[55] Moritura tenebat: held him with the grasp of one resolved on death. By ‘moritura’ Virg. indicates not merely her intention (v. 62) but the realization of it (v. 600 foll.). The conception of Amata and her suicide is much more in the spirit of the Greek tragedy than in that of Homer: neither the speech of Andromache to Hector in Il. 6, nor that of Hecuba in Il. 22, much resembles these lines. Ribbeck, with strange insensibility, conj‘monitura.’
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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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