[483] Turneb. Adv. 14. 4 &c. explains ‘meliorem’ by the Greek custom of propitiating the gods when a second victim, for any reason, had to be substituted for a first, by exclaiming δευτέρων ἀμεινόνων. Whether such a custom prevailed in Rome (where substituted victims were called ‘succedaneae’ or ‘succidaneae’), is not stated: but the illustration seems plausible enough. So Turneb. explains 12. 296, “Hoc habet: haec melior magnis data victima divis.” There may also be some contempt intended to Dares in the word, the allusion being, as Germ. thinks, to the trial of the victim (see on 4. 61), which Plutarch calls τὴν ψυχὴν δοκιμάζειν. ‘The bull dies without flinching: Dares could not abide my blows.’ Serv. apparently thinks the bull is called ‘melior’ merely as compared with unbloody sacrifices. Peerlkamp conj. ‘meliore,’ comparing Ov. F. 6. 162, “Hanc animam vobis pro meliore damus,” said of a young pig sacrificed for a child. If we could suppose this to have been a common expression, we might consider that Virg. alluded to it, without adopting it.
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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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