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NEURAL ENGINEERING TECHNIQUES FOR
AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER, VOLUME 2
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NEURAL ENGINEERING
TECHNIQUES FOR
AUTISM SPECTRUM
DISORDER, VOLUME 2
DIAGNOSIS AND CLINICAL ANALYSIS

Edited by

Ayman S. El-Baz
University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, United States; University of Louisville
at Alamein International University (UofL-AIU)

Jasjit S. Suri
ATHEROPOINT, Roseville, CA, United States
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use of the MATLABs software.

Notices
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understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary.
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any
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Dedication

With love and affection to my mother and father, whose loving spirit sustains me still
Ayman El-Baz

To my late loving parents, immediate family, and children


Jasjit S. Suri
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Contents

List of contributors xiii 2.2.2 Effect of cytokine/chemokine production in


brain development 23
About the editors xvii 2.2.3 Maternal immune dysregulation and
Acknowledgments xix developmental outcomes of offspring 25
2.2.4 Maternal immune activation and autism
spectrum disorder 26
PART 1 2.2.5 Maternal stress and autism spectrum
Autism and clinical analysis: Diagnosis disorder 27
2.2.6 Maternal gut microbiome and autism
spectrum disorder 28
1. Remote telehealth assessments for
2.2.7 Alterations in cytokine and chemokine
autism spectrum disorder 3 profiles during gestation and the neonatal
ANGELA V. DAHIYA, JENNIFER R. BERTOLLO, period 29
CHRISTINA G. MCDONNELL AND ANGELA SCARPA
2.3 Autoantibodies reactive to brain antigens 36
2.3.1 Autoantibody overview 36
1.1 Introduction 3
2.3.2 Autoantibodies and brain pathologies 37
1.1.1 In-person standardized assessments for autism
2.3.3 Autoantibodies and autism spectrum
spectrum disorder 4
disorder 38
1.1.2 Significance of remote assessments for autism
2.3.4 Maternal autoantibodies and
spectrum disorder 5
neurodevelopmental alterations 39
1.2 Telehealth assessments 6
2.3.5 Maternal autoantibody-related autism
1.2.1 Videoconferencing (live/in vivo) 7
spectrum disorder overview 40
1.2.2 Asynchronous video analysis: current 9
2.3.6 MAR ASD animal models 44
1.2.3 Asynchronous video analysis:
2.3.7 Maternal autoantibody-related
retrospective 10
fetal- brain targets and autism spectrum
1.2.4 Mobile applications 11
disorder 46
1.2.5 Online websites 14
2.3.8 Maternal autoantibodies as potential
1.2.6 Other forms of technology 15
autism spectrum disorder-risk
1.3 Implications 16
biomarkers 48
1.3.1 Future directions 16
2.4 Concluding remarks 48
References 17
References 49
2. Maternal immune dysregulation and
autism spectrum disorder 21 3. Reading differences in eye-tracking data
ALEXANDRA RAMIREZ-CELIS, as a marker of high-functioning autism in
DANIELLE (HYUN JUNG) KIM AND JUDY VAN DE WATER
adults and comparison to results from
2.1 Introduction 21 web-related tasks 63
2.2 Cytokines and chemokines (overview) 22 VICTORIA YANEVA, LE AN HA, SUKRU ERASLAN,
2.2.1 Cytokines and chemokines in the central YELIZ YESILADA AND RUSLAN MITKOV
nervous system 23
3.1 Introduction 63
3.2 Related work 65

vii
viii Contents

3.3 Automated detection of high-functioning autism in 5. Applications of machine learning


adults with eye-tracking data from web tasks 66 methods to assist the diagnosis of autism
3.4 The proposed approach 67
spectrum disorder 99
3.4.1 Data collection 68
MAHMOUD ELBATTAH, ROMUALD CARETTE,
3.4.2 Participants 68
FEDERICA CILIA, JEAN-LUC GUÉRIN AND
3.4.3 Stimuli and tasks 69 GILLES DEQUEN
3.4.4 Apparatus 70
3.4.5 Procedure 70 5.1 Introduction 99
3.4.6 Data preprocessing 71 5.2 Background and related work 100
3.5 Experiments 71 5.2.1 Analysis of visual attention in
3.6 Results 73 autism 100
3.7 Discussion 75 5.2.2 Machine learning for autism
3.8 Conclusion 77 diagnosis 101
3.9 Open data 77 5.3 Data description 103
References 77 5.3.1 Participants 103
5.3.2 Experimental protocol 104
4. Parents of children with autism 5.3.3 Visualization of eye-tracking
spectrum disorders: interventions with and scanpaths 104
for them 81 5.4 Unsupervised learning: clustering of eye-tracking
LILIANA P. ROJAS-TORRES, YURENA ALONSO-ESTEBAN scanpaths 106
AND FRANCISCO ALCANTUD-MARÍN 5.4.1 Image preprocessing 107
5.4.2 Feature extraction using principal component
4.1 Introduction 81 analysis and t-SNE 107
4.2 Parent participation in early comprehensive 5.4.3 Feature extraction using deep
intervention programs 82 autoencoder 107
4.2.1 Parental training 83 5.4.4 K-Means clustering 109
4.2.2 Pivotal Response Training Program 84 5.4.5 Quality of clusters 110
4.2.3 Treatment and Education of Autistic related 5.4.6 Cluster analysis 111
Communication Handicapped Children 5.5 Supervised learning: classification model 113
Program 84 5.5.1 Data preprocessing and augmentation 113
4.2.4 Early Start Denver Model 85 5.5.2 Model design 113
4.3 Programs for the development of parentchild 5.5.3 Classification accuracy 113
interaction 85 5.6 Demo application 114
4.3.1 Hanen’s more than words 85 5.7 Limitations 116
4.3.2 Preschool autism communication trial 85 5.8 Conclusions 116
4.3.3 Joint Attention Symbolic Play, Engagement, References 116
and Regulation 86
4.3.4 Improving Parents as Communication
Teachers 86 6. Potential approaches and recent
4.3.5 Parentchild interaction therapy 87 advances in biomarker discovery in autism
4.3.6 Stepping Stones Triple P 87 spectrum disorders 121
4.4 Parentchild intervention based on anxiety SALAM SALLOUM-ASFAR, AHMED K. ELSAYED AND
reduction 88 SARA A. ABDULLA
4.4.1 Cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety
reduction in children with autism spectrum 6.1 Introduction 121
disorders with parental intervention 88 6.2 Diagnosis and categories of biomarkers 122
4.4.2 Mindfulness-based intervention 89 6.2.1 Human brain connectome: structural,
4.5 Conclusion 90 functional, and molecular neuroimaging
References 91 biomarkers for autism spectrum disorder 122
Contents ix
6.2.2 Molecular biomarkers 122 8.2.3 Recommendations 180
6.2.3 Maternal and paternal biomarkers: 8.3 Feature analysis 181
pregnancy and its potential association with 8.3.1 Dimensionality reduction 181
ASD 133 8.3.2 Feature representation 184
6.2.4 Next generation of diagnostic 8.3.3 Recommendations 186
biomarkers 137 8.4 Technological applications 187
6.3 Conclusion 139 8.5 Conclusion 190
References 140 References 190

