THE 
 
 ODES AND EPODES 
 
 H O RAC E 
 
THE 
 
 ODES AND EPODES 
 
 HORACE 
 
 A METRICAL TRANSLATION INTO ENGLISH 
 
 INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARIES 
 
 LORD LYTTON 
 
 WITH LATIN TEXT 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS 
 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 
 MDCCCLXIX 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ON THE C.IUSES OF HORACE'S POPULARITY, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 xiii 
 
 THE ODES. 
 
 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 
 ODE 
 
 
 
 
 I. 
 
 DEDICATORY ODE TO M/ECENAS, 
 
 3 
 
 11. 
 
 TO 
 
 C^SAR, 
 
 TO 
 
 III. 
 
 ON 
 
 Virgil's voyage to athens, 
 
 i6 
 
 IV. 
 
 TO 
 
 LUCIUS SESTIUS, 
 
 20 
 
 V. 
 
 TO 
 
 pyrrha, 
 
 22 
 
 VI. 
 
 TO 
 
 M. VIPSANIUS AGRIPPA, 
 
 24 
 
 VII. 
 
 TO 
 
 plancus, . . . 
 
 28 
 
 VIII. 
 
 TO 
 
 LYDIA, 
 
 32 
 
 IX. 
 
 TO 
 
 thaliarchus, . . . 
 
 34 
 
 X. 
 
 TO 
 
 MERCURY, 
 
 . 38 
 
 XI. 
 
 TO 
 
 LEUCONOfi, . 
 
 42 
 
 XII. 
 
 IN CELEBRATION OF THE DEITIES AND 
 
 THE WORTHIES . 
 
 
 
 OF ROME, 
 
 44 
 
 XIII. 
 
 TO 
 
 LYDIA, 
 
 50 
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE SHIP— AN ALLEGORY, 
 
 52 
 
 XV. 
 
 THE PROPHECY OF NEREUS, 
 
 .56 
 
 XVI. 
 
 RECANTATION, . . . 
 
 60 
 
 XVII. 
 
 INVITATION TO TYNDARIS, 
 
 . 64 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 TO 
 
 VARUS, 
 
 68 
 
 XIX. 
 
 TO 
 
 glycera. 
 
 72 
 
 XX. 
 
 TO 
 
 MyECENAS, 
 
 74 
 
 XXI 
 
 IN 
 
 PRAISE OF DIANA AND APOLLO, 
 
 . 76 
 
 5324 IG 
 
vi>.- 
 
 ;. .CONTENTS. 
 
 ODE 
 
 XXII. TO ARISTIUS FUSCUS, 
 
 XXIII. TO CHLOii, 
 
 XXIV. TO VIRGIL ON THE DEATH OF QUINCTILIUS VARUS, 
 XXV. TO LYDIA, 
 
 XXVI. TO L. ^LIUS LAMIA, 
 XXVII. TO BOON COMPANIONS, 
 XXVIII. ARCHYTAS, 
 XXIX. TO ICCIUS, 
 
 XXX. VENUS INVOKED TO GLYCERA'S FANE 
 XXXI. PRAYER TO APOLLO, . 
 XXXIL TO HIS LYRE, 
 
 XXXIII. TO ALBIUS TIBULLUS, 
 
 XXXIV. TO HIMSELF, 
 XXXV. 1X3 FORTUNE, 
 
 XXXVL ON NUMIDA's RETURN FROM SPAIN, 
 XXXVII. ON THE FALL OF CLEOPATRA, 
 XXXVIII. TO HIS WINE-SERVER, 
 
 75 
 
 84 
 86 
 88 
 90 
 92 
 
 lOO 
 
 102 
 104 
 106 
 108 
 no 
 
 114 
 118 
 
 120 
 
 124 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 L TO ASINIUS POLLIO, . 
 II. TO C SALLUSTIUS CRISPUS, GRAND-NEPHEW OF THE 
 
 HISTORIAN, 
 III. TO Q. DELLIUS, 
 IV. TO XANTHIAS PHOCEUS, 
 V. TO GABINIUS, 
 VI. TO SEPTIMIUS, 
 VIL TO POMPEIUS VARUS, 
 VIIL TO BARINE, . 
 IX. TO C. VALGIUS RUFUS, 
 X. TO LICINIUS, . 
 XL TO QUINTIUS HIRPINUS, 
 XII. TO M^CENAS, 
 XIIL TO A TREE, . 
 XIV. TO POSTUMUS, 
 
 XV. ON THE IMMODERATE LUXURY OF THE AGE, 
 XVL TO POMPEIUS GROSPHUS, 
 XVII. TO M^CENAS, 
 XVIII. AGAINST THE GRASPING AMBITION OF THE COVETOUS, 
 XIX. IN HONOUR OF BACCHUS, . 
 XX. ON HIS FUTURE FAME, 
 
 126 
 
 130 
 
 140 
 
 144 
 
 148 
 
 160 
 164 
 166 
 170 
 
 178 
 180 
 184 
 
 188 
 192 
 196 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 VU 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 ODE 
 
 I. ON THE WISDOM OF CONTENT, 
 II. THE DISCIPLINE OF YOUTH, . 
 III. ON STEADFASTNESS OF PURPOSE, 
 IV. INVOCATION TO CALLIOPE, . . 
 
 V. THE SOLDIER FORFEITS HIS COUNTRY WHO SURREN 
 DERS HIMSELF TO THE ENEMY IN BATTLE, 
 K^ VL ON THE SOCIAL CORRUPTION OF THE TIME, 
 VI L TO ASTERIA, ..... 
 VIII. TO M^CENAS, ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF HORACE': 
 ESCAPE FROM THE FALLING TREE, 
 
 IX. THE RECONCILIATION, 
 
 X. TO LYCE, ..... 
 XI. TO THE LYRE, .... 
 
 xn. neobule's soliloquy, 
 
 XIII. TO THE BANDUSIAN FOUNTAIN, 
 
 XIV. ON THE ANTICIPATED RETURN OF AUGUSTUS FROM 
 
 THE CANTABRIAN WAR, 
 XV. ON AN OLD WOMAN AFFECTING YOUTH, 
 XVI. GOLD THE CORRUPTOR, .... 
 
 XVII. TO L. iELIUS LAMIA, .... 
 
 XVIIL TO FAUN US, ...... 
 
 XIX. TO TELEPHUS. — IN HONOUR OF MURENA's INSTAL 
 LATION IN THE COLLEGE OF AUGURS, 
 
 XX. (omitted.) 
 
 XXL TO MY CASK, ..... 
 XXII. VOTIVE INSCRIPTION TO DIANA, 
 XXIIL TO PHIDYLE, ..... 
 XXIV. ON THE MONEY-SEEKING TENDENCIES OF THE AGE, 
 XXV. HYMN TO BACCHUS, .... 
 XXVL TO VENUS, ..... 
 
 XXVII. TO GALATEA UNDERTAKING A JOURNEY,- 
 XXVIII. ON THE FEAST-DAY OF NEPTUNE, 
 XXIX. INVITATION TO M^CENAS, 
 XXX. PREDICTION OF HIS OWN FUTURE TIME, 
 
 200 
 208 
 212 
 220 
 
 230 
 238 
 244 
 
 248 
 252 
 256 
 260 
 266 
 268 
 
 270 
 274 
 276 
 280 
 282 
 
 284 
 
 288 
 292 
 294 
 298 
 
 308 
 310 
 318 
 320 
 326 
 
 THE SECULAR HYMN, 
 
 330 
 
Vlll 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 ODE 
 
 I. TO VENUS, . . . . . 
 
 II. TO lULUS ANTONIUS, . 
 
 III. TO MELPOMENE, 
 
 IV. IN PRAISE OF DRUSUS AND THE RACE OF THE NEROS, 
 V. TO AUGUSTUS, THAT HE WOULD HASTEN HIS RETURN 
 
 TO ROME, .... 
 VI. TO APOLLO, .... 
 
 VII. TO TORQUATUS, 
 VIIL TO CENSORINUS, 
 
 IX. TO LOLLIUS, . . . 
 
 X. (omitted.) 
 
 XI. TO PHYLLIS, . . . . 
 
 XII. INVITATION TO VIRGIL, 
 
 XIII. TO LYCE, A FADED BEAUTY, . 
 
 XIV. TO AUGUSTUS AFTER THE VICTORIES OF TIBERIUS 
 XV. TO AUGUSTUS ON THE RESTORATION OF PEACE, 
 
 354 
 
 358 
 
 THE EPODES. 
 
 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 EPODE 
 
 I. TO M^CENAS, .... 
 IL ALFIUS. — THE CHARMS OF RURAL LIFE, 
 
 III. TO My^CENAS IN EXECRATION OF GARLIC, 
 
 IV, AGAINST AN UPSTART, . 
 V. ON THE WITCH CANIDIA, 
 
 VL AGAINST CASSIUS, 
 VII. TO THE ROMANS, 
 VIII. (OMITTED.) 
 
 IX. TO Mi^CENAS, .... 
 X. ON M^VIUS SETTING OUT ON A VOYAGE, 
 
 XI. and XII. (omitted.) 
 
 XIII. TO FRIENDS, .... 
 
 XIV. TO M^CENAS IN EXCUSE FOR INDOLENCE IN COM 
 
 PLETING THE VERSES HE HAD PROMISED, 
 XV. TO NE^RA, ...... 
 
 XVI. TO THE ROMAN PEOPLE (OR RATHER TO HIS OWN 
 POLITICAL friends), 
 
 xvii. to canidia— in apology, 
 canidia's reply. 
 
INTRODUCTION, 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 12, line 4 from bottom, y^r " Eryx, read Eryx'." 
 ,, 74, line 10, for " Cales have" read *' Gales has," 
 ,, 80, footnote. In quotation from Shakespeare's * King John,' 
 
 lines 2, 3, for ' ' her " read * ' his. " 
 ,, 362, line 9, T^r " victory, what time" read " vict'ry, since what 
 
 time." 
 ,, 367, line 6, for " Inster" read "Instar." 
 
 taste, of the complex multitude of students in every land 
 and in every age. 
 
 It is an era in the life of the schoolboy when he first com- 
 mences his acquaintance with Horace. He gets favourite 
 
 a 
 
VUl CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 ODE 
 
 I. TO VENUS, ...... 342 
 
 II. TO lULUS ANTONIUS, ..... 346 
 
 III. TO MELPOMENE, . . . . . 354 
 
 IV. IN PRAISE OF DRUSUS AND THE RACE OF THE NEROS, 358 
 V. TO AUGUSTUS, THAT HE WOULD HASTEN HIS RETURN 
 
 TO ROME, . . . . . . 366 
 
 VI. TO ATJrvTTr^ -— — '-^ ~ 
 
 l^LETING THE VERSES HE HAD PROMISED, . 462 
 
 XV. TO NE^RA, ...... 464 
 
 XVL TO THE ROMAN PEOPLE (OR RATHER TO HIS OWN 
 
 POLITICAL friends), .... 468 
 
 XVII. TO CANIDIA — IN APOLOGY, .... 476 
 
 CANIDIA's REPLY, ..... 482 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 ON THE CAUSES OF HORACE'S POPULARITY. 
 
 No one denies that there are • greater poets than Horace ; 
 and much has been said in disparagement even of some of 
 the merits most popularly assigned to him, by scholars who 
 have, nevertheless, devoted years of laborious study to the 
 correction of his text or the elucidation of his meaning. 
 But whatever his faults or deficiencies, he has remained 
 unexcelled in that special gift of genius which critics define 
 by the name of charm. No collection of small poems, 
 ancient or modern, has so universally pleased the taste of 
 all nations as Horace's Odes, or been so steadfastly secure 
 from all the capricious fluctuations of time and fashion. In 
 vain have critics insisted on the superior genius evinced in 
 the scanty relics left to us of the Greek lyrists, and even . on 
 the more spontaneous inspiration which they detect in the 
 exquisite delicacy of form that distinguishes the muse of 
 Catullus. Horace still reigns supreme as the lyrical singer 
 most enthroned in the affections, most congenial to the 
 taste, of the complex multitude of students in every land 
 and in every age. 
 
 It is an era in the life of the schoolboy when he first com- 
 mences his acquaintance with Horace. He gets favourite 
 
 a 
 
XIV THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 passages by heart with a pleasure which (Homer alone ex- 
 cepted) no other ancient poet inspires. Throughout life the 
 lines so learnt remain on his memory, rising up alike in gay 
 and in grave moments, and applying themselves to varieties 
 of incident and circumstance with the felicitous suppleness 
 of proverbs. Perhaps in the interval between boyhood and 
 matured knowledge of the world, the attractive influence of 
 Horace is suspended in favour of some bolder poet adventur- 
 ing far beyond the range of his temperate though sunny genius, 
 into the extremes of heated passion or frigid metaphysics — 
 
 " Visere gestiens 
 Qua parte debacchentur ignes, 
 Qua nebulae pluviique rores." 
 
 But as men advance in years they again return to Horace 
 — again feel the young delight in his healthful wisdom, his 
 manly sense, his exquisite combination of playful irony and 
 cordial earnestness. They then discover in him innumer- 
 able beauties before unnoticed, and now enjoyed the more 
 for their general freedom from those very efforts at intense 
 emotion and recondite meaning for which, in the revolution- 
 ary period of youth, they admired the writers who appear 
 to them, when reason and fancy adjust their equilibrium in 
 the sober judgment of maturer years, feverishly exaggerated 
 or tediously speculative. That the charm of Horace is thus 
 general and thus imperishable, is a proposition which needs 
 no proof. It is more interesting and less trite to attempt 
 to analyse the secrets of that charm, and see how far the 
 attempt may suggest hints of art to the numberless writers 
 of those poems which aim at the title of lyrical composition, 
 and are either the trinkets of a transitory fashion, or the 
 ornaments of enduring vogue, according as they fail or 
 succeed in concentrating the rays of poetry into the com- 
 pactness and solidity of imperishable gems. 
 
 The first peculiar excellence of Horace is in his personal 
 character and temperament rather than his intellectual capa- 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 cities ; it is in his genial humanity. He touches us on so 
 ma ny sides of our common natu re ; he has sympathies w ith 
 such infi nite varieties of men • he is so equally at home with 
 us in town and country, in our hours of mirth, in our mo- 
 ments of dejection. Are we poor? he disarms our envy 
 of the rich by greeting as a special boon of the Deity the 
 suffisance which He bestows with a thrifty hand ; and, dis- 
 tinguishing poverty from squalor, shows what attainable ele- 
 gance can embellish a home large enough to lodge content. 
 Are we rich? he inculcates moderation, and restrains us from 
 purse-pride with the kindliness of a spirit free from asceticism, 
 and sensitive to the true enjoyments of life. His very defects 
 and weaknesses of character serve to increase his attraction ; 
 he is not too much elevated above our own erring selves. 
 
 Next to the charm of his humanity is that of his inclina- 
 tion towards the agreeable .aspects of our mortal state. He 
 invests the virtues of patience amidst the trials of adversity 
 with the dignity of a sereiie swgetixess, and exalts even the 
 frivolities of world ly pleasu re with associations of heartfelt 
 friendship and the refinements of music and song. Garlands 
 entwined with myrtle, and wine-cups perfumed with nard, 
 seem fit emblems of the banqueter who, when he indulges 
 his Genius, invokes the Muse and invites the Grace. With 
 this tender humanity and with this pleasurable temperament 
 is blended a singular manliness of sentiment. In no poet 
 can be found lines that more rouse, or more respond to, the 
 generous impulse of youth towards fortitude and cour?«:e, 
 sincerity and honour, devoted patriotism, th e superiority of 
 mi nd over the vicissitudes of fortune, and a healthful reli- 
 ance on the wisdom and goodness of the one divine provi- 
 dential Power, who has no likeness and no second, even in 
 the family of Olympus. 
 
 Though at times he speaks as the Epicure an, at other 
 times as the Stoic, and sometimes as both in the same 
 poem, he belongs exclusively to neither school. Out of both 
 
XVI THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 he has poetised a practical philosophy which, even in its 
 inconsistencies, establishes a harmony with our own incon- 
 sistent natures ; for most men are to this day in part Epi- 
 curean, in part Stoic. Hqracejs. .the. poet o f Eclecti cism. 
 
 From the width of his observation, and the generalising 
 character of his reasoning powers, Horace is , mor e em- 
 phatically Jhj g„representative of civilisation than any other ^ 
 extant lyrical poet. Though describing the manners of his 
 own time, he deals in types and pictures, sentiments and 
 opinions, in which every civilised time finds likeness and 
 expression. Hence men of the world claim him as one of 
 their order, and they cheerfully accord to him an admiration 
 which they scarcely concede to any other poet. It is not 
 only the easy good-nature of his philosophy, and his lively 
 wit, that secure to him this distinction, but he owes much 
 also to that undefinable air of good - breeding which is 
 independent of all conventional fashions, and is recognised 
 in every society where the qualities that constitute good- 
 breeding are esteemed. Catullus has quite as much wit, 
 and is at least as lax, where he appears in the character of a 
 man of pleasure — Catullus is equally intimate with the great 
 men of his time, and in grace of diction is by many preferred 
 to Horace ; yet Catullus has never attained to the same 
 ora£iikiL.emin£nce_as_HOTace among^_nien.QLt.h e w orld, and 
 does not, in their eyes, command the same rank in that 
 high class of gentlemen — thorough-bred authors. For if we 
 rightly interpret^^enms b^ z;/^<?;z/^^ — viz., the inborn spirit 
 which accommodates all conventional circumstances around 
 it to its own native property of form and growth — there is a 
 genius of gentleman as there is a genius of poet. That 
 which his countrymen called urbanitas^ in contradistinction 
 to provincial narrowness of mind or vulgarity of taste, to 
 false finery and afifected pretence, is the essential attribute of 
 the son of the Venusian freedman. And with this quality, 
 which needs for brilliant development familiar converse with 
 
INTRODUCTION. XVU 
 
 the types of mind formed by a polished metropoUs, Horace 
 preserves, in a degree unknown to those who, Hke Pope and 
 Boileau, resemble him more or less on the town-bred side of 
 his character, the simpl e delight in rural nature^ which makes 
 him the favourite companion of those whom cool woodlands, 
 peopled with the beings of fable, "set apart from the crowd." 
 He might be as familiar with Sir PhiHp Sidney in the shades 
 of Penshurst, as with Lord Chesterfield in the saloons of 
 Mayfair. And out of this rare combination of p ractical 
 wisdo m and poetical sent iment there grows that noblest part 
 of his moral teaching which is distinct from schools and 
 sects, and touches at times upon chords more spiritual than 
 those who do not look below the surface would readily 
 detect. Hence, in spite of his occasional sins, he has 
 always found indulgent favour with the clergy of every 
 Church. Among the dozen books which form the library of 
 the village cure of France, Horace is sure to be one ; and 
 the greatest dignitaries of our own Church are among his 
 most sedulous critics and his warmest paneg)Tists. With all 
 his melancholy conceptions of the shadow-land beyond the 
 grave, and the half-sportive, half-pathetic injunction, there- 
 fore, to make the most of the passing hour, there lies deep 
 within his heart a consciousness of nobler truths, which 
 ever and anon finds impressive utterance, suggesting pre- 
 cepts and hinting consolations that elude the rod of Mercury, 
 and do not accompany the dark flock to the shores of Styx : 
 
 *' Virtus recludens immeritis mori 
 Coelum negata tentat iter via." 
 
 Thus we find his thoughts interwoven with Milton's later me- 
 ditations ; * and Condorcet, baffled in aspirations of human 
 perfectibility on earth, dies in his dungeon with Horace by 
 his side, open at the verse which says, by what arts of con- 
 
 * See Milton's Sonnet xxi., To Cyriac Skinner. 
 
XVIU THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 stancy and fortitude in mortal travail Pollux and Hercules 
 attained to the citadels of light. 
 
 It is, then, mainly to this large and many-sided nature in 
 the man himself that Horace owes his unrivalled popularity 
 — a popularity which has indeed both widened in its circle 
 and deepened in its degree in proportion to the increase of 
 modern civilisation. And as the popularity is thus so much 
 derived from the qualities in which the man establishes 
 friendly intimacy with all ranks of his species, so it is ac- 
 companied with that degree of personal affection which few 
 writers have the happiness to inspire. We give willing ear 
 to the praise of his merits, and feel a certain displeasure at 
 the criticisms which appear harshly to qualify and restrict 
 them ; we are indulgent to his faults, and rejoice when the 
 diligent research and kindly enthusiasm of German scholars 
 redeem his good name from any aspersions that had been 
 too lightly credited. It pleases us to think that most, per- 
 haps all, among his erotic poems which had left upon our 
 minds a painful impression, and which a decorous translator 
 shuns, are no genuine expressions of the poet's own senti- 
 ment or taste, but merely a Roman artist's translation or 
 paraphrase from the Greek originals.*' We readily grant the 
 absurdity of any imputation upon the personal courage of 
 Brutus's young officer, founded upon the modest confession, 
 
 * The opinion at which most Horatian scholars have now arrived 
 is well expressed by Estre in his judicious and invaluable work, * Ho- 
 ratiana Prosopographeia ' : "Credo Horatium prorsus abstinuisse a 
 puerorum amoribus, etiamsi ipse, jocans, aliter de se profiteatur. Dis- 
 tabant, si quid judico, Horatii tempore, puerorum amores tantum a 
 persona sancti castique viri quantum libera venus nostris temporibus 
 abest. Novi autem hodie quoque, quis ignorat, juvenes virosque vel 
 castissimos et sanctissimos, inter amicos, animi causa, ita jocantes, 
 quasi liberam venerem ardentissime sectarentur. Nee Libri iv. carm. 
 I, euro, scriptum, uti egregie observavit Lessingius, post legem Juliam 
 latam de pudicitia quum nemo amplius amorem in puerum palam cele- 
 brare ausus fuisset." — P. 524. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 that on the fatal field of Philippi, when those who most 
 vaunted their valour fled in panic or bit the dust, he too 
 had left his shield not too valiantly behind him ; he who, in 
 the same poem, addressed to a brother soldier, tells us that 
 he had gone through the worst extremities in that bloody- 
 war. For those panegyrics on Augustus which, in our 
 young days, we regarded as renegade flattery bestowed upon 
 a man who had destroyed the political liberties for which the 
 poet had fought, we accept the rational excuses which are 
 suggested by our own maturer knowledge of life and of the 
 grateful human heart, and our profounder acquaintance with 
 the events and circumstances of the age. We see in the 
 poems themselves, when fairly examined, with what evident 
 sincerity Horace vindicates his enthusiastic admiration of a 
 prince whom he identifies with the establishment of safety to 
 property and life, with the restoration of arts and letters, 
 with the reform of manners and the amelioration of laws. 
 We can understand with what genuine horror a patriot so 
 humane must have regarded the fratricide of intestine wars, 
 and with what honest gratitude so ardent a lover of repose 
 and peace would have exclaimed, — 
 
 ** Custode rerum Csesare, non furor 
 Civilis aut vis exi^et otium. " 
 
 If to the rule of one man this blessed change was to be 
 ascribed, and if pubHc opinion so cordially endorsed that 
 assumption, that the people themselves placed their ruler in 
 the order of Divinities — it scarcely needs even an excuse for 
 the poet that he joined in the general apotheosis of the great 
 prince, who to him was the benignant protector and the 
 sympathising friend. What has passed in our own time in 
 France renders more clear to us the general state of feeling 
 in Rome. When the population have once tested the 
 security of established order, and, with terrified remem- 
 brance of the bloodshed and havoc of a previous anarchy, 
 
XX THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 felt the old liberty rather voluntarily slip than be violently 
 wrenched, from their hands, a benevolent autocracy that con- 
 sults the public opinion which installs it, seems a blessing to 
 the many, and is accepted as a necessity by the few. And 
 if the professed statesmen and political thinkers of the time 
 — the Pollios and the Messalas, the most eminent parti- 
 sans of M. Antony, the noblest companions of Brutus — 
 acquiesced, with the more courtly and consistent Maecenas, 
 in the established government of Augustus, it would indeed 
 be no reproach to a man whose mind habitually shunned 
 gloomy anticipations of the distant future, that he could not 
 foresee the terrible degeneration of manners and the military 
 despotism which were destined to grow out of the clement 
 autocracy of that accomplished prince who had won the title 
 of " father of his country," and who might be seen on 
 summer evenings angling in the Tiber, or stretched upon 
 its banks amidst a ring of laughing children, with whom the 
 Emperor whose word gave law to the Indian and the Mede 
 was playing with nuts and pebbles. 
 
 What Horace was as man, can, however, furnish but little 
 aid to those v/ho desire to rival him as poet — little aid, in- 
 deed, except as it may serve to show how far a genial and 
 cordial temperament, an independent and manly spirit, and 
 a fellowship with mankind in their ordinary pursuits and 
 tastes, contribute to the culture and amenities of the poet 
 who would make his monument more lasting than bronze and 
 more lofty than the pyramids. But in Horace, as artist, we 
 may perhaps, on close examination, discover some peculiari- 
 ties of conception and form sufficiently marked and pervasive 
 to evince that with him they were rules of art ; so successful as 
 to make them worthy of study, and hitherto so little noticed, 
 even by his most elaborate critics, as to justify an attempt to 
 render them more generally intelligible and instructive. 
 
 In what I am about to say on this head, I confine my 
 remarks to the short lyrical pieces to which commentators 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXI 
 
 after his time gave the name of Odes, and on which his 
 eminence as a poet must mainly rely. Whatever merit be 
 ascribed to his Satires, it is scarcely in the power of genius 
 to raise satire to an elevated rank in poetry. Satire, indeed, 
 is the antipodes of poetry in its essence and its mission. 
 Satire always tends to dwarf, and it cannot fail to caricature ; 
 but poetry does nothing if it does not tend to enlarge and 
 exalt, and if it does not seek rather to beautify than deform. 
 And though such didactic and moralising vein as belongs to 
 the Epistles of Horace be in itself much higher than satire, 
 and in him has graces of style that, with his usual consum- 
 mate taste, he rejects for satire, which he regards but as a 
 rhythmical prose, still, the higher atmosphere in which the 
 genius of lyrical song buoys and disports itself is not within 
 the scope of that didactic form of poetry which "walks 
 highest but not flies." Hegel, in his luminous classification 
 of the various kinds of poetry, has perhaps somewhat too 
 sharply drawn the line between its several degrees of rank ; 
 yet every one acquainted with the rudimentary principles of 
 criticism must acknowledge, that just as it requires a larger 
 combination of very rare gifts to write an epic or a drama 
 which the judgment of ages allows to be really great, than 
 to write a lyrical poem, so it demands a much finer combi- 
 nation of some of the rarest of those rare gifts to write a 
 lyrical poem which becomes the song of all times and 
 nations, than to write a brilliant sarcasm upon human infir- 
 mities, or an elegant lecture in the style of an Epistle. 
 These last require but talents, however great, which are 
 more or less within the province of prose-writers. The 
 novel of 'Gil Bias' or the Essays of Montaigne evince 
 qualities of genius equal at least to those displayed in 
 Horace's Satires and Epistles. But if you were to multi- 
 ply Lesages and Montaignes ad infinitum^ they could not 
 accomplish a single one of Horace's nobler odes. 
 
 Now, the first thing that strikes us in examining the 
 
XXll THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 secrets of Horace's art in lyrical poetry — and which I ven- 
 ture humbly to think it would be well for modern lyrists to 
 study — is his terseness. Terseness is one of the surest 
 proofs of painstaking. Nothing was ever more truthful in 
 art than the well-known reply of the writer to the friendly 
 critic, who said, "You are too prolix :" "I had not time to 
 be shorter." 
 
 We know from Horace himself that he bestowed upon 
 his artist-work an artist's labour — " Operosa carmina fingo." 
 He seems to have so meditated upon the subject he 
 chooses as to be able to grasp it readily. There is no wan- 
 dering after ideas — no seeking to prolong and over-adorn 
 the main purpose for which he writes. If it be but a votive 
 inscription to Diana, in which he dedicates a tree to her, 
 he does not let his command of language carry him beyond 
 the simple idea he desires to express. He seems always to 
 consider that he is addressing a very civilised and a very im- 
 patient audience, which has other occupations in life besides 
 that of reading verses ; and nothing in him is more remarkable 
 than his study not to be tedious. Perhaps, indeed, it is to 
 this desire that some of his shortcomings up to the mark 
 which very poetical critics would assign to lyrical rapture are 
 to be ascribed ; but it is a fault on the right side. 
 
 The next and much more important characteristic of 
 Horace as a lyrical artist is commonly exhibited in his 
 grander odes, and often in his lighter ones ; and to this I 
 do not know if I can give a more expressive word than 
 picturesqueness. His i maginati on, in his Odes, predomin- 
 ates over all his other qualities, great as those other quali- 
 ties are ; and that which he images being clear to himself, 
 he contrives in very few words to render it distinct and 
 vivid to the reader. When Lydia is entreated not to spoil 
 Sybaris ; by enumerating the very sports for which her lover 
 has lost taste, he brings before us the whole picture of an 
 athletic young Roman noble — his achievements in horse- 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXlll 
 
 manship, swimming, gymnastics; when, in the next ode, 
 he calls on the Feastmaster to heap up the fagots, and 
 bring out the wine, and enjoy his youth while he may, he 
 slides into a totally different picture. Here it is the young 
 Roman idler, by whom only the mornings are devoted to 
 the Campus Martins, the afternoons to the public lounge, 
 the twilights to amorous assignations ; and the whole closes 
 still with a picture, the girl hiding herself within the thresh- 
 old, and betrayed by her laugh, while the lover rushes in 
 and snatches away the love-token from the not too reluctant 
 finger. When he invites Tyndaris to his villa, the spot is 
 brought before the eye : -the she-goats browsing amid the 
 arbute and wild thyme; the pebbly slopes of Ustica; the 
 green nook sheltered from the dog-star; the noon-day 
 entertainment; the light wines and the lute. The place 
 and the figures are before us as clearly as if on the canvas 
 of a painter. He would tell you that he is marked from 
 childhood for the destiny of poet ; and he charms the eye 
 with the picture of the truant infant asleep on the wild 
 mountain-side, safe from the bear and the adder, while the 
 doves cover him with leaves. 
 
 With a rarer and higher attribute of art Horace intro- 
 duces th e dramatic elemen t very largely and prominently 
 into his lyrics. His picture becomes a^s cene. His ideas 
 take life and form as personations. Does he wish to dis- 
 suade his countrymen from the notion of transferring the 
 seat of government from Rome to Asia, or perhaps, rather, 
 from some large emigration and military settlement in the 
 East? He calls up the image of the Founder of Rome 
 borne to heaven in the chariot of Mars ; ranges the gods 
 in council on Olympus ; and puts into the lips of Juno 
 the warning which he desires to convey. Does he seek to 
 discourage popular impatience for the return of the Parthian 
 pTrisoners — viz., the soldiers of Crassus who had settled and 
 married in the land of the conqueror? He evokes the 
 
XXIV THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 great form of Regulus urging the Senate to refuse to 
 ransom the Roman captives taken by Carthage — places 
 him as on a visible stage — utters his language, describes his 
 looks, and shows him departing to face the tormentors, 
 satisfied and serene. Would he console a girl for the ab- 
 sence of her lover, and hint to herself a friendly caution 
 against an insidious gallant ? In eight short stanzas he con- 
 denses a whole drama in personages and plot Does he paint 
 the reconciliation of two jealous lovers? He makes them 
 speak for themselves ; and their brief dialogue is among the 
 most delightful of comedies. Would he tell us that he is going 
 to sup with convivial friends ? He suddenly transports us 
 into the midst of the scene, regulates the toasts, calls for the 
 flowers and music, babbles out his loves. The scene lives. ^ 
 
 Not to weary the reader with innumerable instances of 
 this art of picture and of drama, so sedulously cultivated by 
 Horace, I will only observe that the various imitators of 
 Horace have failed to emulate this the most salient char- 
 acteristic of his charm in construction ; and that even his 
 numerous commentators have but slightly noticed it — nay, 
 some have even censured as a desultory episode, that which, 
 according to Horace's system of treating his subject, is the 
 substance of the poem itself For the commencing stanzas 
 sometimes only serve as a frame to the picture which he 
 intends to paint, or a prologue to the scene which he pro- 
 poses to dramatise. 
 
