubitandi. ‘‘Ferant,’’ perferant, ostendant, indicent. ‘‘Sese,’’ geminatus accusativus [doubtless ‘‘Obvia’’ is omitted], oblata, obducta, contravia. ‘‘Errabunda’’ pene participium contra rationem fictum, vel per ypalage, ut errabunda bovis vestigia, et errabundus bos, id est, flexibilibus pedibus incedens, aut errantia, ‘‘errabunda,’’ id est, vagantia [correction of ‘‘vagativa’’] quod vagent ea. ‘‘Vestigia,’’ pedum signa, et metonomia, id est, pedes per vestigia. Nam naturaliter est bubus ut errantibus pedibus incedant; ex quo quod naturam boum est secutus in hoc loco, quodque sic potest loqui ex bove unoquoque; unde ‘‘errantes,’’ ad pedes boum epiteton naturale. In quo loco loquitur dubitative procul dubio. Hinc ‘‘si’’ dubitativa conjunctio; vel ‘‘forte,’’ ut dixi, dubitandi adverbium, vel eventus. Sed quidam errabunda vestigia bovis intelligunt ut errando iret bos ille. Quare imperet claudi saltus? Ipsa subdit dicens: ‘‘Si qua,’’ et cetera. Quaeritur cur posuerit ‘‘oculis’’? Quod in eis agnitio rei; qui si non sint, nequit haberi quid sit; ergo rationabiliter oculis nostris, cum visus in oculis.

[54–55] It is asked what he does in the two following verses. He rebukes her by showing that he does not desire her as a lover, whence it is that she acts madly. ‘‘Or follows.’’ Where? ‘‘In the large herd.’’ What? ‘‘One.’’ What is understood? A cow. Indeed, where he says ‘‘herd’’ of cows here, possibly the grex [herd] will be understood as cows; we, however, correctly say armenta [cattle], though a group of any animals of the same type is a ‘‘herd,’’ as Cicero says in the Philippics: ‘‘He poured out the winestores, he killed herds of cattle.’’ Very like what now is said of cattle, this is called a ‘‘herd.’’ ‘‘Follows,’’ that is, ‘‘desires,’’ ‘‘seeks,’’ ‘‘pursues.’’ For what? rebuking. Because [it is] so as if he said: 702

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

‘‘You have some hope, because he whom you desire knows how to love; but, although he knows how to love, he does not love you.’’ [55–56] ‘‘Close, O Dictean nymphs.’’ What? ‘‘The glades.’’ Whose? ‘‘Of the woods’’ [added above the line: understood, so that he cannot wander farther]. ‘‘Now close, O nymphs,’’ is either said as an independent statement, or ‘‘glades of the woods’’ should be repeated; or it is said independently at first, ‘‘close, O Dictean nymphs’’ and then ‘‘now close, O nymphs’’ [above ‘‘Dictean’’]. What? ‘‘The glades.’’ Whose? ‘‘Of the woods.’’ Dicte is a mountain in Crete where Pasiphae is said to have made love with a bull, from which possessively ‘‘Dictean nymphs’’ presiding over this mountain. ‘‘Of the woods,’’ that is, ‘‘of the groves.’’ ‘‘Close,’’ that is, ‘‘block,’’ ‘‘obstruct,’’ ‘‘stop up.’’ A ‘‘glade’’ is a high density of trees; here [added: uncultivated places, forests, or pastures of trees]. Here ‘‘now close’’ is repeated to increase the e√ect of ‘‘closing.’’ This is to be taken as something spoken by Pasiphae, as though Silenus said she had at one time said this; these are the words of Pasiphae, and thus she sometimes spoke. From ‘‘O maid’’ [added: above] up to here is a speech of Silenus; now of Pasiphae. [57–58] ‘‘If some perhaps show.’’ What? ‘‘Exposed tracks.’’ What? ‘‘Themselves’’ [in the erased space: wandering (?)]. How do they show themselves? ‘‘Wandering.’’ Whose? [added: the bull’s] To what? ‘‘Our eyes.’’ Either ‘‘If some’’ is for ‘‘if,’’ or ‘‘if some’’ is ‘‘if in any way,’’ that is, ‘‘if in some way’’ [added: ‘‘or if for some reason’’], or ‘‘if some’’ is ‘‘if somewhere,’’ as ‘‘some’’ [qua, with long a] is an adverb of place [meaning] through a place. But some say ‘‘if some’’ goes with ‘‘tracks’’; and if that be so, she says it exists for her own eyes ‘‘if there are some tracks of it.’’ From this [qua with short a], it comes about that there is a trochee at the beginning, which cannot happen in heroic verse [dactylic hexameter], except at the end. ‘‘Perhaps’’ is an adverb of doubting. ‘‘Show,’’ that is, ‘‘convey,’’ ‘‘show,’’ ‘‘indicate.’’ ‘‘Themselves’’ is a double accusative. [‘‘Exposed’’], that is, ‘‘presented,’’ ‘‘brought forward,’’ ‘‘coming opposite.’’ ‘‘Wandering’’ is a participle devised almost in opposition to reason, or it is by hypallage, as ‘‘the wandering tracks of the bull’’ and a wandering bull, that is, walking with pliant hooves, or a-wandering, ‘‘wandering,’’ that is, roving because they rove. ‘‘Tracks’’ are the marks of the hooves, and it is also an example of metonymy, that is, the hooves [are meant] by the tracks. For it is natural for cattle to walk with wandering hooves; from which he followed the nature of cattle in this passage; also, this can be said of every single bull, whence ‘‘wandering’’ is a natural epithet for the hooves of cattle. In this place it is doubtless spoken doubtfully. Hence ‘‘if ’’ is a dubitative conjunction; ‘‘perhaps’’ is an adverb either of doubting, as I said, or of chance. But some understand ‘‘wandering tracks of the bull’’ as though that specific bull walked by J. CAROLINGIAN COMMENTARY ON ECLOGUES 6

703

wandering. Why should she order the glades closed? She herself supplies the reason, saying ‘‘if some’’ and the rest. It is asked why he used ‘‘to the eyes.’’ Because the perception of the thing is in them; if they should not exist, a person cannot consider what something is; therefore he reasonably says ‘‘to our eyes,’’ because the faculty of seeing is in the eyes. (MS) K. CAROLINGIAN GLOSSES ON THE AENEID ‘‘Carolingian’’ is a term associated with a dynasty that dominated the ninth century in Western Europe. The Carolingians manifested an intense interest in Virgil, who would have been appealing not only because his much-admired style would have merited emulation in a culture intent on a revival of learning, but also because his portrayal of empire-building would have resonated with then-contemporary political and military events. One essential gauge of Carolingian engrossment in the Roman poet is the surviving manuscripts of his poetry, many of which bear marks of close study. For a facsimile of a manuscript copied and used at the cathedral school of Laon during the third quarter of the ninth century, see J. J. Contreni, Codex Laudunensis 468: A NinthCentury Guide to Virgil, Sedulius, and the Liberal Arts, Armarium codicum insignium 3 (Turnhout, 1984). (Discussion: L. Holtz, ‘‘La redécouverte de Virgile au VIIIe et IXe siècles d’après les manuscrits conservés,’’ in Lectures médiévales de Virgile [Rome, 1985], 125–49) Even after the dynasty that Charlemagne made famous had expired, the Carolingian devotion to Virgil (see above, I.C.40) lived on among succeeding regimes. To cite one splendid example, Virgilianism in the Latin writing of learned German(ic)s in the ninth and tenth centuries achieves memorable expression in the epic (1456 dactylic hexameters) on Walter of Aquitaine that is known as the Waltharius, the authorship and date of which have been much disputed. (Discussion and edition: E. D’Angelo, ed. Waltharius: Epica e saga tra Virgilio e i Nibelunghi, Biblioteca medievale 9 [Milan, 1998].) Nor was the reverence restricted to Latin. Although the translation of the Eclogues into Old High German by Notker of St. Gall (circa 950–1022; known both as Teutonicus because of his passion for the German language and as Labeo because of his thick lips) has not survived, other evidence is available. Beyond the musical notation of passages in Virgil’s poems in manuscripts of the tenth century and later that sometimes show signs of close engagement with the texts (see above, I.D.11), a surprising instance of scholarly activity can be found in the so-called Palatine Virgil (Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Pal. lat. 1631), which is famous for preserving one of the most important early texts (written in rustic capitals sometime between the fourth and sixth centuries) of the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid. Although the codex 704

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

was taken to Rome in 1623 from Heidelberg, it is known to have been before that in Lorsch. It may have been brought to Lorsch as early as about 860, among the books of Gerward, who had been the librarian of Emperor Louis the Pious (778–840). Close study has revealed that many of its folios have drypoint markings, among which are more than six hundred glosses to the Aeneid (especially the first six books). As Michael McCormick (p. 4) notes, ‘‘The glosses show less indebtedness to Servius than one might expect. All of the new glosses and markings are executed in dry point; that is, they are scratched into the parchment with a stylus, in the inkless technique so popular with insular and Carolingian scribes.’’ Most of the glosses are written in a form of Carolingian minuscule, most of them are interlinear (written between lines of text, rather than in the margins), and most of them are in Latin; but some (at least sixteen) are in Old High German, and others take the form of Tironian notes, the kind of stenography that was employed often by Carolingian scribes (see above, IV.J). Most of the glosses are lexical, intended to explain the text of the Aeneid by o√ering synonyms in Latin or Old High German. (Text and discussion: M. McCormick, Five Hundred Unknown Glosses from the Palatine Virgil [The Vatican Library, MS. Pal. Lat. 1631], Studi e testi 343 [Vatican City, 1992]) (JZ) L. OLD HIGH GERMAN GLOSSES The Old High German glosses of Virgil, from the ninth through the eleventh centuries, o√er one more confirmation of his special position as the most read of pagan school authors. They are more than six times as numerous as the glosses on all other Roman authors put together. By the same token, Virgil was far less glossed than Christian Latin authors such as Prudentius. For the fullest edition of the circa 6,500 Old High German glosses on Virgil in nineteen manuscripts, see Die althochdeutschen Glossen, ed. E. Steinmeyer and E. Sievers, vol. 2 (Berlin, 1882), 625–727; and vol. 4 (Berlin, 1898), 347–52. (JZ) M. INTRODUCTION TO THE LATIN HOMER (twelfth century) The chief Latin version of Homer available in the Middle Ages was the Ilias Latina, a Latin epitome of the Iliad in 1,070 hexameters. Conventionally dated to the first century c.e., it has been ascribed to Baebius Italicus. In the medieval period, the poem was often called simply ‘‘Homer’’ or ‘‘Latin Homer.’’ The accessus (introduction) to the work is relevant to the Virgilian tradition because of the parallels it draws to the Aeneid. The term accessus ad auctores (introductions to authors; the plural form of M. INTRODUCTION TO THE LATIN HOMER

705

accessus looks identical to the singular) describes a short Latin text that introduced the reading of a longer text, usually by a school author. Although there is great variety in the fine points of format, the typical accessus included basic biographical and explanatory information. These introductions were usually designed to answer a predetermined set of basic questions about authors and texts. Sometimes accessus appear in manuscripts (and in printed editions) as part of the apparatus accompanying individual works of literature. In other instances they were collected in a single manuscript as a work of literature (or literary criticism) in their own right. (Discussion: A. J. Minnis and A. B. Scott, with D. Wallace, Medieval Literary Theory and Criticism c. 1100–c. 1375: The Commentary Tradition [Oxford, 1988], 12–15; A. J. Minnis, Medieval Theory of Authorship, 2nd ed. [Aldershot, UK, 1988], 9–39) (Text: Accessus ad auctores; Bernard d’Utrecht; Conrad d’Hirsau, Dialogus super auctores, ed. R. B. C. Huygens, 2nd ed. [Leiden, 1970], 25–26) (JZ) Accessus Homeri Homerus in Greco sermone fecit duos libros, Odissam et Iliadem, in quibus imitatur eum Virgilius, in prioribus VI in Odissa (quod laudatorium carmen est: ode enim est laus; sicut enim ille Ulixem in Odissa suo libro maris ostendit pericula vicisse, ita iste Eneam), in Iliade in posterioribus VI. Ilias est fabula de destructione Troiae composita, in quo eum iterum Virgilius imitatur in Turni bello et Eneae. Virgilius vero quia non plenarie cuncta descripsit, Homerus quidam Latinus Homerum Grecum in ea parte imitatur, et est eius intentio vel hunc Grecum imitari vel Troianum bellum describere. Materia sua est vel Troia vel Grecia, utilitas cognitio Troiani belli, vel aliter, materia sua sunt personae de quibus facto illicito coniugio ortum est bellum, intentio sua est dehortari quemlibet ab illicito coniugio, unde offensam deorum incurrat, uti Paris et Helena ac suorum fortiores qui destructi bello cum Troia perierunt. Utilitas est ut viso interitu reorum superum maiestatem tam levi quam gravi delicto timeamus offendere. Ethicae subponitur. Dividit quoque carmen in tria: propositionem, invocationem, narrationem. Propositionem et invocationem commiscet, narrationem incipit ubi dicit: Conficiebat enim.

An Introduction to Homer Homer composed two books, the Odyssey and the Iliad, in Greek. In these works Virgil imitates him, the Odyssey in the first six [books of the Aeneid] and the Iliad in the last six. The Odyssey is a praise poem, for ode means praise; for just as Homer in his book the Odyssey showed that Ulysses triumphed over the dangers of the sea, so too Virgil showed Aeneas doing the same. The Iliad is a tale composed about the destruction of Troy. Virgil imitates Homer again in 706

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

the war between Turnus and Aeneas. But because Virgil did not describe everything completely, a certain Latin Homer imitates the Greek Homer in that part, and it is his intention either to imitate this Greek Homer or to describe the Trojan War. His subject matter is either Troy or Greece. The utility is knowledge of the Trojan War. Alternatively, his subject matter is the personages on whose account the war arose, when an illicit marriage was made. His intention is to dissuade anyone from illicit marriage, since by it he may incur the anger of the gods, as did Paris, Helen, and the braver of their peoples who were destroyed and perished in the war with Troy. The utility is that when we have seen the destruction of the guilty we may fear to o√end the majesty of the gods by a failing, minor as well as major. It is subsumed under ethics. He divides the poem into three parts: exordium, invocation, and narrative. He mixes together the exordium and invocation. He begins the narrative when he says: ‘‘For he was making.’’ (JZ) N. INTRODUCTIONS TO THE ECLOGUES (twelfth century) The following two selections are taken from a manuscript written in Germany in the twelfth century and now in the Vatican (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Pal. lat. 1695). Aside from these texts, the manuscript contains the text of and a commentary on Statius’s Achilleid and a fragmentary commentary on the Eclogues. These texts were first edited by Virginia Brown, who also provides further discussion of the texts and the manuscript in ‘‘A Twelfth-Century Virgilian Miscellany-Commentary of German Origin (Vatican MS. Pal. lat. 1695),’’ in Scire litteras: Forschungen zum mittelalterlichen Geistesleben, ed. S. Krämer and M. Bernhard, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Abhandlungen, NF 99 (Munich, 1988), 73–86. (MS)

1. Argumenta This text is a set of argumenta (summary introductions) on the Eclogues (Argumenta in X Eglogas) from MS Pal. lat. 1695, folios 34r–35v. Such short introductions to Virgil’s poetry go back at least to late antiquity, but these seem to have been composed for this manuscript, since the compiler says that he or she has been able to find nothing on Eclogues 8 (which also implies that the compiler worked from commentaries, not from the texts of the Eclogues themselves). (Text: Brown, 77–78, modified) [1] [fol. 35r] Dramatico stilo utitur auctor in prima egloga. In prima egloga inducuntur duo pastores, alter securus, alter de iniuria conquerens. Et per Tytirum Virgilius significatur, non tamen ubique. N. INTRODUCTIONS TO THE ECLOGUES

707

[2] In secunda egloga mictico stilo utitur. Et Coridon et Alexis et Menalcas inducuntur, et Dametas et Amintas. Virgilius in persona Coridonis, Cesar in Alexis, Antonius in Menalca, Dametas in Theocriti, Amintas in Cornificii inimici Virgilii intelligitur. Coridon tractum nomen ex nomine avis que coridalis dicitur, id est, dulce canens. Alexis quasi sine responsione ac superbum inducit[ur]; est significatus Alexander, servus Asinii Pollionis. Hunc cum Virgilius ad prandium vidisset in ministerio pulchrum, dilexit eumque dono accepit; et significat Cesarem formosum operibus et gloria. [3] Drammatico stilo utitur in tercia et transit in eglogam plenam conviciorum pastoralium et iurgii. Prima vero ocium unius tenet, alterius expulsionem; secunda amantem rusticum exprimit; hec vero lites et contradictiones. Menalcas, Dametas, Palemon inducuntur. Cornificius in Menalca, Dametas in Virgilio [sic], in Palemone Octavianus intelligitur. Per pecus agri significantur. Ubi vero dicit ‘‘Ab Iove principium’’ [Eclogues 3.60] etc., amabeo carmine utitur in quo difficilior est pars respondentis que[m] aut maius aut contrarium aut equiparans respondere oportet. Ubi vero dicit ‘‘tris pateat celi spacium’’ [Eclogues 3.105] etc., vane quidam dicunt ut voluisset illum fallere in nomine Celii cuiusdam luxoriosi, cuius sepulchrum tribus ulnis fuit. Alii volunt puteum significari qui est in Syene parte Egipti; quem valde altum foderunt ut probarent solum locum esse quem recto intuitu sol irradiaret. Nam VIII Kal. Iul. quando sol in centro est ima putei irradiat. Sed neutrum est: sed unusquisque puteus debet accipi, in quem cum quis descinderit, tantum spacium celi videt quantum permiserit latitudo poli. [4] In quarta egloga est argumentum hoc. Hanc eglogam scriptam esse aiunt in honore Asinii Pollionis vel filii eius Salonini, qui nomen accepit a Salona civitate quam pater suus debellaverat quia ipse tunc natus est. Hic etiam primus arrisisse matri sue in die nativitatis dicitur, quod bonum omen fuit; vel potius de Augusto dicatur. Alii vero dicunt quod risus Salonini parentibus omen erat infelicitatis, quia dicunt ipsum puerum inter ipsa primordia perisse. Huic ergo puero nunc Virgilius genethicon dictat, hoc est, generacionis carmen. [5] In quinta egloga est argumentum hoc, et drammatico stilo utitur in ea. Menalcas et Mopsus, duo pastores, hic introducuntur se mutuo laudantes et se invicem remunerantes. Daphnim pastorem filium Mercurii extinctum laudant[es], et faciunt ei epicedon [sic], quod est carmen alicui ante sepulturam factum; deinde epitaphium, quod fit sepulto; postea apotheosin, quod fit deificatis sic ut ascendant. Allegorice per Menalcam intelligitur Virgilius, per Mopsum Emulius Macer Veronensis poeta phisicus vel alius quilibet amicus Virgilii. Hi laudant Daphnim, id est, Iulium. Est autem epicedon 708

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

[sic] usque ubi dicitur ‘‘Spargite humum foliis, inducite fontibus umbras’’ [Eclogues 5.40]. Incipit autem in eodem versu epitaphium usque ad hunc versum [fol. 35v] ‘‘Candidus insuetum miratur limen Olimpi’’ [Eclogues 5.56]. Ibi incipit apotheosis. [6] In sexta egloga est argumentum hoc. Gentilius Varus rogavit Virgilium ut sibi narraret quomodo duo iuvenes Chromus et Mnasilus rogaverunt quendam senem poetam nomine Silenum discipulum Phebi, qui audivit omnia verba que locutus est Apollo de constitucione mundi et de aliis quam plurimis, ut et illis ea indicaret. Egloga talis est ‘‘Prima Syracosio’’ [Eclogues 6.1]. [7] Septima egloga est ‘‘Forte sub arguta’’ [Eclogues 7.1] etc. Egloga hec pene Theocriti est. Nam et istam transtulit et ad eam multa de aliis congessit. [8] In octavam eglogam que est ‘‘Pastorum Musam Damonis et Alphesibei’’ [Eclogues 8.1] etc. nichil inveni. [9] In nona egloga que est ‘‘Quo te Meri pedes’’ [Eclogues 9.1] etc. tale est argumentum. Virgilius postquam ab Arrio centurione pene occisus est, Romam revertens mandavit procuratoribus suis ut tuerentur agros et ad presens obsequerentur Arrio. Modo ergo Meris procurator eius secundum preceptum Virgilii portat hedos Mantuam, quos Arrio offerat. Quem sequitur pastor et interrogat quo pergat. Ille iam suas deflet miserias, et hinc iam varie prestantur ex hoc casu cantilene. [10] In decima egloga que est ‘‘Extremum’’ [Eclogues 10.1] etc. est argumentum hoc. Gallus ante omnes primus prefectus fuit poeta bonus. Hic Gallus amavit Citheridem meretricem libertam Volumnii, que eo spreto Antonium euntem ad Gallias est secuta; propter quod dolorem Galli nunc videtur consolari Virgilius. Tamen ea consolatio altius intuenti vituperatio est. Nam et Galli inpaciencia turpis amoris ostenditur, et Antonius a parte [aperte Servius] carpitur inimicus Augusti, quem contra Romanum morem Citheris est in castris comitata. Aliter conquestio cum Gallo est de agris in hac egloga.

[1] The author employs the dramatic style in the first Eclogue. In the first Eclogue two shepherds are introduced: one carefree, the other complaining about an injustice. In addition Virgil is signified by Tityrus, but not everywhere. [2] In the second Eclogue he uses a mictic [allegorical] style. Corydon and Alexis and Menalcas are introduced, as well as Damoetas and Amyntas. Virgil is understood in the person of Corydon, Caesar of Alexis, Antony of Menalcas, Damoetas of Theocritus, Amyntas of Cornificius, the enemy of Virgil. The name Corydon has been taken from the name of the bird that was called N. INTRODUCTIONS TO THE ECLOGUES

709

coridalis, that is, sweet-singing. Alexis is introduced as it were ‘‘without response,’’ as if proud; Alexander, the servant of Asinius Pollio, is signified. When Virgil saw this beautiful man serving at dinner, he desired him and accepted him as a gift; it also signifies Caesar, handsome in deeds and glory. [3] He employs the dramatic style in the third and passes into an eclogue replete with the insulting speech of shepherds and with strife. Indeed the first has the ease of one and the expulsion of the other; the second shows a rustic lover; but this one shows quarrels and objections. Menalcas, Damoetas, and Palaemon are introduced. Cornificius is understood in Menalcas, Virgil in Damoetas, and Octavian in Palaemon. Fields are signified through herds. But where he says ‘‘began from Jove’’ and so forth, he uses amoebaean poetry, in which the more di≈cult part is that of the responder, who is required to give a greater, opposite, or similar answer. But where he says: ‘‘What place reveals the space of three ells of celi [heaven],’’ some vainly say that he had wanted to conceal in the word the name of a certain voluptuary Celius [or ‘‘Caelius’’], whose tomb was three ells large. Others want a well in Syene, a part of Egypt, to be signified, which they dug to a great depth to show that it was the only place that the sun illuminated from straight overhead. For on June 24, when the sun is in the center [of the sky], it illuminates the bottom of the well. But it is neither: rather, every well could be meant in which, when one descends, he will see as much space of heaven as the width of the opening will allow. [4] This is the argument of the fourth Eclogue. They say the following eclogue was written in honor of Asinius Pollio or of his son Saloninus, who was named after the city of Salona, which his father had subdued, because he was born there. He is also said to have first smiled at his mother on the day of his birth, which was a good omen; or rather it should be said of Augustus. Others, however, say that Saloninus’s smiling at his parents was an omen of misfortune, because they say this very boy died in his earliest days. Therefore, Virgil now dictates a genethliacon to this boy, that is, a birthday poem. [5] The following is the argument of the fifth Eclogue, and he uses the dramatic style in it as well. Menalcas and Mopsus, two shepherds, are here introduced praising each other and rewarding each other in turn. They praise the dead shepherd Daphnis, the son of Mercury, and they perform for him an epicedium, which is a poem performed for someone before burial; then the epitaph, which is performed at the burial; afterward, the apotheosis, which is performed for those deified just as they ascend. Virgil is understood allegorically as Menalcas; as Mopsus, Emulius Macer of Verona, the poet and natural philosopher, or some other friend of Virgil. They praise Daphnis, that is, Julius. It is an epicedium until the point where it says: ‘‘strew the ground with leaves and draw a shadow over the fountains.’’ The epitaph begins in the 710

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

same verse up to this verse: ‘‘Dazzling, he stands rapt before Olympus’s gate, which he had never seen before.’’ There the apotheosis begins. [6] The following is the argument of the sixth Eclogue. Gentilius Varus asked Virgil to tell him how two young men, Chromis and Mnasyllos, asked a certain old poet named Silenus, a student of Phoebus who heard all the words that Apollo spoke about the creation of the world and about as many other things as possible also, to tell them these things. Such is the eclogue, ‘‘First in Syracusan.’’ [7] The seventh Eclogue is ‘‘Perhaps beneath the rustling’’ and so forth. This eclogue is almost by Theocritus, for Virgil both translated his and added much to it from others. [8] I have found nothing on the eighth Eclogue, which is ‘‘Of the shepherds Damon and Alphesiboeus’’ and so forth. [9] Such is the argument of the ninth Eclogue, which is ‘‘Where are you going, Moeris’’ and so forth. Virgil, returning to Rome after he was almost killed by the centurion Arrius, ordered his agents to protect the fields and, for the time being, to obey Arrius. Then, therefore, Moeris, the agent of Virgil, according to his request, takes the kids to Mantua to o√er them to Arrius. The shepherd follows him and asks him where he is going. He then bewails his troubles, and hence then various songs are produced from this misfortune. [10] The following is the argument of the tenth Eclogue, which is ‘‘The latest’’ and so forth. Gallus, the first prefect [of Egypt] before anyone else, was a good poet. This Gallus loved Cytheris, a prostitute and freed ex-slave of Volumnius. After she spurned Gallus, she followed Antony, who was going to Gaul; and Virgil now seems to console this grief of Gallus. Yet that consolation, in a higher understanding, is a censure. For the impatience of Gallus is shown as that of base love; and Antony, the enemy of Augustus, is openly [Servius: aperte] slandered, who, against Roman custom, was accompanied by Cytheris in camp. In another way, in this eclogue there is a lament with Gallus about the lands. (MS)

2. Accessus This text is a Virgilian accessus found in MS. Pal. lat. 1695, folios 35v–36r, with readings from two additional manuscripts. The accessus, or introduction, to an author was a standard way of approaching texts by the twelfth century (see above, IV.M). Not only did it sketch the author’s life and works, but it also showed how those works fitted into the wider course of studies. Much of the material here is drawn from many sources, including Servius’s commentaries (see above, IV.B) and the vitae of Virgil (see above, II.A). (Text: Brown, 84– 85) (MS) [fol. 35v] In hoc opere requiruntur VIII: titulus, materia, ordo materiei, qualitas operis, intencio, utilitas, cui parti philosophie subponatur, vita poete. N. INTRODUCTIONS TO THE ECLOGUES

711

[1] Titulus est bucolicon vel -ca, quod ita intitulatum est apo ton boykolon, id est, a boum curali custodia, licet hic maxime agatur de ovibus et capris. Maluit enim a bubus scilicet a digniori possessione rusticorum, qui bubus et pastoribus nichil habent utilius, intitulari. Unde autem scribendorum bucolicorum usus primum inoleverit diversi diversa referunt. Nam quidam dicunt [quod] cum Xerses rex Babilonie per Grecorum humida sicco transiret vestigio et per sicca navigaret, tanta obsidione eos constrinxit ut sacrificiis Diane vacare non possent. Lacedemones vero accepta occasione in montes Laconas cum pastoribus ascendentes ymnos quosdam in honorem eius decantabant. Unde bucolicorum usus primum inolevit. Alii dicunt quod cum Horestes et Pylades simulacrum Diane de Taurica terra sublatum in Siciliam navigio detulissent, pastoribus congregatis, tales ymnos in honorem eius decantabant. Unde item inolevit bucolicorum usus. Alii non Diane sed Apollini consecratum hoc carmen ferunt. Nam cum Apollo deitate spoliatus armenta Admeti iuxta Amphrisum fluvium pasceret, multa cum pastoribus et cantabat et docuit. Unde item mos bucolicorum inolevit. Alii asserunt hoc carmen omnibus rusticis numinibus consecratum, scilicet Pani, faunis, satyris, nimphis etc., in quorum honorem usus huius carminis inolevit. [2] Materia sunt humiles persone, sed hic aliter persona accipitur quam in Tullio, qui dicit: ‘‘Persona est que ducitur vel vocatur in iudicium, cuius dictum factumve reprehenditur vel laudatur’’ [recte Boethius, De topicis differentiis 4]. Hic vero sic diffinitur: persona est rationalis substantia congruis proprietatibus informata. Proprietates autem alie separabiles, alie inseparabiles. Inseparabiles sunt ut substantiales differentie, que sunt rationabilitas, risibilitas; separabiles ut cantatio, rixacio, de quibus hic tantum agitur. [3] Ordo materiei talis est, quod in prima egloga introducit duos pastores, alterum cantantem in pacis delectatione et alterum conquerentem de sui expulsione, in secunda amantes, in tertia rixantes, etc. Lector consideret. [4] Qualitas operis tribus consideratur modis: ex modo scribendi, ex modo recitandi, ex modo carminis. Ex modo scribendi sive scribat humili sive mediocri sive grandiloquo stilo, quorum quisque finitimum vitium habet. Humilis enim habet aridum et exsangue, ubi neque vires sentenciarum neque pondera sunt verborum. Mediocris fluctuans et dissolutum: fluctuans ut in dubiis sentenciis, dissolutum ut sine continuacionibus. Grandiloqus [sic] turgidum et inflatum, ut pomposis verbis se nimis aliquis extollit vel magna dicturum se promittit, ut ‘‘Fortunam Priami cantabo et nobile bellum’’ [Horace, Ars poetica 137]. Quos tales irridens Oracius ait, ‘‘Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’’

712

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

[Ars poetica 139]. Que omnia vicia Virgilius his omnibus stilis usus sollerter devitavit, scilicet in Bucolicis humili utens stilo, in Georgicis mediocri, in Eneide grandiloquo. Ex modo [fol. 36r] recitandi aliter, nam recitacio alia exaggematica, id est, narrativa, alia mictica, id est, micta, alia drammatica, id est, activa. Exaggematicum est ubi tantummodo sub persona actoris aliquid recitatur, ut in Georgicis; micticon ubi aliquando auctor aliquando inducta persona recitat; drammaticon ubi nichil auctor sed tantum introducte persone agentes recitant. Omnes autem hi modi recitandi in hoc opere inveniuntur: exaggematicon, ut ‘‘Sicilides mihi’’ [Eclogues 4.1 Sicelides]; micticon, ‘‘Formosum pastor’’ [Eclogues 2.1]; drammaticon, ‘‘Dic mihi Dametas’’ [Eclogues 3.1 Damoeta]. Ex modo carminis aliter, nam carmina alia sunt heroica, alia elegiaca, et cetera. Heroicum autem constat ex deis et humanis rebus continens vera cum falsis, constans ex dactilis, sed propter difficultatem assumpsit spondeum, in fine trocheum. [5] Intencio est publica et privata: publica, laudare Augustum et Romanos principes allegorice sub pastorali carmine; privata, ut agros suos repeteret quos perdiderat. Nam postquam Augustus Marcum Antonium devicit, agros Cremonensium suis divisit quia faverant Antonio. Cumque illi non sufficerent, addidit agros Mantuanorum pro vicinitate. Unde Virgilius: ‘‘Mantua ve misere nimium vicina Cremone’’ [Eclogues 9.28]. [6] Utilitas et communis et privata est: communis, discere in humilibus personis et potentes notare allegorice; privata, agrorum suorum consecucio, quos cum iterum possideret duce quodam triumviro, vix evasit manus cuiusdam Arrii centurionis qui illos possederat. [7] Ethice subponitur quia de moralitate agit tam potencium quam pastorum. [8] Vita poete. Civis erat Mantuanus. Diversis locis studuit, scilicet Neapoli, Cremone, Mediolani. Eratque probate vite per omnia nisi quod incontinens erat libidinis, sed adeo inde verecundus erat ut nominaretur Parthenias, id est, virginalis. Secundum quosdam etiam Virgilius, sed secundum alios a virga etc., secundum alios a patre Virgilio. Hic tandem studii gratia profectus in Greciam, in brevi tanta sapientia promotus est ut reversus apud Mantuam magistratum obtineret donec occiso M. Antonio de prediis suis, ut dictum est, expelleretur. Expulsusque tandem receptus est in amiciciam duorum principum, scilicet Pollionis et Mecenatis. Qui cum aliquando deambularet in palacio Augusti Cesaris, hos versus inscripsit: Nocte pluit tota; redeunt spectacula mane. Divisum imperium cum Iove Cesar habes. [AL 1.1, 212, no. 256]

N. INTRODUCTIONS TO THE ECLOGUES

713

His lectis et laudatis a Cesare Augusto quesitus est auctor. Quod dum sibi Cornificius usurpasset, magnifice remuneratus est. Videns autem Virgilius alii premium laboris sui cessisse, hos subscripsit versus: Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honorem. Sic vos non vobis Sic vos non vobis. [AL 1.1, 212, no. 257]

Quod cum Augustus vidisset, iussit Cornificium semiplenos perficere. Quo deficiente Virgilius a [rogatu] Pollionis et Mecenatis perfecit sic: vellera fertis oves. mellificatis apes.

Unde magnifice receptus est in amiciciam Cesaris. De Virgilii probitate tantam Romani poete habuerunt invidiam ut septem ex eis in Greciam profecti septem liberalibus studerent artibus, singuli in singulis, ut omnes solum vincerent. Sed ille reversos devicit, quemlibet in sua arte. Multa quoque scripsit que ideo non habentur quia Rome non scripsit. Rome dicitur scripsisse Bucolica maxime rogatu Pollionis et Vari Quintilii, quos laudat in hoc opere, sed maxime Augustum; que tribus annis edidit et correxit et recitavit. Rogatu Mecenatis Georgica, que VII annis scripsit, correxit, recitavit. Hec autem duo volumina preludium sunt Eneidis. Nam in laudem Augusti et Romanorum principum et populi Eneida scripsit XII annis, sed morte preventus nec correxit nec recitavit; quare iussit ea comburi. Sed ne tam elaboratum opus periret, Augustus Tuccam et Varum corrigere iussit hac lege, ut superflua demerent, de suo nichil adderent. Unde ibi inveniuntur semipleni versus. Tanti ergo operis preludium erant Bucolica in X eglogas distincta et ordinata.

Eight things are investigated in this work: the title, the material, the order of the material, the nature of the work, the purpose, the usefulness, under which part of philosophy it should be placed, the life of the poet. [1] The title is Bucolic or Bucolics, which is so titled apo ton boukolon [from cowherds], that is, from the custodial guarding of cattle, although here mainly sheep and goats are considered. Still, he preferred that it be titled after the word for cattle [bubus [ bos], that is, from the very prized possession of country people, who regard nothing as more valuable than cattle and herdsmen. For this reason di√erent people give di√erent explanations of how the custom of writing bucolics first developed. For some say that after Xerxes, the king of Babylon, went through the wet places of the Greeks with dry feet and sailed through the dry parts, he held [the Greeks] in check with so great a siege that they could find no opportunity for the sacrifices to Diana. The Spartans, however, when an opportunity was given, climbed into the Laconian moun714

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

tains with shepherds and sang certain hymns in her honor. Hence the use of bucolics developed for the first time. Others say that after Orestes and Pylades had carried away the image of Diana taken from among the Tauri to Sicily by ship, when the herdsmen assembled they sang such hymns in her honor. Hence likewise the use of bucolics was established. Others say that this poetry was sacred not to Diana but to Apollo. For when Apollo, stripped of his divinity, grazed the herd of Admetus on the banks of the river Amphrysus, he both sang with the shepherds and taught them much. Hence likewise the custom of bucolics was established. Others claim that this poetry was sacred to all the country divinities, namely, Pan, fauns, satyrs, nymphs, and so forth, in whose honor the use of this poetry was established. [2] Low persons are the material, but here ‘‘person’’ is used in a di√erent way than in Cicero, who says: ‘‘A person is the one who is led or summoned into court and whose word or deed is blamed or praised.’’ Here it is indeed thus defined: a person is a rational substance fashioned with appropriate properties. Some properties are separable, others inseparable. The inseparable ones are like substantial di√erences, which are rationality, the capacity for laughter; the separable ones are like singing, quarreling, and so forth, about which alone treatment is here given. [3] The order of the material is such that in the first Eclogue he introduces two shepherds, one singing in the enjoyment of peace and the other bemoaning his expulsion; in the second lovers; in the third quarrelers; and so forth. The reader should consider. [4] The nature of the work is considered in three ways: from the way it is written, from the way it is recited, from the kind of poetry. From the way it is written: whether one writes in low, middle, or elevated style, each of which has its concomitant shortcoming. For the low style is dry and bloodless, where the sententiae have no force and the words no weight. The middle style is loose and careless: loose in its questionable sententiae and careless in its lack of transitions. The elevated is turgid and inflated, as when someone praises himself excessively with pompous words or promises that he is about to say great things, as, ‘‘I shall sing the fortune of Priam and the noble war.’’ And Horace, mocking such verse, says: ‘‘Mountains will labor, and a ridiculous mouse will be born.’’ Virgil, having used all these styles, cleverly avoided all their shortcomings. More specifically, he used the low style in the Bucolics, the middle in the Georgics, and the elevated in the Aeneid. The way it is recited is another matter; for some recitation is exegematic, that is, narrative; some is mictic [allegorical], that is, mixed; and some dramatic, that is, active. Exegematic is where something is spoken only in the person of the author, as in the Georgics; mictic, where sometimes the author, sometimes N. INTRODUCTIONS TO THE ECLOGUES

715

an introduced character, speaks; dramatic, where the author says nothing, but only introduced characters taking part in the action speak. Moreover, all these ways of reciting are found in this work: the exegematic, as ‘‘Sicilian Muses’’; mictic or mixed, ‘‘Beautiful shepherd’’; dramatic, ‘‘Tell me, Damoetas.’’ The kind of poetry is also another matter, for some poems are epic, others elegiac, and so forth. Indeed, epic consists of gods and the a√airs of men, and it contains truths with falsehoods; it is composed of dactyls, but, because of the di≈culty, it adopted the spondee, and the trochee at the end. [5] The intention is public and private. The public intention is to praise Augustus and the Roman leaders allegorically in the guise of pastoral poetry; the private is to win back his fields, which he had lost. For after Augustus defeated Mark Antony, he distributed the farmland of the Cremonans among his own people because the Cremonans had favored Antony. When that was not enough, he added the farmlands of the Mantuans because they were near. That is why Virgil [wrote]: ‘‘Alas, Mantua, all too near pitiable Cremona.’’ [6] The usefulness is both common [public] and private. The common usefulness is to learn from low persons and to indicate powerful ones allegorically; the private is obtaining his fields. Although he regained possession of them thanks to a leader of the triumvirate, he barely escaped the hands of a certain centurion named Arrius, who had held them. [7] It is subsumed under ethics because it concerns the morality both of the powerful and of shepherds. [8] The life of the poet. He was a Mantuan citizen. He studied in several places, namely, Naples, Cremona, and Milan. He also had a virtuous life in all things, except that he was immoderately lustful, but he was then so modest that he was called Parthenias, that is, virginal. According to some [this is also why] he was Virgil [from virgo, virgin], but according to others from virga [rod] and so forth, according to still others from his father Virgil. At length he went to Greece to study and in a short time advanced to such wisdom that, when he returned to Mantua, he held the magistracy until, after the death of Mark Antony, he was expelled from his land, as we said. Having been expelled, he was at last received in friendship by two powerful men, namely, Pollio and Maecenas. And once, when Virgil was strolling in the palace of Augustus Caesar, he wrote these verses: It rained all night, the games return with the morning: Caesar has joint rulership with Jove.

When Caesar Augustus read and praised these, the author was sought. And because Cornificius then called them his, he was magnificently paid. So Virgil, seeing that the reward for his labor had gone to another, wrote these verses: 716

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

I made these little verses, another took the honor. So, it is not for yourselves that you . . . So, it is not for yourselves that you . . .

And when Augustus had seen them, he ordered Cornificius to finish the incomplete lines. When he could not, Virgil, at the request of Pollio and Maecenas, finished them thus: . . . bear wool, sheep. . . . make honey, bees.

For this he was magnificently befriended by Caesar. Roman poets were so envious of Virgil’s virtue that seven of them went to Greece to study the seven liberal arts, one for each, so that all of them could conquer a single man. But he [Virgil] defeated them after they returned, each in his own subject. He also wrote many things that we do not have today because he did not write them at Rome. He is said to have written the Bucolics at Rome, primarily at the request of Pollio and Varus Quintilius, whom he praises in this work, but primarily [he praises] Augustus. And for three years he circulated it, corrected it, and recited it. At the request of Maecenas [he is said to have written] the Georgics, which he wrote, corrected, and recited in seven years. These two volumes, however, are a rehearsal for the Aeneid. For he wrote the Aeneid in praise of Augustus and of the Roman leaders and people in twelve years, but he was prevented by his death from correcting it and reciting it, for which reason he ordered it to be burned. But so that such a finely wrought work should not perish, Augustus ordered Tucca and Varus to correct it according to this rule: that they should remove the superfluous and add nothing of their own. That is why half lines are found there. The Bucolics, divided and arranged in ten eclogues, were therefore the rehearsal for such a great work. (MS) O. ‘‘MASTER ANSELM’’ (possibly Anselm of Laon, early twelfth century) The literal emphasis of the Servian tradition was massively more influential than allegorical interpretations of the Aeneid. The literal approach is evident in the most widespread of the high medieval commentaries on Virgil, probably from the early twelfth century, sometimes attributed to the biblical commentator and theologian Anselm of Laon (died 1117). This attribution is shaky, based on a single note that refers to what ‘‘Master Anselm used to say’’; yet the bulk of the commentary, moving phrase by phrase through the text, is not inconsistent with the kind of biblical commentary we know was practiced at Laon, which resulted in the great Glossa ordinaria (Ordinary Gloss) on the Bible. ‘‘Master Anselm’’ wrote commentaries on the Eclogues, Georgics, and O. ‘‘MASTER ANSELM’’

717

Aeneid; they are known in at least twenty-two manuscripts, among which the Aeneid commentary is most frequent. As with Servius, the presence of additional selected notes in the margins of many Virgil manuscripts suggests even wider circulation. ‘‘Master Anselm’’ draws a great deal of the substance and method of his commentary from Servius (see above, IV.B), often omitting Servius’s quotations from other Roman writers. He also mentions other late-classical grammarians such as Priscian (see above, IV.E). He names and explains more rhetorical figures than does Servius, and occasionally explains details of meter as well. He provides helpful historical context for events in the Aeneid by mentioning contemporary episodes in biblical history, a habit derived from the early Christian historian Eusebius of Caesarea (see above, in II.A.2.a). For instance, he says (in a note to Aeneid 1.265–71) that the fall of Troy occurred when Moses led the Israelites from Egypt. He even explains changes in the usage of certain words between Virgil’s time and his own. Despite this mostly literal emphasis in his teaching, ‘‘Master Anselm’’ occasionally introduces theological issues such as fate and free will. Further, the commentary shows some signs of contact with incipient allegorical readings of the Aeneid, as when he interprets the golden bough (Aeneid 6.136–37), comparing it to the Pythagorean Y (that much from Servius), then linking it to moral and spiritual choices. ‘‘Master Anselm’’ begins his Aeneid commentary with the introduction (usually called an accessus by medieval writers) that is translated below. He wrote a much longer introduction (see above, II.A.10) at the beginning of his notes on the Eclogues, presumably because they come at the beginning of any manuscript of Virgil’s complete works. Yet the surviving manuscripts suggest that the accessus to the Aeneid would have been better known. ‘‘Master Anselm’’ loosely organizes his introduction under seven quite traditional topics, deriving ultimately from Servius, which he lists at the beginning of his Eclogues commentary: life of the poet, title of the work, genre of the poem, intention of the writer, number of books, their order, and interpretation of the text. All these topics will be seen below, though not in this exact order. Instead, ‘‘Master Anselm’’ divides his introduction into five capitula (sections) and assumes that his readers will recognize the topics they cover. His concern with Virgil’s historical background, both literary and political, is in keeping with the literal concerns of the main school tradition. This does not preclude a certain selective attention, though: ‘‘Master Anselm’s’’ attention to both Virgil and Aeneas in relation to Augustus and empire leaves the heroine of the early books, Dido, entirely aside. (Discussion: VME 63–68) (Text: VME 313–14; compare VV 268–72, where this text is identified as Expositio Monacensis III) (CB) 718

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

Auctor iste sicut Bucolica scripsit rogatu Pollionis, Georgica vero rogatu Mecenatis, ita et Eneidem ad laudem scripsit Augusti Cesaris. Intendit enim Augustum a parentibus laudare et hoc describendo facta Enee. Qualiter scilicet post excidium Troianum in Italiam post multos errores devenerit navigio. Et qualiter Rutilis et Latinis resistentibus ibidem bella composuerit. Verum quia ad laudem Augusti scripsit, idcirco de veritate historie multa reticendo poetice quedam figmenta satis competenter apponit. Neque enim ut ipse refert Eneas in nece Turni bella terminavit, sed longe ante in Numicium fluvium submersus periit. Unde Iuvenalis cum de Hercule et Enea loqueretur ait, ‘‘alter aquis alter flammis ad sidera missus’’ [Satires 11.63]. Si tantummodo vero veritatem historie sequeretur non utique poeta sed historiographus videretur. Et hoc est primum capitulum. Est autem carmen hoc heroicum constans ex divinis humanisque personis, continens vera cum fictis. Nam Eneam ad Italiam venisse manifestum est. Venerem vero cum Iove loquutam, missumve ad Didonem Mercurium hoc totum constat esse compositum et ficticium. Et ecce secundum capitulum. Scripsit autem Eneidem undecim annis, sed morte preventus nec correxit nec edidit. Unde moriens eam incendi precepit. Augustus vero ne tantum opus deperiret vel deperderetur Thuccam et Varum duos peritissimos poetas hac lege ad emendandum adhibuit, ut de suo nichil adderent, sed queque superflua demerent. Unde et quosdam versus invenimus semiplenos, ut ibi, ‘‘hic cursus fuit’’ [Aeneid 1.534], quosdam omnino demptos, ut in principio. Non enim ab armis incepit, sed ita, 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].

Illi autem dignitatem et altitudunem carminis considerantes humilitatem detraxerunt principii. In secundo autem libro viginti et duo insimul subtracti sunt. Et ecce tercium capitulum. Sicut autem Theocritum in Bucolicis, et sicut Esiodum in Georgicis, ita in Eneide imitatur Homerum. Hec autem de vita poete sufficiant. Et ecce quartum capitulum. Titulus talis est, Publii Virgilii primus liber Eneidos incipit. Bene dicit primus nam sequitur et secundus. Sunt et enim duodecim. Publius est cognomen a cognacione. Publia enim fuit quedam familia Mantue, unde Virgilius dictus fuit Publius. Virgilius vero agnomen fuit ab eventu. Maia autem mater sua dum pregnans esset sompniavit quod virgam pareret, que usque ad celum attingeret, quod nichil aliud fuit quam quod Virgilium O. ‘‘MASTER ANSELM’’

719

pareret, qui sapientia sua loquendo de astris tangeret. A virga ista dictus est Virgilius. Maro vero proprium nomen est. Eneis est femininum patronomicum ab Enea, vel historia est de Enea facta, sicut Theseis de Theseo, Thebais de Thebis [see above, II.A.9]. Ecce quintum capitulum. Opus suum in tria distinguit: proponit, invocat, narrat. Proponit, ubi ait, ‘‘Arma virumque cano’’ [Aeneid 1.1] et cet. Invocat, ubi difficultati operis subcumbens ait, ‘‘Musa mihi causas memora’’ [Aeneid 1.8] et cet. Narrat ibi ‘‘Vix e conspectu siculis telluris in altum’’ [Aeneid 1.34] et cet. Hiis finitis et prelibatis literam exponamus.

This author, just as he wrote the Eclogues at the request of Pollio, and indeed the Georgics at the request of Maecenas, also similarly wrote the Aeneid in praise of Augustus Caesar. For he intended to praise Augustus through his forebears. And he did this by describing the deeds of Aeneas: namely, how, after the fall of Troy, he came sailing to Italy after many wanderings; and how he waged wars there against the opposing Rutulians and Latins. In truth, since he wrote in praise of Augustus, the author therefore quite appropriately added certain fictions in the manner of poets, concealing much historical fact. For Aeneas did not, as the author claims, end the wars through the death of Turnus, but died long before, drowned in the river Numicius. Therefore Juvenal, speaking of Hercules and Aeneas, says: ‘‘One by water, the other by fire was sent to the heavens.’’ And truly, if he had only followed the truth of history, he would not at all have seemed a poet, but a historiographer. And this is the first section. And this is a heroic poem, consisting of divine and human characters, containing true things along with fictions. For it is clear that Aeneas came to Italy; but that Venus spoke with Jupiter, or that Mercury was sent to Dido, all this is clearly invented and fictive. And there is the second section. And he wrote the Aeneid in eleven years, but hindered by death he neither revised nor published it. Therefore, dying, he ordered it to be burned. Lest so great a work should perish or be lost, though, Augustus summoned two eminent poets, Tucca and Varus, to correct it, under the condition that they add nothing of their own, but remove anything superfluous. And therefore we find some verses incomplete, as here—‘‘this was our course’’—and some entirely removed, as at the beginning. For it did not begin with ‘‘Arms,’’ but thus: I am he that once played a song on the slender pipe; leaving the forests, I compelled the neighboring fields to yield to the husbandman, however greedy he be— a labor that pleased the farmers. But now Mars’s bristling arms and a man I sing . . . [see above, I.C.2]

720

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

Those poets though, considering the dignity and loftiness of the poem, removed the humbleness of the beginning. And in the second book they took out twenty-two lines in one place. And that is the third section. And just as he imitates Theocritus in the Bucolics, and Hesiod in the Georgics, so in the Aeneid he imitates Homer. But let this be enough about the life of the poet. And that is the fourth section. The title is as follows: ‘‘Here begins the first book of the Aeneid of Publius Virgilius.’’ It says ‘‘first’’ rightly, inasmuch as the second one follows, and indeed there are twelve. Publius is a family name from his kindred, for the Publii were a certain family of Mantua, whence Virgil was called Publius. But Virgil was an added name, from something that happened. Now, while his mother, Maia, was pregnant, she dreamed she would give birth to a virga [shoot] that reached up to the heavens, which meant nothing other than that she would give birth to Virgil, who, speaking from his wisdom, would touch on the stars. Virgil was named after this shoot. And Maro is a personal name. Aeneid is a feminine patronymic from ‘‘Aeneas,’’ and indeed the story is about the deeds of Aeneas, just as the Theseid is about Theseus, the Thebaid about Thebes. And that is the fifth section. His book is divided into three parts: he announces, invokes, and narrates. He announces when he says ‘‘Of arms and the man I sing’’ and so forth. He invokes when, overcome by the di≈culty of the task, he says: ‘‘Muse, call to my mind the causes’’ and so forth. He narrates here: ‘‘Just out of sight of Sicily’’ and so forth. With these preliminary points completed, let us interpret the text. (CB) P. PLATONIZING DIRECTIONS IN VIRGILIAN ALLEGORY In the twelfth century teachers such as William of Conches (circa 1080–1154, whose own commentary on Virgil has been lost) made newly daring use of long-established interpretive concepts like integumentum (covering or veil) and involucrum (wrapping). (Discussion: M. D. Chenu, ‘‘Involucrum: Le mythe selon les théologiens médiévaux,’’ Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen age 20 [1956], 74–79) As these metaphors hint, they saw the literal, fictive level of authoritative secular texts, and especially ancient myths, as a veil behind which certain privileged readers could discover hidden wisdom. These commentators often worked by a kind of encyclopedic digression. A key word or phrase, or a brief episode, could provide an occasion to introduce whole chunks of material from cosmology, natural science, and spiritual pedagogy. A commentary on the first six books of the Aeneid, widely attributed to the writer Bernardus Silvestris (see below, IV.Q), exploits these techniques. In its

P. P L A T O N I Z I N G D I R E C T I O N S

721

ambition and detail, this commentary seems to bring intermediate developments to a culmination. We know little of the stages in which earlier notes by Servius (some of them incipiently allegorical: see above, IV.B.2) and ‘‘Master Anselm’’ (see above, IV.O) were accommodated to these new interests. The notes translated below, however, represent growing interest in ‘‘integumental’’ reading of the Aeneid, which nonetheless preserves many of the preoccupations of more literal commentaries. They are taken from Cambridge, Peterhouse College, MS 158 (twelfth century). Most of the notes there are written in the margins of the Aeneid itself, and many come directly from Servius. Others reflect particular preoccupations of the medieval schoolroom, such as the identification of rhetorical figures or the proper social use of language. Some show interest in allegorical reactions, especially to the pagan gods. More fully allegorical readings bracket the Aeneid in folios added at the beginning and end of the epic. A leaf inserted before the Aeneid contains two traditional accessus (introductions), comparable to that of ‘‘Master Anselm,’’ but assembled from late-classical and Carolingian sources. Between these are the largely allegorical notes translated below. Furthermore, at the end of the manuscript, three more leaves were inserted with an early, abbreviated version of the commentary ascribed to Bernardus Silvestris. In sum, Peterhouse 158 gives us a snapshot of schoolroom reading of the Aeneid, when literal and integumental readings were still intermingled. Further, the copying of allegorical notes on the first inserted leaf reflects a crucial shift from disconnected marginal annotations (which were called glossae, often spelled glose in manuscripts) to the kind of freestanding commentum (commentary) such as that of (pseudo-)Bernardus Silvestris. (Discussion: VME 101–20, 130–35) (CB)

1. Opening Notes (Text: C. Baswell, ‘‘The Medieval Allegorization of the ‘Aeneid’: MS Cambridge, Peterhouse 158,’’ Traditio 41 [1985], 221–22) Eneam dicit per descriptionem, quem per excellentiam ‘‘virum’’ [1.1] vocat. Ad ‘‘Italiam’’ [1.2] auctor Eneam venisse ostendit. Sed ne malivola intentione illuc venisse videatur, necessitate illum coactum, id est, ‘‘profugum’’ [1.2] esse ostendit. Verum, ne in eodem quo laudat eum vituperet, ‘‘fato’’ [1.2] venisse eum testatur. Opponunt quidam Antenorem ante Eneam in Italiam venisse et ideo Eneam non esse primum, non attendentes eam partem Gallie ad quam Antenor venit nondum appelari Italiam. ‘‘Iactatus’’ [1.3] quidem fuit et in terra et in mari, quod non fuit proprio merito, sed ‘‘vi’’ [1.4], id est, violentia deorum, quos Iuno ad eius persecutionem instigaverat. Mos fuit antiquis ut victor victam patriam ex suo nomine appellaret. Sed 722

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

Eneas Italos devictos Latinos ut prius vocari passus est, Iove sic volente propter Iunonem. Fa[c]ta prelibatione invocaturus; occasionem invocandi sumit ex ipsa prelibatione. Nam cum de viro Enea dicturus est, et pio, et de Iunonis in eum persecutione, divino induit auxilio. ‘‘Dives o[pum]’’ [1.14]: ostendit Iunonem dilexisse Cartaginem, nam ea ibi abundabant quibus Iuno prefuit: divicie et bella. Diversorum numinum potestati diversa elementa subdita esse fi[n]xerunt philosophi. Igni enim Iovem, aeri Iunonem preesse dixerunt, unde Iuno uxor et soror esse perhibetur: uxor quia aer igni est subiectus, soror quia ceteris elementis et loco et subtilitate igni aer est affinior. Cum enim essent duo unumquodque agit alterum, quod patitur. Ignis molis et terra nec ulla convenirent [sic] qualitate. Duo interposita sunt elementa, aer et aqua, quibus copularentur, quibus quoque diversa numina preesse dicuntur: terre Pluto, aquis Neptunus. Constat tamen apud philosophos rerum universitati deum unum preesse, sed per subiectas potestates diversa operari, quas ideo deos fabulose finxerunt ut et diversa per eos fieri ostenderent et rerum archana sub figmenti velamine obtegerent. Per Minervam enim sapientiam, per Venerem libidinem, per Iunonem fertilitatem et divitias dicunt amministrari. Greci ergo quando diviciis habundabant, Iuno eis favere perhibetur. Notandumque est quod quociens dii diversi inter se dicuntur non ad deum referendum. Nam numquam propriis discordat operibus, sed propter diversa hominum opera sic videtur. Quod autem ipse potestates nil per se possunt, sed omnia ex divino nutu disponantur. Ex hac littera conicitur: ‘‘siqua fata sinunt’’ [1.18]. ‘‘Troas’’ [1.30]: rethorice est, quod Iunonem ostendit potentem. Et Troianos ‘‘reliquias Danaum’’ [1.30] vocat, nam Eneas efferendo istos autem deprimende Iunoni concitavit invidiam.

Through a description he speaks of Aeneas, whom he calls ‘‘man’’ on account of his excellence. The author shows that Aeneas came to ‘‘Italy.’’ But lest he should seem to have come there with an evil intention, Virgil shows him to have been forced by necessity, that is, ‘‘banished.’’ Indeed, lest he should censure Aeneas in that very thing for which he praises him, the author shows him to have come ‘‘through fate.’’ Some allege that Antenor had come to Italy before Aeneas and that Aeneas therefore was not the first, not taking into account that the part of Gaul to which Antenor came was not yet called Italy. In fact, he was ‘‘cast about’’ both on land and at sea, which was not of his own deserving, but ‘‘by the power,’’ that is, the violence, of the gods, whom Juno had incited to persecute him. It was the custom among the ancients that a victor should call a conquered nation by his own name. But Aeneas allowed the defeated Italians to be called P. P L A T O N I Z I N G D I R E C T I O N S

723

Latins as they had been before; Jove wished this on account of Juno. With the introduction done, he begins the invocation; he chooses the moment for the invocation from that introduction. For since he is going to speak about Aeneas, a man and a pious one, and about Juno’s persecution of him, he summons divine aid. ‘‘Rich in means’’: he shows that Juno loved Carthage, for there was an abundance there of those things over which Juno presided: riches and wars. Philosophers used to think that the various elements were set under the power of di√erent divine authorities. They said that Jove presided over fire, Juno over air, and thus Juno is said to be his wife and sister: his wife because air is subordinate to fire, and his sister because air is closer to fire, in position and fineness, than are the other elements. For whenever there are two things, there is one that acts, and the other that is acted upon. And the mass of fire and the earth do not meet in any property. Two elements are placed between, air and water, by which they [fire and earth] are bound together, and over which di√erent divine authorities are said to preside: Pluto over the earth, Neptune over the waters. It is agreed, however, among the philosophers that one god presides over the universe of things, but that he carries out various things through subordinate powers, which they represented fictively as gods, so that they might show various things to come to pass through them, and so that they might hide the secrets of things under the veil of fiction. For they say that wisdom is administered through Minerva, lust through Venus, fertility and riches through Juno. Thus when the Greeks are abounding in riches, Juno is said to favor them. And it should be noted that, whenever the gods are said to di√er among themselves, this should not be referred to God. For he is never discordant in his own works, but he seems so on account of the diverse works of men, because, moreover, these powers can do nothing by themselves, but all things are disposed through the divine will. This is inferred from this phrase: ‘‘if the Fates allow.’’ ‘‘Trojans’’: this is put rhetorically, since it shows Juno’s power. And he calls the Trojans ‘‘remnants of the Greeks,’’ for Aeneas, by leading them forth, stirred up ill-will for her part in unhappy Juno. (CB)

2. Glosses on the Aeneid (Text: VME 353–54 nn. 65, 66, 68, 70, 78–79, 81–82) [1.1] ‘‘Arma,’’ id est, bella: metonomia, efficiens pro effecto. Vel ‘‘arma’’ et ‘‘virum,’’ id est, armatum virum: et est endiadys. Vel isteron proteron, id est, preposterus ordo. Vel etiam arma preponuntur quia deus Vulcanus fecerat illa. Vel continuate ad supradicta, arma Martis, id est, digna ipso Marte, quia omnia bona arma dicata sunt Marti. 724

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

[1.3] Hic Virgilius materiam suam in duo partitur: in errorem, et in laborem, quos passus est Eneas terra et mari. . . . [1.8] ‘‘Memora’’ deprecative, a minore ad maiorem; vocative, quando socius ad socium; imperative, quando maior ad minorem. [1.15] Dii vero dicebantur preesse unicuique elementorum: Iupiter igni, Iuno aeri, Neptunus aque, Pluto terre. [1.65] Nominat eum ut maior debet loqui a[d] minorem. [1.81] Iste poeta proprietates multum observat, nam primum Eneam utpote iuvenem et nondum adversitatibus exercitatum timidum, et quasi extasi oppressum. Virtutem tamen quodammodo intuentem, inducit. Deinde tantam animi perfectionem ei exhibet ut ad infernum eum descendisse ostendat. Quod autem eum primum timidum, deinde aliquantulum confortatum dicit. Naturale est virtuoso, nam inopinas adversitates primum pavet, deinde virtute roboratus resistit. [1.145] Neptuno assignatur tridens, quia mare a quibusdam dicitur tercia pars mundi, vel quia tria genera aquarum sunt—maris, fluminum, fluviorum —quibus preesse Neptunus dicitur. [1.587] Quod autor poetice scribens dicit Eneam circumdatum a nube. Significat curas quas habebat in corde, que recedunt receptis sociis et adepta amicitia Didonis. [6.406] Ramus iste significat virtutes quibus homines liberantur de inferno huius vite, et feruntur ad celum. Vel per ramum intelliguntur divicie que multos precipitaverunt in infernum. In silvis dicitur latere, quia re vera in huius vite confusione et maiore parte viciorum, virtus et integritas latet.

[1.1] ‘‘Arms,’’ that is, war. Metonymy, the e≈cient cause instead of the e√ect. Or, ‘‘arms’’ and the ‘‘man,’’ that is the armed man, and that is hendiadys. Or hysteron proteron, that is, inverted order. Or the arms may even be placed first because the god Vulcan made them. Or, extending the above point, the arms of Mars, that is, worthy of Mars himself, because all good arms are consecrated to Mars [see above, I.C.2, line 4, ‘‘Ille ego qui’’]. [1.3] Here Virgil divides his material in two: in wandering and in hardship, which Aeneas underwent on land and sea. [1.8] ‘‘Recall’’ prayerfully, from a lesser person to a greater. In the vocative when it is comrade to comrade; in the imperative, when a greater to a lesser. [1.15] The gods were said to preside over each of the elements: Jupiter over fire, Juno over air, Neptune over water, Pluto over earth. [1.65] She calls to him as a greater person should to a lesser. [1.81] This poet carefully observes the particular qualities of things. For first he represents Aeneas as a youth, and timid, not yet troubled by P. P L A T O N I Z I N G D I R E C T I O N S

725

adversities, and as if oppressed by an ecstasy, but nevertheless contemplating virtue in some way. He thereafter displays such perfection of soul that Virgil shows him having descended to hell. For he says Aeneas was at first timid, then somewhat comforted. This is natural for the virtuous man, for at first he is terrified of unexpected adversities; then, strengthened by virtue, he withstands them. [1.145] The trident is assigned to Neptune, because the sea is said by some to be the third part of the world, or because there are three kinds of water—the sea, the streams, the rivers—over which Neptune presides. [1.587] Because the author, writing poetically, says that Aeneas was encompassed by a cloud. This signifies the cares that he had in his soul, which cares vanished when his companions were received and Dido’s friendship was obtained. [6.406] This bough signifies the virtues by which men are liberated from the hell of this life, and are borne to heaven. Alternatively, by the bough are understood the riches that cast many men down to hell. It is said to lie hidden in forests, because truly in the confusion of this life and the very great extent of sin, virtue and integrity lie hidden. (CB) Q. (PSEUDO-)BERNARDUS SILVESTRIS (twelfth century) The shadowy figure of (pseudo-)Bernardus Silvestris (Bernard Silvester) is often confused with Bernard of Chartres, a teacher who served as chancellor of the famous cathedral school of Chartres from 1119 until 1126. Although nothing is known directly of the former’s life and career, it is probably significant that his Cosmographia is dedicated to Thierry of Chartres, brother of Bernard of Chartres and himself chancellor of Chartres from 1141. But Bernardus Silvestris himself has been linked not to Chartres, but rather to Tours. The only works that have been attributed to Bernardus without debate are a prosimetrum (a text that alternates between prose and verse) entitled Cosmographia (also known as De mundi universitate [On the Oneness of the Cosmos]), an account of creation that leads into an examination of the relationship between man as microcosm and universe as macrocosm; and a poem entitled Mathematicus (The Astrologer), also known as Parricida (Patricide). He has also been credited with authorship of the Experimentarius, a work on geomancy and astrology, and possibly of an ars dictaminis (art of letterwriting, a manual on the theory and practice of letter-writing). Still less secure is (pseudo-)Bernardus’s authorship of two other poems, the one based on a declamatio (practice speech) by pseudo-Quintilian and entitled De gemellis (On the Twins), the other on a controversia (in rhetorical education, a speech 726

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

in an imaginary legal case, presented in the character of an imaginary person) and entitled De paupere ingrato (On the Ungrateful Poor Man), by Seneca the Elder (see above, I.C.4). There has been considerable argument over Bernardus’s putative authorship of allegorizing commentaries on Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii (The Marriage of Philology and Mercury) and, of most importance for Virgilians, the Commentum super sex libros Eneidos Virgilii (Commentary on Six Books of Virgil’s Aeneid). The commentaries on Martianus Capella and Aeneid, books 1–6 (extant in four manuscripts), are clearly by the same author, but whether that author was Bernardus Silvestris, Bernard of Chartres, or another person remains disputed. Whoever its author may have been, the Commentum follows closely in the allegorical tradition of Fulgentius (see above, IV.F), with the epic’s initial six books now delineating equivalent stages of life: shipwreck in book 1 again stands for birth; book 2, through Aeneas’s narration, alludes to the infant’s beginning to speak; book 4 once again is said to deal with the passions of youth and their purgation; while book 6 completes the individual’s education in the life of the mind. For a detailed examination of the meaning of integumentum in (pseudo-)Bernardus and other commentators, see P. Dronke, ‘‘Integumenta Virgilii,’’ in Lectures médiévales de Virgile (Rome, 1985), 313–29. For information on other ‘‘integumental’’ interpretations of Virgil, see Verfasserlexikon 10:259. (Discussion: G. Padoan, ‘‘Tradizione e fortuna del commento all’Eneide di Bernardo Silvestre,’’ Italia medioevale e umanistica 3 [1960], 227–40; rept., with expanded bibliography, in idem, Il pio Enea, l’empio Ulisse: Tradizione classica e intendimento medievale in Dante, L’interprete 5 [Ravenna, 1977], 207–22. On the six ages of man in (pseudo-)Bernardus, see E. Sears, The Ages of Man: Medieval Interpretations of the Life Cycle [Princeton, 1986], 64–65.) (Text: Commentum quod dicitur Bernardi Silvestris super sex libros Eneidos Virgilii, ed. J. W. Jones and E. F. Jones [Lincoln, Nebr., 1977; translations: Commentary on the First Six Books of Virgil’s Aeneid by Bernardus Silvestris, trans. E. G. Schreiber and T. E. Maresca [Lincoln, Nebr., 1979]) (MP and JZ)

1. Preface to Commentary on Aeneid (Text: Jones and Jones, 3) Scribit ergo in quantum est philosophus humane vite naturam. Modus agendi talis est: in integumento describit quid agat vel quid paciatur humanus spiritus in humano corpore temporaliter positus. Atque in hoc describendo naturali utitur ordine atque ita utrumque ordinem narrationis observat, artificialem poeta, naturalem philosophus.

Q . ( P S E U D O - ) B E R N A R D U S S I LV E S T R I S

727

To the extent that he writes about the nature of human life, Virgil is a philosopher. His procedure is as follows: he describes by the covering [of allegory] what the human spirit accomplishes and su√ers while temporarily placed in the human body. In describing this Virgil uses natural order, and thus he respects each of the orders of narration: as poet, the artificial order; as philosopher, the natural order. (Schreiber and Maresca, 5, modified by MP)

2. Comment on Aeneid 1.52 On the role of Aeolus (described in 1.52–54). (Text: Jones and Jones, 4–5) Eolum vero legimus deum ventorum vel regem esse qui ventis mare commovet. Per hunc intelligimus nativitatem pueri qui dicitur Eolus quasi eonolus, id est, seculi interitus, quia nascente homine seculum, id est, vita anime, interit, dum gravedine carnis oppressa a divinitate sua descendit et libidini carnis consentit. Iste Eolus ventos immitit, quia nativitas hominis commotiones vitiorum secundum constellationes patitur. Tradit namque philosophia nativitatem pueri secundum constellationes, id est, stellarum effectus, vicia movere.

We read in fact that Aeolus is the god or king of winds who stirs up the sea with winds. By this we understand childbirth, which is called Aeolus, as if eonolus, that is, the destruction of the real world, since when a man is born, the world, that is, the life of the spirit, dies, as long as it is oppressed by the heaviness of the flesh, descends from its divinity, and assents to the passions of the flesh. This Aeolus stirs up winds, since a person’s birth su√ers disturbances of vices according to the constellations. Thus philosophy teaches that the birth of a child stirs up vices according to the constellations, that is, the powers of the stars. (Schreiber and Maresca, 5)

3. Comment on Aeneid 1.412, 446 (Text: Jones and Jones, 12) Tectus nube Carthaginem venit. Quemadmodum nubes coruscationem abscondit, ita ignorantia sapientiam. Sub ignorantia Carthaginem venit, id est, ad novam civitatem mundi scilicet qui quidem civitas est omnes habens in se habitatores. In hac civitate regnum habet Dido, id est, libido. Hec civitas nova est Enee quia nuper in eam illatus est.

Hidden under a cloud, [Aeneas] comes to Carthage. Just as a cloud obscures light, so too does ignorance obscure wisdom. In ignorance he comes to Carthage, that is, to the new city of the world, which indeed is a city that has all inhabitants in itself. Dido, that is, passion, rules this city. This city is new to Aeneas because he has just been brought to it. (Schreiber and Maresca, 13) 728

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

4. Comment on Aeneid 2.1: Conticuere omnes intentique ora tenebant (All were hushed, and kept their rapt gaze upon him) (Text: Jones and Jones, 1415) In hoc secundo volumine secunde etatis, id est, pueritie, describitur natura. Infantia est illa pars prima vite, que est a nativitate usque dum homo naturaliter loquatur. Pueritia est illa secunda pars vite humane, que incipit ex quo homo incipit esse sub disciplina custodie et protenditur usque dum a custodia exeat. Unde infantia dicitur ab in et for, faris; pueritia vero a pure, id est, a custodia. In hoc maxima est differentia infantie et pueritie, quod pueri loquuntur, infantes vero loqui non naturaliter. Ideoque nichil aliud mistice in hoc volumine secundo significatur nisi initium et possibilitas loquendi. Per hoc enim quod ad narrandas historias suasu Didonis provocatur, nichil aliud demonstratur nisi quod ad proferenda verba sua eum manifestari volens voluntas hortatur, cui satisfaciens in verba prorumpit. Quoniam quidam sermo verus, quidam falsus, ideo in hac narrationis per hoc quod veritati historie falsitas fabule admiscetur hoc idem figuratur. Est enim historia quod Greci Troiam devicerunt; quod vero Enee probitas enarratur fabula est. Narrat enim Frigius Dares [De excidio Troiae 40–41, ed. Ferdinand Meister (Leipzig, 1873), 48–50] Eneam civitatem prodidisse.

In this second book Virgil describes the nature of the second age—childhood. Infancy is that first part of human life, which extends from birth to the time when a man naturally speaks. Childhood—the second part of human life— begins when a person comes under the discipline of instruction and continues until he leaves that custody. Therefore infantia [infancy] is so called from the combination of in [not] and for, faris [to speak]; pueritia [childhood] is from pure, that is, custodia [wardship]. This is the greatest di√erence between infancy and childhood, because children speak, but infants are not able to speak naturally. Therefore, nothing else is allegorically represented in this second book except the beginning of speech and the ability to speak. Dido’s persuading Aeneas to tell of his history shows nothing else except that desire wishing to be manifested urges him to bring forth words; and, in satisfying that desire, he breaks forth in speech. Since speech is sometimes true and sometimes false, therefore the mixture of the truth of history and the falsity of fables in the narration follows this same pattern. The Greek destruction of Troy is history, but Aeneas’s honesty is fiction, for Dares of Phrygia [in De excidio Troiae historia, fifth–sixth century] narrates that Aeneas betrayed his city. (Schreiber and Maresca, 16)

Q . ( P S E U D O - ) B E R N A R D U S S I LV E S T R I S

729

5. Comment on Aeneid 3 For discussion, see P. A. Olson, The Journey to Wisdom: Self-Education in Patristic and Medieval Literature (Lincoln, Nebr., 1995), 100: ‘‘Antandros stands for the adolescent period’s inconstancy, Thrace for its greed, the Strophades for its storms of sensual temptation, the Cyclops for its aimlessness, Circe for its irrational delight in the temporal, Aetna for its Polypheman pride, and Drepanum for its childish bitterness.’’ (Text: Jones and Jones, 15) In hoc tertio natura adholescentie exprimitur.

The nature of adolescence is expressed in this third book. (Schreiber and Maresca, 17)

6. Comment on Aeneid 4 (Text: Jones and Jones, 23–25) ‘‘At regina,’’ etc.: in hoc quarto volumine natura iuventutis exponitur mistice, sed prius summatim narrationem, deinde expositionem ponamus. Sepulto patre venatum vadit. Tempestatibus actus in speluncam cum Didone divertit ibique adulterium committit. Quam turpem consuetudinem consilio Mercurii deserit. Dido vero deserta in cineres excocta defficit et demigrat. Manifeste ac mistica narratione iuvenilis natura describitur. Per hoc quod sepulto patre venatum itur, quid aliud designatur quam quod obliviscens creatoris sui venatu et ceteris occupationibus vanis implicatur quod in iuventute contingit. Ut ait Horatius: Imberbis iuvenis tandem custode remoto, gaudet equis canibus et aperti gramine campi [Ars poetica 161–62].

Tempestatibus et pluviis ad cavernam compellitur, id est, commotionibus carnis et affluentia humoris ex ciborum et potuum superfluitate provenientis ad immundiciam carnis ducitur et libidinis. Que immundicia carnis cavea dicitur quia serenitatem mentis et discretionis obnubilat. Affluentia humoris ciborum et potuum taliter ad libidinis immundiciam ducit. In decoctione humoris quattuor sunt: liquor, fumus, spuma, fex. Decoctis ergo humoribus ciborum et potuum in cacabo stomachi fumus inde progrediens et, ut natura levitatis exigit, ascendens ascendendo et per arterias colando rarior factus ad cerebrum venit et animales virtutes facit. Liquore vero membra coalescunt. Fex vero per inferiores meatus in secessum emittitur; spuma vero partim per sudores partim per foramina sensuum fluit. Cum autem spume nimia est superfluitas, quod contingit in crapulosis comestionibus et ebrietatibus, per virilem virgam quia ventri proxima est et subdita in sperma, id est, semen virile, conversa emittitur. Purgatur enim venter per 730

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

membrum proximum et subditum. Unde legitur Venerem de spuma maris natam et ideo proprie vocatam esse ‘‘afroden.’’ Itaque ducunt pluvie Eneam ad caveam iungiturque Didoni et diu cum ea moratur. Non revocant eum turpia preconia fame, quia iuventus libidine irretita nescit . . . quid pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non [Horace, Epistles 1.2.3].

Tandem post longam monetur hiemem a Mercurio ut discedat. Per Mercurium aliquando accipis stellam, aliquando eloquentiam: stellam ut in ea fabula in qua legis Venerem adulteratam cum Mercurio, per hoc quod intelligis stellas illas in accessu suo effectus suos iungere; eloquentia ubi Mercurius Philologie connubium querit. Eloquentia enim nisi iungatur sapientie parum prodest, immo etiam obest. Atque ideo depingitur avis vel canis, quia sermo cito currit. Dicitur virgam gerere qua serpentes dividit, quia habet interpretationem qua rixantes et venenum verborum effundentes secernit. Furto dicitur preesse, quia animos audientium fallit. Mercatoribus preest, quia eloquentia a se merces extrudunt vendentes. Unde dicitur Mercurius, quasi mercatorum kirios, id est, deus, vel Mercurius, id est, medius discurrens, vel Mercurius, mercatorum cura, vel Mercurius, mentium currus, quia excogitata profert. Unde etiam Hermes dicitur, id est, interpres. Hermenia enim est interpretatio. Hic monet et increpat Eneam quia invenit eum ad utile propositum non respicientem, quia ‘‘Utilium tardus provisor’’ est et ‘‘prodigus eris’’ [Horace, Ars poetica 164]. Increpat Mercurius Eneam oratione alicuius censoris. Discedit a Didone et desuescit a libidine. Dido deserta emoritur et in cineres excocta demigrat. Desueta enim libido defficit et fervore virilitatis consumpta in favillam, id est, in solas cogitationes, transit.

At regina, and so forth: in this fourth book the nature of young manhood is set forth allegorically; but let us first give a summary of the narrative and then an interpretation. Once his father has been buried, he goes to hunt. Driven by storms, he takes a detour into a cave with Dido and there commits adultery. At the advice of Mercury he leaves o√ this vile habit. Abandoned, Dido is in fact extinguished —burned to ashes—and passes away. Evidently, as in an allegorical narrative, the nature of a young man is described. Through the fact that he goes to hunt once his father has been buried, what else is indicated than that, forgetful of his creator, he is caught up in hunting and other idle occupations, as happens in youth? In the words of Horace, ‘‘The beardless youth, now that his tutor has at last been removed, takes joy in horses, hunting dogs, and the grass of the open field.’’ Q . ( P S E U D O - ) B E R N A R D U S S I LV E S T R I S

731

He is forced by storms and rains into a cavern, which is to say, he is induced to impurity of the flesh and lust through the restlessness of his flesh and through the overflow of moisture arising from an excess of food and drink. This impurity of the flesh is called a cave because it clouds the clarity of mind and discernment. The overflow of humor from food and drink leads to the impurity of lust in the following fashion. In the digestion of the humor are four things: liquid, steam, foam, and dregs. Accordingly, when the humors of the food and drink have been digested in the cauldron of the stomach, the steam proceeds from there and, ascending as the nature of lightness requires, it is rarefied by ascending and by percolating through the arteries; then it comes to the brain and produces the vital forces. The members grow strong from the liquid. The dregs are emitted outward through lower movements, the foam partly through perspiration and partly through the sensory openings. But when there is an excess of foam, as happens in uncontrolled eating and drinking, it is emitted after being turned into sperm, which is a man’s semen, through the male rod, which is nearest to the stomach and subject to it. For the stomach is purged through the member that is nearest and subject to it. For this reason it is read that Venus was born from sea foam and hence properly called ‘‘Aphrodite.’’ And so the rains lead Aeneas to the cave; and he is joined to Dido and stays there with her for a long time. The shameful public revelation of this report does not call him back, because youth, when ensnared by lust, does not know ‘‘what is fair, what is foul, what is helpful, what is not.’’ At length, after a long winter he is warned by Mercury to leave. You understand Mercury sometimes as a star, sometimes as eloquence: a star as in that story in which you read of Venus having committed adultery with Mercury, on the principle that you understand that those stars when ascendant join their e√ects; eloquence when Mercury seeks marriage with Philology [a reference to Martianus Capella, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii (On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury): see below, IV.Q.12]. For unless eloquence is joined to wisdom, it accomplishes little—on the contrary, it even causes damage. For that reason he is depicted as a bird or dog, since speech runs swiftly. He is said to carry a rod with which he divides serpents, because he has an explanation by which he separates people quarreling and pouring forth venomous words. He is said to be preeminent in theft, because he deceives the minds of listeners. He has charge of merchants, because those who sell rid themselves of merchandise through eloquence. For this reason he is called Mercury, as if mercatorum kirios [lord of merchants], or Mercury, mentium currus [chariot of minds], because he brings forth things that have been carefully thought out. For this reason he is also called Hermes, which is to say, ‘‘interpreter.’’ For hermeneia is interpretation. 732

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

This one warns and rebukes Aeneas because he finds him not taking notice of a useful undertaking, inasmuch as he is ‘‘slow to make needful provision’’ and ‘‘lavish of money.’’ Mercury rebukes Aeneas with the speech of some judge of morals. He leaves Dido and desists from lust. Dido, having been deserted, dies and, burned to ashes, passes away. For lust, when it has ceased to be habitual, is extinguished; and, when it has been consumed by the heat of manliness, passes over into an ember, that is, into thoughts alone. (JZ)

7. Comment on Aeneid 5.1, 114 In this comment (pseudo-)Bernardus outlines the so-called natural, or cardinal, virtues, namely, temperance, fortitude, prudence, and justice, as outlined first by Plato (Republic 4.427). They are to be distinguished from the ‘‘theological’’ virtues of faith, hope, and charity. (Text: Jones and Jones, 25–26) In hoc quinto volumine incipit de natura virilis etatis. . . . Quattuor certamina, dimissa Didone, ad honorem patris celebrat quia dimissa luxuria quattuor virtutum exercicia in virili etate deo immolat. Per moderantiam namque navium accipimus temperantiam que est moderatrix omnium voluptatum. Precedit autem hoc certamen quia in assequendis virtutibus priorem oportet habere moderationem. Hec est enim que vitia prohibet, que necessario precedit alias virtutes. Est enim temperantia rationis in libidinem atque in alios non rectos animi motus moderatio. Per certamen cestuum quod plumbi massa geritur accipe fortitudinem, qua pondus laboris profertur. Est enim fortitudo considerata periculorum susceptio et laborum perpessio. Per ludum vero equestrem vel pedestrem quo equorum vel hominum comprehenditur velocitas accipe prudentiam, qua rerum mutabilium cursus et instabilitas dinoscitur. Item in cursu quidam videntur sequentes, quidam fugientes: ita et prudentia discernitur que sint fugienda, que sequenda. Est enim prudentia rerum bonarum et malarum utrarumque discretio. Per certamen in quo spicula eminus mituntur intellige iusticiam, per quam nociva longe removentur. Est namque iusticia virtus conservata communi utilitate suam cuique tribuens dignitatem.

In the fifth book Virgil begins with the nature of the age of manhood. . . . After [Aeneas] rejects Dido, he celebrates four games in honor of his father because, having abandoned the lust [of youth], he makes a sacrifice to God by the exercise of four virtues in his time of manhood. For in fact we understand the control of the ships to be temperance, which is the moderator of all desires. This [boat] race comes first, since in pursuing virtue one must first have moderation. For reasonable moderation overcomes vice, and thus it necessarily precedes the other virtues. Temperance is the dominance of reason over desire and Q . ( P S E U D O - ) B E R N A R D U S S I LV E S T R I S

733

over the other improper movements of the spirit. Interpret the boxing match in which they bear heavy weights as fortitude, by which one endures the burden of labor, for fortitude is the considered undertaking of dangers and the endurance of labors. Interpret the footrace and horserace, in which one notes the speed of men and horses, as prudence, by which the movement and instability of mutable things are known. So too in a race, some flee and some pursue, and thus prudence discerns what should be followed and what should be fled, for prudence is the recognition of both the good and the bad. Interpret the archery contest, in which arrows are shot afar, as justice, by which evil deeds are removed to a distance, for justice is the virtue preserved for the common good and which lends its dignity to the common good. (Schreiber and Maresca, 28, modified by JZ)

8. Comment on Aeneid 6.6: Hesperium (Hesperian) (Text: Jones and Jones, 33–34) ‘‘Hesperium’’: serenum. Hesperus est stella serenissima tanta claritate, ut ait Marcianus [De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii 8.883], alias excedens quod sola preter duo luminaria solis et lune fulgorem radiorum emittit. Si enim in nocte serena, non imminente luna, que eius claritatem sua claritate ebetat, cernatur, radios efficit et umbram. Unde a Latinis Lucifer, a Grecis vero Fosforos, id est, ferens lucem dicitur. Ipsa enim est clara, luna clarior, sol clarissimus. Per hanc ergo accipe poesim que ad comparationem mechanie clara est, sicut illa stella comparatione aliarum. Clarior est eloquentia poesi, clarissima philosophia. Ita ergo in hoc libro per illam stellam claram intellige poesim claram, per lunam clariorem eloquentiam clariorem, per Phebum clarissimum philosophiam clarissimam. Litus ergo Hesperium est incoatio poetici studii.

‘‘Hesperian’’: clear. Hesper is the clearest star, of such brightness, as Martianus [Capella] says, that its rays are more brilliant than those of any other heavenly body, except the sun or moon. If on a clear night when the moon is not overhead, which by its brightness dulls the brightness of Hesper, that star should be seen, it casts light and a shadow. Whence it is called Fosforos by the Greeks, and Lucifer, ‘‘bearing light,’’ by the Latins. For it is bright, the moon is brighter, and the sun is most bright. Therefore, understand that star as poetics, which is bright when compared with mechanics, just as that star [Hesper] is bright when compared with others. Eloquence is brighter than poetics; philosophy is the brightest. Therefore, in this book understand that bright star to be bright poetry, the brighter moon to be brighter eloquence, the brightest Phoebus to be brightest philosophy. The Hesperian shore, therefore, is the beginning of poetic study. (Schreiber and Maresca, 35–36, modified) 734

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

9. Comment on Aeneid 6.13, 34 A classic exposition of the origin and development of the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, logic) and quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music) can be found in E. R. Curtius, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, trans. W. Trask (New York, 1953), 36–39. For discussion of the allegorical meanings that (pseudo-)Bernardus attaches to the mythological figures in this passage, see P. A. Olson, The Journey to Wisdom: Self-Education in Patristic and Medieval Literature (Lincoln, Nebr., 1995), 101: ‘‘Among Aeneas’s guides, Achates is study, the Sibyl is divine counsel, and Apollo is wisdom. . . . No one represents the school or monastic pedagogue or external teacher at this point, for the teacher is the literary metaphor as guide.’’ (Text: Jones and Jones, 30–31) Amisso Palinuro succedit Eneas gubernaculo et appellit naves nemori Trivie et auratis tectis. Tunc mittit Achatem ad Sibillam qui missus Sibillam adducit. Expositio: Relicto errabundo visu incipit rationalis spiritus voluntatem suam ratione que est gubernaculum regere a quibusdam eam cohibendo et ad quedam propellendo et tunc appellit classem nemori Trivie, id est, applicat studiis eloquentie voluntatem. Eloquentia est scientia formans suum lectorem ad congruam agnitorum prolationem. Hec autem Trivia dicitur quia tribus viis, id est, tribus artibus, ad eam incedimus. Ut enim perfecta habeatur eloquentia, primo oportet scire loqui absque soloecissmo et barbarismo quod per gramaticam fit. Deinde sic loquendo oportet scire aliquid probare vel improbare quod fit per dialecticam. Adhuc necessarium scire persuadere vel dissuadere: possunt enim auditores grammatica oratione aliquid intelligere, dialetica probatione de eodem certi esse et tamen illud nolle: ideo necessaria est retorica persuasio. Itaque gramatica inhitium eloquentie, dialetica dicitur provectus, rethorica perfectio atque ideo dicitur eloquentia Trivia. Nemora eius in quibus colitur sunt ille artes vel libri in quibus hec scientia docetur. Aurea vero tecta sunt quattuor artes matheseos in quibus philosophia continetur que per aurum intelligitur. His navis Enee appellitur, id est, voluntas Enee applicatur et prius grammatice, deinde in ordine aliis.

After the loss of Palinurus, Aeneas takes up the rudder and brings the ships to the grove of Trivia and to the golden roofs. He then sends Achates to the Sibyl, and [Achates] returns with her. The interpretation: Having abandoned wandering vision, the rational spirit begins to rule its will with reason, which is the rudder, by restraining its will from certain things and directing it to others. Aeneas then brings the fleet to the grove of Trivia, that is, he turns his will to the study of eloquence, the science that instructs its reader in the decorous Q . ( P S E U D O - ) B E R N A R D U S S I LV E S T R I S

735

utterance of thoughts. This is called Trivia since we come to it by tribus viis [three ways], that is, by three arts. In order to have perfect eloquence one must first know how to speak without solecism and barbarism, and this is attained through grammar. It is then necessary to know what to prove or disprove in speech, and this comes about through dialectic. Then it is necessary to know how to persuade or dissuade: for listeners are able to know something by grammatical speech and to be certain about it by logical testing but still not desire it; therefore, rhetorical persuasion is necessary. And thus grammar is the beginning of eloquence, dialectic is its advancement, and rhetoric is its perfection; therefore, eloquence is called Trivia. The groves in which it dwells are those arts or books in which this science is taught. The aurea tecta [golden roofs] are the four mathematical arts in which philosophy, which is understood as gold, is contained. Aeneas’s ship is drawn to these, that is, he applies his will first to grammar and then to the others in their order. (Schreiber and Maresca, 33–34, modified)

10. Comment on Aeneid 6.42: Excisum (Hewn) (Text: Jones and Jones, 40–41) Ponit topografiam describens mistice philosophiam quia ad eam dicebat Sibillam advocare Eneam. . . . Contemplatur namque theologia invisibiles substantias, mathematica visibiles visibilium quantitates, phisica invisibiles visibilium causas. Itaque theorica per tres species est excisa atque hic in antrum, id est, profunditatem. Alta namque et profunda dicitur philosophia, alta ut supradictum est ad comparationem poesis et ceterorum vel alta quia divina speculatur; profunda quia inexhausta reperitur. Theorica autem ideo spelunca Sibille dicitur, quia Sibilla, id est, intelligentia, eorundem est comprehentio quorum est theorica contemplatio et in ipsa theorica est divinorum comprehentio que est intelligentia.

Here [Virgil] sets forth topography that allegorically describes philosophy when he says that the Sibyl called Aeneas to her. . . . Theology contemplates invisible substances; mathematics, visible quantities of visible things; physics, the invisible causes of visible things. Thus theory is divided into three branches, and this one [Aeneas] goes into the cave, that is, into profundity. Philosophy is called both lofty and deep; it is called lofty in comparison to poetry and other matters, as we said earlier, or because it speculates about divinity; it is deep because it is found to be inexhaustible. The Sibyl’s cave is called theory because the Sibyl, that is, understanding, is the grasping of those things whose theoretic aspect is contemplation, and in that theoretic aspect lies a grasping of divine matters, and that is understanding. (Schreiber and Maresca, 41–42) 736

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

11. Comment on Aeneid 6.455: Affatus (Spoke) (Discussion: J. M. Ziolkowski, ‘‘Mnemotechnics and the Reception of the Aeneid in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages,’’ in Style and Tradition: Studies in Honor of Wendell Clausen, ed. C. Foss and P. E. Knox, Beiträge zur Altertumskunde [Stuttgart, 1998], 168–71) (Text: Jones and Jones, 95) Eneas ad umbram Didonis loquitur dum rationabilis spiritus per retractionem libidinis naturas contemplatur.

Aeneas speaks to Dido’s shade when the rational spirit contemplates the natures of passion through recollection. (Schreiber and Maresca, 90)

12. Introduction to Martianus Capella 2.70–86, 93–104, 114–24 Martianus Capella, who appears to have flourished in the early fifth century, wrote an allegorical prosimetrum (a text alternating between prose and verse) that describes the marriage of Philology (learning) and Mercury (eloquence). In the Middle Ages this work was much copied and studied, as a handbook of the seven liberal arts. It elicited many commentaries, one of which (on the first two books of Martianus’s De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii [On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury]) has been ascribed to (pseudo-)Bernardus Silvestris. Regardless of its authorship, the commentary clearly reflects the heavily Neoplatonic literary interpretation associated in general with the twelfth-century Renaissance and in particular with the so-called school of Chartres. Tied closely to the commentary on the Aeneid also often attributed to (pseudo-)Bernardus Silvestris, the Martianus Capella commentary (found only in Cambridge, University Library, MS Mm.1.18) presents both texts as depicting an ascent through worldly knowledge to spiritual wisdom. The following selection is from the accessus (introduction), which precedes the commentary proper. (Text: The Commentary on Martianus Capella De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii attributed to Bernardus Silvestris, ed. H. Westra, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Studies and Texts 80 [Toronto, 1986], 45–47) (JZ) Genus doctrine figura est. Figura autem est oratio quam involucrum dicere solent. Hec autem bipertita est: partimur namque eam in allegoriam et integumentum. Est autem allegoria oratio sub historica narratione verum et ab exteriori diversum involvens intellectum, ut de lucta Iacob [Genesis 32.24–25]. Integumentum vero est oratio sub fabulosa narratione verum claudens intellectum, ut de Orpheo [see above, III.D]. Nam et ibi historia et hic fabula misterium habent occultum, quod alias discutiendum erit. Allegoria quidem divine pagine, integumentum vero philosophice competit. Non tamen ubique, teste Macrobio, involucrum tractatus admittit philosophicus [Commentarii in somnium Scipionis 1.2]. Cum enim ad summum, in-

Q . ( P S E U D O - ) B E R N A R D U S S I LV E S T R I S

737

quit, deum stilus se audet attollere, nefas est fabulosa vel licita admittere. Ceterum cum de anima vel de ethereis aeriisve potestatibus agitur, locum habent integumenta. Unde Virgilius humani spiritus temporalem cum corpore vitam describens, integumentis usus est. Qui idem introducens Sibillam de deis agentem inquid: ‘‘Obscuris vera involvens’’ [Aeneid 6.100], id est, divina integumentis claudens. . . . Notandum est integumenta equivocationes et multivocationes habere. Verbi gratia: apud Virgilium nomen Iunonis ad aerem et ad practicam vitam equivocatur. Quod enim ibi [Aeneid 1.52] legitur Iunonem venire ad Eolum, significat aerem nativitatem hominis iuvare. Quod vero dicitur venisse cum Pallade et Venere ad iudicium Paridis, figurat vitam practicam et theoricam necnon etiam voluptatem, ut de his iudicet, sensui se proponentes. Set hec melius super Virgilium [commentary on Aeneid 6.64, ed. Jones and Jones, 46: see above, IV.Q.1–11] enodata repperies. Ibidem etiam multivocatio est quia Iupiter et Anchises eiusdem sunt nomina. . . . Auctoris vero imitatio est, quia Maronem emulatur. Sicut enim apud illum ducitur Eneas per inferos comite Sibilla usque ad Anchisem, ita et hic Mercurius per mundi regiones Virtute comite ad Iovem. Ita quoque et in libro De consolatione [philosophiae] scandit Boetius [see above, III.D.3] per falsa bona ad summum bonum duce Philosophia. Que quidem tres figure fere idem exprimunt. Imitatur ergo Martianus Maronem, Boetius Martianum. Set subicies: in quo deprehendis magis Martianum imitatorem Maronis quam Maronem Martiani? In hoc equidem quia constans est Martianum Marone tempore posteriorem, quem iste cum aliis de se precessore philosophis deinceps continuabit.

Figura is a form of learning. Figura is moreover a manner of speaking that people customarily call involucrum [wrapping]. This is divisible into two: we divide it into allegory and integumentum [covering, or veil]. Allegory is a figure of speech that wraps the truth to be understood in the guise of historical narrative but di√erent from the surface story, like the wrestling of Jacob. Integumentum is a figure of speech that encloses the truth to be understood in the guise of narrative of myth, as in the case of Orpheus. For both history, in the former instance, and narrative, in the latter, have a hidden mystery that will be discussed elsewhere. Allegory befits the writings of sacred scripture, but integumentum those of philosophy. Nevertheless, according to Macrobius, philosophical writing does not ever allow involucrum. For, he says, when the pen dares raise its sights toward the supreme god, it is wrong to allow [use of] myths, even those that are permitted. For the rest, when it is a question of the soul or of ethereal or heavenly powers, integumenta have their place. Whence 738

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

Virgil, describing the temporal life of the human spirit with the body, used integumenta. Introducing the Sibyl telling of the gods, he says [that she was]: ‘‘wrapping truths within the unclear,’’ which is to say, enclosing the subject of divinity within integumenta. . . . We should observe that integumenta have double and multiple meanings. For example, in Virgil the name Juno refers equally to air and to the practical life. For when we read there [in the first book of the Aeneid] that Juno came to Aeolus, it means that air lends aid at the birth of a man. And the story that she joined Pallas [Athena] and Venus at the Judgment of Paris means that the practical life and the theoretical life and also pleasure put themselves forward to sensation so that it might make judgment about them. But you will find these matters about Virgil explained better above. For Virgil there are also multiple meanings, since Jupiter and Anchises are names for the same thing. . . . There is [in Martianus] imitation of an author, because he emulates Virgil. For just as in Virgil Aeneas is escorted by the Sibyl through the underworld to Anchises, so also here [in Martianus] Mercury makes his way to Jupiter through the regions of the world under the guidance of Virtue. So also, in his book On the Consolation [of Philosophy], Boethius with Philosophy as his leader ascends through false goods to the highest good. So it is that the three figurae express nearly the same thing. For Martianus imitates Virgil; Boethius, Martianus. But you will interpose: How do you apprehend that Martianus is more the imitator of Virgil than Virgil of Martianus? Because there is agreement in this matter that Martianus is later in time than Virgil, whom with other philosophers he will then continue, with a bow to his own forebear. (MP) R. CONRAD OF HIRSAU (circa 1070–1150) As his name indicates, Conrad of Hirsau was connected with the town of Hirsau, near Stuttgart. He was first a student there, under William of Hirsau (circa 1030–91), and later a professor. Alongside his many writings on theology, hagiography, and music, and alongside his own poetry, he left a Dialogus super auctores (Dialogue on the Authors), extant in three manuscripts, which resembles collections of traditional introductions (accessus ad auctores) (see above, IV.M) in assembling historical and literary-critical information to introduce students to school authors, among whom appears Virgil. (Discussion: A. J. Minnis and A. B. Scott, with D. Wallace, Medieval Literary Theory and Criticism c. 1100–c. 1375: The Commentary Tradition [Oxford, 1988], 37–39) (Text: R. B. C. Huygens, ed. Accessus ad auctores; Bernard d’Utrecht; Conrad d’Hirsau, Dialogus super auctores, 2nd ed. [Leiden, 1970], 120–122) (JZ)

R. CONRAD OF HIRSAU

739

Super Virgilium. M[agister]: Virgilius quidem teste Augustino magna pars Latinitatis mira scriptorum suorum efficatia multorum valida vacandae lectioni suae inclinavit ingenia. Triplici ergo modo scribendi, id est, humili, mediocri et grandiloquo stilo tria edidit volumina, Bucolica videlicet, Georgica et Eneidem, in quorum ponderoso sensu et litera proprietate magna prolata sagax lector advertere poterit tantum poetam integram liberalium disciplinarum noticiam comprehendisse, quippe qui nulli auctorum inferior esse videtur in metro, quodammodo singularis privati stili privilegio. In Bucolicis igitur eglogam, id est, carmen pastorale prosequitur, quod quidem a principali parte nomen accepit, quia non solum in hoc opere armentariorum, sed etiam opilionum caprariorumque sermones, altercationes et cantica describuntur. Sunt qui putant eadem Bucolica aliter, quam sonat ipsa litera, legenda vel intelligenda, dum, quod verbis apertis auctor ostendit, subtiliori sensu querendum sit. Quod quidem in quibusdam locis fieri potest, ut abstrusior litera lectorem ducat ad aliud intelligendum, sicut in proverbiis vulgaribus plerumque fit ut aliud dicamus, aliud ipsis verbis longe dissimili sensu significemus. Verum de ipsis Bucolicis exemplum existimo proferendum, ubi poeta contra emulos suos Bavium et Mevium distico pugnare videtur et verbis paucissimis vitam et opus eorum confundere probatur: Qui Bavium, inquit, non odit, amet tua carmina, Mevi, / atque idem iungat vulpes et mulgeat hircos [Eclogues 3.90–91]. In quibus verbis sensum geminum poteris advertere, id est, quod pro hoc malo, quod quis Bavium non odit, amare cogatur carmina Mevi poetae et tanta idem obruatur dementia, ut vulpes putet esse ut boum paria iugales et hircos ut capras mulgibiles, quod natura non admittit, vel certe ipsorum emulorum suorum astutiam et fraudulentiam et feditatem poematis vulpium et hircorum nomine tacita irrisione poeta comprehendit. Intendit autem auctor in hoc opere pastoralis vitae mores, qualitatem, negotia seria vel ludos describere, privati ruris et urbis differentiam ostendere, affectum suum in Cesarem et eius in se protectionem commendare sicque valida ingenia legentium significationibus occultioribus exercere. Porro intentioni materia ex omni parte comprehendit, quod per modum, per loca, per tempora personasque gregum alendorum eglogam istam composuit. Fructus legentis agnita maxime proprietas expressa Latinitatis est. In Georgicis vero Virgilius curam, qualitatem, tempus agriculturae in iaciendis seminibus, curam boum cultumque peccorum, sed et vinearum plantandarum usum, tempus et cultum agricolaeque vigilans studium describit, quanta sit quamque mirabilis naturae subtilitas et experientia in apibus. Quae petenda statio a ventorum aditu remota, quid prosit nutriendis 740

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

apibus et obsit, distensas nectare cellas quo ordine et officia singulis dispertita teneant et conservent, differentiam duorum alveariis inclusorum, pugnam ipsorum et victoriam affectumque ipsarum apum in proprium principem admodum mirabilem magna mediocris stili subtilitate ostendit. Denique materiam huius operis terrae culturam accipe, quam nisi perfecte in agricolandi scientia poeta comprehendisset, quid de agricultura scriberet non haberet. Intentio eius est mortales ad simplicem vitam, id est, ad agriculturam, informare, ut in hac occupatione quod sunt discant advertere et mentem a vanis ociis noxiisque negotiis avocare. D[iscipulus]: Tercium opus eius de Eneide primis adiunge. M[agister]: Nota cunctis historia est de excidio Troiae, quomodo propter Helenam decennali obsidione Troia vexata et capta est a Grecis, ex quibus profugus Eneas Italiam petiit, urbem condidit, Turnum devicit, Romanis a se quandam originem et virtutis et generis dedit sicque magna in Italia grassando in omnes crudelitate tandem fulmine caelitus extinctus est. De hac igitur historia materiam et intentionem Virgilius accepit, quo nullus in metro vel Latinitate auctor [maior] inventus est, nullus, ubi veritati cedere coactus est, officialius et curialius mentitus est. Denique auctor idem Brundisii terminum vitae accepit, Neapolim vero transfertur et humatur, cuius tumulus huiusmodi distico ipso dictante notatur: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc / Parthenope; cecini pascua, rura, duces [see above, II.C.1]. Quo mortuo Varrus et Tucca contubernales Virgilii et Oratii libros Eneidon emendandos Augusto ea lege sumpserunt, ut superflua quidem raderent, de suo vero nihil adderent. [M]: Attende! Nihil animae felicius in hoc mundo quam pasci verbo divino, quae, quia post laborem requiem futuram sperat et credit, in ipsa via peregrinationis verbum Dei condens in se quasi quoddam spei suae depositum iam patriae suae succedit. Proinde semper philosophicis annitendum est disciplinis, illis scilicet quae non solum in verbis, sed in rebus constant, quae suadent contemptum temporalium et inducunt amorem eternorum, quae docent spiritu ambulare et carnis iura negare [Galatians 5.16], quarum summa est amorem suadere divinum, cultum invisibilium, mundi odium, tenacem animum veri, falsi tedium. In libertatem vocati sumus [Galatians 5.13]: studiis liberalibus regi nostro serviamus.

On Virgil Teacher: According to the witness of Augustine, Virgil—a great part of Latin language and literature—inclined the powerful talents of many men to close reading of his writings through their wonderful e√ectiveness. Accordingly, he produced three poems, namely, the Bucolics, Georgics, and Aeneid, in a threefold R. CONRAD OF HIRSAU

741

manner of writing, that is, humble, middle, and high-flown. In the weighty meaning of these and in their wording—which is elevated by its great appropriateness [of language]—an intelligent reader will be able to notice that the great poet, who, by some cachet of his unique personal style, seems inferior to no author in meter, has attained comprehensive knowledge of the liberal arts. In the Bucolics, then, he pursues the eclogue, that is, shepherd’s song, which derived its name from its main component, inasmuch as in this work are described the conversations, disputes, and songs not only of cowherds but also of shepherds and goatherds. There are people who think that these Bucolics must be read or understood di√erently from what the text itself says, since what the author shows in overt words must be sought in its more sophisticated meaning. In fact, this can happen in certain passages, so that a more recondite literal meaning may lead the reader to the understanding of something else. This happens often in common proverbs, that we say one thing but mean another, when the words are the same but the meaning quite dissimilar. I think that an example may be taken from the Bucolics themselves, where the poet seems in a distich to fight against his rivals Bavius and Maevius and is demonstrated to demolish in a very few words their life and work: ‘‘Let the one who does not hate Bavius love your songs, Maevius, and let him yoke foxes and milk he-goats, too!’’ In these words you will be able to notice a double meaning, namely, that for this wrong—that he does not despise Bavius—a person should be compelled to love the poetry of the poet Maevius and should be brought to ruin by such great insanity as to think that foxes can be yoked like pairs of oxen and that he-goats can be milked like she-goats, which nature does not allow. Or in any event the poet includes, in tacit mockery, the cunning and deceit of his very rivals and the foulness of their poetry under the name of the foxes and he-goats. For the author intends in this work to convey the customs, characteristics, serious endeavors, and pastimes of the pastoral life to show the di√erence between the remote countryside and city, to draw attention to his a√ection for Caesar [Augustus] and to Caesar’s protection of him, and thus to exercise the powerful talents of readers by means of hidden meanings. Moreover, to satisfy this intention the material encompasses elements from every direction, in that he composed this eclogue with regard to the manner, places, times, and personalities of those who raise flocks. The fruit for a reader is recognizing to the greatest degree the appropriateness of the Latin. In the Georgics Virgil describes the supervision, characteristics, and timing of farming in the planting of seeds; the tending of oxen and the care of sheep; the procedures, timing, and treatment of vines that are planted; and the watchful devotion of the farmer. He also describes how great the complexity of

742

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

nature is and how wonderful the know-how in bees is. With great sophistication in the middle style, he shows what kind of location is to be sought, far from the approach of winds; what does good and what does harm in nourishing bees; in what order they keep and preserve cells swollen with nectar as well as the tasks distributed to them individually; the distinction between the two types shut inside the hives, the fight between them, and the outcome; the absolutely remarkable a√ection of the bees themselves for their chief. In sum, take it that the material of this work is the cultivation of earth; if the poet had not understood perfectly the science of farming, he would not have had anything to write about farming. His intention is to mold mortal beings for a simple life, that is, for farming, so that in this occupation they may learn to attend to what they are and to restrain their minds from pointless idleness and indeed from downright harmful activities. Student: Add to the first two works his third, the Aeneid. Teacher: Well known to everyone is the story about the fall of Troy, how on account of Helen Troy su√ered a ten-year siege and was captured by the Greeks. Aeneas, a fugitive from them, set out for Italy, founded a city, overcame Turnus, gave the Romans a particular source from himself of both courage and race, and thus in advancing against everyone in Italy with great cruelty, at last was brought to an end by a thunderbolt from heaven. From this history, then, Virgil derived his material and intention—and there has been found no author greater than Virgil in his verse or in Latin and none who, when he was obliged to yield to truth, lied in a more professional and courtly fashion. Finally this same author met the end of his life in Brindisi, but his body was moved to Naples and interred there. His tomb is marked with a distich of the following sort that he composed himself: ‘‘Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders.’’ When he died, Varius and Tucca, close comrades of Virgil and Horace, took the books of the Aeneid to revise it for Augustus, with the proviso that they should remove what was redundant but add nothing of their own. Take heed! Nothing is more blissful for the soul in this world than to feed on the word of God. The soul, because it hopes and believes in rest to come after its toil, hides the word of God inside itself while on the very way of pilgrimage as if it were a deposit on its hopes; and soon enough it comes to its homeland. For this reason e√ort must always be devoted to the branches of philosophical study, namely, to those which consist not only in words but also in actions, which exhort us to contempt of earthly things and guide us to love of eternal ones, which teach us to ‘‘walk in the spirit’’ and to deny ‘‘the lusts of the flesh.’’ Of these branches of study the highest is to urge divine love, wor-

R. CONRAD OF HIRSAU

743

ship of unseeable things, hatred of the world, a mind that holds fast to truth, and a loathing of falsehood. We ‘‘have been called unto liberty’’: let us serve our king through study of the liberal arts. (JZ) S. JOHN OF GARLAND (flourished 1220–58) John of Garland was born in England not long before 1200. After studying at Oxford (circa 1210–13), he moved to Paris. The last element of his name refers to the cloister on the rue de Garlande, where he lived and taught. He was appointed as master of grammar in Toulouse (1229–31), but returned afterward to Paris. John was a prolific author, especially of didactic treatises. Three treatises securely ascribed to him are versified grammars. In his grammatical writings John cites Virgil (or Maro) repeatedly. (The same holds true for other grammarians of John’s day, such as Eberhard of Béthune [died circa 1212] in the Graecismus.) John’s engrossment in Virgil is also evident in his Georgica spiritualia, the title of which suggests that it will apply to the Georgics a ‘‘spiritual’’ or allegorical interpretation. (Discussion: E. F. Wilson, ‘‘The Georgica spiritualia of John of Garland,’’ Speculum 8 [1933], 365–66, 371) In addition, his authorship of the prose Parisiana poetria de arte prosaica, metrica, et rhythmica (Parisian Treatise on Poetry, on the Art of Prose, Quantitative Verse, and Rhymed Syllabic Verse), extant in six manuscripts, is uncontested. In it John discusses the art of dictamen (letter-writing) and many aspects of versification. Recall of Virgil remained essential for both the interpretation and production of literature during the Middle Ages. A graphic example of his continued salience is the rota Vergilii, a famous ‘‘memory grid’’ recorded by John of Garland so that his readers could use the distinct di√erences among the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid as an organizing principle for their recollections of the three styles and the features appropriate to them. The concentric circles of John of Garland’s schema are a means to understanding Virgil’s various pronouncements on memory, which remained intense from late antiquity through the twelfth century, both when verbatim memorization prevailed and when formal mnemotechnics based on classical memory systems held sway. Aelius Donatus (see above, II.A.1) was the first, in his vita, to maintain that the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid represented simultaneously a triad of both styles (low, middle, and high) and stages in human social evolution (shepherds, farmers, warriors). The idea of a tripartite division of society was widespread in the Middle Ages, as it had been in earlier Indo-European cultures (see G. Duby, The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined, trans. A. Goldhammer [Chicago, 1980]). Other triads appear frequently in the vitae (VV, 717– 744

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

18), but John of Garland gave such formulations their definitive expression. (Discussion: E. Faral, Les arts poétiques du douzième et du treizième siècle [Paris, 1924], 86–89; E. R. Curtius, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, trans. W. Trask [New York, 1953], 201n, 231–32; A. T. Laugesen, ‘‘La roue de Virgile: Une page de la théorie littéraire du Moyen Age,’’ Classica et Medievalia 23 [1962], 248–73; F. Quadlbauer, Die antike Theorie der genera dicendi im lateinischen Mittelalter [Vienna, 1962]; W. Suerbaum, ANRW 2/31.2 [1981], 1226 n. 112) (Text and translations: T. Lawler, ed. and trans., The Parisiana Poetria of John of Garland [New Haven, 1974] ) (MP and JZ)

1. Parisiana poetria 1.124–34 Tria genera personarum et tria genera hominum Tria genera personarum hic debent considerari secundum tria genera hominum, que sunt curiales, civiles, rurales. Curiales sunt qui curiam tenent ac celebrant, ut Dominus Papa, cardinales, legati, archiepiscopi, episcopi, et eorum suffraganei, sicut archidiaconi, decani, officiales, magistri, scolares. Item, imperatores, reges, marchiones, et duces. Civiles persone sunt consul, prepositus, et cetere persone in civitate habitantes. Rurales sunt rura colentes, sicut venatores, agricole, vinitores, aucupes. Secundum ista tria genera hominum invenit Virgilius stilum triplicem de quo postea docebitur.

Three Kinds of Characters and the Three Types of Men Three kinds of characters ought to be considered here, according to the three types of men, which are courtiers, city dwellers, and peasants. Courtiers are those who dwell in or frequent court, such as the Holy Father, cardinals, legates, archbishops, bishops, and their subordinates, such as archdeacons, deans, o≈cials, masters, scholars; also emperors, kings, marquises, and dukes. City dwellers are count, provost, and other people living in the city. Peasants are those who live in the country, such as hunters, farmers, vine dressers, fowlers. According to these three types of men, Virgil invented a triple style, which will be dealt with later. (Lawler, 10–11, modified)

2. Parisiana poetria 1.394–405 Verba cognata materie sumuntur in exemplo subsequenti, quod est carmen elegiacum, amabeum, bucolicum. Elegiacum quia de miseria contexitur amoris; amabeum quia representat proprietates amantum; bucolicum apo tou bucolou, id est, ab hoc nomine bucolon quod est ‘‘custodia boum.’’ Unde, secundum ordinem quem servat Virgilius, hoc carmen debet esse primum, quia in eo observatur humilis stilus, quem sequitur mediocris et gravis. Est autem materia versuum quomodo iuvenis oppressit nimpham, cuius amicus

S. JOHN OF GARLAND

745

erat Coridon. Per nimpham significatur caro; per iuvenem corruptorem, mundus vel diabolus; per proprium amicum, ratio.

Words cognate to the subject are drawn on for the following example, which is an elegiac, amoebaean, bucolic poem. Elegiac because it is woven of the tragedy of love; amoebaean because it represents the characteristics of lovers; bucolic, apo tou boucolou, that is, from the noun boucolon, which is ‘‘cowherding.’’ Whence, according to the order that Virgil holds to, this poem is rightly the first poem in the book, because it keeps to the low style, which comes before the middle and high styles. The subject matter of the verses is how a youth ruined a nymph whose beloved had been Corydon. The nymph signifies the flesh, the young seducer of the world or the devil, the beloved reason. (Lawler, 24–25)

3. Parisiana poetria 2.87–123 De arte memorandi Set quia dicitur Electio, quasi extra multa aliquorum lectio, debemus eligere dicenda adminiculo artis memorandi, que poetis materiam ordinantibus est necessaria. Unde secundum Tullium [Pseudo-Cicero, Rhetorica ad Herennium 3.19–32] debemus in mente quamdam aream disponere, nec in loco nimis obscuro nec nimis claro, quia hec novercantur memorie et electioni. Illa area debet intelligi distingui per tres partes principales et columpnas. In prima parte vel columpna triparciantur curiales, civiles, rurales, cum armis suis et instrumentis propriis, causis et officiis. Si ab ore magistri proferatur aliqua dictio significans aliquid quod pertinet ad aliquam trium personarum predictarum, ibi erit invenienda et eligenda. In secunda parte vel columpna debent intelligi distingui exempla et dicta et facta autentica, et magistri a quibus audivimus, et libri quos legimus. Si aliquid deciderit nobis a memoria, debemus recolere tempus clarum vel obscurum in quo didicimus, locum in quo, magistrum a quo, in quo habitu, in quo gestu, libros in quibus studuimus, paginam candidam vel nigram, disposiciones et colores litterarum; quia hec omnia introductiva erunt rerum memorandarum et nobis eligendarum. In tercia columpna intelligamus scribi omnia genera linguarum, sonorum, et vocum diversorum animancium, et ethimologias, interpretationes, differentias, secundum ordinem alphabeti; et leta mente consideret unusquisque que vox conveniat cum lingua sua. Sed quia nescimus omnes linguas, nec omnes dictiones audivimus, recurrimus ad illas quas audivimus; et cum magister aliquid dixerit litteratorie vel ethimologice exponendo, in tercia illa columpna collocemus cum aliqua re naturali que illud quod profertur significet; et per suum signum poterimus illud memorare et ad proferendum eligere.

746

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

Curiales cum

Magistri cum

Animalia

litteris suis

libris suis

terrestria

Civiles

In loco

volatilia

Rurales cum instrumentis suis

In tempore

Voces ethimologice

Figure 4. The three columns and three styles of Virgil’s Wheel (Latin) (Reproduced by permission from Traugott Lawler, ed. and trans., The Parisiana Poetria of John of Garland. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974, 38. ∫ 1974 Yale University.)

Item notandum quod in rota Virgilii, quam pre manibus habemus, ordinantur tres columpne et in circuitu per multas circumferencias ordinantur tres stili. In prima columpna comparationes continentur, similitudines, et nomina rerum ad humilem stilum pertinencium; in secunda ad mediocrem; in tercia ad gravem. Et si proferantur aliqua sentencia in uno stilo, que reperitur in proximo, patet quod est egressus a stilo illo; et ideo eligenda sunt verba inventa ad quemlibet stilum in suo stilo.

On the Art of Remembering But since it is called Selection, as it were a drawing aside of a few things from a large number, we should select what we are going to say with the support of the Art of Remembering, which is essential for poets organizing their material. So, following Cicero, we should put aside in our minds some vacant spot, in a place that is neither too hazy nor too bright, because these qualities are inimical to memory and selection. This vacant spot is to be imagined as separated into three main sections and columns. The first section or column is subdivided into three parts, for courtiers, burghers, and peasants, with their arms and their respective implements, their concerns and their duties. If any word falls from the mouth of the teacher that means anything that pertains to any one of the three kinds of persons mentioned, there it will be, for later inventing and selecting. The second part or column should be imagined as containing, in separate compartments, examples and sayings and facts from the authors, and the teachers from whom we heard them, and the books in which we have read them. If memory should fail us on some point, we must then call to mind the time, be it vivid or hazy, when we learned it, the place in which, the teacher from whom, his dress, his gestures, the books in which we studied it, the page—was it white or dark?—the position on the page and the colors of the letters; because all these will lead to the things that S. JOHN OF GARLAND

747

Courtiers

Teachers

Creatures

with their

with their

of the

letters

books

earth

City dwellers

Place

Peasants with their

of the sky Etymologies

Time

implements

of words

Figure 5. The three columns and three styles of Virgil’s Wheel (English) (Reproduced by permission from Traugott Lawler, ed. and trans., The Parisiana Poetria of John of Garland. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974, 39. ∫ 1974 Yale University.)

