[521]
This line is commonly taken ‘the
time requires far other defenders than you,’
a sense in which it has become a stock
quotation. Henry however is clearly right
in supposing the meaning to be ‘we have
not now to look to arms, but to altars and
prayers,’ as the words which follow, ‘non,
si ipse meus nunc adforet Hector’ (with
which comp. vv. 291, 292, above), are
sufficient to show. With this interpretation
he well comp. Aesch. Supp. 188:
“ἄμεινόν ἐστι παντὸς οὕνεκ᾽, ὦ κόραι,
πάγον προσίζειν τῶνδ᾽ ἀγωνίων θεῶν:
κρείσσων δὲ πύργου βωμός, ἄρρηκτον
σάκος:
”
” For ‘defensoribus,’ applied to an inanimate object, he cites Caes. B. G. 4. 17, Claud. Ruf. 1. 79.
