期刊名称：Amphora: A publication of the American Philological Association
出版年度：2008
卷号：7
期号：01
出版社：American Philological Association
摘要：Tantae molis erat Romanam condere
gentem. This is the momentous final line
of the introduction to Vergil’s Aeneid
(1.33): “to found the Roman race was of
such great effort.” The line is deliberately
ponderous, emphasizing Aeneas’ struggle
as the theme of the epic. Accordingly, Latin
teachers have spent centuries making sure
their students understand it just right, especially
the nifty genitive of description used
predicatively. The taxed student mutters in
response: “The genitive of what? What a
pain!” Exactly right, says Rose Williams,
for it is from this line, and to the reward of
all such students, that she subtitles her irreverent
retelling of Vergil’s masterpiece: what
a pain it was to found the Roman race.
