XCVIII.

1. and 5. Vetti Statius (see Schmidt, Prolegg. p. xxxvi.); uicti V.

XCIX.

8. abstersisti Avantius (see Ellis, ed. crit., prolegg. p. lxxv.) abstersti ; astersi G.

C.

6. perspecta egregie est Baehrens; perfecta est igitur est ; perfecta est exigitur est G.

CVII.

I. cui (quoi) quid Ribbeck; quid quid O; quicquid G.

cupidoque Aldine of 1502; cupido V.

3. nobis quoque MSS., which I have retained. Most editors accept Haupt's nobisque est.

7. hac rem optandam in Postgate, Journal of Philology, 17. 256; hac est optandus O; me est optandus G.

I translate this poem: 'If ever aught has fallen unexpectedly to the lot of one who yearned for it and desired it, that thing (hoc) is of all others (proprie) welcome to his heart. So this thing is welcome, dearer too than gold to me, that you, Lesbia, restore yourself to me who yearn for you; to me who yearn for

you and unexpectedly you restore yourself and give yourself back to me. Oh day of bright significance! who lives that is more blest than I the favoured (uno), or who will ever tell of luck more desirable than this?'

CVIII.

4. execta an Italian correction; exercta O; exerta G.

CX.

3. mentire Postgate; mentita MSS. Cp. 95. 2 note.

4. turpe Baehrens; saepe MSS.

7. est falsum is my correction; efficit V. Munro reads est furis-plus quam meretricis avarae; Postgate officium est plus quam meretricis avarae. My alteration in this corrupt line (est falsum) gives a good meaning: 'your conduct is a fraud practised by a more than usually grasping strumpet.' Falsum seems to have been extended from its strict meaning to 'false pretences, as in the case of a contract to sell' (Dict. A. i. 822b).

CXI.

4. parere, omitted in MSS., is apparently an Italian supplement made in the margin of the Paris MS. 8,236 and independently afterwards by Doering.

CXII.

1. est qui, omitted in V, was added by Scaliger.

CXIV.

1. Firmano saltu Aldine of 1502; firmanus saluis V.

6. I adopt Postgate's conjecture; see Journal of Philology, 17. 261. saltum (saltem G) laudemus dum modo ipse egeat V.

CXV.

I follow Schmidt generally in this poem; see his Prolegg. p. cxxxiv.

I. iuxta Heyse after Scaliger. The iugera joined one another, were contiguous. instar G; istar O.

2. maria, for which Baehrens proposes varia, Munro nemoris, has been strangely misunderstood. Munro pronounces it untenable; most commentators explain it as proverbial, 'huge beyond parallel,' 'regular oceans,' quoting Sall. Cat. 23, maria et montes polliceri; others 'artificial water for rearing fish,' others 'mere waste water,' others 'lakes,' none of which meanings can it bear. What it does mean is 'sea,' not 'only sea' summing up the unproductiveness of the saltus (Postgate), but 'the rest of his possessions are sea'; he has meadow land and plough land and sea, which means, I presume, sea adjoining the shore of his estates, on which he had rights of fishing, always a coveted privilege: thus we read, 114. 3, that the same estate contains omne genus piscis. Cp. Iuv. 5. 94, quando omne peractum est et iam defecit nostrum mare. It is clear from Dig. 47. 10. 13, § 7, si quis me prohibeat in mari piscari vel everriculum (quod Graece oayývn dicitur) ducere, an iniuriarum iudicio possim eum convenire? that such rights of fishing were asserted. Mr. Haverfield informs me that an inscription found in Holland records certain contractors who had hired from the State the fishing, presumably on the Frisian coast; also one at Ephesus (circ. 140 A.D.). The favourite of the powerful Caesar might

well have got such a right from him; though the later law did not recognise such rights: Iustinian, Institt. 2. 1. 2, flumina autem omnia et portus publica sunt: ideoque ius piscandi omnibus commune est in portubus fluminibusque. est autem litus maris, quatenus hibernus fluctus maximus excurrit. Dig. 43. 8. 3, § 1 maris communem usum omnibus hominibus, ut aeris.

4. tot bona Avantius; tot moda V.

7. ipse est, so many MSS.; ipse si V.

ultro an Italian correction for ultor V.

CXVI.

4. So Muretus. Telis (Celis O) infesta mitteremusque caput V.

6. hic a few MSS.; hinc V. Some new readings are introduced into this poem by Palmer, Classical Review, 5. 8.

7. evitabimus uncta is my conjecture, 'I shall avoid your poisoned shafts': cp. Verg. Aen. 9. 773, ungere tela manu ferrumque armare veneno. evitabimus amicta (amitha O) V. Most editors accept evitamus amictu, the reading of a few inferior MSS.; Ellis reads evitamus amictei; both which readings fail to explain the future form evitabimus of V, which surely by the side of dabi' in the next line is more appropriate than the present. The corruption amicta of the MSS. is due to the tendency which appears in them to multiply letters; see 63. 5 iletas V for ili; 64. 3, Fasidicos O, Fascidicos G for Phasidos; 66. 6, guioclero V for gyro; 66. 54, elocridicos V for Locridos; 66 86, indigetis G, indignatis O for indignis.

NOTES

TO THE

PERVIGILIUM VENERIS.

2. vere natus orbis est Pithoeus; the poets thought that the birthtime of the world was in spring. uer natus orbis est T; uere natus iouis est S, from which Buecheler reads uere natus est Iovis (nom.). But iouis is probably a mere corruption of orbis; and there is something out of keeping with the rest of the poem in the mention of Jupiter. Few will approve of either Wernsdorf's ver renatus orbis est, spring is the new birth of the world,' which is hardly Latin, or of Baehrens' ver renactus orbis est.

9. Unnecessary difficulties have been raised about the meaning of tunc. It is true that we have to go back to ver in line 2, in spring Venus was born of sea foam,' but I see no awkwardness in this; the burden of the poem is spring, the poet's mind is full of spring, and he can safely trust the intelligent reader to interpret tunc correctly. It will be seen that I cannot agree either with Buecheler who inserts lines 59-61 between lines 8 and 9 here, or with Riese and Baehrens who transpose line 9 foll. to follow 62, or with Mackail (Journal of Philology, 17.