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The Punctuation of Aeneid 1.1–71

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2009

G. Nussbaum
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Extract

The Aeneid, like the Iliad, opens with a seven-line paragraph. The question arises: is this paragraph also a single sentence, consisting of the first three words arma uirumlque cano as main sentence, with all the rest forming one long relative clause of six and a half lines, introduced by qui in line 1, and organized round the one indicative verb apart from cano, namely, uenit in line 2? A glance at the editions confirms that we have a problem here. Everyone agrees on commas after cano, superum, iram, passus and of course on a full stop after Romae. The uncertainties arise after litora and after Latio. Whereas Sidgwick (1890) and Page (1894) put commas at both these points, Mynors (1969), followed both by Austin (1971) and R. D. Williams (1972) puts a comma after litora, but a semicolon after Latio, while Hirtzel (1900) puts a dash at both points. What difference does it make?

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , October 1986 , pp. 188 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1986

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References

Notes

2. Just for the record, the 203 occurrences of ille break down as follows:- 25 in the Eclogues; 25 in the Georgics; 70 in Aeneid 1–6; 83 in Aeneid 7–12 – revealing the interesting fact that it is used relatively far more often in the Eclogues than in the rest of Vergil. I hasten to add that I do not regard this as evidence of non-Vergilian authorship of the Eclogues!! It might, however, make one among many distinctive little touches of the pastoral idiom.