¹ ALL 12.479–550 (1902). The problem of the poetic plural has been attacked from other points of view. Kurt Witte, in his book ‘Singular und Plural’ (Leipzig, 1907), has studied Greek nouns from the historical standpoint to see whether they were originally singular or plural, and to show that, for the sake of greater metrical convenience, writers of dactylic verse used the plural of nouns which were originally singulars, or vice versa. Ernst Bednara, in ALL 14.532–604 (1906), lists all the syntactic devices to which writers of dactylic verse had recourse, and therefore includes certain examples of the use of neuter plurals for singulars. This dissertation, however, is not concerned with the use of plurals of all cases and genders as compared with the corresponding singulars, but specifically with the frequency of certain cases of the neuter plural in Vergil in comparison with those cases in the singular; cf. especially Chapter III, Tables I–IV. This point of view seems to have been touched, very briefly, only by Eduard Norden in his commentary to Aeneid VI, pages 399–400.

² Abnorm und entsetzlich!—Das ist der pluralis maiestaticus. Cf. ALL 12.481–6 (1902).

³ ALL 12.487 (1902).

⁴ A. 1.355.

⁵ R. G. Kent, The Sounds of Latin, §123.

⁶ R. B. Steele, Variation in the Latin Dactylic Hexameter, in Phil. Quart. 5.212-225 (1926).

⁷ Steele, op. cit., 220.

⁸ E.g., -ēre for -ērunt, the frequent use of quoque, tamen, modo, etc.

⁹ Because of the problems to be discussed in this dissertation, it is convenient to use ‘elision’ to mean the elision of a final vowel, and ‘ecthlipsis’ to mean elision of a vowel before final m.

¹⁰ The symbol nav is used in this dissertation to indicate nominative-accusative-vocative.

¹¹ See page 22.

¹² The reference A. 6.159 gives the line in which vestigia, the word under discussion, occurs, without regard to where the quotation begins or ends.

¹³ I.e., excluding words found in one number only (e.g., Troia, Paris, progenies, arma), and those having different meanings in singular and plural (e.g., vis, opes).

¹ Words which occur ten times or oftener will henceforth be spoken of as ‘common words’.

² M. N. Wetmore, Index Verborum Vergilianus², New Haven, 1930.

³ The popularity which pre-Augustan and Augustan poets gave to certain forms and usages caused a change in normal prose style.

⁴ Because it is in obvious contrast to salo in the same line.

⁵ 2.24, 3.136.

¹ The first-declension form does not occur in Vergil.

² When the anaptyctic vowel is present, these words belong in Class IV.

³ R. B. Steele, Phil. Quart. 5.212–225 (1926).

⁴ The relative frequency of occurrence of singulars and plurals should be noted. Cf. the discussion of this word in the Introduction.

⁵ Ribbeck thinks that G. 2.129 is an interpolation, but Conington concludes that ‘the external evidence against the genuineness of the line is far from strong’.

⁶ Conington accepts A. 7.134 and 7.147 as genuine lines.

⁷ There is one occurrence of tergora, a true plural, tabulated in Class II.

⁸ See s.v. periculum in Class IV.

⁹ See s.v. vinculum in Class IV.

¹ Some Mss read vertimus, but this makes no difference in the discussion of aequora.

² In counting the poetic plurals, I have included all ten occurrences of the refrain, since other occurrences in other repeated lines have been counted. I count the intercalary line of the eighth Eclogue as number 29a, and not as number 30.

³ The evidence brought out by this study does not point to a widespread use of the generic singular of neuter nouns in Vergil.

⁴ A. 9.121 is rejected by Conington (who would have numbered it 122), but many other editors retain it in the text.

⁵ Tegimen occurs twice in the nav singular, and these occurrences are included in the tabulations of Class V.

¹ Ecthlipsis in words which in this dissertation are found in Classes III and IV was studiously avoided by Vergil. Cf. Maas, ALL 12.508–514 (1902), and the discussion in Class IV.

² Instead of in spatia, some editors prefer the reading in spatio.

¹ The genitive singular in -i of peculium occurs in E. 1.32 nec spes libertatis erat, nec cura peculi; the ablative singular of eloquium in A. 11.383 proinde tona eloquio, solitum tibi, meque timoris.

² Kent, TAPA 54.90 (1923).

³ Maas, ALL 12.508–514 (1902). In Lucretius, Vergil, Propertius, and Horace the kind of elision which would make such a word as pabulum fit the dactylic hexameter is extremely rare. Maas cites the following instances from Vergil where ecthlipsis has made suitable to the metre words which would otherwise scan as cretics (——): Ilium seven times before et and once before in; omnium A. 1.599; audiam A. 4.387; abluam A. 4.684; eruam A. 10.514; limitem A. 12.569. It is significant that the only neuter word in the list is Ilium which, by virtue of its importance to the poet, was adapted to the metre in a way that was ordinarily avoided.

⁴ The other form of this word, ostia -ae, does not occur in Vergil.

¹ Servius ad Aen. 2.157.

² Note to A. 2.157 in Conington's Vergil (vol. II⁴, page 106).

¹ Fretum is not a heteroclite in Vergil, i.e., the plural is of the same gender as the singular.