15. [Sarpedon certainly was not slain in the fleet, neither can the
   Greek expression {neon en agoni} be with propriety interpreted—­in
   certamine de navibus—­as Clarke and Mme. Dacier are inclined to
   render it. Juvenum in certamine, seems equally an improbable
   sense of it.  Eustathius, indeed, and Terrasson, supposing Sarpedon
   to assert that he dies in the middle of the fleet (which was false
   in fact) are kind enough to vindicate Homer by pleading in his
   favor, that Sarpedon, being in the article of death, was delirious,
   and knew not, in reality, where he died.  But Homer, however he may
   have been charged with now and then a nap (a crime of which I am
   persuaded he is never guilty) certainly does not slumber here, nor
   needs to be so defended. {’Agon} in the 23d Iliad, means the whole
   extensive area in which the games were exhibited, and may
   therefore here, without any strain of the expression, be understood
   to signify the whole range of shore on which the ships were
   stationed.  In which case Sarpedon represents the matter as it was,
   saying that he dies—­{neon en agoni}—­that is, in the neighborhood
   of the ships, and in full prospect of them.

   The translator assumes not to himself the honor of this judicious
   remark.  It belongs to Mr. Fuseli.]—­TR.

16. [{lasion ker}.]

17.  The clouds of thick dust that rise from beneath the feet of the
   combatants, which hinder them from knowing one another.

18. [{Hupaspidia probibontos}.  A similar expression occurs in Book
   xiii., 158.  There we read {hupaspidia propodizon}.  Which is
   explained by the Scholiast in Villoisson to signify—­advancing with
   quick, short steps, and at the same time covering the feet with a
   shield.  A practice which, unless they bore the {amphibroten
   aspida}, must necessarily leave the upper parts exposed.

It is not improbable, though the translation is not accommodated to that conjecture, that AEneas, in his following speech to Meriones, calls him, {orchesten}, with a view to the agility with which he performed this particular step in battle.]—­TR.

19. [Two lines occurring here in the original which contain only the
   same matter as the two preceding, and which are found neither in
   the MSS. use by Barnes nor in the Harleian, the translator has
   omitted them in his version as interpolated and superfluous.]—­TR.

20. [{Ira talanta}—­Voluntatem Jovis cui cedendum—­So it is
   interpreted is the Scholium MSS.  Lipsiensis.—­Vide
   Schaufelbergerus.]—­TR.

21.  It is an opinion of great antiquity, that when the soul is on the
   point of leaving the body, its views become stronger and clearer,
   and the mind is endowed with a spirit of true prediction.