ut mugitor anhelat Vesvius, attonitas acer cum suscitat urbes 481. vii. 645; viii. 228. If these allusions be to events of 89 A. D. they point to the view that the last two books were composed shortly before the poet's death, and confirm the opinion that the _Argonautica_ was never finished. 482. A few instances will suffice. In iii. 302 Jason asserts that seers had prophesied his father's death; this is nowhere else mentioned; on the contrary, at the beginning of the second book, it is specially told us that Juno concealed from Jason the fact of his father's death, while in vii. 494 Jason speaks of him as still alive. In vii. 394 Venus is represented as leaving Medea in terror at the sound of her magic chant, while five lines later it is implied that she is still holding Medea's hand. In viii. 24 Jason goes to the grove of Mars to meet Medea and to steal the fleece of gold; but no arrangement to this effect has been made between Jason and Medea at their previous meeting (vii. 516). Instances might be multiplied. See Schenkl, op. cit. 12 sqq.; Summers' _Study of Argonautica of Valerius Flaccus_, p. 2 sqq. The inconsistency which makes the _Argo_ to be at once the first ship and to meet many other ships by the way is perhaps the most glaring, but its rectification would have involved very radical alterations. 483. Cp. viii. 189: inde sequemur ipsius amnis iter, donec nos flumine certo perferat inque aliud reddat mare. 484. Summers, op. cit. 6. 485. e.g. Argous Portus, Cales, the portico of the Argonauts at Rome. 486. i. 7-12. 487. Summers, p. 7. 488. i. 806; ii. 4.