[702] Thuc. 6. 4 says of Gela καὶ τῇ μὲν πόλει ἀπὸ τοῦ Γέλα ποταμοῦ τοὔνομα ἐγένετο, τὸ δὲ χωρίον, οὗ νῦν ἡ πόλις ἐστί, καὶ ὃ πρῶτον ἐτειχίσθη, Λίνδιοι καλεῖται. The meaning of ‘inmanis’ is much disputed, some referring it to the size of the place, which however is not known to have been very large, others to the tyrants who ruled it, while the later editors understand it as a genitive, not very probably, and refer it to the dangerous character of the river. In lengthening the final syllable of ‘Gela’ Virg. has followed the Greek (see Lachm. on Lucr. 6.971). Silius Italicus on the contrary, in a similar enumeration of Sicilian cities (14. 218), has “Venit ab amne trahens nomen Gela.” A difficulty has been made about ‘fluvii,’ the “ii” in the genitive being said not to be found in Virg. Lachm. however, in his elaborate treatment of the whole subject on Lucr. 5. 1006, allows it in hexameters in the case of trisyllables, comparing “apii” in the Moretum, v. 89, “Latii” in Gratius, Cyn. 18, 38, “spatii” in Germanicus, v. 531, Porson conjectured ‘fluvio,’ regarding ‘cognomine’ as an adj., as in 6. 383; but the omission of the preposition would be harsh, and the attempt to supply it by reading ‘a fluvio’ (Martin) produces a very un-Virgilian line. There is no difficulty in making ‘cognomen’ = “nomen,” as in 12. 845, which Forb. comp. With the repetition ‘campique Geloi, Gela’ Lachm. comp. Il. 2. 711, παραὶ Βοιβηΐδα λίμνην, Βοίβην καὶ Γλαφύρας.
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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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