[620] In Il. 3. 121 foll. Iris, sent with a message to Helen, assumes the form of Laodice, Priam's daughter and Helicaon's wife. Nothing more is known of this Beroe. The nation of her husband is disputed, the word being variously written in the MSS.; the varieties however reduce themselves to two, ‘Tmarii’ and ‘Ismarii,’ the rest, which are more or less obvious errors, tending to support ‘Tmarii.’ We have already seen the MSS. vary between ‘Tmaros’ and ‘Ismarus’ E. 8. 44. Internal evidence, as Heyne admits, would seem to be in favour of ‘Ismarii.’ Thrace and Troy were neighbouring and allied countries, and a Trojan woman might easily marry a Thracian; while those who vindicate Tmarus have to suppose that Beroe left Troy with Helenus, married in Epirus, and (probably becoming a widow) accompanied Aeneas. But the external authority for ‘Tmarii’ is too great to be resisted, the only evidence for ‘Ismarii’ among Ribbeck's MSS. being an abortive attempt in Med. to correct ‘Mari,’ the original reading, into ‘Immari’ or ‘Immarii,’ so that we must suppose Virg. to have introduced another reference (comp. note on v. 360) to Aeneas' visit to Epirus, either from a legend now lost, or from his own spirit of invention, seeking to give an air of verisimilitude to a narrative which has not the background of a consistent history. Lachmann's decision (on Lucr. 4.1169) that the final vowel in ‘Beroe’ would not have been elided by Virg. seems arbitrary. The name of Doryclus occurs Il. 11. 489, as that of a natural son of Priam, killed by Ajax.
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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. Late Corpus Professor of Latin in the University of Oxford. London. Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane. 1876.
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