"Duros mille labores
Rege _sub_ Eurystheo, fatis Junonis iniquae,
Pertulerit:"
Aen. VIII. 291-3.

The Latinity, therefore, is good; but though good, it can scarcely
be said to be that of an ancient Roman; for an ancient Roman never
resorted to such inflexions in prose, only when writing poetry to
get over the difficulties of rhythm; hence a modern European would
easily fall into the error, from taking the Latin of Virgil to be
most perfect; and from deeming that what was done in verse could,
with equal propriety, be done in prose.

Though nothing could be more natural than for a modern European to
think that the right Latin for "good deeds," was "bona facta"
(III. 40), an ancient Roman would have written "_bene_ facta,"
just as he would have used for the expression "if bounds were
observed," "si modus _adhiberetur_," not "si modus _adjiceretur_"
(III. 6). He would have followed "inscitia" with a genitive,
as Tacitus, "inscitiam ceterorum" (Hist. I. 54), and not with
a preposition, as "finis inscitiae _erga_ domum suam" (XI. 25),
for "an end of ignorance of his family"; nor have used that noun
absolutely, as "quo fidem _inscitiae_ pararet" (XV. 58); "in order
that he should create a belief in his ignorance." Instead of
"hi _molium objectus_, hi proximas scaphas scandere" (XIV. 8),
for "some clambered up the heights that lay in front of them,
some into the skiffs that were nigh at hand," he would have used
the participle, "_moles objectas_"; and written "_loca_ opportuna"
instead of "_locorum_ opportuna permunivit" (IV. 24), for "he fortified