[433] It is not altogether easy to fix the sense of ‘vices.’ That Serv. is right generally in explaining it of battle is clear, so that Forb. has good reason to compare “belli vices” in Stat. Theb. 10. 754, and elsewhere. ‘Vices’ however in this connexion may refer either to the casualties of war (that which happens to each in turn), or to actual encounters between two persons, the ‘give and take’ of combat. The former is evidently the prominent notion in Sil. 3. 13, Claudian 6 Cons. Honor. 282, where fortune is spoken of in the context; the latter is perhaps what is intended in Stat. l. c., where the words are “non quisquam obsistere contra, Non belli tentare vices.” On the whole, I can scarcely doubt that Thiel is right in distinguishing ‘vices’ from ‘tela,’ as hand-to-hand encounters, “comminus,” σχέδια, from missiles; comp. below, v. 726, where the expression is very parallel, “quem dudum non ulla iniecta movebant Tela neque adverso glomerati ex agmine Graii,” and above v. 358, “per tela, per hostis.” ‘Nec tela, nec ullas vices’ will then = “nulla tela, nullas vices.” In any case the expression ‘vices Danaum’ is perhaps a little harsh; but there can be no doubt that the punctuation is right, as against an attempt, mentioned by Heyne, and revived by Peerlkamp, Ladewig, Haupt, and Ribbeck, to connect ‘Danaum’ with ‘manu,’ which they join with ‘ut caderem.’ Scaliger seems to have had some notion of the true reference of ‘vices,’ his words being “vices volnera significat et caedes, ut quemadmodum vel percusserat vel interfecerat idem pateretur; ubi igitur ab Argivis tantundem fiebat operis ad pugnandum, eo Aeneas sese induebat.” ‘Tela’ apparently goes with ‘Danaum,’ as well as ‘vices.’ “Si fata fuissent,” v. 54. One MS. gives ‘dedissent,’ one or two others ‘tulissent,’ which Burm. groundlessly prefers.
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John Conington. P. Vergili Maronis opera. P. Vergili Maronis Opera. The works of Virgil, with a Commentary by John Conington, M.A. Late Corpus Professor of Latin in the University of Oxford. London. Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane. 1876.
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