Commentary on line 1
This line is preceded in some MSS.
by the following verses,
Ille ego, qui quondam gracili modulatus
avena
Carmen et egressus silvis vicina coegi
Ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono,
Gratum opus agricolis: at nunc horrentia
Martis.
They are not found in Med., Rom., Gud.,
or the Verona fragments (Pal. and the
fragments of Vat. and St. Gall seem to
fail here), and the only MS. in Ribbeck's
list which contains them (the Berne MS.
No. 172) has them written in the margin
by a later hand. They appear to have
existed in the time of Servius and of the
Pseudo-Donatus, who say that Nisus the
grammarian had heard a story of their
having been expunged by Tueca and
Varius; on which Heyne remarks, Si res
ita se habet, acutior sane Varius Vergilio
fuit. The external evidence of such a
story it is impossible to estimate, but its
existence suspiciously indicates that the
lines were felt to require apology. Those
who speak of them as an introduction to
the poem, forget that if genuine they are
an integral part of the first sentence; and
that it is, to say the least, remarkable that
the exordium should be so constructed as
to be at once interwoven with the context,
and yet capable of removal without detriment
to the construction, just at the point
which forms a much better commencement.
The words arma virumque are
quoted by Martial, 8. 56., 19. 14., 185. 2,
and Auson. Epig. 137. 1, evidently as a
real commencement of the Aeneid; while
Ovid, Trist. 2. 533, and Persius, 1. 96, quote
arma virumque, or arma virum, as important
and independent words, which they
cease to be the moment arma is viewed
in connexion with the words supposed to
precede it. Virg. himself, 9. 777, has (of
the poet Clytins) Semper equos atque
arma virum pugnasque canebat. Comp.
also Ov. 1 Amor. 15. 25, Prop. 3. 26. 63,
which point the same way. Macrob. Sat.
5. 2. quotes Troiae qui primus ab oris as
part of the first verse of the Aeneid.
On the other hand Priscian 910 P cites
Ille ego qui quondam gracili modulatus
avena as Virg.'s. Henry's view that
arma Martis is happily contrasted with
arma agricolae (comp. G. 1. 160) seems
to be favoured by the structure of the
sentence, and may very possibly have been
present to the mind of the author of these
[p. 31]
lines; but it clearly was not present to
the minds of those who quoted arma by
itself as war. Tastes may differ as to the
rival commencements, on which see Henry
in loco, and on 2. 247; but it may be suggested
that Virg. would scarcely in his
first sentence have divided the attention of
the reader between himself and his hero
by saying, in effect, that the poet who
wrote the Eclogues and the Georgics, sings
the hero who founded Rome. Wagn.
and Forb., however, as well as Henry, consider
the lines as genuine; and they have
been imitated by Spenser in the opening of
the Faery Queene, and Milton in the
opening of Paradise Regained.
Arma virumque: this is an imitation
of the opening of the Odyssey, ἄνδρα μοι
ἔννεπε κ.τ.λ. It may also be taken from
the first line of the Cyclic poem of the
Epigoni, preserved by the Schol. on Aristoph.
Peace 1270, Νῦν αὖθ' ὑπλοτερων ἀνδρῶν
ἀρχώμεθα, Μοῦσαι. It is followed by
all the other Roman writers of epic
poetry, Lucan, Flaccus, Statius, and, above
all, Silius, the most faithful copier of Virg.,
with a unanimity which strongly supports
the view taken in the preceding note.
The words are not a hendiadys, but give
first the character of the subject and then
the subject itself. Arma may have been
intended to suggest, though it does not
express, a contrast between this and
Virg.'s previous poems.In commencing
with cano he has followed his own example
in the Georgics, rather than that
of Homer, who at once invokes the Muse;
and the Latin Epic writers have followed
Virg. The earlier commentators have
found a difficulty in reconciling primus
with Antenor's previous migration (below,
vv. 242 foll.), and suggest that Aeneas had
first reached Italy proper, though Antenor
had previously reached Venetia. On the
other hand, Heyne and Wagn. make
primus equivalent to olim, thus weakening
a word which from its position and
its occurrence in the first line of the poem
must be emphatic. The more obvious sense
is that Aeneas is so called without reference
to Antenor, as the founder of the
great Trojan empire in Italy.
