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Vergiliana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Gilbert Norwood
Gilbert Norwood
Affiliation:
University College, Cardiff
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Extract

Georg. I. 36 sq.:

quidquid eris,—nam te nec sperant Tartara regem, nec tibi regnandi ueniat tam dira cupido;—

Mr. Page's note puts well what seems the customary view of this famous parenthesis: ‘The force of nam deserves attention. Having used the phrase quidquid eris, which sums up the whole passage from line 24, as though there were no other form of deity left which Augustus could assume, Vergil adds this explanatory sentence to show why he had not mentioned the fourth division into which deities were divided, viz. those of the underworld. The fourfold division of deities being well known, Vergil cannot omit the fourth without stating the reason for which he does so.’

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 12 , Issue 3-4 , October 1918 , pp. 141 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1918

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References

page 141 note 1 In the singular, of course: that his rule should be unshared is the chief point.

page 142 note 1 The poet is thinking of the world as possible for Romans. He deliberately disregards Parthia and the peritura regna (II. 498).

page 145 note 1 Extremely neat, for example, is the phrasing of III. 280: ‘Actiaque Iliacis celebramus litora ludis.’

page 147 note 1 Even her suicide cannot be completed without the intervention of Iris.