banquets, which were noted for their luxury. Plaut. Men. i. 1,25; Hor. C. ii. 14, 28; Mart. xii. 48, 12. Gessner (v. repostus, in Thesaur. L. L.) says, "Puto inprimis significari binas eodem die epulas, bis in die saturum fieri, quod in Siculis Dionysii coenis displicebat Platoni: Cic. Tusc. v. 35, 100."Pocula, i. e. potio.-exercita cursu, exercised with running; in opposition to standing water.-532. Quaesitas, sought for, i. e. not to be had.-ad sacra, for the sacred rites. We think that Servius, and those who follow him, are right in supposing that there is an allusion here to the sacred rites of Juno at Argos, which Herodotus has rendered memorable by the story of Cleobis and Biton (i. 31). Indeed it is so unlikely that the people of Noricum should have worshiped the Argive goddess in the Argive mode, that one might suspect the poet of transferring to them the Grecian custom, were it not that the car of the German goddess Hertha (Earth, same as the Argive Hera,) was drawn by kine. Tac. Germ. 40. Strabo (v. p. 215) however says that there was a grove (aλoos) of the Argive Hera in the Venetian territory. -uris. See ii. 374.-Imparibus, that were not matches; perhaps it is, unfit for the office.-donaria, i. e. templum; as the place where the dona, i. e. sacrifices, etc. were offered.-Ergo, etc. Having thus no draft-cattle, they were obliged to give up the use of the plough and cultivate their corn with the spade, hoe, etc. He uses rastra for implements in general.— rimantur, dig: see on i. 384.-ipsis unguibus, with their own hands; unguis for manus. The ancients usually sowed under the plough; hence he says infodiunt.— Contenta cervice, with a strained neck. Contentus in this sense is a favourite term with Lucretius. 537-547. The wild animals, the fish and the serpents also suffered from it.—insidias, i. e. locum aut opportunitatem insidiis. Cf. Aen. ix. 59.-gregibus obambulat, i. e. goes up to the field-pens, in which the sheep are kept at night.—Cura, sc. of his own disease.-timidi damae, etc. They lose all terror in their indifference to life.-541. et, even. Cf. v. 473.-natantum, fish. Like volantes, bees, iv. 16; birds, Aen. vi. 190, 239; balantes, sheep, i. 272. Lucretius has (ii. 342) natantes squam nagerum pecudes; but Virgil first used natantes alone. Aristotle (Hist. An. viii 19), whom Pliny follows (ix. 49), asserts that fish are never affected by an epidemic. In this, and what he says of the serpents, the poet therefore states, for the sake of effect, what is not correct-543. Proluit. Wagner says that here one might rather expect projicit, or some such verb. But this is not the view of the poet; he supposes the fish thrown like the bodies of drowned sailors up on the beach, where they are washed by each succeeding wave.-insolitae, unused to do so. Cur prudentissimas feminas in tantum virorum conventum insolitas invitasque prodire cogis? Cic. Verr. iii. 37. Heyne is wrong in explaining it insolito more-phocae, the seals.-544. frustra, because the pestilential air penetrates into it.—attoniti, like exterriti, is applied to the serpents to express the high degree of uneasiness which they feel.—non aequus, i. e. pernicious: see ii. 225. et illae. Et seems here used in a causative sense as nam. 548 to the end.-Praeterea, etc. 'It is of no avail to change their food.'-Quaesitae artes, the remedies sought. We however rather think it is, the masters of art or skilful persons (i. e. doctors) to whom recourse was had; the act for the agent: see on ii. 382.-nocent, hurt rather than serve, i. e. are of no use.-Phillyrides, etc. He uses Chiron and Melampus in order to express that the most skilful doctors, even though equal to these two mythic surgeons, could effect nothing. Chiron was the son of Saturn and the nymph Phillyra: Melampus was the son of Amythaon: see Mythology, p. 436.-Saevit, etc. Tisiphone sent out into the light of day rages, and drives Disease and Death before her; and rising every day more and more, raises higher her craving head.' A noble poetic expression of the increasing ravages of the pestilence.-colles supini, the sloping hill.-558. Donec, etc. The only remedy was to bury them as fast as possible, that the effluvia from their bodies might not increase the venom of the atmosphere.-neque erat, etc. That was to be done because their skins and their flesh were equally useless.-viscera, their flesh. The viscera, according to Servius, are all that is beneath the skin.-undis abolere, to wash, or rather boil in water, and thus take out the venom.-vincere flamma, roast. It is thus that Servius explains the passage. Heyne says that it means the quantity was too great to be consumed either by water or by fire, and therefore they were buried. The former explanation is, we think, greatly to be preferred.—telas, i. e. if they did shear them and manufacture the wool.-invisos amictus, i. e. garments made of that infected wool.―papulae, pimples, pustules.—moranti, to him delaying; though it did not immediately attack him.