cuius . . . hostis. Dolon required an oath from Hector that no other of the Trojans should possess the chariot and horses of Achilles ( Il.X. 323). It may be observed that hostis in the singular is not equivalent to ‘enemy’ in its collective sense, except by a poetical usage similar to that by which the singular of national names is used for the nation, as in Hor. C. III. viii. 21, “servit Hispanae vetus hostis orae Cantaber sera domitus catena”. This usage is especially common in Livy, and is fully illustrated by Drakenborch on III. ii. 12. Cf. 567 n., 662 n.
equos includes the chariot. Cf. XIV. 820, Trist. v. VII. 14, “per medias in equis itque reditque vias”. So of the dragon car of Ceres, Fast.IV. 561, “inque dracones transit et alifero tollitur axe Ceres”, of Ariadne in the car of Bacchus, Her.II. 79, “inque capistratis tigribus alta sedet”, and of Cybele's team of lions Her., XIV. 538.Conversely currus includes the horses, G. I. 514, “neque audit currus habenas”, Aen.I. 156, “curruque volans dat lora secundo”, ib. XII. 287, “infrenant alii currus”. Cf. the remarkable uses, Sil.ii. 197, “ferventesque rotas, turbataque frena pavore”, id. IV. 482, “condebat noctem devexo Cynthia curru, fraternis afflata rotis” (of horses startled and snorting respectively). See Lexicon for similar uses of “ἅρμα” (esp. in plural) and “ἵπποι”, and Dr. Henry, Aeneidea, vol. I. pp. 436-7. Cf. Mitchell on Soph. El. 740.
pro nocte, for his night adventure. Cf. Milt. P. l. V. 93, ‘Thus Eve her night related’ (her dream of the night); where Hume quotes Sil.iii. 216, “promissa evolvit somni, noctemque retractat”.