 Thus he begins a poem by an invocation to Mercury and 
 the lyre to teach him a strain that may soften the coy heart of 
 a young girl ; passes rapidly to the effect of music even upon 
 the phantoms in the shades below ; the Danaides rest their 
 urn, and then, as if the image of the Danaides spontaneously 
 and suddenly suggested the idea, he places on the scene the 
 sister murderesses at night slaughtering their bridegrooms — 
 and the image of Hypermnestra, the sole gentle and tender 
 one, waking her lord and urging him to fly. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 So again, when his lady friend, Galatea, is about to 
 undertake a voyage, he begins by a playful irony about 
 omens, hastens to the reality of stormy seas — and suddenly 
 we have the picture of Europa borne from the field-flowers 
 to the midst of the ocean. We behold her forlorn and 
 alone on the shores of Crete — hearken to the burst of her 
 despair and repentance — and see the drama conclude with 
 the consolatory appearance of Venus, and Cupid with his 
 loosened bow., To some commentators these vivid pre^ 
 sentatio ns of dramatic imager y have appeared exotic to 
 the poem — episodes and interludes. But the more they 
 are examined as illust rative of Horace's peculiar culture of 
 l yric art, the more (in this respect not unimitative of Pindar) 
 they stand out as the body of his piece, and the developed 
 completion of his purpose. Take them away, and the 
 poems themselves would shrink into elegant vers d' occasion. 
 Horace, in a word, generally studies to secure to each of his 
 finer and more careful poems, however brief it be, that 
 which play-writers call "a backbone." And even where he 
 does not obtain this through direct and elaborate picture 
 or dramatic eff'ect and interest, he achieves it perhaps in 
 a single stanza, embodying some striking truth or maxim of 
 popular application, expressed with a terseness so happy, 
 that all times and all nations adopt it as a proverb. 
 
 We see, then, how much of his art in construction de- 
 pends on his lavish employ of picture and drama — how 
 much on compression and brevity. We must next notice, 
 as constituent elements of Horace's peculiar charm, his em- 
 ployment of playful irony, and the rapidity of hisjrarisitions 
 fro m sportive to earnest , earnest to sportive; so that, per- 
 haps, no po^rm^ avails himself of the effect of ''surprise" 
 — yet the i^^urpris^ is not coarse and glaring, but for the 
 most part singularly subdued and delicate — arising some- 
 times from a single phrase, a single word. He has thus, 
 in his lyrics, more of that combination of tragic and conijc 
 
XXVI THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 elements to which the critics of a former age objected in 
 Shakespeare, than perhaps any poet extant except Shake- 
 speare himself. The consideration of this admirably artistic 
 fidelity to the mingled yarn of life, leads us on to the notice 
 of Horatian style and diction. 
 
 The character of the audience he more immediately ad- 
 dresses will naturally have a certain effect on the style of an 
 author, and an effect great in proportion to his practical 
 good sense and good taste. No man _poss^essed of what 
 the Fr ench ca ll savoir z^'z^r^^ employs exactly the same style 
 even in extempore discourse, whether he address a select 
 audience of scholars or a miscellaneous popular assembly. 
 The readers for whom Horace more immediately wrote were 
 the polite and intellectual circles of Rome, wherein a large 
 proportion were too busy, and a large proportion too idle, 
 to allow themselves to be diverted very far, or for long at 
 a stretch, into poetic regions, whether of thought or diction, 
 remote from their ordinary topics and habitual language. 
 Horace does not, therefore, in the larger number of songs 
 composed — some to be popularly sung and all to be popu- 
 larly read — build up a poetic language distinct from that of 
 conversation. On the contrary, with some striking excep- 
 tions, where the occasion is unusually solemn, he starts ji om 
 the conversationaLtone, see ks to familiarise h joLsHf winning- 
 ly with his readers,., and leads them on to Jofjiier .senti- 
 ment, uttered in more noble eloquence — just as. -an orator, 
 beginning very simply, leads on the assembly he addresses. 
 And possibly Horace's manner in this respect — which, 
 though in a less marked degree, is also that of Catullus in 
 most of the few purely lyrical compositions the latter has 
 left to us — may be traced to the influence which or atory 
 exercised over the generation born in th e last day s of the 
 R^£ubHc. For in the age of Cicero and Hortensius it may 
 be said that the genius of the Roman language developed 
 itself rather in the beauties which belong to oratory than 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXVU 
 
 those which lie more hidden from popular appreciation in 
 the dells and bosks of song. 
 
 And as the study of rhetoric and oratory formed an es- 
 sential part of education among the Roman youths contem- 
 porary with Horace, so that study would unconsciously 
 mould the taste of the poet in his selection and arrange- 
 ment of verbal decorations. Be the cause what it may, 
 nothing is more noticeable in Horace's style than its usual 
 conformity with oratorical art, its easy familiarisation with 
 the minds addressed, its avoidance of over-floridity and re- 
 condite mysticism, and its reliance for effects that are to 
 fascinate the imagination, touch the heart, rouse the soul, 
 upon something more than the delicacies of poetic form. 
 His reli ance, in sh ort, is upo n the sentiment, the idea, 
 which the glow of expression anima tes and illume s. Thus 
 th3it~airtosa~feIiatas ver borum justly ascribed to Horac e, has 
 so much of the mj.sculi ne, oratorical character — so unites a 
 hardy and compact simpTiciFy of phrase with a sentiment 
 which itself has the nobleness or grace of poetry (as orator- 
 ical expression of the highest degree ever has) — that of all 
 ancient poets Horace is the one who most furnishes the 
 public speaker with quotations sure of striking effect in 
 any public assembly to -.vhich the Latin language is familiar. 
 Take one example among many. Mr Pitt is said never 
 to have more carried away the applause of the House of 
 Commons than when, likening England, — then engaged in 
 a war tasking all her resources, — to that image of Rome 
 which Horace has placed in the mouth of Hannibal — he 
 exclaimed : — 
 
 " Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus 
 Nigrae feraci frondis in Algido, 
 Per damna, per csedes, ab ipso 
 Ducit opes animumque ferro." 
 
 Now, this passage, when critically examined, does not owe 
 its unmistakable poetry to any form of words, any startling 
 
XXVlll THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 epithet, inadmissible in prose, but to an illustration at once 
 very noble and yet very simple ; and, in rapidity of force, in 
 the development and completion of the idea, so akin to 
 oratory, that an impassioned speaker who had his audience 
 in his hands might have uttered the substance of it in prose. 
 I may perhaps enable the general reader to comprehend 
 more clearly what I mean by Horace's art in diction, as 
 starting from the conversational tone, and, save on rare oc- 
 casions, avoiding a style antagonistic to prose, by a reference 
 to the two loveliest, most elaborate, and most perfect lyrics 
 in our own language — 'L' Allegro' and 'II Penseroso.' In 
 these odes Milton takes for representation the two types of 
 temperament under which mankind are more or less divisibly 
 ranged — viz., the cheerful and the pensive. But he treats 
 these two common varieties of all our race as a poet, of a 
 singularly unique temperament himself, addressing that com- 
 paratively small number of persons who are poetically cheer- 
 ful or poetically pensive. And in so addressing them his 
 language is throughout essentially distinct from prose ; it is 
 like most of his youthful poems, the very quintessence of 
 poetic fancy, both in imagery and expression. Perfectly 
 truthful in itself, the poetry in these masterpieces is still not 
 of that kind of truthfulness which comes home to all men's 
 business and bosoms. Like his own soul, it is " a star, and 
 dwells apart." It may be doubted whether Horace, in his 
 very finest odes, ever, in his maturest age, wrote anything so 
 exquisitely poetical, regarded as pure poetry addressed to 
 poets, as these two lyrics written by Milton in his youth. 
 But then the difference between them and Horace's Ode? 
 is, that out of England the former are little known — certainly 
 not appreciated.* Their beauty of form is so delicate, that 
 
 * It may be said in answer to this, that on the Continent Latin is more 
 read than English. True ; but that does not prevent those English poets 
 who address themselves to a cosmopolitan audience, as Shakespeare, 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXIX 
 
 it is only the eye of a native that can detect it — their truth- 
 fulness to nature so limited to a circumscribed range of 
 mind, that, even in England, neither the mirthful nor the 
 melancholy man, unless he be a poet or a student, recog- 
 nises in either poem his own favourite tastes and pleasures. 
 But where Horace describes men's pleasures, every man 
 finds something of himself; the familiar kindliness of his 
 language impresses its poetry upon those who have no pre- 
 tension to be poets. Had Horace written with equal length 
 and with equal care an ' Allegro ' and a ' Penseroso,' not 
 only the poet and the student, not only the man of senti- 
 ment and reflection, but all varieties in our common family 
 — the young lover, the ambitious schemer, the man of plea- 
 sure, the country yeoman, the city clerk, even the rural 
 labourer — would have found lines in which he saw himself 
 as in a mirror. 
 
 Thus, then, Horace's exquisite felicity of wording is for 
 the most part free from any sustained attempt at a language 
 essentially distinct from that of conversation ; and for that 
 very reason its beauties of poetical expression both please 
 and strike the more, because they have more the air of those 
 spontaneous flashes of genius which delight us in a great 
 orator or a brilliant talker. 
 
 I cannot pass by without comment a characteristic of 
 Horace's "form" in lyrical poetry, which is too striking to 
 escape the notice of any ordmary critic ; but no critic has 
 attempted satisfactorily to define the principles of art to 
 which its peculiar fascination may be traced. It is in the 
 choice of epithets derived from proper names, or rather the 
 names of places, by which ^^ generals" are indivi dualised 
 into "particulars." The sea is not the sea in general-^ it is 
 
 and I may add Byron, being as well appreciated on the Continent as 
 any Latin author is ; and I doubt whether even in England there be as 
 many readers of poetry familiar with * L' Allegro ' and ' II Penseroso ' as 
 there are with the Odes of Horace. 
 
 b 
 
XXX THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 the Hadrian, or the Myrtoan, or the Caspian sea; the ship 
 is not a ship in general — it is the Cyprian or the Bithynian 
 ship ; the oaks, which are not always shaken by the blast, are 
 not the oaks in general — they are the oaks upon Garganus; the 
 ilex, which thrives by being pruned, is not an ilex in general 
 — it is the ilex upon Algidus ; and so forth, through innumer- 
 able instances. That in this peculiarity there is a charm to 
 the ear and the mind of the reader, no one acquainted with 
 Horace will deny. But whence that charm? Partly be- 
 cause it gives that kind of indmdimlity_which....belongs to 
 personation — it takes the object out of a boundless common- 
 place, and rivets the attention on a more fixed and definite 
 image ; but principally because, while it thus limits the idea 
 on the prosaic side of the object, it enlarges its scope, by 
 many vague and subtle associations, on the poetic side. 
 When a proper name is thus used — a proper name suggesting 
 of itself almost insensibly to the mind the poetic associations 
 which belong to the name — the idea is enlarged from a 
 simple to a complex idea, adorned with delicate enrichments, 
 and opening into many dim recesses of imagination. The 
 keel of a ship suggests only a keel ; but the Cyprian keel 
 connects itself with dreamy recollections of all the lovely 
 myths about Cyprus. The ilex un particularised may be but 
 an ilex by a dusty roadside, or in the grounds of a citizen's 
 villa ; but the ilex of Algidus evokes, as an accompanying 
 image, the haunted mountain-top sacred to Diana. Hence 
 the frequent recourse to poetic proper names among artistic 
 poets, and to which the verse of Milton is so largely indebted 
 for the delight it occasions, not more by melodious sounds 
 than by complex associations. Walter Scott owes much of 
 the animation of his lyrical narratives to his frequent use of 
 proper names in scenery connected with historic association 
 or romantic legend ; and Macaulay's Roman Lays push the 
 use of them almost to too evidently artificial an extreme, 
 savouring a little overmuch of elaborate learning and per- 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXI 
 
 ceptible Imitation. But the study of so exquisite a beauty 
 in lyrical composition may be safely commended to modern 
 poets. It is noticeable that Horace has little or nothing 
 of it in the Epodes (his earliest pubhshed poems, except the 
 First Book of the Satires). Perhaps he thought it more espe- 
 cially appropriate to purely lyrical composition, such as the 
 Odes, than to the Epodes, which are not lyrical in form, 
 and, with one exception, Epode xiii., are but partially lyrical 
 in spirit. For it might be wrong to infer that it only oc- 
 curred to him in the riper practice of his general art as poet, 
 since some of the Odes in which it is found, though not 
 published till after the Epodes, must have been composed 
 within the period to which the latter are assigned. 
 
 The defects or shortcomings of Horace as a poet are, like 
 those of all original writers, intimately connected with his 
 peculiar merits. His strong good sense, and that which may 
 be called the practical tend ency of his min d in his views 
 both of life and art, while they serve to secure to him so un- 
 rivalled a popularity among men of the world, not only deter 
 him from the metaphysical speculation which would have 
 been not less wearisome to the larger portion of his readers 
 than distasteful to himself, as appertaining to those regions 
 beyond the province of the human mind, " at which Jove 
 laughs to see us outstretch our human cares," — but rarely 
 permit him to plumb very far into the deeps of feeling and 
 passion. Marvellously as he represents the human nature 
 we have all of us in common, each thoughtful man has yet 
 in him a something of human nature peculiar to himself, 
 which, like the goal of the Olympian charioteer, is some- 
 times almost grazed, but ever shunned, by the rapid wheels 
 of the Venusian. 
 
 It may also be said that h is turn for irony, o r his defer- 
 ence to the impatient taste of a worldly audience, while 
 serving to keep the attention always pleased, and contributing 
 so largely to his special secrets in art, sometimes shows itself 
 
XXXll THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 unseasonably, and detracts from the effect of some noble 
 passage, or interrupts the rush of some animated description. 
 
 Take but one instance among many. In an ode which is 
 among his grandest — Book IV. Ode iv., '^ Qualem ministrum 
 fulminis alitem" — when he comes, after imagery of epic 
 splendour, to the victory of Drusus over the Vindelici, he 
 checks himself to say, with a sort of mockery which would 
 have been well in its place at a supper-table, that where the 
 Vindelici learned the use of the Amazonian battle-axe he 
 refrains from inquiring, for it is not possible to know every- 
 thing. No doubt there was some "hit" or point in this 
 parenthetical diversion which is now lost to us ; possibly it 
 was a satirical allusion to some pedantic work or antiquarian 
 speculation which was among the literary topics of the day ; 
 but every reader of critical taste feels the jar of an episodical 
 levity, inharmonious to all that goes before and after it.* It 
 is like a sarcasm of Voltaire's thrust into the midst of an ode 
 of Pindar's. 
 
 From causes the same or similar, Hor ace's love-poet ry 
 ha s been accused of^ant of deep feeling, and compared in 
 thisi-£spect, disadvantageously, tojEelew^^^CTnirt fragments of 
 SapphOi, But here it may be observed, thaFln tlie whole 
 character of Horace there is one marked idiosyncrasy which 
 influences the general expression of his art. Like many men 
 of our day, who unite to familiar intercourse with fashionable 
 and worldly society an inherent sincerity and a dread of all 
 charlatanic pretences, Horace is even over-studious not to 
 claim any false credit for himself — not to pretend to any- 
 thing which may not be considered justly his due ; he will 
 
 * Some critics have indeed proposed to omit these digressive verses 
 altogether, and consider them an impertinent interpolation by an inferior 
 hand. But this is an audacity of assumption forbidden by the authority 
 of manuscripts, and justly denounced by the editors and critics whose 
 opinions on such a subject Horatian students regard as decisive. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXlll 
 
 not pretend to be better born or richer, wiser or more con- 
 sistent, or of a severer temper than he is. In his Satires and 
 Epistles he even goes out of his way to tell us of his faults. 
 In his Odes themselves — with all his intense and candidly 
 uttered convictions of their immortality — he is perpetually 
 throwing in some modest reference to the light and trivial 
 themes to which his lyre and his genius are best suited. A 
 man of this character, and with a very keen susceptibility to 
 ridicule, would perhaps shun the expression of any feeling in 
 love much deeper in its sentiment, or much more devoted in 
 its passion, than would find sympathy with the men of the 
 world for whom he principally wrote. If he ever did com- 
 pose love-poems so earnest and glowing, I think it doubtful 
 whether he would have prevailed on himself to publish them. 
 To a poet who so consistently seeks to inculcate moderation 
 in every passion and desire, there would have seemed some- 
 thing not only inconsistent with his general repute as writer, 
 but perhaps something offensive to his own sense of shame 
 and the manliness of his nature, in that passionate devotion 
 to the charms of a Cynthia to which Propertius refers the 
 source of his inspiration and his loftiest pretension to the 
 immortality of renown. And Horace is so far right, both as 
 man and as artist, in the mode in which he celebrates the 
 smiling goddess round whom hovers Mirth as well as Cupid ; 
 that, as man, one really would respect him less if any of 
 those young ladies, who seem to have been too large-hearted 
 to confine their affection to a single adorer, had inspired 
 him with one of those rare passions which influence an entire 
 existence. We should feel as much shame as compassion 
 for any wise friend of ours whom Venus linked lastingly in 
 her brazen yoke to a Lydia or a Pyrrha. And as an artist, 
 Horace appears so far right in his mode of dealing with 
 erotic subjects, that, despite all this alleged want of deep 
 feeling and passionate devotion, H orace's love-poetry is still 
 the mosjj22Py^1^^ I^ ^hp y{nr]c\ — t he rpnst imitated, the most 
 
XXXIV THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 quoted, the most remembered. The reason, perhaps, is, that 
 most men have loved up to the extent that Horace admits 
 the passion, and very few men have loved much beyond 
 that limit. 
 
 Notwithstanding the amazing pains taken by grave pro- 
 fessors and erudite divines to ascertain the history of Horace's 
 love-affairs — to tell us who and what those young beauties 
 were — whom he loved first and whom he loved last — how 
 many of them are to be reduced to a select few, one being 
 sung under different names lending their syllables to the 
 same metrical convenience, so that Cinara, Lalage, Lydia, 
 are one and the same person, &c. — the question remains in- 
 soluble. Some scholars have had even the cold-blooded 
 audacity to assert that, with the single exception of Cinara, 
 and some strange sort of entanglement with the terrible 
 sorceress to whom he gives the name of Canidia, all these 
 Horatian beauties are myths and figments — as purely dreams 
 as those out of the ivory gate- — many of them, no doubt, 
 translations, more or less free, from the Greek. 
 
 The safest conjecture here, as in most cases of disputed 
 judgment, lies between extremes. 
 
 It is probable enough that a man like Horace — a man of 
 wit and pleasure — thrown early into gay society, and of a 
 very affectionate nature, as is evinced by the warmth of his 
 friendships — should have been pretty often in what is com- 
 monly called " love " during, say, thirty-nine years out of the 
 fifty-seven in which he led a bachelor's life. And as few 
 poets ever have been more subjective than Horace — ever 
 received the aspect of life more decidedly through the 
 medium of their own personal impressions — or more re- 
 garded poetry as the vehicle of utterance for their opinions 
 and doctrines, their likings and dislikings, their joys and their 
 sorrows — so it may be reasonably presumed that in many of 
 his love-verses he expresses or symbolises his own genuine 
 state of feeling. Nor if in some of these there be detected 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxxv 
 
 imitations from the Greek, does such imitation suffice to 
 prove that the person addressed was imaginary, and the 
 feehng uttered insincere? Nothing is more common 
 amiong poets than the adaptation of ideas found elsewhere 
 to their own individual circumstances and self-confessions. 
 When Pope paraphrases Horace where Horace most exclu- 
 sively personates himself. Pope still so paraphrases that the 
 lines personate Pope and not Horace ; and one would know 
 very little of the subjective character of Pope's mind and 
 genius who could assert that he did not utter his own gen- 
 uine feelings in describing, for instance, his early life and 
 his early friendships, because the description was imitated 
 from a Latin author. 
 
 On the other hand, it is impossible to distinguish with 
 any certainty what really does thus illustrate the actual ex- 
 istence of Horace, and does utter the sounds of his own 
 heart, from the purely objective essays of his genius (for, like 
 all poets who have the dramatic faculty strongly developed, 
 he is objective as well as subjective), and were the sportive 
 exercises of art, and the airy embodiments of fancy. It is 
 safest here to leave an acute reader to his own judgment ; 
 and it is one of those matters in wnich acute readers will 
 perhaps differ the most. 
 
 Among the faults of Horace may also be mentioned his 
 marked tendency to self- repetition, and es pecially to the 
 repetition of what one of his most admirable but least en - 
 th usiastic editors blu ntl y calIs~Tiis " commonplaces : " viz., 
 tlie_shqrtne.ss o£Jife ; the wis dom of seizing the present 
 hour ; the folly of anxious research i nto an unknown future j 
 th e vanity of riches and of restless ambition : t he happines s / 
 of a golden mediocrity in fortune,, and an equable mind m_ 
 the vicissitudes of life. But these iterations of ideas, con- 
 stituting the bo dy of his ethics^ if faulty — inasmuch as the 
 ultima lifiea of his range may therein be too sharply defined — 
 are the inseparable consequence of the most beautiful quali- 
 
 _|VAlbUA>7 
 
XXXVl . THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ties of his genius. They mark the consistent unity and the 
 sincere convictions of the man — they show how much his 
 favourite precepts are part and parcel of his whole moral 
 and intellectual organisation. Whether conversing in his 
 Satires, philosophising in his Epistles, giving free play to 
 invention in his Odes — still he cannot help uttering and 
 reuttering ideas the combination of which constitutes him- 
 self. And as the general effect of these ideas is sooth- 
 ing, so their prevalence in his verse has a charm of repose 
 similar to the prevalence of green in the tints of nature : 
 we greet the constant recurrence of the soft familiar colour 
 with a sensation of pleasure even in its quiet monotony. 
 
 Perhaps in m6st writers who have in a pre-eminent de- 
 gree the gift of charm, there is, indeed, a certain fondness 
 for some peculiar train of thought, the repetition of which 
 gains in them the attraction of association. We should be 
 disappointed, in reading such writers, if we did not find 
 the ideas which characterise them, and for which we have 
 learned to seek and to love them, coming up again and 
 again like a refrain in music. It is so with some of our 
 own poets — Goldsmith, Cowper, and Byron — who, alike in 
 nothing else, are alike in the frequent recurrence of the 
 ideas which constitute the characteristic colourings of their 
 genius, and who, in that recurrence, deepen their spell over 
 their readers. 
 
 I believe, then, that the attributes thus imperfectly 
 stated are among the principal constituent elements of 
 Horace's indisputable charm, and of a popularity among 
 men of various minds, which extends over a wider circle 
 than perhaps any other ancient poet commands^ Homer 
 alone excepted. It is a popularity not diminished by the 
 limits imposed on the admiration that accompanies it. Even 
 those critics who deny him certain of the higher qualities 
 of a lyrical poet, do not love him less cordially on account 
 of the other qualities which they are pleased to accord to 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXVll 
 
 him. It is commonly enough said that, either from his own 
 deficiencies or those of the Latin language, he falls far short 
 of the Greek lyrical poets in fire, in passion, in elevation of 
 style, in varied melodies of versification. Granted : but judg- 
 ing by the scanty remains of those poets which time has 
 spared, we find evidence of no one, — unless it be Alcseus, 
 and conjecturing what his genius might have been as a 
 whole less by the fragments it has left than by Horace's 
 occasional imitations, — no one who combines so many ex- 
 cellences, be they great or small, as even a very qualified 
 admirer must concede to Horace; no one who blends so 
 large a knowledge of the practical work-day world with so 
 delicate a fancy, and so graceful a percepftion of the poetic 
 aspects of human life ; no one who has the same alert quick- 
 ness of movement " from gay to grave, from lively to severe ;" 
 no one who unites the same manly and high-spirited enforce- 
 ment of hardy virtues, temperance and fortitude, devotion 
 to friends and to the native land, with so pleasurable and 
 genial a temperament ; no one who adorns so extensive an 
 acquaintance with metropolitan civilisation by so many 
 lovely pictures of rural enjoyment ; or so animates the de- 
 scription of scenery by the introduction of human groups 
 and imiages, instilling, as it were, into the body of outward 
 nature, the heart and the thought of man. So that where 
 his genius may fail in height as compared with Pindar, or in 
 the intensity of sensuous passion as compared with Sappho, 
 it compensates by the breadth to which it extends its sur- 
 vey, and over which it diffuses its light and its warmth. 
 
 Of all classical authors Horace is the one who has most 
 attracted the emulation of editors and commentators. Stu- 
 dents, indeed, have some reason to complain of the very 
 attempts made by learning and ingenuity to determine his 
 text and interpret his meaning. No sooner have they accus- 
 
XXXVlll THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 tomed themselves to one edition than a new one appears to 
 challenge the authority they had deferred to, and disturb 
 the reading they had accepted. Paraphrases and transla- 
 tions are still more numerous than editions and commen- 
 taries. There is scarcely a man of letters who has not at 
 one time or other versified or imitated some of the odes ; 
 and scarcely a year passes without a new translation of them 
 all. No doubt there is a charm in the proverbial difficulty 
 of dealing with Horace's modes of expression ; but perhaps 
 the true cause which invites translators to encounter that 
 difficulty has been sufficiently intimated in the preceding 
 remarks — viz., the comprehensive range of his sympathy 
 with human beings. He touches so many sides of char- 
 acter, that on one side or the other he is sure to attract 
 us all, and we seek to clothe in his words some cherished 
 feeling or sentiment of our own. Be that as it may, an 
 unusual degree of indulgence has by tacit consent been 
 accorded to new translations from Horace. Readers un- 
 acquainted with the original are disposed to welcome every 
 fresh attempt to make the Venusian Muse express herself 
 in familiar English ; and Horatian scholars feel an interest 
 in examining how each succeeding translator grapples with 
 the difficulties of interpretation which have been, as many 
 of them still are, matters of conjecture and dispute to com- 
 mentators the most erudite, and critics the most acute. 
 
 May a reasonable share of such general indulgence be 
 vouchsafed to that variety in the mode of translation of 
 which I now propose to hazard the experiment. 
 
 I have long been of opinion that the adoption of other 
 rhymeless measures than that to which we at present con- 
 fine the designation of blank verse would be attended with 
 especial advantage in translations from the classical poets, 
 and, indeed, in poems founded upon Hellenic and Roman 
 myths, and treated in the classical character and spirit. In 
 that belief I began many years ago these translations from 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXIX 
 
 Horace, and more recently submitted to the public the 
 experiment of the metres employed in the ' Lost Tales of 
 Miletus.' I will not lengthen this preface by any definition 
 of the general rhythmical principles upon which, in my judg- 
 ment, lyrical measures that, taking the form of strophe or 
 stanza, dispense with rhyme, should be invented and framed. 
 Should any writer be tempted hereafter to repeat and im- 
 prove on my experiments, he will easily detect the laws I 
 have laid down for myself, and adopt, modify, or reject 
 them, according to his own idiosyncrasies of ear and taste. 
 
 So far as these translations are concerned, it will be seen 
 that I have shunned any attempt to transfer to our own 
 language the exact form of the original metres. I have 
 rather sought to construct measures in accordance with 
 the character of English prosody, akin to the prevalent spirit 
 of the original, and of compass sufficient to allow a general 
 adherence to the rule of translating line by line, or at least 
 strophe by strophe, without needless amplification on the 
 one hand, or harsh contraction on the other. 
 
 With regard to the rhythmical form in which a sufficient 
 analogy with the Latin metre can be best; obtained by the 
 English, there will always be a difference of taste and 
 opinion. My own plan, when I originally commenced 
 these translations, was in the first instance to attempt a 
 close imitation of the ancient measure, the scansion being 
 of course (as in English or German hexameters and pen- 
 tameters) by accent, not quantity — and then to make such 
 modifications of flow and cadence as seemed to me best 
 to harmonise the rhythm to the English ear, while preserving 
 as much as possible that which nas been called '* the type " 
 of the original. But as there are more ways than one by 
 which such modifications may attain the objects required, 
 so it soon appeared to me best to vary the modifications 
 according as the prevalent spirit of the ode demanded 
 lively and sportive, or serious and dignified, expression. 
 
xl THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 In the Alcaic stanza I have thus employed two different 
 forms of rhythm ; the one, which is of more frequent recur- 
 rence, as in Ode ix. — the other, as in Odes xxxiv.-xxxv., 
 Book I. j either of which admits of slight occasional variations 
 without disturbance to the general character or "type" of 
 the measure. 
 
 F or the Sapphic metre, in which Horace has composed 
 more odes_than3in any^ other except the Alcaic, I have 
 avoided, save in one or two of the shorter poem's^ any imita- 
 tion of the chime rendered sufficiently familiar by Canning's 
 " Knife-grinder," not only because, in the mind of an Eng- 
 lish reader, it is associated with a popular burlesque, but 
 chiefly because an English imitation of the Latin rhythm, 
 with a due observance of the trochee in the first three lines 
 of the stanza, has in itself an unpleasant and monotonous 
 sing-song. In my version of the Sapphic I have chiefly 
 employed two varieties of rhythm : for the statelier odes, our 
 own recognised blank verse in the first three lines, usually, 
 though not always, with a dissyllabic termination ; and, in 
 the fourth line, a metre analogous in length and cadence to 
 the fourth line of the original, though, of course, without 
 any attempt at preserving the Latin quantity of dactyl and 
 spondee. In fact, as Dr Kennedy has truly observed, the 
 spondee is not attainable in our language, except by a very 
 forced effort of pronunciation. That which passes current 
 as an English spondee is really a trochee. For the lighter 
 odes of the Sapphic metre, a more sportive or tripping mea- 
 sure is adopted. 
 
 I must leave my versions of the other metres which 
 Horace has less frequently employed to speak for them- 
 selves. 
 
 In the Latin version, placed side by side with the Eng- 
 lish, I have generally adopted the text of Orelli. The rare 
 instances in which I have differed from it for that of another 
 editor are stated in the notes. For the current punctuation 
 
INTRODUCTION. xli 
 
 — which in Orelli, and indeed in Macleane, is so sparse as 
 not unfrequently to render the sense obscure to those not 
 famiharly intimate with it — I am largely indebted to the 
 admirable edition of Mr Yonge. The modes of spelling pre- 
 ferred by Ritter and Mr Munro as more faithful transcripts 
 of the ancient MSS., involve questions of great interest to 
 professional scholars, but are as yet too unfamiliar to the 
 general reader for adoption in a text especially designed for 
 his use, and annexed to the English translation for the con- 
 venient facilities of reference and comparison. 
 
 My objects in the task I have undertaken have compelled 
 me to add in some degree the labour of a critic to those of 
 a translator. The introductions prefixed and the notes 
 appended to the several odes are designed not only to serve 
 for readers unacquainted with the original, but to bring, in 
 a terse and convenient form, before such students of Horace 
 as may not have toiled through the many and often conflict- 
 ing commentaries of the best editors, the opinions of eminent 
 authorities upon difficult or disputed questions of interpreta- 
 tion. In my notes will be seen the extent to which I am 
 indebted not only to Dillenburger, Orelli, Ritter, but to our 
 own recent English editors, Macleane apd Yonge — and, on 
 certain points of controverted interpretation, to Mr Munro's 
 erudite and valuable introduction to the beautiful edition 
 illustrated from antique gems, by Mr King. 
 
