[211] “Accipies caelo” (deification) 1. 290. On the other hand the deified person is said “deum vitam accipere” E. 4. 15. If the present is to be pressed, we may say that it expresses here the perpetuity of the divine life, perhaps also the daily feasting. ‘Numerum—addit:’ the reading before Heins. was ‘numerum— auget.’ He introduced ‘numero—addit’ from Gud. (originally), the object of ‘addit’ being understood to be ‘illum,’ Dardanus, who is added to the number of the gods by altars, i. e. by having altars raised to him. The editors since his time have generally preferred ‘numerum— addit,’ supposing it to be found in Rom., if not in Med., and explaining it ‘adds his number to (or, as some appear to have taken it, ‘adds number to,’ increases the number of) the altars of the gods.’ It now appears from Ribbeck that all the uncials (fragm. Vat, Med., Pal., Rom.) read ‘auget,’ and all ‘numerum,’ except perhaps Pal., which has ‘numerum’ altered into ‘numero.’ ‘Numerum—addit’ is the corrected reading of Gud., and is found in two other of Ribbeck's cursives. ‘Auget’ is no doubt the easier reading: yet without saying that it is to be distrusted on that account, we may still urge, what was urged when the MS. testimony for it was unknown, that it looks like a correction by some one who did not see that ‘divorum’ belonged to ‘altaribus,’ not to ‘numero;’ and it may further be questioned whether the addition of ‘altaribus,’ with altars built to him, when he has not been mentioned in the clause, is in the manner of Virg. ‘Novis altaribus,’ or any other similar epithet pointing indirectly to the person intended, would have been a different thing. ‘Numerum—addit,’ on the other hand, in the sense of ‘adds his number,’ or ‘adds him as an item’ (in prose “numerat illum inter divos qui altaria habent”), seems sufficiently Virgilian, though no one has supported this use of ‘numerus’ by anything nearer than “sideris in numerum” G. 4. 227, where see note. ‘Numero—addit’ would be a possible reading: but it is not easy to estimate its external authority, especially in our ignorance of the relation which Pal. bears to Gud., and ‘altaribus’ = “altaribus positis” would perhaps be a little harsh. Those who support ‘auget’ may quote Livy 1. 7, “Te (Herculem) mihi mater . . aucturum caelestium numerum cecinit, tibique aram hic dicatum iri.”
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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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