[604] The allusions which follow are probably all to the foreign wars of Augustus. The Getae represent the tribes on the Danube, whose incursions disturbed that frontier of the empire (G. 2. 497), and against whom Lentulus made a successful expedition about A.U.C. 729. Catullus (11. 5. foll.) mentions the Hyrcanians and Arabians together with the Sacae and Parthians as representatives of the East, and perhaps the Hyrcani and Arabians are used in the same general way here. A special expedition was however made into Arabia Felix by Aelius Gallus, governor of Egypt under Augustus, in A.U.C. 728—30, according to Mommsen, Mon. Ancyr. p. 74. The rest relates to the real diplomatic success and imaginary warlike victories of Augustus in the East; to his protection of Tiridates, the defeated pretender to the throne of Parthia, who fled to him when he was in Syria after the battle of Actium, and to his recovery of the standards and captive soldiers of Crassus through the fears of the newly restored king Phraates A.U.C. 729. Comp. 6. 794 foll., G. 3. 30 foll. ‘Lacrimabile bellum’ is the Homeric πολύδακρυς Ἄρης, δακρυόεις πόλεμος. ‘Manu,’ 2. 645 &c.
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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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