There is also an interesting treatment of these verses in Gian Biagio Conte, _The Rhetoric of Imitation_, Cornell Univ Pr, Ithaca-London, 1986 (pp. 85-87). Conte affirms that Ovid read the Aeneid as opening with Arma virumque -- cf. the allusion at the beginning of the _Amores_ -- but notes that Ovid, too, added a four-line epigram as a preface to _his_ book.
Incidentally, Marko Marulic (1450-1524), a Croatian poet from Split, when rendering Petrarca's final canzone, _Vergine bellla..._ in Latin, wrote at v. 111-112: Illa, ego quam quondam totis affectibus arsi, Occidit et gelido marmore tecta iacet. Neven ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
