[82] Lucosque, &c. The chief thing with a view to explaining this difficult passage is to ascertain what and where Albunea is. Heyne and Forb. take it as a spring, and Heyne's ultimate interpretation, given in a review in the Göttingen Gelehrt. Anzeig. for 1804, p. 1672, was “Albunea aqua, quae sonat fonte sacro, maxuma (aquarum) nemorum, i. e. nemoris.” But in the first place it is difficult to understand the meaning of “lucos sub Albunea aqua,” and in the second place ‘quae maxuma nemorum’ for “quae maxuma aquarum nemorum,” and that for “aquarum nemoris,” seems hardly admissible. G. 2. 15, “nemorumque Jovi quae maxuma frondet Aesculus” is not nearly so strong. Wagn., following Bonstetten's Voyage sur la scène des six derniers livres de l'Enéide (p. 205), takes Albunea as a wood, which removes some difficulties, but leaves ‘lucos sub alta Albunea’ to be explained. It is however not yet determined where Albunea itself is. Serv. places it “in altis montibus Tiburtinis,” and Heyne originally identified it with the fall of the sulphurous waters of the Albula into the Anio at Tibur: but Bonstetten thinks he has discovered it in the sulphurous spring of Altieri near the fane of Anna Perenna on the road to Ardea, and his opinion was accepted by Heyne, and is adopted by Mr. Bunbury, Dict. G. ‘Ardea.’ The former view is confirmed by Hor. 1. Od. 7. 12, where “domus Albuneae resonantis” is coupled with “praeceps Anio et Tiburni lucus,” and by Lactant. Inst. 1. 6 (quoting Varro) “decimam (Sibyllam) Tiburtem, nomine Albuneam, quae Tiburi colitur ut dea, iuxta ripas amnis Anienis.” ‘Sonat’ here and “resonantis” in Hor. seem to imply a waterfall. Mr. Long has no doubt that the Albunea was the sulphur lake (or nymph of the lake) from which issues the canal of the Albula. Virg., he says, has confused the lake and the woods round the lake. The difficulty (he continues) is that the lake is not at Tibur, but at least two Roman miles below the heights of Tibur, where the cascade is.
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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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