Note 43 — Chapter III · THE AUGUSTAN AGE.

On this point Professor W. M. Ramsay writes to us: ‘Virgil’s farm was certainly not at Pietole (which is two miles south of Mantua, out in the flat plain): for (1) the farm was a long way from the city (cf. Ecl. 9, 59 sqq.); (2) it was beside hills (ibid. 7 sqq.); (3) woods were on or by it (cf. Donatus “silvis coemendis”), and the flat fertile valley was certainly not abandoned to forests. After exploring the country, I felt clear that the farm was on the west bank of the Mincio, opposite Valeggio, where the northern hills sink to the dead level of the Po valley.’