The Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil . arm-houses smoke in the distance. By villa is here meant, ofcourse, not the residence of a wealthy landed proprietor, but acountry or farm house occupied by a person of the middling class;or, as we would say, a substantial farmer. This is shown also bythe expression summa culmina, as indicating the peak, or highestpart of the roof, with the smoke escaping there by a simple aper-ture. This marks at once an ordinary dwelling, where the even-ing meal is preparing, and where the smoke obtains egress by thewindows, doors, and roof. Chimneys were unknown in buil
The Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil . arm-houses smoke in the distance. By villa is here meant, ofcourse, not the residence of a wealthy landed proprietor, but acountry or farm house occupied by a person of the middling class;or, as we would say, a substantial farmer. This is shown also bythe expression summa culmina, as indicating the peak, or highestpart of the roof, with the smoke escaping there by a simple aper-ture. This marks at once an ordinary dwelling, where the even-ing meal is preparing, and where the smoke obtains egress by thewindows, doors, and roof. Chimneys were unknown in buildingsof this class, and but very seldom employed in those of more costlyconstruction. In these last, the rooms were sometimes heated byhot air, which was introduced by means of pipes from a furnace be-low, but more frequently by portable furnaces or braziers, in which NOTES ON ECLOGUE I. 117 coal or charcoal was burned. The following wood-cut representssuch a brazier, found at Caere in Etruria, and now preserved in theBritish 118 NOTES ON ECLOGUE II. ECLOGUE II. Subject. In this Eclogue, Corydon, a shepherd, expresses his strong at-tachment for a youth named Alexis, which feeling, however, as hehimself complains, is not reciprocated by the latter. Voss makes this piece to have been composed by Virgil in thespring of 711, the poet being then in his 26th year. 1-2. Ardebat Alexin. Observe here the employment of an accu-sative with an intransitive verb. Many verbs thus obtain a trans-itive force, because an action exerted upon another is implied,though not described in them. The poets allow themselves greatlatitude on this point.—Delicias domini. The favourite of hismaster. Alexis was of servile degree. His master was Iollas,who is named in verse 57.—Nee, quid speraret, habebat. Nor hadhe apparently what to hope for, i. e., any ground of hope that hisattachment to Alexis was reciprocated. Voss considers quid hereas an archaism for quod, while Heyne thinks that
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