This isn't in response to anything in particular, but is offered as a contribution to the general topic. Badius Ascensius, a Flemish printer/scholar of the early sixteenth century, once observed that "almost every book [of the Aeneid] ends with someone's death": that of Creusa in the second, Anchises in the third, Dido in the fourth, Palinurus in the fifth, Caieta in the sixth, etc. He goes on to ask, "Was it not therefore proper (Quinetiam) that the whole work should conclude with the death of Turnus, the summit at which the glory of Aeneas reached its highest point?" (introduction, Commentarii; he makes the same point in his commentary on Aen. 12.930ff)
In point of fact, the death of Caieta is described at the beginning of the seventh book, not at the end of the sixth. (Or did he believe that Virgil, had he lived, would have divided the books differently at this point?) On the other hand, one might add to the list Badius gives here the names of Mezentius and Camilla, whose deaths round out the conclusions of books 10 and 11, respectively. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- David Wilson-Okamura http://www.virgil.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] University of Chicago Online Virgil discussion, bibliography & links ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