7. Detection and identification of warning 9. Inhibition of lysine-specific demethylase


signs of autism spectrum disorder: 1 enzyme activity by TAK-418 as a novel
instruments and strategies for its therapy for autism 195
application 147 SATORU MATSUDA AND HARUHIDE KIMURA
J.M. SALGADO-CACHO, M.R. GÓMEZ-SOLER,
M.L. RÍOS-RODRÍGUEZ AND Y. DE DIEGO-OTERO 9.1 Introduction 195
9.2 Lysine-specific demethylase 1 as the potential
7.1 Introduction 147 therapeutic target for autism spectrum disorder 196
7.2 Importance of early detection 148 9.2.1 Druggability in targeting epigenetic
7.3 Differential diagnosis 149 factors 196
7.3.1 A brief history of the relationship between 9.2.2 Potential therapeutic functions of lysine-
autism and psychosis 150 specific demethylase 1 inhibition 197
7.3.2 Similarities 150 9.2.3 Concern regarding the on-target toxicity of
7.3.3 Distinguishing features 152 general lysine-specific demethylase 1
7.4 Detection and screening process 155 inhibitors 197
7.5 Symptom detection vs Diagnosis 156 9.3 Discovery of the “enzyme activity-specific”
7.6 Impact on the family of detecting and diagnosing inhibitors of lysine-specific demethylase 1 198
Autism Spectrum Disorder 158 9.3.1 Original screening flow 198
7.7 Choice of screening instruments according to age of 9.3.2 Discovery of T-448 and TAK-418 199
application and cultural environment of 9.3.3 Unique inhibitory mechanism of T-448 and
implementation 159 TAK-418 199
7.8 Discussion 163 9.3.4 Low risk of hematological toxicity by T-448
7.9 Conclusions 166 and TAK-418 in rodents 202
References 166 9.3.5 Preclinical efficacy of T-448 and TAK-
418 202
8. Machine learning in autism 9.3.6 Hypothesis of the mechanism of action of T-
spectrum disorder diagnosis and 448 and TAK-418 205
9.4 Discussion 206
treatment: techniques and
9.5 Conclusion 207
applications 173 References 207
ARJUN SINGH, ZOYA FAROOQUI, BRANDEN SATTLER,
EMILY LI, SRUSHTI NERKAR, MICHAEL HELDE AND
UNYIME USUA 10. Behavioral phenotype features of
autism 213
8.1 Introduction 173 HUIYU DUAN, JESÚS GUTIÉRREZ, ZHAOHUI CHE,
8.2 Utilizing machine learning algorithms to diagnose PATRICK LE CALLET AND GUANGTAO ZHAI
autism spectrum disorder 175
8.2.1 Dataset with behavioral characteristics 176 10.1 Introduction 213
8.2.2 Dataset with personal/cognitive 10.2 Eye movement behavior phenotype of autism 215
characteristics 178 10.2.1 Natural stimuli 215
x Contents

10.2.2 Face stimuli 220 12.3.1 Commonly used datasets for machine
10.2.3 Gaze-following stimuli 224 learning-based behavioral assessment of
10.3 Action behavior phenotype 228 autism spectrum disorder 258
10.3.1 Dataset and analysis 228 12.3.2 Dimensionality reduction 258
10.3.2 Methods and results 228 12.3.3 Commonly used dimensionality reduction
10.4 Drawing behavior phenotype 231 techniques 258
10.4.1 Dataset 231 12.3.4 Classification algorithms 259
10.4.2 Analysis 231 12.3.5 Model selection 260
10.4.3 Results and discussion 233 12.3.6 Confusion matrix 264
10.5 Discussion and conclusion 233 12.4 Conclusion 265
References 235 References 266

