[441]
Wund. remarks that two struggles
were going on between the assailants
and defenders, one about scaling the walls
of the palace, the other about forcing an
entrance through the doors (vv. 449, 450).
The progress of the one is described vv.
452—468, that of the other vv. 469 foll.
The ‘testudo’ here intended is probably
not the machine so called, but the συνασπισμός.
Quinct. Smyrnaeus, following,
it is supposed, the early Cyclic writers, represents
the Greeks as attacking Troy in
this manner, in a passage, part of which
may be worth quoting (11. 358 foll.):
“Καὶ τότ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἀμφ᾽ Ὀδυσῆα δαΐφρονα κύδιμοι
ἄνδρες
κείνου τεχνήεντι νόῳ ποτὶ μῶλον Ἄρηος
ἀσπίδας ἐντύναντο, βάλον δ᾽ ἐφύπερθε
καρήνων,
θέντες ἐπ᾽ ἀλλήλῃσι: μίη δ᾽ ἅπαν ἥρμοσεν
ἅρμη.
Φαίης κεν μεγάροιο κατηρεφὲς ἔμμεναι
ἕρκος
πυκνόν, ὃ οὔτ᾽ ἀνέμοιο διέρχεται ὑγρὸν
ἀέντος
ῥιπὴ ἀπειρεσίη, οὔτ᾽ ἐκ Διὸς ἄσπετος
ὄμβρος:
τοῖαι Ἀργείων πεπυκασμέναι ἀμφὶ βοείαις
καρτύναντο φάλαγγες: ἔχον δ᾽ ἕνα θυμὸν
ἐς ἀλκήν,
εἰς ἓν ἀρηράμεναι: καθύπερθε δὲ Τρώϊοι
υἷες
βάλλον χερμαδίοισι: τὰ δ᾽ ὡς στυφελῆς
ἀπὸ πέτρης
γαῖαν ἐπὶ τραφερὴν ἐκυλίνδετο.
”
This text is part of:
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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