Lenta falix foeto pecori, mihi folus Amyntas. ›› bending willows to the pregnant DAM. Pollio amat noftram, quamvis eft ruftica, cattle, Amyntas alone to me... Mufam : Thus alfo Horace; NOTES. "Impune tutum per nemus ar "butos Quaerunt latentes, et thyma deviae "Olentis uxores mariti." See the notes on ver. 148. of the firft Georgick, and ver. 300. of the third. Depulfis fignifies weaned, a lacte being understood, which is expreffed in the feventh Eclogue, DAM. Though my song is ruftick, yet Pollio likes it. unkindness of: Amyntas, and in the other speaks of the grief of Phyllis, both melancholy images. Yet this learned Gentleman gives the pres ference to Menalcas on both thefe occafions. In the prefent cafe they may justly be efteemed equal, one reprefenting how much he dreads the difpleasure of Amaryllis; and the other how much he esteems the favour of Amyntas. Nay Virgil himself feems to be of this opinion; for at the clofe of this Eclogue, he makes Palaemon determine, that he who gives a good defcription of "Depulfos a lacte domi quae clau- his diffidence in love is equal with "deret agnos." દ Varro ufes depulfus alfo for being weaned; "Cum depulfi fint agni a "matribus." La Cerda thinks the fhepherds are equal, in these couplets but Catrou, according to custom, affirms that Menalcas has the advantage. "The images, fays he, which Menalcas here << prefents to the mind, are more agreeable than thofe of his adverfary. A wolf, unfeasonable "rains, and tempeftuous winds are "the ornament of Damoetas's dif" courfe. In that of Menaleas, we have favourable rains, and an "agreeable nourishment to the "flocks." According to this way of reafoning, Menalcas ought to be efteemed inferior to Damoctas, in the two preceding contentions, in one of which he complains of the him, who defcribes well his happy fuccefs in the fame paffion; "Et vitula tu dignus, et hic, et quifquis amores "Aut metuet dulces, aut experietur amaros." 66 C. Afinius Pollio was a Poet, Orator, and Hiftorian, and a great patron of Poets, especially of Virgil and Horace, He was chofen Conful, in the year of Rome 714. The wayful, next year he had a triumph decreed him, for his victory over the Dalmatians, at which time Ruaeus fuppofes this Eclogue to be written, because Ye Mufes, feed a beifer for your Pierides, vitulam lectori pafcite veftro. reader NOTES. 85 Sad prifoners guard, and glory of the bar, The Senate's oracle, and great in war, Whofe faith and virtue all proclaim ; To whom the German triumph won Eternal fame, And never-fading glories of a crown: And impious arms that flow'd The great Triumvirate, A dangerous work you write, and MEN. Pollio et ipfe facit nova carmina, pafcite MEN. And Pollis makes new verfes bimfelf: feed a taurum, bull, NOTES. Methinks the warlike gloriously With fordid duft how befmear'd! In blood I fee the foldiers roul, Ifee the world obey, All yield, and own great Caefar's fway, Except the stubborn Cato's haughty foul: CREECH. rator; c. 2. 66 captains" ex illa ingeniorum, quae tunc fuit, multitudine, uni hanc coronam dante, quam cum, eidem Magnus Pompeius piratico ex "bello navalem dedit." He mentions this library again in lib.:35 "Afinii Pollionis hoc Romae inventum, qui primus bibli"othecam dicando, ingenia homi66 num rem publicam fecit." The fame author mentions Pollio's fine collection of ftatues, by Praxiteles and other famous mafters, as the reader will find at large, in lib. 36. c. 5. Plutarch mentions him as an intimate friend of Julius Caefar, and one of thofe, who were prefent with that great man, when he deliberated concerning the paffage of the Rubicon. The fame author quotes Pollio's account of the battle at Pharfalia, and fpeaks of his being with Caefar in Africa, and affifting. him in putting a ftop to the flight of his men, when they were furprized by Scipio. The younger Pliny mentions him in a lift of the greatest men in Rome; "Sed ego verear Seneca, in his book de Tranquillitate Animi, mentions him as a great O"Et magni, ut dixi, viri quidam fibi menftruas certis die"bus ferias dabant: quidam nul"lum non diem inter otium et cu"ras dividebant. Qualem Pollionem Afinium oratorem magnum meminimus, quem nulla res ultra "decimam retinuit. Ne epiftolas quidem poft eam horam legebat, "ne quid novae, curae nafceretur, "fed totius diei laffitudinem duabus "illis horis ponebat." He was the firft, that erected a publick library in Rome, as we find in Pliny, lib. 7.30. who adds, that the ftatue of Varro being erected in his life-ne me non fatis deceat quod detime, in that library, by fo great an orator and citizen, was no lefs glory to him, than the naval crown given him by Pompey the Great, when he had finifhed the piratick war. "M. Varronis in bibliotheca, quae prima in orbe ab Afinio Pollione de manubiis publicata Romae eft, unius viventis pofita imago eft: "haud minore (ut, equidem reor) gloria, principe oratore et cive, 66 66 cuit M. Tullium, C. Calvum, Afinium Pollionem, Marcum Meffalam, Q. Hortenfium, M. Bru"tum, &c." Valleius Patercu-. culus alfo, fpeaking of the men of extraordinary genius who adorned the Auguftan age, inferts the name of Pollio in that illuftrious catalogue; "Jam poene fupervacanaeum videri poteft, eminentium ingenjorum notare tempora. Quis that already butts with his born, Jam cornu petat, et pedibus qui fpargat arenam, and fpurns the fand with his feet. NOTES. enim ignorat diremtos gradibus aetatis floruiffe hoc tempore Ciceronem, Hortenfium, fanéque Craffum, Catonem, Sulpicium "moxque Brutum, Calidium, Coelium, Calvum, et proximum Ci"ceroni Caefarem ; eorumque ❝ velut alumnos, Corvinum, ac "Pollionem Afinium, aemulumque "Thucydidis Salluftium." In another place, he mentions his fteadinefs, and fidelity to Caefar's caufe'; "Afinius autem Pollio, firmus propofito, et Julianis partibus fidus." The fame Hiftorian mentions another inftance of his integrity. There had been a great friendship between him and Anthony; but after the latter gave himself up to an infamous commerce with Cleopatra, Pollio would have no more concern with him; but when Auguftus in vited him to join with his forces in the fight at Actium, he refufed to be engaged on either fide; "Non "praetereatur Afinii Pollionis fac 85. Pierides itulam, &c.] Servius understands this to mean, "ei"ther feed his herds, because he "reads this poem, or nurse up a "heifer for him as a reward." Ruaeus makes a farther ufe of this paffage. He thinks the time of the publication of this Eclogue may be difcovered from the verses before us. He is of opinion, that the mention of a heifer and afterwards of a bull, refers to the time of his obtaining a triumph for the Dalmatian victory; thefe animals being facrificed on fuch occafions, to Jupiter Capitolinus. That triumph being noted in the Fafti, to have happened on the eighth of the Kalends of November, in the year of Rome 715, he concludes, that this Eclogue mult probably have been written about the middle of October, when Virgil was about 31 years old. His learned countryman, Catrou, is of another opinion. He thinks, that Dambetas propofes to breed up a heifer for him, as a man of tafte in poetry; and that Menalcas propofes a young bull, as for one, who was himself an illuftrious Poet. Burman, in his note on the next couplet, takes nova carmina 'to fignify Heroic and Epic verfes, being induced by a note of Acron on Horace, where he fays, that the Lyric poets'ufed to facrifice a heifer, the Tragic a goat, and the others a bull. He quotes Ramus alfo, who (fays a heifer was a reward for Buhe colic poets, which Burman fays took DAM. Qui te, Pollio, amat veniat ; que te quoque gaudet: DAM, Let bim, who loves" thee, O Pollio, reach the fame bonours, which be rejoices to fee thee attain; NOTES. ftake. I dare not venture to make an abfolute decifion in an affair fo very doubtful; and therefore fhall leave it to be confidered, whether this paffage may not relate to the Ambarvalia, in which we have seen already, that a heifer was the usual offering for wealthy perfons. According to this interpretation, Damoetas defires the Mufes to feed a heifer for their friend and patron; to which Menalcas anfwers, "Pol"lio is not only a patron of the "Mufes, but alfo a Poet himself: "therefore instead of a heifer, the "usual victim of wealthy fhep"herds, feed a bull, the greatest of took from Servius, and wishes he had added the authority of fome other writer. I believe indeed it will be difficult to prove, that either heifers or bulls were ever offered in facrifice by Poets, or given to them as a reward. We know that the goat was a reward for Tragedy: but cannot find the leaft hint in any ancient author, concerning a like reward for the other forts of poetry. Nor is it easy to imagine, that it fhould be customary for Poets to facrifice a bull, which was esteemed the greatest victim, that could be offered to the Gods. Thus Pliny, "Hinc victimae opimae, et lau"tiffima deorum precatio." Nay" all victims for fo illuftrious a perour Poet himself has told us as much, in the fecond Georgick ; "fon." Those who will not admit of this expofition, may take that of Ruaeus, which is certainly very ingenious. 86. Pollio et ipfe facit, &c.] We have feen already, in the notes on the preceding couplet, that Pollio was an excellent Poet. Nova carmina.] Servius interterprets nova by magna, miranda: Burman will have it to mean Heroic and Epic poems, because Acron fays, Alios (which he interprets Epicos) Poetas taurum immolaffe. It may probably mean no more, than that Pollio was at that time compofing fome new poem. 87. Jam cornu petat, &c.] Thefe circumftances make a good defcription of a young bull, that is just come to maturity. This line is repeated |