Two Notes on Lucretius

This comes near to satisfying; but even with ipsa the change of subject from tecta to plaustra is awkward, and exsultant is inappropriate to a lumbering plaustrum (cf. Virgil, G. 1.163 tardaque Eleusinae matris uoluentia plaustra ). I suggest reading cisia instead of ipsa . The cisium was a fast light two-wheeled vehicle which might well jump up on a rough road; and the first three letters cis could have become the - es of the MS exsultantes . Two further points: lapis uiai is not ‘a stone on the road’ (Bailey and Rouse/Smith [Loeb, 1982]), but rather the stone of the road, i.e. the paving; and utrimque is not ‘on one side or the other’ (Bailey in notes) but ‘on both sides’. There remains Ernout's objection that the suppression of the final s of lapis (which stands for lapids *) is unlikely. One can only say that no one would have ventured to introduce by conjecture pendentibu ' structas or manantibu ' stillent , but both are found in Lucretius' text (6.195, 943)

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• Notes on Lucretius

  Open Access•M F Smith•The Classical Quarterly•1993

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