[339] ‘I did not come with a bridegroom's torch in my hand.’ The bridegroom does not seem to have carried the torch in the nuptial ceremony; but Virg., having occasion to use ‘praetendere’ to express a profession, chooses to develope the physical image which is the first intention of the word. ‘Haec’ is emphatic. Aeneas in effect says “Veni in hospitalia foedera, non in coniugalia.” With ‘venire in foedus’ comp. Livy 26. 40, “Voluntaria deditione in fidem venerunt ad quadraginta oppida.” With the general form of expression Forb. comp. 10. 901, “nec sic ad proelia veni, Nec tecum meus haec pepigit mihi foedera Lausus.”
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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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