[140, 141] He again supposes himself to be arguing against the Trojans, who are made to plead that they have satisfied the requirement of destiny or the malice of fortune by having been ruined once, much as Aeneas actually pleads 6. 62. ‘Si’ is read by some MSS., including Gud. corrected, for ‘sed.’ There is the same variety in Hor. 1 Ep. 1. 57, 58. ‘Fuisset’ = “esse debebat:” comp. 4. 678., 8. 643. For ‘peccare’ some copies have ‘peccasse,’ which may seem plausible: but ‘peccare ante’ = ‘peccasse.’ The sense is rightly given by Heyne: “ita vero satis etiam habere debebant, semel rapuisse feminam, quippe qui ex raptu Helenae ea mala experti sint, ut modo non omne, h. e. totum genus femineum perosi esse debeant: tantum abest ut novum raptum, Laviniae, meditentur.” The qualifying expression ‘modo non’ reminds us of rhetoric rather than of poetry: but it must be set down to the general tone of the speech, which is decidedly oratorical. Wagn. Lectt. Vergg. pp. 352 foll. accounts for ‘modo non’ on the ground that but for such a qualification the Trojans would be condemned to hate not only those whom they might possibly marry but those whom they might not, such as mothers and sisters. He has now however in his 3rd school edition changed his opinion, and takes ‘penitus—perosos’ as an indignant exclamation—‘to think that they should now (‘modo,’ ἄρτι) not abhor the whole race of women!’ But it seems doubtful whether he had fully grasped Heyne's meaning even when he supported it, as in Lectt. Vergg. l. c. he finds a chronological incongruity between the two clauses ‘peccare—satis’ and ‘penitus— perosos,’ not seeing that ‘ante’ does not go with ‘fuisset’ but with ‘peccare.’ Peerlkamp and Ribbeck adopt ‘modo nunc,’ a conj. of Markland's, found also in the Venice edition of 1472, and perhaps supported by a reading mentioned by Pierius, ‘modo nec.’ ‘Fuisset’ then would have its ordinary sense, ‘modo perosos’ being understood as “modo perosi essent;” ‘it would have been enough for them to sin once, had they learnt to detest the race of women now.’ But it is difficult to see what advantage the new reading has over the old. For ‘perosos’ there is a strange variant ‘perosus,’ found as a correction in both Med. and fragm. Vat., and originally in Gud., where it is altered into ‘perosum,’ the reading of not a few inferior copies, a change equally meaningless, but more easily accounted for. Whether ‘perosis’ is found anywhere does not appear, as it seems a mistake to attribute it to Gud. Rom. has ‘non modo.’ ‘Penitus perosos’ like “dilectam penitus Iovi” Hor. 1 Od. 21. 4.
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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. and Henry Nettleship, M.A. London. Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane;. George Bell and Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1876.
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