In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Philip
Thibodeau <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
>I am having no luck connecting the following quotation to its original
>source:
>
>'Donatus scribit Vergilium solitum dicere: nullam virtutem commodiorem
>homini esse patentia ac nullam fortunam adeo esse asperam, quam prudenter
>patiendo vir fortis non vincat.'
>
>The article I got this from merely attributes the quotation to 'Fabricius'.
>Could anyone explain who 'Fabricius' is, or help me find where in Donatus
>this saying is attributed to Vergil?
I don't know whether Simon is right about Fabricius, or it was J. A.
Fabricius the literary historian, but I can help you with the second:
look in Jacob Brummer's edition of the _Vitae Vergilianae_, bound with
vol. ii of Georgii's Teubner, _Tiberi Claudi Donati . . .
Interpretationes Vergilianae_ (Leipzig, 1912; repr. Stuttgart, 1969) but
separately paginated, at p. 31. In the 'apparatus plenus' to the _Vita
Vergiliana Donatiana_ (by Aelius Donatus of course, not ti. Claudius),
you will find, in the course of the long interpolation that also
includes 'sic vos non vobis', the words 'solitus erat dicere nullam
virtutem commodiorem homini esse patentia ac nullam fortunam esse
asperam, quam prudenter patiendo vir fortis non vincat. quam semtentiam
in V Aenidos inseruit [vv. 700-1]:
nate dea, quo fata trahunt retrahuntque sequamur,
quicquid erit, vincenda omnis fortuna ferendo est'.
Question for question: has anyone any thoughts, or bibliographical
citations on the source(s) of this whole passage? It begins with a
quotation from Asconius:
refert enim Pedianus, benignum cultoremque omnium bonorum atque
eruditorum fuisse et usque adeo invidiae expertem, ut si quid erudite
dictum inspiceret alterius, non minus gauderet, ac [=ac si] suum
fuisset.
That at least should indicate that it is no part of Donatus' life, the
man who as Jerome informs us used to say 'Pereant qui ante nos nostra
dixerumt.' But it's not a bad principle all the same.
Leofranc Holford-Strevens
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Leofranc Holford-Strevens
67 St Bernard's Road usque adeone
Oxford scire MEVM nihil est, nisi ME scire hoc sciat alter?
OX2 6EJ
tel. +44 (0)1865 552808(home)/267865(work) fax +44 (0)1865 512237
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (home) [EMAIL PROTECTED] (work)
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