11. Development of an animated 13. A comprehensive study on atlas-based


infographic about autistic spectrum classification of autism spectrum disorder
disorder 239 using functional connectivity features from
ELISA MARIA BEZERRA MAIA, SORAIA MAYANE SOUZA
resting-state functional magnetic resonance
MOTA, ROSANE MEIRE MUNHAK DA SILVA, imaging 269
REINALDO ANTONIO SILVA-SOBRINHO AND
FARIA ZARIN SUBAH AND KAUSHIK DEB
ADRIANA ZILLY

13.1 Introduction 269


11.1 Introduction 239
13.2 Overview of functional magnetic resonance
11.2 Infographics 240
imaging 270
11.2.1 Study population 240
13.2.1 Clinical application 271
11.2.2 Development 240
13.3 Literature review 272
11.2.3 Validation and testing 241
13.3.1 Structural magnetic resonance imaging-
11.3 Results 242
based autism detection 272
11.4 Discussion 248
13.3.2 Functional magnetic resonance imaging-
11.5 Conclusion 250
based autism detection 273
References 250
13.3.3 Structural and functional magnetic resonance
imaging-based autism detection 273
12. Fundamentals of machine-learning 13.4 Materials and methods 275
modeling for behavioral screening 13.4.1 Preprocessing 276
and diagnosis of autism spectrum 13.4.2 Blood oxygen level dependent time-series
disorder 253 signal extraction from four dimensional
functional magnetic resonance imaging
ABDULMALIK A. LAWAN, NADIRE CAVUS,
RUFA’I YUNUSA, USAMA I. ABDULRAZAK AND
data 277
SADIYA TAHIR 13.4.3 Building functional connectivity matrix 281
13.4.4 Feature vector 283
12.1 Introduction 253 13.4.5 Classification 283
12.2 Current autism spectrum disorder screening and 13.5 Experimental results and analysis 286
diagnostic practices 255 13.5.1 Dataset description 287
12.2.1 Commonly used autism spectrum disorder 13.5.2 Evaluation of autism spectrum disorder
screening instruments 255 detection framework 287
12.2.2 Common problems with current autism 13.5.3 Performance evaluation using
spectrum disorder screening and diagnostic model-2 290
practices 255 13.6 Conclusion 292
12.3 Machine learning-based assessment of autism 13.7 Future work 293
spectrum disorder 256 References 293
Contents xi
14. Event-related potentials and gamma 14.2.8 ERP in Posner cued spatial attention
oscillations in EEG as functional diagnostic task 304
14.2.9 Lateralized Readiness Potential (LRP) as an
biomarkers and outcomes in autism
index of motor preparation in ASD and
spectrum disorder treatment research 297 ADHD 304
ESTATE M. SOKHADZE, MOHAMED SHABAN, 14.3 Gamma oscillations as potential neuromarkers in
AYMAN S. EL-BAZ, ALLAN TASMAN, LONNIE SEARS AND
neurodevelopmental disorders 306
MANUEL F. CASANOVA
14.3.1 Gamma oscillations 306
14.1 Introduction 297 14.3.2 Cortical excitation/inhibition (E/I) bias
14.2 Neurophysiological biomarkers 298 and brainwave oscillations 307
14.2.1 Introduction to event-related potentials 14.3.3 Gamma oscillations in ASD 308
and evoked brain waves oscillations 298 14.3.4 Hemispheric asymmetry of gamma 309
14.2.2 Rationale for approach using EEG/ERP 14.4 ERP and induced gamma oscillations in facial
measures in studying attention in categorization task in ASD, ADHD, and TD
ASD 299 groups 310
14.2.3 Visual oddball task with illusory 14.4.1 ERP results in ToM task 310
figures 300 14.4.2 Induced gamma analysis and results in ToM
14.2.4 ERP data acquisition and signal task 311
processing 300 14.5 Evoked and induced EEG data acquisition and
14.2.5 Event-related potentials in autism and processing in Kanizsa oddball task 312
ADHD 300 14.6 Conclusions 314
14.2.6 ERP measures in illusory figure (Kanizsa) References 314
categorization task 301 Index 321
14.2.7 Motor preparation deficits in ASD 303
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List of contributors

Sara A. Abdulla Neurological Disorders Research Angela V. Dahiya Department of Psychology,


Center, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, United States
Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar Y. De Diego-Otero Faculty of Psychology,
Foundation, Doha, Qatar University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain
Usama I. Abdulrazak Department of Paediatrics, Kaushik Deb Department of Computer Science
Peterborough City Hospital, North West Anglia and Engineering, Chittagong University of
NHS Foundation Trust, Peterborough, United Engineering & Technology, Chattogram,
Kingdom Bangladesh
Francisco Alcantud-Marı́n Department of Gilles Dequen MIS Lab, University of Picardie
Developmental and Educational Psychology, Jules Verne, Amiens, France
University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain Huiyu Duan Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
Yurena Alonso-Esteban Department of Mahmoud Elbattah MIS Lab, University of
Developmental and Educational Psychology, Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France; Faculty of
University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain Environment and Technology, University of the
Jennifer R. Bertollo Department of Psychology, West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, United States Ayman S. El-Baz University of Louisville,
Romuald Carette Evolucare Technologies, Villers- Louisville, KY, United States; University of
Bretonneux, France Louisville at Alamein International University
Manuel F. Casanova Department of Psychiatry & (UofL-AIU)
Behavioral Sciences, University of Louisville, Ahmed K. Elsayed Neurological Disorders
Louisville, KY, United States Research Center, Qatar Biomedical Research
Nadire Cavus Department of Computer Institute, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar
Information Systems, Near East University, Foundation, Doha, Qatar
Nicosia, Cyprus; Computer Information Systems Sukru Eraslan Middle East Technical University,
Research and Technology Centre, Near East Northern Cyprus Campus, Kalkanlı, Güzelyurt,
University, Nicosia, Cyprus Mersin, Turkey
Zhaohui Che Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zoya Farooqui ARQuest Student Science and
China Engineering Network, Irvine, CA, United States
Federica Cilia CRP-CPO Lab, University of M.R. Gómez-Soler Adolfo Dı́az Ambrona
Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France Community Health Centre, Mérida Hospital,
Rosane Meire Munhak da Silva University of Badajoz, Spain
Western of Parana, Iguassu Falls, State of Parana, Jean-Luc Guérin MIS Lab, University of Picardie
Brazil Jules Verne, Amiens, France

