[668, 669] “Scclernm poenas” 11. 258. Heyne remarks that Catiline is chosen to be the arch-criminal as one whom all parties were agreed to give up. ‘Minaci pendentem scopulo’ is understood by Heyne and later commentators as if Catiline were extended beneath a rock which threatened to fall on him, like the criminals in 6. 602. But this does not seem to suit ‘pendentem.’ It is surely more likely that he is represented as on the verge of a precipice, with a reference doubtless to the Tarpeian rock, just in the agony of falling into the abyss. The Furies then are probably to be understood as pursuing and driving him over the brink. ‘Minaci’ will be overhanging, and consequently precipitous. Turneb. V. L. 23. 3 rather strangely explains the words of Catiline lying unburied on the top of a lofty rock.
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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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