[355] Crudelis aras, not unlike “crudelis terras,” 3. 44. There the co-operation of the country in the crime of its king might be assumed naturally; here it is uncertain whether the Penates are those of Pygmalion, and so concerned in the murder, or those of Sychaeus, and so merely witnesses of it. Perhaps 4. 21, Ov. Her. 7. 113, point rather to the latter, which is also more probable if we suppose that Dido is made actually to see the altar and the treasure (see on next line). On the other hand, we should more naturally think of the crime as perpetrated, like that of Atreus, in the house of the murderer, and the concealment would then have been more easy. But where the data are so few conjecture degenerates into licence.
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John Conington. P. Vergili Maronis opera. P. Vergili Maronis Opera. The works of Virgil, with a Commentary by John Conington, M.A. Late Corpus Professor of Latin in the University of Oxford. London. Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane. 1876.
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