Dear Mantovani, reading Cicero's Verr. 2,4,118 I came across the following:
_in hac insula extrema est fons aquae dulcis, cui nomen Arethusa est, incredibili magnitudine, plenissimus piscium, qui fluctu totus operiretur, nisi munitione ac mole lapidum diiunctus esset a mari._ (Cicero describes the _insula_ which is a part of the city of Syracuse). Now, it brought to mind Verg. ecl. 10,1 (_Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem_)--note the proximity of _extrema/extremum_ and _Arethusa_. How can we use this coincidence to interpret the ecl. 10? My contribution: The article in RE, and Clausens commentary ad loc, read together with Cicero, make one aware of the fact that the spring of Arethusa is, both in Theocritus' and Vergil's time, practically _in the middle of the city_ (and not just any city--something like ancient New York, geographically). Neven Zagreb, Croatia ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
