[114] Eurypylus, Il. 2. 736. ‘Scitantem,’ the present part. used as in 1. 519., 11. 101, is the reading of Pal. and the great majority of the MSS., followed by Wagn. and later editors. Heins. and Heyne had restored ‘scitatum’ on the authority of Med., where however the reading was originally ‘scitantum.’ Pomponius Sabinus has a strange note, “scitatum, non si tantum,” from which it may be argued either that Apronianus, whom he generally follows, finding ‘scitantum,’ had conceived that it could only stand for ‘si tantum’ or ‘scitatum,’ or that ‘si tantum’ was actually an old reading, which again would point to ‘scitantem’ as the original word. Serv. however mentions both readings. Not much help is to be derived from internal considerations, as while an ignorant copyist might be puzzled with the supine, a more instructed one might find a difficulty in the present participle; and so some inferior MSS. cut the knot by reading ‘scitari.’ ‘Oracula Phoebi:’ there is nothing to fix the oracle intended, whether Delphi, Delos, Patara, or Chrysa. In Hom. of course Calchas is the only interpreter of the divine will, and in Aeschylus he resolves the difficulty at Aulis.
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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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