[383] All Ribbeck's MSS. read ‘terrae,’ and he adopts it. Serv. however evidently read ‘terra,’ as he explains ‘cognomine’ as an adj., “facit autem hic et haec cognominis.” His first gloss “nominis sui similitudine,” points to a misunderstanding of ‘terra’ as if it were nom. ‘Cognominis’ is found in Plaut. and in later prose writers: see Forc. Serv. adds, “quod autem communi genere in ‘e’ misit ablativum metri necessitas fecit.” Ovid, doubtless from a similar necessity, uses “caeleste” and “perenne” as ablatives, M. 1. 743, F. 3. 654. A copyist with a superficial knowledge of Latin would naturally suppose ‘cognomine’ to be a substantive here; and how little copyists can be trusted as interpreters may be seen from the punctuation of Med. in this very line, ‘Corde dolor, tristi gaudet cognomine terrae.’ Heins. sums up the authorities for ‘terra,’ “Soli Rottendorphius secundus, Moretani primus et quartus a manu prima hic sapiebant, et pro diversa lectione alter Hamburgicus.”
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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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