Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

MINOR LATIN POETScorpora diripiat, validoque absolverit arcu ?quod si fallor, adest species : tantusque ruinisimpetus attentos oculoruni transfugit ictus, 3.nee levis adstantes igitur ferit aura movetquesparsa liquore manus sacros ubi ventilat ignesverberat ora tamen pulsataque corpora nostrisincursant : adeo in tenui vini causa repellit.non cinerem stipulamve levem, non arida sorbet 3(gramina, non tenues placidissimus excit apludassurgit odoratis sublimis fumus ab aris :tanta quies illi est et pax innoxia rapti.sive peregrinis igitur propriisve potentesconiurant aniniae causis, ille impetus ignes 36et montis partes atra subvectat harena,vastaque concursu trepidantia saxa fragoresardentesque simul flammas ac fulmina rumpunt.CZ :^*8 diripiant CHA : diripiat R : deripiat Ciericus. absolveretabsolverit Scaliger. arcu CZ : aestu vel actu Wernsdorf.251nee levitas tantos CZ^: nee levis astantes Ellis {in note)."^*fJlIis marks a lacuna after this line.^'"^humus excita praedas C : exit humus apredas H :exit humor f apndas AR : placidissimus excit apludas Ellis.35' adoratis CAR : odoratus H : odoratis Scaliger." The passage is difficult. Taking nt with Birt and Sudhausas " how," we may paraphrase it " : noting the calm onAetna's summit, }"ou can miderstand how the spiritus, sopowerful when roused, fails to displace any part of the crater(arcu) when quiescent." [Sudhaus renders " von dem Felsrandedes Kraters," but arcu, if the right reading, may meanan arched cavern and not the crater-curve.] Ellis propoundsa different \Tlew, suggesting that huicne credis ut numquamdiripiat may mean " Can 30U believe, on the showing of this,the impossibility of the spiritus, when in a milder form, tearingdown masses of rock "?392* Cf. ventilat ignem, Juv, III. 263 : ventilel aurum 1. 28."Cf. Virg. G. IV. 6, in tenui labor. The connexion of