[148] This simile is remarkable as an illustration of Nature from man, the reverse of which is the general rule in Virg. as in Hom. The image was no doubt suggested by the riots in the Roman forum during the furious political contests of the later republic.—‘Ac veluti.’ This passage, which has been already referred to in the note on G. 3. 196, is an instance of a simile where the construction of the sentence is fully drawn out. ‘Ac’ couples the whole (vv. 148—156) with what has gone before. The apodosis to ‘veluti’ is ‘sic’ (v. 154); that to ‘cum’ would seem to be ‘tum’ (v. 150), as it is there that the point of the simile is introduced. ‘Cum saepe,’ as Lucr. 3.912., 4. 1203, quoted by Forb.; apparently a confusion between “saepe cum” and “cum, ut saepe fit:” see Munro on Lucr. 5.1231. ‘Magno in populo,’ ‘in a concourse of people,’ not ‘in a mighty people.’ It may be questioned whether the position of the words here and in 6. 707, “Ac velut in pratis,” 11. 908, “Ac velut in somnis,” does not show that ‘magno in populo’ is meant to indicate the scene of the whole, so that a comma should be put after ‘populo.’
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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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