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dulcia nocturnae portans vestigia rixae
quam de virgineis gesserat exuviis.

estne novis nuptis odio Venus? anne parentum
frustrantur falsis gaudia lacrimulis,

ubertim thalami quas intra limina fundunt?
non, ita me divi, vera gemunt, iuerint.
id mea me multis docuit regina querellis

invisente novo proelia torva viro.

at tu non orbum luxti deserta cubile,

sed fratris cari flebile discidium?

quam penitus maestas exedit cura medullas!
ut tibi tum toto pectore sollicitae

sensibus ereptis mens excidit! at te ego certe
cognoram a parva virgine magnanimam.
anne bonum oblita es facinus quo regium adepta's

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26. magnanimam D magnanima V.

the Egyptian kings sometimes married their sisters. As a matter of fact, Berenice and her husband were cousins. Cf. P.W. 284.

23. The reply to the preceding question extends through v. 32; it was not sisterly, but conjugal love. cura: 'love' (for thy husband). — medullas: cf. 35, 15: ignes interiorem edunt medullam; 45, 16: ignis mollibus ardet in medullis; Verg. Aen. 4, 66: est mollis flamma medullas.

26. a parva virgine: 'from girlhood'; cf. Ter. Andr. 35: a parvolo. magnanimam: ageous.'

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27. facinus the story is found in Justinus 26, 3, 2: Apama, the mother of Berenice, wished to

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coniugium, quod non fortior ausit alis?
sed tum maesta virum mittens quae verba locuta's!
Iuppiter, ut tristi lumina saepe manu!

quis te mutavit tantus deus? an quod amantes
non longe a caro corpore abesse volunt?
atque ibi me cunctis pro dulci coniuge divis
non sine taurino sanguine pollicita's,

si reditum tetulisset. is haut in tempore longo
captam Asiam Aegypti finibus addiderat.
quis ego pro factis caelesti reddita coetu
pristina vota novo munere dissoluo.

28. quod non fortior VR quo D fortius Muretus.

marry her to Demetrius, a brother of king Antigonus of Macedonia, instead of regarding her previous betrothal to Ptolemy. But soon after the arrival of Demetrius at Cyrene he became the paramour of the mother, furnishing Berenice an opportunity to head a band of soldiers who took the life of her would-be husband, and so left her free to marry Ptolemy. Apama was probably spared.

28. quod... alis: 'which many another better adapted for deeds of manly prowess would not venture.' fortior is essentially a word of masculine hardihood, and is here contrasted with magnanimam (v. 26). alis = alius: the form occurs only here in classical literature; alid (29, 15) is quite common in Lucretius.

30. Iuppiter: cf. v. 48; 1, 7; Hor. Sat. 2, 1, 43. — tristi = trivisti; cf. v. 21, n.

31. an: the first part of the

question is omitted, as commonly: 'Was it indeed any god at all, or rather the fact that,' etc.?

33. ibi: temporal, taking up the thread of the story broken off with v. 14. — cunctis . . . divis : cf. v. 9, n.

34. taurino sanguine: probably a part of the promise.

35. tetulisset: the usual early Latin form for tulisset; cf. LSHLG, p. 99; reditum tetulisset rediisset. in tempore longo:

=

A. 256, a.

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36. Asiam: with the notorious geographical vagueness of the Roman poets. The famous inscription discovered at the Ethiopian city Adule states that not only Asia Minor, but also other parts of the continent, even beyond the Euphrates, were subdued.

37. coetu: dat.; a form found only here and in 64, 385.

38. dissoluo: cf. evoluam, v. 74; Intr. § 43.

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invita, o regina, tuo de vertice cessi,

invita adiuro teque tuumque caput, digna ferat quod siquis inaniter adiurarit: sed qui se ferro postulet esse parem?

ille quoque eversus mons est quem maximum in orbe
progenies Thiae clara supervehitur,

cum Medi peperere novum mare cumque iuventus
per medium classi barbara navit Athon.
quid facient crines, cum ferro talia cedant?
Iuppiter, ut Chalybon omne genus pereat,
et qui principio sub terra quaerere venas
institit ac ferri frangere duritiem!

39. Cf. Verg. Aen. 6, 460: invitus, regina, tuo de litore cessi. 40. adiuro caput : the fragment of Callimachus (35 b, Schneider), σήν τε καρὴν ὤμοσα σόν τε βίον, shows how closely Catullus here followed his original, preserving the acc. with adiuro, a construction that does not appear again before Vergil (Aen. 12, 816: adiuro Stygii caput implacabile fontis).

41. Note the inverted order. digna (acc.): i.e. poenam.

42. qui: for the regular substantive form quis. - ferro: referring to the shears that clipped the lock.

43. ille... mons: 'that famous mountain,' Athos. - quoque: i.e. as well as I, a hapless lock of hair.

eversus: sc. ferro. The hyperboles in this sentence are uttered naïvely by the lock.

44. progenies Thiae: Helios.

45. Medi: the hosts of Xerxes. - novum mare: the canal cut through the isthmus of Athos at the time of the invasion of Greece.

46. navit: cf. 64, 1: pinus dicuntur liquidas Neptuni nasse per

undas.