Figure 6. Rota Virgilii (Reproduced by permission from Traugott Lawler, ed. and trans., The Parisiana Poetria of John of Garland. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974, 40. ∫ 1974 Yale University.) 748

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

Figure 7. Virgil’s Wheel (Reproduced by permission from Traugott Lawler, ed. and trans., The Parisiana Poetria of John of Garland. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974, 41. ∫ 1974 Yale University.)

we want to remember and select. In the third column let us imagine to be written all kinds of languages, sounds, and voices of the various living creatures, etymologies, explanations of words, distinctions between words, all in alphabetical order; and with a ready mind let us each consider what word fits his own language. But since we do not know every language, nor have heard every word, we resort to those which we have heard; and when the teacher makes a philological or etymological explanation of any kind, let us gather it into that third column, along with some natural phenomenon that may symbolize the word in question; and by means of its symbol we shall be able to memorize it and later select it for our own use. It should be noted that Virgil’s Wheel [see figures 6 and 7] also contains an arrangement of three columns [see figures 4 and 5]; here the three styles are arranged inside a circle along a series of concentric circumferences. The first column contains comparisons, similitudes, and names of things appropriate to the low style; the second to the middle; and the third to the high. To express in S. JOHN OF GARLAND

749

one style a sentiment that is only to be found in the next is clearly a departure from the proper style; we should select for any given style only words invented in that style. (Lawler, 36–41) A more elaborate version of the Rota might go as follows:

Bucolics (Eclogues) pastoral humilis (unelevated, simple style) pastor otiosus (shepherd) fagus (beech) sheep crook meadows (pascua) Tityrus/Meliboeus

Georgics didactic mediocris/medius (average, middle style) agricola (farmer) pomus (fruit trees) cow plough arable land (ager, rura) Triptolemus/Coelius

Aeneid epic gravis/grandiloquus (grand, majestic style) bellatores, miles dominans (warriors/knight) laurus/cedrus (laurel or cedar) horse sword city/camp (urbs, castrum) Hector/Ajax

T. NICHOLAS TREVET (circa 1258–after 1334) Nicholas Trevet was born between 1258 and 1268. He joined the Dominican order and received his training at Oxford, where he served as master in the University. Later he traveled to the Continent, where he spent time both in Italy and (at the Dominican studium generale) in Paris, before returning to England to resume teaching. His literary oeuvre was prolific and included university disputations, polemical works, and a treatise on poverty, as well as commentaries on patristic, biblical, ecclesiastical, and classical literature. He wrote works on Boethius’s De consolatione philosophiae (On the Consolation of Philosophy) (see above, III.D.3) and Augustine’s De civitate Dei (The City of God) (see above, I.C.31), and his commentaries on the Declamationes of the elder Seneca (see above, I.C.4), the Tragoediae (Tragedies) of the younger Seneca (see above, I.C.7), and Livy’s Ab urbe condita (The History of Rome from Its Foundation) were the first of their kind in the Middle Ages. In his later years he dedicated three works of history to members of the court of King Edward II. Trevet’s commentary on the Eclogues survives, anonymous and in fact without a heading of any sort, in two manuscripts, only one of which presents the complete text. The text may have been a school exposition that Trevet never revised. His commentaries on classical works are intended largely to clarify grammatical points and historical references. Though Trevet tends also to 750

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

engage in moralizing interpretation, he makes a thorough attempt to sort out relations between literal and allegorical interpretations only in his interpretation of Eclogues 4, the so-called Messianic eclogue (see above, III.C). It is di≈cult to determine whether Trevet ascribes the various passages to Virgil or to the Sibyl. Incidentally, Trevet touches upon Virgil the necromancer. Biblical citations are quoted in English from the Douay-Rheims Bible, which dates from approximately the same time as the King James Bible but follows closely the Latin Vulgate. (Discussion: B. Smalley, English Friars and Antiquity in the Early Fourteenth Century [Oxford, 1960], 58–65; R. Dean, ‘‘Nicholas Trevet, Historian,’’ in Medieval Learning and Literature: Essays Presented to Richard William Hunt, ed. J. J. G. Alexander and M. T. Gibson [Oxford, 1976], 329–52; M. L. Lord, ‘‘Virgil’s Eclogues, Nicholas Trevet, and the Harmony of the Spheres,’’ Mediaeval Studies 54 (1992), 186–276; F. Stok, ‘‘Nicholas Trevet e Giovanni da Firenze,’’ Studi umanistici piceni 12 [1992], 233–42) (Text: Nicolas Trevet Anglico, Comentario a las Bucolicas de Virgilio: Estudio y edición critica, ed. A. A. Nascimento and J. M. Díaz de Bustamante [Santiago de Compostela, 1984], 118–29, adapted) (JL) ‘‘Sicelides Muse paulo maiora canamus’’ [Eclogues 4.1]. Hec est quarta ecloga in qua ad vaticinia Sibylle se transfert obmissa penitus bucolici carminis proprietate. Et dicitur hec genethliacon, id est, vaticinium nativitatis cuiusdam pueri quem quidam dicunt Saloninum fuisse, filium Asinii Pollionis, ductoris Germanici exercitus, qui cum missus in Dalmatiam cum exercitu civitatem nomine Salonam cepisset et ob hoc lauream eodem anno consulatus meruisset, etiam eodem anno puer sibi natus est, quem a capta civitate Saloninum vocavit; quem natum mox risisse dicunt quod de nullo alio nisi de Zoroaste [Pliny, Historia naturalis 7.72], rege artis magice primo inventore legitur, quod est signum malum nati. Et possibile quidem est quod sub hoc sensu litterali Virgilius hanc eclogam scripserit; cum tamen valde inconveniens sit, quod in hoc stet allegoria, cum multa dicantur, itaque impossibile est Salonino convenire, qui in ipso infantie primo tempore mortuus est, ut etiam dicunt qui hanc eclogam de eo exponunt. Preterea quis credet Sibyllam eius sententias de ipso infante, non utique de rege futuro cecinisse, quem tamen regem predixit? De maximis enim rebus solum scripsit. Primo, quomodo omnia innovanda dixisset in etate perfecta pueri qui nec ad pueritiam pervenit? Preterea optat Virgilius se duraturum usque ad tempora quando nascetur quem Sibylla hic predicit. Constat enim hic fuisse natum Saloninum tempore Virgilii. Obmissis ergo his nugis dico quod Sibylla de Christo Deo vaticinando precinit et Virgilius hoc carmen immitaverat. Unde et magnum quid se dicturum prommittit. T. N I C H O L A S T R E V E T

751

Neque dico quod Virgilius hoc prophetavit, sed secundum vaticinium Sibylle ponit, ut ipsemet dicit. Quod si quis hoc negat Sibyllam de Christo dixisse legat decimo octavo De civitate Dei S[an]cti Augustini, ubi capitulo vigesimo quarto [De civitate Dei 18.23] ponuntur dicta Sibylle. Omnium enim debuit habere testimonia qui creavit omnia. Dicit autem beatus Augustinus qualiter ipsa precinat de nativitate et morte et iudicio et crucifixione et irrisionibus et breviter quicquid in eumdem Christum factum fuit. Scripsit autem Sibylla grece. Sed forte obiiciet aliquis, cum decem Sibylle fuerint, ‘‘Que fuit illa de qua dicit Augustinus [Isidore, Etymologiarum libri 8.8.4]? Fuit Erythrea nomine Herophila in Babilone creata que etiam de Troia peritura dicit eidem Christo. Hec autem quam hic Virgilius immitatur fuit Cumana quia nata in civitate Campanie qui dicitur Cume, cuius speculum [Isidore, Etymologiarum libri 8.8.5: sepulchrum] ostenditur in Sicilia.’’ Respondemus quod possibile est et hanc et illam de Christo scripsisse, licet Isidorus libro octavo Ethymologiarum et Papias [Elementarium doctrinae rudimentum (Venice, 1496), p. 318] dicant quod Sibylle dicuntur omnes femine vates lingua Greca, nam ‘‘sios’’ sermone Eolico deus dicitur, ‘‘bulen’’ Greci mentem nuncupant, quasi dei mentem; proinde igitur quia divinam voluntatem hominibus interpretari solebant Sibylle nominate sunt. Unde sicut omnis vir prophetans vel vates dicitur vel propheta, ita omnis femina prophetans Sibylla vocatur. Unde subdit ibidem Isidorus quia omnium Sibyllarum carmina efferunt in quibus de Deo et de Christo et gentibus multa scripsisse manifestissime comprobat [Isidore, Etymologiarum libri 8.8.7]. Et ideo etiam hec Cumana scripsit de Christo. Dividitur autem hec ecloga in prohemium et tractatum, ibi ‘‘Ultima’’ [Eclogues 4.4], etc. Primo, enim, sc[ilicet], modum excedit bucolici carminis nec iam Theocritum sequitur in secundo, etsi aliqua [sint] in secundo que ad carmen pertinent bucolicum. Ideo prohemium premittit alloquens Musas Sicilienses, per eas insinuans Theocritum qui Siciliensis fuit Syracusanus et Grece scripsit; hunc ergo significans bene dicit: o ‘‘Muse Sicelides,’’ id est, Sicilienses. Grecum enim ponit pro latino. ‘‘Canamus,’’ id est, describamus ‘‘paulo maiora’’ quatenus immo certe multo ‘‘maiora’’ dicemus quia hactenus de humanis, nunc de divinis, et in hoc maior est utilitas. Non enim prosunt omnibus poetica vel lenia et facta vel dicta minorum poematum que diximus supra. Et hoc est dicti ideo ad ipsos: obmittamus poetica quia ‘‘arbusta,’’ id est, verba de arbustis, utpote de agris nostris recuperandis diximus, in bucolico carmine et seculis, id est, opera vel hominum aliquorum que canimus ‘‘non omnes iuvant,’’ id est, non omnibus sunt utilia sed modo talia edicturus 752

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

sum que sunt omnibus profutura quia de tempore salutis hominum omnium et de ‘‘consule’’ omnium, nam ‘‘si canimus’’ vel describimus ‘‘silvas,’’ id est, pastoralia aut gesta mundanorum hominum pene more bestiarum, nunc in silvis errantium, post idola tempus ut de ‘‘consule’’ rectore futuro ipsarum silvarum canamus, et hec enim ‘‘sint silve consule digne.’’ Hunc consulem profecto Christum Dominum Sibylla intellexit super quem ut dixit Isaias ‘‘Requiescit spiritus consilii et fortitudinis’’ [11.2]; hec enim duo precipue debet habere consul. Deinde cum dicit: ‘‘Ultima’’ prosequitur, dividitur [in] duas partes. Primo enim ponit in generali, secundo in speciali ibi: ‘‘Tu modo nascenti’’ [Eclogues 4.8]. Circa primum sciendum quod Sibylle mulieres vaticinantes diversis temporibus fuerunt decem [Isidore, Etymologiarum libri 8.8]. Prima fuit de Persis; secunda Libyssa; tertia Delphica, in templo Apollinis Delphici genita, que [ante] bella Troiana est vaticinata, cuius versus plurimos suo opere Homerus inseruit; quarta Cimmeria in Italia; quinta Erythrea nomine Herophila de qua supra dixi, et ideo sic est dicta quia in insula Erythrea inventa sunt eius carmina (hoc fuit tempore Roboam filii Salomonis regis Israel); sexta Samia, de Samo insula cuius nomen fuit Phemonoe (hec fuit tempore Manases regis Iudee, qui [fuit] tempore Nume Pompilii); fuit septima Cumana nomine Amalthea, que novem libros Tarquinio Prisco attulit, descripta habentes decreta Romanorum (ista Cumana fuit de qua hic Virgilius loquitur); octava Hellespontia, in agro Troiano nata que fuit temporibus Solonis et Cyri; nona Phrygia que in Ancyra vaticinata est; decima Tiburtina, nomine Albunea. Et hec [read ‘‘he’’] multa de Christo dixerunt. Dicit enim Innocentius papa tertius unam Sibyllam fuisse tempore Octaviani que in die nativitatis Christi cum ab imperatore consuleretur in camera imperiali que nunc Rome dicitur Araceli, ostendit sibi in celo in gremio Virginis, dicens: ‘‘Hunc adora bene.’’ Imperator se ulterius omnino vetuit deum appelari. Sed que scripserit hec Sibylla aut quod eius nomen nondum repperi. Sciendum est quod Sibylla Cumea quam hic Virgilius sequitur tempora vel etates per metalla divisit: primam dicens etatem fuisse auream, secundam argenteam, tertiam eneam, et quartam ferream. Sic etiam Daniel, secundo capitulo [Daniel 2.32], dicit de statua quam vidit Nabuchodonosor, cuius caput erat de auro optimo, pectus autem eius et brachia de argento, pedes vero et femora ex ere, tibie vero ferree, pedes autem partim erant ferrei partim fictiles. Per aurum prima etas optima designatur de qua Boetius ait: ‘‘Felix nimium prior etas’’ [De consolatione philosophiae 2.5]; per argentum secunda proles; tertia per aes; quarta per ferrum, dura et bellicosa et peior[a]. Sunt enim secuti [secute] etates hec sicut etiam Avicena in libro duodecimo De Animalibus, capitulo quinto, dicit quod in omnibus sunt tantum quatuor etates T. N I C H O L A S T R E V E T

753

universaliter: prima crementalis, et vocatur anni puerorum, et durat fere usque ad triginta annos; secunda dicitur etas status et durat a trigesimo anno usque ad quinquagesimum; tertia dicitur etas diminutionis, cum remansione vigoris et dicitur virilis, et durat usque ad sexagesimum annum vel prope; et est quarta cum diminutione vigoris. Dicit ergo poeta: ‘‘Ultima etas Cumei carminis,’’ id est, que dicta est per carmen Cumeum, id est, Sibyllanum. ‘‘Iam venit’’ [compare Eclogues 4.4] Cumea (idem est quod Cumealis). Cumana, ut dictum est, est ultima etas ferrea que tempore proximo ante Octaviani tempus fuit. Et in Octaviani etate quando, sc[ilicet], Christus natus est incepit etas aurea. Nec putandum est quod quidam mentiuntur quod annum magnum Sibylla providerit nisi metaphorice. Volunt enim quod que prius fuerant eadem redirent ut qui in prima etate homines fuerant ipsi idem novo redirent, ut dicunt ponentes magnum annum, quod habere dicunt triginta sex millia annorum, quibus completis, quidquid nunc est futurum erit. Hoc enim falsissimum et hereticum est et impossibile. Scimus enim nondum mundum habere sex millia annos. Sed voluit Sibylla ut ea innocentia et felicitas seculi que fuit in prima etate reddiret in ultima per Christum Dominum, ut iam patebit. Unde dicit: ‘‘Magnus ordo seculorum,’’ id est, honorabilis etas seculi ‘‘nascitur ab integro,’’ id est, ab integritate inchoans, hoc est, quasi innovari incepit seculum ex integro sicut si metaphorice dicamus anno finito eadem retrogradi vel innovari quando annus alius incipit. Et qualiter innovetur seculum dicit cum subdit quia redeat ‘‘virgo,’’ id est, iustitia pristina per virginem restauranda, que secundum naturam tertia virgo appellatur a philosophis, et preterea constat quod in ascendente virgine natus est Dominus Ihesus; et tunc de tabulis cessit. Similiter etiam ‘‘redeunt regna Saturnia’’ [Eclogues 4.6], id est, placata et quieta tempora; secundum enim astronomos opera fixa et stabilia Saturno attribuuntur. Et talis est etas fixa Christiani nominis et Christi, cui dicit psalmista: ‘‘Sedes tua Deus in seculum seculi’’ [44.7 Septuagint], et Daniel dicit: ‘‘Potestas eius potestas eterna que non auferetur et regnum eius quod non corrumpetur’’ [7.14]. Et exprimit consequenter Sibylla incarnationem dicens: ‘‘Iam nova progenies’’ [Eclogues 4.7]. Nunquam et talis fuit sine patre et in celis sine matre et ideo dicit ‘‘nova,’’ id est, mirabilis vel ultima; quia secundum S[anc]tum Anselmum [De conceptu virginali] prima fuit sine patre et sine matre qua natus est Adam; secunda de viro sine femina qua nata est Eva; tertia de viro et femina qua omnes nascimur; quarta de femina sine viro, qua natus est Christus. Quod autem dicit ‘‘alto celo dimittitur’’ idem est dicendum cum dicitur a summo celo egressio eius [Psalms 18.7], sc[ilicet], Christi adventus de sinu patris. Quo modo potest verificari de nescio quo Salonino hoc dictum Sibylle, 754

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

cum ille de terreno patre et matre sit natus? Nemo igitur irrideat quod sic theologice exponimus dicta Sibylle; non Virgilium legat qui hoc non credit, sed librum quem fecit Ovidius Naso et fecit sepeliri in monimento suo in capsa eburnea ubi omnino Christum nasciturum de Virgine dixit [PseudoOvid, De vetula, ed. P. Klopsch, Mittellateinische Studien und Texte 2 (Leiden, 1967), 281]; et fuit inventus liber post multa tempora et audivi a quodam digno fide qui erat sacerdos qui et ipsum legerat in civitate Ravena. Certe autem per Sibillana carmina noverat hoc Virgilius per hanc eclogam cum non fuerit ipse propheta, sicut nec Ovidius, sed ambo peccatores et idolatre. Deinde dicit: ‘‘Tu modo’’ [Eclogues 4.8]. Prosequitur in speciali, primo, pertinentia ad Christum; secundo, pertinentia ad apostolos; tertio, de heresibus vel persecutoribus; quarto, de vita post communem ressurrectionem; quinto, predicatur cito fore adventum [Christi]. Secunda: ‘‘Pauca tamen’’; tertia: ‘‘Hinc ubi’’; quarta: ‘‘Aggredere o’’; quinta: ‘‘O mihi tam longe,’’ ubi poeta pro se ipso precatur; sexta reddit historiam: ‘‘Incipe, parve puer.’’ Circa primum, primo tangit modum nativitatis vel conceptionis, alloquens deam partus que dicitur Lucina, que virgo fingitur et super parientes invocabatur. Per hanc fabulam quidem nascetur ex virgine. Sciendum est ergo quod Sibylla dixit: in ultima etate sol erit regnaturus, pro quo alii Apollinem acceperunt sed verum hic est sol iustitie de quo Malachias prophete: ‘‘Vobis timentibus nomen meum orietur sol iustitie’’ [Malachi 4.2]. Item sciendum quod Lucina, aliquando Diana, aliquando pro Luna accipitur. Secundum [quod dicit] enim Isidorus, octavo Ethymologiarum [8.11.57], eadem est Lucina que et Diana, que et Luna que soror fingitur fuisse Apollinis vel Solis, et hec eadem virgo fuit. Dicit ergo: o ‘‘tu Lucina casta,’’ id est, virgo, ‘‘fave,’’ id est, obsequere, ‘‘nascenti puero, quo,’’ id est, per quem [quod] ‘‘primum,’’ id est, prius erat ‘‘desinet et gens aurea surget’’ per totum mundum, id est, genus Christianorum; et benedicto ‘‘fave’’ quia frater ‘‘tuus Apollo regnat.’’ Iam per hanc fabulam qua inserit vaticinium nihil aliud intendit nisi virginis partum, vel certe lune et stelle et omnia huic obediunt puero. Potest tempus etiam Octaviani designari sub quo est natus Christus, cui, sc[ilicet] Octaviano, factum fuit idolum cum omnibus insigniis solis. Secundo ibi: ‘‘Teque adeo’’ [Eclogues 4.11], dirigit poeta sermonem ad Pollionem tunc temporis consule[m][nti] dicens: o ‘‘Pollio, te’’ existente ‘‘consule, hoc decus evi,’’ id est, hec pulcritudo aurore ‘‘adeo,’’ id est, certe ‘‘inibit,’’ id est, ‘‘incipient procedere magni menses,’’ id est, honorata tempora incohabuntur. Et tangit hic tempus Augusti cui dedicati fuerant duo menses, sc[ilicet], Iulius et Augustus, qui sunt pleni et fertiles menses. Et hoc dicit ‘‘procedere’’ regnante Christo et non deficere, quia cum eo nata est omnis abundantia et pax. Unde propheta: ‘‘Orietur in diebus eius iustitia et T. N I C H O L A S T R E V E T

755

abundantia pacis donec auferatur luna et non sit’’ [Psalms 71.7], id est, pax erit donec destructa morte iam non sit carnis mortalitas que per lunam significatur ut exponens; et certum est mensem a luna designari. Et tertio cum dicit: ‘‘Te duce si qua manent’’ [Eclogues 4.13], ostendit quod per Christum fiet remissio peccatorum, dicens quod eo nato ‘‘si qua vestigia,’’ id est, si aliqua ‘‘nostri,’’ id est, humani ‘‘sceleris manent,’’ id est, reperta fuerint, illa dico ‘‘vestigia irrita’’ et ad nihilum ducta et evacuata ‘‘solvent terras perpetua formidine,’’ id est, cum evacuata fuerint peccata, terra solvetur a perpetuo timore. Item dicit propheta: ‘‘Iam non erit timor in finibus vestris, quia ipse veniet et salvabit vos’’ [compare Isaiah 35.4]. Debet ergo sic legi: cum peccata ‘‘irrita’’ fuerint ‘‘solvent,’’ id est, expedient ‘‘terras’’ a timore mortis perpetue. Quarto ibi: ‘‘Ille deum’’ [Eclogues 4.15] tangit claritatem ressurrectionis secundum carnem dicens: ‘‘Ille’’ Christus ‘‘accipiet’’ in prima potestate, id est, humana natura ‘‘vitam deum’’ (pro deorum, id est, pro angelorum vel spirituum beatorum), quasi diceret: Resurget in vitam gloriosam. Sciendum etiam quod habet vel melius ponit plurale pro singulari, id est, ‘‘vitam accipiet’’ et ‘‘videbit heroas,’’ id est, sanctos homines, quos hic deos, vel nobiles vocat ‘‘permixtos divis,’’ id est, angelis, ‘‘et ipse videbitur’’ etiam ab ipsis, quod est dicere: non solum ipse secundum carnem divinam vitam et angelicam accipiat sed etiam per ipsam fiet ut sancti ressurgant in eandem divinam vitam et tunc erit ipse Deus omnia in omnibus et ‘‘reget’’ per virtutem patris ‘‘orbem pacatum,’’ id est, quietum; et hoc est quod dicit: ‘‘reget patris virtutibus,’’ ac si dicat paterna virtute. Ego ignoro si quis erit, id est, audeat ut hec dicat fuisse dicta de Salonino qui nunquam nec supra unam civitatem [regnavit] sed infans mortuus est; sed neque Octaviano conveniunt nec ulli hominum ut per se patet. Quinto, ibi: ‘‘At tibi prima, puer’’ [Eclogues 4.18], alloquitur ipsum dominum applaudens ei, etiam demonstrans ipsi nato quod omnia applaudent. Dicit: o ‘‘puer’’ ast per se ipsam ‘‘tellus nullo cultu,’’ id est, non culta ab aliquo sed sponte et ‘‘passim,’’ id est, ubique ‘‘fundet,’’ id est, profert ‘‘tibi prima munuscula’’ hec, sc[ilicet], ‘‘hederas errantes,’’ per quas intelligere possumus illos magos qui venerunt adorare eum, et fuerunt primitie gentium et ideo dicuntur ‘‘prima munuscula,’’ qui ob insignem sapientie mundane pompam magi dicti fuerunt. Et hec ideo dicuntur hedere que sapientibus scholaribus dabantur in signum honoris, que ideo errantes dicuntur quia diffusim, sc[ilicet], sparsim radices ponunt. Sic vera sapientia scholaris circum diversa vagavit que cum baccare ideo dicuntur fundi que est herba resistens fascinatoribus, quia cum illi ad adorandum venerunt Herodis malitia in Dominum prevalere non potuit quia volens occidere puerum dixit 756

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

magis: ‘‘Ite et querite diligenter de puero et cum inveneritis renuntiate mihi ut ego veniens adorarem eum,’’ sed illi moniti ‘‘in somnis ne redirent ad Herodem malignum, per aliam viam reversi sunt in regionem suam’’ [Matthew 2.12]. ‘‘Fundet’’ etiam ‘‘tibi tellus colocasia mixta’’ cum ‘‘ridenti acantho.’’ Est autem colocasium, sc[ilicet], colocasia in duplici genere. Ponitur, secundum Isidorum libro XVII [Etymologiarum libri 17.9.82], menta agrestis, quam greci dicunt ‘‘calaminthen.’’ Unde etiam nectar magne est virtutis acanthus; est arbor in Egypto semper frondens, spinosa, sc[ilicet], flos crocei coloris, et ideo a colore ‘‘ridens’’ dicitur, cum etiam constet quod crocus mirabiliter exhilaret cor et si supponetur capiti in bona quantitate dormientem ad risum inducit. Per acanthum arborem Egypti et colocasiam favor Egypti intelligi potest quo prelatus est Christus cum quereretur ab Herode. Et sequitur: ‘‘Ipse lacte’’ [Eclogues 4.21], per quod relictum reditum magorum cum plena fide Christi intelligere possumus. Scriptum est enim: ‘‘Per aliam viam reversi sunt in regionem suam’’ [Matthew 2.12], sc[ilicet], quoscumque imbutos doctrina Christi intelligere possumus sic construere. ‘‘Ipse’’ etiam ‘‘capelle referent,’’ id est, reportabunt ‘‘domum ubera’’ sua ‘‘distenta’’ et plena ‘‘lacte’’; ‘‘nec’’ etiam ‘‘armenta metuent’’ in pascuis ‘‘magnos leones,’’ id est, populi eruditi doctrina Christi non timebunt tyrannos et persecutores. Et red[d]it ad Christiane tempora infantie commemorans innocentes qui ad teneram [etatem] dicti sunt ‘‘flores’’ martyrum. Unde dicit: o puer, ‘‘ipsa cunabula’’ tua ‘‘fundent,’’ id est, offerent ‘‘tibi’’ blande ‘‘flores,’’ quod est dicere: dum adhuc eris in cunabulis, flores puerorum, id est, innocentes pueri parte occidentur, non resistentes occursoribus et ob hoc dicuntur blandi. Et tamen Herodes ‘‘serpens occidet,’’ id est, morietur ‘‘herba veneni,’’ id est, cum invidia sua ut reverti possis de Egypto, sc[ilicet], ‘‘serpens,’’ id est, demon qui in passione Christi superatus est cum ‘‘herba veneni,’’ id est, cum morte peccati et ‘‘Assyrium amomum,’’ id est, herba illa suavissimi odoris que in Assyria nascitur tantum tunc nascetur ubique, id est, non solum in Iudea predicabitur doctrina evangelii post Domini nostri passionem sed ubique. Vivente, enim, Domino, hec sancta doctrina solum in Assyria et Iudea docebitur, sed quando extinxit Christus per suam mortem serpentis malitiam predicata est ubique quia ‘‘in omnem terram exivit sonus eorum’’ apostolorum [Psalms 18.5]. Et pone si potes de alio quam de Christo; vere non poteris. Deinde ibi: ‘‘At simul’’ [Eclogues 4.26], similiter ait Sibylla de apostolis Christi quos heroes, id est, dominos vocat. Unde dicit: ‘‘tunc demum,’’ cum ubique ‘‘amomum nascetur,’’ tu quisquis es ‘‘poteris legere facta et laudes’’ ut puta, in evangelio et in actibus apostolorum et similiter ‘‘poteris legere’’ et T. N I C H O L A S T R E V E T

757

‘‘cognoscere que sit virtus parentis,’’ id est, virginis. Secundum enim carnem, unum solum parentem Christus habuit, ut ‘‘poteris’’ [possit] ad Christum referri, ut sit sensus: puer, ‘‘poteris’’ accessu etatis ‘‘legere et cognoscere’’ que sunt virtutes et perfecta ‘‘parentis’’ et laudes quas sibi heroes ut prophete et doctores cecinerunt. Hoc enim dicit evangelium quod Christus ingressus sinagogam incepit legere et Isaiam exponere [Luke 4.16–21]. Non tamen sic intelligas, processu etatis aliquid didicerit quod prius ignoraverit, sed sic debet intelligi sicut hoc quod dicitur in Luca: ‘‘Iesus autem proficiebat etate et sapientia et gratia coram Deo et hominibus’’ [2.52]; sapientia quidem, quia eam sapientiam quam plene habebat ab hora conceptionis, prima paulatim ex tempore ceteris demonstrabatur lucere. Hominis naturam proficiebat etate non accipiendo sed aliis pandendo et sic ‘‘paulatim campus’’ in mundo ‘‘flavescet’’ et adhuc exeunte ‘‘molli arista’’ bladi, id est, parabit se ad recipiendum [sic] fidem, et hoc est flavescere, id est, albescere vel maturescere. Et hoc ideo similiter dicit Dominus in evangelio: ‘‘Nonne dicitis quod quatuor menses et messis erit? Amen dico vobis, levate oculos vestros et videte regiones quia albescunt ad messem’’ [John 4.35]. Quod est dicere quia plebes parate sunt recipere fidem, quod dicit hic Dominus: albescunt, etc. Ibi dicit Sibylla flavescere campum et adhuc cum sic predicatur ‘‘rubens uva’’ et matura ‘‘pendebit’’ in ‘‘sentibus incultis,’’ id est, in spinetis invenientur uve; et vult dicere quod qui prius pravi et nequam fuerint beneficantur, qualis fuit Paulus et multi alii sancti. Et hoc est etiam in evangelio sic: ‘‘Numquid colligunt de tribulis uvas aut de spinis ficus’’ [Matthew 7.16], nisi quando mutata fuerit natura tribulorum per Dei timorem et amorem; et tunc etiam ‘‘dure quercus’’ que consueverant solum facere fructus porcorum ‘‘sudabunt’’ mutato nomine ‘‘roscida,’’ id est, rore leta ‘‘mella.’’ Quercus significat duros, sc[ilicet], rurales et rigidos homines qui sunt facti post eloquentissimi predicatores et doctores, qualiter fuit aut Paulus aut Matheus aut etiam Augustinus et similes. Deinde cum dicit: ‘‘Pauca tamen’’ [Eclogues 4.31], designat tempora crescentium persecutionum, dicens: licet hec futura quando ‘‘amomum’’ ubique ‘‘nascetur,’’ tamen hec non obstante ‘‘pauca vestigia,’’ id est, aliquales reliquie ‘‘prisce fraudis,’’ sc[ilicet], demonis qui peccatum primo homini subgessit ‘‘suberunt,’’ id est, subintrabunt in mundum venena; et sunt he reliquie ut heresis et persecutionis et avaritie. Et hoc est quod subdit ‘‘que iubeant,’’ id est, cogant, sc[ilicet], subcogant ‘‘temptare thetim,’’ id est, mare ‘‘ratibus,’’ id est, navibus (et hec quantum [ad] avaritiam) et que subgerant ‘‘cingere oppida muris’’ (et hec quantum ad bella) et ‘‘que’’ etiam ‘‘iubeant infindere,’’ id est, imprimere ‘‘telluri sulcos’’ (et hec quantum ad fames), sc[ilicet], possunt hec omnia ad tempus persecutionum referri quando et 758

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

sancti coacti sunt transire maria, tutari se etiam in locis tutis et manibus propriis laborare. Et ‘‘tum,’’ id est, tunc ‘‘alter Tiphys et altera Argos que’’ vehebat ‘‘delectos,’’ id est, electos ‘‘heroas,’’ id est, dominos, sc[ilicet] selectos homines. Dicitur autem Argos navis Iasonis. Per Tiphyn, qui amore iunctus presumpsit primo maris itinera gubernator solus sue navis, Christus potest significari qui propter amorem hominum per navem crucis mundum transivit; significatur enim crux in sacra scriptura per navem in multis partibus. Et hoc ergo auctore et rectore in huius navis fiducia salvabuntur [qui] persecutores pro Deo patientur. Unde in libro Sapientie dicitur: ‘‘Exiguo ligno credunt homines animas suas et transeuntes mare per ratem liberati sunt’’ [Wisdom 14.5]. ‘‘Erunt etiam altera bella’’ in fine, sc[ilicet], seculi contra ecclesiam per Antichristum excitata, et demum quando tempus iudicii advenerit ‘‘magnus Achilles mittetur ad Troiam iterum,’’ id est, Christus ad mundum ad iudicandum per ignem a Patre mittetur ut fiat sic vindicta de mundo, sicut olim de Troia; fuerat enim in vindicta adulterii concremata. Deinde cum dicit: ‘‘Hinc ubi’’ [Eclogues 4.37] ait de seculo unum aliud iudicium, ‘‘ubi,’’ id est, postquam ‘‘firmata etas,’’ id est, stabilis et perfecta, vere humana conditio mortalis, per resurrectionem sanctam, ‘‘te,’’ o Christe, ‘‘fecerit virum,’’ id est, ostenderit omnipotentem et similiter omnes sanctos ressurrectos, mortalis tunc ‘‘ipse,’’ inquam, ‘‘vector,’’ id est, mercator ‘‘cedet mari,’’ id est, non transibit mare gratia mercationum, ‘‘nec pinus,’’ que est arbor nautis utilis, id est, nec navis (partem enim ponit pro toto) ‘‘mutabit merces’’; nautis enim ultra mare portantur merces, in hac quasi facta commutatione, quod tunc non erit, quia ‘‘omnis tellus feret omnia.’’ Nulla enim tunc erit indigentia sicut nunc est; similiter nec ‘‘humus patietur rastros’’ ut scindatur, nec ‘‘vinea falcem’’ ut putetur, nec arare oportebit, nam tunc ‘‘arator solvet’’ tauros a iugis, quod est dicere, non expediet arare. Nec erit indigentia vestium; tunc erit enim claritas corporis. Unde tunc ‘‘lana’’ non ‘‘discet (mentiri); mentiri’’ enim quasi colorem habere suum esse mentitur, nam tunc ‘‘ipse aries mutabit,’’ id est, intinget ‘‘vellera’’ sua ‘‘in pratis’’ pascendo. Tinget, dico, ‘‘murice rubenti suave’’ (pro suaviter); murex, muricis dicitur cochlea que est quidam piscis cuius sanguine purpura tingitur; ipsa est conchilium et similiter ‘‘mutabit aries vellera croceo luto,’’ sc[ilicet], colore rubicundo, sicut in secunda ecloga, ‘‘mollia luteoli’’ [Eclogues 2.50: mollia luteola], ut sit hypalage, ut dicatur tinget croco luteo; similiter ‘‘sandyx’’ que est herba florem habens quo fit color sandicinus, ‘‘vestiet sponte agnos,’’ id est, eius colore vellera agnorum intingentur. Cum, secundum theologos, sint quatuor dotes corporis glorificatorum, sc[ilicet], agilitas et subtilitas (impassibilitas et claritas), quod agile est etiam T. N I C H O L A S T R E V E T

759

subtile est, secundum Hugutionem [Huguccio of Pisa, Derivationes: see below, V.B.5]. Quando dicit quod non oportebit arare propter cibum notatur impassibilitas, tam a fame quam ab aliquo alio nocivo. Quando dicit non indigere tunc tingere lanam notatur claritas que in corporibus erit sicut solis, ut dicit Dominus in evangelio [Matthew 13.43]; unde nullo alio colore erit opus. Et consequenter subdit hec secula esse predicta immobiliter futura. Unde dicit: ‘‘Talia secula’’ [Eclogues 4.46]. Ad intellectum eorum que hic dicuntur, notandum quod Fata tria finguntur in fuso, in colo digitisque fila ex lana torquentibus, per tria tempora: preteritum quidem in fuso vectum atque involutum est; presens, quod infra digitos mentis ad fusum, tanquam presens ad †presentem†, trahendum est. ‘‘Parcae’’ autem per antifrasim, quia nemini parcant nec nulla parturit; dicuntur quod sunt tres: una que vitam hominis ordinat; altera que contexit; tertia que corrumpit. He eedem autem sunt Parce et Fata. Prima dicitur Clotos, que Latine dicitur evocatio; prima enim nobis est nativitas evocatio. Secunda dicitur Lachesis, id est, sors; secunda enim vite sors est qualiter quis vivere possit. Tertia dicitur Atropos, id est, secundum modum, sc[ilicet], ordinem quia mortis conditio sine lege venit. Dicit ergo: ‘‘Parce concordes stabili numine fatorum,’’ quia mutari non possunt ‘‘dixerunt suis fusis’’: o ‘‘talia secula currite,’’ id est, advenite, quasi diceret: que vitam humanam metiuntur ipsa sua. At non videntur ‘‘talia secula’’ velle accelerare, cum una alteri succedat in fuso et tractu et creatione. Deinde ibi: ‘‘Aggredere’’ [Eclogues 4.48] ponitur oratio Sibylle aut Virgilii dicentis: ‘‘o cara suboles deum,’’ id est, Dei (ponitur enim plurale pro singulari) ut sit sensus: o care fili Dei, qui es ‘‘magnum incrementum Iovis,’’ id est, qui es divina proles. More humano legitur; crescere, enim, dicimus patrem in filio. [De Christo] qui est de Patre genitus, quasi alter ipse [dicitur] ‘‘aggredere magnos honores,’’ cum dicitur incarnari. ‘‘Aggredere’’ ut per te humanum genus honoretur et tu honoreris ab ipso sicut Deus et Dominus, quasi ‘‘iam tempus aderit’’ (pro adest). Est enim ultima etas, et ideo ‘‘aspice’’ oculo misericorditer ‘‘mundum mutantem’’ presentibus malis et ‘‘convexo pondere’’ peccatorum, et ‘‘aspice terras’’ desolatas et ‘‘tractus maris’’ et altum ‘‘celum.’’ Omnia enim hec innovabuntur pace. Hec est ‘‘ut omnia letentur venturo seculo,’’ quod erit quando in mundum veneris in carne sicut dicitur in Apocalypsi: ‘‘Ecce nova facio omnia’’ [21.5]; et David propheta dicit: ‘‘Letentur celi et exultet terra et moveatur mare et plenitudo eius orbis terrarum et universi qui habitant in eo, flumina plaudent in manu, simul montes exultabunt ante faciem Domini quoniam venit’’ [Psalms 95.11–13]. Et hec est oratio Isaie: ‘‘Ut dirumperes celos et descendens ante faciem tuam montes defluent’’ [64.1]. Deinde ibi: ‘‘O mihi tum longe’’ [Eclogues 4.53], orat Virgilius ut vita sua 760

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

duret usque ad adventum Domini. Fuit enim ante Christum fere triginta annis, paulo plus vel minus. Dicit ergo: ut possim frui vita longa et habere tantum spatium quantum sufficere possit ad enarrandum tua facta quia nec ‘‘Orpheus Thracius’’ vinceret ‘‘carminibus,’’ id est, stili genere altissono quo canem ‘‘nec Linus’’ (qui fuit summus musicus) vinceret me dulcedine cantus vel eloquentie, licet ‘‘mater Orphei’’ fuerit Caliope musa (que interpretatur optima vox vel optima pronuntiatio), et licet ‘‘pater’’ Lini fuerit summus ‘‘Apollo’’ cui novem muse famulantur, qui etiam pingitur cum cithara. Et deus divinationis fingitur Apollo quia significat solem; ideo ‘‘formosus’’ dicitur. Significat etiam sapientem quo nihil est pulcrius, ut dicit Epicurus. Et ‘‘Pan etiam’’ deus Arcadie ‘‘si certet’’ ut contendet ‘‘mecum’’ carminibus sub quovult ‘‘iudice,’’ inquam, dicet ‘‘se victum’’ et superatum a me etiam existente ‘‘arcadia,’’ etiamsi propria, ‘‘iudice.’’ Terra est illa cuius Dominus dicit: ‘‘iudicabit quod ego eum superavi.’’ Deinde ibi: ‘‘Incipe, puer’’ [Eclogues 4.60]; obmissa prophetia Sibylle reddit ad fabulam, sc[ilicet], ad historiam Salonini, de quo fertur quod natus statim risit, quod factum signum mali dicitur esse. Poeta dicit ergo: o ‘‘parve puer, incipe cognoscere matrem’’ tuam ‘‘risu,’’ id est, ostende dum es in primis cunabulis quod matrem agnoscas, ut sic mater tua letetur cui novem ‘‘menses’’ quibus te habuit in utero attulerunt ‘‘longa fastidia.’’ Hec enim nullatenus de Christo convenit, sed, ut dixi, poetico more agit ut occultet prius dicta et captet benevolentiam Pollionis. ‘‘Incipe,’’ ergo, o ‘‘parve’’ Salonine, ridere parentibus ut ipsi tibi arrideant, ut si hec non feceris sis talis, qualis fuit Vulcanus, ‘‘cui non riserunt parentes’’ sui, Iuno et Iuppiter, quia Vulcanus turpis nec risit nec sibi fuit arrisum, ideo et accidit quod eum Iuppiter precipitavit in insulam Lemnum et illic nutritus est a Sintiis; et cum Iovi fulmina fabricasset non est inde admissus ad epulas et mensas deorum, et ideo ‘‘deus,’’ sc[ilicet], Iuppiter, non fuit condignatus ‘‘mensa’’ sua. Cum autem ipse Vulcanus rogaret ut saltem Minerve coniugium sortiretur spretus est ab ea. Et ideo hic dicitur quod ‘‘dea,’’ sc[ilicet], Minerva (vel Palas, quod idem est) non est ‘‘dignata’’ hunc habere in ‘‘cubili’’ pro viro, sive pro marito.

‘‘Let us sing something a little grander, Sicilian muses.’’ This is the fourth Eclogue, in which the poet abandons completely the distinctive features of bucolic poetry and turns himself to the prophecies of the Sibyl. This poem is called a genethliacon, that is, the prophecy of the birth of a child, who in this case some claim was Saloninus, the son of Asinius Pollio, commander of the army in Germany. When he was dispatched to Dalmatia with his army, he captured the city named Salona and, because of this deed, earned the prize of the consulship in the same year that his son was born. He T. N I C H O L A S T R E V E T

761

named his son Saloninus, after the city he had captured. They say that the boy smiled soon after his birth—a bad sign at a birth, and one that we don’t find in writing with reference to anyone else except King Zoroaster, who was the first to discover the art of magic. And, indeed, it is possible that Virgil wrote this eclogue in this sort of literal sense. But since it is hardly appropriate that he should be the subject of such a detailed allegory, it is impossible that it should refer to Saloninus. For he died in earliest infancy, as even they will admit who still explain the poem with reference to him. Moreover, who would believe that the Sibyl made such prophecies about that child [Saloninus]—one who was certainly not going to become a king— when she predicted he would be a king? For she wrote about only the weightiest a√airs. First of all, how could she have stated that everything would be reborn in the mature years of a child who never even reached boyhood? Moreover, Virgil himself wants to live until the time when the one spoken of by the Sibyl will be born, while it is clear that Saloninus was born during Virgil’s lifetime. Setting aside these minor points, I hold the opinion that the Sibyl prophesied in song about Christ, who is God, and that Virgil imitated this song. Thus he promises that what he is going to say will be important. I do not claim that Virgil himself made this prophecy, but that—as he himself says—he composed it according to the Sibyl’s words. But if anyone denies that the Sibyl spoke about Christ, let him turn to book 18 of Augustine’s City of God, where, in the twenty-fourth chapter, the sayings of the Sibyl are found. For he who created everything should have everything as his witness. The blessed Augustine tells of how she predicted the birth and death, judgment, crucifixion, and mockery, and—in short—whatever happened to Christ. The Sibyl wrote in Greek, however. Perhaps someone will object, since there were ten Sibyls, ‘‘Which was the one about whom Augustine spoke? It was the Erythraean Sibyl named Herophila, who was born in Babylon and sang about the destruction of Troy to Christ [to the Greeks]. The Sibyl whom Virgil is imitating here, however, is the Cumaean Sibyl, who was born in the Campanian city of Cumae, and whose mirror can be seen in Sicily.’’ I think it is possible that both Sibyls wrote about Christ; although Isidore, in the eighth book of his Etymologies, and Papias say that all female prophets are called Sibyls in Greek, because sios means ‘‘god’’ in the Aeolic tongue, and the Greeks use the word bulen for ‘‘mind,’’ which makes as it were ‘‘mind of god.’’ Since they used to interpret the will of the gods for men, therefore, they were called Sibyls. So, just as every man who prophesies is called either a vates [seer] or a propheta [prophet], so every woman who does the same is called a Sibyl. In the same place Isidore adds that poems of all the Sibyls have been revealed, in which they are clearly proved to have written many things about 762

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

God and Christ and the gentiles. And thus also the Cumaean Sibyl wrote about Christ. This eclogue consists of the introduction and the main body of the text, which begins with the word ‘‘Last.’’ In the first section Virgil departs from the usual manner of a bucolic poem. In the second part, though it contains elements characteristic of an eclogue, he does not follow Theocritus. So he begins his introduction by addressing the Sicilian Muses, through them alluding to Theocritus, a Sicilian from Syracuse who wrote in Greek; therefore, signifying him, he speaks well: O ‘‘Sicilian Muses,’’ that is, of Sicily; he employs here the Greek [adjective Sicelides] instead of the Latin [Sicilienses]. [Virgil says] ‘‘ ‘Let us sing,’ that is, let us describe, ‘something a little grander,’ because without a doubt we will now speak of things that are much greater, seeing that, having up to now spoken of human a√airs, we are now speaking of divine a√airs, and in this there is greater utility. For the smooth and poetic words and deeds of the lesser poems that we wrote above are not useful to everyone.’’ This is as if to say to the readers: ‘‘Let me forgo poetic things, because the subjects of my earlier poems—‘orchards,’ since I spoke earlier, in my bucolic poems, about the recovery of my fields, and the a√airs of the world, that is, the deeds of certain men—‘do not help everyone,’ that is, they are not useful to everyone. Now, however, I am going to speak of things that will benefit everyone, because they concern both the time of the salvation of all men and the consul [ruler] of all things. For ‘if I sing about’ [or describe] ‘forests,’ that is, pastoral things or the deeds of earthly men who live almost like beasts, wandering about in the forests, after idols it is time for me to sing about the ‘consul’ and future ruler of the forests themselves; and ‘let these forests be worthy of the consul.’ ’’ Of course the Sibyl understood that this consul is Christ the Lord, about whom Isaiah said: ‘‘The spirit of counsel and of fortitude shall rest upon him.’’ For these are the two qualities a consul most ought to have. Then when he says ‘‘Last,’’ he proceeds and divides this section into two parts. The first part is intended generally, the second part—starting with ‘‘Only you . . . being born’’ —has a specific application. Concerning the first part, it should be known that there were ten Sibyls, or female prophets, at di√erent times. The first was Persian; the second Libyan; the third Delphic, because she was born in the temple of Delphic Apollo. She prophesied before the Trojan War, and Homer included many of her verses in his work. The fourth was from Cimmeria, in Italy. The fifth, whom I mentioned above, was Erythraean and had the name Herophila. She was called ‘‘Erythraean’’ because her verses were discovered on the island of Erythraea. (At this time Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, was king of Israel.) The sixth was a Samian, from T. N I C H O L A S T R E V E T

763

the island of Samos, and her name was Phemonoe; this was at the time when Manasseh was king of Judaea, and when Numa Pompilius lived. The seventh was the Cumaean Sibyl and was named Amalthea. It was she who brought to the elder Tarquin the nine books that contained written pronouncements about the Romans. The Cumaean Sibyl is also the one about whom Virgil is speaking here. The eighth was the Sibyl of the Hellespont. She was born in the region around Troy in the time of Solon and Cyrus. The ninth was Phrygian and issued her prophecies in Ancyra. The tenth was the Tiburtine Sibyl, named Albunea. They said many things about Christ. Indeed, Pope Innocent III said that in the time of Octavian there was a Sibyl who, on the day when Christ was born, was consulted by the emperor at Rome in his imperial chamber, which is now called Aracoeli, and she pointed him to the lap of the constellation Virgo in heaven and said: ‘‘Worship him.’’ From this point on the emperor forbade absolutely that he himself should be called a god. I have not yet discovered which Sibyl wrote this or what her name was. It should be known that the Cumaean Sibyl, whom Virgil is following here, divided the times or ages according to metals. She said that the first was the golden age, the second silver, the third bronze, and the fourth iron. In the same way, Daniel in the second chapter speaks of the statue seen by Nebuchadnezzar: ‘‘The head of this statue was of fine gold, but the breast and the arms of silver, and the belly and the thighs of bronze, and the legs of iron, but the feet were made partly of iron and partly of clay.’’ By gold is meant that first and best age, about which Boethius says: ‘‘Happy indeed was the first age.’’ By silver is meant the second race of man, by bronze the third, and by iron the fourth, which was harsh, violent, and worse than the rest. These ages followed, as Avicenna says in the twelfth book of De animalibus [On Animals], chapter fifteen, namely, that in all things there are only four periods altogether. The first is the period of growth, or the years of childhood, which lasts almost until the age of thirty. The second is the period of stability, which runs from the age of thirty to the age of fifty. The third is the period of decrease while strength remains; it is called virile and lasts until about the age of sixty. The fourth period is characterized by the loss of this strength. Thus the poet speaks of ‘‘the last age of the Cumaean prophecy,’’ that is, the age that was mentioned in the Cumaean, that is, Sibylline, song. The Cumaean [cumea] age, which is the same as the Cumaean [cumealis] age, ‘‘has now arrived.’’ This Cumaean period, as was previously stated, was the last age of iron that immediately preceded the time of Octavian. And in the age of Octavian, namely, when Christ was born, the golden age began. Nor should anyone think, as certain people falsely allege, that the Sibyl is here referring to the 764

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

annus magnus [great year], unless it is in a metaphorical sense. For some believe that the events of the past recur, with the result that the very same men who lived in the first age will return anew, as they who posit the great year say, which they say has thirty-six thousand years, after which whatever is now will be [again]. This doctrine is utterly false, heretical, and impossible. For we know that the world is not yet six thousand years old. But the Sibyl meant instead that the same innocence and happiness of the world which was in the first age of man would return again in the last age through Christ our Lord, as will now be made clear. Thus he says: ‘‘The great order of ages,’’ that is, a most worthy period of time, ‘‘is born again,’’ that is, is starting anew. It is as if the age has begun to be wholly renewed, as if we were to say, in a metaphorical sense, that when a year is complete the same things march backward and commence anew when another year begins. He tells how the age will be renewed when he adds that ‘‘the virgin,’’ that is, the original justice that will be renewed through a virgin, is returning. She, according to her nature, is called the third virgin by philosophers, and it is also agreed that Virgo was rising when our Lord Jesus was born. And at that time she disappeared from the charts. Likewise, ‘‘the Saturnian kingdoms are returning,’’ that is, peaceful and restful times. For, according to astronomers, stable and fixed operations are attributed to Saturn. And so is the age fixed of the Christian name and of Christ, to whom the psalmist says: ‘‘Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever,’’ and about whom Daniel says: ‘‘His power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away, and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed.’’ Next, the Sibyl describes the incarnation when she says: ‘‘Now a new o√spring.’’ Never was there such a child, without a father and, in heaven, without a mother, and so she calls it ‘‘new,’’ that is to say, miraculous or unparalleled. According to St. Anselm, the first generation, in which Adam was born, was without father and mother. The second generation, in which Eve was born, was from a man without a woman. The third, in which we all are born, comes from both man and woman. The fourth generation, in which Christ was born, comes from a woman without a man. The statement ‘‘He is sent down from high heaven’’ must be called equivalent to the phrase ‘‘His going out from high heaven,’’ that is, the coming of Christ from the lap of his father. How could this statement of the Sibyl be applied accurately to some Saloninus or other, since he was born of an earthly father and mother? No one should laugh at me, then, when I interpret the sayings of the Sibyl theologically. Whoever does not believe this should not read Virgil, but rather that book that [pseudo-]Ovid wrote and had buried in his tomb in an ivory box, in which he said that Christ would absolutely be born from a virgin. This book was found after a long time, a fact that I myself heard from a certain trustworT. N I C H O L A S T R E V E T

765

thy priest who had read the book in the city of Ravenna. As far as this poem is concerned, however, it is clear that Virgil took his knowledge from the Sibylline poems, since he himself was not a prophet. Nor was Ovid; but both of them were rather sinners and idolators. Then he says ‘‘Only you.’’ He goes on to describe specifically: first, things dealing with Christ; second, with the apostles; third, with heresies and persecutors; and fourth, with life after the universal resurrection. In the fifth section Christ’s imminent coming is predicted. The second section begins with the words ‘‘Yet few.’’ The third begins with ‘‘Next when.’’ The fourth begins with ‘‘Enter on, O,’’ and the fifth with ‘‘O that then for me,’’ where the poet prays for himself. The sixth section continues the narrative: ‘‘Begin, little boy.’’ In the first section he initially deals with the manner of birth and conception, addressing the goddess of childbirth, who is called Lucina. She was held to be a virgin and was called upon to aid mothers in labor. In this account he will indeed be born of a virgin. It should be known, therefore, that the Sibyl said, ‘‘The sun is to reign in the final age,’’ by which some have understood Apollo, though in fact this is the sun of justice, about which the prophet Malachi said: ‘‘But unto you that fear my name, the sun of justice shall arise.’’ Likewise, it should be known that Lucina is sometimes held to be the same as Diana, and sometimes as Luna. According to Isidore, in the eighth book of the Etymologies, Lucina and Diana are the same, as is Luna, who is said to have been the sister of Apollo, the sun, and this was the same virgin. Thus he says: ‘‘O thou, chaste Lucina’’ (that is, virgin), ‘‘look favorably upon,’’ that is, render aid to, ‘‘the boy being born, by whom,’’ that is, through whose agency, ‘‘what came first,’’ that is, that which was before, ‘‘will cease and a golden race,’’ that is, the race of Christians, ‘‘will arise’’ throughout the whole world. And ‘‘look favorably upon’’ the blessed one because ‘‘your’’ brother ‘‘Apollo reigns.’’ Now through this story in which he inserts the prophecy he means nothing other than the virgin birth; and certainly the moon and the stars and everything are obedient to this child. The age of Octavian could also be signified, under whom Christ was born; for him, that is, for Octavian, an idol was made with all the trappings of the sun. In the second part, beginning with ‘‘And with you,’’ the poet addresses a speech to Pollio, saying then to the consul of that time: ‘‘O Pollio, with you as consul, this glory of the age,’’ that is, the beauty of the dawn, ‘‘surely,’’ that is, certainly, ‘‘will begin.’’ Thus ‘‘the great months will begin to proceed,’’ that is, the blessed times will begin. Here he is touching on the time of Augustus, to whom were dedicated two months, namely, July and August, which are full and fruitful months. And he says this time will ‘‘proceed’’ from the time of Christ’s reign and will not abate, because with him is born total peace and abundance. Whence the prophet says: ‘‘In his days shall justice spring up, and 766

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

abundance of peace, till the moon be taken away.’’ That is, there will be peace until death has been vanquished and there is no longer mortality of the flesh, which is signified by the moon, as he shows; it is clear that ‘‘month’’ is equivalent to ‘‘moon.’’ In the third part, beginning with ‘‘Under your leadership if any remain,’’ he shows that the remission of sins will come through Christ. He says that, when Christ is born, ‘‘if any remnants’’ of ‘‘our’’ human ‘‘sin remain,’’ that is, have been found, ‘‘these remnants, nullified,’’ reduced to nothing and empty of force, ‘‘will release the earth from perpetual fear.’’ That is, when our sins have been remitted, the earth will be released from perpetual fear. Likewise, the prophet says: ‘‘Now there will be no fear in your lands because God himself will come and will save you.’’ Therefore, it should be read in this way: when our sins have been ‘‘nullified’’ they will ‘‘release,’’ that is, they will free, ‘‘the earth’’ from the fear of eternal death. In the fourth part, beginning with ‘‘He of the gods,’’ he touches on the renown of the resurrection of the flesh, saying: ‘‘He (Christ) will receive,’’ in his first faculty, that is, in his human nature, ‘‘the life of the gods’’ (of the gods, that is to say, the life of the angels or blessed spirits), as if to say: ‘‘He will rise again into a glorious life.’’ It should also be known that he has, or rather employs, the plural instead of the singular. Thus he says: ‘‘He will receive life’’ and ‘‘He will look upon heroes,’’ that is, holy men, as he calls gods and nobles, ‘‘mixed among the gods,’’ that is, among the angels, and ‘‘he himself will be seen’’ also by them, which is to say: ‘‘It is not he alone who shall receive divine and angelic life according to the flesh, but through his flesh it will also come about that holy men will rise again into that same divine life. Then he himself will be God, all things in all, and he ‘will rule,’ through the power of his father, ‘a world that has been pacified,’ ’’ that is, rendered tranquil. This is the meaning of ‘‘He will rule through the virtues of his father,’’ as if to say through paternal virtue. I do not know if there will be anyone, that is, who might be so bold as to say that these things were spoken of Saloninus. For he never ruled over even one city, but he died when he was an infant. Clearly, these words apply to neither Octavian nor any other man. In the fifth part, beginning with ‘‘But for you, child, the first’’ he addresses the Lord himself, praising him and also pointing out to the child that all things o√er praise to him. He says, ‘‘ ‘O child,’ through its own agency ‘the earth, untilled,’ that is, not planted by another, but of its own accord, and ‘here and there,’ that is, everywhere, will pour forth, that is, bring forth, ‘to you these first gifts’ ’’—namely, ‘‘wandering ivy,’’ through which we can understand the magi who came to adore him and were the first men of their nations—thus these are called ‘‘the first gifts’’—and who were called magi because they made T. N I C H O L A S T R E V E T

767

an impressive display of their worldly wisdom. For this reason these first fruits or gifts are called ivy, because it was formerly presented to wise scholars as a mark of distinction. Ivy is called ‘‘wandering’’ because it places its roots in a scattered or di√use way. Thus true scholarly wisdom encompassed many different areas. These gifts are said to be mixed with baccaris, which is a plant that resists people with the evil eye, because when they [the magi] came to show their reverence [to the child], the malice of Herod against the Lord was not able to prevail, because Herod, wishing to kill the boy, said to the magi: ‘‘Go and look carefully for the child, and when you have found him bring back word to me, so that I may come and revere him,’’ but having been warned ‘‘in sleep that they should not return to wicked Herod, they went back another way into their country.’’ Also, ‘‘the earth will pour forth for you colocasia mixed with laughing acanthus.’’ Colocasium, which is to say, colocasia, is found in two genders. According to the seventeenth book of the Etymologies of Isidore it is identified with the wild mint that the Greeks call calamint. For this reason acanthus is also a nectar of great power; it is an Egyptian tree, which is always leafy and prickly, with a flower the color of sa√ron, and hence it is called ‘‘laughing’’ because of its color. For it is agreed that sa√ron brings joy to the heart in a marvelous way, and if a good quantity of it is put under the head of one who is sleeping, it will induce him to laugh. Through the Egyptian tree acanthus, and through colocasia, we can understand the support of Egypt, where Christ was brought when He was being sought by Herod. And it goes on: ‘‘The [goats] with milk.’’ Through this we should understand that the magi abandoned their return journey, now possessing complete faith in Christ. For it is written: ‘‘They went back another way into their country.’’ Thus we can understand all those who have been filled with the teachings of Christ. ‘‘ ‘The goats themselves will bring home’ (that is, they will carry back) ‘their udders swollen’ and filled ‘with milk. Nor will cattle fear mighty lions’ in the fields’’; that is, people instructed in the teaching of Christ will fear neither tyrants nor persecutors. [The poet] returns to the time of Christ’s birth when he recalls the innocents who at a young age were called ‘‘flowers’’ of martyrdom. Thus he says, ‘‘Child, your ‘cradle itself will pour forth,’ that is, will o√er, ‘flowers gently to you,’ ’’ which is to say: ‘‘While you are still in your cradle the flowers of children,’’ that is, some of the innocent children, ‘‘will be slain without o√ering resistance to their attackers, and because of this they are called gentle.’’ And yet Herod ‘‘the snake will perish,’’ that is, the ‘‘poisonous plant’’ will die, that is, with his hatred, so that you may be able to return from Egypt. The ‘‘serpent,’’ too, will die, that is, the demon who was defeated by the su√ering of Christ, 768

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

along with the ‘‘poisonous plant’’ that represents the death of sin. And ‘‘Assyrian spikenard,’’ a most pleasant-smelling plant that grows only in Assyria, will then grow everywhere; that is, after the Passion of our Lord, the teaching of the Gospel will be preached everywhere, not only in Judaea. For, while the Lord is alive, this sacred doctrine will be taught only in Assyria and Judaea. But after Christ destroyed the evil of the serpent by means of His death, it was preached everywhere, because the apostles’ ‘‘sound hath gone forth into all the earth.’’ Interpret this, if you can, to refer to someone other than Christ. In truth, you will find it impossible. At ‘‘But soon’’ the Sibyl speaks in the same way about the apostles of Christ, whom she calls heroes, that is to say, masters. Thus she says: ‘‘ ‘Then at last,’ when ‘spikenard grows’ everywhere, you, whoever you are, ‘will be able to read of praiseworthy deeds,’ so think, in the Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles, and likewise ‘you will be able to read’ and ‘recognize the virtue of your parent,’ that is, of the virgin.’’ For Christ had only one parent in the flesh, so that ‘‘you will be able’’ can be related to Christ. The sense of it is: ‘‘Child, when you are older, ‘you will be able to read and recognize’ the virtues and the perfection ‘of your parent,’ and the praises that heroes—prophets and teachers—have sung to her.’’ For the Gospel says that Christ, after entering the synagogue, began to read and to expound Isaiah. Yet you should not understand this passage as implying that in the course of time he learned something of which he was ignorant earlier. Instead, it should be understood according to what is said in Luke: ‘‘And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and grace with God and men.’’ [He increased] in wisdom indeed, because that wisdom that he possessed fully from the hour of his conception was first shown to illuminate others only gradually and on certain occasions. With age he increased the nature of mankind, not by receiving, but by making revelations to others; and thus ‘‘ ‘Slowly will the field become golden’ in the world, even when the ‘smooth stalk’ of wheat departs.’’ That is, he will prepare himself to accept the faith, and this is to turn golden—that is, to turn white or to age. Likewise, the Lord says in the Gospel: ‘‘Do you not say: There are yet four months, and then the harvest cometh? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and see the countries. For they are white and ready for harvest.’’ This is to say that the people are ready to accept the faith, as the Lord says here: ‘‘They are white,’’ and so forth. There the Sibyl says that the field grows golden and still is, when it is announced that the mature and ‘‘reddening grape will hang on wild thorns,’’ that is, grapes will be found on thorn-bushes. She means that those who were formerly wicked and perverse are blessed, as were Paul and many other saints. This is also in the Gospel, as: ‘‘Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles,’’ except when the nature of the thorns has been changed through fear T. N I C H O L A S T R E V E T

769

and love of God? And at that time even ‘‘hard oak trees,’’ which formerly provided sustenance only for swine, ‘‘will sweat dewy honey,’’ that is, honey that is rich with moisture, their name having been changed. Oak trees signify hard men—rustic and stubborn—who later became very eloquent teachers and preachers, as was the case with Paul and Matthew, and even with Augustine, and other similar men. Then, when he says ‘‘Yet few,’’ he refers to the time of growing persecutions, saying: Although this will be when ‘‘spikenard will grow’’ everywhere, nevertheless in spite of this ‘‘a few traces,’’ that is, some remnants, ‘‘of the ancient deceit,’’ that is, of the devil, who first suggested sin to mankind, ‘‘will remain,’’ that is, will enter like poison into the world. These remnants are things like heresy, persecution, and greed. And this is why he adds that they ‘‘will order,’’ that is, compel—which is to say, compel to a modest extent, men ‘‘to try Thetis,’’ that is, the sea, ‘‘with barks,’’ that is, with ships—because of greed, and will persuade men to ‘‘ring cities with walls,’’ because of wars, and ‘‘which’’ will even ‘‘order men to cut,’’ that is, to press into, ‘‘the earth with furrows,’’ because of hunger. Clearly all of this can be referred back to the time of persecutions, when even holy men were compelled to cross the seas, to protect themselves even in safe places, and to work with their own hands. And ‘‘then,’’ that is, at that time, there was ‘‘another Tiphys and another Argo’’ which carried ‘‘chosen,’’ that is, picked, ‘‘heroes,’’ that is, masters, or chosen men. The Argo is the name of Jason’s ship. Through Tiphys, a dear companion of his who first undertook a journey on the sea as the only pilot in his ship, Christ can be understood, who, because of His love for mankind, passed through this world through the vessel of the cross. For the cross is signified by a ship in many places in holy scripture. In the belief in this ship—with Christ as guide and leader—those will be saved who su√er persecution for God. Thus in the book of Wisdom it is said: ‘‘Therefore men also trust their lives even to a little wood, and passing over the sea by ship they have been saved.’’ ‘‘There will yet be new wars,’’ that is, at the end of our age, brought on by the Antichrist against the Church. And then, when the day of Judgment has arrived, ‘‘a great Achilles will once more be sent to Troy.’’ That is, Christ will be sent by his father to judge the world through fire, so that punishment can be exacted from the world, as it was formerly from Troy. For this city was destroyed by fire as a punishment for the crime of adultery. Then, when he says ‘‘Next when,’’ he is speaking of one other judgment of the world, ‘‘when,’’ that is, after ‘‘a mature age,’’ that is, one that is stable and perfect, the true condition of mortal man, through holy resurrection, ‘‘has made you a man,’’ O Christ, that is, has shown you in your omnipotence, with all the resurrected saints then, when the mortal ‘‘traveler himself,’’ that is, the 770

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

merchant, ‘‘will withdraw from the sea,’’ that is, he will not cross the ocean to trade. ‘‘Nor will the pine,’’ a tree used by sailors, that is, not a ship, for he is using a part for the whole, ‘‘exchange goods.’’ For items for trade are carried across the sea by sailors, in this kind of exchange; at that time this will no longer happen, because ‘‘every land will bring forth everything.’’ For at that time there will be no want, as there is now. Likewise, ‘‘the earth will not endure the hoe,’’ so as to be plowed, ‘‘nor the vine the sickle’’ to be pruned. Nor will plowing be needed, for at that time ‘‘the plowman will release’’ his oxen from their yokes, which is to say, plowing will be of no use. Nor will there be want of clothing; the brilliance of the body will be manifest. Thus ‘‘wool will’’ not ‘‘learn to lie,’’ for wool lies in claiming a color for itself. At that time ‘‘the ram, of his own accord, will change,’’ that is, will dye, ‘‘his fleece in the fields’’ while at pasture. He will be dyed, I say, ‘‘sweetly with reddening murex’’—he says ‘‘sweet,’’ meaning ‘‘sweetly.’’ By murex he means from the shell of the murex, which is a kind of fish from the blood of which purple dye is made; it is a purple fish, and likewise ‘‘the ram will change its fleece to sa√ron yellow,’’ that is, to a ruddy color. Similarly, we find in the second eclogue mollia luteoli—so that we have the figure of hypallage here, and the phrase means ‘‘he will dye [his fleece] with the yellow sa√ron.’’ Likewise, sandyx [scarlet], which is a plant bearing a flower from which a deep red is produced, ‘‘will clothe the lambs of its own will.’’ That is, the fleeces of the lambs will be dyed with this color. Although, according to theologians, there are four gifts given to the bodies of the blessed—namely, mobility, fineness, immunity from the passions, and brightness—whatever is mobile is also necessarily fine, according to Huguccio [of Pisa]. When he says that plowing will be unnecessary to provide food, we recognize immunity from both hunger and any other harm. When he says that there will be no need to dye wool, we recognize the brightness that will be in these bodies, like the brightness of the sun, as the Lord states in the Gospel. Hence, there will be no need for any other color. He then adds that the age that has been foretold will occur inalterably. Thus he says: ‘‘Ages such as these.’’ To understand what is being said here, one should note that the three Fates are imagined at the spindle, at the dista√, and with fingers spinning threads from wool, representing three periods of time: the past has been conveyed and wrapped on the spindle; the present, which must be drawn to the spindle between the fingers of the mind, as the present [must be drawn out to be cut?]. The Parcae are so called through antiphrasis, because they spare no one and none of them gives birth. It is said that they are three: one that measures a man’s life, one that weaves it, and one that breaks it o√. The Parcae and the Fates are one and the same. The first is T. N I C H O L A S T R E V E T

771

called Clotho, which means ‘‘summoning’’ in Latin. For birth is when we are first summoned. The second is called Lachesis, that is, sors [fate], because the second element in life is how one is able to live. The third is called Atropos, that is, ‘‘according to a rule,’’ or a progression, because the condition of death follows no law. Therefore he says: ‘‘The Parcae, in harmony with the steadfast decree of fate,’’ because [this decree] cannot be altered, ‘‘said to their spindles: ‘hasten on these ages,’ ’’ that is, arrive, as if to say that these very spindles measured human life. But it does not appear that ‘‘these ages’’ are willing to hurry up, since one succeeds another on the spindle, in the lapse of time, and in creation. Then, at ‘‘Approach,’’ we have the speech of the Sibyl or of Virgil, saying: ‘‘O dear o√spring of the gods,’’ that is, of God (here the plural is used to stand for the singular), so that the sense is: ‘‘O dear son of God, you who are ‘the mighty o√shoot of Jove,’ ’’ that is, who are the divine o√spring. This is read as it relates to man. For we say that the father grows in the son, who is born of the Father, as if another version of the Father, [is said] to ‘‘enter upon his glory’’ when he is said to be made flesh. Thus ‘‘approach’’ so that the human race can be honored through you and so that you can be honored by it as Lord and God, as if ‘‘the time will soon arrive’’ (instead of ‘‘the time is here’’). For it is the last age, and thus with a pitying eye ‘‘look upon the world tottering’’ because of the ills that aΔict it and because of the ‘‘rounded mass’’ of sinners, and ‘‘look upon’’ the desolate ‘‘earth and the expanse of the sea’’ and the ‘‘high heaven.’’ For all these things will be renewed in peace, ‘‘so that everything will rejoice in the age to come,’’ which will occur when You have come into the world in the flesh,’’ as it is said in Revelation: ‘‘Behold, I make all things new.’’ And the prophet David says: ‘‘Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad, let the sea be moved, and the fullness of the earth and all things that are in them; then the rivers will applaud with their hands, then the mountains shall rejoice before the face of the Lord, because he cometh.’’ And this is the prayer of Isaiah: ‘‘O that thou wouldst rend the heavens, and wouldst come down: the mountains would melt away at Thy presence.’’ At ‘‘O for me then long’’ Virgil prays that he might live until the coming of the Lord; for he lived about thirty years, a little more or less, before the time of Christ. Thus he is saying: ‘‘May I enjoy a long life and have a span of years su≈cient to tell your deeds, because neither can ‘Thracian Orpheus’ defeat me ‘with his songs,’ that is, in the high-sounding style in which I will sing, ‘nor’ can ‘Linus’ (who was the greatest of musicians) defeat me through the sweetness of his music or his speech, even though ‘Orpheus’s mother’ was the muse Calliope (which is understood to mean ‘best speech’ or ‘best delivery’) and

772

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

even though the ‘father’ of Linus was the great ‘Apollo,’ who is served by the nine Muses and who is also depicted with his cithara.’’ Apollo is said to be the god of divination because he signifies the sun; thus he is called ‘‘beautiful.’’ He also signifies the wise man, because nothing, as Epicurus says, is more beautiful than this. ‘‘And ‘even if Pan,’ the god of Arcadia, ‘should strive’ to compete ‘with me’ in song, I claim that—no matter who ‘judges’ the contest—he will own ‘himself beaten’ and bested by me, even if his own ‘Arcadia’ were the ‘judge.’ ’’ This is the land of which the Lord said this: ‘‘It will judge that I defeated him.’’ At ‘‘Begin, boy,’’ having left behind the prophecy of the Sibyl, he returns to the narrative, that is, the story of Saloninus. It is said that Saloninus smiled right after his birth, which is said to be a sign of evil. Thus the poet says: ‘‘ ‘O little child, begin to know’ your ‘mother with a smile,’ ’’ that is, show, when you are in your first cradle, that you recognize her so that she will rejoice. ‘‘For the nine ‘months’ for which she bore you in her womb brought her ‘long discomforts.’ ’’ This no longer has anything to do with Christ, but, as I have said, he acts in the fashion of a poet to conceal what he had said earlier and to win the goodwill of Pollio. ‘‘Begin,’’ therefore, ‘‘little’’ Saloninus, to smile at your parents so that they will smile upon you. To do otherwise would make you like Vulcan, whose ‘‘parents,’’ Juno and Jupiter, ‘‘did not smile at him.’’ For foul Vulcan did not smile, nor did they smile at him, and therefore it happened that Jupiter hurled him onto the island of Lemnos, where he was tended to by the Sintian people. Even when he had fashioned thunderbolts for Jove he was not admitted to the banquets and feasts of the gods; thus a ‘‘god,’’ that is, Jupiter, did not think Vulcan worthy of his ‘‘table.’’ When Vulcan asked at least to have Minerva for his wife, he was rejected by her. Thus it is said here that the ‘‘goddess,’’ that is, Minerva (or Pallas, which is the same thing) thought him ‘‘unworthy’’ to have in her ‘‘bedroom’’ as a man or as a husband. (JL) U. AENEID COMMENTARY OF MIXED TYPE An anonymous commentary on book 6 of the Aeneid survives in two manuscripts: London, British Library, MS Harley 4946 (fifteenth century); and Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MS G111 inf. (circa 1400). Whereas the Harley manuscript also contains fragments of a commentary on book 4 and all of a commentary on book 5 by the same commentator, the Ambrosian manuscript presents the commentary on book 6 as an autonomous work. The commentary was produced in the early Renaissance. The Ambrosian manuscript was used at Cremona and Bologna by Bartolinus de Vavassoribus, a professor of grammar and rhetoric, when teaching in the years 1405–6, but the composition of

U. AENEID COMMENTARY OF MIXED TYPE

773

the commentary antedates its use in instruction. Until further information is discovered, the commentary should probably be considered fourteenth century and anonymous. In its content this particular commentary on the sixth book of Virgil’s Aeneid combines materials and features from the late-antique commentary by Servius (see above, IV.B) with those found in medieval interpretations such as the one ascribed to (pseudo-)Bernardus Silvestris (see above, IV.Q). The Servian tendencies focus on what could be called the ‘‘nuts and bolts,’’ which include special features of the grammar and diction, information on myths and religious practices, and explanation of historical context and antiquarian aspects. More typical of the commentary attributed to Bernardus is a proclivity for interpreting the Aeneid allegorically as a commentary on the spiritual development of a man—and most of the time the governing spirit is a Christian one. Among other sources upon which the commentator draws, one that merits mention is the biographical tradition: at one point the commentator tells of the dream of her son’s future success that Virgil’s mother is supposed to have had while pregnant with him. The author of this commentary o√ers a threefold reading of Aeneas’s descent to the underworld. The three types of reading are the historical or fabulous, the scientific, and the philosophical. These are distinct from the four kinds of descent to the underworld—natural, sinful, virtuous, and necromantic—that the commentator identifies in his introduction and that he mentions sporadically later on. By historia the commentator seems to have in mind the essential elements of the narrative as well as basic items of vocabulary, etymology, grammar, prosody, and rhetoric. Although the commentator groups together historia and fabula, the latter actually di√ers, since it pertains to myth. By philosophia the commentator means not so much philosophy in a broad sense as morality, ethics, and religion. The equation and conflation of the three help to explain why he refers to the descent variously as virtuous, theological, and philosophical. Taken together, these aspects of his interpretation seem to have been most important to the commentator. (JZ)

1. Opening of Book 6 (Text: An ‘‘Aeneid’’ Commentary of Mixed Type: The Glosses in MSS Harley 4946 and Ambrosianus G111 inf., ed. J. W. Jones Jr., Studies and Texts 126 [Toronto, 1996], 97–102) ‘‘Sic fatur lacrimans’’ [Aeneid 6.1]. Continencia huius sexti voluminis tanta est: in principio eius continetur preparacio descensus Enee ad inferos; in medio descensus ipse; in fine regressus ab inferis. Sed quia de locis inferorum triplex fuit apud philosophos sentencia, que unaqueque fuerit di774

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

camus. Fuerunt ergo quidam qui dixerunt sublunarem regionem esse locum inferorum propter eius mutaciones; ibi enim modo calor, modo frigus, modo lux, modo obscuritas est et quia nichil est ea inferius. Alii quidquid est sub firmamento locum inferorum esse dicebant quia inferius dicitur ab infra, sed quidquid est sub firmamento subest alicui, ipsum vero nullis subiacet. Unde invenimus quandam partem vocari Eliseos Campos qui est locus piorum propter istam partem que est super lunam ubi nulla est commutacio. Aliam partem Tartarum dicunt, scilicet locum penarum, propter illam partem que subest lune. Tercii dicebant humanum corpus esse locum inferorum; dum enim anima est in corpore, detinetur quasi sub fedo et tenebroso carcere. Ita possumus de locis inferorum diversas diversorum sentencias assignare. Sed quicumque sit locus inferorum notandum est quod quatuor modis fit descensus ad inferos. Est enim naturalis descensus, est viciosus, est virtuosus, est nigromanticus. Naturalis descensus ad inferos est secundum philosophos quando anima a compari stella, natura cooperante, per planetas descendit et coniungitur corpori. Voluerunt enim phylosophi a prima hora nascentis mundi simul omnes animas creatas esse et deinde Deum super unamquamque animam singulas stellas posuisse localiter, non eternaliter et inde tempore convenienti et determinato iuxta divinam disposicionem per planetas ad corpora descendere. Viciosus descensus est quando aliquis descendit ad cognicionem temporalium et illis irretitus numquam revertitur ad suum creatorem. Virtuosus descensus est quando aliquis ad cognicionem rerum temporalium descendit et cognita natura temporalium et earum mutabilitate ad creatorem suum revertitur. Unde invenimus in auctoribus quosdam descendisse ad inferos et non revertisse, ut Theseum et Pirithoum, quia inhonesta causa descenderunt, scilicet ut raperent uxorem Plutonis Proserpinam quia illi qui ad fervorem luxurie et viciorum immundiciam descendunt vix aut numquam possunt se retrahere et hic est viciosus descensus. Quosdam invenimus descendisse et revertisse, ut Herculem et Eneam, quia honesta causa descenderunt. Hercules ut inde monstra raperet sicut Cerberum descendit; Eneas vero ut videret patrem suum quod est opus pietatis et caritatis quia qui bona intencione ad temporalia descendunt liberius exeunt. Nigromanticus descensus est quando aliquis per sacrificium descendit ad colloquium demonum vel animarum. Sed cum sint ut diximus quatuor descensus ad inferos, de duobus tantum in hoc volumine mencionem facit, scilicet de virtuoso et nigromantico. Eneas enim accipitur in hoc loco sub tipo sapientis qui ut videat patrem Anchisem ad inferos descendit et Eneas dicitur Grece ennoyas, id est, totus in mente. Anchises vero unus pater celsa inhabitans interpretatur quod est U. AENEID COMMENTARY OF MIXED TYPE

775

ipse creator quia cum ceteri patres transeant nec perpetuo perdurent, creator manet immutabilis et eternus. Sed ut sapiens melius creatorem agnoscat, ad cognicionem temporalium descendit ut per magis cognita minus cognitorum habeatur noticia. Sed tamen hoc facit prius sepulto Palinuro quia Palinurus quasi palon noros, id est, errabunda sonat visio. Palon Grece, errabundus Latine, unde palantes, id est, vagantes, noros visio vel videre. Palinurum ergo sepelivit Eneas priusquam patrem videret quia nullus nisi errabunda visione postposita et fervore luxurie et amore terrenorum ad cognicionem patris potest venire. Descendit autem ductu Sibille. Sibilla enim quasi zeibole, id est, divinum consilium, dicitur quod est humana racio. Zeos enim lingua quorundam Grecorum sonat deus, bule consilium. Inde Sibilla quasi zeibula. Sed Eneas ductu Sibille descendit ad inferos. Sibilla descendit ad inferos; quicumque enim ad temporalium cognicionem descendit, ad hoc eum divinum consilium, id est, humana racio, perducit et hic ad virtuosum descensum respicit. De nigromantico vero facit mencionem ubi dicit Sibilla Misenum prius esse sacrificandum quam ad inferos veniat quia in rei veritate Eneas istum occidit et demonibus sacrificavit. Unde eciam de laude eius multa apponuntur quia demones in sacrificiis unum de melioribus postulant. Sed hic queritur quare huic posito in loco sapientis huiusmodi descensum asscribat eciam cum sapienti descendere ad inferos non contingat nisi raro. Ad hoc respondendum est quod sacrificium demonum apud antiquos inhonestum fuit reputatum. Virgilius vero nigromanticus fuisse dicitur. Nactus ergo occasionem ut sua sciencia pateret de nigromantico descensu interposuit. Et notandum quia volumen istud triplici subiacet lectioni. Est enim fabulosa lectio, philosophica et historialis et hoc habemus a Macrobio [Somnium Scipionis 1.9.8] qui inducit unum versum de hoc sexto dicens Virgilium nec poeticum figmentum deseruisse nec philosophicam veritatem. Nec tamen hec ubique simul requirenda sunt; quedam enim tantum ut poeta, quedam ut historiographus, quedam ut philosophus ponit et quandoque istorum trium simul tenet ordinem et quando hoc, quando illud exequitur. Legendo exponemus. Peccant ergo qui ubique fabulam, ubique historiam, ubique philosophiam volunt assignare. In hoc ergo volumine hec exempla dicenda sunt: [1] ‘‘Sic fatur’’: quidam volunt hos versus primos esse de precedenti volumine qui pendent ex supradictis. Sed Servius [on Aeneid 6, in Thilo-Hagen, 2:1] contra eos est dicens quia fuit mos antiquorum et fere ubique Virgilii a preposicionibus vel coniunctionibus volumina incipere. Item Homerus quem iste imitatur ab eisdem verbis et eodem modo incepit sextum volumen. ‘‘Lacrimans’’: ad historiam quia socium quem diligebat amiserat vel 776

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

lacrimatur Eneas quia etsi sapientem racio moneat ut terrena spernat et studium et amorem celestibus gaudens impendat, tamen aut vix aut numquam hoc potest facere sine magna carnis compunctione et gemitu quia naturaliter intendit voluptatibus defluere. ‘‘Classi,’’ post conquestionem scilicet uni navi quam regebat. Una navis potest dici classis a calon quod est lignum vel ‘‘Classi,’’ illi toti navium collectioni quia immisit dominus et servi immiserunt. Hic nichil nisi historia. [2] ‘‘Tandem’’ non ad tempus quia parum interfuit quousque veniret ad Ytaliam sed ‘‘tandem’’ ad desiderium respicit, id est, post multa desideria. ‘‘Allabitur’’: celeriter venit ut ‘‘labere, virgo, polo’’ [Aeneid 11.588: labere, nympha, polo] et hoc iuxta preceptum Heleni et persuasionem patris. Et merito descendit ad civitatem Cumas in qua erat Sibilla ut per eam ad inferos descendat quia sine racione humana que nobis manifestat divinam voluntatem nequimus perfectam cognicionem de rebus temporalibus habere. ‘‘Euboycis horis Cumarum,’’ quia Euboyca regio est in Asia cuius civitas est Calchis de qua venientes quidam hanc civitatem constituerunt quam dixerunt Cumas vel a spuma maris quasi spumas vel ab eventu quodam quia dum applicarent viderunt ibi pregnantem mulierem; cumene enim Grece, pregnans dicitur Latine. [3] ‘‘Obvertunt proras pelago’’ ut adhuc naute solent facere quia prora firmior est pars navis et ideo illisiones fluctuum potest sustinere et ideo sic inverterunt proras vel applicuerunt terre a pelago. [5] ‘‘Pretexunt,’’ id est, pretegunt. [6] ‘‘Semina flamme’’: fisicam tangit quia, ut dicunt philosophi, in silice essencialiter non est plus ignis quam in hoc ligno vel in alio corpore, sed non casualiter; ex collisione enim duorum corporum que sunt sicce nature generatur impetus, ex impetu calor, ex calore aer ignescit et in scintillam transit. [8] ‘‘Flumina’’: vel ad sacrificandum quod futurum erat vel quia viva aqua lustrari more antiquorum post aliquod infortunium deberet ut a perturbacione mortis Palinuri. Et nota quod cum servilia officia sociis Enee asscribat, Enee ut principi et philosopho asscribit doctrinam et studium et hoc est [9] ‘‘At pius Eneas’’ agnomen. ‘‘Arces’’: arces vocat templum Apollinis quia sapiencia in altis habitat. [10] ‘‘Sibille’’: adiectum est nomen proprium. Sed legitur quandam Sibillam in tempore Tarquini fuisse et ei libros vendidisse; unde oritur questio an una et eadem fuerit Sibilla hic quam vidit Eneas et illa que tunc vixit. Respondeo: quondam tot fuerunt Sibille ut in sequentibus audietis; quelibet enim sapientes dicebantur Sibille, id est, sapientes. ‘‘Horrende,’’ id est, venerande, vel quia multa mala futura prenunciabant ad historiam vel quia caro racionem divinam et eius precepta reformidat. [11] ‘‘Antrum’’: antrum vocat sapienciam; ut enim in antro latent abscondita, ita nulli totum innotuit sapiencia. ‘‘Mentem et animum’’: quidam pro eodem accipiunt mentem et animum et tunc inculcacio vel est peryU. AENEID COMMENTARY OF MIXED TYPE

777

sologia, unius dictionis superflua posicio. Alii dicunt quod una et eadem substancia dicitur mens et spiritus, animus et anima, sed spiritus dicitur sine omni corpore, anima ab officio animandi, mens quia discernit, animus quia appetit et desiderat. Sic ergo distinguunt. [12] ‘‘Delius vates’’ inspirat mentem et animum Sibille, id est humane racioni, quia homo ex sapiencia contrahit discernere bonum a malo et appetere. ‘‘Apperitque futura,’’ quia homo ex sapiencia cognoscit quedam multociens futura per preterita. [13] ‘‘Lucos Trivie’’: Trivia dicitur Luna propter tres potestates. Est enim Proserpina in inferis a proserpendo quia proserpendo ab inferiori emisperio vadit quoad superius ascendit. Dicitur Dyana in silvis quia in herbis et arboribus humor lune dominatur; Luna in celo quia inde lucet. ‘‘Aurea’’: per aurea tecta sapienciam intelligite quia ut aurum precellit omnia metalla, sic sapiencia res omnes. Et nota quod lucos vocat inferiora, scilicet aquam, aerem, terram, sed illos lucos subit Eneas quia sapiens per illorum cognicionem ad creatoris cognicionem descendit, vel Sibilla, id est humana racio, ducit Eneam per lucos Trivie, id est per sublunarem regionem quia humana racio supra lunam non ascendit.

‘‘Thus he cries weeping.’’ The contents of this book 6 are extensive. It contains in the beginning the preparation for the descent of Aeneas to the underworld, in the middle the descent itself, and in the end the return from the underworld. But because among philosophers there were three opinions on the location of the underworld, let us discuss what each of them was. There were then certain philosophers who said that the location of the underworld is the sublunary region because of the changes in it, for sometimes it is hot, sometimes cold, sometimes light, sometimes dark, and because nothing is lower than it. Others said that whatever is below the firmament is the location of the underworld, since it is called inferius (lower), from infra (below); but whatever is below the firmament is beneath something, but it lies below nothing else. From this we discover that a particular part is called the Elysian fields, which is the location of the pious, on account of that part which is above the moon where nothing changes. They call the other part Tartarus, namely, the place of punishments, on account of that part which is below the moon. The third group said that the human body is the location of the underworld, for while the soul is in the body, it is detained just as if within a foul and shadowy prison. Thus we are able to indicate the various opinions of various philosophers on the location of the underworld. But whatever the location of the underworld may be, it should be noted that there are four manners of descent into the underworld. There is natural descent, sinful descent, virtuous descent, and magical descent. According to 778

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

philosophers, natural descent into the underworld is when the soul, with the assistance of nature, descends from a companion star by way of the planets and is conjoined with the body. For philosophers held that from the first hour of the world’s creation all souls were created simultaneously, that then God placed the stars one by one over each soul spatially and not eternally, and that thereafter at an appropriate time determined by divine order they descend by way of the planets to the bodies. Sinful descent is when someone descends in order to learn of temporal matters and, ensnared by them, never returns to his creator. Virtuous descent is when someone descends in order to learn about temporal matters and, having learned the nature and transience of temporal matters, returns to his creator. Whence we discover in the authorities that some descended to the underworld and did not return, such as Theseus and Pirithous, since they descended for dishonest reasons, namely, so that they could seize Proserpina, the wife of Pluto, because those who descend for the heat of lechery and the filth of corruption are scarcely ever or even never able to drag themselves back, and that is corrupt descent. We discover that some others descended and returned, such as Hercules and Aeneas, since they descended for honorable reasons. Hercules descended so that he might seize from there monsters like Cerberus, and Aeneas so that he might see his father, which is a work of piety and charity, since those who descend with good intentions for temporal matters leave more freely. Magical descent is when someone descends by means of a sacrifice for conversation with demons or souls. But although, as we said, there are four descents into the underworld, he makes mention in this book about only two, namely, the virtuous and the magical. For Aeneas is received in this place as the type of the wise man who descends to the underworld to see his father Anchises, and Aeneas is called in Greek ennoyas, that is, entirely in the mind. In fact Anchises is interpreted as the one father living on high, because he is the creator himself, seeing that although other fathers pass away and do not endure perpetually, the creator remains eternal and unchanging. But so that the wise man may better recognize the creator, he descends in order to learn of temporal matters so that knowledge of matters less understood may be possessed through matters more understood. But he does this when Palinurus has been buried first, since Palinurus is like palon noros, that is, it means ‘‘wandering vision.’’ Palon in Greek is ‘‘wandering’’ in Latin, whence palantes, that is, ‘‘those who wander about’’; noros is ‘‘vision’’ or ‘‘to see.’’ Therefore, Aeneas buried Palinurus before he saw his father, since no one is able to come to an understanding of the father except when wandering vision, the heat of lechery, and the love of worldly things have been held of less account. Moreover, he descended with the Sibyl’s guidance. For the Sibyl is so U. AENEID COMMENTARY OF MIXED TYPE

779

called as if zeibole, that is, ‘‘divine counsel,’’ which is human reason. For Zeos in the tongue of certain Greeks means God, bule, ‘‘counsel.’’ Therefore the Sibyl is like zeibula [divine counsel]. But Aeneas descends to the underworld by the Sibyl’s guidance. The Sibyl descends to the underworld, for whoever descends to understand temporal matters is led to it [the descent] by divine counsel, that is, human reason, and he looks back upon virtuous descent. In fact, he mentions magical descent when the Sibyl says that Misenus must be sacrificed before [Aeneas] comes to the underworld, because in the truth of the matter Aeneas killed him and sacrificed to demons. For this reason also many things in praise of him are set forth because demons demand for sacrifices one of the superior ones. But here it is asked why he should ascribe a descent of this type to him put in place of a wise man, since it happens only rarely that even a wise man descends to the underworld. To this it should be answered that demonic sacrifice was considered dishonorable among the ancients. Virgil is said to have been a magician. Therefore, having obtained the opportunity to display his own knowledge, he made an interjection about magical descent. It should also be noted that this book is subject to three di√erent readings. For there are mythical, philosophical, and historical readings, which we know from Macrobius, who cites a verse from this sixth book saying that Virgil departed neither from poetical invention nor from the truth of a philosopher. These three readings, nevertheless, are not to be found in all places at the same time. For certain elements he includes just as a poet, others as a writer of history, and others as a philosopher; and at some points he maintains the arrangement of all three at the same time, and develops now this one, now that. I will demonstrate this in the course of reading. Those people err, therefore, who wish to treat the text in all places as only myth, history, or philosophy. In this book the following examples are to be noted: [1] ‘‘Thus he cries’’: some want these first verses, as if dependent on the previous lines, to belong to the previous book. But Servius is opposed to them, stating that this was the manner of the ancients and that almost everywhere the books of Virgil begin with prepositions or conjunctions. Likewise Homer, whom our author imitates, began his sixth book in the same fashion and with the very same words. ‘‘Weeping’’: in accordance with the narrative, [he weeps] because he had lost the companion whom he loved; alternatively, Aeneas weeps because even if reason should warn a wise man to reject worldly things and to devote his attention and his love to heavenly things in joy, yet hardly ever, or indeed never, can he do this without great repentance of the flesh and without lamentation, since by nature he aims to abandon himself to pleasures. ‘‘The fleet’’: That is, after his mourning [he launches] the one ship 780

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

that is under his control. One ship can be called a fleet from calon, which is ‘‘wood.’’ Alternatively, ‘‘the fleet’’ refers to that whole group of ships, which both the master and his servants launched. This is nothing if not historical [or literal]. [2] ‘‘At length’’: ‘‘at last’’ does not relate to time, in that he was to arrive in Italy shortly, but ‘‘at last’’ relates to his desire, that is, after much longing. ‘‘Glides up’’: He comes quickly, as in ‘‘swoop down from heaven, nymph,’’ and this according to the order of Helenus and the advice of his father. And with good cause he comes down to the city of Cumae, where the Sibyl was, so that through her agency he might descend into the underworld, since without human reason, which makes manifest to us the divine purpose, we cannot have a complete understanding of the things of this world. ‘‘The Euboean shores of Cumae’’: since Euboea is a region in Asia whose chief city is Chalchis, and certain migrants from there established this city, which they called Cumae, either because of the spray of the sea, as in spumas (foam), or because it chanced that they saw a pregnant woman there while they were coming to land; for the Greek cumene is equivalent to the Latin word for ‘‘pregnant.’’ [The commentator’s first etymology may assume a knowledge of the Italian schiuma (foam, froth), which derives from the Germanic sk¯ums with the influence of the Latin spuma.] [3] ‘‘They turn the prows seaward’’: as sailors are still accustomed to do, because the prow is the stronger part of the ship, and so it can sustain blows from the waves, and for that reason they turned about the prows or brought them from the ocean onto land. [5] ‘‘Fringe’’: that is, they cover [the beach]. [6] ‘‘Seeds of flame’’: he deals here with physics, since, as philosophers say, there is no more fire in the physical essence of flint than there is in wood or in any other substance; but this is not the case under certain conditions. For, from the friction of these two substances, which are dry in nature, force is created, heat is derived from force, and from heat air is inflamed and changes into a spark. [8] ‘‘Streams’’: this was either for a future sacrifice or because, according to the custom of the ancients, a purification with fresh water was necessary after any misfortune like the distress occasioned by the death of Palinurus. Note also that when he assigns servile tasks to the companions of Aeneas, he assigns both knowledge and study to Aeneas, as both prince and philosopher, and because of this he has the honorific [9] pius Aeneas. ‘‘The heights’’: he refers to the temple of Apollo as ‘‘the heights’’ because wisdom dwells on high. [10] ‘‘Of the Sibyl’’: the proper name has been added. Yet it is read that there was a certain Sibyl in the time of Tarquin who sold him her books. From this arises the question whether it was one and the same Sibyl whom Aeneas saw and who lived in the time of Tarquin. My response is that once there were as many Sibyls as you will hear of in what follows; for any wise women were called Sibyls, that is, ‘‘wise ones.’’ U. AENEID COMMENTARY OF MIXED TYPE

781

‘‘The dread’’: that is, ‘‘to be revered,’’ either because, in a narrative interpretation, she foretold many evils to come, or because the flesh fears divine reason and its commands. [11] ‘‘A cave’’: he calls wisdom a cave; for like things that lie hidden away in caves, wisdom has been fully revealed to no one. ‘‘Mind and soul’’: some take mind and soul as the same thing, and thus there is either repetition or wordiness, which is the redundant application of the same word. Others say that mind and spirit, as well as soul and life force, are one and the same substance, which is called spirit when it is without body, soul in its capacity for providing life [to the body], mind in its capacity to discern, and soul when it seeks and desires something. These, then, are the distinctions made. [12] ‘‘The Delian seer’’ breathes mind and soul into the Sibyl, that is, into human reason, since out of wisdom man develops to separate good from evil and to seek [the one over the other]. ‘‘And reveals the future’’: because often man, through wisdom, recognizes from past occurrences certain things that will happen in the future. [13] ‘‘The groves of Trivia’’: the Moon is called Trivia because of her three properties. She is called Proserpina in the underworld from her quality of proserpendo [creeping forth], since, creeping up from the lower half of the world, she comes forth until she rises to the upper region. She is called Diana in the woods because the moisture of the moon exercises sovereignty amid grass and trees. She is called Luna in the heavens, because she lucet [shines forth] from there. ‘‘Golden’’: by ‘‘golden roofs’’ understand ‘‘wisdom,’’ because just as gold excels other metals, so does wisdom surpass all other things. Note also that he designates as ‘‘groves’’ elements of the lower world, which is to say, water, air, and earth; but Aeneas passes beneath those groves just as a wise man, through a recognition of these things, descends to the recognition of his creator, or as the Sibyl, that is, human reason, leads Aeneas through the groves of Trivia, that is, through the sublunary region, since human reason does not mount above the moon. (DJ, JL, revised by JZ)

2. Orpheus and Eurydice (Text: An ‘‘Aeneid’’ Commentary of Mixed Type. The Glosses in MSS Harley 4946 and Ambrosianus G111 inf., ed. J. W. Jones Jr., Studies and Texts 126 [Toronto, 1996], 119–21) [119] ‘‘Si potuit . . . Orpheus’’: argumentum a minori, quasi dicat, ‘‘Si potuit, possum quia prevaleo illi.’’ Legitur in fabulis Euridicen Orpheum habuisse uxorem. Hanc adamavit Aristeus. Quem fugiens calcato serpente translata est ad inferos. Quam tamen Orpheus lege accepta extraxit. Huius fabule duas invenimus exposiciones. Designat enim artem musicam. Sic due sunt partes artis musice, una que consistit in vocum modulacione et

782

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

dicitur arismetica, alia que consistit in proporcionali tantum vocum cognicione. Unde per Orpheum qui dicitur quasi oreaphone, id est, vox optima speciem que est in vocum modulacione intelligimus; per Euridicem illam speciem musice que est in proporcionali tantum vocum cognicione. Euridice enim dicitur quasi profunda iudicacio quia etsi garcionibus scire contingat vocum modulacionem, tamen perfectorum est scire vocum proporcionalitatem. Dicitur autem Euridice coniunx Orphei quia in hoc coniuncta sunt quod hec et illa sunt species musice. Sed Euridicen amat Aristeus quia sapiens magis amat hanc speciem musice quam aliam. Ares virtus vel optimum dicitur; inde Aristeus, id est, virtuosus. Sed cadit Euridice ad inferos quia multis latet hec sciencia et a paucis, quia vix a sapientibus, cognoscitur et hoc calcato serpente quia omnem humanam astuciam superat serpens. Hanc requirit Orpheus quia qui scit vocum modulacionem cicius descendit ad proporcionalitatum cognicionem, sed perdidit Euridicen cum respexit quia putat se acquisisse illam cum non perfecte cognoscat. Alio modo exponitur hec fabula. Dicunt enim Orpheum Apollinis et Calliopes filium fuisse et citharam qua arbores trahebat, fluvios sistebat, feras leniebat habuisse. Huic erat Euridice uxor que dum per prata vagaretur ab Aristeo pastore amata est dumque eum fugeret calcato serpente et veneno recepto mortua est. Quo dolore promotus Orpheus ut coniugem extraheret ad inferos descendit; at uxorem tali condicione ne respiceret retro eam recepit. Per Orpheum ergo habemus sapientem et eloquentem; unde Orpheus quasi oreaphone dicitur, id est, bona vox, scilicet filius Apollinis et Calliopes, quia isti duo vocem disertam efficiunt. Habet citharam, id est, oracionem, quia pigros ad honestum aliquod opus incitat, instabiles ad constanciam invitat, truculentos mitigat, et ideo dictus est saxa attrahere, fluvios sistere, feras lenire. Huic Euridice, id est, anima vel naturalis concupiscencia, nupsit, id est, naturaliter coniuncta fuit. Nemo enim absque anima vel naturali concupiscencia invenitur. Unde in poematibus legitur genium quendam deum humane nature esse qui cum homine nascitur et moritur. Unde Oracius: ‘‘Genius . . . deus humane nature [Horace: naturae deus humanae], mortalis in unum quodque caput’’ [Epistles 2.2.187–89]. Quem intelligimus esse concupiscenciam que in humana natura dominatur et Euridice, id est, bonus appetitus, ei adiungitur. Data est enim ad operandum bonum. Hec deambulat per prata, id est, errat per terras que modo virent et statim arescunt. Et sicut flos feni, sic omnis gloria mundi [1 Peter 1.24]. Dum per hec errat Euridice modo hoc, modo illud admirando, adamatur ab Aristeo. Aristeus interpretatur virtus divina, Ares virtus; unde Ariopagus villa virtutis. Theos enim deus dicitur. Divina autem virtus dicitur deus quem in se homo iustus habet.

U. AENEID COMMENTARY OF MIXED TYPE

783

Huic pastoris officium asscribitur quia virtutis est officium greges, id est, cogitacionum, actionum, sermonum multitudines, custodire. Vult Aristeus Euridicen sibi coniu[n]gere, id est, concupiscenciam sibi virtus unire, ut scilicet concupiscencia solum bonum querat, malum autem abhorreat. Euridice Aristeum fugiens in prato serpentem calcat, id est, in hac temporali terrenaque vita temporale bonum tangit. Serpens dicitur bonum temporale quia in inferiora serpit et cum pulchrum videatur nocivum est. Veneno serpentis, id est, delectacione temporalium, ad inferos trahitur, id est, ad terrena relictis celestibus penitus reducitur. Uxoris sue morte promotus Orpheus ad inferos vadit, id est, ad temporalium cognicionem descendit, ut visa eorum fragilitate concupiscenciam inde trahat. Umbrarum dominos mulcet, id est, terrenorum possessores bonorum. Tandem postquam diu cantavit, id est, sapienciam suam et eloquenciam suam diu ibi exercuit, uxorem recepit, id est, concupiscenciam a terrenis extraxit, hac lege quod eam perdat si retro respiciat, id est, si se iterum ad temporalia reflectat.

[119] Si potuit . . . Orpheus: an argument deriving from a lesser example, as if he should say: ‘‘If he could do it, I can, too, since I am superior to him.’’ One reads in tales that Orpheus had a wife named Eurydice. Aristaeus fell in love with her. Fleeing him, Eurydice stepped on a serpent and was carried down to the underworld. Although the law had been obeyed, Orpheus nevertheless rescued her. We find two expositions of this story. For Orpheus represents the craft of music. Thus there are two parts of the art of music, one that consists in the inflection of voices and is called ‘‘arithmetic,’’ and the other that consists in knowledge about proportions only of voices. For this reason we understand by Orpheus, who is so named in a manner of speaking oreaphone, that is, ‘‘best voice,’’ the sort of music that is in the inflection of voices; by Eurydice, we understand that type of music that is in knowledge about proportions only of voices. For Eurydice is so named in a manner of speaking ‘‘profound judgment,’’ since, even if it should happen that boys know the inflection of voices, nonetheless it is characteristic of mature men to know the proportionality of voices. Moreover, Eurydice is called the wife of Orpheus because they are joined in this, as the former and the latter are types of music. But Aristaeus loves Eurydice, since the wise man loves the latter type of music more than the former. Ares means ‘‘virtue’’ or ‘‘the best.’’ From it derives Aristaeus, that is to say, ‘‘virtuous.’’ But Eurydice falls to the underworld because this knowledge lies hidden to many and is understood by few, scarcely even by the wise, even when this serpent has been stepped on, since the serpent overcomes all human cleverness. Orpheus searches for her because one who knows the inflection of voices descends faster to knowledge of proportions, but he loses Eurydice 784

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

when he looks back, because he thinks that he has found her [or it] though he does not know her [or it] completely. This story is explained in another way. For they say that Orpheus was the son of Apollo and Calliope and that he had a cithara that would draw trees to him, stop rivers, and tame wild beasts. Eurydice was his wife, and while she was wandering through the meadows, she was coveted by the shepherd Aristaeus, and, as she was fleeing him, she stepped on a serpent, took in poison, and died. Propelled by this grief, Orpheus, in order to bring back his wife, descended to the underworld. But he recovered his wife with this stipulation: that he was not to look back at her. By Orpheus therefore we understand a wise and eloquent man; for this reason Orpheus is named as if oreaphone, that is, ‘‘good voice,’’ which is to say, the son of Apollo and Calliope, since those two produce an expressive voice. He has a cithara, which is oratory, since he encourages the lazy to some honest work, he allures the unstable to constancy, he tames the savage, and for that reason he was said to draw rocks to him, stop rivers, and tame wild beasts. Eurydice, that is, the soul or natural desire, married him, that is, she was naturally joined with him. For no one is found without soul or natural desire. On this account one reads in poems that genius is a certain god of human nature, who is born and dies with a man. For this reason Horace [writes]: ‘‘Genius is the god of human nature, mortal for each single life.’’ This we understand to be the desire that prevails in human nature, and Eurydice, that is, good desire, is joined to it. For she is given to doing good. She strolls through the meadows, that is, she wanders through the lands that are just now fertile and immediately dry out. And just as the flower of hay is, so is all the glory of the world. While Eurydice wanders through these [meadows], sometimes admiring this, sometimes admiring that, she is coveted by Aristaeus. Aristaeus is interpreted as divine virtue, Ares [being] ‘‘virtue’’; thus Ariopagus is the ‘‘village of virtue.’’ Indeed, theos means ‘‘god.’’ Moreover, divine virtue means the god whom the just man has inside himself. To this one is assigned the task of being a herdsman, because it is the duty of virtue to guard the herds, that is, the multitudes of thoughts, deeds, and conversations. Aristaeus wishes to join Eurydice to himself; that is, virtue wishes to unite desire to itself, obviously so that desire may seek only the good and moreover may abhor the bad. Eurydice, while fleeing from Aristaeus, steps on a serpent in the meadow; that is, in this transitory and earthly life she touches a transitory good. The serpent is said to be a transitory good because it creeps into the lower world and, although it seems a beautiful thing, it is harmful. Because of the poison of the serpent, that is, because of the enjoyment of transitory things, she is dragged down to the underworld, that is, she is led back into earthly matters with heavenly matters left behind altogether. ProU. AENEID COMMENTARY OF MIXED TYPE

785

pelled by the death of his wife, Orpheus proceeds to the underworld; that is, he descends to the knowledge of transitory things, so that after he has seen their frailty, he may drag desire out from there. He tames the masters of the shades, that is, the possessors of earthly goods. At length, after he has sung for a long time, that is, has exercised his wisdom and eloquence there for a long time, he received his wife, that is, he drew his desire away from earthly matters with this proviso: that he should lose her if he looks back, that is, if he turns himself back again to transitory matters. (MC, revised by JZ)

3. Golden Bough (Text: An ‘‘Aeneid’’ Commentary of Mixed Type: The Glosses in MSS Harley 4946 and Ambrosianus G111 inf., ed. J. W. Jones Jr., Studies and Texts 126 [Toronto, 1996], 126–30) [136] ‘‘Accipe’’: Docet que prius sunt facienda quam descensus pateat ad inferos et hoc est [136–37] ‘‘Latet aureus arbore . . . ramus’’: Fabula sic habet quod Horestes missus a Iove in insaniam pro matris interfectione et ducente Philade venit in Tauricam regionem inventaque sorore sua Effegenia eius auxilio Thoantem regem occidit. Deinde ablata ymagine Dyane, fugerunt ad Ariciam quod est opidum iuxta Romam ubi constituerunt templum dee, disponentes quod nullus ibi nisi fugiens sacerdos esset et ita quod si superveniens interficeret sacerdotem ibi stantem, eius officium subintraret et ibi esset donec ab alio superveniente interficeretur. Item Horestes et Effigenia sacrificaverunt arborem Proserpine ut qui alium vinceret ramum illius arboris offerret Proserpine. Voluerunt autem per fugitivum sacerdotem fugam Horestis designare. Per hoc quod unus occidebat alium designabant morem Taurice regionis ubi homines Proserpine solebant sacrificari. Per hoc quod dicit oportere aureum ramum habere notat quod oportebat eum sacrificare aliquem et hoc obscure hic tangit Virgilius. [138] ‘‘Iunoni inferne,’’ id est, inferorum regine, proprium pro appellato vel ‘‘inferne,’’ id est inferiori ad differenciam superioris Iunonis. Secundum hanc sentenciam prius legamus literam. [136–37] ‘‘Latet . . . ramus’’ et cetera: Hoc totum ad qualitatem nemoris supra notati referatur. [138] ‘‘Dictus’’ pro dicatus. [143] ‘‘Primo avulso’’: Quia dixerat quemlibet descendentem ad inferos habere ramum, ne putare posset, cum tot descendissent quod totus esset discerptus et non esset ibi alius, ideo subiungit ‘‘Primo.’’ Per ramum istum qui ita latet in arbore sapiencia est intelligenda que latet in humano corpore. Quod per arborem intelligi corpus habeat a Pithagora innuitur. Pithagoras enim adinvenit Y Grecam habentem duo brachia vel brachiantem ad

786

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

modum arboris. Dextrum brachium est rectum et longum, strictum iuxta stipitem, latum a superiori parte; sinistrum breve et curvum, latum iuxta stipitem, tendens in acutum. Per hanc itaque litteram vitam humanam vult designare quia sicut brachia illius littere veniunt quasi ab una radice et in altum illa litera continuo protenditur, postea dividitur, sic omnis vita ab uno incipit et consimilis sibi est usque ad annos discrecionis. Quidquid enim interim facit homo nec virtus nec vicium debet dici. Post annos vero discrecionis dividitur vita hominum quia tunc quidam ingrediuntur viam virtutis que recta est et durabilis et ideo designata per dextrum brachium illius litere; alii terrenorum delectacionem per curvum et breve ingrediuntur quia huiusmodi delectacio brevis est et curva et ducens ad precipicium. Sed in arbore, id est, in humano corpore, ‘‘Latet . . . aureus . . . ramus’’ [136– 37], id est sapiencia que pluribus locis auro comparatur pro qualitate huius metalli utpote principatum tenens inter cetera. Similiter nichil melius vera sapiencia ac ramum oportet descendentem ad inferos decerpere quia sine sapiencia non bene venitur ad temporalium cognicionem. [142] Per pulchram Proserpinam intelligimus sublunarem regionem que videtur pulchra cum non sit. Sed ad hanc afferendum est munus, id est, sapiencia, quia sine sapiencia non bene moratur aliquis in sublunari regione. [143] Per hoc quod dicit unum ramum post alium crescere, notat quod licet sapiencia ab uno capiatur, ab alio iterum capi potest et sine docentis diminucione. [136] ‘‘Latet,’’ quia cum magno labore acquiritur et nulli se offert sapiencia sponte. [137] ‘‘Ramus’’ pro sapiencia ponitur ut dictum est. Unde mater Virgilii sompniavit quod virgam peperisset que celum altitudine tangere possit. Quod sompnium dum Lucrecio fratri suo retulisset, ipse ayt quod paritura esset filium qui eque mira sapiencia repleretur. ‘‘Aureus’’: ad dignitatem sciencie. ‘‘Foliis,’’ quia sciencia obumbratur et latet ut fructus in arbore. ‘‘Lento,’’ id est, flexibili, quia modo de celestibus, modo de terrenis disserit vel ‘‘lento,’’ quia quicumque laboraverit pro eo acquirendo, licet magno labore, consequi poterit. [138] ‘‘Dictus,’’ id est, dicatus. ‘‘Iunoni inferne,’’ id est, sublunari regione vel infra, id est, Proserpine, et per Proserpinam memoria intelligitur in hoc loco de qua omnis sapiencia proserpit. Huic eciam dicatus ramus dicitur quia scienciam et facundiam memoria conservare debet ut a cellula eius tempore convenienti progrediantur et inde exeant quasi ab eius secreto. [139] ‘‘Lucus’’: obscuritas et ignorancia. [143] ‘‘Instituit,’’ quia numquam [bene] venitur ad temporalia sine sapiencia. ‘‘Non deficit,’’ ut expositum est, similiter quia si non eandem scienciam, tamen similem confert magister vel numquam deficit quia numquam aliquis dona sapiencie sic exhaurit quin ei suppetat adhuc quod iterum alii possit conferre vel quia non adeo sapiens existit quin semper quod discere possit accrescat et ita semper U. AENEID COMMENTARY OF MIXED TYPE

787

quasi inicium discendi inveniat. [145] ‘‘Ergo alte’’: quando quidem sapiencia est neccessaria, ergo investiga illam profunde oculis, id est, racione et intellectu. [146] ‘‘carpe manu’’: ille dicitur carpere manu qui quod intelligit opere et manu complet. Unde psalmista: ‘‘Intellectus bonus omnibus facientibus eum’’ [Psalms 110.10]. ‘‘Namque ipse’’: benedicto tempore. ‘‘Namque ipse’’ et cetera. Bene dicit ramum illum sequi et non precedere quia sapienciam studium precedit, ipsa vero sequitur. ‘‘Facilis volens’’: dicit enim sapiencia: ‘‘Ego diligo diligentes me’’ [Proverbs 8.17]. [147] ‘‘Si te fata’’: patens est quod fata volebant Eneam ad inferos descendere. Legendum est ergo generaliter de omnibus, non simpliciter de Enea et ponitur Eneas pro quolibet. Vel ‘‘si,’’ id est, ‘‘quia,’’ fata, id est, disposiciones, volunt quia idem tandem sequitur facilis. Multi enim pro hoc laboraverunt ramo qui non adepti sunt, sed cui Deus vult cito inest sapiencia, aliter vero minime. [149] ‘‘Preterea’’: unde de illis docuit Sibilla que facienda sunt ut Anchises videatur, ut de ramo de quo diximus. Hoc facto, docet aliud esse faciendum, scilicet Misenum esse sepeliendum. De quo Miseno hic fingit poetice auctor quod officium huius Miseni erat cantare et cum conca provocare ad prelium. Iste vero quodam die cum esset super litus et cantaret cum concha, Triton motus est invidia eo quod eum provocaret et eum allisit cautibus et mortuus est. Unde Sibilla quasi dea hec presciens iubet Eneam eum sepelire. Quod non est aliud, quantum ad nigromanticum descensum, nisi quod descensus nigromanticus, id est, colloquium demonum et malignorum spirituum, non potest fieri nisi per sacrificium humani sanguinis et eciam sanguinis melioris. Sed in rei veritate Eneas occidit Misenum ut haberet colloquium demonum. Sed sic plane non ausus est dicere Virgilius propter Augustum. Secundum theologicum descensum sic: oportet Eneam antequam ad inferos descendat Misenum sepelire. Misenus laus obruens interpretatur; miso enim Grece obruo Latine, enos laus per quam inanis gloria intelligitur que multos facit obrui. Hunc oportet Eneam sepelire, id est, inanem gloriam, et in se et in aliis mortificare antequam ad temporalium cognicionem possit descendere et ad creatoris contemplacionem, qui dicitur unus pater inhabitans, pervenire. Iste Misenus dicitur Eolides quasi de Eolia regione vel filius Eoli quia ista vana gloria, quasi aer et ventus, sic formatur a laude in alicuius ore laudantis. Unde quidam vane laudis amor ventosa voce tumescit. Officium eius erat concha provocare ad prelia quia inanis gloria commovet et est causa quare prelium fiat. Sed Triton eum occidit. Triton in hoc loco dicitur quasi carnis contricio quia inanem gloriam mortificat ut ad temporalium cognicionem descendat. Viso utroque descensu, ad litteram veniamus. ‘‘Preterea’’: preter hunc ramum quem oportet querere, oportet aliquid aliud facere. ‘‘Exanimum’’: 788

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

dicitur exanimus, -a, -um et hic et hec exanimis et hoc exanime in eadem significacione. ‘‘Iacet . . . tibi’’ [‘‘corpus amici’’] ad hoc respicit quod [amici] plus erant dolendi quam ceteri. [150] ‘‘Heu’’ ad Eneam referatur. ‘‘Incestat,’’ id est, polluit. Ad hoc respicit quod antiqui dicebant animas defunctorum ante sepulturam totum locum ambire ubi erant defuncti et ambiendo corrumpere. Unde quasdam ymagines faciebant illis quas vocabant lares, id est, deos familiares. Allegorice autem bene dicit Misenum totam classem incestare quia inanis gloria multos corrumpit et confundit. [151] ‘‘Dum consulta,’’ mea scilicet. Bene dicit mortuum fuisse dum Eneas Sibillam consulit, quia dum sapiens vacat racioni non curat de inani gloria. [152] ‘‘Refer hunc’’ dictum est secundum consuetudinem antiquorum, quia ubicumque moreretur aliquis in domum suam referebatur. Unde exclamant emuli Virgilii hunc domum non habere certam cum remotus a Troya. Ad quod respondeo quod vocat sedes suas terram quia sicut aqua piscibus, aer avibus, habitacionibus hominum data est terra. Mortuus vero erat in mari et ibi adhuc erat quod sedes hominum non est. Vel tumulum ipsum vocat sedes. Allegoria: referre ad suas sedes Misenum est vanam gloriam ad nichilum reducere, cum in rei veritate nihil sit. [153] ‘‘Nigras pecudes’’: per hoc notat nigromanticum descensum. ‘‘Piacula’’: mortis Miseni. [154] ‘‘Invia vivis’’: hic opponunt invidi Virgilio quare dicit ‘‘invia’’ cum constans sit de Hercule et de aliis hic descendisse et inde redisse. Servius sic contra [on Aeneid 6.154, in Thilo-Hagen 2:34]: Si quid veniat contra naturam, non preiudicat generalitatem. Allegoria: ‘‘Regna invia vivis’’: carnalibus deliciis defluentibus hominibus et viciis quia ista ad temporalium cognicionem numquam promoveri possunt.

