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413. ereptae virginis: at the rescue of the virgin'; a subjective genitive, like iubarum above. For the use of the participle, see H. 636, 4; LM. 1013; A. 292, a; B. 337, 5; G. 664, R. 2; (H. 549, 5, N. 2).

414. Undique: with collecti. acerrimus: Ajax was angered by the loss

of Cassandra.

416. Adversi: 'opposed (to each other)' and hence 'opposing.' turbine rupto: when a whirlwind bursts forth'; ablative absolute, expressing time. 417. Cf. I, 85, 86.

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This stone tablet represents scenes from the Trojan war. Only a portion, showing the walled city, is reproduced here. The upper scene represents the strife and bloodshed that followed immediately after the Greeks descended from the horse (11. 265 sqq.). The scene just below represents a court in the palace of Priam. The aged ruler is seated upon an altar. from which Pyrrhus is about to tear him (11. 506 sqq). On the right, Menelaus seeks to kill Helen. In the foreground at the left. Aeneas receives the Penates from a priest (cf. ll. 318321). Directly in front, Aeneas, guided by Mercury, is issuing from the city gate, bearing his father on his shoulder and leading Ascanius. Just behind is Creusa. Cf. 11. 721 sqq.

418. equis: with lactus. Cf. tegmine, I, 275. The winds are sometimes described as riding on horses.

419. imo fundo: cf. I, 84 and 125.

420. si quos: quoscumque. per umbram: cf. l. 397.

421. insidiis: see 11. 389 sqq.

422. primi: the foremost '; those in front. Cf. 1. 334.

mentita: 'de

ceptive,' with the regular active use of deponents. Mentilos is understood

also with clipeos.

423. Adgnoscunt: 'they recognize'; they perceive that our arms and shields are theirs, though worn by enemies. ora sono discordia signant: 'they (the primi, 1. 422) mark our speech, differing (from theirs) in sound.' Virgil seems to have regarded the speech (ora) of the Greeks and Trojans as being dialects of the same language.

424. Ilicet: 'instantly,' 'thereupon.'

425. dextra: cf. I, 98. ad aram: the great altar stood at the foot of the steps in front of the pronaos, not within the temple itself.

426. unus: emphatic, as in I, 15.

427. aequi: H. 451, 3; LM. 574; A. 218, b; B. 204, 1, a; G. 375; (H. 399, II).

428. Dis aliter visum: he deserved to live, but the gods willed it differently. Cf. below, l. 430.

429. a sociis: 'by their friends' on the summit of the temple, who are ignorant of their real character. See l. 410. Panthu: see l. 322.

430. infula: put by metonymy for the priestly office.

431. flamma meorum (civium). Aencas speaks as if burning Troy were a funeral pile, in which his slain countrymen had been consumed.

432. vestro: may be referred both to Troy, implied in Iliaci, and to meorum. 433. vices Danaum: 'encounters with the Greeks.' Vitavisse, meruisse : the subject, me, is omitted. fata fuissent: contain the notion of 'decreeing,' 'commanding'; hence, the following subjunctive with ut.

434. manu: 'by my hand'; i.e. by my bold deeds.

435. Iphitus et Pelias mecum: sc. divelluntur; are separated (from the rest) with me.'

436. vulnere Ulixi: 'the wound of,' i.e. 'inflicted by, Ulysses.' 437. vocati: sc. sumus.

438-558. Aeneas is now attracted by the noise of the combatants to the palace of Priam. On reaching the palace, he finds the great body of the Greeks, led on by Pyrrhus, making a furious assault on the front. He effects an entrance by a private postern gate, and ascending to the roof, aids the defenders in hurling down missiles and masses of the building material on the assailants. From the roof he sees the Greeks under Pyrrhus finally burst through the principal gate, and rush into the interior courts. He sees Pyrrhus slay Polites, a son of Priam, at the feet of his father, and Priam himself, after a feeble resistance, near the family altar.