 The majority of critics concur in the doctrine that all the 
 Odes in Horace, differing in this respect from the Epodes, 
 consist of stanzas in four lines, as the Alcaic and Sapphic 
 do. This opinion has been ably controverted by Ritter. 
 Munro declines either to affirm or deny it. But conformably 
 to the general opinion, I have treated, and so translated, the 
 Odes as quatrains, with four exceptions, for which I subjoin 
 my reasons. 
 
 Odes i. Book I., xxx. Book HI., and viii. Book IV., are 
 in the same metre, and the only ones that are ; but Ode viii. 
 
xlii THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Book IV. consists of thirty-four lines, and cannot therefore 
 be reduced to quatrain stanzas ; and the supposition that 
 two verses required for such subdivision have been lost — no 
 evidence of such loss appearing in the oldest MSS. or being 
 intimated by the early commentators — is a hazardous basis 
 on which to rest the theory that the poem must have been 
 originally composed in quatrain. It is also to be observed 
 that Ode i. Book I. so little adapts itself to the division of 
 four-line stanzas with a suitable pause, that Mr Yonge fol- 
 lows Stallbaum in printing the first two lines as prefatory 
 to the rest, and the last two lines as the complement of the 
 stanza. But it is a somewhat bold proceeding, for the sake 
 of establishing an arbitrary system, thus to cut a stanza in 
 half, placing one half at the beginning and the other half at 
 the end of a poem; nor does the arrangement entirely effect 
 the object aimed at, if, as Macleane and Munro contend, a 
 full stop should be placed at the end of the fifth line — 
 "nobihs." Even the remaining ode in this metre — Ode 
 XXX. Book III. — does not readily flow into quatrain, the 
 pause not occurring at the fourth and eighth lines, but at the 
 fifth and ninth. I have not, therefore, in my translation, 
 divided these three odes into stanzas. Lastly, I have 
 followed Dillenburger, Orelli, Macleane, Munro, in the 
 arrangement of Ode xii. Book III. as a stanza of three 
 lines, instead of adopting the quatrain arrangement of 
 Kirchner, to be found in the excursus of Orelli, and 
 favoured by Mr Yonge. 
 
 The Secular Hymn I have printed in its proper chronolo- 
 gical place, between Books III. and IV. 
 
 I concur in the reasons which have led recent editors to 
 reject the headings to the Latin version, which are found in 
 the MSS. ; but I have given headings to the translation, for 
 the convenience of reference which they afford to English 
 readers. 
 
 It remains for me only gratefully to acknowledge my 
 
INTRODUCTION. xliii 
 
 obligations to the distinguished scholars who have permitted 
 me to consult them in the course of this translation. Many 
 years ago I submitted the earliest specimens of my attempts 
 to my valued friend Dr Kennedy. His encouragement 
 induced me to proceed with my undertaking, while his 
 advice and suggestions enabled me materially to improve it. 
 With no less liberal a kindness another friend, the Rev. 
 F. W, Farrar, has permitted me to encroach on his time, 
 and profit by his taste and his learning. Much more could 
 I say in gratitude, as to the services so generously rendered 
 me by these eminent scholars, were it not for the fear 
 that I might seem in so doing to shelter my defects 
 and shortcomings under the authority of their names. It 
 is enough for me to acknowledge that to them must be 
 largely ascribed any merit which may be accorded to my 
 labours, and that without their aid my faults would have 
 been much more numerous and grave. 
 
 Whatever else may be said of the work that I now dis- 
 miss to its fate, let me hope that it will be at least con- 
 sidered, by those best competent to judge, a conscientious 
 and painstaking endeavour to give as faithful an interpreta- 
 tion of the original as the difference of language will permit. 
 
 This preliminary Introduction, with slight alterations, and 
 a few specimens of the Translation, first appeared in ' Black- 
 wood's Magazine' for April, May, July, and August 1868. 
 
THE ODES 
 
 / 
 
BOOK I.— ODE I. 
 
 DEDICATORY ODE TO M^CENAS. 
 
 It is doubtful whether this ode was composed as a dedi- 
 catory preface to the first three books, or only to Book I. : 
 the former supposition is more generally favoured. The 
 poet condenses a rapid survey of the various objects of 
 desire and ambition, commencing with the competition of 
 the Olympic games, and passing from that reference to the 
 Greeks, to the pursuits of his own countrymen in the emula- 
 tion for power, the acquisition of riches, and so on, through 
 the occupations and tastes of mankind in that busy world 
 from which, at the close, he intimates that he himself is set 
 apart. 
 
 The punctuation and construction of the fifth and sixth 
 lines of the ode have been a matter of much dispute. 
 Maclean e, sanctioned by Mr George Long — and Munro, sup- 
 ported "by the emphatic advocacy of Dr Kennedy" — adopt 
 the reading which puts an end to the sentence at " nobilis," 
 and joins on "Terrarum dominos evehit ad Deos " to what 
 follows. By this reading, the lords of earth, or masters of the 
 world, are neither (according to Orelli and most modem com- 
 mentators) taken in apposition with " Deos," as in Ovid, Ep. 
 ex Ponto, i. 9, 35, sq. — 
 
 ** Nam tua non alio coluit penetralia ritu 
 
 Terrarum dominos quam colis ipse Deos ; " 
 
 nor, according to elder commentators, approved by Ritter, is 
 the term applied tb regal or lordly competitors in the Greek 
 games, such as Gelo, Hiero, &c. " Terrarum dominos " 
 
4 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Macleane understands to signify, with a tinge of irony, the 
 Romans, styled by Virgil, ^n. i. 282, and Martial, xiv. 123, 
 "Romanos rerum dominos." Fortified in my own judg- 
 ment by authorities of such eminence, I accept this inter- 
 pretation. From these lords of earth Horace immediately 
 passes on to select representatives of the two great orders 
 of proprietors — the senatorial and the equestrian : a mem- 
 ber of the first placing his happiness in the pursuit of the 
 highest honours; a member of the second, which com- 
 prised in its ranks the chiefs of commercial enterprise, in 
 the success of gigantic speculations. 
 
 "According to the usual punctuation," says Munro, 
 "verses 7-10 appear to me to have no construction at all; 
 with mine, all is plain. ... In ancient Rome, too, as 
 
 in 
 Sprung from a race which mounts to kings, Maecenas, 
 
 Shield and sweet ornament of life to me ; 
 There are whose sovereign joy is dust Olympic 
 Gathered in whirlwind* by the car; the goal 
 Shunned by hot wheels ; and the palm's noble trophy. — 
 
 Up to the gods it bears the lords of earth, 
 One — if the mob of Rome's electors fickle 
 
 Through triple honours to exalt him vie ; 
 One — if he harvest, stored in his own garner, 
 
 Whate'er from Libyan threshing-floors is fanned. 
 Treasures Attalict could not tempt the rustic. 
 
 Delving with ready hoe paternal glebes, 
 On seas Myrtoan, an affrighted sailor. 
 To indent a furrow with the Cyprian keel. 
 
 * *' Collegisse juvat." To have gathered together or collected the 
 scattered atoms of dust into a whirlwind — "pulvis collectus turbine," 
 Sat. I. iv. 31. 
 
 t A proverbial phrase for great riches. The rustic here meant is the 
 small peasant proprietor, like those cultivators by spade-labour now so 
 common in France. The "sarculum " was a lighter tool than a spade 
 
BOOK I.— ODE I. 5 
 
 in modern England, high office and vast wealth, more than 
 aught else, raised men to the sky." 
 
 For the three odes in this measure I have employed in 
 translation a metre consisting of our ordinary form of blank 
 verse converted into a couplet by alternate terminations in 
 a dissyllable and monosyllable ; and though that is a very 
 simple, and may seem at first a very sHght, modification of a 
 familiar rhythm, it will be found to constitute, in the regular 
 recurrence of alternated terminals, a marked difference from 
 the chime of our epic line, and is yet equally in unison with 
 the laws of our prosody. I have adopted the same metre in 
 my version of the more important epodes, and in a few of 
 the other odes. 
 
 Carm. I. 
 
 Maecenas atavis edite regibus 
 O et praesidium et dulce decus meum, 
 Sunt quos curriculo pulverem Olympicum 
 CoUegisse juvat,"^ metaque fervidis 
 Evitata rotis, palmaque nobilis. 
 Terrarum dominos evehit ad Deos, 
 Hunc, si mobilium turba Quiritium 
 Certat tergeminis tollere honoribus ; 
 Ilium, si proprio condidit horreo ^^^ ^" V ^ 
 
 Quidquid de Libyci§. verritur areis. ""^^^^ ' ^v ''^^ 
 
 Gaudentem patrios findere sarculo 
 Agros, AttaHcist condicionibus 
 Nunquam dimoveas, ut trabe Cypria 
 Myrtoum pavidus nauta secet mare. 
 
 or mattock (with which Forcellini observes that Horace here con- 
 founds it by synecdoche), and was used as a hoe for digging up weeds. 
 The author of the article on "Agriculture" in Smith's 'Dictionary of 
 Greek and Roman Antiquities' says that ** it was an implement by which, 
 after covering up the seed, the husbandman loosened the roots of the 
 young blades in order that air and moisture might gain free access." 
 
 t^v^ 
 
 ^■vvfvv i/'/Uv Ji'YviA- 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Seized by dismay, when with Icarian billows 
 
 Wrestle the blasts of stormy Africus, 
 The merchant sighs for ease and modest homestead 
 
 Nestled in fields beside his native town ; 
 Soon he refits his shattered barks ; contentment 
 
 With humble means ^ is lore he cannot learn. 
 Lo, one who scorns not beakers of old Massic, 
 
 Nor lazy hours cut from the solid day, 
 Now with limbs stretched beneath the verdant arbute, 
 
 Now by soft well-head of nymph-hallowed streams. 
 Camps delight many; clarion shrill, deep trumpet 
 
 Commingling stormy melodies ; and war. 
 Hateful to mothers. His young bride forgetting, 
 
 In wintry air the hunter stands at watch, 
 If starts the deer in sight of his, stanch beagles, 
 
 Or burstSi through close-knit twfe the Marsian boar. 
 Me, prize of learned brows, the wreathen ivy, 
 
 Associates with the gods ; me woodlands cool 
 And the light dance of nymphs with choral satyrs, 
 
 Set from the many and their world apart ; 
 If with no checked and hesitating utterance 
 
 Euterpe lends her breath unto her flutes ; 
 And for my touch the harp-strings heard in Lesbos 
 
 If Polyhymnia scorns not to retune. 
 But amid lyric bards if thou enrol me. 
 
 With crest uplifted I shall strike the stars. 
 
 * "Indocilis pauperiem pati." "Pauperies" does not here mean 
 what is commonly understood by poverty, but, as Macleane expresses it, 
 "a humble estate." Macleane, indeed, states "that 'pauperies,' 'pau- 
 pertas,' 'pauper,' are never by Horace taken to signify privation, or 
 anything beyond a humble estate." This assertion is, however, too 
 sweeping. In the lines (Epod. xvii. 47, 48), 
 
 " Neque in sepulcris pauperum prudens anus 
 Novendiales dissipare pulveres," 
 
 *' pauper" clearly means a person of the very poorest class. May not 
 
BOOK I.— ODE I. 7 
 
 Luctantem Icariis fluctibus Africum 
 
 Mercator metuens, otium et oppidi 
 
 Laudat rura sui ; mox reficit rates 
 
 Quassas, indocilis pauperiem pati.* fe^'-K^/wVcrr^-AJk a^-^^jJ^^ 
 
 Est qui nee veteris pocula Massici, 
 
 Nee partem solido demere de die 
 
 Spernit, nune viridi membra sub arbuto ; /u<i«Awv»- 
 
 Stratus, nune ad aquae lene caput sacrse. I 
 
 Multos castra juvant, et lituo tubse j 
 
 Permixtus sonitus, bellaque matribus ' "«^i^^ 
 
 Detestata. Manet sub Jove frigido ; 
 
 Venator, tenerse eonjugis immemor, / fcturXu 
 
 Seu visa est eatulis cerva fidelibus, i 
 
 Seu rupit teretes Marsus aper plagas. i-^^'^^i^^ i-iniu, -^uO- - 
 
 Me doetarum hederae praemia frontium 
 
 Dis miseent su peris ; me gelidum nemus 
 
 Nympharumque leves eum Satyris ehori 
 
 Seeemunt populo, si neque tibias 
 
 Euterpe eohibet, nee Polyhymnia 7^jr'..«ju. 
 
 Lesboum refugit tendere barbiton^ 
 
 Quod si me lyrieis vatibus inseres, /M Vi a**^ f^ ''"^ c.^^--^ 
 
 Sublimi feriam sidera vertiee. •^'^\-**^ . ^^^^ '-^^^^^ K^ 
 
 the same be said of "Pauperum tabernas" in contradistinction to "Re- 
 gum turres"? Lib. 1. Od. iv. 13, 14. The words "pauper," "pau- 
 peries," *' paupertas," have, indeed, some of the elastic sense of our 
 own Poor Man, or Poverty, which may imply only comparatively re- 
 stricted means, or sometimes absolute want. The English language 
 has expressions denoting the gradations of stinted circumstances cor- 
 respondent to those in the Latin. The English has poverty, penury, 
 destitution : the Latin, paupertas, inopia, egestas. So also the Greek 
 language has irevia, honourable poverty ; Trrccxeto, discreditable poverty ; 
 ^vSela, destitution. 
 
8 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Excursus. 
 ** Me doctarum hederse prsemia frontium." 
 
 Wolff, Hare, Tate, and some other commentators, would 
 substitute " Te " for " Me " — applying the line to Maecenas, 
 " Thee the ivy — the prize of learned brows — associates with 
 gods above ; Me the cool woods, &c., set apart from the com- 
 mon crowd." This reading is rejected by the highest critical 
 authorities, including Orelli and Macleane ; but it appear^ 
 in itself entitled to more respect than is shown by the latter. 
 For there is ^ome force in the remark, that in referring to 
 the various tastes and characteristics of men, Horace would 
 scarcely avoid all complimentary reference to Maecenas him- 
 self; and there is yet more force in another remark that, if 
 Horace says that the ivy wreath associates him with the 
 higher or celestial gods, there is a certain bathos, if not con- 
 tradiction, in immediately afterwards saying that his tastes 
 associate him with the inferior or terrestrial deities — i. e., 
 nymphs and satyrs. It is said in vindication of ''Me" in- 
 stead of " Te," that " doctus " is a word very appropriate to 
 poets; that the ivy, sacred to Bacchus, was the fit and 
 usual garland for a lyric poet ; and that Horace could never 
 stoop to the absurd flattery of insinuating that Maecenas was 
 a greater poet than himself But, in answer to all this, it 
 may be urged that Horace elsewhere especially applies the 
 word " doctus " to Maecenas ; in Lib. HI. Od. viii. line 4, — 
 
 " Docte sermones utriusque linguas ; " 
 
 and again, more emphatically, Epist. xix, line i, — 
 ** Frisco si credis, Maecenas docte, Cratino." 
 
 And though the ivy was appropriate to poets, it was not 
 appropriate to poets alone. Horace (Lib. I. Epist. iii., 
 addressed to Julius Flonis) speaks of it as the reward of 
 
BOOK I.— ODE I. 9 
 
 excellence in forensic eloquence or jurisprudence as well as 
 of song :— 
 
 " Seu linguam causis acuis seu civica jura, 
 Respondere paras seu condis amabile carmen, 
 Prima feres hederce y'lcincis, prcsmia.''^ 
 
 And if the ivy crown may be won by pleading causes or 
 giving advice to clients, it can be no inappropriate reward 
 to the brows of a statesman so accomplished as Maecenas. 
 Thus, I think, there is much to be said in favour of the 
 construction — "Thee, Maecenas, the ivy wreath — prize of 
 learned or skilled brows — associates with the higher gods 
 (/. e., with those who. watch over states and empires) ; me, 
 the love of rural leisure and the dreams that it begets set 
 apart from the crowd." On the other side, Ritter has the 
 best vindication I have seen of the alleged contradiction or 
 bathos in the Poet's boasted association, first, with the higher 
 gods, and next, with the inferior deities. According to him, 
 Horace is speaking of two kinds of lyric poetry — the lofty 
 and the sportive. The first, symbolised by the ivy, associ- 
 ates him with gods in heaven ; the second, connecting him 
 with the pastimes of nymphs and satyrs, separates him from 
 the popular pursuits of men. For the first, he trusts to the 
 aid of Polyhymnia, presiding over the Lesbian lyre (of 
 Alcaeus) ; for the second, to the livelier inspiration of 
 Euterpe. 
 
10 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 O D E I I. 
 
 TO C^SAR. 
 
 The exact date of this ode has been matter of controversy, 
 but most recent authorities concur in assigning it to about 
 A.U.C. 725, after the taking of Alexandria, and at the height 
 of Augustus's popularity on his return to Rome. Ritter 
 argues strongly in favour of the later date, a.u.c. 732. The 
 prodigies described in the earlier verses are those which fol- 
 lowed the death of Julius Caesar, a.u.c. 710, and Horace 
 therefore, at the opening of the poem, transports himself in 
 imagination to that time. — See Orelli's excursus, Macleane's 
 introduction, and Ritter's prooemium. On the merit of the 
 ode itself opinion differs. By some it is highly praised for it^ 
 imagery, the delicacy with which it flatters ^Augustus, and the 
 humane art with which it insinuates that his noblest revenge 
 
 for 
 
 Now of dire hail and snow enough the Sire 
 
 Has launched on earth, and with a red right hand 
 
 Smiting the sacred Capitolian heights * 
 Startled the City, 
 
 Startled the nations, lest the awful age 
 Of Pyrrha, wailing portents new, return. 
 When Proteus up to visit mountain-peaks 
 Drove his whole sea-flock. 
 
 When fishes meshed in topmost boughs of elms 
 Floundered amidst the doves' familiar haunts. 
 And deer, through plains t above the old plains heapen. 
 Swam panic-stricken. 
 
 * " Sacras— arces," the sacred buildings on the Capitoline Hill, 
 t " Et superjecto pavidse natarunt 
 ^quore damse," 
 "^quor" is a plain or level surface, whether of land or sea. The 
 former appears to have been its original and simple meaning, though the 
 
BOOK L— ODE II. II 
 
 for his uncle's murder is in becoming the protector and father 
 of his people. Against this praise it may be said, not without 
 reason, that the poem has blemishes of a kind from which 
 Horace is free in odes of similar importance ; that there is 
 something forced and artificial in the kind of humour admitted 
 into the description of Pyrrha's flood ; that the idea of the 
 uxorious River bursting his banks out of complaisance to the 
 complaints of his wife is Httle better than a frigid conceit; and 
 that the " extravaganza " contained in the transfiguration of 
 Mercury into the earthly form of Augustus, fails in that man- 
 liness of genuine enthusiasm with which Horace celebrates 
 Augustus in Odes B. III. and IV. Whatever weight may be 
 attached to these objections, they suffice to render the ode 
 one of the most difficult to translate so as to impress an 
 English reader with some sense of the beauties ascribed to 
 it by its admirers. 
 
 Carm. II. 
 Jam satis terris nivis atque dirse 
 Grandinis misit Pater, et rubente 
 Dextera sacras jaculatus arces,'^ 
 Terruit Urbem, 
 
 Terruit gentes, grave ne rediret 
 S^culum Pyrrhse, nova monstra questae, 
 Omne cum Proteus pecus egit altos 
 Visere montes, 
 
 Piscium et summa genus haesit ulmo, 
 Nota quae sedes fuerat columbis, 
 Et superjecto pavidae natarunt 
 yEquoret damae. 
 
 poets applied it afterwards to the latter (Cicero, Acad. 2). Though the 
 word here implies "water," the point would be lost in so translating 
 it. There would be no prodigy in deer swimming through water — 
 the prodigy is in their swimming through plains cast over those on 
 which they had been accustomed to range. 
 
12 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 We have seen the tawny Tiber, with fierce waves 
 Wrenched violent back from vents in Tuscan seas, 
 March on to Numa's hall and Vesta's shrine,"^' 
 Menacing downfall ; 
 
 Vaunting himself the avenger of the wrong 
 By Ilia too importunately urged. 
 The uxorious River leftward burst his banks, 
 Braving Jove's anger.t 
 
 Thinned by parental crime, the younger race 
 Shall hear how citizens made sharp the steel 
 By which should rather have been slain the Mede : 
 Hear — of what battles ! 
 
 Who is the god this people shall invoke 
 To save a realm that rushes to its fall ? 
 By what new prayer shall sacred virgins tire 
 Vesta to hearken ? 
 
 To whom shall Jove assign the part of guilt's 
 Blest expiator? Come, at last, we pray, 
 With shoulder brightening through the stole of cloud. 
 Augur Apollo ! 
 
 Or com'st thou rather, Eryx, laughing queen. 
 Ringed by the hovering play of Mirth and Love ; 
 Or satiate with, alas, too lengthened sport. 
 Thou, Parent War-god, 
 
 * The palace of Numa adjoined the temple of Vesta at the foot of 
 Mount Palatine. Fea says that the Church of Sta Maria Liberatrice 
 occupies this site. 
 
 + Ilia, mother of Romulus, was, according to legend, thrown into the 
 Tiber by Amulius— hence the fable that she became wife to the god of 
 that river. She complains to her husband of the murder of Julius Caesar, 
 to whom she claims affinity. The special reason for Jove's displeasure 
 
BOOK I. — ODE II. 13 
 
 Vidimus flavum Tiberim, retortis 
 Litore Etmsco violenter undis, 
 Ire dejectum monumenta Regis 
 Templaque Vestae.* 
 
 Iliae dum se nimium querenti '*^^ " 
 Jactat ultorem, vagus et sinistra 
 Labitur ripa, Jove non probante, u- 
 xorius amnis.t 
 
 Audiet cives acuisse ferrum, 
 Quo graves Persae melius perirent ; 
 Audiet pugnas, vitio parentum 
 Rara, juventus. 
 
 Quem vocet Divum populus mentis 
 "Imperi rebus ? prece qua fatigent 
 Virgines sanctae minus audientem 
 Carmina Vestam ? 
 
 Cui dabit partes scelus expiandi 
 Juppiter ? Tandem venias precamur, 
 Nube candentes humeros amictus, 
 Augur Apollo ; 
 
 Sive tu mavis, Erycina ridens, 
 Quam Jocus circum volat et Cupido ; 
 Sive neglectum genus et nepotes 
 Respicis, auctor, 
 
 at the river-god's incursion on the left bank is variously conjectured : it 
 may be either that on that side he threatened the temple of Jove him- 
 self, or that Jove, as supreme guardian of all temples and of Rome 
 itself, resented the outbreak as an offence to himself, or, as Macleane 
 interprets it, " He disapproved the presumption of the river-god, be- 
 cause he had reserved the task of expiation for other hands and happier 
 means." 
 
14 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Joying in battle-clang and glancing helms 
 And the grim aspect of the horseless Moor,* 
 Fixing his death-scowl on the gory foe, 
 Come, if regarding 
 
 Thine own neglected race, thine offspring, come ! 
 Or thou, mild Maia's winged son, transformed 
 To mortal youth,t submitting to be called 
 Caesar's avenger ; 
 
 Stay thy return to heaven : long tarry here 
 Well pleased to be this Roman people's guest, 
 Nor with our vices wroth, untimely soar. 
 Rapt by the whirlwind. 
 
 Here rather in grand triumphs take glad rites, 
 Here love the name of Father and of Prince, 
 No more unpunished let the Parthian ride, 
 Thou our chief — Caesar. J 
 
 * All recent editors have "Mauri peditis." Munro, though retain- 
 ing that reading in his text, is " not convinced that ' Marsi peditis ' is 
 not far finer and more appropriate." 
 
 f Mercury in the form of Augustus. Orelli dryly observes that Augustus 
 was forty years old at the date when he is here called "juvenem." No 
 doubt "juvenis" and " adolescens" were words descriptive of any age 
 between "pueritia" and " senectus," and Cicero called himself "adoles- 
 cens" at the age of forty-four, when he crushed the conspiracy of Cati- 
 line; but still a "juvenis" of forty, or even of thirty years old, would have 
 little resemblance to the popular effigies of the smooth-faced son of Maia 
 (Mercury) ; and considering the whole space of time which this poem 
 reviews and condenses, starting from the death of Julius Caesar, is it 
 not probable that Horace here applies the word * ' juvenis" to August- 
 us in reference to the age in which he first announced himself as " Csesaris 
 ultor " (Caesar's avenger), and in order to achieve that name and fulfil 
 that object descended from his celestial rank as Mercury, or (to define 
 more clearly the mythical functions of Mercury) as the direct messenger 
 from Jove to man ? Augustus, then, was a youth in every sense of the 
 word. In fact he was barely twenty when he declared it to be his resolve 
 and his mission to avenge the death of his uncle. At that age, judging 
 
BOOK I. — ODE II. 
 
 Heu ! nimis longo satiate ludo, 
 Quem juvat clamor galeaeque leves, 
 Acer et Mauri peditis* cruentum 
 Voltus in hostem ; 
 
 Sive mutatat juvenem figura 
 Ales in terris imitaris, almae 
 Filius Maiae, patiens vocari 
 Csesaris ultor : 
 
 Serus in caelum redeas, diuque 
 Laetus intersis populo Quirini, 
 Neve te nostris vitiis iniquum 
 Ocior aura 
 
 Tollat ; hie magnos potius triumphos, 
 Hie ames dici Pater atque Princeps, 
 Neu sinas Medos equitare inultos, 
 Te duce, Caesar. J 
 
 by his effigies in gems, the resemblance of the young Octavius to the 
 face of Mercury in the statues is sufficiently striking to have created 
 general remark, and to save from extravagant flattery the lines in the 
 ode. For of the two faces that of the young Octavius is of a higher 
 and more godlike type of beauty than appears in any extant statue of 
 Mercury. 
 
 J "The way in which he introduces the name of Caesar unexpectedly 
 at the end, has always appeared to me an instance of consummate 
 art." — Macleane. 
 
1 6 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE III. 
 
 ON Virgil's voyage to Athens. 
 
 There is a well-known dispute as to the date and the 
 occasion of this ode, and it has been even called in ques- 
 tion whether the Virgil addressed were the poet. It is, no 
 doubt, difficult to reconcile the received chronology of the 
 publication of the first three books of Odes with the sup- 
 position 
 
 So may the goddess who rules over Cyprus, 
 So may the brothers of Helen, bright stars. 
 
 So may the Father of Winds, while he fetters 
 All, save lapyx, the Breeze of the West, 
 
 Speed thee, O Ship, as I pray thee to render * 
 Virgil, a debt duly lent to thy charge, 
 
 Whole and intact on the Attican borders. 
 Faithfully guarding the half of my soul. 
 
 Oak and brass triple encircled his bosom, 
 
 Who first to fierce ocean consigned a frail raft. 
 
 Fearing not Africus, when, in wild battle. 
 
 Headlong he charges the blasts of the North ; 
 
 Fearing no gloom in the face of the Hyads ; 
 
 Fearing no rage of mad Notus, than whom. 
 Never a despot more absolute wieldeth 
 
 Hadria, to rouse her or lull at his will. 
 
 * I side with Dillenburger, Ritter, Munro, and Macleane in rejecting 
 the punctuation of Orelli, who places a comma before " precor," putting 
 the word in parenthesis, for the reason thus ably stated in the following 
 note, for which I am indebted to a friend, than whom there is no higher 
 authority in critical scholarship: "It is not commonly observed, but 
 
BOOK I.— ODE III. 17 
 
 position that this ode was addressed to Virgil the poet, on 
 the occasion of the voyage to Athens, from which he only 
 returned to die : but there is no reason why Virgil should 
 not have made or contemplated such a voyage before the 
 last one; and Macleane, here agreeing with Dillenburger, is 
 "inclined to think such must have been the case." — See 
 his introduction to this ode. 
 
 Carm. III. 
 
 Sic te Diva potens Cypri, 
 Sic fratres Helenae, lucida sidera, 
 
 Ventorumque regat pater 
 Obstrictis aliis praeter lapyga, 
 
 Navis, quae tibi creditum 
 Debes Virgilium finibus Atticis 
 
 Reddas incolumem precor,'"^ 
 £t serves animse dimidium mese. 
 
 Illi robur et aes triplex 
 Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci 
 
 Commisit pelago rat em 
 Primus, nee timuit praecipitem Africum 
 
 Decertantem Aquilonibus, 
 Nee tristes Hyadas, nee rabiem Noti, 
 
 Quo non arbiter Hadriae 
 Major, tollere seu ponere vult freta. 
 
 certainly true, that the 2d pers. pres. subj. (reddas), is never used as a 
 mere imperative, = * redde.' It may be used precatively in addressing 
 a deity, a superior (or in politeness), as * serves ' in Ode xxxv. 1. 29. 
 Where it is used with * precor, ' the verb is not in parenthesis, but dis- 
 tinctly governs 'reddas,' ' I pray you to render.' There should there- 
 fore be no comma between them ; and this view shows * precor ' to be 
 the true apodosis of the passage." 
 
 B 
 '■ f ■ 
 
1 8 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 What the approach by which Death could have daunted 
 Him who with eyeHds unmoistened beheld 
 
 Monster forms gliding and mountain waves swelling, 
 And the grim Thunder-Crags dismally famed? 
 
 Vainly by wastes of dissociable ocean 
 
 Providence severed the lands from the lands 
 
 If the plains not to be touched by our footfall 
 Be, yet, profanely o'er-leapt by our rafts. 
 
 Rushes man's race through the evils forbidden, 
 Lawlessly bold to brave all things and bear : 
 
 Lawlessly bold did the son of the Titan 
 
 Bring to the nations fire won through a fraud. 
 
 Fire stolen thus from the Dome Empyrban, 
 Meagre Decay swooped at once on the earth. 
 
 Leagued with a new-levied army of fevers — 
 Death, until then the slow-comer, far-off. 
 
 Hurried his stride, and stood facing his victim ; 
 
 Daedalus, upward, the void realms of air 
 Sounded on wings that to man are not given ; 
 
 Down, burst the labour Herculean through hell. 
 
 Nought is too high for the daring of mortals ; 
 
 Heaven's very self in our folly we storm. 
 Never is Jove, through our guilty aspiring. 
 
 Suffered to lay down the bolt we provoke. 
 
BOOK I. — ODE III. 19 
 
 Quern Mortis timuit gradum, 
 Qui siccis oculis monstra natantia, 
 
 Qui vidit mare turgidum et 
 Infames scopulos Acroceraunia ? 
 
 Nequicquam Deus abscidit 
 Prudens Oceano dissociabili 
 
 Terras, si tamen impige 
 Non tangenda rates transiliunt vada. 
 
 . — — — v> 0—0' 
 
 __ Audax omnia perpeti 
 Gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas : 
 
 Audax lapeti genus . - w 
 
 Ignem fraude mala gentibus intulit. 
 
 Post ignem setheria domo 
 Subductum, Macies et nova Febrium 
 
 Terris incubuit cohors, 
 Semotique prius tarda necessitas 
 
 Leti corripuit gradum. 
 Expertus vacuum Daedalus aera 
 
 Pennis non homini datis ; 
 Pemipit Acheronta Herculeus labor. 
 
 Nil mortalibus ardui est ; 
 Caelum ipsum petimus stultitia, neque 
 
 Per nostrum patimur scelus 
 Iracunda Jovem ponere fulmina. 
 
20 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE IV. 
 
 TO LUCIUS SESTIUS. 
 
