[4] Med., Pal., and Gud. originally, have ‘signant,’ which Heins. preferred and Wagn. now adopts. But though ‘signare nomen’ might possibly mean to impress a name, ‘signat,’ the reading of Rom. and most MSS., is far more natural, and the confusion of sing. and pl. by transcribers is common enough. ‘Signare’ then will mean to commemorate, as in 3. 287. Tac. Germ. 28, perhaps imitating this passage, has “nomen signat loci memoriam.” Wagn. seems right in his former explanation of the words ‘the name of a city and promontory in Italy is your epitaph,’ ‘Hesperia in magna’ going rather closely with ‘nomen.’ Comp. 6. 776, “Haec tum nomina erunt.” “Hesperia in magna” 1. 569. ‘Si qua est ea gloria’ as equivalent to “quae magna est gloria,” just as we might say ‘if the glory of sepulture in a great country be more than a dream.’ Serv. and Don. think there is a reference to the insensibility of the dead, which is not improbable, on comParison of 10. 828.
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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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