Laudator Temporis Acti

Vergil, Aeneid 2.39 (tr. H. Rushton Fairclough, rev. G.P. Goold):

The wavering crowd is torn into opposing factions.

scinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgus.

Nicholas Horsfall ad loc.:

39 scinditur Cf. Luc. 10.416f. Latium sic scindere corpus / dis placitum, Tac. Hist. 1.13 hi discordes et rebus minoribus sibi quisque tendentes, circa consilium eligendi successoris in duas factiones scindebantur. But cf. already G. 4.419f. quo plurima uento cogitur / inque sinus scindit sese unda reductos; the abstract development was to be expected. Leumann, 14 remarks that PColt1 here (Cavenaile, CPL, p.34) marks not long syllables but those bearing the word-accent.

incertum Honest uncertainty perhaps seen as a first step towards noisy and unprofitable partisanship; not here alone, an expert (and commentary ultimately unsympathetic) view of crowd mentality. Cf. Ehlers, TLL 7.1.883.76f.; tacet EV.

studia in contraria Cf. Eur. Hec. 117ff. (a later occasion), Cic. Cael. 12 (of Catiline) neque ego umquam fuisse tale monstrum in terris ullum puto, tam ex contrariis diuersisque <atque> inter se pugnantibus naturae studiis cupiditatibusque conflatum, Suet. Aug. 81 (Aug. and the doctors) contrariam et ancipitem rationem medendi necessario subiit, Tac. Hist. 4.6 ea ultio, incertum maior an iustior, senatum in studia diduxerat. See TLL 4.770.42f. (Spelthahn), Hellegouarc'h, 176, n.12. Also used of the divided passions of a sporting crowd, 5.148, 228, 450; cf. EV 4, 1045.

uulgus With a little of the disapproval present at 1.148f. cum saepe coorta est / seditio saeuitque animis ignobile uulgus; cf. too 2.99, 119, 798, 11.451 (with n.), 12.223, Pomathios, 152, A. La Penna, EV 4, 911, and in Vergiliana (ed. H. Bardon and R. Verdière, Leiden 1971), 285.