-sacer ignis. It is not known exactly what disease this was; it resembled the erysipelas, from which however Celsus (v. 28, 4) distinguishes it. Voss thinks it might have been St. Antony's fire. BOOK IV. ARGUMENT. PROPOSITION, 1-7. Situation for the hives, 8-32. Hives, 33-50. Swarming, 51-66. Battles of the bees, 67-87. Different kinds of bees, 88-102. Mode of keeping them from wandering, 103–115. Digression on gardens, 116–148. Manners and customs of the bees, 149-218. Opinion respecting their nature, 219-227. Mode of taking the honey, 228-250. Diseases of the bees and their cure, 251-280. Mode of obtaining new stocks when they have died off, 281-314. Story of Aristaeus, and of Orpheus and Eurydice, 315-558. Conclusion of the poem, 559 to the end. NOTES. 1-7. Protenus, forthwith, in continuation: see on Ec. i. 13. -aërii, etc. It was the general belief of the ancients that honey was a dew that fell from the sky, and that the bees merely collected it. Μέλι δὲ τὸ πῖπτον ἐκ τοῦ ἀέρος says Ariand as a proof of it he adds, that bee stotle (H. A. v. 22); masters often find their hives filled in one or two days; and that in the autumn, if the honey is taken out of the hives, they are not replenished, though there is plenty of flowers. It is therefore not from them, which only yield wax, that they extract it. It falls chiefly, he says, at the rising of the constellations (never before that of the Pleiades), and when there is a rainbow. Pliny (xi. 12) says it is then found on the leaves of the trees, and that if one goes out early in the morning he will find his hair and clothes covered with it. He doubts whether it be the sweat of the sky, or a certain spittle of the stars, or the juice of the air which is purging itself. In Arabia and the neighbouring regions, after a kind of mist in the months of July and August, a sweet substance is found on the leaves of the palm and other trees; and in this country the leaves of the lime and other trees are often covered with a similar substance, which is known to be produced by aphides and other insects. It was this probably that led the ancients to their erroneous theory of the origin of honey. 4. ordine, in due order. Most MSS. read ex ordine.—5. populos, the peoples, i. e. the different communities, hives or stocks into which the gens or race is divided. Cf. Aen. x. 202. -7. Numina laeva, propitious deities, according to Servius, who is followed by the commentators in general; while Gellius (v. 12) and Burmann understand by it adverse deities. In favour of the former it is said that, as the Romans in taking auguries faced the south, the east was on the left, and signs from that quarter were regarded as the favourable ones; and our poet uses laevum in this sense, Aen. ii. 693; ix. 630. See also Plin. ii. 52, 55; Ovid. Fast. iv. 833; Liv. i. 18; Phaedr. iii. 18. As the Greeks looked to the north, the east was on their right, which therefore was their lucky side. The critics however seem not to have observed, that in all the passages to which they refer for laevus in the sense of favourable, it is always thunder, etc. that is meant. We are therefore inclined to think, that as Virgil elsewhere uses laeva in a bad sense (see Ec. i. 16), and sinistra in like manner (Ec. ix. 15), he does the same here, and that Gellius understood the passage rightly. The verb sinunt would be more properly used of adverse than of favouring deities.-auditque, etc., if they do not prevent, and if Apollo aids. Vocatus audio is a usual form of expression respecting a deity. Cf. Hor. C. ii. 18, 40; iii. 22, 3. It is probably Apollo Nomios that he means. It may be here observed, that the poet seems to have derived his account of the bees from Aristotle (H. A. ix. 40) and Varro iii. 16. 8-32. Choice of a situation for the hive; what is to be avoided, 8-17; what is to be sought for, 18-32. It is to be sheltered from winds, and placed where no cattle can come near it, also out of the way of lizards and some kinds of birds. 10. haedi petulci i. e. playful kids. Lucretius (ii. 368) has agni petulci.-11. insultent, bound on. As sheep are not apt to do so, he probably by oves means lambs, and que is disjunctive as usual.-campo, in the field.-13. picti squalentia, etc., the rough back of the speckled lizard, i. e. the stellio, v. 243. In a similar sense he uses picti of birds, iii. 243; Aen. iv. 525.-14. Pinguibus a stabulis, from the rich hives.-meropes. The Merops apiaster L., or Bee-eater, a bird of passage in the south of Europe, which makes its nest as deep as four ells underground. Voss describes it as being of the size of a starling, but formed like a stork, blue and red on the head, green and red on the neck and shoulders, golden-yellow on the throat, blue-green ending in yellow from the breast downwards, and the long tail-feathers blue and brown.-15. Et, especially.-Procne, the swallow: see on Ec. vi. 78.signata. We do not agree with Voss in taking this as a Mid. voice.-16. Omnia nam, etc. Like a plundering army they spread their ravages far and near.—volantes, the (flying) bees. Cf. i. 272; iii. 147.-17. nidis, i. q. pullis. In the sacred poetry of the Hebrews the nest was also used for the nestlings or the young birds which it contained: see Deut. xxxii. 11. 18. At, etc. What should be there. Et in these two verses is evidently disjunctive; see v. 25.-stagna virentia musco, pools with green moss growing around them.-tenuis rivus, a shallow rivulet. Varro (iii. 16) says it should not be more than two or three inches deep. The same applies to the preceding stagna, of which Heyne must have had an erroneous concep |