Writing-tablet with a line from Virgil

Roman Britain, late 1st or early 2nd century AD
Vindolanda Roman fort (modern Chesterholm), Northumberland

In the commanding officer's residence (praetorium) at Vindolanda, probably during the occupation by Cerialis and his family, someone took a wooden writing-tablet on which a private letter had been begun, but not finished. They wrote on the back of it, in a rather good hand, a complete line from the second half of Virgil's Aeneid (9.473).

It was certainly not a readily memorable line, which makes us wonder: Were the texts of Virgil available at Vindolanda? Were they used for writing practice as is commonly found on papyri? By whom? Cerialis' children?

A.K. Bowman, Life and letters on the Roman (London, The British Museum Press, 1994)

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The Aeneid of Virgil, Translated by John Dryden, Selections, edited by Bruce Pattison

濟慈1795-1821年輕的時代也翻譯拉丁文名詩(維吉爾Virgil的)，年表(Keats’s Life)1811年第2行”Finish translating The Aeneid. (KEATS POETICAL WORKS, edited by H. W. Grrod, OUP, p.xxvii)。----似乎沒出版？



狄德罗Denis Diderot 認 為：The Aeneid (əˈniːɪd; in Latin Aeneis, pronounced ... Aeneidos is a Latin epic poem written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC (29 ...)最美的一句是：卷一 第462行。(兩處翻譯卻天差地別啦！2014年10.6決定抄出，送港民.....)

He halted, and said, with tears: ‘What place is there,
Achates, what region of earth not full of our hardships?
See, Priam! Here too virtue has its rewards, here too
there are tears for events, and mortal things touch the heart.
Lose your fears: this fame will bring you benefit.’


BkI:458-462
Translated by A. S. Kline © 2002 All Rights Reserved

即使在這裡，光榮也仍然獲得應得的報償；人生不幸的事也仍然贏得同情之淚；生活的痛苦也仍然打動人心。不要害怕，我們在他們眼中並不陌生，我們是相當安全的。(楊周翰譯)
http://hcbooks.blogspot.tw/2010/10/blog-post_07.html

Virgil:Aeneid I - Poetry In Translation
www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/.../VirgilAeneidI.htm
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... to face so many. trials? Can there be such anger in the minds of the gods? .... the pain deep in his heart. They make ready the game, and the future feast: ..... See, Priam! Here too virtue has its rewards, here too. there are tears for events, and mortal things touch the heart. Lose your fears: this fame will bring you benefit.' ...


----
西方的墓誌銘習俗，多少能綜述「墓主」的貢獻。譬如說，古羅馬大詩人維吉爾的：「…….我歌唱過牧場、田園和領袖。」分別指他的三本主要詩作：《牧歌》、《農事詩》、《》

田園詩, 牧歌 (維吉爾)

維吉爾《埃涅阿斯紀》

楊周翰先生是我很佩服的一位專家。昨天讀但丁，取他 翻譯的《埃涅阿斯紀》（Johnson說他每夜讀它一章，12天讀畢。此法不錯），找一句的出處。我思索他為什麼要略去那句不翻…….

維吉爾《埃涅阿斯紀》楊周翰譯，南京：譯林，1999，p.14

王承教編《埃涅阿斯紀》章義，北京：華夏，2010




「特奧克托斯做為作家甚不足道，至於他的牧歌，維吉爾明顯比他高明。……特奧克托斯雖然生活在美麗的國土，但描寫不多，他寫的風習很粗鄙。維吉爾的描寫多得多，更富於情調，更多大自然，藝術性更高。」----Life of Johnson by Boswell p.1066

Theocritus is not deserving of very high respect as a writer: as to the pastoral part, Virgil is very evidently superiour He wrote when there had been a large influx of knowledge into the world than when Theocritus lived. Theocritus does not abound in the description, though living in a beautiful country: the manners painted are coarse and gross. Virgil has much more description, more sentiment, more of Nature, and more of art."