[136] ‘‘Hear’’: [The Sibyl or Virgil] explains what must be done before the way down to the underworld can be opened, and it is as follows [136–37] ‘‘A golden bough . . . lies hidden on a tree.’’ The story goes that Orestes, having been driven mad by Jove for murdering his mother, came, with Pylades as guide, to the land of the Tauri. There he found his sister Iphigenia, and with her help killed King Thoas. Then they carried o√ the image of Diana and fled to Aricia, a town near Rome, where they established a temple to the goddess. They laid down the rule that no one except a fugitive could serve as priest there and, in keeping with this rule, that if a newcomer killed the incumbent priest, he would take over his duties and remain there until he in turn was killed by a newcomer. Orestes and Iphigenia also dedicated a tree to Proserpina, so that the one who defeated another should o√er a bough of that tree to Proserpina. By this fugitive priesthood, they intended to represent the flight of Orestes. By this circumstance, that one man would kill another, they indicated the custom of Tauris, where men were accustomed to be sacrificed to Proserpina. By U. AENEID COMMENTARY OF MIXED TYPE

789

saying that he must have the golden bough, Virgil indicates that Aeneas must sacrifice someone; he makes an obscure reference to this here. [138] ‘‘To infernal Juno,’’ that is, the queen of the underworld, a proper noun instead of a common noun, or ‘‘infernal,’’ that is, inferior, to distinguish her from the heavenly Juno above. Let us first read literally according to the latter interpretation. [136–37] ‘‘The bough . . . lies hidden’’ and so forth: All this may be related to the nature of the grove as described above. [138] Dictus [called] instead of dicatus [dedicated]. [143] ‘‘When plucked for the first time’’: Since he had stated that anyone who goes down to the underworld has a bough, he adds ‘‘for the first time’’ to prevent the reader from getting the impression, since so many had gone down, that the bough had been completely torn o√ and there would be no other bough. Through this bough, which lies hidden on the tree, is to be understood the wisdom that lies hidden in the human body. The fact that the body should be understood by analogy with a tree is suggested by Pythagoras. For Pythagoras came upon the notion that the Greek letter U has two branches, or rather splits into branches in the manner of a tree. The right-hand branch is long and straight; the part next to the trunk is narrow, whereas its upper part is wide. The left-hand branch is short and crooked. It is wide next to the trunk, but narrows into a point. Consequently he takes this letter to represent human life, for just as the branches of that letter come, as it were, from a single root, and just as that letter extends upward in a straight line, but then divides into two, so all life begins from a single point and is uniform with itself until the age of discernment. For whatever a man does in the intervening time should not be called virtue or vice. But after the age of discernment, the life of mankind is divided. Some then enter upon the path of virtue, which is straight and enduring and thus is represented by the right branch of the letter; others take the path of earthly pleasures, which is short and crooked, because enjoyment of this kind is short-lived and crooked, and leads to a headlong fall. But on the tree, that is, in the human body, ‘‘A golden bough . . . lies hidden’’ [136–37], that is, wisdom, which in many places is likened to gold because of the special nature of this metal, inasmuch as it holds preeminence among the other metals. Likewise, nothing is better than true wisdom, and it is right that someone who is going down to the underworld should pluck a bough, since without wisdom understanding of temporal matters cannot be properly attained. [142] We take ‘‘beautiful Proserpina’’ to mean the sublunary region, which looks beautiful, although it is not actually so. But a gift, namely, wisdom, must be brought to her, for without wisdom no one dwells in a good way in the

790

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

sublunary region. [143] By saying that one branch grows [to replace] another, he indicates that even if wisdom is gained by one man, it can be gained yet again by another man without any prejudice to the one teaching. [136] ‘‘Lies hidden,’’ since wisdom is acquired with great e√ort and presents itself of its own accord to no one. [137] ‘‘Bough,’’ as has been said, is used to represent wisdom. Hence Virgil’s mother dreamed that she had given birth to a shoot that was so tall that it could touch the heavens. When she recounted the dream to her brother, Lucretius, he said that the son she was about to bear would likewise be filled with remarkable wisdom. ‘‘Golden’’: with reference to the value of knowledge. ‘‘With leaves’’: inasmuch as knowledge is cloaked in shadow, and lies hidden like fruit on a tree. Lento, that is, ‘‘pliant,’’ since he discourses sometimes with regard to divine matters and sometimes with regard to earthly matters, or lento [persistent], since whoever puts e√ort into acquiring this fruit, though that e√ort be great, will be able to attain it. [138] Dictus [called], here dicatus [dedicated]. ‘‘To nether Juno,’’ that is, to the sublunary or lower region, to Proserpina. In this context Proserpina is taken to mean memory, since all wisdom proserpit [derives] from it. It is also said that the bough is dedicated to memory because it must preserve knowledge and eloquence so that they may, at the proper time, go forth from memory’s cell and hence emerge, as it were, from its hidden recess. [139] ‘‘Grove’’: that is, obscurity and ignorance. [143] ‘‘Appointed,’’ since one can never gain [proper] access to the temporal world without wisdom. ‘‘It does not fail,’’ as has already been explained, likewise because the teacher imparts knowledge, that is, if not the very same, still similar, or it never fails, since no one ever uses up the gifts of wisdom without there remaining to him an abundant supply, which he can on another occasion impart to another; or because no one exists who is so wise that he can always increase his ability to learn, and thus always find a sort of starting point for learning. [145] ‘‘Therefore on high’’: since in fact wisdom is necessary, therefore track it down intensely with the eyes, that is, with reason and intellect. [146] ‘‘Pluck it with your hand’’: he who fulfills in work and deed what he understands is said to ‘‘pluck with his hand.’’ For this reason the psalmist says: ‘‘A good understanding to all that do it.’’ ‘‘For [the bough] itself ’’: at the appointed [or consecrated] time. ‘‘For [the bough] itself ’’ and so on. It is well said that the bough follows it and does not precede; for study precedes wisdom, while wisdom follows. ‘‘Easy willing’’ for wisdom says, ‘‘I love them that love me.’’ [147] ‘‘If the fates . . . you’’: it is obvious that fate willed Aeneas to descend into the underworld. So this must be taken not just as specific to Aeneas, but as applicable to all people in general, and Aeneas here represents everyman. Or ‘‘if,’’ that is, ‘‘because’’: the Fates, that is, [divine] dispensation, will it, since it follows at last without resistance. For many have struggled for this bough who U. AENEID COMMENTARY OF MIXED TYPE

791

have not gained it; but if God wills it, a man gains wisdom in an instant, yet otherwise he does not gain it at all. [149] ‘‘Because’’: for this reason the Sibyl taught about those deeds that must be done in order that Anchises may be seen, as about the bough of which we have spoken. When this has been done, she teaches that something else must be done, that is, that Misenus must be interred. About this Misenus the author here crafts in accordance with poetry that the job of this Misenus was to sing and with his conch to call forth the men to battle. One day, however, when he stood upon the shore and sounded the conch shell, Triton was moved by jealousy to challenge him and broke him upon the crags; and he died. On this account the Sibyl, knowing these events in advance as a goddess would, commands Aeneas to bury him. Insofar as this concerns necromantic descent, it means nothing except that necromantic descent (that is, conversation with demons and malign spirits) can only occur through an o√ering of human blood and of even better blood. But the truth of the matter is that Aeneas slew Misenus in order to communicate with demons. But Virgil did not dare to speak so plainly, because of Augustus. According to the descent understood theologically it is thus: it is fitting that Aeneas bury Misenus before he descends into hell. Misenus is to be interpreted as ‘‘sinking praise’’; for miso in Greek is obruo (‘‘sink’’) in Latin, enos being ‘‘praise,’’ by which hollow glory is to be understood, which makes many sink. Hence it is fitting for Aeneas to bury this one, which is to say, hollow glory, and to mortify it both in himself and in others before he can descend to the knowledge of temporal matters and arrive at the contemplation of the creator, who is said to be the one father dwelling there. Now this Misenus is called Aeolides as if from the land of Aeolia or as if the son of Aeolus, because hollow glory, like air and wind, is thus formed by praise from the mouth of another who praises. For this reason a certain love of empty praise pu√s up owing to a windy voice. It was his duty to call forth to battle with his conch because hollow glory stirs up people and that is the reason why battle occurs. But Triton killed him. Triton is spoken of in this passage as if he were the contrition of the flesh because he mortifies hollow glory so that one may descend to the knowledge of temporal matters. Now that each of the two descents has been explored, let us come to the literal meaning. ‘‘Besides’’: in addition to this bough, which it is right to seek, it is right to do something else. Exanimum: exanimus, -a, -um, as well as exanimis (masculine and feminine), exanime (noun) [lifeless] are used with the same meaning. ‘‘There lies [the body of your friend]’’ relates to the circumstance that [friends] were more to be mourned than other people. [150] Let ‘‘alas’’ be applied to Aeneas. ‘‘Defiles’’: that is, ‘‘pollutes.’’ This relates to the 792

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

fact that the ancients held that the souls of the deceased circulated before their burial around the whole region where they had ceased to be and, by circulating, spoiled it. Hence they made for them certain likenesses that they called Lares, that is, familial gods. Moreover, he says well in an allegorical fashion that Misenus defiled the entire fleet because hollow glory spoils many and brings them to ruin. [151] ‘‘While you seek counsel’’: ‘‘mine’’ is understood. He does well to say that [Misenus] died while Aeneas consulted the Sibyl, because insofar as a wise man is devoted to reason, he does not care for hollow glory. [152] ‘‘Bear him back’’ is said according to the custom of the ancients, because wherever someone died, he was borne back to his own house. On this basis rivals of Virgil cry out that he has no fixed address, since he is removed from Troy. To that I reply that he calls the earth his dwelling place, because the earth is given for the abodes of men, as the water is to fish and the air to birds. Yet he died in the sea, which is not the dwelling place of men, and still remained there. Likewise he calls the burial mound itself his home. The allegorical meaning: to bring Misenus back to his proper home is to reduce hollow glory to nothing, since it is, in point of fact, nothing. [153] ‘‘Black cattle’’: by this he means the necromantic descent. ‘‘Peace o√erings’’ for the death of Misenus. [154] ‘‘Inaccessible to the living’’: here the detractors object against Virgil why he says ‘‘inaccessible,’’ when he consistently says of Hercules and of others that they made the descent here and returned from there. Servius thus refutes them: if something should occur contrary to the law of nature, it does not void the general principle. Taken allegorically: ‘‘realms inaccessible to the living’’: to men sinking into sensual delights and sins, because these can never be helped toward knowledge of temporal matters. (TM, PLS, revised by JZ) V. CRISTOFORO LANDINO (1424–92) Cristoforo Landino taught rhetoric and poetics in Florence and its environs. Landino’s culture was broad, encompassing Greek, Latin, and Italian. In his introduction to the Divine Comedy, he maintains that Dante probably set for himself the same goal as Homer among the Greeks and Virgil among the Latins. An active commentator, he wrote on Virgil (1478), Dante (1481), and the Roman satirists Juvenal and Persius (1462). He also composed an inaugural oration in praise of Virgil. (Discussion: A. M. Field, ‘‘An Inaugural Oration by Cristoforo Landino in Praise of Virgil [From Codex ‘‘2,’’ Casa Cavalli, Ravenna],’’ Rinascimento: Rivista dell’Istituto nazionale di studi sul Rinascimento 2nd ser. 21 [1981], 235–45) Around 1472 he wrote the Disputationes Camaldulenses (Camaldolese Disputations), named after the convent of the Camaldolese Order in Pratovecchio. V. C R I S T O F O R O L A N D I N O

793

His central themes were the relationship between the active and contemplative lives and the nature of God as the highest good. As in most of his prose works, his interest lay in harmonizing the doctrines of Neoplatonism with those of Christianity. This explains why Landino likened Virgil to Plato: Quis igitur Maronem a Platonis dignitate discedere dicat? (Who then would say that Virgil falls short of Plato’s worthiness?). As a Neoplatonist, Landino read the Aeneid in a manner roughly consistent with those of Fulgentius (see above, IV.F) or (pseudo-)Bernardus Silvestris (see above, IV.Q). He maintains that Virgil wishes to describe the progress of man toward happiness incredibili integumento (by means of an extraordinary veiling). (Discussion: EM 4:238. For a recently identified autograph vita of Virgil by Landino, see VVVC 177, 184, 194–95.) (Text: Cristoforo Landino, Disputationes Camaldulenses, ed. P. Lohe [Florence, 1980]; translations: T. H. Stahel, S.J., ‘‘Christoforo Landino’s Allegorization of the Aeneid: Books III and IV of the Camaldolese Disputations’’ [Ph.D. diss., Johns Hopkins University, 1968]) (JZ)

1. Introduction on the Nature of Poetry (Text: Lohe, 110–13) Christophori Landini Florentini Camaldulensium disputationum ad illustrissimum Federicum Urbinatum Principem liber tertius in P. Virgilii Maronis allegorias incipit feliciter. Cum statuissem eum sermonem, illustrissime Federice, litteris mandare, quem Leo Baptista Albertus non sine summa omnium qui affuerunt admiratione atque stupore de iis figmentis habuisset, in quibus P. Virgilius profundissimam illam scientiam occultat, qua summum hominis bonum divinitus describit et qua via ad id proficiscamur mirifice exprimit, verebar, ne in nonnullorum reprehensionem inciderem, qui cuncta ex sui ingenii imbecillitate metientes et Maronem ipsum nihil praeter fabellas quibus otiosas auditorum aures delectaret commentum esse credant et nos pro arbitrio nostro quae dicimus omnia finxisse existiment. Qui quidem si quid poetae sint, si quam eorum origo vetusta appareat secum reputent, si quam magna, quam varia doctrina plurimi in eo artificio floruerint considerent, cognoscent profecto id quod gravissimorum philosophorum iudicio comprobatum videmus: nullum esse scriptorum genus, qui aut magnitudine eloquentiae aut divinitate sapientiae poetis pares fuerint. Qua quidem re Aristotelem virum excellenti ingenio et doctrina post Platonem omnino singulari motum crediderim, ut eosdem priscis temporibus theologos poetasque fuisse affirmet. Et profecto si poesis ipsa quid sit diligentius intueamur, facile erit nosse 794

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

non esse illam unam ex iis artibus, quas nostri maiores, quoniam reliquis excellentiores sunt, liberales appellarunt, in quarum una alterave si qui floruerunt in maximo sunt semper pretio habiti, sed est res quaedam divinior, quae universas illas complectens certis quibusdam numeris astricta certis quibusdam pedibus progrediens variisque luminibus ac floribus distincta quaecunque homines egerint, quaecunque norint, quaecunque contemplati fuerint ea miris figmentis exornet atque in alias quasdam species traducat, ut, cum aliud quippiam multo inferius multoque humilius narrare videantur aut cum meras fabellas ad cessantium aures oblectandas ludere credantur, tum maxime excelsa quaedam et in ipso divinitatis fonte recondita promant, quo quidem gratissimo errore tandem animadverso auditor non solum in summam rerum cognitionem deveniat, sed mira etiam voluptate ex figmento perfundatur. Quam quidem rem divinam potius quam humanam esse cui potius quam Platoni crediderim? Ille enim in Ione [Ion 534c] dicit poesim non arte humana tradi, sed divino furore nostras mentes irrepere. In eo autem, qui Phaedrus inscribitur [Phaedrus 244a–245a], cum tria alia divini furoris genera explicasset, quartum furorem, quem poeticum esse vult, huiuscemodi, ni fallor, sententia exprimit. Refert enim, dum in caelestibus sedibus versarentur animi nostri, et eius harmoniae, quae in aeterna Dei mente consistit, et eius, quae caelorum motibus conficitur, illos participes fuisse. Verum cum deinde mortalium rerum cupiditate degravati proptereaque ad inferiora iam devoluti corporibus inclusi sint, tunc terrenis artubus ac moribundis membris impeditos vix eos concentus, qui humano artificio comparantur, auribus percipere posse, qui etsi a caelesti harmonia longe absint, nihilo minus, quoniam veluti simulacra quaedam ac imagines illius sunt, nos in tacitam quandam caelestium recordationem inducunt ac ardentissima cupiditate ad antiquam patriam revolandi inflammant, ut veram ipsam musicam, cuius haec adumbrata imago sit, pernoscamus. Interim vero, quoad per molestissimum corporis carcerem nobis licet, hac nostra illam imitari contendimus: non vocum modulationibus, veluti vulgares quidam et leviores musici consueverunt, quos aurium sensus demulcere posse non negaverim, quicquam autem praeterea praestare posse non concedo, sed graviori quodam iudicio divinam harmoniam imitati profundos intimosque mentis sensus eleganti carmine exprimunt atque divino furore concitati res saepe adeo mirabiles adeoque supra humanas vires constitutas grandi spiritu proferunt, ut, cum paulo post furor ille iam resederit, se ipsos admirentur atque obstupescant. Quapropter non solum auribus adulantur, sed suavi nectare et divina ambrosia mentes demulcent. V. C R I S T O F O R O L A N D I N O

795

Hi igitur divini vates sunt et sacri Musarum sacerdotes. Hi iure optimo sancti ab Ennio [Ennius, quoted in Cicero, Pro Archia 18] appellantur. His solum divinitus concessum est, ut carmine modo iocunde suaviterque labenti, modo graviter alteque surgenti, modo vehementi impetu ruenti, modo in sedati amnis morem fluenti, nonnunquam copiose exundanti, nonnunquam breviter atque compresse progredienti quocunque velint auditorem rapiant. Quam ob rem quoniam divinior vehementiorque in illis spiritus insurgit, ab huiuscemodi vehementia vates appellantur. Graeci autem ipsos poetas dixerunt eo, quod apud illos poie˜in facere significat. At dices fortasse: nonne et reliqui scriptores suorum librorum poetae, id est, effectores iure dici possunt? Possunt illi quidem; verum quoniam hi soli et dicendi simul et intelligendi vi reliquos omnes longe superant, nomen id, quod omnibus scriptoribus commune esse oportuit, veluti suum ac proprium sibi vendicaverunt. Et profecto quicunque vates hoc nomine digni fuerunt, ii supra humanam vim aliquid posse visi sunt. Cuius rei testimonio esse possunt prisci illi viri, quos poetas fuisse constat. Nam apud Hebraeos Moyses vir bello invictus, qui et Aegyptios ab Aethiopibus et ab Aegyptiis Hebraeos liberavit, nonne suis versibus—versibus enim volumen conscripsit—omnem divinitatem complexus est, vir adeo priscus, ut, cum octoginta iam natus annos Iudaeos e servitute educeret, Cecrops Athenis regnaret? Nam quae ea sint, quae Idumaeus Iob suis carminibus mandavit, neminem ex iis Christianis, qui paulo doctiores habentur, latere puto. At hic, ut ex libro suo coniectari licet, tertia aetate post Israel natus est. Nec nunc prosequar, quanta qualiave sint, quae carminibus David regis, quae eius filii Salomonis, quae Deuteronomii, quae Isaiae cantico continentur. Egregium omnino inventum et continuata deinceps serie semper retentum, ut non modo poetae, verum ceteri quoque scriptores, quicunque rem aliquam maiorem litteris mandarent, eam variis figmentis, variis figurarum integumentis obscurarent.

To the Most Illustrious Federigo, Duke of Urbino, the Third Book of the Camaldolese Disputations of the Florentine Cristoforo Landino Concerning the Allegories of Publius Virgilius Maro Although I have decided, most illustrious Federigo [Federigo da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino (1444–82)], to write down that learned conversation of Leon Battista Alberti [1404–72], heard, as it was, by all present with the highest admiration as well as with amazement at the figures in which Virgil has hidden that deepest knowledge by which he divinely reveals the highest good 796

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

of man and expresses quite wonderfully how we may proceed to it, I am afraid of being censured by some. Measuring all things by their own stupidity, they think that Virgil composed nothing but stories by which he might please the lazy ears of his listeners, and they think that we have willfully imagined all the things that we say. But if these men were to consider what poets are and how ancient their origin seems to be, and if they were to consider how great and varied is the teaching that very many have elaborated concerning that art, they would recognize what we see to be the common judgment of the best philosophers. That is, no writer can equal the poet for the superbness of his eloquence or the sublimity of his wisdom. Wherefore I should think that Aristotle was, after Plato, the man most singularly endowed with excellent wit and learning, inasmuch as he judges that in the earliest times theologians and poets were the same. And indeed if we inquire rather more diligently into what poetry is, it will be easy to see that it is not any one of those arts that our ancestors called ‘‘liberal’’ because they were more excellent than the rest—and if anyone were eminent in one or the other of them, he would always be held in high repute— but poetry is something rather more divine, which embraces all those other arts. Bound up in and liberated by its certain established rhythms and feet, and further set o√ by various decorative e√ects [literally: by various lights and flowers], it adorns with wonderful fictions whatever men have done, whatever they have known, and whatever they have contemplated. Furthermore, it transforms these things in such a way that they seem, for instance, to narrate something much less exalted, much more humble. Or it is supposed that this is a rehearsal of mere fables delightful to the ears of the lazy. As a matter of fact, supremely excellent things hidden in this fountain of divinity are then flowing forth. Having finally noticed his ‘‘profitable error,’’ the listener not only comes to a high knowledge of the matter at hand; he is also filled with a wonderful pleasure from the fiction. To whom other than to Plato should I ascribe the fact that I have believed poetry to be a divine rather than a human thing? For in the Ion Plato says that poetry is not given through human art; rather, it insinuates itself into our minds by a divine madness. In that dialogue which he calls Phaedrus, moreover, after he has explained three other kinds of divine madness, he formally explains a fourth, which, unless I am mistaken, is the poetic. While they were in the celestial realms, our souls were participators in that harmony which resides in the eternal mind of God and which brings about the heavens’ motions. Afterward, indeed, weighed down by the desire for mortal things and therefore already fallen to the inferior, our souls were consigned to bodies. Impeded now by earthly limbs and moribund members, our souls are V. C R I S T O F O R O L A N D I N O

797

scarcely able to perceive by ear those harmonies made by human artifice. Even if these human harmonies are a far cry from this celestial harmony, nevertheless, because they are, as it were, likenesses and images of it, they lead us to a certain ine√able recollection of heavenly things and inflame us with the most ardent desire of flying back to our former fatherland so that we might truly know that very music of which this is an adumbration. In the meantime it is permitted to us—insofar as we can within this most irksome prison of the body—to strive to imitate that divine music with this music of ours; and not with the melodies of the voice, as certain common and rather frivolous musicians were accustomed to doing (I have not denied that they could caress the ears, but I do not concede that they can be distinguished for anything else besides); but [other musicians], having imitated the divine harmony with more serious judgment, express in refined song the profound and inner understandings of the mind, and, inspired by the divine madness, bring forth in fullblown spirit such wondrous things, things so surpassing human powers, that afterwards when that madness has withdrawn, they are themselves amazed and astounded. Wherefore [these latter] serve not the ear alone; but they soothe the mind with sweet nectar and divine ambrosia. They are the divine poet-prophets and sacred priests of the Muses; and they are very rightly called holy by Ennius. Only to them has it been divinely granted that—by means of a song now pleasantly and sweetly falling, now solemnly surging on high, now rushing with a headlong impetus, now flowing in the manner of a calm river, sometimes overflowing copiously, sometimes proceeding briefly and concisely—they take the listener wherever they wish. And it is because a more divine and vehement spirit rises up in them that they are called, from this kind of vehemence, vates [prophets]. The Greeks, however, called them poets [makers] because among them poiein means facere [to make]. But you will perhaps ask if other writers of their own books might not be called poets, that is, makers. Indeed they can be; yet, because only the former are far superior to all others in speaking as well as in understanding, they have claimed for themselves as their own that name which should have been common to all writers. And indeed whichever poet-prophets were worthy of this name seemed to be capable of something beyond human strength. Those ancient men who it is agreed were poets can be a testimony to his. For among the Hebrews there is Moses, a man unconquered in war, who freed the Egyptians from the Ethiopians and the Hebrews from the Egyptians. Has he not embraced all divinity in his verses, for he composed his book in verses? Such was this venerable ancient that he led the Jews out of slavery when he was already eighty years old (Cecrops was reigning in Athens at the time). And those things which the Idumean [Jewish] Job committed to song lie hidden, I think, to no one 798

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

among those Christians who are considered a little more learned; but he was born in the third age after Israel [that is, Jacob], as can be conjectured from his own book. I will not now pursue a discussion of the quantity and quality of the things which are in the songs of King David, his son Solomon, and the Deuteronomist—nor of the things contained in the canticle of Isaiah. It was indeed an excellent discovery, and one that was thereafter retained in continued practice, that not only poets but others who are writing some major work should conceal it with varied fictions and veils of figures. (Stahel, 40–44)

2. On Allegorical Interpretation (Text: Lohe, 119–21) Nos autem cum quattuor sint quae in scriptoris mente aperienda investigemus, in rem nostram futurum puto, ut certos iam terminos circunscribamus, quos in poeta interpretando egredi non liceat. Est igitur, cum id quod gestum sit quaerimus, quam historiam appellant, ut, cum legimus apud Maronem: Haud procul inde citae Mettum in diversa quadrigae distulerant [Aeneid 8.642–43].

Quaerimus itidem non quid gestum sit, sed qua ratione gestum sit, ut est illud: At tu dictis, Albane, maneres [8.643].

Nam eo loco demonstrat propter ea discerptum a quadrigis esse Albanorum regem, quoniam ille in fide non mansisset. Hanc Graeci etymologiam dicunt. Quaerimus et tertio in loco, an ea quae dicantur pugnantia inter se sint. Alibi enim dicit Christus patrem se maiorem esse [John 14.28], alibi: ‘‘Ego et pater idem sumus’’ [compare John 10.30]. Quapropter cum ita interpretamur, haec ut minime inter se dissidere ostendamus, analogiam sequimur. Interpretamur postremo aliquid per allegoriam, quod tunc fit, cum non quae verba significant intelligimus, sed quiddam aliud sub figura obscuratum. Scribunt poetae [Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 1.740, and Horace, Ars poetica 394– 96] Amphionis lyra motos esse lapides, ut sua sponte in Thebanorum moenium structuram coirent, per quod figmentum quid aliud intelligimus nisi sapientissimi viri eloquentia effectum esse ut Boetii populi, qui hactenus ad omnem rationem veluti lapides stupidi et adversus omnem humanitatem durissimi existerent, e silvis ac lustris in civitatem venirent ac postremo legibus, quae ad communem usum latae essent, ultro sese subicerent? Nos igitur reliqua tria genera hoc tempore omittemus atque in ipsa sola allegoria versabimur, ut quid per Troiam, quid per Aeneam, quid per Italiam reliquaque huiusmodi sibi velit videamus. Troiae igitur oritur Aeneas, V. C R I S T O F O R O L A N D I N O

799

per quam urbem recte, ut puto, primam hominis aetatem intelligemus, in qua, cum ratio ad huc omnis consopita sit, solus sensus regnat. Atque ipsi mortales, quia ea aetate sapientiam ne suspicantur quidem, ea sola sibi proponunt, quae philosophi prima naturae appellant. Nam cum omne animal sibi a natura conmendatum sit, in primis se ipsum diligit. Deinde omnes corporis partes ita integras validasque habere cupit, ut usui simul et pulchritudini sibi sint. Maxime autem voluptatibus demulcetur et, quanvis animum se simul corpusque esse intelligat atque utrunque salvum esse cupiat, tamen in iis, quae in animo expetenda sunt, quoniam nondum plane illa cognoscit, minus laborat; ea autem, quae corpori corporeisque voluptatibus conducunt, anxie expetit. Sunt enim sibi ab ipso ortu iam notissima. Quapropter cum in hac aetate naturae vi potius trahamur quam nostrarum actionum domini esse valeamus, vel minimum vel omnino nullum virtuti vitioque locum relinquimus, cum quae agimus ea nec voluntaria sint nec cum delectu aliquo fiant. Itaque in puero virtutem esse nemo dicet. Verum ubi iam progressu aetatis rationis lumine aliquo illustrari incipit mens nostra, tum demum tantum in nobis consilii apparet, ut a pravis recta discernere valeamus. Est enim iam ad illud Pythagoricae litterae bivium perventum [compare Servius on Aeneid 6.136, in Thilo-Hagen 2:30–31] et iam: vitae nescius error [Satires 5.34],

ut est apud Persium, Deduxit trepidas ramosa in compita mentes [Satires 5.35 ‘‘diducit’’].

Unde cum discesserimus, necesse est, ut vel recta pergamus vel in sinistram deflectamus. Nam quae deinceps agimus, quoniam certa quadam ratione agimus, si recta fuerint, virtuti, sin contra, vitio adscribuntur. Troiae igitur et Aeneas simul et Paris aluntur. Verum alter, quoniam Venerem Palladi, id est, virtuti voluptatem anteponit, necesse est, ut una cum Troia pereat; alter autem duce matre Venere se ab omni incendio explicat. Quod quid aliud intelligamus nisi eos, qui magno amore inflammati ad veri cognitionem impelluntur, omnia facile consequi posse? Quapropter Venerem divinum amorem recte interpretabimur.

Although there will be four things that we may investigate in the matter of opening the mind of a writer, I think that we should set up certain inviolable limits in interpreting the poet. There is what they call history, when we investigate that which may have happened—as when we read in Virgil: ‘‘Not far thence, four-horse cars, driven apart, had torn Mettus asunder.’’ Besides what has been done, we also seek to know the reason why. As that other line goes: ‘‘But thou, O Alban, shouldst have stood by thy words!’’ For in this passage he shows why the king of the Albans was dismembered by the chariots—because 800

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

he had not remained faithful. This the Greeks call etymology. We also seek in the third instance to know whether things that have been said may be contradictory: for in one place Christ says, ‘‘The Father is greater than I,’’ and in another place, ‘‘The Father and I are one.’’ And when we so interpret these words that we show that they are scarcely in disagreement, we pursue analogy. Finally, we may interpret something through an allegory: which happens when we do not comprehend merely what the words signify, but something else hidden under a figure. The poets [Apollonius of Rhodes and Horace] write that the stones were so moved by Amphion’s lyre that they freely placed themselves in the walls of Thebes when they were being built. In this figure what else do we understand but that by the eloquence of a very wise man the people of Boeotia, who up to that point had been as stupid as stones in the face of any reasoning and exceedingly hardened against every humanizing influence, came out of the forests and marshes into the city and afterward freely submitted themselves to extensive laws for the common good? We will at this time omit the other three kinds of interpretation and concern ourselves only with allegory, so that we may see what is meant by Troy, Aeneas, Italy, or anything else of this kind. For instance, Aeneas arises out of Troy; and by this city I think we may properly understand that first age of man in which, since all reasoning is still asleep, the senses alone reign. And men themselves, because at this age they do not in fact know anything about wisdom, propose for themselves only those things which the philosophers call prima naturae [nature’s first needs]. Every living being has been commended to itself by nature; it loves itself in the first place, and then wants, in the interests of both usefulness and beauty, to have all parts of its body healthy and whole. Moreover it is soothed especially by pleasures and although it knows itself to be both body and spirit and desires that each be preserved, still, because it does not yet fully know the things to be sought in the spirit, it seeks them all the less. It seeks anxiously, however, for those things that serve the body and its pleasures—for these pleasures have been the best known to it ever since birth. Because in this age of nature it is the fact that we are rather drawn by force than that we can be the masters of our actions, then we can concede very little or no place at all to virtue or vice, since the things that we do are not voluntary—they do not happen by choice. And so no one will say that there is virtue in a boy. But when by the advance of age our minds begin to be illuminated somewhat with the light of reason, then and then only does so much of counsel appear in us that we can distinguish good from evil. For by then there has arrived that fork in the road of the Pythagorean letter, as well as ‘‘the uncertainties of this life’s wanderings,’’ as it is expressed in Persius. ‘‘[Ignorant ramblings] have led our bewildered minds out to the branching crossroads.’’ When we encounter such a V. C R I S T O F O R O L A N D I N O

801

crossroads, it is necessary that we either pursue the righthand road or turn to the left. Because we then do things with a certain sure reason, they are ascribed to virtue if they are right; but if they are not right, they are ascribed to vice. So both Aeneas and Paris grow up in Troy. But because one of them values Venus, that is, pleasure, over Pallas, that is, virtue, it is necessary that he perish together with Troy. The other, however, under the leadership of his mother Venus, escapes from the conflagration. What else may we understand by this except that those who are driven to a knowledge of the truth because they are inflamed with great love are able to accomplish all things easily? And so we will rightly interpret Venus as divine love. (Stahel, 53–56, modified)

3. Dido and Aeneas (Text: Lohe, 182–85) Non fuit ab re templum ipsum Iunoni, quae imperiorum dea habetur, omni cultu consecrare. Longior sim atque etiam minutior, quam tantae rei conveniat, si singula, quae in templo depicta erant [Aeneid 1.453–93], quae a regina administrabantur, quae ab opificibus efficiebantur [Aeneid 1.507–8], distinctius referam. Multa etiam in Ilionei atque Didonis oratione continentur [Aeneid 1.522–58, 562–78], plura in congressu Aeneae [1.588–93], plurima in convivio et in coniunctione hospitalitatis deprehendas [1.633–42], quibus vita statusque civilis exprimitur. Quoniam vero noverat sapientissimus vates primordia rerum publicarum et imperiorum virtutibus niti verumque esse Sallustianum illud [Sallust, Bellum Catilinae 2.3–4], si imperia iisdem artibus retinerentur, quibus acquiruntur, non esse tot mutationes habituras res humanas, iccirco primum regis reginaeque congressum a religione, a liberalitate et ab omni genere virtutum proficisci vult. Sed ita paulatim in deterius labuntur, ut quae pudicissima fuerat mulier et in re publica administranda vigilantissima turpi amore victa in lasciviam otiumque labatur. Quibus omnibus ostenditur, quam facile rebus secundis humanae mentes a labore in libidinem declinent. Quoniam autem virtutes in vita sociali potius incohatae quam absolutae sunt, hic autem ita de vita civili agitur, ut velit exprimere, quod paulo ante dicebam, fundamenta rerum publicarum, quae ex parvis crescunt, habere meliora initia quam exitus, iccirco reginam a principio in omni re temperatam posuit, paulo vero postea amore insurgente paulatim ex temperantia in continentiam labitur, postremo victa amore incontinens ita reditur, ut demum in summam intemperantiam incidat. Movetur autem a principio Dido, ut Aeneam amet, non solum virtute, quam unam in vita contemplationi dedita intuemur, sed iis, quae humanis coetibus non solum bona, verum

802

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

etiam summa bona habentur. Quis enim generis nobilitatem, quis formae dignitatem atque excellentiam, quis denique multo ornatu insignem orationem inter summa non enumeret [Aeneid 4.3–5], cum in foro, cum in senatu haec non sapientum statera, sed populari trutina ponderentur? Quoniam vero in vita communi permulti interest, quibus consultoribus utaris—multi enim aut malo exemplo moti aut eorum, quos caros habent, non rectis suasionibus impulsi ad prava moventur—non fuit absonum, ut Didonem sororis hortatu impudicam facta inducat. Misere enim amans mulier plurimumque iam de eo animi robore remittens, quod in temperata hactenus apparuerat, continentem in primis verbis, quae ad sororem facit, esse ostendit; nam quanvis amore urgeatur, aegre quidem, sed tamen illi resistit [Aeneid 4.9–29]. Sororis autem oratio ex vita communi universa sumitur. Non enim ex philosophia sumptis argumentationibus, sed aut voluptate proposita aut metu earum rerum, quae tantopere timendae non sunt [4.39–44], iniecto aut spe nec firma nec solida proposita [4.33] in suam sententiam abducere conatur, ut denique spem det dubiae menti solvatque pudorem [4.55]. Qua quidem re accidit, ut victa in incontinentiam prolaberetur. In ea vero cum versaretur, paulatim impudica consuetudine eo redacta est, ut nullo amplius obstante pudore furtivum amorem minime meditetur, sed impudentissima effecta turpem libidinem honesto nomine appellet [Aeneid 4.170–72: coniugium]. In quibus omnibus quid aliud tentat, quid conatur divinus poeta, nisi ut Didonem gravissimum nobis exemplar proponat, quantum detrimentum iis, qui sub imperio sunt, proveniat, cum principum mentes pro industria ac labore luxuria atque ignavia irrepat? Illa enim, quae paulo ante externos atque peregrinos non nisi breviter ac demisso vultu [Aeneid 1.561] alloquebatur, cuius religio summa in deos, liberalitas in hospites, consilium in urbis exaedificatione, iustitia in suos ad caelum ferebatur, quae in publico nisi aut divinae aut publicae rei causa conspici nefarium facinus putabat, cuius animus pudore munitus ab omni perturbatione liber perseverabat, nunc eo furore agitatur, ut tota urbe amens vagetur [Aeneid 4.68–69] aut, si domi sine amato se contineat, veluti si sola sit atque ab omnibus deserta, summo maerore tabescat, publica autem opera ita negligat, ut, quae hactenus sua cura suisque sumptibus, quae suorum civium labore ac studio summa cum celeritate erigebantur, nunc imperfecta interruptaque pendeant [Aeneid 4.86–89]. Aeneas autem, cuius consilium Italiam sibi proposuerat, verum difficultate rerum defatigatus Carthaginem, non ut illic sedes poneret, sed ut classem reficeret, digressus fuerat, illecebris Didonis illectus propositum proficiscendi abicit. Nec deest Iuno, quae, ne res Romanae oriantur,

V. C R I S T O F O R O L A N D I N O

803

Aeneae Didonisque coniugium Carthagine faciendum curet. Verum cum id sine Veneris opera perfici non posset, Venus autem filium non Carthagine versari, sed in Italiam enavigare cuperet, hanc deam dolis aggreditur Iuno, ut, quae Carthaginensium causa faceret, ea omnia Aeneae beneficio fieri viderentur [Aeneid 4.103–4]. Quae cum dicit Maro, divina paene sapientia vitam socialem depingit. In qua cum ita quidam excelso animo versentur, ut humana contemnentes ex hoc primo virtutum genere paulo post in eas venturi sint, quas purgatorias appellant, atque inde ad illas tandem, quae sunt animi purgati, pervenire contendant, tamen illecebris rerum terrenarum ita molliuntur, ut caelestium, quas sibi solas proposuerant, paene obliviscantur. Libido enim imperandi Aeneam Didoni coniungere, id autem est virum excellentem regno praeficere cupit, sed rem perficere non valet, nisi assentiatur eius amor. Amor autem animadvertit huiuscemodi coniunctione non Aeneae, sed Didoni consuli; non enim animis hominum ad maiora natis, sed ipsi imperio conducit. Praestat enim nobis ad veram sapientiam proficisci quam in actionibus versari, sed rerum administratio a sapientibus si deseratur, actum sit de rebus humanis oportet. Itaque quanvis falsa esse cognoscat, quae libido regnandi persuadet, tamen assentitur, sive iam illa irretitus sit, sive eorum quibus consulendum est misericordia motus. Celebratur autem huiuscemodi matrimonium in venatione, de qua quid sentirem paulo ante satis, ut opinor, vobis dilucide explicavi. Quod autem in spelunca loco subterraneo convenerint [Aeneid 4.165], quid nam aliud indicare crediderim nisi eos, qui honores, qui opes, qui imperia quaerunt, intra corporeas caducasque res animum inclusum gerere? Cui conubio praeter tellurem et Iunonem praeterque nemorum habitatrices nymphas vides numen nullum affuisse. Quae omnia iis, quae de spelunca dicebam, apte quadrare videntur. Irretitus igitur Didonis amore Aeneas abeundi propositum abicit et ‘‘hiemem, quam longa’’ est, in summo luxu conterere non pudet [4.193]. Hoc vero quid sibi aliud vult nisi egregios quoque viros interdum a recto cursu ambitione averti et honorum imperiique voluptate delinitos hiemis asperitatem et enavigandi in Italiam difficultatem exhorrescere? Quapropter nisi divinitus subventum sit, excellentissimae atque inmortales hominum virtutes tam perniciosa peste pereunt.

It is to the point that the temple itself was consecrated with every honor to Juno, who is considered to be the goddess of empires. If I were to describe clearly everything that was depicted on the temple, the jobs that were assigned by the queen and the things accomplished by her workers, the description would be more lengthy and minute than is appropriate. And there are very 804

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

many things about civic life and government that are expressed in the speeches of Ilioneus and Dido; you can see even more in the coming of Aeneas; and most of all in the hospitable banquet and fellowship. Inasmuch as this wisest of poets knew that the beginning of republics and empires depends upon virtue, and inasmuch as he knew the truth of the dictum of Sallust that human a√airs would not have to undergo so many changes if empires would retain those virtues by which they came into being—Virgil wanted to depict the first coming together of the king and queen [Aeneas and Dido] as proceeding from religion, nobility, and every kind of virtue. They are to fall from nobility only gradually: in such a way that she who had been a most chaste woman and who had been most vigilant in administering the republic is conquered by a shameful love and falls into laxity and lasciviousness. All of this goes to show how easily human minds are induced by success to backslide from labor to pleasure; and remember, the virtues of civic life are inchoate rather than absolute. The civic life is dealt with in this way because the poet wishes to express what I said before: republics which grow up from small beginnings are happier in these beginnings than in their endings. And so Virgil has made the queen in every way temperate in the beginning; after a little while, what with love surging up within her bit by bit, she lapses from temperance to continence; later still, she is conquered by love and thus rendered incontinent; finally, she succumbs to the greatest intemperance. From the beginning Dido is moved to love Aeneas not only by virtue—which is all we see when our lives are dedicated to contemplation—but also by those things which in social intercourse are regarded not only as goods but as the greatest goods. For who would not enumerate among the greatest virtues nobility of family, dignity and excellence of form, and finally, speech made singular with every kind of beauty? Both in the forum and in the senate these things are weighed heavily in the popular scale, if not in the scale of the wise. Now in common life it is indeed important which counsellors one uses. Many are driven to base deeds when they are moved by bad example or by the perverse arguments of those whom they hold dear. It is not inappropriate that Virgil should introduce us to a Dido made impious by the exhortation of her own sister. Here she is a woman painfully in love who has already lost most of her strength of spirit, inasmuch as she who has up until now appeared to be temperate shows herself to have become merely continent in the very first words she addresses to her sister; she is moved by love, but she is uncomfortable about it and still resists it. Her sister’s speech is taken entirely from the experience of ordinary life. For Anna endeavors to win her sister over, not with arguments taken from philosophy, but with the arguments of pleasure or of hope, this latter being neither firm nor solid, and with the counterargument of V. C R I S T O F O R O L A N D I N O

805

fear, a fear of things not so fearful; by giving hope to her sister’s wavering mind, she finally looses the bonds of shame. After she is won over by her sister’s argument, Dido lapses into incontinence. But she becomes gradually more involved in this unchaste manner of conducting herself; and finally, with her chastity no longer blocking the way, she no longer thinks of her love as a secret, and what is most dishonorable of all, she even calls the shameless passion by an upright name. In this whole matter, what else is the poet’s consideration, what else his lofty e√ort but that Dido be for us a weighty example of how much harm comes to those who live in an empire when lust and sloth replace diligence and labor in the minds of its rulers? She had previously spoken to these foreigners and travelers only briefly and with downcast eyes. Her most excellent worship of the gods, her liberality toward guests, her wisdom in the building of the city, her justice toward her own people—all these had been spoken about even in heaven. She had thought it a shameful o√ense to be seen in public except for some religious or civic a√air. Armed with its honor, her soul had up until now kept itself free from every disturbance. Now, however, it is so furiously agitated that Dido wanders throughout the whole city like a madwoman, or if she keeps herself at home without her beloved, she pines away with excessive sorrow as if she were alone and abandoned by all. Moreover, she so neglects the public works that the things that were being so quickly erected under her guidance and at her expense—but with the labor and diligence of her citizens —are now put o√ and left incomplete. As for Aeneas, his plan had called for his traveling to Italy. True enough, he had become tired by the di≈culty of the undertaking; but he put in at Carthage, not to settle there, but to repair his fleet. Having become enticed by Dido’s charms, however, he put aside any thought of traveling. Juno is not absent; in order to keep the Roman star from rising, she is concerned to e√ect the marriage of Aeneas and Dido in Carthage. But since this cannot be e√ected without the help of Venus, and since Venus wants her son to become disengaged from Carthage and to sail to Italy, Juno with her wiles approaches this goddess; whatever Juno does for the sake of her Carthaginians must seem to be done for the benefit of Aeneas. In all of this Virgil depicts, with almost divine wisdom, civic or social life: certain excellent-spirited men become involved in it in such a way that, scorning what is merely human, they are about to proceed in a short while from this first degree of virtue to those virtues which are called purgative; from this point they can strive for the virtues that belong to a soul already purged; nevertheless they are so weakened by the charm of earthly things that they become forgetful of the heavenly things which alone they had proposed for themselves. The will to rule desires to marry Aeneas to Dido, that is, to put the 806

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

superior man in charge of the kingdom; but the will to rule is not strong enough to e√ect this unless the man’s love gives its assent. But love notices that this kind of union is helpful, not to Aeneas, but to Dido. It is useful only to the empire itself, not to the souls of men born for greater things; it is better to make one’s way toward true wisdom than to become involved in activity. For if the administration of the state is abandoned by the wise, then human a√airs are finished; and so although it recognizes the falsity of what is urged by this desire to rule, love gives its assent; either it has already been ensnared by this desire, or it is moved with pity toward those who must be helped. This marriage is celebrated during a hunt; I think I have already satisfactorily explained to you what I think the hunt means. But that they consummated the union in a subterranean cave—what else can I suppose this indicates except that those who seek honor, wealth, and empire have restricted their souls to corporeal and corruptible things? You see that for the marriage there were no deities there except Mother Earth, Juno, and some nymphs who inhabit the woods—which seems to fit with what I said about the cave. Thus is Aeneas trapped by love of Dido; he spurns any thought of leaving her, nor is he ashamed to spend the whole long winter in debauchery. What else can this mean but that even excellent men are sometimes diverted by ambition from right paths? Those who are hemmed in by a desire for honor and empire are intimidated by the harshness of the winter and the di≈culty of sailing to Italy. And unless there were divine aid, some very excellent and seemingly immortal human virtues would perish of this pernicious disease. (Stahel, 147–52)

4. Golden Bough (Text: Lohe, 224–26) Deinceps vero eas exponit rationes, quibus ita tuto descendamus, ut pateat reditus. Aureus autem ramus [Aeneid 6.137] sapientiam nobis indicat, sine qua non est speculatio eligendarum agendarumque rerum iudex. Neque mireris aurum sapientiae symbolum apud hunc poetam obtinere, cum plerique idem scriptores fecerint. Unde illud sapiens: ‘‘Aurum et multitudo gemmarum et vas pretiosum labia scientiae’’ [Proverbs 20.15]. Aurum enim est sapientiae vigor atque fulgor. Nullum ex metallis auro pretiosius est, nihil in rebus sapientia pluris faciendum. Fulget maxime aurum, nihil sapientia est splendidius. Nulla aerugine exeditur aurum, nulla res inminuit sapientiam. Nullis sordibus aurum coinquinatur, nullis maculis sapientia deturpatur. Sed latet arbore opaca [Aeneid 6.136].

V. C R I S T O F O R O L A N D I N O

807

Multis enim ac variis inscitiae tenebris ita obruitur verum et luco [6.139]— ea enim corporis, ut ita loquar, hebetudo est—ita tegitur, ut difficile omnino sit illud eruere. Scite enim id a Democrito usurpabatur naturam in profundo veritatem demersisse. Non tamen prius in hanc contemplationem descendere valemus, quam aureum ramum decerpserimus [6.140–41]. Proserpina enim ad se ire quempiam sine huiuscemodi munere vetat [6.142–43]. Est enim Proserpina ipsa animi pars, quae nihil praeter sensus continet. Ad quam si sine sapientia accederemus, nullum praeterea remedium daretur, quo minus de nobis actum esset. Illa enim irretiti nulla unquam esset spes redeundi. Recte et illud: . . . primo[que] avulso non deficit alter aureus [Aeneid 6.143–44].

Se ipsa enim alitur sapientia atque evenit investigando, ut aliud verum aliud aperiat nec quicquam percipiatur, quod, ubi perceptum sit, ad aliud percipiendum non ducat. Illud autem quis non videat de vero verissime dictum esse? Nam ‘‘alte’’ investigandus est [6.145]. Divina enim et caelestia, si verum invenire volumus, non infima haec atque caduca inspicienda sunt. Omnis enim doctrina ac scientia ex iis est, quae nullis terminis circunscripta sunt et in interitum non cadunt. Iubet praeterea iam repertum rite [Aeneid 6.145–46] a nobis carpi et iure quidem ita iubet; nam nisi certo quodam ordine pergamus, nihil unquam proficiemus. Addit enim postremum illum facile te secuturum, si a fatis voceris; sin autem non voceris, nec viribus tunc nec duro ferro posse convelli [compare Aeneid 6.146–48]. Virtutibus enim, quae mores corrigunt et quae rectum aequumque respiciunt, valent omnes ita animum a sordibus purgare, ut mundi e corporibus migrent. Ad supremam autem illam rerum cognitionem venire paucis omnino datur atque iis solis, qui a fatis vocantur. Quapropter recte si te fata vocant [Aeneid 6.147].

Quod tamen ut planius exprimam, volunt Platonici Deum primo se ipsum cognoscere, deinde omnes reliquas res, tertio autem loco ea cuncta efficere, quae cognovit. Postrema ergo haec a secunda, secunda rursus a prima dependet. Nam res omnes producit, quia illas novit, novit autem nulla alia ratione, nisi quia se ipsum, in quo omnia sunt, contemplatur. Huiuscemodi itaque ordine tria ista in Deo ponunt ita, ut primam sapientiam, secundam providentiam, tertium fatum nominent. Christiani autem, cum haec eadem, ni fallor, sentiant, fati tamen nomen vix ponere audent, non quia Platoni irascantur, sed, cum vidissent esse quasdam in philosophia familias, quae 808

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

eam fato necessitatem imponant, ut nullam in actionibus nobis decernendi libertatem relinquant, fati nomen odisse videntur. At nos eum quem paulo ante dixi philosophum secuti dicemus Deum rerum causas, id est, se ipsum considerare, deinde ortum ordinemque ac denique gubernationem rerum, quas complectitur, intueri. Quae deinceps omnia ita exequitur, ut nullo modo valeat impediri; quam quidem rem fatum dicunt. Quod si ita est, non aberrant, quid [sic] dicunt rationem ac ordinem rerum, quam in mente Dei providentiam dicunt, in rebus mobilibus ac loco et tempore circunscriptis fatum dici. Te itaque, si fata concesserint, ramus aureus volens facilisque sequetur [Aeneid 6.146].

Datur igitur paucis et id divino quodam extra sortem munere ab ipsa Dei providentia, cuius consilium scrutari nefas homini est. Rectus enim Dominus et recta consilia eius, sed quae mortali ingenio comprehendi non possint. Quis enim adeo temerarius, ut nosse contendat, cur Ioanni, cur Paulo apostolis ea aperuerit Dominus, quae multis sanctissimis viris et multa doctrina illustratis detegere noluerit? Quod exemplum late patet et ad omnes, qui in aliquo doctrinae genere laboraverint, transferri potest, ut, cum multi eodem studio flagraverint eandemque operam ac laborem impenderint, alii summum in ea arte attigerint, aliis autem vix in postremis consistere licuerit. Habes, quid aureus ramus meo iudicio sibi velit.

Then she shows how we may make the descent safely—in such a way that the return lies open to us. The golden bough indicates to us wisdom, without which contemplation is not the judge of things which must be chosen and then done. Nor should you wonder that gold is presented as a symbol of wisdom by this poet: very many writers have done the same. For example, there is the proverb Aurum et multitudo gemmarum et vas pretiosum labia scientiae. [Actually, the proverb is Est aurum et multitudo, and so forth, so that translated it is ‘‘There is gold, and a multitude of rubies: but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.’’] For gold represents the shining brilliance of wisdom. No metal is more sought after than gold, and nothing is required in more things than wisdom. Gold shines the brightest, and nothing is more magnificent than wisdom. No rust wears away gold, and nothing can diminish wisdom. Gold does not become foul with dirt, nor is wisdom disfigured with any stains. But ‘‘[the golden bough] lurks in a shady tree.’’ For it is so covered with the many di√erent shadows of ignorance, so hidden in a grove—this is the dullness of the body I am speaking of—that it is very di≈cult to bring it out. It was Democritus’s wise assumption that nature had plunged truth into an abyss. Still and all, we are not able to descend into this contemplation before we have plucked the golden bough. Proserpina forbids anyone to come to her without V. C R I S T O F O R O L A N D I N O

809

this kind of gift. Now Proserpina is that very part of the soul which embraces nothing but the senses; and if we were to approach her without wisdom, there would be no help afterward for what would be done to us. For those who are trapped by her there is never any hope of returning. And the point is well made that ‘‘when the first is torn away, a second fails not, golden too.’’ That is, wisdom nourishes itself. It happens that in searching for truths, one leads to another; nor is anything ever learned which, once it is learned, does not lead to something else to be learned. Who does not see that it has been very rightly said of truth that it must be sought on high? If we wish to find the truth, the divine and celestial—not these lower, ephemeral things— must be sought out, for all learning and knowledge come from what is unlimited and does not fall into destruction. She [the Sibyl] orders that once it [the bough] is found, it be duly plucked by us; and she is right. For unless we proceed in a certain right order, we will never accomplish anything. She adds finally, ‘‘For of itself will it follow you, freely and with ease, if Fate calls you; otherwise you will avail with no force to win it or rend it with hard steel.’’ For by the virtues which keep a check on mores and which look to what is right and just, all men can so purge their souls of foulness that they depart from their bodies in a clean state. But it is given only to a few—only to those called by Fate—to come to that supreme knowledge of the state of things. And therefore the line: ‘‘ . . . if Fate calls you.’’ I will try to explain this more clearly. The Platonists think that, after himself (first), God knows all other things (second). [After this], in the third place, he causes all of those things which he knows. These third and last e√ects follow the second, and the second depends upon the first. For he produces all things inasmuch as he knows them. But he knows them for no other reason but that he contemplates himself—in whom are all things. Given this kind of order of these three things in God, they call the first wisdom, the second providence, and the third Fate. And although Christians accept these same three, if I am not mistaken, they scarcely dare to use the name ‘‘Fate.’’ It is not that they reject Plato, but they have seen that there are certain families of philosophers who impose on that word ‘‘Fate’’ such necessity that they leave no freedom of choice in our actions. And so that they seem to have rejected the word ‘‘Fate.’’ But following that philosopher whom I have already talked about, we will say that God contemplates the causes of things, that is, himself; then, the coming to be, the right order, and the governance of the things which he embraces. And he does all of this in such a way that he cannot possibly be resisted—and it is this that they call Fate. They are not wrong, then, who say that the right and reasonable order of nature, which they call providence when it is in the mind of God, is to be called Fate when it is in the mutable world circumscribed by 810

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

space and time. And so if Fate grants it, the golden bough ‘‘will willingly and easily follow’’ [when you pluck it]. It [the golden bough, meaning wisdom] is given to a few and, at that, as a divine gift—putting aside the question of chance. And it is given by the providence of God, whose deliberations man is not allowed to scrutinize. For the Lord is upright in all his deliberations, although they cannot be understood by mortal minds. Who is so bold that he would strive to discover why the Lord revealed to his apostles John and Paul things which he did not want to reveal to many very holy men—even men famous for great learning? There is a perfectly obvious example which can be applied to all who have worked at any kind of learning: although there are many who have burned with the same eagerness and who have spent the same amount of blood, sweat, and tears, only some of them will attain the heights of the art, and others will scarcely be able to establish themselves in the last ranks. You have been considering what the golden bough means to me. (Stahel, 212–16) W. VIRGILIAN OBSCENITY Ancient and medieval grammarians and rhetoricians, perhaps because they were involved in training adolescent boys, took pains to identify and treat earnestly passages in Virgil (and other standard authors) with turns of phrase or collocations of sounds that could have been construed as having indecent meanings. For discussion of obscenity in Roman literature, see Cicero, Ad familiares 9.22, no. 189, ed. D. R. Shackleton Bailey (Cambridge, 1977). For the larger grammatico-rhetorical tradition, see J. Ziolkowski, ‘‘Obscenity in the Latin Grammatical and Rhetorical Tradition,’’ in Obscenity: Social Control and Artistic Creation in the European Middle Ages, ed. J. Ziolkowski, Cultures, Beliefs and Traditions 4 (Leiden, 1998), 41–59.

1. Quintilian, Institutio oratoria 8.3.47 See above, I.C.19. On the extraction of obscene meanings from words that do not appear indecent. Celsus is otherwise unknown. (Text and translation: Quintilian, The Orator’s Education, ed. and trans. D. A. Russell, vol. 3, LCL 126 [2001]) Siquidem Celsus cacemphaton apud Vergilium putat: incipiunt agitata tumescere [Georgics 1.357]:

quod si recipias, nihil loqui tutum est.

Celsus, for instance, sees ill-sounding usage in Virgil’s they are stirred and start to swell;

but if you take this view, nothing is safe to say. W. V I R G I L I A N O B S C E N I T Y

811

2. Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 9.10 See above, I.C. 27. On Aeneid 8.404–6 as the primary exemplar for testing both Virgil’s ‘‘goodness’’ and his elegantia—which here is to say his taste, discrimination, discretion, and so forth. For Annaeus Cornutus, see above, IV.A.4. (Text and translation: Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, ed. and trans. J. C. Rolfe, vol. 2, LCL 200 [1927]) Annianus poeta et plerique cum eo eiusdem Musae viri summis adsiduisque laudibus hos Vergilii versus ferebant, quibus Volcanum et Venerem iunctos mixtosque iure coniugii, rem lege naturae operiendam, verecunda quadam translatione verborum, cum ostenderet demonstraretque, protexit. Sic enim scripsit: . . . ea verba locutus optatos dedit amplexus placidumque petivit coniugis infusus gremio per membra soporem [Aeneid 8.404–6].

Minus autem difficile esse arbitrabantur, in istiusmodi re digerenda, verbis uti uno atque altero brevi tenuique eam signo demonstrantibus . . . tot vero et tam evidentibus ac tamen non praetextatis, sed puris honestisque verbis venerandum illud concubii pudici secretum neminem quemquam alium dixisse. Sed Annaeus Cornutus, homo sane pleraque alia non indoctus neque inprudens, in secundo tamen librorum, quos de figuris sententiarum conposuit, egregiam totius istius verecundiae laudem insulsa nimis et odiosa scrutatione violavit. Nam cum genus hoc figurae probasset et satis circumspecte factos esse versus dixisset: ‘‘ ‘membra’ tamen’’ inquit ‘‘paulo incautius nominavit.’’

The poet Annianus, and with him many other devotees of the same Muse, extolled with high and constant praise the verses of Virgil in which, while depicting and describing the conjugal union of Vulcan and Venus, an act that nature’s law bids us conceal, he veiled it with a modest paraphrase. For thus he wrote: ‘‘Having spoken these words, he pro√ered the desired embraces and throughout his limbs sought quiet sleep, poured upon the bosom of his spouse.’’ But they thought it less di≈cult, in dealing with such a subject, to use one or two words that suggest it by a slight and delicate hint . . . that no other than Virgil has ever spoken of those sacred mysteries of chaste intercourse in so many and such plain words, which yet were not licentious, but pure and honorable. But Annaeus Cornutus, a man in many respects, to be sure, lacking neither in learning nor in taste, in the second book of the work that he compiled On Figurative Language, defamed the high praise of all that modesty by an utterly 812

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

silly and odious criticism. For after expressing approval of that kind of figurative language, and observing that the lines were composed with due circumspection, he added: ‘‘Virgil nevertheless was somewhat indiscreet in using the word membra.’’

3. Ausonius See above, III.A.4.

4. Diomedes (late fourth–early fifth century) The grammarian Diomedes wrote an Ars grammatica in three books. a. Ars grammatica 1 On cacemphaton (ill-sounding usage). (Text: GL 1.451.3–7) For Virgil’s ramus in an obscene context, see Ausonius, Cento nuptialis 105 (quoted above, III.A.4). (Discussion: J. Adams, The Latin Sexual Vocabulary [Baltimore, 1962], 28) (Text: The Works of Ausonius, ed. R. P. H. Green [Oxford, 1991], 138, no. 18) Cacemphaton est vitio conpositionis inverecunda suspitio, ut ‘‘arrige aures, Pamphile’’; item ‘‘at ramum hunc’’ (aperit ramum qui veste latebat).

Cacemphaton is immodest suggestiveness through a compositional misjudgment, as ‘‘Prick up your ears, Pamphilus’’ [Terence, Andria 933]; likewise ‘‘but this stick’’ (she displays the stick that was hiding under her clothing) [Aeneid 6.406]. (MP) b. Ars grammatica 1 On the expression numerum cum navibus aequet (and he equals their number with his ships, Aeneid 1.193) as an example of aeschrologia [improper expression] because the sound of cum followed by a word beginning with n might conjure up the sound cunnus (female pudenda). (Text: GL 1.450.32–451.7)

5. Marius Plotius [Marcus Claudius] Sacerdos (fifth century?) a. Ars grammatica 1.9 On aeschrologia, citing a variant of Aeneid 2.1 (where intenti is the universal reading). (Text: GL 6.453.19–23) Conticuere omnes arrectique ora tenebant. . . .

All were silent and, erect, kept their gaze steady. (MP) W. V I R G I L I A N O B S C E N I T Y

813

b. Ars grammatica 1.9 On cacosyntheton (misplacement of words), citing Aeneid 9.609–10. (Text: GL 6.454.17–18) For other references to the phrase as exemplifying cacosyntheton (in Charisius, Diomedes, Aelius Donatus, and Alcuin), see J. Ziolkowski, ‘‘Obscenity in the Latin Grammatical and Rhetorical Tradition,’’ in Obscenity: Social Control and Artistic Creation in the European Middle Ages, ed. J. Ziolkowski, Cultures, Beliefs and Traditions 4 (Leiden, 1998), 49 n. 27. For further discussion of hasta used in an obscene sense, see J. Adams, The Latin Sexual Vocabulary (Baltimore, 1962), 17, 19–20. . . . versaque iuvencum terga fatigamus hasta . . .

. . . and with our spear reversed we prod the backs of our bullocks. (MP)

6. Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.24.7 See above, IV.C. (Text: J. Willis, ed., 2nd ed., Bibliotheca Teubneriana [Leipzig, 1970]) ‘‘Nec immerito. Erubuit quippe de se futura iudicia, si legeretur petitio deae precantis filio arma a marito cui soli nupserat nec ex eo prolem suscepisse se noverat, vel si mille alia multum pudenda seu in verbis modo Graecis modo barbaris seu in ipsa dispositione operis deprehenderentur.’’

‘‘And how right [Virgil was, says Evangelus, to want to burn the Aeneid]! For he was ashamed to think what the future judgment on him would be, if any should come to read of a goddess begging from the only husband to whom she had been married—and by whom, as well she knew, she had not had a child—a gift of arms for her son, or if a thousand other passages should come to light in which the poet had o√ended against good taste whether by his use of Greek and outlandish expressions or by the mere arrangement of his work.’’ (Macrobius, The Saturnalia, trans. P. V. Davies [New York, 1969], modified by MP)

7. Servius See above, IV.B. On cacemphaton (ill-sounding usage). a. On Georgics 2.13: glauca canentia (whitening [willows] with pale [foliage]) Servius comments (Text: Thilo-Hagen 3.1:219): sane cacemphaton est

surely [an example of] cacemphaton 814

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

b. On Aeneid 2.27: Dorica castra (Greek camp) Servius comments (Text: Thilo-Hagen 1:220): Mala est compositio ab ea syllaba incipere, qua superius finitus est sermo; nam plerumque et cacenphaton facit, ut hoc loco.

It is an unfortunate juxtaposition to begin with that syllable in which the previous phrase had ended; for it often produces even ill-sounding usage, as in this example. (MP) c. On Aeneid 3.203: caeca caligine (dark gloom) Servius cites this twice (Commentarius in artem Donati [GL 4.447.15–19] and Thilo-Hagen 1:378) as an example of cacemphaton in sermone (cacemphaton in language). d. On Aeneid 8.406: coniugis infusus gremio (poured into the lap of his spouse) Servius comments (Text: Thilo-Hagen 1:260–61): Hoc est ante concubuit et sic quievit. Probus vero et Carminius propter sensum cacenphaton ‘‘infusum’’ legunt, ut sit sensus: dormiit cum coniuge dormiente, id est, petiit soporem, infusum etiam coniugis gremio. Alii ‘‘infusus’’ legunt, ut significetur coisse illos et sic sopitos, et volunt esse emphasin coitus: nam ‘‘infusum gremio soporem’’ nihil esse dicunt. Multi autem cacenphaton accipiunt, ne duo epitheta videantur ‘‘placidum’’ et ‘‘infusum.’’ Alii figurate accipiunt ‘‘placidam per membra’’ pro eo quod est placidum membris.

That is, he had intercourse before and so fell asleep. [Marcus Valerius] Probus [see above, IV.A.5] to be sure and also Carminius read infusum [with soporem, sleep] because of the obscene meaning [of infusus], as though the meaning were: he slept with his sleeping wife, that is, he sought sleep that was poured also into the lap of his wife. Others read infusus so as to signify that they had coitus and so went to sleep, and wish coitus to have emphasis: for they say that ‘‘sleep poured in the lap’’ means nothing. Many, however, accept illsounding usage, so that two attributes, placidum and infusum, will not seem [to be applied to soporem]. Others [to get around the possible obscenity of membra] take placidum per membra figuratively for ‘‘that which is peaceful for the limbs.’’ (MP) X. ALLEGORICAL TOPOI Here are catalogued examples of how Virgil’s work as a whole, or in individual parts, was treated to varied forms of allegorization.

X. ALLEGORICAL TOPOI

815

1. Evolution of Civilization a. Aelius Donatus, Vita Vergilii Donatus (see above, II.A.1) was the first to mention such a development in Virgil’s work. (Text: VSD 57, in VVA 45–46) 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.

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 . (DWO and JZ) b. Servius, Proemium to Commentary on the Eclogues (Text: Thilo-Hagen 3.1:3–4) Et dicit Donatus, quod etiam in poetae memoravimus vita, in scribendis carminibus naturalem ordinem secutum esse Vergilium: primo enim pastoralis fuit in montibus vita, post agriculturae amor, inde bellorum cura successit.

And [Aelius] Donatus tells something that we have also recalled in telling the poet’s life: that Virgil in writing his poems followed the order of nature, for life at first belonged to shepherds on mountainsides, afterward there followed love of agriculture, and then penchant for wars. (MP) c. Alexander Neckam See above, II.G.7; and below, V.A.6. The passage below is taken from Neckam’s Tractatus super mulierem fortem (Treatise on the Virtuous Woman), sometimes called simply Super mulierem fortem (On the Virtuous Woman), which exists in an early-thirteenth-century manuscript that may have been corrected by the author himself (Oxford, Jesus 816

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

College, MS 94, fol. 88rb). The title of the treatise alludes to Ecclesiasticus 26.2. (Text: R. W. Hunt, The Schools and the Cloister: The Life and Writings of Alexander Nequam [1157–1217], ed. M. Gibson [Oxford, 1984], 41 n. 34) Mantuanus vates bucolicum carmen gracili modulatus est avena; egressus silvis vicina coegit / ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono [see above, I.C.2] in Georgicis. In Eneide horrentia Martis [see above, I.C.2] arma descripsit. Stilorum vero trina varietas ethice et ethonomie et politice fideliter deserviunt.

The bard of Mantua sang his bucolic song on slender reed; having abandoned the woods, in the Georgics he compelled the neighboring fields to obey the farmer, however greedy. In the Aeneid he described the bristling arms of Mars. In fact, the triple diversity of his styles serves morality, shaping of character, and civic governance. (MP and JZ)

2. Vita contemplativa, voluptuosa, and activa (The Life of Contemplation, of Pleasure, of Action) VMA 117 n. 38 quotes a Venetian commentary on the Aeneid (Venice, Biblioteca nazionale Marciana, MS lat. xiii, 61 (4108), col. 3): Et sciendum est quod Vergilius considerans trinam vitam, scilicet contemplativam, voluptuosam et activam, opera tria conscripsit, scilicet Bucolicam per quam vitam contemplativam demonstrat, et Georgicam per quam vita voluptuosa intelligitur . . . et Aeneidos per quam datur intelligi vita activa.

And it must be understood that Virgil wrote his three works with the idea that life was tripartite, namely, given to contemplation, to pleasure, and to practicality, which is to say, the life of the Bucolics, which he shows to be contemplative; of the Georgics, through which is understood a life of pleasure . . . and of the Aeneid, by which we are given to understand the life of activity. (MP)

3. Development of a Human Life (Discussion: J. A. Burrow, The Ages of Man: A Study in Medieval Writing and Thought [Oxford, 1986], 115–20) a. Servius, Commentary on Aeneid 3.718: conticuit tandem factoque hic fine quievit (At last he ceased, and, here ending, took his rest) See above, IV.B.1. (Text: Thilo-Hagen 1:458) Nam singulis [libris] res singulas dedit, ut primo omina, secundo pathos, tertio errores, quarto ethos, quinto festivitatem, sexto scientiam.

For in individual [books] he dealt with individual matters, as in the first, omens; in the second, su√ering; in the third, wanderings; in the fourth, character; in the fifth, celebration; in the sixth, knowledge. (MP) X. ALLEGORICAL TOPOI

817

b. Fulgentius, Expositio Virgilianae continentiae See above, IV.F. The speaker is Virgil. (Text: Fulgentius, Opera, ed. R. Helm, Bibliotheca Teubneriana [Leipzig, 1898], 86–87) ‘‘In omnibus nostris opusculis physici ordinis argumenta induximus, quo per duodena librorum volumina pleniorem humanae vitae monstrassem statum. Denique ideo talem dicendi exordium sumpsimus: ‘Arma virumque cano’ [Aeneid 1.1], in armis virtutem, in viro sapientiam demonstrantes; omnis enim perfectio in virtute constat corporis et sapientia ingenii.’’

‘‘In each book of my poem I have introduced material of an allegorical nature, so as to display the entire course of human life in the twelve individual books. It is for this reason that I chose the opening line ‘Of arms and the man I sing,’ suggesting by ‘arms’ strength and by ‘man’ wisdom. For all perfection consists in bodily strength and intellectual wisdom.’’ (GH) c. (Pseudo-)Bernardus Silvestris, Commentum, praefatio 3 See above, IV.Q.1. d. John of Salisbury, Policraticus 8.24 See above, II.C.12, III.G.4; below, V.A.2. (Discussion: S. Lerer, ‘‘John of Salisbury’s Virgil,’’ Vivarium 20 [1982], 24–39; VME 130) (Text: John of Salisbury, Policratici sive De nugis curialium, ed. C. C. J. Webb [Oxford, 1909], 2:415–17) Si verbis gentilium uti licet Christiano, qui solis electis divinum et Deo placens per inhabitantem gratiam esse credit ingenium, etsi nec verba nec sensus credam gentilium fugiendos, dummodo vitentur errores, hoc ipsum divina prudentia in Eneide sua sub involucro fictitii commenti innuisse visus est Maro, dum sex etatum gradus sex librorum distinctionibus prudenter expressit. Quibus conditionis humanae, dum Odisseam imitatur, ortum exprimere visus est et processum, ipsumque, quem educit et provehit, producit et deducit ad manes. Nam Eneas, qui ibi fingitur animus, sic dictus eo quod est corporis habitator; ennos enim, ut Grecis placet, habitator est, demas corpus et ab his componitur Eneas ut significet animam quasi carnis tugurio habitantem. . . . Primus itaque liber Eneidos sub imagine naufragii manifestas infantiae, quae suis procellis agitatur, exponit tunsiones; et in fine suo habundantia cibi et potus adulta prosilit ad letitiam convivalem. In confinio ergo adolescentiae prodeunt colloquiorum commercia, et eorum intemperies aut fabulas narrat aut veris falsa permiscet, eo quod multiloquio peccata deesse non possunt. Porro tertius varios iuventutis quasi suos canit errores; eo quod illa etas fere solos novit errores. . . . Prima ergo etas nu-

818

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

tricem, secunda custodem habet, tertia quo liberior, eo facilius errat, nondum tamen procedit ad crimina. Quarta illicitos amores conciliat et ignem imprudenter conceptum in pectore ad amantis infelicem producit rogum. . . . Quinta maturitatem civilem promit, et etatem depingit vicinam senectuti, immo quae ipsam iam ingreditur senectutem. . . . Dum vero hinc egreditur, transit ad sextum et amissis Palinuro et Miseno, duce scilicet navigii dormitante et temerarii praelii incentore, cum iam frigescat affectus viresque deficiant, non tam senectutem sentit quam senium et velut quendam descensum ad inferos, ubi quasi rebus inutiliter gestis totius anteactae vitae recognoscat errores et discat alia via incedendum esse his qui volunt ad dulces Laviniae complexus et fatale regnum Italiae quasi ad quondam arcem beatitudinis pervenire. Constat enim apud eos qui mentem diligentius perscrutantur auctorum Maronem geminae doctrinae vires declarasse, dum vanitate figmenti poetici philosophicae virtutis involuit archana.

If the words of pagans may be employed by the Christian who believes that a nature divine and pleasing to God because of the grace inherent in it can belong to the elect alone—although I do not think that either the words or the thoughts of the pagans are to be shunned provided their errors are avoided— Virgil in the Aeneid seems to have been by divine wisdom given a hint of this very fact. Under the mantle of poetic imagination Virgil seems to have hinted at this very fact by divine wisdom, when he sagaciously expresses the six steps by the six divisions of his books. In these, in imitation of the Odyssey, he appears to have represented the origin and progress of man. The character he sets forth and develops he leads on and conducts down into the nether world. For Aeneas, who therein represents the soul, is so named for the reason that it is a dweller in the body, for ennos, according to the Greeks, is ‘‘dweller,’’ and demas ‘‘body.’’ And from these two elements the name Aeneas is formed, to signify life dwelling, as it were, in a hut of flesh. . . . The first book of the Aeneid then, under the figure of a shipwreck, sets forth the manifest tribulations of childhood, which is shaken by its own tempests; and at the termination of the period the abundance of food and drink of manhood is proclaimed through the gaiety of the banquet. On the confines of boyhood, then, conversation facilitates the interchange of ideas, and its freedom from restraint either tells stories or mixes false things with true for the reason that a multitude of words cannot lack sin. The third book sings the varied errors of youth, which, as it were, belong to it because that age knows almost nothing but error. . . . The first period, then, has its nurse; the second, its guardian; the third, the freer it is, the more easily it is led astray—but not yet so far as to commit crime. The fourth period introduces illicit love and fans the flame unwisely lit within his X. ALLEGORICAL TOPOI

819

heart, to kindle the pyre for his ill-fated lover. . . . The fifth period brings with it civic maturity and represents the period that is adjacent to old age, nay, that is already entering it. . . . As he emerges from this he enters the sixth period and su√ers the loss of Palinurus and Misenus, the pilot who fell asleep and the one who provoked a rash conflict. Since by now his emotions are numbed and his powers waning, he experiences not so much old age itself as its decay and, as it were, a descent to the lower world, to review there the errors of his past life, as though all his achievements had come to naught. He learns there that another way must be traveled by those who wish to attain the fond embraces of Lavinia and the destined kingdom of Italy as a sort of citadel of blessedness. It is agreed by those who devote their activities to the investigation of the meaning of authors that Virgil has evinced his power in a double field by wrapping the mysteries of philosophic virtue in the illusion of poetic fancy. (MP) e. Dante, Convivio 4.26 See above, I.C.53. (Text: Dante Alighieri, Il convivio, ed. F. B. Ageno [Florence, 1995]) Virgil, our greatest poet, shows that Aeneas was unrestrained in this way in that part of the Aeneid in which this age of life is allegorized, the part comprising the fourth, fifth, and sixth books of the Aeneid. How great was his restraint when, having experienced so much pleasure with Dido, as will be recounted below in the seventh book [of the Convivio, never published], and having derived from her so much gratification, he took his departure from her to follow an honorable, praiseworthy, and profitable path, as is recorded in the fourth book of the Aeneid. What goading was felt when this same Aeneas mustered the courage to enter into hell alone with the Sibyl in search of the soul of his father Anchises, in the face of so many perils, as is described in the sixth book of the same history. From this it is evident that for us to achieve perfection in the age of maturity it is necessary to be ‘‘strong and self-restrained’’ [see also Aeneid 6.236–94, especially 261]. This is what goodness of nature accomplishes and demonstrates, as the text expressly states. Moreover, it is necessary to be loving in this age of life for it to attain its perfection, because it is appropriate for it to look backward and forward, like something that lies on the meridian circle. It is appropriate for one to love one’s elders, from whom one has received being, nurture, and education, so as not to seem ungrateful. It is appropriate for one to love one’s juniors, so that by loving them it may give them some of its benefits by which it may later, when its prosperity diminishes, derive support and

820

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

honor from them. This is the love, as the previously named poet shows in the fifth book mentioned above, that Aeneas had when he left the aged Trojans behind in Sicily, entrusting them to the care of Acestes, and released them from their labors, and when in this same site he prepared his young son Ascanius, along with the other youths, for tournament games [see also Aeneid 5.700–18, 746–61]. From this it is evident that love is necessary in this age of life, as the text states. Moreover, it is necessary in this age of life to be courteous, for although courteous manners are becoming in all ages of life, in this age they are especially necessary, because [in adolescence absence of courtesy readily deserves to be excused because of tenderness of age, and because] conversely in old age courtesy is not possible by reason of the seriousness and sternness which it is required to show; and still more so in senility. Our most exalted poet shows in the sixth book previously mentioned that Aeneas had this courtesy when he says that King Aeneas, to honor the lifeless body of Misenus, who had been Hector’s trumpeter and had afterward placed himself in Aeneas’s trust, made preparations and took up his ax to help hew the wood for the fire that would be used to burn the body, in keeping with their custom [Aeneid 6.162–79, 177–83]. From this it is quite evident that courtesy is necessary in maturity, and therefore the noble soul displays it in that age of life, as has been said. Moreover, it is necessary in this age of life to be loyal. Loyalty consists of following and putting into practice what the laws decree, and this is especially appropriate in one who is mature; for an adolescent, as has been said, readily deserves to be excused because of tenderness of age; an elder ought to be just by reason of his greater experience, and he ought to conduct himself in a just manner, not as a follower of the law, except insofar as his own right judgment and the law are virtually in conformity, but almost independently of any law, which someone just at the age of maturity cannot do. It should suffice for him to follow the law and to take delight in following it, as the previously cited poet in the above-mentioned fifth book says that Aeneas did when he held the games in Sicily on the anniversary of his father’s death, for he loyally awarded to each victor what he had promised for victory, according to their long-standing custom, which was their law [Aeneid 5.42–603]. From this it is evident that in this age of life loyalty, courtesy, love, courage, and temperance are necessary, as the text presently under discussion states; and therefore the soul that is noble displays all of these virtues. (Dante’s Il Convivio [The Banquet], trans. R. H. Lansing [New York, 1990], 226–28)

X. ALLEGORICAL TOPOI

821

4. Physics and Philosophy a. Servius, Comment on Georgics 2.325–26 See above, IV.B. The lines in question are: Tum pater omnipotens fecundis imbribus Aether coniugis in gremium laetae descendit. . . .

Then Heaven, the almighty father, descends with fertile showers into the lap of his happy consort . . . (Text: Thilo-Hagen 3.1:246) Interdum pro aere Iuno, pro aethere Iuppiter ponitur; aliquotiens et pro aere et pro aethere Iuppiter, Iuno vero pro terra et aqua: sicut hoc loco intelligimus; nam aether non habet pluvias.

At times Juno is in place of air, Jupiter of the ether; on several occasions Jupiter is in place both of air and of the ether, but Juno of earth and water: thus we understand this passage, for the ether does not have rain. (MP) Lactantius (see above, III.C.1) quotes Georgics 2.324–27 in Divinae institutiones 1.5.11 to explain the indwelling divinity in nature. b. Servius, Comment on Aeneid 2.296–97: Vestam (Vesta) See above, IV.B. The lines in question are: Sic ait et manibus vittas Vestamque potentem aeternumque adytis effert penetralibus ignem.

So he speaks and in his hands brings forth from the inner shrine the fillets, great Vesta, and the undying fire. (Text: Thilo-Hagen 1:268) Deam ignis, quae, ut supra diximus, terra est: quod in medio mundo librata vi sua stet et ignem intra se habeat.

The goddess of fire, which, as we said above [on 1.292], is earth: which is such that it stands balanced by its own might in the midst of the world and contains fire within it. (MP) c. Servius, Comment on Aeneid 6.264–67 See above, IV.B. The lines in question are: Di, quibus imperium est animarum, umbraeque silentes et Chaos et Phlegethon, loca nocte tacentia late, sit mihi fas audita loqui, sit numine vestro pandere res alta terra et caligine mersas. 822

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

Gods, whose dominion is over spirits, and you, silent shades; and you, Chaos and Phlegethon, wide, soundless wastes of darkness, allow me to tell what I have heard. Allow me, by your divine approval, to reveal matters sunk deep in earth and darkness. (Text: Thilo-Hagen 2:45–46) ‘‘Di, quibus imperium est animarum’’: plenus locus alta sapientia. De qua varie disserunt philosophi . . . sciens ergo de deorum imperio varias esse opiniones, prudentissime tenuit generalitatem. ‘‘Umbraeque silentes’’: . . . invocat autem summum bonum, quod in silentio constare manifestum est. ‘‘et Chaos’’: elementorum confusio. Invocat autem rerum primordia, quae in elementorum fuerunt confusione. Per Phlegethonta, inferorum fluvium, ignem significat . . . unde secundum Heraclitum cuncta procreantur. ‘‘Alta terra et caligine mersas’’: bene iunxit, ex terris enim caligo procreatur, id est, umbra.

‘‘Gods, whose dominion is over spirits’’: the passage is steeped in lofty wisdom. Philosophers discuss this from a variety of angles. . . . Knowing therefore the various opinions about the rule of the gods, he held himself to generalities, with the utmost prudence. ‘‘Silent shades’’: he addresses the highest good, which it is clear exists in silence. ‘‘And Chaos’’: the swirl of the elements. He also addresses the first beginnings of things, which existed in the swirl of the elements. By Phlegethon, the river of the underworld, he signifies fire . . . whence according to Heraclitus all things are created. ‘‘Sunk deep in the earth and darkness’’: he has made a good connection, for darkness, that is, shade, is created from earth. (MP) d. Augustine, De civitate Dei 4.10 See above, I.C.31. (Text and translation: Augustine, City of God, vol. 2, ed. and trans. W. M. Green, LCL 412 [1963]) Cur illi etiam Iuno uxor adiungitur quae dicatur ‘‘soror et coniunx’’? [Aeneid 1.47] Quia Iovem, inquiunt, in aethere accipimus, in aere Iunonem, et haec duo elementa coniuncta sunt, alterum superius, alterum inferius.

Why is a wife, Juno, also joined to him [Jupiter] to be called his ‘‘sister and spouse’’? Because, they say, we understand Jupiter to be in the ether and Juno in the air, and these two elements are joined together, the one above, the other beneath.

5. Eclogues 1–3 and the Three Natural Lives In Expositio Virgilianae continentiae Fulgentius (see above, IV.F) remarks (Text: Fulgentius, Opera, ed. R. Helm, Bibliotheca Teubneriana [Leipzig, 1898], 83): X. ALLEGORICAL TOPOI

823

Denique in prima egloga, secunda et tertia phisice trium vitarum reddidit continentiam.

In short, in Eclogues 1, 2, and 3, he has shown in what the three natural lives consist. (MP) Fulgentius glosses this statement at Mitologiae (Mythologies) 2.1 (Text: Fulgentius, Opera, ed. R. Helm, Bibliotheca Teubneriana [Leipzig, 1898], 36): Philosophi tripertitam humanitatis voluerunt vitam, ex quibus primam theoreticam, secundam practicam, tertiam filargicam voluerunt, quas nos Latine contemplativam, activam, voluptariam nuncupamus. . . .

Philosophers have outlined a threefold life for mankind, by which they mean first, the life of speculation; second, the practical life; and third, the sensual— which we call in Latin the contemplative, the active, the luxurious. . . . (MP)

824

I V. C O M M E N T A R Y T R A D I T I O N

V VIRGILIAN LEGENDS

In the first half millennium of the Christian era, Virgil became the cornerstone of the Latin-based educational program that enabled the Roman empire and the Christian Church to function administratively in the West. In a world in which auctoritas (authority) rested upon the ability to parse and cite the words of auctores (authors) who were important in the school curriculum, he was preeminent. The triad of the Eclogues, the Georgics, and especially the Aeneid was revered as an encyclopedia of knowledge about the verbal arts and physical sciences, and the first six books of the Aeneid in particular were regarded additionally as a repository of moral wisdom. Heightening Virgil’s reputation for extraordinary and even uncanny understanding, the fourth Eclogue came to be seen as demonstrating his foreknowledge of Christianity: much like the Sibyls, Virgil was believed to have prophesied the birth of Christ. A major transition in Virgil’s reputation took place at the latest in the twelfth century. A man who had been respected previously on the basis of his writings for a seemingly boundless knowledge of words, nature, and human beings was now credited with supernatural knowledge and powers. No longer merely the poet and scholar par excellence, Virgil gained a reputation as a magician and an astrologer. Clerics such as Conrad of Querfurt (about 1196) and Gervase of Tilbury (in the second decade of the thirteenth century) record legends that associate Virgil with enchanted statues, archeological remains, and unusual topographical features of Naples and its environs, attributing to

him the abilities of a sorcerer to control the natural world. According to the legends, Virgil created bronze statues that protected the people and animals of Naples from all manner of misfortunes. Sources that associate Virgil with Naples are abundant from the middle of the twelfth century. In addition to Conrad (Con) and Gervase (Gerv), names and works to be mentioned include not only Latin authors such as Alexander of Telese (AT), John of Salisbury (JS), and Alexander Neckam (AN) but also (to mention only one of many) the Italian Cronaca di Partenope (Chronicle of Naples: Cronaca). The following tabulation lists the various Neapolitan wonders ascribed to Virgil (the tabulations below incorporate corrections to those produced first by K. L. Roth [1859] and reprinted later in VV 752):

AT Virgil’s bones Controlling Vesuvius Therapeutic baths Meat preservation Serpent Gate Fly of bronze Marvelous garden Magic tunnel Magic gate Wind reduction Horse of bronze City in a glass bottle City walls of Naples Magic bridge Miracle of the leeches Salvation of Rome Cicada/Cricket of copper Plentiful fish Carbonara game Adviser of Marcellus Waterworks Four dead heads Chiron’s book

X

JS

Con

Gerv

X

X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X X X

AN

Cronaca

X

X X X X

X X X

X

X X X

X X X X X X X X

Domenico Comparetti, in his enormously influential VMA, argued that the Neapolitan connection in these legends signaled their origins: the stories were city legends that arose in Naples and spread from there. This theory has at least

826

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

three drawbacks. First, the Neapolitan legends are not attested in a Neapolitan source until the fourteenth century; second, the early documentation is among literati, mainly English and German, rather than among allegedly oral sources; and third, other early informants connect the magician Virgil not with Naples but with Rome. At approximately the same time as Conrad and Gervase, a French Cistercian monk named John of Alta Silva (Hauteseille) in France wrote the Dolopathos (also known as De rege et septem sapientibus [On the King and the Seven Sages]), the earliest surviving version of the frame tale known as the Seven Sages of Rome. In John’s Latin prose text, Virgil is presented as a very famous poet who is brought from Rome to Sicily to serve as tutor to Lucinius, the son of King Dolopathos. Virgil instructs the boy in all seven liberal arts, with particular attention to astrology and with use of a book that compresses all knowledge into a single volume. Eventually Virgil departs, enjoining upon the boy that he not speak until they see each other again. Lucinius is soon in peril, since his stepmother accuses him of rape and he is unable to defend himself because of the command to be silent. But his life is spared as a succession of seven sages—culminating in Virgil himself—appears each day to tell a tale and to win a temporary stay of his execution. Eventually Virgil denounces the stepmother and clears Lucinius of the unjust accusation. John was hardly alone in connecting Virgil not with Naples, but with Rome. Other authors and texts in this group include Helinand of Froidmont’s largely lost Chronicon (as reported by Vincent of Beauvais: see V.F.1), the Gesta Romanorum, and Jans Enikel. Some of the motifs touched upon by these sources are identical with those associated with Naples:

Therapeutic baths Meat preservation Fly of bronze Marvelous garden Salvation of Rome

Helinand

John

X X X X X

X

Gesta

Jans

Among the old familiars is the report that Virgil bestowed upon Rome an elaborate park of automated statuary that would alert the Romans to uprisings in even the farthest-flung regions of their vast empire. But other motifs—and the following table is only partial—are new:

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

827

Helinand Movable belltower Ever-burning fire Automaton guardian Statue in Rome Virgil in the basket

John

Gesta

Jans

X X X X X

Whether the tales originated in Naples, Rome, or elsewhere, they confirm that Virgil had passed from being a man of letters to being a legendary figure, even quasi-mythical, like Daedalus in Greco-Roman or Weland in Germanic myth, who possessed magical powers as a craftsman. He constructed wondrous buildings, gardens, and baths, and he had a distinctive aptitude for constructing bronze figures and automata that granted protection or special advantages to the cities and regions he favored. The latitude with which such materials circulated may be gauged from their possible appearance in an early Hebrew tale. (Discussion: D. Flusser, ‘‘Virgil the Magician in an Early Hebrew Tale,’’ Florilegium: Carleton University Annual Papers on Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages 7 [1985], 145–54) If the Virgil of the legends has a tragic flaw, it is tied up with women. John of Alta Silva portrays Virgil as a misogynist who prevails over the wickedness of one powerful woman. Another legend, attested first in a Middle High German poem and later in many di√erent languages, presents Virgil as having provided Rome with a device—the bocca della verità (mouth of truth: see V.B.6), which has been located in the vestibule of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin since 1632—that enabled men to test the chastity of women. But the most widespread legend of Virgil and a treacherous woman—the legend of Virgil in the basket—shows that even the greatest of sages could be tricked by a woman, as had been men of the Bible such as Adam, Samson, and Solomon, or a philosopher of classical antiquity such as Aristotle. This motif is paired with another legend, that of Virgil’s revenge, which relates how Virgil humiliates the woman who humiliated him. (Discussion: see especially VN 208–27; and C. Riessner, ‘‘Bocca della verità,’’ in Enzyklopädie des Märchens, 2 [Berlin, 1979], cols. 543–45) In the late Middle Ages many authors, drawing sometimes on written and sometimes on oral sources, formed long concatenations of legends about Virgil. In addition to the Cronaca di Partenope, writers of universal histories incorporate sections on the life, writings, and deeds of Virgil that interweave the standard biographical information about the poet with the newer legends about the magician and misogynist. A freestanding Life of Vergilius that does 828

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

not even once mention Virgil’s credentials as a poet enjoyed wide circulation in various vernacular languages in early modern printed books. Such stories may have no explicit connection with the ‘‘real’’ Virgil and his poetry, but they belong to the picture of Virgil as he was understood in the Middle Ages and early modernity. However peculiar it may seem today, it is likely that by the thirteenth century more people would have known of Virgil the necromancer than of Virgil the poet. (JZ) A. VIRGIL THE MAGICIAN The chief modern discussions are VMA and VN. (See also above, II.F.11.)

1. Sortes Vergilianae (Virgilian Lots) (last decade of fourth century) Domenico Comparetti’s VMA has strongly influenced our understanding of the Virgilian tradition since its publication in the nineteenth century. At one point (pp. 47–48) Comparetti makes a statement that has had a powerful afterlife: ‘‘Already under the Antonines we find the custom, practised even by the emperor, of enquiring the future by opening at random a volume of Virgil; these so-called ‘sortes Vergilianae’ were consulted by Hadrian no less than by many of his successors, and continued to be popular throughout the middle ages.’’ The picture Comparetti evokes is a vivid one. According to him, from at least the second century on Virgil’s texts, because they were considered compendia of all knowledge, were also used in oracular or prophetic fashion, to predict the future. Verse or verses were chosen (presumably) at random and interpreted as responses to the questions put to them. Despite the sweep of Comparetti’s generalization, the evidence in VMA on ‘‘Virgilian lots’’ is exclusively pre- and postmedieval. The first reference to them seems to be in the Historia Augusta, supposed biographies (hence historia) of the second and third centuries (see above, II.F.1.e): in the Vita Hadriani (Life of Hadrian) 2.8, Hadrian is reported to have opened to Aeneid 6.808–12. Similar references to the sortes appear in the vita of Clodius Albinus (5.4), where the emperor is supposed to have consulted the text of Virgil while in the temple of Apollo at Cumae (Aeneid 6.857–58); in that of ‘‘Alexander Severus’’ (4.6), where the emperor resorts to Virgilian lots in the temple of Fortuna Primigenia at Praeneste (modern Palestrina; Aeneid 6.882–83); and in the vita of Claudius (10.4–7), where the emperor in question turns to Virgilian lots three times in the Apennines (Aeneid 1.265, 1.278, 6.669). For the humanist period, VMA references a passage in François Rabelais (died 1553). As far as the Historia Augusta is concerned, scholarly consensus now holds A. VIRGIL THE MAGICIAN

829

that the text is the work of a single author who worked in the last decade of the fourth century. This author’s attestations of the ‘‘Virgilian lots’’ may reflect the practices of the emperors and times to which he ascribes them. Alternatively, they may be a retrojection of a custom current in his own day, rather than earlier. Last but not least, they may represent deliberate fabrications on his part that reflect the realities of neither the author’s own times nor preceding ones. In the absence of any medieval evidence for the practice, it seems likely that the many mentions in Rabelais and other authors of the early sixteenth century and beyond are evidence of either a new classicizing practice modeled on sortes biblicae (biblical lots), a form of divination that is securely attested from late antiquity on, or what was felt to be a revival of the practice apparently documented in the Historia Augusta. (For older scholarship, see W. Suerbaum ANRW 2/31.1 [1980], 318. More recent: R. Ganszyniec, ‘‘De sortibus vergilianis,’’ Eos 33 [1930], 179–86; R. Hamilton, ‘‘Fatal Texts: The Sortes Vergilianae,’’ Classical and Modern Literature 13 [1993], 309–36; and P. Katz, ‘‘The Sortes Vergilianae: Fact and Fiction,’’ Classical and Modern Literature 14 [1994], 245–58. Additional references to modern contexts: B. Arkins, ‘‘A Further Note on the Sortes Vergilianae,’’ Classical and Modern Literature 14 [1994], 241–43; and D. A. Slater, Sortes Vergilianae; or, Vergil and To-day [Oxford, 1922].) (MP and JZ)

2. John of Salisbury See above, II.C.12; III.G.4; IV.X.3.d. John of Salisbury provides the first documentation of Virgil the magician, often called Virgil the necromancer, whose attraction to literati of the twelfth century, especially in England and Germany, can be detected in the Apocalypsis Goliae (see below, V.B.1), Alexander Neckam (see below, V.A.6), Conrad of Querfurt (see below, V.A.4), Wolfram von Eschenbach (see below, V.A.7), Gervase of Tilbury (see below, V.A.5), and others. At Policraticus 1.4 John describes a fly created by Virgil that, when placed on the walls of Naples, prevented all flies from entering the city. The spelling of Naples in this passage—Eneapolis—could help to explain the strong associations between Virgil as a magician and automata and such made of bronze, because of the close resemblance between the adjective aeneus, -a, -um (bronze) and the proper noun Aeneas. (Text: C. C. J. Webb, ed. [Oxford, 1909], 1.26) (MP and JZ) Fertur vates Mantuanus interrogasse Marcellum, cum depopulationi avium vehementius operam daret, an avem mallet instrui in capturam avium an muscam informari in exterminationem muscarum. Cum vero quaestionem ad avunculum retulisset Augustum, consilio eius praeelegit ut fieret musca, quae ab Eneapoli muscas abigeret, et civitatem a peste insanabili liberaret. 830

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

The Mantuan seer is said to have asked Marcellus, when he was enthusiastically engaged with the killing o√ of birds, whether he would prefer that a bird be produced to help capture birds or a fly be fashioned for the extermination of flies. When in fact he had put the question before his uncle Augustus, on his advice Marcellus chose that a fly be made that would drive flies from Naples and would free the city from an incurable pest. (MP)

3. John of Alta Silva, Dolopathos (1184) John was a monk of Alta Silva (Haute-Seille) in Lorraine. His Latin prose work, entitled De rege et septem sapientibus (On the King and the Seven Sages: extant in at least ten manuscripts), is usually called Dolopathos. It is the earliest Western version in the Seven Sages cycle. In John’s text, the story takes place at the time of Emperor Augustus, when supposedly a king named Dolopathos ruled Sicily. John dedicated his work, completed in 1184, to Bishop Bertrand of Metz (1180–1212). John’s composition was translated into Old French octosyllabic verse by an otherwise unknown Herbert, who o√ered it to King Louis VIII of France (1187–1226). This form goes by the name Roman de Dolopathos. The three sections of the text that involve Virgil are o√ered here. The first relates how the young Lucinius (son of King Dolopathos) came to be entrusted to the tutelage of Virgil, how and what he learned from Virgil, and how he parted from Virgil under the injunction not to speak until they saw each other again. In the second Virgil reappears just as Lucinius is about to be executed at the urging of his wicked stepmother, who has falsely accused him of rape. In the third the narrator tells about the saving of Lucinius by Virgil as well as about the deaths of Dolopathos and Virgil. The Dolopathos holds special interest for its fusion of Virgil the poet with Virgil the magician, which recurs in Helinand of Froidmont, Vincent of Beauvais (for both, see below, V.F.1), Walter Burley (V.F.4), and John of Wales (see below, V.F.2), as well as in Vita Monacensis II and III (see above, II.A.25–26). It o√ers a wild mix of astrology and magic with grammar and the other liberal arts. For broader contextual information on the Dolopathos, see the general introduction to this part, above. (Discussion: J. Ziolkowski, ‘‘Vergil as Shahrazad: How an Eastern Frame Tale was Authorized in the West,’’ in Studies for Dante: Essays in Honor of Dante Della Terza, ed. F. Fido, R. A. Syska-Lamparska, and P. D. Stewart [Florence, 1998], 25–36) (Text: John of Alta Silva, Historia septem sapientum, vol. 2, ed. A. Hilka, Sammlung mittellateinischer Texte 5 [Heidelberg, 1913]) (JZ) a. Lucinius under the Tutelage of Virgil (Text: Hilka, 13–23) Inter convivantes autem dum mutuo de puero loquerentur, quibus videA. VIRGIL THE MAGICIAN

831

licet magistris et tutoribus deberet committi instruendus, ad memoriam regis revocata est quedam Platonis sententia, qua ait felicem fore rem publicam, si philosophi regnarent vel reges philosopharentur. Ex cuius occasione sententie bonum visum est regi et omnibus ut philosopho traderetur erudiendus artibus quas liberales vocant, ut videlicet per artes documentaque virorum prudentium, per regum et nobilium gesta, que in libris conscripta sunt, et se et subditos facilius regere posset et inimicorum suorum insidias precavere. Florebat per idem tempus Rome ille famosissimus poeta Virgilius, qui de Manthua, Sicilie civitate, oriundus optime notus erat regi, quia et sepe fuerat ab eo muneribus honoratus. Huic ergo ob noticiam sui et quia tunc temporis inter philosophos precipuus habebatur, cum muneribus magnis pater transmittit filium, obsecrans eum per deos suos quatinus puerum et sciencia sua instrueret et a malignorum insidiis diligentius custodiret. Timebat enim pater ne aliquid sinistri per invidiam pateretur, quia hoc a divinis et astrorum peritis acceperat. At Virgilius ob reverenciam et amiciciam regis puerum recipiens primo quidem ei litterarum tradidit elementa ac deinde blandiendo leniendoque, ut moris est magistrorum, sillabam ex litteris conficere et ex sillabis formare dictionem et ex dictionibus vero perficere orationem eum in angustia temporis perdocuit. Sicque paulatim proficiens puer iam per se et legere et utramque linguam, Grecam videlicet et Latinam, proferre cepit. Letabatur Virgilius et tantam in puero velocitatem ingenii mirabatur spemque de eo concipiens meliorem ampliorem ei curam impendebat. Puer vero animum dictis magistri accomodans, qui naturaliter elegantis erat ingenii, quicquid semel audisset subtili statim ingenio intellectum vivaci memorie commendabat, nec opus erat ei secundo super hoc requirere preceptorem. Unde factum est, ut infra unius anni circulum consocios suos qui eum et etate precedebant iamque quinquennio vel septennio sub disciplina fuerant magistrorum, transscenderet rogaretque Virgilium quatinus eum altioribus instruere dignaretur. Ipse vero videns in eo infanti abolitam ruditatem iamque habilem fore ad percipiendum artium disciplinam, eius libenter annuit voluntati. Ob dilectionem igitur ipsius earumdem artium liberalium immensam prolixitatem in tantam brevitatem quadam mirabili et ineffabili subtilitate contraxit ingenii, ut eas intra libelluli manualis compendium concluderet possetque eas quivis in tribus annis facile ad perfectum addiscere quas ipse vix cum magno eciam sudore percipere valuisset. Hunc autem libellum nulli unquam vel hora una concedere voluit, non magistro, non discipulo, sed nec ipsi principi orbis Augusto nisi tantum Lucinio cuius

832

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

profectui incumbebat. Huic ad cuius utilitatem ipsum ediderat, tradidit eundem, ei in conclavi et seorsum ab aliis in eodem de artibus amicabiliter disserens. Et primo quidem ei gramaticam que prima est et mater artium exposuit; quam ipse cum tanta velocitate comprehendit, ut ipse eciam Virgilius miraretur. Dehinc ad dialeticam ventum est, in qua quantum acuti fuerit ingenii mirum dictu est. Nullus enim eo exercitatorum eciam magistrorum in opponendis questionibus callidior, nullus facilior in solvendis. Inde ad florigeros rethorice campos transivit, ex qua venustatem eloquii integre comparavit. Hiis igitur tribus ad plenum adeptis ad reliquas quatuor, quas quadrivium vocamus, migravit easque non cum multo labore comprehendit dicebatque harum ultimam astronomiam scilicet fore ceteris digniorem; cui eciam in tantum animum dedit, ut per quasdam regulas sibi a Virgilio traditas ex planetarum aliarumque stellarum motu et aeris facie cognosceret quicquid per mundum fieret universum. Quod didicisse multum ei profuit, ut in sequentibus monstrabitur. Postquam igitur Lucinius omnium artium ex integro consecutus est scienciam, libros quoque poetarum ac philosophorum ab eodem Virgilio non omisit audire. Extunc itaque et deinceps ad altiorem philosophiam oculum mentis dirigens nomen magnorum philosophorum sortitus est et honorem, non tamen sine multorum invidia. Invidebant enim ei quam plurimum qui ad summam sciencie eius perspicacitatem pertingere non valebant dolebantque puerulo reverentiam exhiberi, que sibi senibus negabantur. Unde et eum veneno vel alio aliquo modo extinguere cogitabant, sed eorum maliciam terror Virgilii et regalis prosapie auctoritas aliquantulum refrenabat. Verum cum invidia suum semper possideat et torqueat possessorem nec eum vel momento quiescere patiatur, non potuit illorum odium quod germinabat et stimulabat invidia, diutius cohiberi, quin eo dolo ad convivium invitato vino venenum admiscerent. Quod tamen eum non latuit, quia iam antea hoc ipsum et eorum erga se malivolenciam per predictas regulas cognoverat. Verumtamen hec callide ignorare se simulans aiebat invitantibus non decere nec debere tantum tantorumque convivium absque Virgilio et Romanorum nobilibus celebrari; si veniret ille, eorum quidem munificentiam gratanter reciperet, paratus eciam, cum oportunum foret, eorum vicem rependere largitati; ceterum autem sine Virgilio suo, cum fidei sue commissus esset et magisterii eius virgam supra modum pertimesceret, se non posse sed nec audere quicquam vel modicum facere affirmabat. Hiis et huiusmodi auditis illi contenebrati in malicia sua invitant Virgilium, vocant eciam aliquos Romanorum cives, parvipendentes si et isti illo potu letifero deficerent, tantummodo ne Lucinius manus eorum veneficas evaderet. A. VIRGIL THE MAGICIAN

833

Instructo igitur convivio discumbunt singuli secundum etatum vel dignitatum differentiam, Virgilio tamen utpote honorabiliori quem honorare omnibus a Cesare preceptum erat, primum locum convivii tenente. Ille vero qui invitaverat quique caput malicie erat cum quibusdam aliis ministrabat. Apponuntur convivantibus supra numerum fercula, diversa pigmentorum genera propinantur et cum magna leticia et habundantia convivium celebratur. Interim autem Lucinius regulas suas animo revolvens expectabat, quando potus ille quem sibi miscuerant deferretur. Dum ergo perageretur convivium refectique essent convive omnibus que ad esum humana excogitari possunt arte, ecce ille pestifer, tortuosus serpens, quem caput malicie vocavi aureum poculum magne capacitatis attulit plenum morte posuitque ante Virgilium. Statimque nares discumbentium quadam suavitate odoris capiuntur, irritantur ad bibendum appetitus singulorum. Iam singuli potum letiferum postulabant iamque Virgilio porrigebatur, cum Lucinius poculum rapiens manuque cunctis silencium indicens: ‘‘Vereor,’’ ait, ‘‘ne ista suavitas aliquod contineat amarum, quia apis cum melle gerit aculeum et piscator hamum in esca iacit piscibus capiendis.’’ Illi autem, quos cauteriata redarguebat consciencia, ad hec verba ‘‘rubore perfusi’’ satis secundum poetam [compare Ovid, Amores 3.3.5], vultu et colore actum criminis fatebantur. Attamen dissimulare et respondere aliquid temptantes aiebant regis filium non equas sibi obsequium prestantibus referre gracias, qui tale verbum licet ioculariter in medium protulisset. At ille: ‘‘Ex hoc,’’ inquit, ‘‘probabitur vos ad hoc verbum quod non iocans, sed iratus protuli immunes esse meque ac socios bono ac simplici animo invitatos, si primi biberitis ex potu; alioquin per patris Cesarisque salutem vite nostre contraria machinati estis.’’ Quid agerent, quo se verterent, quid ad obiecta responderent? Undique eis angustie, undique coartatio spiritus, undique desperatio salutis. Videbant enim sibi duo proposita, quorum unum vitare non poterant, mori videlicet aut bibere. Sed quid ex duobus eligerent, ignorabant; sciebant enim quia etsi biberent moriendum sibi esset, sin autem, ut malefici Cesari traderentur diversis tormentorum generibus cruciandi. Melius tamen rati propria deficere manu quam aliorum ludibrio subiacere. ‘‘In hoc,’’ inquiunt, ‘‘scies, o Lucini, nos nichil tibi mali vel consedentibus fuisse machinatos, si post sumptum hoc pigmentum tribus supervixerimus diebus.’’ Sumptoque qui detulerat poculo bibit ac deinde participibus sceleris sui tradidit ebibendum. Qui biberunt et secundum dictum sapientis [Proverbs 26.27] in foveam quam foderant aliis incidentes statim in ipso convivio oculis a capite exilientibus expirarunt. Sicque illustris puer sua industria se 834

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

et suos a morte liberans in emulos callide vindicavit nomenque sibi celebre apud nobiles et ignobiles acquisivit, nec ultra ausus est quispiam contra eum sinistri aliquid machinari, sed nec cogitare quidem, omnibus divinitatem ei inesse putantibus, per quam haberet prescienciam futurorum. Ipse autem cum tantus esset tantusque estimaretur ab hominibus paremque eum sibi in omni facultate Virgilius predicaret, nunquam tamen ei consedere voluit vel equari, sed semper sub virga eius et disciplina mansit, ac si tunc primum elementa disceret litterarum. Unde ex hoc maxime eius humilitas comprobatur, quia cum ipse procere stature esset, Virgilius vero pusille, ambulans vel stans cum magistro incurvato contracto corpore erat, ne altior eo vel prestantior videretur. Peracto itaque Lucinius sub disciplina Virgilii septennio, cum iam in artium seu philosophie sciencia nulli secundus videretur, contigit ut quadam die Virgilio ad deducendum corpus egresso ipse solus in cubiculo remaneret seratoque ostio in libello illo conscripto de artibus legeret, astronomie regulas tenatius commendans memorie, cum subita animi mutatione turbatus ingenti clamore emisso in terram corruit resupinus. Voce ergo tanti doloris audita perterrita concurrit familia, convolant vicinarum domorum viri ac mulieres, quid acciderit quidve tantus clamor significet queritantes moreque suo impatientes seris ostii confractis cum impetu irrumpunt cubiculum videntque Lucinium super pavimenta iacere exanimem. Propius ergo accedentes palpant singula corporis menbra inveniuntque rigida, caloris totius ac sensibilitatis carentia, nisi quod tantum circa cor calor permodicus pulsusque tenuissimus sentiebatur. Aderat tunc forte inter alios quidam medicinalis artis peritus, qui intelligens ex tristicia defectum animi fieri suffocarique spiritum intra cor sanguine undique coagulato inclusum iubet ut sibi celerius aqua frigida ac calida deferatur. Qua adlata extrema menbrorum perfundit frigida calidamque lane infusam in modum emplastri pectori coadaptat ut videlicet aqualis elementi calor sanguinem coagulatum paulatim dissolveret dissolutumque ad singula menbrorum loca remitteret pristina officia peracturum. Ac si spiritus ab inclusione liberatus liberum arteriarum meatum recipiens motum quoque corpori prestaret, apponit eciam naribus odorifera species, que spiritum attraherent et confortarent. Hoc ergo facto post semis hore spacium nativo colore ac calore motuque menbris reddito surgens Lucinius resedit stupefactus de tanta multitudine populi congregata, satis autem ex habitu vultus dolorem et tristiciam declarabat. Interea dum hec agerentur, Virgilius rei que acciderat ignarus revertebatur, comitatus quibusdam Romane urbis philosophis ac senioribus in ipsoque ingressu atrii domus tristem a quodam percepit nuncium quod A. VIRGIL THE MAGICIAN

835

scilicet Lucinius suus morte subitanea defecisset. Ipse vero auditis vernaculi sui verbis expavit et consternatus est animo et quamquam magnanimus, quamquam exemplis documentisque virorum fortium adversa et prospera equa lance ponderare doctus est, non omnino tamen dissimulare potuit quin conceptum dolorem singultibus verba et spiritum intercludentibus et prorumpentibus lacrimis vellet nollet manifestaret. Pugnabat tamen cum affectione virtus et doloris magnitudinem intra pectoris angustias ut poterat comprimebat, sed dolor vehemens oculorum ymbre gutturisque spiraculo sibi negato instar ignis reclusi vicina queque depascentis loca amplius atque acrius circa precordia seviebat. Tandem autem domum ut putabat luctus cum philosophorum seniorumque turba ingressus, cum iam magis de exequiis quam de vita Lucinii cogitaret, iniectis in cubiculum oculis, quem defunctum merebat preter spem videt vivum inter medios populos residere intuitusque eum melius signa quedam tristicie dolorisque ex faciei pallore deprehendit. Eiectis igitur a cubiculo cunctis exceptis quibusdam familiaribus sciscitatur ab illo doloris ac tristicie causam. Ille autem iterum longa ab imo pectore trahens suspiria in hec tandem verba respondit: ‘‘Dum,’’ inquit, ‘‘tu, o illustrium virorum vertex, hodie hora none me relicto in cubiculo ad spaciandum exisses, forte nostrum arripueram libellum, ut regulas illas astronomie memorie firmius commendarem. Et ecce in prima facie pagine ex aeris immutatione heu matrem meam quam unice diligebam defunctam esse cognovi patremque Dolopathos aliam sibi in coniugium copulasse. Iamque eciam legatos a se dimisit, qui me reducant in patriam regni dyademate coronandum. Ego autem tum pro matris morte tum pro nostra separatione in tristiciam versus animi eciam defectum passus sum, et nisi humana ars succursum prestasset, forsitan de me iam sentencia data foret.’’ At Virgilius: ‘‘Et ego,’’ ait, ‘‘hec iam dudum precognoveram, sed hactenus sub silentio tenueram, ne si tibi hoc propalassem, viderer tibi doloris ac tristicie auctor existere. Gratulor autem quod hoc per te ipsum cognovisti et tue subtilitati congaudeo: video enim et gaudeo te omni scientia eruditum omnesque philosophie ascendisse gradus. Sed meminisse debes te artium initia a tuo Virgilio suscepisse decetque te quamquam regem, quamquam alti gloria sanguinis insignitum, quamquam eciam michi sciencia et animi acie coequeris, eum qui te ad ymaginem divini reformavit numinis dum adhuc vixeris revereri. Nec immerito; si enim amandus et colendus est pater a filio, quia eum carnali coitu sui ipsius inpotentem in lucem protulit, quanto magis est preceptor a discipulo diligendus, qui ei divinorum prestitit noti-

836

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

ciam secretorum. Ego autem, quod maius inest, ipsius lucem divinitatis tibi infudi. Scis etenim me nichil de humanis divinisque te celasse secretis, quin ea tibi de verbo ad verbum ut amico, non discipulo denudaverim, et gracias ago quod ea vivaci memorie firmiter commendasti; gracias inquam ago quod talem discipulum habere merui, de cuius perfectione merito possum apud summos eciam philosophos gloriari. Amor igitur qui hucusque inter nos habitus est, rogo maneat inconvulsus nec ullo temporum frangatur senio, sed de die in diem renovetur et licet multis terrarum spaciis multisque intervallis temporum corporaliter dividatur, corde tamen et animo alternis semper amplexibus astringatur. ‘‘Dum ergo a me dimissus paternum optinueris regnum, exhibeas te in rege philosophum et in philosopho regem, regiam philosophie disciplina temperans maiestatem commendansque philosophiam regie maiestati; omnibus te in quantum licet conformare studeto, omne etati, sexui vel conditioni ius suum tribuens, studeasque magis amari quam timeri. Sed de his hactenus: sufficienter enim de huiusmodi rebus ab ipsa philosophia instructus es. Ceterum autem quoniam necesse est et sic oportet fieri, ut me in urbe relicto in patriam repedes, antea quam id fiat unum quod postulavero volo ut concedas.’’ At Lucinius: ‘‘Et que, ait, vel quanta potest esse peticio quam tibi possim vel audeam denegare? Eciam etsi paternum peteres regnum, ultroneus concederem. Iube ergo quodlibet et tuam edicito voluntatem.’’ Virgilius: ‘‘Prius,’’ inquit, ‘‘certe michi iuraveris per patris Cesarisque salutem quod quicquid precepero observabis.’’ Iuravit ille se observaturum quicquid preciperet, quamquam esset ipsum grave et difficile, si tamen ab ullo posset hominum observari. Virgilius: ‘‘Iubeo ergo et auctoritate magistri tibi precipio, ut ex illa hora qua a me separaberis, nulli verbum loquaris, non in via, non in patria, non regi, non regine, non principibus regni tui, sed nulli omnino hominum, donec iterum tuum videas preceptorem.’’ ‘‘Heu,’’ ait Lucinius, ‘‘et quis tam grave preceptum sufficiat observare, cum istud sit menbrum quod facilius labitur ac difficilius precavetur, et quis unquam hominum, linguam vel officium loquendi habens istud potuit, si non omnino mutus fuisset et elinguis? In muto eciam motum lingue licet infructuosum videmus. Sed esto, ecce iturus in patriam, tuis ut me decet volens obedire mandatis, frenum lingue mee ponam, ponam ori meo non solum custodiam, verum eciam ostium vectibus ferreis obseratum. Cum igitur me post longum tempus receptum salutaverit pater, cum regina, cum principes regni nobilesque matrone me laudibus sustollent ad sydera,

A. VIRGIL THE MAGICIAN

837

quomodo istud membrum inquietum et impatiens potero cohercere, quin statim ad verba favoris recludi contempnens ostio silentii dirupto in medium exiliat? Ut video impossibilia tuo Lucinio precepisti.’’ Virgilius respondit: ‘‘Tu certe,’’ inquit, ‘‘Lucini, iurasti et spopondisti te ea que preciperem servaturum. Si me mandataque mea tanti estimas, observabis; sin autem, despicies. Aliam vim non inferam tibi; verum utrum observaveris necne, michi citius innotescet.’’ Ad hec Lucinius: ‘‘Mei quidem propositi meeque voluntatis est, o illustrissime preceptor, tuis semper et in omnibus obedire mandatis, sed nec in hoc voluntatem tuam si potero preteribo.’’ Cum igitur hec et alia multa mutuo adhuc in cubiculo positi collocuntur, superveniunt eis legati regis sole iam ad occasum vergente Virgiliumque cum amicis et discipulo reverenter ex parte regis Dolopathos salutant. Quibus ut decebat resalutatis Virgilio quedam regis insinuant mandata, dona offerunt cum regalibus epistolis, quibus et matris obitus et patris declarabatur voluntas. Quibus Virgilius respondit: ‘‘Leve esset ut mandatis parerem regis, si michi liceret ad patriam cum Lucinio repedare; verum cum ab urbe longius procedere nequeam, Cesaris quodam negotio prepeditus, intolerabilis videtur michi eius recessus. Tamen quamvis michi gravis separatio videatur, voluntati domini vestri contraire non possum, ne dum iugi cupio amici contubernio frui, eius felicitatem magis videar impedire. Verumtamen mane cum domini vestri filio cum sitis profecturi, quod diei superest cum nocte sequenti dum vacat in leticia mutuisque colloquiis pariter expendamus delicatioribus cibis ac potibus indulgentes.’’ Sollemnes itaque epulas alternaque colloquia usque ad diei sequentis initium protraxerunt. Cumque iam rutilans aureis aurora radiis suum terris iubar infunderet Luciferque dudum precurrens Phebum Arcton proximum testaretur, surgunt legati itinerisque sui stramentis regiis sternunt vehicula, sicque ascensis equis una cum Lucinio Virgilioque urbem egrediuntur, iter suum versus patriam dirigentes. At Virgilius eos usque ad vadum quoddam quod sexto ab urbe miliario preterfluit secutus, ibi ultimum vale dicturus figit gressum. Tunc ergo alter incumbit alteri, alternant amplexus, ingeminant oscula, singultus commutant singultibus, suspiria suspiriis, lacrimas lacrimis admiscentes, sicque alter ab altero dum deficit se reficit et refectione amici amico refectio generatur. Sed quot ibi suspiria quot lacrime, quot ibi singultus ab imo pectoris utrimque eruperint, quis enumeret? Tandem autem post longum temporis spacium ultimum illud vale facientes Virgilius dimidium anime [Horace, Carmina 1.3.8: see above, I.B.2.e] sue commendat

838

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

legatis revertiturque ad urbem dimidiatus, cum partem anime sue Lucinium derelinquit. Lucinius vero itinere suo pergens non minus se dolere Virgilio suspiriis ac lacrimis testabatur. Sed quotiens dum paulatim ab invicem elongarentur, vultibus retroversis in itinere substiterunt, ut saltem mutuis se oculorum aspectibus recrearent! Tam diu enim quisque incerto pede itinereque ancipiti vectus est, quousque montis moles interposita alterum alterius aspectibus defraudaret sicque hic ad urbem, ille vero repedaret ad patriam.

While they were dining, they spoke jointly about the boy and discussed how he should be educated and what teachers he should have. The king remembered a certain saying of Plato’s that the state would be fortunate if philosophers ruled it, or if kings were philosophers. Because of this saying it seemed best to the king and the others that he should be entrusted to a philosopher to be educated in what are known as the liberal arts. Guided by the examples of wise men and the recorded deeds of kings and nobles, he would be able to rule himself and his subjects more easily and to anticipate the traps of his enemies. At this time there lived at Rome the very famous poet Virgil, who was well known to the king because he had been born at Mantua, a city of Sicily, and had often been honored by him by gifts. Because he was known to him and was considered the outstanding philosopher of his time, the father sent his son to him with many gifts and asked him by the gods to impart his own knowledge to the boy and to guard him carefully from the traps of the wicked. The king had learned through the priests and astrologers that for envy the boy would be exposed to some harm. Because of his reverence and friendship for the king, Virgil accepted the boy. First he taught him the alphabet and then, with gentleness and persuasion, as teachers do, in no time at all he taught him to produce a syllable from letters, to form a word from syllables, and to construct a sentence from words. And so, gradually advancing, the boy began by himself to read and speak both the Greek and Latin languages. Virgil was very pleased. He was amazed at the speed and natural ability of the boy, and when he realized that he showed great promise, he paid more attention to him. The boy, whose talent was outstanding, listened carefully to his teacher and whatever he heard once and understood he never forgot because of his innate genius. There was no need to ask his teacher a second time about it. So it happened that within the course of a year he surpassed companions who were older and had been studying with teachers for five or even seven years, and he asked Virgil to instruct him in even more advanced things. When Virgil realized that the child had advanced so rapidly that he was ready to

A. VIRGIL THE MAGICIAN

839

begin training in the arts, he gladly acceded to his wish. Because Virgil loved the liberal arts so much, he had turned the amazing and indescribable sophistication of his genius to the composition of a small handbook, which enabled one to learn those vast subjects in a short time. In three years anyone could learn perfectly what he himself had been able to learn only with great labor. He was unwilling to let anyone, teacher or pupil, see this book even for an hour— not even Augustus, the ruler of the world. But he gave it to Lucinius, for whom he had written it, because he wished him to progress rapidly. In his room, apart from others, they would discuss the liberal arts like two friends. First he taught him grammar, the mother of the arts, which Lucinius grasped with such speed that even Virgil was astonished. Then they came to dialectic, and it is amazing to say how shrewd he was. Not even trained teachers were more ingenious in proposing questions or quicker in solving them than he. From there he advanced to the flowery fields of rhetoric where he attained complete mastery of the charm of eloquence. When these three subjects had been fully mastered he turned to the other four, which we call the quadrivium, and learned them easily. He believed that the last of these, astrology, was more important than the others, and he studied it so thoroughly that he could discover whatever might happen in the universe by the use of certain rules taught him by Virgil about the movement of the planets and the other stars, and by the appearance of the air. As we shall see, it was very fortunate that he learned this. After Lucinius attained complete knowledge of all the arts, he also learned from Virgil the books of the poets and the philosophers. From there he next directed his mind’s eye to a deeper knowledge of philosophy and obtained the renown and respect of great philosophers. This was not done, however, without arousing the envy of many men. For those who could not attain to the highest understanding of knowledge envied him very much, and they took o√ense that the respect denied to them as old men was paid to a young boy. Because of this they were trying to kill him by poison or some other way, but their fear of Virgil and the authority of the king’s family checked their evil somewhat. But since envy always possesses and tortures its possessor and does not permit rest even for a moment, their hatred, which envy increased and goaded, could not be restrained longer. Cunningly they decided to invite him to a banquet and to mix poison with the wine. Long before this he had learned of their hatred for him by his knowledge of astrology, and he was not deceived. Nevertheless he cleverly feigned ignorance and said to them that it was neither fitting nor proper to have such an important banquet with such important guests without Virgil and the Roman nobility. He said that if he came he would be happy to enjoy their generosity and he was ready, when the oppor840

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

tunity arose, to repay their kindness in turn. He assured them, however, that he did not dare to do anything at all without his teacher Virgil, who was his guardian and whose ferule he feared very much. When they heard this, blinded by their hatred, they invited Virgil and some other Roman citizens, not caring if they too died because of that deadly drink if only Lucinius did not escape their poisonous hands. When the banquet began, each one reclined according to age and rank. Since Caesar had ordered everyone to honor Virgil, who was of the highest rank, he had the first place at the table. In fact the one who had sent the invitations and who was the chief villain was conducting the banquet with the help of some others. Many dishes were served to the guests, di√erent types of wine were drunk, and they feasted joyfully and abundantly. Meanwhile however, Lucinius, considering the aspects of astrology, was awaiting when the drink they had mixed for him would be served. When the banquet was then coming to an end and the guests had been cheered by all the food that human art could think of, suddenly that deadly, twisted snake, whom I called the chief villain, brought in a golden goblet of great size, filled with death and placed it before Virgil. At once the nostrils of those reclining were captivated by a sweet odor. The appetite of everyone was stimulated to drink. They all asked for the deadly potion. When it was o√ered to Virgil, Lucinius took the goblet and lifting his hand for silence said to them all: ‘‘I fear this sweetness may contain some bitterness. The honeybee has a stinger, and to catch fish the fisherman puts bait on the hook.’’ They, whom the brand of their conscience confounded, as the poet says, were quite overcome with horror at these words. Their face and color betrayed the crime. Nevertheless, they tried to dissimulate and answer him. They said that the son of the king did not give them proper thanks when they honored him. He should not say such things, even in jest. ‘‘I spoke not in jest,’’ he said, ‘‘but in anger. You can prove that I and my friends were invited in good faith and that you are guiltless of this charge if you will take the first drink. Otherwise, I swear by the health of my father and of Caesar that you have plotted against our lives.’’ What could they do? Where could they turn? What could they answer to these charges? On all sides they were trapped, on all sides the noose was tightening, on all sides no hope of safety. They saw only two possibilities for themselves, one of which they could not avoid: either to drink or to die. But they did not know which of the two to choose. They knew that if they drank they would die; but if not, they would be handed over to Caesar as criminals to be tortured in many di√erent ways. Nevertheless, they thought it better to die at their own hands than to expose themselves to the derision of others. A. VIRGIL THE MAGICIAN

841

‘‘O Lucinius,’’ they said, ‘‘you will know that we plotted no evil against you or your friends if we live three days after we drink this wine.’’ He who had brought in the cup drank and then delivered it to his partners in crime to drink. They drank and, as the sage says, they fell into the pit that they had dug for others. They died there at the table with their eyes staring from their heads. So that famous boy by his diligence skillfully saved himself and his friends from death and took vengeance on the envious. Thus he acquired an outstanding reputation among noble and common people alike. No one dared to plot evil against him any more, nor did they even consider it, since all thought that one who had knowledge of the future was more than human. Although Lucinius was considered so great by men, and although Virgil proclaimed that he was equal to him in every way, nevertheless he never was willing to sit in his presence or be considered his equal. He always remained under his ferule and discipline as if he were then learning the alphabet for the first time. His humility was especially attested by the fact that, although he was very tall and Virgil very small, whether he was walking or standing with his teacher his body was always stooped so that he might not seem taller or bigger than Virgil. After Lucinius had been taught by Virgil for seven years he appeared already second to no one in his knowledge of the arts and of philosophy. One day Virgil happened to go out to relieve himself. Lucinius remained alone in his room to study. He had barred the door and was reading Virgil’s handbook, reviewing more thoroughly the rules of astrology. Suddenly in a fit of terrible emotion he then shouted loudly and fell flat on the ground. When the terrified household heard this sound of agony, they ran up; then men and women from neighboring houses flocked together asking what had happened or what the shout meant. Impatiently, as is the case with crowds, they broke open the door, ran into the room, and saw Lucinius lying unconscious on the floor. They approached him and touched each and every limb of his body, which were cold and sti√. Only around his heart did they feel a little heat and a slight pulse. By chance there was present in the crowd a man skilled in the art of medicine who knew that this unconsciousness was caused by grief and that the wind within the heart was surrounded and smothered by coagulated blood. He ordered that hot and cold water be brought to him immediately. When these were brought he bathed the extremities of the limbs with cold water and wrapped wool steeped in hot water around the heart like a plaster so that the heat of the watery element might dissolve gradually the coagulated blood. When dissolved, it would go through all the limbs and restore their former functions, so that respiration, freed from its confinement, would recover the free 842

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

passageway of the arteries and restore motion to the body. He also placed near the nostrils scented spices to draw forth respiration and strengthen it. A half hour later Lucinius’s natural color returned, as well as the heat and movement of his limbs. He arose and sat down, wondering at the number of people around him. The appearance of his countenance showed greatly grief and sadness. While these things were happening, Virgil, unaware, was returning, accompanied by certain Roman philosophers and elders. At the very door of the house he received the sad news that apparently his Lucinius had suddenly died. Upon hearing his slave’s words he turned pale and was distraught. Although he was a man of great spirit and had been taught by the examples and deeds of brave men to balance good and bad on an equal scale, he could not completely conceal his grief, which showed itself by intermittent sighs, broken speech, and welling tears. Although his manliness struggled with his love, and he concealed the greatness of his grief deep in his heart as best he could, yet a terrible sorrow raged widely and bitterly in his bosom. The tears in his eyes and his sobbing breath were a pent-up fire feeding on the neighboring fields. At last, however, he entered his house of grief, as he thought, accompanied by the philosophers and the elders, now thinking more about the funeral than hoping to find Lucinius alive. When he looked into the bedchamber he realized that, contrary to all expectation, the one he was mourning as dead was sitting up surrounded by a crowd of people. He also noticed the signs of grief and sadness on his pale face. When all except a few friends had departed from the chamber, he asked the cause of his sorrow and his sadness. Lucinius, again sighing from his heart’s depths, replied at last, ‘‘O my illustrious master, at the ninth hour today when you left me to go walking, I happened to take up our book to memorize even more perfectly the rules of astrology. Look, from the change of air on the first page I suddenly realized that my beloved mother, alas, had died and that my father Dolopathos had taken another wife. Even now he is sending ambassadors to take me back to be crowned king. I fainted, saddened because of both my mother’s death and our coming separation. If human skill had not helped me, perhaps I would have died.’’ ‘‘I have known this for a long time,’’ said Virgil. ‘‘I kept silent, however, lest by revealing it I seem to be author of your grief and sadness. But I congratulate you that you were wise to discover it for yourself. I rejoice to see that you are skilled in all knowledge and have risen through all the grades of philosophy. You must remember, however, that you learned the beginning of these arts from your friend Virgil. Although you are king, although outstanding in the glory of your lineage, and although my equal in the keenness of your knowledge and mind, yet it is proper that you obey him who gave you your divine soul as long as you live. And rightly so; for if the father must be loved and A. VIRGIL THE MAGICIAN

843

cherished by the son because he physically brought him weak and helpless into the world, so much more must the teacher, who furnishes knowledge of secret and holy things, be loved by the pupil. For I have shown you an even greater thing, since I have flooded you with the light of divinity itself. You also know that I have concealed nothing, human or divine, from you, but rather disclosed these things to you word for word, as to a friend, not to a pupil. I am thankful that you have committed these things solidly to a keen memory and that I have been worthy of such a pupil, of whose perfection I can justly boast even to the greatest philosophers. I now ask that the love that has existed between us never be destroyed or broken by any passage of time. Let it be renewed day by day. Although we may be separated by many miles for long, let this love be bound in mutual embraces in our hearts and minds always. ‘‘Then, when you go from me to claim your father’s kingdom, show yourself to be a philosopher king and a king philosopher. Temper your kingly majesty with philosophical training, and entrust philosophy to the care of your kingly majesty. In all things strive to adapt yourself to all men as much as possible. Give to every age, sex, or condition the proper justice, and desire to be loved rather than feared. But so much for these things. You have been su≈ciently instructed about them by Philosophy herself. But since you must now leave me in Rome and return to your country, please grant me one wish before you go.’’ ‘‘Can there be any wish so great that I would dare to deny you?’’ asked Lucinius. ‘‘Even if you asked my father’s kingdom, I would gladly yield it. Come now, tell me what you wish.’’ ‘‘First,’’ said Virgil, ‘‘you must swear to me by the welfare of your father and of Caesar that you will obey whatever I command.’’ He swore to obey any order, however di≈cult, if it were humanly possible. ‘‘Then,’’ said Virgil, ‘‘by the authority of your teacher I order you to speak no word from the time in which we are separated until you see me again. Not on the road, not in your country, not to the king, not to the queen, not to the nobles of your kingdom, not to anyone at all.’’ ‘‘Alas,’’ said Lucinius, ‘‘who could obey such a terrible command, since the tongue is the part of the body that is least controllable and most easily betrays us? What man in all the world with a tongue and the ability to speak could do this, unless he were a mute? We see that even a mute’s tongue moves, although to no purpose. But so be it. I shall go to my country obeying your orders, as is right. I shall put a rein on my tongue and guard my lips as if they were sealed with iron bars. But when my father receives and greets me after my long absence, when the queen greets me, when the kingdom’s princes and noble ladies praise me to the stars, how can I check that restless and impatient part of 844

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

the body? Will it not despise its prison and break at once into speech at the words of praise? You have ordered your Lucinius to do the impossible.’’ ‘‘You swore, Lucinius,’’ answered Virgil, ‘‘and you promised to obey. If you think my commands are worth anything at all, you will keep them. But if you despise them, I will not force you. But whether you obey me or not, I shall soon know.’’ Lucinius answered, ‘‘O illustrious teacher, I have always wished to obey your orders in all things. In this matter I shall do so, if it is possible.’’ Then, while they were still in the chamber jointly discussing this and other matters, there came at sunset the ambassadors of the king, who respectfully greeted Virgil, his friends, and his pupil on behalf of King Dolopathos. After Virgil had properly returned the greeting, they stated the orders of the king. In addition they brought gifts and a letter from the king in which the death of his mother and the desire of his father were announced. ‘‘It would be easy,’’ replied Virgil, ‘‘to obey the orders of the king, if I could return with Lucinius to his country. But I cannot go too far from Rome, since I am detained on some business of Caesar’s. His departure is unbearable to me. The separation weighs upon me, but I cannot oppose the will of your master. Although I desire his continual companionship, yet I cannot hinder his happiness. But since you are going to set forth in the morning with the son of your master, let us spend the rest of the day and this night together in pleasure and conversation with fine food and drink.’’ Then a banquet was held, and they feasted and talked until morning. When the dawn gleaming with its golden rays poured its beams upon the earth, and the rising Lucifer bore witness that Phoebus Arctos was approaching, the ambassadors arose and covered their wagons with their kingly trappings. Mounting their horses they then departed from the city with Lucinius and Virgil and directed their course toward their country. Virgil went with them to a certain stream, which flowed six miles from the city. There he stopped for the final farewell. So then they clasped each other, they embraced, they kissed, they matched groan with groan, sigh with sigh, tear with tear. When the strength of one failed he was restored by the other, and then one friend recovers at the other’s recovery. Who could count the sighs, the tears, the groans that burst from each breast? At last after a long time they said their final farewells. Virgil entrusted the half of his soul to the ambassadors and returned to the city; but only half of him returned, since he had left part of his soul with Lucinius. As Lucinius went his way, he showed by his sighs and tears how much he grieved at the separation, no less than Virgil. While the distance was gradually increasing, each stopped and turned to feast his eyes with one last glance. Thus A. VIRGIL THE MAGICIAN

845

each one proceeded with hesitating step until a mountain intervened and robbed them of each other’s sight. Thus Virgil returned to the city and Lucinius to his native land. (Johannes of Alta Silva, Dolopathos, or The King and the Seven Wise Men, trans. B. B. Gilleland, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 2 [Binghamton, N.Y., 1981], 13–22, modified by JZ) b. Miraculous Appearance of Virgil (Text: Hilka, 87) Huiusmodi convicia rex Dolopathos audiens et diutius ferre non valens manum levat ad celos iuratque per deos quod filium per semetipsum flammis iniceret. Tunc clamor populi, tunc omnium voces tolluntur in altum, concutitur ac reboat tota illius terre planicies clamorosis vocibus et fletibus singulorum. Iamque pater filium manibus a terra levaverat, iam in flammas ipsum proicere conabatur, cum ecce Virgilius noster super alipedem quasi fulgur per medium populi discurrens supervenit illiusque frangit conatum hec clamans: ‘‘Cessa, o rex, retrahe manum ab innocente, leges innocentem occidi prohibent. Revertere ad iudicium, quia et falso accusatus est et iniuste ac contra leges dampnatus.’’ Ad hec Lucinius viso auditoque magistro quasi de somno evigilans illud tandem grave rumpit silentium: ‘‘Ave,’’ inquiens, ‘‘o preceptor.’’ Stupet igitur pater loqui audiens filium, mirantur reges, principes stantque attoniti, concurrit undique populus, erectis auribus stupidi ut asini perseverant. At Virgilius in reginam mordaci utens invectione: ‘‘O,’’ ait, ‘‘furor, o scelus, o nequicia, o malicia mulieris, o vere monstrum, mulier, monstruosius cunctis monstris!’’

