[315] Much difficulty has been made about ‘tamen,’ which is really one of the most pathetic touches in Virg. It refers to a suppressed thought, as if he had said “perituri quidem, multis tamen,” &c. Some, as Heyne, have thought of emending the line; others, as Peerlkamp and Dietsch, of omitting the obnoxious words and combining vv. 315, 316 into one: while those who defend the text as it stands press, with Serv., the sense of ‘inimica,’ as if the meaning were that their plunder of the camp led to their ruin, a view which, though far more tolerable than the others which have been proposed, would still in its degree injure the passage. The words of Serv. however, “cum dolore dictum est ‘inimica,’” contrast favourably with those of later crities, who talk of “inpedita sententia,” or even propose “loco tabem eximere desectis verbis.” With the sense generally comp. 10. 509, “Cum tamen ingentis Rutulorum linquis acervos.” ‘Multis futuri exitio’ like “Exitio est avidum mare nautis” Hor. 1 Od. 28. 18. For ‘ante’ see note on 12. 680.
This text is part of:
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.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.