[448] Caeneus is restored by Wagn. from all the MSS. for ‘Caenis,’ a conjecture of Heins. supported by a correction in the Dresd. Serv. The feminine appellative would introduce a somewhat more regular construction, though, as Wagn. points out, Caeneus transformed back to a woman would naturally be expressed “Caeneus in veterem revolutus figuram:” but Virg. has chosen to express the confusion of the sexes by a certain confusion in the position, not perhaps in the construction, of the words. The construction seems to be, as Wagn. has seen, ‘Caeneus iuvenis quondam, nunc femina revoluta.’ The licence assumed by Latin writers in making a verb or adj. agree not with the proper subject of the sentence, but with something placed in apposition to it, is well known. Wagn. comp. Sil. 11. 25, “Iam vero Eridani tumidissimus accola, Celtae, Incubuere.” See also Madv. § 217.
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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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