There is a very frequent feature in Virgil's poetry which we may compare to the parallelism well known as the chief characteristic of Hebrew verse. In that language the poet takes a thought and either repeats it, or varies it, or explains it, or gives its antithesis in a corresponding clause, as evenly as may be balancing the first. As examples we may take--
"Why do the nations so furiously rage together? And why do the people imagine a vain thing?"
"A wise son maketh a glad father: But a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother."
This somewhat rude idea of ornament is drawn no doubt from the simplest attempts to speak with passion or emphasis, which naturally turned to _iteration_ or _repetition_ as the obvious means of gaining the effect. Roman poetry, as we have already said, rests upon a primitive and rude basis, the Greek methods of composition being applied to an art arrested before its growth was complete. The fondness for repetition is very prominent. Phrases like _somno gravidi vinoque sepulti; indu foro lato, sanctoque senatu_, occur commonly in Ennius; and the trick of composition of which they are the simplest instances, is perpetuated throughout Roman poetry. It is in reality rather rhetorical than poetical, and abounds in Cicero. It scarcely occurs in Greek poetry, but is very common in Virgil, _e.g. _:
"Ambo florentes aetatibus, Arcades ambo, Et cantare pares, et respondere parati."
Similar to this is the introduction of corresponding clauses by the same initial word, _e.g. ille_ (_Ecl._ i. 17):
"Namque erit _ille_ mihi semper deus: _illius_ aram Saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus. _Ille_ meas errare boves..."
Instances of this construction will occur to every reader. Frequently the first half of the hexameter expresses a thought obscurely which is expressed clearly in the latter half, or _vice versa, e.g._ (G. iv. 103):
"At quum incerta volant, caeloque examina ludunt."
"Nam quid dissimulo, aut quae me ad maiora reservo?"
at times this parallelism is very useful as helping us to find out the poet's meaning, _e.g._ (_Aen._ ii. 121):
Here interpretations vary between _fata_, n. to _parent_, and acc. after it. But the parallelism decides at once in favour of the former "for whom the fates are making preparations; whom Apollo demands." To take another instance (_Aen_. i. 395):