[748] Rotam volvere seems merely to express the completion of a period, as Serv. explains it, remarking, “est autem sermo Ennianus.” Comp. the use of “volvens” G. 2. 295, and see on 1. 9. Whether the revolution is one of the whole period, or, as ‘per’ might seem to show, of each successive year, it would perhaps be a refinement to inquire. The mention of a thousand years is probably suggested by the myth in Plato Rep. 10 p. 615 A, where those who have done wrong in life are punished through ten periods of a hundred years each, a hundred years being the estimated length of a life-time on earth, so that each criminal receives tenfold punishment, after which they are allowed to choose new lives, and each is made to drink of the river of Indifference (see on v. 715), as a preliminary to his new existence. Comp. also Plato Phaedr. p. 249, where the period is similarly given. In Pind. fr. 98 (Bergk ed. 1), quoted by Plato Meno p. 81, the return to earth takes place in the ninth year.
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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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