xiii
xiv List of contributors

Jesús Gutiérrez Universidad Politécnica de Liliana P. Rojas-Torres Department of


Madrid, Spain Developmental and Educational Psychology,
Le An Ha Research Institute in Information University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
and Language Processing, University of J.M. Salgado-Cacho Faculty of Psychology,
Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain; Hogar
Abierto, Málaga, Spain
Michael Helde ARQuest Student Science and
Engineering Network, Irvine, CA, United States Salam Salloum-Asfar Neurological Disorders
Research Center, Qatar Biomedical Research
Danielle (Hyun Jung) Kim Department of Internal
Institute, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar
Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy,
Foundation, Doha, Qatar
and Clinical Immunology, University of
California, Davis, CA, United States Branden Sattler ARQuest Student Science and
Engineering Network, Irvine, CA, United States
Haruhide Kimura Takeda Pharmaceutical
Company Limited, Kanagawa, Japan Angela Scarpa Department of Psychology,
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, United States
Abdulmalik A. Lawan Department of Computer
Lonnie Sears Department of Pediatrics, University
Science, Kano University of Science and
of Louisville, Louisville, KY, United States
Technology, Wudil, Nigeria; Department of
Computer Information Systems, Near East Mohamed Shaban Electrical and Computer
University, Nicosia, Cyprus; Computer Engineering, University of South Alabama,
Information Systems Research and Technology Mobile, AL, United States
Centre, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus Reinaldo Antonio Silva-Sobrinho University of
Patrick Le Callet Nantes Université, France Western of Parana, Iguassu Falls, State of Parana,
Brazil
Emily Li ARQuest Student Science and
Arjun Singh ARQuest Student Science and
Engineering Network, Irvine, CA, United States
Engineering Network, Irvine, CA, United States
Elisa Maria Bezerra Maia University of Western of
Estate M. Sokhadze University of South Carolina
Parana, Iguassu Falls, State of Parana, Brazil
School of Medicine Greenville, Greenville, SC,
Satoru Matsuda Takeda Pharmaceutical Company United States
Limited, Kanagawa, Japan
Faria Zarin Subah Department of Computer
Christina G. McDonnell Department of Psychology, Science and Engineering, Chittagong University
University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, United States of Engineering & Technology, Chattogram,
Ruslan Mitkov Research Institute in Information Bangladesh; Department of Computer Science
and Language Processing, University of and Engineering, University of Asia Pacific,
Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, United Dhaka, Bangladesh
Kingdom Sadiya Tahir Department of Pediatrics, Murtala
Soraia Mayane Souza Mota University of Western Muhammad Specialist Hospital, Kano, Nigeria
of Parana, Iguassu Falls, State of Parana, Brazil Allan Tasman Department of Psychiatry &
Srushti Nerkar ARQuest Student Science and Behavioral Sciences, University of Louisville,
Engineering Network, Irvine, CA, United States Louisville, KY, United States
Alexandra Ramirez-Celis Department of Internal Unyime Usua ARQuest Student Science and
Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, Engineering Network, Irvine, CA, United States
and Clinical Immunology, University of Judy Van de Water Department of Internal
California, Davis, CA, United States Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy,
M.L. Rı́os-Rodrı́guez Faculty of Psychology, and Clinical Immunology, University of
University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain California, Davis, CA, United States
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THE
ÆNEID OF VIRGIL

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE

BY
JOHN CONINGTON, M.A.
LATE CORPUS PROFESSOR OF LATIN IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES


BY
EDGAR S. SHUMWAY, Ph.D.
EDITOR “LATINE”

NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1917
All rights reserved

Copyright, 1910,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1910.
Reprinted June, 1914; September, 1917.

Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction
The Æneid ix
Virgil’s Life x
Influence of the Æneid xiii
The Epic Itself xvii
The Story xix
Sources xxi
The Translation xxi
Chronological Table xxv
Verse Translations Recommended xxvi
Books for Reference xxvii
Subjects for Investigation xxvii
The Æneid
Book I. 1
II. 26
III. 51
IV. 74
V. 96
VI. 122
VII. 150
VIII. 176
IX. 198
X. 222
XI. 250
XII. 277
Notes 305
Index to Notes 345
INTRODUCTION
The Æneid
When Rome, torn and bleeding from a century of civil wars,
turned to that wise judge of men, the second Cæsar, and acquiesced
as, through carefully selected ministers, he gathered the reins of
power into velvet-clad fingers of steel, she did wisely. Better one-
man power than anarchy! It became the part of true patriotism for
the citizen and of statesmanship for the politician to bring to the aid
of the First Man of the state all the motives that could harmonize the
chaotic elements, and start Republican Rome on the path of a new
unity—the unity of the Empire.
For already “far away on the wide Roman marches might be
heard, as it were, the endless, ceaseless monotone of beating
horses’ hoofs and marching feet of men. They were coming, they
were nearing, like footsteps heard on wool;[A] there was a sound of
multitudes and millions of barbarians, all the North, mustering and
marshalling her peoples.” In his great task Augustus, with the aid of
Mæcenas, very cleverly drew to his help writers whose work has
since charmed the world. We can almost pardon fate for destroying
the Republic—it gave us Virgil and Horace.
Pleasant indeed had it been for Virgil to sing in emulation of his
great teacher Lucretius! “As for me,” he says, “first of all I would
pray that the charming Muses, whose minister I am, for the great
love that has smitten me, would receive me graciously, and teach
me the courses of the stars in heaven, the various eclipses of the
sun and the earth, what is the force by which the deep seas swell to
the bursting of their barriers and settle down again on themselves—
why the winter suns make such haste to dip in ocean, or what is the
retarding cause which makes the nights move slowly.” Pleasant, too,
to spend his “chosen coin of fancy flashing out from many a golden
phrase” in picturing “the liberty of broad domains, grottos and
natural lakes, cool Tempe-like valleys, lawns and dens where wild
beasts hide, a youth strong to labor and inured to scanty fare.” “Let
me delight in the country and the streams that freshen the valleys—
let me love river and woodland with an unambitious love.” “Then,
too, there are the husbandman’s sweet children ever hanging on his
lips—his virtuous household keeps the tradition of purity.” Ah, yes, to
Virgil most attractive was the simple life of the lover of nature, and
charmingly did he portray it in his Eclogues and Georgics!
But Augustus, recognizing the genius of Virgil, and realizing the
supreme need of a reinvigorated patriotism, urgently demanded an
epic that should portray Rome’s beginnings and her significance to
the world. Reluctantly then Virgil took up this task. Even at his death
he considered it unfulfilled. Indeed it was his wish that the
manuscript be destroyed. Almost immediately the Æneid became the
object of the closest study, and ever since it has evoked the deepest
admiration. Perhaps no other secular writing has so profoundly
affected literature.

Virgil’s Life
Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro), born in the rural district near
Mantua, a farmer’s son, was given by his loving father a careful
education. Of his father Virgil says, “those whom I have ever loved
and above all my father.” The regard of his hero Æneas for his father
Anchises not merely illustrates the early Roman filial affection—it
suggests Virgil’s relation to his own parent. In north Italy Virgil
studied at Mantua, Cremona, and Milan, and at seventeen took up
his wider studies at Rome itself in the year 53 b.c. Catullus had died
the year before, Lucretius was dead two years. At Rome Virgil had
the best masters in Greek, rhetoric, and in philosophy, a study in
which he especially delighted. In forming his own poetic style Virgil
was profoundly influenced by Lucretius, whose great poem On
Nature treated of the wondrous physical universe, and by the subtly
sweet young Catullus,
“Tenderest of Roman poets.”

—Tennyson.

In such studies Virgil spent ten years. But in 41 b.c. he appears


again in north Italy and this time in storm and stress. In the year of
Philippi the triumvirs, settling their victorious legions, confiscated
lands about Cremona, and Virgil, attempting to resist dispossession,
came near to losing his life. Through fellow-students of the Roman
days he secured an introduction to Octavius and was compensated—
either recovering his own farm, or receiving in lieu of it an estate in
Campania.
Virgil relates his experience in two of his ten Eclogues which were
published in their present form in 38 b.c. These charming poems
were especially loved by Milton and Wordsworth. Macaulay indeed
considered them the best of Virgil’s works. At Rome they met
immediate success with the people and with Octavius and his wise
minister Mæcenas, Horace’s patron. In them Virgil tenderly sings
love of friends, home, and country.
Then Virgil spent seven years on the four books of the Georgics,
publishing them in 29 b.c., two years after Actium. The Georgics
Merivale calls “the glorification of labor.” In them Virgil hymns the
farmer’s life in beautiful Italy.
“Hail to thee, land of Saturn, mighty mother of noble fruits and
noble men! For thee I essay the theme of the glory and the skill of
olden days.”
Virgil was now acknowledged the greatest poet of Italy. In the
year 26 b.c., one year after the title Augustus had been conferred on
Octavius, we find the emperor writing Virgil the most urgent letters
begging the poet to send him, then in Spain, some portion of the
projected Æneid. It was, however, considerably later when Virgil
read to Augustus the second, fourth, and sixth books, for the young
Marcellus, the emperor’s nephew, died in 23 b.c., and we are told
that Octavia, his mother, fainted on hearing the poet read the
immortal lines about her son in the sixth book:—
“Child of a nation’s sorrow! Were there hope of thy breaking the
tyranny of fate, thou shalt be Marcellus. Bring me handfuls of lilies,
that I may strew the grave with their dazzling hues, and crown, if
only with these gifts, my young descendant’s shade, and perform
the vain service of sorrow.”
Virgil,
“who would write ten lines, they say,
At dawn, and lavish all the golden day
To make them wealthier in his readers’ eyes,”

had already spent some ten years on the Æneid, when in 19 b.c. he
decided to devote three years to its revision and improvement amid
the “famous cities” and scenes of Greece and Asia. It is in
anticipation of this voyage that his friend Horace prays the winds to
“Speed thee, O ship, as I pray thee to render
Virgil, a debt duly lent to thy charge,
Whole and intact on the Attican borders
Faithfully guarding the half of my soul.”

