[632] ‘Inplicuere:’ comp. Sall. Iug. 59, quoted on v. 618 above. ‘Vir virum legit’ was an old Roman phrase, which seems to have been originally applied to cases of conscription, where certain individuals were bidden to select other persons individually in order to make up an army: comp. Livy 9. 39, “lege sacrata coacto exercitu, cum vir virum legisset.” Id. 10. 38, “decem nominatis ab inperatore edictum ut vir virum legerent, donec sexdecim milium numerum confecissent.” Suetonius uses it twice of the filling up of vacancies in the Senate by a similar process, Aug. 35, 54, though in the latter passage the reading is not quite certain. Cic. Pro Mil. 21 uses it contemptuously to express the suitability of Clodius' companions to himself. Tac. H. 1. 18 makes Galba apply it to his adoption of Piso, “more divi Augusti et exemplo militari quo vir virum legeret.” Virg. evidently means it to be understood of man singling out man in hand-to-hand fighting, perhaps taking a hint from Il. 15. 328, which evidently was in his mind, ἔνθα δ᾽ ἀνὴρ ἑλεν ἄνδρα κεδασθείσης ὑσμίνης, as if ἕλεν ῀ εἵλετο. Comp. also Il. 4. 472, ἀλλήλοις ἐπόρουσαν, ἀνὴρ δ᾽ ἄνδρ᾽ ἐδνοπάλιζεν. Comp. Livy 22. 47, “in directum utrimque nitentes, stantibus ac confertis postremo turba equis, vir virum amplexus detrahebat equo.”
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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. and Henry Nettleship, M.A. London. Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane;. George Bell and Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1876.
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