[778] The reading of the latter part of this line is extremely doubtful. Serv. says that as it stands it cannot be scanned, but that it may be set right by changing the order of the words, ‘nec te hinc comitem asportare Creusam,’ though others prefer to read ‘portare.’ From this it seems that the authentic text in his time was supposed to be ‘nec te comitem hinc asportare,’ which is still found in Pal. and some other copies. The existing MSS. vary much: two of Ribbeck's cursives follow Serv.'s regulated text: Med. gives ‘nec te comitem hinc portare,’ while others have ‘nec te comitem asportare,’ ‘nec te hinc comitem portare,’ ‘nec te comitem portare.’ The last of these varieties is preferred by Wagn., Forb., and Gossrau, as probably representing the parent text from which the others were corrupted. But it may be doubted whether the fact that ‘hinc’ is found in different places in the different copies proves that it originally had no place at all, and doubted too whether the less common ‘asportare’ is likely to have been substituted by transcribers for the more common ‘portare.’ ‘Asportare’ is used by Cicero, Nepos, Plautus, and Terence (see Forc.); and though it may not be found elsewhere in poetry, it is a peculiarly appropriate word. Comp. Ter. Phorm. 3. 3. 18, “Quoquo hinc asportabitur terrarum, certumst persequi.” On the whole, then, while admitting the difficulty of the question, I have restored, as Ribbeck has done, the reformed Servian text, which Heyne and most of his predecessors adopted.
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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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