Book 7
5
But the expression purum putum occurs, not only in the treaty with Carthage, but also in many other early writings, including the tragedy of Quintus Ennius entitled Alexander, 62, Ribbeck3. and the satire of Marcus Varro called Di\s Pai=des oi( Ge/rontes, Fr. 91, Bücheler. or Old Men are Children for a Second Time.
6
That Julius Hyginus was hasty and foolish in his criticism of Virgil for calling the wings of Daedalus praepetes; also a note on the meaning of aves praepetes and of those birds which Nigidius called inferae.
6
In these lines of Virgil Aen. vi. 14 f. Julius Hyginus Fr. 6, Fun. criticizes the use of pennis praepetibus as an improper and ignorant expression. For, says he, those birds are called praepetes by the augurs which either fly onward auspiciously or alight in suitable places. Therefore he thought it inappropriate in Virgil to use an augural term in speaking of the flight of Daedalus, which had nothing to do with the science of the augurs.
6
But of a truth it was Hyginus who was altogether foolish in supposing that the meaning of praepetes was known to him, but unknown to Virgil and to Gnaeus Matius, a learned man, who in the second book of his Iliad called winged Victory praepes in the following line: Fr. 3, Bährens (F.P.R.). While Victory swift (praepes) the victor's palm bestows.
