[37] Martial, of course, has here forgotten his dates.
[38] The incident has been borrowed from Plutarch by Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act iii. Scene 3.
[40] This appears to us to be an indirect proof that the half lines in Virgil are often complete as they stand.
[41] M. Valerius Probus of Berytus (Sueton. Gramm. 24) who flourished, according to Jerome, A.D. 56, prepared critical editions of Lucretius, Virgil, and Horace. A commentary on the Eclogues and Georgics passes under his name, but most of it is spurious.
[42] A grammarian of the fifth century A.D., who merely versifies Donatus.
[43] On this point Professor W. M. Ramsay writes to us: ‘Virgil’s farm was certainly not at Pietole (which is two miles south of Mantua, out in the flat plain): for (1) the farm was a long way from the city (cf. Ecl. 9, 59 sqq.); (2) it was beside hills (ibid. 7 sqq.); (3) woods were on or by it (cf. Donatus “silvis coemendis”), and the flat fertile valley was certainly not abandoned to forests. After exploring the country, I felt clear that the farm was on the west bank of the Mincio, opposite Valeggio, where the northern hills sink to the dead level of the Po valley.’
[44] His knowledge of science is reflected in his works. Cf. Georgics, passim, and Ecl. 3, ll. 40-2.
[45] The latter part of this statement is worthless: Augustus was only a child when Virgil came to Rome.
[46] Probus is manifestly wrong in saying that the distribution of land took place ‘post Mutinense bellum.’