66

and one from Symmachus; "Qui"efco igitur has partes." But he feems however rather to think it is a Greek conftruction, Ruaeus fays it may be either active or neuter; but he prefers the active, and adds a quotation from Seneca; "Quam "tuas laudes populi quiefcant." Dr Trapp is doubtful;" Either flumina, fays he, requierunt curfus, i. e. requiefcere fecerunt; "which is juftified by other authorities. Or Flumina mutata [quoad] fuos curfus." That requiefco may be used actively, is indeed fufficiently proved by the above quotations. But Virgil conftantly ufes it as a neuter, in every part of his works and as he is known to be fond of Grecifms; it feems more juft to fuppofe the expreffion before us to be a Grecifm, and requierunt to be a verb neuter.

6. Tu mihi, &c.] The Poet now makes an elegant and polite dedication of this Eclogue.

The principal difficulty attending the explication of this Eclogue is to determine, who the great general and poet is, that Virgil here chooses for his patron, and at what time it was written. Servius, and most of the Commentators after him, are of opinion, that it is dedicated to Auguftus. Jofeph Scaliger, in his Animadverfions on the Chronicles of Eufebius, is pofitive, that it was Pollio. This learned Critick is of opinion, that Pollio had two tri

5

umphs, one the year before his Confulfhip, for a victory over the Dalmatians, and taking the city Salo nae, as it is related by Servius; another for the conqueft of the Parthini, the year after his Consulfhip, which is related in the Fafti Capitolini. He obferves, that the river Timavus is in the Venetian territory, which Pollio held a confiderable time for Mark Anthony in oppofition to Auguftus, performing alfo many great actions about Altinum, and other cities of that region according to Velleius; "Pollio Afinius, cùm "feptem legionibus, diu retenta in "poteftate Antonii Venetia, mag"nis fpeciofifque rebus circa Alti

num, aliasque ejus regionis urbes "editis, &c." Hence he concludes, that it was at the time of his performing thefe great actions, that Virgil dedicated this Eclogue. Ruaeus agrees with Scaliger, that Pollio is the perfon: but he differs from him, with regard to the time. He obferves, that it is plain from what Velleius has faid, that thefe great actions of Pollio, before his Confulfhip, were performed against Auguftus: whence he infers, that Vir gil had more fenfe, than to praise Pollio on any fuch account. He therefore rather thinks it was dedicated, when Pollio was returning to Rome, from Dalmatia, not in a direct journey, but vifiting the coafts of Illyricum and Venetia by the way. Catrou, after all that

has

"not prefented to Caefar, after his "expedition to Dalmatia. I allow,

❝ to the two ancient authors of Vir "gil's life, one in verfe, and the

way

defeat of Brutus and Caffius was "published at Rome. Virgil, like $6 a good courtier, celebrates the "conqueror, even before his arri"val in Italy, at the time when it 86 was not known exactly which he would return. Here fome "will afk, how it can be fuppofed, "that this Eclogue is prior in time "to that which is placed at the head of the editions? For Octavian, after the battle of Philippi, ❝ was upon his march toward Rome, * in December 712, and the diftri*bution of the Mantuan lands was "not made till 713. For my part, I fee no difficulty in maintaining, that Virgil compofed fome of his Eclogues, before that which ઠંડ begins with Tityrae tu patulae, "&t. I have elsewhere answered "the difficulties on that fubject. The general mistake, that Vir gil reprefented himself under the Tityrus of the firft Eclogue, has "occafioned another. It has been imagined, that the Poet did not know either Rome or Auguftus, till after the diftribution of the “Mantuan lands. For my part, as I have difcovered the father of Virgil, under the perfon of Tityrus, I am at liberty. I fee no reafon not to believe, according

known at Rome before the Ec "logue of Tityrus, and according to Tiberius Donatus, that he "was in the fervice of Auguftus. He might therefore dedicate this Eclogue to him, after the battle of Philippi, that is, fome months before his father had his farm at "Andes restored. By this fyftem, "which is not to be found elfe

where, the ancient and modern interpreters are reconciled, and a "light is given to the first verses of "this Eclogue." Burman treats this fyftem of Catrou, as a mere fiction; and thinks, that nothing is more natural, than to fuppofe, that Pollio was then marching at the head of his army into Dalmatia : whence the Poet makes a doubt, whether he had yet paffed the Timavus, and got beyond Iftria, and from thence marching along the coaft of Illyricum, had penetrated into Dalmatia. Hence the Poet foretels the happy event of the war, and prophefies, that the day is at hand, when he fhall be enabled to celebrate both his great actions, and his fublime poems. This opinion of Burman appears to me much the moft probable, and the most agree. able to the hiftory of thofe times. As for the two triumphs of Pollio, mentioned by Scaliger, the firft is related merely on the authority Servius, who probably means the fame Dalmatian war, which all