When King Dolopathos heard these insults he could bear it no longer. He lifted his hands to the skies and swore by the gods that he himself would throw his son into the flames. Then the words and the cries of all the people rose on high. The whole plain echoed and reechoed with the shouts and weeping of one and all. Already the father had lifted his son from the earth with his own hands, already he was trying to throw him into the flames, when suddenly our Virgil, riding on a swift-footed steed, came like lightning through the midst of the people and interrupted his attempt, shouting: ‘‘Stop! O King, take your hands o√ an innocent man! The laws forbid killing an innocent man! Renew the trial. He has been falsely accused and unjustly condemned contrary to the laws.’’ At this Lucinius, who had now seen and heard his teacher, awoke as if from a dream. At last he broke his deep silence. ‘‘Greetings, my teacher,’’ he said. When the father heard his son speak he was astounded. All the kings and 846

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

nobles wondered and stood amazed. On all sides the people ran up to listen and like stupid asses with uplifted ears stayed there. Virgil began a bitter denunciation of the queen. ‘‘O madness,’’ he cried, ‘‘O wickedness, O baseness, O evil woman, O woman truly a monster more monstrous than all monsters!’’ (Johannes of Alta Silva, Dolopathos, or The King and the Seven Wise Men, trans. B. B. Gilleland, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 2 [Binghamton, N.Y., 1981], 76–77) c. Salvation of Lucinius by Virgil, and Deaths of Dolopathos and Virgil The final words of this passage preserve an exceptional tradition that Virgil’s bones were preserved not in Naples but in Mantua. Although the city of Mantua boasted of its association with the poet who was its greatest native son [see above, II.F.7], his remains were generally believed to be found in or near Naples [see above, II.C]. (Text: Hilka, 90–91) Solvitur ergo iussu Virgilii Lucinius induiturque vestibus, ex precepto magistri narrat per ordinem quomodo ab eo recesserit quodve ab ipso acceperit mandatum, quibus eum modis regina ac puelle ad libidinem inclinare conate sint, quo etiam consilio contra eum coniuraverint vultus, crines, vestes manibus unguibusque laniantes. Tunc cuncto populo contra reginam eiusque puellas proclamante, in eodem loco absque ulla dilatione a propriis parentibus et cognatis igni tradite sunt et consumpte, sicque in foveam quam foderant [Proverbs 26.27: see above, V.A.3.a] et in laqueum quem tetenderant incidentes dignam satis maleficiis suis receperunt penam. Lucinius autem cum omnium leticia ad palatium reductus regni diademate coronatus est homagiumque et fidelitatem a regibus et principibus recepit, postque omnibus ad sua redire permissum est. Mortuus est autem eo anno rex Dolopathos, sed et Virgilius obiit illosque duos caternulos quos de artibus conscripserat in suprema mortis sue hora manu inclusit, nec ultra ab aliquo potuerunt evelli. Aiunt aliqui eum per invidiam hoc fecisse, alii dicunt idcirco factum, ne, dum artes ab omnibus facile discerentur, vilescerent nec ulli amodo honor debitus pro ipsarum scientia prestaretur. Horum corpora Lucinius ritu gentilium igni comburens ossa in aureis reposuit urnis et patrem quidem in Palerno, magistrum vero in Mantua civitate collocavit.

Then Lucinius was freed by the order of Virgil. His clothes were returned to him, at Virgil’s urging he told what had happened: how he had left his teacher, and the order he had received; how the queen and her attendants had tried to incite him to lust; and how they had plotted against him by rending their faces, hair, and clothing with their nails. At this all the people cried out A. VIRGIL THE MAGICIAN

847

against the queen and her attendants, and in that very place without delay their own parents and relatives threw them into the flames, and they were burned alive. Thus they fell into the pit that they had dug and into the noose that they had stretched, and received a punishment worthy of their crimes. Amid the rejoicing of all, Lucinius returned to the palace, and the king’s crown was placed upon his head. He received the homage and fealty of the kings and nobles, and then all were permitted to return home. King Dolopathos died that year, as did Virgil. As the latter was dying, he clutched in his hands the two handbooks that he had written about the arts. After his death no one could make him relax his grip. Some said he did this because of jealousy. Others say he did it so that everyone could not easily learn the liberal arts and thus cheapen them, else the proper reverence would not be paid to those who mastered them. Lucinius burned their bodies in the pagan manner and put their bones in golden urns. He placed his father’s bones in Palermo and his teacher’s in the city of Mantua. (Johannes of Alta Silva, Dolopathos, or The King and the Seven Wise Men, trans. B. B. Gilleland, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 2 [Binghamton, 1981], 79–80)

4. Conrad of Querfurt (died 1202) See also above, II.C.13. Conrad of Querfurt led an active life in both the Church and politics. Notably, he served as chancellor of the emperor Henry VI (1165–97) and as bishop of Hildesheim (1194–99) and Würzburg (1198–1202). The lastmentioned post led to his death; he was murdered in 1202 by clerics of Würzburg who opposed his appointment. The quotations are from Epistula Conradi cancellarii, a letter sent from Sicily to Hartbert, prior of the abbey at Hildesheim (circa 1196). The letter assembles more than a half dozen Virgilian legends connected with Naples and its environs. It is preserved in Arnold of Lübeck’s (died 1211/14) Chronicle of the Slavs, which was written around 1210. (Discussion: VN 13–15 and AO 1012– 13) (Text: Arnold of Lübeck, Chronica Slavorum [circa 1210] 5.19, ed. I. Lappenberg, in MGH Scriptores 21 [Hannover, 1868]) (JZ) a. City in a Glass Bottle (Epistula Conradi cancellarii ) (Text: Lappenberg, 194, lines 19–25) Vidimus etiam operosum opus Virgilii Neapolim, de qua nobis mirabiliter Parcarum pensa dispensaverunt, ut muros civitatis eiusdem, quos tantus fundavit et erexit philosophus, imperialis iussionis mandato destruere deberemus. Non profuit civibus illis civitatis eiusdem ymago, in ampulla vit848

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

rea magica arte ab eodem Virgilio inclusa, arctissimum habente orificium, in cuius integritate tantam habebant fiduciam, ut eadem ampulla integra permanente nullum posset pati civitas detrimentum. Quam ampullam sicut et civitatem in nostra habemus potestate, et muros destruximus ampulla integra permanente. Sed forte quia ampulla modicum fissa est, civitati nocuit.

We saw also the elaborate work of Virgil at Naples, about which the dispensation of the Fates worked wonders for us, since, by the mandate of the emperor’s command, we had the duty to destroy the walls of that city which so great a philosopher had founded and raised. The image of the same city, enclosed by the magical art of the aforesaid Virgil in a glass bottle with the narrowest of openings, was of no avail to its citizens. People put such faith in its wholeness that the city could su√er no harm so long as this very bottle remained whole. We have the bottle and the city in our power, and we destroyed the walls, even though the bottle was whole. But perhaps since the bottle had a slight crack in it, it brought harm to the city. (MP) b. Horse of Bronze (Epistula Conradi cancellarii) (Text: Lappenberg, 194, lines 25–30) In eadem civitate est equus aereus, magicis incantationibus a Virgilio sic compositus, ut ipso integro permanente nullus equus posset redorsari, cum tamen de vitio naturali sit illi terrae proprium, ut ante equi illius compositionem et post eiusdem equi quantulamcunque corruptionem, nullus equus sine dorsi fractura possit equitem aliquamdiu vehere.

In the same city there is a bronze horse, forged in such a way, by the magical incantations of Virgil, that while it remained whole no horse could break its back, since, nevertheless, natural corruption is the lot of that land, so that before the forging of the horse and after its corruption, however small, [had set in], no horse could carry a rider for any length of time without breaking its back. (MP) c. Fly of Bronze (Epistula Conradi cancellarii) (Text: Lappenberg, 194, lines 30–32) Ibidem est porta firmissima ad instar castelli aedificata, valvas habens aereas, quas nunc satellites tenent imperiales, in qua constiterat Virgilius muscam aeream qua integra manente nec una musca civitatem potuit introire.

In the same city is a gate of the greatest strength, built like a castle, possessing doors of bronze which now the emperor’s troops control, on which Virgil had placed a fly of bronze. As long as it remained whole, not even one fly could enter the city. (MP) A. VIRGIL THE MAGICIAN

849

d. The Baths of Virgil (Epistula Conradi cancellarii) (Text: Lappenberg, 194, line 36) Sunt in vicino loco Baiae, quarum meminerunt auctores, apud quas sunt balnea Virgilii.

In the neighboring area is Baiae, whose memory authors recall, at which are the baths of Virgil. (MP) e. Serpent Gate (Epistula Conradi cancellarii) (Text: Lappenberg, 196, lines 18–21) Ad mentem reducimus quod apud Neapolim est quaedam porta, quae Ferrea nuncupatur, in qua Virgilius omnes serpentes illius regionis inclusit, qui propter aedificia subterranea et cryptas, quae ibi plurimae sunt, abundant; quam solam inter ceteras portas destruere timebamus, ne serpentes inclusi de carcere egredientis terram et indigenas molestarent.

We recall to mind that at Naples there is a certain gate, which is called ‘‘Iron,’’ in which Virgil penned all the snakes of the area, which abound because of the many underground buildings and crypts there; this gate alone, with the rest of the gates, we feared to destroy lest the penned-up snakes, escaping from their prison, aΔict the land and its inhabitants. (MP) f. Meat Preservation (Epistula Conradi cancellarii) (Text: Lappenberg, 196, lines 21–23) Est in eadem civitate macellum, sic a Virgilio constructum ut caro animalis occisi in ipso per sex hebdomadas maneat recens et incorrupta; si exportetur, fetet et apparet putrida.

In the same city there is a butcher’s block built in such a way by Virgil that the flesh of a slaughtered animal remains fresh and uncorrupted on it for six weeks; if it is taken o√, it reeks and appears rotten. (MP) g. Controlling Vesuvius (Epistula Conradi cancellarii) (Text: Lappenberg, 196, lines 24–28) Est ante civitatem Vesevus mons, ex quo ignis multos involvens cineres fetidos intra decennium semel solet exhalare. Cui Virgilius opposuerat hominem aereum, tenentem balistam tensam et sagittam nervo applicatam. Quem quidam rusticus admirans, eo quod semper balista minans nunquam percuteret, impulit nervum. Sagitta vero prosilians percussit os montis, et continuo flamma prosiliit, nec adhuc certis vicibus cohibetur.

The mountain Vesuvius is in front of Naples. From it fire, roiling ashes thick with stench, was once for ten years wont to breathe. Virgil placed opposite it a 850

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

man of bronze, holding a drawn bow with an arrow placed on the string. A certain yokel, in wonderment that the threatening bow never struck [anything], let the string go. The arrow, leaping forward, struck the face of the mountain, and immediately flames leaped forth, nor are they even yet contained at certain times. (MP)

5. Gervase of Tilbury (after 1154–after 1222) Gervase was presumably from Tilbury in Essex. After studying canon law in Bologna, he became a magister (teacher/schoolmaster) himself and taught law. Among other places in Italy, he visited Venice and Naples. After a stint serving the king of Sicily, he spent time in the kingdom of Arles. Eventually he was appointed marshal there by Emperor Otto IV (1175/1182–1218). He was one of several remarkable Latin authors who belonged to the cultural orbit of Henry II Plantagenet (1154–89). He dedicated his Otia imperialia (Recreation for an Emperor, 1209–14) to Otto IV. It is a three-part collection, in the form of an encyclopedia, concerned with a variety of marvels documented from history, geography, legends, and anecdotes. It survives in some thirty manuscripts and was twice translated into French in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In addition to the passages on marvels that follow, see above, II.C.14. (Discussion: W. Maaz, ‘‘Gervasius von Tilburg,’’ in Enzyklopädie des Märchens 5 [1987], 1111) (Text: Otia Imperialia: Recreation for an Emperor, ed. S. E. Banks and J. W. Binns [Oxford, 2002]) (JZ) a. Fly of Bronze (Otia imperialia 3.10) (Text: Banks and Binns, 576) Porro in Campania, civitate Neapolitana, scimus Virgilium arte mathematica muscam erexisse eneam, que tante virtutis in se habuit experimentum quod, dum in loco constituto perseveravit integra, civitatem late spatiosam nulla musca ingrediebatur.

Furthermore, we know that in Campania, in the city of Naples, Virgil set up by the craft of magic a fly of bronze, which had within itself such proven power that so long as it remained intact in the place where it had been established, no fly entered the city, although it extended far and wide. (JZ) b. Meat Preservation (Otia imperialia 3.12) (Text: Banks and Binns, 576–78) Iam nunc ad civitatem Campanie Neapolim redeamus, in qua macellum est in cuius pariete insertum perhibetur a Virgilio frustum carnis tante efficacie

A. VIRGIL THE MAGICIAN

851

quod, dum illic erit inclusum, in ipsius macelli continentia nulla caro, quanto tempore vetustata, nares olfacientis aut intuentis aspectum aut comedentis saporem offendet.

Let us return now to Naples, the city of Campania, where there is a meat market on the wall of which it is reported that a piece of meat was inserted by Virgil with such e≈cacy that so long as it remains enclosed there, no meat, no matter how old, in the precincts of that meat market will o√end the nostrils of a person smelling it, the gaze of a person viewing it, or the taste of a person eating it. (JZ) c. Serpent Gate (Otia imperialia 3.12) (Text: Banks and Binns, 578) Est et in eadem civitate porta Dominica, Nolam Campanie civitatem olim inclitam respiciens, in cuius ingressu est via lapidibus artificiose constructa. Sub huius vie sigillo conclusit Virgilius omne genus reptilis nocivi. Unde provenit quod, cum civitas illa in ambitu plurimum spaciosa tota columpnis subterraneis innitatur, nusquam in cavernis aut rimis interioribus aut ortis infra urbis menia conclusis vermis nocivus reperitur.

There is also in the same city the Lord’s Gate, looking toward Nola, a city of Campania that was formerly renowned. At the entry to this gate is a road made skillfully of stones. Beneath the seal of this road Virgil shut up all manner of harmful reptiles. From this comes the fact that although that city, which is very extensive in its spread, rests entirely upon underground pillars, a harmful snake is found nowhere in its inner caverns or fissures or in the gardens enclosed within the city walls. (JZ) d. Magic Gate (Otia imperialia 3.12) On this gateway are two marble heads, one laughing, one weeping, that determine the fortunes of those entering Naples. Again Virgil’s ars mathematica [astrology] is the source of his power. (Text: Banks and Binns, 580–82) e. Marvelous Garden (Otia imperialia 3.13) (Text: Banks and Binns, 582) Erat in confinio eiusdem civitatis Neapolitane, velut ex oposito [sic], mons Virginum, in cuius declivo inter prerupta saxorum aditu gravi Virgilius ortum plantaverat, multis herbarum generibus consitum. In hoc invenitur herba lucii, quam oves cece quandoque tangentes, statim acutissimum visum recipiunt.

852

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

There was within the territory of the same city of Naples, and as it were opposite it, the Monte Vergine, on whose slope, and barely accessible because of the sheerness of the rocks, Virgil had planted a garden sown with many types of plants. In this one finds the luce plant from which blind sheep, when they touch it, immediately receive the sharpest eyesight. (MP) f. Wind Reduction (Otia imperialia 3.13) (Text: Banks and Binns, 582–84) In eodem erat ymago enea bucinam ad os tenens, quam quoties auster ex obiecto subintrabat, statim ipsius venti flatus convertebatur. Quid autem conversio ista Nothi commodi portabat? Audite. Est in confinio civitatis Neapolitane mons excelsus, mari infixus, subiectam sibi Terram Laboris spatiose prospectans; hic mense Madio fumum teterrimum eructuat et interdum cum cinere ardentissimo ligna proicit exusta in carbonis colorem, unde illic quoddam inferni terreni spiraculum asserunt ebulire. Flante igitur Notho, pulvis calidus segetes omnesque fructus exurit, sicque terra in se feracissima ad sterilitatem ducitur. Ob hoc, tante regionis illius dampno consulens, Virgilius in opposito monte statuam, ut diximus, cum tuba erexit, ut ad primum ventilati cornu sonitum et in ipsa tuba flatus subintrantis impulsum, Nothus repulsus vi mathesis quassaretur. Unde fit quod, statua illa vel etate consumpta vel invidorum malicia demolita, sepe pristina dampna reparantur.

In the same [garden] was a figure of bronze holding a trumpet to its mouth. Whenever the south wind blew directly into it, the blast of the wind was forthwith turned aside. Give ear to what positive benefit this ‘‘turning’’ of the south wind brought. There is on the boundary of the city of Naples a lofty mountain, stuck in the sea, looking out on the extensive Terra di Lavoro stretched beneath it. In the month of May this belches forth the foulest smoke, and from time to time hurls forth wood burned to the color of charcoal along with the hottest ash. Because of this they claim that a certain exhalation bubbles forth there from the underworld. Therefore, when the south wind blows, hot dust burns the grain and all the crops to such a degree that the earth, of itself most fertile, is reduced to sterility. On account of this, giving thought to the damage of that great area, Virgil, as we have said, placed a statue with a trumpet on the mountain opposite, so that, at the first sound of the blowing of the horn and with the onrush of the blast within the trumpet itself, by the force of his astrology the south wind is weakened and turned away. Whence it has come about that, after the statue was either devoured by time or demolished by the evil of the envious, the ancient damage is often renewed. (MP)

A. VIRGIL THE MAGICIAN

853

g. Therapeutic Baths (Otia imperialia 3.15) The baths associated with Virgil are also mentioned in Alexander Neckam (see below, V.A.6), De laudibus divinae sapientiae, Distinctio tertia (On the Praises of Divine Wisdom), line 271: ‘‘Bathoniae thermis vix praefero Virgilianas’’ (I hardly prefer the baths of Virgil to those of Bath) (See Alexandri Neckam De naturis rerum libro duo, ed. T. Wright, Rerum britannicarum medii aevi scriptores; or, Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland During the Middle Ages [Rolls Series] 34 [London, 1863], 401) (Text: Banks and Binns, 586) Est etiam in civitate Neapolitana civitas Puteolana, in qua Virgilius ad utilitatem popularem et admirationem perpetuam balnea construxit, miro artificio edificata, ad cuiusvis interioris ac exterioris morbi curationem profutura; singulisque cocleis singulos titulos superscripsit, in quibus notitia erat cui morbo quod balneum deberetur. Verum novissimis diebus, cum apud Salernum studium fisicorum vigere cepisset, Salernitani invidia tacti titulos balneorum corruperunt, timentes ne divulgata balneorum potentia lucrum practicantibus auferret aut diminueret. Ipsa tamen balnea, pro maxima parte intacta, diversis morborum generibus medelam tribuunt. Suspecta quoque sunt illa que certam incolarum non habent noticiam aut ad virtutem memoriam, eo quod inter duo contrariorum effectuum infirmitas infici quandoque potius posset quam curari.

There is also in the city of Naples the city of Pozzuoli, in which Virgil constructed baths for the use and continuing admiration of the people. They were made with astonishing skill, so as to o√er a cure for every disease whether internal or external. Above he had written individual labels in individual snail shells, in which it was noted with which disease the bath was concerned. But in most recent times, when in Salerno the study of the natural sciences had begun to flourish, the natives of Salerno, touched with envy, destroyed the labels of the baths out of fear that, if the power of the baths were spread abroad, it would take away or lessen their profit as they practiced their trade. Nevertheless the baths themselves, for the most part untouched, grant treatment for various types of disease. Moreover, those are regarded with suspicion that are not well known by local people, or whose particular powers of healing have been forgotten, with the result that, between two baths with contrary e√ects, illness can sometimes be contracted rather than cured. (MP) h. Magic Tunnel (Otia imperialia 3.16) Without naming names, Gervase discusses in this passage what is elsewhere called the Neapolitan Crypt (see above, II.C.17.e). (Text: Banks and Binns, 586) (JZ) 854

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

In eodem confinio est mons mira virtute, ad modum cripte concavus, cuius tanta est longitudo quod medium tenenti vix duo capita comparent. Arte mathematica hic operatus est Virgilius quod in illo montis opaco, inimicus inimico si ponit insidias, nullo dolo nullove fraudis ingenio sue malicie in nocendo dare potest effectum.

In the same neighborhood is a mountain with amazing power, hollowed out in the manner of a tunnel, whose length is such that its two entrances are scarcely visible to someone standing at its center. Through his ars mathematica [astrology] Virgil had worked this [marvel]: that if, in the darkness of the mountain, an enemy places an ambush for his enemy, neither by any act of guile nor by clever deceit from evil intent can he e√ect any harm. (MP)

6. Alexander Neckam (1157–1217) Alexander Neckam (Nequam) was an English scholar, born at St. Albans, who studied and taught at Paris, directed the school at Dunstable, and served as abbot of Cirencester, near Bristol. He wrote works devoted to theology, grammar, and natural history. His extensive De naturis rerum (On the Natures of Things, 1190–1200; more than a dozen manuscripts survive) is a cosmology—a manual of what was known of natural science in the twelfth century. The following is from chapter 174, ‘‘De locis in quibus artes floruerunt liberales’’ (Concerning Places in Which the Liberal Arts Flourished). (Text: Alexandri Neckam De naturis rerum libro duo: With the poem of the same author, De laudibus divinae sapientiae, ed. T. Wright, Rerum britannicarum medii aevi scriptores; or, Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages [Rolls Series] 34 [London, 1863], 309–10) (MP and JZ) Senecam et Lucanum nobilis genuit Corduba, Mantuano vati servivit Neapolis, quae cum infinitarum sanguisugarum peste lethali vexaretur, liberata est proiecta a Marone in fundum putei hirudine aurea. Qua evolutis multorum annorum curriculis a puteo mundato et eruderato extracta, replevit infinitus hirudinum exercitus civitatem nec sedata est pestis antequam sanguisuga aurea iterato in puteum suum mitteretur. Notum est etiam quia macellum Neapolitanum carnes illaesas a corruptione diu servare non potuit, unde et carnifices summa vexati sunt inedia. Sed hanc incommoditatem excepit Virgilii prudentia, carnem nescio qua vi herbarum conditam in macello recludentis, quae quingentis annis elapsis recentissima et saporis optimi suavitate commendabilis reperta est. Quid quod dictus vates hortum suum, aere immobili vicem muri obtinente, munivit et ambivit? Quid quod pontem aerium construxit, cuius

A. VIRGIL THE MAGICIAN

855

beneficio loca destinata pro arbitrio voluntatis suae adire consuevit? Romae item construxit nobile palatium, in quo cuiuslibet regionis imago lignea campanam manu tenebat. Quotiens vero aliqua regio maiestati Romani imperii insidias moliri ausa est, incontinentis proditricis icona campanulam pulsare coepit. Miles vero aeneus, equo insidens aeneo, in summitate fastigii praedicti palatii vibrans, in illam se vertit partem qua regionem illam respiciebat. Praeparavit igitur expedite se felix embola Romana iuventus, a senatoribus et patribus conscriptis in hostes imperii Romani directa, ut non solum fraudes praeparatas declinaret, sed etiam in auctores temeritatis animadverteret. Quaesitus autem vates gloriosus quandiu a diis conservandum esset illud nobile aedificium, respondere consuevit: ‘‘Stabit usque dum pariat virgo.’’ Hoc autem audientes, philosopho applaudentes, dicebant: ‘‘Igitur in aeternum stabit.’’ In nativitate autem Salvatoris fertur dicta domus inclita subitam fecisse ruinam.

Seneca and Lucan were born of noble Córdoba; the bard of Mantua was served by Naples, which, when it was troubled by a deadly plague of countless bloodsuckers, was freed when a golden leech was thrown by Virgil into the bottom of a well. When, after the passage of many years, this was drawn up from the well, which had been cleaned and cleared of rubble, an enormous horde of leeches filled the city, nor did the plague subside until the golden bloodsucker was tossed again into its well. It is known also that a Neapolitan meat market was unable to keep its meat untouched by rot for any length of time, for which reason the butchers were aΔicted with the utmost starvation. But the wisdom of Virgil did away with this misfortune. He enclosed in the market meat preserved by some potent herbs, which after the passage of five hundred years was discovered to be as fresh as possible and worthy of praise for the sweetness of its extraordinary taste. What of the fact that the aforesaid bard fortified and surrounded his garden, with motionless air serving the role of a wall? What of the fact that he built a bridge of air by the help of which he was accustomed to reach the places he wished by direction of his will? Likewise at Rome he built a magnificent palace in which a wooden statue of each province held a bell in its hand. Whenever any province dared to foment a plot against the majesty of the Roman empire, the image of the intemperate traitor began to bang on the little bell. A soldier of bronze, seated on a bronze horse, aquiver on the topmost gable of the aforementioned palace, turned itself in the very direction where it might look toward that province. As a result the fortunate Roman youth marshaled its forces speedily to face the enemies of the Roman empire, under the guidance

856

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

of the senators and conscript fathers, so that it might not only deflect the treachery that was in the o≈ng but also attend to the planners of the reckless act. When the exalted bard was asked how long that noble building would be preserved by the gods, he would respond: ‘‘It will stand right until a virgin gives birth’’ [see above, III.C.1]. Upon hearing this they applauded the philosopher, saying: ‘‘Therefore it will stand forever.’’ It is said that on the birthday of the Savior the stately home we have mentioned fell suddenly into ruin. (MP)

7. Wolfram von Eschenbach (flourished first quarter of thirteenth century) Wolfram von Eschenbach was a Middle High German poet whose extant works comprise, in addition to nine lyric poems, Parzival, Willehalm, and Titurel. Parzival, the earliest of the three narrative poems, was probably composed circa 1200–10. It is a vast adaptation, in nearly 25,000 lines, of the incomplete Perceval by Chrétien de Troyes (see above, I.C.51), and it survives in sixteen more or less complete manuscripts. In the portion of the romance devoted to the adventures of Gawan, the heroic knight asks Queen Arnive about the ancestry of Klingsor (Clinschor), a corrupt knight who became an evil magician and who imprisoned noblewomen in Schastel Marveile (Marvelous Castle). In response to Gawan’s question, Queen Arnive informs him that Klingsor is descended from Virgil. She states that Klingsor came from the Terra di Lavoro (see above, V.A.5.f), which was a region of Campania around Capua and Caserta. In the penultimate line the queen refers to unspecified ‘‘wonders’’ wrought by Virgil, and in the last line she emphasizes that Virgil was connected with Naples. As has been seen in earlier selections in this section, legends of such wonders linking Virgil with Naples are not attested until the twelfth century, in Alexander of Telese, John of Salisbury, Conrad of Querfurt, and others. Wolfram’s reference is too vague to pinpoint any particular source, and it is presumed that he knew of Virgil the magician from oral lore rather than reading. On the relationship of this passage to Virgilian legend, see U. Meves, ‘‘Die Herren von Durne und die höfische Literatur zur Zeit ihrer Amorbacher Vogteiherrschaft,’’ in Die Abtei Amorbach im Odenwald, ed. F. Oswald and W. Störmer (Sigmaringen, 1984), 136–37. The passage is book 13, lines 14– 17. (Text: Wolfram von Eschenbach, ed. K. Lachmann, 6th ed. [Berlin and Leipzig, 1926], 656) His [Klingsor’s] country is called Terra di Lavoro; he is descended from an ancestor who likewise created many wonders—from Virgil of Naples. (JZ)

A. VIRGIL THE MAGICIAN

857

8. Perlesvaus (1200–1240) The anonymous Perlesvaus, preserved in three manuscripts, is an Old French prose romance, written in the first half of the thirteenth century (whether in the first or the third decade has been much contended). Its topic is the Grail, as indicated by the title given in the prologue: Haut Livre du Graal (High Book of the Grail). It assumes that readers know the story as recounted in the unfinished Perceval, by Chrétien de Troyes (see above, I.C.51). The author claims to follow a clerk and hermit named Josephés, associated by some with the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (born in 37 or 38) and by others with the first bishop of Jerusalem and the first priest to celebrate the Eucharist, according to other texts in the Grail cycle. Perlesvaus contributes ‘‘a new device of Virgil’s making. It is a turning castle which will never stop whirling until a sinless knight of great courage comes’’ (VN 23). (Complete translation: N. Bryant, The High Book of the Grail: A Translation of the Thirteenth-Century Romance of ‘‘Perlesvaus’’ [London, 1978]) (Text: Le Haut Livre du Graal: Perlesvaus, ed. W. A. Nitze and T. Atkinson Jenkins, 2 vols. [1932–37; rept., New York, 1972], 1:250) (JZ) Here the tale relates that by the craft of his wits Virgil built [the castle] in such fashion, at a time when philosophers went in quest of the earthly paradise, and that it was prophesied that the castle would not cease revolving until the time when a knight should come who had a head of gold, gaze of a lion, heart of steel, navel of a maiden, freedom from baseness, valor of a man and of faith, and belief in God. And the knight would bear the shield of the Good Knight who took down from the cross the savior of the world. And it was also prophesied that all the people of the castle and of other castles of which he was guardian would hold fast to the Old Law until the time when the Good Knight had come; and for that reason the people of the castle said as soon as he came that he [the Good Knight] had come by whom their souls would be saved and their deaths spared; for as soon as he came they ran to baptism and believed firmly in the Trinity and held to the New Law; and thus there was great rejoicing in the castle for that their death had been spared, for they had feared that they would die in sin because of the false Law and that they would not be reached [and saved]. (JZ)

9. Dante See above, I.C.53, II.C.15, and II.F.8. At Inferno 9.19–33 we learn of Virgil’s having once before been in the underworld, conjured there by Eriton (= Erichtho [Lucan, De bello civili 6.507–830]). Virgil’s Sibyl, who guides Aeneas, had also been previously in the underworld (Aeneid 6.562–65). 858

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

10. Johannes Gobi Junior (died circa 1350) In a much-copied collection of exempla entitled Scala coeli (The Ladder of Heaven) the Dominican Johannes Gobi Junior, of French origin, relates briefly that Virgil created a magic mirror which made visible any imminent dangers to the city. Johannes interprets this marvel allegorically to mean that Virgil represents the Holy Spirit. (Text and discussion: AO 1014) (JZ) Legitur in Libello de Septem Sapientibus quod super columnam Virgilius fecit speculum prepulcerrimum, hujus proprietatis et condicionis quod quandocunque aliquod regnum propriabat bellum vel insidias illi civitati, statim in speculo relucebant omnia. Et tunc illi cives muniebant se et properabant ad bellum, ita ut semper per speculum salvarerentur ab hostibus suis. Loquendo spiritualiter iste Virgilius est Spiritus Sanctus qui in civitate vite presentis erexit columnam, et hec columna est crux Christi.

In the book about the Seven Sages, one reads that Virgil made a very beautiful mirror on top of a column. This mirror had the following property and nature: whenever any kingdom was preparing war or covert plots on that city [which had the mirror], all those things would immediately appear in the mirror. And then the citizens would fortify themselves and hasten to war, in such a way that they would always be saved from their enemies by means of the mirror. In a spiritual way of speaking, that Virgil is the Holy Spirit, who erected a column in the city of the present life, and this column is the cross of Christ. (JG)

11. Boccaccio See above, II.C.19, II.G.8, and III.E.11. In a series of lectures in 1373 on Dante’s Divine Comedy, Boccaccio commented on Inferno 1.70–71. Here he mistakenly cites Macrobius (see above, IV.C) as the source for his opening observation about Virgil’s location when writing the Aeneid, but in his De genealogia deorum gentilium 14.19 (see above II.C.19.a) he credits for this information a friend of Petrarch’s named Giovanni Barrili (died 1355). (Text: Giovanni Boccaccio Esposizioni sopra la Comedia di Dante, ed. G. Padoan [Milan, 1965]) Then, as Macrobius writes in the book of Saturnalia, he [Virgil] shows that while he wrote the Aeneid he stayed in a country villa. Where he doesn’t say, but, given what Octavian [Augustus] did with his [Virgil’s] bones, one presumes that that house was near Naples and adjacent to the promontory of Posillipo, between Naples and Pozzuolo. And he bore such love for that city that, being a most impressive magician, he accomplished there certain remarkable things with the help of astrology.

A. VIRGIL THE MAGICIAN

859

Accordingly, when Naples was boldly infested by a constant throng of flies, mosquitoes, and horseflies, he made there a fly of copper, which he constructed under a certain sign, placed on top of the wall of the city facing toward that direction from which the flies and horseflies came, from a nearby marsh. While it was allowed to remain in place, never did either a fly or a horsefly enter Naples. Likewise he made there a horse of bronze capable of curing every horse that had any pain or other natural ailment, after it had been led around it three times. Besides this he made two heads of carved marble, one of which was weeping and the other smiling, and he placed them on a gate that was called Porta Nolana, the one on one side of the gate, the other on the other. They had this quality: whoever came to Naples for any reason of his own and inadvertently entered [the city] by that gate, if he passed through the part of the gate where the head that wept was placed, he was never able to bring to completion the purpose for which he came there, and, if he did complete it, he suffered greatly and accomplished [his purpose] with great trouble and effort; if he passed through the other side, where the head was that smiled, he presently brought to a conclusion what he needed to. I believe that [Virgil] lived little in Rome, but it is believable that he sometimes went there. (MP)

B. MAGIC FIGURINES AND STATUES

1. Apocalypsis Goliae (1180) The Apocalypse of Golias is a long poem (440 verses in quatrains of rhythmical asclepiads) that enjoyed great popularity, being copied in more than fifty extant manuscripts of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Ascribed playfully to a ‘‘Bishop Golias’’ (whose name alludes equally to Goliath in the Bible and to gluttony), it satirizes the whole hierarchy of the Church. The composition takes the form of a springtime vision in which the poet is guided first by Pythagoras among the notabilities of antiquity and then by an angel into the upper heavens. The first part contains a reference to a legend in which Virgil fashions a brass figure of a fly to dispel these insects. (A variant reading of the second line in another recension reads more banally scribentem enee gesta virgilium [Virgil, writing the deeds of Aeneas].) (Discussion: P. G. Walsh, ‘‘Golias and Goliardic Poetry,’’ Medium Aevum 52 [1983]; VN 10–11 quotes a very loose Elizabethan translation of these lines.) (Text: K. Strecker, Die Apocalypse des Golias, Texte zur Kulturgeschichte des Mittelalters [Rome, 1928], 18) (JZ)

860

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

Lucanum video ducem bellancium, formantem ereas muscas Virgilium, pascentem fabulis turbas Ovidium, nudantem satyros dicaces Persium.

I see Lucan, leader of the warmakers; Virgil, shaping flies of brass; Ovid, feeding the throngs with fantasies; Persius, stripping naked the quick-tongued satyrs. (JZ)

2. Cino da Pistoia (circa 1270–1336 or 1337) Cino, who was born and died in Pistoia, was famed as both a jurist and a poet. He was a friend of Dante (see above, I.C.53, II.C.15, III.E.9, V.A.9), who cites him in the De vulgari eloquentia (On Eloquence in the Vernacular, 1303– 5) as one of the two poets of the dolce stil novo (sweet new style) who had helped to restore Italian language and literature to a standing comparable with that of Occitan and French. Later he was also a friend of Petrarch (see above, I.C.54, II.C.17, III.E.10), who cited his poetry and wrote a sonnet (Canzoniere, no. 92) on his death. The satirical poem that contains a mention of Virgil (Rime 36, lines 13–24) was composed in 1330–31 in Naples, when—at the invitation of King Robert the Wise (1309–43)—Cino lectured on the Justinian Code at the University of Naples; detailed lecture notes taken by Boccaccio (see above, II.C.19, III.E.11, V.A.11) still survive. The poem alludes to the marvel of the fly-repellent brass fly (mentioned by John of Salisbury [see above, V.A.2], the Apocalypsis Goliae [see above, V.B.1], Conrad of Querfurt [see above, V.A.4], Gervase of Tilbury [see above, V.A.5], and numerous others) in a diatribe against the Neapolitans. It is the first evidence in Italian of the Neapolitan legends about Virgil. (Discussion: [bibliography] VMA 346–47, with additions in VMA [Pasquali], 2:133 n. 2; VN 332; G. Brugnoli, ‘‘Lo ioco de Carbonara,’’ Italianistica 18 [1989], 341–45, especially 344 n. 10) (Text: G. Contini, ed., Poeti del Duecento, vol. 2: Dolce stil novo [Milan, 1960], 674–75) (JZ) O highest bard, how great a wrong you committed (you didn’t lay yourself down to die at Pietola, where you were born?) when you put the fly, to drive off the others, in such a place where all the wasps ought to come to sting those who stand on high in porticoes, like apes enthroned, without a tongue that can define any good or quality. Look at each one: you see all of them accomplices, worthy heirs of the men of old. (JZ)

B. MAGIC FIGURINES AND STATUES

861

3. ‘‘On the Perfection of Life’’ (Gesta Romanorum) The Gesta Romanorum (Deeds of the Romans)—also known as the Romanorum historia (History of the Romans)—is a collection of tales, drawn mainly from history and especially from legends about Rome, and intended for use in preaching. The collection probably took shape at the end of the thirteenth century in England or Germany. Emperors play the leading role in many of the exempla (short didactic tales used to point a moral), which are presented as ‘‘chapters.’’ Because Virgil was a preeminent figure from Roman antiquity, it was almost inevitable that he should appear in exempla in the Gesta Romanorum, but what is striking is that both of his two main appearances are connected with magic statues. In this exemplum, from chapter 57 [49], ‘‘De perfectione vite’’ (On the Perfection of Life), a smith named Focus violates an imperial decree by working on the birthday of the emperor’s son, threatens to break the head of a magic statue constructed by Virgil to detect violators, and convinces the emperor not to punish him. In the moralization Virgil is interpreted as being the Holy Spirit. (For more than two dozen other versions of this exemplum and for discussions, see IE 169, no. 2105.) (Text: Gesta Romanorum, ed. H. Oesterley [Berlin, 1872], 357–59) (JZ) Titus in civitate Romana regnavit, qui statuit pro lege, quod dies primogeniti sui ab omnibus sanctificaretur, et quicumque diem nativitatis filii sui per opus servile violaret, morte moreretur. Promulgata lege vocavit magistrum Virgilium et ait: ‘‘Carissime, talem legem edidi; verumtamen sepe in occulto poterunt [peccata] committi, ad quorum noticiam pervenire non potero. Rogamus ergo te, ut secundum industriam tuam aliquam artem invenias, per quam potero experiri quales sint illi, qui contra legem delinquunt.’’ Ait ille: ‘‘Domine, fiat voluntas vestra.’’ Statim Virgilius arte magica statuam in medio civitatis fieri fecit. Statua illa omnia peccata occulta in illo die commissa imperatori dicere solebat, et sic per accusacionem statue quasi infiniti homines erant condempnati. Erat tunc quidam faber in civitate nomine Focus, qui in illo die sicut in ceteris operatus est. Cum autem semel in stratu suo jacuisset, intime cogitavit, quomodo per accusacionem statue multi moriebantur. Mane surrexit et ad statuam perrexit et ait: ‘‘O statua, statua, per tuam accusacionem multi sunt positi ad mortem. Voveo Deo meo, si me accusaveris, caput tuum frangam.’’ Hiis dictis domum perrexit. Hora prima imperator sicut solitus erat nuncios suos ad statuam destinavit, ut ab ea quererent, si aliquis contra legem commisisset. Cum autem ad statuam venissent et voluntatem imperatoris dixissent, ait statua: ‘‘Carissimi, levate oculos vestros et videte, que scripta sunt in fronte mea.’’ Illi vero cum oculos levassent, tria in fronte ejus clare viderunt, scilicet ‘‘ ‘Tempora 862

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

mutantur, homines deteriorantur’ [proverbial hexameter]: qui voluerit veritatem dicere caput fractum habebit.’’ ‘‘Ite domino vestro nunciate, que vidistis et legistis.’’ Nuncii perrexerunt et omnia domino suo retulerunt. Imperator cum hoc audisset, precepit militibus suis, ut se armarent et ad statuam pergerent, et si aliquis contra statuam aliquid faceret, eum ligatis manibus et pedibus ad eum ducerent. Milites ad statuam perrexerunt, dicentes: ‘‘Placet imperatori, ut ostendatis illos, qui contra legem commiserunt, et quales erant illi, qui minas fecerunt.’’ Ait statua: ‘‘Focum fabrum accipite! Ille est qui in singulis diebus legem violat et michi minas facit.’’ Illum comprehenderunt et coram imperatore duxerunt. Ait imperator: ‘‘Carissime, quid est, quod audio de te? Quare legem editam violas?’’ Ait ille: ‘‘Domine, legem illam servare non possum, quia omni die octo denarios oportet me habere, et illos sine labore non potero acquirere.’’ Ait imperator: ‘‘Et quare octo denarios?’’ Qui ait: ‘‘Omni die per annum duos denarios teneor dare, quos mutuavi in juventute, duos accommodo, duos perdo, duos expendo.’’ Ait imperator: ‘‘De istis manifestius debes michi dicere.’’ Cui ait faber: ‘‘Domine mi, advertite me! Duos denarios omni die teneor patri meo, quia cum essem puer parvulus, pater meus duos denarios super me singulis diebus expendit. Jam pater meus in egestate est positus, unde racio dictat, quod ei subveniam in sua paupertate, et ideo omni die duos denarios ei trado. Duos alios denarios filio meo accommodo, qui jam ad studium pergit, ut si contingat me ad egestatem pervenire, michi illos duos denarios reddat, sicut ego jam patri meo facio. Duos alios denarios omni die perdo super uxorem meam, quia semper est michi contraria, aut proprie voluntatis aut callide complectionis, et propter ista tria quicquid ei dedero, hoc perdo. Duos alios denarios super meipsum in cibis et potibus expendo. Levius bono modo transire non potero et istos denarios non possum obtinere sine continuo labore. Jam audistis racionem. Detis ergo iudicium rectum!’’ Ait imperator: ‘‘Carissime, recte respondisti, vade et fideliter ammodo labora!’’ Post hoc cito imperator defunctus est, et Focus faber propter suam prudenciam in imperatorem eligitur ab omnibus, qui imperium satis prudenter regebat. Ipso mortuo inter alios imperatores imago ejus depingitur et ultra caput suum octo denarii. Carissimi, iste imperator est pater celestis, qui statuit pro lege, quod qui diem primogeniti sui violaret, morte morietur. Dies ista est dies dominica, sive dies festivalis ab ecclesia ordinata, unde in veteri lege ac nova dicitur: ‘‘Memento, ut diem sabbati sanctifices!’’ [Exodus 20.8] Sed heu proh dolor, B. MAGIC FIGURINES AND STATUES

863

plures illis diebus peccata majora committunt, quam ceteris diebus! Tales poterunt assimilari cuidam pisci in mari; tamdiu bene est sibi, quamdiu est in mari, sed si contingat a casu, quod saltat supra tempore pluvie, et pluvia eum tangat, incipit mori, nec per multos dies statum ejus poterit recuperare, quousque fuerit de aqua maris saciatus. Eodem modo aliqui, quamdiu sunt per totam septimanam in mari hujus mundi laborantes, tamdiu bene videtur eis; sed si contingat eos diebus festivis ad ecclesiam pergere, et aliquem dulcem sermonem vel missam audire, eis videtur, quod sint in magna angustia, quousque sunt in operibus mundanis refocillati. Virgilius certe, qui statuam fecerat, est spiritus sanctus, qui predicatorem ordinaverat, ut annunciet virtutes et vicia, penam et gloriam. Sed heu et proh dolor, jam poterit dicere predicator, sicut statua dixerat: ‘‘Tempora mutantur’’ [proverbial hexameter opening]. Hoc satis manifeste videmus in primitiva ecclesia, in statu omni, tempora erant meliora quam nunc, oraciones et preces quam modo. Terra dabat fructum suum magis habunde et omnia elementa, que sua erant, omnia sunt mutata propter peccata hominum, hoc apparebat in diluvio Noe. Secundo: ‘‘Homines deteriorantur’’ [proverbial hexameter close, with preceding]. Sicut clare videmus, in antiquo tempore erant homines magis devoti, elemosinarii, caritativi, quam modo sunt. Et quare? Quia totus mundus in maligno positus est. Tercio: ‘‘Qui voluerit veritatem dicere’’ etc. Modo, si predicator peccata potentum predicet, statim minas ac murmuraciones habebit. Unde Ysaias: ‘‘Loquimini verba placencia!’’ [Isaiah 30.10] Et ideo apostolus: ‘‘Erit enim tempus cum sanam doctrinam non sustinebunt’’ [2 Timothy 4.3]. Focus est quilibet bonus Christianus, qui fideliter sicut miles Christi laborat. Unde quilibet bonus Christianus tenetur singulis diebus patri suo celesti reddere duos denarios, scilicet amorem et honorem; amorem, quia nos tantum diligit, quod pro nostro amore unicum filium suum de celis descendere permisit et morte turpissima condempnari; honorem, quia omnia ab ipso procedunt et sine eo nullum bonum agere poterimus. Item duos denarios filio accomodamus. Cujusmodi filius est? Certe ille, de quo Ysaias: ‘‘Parvulus enim natus est nobis’’ [Isaiah 9.6] etc. scilicet filius Dei. Et quales denarios debemus ei accomodare? Certe duos omni die, scilicet bonam voluntatem et bonum actum, quamdiu sumus in hoc mortali corpore, et quando nos egeni sumus facti in die judicii, quando nudi apparebimus, tunc ipse nobis reddet illos denarios in vita eterna, sicut scriptum est: ‘‘Centuplum accipietis et vitam eternam possidebitis’’ [Matthew 12.29]. Item duos denarios perdimus super uxorem. Uxor ista est caro misera, que semper contrariatur spiritui. Denarii, quos expendimus super eam, sunt mala voluptas et actus malus, que continue operantur ex obliqua voluntate. 864

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

Istos duos denarios perdimus, quia graviter propter hoc hic vel alibi puniemur. Item duos denarios omni die expendimus super nosipsos, si boni Christiani sumus, scilicet dilectionem Dei in toto corde, et diligere proximum sicut teipsum. Carissimi, si istos octo denarios expendere volueritis, ad gaudium eternum pervenire possitis.

When Titus reigned in the city of Rome, he established as law that the birthday of his firstborn son should be held sacred by everyone and that whoever desecrated the day of his son’s birth by base labor should die. After this law had been proclaimed, he called Master Virgil and said: ‘‘Dearest one, I have decreed a law of this sort; but it will often be possible for o√enses to be committed at the discovery of which I will be unable to arrive. Therefore I ask you to find by your diligence some craft by which I will be able to find out who are the people who o√end against the law.’’ In reply he said: ‘‘Lord, your will be done.’’ Immediately Virgil had made a statue by magical craft in the middle of the city. The statue was accustomed to tell the emperor all the hidden o√enses that had been committed on that day, and thus an almost infinite number of people were condemned by the accusation of the statue. There was at that time in the city a certain smith named Focus, who worked on that day just as on the rest. However, when he had laid in his bedding once, he thought inwardly about how by the accusation of the statue many were dying. In the morning he arose, went to the statue, and said: ‘‘O statue, statue, by your accusation many have been put to death. I swear to my God that if you accuse me, I will break your head.’’ Having said this, he went home. At the first hour the emperor, as he was accustomed to do, dispatched his messengers to the statue, to ask it if anyone had committed an act against the law. However, when they had come to the statue and had declared the emperor’s will, the statue said: ‘‘Dearest ones, raise your eyes and see what has been written on my forehead.’’ When in fact they had raised their eyes, they saw clearly on his forehead three sentences, namely, ‘‘Times are changing; people grow worse; he who wishes to speak the truth will have his head broken.’’ ‘‘Go and announce to your lord what you have seen and read.’’ The messengers went and related everything to their lord. When the emperor had heard this, he ordered his soldiers to take up arms, to go to the statue, and if anyone should do anything against the statue, to lead him bound hand and foot to the emperor. The soldiers went to the statue, saying: ‘‘It pleases the emperor for you to point out the people who have committed acts against the law and who have made threats.’’ The statue said: ‘‘Seize the smith Focus! He is the one who violates the law every single day and makes threats against me.’’ They apprehended him and led him into the presence of the emperor. B. MAGIC FIGURINES AND STATUES

865

The emperor said: ‘‘Dearest one, what is this that I hear about you? Why do you violate the law that has been proclaimed?’’ Focus said: ‘‘Lord, I cannot preserve the law, because I am required every day to have eight denarii, and I cannot obtain them without working.’’ The emperor said: ‘‘And why eight denarii?’’ Focus said: ‘‘Every day throughout the year I am bound to give two denarii, which I borrowed in youth, two I lend, two I lose, and two I spend.’’ The emperor said: ‘‘You must tell me more openly about these matters.’’ The smith said to him: ‘‘My lord, listen to me! I am bound to give two denarii every day to my father, because when I was a little boy, my father spent two denarii on me every single day. Now that my father has been reduced to poverty, reason dictates that I should help him in his indigence and therefore I hand over to him two denarii every day. Two other denarii I lend my son, who is now pursuing his studies, so that if it should befall me to slip into poverty, he would pay back to me those two denarii, just as I now do to my father. Two other denarii I lose every day on my wife, because she is always contrary to me, or she has her own will, or she is of a cunning disposition. On account of these three, I lose whatever I give her. Two other denarii I spend on myself in food and drink. I cannot get by decently with any lighter expenses, and I cannot obtain these denarii without incessant toil. Now you have heard the explanation. May you therefore render a righteous judgment!’’ The emperor said: ‘‘Dearest one, you have replied rightly; go o√ and work faithfully from now on.’’ Soon after this the emperor died, and the smith Focus was elected emperor by all on account of his wisdom and ruled the empire quite wisely. When he died, his likeness was painted among the other emperors with eight denarii behind his head. Dearest ones, this emperor is the heavenly Father, who established as law that who should desecrate the day of his firstborn should die. This day is Sunday—or a feastday set by the Church, for which reason it is said in the Old Law and in the New Law: ‘‘Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day.’’ But alas and for woe, many commit greater sins on those days than on the rest! Such people can be likened to a certain fish in the sea; it goes well with it so long as it is in the sea, but if it should happen by chance that the fish leaps up in a time of rain and the rain should touch it, it begins to die, and it will not be able to regain its earlier state for many days until it has been sated with ocean water. In this same way some people, as long as they are toiling in the sea of this world throughout the week, find things good; but if it chances that they go to church on feastdays and hear some sweet sermon or mass, it seems to them that they are in great anguish, until they have been refreshed by secular works. Surely Virgil, who made the statue, is the Holy Spirit, which ordained the 866

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

preacher to announce virtues and vices, punishment and glory. But alas and for woe, the preacher will be able to say now as the statue said: ‘‘Times are changing.’’ We see this plainly enough in the early Church, in every status: times were better than now, orations and prayers were better than now. The earth produced its fruit more abundantly, and all the elements, which were hers, have been changed entirely on account of the sins of human beings; this was apparent in Noah’s flood. Secondly, ‘‘people grow worse.’’ Just as we see clearly, in ancient times people were more devout, more generous in alms, more charitable than they are now. And why? Because the whole world has been put in an ungenerous way. Thirdly, ‘‘he who wishes to speak the truth’’ and so forth. Now, if a preacher preaches on the sins of the powerful, at once he has threats and murmurings. For this reason Isaiah said: ‘‘Speak unto us pleasant things.’’ On this account the apostle [Paul] said: ‘‘For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine.’’ Focus is any good Christian, who toils faithfully as a Christian soldier. For this reason any good Christian is bound every single day to render his heavenly Father two denarii, which is to say, love and honor; love, since he loves us so much that for love of us he allowed his only son to descend from heaven and to be condemned to the vilest of deaths; and honor, since all things emanate from him and we cannot do any good deed without him. Likewise, we lend two denarii to a son. Of what type is the son? Surely it is that one, of whom Isaiah said: ‘‘For a child is born to us,’’ and so forth, which is to say, the Son of God. And what sort of denarii must we lend him? Surely two every day, namely, good disposition and good deed, so long as we are in this mortal body; and when we have become needy on the day of Judgment, when we will appear naked, then he will return to us those denarii in everlasting life, as has been written: You ‘‘shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting.’’ Likewise, we lose two denarii on our wife. This wife is the wretched flesh, which is ever opposed to the spirit. The denarii that we spend on her are evil pleasure and evil deed, which work incessantly on the basis of devious will. We lose these two denarii, since on account of this we will be punished harshly either here on earth or thereafter. Likewise, we spend two denarii every day on ourselves, if we are good Christians, which is to say, the wholehearted love of God, and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Dearest ones, if you wish to spend these eight denarii, you may be able to arrive at everlasting joy. (JZ)

4. ‘‘Salvation of Rome’’ (Gesta Romanorum) Of the many magical statues associated with Virgil, the most important was probably the so-called Salvation of Rome. According to this legend, Virgil B. MAGIC FIGURINES AND STATUES

867

constructed a wondrous palace that contained statues representing each area of the world under Roman rule. Whenever any of these regions considered revolting, its statue would ring a bell, and a bronze warrior atop the palace would brandish his lance toward the region. The story is related in writings on the seven wonders of the world as well as in guides to the antiquities of Rome. An influential account is found in Alexander Neckam (see above, V.A.6), from which is drawn the following exemplum associated with Gesta Romanorum (Appendix 186, germ. 18). Legends about the construction of such complicated automata have been shown recently to have fascinating parallels in Arabic texts, mainly of the tenth century c.e. (For other versions, see IE 385, no. 5095.) (Discussion of motif: VN 117– 35; N. Cilento, ‘‘Sulla tradizione della Salvatio Romae,’’ in Roma anno 1300: Atti della IV Settimana di studi di Storia dell’arte medievale dell’Università di Roma [Rome, 1983], 695–703; and U. Sezgin, ‘‘Pharaonische Wunderwerke bei Ibn Wasif as-Sabi’ und al-Mas’udi: Einige Reminiszenzen an Ägyptens vergangene Grösse und an Meisterwerke der alexandrinischen Gelehrten in arabischen Texten des 10. Jahrhunderts n. Chr. Teil IV, ’’ Zeitschrift für Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften 15 [2002–2003], 300–311) (Text: Gesta Romanorum, ed. H. Oesterley [Berlin, 1872], 590–91) (JZ) Reffert Allexander philosophus de naturis rerum, quod Virgilius in civitate Romana nobile construxit pallacium, in cujus medio pallacii stetit ymago, que dea Romana vocabatur. Tenebat enim pomum aureum in manu sua. Per circulum pallacii erant ymagines cujuslibet regionis, que subjecte erant Romano imperio, et quelibet ymago campanam ligneam in manu sua habebat. Cum vero aliqua regio nitebatur Romanis insidias aliquas imponere, statim ymago ejusdem regionis campanam suam pulsavit et miles exivit in equo eneo in summitate predicti pallacii, hastam vibravit et predictam regionem inspexit. Et ab instanti Romani hoc videntes se armaverunt et predictam regionem expugnaverunt. Mistice. Ista civitas est corpus humanum, quod quinque portas sive exitus habet, id est, quinque sensus; in hac civitate construitur nobile pallacium, id est, anima racionalis, in cujus medio stat quelibet ymago, aureum pomum habens in manu sua. Ista est similitudo, quam anima habet cum Deo, ergo bene aurea dicitur. Tria enim regna sunt, que nituntur pallacium destruere, id est, corpus et animam ad infernum trahere, quia semper impugnant illud. Et sunt tria regna tres inimici hominis, scilicet caro, mundus et dyabolus. Et iste regiones tres sunt ymagines; ymago mundi est cupiditas, ymago carnis est voluptas, ymago dyaboli est superbia. De quibus dicitur: ‘‘Omne quod est in mundo [1 John 2.16], per illo [sic] dampnatur.’’ Cum ergo homo considerat, quod isti tres inimici corpus et animam volunt perdere, et sic ymago, 868

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

id est, racio debet campanam pulsare et viriliter contra eos pugnare, ne fraudulenter se subjiciat suggestionibus.

The philosopher Alexander [Neckam] related in his On the Natures of Things that Virgil constructed in the city Rome a noble palace, in the middle of which stood an image called the goddess of Rome. It held in its hand a golden apple. Along the circle of the palace were images of each of those regions that were subject to the Roman empire, and each image had a wooden bell in its hand. When in fact a given region endeavored to mount a plot against the Romans, the image of that very region at once struck its bell, and a soldier went out on a brass horse at the peak of the aforementioned palace, brandished a spear, and gazed at the region in question. Immediately the Romans who saw this took up arms and stormed the given region. Figurative interpretation. This city is the human body, which has five portals or exits, that is, the five senses. In this city a noble palace is constructed, namely, the rational soul, in the middle of which stands an image, holding a golden apple in its hand. This is the likeness that the soul has with God; therefore it is aptly called ‘‘golden.’’ There are three realms, which endeavor to destroy the palace, that is, the body, and to drag the soul to hell, inasmuch as they always besiege it. These three realms are the three enemies of man, to wit, the flesh, the world, and the devil. These three regions are images. The image of the world is covetousness, the image of the flesh is bodily pleasure, the image of the devil is pride. It is said of them: ‘‘Everything that is in the world is damned by it.’’ Therefore, when a man considers that these three enemies wish to destroy the body and the soul, in this very way the image, which is reason, ought to beat the bell and fight manfully against them, so that he may not subject himself deceitfully to their notions. (JZ)

5. Huguccio of Pisa (died 1210) Huguccio was born in Pisa, but his birthdate is unknown. He studied in Bologna and later became bishop of Ferrara for two decades (1190–1210) before his death. There has been dispute over whether the Huguccio to whom works of canon law have been credited is identical with the one who wrote grammatical works. Among the latter works, the Derivationes (also known as the Magnae derivationes [Great Book of Etymologies] and the Liber derivationum [Book of Etymologies]) was the most influential; it is extant in more than two hundred manuscripts. It assembles etymological and lexicographic lore from antiquity and earlier in the Middle Ages within a framework in which words are organized according to principles of word derivation (hence B. MAGIC FIGURINES AND STATUES

869

its title). (Discussion: W. Suerbaum, ANRW 2/31.2 [1981], 1234–35) (Text: Uguccione da Pisa, Derivationes, ed. E. Cecchini and G. Arbizzoni, 2 vols., Edizione nazionale dei testi mediolatini 11, serie 1, 6 [Tavarnuzze, 2004], 248, 1285) (JZ) a. Colosseum Huguccio deals with Virgilian lore in two entries. First is the entry on the Colosseum, which makes no mention of Virgil himself, but it is relevant since it includes a description of the ‘‘Salvation of Rome’’ (see above, V.B.4) (without, however, identifying it by that name). (JZ) Unde hoc Colosseum, quidam locus Rome ubi olim erant ymagines omnium provinciarum, et in medio erat ymago Rome tenens pomum aureum in manu utpote regina et domina omnium; et erant disposite arte nigromantica quod quando aliqua provincia volebat insurgere contra Romanos statim ymago Rome obvertebat dorsum illius provincie ymagini vel, ut dicunt, ymago illius provincie insurgebat contra ymaginem Rome, et tunc Romani ex improviso mittebant illuc exercitum et provinciam illam subiugabant. Tali arte Romani totum mundum subiugavere.

From this [colossus, which Huguccio derives from ‘‘colens ossa’’] derives the Colosseum, a certain place in Rome where once there were images of all the provinces, and in the middle was the image of Rome, holding a golden apple in her hand, inasmuch as she was queen and mistress of them all. They were arranged there by magic craft so that when some province wished to rise up against the Romans, immediately the image of Rome turned its back to the image of that province or, as people say, the image of that province rose up against the image of Rome. Then the Romans without warning would send the army there and subdue the province. By such craft the Romans subjugated the whole world. (JZ) b. Virgil Item a virgula dictus est Virgilius, quia mater eius somniavit quod pariebat quandam virgulam, que usque ad celum pertingeret, quod nil aliud fuit nisi quod Virgilium pareret, qui sua sapientia, loquendo de astris, celum tangeret; unde virgilianus –a –um.

Likewise from virgula (little shoot) Virgil was named, inasmuch as his mother dreamed that she was giving birth to a certain shoot, which reached up to heaven; that was nothing else if not that she would give birth to Virgil, who would touch heaven by his wisdom, in speaking of the stars; whence [the adjective] Virgilianus, -a, -um. (JZ) 870

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

6. ‘‘About a Statue at Rome’’ In the legends about Virgil the conduct of women is often presented misogynistically. One legend reports that Virgil created a device, conventionally designated in modern scholarship as the bocca della verità (mouth of truth; see above, V, introduction), which was designed to bite o√ the fingers of adulteresses when they placed them in it and swore falsely. (A round stone associated with the legend is located today against the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome.) The device is reputed to have functioned as Virgil intended until a Roman empress swore an equivocal oath. Her stratagem was to have her lover disguise himself as a fool or madman and embrace her, seemingly inadvertently, before she took the oath. Thereupon she would be able to swear that only the emperor and the madman had been near her intimately. The legend may have originated in the fourteenth century. It is documented in Germany at the latest around 1425, although a couple of the relevant texts could be fourteenth century. The anonymous thirteen-strophe Middle High German poem that is translated here (the full title of which is ‘‘About a Statue at Rome That Bites O√ the Fingers of Unfaithful Women’’) could have been composed in the first half of the fourteenth century—but it could also be dated to the fifteenth century. The song is extant uniquely in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, cgm 5198 (sometimes designated the Wiltener Manuscript), folios 96r–98r (see also below, V.Q). A very similar story was part of the legend of Tristan and Isolt, which antedates this tale. Jean d’Outremeuse (see below, V.P) included an account of a head made of copper that performed successfully as a lie detector for identifying adulteresses. Accounts similar to both the German poem and Jean’s version survive from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The popularity of the motif was greatest in German, where the story was retold as number 206 in the collection of comic stories compiled by Johannes Pauli (circa 1450–circa 1533) under the title Schimpf und Ernst (1522), and as ‘‘Die kaiserin mit dem leben pild’’ (The Empress with the Animate Statue, 1563), by Hans Sachs (1494–1576); but it was also included in the Fleur des histoires (Flower of Histories), by Jean Mansel (sometimes further specified as d’Hesdin) (1400/1–1473/74). (Text: E. Du Méril, Mélanges archéologiques [Paris, 1850], 444–45) (Discussion: R. Hexter, Equivocal Oaths and Ordeals in Medieval Literature [Cambridge, Mass., 1975], 13–14) The tale was also incorporated into the Life of Virgil (see below, V.U), which survives in French, Dutch, English, and Icelandic. The latest version in this anthology is an ‘‘Olde Deceyte of Vergilius’’ (see below, V.V). (Discussion: VN 207–27; F. Schanze, ‘‘Virgils Zauberbild,’’ in Verfasserlexikon 10:381–84) (Text: K. Batsch, ed., ‘‘Gedicht auf dem Zauberer Virgilius,’’ Germania 4 [1859], 237–40, as emended by VMA [Pasquali], 2:212–16) (JZ) B. MAGIC FIGURINES AND STATUES

871

[1] At Rome Virgil revealed his skills on a statue that he made with his own hands. The statue had the power, skill, and instruction to shame publicly any woman who was unfaithful. Many a woman had to give two fingers to the statue as retribution. They are placed in its mouth and it bites off the fingers of the unfaithful, wounding them so that they must live from then on in disgrace. [2] Now listen to what happened. An empress of Rome incurred the wrath of the statue because she plotted to destroy it. She would gladly have been unfaithful. She feared only that the statue would not leave her deed unavenged. You will enjoy listening to what happened. The empress did not give up her desire; she was unfaithful. It happened with a knight. Alas, immediately a horn was seen growing from the head of the emperor. It bothered him greatly. [3] The emperor rode to the sea. With him were knights, servants, and a great army. He let them all see the marvel. He lamented his plight to many. He spoke: ‘‘God willing, I’d rather be dead. I fear I have been cuckolded by my wife.’’ The emperor had many sage advisers; he began to speak to them. He inquired of a wise man. He spoke: ‘‘Now give me advice. How should I go about avenging myself on my wife?’’ [4] The wise man replied: ‘‘Truly, lord, it seems prudent to me that we ride home. I speak without any disrespect, but you should inform yourself better about the rumor.’’ The emperor spoke: ‘‘I don’t want to wait any longer. I want to speak to my wife more thoroughly and ask about her guilt. She did me wrong by letting another come to her: She destroyed her honor and my trust.’’ [5] The emperor desired to return home. Thus he spoke to his wife: ‘‘Now tell me you cheated on me with another man. Ah, you evil she-devil, because of your lust, I wear this horn on my head. Today that will cost you your honor and your life.’’ The lady looked at the emperor; she could laugh happily. She spoke: ‘‘On account of that I will swear a thousand oaths and will prove rightfully that I bear no guilt in this matter.’’ [6] The emperor spoke: ‘‘That must take place in front of the statue so that many witness it that you are disgraced before all women.’’ The empress spoke: ‘‘I will gladly do that, since you will not give up your accusations against me, a poor woman. I will trust God and His mercy because I am not guilty in this matter, I swear to you truly. I fear the statue little. I will comply with the law as a pure woman. The knights and servants will see that.’’ [7] Listen to what the empress asked of the emperor before she went to trial. She desired one wish for herself. She spoke: ‘‘Name me a day when I

872

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

may have my best friends at my side.’’ The emperor spoke: ‘‘I will grant you that, for on that day you should send for your best friends.’’ She could do without all her friends and sent for the knight, for she enjoyed seeing him. She spoke to him: ‘‘Help me do something.’’ [8] Now listen to what she told the knight so that soon he turned himself into a fool. She spoke: ‘‘Love, do not be discouraged. As I proceed to trial, throw yourself under me; that is my heart’s desire. You should embrace me with your arms, draw me toward you, and give me hugs and kisses. Perhaps in this manner I will find a way to shut the statue’s mouth. In this manner both of us will retain our honor and our lives.’’ [9] The knight did what she commanded. How quickly he had his hair shaved like that of a fool! He had fool’s clothes tailored for himself. He made his way to the crowd. When he saw the noble empress being led there, he could not avoid her tender body. With both arms he embraced it and pressed it to him! Hugs and kisses were given to the noble empress, which were not unwelcome to her. The fool had to endure many blows and shoves! [10] Hear now how wisely the empress began when she went to trial. She directed her words toward the statue when she saw it for the first time. Hear how the woman swore to the statue so that it began to close its mouth. She spoke: ‘‘I do not deny the fact that there are two men here who have been touched by me. I will name them here publicly so that you, statue, and all the world may recognize them.’’ With that she began to defend herself from the statue. [11] ‘‘Now listen, statue, and mark my words. I stand here in defense of my fidelity, honor, and life so that you allow no harm to come to me. No man came close to me except the emperor and this pathetic fool whom every man has seen near me. Now take notice, statue, of what I tell you: I want to comply with the law.’’ She placed her fingers in its mouth. She spoke: ‘‘Now, statue, if I have sworn falsely, wound me.’’ The statue stood and dared not touch her. [12] Now listen to what the lady thought of when she withdrew her fingers from the mouth. Immediately she turned to the emperor. She spoke: ‘‘You see, my dear husband, you have done me, a poor woman, wrong. Look, my fingers are intact.’’ The husband spoke to the woman in a manner befitting an emperor: ‘‘I saw it all truly; no further harm shall come to you. Forgive me, for that I ask.’’ [13] The woman spoke: ‘‘Let it be done; I will permit it all by the will of God; He will recompense me for the shame that I have suffered here.’’ Immediately, the [cuckold’s] horn disappeared from the emperor. He could seat his

B. MAGIC FIGURINES AND STATUES

873

wife beside himself amicably. The emperor spoke to his wife: ‘‘You have won justly.’’ When she swore the oath, the statue broke immediately into a thousand pieces. It doesn’t bite anymore; its power has vanished. (WC)

C. VIRGIL IN THE BASKET AND VIRGIL’S REVENGE In the Middle Ages considerable attention was paid to stories about wise men who were brought to ruin by their susceptibility to attractive young women. For instance, Aristotle was reputed to have been humiliated by a young woman known alternatively as Phyllis or Campaspe. The lover of Aristotle’s tutee Alexander, she decided to teach the philosopher a lesson when Aristotle enjoined Alexander to stay away from her. She positioned herself so that Aristotle would see and hear her in an enticing way. After he became infatuated with her, she agreed to oblige his desires once he had let her ride him piggyback. Another example was the biblical prophet Solomon, who was reduced to idolatry in his old age by the young foreign women whose favors he sought. Just as in medieval legend the chief exponents of wisdom among the ancient Greeks and Jews were brought to ruin by young women, so, too, Virgil suffered the same fate. The legend of Virgil in the basket and Virgil’s revenge relates how the poet fell in love with the emperor’s daughter. Eventually she agreed to an assignation: she would raise him almost Rapunzel-style to her chamber in a basket one night. (If—as some have speculated—the tale originated in the Orient, then her chamber would have been a harem; VN 145.) But instead she left Virgil stranded halfway up. Unlike Aristotle and Solomon, Virgil avenged himself. Through his magic, he arranged for all the fires in Rome to be extinguished, and the only way to rekindle them was to place torches, candles, and the like at the backside or genitals of the emperor’s daughter. This scene is documented first in the thirteenth century as a kind of exemplum about Virgil (sometimes called Filius). It was often represented by medieval artists in a variety of media (see above, II.F.12), is alluded to frequently in lists of deceits perpetrated by women on men, and is recounted countless times both as an exemplum in its own right and as an episode in full ‘‘lives’’ of Virgil. The tale of Virgil in the basket was not originally associated with Virgil and reveals no connection with Virgil the magician, but already in the oldest extant versions it is associated with the revenge story, in which Virgil’s magical powers are essential to the narrative. (Discussion: VN 136–97 [basket] and 198–206 [revenge]; F. J. Worstbrock, ‘‘Virgil im Korb,’’ in Verfasserlexikon 10:379–81. On art and literature, see F. Maurer, ‘‘Der Topos von den ‘Minnesklaven.’ Zur Geschichte einer thematischen Gemeinschaft zwischen bildender Kunst und Dichtung im Mittelalter,’’ 874

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

Deutsche Vierteljahresschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 27 [1953], 182–206; and S. L. Smith, The Power of Women: A Topos in Medieval Art and Literature [Philadelphia, 1995]) (JZ)

1. Guiraut de Calanson, Fadet joglar 24.142–44 (circa 1215–20) Guiraut de Calanson (also known as Guirautz de Calansó) appears to have frequented the courts of northern Spain (Castile and Aragon). He is often termed a Gascon troubadour, but the basis for this assumption is only a vida (an often fanciful ‘‘biography’’). He composed, all in Occitan, ten extant lyrics and the Fadet joglar, a cross between a sirventes (satire and invective) and an ensenhamen (moral instruction) that comprises 240 verses. The incipit, Fadet joglar, is best translated as ‘‘Minstrel Fadet’’; the first element seems to be the name—or stage name—of the minstrel, while joglar is the Occitan equivalent of the French jongleur, the Latin ioculator, and the English juggler. In it Guiraut, while castigating a singer for his ignorance, describes feats of Virgil that such a joglar (professional entertainer) would be expected to know. The last in this short list of feats would seem to refer to the motif of ‘‘Virgil’s revenge,’’ which is probably attested here for the first time and appears next in Image du monde (Image of the World) (see below, V.H). Usually this motif followed an account of the humiliation (Virgil in the basket), and it is possible that the episode of the basket is described ironically in the first item (with the point being that in at least one instance Virgil did not know at first how to fend for himself against a woman). The mention of an orchard points to the common motif of Virgil’s wonderful garden. The motif of Virgil’s fishpond may have been a topos. In any event, it is also found in a text at the latest of the early sixteenth century, Les faictz merveilleux de Virgille (The Marvelous Deeds of Virgil) (VN 67; see V.U), and may have a basis in Neapolitan lore (VN 297–98). In his reference to Virgil the magician, Guiraut is typical of other troubadours. In the Purgatorio (6.75) Dante depicts an embrace between the Latin poet Virgil and the Italian troubadour Sordello of Mantua (circa 1200–1269), but the union is between two fellow Mantuans and perhaps between the two preceding poetic traditions—Latin and Old Occitan—most prized by the author of the Divine Comedy, rather than a reflection of any especially close relationship between Sordello or any of the other troubadours and Virgil. Although some of the Provençal poets show awareness of the Dido and Aeneas story and the poet of Virgil’s name, references to the legendary Virgil are more common. (Discussion: A. Roncaglia, ‘‘Les troubadours et Virgile,’’ in LMV 274–75; L. Rossi, ‘‘Noch einmal: Die Trobadors und Vergil,’’ Vox C . V I R G I L I N T H E B A S K ET A N D V I R G I L’ S R E V E N G E

875

Romanica 49 [1989], 58–76) (Text: F. Pirot, Recherches sur les connaissances littéraires des troubadours occitans et catalans des douzième et treizième siècles: Les ‘‘sirventes-ensenhamens’’ de Guerau de Cabrera, Guiraut de Calanson et Bertran de Paris, Memorias de la Real Academia de Buenas Letras de Barcelona 14 [Barcelona, 1972], 572) (JZ) . . . and of Virgil, how he knew how to protect himself against woman, and of the orchard, and of the fishpond, and the fire that he knew how to extinguish. (JZ)

2. ‘‘Deeds of the Romans’’ Of the many stories that became associated with Virgil the magician, the one that may have enjoyed the broadest di√usion relates a story of a love a√air that was not to be. The story of Virgil in the basket relates how Virgil, after being given an assignation by a woman he desired, was deliberately stranded for public humiliation inside the basket he had hoped to use as an elevator to reach his lady love. It is almost without exception paired with the story of ‘‘Virgil’s Revenge,’’ in which the sage avenges himself by causing all the fires in Rome to be extinguished, and the only way to rekindle them was to apply torches, candles, and the like to the woman’s private parts. The earliest extant version of the story seems to appear in a thirteenthcentury manuscript (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 6186, fol. 149v). Although the text begins by citing its source ‘‘in gestibus Romanorum’’ (in the deeds of the Romans), the famous Gesta Romanorum had not yet been compiled. The next major appearance of the story is in Jans Enikel (see below, V.I). Thereafter it finds a place in the dossiers of legends about Virgil in Image du monde (Image of the World) (see below, V.H) and Jean d’Outremeuse (see below, V.P). (Text: VN 372–73 n. 19; also included in EV 5.2, 487, no. 331, where it is designated Vita Parisina II ) (JZ) Legitur in gestibus Romanorum quod mirabilis prerogative specialis Virgilius, magice facultatis scientia circumspectus, Neronis tunc imperatoris Romane urbis familiaris extitit; cujus filiam elegantis forme titulo resplendentem, sicut assolet, carnali concupiscentie stimulo precordialiter adamavit, qui, sine precibus inducens, ab ipsa diligentis instantie articulis impetravit ut prefata Neronis filia ei locum atque tempus prefigeret oportunum, in quo prefatus magister virginis prescripte amplo desiderio fungeretur. Cumque ferventi desiderio concitatus, tempore noctis ad ipsius virginis habitaculum accessisset, accidit quod ipsa virgo, muliebris astutie imbuta maliciis, nobilem magistrum suis vestimentis omnibus denudatum admitteret in cophino, ipsum in medio turris altissime usque ad effusionem solis

876

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

detinuit in suspenso; ita arte positus desistebat quod ascendere vel descendere sine mortis periculo non valeret. Cujus facti per civitatem Romanam publica fama volans, fuit usque ad imperatoris noticiam ventilata. Qui, ad iracundiam facto tam detestabili provocatus intra se, quod facti malicia mortis sententia[m] merebatur, secundum approbatas consuetudines temporis et imperii, legaliter circumspexit. Qui licet in multis et experimentissimis esset culpis suis exigentibus affligendus, ab ipso imperatore gratiam optinuit specialem, ut quo mortis genere mallet mori sibi eidem contulit eligendum. Qui, minus grave mortis periculum sibi eligendo assumens, in balneo tepentis aque sibi minui postulans [read ‘‘postulavit’’]. Quod [read ‘‘cum’’] secundum sue electionis sententiam in balneo constitutus [esset], magicis artibus suffragantibus, apud civitatem Neapolitanam est translatus. Ubi, ab angustia Neronis imperatoris libere conservatus, infra [read ‘‘intra’’] civitatem Romanam duxit ignem taliter extinguendum, quod nisi in inferioribus virginis Neroniane reperiretur. Nullatenus valeret ignis remedium in civitate Romana aliter obtineri. Qui, videns summam maliciam super hoc i[m]minere, verecundiam filialem duxit generaliter promulgandam ut ex communis necessitatis redimeretur incursu, et, vocatis populis universis, eisdem generaliter intimabat ut quilibet ad filiam imperatoris accederet, ignem in ejus inferioribus optenturas [read ‘‘obtenturus’’]. Qui per fallacia hominis incantantis ignem in illis partibus invenerunt.

It is read in the deeds of the Romans that Virgil, who was extraordinary for his marvelous talent and distinguished by his knowledge of magic power, was a close friend of Nero, then emperor of the city Rome. Virgil, pierced to the heart by the goad of fleshly desire, fell in love, as is wont to happen, with the emperor’s daughter, who shone with the glory of graceful beauty. By persuading without entreaties, he obtained from Nero’s daughter through thoroughly persistent phrases that she would stipulate for him a convenient place and time in which Master Virgil should enjoy fully his desire for the young woman. But when, aroused with hot desire, he approached by night the dwelling of the young woman, it happened that the young woman, steeped in the evils of womanly cleverness, had the noble master, stripped of all his clothing, enter a basket. She kept him dangling in the middle of the very high tower until the sunlight was pouring forth. Placed by her craft in this way, he held back, because he could not go up or down except at the peril of death. Public report of this event flew through the city of Rome and was bruited about until it reached the attention of the emperor. He, prompted to anger

C . V I R G I L I N T H E B A S K ET A N D V I R G I L’ S R E V E N G E

877

within himself at so loathsome an event, considered in legal terms, according to the established customs of the time and empire, that the wickedness of the deed merited the death sentence. Although Virgil was to be tormented in many well-tested ways because his crimes so demanded, he obtained from the emperor himself the special boon that [Nero] granted him to choose in what manner he preferred to die. Taking for himself in his choice the least oppressive peril of death, Virgil asked to be bled in a bath of warm water. When according to his preferred manner of execution he was set in a bath, he was conveyed to the city of Naples through the aid of magic craft. There, kept safe in freedom from the hostility of Emperor Nero toward him, he caused fire to be extinguished within the city of Rome in such a way that it could not be found except in the lower parts of Nero’s young daughter. In no other way could a remedy for the lack of fire be found in the city of Rome. Nero, seeing that the highest evil loomed over this, caused the shame of his daughter to be made public knowledge so that the city could be relieved from the assault on common need and, having called together all the people, revealed to them as a group that whoever approached the emperor’s daughter would acquire fire in her lower parts. Through the deceits of the man’s enchantments, they found fire in those parts. (JZ)

3. Juan Ruiz (fourteenth century) The following excerpt of nine stanzas from Juan Ruiz’s Libro de buen amor (Book of Good Love) contains the most detailed compendium in Old Spanish of medieval legends about Virgil and by the most important Castilian poet of the fourteenth century. It is wrought as a narrative exemplum against lechery, but the outcome and lesson of Virgil’s enchantment are not completely clear. The general gist seems to be that the gleaming sheet of copper prompted the woman to give herself to him (perhaps because she mistook it for a more precious metal such as gold, or perhaps because she also thought it was resin, which was used for cosmetic purposes). (Discussion: F. Lecoy, Recherches sur le ‘‘Libro de buen amor’’ de Juan Ruiz [Paris, 1938], 168–71; J. Dagenais, ‘‘ ‘Il nostro maggior Musa’: Juan Ruiz and the Medieval Virgil,’’ in Medieval Iberia: Essays on the History and Literature of Medieval Spain, ed. D. J. Kagay and J. T. Snow, Ibérica 25 [New York, 1997], 143–57) (Text: Juan Ruiz, Arcipreste de Hita, Libro de buen amor, ed. A. Blecua [Madrid, 1996]) (LG) [260] Five noble cities were burned and destroyed because of lust, three for their wicked deeds, two not by their own fault, but by their neighbors’: ‘‘through such bad neighbors inheritances are lost.’’ [261] I do not want you nearby, nor should you come to me in such haste. 878

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

Virgil the sage, as the book says, was deceived by a woman when she dangled him in a basket and made him think she was hoisting him to her tower to have his way. [262] She dishonored him and made such mockery of his pleas that the great enchanter repaid her with an evil trick; the light of every candle he enchanted, and every fire as well, and all there were in Rome at once they died. [263] None of the Romans, to their misfortune, not even the most powerful being, could keep a fire lit unless it was kindled in the natural organs of that vile woman; no other lasted. [264] If fire was passed from one to another, or between candles, it died off at once; and they all came to her; there they rekindled it as if in a large, sparkling flame. Thus Virgil avenged his dishonor and complaint. [265] After such a dishonor, such great embarrassment (all to sate his lust for that woman), Virgil lifted his spell over fire, that wood once more could burn, and he performed another marvel, such as no man could ever dream. [266] The entire bed of the river in the city of Rome, the Tiber, with waters aplenty, fed by so many, its bed he turned to copper, more resplendent than resin. Thus your lust could women tame. [267] Once he had sinned with her, she felt scorned. She had a winding stairway built, planted with sharp knives, that in the ascent up the stairs Virgil could meet his end. [268] He found out what she had done because of his spell, and he never went to her again, no longer desired her; thus because of lust the world is truly scorned and people are dejected. (LG)

4. Giovanni Sercambi (1348–1424) Giovanni Sercambi was born in Lucca. After beginning a career in politics, he turned to writing. In his final years he wrote his Novelliere, a collection of 155 tales in the Tuscan dialect of Italian, influenced by Boccaccio (see above, II.C.19, II.G.8, III.E.11, and V.A.11). The individual tales bear titles that bring out their similarities, often superficial, to exempla used in preaching. (Text: Giovanni Sercambi, Il novelliere, ed. L. Rossi, 3 vols., I Novellieri italiani 9 [Rome, 1974], 1:279–82, exemplo 48) (JZ) On Proper Love and Just Revenge. About Virgil, when he was caught hanging in the middle of a wall, for love of a daughter of the emperor who was named Hypsipyle. Before Christ became incarnate in the Virgin Mary, there was in Rome an emperor named Hadrian, who had a daughter of his, a grown maiden, named Hypsipyle, whom the emperor kept in a very beautiful tower by night and C . V I R G I L I N T H E B A S K ET A N D V I R G I L’ S R E V E N G E

879

sometimes by day, whenever she did not go out from home, as on rare occasions she went strolling through Rome. It happened that at that time the poet Virgil was driven out of Mantua. Virgil, a poet and great master in the art of necromancy, arrived in Rome and remained there for a long time. Seeing Hypsipyle one day and taking a fancy to her (it was the month of May), he fell in love with her to the extent that he could not wait long to tell Hypsipyle the boon he wished from her. After many words, Hypsipyle, to trick him, responded that she was content to yield to Virgil’s desire, but that she saw only one way in which he could come to her and that it was very tiring, and yet she thought that it could be done. The way was as follows: that after she had sought permission from her father to have drawn up into the tower a basket of roses, Virgil would have to enter that basket of roses, and she would pull him up, and they would take their pleasure. Afterward he would return by the same means. This is the sort of response she gave to Virgil. Virgil, whom love for her had blinded, was content and said that he was ready to enter the basket, and she pulled him up. With the business arranged, Virgil entered the basket covered with roses. False Hypsipyle pulled Virgil up to the middle of the tower and then left him hanging there all night long until midday. Virgil, seeing himself deceived and not seeing himself going either up or down for a long time, in desperation wanted many times to get out of the basket and let himself fall; but he strengthened his heart with the thought of avenging himself in due course for the foul play done him by Hypsipyle, and he refrained from getting out of the basket. To wicked Hypsipyle, after she had made Virgil suffer more than sixteen hours, it seemed time to shame him. She sent for her father, the emperor, and when he came, she said: ‘‘O father dearest, avenge me of the shame that a wicked man wished to do me.’’ The emperor said: ‘‘Who has been so bold as to wish to shame the emperor’s daughter?’’ Hypsipyle said: ‘‘Father dearest, after you gave me permission to pull up a basket of roses into the tower, a Virgil from Mantua tricked the man who brought the roses, entered into the basket, and I had him pulled up, covered as he was with roses. And since I saw that it weighed a lot and since I considered that roses ought not to weigh so much, I went to the window of the tower when it had been pulled up midway, and I saw Virgil. Seeing that, I stopped the rope so that you could see him, father, and do him the punishment he deserves.’’ The emperor, going to the window, saw Virgil, and at once he made him go down and put him in prison, and after much deliberation it was decided

880

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

that Virgil should die. The day came when Virgil was supposed to die, and the death sentence had been made known to him. Virgil had been led to the place of execution when suddenly with one of his magic tricks he had a basin full of water brought to him by a member of his retinue, he put his face in it, and he said: ‘‘Who wishes to find Virgil, let him go to Naples to seek him.’’And at once he was taken by evil spirits and put in Naples. When the emperor heard of this, he marveled at Virgil’s escape; and Virgil did not let much time pass before he sought to revenge himself for the deceit done him by Hypsipyle. By magic he soon caused that in Rome fire could not be found, brought by any means, or made. Seeing this, the emperor was entreated by the people about it. They said: ‘‘We are perishing, and we are compelled to leave Rome if we do not wish to die.’’ The emperor did not know what the cause of this circumstance was, and he made no reply. Virgil, who knows everything, sent the message to the emperor that fire would never be found in Rome except the fire that could be taken from the bottom of his daughter, Hypsipyle. He made known that if anyone kindled a fire for another, both his own and the one he kindled would be extinguished. The emperor, seeing the plight of the Roman people, considered the shame of his daughter to be of secondary importance and decreed that she should stay in the public square with her bottom uncovered and raised up nude. And who wanted some fire should go with cotton wool, cloth, or tow and place it at the bottom of Hypsipyle, and presently it would be set on fire. And in this way it happened that everyone in Rome, male and female, saw the bottom of Hypsipyle because she did not want Virgil to see it. And thus she and the emperor were shamed more than any people ever. (JZ)

5. Virgilessrímur Although the conventional modern title Virgilessrímur (alternatively, Virgílius rímur) could be translated roughly by cognates as ‘‘Virgil Rhymes,’’ in its final stanza the poem refers to itself as Glettudiktar (The Poem of Pranks). Rímur represented a popular genre of stanzaic epic poetry in medieval Icelandic, employing both end-rhyme and alliteration, as well as extended, and often opaque, metaphors. In this translation, these metaphors are glossed in square brackets. Often rímur are long enough to be divided into cantos or fits (known as rímnaflokkar). Virgilessrímur comprises two such cantos, to which internal reference is made at the beginning of the second. As with most other rímur, this poem is of uncertain date; most authorities place its composition in the period 1300–1450. The two manuscripts in which it is preserved (Stockholm, Kungliga Biblioteket [Sveriges Nationalbibliotek],

C . V I R G I L I N T H E B A S K ET A N D V I R G I L’ S R E V E N G E

881

cod. Holm 22, 4o and cod. Holm 23, 4o) date to the late 1500s. Unconnected to this work is the later Icelandic Virgilíussaga (Virgil Saga), a 1676 translation of a Dutch text (see below, V.U). In general, critics dwell on Virgilessrímur only long enough to give a précis of the poem and comment on its various literary shortcomings. This negative view may result from the poem’s violent sexual imagery, but here Virgilessrímur exploits the frequent medieval collocation of fire and female genitalia in the punishment of adulterers. Virgilessrímur displays a number of unusual and interesting features, including Virgiles’s being drawn up on a rope without a basket, a precious belt secured from him by the princess, his falling to the ground, and the need for bellows to kindle the flame in the woman’s genitalia. Apparently borrowed from the fabliau of Aristotle and Phyllis is the noblewoman’s wild ride on Virgiles, who transforms himself into a horse at her request. Last but not least, the poem is atypical among treatments of Virgil in the basket and Virgil’s revenge in emphasizing explicitly that its protagonist, here designated as Virgiles, is indeed the great poet. (Discussion: B. K. ªórólfsson, Rímur fyrir 1600, Safn Fræ®afjelagsins um Ísland og Íslendinga 9 [Copenhagen, 1934], 4, 236, 267, 330–32; VN 162–63; J. Benediktsson, ‘‘Vergil: Island og Norge,’’ in Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder fra vikingetid til reformasjonstid, ed. J. Brøndsted et al. [Copenhagen, 1956–78, rept. 1982], 19: cols. 654–59; R. Simek, Lexikon der altnordischen Literatur, Kroners Taschenausgabe 490 [Stuttgart, 1987]) (Text: F. Jónsson, ed., Rímnasafn: Samling af de ældste islandske rimer, Samfund til Udgivelse af gammel nordisk Litteratur: Skrifter 35 [Copenhagen, 1905–22], 843–58) (GS and SM) Canto I [1] It’s hard for men to make poetry: the poet must fall silent; although I compose about a land-of-thorns [woman], it helps not at all. [2] First of all, we’ll depart the learning-strand and launch the ship-ofBerling [poetry]; there’s a master in the southern lands, to whom learned clerks do homage. [3] In making the ship-of-Vestri [verse], I have done my utmost and chosen the best material about the wise carriage-of-rings [woman] and the steerer-of-the-meeting-of-swords [man]. [4] Virgiles was the name of a verse-smith, he was the leader of wise clerks; the man was keen on studying, as it says in many books. [5] He has known clerks throughout the wide world and made them change their evil ways; with glory he parted from all of those he encountered in foreign countries.

882

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

[6] To many, articulate scholarship turns obscure when they are filled with love; I want to relate an adventure about such a man. [7] Many a goddess-of-necklaces [woman] did he gladden; mostly giving in to his desire, each one opened up for love if he asked for a fuck. [8] A king ruled a huge palace, everything was going his way; a glorious pine-of-finery [woman] had he, a daughter he raised in honor. [9] The ruler invited Virgiles to his home, [asked him] to accept a great feast, where with both honor and gold his fortune might unfold. [10] Next to the Niblung [king] he sits in the palace, there is plenty of the white wine; the adorned guardian-pine [woman] he was very keen on watching. [11] Virgiles said to the ruler: ‘‘Very fine is the prince’s daughter; eager am I to meet the blonde linden-of-red-rings [woman]. [12] ‘‘I do not forbid [to you] the bearer-of-necklaces [woman], and the two of you may meet; there you will hear wise words, for she is full of learning.’’ [13] He rushed to the women’s bower, the clever lady to meet: ‘‘Master, go to the wise one and sit down,’’ says the powerful woman [her maid]. [14] Book-learning and all kinds of tricks they both—so I’ve heard— could discuss; no other fir-of-riches [woman] had he found of this kind. [15] ‘‘The maid is wise,’’ said Virgiles. ‘‘I want to take you in my arms, for that [purpose] I was eager to come hither, few things need to be taught to you.’’ [16] The dearest bearer-of-finery [woman] responded: ‘‘A fool you can be called, if you speak these words more often, for you shall hardly thrive.’’ [17] At that Virgiles departed, wishing to hear no more—that is how I heard his anger and sorrow grew—of this divine midwife’s [woman’s] words. [18] The fertility-god-of-weapon-tips [man] came another day to find the fir-of-riches [woman]; the earlier visit was of little use, so he asked about this: [19] ‘‘Now listen, land-of-rings [woman], to how this must proceed: either you respect my longings, or you’ll catch the greatest grief. [20] ‘‘If you, maiden, want to resist me, I’ll have to use some tricks; then the shame will be on you, if we must go about it that way. [21] ‘‘If you submit to my will, and do it nicely, your might will not diminish, and no one will hear about it.’’ [22] The bride answers and her cheeks blanch, she knew more tricks: ‘‘I will gladly do what you want, if no one will hear about it.’’

C . V I R G I L I N T H E B A S K ET A N D V I R G I L’ S R E V E N G E

883

[23] Surely Virgiles cheered [at this]. He was like so many others, the god-of-swords [man or penis] quivered in anticipation of the dark night to come. [24] The sun moves off the mountains, went into the long sea; by generous leave the leader allowed Virgiles to depart. [25] Shortly and secretly he sneaks away to seek the lofty bower; for me, it is trouble enough to get together with my love somehow. [26] The master went out in the darkness, just like any other innocent fellow, finds that which hardens his sorrow, where a rope, plaited like cable, is hanging. [27] The rope he winds silently around himself and then tugs at the end of it; the maids then drag him up, those who know how to twist virtues. [28] Halfway up they dragged the master, great is the anger of women, ‘‘Let him wait there,’’ said the carriage-of-rings [woman], ‘‘until the sun shines bright in the pellucid heavens.’’ [29] He stroked the rope and rattled the bower. What has the gentlewoman in mind? One can hear foolery and laughter up there, forgotten now were all graces. [30] Quickly he removed his belt and tied it to the twisted rope, little nearer was he then to the ground, [yet] some tricks he had to perform. [31] The tip he held with both hands, jerks it up and down for a long time; the plaited braid came free; muck and rubble are underneath. [32] The fall was such that his foot broke, a cut he got on his hand; I would curse the valkyrie-of-rings [woman], if I were to get something like that from a woman. [33] The artful one pulls up the line, silently the board-of-snakes [woman] does that; his belt was adorned with gold, and there was plenty in his pouch. [34] He is strong enough then to go home to the loft where the lads slept; ‘‘I’ve been jumping on the street and hurt myself badly.’’ [35] He lay down in bed and had splints on his leg; the hard-ring-ofsorrow [anxiety] presses against his heart, the man is deprived of joy. [36] The man then visits doctors without much delay; they order the limb to be tied up, the cut on the hand heals nicely. [37] Even though he had hale legs and usable shoulder-girders [arms], the warrior lies day and night, sad sorrows has he. [38] The queen sent a maid for this [purpose]: ‘‘About this you shall ask, you shall get the wise Virgiles, I want to see him.’’ [39] The maid speaks to the tree-of-necklaces [man]: ‘‘ ‘Grief can only

884

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

cause harm’—go to meet the land-of-rings [woman], she will pardon you quickly.’’ [40] Virgiles jumped swiftly to his feet and put on his scarlet finery; he was glad from the bottom of his heart, [and] cast aside grief and sorrow. [41] He hastened to the chamber to meet the bright lady; ‘‘Have you been in great distress?’’ the woman asked. [42] ‘‘I will give you all my love—you are the best of clerks—if you would grant me this: change immediately into a horse.’’ [43] ‘‘I don’t know why you ask for this, you gentle-gaited goddess-ofrings [woman]’’; the verse-smith turned himself into a horse, I’ve heard the lady was quite shocked. [44] She bridled the eager horse and cinched tight the fine saddle; spurs she had fastened to her feet, [for] the woman is keen on riding. [45] The spurs were fashioned with sharp goads to pierce the [animal’s] flanks; the maiden galloped off on the saddle-blanket-hart [horse], [and] the hills swelled with her hard riding. [46] On over lava and hard ravines rides the silk-goddess [woman]; often the snow reached up to the saddle-blanket, frequently a ditch was explored. [47] The virgin rode on the rocks such that sparks sprang up; hooves cracked on the lava, the horse’s frog was hurt on the stone. [48] The spur hit the head hard, warm blood flowed from the wounds; the spurs slice the sides sharply, nary a dry spot’s to be seen on the groin. [49] All day at high speed the willow-of-riches [woman] rides; the whip often hardens on the sides, the last thing she wants is to tarry. [50] The day was coming to an end when the lady rode to visit her hall; the virgin had to slow down the ride, it became much easier to stay seated. [51] The lady pulled the saddle off the steed and lifted the bit over its forehead: ‘‘Run, son-of-the-mighty-one [man], instead of embracing me.’’ [52] Virgiles was battered and breathless and could hardly walk; in that fashion, the wise lady has often conquered clever heroes. [53] He crawls home to the lofty room, lies down in bed. The first part of the Fjölnir’s-wine [poem] will now rest for a while. Canto II [1] Earlier [in the first canto] the fine ship of Austri [poetry] arrived at the lands of verse; this work will be considered of high quality if its smithing is of that sort. [2] I was told that the headdress-field [woman] deprived the hero of grace; thus most quickly does one become weary, all plans come to an end.

C . V I R G I L I N T H E B A S K ET A N D V I R G I L’ S R E V E N G E

885

[3] The clerk regained his health, and not very quickly, [now] he feels eager to ride; I cannot relate to men very clearly whether he traveled widely [or not]. [4] The thane rode away, as was to be expected, and thanks the king for the honor; he did not say farewell to the wealth-of-the-goddess [woman], [and] she held on to all her blossom. [5] Renowned is how that mocking was performed by the bearer-of-rings [woman]; their correspondence the goddess-of-ornaments [woman] embroiders on the borders of her clothing. [6] Every old crone speaks mockingly about it, women and children say: ‘‘Virgiles seems to want to seduce all the ladies around here.’’ [7] The king expresses his anger toward those who speak of the clerk’s problem; I shall have to tell men of what was still about to happen. [8] Early in the king’s hall men stood all dressed; the enemies-of-thetwigs [fire] had cooled down, that is what is told. [9] The cooks run around the streets and over the squares, scurrying to do their jobs; no fire was then found in the city, everyone wondered at this, I heard. [10] Thanes fetch fire then, they felt things were looking sad; but people felt a pang: the fire goes out, as soon as they come within sight of the city. [11] So it went for more than a month, fire could not be enjoyed; the king sees that soon he must suffer the city’s devastation. [12] The monarch leaves the hall, his people feel that something’s afoot; a certain man then came to meet him, no one will wonder at that. [13] Old-looking was the user-of-arrows [warrior], his hair was all gray; the destroyer-of-steel [warrior] had a great coat of hairy hides. [14] Most magnificently he hailed the king, [he] knew how to greet well; ‘‘Lord, your fire has gone out, it is laughed at far and wide. [15] ‘‘I deem it the duty of a sovereign’s son to realize such a danger; have you, prince, not had some solutions sought?’’ [16] ‘‘It is certain that happiness has come to a halt, the mind’s wisdom has expired; say, however, if you see some way out, truly, you would benefit from that.’’ [17] ‘‘That would seem like mockery to [your] subjects, even though the hardships bring them to ruin; I am therefore reluctant to give advice; truly, that is a problem. [18] ‘‘Call an assembly in this city, hold it within three nights; neither in the country nor in city squares shall men stay at home. [19] ‘‘Prepare a forge on a high mound, and have there eight bellows; fire will burn on the fourth rising of the sun, I want the king to confirm that. 886

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

[20] ‘‘Lord, have your daughter disrobed by servants; the goddess-ofriches [woman] will not be harmed, I guarantee this. [21] ‘‘Four clever heroes should hold the woman’s legs apart; [her] head should lie upon the mound, and all should strengthen the bellows’ blast. [22] ‘‘For the bellows’ wind should both the bride’s thighs be spread; no one except the linden-of-riches [woman] can remedy this situation for the king.’’ [23] The ruler said this to him, I shall assemble his words: ‘‘I will hang that son-of-the-mighty-one [man] who mocks my daughter.’’ [24] ‘‘The gallows will not kill me, you shall escape a disaster; heed the advice, king, that for you will turn out for the best.’’ [25] The old man sets off for the woods, that is the end of their meeting; on the other hand, the prince thinks about the task, [and] how it would turn out for him. [26] He reckons in the quarrelsome city [literally, ‘‘city of quarrel’’] that he should try this: a call for an assembly he sends to the city’s squares, [but] it is to be hidden from the queen. [27] It was so thick with men at the assembly, that there’s hardly a precedent; still the king had his daughter summoned there by his men. [28] The queen came with a retinue of women, she knew well all learning; each man who saw the ring-tree [woman] was barely able to withhold his pity. [29] The bride turns to the forge, intends to stand still; ‘‘Now is the time,’’ said the mighty king, ‘‘for people to use their hands.’’ [30] Many men seize the necklace-tree [woman] and strip off her clothes; all the assembly looked at the woman, the ruler also sees this. [31] Her head they turn downward, holding up both her feet; little peace had the woman, stripped was the queen of her grace. [32] People hold the thighs apart and look between legs; there was heat but no spark, hard must needs be the blowing. [33] With such force the bellows were blown that groins bellowed; Virgiles was hardly sparing in repaying the woman for [her] mockery. [34] The cold blowing went slowly, the heroes use their strength; the champions were tortured by this, I say it tired most of them. [35] Two long hours passed, sweat comes out of the men; no closer to a bright fire, than if a cold stone were blown at. [36] The lordly men take shifts at the blowing, they were not ordered to please themselves; finally, even though there was a long wait, it came to the point that fire and smoke broke loose.

C . V I R G I L I N T H E B A S K ET A N D V I R G I L’ S R E V E N G E

887

[37] Sparks flew quickly from the fire, indeed the situation improves in the smithy; the people now became surprisingly happy and rejoice in their work. [38] There came the old fellow who’d given the advice, has a candle in hand: ‘‘Here the fire has reached the arse, noble is this wench.’’ [39] Lordly men brought their logs there and run home with fire; neither fire nor bath was lacking to heroes on that night. [40] Never did the fire burn out, the woman constantly cowered down, until fire had accompanied every subject home to his house. [41] Then the flames started to flicker, I heard that the woman said: ‘‘Mockery and disaster have I received from this man. [42] ‘‘It was proper,’’ said the oak-of-necklaces [woman], ‘‘though I should hardly enjoy any prestige; I was so stubborn in this game by not yielding to any man. [43] ‘‘Whoever among noble women makes sport of a tree-of-riches [man], may a fire burn between both [her] legs, and I command that it not go out. [44] ‘‘The mockery and harm [from this] I have confirmed,’’ spoke the woman from her heart: ‘‘Women should avoid at all costs resisting any man. [45] ‘‘Whoever gives a good kiss and then does not want to make love, cruelly will the man repay the goddess-of-the-golden-diadem [woman] for such behavior. [46] ‘‘Whoever promises her favor and then is not prepared [to keep the promise], may that floozy follow my example, truly, I can swear to that. [47] ‘‘Boys have often written about this, that many a woman is tortured thus; so befalls every doorway-of-riches [woman] if she does not know how to react.’’ [48] Wisely-spoken was this field-of-weaving [woman], she who knew how to harden the spurs; the solid words the woman spoke may never be ignored. [49] My poems are kindled from that which made the heroes happy; brave men should let this wine-of-Golnir [poetry] be called ‘‘The Poem of Pranks.’’ (GS and SM)

6. Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (1405–64) Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini wrote prolifically, both before and after becoming Pope Pius II (1458–64). Besides writing—to give only a sampling of his works—on history (De gestis Concilii Basiliensis commentariorum libri II [Two Books of Commentaries on the History of the Council of Basel]) and geography (Historia Bohemica [History of Bohemia], Cosmographia), he produced 888

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

an autobiography entitled Commentarii rerum memorabilium (Commentaries on Notable Matters). His humanist devotion to the classics, Virgil above all, is apparent in most of his writings. (Discussion: N. Seeber, Enea Vergilianus: Vergilisches in den ‘‘Kommentaren’’ des Enea Silvio Piccolomini [Pius II], Commentationes Aenipontanae 30 [Innsbruck: Universitätsverlag Wagner, 1997]) That it did not fall by the wayside after his elevation to the papacy in 1458 can be inferred even from his name as pope, since Pius II plays upon the epithet in pius Aeneas: he may have viewed his life as tracing a moral progression similar to that understood by Landino (see above, IV.V) and others in the first six books of the Aeneid. In the summer of 1444 Piccolomini composed a novella entitled Historia de duobus amantibus (Story of Two Lovers), also known after its two chief characters as Historia de Euryalo et Lucretia (Story of Euryalus and Lucretia). Although he repudiated it shortly thereafter and devoted himself more consistently to his career in the Church, the novella enjoyed a great popularity. In a Latin laced with quotations and allusions (particularly to Virgil’s account of the Dido and Aeneas episode), it relates a story of adulterous love between Euryalus, a high-ranking soldier favored by the Holy Roman emperor, and Lucretia, the beautiful and virtuous wife of a nobleman. Section 15 contains a mention of Virgil in the basket. (Discussion: E. Leube, Fortuna in Karthago: Die Aeneas-Dido-Mythe Vergils in den romanischen Literaturen vom 14. bis zum 16. Jahrhundert, Studien zum Fortwirken der Antike 1 [Heidelberg, 1969], 165– 72) (Text: De duobus amantibus historia, ed. J. I. Dévay [Budapest, 1904]) (JZ) Aspice poetas: Virgilius per funem tractus ad mediam turrim pependit, dum se muliercule sperat usurum amplexibus. Excuset quis poetam ut laxioris vitae cultorem.

Consider the poets. Virgil, drawn up by rope, hung halfway up the tower as he hoped to enjoy the embraces of a mere woman. Anyone might excuse the poet, as practitioner of a less moral life. (JZ)

7. Virgil and Ovid as Rivals Virgil was not the only classical poet around whom legends proliferated. An interesting intersection between the legendary Virgil and the equally legendary Ovid appears in a fabliau-like anecdote about the two that features in an accessus (introduction) to the Tristia, Heroides, and Amores. This accessus is found in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 631 (twelfth–fourteenth centuries), folios 148r–148v. (The episode also figures in at least one other version, in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 8255 [fourteenth century], edited by F. Ghisalberti, ‘‘Medieval Biographies of Ovid,’’ Journal of the Warburg and C . V I R G I L I N T H E B A S K ET A N D V I R G I L’ S R E V E N G E

889

Courtauld Institutes 9 [1946], 50 [appendix H].) The incident has no basis in historical reality, not the least because Virgil died decades before Ovid’s banishment by Augustus. The motivation behind Virgil’s action is left unexplained, but a likely explanation is that the young woman (sometimes the emperor’s daughter) with whom Virgil is said to have been infatuated in the story of Virgil in the basket was assumed to be identical with the emperor’s daughter associated with Ovid’s exile. Perhaps significantly, Virgil is connected with the emperor’s daughter in a widely attested preaching exemplum. According to the summary of the tale designated ‘‘Pound of Flesh’’ in IE (298, no. 3867), ‘‘A knight pledges all the flesh on his body to raise money for a third night with the emperor’s daughter. With Virgil’s help, he wins the princess who saves him from the penalty of his bond.’’ At the same time, the tale enacts in supposed real life the jockeying between Virgil and Ovid that took place in school curricula throughout much of the Middle Ages. (Discussion: R. Hexter, ‘‘Ovid’s Body,’’ in The Construction of the Classical Body, ed. J. J. Porter [Ann Arbor, 1999], 327– 54) (Text: R. Hexter, Ovid and Medieval Schooling: Studies in Medieval School Commentaries on Ovid’s Ars amatoria, Epistulae ex Ponto, and Epistulae heroidum, Münchener Beiträge zur Mediävistik und Renaissance-Forschung 38 [Munich, 1986], 221) (JZ) Ovidius utique ingenuis parentibus oriundus, Augusti Cesaris uxorem adamavit, quam in libro amorum qui sine titulo dicitur Corinnam sub umbra veri nominis appellavit. Unde in hoc libro: ‘‘Moverat ingenium totam cantata per orbem [sic] / nomine non vera [sic] dicta Corinna michi’’ [Tristia 4.10.59–60: ‘‘urben’’ and ‘‘vero’’]. Inconsultis ergo pronosticis cum suspirans in Liviam turritos in thalamos scala invisibili niteretur sua per vestigia coactus necessario repedare. Per Virgilium interim sublato gradu de scala invisibili non ore suum facinus sed cruris finccionem [read ‘‘fractione’’] proloquens ab Augusto dampnatus est.

Anyhow, Ovid, who was born of noble parents, loved passionately the wife of Emperor Augustus, whom in the book of loves [Amores], which is called ‘‘without a title,’’ he called Corinna to protect her true name. For this reason in this book [he wrote]: ‘‘She, called Corinna and not by her true name by me, and sung throughout the whole world, stirred my genius.’’ Therefore, not having heeded the omens, when panting after Livia he was climbing to her turreted chambers on an invisible ladder, he was compelled by a natural need to retrace his footsteps. As in the meantime Virgil had taken a rung from the invisible ladder, he proclaimed his crime not by his mouth but by the breaking of his leg, and he was condemned by Augustus. (JZ)

890

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

D. VISIONS INVOLVING VIRGIL

1. Anonymous of Ferrières (flourished between 821 and 829) Alcuin (see above, I.C.39, especially I.C.39.c) died in 804. Around two decades later, the Vita Alcuini (Life of Alcuin) was written by an anonymous author who had probably studied under one of Alcuin’s own students in the monastery of Ferrières, which was one of the abbeys Charlemagne (747–814) had put under Alcuin’s direction. The narrative opens with a story that is calqued upon a famous dream of Jerome’s (see above, I.C.30; and below, V.D.2). According to the hagiographer, Alcuin, when eleven years old, witnessed how a cellmate, who regularly slept through the night o≈ce, was beaten by demons. When the young Alcuin crept beneath the covers, the demons sought to cut o√ the soles of his feet, because they knew that he was more devoted to Virgil than to the Psalms. Alcuin saved himself by reciting Psalm 12, which ends with the verse et psallam nomini Domini altissimi (yea I will sing to the name of the Lord the most high), and he vowed solemnly that in the future he would no longer prefer the Roman poet to the singing of the Psalms. (Discussion: W. Berschin, Biographie und Epochenstil im lateinischen Mittelalter, vol. 3 [Stuttgart, 1991], 176–77) (Text: W. Arndt, ed., MGH Scriptores 15.1 [Hannover, 1887], 185–86; C. C. Roccaro, ‘‘Rinnegamento e divieto della lectio virgiliana nella Vita Alcuini,’’ in A. Butteto and Michael von Albrecht, eds., Studi di filologia classica in onore di Giusto Monaco [Palermo, 1991], 1519–33) (JZ) Dumque adhuc esset parvulus, diurna sub luce per canonicas cum aliis saepe frequentabat ecclesiam horas, nocturnis autem perraro temporibus. Cumque alter eum a decimo annus teneret, contigit nocte quadam eum cum uno simplici et tonsorato rustico separatim una iacere in domo. Postulaverat siquidem rusticus ille simplex magistrum inlustris pueri ob suae solitudinis nocturnae solamen, ut una nocte quemlibet ex scola puerum secum sua iuberet in cella dormire, eo quod quempiam suorum non haberet ad praesens. Cui nutu Dei Virgilii amplius quam psalmorum amator conceditur puer Albinus. Ecce vero circa galli cantum solito more pulsatur a custode signum nocturnarum vigiliarum, debitum a fratribus persolvitur officium. Sed rusticus ille simplex latus se vertens in alterum, quippe nimium qui circa huiusmodi negligens, dormiendo stertebat; cumque iam invitatorius [Psalm 94] fuisset ex more cantatus cum antiphona psalmus, subito domus illa vere rustici spiritibus repletur tetris, qui eius cingentes stratum dicunt: ‘‘Bene quiescis, frater.’’ Quo repente expergefacto, inculcant eadem: ‘‘Cur,’’ inquiunt, ‘‘fratri-

D . V I S I O N S I N V O LV I N G V I R G I L

891

bus in ecclesia vigilantibus, tu hic solus stertis?’’ Quid multa? Verberatur utiliter in tantum, ut sua cunctis ex mutatione salubri praestaret cautelam et canticum: ‘‘Haec mutatio dexterae Excelsi’’ [Psalms 76.11]. Dum anticiparent oculi eius nocturnas vigilias, dumque is verberaretur, puer nobilis tremescens, ne sibi eadem fierent, haec, ut ipse post testatus est, corde dicebat imo: ‘‘O Domine Iesu, si me nunc istorum eruis manibus cruentis, et post hoc sollicitus erga ecclesiae tuae vigilias ministeriaque laudum non fuero, plusque ultra Virgilium quam psalmorum modulationem amavero, tunc tale sortiar castigationis flagellum. Tantum obnixe precor, nunc Domine, libera me!’’ Denique artius menti ut hoc imprimeretur ipsius, posteaquam a verberatione rustici cessatum iubente Deo est, spiritus nequam oculos huc illuc vertentes, vident diligentissime corpus pannis et capud pueri involutum omne, penitus inscium anhelitus. Princeps autem illorum interrogat suos: ‘‘Quis hac alter quiescit in domo?’’ ‘‘Est,’’ inquiunt, ‘‘Albinus hic absconsus puer in lecto.’’ Puer vero, ubi se latere non posse persensit, lacrimarum nimio perfusus imbre, quanto prius pavore suppressus, tanto magnis ut puer redditur perstrepens clamoribus. Illi vero inmisericorditer hunc volentes et non praevalentes afficere, pertractant, quid super eo agere debeant. Sed sententia Domini constricti, ne voto satisfacerent suo, aiunt imprudentes, tamen prudenter: ‘‘Non istum verberibus, quia rudis adhuc est, acris, pedum tantum, in quibus duritia inest calli, tonsione cultelli castigemus, et emendationem sponsionis nunc suae confirmabimus.’’ Iamque nudatis vestimento pedibus malorum manibus, crucis se muniens Albinus velociter signo psalmumque decantans duodecimum affectu omni, malorum subito disparuit turba, et rusticus semivivus una cum puero agili se praecedente gressu sanctorum in basilicam confugit ad praesidia.

