[249] Nunc, &c.: Wagn., Forb., and Jahn understand these words of the death of Antenor; but in spite of the special pleading of the former that a peaceful death would naturally be mentioned as the climax of the wanderer's happiness, and that Antenor, even during the Trojan war, must have been near the grave, it is evident that the sense required is rather that of a tranquil settlement following on labours. The language undoubtedly is such as is more generally applied to death or sleep, but the occurrence of such expressions as “conponere pacem” (7. 339., 12. 822), or “foedus” (10. 15), “conponere bellum foedere” (12. 109), and “urbem tuta conponere terra” (3. 387), proves abundantly that the words ‘conpostus pace’ may well have been used of the repose of a peaceful life. Possibly too Virg. may have thought of Ennius' celebrated lines (A. 18. 7), “Sicut fortis equus, spatio qui saepe supremo Vicit Olympia, nunc senio confectu' quiescit,” where of course peaceful old age, not death, is meant. The antithesis between ‘fixit’ and ‘nunc quiescit’ merely implies that, after having founded his city, named his nation, and hung up his arms for ever, he entered on a prosperous reign.
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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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