previous next

vana, ‘weak,’ ‘futile,’ ‘ineffectual,’ “μάταιος”, of a person whose hopes, endeavours, or predictions are doomed to be disappointed or falsified. Cf. Liv. I. xxvii. 1, vanum ingenium, Virg. Aen.I. 392, ni frustra augurium vani docuere parentes, where the explanation ‘impostors’ seems quite inappropriate, Juv.iii. 159, sic libitum vano qui nos distinxit Othoni, id. XIV. 211. It may be doubted whether the word ever has the force of ‘wilfully deceiving.’ See Henry on Virg. Aen.II. 80, and compare with his explanation VIII. 722, where fallere seems to have the same alternative force as mendacem used of Sinon.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide References (2 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (2):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: