43 
relies upon it for its safety (v. 294 ,omnis in hac certam regio 
jacit arte salutem*). Then follows the description of the pro- 
ceedings, the choice of the locality, the building of a shed (the 
commentator Conington calls it chamber) with four windows, the 
slaying of the young ox, the pounding of his flesh without 
shedding any blood, the stopping up of all orifices, the strewing 
of thyme and casia etc. (v. 295—304). This takes place in the 
early spring before the swallow builds its nest (v. 307). Now 
begins the seething of the sap, and singular animals appear, 
at first without legs, but soon with vibrating wings, forming 
& swarm which rises into the air, and is compared to a rain- 
shower, or to the arrows of Parthians in battle (v. 309—311): 
Visenda modis animalia miris, 
Trunca pedum primo, mox et stridentia pinnis, 
Miscentur, tenuemque magis magis aéra carpunt. 
Joh. H. Voss translates it: 
Aber die gihrenden Sift’ erhitzt im zarten Gebeine 
Sieden indess, und man schaut ein wundersames Gewimmel 
Mangelnd an Fiissen zuerst; doch bald mit schwirrenden Fliigeln 
Schwiirmt es, je mehr und mehr zur diinnen Luft sich erhebend. 
Commentators and translators must have been puzzled by 
the expression ,trunca pedum primo“, ,at first deprived of legs“, 
which, of course, refers to the larvae (1). 
(1) In an old Latin dictionary which I possess (Ambrosii Calepini Dictio- 
narium ete. Venetiis 1559, apud Paulum Manutium, Aldi filium) I find under 
the vocable apes, the following curious reference to this passage of Virgil: 
,Compositum putatur ab ¢, sine, et pes, quod sine pedibus nasci videatur, 
dicente Virgilio : Trunca pedum primo. Sed quam non servet analogiam, 
situt caetera composita : Bipes, tripes, compes : magis simplex judicandum est. 
Apes ex bovum fimo, sicut crabones ex equorum, fuci ex mulorum, vespae ex 
asinorum excrementis.“ 
Robert-Tornow (p. 24) quotes a similar ridiculous derivation of apis by 
a Dr. Kilmarus, in a dissertation de jure apum (edit. II, 1686 A, D.): Apes 
vel apis ex d zat xzo%c, quod sine pedibus nascuntur, Virg. trunca pedum ete.“ 
Calepinus’s derivation is more than hundred years older, and both must have 
come from some common source. 
