VIRGIL'S ETNA. 455 



younger Seneca, with whose writings it shows an intimate agreement. 

 Notwithstanding it has been twice re-edited in English, and once in 

 German, within recent years, almost no notice has been taken in geo- 

 logical literature of this remarkable production.* Sartorius, Baron of 

 Waltershausen, who gives a list of ancient Etna eruptions,! refers to 

 it casually as a ' schones Gedicht.' Sudhaus, however, in his thesis 

 on ' -ZEtna/ devotes considerable space to the scientific aspects of the 

 poem, and traces a connection between the author's general theories of 

 vulcanism and those of Posidonius. 



x4n idea of the scientific value of ' iEtna ' may be gathered from the 

 following selections from the analysis of the poem as given by Pro- 

 fessor Ellis in his critical recension of the text (Oxford, 1901). 



JEtna. 



(1-28) My song is of Aetna and its subterranean fires. The ancient sub- 

 jects of poetry are exhausted and have become overtrite. Mine is a hardier 

 effort, to explain the causes of Aetna's eruptions and of its burning lava floods. 



(222-271) The highest pleasure of the human soul is to search into the 

 causes of things. What is the origin of the universe, what is the nature of 

 ite framework? Will it pass into extinction, or go on forever? By what 

 degree is the moon's orbit less than the sun's ? What stars have a fixed circuit, 

 what are the alternations of the zodiacal signs? Such lofty speculations as 

 these should be our chief end and aim, as indeed they are our highest and most 

 divine pleasure. Nor should we forget meanwhile the earth; for folly it were 

 indeed to explore the sky and the stars, yet indolently neglect the great 

 spectacle that lies before us and at our feet. 



(187-217) If you ask what is the cause that produces the outbreaks of 

 Aetna as we know them, I appeal to what we see; to touch we are not permitted, 

 the force of the explosion making it dangerous to come near. Ignited sand is 

 whirled up in a cloud, burning masses of rock are heaved skywards, a loud crash 

 bursts from every part of the mountain, the ground is strewn in every direction 

 with masses of sand and stone. 



(447-507) Round the sides of Aetna you may see stones in a state of 

 fuming heat, and rocks with the fire smouldering in their pores. When the 

 volcano begins to prepare for an eruption there are premonitory signs, such as 

 cracking of the ground, falling away of the soil, low murmurs from the depths 

 of the mountain, flame. When these occur it is time to withdraw to the 

 safety of some adjoining eminence. The eruption comes in a moment, masses 

 of burning rock are heaved in the air, shoals of black sand are driven up to the 

 stars. They fall into the most fantastic shapes. Some look like troops under 



*Gellius has fared better than the author of ' .-Etna,' being quoted in full 

 by seventeenth-century writers on Vesuvius, notably by Alzario della Croce, in 

 his Vesuvius ardens (Rome, 1632). 



f Sartorius ('iEtna,' Vol. I., p. 202) appears to be uncertain whether the 

 combined statements of Virgil, Livy and Petronius refer to one or two violent 

 eruptions about the middle of the first century B. C. It seems probable that 

 only one is indicated, the date of which was either 44 or 49 B. C. Livy, as 

 quoted by Servius, makes the eruption immediately precede the death of Caesar 

 in 44; Petronius, on the other hand, places it before the passage of the Rubicon 

 in 49. 



