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A Note on Ille Ego Qui Qvondam…

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

T. E. V. Pearce
T. E. V. Pearce
Affiliation:
University of Aberdeen
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Extract

I Agree with R. G. Austin, who in his recent paper (CQ, N.S. xviii (1968), 107 ff.) showed that Virgil did not write this proem to the Aeneid, and suggested (p. 115) that it was produced in the first half of the first century, perhaps prompted by the problem mentioned by Servius on A. I. I: ‘multi varie disserunt cur ab armis Vergilius coeperit.’ I wish here to comment briefly on the content of the lines.

(a) gracili

qui... carmen refers to the writing of the Eclogues. As Austin points out (p. 112), Virgil has gracilis only in E. 10. 70 ff., the conclusion of the whole of the Eclogues:

Haec sat erit, divae, vestrum cecinisse poetam,

dum sedet et gracili fiscellam texit hibisco,

Pierides…

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , December 1970 , pp. 335 - 338
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1970

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References

page 335 note 1 I must thank Professor Austin, R. G. and Professor Williams, G. W. for their interest and their comments.Google Scholar

page 335 note 2 It has dropped out of the corresponding notes in Servius and the Scholia Bernensia.

page 335 note 3 No doubt it is owing to the influence of E. i. 2 and 6. 8 that in the text of ille ego... in the Vita Donati (42) G reads tenui and E meditatus.

page 336 note 1 Ovid, , Ex P. 2. 5. 25fGoogle Scholar. ‘dum tarnen in rebus temptamus carmina parvis, / materiae gracili sufficit ingenium’ may well be earlier than ille ego..., but is not quite parallel, as gracili here refers to the subject-matter of the poem rather than the poem itself.

page 336 note 2 The other terms found before ille ego... are extenuatus (Ad Her. 4. 11), subtilis (Cic. De Or. 3. 177), tenuis (De Or. 3. 199, 212, Orat. 20) (cf. extenuatus), and humilis (Orat. 75).

page 336 note 3 Itmay be owing to the influence of E. 10. 51 that the Z group of manuscripts of the Vita Donati (42) and the manuscript L of Priscian (Keil iii. 191) read carmina, not carmen.

page 336 note 4 . Leo, Ausg. kl. Schr. ii. 19Google Scholar.

page 337 note 1 . Nemesianus, , Ecl. 2. 82 ff.Google Scholar ‘cantamus avena, /..., qua dulce locutus / Tityrus e silvis dominarli pervenit in urbem’.

page 337 note 2 Propertius associates woods with the Eclogues in 2. 34. 67fGoogle Scholar. ‘tu canis umbrosi subter pineta Galaesi / Thyrsin’, though the Galaesus is not mentioned in them and was probably prompted by G. 4. 126.

page 337 note 3 Dryden, in his Dedication of the Aeneis, says that quamvis avido is ‘too ambitious an Ornament to be Virgil’s’.