438. ceu, etc.: 'as if other battles were nowhere going on'; i.e. as if all the fighting were concentrated here. H. 584, 4; LM. 944; A. 312; B. 307, 1; G. 602; (H. 513, II).

440. Sic explanatory of the foregoing words, and qualifies indomitum, ruentes, and obsessum. Martem: 'conflict.' For the participle after cernimus,

see H. 613,4; LM. 1019; A. 292, e; B. 337,3; G. 536; (H. 535, 4). The Greeks make an attack on the front of the palace in two divisions. One party, headed by Pyrrhus, storms the gate, under cover of their shields. These they join together above their heads, by lapping one shield over another, like the tiles or shingles of a roof, forming thus a testudo, under the shelter of which they are safe from the missiles hurled down upon them by the defenders (11. 441 and 469 sqq.). The other party attempts, by scaling ladders, to gain the battlements (11. 442-444).

441. acta testudine: 'with an advancing testudo.' limen: 'the gate.' 442. parietibus: for the case, see note on I, 226. On the pronunciation

of the word here, paryetibus, cf. note on abiete, 1. 16. 'close to the very posts'; i.e. of the palace gate.

postes sub ipsos:

443. Nituntur: 'they climb'; referring to the assailants. gradibus: 'on the steps' of the ladders. Join sinistris with obiciunt. "They present their shields with their left hands against the missiles (of the defenders), shielding themselves (thus, while) they grasp the battlements with their right hands.' 444. fastigia: 'battlements' of the parapet. See note on 1. 458.

445. tecta Culmina: refers to the whole roofing, including also the gilded rafters, auratas trabes, underneath the tiles.

446. His telis: 'with such weapons,' or 'missiles, as these.' Notice the emphatic position of His. ultima: 'the end of things'; when they see that things have come to the last extremity.

447. Extrema in morte: 'in death's extremity.'

449. alii: these are Trojans in the vestibule and court, standing ready with drawn swords to meet the enemy, if they should burst through the doors. imas fores: 'the doors below,' as distinguished from the roof where Aeneas stood.

451. Instaurati animi: refers both to himself and to his two companions. 452. vim: 'force'; i.e. new impulse.

453. Limen erat, etc.: this passage serves to explain how Aeneas and his comrades made their way into the palace in the rear, while the host of Greeks was swarming round the front walls and the principal entrance. Limen, fores, and postes all refer to the private entrance in the rear (relicti a tergo). Within this were corridors, affording an easy communication (pervius usus) of the various buildings or parts of the palace with each other (inter se).

456. incomitata: in a more public place the custom of the Trojans and Greeks would have required the matron to be attended by a female servant. 457. soceros: Priam and Hecuba. So patres, below, 1. 579.

458. Evado: 'I make my way'; by the private passage just described. ad summi fastigia culminis: 'to the battlements on the top of the roof.' Cf. 1. 302, and note. The poet has in mind a roof resting in the rear, on the colonnade which surrounds the courts, and sloping upward to the top, or

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terrace, of the outer wall, where it is fortified with a battlemented parapet, From this roof, or terrace Aeneas interrupted here and there with turrets. commands the view both of what is going on outside of the palace in front of the walls and gate, and also in the courts within.

460. Turrim: object of convellimus, l. 464. in praecipiti: 'on the edge.' summis Eductam tectis: 'rising with lofty roof.'

462: solitae: sc. sunt.

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463. qua summa labantes, etc.: where the topmost stories afforded yielding joints.' The summa tabulata, ‘highest flooring' or 'highest stories' of the palace, served as the base, or floor, of the tower; and if the tower was of wood, it could be easily thrown down in one mass, when loosened and separated at that point.

464. altis Sedibus: 'from its lofty foundations'; the tabulata and tecta, or palace roof, just mentioned.

468. interea: refers to the time occupied in tearing up the tower, and in the replacing of the Greeks destroyed by its fall.