Augustus, however, met him at Athens and persuaded him to


accompany his own return. But Virgil was never again to see Rome.
He contracted a fever in Greece. It grew worse on the homeward
trip; and he died, a few days after landing, in Brundisium, having
reached the age of fifty-one. His tomb looks down upon the bay of
Naples,
“That delicious Bay
Parthenope’s Domain—Virgilian haunt;
Illustrated with never dying verse
And by the Poet’s laurel-shaded tomb,
Age after age to pilgrims from all lands
Endeared.”

—Wordsworth.
Influence of the Æneid
As to the success of the Æneid, it was immediate with poets and
people. Two years after Virgil’s death Horace writes in his Secular
Hymn:—
“If Rome be all thy work, if Trojan bands
Upon the Etruscan shore have won renown,
That chosen remnant, who at thy command
Forsook their hearths, and homes, and native town;
If all unscathed through Ilion’s flames they sped
By sage Æneas led,
And o’er the ocean waves in safety fled,
Destined from him, though of his home bereft,
A nobler dower to take, than all that they had left.”

—Translated by Martin.

Some of the scholars, indeed, criticised it as having an undue


simplicity, as coining new words and using old words, with new
meanings, as borrowing too freely from Homer, as not written in
chronological order, as containing anachronisms, etc. But within ten
years it was as familiarly quoted by writers as we quote
Shakespeare. It became the chief text-book in the Roman schools of
grammar and rhetoric. The great writers of later days, like Pliny and
Tacitus, show the profound influence of his style, which would seem
to have gripped them as Goethe tells us Luther’s translation of the
Scriptures affected his style, and as the King James version has left
its indelible traces on English literature.
When the race-mind tired of problems of government and law,
and turned strongly to the problems of religion,—degenerating
easily, to be sure, to superstition,—it was evidence of Virgil’s grip on
humanity that the poet of poets became the wizard of wizards. Even
under the Antonines, the Sors Vergiliana (Virgilian prophecy) was
practised. The Æneid was opened at random, and the first verse that
struck the eye was considered a prophecy of good or bad portent.
“The mediæval world looked upon him as a poet of prophetic insight
who contained within himself all the potentialities of wisdom. He was
called the Poet, as if no other existed; the Roman, as if the ideal of
the commonwealth were embodied in him; the perfect in style, with
whom no other writer could be compared; the Philosopher, who
grasped the ideas of all things; the Wise One, whose comprehension
seemed to other mortals unlimited. His writings became the Bible of
a race. The mysteries of Roman priestcraft, the processes of
divination, the science of the stars, were all found in his works.”
True indeed are the words of Professor MacMechan: “Beginning
the Æneid is like setting out upon a broad and beaten highway along
which countless feet have passed in the course of nineteen
centuries. It is a spiritual highway, winding through every age and
every clime;” and these of Professor Woodberry: “The Æneid shows
that characteristic of greatness in literature which lies in its being a
watershed of time; it looks back to antiquity in all that clothes it with
the past of imagination, character and event, and forward to
Christian times in all that clothes it with emotion, sentiment, and
finality to the heart.”
As we approach modern literature, the great Italian Dante
consciously takes Virgil as his “master and author.” “O glory and light
of other poets! May the long zeal avail me, and the great love, that
made me search thy volume. Thou art my master and my author.”
On English literature the influence of the Æneid has been so potent
that our space will hardly suffice to convey the barest hint of its
direct and indirect lines. Celtic story developed from it a voyage of
Brutus who founds a new Troy, or London. Geoffrey of Monmouth in
the twelfth century sets forth this tale in his history. It was believed
down to the seventeenth century and is reported by Milton.
Elizabethan literature has frequent references to it. Chaucer in his
House of Fame outlines the Æneid, emphasizing the Dido episode,
which interested also Nash, Marlowe, and Shakespeare. Spenser
teems with allusions and indeed translations, so—
“Anchyses sonne, begott of Venus fayre,”
Said he, “out of the flames for safegard fled
And with a remnant did to sea repayre;
Where he, through fatall errour, long was led
Full many yeares, and weetlesse wandered
From shore to shore emongst the Lybick sandes
Ere rest he fownd.”

—F. Q., III., ix., 41.


and—
“Like a great water-flood, that, tombling low
From the high mountaines, threates to overflow
With suddein fury all the fertile playne,
And the sad husbandmans long hope doth throw
Adown the streame, and all his vowes make vayne,
Nor bounds nor banks his headlong ruine may sustayne.”

—F. Q., II., xi., 18; cf. Æn. II., 304 ff.

