Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 3.djvu/378

852 us the Genealo­gy of the Gods, and I think I may safely infer the rest. I will only add, that Homer was more a Fatalist than Virgil: For it has been observ'd, that the word, or Fortune, is not to be found in his two Poems; but instead of it, always.

Æneid the 12. lines 888, and 889.
 * Sea-born Messapus with Atinas, heads
 * The Latin Squadrons; and to Battel leads.

The Poet had said, in the preceding lines, that Mnestheus, Seresthus, and Asylas, led on the Trojans, the Tuscans, and the Arcadians: But none of the Printed Copies, which I have seen, mention any Leader of the Rutulians and Latins, but Messapus the Son of ''Neptune. Ruæus takes no­tice of this passage, and seems to wonder at it; but gives no Reason, why Messapus'' is alone without a Coadjutor.

The four Verses of Virgil run thus.
 * Totæ adeò conversæ acies, omnesque Latini
 * Omnes Dardanidæ, Mnestheus, acerque Seresthus
 * Et Messapus equum Domitor, & fortis Asylas,
 * Tuscorumque Phalanx, Evandrique Arcadis alæ.

I doubt not but the third Line was Originally thus,
 * Et Messapus equum domitor, & fortis Atinas:

For the two Names of Asylas and Atinas are so like, that one might easily be mistaken for the other by the Transcribers. And to fortify this Opinion, we find afterward, in the relation of