 The Lucius Sestius here addressed was the son of the 
 Sestius or Sextius defended by Cicero in an oration still 
 
 extant. 
 
 Keen winter melts in glad return of spring and soft Favonius ; 
 
 And the dry keels the rollers seaward draw ; 
 No more the pens allure the flock, no more the hearth the 
 ploughman ; 
 
 Nor glint the meadows white with rime-frost hoar — 
 
 Beneath the overhanging moon, now Venus leads her dances. 
 And comely Graces, linked with jocund Nymphs, 
 
 Shake with alternate foot the earth, while ardent Vulcan kindles 
 The awful forge in which the Cyclops toils.^ 
 
 Now well becomes anointed brows to wreathe with ver- 
 dant myrtle, 
 
 Or such rath flowers as swards, relaxing, free ; 
 
 And well becomes the votive lamb, or kid if more it please him. 
 Offered to Faunus amid shadowy groves. 
 
 But all the while, with equal step, pale Death strides on 
 unpausing. 
 Knocks at the lowly shed and regal tower. 
 ~Long hopes commenced we must not add to life's brief sum, 
 glad Sestius; 
 Even now press on thee Night and mythic ghosts, 
 
 And Pluto's meagre hall, which gained, the wine-king's reign 
 is over — 
 No more the die allots the frolic crown, t 
 
 * Venus dances — Vulcan toils : i.e., in spring man reawakens both 
 to pleasure and labour. 
 
 t The Romans chose by cast of the die the symposiarch or king of 
 the feast. 
 
X 
 
 BOOK I.— ODE IV. 21 
 
 extant. Lucius served under Brutus in Macedonia, and 
 after his chieftain's death continued to honour his memory 
 and preserve his images. He did not on that account 
 incur the displeasure of Augustus, who made him Consul 
 Suffectus in his own place, B.C. 23. 
 
 There is no other ode in this metre, which has its name 
 (Archilochian) from Archilochus of Paros. The difference 
 in rhythm between the first and second verse of the strophe 
 is remarkable, and suggests the idea of being chanted by 
 two voices in alternate lines. 
 
 ii^K,----^ 
 
 Carm. IV. 
 
 Solvitur acris hiems grata vice veris et Fayoni, 
 
 Trahuntque siccas machinae carinas. 
 Ac neque jam stabulis gaudet pecus, aut arator igni ; 
 
 Nee prata canis albicant pruinis. 
 
 Jam Cytherea choros ducit Venus, imminente Luna, 
 
 Junctaeque Nymphis Gratiae decentes 
 Alterno t^rram quatiunt pede, dum graves Cyclopum 
 
 Vulcanus ardens urit officinas.* 
 
 Nunc decet aut viridi nitidum caput impedire myrto, 
 
 Aut flore, terrse quem ferunt solutas. 
 Nunc et in umbrosis Fauno decet immolare lucis, 
 
 Seu poscat agna, sive malit haedo. 
 
 Pallida Mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas 
 
 Regumque turres. O beate Sesti, 
 Vitae ^^Mfria brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam. 
 
 Jam te premet nox, fabulaeque Manes, 
 
 Et domus exilis Plutonia : quo simul mearis, ^^' 
 
 Nee regnavini sortiere talis t y^d^^ J^ 
 
 Nee tenerum Lycidan mirabere, quo calet juventus s 
 
 Nunc omnis, et mox virgines tepebunt. a 
 
 / 
 
22 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE V. 
 
 TO PYRRHA. 
 
 I cannot presume to attempt any rhymeless version of" 
 this ode in juxtaposition with Milton's famous translation, 
 which I therefore annex. " Any resemblance between the 
 
 metre 
 What slender youth, bedewed with liquid odours,''^ 
 Courts tlfe^on roses in some pleasant cave,t 
 Pyrrha /for whW'gfna'rtlwtr^t^ 
 In wreaths thy golden hair,^ . .^ ^ 
 
 Plain in thy neatness ? O, how oft shall he 
 Oh faith^nd changed gods complain, and seas 
 Kough with black winds, and storms 
 Unwonted shall admire ! 
 
 Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold, 
 Who always vacant, always amiable 
 Hopes thee, of flattering gales 
 Unmindful. Hapless they 
 
 T' whom thou untried seem'st fair ! Me, in my vowed 
 Picture, the sacred wall declares t' have hung 
 My dank and dropping weeds Cci^Vto"'^ 
 To the stern god of sea. J 
 
 * The reader will observe that the first line is the only one in the 
 translation which ends with a dissyllable. Whether Milton makes this 
 variation of the rhythm he selects through oversight or intention, the 
 reader can conjecture for himself. Probably Milton regarded the two 
 first lines of each strophe simply as heroic blank verse, in which the 
 termination by a monosyllable or dissyllable is optional. 
 
 + " Grato, Pyrrha, sub antro." "Some pleasant cave" appears 
 scarcely to give the sense of the original. ''Antrum " means the grotto 
 attached to the houses of the luxurious, and in which was placed a statue 
 of Venus. Grottoes are still in use among the richer Italians, and it is not 
 some cave to which Horace alludes, but with a certain tenderness of re- 
 proach to ^/le grotto in which Pyrrha had been accustomed to receive him. 
 
 :J: " Potenti — maris deo" Milton translates **the stern god of sea," 
 
BOOK I. — ODE V. 23 
 
 metre he selects and that of the original depends," as Mr 
 Conington observes, " rather on the length of the respective 
 lines than on any similarity in the cadences," and his rhythm 
 is perhaps somewhat too cramped to convey the lyrical spirit 
 in lighter and livelier odes of the same measure in the ori- 
 ginal ; — even in this translation such contractions as 
 
 " T' whom thou untried seem'st fair ! Me, in my vowed 
 Picture, the sacred wall declares t' have hung " — 
 
 are not without a certain harshness. But all minor defects 
 are amply compensated by the masterly closeness and ele- 
 gance of the general version. The metre is ranked with the 
 Asclepiadeans, and is repeated, Book I. 14, 21, 23; III. 7, 
 13 ; IV. 13. 
 
 ( • Carm. V. 
 
 Quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa * 
 Perfusus liquidis urget odoribus, 
 Grato, Pyrrha, sub antro ? t 
 Cui flavam religas comam, 
 
 Simplex munditiis ? Heu ! quoties fidem 
 Mutatosque deos flebit, et aspera 
 Nigris 3equora ventis 
 Emirabitur insolens, 
 
 Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea ; 
 Qui semper vacuam, semper amabilem 
 Sperat nescius aurse 
 
 Fallacis. Miseri, quibus in (w^i iiv hi^ 
 
 Intentata nites 1 Me tabula sacer 
 Votiva paries indicat uvida 
 Suspendisse potenti % 
 Vestimenta maris Deo. 
 
 not observing that "potens" governs ** maris" as **potens Cypri." — 
 Macleane. 
 
24 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE VI. 
 
 TO M. VIPSANIUS AGRIPPA. 
 
 No public man among the partisans of Augustus is more 
 remarkable for the union of extraordinary talents with ex- 
 traordinary fortune than the Vipsanius Agrippa to whom 
 this ode is addressed. Sprung from a very obscure fam- 
 ily, he might have failed in obtaining a fair career for his 
 powers but for the accident of being a fellow-student with 
 the young Octavius at Apollonia. He thus, at the age of 
 twenty, became one of the most intimate associates, and 
 one of the most influential advisers, of the future emperor 
 of the world. While he was yet in youth he had achieved 
 the highest distinctions, and secured the most eminent sta- 
 tion. He had passed through the office of praetor and con- 
 sul, and estabhshed, by a series of brilliant successes, the 
 fame of a great general. As a naval commander he became 
 yet more illustriously distinguished. He constructed the 
 Roman navy ; defeated Sextus Pompeius, then master of the 
 sea; commanded the fleet against M. Antony; and the 
 victory at Actium was mainly owing to his skill. It was 
 soon after that last victory that this ode is supposed to 
 have been written. All the honours Augustus could confer 
 were heaped on him ; the emperor united him to his own 
 family, first by a marriage with his niece Marcella, subse- 
 quently, yet more closely, by marriage with his daughter 
 Julia. Fortune never deserted Agrippa to the close of his 
 life at the age of fifty-one. His character seems to have been a 
 union of qualities rarely found together, — sagacity of design, 
 
 rapidity 
 
 'Tis by Varius that Song, borne on pinions Homeric, 
 Shall exalt thy renown as the valiant and victor. 
 Whatsoe'er the bold soldier by land or by ocean 
 With thee for his leader achieved. 
 
BOOK I.— ODE VI. 25 
 
 rapidity of action, a brilliant genius in construction, devoted 
 to practical purposes. When he was forming a fleet he 
 turned the Lucrine Lake into a harbour for a school to the 
 mariners by whom he afterwards defeated the tried sailors 
 of Sextus Pompeius. As aedile his first care was to supply 
 Rome with water, restoring the Appian, Marcian, and 
 Anienian aqueducts, and building a new one fifteen miles long 
 from the Tepula to Rome. With this utility of purpose he 
 combined great magnificence in taste, adorning the city with 
 public buildings and statues by the ablest artists he could find. 
 All these daring and splendid qualities were accompanied 
 by a modesty or a prudence which preserved the affection 
 of the people and avoided all chance of exciting the jealousy 
 of Augustus. He twice refused a triumph. 
 
 The reader will observe with what ease Horace avoids all 
 servility in the brief homage he delicately renders to Agrippa, 
 and the playfulness of the concluding stanza would seem to 
 intimate a certain familiarity of intercourse, or at all events 
 that there was nothing in the temper of Agrippa, two years 
 younger than himself, so austere as to be shocked by the 
 poet's favourite subjects for song. Of the poems of Varius, 
 to whose muse Horace refers the due celebration of Agrippa's 
 deeds, only a few fragmentary lines have been preserved. 
 Among these is the description of a hound, which is vigorous 
 and striking. The fragment has been imitated by Virgil, 
 whom he preceded as an epic poet. His tragedy of ' Thy- 
 estes' seems to have survived in repute his epics, since 
 Quintilian does not mention those, while he accords to 
 ' Thyestes ' the high praise of saying " that it might have 
 stood comparison with any of the Greek dramatic master- 
 pieces." 
 
 Carm. VI. 
 
 Scriberis Vario fortis et hostium 
 Victor Mseonii carm.inis aHte, 
 Quam rem cunque ferox navibus aut equis 
 Miles, te duce, gesserit : 
 
26 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Themes so lofty we slight ones attempt not, Agrippa, 
 Nor the terrible wrath of unyielding Pelides, 
 Nor the fell house of Pelops, nor seas which Ulysses, 
 The double-tongued hero, explored. 
 
 While the Muse that presides over lute-strings unwarlike, 
 And my own sense of shame would forbid me to lessen, 
 By the inborn defect of a genius unequal, 
 The glories of Caesar and thee. 
 
 Who can worthily sing Mars in adamant tunic, 
 Or Merion all grim with the dust-cloud of Ilion, 
 Or Tydides, when, thanks to the favour of Pallas, 
 He stood forth a match for the gods ? 
 
 V 
 
 We of feasts, we of battles, on youths rashly daring 
 Waged by maids armed with nails too well pared for 
 
 much slaughter. 
 Sing, devoid of love's flame ; or, if somewhat it scorch us. 
 Still wont to make light of the pain. 
 
BOOK I.— ODE VI. 27 
 
 Nos, Agrippa, neque haec dicere, nee gravem 
 Pelidae stomachum cedere nescii, 
 Nee eursus duplieis per mare Ulixei, 
 Nee saevam Pelopis domum 
 
 Conamur, tenues grandia : dum pudor 
 Imbellisque lyrae Musa potens vetat 
 Laudes egregii Caesaris et tuas 
 Culpa deterere ingeni. 
 
 Quis Martem tuniea tectum adamantina 
 Digne scripserit ? aut pulvere Troieo 
 Nigrum Merionen, aut ope Palladis 
 Tydiden superis parem ? 
 
 Nos eonvivia, nos prcelia virginum 
 
 Seetis in juvenes unguibus aerium 
 
 Cantamus, vacui, sive quid urimur, 
 
 Non praeter solitum leves. 
 
28 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE VII. 
 
 TO PLANCUS. 
 
 This ode is generally supposed to be addressed to- L. 
 Munatius Plancus, than whom those versatile times did 
 not engender a more selfish renegade or a more ungrateful 
 traitor. Estre, loath to grant that Horace condescended 
 to immortalise this person (who, however, contrived to make 
 himself important to all parties, and died safe, wealthy, and 
 honoured at least by Augustus, who even conferred upon 
 
 him 
 
 Other bards shall extol brilliant Rhodes, Ephesus, or Mytilene, 
 
 Or, queen of two seas, stately Corinth, 
 P^mbattled Thebes, famous through Bacchus, Delphi as 
 famed through Apollo, 
 
 Or Thessaly's beautiful Tempe. 
 
 Some are whose sole task is to laud the city of Pallas the 
 spotless 
 Through the length of a measureless Epic,'^ 
 Upon every side plucking a leaf to garland their brows with 
 the olive ; 
 And many, in honour of Juno, 
 
 Tell of Argos, the breeder of steeds, and the rich stores of 
 Mycenae ; 
 
 But me more have stricken with rapture 
 Than patient Laconia's defiles, than fertile Larissa's expanses 
 
 The grot of Albunea t resounding, 
 
 The Anio's precipitous rush, the woodlands and orchards of 
 Tibur, 
 All dewy with quick winding waters. 
 
 * ** Carmine perpetuo celebrare." I adopt the interpretation of 
 Orelli, Madeane, and Yonge— a continuous poem, like an epic, culling 
 
BOOK L— ODE VII. 29 
 
 him the censorship, b.c. 27), thinks that it was some other 
 Plancus, possibly his son, designated as Munatius, Lib. I. Ep. 
 iii. V. 31. Horace, however, in this ode does not ascribe 
 any virtues to the person addressed at variance with the 
 general character of the successful renegade, and only bids 
 him not take grief much to heart, but enjoy himself as much 
 as he could, whether in the camp or at his villa — an admoni- 
 tion which he was not likely to disregard. The measure of 
 the ode takes its name from Alcman. It consists of a com- 
 plete hexameter alternated with a verse made up of the last 
 four feet of a hexameter. Horace only employs this metre 
 twice again. Book I. Ode xxviii., and Epode xii. 
 
 Carm. VII. 
 
 Lauoabuntj alii claram Rhodon, aut Mytilenen, 
 
 Aut Epheson, bimarisve Corinthi 
 Moenia, vel Baccho Thebas, vel Apolline Delphos 
 
 Insignes, aut Thessala Tempe. 
 
 Sunt, quibus unum opus est, intactae Palladis urbem 
 
 Carmine perpetuo"^ celebrare, et 
 Undique decerptam fronti prseponere olivam. 
 
 Plurimus in Junonis honorem, 
 
 Aptum dicet equis Argos ditesque Mycenas. 
 
 Me nee tam patiens Lacedaemon, 
 Nee tam Larissse percussit campus opimse, 
 
 Quam domus Albuneae t resonantis, 
 
 Et praeceps Anio, ac Tibumi lucus et uda 
 Mobilibus pomaria rivis. 
 
 all the associations and myths connected with Athens, and formed into 
 a whole Hke Ovid's Metamorphoses. 
 
 t Albunea, the Sibyl, who gave her name to a grove and fountain, 
 and apparently to a grotto at Tibur. 
 
30 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 As the white southern wind often clears clouds from a sky 
 at its darkest, 
 Giving birth to no rain that is lasting, 
 
 So, Plancus, let those weary hours, when life seems but 
 labour and sorrow. 
 Be lulled to their end in* the wine-cup ; 
 Or whether camps blazing with banners hold thee, or haply 
 hereafter 
 The shades of thine own tranquil Tibur. 
 
 When from Salamis and from his sire, Teucer was passing to 
 exile, 
 'Tis said that he crowned with the poplar "^ 
 Brows first besprinkled with drops from the strength-giving 
 boon of Lyaeus, 
 To friends as they sorrowed thus speaking : 
 
 " Go WE wheresoever a fate more kind than the heart of a 
 parent 
 May bear us, associates and comrades ; 
 Despair of nought, Teucer your chief — of nought under aus- 
 pice of Teucer, 
 Unerring Apollo predicts us 
 
 " A Salamis built on new soil, which Fame shall confound 
 with the lost one ; t 
 Brave friends who have borne with me often 
 Worse things as men, let the wine chase to-day every care 
 from the bosom. 
 To-morrow — again the great Sea Plains." 
 
 * Emblematic of courage and adventure. The poplar was consecrated 
 to Hercules. 
 
 + *' Ambiguam tellure nova Salamina futuram " — a nevi^ Salamis, which 
 might in future be confounded with the old one. The new Salamis was 
 in Cyprus. 
 
BOOK I. — ODE VII. 31' 
 
 Albus ut obscuro deterget nubila cselo 
 Saepe Notus, neque parturit imbres 
 
 Perpetuo, sic tu sapiens finire memento 
 
 Tristitiam vitaeque labores 
 Molli, Plance, mero, seu te fulgentia signis 
 
 Castra tenent, seu densa tenebit 
 
 Tiburis umbra tui. Teucer Salamina patremque 
 
 Cum fugeret, tamen uda Lyseo 
 Tempora populea* fertur vinxisse corona, 
 
 Sic tristes affatus amicos : 
 
 Quo nos cunque feret melior Fortuna parente, 
 
 Ibimus, o socii comitesque. 
 Nil desperandum Teucro duce et auspice Teucro ; 
 
 Certus enim promisit Apollo, 
 
 Ambiguam tellure nova Salamina futuram.t 
 
 O fortes, pejoraque passi 
 Mecum saepe viri, nunc vino pellite curas 
 
 Cras ingens iterabimus aequor. 
 
32 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE VIII. 
 
 TO LYDIA. 
 
 This ode has been paraphrased by Henry Luttrell into 
 that elegant and playful satire upon the manners of his own 
 day, called ' Advice to Julia.' The names are clearly ficti- 
 tious. 
 By all the gods, Lydia, O say, I implore, 
 
 Why must love hurry Sybaris into perdition ? 
 Why to him once so patient of dust and of sun 
 
 Has the Campus become so detestably sultry ? 
 
 Why with those of his age rides that hero no more, 
 
 Curbing mouths fresh from Gaul* with a bit like a wolf- 
 fang? 
 
 Why afraid yellow Tiber to touch ? W^hy the oil 
 
 Of the athlete more shunned than the froth of the viper ? 
 
 Why in triumph no longer displays he that arm 
 
 Which in black and in blue bore the signs of his prowess ? 
 
 Ah, how often by disk or by dart beyond bound 
 
 Has that arm to its owner brought noble distinction ! 
 
 Where lurks he concealed, as they tell us lurked once, 
 Kept from Troy's tearful funerals, the son of sea-Thetis, 
 
 Lest to Lycian hosts, slaughter, and doom, hurried off, 
 If the habit of manhood proclaimed him Achilles ? 
 
 * " Gallica nee lupatis 
 Temperat ora frenis." 
 Gallic mouths — horses from Gaul. These were considered very high 
 mettled, but, when well broken-in, so serviceable in war that they were 
 in great request in the Roman cavalry. " Lupatis," a bit, jagged like 
 wolves' teeth, i 
 
BOOK I.— ODE VIII. 33 
 
 tious. Whether the persons designated by the names existed 
 is another matter — probably enough : their types are always 
 existing. There is no reason for supposing the various 
 Lydias whom Horace addresses were the same person ; every 
 reason, judging by the internal evidence of the several 
 poems, to suppose they were not. There is no other ode 
 in this metre. 
 
 Carm. VIII. 
 
 Lydia, die, per omnes 
 Te deos oro, Sybarin cur properes amando 
 
 Perdere ; cur apricum 
 Oderit campum, patiens pulveris atque solis ? 
 
 Cur neque militaris 
 Inter aequales equitat, Gallica nee lupatis 
 
 Temperat ora frenis ?* 
 Cur timet flavum Tiberim tangere ? Cur olivum 
 
 Sanguine viperino 
 Cautius vitat, neque jam livida gestat armis 
 
 Brachia, saepe disco, 
 Saepe trans finem jaculo nobiHs expedite? 
 
 Quid latet, ut marinae 
 Filium dicunt Thetidis sub lacrimosa Troiae 
 
 Funera, ne virilis 
 Cultus in caedem et Lycias proriperet catervas ? 
 
34 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE IX. 
 
 TO THALIARCHUS. 
 
 Thaliarchus signifies in Greek "arbiter bibendi" — com- 
 monly translated " feastmaster." Some editors, as Dillen- 
 burger and Maclean e, refusing to consider it meant to be a 
 proper name, print *' thaliarche," " O feastmaster." Orelli 
 and Yonge, however, retain the capital T, and it is perhaps 
 more agreeable to Horace's habit of individualising generals, 
 and is certainly more animated in itself, to consider, with 
 Buttmann, that the word is meant for a proper name, though 
 of course a fictitious one, and invented to signify the official 
 character of the person addressed. I may also add that 
 there is no instance, I believe, in Latin authors, in which 
 the word thaliarchus is used as a feastmaster; and that, 
 therefore, if Horace did not mean it to be considered a pro- 
 per 
 
 See how white in the deep-fallen snow stands Soracte ! 
 Labouring forests no longer can bear up their burden ; 
 And the rush of the rivers is locked. 
 Halting mute in the gripe of the frost. 
 
 Thaw the cold; more and more on the hearth heap the fagots — 
 More and more bringing bounteously out, Thaliarchus, 
 The good wine that has mellowed four years 
 In the great Sabine two-handled jar. 
 
 Leave the rest to the gods, who can strike into quiet 
 Angry winds in their war with the turbulent waters, 
 Till the cypress stand calm in the sky — 
 Till there stir not a leaf on the ash. 
 
BOOK I.— ODE IX. 35 
 
 per name, it would have been unintelligible to those of his 
 readers who did not understand Greek ; and to those who 
 did, would have appeared a pedantic affectation, which was 
 precisely the reproach that a man of Horace's good taste 
 and keen sense of the ridiculous would not voluntarily have 
 incurred. The references to the manner in which Thaliar- 
 chus may spend his day, all belong to the life of a town ; 
 and there is no reason to suppose the scene otherwise than 
 at Rome. Walckenaer says that the isolated and singular 
 form of Soracte strikes the eye on quitting the city by one 
 of the two gates to the north. 
 
 Though, to judge by a fragment preserved in Athenseus, 
 the poem is more or less imitated from an ode by Alcaeus, 
 the scene and manners are altogether Roman ; in fact, the 
 more the fragments left of Greek poets are fairly compared 
 with the verses in which they are imitated by Horace, the 
 more Horace's originality in imitating becomes conspicuous. 
 
 Carm. IX. 
 
 Vides, ut alta stet nive candidum 
 Soracte, nee jam sustineant onus 
 Silvae laborantes, geluque 
 Flumina constiterint acuto. 
 
 Dissolve frigus, ligna super foco 
 Large reppnens ; atque benignius 
 Deprbltie^ quadrimum Sabina, 
 O Thaliarche, merum diota. 
 
 Permitte divis cetera, qui simul 
 Stravere ventos sequore fervido 
 Deproeliantes, nee cupressi 
 Nee veteres agitantur orni. 
 
36 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Shun to seek what is hid in the womb of the morrow ; 
 
 Count the lot of each day as clear gain in life's ledger ; 
 
 Spurn not thou, who art young, dulcet loves ; 
 
 Spurn not, thou, choral dances and song 
 
 While the hoar-frost morose keeps aloof from thy verdure. 
 Thine the sports of the Campus,* the gay public gardens ; 
 Thine at twilight the words whispered low ; 
 Each in turn has its own happy hour : 
 
 And thine the sweet laugh of the girl — which betrays her 
 Hiding slyly within the dim nook of the threshold, 
 And the love-token snatched from the wrist, 
 Or the finger's not obstinate hold. 
 
 * ** Campus et areas " — the Campus Martius, in which, in the forenoon, 
 athletic sports were practised, and the public promenades (arese) in dif- 
 ferent parts of the city, and especially round the temples, which were 
 the resort of loungers in the afternoon. Orelli thus gracefully elucidates 
 the concluding verse, "The scene," he says, "is this : the lover goes 
 at the appointed hour to the door of his mistress, which stands ajar ; he 
 calls upon her with low whispers : the girl keeps silence, having play- 
 fully hid herself behind the threshold, until at last she betrays herself by 
 her laugh. The lover then rushes in, and carries off as a love-pledge her 
 bracelet or ring, after a struggle on her part not too pertinaciously coy." 
 
BOOK I. — ODE IX. 37 
 
 Quid sit futunim eras, fuge quaerere, et 
 Quern Fors dierum cunque dabit, lucro 
 Appone, nee dulees amores 
 Sperne, puer, neque tu ehoreas, 
 
 Donee virenti canities abest 
 Morosa. Nune et eampus et areae,* 
 Lenesque sub noetem susurri 
 Composita repetantur hora ; 
 
 Nunc et latentis proditor intimo 
 Gratus puellas risus ab angulo, 
 Pignusque dereptum lacertis 
 Aut digito male pertinaei. 
 
38 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE X. 
 
 TO MERCURY. 
 
 The scholiast Porph)a-Ion says this ode was taken from 
 Alcaeus, who, he asserts, and Pausanias confirms it, invented 
 the story' about Apollo's cows or oxen. The story is cele- 
 brated 
 
 Mercury, thou eloquent grandson of Atlas, ^ ^ 
 
 Who didst the rude manners of earth's early races 
 First mould into form, both by graceful Palaestra,* 
 And by skilled language — 
 
 Of thee will I sing, to/igreat Jove and Ol3m:ipus 
 Light herald ; — sing thee of wreathed lute the inventor, 
 So cunning to hide whatsoe'er the whim took thee 
 Gaily to pilfer. 
 
 When Phoebus in wrath sought to frighten thy childhood 
 If thou didst not restore the kine tricksomely stolen. 
 While threatening his shafts he was robbed of his quiver ; 
 Laughed out Apollo ! 
 
 * No English paraphrase can adequately render Palaestra, which was 
 especially attributed to the invention of Hermes. It appears to have 
 been originally distinct from the gymnasia, and appropriated chiefly 
 to the training of the athletse in v^^restling and the Pancratium. When 
 towards the decline of the Republic the Romans imitated the Greeks in 
 these and other less manly customs, they attached to their villas 
 places for exercise called indiscriminately Gymnasia or Palaestrae. 
 The meaning of the stanza is that Mercury taught the early races how to 
 discipline body by skilled exercise, and express thought by cultivated 
 language ; and I agree with OrelK in construing ** voce" thus, and not 
 as song or music, which is rather the gift of Apollo. 
 
BOOK I. — ODE X. 39 
 
 brated in the Homeric hymn to Hermes, as well as the 
 invention of the lyre by stringing a tortoise-shell, at whatever 
 date that hymn was written. Horace always ascribes to Mer- 
 cury the characteristics of the Greek Hermes, with whom the 
 Mercurius of the Latins had little in common. 
 
 Carm. X. 
 
 Mercuri, facunde nepos Atlantis, 
 Qui feros cultus hominum recentum 
 Voce formasti catus, et decorse 
 More palaestrae,* 
 
 Te canam, magni Jovis et Deorum 
 Nuntium, curvaeque lyrae parentem ; 
 Callidum, quiquid placuit, jocoso 
 Condere furto. 
 
 Te, boves olim nisi reddidisses 
 Per dolum amotas, puerum minaci 
 Voce dum terret, viduus pharetra 
 Risit Apollo.^"-- ^\^Kx^^ 
 
 ^^^ 
 
40 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 So too, led by thee, Priam bearing his treasures 
 From Ilion, eluded the vaunting Atridse/^ 
 The watchlights of Thessaly and the remorseless 
 Tents of the Argive. 
 
 Thou placest pure souls in the calm of blest dwelling^^ 
 With golden staff shepherding gfiostSdcks of shadow ; 
 To gods, whether throned in Olympus or Hades, 
 Equally welcome. 
 
 * "Quin et Atridas." Here Horace abruptly elevates the astute- 
 ness of Mercury from the playful thefts of infancy to the wise caution 
 with which he leads the innocent and helpless through the severest 
 dangers ; and then naturally, and with all his inimitable terseness, the 
 poet represents him as conducting no less safely the souls of the dead. 
 Throughout all those stanzas, from the theft of oxen, when Mercury 
 was an infant in his cradle, to his crowning mission as the conductor 
 of souls departed, the same ruling idea of stealth is preserved and dei- 
 fied. Mercury steals the kine from Apollo, he steals Priam through the 
 Grecian camp, he steals souls through the passage between earth and 
 Hades, — all with a union of guarded secrecy and imperturbable serenity 
 which, throughout the more playful attributes of Hermes, imply the gran- 
 deur and inspire the awe that characterise a supernatural being. No 
 deity can be more exclusively Greek in this combination of open joy- 
 ousness and mystic power. It was a type of divinity as impossible to be 
 conceived by the Latins as by the Germanic and Scandinavian races, 
 though they all worshipped a Mercurius. 
 
BOOK L— ODE X. 
 
 Quin et Atridas,* duce te, superbos 
 Ilio dives Priamus relicto 
 Thessalosque ignes et iniqua Trojae 
 Castra fefellit. 
 
 Tu pias laetis animas reponis 
 ^jjk-)> Sedibus, virgaque levem coerces 
 r Aurea turbam, superis deonim 
 
 Gratus et imis. 
 
 41 
 
 / 
 
42 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XI. 
 
 TO LEUCONOE. 
 
 The desire to solve the doubts by which man is beset in 
 the present, will, perhaps, so long as the world lasts, give an 
 audience to those who pretend to divine the future ; and of 
 all modes of divination, astrology has been, from time im- 
 memorial, the most imposing, because it arrogates the rank 
 of a science, and asserts that it bases its predictions upon 
 deductions from a vast accumulation of facts. Rome, of 
 course, abounded in astrologers, who called themselves Chal- 
 
 daeans, 
 
 Nay, Leuconoe, seek not to fathom what death unto me — 
 
 unto thee 
 (Lore forbidden) the gods may assign ; nor the schemes of 
 
 the Chaldee consult* 
 How much better it is to learn patience, and that which 
 
 shall be to endure ! 
 Whether Jove may vouchsafe our existence more winters, 
 
 or this be the last. 
 
 Which now breaks Tuscan ocean in spray on the time-eaten 
 
 rocks that oppose, 
 Be thou wise, strain thy wine, and cut down lengthened 
 
 hope to the brief span of life. 
 While we talk, grudging Time will be gone, and a part of 
 
 ourselves be no more. 
 Seize to-day — for the morrow it is in which thy belief should 
 
 be least. 
 
 * "Nee Babylonios tentaris numeros" — i.e.^ the astrological calcu- 
 lations, or, in technical phrase, ** schemes," for which the Chaldees 
 were so famous. 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XI. 43 
 
 dseans, as Cicero calls them ; and were probably as much 
 Chaldaeans as the Gypsies of Norwood are Bohemians or 
 Indians. Horace gives his fair friend a brief admonition, 
 which, in proof of the common-sense that keeps him always 
 modern, might be equally given to ladies, and even to the 
 ruder sex, in our own day. For wherever we travel in Eng- 
 land or Europe, it is rare to find a town, however de- 
 ficient in books, in which a prophetic astrological almanac 
 may not be seen in the shop-windows. 
 
 Carm. XI. 
 
 Tu ne qusesierisj, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi 
 Finem Di dederint, Leuconoe, nee Babylonios 
 Tentaris numeros."^ Ut melius, quidquid erit, pafl ! 
 Seu plures hiemes, seu tribuit Juppiter ultimam, 
 
 Qua^ nunc oppositis debihtat pumicibus^r^are, 
 Tyithenum, sapias, vina licj(ues, et sp^io/trevi 
 Spem longam reseces. Dum loquimlir, fugerit invida 
 ^tas : carpe diemlquam minimum credula postero. 
 
44 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XII. 
 
 IN CELEBRATION OF THE DEITIES AND THE 
 
 WORTHIES OF ROME. ^* 
 
 This poem is commonly inscribed very inappropriately 
 " De Augusto," and sometimes more accurately "De laudi- 
 
 bus 
 
 What man, what hero, or what god select'st thou, 
 Theme for sweet lyre or fife sonorous, CHo ? 
 Whose honoured name shall that gay sprite-voice, Echo, 
 Hymn back rebounding, 
 
 Whether on Helicon's umbrageous margent, 
 Whether on heights of Pindus or cold Haemus, 
 Whence woods, at random, vocal Orpheus followed ? 
 He who stayed rivers 
 
 In their swift course, and winds in their wild hurry 
 By art maternal;* and with bland enchantment 
 Led the huge oaks at his melodious pleasure 
 List'ning his harp-strings. 
 
 Whom should I place for wonted rites of homage 
 Before the Father-King of gods and mortals, 
 Who earth, and ocean, and heaven's varying seasons t 
 Orders and tempers, 
 
 From whom not greater than Himself proceedeth — 
 To whom exists no semblance and no second ? 
 Yet where he hath a nearest, be its honours 
 Sacred to Pallas. 
 
 * "Arte materna" — the Muse Calliope, mother of Orpheus, 
 t " Qui mare ac terras variisque mundum 
 Temperat horis." 
 *' Mundum " here means " coelum," " sky" — i.e., the whole framework 
 of nature, in sea, earth, and heaven, is under the dominion of Jove. 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XII. 45 
 
 bus Deorum vel hominum." It was certainly composed 
 before the death of the young Marcellus, a.u.c. 731 ; and 
 Orelli and Macleane agree in accepting Franke's date, 
 A.U.C. 729. 
 
 Carm. XII. 
 
 Quern virum aut heroa lyra vel acri 
 Tibia sumis celebrare, Clio ? 
 Quern Deum ? Cujus recinet jocosa 
 Nomen imago 
 
 Aut in umbrosis Heliconis oris 
 Aut super Pindo gelidove in Hsemo ? 
 Unde vocalem temere insecutae 
 Orphea silvae, 
 
 Arte matema* rapidos morantem 
 Fluminum lapsus celeresque ventos, 
 Blandum et auritas fidibus canoris 
 Ducere quercus. 
 
 Quid prius dicam solitis parentis 
 Laudibus, qui res hominum ac deorum, 
 Qui mare ac terras variisque mundum t 
 Temperat horis ? 
 
 Unde nil majus generatur ipso. 
 Nee viget quidquam simile aut secundum 
 Proximos illi tamen occupavit 
 Pallas honores. 
 
46 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Left not unsung be Liber, bold in battle ; 
 Nor she, the brute-world's foe — virgin Diana ; 
 Nor thou, dread Lord of the unerring arrow, 
 Phoebus Apollo ? 
 
 Sing let me, too, the demigod Alcides, 
 And Leda's twins, the rider and the athlete — 
 At whose joint star, what time on storm-beat seamen 
 Dawns its white splendour. 
 
 Back from the rocks recedes the rush of waters. 
 Winds fall — clouds fly — and every threatening billow. 
 Lulled at their will, upon the breast of ocean 
 Sinks into slumber. 
 
 Should, after these, be Romulus first honoured, 
 Numa's calm reign, or Tarquin's haughty fasces ? 
 I pause in doubt ; or is it rather Cato's 
 
 Noble self-slaughter? ^ 
 
 Regulus, and the Scauri,* and ^milius 
 Lavish of his great life when Carthage triumphed. 
 Grateful I name for song's most signal honours ; — 
 Thee, too, Fabricius ; 
 
 He and rude unkempt Curius and Camillus, — 
 These were the men whom hardy thrift, rude nurture. 
 The ancestral farm, and unluxurious homestead 
 Fitted for warfare. 
 
 Tree-like grows up through unperceived increases 
 Marcellus't fame. As the moon throned in heaven 
 'Mid lesser lights, the Julian constellation 
 Shines out resplendent. 
 
 * Either the Scauri enjoyed at that time a higher reputation than they 
 have retained in history, or Horace had some special reason, personal or 
 political, now inexplicable, for placing them in the rank of Rome's fore- 
 most worthies, -^milius Paulus, having advised the disastrous battle 
 
BOOK I.— ODE XII. 47 
 
 Proeliis audax, neque te silebo, 
 Liber, et ssevis inimica Virgo 
 Beluis : nee te, metuende certa 
 Phoebe sagitta. 
 
 Dicam, et Alciden, puerosque Ledae, 
 Hunc equis, ilium superare pugnis 
 Nobilem ; quorum simul alba nautis 
 
 Stella refulsit, 
 Defluit saxis agitatus humor, 
 Concidunt venti, fugiuntque nubes, 
 Et minax, quod sic voluere, ponto 
 
 Unda recumbit. 
 
 Romulum post hos prius, an quietum 
 
 Pompili regnum memorem, an superbos -.^ ^ 
 
 Tarquini fasces, dubito, an Catonis -^^f'i^C^^ 
 
 . Nobile letumj__^.---'^ ^ • • U ^yJyJl-^^Ql^iZ^^*^ 
 Regulum, et Scauros,* animseque magnse |\ -^^^t<^ 
 
 Prodigum Paullum, superante Poeno, 
 Gratus insigni referam Camena, 
 Fabriciumque. 
 
 Hunc et incomptis Curium capillis 
 Utilem bello tulit, et Camillum, 
 Saeva paupertas et avitus apto 
 
 Cum lare fundus. 
 Crescit, occulto velut arbor sevo, 
 Fama Marcelli jt micat inter omnes 
 Julium sidus, velut inter ignes 
 
 Luna minores. 
 
 of Cannae, refused the horse offered to him by a tribune of the soldiers, 
 and remained to perish on the field. 
 
 + *' As the name of Marcellus, whom I understand, with Orelli, to be 
 the Marcellus who took Syracuse, stands for all his family, and particu- 
 larly the young Marcellus, so the star of Julius Caesar, and the lesser 
 lights of that family, are meant by what follows." — Macleane. 
 
48 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Father and Guardian of all human races, 
 Saturnian Jove, to thee the Fates have given 
 Charge o'er great Caesar ; mayst thou reign supremely, 
 Next to thee Caesar. 
 
 Whether the Parthians over Rome impending 
 Grace his full * triumph, or the farthest dwellers, 
 Indian and Seric, upon Orient margins 
 Under the sunrise,t 
 
 Wide earth with justice he shall rule, thy viceroy ; 
 With awful chariot Thou shalt shake Olympus ; 
 Thou through the sacred groves profaned impurely 
 Launch angry lightnings. J 
 
 * "Justo triumpho." " ' Justo,' 'regular, full, complete,' in which 
 sense this adjective is attached to such nouns as exercitus, legio, acies, 
 prgelium, victoria." — Yonge. 
 
 t ** Sive subjectos Orientis orse 
 Seras et Indos." 
 
 The Seres, whom some conjecture to be the Chinese, represent the na- 
 tions at the farthest east known to the Romans. ** Subjectos orae," 
 " under the edge or extremity of the East." — Yonge. 
 
 + **Tu gravi curru quaties Olympum, 
 Tu parum castis inimica mittes 
 Fulmina lucis. " 
 
 The general meaning seems to be, that Jove left the political govern- 
 ment of earth to Augustus, his vicegerent ; but he reserved to himself 
 alone the dominion of heaven, and the task of avenging such crimes as 
 offended the gods, or polluted the sanctity of the temples. 
 
BOOK I.— ODE XII. 
 
 Gentis humange pater atque custos, 
 Orte Saturno, tibi cura magni 
 Caesaris fatis data : tu secundo 
 Csesare regnes. 
 
 Ille, seu Parthos Latio imminentes 
 Egerit justo* domitos triumpho, 
 Sive subjectos Orientis orse 
 Seras et Indos,t 
 
 Te minor latum reget aequus orbem ; 
 Tu gravi curru quaties Olympum, 
 Tu parum castis infmica mittes 
 Fulmina lucis.t 
 
 49 
 
50 THE ODES OF HORACE. ^ 
 
 ODE XIII. 
 
 TO LYDIA. 
 
 In this ode is expressed naturally enough the sort of jeal- 
 ousy which a Lydia would be likely to inspire in a general 
 lover, such as Horace represents himself in his poems — "sive 
 quid urimur non praeter solitum leves." The ode in 
 
 itself, 
 When thou the rosy neck of Telephus, 
 
 The waxen arms of Telephus, art praising, 
 Woe is me, Lydia, how my jealous heart 
 
 Swells with the anguish I would vainly smother. 
 
 Then in my mind thought has no settled base. 
 To and fro shifts upon my cheek the colour, 
 
 And tears that glide adown in stealth reveal 
 By what slow fires mine inmost self consumeth. 
 
 I bum, or whether quarrel o'er his wine. 
 
 Stain with a bruise dishonouring thy white shoulders. 
 Or whether my boy-rival on thy lips 
 
 Leave by a scar the mark of his rude kisses. 
 
 Hope not, if thou wouldst hearken unto me, 
 That one so little kind prove always constant ; 
 
 Barbarous indeed to wound sweet lips imbued 
 By Venus with a fifth part of her nectar.*' 
 
 Thrice happy, ay more than thrice happy, they 
 Whom one soft bond unbroken binds together. 
 
 Whose love serene from bickering and reproach 
 In life's last moment finds the first that severs. 
 
 * " Quinta parte sui nectaris." It has been disputed whether Horace 
 means by this expression the Pythagorean quintessence, which is ether. 
 Most modern translators so take it — ' * an interpretation," says Macleane, 
 * ' which I am surprised to find Orelli adopts with others, that does not 
 commend itself to my mind at all." Neither does it to mine. I 
 
BOOK I.— ODE XIII. 51 
 
 itself, whether borrowed or not from a Greek original, is 
 replete with the elegance which characterises Horace's love- 
 poems, and there is a tenderness which seems genuine and 
 heartfelt in the concluding stanza. 
 
 The metre in Horace is the same as in Ode iii., but no 
 English measure seems to me so well to express the sense 
 and spirit of the ode as the graver and more elegiac form 
 in which the translation is cast. 
 
 Carm. XIII. 
 
 Cum tu, Lydia, Telephi 
 Cervicem roseam, cerea Telephi 
 
 Laudas brachia, vse, meum 
 " Fervens difficili bile tumet jecur. 
 
 Tuni nee mens mihi nee color 
 Certa sede manent ; humor et in genas 
 
 Furtim labitur, arguens 
 Quam lentis penitus macerer ignibus. 
 
 Uror, seu tibi candidos 
 Turparunt humeros immodicae mero 
 
 Rixse, sive puer furens 
 Impressit memorem dente labris notam. 
 
 Non, si me satis audias, 
 Speres perpetuum, dulcia barbare 
 
 Laedentem oscula, quae Venus 
 Quinta parte sui nectaris imbuit.* 
 
 Felices ter et amplius, 
 Quos irrupta tenet copula, nee malis 
 
 Divulsus querimoniis 
 Suprema citius solvet amor die. 
 
 think the interpretation rendered by Dillenburger much less pedantic 
 and much more poetical. The ancients supposed that honey contained 
 a ninth or tenth part of nectar, and therefore the lips of Lydia were 
 imbued with double the nectar bestowed on honey. 
 
52 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XIV. 
 
 THE SHIP AN ALLEGORY. 
 
 I know not what safer title for this poem can be 
 selected from the many assigned to it in the MSS. All or 
 most critics nowadays are agreed that it is a political allegory, 
 and not, as Graevius, Bentley, and others contended, an ad- 
 dress to the actual ship that brought Horace from Philippi, 
 and in which his friends were about tore-embark. Quinctilian 
 illustrates the meaning of the word "allegory" by a ref- 
 erence to the ode, and the ode itself is an imitation of an 
 allegorical poem by Alcaeus on the political troubles of 
 Mitylene, of which a fragment is extant. Quinctilian's inter- 
 pretation of the allegory, though still popularly received — 
 viz., that the ship means the Commonwealth or Republic — is 
 not without eminent disputants ; and unless there were more 
 assured data as to the time in which the poem was written, 
 and under what political circumstances, the dispute is not 
 likely to be settled. The opinion advanced by Acron and 
 supported with much force by Buttmann is, that the poem 
 is addressed, not to the Commonwealth, but to a remnant 
 of the political party with which Horace had fought under 
 Brutus, and in remonstrance against their launching once 
 more into civil war under Sextus Pompeius. This view has 
 been somewhat rudely assailed, and the generality of critics 
 remain loyal to the good old simile of Ship and State. 
 But of late the argument of a critic at once so acute and 
 so profound as Buttmann has been silently gaining ground 
 with reflective scholars, and has much in its favour. No- 
 thing in itself is more probable than that Horace should 
 have sought to express to his old comrades in an allegori- 
 cal poem his dissuasion from the hazardous junction with 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XIV. 53 
 
 S, Pompeius, and place on record his own vindication 
 for refusing to put forth in so shattered a vessel, and rest- 
 ing in port — i.e., with the government established under 
 Augustus. 
 
 The other supposition most favoured as to the date of 
 the poem is that which places it in the year before the 
 battle of Actium, when M. Antony and Augustus were mak- 
 ing their preparations for war. This does not seem so prob- 
 able a date as the other. The images of the poem would 
 ill accord with it. Horace could scarcely have said then 
 that the ship under Augustus was disabled, destitute of rowers 
 and chiefs, and could not last through a storm; and as in that 
 war Caesar went forth against Antony rather than Antony 
 against C^sar, the expostulation to keep in port would have 
 been very ill received by Augustus, and very contrary to the 
 spirit with which Horace always speaks of that war and its 
 results, and to the willingness expressed in Epode i. to have 
 taken a share in the enterprise, had Msecenas been appointed 
 to command in it. At the outbreak of the war with Antony, 
 Horace was a decided partisan of the estabhshed govern- 
 ment, and this poem is evidently written by a man who has 
 affection and fear for those about to hazard some new enter- 
 prise against the existent order of things. He certainly 
 would not have addressed that warning to Antony's sup- 
 porters. Whether the poem allegorises the entire Repub- 
 lic, or that party belonging to it with which Horace had 
 been so intimately connected, and with whose renewed 
 hazards he decHned to associate himself, does not, however, 
 very materially signify ; for a writer who has been a strong 
 party-man generally has his party in his mind whenever he 
 proposes to address the State. But if Horace really de- 
 signed the allegory for his old comrades under Brutus, about 
 to cast their fortunes with Sextus Pompeius, he could not more 
 affectionately part from them, nor more delicately imply his 
 own rational excuses for doing so. 
 
54 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 O ship, shall new waves drift thee back into ocean ? 
 What wouldst thou ? Make fast, O, make fast for the haven ! 
 Ah ! dost thou not see how thy sides 
 Are all naked of even the rowers ? * 
 
 And thy mast by the south wind in fury is shattered, 
 And loud groan thy mainyards, and scarce,t without cables 
 Undergirding the keel, couldst thou strive 
 With the sway of the tyrannous waters. 
 
 And thy sails are not whole, and the gods thou wouldst call on 
 Once more in the stress of thy peril have left thee, 
 August Pontic pine, J though thou art. 
 Of a forest illustrious the daughter. 
 
 All useless the race, and the name that thou vauntest ; 
 Cautious sailors trust nought to the stern's painted colours. 
 Beware, O beware, lest thou owe 
 
 But a mock to the winds thou wouldst hazard. 
 
 ITiou, lately the cause of my wearisome trouble, 
 Object now of deep care and regretful affection, 
 Mark well where the Cyclades shine. 
 
 And avoid the waves flowing between them. 
 
 * /.(?., whether the lines apply to the State or to a party in it, men and 
 appliances are wanting to the cause. 
 
 t ' * Sine funibus vix durare carinse." The usual interpretation of 
 "funibus," " girding-ropes," is here adopted. Macleane construes, " de- 
 prived of her rigging." — See his note. 
 
 J In translating these lines I feel very strongly how much they 
 favour Acron's opinion and Buttmann's argument for the application 
 of the allegory to the old Brutus party about to share the fortunes of the 
 great Pompey's son, Sextus. The old gods, or the statues of the tutelary 
 deities niched in the stem were indeed gone ; the cry for Republican 
 liberty or Senatorial rights was hushed in the graves of Brutus and 
 Cassius. Assuming with Acron and Buttmann that by the Pontic pine 
 is symbolised Pompey, whose chief successes were achieved in Pontus 
 as the conqueror of Mithridates, his name and race were indeed idly 
 vaunted by Sextus. Recruits distrusted the colours painted on the 
 
BOOK I.— ODE XIV. / 55 
 
 Carm. XIV. 
 
 O navis, referent in mare te novi 
 Fluctus ! O quid agis ? Fortiter occupa 
 Portum ! Nonne vides, ut 
 Nudum remigio latus,* 
 
 Et malus celeri saucius Africo 
 Antennseque gemant, ac sine funibust 
 Vix durare carinas 
 Possint imperiosius 
 
 yEquor ? Non tibi sunt integra lintea, 
 Non di, quos iterum pressa voces malo : 
 Quamvis Pontica pinus,}: 
 Silvae filia nobilis, 
 
 Jactes et genus et nomen inutile ; 
 Nil pictis timidus navita puppibus 
 Fidit. Tu, nisi ventis 
 Debes ludibrium, cave. 
 
 Nuper soUicitum quae mihi taedium, 
 Nunc desiderium curaque non levis, 
 Interfusa nitentes 
 Vites sequora Cycladas. 
 
 battered ship to which they were invited. Applying the lines to the 
 cause of the old Brutus party, well might Horace exclaim, "Nuper 
 sollicitum quae mihi tsedium," in reference to the anxieties and to the 
 disgusts with which his share in that cause had subjected him, the 
 loss of friends and hopes and fortune; and well and tenderly might 
 he add, in affection for former comrades and deprecation of the perils 
 they were about to risk, *' Nunc desiderium curaque non levis." " Desi- 
 derium" is a word that implies affection, and "a missing of something 
 — a regret." The whole of the poem thus construed seems to me in 
 complete harmony with all the poems in which Horace takes a retro- 
 spective view of his connection with Brutus's party, and the attachment 
 he retained for his old friends, so strongly evinced in his welcome to 
 Pompeius Varus, Lib. II. Ode vii. 
 
56 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XV. 
 
 THE PROPHECY OF NEREUS. 
 
 This ode is considered by critics to bear the stamp of 
 an early composition. It has certainly the vigour and fire 
 
 of 
 When the false Shepherd bore through the waters 
 y In Idsean ships, Helen his hostess, 
 
 Nereus buried swift winds in loathed slumber 
 That Fate's fell decrees he might sing. 
 
 " Woe the day that thou lead'st to thy dwelling 
 Her whom Greece shall ask back by great armies, 
 Sworn in league to dissolve, with thy nuptials, 
 The ancient dominion of Troy. 
 
 "Ah ! what death-sweat to war-horse and warrior ! 
 Ah ! what funerals that move with thy rowers 
 Bring'st thou home to the race of the Dardan ! 
 Already stem Pallas prepares 
 
 " Helm, and aegis, and chariot, and fury; 
 Vainly, bold in the safeguard of Venus, 
 Shalt thou trim thy sleek locks and charm women 
 With songs set to chords — not of war; * 
 
 " Vainly shun in thy paramour's chamber t 
 Pond'rous spears and the darts of the Cretan, 
 And the roar of the battle ; — and Ajax 
 So swift when he follows a foe ; 
 
 " Late, alas ! dust shall yet smear thy love-locks. 
 Lo behind thee, thy race's destroyer, 
 Lo Ulysses ! — lo Nestor ! — Thee, Teucer, 
 Thee, Sthenelus skilled in the fight 
 
 * **Carmina divides" — i.e.^ accompany your harp with singing.—- 
 
 YONGE. 
 
 t Horn. 11., iii. 381. 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XV. 57 
 
 of youth, but it is seldom that the poetry of youth is equally 
 terse and condensed. 
 
 Carm. XV.- 
 
 Pastor cum traheret per freta navibus 
 Idaeis Helenen perfidus hospitam, 
 Ingrato celeres obruit otio 
 Ventos, ut caneret fera 
 
 Nereus fata : Mala ducis avi domum, 
 Quam multo repetet Graecia milite, 
 Conjurata tuas rumpere nuptias 
 Et regnum Priami vetus. 
 
 Heu, heu ! quantus equis, quantus adest viris 
 Sudor ! quanta moves funera Dardan^e 
 Genti ! Jam galeam Pallas et segida 
 Currusque et rabiem parat. 
 
 Nequicquam, Veneris praesidio ferox, 
 Pectes caesariem, grataque feminis 
 Imbelli cithara carmina divides ; * 
 Nequicquam thalamot graves 
 
 Hastas et calami spicula Cnosii 
 Vitabis, strepitumque et celerem sequi 
 Ajacem ; tamen heu serus adulteros 
 Crines pulvere colHnes. 
 
 Non Laertiaden, exitiura tuae 
 Genti, non Pylium Nestora respicis ? 
 Urgent impavidi te Salaminius 
 Teucer et Sthenelus sciens 
 
58 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 " Or the chariot-chase, feariessly follow : 
 Merion, too, thou shalt know, — but look yonder, 
 Through the battle comes raging to find thee 
 Tydides, more dread than his sire ! 
 
 " Ah ! from him, as a hart in the valley 
 Sees the wolf and forgetteth its pasture. 
 All unnerved and deep-panting thou fliest ; 
 Not such was the pledge to thy love ! 
 
 " Though the wrath in the fleet of Achilles 
 Bring a respite to Troy and Troy's mothers ; 
 Ilion's domes, after winters predestined, 
 
 Shall sink in the flames of the Greek ! " 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XV. 59 
 
 Pugnae, sive opus est imperitare equis, 
 Non auriga piger ; Merionen quoque 
 Nosces. Ecce furit te reperire atrox. 
 Tydides melior patre, 
 
 Quern tu, cervus uti vallis in altera 
 Visum parte lupum graminis immemor, 
 Sublimi fugies mollis anhelitu, 
 Non hoc poUicitus tuse. 
 
 Iracunda diem proferet Ilio 
 Matronisque Phrygum classis Achillei ; 
 Post certas hiemes uret Achaicus 
 Ignis Iliacas domos. 
 
60 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XVI. 
 
 RECANTATION. 
 
 There is no ground for safe conjecture as to the person 
 here addressed. The old inscriptions applying it to Tyn- 
 daris, the daughter of Gratidia, celebrated as Canidia in 
 the Epodes, or the assertion in Cruquius that it is Grati- 
 dia herself, are now generally considered to be purely fic- 
 titious. 
 O, of mother so fair thou the yet fairer daughter, 
 To such end as thou wilt put my guilty iambics, 
 Fling them into the flames to consume. 
 Or the ocean of Hadria to drown. 
 
 Phrygian Cybele, no, nor the Pythian Apollo 
 In the innermost shrines soul-convulsing his priesthood, 
 No, nor Liber, nor Corybants mad 
 
 When their cymbals redouble the clash. 
 
 Craze the mind like the woeful disorders of anger, 
 Which are scared from their vent, nor by Norican falchion, 
 Wreckful oceans — untameable fires. 
 
 Nor ev'n Jove though himself thunder down. 
 
 It is said that Prometheus to man's primal matter 
 Was compelled to add something from each living creature. 
 And thus from the wild lion he took 
 Rabid virus to place in our gall. 
 
 Anger shattered in ruins the House of Thyestes ; 
 Anger stands forth the cause by which cities have perished. 
 And the ploughshare of insolent hosts 
 Has passed over the site of their walls. 
 
BOOK I.— ODE XVI. 6l 
 
 titious. Horace, no doubt, in his youth wrote a great 
 many satirical or vituperative poems which he had too 
 good taste to republish, and which, happily for his fame, 
 have perished altogether. To some lady so libelled we 
 may well suppose this ode to have been addressed, for it 
 has an air of reality about it. It may have been suggested 
 by the poem in which Stesichorus recanted his slanders on 
 Helen, but to what extent Horace here imitates that poem, 
 there are no means of judging. 
 
 Carm. XVI. 
 
 O matre pulchra filia pulchrlor, 
 Quem criminosis cunque voles modum 
 Ponis iambis, sive flamma 
 
 Sive mari libet Hadriano. _^ niiuL^ ^ 
 
 N6n Dindymene, non adytis quatit 
 Mentem sacerdotum incola Pythius, 
 Non Liber seque, non acuta 
 Sic geminant Corybantes sera, 
 
 Tristes ut irae, quas neque Noricus 
 Deterret ensis, nee mare naufragum, 
 Nee ssevus ignis, nee tremendo 
 Juppiter ipse ruens tumultu. 
 
 Fertur Prometheus, addere pnpcipi 
 Limo coactiis particulam undique 
 Desectarn, et insani leonis 
 
 Vim stomacncTapposuisse nostro. 
 
 ^■^ ^ - . . . . h 
 
 Irae Thyesten exitio gravi , 
 
 Stravere, et altis urbibus ultimse 
 
 Stetere causae, cur perirent 
 
 Funditus, imprimeretque muris 
 
62 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Be appeased then : that vehement heat of the bosom 
 In the sensitive heyday of youth tempted me too, 
 And it whirled me all frantic away 
 Down the torrent of scurrilous song. 
 
 Now I seek to exchange rude emotions for soft ones, 
 Provided my penitence move thee to pardon, 
 And my full recantation thus made, 
 O be friends, and restore me thy heart. 
 
BOOK I.— ODE XVI. 63 
 
 Hostile aratnim exercitus insolens. 
 Compesce mentem : me quoque pectoris 
 Tentavit in dulci juventa 
 Fervor, et in celeres iambos 
 
 Misit furentem ; nunc ego mitibus 
 Mutare quaero tristia ; dum mihi 
 Fias recantatis arnica 
 
 Opprobriis, animumque reddas. 
 
64 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XVII. 
 
 INVITATION TO TYNDARIS. 
 
 It is impossible to do more than conjecture whether the 
 person addressed under the feigned name of Tyndaris ac- 
 tually existed or not. There are one or two touches in the 
 poem which seem to individualise her as a creature of the 
 earth — such as the selection of one particular song about 
 the rivalry of Penelope and Circe, which is not a theme 
 especially appropriate to the place of invitation, and may well 
 have been the favourite song of some fair lute-player ; and 
 
 the 
 
 For Liiicretilis oft nimble Faunus exchanges, 
 So delightful its slopes, his Arcadian Lycaeus — 
 From my she-goats still turning aside 
 Rainy winds and the scorch of the sun. 
 
 All in safety the wives of the strong-scented husband 
 Rove where arbute and thyme lurk in woodlands secreted ; 
 Never green adder daunts them, nor there 
 Martial wolf from Hgedilia descends, 
 
 Whilesoever, my Tyndaris, round and about us 
 Ring the smooth sheeny lime-rocks of sloping Ustica, 
 And the valleys embosomed below. 
 
 With the sweet haunting pipe of the god. 
 
 Over me watch the gods with an aspect of favour. 
 To the gods dear at heart are the muse and my worship. 
 Here our rich rural honours shall flow 
 From a brimmed cornucopia to thee. 
 
BOOK I.— ODE XVII. 65 
 
 the reference to the jealous violence of Cyrus looks like an 
 allusion to some incident that had previously occurred. On 
 the one hand, nothing is more likely than that Horace 
 should have known, and invited to his villa, some such ac- 
 complished freed-woman as is here addressed. On the 
 other hand, nothing is more consonant to his exquisite art 
 than the invention of attributes and incidents for the pur- 
 pose of giving the interest of reality to a purely imaginary 
 creation. A compliment to the beauty of the person ad- 
 dressed is insinuated by the name of Tyndaris, " as if," says 
 Orelli, " she were another Helen." 
 
 Carm. XVH. 
 
 Velox amoenum saepe Lucretilem 
 Mutat Lycseo Faunus, et igneam 
 Defendit aestatem capellis 
 
 Usque meis pluviosque ventos. 
 
 Impune tutum per nemus arbutos 
 Quaerunt latentes et thyma deviae 
 Olentis uxores mariti ; 
 
 Nee virides metuunt colubras, 
 
 Nee Martiales Haediliae lupos, 
 Utciihque dulci, Tyndari, fistula 
 Valles et Usticae cubantis - 
 Levia personuere saxa. 
 
 Di me tuentur, dis pietas mea 
 t Et Musa cordi est. Hie tibi copia 
 
 5; Manabit ad plenum benigno 
 
 Ruris honorum opulenta comu. 
 
 E 
 
66 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Here, within the deep vale, thou shalt shun the red dog-star, 
 And shalt sing us that tale on the lute-strings of Teos, • 
 How Penelope vied with the Sea's 
 Crystal Circe, for one human heart ; 
 
 Safely here shalt thou quaff, under cool leafy shadows. 
 Sober cups from the innocent vineyards of Lesbos ; 
 Tis not here that gay Semele's son * 
 
 Shall with Mars his encounters confound ; 
 
 Dread not here lest pert Cyrus, suspecting thee vilely, 
 Lay rash hands on that form not a match for rude anger. 
 Rend the garland which clings to thy hair. 
 Or the robe — which deserves no such wrong. 
 
 Bacchus. 
 
 1 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XVII. 67 
 
 Hie in reducta valle Caniculae 
 Vitabis sestus, et fide Teia 
 Dices laborantes in uno 
 
 Penelopen vitreamque Circen ; 
 
 Hie innoeentis poeula Lesbii 
 Duees sub umbra; nee Semeleius* 
 Cum Marte eonfundet Thyoneus 
 Proelia, nee metues protervum 
 
 Suspecta Cyrum, ne male dispari 
 Ineontinentes injieiat manus, 
 Et seindat haerentem eoronam 
 Crinibus immeritamque vestem. 
 
6S THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 J 
 
 ODE XVIII. 
 
 TO VARUS. 
 
 Varus was no uncommon name, and it has been a dispute 
 with commentators what Varus is here addressed. It is 
 
 generally 
 
 Of all trees that thou plantest, O Varus, the vine, holy vine 
 be the first, 
 
 On the soil that surrounds genial Tibur and Catilus' ram- 
 parted walls. 
 
 To the lips of the dry does the godhead taint all with a 
 taste of the sour, 
 
 And only by wine are the troubles gnawing into the bosom 
 dispersed. 
 
 Fresh from wine who complains of the hardships he bears or 
 
 in want or in war ? 
 Who not more hails thee, Bacchus, as father ; thee, Venus, 
 
 as linked with the Grace ? 
 But Evius himself has forewarned us by his curse on the 
 
 Thracians of old. 
 And the battle o'er riotous wine-cups which the Centaurs 
 
 with Lapithae fought, 
 
 How the drunkard divides right from wrong by the vanish- 
 ing line of his lust, 
 
 And not to pass over the limit the Unbinder of Care has 
 imposed. 
 
 Ne'er will I force thy will, comely Bacchus, shake the thyrsus 
 against thy consent,* 
 
 Nor drag forth to daylight thy symbols covered over with 
 manifold leaves. 
 
 * " Non ego te, candide Bassareu, 
 Invitum quatiam, nee variis obsita frondibus 
 Sub divum rapiam." 
 ** Quatiam," poetically applied to the god himself, refers to the shaking 
 
BOOK I.— ODE XVIII. 69 
 
 generally believed to be the Quinctilius Varus for whose 
 death Horace seeks to console Virgil, Ode xxiv. of this 
 Book. 
 
