Introduction 



lion, and even the less red hide of the wolf. Last is 

 gilvus, which is dun, and is used of a horse. 



Then there are white and black. It seems clear 

 that Virgil does not distinguish candidus and albus, 

 for he applies them both to the same objects. The 

 original meaning of candidus was white hot, and it 

 therefore implies a shining white, but Virgil applies 

 it to a beard and a poplar-tree. Nor can it be made 

 out that he distinguishes ater and niger except in 

 metaphorical uses. Properly ater seems to be the 

 colour of charcoal. There is also a wide extension 

 both of black and of white. Of two Sicilians one is 

 called black and the other white. A black flower 

 need be no darker than violet, and we may say that 

 in some contexts white means little more than not 

 black and black little more than not white. 



Worst of all are the two words purpureus and 

 ferrugineus. As applied to flowers, the former ap- 

 pears to mean no more than bright, a meaning 

 which it retains when applied to the light of youth — j 

 ' lumen iuventae.' A contemporary of Virgil applied / 

 the epithet to snow, and I cannot see that Virgil 

 ever uses it of a dark hue, not even when he applies 

 it to the breath or soul leaving the body in a violent 

 death. On the other hand, ferrugineus, which must 

 originally have signified the colour of iron rust, does 

 connote some darkness, and clearly Virgil uses it of 

 Tyrian purple. He also uses it of the darkness that 

 comes over the sun in an eclipse and of Charon's 

 boat. A character in Plautus tells us that it is the 

 colour of the sea, and as the sea displays so many 



5 



