ABSTRACT

Carl Schaper' conjecture caelo 1877,1 so commendably adopted by Conte in his text, deserves our full support. At first glance it may seem even today to be one of those conjectures that are destined for a short life because the traditional text seems good enough,2 and many editors think that one shouldn't try the futile business of improving Vergil. I strongly believe that Conte's edition has made an audacious decision on 7. 543 and thereby shown the true worth of Schaper's proposal. The Fury Allecto has just kindled war and is now about to leave the scene of her destructive intervention. Before returning to Hades, her true home, she has only to report to her employer Juno. Schaper conjectured caelo instead of caeli. One may well fear that Conte's adoption of this conjecture will be ignored. The Spanish edition – a useful one that should be heeded by every future editor – has again caeli which is defended explicitly by Rivero García. And in an otherwise very favourable review De Paolis specifically opts for a return to caeli.3 Therefore these words of defence concerning Schaper's and Conte's caelo. As shown in Conte's apparatus the dative caelo for ad caelum, often called dative of direction, is something of a speciality in Vergil's poetic language.4 After Vergil this use of dative was taken up by Ovid in particular5 and by 1st-century epic poets.6