Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
This line involves a variety of important points.
1 P. Vergili Maronis Opera (repr. Hildesheim, 1966).Google Scholar
2 OLD s.v. viduus cites only this passage where the adjective is used with the preposition. Salvatore, A., Appendix Vergiliana (Turin, 1957)Google Scholar takes a to be the preposition and refers to line 209 tristis ab eventu; but the ablative there is causal and the preposition with such an ablative is not unknown, e.g. Ovid, Her. 10.9 a somno languida. Plésant, C., Le Culex Poème Pseudo-Virgilien (Paris, 1910), p. 165Google Scholar compares Ovid, Tr. 4.3.36 tempus et a noslris exige triste malis.
3 Smyth, W. R., Thesaurus Criticus ad Sexti Properlii Textum (Leiden, 1970).Google Scholar
4 Only Salvatore (op. cit., n. 2) notes viduatos. The particle is accepted by Leo (Berlin, 1891); Plesant (op. cit., n. 2); Vollmer-Morel (Leipzig, 1930); Giomini (Firenze, 1953). Heyne (Leipzig, 1832) prints the preposition: Ellis (Oxford, 1907) distinguishes the particle with commas at Catal. 11.2, but not elsewhere so it is unclear how he understood our verse.