In preda il diè; che per acuti scogli
Miserabil ne fe' rapina, e scempio."
V. "Ast ego, quæ Divûm incedo regina, Jovisque
Et soror et conjux, una cum gente tot annos
Bella gero."
Æn. I. 50.
"'INCEDERE' wird besonders von der feierlichen, würdevollen Haltung im Gange gebraucht: vers 500, von der Dido, 'Regina incessit.' (Ruhnk. zu Terent. And. I. i. 100. Eun. v. 3. 9.) Deshalb der majestätischen Juno eigenthümlich, Ἡραῖον βαδίζειν. Also nicht für sum, sondern ganz eigentlich."—Thiel.
"But I who walk in awful state above."—Dryden.
"Incedere est ingredi, sed proprie cum quadam pompa et fastu."—Gesner.
"Incessus dearum, imprimis Junonis, gravitate sua notus."—Heyne.
And so also Holdsworth and Ruæus.
I think, on the contrary, that incedo, both here and elsewhere, expresses only the stepping or walking motion generally, and that the character of the step or walk, if inferable at all, is to be inferred only from the context. Accordingly, "Magnifice incedit" (Liv. II. 6.); "Turpe incedere" (Catull. XXXXII. 8.); "Molliter incedit" (Ovid, Amor. II. 23.); "Passu incedit inerti" (Ovid, Metam. II. 772.); "Melius est incessu regem quam imperium regno claudicare" (Justin. VI. ii. 6.); "Incessus omnibus animalibus certus et uniusmodi, et in suo, cuique, genere" (Plin. X. 38.).