[38] Hist. Lat. Lit. vol. iii.
[39] The most powerful are perhaps the description of a storm (G. i. 316, sqq.). of the cold winter of Scythia (G. iii. 339, sqq.), and in a slightly different way, of the old man of Cerycia (G. iv. 125, sqq.).
[40] The latis otia fundis so much coveted by Romans. These remarks are scarcely true of Horace.
[41] Naples, Baiae, Pozzuoli, Pompeii, were the Brightons and Scarboroughs of Rome. Luxurious ease was attainable there, but the country was only given in a very artificial setting. It was almost like an artist painting landscapes in his studio.
[42] G. ii. 486. The literary reminiscences with which Virgil associated the most common realities have often been noted. Cranes are for him Strymonian because Homer so describes them. Dogs are Amyclean, because the Laco was a breed celebrated in Greek poetry. Italian warriors bend Cretan bows, &c.
[43] Cum canerem reges et praelia Cynthius aurem Vellit, et admomuit Pastorem Tityre, pingues Pascere oportet oves, deductum dicere carmen. (E. vi. 3).
[44] En erit unquam Ille dies tua cum liceat mihi dicere facta. (E. viii. 7).
[45] Mox tamen ardentes accingar dicere pugnas Caesaris, &c. (G. iii. 46). The Caesar is of course Augustus.
[46] This eagerness to have their exploits celebrated, though common to all men, is, in its extreme development, peculiarly Roman. Witness the importunity of Cicero to his friends, his epic on himself; and the ill- concealed vanity of Augustus. We know not to how many poets he applied to undertake a task which, after all, was never performed (except partially by Varius).
[47] Except perhaps by Plato, who, with Sophocles, is the Greek writer that most resembles Virgil.