469. Vestibulum: 'the entrance' into the atrium, or first court. See note ɔn 1. 449.

470. Exsultat: 'springs to and fro'; indicates the swift movements of the warrior. telis et luce aēna: 'with the gleaming of brazen weapons.' A case of hendiadys (see note on I, 61).

471. Qualis ubi: the full expression would be talis, qualis est coluber, ubi, etc. See note on I, 316.

472. sub terra: is contrasted with in lucem.

to be swollen by eating venomous herbs.

473. positis exuviis: his old skin laid aside.'

tumidum: he is supposed

475. Arduus ad solem: 'uprising toward the sun.' place.

ore: ablative of

477. Scyria pubes: 'the Scyrian band'; followers of Pyrrhus, from the island of Scyros, one of the Cyclades, which was ruled over by Lycomedes, the grandfather of Pyrrhus.

478. Succedunt tecto: 'advance to the palace.' They hurl firebrands up to the battlements, to prevent the Trojans from casting down missiles on Pyrrhus and the other assailants.

479. Ipse: Pyrrhus.

480. Limina: the lintel and threshold, for the door. perrumpit, vellit: the present denotes the continuance of the act, the 'attempt to break' and 'wrench,' contrasted with cavavit and dedit (ll. 481, 482), which denote the cardine: the hole in completion of the act. postes: = fores, 'the door.'

the lintel and threshold, in which the pivots at the top and bottom of the docr turned. See Fig. 19.

481. Aeratos: 'bronze,' 'covered with bronze.' Cf. I, 448, 449.

482. ore limits fenestram; 'an opening with a broad mouth.' on silvis, I, 164.

See note

483. Apparet: through this opening the great central apartments are at once visible to the Greeks; for the vestibule admitted directly to the courts, which were connected by open passages,

so that the eye could range through the whole at one view.

485. Armatos: the armed guards defending the vestibule, mentioned in 1. 449. vident: refers to the Greeks.

487. cavae aedes: a second court, or square, around which the more private apartments were built, was often called cavaedium, but Virgil may not necessarily have been thinking of this part of the Roman house in the expression, cavae aedes.

491. Instat vi patria: 'presses on with his father's fury'; with the impetuosity inherited from his father, the wrathful Achilles.

Fig. 19

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The first illustration is designed to show the general shape of the ancient door. The postis was the upright pillar (a, b), at whose ends were fastened bronze pivots (shown on an enlarged scale in the annexed cut, 6). These pivots moved in bronze sockets (cardines), made in the threshold and lintel. The third cut presents a horizontal cross section of the door with the threshold (11. 480 sqq.).

492. sufferre: 'to withstand (him).' ariete: pronounced here ar-ye-le. See note on 1. 16. The battering-ram in its primitive form is probably meant, i.e. a long stick of timber, wielded by men without the aid of machinery. crebro: as below, 1. 627.

493. cardine, postes: see above, l. 480. Join cardine with emoti; 'started from the socket.'

495. milite: used as a collective noun.

See note on 1. 20.

496. aggeribus ruptis: 'the barriers burst.' The Po in many places was kept within its channel, like the lower Mississippi at the present day, by embankments; and Virgil was familiar with the disastrous floods produced by a crevasse, or breach in the dike.

497. Exiit: i.e. from its channel.

498. cumulo: 'in a mass'; ablative of manner, as in I, 105.

499. Vidi ipse: 'I myself saw.' Aeneas, who had been repelling the storming party of Greeks from the battlements, was compelled to witness the entrance of Neoptolemus and the other assailants at the gate, without the power to render help.

501. Durus: 'daughters'; put for both the daughters and daughters inlaw of Hecuba. per aras: usually explained as equivalent to inter aras.

504. Barbarico: 'barbaric'; because the gold and spoils which adorned the door posts were trophies captured from foreign or barbarian enemies of the

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