While he was still a little boy, he would attend church often with others for the canonical hours during the daylight, but very seldom in the nighttime. When he was eleven years old, it happened on a certain night that he was sleeping separately in a room, together with a simple tonsured peasant, because that simple peasant had asked the master of the distinguished boy, to assuage his loneliness at night, that the master have some boy from the school sleep with him in his cell one night, seeing that for the present he did not have anyone of his people [with him]. The boy Albinus [Alcuin], more a lover of Virgil than of the Psalms, is granted to him by the will of God. Now look! around cockcrow the signal for the nighttime vigils is struck by the watch in the usual way, and the obligatory o≈ce is performed by the brothers. But that simple peasant, rolling himself onto the other side, to be sure ex892

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

tremely negligent about duties of this sort, was snoring in his sleep; and when the invitatory psalm had been sung as usual with the antiphon, suddenly the room of the peasant (truly a peasant) is filled with hideous spirits, who surrounding his bed say: ‘‘You are resting well, brother.’’ When he is at once awakened, they press the same thoughts upon him. ‘‘Why,’’ they say, ‘‘as the brothers keep the vigil in the church do you alone snore here?’’ Why should I say more? He is beaten to such good e√ect that by his healthy change he o√ers everyone a caution and a canticle: ‘‘This is the change of the right hand of the most High.’’ As his eyes anticipate the nighttime vigils, and as [the peasant] is beaten, the well-born boy, trembling lest the same things befall him, said these things in his innermost heart, as he himself testified afterward: ‘‘O Lord Jesus, if you wrest me now from the gory hands of these spirits, and if after this I am not dutiful with regard to the vigils of your Church and the ministry of your praises, and if any further I love Virgil more than the intoning of your psalms, then may I have as my lot such a flail of chastisement. Only I pray earnestly, free me now, Lord!’’ In short, that this should be imprinted more soundly on his mind, after an end was made by God’s bidding to the beating of the peasant, the wicked spirits, turning their gaze now here and now there, see the body and head of the boy wrapped entirely very thoroughly in the bedclothes, altogether unable to breathe. Moreover the leader of those spirits asks his men: ‘‘Is anyone else resting in this room here?’’ They say: ‘‘The boy Albinus [Alcuin] is hidden here in the bed.’’ In truth the boy, when he realized that he could not hide, was drenched in an outpouring of tears, and, as much as he had been held back earlier by fright, to the same degree he is now, boy that he is, reduced to making a great noise with loud cries. Those [spirits], wishing but not being able to work upon him mercilessly, consider what they ought to do about him. But restrained by God’s plan from satisfying their wish, they speak, unwise but wisely: ‘‘Because he is still of tender years, let us not chastise him with blows but only with the nipping of a sharp knife on his feet, which have a hard callus, and now we will make firm the correction he has promised.’’ And now, his feet stripped of covering by the hands of the evil [spirits], Albinus [Alcuin] swiftly protected himself by the sign of the cross and by singing out wholeheartedly the twelfth psalm; the throng of evil [spirits] disappeared at once, and the peasant, only half alive, together with the boy walking briskly before him, fled together for protection into the basilica. (JZ)

2. John of Salerno (flourished mid tenth century) The following selection is a passage from the Vita Sancti Odonis (Life of St. Odo) 1.12–13, by John of Salerno (also known as Johannes Italus). Odo of D . V I S I O N S I N V O LV I N G V I R G I L

893

Cluny, second abbot of Cluny (926–42), left both prose and verse writings (including the Occupatio, a long meditative poem in dactylic hexameters) on the Redemption. John, an Italian who knew Odo personally, wrote the vita in Salerno not long after his death in 942. The passage describes a vision that Odo had in which he was presented with a serpent-filled goblet. Although the hostility of Cluniacs such as Odo to the classics can be overstated, it is not surprising that Virgil should be found at the heart of an episode in which a Medieval Latin author from any monastic order discusses ambivalence toward classical poetry nor that the ambivalence should take the form of a vision about a demonic chalice. In a famous letter to Eustochium (22.29), Jerome had already contrasted Virgil with the Gospels and had contrasted the chalice of Christ to the chalice of demons: Quae enim communicatio luci ad tenebras, qui consensus Christo et Belial? Quid facit cum Psalterio Horatius, cum evangeliis Maro, cum Apostolo Cicero? . . . Simul bibere non debemus calicem Christi et calicem daemoniorum. (What is the common ground between light and darkness? What is the concord between Christ and Belial? What does Horace have to do with the Psalter, Virgil with the Gospels, Cicero with the apostle [Paul]? . . . We must not drink at one time from the chalice of Christ and the chalice of demons. (Discussion, with parallels: VMA 92, n. 47, and W. Berschin, Biographie und Epochenstil im lateinischen Mittelalter, vol. 4.1 [Stuttgart, 1999], 43–44) (Text: PL 133, 49A–B) (JZ) His praeterea diebus nauta noster peritissimus qui nos suo ductu docuit transmeare gurgites istius mundi, immensum Prisciani [see above, IV.E] transit transnatando pelagus. Nam Virgilii cum voluisset legere carmina, ostensum fuit ei per visum vas quoddam deforis quidem pulcherrimum, intus vero plenum serpentibus, a quibus se subito circumvallari conspicit, nec tamen morderi, et evigilans serpentes doctrinam poetarum, vas in quo latitabant, librum Virgilii; viam vero per quam incedebat valde sitiens, Christum intellexit. . . . Deinde relictis carminibus poetarum, alti edoctus spiritu consilii, ad evangeliorum prophetarumque expositores se totum convertit.

Furthermore, in those days our most seasoned sailor, who taught us by his guidance to travel across the whirlpools of this world, traversed in voyaging the boundless sea of Priscian. For when he wanted to read the songs of Virgil, there was shown to him in a vision a certain vessel, outside most beautiful indeed, but within filled with serpents, by which he viewed himself as suddenly beleaguered—and yet not being bitten. Awakening, he understood the serpents to be the teaching of the poets and the vessel in which they lurked to

894

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

be the book of Virgil, but the way by which he was advancing in his great thirst he understood to be Christ. . . . Thereafter he abandoned the songs of the poets and, taught by the spirit of high judgment, devoted himself entirely to exegetes of the Gospels and the prophets. (JZ)

3. Rodulfus Glaber (circa 990–1046/47) Rodulfus (Raoul) Glaber, a monk at Auxerre, Dijon, and Cluny, wrote an account of major events in central Europe from 900 to 1044 entitled Historiarum libri quinque [Five Books of the Histories], which survives in only four manuscripts. Rodulfus’s Historiae 2.12 (23), ‘‘De herese in Italia reperta’’ (On a Heresy Found in Italy), is our sole source of information about a man named Vilgard who, as a consequence of a vision in which demons assumed the appearance of Virgil, Horace, and Juvenal, is reputed to have valued Virgil and other classical poets over Christianity. For his heresy (in which belief in Virgil was paramount) he was condemned to die, probably in 970. Rightly or wrongly, he has been called the first heretic of the Middle Ages who received the death sentence. (Text: based on a comparison of Historiarum libri quinque / The Five Books of the Histories, ed. and trans. J. France [Oxford, 1989], 92–93; and Rodolfo il Glabro, Cronache dell’anno mille (Storie), ed. and trans. G. Cavallo and G. Orlandi, 3rd ed. [Milan, 1991], 106–9) (JZ) Ipso quoque tempore non impar apud Ravennam exortum est malum. Quidam igitur Vilgardus dictus, studio artis gramatice magis assiduus quam frequens, sicut Italicis mos semper fuit artes negligere ceteras, illam sectari; is enim, cum ex scientia sue artis cepisset inflatus superbia stultior apparere, quadam nocte assumpsere demones poetarum species Virgilii et Oratii atque Iuvenalis apparentesque illi fallaces retulerunt grates quoniam suorum dicta voluminum carius amplectens exerceret seque illorum posteritatis felicem esse preconem; promiserunt ei insuper sue glorie postmodum fore participem. Hisque demonum fallaciis depravatus cepit multa turgide docere fidei sacre contraria dictaque poetarum per omnia credenda esse asserebat. Ad ultimum vero hereticus est repertus atque a pontifice ipsius urbis Petro dampnatus. Plures etiam per Italiam tunc huius pestiferi dogmatis sunt reperti, qui et ipsi aut gladiis aut incendiis perierunt. Ex Sardinia quoque insula, que his plurimum abundare solet, ipso tempore aliqui egressi, partem populi in Hispania corrumpentes et ipsi a viris Catholicis exterminati sunt. Quod presagium Iohannis prophetie congruit, quia dixit Sathanam solvendum et expletis mille annis [Apocalypse 20.2–3], de quibus in tercio iam libello prolixius tractabimus.

D . V I S I O N S I N V O LV I N G V I R G I L

895

At the same time an equivalent evil arose in Ravenna. There was a certain man named Vilgard, more obsessive than just diligent in his study of grammar, just as it has always been the custom for Italians to neglect the other liberal arts and to devote themselves to this one. Since owing to his knowledge of this craft he began to be pu√ed up with pride and to seem ever more foolish, on one night demons assumed the guise of the poets Virgil, Horace, and Juvenal, and appearing to him, they rendered him deceitful thanks because he embraced so dearly and attended so closely to the contents of their books. [They said] that he was the blessed herald of their future reputation, and they promised him additionally that he would later have a share in their glory. Corrupted by these demonic deceptions, he began to teach grandiosely many things against the holy faith, and he maintained that in every instance the words of the poets were to be believed. But finally he was found to be a heretic and was condemned by Bishop Peter [of Ravenna, 927–71]of that very city. Throughout Italy at that time many more people were also found to subscribe to this pernicious teaching, and they too died by the sword or at the stake. In addition, at the same time some others came forth from the island of Sardinia, which is very much accustomed to overflow with people of this sort, and they corrupted a part of the people of Spain; but they were wiped out by the orthodox Catholics. This portent fits with the prophecy of St. John, because he said that Satan would be released when a thousand years had passed; about this we will deal at greater length now in the third book. (JZ)

4. Everhelm (and Onulf) (latter half of eleventh century) The Vita Sancti Popponis abbatis Stabulensis (Life of St. Poppo, Abbot of Stavelot) was completed soon after the death of the abbot (978–1048) by Abbot Everhelm of Hautmont and by Onulf (perhaps of Ghent). One passage in chapter 32 relates how Poppo healed a monk named Gozzo who su√ered from a particularly Virgilian form of possession. The life describes Gozzo’s outcry at being besieged by a demonic host in the guise of personages from Virgil. (Text: ed. G. H. Pertz, MGH Scriptores [in Folio] 11 [Hannover, 1854], 314) Exclamavit subito daemonum phalangem Aeneae et Turni aliorumque ex Virgilio virorum vultus imitari seque ab eis qui sibi in discendo plurimum usui fuerant, usque ad animam infestari.

He cried out suddenly that a troop of demons was assuming the appearance of Aeneas, Turnus, and other characters from Virgil, and that he was being assailed, to his very soul, by those who in learning had been of the most value to him. (JZ) 896

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

5. Hildebert of Lavardin (1056–1133) Hildebert of Lavardin is regarded as one of the foremost representatives of Latin culture in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. In 1121 Hildebert, still bishop of Le Mans and not yet archbishop of Tours, composed the Vita Sancti Hugonis (Life of St. Hugo) at the urging of Abbot Pontius of Cluny (1109–22). As the title indicates, the text is a life, or biography, of Abbot Hugo I of Cluny (1024–1109, abbot 1049–1109), who was canonized in 1120. In this selection, Hildebert relates that Abbot Hugo dreamed that snakes and other reptiles were lying under his head. Upon awakening in distress, he found a copy of Virgil’s poetry beneath his pillow. After removing it, he was able to sleep soundly. (Discussion: W. Berschin, Biographie und Epochenstil im lateinischen Mittelalter, vol. 4.2 [Stuttgart, 2001], 302; compare 298) (Text: Vita Sancti Hugonis, section 18, in PL 159, 872A–B]) (JZ) Quadam autem nocte, dum fatigatis artubus modico sopore vir Dei consuleret, videre visus est decubantium sub capite suo serpentium multitudinem, caeteraque diversi generis reptilia, quibus ille perturbatus, somnum continuare non poterat. Dehinc amoto pulvinari, librum Maronis reperit, eoque projecto, somnum duxit tranquillum. Apta rei visio, cum nihil aliud quam quaedam venena sint fabulae poetarum.

What is more, one night, as the man of God attended to his wearied limbs by sleeping a little, he seemed to see a multitude of snakes lying under his head, as well as other reptiles of various sorts. Distressed by them, he was unable to continue sleeping. Then, after removing his pillow, he found a book of Virgil’s poetry. Upon tossing it aside, he slept peacefully. The vision is well suited to the matter, since the inventions of the poets are nothing if not venomous. (JZ)

6. Vision of Virgil in Hell (latter twelfth century) This text, translated in its entirety, was written at the end of a manuscript that comes from the Cistercian abbey of Aulne, in what was the diocese of Liège. The text describes the apparition of one who had recently died to his living friend. The revenant tells the living friend that in death he has earned eternal damnation. His friend, asking him about Virgil, hopes in particular to have the poet explicate two verses for him. A little while later, the dead friend brings back Virgil’s reply: the poet exhorts the living friend to renounce the idle fictions of literature, which had led to the punishment of his deceased companion. The surviving friend accepts this encouragement, abandons the classics, and renounces the world. The text was probably inspired largely by the D . V I S I O N S I N V O LV I N G V I R G I L

897

episode in Aeneid 2.268–97 in which Hector makes a postmortem appearance before his comrade Aeneas to warn him. The episode was often neumed: see above, I.D.11. (Discussion: VME 3–4) (Text: J. Leclercq, ‘‘Virgile en enfer d’après un manuscrit d’Aulne,’’ Latomus 17 [1958], 731–36) (JZ) Erant duo socii, sed unum par amicitiae, quorum alter alteri, quasi suo Pylades Oresti, cordis sui secreta penitus reserabat. Contigit vero quatinus Atropos alteri male parca rumpere filum intenderet, ita ut in ulteriore iam mortis articulo vexaretur. Quem dum quasi alteram sibi vitam alter mori conspiceret, vix a suimet peremtione manum potuit refrenare, sociumque suum, qui iam in extremis laborabat, sua scelera confiteri et eucharistiam sanctam sumere, licet invitum, compulit. Quo peracto, viam universae carnis ingressus, tradidit terrae quod suum est. Quem socius eius, ut ad eum post mortem rediret, per sacrosanctum Christi corpus, quod est pignus nostrae salutis, adiuravit. Ille autem, tali vinculo pactionis alligatus, si suae possibilitatis esset, se rediturum respondit. At aliquantis diebus evolutis, eo quod socius eius non redisset, tam graviter adiuratus, utrum esset anima necne diu secum in mente versavit. Hoc autem eo intra mentis cubiculum revolvente, ecce, velut umbra ad instar fuliginis, eius apparuit aspectibus, ita ut ipse horrore vehementi circumquaque involveretur, qui, omnimoda dilatione sepulta, salutari crucis signaculo totum corpus suum munivit. Dum autem hoc ageret, vehemens gemitus et miserabilis eius auribus insonuit. Sed cum quidnam hoc esset altiori voce sciscitaretur, hoc responsum accepit: ‘‘Magister, ego sum miser ille quem, ut ad te rediret, tam graviter adiurasti.’’ Ad quem magister: ‘‘Et quomodo ergo tibi est?’’ At ille: ‘‘Male, quia damnationis aeternae supplicium promerui.’’ Magister: ‘‘Nonne, vere confessus, viaticum sumpsisti, cum de carceris huius ergastulo spiritus tuus emigraret?’’ Ille autem voce confusa respondit: ‘‘Heu! Non profuit, immo potius obfuit, quia ad sanctam eucharistiam nolens et invitus accessi.’’ Magister iterum: ‘‘Cognoscis igitur aut unquam vides Virgilium cum ceteris poetis in poenis?’’ Et ille: ‘‘Heu! Miser eum video et cognosco mecum in poenis, quia semper cum illo in fabulis nugarum frivolus commoratus sum.’’ Ad haec magister: ‘‘Eodem quo prius te vinculo pactionis astringo, quatinus in die praetaxato redeas item ad me, renuntians quid Virgilius super hos duos versus quos fecit senserit.’’ Et dixit ei versus, et diem quo rediret ei determinavit. At dum inter se confabularentur et de poenis mentio fieret, ait ad vivum mortuus: ‘‘Ut gustus, iudex saporis, aliquantulum de minimis etiam poenis quas patior tibi nunc intimet, accipe guttulam mei sudoris, ut minoris experimento torturae graviora tormenta valeas contemplari.’’ Et quasi digito frontem leniter tangeret, ma-

898

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

gister [read ‘‘magistrum’’] sudoris sui guttula respersit, quae cappam eius et supertunicale cum tunica et ceteris vestibus penetravit, velut candentis ferri praecuta trabes ab alto supra molle butirum irrueret, ita ut carnes eius usque ad ossa costarum perforaret. Quod cum male magister sentiret, expavit clamans: ‘‘Ah miser, ah morior!’’ Quo clamante, mortuus ab eius oculis evanuit. At magister noctu dieque intolerabiliter vexabatur, quoniam eius vulnus erat insanabile, quamvis substantiae suae plurimum in medicos expendisset. Magistro cruciatu continuo laboranti mortuus iterum apparuit. At magister qualiter a combustione sanari posset interrogavit. Ad quem mortuus: ‘‘Modicae fidei, quare benedictam aquam vulneri tuo non infudisti?’’ Magister autem quid Virgilius respondisset sciscitatus est. Ad quem mortuus respondit: ‘‘Virgilius, mihi sciscitanti super hoc quod mihi iniunxeras quoniam [read ‘‘inquit’’] ‘Stultus es et stulta quaestio tua.’ Et scias pro certo, nisi citius, vanis auctorum fabulis et artium liberalium frivolis abrenuntians, evangelicae veritati firmiter adhaeseris, cum ipso, citius quam speras, in aeternae perditionis interitum perennabis.’’ Magister autem, per aquam benedictam salutem recuperans, saeculo penitus abrenuntiavit.

There were two companions, but they were a single pair in friendship. The one of them would reveal entirely the secrets of his heart to the other, like Pylades to his Orestes. But it happened that Atropos, not sparing one of them, had in mind to break the thread of his life, so that he was tormented already in the final crisis of death. As the other sees him—who represented to him almost another life of his own—dying, he could scarcely restrain his hand from doing away with himself, and he compelled his companion, who was already struggling in his last gasps, to confess his misdeeds and, albeit unwillingly, to take the sacred host. When that had been done, he went the way of all flesh and surrendered to the earth what belonged to it. His companion had him swear by the inviolable body of Christ, which is the guarantee of our salvation, that he would return to him after death. The other, held fast by the bond of such an agreement, replied that he would come back, if it lay within the realm of what was possible for him. When some days had elapsed, he pondered in his mind for a long time— with regard to the fact that his companion, despite having taken so solemn an oath, had not come back—whether there was a soul or not. As then he turned this over within the chamber of his mind, lo and behold! just like a soot-black shade his companion appeared within his sight, so that he was enveloped in intense fright. Burying all impulse to delay, he protected his entire body by making the lifesaving sign of the cross. As then he was doing this, a powerful

D . V I S I O N S I N V O LV I N G V I R G I L

899

and pitiable moaning sounded in his ears. When he asked in a louder voice what this was, he received this reply: ‘‘Master, I am that wretch whom you had swear so solemnly to return to you.’’ The master said to him: ‘‘And how is it then with you?’’ The other said back: ‘‘It is bad, because I have earned the torment of eternal damnation.’’ The master said: ‘‘Did you not confess truthfully and receive the viaticum as your spirit took leave from the workhouse of this prison?’’ The other then replied in a distressed voice: ‘‘Alas, it did no good; on the contrary, it was a disadvantage, since I came unwillingly and resistantly to the sacred host.’’ The master again spoke: ‘‘Do you recognize or do you ever see Virgil with the other poets who are being punished?’’ The other remarked: ‘‘Alas, wretch that I am, I see and recognize him with me amid the punishments, because I always wasted my time with him in frivolous and trifling fictions.’’ To these words the master rejoined: ‘‘I constrain you, by the bond of the same agreement as before, that on a preordained day you come back again to me to announce what opinion Virgil holds on these two verses he composed.’’ He told him the verses and set the day on which he should come back. As they were chatting together and mention was made of punishments, the dead one said to the living one: ‘‘So that a taste may give you a little hint now (judge of good taste that you are) of the very least punishments I su√er, take a droplet of my sweat, so that through the experience of a lesser torture you may be able to consider the more grievous torments.’’ As if it were a finger grazing gently the forehead, a droplet of his sweat sprinkled the master. It passed through his cape, surcoat, coat, and other garments, just as a very sharp bar of white-hot iron would rush down from a height upon soft butter, in such a way that it opened a hole in his flesh all the way to the rib bones. As the master felt this bad pain, he turned pale and cried out: ‘‘Oh wretched me, I am dying!’’ As he cried out, the dead man vanished from his sight. But lo and behold, the master was pained unendurably by night and by day, since his wound was unhealable, although he spent much of his resources on doctors. As the master struggled with constant torment, the dead man appeared again. Now the master asked how he could be cured of the burning. The dead man said to him: ‘‘O you of little faith, why did you not pour holy water on your wound?’’ But the master asked what Virgil had answered. To him the dead man answered: ‘‘When I asked about what you had bidden me to ask, Virgil [said] to me: ‘You are a fool and your question foolish.’ You should know for certain that unless you quickly renounce the empty fictions of the pagan authors and the frivolities of the liberal arts, and unless you hold fast firmly to the Gospel truth, you will (more quickly than you hope) spend forever with him in the destruction of eternal damnation.’’ But the master, recovering health and salvation through the holy water, renounced the world entirely. (JZ) 900

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

7. Georgian Passion of St. Pansophios of Alexandria (thirteenth century) The Latin that follows is an early-twentieth-century translation of a passage in a Georgian ‘‘passion’’ of an Alexandrian martyr named Pansophios (died circa 249–51). This hagiographic work survives solely in a badly mutilated thirteenth-century paper manuscript (Tbilisi, Georgian Academy of Sciences, K. Kekelidze Institute of Manuscripts, MS A 288, pp. 270a2–276b1). The Georgian itself is thought to be a translation and abridgment of a fourth- or fifth-century Greek original (not extant), probably by way of an Arabic version (also lost). The text, though garbled in places, o√ers precious evidence of the mystique that Virgil enjoyed even in the Christian East. The protagonist of this passion is a saint, the very construction of whose name (‘‘all-wise’’) speaks to his great learning: Pansophios is a Christian philosopher who has distributed his property to the poor and become an anchorite. At the command of Emperor Decius, Augustalios, the governor of Alexandria, has Pansophios arrested. When brought before the tribunal, the Christian is allowed to defend his faith and to explain the basis for his rejection of idolatry. His presentation prompts one of the court clerks to convert, at which point the clerk (named Licinius) is also arrested. Pansophios continues his exposition in prison as he catechizes the new convert. The first part, which pertains to the underworld, would seem ultimately to be based on the famous episode of Orpheus and Eurydice (see above, III.D). The wording leaves unclear whether the Georgian (to say nothing of the Greek and Arabic writers who are presumed to have preceded him) believed that Virgil himself saw the underworld or that it was merely Virgil’s characters (Orpheus and/or Aeneas) who had the experience. In the second colloquy Pansophios makes twofold mention of Virgil. (Virgil appears under the name Urbilios/Orbileos, a garbling that results from the frequent confusion in Georgian script between b and g. One Greek transliteration of the Latin name would be Ourgilios.) The English translation incorporates the conjectures of P. Peeters for corrections of the Georgian on the basis of presumed misunderstandings of its Arabic predecessor. These suggestions lead to a few discrepancies between the Latin and the English, particularly in the translation (twice) of post in the opening lines. (Discussion: P. Peeters, ‘‘Une légende de Virgile dans l’hagiographie grecque,’’ in Mélanges Paul Thomas: Recueil de mémoires concernant la philologie classique dédié à Paul Thomas [Bruges, 1930], 546–54, rept. in P. Peeters, Recherches d’histoire et de philologie orientales, vol. 1, Subsidia hagiographica 27 [Brussels, 1951], 214–21; V. Ussani, ‘‘I viaggi di Virgilio nel sotterra,’’ in Wirtschaft und Kultur: Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Alfons D . V I S I O N S I N V O LV I N G V I R G I L

901

Dopsch, ed. Gian Piero Bognetti et al. [Baden bei Wien and Leipzig, 1938], 604–10) (Text: Latin translation from the Georgian, P. Peeters, ‘‘La Passion de saint Pansophios d’Alexandrie,’’ Analaecta Bollandiana 47 [1929], 329–30; Georgian original, K. Kekelidze, ed., Monumenta Hagiographica Georgica, Pars prima ‘‘Kimeni,’’ vol. 1 [Tbilisi, 1918], 48–59) (JZ) Deinde dixit sancto beatus Licinius: ‘‘Iam mihi expone de resurrectione et iudicio. Nam de his etiam gentiles locuti sunt. Nosti qualia scripserit Urbilios post descensum ad infernum, post iter ad locum tormentorum, et de Voce Persarum et Opulentia, quales sint; et de flumine igneo mundum universum pervadente; quomodo omnem ille locum tormentorum obierit, et saeptum ingressus sit ubi sedet Orpheus, lyram tenens, et omnis terra audit vocem eius. Illic stat igniarium luminis, ex quo lumine omne corporeum animam participat, et quando moritur, revertitur anima ad idem lumen. Si quis autem peccaverit, ad locum tormentorum addicitur. Haec omnia nobis Urbilios enarravit. Sed nos, quanti faciemus haec dicta?’’ Sanctus Pansophius respondit: ‘‘Euge, domine, id equidem ipse me interrogo. Sed dic modo tu mihi: qui haec locutus est, quis eum creavit?’’ Ad haec Licinius nihil respondere potuit, sed tantum dixit: ‘‘Id nescio, domine. Immo potius tu me doceas.’’ Respondit sanctus Pansophius et dixit: ‘‘Age vero, ausculta atque id omne te docebo. Urbilios iste ex adulterio natus est. Mater eius, cum eum peperisset in deserto loco ibi eum reliquit et domum suam abiit. Repente advolarunt apes et in ore infantuli ut erat hic iacens, nidum suum fecit examen apium: melle puer nutritus est. Post diuturnum vero tempus, venit mater eius ad visendum eum, puerum repperit sospitem et adultum eumque secum abduxit. Exinde caelesti consilio data est ei sapientia et facundia. Porro illa aetate, sapientes huius mundi idolorum superstitione compediti erant, et sicut iis libuit, illius sapientiam perverterunt. Quod autem dixit Orbileos, nonne Paulus apostolus id nobis enarravit in Apocalypsi sua? Ait enim: ‘Ubi mare est, et sedet Orpheus eique oboedit omnis anima’ [not in Apocalypse of Paul]. Quae civitas Christus est; ibi psallit David eique oboedit omnis anima. Fluvium autem igneum et Vocem illam Persarum, quae dominabatur animae gentilium, iam Dominius captivam duxit, cum ad infernum descendit eumque vacuum fecit. Sed quando peccamus neque sigillum Christi accipimus, tunc damnationi obnoxios nos facimus, neque Urbilios aut alii ex diis liberare nos possunt.’’

Then blessed Licinius said to the saint: ‘‘Explain to me now about the Resurrection and Judgment, since the pagans have also spoken about them. You know that Urbilios [Virgil] wrote and saw the descent to the underworld, saw the voyage to the place of torments, and about the voice of the Persians 902

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

[Persephone] and Wealth [Pluto], of what sort they are; and about the river of fire that runs through the whole world; how he traversed the whole place of torments, and entered the enclosure where Orpheus sits, holding his lyre, and the whole earth listens to his voice. There stands the core of the light, from which every corporeal being receives its soul, and when it dies, the soul returns to the same light. But if anyone has sinned, he is delivered to the place of torments. Urbilios [Virgil] recounted all these things to us—but what are we to do about what has been said?’’ St. Pansophios replied: ‘‘Well, sir, that is what I ask myself. But tell me now: who created the one who said these things?’’ Licinius could not respond to this, but said only: ‘‘I don’t know that, sir. But you tell me.’’ St. Pansophios replied and said: ‘‘Come then, listen and I will tell you all. This Urbilios [Virgil] was born from adultery. His mother, when she had given birth to him in a deserted place, abandoned him there and went o√ home. Suddenly bees flew up and a swarm of bees made its nest in the mouth of the babe as he was lying there: the boy was nourished upon honey. After a very long time, his mother came to visit him, found the boy safe and sound, and led him o√, now grown, with her. Thence by heavenly counsel he was granted wisdom and eloquence. Further, in that age the wise men of this world were shackled by the superstitious belief in idols, and, as it pleased them, they corrupted his wisdom. What then Orbileos [Virgil] said, the apostle Paul told us in his Apocalypse, didn’t he? For he said: ‘Where the sea is, Orpheus sits and every soul obeys him.’ This city is Christ; there David sings and every soul obeys him. Moreover, the river of fire and that voice of the Persians [Proserpina], which exercised dominion over the soul of the pagans —the Lord led it into captivity when he descended to the underworld and emptied it. But when we sin and do not accept the seal of Christ, then we render ourselves subject to damnation, and neither Urbilios nor any other of the gods can free us.’’ (JZ) E. VIRGIL IN PREACHING

1. Exemplum Invoking Virgil It is natural that a figure as important as Virgil should have become the topic of exempla, short narratives upon which preachers drew to point the morals of their sermons. This exemplum appears in a codex of a collection known as Sermones thesauri novi quadragesimales (Sermons of a New Treasury for Lent), by the Dominican Petrus de Palude (Pierre de La Palud, circa 1280–1342). (Text: Exempla aus Handschriften des Mittelalters, ed. J. Klapper, Sammlung mittellateinischer Texte 2 [Heidelberg, 1911], 19, no. 13: Zagan [Poland], Klasztor Augustianów, Bibliotek, MS F. 685, fol. 260r, col. b, dating from 1457 [Klapper, p. 80, item I. F.685]) (JZ) E. VIRGIL IN PREACHING

903

Quomodo Virgilius vanitatem mundi cognoverit Istud patet in Virgilio, qui circa finem vite sue quatuor versus fecisse dicitur, in quibus ostendit se in compilando tres libros graviter laborasse, scilicet librum de Bucolicis, in quo tradidit artem pastoralis cure, librum de Georgicis, in quo tradidit artem agriculture, et librum Eneijdos, in quo tradidit artem milicie et pungne [sic]. Et tamen nec de capris tam bene pastis portavit lac, nec de agris tam bene satis portavit segetes, nec de hostibus superatis portavit spolia. Unde dicit: Pastor, arator, eques, pavi, sevi, superavi. [capras, rus, hostes, fronde, ligone, manu.] De capris pastis, rure sato, hoste subacto Nec lac nec segetes nec spolia ulla tuli [AL 1.2, 276, no. 800, with ‘‘colui’’ for ‘‘sevi’’].

Hoc autem Virgilius methaphorice locutus est. Nullus enim in morte [de] delicijs portare potest lac alicuius dulcedinis, nec de suis divicijs segetes alicuius honoris.

How Virgil Came to Know the Vanity of the World This is evident in Virgil, who toward the end of his life is said to have composed four verses, in which he declares that he toiled grievously in assembling three books, namely, the book of Bucolics, in which he related the craft of herdsmanship; the book of Georgics, in which he related the craft of agriculture; and the book of the Aeneid, in which he related the craft of soldiery and fighting. Yet he carried neither milk from well-pastured goats, nor crops from well-sown fields, nor spoils from vanquished enemies. For this reason he says: ‘‘As a herdsman, plowman, knight, I pastured, sowed, vanquished [goats, plowlands, foes, with leafage, hoe, hand]. From pastured goats, sown fields, subdued foe I carried o√ neither milk, crops, nor any spoils.’’ Virgil made this statement metaphorically. For from delights no one can carry in death the milk of some sweetness or from his riches the crop of some honor. (JZ)

2. John of Lathbury (died 1362) John of Lathbury, ordained as a subdeacon in the Franciscan order in 1329, lectured at Oxford shortly after 1350. His lecture topic was the Lamentations of Jeremiah, for which he also wrote a commentary. In addition, he was the youngest member of a group of classicizing friars. He eagerly collected books, especially a number of forgeries, which he seems to have considered authentic. Among these were some works by pseudo-Fulgentius, whom he apparently considered to be the same as Fulgentius the mythographer (see above, IV.F), as he does not di√erentiate one from the other when he cites either. Pseudo904

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

Fulgentius is in his view the author of De secretis Virgilii (On the Secrets of Virgil) and of several other works, many of which contained promising material for preachers. From the book on Virgil the magician Lathbury quotes several exempla; for example, he interprets seven mirrors crafted by Virgil as representing the seven deadly sins. (Discussion and text, items a–d: B. Smalley, English Friars and Antiquity in the Early Fourteenth Century [Oxford, 1960], 221–39, 356–57) (JG) a. De secretis Virgilii, Prologue, H Nam sicut tradit Fulgentius, de secretis Virgilii, et etiam sicut pro parte tangit auctor De proprietatibus elementorum [Pseudo-Aristotle, translated from Arabic by Gerard of Cremona], et sicut tangitur in primo libro qui intitulatur De xii cesaribus [Suetonius], Virgilius arte miranda ex aere condensato et congellato palatium construxit speculare, in tantum quod civitates et homines, campi et nemora, volucres et pisces, heremi et flumina, imo quecumque res in mundo fuerant earum imago in palatio apparebat. Hec ille.

The following is reported by Fulgentius when he writes about the secrets of Virgil, and it is mentioned on his own authority by the sage who wrote On the Properties of the Elements and it is also mentioned in the first book [of the work] which is entitled On the Twelve Caesars: Virgil, by means of his marvelous skill, built a mirrorlike palace out of condensed, congealed air; it was so mirrorlike that cities and people, fields and forests, birds and fishes, deserts and rivers, and indeed the image of whatsoever things were in the world appeared on this palace. He did these things. (JG) b. De secretis Virgilii, Prologue, T . . . tradit Fulgentius, de secretis Virgilii, quod Virgilius librum repperit in templo Apollonis, habentem quatuor folia, et quotiescumque legebat ipse Virgilius in primo folio imperator orientis, spiritus scilicet malus, orienti presidens, Virgilio apparebat, et quoties in secundo folio rex austri sibi protinus apparebat, quoties quoque in tertio folio deus occidentis protinus apparebat, et quoties in quarto folio legebat magister aquilonis sibi apparebat et penitus obediebat.

. . . Fulgentius, writing about the secrets of Virgil, reports that Virgil found a book with four leaves in the temple of Apollo; whenever Virgil read the first leaf, the emperor of the East, that is, an evil spirit ruling over the East, would appear to Virgil; and whenever he read the second leaf, the king of the South would immediately appear to him; and whenever he read the third leaf, the god E. VIRGIL IN PREACHING

905

of the West would immediately appear; and whenever he read the fourth leaf, the master of the North would appear to him and completely obey him. (JG) c. De secretis Virgilii, Prologue, Z Unde et hic in proposito alludi poterit colorate illud quod tradit Fulgentius, de secretis Virgilii. Virgilius, inquit, arte stupenda septem composuit difformia specula, effectuum omnino diversorum, sed mirandorum concausativa. Quorum unum ab effectu suo dictum est speculum voluptatis. In tantum enim intuentis voluptatem oculis ministravit quod quicquid corde optavit conspicere mox oculo speculum representa[vi]t. Hec ille.

Consequently, even here on this theme, one can plausibly allude to that tale which Fulgentius reports, writing about the secrets of Virgil. As he says, by means of his amazing skill Virgil made seven mirrors, each with its own shape and its own unique e√ect, but all of them producers of marvels. One of them was called the Mirror of Pleasure, after its e√ect. This mirror gave pleasure to the eyes of the one looking into it because it quickly presented to his eye whatever he desired to see with all his heart. Virgil did these things. (JG) d. De secretis Virgilii 82, A . . . per illud mirabile quod recitat Fulgentius, de secretis Virgilii. Virgilius, inquit, amore filii Augusti, arte magica cameram subterraneam condidit, que singulis septem horis se monstruosam [read ‘‘monstruose’’] variavit. Semper enim hora lune apparuit continentibus [read ‘‘contuentibus’’] repleri valido murmure talium que [read ‘‘qui’’] operam dabant crapule et ebrietati, nec tamen quisquam videbatur, sed solum auditus. Ad talia obstupuit ascultantium [read ‘‘ascultans’’] qualia solent audiri ex dissolutione comminantium [read ‘‘commensantium’’]. Semper hora Mercurii in momento consumeretur quicquid infra proiectum est. Semper hora Veneris fetor fortius inficiens [aerem] ex inde exhalabat. Semper hora Phebi in ea quasi litigantium iurgia resonabant. Semper hora Martis quasi insultus viventium et gemitus morientium insimul audiebantur. Semper hora Iovis [per] tonitrua ignea tota quasi clibanus candens videbatur. Unde quicquid tunc inventum erat, sive lapis sive metallum, calor consumpsit in cineres. Semper vero hora Saturni pacifica ut cetere domus cernebatur. Qui tamen tunc introgressus est hic ex causa incognita tristitia nimia vexabatur et tunc quasi cura omnium cogitationibus torquebatur. Et hanc domum doloris dictam Plutoni Virgilius consecravit. Hec ille.

. . . through the following marvel, which Fulgentius reports when he writes about the secrets of Virgil. Virgil, he tells, built an underground chamber by 906

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

means of magic, on account of his love for Augustus’s son. This chamber changed itself strangely according to each of the seven [canonical] hours. For whenever anyone looked into it at the hour of the moon, it always appeared to be filled with the loud noise made by the kind of people who give themselves to drunkenness and intoxication, but no one was actually seen; there was only the noise. He was amazed at hearing things of such kinds as are usually heard amidst the dissolute activity of revelers. At the hour of Mercury, whatever was thrown into the chamber would always be consumed in an instant. At the hour of Venus, a stench that quite strongly saturated [the air] always issued from within. At the hour of Phoebus, quarrels, like the kind that people make in a courtroom, always resounded. At the hour of Mars, noises like insults uttered by living people and the groans of the dying were always being heard together. At the hour of Jove, the whole chamber always seemed like a glowing furnace, due to fiery claps of thunder. As a result, the heat reduced to ashes whatever was found at that time, whether it was stone or metal. At the hour of Saturn, the chamber always seemed as calm as the rest of the house. Nevertheless, whoever entered at that time would be troubled by excessive sadness for an unknown reason and tormented by his thoughts as if he were worrying about everything. And Virgil dedicated this aforesaid chamber of grief to Pluto. Virgil did these things. (JG) F. FUSIONS OF LIVES AND LEGENDS

1. Vincent of Beauvais (1184/94–1264) A Dominican, Vincent of Beauvais was active in the convents of his own order in Paris and, later, in Beauvais, as well as in the Cistercian abbey of Royaumont. He also developed strong connections with the court of Louis IX (St. Louis), king of France (1214–70). Of his many compilations, the centerpiece is the vast encyclopedia entitled the Speculum maius (The Greater Mirror), completed around 1257 or 1258, of which the Speculum historiale (The Mirror of History) is the third of three sections. (All printed editions comprise four sections, but the Speculum morale was added by a later, unidentified author.) This third part covers history, from the Creation down to the middle of the thirteenth century. In it, Vincent includes a modest subsection with information on the life and deeds of Virgil. This dossier holds interest for its fusion of material conventionally found in straightforward vitae and accessus with traditions more usually attested in folklore and romance. Vincent also reports (Speculum historiale 11.50, in Speculum quadruplex: naturale, doctrinale, morale, F. F U S I O N S O F L I V E S A N D L E G E N D S

907

historiale, 4 vols. [Douai, 1624; rept., Graz, 1964–65]) that during the persecutions under the emperor Decius, three pagan Romans were converted to Christianity upon reading Eclogues 4.5–9 (see above, III.C). The Speculum historiale enjoyed great popularity over the next three centuries, with many manuscripts and early printings of the Latin and also with various vernacular translations. The following passage is from Speculum historiale 6.60–62. (Text: J. Berlioz, ‘‘Virgile dans la littérature des exempla [treizième au quinzième siècles],’’ in LMV 104–7; EV 5.2, 477–78, no. 317) (JZ) LX. De Cornelio Gallo et Plauto et Virgilio Ex cronicis. Anno eius vigesimoquinto Virgilius Brundisii moritur, Sentio Saturnino et Lucretio Cuma [sic] consulibus. Ossa eius Neapolim translata in secundo ab urbe milliario sepeliuntur, titulo huiusmodi: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Partenope; cecini pascua, rura, duces [see above, II.C.1].

LXI. De commendatione Virgilii et gestis eius Helinandus libro vigesimosexto [reference to Chronicon, this part of which is extant mainly here in Vincent]. Constat Virgilium inter omnes optimum fuisse poetarum. Macrobius [see above, II.G.2; IV.C] dicit nullius scientie fuisse expertem. Iuvenalis eum Homero comparat dicens: Conditor Iliados cantabitur atque Maronis altisoni dubiam facientia carmina palmam [Satires 11.180–81: see above, I.C.25.d].

Idem tamen de intemperantia libidinis hoc modo reprehendit: Nam si Virgilio puer et tolerabile desit hospitium, caderent omnes a crinibus ydri [Satires 7.69–70: see above, I.C.25.b, with ‘‘desset’’ for ‘‘desit’’].

Augustinus in libro primo De civitate Dei sic commendat eundem Virgilium: ‘‘Virgilium,’’ inquit, ‘‘propterea parvuli legunt ut poeta magnus, omniumque preclarissimus atque optimus, teneris ebibitus annis, non facile oblivione possit aboleri’’ [1.3, with ‘‘animis’’ for ‘‘annis’’: see above, I.C.31.a.iv]. Ab hoc Virgilio multa dicuntur mirabiliter actitata. In porta Neapolis Campanie dicitur fecisse muscam eneam que omnes muscas ab urbe expellebat. In eadem urbe dicitur macellum sic construxisse ut nulla ibi caro putresceret. Dicitur quoque campanile quoddam sic construxisse ut turris ipsa lapidea eodem modo moveretur quo campane cum pulsabantur. Sed hoc verum non viditur cum usus campanarum nondum inventus esset, nisi forte usus earum prius fuerit apud paganos quam apud Christianos. Sed et hortum quemdam sic fecisse dicitur ut in eo non plueret. De balneis quoque eius incredibilia narrantur. Creditur etiam a quibusdam ab eo 908

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

factum illud miraculum quod dicebatur Salvatio Rome [see above, V.B.4] quod inter septem miracula mundi primum computatur. Erat autem ibi consecratio omnium statuarum. Que statue scripta nomina in pectore gentis cuius imaginem tenebant, gestabant, et tintinabulum uniuscuiusque statue. Erantque sacerdotes die ac nocte semper vigilantes qui eas custodiebant. Et que gens in rebellione consurgere conabatur contra imperium Romanum, statua illius commovebatur et tintinabulum illius movebatur in collo eius. Et ut quidam addunt statua ipsa mox digitum indicem protendebat versus illam gentem et versus nomen ipsius gentis quod in ea erat scriptum. Quod nomen scriptum continuo sacerdos principibus deportabat et mox exercitus ad eam gentem reprimendam mittebatur. LXII. De dictis et scriptis eiusdem Hic est Virgilius cum obiceretur ab invidis quod alienos versus suo operi inserabat respondit magnarum esse virium clavam extorquere de manu Herculis. Hic Virgilius dicebat parare se versus more rituque ursino. Nam ut illa bestia faetum edidit ineffigiatum informemque postea lambendo consummat et format, sic ingenii sui partus recentes rudes esse facie et imperfecta, sed deinceps tractando colendoque reddere quasi vultus et oris lineamenta. Augustinus in libro 10 De civitate Dei [see above, III.C.3.c] dicit quedam prophetata esse a Virgilio de Christo, ut illa: Iam nova progenies celo dimittitur alto [Eclogues 4.7]

et Te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri, Irrita perpetua solvent formidine terras [Eclogues 4.13–14].

Quibus versibus hoc Augustinus addit quod ‘‘non . . . a se ipso dixisse in egloge ipsius quarto ferme versu indicat ubi ait: Ultima Cumei venit iam carminis etas [Eclogues 4.4]

Unde,’’ inquit, ‘‘hoc a Cumea Sibilla dictum esse incunctanter apparet.’’ Ieronimo [see above, III.C.4] non placent hec dicta et similia Virgilii esse prophetiam sed a Virgilio centonibus artificiose Christo coaptata esse. Quod et Ysidorus confirmat dicens: ‘‘Centones,’’ inquit, ‘‘apud grammaticos vocari solent qui de carminibus Homeri et Virgilii ad propria opera more centenario ex multis hinc et inde compositis in unum sarciunt corpus a facultate cuiusque materie. Denique Proba [see above, III.A.5] uxor Adelphi centonem ex Virgilio de fabrica mundi et de Evangelio plenissime expressit, materia composita secundum versus et versibus secundum materiam continuatis. Eodem modo et quidam Pomponius [see above, III.A.6] ex eodem poeta inter cetera stili sui otia Tytyrum in honorem Christi composuit, similiter et de libro Eneidos’’ [Etymologiarum libri 1.39.26: see above, III.A.5]. F. F U S I O N S O F L I V E S A N D L E G E N D S

909

Illud quoque sciendum est Virgilium non tam eloquentem esse neque fuisse in prosa quam in versibus faciendis. Unde Seneca in libro III Declamationum: ‘‘Magna quoque ingenia non plus quam in uno eminuerunt opere. Virgilium illa ingenii felicitas in oratione soluta reliquit. Ciceronem eloquentia sua in carminibus destituit’’ [Controversiae 3, preface 8, with slight modifications: see above, I.C.4.a]. Actor: Virgilius tres libros tantum creditur edidisse, ut in epitaphio eius apparet ubi dicitur: Cecini pascua, rura, duces [see above, II.C.1].

Per que tria significantur Bucolica, Georgica et Eneis. Proinde Virgilius de Culice et Virgilius in Ethna quos Aurelianenses ad ostentationem et iactantiam circunferunt, in actores apocriphos separandi sunt.

60. On Cornelius Gallus, Plautus, and Virgil From chronicles. In the twenty-fifth year of his [Augustus’s] reign Virgil dies at Brindisi, when Sentius Saturninus and Lucretius Cinna are consuls. His bones were moved to Naples and buried at the second milestone from the city, with an epitaph of this sort: Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders.

61. On the Commendation of Virgil and His Deeds Helinand in book 26. It is agreed that Virgil was the best among all poets. Macrobius says that he had a share in all knowledge. Juvenal compares him with Homer, saying: The composer of the Iliad will be sung, and the songs of lofty-sounding Maro that put [Homer’s] victory in question.

Yet the same poet takes him to task in the following way for immoderation in lust: For if Virgil had not had a boy-slave or decent lodging, all the snakes would have fallen from [the Fury’s] hair.

Augustine in the first book of The City of God praises the same Virgil as follows: ‘‘For that reason,’’ he says, ‘‘little children read Virgil, so that the great poet, the most renowned and best of all, when absorbed at a tender age may not be easily obliterated by forgetfulness.’’ Many marvelous deeds are said to have been performed by this Virgil. At the gate of Naples in Campania he is said to have made a brass fly that drove out all the flies from the city. In the same city he is said to have built the meat market in such a way that no meat there would rot. He is said also to have constructed a certain belltower in such a way that the stone tower itself would 910

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

move in the same way as the bells when they were struck; but this does not seem true, since the use of bells had not yet been invented, unless maybe they were used among pagans earlier than among Christians. In addition, he is said to have made a certain garden in such a way that no rain would fall in it. Unbelievable things are there recounted about his baths. There are even people who believe that he made that marvel called the Salvation of Rome, which is reckoned as foremost among the seven wonders of the world. All the statues there were hallowed. These statues had written on their chests the names of the people that they represented, and they each had a bell. There were priests always keeping watch by day and night who guarded them. Whichever people tried to arise in rebellion against the Roman empire, its statue stirred and moved its bell on its neck. As some people add, the statue itself would hold out its index finger immediately toward that people and toward the name of the people that was written on it. The priest would at once carry o√ to the princes the name that was written down, and soon the army was dispatched to repress that people. 62. On the Words and Writings of the Same [Virgil] This Virgil, when those envious of him objected that he interpolated into his work verses by others, replied that it required great might to wrest the club from Hercules’ hand. This Virgil used to say that he composed verse according to the custom and practice of a bear. For as that beast brought forth its young, shapeless and unformed, and afterward completed and shaped it by licking, so the recent o√spring of his talent were unwrought in appearance and incomplete, but thereafter by working and cultivating he gave them, as it were, features and facial contours. Augustine in book 10 of The City of God says that certain prophecies were made by Virgil about Christ, such as these: Now a new o√spring is despatched from heaven on high

and Under your leadership, if any traces of our sin remain, rendered void they will release the earth from everlasting fear.

To these verses Augustine adds that ‘‘it indicates Virgil did not deliver [these verses] as his own when he says in the fourth line, I think, of the same eclogue: The last age of Cumaean song has now come.

On this evidence we may without hesitation declare that these are the words of the Sibyl of Cumae.’’ Jerome does not approve that these and other like statements of Virgil’s are prophecy but rather that they were artfully accommodated to Christ in centos. Isidore confirms this, saying: ‘‘Grammarians have the custom of calling F. F U S I O N S O F L I V E S A N D L E G E N D S

911

centoists those who stitch into one corpus in their own works many lines composed in di√erent passages from the poems of Homer and Virgil on the basis of the compatibility of each subject matter. In sum, Proba, wife of Adelphus, produced most fully a cento from Virgil about the creation of the world and about the Gospel, with the material composed in keeping with verses and in verses that are continuous according to the subject matter. In the same way too a certain Pomponius composed on the basis of the same poet, among the other products of his leisure writing, Tityrus in honor of Christ and likewise from the Aeneid.’’ It also must be known that Virgil neither is, nor was, as eloquent in prose as in composing verse. For this reason Seneca in book 3 of the Declamations says: ‘‘Even great genius has stood out in not more than one endeavor. That happy touch of genius forsook Virgil in prose. His eloquence abandoned Cicero in poetry.’’ Authorship: Virgil is believed to have composed only three books, as is evident in his epitaph, where it is stated: I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders.

By these three are meant the Bucolics, Georgics, and Aeneid. Accordingly, Virgil’s Culex and Virgil’s Etna, which the scholars of Orléans bandy about for show and pomp, must be set aside as apocryphal texts. (JZ)

2. John of Wales (died 1285) John of Wales was a Franciscan who taught in Oxford (where he was regent master) from 1259 to 1262 and in Paris from then until his death in 1285. One work by this prolific author was the Compendiloquium (Epitome), which survives in more than two dozen manuscripts. Devoted to ancient philosophy, it contains a substantial section about Virgil. As in the Speculum maius of Vincent of Beauvais (see above, V.F.1), the life of the poet that appears in the Compendiloquium assembles material found in vitae, accessus, and legends. (Discussion: on John in general: J. Swanson, John of Wales: A Study of the Works and Ideas of a Thirteenth-Century Friar [Cambridge, 1989]; on the Compendiloquium in particular: P. L. Schmidt, ‘‘Das ‘Compendiloquium’ des Johannes Vallensis,’’ in Studies in Literature in Honour of Leonard Forster, ed. D. H. Green, L. P. Johnson, and D. Wuttke [Baden-Baden, 1982], 109–23) (Text: J. Berlioz, ed., ‘‘Virgile dans la littérature des exempla [treizième au quinzième siècles],’’ in LMV 110–13; reproduced in EV 5.2, 480–81, no. 326) (JZ) Et quia fuerunt nobiles etiam philosophi inter poetas, ideo de quibusdam eorum sicut de Virgilio qui fuit poetarum ‘‘praeclarissimus et optimus teneris 912

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

ebibitus annis’’ prout dicit Augustinus, I De civitate [Dei: see above, I.C.31.a.iv], capitulo III aliqua de eo subscribantur. Ut enim dicit Papias [Elementarium doctrinae rudimentum (Venice, 1496), p. 255] poeta grece, latine vates dicitur unde et eorum scripta vaticinia dicebantur quod cum quadam vesania in scribendo commoverentur. Quorum genera erant tria ut distinguit idem Papias. Virgilius autem nomen habuit a virga eo quod mater eius sompniavit se peperisse quamdam virgam que et usque ad celum pertingeret. Quod nihil aliud fuit nisi quia Virgilium paritura erat quod loquendo de altis, celum tangeret prout ait Hugo [Huguccio of Pisa, Derivationes: see above, V.B.5.b, with ‘‘astris’’ for ‘‘altis’’]. Hic fuit et philosophia naturali preditus et nigromantia in multis usus est; unde et mira narrat de eo Alexander Nequam, Libro de naturis rerum [see above, V.A.6], ubi ait quod Neapolis cum letali peste sanguissugarum vexaretur, liberata est ab eo in fundum putei yrundine [= hirudine] aurea. Qua extracta evolutis multorum annorum curriculis a puteo mundato remplevit infinitis irundinibus [= hirudinibus] civitatem, nec sedata est pestis antequam sanguissuga aurea iterato in puteum mitteretur. Ibidem narrat quod macellum Neapolitanum carnes illesas a corruptione diu servare non potuit. Sed hanc incommoditatem prudentia Virgilii excepit, recludentis carmen nescio qua vi herbarum conditam que quingentis annis elapsis recentissima et optimi saporis suavitate commendabilis reperta est. Ibidem ait quod dictus vates ortum suum aere immobili vicem muri obtinente munivit et ambivit et pontem aereum construxit, cuius beneficio loca destinata pro arbitrio voluntatis sue adire consuevit. Ibidem recitat quod nobile palatium Rome construxit in quo cuiuslibet regionis ymago lignea companam manu tenebat. Quotiens vero aliqua regio maiestati Romani imperii insydias moliri ausa est, incontinenti[s] proditricis yconia campanam pulsabat et miles eneus equo insidens eneo summitate fastigii predicti palatii hastam vibrans in illam vertebat se partem que regionem illam respicebat. Et tunc Romana iuventus expedite missa a senatoribus preparabat se in hostes imperii ut non solum fraudes preparatas declinaret sed et in auctores temeritatis animadverteret. Quesitus autem vates quamdiu a diis conservandum esset illud nobile edificium, respondere consuevit: ‘‘Stabit usque dum pariat virgo.’’ Et hoc audientes et applaudentes dicebant: ‘‘Igitur in eternum stabit.’’ In nativitate vero Salvatoris, fertur dicta domus inclita subitam fecisse ruinam. Hoc idem narrat Hugo [Huguccio of Pisa, Derivationes: see above, V.B.5.a] superaddens quod illud palatium dicebat Colloseum et quod in medio erat ymago Romane provincie tenens pomum aureum in manu sua ut domina et regina omnium et erant hec disposita arte nigromantia, ait idem. F. F U S I O N S O F L I V E S A N D L E G E N D S

913

Quam subtilis fuit vero in naturis rerum patet in libris suis in quibus describit res propriisime sicut equos, apes et consimilia. Prout recitat Seneca [the Younger: see above, I.C.7] de ipso, Epistola XCVII [Epistulae morales 95.68], qualiter scilicet describit equum et hoc in persona viri: Nec vanos horret strepitus. Illi ardua cervix, argutumque caput, brevis alvus, obesaque terga, luxuriatque thoris animosum pectus. an[h]eli [Georgics 3.79–81, with ‘‘honesti’’ for ‘‘anheli’’], etc.

Et ‘‘dum aliud agit Virgilius noster describit virum fortem’’ [Epistulae morales 95.69], ait idem. Et est notandum quod describendo res loquebatur figuraliter, etc. Qualiter autem describit apes notabiliter patet libro primo Eneydos ubi ait: Educunt fetus aut cum liquentia mella stipant et dulci distendunt nectare cellas [Aeneid 1.432–33].

Quas descriptiones recitat Seneca, Epistola 88, dicens quod ‘‘apes debemus imitari que vagantur et flores ad faciendum mel carpunt ydoneos,’’ etc. [Epistulae morales 84.3]. Et sic de multis aliis rebus quas describit in operibus suis que fuerunt tria principaliter, scilicet liber Eneydos in quo descripit vitam militarem, liber Bucolicorum in quo describit vitam pastoralem, liber Georgicorum in quo describit vitam communem et laboriosam. Unde epytaphium suum fuit: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua, rura, duces [see above, II.C.1]. At ne Musa carens vitiis Eneydos esset, invida me celeri fata tulere nece [AL 1.2, 73, no. 558, lines 3–4].

Unde et moriens oravit suos amicissimos ut Eneyda que nondum elimaverat abolerent et corrigi facerent ut dictum est supra. Et de isto Policraticus, libro primo, capitulo 4 [John of Salisbury: see above, V.A.2], dicit quod fertur interrogasse Marcellum an avem mallet instrui in capturam avium an muscam formari in exterminationem muscarum. Quam questionem cum retulissent ad Augustum eius consilio eligit ut fieret musca que a Neapoli muscas abigeret et civitatem a peste insanabili liberaret. Optio quidem impleta est; unde liqueat private voluptati cuiusvis preferendam esse multorum utilitatem.

Because there were also noble philosophers among the poets, for that reason something may be added about some of them, as about Virgil, who was the most outstanding of poets and the best steeped from his tender years, as Augustine says in The City of God 1.3. As Papias states, in Greek one says poeta [maker] and in Latin vates [prophet or seer]; for this reason too their writings were 914

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

called prophecies, because they were stirred by a kind of madness when writing. There were three genres of their writings, as the same Papias di√erentiates. Virgil got his name from virga [shoot], because his mother dreamed that she had given birth to a shoot and that it reached all the way to heaven. This meant nothing if not that she was going to give birth to Virgil, inasmuch as in speaking of lofty matters he would touch the heavens, as Hugo says. He both was endowed with natural philosophy and employed magic in everything. For this reason Alexander Neckam relates marvels about him in On the Natures of Things, where he says that when Naples was being troubled by a deadly plague of bloodsuckers, it was freed by him by means of a golden leech he placed at the bottom of a well. When, after many years had rolled by, the leech was removed when the well was cleaned, it filled the city back up with innumerable leeches, and the plague did not subside until the golden bloodsucker was again put into the well. There too he relates that the meat market of Naples was unable to keep meat very long undamaged by decay. But Virgil in his foresight removed this inconvenience by enclosing a charm preserved by potent herbs that I cannot identify. After fifty years had passed, it was found to be completely fresh and praiseworthy for the pleasantness of its excellent odor. There too he says that the aforesaid poet equipped his garden with unmovable air that performed the function of a wall, surrounded it, and erected a bridge of bronze, by means of which he was accustomed to visit places determined by the decision of his will. There too he recounts that he built at Rome a fine palace in which a wooden statue of each region held a bell in its hand. Whenever in fact a given region dared to forge a plot against the majesty of the Roman empire, immediately the image of the treacherous region would strike the bell, and a brass soldier sitting on a brass horse at the peak of the gable on the aforesaid palace would brandish a spear and turn in the direction that looked toward that region. Then the young men of Rome were despatched right away by the senators and readied themselves against the empire’s foes not only to foil the deceits that had been prepared but also to consider dealing with the fomenters of the rash act. The poet, when asked how long that fine building would be preserved by the gods, was accustomed to reply: ‘‘It will stand until a virgin gives birth.’’ Hearing and approving, people would say: ‘‘Therefore it will stand forever.’’ But on the day of the Savior’s birth, the aforesaid renowned house is reported to have su√ered a sudden collapse. Hugo also relates this, adding that he called that place the Colosseum and that in the middle of it was a statue of the province of Rome that as mistress and queen of all provinces held a golden apple in its hand. The same source says that these things were arranged by magical craft. How deeply versed he was in the nature of things is evident in his books, in which he describes most aptly things such as horses, bees, and the like. Seneca F. F U S I O N S O F L I V E S A N D L E G E N D S

915

recounts of him in Epistles 97 how namely he describes a horse—and he does this in the character of a man: And he does not take fright at idle racket. His neck is high, head well-defined, belly short, and back plump, and his bold chest abounds in knots of muscles.

And ‘‘while our Virgil was referring to something else, he describes a brave man,’’ the same person says. It must be pointed out that in describing things he spoke figuratively. How he describes bees is strikingly apparent in the first book of the Aeneid when he says: They lead forth the young, or when they crowd the liquid honey and fill to bursting the cells with sweet nectar.

Seneca recounts these descriptions in Epistles 88, saying that ‘‘we ought to imitate bees, which wander about and pick out flowers suitable for making honey’’ and so on. It is so concerning many other things that he describes in his works, which were chiefly three, namely, the book Aeneid, in which he describes military life; the book of Eclogues, in which he describes the pastoral life; and the book of Georgics, in which he describes the toilsome life of common people. For this reason he had the epitaph: Mantua gave me life, the Calabrians snatched it away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, farms, and leaders. But so that my muse would not be free of shortcoming in the Aeneid, the envious fates took me in sudden death.

For this reason, when dying, he entreated his closest friends to destroy the Aeneid, which he had not yet revised, and they had it corrected as has been stated above. About this man the Policraticus, in book 1, chapter 4, says that he is reported to have asked Marcellus whether he would prefer a bird that was trained to capture birds or a fly constructed to exterminate flies. When they reported this question to Augustus, he chose by his counsel that there should be a fly that could dispel flies from Naples and free the city of the incurable plague. His choice was fulfilled by which it might be clear that the advantage of many was to be preferred to the individual pleasure of anyone. (JZ)

3. Conrad of Mure (circa 1210–81) Conrad of Mure (Konrad von Mure) is named after his birthplace, the town Muri in Switzerland. Conrad served as canon, cantor, and schoolmaster of 916

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

the cathedral in Zurich. He produced many works in Latin, of which the most successful was a handbook in alphabetical order, entitled the Fabularius (circa 1273). It survives in five manuscripts. Among its many entries on grammar, poetics, literary history, and so forth, it contains two on Virgil. Although these entries are obviously not (strictly speaking) vitae, they present a résumé of information identical with what appears in many of the lives. Conrad distanced himself from the marvels that Virgil is alleged to have accomplished through magic. (Discussion: W. Suerbaum, ANRW 2/31.2 [1981], 1249–51) (Text, items a and b: G. Brugnoli, ed., EV 5.2, 481, nos. 327–28, from Vatican, Biblioteca Vaticana Apostolica, MS Vat. lat. 1741, fols. 122v and 152v [fifteenth century]) (JZ) a. On Maro Maro dicitur Virgilius. Plura enim nomina habuit, scilicet Virgilius Publius Maro. Iste Virgilius, ‘‘teste Donato, doctissimus poetarum, vir magne philosophie, genere Manthuanus, factus amicissimus Octaviano Augusto’’ [see above, II.A.25], sub quo Deus natus est, et aliis imperialis aule magnatibus, plurima sui ingenii reliquit monimenta. Inter alia fecit Bucolica, Georgica, librum Eneidis. Dicitur etiam fecisse parvissimos libellos, quorum unus dicitur Copa Virgilii, alter dicitur Moretum Virgilii. Huius epithaphium est: ‘‘Manthua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc / Parthenope; cecini pascua rura duces’’ [see above, II.C.1].

Virgil is called Maro. Indeed, he had many names, to wit, Virgilius Publius Maro. This Virgil, according to the testimony of Donatus, the most learned of poets, a man of great philosophy, Mantuan by origin, having become most intimate with Octavian Augustus, under whom God was born, and with other magnates of the imperial court, left behind very many memorials of his talent. Among other things he made the Eclogues, Georgics, and the book of the Aeneid. He is said also to have made the smallest of little books, of which one is called Virgil’s Copa, another is called Virgil’s Moretum. The epitaph of this man is ‘‘Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me; I sang of pastures, plowlands, and leaders.’’ (JZ) b. On Virgil Virgilius ponitur supra, ubi Maro, hoc adiecto quod ipse, ut plerique dicunt, natus Idibus Octobris Gneio Pomperio [sic] et Marco consulibus studuit cum Octaviano sub Epydio oratore; unde etiam cum Octavianus auferret omnibus Mantuanis et ipsos militibus in stipendium distribueret, quia Antonio faverant Mantuani, huic soli concessit memoria condiscipulatus suos

F. F U S I O N S O F L I V E S A N D L E G E N D S

917

agros. Vixit autem annis quinquaginta duobus, et sic librum Eneidos morte preventus ad plenum non correxit, unde etiam ibi aliquotiens inveniuntur versus incompleti. Iste etiam Virgilius Rome, Neapoli et alias multa miracula et incredibilia per artem fecisse memoratur, de quibus nichil ad presens. Et dicitur Virgilius vel a verno tempore, quando secundum quosdam natus est et non Idibus Octobris, ut premissum est; vel a Vergiliis stellis, quia in ortu earum ortus est. Hee etiam stelle alio nomine dicuntur Pleiades; alio nomine Athlantides a patre; alio nomine Hesperides ab insula Hesperia. Vel Virgilius a virga materni sompnii nominatur: mater enim illum habens in utero vidit in sompniis se peperisse virgam parvam, que in magnam arborem excrevit. Quod sompnium dum fratri suo Lucretio rettullisset, ille interpretatus est quod esset puerum eminentioris ingenii pre ceteris poetis paritura. Et nota quod tempore incarnationis Christi eminentiores poete hystoriographi et philosophi fuisse comperiebantur, sicut patet in multis.

Virgil is to be found above, under Maro, with this added: that he, as many say, having been born on the Ides of October when Gnaeus Pompey and Marcus were consuls, studied with Octavian under the orator Epidius; for this very reason when Octavian took fields from all the Mantuans and distributed them to the soldiers as payment, because the Mantuans had supported Antony, in memory of their time as schoolfellows he granted their return to this [Virgil] alone. Moreover, he lived for fifty-two years, and thus, forestalled by death, he did not fully revise the book the Aeneid; hence too some number of incomplete verses are found there. This Virgil also is remembered to have made by craft many marvels and unbelievable things in Rome, Naples, and elsewhere, about which nothing [is to be said] at present. He is called Virgil either from verno tempore (springtime), when, according to certain people, he was born—and not on the Ides of October, as was mentioned above—or from the ‘‘Vergilian’’ stars, since he was born at their rising. These stars are also called by another name, the Pleiades; by a third, the Atlantides, after their father [Atlas]; and by a fourth, the Hesperides, from the island Hesperia. Alternatively, he is named Virgilius from the shoot [virga] of his mother’s dream: his mother, when she bore him in her uterus, saw in dreams that she bore a small shoot, which grew up into a great tree. When she reported this dream to her brother Lucretius, he interpreted that she was going to bear a boy of a talent more prominent before other poets. Note too that at the time of Christ’s incarnation it is recognized that there were more prominent poets, historians, and philosophers, as is apparent in many places. (JZ) 918

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

4. (Pseudo-)Walter Burley (circa 1275–after 1344) Walter Burley, also known variously as Burl(a)eus or Burleigh, was educated at Oxford and Paris and taught in both cities as well as in Toulouse. Besides leading an active life as a teacher and scholar (especially in the realm of philosophy), he served King Edward III (1312–77, ruled 1327–77, to whom he had been a tutor) as a diplomat. He produced more than fifty texts, mainly on philosophy, that have survived. The De vita et moribus philosophorum (On the Lives and Habits of the Philosophers; before 1326) has been ascribed to him since the fifteenth century, but the ascription has been disputed. A form of the ‘‘catalog of authors,’’ it is extant in some 270 manuscripts. In addition, it had an afterlife in an Italian version. (Discussion: G. Funaioli, ‘‘Chiose e leggende virgiliane del medio evo,’’ Studi medievali n.s. 5 [1932], 160–63) (Texts: Gualteri Burlaei Liber de vita et moribus philosophorum, mit einer altspanischen Übersetzung der Eskurialbibliothek, ed. H. Knüst, Bibliothek des Litterarisches Vereins in Stuttgart 177 [Tübingen, 1886]; J. H. Stigall, ‘‘The De vita et moribus philosophorum: An Edition with Introduction’’ [Ph.D. diss., University of Colorado, 1956], 212–15) (JZ) Virgilius inter omnes poetas optimus, nacione Mantuanus, Cremone studiis eruditus est. Deinde, sumpta toga magisterii, Mediolanum ivit. Post breve autem tempus Romam profectus est. Hic ideo Virgilius vocatus est quasi a virga, eo quod mater eius sompniavit se parituram quandam virgam que usque ad celum pertingeret; quod nichil aliud fuit nisi quia erat paritura Virgilium qui loquendo de altis celum tangeret, ut ait Hugo [Huguccio of Pisa: see above, V.B.5.b]. Hic philosophia naturali preditus eciam nigromanticus fuit et mira quidem arte illa fecisse narratur. In porta Neapoli Campanie dicitur fecisse muscam eneam que omnes muscas ab urbe expellebat. Item in eadem urbe macellum sic construxisse fertur ut nulla ibi caro putresceret. Narrat enim Alexander Nequam in libro De naturis rerum [see above, V.A.6] quod macellum Neapolitanum carnes illesas a corrupcione diu servare non poterat, sed hanc incommoditatem prudencia Virgilii excepit recludentis carnem, nescio qua arte herbarum conditam, que, quingentis annis elapsis, recentissima et optimi saporis suavitate commendabilis reperta est. Neapolis cum letali peste sanguissugarum vexaretur liberata est ab eo cum sanguissuga aurea, proiecta in puteum. Qua post multorum annorum curricula extracta et puteo purgato, innumerabilis sanguissugarum exercitus civitatis aquas invasit nec prius potuit pestis sedari quam illa sanguissuga aurea in fundum eiusdem putei mitteretur. Prefatus eciam Alexander Nequam narrat quod Virgilius ortum suum aere immobili, vicem muri F. F U S I O N S O F L I V E S A N D L E G E N D S

919

obtinentis, munivit et ambivit et pontem aureum construxit cuius beneficio loca destinata pro arbitrio voluntatis sue adire consuevit. Campanile dicitur quoddam construxisse ut turris ipsa lapidea eodem modo moveretur quo campane dum pulsabantur. Ortum quendam sic fecisse legitur ut in eo non plueret. De balneis eius mira et incredibilia narrantur. Creditur eciam ab eo factum illud mirabile quod dicebatur Salvacio Rome [see above, V.B.4]. Erat in templo quodam consacracio omnium statuarum, que statue scripta nomina in pectore gentis eius imaginem tenebat [gestabant] et tintinabulum unaquaque statua ad collum habebat. Erantque sacerdotes die ac nocte vigilantes semper qui eas custodiebant. Et que gens in rebellionem consurgere conabatur contra imperium Romanum, statua illius commovebatur et tintinabulum illius movebatur in collo eius, et statua ipsa mox digitum indicem protendebat versus illam gentem et versus nomen illius gentis quod in ea erat scriptum, quod nomen scriptum continuo sacerdos principibus deportabat et mox exercitus ad eam gentem reprimendam mittebatur. Hic scripsit libros tres, scilicet Bucolicorum, Georgicorum, et Eneidos. Vixit autem annis quinquagenta tribus et Brundusii obiit. Ossa vero eius Neapoli translata sunt. Claruit autem tempore Pompeii.

Virgil, best among all poets, Mantuan by nation, was educated by studies at Cremona. Then, upon attaining the maturity [literally: ‘‘assuming the toga’’] of a master’s degree, he went to Milan. After a brief time, however, he departed to Rome. This man was called Virgil for this reason, as if from a shoot [virga], because his mother dreamed that she would bear a certain shoot that would reach up to the heavens; that meant nothing else if not that she was going to bear Virgil, who by speaking of lofty matters touched the heavens, as Hugo says. Having been endowed with natural philosophy, he was also a necromancer and indeed is reported to have performed marvels by that craft. On a gate at Naples in Campania he is said to have made a brass fly that drove the flies out of the city. Likewise he is said to have built the meat market in the same city, so that no meat would rot there. In fact, Alexander Neckam tells in the book On the Natures of Things that the meat market of Naples could not keep meats undamaged by corruption for long, but this inconvenience was set aside by the foresight of Virgil, who stored away meat, seasoned by I do not know what craft of herbs; when fifty years had passed, it was found to be praiseworthy for its very fresh and tasty savoriness. Naples, when harried by a deadly plague of leeches, was freed by him with a golden leech, tossed down a well. When it was extracted after the passage of 920

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

many years and when the well was cleaned, an untold army of leeches invaded the city’s waters, and the plague could not be mitigated before that golden leech was put at the bottom of the same well. The aforesaid Alexander Neckam tells also that Virgil protected and surrounded his garden with unmovable air, fulfilling the o≈ce of a wall, and constructed a golden bridge, by the benefit of which he was accustomed to approach predetermined places according to the whim of his will. He is said to have constructed a certain belfry so that the stone tower itself moved in the same way as the bells when they were struck. It is read that he made a certain garden so that there would not be rain upon it. Marvelous and unbelievable things are recounted about his baths. It is also believed that that marvel which was called the Salvation of Rome was made by him. There was in a certain temple a consecrated gathering of statues; these statues bore the names of the peoples they represented written on their chests, and each statue had a bell on its neck. And there were priests always keeping watch by day and night who guarded them. Whichever people tried to rise up in rebellion against the Roman empire, the statue of it stirred and its bells moved on its neck, and the statue itself a little later extended its index finger toward that people and toward the name of that people which was written on it. Straightway the priest would carry o√ to the authorities the name that was written, and shortly the army would be sent to quell that people. He wrote three books, namely, the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid. Moreover, he lived fifty-three years and died at Brindisi. Yet his bones were moved to Naples. He was famed in the time of Pompey. (JZ) G. ALEXANDER OF TELESE (died before 1143) Alexander was abbot of San Salvatore, near Telese in Campania. In 1136 he composed a text that survives uniquely in a paper manuscript: Barcelona, Biblioteca Central de la Deputación Provincial, MS 996-8-III (late fourteenth century). In the manuscript a later hand supplied the words Ystoria serenissimi Rogerii primi Regis Sicilie (History of the Most Pacific King Roger I of Sicily). Although the text has often been styled De rebus Rogerii Siciliae Regis libri IV (Four Books on the Deeds of King Roger of Sicily), the historical commentary to the most recent edition suggests the pithy title Libellus (Little Book). However it is entitled, the text is a panegyric history on the deeds of King Roger II (1095–1154)—with whom Alexander was personally acquainted— in the surroundings of Benevento between 1127 and 1136. In the Alloquium ad regem Rogerium (Address to King Roger), which he designed to accompany his work upon presentation to the king, Alexander compares his relations with G. ALEXANDER OF TELESE

921

the king to those of Virgil with Caesar Augustus. (Discussion: E. Paratore, ‘‘Virgilio in Alessandro di Telese,’’ in Studi medievali in onore di Antonino de Stefano [Palermo, 1956], 425–27; and G. Brugnoli, ‘‘Nocte pluit,’’ Giornale italiano di filologia 39 [1987], 111–12) (Text, items 1 and 2: L. De Nava, ed., Alexandri Telesini abbatis Ystoria Rogerii Regis Sicilie Calabrie atque Apulie, Fonti per la storia d’Italia 112 [Rome, 1991], 69–70, 89) (JZ)

1. On Aeneas’s Founding and Virgil’s Lordship of Naples In the text proper of the history (3.19) Alexander repeats the legend that Virgil was granted lordship over Naples by Augustus. The notion that Virgil was given possession of Naples as a reward for his poetry was in a way an extension of Ovid, Ars amatoria 3.405–10, as modified by Domenico di Bandino (see above, II.A.35). The idea was mentioned often later, most prominently in the confession of Lady Nature in the thirteenth-century Roman de la Rose (Romance of the Rose) (Guillaume de Lorris et Jean de Meun: Le roman de la rose, ed. F. Lecoy, vol. 3, Les classiques français du moyen âge 98 [Paris, 1970], 61–62, lines 18688–99): ‘‘In past time, valiant noblemen, as literary texts call them, emperors, dukes, counts, kings, of whom I will tell no more here, would honor philosophers. To poets they would give towns, gardens, places of honor, and many lovely things: Naples, which is a lovelier town than Paris or Lavardin, was given to Virgil.’’ (JZ) Domenico Comparetti (VMA 282–83) identified the likely source for this legend in a misreading of a passage in Naturales quaestiones (6.1.2), where Seneca the Younger (see above, I.C.7) refers to a Verginius who is consul when an earthquake strikes Campania. Erat autem civitas ipsa antiquissima, quam Eneas, cum illuc navigio transvectus applicuisset, primus fertur condidisse. . . . Nempe huiusmodi urbis dominus olim Octabiano Augusto annuente, Virgilius maximus poetarum extitit; in qua etiam ipse volumen suum ingens exametris composuit versibus.

Moreover that city [Naples] was most ancient, which Aeneas is reported to have founded first when he had landed after having sailed there in a ship. . . . To be sure, Virgil, greatest of poets, was once lord of this city, with the approval of Octavian Augustus, in which additionally he composed his great book in hexameter verses. (JZ)

2. Address to King Roger Nam si Virgilius maximus poetarum apud Octavianum imperatorem tantum promeruit ut pro duobus, quos ad laudem sui ediderat, versibus, Neapolis

922

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

civitatis, simulque provincie Calabrie dominatus caducam ab eo recepit retributionem, multo melius credimus nos apud te, his recompensari, que ad divinum peragendum obsequium poscimus. . . .

For if Virgil, greatest of poets, earned so much merit from Emperor Octavian that in return for two verses which he had composed in praise of Octavian, Virgil received from him in escheat the dominion of the city Naples as well as of the province of Calabria, we believe that we are to receive from you much better recompense for these, which we ask in fulfillment of divine service. . . . (JZ) H. IMAGE DU MONDE (1246) One of the rare encyclopedic works in the vernacular that takes for its subject the sciences, in particular geography, meteorology, and astronomy, the Old French verse Image of the World was very popular, as attested by the number of manuscripts. The first redaction exists in sixty-seven manuscripts, the second one in twenty-three, the third in only a single. The first redaction (Redaction A), of 6,594 octosyllabic lines, is thought to have been composed in 1246, while the second (Redaction B)—a thorough recasting—was lengthened by about another 4,400 lines, presumably after 1248. A third redaction, written in prose, closely resembles the second. Later the text was translated into English and published by William Caxton (circa 1422–91) (Mirrour of the World, ed. O. H. Prior, Early English Text Society, extra series 110 [London, 1966]). The work has been attributed to Gossouin de Metz, an author about whom nothing is known. Virgil fits in very well with the subject matter of the text, since his achievements are presented as being made possible by his knowledge of astronomy and the liberal arts. One new motif ascribed to Virgil in Image du monde is that of the everlasting lamp (or fire), which is also attested in an Old French romance (VN 61, 205–6). (Discussion: M. J. Ward, ‘‘Another Occurrence of the Virgil Legends: Thomas III, Marquis de Saluce’s Le livre du Chevalier Errant, and Gossouin de Metz’ L’Image du Monde,’’ Medioevo romanzo 10 [1985], 371–89) (ZS)

1. First Redaction (A), lines 1–138 (Text: EV 5.2, 478–79, no. 322) [1–10] There were many other important scholars of great power in the world who throughout their life continued to acquire the knowledge of the seven arts and astronomy. Among them, there were some who in their time did wonders by their intelligence. But of those, Virgil was the most active, H. IMAGE DU MONDE

923

and he made many marvels. Therefore we will tell you of some of his marvels of which we have heard. [11–24] Before Jesus Christ came Virgil, who did not use the arts to deceive, but rather he used them all his life in such a way that by the use of astronomy he manifestly performed many great wonders. He made a bronze fly that, when he raised it in one place, chased the others in such a manner that there was no other fly that could approach it all around within the distance of two bow shots, without dying immediately, without delay, the moment it crossed the boundary that he laid out for it. [25–28] He thus also made a bronze horse that cured of all ills horses that were sick when they had seen it. [29–40] He thus constructed a big city on an egg with such a power that when someone moved the egg, the whole city would tremble, and the more one moved the egg, the more everything shook all around the city above and below. The bronze fly and the bronze horse and the cage where the egg was are still right there in Naples, according to those who have come from there and who have seen them a few times. [41–52] In one city, he caused all flames to be extinguished, as the story goes, so that no one could have any fire, unless he lit a candle at the place where a woman gives birth. The woman in question was the daughter of the emperor, a great lady, who caused him some affliction. And no one could pass on the flame to anyone else; therefore it behooved each to light it right there. This did not please the daughter of the emperor, and thus Virgil had his vengeance. [53–64] He made a bridge over a river, I do not know whether of stone or of wood, the largest that ever existed in the world. But no one else, as shrewd of mind as he was, a carpenter, a mason, or a worker, and as good as he was at searching in the water or on the ground, could ascertain at which place this bridge was erected and how it held itself up from underneath, at the top and in the center, while people were perfectly able to cross right in the middle of it. [65–68] He made a garden, extending from the ground up very high, completely enclosed by air, thickly as in a cloud, without any other ornament. [69–78] He made two candles and a lamp with a flame inside that burned eternally, without the flame’s ever going out or diminishing. These three he sealed off underground, so that one could not find them even by searching [reading pour querre for pour guerre]. I do not know if one could find it until the end of his lifetime, but he who knew as much as Virgil could regain these or others. [79–88] He wrote a short book, small as his fist, where he described all 924

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

the seven arts in such a way that a man could know all their contents within three years, but on the condition that he had organized the meaning of it. He held this booklet so dear that no one could teach out of it, except a cleric of his who, without a lie, was the son of a king of Sicily [reading Cesile to mean Sicily; see above, V.A.3.a]. [89–130] He made a talking head that gave him an immediate answer to all his questions about what could happen in the country. So much so that one day he asked the head about a business that he was going to conduct. The head gave him an answer to which he did not understand the interpretation: If he were to take good care of his head, nothing but good would befall him. He then left with assurance, but the sun that gives heat so overheated his brain (of which he neglected to take care) that he fell ill and died of it, as is told. When he spoke to that head, he did not understand that what was meant was his head. Instead he understood that he should protect the head talking to him. It would have been better nevertheless if he had well protected his own. He had ordered his body, when he died, to be taken for burial outside Rome to a castle, on the way to Sicily in a city close to the sea [reading Cesile to mean Sicily]. His bones are still there and are guarded better than anyone else’s. Whenever anyone moved his bones and held him high up in the air, as was the custom, the sea swelled up straight away and came rushing toward the castle, and the higher he was held up, the higher the sea rose, so that the sea would have submerged the castle if he had not been put down. And as soon as he was back in his rightful place, the sea waned and returned to its original state. This was often tested, and it still has the same property, as those who have come from there tell it. [131–38] Virgil was shrewd and wise, and he wanted to put all the languages of learning to the test of his powers, so much so that he could know more about them. And he was of small build, his back naturally curved a little, and he walked with his head low and kept his eyes fixed on the ground. (ZS)

2. Second Redaction (B), lines 352–429 (Text: EV 5.2, 479–80, no. 324) St. Paul [see above, II.C.16], who was an eminent man of honor, traveled through many a region in order to teach and to seek out good clerics, whom he held so dear. It so happened after the death of Virgil that St. Paul, who was very learned in the arts of learning before he believed in the son of Mary, came to Rome, where he converted and set on the right path many Jews and pagans. When he arrived in the city and learned of the death of Virgil, who had died only recently, his death grieved him greatly because he H. IMAGE DU MONDE

925

would have desired greatly to convert him by his reasoning, as a result of which he would have done a lot of good. Then he sought after Virgil’s books wherever he could, and in one of them he found a high word of the most beautiful prophecy that had ever been heard by a pagan: the coming of Jesus Christ. This prophecy Virgil himself had written: That a new lineage had come down from high heaven and that the Virgin, who would make the earth rejoice, had already come. When St. Paul read this, here is what he said of Virgil: ‘‘Ah, if I had found you, I then would have given you to God!’’ He searched for the books until he found a place where he had light by the flame of a lamp that shone brightly and two candles for lighting. This place was deep in the ground, but no man dared venture inside it, because the path was so horrible, so narrow, hideous, and laborious, full of wind and thunder, that it would have been hard to believe. And no man could bring a light that could last. Nevertheless he came so close that he saw the image of Virgil seated on a big throne, completely surrounded by his books in piles, by all appearances very rich and beautiful. In his right hand he held one of the books closed, as if because of great affection. St. Paul saw the two candles next to him, one burning on the right and the other on the left, and in front of Virgil there stood an archer who aimed straight at the lamp. But there he could not enter, despite anything that he could devise, because at the entrance there were two men of cypress wood, of a very ugly shape, who held big hammers of steel and with which they struck the ground with such force that one did not dare approach them or dash forward. Nor could one put there anything that existed without its being shattered at first blow. And if the object was so strong that at first blow it fell down, the place trembled so much at the blow that it seemed that whatever was nearer than a mile from it should come to an end. This St. Paul did not consider to be a matter of trickery, but in the end he did so much that he caused the two hammers to stop, as is told. And the archer instantly shattered the lamp, and everything was turned to ashes. St. Paul, who thought that he would take possession of the books, could not see anything that had not turned to powder and ashes. Thus he returned empty-handed. (ZS)

I. JANS ENIKEL (between 1230 and 1290) The poet who identified himself as der Jansen enikel (grandson of Jans [Johannes]) lived (and owned a house) in Vienna in the thirteenth century. Probably in the final quarter of the century, he wrote two chronicles, first the Weltchronik (World Chronicle) and later the Fürstenbuch (Book of Princes), in Middle High German rhyming couplets. The following extract comes from the 926

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

Weltchronik, an enormous rhymed poem that attempts in some 28,000 lines to cover all of history from the Creation to the death of Emperor Frederick II (1194–1250). More narrowly, the extract comes from a long section on the reputed deeds of the Roman emperors. The Weltchronik is extant in one form or another in thirty-nine manuscripts. (Discussion of later influence: F. Schanze, ‘‘Von Virgilio dem Zauberer,’’ in Verfasserlexikon 10:384–85) (Text: Jansen Enikels Werke, ed. P. Strauch, MGH Scriptorum qui vernacula lingua usi sunt tomus 3 [Hannover and Leipzig, 1900], 462–72) (JZ) [23695] In Rome there lived a man who was named Virgil. In Rome he was so clever that he invented many a magic trick. As I will tell you, he was a true heathen. He was blind to the true faith. He was completely a child of hell. I want to tell you how this very same Virgil succeeded in attaining much skill in magic. I do not want to conceal this from anyone. I will tell you truly of the same man and how he came to practice magic; I heard it from him. In a vineyard he chopped entirely to his heart’s content. He swung firmly into the ground so that the hoe could hardly withstand it. His chopping and swinging were so fervent that he came upon a glass bottle. The bottle was so full of demons that I shouldn’t even tell of them. He took the bottle from the ground. ‘‘I have much joy in this bottle,’’ said Virgil. ‘‘From it I will gain profit and honor wherever I travel in the land, so I want to keep it here.’’ Then the devil locked within the bottle spoke: ‘‘Virgil, let us go. We will protect you forever from all types of harm. Let us go free on the heath. We will teach you much magic so that you have enjoyment and amusement for the rest of your life. There is distress in the bottle. Seventy-two is our number, we are telling the truth for sure.’’ Then Virgil replied: ‘‘I can’t bother with you unless you teach me everything you know. Then I swear to you that I will break the bottle. Teach me so much of your art that I might profit from it. I swear to you this very day that I will break this bottle immediately.’’ At once all the demons instructed him with great commotion and without difficulty in the art of magic as it prevails throughout Christendom; whoever knows their art can practice magic without error. When he had learned the art of magic from them he went to a stone, broke the bottle, and set free all the devils with their retinue. Immediately Virgil thought, ‘‘Since the devils have departed from here I must try out their art. Now I hope to gain both honor and riches. How it does my heart good that I gain profit and honor without pain!’’ [23765] This very same Virgil set out for Rome to ascertain if his art was truly the devil’s power. At Rome he sculpted by magic a woman of stone who had such a body that whenever a rogue or an evil man wanted to go to a woman, he, the evil one, the impure one, went to the stone and lay with the I. JANS ENIKEL

927

stone as if it were truly a woman. I shouldn’t continue. You know my opinion well. [23779] He practiced plenty of magic. He was such an extraordinarily intelligent man that I cannot express it fully. On much of the truth I must keep silent, but one thing I know for certain, and that I will tell you plainly: he wooed a woman who was well-to-do and who lived in the city of Rome, where he asked her often that she do his will. But the woman was faithful and did not want to grant him that which he desired of her. But he did not cease wooing her. He said he would die before he gave up. ‘‘Your love suits me well.’’ She spoke: ‘‘Your foolishness will cause you pain when I tell my husband. And were you more beautiful than Absalom, my love is denied you. I am far too pure for you. Every stone would have to break before I would truly grant you that which you desire of me. Go away, leave me in peace. My husband will kill you. I will surely tell him. Your talk is unseemly.’’ [23809] Virgil did not give up. Truly he gave silver and gold to the woman. He was very rich. Because he did not want to cease wooing the beautiful woman, she went to her husband. ‘‘You are a wise man and are not too old. Consider how I might retain my chastity, which I have cherished with care since my childhood. I must grow old with honor if it is your will. Now advise me quickly so that I might escape Virgil. He is causing me distress and pain on account of love for me. Now consider how I might evade his tricks so that my honor might be preserved.’’ [23831] Her husband spoke immediately: ‘‘Lady, your defamation and disgrace would grieve me deeply. As clever as he is, I will endeavor, my lady, to disgrace him. Now, my lady, follow my advice: send for him at once and promise him, my beloved wife, that you will do his will this very night and that you have considered it well. You should tell him the story that I rode away from you in anguish and rage and that you lost my favor in vain. Tell him he can’t come to the house to see you right now because I have you under strict supervision. Say: ‘I think it wise that I lower a basket to you. You should sit in it quietly. You need not worry, for no one will know of it. I will gladly pull you up into the tower which I possess. I will do your will.’ When he sees your desire, he will be completely fearless.’’ The wife did what her husband told her. She sent for Virgil and said: ‘‘If you are a brave warrior, then you should prove it to me today. Tonight I will give myself to you as your own. My husband did not think carefully when he beat me severely. Therefore I advise you that you come to me tonight. What you desire of me, I will fulfill at that time. In all the lands far and wide, nothing is as painful to me as my husband. I will give him a great deal of pain.’’ 928

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

[23877] When Virgil heard the words of the woman he spoke: ‘‘Should I come to you tonight?’’ She answered: ‘‘I’m afraid of the guards, I advise that you do as follows: have yourself pulled up to me quickly in a basket; that is best.’’ ‘‘Gladly, lady,’’ he replied, ‘‘for I am ever your servant. You are so virtuous.’’ [23889] At night, when it was dark, Virgil set out for the tower. He threw a pebble against the window so that it made a noise. Then the lady went quietly and quickly unlocked the window. Her husband accompanied her. She looked down and spoke thus: ‘‘Are you there, Virgil?’’ He replied: ‘‘Beautiful lady, lower the basket, and I will sit in it.’’ (She had a good idea there!) Immediately she lowered the basket as Virgil requested. Virgil was quick to sit in it. (She had a good idea there!) With full knowledge she pulled him up the tower, almost three stories high. She pulled him no further. She tied him up and let him hang there. His will was not fulfilled. She was a pure woman; chaste and beautiful was her body. [23915] When it dawned the following morning, it was reported to the Romans that the wise Virgil was hanging thus from the tower. ‘‘I won’t believe it unless I see it, for he is wiser than any man or woman; such a thing could not happen. He is wise night and day.’’ Rumor had it that it was the truth. Then the Romans went and witnessed his plight. Then the husband came riding toward him just as if he had been away. Virgil could hardly be saved, for such was his pain and suffering. Each Roman spoke to him: ‘‘How did it happen, Virgil, that you are hanging here?’’ Virgil replied quietly: ‘‘It was my will.’’ Then the lady’s husband spoke: ‘‘Who brought you to the tower thus so that you are hanging on my wall? I gather you’re getting sick of it. I am sorry for you: you have suffered shame.’’ At once the husband let the wise man down from the tower so that all the people saw it. He suffered great disgrace and much pain in both his body and his heart. [23951] When Virgil was let down, as the master of the house ordered, he began to think and to consider in his heart how the lady’s reputation might be harmed by him and how from this harm her family might be disgraced as well. That was a heavy burden. [23961] Then the heathen caused the fire in Rome to be extinguished. It was a miracle that anyone survived. People couldn’t bake or cook food. People couldn’t brew. They were full of sorrow. They were almost dead of hunger and suffered greatly. [23971] Since the Romans were suffering great distress, they began to ponder how they might succeed in obtaining fire. There was no one so outstanding who could think of a way. At that moment, a Roman among them spoke: ‘‘I will tell you what I think. I advise that we ask Virgil; he is I. JANS ENIKEL

929

truly a noble man. We will tell him what is afflicting us, and our misfortunes will be reversed.’’ Thus spoke the Roman. The advice pleased them all a great deal. Then all went with relief and confidence to Virgil and spoke: ‘‘Sir, we seek your advice regarding a misfortune. It has caused us such great distress that we are almost dead of hunger. We can’t bake. We can’t cook food. We will perish because of it and die here in Rome. Now we know, sir, of your wisdom, which is extraordinarily helpful.’’ [24001] Virgil spoke: ‘‘I say to you, you may be silent, for I will tell you the truth, and it will hurt you a great deal. You are suffering pain and distress.’’ Thus Virgil spoke to them. Then the wise Romans replied in anguish: ‘‘Sir, whatever you want, friend and lord, is not too much. We will do it gladly so that we can get fire before we perish thus and die here in Rome. Hunger is blinding us; our wives and children are dying.’’ He spoke: ‘‘If hunger is afflicting you, swear an oath to me that from now on you will never go against whatever I order you to do and that I will have your loyalty on account of the same debt, for I will find fire here in accordance with your will.’’ [24025] They agreed that now and in the future they would not oppose him. They spoke: ‘‘We will follow your will and your advice completely. If any of us has been negligent toward you, disregard it. We want to be more solicitous toward you in the future.’’ He replied: ‘‘Swear that to me right now.’’ Thus advised Virgil. Painfully each swore two oaths to him. ‘‘With permission I should say that you have no one so well suited to free you from suffering as the woman who lives in the wealthy tower where I hung in distress.’’ Many went to the woman. Her relatives and her husband could be seen going to her with entreaty and prayer, for he had to allow it, he and all his family, that she go to Virgil. Virgil received her well. He spoke: ‘‘Beautiful lady, if you don’t want to let the country and the people in it perish, then follow my wishes and act according to my advice. In this way you will get fire quickly or else you will have to die and perish with everybody else.’’ She replied: ‘‘My dear sir, by your grace, I entreat you ardently to grant that another way be found. I have suffered enough at your hands.’’ He answered: ‘‘Lady, that cannot be. The Rhine would have to go dry for me to give up. Without you no one will get fire.’’ The lady spoke: ‘‘Then let me see what will happen to me here.’’ [24073] Virgil spoke as he saw her standing beautifully before him: ‘‘Lady, do you see this stone? You will stand alone on it. You will remove your clothing. From this stone you will not flee and you will wear nothing but a shirt. You will have no other clothing. Indeed, you will leave what is behind completely open and will get down on all fours. Immediately man 930

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

and woman shall light up from behind. If someone has the misfortune to go to another for a light, then the fire of both shall be extinguished so that it is never seen to burn again. But if they want to have fire, then they must go back and light up again. And so your behind will begin to glow.’’ Then the beautiful lady spoke: ‘‘I would rather die before I experienced such shame. I would leave the country first.’’ Then Virgil spoke: ‘‘This can’t happen. It must take place my way if they want to see happiness and joy. They must force you, then they will succeed.’’ [24105] When her relatives heard that, they had many questions. Her husband realized immediately that there was no other way. They took the matter up with entreaty and prayer. The lady did not want to do it, for she was very ashamed, and her suffering was great. She spoke: ‘‘I’ll kill myself before such a thing happens to me.’’ Since neither threats nor begging helped, listen now to what happened to her. Her husband didn’t want to give up, and he ordered her bound. He ordered her clothes removed. She was unable to escape it. He placed her down on the stone. Her shame was great. With screams the lady had to provide fire to all. She had to stand on the stone and was not spared. One man carried a candle, another tallow. The third carried a wisp of straw, the fourth a clump of leaves. The fifth carried a torch, the sixth a firebrand. So they all lit up. It was a brutal chore for the woman. She had to suffer thus and could not avoid it. She had to experience shame and distress. She was nearly dead. [24139] Afterward Virgil departed quickly from Rome and built a city. It was called Naples, just as it is known today. He commenced with cleverness, so that it would go according to his will exactly as he wanted, and as it should with cunning. It went according to his plan: he built the city on an egg, which still has its strength from him and his masterful skill. If anybody broke it, the city sank and many people drowned. In the city they protected it well. Whenever someone reached for the egg, the whole city trembled and all the homes as well. [24157] After that, Virgil invented many more clever tricks. He made a bronze statue; the statue seemed to be of gold. The statue was engraved with gold letters: ‘‘Where I point, there is treasure. Whoever finds it will be instantly free of poverty.’’ When the people had heard this, a great many of them came. Each sought his salvation by finding the treasure so that the burden of care would be lifted and total joy would become apparent. One hand of the statue pointed to the wild forest; the other arm reached toward a place about which many often laugh. The statue pointed with its fine hand to a mountain that stood opposite. And so it pointed day and night with its finger. Many a man, the wise as well as the dumb, sought profit and dug all I. JANS ENIKEL

931

around the mountain. Its finger was pointed toward the mountain, as I said. The other finger pointed at the stomach and indicated that the treasure was there. No one understood that. They proceeded according to the finger that pointed at the mountain. There they worked hard because they thought that there in the mountain they would find the treasure. No one found the treasure there. One day a drunk man spoke: ‘‘How long should the statue mock us? I will take revenge on it for the people and will break it.’’ He seized his club. Drunkenly he approached it and hit it on its neck so that on the ground lay its head. Afterward the sun ceased to shine, because it was night. The gold fell down upon the grass. Whoever desires great riches should take notice of this. It has to happen to him, be he layman or cleric, as it happened to the drunkard who broke the statue. ‘‘This statue should mock no one.’’ He didn’t know that the gold was his until he carried it away from there. He became a wealthy man. Many riches were granted to him. Alas, how easily some people gain salvation! Ah, may we be granted a share in it! Let God in heaven help us to it. Then indeed we will be joyful. (WC)

J. ADENET LE ROI (circa 1240–circa 1300) In 1285 Adenet le Roi composed in rhymed octosyllabic couplets (18,698 lines) an Old French romance, the Roman de Cleomadés. The romance survives in twelve manuscripts and three fragments. Its adventures were inspired by a tale of a magic ebony horse included in the Thousand and One Nights, as well as in some versions of the Seven Sages cycle. The hero of the romance is Cleomadés, son of the king of Spain, who accidentally comes into possession of a marvelous automaton in the form of a flying ebony horse. The horse’s ability to fly is central to the development of the plot. An extended digression on Virgil’s deeds serves as a testimony to the feats of magic such as the flying ebony horse. Indeed, Adenet le Roi compiled most of the stories on the subject of Virgilian wonders that circulated in the thirteenth century. His romance contains the earliest extant form of the magic mirror that Virgil is supposed to have made at Rome, which showed anyone who approached the city with treasonable intentions. This motif, which reappears in Renart le contrefait (Renard the Impostor) (see below, V.M) and elsewhere, seems to be an outgrowth of the tale about the statue Salvation of Rome (VN 134; see above, V.B.4). (Text and discussion: Les Oeuvres d’Adenet le Roi, ed. A. Henry, vol. 5, pt. 2: Cleomadés, Université libre de Bruxelles, Travaux de la Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres 46 [Brussels, 1971], 661–74) (ZS) [1649–62] You know well that Virgil performed a great marvel when he placed two castles on two eggs in the sea. He knew how to construct them in 932

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

such a way that, if one of the eggs were broken, the castle would crumble immediately at the place where one would have broken the egg. Furthermore they say that one of the castles was tested, and it crumbled—in Naples they say so. The other castle is still there, standing in the sea firm and beautiful. And it is true, indeed, that it is the egg, on which the castle is built, that is there. [1663–76] Near Naples there is a town, it has been called Pozzuoli for some time, where Virgil built several baths that cured the sick. Above each bath he wrote down the sickness from which had been cured those who bathed in it. This was known by writing, but you should know that physicians, who have done a lot of evil and a lot of good, tore apart all the writings, because this was not bringing them a profit. If such baths still existed, I think that they would not like them very much. [1677–90] In Naples he made out of metal such a horse on a pillar that it cured every horse of a wound if it had it, as long as one tied it to the pillar. In truth, I heard this be told. The farriers who lived at that time in the country did not earn anything by dressing the wounds of a horse. They had the metal horse torn to pieces, by which they caused damage and committed a wrong, but the horse was causing them a great loss. I think if one were to go to Naples, one would still find the horse. [1691–98] It is true that in Rome Virgil did even greater things, for he made there a mirror by which one could find out, by means of the image that appeared in it, whether anyone among those conquered by Rome was striving to deceive it or betray it. [1699–1706] And he made a bronze fly, on account of which he is still esteemed and loved. He placed that fly in Naples. He made the fly in such a way that while it was there no fly entered Naples. But I do not know either what became of the fly thereafter or what befell it afterward. [1707–22] Moreover, Virgil built a fire that burned for a long time in Rome. It burned without fail night and day, and it provided great comfort to a number of people. In front of the fire stood an archer, neither of iron nor of steel, but made of copper. He looked as if he wanted to shoot straight into the fire. On his forehead the letters, written in Hebrew, announced: ‘‘If anyone strikes me, I will shoot immediately.’’ And a fool passed by, who struck the archer with a stick, and he shot into the fire, which died and was never again rekindled. In truth, that is how it happened. [1723–84] A very wise and shrewd man Virgil was; he made in Rome a very clever, very fine, and very wondrous thing. I will describe it briefly as accurately as I can. Do not think this a fraud. At four corners of the city, on four city towers, which belonged to the fortifications, he made four big J. ADENET LE ROI

933

statues of men in stone, in a marvelous manner, for they were made by magic. They were as tall as the length of a straight lance, and they were all fashioned in the same way. On top of each tower he placed one, after he fashioned them in the way it suited and pleased him. They were made in such a manner that they always stood straight. Each had all the parts, as a body does. Now I will tell you what these men did there and what purpose they served. In the hand of one of the men, on the day that he made them, Virgil placed a big brass apple. This apple told the truth of the four seasons, of spring and summer, of autumn which follows, and then of winter. Now it befits me to make clear the division of these seasons: it is for this reason that the men were placed on top of the towers that I am describing. One of the towers was named Spring; the second, Summer, the pleasant; the third, Autumn, the beloved; the fourth, Winter, the feared. As soon as the spring passed and the summer season returned, the man on top of the Spring tower was of such disposition that he would throw at once the apple that he had held right into the hand of the man of Summer. When his tenure ended, the man of Summer would throw it straight to the man of Autumn, who held it until his rightful tenure expired. At that point he would throw it to the man of Winter exactly on time. Each hand was so encased in iron and so well crafted that it could not break when the apple fell into it. And so the apple, which was there, never failed to move, for it would always set itself in motion on time, going from one tower to another. (ZS)

K. ORACLE OF THE THREE LETTERS

1. Marvels of Virgil Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS lat. 1625 (thirteenth–fourteenth century), folio 25rb, contains an anecdote about Virgil that is unusual both in claiming to be based upon a lost or unidentified Mirabilia Virgiliana, (Marvels of Virgil) and in being set in Apulia (rather than Mantua, Rome, or Naples); Apulia is also the venue of some action in Bonamente Aliprandi (see below, V.R). (Edition, discussion, and parallels: AO 1013–14) (JZ) Legitur in Virgilianis mirabilibus, quod tempore suo in Apulia in templo Iovis subito subtracti sunt sacerdotes et ministri omnes nec usquam apparuerunt. Convenerunt igitur omnes maiores terre illius et per Virgilium sciscitati sunt Iovem, qui essent apti et eligendi ad ministrandum ei; respondit oraculum, quod de quocumque possunt verificari iste tres littere duplicate c.h.p. Virgilius itaque doctus spiritu sic [sancto] hoc interpretabatur, per c. duplicatum intellexit cordis et corporis castitatem, per h. morum et operum honestatem, per p. duplicatum pacienciam ad omnes et pacem. 934

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

Tales revera oportet esse omnes, qui accedunt ad serviendum Deo viventi magis quam Iovi.

In the Marvels of Virgil it is read that in his time all the priests and attendants in the temple of Jupiter in Apulia were suddenly removed and appeared nowhere. Therefore all the eldermen of that land assembled and inquired of Jupiter through Virgil who would be suitable and eligible for serving him; the oracle replied, by whomever the three letters c, h, and p (when doubled) could be ascertained. And so Virgil, instructed by the [Holy] Spirit, interpreted this as follows: by the doubled c he understood chastity of heart [cor] and body [corpus], by h honesty of character and deeds, by the doubled p patience with everyone and peace. It is fitting indeed that all be of this sort, who approach to serve the living God rather than Jupiter. (JZ)

2. Tales of the Carthaginians (circa 1311) Virgil’s reputation for interpreting oracles is also evident in an episode found in the Historiae Carthaginensium [sic] (Tales of the Carthaginians), one of several texts ascribed to a pseudo-antique author called variously Flacc(i)ensius, Flaccianus, and Flavianus whose name is mentioned from John of Salisbury (see above, II.C.12, III.G.4, V.A.2) on. In this episode, Hannibal seeks an explanation from Apollo of Delphi for his defeat by the Romans. Not able to understand the oracle, Hannibal seeks out Virgil, who explicates the oracle on the basis of tautogrammatic inscriptions on the four gates of Carthage. (Text and discussion: AO 1014–15. For alternative readings, see P. Lehmann, Pseudo-Antike Literatur des Mittelalters [Darmstadt, 1964], 26.) (JZ) Unde Hanibal de tam inopinata victoria admirans, causam ab Apolline Delphico sciscitatus est. Qui respondit ei per hos versus: Ter triples ternam senam denam decanonam; Sic cito percipies urbs tua quare ruit.

Quos versus exponens Virgilius Hanibalem duxit ad unam de portis civitatis et iussit erigi in introitu porte unum lapidem latum et ostendit duci hanc scripturam cum literis aureis: Caritas, compassio, castitas refrigescunt, Census, caro, crudelitas invalescunt, Consilium, concordia, coniugium evanescunt.

Consimili modo in secunda porta invenit hanc scripturam: Fortes, fideles, faceti regnaverunt, Ficti, falsi, fatui successerunt, Fures, pharisei, feminei succreverunt. K. ORACLE OF THE THREE LETTERS

935

In tercia porta invenit: Lux, laus, lex Latet, languet, liquet Sub livore, labore, latore.

Quod sic exponitur: Lux veritatis latet sub livore, laus sanctitatis languet sub labore, lex equitatis liquet sub latore.

In quarta vero porta habebatur: Uxor, voluptas, usus prevaluerunt, Virtus, vigor, valor emarcuerunt, U[n]sura, vath [read ‘‘vates’’?], vanitas insonuerunt.

Et sic patet exposicio versuum, quia in prima porta C que est tercia littera alphabeti fuit ter [tri]plicata; in secunda porta F que est sexta littera fuit eciam ter [tri]plicata; in tercia porta L que est decima littera ter triplicabatur; in quarta porta V que est littera decimanona simili modo [ter] triplicabatur, ut patet superius per ordinem.

Consequently Hannibal, marveling at such an unexpected victory [by the Romans over him], asked the Delphic Apollo about its cause. Apollo answered him through the following verses: Thrice may you triple the third, sixth, tenth, and nineteenth; In that way, you will quickly understand why your city fell.

Virgil, explaining these verses, led Hannibal to one of the gates of the city, ordered a broad stone to be raised in the entryway of the gate, and showed the leader the following inscription with golden letters: Love, sympathy, purity grow cold, Wealth, flesh, cruelty grow strong, Deliberation, harmony, marriage disappear.

Likewise, on the second gate he found this inscription: Brave, faithful, gentle men ruled, Dissembling, false, foolish men followed, Thieves, Pharisees, e√eminate men have increased in succession.

On the third gate he found: Light, praise, law Is hidden, is weak, is evident Under malice, toil, a proposer.

That which is thus explained: The light of truth is hidden under malice, The praise of holiness is weak under toil, The law of justice melts away under its bringer. 936

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

On the fourth gate, however, there was: Wife, pleasure, expediency have prevailed, Virtue, vitality, worth have withered away, Usury, [the bard?], vanity have resounded.

