[159] Figere is so often used as a synonyme of ‘ponere’ that it would be most natural to take ‘vestigia figit’ like “vestigia ponat” G. 3. 195, or the more common “vestigium facere:” the meaning merely being that he walks along moodily. Forb. however, who contends against this, may be so far right that the use of ‘figere’ may be intended to show that the tread is slow, the foot being as it were driven into the earth each time, though he is certainly wrong in making it equivalent to “vestigia pressit” vv. 197, 331 below, where the notion is that of stopping. Comp. Lucr. 3.3, “inque tuis nunc Fixa pedum pono pressis vestigia signis,” where curiously enough all three verbs are used, though the use of “pressis” does not really support Forb.'s view. Serv. gives both explanations of ‘figit,’ stepping and stopping.
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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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