[372, 373] Butes is not known otherwise. ‘Victorem,’ “qui omnes devicerat” Gossrau, rightly, though no parallel instance of the word is quoted. ‘Victorem perculit’ is like 9. 571 foll., “sternit . . . . . . Ortygium Caeneus, victorem Caenea Turnus.” About the pointing and sense of the words that follow there have been many opinions. With much hesitation I have followed Peerlkamp in adopting Wakefield's punctuation, which connects ‘inmani corpore’ with ‘se ferebat,’ “he stalked along with giant bulk, coming as he did to Troy, one of the Bebrycian house of Amycus.” ‘Inmani corpore’ is not needed grammatically, as Wakef. thinks, to qualify ‘se ferebat,’ the sense of which is sufficiently completed by the clause ‘Bebrycia gente,’ as Wagn. and Forb. contend: but other passages in Virg. are strongly for connecting ‘se ferebat’ with ‘inmani corpore.’ Comp. “illius atros Ore vomens ignis magna se mole ferebat” 8. 198, an almost exact parallel, “ingentem sese clamore ferebat” 9. 597, and such passages as v. 368 just above, “vastis cum viribus effert ora,” “vasta se mole moventem” 3. 656. Heyne's pointing, which separates ‘se ferebat’ both from ‘inmani corpore’ and from ‘veniens,’ &c., is contrary to the usage of Virg., who never uses ‘se ferre’ without something to qualify and complete it, except where it is connected with words expressing the direction of the motion, as in 2. 672., 6. 241., 7. 492; and Jahn's (ed. 1), ‘qui se ferebat (=“iactabat”） Amyci de gente, Bebrycia veniens,’ introduces a sense of ‘se ferre’ unknown to Virg., though justifiable in itself. ‘Veniens,’ coming to Troy to take part in the games, not =“ortus,” a sense of the word which, as Wagn. says, is only found in the case of plants. ‘Veniens de gente’ however are not to be connected, as if it were “veniens ex gente,” though we have “Venerat antiquis Corythi de finibus Acron” 10. 719. Both the use of ‘de gente’ elsewhere in Virg., and the requirements of the present passage oblige us to take ‘de gente’ here not ‘from the nation’ but ‘of the family,’ so that it is to be constructed as if it were “veniens vir de gente” or “unus de gente.” Comp. 7. 750 with ib. 803. It is more to the point to say that the pugilist was a descendant of the mythic champion Amycus, whom Pollux conquered and killed, than that he was merely one of the same nation. ‘Bebrycia,’ a poetical variety for ‘Bebrycii,’ as Amycus was king of the Bebryces: comp. 6. 2., 7. 207, 209.— This description of the champion, as Heyne remarks, is modelled on Il. 23. 679, where Euryalus, the less fortunate candidate, is characterized as having come to Thebes to the funeral of Oedipus, and having there conquered all the natives.
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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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