[88] Opera is taken by Henry in the technical sense of military works, which it might certainly bear (see Forc.): but perhaps the general is more poetical here. At any rate it is so far general as to include the two details that follow, the ‘muri’ and the ‘machina.’ ‘Minae’ is taken by Serv. of the battlements, so called from “minari:” (he comp. “eminere”) but Heyne justly remarks that such a sense would be less poetical (comp. “formido” G. 3. 372 note), and that it seems confined to late writers. On the other hand the ‘threatening of the walls’ is a forcible and original expression, arising from the use of “minari” in such passages as 1. 162 note.
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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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