"

of

agree

agree to have been in the year after Pollio's Confulfhip, and places it by mistake, in the year before it. What Velleius Paterculus mentions, was acted chiefly about Altinum; for it was by poffeffing that country, that Pollio hindered Caefar's foldiers, who were coming out of Macedon, from entering into Italy. Had he proHad he proceeded into Illyricum at that time, and bufied himself in the fiege of Salonae, as is pretended, he had done very little fervice to Anthony, or differvice to Auguftus. We must therefore agree with Ruaeus, that the time of writing this Eclogue was not when Pollio had held the Venetian territory for Anthony; but that, if it was dedicated to him, it must have been at the time of his victories over the Dalmatians, and other people in thofe parts. Thus far howEver we may differ from Ruaeus, that it was not at his return from Dalmatia, but when he was upon his march into that country. The expreffions which our Poet ufes, of longing to celebrate his actions, feem to relate rather to his fetting out with good omens, at the beginning of a war, than to his returning crowned with fuccefs. As for the fyftem of Catrou, he feems to make his chief objection against Pollio, that the words a te principium tibi definet, are more applicable to Auguftus, than to Pollio: but it does not appear, that Virgil began his Eclogues with Auguftus, fince that learned Critick himfelf contends that

Shall I ever be permitted to praife through the whole world. thy poems,

the Tityrus was not the firft Eclogue of our Author. This objection fhall be farther confidered, in the note on that paffage. That this Eclogue was not dedicated to Auguftus, after he had conquered the Dalmatians, is allowed by Catrou; it remains therefore to be confidered, whether it can with any probability be fuppofed, that it was dedicated to him, when he was returning from the battle of Philippi. We find in Dio, that Auguftus did not cross the Timavus in his return to Italy; for then he must have come the whole journey by land; but that he came by fea: for the Hiftorian tells us exprefsly, that he was fo fick in his voyage, that it was reported at Rome, that he was dead; Καῖσαρ δὲ ἐς τὴν Ἰταλίαν αφωρμήθη καὶ αὐτὸν ἡ νόσος ἔν τε τῇ πορείᾳ καὶ ἐν τῷ πλῷ ἰσχυρῶς ἐπίεσεν, ὥστε καὶ θανάτου δόξαν τοῖς ἐν τῇ Ρώμη παι pace. Appian alfo tells us exprefsly, that Caefar's greatest danger was at Brundufium; whence it appears, that he returned to Rome, the neareft way he could: paffing and neither marching through Illydirectly by fea from Dyrrachium, ricum, nor coafting along the fhoar of that country: Kaioapi de is Thu Ρώμην ἐπανίοντι ἥ τε νόσος αὖθες ἤκ μαζεν, ἐν Βρεντεσίῳ μάλιστα ἐπικινδύνως, καὶ φήμη διήνεγκεν αὐτὸν καὶ Tvával. Here then was no great encouragement for Virgil to dedicate his poem, to one, of whom he

had

had more realon to queftion whether he was dead or alive, than whether he was returning home by land or by fea. Befides, it is well known, that as foon as the battle at Philippi was over, Auguftus and Anthony made an agreement, that the latter fhould march into Afia, and the former fhould return directly into Italy, and take the care of dividing the promised lands among the veterans. This would require a quick difpatch; and it muft be imagined, that Auguftus would come the nearcft way to Rome, and not think of failing all round the Illyrian coaft, much lefs of pafting by land through the whole length of that barbarous country, and entering Italy by Venetia, which he muft do, if he croffed the Timavus; and fo come quite round the whole Adriatick, These things being confidered, with fome others, which will be mentioned in the following notes, we fhall make no difficulty to affirm, that the perfon to whom this EcJogue is addreffed, was Pollio, and when he was at the

that it was, head of his army, marching into Illyricum, at the latter end of the year 714; or beginning of 715, when L. Marcius Cenforinus, and C Calvifius Sabinus were Confuls: for in this year find, according to Dio, that Pollio quelled an infurrection of the Parthini, a people bordering on Dalmatia: TTLγιγνομένων ἐν ᾧ Λουκιός τε Μάρκιος Το Γαιος Σαβίνος υπάτευσαν • .

we

ἐγένετο μὲν καὶ Ἐναυρίοις τοῖς Παρθι νοῖς κίνησις· καὶ αὐτὴν ὁ Πωλίων μxχαις ἔπαυσεν.

Seu magni fuperas jam faxa Timavi.] Strabo fays, that in the very inmoft part of the Adriatick fea, Timavum is a remarkable temple, which has a port, an elegant grove, and feven fprings of fweet water, which forming a broad and deep river, run prefently into the fea Ἐν αὐτῷ δὲ τῷ μυχῷ τοῦ Ἀδρίου καὶ ἱερὸν τοῦ Διομήδους ἐστὶν ἄξιον μνήμης, τὸ Τίμαυον λιμένα γὰρ ἔχει, καὶ άλσος εὐπρεπὲς, καὶ πηγὰς τα ποταμίου ὕδατος εὐθὺς εἰς τὴν θάλατίαν ἐκπίπλοντος, πλατεῖ καὶ βαθεί που Tap. Our Poet, in the first Aeneid, defcribes the Timavus, as rufhing down from a mountain with great violence, through nine mouths;

"Antenor potuit, mediis elapfus "Achivis,

"Illyricos penetrare finus, atque in

"tima tutus "Regna Liburnorum, et fontem "fuperare Timavi;

"Unde

per ora novem, vafto cum ❝ murmure montis, "It mare proruptum, et pelago premit arva fonanti.'