[842] Gracchi genus probably refers not only to the two brothers, but to their ancestor who distinguished himself in the second Punic war. ‘Geminos Scipiadas’ is explained by Serv. of the two Scipios who fell in Spain, an interpretation supported, as Cerda remarks, by Cic. pro Balbo 15, “Cum duo fulmina nostri inperii subito in Hispania, Cn. et P. Scipiones, exstincti occidissent,” though there ‘lumina’ would seem a more probable reading (comp. 11. 349, “Lumina tot cecidisse ducum”). Cerda himself however and the later commentators have rightly seen that the reference must be to the elder and younger Africanus, who alone could be called ‘cladem Libyae.’ The elder Africanus is evidently referred to by Lucr. 3.1034, whom Virg. imitated,— “Scipiades, belli fulmen, Carthaginis horror, Ossa dedit terrae, proinde ac famul infimus esset.”
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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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