Nunc, olim, quocumque dabunt se tempore vires. Qui face Dardanios ferroque sequare colonos, nullus amor populis nec foedera sunto.Įxoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor Tum vos, o Tyrii, stirpem et genus omne futurumĮxercete odiis, cinerique haec mittite nostro The rest of the passage, with some brief comments: So then, for the purpose of conveying both these ideas, the second person subjunctive is a paradoxical but perfect choice. Yet Dido feels impelled to address her avenger in person, to cry across the centuries to him. It is not so much a jussive subjunctive as a wish, almost a prayer. Why has Virgil chosen the odd second person jussive subjunctive?īecause, in my view, it captures Dido's mood perfectly. Then the bookending of the line with the key idea: 'exoriare.ultor', with the delaying of 'ultor' being particularly striking.īut then something that I haven't seen any commentators mention: the brilliant choice of the form exoriare over other possible forms, namely the imperative exorere or the third person jussive subjunctive exoriatur, both of which would be possible metrically ('exorere ille aliquis.', or 'exoriatur acer nostris.' would be two possible alternate lines). First there is the alliteration of the 's' sounds (including in the preposition 'ex', which is really 'ecs', after all): we can almost imagine Dido hissing the line in fury.

The line is superbly effective, on a number of counts. 'May you arise from my bones, you unknown avenger.' Dido speaking to the future Hannibal. It is in this final passage that perhaps my all-time favourite line of Latin poetry can be found: exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor. The book contains numerous memorable episodes, including Dido's heartfelt confession of her love to her loyal sister Anna, the 'secret marriage' of Aeneas and Dido in a cave during a storm, Aeneas's cold, almost politician-like defence of his conduct once Dido learns of his imminent departure, and finally Dido's fiery imprecation of doom on Aeneas's descendants. If there is one book of the Aeneid which best exemplifies the great power and pathos of Virgil's masterwork, it is probably Book 4, the tragedy-within-an-epic which sees Dido, queen of the nascent city of Carthage, abandoned by Aeneas after she has fallen hopelessly in love with him.

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