[117] ‘Soon to be founder of an Italian house.’ The connecting of Roman families with Trojan heroes is not a fancy of Virg.'s, but dates from an earlier period. Varro wrote a book ‘de familiis Troianis.’ Virg. may or may not have derived Mnestheus from μεμνῆσθαι, Memmius from ‘meminisse:’ but he evidently follows the analogy of those words in his etymology, as μεμνῆσθαι became ‘meminisse,’ so Mnestheus became ‘Memmius.’ It is disputed whether ‘Memmi’ is nom. pl. or gen. sing., but perhaps the latter is the simpler, as Wagn. remarks, comp. v. 123. ‘Mnestheus,’ 4. 288.
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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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