Friday, April 25, 2025
A Quintessentially Roman Trait
Vergil, Aeneid 12.649-650 (Turnus speaking; tr. H. Rushton Fairclough):
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... never unworthy of my mighty forebears.Richard Tarrant ad loc.:
... magnorum haud umquam indignus
avorum.
T.'s wish to prove himself worthy of his ancestors is a quintessentially Roman trait. Propertius' Cornelia, recently arrived in the Underworld, exhibits a similar concern. Her speech ends with a probable echo of T.'s words (4.11.99-100): sim digna merendo | cuius honoratis ossa uehantur auis. (auis is Heinsius' emendation for the manuscript readings aquis and equis; the Virgilian parallel may give it some additional support.) See also Oakley on Livy 7.10.3.
