[35] Serv. raises a question between ‘excelso’ and ‘ex celso.’ The former has been generally preferred: but Wagn. and Forb. adopt the latter, on the ground that ‘vertice’ without a preposition could only mean ‘on the top.’ ‘Vertice’ however appears to mean ‘from the top’ 1. 403, and perhaps 4. 168, both of which in different ways are parallel to the present passage. On the other hand it does not seem likely that Virg. should have written ‘ex celso,’ thus creating an ambiguity which he might easily have avoided by writing ‘e celso,’ itself the reading of one or two MSS., recommended by Bentley. The choice then seems to lie between ‘excelso’ and ‘e celso,’ and the weight of external evidence is decisive for the former. With this pregnant use of ‘miratus’ comp. v. 727 below, “caelo miseratus ab alto est.”
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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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