[120] Velati lino Med., Pal., Rom. Gud. But Heyne rightly read ‘limo,’ on the authority of Serv., who writes “Caper tamen et Hyginus hoc loco dicunt lectionem esse corruptam: nam Virgilium its reliquisse confirmant, ‘Velati limo.’ Limus autem est vestis qua ab umbilico usque ad pedes prope tegebantur. Haec autem vestis habet in extremo sui purpuram limam, id est flexuosam, unde et nomen accipit.” Comp. (with Heyne) Gell. 12. 3, “Licio transverso, quod limum appellabatur, qui magistratibus præministrabant cincti erant.” Wagn. also refers to a Verona inscription (Orelli 3219, Corpus Inscr. Lat. 5. 1. 3401) “Honori M. Gavi . . . . apparitores et limocincti tribunalis eius,” and to Hyginus (in Rei Agrar. auct. a Goes. edit. p. 151), from whom it appears that the full form was “limus cinctus.” ‘Limo’ is given (according to Pottier) in two of the Paris MSS.: but see on 10. 705. ‘Verbena’ seems to have been a name for the grass and herbs plucked from the ground by the Fetiales and Pater patratus in the ceremony of making a treaty. (Livy, 1. 24.) See on E. 8. 65. Pliny, 22. 3, says, “Non aliunde (i. e. ex herbis ignobilibus) sagmina in remediis publicis fuere et in sacris legationibusque verbenae. Certe utroque nomine idem significatur, hoc est, gramen ex arce cum sua terra evolsum: ac semper e legatis cum ad hostes clarigatumque mitterentur, i. e. res raptas clare repetitum, unus utique Verbenarius vocatur.” Comp. Livy 30. 40. (Lersch, Antiqq. Verg. § 54.) In Livy 1. 24 the ‘pater patratus’ has his head and hair touched with the verbena.
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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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