[647] Heyne and Henry seem right, after Cerda, in connecting ‘ab rupe’ with ‘Cyclopas.’ The Cyclops live on the mountain-tops (Od. 9. 113), and Achemenides sees them skulking among the woods on the low ground. So immediately below, v. 655, ‘summo monte’ belongs not to ‘videmus’ but to ‘moventem.’ ‘Ab rupe’ may either mean ‘in the direction of the cliff,’ like “vicino ab limite” E. 1. 53, or ‘coming down the cliff.’ The singular furnishes no objection, as Achemenides may well be thinking of a single occasion when he saw and heard a Cyclops on a cliff. ‘Prospicio’ however, as Mr. Long remarks, is in favour of supposing Achemenides to have mounted a rock for observation, as he apparently does v. 651.
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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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