tes, after he had vanquished Anthony and Cleopatra.

172. Imbellem avertis Romanis arcibus Indum.] Some think the Indians here mentioned are the Ethiopians, who came to the assistance of Cleopatra, and are called Indians in the eighth Æneid.

dost avert the disarmed Indian from the Roman towers.

"matæ amicitiam petentes. Seres "etiam habitantesque sub ipso sole "Indi, cum gemmis et margaritis, "Elephantes quoque inter munera "trahentes, nihil magis quam

Indi,

Omnis Arabs, omnes vertebant terga Sabæi.

The trembling Indians, and Egyptians yield;

And soft Sabæans quit the wat❜ry field. DRYDEN.

Others think he alludes to the Indians, who being moved by the great fame of the valour and moderation of Augustus sent ambassadors to him to desire his friendship; as we find in Suetonius: "" Qua virtutis moderationisque "fama, Indos etiam ac Scythas, "auditu modo cognitos, pellexit "ad amicitiam suam populique "Romani ultro per legatos peten"dam." We find also in Florus, that after Augustus had subdued the people between the Euphrates and mount Taurus, those nations also who had not been subdued by arms, amongst whom he reckons the Indians, came to him of their own accord, bringing him presents, and desiring his friendship: "Om"nibus ad occasum, et meridiem pacatis gentibus, ad septentrionem quoque duntaxat intra Rhenum atque Danubium; item ad "orientem intra Taurum et Eu"phratem, illi quoque reliqui, qui "immunes imperii erant, sentie"bant tamen magnitudinem, et "victorem gentium Populum Ro" manum reverebantur. Nam et "Scythæ misere legatos, et Sar

Rome 724, about the time that Virgil finished his Georgicks, as he himself testifies at the end of the

fourth book:

Hæc super arvorum cultu, pecorumque canebam,

Et super arboribus: Cæsar dum magnus ad altum

Fulminat Euphratem bello, victorque volentes

Per populos dat jura, viamque affectat olympo.

From what has been said, we may observe that imbellem in this place is not to be rendered weak, effeminate, or unwarlike, as it is generally translated: the meaning of the Poet being, that they came in a peaceable manner to Augustus, being disarmed by the glory of his name, and the fame of his great exploits.

The King's and the Cambridge manuscripts have artibus instead of arcibus. If this reading be admitted, we must render this "dost passage, "avert the disarmed Indian by Ro

man arts;" that is, by power and government, which he has told us, in the sixth Æneid, are the proper arts of the Roman people:

Excudent alii spirantia mollius æra,
Credo equidem: vivos ducent de mar
more vultus ;

Orabunt causas melius; cælique meatus
Describent radio, et surgentia sidera

dicent:

Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, me

mento:

Hæ tibi erunt artes; pacisque imponere morem,

parent of fruits, the great pa

rent of men; for thee I enter

and art, and venture to open

the Ascræan verse through the Roman towns. Now is the time to speak of the nature of the fields; what is

what their colour, and what

duce. In the first place stub

hills,

cunque cæli convexitas vergit, "pulcherrima est omnium, rebus"que merito principatum obtinens, "Italia, rectrix parensque mundi "altera, viris, fœminis, ducibus, "militibus, servitiis, artium præ"stantia, ingeniorum claritatibus, "jam situ ac salubritate cæli atque "temperie, accessu cunctarum "gentium facili, littoribus portuo"sis, benigno ventorum afflatu. "Etenim contingit recurrentis po"sitio in partem utilissimam, et "inter ortus occasusque mediam, aquarum copia, nemorum salu"britate, montium articulis, fero"rum animalium innocentia, soli "fertilitate, pabuli ubertate. Quic

66 quid est quo carere vita non de

66

beat, nusquam est præstantius: "fruges, vinum, olea, vellera, lina, "vestes, juvenci. Ne quos quidem "in trigariis præferri ullos verna"culis animadverto. Metallis auri, "argenti, æris, ferri, quamdiu li"buit exercere, nullis cessit. Et "iis nunc in se gravida pro omni "dote varios succos, et frugum pomorumque sapores fundit."

176. Ascræum carmen.] By Ascræan verse he means, that he follows Hesiod, who was of Ascra in Boeotia, and wrote of husbandry in Greek verse.

177. Nunc locus, &c.] Here the Poet speaks of the different soils, which are proper for olives, vines, pasture, and corn.

178. Et.] In one of the Arundelian manuscripts, and several of the old printed editions, it is aut.

Ferendis.] In one of the Arundelian manuscripts it is creandis.

179. Difficiles primum terræ.] The same soil does not agree with olives in all countries. Thus Pliny tells us, that a fat soil suits them in some places, and a gravelly soil in others : "Glareosum oleis solum "aptissimum in Venafrano, pin

66

guissimum in Boetica." The soil where Virgil lived is damp, being subject to the inundations of the Po, and therefore he recommends the hilly and stony lands for the culture of olives. We find in Pliny, that the country about Larissa formerly abounded with olives, but

181

hungry as sand: "Creta, qua "utuntur figuli, quamque nonnulli argillam vocant, inimicissima est " [viti]; nec minus jejuna sabulo.", 181. Palladia.] Pallas or Minerva was said to be the discoverer of the olive-tree. See the note on ver. 18. of the first Georgick.

Vivacis.] We have seen, in the note on ver. 3. of this Georgick, that the olive is a slow grower, and therefore he here calls it longlived.

182. Oleaster.] This is a wild sort of olive, which seems to be different from the cultivated sort, only by its wildness, as crabs from apples. That plant which is cultivated in our gardens under the name of Oleaster, is not an olive: Tournefort refers it to his genus of Elæagnus. It grows in Syria, Ethiopia, and Mount Lebanon ; Clusius observed it in great plenty also near Guadix, a city in the kingdom of Granada, as also in the south of France and Germany. It is thought to be the Cappadocian Jujubs, which are mentioned by Pliny, amongst the coronary flow

where the bushy fields abound with lean clay and pebbles, rejoice in a wood of longlived Palladian olives. You may know this soil by wild olives rising thick, and the fields being strewed with wild berries. But the ground which is fat, and rich with sweet moisture,

ers: Zizipha, quæ et Cappadocia "vocantur: his odoratus similis "olearum floribus." The flowers of the Eleagnus are much like those of the olive; but the ovary of the Eleagnus is placed below the petal, whereas that of the olive is contained within the petal. They are very sweet, and may be smelt at some distance.

183. Plurimus.] See the note on ver. 187. of the first Georgick.

184. At quæ pinguis humus, &c.] Virgil here recommends a fat, moist, fruitful soil for vines, in which he is said to differ from the other writers of agriculture, who say that a very fruitful soil will generally make a bad vineyard. Celsus, as he is quoted by Columella, says the ground for a vineyard should be neither too loose nor too hard, but approaching to loose: neither poor nor very rich, but approaching to rich neither plain nor steep, but a little rising: neither dry nor wet, but a little moist: "At si noto est eligendus vineis “locus, et status cæli sicut censet "verissime Celsus, optimum est "solum, nec densum nimis, nec "resolutum, soluto tamen propius: 66 nec exile, nec lætissimum, proxi