[442] ‘The spot in which the Poeni after their wanderings first found the sign which Juno had taught them to expect.’ The horse's head is to the Carthaginians what the white sow is to Aeneas. Comp. 3. 388 foll., “Signa tibi dicam” &c. There is perhaps an intentional parallel between the dawn of hope to the Carthaginians on this spot and to Aeneas on the same spot. Comp. v. 450, where the expression is much the same. From this it would seem that ‘primum’ is an adverb, not an epithet of ‘signum,’ as Wagn. suggests. Comp. however 3. 537.
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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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