Verum ad millia quindecim et ducentos—
O ventum horribilem atque pestilentem.”
Nibby strangely supposes that the fourth line of the above verses means that the villa is 15 miles 200 paces from Rome, and, therefore, that it cannot be at St Angelo in Piavola, the distance of which from Rome is not 15 miles 200 paces.—“Questi versi,” says he, “non solo non sono così decisìvi per situarla precisamente a St Angelo, piu tosto che in altri luoghi di questi contorni; ma assolutamente la escludono, poichè la stabaliscono quindìci miglia, e duecento passi vicino a Roma.”—T. I. p. 166.
Now, in the first place, according to Muretus and the best commentators, this ode does not at all refer to the villa of Catullus, but of Furius, whom he addresses, since the correct reading in the first line is not Villula nostra, but Vostra. Allowing, however, that it should be nostra, it is quite impossible to extort from the fourth line any proof that the villa was 15 miles 200 paces from Rome. Translated verbatim, it is as follows:—“Furius, our (your) villa is not exposed or liable to the blasts of Auster or Favonius, or the sharp Boreas, or the Apeliot wind, but to fifteen thousand and two hundred—O horrible and pestilent wind!” Now, the question is, to what 15,000,200 is the villa exposed? (opposita). Every commentator whom I have consulted, supplies sesterces, or other pieces of money; that is to say, it was mortgaged or pledged for that sum, which would sweep it away more effectually than any wind. Nibby’s interpretation, that it is not exposed to Auster or Boreas, &c. but is 15 miles 200 paces distant from Rome, is not many miles, or even paces, distant from absolute nonsense; and, moreover, quindecim millia, is not good Latin for 15 miles.
“Las! Si j’avois pouvoir d’oublier,
Sa beaulté—son bien dire,
Et son très doulx regarder,
Finirois non martyre.
“Mais las! Comment oublier
Sa beaulté, son bien dire,