[473] Nemus umbriferum: doubtless the ‘myrtea silva’ of v. 443. ‘Coniunx pristinus,’ as Sychaeus is called “coniunx antiquus” 4. 458. ‘Pristinus’ occurs again 10. 143., 12. 424 in the same sense of ‘former,’ ‘original:’ the early grammarians however made a difficulty about it, as appears from Serv., “prior: quod difficile invenitur: nam de hoc sermone quaerit et Probus et alii.” Heyne remarks that the old grammarians questioned many things about which no one now has any doubt, and that they are to be used rather as authorities for information otherwise gained independently of them than as actual sources of fresh knowledge. It matters little whether we suppose any reference to Dido's so-called second marriage to Aeneas: the relation is so designated, directly or indirectly, more than once in Book 4, and so may be intended here: but the passage does not require 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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