[57] Exquirunt seems to be used because the notion of discovering the mind of the gods has to be combined with the ordinary one of gaining their favour. Here and in 6. 39., 8. 544, ‘de more’ seems to refer not simply to ‘lectas,’ but to the whole clause, ‘mactant lectas bidentis,’ as Forb. remarks; comp. 3. 369, “caesis . . . . de more iuvencis,” to which add 5. 96., 7. 93. The precise meaning of ‘bidens’ is fixed by Henry in the following note. “The fact is, as I have satisfied myself by observation, that the sheep, until it has attained the age of one year, has a set of eight primary or milk teeth: when the age of one year has been attained, the two central of these eight teeth drop out, and are replaced by the first two teeth of the second or permanent set, which being very large and conspicuous among the six remaining milk teeth (originally much smaller, and now greatly diminished by use and absorption), the animal at first sight appears to have only two teeth (sheep never having any teeth at all in the upper jaw): hence the appellation ‘bidens.’ This condition of the teeth continues during the whole of the second year, at the end of which, i. e. when the sheep is two years old complete, two more of the milk teeth drop, and are replaced by two large permanent teeth exactly similar to, and one on each side of, the two first; so that from the completion of the second year till the beginning of the third the sheep appears to have a set of four large teeth, and is no longer ‘bidens.’”
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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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