 By the way in which Bacchus and Venus are here ad- 
 dressed, Horace implies a temperate and elegant convivi- 
 ality ; Bacchus is hailed as father, benignant, not cruel ; 
 and Venus as "decens" — that is, accompanied with the 
 Graces, "ipsadecens est, cum comites sint decentes Gra- 
 tiae" (Carm. i.4,6; Dillenburger) ; and the poet proceeds to 
 contrast a Bacchus and a Venus so characterised with the 
 brawl and lust of the Centaurs, who, invited to the marriage- 
 feast of Peirithous, King of the Lapithse, attempted in their 
 drunkenness to carry off the bride and the other women, 
 which of course led to a fight with the Lapithae and with 
 the Sithonians, a people in Thrace, who were afflicted by 
 Bacchus with the curse of never drinking without fighting. 
 
 Carm. XVIII. 
 
 Nullam, Vare, sacra, vite prius severis arborem 
 Circa mite solum Tiburis et moenia Catili. 
 Siccis omnia nam dura deus proposuit, neque 
 Mordaces aliter diffugiunt sollicitudines. 
 
 Quis post vina gravem militiam aut pauperiem crepat ? 
 Quis non te potius, Bacche pater, teque decens Venu^ 
 At, ne quis mpdici transiliat munera Liberi, 
 Centaurea monet cum Lapithis rixa super mero 
 
 Debellata, monet Sithoniis non levis Evius, 
 Cum fas atque nefas exiguo fine libidinum 
 Discernunt avidi. Non ego te, candide Bassareu,''^ 
 Invitum quatiam, nee variis ob'sita frondibus 
 
 of the thyrsus, cymbals, or images in the wild dance of the Orgies, 
 " Variis obsita frondibus " means the vessels in which the mystical sym- 
 bols of Bacchus were concealed, covered over with various leaves, chiefly 
 of vine and ivy. 
 
70 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Silence ! hush, savage horn Berecynthian ! let the clash of 
 
 the timbrel be hushed, 
 Making music which Self-conceit follows, dull egotist reeling 
 
 stone-blind. 
 Idle Vainglory over-exalting her empty and arrogant head, 
 And a Faith which is lavish of secrets, — with bosom more 
 
 seen through than glass. 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XVIII. 71 
 
 Sub divum rapiam. Saeva tene cum Berecyntio 
 Comu tympana, quae subsequitur caecus Amor sui, 
 Et tollens vacuum plus nimio Gloria verticem, 
 Arcanique Fides prodiga, perlucidior vitro. 
 
72 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 J 
 
 ODE XIX. 
 
 TO GLYCERA. 
 
 Whether Glycera and Cinara be the same person — whe- 
 ther the Glycera here addressed be the same Glycera as is 
 
 elsewhere 
 
 Methought I had finished with love 
 When the mother herself of the Cupids, merciless mother 
 she is, 
 And the Theban boy, Semele's son. 
 And the goddess called Wantonness bade me to love again 
 render my soul. 
 
 It bums me that smoothness of light, 
 Than the marble of Paros more pure, which is shed over 
 Glycera's face — 
 It burns me that dear saucy charm, 
 And the look slippery-sheen to behold : he who loiters and 
 gazes must fall. 
 
 All Venus has rushed upon me. 
 Deserting her temples in Cyprus. She will not permit me 
 to sing 
 Of the Scyth, and the feints of the steeds 
 Which the Parthians wheel round on the foe, nor of aught 
 which belongs not to love. 
 
 Hither, slaves, quick ! an altar in haste — 
 Pile it up with the green living sod; hither vervain and 
 frankincense bring, 
 And wine winters two have matured : 
 By the blood of a victim appeased, more gently the goddess 
 may come. 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XIX. 73 
 
 elsewhere mentioned — whether she existed anywhere or 
 under any name except in Horace's fancy, — are questions 
 that have been as fiercely debated as if they could be de- 
 cided, or were of the slightest consequence if they could. 
 The poem itself is charmingly pretty, but has much more 
 the air of complimentary gallantry than of real affection. 
 
 Carm. XIX. 
 
 Mater saeva Cupidinum, 
 Thebanaeque jubet me Semeles puer, 
 
 Et lasciva Licentia, 
 Finitus animum reddere amoribus. 
 
 Urit me Glycerae nitor 
 Splendentis Pario marmore purius ; 
 
 Urit grata protervitas, 
 Et voltus nimium lubricus adspici. 
 
 In me tota ruens Venus 
 Cyprum deseruit ; nee patitur Scythas, 
 
 Et versis animosum equis 
 Parthum dicere, nee quae nihil attinent. 
 
 Hie vivum mihi caespitem, hie 
 Verbenas, pueri, ponite thuraque 
 
 Bimi cum patera meri : 
 Mactata veniet lenior hostia. 
 
74 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 y 
 
 ODE XX. 
 
 TO M^CENAS. 
 
 Nothing can be more simple in form and spirit than this 
 ode, in which Horace invites Maecenas to a homely enter- 
 tainment in language equally unostentatious. In this, as in 
 other of Horace's purely occasional odes, one feels, by the 
 abstemious avoidance of the would-be poetical, that only a 
 
 poet 
 
 Thou wilt drink but in modest cups Sabine wine humble 
 Which I with mine own hand in Grecian cask hoarded, 
 When the theatre hailed thee with plaudits, beloved, 
 Knightly Maecenas, 
 
 So loud, as if fain that the gay phantom Echo 
 To thine ear from the heights of the Vatican mountain, 
 To thine ear from the banks of thy river ancestral, 
 Might reapplaud them. 
 
 Thou mayst drink at thy will the rich Caecuban vintage, 
 Or the milder grapes Cales have tamed in its presses : 
 Formian slopes, vines Falernian, combine not to flavour 
 My simple wine-cups. 
 
BOOK I.— ODE XX. 75 
 
 poet could have written it. The date of the poem has been 
 variously conjectured. Judging by the reference to the 
 Sabine wine which Maecenas is invited to drink, and which 
 came into use in its second year, reaching its prime in 
 its fourth, the poem would have been written between two 
 and four years after the reception that the audience at the 
 theatre gave to Maecenas on his recovery from his illness. 
 But the date of that event is not determined. Franke and 
 Liibker refer the composition of the ode to A.u.c. 729-730. 
 M^cleane favours the latter year. Orelli inclines to Weber's 
 date, from a.u.c. 726-727. 
 
 Carm. XX. 
 
 Vile potabis modicis Sabinum 
 Cantharis, Gr^ca quod ego ipse testa 
 Conditum levi, datus in theatro 
 Cum tibi plausus, 
 
 Care Maecenas eques, ut paterni 
 Fluminis ripae, simul et jocosa 
 Redderet laudes tibi Vaticani 
 Montis imago. 
 
 Caecubum et prelo domitam Caleno 
 Tu bibes uvam : mea nee Falernae 
 Temperant vites, neque Formiani 
 Pocula colles. 
 
^6 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXI. 
 
 IN PRAISE OF DIANA AND APOLLO. 
 
 It was supposed by Franke that this hymn was composed 
 for the first celebration of the quinquennial games — Ludi 
 Actiaci — instituted by Augustus in honour of Apollo and 
 Diana, when he dedicated a temple to Apollo on the 
 Palatine after his return from the taking of Alexandria, a.u.c. 
 726. There are two objections to this supposition : — the 
 one, observed by Macleane, is in the word " principe," for 
 Augustus did not get that title till the ides of January a.u.c. 
 
 727, 
 Hymn ye the praise of Diana, young maidens, 
 Hymn ye, O striplings, the unshorn Apollo, 
 And hymn ye Latona, so dear 
 
 To the Father Supreme in Olympus. 
 
 Maidens, sing her who delights in the rivers. 
 And the glad locks on the brow of the forests 
 That nod over Algidus cold, 
 
 Verdant Cragus and dark Fryman thus.'" 
 
 Youths, sing of Tempe with emulous praises, 
 Delos, the fair native isle of Apollo, 
 And sing of the shoulder adorned 
 
 With the quiver, and shell of the Brother.t 
 
 Moved by your prayer, may the god in his mercy 
 Save, from war and from pest and from famine, 
 Our people, and Caesar our prince. 
 
 And direct them on Persia and Britain. 
 
 * "Nigris aut Erymanthi 
 
 Silvis, aut viridis Cragi." 
 The epithet " viridis " applied to Cragus is in opposition to " nigris " 
 applied to Erymanthus, from the different kinds of foliage on either moun- 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XXL 77 
 
 727, and therefore after the first celebration of the Actian 
 games. The other objection is in the nature of the poem 
 itself, which, as Orelli remarks, is of too light a quill for the 
 ceremonial pomp of solemn games or earnest supplication. 
 The reference to the Persians and Britons at the close 
 would seem to intimate the same date as the 29th Ode of 
 this Book, when Augustus was preparing a military expedi- 
 tion against Briton and the East, viz., a.u.c. 727. The notion 
 of Sanadon, that the ode was an introduction to the Saecular 
 Hymn, has long been exploded. 
 
 Carm. XXI. 
 
 Dianam tenerae dicite virgines, 
 Intonsum, pueri, dicite Cynthium ;. 
 Latonamque supremo 
 Dilectam penitus Jovi. 
 
 Vos Isetam fluviis et nemorum coma, 
 Quaecunque aut geUdo prominet Algido, 
 Nigris aut Erymanthi 
 Silvis, aut viridis Cragi ; * 
 
 Vos Tempe totidem tolHte laudibus, 
 Natalemque, mares, Delon Apollinis, 
 Insignemque pharetra 
 
 Fraternaque humerum lyra.t 
 
 Hie belluin lacrimosum, hie miseram famem 
 Pestemque a populo, et principe CaeSare, in 
 Persas atque Britannos 
 Vestra motus aget pfece. 
 
 tain, Cragus being covered with oak and beech, Eiymanthus with pine 
 and fir. 
 
 + " Fraternaque humerum lyra " — the shell invented by his brother 
 Mercury. 
 
 V ■ 
 
/8 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXII. 
 
 TO ARISTIUS FUSCUS. 
 
 Of Aristius Fuscus Horace speaks (Epp. i. lo) with parti- 
 cular affection. He says " they were almost twins in their 
 
 tastes 
 
 He whose life hath no flaw, pure from guile, need not 
 
 borrow 
 Or the bow or the darts of the Moor, O my Fuscus ! 
 He relies for defence on no quiver that teems with 
 Poison-steept arrows. 
 
 Though his path be along sultry African Syrtes, 
 Or Caucasian ravines, where no guest finds a shelter. 
 Or the banks which Hydaspes, the stream weird with fable,"^ 
 Licks languid-flowing. 
 
 For as lately I strayed beyond pathways accustomed, 
 And with heart free from care was of Lalage singing, 
 A wolf in the thick of the deep Sabine forest 
 Met, and straight fled me. 
 
 All unarmed though I was ; yet so deadly a monster 
 Warlike Daunia ne'er bred in her wide acorned forests. 
 Nor the thirst-raging nurse of the lion — swart Juba's 
 African sand-realm. 
 
 Place me lone in the sterile wastes, where not a leaflet 
 Ever bursts into bloom in the breezes of summer ; 
 
 * ** Fabulosus lambit Hydaspes.** As Horace is here conjuring up 
 images of terror, so it is to the darker legends connected with the Indian 
 river that he alludes in the epithet " fabulosus," a signification which is 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XXII. 79 
 
 tastes and sentiments." Fuscus appears to have been an 
 author, but there is some doubt as to what he wrote, — 
 Acron says * Tragedies' — Porphyrion, 'Comedies;' which 
 last supposition seems more in keeping with the humorous 
 joke he plays upon Horace, Sat. i. 9. Cruquius says he 
 was a grammarian. 
 
 Carm. XXII. 
 
 Integer vitae scelerisque purus 
 Non eget Mauris jaculis, neque arcu. 
 Nee venenatis gravida sagittis, 
 Fusee, pharetra; 
 
 Sive per Syrtes iter sestuosas, 
 Sive facturus per inhospitalem 
 Caucasum, vel quae loca fabulosus 
 Lambit Hydaspes.* 
 
 Namque me silva lupus in Sabina, 
 Dum meam canto Lalagen, et ultra 
 Terminum curis vagor expeditis, 
 Fugit inermem ; 
 
 Quale portentum neque militaris 
 Daunias latis alit aesculetis. 
 Nee Jubas tellus generat, leonum 
 Arida nutrix. 
 
 Pone me, pigris ubi nulla campis 
 Arbor aestiva recreatur aura. 
 
 aimed at in the translation "weird with fable." "Lambit" literally 
 means "licks," or "laps up," not "washes," or " laves," as it is com- 
 monly translated. Horace does not wish to convey the pleasing idea of 
 a river with a gentle and placid flow, but rather the still, languid, awe- 
 inspiring motion of the haunted wave upon the sultry banks. 
 
80 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Sunless side of the world, which the grim air oppresses, 
 Mist-clad and ice-bound ; 
 
 Place me lone where the earth is denied to man's dwelling, 
 All so near to its breast glows the car of the day-god ; 
 And I still should love Lalage — her the sweet-smiling, 
 Her the sweet-talking.* 
 
 * " Dulce ridentem Lalagen amabo, 
 Dulce loquentem." 
 
 If I might have allowed myself to expand the literal words of the 
 original into what seems to me the sense implied by the poet, I should 
 have proposed to translate the lines thus : — 
 
 ** I still should love Lalage — see Aer, sweet smiling ; 
 Hear her, sweet talking." 
 
 For I take it that Horace does not merely mean that he would still 
 love Lalage " sweetly smiling " and " sweetly talking " — an assurance 
 which seems in itself to belong to a school of poetry vulgarly called 
 namby-pamby — but rather that, however solitary, still, and lifeless be 
 the place to which he might be transported, he would still be so true to 
 her image, that in the solitude he would see her sweetly smiling, and 
 amidst the silence hear her sweetly talking. So Constance, in Shake- 
 speare, says: — 
 
 " Grief fills the room up of my absent child. 
 Lies in her bed, walks up and down with me, 
 Puts on her ;pretty looks, rej>eats her words." 
 
BOOK I.— ODE XXII. 8 1 
 
 Quod latus mundi nebulae malusque 
 Juppiter urget ; 
 
 Pone sub cumi nimium propinqui 
 Solis, in terra domibus negata : 
 Dulce ridentem Lalagen amabo, 
 Dulce loquentem.* 
 
82 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXIII. 
 
 TO CHLOE. 
 
 This ode has the appearance of being imitated, though 
 but slightly, from a fragment in Anacreon preserved in 
 ' Athenaeus,' ix. p. 396. But it is not the less an illustration 
 of the native grace with which Horace invests his more 
 trivial compositions. 
 
 Like a fawn dost thou fly from me, Chloe, 
 Like a fawn that, astray on the hill-tops, 
 Her shy mother misses and seeks. 
 
 Vaguely scared by the breeze and the forest. 
 
 Sighs the coming of spring through the leaflets ? 
 Slips the green lizard stirring a bramble ? 
 Her knees knock together with fear. 
 And her heart beats aloud in its tremor. 
 
 Nay, but not as a merciless tiger, 
 Or an African lion I chase thee ; 
 Ah ! cling to a mother no more, 
 
 When thy girlhood is ripe for a lover. 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XXIII. 83 
 
 Carm. XXIII. 
 
 Vitas hinnuleo me similis, Chloe, 
 Quaerenti pavidam montibus aviis 
 Matrem, non sine vano 
 Aurarum et siluae metu. 
 
 Nam seu mobilibus veris inhorruit 
 Adventus foliis, seu virides rubum 
 Dimovere lacertae, 
 
 Et corde et genibus tremit. 
 
 Atqui non ego te, tigris ut aspera 
 Gaetulusve leo, frangere persequor ; 
 Tandem desine matrem 
 Tempestiva sequi viro. 
 
84 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXIV. 
 
 TO VIRGIL ON THE DEATH OF QUINCTILIUS VARUS. 
 
 Quinctilius died a.u.c. 730. Little is known of him be- 
 yond the mention with which he is immortaHsed by Horace. 
 In the Ars Poetica he is spoken of as dead, and as having 
 been a frank and judiciously severe critic, who, if you trusted 
 
 your 
 
 What shame or what restraint unto the yearning 
 For one so loved ? Music attuned to sorrow 
 Lead*' thou, Melpomene, to whom the Father 
 Gave liquid voice and lyre. 
 
 So, the eternal slumber clasps Quinctilius, 
 Whose equal when shall shame-faced sense of Honour, 
 Incorrupt Faith, of Justice the twin sister, 
 Or Truth unveiled, find ? 
 
 By many a good man wept, he died ; — no mourner 
 Wept with tears sadder than thine own, O Virgil ! 
 Pious, alas, in vain ! thou redemandest 
 Quinctilius from the gods ; 
 
 Not on such terms they lent him ! — Were thy harp-strings 
 Blander than those by* which the Thracian Orpheus 
 Charmed listening forests, never flows the life-blood 
 Back to the phantom form 
 
 Which Hermes, not reopening Fate's closed portal 
 At human prayer, amid the dark flock shepherds 
 With ghastly rod. Hard ! yet still Patience lightens 
 That which admits no cure. 
 
 * "Praecipe"— "lead."— YONGE. 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XXIV. 85 
 
 your verses to him, would bid you correct this and that. If 
 
 you replied you could not do better — that you had tried twice 
 
 or thrice in vain — he would tell you to strike the Hnes out 
 
 altogether, and put them anew on the forge. This character 
 
 as critic is in harmony with the character here assigned to ^, 
 
 him as man (verses 7, 8). ]>^ 
 
 Carm. XXIV. 
 
 Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus 
 Tam cari capitis ? Praecipe* lugubres 
 Cantus, Melpomene, cui liquidam Pater 
 Vocem cum cithara dedit. 
 
 Ergo Quinctilium perpetuus sopor 
 Urget ! cui Pudor, et Justitise soror, 
 Incorrupta Fides, nudaque Veritas 
 Quando ullum inveniet parem ? 
 
 Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit ; 
 Nulli flebilior quam tibi, Virgili. 
 Tu frustra pius, heu ! non ita creditum 
 Poscis Quinctilium deos. 
 
 Quod si Threicio blandius Orpheo 
 Auditam moderere arboribus fidem, 
 Non vanae redeat sanguis imagini, 
 Quam virga semel horrida, 
 
 Non lenis precibus fata recludere, 
 Nigro compulerit Mercurius gregi. 
 Durum ! Sed levius fit patientia, 
 Quidquid corrigere est nefas. 
 
86 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXV. 
 
 TO LYDIA. 
 
 Little need be said about this poem. The reader has 
 been already warned against the assumption that in the appH- 
 cation of names, evidently fictitious, to poems of this kind, 
 the same person is designated by the same name. It is 
 obviously too absurd to suppose that the blooming Lydia 
 of the 13th Ode in this very Book is identical with the 
 faded hag lampooned in the following ode. The poem it- 
 self is, with others of the same kind, only valuable as illus- 
 trative of Horace's character on its urban or town-bred side 
 — its combination of the man of a fashionable world when at 
 Rome, and of the solitary poet wrapped in his fancies, and 
 
 meditating 
 
 More rarely now shake thy closed windows 
 With quick knocks of petulant gallants, — 
 They break not thy sleep ; to thy threshold 
 Fondly the door clings 
 
 Once turning so glib on its hinges. 
 Thou hear'st less and less, " Lydia, sleep'st thou ? 
 'Tis I — all night long for thee dying — . 
 I thine own lover ! " 
 
 Now thou whin'st that this new generation 
 Likes but young shoots of ivy and myrtle, 
 And dedicates dry leaves to Hebrus,* 
 Winter's cold comrade ? 
 
 Hebro " — a river in Thrace : as we should say, " to the north 
 
 pole. 
 
BOOK I.— ODE XXV. Sj 
 
 meditating his art amidst Sabine woods or in the watered 
 valleys of Tibur. In the translation, the third and fourth 
 stanzas of the original are omitted. In these omitted stanzas 
 the taste is sufficiently bad to vitiate the poetry. Horace 
 never writes worse than when he is cynical. Cynicism was 
 in him a spurious affectation, contrary to his genuine nature, 
 which was singularly susceptible to amiable, graceful, gen- 
 erous, and noble impressions of man and of life. ,/ 
 
 ' f 
 
 Carm. XXV. 
 
 Parcius junctas quatiunt fenestras 
 Ictibus crebris juvenes protervi. 
 Nee tibi somnos adimunt, amatque 
 Janua limen, 
 
 Quae prius multum facilis movebat 
 Cardines ; audis minus et minus jam, 
 " Me tuo longas pereunte noctes, 
 Lydia, dormis?" 
 
 Invicem mcechos anus arrogantes 
 Flebis in solo levis angiportu, 
 Thracio bacchante magis sub inter- 
 lunia vento, 
 
 Cum tibi flagrans amor et libido, 
 Quas solet matres furiare equorum, 
 Saeviet circa jecur ulcerosum : 
 Non sine questu, 
 
 Laeta quod pubes hedera virente 
 Gaudeat pulla magis atque myrto, 
 Aridas frondes hiemis sodali 
 Dedicet Hebro.* 
 
 1^ 
 
 U 
 
 ro 
 
88 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXVI. 
 
 TO L. /ELIUS LAMIA. 
 
 Horace addresses this same Lamia again, Lib. IIL Ode 
 xviii. Lamia must have been very young when this ode was 
 written, the date of which is to be guessed from the refer- 
 ence to Tiridates and the Parthian disturbances. Assum- 
 ing with Orelli, Macleane, and others, that it was composed 
 A.U.C. 729, just before Tiridates fled from his kingdom. 
 Lamia survived fifty-seven years, dying A.U.C. 786 (Tac. 
 Ann., vi. 27). 
 
 I, the friend of the Muses, all fear and all sorrow 
 Will consign to wild winds as a freight for Crete's ocean ; 
 • I'm the one man who feels himself safe, 
 Whatever king reigns at the Pole — 
 
 Whatever the cause that appals Tiridates. 
 Muse, thou sweetener of life, haunting hill-tops Pimpleian, 
 Whose delight is in founts ever pure. 
 
 Weave the blooms opened most to the sun — 
 
 O weave for the brows of my Lamia the garland : 
 Nought my praise without thee. Let thyself and thy sisters 
 Make him sacred from Time by the harp 
 Heard at Lesbos ; but new be its strings. 
 
BOOK I.— ODE XXVI. 89 
 
 Carm. XXVI. 
 
 Musis amicus, tristitiam et metus 
 Tradam protervis in mare Creticum 
 Portare ventis, quis sub Arcto 
 Rex gelidae metuatur orse, 
 
 Quid Tiridaten terreat, unice 
 Securus. O, quae fontibus integris 
 Gaudes, apricos necte flores, 
 Necte meo Lamiae coronam, 
 
 Pimplea dulcis ! Nil sine te mei 
 Prosunt honores : hunc fidibus novis, 
 Hunc Lesbio sacrare plectro 
 Teque tuasque decet sorores. 
 
90 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXVII. 
 
 TO BOON COMPANIONS. 
 
 In this poem, as in others of a convivial nature, Horace 
 transports himself as it were into the midst of the company, 
 and imparts an air of reality to an imaginary scene, so that 
 it seems as if actually an impromptu. 
 
 Brawl and fight over cups which were bom but for pleasure * 
 Is the custom in Thrace. Out on manners barbaric. 
 Do not put modest Bacchus to shame 
 By the scandal of bloody affrays. 
 In what strange want of keeping with wine-cups and lustres 
 Are the dirks of the Mede. Hush that infamous clamour. 
 Be quiet ! Companions ! seats — seats ! 
 Lean in peace on prest elbows again ! 
 
 Do you wish me to share a Falernian so doughty ? 
 Well then, let the young brother of Locrian Megilla 
 Reveal by what wound, by what shaft 
 He is smitten and dies — happy boy. 
 What, refuse ? tut ! I drink on no other condition, 
 Come, no matter what Venus may conquer thee — blush not, 
 For we know that thy sins in that way 
 Must be always high-bred and refined. 
 
 Nay, thy secret is safe in these faithful ears whispered, 
 Ha ! indeed luckless wretch ! whirled in what a Charybdis ! 
 How I pity thy struggles, O youth, 
 Thou, so worthy less dismal a flame ! 
 O what witch or, with potions Thessalian, what wizard — 
 Nay, what god could avail from such coils to release thee? 
 From that triple Chimsera's embrace 
 Scarce could Pegasus carry thee off. 
 
 * *' Natis in usum laetitiae scyphis." ** Natis "— ** born," as if made 
 by nature, and destined exclusively for that purpose. — Orelli. 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XXVII. 9 1 
 
 Carm. XXVII. 
 
 Natis* in usum laetitise scyphis 
 Pugnare Thracum est : tollite barbarum 
 Morem, verecundumque Bacchum 
 Sanguineis prohibete rixis ! 
 
 Vino et lucernis Medus acinaces 
 Immane quantum discrepat : impium 
 Lenite clamorem, sodales, 
 Et cubito remanete presso ! 
 
 Voltis severi me quoque sumere 
 Partem Falerni? Dicat Opuntise 
 Frater Megillae, quo beatus 
 Vulnere, qua pereat sagitta. 
 
 Cessat voluntas ? Non alia bibam 
 Mercede. Quae te cunque domat Venus, 
 Non enibescendis adurit 
 Ignibus, ingenuoque semper 
 
 Amore peccas. Quidquid habes, age, 
 Depone tutis auribus. Ah miser, 
 Quanta laborabas Charybdi, 
 Digne puer meliore flamma ! 
 
 Quse saga, quis te solvere Thessalis 
 Magus venenis, quis poterit deus ? 
 Vix illigatum te triformi 
 Pegasus expediet Chimaera. 
 
92 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXVIII. 
 
 ARCHYTAS. 
 
 No ode in Horace has been more subjected than this one 
 to the erudite ingenuity of conflicting commentators; nor 
 are the questions at issue ever hkely to find a solution in 
 which all critics will be contented to agree. 
 
 The earlier commentators took for granted that the ode 
 was composed as a dialogue between the ghost of Archytas 
 and a voyager. The voyager, landing on the shore of Ma- 
 tinus, finds there the unburied bones of Archytas, and in- 
 dulges in a sarcastic soliloquy, which ends either at verse 6, 
 verse i6, verse 20, or, as Macleane was once of opinion, in 
 the middle of verse 15 — 
 
 " Sed omnes una manet nox." 
 
 Two Other theories have been started, by both of which 
 Archytas is got rid of altogether. According to the first 
 theory, the moralising voyager continues his reflections over 
 the grave of the great geometrician, till (whether at verse 
 15, 16, or 20) the ghost, not of Archytas, but of another, 
 whose bones are bleaching on the sand, rises up, accosts 
 him, and prays to be sprinkled with the dust that may serve 
 for burial and fit him for the Styx. 
 
 The second theory, favoured by Macleane, and supported 
 by Mr Long, dispenses not only with Archytas, but with the 
 notion of dialogue. According to this conjecture, the whole 
 poem is assigned to the ghost of a shipwrecked and unburied 
 man, who moralises over Archytas and the certainty of death, 
 &c., till, seeing a living sailor approach, he asks for burial. 
 This supposition, the simplest in itself, and sanctioned by 
 great critical authorities, appears to be gaining a more gene- 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XXVIII. 93 
 
 ral, if recent, assent with scholars than any other hypothesis 
 — and, after much consideration, I have adopted it in my 
 version. If the poem is, however, to be considered a dia- 
 logue, I should not agree with Macleane in placing the 
 division at verse 15,^ but at verse 20 — "Me quoque 
 devexi," &c. The very abruptness of the interposition of 
 the ghost at that line, which has been considered by many 
 critics objectionably harsh, appears to me a special merit. 
 The ghost, commencing his appeal at that verse, goes at 
 once to the purpose. He, being dead, has no need to say 
 that all must die ; but, contenting himself with briefly 
 informing the voyager that he has been drowned, hastens 
 to implore the handfuls of dust which suffice for burial. 
 That it is not Archytas himself who speaks, whether in 
 monologue or dialogue, is, I think, made perfectly apparent 
 by the second and third verses of the ode — 
 
 " Mensorem cohibent, Archyta, 
 Pulveris exigui prope litus parva Matinum 
 Munera," 
 
 which I agree with Macleane in considering clearly to 
 intimate that the body of Archytas has already received that 
 which he is supposed so earnestly to pray for. " For," thus 
 continues this judicious scholar, " though many, I am aware, 
 get over this difficulty by supposing * cohibent munera ' to 
 
 * I believe that most critics are now agreed that if the poem be a 
 dialogue the first speaker cannot be interrupted at verse 6, or before 
 verse 15. The lines 14, 15 — 
 
 " Judice te non sordidus auctor 
 Naturae verique," 
 seem to settle that question. Archytas, if commencing at line 16 
 could scarcely appeal to the sailor as a judge of the learning of Pytha 
 goras, while the first speaker would very appropriately say that Archy- 
 tas was a judge of it. The attempt to get over this difficulty by corrupt 
 ing a text sanctioned by all the MSS., and substituting "me judice ' 
 for *'te judice," is nowadays rejected by rational commentators, who 
 rightly oppose unauthorised amendments of texts supported by the con- 
 currence of MSS. 
 
94 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 mean that the want of the scanty gift of a little earth was 
 keeping him back from his rest, I do not see how the words 
 will bear that sense; nor can I translate 'cohibent' withDillen- 
 burger and others as if it was meant that his body occupied 
 only a small space on the surface of the ground. The words 
 can only mean that he was under the sand, whether partially 
 or otherwise, and in either case he could not require dust to 
 be cast three times on him." — Macleane, ' Introduction to 
 Ode xxviii. Lib. I.' 
 
 The conjecture of Liibker and others that Horace is sup- 
 posing himself to be a ghost drowned off Palinurus, is too 
 far-fetched and fantastic for serious refutation. For these 
 and other points in controversy the reader is referred to 
 Orelli's Excursus and Macleane's Introduction to this ode. 
 
 The poem itself is singularly striking. Though abounding 
 in those observations of the brevity of life and the certainty of 
 death in which Horace so frequently indulges, with the half- 
 sportive melancholy of a nature eminently sensuous, the 
 poem has, on the whole, something almost of a Gothic char- 
 acter. The humour takes the sombre colour of the medie- 
 val Dance of Death, and is not without a touch of the genius 
 which speaks in the grave-diggers of Hamlet. It is impossible 
 to fix a date for its composition ; but I incline to rank it 
 among Horace's earlier odes, from a certain likeness in its 
 tone and treatment to the 5th Epode, which has also some- 
 what of the Gothic character in its gloomy earnestness of 
 description, and its employment of the grotesque as an 
 agency of terror. 
 
 I concur in the general opinion that the scene is laid 
 at the promontory of Matinus, where Archytas is said to 
 have had his tomb. Macleane sees no occasion for that 
 supposition, and thinks the subject of the ode is more likely 
 to have been suggested at Tarentum than elsewhere. He 
 deems " that the words ' Neptuno custode Tarenti ' seem to 
 fix the scene, and that it does not appear why a person speak- 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XXVIII. 95 
 
 ing at Matinus should talk of Neptune particularly as the 
 'custos Tarenti.'" 
 
 I do not see the force of this objection. Neptune was 
 particularly honoured at Tarentum, where he is said to have 
 had a temple, and of which his son Tarus was the mythical 
 founder. On the coins of Tarentum Neptune is represented 
 as the tutelary deity. It would appear, therefore, quite nat- 
 ural that Neptune should be mentioned as the guardian of 
 Tarentum, as Fortune is elsewhere mentioned as the guardian 
 of Antium, without supposing that the person so referring to 
 the deity was in the neighbourhood of the place specially 
 protected; While the length at which Archytas is addressed 
 at the commencement seems to indicate the scene as that in 
 which the philosopher so emphatically selected was buried. 
 Archytas himself was a Greek of Tarentum, which would 
 render yet more appropriate a reference to that city whoever 
 may be supposed to be speaking — the poem having com- 
 menced with the address to the shade of the great Tarentian. 
 