And thus the explanation of the verses is clear, that on the first gate C, which is the third letter of the alphabet, was tripled thrice; on the second gate F, which is the sixth letter, was also tripled thrice; on the third gate L, which is the tenth letter, was tripled thrice; on the fourth gate V, which is the nineteenth letter, likewise was tripled thrice, as is evident above in order. (JG) L. NOIRONS LI ARABIS (circa 1311) The anonymous Old French text that is conventionally entitled Noirons li Arabis exists in a single manuscript in Turin University Library (Discussion: VMA [Pasquali], 2:300–301). Noirons plays on the name of the Roman emperor Nero and on the blackness associated with the Moorish Muslims. As a substantive, noirons can mean ‘‘infidel,’’ which fits with the medieval Christian notion of dark-skinned Muslims. The poem’s title could be translated as ‘‘Infidel the Arab.’’ To convey the association with Nero and with the blackness embedded in the English word negro, Noirons is translated here as Neron. The apparent purpose of the writer was to lead up to the events recounted in the Roman de Vespasien (Romance of Vespasian), namely, the vengeance of Vespasian for the death of Jesus. The Virgilian material has little to do with the romance other than by way of introduction: Noirons li Arabis o√ers a summary narrative of the Creation, the Old and the New Testament, and the Crucifixion, in which Virgil plays the role of the prophet and defender of Christ, in accordance with the medieval categorization of Virgil as a pagan prophet of Christ. Noirons li Arabis provides new legends about Virgil. For instance, Virgil predicts to Neron that his palace will stand until a virgin bears a child. At this juncture Virgil and Neron embark upon a test of their wits, which Virgil wins by recapitulating most of the Old Testament. Upon winning, he decapitates Neron. (Text: EV 5.2, 488–91, no. 332, which reproduces VMA [Pasquali], 2:190–97) (ZS) [1–33] Neron the Arab was in Rome. . . . [lines 2–12 missing] Neron made him pay for it . . . [thus] when he put him to death in such a way. But this is the truth, it can be found in writing that poor payment lies in the service of a bad man. When the cruel Arab had done this, he caused an adorned palace to be constructed, such that it was covered in carbuncle in the manner of small sapphires. Mortar was glazed with fine gold. When the palace was finished and well polished, it glowed as the sun shines. He calls L. NOIRONS LI ARABIS

937

his master Virgil and tells him: ‘‘Master,’’ he says to him, ‘‘listen to me. On account of the great intelligence that God placed in you, I rise to meet you now, since you know the whole plan of paradise, and I of hell, because I have friends there. Tell me then, master, be careful that there be no lie, how long my great adorned palace will last; there is no palace of such beauty under heaven, nor is there a single person in the world who could buy it.’’ And Virgil says: ‘‘It will last all too little.’’ [34–45] And Virgil says: ‘‘Your palace will last until a virgin bears a child. Then you will lose it; it will fall into an abyss. And from then on, no soul will go to hell, until the day when the one who created all things will pass his judgment on Judgment Day. And still I do not know if anyone will go there.’’ And Neron says: ‘‘The palace will last a long time. That a virgin should bear a child, this cannot be, this will never happen.’’ And Virgil says: ‘‘By my faith, she will bear the child, and if that does not happen, that is very bad news for us.’’ [46–72] Hear now, great and small, and you will hear now a song of the greatest value that you have ever heard since the time of David. You will hear how the world was divided into four dominions, how monasteries and crucifixes were made, holy churches and crosses on the roads, thirty years after Virgil said this; you will hear that Lord God became incarnate in the Virgin. The king lost his great adorned palace in such a way that the earth closed over it. The treacherous Arab was pained by this. He calls his teacher now and tells him: ‘‘Son of a whore, disloyal, treacherous dog, you well knew of the coming of Jesus Christ. Know it truly, if you had told me of it, I would not have completed such great labor at all. Do you want to say then, do you not think so, that God will now regain his people and his friends whom we have been sending into hell for almost full five thousand years? He cannot know that I have taken notice if his body is not put on view for eyes to see. And if your God was dead or killed in order to redeem his people and his friends, how could he return to life? If you know it, good scholar, tell me then; if you do not do it, your head will fly.’’ [73–317] Virgil says this: ‘‘Neron, listen to me now. God will surely have again what you seized, and all of it by right, as I wish to demonstrate to you. You know well, in complete truth, when God made Adam, the first man from whom all of the world started and descended, he could not at all come or go, hear, feel, see, or speak, until God breathed spirit into his body, and he held his lips closed tightly, until the virtue of the great power was attached and fastened to his body. God ordered him to command his body, that he make it come and go, hear, feel, see, and speak. When he could do this by virtue of great power, then Adam, our Father from whom we have all issued, 938

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

was called the son of the king of heavens. Further, God can make another one like that out of himself, the great one in majesty: just as into the body he thrust Adam, from whom all the people descend and derive, in a virgin he can make him incarnate and be born into life, blood, and flesh. And he can come and go on earth, and crush and overcome a man, and then this flesh can die in order to regain and redeem our souls that you want to lead into hell. But the Holy Ghost of whom you are hearing me speak can go away from there up above into paradise with his Father, the great one in majesty, as the sun draws back its light and as the rivers all enter into sea. He will never be either murdered or killed, and all will be redeemed completely.’’ And Neron says: ‘‘You have spoken the truth, for I had thought of it in this manner, and thus he can come and go, and descend from and climb into the heavens again, and regain and redeem his friends. But if the tree, by which we were damned, had had soul and life as you do, never on account of such a thing would you have been redeemed. The Son of God would have had to stay, and body and soul all would have had to go to hell, where you all would have been lost beyond return. Now be quiet, I want to speak to you; by force of religion I want to duel with you against the other, the enemy: he who is defeated will have his head cut off.’’ He takes a sword and he planted it in the meadow. And Virgil says: ‘‘Grant me a delay, until I have spoken to Hippocrates, and to Fiorent and the good count Ide, and to John, born in Lateran, and Boniface, my wise uncle, and Musical, my sister with a bright face, who discovered the sound of big bells.’’ And says Neron: ‘‘Do so with speed.’’ And says Virgil: ‘‘Sire, soon you will have me again.’’ He mounts a horse; he went to the city, until Majour [probably from Latin maiorum, ancestors]; he did not wish to stop. Virgil gathered all his kin: ‘‘Lords,’’ he says, ‘‘we have been completely disgraced. The emperor whom we have honored so much is an enemy; he has shown it to me well. He almost killed me. By force of religion, I must duel with him, with the enemy. Give me counsel or else you will not see me again.’’ Hippocrates heard him; he thinks he will lose his mind. He looked inside his best book: he finds the noble name of Jesus in majesty and words of his great power and great dignity. He extracts these and he wrote them down, he comes to Virgil, and he glued them to his teeth and then said: ‘‘Beautiful son, you are armed. There is nothing in the world that can harm you; go back to the devil to duel with him. If you vanquish him, he will have his head cut off. We will then have his child well guarded by his mother and our kin.’’ And this one answers: ‘‘Father, as you please.’’ He mounts a horse and he returned. Neron has now entered the meadow; behold the king who has risen against Virgil. ‘‘Master,’’ he says, ‘‘may ill befall you, for you have brought with you such a thing by which I L. NOIRONS LI ARABIS

939

will be shamed and dishonored. Now I wish to tell you the pure truth about how your God labored. It has been sixty thousand years, and many more that I could not count in a thousand years, and still more years have been hidden away than there are drops of water in the sea, since your God was, the king in majesty, in himself and in his dignity and in his force and in his rule, up there in the heavens in his great majesty, with his angels, whose names I do not know, who are called cherubs by some and seraphs, this I know in truth. Before he wanted to create anything, he turned his thoughts for a moment to this world. He then separated the darkness from the sea, then came to get rest above Turmia. On a big cliff called the Aieman, which stands above the sea, he created Michael, a feathered angel, and then Abel, and then my kin; and after that, in this majesty, he still created many more. But we were not able to return to the cliff; up above in the heavens he made them stay with the angels, whose names I do not know. Then your God returned to the sea, above the ancient cliff, and there he made hell, which wants to devour everything; he threw into the sea all the snakes and as much filth as he could find. And then he created fish to swim; he made of his will the mermaid, sturgeons, and he made many others whose names I do not know. But when he wanted to enter paradise, Lucibel [Lucifer] wanted to deny him access. He was a bad angel created in the sea, and he wanted to be God and rise against him. He got many treacherous angels to agree to this; I am one of them, and this should weigh greatly upon me. Thus when God did not want to harm us by force, he wanted to defeat us by judgment: therefore he made us enter the abyss, and he threw all of us into hell. A full one thousand years went by that we were there. Then God returned to talk to us; he sent for me and my kin. In truth we greatly rejoiced in hell because we thought that we were going to make peace with him and by his grace enter paradise—but he was quite willing to torment us even more. He ordered us to find the earth, and when we did not want to go for him, because we could not bear any more ill ever since he had vexed and tied us, he promised that we would get a beautiful branched-out apple tree after he had obtained land to his heart’s desire and after he had mixed together the islands with his great grace and power. More than a hundred thousand of us rushed into the sea, and we made such a great hole in the sea that thirty counties could have been concealed there. The abyss is called Satania. Thirty miles long and wide, there was no boat, no dromon [a large transport ship], no ship, and no iron-plated barge that could traverse it and that would not be lost without any hope of recovery, for we were of a mind to make the whole world crumble, to fell and overturn the skies. This we did, when God made us stop. At that point he grabbed water to be poured out at once, in 940

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

order to have it enter the abyss [we made] with such force as an arrow when it is discharged from a crossbow. Thus the land appeared in many places in the sea, so many that no man could count it. And God took to laboring on earth, and he thus made many a plant and many a tree with branches and many an animal, and he made many a bird fly. He made the paradise that you call earthly. The orchard is enclosed by a wall, as tall as one can see, made of carbuncle that shines more brightly than the sun in the summer. Around the walls runs a very big ditch called by the name Purgatory. One thousand years later, when God reflected upon it, he created Adam and Eve alike, from whom you have all descended and issued, and he had them dwell in the orchard. Whatever they saw was at their disposal, except for the apple tree that he gave us. They ate from it, and they were delivered to us. And the lineage that since issued from them—our mortal enemy, who was recently incarnated in the Virgin—wants to regain them. And when I saw this to be completely true, that the whole world was relinquished to us, I departed from hell, and so did Egarine and another angel, Babil, who is rabidly mad, and we then started the construction of Babylon, a city across the Red Sea. A twenty-five-mile-long outer wall surrounds the city, which has twenty entrances and twenty drawbridges. And within, bread, wine, and wheat are cultivated—all the good people who live inside the city would not starve in twenty years. And we had a big tower erected, the tower of Babel; you have heard it spoken about. When one is on the last floor, one could count three hundred thousand steps, and the shadow of the tower stretches for seven miles. For we wanted to go to Lord God; we thought we would make war against him and harm him. But Lord God was not of a mind to suffer any of it. He tore down the tower one evening at dusk. King Babil thought he could rebuild it, but your God would not have any of it, for the languages were thus all changed there. No one has since known how to speak to another: when they asked for wet mortar or for stones to be cut, food and drink were brought to them. King Egarine thought then that the workers from India played a joke on him. He therefore banished all of them from the kingdom and he put them on ninety boats, made them now take their wives and children, gave them flour and wheat, a general idea of direction, and men to guard them and to secure provisions, and furnaces and grinders. They scattered all over the islands in the sea. They are giants, Saracens, and infidels. Then King Egarine, King Babil, and the other mistreated ones took wives and had nine sons. Mohammad is the eldest. By Mohammad, who is of our lineage, three parts of the world have been delivered to us: pagans, Jews, Saracens, and infidels. Turks and cannibals and Indians from overseas will all belong to us; this cannot be reversed. Since the king of heavens, who was L. NOIRONS LI ARABIS

941

recently incarnated in the Virgin, wants to harm us so, and when I saw the complete truth that all my kin have proven themselves, except for me, I had Rome founded and constructed, and I had one [big] palace constructed, entirely lined with carbuncle and fine gold. He took it away from me; it fell into the abyss. Come and cut my head off without delay; I can no longer remain on earth, but it befits me to return to hell to keep and guard the doors against God, for he wants to harm us. I have a son, his name is Florien, I leave him the king in power.’’ And says Virgil: ‘‘You have told me marvels. May it not please God that you create the memory that you were killed by me, unless I can vanquish you by judgment.’’ [318–343] ‘‘Lord Neron,’’ says Virgil emboldened, ‘‘if you were banished from paradise, it serves you right, I will tell you this here. Know that the truth that Moses put in writing for us is that one should not let one’s enemy stay close. When Adam was banished from paradise, from the good kingdom where Lord God had placed him, and he went to Mt. Sinai, do not think about it twice, he was quite scared. He spent two hundred years without the gentle Eve; thus he did not deign to return to her, nor to look at her body or face. And because he erred because of her, he was therefore in pain and sad and pensive, until the day that God made peace. He promised such an ointment that will heal him and that he will yet be his friend and crowned next to him up high. He often told him: ‘Do not be dismayed, friend, because of you I have to suffer many pagan peoples.’ Then Adam lay with her, and so he engendered seven little children; four were daughters and three sons; one was Abel, two others were Cain and Seth, who was the most kind.’’ [line 344 missing] [345] When the first children were born . . . [line 346 missing] [347–350] and Mohammad conjured the enemy, who was Neron who so much loved him. Neron came to him, and then said: ‘‘But what do you want?’’ And says Mohammad: ‘‘I am mad with rage because of you; you should have been king, served and honored, and you should have kept Romania, but instead Virgil cut your head off.’’ (ZS)

M. RENART LE CONTREFAIT (1328–42) The anonymous Old French Renart le contrefait (Renard the Impostor) is the last medieval installment of the Roman de Renart (Romance of Renard). The Roman de Renart as a whole was an extraordinarily successful work of literature, so much so that the name of its chief character—Renard the Fox, in English—became the standard French word for fox (at the expense of goupil). Renart le contrefait comprises eight ‘‘branches’’ (sections), of which there are two redactions. The first redaction was composed between 1319 and 1322 in 942

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

approximately 32,000 lines, the second redaction between 1328 and 1342 in 41,150 lines. Both redactions are in octosyllabic couplets, the second with prose as well. Both seem to have been produced by the same author, the first being a trial version by a novice writer, with the second a more skilled rewriting. The author, who seems to have been a cleric of Troyes before being defrocked for having a concubine, says that he chose to disguise himself in the personage of Renart to launch a virulent critique against the society of his time. The Virgilian segment appears in the fourth section of the second redaction (lines 29359–462 and 29493–530), as Renart warns his sons to exercise wisely their judgment when it comes to women, so as not to become their victims like Virgil. (Text: Le Roman de Renart le Contrefait, ed. G. Raynaud and H. Lemaître [1914; rept., Geneva, 1975] 2:71–74) (ZS)

1. Virgil’s Wonders and Virgil in the Basket (lines 29359–462) [29359–62] Virgil was more knowledgeable, more erudite, wiser, and more learned than anyone else living in his time, and he made more great wonders than anyone. [29363–66] In truth he made great marvels. A natural-born man had never done anything similar. And still, he who was known to be so wise was indeed quite deceived. [29367–71] I will tell you a little bit about his intelligence, and then afterward I will read to you how he was deceived, without a lie, all because he failed to interpret well, despite the fact that he was endowed with great intelligence. [29372–76] He made pipes of stone, which delivered, underground, Greek wine from Naples to Rome, in a period of ten days. [29377–81] He built a bridge over a river, but there was no one so wise at the time who knew of what material it was made, where its foundations were, or how the stones were placed onto it. [29382–86] He made a bronze fly which no fly that existed could approach within the distance of one stone’s throw without dying immediately. [29387–90] He made a bronze horse. All sick horses, as soon as they saw it, were cured of this sickness. [29391–400] In the middle of Rome he made a mirror, and he placed it in the middle of the city so that all who looked at it could see any human being, at the distance of one day’s trip, who wanted or cared to damage or cause trouble for Rome; there they could see and find him. In the mirror could be seen and discovered either who was coming to Rome or who wanted to harm Rome. M. RENART LE CONTREFAIT

943

[29401–56] He dared create many a great thing. But hear now how he misread a situation. Out of great love, he had given himself over to a lady who was from these parts. He loved her incredibly much, and he planted his heart in her. On several occasions he would stay awake thinking about it until, because of it, he lost his composure. The lady was of a high condition, and she lived in a tower that was taller than the length of ten lances. Virgil, whose conduct was guided by his love of her, sent her a lady bearing a message with a request for her love—that she love him and in fact call him her lover—and if she wanted wealth, earthly goods, and honors, he would give her, truth be told, as much of them as she would want to have. She, who had a treacherous heart and was full of spite, sent him a message, playing a bad trick on him, that she gladly accepted his love, that she would do his will and love him well from the heart, but that she could not go to him. But if he wanted to labor so much and if it did not annoy him too much, as soon as midnight came, he should come to the foot of the tower; there she would have made preparations for him. A basket would descend, and Virgil would climb into it, ‘‘and we will pull you up, if it pleases you, so we will do. We will pull without fail. Thus commands your lover.’’ He did not think about it, nor did he interpret the situation; that is how much he was consumed with the thought of the lady. At night he came to the tower. He remained there completely still, and he was willing to stay there so long until he saw the basket coming, and immediately he jumped into it. He was then pulled upward. When he had been hoisted exactly halfway up the tower, Virgil’s basket was attached, and then Virgil was stuck fast there. Now if only he could fly with his hands; instead, he stayed there tied up until bright daylight was everywhere. Everyone came to the tower, and each planted himself there. They were saying: ‘‘Look at the great wonder! Look at Virgil in the basket!’’ [29457–62] Virgil, who had so much knowledge, was shamed there greatly. And all of Rome ran up to the tower, and every single person saw this. And when noon passed, then the cord was lowered. . . . (ZS)

2. Virgil’s Revenge (lines 29493–530) When Virgil’s basket was lowered, he bemoaned his plight and his shame. He then held his knowledge in low esteem. And he said that he would never love himself if he was not able to get his revenge. And then he put his knowledge at the ready; since the matter concerned him personally, he thought about it and had it written down. He then made it so that in the entire city, ten miles all around, there was no fire left. All flames were extinguished without delay. He then had a servant proclaim that whoever 944

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

wanted to obtain fire should go seek it out from that lady: one would get it from between her legs, for elsewhere one would not find it. No one knew where else to find fire. Then you could see the people at work: at once they tore down the tower, and that great lady was assailed in a rush. She was placed right in the middle of the city and seated in an elevation. There everyone held her cunt and everyone took fire from it. They placed their candles to her cunt and lit them at her cunt. But he who lit his candle could not help another. He could not help anyone; he was the only one to whom the flame was useful. There this lady was placed, naked, without a cover, all day from morning to night, until it got dark. All day they were shoving the candles, and all day they were lighting them. (ZS)

N. CRONACA DI PARTENOPE (fourteenth century) The wording Cronaca di Partenope (Chronicle of Naples) derives from an ambiguity in the 1526 printed edition. Although the title has become conventional, it designates an anonymous work of the fourteenth century that in all extant manuscripts is actually entitled Croniche de la inclita cità de Napule, con li bagni di Pozzuoli ed Ischia (Chronicle of the Renowned City of Naples, with the Baths of Pozzuoli and Ischia). The manuscripts unanimously mention the year 1380 in the discussion of the game of Carbonara (section 27 below). Unless this date was a mistake by the copyist of the Ur-Cronaca, then it provides the terminus ad quem for the composition of the work: the Cronaca must have been written after this year. The latest of the other dates or datable individuals in the Cronaca falls in the period between 1326 and 1343. The text is a monument to the ancient heritage, including age-old lore, of Naples. It gathers materials drawn from classical and medieval historians, mentions of Naples and its leading figures contained in a number of hagiographic writings, and popular traditions connected with both surviving antiquities and place-names. Among the lore, legends associated with Virgil are central. Chapters 16–33 of the fifty-seven that constitute the first book of the Cronaca di Partenope are devoted to him, especially in his legendary capacity as a magician. The final chapter on the Roman poet and sage in the Cronaca dossier concludes with a slightly garbled account of a legend about the fate of Virgil’s books in medieval times. The source for most of the material is Gervase of Tilbury (see above, V.A.5), misidentified here as ‘‘Saint Gervase, ponti√.’’ But the author of the Cronaca plays free with Gervase. For instance, in the section on Virgil’s bones he (or a scribe) distorts the name of Pope Alexander III as Pope Alexius (compare above, II.C.14). The Italian author may rely on loose N. CRONACA DI PARTENOPE

945

memories rather than recent reading of the Otia imperialia. In fact, it is even conceivable that he has his information at second hand or orally. Indeed, the section on Virgil ends with what appears to be a folklore motif, about a churchman who is able by magic to celebrate three Christmas masses in three remote parts of the world. (Discussion: P. Giannantonio, ‘‘Cronaca di Partenope,’’ in EV 1, 939–41) (Text: Cronaca di Partenope, ed. A. Altamura, Studi e testi di letteratura italiana 2 [Naples, 1974], 70–83 [notes on 174– 75]) (JZ) 16. How many lands and nearby cities in various places were built and about their names Lucius Annaeus Florus [1.16: see above, I.C.23] also says in his work about Titus Livius [= Livy]: ‘‘The most beautiful province of not only Italy but also the world is that of Campania, because in no other place is the sky more temperate, where the trees flower twice; one can find no territory more fertile in matters suited for Bacchus and Venus; a better sea for harboring ships cannot be found, because there are those noble ports, that is to say, Gaieta and Miseno; fountains of hot water from Baiae; the lakes of Lucrinus and Avernus; Falerno (Mt. Gaurus or Barbaro), Massacano (Mt. Massico), and, much more beautiful than all, Vesuvius, which produces fire as the mountain of Aetna does. The cities founded along the sea are Cumae, Pozzuoli, Naples, Ercolano, Pompeii, and the head of all cities, Capua, in the past counted and named among three other cities: Rome, Carthage, and Capua. For that city of Capua the Roman people attacked the Beneventans, etc.’’ And Eustachius [of Matera], most renowned poet and author of Lament of Italy [the lost Planctus Italiae, a work of at least fourteen books in distichs composed in 1270], says of Naples: ‘‘Famous Naples, before being adorned by people, was named Parthenope, so called from Parthenope; a very famous royal city,’’ and he recites many other praises that were made at that time; of which God willed that the third part should live on for its citizens. 17. How on account of its pleasing air Virgil composed the Georgics in Naples Virgil, much more famous than all other poets, could not keep silent about that city of Naples, since he was an official there and wrote the book Georgics there. When Octavian appointed Marcellus duke of the Neapolitans, the wise man and disciple of the Muses called Virgil of Mantua was counselor of that Marcellus and as it were his guardian, or rather teacher. In that time drains were constructed under the earth running into the sea, and high atop a hill called San Pietro a Cancellaria public wells were joined with subtle skill to water mains by various routes, and [the mains] ran to the public fountains that had been made and built in the aforesaid city. Thanks

946

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

to Marcellus’s wisdom and Virgil’s requests, Octavian calls Naples ‘‘the mistress of nine cities,’’ or rather ‘‘the walled castle.’’ 18. How Virgil removed bad air from Naples by magic craft In that city, owing to the air of the marshes, there was at that time a great abundance of flies, such that they almost caused death. Virgil, because of his great affection for the city and for its citizens, made a fly of gold using the art of necromancy. He had it forged as large as a frog, under predetermined conjunctions of stars. Because of its efficacy and power, all the flies born in that city fled, according to Alexander [Neckam: see above, V.A.6], who attests in his work that he saw the fly in a window of the castle of Capuana. And Gervase [of Tilbury: see above, V.A.5.a] attests that these things were so in his chronicle, which is entitled Otia imperialia. Afterward the aforementioned fly was taken from there and, having been carried to the castle of Cicala [= cicada], lost its power. 19. How he removed the leeches from the waters of Naples through enchantment He also made a certain leech of gold, shaped under a fixed constellation of stars, which was thrown into the depths of a well. Owing to the efficacy and power of that leech, all the leeches were driven from the waters of the city of Naples, which welled up in great number. Now we plainly see divine grace at work, without which one cannot do anything; perfect grace and power have lasted until this very time and will last forever. 20. How he made a horse of metal to heal sick horses In addition, Virgil had made a horse of metal under a certain constellation of stars, so that if other horses, affected by a bodily illness, approached the horse, they found the relief of health from every sickness and were finally cured, purely on account of seeing the horse. One night the farriers of the city of Naples, stirred by great grief since they could not profit by curing the sick horses, pierced the metal horse in the stomach; the horse lost its healing power after that blow and breakage. The metal of the horse was melted down and alloyed in the construction of the bells of the main church of Naples in the year 1322. The horse was kept in the courtyard of the aforesaid church of Naples, and it is thought that the Piazza di Capuana displays the arms, or rather the emblem, of that horse, that is to say, a gold-colored horse without bridle. For that reason, when the most serene prince, King Charles I [of Anjou, 1226 or 1227–85], mentioned above, entered the city of Naples, he wondered at the [coat of] arms of that piazza and of the Piazza di Nido, which had as its arms a black horse also without bridle, and he commanded that these two verses should be written: Rex domat hunc aequus Parthenopensis equum/hactenus effrenis nunc frenis parat habenas. The meaning of these verses

N. CRONACA DI PARTENOPE

947

in the vernacular is this: ‘‘The just king of Naples tames this unbridled horse and he prepares for men [hitherto: in Latin but not Italian] without bridle the reins of the bridle.’’ 21. How he removed the cicadas through enchantment That most renowned poet also made a cicada, or rather a cricket, of copper by means of enchanted magic, and he tied it to a tree with a small chain. Through the efficacy and power of that cicada, all the cicadas took flight from the city; before this the cicadas made such an infestation and were such a nuisance that the citizens could hardly sleep at night and rest because of the cicadas’ ugly song. 22. How he also saw to it that meats would not stink Virgil wanted nothing less than to provide for the benefit of those who experienced the loss of fresh and salted meat, which many times turned fetid because of the south wind that often blows against the aforesaid city (since when it blew, the meats spoiled). Accordingly, Virgil had different pieces of different meats placed and hung by magic means in an arch of the meat market of the piazza of the Mercato Vecchio [Old Market], where the meat was sold at that time (and is sold even now); by the efficacy and power of those pieces every bit of meat that was left could be sold at the meat market for many days and perhaps for weeks without corruption, kept fresh, and did not take another color, odor, or even taste; and salted meats for homes kept for three years and more. 23. How Virgil saw to the April wind, which would ruin the fruits of Naples A wind that is called the west wind or the offshore wind and that ruins the trees is generally accustomed to blast at the beginning of April in the aforementioned city. [This wind] destroys foliage, flowers, and tender fruits on trees. Because of it, the highest poet had forged an image of copper under certain signs and conjunctions of planets: that image held in its mouth a trumpet that, when buffeted or driven by the west wind, caused, through the power of the planets, another wind to blow against the west wind, which then had to recede; for this reason the trees and fruits grew without injury and matured perfectly. 24. How for the health of the citizens he made many powerful herbs come to Naples The illustrious and high poet wanted also to provide for the infirmities of men with healthful and medicinal herbs, which they needed for elixirs and syrups. These herbs were not found in many parts of the world and especially not there. For this reason he created at the foot of or actually under the mountain of Monte Vergine above Avella and near Mercogliano, through the wonders of his craft and intelligence, a bower, or rather a marvelous garden fertile with every kind of herb. Everyone who went to that garden to collect herbs for cures and remedies for the ill was shown the herbs and the road without 948

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

difficulty; those who went to destroy, wither, or remove from it herbs to plant them somewhere else were not allowed to see them and were unable ever to find the road by which they could go there. Also in that garden, even in our time, they collect many very effective medicinal herbs, some of which cannot be found in any other place except there. 25. How there were no fish and he enchanted a stone and made it abundant Then the poet saw that the city, which he wanted with great goodwill to glorify through fame and riches, was not prolific with fish because of the limited supply of sea nearby Naples. Wanting to provide for the benefit of the sea and of the citizens, he had a stone worked upon and had carved into it a fishpond. He had it made in the place that is now called Preta de lo Pesce [Preta = Pietra; Stone of the Fish]. As long as the stone stood, there was never a lack of small and great fish, sometimes in small quantity and sometimes in great abundance. 26. How at the Porta Nolana he had made two heads that indicated omens At the entrance of the city, above the Porta Nolana, with the marvelous influences of the planets helping him, he had wondrously constructed and engraved two human heads, down to the chest, of marble: one of a happy man who was laughing and the other of a sad woman who was crying. They had different omens and effects: if a man traveled to the city to obtain a favor or to speed up some business and fortuitously turned his gaze toward the side of the gate where there stood the man or image that laughed, he received a good omen, and all his wishes had good effects in all his business; if he turned it toward the entrance of the gate where there was the head that cried, every mishap and no release came to him in his business. 27. How the game of Carbonara was arranged Once again, in that time he arranged that every year the game of Carbonara should be played, not with the death of men, as happened afterward, but he arranged it so that the youths could practice for deeds of arms, and they gave gifts to the winners. The game had its origin in the hurling of bitter oranges, which gave way afterward to the hurling of stones and then to clubs, but they would then have their heads covered with bowl-shaped iron helmets and leather helmets. And afterward, in the year of Our Lord 1380, although they were armed with all manner of armor, an endless number of those that had played died, and that place was called Carbonara, since they were accustomed to throw there dead beasts and coal refuse [carbone = coal]. Virgil, by his magic craft, also set up in that city four human heads, which had already been dead for a long time. Those heads gave true answers about all the events that happened in the four parts of the world, so that all the events of the world were revealed to the duke of Naples. N. CRONACA DI PARTENOPE

949

28. How Virgil removed the snakes from Naples Once again, in that city of Naples, at Porta Nolana, which is now called Forcella, there is a road artfully constructed and arranged of stones, and he placed a seal upon the road. By that seal Virgil (not without great mystery) terminated and eliminated every generation of serpents and other harmful worms, a thing that God in his mercy observes even now, so that even in quarries and in ditches, constructed underground to make buildings and wells, neither a snake nor another harmful worm was ever found, dead or alive, except if it was accidentally brought in with wood or hay. Since he himself was in Naples, in the twenty-fourth year of his life Virgil composed the book Georgics for the learning and skill of the Neapolitans, who were born in a fertile and plentiful country. These methods (how and at what time the fields should be plowed, cultivated, and sown, and at what time trees should be planted, cut, and grafted) are taught in that book. This is according to what he declares at the end of the work, where he says: ‘‘In that time sweet Parthenope nourished me, very noble in leisure and flourishing in study’’ [compare Georgics 4.563–64]. Virgil, Lombard by nationality, had his beginning in a Mantuan village called Pettacula. Virgil flourished in renown in the time of Julius Caesar and under Octavian; in the twenty-fifth year of the latter’s empire he finished his life in the city of Brindisi, from where afterward his body was seized by Calabrians, carried to Naples, and buried in the place that today one calls Santa Maria dell’Itria, in a burial place in a little square temple with four corners made of tiles: his epitaph was written and decorated in ancient lettering on marble underneath it. That marble was complete and intact to the year 1326. In the epitaph two verses were written, which said in one sentence: ‘‘Mantua gave birth to me, the Calabrians snatched me away, Parthenope now holds me’’ [see above, II.C.1]. He wrote in verse the Bucolics, the Georgics, and the Aeneid. 29. How Virgil organized the waters of Baiae, distinguished the virtues of the waters, and furnished the baths with writings The illustrious poet then contemplated that in the region of Baiae, near Cumae, there were hot waters, which had different courses under the earth through the veins and rubble of different types of sulfur, that is to say, of alum, iron, pitch, and quicksilver, and that these waters were full of different powers. Therefore he considered causing many different baths to be built there for the common health of the citizens of Naples and for the service of the whole republic; and especially that bath which is called Tritola, in which all the names and virtues of all the waters were written, specifically through his shrewd mastery of the constructions assigned to them, so that sick and poor people could (without the help or advice of doctors, who, 950

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

without any charity, demand to be paid) find remedies for their infirmities to obtain their desired health. The wicked doctors of Salerno revealed their scant charity and their great wickedness in those baths, since one night, sailing until they reached the baths, they destroyed all the writings and paintings written and painted in the baths. [They did so] with iron bars and other instruments for breaking the aforesaid constructions. God’s just and fitting power punished them, since, as the doctors returned to Salerno by sea, they were beset by a very great sea storm and tempest. As a result, they all drowned on account of the storm, except one, who revealed this event, and said that they actually drowned between Capri and La Minerva. 30. How he made for the comfort of the citizens of Naples the cavern, which is now called Foregrotta In addition, the poet had news of the exertions and irritations of the citizens of Naples, who, to go to Pozzuoli and to the baths of Baiae, had to pass through the undergrowth of a very steep mountain, which caused breathlessness for those that wanted to cross the mountain. Accordingly, the poet caused it to open up, from the head as well as from the foot, before starting on the cavern. In order to be able to dig under this mountain, he employed a measuring tool for geometry. He arranged for the mountain to be bored and excavated. He had constructed, with such ingeniousness, a cave or rather cavern of such length and width that half of that cavern was illuminated from the east from the morning until midday, while the other half was illuminated from the west from midday until sunset. Since the place was gloomy and dark and therefore seemed unsafe to those who crossed, the cave was dug under such an alignment of planets and conjunction of stars and was endowed with such grace that at no time, neither of war nor of peace, was a dishonest act ever committed, not homicide, nor robbery, nor the forcing of women, without fear or suspicion to those that crossed, and no ambush could be prepared there; and this has been demonstrated and has continued until our times. Seneca spoke of that cave to Lucilius in his third Epistle [see above, II.C.17.e], where he says: ‘‘When I had to seek out Naples, I took a cave called Alphe. Nothing is longer than that prison, nothing is darker than those cave mouths,’’ and he continues: ‘‘Of course, if that place had light, the dust would rise from it. In the opening of the cave the dust is a grave and troublesome thing, because in a place where the dust moves and finds itself enclosed without any vent, it is necessary for it to return to the place from which it comes.’’ 31. How he dedicated the egg at the Castello dell’Uovo [Castle of the Egg], from which it took its name In the time of Virgil a castle was built, and stands even today, on a crag in the sea. It was called the Castello Marino (Sea Castle), or rather the Castello N. CRONACA DI PARTENOPE

951

di Mare. [The name Castello dell’Uovo (Egg Castle) is not attested before the mid fourteenth century, a hundred years after the legend is first mentioned in Image du monde (Image of the World): see above, V.H, and VN 94).] In the making of that castle Virgil, having fun with his craft, dedicated an egg, the first that a chicken laid: he put that egg inside a carafe through the very tight aperture of the carafe, and he had that carafe and egg put inside a cage of the finest wrought iron. He had the cage, which contained the carafe and egg, fastened, hung, or nailed with sheets of iron under a beam of oak that was placed leaning across the walls of a little room made particularly for this occasion with two grooves, through which the light could enter. He had it kept with great diligence and solemnity in that little room in a secret place and had it secured by good doors and locks of iron, since the entire fate of the castle depended on that egg, from which the castle took its name. Our ancestors held that the fate and fortune of the Castello Marino depended on the egg: that is to say, that the castle would have to last as long as the egg was kept watched in this manner. 32. How Virgil acquired learning What cause is there to marvel if Virgil had so much knowledge and so many virtues, since in his youth, according to the words of an ancient chronicle, he entered the city that stands dug from underneath inside Monte Barbaro. Accompanied by his disciple Filomeno, he came with the desire to have clear news of the miracles of the aforesaid city and of those things that the philosopher Chiron had done there. He found Chiron’s burial site there, and he took from under his head a book, with the aid of which he became most learned and trained in necromancy and in the other sciences. 33. How the bones of Virgil were removed from Brindisi, where he had died Virgil finally died in the city of Brindisi in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Octavian Augustus, according to what has been said. What could have happened with his bones is not a matter to omit and leave unsaid. In the time of King Roger [II, 1095–1154] of Sicily, whom we will soon mention in what follows, an English physician, since he was there and even lived there, obtained letters sent from the king to the university of Naples, saying that they should generously give the physician the bones of Virgil; Virgil had donated to them those bones, together with every other thing that was located inside his burial place. On the one hand, the university did not want to obey that commandment and those letters, fearing that perhaps by the removal of the bones the city would incur deaths or some other injury; and, on the other hand, it obeyed, since the university or city of Naples agreed that the physician should go, together with them, to Virgil’s burial place and take some books of necromancy and art of divination in order for 952

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

the physician to have knowledge. These books were in a closed vessel of copper placed under Virgil’s head: the physician removed the books from there. The bones were then assembled and gathered in a leather bag for the university of Naples, and they were removed to the Castello dell’Uovo so that they would not be stolen from the burial place at night by the physician or by anyone else: in the course of time these bones would reveal themselves through an iron screen to whoever wished to see them. Finally, the aforementioned sage, when asked what he wished and intended to do with the bones, responded that he wished and intended to cast a spell and that those bones would reveal all the crafts of Virgil to him, if he could have them for forty days. But after the city of Naples had been converted to the faith of Christ, the bones were placed tightly in a case built inside a wall of the castle. Saint Gervase [of Tilbury: see above, II.C.14], pontiff, gave evidence about the books of Virgil, saying that in the time of Pope Alexius [= Alexander III, 1159–81] he saw Cardinal John of Naples [1158–83] perform some experiments and tests using those books, all of which were found to be most true. It is thought and held that the cardinal of Spain, who celebrated three Masses on Christmas eve in three remote parts of the world, accomplished this by employing the art of necromancy he had acquired through the books of Virgil, which were guarded in the papal treasury of Rome at that time. (SZ)

O. ANTONIO PUCCI (circa 1310–88) Pucci was born and died in Florence. By training he was a bell founder, but he also served as a town crier and in other civic employment (1334–69). A highly productive versifier, he wrote many kinds of verse. Among his works are five adventure-filled cantari. Cantari are a genre of poems from the fourteenth and fifteenth century, of popular origin, on epic and chivalric topics. They appear to have been designed for public recitation. Pucci touches upon Virgilian legends at least twice. In his Contrasto delle donne (Debate of the Women) he relates in two octaves the tale of Virgil in the basket. (Text: VMA [Pasquali], 2:303) The following extract is from a different work, a medley (zibaldone) preserved in two Florentine manuscripts. In leading up to a quotation of Dante’s exclamation about Virgil in the first canto of the Inferno, Pucci o√ers a compendium of marvels that the Roman poet allegedly created or performed. (Text: VMA [Pasquali], 2:225–26) (JZ) Priscian took and takes the prize in grammar, Cicero in rhetoric, Aristotle in logic, Tubalcain in music, Ptolemy in astrology, Euclid in geometry, and Pythagoras in arithmetic; and each of the aforesaid sages performed O. ANTONIO PUCCI

953

marvelous things, and then many others through diligent study came into great renown from them; consequently we will make mention of some, and then we will follow briefly several virtuous and gifted men. Virgil was, among the others, one of those who learned a large share of things, and he knew astrology especially well; and I will tell you part of the marvelous things that he accomplished by his aptitude in the aforesaid craft, and although they appear to be fictions to the high and mighty, because their hearts cannot understand them, take what you hear to be true and to be very little in comparison with the others that could be accomplished by the aforesaid craft. It happens that he made a fly of brass that, where he put it, no fly ever showed up nearer than two bowshots without dying instantly. He made a horse of brass that, having been seen by whatever other horse alive that had some ailment, the other horse instantly lost all defects. He founded a city, or indeed a castle, upon an egg, and when the egg moved, the whole land collapsed; and some say that this is the Castello dell’Uovo of Naples, which is still standing. He caused a city to be without fire, in such a way that no one could have any unless he went to kindle it at the natural parts of a woman who had tricked and scorned him, and no one could give it to anyone else. Other men would avenge themselves on women in this way! He made a very long bridge, all of marble, such that there was never a master who would know to say in what way it could be made by human mastery. He made a garden that had no other closure than of dark clouds, and no one dared to enter there if not guided by him. He made a pair of two-branched candlesticks that were always burning, could not be extinguished, and did not wear out at all. He made a lamp that always burned without oil or anything else being put into it. He made a man’s head of brass with such mastery that it replied to what he asked it, and one of these times he asked it about a voyage that he had to make and how he would arrive from it; the head replied to him: ‘‘If you watch the head well, you will arrive well.’’ Virgil understood [the words to apply to] its head and not his, whence en route the very hot sun beat upon his head every day and afflicted him such that he put himself to bed from it; and, the illness increasing, he commanded that he be buried at a castle outside Rome, where, once he died of the aforesaid cause, he was buried, and his bones are still there. They were much looked at; therefore one time the Romans wished to bring them to Rome, and when they were moved, the 954

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

sea became marvelously troubled and swelled so strongly that the castle and Rome were endangered by it; and when the bones had been put back in their place, it became calm, and thereafter they were never touched again. And Virgil did all the aforesaid things and many greater ones by the art of astronomy; and this was that Virgil upon whose speech Dante bases his own, and of whom he said thus: ‘‘Are you, then, that Virgil, that fount that 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’’ [see above, I.C.53.a]. (JZ)

P. JEAN D’OUTREMEUSE (1338–1400) Jean d’Outremeuse was a notary in Liège. He devoted three di√erent works to the history of his city: a prose Chronique en bref (Brief Chronicle); a substantial but incomplete chanson de geste (song of heroic deeds), the Geste de Liège (Epic of Liège); and the very long prose Myreur des histors (Mirror of History— literally, Mirror of Histories or Stories). There is a debatable, circumstantial association of this notary with the French text, circa 1357, of Mandeville’s Travels. A vast lapidary is also, and more certainly, attributed to d’Outremeuse. Although the Myreur des histors focuses largely on the history of Liège, it is simultaneously a chronicle of the world that begins with the fall of Troy and carries on into the 1340s. It includes a substantial dossier of information about Virgil. Although much of the material is unoriginal, d’Outremeuse reshapes his materials freely. For example, his handling of the popular episode of Virgil in the basket (see above, V.C) innovates by having the sage avoid public humiliation and outwit the woman who would trap him in the basket: d’Outremeuse relates that it is not Virgil himself who is exposed to public ridicule in the basket, but rather a demonic simulacrum he has sent in his stead. Because of d’Outremeuse’s free hand in reconfiguring the legends about Virgil, his pseudobiography of Virgil represents ‘‘the farthest flights of human imagination on this topic’’ (VN 45). Even though the legends about Virgil appear as a series of digressions within the larger scope of a purportedly historical chronicle, d’Outremeuse manages to develop fully the character of Virgil as a hero of medieval romance, endowed with noble lineage, political and amorous intrigues, military as well as scholarly prowess, occult power, and full belief in the Catholic faith. D’OuP. J E A N D ’ O U T R E M E U S E

955

tremeuse takes pains to connect and to motivate the actions of the legends he retells. He cites both Cicero and Ovid as authorities on Virgil’s life, and his repeated suggestions of variation within his sources hint at his control of the legendary material. For instance, when discussing the reasons for Caesar’s assassination, d’Outremeuse makes a show of weighing di√erent accounts of the event: ‘‘Some would say that this was for Virgil, others would say that this was for Pompey, but the truth of why they killed him may never be known’’ (p. 970). Similarly, when describing one of Virgil’s many magical creations, d’Outremeuse indicates the existence of at least two di√erent sets of data about it: ‘‘This globe was set upon a column of twenty lengths in height (others say of a hundred and twenty lengths in height)’’ (p. 970). D’Outremeuse’s description of Virgil’s early development as a scholar is fascinating for its commentary on the growth and purpose of the medieval school, but reference to Virgil’s literary production is almost entirely absent from the Myreur des histors. At one point d’Outremeuse refers in passing to Virgil’s authorship of the Georgics: ‘‘Virgil was requested by the Romans to give to them the practice of tilling and cultivating the land, and he gave to them the art and the practice’’ (p. 962). But in general, d’Outremeuse’s Virgil is Virgil ‘‘at his most fantastical, a friend of St. Paul, the precursor of Mickey [Mouse]’’ (Desonay, 31): If most of the time there is one thing the Virgil of the Myreur des histors is not, it is a poet. The translation follows the standard edition, which is based on Brussels, Bibliothèque royale, MSS 10455 and 19303. (Discussion: F. Desonay, ‘‘Comment le moyen âge a vu Virgile: Virgile selon Jean d’Outremeuse,’’ Dépaysements: Notes de critique et impressions [Liège, 1945], 9–46; VN 42–44, 243– 47, 337 n. 47, 384 n. 51, 397 n. 8, 416–17 n. 13, 422 n. 5) (Text: Myreur des Histors: Chronique de Jean des Preis dit d’Outremeuse, vol. 1, ed. A. Borgnet [Brussels, 1864], 196–97, 199, 211, 226–41, 242–44, 247–54, 255–64, 269– 70, 275–78) This section begins in the midst of Roman history, with the death of the consul (and king) Gregory. The dating system, rather than being based on anno Domini or ab urbe condita, begins with the ‘‘Babylonian exile.’’ (SK) In place of King Gregory, Pompey was elected consul; he was a noble prince of Rome, whose sister Geda was the wife of King Gregory’s brother, King Gorgile of Bogie, the father of Virgil, who was so great a scholar. This Pompey was consul for twenty-five years; that is to say, he was consul for a year, and the next not consul, and the third year restored, and the fourth year not a consul. When King Gorgile knew that Pompey, his brother-in-law, was chief consul of Rome, just as his brother King Gregory had been, he then fitted out many ships and embarked with Geda his wife, who was 956

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

pregnant with the child Virgil, and they went away with many knights to Rome, where they held great festivities. In that same year, for they sojourned there two years, Virgil was born, who was such an artful scholar; this was in the year 519, on the sixth day of May, and he was born in the palace at Rome. [Account of marvels in Rome and various battles] Also, in the year 521, Eneas, the eighth king of Denmark, died, and his son Audax ruled after him for eighteen years. In that same year, King Gorgile of Bogie left Rome and embarked upon the sea with his wife and his young child Virgil; and the prince Pompey, his brother-in-law, sent with him to his country six thousand men at arms, since King Gorgile was hated by King Bronchus of Antioch. [Account of battle with Bronchus, and so forth] In the year 526, on the sixth day of March, Virgil, the son of King Gorgile of Bogie, began to attend school on an island in the sea, with the great masters who dwelt there at that time. He was there nourished and instructed by them, as was very evident later. It was then the custom throughout the world that no lowly man sent his son to school to be a scholar there, for none dared to aspire to learning if he were not the son of a king, or duke, or count, or prince, who should govern much land and many people. Kings and the other lords, however, made many scholars of their children, for none could be a king or a duke or a count, or govern land or people, if he were not a scholar. This custom lasted a long time. The great princes still maintain it, and willingly make scholars of their children, who must govern their country after them, and it is most fitting for the emperors of Rome particularly, and also for the kings of France, always to be good scholars. But the other part of the custom was not maintained well at all, for each one, be he poor or rich, makes scholars of his children, which was not done before. There were not nearly as many scholars then as there are now, and they were wiser then than they are now. Yet the scholars of today have great advantages, for they find books already made and corrected, concerning all the sciences there are, which their predecessors made with great labor. [Account of Julius Caesar, Pompey’s murder, and other events and battles] At this time Virgil, the son of Gorgile, king of Bogie, withdrew from school, because there was not a scholar or master in all Libya, where Virgil had received instruction, whom Virgil had not answered in disputation on all the questions concerning whatever science was discussed. Virgil had argued against all the greatest masters, who themselves had learned what he knew with his subtlety. This Virgil was a very attractive person. One day he thought that he wished to go to seek adventure, so he embarked upon the sea with a great P. J E A N D ’ O U T R E M E U S E

957

company, and sailed so far that chance carried him to the kingdom of the Latins. There the king was the uncle of Julius Caesar, and there Virgil was made aware of Julius Caesar’s nobility, to such an extent that he said he should go to Rome. It was the second day of September, in the year 544; he then left and came to Rome on the eighteenth day of the month of February. This Virgil was a very great scholar of all the sciences, and was most expert in the seven arts, and was a great philosopher and naturalist, and in holy scripture he was so true that he prophesied the coming of the incarnation, just as you will hear hereafter. Beyond this, he was of the best birth and of the greatest nobility that existed in the world at his time. He also had the most beautiful body that could be seen, straight, tall, large, and wellproportioned, except in that he was curved, for he bent his shoulders and head a little. He was instructed in everything good, gentle, generous, honest, and humble; he endeared himself to everyone; he knew how to speak in all languages, and he intended to do nothing other than to study. Virgil was received with great joy in Rome when he was known. He was very well received by all, and especially by Julius Caesar and by the senators, for many were come of his blood. When Virgil was at court, he knew very well how to do honor to the barons and to all those of the court, according to each person what was fitting. Virgil was greatly esteemed by the Romans. News of him reached the daughter of the emperor Julius, named Phebilhe, who was much smitten with Virgil, when she heard it said that he was so perfect. At this time great battles were waged repeatedly between the king of Trier in Germany and the counts of Cologne and of Strasbourg, Basel, Speyer, Worms, and Mainz because these six counts used to render tribute to the king of Trier, who a long time before had conquered them by force and placed them under tributary subjection, and they were defaulting on paying, because Julius Caesar had conquered them again and placed them in tribute to the Romans. They said to themselves that the king of Trier ought to have defended them against the Romans, and that he could not defend himself, for he was also placed in tribute by Julius Caesar, as were the aforesaid counts. This war lasted thirty years, since the aforesaid counts wished never to pay tribute to the king of Trier, and he defended himself strongly. They often fought against one another, and one time one lost and another time the other. This went on, just as was said, for thirty years, of which twelve had passed, for they began in the same year when Julius conquered them, which was 532. So we leave it thus until thirty years shall be fully passed. In this same year mentioned above, Phebilhe, the daughter of Julius Caesar, loved Virgil so strongly that she could not love him more. She had 958

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

never seen him, but she had heard praised his great beauty, sense, manner, gentility, and generosity, and thus she became enamored of him. She thought that she should send to Virgil, and say to him how she loved him, and she was such a beautiful maiden and of such high blood, that by reason he ought not to refuse her at all. So she took a messenger and sent for Virgil, who came soon with a great company of noble people. The maiden came toward him and greeted him, and Virgil bowed to her most graciously. She chanced everything and took Virgil by the hand, and had him seated beside her, and they spoke together until she said: ‘‘Sir Virgil, tell me if you have a love; for if you wish to have me, I am yours to take as wife or to be your love, if it please you.’’ He responded to her that he had no intention to take a wife, but, if this was her pleasure, he would love her willingly. I do not know how to recount all the conversation that they had together, but things went such that Virgil had all his pleasure of the maiden, and they led their delight to great joy in little time. Then Phebilhe requested Virgil again to take her as his wife, but Virgil refused her. Because of this she felt great shame, but she hid it and thought of how she might shame him. Much tormented was Phebilhe every day, but Virgil did not care a fig, for he had no other intention than to study always, and to show his knowledge to the Romans, by which means he could have honor. Phebilhe asked him another time to take her as wife, and he [replied] that it would please him well to remain thus [that is, as lovers], and he would serve her and love her very loyally, and there was not in the world a woman whom he loved save her, and if it happened by chance that he took a woman as wife, he would not take any other than her; this he said to comfort her, and she was much comforted by this. So they conducted their love affair a very long time without any deception. [The text hints at their later efforts to deceive each other.] Afterward, in the year 545, on the nineteenth day of the month of April, Virgil began to demonstrate to Rome his knowledge, in making first two figures of bronze that had the form of men, which he placed beneath the two gates of Rome, facing each other. One held a millstone that he threw to the other on Saturday at noon, and the next Saturday following, likewise at noon, the other returned it to him, and so from one Saturday to the next, every week, one to the other returned this stone. It seemed that they were alive, and this was accomplished by astronomy and by the art of necromancy. Virgil made the two images because he wished that all workers should cease from work on Saturday at midday and on Sunday, just as God did when he ordered the world, for it was completed Saturday at midday. The people of Rome were then doing their work until Sunday night. Afterward, in the year above mentioned, on the sixteenth day of the P. J E A N D ’ O U T R E M E U S E

959

month of August, Virgil began to make a tower in Rome, on which there was a mirror above a hundred pillars of marble, and by this mirror one could see how many men at arms or others were coming across the sea. If the people of Rome had guarded this mirror well, they would always have been the lords of the world, but it was destroyed by them. Also, in the year 546, Sartagonus, the seventh count of Flanders, died; his son Florent was count after him, who reigned sixteen years. In this same year, in the month of May, Virgil made in Rome a most beautiful treasure, because there was the threat of the Sugambi and of Hannibal of Carthage and of many other people who used to come to Rome suddenly, without any warning, by which means the Romans were often defeated. Virgil made for this a remedy in this manner: he made a capitol or a temple in Rome in one night only, where he had as many images as there were provinces in the world. He had each image hang a bell from its neck, and had written on the forehead of each image, between its two eyes, the name of the country that it represented. All around the palace, they had faces turned toward the image of the emperor, which was in the middle of the palace on a column, and was looking all around. If it happened that any region was rebellious against the Romans, its image turned its back to the image of the emperor, and sounded its bell, and spilled the earth that it held in its hand. The guards who watched over this told it to the senators, who very soon sent knights there with the order to correct this region, in the manner that I mentioned earlier when I spoke of the capitols of Rome. Thus the Romans knew their injury just as soon as the thought came to the rebellious. This was done by necromancy. After this Virgil made in Rome a man of copper, seated on horseback, and it looked as though he were completely alive. In his hand he held a great balance, which did great good for Rome, since it maintained verity and guarded the right of each one. For if one merchant had merchandise to sell, and another wished to buy it, whatever the merchandise was, without any pricing or offering, one placed the item in one of the basins of the balance, and one placed the money in the other basin, and as soon as one put in the proper value of its worth, at that time the basin with the price in money fell toward the earth. Then each one took that which he ought to take, and thus a merchant never lost in selling or in buying. Julius Caesar and the senators and all the others greatly rejoiced over what Master Virgil had made, and they said that there was not another man of such great knowledge in the world. It happened one day that the senators from Rome needed to give a judgment, so they sent for Virgil and told him their judgment, according to the usage that they had then in Rome, and Virgil greatly criticized this usage 960

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

before them, and he ordained for them certain laws more just than theirs were, as he said, and they used them in Rome. Also, at another time, Virgil ate among the senators, so for entertainment they asked him of whom he was born. He recounted to them all his birth, just as we have recounted it to you before, for which they greatly rejoiced, for there were some senators who were first cousins to Virgil, the son of their uncles. Then they pleaded that he take land and make a dwelling for himself in which to remain, and they pleaded so much that he had a retreat made, which he called Cassedrue. All of his friends were then very joyful; it was the most beautiful and the best-constructed house in Rome, of all those the city held, and it was made in one night. The next day, when they ate together to consecrate the house, they requested that he give them some understanding of his wisdom, of the secrets of life, that they might place it in their memory. They pleaded so much for this that he said to them thus: ‘‘Barons, you ask that I tell you what you will not at all believe, and I will tell you very soon, when the time comes.’’ With this response, the senators were content. That same year, on the twelfth day of July, Virgil formed in the middle of Rome a great fire that always burned, in order to ease the poor people, but no one could carry the fire to his home, except in order to heat himself and cook his foods, and the fire was made to last every day, forever. Beside the fire, Virgil made an image of a peasant from copper, standing completely upright on his feet, and he held a drawn arrow and a bow that pointed straight toward the fire, and he had written between his two eyes: ‘‘If one strikes me I will shoot right away, and all the fire I will extinguish.’’ Then the news went through Rome, until Phebilhe knew it, but this did not please her a crumb, for as much as she heard him more praised, so much more she feared to lose him. She was jealous of another woman who she thought loved Virgil, and Virgil her, for which reason she was angry with Virgil, and she loved him more ardently than before. So she had many dirty and villainous thoughts, and said that she would willingly find a way and a means to bring upon him very great shame, but she would send for him again, and she would ask that he take her as wife, or she would make other plans. So she sent for Virgil, who came soon; she received him with great joy, and said to him: ‘‘Sir, thank you; before you leave me, please tell me if you intend to take a spouse. My father wishes me to marry, for which I am greatly angered with him, for I wish to have none other than you, unless you do not care for me. So I pray that you tell me your thought, for I wish to know it, and it no longer pleases me to remain in the state in which I P. J E A N D ’ O U T R E M E U S E

961

have been: I am beautiful and good enough for you.’’ Virgil answered her: ‘‘Maiden, it is necessary for me to think of other things, for I have to do arduous tasks, and when they are done, then I will return to you, and we will act so that things turn out well.’’ This was very pleasing to the maiden. Just as these things were happening, Virgil was requested by the Romans to give to them the practice of tilling and cultivating the land, and he gave to them the art and the practice, which is still in usage now. I shall not make mention of everything that Virgil made in Rome, for there is too much, traces of which are still apparent in Rome, but I shall speak of the most notable of the things he made. He made twelve images of copper, and placed them on the twelve doors of Rome, which signified the twelve months of the year, and each one of these he made according to its nature. For January, the image drank from a horn and warmed himself by a great fire. He had above him the heavenly sign that is called Aquarius: this is a man who holds a pot and pours forth water. February pruned the vines, and two fish were his signs. March sowed the March-grains and weeded the fallow land, and his sign was the sheep. April came after, and held in his hand the flowers of trees and of plants, and the bull was his sign. May was next, like a minstrel violinist, and his sign was the twins bathing in a tub. June was a man all hot, who gathered ripe fruits in plenty, with full wicker baskets, for this was his season, and the crab was his sign. July held a sheaf, and so he had a crown of four or of hay, and the lion was his sign. [The text reflects the Walloon dialect in giving an alternative name for July’s crown.] August gathered the wheat, and his sign was a virgin standing straight, regarding herself in a mirror, and holding a palm. September sowed the wheat, and his sign was a balance. October gathered the grapes and made the new wine, and his sign was a scorpion. November carried on his shoulder a pig, from which he made bacon in his larder, and the sign was a Sagittarius: this is an image half of horse and half of man. December killed an ox, and the sign was a Capricorn. These twelve images were standing on the twelve doors of Rome, just as was said. Virgil took an apple of brass that he placed at the beginning in the right hand of January, and January carried it fifteen days and then put it in his left hand and carried it until the end [of the month], and then he threw it to February, and February carried it until his end, just like January; and then he threw it to March, and so the one threw it to the other until the end of the year, when December returned it to January. Virgil was asked why he took January for the first month of the year, when according to their law March was the first. He soon answered that in that time would be born such fruit as would rouse all beings, and for this reason the month of January would be the first of months in the future, perpetually. 962

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

Afterward Virgil made from these twelve images and signs four images that signified the four seasons. These are: February for springtime, May for summer, August for fall or autumn, and November for winter. For these four seasons, he made an apple, which on February 22 he was pleased to give to the two fish, who held it until May 25, when the fish threw it to the twins, who held it until the sun entered the virgin. And after this, it is August 22, and then the twins threw the apple to the virgin who held it until November 23, when it threw it to Sagittarius, who held it until February 22, and threw it, as at the first, to the fish. So the four seasons were ordered, figured according to astronomy; but with reason the English apostolate afterward imposed on this a different order, and it was used a long time in the Holy Church. Afterward it happened that the senators asked Virgil that he deign to teach them something of his wisdom, and make them to understand, so that they could say that they had learned from him some of his wisdom and held it in memory. Then, because of their pleading, Virgil made an image of copper, which had the appearance of a virgin, who had a written inscription upon her breast, where he had written in Latin that which hereafter appears in French: ‘‘This image here will not fall until a virgin will have a child.’’ Then he put it on a base of marble, and the senators and the high barons and the burghers of Rome, who read the letters that he had written, greatly marveled over this. They made their jokes, and held all this for fantasy, and said that this never could happen, but Virgil said to the senators that it would come to pass exactly like this, for it was fitting for it to be so. Then he said to them how it should be, so that this should happen, and how the virgin should bear a child, and that it was fitting thus to bear the sovereign God of nature. Then, when this happened, the image should fall. And they asked what the virgin would be, and he answered them in such a manner: ‘‘Lords, I have often said to you that all the gods in which you and the other people throughout the world believe, except the God of the Jews, are all phantasms and trickery, made by men; but the God of the Jews is the true God of nature who made the sky and the earth, and everything therein. This God will descend in the virgin, without corrupting her virginity. She will carry God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; this is the Holy Trinity in one unity in one sole God, of his nature and of his substance entirely perfect, in whom I believe and so will believe, and in this faith I will die. He made man and woman, and men make the gods in which you believe, of wood and of stones and of paintings.’’ Then the senators asked: ‘‘Is this lordship greater than ours?’’ Virgil answered: ‘‘Yes, a hundred thousand times more; the lordship of God is his P. J E A N D ’ O U T R E M E U S E

963

all alone, and includes all the world, sky, and earth, and is everywhere throughout, and is without end and without beginning. It includes all the world; but the world cannot comprehend it; and everywhere he is, there is joy and lordship; and where he has grief or sorrow or any ill, there is not. And the honor, the love, and the lordship of God are always eternal. He will redeem those who are in hell for disobedience; and this God of whom I speak will come within the next forty-three years, and on the day that he is born this image that I have made will fall.’’ And he spoke truth, for just as Our Lady Holy Mary had her child, the image fell down from the pillar and broke apart completely. Then Virgil said that this God would be the leader of the Hebrews and yet the Hebrews would kill him and crucify him. ‘‘And this that I say they have in scripture of ancient prophecies, and they will not understand it in truth; they will put him in a sepulcher, and there his divinity will depart from his body; he will go to harrow hell; then the divinity will return in his body, so he will rise on the third day. And on the fortieth day he will ascend again into the heavens, where he will lead his friends, and reign forever; anyone who firmly believes in him and is baptized according to the new law, he will enter into this paradise; there God is, in all joy, comfort, delight, pleasure, lordship, and riches.’’ Virgil prophesied so much that he converted several senators to the law, which was not yet come, for if it had come, they would have taken baptism. They had committed to writing everything that he had said, and had it kept for their children, who were the first who took baptism. At this time in Rome it happened that when one broke bread, blood came forth in profusion; and mute beasts cried out in the woods and elsewhere; they seemed to be furious. This lasted three days and three nights. Then the senators came to Virgil, and they entreated him to deign to tell them what this signified. He said to them that the bread signified Julius Caesar, who would be killed before one year had passed, in the temple where he should go to make reverence to their gods, and the beasts signified that three days before his death diverse signs would come to Rome, and that the people would mourn Julius Caesar after his death. When the senators heard this, they were dismayed, and they did not dare to make this known, but held it very much in secret. Yet it happened in Rome at that time that beasts of a certain kind, in the form of flies, entered into the city of Rome and the environs, and as soon as the people saw them they shouted, and the flies entered into the mouths of people, so that they died suddenly. This went on for a very long time, and the people were dying in the streets so quickly that the ground was completely covered with them. Then the emperor and the senators were drawn to Virgil, and they cried for 964

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

him please to deliver them from this tempest, if he could do it. Virgil, who could not deny them anything, made a fly of bronze, and put it in the fields outside the city of Rome. It was of such virtue that as soon as it was placed there, all the flies betook themselves to go to that place, and as soon as they approached, they died. Thus Rome was emptied of these flies by Virgil, and for this the Romans greatly cherished him. As these things were happening, Phebilhe heard that Virgil was greatly cherished, and so she went out of her senses with love, and she said that the time had passed when he had promised to answer her as to whether he would take her as wife or no. She sent for him, and he came soon enough with gladness, and she said to him: ‘‘So help me God, Virgil, we are accused, and my father has much blamed me, and I have said to him that you wish to take me as wife. He was very much angered by this, so he has beaten and reviled me, because I have dared to say that he should grant you my body in marriage, I who am the daughter of the emperor.’’ When Virgil heard this, he immediately knew very well that she lied but that she wished to contrive something, so he said to Phebilhe: ‘‘You are clumsy, when you invent such fables, in which you come to tell your father that I wish to take you as my wife. I will never think of it in my life, nor will I ever do it, for I cannot intend to marry; it would force me to leave learning, and tear me from study. Certainly he who takes a wife destroys himself. I have no taste for marriage, for I should have misadventure, but I will always wish to serve you, if it please you, just as I have done in time past.’’ When Phebilhe heard this, she was smitten with ill will, but she dared not reveal her heart, and dissimulated, and prepared for deceiving Virgil, if she could, so harshly that one would speak of it for a long time afterward. So she said: ‘‘Certainly, Virgil, I am wholly yours without separation, unless you separate us. Now this thing has gone so far that we are accused, and my father has commanded me not to speak with you again for anything, and I must enter into this tower to dwell. If it please you, and if you love me so much that you wish to come to take comfort beside me, as I wish to entreat you, you can come there whenever it should be your pleasure, and my father will never know anything. I have made a basket that I will have lowered down from the window, and you will be drawn above standing within. I entreat you please to come at night; you will see what you ought to do henceforth.’’ When Virgil heard her say this, he thought all this was true, she had so covered her heart, and he said to her: ‘‘Lady, this will be at your pleasure, for by my faith you are gentle and generous.’’ So the hour of the night was fixed. Upon departing, Phebilhe said that he should come with P. J E A N D ’ O U T R E M E U S E

965

little company. Virgil answered, ‘‘Willingly,’’ but that she should guard herself carefully from doing anything in which he had blame or should be dishonored, for the shame would be so dear bought that she would regret it. He then soon left. Virgil returned at vespers, and he had with him several senators whom he had made invisible by charms. Phebilhe was at the window, and all around her were a great number of girls, who had great joy and great laughter together, and they said that they would do Virgil such shame that he would never have honor. Virgil and the senators heard this well enough, and then Virgil said to them: ‘‘Barons, now you will see the subtlety of Phebilhe, who thinks to betray me greatly by her malice, just as I have recounted to you; but by my faith, I will do this in your presence: I will place in the basket a figure such, and so made, as I am, and you will see what will come of it.’’ As soon as he had made the figure, which was like to Virgil in every way and similarly clothed, and placed it in the basket, then he pulled the cord and departed with the senators, and returned to his house Cassedrue. When Phebilhe felt the cord pulled, she felt the basket heavy; she drew the basket up to her and her maidens, more than halfway up the tower, and then went to attach the cord to a pillar of marble. Then said Phebilhe: ‘‘Now you can see, beautiful master, if I hold you in my power; now it is necessary for you to do my will, or to have as much of villainy and of shame as ever any man had.’’ In the figure was an evil spirit who said: ‘‘Ah, my lady, mercy, do not at all make me die, for if your father found me thus, I should die, so I entreat you to draw me up or let me down.’’ Phebilhe answered: ‘‘You will die of this, false traitor, without mercy; you have shamed me, and you do not wish to take me as your wife; now I will revenge myself on you, for you will be hanged or beheaded.’’ The figure knew that as she had said, she would act, for he could not make it to go lower or to go higher than before, so he let Phebilhe waste her time and speak as she wished while he said nothing. Night passed, and day came, and Phebilhe and her maidens began to cry out and to make great noise. The figure that hung there begged her to silence herself, for it caused him great trouble at heart, and if she would please cease, he would do all her will, but what availed this? The more he humbled himself, he found just so much more villainy, and she grew stronger in crying out more loudly. They cried out and shouted so much that the people assembled in a great crowd, and the rumor redoubled from street to street that Virgil was found with the daughter of the emperor. So far went this murmur that the emperor knew it; he cried to his barons that they should take up arms, and he would go with them to the tower, along with the queen Mary his wife. [The name of Phebilhe’s mother is later given as Enye.] The 966

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

emperor and his barons, who were all on horseback, brought themselves soon amidst all the press. He cried to his daughter that she should lower the basket, for he would cut Virgil’s head off of him. She answered him: ‘‘If I am not avenged for the shame, I will be ruined, for he would tear my honor from me.’’ Then she lowered the basket, and when he was down, the king struck him through his head with the sword. This let out of his mouth a heavy stinking fog so that all the people were dismayed by it, and one could not make out anything at all, and the Romans marveled greatly over this. Mary, the queen, cried very loudly to her gods that they should give her revenge on Virgil. Then the emperor and all the others drew back because of the great stink that was there. Phebilhe let the basket fall to the ground, and cried for vengeance to her father that he should take him quickly; the figure then showed himself, and it appeared to Phebilhe that he was not at all Virgil; she knew not what had become of him. When he was lowered, he reascended all alone; he went and came down and up, and made many marvels. He lit candles, then extinguished them, and made it seemingly night so that they could not see one another; and the queen had such great grief for this that she fainted. When the king saw this, he cried to his men and assailed the figure, and the figure reascended. When the emperor saw this, he thought that his daughter had drawn up the basket; so he believed, at least, and so did many, for it seemed evident that she wished to save him from harm. Then the king said: ‘‘Let it come down,’’ and someone let it come down. Whoever then saw it come down and go up a hundred times or more, and the king and the Romans deal it a hundred thousand blows, and it throw smoke from its stinking body, greatly marveled! For the emperor and the Romans were so wearied that they said that this was not at all Virgil, but was a devil, and let all be in order to refresh themselves. Virgil was at Cassedrue, his house, with a great company of youths from his lineage and the senators, who observed the great feast of Mars, the god of battle, all night and all day, and sat at table, eating with great pleasure, when the news came of those who said that Virgil was found with Phebilhe, and yet hung in the basket. When the senators heard this, they went to see what this meant, by the permission of Virgil; he said to them that they should say to the emperor, excusing him, that he had been with them all night. They did so, but the emperor did not at all believe them, and said that this was Virgil. So he made an assault on it, and the figure mounted all the way up, entered into the window of the tower, and entered into the palace, and hid below a bench; there the figure remained, and the spirit vanished. P. J E A N D ’ O U T R E M E U S E

967

Then the Romans entered into the tower, and looked around until they found the figure that was made of oakum. Some of the Romans said that this was a phantasm, and others said the opposite, until Octavian, the son of the emperor, sent Eroias with the senators to Virgil’s house, to learn if Virgil was there. Afterward Octavian himself went there; they found him and talked to him. Then Octavian went to his father and reprimanded his mother and his sister, and said to the king that he should send for the senators and that they should speak of peace with them, for he was wrong. Octavian did so much that the emperor sent for them the morning of the next day, for he was so weary that he wished to have the night to repose. In the morning the senators came, but they accomplished little there, for the queen had already turned the king, and she began to cry vengeance down on Virgil. She was reproached by Octavian and the senators, but this availed nothing, and she threatened to cut off Virgil’s head. At this, the senators said that she did not know what she said, for Virgil was entirely without guilt for that deed, and if he had been guilty, one could not put him to death according to the law of Rome, which they would not allow any man to break. Moreover, even if he had deserved death, one should pardon him for the great good that he had done in Rome, and even if anyone did not wish to pardon him, the Romans were not so strong against him that he would not destroy all of them by his science, and also by his friends, of whom he has so many that everyone knows it. ‘‘So we pray you that you allow him peace. What does it serve you to do harm to him?’’ It was necessary to propose, to reply, to answer, and to argue on one side and on the other, until finally Julius Caesar would not do anything to him. As soon as this was at an end, the senators returned to Virgil, and they told him about all that had been done and the threats that the king had made to destroy him. Virgil said: ‘‘Leave me to do what is fitting, and you stay in good ease in your farms around Rome, for it will hardly be pleasant to stay in Rome.’’ At this, he took from the fire a coal glowing throughout and charged Pynalatin with it, then departed. [The identity of Pymalatin/Pynalatin is unclear, but probably Pymatin, later acknowledged as Virgil’s cousin, is the same character.] When he had come to the gate of the Latins, he took the coal and put it in the earth while blowing on it, then threw some dust on it and stepped on it. This extinguished it, and just then fire disappeared in Rome. The fire was extinguished in Rome, and Virgil went on his way straight to Bisquason, to the good lodging of Malatius Butours, who received him joyfully, and the Romans were much distressed for fire: they did not know where to cook their meats, nor how to kindle a candle to burn as light for 968

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

their feasts of Phoebus and Mars. Julius was so tormented by this that he sent for the senators, and finally charged them with making peace, so long as the fire returned. So peace was made by the senators in such form: who had done the most [in the quarrel] had also lost the most, so it was quits, and Virgil should return to Rome and bring back the fire, but he should not be bound to go to the court. So Virgil returned to Rome, and fire returned, for which the people were joyful, and the Romans had festivities the next day in the temples. Virgil took a written document, gave it to Pymalatin, and said to him: ‘‘Go you to the temples, and put this writing one step beyond the threshold.’’ Virgil gave him a little stone that shielded him so that he could not be seen to place anything there; and so he did it all. The senators asked him what the writing was, and he said to them: ‘‘You will see tomorrow, if you go to the temple to attend.’’ The senators sent for the ladies and the daughters of Rome that they should come to attend at the temple, and there was observed the feast of their gods. The queen and her daughter Phebilhe were there although it was late. There it happened by the virtue of the writing that all the ladies told all their secrets openly and all loudly, mostly of all the men who had known them carnally and how many times, and there was proclaimed by Phebilhe clearly how, and how many times, Virgil had had her carnally. Also, in this year, that is to say 547, the Latins were rebelling against the Romans, and also the king Gradans, and Meliadans, his brother, the kings of Chaldea and of Thrace. They came to Rome with two hundred thousand men, and the emperor went to encounter them with a great crowd of people; and Virgil was there, who carried himself very well in battle. Julius left Rome in the protection of his cousin Octavian, and if his son Octavian and he died in this battle, he left the empire to his cousin. So it happened that Julius was wounded and his three sons died, but nevertheless they were the victors, and their enemies were dead or captured; of these, three kings died by the hand of Virgil. After this trouble, the Romans returned to Rome. They carried Julius the emperor, who was ill, on a horse-drawn litter. But he was soon healed, and then lived three months and died afterward just as you will hear. [Digression on Herod] Also, in the aforesaid year 547, on the seventh day of the month of October, Julius Caesar, emperor of Rome, arose in the morning, and went to attend the temple where the master idol was, and this temple was in the capitol. So it happened, just as he entered therein, that two knights who were named Cassius and Brutus, and with them twentytwo men who one could say were senators, struck him with daggers of steel, P. J E A N D ’ O U T R E M E U S E

969

which each one had, and killed him with wicked treachery. Some would say that this was for Virgil, others would say that this was for Pompey, but the truth of why they killed him may never be known. All that is well known is that each one had a dagger of steel a foot long, and each dealt him a blow. Also, Julius Caesar, when he entered the temple, found lying before him on the earth a written document that he picked up, and he placed it in his hand still folded without looking therein. By chance, if he had read it, he would not have died at all. He went to attend, which kept him from reading, but it was written in the letter that he would die soon, and it was found in his hand closed and folded. Also, the Romans were much angered by the death of Julius, and they mourned him for three days. Then came Virgil and the senators, who said that it would be a pity if vermin ate the flesh of so noble a knight as Julius Caesar, who in his time had been the best sword in the world, and had conquered so much that never would any conquer as much as he. So, by the counsel of Virgil, they burned the corpse into powder, and they put his powdered remains into a globe. This globe was set upon a column of twenty lengths in height (others say of a hundred and twenty lengths in height) that Julius had had made in his time, in the middle of Rome, and balanced above his image, where a thunderbolt had struck the capital letter of his name, when Virgil said to the senators that he would live hardly any longer. The third day before his death the windows of his room, which had been shut, opened and closed by the force of the wind in such a manner that he jumped down completely naked, for he thought that his palace must entirely crumble. Also, the day after he was killed, three suns appeared in the city of Rome, toward the east, so Virgil said that the time would soon come when the Trinity would appear. At this time, the wind spoke to the senators from the wheat, and said to them that before the frosts the time would come when men would lack something, and elsewhere it is written that an ox that dragged a chariot spoke to the man who drove the chariot, and said to him, when he pricked him with the goad: ‘‘Why do you oppress me so harshly? It is nothing to live in poverty for a short time, for great men will be missed as soon as the frosts.’’ Also, you ought to know that Julius Caesar was emperor only three years and seven months, and was killed at sixty-one years of age (elsewhere one reads fifty-six years). Also, the one hundredth day exactly before his death, a thunderbolt came and fell upon the stone monument, so it struck the first letter in his name. All this was told to Virgil, who said that he would not live at all long. Also, I wish to tell you more of Julius Caesar’s great nobility. 970

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

[Digression on Caesar’s war with the kingdom of Tongre, and single combat with its king Sedros, ending in Sedros’s accepting a subjugation without tribute] Sedros was a most valiant man, who ruled his country most nobly, and was great to all, as if each were his own child. Now you ought to know that when Julius the emperor came to Rome he praised Sedros greatly before the senators, and recounted to them the battle, swearing by Mars and Jupiter that if they had not reconciled, Sedros would have conquered him. When the senators heard him so praised, they elected him the sovereign senator of Rome, and sent for him. He went for this reason toward Rome; he left his reign to Lotringe, his son, until he returned. When the king Sedros came to Rome, he was made senator, but Julius Caesar died soon after, as we told you above. After his death, the senators elected a valiant youth who was named Octavian, who was the son of Galant the senator and of Helain the sister of Julius Caesar. As he was cousin to Julius, he ought to succeed, being the closest kin, and also Julius had given him the empire in case of Julius’s children’s being killed in the aforementioned battle, where they were killed. So he was elected by all the senators without debate. Thus he was emperor by three claims. He was a good man, loyal, grand, and generous, and he reigned fifty-six years. This Octavian was the second emperor of Rome; he had the name Octavius Caesar, and afterward the name Octavius August, because of a victory that he had, as you will hear hereafter. This Octavius was most proud in arms, for there was not a nation of people rebellious to the Romans anywhere in the world that he did not soon assail. He conquered Cornwall, and Great Britain, and six kingdoms in his first year. His foot-soldiers never traveled; instead he always led mercenaries and foreign soldiers, and he allowed his people to win by their labors; the good men he loved and honored. He bore great favor toward king Sedros of Tongre, and always had him beside him, and loved him most strongly. Also, when Enye the empress, the wife of Julius Caesar, saw that Octavian was crowned, she opposed it, and said that she should rule and govern the empire as long as she lived, and that the election of Octavian, which was detrimental to her, should not be respected. She said that she would marry a powerful man, if she could find one, who would guard her rights well. When Virgil knew that she had said this, he said that it should be left to him to do what was fitting. So he called Poytain, his messenger, and tinted and changed his face to another color, and informed him as to what he ought to say to Enye, where he sent him. Poytain went to Enye and gave her his message, all lies, in such a manner that he made her tremble all over with the joy she felt, for he said to her: ‘‘Lady, my lord the king Mabal of Chaldea P. J E A N D ’ O U T R E M E U S E

971

heard it said that Julius your husband has departed from this world, and that you have been greatly wronged in this land, and that you have no aid. He proffers himself to you; if only you will love and take him in marriage, he will help you, and he is so very powerful in body that ten men would not ever have power against him alone, and he has great people under him.’’ When the lady heard this, she was most joyful and presented the messenger with a most noble courser, and went to fill a helmet full of gold and gave enough of it to him, and thanked him, and sent a ring of gold as a token of love to his lord. So Poytain departed from Enye and came to Virgil, who was at the court beside Octavian. He gave to him the ring and recounted to him all that he had done, about which they had plenty of laughter. Then Virgil took a secret spirit and sent it into the chamber of Enye where it could not be seen, and it saw and heard well what the lady and her daughter did and said. The queen said: ‘‘I will give my body in love to a noble man of whom I have had news, who will press Virgil and Octavian until they die.’’ The spirit left then and returned to Virgil and recounted to him all that the queen had said. Virgil soon sent Poytain there, and said to him what he ought to do, and he went away. But Virgil sent the spirit following to hear how his speeches were taken. Poytain acted so that the queen Enye went out of her senses; he said to her that the king Mabal came with his host to kill Virgil and the emperor. All this was recounted to Virgil. Virgil said to the emperor: ‘‘By my faith, I will show you the great mercy that Enye would have for us, if she were triumphant in this.’’ Then Poytain returned to the queen and said that tomorrow in the evening the king Mabal would be with a great host before Rome. She was much gladdened and joyous and proud. The next day Virgil sent up to ten knights with Poytain in haste, to say to Enye and to her daughter that they should dress in royal dress; this they did. Then came Virgil and Octavian, and rode toward the queen, and Virgil said to Octavian: ‘‘Have no doubt of the thing you will see; I will say to the queen that I am the king Mabal, and I will show her the ring that she sent to me by Poytain.’’ The ladies were in the temple, and Virgil made a voice sound in the temple, which said to the ladies: ‘‘Do you hear this? Why do you not go to meet the king Mabal, who is here, outside, to talk to you?’’ They rose immediately and went away as they wished. They encountered Virgil and the emperor, and Virgil made such a great host of people appear there that it was a marvel. At this, Virgil spoke, and he said: ‘‘A markin linet et madrinek jus et dyneth.’’ When the queen heard this she greatly rejoiced, and she re972

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

sponded: ‘‘Speak our language; we do not understand you at all, but you are very welcome here.’’ Virgil heard the lady, and he said: ‘‘My lady, I will speak to you in your language since you wish it, for your will I wish to do above all, and I first give you thanks for the great honor that you have done me. I came here to you to amend your loss, and to make wrongdoers everywhere come to you for mercy, but you should see first if we can make a good peace without combat, if you can be at all pleased with this; for if we fight and they have the victory, they will not have any mercy on you.’’ The queen responded: ‘‘Sir, what does this mean? A knight brave and hardy, and who has such valiant love, should not at all speak in so cowardly a manner: avenge me, for all Rome will be yours. Kill for me Octavian the emperor and Virgil with [him], because I am not willing, even for everything in the world, to come to peace with them. I wish for you to present me with their two heads. Go have your tents pitched, for I shall send you food enough.’’ At this, Virgil made it seem that tents were pitched, and made two hosts of people: as it seemed to the queen, one was Virgil and Octavian with the Romans, and the other was the king Mabal. Finally they were on the run. The Romans were routed, and Octavian and Virgil taken and bound. Enye was most glad of this, and cried to the barons: ‘‘Cut off their heads!’’ Virgil said: ‘‘At your command.’’ Enye believed she spoke to the king Mabal, but she spoke to Virgil, who said to her: ‘‘Lady, come with us.’’ They soon went away from street to street amid Rome, though they seemed to go among the fields, and came to Cassedrue. There Virgil made all his people turn to nothing, for they were all spirits. Then Virgil asked the ladies if these prisoners should die or should be spared, and Enye said that they should die immediately; he would not keep them safe until the next day even for a thousand pounds. Virgil took a sword; he drew it forth naked, and he gave it to Enye. This one took it and said to Virgil: ‘‘False liar, you shamed my daughter.’’ Then she [the daughter] struck the great mastiff that Virgil had transmuted to his likeness with a heavy blow, so she slew it dead; this was Phebilhe, who thought she had killed Virgil, and then she gave the sword to her mother, who thought she killed Octavian, though she killed a mastiff. And as soon as they had done this, Virgil undid his spell. There, separated from the power of Virgil, the ladies saw the two mastiffs that were dead. Then the senators and barons who were there made many pleas for the ladies, to which Octavian the king agreed. Virgil rang for his dinner, and the baronage were seated in the palace and they dined there. After dining, Virgil asked the emperor and the barons for counsel as to what P. J E A N D ’ O U T R E M E U S E

973

he ought to do with the ladies, who were of such a nature and so wicked that they had killed Virgil and the emperor outrageously, for they thought that they had done this. At this, a Roman came who said to Virgil that the ladies had fled and were lost. Virgil was so angered by this that he said and swore that he would leave Rome; no more would he stay there. He left Cassedrue and everything that he had in Rome to his cousin Pymatin. Octavian and the senators begged him to stay, and [swore that] they would deliver the ladies to him, but he said that he would hold to what he had sworn. Then he arose and departed from Rome, and the most noble dukes, counts, knights, and barons arose with him, who were sorrowful for his departure, and they said to each other that the fire would be taken away from Rome. Virgil gathered the senators and said to them: ‘‘Lords, judge exactly according to the law, point by point: you have taken the ladies from me against right, it is well known, and you have much wronged me; from now and henceforth, guard yourselves from such misdeeds. You ought to judge rightly, and you ought not to despoil a man, if he has done no wrong against the law.’’ Then he turned from them and went away. The senators were tormented, and they said that they would render the ladies to him willingly, but he did not wish to retake them. The emperor rode after him, and went to beg him again to return, and Virgil said to him that he never would return to Rome: ‘‘For I wish to avenge myself on Phebilhe for the shame by which she wronged me, and therefore I leave Rome, since I do not wish to hear as many pleas as I will if I stay. Now it is thus that I carry the fire from Rome, which will never return unless it is taken from the tail of Phebilhe, but you should go dwell outside Rome for a little time.’’ After this, Virgil went away, and the emperor returned to Rome and gathered his wife and his children and all his household. He went to stay at Jubelin, a beautiful house that he had outside Rome, for Virgil had suddenly deprived Rome of fire, and he kept it so three months, and he went to dwell at his own castle that he had built before, which he called Agensi. There Virgil dwelled in great comfort. All the people of Rome were discomfited by this, so they came crying mercy to the emperor, and pleading that he should bring a remedy for this, so that fire returned, and send the clergy and the senators to Virgil, so that it would please him to do so much for the emperor and the people of Rome as to return the fire with a reparation to his pleasure. The emperor did so, and sent to Virgil Milotin their bishop and Cicero the philosopher, who delivered the message thus, as the people had requested, and they spoke to him threateningly. Virgil therefore took it in disdain, for the pride of the threats. So Virgil said to them: ‘‘Lords, you cannot threaten me to do what you 974

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

need, for you who threaten me are subject; I can put you all in danger, killing and overthrowing with a single word. But I will do you grace and return good for ill, and against pride bring humility. So I say to you: take from two choices the best and you may have fire. First, you can place Phebilhe in the tower as high as the window, where my figure was hidden in the basket, her backside sticking out uncovered up to her waist, so that all of her can be seen, and the window open without a sash, so that the people can clearly see the crescent moon, and at this crescent let them ignite candles. One won’t be able to take it from nor give it to another, but every single one that wishes to have it must come to the window for it, to take fire from the womb, and otherwise one shall not have it. Each day you will do this two times. Those who stay at Cassedrue will have fire enough without taking it thence, but they cannot carry it to others. And this is the second choice: if you do not wish to do as I have said, you can be resigned never to have fire in Rome.’’ They said that they wished the first. So they took leave and departed, and they did just as was said, for she was put in the window, just as Virgil had said. There he who wished to have it took fire, for which the people made great festivity, saying that never before had they come to take fire in such a place. Phebilhe said that she would kill herself, and her mother was much perturbed. Fanie, who was queen of the Latins, heard the news, so she came to the emperor and said to him: ‘‘Sir, I am the daughter of Julius Caesar, your uncle, and sister to Phebilhe, to whom one has done such shame, through which you do not have any honor. I beg you to help her to be relieved.’’ The emperor called Frosse the empress, and sent her to comfort Phebilhe, but she was dead of grief. Then they did enough to Enye and to this household, that they led her before the emperor to cry mercy, and afterward to Virgil, who was in his castle Agensi, where he stayed seven years: thus peace was confirmed. Also, in this same year, on the twelfth day of January, a great poet who was named Ovid was born, who made many marvels in his time. Also, in the year 548, Virgil made a very beautiful study at Agensi. In this same year, Pollux the son of the king of Athens was made emperor of Constantinople, that is to say, of Greece. Also, in this year a young man came to Rome, who in his youth had fought in five civil wars: one against the people of Modena, another against the people of Philippi, the third against the Perugians, the fourth against the Sicilians, and the fifth against the people of Actium, that is to say the first and the last against Mark Antony, the second against Brutus and Cassius, the third against Lucius Antony, and the fourth against Sextus Pompey. Everywhere he had conducted civil wars in P. J E A N D ’ O U T R E M E U S E

975

order to encounter the aforesaid knights, who guided the parties named above. One calls wars ‘‘civil’’ when the citizens of one state fight against one another. The emperor Octavian received this youth with great joy and honor, and kept him beside him. You ought to know that Brutus and Cassius, who struck the first blows to kill Julius Caesar, led the second battle mentioned above, so they were killed. This youth had a legation against Hirtius and Pansa, two consuls who had been at the killing of Julius Caesar. He led a great battle in which the two consuls were killed; and he did thus until he killed all the murderers who had killed Julius Caesar. Also, in the year 549, Cicero died, the great philosopher of Rome, who had been one of the senators of Rome, and who had contributed much to the peace of Julius Caesar, and of Virgil and of his ancestors, for he was an old man. He wrote about everything up to his death, and from before his death Ovid the philosopher wrote, who lived longer than Virgil. So was the story of Virgil, from one end to the other, this is to say until his death, put into writing authentically by two worthy masters. [Digression on Herod] Also, in the year 551, on the eleventh day of the month of July, Virgil began to found a city that he made most beautifully on the sea, and he named it Naples. It was built nobly on a port of the sea and over the egg of an ostrich—the egg, which he placed afterward in a castle that he founded just beside Naples, in an engraved pillar. He named it the Castle of the Egg, and it is still there, and it is said that one who moves the egg will shake the city. [Digression on Herod] Also, in the year 553, Virgil made a bridge above water, hanging entirely in the air by necromancy, which was the greatest and the most beautiful in the world, but there were not and are not workers nor geometricians in the world who could see by what manner he had made the beginning on water or on earth. It hung entirely in the air, and no one could tell how it was supported; one passed always among great crowds, and much pressing weight, just as much as and more than on another bridge. In this same year Virgil made a garden and enclosed it, as he sealed it all the way around with pure air, and it was done in such a manner that it seemed to those who looked upon it that this was a wall. Within it he had brought every plant, all the fruits of the world, no matter what, so it was at all times flowering, blooming, and ripening. He made the wall visible to himself, which to all others was invisible, for none saw there walls or stones, and it had a secret entrance of which no one knew except Virgil and those to whom he showed it. So I will tell you what happened there one day. There was a rustic who 976

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

lived near there, who kept asses just outside the garden of Virgil, who was then in his garden leading great festivities with knights and a great crowd of people from Naples with their wives. It happened that ten very valiant knights of Naples, who had not been privy to the festivity, went often around the garden; they could not enter therein, for they could not find the entrance, but Virgil soon knew about it. So he sent a boy to the door, to make the knights come forward, and the boy went there, and made them come forward. There one could see a beautiful jest that Virgil played suddenly. Virgil made it seem at that hour that the ten knights were ten great dragons, who were coming toward the people while they were eating in his garden. So it seemed to them, and it seemed to the ten knights that the hundred knights, ladies, and barons were lions. So they were afraid, each of the other, and both the parties fled through the garden, but the jest was played in such a manner that there was not one whom the fear touched or harmed afterward. When this had lasted a little while, he undid it and received the ten knights well, and asked who had made them thus to flee. ‘‘Sir,’’ said the knights, ‘‘you had transmuted the bodies of these people to the forms of rampant lions, and therefore we fled.’’ He asked of the others what was fitting to ask them; they answered that these ten knights seemed to them to be dragons. Such jests Virgil played very often, so honestly that he never did wrong to men or to women. Also, that same day, while he sat at the table, Virgil took his valet and sent him out of the garden into the field to bring in the asses of the peasant who slept all stretched out on the soil. This one led them until they were in the garden, and they began to eat the thistles that were in the garden, and they ate them willingly, for there was nothing outside the garden, but within the garden Virgil had plenty, and also of all the other types of plants that are in the world. When the asses were in the garden, Virgil made the walls of the garden’s enclosure transparent, so that his people, while eating, could watch the rustic who was sleeping. When he had slept enough, he jumped up. But when he did not see his asses, he began to cry: ‘‘Ah me! My asses are lost, by which I must make my living!’’ Then he began to weep, saying: ‘‘Thieves have stolen my things while I was sleeping: this nap has cost me thirty asses.’’ At this, he ran forth and ran back, everywhere seeking his asses, and speaking to them, saying: ‘‘Sir Bernard, where have you gone?’’ Finally he had run so much among the fields that he was completely exhausted. He came to the wall of the garden of Virgil, which was invisible. He hit it so hard that he fell to the earth. He felt the wall well enough, but he could not see it at all, and he said that it was a good sixty years since he was born, P. J E A N D ’ O U T R E M E U S E

977

but he had never seen a wall there, and no more felt one. When the peasant was at the wall that was between himself and his asses, Virgil made the asses bray, which is to say, whinny. Then the peasant heard them; it seemed to him that the sound was far from there, so he took to running. When the barons who were in the garden saw this, they had great joy and laughter; they then entreated Virgil to return his asses to him. Then Virgil had the asses led outside into the fields, and when they had come there, they fell as though dead, and when the peasant had run forth and run back, to discover where he heard his asses whinny, he passed that point, so he found his asses. He saw them dead and flayed, and the pelts taken, as it seemed to him. Then he burst out weeping, and went to his lodging, and recounted it to his wife, who wept heavily. Then Virgil immediately replaced the asses in the crib of their stable at the peasant’s lodging; and there they ate just as they were accustomed to eat. He knew nothing of this, and when the good woman went by chance into the stable, she found the asses eating. So she shouted to her spouse and showed this to him, for which they were much gladdened; so he found peace from his vexation and gave thanks to his gods. Also, in this same year, Virgil made two tapers burning perpetually, never extinguished by anything, and also a lamp burning forever without extinguishing and without diminishing. He affixed them over the land in his above-mentioned garden. Also, Virgil made a head that spoke and answered him concerning everything that he asked it about what happened throughout the world, for he put therein secret spirits. This head said to him one day that a great shame was in Rome because of married ladies, who allowed themselves to know other men than their husbands in adultery, as if it had been proven by sight, and it was true. ‘‘So master Gregory the senator comes here, who will ask you on behalf of the Romans to please help them.’’ When Virgil heard this, he began to laugh, and he made a head and bust of copper. It had a large and wide open mouth. Then he made a horse, and on it a great man, fully armed, who held a drawn sword, and who rode where he wished, as if he lived. Then the Romans came, right in the year 554, so they found Virgil while he was living with Neapolitans. They bowed to him and greeted him, just as he did likewise, and he received them most gladly. They recounted to him all of their concern, and Virgil told them that in women there lay great deception. ‘‘Now I will tell you the remedy you should make for this. First, greet all the Romans for me, and carry to them this head, which will denounce the deeds of the married women and also of girls. Set the head on the wall of the tower where Phebilhe thought to trap me in the basket, just as 978

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

you know; and then all the married and to-be-married women, who are suspected of fornication and adultery, will be led before the head, and will put their hand within the mouth. If she is guiltless of the deed, she will leave soon enough, and if she is guilty of it, she will not be able to draw her hand away from the mouth until she has confessed the entire truth of the deed word for word. Since such deeds happen in the night, it is necessary to cry a ban in Rome so that none go about by night after the bell sounds, and if one does, then it will be avenged evilly, and he shall endure it, for he should have nothing other than this. You will place this horse and the armed man standing above right at the point of the stone monument, and leave it there, and you will see what it will do.’’ Virgil did thus for the Romans, who sojourned with him eight weeks. During this time, they said to him that there was an obscure and perilous way between Rome and Naples, especially by the sides of mountains, and it took six days to mount and to descend: ‘‘So it is bad for the Romans that you stay here, for the Romans wish to amend all that may have been done against you in Rome, if you wish to return.’’ Virgil answered: ‘‘I will never return to Rome, but I am at their command as long as I will live, and the mountainsides should hardly be treacherous to pass, it seems to me. Now you take care there. I will do such for you that afterward this will never be necessary, if it is well kept, for the wine and oil that are in Naples I shall send to Rome, and the wine that is in Rome I will send to Naples within the conduits that I will make, and I will have them made on this night. There is a distance between Rome and Naples of twenty-four leagues and more.’’ For this the Romans thanked him. He said moreover that one brought within the passage would go from Naples to Rome in one hour of the day. This was done in the month of September in the aforesaid year. Then Virgil talked to his spirits and commanded that they tunnel among the mountains, and amid them make a large way where two chariots could easily pass with the charioteers who drove them, and, if they pleased, to break so much of the rock that four men on foot or on horseback could pass there in front, and there would be still good space between the charioteers and those on the two sides. ‘‘After this put a cautionary notice, which directs that he who comes to enter before Rome should keep to the right hand of this way, and one who comes from Naples should keep likewise to the right hand, whether on chariot, on horseback, or on foot. And so each one will be secure from all murderers, thieves, or other villains, for they will be well protected therein. Afterward, make me two channels, one of which carries oil and wine from Rome to Naples, and the other from Naples to Rome.’’ When Virgil had P. J E A N D ’ O U T R E M E U S E

979

commanded it, they immediately did it, for before the sun had risen, the channels and the way were made; and they had placed the writing on the two entrances. You should know that the way is two leagues or more in length, and made so obscure that one cannot at all perceive it, and never was any man murdered or robbed there. The conduits and the way endure still to this day, say those who have seen them; and they pass easily in a half hour the distance that over the mountains takes six or seven days. When morning came, the Romans departed from Virgil. They went until they came to the mountainside, and they found it tunneled, and they saw the letters that directed as I have said. They entered within, so they passed through in a half hour, and had gone so far that they came to Rome in a half hour, which was a good twenty-four leagues. The emperor and the senators greeted them with much festivity, and asked what Virgil had done. They responded: ‘‘He acted just like a wise scholar, and the most subtle in the world, and greets you all, for never will he return to Rome any more; he swore it, and he made great festivities for us in the eight weeks that we were with him. We have seen Naples and all his estates, and it is a most beautiful and great city, seated on one arm of the sea, and he has a beautiful and strong castle, which is named the Castle of the Egg.’’ Then they recounted to them all of what I have said above, about the garden and about all that he had done. Afterward they told about the way through the mountainsides, and about the conduits of copper that carried wine and oil. When they had heard all this said, they spoke of the reason for which they had gone there, and they showed the head of bronze, and how one should attach it to the wall, just as I have said above, and afterward they spoke of the horse, and they told all about the manner in which one should use all of this. Afterward, they had the ban cried so that no man, old or young, should go from his house in the night after the sound of the bell, and if one went out then, it would be at his peril. The head and the horse were used in Rome in such a manner as we shall say. There many ladies and maidens were denounced by the head, and many men killed by the horse, which all night rode throughout Rome. No one could escape, and the next day at sunrise it returned to the stone. Also, in the year 555, Sallust died, a great Latin poet who lay buried in the great city of Rome. Also, in this same year, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of August, Virgil made a horse of bronze that healed all the horses of every malady that could come to them, whatever the cause, as soon as one washed the horses in the water of his bath; he set it in Naples. 980

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

Also, in the year 556, on the twelfth day of the month of June, Hyrcanus the king of Judea gave to Herod two hundred besants to guarantee friendship with him. In this same year Herod married, and took a wife who had the name Dolsida, who was of low lineage, but was so beautiful that for her beauty he took her. This Herod was not at all of the nation of Israel; rather, on his father Antipater’s side, he was of the city of Ascalon, and on his mother’s side he was of Arabia. Also, in the year 557, on the seventeenth day of December, Virgil began to build a house on the sea, close by the city of Naples: it was entirely round, the most beautiful and light and joyous in the world, but it had only one entry. He had a bridge lifted above the sea before the house, and at its entrance he made two peasants of copper who held two flails in their hands, with which they always struck forcefully without ceasing or delaying. They struck in this way so forcefully that they almost broke the stones of the door, which they defended so that none should dare to enter therein, if he did not desire to be killed or crushed completely. This lasted as long a time as Virgil lived, and also after his death, until St. Paul the apostle made them cease, after the incarnation of Jesus Christ, just as you will hear. In this house Virgil wished to stay and to study during the fourteen years that he lived thereafter. In this same year, Dolsida, the wife of Herod, had a son whom Herod had named Antipater after his father. Also, in the year 558, in the month of April, the Egyptians sent a noble ambassador from the noble people to Virgil, bearing authorizing letters and saying thus, that Ptolemy had calculated the golden number of the moon and in his time had kept and enclosed it in a place where no one could discover it. So the Egyptians wished to entreat Virgil that he deign to calculate the golden number, which assigns the moon transformations, in honor of their god Mars. Virgil responded courteously: ‘‘Barons, neither in the name of Mars, nor of Jupiter, nor of Venus will I do anything, for these are not the God of nature but stars and planets, which have no virtues other than that which the God who made heaven and earth gave to them. You do not believe well, but the true God, the all-powerful, is the God who made the firmament and the world from nothing. This God is the Trinity and is united as one, who existed before the world was made, and was at all times, without beginning, without end, and shall be so. All goods and all virtues are dependent on him, who is of three persons in one single God. This is God omnipotent, and is also the Son, and also the Holy Spirit in unity, who is come and is to come, who is come as deity, and is to come as humanity. He will come in the twentieth year after that in which I will die; this same I have believed, do P. J E A N D ’ O U T R E M E U S E

981

believe, and will believe. I give my soul to his command, to the grace and the praise of him.’’ When those from Naples and those from Egypt heard how Virgil disdained their gods, and himself believed in another one, they asked of Virgil: ‘‘Who is this god of the Trinity who joins himself in one unity?’’ Virgil answered: ‘‘This is the truth, that these three Gods are three belonging to one only, and this is the Trinity perfect in unity, always drawn from the Trinity in every case, for he is Father, he is Son, he is Holy Spirit, who is one sole God without division, of his substance all-powerful, all-perfect, of all goodness and virtue, without quantity, without quality, without end, without beginning. He has the name Alpha and Omega, who is the fountain of knowledge, who comes born of a virgin, and for thirty-two years and three months he will be on earth to seek salvation for his people, and will die. Afterward, he will harrow hell, and he will thence send forth his subjects, even myself and the others who will be placed there, and are there by the sin of Adam, who for Eve his wife was disobedient to God. Then he will bring us to paradise with him, and in the name of the holy baptism of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, I take this water, which is the Trinity, just as if I were living then, when he will preach his faith.’’ When the Egyptians heard this, they said to Virgil: ‘‘In the name of this god and of all his virtues, calculate the golden number for us to keep in perpetual memory.’’ So Virgil answered them that he would do it willingly in a calendar according to the new law to come, and he wished to establish it in this way since the angle determined it, and he demonstrated the year entirely to the third day of the new moon. Thus he calculated the golden number, and the Egyptians had a copy of it, and they carried it into Egypt. Virgil sent a copy to Rome, and the original stayed in Naples. Also, in the year 559, Virgil built a village, which he called Pozzuoli, and it is still named so. In this village he built artful baths. There bathed all the people who were ill of any maladies and who could come, men and women. Unless a person was dead, this took all the sickness away, and it was written above each bath, in letters of Latin, which malady it would heal. These lasted a long while, and then were destroyed by the physicians of Salerno, who had false rogues steal from all the baths the placards where the writings were. Since then no one has dared to bathe any longer within the said baths, for one does not know for which maladies they would be good or bad, but the baths are all there still. Also, after this Virgil studied without going out of his lodging, except when he went to dine or sup with the people of Naples, or they with him. Then he played jests so beautiful and so marvelous that it would be greatly 982

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

lengthening my material to recount all of them. For one time he had a hornblowing huntsman come to dinner, and then does and stags came running among the tables without touching any of the food. Afterward he had minstrels come very joyfully trumpeting, and piping, and fiddling all the instruments of music. The stags, and hares, and pointer dogs immediately and visibly became noble maidens and youths, who danced in a very noble fashion, and each held a basin full of grapes just gathered from the country where they were ripe, for in Naples they did not grow at this time at all, as it was March. Also, in the year 560, on the sixteenth day of May, Hyrcanus gave to Herod one of his cousins as a wife, who was named Mariamme, and Herod had two wives. By Mariamme Herod had a son who was named Alexander. In the same year Herod was circumcised by the law of the Jews for the love that he had for his wife Mariamme, who was Jewish. Also, in the year 561, in the month of April, Virgil gave a dinner for the people of Naples, close to two hundred thousand women and men, in his garden, which was no more land than could be plowed in one day, and they were seated there at ease and in plenty at every table. First bread, wine, and salt were brought to the table. Then the dishes were immediately brought in succession, were quite quickly placed on the table, and were carried back inside so properly and so hastily, that it seemed there was no more difficulty in serving or clearing than there would be if only as many as a hundred men were seated at table. He served some eighteen dishes, without counting the side dishes. What they were I do not know how to tell, but I do know that there were there such meals as come from India, and from Persia, and from Libya, and from Ethiopia, and from Nubia, and from Babylon, and from Hibernia, and from Aquilonia. For from Hibernia came barnacle geese, which grew there on trees that bear them just like fruit, which are found only near rivers, since rivers take care of the fruit. [Barnacle geese are described, for instance, in Gervase of Tilbury (see above, V.A.5), Otia imperialia 3.123, and in Alexander Neckam (see above, V.A.6), De naturis rerum 1.48.] For when they are ripe, they fall; if they fall to the earth, they rot, and if they fall into the water, they take life, and soon sink. This is meat that one can eat during Friday and in Lent, just like the fruit of a tree. Virgil gave these roasted and dressed with balms that come from Egypt. Another dish was apples from Nubia, [from the place] called Leptis Magna, which have such a noble savor that people live on their scent. They were well served by every dish, and by beautiful jests in great plenty. Between dishes, Virgil made it so that all the women were dressed in the clothes and codpieces of men, and the men were in the clothes of women, and P. J E A N D ’ O U T R E M E U S E

983

they had no beards at all, but the women had beards; this caused great marvel and great joy. Soon after they began to dance entirely naked, leaping and tripping with great joy, and their natural members, which one should be ashamed to show, they saw very clearly. When all this was done, they saw themselves sitting at the table, eating and drinking, for they had not yet moved from the table, but the jest was made by illusion. [Digression on Octavian’s conquest, Jove’s worship, the formation of Gaul, Herod’s history] Also, in this same year Virgil thought that he would live no longer, and he was exhausted by continual study and the work of labor to a marvelous extent, so he wished to know when he would die. So he went to the head mentioned above, who gave him an answer to all that he asked. He asked it what time he could yet live, and it gave him an answer by which it deceived Virgil, for he did not understand at all the meaning of the words that it said. It said that Virgil should live as long as he henceforth preserved his head from the sun. When Virgil heard this, he said that his head would never go out in the sun, and he meant the head that answered him, for if he had meant his own head, he would have known better how to understand and foretell what happened. Also, in the year 565, Herod took several wives besides his [first] until he had nine. Among them, he had one who was named Cleopatra. By this Cleopatra, the next year on the fourteenth day of April, he had two sons at once, one named Herod Antipas, who then had John the Baptist beheaded, and the other named Philip Herod, who had St. James the Great beheaded. [St. James the Great was in fact put to the sword by King Herod Agrippa.] Also, in the same year, Antony, who held Asia and the East, left his wife, the sister of Octavian the emperor, and took as his wife Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt. This created great strife between Octavian and Antony, but it passed in a little time, for Antony took back his wife. Also, in the same year, Virgil built a castle, which he named Ventoise, and a fortification above it that was made in three years and finished in the year 569, for it was in no way made by necromancy, but was made by workers. So it happened that when it was finished, in the month of July, when the sun was hot, Virgil overheated his brain, which did him much harm, for he would die of it within the next two years. When he felt he was ill, he went to this head where the spirit was, and he asked how the malady had come upon him, and if he could be delivered from it. At this, the head answered him: ‘‘You have come to your end; you have ill kept your head from the sun, which has heated it so much that you must die from this, for nature cannot endure that you can trouble us any longer, for 984

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

never were we troubled so by man.’’ When Virgil heard this, he was very angry; so he did a spell and called all the secret spirits that he had enclosed, wherever they were, in fire, in air, in earth, or in water, and said to them: ‘‘Know that I bind you: just as thieves you all have deceived the world, so that creatures should never be troubled by you henceforth, be you all bound in an abyss without escape.’’ Then he took the head and broke it apart, as well as the other enclosures, and the spirits went away. [Digression on Herod] Also, in this same year, Virgil became very ill, when he overheated his brain, just as I have said above. It is true that no one dies willingly, and each delays this hour as long as he can. Virgil then began to study deeply, to discover if he could find a remedy against this, but he discovered, by the judgment of astronomy, just what the head had said to him, that he would not live more than two years, but would live just to the end of twenty-two months, and then give up his spirit. Virgil then took heart once more, and he said: ‘‘True God, who made the world and the firmament and all that is within it, you formed Adam, and Eve from his side, who shattered obedience, so for this you condemned them and their offspring to hell, on whom you will have pity at the right time. For it is certain that the Virgin, who will bear you, will be born four years, four months, and two days after my decease, and when she is with child, the image that I have made in Rome will fall, and she will be mother of God and of man. This is the God in whom I believe, and have believed, and will believe, and will die in this belief, and truly may he have pity and mercy on my soul.’’ Afterward Virgil wrote out all of the Catholic faith entirely. He had enclosed it in a chest and prepared from that day to the day when it was needed, so that at the end when he should die he would have everything prepared. Also, Virgil fired a large clay pot, made of earth and of cinders, and placed within it earth prepared in his way. Then he placed within it an abundance of plants that we do not know how to name, but know only that he drew balm from them, and there were some other plants of such a fresh nature that he never had to refresh them, for they would always remain green, without water. Then he made a beautiful chair entirely of cypress, with precious stones, sapphires, rubies, Mede-stones, agates, chalcedony, the beryl-like diadochus, freestones, hyacinths, blues, emeralds, and pyrites. In it they shaped the high names of God, and the salutations that Gabriel made to the Virgin Mary, saying: ‘‘Hail Mary, full of grace.’’ There the images of the Virgin and of the angel were engraved and figured, as if they were standing then in the P. J E A N D ’ O U T R E M E U S E

985

temple of the Jews. After this, there was the image of the Virgin holding a staff in her hand, showing how she went to visit Elizabeth in time to come, and finally, from point to point, everything as it happened afterward until the Assumption of Our Lady. Virgil figured all this in his chair, and then gave a great dinner in his house, for he had the rustics delay the beating of their flails, and this was on the fifth day of May, in the year 571. He had but one day to live, until the sixth day of May; the dinner was most gracious and plentiful, and had jests enough. When they had eaten, Virgil soon said to them: ‘‘Barons, I have assembled you to tell a secret, and this is that tomorrow at noon I will pass away and no longer will I live. I commend you all to God, who soon will come to take his place in the world as true God and man; he will be born of his mother, the Virgin, without the corruption of nature. Know you that this woman will be born tomorrow in four years, four months, and two days, and within fifteen years she will have a child who will be God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the perfect Trinity of three Gods in one united, in whom I believe and will believe, and have always believed.’’ Thereupon he showed them his chair, and displayed to them everything that was engraved there, and implored them all, knights and barons, that they consider carefully what he said, and take baptism as soon as they heard it preached, so that they should be blessed and saved in body and soul. ‘‘And in order that you better believe me, I wish myself to be reborn.’’ Then he took water in a basin, and then called Constantine, who was a good knight, and said to him: ‘‘Take this water, pour it over me.’’ He did this, and Virgil said: ‘‘In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, which is the Trinity, I take baptism in the hope that God will gather me with his other friends, and lead me into his glory.’’ Then those from Naples departed, and Virgil made the rustics work again, who began to strike again with their flails. He then took his clay pot with plants and put it beneath the chair that was tunneled at the base; then he took a bronze channel, which had a cap at one end that completely covered the clay pot and the plants, and the other end of the channel he stuck above amid the base of the chair, and Virgil sat himself on the base, so that the channel entered into him through his rectum, and it entered well into his stomach, more than two palms’ width. Afterward he had open on his desk all the books of every science, and before him he had set a book of theology. He was nobly clothed in a blue robe. He had at his right arm a large window, completely open, through which the people looked at him each day, and said that he was not dead at all, but that he studied as before, for he had his hood over his eyes. 986

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

Thus Virgil died, the great clerk, and remained so in his chair for fiftynine years, that is to say, until the time that St. Paul set out to preach, after he was converted. He had seen before in Aleppo a book of letters that Virgil was said to have made. This made him come by way of Naples, where Virgil’s house was pointed out to him. He came there, and he looked through the window, and saw Virgil, who studied deeply, as it seemed to him. He called most gently, and said: ‘‘Master Virgil, beautiful friend, allow me to enter within to speak to you.’’ He responded nothing, for he was dead. Then St. Paul came to the door. He commanded the rustics in God’s name that they cease from striking with their flails, and he came to Virgil who was seated there. He took him by the hood, and at this the body completely crumbled into ashes, without more than bones remaining there. When St. Paul saw this, he was very dismayed. He looked at the clay pot, as green and as goodsmelling as the first day that it was placed there, and then he looked at the writings of Virgil concerning astronomy and nature, and also those of necromancy and of such arts, which he soon burned. He saw before him the book of theology that Virgil was studying when he died, and he looked at the shape of the chair, which seemed to him very good. He looked at everything and said, crying out: ‘‘Very gracious master Virgil, who was the son of King Gorgile, if I had found you in life, so that I had clothed you in mercy before God and baptized your body, and believed in and prayed to God, what a man I would have rendered to God! True God, by your virtue have mercy on him, for his writing and all his sayings greatly accord with our law; there is nothing contrary there.’’ Thus said St. Paul, for he feared that Virgil was not entirely a believer in our law, although he had found in writing how he had prophesied several times. Afterward St. Paul went to the chest in which Virgil had placed the letter that he had written by hand; he discovered it and read it. Then St. Paul said that he believed just as perfectly as one should believe, so he was much relieved. Then he took all his books, and he gave them to his household, who carried them with him. Then he took his bones, and he shut them in a coffer, and put the coffer on the chair and the authentic writing that he had, and commanded that they be guarded by those of Naples, and that no one look within them. With this, St. Paul left, and went to the house of Virgil which he had made formerly on the sea in the manner of a castle; there Virgil’s bones were placed. There they are still, and they cause many storms there, for when one wishes to remove them from the chair, the sea immediately billows and comes up to the castle, and if one lifts them high, the sea swells so high that the castle should be destroyed if one did not replace the coffer. When they are in their P. J E A N D ’ O U T R E M E U S E

987

right place, the sea subsides. Thus Virgil died, so I will fall silent at this point, and I will return to my matter directly, as I said to you before. (SK)

Q. VIRGIL’S JOURNEY TO THE MAGNETIC MOUNTAIN This fifteenth-century narrative song survives in a single manuscript, Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, cgm 5198 (sometimes designated the Wiltener Manuscript), folios 35r–36r. The codex is an assemblage of 166 songs that was prepared by two scribes at the end of the sixteenth century. The songs are socalled Meisterlieder, songs associated with the ‘‘master singers’’ of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. They also include ‘‘About a Statue at Rome’’ (see above, V.B.6). In the past, Virgils Fahrt zum Magnetberg (Virgil’s Journey to the Magnetic Mountain) was ascribed to Heinrich von Mügeln (died circa 1372), a poet who served princes in Prague, Vienna, Styria, and elsewhere and who wrote prolifically, mostly in German but also in Latin verse. But there is now a consensus that the song was not composed by him, even though it has the superscription Mayster Hainrich von Mugelen im lagen don. The song tells how Venetian nobles, accompanied by Virgil, voyage over the sea to a magnetic mountain in search of riches. Two gri≈ns are chained to the ship and are used to pull it forward. When they break free, Virgil goes to the mountain and promises to liberate a demon in a bottle, if the demon helps him and the nobles. The demon gives Virgil instructions that enable him to secure a magic book with eighty thousand devils. The devils construct a road that apparently leads to a happy ending. The episode of the voyage to the magnetic mountain is attested already at the end of the thirteenth century in two texts. One is Zabulons Buch, among the texts that expand upon the Wartburgkrieg (War of Wartburg), a collection of anonymous poems (thirteenth through fifteenth centuries) that tells of a singers’ contest at Wartburg. The other is entitled Reinfried von Braunschweig. All three versions share such central motifs as the voyage to the magnetic mountain (sometimes designated as Agetstein [Agate Stone], sometimes as Magnetberg [Magnet Mountain]), the demon (called Zabulon or Savilon) in a bottle, a figure that swings a club, a letter that when pulled from the figure’s nose leads to its collapse, and a magic book. Each of the three also has motifs unique to it. Among other things, the three o√er di√erent perspectives on the participants in the voyage and on Virgil’s bearing toward them. Distinctive motifs in Virgil’s Journey to the Magnetic Mountain include the gri≈ns and the devils inside the magic book. It is impossible to establish a stemma of the relations among the three versions, but Virgil’s Journey to the Magnetic Moun-

988

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

tain would seem to be indebted directly or indirectly to Zabulons Buch. (Discussion: F. Schanze, ‘‘Virgils Fahrt zum Magnetberg,’’ in Verfasserlexikon 10: 377–79; J. Siebert, ‘‘Virgils Fahrt zum Agetstein,’’ Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 74 [1952], 193–225) (Text: I. V. Zingerle, Germania 5 [1860], 368–71; rept., VMA [Pasquali], 2:209–12) (JZ) [1] Venice is praised as a fine city. There were many noble men there who wanted to leave their wives and children and travel over the sea. They wanted to gain riches, that was their intention. A poet named Virgil traveled with them on a ship that was well built. They took leave immediately. They spoke to their wives and children: ‘‘And if we return home we trust God that we will find you happy.’’ They hurried to the ship and out to sea with very clever intentions. Virgil followed them: ‘‘God willing, we will gain riches, for God shall be our protector when we leave the country. Mother Mary, Virgin Pure, protect us from harm! We sail on the wide expanse of the raging sea, may God protect us!’’ [2] They took with them as many provisions as they desired. Two birds called griffins went with them, bound fast to the ship with chains. They sailed for a year on the wide sea. They asked that God and the Pure Virgin help them find the magnetic mountain, which pleased them well. When they had filled their ship completely, their hearts were seized with sorrow. Truly, the ship ran aground on the magnetic mountain; believe it that they wanted to sail from there with their riches. Both of the griffins tore themselves loose and flew away; the men were stunned: ‘‘O God, make your help apparent in this dire situation. If we suffer such distress here and die, we will never return home to our wives and children.’’ [3] Virgil went directly to the mountain and found the devil’s servant trapped in a bottle. He spoke to him: ‘‘Who put you here?’’ The devil replied to the poet immediately: ‘‘Virgil, if you let me out, I will help you so that you are repaid for your trouble.’’ Virgil spoke at once: ‘‘If you can help me find the right roads and bring me and my comrades home again, I will free you.’’ The devil answered from the bottle: ‘‘Go up the mountain; there you will find a certain individual who has a letter in his nose. Beneath lies a dead man and a book, and if you get that, you will be wise and will return home; in the book there are many good servants in high spirits. They will bring you and your comrades home.’’ [4] Virgil went up the mountain immediately. Quickly he found the aforementioned fiend standing before him with a club over an open grave. The same fiend had a letter in his nose and swung madly about with the club. At midday he rested for an hour. Virgil pulled the letter from his nose,

Q. JOURNEY TO THE MAGNETIC MOUNTAIN

989

and the devil fell down to his companion. As the devil told him earlier, Virgil took the book in his arms. As soon as he opened the book, many of hell’s children fell out—eighty thousand devils at once. Virgil marveled at this. Soon they spoke: ‘‘Where should we go? We can’t wait any longer.’’ He spoke: ‘‘Go into the green forest and construct for me a good road, so that afterward it can be traveled and ridden upon.’’ [5] The devilish pack came back quickly and went into the book as Virgil ordered. Cleverly he closed it. Late in the evening he went to his comrades. They received him well and lamented to him their great distress. They all spoke: ‘‘What should we do?’’ Virgil spoke at once: ‘‘I will gladly advise you, and mark my words. I will bring you home without harm, that you shouldn’t doubt.’’ The men promised him great rewards. They spoke: ‘‘You need not concern yourself with riches. What we have here of riches, we will all gladly share with you. You will be rich, if you bring us home.’’ He spoke to them: ‘‘Good men, take heart.’’ They returned to Venice at once. (WC)

R. BONAMENTE ALIPRANDI (died 1417) Bonamente Aliprandi, who was born around the middle of the fourteenth century, composed the verse Cronica di Mantova (Chronicle of Mantua), also written as Cronica de mantua or designated—after the author’s own name— Aliprandina (Aliprandi’s Chronicle), between 1414 and 1417, the year of his death. From a well-to-do family, Aliprandi earned respect and wealth from his service in diplomacy and public service. He was on close terms with the powerful Gonzaga family. In terzinas following the model of Dante’s in the Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy: see above, I.C.53), the Cronica di Mantova traces the history of his native city from its mythical past all the way down to the first decade of the fifteenth century. In this history the legend of Virgil is particularly prominent, based partly on written sources such as the vita Donatiana (VSD; see above, II.A.1) but partly also on local traditions. Such Mantuan pride about the greatest native son, though not so evident as the Neapolitan equivalent, comes to the fore elsewhere in texts (see above, I.C.45) as well as in municipal monuments and coins (see above, II.F.7). From a folkloric point of view Bonamente is interesting in connecting Virgil and Merlin, a relationship that is attested elsewhere. (Discussion: G. Bernardi Perini, ‘‘Vita di Merlino e vite virgiliane,’’ Quaderni folenghiani [1995–96], 43–54) (Text: A. Nerli, Breve chronicon monasterii mantuani Sancti Andree ordinis benedictini, ed. O. Begani, Rerum italicarum scriptores 24, part 13, 2nd ed. [Città di Castello, 1908], 17–236; rept. in EV 5.2, 512–18, no. 377) (JZ) 990

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

Chapter 4. On the Birth of Virgil Mantua had a citizen called, by his proper name, Figulus; [470] he was considered rich and solid among the others. He was much esteemed for his disposition. His wife, daughter of a learned man, was called Maia. [475] One night the woman dreamed that out of her body she produced a laurel branch, which flowered. Then that branch bore fruit, and she seemed to see an offshoot [480] with many flowers and fruits. This woman of course wanted to know what this dream meant, before giving birth. She asked a great astrologer [485] to interpret her dream for her, and he gave an answer that comforted her greatly. He said: ‘‘You should be comforted by this dream, since I can truly say that from it you have much about which to rejoice. [490] You shall give birth to a male son; he will be imbued and replete with learning; truly, one will not find his like. So that your dream may come to fruition, [495] let Virgil be reaped as his name, to signify the verga [offshoot] from the flowers. You should raise this son with love; no one in the world will equal him; and you will then receive great honor because of him.’’ The woman had a happy heart, [500] and, when she came to give birth, her son was born quite stocky and chubby. He brought great happiness, with joy for his father and relatives; everyone had something to say about that son. [505] He was called Virgil. Having reached the appropriate age, he was sent to school to a highly commended teacher. He learned more than the others; he was liked by all the people [510] and students he frequented. In school he was nicknamed because of his great head; he was called Maro by the students. I will speak of the features that characterized him: [515] he was large in person and dark in coloring, and his face verged on being rustic. The man was wise and of great merit. During his life he composed eleven books, which would give him great honor in the world. [520] I will tell you the names loud and clear: he wrote the Bucolics and Georgics, and the third called the Aeneid. He also collected trifles into a book, with the story of Giton too [presumably an early reference to the Satyricon of Petronius: see above, I.C.13]; [525] he also produced the Aetna and Culex; the Priapea, the worthy Catholichon [sic, for Catalepton], the Epigrams that he also completed; the Copa and Dirae give him great honor. He wrote other great, famous things that I do not mention; [530] he dealt with very great deeds in writing. Everyone in the world greatly craves and enjoys his works; because of their virtue, everyone loves him. [535] We return to Virgil, who was at school out of the desire to learn and who put all of his heart into this. It became known that his equal did not exist; he learned the science of medicine, [540] and he knew how to handle it very well. He greatly desired to acquire more learning; he spent time studying in Milan and Cremona, and then he wished to leave. He returned to R. BONAMENTE ALIPRANDI

991

Mantua, [545] but he actually did not intend to stay there. He relinquished his land and his goods, and of course he set off to Greece, where all areas of knowledge could be learned; he wished to study in Athens. [550] He stayed a fairly long time and then he returned. He returned to Mantua a man of knowledge, and everyone was happy about his coming. After a few years passed, there was a great war between the emperor and [555] a great Roman called Antony. Octavian had the honor of victory. He returned to Rome with his people, and then there was a great celebration for Rome. [560] Octavian immediately decided to reward his knights; he arranged for it to be done in the following way. He put his thought into action in Lombardy: [565] since they deserved it, he wrote to those who had served him, knights and squires from everywhere, letters to furnish them the goods of others that would give them authority over property and houses; because, when that war had taken place between them, the Cremonans [570] had held out valiantly with Antony against Octavian. Similarly, the city of Pavia, Piacenza, the peoples of Parma and Modena, and Mantua too experienced it. Because of this, Octavian ordered [575] that the goods of those citizens should be taken to avenge the affronts received. He sent some of his men to distribute all the goods as they liked; since the place was undefended, this was accomplished. [580] After everything in Cremona had been given away, Arius the centurion was sent; he came to Mantua with his company. All of Virgil’s property was given to Arius. [585] Virgil was very upset about this. Presently he wrote the distinguished verse: ‘‘Mantua, alas, too near pitiable Cremona!’’ [Eclogues 9.28]. He left Mantua immediately. With the hope of recovering his property, he undertook to go to Rome, [590] out of a desire to be in the emperor’s presence. In Mantua there was great grief; all the citizens saw themselves robbed; there was then great weeping throughout the land. [595] Arius, in his great tyranny, permitted each of his men to do any and every misdeed, giving them support and power. He had the city tower cut in half; the campanile, [600] as it now appears, is named after St. Peter. We return to Virgil, unhappy and with wretched thoughts, who longs to be in Rome with Octavian. Arriving in Rome, he did not make fruitless plans. [605] He did not have a prior acquaintance with anyone, but he developed one with a well-established Roman. He spoke with the man and told about what his situation had been and what measures he should pursue. [610] The man thought that he should make an entreaty to Octavian and that in this way he would be heard. It does not seem that Virgil liked this; leaving him, he resolved to do something else, [615] so that Octavian would develop the desire to know and speak to him. Virgil thought that he wanted to wait a little while. The emperor had commanded [620] that he wished to go out riding 992

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

the next day. At night there was a great rainstorm with much thunder, day came, the weather cleared, and the emperor set out to ride. [625] Virgil composed and put on the imperial high-backed chair two verses, which had this content [quoted in Latin]: ‘‘It rained all night, the games return with the morning: Caesar has joint rulership with Jove.’’ [630] When the emperor saw these two verses, he wished to know who had written them. The poet Egeus accorded himself the honor; afterward he received great shame for doing so. Chapter 5. On Virgil the Mantuan When Virgil learned of this, [635] he wanted the emperor to know that he had been lied to about the verses. He immediately wrote other [Latin] verses —I can report that they were in the following form—and he put them on the imperial high-backed chair: [640] I composed these verses, another took the honor. 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 . . . [645] The emperor wanted to know who had written this; someone came to tell him about Virgil. He commanded that Virgil be summoned; he wanted to know the truth from him, if he had written those verses. [650] He responded that it seemed great folly that anyone would want to give his name to that which was not his doing and that he should send for Egeus [655] to complete the missing verses, since he who had written the others would know well how to do so. He commanded that Egeus be summoned; he came; the emperor said that he should complete those missing verses. [660] Egeus told him that he did not know how to finish the verses, and Virgil spoke to him thus: ‘‘I can tell you this, emperor: he who made the others will also know well how to compose these, [665] if you command that they should be completed.’’ The emperor commanded that he should complete those verses, and Virgil began: [670] 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

bear wool, sheep. lead the plows, cattle. make honey, bees. build nests, birds.

