[603] Fuerat in the place of “fuisset:” see on G. 2. 133. So ‘quem metui’ seems to stand for “quem metuissem,” as Gossrau thinks, though in that case we should have expected “metueram.” Perhaps we may say that Dido identifies herself as she is now with what she would have been in the case supposed, being in either case ‘moritura:’ so that she asks ‘whom have I feared?’ as a more direct way of putting the question ‘whom should I have feared?’ In v. 19 we have “potui” when we might have expected “potuissem.” ‘Castra:’ the military term is transferred to naval matters, as in 3. 519.
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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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