[848] Credo equidem 4. 12. Here it has almost the force of ‘cedo,’ which was conjectured by Markland, and is the first reading of Pal. ‘Cedo equidem’ occurs 2. 704., 12. 818, but not quite in this sense. ‘Credo equidem’ is not ironical, as Burm. thinks, but means ‘I can well believe it,’ i. e., I am quite ready to admit it. So Hor. 2 Ep. 1. 66 foll., “Si quaedam nimis antique, si pleraque dure Dicere credit eos, ignave multa fatetur,” unless there we are to read ‘cedit’ with Bentley from the Queen's Coll. MS. ‘Ducere’ is properly used of producing forms by extension, as in metal (7. 634), wax (Pers. 5. 40., Juv. 7. 237), or clay (“ducere lateres de terra” Vitruv. 2. 3). Hence it is transferred to marble, probably with the accessory notion of the form growing and spreading over the material under the sculptor's hand. ‘De marmore’ is a material abl., as in 4. 457, G. 3. 13, but it also stands in connexion with ‘ducere,’ like “lento argento” in 7. 634 just cited.
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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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