Egeus, humbled in his heart, asked the emperor with shame [675] to have mercy on him and to disregard his great error; he had boasted in order to acquire honor. The emperor pardoned him, [680] recognized Virgil’s great knowledge, and praised him in his presence. Pollio and Maecenas, to tell the truth, had influence over the emperor and said to each other: [685] ‘‘It is proper to give this man great honor; let us R. BONAMENTE ALIPRANDI

993

become acquainted with him and hear the merit in his words.’’ They shared his company with pleasure; Virgil spoke with them; [690] they were happy to have heard him. Virgil then related to them the true reason for his arrival, and they both listened closely. Maecenas said to Pollio [695] that he should request the return of his territory from the emperor. Presently they went to talk to the emperor and they spoke thus; they came to speak of Virgil. [700] The emperor, who listened gladly to them, sent for Virgil immediately, since he wanted to hear it from his mouth. Virgil gave an account of his situation. The emperor then commanded [705] that a document and order be sent to Mantua. By letter he ordered presently that Virgil’s goods be returned to him. Virgil asked to take leave. [710] Virgil promised to return to Rome within a certain stretch of time. He arrived at Mantua, and all his friends came to visit him, asking how he had done it. Virgil recounted it to them. [715] Then he went to Arius and presented his letters. He commanded that his property be returned. When he had it back, he put his affairs in order as was necessary, [720] and he quickly returned to Rome. Arriving in Rome, he presented himself to the emperor Octavian, who had him received very nicely. Pollio and Maecenas also [725] saw him with great pleasure, each of them showing great love. Little stood between him and happiness: he was made the emperor’s chancellor and was certainly considered the greatest. [730] Everyone bestowed great honor on him; he was a great philosopher-poet, and there was none greater in rhetoric. His great knowledge spread. Pollio and Maecenas requested [735] that he do a great favor for them: it should please him to compose a work that would give them fame, of the sort that is found in making poetry—he should do that which they greatly desired. Chapter 6. On the Friendship Formed by Virgil [740] Virgil, who loved them very much, wrote the Bucolics for Pollio and designated the Georgics for Maecenas. Then Octavian personally wished him to write about Aeneas; [745] he answered that he would do it gladly. In those times, it is revealed, Virgil began to fall in love with a young woman whom he liked greatly. The woman cared little about him. [750] She was the daughter of a well-established knight, but even so Virgil harassed her greatly. Virgil was a powerful person; he had passed thirty years when he turned his mind to this woman. [755] That woman told her father how Virgil was besieging her, and the knight took offense. He immediately thought to shame Virgil greatly; [760] he planned with his daughter how to do so. This powerful knight had a palace in Rome with a tower, which was quite striking in beauty. He ordered his daughter [765] to show Virgil in all her behavior that she loved him and to 994

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

deal with her messenger in such a way that he would tell Virgil she was happy to do whatever he wanted, [770] but she wanted him to know one thing: there was no way that her palace could be opened when it was locked at night. But she had thought of something: he could come by means of the tower [775] if he followed her instructions. She could send down, with a rope, a basket that he could enter and that could be pulled up. The messenger went off. Virgil was pleased: [780] he arranged the day when it should be done; the knight began to be very happy. The day came that they had arranged; Virgil went according to the instructions given; at night he got in the basket. [785] It was pulled halfway up the tower, the rope from above stopped, and Virgil remained shamed. In the morning the Romans went to see Virgil stuck in the basket, [790] and everyone mocked him. Octavian heard this and directed that he be let down; it was done, and he greatly reproached him. Virgil, who had seen himself shamed, [795] immediately thought to himself and decided to avenge himself. He made it so that every fire went out; no one could be found who had fire; the people of Rome complained. [800] Octavian, who was quite distraught, sent for all his wise men, so that a way could be found to obtain fire. All of them [805] gave excuses to the king, since they did not know what to do so as to have fire; so they sent for Virgil. The emperor began to entreat Virgil to cause Rome to abound in fire. Virgil then told them [810] that for fire to be found, the knight must have his daughter come and crouch on all fours with her backside revealed; whoever wanted fire should go to obtain it at her backside. [815] This pained the emperor, as she was the daughter of a noble knight; it would bring great shame upon him. And yet because there was need of fire, since without it one cannot live, [820] the knight was sent for. The emperor began to speak to him: ‘‘I am sorry, but it has to be so, for we cannot live without fire. It must be by way of your daughter. [825] We can obtain it only thanks to Virgil; it cannot be recovered in another way. It is a means of retaliation: we of course recognize that Virgil is the reason, and once it has been done, we will repay him well.’’ [830] The knight said with ill disposition: ‘‘Let it be as pleases you!’’ He had a heart of a lion to exact vengeance. The woman was positioned on all fours; her backside was kept exposed. [835] Whoever wanted fire had to go to her. One could not give fire to another, because both were then extinguished; each household had to take it for itself. [840] She remained so for many days, before she had provided Rome with fire; the knight endured great grief. Virgil, since it did not upset him, took joy in avenging himself. [845] Not caring what was said, he was pleased that everyone knew he had cast that spell out of a desire to avenge his mockery. R. BONAMENTE ALIPRANDI

995

When all Rome was provided in its entirety with fire without any stinting, [850] the woman was made to return home. The knight lamented greatly to the emperor, and he grieved greatly that so great a betrayal had been done to him, and that justice must be done for this, [855] since he and his daughter were shamed, or that Virgil should be handed over to him. The emperor responded: ‘‘Do not worry that I will allow this to pass; he will be punished for all of his sins.’’ [860] Then he had Virgil sent for; he said to him in the knight’s presence: ‘‘You have deserved to die a hard death. I wish that justice be exacted from you; you have shamed this knight; [865] a great wrong has been done, by my faith.’’ After Virgil had listened, he began to speak to the emperor: ‘‘By the holy crown, explain how I have sinned! The truth cannot be hidden; [870] who has been shamed more than I? He who commits an offense must endure offense. This good man aimed only to shame me with his conduct; I have sought to do the same to him, [875] and if someone would like to blame me, what he did to me should be a reason. Because I wished to take delight with his daughter, he who gave me a way to have pleasure and delight with her sought [880] truly to bring the matter to fulfillment. He who knew the effect of this action should have punished his daughter and not shamed me with so much pleasure. If he were wise, he would have known how to handle matters [885] so that neither he nor I would be shamed; but he turned himself to satisfying his desire. All these reasons I have set forth for you: you know well what love is, that it has misled many wise men.’’ The emperor [890] listened to both men, but the shame and dishonor still seemed truly harsh to him. And wanting to please the knight, he had Virgil locked in prison; [895] the knight was appeased. The prison of Rome, it must be noted, was surrounded by a high wall with structures where one could stand; it had a great courtyard in the middle, [900] where the prisoners remained during the day, and did there as they pleased among themselves. Virgil planned to leave, drew a boat in the courtyard, and asked for all the prisoners. [905] He requested them all to go with him, saying that if they wished to go with him [they could]. Some agreed to go as a joke. He had them enter the vessel; he gave each a stick as an oar; [910] he went to sit up in the poop deck. He said to each of them: ‘‘When I command you to row, each of you must start to row. And do not delay to do it; [915] we will all leave the prison, and I will lead you so that you will be freed.’’ When it seemed time he said: ‘‘Begin to row!’’ Each acted as if he were rowing hard, the boat rose, and he said: ‘‘We are going.’’ [920] It seemed to go out of the courtyard; the boat headed toward Apulia—his finger seemed to draw it through the air. All the prisoners who stayed in prison and who 996

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

had not wanted to enter the boat [925] lamented when they saw the deed. Virgil made the boat drop down when it reached the place where he wanted it to be. He made it settle on the flat earth. All who were inside exited; [930] Virgil spoke to them and took leave of them. The boat immediately came apart. Those who had been inside left, and Virgil headed toward Naples. [935] The prison guard recounted this story to the emperor: he told of Virgil’s flight; he then spoke of the prisoners, who left in a boat that had been drawn. [940] Octavian marveled then and spoke of it to his barons, saying: ‘‘I believe, upon my word, that all the heavens are in agreement [945] to give completely to Virgil, more than to any other person who is alive, all branches of knowledge that the world has. I am pained to lose him; if I can have him, I still want him. A man so capable is not to be lost. [950] If he returns, I wish that more honor than I know be granted him in my court. I am pained too deeply by his departure.’’ Let us return to Virgil, who went with a companion, on account of his wish to go, [955] believing he kept to the road that led straight to Naples. Yet the track began to lead astray, and, evening having ended, he found himself at a house asking to stay over. The poor man said to them: [960] ‘‘I will gladly give you what I have.’’ Virgil and his companion accepted. They entered the house: there was nothing to drink and little to eat. Virgil asked the woman: [965] ‘‘Will we have nothing for dinner?’’ The woman then responded: ‘‘You can eat of the bread we have, but there is no wine.’’ Virgil said to his companion: [970] ‘‘It behooves us to find another way.’’ He said to the good man: ‘‘Find a basket, go off quickly to that vineyard, bring it back full of grapes, and do not complain.’’ [The man] responded: ‘‘This will be done. [975] But the grapes are not ripe; how will you do it?’’ Virgil said: ‘‘We will make a good arrangement.’’ He said to the woman: ‘‘Find a vessel in which you will toss the grapes; then fill it with water.’’ [980] After having ordered the wine, he began to talk; Virgil said to his companion: ‘‘We will even have something to eat.’’ He immediately sent a spirit to go to Rome quickly, [985] to be at Octavian’s dinner table, and without fail to bring him Octavian’s provisions. He should leave quickly and return immediately. That spirit did not go in vain. [990] He carried in his hand a great cut of boiled meat with many chickens. This did not upset Octavian, and he asked the servant who served him if he had seen who had taken the cut of meat. [995] The servant reproved himself in shame; he responded: ‘‘This seems to be enchantment to me; I don’t know what to think this is.’’ Octavian said without hesitation: ‘‘Virgil caused it to be done,’’ [1000] and he cheered himself thinking about the prank. Let us return to Virgil, who wanted to dine: he put a spell on the little R. BONAMENTE ALIPRANDI

997

wine cask and made the water turn into perfect wine. At dinner they all sat together; [1005] they had many good things to eat and many good things to drink. In the evening they went to rest, and they rose early in the morning. Virgil began to talk to the peasant, [1010] and he thanked him and her greatly; he came to tell them about the vessel of wine, that he left it to them as a goodbye, and that they should never try to see what was inside that cask, [1015] and that they should pay close attention to what he said: ‘‘It will never be without wine, but if you look inside, the cask will not yield wine for you anymore.’’ Virgil said to them: ‘‘God be with you!’’ [1020] He went to Naples with his companion, and in a short time he saw Naples. He entered; as he was not a resident, he went to an inn, and said to the hotelier: [1025] ‘‘I will stay for a good many days in your hotel, you will foot my expenses, and it will happen that I will pay you soon.’’ Immediately he made a courteous response, seemed to him [Virgil] a man of great virtue, [1030] and responded: ‘‘I am happy; I have understood well.’’ He was there but a little while when his fame spread. ‘‘This is Virgil,’’ everyone said; they talked a great deal about what brought him there. He became acquainted with some wise men, [1035] the clever men went to visit him, and all of them gave him great honor. Some began to request that he leave mementos in Naples of the great knowledge that made people speak of him, [1040] and he accepted this request. Chapter 7. About Melinus [Merlin], Virgil’s Disciple It is known that Virgil had at this time a clever disciple called Melinus. Virgil wrote him at Rome [1045] that he should come presently to him to Naples. No one should know anything about his journey. Melinus left Rome and arrived immediately at Naples; Virgil had something to say to him [1050] and commanded him to return to Rome: ‘‘Tell Roberto to give you my book.’’ He requested that he not read it. Melinus immediately set off on his journey; day and night he did not stop walking [1055] until he arrived in Rome. He went to Roberto to ask for the book of his master who had sent him. Roberto gave it to him without delay. Having the book, he turned back. [1060] Once he left Rome, a desire came to him: he longed to read the book. As he started to read the book, a great multitude of spirits came up to him. [1065] ‘‘What do you want? What do you want?’’ they all asked. Melinus then was frightened through and through and had a great fear of death. Melinus began to reason, and soon thereafter he commanded [1070] that they pave the road from Rome to Naples in its entirety, so that it would remain forever in good condition. Because of that order, the spirits caused all of the road to be paved [1075] without fail with dressed stones. Melinus arrived at Naples. He found Virgil immediately and told him 998

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

about the book that he had carried and likewise about the paved road. [1080] Virgil reproached him very strongly and said: ‘‘You broke my order; by my faith, you will be punished. In addition, I must tell you, and I do not lie, that you put yourself in peril of death.’’ [1085] He lamented greatly about this with him. Virgil did not say anything more; remembering those who had requested him to make something, he turned to see, and he deliberated in his heart, [1090] wishing to perform magic and to be renowned for great deeds. He had the Castello dell’Uovo made, and he constructed it in the water. One can still see it, and it appears to be made by craft. [1095] He caused even more enchantment beyond that: he enchanted a fly in glass that drove off all other flies (some flies had entered Naples); this greatly pleased the people. [1100] But he did another thing that amounted to even more. By magic, he made a fountain from which oil always flowed and the flow never ceased. That oil continued [1105] to suffice for the whole city; the people derived great happiness from it. Virgil accomplished in that land other deeds and great novelties, marvelous and most beautiful. [1110] Octavian, who heard about Virgil’s activities, could not bear for him to remain outside Rome. Presently he commanded that Virgil be summoned and [1115] that he return to Rome. Virgil returned to Rome, presented himself to the emperor, and was received quite well by him. He stayed then with Octavian, [1120] had great honor from him, and was made the greatest among his people. Virgil, since he had so much worth, was well loved by everyone and received much honor from one and all. [1125] In the time of which I spoke to you, it happened that Octavian had to go to Asia with his people in arms. He stayed a long time to fight and was victorious in that region. [1130] Then he planned to return to Rome. Virgil went as far as Naples to meet his lord, from whom he had received such great glory and who was returning to Rome after having had such a great victory. [1135] There he saw what he had never seen. In that time the sun grew very hot; he was assailed by the great heat, he had himself brought in his illness to Brindisi, and then in Naples he diminished still further in health. [1140] Death, which wishes to spare no one, parted his spirit from his body; all the people lamented greatly. In Naples he was buried faithfully on the road to Pozzuoli with great honor; [1145] the people were saddened by his death. He was then fifty-seven years old; fully fifteen years passed when our Creator was born. Octavian, who came with his retinue, [1150] heard of Virgil’s death; he lamented fiercely and with great sorrow. Then he said to his barons: ‘‘The most gifted in learning has died; I do not think that there is one similar to him in the world: [1155] I ask God to accord him grace, that he R. BONAMENTE ALIPRANDI

999

should accept his soul; his virtues will never leave my mind, I am quite sorrowful over him, I cannot do anything else.’’ (SZ)

S. BAENA SONGBOOK (late fourteenth and first half of fifteenth centuries) The Cancionero de Baena (Baena Songbook), first compiled between 1426 and 1430 at the behest of King John II of Castile (1405–54) by his learned scribe Juan Alfonso of Baena, is the earliest and most important anthology of Castilian courtly poetry. The only extant copy (circa 1461–62) includes more than fifty poets and almost six hundred poems spanning the end of the fourteenth through the first half of the fifteenth centuries. (Discussion: G. Brugnoli, ‘‘Virgilio estrologo,’’ in Symbolae Pisanae: Studi in onore di Guido Mancini, ed. B. Periñán and F. Guazzelli, 2 vols. [Pisa, 1989], 1:79–84) (Text: Cancionero de Juan Alfonso de Baena, ed. B. Dutton and J. González Cuenca [Madrid, 1993]) (LG)

1. Baena Songbook, No. 38 This stanza (verses 105–12) is from the elegy of Fray Migir, a Hieronymite friar, on the death of King Henry III of Castile (1379–1406) on December 25, 1406. (Text: Dutton and González Cuenca, 60–61) Good Aristotle is a great scientist, Pythagoras, Ervis [not yet identified], Razi [Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya ar-Razi (850–925), Persian physician and polymath known in the West as Rhazes, author of major medical treatises in Arabic], and Plato. Euclid, Seneca, and even more Juvenal, Boethius, Pamphilus [perhaps Pamphilus of Alexandria, the Greek lexicographer], Horace and Ovid, Cicero, Vegetius, Virgil, and Cato, perfect poets and great astrologers, and many more not mentioned in prologues, so all of these, tell me, where are they now? (LG)

2. Baena Songbook, No. 226 This stanza (verses 97–104) is by Francisco Imperial (circa 1350–1409), a poet of Genoese descent who was active in Seville and particularly indebted to Dante. It is noteworthy for presenting Dante as being in explicit competition with Virgil. Both this excerpt and the next, by Diego de Valencia, come from allegorical poems written to celebrate the birth of King John II of Castile in 1405. (Text: Dutton and González Cuenca, 258; text and study: C. I. Nepaulsingh, Micer Francisco Imperial, El dezir a las syete virtudes y otros poemas [Madrid, 1977], 73–74) Alighieri found [vido; literally: saw] no greater relief in dark Limbo, at the grand school of the Greek master, testing his poetic mettle with the Man1000

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

tuan, than I did in a prodigious fashion when the high planet began to speak so softly, in Jupiter’s presence, as it does in verse further below. (LG)

3. Baena Songbook, No. 227 The author of this excerpt (verses 97–104) is Diego de Valencia (circa 1350– circa 1412), a Franciscan poet and master of theology who was renowned for his erudition. This stanza is in direct reply to the preceding text by Imperial; it uses the same versification and rhymes as its counterpart. Valencia’s reference to Dante’s blindness refers back to the vido (seeing) in 226. The remark about Virgil’s reliance on the stars is harder to explain. Although it could relate to Eclogues 9.47 or still more tenuously to Aeneid 8.681, its origins are more probably to be sought in Virgil’s legendary reputation as an astrologer: for instance, see above, V.A.3. (Discussion: W.-D. Lange, El fraile trobador: Zeit, Leben und Werk des Diego de Valencia de León [Frankfurt am Main, 1971]) (Text: Dutton and González Cuenca, 268–69) Alighieri could not see a thing, for he was blind, as becomes evident in looking at his sayings. That he ended up in Limbo, this I deny; he was rather condemned to hell as punishment. He was always aided by the stars. Virgil of Mantua was a wise poet, since he was the first who saw the comet casting its rays in parts of Greece. (LG)

4. Baena Songbook, No. 533 Most probably by Ferrant Sánchez Calavera (fourteenth–fifteenth century), this segment (verses 17–24) alludes to the motif of ‘‘Virgil in the Basket’’ (see above, V.C). (Text: Dutton and González Cuenca, 403): So that you may understand that I say the truth, I want to show you with books and text the real scope of your great wickedness and how many lost their souls for this. The wise Virgil you dangled in a basket from a tower, there confined and drove him to madness [literally: made him lose his common sense] by that great trickery that you had prepared for him. (LG)

5. Baena Songbook, No. 377 A fragment (verses 17–40) from the ‘‘verdict’’ of Diego de Valencia in a debate between two poets as to what is better, to see a woman and never speak to her, or talk to her but never see her. Like the preceding, it refers to ‘‘Virgil in the Basket’’ (see above, V.C), with the suggestion that Virgil was freed not by being lowered in the basket but by jumping from it: see above, V.C.5. (Text: Dutton and González Cuenca, 647–48) Hence, gentlemen, he does not think straight who dares to meddle in what he does not know, since you both have marshaled so many good arguS. BAENA SONGBOOK

1001

ments; by dint of your stature, gentlemen, forgive my simple knowledge, my pure ignorance for setting myself on such a high pedestal, from which I could fall and jump further down than the Mantuan did in his misfortune. We have read how Virgil, who was a great poet, was terribly deceived, and, while at Rome, with a clever ruse he was lifted up to the highest point of the Ponceleta by a beautiful and pure damsel who was kept in that tower by which the great Tiber River runs; may the fool learn not to meddle. If such an authority in astrology could be deceived by a damsel, now what will he do who for such a one engages in a deadly duel and a terrible joust? Hence, gentlemen, as to myself I would tell you that I am crazy to meddle in your dispute, not knowing a thing about your debates for poetry’s sake. (LG)

T. GUTIERRE DÍAZ DE GAMES (late fourteenth–early fifteenth century) A death lament for Emperor Henry III of Germany (1017–56), with the incipit Caesar, tantus eras, quantus et orbis (Caesar, you were as great as is the world), was taken to be a lament or even an epitaph by Virgil for Augustus. (Text of the death lament: MGH Poetae Latini aevi Carolini 4, ed. K. Strecker [Berlin, 1923], 1074–75) Some manuscripts of the pilgrim’s guide Mirabilia urbis Romae (Wonders of the City Rome, circa 1150) quote the opening lines, which they allege to have been inscribed on a large bronze ball that once rested partway down the needle at the summit of the great obelisk that now stands before St. Peter’s. (Discussion of Mirabilia: VN 228–30) In a sermon Helinand of Froidmont (circa 1160–after 1229), a trouvère (poet-musician of northern France) who turned Cistercian monk, credits the lament or epitaph to Virgil. (Text of Helinand’s sermon: Sermo 5 in Epiphania Domini 11, in PL 212, 522) The connection between Virgil and the obelisk is given a narrative framework in Jean d’Outremeuse’s Myreur des histors (see above, V.P). In the process the specifics about the lines inscribed on the obelisk disappear. The fullest account of the legend comes in a section on the life of Julius Caesar in a fifteenth-century Spanish prose text, entitled Victorial (Book of Victory), by Gutierre Díaz de Games. Although the Victorial (started at the earliest in 1431 and finished at the latest in 1436) is mainly a panegyric biography of Count Pero Niño of Buelna, it is simultaneously a lively miscellany that incorporates many other materials. Gutierre’s version makes no mention at all of the inscription. The Virgilian connection is attested later in France, where the Vatican obelisk was called the aiguille de Virgille (Virgil’s needle) by the French humanist François Rabelais (born circa 1490, died 1553) and at least one other French author. (Existing 1002

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

translation and discussion: VN 232–35) (Text: R. Beltrán, ed., Gutierre Díaz de Games, ‘‘El Victorial’’ [Salamanca, 1996]) (JZ) Before Julius Caesar dies, he says one day to the wise Virgil that two things in this world grieve him: that the names of great men die with them and that their sepulchers perish too. Virgil suggests that Caesar substitute his name for the month of Quintil, and as for the tomb, Virgil promises that he will attend to that too. Solomon, king of Judea, had had a marvelous stone carved as high as a tower, and had ordered his bones placed on it in a golden apple. It is lying in a field where Virgil finds it when, mindful of his promise to Caesar, he goes to Jerusalem to buy it. In his purchase of it, Virgil outwits the Jews and by some sort of magic levitation transports it to Rome in nearly a single night. There it is placed in the market, and Caesar’s bones are said to be in it. It is about twenty arms tall; it has four sides finely worked; it is smooth and tapering. It stands upon four brass figures on a base of a single stone, and from this descend three or four steps of the same stone, and from the top arises a great golden apple containing, they say, the ashes of Caesar.

U. LIFE OF VIRGIL (published about 1518) The Life of Virgil that is here put into modern English for the first time was published in the early sixteenth century in Antwerp, by the printer Jan van Doesborch (also known as John Doesborche; died 1536). It bears the title Virgilius, with the further explanation This boke treath [sic] of the lyfe of Virgilius and of his deth and many maruayles that he dyd in hys lyfe tyme by whychcrafte and nygramansy thorough the helpe of the devils of hell. Only one complete copy is extant, in New York City (Pierpont Morgan Library, W 17 B), although one exemplar in Oxford (Bodleian Library, Douce 40) is nearly perfect. The English Life of Virgil seems to have been translated, at least mainly, from a Dutch text entitled Virgilius, Van zijn leuen, doot, ende vanden wonderlijcken wercken die hi dede by nigormancien, ende by dat behulve des duvels (Virgil: Of His Life and Death, and of the Wonderful Deeds He Accomplished by Necromancy and by the Help of the Devil), which in the form now extant bears no date but which has been assigned variously to 1518, 1525, and later. The Dutch version was printed in Antwerp by Willem Vorstermann (active 1504–43). The copy in London (British Library, pressmark 1073. h. 44) is apparently unique. The English seems in a few instances to have been based upon the French text that the Dutch itself translated. The French work, entitled Les faictz merveilleux de Virgille (The Marvelous Deeds of Virgil), survives in two undated French editions, both from the first quarter of the sixteenth century. The contents of the U. LIFE OF VIRGIL

1003

French romance appear to rely in part on the dossier of Virgilian legends in Jean d’Outremeuse (see above, V.P), upon which the Dutch and English versions may also have drawn for episodes (such as the Salvation of Rome [see above, V.B.4] and the mechanical horseman) not included in the French. Despite the di√erences among the French, Dutch, and English versions, all of them belong to the genre of romance—or at least of romance as it was purveyed in chapbooks of the sixteenth century. Although Virgil the necromancer had appeared frequently as an exemplum in earlier medieval romances, he became the central focus of a romance of his own only in this set of texts. The identity of this sorcerer Virgil with the poet Virgil is left entirely implicit in the romance. For a full treatment of the Life of Virgil romance, see VN 236–53 (with notes on 420–26). It provides invaluable information to help sort out the meaning of names (the form Campania in the original has been rendered here as Champagne, Vellen as Vesle, Raynes as Reims, Tolleten and Tolenten as Toledo, and so forth) and of passages in which the original English appears to reflect a misunderstanding of the Dutch. (Edition of French version: VMA [Pasquali], 2:242–56; facsimile of Dutch version: J. Gessler, Virgilius: Facsimile van de oudste druk van het Vlaamse volksboek [Antwerp, 1950]; information on Icelandic translation from Dutch and the influence of the former on later Icelandic literature, VN 252–53) (JZ) Virgilius: The Life of Virgil This book deals with the life of Virgil, his death, and many marvels that he performed in his lifetime by witchcraft and necromancy with the help of the devils of hell. The prologue It is reasonable to write down the marvelous deeds performed by Virgil within the city of Rome and in other places. In all times Rome has had a great name and fame, and the people who live there receive great honor in their times. But Romulus, the emperor of Rome, slew his own brother out of hate and envy, even though Remus had given to Romulus the city of Rome and all the lands that pertained to it. Nonetheless, Remus carried with him into Champagne all the treasure, and upon a river called Vesle he founded a costly, rich, and strong town with beautiful high walls that was well outfitted inside and out with attractive images carved of stone. All the waste of the town was conveyed below ground to the river Vesle that ran nearby. He called the town Reims, after his own name. How Romulus came into the fair town of Reims that he destroyed, and how he slew his brother Remus, who was lord of Reims When Romulus heard talk of his brother Remus and of the town of 1004

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

Reims, he was distressed; for the walls of Reims were so high that a man who stood in its ditch could not shoot over well even with a bow and arrow, whereas the walls of Rome were so low that man might well leap over them—and there was no ditch. It happened that Remus went to see his brother Romulus at Rome, took with him many people of his own social class and birth, and left his wife to await him, in the town of Reims in Champagne, with a little child or young son named Remus, after himself. When he came before Rome and saw the walls, he said three times that the walls were too low. Moreover he said that with a run he would leap over them; and soon he took a run and leapt clean over. And when his brother Romulus had heard this—how his brother had leapt over—he said that he had done wrong, and therefore he should lose his head. And as Romulus entered into his brother’s palace, he took Remus, and with his own hands smote off his brother’s head, and slew him. And not long after that he raised a great army of people throughout all his country, and prepared to go toward the town of Reims in Champagne, and began to direct his ordinance toward the walls of the town. There he razed the palace, towers, and other places to the ground—so thoroughly that he left but few or none standing. But he could not find the wife of Remus, his sister, for she had fled underground a distance from the town by a hidden gate, to her friends and kinfolk. For she was one of the greatest-born women who then existed. And when Romulus had destroyed the land and town of Reims, he departed and went home with all his army toward the city of Rome, where he was received richly. How the son of Remus, who was also named Remus after his father, slew his uncle Romulus, and afterward was made emperor, and so reigned as emperor Then the wife of Remus was very sad and mourned very bitterly when she heard of the death of her husband, and also of the destruction of the town of Reims, destroyed by the hands of his brother. And she commanded workmen to make the walls again after her brother had departed from it, so that she made the town of Reims stronger and fairer than it ever was before, and renewed it richly according to her might and power. For she was not as mighty as she had been when her husband was alive. This noble lady also nourished her child well, and within a short time he began to grow big and strong, and mighty enough to bear armor. Then his mother said to him: ‘‘My dear son, when will you avenge your father’s death, whom your uncle slew?’’ And he answered his mother: ‘‘Within these three months.’’ And immediately he commanded his kinfolk to raise their people; and when they were gathered, they departed. He came with a great force toward Rome, and when he came to Rome he entered in there, and no one stopped him. When he was within, he U. LIFE OF VIRGIL

1005

cried that no man should harm any of the common people. Then he went to the emperor’s palace. When the emperor knew that he had come, he asked for counsel, and the senators answered that there was no remedy but death: ‘‘Because you slew his father, he will slay you in return.’’ With that, Remus came into the palace of his uncle Romulus, and no one stopped him. There he saw his uncle standing before him in his emperor’s clothes. Then he was inflamed with anger, and he drew out his sword, took his uncle by the hair, and cut off his head. When it was done, he asked the lords and senators of Rome whether they wanted war. And they all answered: ‘‘No,’’ and gave him the whole empire and crowned him as the rightful heir. And when he was emperor, he sent for his mother, and she came to him. And then Rome was fortified with strong walls and ditches, and acquired a great name; and there many diverse nations resided, and they built and edified many fair dwelling places in Rome. This Remus was a man strong in body, rich in goods, wise in counsel, and had under him many lands and lordships. Remus had from his mother’s side of the family a knight who was mighty and bold in battle, and he took or married a wife in the city of Rome—a woman who was the daughter of one of the greatest senators, and highest of lineage. And Remus reigned not long after, but died, and his son was made emperor and reigned after him. And he waged great war against this knight of Champagne, who had married the senator’s daughter, and did him very much harm. This knight had one son by his wife, who was born with great travail of labors. He was named Virgil from vigilo, because he was for so long watched over by men. How Virgil was sent to school When Virgil was born, the town of Rome quaked and trembled. In his youth he was wise and clever, and was sent to school. Shortly thereafter his father died, and Virgil’s mother determined not to marry again, for she loved her lord so well. And after the decease of her husband, her kinfolk wished to take away her inheritance that she had, located within and without Rome, and one of the fairest and strongest castles in the whole town, or anywhere nearby, that could be imagined or made by any man. She complained often to the emperor, who was near of kin to her husband; but the emperor was an angry man, and would not hear her complaints. He was beloved neither by the lords nor by the common people; but he died soon after this, and his son and heir, Persydes, became emperor after his father’s death, and ruled the whole land according to his own will. He had all the Romans under him and ruled them so strictly that they were fearfully in dread of him.

1006

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

Virgil was at school at Toledo, where he studied diligently, for he had great understanding. From time to time the scholars were permitted to go play and sport in the fields according to the old-fashioned practice; and therefore Virgil went walking among the hills all around. It happened he spied a great hole in the side of a great hill, and he went in so deep that he could not see any more light. Then he went a little further in, saw some light again, and then went straight forward. Within a short time he heard a voice that called ‘‘Virgil, Virgil,’’ and he looked about and could see no one. Then he spoke and asked: ‘‘Who calls me?’’ Then he heard the voice again, but he saw nobody. The voice said: ‘‘Virgil, do you not see that little board lying beside you there, marked with that word?’’ Then Virgil answered: ‘‘I see that board well enough.’’ The voice said: ‘‘Push away that board, and let me out by doing so.’’ Then Virgil answered the voice that was under the little board, and said: ‘‘Who are you who talks to me so?’’ Then the devil answered: ‘‘I am a devil conjured out of the body of a certain man, and banished here until the day of Judgment, unless I am delivered by the hands of men. Thus, Virgil, I pray that you deliver me out of this pain, and I will show you the many books of necromancy, and how you can learn it easily and know how to practice it, so that no man will surpass you in the science of necromancy. And moreover I will show and inform you so that you will have all your desire. I think it is a great gift for such a little deed, for you may also with all your power help your friends, and make your enemies weak.’’ Virgil was tempted by this great promise; he asked the fiend to show him the books, so that he might have and use them at his will. And so the fiend showed him, and then Virgil pulled open a board, and there was a little hole, and out of it the devil squirmed like an eel, and came and stood before Virgil like a big man. At the sight, Virgil was astonished and marveled greatly that such a great man might come out of such a little hole. Then Virgil said: ‘‘Would you be able to fit into the hole out of which you came?’’ ‘‘Yes, I certainly could,’’ said the devil. ‘‘I hold the best pledge that I have, you could not do it.’’ ‘‘Well,’’ said the devil, ‘‘Thus I will consent.’’ And then the devil squirmed himself into the little hole again, and while he was in there Virgil covered the hole again tightly with the board. Thus the devil was tricked, and could not come out again, but still remains shut in there. Then the devil called dreadfully to Virgil, and said: ‘‘What have you done?’’

U. LIFE OF VIRGIL

1007

Virgil answered: ‘‘Stay still there until your appointed day.’’ From thenceforth he has remained there. And so Virgil became very cunning in the practice of the black art. It happened that Virgil’s mother grew so old that she lost her hearing. Then she called one of her servants, and said to him: ‘‘You must go to Toledo, and tell Virgil my son that he should come and regain his inheritance within and without Rome, and give up the school, for he should be by right one of the greatest of all Rome.’’ The messenger departed and went toward Toledo where Virgil was; and when he arrived there, he found Virgil teaching and enlightening the greatest lords of the land, and other lands also. For I assure you, he was a fair and a wise young man, and cunning in the science of necromancy above all men then living. He saluted Virgil, and revealed to him the entire reason for which he had come. When Virgil heard how matters stood, he was very sad: not for the goods, but for his mother, since Virgil had goods enough. He rewarded the messenger. In addition, he sent his mother four pack animals laden with money and with other costly jewels, and he also sent her one white horse. And so the messenger took his leave of Virgil, and so departed. Virgil, still staying in Toledo, imagined in his mind how he might best convey the rest of his goods to Rome and how he might follow. When he had ordained and set in order all the rest, he took his leave and departed from Toledo toward Rome, with many of his scholars with him. When he came to his mother in Rome, he saluted her, and she him; for she was glad of his coming, for she had not seen him for twelve years. How Virgil made his complaint to the emperor when he came to Rome When Virgil came to Rome, he was received by his kinfolk, who were worshipful of his power, but not by the rich, for they withheld his lands from his possession. For that reason he was not welcome to them, but they were angry at his arrival, and they would not eat with him or drink with him. Then Virgil was angry, and then he gave all within his power to his kinfolk, who withheld nothing from his mother: lands, trappings, horses, silver, gold, and other things. He gave to his neighbors great thanks for the kindness that they showed to his mother in his absence. After this Virgil stayed for a long time with his mother, until the time when the emperor raised a new custom or tax. Then all the lords who held any land from him went to the emperor, and Virgil also went with all his company and many kinfolk and friends. And when he came before him, he saluted him, and showed him how he inherited his lands and properties, and how those men withheld it, and how he desired to have it again. Then the emperor answered that he would take counsel in the matter, and imme-

1008

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

diately he went to counsel with those who did not love Virgil. They answered to the emperor: ‘‘I think that the land is well distributed to those who have it, for they may help you in your need. Why do you need to care for the disinheriting of one schoolmaster? Command him to take heed and look after his school, for he has no right to any land around the city of Rome.’’ Thus they said that he must have patience for the space of four or five years, so that they might examine for themselves ‘‘whether you are right or not.’’ Virgil was very angry with that answer, and said that he would be avenged. And when he came home he sent for all his poor kinfolk and friends, and put them in his houses and dwelling places that he had within Rome, and provided them with meat and drink, and told them to make merry until July, when the corn and fruit was ripe. And when it was ripe, Virgil by his necromancy cast the air over all the fruit and corn of his lands that his enemies held from him, and caused it to be gathered and brought into his houses, so that none of his enemies had any of it. In this way, Virgil deceived his enemies of all the fruit and corn, so that they had not a penny’s worth of the goods that they withheld from him. When Virgil’s enemies saw the fruit so gathered, they assembled a great force, and came toward Virgil to take him and cut off his head; and when they were assembled, they were so strong that the emperor fled from Rome in fear, for they were twelve senators that had all the world under them; and Virgil had the right to be one of the twelve, but they had disinherited him and his mother. When Virgil learned of their approach, he closed all his lands with the air round about all his land, so that no living creature might come in there to dwell against his will or pleasure. How the emperor of Rome besieged Virgil while he was in his castle Virgil’s enemies came to destroy and take him; but when they came before his castle, he enclosed them with the air so that they had no power to go either forward or backward, but stood still, marveling. Then Virgil answered: ‘‘You come to disinherit me, but you shall not; and know well that you shall have no profit of the fruits as long as I live; and you may tell the emperor that I will stay four or five years until he takes counsel. I do not desire to make a plea in the law, but I will take my goods where I find them. Tell the emperor also that I do not care about all his war or about anything that he can do to me.’’ Then Virgil returned and made all his poor kinfolk rich. When Virgil returned, his enemies went home and did not know what they should do. They came to the emperor and complained about Virgil, and said that Virgil had said that he cared nothing for the emperor and all that he could do; and when the emperor heard this, he was greatly stirred and deeply

U. LIFE OF VIRGIL

1009

angered, and said: ‘‘I will burn and set on fire all his houses, and also I will cut off his head.’’ Then, not waiting long, he commanded his lords and knights who held land from him to raise all their men of arms, whom they had under them, to be ready at a day at his bidding. On the appointed day, the emperor and all his army were assembled; they made their way toward the palace of Virgil, which was well walled all around and enclosed with the air, so that when the emperor came before the walls with all his host, they could go neither forward nor backward. Then Virgil went forth from his castle, and with his necromancy he also made a wall of air in such a way that they could neither go forward nor return, but could only stand still. Thus did Virgil treat the emperor and all his host: and moreover, Virgil came to the emperor, and said: ‘‘Lord emperor, you have no power with all your strength to do me or my lands harm; for by right you should make me one of your greatest lords and nearest of your kindred, for I may help you in your need more than all your other men.’’ Then the emperor answered Virgil: ‘‘You beguiler, once I get you into my hands, I will give you what you deserve.’’ Then Virgil answered and said: ‘‘Lord emperor, I do not fear you; but note well that I will tame you well enough, so that you will be glad to know me as one of your kinsfolk and of your blood; but you want to disinherit me—and you shall not.’’ Then Virgil commanded much meat to be dressed between his house and the host, so that the emperor and his men might see it, and see how they dressed it. But they could not have any of it except the smoke or smell, for the men of the army were shut in by the air as though it were a great body of water. Thus Virgil treated the emperor and his men, and there was nobody in his host who could find any remedy to help them there again. It happened, as they were under that spell before the castle, that there came a man who was skilled in the science of necromancy, and he came before the emperor, and said that he would by his practice make all Virgil’s men fall asleep. And so he did, so much that Virgil himself could scarcely restrain himself from sleeping. Then he was sorry and did not know what to do, for the emperor’s men were delivered, and began to come upon Virgil’s walls. And when Virgil saw that, he looked in his book of necromancy, in which he was very well versed, and there he found out how he could deliver his men from sleep. Then Virgil forced the emperor to stand still again, so that he could not move out of his place; nor could all his men or the master of necromancy move or stir, as though they were dead. Those who were still upon the ladders, one foot up, another down, stood still in this position, and also some stood with one foot on the ladder and another upon the wall, and they were to 1010

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

stand still so long as it pleased Virgil. So the emperor was greatly vexed and angry, and asked his master if they must stand still in that manner. And he did not answer him, but he spoke to Virgil and said that he would show to him his cunning. Then Virgil answered and told him to do his best, ‘‘For I do not care a straw for you and all that you can do to me.’’ Thus Virgil held the emperor and all his men enclosed in this manner by the air, for the length of a day. In the night Virgil came to the emperor and said: ‘‘It is a shame for so noble a prince to stop the way thus and to undertake what he cannot do.’’ Then the emperor said to Virgil: ‘‘Help me out of this danger, and I will restore again to you all your lands and properties, and have all things at your own will.’’ Then Virgil answered the emperor: ‘‘I will deliver you out of this danger, so that you will give me grace.’’ ‘‘Yes, by my crown, for I know you for one of my kindred, and I desire to have you with me in my fellowship.’’ Then Virgil put away the closing of the air, and received the emperor and all his men into his castle, where gold and riches were plenty. He served them with meat and drink very plenteously after their degree, of the daintiest and rarest that could be gotten, which they had never seen before. The emperor was more richly served there than he ever was before or after. Virgil rewarded every person according to his degree, and with many costly and marvelous gifts. How the emperor restored again to Virgil all his inheritance and goods, and gave him many other things Then they bade Virgil farewell and returned home again, and when they had returned home the emperor gave Virgil his land again, and all that he asked, and he was the greatest lord of the emperor’s council. After that it happened that Virgil fell in love with a fair lady, the fairest in all Rome. Virgil cast a magic spell that told her his whole mind. When the lady knew his mind, she thought to herself that she would deceive him. She said that it would be very dangerous to do as he willed. But at last she consented, and said that if he would come at midnight to the castle wall, she would let down a basket with strong cords, and there would draw him up to her window, so that he could lie by her and have his pleasure [see above, V.C]. Virgil was very glad with that answer, and said that he would do it with a good will. How the gentlewoman pulled Virgil up, and how she let him hang in the basket when he was halfway up to her window, and how the people wondered and mocked him A day was set when Virgil should come to a tower that stood in the marketplace of Rome, and in all the town there was none so high; and on the U. LIFE OF VIRGIL

1011

appointed day Virgil came to the tower, and the gentlewoman was waiting there. When she saw him standing there, she let down the basket at the window, and when it was done Virgil went in, and when he was in, she pulled him up until he came halfway, and there she let him hang, and tied the cord fast. Then the gentlewoman said: ‘‘You are deceived, and I will let you hang until tomorrow—for it is market day—so that all the people can wonder at you and at the dishonesty that you would have done, to lie by me.’’ With that, she shut her window, and let him hang until the morning when it was day, until all the men in Rome saw it, and also the emperor— who was ashamed, and sent for the gentlewoman and commanded her to let him down, and so she did. When he was down, he was ashamed. He said that shortly after he would be avenged on her, and he went home to his garden, which was the fairest that stood within Rome. Then he took his books, and by his cunning he put out all the fire that was in Rome, and no one outside could bring fire into the city. This lasted for the length of a day and a night. Virgil had enough, but nobody else had, nor could make, any fire within Rome. How Virgil put out all the fire of Rome [see above, V.C] The emperor and all his barons and the commoners of Rome marveled that there was no fire in the entire city. But then they thought in their minds that Virgil had put it out. Then the emperor sent for Virgil, and begged him for his counsel that men might have fire again. ‘‘Then you must cause a scaffold to be made in the middle of the marketplace, and you must set upon it the gentlewoman in her smock, the one who hung me in the basket yesterday. And then let a cry be made through all the city of Rome, that whoever wants any fire must come to the scaffold in the marketplace, and there between the legs of the gentlewoman they can have fire, or otherwise none. And know that one can give none to another, nor sell any; and thus you must do if you want any fire.’’ When they heard this, they came in a great multitude to the scaffold. How the gentlewoman was put upon the scaffold, and how the folk of the town went and fetched fire at her tail, and also lit candles between her legs The emperor and all his lords saw that there was no other remedy but to act according to Virgil’s counsel. He caused a scaffold to be made in the marketplace, and caused the gentlewoman to be set upon it in her smock, and there the men fetched fire between her legs: the poor men with candles and straw, and the rich men lighted their torches there. For three days the gentlewoman had to stand in that manner, or else they could have no fire. And after the third day the gentlewoman went home deeply ashamed, for she knew well that Virgil had done that violence to her. 1012

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

Within a while after, Virgil married a wife, and when that was done, Virgil made a marvelous palace with four corners: and once it was made, he put the emperor in one of the corners, and there the emperor heard all that the men said in that quarter. And likewise he brought him into the other three quarters, and so he heard what they said in the other quarters of Rome, and thus going by the four quarters he heard what they said throughout Rome; they could not speak so secretly that he could not hear it. How Virgil made the ‘‘Salvation of Rome’’ The emperor asked Virgil how he might make Rome prosper and have many lands under them, and know when any land would rise against them. And Virgil said to the emperor: ‘‘Within a short time I will do that.’’ He built on the Capitolium a town hall, made with carved images, and with stone, and he let it be called the Salvation of Rome [see above, V.B.4]—that is to say, ‘‘this is the salvation of the city of Rome’’; and he put within its compass all the gods that we call false gods and idols, which were under the subjection of Rome. All the gods that there were had in their hands a bell; and in the middle of the gods he made one god of Rome. Whenever there was any land that tried to make any war against Rome, then the gods would turn their backs toward the god of Rome; and then the god of the land that would stand up against Rome clinked his bell, which he had in his hand, for so long that the senators of Rome would hear it, and immediately they would go there and see what land it was that would make war against them. And so they prepared themselves, and went against them and subdued them. This token was known by the men of Carthage, who were sorely grieved for the great harm that the Romans had done them. They took counsel privately about how they might destroy that work. Then they thought in their mind to send three men out, and gave them a great abundance of gold and silver; and these three men left the lords and went toward the city of Rome. When they arrived at Rome, they called themselves soothsayers and true dreamers. One day these three men went to a hill that was within the city, and there they buried a great pot of money very deep in the earth; and when that was done and covered again, they went to the bridge of the Tiber, and in a certain place they let fall a great barrel with golden pence. When this was done, these three men went to the senators of Rome and said: ‘‘Worshipful lords, we have this night dreamed that within the foot of a hill here within Rome is a great pot with money. Will you lords allow us, if we will pay the cost to seek for it?’’ The lords consented, and then they took laborers and dug the money out of the earth. When it was done, they went another time to the lords, and said: ‘‘Worshipful lords, we have also dreamed that in a certain part of the Tiber there U. LIFE OF VIRGIL

1013

lies a barrel full of golden pence. If you will allow us, we will go seek it.’’ The lords of Rome, imagining no deceit, permitted it to those soothsayers, and told them to do there what they should do best. And then the soothsayers were glad. They hired ships and men, and went toward the place where it was; and when they arrived, they sought in every place around there, and at last found the barrel full of golden pence, and so were glad. Then they gave costly gifts to the lords. Then, to come to their purpose, they came to the lords again, and said to them: ‘‘Worshipful lords, we have dreamed again that under the foundation of Capitolium, there where the Salvation of Rome stands, are twelve barrels full of gold; and if it pleases you to grant us permission, it shall be to your great advantage.’’ The lords, moved by benevolence, permitted them, because two times before they had told the truth. So they were glad, and got laborers, and began to dig under the foundation of the Salvation of Rome; and when they thought that they had dug enough they departed from Rome. And the next day the house fell down, and all the work that Virgil had made; and so the lords knew that they had been deceived, and were sorrowful. After that they had no good fortune as they had had before. How the emperor asked counsel of Virgil as to how the night runners and illdoers might be rid from the streets The emperor had many complaints about the night runners and thieves, and also about great murdering of people in the night, so much that he asked counsel of Virgil. He said that he had great complaints of thieves that run by night, ‘‘for they kill many men; what counsel, Virgil, is best to be done?’’ Then Virgil answered the emperor: ‘‘You will let me make a horse of copper and a copper man upon his back, having in his hands a flail of iron; and you will bring that horse before the town house, and then you will have it announced that henceforth a man should ring a bell at ten o’clock, and whoever is slain after the bell is rung in the street, nothing should be done about it.’’ When this cry was made, the ruffians paid no attention to it, but kept the streets as they did before and would not cease. As soon as the bell was rung at ten o’clock, then the horse of copper with the copper man leapt through the streets of Rome, so that he left not one street in Rome unsought; and as soon as he found any man or woman in the street, he killed him or her stark dead, with the result that he killed about two hundred persons or more. Seeing this, the thieves and night runners, trying to find an escape from this, thought in their minds to make a grapple with a ladder on it. When they would go out by night, they took their ladders with them, and when they heard the horse come, then they cast the grapple upon the houses and so 1014

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

went up upon their ladders to the top of the houses, so that the copper man might not touch them. Thus they still remained in their evildoing. Then the people came again to the emperor and complained, and then the emperor asked counsel of Virgil; and Virgil answered and said: ‘‘You must get two copper hounds and set them on either side of the copper horse, and let it be announced again that nobody who wants to stay alive should leave the house after the bell is rung.’’ But the night walkers paid no attention to that announcement, and when they heard the horse coming, they climbed with their ladders upon the house. But the dogs leapt after them, and tore them all to pieces. Thus the report went through Rome, so that nobody dared to go in the street in the night; and thus all the night walkers were destroyed. How Virgil made a lamp that burned at all times [compare above, V.A.4.g, below, V.V] For the benefit of the common people, Virgil made, on a great mighty marble pillar, a bridge that came up to the palace, and so he went right up the pillar out of the palace. That palace and the pillar stood in the middle of Rome, and upon this pillar he made a lamp of glass that always burned without going out, and nobody could put it out. This lamp lighted the whole city of Rome from one corner to the other, and there was no street so little that it did not give such light that it seemed two torches stood there. Upon the walls of the palace he made a metal man who held in his hand a metal bow that always pointed upon the lamp to shoot it out; but always the lamp burned and gave light over all Rome. One day the burghers’ daughters went to play in the palace and beheld the metal man; and one of them asked playfully why he did not shoot. And then she came to the man and touched the bow with her hand, and then the bolt flew out, and broke the lamp that Virgil had made. It was remarkable that the maiden did not go out of her mind from the great fear that she had— and also the other burghers’ daughters who were in her company—of the great stroke that it gave when it hit the lamp, and when they saw the metal man so swiftly run away. Never after was he seen again; and this lamp remained burning after the death of Virgil for three hundred years or more. How Virgil made an orchard by the fountain, the fairest and best that ever could be found in the whole world Virgil performed great wonders in his time, for after the palace, he made an orchard in which he set all manner of trees bearing fruit, and also many herbs growing in that yard. And when the time came, men saw daily ripe fruit and fair blossoms, full plenteous. In the middle of the orchard was a fair clear fountain, the fairest that was ever seen; and in this orchard were many kinds of birds singing, for they could easily come in, but they could no U. LIFE OF VIRGIL

1015

longer fly out again, for it was closed in with the air. Men also heard birds sing there that were inside and could not go out. He also had in his orchard all manner of tame beasts that were profitable for men; furthermore, he made from the water that ran out of the fountain a standing water around the trees, the clearest that could be, and in it were all manner of fishes that could be imagined. In addition, in this orchard was all manner of joyfulness, of trees, herbs, fowls, and beasts, that men might think of, or that could be imagined by man’s reason. He also made greater things than all this, for he made a vault or cellar in the orchard, the fairest that could be made or imagined by man’s reason—a cellar that he made to put his money in and the riches that he had; for he was so rich, and possessed so great a multitude, that he knew no end to it. And he set two metal men before the door to keep it, and in each hand he set a great hammer, and with these they smote an anvil, one after the other, so that the birds that flew over heard it, and soon fell down dead there. Otherwise Virgil would not have retained his goods. How Virgil made his wife an image Virgil made an image high in the air that could not fall, and the people of Rome could open neither windows nor doors without seeing it. The image had this property, that no woman after she had seen the image had any desire to commit bodily lust. Therefore the women had great ill will, and they complained to Virgil’s wife that they had lost their sport and dallying, and they begged her to destroy the image and make it fall. Then Virgil’s wife bided her time, and went up the bridge of the air and threw down the image; and then the women did their will. When Virgil came and found his image down, he was very angry, and said to himself that it would do them no good, for he would set it up again. He swore that he would find out who had thrown it down. He set it up again, and asked his wife whether she had thrown it down. She said: ‘‘No.’’ Then the women came again to Virgil’s wife, and said that it was worse than it was before, and begged her to throw it down again. Then Virgil went privately into a corner and awaited his wife, for he had seen before how the women had complained to her. Then Virgil’s wife went and threw down the image. Virgil, who had hidden himself and seen how his wife had thrown it down, would have thrown her after the image in his anger. He said: ‘‘The devil satisfy you, for I did it for the best; but I will never again meddle, but let the women do their will.’’ From then on, Virgil began to hate his wife. How Virgil had his pleasure with the Sultan’s daughter Oftentimes Virgil heard of the fairness of the Sultan’s daughter, so that he became enamored of her, although he had never seen her. Then by his cunning he made a bridge in the air, and went over to her; and when he had 1016

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

spoken with her, and showed her his mind, then she consented to him, despite the fact that she had never seen him before. And she said one night that she wanted to depart with him into his country, and to know what kind of man he was, and what kind of dwelling he had. Then Virgil answered and said to her: ‘‘I will do that, but you will pass over many lands, and you will not walk in them.’’ Then he transported her into his own land over the bridge that he had made in the air, and so brought her to Rome. When he was at home, he asked her if she saw anyone. She said that she saw no one but him alone. Then Virgil showed to her his palace and orchard, and the metal men that still stood, striking: and he also showed to her all his treasure, and he presented it to her. But she would not receive it, saying that she had too much of her father’s to keep. Virgil held her in his orchard as long as it pleased him. When the Sultan could not find his daughter, he was sorrowful, for he did not know where she could be; and they sought all about, but could find her nowhere. How Virgil brought the Sultan’s daughter again into her father’s land, and how he found her sleeping upon her bed When the Sultan’s daughter had remained for a long time with Virgil in his orchard, she desired to go home to her father’s land. Then Virgil took the Sultan’s daughter in his hands, he threw her upon the bridge in the air, and he himself brought her to her father’s palace and put her in her chamber upon her bed. Then he commended her to the gods, and so returned home to his place in Rome. And in the beginning of the day, the Sultan—who was deeply worried for the loss of his daughter—arose; and then one of her chamberlains came to the emperor, and told him that his daughter had come again, and lay upon her bed and slept. Then he quickly came to her, and asked her where she had been, and how she had come back again. ‘‘Father,’’ she said, ‘‘there was a fair man of a strange land, and he brought me through the air to his palace and orchard: but I have not spoken to any man or woman except him alone, and I do not know what land it is.’’ The Sultan answered and said to her that she should bring some of the fruit of that country with her; and she said she would. After a while Virgil came to Babylon and took the Sultan’s daughter with him again, and departed again to his country with her, and kept her as long as it pleased him. When she departed again, she took with her walnuts and other fruit. When she had come home, she showed her father the walnuts and other fruits of the land. ‘‘Aha!’’ said he. ‘‘It is from the region alongside France to which he has so often borne you away.’’ How Virgil was caught there After a time, the Sultan came to his daughter and said: ‘‘My daughter, U. LIFE OF VIRGIL

1017

when he comes again to you, the man who was accustomed to carry you away, give him this drink that I will give you when he sleeps with you. But do not drink any of it yourself, I warn you: for when he has drunk it, he will sleep, and when he is asleep let me know of it. Then we will take him and know where he is from.’’ The lady did as she was commanded. When Virgil came, she gave him to drink that drink which her father had given her: and when he had drunk he slept, and so was captured. Then Virgil was brought to the Sultan, and the lords, and also the daughter of the Sultan. Then the Sultan showed his knights that this was the man who had stolen his daughter away; and then he said to Virgil: ‘‘You are welcome; for your pleasure that you have taken, you will suffer death.’’ Then Virgil answered the Sultan: ‘‘I wish that I had never seen her, and if you will let me go, I will never come again.’’ Then the Sultan and his lords answered: ‘‘That we will not do; but for your misdeed you will suffer a shameful death.’’ Then the Sultan’s daughter answered: ‘‘If you put him to death, I will suffer death with him.’’ Then the Sultan answered: ‘‘I consent to this; you will be burned with him.’’ Then Virgil answered: ‘‘That you will not do with all the strength and might that you can wield, although you have such great power.’’ How Virgil came out and led with him the fair lady the Sultan’s daughter, and how he founded the town of Naples [compare above, V.G.1] When Virgil heard of this, he made the Sultan and all his lords think, by his cunning, that the great river of Babylon was running in the midst of them, and that they swam, lay, and leapt like ducks. Thus Virgil took with him the fair lady upon the bridge in the air. When they were both upon the bridge, he delivered the Sultan from the river, and all the lords. Then they saw Virgil carry away his daughter over the sea upon a bridge in the air, at which the Sultan marveled and was very sorry, and did not know what to do, for he could not remedy it. In this manner he conveyed the Sultan’s daughter over the sea to Rome. Virgil was deeply in love with that lady. Then he wondered in his mind how he could marry her, and thought in his mind that he would found in the middle of the sea a fair town with great lands belonging to it. So he did by his cunning, and called it Naples, and the foundation of it was of eggs. In that town of Naples he made a tower with four corners, and in the top he set an apple upon an iron yard, and no man could pull away that apple without breaking it. Through that iron he set a bottle, and in that bottle he set an egg; and he hung the apple by the stake upon a chain, and thus it still hangs. When the egg stirs, so the town of Naples should quake, and when 1018

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

the egg breaks, then the town should sink. When he had made an end, he let it be called Naples. In this town he laid a part of his treasure that he had: and also he set there his lover, the fair lady the Sultan’s daughter. He gave her the town of Naples and all the lands belonging to it, for her use and her children’s. A short while afterward, he married her to a certain lord or knight of Spain. A short while after that, it happened that the emperor had a great fancy to see the town of Naples, for it had the reputation in that time of being one of the fairest in the world, and it lay also in the fairest marketplace around Rome. Then secretly the emperor sent letters to all his lords who were under him, that they should, as quickly as they could, raise their men, and come to Rome to besiege the town of Naples. And so they did, so much that they assembled a great company, and went toward the town of Naples, and destroyed all before them. When he came to Naples he besieged it. The knight who had married the lady who was within Naples defended the town nobly against the emperor and his entire host. In the meantime this knight sent a messenger to Virgil, who told him all about how the emperor besieged the town of Naples. At this, Virgil was angry, and sent word that the knight should not care about him nor all his host, ‘‘for I will provide well enough for you.’’ So the messenger departed for Naples. How the emperor besieged the town of Naples When Virgil knew that the emperor was besieging Naples, he made all the fresh waters to be like rain, so that the emperor’s men never had a drop of water, and the men of Naples had enough. And in the meantime Virgil raised his host, and came toward the emperor at Naples. But the emperor could no longer tarry, for the horses and men died for lack of water, and so he lost a great part of them. Then the emperor, seeing this, departed home again to the city of Rome, all ashamed and discomfited; and as he returned homeward, along the way he met Virgil coming with all his company toward Naples. When Virgil saw the emperor, he came to him, and saluted him in this manner: ‘‘O noble emperor, how did it happen that you, who are the noble prince that you are, gave up the siege of Naples, and return home again to the city of Rome, all discomfited, without doing any harm at all, so quickly?’’ Then the emperor knew well that Virgil was mocking him, and he was very angry at it. Then Virgil went to Naples, and he caused the lords of the town to make an oath that they would allow no Romans within the town. How Virgil strengthened the town of Naples with scholars and merchants When Virgil had received the other lords of Naples, he returned again to Rome, and fetched his books and other movable goods, and brought them to U. LIFE OF VIRGIL

1019

Naples, and left his goods alone that he had shut in the cellar. He gave his dwelling to his friends to keep, and his dwelling places, and so he departed to Naples. There he made a school, and gave to it many lands, so that every scholar living there and going to school had land of the town to live on. And those who gave up the school lost the land; and there came many from Toledo to school. When he had ordained the town well with scholars, he then made a warm bath so that every man who wished might bathe in it; and that bath is there to this day, and it was the first bath that ever existed. After this he made a bridge, the fairest that men had ever seen, and there men could see all manner of fair ships that belonged to commerce, and all other things of the sea. The town in those days was the fairest and noblest in the whole world. In this school Virgil lectured on the great knowledge and science of necromancy, for he was the most knowledgeable man that ever was, before or after, in that science. Within a short time his wife died, and she had never had any children by him. Moreover, he loved scholars above all men, and gave them much money to buy books with, and thus he ruled them nobly— for he could do it well, for he was one of the greatest men born in all the world, and he had been the greatest lord of all Rome. How Virgil made in Rome a metal serpent Then Virgil made at Rome a metal serpent by his cleverness, so that whoever put his hand in the throat of the serpent was to swear his cause right and true: and if his cause was false he could not pluck his hand out again, but if it was true he could pluck it out again without doing any harm. So it happened that there was a knight of Lombardy who mistrusted his wife with one of his men, who fancied his wife greatly; but she excused herself very nobly and wisely. She consented to go with him to Rome to that serpent, and to take her oath there that she was not guilty of that of which he accused her. The knight consented to this. While they were both in the cart, and her man was also with her, she said to the man that when he came to Rome, he should clothe himself with a fool’s coat, and disguise himself in such a way that they would not recognize him. And so he did. When the day came on which she had to come to the serpent, he was present. Virgil, knowing the falseness of the woman by his cunning of necromancy, said to the woman: ‘‘Withdraw your oath and swear not.’’ But she would not obey him, but put her hand into the serpent’s mouth. When her hand was in, she swore before her husband that she had no more to do with her man than with that fool who stood nearby; and because she spoke the truth, she pulled out her hand again from the throat of the serpent, unhurt. Then the knight departed for home and trusted her well ever after. Virgil, 1020

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

having great spite and anger that the woman had thus escaped, destroyed the serpent: for by it the woman had escaped from that great danger. Then Virgil spoke, and said that women are very wise in imagining ungraciousness, but in goodness they are innocents. How Virgil died Thus Virgil in his lifetime had done many marvelous and subtle things, and also had promised to the emperor many other different and marvelous things: for he promised to make the trees and spices bear fruit three times in a year, and every tree would have ripe fruit and also blossoms growing on it at the same time; in addition, he would make the ships sail against the stream as well as with the stream at all times, and he would have made a penny as easily earned as spent, and women would deliver their children without in any way feeling any pain at all. These things Virgil promised the emperor that he would do, and many other different things that are too long to rehearse here, if he was not fated to die in the meantime. After this, Virgil made a fine castle that had only one entrance, and no man could enter it except at the one gate, or else not at all. In addition, around the same castle flowed a stream, and it was impossible for any man to gain any entrance there. This castle stood outside the city of Rome, and the entrance of this gate was made with twenty-four iron flails, and on each side there were twelve men, still smiting with the flails unceasingly, one after the other; and no man could come in—if the flails did not stand still—without being killed. These flails were made with such a device that Virgil stopped them when he desired to enter in; but no other man could find the way. In this castle, Virgil secretly put part of his treasure; and when this was done he imagined in his mind by what means he could make himself young again, because he intended to live many years longer, to do many wonders and marvelous things. One day Virgil went to the emperor, and asked him for freedom for the length of three weeks. But the emperor would not in any way allow it to him, for he wanted Virgil beside him at all times. Then he heard that Virgil went to his house and took with him one of his men whom he trusted above all men, and knew well that he would best keep his counsel; and they departed to his castle, which was outside the town. When they were before the castle, there the man saw the men standing with iron flails in their hands, smiting fiercely. Then Virgil said to his man: ‘‘You enter first into the castle.’’ The man answered and said: ‘‘If I entered, the flails would kill me.’’ Then Virgil showed to the man each side of the entrance, and all the devices that belonged to it; and when he had shown him all the ways, he made the flails cease, and went into the castle. And when they were both in, Virgil turned U. LIFE OF VIRGIL

1021

on the devices again, and so the iron flails went as they had before. Then Virgil said: ‘‘My dear beloved friend, and he whom I trust above all men, and who knows most of my secrets—‘‘and then he led the man into the cellar, where he had made a fair lamp burning at all times. Then Virgil said to the man: ‘‘Do you see the barrel that stands here?’’ He said: ‘‘You must put me in there: first you must kill me, and cut me into small pieces, and cut my head in four pieces, and salt the head under in the bottom, and then the pieces after it, and my heart in the middle. Then set the barrel under the lamp, so that night and day the lamp may drip and leak into it; and you must fill the lamp for nine days, once a day, and do not fail. When this is all done, then I will be renewed and made young again, and will live a long time and many winters more, if I am not fated to be taken off above and die.’’ When the man heard his master Virgil speak thus, he was greatly taken aback, and said: ‘‘I will never do this as long as I live, for in no way will I kill you.’’ Then Virgil said: ‘‘You must do it at this time, for it will cause you no grief.’’ Finally Virgil entreated his man so much that he consented to him: and then the servant took Virgil, and killed him, and when he was thus killed, he cut him in pieces and salted him in the barrel, and cut his head in four pieces as his master commanded him, and then put the heart in the middle and salted the pieces well. When all this was done, he hung the lamp right over the barrel, so that it could at all times drip into it. When he had done all this, he went out of the castle and turned the devices, and then the copper men went on smiting their flails as strongly upon the iron anvils as they had before, so that no man dared to enter. He came every day to the castle and filled the lamp, as Virgil had commanded him. When the emperor missed Virgil for seven days, he wondered greatly where he could be; but Virgil was killed and laid in the cellar by his servant whom he loved so well. Then the emperor thought in his mind to ask Virgil’s servant, where his master Virgil was: and so he did, for he knew well that Virgil loved him above all men in the world. Then the servant answered the emperor, and said: ‘‘Worshipful lord, if it please your grace, I do not know where he is, for it has been seven days since I saw him last, and then he went forth I cannot tell where, for he would not let me go with him.’’ Then the emperor was angry with that answer, and said: ‘‘You lie, false thief that you are. Unless you show me quickly where he is, I will put you to death.’’ At these words, the man was frightened, and said: ‘‘Worshipful lord, seven days ago I went with him outside the town to the castle, and there he went in, and there I left him, for he would not let me in with him.’’ 1022

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

Then the emperor said: ‘‘Go with me to the same castle,’’ and so he did; and when they came before the castle and would have entered, they could not, because the flails smote so fast. Then the emperor said: ‘‘Appease these flails, so that we can enter.’’ Then the man answered: ‘‘I do not know how.’’ Then the emperor said: ‘‘Then you will die.’’ Then, through fear of death, he turned the device and made the flails stand still, and then the emperor entered into the castle with all his men, and sought all about in every corner for Virgil; and at last they sought so long that they came into the cellar, where they saw the lamp hanging over the barrel where Virgil lay dead. Then the emperor asked the man who had made him so bold that he put his master Virgil to death in this manner. The man answered no word to the emperor. Then the emperor, in great anger, drew out his sword and killed Virgil’s man on the spot. When all this was done, then the emperor and all his men saw a naked child, running three times around the barrel, saying the words: ‘‘Cursed be the time that you ever came here.’’ With these words, the child vanished away, and was never seen again: and thus Virgil remained in the barrel, dead. Then the emperor was very grieved for the death of Virgil, and all of Virgil’s kin were also, and all the scholars that dwelt around the town of Naples, and especially in the town of Naples, because Virgil was its founder, and had made it greatly revered. Then the emperor thought to obtain the goods and riches of Virgil, but there was no man so brave that dared come in to fetch it, for fear of the copper men that smote so fast with their iron flails. So Virgil’s treasure remained in the cellar. Virgil did many other marvelous things that are not written in this book. Thus may God give us grace, that we may be in the book of everlasting bliss. Amen. Thus ends the life of Virgil with many different fanciful things that he did. Printed in the city of Antwerp by me, Jan van Doesborgh, dwelling at Kamerpoort. (RA and JZ)

V. ‘‘OLDE DECEYTE OF VERGILIUS’’ In the Middle Ages long lists were compiled of great men who were supposedly undone through the wiles of women. These lists eventually culminated in The deceyte of Women, to the instruction and ensample of all men, yonge and olde, a collection of such instances in English published about the middle of the sixteenth century (London: In Fletestrete by Wyllyam Copland, for Iohn Wyght [1558?]), but assembling only material that had been circulating already for centuries. One of the chapters is entitled ‘‘Olde Deceyte of Vergilius.’’ After the following extract concludes, the chapter relates the tales V. ‘ ‘ O L D E D E C E Y T E O F V E R G I L I U S ’ ’

1023

of Virgil in the basket (see above, V.C), Virgil’s revenge (see above, V.C), and the bocca della verità (see above, V.B.6). (Text: VN 58–59) (JZ) Virgil was a very wise and expert man, and he was a master of many different sciences, which (as some men say) the devil had taught him. In addition, he was a wise counselor, to such an extent that the emperor chose him to be one of the lords of his counsel. This Virgil performed many marvels by necromancy. Indeed, he made a garden in which there were all types of fruit trees. Whenever he wanted, there people found ripe fruit, beautiful flowers, and grasses. There were also in the garden all kinds of birds that sang night and day. This garden had no enclosure except the light that shone over it, and yet no one could come in. Furthermore, he made in Rome a statue that radiated great light and that was unable to fall. The people of Rome could not open either door or window without seeing the image. Whoever had seen that image, he would have no pleasure that day from performing the works of the flesh. Concerning this, the women of Rome went and demonstrated [their need] to Virgil, who at last cast down the image. Then the women had their pleasure again. Furthermore, this Virgil had made in the midst of Rome, to the benefit of the common people, a lamp of glass that shone and lighted all Rome over and over, so that there was no street so narrow but it was illuminated by that lamp as if there had been two torches burning, and some people say it stood well for three hundred years. Not so far from there in another place he had made a man of copper with a bow in his hand, pointing with his arrow toward the lamp. It so happened one time that the daughters of Rome went out frolicking one evening, and one of the maidens of Rome struck with her finger upon the string of the bow, and so the arrow sprung loose and shot the lamp to pieces, which was a great pity [compare above, V.A.4.g]. (JZ)

1024

V. V I R G I L I A N L E G E N D S

CONTRIBUTORS

BH = Barbara Hillers, Associate Professor in Celtic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University, has worked with the medieval Irish adaptations from classical literature, particularly the Irish Odyssey. CB = Christopher Baswell, Professor of English at UCLA, studies the classical tradition in the high and later Middle Ages and the roles of foundation narrative in the formation of later medieval national and urban identity. DD = David Daintree, Rector of St. John’s College in the University of Sydney and a classicist by training, has had a lifelong interest in Medieval Latin and teaches an annual summer school in that subject for mature students. DJ = Danielle Joyner, a Ph.D. candidate in medieval art history at Harvard University, studies manuscripts and is interested in how diagrammatic and figural imagery a√ects historical and biblical narratives. DWO = David Scott Wilson-Okamura, who teaches medieval and Renaissance literature at East Carolina University, is finishing a book on Edmund Spenser and the reception of Virgil in the sixteenth century. GH = Gregory Hays, Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Virginia, has published articles and reviews on late antiquity and medieval

Latin, as well as a translation of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. His commentary on Fulgentius is forthcoming from Oxford University Press. GS = Gísli Sigur®sson, Professor in the Folklore Department at the Árni Magnússon Institute (University of Iceland), specializes in oral aspects of the eddas and sagas of Iceland. He is editing settlement lore collected in the 1970s among people of Icelandic origin in Canada and the United States. JG = Jonathan Gnoza, an A.B. graduate in classics from Harvard University and a graduate student at Yale University, studies Greek and Roman literature, ancient philosophy, and the medieval and Renaissance reception of antiquity. JH = James W. Halporn, Professor Emeritus of Classical Studies at Indiana University and Associate in the Classics at Harvard University, is a student of Cassiodorus and late antique literature. JL = Justin Lake, a Ph.D. candidate in Medieval Latin at Harvard University, has interests in late antique and medieval historiography, rhetoric, and poetics. JZ = Jan M. Ziolkowski, Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Medieval Latin at Harvard University, has published extensively on medieval literature, especially Medieval Latin literature. LG = Luis M. Girón Negrón, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of Comparative Literature at Harvard University, is a student of medieval Spanish, Arabic, and Hebrew literatures in premodern Iberia. MC = Matthew Ciardiello received a summa cum laude in classics from Harvard University, with a concentration in Medieval Latin. MP = Michael C. J. Putnam, MacMillan Professor of Classics and Professor of Comparative Literature at Brown University, has been largely concerned in his books and essays with Latin literature of the Republican and Augustan periods, especially with the poetry of Virgil. MS = Mark Stansbury, postdoctoral researcher at the National University of Ireland, Galway, is a cotranslator of Servius on Aeneid 4 and a student of late-antique and early-medieval history.

1026

CONTRIBUTORS

PLS = Philip Larratt-Smith, an A.B. graduate in classics from Harvard University, is currently translating the diaries of Louise Bourgeois. RA = Rachel Elizabeth Ahern, a Ph.D. candidate in classics at Stanford University, with an A.B. in classics from Harvard University and an MSt. in Classics from Oxford University, is interested in speech and narrative in Ancient Greek and Latin poetry. RC = Raymond Cormier, currently Visiting Professor of French at Longwood University in Virginia, specializes in medieval comparative literature (French, Latin, and Celtic) and has worked on the Roman d’Énéas for over thirty years. RE = Randi Eldevik, Associate Professor of English at Oklahoma State University, works with the reception of classical myth and epic, has published on Trójumanna saga and Spenser’s Faerie Queene, and is the translator of Torfi Tulinius’s La matière du Nord. SK = Stephanie Viereck Gibbs Kamath, an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, studies medieval allegory and its vernacular translation and coauthored a bilingual edition of René d’Anjou’s Livre du cuer d’amours espris. SM = Stephen A. Mitchell, Professor of Scandinavian and Folklore (Harvard University), specializes in late medieval and early modern Nordic folklore and literature. His current research focuses on Scandinavian witchcraft 1200– 1500. SZ = Saskia Elizabeth Ziolkowski, a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University with an A.B. in Italian from Princeton University, has interests in modern Italian and German literature. TM = Thomas Murgatroyd, an M.Phil. student at Cambridge University, is currently working on cosmology in Lucan’s De bello civili. WC = William F. Carroll, a teacher at the Boston Latin School who earned his Ph.D. in Germanic languages and literatures from Harvard University, has scholarly interests in German didactic literature and Latin language pedagogy in the Middle Ages.

CONTRIBUTORS

1027

ZS = Zrinka Stahuljak, Assistant Professor of French at the University of California, Los Angeles, has focused her research on Old French verse and prose romances, historiography, and medieval and contemporary translation theory. She is the author of Bloodless Genealogies of the French Middle Ages (University Press of Florida, 2005).

1028

CONTRIBUTORS

TEXT CREDITS

American Academy of Religion: excerpt from E. Clark and D. Hatch, The Golden Bough, The Oaken Cross: The Vergilian Cento of Faltonia Betitia Proba, originally published by Scholars Press, ∫ 1981 The American Academy of Religion (used by permission of the American Academy of Religion). Cambridge University Press: excerpt from Vivien Law: Wisdom, Authority and Grammar in the Seventh Century: Decoding Virgilius Maro Grammaticus, ∫ 1995 (reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press). Catholic University Press: excerpts from The Fathers of the Church: The Writings of Saint Augustine, vol. 13, ∫ 1964; and from Lactantius, The Divine Institutions, trans. M. F. McDonald, ∫ 1964 (used with permission of The Catholic University of America Press, Washington, D.C.). Columbia University Press: excerpts from Macrobius, The Saturnalia, trans. P. V. Davies, ∫ 1969 Columbia University Press (reprinted with the permission of the publisher). Harvard University Press: excerpts from Augustine, The Confessions, reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from Augustine, The Confessions, trans. W. Watts, rev. W. H. D. Rouse, LCL 26, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1950 (the Loeb Classical Library Ω is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College); excerpts from Augustine, The City of God, reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from Augustine, The City of God, trans. G. E. McCracken,

LCL 411, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1957 (the Loeb Classical Library Ω is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College); excerpt from Giovanni Boccaccio, Famous Women, reprinted by permission of the publishers from Giovanni Boccaccio, Famous Women, ed. and trans. by Virginia Brown, The I Tatti Renaissance Library, pp. 166–81, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, copyright ∫ 2001 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College; excerpt from Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, trans. S. J. Tester, LCL 74, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973 (the Loeb Classical Library Ω is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College); excerpts from Aulus Gellius, The Attic Nights, reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from Aulus Gellius, The Attic Nights, trans. J. C. Rolfe, LCL 195, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1927 (the Loeb Classical Library Ω is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College); material from Horace, Satires and Epistles, reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from Horace, Satires, Epistles, and Ars Poetica, trans. H. R. Fairclough, LCL 194, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1926 (the Loeb Classical Library Ω is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College); excerpts from Martial, Epigrams, reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from Martial, Epigrammata, trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, LCL 95, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993 (the Loeb Classical Library Ω is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College); excerpts from Ovid, Fasti, reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from Ovid, Fasti, trans. J. G. Frazer, LCL 253, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1951 (the Loeb Classical Library Ω is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College); excerpts from Ovid, Heroides, reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from Ovid, Heroides, trans. G. Showerman, rev. G. P. Goold, LCL 41, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977 (the Loeb Classical Library Ω is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College); excerpts from Ovid, Metamorphoses, reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. F. J. Miller, rev. G. P. Goold, LCL 43, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1984 (the Loeb Classical Library Ω is a registered trademark of the President and 1030

TEXT CREDITS

Fellows of Harvard College); material from Ovid, Tristia, reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from Ovid, Tristia, translated by A. L. Wheeler, LCL 151, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1924 (the Loeb Classical Library Ω is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College); excerpt from Suetonius, On Grammarians, reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from Suetonius, trans. J. C. Rolfe, LCL 38, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997 (the Loeb Classical Library Ω is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College); excerpts from Ma√eo Vegio, Book XIII of the Aeneid, reprinted by permission of the publishers from Ma√eo Vegio, Short Epics, ed. and trans. Michael C. J. Putnam and James Hankins, The I Tatti Renaissance Library, pp. 3–13 and 33–41, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, copyright ∫ 2004 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College; excerpts from Virgil, reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from Virgil, trans. H. R. Fairclough, rev. G. P. Goold, LCL 63–64, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999–2000 (the Loeb Classical Library Ω is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College). The Johns Hopkins University Press: excerpts from Francesco Petrarca, Letters on Familiar Matters (Rerum familiarium libri I–XXIV), trans. Aldo S. Bernardo, vol. 3 (books XVII–XXIV), pp. 340–41, ∫ 1985 The Johns Hopkins University Press (reprinted with permission of The Johns Hopkins University Press); excerpts from Francesco Petrarca, Letters of Old Age (Rerum senilium libri I–XVIII), translated by Aldo S. Bernardo, vol. 1 (books I–IX), pp. 141–47, ∫ 1992 The Johns Hopkins University Press (reprinted with permission of The Johns Hopkins University Press). Thomas E. Maresca and the University of Nebraska Press: excerpts from Bernardus Silvestris, Commentary on the First Six Books of Virgil’s Aeneid, trans. E. G. Schreiber and T. E. Maresca, ∫ 1979 by the University of Nebraska Press; ∫ 1992 by Thomas E. Maresca. The Medieval Academy of America: permission to reprint excerpts from E. H. Wilkins, Studies in the Life and Works of Petrarch, ∫ 1955, The Medieval Academy of America. Oxford University Press: excerpt from Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana, ed. and trans. R. P. H. Green, p. 121, ∫ 1996 Oxford University Press (by permission of Oxford University Press). Princeton University Press: excerpts from Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, ed. and trans. Charles Singleton, ∫ 1970–75. Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press. TEXT CREDITS

1031

State University of New York Press: excerpts from Francesco Petrarca, Letters on Familiar Matters (Rerum familiarium libri I–VIII), trans. Aldo S. Bernardo, ∫ 1975 State University of New York (reprinted by permission of the State University of New York Press). Taylor and Francis: material from Dante’s Il Convivio, trans. Richard Lansing ∫ 1990. Reproduced by permission of Routledge / Taylor and Francis Books, Inc. David Townsend: excerpt from Walter of Châtillon, The Alexandreis: A Twelfth-Century Epic, trans. D. Townsend, Broadview Editions, ∫ 2007 by David Townsend.

1032

TEXT CREDITS

INDEX

In the index of titles and incipits, page numbers in italics indicate a text or translation included as an item in the anthology. Boldface type is used to distinguish line numbers within particular works. In the index of titles and incipits and the index of names and subjects, page numbers enclosed in parentheses indicate locations in the corresponding Latin text.

MANUSCRIPTS Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Peniarth MS 2, 101 Admont, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 637. See Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Lat. Misc. D 66 Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, MS Hamilton 201, 450 Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, MS germ. fol. 282, 442 Bern, Burgerbibliothek: MS 165, 236, 674; MS 167, 237, 249, 250, 251, 674; MS 172, 674; MS 239, 171, 177 Book of Ballymote. See Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 P12 Brussels, Bibliothèque royale: MS 5325–

5327, 175; MS 10455, 956; MS 19303, 956 Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, MS 7, 168, 171, 175, 176 Cambridge, Mass., Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Richardson 38, 446, 512fig Cambridge, Peterhouse College, MS 158, 722 Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.5.35, 105; MS Mm.1.18, 737 Chantilly, Musée Condé: MS 9, 455; MS 597, 448 Chartres, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 13, 700–701 Codex Buranus. See Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, clm 4660

Codex Mediceus. See Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Plut. 39.7 Codex Romanus. See Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. lat. 3867 Codex Salmasianus. See Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 10318 Douai, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 340, 455 Dublin, King’s Inns Library, MS 13, 608 Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 P12, 609 Dublin, University College, MS A 11, 608 Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana: MS Aedil. 170–72, 303; MS Ashburnham 23, 168, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178; MS Mediceo-Palat. 69, 396; MS Plut. 39.7, 444; MS Plut. 41.44, 550–51; MS Plut. 45.7, 674; MS Plut. 45.15, 644 Florence, Biblioteca nazionale centrale, MS Palat. 313, 449 Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana: MS 1129, 453; MS Riccardianus 21 (1426), 321 Floriacensis. See Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 172 The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, MS 76 E 21, 445 Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek, MS Pal. Germ. 848, 460–61 Ingeborg Psalter. See Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS 9 Killiney, Franciscan House of Studies. See Dublin, University College Klosterneuburg, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 742, 175, 176, 177, 441 Kremsmünster, Stiftsbibliothek, Fragm. III/154, 176

1034

MANUSCRIPTS INDEX

Laon, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 263, 454 Leiden, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit: MS Vossianus F. 12, 289; MS Vossianus F. 79, 260 London, British Library: MS Additional 19587, 449; MS Additional 21910, 177; MS Harley 4946, 773; MS King’s 24, 445; MS Yates Thompson 36, 449 Manesse Codex. See Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek, MS Pal. Germ. 848 Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana: MS G111 inf., 773; MS S.P. 10, 27, 133, 412, 451 Montpellier, Bibliothèque municipale, MS Montepessulanus 358, 260 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek: cgm 5198, 871, 988; clm 305-II, 172, 176; clm 631, 889; clm 4393, 269; clm 4660, 460, 529; clm 15514, 263; clm 18059, 169–70, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 243; clm 18451, 230, 274, 275; clm 21562, 172, 176–77; Monacensis 40 Inc. s. a. 1253 m, 229 Naples, Biblioteca nazionale: MS Vindob. lat. 5, 174, 175; MS Vindob. lat. 6, 177–78, 440 Orléans, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 259, 248 Oxford, Bodleian Library: MS Add. A 44, 531; MS Auct. F.1.16, 175, 176, 177; MS Canon. class. lat. 50, 441; MS Canon. class. lat. 52, 443; MS Digby 23, 466; MS Lat. Misc. D 66, 624fig Oxford, Jesus College, MS 94, 816–17 Palatine Virgil. See Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Pal. lat. 1631 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale: MS fr. 60, 550–51; MS fr. 301, 459; MS lat. 1, 439; MS lat. 3088-XI, 174; MS lat. 6186, 876; MS lat. 7925, 168, 177; MS

lat. 7929-I, 175; MS lat. 7930, 174; MS lat. 7936, 441–42; MS lat. 7960, 674; MS lat. 8069-II, 175, 177; MS lat. 8093, 205, 439; MS lat. 8255, 889; MS lat. 9344, 169–70, 174, 175, 176, 177, 650; MS lat. 10318, 481; MS lat. 11308, 674; MS lat. 13047, 481 Poggiali Codex. See Florence, Biblioteca nazionale centrale, MS Palat. 313 Prague, Národní knihovna, MS VIII.H.9 (1627), 170 Rimini, Biblioteca civica Gambalunga, MS 4.I.II.25, 449 St. Gall, Stiftsbibliothek: MS 25, 102; MS 863, 170 St. Paul, MS Samblasianus 86, 278, 280 Stockholm, Kungliga Biblioteket [Sveriges Nationalbibliotek]: cod. Holm 22, 4o, 881–82; cod. Holm 23, 4o, 881–82 Tbilisi, Georgian Academy of Sciences, K. Kekelidze Institute of Manuscripts, MS A 288, 901 Toulouse, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 195, 117 Trento, Biblioteca communale, MS 1660 TC, 176 Valencia, Biblioteca universitaria, MS 837, 443 Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana: MS Ott. lat. 1915, 370; MS Pal. lat. 1631, 704–5; MS Pal. lat. 1632, 446; MS Pal. lat. 1695, 707, 711; MS Pal. lat. 1753, 480; MS Reg. lat. 1484, 644; MS Reg. lat. 1495, 176; MS Reg. lat. 1669, 246; MS Reg. lat. 1671, 175; MS Reg. lat. 1896B, 450; MS Reg. lat. 2090, 176; MS Vat. lat. 1512, 644; MS Vat. lat. 1577, 281, 282; MS Vat. lat. 1741, 917; MS Vat. lat. 2761, 443; MS Vat. lat. 2836, 522; MS Vat. lat. 3225, 433, 434, 435, 439; MS Vat. lat. 3867,

22, 434–35, 439, 461; MS Vat. lat. 10807, 117 Venice, Biblioteca nazionale Marciana, MS lat. xiii, 61 (4108), 817 Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS lat. 1625, 934 Virgilius Ambrosianus. See Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MS S.P. 10, 27 Virgilius Romanus. See Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. lat. 3867 Virgilius Vaticanus. See Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. lat. 3225 Vivian Bible. See Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 1 Wiltener Manuscript. See Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, cgm 5198 Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek: MS Gudianus Fol. 70, 242, 252, 256, 259; MS Gudianus latinus 66 (4370), 175, 176, 177; MS Helmst. 568, 455 Wroc™aw, Uniwersytet Wroc™awskiBiblioteka uniwersytecka, MS Rehd. 135, 176 Zagan, Klasztor Augustianów, Bibliotek, MS F.685, 903

TITLES AND INCIPITS Ab excessu divi Augusti (Tacitus), 59 Ab urbe condita (Livy), 750 Accessus, 711–17 ‘‘Accipe que peragenda prius.’’ See Aeneid VI.136 Achilleid (Statius), 56, 609, 707 Additamenta (Jerome), 72 ‘‘Ad Maronis mausoleum,’’ 413 Admonitio generalis, 701 Ad nationes (Tertullian), 522 Adversus Iovinianum (Jerome), 535 Aeneid (Virgil), xxxiv, xxxv, 1, 4–5, 12, MANUSCRIPTS INDEX

1035

Aeneid (Virgil) (continued ) 15–16, 22, 42, 50, 53, 56, 90, 93, 97, 105(103), 106, 128, 131–32, 146, 147, 179, 191–92(184), 192(184), 196(188), 201, 205(203), 216(212), 218(214), 223–24(221–22), 227(226), 230(229), 234–36(232– 33), 237, 240–41(238–39), 243, 245(244), 246, 247–48(246–47), 248, 250, 252(251–52), 255–56(253–54), 262–63(261), 273(271), 279– 80(278–79), 291–92(290–91), 299(294), 302(296), 303(298), 316(308), 359–61(348–49), 369(356), 391(378), 394(380), 396(382), 400(397), 420, 422, 424– 25, 427, 431–34, 439, 440, 441, 442– 45, 452, 459, 463, 465, 466, 469, 473, 480, 481, 486, 504, 511, 523, 540(539), 550, 576, 616–17, 625–26, 628, 630, 649–50, 660, 693(682), 704–5, 705, 715(713), 717(714), 717–18, 720–21(719–20), 721–22, 741(740), 743(741), 744, 750, 773– 74, 794, 817, 819(818), 825, 859, 904, 912(909), 912(910), 916(914), 917– 18, 921(920), 950, 991 Aeneid Book I, 37, 433, 440, 441, 442, 444, 644, 666(661); 1, 2, 15–16, 22– 25, 42, 43, 133, 164(163), 263(261), 286(283), 314(306), 394(381), 477, 482, 721(720), 723(722), 725(724); 1–2, 45; 1–3, 145, 174; 1–7, 76; 2, 45, 77, 112, 723(722); 3, 723(722), 725; 4, 723(722); 8, 263(261), 431, 721(720), 725; 12, 74, 263(261); 14, 724(723); 15, 725; 16–17, 249(248); 18, 724(723); 30, 724(723); 34, 721(720); 37–49, 75; 46–47, 91; 47, 632–33, 823; 52, 728, 739(738); 58– 59, 142(140); 65, 725; 76–77, 174; 81, 725; 94, 313(305), 464; 99, 145; 118, 91; 132, 479; 135, 43; 136, 479; 145, 726(725); 148–49, 656(652); 191, 174; 192, 43; 193, 813; 200–201, 77; 212, 78; 234, 43; 242, 43; 242–44, 1036

TITLES AND INCIPITS INDEX

113(112); 247, 112; 260, 477; 265, 829; 265–71, 718; 267, 338(326); 269, 338(326); 278, 829; 278–79, 82; 279– 85, 85; 284, 80; 292, 632, 822; 313, 433; 315, 473; 319, 473; 320, 174; 365, 477; 412, 728; 432–33, 916(914); 446, 728; 453–93, 802; 464, 667(661); 468, 43; 469, 43; 498–502, 69; 503, 473; 506, 473; 507–8, 802; 509, 479; 522– 58, 802; 534, 205(203), 240(238), 720(719); 535, 479; 561, 803; 562–78, 802; 587, 726(725); 588–93, 802; 594, 479; 607–9, 429; 633–42, 802; 644, 500(499); 650, 473; 693, 477; 694, 477; 719–22, 647; 740, 667(662) Aeneid Book II, 42, 173, 192(184), 433, 440; 1, 43, 729, 813; 14, 43; 20, 79; 21, 477; 24, 169; 27, 815; 42, 169; 42–50, 174; 44, 170; 46, 170; 47, 170; 50, 169; 64, 479; 69–72, 169, 175; 74, 169, 479; 116, 545; 148, 42, 43; 167, 479; 217, 479; 238, 433; 268–97, 898; 274–86, 171; 274–87, 175; 289, 171; 296–97, 822; 350–55, 645; 457, 473; 553, 29; 566–89, 205(204); 567–89, 287(283); 591, 473; 592, 473; 650, 479, 499, 500; 673–78, 176; 694, 81; 696, 81; 711, 59; 715, 78; 772, 526 Aeneid Book III, 173, 730; 1–3, 176; 44, 137; 56–57, 91; 97, 80; 203, 815; 239, 43; 240, 473; 274–75, 281; 301–5, 435; 340, 6, 194(185), 362(350); 349, 468; 461, 477; 483, 473; 518, 477; 570–77, 70; 590, 479; 608, 479; 658, 474; 700, 477; 718, 631, 817 Aeneid Book IV, 62, 192(184), 440, 513, 630, 731–33(730–31), 820; 1, 631; 3– 5, 803; 5, 631; 9, 44; 9–29, 803; 12– 13, 646; 25–26, 446; 33, 803; 34, 38; 38–39, 38; 39–44, 803; 55, 803; 68– 69, 803; 81, 631; 86–89, 803; 103, 635; 103–4, 804; 104, 635; 136, 473; 156, 338(326); 160–68, 635; 165, 804; 170–72, 803; 193, 804; 211, 477; 223, 43; 232, 477; 262, 636; 276–77, 647; 287, 476; 296–330, 176; 304, 168; 321,

168; 323, 165, 167; 330, 168; 368–78, 176; 379–80, 29; 408–12, 172; 413– 15, 172; 416–36, 172; 419, 79(78); 422, 171; 424–34, 171; 424–35, 172; 424–36, 176; 443–44, 527; 449, 527; 550–51, 47; 569–70, 525; 570, 477; 651–58, 171; 651–62, 177; 657, 97; 659, 171; 661–705, 44; 662, 171; 663, 171 Aeneid Book V, 441; 1, 38, 733–34(733); 1–6, 44; 42–603, 821; 71, 477; 74, 479; 114, 733–34(733); 304, 477; 320, 71; 362–484, 435; 389, 43; 521, 487; 523, 477; 566, 473; 567, 473; 700–718, 821; 709–10, 364(351–52); 746–61, 821; 801, 482 Aeneid Book VI, xxxiv, 192(184), 413, 440, 451, 464, 470, 543, 544; 1, 778(774), 780(776); 2, 781(777); 3, 781(777); 5, 781(777); 6, 734, 781(777); 8, 781(777); 9, 781(777); 10, 781(777); 11, 782(777); 12, 782(778); 13, 735–36(735), 782(778); 14–15, 69; 34, 735– 36(735); 42, 736; 119, 43, 504, 510, 784–86(782–84); 126, 122(117); 127, 547(546), 633–34; 128–29, 122(117); 131, 543–44; 136, 545, 546, 801(800), 809(807); 136–37, 547, 718, 789– 91(786–87); 136–44, 549(548); 137, 807; 138, 790–91(786–87); 139, 790(787), 808; 140–41, 808; 141, 477; 142, 790(787); 142–43, 808; 143, 790–91(786–87); 143–44, 810(808); 145, 791(788), 808; 145–46, 808; 146, 791(788), 811(809); 146–48, 808; 147, 791(788), 810(808); 149, 792(788–89); 150, 792–93(789); 151, 793(789); 152, 793(789); 153, 793(789); 154, 793(789); 162–79, 821; 164, 193(185), 361(349); 165, 193(185), 361(349); 177–83, 821; 208, 473; 210–11, 432; 217, 479; 223, 479; 236–94, 820; 255, 477; 264–67, 822–23; 267, 476; 268, 473; 282–84, 466; 295, 546; 314, 479; 327–28, 84;

365–66, 627; 395, 634; 406, 474, 726(725), 813; 439, 634(633); 455, 737; 457, 526(525); 469–70, 39; 477, 546; 494, 482; 552–54, 670(664); 562–65, 858; 596, 634; 624, 479; 638, 77, 477; 640, 464; 641, 464; 645–47, 504; 658, 477; 661–62, 81; 669, 829; 677, 477; 678, 477; 684–88, 132; 719– 21, 86, 166; 720–21, 671(665); 724, 116, 467; 724–25, 671(665); 726, 116; 726–27, 111; 730–34, 86; 735–42, 86; 760–66, 67; 766, 482; 808–12, 829; 823, 43, 139(138); 835, 132; 853, 85, 98(97), 143(141); 857–58, 829; 882– 83, 392(379), 829; 883, 341(329); 883–86, 317(309); 884, 192(184), 361(349); 893, 633 Aeneid Book VII, 434, 441; 1, 44; 2, 671(665); 41–45, 2; 44–45, 71; 53, 473; 66, 474, 479; 187–88, 68; 251, 473; 338, 82; 362, 474; 373, 45; 519, 479; 519–20, 63; 520, 479; 526, 224(221); 534–35, 177; 543, 482; 608, 477; 688, 433; 692, 477; 733, 2; 799, 635; 812, 473; 813, 473 Aeneid Book VIII, 441, 474; 26–28, 28(27); 77, 656(651); 97, 479; 98, 177; 148–49, 91; 193–267, 86; 302, 79; 319, 634–35; 319–25, 79; 322, 477; 322–23, 160; 324–27, 113; 378, 476; 403, 11; 404–6, 69; 406, 815; 560–67, 177; 598, 78; 642–43, 800(799); 646–48, 85; 672–73, 177; 677, 281; 681, 1001; 691–92, 28; 703, 85; 714–15, 177 Aeneid Book IX: 186, 477; 187, 477; 192, 479; 193, 479; 269, 44; 398, 473; 404, 44; 436, 39; 446, 477; 446–47, 2; 446– 49, 31, 58; 473, 45; 474–75, 77; 609– 10, 814; 772, 97; 777, 476, 477 Aeneid Book X, 440; 3–4, 739(738); 16, 473; 100, 82; 128, 28; 132, 473; 150, 479; 159–60, 80; 176, 477; 236, 338(326); 272, 71; 284, 32; 314, 67(66); 377–80, 177; 397, 479; 398, 479; 464–65, 86(85); 501, 479; 551, TITLES AND INCIPITS INDEX

1037

Aeneid Book X (continued ) 635; 588, 482; 699, 473; 717, 479; 788, 474; 793, 2; 818–22, 177; 861–64, 177; 892, 473 Aeneid Book XI, 440, 441; 5, 479; 37, 170; 41, 170; 42–58, 170, 178; 240, 479; 267, 477; 288–90, 28; 354, 477; 467–503, 178; 588, 781(777); 591, 477; 631, 473; 734, 477; 836–49, 86(85); 849, 477 Aeneid Book XII, 440; 1, 650–60; 65, 473; 66, 473; 94, 402(398); 107, 145; 165, 433; 167, 389(376); 168, 338(326), 360(348), 389(376); 312, 474; 462, 479; 728, 482; 748, 473–74; 844–67, 175; 910–11, 2; 920, 482; 945–46, 178; 948–49, 83; 950, 648 Aeneid Commentary of Mixed Type, 773– 93 Aeneidomastix (Carvilius Pictor), 194(186), 363(350), 363(351), 486 Aetna (pseudo-Virgil), 25–26, 191(183), 205(203), 234(231), 299(294), 387(374), 912(910), 991 Africa (Petrarch), 133 Agricola (Tacitus), 59 Alcesta, 471, 481 Alexanders Geesten (Maerlant), 129–30 Alexandreis (Walter of Châtillon), 114– 15, 130 ‘‘Alexis.’’ See Eclogues II Aliprandina, 990–1000 Alloquium ad regem Rogerium (Alexander of Telese), 921–23 Amores (Ovid), xxxv, 14, 15, 23, 889–90; 1.1, 23; 1.1.1, 15; 1.15.25–26, 14–15; 2.6.48, 482; 3.15.7, 15 Amorosa visione (Boccaccio), 536 Andria (Terence): 933, 813 Annales (Tacitus), 37, 59 ‘‘Anna soror ut quid mori,’’ 531–34 Anthologia Graeca, 435, 523 Anthologia Latina, 423–24 Anticlaudianus (Alan of Lille), 115–16, 304, 317(309) Apocalypsis Goliae, 830, 860–61, 861 1038

TITLES AND INCIPITS INDEX

Apologia (Apuleius): 10, 51, 65 Apophoreta (Martial), 48 Appendix Vergiliana, 6, 25–27 Arcaia memoros (Hesiod), 223(221) ‘‘Archicancellarie, vir discrete mentis’’ (Archpoet), 113–14 Argonautica (Apollonius of Rhodes), 56, 524, 631, 801(799) Argonautica (Valerius Flaccus), 56 Argumenta Aeneidis (pseudo-Ovid), 22 Argumenta in X Eglogas, 707–11 Argumentum Bernense. See Periochae Bernenses II ‘‘Arma virumque canit mira virtute potentem,’’ 68 ‘‘Arma virumque canit vates Iunonis ob iram,’’ 67 ‘‘Arma virumque cano.’’ See Aeneid I.1 Army of the Trees, The, 101–2 Ars amatoria (Ovid), xxxv, 14, 305; 3.337–38, 15; 3.338, 313(305); 3.403– 14, 315(307); 3.405–10, 922 Ars de nomine et verbo (Focas), 206 Ars grammatica (Diomedes), 813 Ars grammatica (Sacerdos), 813–14 Ars maior (Donatus), 181, 672 Ars minor (Donatus), 181, 672 Ars poetica (Gervase of Melkley), 412 Ars poetica (Horace), 7, 470; 53–55, 12; 137, 715(712); 139, 715(712–13); 162–63, 731(730); 164, 733(731); 394–96, 801(799) Ars praedicandi (Alan of Lille), 117 ‘‘At ne musa carens vitiis Eneydos esset,’’ 916(914) ‘‘Aurum in stercore quaero,’’ 90, 105(104) ‘‘aurum quo pretio reserantur limina Ditis’’ (Tiberianus), 546(545) Baena Songbook, 1000–1002 Batrachomyomachia, 55, 57(56) Battle of the Trees, The, 101–2 Bellum Catilinae (Sallust), 658(654), 805(802) Bellum Punicum (Naevius), 511

Bible —Apocalypse: 20.2–3, 896(895); 21.5, 772(760) —Apocalypse of Paul, 903(902) —1 Corinthians: 9.24, 124(118); 15.28, 127(121) —Daniel: 7.14, 765(754) —Ecclesiasticus: 26.2, 817 —Esther: 13.9, 320(311) —Exodus: 12.7, 127(121); 20.8, 866(863) —Galatians: 5.13, 744(741); 5.16, 743(741) —Genesis, 475; 1.1, 116; 3.6, 124(118); 3.9, 124(118); 32.24–25, 738(737) —Isaiah, 487, 799(796); 9.2, 124(119); 9.6, 867(864); 11.2, 763(753); 30.10, 867(864); 35.4, 766(757); 64.1, 772(760) —John: 1.1, 116; 4.35, 769(758); 10.30, 801(799); 14.28, 801(799) —Joshua: 8.18, 81 —Lamentations of Jeremiah, 904 —Luke: 2.52, 769(758); 6.36, 98; 10.30, 123–24(118); 10.42, 123(118); 21.18, 84; 24.31, 122 —Malachi: 4.2, 766(755) —Matthew: 2.12, 768(757); 5.7, 98; 7.16, 769(758); 8.11, 122; 8.12, 125(119); 12.29, 867(864); 13.8, 417; 13.43, 760; 20.30, 501(500); 27.52, 127(121) —Numbers: 14.31, 77 —Philippians: 2.7, 126(121); 2.8, 126(121) —Proverbs: 20.15, 809(807); 26.27, 838(847) —Psalms: 1.1, 123(118); 4.7, 127(121); 8.5, 124(119); 12, 891; 16.13, 124(119); 18.5, 769(757); 39.3, 124(118); 44.7, 765(754); 71.7, 766– 67(755–56); 76.11, 893(892); 77.39, 124(119); 85.13, 124(119); 93.10, 549(548); 95.11–13, 772(760); 110.10, 791(788); 136.1, 125(119); 138.11, 127(121)

—Romans: 7.24, 124(119); 9.16, 125(119) —2 Timothy: 4.3, 867(864) —Wisdom: 14.5, 770(759) Bobbio Epigrams. See Epigrammata Bobiensia Book of Taliesin, 101 Brevis expositio, 625, 642, 674 Bucolics. See Eclogues (Virgil) Bucolicum carmen (Petrarch): 1.12–13, 272(270); 10.295–300, 319(310) Cad Goddeu, 101–2 Cancionero de Baena, 1000–1002 Canzoniere (Petrarch), 132–33, 861 Carmen in honorem Hludowici Caesaris (Ermoldus Nigellus), 100–101 Carmen Nigelli Ermoldi exulis in honorem gloriosissimi Pippini regis, 101 Carmen saeculare (Horace), 7 Carmina (Alcuin), 98–100 Carmina (Catullus), 92 Carmina (Ennodius), 88, 89 Carmina (Horace), 7; 1.3.1–8, 9–10; 1.3.5–6, 234(231); 1.6.9–12, 106; 1.24.5–12, 10; 4.12.13–28, 10–11 Carmina (Propertius): 1.12.3, 334(323), 385(372); 2.34.59–80, 12– 13; 2.34.63, 23; 2.34.65–66, 5, 192(184), 341(328), 361(349), 392(378); 2.34.73, 51 Carmina (Sidonius): 4.1–8, 87–88; 9.217–19, 88; 9.217–20, 407; 23.145– 46, 88 Carmina (Venantius Fortunatus), 166– 67 Carmina Burana, 460, 528 Carmina ecclesiastica (Aldhelm), 92 Carmina minora (Claudian), 5, 86–87 ‘‘Carmina si fuerint te iudice digna favore’’ (pseudo-Virgil), 93 Catalepton (pseudo-Virgil), 6, 25–26, 62, 191(183), 205(203), 217(213), 299(294), 991 Catholichon. See Catalepton Catilina (Sallust): 9.5, 84 TITLES AND INCIPITS INDEX

1039

‘‘Cedite, Romani scriptores, cedite Grai.’’ See Carmina (Propertius): 2.34.65– 66 Cento nuptialis (Ausonius), 469, 472–75, 479, 813 Cento Tityri. See Versus ad gratiam Domini (Pomponius) Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi (Proba), 94, 469, 475–80, 499 ‘‘Cesar, tantus eras, quantus et orbis,’’ 1002 Chevalier de la charrette (Chrétien de Troyes), 128 Chronica Bohemorum (Cosmas of Prague), 454 Chronica sive historia de duabus civitatibus (Otto of Freising), 111–13 Chroniche de la inclita cità de Napule. See Cronaca di Partenope Chronicle of Naples. See Cronaca di Partenope Chronicle of the Slavs (Arnold of Lübeck), 848 Chronicon (Eusebius of Caesarea), 6, 72, 94(93), 180, 199, 241(238), 279(278), 290 Chronicon (Helinand of Froidmont), 827 Chronicon (Jerome), 199–201, 220, 290, 318(309), 396, 406 Chronique en bref (Jean d’Outremeuse), 955 Cilicae (pseudo-Virgil), 299(294), 387(374) Ciris (pseudo-Virgil), 26, 191(183), 205(203), 217(213) Cité des dames (Christine de Pizan), 146–47 City of God. See De civitate Dei (Augustine) Collatio laureationis (Petrarch), 63, 137– 39 Collectanea rerum memorabilium (Solinus), 481 Commentaria in Vergilium (Hyginus), 627 1040

TITLES AND INCIPITS INDEX

Commentarii Aeneidos (Cornutus), 628 Commentarii in Canticum canticorum (Neckam), 466 Commentarii in somnium Scipionis (Macrobius): 1.2, 737; 1.6.44, 313(305), 463–64, 637; 1.9.8, 464; 1.14.14, 111; 1.15.12, 464; 2.8.1, 313(305), 637 Commentarii rerum memorabilium (Piccolomini), 889 Commentarii Virgiliani (Donatus), 316(308); Epistula ad Munatium, 180, 182, 623, 643–44; introduction to commentary on Eclogues, 180, 182, 206, 623, 642, 644 Commentariorum in epistolam ad Galatas libri tres (Jerome), 199, 201–2 Commentariorum in Zachariam prophetam (Jerome), 199, 202 Commentarius in artem Donati (Servius), 629, 815 Commentarius in Michaeam Prophetam (Jerome), 524–25 Commentary on Martianus Capella ([pseudo-]Bernadus Silvestris), 727, 737–39 Commentum super sex libros Eneidos Virgilii ([pseudo-]Bernardus Silvestris), 465, 510–11, 544, 547–48, 721–22, 726–37 Compendiloquium (John of Wales), 912– 16 Compendium in Cantica canticorum (Alcuin), 98 Confessio amantis (Gower), 542 Confessions (Augustine), 73, 536(535); 1.13, 525–27; 1.13.20–21, 464; 1.14, 74; 1.17, 75 Conflictus veris et hiemis (pseudo-Virgil), 26 Contra academicos (Augustine), 86 Contra Faustum Manichaeum (Augustine), 73, 78 Contra Iulianum (Augustine), 83 Contra obtrectatores Vergilii (Asconius Pedianus), 627 Contra perfidiam Judaeorum (Peter of Blois), 454

Contra Rufinum (Jerome), 628 Contrasto delle donne (Pucci), 953–55 Controversiae (Seneca the Elder), 27, 27– 28, 314(306), 750, 912(910) Convivio (Dante), 130, 132, 820–21 Copa (pseudo-Virgil), 26, 205(203), 299(294), 336(324), 387(374), 917, 991 Coronation Oration (Petrarch). See Collatio laureationis (Petrarch) Correspondences (Avitus), 194(186) ‘‘Corydon.’’ See Eclogues VII Cosmographia (Bernardus Silvestris), 726 Cosmographia (Piccolomini), 888 Cronaca di Partenope, 409, 826, 945–55 Cronica di Mantova, 990–1000 Culex (pseudo-Virgil), 25–26, 27(26), 35(34), 53, 55, 57(56), 205(203), 234(231), 249, 314(306), 316(307), 336(324), 482, 485(483), 912(910), 991; 1–10, 26–27; 413–14, 191(183), 211(208), 217(213), 252(253), 299(294), 316(307–8), 359(347), 387(374) ‘‘Damon.’’ See Eclogues VIII ‘‘Daphnis.’’ See Eclogues V De aetatibus mundi et hominis (Fulgentius), 660 De alea, 471 De arboribus (Columella), 40–42 De arte memorandi. See Parisiana poetria de arte prosaica, metrica, et rhythmica (John of Garland) De bello civili (Lucan), 34–35, 57, 441, 609; 1.300, 170; 2.15, 79(78); 3.19, 696(685); 4.134, 334(323), 385(372); 6.507–830, 858; 8.746, 170 De bello Gallico (Caesar), 333(322), 386(373) De brevitate vitae (Seneca the Younger), 30 Decameron (Boccaccio), 418 De casibus virorum illustrium (Boccaccio), 536 ‘‘De catalogo grammaticorum.’’ See Epitomae (Virgilius Maro Grammaticus)

De centum metris (Servius), 629–30 deceyte of Women, The, 1023 De civitate Dei (Augustine), 73, 750; 1.praef., 85; 1.3, 74, 281, 314(306), 910(908); 1.6, 84–85, 98(97); 2.10, 82; 2.29, 82; 3.11, 85–86; 3.13, 82; 4.10, 823; 5.3, 274; 5.12, 82, 85; 5.19, 82; 8.18, 82; 9.4, 527; 10, 911(909); 10.1, 74; 10.27, 497–98; 14.3, 86; 14.5, 86; 15.19, 80–81; 18.23, 499, 762(752); 19.12, 86; 20.24, 81; 21.3, 86; 21.13, 86; 22.26, 86 Declamations. See Controversiae (Seneca the Elder); Suasoriae (Seneca the Elder) De claribus mulieribus (Boccaccio), 146, 536–38 De conceptu virginali (Anselm), 765(754) De consensu evangelistarum (Augustine), 82 De consolatione ad Polybium (Seneca the Younger), 31, 314(306) De consolatione philosophiae (Boethius), 502, 507–9, 542, 739(738), 750, 764(753) De cura pro mortuis gerenda (Augustine), 73, 84 De di√erentiis (Macrobius), 636 De doctrina Christiana (Augustine), 73, 76–77 De ecclesia (Mavortius), 475, 481 De est et non (pseudo-Virgil), 26, 336(324), 387(374) De excidio Troiae historia, 609, 617, 621, 729 De exhortatione castitatis (Tertullian), 522 De figuris sententiarum (Cornutus), 812 De gemellis (pseudo-Quintilian), 726 De genealogia deorum gentilium (Boccaccio), 418–19, 466–67, 536, 538–42, 859 De gestis Concilii Basiliensis commentariorum libri II (Piccolomini), 888 De grammaticis et rhetoribus (Suetonius), 30, 163; 16.3, 626–27; 20, 627; 24, 628 De institutione viri boni (pseudo-Virgil), 26, 336(324), 387(374) TITLES AND INCIPITS INDEX

1041

De laudibus divinae sapientiae (Neckam), 854 De laudibus sanctae crucis, 455, 456 De litteris, de syllabis, de metris (Terentianus Maurus), 401(398) ‘‘De locis in quibus artes floruerunt liberales.’’ See De naturis rerum (Neckam) De Ludo (pseudo-Virgil), 336(324), 387(374) De memorabilibus (Rodulfus Tortarius): 2.1.185–86, 407–8 De metris (Aldhelm), 92–93, 93–94 De metris Horatii (Servius), 630 De mirabilibus mundi. See Otia imperialia (Gervase of Tilbury) De monarchia (Dante), 503 De morte (Varius), 5 De mundi universitate (Bernardus Silvestris), 726 De musica (Augustine), 73; 2.2.2, 76; 3.2, 76; 3.2.3, 23; 4.16, 76; 4.16.31, 23; 5.3, 76; 5.3.3, 23; 5.9, 23, 76 De natura et origine animae (Augustine), 73, 75–76 De natura rerum (Thomas of Cantimpré), 129 De naturis rerum (Neckam), 275(274), 855–57, 869(868), 915(913), 920– 21(919–20), 983 De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii (Martianus Capella), 383(371), 430, 727, 737 De oratore (Cicero), 61 De ordine (Augustine), 73–74, 77 De otio (Seneca the Younger), 30 De panificio, 471 De paupere ingrato (Seneca the Elder), 727 De pedum regulis (Aldhelm), 92, 94–95 De planctu naturae (Alan of Lille), 115 De poetis (Suetonius), 13, 35(34), 179, 642 De praescriptione haereticorum (Tertullian), 471–72 De principibus Canusinis (Donizo), 107 1042

TITLES AND INCIPITS INDEX

De proprietatibus elementorum (pseudoAristotle), 905 De quodam stulto qui Vergilius dicebatur (Ennodius), 88 De rebus memoria dignis, 315(307) De rebus Rogerii Siciliae Regis (Alexander of Telese), 921–22 De rege et septem sapientibus. See Dolopathos (John of Alta Silva) De re publica (Cicero), 636 De rerum naturis (Rabanus), 315(307) De re rustica (Columella), xxxv, 40 Derivationes (Huguccio of Pisa), 771(760), 869–70, 915(913) De rosis nascentibus (pseudo-Virgil), 26, 336(324), 387(374) ‘‘Descriptio egredientis sponsae.’’ See Cento nuptialis (Ausonius) De scriptorbus illustribus (Polenton, first redaction), 91, 321–45, 345, 369 De scriptorbus illustribus (Polenton, second redaction), 91, 345, 369–96, 423 De secretis Virgilii (pseudo-Fulgentius), 905–7 ‘‘desierant latrare canes urbesque silebant’’ (Varro of Atax), 28(27) De temporibus (Bede), 312–13(304–5) ‘‘det mihi damoeta felicior quam phasiphae haec omnia,’’ 42 De topicis di√erentiis (Boethius), 715(712) De Trinitate (Augustine), 73, 80 De universo (Rabanus), 315(307) De utilitate credendi (Augustine), 628 De verbi incarnatione, 475, 481 De vetula (pseudo-Ovid), 765(755) De virginitate (Aldhelm), 92; 52, 95–96 De viris claris (Domenico di Bandino), 303–21, 317(308), 320(312) De viris illustribus (Suetonius), 163, 179 De vita Caesarum (Suetonius), 163, 333(322), 905 De vita et moribus philosophorum ([pseudo-]Walter Burley), 283, 919–21 De vulgari eloquentia (Dante), 861

Dialogi (Seneca the Younger): 8, 30; 10, 30; 10.9.2, 463; 11, 31 Dialogus de oratoribus (Tacitus), 59–60, 61; 12.6–13.3, 59, 162; 13, 467; 13.3, 5; 20, 467; 20.5, 60; 23.2, 60 Dialogus super auctores (Conrad of Hirsau), 739–44 ‘‘Dic mihi Damoeta: cuium pecus anne Latinum?’’ (Numitorius/Paro), 194(186), 363(351), 486(485) Dirae (pseudo-Virgil), 25, 191(183), 205(203), 217(213), 299(294), 991 Disputationes Camaldulenses (Landino), 793–811 Divina Commedia (Dante), 130, 448, 450, 859, 990 Divinae institutiones (Lactantius), 488– 91, 822 ‘‘divino ... carmine,’’ 306 Dolopathos (John of Alta Silva), 447, 827, 831–48 Donatus auctus, 90, 91, 181, 182, 293, 345–69, 423. See also Vita Suetonii vulgo Donatiana Dunciad (Pope), 469 Easy Is the Descent to Hell. See Facilis descensus Averni (Alan of Lille) Eclogues (Calpurnius Siculus), xxxv, 35 Eclogues (Virgil), xxxv, 12, 15, 62, 93, 105(103), 145, 146, 163, 164, 165, 179, 180, 191(183), 192(184), 196– 98(187–89), 200, 212, 216–20(212– 15), 223–25(221–22), 227(226), 230, 234–36(232–33), 240–41(237–39), 243, 245(244), 246, 247–48(246–47), 248, 252(251–52), 255–56(253–54), 258(257), 260, 262–63(261–62), 268–69(265–66), 275, 277(276), 280(279), 282(281), 291–92(290– 91), 299(294), 300(295), 303(298), 316(308), 317(309), 337–39(326– 27), 344(332), 359(347), 361(349), 366(353), 367–69(354–56), 389– 90(375–77), 393(380), 396(382), 396, 400–402(397–98), 427, 434, 436,

437–38, 440, 444, 452, 460, 469, 480, 481, 485, 616, 623, 624, 625, 630, 642, 650, 660, 669(663), 675, 700, 704, 714–15(712–13), 717(714), 717–18, 720(719), 721(719), 741(740), 742(740), 744, 750, 817, 825, 904, 912(910), 917, 921(920), 950, 991 Eclogues I, 3, 197(188), 277(276), 368(355), 435, 439, 480, 642, 709(707), 715(712), 824; 1, 194(186), 198(189), 198–99(189), 259(257), 363(350), 369(356), 401(398), 485, 632; 3, 401(398); 4, 632; 6, 249, 250, 400(397); 16, 477; 31, 476; 292, 632 Eclogues II, 3, 42, 197(189), 358(347), 368(355), 395(382), 435, 437, 709(708), 824; 1, 716(713); 6, 164(163); 15, 51; 21, 43; 23 [22], 487; 36–38, 242(249); 50, 771(759); 56, 43; 236, 268(265) Eclogues III, 3, 42, 197(189), 368(355), 435, 437, 710(708), 824; 1, 43, 194(186), 363(350), 716(713); 1–2, 485; 50–53, 30; 60, 710(708); 60–61, 164(163); 64–65, 69; 70–71, 242(249); 71, 669(662); 90, 115, 487, 698; 90–91, 237, 242(240), 742(740); 95, 301(296), 402(399); 105, 710(708) Eclogues IV, xxxiv, 101, 197(189), 368(355), 435, 437, 453, 455, 456, 469, 470, 487–88, 491, 501, 502, 660, 674, 676, 687–98(676–87), 698, 710(708), 751; 1, 197(188), 368(355), 492, 716(713), 761(751); 1–2, 502(501); 4, 492, 498(497), 499(498), 763(752), 911(909); 4–7, 502(501); 5–6, 492; 5-7, 503; 6, 503; 6–7, 500(499), 671(665); 7, 454, 492, 501(500), 765(754), 911(909); 8, 763(753), 766(755); 8–10, 493; 11, 488, 766(755); 13, 767(756); 13–14, 496, 497, 498, 498(497), 911(909); 15, 767(756); 15–16, 493; 17–20, 493; 18, 767(756); 19, 699; 21, TITLES AND INCIPITS INDEX

1043

Eclogues IV (continued ) 768(757); 21–22, 490(489), 493; 23– 25, 493; 26, 769(757); 26–27, 494; 28, 494, 699; 28–30, 490(489); 29, 494; 30, 494; 31, 770(758); 31–36, 495; 34, 699; 37, 495, 770(759); 38– 41, 490(489); 38–45, 495; 39, 174; 40, 699; 42, 699–700; 42–45, 490(489); 43–44, 641; 44, 700; 45, 700; 46, 771(760); 48, 772(760); 48– 59, 495; 50, 700; 53, 772(760); 60, 272(270), 773(761); 61, 496; 62, 272(270), 299(294); 62–63, 47; 81, 83 Eclogues V, 197(189), 368(355), 395(381), 435, 437, 710–11(708–9); 16, 39; 20, 183, 347(359); 40, 711(709); 56, 711(709); 72, 43; 84– 87, 3 Eclogues VI, 3, 198(189), 368(355), 435, 470; 1, 198(189), 337(326), 339(327), 369(356), 389(376), 390(377), 401(398), 402(399); 6–7, 267(264–65); 11, 165, 711(709); 23, 479; 31, 467(466); 54–58, 700–701, 702–4(701–2); 67, 306; 69–71, 242(249); 75–77, 67(66) Eclogues VII, 198(189), 368(355), 435, 711(709); 1, 711(709); 1–5, 174; 25– 26, 242(240); 44, 43; 46, 765(754); 47, 764(754) Eclogues VIII, 34, 198(189), 368(355), 437, 707, 711(709); 1, 299(294); 70, 43; 71, 96(95) Eclogues IX, 368(355), 642, 711(709); 1, 301(296), 711(709); 7–10, 47; 10, 3; 11–13, 402(399); 15, 3; 17, 301(296); 23–25, 69; 24–25, 642; 27, 643; 28, 110(108), 205(203), 234(232), 255(253), 258(256), 277(276), 300(295), 402(399), 716(713), 992; 29, 317(308); 41, 477; 42, 477; 47, 1001 Eclogues X, 437, 711(709); 1, 198(189), 369(356), 402(399), 711(709); 27, 474; 31, 632 1044

TITLES AND INCIPITS INDEX

‘‘Egloge prime titulus: Parthenias’’ (Petrarch), 145 Einsiedeln Eclogues, 35–36 Elegiae in Maecenatem (pseudo-Virgil), 26 Enchiridion (Augustine), 73; 2.8, 78–79; 3.11, 82–83; 5.17, 83; 13.44, 79 Eneit (Heinrich von Veldeke), 442, 461, 576–608 Enigmata (Aldhelm), 92 Epigrammata (pseudo-Virgil), 25 Epigrammata Bobiensia, 25(24), 522–24 Epigrams (Martial), 48–49; 1.19, 288(285), 307; 1.107.3–4, 49; 3.38.7– 10, 49; 4.14, 49–50; 5.5.7–8, 50; 5.16.11–12, 51; 7.29.7–8, 51–52; 7.63.5–6, 52; 8.18.5–8, 52; 8.55 (56), 52–53; 8.55 (56).5–6, 314(306); 8.55 (56).7–11, 314(306); 8.55 (56).19– 20, 314(306); 8.55 (56).23–24, 314(306); 8.56 (55).19, 23; 8.73, 53– 54; 10.21.3–4, 54; 11.48, 405; 11.50, 405; 11.50 (49), 405; 11.52.16–18, 54– 55; 12.3 (4).1–4, 55; 12.67, 55, 403, 404; 13, 48; 14, 48; 14.183, 55; 14.184, 55; 14.185, 55; 14.186, 23, 55–56; 14.195, 56 Epigrams (pseudo-Virgil), 205(203), 217(213), 359(347), 991 Epistles (Alcuin): 13, 96–97; 178, 85, 97– 98; 309.15, 99 Epistles (Augustine): 17.2, 79; 17.3, 79; 104.3.11, 496; 137.3.12, 496–97; 258.3, 498 Epistles (Horace), 7; 1.2.3, 732(731); 1.2.69–70, 281, 314(306); 1.20.11, 64; 2.1.117, 500(499); 2.1.245–47, 11; 2.1.267–70, 92; 2.2.186–88, (783) Epistles (Jerome): 21.13.9, 165; 53.7, 94, 499–500; 85.3, 7, 202; 107.12, 89–90 Epistles (Pliny the Younger), 62, 62–63, 403 Epistles (Seneca), 951 Epistles (Sidonius): 1.5.5, 87; 2.2.14, 87; 8.9.5, 87; 9.15.46–49, 88 Epistles (Symmachus), 522

Epistles (Virgilius Maro Grammaticus), 672 Epistula (Conrad of Querfurt), 848–51 Epistula ad Acircium (Aldhelm), 92 Epistula ad Barbatum Sulmonensem (Petrarch, 1343), 414 Epistula ad Barbatum Sulmonensem (Petrarch, 1350), 415 Epistula ad Franciscum (Boccaccio), 419– 20 Epistula ad Franciscum Petrarchum (Boccaccio), 419 Epistula ad Grimaldum abbatem (Ermenrich of Ellwangen), 102–5 Epistula ad Rainaldum de Libero Pago (Petrarch), 414–15 Epistula Conradi cancellarii (Conrad of Querfurt), 409 Epistulae ad Romanos inchoata expositio (Augustine), 498–99 Epistulae ex Ponto (Ovid), 14; 1.2.131, 22; 3.2.27–30, 317(308–9); 3.4.83– 86, 16; 4.3.13, 22 Epistulae morales (Seneca the Younger), 30, 70; 21.5, 30, 31; 57.1, 417; 58.5, 32; 58.20, 32, 427; 70.2, 30; 84.3, 30, 916(914); 86.15, 32; 86.15–16, 30; 92.9, 30; 94.28, 32; 95.68, 915– 16(914); 95.68–69, 30; 108, 463; 108.24–29, 33; 113.25, 23; 115.4–5, 30 Epistula Rustici ad Eucherium (Rusticus), 429 Epistula II ad eundem Pippinum (Ermoldus Nigellus), 101 Epithalamium Fridi (Luxorius), 471, 481 Epithalamium Lucani, 93 Epitomae (Virgilius Maro Grammaticus): 15, 672–74 Epitoma rei militaris (Vegetius), 502 Epitome bellorum omnium annorum DCC (Florus), 61 Epitome de Caesaribus (pseudo-Sextus Aurelius Victor), 388(375) Epodes (Horace), 7, 487

Erec et Enide (Chrétien de Troyes), 128– 29 ‘‘Ergone supremis potuit vox improba verbis,’’ 287–88(284–85), 362(350) Esposizioni sopra la Comedia di Dante (Boccaccio), 536 Etymologiarum libri (Isidore of Seville): 1.39.16, 401(398); 1.39.26, 475, 480, 911–12(909); 7.12.15, 315(307); 8.7.3, 315(307); 8.8, 753; 8.8.4, 752; 8.8.5, 762(752); 8.8.7, 762–63(752); 8.11.57, 766(755); 10.44, 91–92; 15.1.59, 332(322); 17.9.82, 768(757) Eunuchus (Terence): 2.3.11, 656(652) Europa, 471, 481 Experimentarius (Bernardus Silvestris), 726 Explanatio in Bucolica Vergilii (Philargyrius), 164, 212, 625, 641–42, 674, 698 Expositio Donati (Aelius Donatus), 182, 227–28, 252 Expositio Gudiana, 242, 252 Expositio in Matthaeum evangelistam (Christian of Stavelot), 500–501 Expositio Monacensis I, 203, 206, 229–30 Expositio Monacensis II, 203, 230–36 Expositio Monacensis III, 718 Expositio sermonum antiquorum (Fulgentius), 660 Expositio Servii. See Vita Servii Expositio Virgilianae continentiae (Fulgentius), 166, 626, 823–24; 86-87, 818; 86–107, 660–72 ‘‘Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede.’’ See under Eclogues X.1 ‘‘Fabula Orphei et Euridicis.’’ See Mitologiae (Fulgentius) Fabularius (Conrad of Mure), 269, 916– 18 Facilis descensus Averni (Alan of Lille), 116–28 Facta et dicta memorabilia (Valerius Maximus), 407 Fadet joglar (Guiraut de Calanson), 875–76 TITLES AND INCIPITS INDEX

1045

faictz merveilleux de Virgille, Les, 875, 1003–4 Fasti (Ovid), xxxv, 14; 3.353–54, 22; 3.545–60, 20–21; 3.601–18, 21–22 Fecunda ratis (Egbert of Liège), 24, 626 ‘‘Flete canes, si flere vacat’’ (Thierry of St. Trond), 481–85 Fleur des histoires (Mansel), 871 Florida (Apuleius), 65 Florilegium angelicum, 550 Florilegium Gallicum, 550 Fons memorabilium universi (Domenico di Bandino), 303–4 Fürstenbuch (Enikel), 926 ‘‘Gallus.’’ See Eclogues X Genethliacos (Ausonius), 404 Georgica spiritualia (John of Garland), 744 Georgics (Virgil), xxxiv, xxxv, 7, 12, 40– 41, 53, 54, 93, 105(103), 146, 163, 179, 192(184), 196(187), 205(203), 212, 216(212), 218–20(214–15), 220, 223–24(221–22), 227(226), 230, 234–36(232–33), 240–41(238–39), 243, 245(244), 246, 247–48(246–47), 248, 250, 252(251–52), 255–56(253– 54), 262–63(261–62), 276, 280(279), 291–92(290–91), 299(294), 300(295), 303(298), 316(308), 359(348), 361(349), 369(356), 391(377), 393(380), 396, 396(382), 400–402(397–98), 419, 433, 434, 440, 444, 452, 480, 504, 616, 625, 630, 642, 650, 660, 674, 675, 704, 715(713), 717(714), 720(719), 721(719), 741(740), 742(740), 744, 750, 817, 825, 904, 912(910), 917, 921(920), 946, 950, 956, 991, 994 Georgics Book I: 1, 224(221), 224(222); 5, 164(163); 31, 636; 85, 34; 125, 45; 127, 477; 128, 477; 153, 34; 163, 43; 168, 477; 193, 2; 197, 2; 210, 487; 299, 194(186), 363(350), 486; 351, 174; 387, 476; 391–92, 174; 395–96, 68 Georgics Book II, 42; 13, 814; 59, 32; 81, 477; 105–6, 72; 149, 477; 174–75, 1046