Bacon calls Virgil “the chastest poet and royalest that to the memory
of man is known.” “Milton,” writes Dryden, “has acknowledged to me
that Spenser was his original.” But beside this indirect influence, and
that through the Italian school, Virgil’s direct influence on Milton is
attested by many an allusion. Dryden, Cowper, with his “sweet
Maro’s matchless strain,” Wordsworth, Matthew Arnold, with his
“sweet, tender Virgil,” freely acknowledge the debt they owe our
poet. Dryden and Morris translated the Æneid into verse.
Tennyson, “the most Virgilian of modern poets,” gives the
following tribute, written at the request of the Mantuans for the
nineteenth centenary of Virgil’s death:—
“Roman Virgil, thou that singest Ilion’s lofty temples robed in fire,
Ilion falling, Rome arising, wars, and filial faith, and Dido’s pyre,
Landscape lover, lord of language more than he that sang the Works and Days,
All the chosen coin of fancy flashing out from many a golden phrase,
Thou that singest wheat and woodland, tilth and vineyard, hive and horse and
herd,
All the charm of all the Muses often flowering in a lonely word,
Poet of the happy Tityrus piping underneath his beechen bowers,
Poet of the poet-satyr whom the laughing shepherds bound with flowers,
Chanter of the Pollio, glorying in the blissful years again to be,
Summers of the snakeless meadow, unlaborious earth and oarless sea,
Thou that seest Universal Nature moved by Universal Mind,
Thou majestic in thy sadness at the doubtful doom of human kind,
Light among the vanished ages, star that gildest yet this phantom shore,
Golden branch amid the shadows, kings and realms that pass to rise no more,
Now thy Forum roars no longer, fallen every purple Cæsar’s dome—
Tho’ thine ocean-roll of rhythm sound forever of Imperial Rome—
Now the Rome of slaves hath perished, and the Rome of freemen holds her place,
I, from out the Northern Island, sundered once from all the human race,
I salute thee, Mantovano, I that loved thee since my day began,
Wielder of the stateliest measure ever moulded by the lips of man.”
It is a lover of Horace (and who is not a lover of Horace?), the
brilliant Andrew Lang, who points out (in his Letters to Dead
Authors) a vital difference that has made Virgil’s the higher
influence: “Virgil might wander forth bearing the golden branch ‘the
Sibyl doth to singing man allow,’ and might visit, as one not wholly
without hope, the dim dwellings of the dead and the unborn. To him
was it permitted to see and sing ‘mothers and men, and the bodies
outworn of mighty heroes, boys and unwedded maids, and young
men borne to the funeral fire before their parents’ eyes.’ The endless
caravan swept past him—‘many as fluttering leaves that drop and fall
in autumn woods when the first frost begins; many as birds that
flock landward from the great sea when now the chill year drives
them o’er the deep and leads them to sunnier lands.’ Such things
was it given to the sacred poet to behold, and the happy seats and
sweet pleasances of fortunate souls, where the larger light clothes
all the plains and dips them in a rosier gleam, plains with their own
new sun and stars before unknown. Ah, not frustra pius was Virgil,
as you say, Horace, in your melancholy song. In him, we fancy, there
was a happier mood than your melancholy patience.”

The Epic Itself


The purpose of the epic is to indicate the divinely ordained origin
and history of Rome as a conquering, civilizing, and organizing
government, destined to replace both anarchy and tyrannical
despotism by liberty under law. As the real world-historic reason for
Rome’s existence is so commonly overlooked, let us recall
Mommsen’s words in the introduction to his Provinces of the Roman
Empire: “It fostered the peace and prosperity of the many nations
united under its sway longer and more completely than any other
leading power has ever succeeded in doing.... If an angel of the Lord
were to strike the balance whether the domain ruled by Severus
Antoninus was governed with the greater intelligence and the
greater humanity at that time or in the present day, whether
civilization and national prosperity generally have since that time
advanced or retrograded, it is very doubtful whether the decision
would prove in favor of the present.” Virgil states the function of
Rome clearly in the famous passage of the sixth book wherein Greek
and Roman are compared:—
“Forget not, O Roman, thy fate—to rule in thy might o’er the nations:
This is to be thine art—peace to the world to give.”

So the hero Æneas, himself of divine birth, is preserved by divine


intervention when Troy falls, and mid dire perils for seven years’
voyagings, and all the bitter warring in Italy, “to bring the gods unto
Latium,” “to found a city,” to teach Italy religion and a virile
civilization. “Whence Rome mighty in her defences,” “a task of so
great magnitude it was to build the Roman nation.” Twice,—once in
fields Elysian from the lips of sainted Anchises, and again, portrayed
on the shield that Vulcan made for Æneas, is rehearsed the long line
of legendary and historical Roman heroes down to Augustus himself.
“On this side is Augustus Cæsar, leading the Italians to conflict, with
the senate and the people, the home-gods and their mighty
brethren, standing aloft on the stern.” “But Cæsar ... was
consecrating to the gods of Italy a votive tribute to deathless
gratitude, three hundred mighty fanes the whole city through.” “Such
sights Æneas scans with wonder on Vulcan’s shield ... as he heaves
on his shoulder the fame and the fate of grandsons yet to be” (end
of eighth book). Incidentally ground is given, in compensating fate,
for Rome’s conquest of Greek lands—she is but loyal to her Trojan
ancestry!—and for the duel to the death with Semitic Carthage—
whose queen once was the stately Dido, left by King Æneas at Jove’s
command! Incidentally, too, Virgil draws from Trojan origins
governmental forms, religious rites, yes, even games.
While this great task of glorifying patriotism and harmonizing it
with loyalty to Cæsar is ever present to Virgil, he cannot lose two
qualities that make him the most modern of ancient poets—his love
of nature and his pathos. As examples—of the former, it suffices to
cite the charming harbor scene succeeding storm and wreck, in the
first book; and, of the latter, the death-scene of the immortal twain,
Nisus and Euryalus (in Book nine).
“Down falls Euryalus in death; over his beauteous limbs gushes
the blood, and his powerless neck sinks on his shoulders; as when a
purple flower, severed by the plough, pines in death, or poppies with
faint necks droop the head, when rain has chanced to weigh them
down. But Nisus rushes full on the foe ... and dying robs his foe of
life. Then he flung himself on his breathless friend, pierced through
and through, and there at length slept away in peaceful death.
“Happy pair! if this my song has ought of potency, no lapse of
days shall efface your names from the memory of time, so long as
the house of Æneas shall dwell on the Capitol’s moveless rock, and a
Roman father shall be the world’s lord.”