47. That the mood in such questions depends on the feeling of the writer is shown clearly by a comparison of Verg. Ec. 3, 16: quid domini faciant, audent cum talia fures? Livy, 21, 10, 11: dedemus ergo Hannibalem? dicet aliquis.

48. Iuppiter: cf. V. 30, n.; Hor. Sat. 2, I, 42: o pater et rex Iuppiter, ut pereat positum robigine telum. - Chalybon: a people of Pontus, celebrated for their skill in mining and iron-working.

50. ferri . . . duritiem: = ferrum durum; cf. Lucr. 5, 1241: aes atque aurum ferrumque repertumst et simul argenti pondus;

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abiunctae paullo ante comae mea fata sorores
lugebant, cum se Memnonis Aethiopis
unigena inpellens nictantibus aera pennis
obtulit Arsinoes Locridos ales equus,

isque per aetherias me tollens avolat umbras
et Veneris casto collocat in gremio.

ipsa suum Zephyritis eo famulum legarat,

53. nictantibus Bentley nutantibus V mutantibus M mitantibus, motantibus,

natantibus, various minor authorities. Cypridos Bergk. ales D alis VR.

2,449 validi silices ac duri robora ferri aeraque.

51. paullo ante: to be taken with abiunctae (sc. a me). The bereavement had but just occurred, that very day. For the meter see Intr. § 42, I (5) (b).

52. Aethiopis: the epithet may have significance as referring to the dark color of Memnon's brother, the ales equus of v. 54. Cf. also umbras (v. 55).

53. unigena: 'own brother,' i.e. Emathion, who, like Memnon, was a son of Eos and Tithonus; cf.

64, 300. The rendering, 'onlybegotten' does not agree with Ovid, Met. 13, 608-609: pariter sonuere sorores innumerae. — nictantibus: the imagery has a rare charm.

54. Arsinoes: Arsinoë II, daughter of Ptolemy I; wife first of Lysimachus, king of Thrace, later of her brother, Ptolemy Philadelphus (cf. v. 22, n.). Among other honors, she was identified with Venus, and a temple was erected in her name on the prom

54. Locridos Bentley elocridicos VR

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ontory of Zephyrion, near Alexandria, whence is derived also the name Zephyritis (v. 57). Locridos: it is possible that the appearance of this obscure epithet here may be due to confusion or comparison of this particular Zephyrion with the more famous Italian promontory of the same name in Bruttii, which from early times was settled by the Locrians. The term Cypridos, if it can be justified critically as the correct reading here, is more appropriate and more accurate historically. Cf. P. W. 2, 1286. —ales equus: probably the ostrich, here identified with Emathion (cf. n. on v. 52); Pausanias (9, 31, 1) describes the service rendered to Arsinoë

by an ostrich: τὴν δὲ ̓Αρσινόην στρουθὸς φέρει χαλκὴ τῶν ἀπτήvwv. Others understand the phrase to refer to Zephyrus.

57. Zephyritis: cf. n. on v. 54. - famulum: i.e. the ales equus of v. 54, the ostrich. Cf. Ovid, Met. 3, 229, where Actaeon's hounds are his famuli; and Manil. 4, 760,

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Graia Canopiis incola litoribus.

hic iuveni Ismario ne solum in lumine caeli
ex Ariadneis aurea temporibus

fixa corona foret, sed nos quoque fulgeremus
devotae flavi verticis exuviae,

uvidulam a fletu cedentem ad templa deum me

sidus in antiquis diva novum posuit:

virginis et saevi contingens namque leonis

59. hic iuveni Ismario Ellis hi dii ven ibi vario V hi dij venibi (or ven ibi) vario R arduei ibi Haupt invida enim Vahlen numen ibi Ritschl hic liquidi Friedrich. lumine or limine @ mumine R numine V.

where the famulus of Cybele is

the lion.

58. Graia: referring to the Greek ancestry of Arsinoë as compared to her ultimate home in Egypt (Canopiis). This Greek woman took precedence of all the members of the royal house of Egypt in becoming the first of the Ptolemies to be deified. The Alexandrian obscurity of this whole passage may easily have been enhanced by the poet's ignorance of Egyptian conditions.

59. hic temporal. — iuveni Ismario: Bacchus, whose vine was abundant on Ismarus; cf. Verg. Georg. 2, 37: iuvat Ismara Baccho conserere.

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crown') at the translation of Ariadne to heaven is a theme of frequent recurrence in the poets: Ovid, Fast. 3, 459-516; 5, 345: Baccho placuisse coronam ex Ariadneo sidere nosse potes; Met. 8, 177-182; Manil. 5, 21: Ariadneae caelestia dona coronae; Prop. 3, 17,7 testatur in astris lyncibus ad caelum vecta Ariadna tuis.

62. flavi: the Homeric ideal; so Ariadne's hair is described by the same epithet in 64, 63: flavo . . vertice.

63. uvidulam: a characteristic Catullus diminutive. - fletu: due to its compulsory condition as exuviae. - templa: cf. Enn. Ann. I, 49 (Vahlen): ad caeli caerula templa; Lucr. 1, 1014: nec mare пес tellus neque caeli lucida templa.

65. virginis: the constellation Virgo was variously identified with Dike-Astraea, Isis, Tyche, Erigone, etc. Cf. Class. Dict. namque : on the position cf.

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