TITLES AND INCIPITS INDEX

224(221); 174–76, 40; 176, 242(249); 224–25, 68–69, 344(331), 395(381); 246–47, 426; 315, 477; 324–27, 822; 325–26, 822; 438–39, 68; 475–83, 313(305); 478, 464; 497, 82 Georgics Book III, 305, 435, 461, 474; 4– 5, 67(66); 10–12, 94, 95; 10–13, 240(238); 66–67, 30, 33, 463; 79–81, 916(914); 215, 473; 216, 477; 267, 473; 291–92, 138; 292–93, 95; 523, 479; 553, 477 Georgics Book IV, 3, 470; 3, 476; 18, 477; 100, 477; 101, 477; 109, 477; 125, 2; 147–48, 40; 220, 467; 328, 476; 453– 527, 503; 475–76, 477; 510, 503; 559– 66, 2–3; 563–66, 240(238); 565, 240(238), 339(327), 377; 565–66, 195(186), 219(215), 317(309), 366(353); 566, 198(189), 369(355), 402(399) Germania (Tacitus), 59 Gesta Romanorum, 827, 876; ‘‘On the Perfection of Life,’’ 862–67; ‘‘Salvation of Rome,’’ 867–69 Geste de Liège (Jean d’Outremeuse), 955 Glettudiktar, 881 Glossa ordinaria, 717 ‘‘Gnat.’’ See Culex (pseudo-Virgil) Golden Ass, The (Apuleius), 65 Good and Wise Man. See De institutione viri boni (pseudo-Virgil) Graecismus (Eberhard of Béthune), 744 Grammatica brevis (Negro), 167 Grammaticae Romanae fragmenta (Asconius Pedianus), 627 Greek Anthology, 435, 523 ‘‘Hanes Taliesin,’’ 102 Hauksbók, 617, 621 Hercules et Antaeus, 471, 481 Heroides (Ovid), xxxv, 14, 470, 511–22, 617, 889 Hippodamia, 471, 481 Histoire ancienne, 459 Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, 459 Histoire d’Énée, 439, 459, 460

Historia adversus paganos (Orosius), 609 Historia Augusta, 428, 829–30 Historia Bohemica (Piccolomini), 888 Historia calamitatum (Abelard), 501 Historia de duobus amantibus (Piccolomini), 889 Historia de Euryalo et Lucretia (Piccolomini), 889 Historiae (Ammianus Marcellinus), 71– 72; 15.9.1, 71; 17.4.5, 71; 19.9.7, 71; 31.4.6, 72 Historiae (Tacitus), 59 Historiae (Velleius Paterculus), 29 Historiae Carthaginensium, 935–37 Historia Francorum (Gregory of Tours), 90–91 Historia naturalis (Pliny the Elder), 318(309); praef. 22, 33; 3.18–19, 334(323); 7.72, 751; 7.114, 33, 422; 13.83, 33, 425; 14.7, 34; 14.18, 33–34; 18.300, 34; 22.160, 34; 28.19, 34 Historiarum libri quinque (Rodulfus Glaber), 895–96 Historie van Troyen (Maerlant), 130 ‘‘Hoc est musarum lumen per saecula clarum,’’ 318(309) Hohenlied (Bruno of Schönebeck), 412 ‘‘Hos ego versiculos feci,’’ xxx, 110– 11(109), 289(285), 301(295–96), 364(352), 387(374), 717(714), 993 House of Fame, The (Chaucer), 145–46 ‘‘Iam nova progenies.’’ See Eclogues IV.7 Idylls (Theocritus), 69 Iliad (Homer), xxxv, 13, 58, 64, 93, 315(307), 340(328), 392(378), 617, 705, 706 Ilias Latina (Baebius Italicus), 705–7 ‘‘Ille ego qui quondam gracili modulatus avena,’’ 22–25, 194(186), 205(203), 241(238), 249(248), 286(283), 319(311), 362–63(350), 394(381), 720(719), 817 Image du monde, 409, 412, 875, 876, 923– 26, 952

‘‘Imminutio.’’ See Cento nuptialis (Ausonius) Imtheachta Aeniasa. See Wanderings of Aeneas In Bucolica commentarii (Servius), 51, 165, 206, 248, 396, 630, 632, 816 Inferno (Dante), 130–31, 444, 449, 858; 1.67–87, 131; 1.70, 312(304); 1.70–71, 859; 1.79–80, 306; 1.83–84, 306; 4.100–102, 131; 5.61–62, 534; 5.85, 535; 20.113, 131 In Georgica commentarii (Servius), 396, 630, 814, 822 In honorem Hludowici Christianissimi Caesaris. See Carmen in honorem Hludowici Caesaris (Ermoldus Nigellus) Institutio de nomine et pronomine et verbo (Priscian), 649–50 Institutiones (Cassiodorus), 103; 1.1.8, 89–90; 2.praef. 4, 90; 2.3.15, 90 Institutiones grammaticae (Priscian), 23– 24, 625, 649–50 Institutio oratoria (Quintilian): 1.7.20, 46, 426; 1.8.5, 46; 8.3.24, 47; 8.3.47, 47, 811; 8.6.46–47, 3, 47; 9.2.64, 47; 9.3.8, 47–48; 10.1.85, 46; 10.1.85–86, 48; 10.1.88, 46; 10.1.93, 46; 10.3.8, 6, 48; 12.11.26–27, 46 Interpretationes Vergilianae (Donatus), 169, 181, 625, 644–49 Invectiva contra eum qui maledixit Italie (Petrarch), 145 In Vergilii Aeneidos commentarii (Servius), 165, 202, 248, 464–65, 468, 543– 44, 545–47, 630, 633–36, 780(776), 793(789), 800, 815, 817, 822 Ion (Plato), 797(795) ‘‘Itala praeclaros tellus alis alma poetas,’’ 452 Itinerarium, 417–18 Itinerarium Syriacum (Petrarch), 415–17 Iudicium Paridis (Mavortius), 481 ‘‘Iusserat haec rapidis aboleri carmine flammis,’’ 193(185), 227(226), 319(310), 362(350), 394(380), 423 TITLES AND INCIPITS INDEX

1047

Lament of Italy. See Planctus Italiae (Eustathius of Matera) Laus Pisonis, 36–37 Legend of Good Women (Chaucer), 542 Letters of Old Age. See Rerum senilium libri (Petrarch) Libellus (Alexander of Telese), 921–22 Libellus-Vita. See Vita Bernensis I Liber derivationum. See Derivationes (Huguccio of Pisa) Liber de spectaculis (Martial), 48, 506–7, 507 Liber in distinctionibus dictionum theologicalium (Alan of Lille), 340 Liber primus divinarum litterarum (Cassiodorus), 89 Liber quaestionum Hebraicarum in Genesim (Jerome), 72–73, 199, 201 Liber secundus saecularium litterarum (Cassiodorus), 89 Libro de buen amor (Ruiz), 878–79 Life of Virgil, 1003–23 Locutiones in Heptateuchum (Augustine), 73; 4.47, 77; 5.28, 80; 6.10, 81 Lydia (pseudo-Virgil), 25 Mabinogi, 101 ‘‘Maeonium quisquis Romanus nescit Homerum’’ (pseudo-Virgil), 289(285) Magna derivationes. See Derivationes (Huguccio of Pisa) ‘‘Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere,’’ 94(93), 179, 193(185), 201, 205(204), 218(214), 223(221), 227(226), 230(229), 241(239), 251, 260, 279(278), 291(290), 302(297), 318(309), 362(349), 393(380), 404, 406, 743(741), 910(908), 912(910), 916(914), 917, 950 ‘‘Mantua me genuit, Parthenope sepelit,’’ 408 ‘‘Mantua vae, miserae nimium vicina Cremonae.’’ See Eclogues IX.28 Marvels of Virgil, 934–35 Mathematicus (Bernardus Silvestris), 726 1048

TITLES AND INCIPITS INDEX

Medea (Hosidius), 471, 472 Medea (Ovid), 29(28), 60 ‘‘Me non Argolici docuit se virga Latini’’ (Fulbert of Chartres), 106–7 Messianic eclogue. See Eclogues IV Metamorphoses (Apuleius), 65 Metamorphoses (Ovid), xxxv, 14, 420–22, 470, 550; 8.1–10, 302; 10.8–10, 504; 10.17–63, 504; 10.78–85, 504–5; 10.86–739, 505; 11.1–43, 505; 11.44– 66, 505–6; 13.623–39, 16; 13.705–34, 16; 14.75–81, 16–17; 14.82–106, 17; 14.106–19, 17; 14.113–15, 432; 14.154–57, 17–18; 14.441–44, 17–18; 14.445–58, 18; 14.566–77, 19; 14.598– 608, 19–20 Mirabilia urbis Romae, 1002 Mirabilia Virgiliana, 934–35 Miraculorum libri VIII (Gregory of Tours), 91 Mitologiae (Fulgentius), 660; 2.1, 824; 3.10, 510 Modus Ottinc, 105–6 ‘‘Moeris.’’ See Eclogues IX ‘‘Monte sub hoc lapidum tegitur Ballista,’’ 110(108), 191(183), 204(203), 210(208), 217(213), 252(253), 288(285), 299(294), 316(308), 336(324), 359(347), 387(374), 403(399–400) Moretum (pseudo-Virgil), 26, 234(231), 299(294), 336(324), 387(374), 917 Mosella (Ausonius), 472 Myreur des histors (Jean d’Outremeuse), 955–88, 1002 Narcissus, 471, 481 Naturales quaestiones (Seneca the Younger), 30, 922 Naturen Bloeme, Der (Maerlant), 129 ‘‘Nocte pluit tota,’’ xxx, 107, 110(109), 289(285), 301(295), 364(351), 387(374), 716(713), 993 Noctes Atticae (Gellius), 65, 623; 1.21.1– 2, 425; 1.21.2, 627; 2.3.5, 425–26; 2.6.1, 628; 2.6.1–6, 65–67; 2.16, 67;

5.8.1–3, 68; 5.8.6–7, 68; 6.17.8–9, 68; 6.20.1, 628; 6.20.1–2, 68–69; 7.6, 69, 628; 9.9.4–17, 69; 9.10, 69, 812–13; 9.14.7, 426; 10.16, 627; 12.2.10, 70; 13.21.4, 426; 16.6.14, 627; 17.10.2–4, 70; 17.10.5–7, 424 Noirons li Arabis, 937–42 Novelliere (Sercambi), 879–81 ‘‘Nudus ara, sere nudus.’’ See Georgics I.299 Occupatio (Odo of Cluny), 894 ‘‘O decus, O Libye regnum,’’ 528–31 Odyssey (Homer), 69, 224, 541(539), 706, 819(818) ‘‘Olde Deceyte of Vergilius,’’ 871, 1023–24 ‘‘Omnipotens genitor tandem miseratus,’’ 481 ‘‘On Proper Love and Just Revenge’’ (Sercambi), 879–81 On the Church. See De ecclesia (Mavortius) On the Complaint of Nature. See De planctu naturae (Alan of Lille) On the Consolation of Philosophy. See De consolatione philosophiae (Boethius) On the Incarnation of the Word. See De verbi incarnatione On the Natures of Things. See De naturis rerum (Neckam) Oratio ad coetum sanctorum (Constantine I), 491–96 Ordo prophetarum, 454 Otia imperialia (Gervase of Tilbury), 304, 318(309), 319(311), 409–11, 851– 55, 947, 983 ‘‘Palaemon.’’ See Eclogues III Palatine Anthology, 523 ‘‘Pange lingua’’ (Venantius Fortunatus), 166 Paradiso (Dante), 130; 6.28–48, 132; 8.9, 535; 9.97–98, 535; 15.26, 132 Parisiana poetria de arte prosaica, metrica, et rhythmica (John of Garland), 624fig, 744–50

Parricida (Bernardus Silvestris), 726 Partitiones duodecim versuum Aeneidos principalium (Priscian), 248, 625, 649– 60, 700 Parzival (Wolfram von Eschenbach), 857 Passion of St. Pansophios of Alexandria, 206, 280, 901–3 ‘‘Pastor, arator, eques, pavi, sevi, superavi,’’ 904 Pedagogus (pseudo-Virgil), 93 Perceval (Chrétien de Troyes), 858, 859 Periochae Bernenses I, 236–37, 243 Periochae Bernenses II, 237–42, 243, 249, 250, 251 Periochae Gudianae, 242–43 Periochae Tegernseenses, 243–45 Periochae Vaticanae, 246–48, 278 Perlesvaus, 858 Phaedrus (Plato), 797(795) Pharsalia nostra. See De bello civili (Lucan) Philippics (Cicero), 702(701) Philomena (Chrétien de Troyes), 550 Phormio (Terence), 659(654) Physiologus, 192 Pinax Cebetis, 472 Planctus Italiae (Eustathius of Matera), 946 Ploughman’s Lunch. See Moretum (pseudo-Virgil) Policraticus (John of Salisbury): 1.4, 830–31; 2.15, 466; 2.23, 408; 4.4, 916(914); 6.22, 466; 8.24, 818–20; 8.25, 548–50 ‘‘Pollio.’’ See Eclogues IV Praeexercitamina (Priscian), 625–26 Priapea (pseudo-Virgil), 25–26, 191(183), 205(203), 217(213), 234(231), 299(294), 336(324), 387(374), 991 ‘‘Prima Syracusio dignata est ludere.’’ See Eclogues VI.1 Pro Archia (Cicero), 314(306), 314– 15(306), 798(796) Progne et Philomela, 471, 481 TITLES AND INCIPITS INDEX

1049

Punica (Silius Italicus): 8.591–94, 46 Purgatorio (Dante), 130, 470; 3.25–27, 131, 318(309), 411–12; 6.75, 875; 7.6, 412; 8.16–21, 314(306); 21.91–102, 131–32; 22.63–73, 503 Pythian Odes (Pindar): 1.21–26, 70 ‘‘quisquis es amissos hinc iam obliuiscere graios,’’ 42 Reinfried von Braunschweig, 988 Remedia amoris (Ovid), 14, 313(305); 367–68, 15; 395–96, 15 Renart le contrefait, 932, 942–45 Republic (Plato), 33; 4.42, 733 Rerum familiarium libri (Petrarch): 5.6, 136–37; 9.5.15, 144; 13.6.28–29, 144; 21.10.13, 413–14; 24.11, 133–36 Rerum gestarum libri. See Historiae (Ammianus Marcellinus) Rerum senilium libri (Petrarch), 139–44, 535–36 Res rustica. See De re rustica (Columella) ‘‘Rex domat hunc aequus Parthenopensis,’’ 947–48 Rhetorica ad Herennium (pseudoCicero), 747(746) Rijmbijbel (Maerlant), 129 Rime (Cino da Pistoia), 861 Rime sparse (Petrarch), 132 Roman de Cleomadés (Adenet le Roi), 932–34 Roman de Dolopathos. See Dolopathos (John of Alta Silva) Roman de la Rose (Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun), 502, 542, 922 Roman d’Énéas, 128, 439, 442, 461, 550–76 Roman de Renart, 942 Roman de Thèbes, 465–66, 550 Roman de Troie (Benoît de Sainte Maure), 130, 550 Roman de Vespasian, 937 Roman History (Dio Cassius), 3, 632 Romanorum historia. See Gesta Romanorum

1050

TITLES AND INCIPITS INDEX

Saga of the Troy-Men. See Trójumanna saga Saltatio (Lucian), 164 Satires (Horace), 7; 1.3.29–34, 7–8; 1.5.39–49, 8; 1.6.52–55, 9; 1.10.43, 5; 1.10.44–45, 9; 1.10.81–82, 25; 1.10.81–83, 9; 2.7.14, 484(482) Satires (Juvenal): 2.100, 402(398); 6.434–37, 63; 7.66–71, 63–64; 7.69, 234(231); 7.69–70, 315–16(307), 910(908); 7.225–27, 64; 8.221, 36; 11.8, 63; 11.63, 720(719); 11.179–81, 64–65; 11.180–81, 910(908) Satires (Persius): 1.96, 23; 5.34, 801(800); 5.35, 546(545), 801(800) Saturnalia (Macrobius), 61, 623; 1.2.15, 629; 1.16.12, 637; 1.24, 637; 1.24.5, 636; 1.24.6, 425; 1.24.7, 814; 1.24.8, 629; 1.24.8–11, 313–14(305); 1.24.10–12, 4; 1.24.13, 467; 1.24.14, 637; 1.24.16, 640; 1.24.17, 641; 1.24.18, 639; 1.24.19, 639; 1.24.21, 640; 3.1–6, 640; 3.1–12, 641; 3.2.7, 463; 3.7.1–2, 641; 3.11.9, 636; 4.2–6, 637; 5.1.7, 638; 5.1.18–20, 638–39; 5.2.1, 88, 332(321), 536(535), 623, 628, 636– 37, 859; 5.2.2, 640; 5.2–22, 639; 5.17.5, 164; 5.17.5–6, 524; 5.19.2, 544; 6.1.2–7, 382; 6.1–5, 639; 6.2.26, 82; 6.6.1, 629; 6.7.4–9, 66 Satyricon (Petronius), 991; 6–7, 37–38; 68, 38; 111–12, 38–39; 118, 39; 132, 39– 40 Scala coeli (Johannes Gobi Junior), 859 Schimpf und Ernst (Pauli), 871 Scholia Bernensia, 625, 642, 674–98 Scholia in Horatium (pseudo-Acron), 8 Secretum (Petrarch): 1.124, 144 ‘‘Sed legum est servanda fides,’’ 287(284), 362(350) Sermo de Trinitate (Alan of Lille), 116 Sermones (Augustine): 241, 165–66; 374.2, 83–84 Sermones (pseudo-Augustine), 453 Sermones thesauri novi quadragesimales (Petrus de Palude), 903

Sermon on the Trinity. See Sermo de Trinitate (Alan of Lille) ‘‘Servius altiloqui retegens archana Maronis,’’ 452 Servius auctus, 175, 225, 487, 625, 630, 642 Servius Danielis. See Servius auctus ‘‘Sic vos non vobis.’’ See ‘‘Hos ego versiculos feci’’ ‘‘Silenus.’’ See Eclogues VI Silvae (Statius): 1.praef., 56–57; 2.7.59, 504; 2.7.73–80, 57; 4.2.1–10, 57–58; 4.4.51–55, 405; 4.7.25–28, 58; 5.3.61– 63, 58; 5.5.38, 23 Somnium Scipionis (Cicero), 636 Sophologium (Jacques Legrand), 274 Speculum historiale (Vincent of Beauvais), 129, 907–12 Speculum maius (Vincent of Beauvais), 907, 912 Spieghel Historiael (Maerlant), 129 St. Servatius (Heinrich von Veldeke), 576 Suasoriae (Seneca the Elder), 27, 750; 1.12, 28; 2.20, 28; 3.4–7, 28–29; 4.5, 29; frag. 3, 29 Super mulierem fortem (Neckam), 816–17 Supplementum (Vegio), 1, 147–62 ‘‘Sus, iuvenis, serpens casum venere,’’ 288(285) Syrian Hostess. See Copa (pseudo-Virgil) ‘‘Talem dives arat Capua et vicina Vesevo.’’ See Georgics II.224 ‘‘Tale of Gwion Bach,’’ 102 ‘‘Tectum augustum ingens.’’ See De ecclesia (Mavortius) ‘‘Tempora mutantur, homines deteriorantur,’’ 865(862–63) Thebaid (Statius), 56, 57, 58, 441, 465, 550, 609; 10.445–48, 58–59; 12.816– 17, 59 Theologia Christiana (Abelard): 112, 111 Theologia ‘‘scholarium’’ (Abelard), 500– 501 Theseid (Theseus), 230(229) Thousand and One Nights, 932

Thyestes (Varius), 5, 60, 195(186), 341(329), 366(353) Titurel (Wolfram von Eschenbach), 857 ‘‘Tityre, si toga calda tibi est’’ (Numitorius/Paro), 194(186), 363(350), 485–86 ‘‘Tityre, te patulae cecini sub tegmine fagi.’’ See Georgics IV.566 ‘‘Tityre, tu patulae recubans sub fagi.’’ See Versus ad gratiam Domini (Pomponius) ‘‘Tityre, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine.’’ See Eclogues I.1 ‘‘Tityrus.’’ See Eclogues I Tityrus (Pomponius), 912 Tractatus super mulierem fortem (Neckam), 816–17 Tragoediae (Seneca the Younger), 750 Tria genera personarum et tria genera hominum. See Parisiana poetria de arte prosaica, metrica, et rhythmica (John of Garland) Trionfi (Petrarch), 453 Tristia (Ovid), 14, 889; 1.1.117–22, 420– 21; 1.7.15–26, 421; 1.7.35–40, 421–22; 2.63–64, 422; 2.533–38, 15–16, 62; 2.534, 23; 2.555–56, 422; 3.14.19–24, 422; 4.10.1, 22; 4.10.51, 16; 4.10.59– 60, 890 Troades (Seneca): 633, 314(306) Troica (Nero), 36 Troilus and Criseyde (Chaucer), 131, 542 Trójumanna saga, 616–22 ‘‘Turnus ut infractos adverso Marte Latinos.’’ See Aeneid XII.1 ‘‘Ultima Cumaei venit.’’ See Eclogues IV.4 Van de Vijf Vrouden (Maerlant), 129 ‘‘Varus.’’ See Eclogues VI Vergiliocento. See Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi (Proba) ‘‘Vergilius iacet hic, qui pascua versibus edit’’ (Eusthenius), 407 ‘‘Vergilius mihi nomen erat, quem Mantua felix’’ (Pompilianus), 407 TITLES AND INCIPITS INDEX

1051

Vergilius orator an poeta (Florus), 60–61 Versus ad gratiam Domini (Pomponius), 475, 480 ‘‘Vexilla regis’’ (Venantius Fortunatus), 166 Victorial (Díaz de Games), 1002–3 Virgilessrímur, 881–88 Virgilius, This book treath of the lyfe of Virgilius, 1003–4 Virgilius, Van zijn leuen, doot, ende vanden wonderlijcken wercken, 1003–4 Virgil’s Journey to the Magic Mountain, 988–90 Vision of St. Paul, 413 Vita Alcuini, 99–100, 891–93 Vita Augusti (Suetonius), 632 Vita Aurelianensis, 181, 248–49 Vita Bernensis I, 180, 249–50, 251, 396 Vita Bernensis II, 249, 250–51 Vita Bernensis III, 249, 251–52, 260, 263 Vita Caligulae (Suetonius), 428 Vita Donatiana. See Vita Suetonii vulgo Donatiana Vita Focae, 205–12, 225 Vita Gudiana I, 180, 202, 242, 246, 252– 56, 259, 278 Vita Gudiana II, 180, 220, 252, 256–59, 259 Vita Gudiana III, 180, 252, 259–60 Vita Hadriani, 829 Vita Laurentiana, 396–403 Vita Leidensis, 181, 260–63 Vita Mathildis (Donizo), 107, 107–11 Vita Monacensis I, 180–81, 206, 260, 263, 263–69 Vita Monacensis II, 180–81, 249, 269–73, 831 Vita Monacensis III, 180–81, 269, 274–75, 831 Vita Monacensis IV, 180–81, 275–77 Vita Montepessulana. See Vita Leidensis Vita Noricensis I, 103, 181, 278–80 Vita Noricensis II, 181, 280–81 Vita nuova (Dante), 418 Vita Parisina II, 181, 281, 876 Vita Pauli (Jerome), 499 1052

TITLES AND INCIPITS INDEX

Vita Philargyrii I, 91, 206, 212–20, 278 Vita Philargyrii II, 212, 220–25 Vita Probi, 10, 225–27, 260, 406, 423 Vita Sancti Hugonis (Hildebert of Lavardin), 897 Vita Sancti Odonis (John of Salerno), 893–95 Vita Sancti Popponis abbatis Stabulensis (Everhelm of Hautmont and Onulf), 896 Vita Servii, 202–5, 225, 229, 231, 248, 292 Vita Suetonii vulgo Donatiana, 92, 107, 163, 179–80, 181–99, 206, 212, 225, 227–28, 278, 292, 304, 345, 361, 623, 642, 644, 990; 9, 51; 15, 91; 19, 642; 26, 164; 36, 179, 406, 463; 38, 423; 39– 40, 424–25; 40, 202; 41–42, 6; 42, 22; 43, 363(351), 485; 43–45, 486; 44, 382; 46, 60; 47, 227–28; 50, 227–28; 57, 816; 67, 227–28. See also Donatus auctus Vita Tibulli (Marsus), 13–14 Vita Vaticana I, 281–82 Vita Vaticana II, 282–89 Vita Vergilii (Donatus). See Vita Suetonii vulgo Donatiana Vita Vergilii (Suetonius), 182, 199, 206, 227, 623, 642. See also Vita Suetonii vulgo Donatiana Vita Vossiana, 181, 278, 289–92 VSD. See Vita Suetonii vulgo Donatiana Waltharius, 704 Wanderings of Aeneas, 608–16 Wartburgkrieg, 988 Weltchronik (Enikel), 457, 926–32 Willehalm (Wolfram von Eschenbach), 857 Xenia (Martial), 48 Ystoria serenissimi Rogerii primi Regis Sicilie (Alexander of Telese), 921–23 Zabulons Buch, 988–89

NAMES AND SUBJECTS Abel, 940, 942 Abelard, Peter, 111, 501, 502 Abraham, 128(122) accessus ad auctores, 269, 705–6, 711, 718, 737, 739, 889, 912 Accius, Lucius, 32, 60, 63(62) Acestes, 821 Achaemenides, 667(662) Achates, 21, 142(140), 572, 611, 667(661), 735 Achilles, 56, 131, 428, 495, 559, 605, 612, 694(683), 770(759) Acircius, 92 Acron, pseudo-, 8 actio, 167 Actium, 5, 13(12), 262(261), 267(264), 281–82, 301(296), 360(348), 975 Actor, 402(398) Adalbert, 99–100(99) Adelphus, 146, 341(329), 475, 912(909) Ademar of Chabannes, 26 Adenet le Roi, 932 Admetus, 219(215), 236(233), 258(257), 367(354), 401(398), 715(712) Adomnán (abbot of Iona), 675, 698 Adrastus, 605 adulterous women, 828, 871–74, 969, 978–80, 1020–21, 1024 Aegon, 485–86 Aemilius Asper, 628 Aeneas, 13, 15, 17–21, 28, 37, 38, 58(57), 59, 75, 81, 81(80), 83–84, 88, 112–13, 129–30, 135(134), 136(134), 142–43(140–41), 145, 156–62(148– 55), 164, 166, 170–71, 173–76, 178, 237, 247(246), 263(261), 267(264), 268(265), 286(283), 302(296–97), 424(423), 431–32, 440–42, 446, 451, 459–60, 467, 470, 511–12, 512fig, 517–18(513), 521(517), 522–23, 526–27(525–26), 527, 530–31(529– 30), 534(532), 535–36, 537(536), 541–42(539), 542, 543fig, 544,

549(548), 551, 554–72, 554–76, 572– 76, 577–79, 581–98, 598–616, 618, 620–21, 631, 633, 636(635), 645, 646–47(646), 648, 649(648), 670(664), 707(706), 718, 720– 21(719–20), 723–24(722–23), 725– 29, 733, 735–37, 739(738), 774, 778– 82(774–78), 790–93(786–89), 801(799), 802(800), 804–7(802–4), 820–21, 875, 896, 901, 922, 994 Aeneas (son of Silvius Aeneas), 607 Aeneas (teacher of Virgilius Maro Grammaticus), 674(673) Aeneid: declaimed, recited, or sung, 167–69, 192–93(184–85), 339– 40(328); editing of, after Virgil’s death, 7, 22, 128–249(248), 194(185), 201, 205(203), 218(214), 234(232), 240(238), 255(253), 280(279), 286–87(283), 303(298), 319(310–11), 343(331), 361– 62(349–50), 394(380), 720(719); illuminated manuscripts, 434, 438–46; neumation of, 167–78, 243; reflecting course of human life, 666–67(660– 61); translations of, 147; verse summaries of, 67; Virgil’s wish for destruction of, xxxiii, 193(185), 205(203), 234(232), 240(238), 249(248), 255(253), 286(283), 287(283), 303(298), 319(310), 343(330), 361(349), 394(380), 420–25, 814, 916(914) Aeolus, 432, 585–86, 697(686), 728, 739(738), 792(788) aeschrologia, 813 Afer, Domitius, 48 Agamemnon, 36, 605, 609–10, 618 Agensi, 974–75. See also Virgil’s castle Agnelli, Lodovico, 445 Agnes of Loon, 577 Agorius Praetextatus, Vettius. See Praetextatus, Vettius Agorius Agricola, Gnaeus Iulius, 59 agricultural knowledge, Georgics as source of, 34(33), 40–42, 95, 223– NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

1053

agricultural knowledge (continued ) 24(221–22), 269(266–65), 742– 43(740–41) Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius, xxxiii, 12, 106, 194(186), 287(284), 363(351), 365(353), 486, 632 Ajax, 605, 750 Alan of Lille, 115–17, 304, 317(309), 340 Albane (Alba Longa), 607 Alberti, Leon Battista, 796 Albinus. See Alcuin Albumasar, 457 Albunea, 764(753) Alcibiades, 358(347), 395(382) Alcinous, 541(539) Alcuin, 85, 96–100, 644, 700, 814, 891– 93 Aldfrith (king of Northumbria), 92 Aldhelm of Malmesbury, 92–94, 107 Aldric, 99–100 Aleppo, 987 Alethius, 86 Alexander (pope), 946 Alexander II (pope), 411 Alexander III (pope), 953 Alexander (favorite of Virgil), 51–52, 65, 190(183), 216(213), 344(332), 358(347), 395(382), 710(708) Alexander (son of Herod), 983 Alexander (tutee of Aristotle), 874 Alexander Neckam. See Neckam, Alexander Alexander of Telese, 409, 826, 857, 921– 22 Alexander Severus (emperor of Rome), 829 Alexander the Great, 115, 428, 458, 609 Alexandria, 86, 252(251), 266(264) Alexis, 3, 13, 164(163), 236(233), 437; Alexander as, 51–52, 53(52), 54(53), 65, 190(183), 216(213), 316(307), 344(332), 358(347), 360(348), 368(355), 395(382), 709–10(708); Augustus as, 709–10(708) Alexius (pope), 946, 953 1054

NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

Alfenus Varus, Publius. See Varus, Publius Alfenus Alfonso, Juan, 1000 Aliprandi, Bonamente, 934, 990 Allecto, 63, 82, 105(104) allegory, xxxv, 3, 29–30, 47, 197, 228, 235(232), 259(257), 401(398), 493, 507, 510, 666(660–61), 671(665), 688(677), 693–94(683), 698(687), 709–10(708), 715–16(713), 729, 731(730), 736, 737, 738(737), 762(751), 793(789), 796–99(794– 96), 800–802(799–800), 818, 820, 859. See also commentaries; integumentum Alphesiboeus, 711(709) Althaea, 421 Amalthea, 764(753). See also Sibyl, Cumaean Amaryllis, 16 Amata, 143 Ammianus Marcellinus, 71–72 Amphiaraus, 556, 605 Amyntas, Cornificius Gallus as, 709(708) Anatolia, Saint, 95 Anchises, 17, 111, 131–32, 158(151), 521(516), 556, 578, 599, 603, 607–8, 610–11, 615–16, 670(665), 739(738), 779(775), 781(777), 792(788), 820 Ancyra, 764(753) Andarchius, 91 Andes, 190(182), 199, 216(213), 223(221), 241(239), 266–67(263– 64), 271(269), 279(278), 281(280), 291(290), 298(293), 312(304), 334(323), 356(345), 385(372), 400(397). See also Pietola (Mantua) Anna, 20–22, 171, 172, 446, 511, 521(517), 527, 530(529), 533– 34(531), 562–64, 569–72, 589–90, 596–98, 612–13, 615, 805–6(802–3) Annianus, 812 Anonymous of Ferrières, 99, 891 Anselm, Saint, 765(754) Anselm of Laon, 230, 717–18

Anser, 363(351) Antenor, 113(112), 333(322), 385(372), 605, 610, 723(722) Antheus, 611 Antioch, 71 Antipater, 981 Antoninus, 71 Antony, Lucius, 975 Antony, Mark, 110(108), 198(189), 200, 205(203), 224(222), 226, 250, 252(251), 255(253), 258(257), 262(260–61), 266–67(264), 273(271), 280(278–79), 281–82, 300(294–95), 301–2(296), 317(308), 336(325), 343(330), 363(351), 388(374), 492, 693(683), 694(683), 709(708), 711(709), 716(713), 918(917), 975, 984 Antwerp, 1003 Apollo, 3, 13, 54, 88(87), 105(104), 135(133), 196(187), 219(215), 236(233), 258(257), 367(354), 401(398), 437, 495, 510, 565, 668– 69(662–63), 689–90(678–79), 696(685), 711(709), 715(712), 763(753), 766(755), 773(761), 781(777), 785(783), 829, 905, 935, 936(935) Apollonio di Giovanni, 445, 453 Apollonius of Rhodes, 56, 524, 631(630), 801 apple, brass, 934, 962 apple, golden, 578, 869(868), 870, 915(913), 1003(1002) Apuleius, 51, 65 Apulia, 934–35 Aracoeli, 764(753) Arcadius (emperor of the East), 476 Archades, 267(265) Archpoet, 113 Archytas, Aulus Licinius, 314(306) Arethusa, 198(189), 369(356), 402(399) Arezzo, 132 argumenta, 707 Aricia, 789(786)

Aristaeus, 360(348), 467, 510, 784– 85(782–84) Aristo, Titius, 62 Aristotle, 396, 438, 453, 458–59, 797(794), 874, 882, 953, 1000 Aristotle, pseudo-, 905 arithmetic. See mathematics Arius. See Arrius Arnive (queen), 857 Arnold of Lübeck, 848 Arquà, 419 Arrio, Claudius. See Arrius Arrius, 111(109), 197(188), 277(276), 280(279), 282, 301(296), 359(348), 368(355), 388(375), 402(399), 711(709), 716(713), 992, 994 ars dictaminis, 726, 744 ars mathematica as source of Virgil’s power, 358(346), 855. See also astrology/astronomy ars notoria, 318(310), 409, 411(410) Artemius, Saint, 491 Arthur, 102 Ascalon, 459, 981 Ascanius (Iulus), 130, 157(150), 159(152), 176, 338(326), 389(376), 431, 519(514), 519–21(514), 521(516), 555–57, 583–84, 584, 610– 12, 821 Asconius Pedianus, Quintus, 190(183), 194–95(186), 363(351), 396(382) Ascra, 42(41), 218(214), 223(221), 241(239) Assaracus, 80 Astraea, 503 astrology/astronomy, 90–91, 272(270), 318(310), 411(410), 639–40, 765(754), 831, 840–43(833–36), 843(836), 859, 923, 954, 963, 985, 987, 991, 1001 Athamas, 605 Athena. See Pallas Athens, 234(231), 272(270), 299(294), 313(305), 393(379), 798(796), 992 Atlas, 160(153), 918 Atropos, 105(104), 772(760), 899(898) NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

1055

Atticus, Titus Pomponius, 623, 626 Attila the Hun, 333(322) augural law, 641 Augustalios, 901 Augustine, Saint, 1, 23, 73–86, 98(97), 144, 165–66, 274, 314(306), 453, 455, 496, 499, 527, 628, 741(740), 750, 762(752), 770(758), 823, 910(908), 911(909), 914(913) Augustus (emperor of Rome), 3, 4–7, 9, 11–12, 13(12), 14–15, 26–27, 59–60, 87, 101, 104(103), 106, 110–11(108– 9), 131, 136(135), 165, 191(183), 191–94(183–85), 196–97(188), 205(203), 211(208–9), 217–18(213– 14), 220(215), 223–25(221–22), 226–27(226), 229–30(229), 234– 35(232), 237, 240–41(238–39), 243, 247(246), 249–50, 252(251), 255– 56(253–54), 258(257), 260(259), 262–63(260–61), 266–68(264–65), 273(271), 277(276), 279–80(278– 79), 281(280), 282, 286–89(283–86), 291–92(290–91), 299–303(294–98), 313(305), 316–17(308), 317– 19(309–10), 319(310), 320(311), 336–37(325–26), 339–44(327–32), 357–62(346–50), 364–65(351–53), 367–68(354–55), 387–88(374–75), 390(376), 400–402(397–99), 412, 415, 418–19, 422–25, 471, 492, 502(501), 525, 542(540), 553, 623, 625–26, 632, 641, 645, 687(676), 687–91(677–81), 693(682), 694(683), 696(685), 709–10(708), 711(709), 716–17(713–14), 718, 720(719), 742–43(740–41), 764(753–54), 766–67(755–56), 792(788), 859, 890, 907(906), 910(908), 916(914), 917, 922–23, 946–47, 950, 952, 992, 994, 997, 1002 Aulne, 897 Aurelius Victor, Sextus, 388(375) Ausonius, 72, 404, 469, 471–72, 474, 813 automata. See statues and sculptures, marvelous 1056

NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

Auxerre, 674, 895 Avella, 948 Avernus, 116–17, 135(133), 414, 946 Avicenna, 764(753) Avienus, 66, 71, 629 Avitus, Quintus Octavius, 194(186), 363(351), 486 Aynata, 282(281). See also Magia; Maia; Polla Babel, 941 Babil, 941 Babylon, 714(712), 941 Bacchus, 41, 157(149) Bacillus, 364(351–52), 387(374). See also Cornificius Gallus Baebius Italicus, 705 Baevius, 237, 242(240) Baiae, 414, 850, 946, 950–51 Baldini, Baccio, 450 Ballista, 110(108–9), 191(183), 204(203), 210(208), 217(213), 252(253), 288(285), 299(294), 316(308), 336(324), 359(347), 387(374), 403(399–400) Baratella, Antonius, 383(370) Barbato da Sulmona, 414–15 Barili, Giovanni, 419, 859 barnacle geese, 983 Bartolinus de Vavassoribus, 773 Bartolomeo Sanvito, 444 Basel, 958 baths, therapeutic, 826, 850, 854, 911(908), 933, 950–51, 982 Baths of Zeuxippos, 435–36 Bavius, Marcus, 115, 200, 262(261), 292(290), 487, 742(740) Beauvais, 907 Bede, 92, 312–13(304–5) bees at Virgil’s birth, 206, 210(207), 903(902) Belial, 894 Bellerophon, 433 bells. See Salvation of Rome belltower, movable, 320(312), 910– 11(908), 921(920)

Belus, 611 Benali, Bernardo, 450 Benedict, Saint, 404–7 Benevento, 921 Benoît de Sainte-Maure, 130, 550 Bernard of Chartres, 726–27 Bernardus Silvestris, xxxiv, 443, 465, 544, 547, 626, 721–22, 726–27, 774, 794, 818 Beroe, 668(662) Bertrand of Metz, 831 Bible epics, 475 Bibulus, [Lucius Calpurnius], 287(284) Bibulus, [Marcus Calpurnius], 287(284) Bisquason, 968 boat, airborne, 996–97 Bobbio, 522 Boccaccio, Giovanni, 146–47, 418, 466, 536, 859, 861, 879 bocca della verità, 828, 871, 872–74, 978– 80, 1024 Boethius, 470, 502, 507, 715(712), 739(738), 750, 764(753), 1000 Bologna, 773, 869 Boniface, 110(108), 939 Boninis, Bonino de’, 450 Botticelli, Sandro, 450 Bran, 101 Brennus, 132 Brescia, 450 bridge, magic, 826; of air, 856(855–56), 1016–18; bronze or gold, 275(274), 915(913), 921(920); unsupported, 924, 943, 954, 976 Brindisi, 193(185), 201(200), 218(214), 223(221), 229, 241(239), 260(259), 291(290), 302(297), 318(309), 393(380), 406, 419, 743(741), 910(908), 950, 952, 999 Bronchus (king of Antioch), 956–57 bronze age, 688–89(678–79), 764(753) Brossano, Francesco da, 419 Brown, Virginia, 230, 707 Bruges, 445 Bruno of Schönebeck, 412

Brutus, 211(208), 224(222), 252(251), 262(260), 266(264), 300(294–95), 301(296), 383(370), 390(376), 969, 975–76 Bucephala, 484(483) bucolica, 219(215), 252, 255(254), 258– 59(257), 262(261), 366(353), 401(397) bucolic song, 195–99(187–89), 219(215), 366–67(354), 369(356), 401(398), 714–15(712), 742(740), 746(745), 816 Burley, (pseudo-)Walter, 293, 831, 919 butcher’s block, miraculous, 826, 850 Butours, Malatius, 968 cacemphaton, 813–15 cacosyntheton, 814 Cacus, 671(665) Caecilius, 12 Caecilius Epirota, Quintus, 623, 626–28 Caecina, 629, 639 Caelius Sedulius, 481 Caesar, Julius, 35(34), 93, 163, 196(188), 224(222), 236(233), 252(251), 258(257), 262(260), 266(264), 282, 299(294), 316(308), 333(322), 335–36(324–25), 338(327), 386(373), 400(397), 402(399), 553, 690–91(681), 694(683), 950, 956–58, 960, 964, 968–72, 975–76, 1003(1002) Caesar’s ashes, 320(312), 970, 1003(1002) Caesellius Vindex, 67 Caieta, 18, 671(665) Cain, 942 Calchas, 560, 619 Calder, George, 608 Cales, 11(10) Caligula (emperor of Rome), 428 Calliope, 57, 430–31, 495, 510, 696(685), 772(761), 785(783) Calpurnius Piso, Gaius, 36 Calpurnius Siculus, xxxv, 35 Calvus, Gaius Licinius, 383(370) NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

1057

Camilla, 178 Campaspe, 458, 874. See also Phyllis Candidus, Fannius, 287(284) candles, ever burning, 924, 954, 978 Caninus Rufus, 62 Canossa, 107, 110(108) cantari, 953 Capaneus, 605 Capella Nuova, Cathedral of Orvieto, 451 Capitoline Games, 60 Capri, 951 Capua, 417, 946 Capuana, castle of, 947 Capuana, Piazza di, 947 Carausius, 433 Carbonara game, 826, 945, 949 cardinal virtues, 733 Carineus, 669(663) Carinthia, 278, 280 Carminius, 815 Carolingian renaissance, 96 Carpentras, 132 Carthage, 20, 142(140), 511, 518(513), 522, 527(525), 530(528), 535–36, 538(537), 542(540), 551–57, 564–67, 569, 571, 579–80, 582–83, 610, 614, 648, 724(723), 728, 806(803–4), 935, 946, 1013 Carvilius Pictor, 194(186), 363(351), 486 Cassedrue, 961, 966–67, 974–75. See also Virgil’s castle Cassiodorus, 89–90, 103 Cassius, 211(208), 224(222), 252(251), 262(260), 266(264), 300–301(294– 96), 390(376), 969, 975–76 Castello dell’Uovo, 924, 932–33, 951– 53, 954, 976, 980, 987, 999, 1018–19. See also Castello di Mare Castello di Mare, 318(310), 411(410). See also Castello dell’Uovo Castellum-Vivarium, 89 Castle of the Egg. See Castello dell’Uovo Cato, 299(294), 334(323), 484(483), 1000 1058

NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

Catullus, Gaius Valerius, 15, 34, 49–50, 54, 56, 92 Catulus (nobleman), 300(295) Cavalchini da Villafranca, Rinaldo, 414 cave or tunnel, magic, 826, 854–55, 951. See also tunnel or conduit between Naples and Rome Caxton, William, 923 Cebes, 51, 190(183), 216(213), 316(307), 344(332), 358(347), 395(382) Cecrops, 798(796) Celaeno, 530(528) Celius, 710(708) Celsus, 811 cento and centoists, 146–47, 469, 471– 72, 475–76, 479–82, 500(499), 911– 12(909) Cerberus, 445, 509(508), 551, 604–5, 634, 669(664), 779(775) Cerealis, Flavius, 45 Cerialis, Julius, 54 Ceridwen, 102 Cestius, 28(27) chamber of grief, 906–7 chanson de geste, 955 charakteres. See speech or speaking, three styles of Charisius, 814 Charlemagne, 96–98, 436, 701, 704 Charles I (king of Anjou), 947 Charon, 84, 574–76, 602–3, 616, 669(663) Chartres, 106, 408, 726, 737 Charybdis. See Scylla Chaucer, Geo√rey, 131, 145, 511, 542 Chimaera, 433 Chiron, 826, 952 Chrétien de Troyes, 128–29, 528, 550, 857, 858 Christ, 72, 84, 102, 117, 126–28(120– 22), 223(221), 241(239), 277(276), 302(296), 343(330), 393(380), 414, 449, 453–55, 470, 476, 480, 487, 490(489), 491–95, 496, 497(496–97), 498(497), 498, 499(498), 500(499),

501, 502(501), 538, 676, 687– 89(677–79), 690–91(680–81), 693(682), 698(687), 762–70(752– 59), 772–73(760–61), 801(799), 894, 903(902), 911–12(909), 924, 926, 938–39, 981 Christian interpretation: Virgilian legends, 859, 862, 866–67(863–65), 869(868); Virgilian works, 437–38, 453–57, 487–88, 687–89(677–79), 691(681), 693(682), 698(687), 762– 72(751–61), 810–11(808–9) (see also cento and centoists) Christian of Stavelot, 500 Christine de Pizan, 146 Christodorus of Koptos, 435 Chromis, 711(709) cicada or cricket, copper, 826, 948 Cicala, castle of, 947 Cicero, 27, 33, 52, 60, 76(75), 88, 90, 91, 165, 314(306), 338–39(326–27), 360(348), 383–84(370–71), 389– 90(376–77), 396(382), 405, 414, 425, 426, 428, 430, 438, 465, 492, 623, 626, 630, 633, 636, 638, 649, 701, 702(701), 715(712), 747(746), 747, 796, 894, 912(910), 953, 956, 974, 976, 1000 Cimmeria, 763(753) Cinna, Gaius Helvius, 54 Cinna, Quintus Lucretius, 201(200), 218(214), 223(221), 241(239), 279(278), 343(330), 393(380), 406, 910(908) Cino da Pistoia, 861 Cione di Romeo da Magnale. See Zono de’ Magnalis circumstantiae, 181 Ciriagio, Gherardo del, 444 Cistercian order, 115 city in a glass bottle, 826, 849(848–49) Claudian, 5, 86 Claudius (emperor of Rome), 31, 829 Claudius (soldier), 359(348) Cledonius, 486 Cleomadés, 932

Cleopatra, 200, 223(221), 252(251), 262(260–61), 267(264), 281–82, 301(296), 984 Clio, 209(206), 431 Clitomachus, 500 Cloanthus, 611 Clodius, 267(265) Clodius Albinus (emperor of Rome), 829 Clotho, 105(104), 772(760) club of Hercules as metaphor for literary borrowing, 73(72), 92(91), 194– 95(186), 201, 218(214), 316(308), 342(330), 363(351), 396(382), 627, 911(909) club-swinging devil, 989–90 Cluny, 894, 895, 897 Cocceius Auctus, L., 415 Codecà, Matteo, 450 Codrus, Cornificius Gallus as, 242(240) Coelius, 750 coemptio, 635 Colchis, 694(683) Cologne, 113, 958 Colonna, Giovanni, 136 Colosseum, Rome, 48, 275(274), 506, 870, 915(913) Columba, Saint, 698 Columella, 40 column, Roman. See Caesar’s ashes; mirror(s), magic commentaries: allegorical, 470, 625–26, 630–36, 660, 721–22, 726–27, 751, 794, 815; literary-grammatical, 625– 26, 630, 644, 649–50, 655–60(651– 55), 750–51; marginal, 674; mixed type, 626, 773–74; paraphrase, 625, 644; pre-Servian, 626–28; types, 625– 26. See also glosses commonplaces, 90–91 Comparetti, Domenico, 826, 829, 922 compendium of knowledge, 924 compilator, 92(91) Conrad of Hirsau, 278, 739 Conrad of Mure, 269, 916–17 Conrad of Querfurt, 409, 417, 825–27, 830, 848, 857, 861 NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

1059

Constantine II (emperor), 475 Constantine (good knight), 987 Constantine the Great, 435, 453, 470, 488, 491 Constantinople, 435, 625, 649, 975 controversia, 726–27 Córdoba (Corduba), 27, 57 Corinna, 54, 65, 484(483), 890 Cornelius, 211(208) Cornificius, Quintus, 267(265), 292(290), 345, 363–64(351–52), 709–10(708), 716–17(714) Cornificius Gallus, 242(240), 262(261), 300–301(295–96), 486–87 Cornutus, Lucius Annaeus, 65, 66, 544, 627–28, 812–13 Corydon, 13, 35, 236(233), 435, 437, 746; Calpurnius Siculus as, xxxv; Virgil as, 3, 65, 709(708) Cosenza, 445 Cosmas of Prague, 454 Crassus, Marcus Licinius, 190(182), 199, 210, 216(212), 223(221), 250, 258(256), 266(263), 271(269), 273(271), 279(278), 281(280), 282(281), 291(290), 298(293), 301(296), 312(304), 334–35(323– 24), 356(345), 384(371), 386(373), 400(396) Craugarius, 71 Creation, 461–62, 475, 765(754), 937, 938–41 Cremona, 46, 53(52), 110(108), 190(182), 196–97(188), 200, 204– 5(203), 211(208), 216–17(213–14), 225(222), 229, 234(231–32), 255(253), 258(257), 260(259), 267(264), 272(270), 277(276), 279– 80(278–79), 282, 291–92(290), 299– 300(294–95), 313–14(305–6), 317(308), 335(324), 339(327), 357(346), 367–68(355), 386(373), 388–89(374–76), 400(397), 402(399), 716(713), 773, 920(919), 991 Cretheus, 477 1060

NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

Creusa, 527(526), 561–62, 618 Crispus, 488 cuckoldry, 872–74 Cumae, 240(237), 263(262), 268(265), 291(290), 599, 762(752), 781(777), 829, 946, 950 Cupid, 431, 556–58, 577, 583–84, 588, 597, 611–12, 646–47(646), 667(662) Curiatius Maternus, 59 Cyclopes, 530(528), 667–68(662) Cyme, 688(678) Cynthia (addressee of Propertius), 54, 385(372) Cyrene, 467 Cyrus, 764(753) Cythera, 162(154), 519(514) Cytheris, Volumnia, 165, 198(189), 360(348), 711(709) Dafydd ap Gwilim, 102 D’Alverny, M. T., 117 Damme, 129 Damoetas, 30, 437, 485, 486(485); Theocritus as, 709(708); Virgil as, 710(708) Damon, 437, 711(709) Daniel, 764(753) Daniel, Pierre, 625 Dante Alighieri, 130–32, 312(304), 318(309), 411, 418, 444, 448–51, 470, 534–35, 536, 793, 820, 859, 953, 955, 990, 1000–1001 Daphnis, 13, 196(187), 219(215), 437; Caesar as, 710(708); Flaccus as, 191(183), 217(213), 359(347), 395(381) Dardanus, 160(153), 521(516), 577 Dares (competitor with Entellus), 435, 668(662) Dares of Phrygia, 550, 576, 609, 617–18, 621, 729 Darius, 553 Daunus, 156(148), 159(152) David, 454–55, 772(760), 799(796), 903(902), 938 Decii, 132

Decius (emperor), 901, 908 declamatio, 726 Deiphobus, 670(664) Delilah, 459 Democritus, 809(808) demon(s) in a bottle, 927, 988–89. See also spirit(s), imprisoned Demosthenes, 90 devil, tricked by Virgil, 1007 dialectic, 96, 103, 736(735) Diana, 195–96(187), 219(215), 235– 36(233), 258(257), 366–67(354), 401(397–98), 403, 545, 565, 592, 606, 676, 689–90(679), 714–15(712), 766(755), 782(778), 789(786) Díaz de Games, Gutierrez, 1002 Dictys of Crete, 550, 576 Dido, xxxiv, 16–17(15–16), 20, 47, 58(57), 59, 63, 88, 129, 133, 145, 164, 171–72, 176–77, 431, 440, 443, 446, 459–60, 470, 511, 512fig, 517– 22(512–17), 522–24, 526(525), 527, 530(528), 534(533), 534–36, 537– 38(536–37), 540–42(538–40), 544, 551–58, 562–72, 579–84, 587–98, 610–15, 636(635), 647, 670(664), 718, 720(719), 726(725), 728–29, 731–33(730–31), 737, 804–7(802– 4), 820, 875, 889 Dijon, 895 Dio Cassius, 3, 632 Diocletian (emperor of Rome), 488 Diogenes, 438 Diomede, 18, 612 Diomedes, 813, 814 Doesborch, Jan van, 1003, 1023 dolce stil novo, 861 Dolopathos, 827, 831, 843(836), 845(838), 846, 848(847) Dolsida, 981 Domenico di Bandino, 303–4, 412, 423, 922 Domitian (emperor of Rome), 53(52), 60, 163 Donatianus, Tiberius Claudius Maximus, 644

Donatus (of Troy), 673(672) Donatus, Aelius, xxxiii, 6, 22, 25, 70, 72, 92, 163, 164, 179–82, 199, 206, 227– 28, 273(271), 278, 304(312), 312(304), 316–19(308–10), 389(376), 401(398), 423, 424, 463, 623, 625, 630, 642, 672, 744, 814, 816, 917 Donatus, Tiberius Claudius, 169, 181, 625, 644 Donizo, 107 Douglas, Gavin, 145, 147 dream of Virgil’s mother, 190(182), 210(207), 241(238), 266(263), 271– 72(269–70), 275(274), 279(278), 282(281), 291(290), 298(293), 312(304), 335(323), 356(345), 384(371), 400(397), 402(399), 721(719), 774, 918, 991 Dronke, Peter, 528 Druthmar. See Christian of Stavelot Dymas, 58 Eberhard of Béthune, 744 Echternach, 169, 174–77 Edict of Milan, 491 Edward II (king of England), 750 Edward III (king of England), 919 Egarine, 941 Egbert of Liège, 24, 626 Egeus, 993 egloga, 235(232), 252, 259(257), 262(261), 268(265) Electra, 160(153) Elissa, 21(20), 22(21), 511, 520(515), 521(517), 536. See also Dido Ellwangen, 102 Elysium, 17, 161(154), 670(664) Emmaus, 127–28(122) Encolpius, 37–39 Endis. See Andes Eneapolis, 830. See also Naples Eneas. See Aeneas Eneas (king of Denmark), 957 Enikel, Jans, 457, 827, 926–27 Ennius, Quintus, 32, 57, 63(62), 70, 90, NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

1061

Ennius, Quintus (continued ) 103, 105(104), 315(306–7), 364(352), 430, 798(796) Ennodius, 88 ensenhamen, 875 Entellus, 435, 668(662) Enye, 966, 971–73 Ephesus, 38 epicedium, 710(708) Epicureanism, 225, 227(226), 345, 365(353), 671(665) Epicurus, 31, 773(761) Epidius, Marcus, 249–50, 273(271), 282(281–82), 400(397), 918(917) Ercolano, 946 Erebus, 446 Erichtho, 858 Eriton. See Erichtho Ermenrich of Ellwangen, 90, 102–3 Ermoldus Nigellus, 100–101 Eros (Virgil’s freedman), 193(184), 361(349) Ervis, 1000 Euclid, 953, 1000 Euganea, 333(322) euhemerism, 634–35 Eumolpus, 38 Euripides, 56, 363(351), 395(381) Europa, 433 Eurus, 518(513) Euryalus, 31, 58–59, 889 Eurydice, 503–7, 509(508), 510, 696(685), 782–86, 901 Eusebius (rhetorician), 61, 637–38 Eusebius of Caesarea, 6, 72, 94(93), 180, 199–201, 241(238), 279(278), 290, 313(305), 491, 718 Eustathius (of Cappadocia), 637, 639– 40 Eustathius of Matera, 946 Eusthenius, 407 Eustochium, 894 Evander, 18, 79, 157(149), 177, 671(665) Evangelus, 313(305), 425, 640, 814 Everhelm of Hautmont, 896 1062

NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

exegesis: biblical, 80–81; lexical, 77–80, 630; theological, 82–83 exempla, 542, 903 expositio, 183, 202, 227, 231 Ezekiel, 455 Fabii, 132 fabula, 774 Fall of Man, 123–24(117–18), 126– 27(121–22) Fama, 613–14 Faunus, 18, 635 Faustus, Perellius, 194(186), 363(351), 382, 486, 627 Favorinus, 70 Federigo da Montefeltro, 796(794) Federigo of Arezzo, 139, 535 Felix, 91 Ferrara, 869 Ferrières, 99, 891 fetishes and figurines, animal. See cicada or cricket, copper; fly, brass, bronze, copper, or gold; fly in a glass, enchanted; leech, gold Figulus, 234(231), 254(253), 271– 72(269–70), 282(281), 298(293), 312(304), 991. See also Istimicon; Maro; Publius; Stimichon; Vergilius (Virgil’s father); Virgilius (Virgil’s father) figura, 738(737) figura etymologica, 107 Filargirius. See Philargyrius, Iunius Filius, Virgil as, 874 Filomeno, 952 Fiorent, 939 Firmianus, Lucius Caelius. See Lactantius fish, plentiful, 826, 875–76, 949 Flabellum of Tournus, 436–38 Flaccianus, 935 Flacc(i)ensius, 935 Flaccus (Virgil’s brother), 191(183), 217(213), 343(331), 359(347), 394– 95(381) Flaccus, Quintus Horatius. See Horace

Flagrius, Junilius, 675 Flavianus, 935 Flavianus, Virius Nicomachus, 637, 641 Fleury, 175, 674 Florence, 130, 450–51, 953 Florent, 960 Florien, 942 florilegium, 550 Florus, Annius, 61 Florus, Lucius Annaeus, 61, 339(327), 946 Florus, Publius Annius, 60–61 fly of brass, bronze, copper, or gold. See under statues and sculptures, marvelous fly in a glass, enchanted, 999 Focas, 180–81, 206, 209(206) Focus, 862, 865–67(862–64) Forcella, Naples, 950 Foregrotta, Naples, 951 Fortuna Primigenia, temple of, 829 Fortunatus, Venantius, 166 fountain of oil, 999 fourfold properties, marvelous objects with, 905–7, 933–34, 949, 963, 1003, 1018 Frampton Mosaic, 432, 433 Franks, 90 Frederick I Barbarossa (Holy Roman emperor), 111, 113–14 Frederick II (Holy Roman emperor), 447, 927 Freiburg im Breisgau, 459 Freising, 111 French translations, 831, 851 Friedrich, Count Palatine, 577 Fronto, 638 Frosse, 975 Fulbert of Chartres, 106 Fulgentius, Fabius Planciades, xxxiv, 166, 302(296), 507, 510, 626, 660, 794, 818, 823–24, 904 Fulgentius, pseudo-, 904–6 Fulgentius of Ruspe, 660 Furius Albinus, 639

Furnius, Gaius, 287(284) Fuscus, 9 Gaieta, 946 Galaesus, 13 Galant, 971 Galatea, 53 Galen, 438 Gallia Lugdunensis, 333(322) Gallio, 29(28) Gallus, Gaius Asinius, 360(348), 488 Gallus, Gaius Cornelius, 12, 54, 71, 105(103), 191(183), 197(188), 198(189), 200, 218(214), 224– 25(222), 227(226), 242(240), 252(251), 262(261), 267(264), 280(279), 292(290), 300(295), 317(308), 337(325), 359(347), 363(351), 369(355), 388(375), 400(397), 437, 632, 642, 711(709) Gallus, Titus, 675 garden, marvelous, 273(271), 320(311), 826, 853(852), 911(908), 915(913), 921(919), 924, 948–49, 954, 1024. See also orchard, marvelous Gaspare da Padua, 445 gate, magic, 826, 852; Dominican Gate, Naples, 320(311); Iron Gate, Naples, 850; Lord’s Gate, Naples, 852; marble heads, 320(311), 852, 860, 949; Porta Nolana, Naples, 860, 949, 950; Virgil’s castle, 1021 Gaudentius, 675 Gawain, 458 Geda, 956–57 Gellius, Aulus, xxxvi, 1, 65–70, 422, 426, 623, 627–28, 812 genethliacon, 710(708), 761(751) georgica, 262(261), 268(265) Gerard of Cremona, 905 Gervase (pope), 945, 953 Gervase of Melkley, 412 Gervase of Tilbury, 91, 304, 318(309), 417, 825–27, 830, 851, 861, 945, 947, 983 Gerward, 705 NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

1063

Ghibellines, 132 Giovanni Alighieri, 441 Giton, 991 Glaber, Rodulfus. See Rodulfus Glaber glosses: accent or scansion marks, 169, 174; Carolingian, 674–76, 704–5; construe marks, 168–69, 174; distinguished from commentaries, 722; lexical, 170, 676, 698; manicula, 171–72; neumatic notation, 167–73; Old High German, 168, 170, 650, 705; Old Irish, 642, 675, 698–700; syntactical, 169–70; Tironian notes, 168, 701, 705. See also commentaries Glycerium, 236(233) golden age, 79, 113(112), 113, 196(187), 490(489), 502–3, 687– 90(677–79), 764(753–54), 816 golden bough, 432, 470, 543fig, 544, 545–46(545), 547–48(547), 549(548–49), 551, 573, 575, 600–601, 603, 607, 615–16, 669(663), 726(725), 786–93, 809–11(807–9) Golias, Bishop, 860 Good Knight, 858 Gorgile (king of Bogie), 956–57, 987 Gossouin de Metz, 923 Gottfried von Strassburg, 576 Gower, John, 542 Gozzo (monk of Stavelot), 896 Gracchus, Gaius Sempronius, 425 Gracchus, Tiberius, 425 Gradans (king of Chaldea), 969 gra≈ti, Pompeian, 42–45 Grail legend, 858 grammar, 23–24, 96, 103, 181, 623, 625– 26, 637, 642, 649–50, 655–60(651– 55), 673, 736(735), 744, 773–74, 840(833). See also commentaries Grave, Salverda de, 551 Gregory, 956 Gregory of Tours, 90 gri≈ns, 989 Grimald (abbot of St. Gall), 102 Guelphs, 132 Guido da Pisa, 448 1064

NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

Guillaume de Lorris, 502 Guiraut de Calanson, 875 Gwydion, 101 Gyas, 611 Habakkuk, 455 Habinnas, 38 Hadrian (emperor of Rome), 61, 162, 879 Hadrian’s Wall, 44 Hadrumentum Mosaic, 431 Halberstadt, 438 Hannibal, 50, 935–36, 960 Hariolf of Langres, 102 Hartbert, 848 Haukr Erlendsson, 617 Hauksbók, 617, 621 Hautseille (Alta Silva), 831 heads, four dead, 826, 949 Hebrus, 506(505) Hecate, 404 Hector, 28, 145, 160(153), 175, 520(516), 558, 605, 612, 750, 821, 898 Hecuba, 583 Heidelberg, 705 Heinrich von Mügeln, 988 Heinrich von Veldeke, 438–39, 442, 461, 576–77 Helain, 971 Helen, 112, 473, 530(529), 561, 577, 578, 588, 611, 707(706), 743(741) Helia, 288(285) Helinand of Froidmont, 319(311), 827, 831, 1002 hell, Christian, 117, 124–26(118–20), 726(725), 897–900, 938–42, 964, 982, 985, 1001 Heloise, 501–2 Henry III (Holy Roman emperor), 1002 Henry VI (Holy Roman emperor), 848 Henry III of Castile, 1000 Henry II Pantagenet, 851 Heraclitus, 823 Herbert, 831 Herculaneum papyri, 8 Hercules, 451, 453, 573, 575, 634,

671(665), 697–98(686–87), 720(719), 779(775), 793(789) Herennius, 194(186), 363(351), 382, 486 Hermann, Landgrave of Thuringia, 577 Herod, 476, 768(756–57), 969, 976, 981, 983–85 Herod Agrippa, 984 Herod Antipas, 984 Herophila, 762–63(752–53) Hesiod, 13, 40, 94–95, 105(103), 216(212), 218(214), 223–24(221), 227(226), 241–42(239), 243, 252, 255(253), 262(261), 268(265), 292(291), 316(308), 339(327), 391(377), 430, 688(678), 721(719) Hieria, Plotia, 190(183), 358(347) Hieronymus, Sophronius Eusebius. See Jerome, Saint Hildebert of Lavardin, 897 Hildesheim, 848 Hippo, 73 Hippocrates, 438, 939 Hippomedon, 605 Hircus, 300(295) Hirsau, 739 Hirtius, 976 historia, 774 Holy Spirit, 111, 116, 147, 437, 490(489), 492–94, 502 Homer, 12, 22, 31, 36–37, 46, 48, 55–56, 58, 63, 69, 74, 87(86), 88, 90, 92(91), 93–95, 105(103), 107, 112, 114, 131, 135(133), 142(140), 147, 167(166), 194(186), 201, 216(212), 218(214), 223–24(221–22), 241–42(239), 243, 252, 255(253), 262(261), 267(264), 292(291), 315–16(306–8), 340(328), 342(329–30), 363(351), 396(382), 407, 418, 420(419), 428, 430, 451, 465–66, 485, 500(499), 525(524), 540–41(539), 627, 705, 706–7(706), 721(719), 763(753), 780(776), 793, 912(909) Honoratus, Marius Servius. See Servius Honorius (emperor of Rome), 86

Hopleus, 58 Horace, 5, 7–12, 25–26, 49, 52, 53(52), 55, 60, 64, 92, 106, 131, 167, 200–201, 218(214), 234(231), 281(280), 314(306), 334(323), 344(332), 363(351), 382–84(370–71), 451, 470, 649, 715(712–13), 731, 732–33(731), 743(741), 801, 894–95, 896(895), 1000 Hosidius Geta, 471–72 Hugo I (abbot of Cluny), 897 Hugo (king of Cyprus), 540(539) Huguccio of Pisa, 275(274), 771(760), 869–70, 915(913), 920(919) Hyena, 316(307) Hyginus, Iulius, 68–69, 426, 623, 627– 28 Hypsipyle, 879–81 Hyrcanus, 400(397), 981, 983 Iapyx, 9 Iarbas, 21, 511, 520(515), 522–23, 530(529), 534(533), 613–14 Iasius, 160(153) Ida, 160(153) Idomeneus, 31 Idung of Prüfening, 412 Ilione, 611 Ilioneus, 554, 581, 610–11, 805(802) Ilithyia, 690(679) illuminated manuscripts, 433–35, 438– 46 Imperial, Francisco, 1000–1001 Indiges, 20(19), 162(156) Ingenium (personification of talent), 430 Innocent III (pope), 764(753) integumentum, 721–22, 727, 728(727), 738–39(737–38), 794. See also allegory intention, compositional, 195(186), 197(188), 220(215), 368(355), 716(713) involucrum, 721 Ioannes Parvus, 457 Iona, 675, 698 Iopas, 667(662) NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

1065

Iphigenia, 219(215), 367(354), 545, 789(786) Iris, 544 iron age, 113(112), 113, 502, 688– 90(678–79), 764(753) Isaac, 128(122) Isaiah, 454–55 Isidore of Seville, 91, 332(322), 401(398), 480, 762(752), 763(753), 766(755), 768(757), 911–12(909) Istantius, 54(53) Istimicon, 266(263). See also Figulus; Maro; Publius; Stimichon; Vergilius (Virgil’s father); Virgilius (Virgil’s father) Itálica brick, 45 Iulianus, 83 Iulus. See Ascanius (Iulus) Iwein, 459 Ixion, 509(508), 670(664) Jacob, 128(122) Jacobus Magni. See Jacques Legrand Jacopo di Dante, 449 Jacques Legrand, 274 James the Great, Saint, 984 Janus, 634 Jason, 694(683), 770(759) Jean de Meun, 502 Jean d’Outremeuse, 413, 871, 955–56, 1002, 1004 Jean Petit, 457 Jeremiah, 455 Jerome, Saint, xxxiii, 6–7, 10, 70, 72–73, 89, 91, 114, 165, 180–81, 199, 212, 290, 318(309), 383–84(370–71), 396, 406, 408, 468, 499, 524, 535, 628, 642, 700, 891, 894 Jerusalem, 127–28(122), 400(397), 1003(1002) Jesse Tree, 454–55 Joanna I (queen of Naples), 536 Job, 798(796) Johannes Gobi Junior, 859 Johannes Italus. See John of Salerno John II (king of Castile), 1000 1066

NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

John (born in Lateran), 939 John, Saint (apostle), 101, 811(809) John of Alta Silva, 447, 827, 831 John of Garland, 452, 743–44 John of Lathbury, 904–5 John of Naples, 411, 953 John of Salerno, 893–94 John of Salisbury, 408, 466, 818, 826, 830, 857, 861, 916(914) John of Wales, 831, 912 John the Baptist, 455, 984 John the Scot, 237(236), 242–43, 246, 247, 256(254) Josephus, Flavius, 858 Jove. See Jupiter (Jove) Jubelin, 975 Judgment of Paris, 551, 739(738) Julia, 12 Juno, 75, 157(149), 162(154), 432–33, 511, 530(528), 549(548), 554, 556, 578–81, 633, 648, 667(661), 676, 697–98(686–87), 723–24(722–23), 725, 739(738), 773(761), 790(786), 804(802), 806–7(803–4), 822–23 Jupiter (Jove), 53, 143(141), 156– 57(148–49), 158–60(151–54), 432, 446, 495, 511, 551, 573, 611, 613–14, 621, 633, 634–35(634), 635, 689(678), 696–98(685–87), 720(719), 724(723), 725, 739(738), 773(761), 789(786), 822–23, 935, 1001 Justice, 503 Justin, 536(535) Justinian, 132 Juturna, 672(666) Juvenal, 36, 63–64, 315(307), 402(398), 438, 630, 720(719), 793, 895, 896(895), 1000 Juvencus, 475 Klingsor, 857 Konrad von Mure. See Conrad of Mure Kristan von Hamle, 461 Lachesis, 105(104), 772(760) Lactantius, 453, 455, 470, 488

ladder, invisible, 890 Lady Nature, 922 lamp, ever burning, 924, 926, 954, 978, 1015, 1022, 1024 Lancelot, 129, 458 Landino, Cristoforo, xxxiv, 450, 626, 793–94, 796(794), 889 Langres, 102 Lanuvinus, Luscius, 72, 201 Laocoön, 169, 174 Laon, 454, 704 Last Judgment, 102, 451, 502(501), 770(759), 938, 1007 Latin Bible. See Vulgate Latinus, 18, 21, 113, 158–61(150–55), 607, 671(665) Laura, 133 Laurentum, 58(57), 113(112), 129, 162(154), 302(297) Lausus, 672(666) Lavinia, 143, 156(149), 158(150), 160(153), 530(529), 607, 649(648– 49), 671(665) Lavinium, 146, 161(154) leech, gold, 273(271), 275(274), 856(855), 915(913), 920(919), 947 Legendre, Charles, 700 Le Mans, 897 Leo III (pope), 97 Leptis Magna, 983 Lesbia, 54 Leto, 404 lexicography, 91, 869 Liber, 196(187), 219(215) liberal arts, 831, 840(832–33) libri de Vergilio (Hyginus), 627 Libya, 957 Licinius, 901–2 Liège, 897, 955 Lille, 115 Limoges, 168 Linus, 495, 696(685–86), 772–73(761) literacy, degrees of (Alan of Lille), 123(117) litterae Virgilianae, 434 Livia, 890

Livy, 29, 88, 428, 430, 750, 946 Lodi, 147 Longus, Velius, 628 Lorenzo della Magna, Nicolò di, 450 Lorsch, 176–76, 705 Lotringe, 971 Louis VIII (king of France), 831 Louis IX (king of France), 907 Louis, Saint. See Louis IX (king of France) Louis the Pious (emperor), 100, 705 Low Ham Villa Mosaic, 431–33 Lucan, 26, 34–35, 57, 60, 93–94, 96, 113(112), 114, 131, 135(133), 167, 334(323), 385(372), 540(539), 627, 630, 656(651), 696(685) Lucca, 879 Lucian, 164 Lucibel (Lucifer), 940 Lucilius, 31, 951 Lucina, 493, 676, 690(679), 697(686), 766(755) Lucinius, 827, 831, 839–46(831–39), 846–47, 848(847–48) Lucius, Antonius, 299–300(294–95) Lucretia, 132, 889 Lucretius, 57, 135(133), 190(182), 216(213), 224(221), 255(253), 266(263), 279(278), 281(280), 291(290), 312–13(304), 357(346), 386(373), 402(399), 791(787), 918 Lucretius, Quintus, 193(185), 361(349) Lucrinus, Lake, 946 Ludovicus, 408 Lullingstone Mosaic, 432–33 Luna, 766(755) Lunete, 459 Lupus of Ferrières, 644 Luscius, 201 lust-inhibiting image or statue, 1016, 1024 Luxorius, 481 Lycidas, Cornelius Gallus as, 642 Lycoris, 54, 165 Mabel (king of Chaldea), 971–72 Macer, Aemilius, 105(103), 242(240), NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

1067

Macer, Aemilius (continued ) 262(261), 280(279), 292(290), 400(397), 710(708) Macrobius, 4, 12, 23, 61, 63, 66, 82, 88, 111, 164, 167, 304, 313(305), 332(321), 385(372), 396(382), 425, 463, 465, 467–68, 524, 544, 623, 628– 29, 636–37, 738(737), 780(776), 814, 859. See also Avienus Maeander, 517(511) Maecenas, 8, 9, 26, 37, 49, 52–53(51– 52), 105(103), 191–93(183–85), 194(186), 205(203), 211(208), 218(214), 223–24(221–22), 227(226), 234(232), 240(238), 242(240), 243, 252(251), 255– 56(253–54), 262(261), 280(279), 282, 287(284), 289(286), 292(290), 316(307), 317(308), 319(310), 337(325), 339–40(327–28), 343– 44(331), 358–60(347–48), 361(350), 363–65(351–53), 368(355), 388(375), 391(377–78), 394– 95(381), 486, 716–17(713–14), 720(719), 993–94 Maerlant, Jacob van, 129–30 Maevius, 237, 242(240), 262(261), 292(290), 487, 698, 742(740) Magia, 204(203), 225, 226, 312(304). See also Aynata; Maia; Polla Magius (Virgil’s father-in-law), 210(207) Magnentius, 475 magnetic mountain, 988–90 Magus, 190(182), 356(345) Maia, 229, 234(231), 254(253), 266(263), 271–72(269–70), 279(278), 291(290), 298–99(293– 94), 334(323), 356(345), 384(371), 400(397), 721(719), 991. See also Aynata; Magia; Polla Mainz, 958 Majour, 939 Mallarmé, Stéphane, 470 Malmesbury, 92 Malterer Tapestry, 459 1068

NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

Manasseh (king of Judaea), 764(753) Mandello, Giovannolo da, 415 Mandeville, 955 Mansel, Jean, 871 Manto, 332(321), 385(372) Mantua, 15, 36, 46, 49, 54, 56–57, 107, 110–11(108–9), 133, 135(133–34), 190(182), 196(188), 199, 201, 204(203), 211(208), 216(212), 217(214), 223(221), 225(222), 229, 234(231–32), 237, 241(239), 243, 254(253), 258(256–57), 266– 68(263–65), 271(269), 273(271), 277(276), 279(278), 281–82(280– 81), 291–92(290), 298(293), 312– 13(304–5), 317–18(308–9), 332(322), 334(323), 336–37(325), 339(327), 356(345), 367–68(355), 385(372), 400(397), 402(399), 407, 446–48, 716(713), 839(832), 848(847), 950, 991–92, 994 Marcellus (duke of Naples), 826, 830– 31, 946–47 Marcellus, Marcus, 319–20(311), 341(329), 392(379), 687(677), 689(679), 916(914) Marcianus, 498 Marcus (consul), 918(917) Margaret of Bavaria, 446 Mariamme, 983 Marie of Champagne, 128–29 Maro, 206, 209–10(207), 229. See also Figulus; Istimicon; Publius; Stimichon; Vergilius (Virgil’s father); Virgilius (Virgil’s father) Mars, 157(149), 521(516), 725(724) Marsus, Domitius, 13, 16, 50, 53, 627 Martial, xxxv, xxxvi, 23, 26, 48–51, 55, 382–83(370), 403–4, 506 Martianus Capella, 383(371), 430, 727, 732, 734, 737, 739(738), 739 Martini, Simone, 451–52, 461 Mary (empress), 966–67. See also Enye Mary, Saint (Blessed Virgin), 95, 393(380), 449, 455, 457, 687(677), 689(678), 879, 963–64, 985–86, 989

Masada papyrus, 44 Massacano, 946 masses, legend of three simultaneous, 946, 953 ‘‘Master Anselm,’’ 203, 230, 717–18, 721–22 mathematics, 90–91, 191(184), 318(310), 335(324), 357–59(346– 47), 386(373), 736, 855, 953 Mathilda, Marquess, 107 Matthew, 770(758) Maurus, Saint, 404–7 Mavius, 267(265) Mavortius, 471, 480–81 Maxentius, 491 Maximus of Madura, 79 Maya. See Maia McCormick, Michael, 705 meat preservation, 273(271), 320(311), 826, 850–52, 856(855), 910(908), 915(913), 920(919), 948 Mebeus, 267(265) Medea, 56, 631(630) Medici, Cosimo de’, 444 medicine, Virgil’s study of, 335(324), 359(347), 386(373), 991 Megara, 193(185), 302(297), 317(309), 343(330), 361(349), 393(379) Meliadans (king of Thrace), 969 Meliboeus, 35, 174, 236(233), 258– 59(257), 277(276), 292(290), 436– 37, 480, 750; Cornelius Gallus as, 225(222), 642 Melinus, 990, 998–99 Melissus, 359(347) Melpomene, 431 Memmius, 224(221) Memnon, 612 memory systems, 744, 747–50(746–47) Menalcas, 30, 47, 437, 485; Antony as, 709(708); Cornificius Gallus as, 710(708); Virgil as, 3, 47, 710(708) Menander, 430 Menelaus, 558–60, 577, 581, 584, 605, 670(664) Menippean satire, 507

Mercato Vecchio, Naples, 948 Mercogliano, 948 Mercury, 143(141), 196(187), 219(215), 367(354), 404, 511, 541(540), 614, 648(647), 668(662), 710(708), 720(719), 732–33(731) Merlin. See Melinus Messala Corvinus, Marcus Valerius, 28, 60, 287(284) Messalina, Valeria, 538 Metapontum, 205(204) meter, classical, 76–77, 93–94, 198– 99(189), 369(356), 401(398), 650, 655(651), 674(673), 716(713), 718 Methymna, 506(505) Mettus (king of Albans), 800(799) Mezentius, 672(666) Michael (archangel), 940 Middle High German, 460, 577, 871, 926 Migir, 1000 Mignano, 417 Milan, 73, 190(182), 200, 204(203), 216(213), 229, 234(231), 255(253), 266(264), 272(270), 291(290), 299(294), 313(305), 335(324), 357(346), 386(373), 716(713), 920(919), 991 Milan school, 675 Milotin, 974 Minerva, 697–98(686–87), 724(723), 773(761) Minerva, La, 951 Minos, 26, 302(297), 607 mirror(s), magic, 859, 906, 932–33, 943, 960. See also palace of air; Salvation of Rome Miseno, 946 Misenus, 546(545), 668(663), 780(776), 792–93(788–89), 821 Mnasyllos, 711(709) Modena (Mutina), 46, 227(226), 300(295), 336(325), 338–39(327), 389–90(376–77), 992 Moeris, 711(709) Mohammad, 941–42 Moniachis, 266(264) NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

1069

Monnus (mosaicist), 430 ‘‘Monnus Mosaic,’’ 430–31 Montanus, Iulius, 28(27), 29, 192(184), 360(349) Montepulciano, 293 Mopsus, 3, 235(233), 437; Aemilius Macer as, 710(708) mosaics, 430–33 Moses, 798(796), 942 Munatius, Lucius, 642–43 Muri, 916 Mursa, 475 Musa, Octavius, 25 Musaeus, 670(664) music, medieval, 172–73 Musical, 939 Namphamo, 79 Naples, xxxv, 3, 62, 135(134), 190(183), 193(185), 201(200), 204–5(203–4), 218(214), 223(221), 229, 234(231), 240(237), 247(246), 255(253), 260(259), 263(262), 268(265), 269, 272–73(270–71), 279(278), 286(283), 291(290), 299(294), 302– 3(297), 318(309), 320–21(311–12), 343(330), 357–58(346–47), 361(349), 386(373), 395(381), 406, 409, 411(410), 415, 417, 419, 470, 716(713), 743(741), 825–28, 830–31, 848–57, 859–61, 910(908), 915– 16(913–14), 918, 920(919), 922–24, 933, 946–54, 976–77, 979–80, 982– 83, 986–87, 997–99, 1018–20, 1023 Naples, University of, 861, 952–53 Narcissus (gra≈tist), 42 Naucellius, Julius, 522 Neapolitan Crypt, 416–17, 854–55, 951 Nebuchadnezzar, 764(753) Necapolis, 268(265). See also Naples Neckam, Alexander, 269, 275(274), 466, 816, 826, 830, 869(868), 915(913), 920–21(919–20), 947, 983 necromancy, books of, 102, 318(310), 409, 411(410), 826, 905, 952–53, 988–89, 1007 1070

NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

Nectarius, 496 Negro, Pescennio Francesco, 167 Nemesis, 54 Neoplatonism, 626, 636, 671(665), 737, 794 Neoptolemus. See Pyrrhus Nepos, Cornelius, 63(62) Neptune, 689(678), 724(723), 725– 26(725) Nequam, Alexander. See Neckam, Alexander Nereus, 534(532) Neri Morando da Forlì, 413 Nero (emperor of Rome), 35(34), 35– 37, 45, 163, 553, 877–78(876–77), 937 Neron the Arab, 937–42 Nerva, 71 Nestor, 609–10 new age, 687–89(677–79) New Man, 116 Nicaea, 491 Nicene Creed, 491 Nicomedia, 488 Nido, Piazza di, 947 Niger, Antonius, 292(290) Ninus, 112 Nisius the grammarian, 6, 22, 194(185), 319(310), 362(350) Nisus (friend of Euryalus), 31, 58–59 Nisus (king of Megara), 26, 302(297) Nola, 72, 344(331), 395(381), 852 Nonius Marcellus, 386(373) Notker of St. Gall, 704 Numa Pompilius, 764(753) Numicius, 22 Numitorius, 194(186), 485. See also Paro obscenity, 811–15 Octavia, 192(184), 252(251), 262(260), 266(264), 317(309), 341(329), 361(349), 392(379), 687(677) Octavian (fictional emperor), 831, 840(832), 841(834), 845(838), 968– 69, 971–74, 976, 984, 997, 999 Octavius, 26–27

Octavius, Gaius. See Augustus (emperor of Rome) Odo of Cluny, 894 Oeagrus, 696(685) Oenus, 385(372) Old French romances, 128–29, 146, 412, 439, 461, 465, 502, 528, 550–51, 571, 831, 857–58, 923, 932, 937, 942–43 Old High German translations, 704 Old Icelandic, 881 Old Spanish, 878 Olybrius, 5 Olympiads, 199–201 Olympus, 37, 161(154–55) Onulf (of Ghent), 896 Optatus, Fidus, 426–27 oratory, 39, 59–61, 90, 166, 335(324), 386(373), 637, 673, 785(783) orchard, marvelous, 875, 876, 976–78, 1015–16, 1017. See also garden, marvelous Orcus, 17 Orestes, 195–96(187), 235–36(233), 258(257), 366–67(354), 545, 715(712), 789(786), 899(898) Orléans, 550 Orosius, Paulus, 609 Orpheus, xxxiv, 7, 87(86), 135(133), 445, 451, 470, 495, 503–7, 509(508), 510, 573, 696(685), 738(737), 772(761), 784–86(782–84), 901, 903(902) Orvieto, 451 Otford Villa, 433 Otto I–III (Holy Roman emperors), 106 Otto IV, 851 Otto of Freising, 111–12 Outremeuse, Jean d’. See Jean d’Outremeuse Ovid, xxxv, 2, 12, 14–15, 20, 22–23, 26, 29(28), 29, 46, 49, 54, 60, 62, 65, 100– 101, 131, 167, 287(283–84), 314– 15(306–7), 317(308), 382–83(370), 394(380), 420(419), 420, 432, 438, 470, 482, 484(483), 504, 511, 550,

576, 766(755), 861, 889–90, 922, 956, 975–76, 1000 Ovid, pseudo-, 22, 765(755) Oxford, 744, 750, 912, 919 Oxyrhynchus papyri, 44 Pacuvius, Marcus, 60 Padua, 113(112), 419 palace of air, 905 palace without secrets, 1013 Palaemon, 30, 437; Augustus as, 710(708) Palatine library, 627 Palermo, 848(847) Pales, 41, 829 Palinurus, 531(528), 668(663), 735, 779(776), 781(777) Palladium, 561 Pallas, 132, 143(141), 157(149), 170, 177, 561, 586, 739(738), 773(761) Pamphilus, 236(233), 813, 1000 Pamphilus of Alexandria, 1000 Pan, 196(187), 437, 495, 696(686), 715(712), 773(761) Pansa, 300(295), 976 Pansophios, Saint, 901, 903(902) Paphlagonia, 333(322), 385(372) Papias, 914–15(913) paradise, 940–42 Paris, 115, 168, 558, 577–79, 584, 588, 605, 707(706), 744, 750, 802(800), 912, 919 Paris, University of, 396 Parma, 992 Paro, 363(350). See also Numitorius parody, xxxv, 26–27, 37–39, 194(186), 363(350), 469, 482, 485–87 Partenites. See Parthenias, Virgil as Parthenias, Virgil as, 145, 190(183), 204(203), 234(231), 248(247), 254(253), 272(270), 299(294), 315(307), 344(331), 358(347), 395(382), 403(399), 474, 716(713) Parthenopaeus, 605 Parthenope, 3, 94(93), 134, 179, 193(185), 201, 205(204), 218(214), NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

1071

Parthenope (continued ) 223(221), 227(226), 230(229), 240(237), 241(239), 251, 260(259), 260, 263(262), 268(265), 272(270), 279(278), 291(290), 302–3(297), 318(309), 362(349), 393(380), 404– 507, 743(741), 910(908), 912(910), 916(914), 917, 946, 950 Pasiphae, 703(702) Passau, 102 pastiche, 194, 482, 485 Patavia (Passau), 113(112) Patavium, 112–13(112) Paul, Saint, 65, 412–13, 414, 524, 769– 70(758), 770(758), 811(809), 903(902), 925–26, 981, 987 Pauli, Johannes, 871 Paulinus, 314(306) Paulinus of Nola, 7, 72, 499 Paulus, 474 Pavia, 88, 992 Pavia, University of, 147 Pedianus, Asconius, 345, 358(347), 363(351), 488, 627 Peewee, 485(483) Pegasus, 433 Penates, 161(154) Penthesilea, 618, 621 Pepin I (king of Aquitaine), 100–101 Pergemias. See Parthenias, Virgil as periochae, 181, 227, 236–37, 242–43, 246, 254(253), 256(254), 278, 290 Peripatetics, 527 Perses, 224(221), 241(239) Persius, 23, 546(545), 627, 793, 801(800), 861 Pertinax, Publius Helvius (emperor), 422 Peter, Bishop of Ravenna, 896(895) Petit, Aimé, 551 Petrarch, Francesco, xxxvi, 63, 132–33, 139, 144–45, 269, 272(270), 318– 19(309–10), 412, 414, 419, 451–53, 859, 861 Petronius, xxxv, 37, 991 Petrus d’Alvernia, 396 1072

NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

Petrus de Palude, 903 Pettacula. See Pietola (Mantua) Phaer, Thomas, 147 Phascillis, 236(233). See also Diana Phebilhe, 958–59, 961, 965–67, 969, 974–75, 978 Phemonoe, 763–64(753) Pherecydes the Assyrian, 497 Philargyrius, Iunius, 164, 180–81, 212, 220, 396, 625–26, 641–42, 674–75, 698 Philip (count Palatine), 446 Philip Herod, 984 Philip of Flanders, 128 Philippi, 191(184), 211(208), 338– 39(326–27), 359(348), 389–90(376– 77), 642, 975 Philistus, 365(352) Philodemus, 8 Philomen, 333(322) Philomena, 236(233) philosopher’s spirit. See spirit(s), imprisoned philosophy, 122(117), 290, 640, 714(712), 728, 734, 736, 738(737), 739, 743(741), 774, 780, 805(803), 822–23 Phocas, 180–81, 206 Phoebus, 35, 135(133), 506(505), 689(679) Phyllis, 16, 458–59, 874, 882. See also Campaspe Piacenza, 46, 992 Piccolomini, Aeneas Silvius, 888–89 Pietola (Mantua), 271(269), 298(293), 312(304), 334(323), 385(372), 861, 950. See also Andes Pindar, 52, 112 Pirithous, 575, 779(775) Pisa, 869 Pius II (pope), 888–89 plants, medicinal, 320(311), 768(757), 852–53, 948–49 Plato, 33, 105(104), 108(107), 142(140), 210(207), 358(347), 366(353), 428, 438, 465, 733, 794,

797(794–95), 810(808), 839(832), 1000 Plautus, 12 Pletulae. See Pietola (Mantua) Pliny the Elder, xxxvi, 33, 62, 318(309), 332(322), 334(323), 414, 415, 422, 425, 751 Pliny the Younger, 33, 46, 62, 162, 638 Pluto, 104, 105(104), 546(545), 574, 602, 724(723), 725, 779(775), 903(902) Poitiers (Pictavia), 113(112) Polenton, Sicco, 91, 293, 321, 345, 369– 70 Polidegmon, 669(663) Politian, 470 Poliziano, Angelo, 470 Polla, 210(207), 225, 226. See also Aynata; Magia; Maia Pollio, Asinius, 51, 60, 65, 105(103), 190– 91(183), 197(188), 205(203), 211(208–9), 217–18(213–14), 224– 25(222), 227(226), 234(232), 236(233), 242(240), 243, 252(251), 255–56(253–524), 262(261), 267– 68(264–65), 280(279), 282, 292(290), 300(295), 316–17(307–9), 336– 37(325–26), 359–60(347–48), 368(355), 388–89(375), 395(382), 400(397), 469, 488, 641, 676, 687– 91(676–80), 693(682), 710(708), 716–17(713–14), 720(719), 761(751), 766(755), 773(761), 993–94 Pollux, 975 Polybius, 31 Polydamus, 621 Polydorus, 382(370) Polynices, 556, 605 Pompeii, 42–43, 45, 946 Pompeius, Sextus, 299–300(294), 975 Pompeius Magnus, Gnaeus, 35(34), 93, 190(182), 199, 210, 211(208), 216(212), 223(221), 250, 258(256), 266(263), 271(269), 273(271), 279(278), 281(280), 282(281), 291(290), 298(293), 299(294),

312(304), 334–35(323–24), 356(345), 384(371), 386(373), 400(396–97), 484(483), 918(917), 956, 970 Pompey (brother-in-law of King Gorgile), 956–57 Pomponius (centoist), 480, 912(909) Pomponius Secundus, 425 pontifical law, 641 Pontius (abbot of Cluny), 897 Pontus, 14 Pope, Alexander, 469 poplar tree, 190(186), 206, 210(207), 245(244), 254(253), 272(270), 298– 99(293), 313(305), 335(324), 357(345), 385(372) Poppo, Saint, 896 Porphyrio, 11 Poytain, 971–72 Pozzuoli, 227(226), 286(283), 318(309), 343(330), 393(380), 412, 416, 419, 859, 933, 946, 951, 982, 999 Pozzuoli, baths at, 854 Praeneste, 829 Praetextatus, Vettius Agorius, 637, 639–41 Prague, 988 Pratovecchio, 793 Preta de lo Pesce, 949 Priam, 42, 333(322), 559, 561, 577, 585, 605, 609, 611–12, 618–21, 622 Priamo della Quercia, 449 Priapus, 37, 39 Priscian, 23–24, 206, 248, 625, 649–50, 700, 718, 894, 953 Proba, Faltonia Betitia, 94, 146–47, 341– 42(329), 468–69, 475–77, 479, 480, 499, 912(909) Probus, (pseudo-)Marcus Valerius, 163, 180–81, 225, 260, 628, 815 Proculus, Valerius, 193(185), 227(226), 319(310), 343(331), 394(381) pronuntiatio, 167 Propertius, Sextus, xxxv, 5, 9, 12, 26, 54, 63, 192(184), 313(305), 334(323), 340(328), 360(349), 363(351), 385(372), 392(378) NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

1073

prophecy of Virgil, 101–2 Proserpina, 545–46(545), 549(548), 574, 602, 670(664), 779(775), 782(778), 789–91(786–87), 809– 10(808), 903(902) prosody, medieval, 550 Protesilaus, 605 Prudence (personified), 116 Prudentius, 475, 705 Psamathe, 696(685–86) Ptolemy, King, 223(221), 241(239), 266(263), 953, 981 Publius, 334(323). See also Figulus; Istimicon; Maro; Stimichon; Vergilius (Virgil’s father); Virgilius (Virgil’s father) Pucci, Antonio, 409, 953 Purgatory, 941 Pygmalion, 511, 520–21(516) Pylades, 367(354), 715(712), 789(786), 899(898) Pymalatin, 968–69, 974 Pymatin, 968 Pyrrhus, 132, 610, 617–18, 621–22, 694(683) Pythagoras, 497(496), 546(545), 790(786–87), 860, 953, 1000 Pythagorean letter, 116, 122–23(117– 18), 127(121), 546(545), 546, 547(546), 548(547), 718, 790(786– 87) quadrivium, 735 Quinctius, 132 Quintilian, xxxv, xxxvi, 1, 3, 6, 8, 46–48, 63, 811 Quintilian, pseudo-, 726 Quintilius, 7, 10 Quirinus, Augustus as, 632 Rabelais, François, 829–30 Rabirius, 29 Rainald of Dassel, 113–14 Rand, E. K., 289 Ravenna, 130, 260(259), 267(264), 766(755), 896(895) 1074

NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

Razi, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya, 1000 Reason, personification of, 116 recusatio, 106, 113 Rehoboam, 763(753) Reichenau, 102–3, 278 Reims, 174, 674, 1004 religious ritual, 635–36 Remigius of Auxerre, 650 Remmius Palaemon, Quintus, 29–30 Remus, 1004–6; Agrippa as, 632 representation or recitation, three styles of, 216(212), 230(229), 236(233), 263(261), 453, 709–10(707–8), 715– 16(713), 721(720) revolving castle, 858 Rhadamanthus of Cnossus, 606–7, 670(664) Rhazes. See Razi, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya rhetoric, 46, 95–96, 103, 116, 164, 171– 72, 488, 623, 644, 661, 726–27, 736(735), 793, 840(833). See also representation or recitation, three styles of rhetorical figures and devices, 630, 637 Ricbod, Bishop of Trier, 96 Rilke, Rainer Maria, 470 rímnaflokkar, 881 rímur, 881 roads, miraculously constructed, 417, 852, 950, 988, 990, 998–99 Roberto, 998 Robert of Anjou (king of Naples), 133, 135(134), 415, 416 Rodulfus Glaber, 895 Rodulfus Tortarius, 407–8 Roger II (king of Sicily), 318(310), 410, 921–23, 952 roman antique, 465 Romances of Antiquity, 550 Rome, 14–15, 27, 29, 43, 60, 71, 85, 97– 98, 110(109), 113(112), 130, 136(134), 139(138), 167(166), 190– 92(182–84), 200, 205(203), 210– 11(207–8), 216–17(213), 229,

234(232), 237, 247(246), 262– 63(261–62), 266–67(264), 273(271), 275(274), 280–82(279–81), 291(290), 299–300(294–95), 303(297), 320(312), 358–59(347– 48), 361(349), 386(373), 393(379), 400(397), 412, 418, 433–34, 542(540), 580, 637, 673(672), 705, 789(786), 827–28, 839(832), 856, 860, 862, 870, 872, 877–78(876–77), 879, 915(913), 918, 920(919), 925, 927, 929–31, 937, 946, 953, 954–55, 956–65, 968–76, 979–80, 992, 994– 95, 997–99, 1003(1002), 1004–6, 1008–9, 1011–15, 1019–20, 1024 Rome without fire, 874, 876, 878(877), 879, 881, 886, 924, 929–30, 933, 944– 45, 954, 968–69, 974–75, 995–96, 1012 Romulus, 476, 608, 632, 673(672), 1004–6 rota Vergilii, 452, 624fig, 744, 748fig, 749fig, 750fig Roth, K. L., 826 Royaumont, 907 Rufus, Caninus, 62 Ruggiero II. See Roger II (king of Sicily) Ruiz, Juan, 878 Sacerdos, Marius Plotius, 813 saints’ lives, 95, 481, 577 Salerno, 894, 951, 982 Sallust, 29, 84, 630, 638, 658(654), 805(802), 980 Salmoneus, 670(664) Saloninus, 488, 676, 687(676), 689– 91(679–81), 694(683), 696–98(685– 87), 710(708), 761–62(751), 767(756), 773(761) Salvation of Rome, 275(274), 293, 826– 27, 856–57(856), 867–68, 869(868– 69), 870, 911(909), 915(913), 921(920), 932, 960, 1004, 1013–14. See also mirror(s), magic Samson, 453, 459

San Brizio Chapel, Cathedral of Orvieto, 451 Sánchez Calavera, Ferrant, 1001 San Pietro a Cancellaria, 946 San Salvatore, 921 Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome, 828, 871 Santiponce (Itálica), 45 Sanvito, Bartolomeo, 444–45 Sardinia, 896(895) Sartagonus (count of Flanders), 960 Satania, 940 Saturn, 113(112), 160(153), 634–35, 689(678–79) Saturnalia, 48, 55, 636 Saturninus, Gnaeus Sextus, 343(330), 393(380) Saturninus, Sentius, 201(200), 218(214), 223(221), 241(239), 279(278), 406, 910(908) Scipio, 50 Scylla, 17(16), 530–31(528), 534(532) Scythia, 196(187), 219(215), 258(257), 367(354) secrets revealed by ladies of Rome, 969 Sedros (king of Tongre), 971 Sedulius, 481 Seneca the Elder, 27, 29, 192(184), 314(306), 360(348), 727, 750, 912(910) Seneca the Younger, xxxv, 1, 23, 30–34, 56, 70, 416, 427, 463, 750, 915– 16(914), 922, 951, 1000 Sentius, Gnaeus, 193(185), 361(349) Septuagint, 81 Sercambi, Giovanni, 879 Serestus, 611 serpentine simile, 621 Servius, xxxv, 7, 22, 66, 71, 79, 88, 165, 167–68, 170, 175, 180–81, 202, 206, 225, 229, 233(231), 237(236–37), 245(244), 246, 247(246), 248, 287(283), 304, 312(304), 316(307), 326, 332(321–22), 334(323), 338– 39(326–27), 385(372), 389(376), 396(382), 396, 397, 423, 452, 464, NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

1075

Servius (continued ) 468–69, 487, 488, 527, 542, 543, 576, 623, 625–26, 628–30, 632, 636, 641– 42, 644, 650, 660, 705, 711, 718, 722, 774, 780(776), 793(789), 800, 816, 817 Servius Varus, 227(226), 423 Seth, 942 Seven Sages of Rome, 827, 831, 859, 932 Severus, Septimius, 435 Seville, 91, 1000 Sextus (addressee of Martial), 54 Sherborne, 92 Sibyl, Cumaean, 17, 18(17), 116–17, 446, 453, 454–57, 487, 488–89, 490– 91(489–90), 492, 498(497), 498, 499(498), 499, 501, 502(501), 502, 543fig, 549(548), 572–75, 599–608, 615–16, 687–89(677–78), 735, 736, 751, 761–66(751–55), 769(757–58), 772–73(760–61), 779–82(776–78), 789(786), 792–93(788–89), 809– 10(808–9), 858, 911(909) Sibyl, Erythraean, 492, 499, 762– 64(752–53) Sibyls, 763–64(753), 825 Sidon, 613 Sidonius Apollinaris, 87–88, 407 Siege of the Castle of Love, 458 Siena Cathedral, 456 Signorelli, Luca, 451 Silenus, 196(187), 367(354), 703(702), 711(709) Silius Italicus, xxxv–xxxvi, 45–46, 49– 50, 62, 403, 405, 467, 627 Silo (Virgil’s brother), 191(183), 217(213), 343(331), 359(347), 394(381) Silvanus, 196(187), 367(354) silver age, 688–89(678–79), 764(753) Silvinus, 41–42 Silvius Aeneas, 607 Simplicius (friend of Augustine), 76(75) Sinon, 105(104), 169, 560–61, 585, 619–20 1076

NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

sins, seven deadly, 905 Sinuessa, 8 Siro, 211(208), 345, 365(353) sirventes, 875 Sisamus, 130 six periods of life, 819–20(818–19) skopos/scopon. See intention, compositional Smyrna, 58 snakes or serpents, 621, 826, 850, 852 Socrates, 358(347), 365(352) Solinus, Julius, 481 Solomon, 65, 98, 409, 454–55, 457, 763(753), 799(796), 874, 1003(1002) Solon, 764(753) Sordello of Mantua, 314(306), 875 sortes biblicae, 830 sortes Vergilianae (Virgilian lots), xxxiv, 829–30 Sousse (Hadrumentum), 431 speeches, neumation of, 169–73 speech or speaking, three styles of, 196(187), 216(212), 220(251), 235(232), 243, 263(261), 367(354), 401(398), 452 Speyer, 958 Spinola, Lucano, 448 spirit(s), imprisoned, 321(312), 978, 980, 984–85. See also demon(s) in a bottle Squillace (Scylacium), 89 St. Augustine’s, Canterbury, 105 St. Gall, 102, 170 St. Martin, Tours, 439, 644 St. Paul’s, Carinthia, 103 St. Peter’s, Rome, 147, 1002 St. Pierre, Caen, 458 St. Salvatore, Cathedral of, 456 St. Servatius, Maastricht, 577 St. Trond, Limbourg, 481 St.-Vaast d’Arras, 176, 177 Statius, 22–23, 26, 56–59, 96, 131, 405, 451, 470, 503, 550, 630, 707 statues and sculptures, marvelous, 827– 28; archer of bronze, copper, or metal, 850–51, 926, 933, 961, 1015, 1024; au-

tomated, 275(274), 820(811–12), 826–28, 856, 865–66(862–63), 868, 869(868), 871, 872–74, 911(909), 915(913), 921(920), 926, 931–32, 934, 959–60, 962–63, 978–80, 986– 87, 1004, 1013, 1015–16, 1021–22, 1024; bocca della verità, 828, 871, 872– 74, 978–79, 980, 1024; crimerevealing, 865–66(862–63); dogs of copper, 961; equestrian, armed, 856, 869(868), 915(913), 978–80, 1014– 15; equestrian of copper, with balance, 856; fly of brass, bronze, copper, or gold, 273(271), 319–20(311), 826–27, 831(830), 849, 851, 860–61, 910(908), 916(914), 920(919), 924, 933, 943, 947, 954, 965; guardians, armed, of copper, metal, or wood, 926, 981, 986–87, 1016, 1021–23; horse, flying, of ebony, 932; horse of brass, bronze, copper, or metal, 826, 849, 856, 860, 869(868), 915(913), 924, 933, 943, 947–48, 954, 980, 1014; light-radiating, 1024; lust-inhibiting, 1016, 1024; man [of bronze], pointing, 911(909), 931–32; men of bronze, with millstone, 959; peasant of copper, 961; Roman goddess, 869(868), 870, 915(913); seasonmonitoring, 934, 963; serpent, adultery-revealing, 1020–21; soldier of brass or bronze, 275(274), 868, 915(913); talking head of brass or bronze, 321(312), 925, 954, 978, 980, 984–85 (see also demon(s) in a bottle; spirit(s), imprisoned); trumpeter of bronze or copper, 320(311–12), 853, 948; twelve doors of Rome, 962–63; virgin of copper, 963–64, 985; woman of stone, 927–28 Stilicho, 86 Stimichon, 279(278). See also Figulus; Istimicon; Maro; Publius; Vergilius (Virgil’s father); Virgilius (Virgil’s father) Stoicism, 527, 671(665)

Stok, Fabio, 293 stone of invisibility, 969 Strasbourg, 100, 455, 958 studium generale, 750 Styria, 988 Sualo, 102 Suetonius, 13, 34, 162–63, 179–80, 333(322), 428, 623, 626–28, 632, 642, 905 Sugambi, 960 Sulla Felix, Lucius Cornelius, 334(323), 384(371), 690–91(680) Sulmo, 14 Sulpicius, 11(10) Sulpicius, Gaius Apollinaris, 67, 193(185), 319(310), 362(350), 394(380), 422–23 Sultan’s daughter, Virgil with, 1016–18 Sychaeus, 511, 519(515), 521(517), 535, 537–38(536), 552, 563, 579, 589, 647 Symmachus (translator), 81 Symmachus, Quintus Aurelius, 4, 425, 522, 636–37, 638 Symplegas, 694(683) Syracuse, 218–20(214–15), 368(355), 401(398) Tacitus, 5, 59–60, 61, 467 Taliesin, 101 Tantalus, 509(508), 607, 670(664) Taranto, 205(204), 302(297), 318(309) Tarquin, 764(753), 781(777) Tarraco, 60 Tauris, 789(786) Teano, 417 Terence, 72, 201, 422, 630, 642, 649, 656(652), 659(654) Terentianus Maurus, 401(398) Terentius, Priscus, 55 Terra, 613–14 Terra di Lavoro, 417, 857 Tertullian, 471–72, 475, 522 Thagaste, 73 Thalia, 54(53) Thebes, 605 NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

1077

Theocritus, 34, 69, 105(103), 195– 97(187–88), 216(212), 218–20(214– 16), 223(221), 227(226), 235(233), 241–42(239), 243, 252, 255(253), 262(261), 268(265), 292(291), 316(308), 337(326), 366–69(353– 56), 389(375), 401–2(398), 687– 88(677), 709(708), 711(709), 721(719), 763(752) Theodoric (king of the Ostrogoths), 507 Theodorich. See Thierry of St. Trond Theodosian code, 91 Theology (personified), 116 Theseus, 230(229), 451, 573, 575, 779(775) Thestius, 421 Thestylis, 53 Thestylus (lover of Voconius Victor), 51 Thierry of Chartres, 726 Thierry of St. Trond, 481, 484(483) Thoas, 545, 789(786) Thomas of Cantimpré, 129 Thor, 621–22 Thrace, 401(398) threefold course of life (Fulgentius), 666–67(661) threefold division of society (John of Garland), 744–45, 747(746) threefold state of man (Alan of Lille), 127(121) three natural lives, 794, 817, 823–24 Thyrsis, 13 Tiberianus (poet), 546 Tiberius (emperor of Rome), 16, 28(27), 29 Tibullus, 12, 14, 16, 29, 54 Tilbury, Essex, 851 Tiphys, 495, 694(683), 699, 770(759) Tisiphone, 105, 606 Titus (emperor of Rome), 865–66(862– 63) Tityrus, 13, 15, 87, 136(134), 194– 95(186), 198(189), 219(215), 236(233), 240(238), 363(350), 366(353), 369(355–56), 402(399), 436–37, 480, 485, 750; Virgil as, xxxv, 1078

NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

3, 35, 53(52), 87, 110(108–9), 225(222), 256, 258–59(257), 275, 277(276), 292(290), 314(306), 632, 709(707) Tityus, 509(508), 606, 634 Toledo, 1007–8, 1020 Tomis, 14 Torquatus, 132 Toulouse, 672, 744, 919 Tournus, 436 Tours, 96, 726, 897 Trajan (emperor of Rome), 62, 162, 167(166) tree of knowledge, 477–78, 549(548–49) tree of Virgil, 190, 272(270), 299(293), 313(305), 357(345), 385(372) Trevet, Nicholas, 750–51 trial by silence, 844–47(837–39, 846) Trier, 96, 430, 958 Trimalchio, 38 Triptolemus, 750 Tristan and Isolt, 871 Tritola, 950 Triton, 518(514), 668–69(663), 792(788) Triumph of Mars, 445 Trivia, groves of, 735–36(735), 782(777) trivium, 103, 735–36(735) Trogus, Pompeius, 536(535) Troilus, 605 Trojan horse, 169, 559, 586–87, 617–21 Troy, 15–16, 28, 105(104), 113, 129, 130, 131, 145, 157, 565, 573, 612, 673(672), 694(683), 801–2(799– 800) Troy, fall of, 36, 59, 112, 160–61(154), 169, 173, 237, 241(239), 245(244), 267(264), 269(266), 333(322), 385(372), 527, 530(528), 535, 558– 62, 577–79, 581, 584–87, 609, 617, 618–21, 718, 720(719), 729, 743(741), 762(752), 955 Troyes, 943 Tubalcain, 953 Tucca, Plotius, 5–9, 25, 193(185), 201,

205(203), 218(214), 227(226), 240(238), 255(253), 280(279), 302– 3(297), 319(310), 343(330–31), 361–63(349–51), 394(380–81), 423, 424(423), 425(424), 717(714), 720(719), 743(741) tunnel, magic, between Naples and Rome, 826, 943, 979–80 Turmia, 940 Turnus, 18–19, 64(63), 113, 143(141), 156–59(148–52), 178, 224(222), 267(264), 302(297), 441, 477, 649(648), 672(666), 707(706), 720(719), 743(741), 896 Twyne, Thomas, 147 Tydeus, 605 Tyre, 564, 579, 612, 613 Ulysses, 58(57), 541(539), 559–61, 585–86, 618–20, 668(662) underworld, 17, 26, 83–84, 143, 166, 448, 451, 464, 466, 467, 470, 503–4, 543fig, 544, 572–76, 598–608, 615– 16, 634, 669(663), 726(725), 774, 778–82(774–78), 784–86(782–84) upsilon. See Pythagorean letter Upson, Hollis Ritchie, 249 urbana altercatio, 107 Vabeus, 267(265) Valencia, Diego de, 1000–1001 Valentianus of Milan, 675 Valentinian (emperor of Rome), 472 Valerius Flaccus, Gaius, 56, 105(103) Valerius Maximus, 407 Valgius, 9 Varius Rufus, Lucius, 5–9, 7, 10–12, 22, 25, 53, 55, 60, 106, 193–94(185), 195(186), 201, 205(203), 218(214), 240(238), 255(253), 280(279), 302– 3(297), 341(329), 343(331), 361– 62(349–50), 363(351), 366(353), 394(380–81), 420, 423, 424(423), 424–25, 717(714), 720(719), 743(741) Varnucci, Bartolomeo, 444

Varro, 227(226), 317(308) Varro of Atax, 28(27) Varus, Publius Alfenus, 10, 191(183), 197(188), 211(208), 218(214), 224– 25(222), 227(226), 252(251), 267(264), 300(295), 319(310), 358(347), 359(347), 388–89(375– 76), 400(397), 437, 642 Varus, Quintilius, 10, 105(103), 200, 227(226), 242(240), 262(261), 267(264), 280(279), 292(290), 337(325), 711(709), 717(714) Vasari, Giorgio, 441 Vegetius, 502, 1000 Vegio, Ma√eo, 1, 147 Veldeke, 577 Velleius Paterculus, 29 Venetia, 332–34(322–23), 385(372) Venice, 450, 851, 989–90 Ventoise, 984 Venulus, 18 Venus, 19–20, 37, 142(140), 157(149), 161(154–55), 431, 473–74, 511, 518(513), 531(530), 534(532), 556– 57, 562, 577–78, 583–84, 588, 592, 597, 611–12, 615, 647, 698(687), 720(719), 724(723), 732(731), 739(738), 802(800), 806(804), 812 Veranius Ipseus, 42 ‘‘Vergiliomastix,’’ 487 Vergilius (subject of Ennodius epigrams), 88–89 Vergilius (Virgil’s father), 227. See also Figulus; Istimicon; Maro; Publius; Stimichon; Virgilius (Virgil’s father) Verginius (consul), 922 Verona, 15, 56, 710(708) Vespasian (emperor of Rome), 937 Vespasiano da Bisticci, 444 Vesta, 82, 822 Vesuvius, controlled by Virgil, 56, 826, 850–51 Vesuvius, eruption of, 33, 42, 56 Vetulus, Sigulfus, 99 Vibius Maximus, 58 Victorius, Claudius Marius, 64 NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

1079

Vienna, 926, 988 Vilgard, 895, 896(895) Vincent of Beauvais, 129, 293, 311, 827, 831, 912 Vindolanda writing tablets, 44–45 Vipranius, Marcus. See Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius Vipsanius, Marcus. See Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius Virgil: assuming the toga, 190(182), 200, 260(259), 266(264), 279(278), 291(290), 313(305), 335(324), 357(346), 386(373), 400(397); astrological sources of power, 859, 947–49; autobiographical remarks, 2– 3; autograph manuscripts, xxxvi, 425– 27; baptism, 986; birth, 190(182), 206, 210(207), 271–72(269–70), 335(323–24), 356–57(345), 384– 85(372), 903, 957, 1006; birth, place of, 57–58, 190(182), 199, 223(221), 241, 950; birthday, xxxvi, 62, 190(182), 199, 210(207), 216(212), 226, 250, 260(259), 266(263), 273(271), 281(280), 282(281), 334(323), 356(345), 384(371), 403– 4, 918(917); brothers, 10, 191(183), 193(185), 217(213), 227(226), 319(310), 343(331), 359(347), 394(381); correspondence with Augustus, 4–5, 341(329), 361(349), 392(378); death, 193(185), 201(200), 205(204), 212(209), 218(214), 223(221), 229, 241(239), 260(259), 279(278), 302(297), 318(309), 343(330), 393(380), 406, 910(908), 952, 954, 987–88, 999, 1022–23; derivation of name, 241(238–39), 254(253), 266(263), 273(271), 277(276), 279(278), 291(290), 299(294), 315(307), 402– 3(399), 716(713), 721(719), 870, 915(913), 918, 991, 1006; detractors and enemies, 66–67(66), 68, 92, 114– 15(114), 194(186), 218(214), 262(261), 267(265), 292(290), 1080

NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

342(330), 363(350–51), 384(371), 396(382), 485–87, 911(909) (see also club of Hercules); divinity of, 467– 68; epitaph, 94(93), 179, 191(183), 193(185), 201, 205(204), 218(214), 223(221), 227(226), 230(229), 241(239), 260, 279(278), 291(290), 302(297), 318(309), 361–62(349), 393(380), 404, 406–8, 910(908), 912(910), 917, 950, 1002; eques (knightly class), 249–50, 282(281), 400(396); estate, 343–44(331), 394(381); father, 189–91(182–83), 204(203), 206, 209–10(207), 216– 17(212–13), 226, 229, 234(231), 254(253), 266(263), 271–72(269– 70), 279(278), 282(281), 291(290), 298(293), 312(304), 334(323), 356(345), 358(347), 384(371), 394(381), 400(396–97), 716(713), 956, 991, 1006; foreknowledge of Christ, xxxiv, 101, 342(329), 437, 453, 470, 487–88, 492–95, 825, 911(909), 926, 938–39, 963–64, 981–82 (see also Sibyl, Cumaean); founding and patronage of Naples, 976, 1018–20; as grammarian, xxxv, 396(382), 623; Hebrew tale of, 828; interpreter of signs, 935(934), 936–37(935–36); literary play on name, 107; magician/necromancer, xxxiv–xxxv, 101– 2, 144, 269, 275(274), 299(294), 319– 21(311–12), 321, 416–17, 457, 470, 488, 780(776), 829, 859, 874, 875, 876, 877–78(876–77), 880, 905, 920(919), 927–32, 933–34, 959, 967, 972–73, 976–80, 983–85, 987, 996– 1000, 1003(1002), 1004, 1008, 1009– 12, 1017–22, 1024; Mantuan estate restored, 53(52), 111(109), 196– 97(188), 205(203), 211(208–9), 217(213–14), 225(222), 255(253), 258(257), 273(271), 277(276), 282, 292(290), 301(296), 314(306), 317(308), 336–38(325–27), 367– 68(355), 388(375), 402(399),

716(713), 992, 994; miraculous contrivances, 273(271), 275(274), 319– 21(311–12), 409, 825–29, 830–31, 848–61, 865(862), 867–69, 905–7, 910–11(908–9), 915–16(913–14), 918, 920–21(919–20), 924–25, 926, 931–34, 943, 959–60, 962–63, 965, 970, 976–82, 999, 1003(1002), 1013– 16, 1021–23; mother, 204(203), 210(207), 226, 229, 234(231), 241(238), 254(253), 266(263), 271– 72(269–70), 279(278), 282(281), 291(290), 298–99(293–94), 312(304), 334(323), 356(345), 384(371), 394(381), 400(397), 721(719), 956–57, 991, 1006; as performer of own works, 29, 167, 192– 93(184), 339–40(328), 341(329), 360–61(348–49), 391(377); personality and temperament, 7–8, 190(183), 217(213), 248(247), 254(253), 315(307), 358(346–47), 395(381), 403(399); as philosopher, 33, 241(238), 273(271), 463–67, 623, 639–40, 728(727), 958; physical characteristics, 7–8, 190(183), 277(276), 291(290), 299(294), 315(307), 344(332), 358–59(346–47), 395(381–82), 400(397), 842(835), 925, 991; portraits, busts, and statues of, 427–30, 435, 438, 447–50, 452–56; post mortem preservation, 987; power of foresight, 660, 843(836), 963–64, 970; proto-apostle of Christ, 470, 488, 501(500–501), 503, 937–39, 963–64, 981–82, 985–86; sexuality, 51, 190(183), 204(203), 234(231), 254(253), 315–16(307), 358(347), 395(382), 716(713); studies, 191(183), 204(203), 210–11(208), 217(213), 255(253), 266(263–64), 269, 272(270), 281(280), 299(294), 313(305), 335(324), 357(356), 359(347), 386(373), 716(713), 918(917), 957, 991–92; as symbol of Holy Spirit, 859, 862, 866–67(864);

tomb, xxxv–xxxvi, 62, 131, 136(134), 193(185), 205(204), 227(226), 230(229), 260(259), 302(297), 404– 7, 411(410), 412–13, 414–17, 419, 420(419), 470, 743(741); wife, 1013, 1016; will, nullification of, 286– 87(283), 287–88(283–84), 303(298), 422; working method, 193(184–85), 339(328), 359–60(348), 391(377) Virgilianus, -a, -um, 870 Virgil in a barrel, 1022–23 Virgil in hell, 900(898–99), 901–2 Virgil in the basket, 457–59, 461, 462, 874–76, 877–78(876–77), 879–80, 882–84, 889, 928–29, 944, 953, 955, 965–67, 978, 994–95, 1001–2, 1011– 12, 1024 Virgil in the underworld, 858 Virgilius (pupil of Donatus), 673– 74(673) Virgilius (Virgil’s father), 334(323), 384(371). See also Figulus; Istimicon; Maro; Publius; Stimichon; Vergilius (Virgil’s father) Virgilius of Asia, 674(673) Virgilius Maro Grammaticus, 672, 674(673) Virgil’s bones, 193(185), 201(200), 218(214), 223(221), 229(229), 279(278), 302(297), 304, 318– 19(309–10), 361(349), 406–9, 411(410), 412, 415, 826, 859, 925, 952–53, 954–55, 987 Virgil’s castle, 981, 1006, 1009–11, 1021–23. See also Agensi; Cassedrue; Ventoise Virgil’s chair, 985–87 Virgil’s demonic double, 967 Virgil’s revenge, 874, 875, 878(877), 879, 881, 882, 886–88, 930–31, 944– 45, 954, 968–69, 974–75, 995–96, 1012, 1024 Virgil’s Wheel. See rota Vergilii Virgil’s works: chronology of and duration of writing, 191–92(184), 211– 12(209), 218–20(214–15), 224(222), NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

1081

Virgil’s works (continued ) 234(232), 240(238), 248, 252(251), 255(253); declaimed, recited, or sung, 64–65, 75–77, 163–73, 192–93(184), 338(326), 339–40(328), 389(375); four styles embodied within, 638– 39(638); Greek models, 12, 105(103), 191(184), 196–97(187– 88), 201–2, 216(212), 218(214), 223(221), 241–42(239), 243, 252, 255–56(253–54), 267–69(264–66), 292(291), 316(308), 337(326), 339(327), 359(348), 363(351), 391(377–78), 639, 640, 706–7, 721(719); metrical transformations of, 71; morality within, 141–44(139– 41), 223(221), 263(261), 269(266), 272(270), 292(291), 633–34, 716(713); musical notation of, 167– 78, 704; principal parts of knowledge, three, 223(221), 263(261), 269(266), 280(279), 292(291); Roman models, 639; sequence of, corresponding to human social evolution, 196(187), 219–20(215), 224(222), 235(232), 247–48, 276–77(275–76), 292(291), 316(308), 367(354), 393(380), 400(397), 744, 816; theatrical performance, 163–67, 338(326), 389(375); threefold styles of, 196(187), 216(212), 220(215), 223–24(221– 22), 235(232), 243, 255–56(254), 292(291), 316(308), 367(354), 401(398), 452, 715(713), 741– 43(740), 744–45, 746(745), 750fig (see also rota Vergilii) Virgil transformed into a horse, 885 virgin gives birth, palace or image falling after, 857(856), 915(913), 937–38, 963 virgula, 870 Viscus brothers, 9, 287(284) vitae formulares, 227–28 Voconius Victor, 51

1082

NAMES AND SUBJECTS INDEX

Volumnius, 711(709) Volusianus, Rufius Antonius, 496 Vorstermann, Willem, 1003 Vrelant, Guillaume, 445–46 Vulcan, 475, 671–72(665–66), 697– 98(686–87), 725(724), 773(761), 812 Vulcan (of Africa, Arabia, and India), 674(673) Vulgate, 7, 72 wall, invisible or of air, 905, 976, 977–78, 1010 Walloon, 962 Walter of Aquitaine, 704 Walter of Châtillon, 114, 115, 129 waterworks, 826, 946 William of Conches, 721 William of Stuttgart, 739 wind reduction, 826, 853, 948 witchcraft, xxxiv Wolfram von Eschenbach, 576, 830, 857 woods, allegorical interpretation, 544(543) Worms, 958 writing, metaphors for, 70, 192(184), 202, 329(328), 359–60(348), 391(377), 911(909) Würzburg, 848 Xerxes (king of Persia), 219(215), 258(257), 401(397), 714(712) York, 96 Yunck, John, 551 Zabulon, 988 Zamora, 456 zodiac, signs of the, 962–63 Zono de’ Magnalis, 292–93, 304 Zoppo, Marco, 444 Zoroaster, 761(751) Zosimus (gra≈tist), 42 Zurich, 917