Page:A translation of the Latin works of Dante Alighieri.djvu/40

VIII. Gen. X. 8, as read by St Augustin (De Civitate Dei, XVI. 3). The same authority (ibid., XVI. 4) identifies the narrative of Gen. xi. 1 ff. (building of Babell) with the building of Babylon, and states that Nimrod was its founder (compare Gen. x. 10). The tradition that Nimrod built the tower of Babel was well establislied in the Middle Ages. 28. See for Dante's idea of nature, De Monarchia, II. 2: 15 ff.; Convivro, IV. 9 : 15 ff.

34. Of the heavenly power (imperii). Compare Pardiso, XXXII. 117.

37. Pia correctione, i.e. with the correction which a tender father would administer (see Convivio, II. 11: 30 IT; Paradiso, XVIII. 129). 67. A conjecture founded, no doubt, on Gen. X. 21. It is curious that Dante calls Shem the third son of Noah, for in the biblical narrative he is always mentioned in priority to Ham and Japheth. If, however, Dante's words here, ‘tertius filius Noe,’ be taken in the sense of ‘one of Noah's three sons,’ the difficulty disappears.

CHAPTER VIII

[Dante here confines his attention to Europe. Its inhabitants, coming from the East, brought a threefold language with them which accordingly, in process of time, became divided into three principal varieties of speech: (l) That prevailing over the North of Europe, subdivided afterwards into various tongues, almost all of which betray their common origin by the use of the affirmativc particle iò. (2) That prevailing over the East of Europe and extending into Asia, spoken by the Greeks. (3) That prevailing in the South, now subdivided into the tongues distinguished by the affirmative particles oc, oïl and sì. The boundaries of these languages described].

On account of the confusion of tongues related above we have no slight reason for thinking that men were at that time first scattered through all