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Varvs and Varivs
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
These are not two adjectives. They are two men—or, rather, two shadows. If I said that they were two names I should be speaking inexactly. The name of Varus occurs five times in Vergil: and twice (Ecl. VI. 12, IX. 35) out of these five times the oldest Latin MSS. which we possess have confounded it with that of Varius. In the Vitae Vergilianae, recently edited with an adequate Apparatus Criticus, the names Varus and Varius are found, I think, twenty-eight times; and twenty-two times out of these twenty-eight all, or most, of our MSS. have confused them—and that though in thirteen cases we are dealing with codices of saec. IX.–X. The same names occur four times in Quintilian, and in one case all, in another all the respectable, MSS. have got them wrong. They occur thrice in Martial—twice right, once wrong. I have selected these particular writers for a reason that will appear later. But the MSS. of Horace tell a like tale.
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References
Page 207 note 1 A phrase which seems to be imitated in alter Euripides.' Sidon. Apoll., Carm. IX. 230Google Scholar, 'orchestram quatit
Page 208 note 1 I employ here, and elsewhere, the Apparatus Criticus of Halm.
Page 208 note 2 I.: 6, 8; 8, 11 (6 exx.). II.: 4, 18, 35; 16, 7; 17, 21. III.: 5, 17; 7, 5; 8, 57; 11. 14. IV.: 2, 123; 3, 13. V.: 9, 12 (3 exx.); 10, 79, 93; 12, 17; 11, 15; 13, 33. VI.: 3, 27, 39, 40 (3 exx.), 44, 51, 68, 81, 84, 86, 92.
The form in -i, as Neue-Wagener points out, survived in proper names long after -ii bad become usual in common names.
I do not pretend that my figures are exhaustive; but they may, I think, be regarded as sufficiently accurate for my purpose.
Page 209 note 1 Even here variants Varum and Varrum are recorded from inferior MSS., not recognized in Halm.
Page 209 note 2 Diehl, 48: Varus our best MS. (saec. IX).
Page 209 note 3 Conington's Vergil, ed. V, xciv.
Page 210 note 1 Both Horace, A.P. 90 sq., speaking of the Thyestes, and Vergil(Ecl. VIII., perhaps also of the same work = see para. 1, p. 213) use carmina of the tragic drama.
Page 210 note 2 Serv. on Ecl. III. 20 adds a great deal of detail of an obviously legendary character. A different form of the legend may be seen in Acron on Hor. Epp. I. 4. 3.
Page 211 note 1 Class. Rev. XXIII., p. 163.
Page 212 note 1 They are usnally interpreted to mean, ‘I sing at the bidding of Augustus.’ But the Eclogues were not undertaken at the bidding of Augustus, unless, with Servius, we are to refer Ecl. VIII. 6–13 to Augustus. It seems inappropriate, again, to interpret non iniussa cano as = iussu Pollionis cano. Vergil was a candida anima, but he knew better than to say to Varus, ‘I take my orders from Pollio, not from you.’ What he does say to Varus is, as I understand him, this: ‘You ask me, Varus, for an epic. But Phoebus bids me still occupy myself with bucolic poetry. There are plenty of people to write epics for you. I will go on with my Eclogues—they were undertaken at your orders. None the less any reader will see in them—as much as in the epic you desiderate—LaudesVari.’ (The difficulty made by editors over tamen in 9 arises from the failure to perceive that non iniussa cano is a parenthesis.)
Page 212 note 2 He is suggested by Philargyrius—no doubt for the same reason as makes Servius suggest Augustus.
Page 214 note 1 I pass by A.P. 186.
Page 215 note 1 The word Menalcam is not altogether certain. But edd. seem to agree on the last letter. If this tells against my Menalca, it tells also against Mai's introduction of IX. 10, where all the MSS. have Menalcan—and so no doubt Vergil always wrote these accusatives: cf. Ecl. II. 10, VI. 43. I would explain the M of MenalcaM as the AA of MENALCAAEQUECUM.
Page 217 note 1 I am happy to say that the view taken in this paragraph is confirmed by the opinion of Dr. G. B. Grundy, who was kind enough to write to me upon the subject.
Page 218 note 1 The poems represented by the fragments in 23–25 were perhaps excluded as being merely translations. The Daphnis poem (46–50), possibly, was omitted when Ecl. V. was added, in order that the final recension should not contain three Daphnis eclogues.
That these lost eclogues should have left no traces of themselves in the literary tradition of the times need not surprise us when we recall the complete disappearance of the first edition of the fourth book of the Georgics.
Page 219 note 1 Poematia perhaps with an allusion to the Poematia of his friend Servius Augurinus (Epp. IV. 27. 1). But one at least of the lost works of Lucan, also perhaps bore this title—Vaccae Vita 15, p. 336Google Scholar, Hosius. (The MSS. have ip(ap)pamata: perhaps apospasmatia.)