 Archytas was amongst the most illustrious of the ancient 
 worthies — a general, a statesman, a philosopher, and espe- 
 cially a mathematician. He belonged to the Pythagorean 
 school, but is supposed to have founded a new sect. The 
 alleged inventor of analytical geometry, he is said to have 
 originated the application of mathematics to mechanics, and 
 constructed a flying dove of wood, which was to the myths 
 of the ancients what Roger Bacon's brazen head is to those 
 of the moderns. He is considered to have been a contem- 
 porary of Plato, and Aristotle wrote a life of him which is 
 lost. 
 
 The metre is the same as in Ode vii., but I have not em- 
 ployed the same measure in the translation, thinking that 
 the spirit of it requires the more elegiac rhythm which I 
 have appropriated to some of the Epodes, and, indeed, to 
 some other of the Odes. 
 
96 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Thee, arch-surveyor of the earth and ocean 
 
 And the inmimerous sands, Archytas, thee, 
 
 Pent in a creeklet margined by Matinus, 
 
 The scanty boon of trivial dust keeps close. 
 
 What boots it now into the halls of Heaven 
 
 To have presumed, and drawn empyreal air, 
 
 Ranged through the spheres and with thy mind of mortal 
 Swept through creation to arrive at death ? 
 
 The sire of Pelops with the gods did banquet. 
 And yet he died ; — remote into thin air 
 
 Vanished, if lingering long, at last Tithonus ; 
 
 Minos shared Jove's high secrets, — yet he died. 
 
 The son of Panthous, though he called to witness* 
 His ancient buckler and the times of Troy, 
 
 That to grim death he gave but skin and sinew, 
 
 Tartarus regains, — and, this time, holds him fast ; 
 
 Yet he of Trudi and Nature, in thy judgment, 
 
 Was an authority of no mean rank. 
 But one Night waits for all, and one sure pathway 
 
 Trodden by all, and only trodden once. 
 
 Some do the Furies to grim Mars exhibit 
 
 On the red stage in which disports his eye ; 
 
 The greedy ocean swallows up the sailors ; 
 
 Old and young huddled swell the funeral throng ; 
 
 * The shield of Euphorbus, son of Panthous (the valiant Trojan who 
 wounded Patroclus), was preserved with other trophies in the temple 
 of Juno at or near Mycenas ; and according to a well-known legend, 
 Pythagoras recognised this shield as that which he had borne when he 
 lived in the person of Euphorbus. The son of Panthous, therefore, means 
 Pythagoras, whom the speaker sarcastically compliments as no mean 
 judge of truth and nature in the opinion of Archytas, who belonged to 
 his school. 
 
'^' 
 
 BOOK I. — ODE XXVIII. 97 
 
 Carm. XXVIII. 
 
 Te maris et terrse numeroque carentis arenae 
 
 Mensorem cohibent, Archyta, 
 Pulveris exigui prope litus parva Matinum • , 
 
 Mimera, nee quidquam tibi prodest 
 
 Aerias tentasse domos, animoque rotundiim '^ j^j^^f^"^*^ 
 
 Percurrisse polum, morituro — ^ * 
 
 Occidit et Pelopis genitor, conviva deorum, .^^ 
 
 Tithonusque remotus in auras, ^ a^J^^^ 
 
 Et Jovis arcanis Minos admissus, babentque 
 
 Tartara Panthoiden iterum Oreo 
 Demissum ; quamvis, elypeo Trojana refixo 
 
 Tempora testatus, nihil ultra 
 
 Nervos atque eutem Morti eoneesserat atrae, 
 
 Judiee te non sordidus auctor 
 Naturae verique. Sed omnes una manet nox, 
 
 Et ealeanda semel via leti. 
 
 Dant alios Furiae torvo speetaeula Marti ; 
 Exitio est avidum mare nautis j 
 
98 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Each head"^ must pay to Proserpine the poll-tax. 
 
 Me also, Notus,t hurrying on to join 
 His comrade setting amidst storm, Orion, 
 
 Plunged into death amid Illyrian waves. 
 
 But thou, O sailor, churlishly begrudge not 
 
 A sand-grain to my graveless bones and skull ; 
 
 So may whatever the east wind shall threaten 
 To waves Hesperian, pass thee harmless by 
 
 And waste its wrath upon Venusian forests : 
 
 So from all-righteous Jove and him who guards 
 
 Tarentum's consecrated haven, Neptune, 
 
 Be every profit they can send thee showered. 
 
 Think'st thou 'tis nought to doom thy guiltless children 
 To dread atonement for their father's wrong ? 
 
 Nay, on thyself may fall dire retribution 
 
 And the just laws that give back scorn for scorn. 
 
 I'll not be left, with prayers disdained, revengeless, 
 No expiation could atone such crime ; 
 
 Whate'er thy haste, this task not long delays thee — 
 A little dust thrice sprinkled — then away. 
 
 * "Nullum sseva caput Proserpina fugit " — in allusion to the lock 
 of hair which, according to the popular superstition, Proserpine cut off 
 from the head .of the dying. 
 
 + "Me also, Notus," &c. If the poem be supposed a dialogue, it 
 seems to me that this is the place at which the second speaker, as the 
 ghost of an unburied man, suddenly starts up and interposes. — See Intro- 
 duction. 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XXVIII. 99 
 
 Mixta senum ac juvenum densentur funera, nullum 
 Sseva caput Proserpina fugit* 
 
 tMe quoque devexi rapidus comes Orionis 
 
 Illyricis Notus obruit undis. 
 At tu, nauta, vagae ne parce malignus arense 
 
 Ossibus et capiti inhumato 
 
 Particulam dare : sic, quodcunque minabitur Eurus 
 
 Fluctibus Hesperiis, Venusinae 
 Plectantur silvae, te sospite, multaque merces, 
 
 Unde potest, tibi defluat aequo 
 
 Ab Jove, Neptunoque sacri custode Tarenti. 
 
 Negligis immeritis nocituram 
 Postmodo te natis fraudem committere ? Fors et 
 
 Debita jura vicesque superbae 
 
 Te maneant ipsum : precibus non linquar inultis, 
 
 Teque piacula nulla resolvent. 
 Quamquam festinas, non est mora longa ; licebit 
 
 Injecto ter pulvere curras. 
 
100 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 , ODE XXIX. 
 
 TO ICCIUS. 
 
 In the 1 2th Ode of this Book Horace referred to the 
 expedition into Arabia Felix meditated by Augustus, and 
 which was sent from Egypt, a.u.c. 730, under the com- 
 mand of the Governor of Egypt, ^Hus Gallus. Many 
 Roman youths were attracted to this expedition by love 
 of adventure and hope of spoil ; among others, the Iccius 
 here addressed, who survived to become the peaceful 
 steward to Vipsanius Agrippa's estates in Sicily. The 
 good-natured banter on the warlike ardour conceived by a 
 student of philosophy, was probably quite as much enjoyed 
 by Iccius himself as by any one. They who suppose that 
 so well-bred a man of the world as Horace is always insinu- 
 ating moral reproofs to the friends he publicly addresses, 
 are the only persons likely to agree with the scholiasts that 
 he means gravely to rebuke Iccius for avarice in coveting 
 the wealth of the Arabs. 
 
 So, Iccius, thou grudgest their wealth to the Arabs, 
 Wouldst war on kings Sheban, as yet never conquered. 
 And art sternly preparing the chains 
 For the arms of the terrible Mede ? 
 
 What virgin barbaric shall serve thee as handmaid. 
 Her betrothed being laid in the dust by thy falchion ? 
 And what page, born and bred in a court. 
 Nor untaught Seric arrows to launch 
 
 From a bow-string paternal, with locks sleek and perfumed, 
 Shall attend at thy feasts, and replenish thy goblets ? 
 Who that rivers can flow to their founts, 
 And the Tiber runs back, will deny, 
 
 If the sage of a promise so rare can surrender 
 All that priceless collection, the works of Panaetius, 
 And the school in which Socrates taught, 
 In exchange for a Spanish coat-mail ? 
 
BOOIt I. — OD'E X'XIX. : i/; ; ', 1 ' tOV 
 
 y 
 
 Carm. XXIX. 
 
 Icci, beatis nunc Arabum invides 
 Gazis, et acrem militiam paras 
 Non ante devictis Sabaeae 
 Regibus, horribilique Medo 
 
 Nectis catenas ? Quae tibi virginum 
 Sponso necato barbara serviet ? 
 Puer quis ex aula capillis 
 Ad cyathum statuetur unctis, 
 
 Doctus sagittas tendere Sericas 
 Arcu paterno ? Quis neget arduis 
 Pronos relabi posse rivos 
 
 Montibus, et Tiberim reverti, 
 
 Cum tu coemptos undique nobiles 
 Libros Panaeti, Socraticam et domum, 
 Mutare loricis Hiberis, 
 Pollicitus meliora, tendis ? 
 
 ] 
 
IQZ^ ■ . ■ ■ \ THE.ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXX. 
 
 VENUS INVOKED TO GLYCERa's FANE. 
 
 This ode has the air of a complimentary copy of 
 verses to some fair freed -woman who had fitted up a 
 pretty fane to Venus, probably in the grotto, or antrum, at- 
 tached to her residence. 
 
 Venus, O queen of Cnidos and of Paphos, 
 Spurn thy loved Cyprus — here transfer thy presence : 
 Decked is the fane to which, with incense lavish, 
 Glycera calls thee. 
 
 Bring with thee, glowing rosy red, the Boy-god, 
 Nymphs and loose-girdled Graces, and — if wanting 
 Thee, wanting charm — bring Youth, nor let persuasive * 
 Mercury fail us. 
 
 * For the addition of this explanatory epithet, see the notes of Orelli 
 and Dillenburger. "-' 
 
BOOK I.— ODE XXX. 10$ 
 
 Carm. XXX. 
 
 O VenuSj regina Cnidi Paphique, 
 Sperne dilectam Cypron, et vocantis 
 Thure te multo Glycerae decoram 
 y Transfer in aedem. 
 
 Fervidus tecum Puer, et solutis 
 Gratiae zonis, properentque Nymphae, 
 Et parum comis sine te Juventas, 
 *Mercuriusque. 
 
104 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXXI. 
 
 PRAYER TO APOLLO. 
 
 After the battle of Actium, Augustus, in commencing the 
 task of social reformer, restored the ancient temples and 
 built new ones. Amongst the latter, a.u.c. 726, he dedicated 
 to Apollo a temple, with a library attached to it, on the 
 Palatine. This charming poem expresses the poet's private 
 supplication to the god thus newly installed. 
 
 What demands at Apollo's new temple the poet ? 
 For what prays he outpouring new wine in libation ? 
 Not fertile Sardinia's rich sheaves, 
 Not sunny Calabria's fair herds ; 
 
 Neither prays he for gold, nor the ivory of Indus, 
 Nor the meadows whose margin the calm-flowing Liris 
 Eats into with murmurless wave. 
 Let those on whom Fortune bestows 
 
 So luxurious a grape, prune the vine-trees of Cales, 
 And let trade's wealthy magnate exchange for the vintage 
 Spiced cargoes of Syria, and drain 
 
 Cups * sculptured for pontiffs in gold ; 
 
 Dear, indeed, to the gods must be he who revisits 
 Twice and thrice every year the Atlantic, unpunished : 
 To me for a feast, mallows light. 
 And endives and olives suffice. 
 
 Give me health in myself to enjoy the things granted, 
 O thou son of Latona ; sound mind in sound body ; 
 Keep mine age free from all that degrades, 
 And let it not fail of the lyre. 
 
 * " Culullis," sculptured cups used by the pontiffs and Vestal virgins 
 in the sacred festivals. 
 
BOOK I.— ODE XXXI. 10$ 
 
 Carm. XXXI. 
 
 Quid dedicatum poscit Apollinem 
 Vates ? quid orat, de patera novum 
 Fundens liquorem ? Non opimae 
 Sardiniae segetes feraces, 
 
 Non 3estuos3e grata Calabriae 
 Armenta, non aumm aut ebur Indicum, 
 Non rura, quae Liris quieta 
 Mordet aqua tacitumus amnis. 
 
 Premant Galena falce, quibus dedit 
 Fortuna, vitem ; dives et aureis 
 Mercator exsiccet culullis * 
 Vina Syra reparata merce, 
 
 Dis carus ipsis, quippe ter et quater 
 Anno revisens sequor Atlanticum 
 Impune. Me pasciint olivae, 
 Me cichorea levesque malvae. 
 
 Frui paratis et valido mijii, 
 Latoe, dones> *et, precor, integra 
 Cum mente ; nee turpem senectam 
 Degere, nee cithara carentem. 
 
I06 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXXII. 
 
 TO HIS LYRE. 
 
 This short invocation to his lyre has the air of a prelude 
 to some meditated poem of greater importance. Several 
 of the Manuscripts commence " Poscimus," which reading 
 Bentley adopts. The modern editors agree in preferring 
 "Poscimur," which has more of the outburst of song, and 
 renders the poem more directly an address to the lyre. 
 
 We are summoned. If e'er, under shadow sequestered. 
 Has sweet dalliance with thee in light moments of leisure 
 Given birth to a something which lives, and may, haply, 
 Live in years later, 
 
 Rouse thee now, and discourse in the strains of the Roman, 
 Vocal shell, first attuned by the patriot of Lesbos, 
 Wlio, in war though so fierce, yet in battle, or mooring 
 On the wet sea-sand 
 
 His bark, tempest-tossed, chaunted Liber, the Muses, 
 Smiling Venus, the Boy ever clinging beside her. 
 And, adorned by dark locks and by eyes of dark lustre, 
 Beautiful Lycus. 
 
 O thou grace of Apollo, O charm in Jove's banquets. 
 Holy shell, dulcet solace of labour and sorrow, 
 O respond to my greeting, when I, with rite solemn. 
 Duly invoke thee. 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XXXII. lO/ 
 
 Carm. XXXII. 
 
 Poscimur. Si quid vacui sub umbra 
 Lusimus tecum, quod et hunc in annum 
 Vivat et plures ; age, die Latinum, 
 Barbite, carmen, 
 
 Lesbio primum modulate civi. 
 Qui, ferox bello, tamen inter arma, 
 Sive jactatam religarat udo 
 Litore navim, 
 
 Liberum, et Musas, Veneremque, et illi 
 Semper haerentem Puerum canebat, 
 Et Lycum nigris oculis nigroque 
 Crine decorum. 
 
 O decus Phcebi, et dapibus supremi 
 Grata testudo Jovis, O laborum 
 Dulce lenimen, niihi cumque salve 
 Rite vocanti. 
 
I08 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXXIII. 
 
 TO ALBIUS TIBULLUS. 
 
 This poem is addressed to the most touching of all the Latin 
 elegiac poets, Tibullus. Various but not satisfactory attempts 
 have been made to identify Glycera with one of the two 
 mistresses, Nemesis and Delia, celebrated in Tibullus's extant 
 elegies. 
 
 Nay, Albius, my friend, set some bounds to thy sorrow, 
 Let not this ruthless Glycera haunt thee for ever, 
 Nor, if in her false eyes a younger outshine thee. 
 Such heart-broken elegies dole. 
 
 With passion for Cyrus glows low-browed Lycoris,''^ 
 Cyrus swerving to Pholoe meets with rough usage : 
 When with wolves of Apulia the roe has her consort. 
 With that sinner Pholoe shall sin. 
 
 'Tis ever the way thus with Venus — it charms her 
 To mate those that match not in mind nor in person ; 
 In jest to her yoke she compels the wrong couples ; 
 Alas ! cruel jest, brazen yoke ! 
 
 Myself, when a far better love came to woo me, 
 Myrtale the slave-born detained in fond fetters ; 
 And Hadria can fret not the bay of Tarentum 
 So sorely as she fretted me. 
 
 * "Insignem tenui fronte Lycorida." So again, " Nigros angusta 
 fronte capillos" — Epp. I. vii. 26 : a low forehead seems to have long re- 
 mained in fashion. Petronius, c. 126, in describing a beautiful woman, 
 says, "Frons minima et quae apices capillorum retro flexerat." Low 
 foreheads came into fashion again at the close of the last century with the 
 French Republic. Both with men and women the hair was then brought 
 
BOOK I.—ODE XXXIII. 109 
 
 / 
 
 Carm. XXXIII. 
 
 Albi, ne doleas plus nimio, memor 
 Immitis Glycerae, neu miserabiles 
 Decantes elegos, cur tibi junior 
 Laesa praeniteat fide. 
 
 Insignem tenui fronte Lycorida * : 
 Cyri torret amor, C)mis in asperam 
 Declinat Pholoen ; sed prius Apulis 
 Jungentur capreae lupis, 
 
 Quam turpi Pholoe peccet adultero. 
 Sic visum Veneri, cui placet impares 
 Formas atque animos sub juga aenea 
 Saevo mittere cum joco. 
 
 Ipsum me, melior cum peteret Venus, 
 Grata detinuit compede Myrtale 
 Libertina, fretis acrior Hadri^ 
 Curvantis Calabros sinus. 
 
 down to the very eyebrow, as may be seen in the portraits of that time. 
 Yet the Greek sculptors in the purer age of art did not give low fore- 
 heads to their ideal images of beauty, and it is difficult to guess why an 
 intellectual people like the Romans should have admired a peculiarity 
 fatal to all frank and noble expression of the human countenance. The 
 Roman ladies were accustomed to hide their foreheads by a bandage, 
 elegantly called " nimbus" — i.e ., the cloud which accompanied the ap- 
 pearance of the celestials. 
 
no ■ THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXXIV. 
 
 TO HIMSELF. 
 
 In this poem Horace appears to recant the Epicurean 
 doctrine, which referred to secondary causes, and not to the 
 providential agency of Divine power, the government of the 
 universe, and which he professed, Sat. I. v, loi, and Epp. 
 I. iv. 1 6. But, in fact, he candidly acknowledges his own 
 inconsistency in all such matters, and is Stoic or Epicurean 
 by fits and starts. In this ode he evidently connects the 
 phenomenon of thunder in a serene sky with the sudden re- 
 volutions of fortune. The concluding verses are generally 
 held to refer to the Parthian revolution, in which power was 
 transferred now from Phraates to Tiridates, and again 
 from Tiridates back to Phraates. In the last stanza — 
 
 * ' Hinc apicem rapax 
 Fortuna cum stridore acuto 
 
 Sustulit, hie posuisse gaudet " — 
 
 it was suggested in the ' Cambridge Philological Museum,' 
 May 1832, that Horace had in his mind the legend of 
 the eagle taking off the cap of Tarquinius. For the conve- 
 nience of the general reader the story may be briefly thus 
 
 told. 
 Worshipper rare and niggard of the gods, 
 While led astray, in the Fool's wisdom versed. 
 Now back I shift the sail. 
 
 Forced in the courses left behind to steer : 
 
 For not, as wont, disparting serried cloud 
 With fiery flash, but through pure azure, drove 
 Of late Diespiter 
 
 His thundering coursers and his winged car ; 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XXXIV. 'Ill 
 
 told. Demaratus, one of the Bacchiadse of Corinth, flying 
 from his native city when Cypselus destroyed the power of 
 that aristocratic order, settled at Tarquinii, in Etruria, and 
 married an Etruscan wife. His son Lucumo succeeded to 
 his wealth, and married Tanaquil, of one of the noblest 
 families in Tarquinii, but being, as a stranger, excluded from 
 state offices, Lucumo, urged by his wife, resolved to remove 
 to Rome. Just as he and his procession reached the Janic- 
 ulum, within sight of Rome, an eagle seized his cap, soared 
 with it to a great height — "cum magno clangore" — and then 
 replaced it on his head. Tanaquil predicted to him the 
 highest honours from this omen, and Lucumo, who assumed 
 the name of Tarquinius Priscus, ultimately obtained the 
 Roman throne. Macleane, in referring to the legend, and 
 to the reference to Phraates, thinks it not probable that Ho- 
 race meant to allude to both these historical facts together, 
 and is therefore inclined to suppose that he intended neither 
 one nor the other. His objection does not impress me. 
 Nothing is more probable than that Horace should exem- 
 plify the sudden act of fortune in the Parthian revolution 
 and render his allusion more lively by a metaphor borrowed 
 from a familiar Roman myth. 
 
 Carm. XXXIV. 
 
 Parous deorum cultor et infrequens, 
 Insanientis dum sapientiae 
 
 Consultus erro, nunc retrorsum 
 Vela dare, atque iterare cursus 
 
 Cogor relictos : namque Diespiter, 
 Igni corusco nubila dividens 
 Plerumque, per purum tonantes 
 Egit equos volucremque currum ; 
 
112 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Wherewith the fixed earth and the vagrant streams — 
 Wherewith the Styx and horror-breathing realms 
 Of rayless Taenarus, shook — 
 
 Shook the world's end on Atlas. A god reigns, 
 
 Potent the high with low to interchange, 
 Bid bright orbs wane, and those obscure come forth : 
 Shrillingly Fortune swoops — 
 
 Here snatches, there exultant drops, a crown. 
 
BOOK I.— ODE XXXIV. T13 
 
 Quo bruta tellus et vaga flumina, 
 Quo Styx et invisi horrida Tsenari 
 Sedes, Atlanteusque finis 
 
 Concutitur. Valet ima summis 
 
 Mutare, et insignem attenuat deus, 
 Obscura promens ; hinc apicem rapax 
 Fortuna cum stridore acuto 
 Sustulit, hie posuisse gaudet. 
 
114 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXXV. 
 
 TO FORTUNE. 
 
 Macleane places the date of this ode a.u.c. 728, when 
 Augustus was meditating an expedition against the Britons 
 and another against the Arabs. Fortune is here distinguished 
 from Necessity, and recognised as a Divine InteUigence, ra- 
 ther with the attributes of Providence than those of Fate. 
 As Fortune had her oldest temples in Rome, so she seems 
 to have been the last goddess whose worship was deserted 
 by the Roman emperors. 
 
 Goddess, who o'er thine own loved* Antium reignest, 
 Present to lift Man, weighted with his sorrows 
 Down to life's last degree, 
 
 Or change his haughtiest triumphs into graves; — 
 
 To thee the earth's poor tiller prays imploring — 
 To thee. Queen-lady of the deeps, whoever 
 Cuts with Bithynian keel 
 
 A passing furrow in Carpatjiian seas.t 
 
 Thee Dacian rude — thee Scythia's vagrant nomad J — 
 Thee states and races — thee Rome's haughty children — 
 Thee purple tyrants dread, 
 
 And the pale mothers of Barbarian kings, 
 
 Lest thou spurn down with scornful foot the pillar 
 Whereon rest states ;§ lest all, from arms yet lingering, 
 
 * " Gratum — Antium." Orelli prefers interpreting "gratum " as "di- 
 lectum," "dear to the goddess," rather than as "amoenum," or "plea- 
 sant." 
 
 + /.<f., whether man ploughs earth or sea he equally prays to Fortune. 
 
 t " Profugi Scythise." The epithet "profugi" applies to the nomad 
 character of the Scyth, not to simulated flights as those of the Parthian 
 cavalry. 
 
 § " Stantem columnam." The standing column was the emblem of 
 
\ BOOK I. — ODE XXXV. 
 
 Carm. XXXV. 
 
 / 
 
 O Diva, gratum * quag regis Antium, 
 Praesens vel imo tollere de gradu 
 Mortale corpus, vel superbos 
 Vertere funeribus triumphos ; 
 
 T/pauper ambit sollicita prece 
 <^unj^ colonus ; te dottiinam aequoris, 
 Cjuicunque Bittiyna laoessit 
 Carpathium pelagus carina.t 
 
 Te Dacus asper, te profugi Scythae, J 
 Urbesque gentesque et Latium ferox, 
 Regumque matres barbarorum, et 
 Purpurei metuunt tyranni, 
 
 Injurioso ne pede proruras 
 
 Stantem columnam, § neu populus frequens 
 
 fixity and firmness. '* In ancient monuments," says Dillenburger, " the 
 column is thus assigned to images of Peace, Security, Felicity." Horace 
 naturally writes in the spirit of his land and age in deprecating civil tu- 
 mult as the most formidable agency for the overthrow of the column and 
 the destruction of government and order. 
 
Il6 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 To arms some madding crowd 
 
 Rouse with the shout to which an empire falls. 
 
 Thee doth untamed Necessity for ever 
 Stalk fierce before ; — the ship nails and the wedges 
 Bearing in grasp of bronze, 
 
 Which lacks nor molten lead nor steadfast clamp.* 
 
 But thee Hope follows, and rare Faith, the white-robed, 
 True to thee, even when thou thyself art altered. 
 And from the homes of Power 
 
 Passest away, in mourning weeds, a foe ; 
 
 While the false herd, the parasite, the harlot, 
 Shrink back : their love is dried up with the wine-cask, 
 Their lips reject its lees ; 
 
 Their necks will halve no yoke that Sorrow draws. 
 
 Guard Caesar, seeking on earth's verge the Briton, — 
 Guard Rome's young swarm of warriors on the wing, 
 Where they alight, to awe 
 
 The rebel East and Araby's red sea. 
 
 Shame for the scars, the guilt, the blood of brothers ! 
 What have we shunned — we, the hard Age of Iron ? 
 What of crime left intact ? 
 What youthful hand has fear of heaven restrained ? 
 
 Where stands an altar sacred from its rapine ? 
 Dread goddess, — steel made blunt in impious battles 
 On anvils new reforge ; 
 And turn its edge on Arab and on Scyth ! 
 
 * Most recent commentators of authority agree in rejecting the notion 
 of the commentator in Cruquius, adopted by earlier editors, that "uncus " 
 and " plumbum " are used here as emblems of punishment and crime, 
 and consider them as emblems of tenacity and fixity of purpose. Mac- 
 leane observes that the metaphor of molten lead for strengthening build- 
 ings is employed by Euripides, 'Androm.,' 267. Herder suggests that 
 the whole picture of Necessity and her attributes is taken from some pic- 
 ture in the temple of Fortune at Antium. 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XXXV. II7 
 
 Ad arma cessantes, ad arma 
 Concitet, imperiumque frangat. 
 
 Te semper anteit saeva Necessitas, 
 Clavos trabales et cuneos manu 
 Gestans aena ; nee severus 
 
 Uncus abest, liquidumque plumbum.* 
 
 Te Spes et albo rara Fides colit 
 Velata panno, nee com item abnegat, 
 Utcunque mutata potentes 
 Veste domos inimica linquis. 
 
 At volgus infidum et meretrix retro 
 Perjura cedit ; diffugiunt cadis 
 Gum faece siccatis amici, 
 Ferre jugum pariter dolosi. 
 
 Serves iturum Caesarem in ultimos 
 Orbis Britannos, et juvenum recens 
 Examen Eois timendum 
 Partibus, Oceanoque rubro. 
 
 Eheu ! cicatricum et sceleris pudet 
 Fratrumque. Quid nos dura refugimus 
 ^tas ? quid intactum nefasti 
 
 Liquimus ? unde manum juventus 
 
 Metu deorum continuit? quibus 
 Pepercit aris ? O utinam nova 
 Incude diffingas retusum in 
 Massagetas Arabasque ferrum ! 
 
Il8 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXXVI. 
 
 ON NUMIDA's return from SPAIN. 
 
 Horace congratulates Numida on his return from Spain — 
 probably from the army with Augustus, a.u.c. 730. Who 
 Numida was can be only matter of conjecture. 
 
 Repay both with incense and harp-string, 
 
 Repay with the heifer's blood due, Numida's guardians divine; 
 Safe back from Hesperia the farthest. 
 
 Now among loving friends shares he many a brotherly kiss, 
 
 But the portion of Lamia is largest ; 
 
 Mindful of childhood subjected to the same monarch's "^ 
 control, 
 And how they both, donning the toga, 
 
 Leapt into manhood together. Let not this happy day lack 
 
 The registered mark of the Crete stone : 
 
 Be there no stint to the wine-cask, be there no pause to 
 the feet, 
 Blithe in the bound of such measure 
 
 Salii on holidays dance to ! Bassus shall gallantly vie 
 
 With Damalis, queen of she-topers, 
 
 Toss off his cup with a swallow like the grand drinkers of 
 Thrace ;t 
 And banquets shall want not the roses, 
 
 Garlands of parsley the long-lived, garlands of lilies the brief. 
 
 All eyes shall for Damalis languish ; 
 
 But yet more encircling than ivy, climbing its way as it winds. 
 Shall Damalis, proof to their glances. 
 
 Turning aside from the old loves, cling root and branch 
 to the new. 
 
 * " Memor actae non 'alio rege puertise." Most modem scholars by 
 **rege" understand schoolmaster. 
 
 + "Threicia amystide." "Amystis" was a deep draught taken 
 without drawing breath. 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XXXVI. 1 19 
 
 Carm. XXXVI. 
 
 Et thure et fidibus juvat 
 
 Placare et vituli sanguine debito 
 Custodes Numidas deos, 
 
 Qui nunc, Hesperia sospes ab ultima, 
 
 Cans multa sodalibus, 
 
 Nulli plura tamen dividit oscula 
 Quam dulci Lamiae, memor 
 
 Actse non alio rege puertise,* 
 
 Mutataeque simul togae. 
 
 Cressa ne careat pulchra dies nota, 
 Neu promptae modus amphorae^ 
 
 Neu morem in Salium sit requies pedum, 
 
 Neu multi Damalis meri 
 
 Bassum Threicia vincat amystide,t 
 Neu desint epulis rosae, 
 
 Neu vivax apium, neu breve lilium. 
 
 Omnes in Damalin putres 
 
 Deponent oculos, nee Damalis novo 
 Divelletur adultero, 
 
 Lascivis hederis ambitiosior. 
 
120 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXXVII. 
 
 ON THE FALL OF CLEOPATRA. 
 
 In this ode Horace conspicuously manifests his unri- 
 valled art of combining terseness and completeness. The 
 animated rapidity with which the images succeed each 
 other does not render them less distinct. The three pic- 
 tures of Cleopatra constitute the action of a drama ; her 
 insolent power with its Oriental surroundings, — her flight 
 and fall, — her undaunted death. And while, with his in- 
 herent manliness of sentiment, Horace compels admiration 
 
 for 
 
 Drink, companions, the moment has come for carousal, 
 And the foot is now free to strike earth in brisk measures, 
 For Salian* feasts now may be decked 
 The couches of statues divine. 
 
 Not before was it lawful from time-honoured cellars 
 To draw forth into light the stored Caecuban juices, 
 While ruin and death were prepared 
 For Rome, by the fell madding Queen, 
 
 With her horde of vile eunuchs and outcasts polluted, 
 Fooled by hope, drunk with sweets in the chalice of Fortune : 
 Soon sobered when slunk from the flames 
 That enveloped her navies — one ship ! 
 
 * The Salii were the priests of Mars Gradivus, twelve in number. 
 Their habitual festival was in March, when they paraded the city in 
 their official robes, carrying with them the twelve sacred shields of Mars, 
 which they struck with rods, keeping time to the stroke by song and 
 dance. At the conclusion of the festival the Salii partook of ^ banquet, 
 proverbial for its magnificence, in the temple of Mars. "Pulvinaria" 
 are the couches on which the statues were placed, as if the gods them- 
 selves were banqueters. 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XXXVII. 121 
 
 for the foe who defrauds the victor of his triumph, and dies 
 a queen, that very generosity of his serves more to justify 
 the joyous exultation with which the poem commences, 
 since it impHes the determined nature of the great enemy 
 from whom Rome is deUvered. The date of the poem is 
 sufficiently clear. M. Tullius Cicero, son of the orator, 
 brought to Rome the news of the taking of Alexandria, and 
 the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, Sept., a.u.c. 724, suggest- 
 ing this exhortation to private and public rejoicings. It will 
 be observed here, as elsewhere, how Horace avoids naming 
 Mark Antony. Two lines from a fragment of Alcseus are 
 cited by commentators to show that the commencement of 
 this ode is imitated from them. They rather serve to show 
 with what sedulous avoidance of servility Horace does 
 imitate, and how thoroughly Roman the whole treatment 
 of his poem is, whatever be the lines to which a Greek 
 poem may furnish hint and suggestion. 
 
