[15] Arma, of a ship's furniture, as to 6. 353, where the specific reference is in the rudder, and possibly in 3. 371., 4. 290, though there I have preferred the more ordinary interpretation. We have already had “armari classem” 4. 299. So ὅπλα Od. 2. 390, 423, 430., 12. 410, passages which may have suggested to Virg. this use of the word, as no instances are quoted in the lexicous from other Latin authors. The precise meaning however of ‘colligere arma’ is not quite certain. It seems generally to be understood of taking in part of the sails. M. Jal, in his ‘Virgilius Nauticus’ (‘La Flotte de César,’ &c.) explains it of stowing away those parts of the ship's furniture that the wind might take hold of, streamers, &c. Mr. Long thinks Virgil means generally to make every thing tight and prepare for a squall. But it is possible that Virg. may have meant ‘colligere’ as well as ‘arma’ to be metaphorical, speaking of the sailors as men resuming the arms which they had laid down and preparing for action; or even that he may have thought of the phrase “se colligere in arma,” which he twice uses later in the poem, 10. 412., 12. 491. “Validis incumbite remis” 10. 294.
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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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