The Story
The story on which Virgil builds is, briefly, the fall of Troy, the
voyaging of Trojan refugees under Æneas, and the successful wars
of Æneas with Italian barbarians.
According to the ancient legend the Greeks had warred ten years
under Troy’s walls, because the Trojan prince, Paris, having awarded
the prize of beauty to Venus as against Juno and Minerva, and,
having been promised as reward by Venus Helen the beautiful wife
of the Greek Menelaus, had eloped with that fatal beauty to Troy,
and his father King Priam had refused to make restitution.
The story then, as related by Æneas to Queen Dido in her palace
at Carthage, takes up (in the second book of the Æneid) the
downfall and destruction of Troy, with the escape of Æneas, his
father and son, together with a band of Trojans. Then (in the third
book) are depicted their voyagings, unsuccessful attempts to found
cities, and arrival in Sicily. Here father Anchises dies. From Sicily they
sail in the endeavor to reach Latium in Italy.
It is at this point that the epic begins. So after his invocation and
introduction (in Book one), Virgil makes unrelenting Juno, through
the storm-king Æolus, let loose upon the Trojan fleet a fierce
tempest, which drives the remnant of the fleet far away to the
Carthaginian coast. Æneas, directed by his disguised mother Venus,
comes to the court of Dido by whom he is kindly received,
banqueted; and at her request narrates (in Books two and three) his
harsh experiences.
Book four continues the Dido episode. The queen madly loves
Æneas—this through the influence of Venus, who else had feared
Carthaginian hostility to her dear Trojans. Juno thinks to thwart the
fates and Jove’s will that Æneas should create the Roman race; and
she plans to hold Æneas as spouse of the Carthaginian queen. Jove
intervenes, sending Mercury with explicit commands to Æneas to
seek Italy. He sails, and Dido slays herself.
In Book five they reach Sicily again, and it being the anniversary
of Anchises’ death, Æneas celebrates it with athletic contests. During
these Juno again attempts to thwart the fates, sending a messenger
to incite the Trojan women to set the fleet on fire. But this attempt is
only successful in so far as it leads Æneas to leave the weaklings
under the kindly sway of their kinsman, the Sicilian chief, Acestes.
The rest sail for Italy, losing the faithful pilot, Palinurus.
Book six details the visit Æneas, under the guidance of the Sibyl,
to the abode of the dead. There he meets again his father Anchises,
who passes in review, as souls about to be reborn into the upper
world, their heroic descendants.
So far, with the exception of Book two, which recorded the fall and
sack of Troy, a theme omitted by Homer, Virgil has recorded the
Odyssey or wanderings of his hero Æneas. Now in the succeeding
six books is given the Iliad or wars of Æneas in Italy. As he lands,
King Latinus is divinely led to promise Æneas his daughter Lavinia.
But she has been betrothed to Turnus. Under Juno’s prompting then
begins this tremendous duel between Æneas and Turnus. And here
we note a curious likeness between Milton and Virgil. As our
sympathies are aroused in the Paradise Lost for Lucifer, so Turnus,
“the reckless one,” looms up a figure of heroic size, doomed by the
fates to die that Rome may live.

Sources
As Virgil’s sources for his story and indeed for no small portion of
his language may be mentioned preeminently:— Homer’s Odyssey
and Iliad; Euripides, “with his droppings of warm tears”; the Greek
epic poets, called the cyclic poets, as dealing with the cycle of story
revolving around Troy; the Greek freedman and teacher, Livius
Andronicus, who translated roughly the Odyssey; Nævius, who
wrote on the First Punic War, tracing Carthaginian hostility back to
the Æneas visit; and especially Ennius, “father of Latin literature,”
who in a great epic traced the history of Rome from Æneas down. Of
Virgil’s borrowings it were enough perhaps to say that, like our
Shakespeare, he ennobled what he borrowed, wove it into the
texture of his song—stamped it Virgilian.

The Translation
Concerning the translation itself, we should perhaps set over
against Emerson’s famous saying, “I should as soon think of
swimming across Charles River when I wish to go to Boston, as of
reading all my books in originals, when I have them rendered for me
in my mother tongue,” that other remark of a great scholar, that “the
thing for the student of language to learn is that translation is
impossible.” Exquisitely done as is this version by Professor
Conington, noble student of Virgil as he was, some faint notion of
what is lost in the process might be gained by comparing a prose
version of, say, Longfellow’s “Evangeline” with his hexameters
themselves:—
This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic—
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.

At the very least, “the noblest measure ever moulded by the lips
of man,” Virgil’s “ocean-roll of rhythm,” is lost. That indeed is not
revived for us in Conington’s own poetical version, not in Dryden’s,
nor in Morris’s. Of Virgil also that is true which T. B. Aldrich,
charming poet that he was, wrote me anent his own early
translations, “But who could hope to decant the wine of Horace?”
Yet it may be not without interest to compare some verse
renderings of the initial lines:—
I (woll now) sing (if that I can,)
The armes and also the man,
That first came through his destinie,
Fugitive fro Troy the countrie
Into Itaile, with full much pine,
Unto the stronds of Lavine.

—Chaucer, House of Fame.

Arms, and the man I sing, who, forced by Fate,


And haughty Juno’s unrelenting hate,
Expelled and exiled, left the Trojan shore,
Long labors, both by sea and land, he bore,
And in the doubtful war, before he won
The Latian realm, and built the destined town;
His banished gods restored to rites divine,
And settled sure succession in his line,

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