[3] IV, 20.
[4] Very interesting in this respect are the recently published traditions of the Sandwich islanders, partly narrations, and partly songs, which have been collected by missionaries.
[5] By some mistake, as it seems, Niebuhr mentions here the Nibelungen instead of Waltharius, which is a Latin poem of the tenth century, and from which Aventinus cites the verses I. 9 foll. He often refers to the old German heroic poems, without, however, quoting them verbatim. Cf. W. Grimm’s German Heroic Tradition (Heldensage), p. 302.—Note of the German editor.
[6] XVII, 21 Gellius says that Nævius had come out in the same year that the divorce of Sp. Carvilius Ruga took place, viz. in 519; but in IV. 3, he dates the latter fact from the year 523, and thus concerning the first appearance of Nævius also a difference is made of four years. Cf. Ritschl, Parerga Plautina. Lips. 1845. tom. I. p. 68-70.—Note of the German editor.
[7] For the juster estimation of Virgil, it is to be remarked, that frequently, without directly contradicting the historical statements, he ensconces himself in the old poetical tradition. Thus he evidently takes Romulus to be the grandson of Æneas by Ilia, whence also the misplacing of Æneas at the time of the foundation of Carthage. He has therefore been unjustly censured with such vehemence for his chronological inaccuracy precisely by the age which idolized him. There has not on the whole enough been done by a great deal for the elucidation of Virgil.
[8] Fabius wrote the history of his people two hundred years after Herodotus; by so much therefore the Roman literature of history is later than the Grecian.
[9] The cognomen Pictor occurs rarely by itself; Appian has it, however.
[10] I have a good memory, and yet it has often happened to me before now that I have made mistakes in names. Cicero relates a similar error of himself in the letters to Atticus, where the latter had pointed out to him that he ought to write Phliasii instead of Phliuntii.
[11] Merula places the war of Pyrrhus in the sixth book, because he could not believe that Ennius had devoted one book only for the times between. But Ennius has surely not merely versified the Fasti consulares, but very likely he strung together the principal events only.
[12] Hieron. Columna and Natalis Comes have both of them the vanity of pretending to have read authors, who do not either exist at all, or in Scholiasts only, whom they may indeed have read in more complete MSS. than we do. Niebuhr.—Claudius Sacerdos is now printed in Endlicher’s Analecta grammatica. Note of the German Editor.