 Carm. XXXVII. 
 
 Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero 
 Pulsanda tellus ; nunc Saliaribus* 
 Ornare pulvinar deorum 
 
 Tempus erat dapibus, sodales. 
 
 Antehac nefas depromere Caecubum 
 Cellis avitis, dum Capitolio 
 Regina dementes ruinas, 
 Funus et imperio parabat 
 
 Contaminato cum grege turpium 
 Morbo virorum, quidlibet impotens 
 Sperare, fortunaque dulci 
 Ebria. Sed minuit furorem 
 
122 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Speeding on to transfix into true forms of terror 
 The visions which fumes Mareotic* engender, 
 As falcon that swoops on the dove, 
 As hunter that chases the hare 
 
 On the snow plains of Haemus, — from Italy plying 
 Rapid oars on her flight near and nearer comes Cassar, 
 To chain, as the gapeshow of Rome, 
 The fair fatal monster. Too great 
 
 For such end, she but sought by what death to defy it, 
 She recoiled from the sword with no womanlike shudder, 
 She crowded no sail to far shores 
 
 Where life might lurk safe and obscure. 
 
 Brave to gaze with calm look round her desolate palace, 
 Strong to grasp with firm hand and provoke the fierce 
 serpents 
 That, there where she fixed them, her veins 
 Might best the black venom imbibe ; 
 
 Bolder made in the death thus assured by stern purpose, 
 She begrudged to the savage Liburnianst their captive ; 
 In no insolent triumph was drawn 
 Discrowned, the grand woman-queen. 
 
 * "Mentemque lymphatam Mareotico." ** Lymphatam " denotes panic 
 or visionary terrors (" lymphata somnia "). ** Lympha " and " nympha," 
 as Macleane observes, are the same word. Nympholepsy was the mad- 
 ness occasioned by the sight of the nymph flashing up from the fountain, 
 scaring the traveller out of his senses ; and " lymphatus " literally means 
 *' driven mad by the glare of water." Horace ascribes this effect to the 
 fumes, or perhaps rather the sparkle, of the Mareotic wine, produced on 
 the banks of Lake Mareotis, in the neighbourhood of Alexandria. 
 
 + " Liburnians," light swift-sailing vessels, which constituted a chief 
 portion of Augustus's fleet at Actium. 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XXXVII. 1 23 
 
 Vix una sospes navis ab ignibus ; 
 Mentemque lymphatam Mareotico* 
 Redegit in veros timores 
 Caesar, ab Italia volantem 
 
 Remis adurgens, accipiter velut 
 Molles columbas, aut leporem citus 
 Venator in Campis nivalis 
 Hsemoniae, daret ut catenis 
 
 Fatale monstmm : quae generosius 
 Perire quaerens, nee muliebriter 
 Expavit ensem, nee latentes 
 Classe cita reparavit oras. 
 
 Ausa et jacentem visere regiam 
 Voltu sereno, fortis et asperas 
 Tractare serpentes, ut atrum 
 Corpore combiberet venenum ; 
 
 Deliberata morte ferocior, 
 Saevis Liburnist scilicet invidens 
 Privata deduci superbo 
 
 Non humilis mulier triumpho. 
 
124 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXXVIII. 
 
 TO HIS WINE-SERVER. 
 
 Boy, I detest the pomp of Persic fashions — 
 Coronals wreathed with linden rind* displease me; 
 Cease to explore each nook for some belated 
 Rose of the autumn. 
 
 Weave with plain myrtle nothing else, I bid thee ; 
 Thee not, in serving, misbecomes the myrtle, 
 Me not, in drinking, underneath the trellised 
 Bowery vine-leaves.t 
 
 * *' Philyra," the rind of the lime-tree used in elaborate garlands, 
 t "Sub arta vite" — **arta," "close," "embowering;" as in the 
 trellised vine-arbours still common in Italy and parts of Germany. 
 
BOOK I. — ODE XXXVIII. 125 
 
 Carm. XXXVIII. 
 
 Persicos odi, puer, apparatus, 
 Displicent nexae philyra* coronse ; 
 MittS sectari, rosa quo locorum 
 Sera moretur. 
 
 Simplici myrto nihil allabores 
 Sedulus euro : neque te ministmm 
 Dedecet myrtus neque me sub arta 
 Vite bibentem.t 
 
126 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 BOOK IL— ODE I. 
 
 TO ASINIUS POLLIO. 
 
 Pollio was among Caesar's generals when he crossed the 
 Rubicon, and at the battle of Pharsalia. After Caesar's 
 death he joined M. Antony, and sided with him in the Peru- 
 sian war. He remained neutral after the battle of Actium. 
 Indeed he retired from an active share in public life after his 
 victorious expedition against the Parthini, an Illyrian people 
 bordering on Dalmatia, and it is to that victory which 
 Horace refers as the " Dalmatian triumph." He then gave 
 
 himself 
 
 The civil feuds which from Metellus date, 
 The causes, errors, conduct of the war, 
 Fortune's capricious sport. 
 
 The fatal friendships of august allies, 
 
 And arms yet crusted with in expiate blood ; — 
 Such work is risked upon a perilous die : 
 Thou tread'st on smouldering fires, 
 
 By the false lava heaped on them concealed. 
 
 Let for a while the tragic Muse forsake 
 Her stage, till thou set forth the tale of Rome, 
 Then the grand gift of song, 
 
 With the Cecropian buskin, reassume, 
 
 Pollio, in forum and in senate famed, 
 Grief's bold defender, counsel's thoughtful guide, 
 For whom the laurel, won 
 
 In fields Dalmatian, blooms forth ever green. 
 
BOOK II. — ODE I. 127 
 
 himself up to literature. His tragedies, of which there 
 are no remains, are highly praised by Virgil, who says they 
 were worthy of Sophocles. Porphyrion says he was the only 
 one of his time who could write tragedy well. But the author 
 of the * Dialog, de Oratoribus ' asserts that both as a tragic 
 writer and an orator his style was hard and dry. His history 
 appears to have been in seventeen books; and it is after having 
 heard him read a part of it (he is said to have introduced at 
 Rome the custom of such readings to assemblies, more or less 
 familiar, before publication) that we may suppose Horace to 
 have written the ode, of which the date is uncertain. Pollio 
 appears to have been one of the most truly illustrious, and 
 certainly one of the most accomplished, personages of the 
 Augustan era. 
 
 Carm I. 
 
 Motum ex Metello consule civicum, 
 Bellique causas et vitia et modos, 
 Ludumque Fortunae, gravesque 
 Principum amicitias, et arma 
 
 ' Xondum expiatis uncta cruoribus, 
 
 Periculosae plenum opus aleae, 
 ^ ' Tractas et incedis per ignes 
 Suppositos cineri doloso. 
 
 Paullum severse Musa tragoedise 
 Desit theatris : mox ubi publicas 
 Res ordinaris, grande munus 
 Cecropio repetes cotHurno, 
 
 Insigne msestis prsesidium reis 
 Et consulenti, Pollio, curiae, 
 Cui laurus aetemos honores 
 Delmatico peperit triumpho. 
 
128 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Now, now, thou strik'st the ear with murmurous threat 
 From choral horns — now the loud clarions blare ; 
 Lightnings from armour flashed, 
 
 Daunt charging war-steeds * and the looks of men 1 
 
 Now, now, I seem to hear the mighty chiefs, 
 Soiled with the dust which ornaments the brave. 
 And see all earth subdued. 
 
 Save the intrepid soul of Cato. Foiled 
 
 Of her revenge, Juno, with all the gods, 
 Quitting the Afric they had loved in vain. 
 Back to Jugurtha's shade 
 
 Brought funeral victims in his conqueror's sons. 
 
 What field, made fertile by the Roman's gore, 
 Attests not impious wars by ghastly mounds, 
 And by the crash, borne far 
 
 To Median ears, of falling Italy ? 
 
 What gulf, what stream, has boomed not with the wail 
 Of dismal battle-storms ? What sea has hues 
 From Daunian carnage pure. 
 What land has lacked the tribute of our blood ? 
 
 Hush, wayward Muse, nor, playful strains laid by. 
 Strive to recast the Cean'st dirge-like hymn : 
 In Dionaean grot. 
 
 With me, seek measures tuned to lighter quill. 
 
 * "Fugaces terret equos." "Fugaces" here does not mean steeds 
 in flight, but rather in charge — it applies to their swiftness. — POR- 
 PHYRION. Orelli adopts that interpretation. 
 
 + "Cese — neniae." Horace does not confine this word to the usual 
 sense of a dirge ; but it suits the quality of Simonides's poetry, which 
 was of a severe and melancholy cast. — Macleane. 
 
BOOK II. — ODE I. f^ 
 
 Jam nunc minaci murmure cornuum 
 Perstringis aures, jam litui strepunt, 
 Jam fulgor armorum fugaces 
 
 Terret equos'^ equitumque voltus. 
 
 Audire magnos jam videor duces 
 Non indecoro pulvere sordidos, 
 Et cuncta terrarum subacta 
 
 Prseter atrocem animum Catonis. 
 
 Juno et deorum quisquis amicior 
 Afris inulta cesserat impotens 
 Tellure victorum nepotes 
 Rettulit inferias Jugurthae. 
 
 Quis non Latino sanguine pinguior 
 Campus sepulcris impia proelia 
 Testatur, auditumque Medis 
 Hesperige sonitum ruinse ? 
 
 Qui gurges aut quae flumina lugubris 
 Ignara belli ? quod mare Dauniae 
 K'on decoloravere caedes ? 
 Quae caret ora cruore nostro ? 
 
 Sed ne relictis, Musa procax, jocis, 
 Ceae retractes munera neniae :t 
 Mecum Dionaeo sub antro 
 Quaere modos leviore plectro. 
 
130 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE II. 
 
 TO C. SALLUSTIUS CRISPUS, GRAND-NEPHEW OF 
 THE HISTORIAN. 
 
 Many years before this ode, which is assigned to a.u.c. 
 730, Horace satirises the frailties of this personage, who was 
 then a young man (Sat. I. ii. 48). He was now second only 
 to Maecenas in the favour of Augustus, to whom he subse- 
 quently became the chief adviser. Tacitus gives a vigorous 
 sketch of his character. He died a,d. 20. 
 
 Yes, Sallust, scorn the mere inactive metal ; 
 There is no lustre of itself in silver, 
 While niggard earth conceals ; from temperate usage 
 Comes its smooth polish. 
 
 Known by the heart of father for his brethren, 
 Time's latest age shall hear of Proculeius.* 
 Him shall uplift, and on no waxen pinion, 
 Fame, the survivor. 
 
 Wider thy realm, a greedy soul subjected, 
 Than if to Libya joined the farthest Gades, 
 And either Carthage + to thy single service 
 Ministered riches. 
 
 The direful dropsy feeds itself, increasing ; 
 To expel the thirst we must expel the causes, 
 And healthier blood must chase the watery languor 
 From the wan body. 
 
 * Proculeius, a friend and near connection of Maecenas, with whom 
 he is coupled by Juvenal (S. vii. 94) as a patron of letters, is said by the 
 scholiasts to have divided his fortune with his brothers Licinius Murena, 
 and Fannius Caepio, whose property had been despoiled in the civil wars. 
 It is doubted, however, whether Licinius was his brother or cousin, and 
 
BOOK II. — ODE 11. 131 
 
 Carm. II. 
 
 Nullus argento color est avaris 
 Abdito terris, inimice lamnae 
 Crispe Sallusti, nisi temperato 
 Splendeat usu. 
 
 Vivet extento Proculeius* aevo, 
 Notus in fratres animi patemi ; 
 Ilium aget penna metuente solvi 
 Fama superstes. 
 
 Latius regnes avidum domando 
 Spiritum, quam si Libyam remotis 
 Gadibus jungas, et uterque Pcenust 
 Serviat uni. 
 
 Crescit indulgens sibi dims hydrops, 
 Nee sitim pellit, nisi causa morbi 
 Fugerit venis, et aquosus albo 
 Corpore languor. 
 
 whether Csepio was related to him. Proculeius was among the Roman 
 knights on whom Augustus thought of bestowing Julia in marriage. 
 
 + *' Either Carthage" — viz., the African Carthage and her colonies in 
 Spain. 
 
132 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Virtue, dissentient from the vulgar judgment, 
 Strikes from the list of happy men Phraates, 
 Even when restored to the great throne of Cyrus ; 
 Virtue unteaches 
 
 Faith in false doctrines mouthed out by the many, 
 Holding safe only his realm, crown, and laurel. 
 Whose sight nor blinks, nor swerves, though, heaped before it, 
 Shine the world's treasures. 
 
BOOK II. — ODE II. 133 
 
 Redditum Cyri solio Phraaten 
 Dissidens plebi numero beatomm 
 Eximit Virtus, populumque falsis 
 Dedocet uti 
 
 Vocibusj regnum et diadema tutum 
 Deferens uni propriamque laurum, 
 Quisquis ingentes oculo inretorto 
 Spectat acervos. 
 
134 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE III. 
 TO Q. DELLIUS. 
 
 The commentator in Cruquius has Gellius for DeUius, 
 assuming the person addressed to be L. GeUius Poplicola, 
 brother of Messalla, the famous orator. But the common 
 supposition is that the poem is addressed to Q. DelHus, to 
 whose changeful and adventurous Hfe its admonitions would 
 be very appropriate. Dellius sided first with Dolabella, 
 then went over to Cassius, then to M. Antony and Cleo- 
 patra. To Cleopatra he is said to have dictated the advice 
 
 that 
 
 With a mind undisturbed take life's good and life's evil, 
 Temper grief from despair, temper joy from vainglory ; 
 For, through each mortal change, equal mind, 
 O my Dellius, befits mortal-born, 
 
 Whether all that is left thee of life be but trouble, 
 Or, reclined at thine ease amid grassy recesses, 
 Thy Falernian, the choicest, records 
 How serenely the holidays glide. 
 
 Say, for what do vast pine and pale poplar commingle 
 Friendly boughs that invite to their welcoming shadow ? "' 
 Wherefore struggles and murmurs the rill 
 Stayed from flight by a curve in the shore ?t 
 
 Thither, lo, bid them bring thee the wine and the perfumes, 
 And the blooms of the pleasant rose dying too swiftly ; 
 
 * "The oldest and best MSS. have 'quo,' which signifies 'to what 
 purpose;' as, 'Quo mihi fortunam, si non conceditur uti?' (Epp. I. v. 
 12.) He seems to mean, 'What were the stream and the cool shade 
 given for? Bring out the wine and let us drink.'" — Macleane. 
 
BOOK II. — ODE III. 135 
 
 that she should rather subjugate M. Antony than be subju- 
 gated by him. Not long before the battle of Actium, he 
 gave some offence to Cleopatra, probably more serious than 
 that which has been assigned — viz., a sarcasm on the 
 meagreness of her entertainments — and deserted Antony 
 for Augustus, by whom he was cordially received. Like so 
 many other public men of his time he cultivated literature, 
 and wrote a history (now lost) of the war against the Par- 
 thians, in which he served under Antony. A terse sketch 
 of his versatile career will be found in Estre, Pros. Horat., 
 314. 
 
 Carm. III. 
 
 ^quam memento rebus in arduis 
 Servare mentem, non secus in bonis 
 Ab insolenti temperatam 
 Laetitia, moriture Delli, 
 
 Seu maestus omni tempore vixeris, 
 Seu te in remoto gramine per dies 
 Festos reclinatum bearis 
 Interiore nota Falerni. 
 
 Quo pinus ingens albaque populus 
 Umbram hospitalem consociare amant 
 Ramis?* Quid obliquo laborat 
 Lympha fugax trepidare rivo ? 1 
 
 Hue vina et unguenta et nimium breves 
 Flores amoenae ferre jube rosas. 
 
 Yonge, in his notes, cites parallels from English poets with the elegance 
 of taste which characterises his edition. 
 
 + ** Laborat — trepidare." " The stream struggles or labours to hurry 
 on (trepidare), being obstructed by the curve in the bank (obliquo rivo), 
 from which delay comes its pleasant murmur." — Orelli. 
 
136 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 While thy fortune, and youth,* and the woof 
 Of the Three Fatal Sisters allow. 
 
 Woodlands dearly amassedt round the home proudly builded. 
 Stately villa with walls laved by Tiber's dun waters, 
 Thou must quit ; and the wealth piled on high 
 Shall become the delight of thine heir. 
 
 For no victim has death either preference or pity, 
 Be thy race from the king who first reigned o'er the Argive, 
 Or thy father a beggar, thy roof 
 
 Yonder sky, — 'tis the same to the Grave. 
 
 Driven all to that fold ; J in one fatal urn shaken, 
 Soon or late must leap forth the sure lot for an exile 
 In the dark passage-boat which comes back 
 To the sweet native land never more. 
 
 * " iEtas," which Acron translates "youth," an interpretation ap- 
 proved by Estre and Macleane. It more accurately, however, means "the 
 time of life," including every period before that in which old age dead- 
 ens the sense of such holiday enjoyments. Dellius was not young at the 
 date of this poem ; but, at years more advanced, M. Antony was young 
 enough to enjoy the present hour rather too much. 
 
 f •* Coemptis saltibus." "Bought up," "extensive properties added 
 together. " — YoNGE. 
 
 X ** Cogimur." " Gregis instar compellimur " — " we are driven like 
 sheep." — Orelli. 
 
BOOK II. — ODE III. 137 
 
 Dum res et aetas * et Sororum 
 Fila trium patiuntur atra. 
 
 Cedes coemptis saltibus,t et domo, 
 Villaque, flavus quam Tiberis lavit, 
 Cedes, et exstructis in altum 
 Divitiis potietur heres. 
 
 Divesne prisco natus ab Inacho, 
 Nil interest, an pauper et infima 
 De gente sub divo moreris, 
 Victima nil miserantis Orci. 
 
 Omnes eodem cogimur;J omnium 
 Versatur urna serius ocius 
 
 Sors exitura, et nos in aeternum 
 Exilium impositura cumbse. 
 
138 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE IV. 
 
 TO XANTHIAS PHOCEUS. 
 
 Xanthias Phoceus is evidently a fictitious designation. 
 Xanthias is a Greek name, and given by Aristophanes to 
 slaves; and Phoceus characterises the person named as a 
 
 Phocian. 
 
 Nay, if thou lov'st thy handmaid, Xanthias, blush not : 
 Long since the slave Briseis, with white beauty, 
 O'ermastering him who ne'er before had yielded,* 
 Conquered Achilles ; 
 
 So, too, the captive form of fair Tecmessa 
 Conquered her captor Telamonian Ajax ; 
 And a wronged maiden, in the midst of triumph. 
 Fired Agamemnon, 
 
 What time had fallen the barbarian forces 
 Before the might of the Thessalian victor. 
 And Hector's loss made easy to worn Hellas 
 Troy's mighty ruin. 
 
 How dost thou know but what thy fair-haired Phyllis 
 May make thee son-in-law to splendid parents ? 
 Doubtless she mourns the wrong to race and hearth-gods 
 Injured, but regal. 
 
 Believe not thy beloved of birth plebeian ; 
 A girl so faithful, so averse from lucre, 
 Could not be born of an ignoble mother 
 Whom thou wouldst blush for. 
 
 That lovely face, those arms, those tapering ankles — . 
 Nay, in my praises never doubt mine honour : 
 The virtuous man, who rounds the age of forty. 
 Hold unsuspected. 
 
 * ** Insolentem — Achillem." I agree with Yonge in his suggestion 
 that " insolentem" means "not wont to be moved." 
 
BOOK II. — ODE IV. 139 
 
 Phocian. The date of the ode is clearly a.u.c. 729, or th 
 beginning of 730, when Horace, born a.u.c. 689, was just 
 concluding his eighth lustre. 
 
 Carm. IV. 
 
 Ne sit ancillae tibi amor pudori, 
 Xanthia Phoceu ! Prius insolentem* 
 Serva Briseis niveo colore 
 Movit Achillem ; 
 
 Movit Ajacem Telamone natum 
 Forma captivae dominum Tecmessae ; 
 . Arsit Atrides medio in triumpho 
 Virgine rapta, 
 
 Barbarae postquam cecidere turmae 
 Thessalo victore, et ademptus Hector 
 Tradidit fessis leviora tolli 
 Pergama Grais. 
 
 Nescias, an te generum beati 
 Phyllidis flavae decorent parehtes : 
 Regium certe genus et Penates 
 Maeret iniquos. 
 
 Crede non illam^tibi de scelesta 
 Plebe dilectam ; neque sic fidelem, 
 Sic lucro aversam, potuisse nasci 
 Matre pudenda. 
 
 Brachia et voltum teretesque suras 
 Integer laudo ; fuge suspicari, 
 Cujus octavum trepidavit aetas 
 Claudere lustrum. 
 
140 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE V. 
 
 TO GABINIUS. 
 
 This poem is designated variously in theMSS.as "Lalage," 
 " To the Lover of Lalage," &c. According to one early MS. 
 (the Zurich), it is inscribed to Gabinius. But even Estre 
 cannot tell us who Gabinius was, though Orelli conjectures 
 him to have been son or grandson to A. Gabinius, Cicero's 
 enemy. The poem is of very general application, and the 
 leading idea is expressed with great elegance and spirit. 
 
 Not yet can she bear, with neck supple, the yoke, 
 Not yet with another submit to be paired ; 
 Immature for the duties of mate, 
 And the fiery embrace of the bull, 
 
 Thine heifer confines all her heart to green fields ; 
 Now pausing to slake summer heats in the stream, 
 Now with steerlings yet younger at play 
 Midst the sallows that drip on the shore. 
 
 Till ripe, do not long for the fruit of the grape ; 
 Anon varied Autumn shall deepen its hues, 
 And empurple the clusters that now 
 Do but palHdly peep from the leaf : 
 
 Anon, 'tis thyself she will seek ; fervent Time 
 Speeds on, adding quick to her youth's crowning flower 
 Blooming seasons subtracted from thine ; 
 Then shall Lalage glow for a spouse : 
 
 And then not so lovely the coy Pholoe, 
 Nor Chloris resplendent with shoulders of snow, 
 As a moon in the stillness of night 
 Shining pure on the calm of a sea; 
 
(^^ 
 
 BOOK II. — ODE v.. 141 
 
 Carm. V. 
 
 Nondum subacta ferre jugum valet 
 Cervice, nondum munia comparis 
 Square, nee tauri mentis 
 In venerem tolerare pondus. 
 
 Circa virentes est animus tuse 
 Campos juvencae, nunc fluviis gravem 
 Solantis aestum, nunc in udo 
 Ludere cum vitulis salicto 
 
 Prasgestientis. Tolle cupidinem 
 Immitis uvae : jam tibi lividos 
 Distinguet Auctumnus racemos 
 Purpureo varius colore. 
 
 Jam te sequetur: currit eninVferq?^ 
 ^tas, et illi, quos tibi dempserit, \ 7 
 Apponet annos ; jam proterva \ ' 
 Fronte petet Lalage maritum : ' 
 
 Dilecta, quantum non Pholoe fugajg 
 Non Chloris albo sic humero nitens, 
 Ut pura nocturno renidet 
 Luna mari, Cnidiusve Gyges, 
 
 o 
 
142 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Nor even Cnidian Gyges, whom, placed amid girls, 
 No guest the most shrewd could distinguish from them, 
 So redundant the flow of his locks. 
 And his face so ambiguously fair. 
 
BOOK II. — ODE V, 143 
 
 Quern si puellamm insereres choro, 
 Mire sagaces falleret hospites 
 Discrimen obscurum solutis 
 Crinibus ambiguoque voltu. 
 
144 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE VI. 
 
 TO SEPTIMIUS. 
 
 It is a reasonable conjecture, though nothing more, that 
 this is the same Septimius whom Horace introduces to 
 Tiberius, Ep. I. ix., and whom Augustus mentions in a letter 
 to Horace, preserved in the life attributed to Suetonius. 
 The scholiast in Cruquius says that he was a Roman knight, 
 
 and 
 
 To the world's end thou'dst go with me, Septimius, 
 View tribes Cantabrian, for our yoke too savage ; 
 And barbarous Syrtes, where the Moorish billow 
 Whirls, ever-seething ; 
 
 No, my Septimius, may. mine age close calmly 
 In that mild Tibur by the Argive founded ; 
 There, tired of ranging lands and seas, and warfare. 
 Reach my last limit. 
 
 Or if such haven the hard Fates deny me, 
 Thee will I seek, Galaesus, gentle river. 
 Dear to flocks skin-clad;* and thy rural kingdom, 
 Spartan Phalanthus.t 
 
 Out of all earth most smiles to me that corner. 
 Where the balmed honey yields not to Hymettus, 
 Where olives vie with those whose silvery verdure 
 Gladdens Venafrum : 
 
 * " Pellitis ovibus." '* Pellitis " is supposed by Orelli and others to 
 refer to the hides with which the fleeces of the sheep were protected 
 from thorns and brambles and atmospheric changes. 
 
 + Tarentum, of which Phalanthus, the leader of the emigrant Par- 
 thenise, after the first Messenian war, got possession. 
 
BOOK 11. — ODE VI. 145 
 
 and had been fellow - soldier with Horace ; that a Titius 
 Septimius wrote lyrics and tragedies in the time of Augustus; 
 and there are those who make the Septimius of the ode 
 identical with the Titius of whom Horace speaks in his 
 Epistle to Julius Florus, lib. i. 3, v. 9 et seq. All this is 
 uncertain : not less uncertain is the date at which the ode 
 was composed. 
 
 CaRm. VI. 
 
 Septimi, Gades aditure mecum et 
 Cantabrum indoctum juga ferre nostra^t 
 Barbaras Syrtes, ubi Maura semper 
 ^stuat unda, 
 
 Tibur Argeo positum colono 
 Sit mese sedes utinam senectae, 
 Sit modus lasso maris et viarum 
 Militiseque. 
 
 Unde si Parcse prohibent iniquse, 
 Dulce pellitis* ovibus Galaesi 
 Flumen et regnata petam Laconi 
 Rura Phalantho.t 
 
 Ille terrarum mihi praster omnes 
 Angulus ridet, ubi non Hymetto 
 Mella decedunt, viridique certat 
 Baca Venafro ; 
 
146 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Where Jove bestows long springs and genial winters, 
 And Anion's mount, friend to a fertile Bacchus, 
 Never has cause the purple of Falernian 
 Clusters to envy. 
 
 Both thee and me that place, those blessed hill-tops. 
 Invite ; thy tear shall there bedew the relics 
 Of thy lost poet-friend, while yet there lingers 
 Warmth in the ashes. 
 
BOOK II. — ODE VI. 147 
 
 Ver ubi longum tepidasque praebet 
 Juppiter brumas, et amicus Aulon 
 Fertili Baccho minimum Falernis 
 Invidet uvis. 
 
 Ille te mecum locus et beatse 
 Postulant arces ; ibi tu calentem 
 Debita sparges lacrima favillam 
 Vatis amici. 
 
148 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE VII. 
 
 TO POMPEIUS VARUS. 
 
 The person addressed in this charming ode must not be 
 confounded with the rich Pompeius Grosphus, to whom the 
 1 6th Ode, Book IL, is inscribed. 
 
 O Pompeius, thou chiefest and first of my comrades. 
 Fellow-soldier with me, when our leader was Brutus, 
 In danger's last deadly extreme ;'^ 
 
 Who, back to thine own country gods. 
 
 To thine own Tuscan skies and the rights of the Roman 
 Hath restored thee, old friend ? Ah, how often 
 Have we whiled loitering days o'er gay cups. 
 Our wreathed locks bright with Araby's balms ? 
 
 With thee did I share field and flight of Philippi, 
 Where I left, not too bravely, behind me, my buckler,t 
 When valour was broken, and tongues 
 That threatened so loudly, licked dust. 
 
 Swiftly me the god Mercury+ bore through the foemen, 
 Buoyed aloft in thick cloud — all secure, yet all trembling — 
 Thee the whirlpool of battle again 
 Dragged back in the roar of its surge. 
 
 * *' Tempus in ultimum " — " in summum vitse discrimen" (in extremest 
 danger of life). See Catullus, 64, 151 — *' Supremo in tempore ; " et v. 
 169 — " Extreme tempore SDSva fors," &c. — Orelli. 
 
 + *' Relicta non bene parmula ; 
 Cum fracta virtus, et minaces 
 Turpe solum tetigere mento. " 
 Horace's modest confession of having left his shield behind him at 
 Philippi has been very harshly perverted into a proof of cowardice — 
 
BOOK II. — ODE VII. 149 
 
 Carm. VII. 
 
 O saepe mecum tempus in ultimum* 
 Deducte, Bruto militiae duce, 
 Quis te redonavit Quiritem 
 Dis patriis Italoque cselo, 
 
 Pompei meorum prime sodalium ? 
 Cum quo morantem saepe diem mero 
 Fregi coronatus nitentes 
 Malobathro Syrio capillos. 
 
 Tecum Philippos et celerem fugam 
 Sensi, relicta non bene parmula ; 
 Cum fracta virtus, et minaces 
 Turpe solum tetigere mento.t 
 
 Sed me per hostes Mercurius t celer 
 Denso paventem sustulit acre ; 
 Te rursus in bellum resorbens 
 Unda fretis tulit aestuosis. 
 
 probably the last accusation to which a soldier who had shared with 
 his friend the extremest dangers of Brutus would be fairly subjected. 
 The accusation derived from his own playful reference is confuted by 
 the lines that immediately follow : — When valour was broken, and 
 those who had most menaced touched ground with their chins — i.e., 
 as Orelli construes it, begged for quarter, than which flight itself was 
 more honourable. In fact, Brutus himself advised flight. We much 
 prefer this interpretation to that which would make Horace sneer 
 at those haughty boasters for being slain. Horace was the last man to 
 sneer at the soldier who fell bravely in battle, while he has specially 
 singled for contempt the soldier who asks for quarter — (Lib. III. Ode 
 V. 1. 36.) 
 
 X Mercury was the tutelary god of poets, whom, according to astro- 
 logers, his planet still favours. In C. iii. 4, 26, Horace ascribes his 
 preservation, not to Mercury, but to the Muses. 
 
I50 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Give to Jove, then, the feast that thou ow'st to his mercy ; 
 Worn with warfare so lengthened rest under my laurel. 
 Nor will I allow thee to spare 
 
 The casks I have destined for thee. 
 
 Ho, slaves, brim the cups,* Egypt's cups smooth and wide- 
 lipped. 
 
 With the soft Massic wine which lulls care in oblivion ; 
 Pour sweets from large shells. Who the tirst 
 Fresh parsley or myrtle will twine ? 
 
 Whom will Venus t befriend in the cast for our wine-king? — 
 As for me, I'm prepared to out-tipple a Thracian : 
 Ah, how sweet to drown reason in joy. 
 
 For the friend whom I welcome once more ! 
 
 * " Ciboria," cups shaped like the pod of the Egyptian bean. "Ore 
 superius lato, inferius angusto." — Orelli. 
 
 t "Quern Venus arbitrum dicet bibendi." Venus was the highest 
 throw on the dice, Canis the lowest. 
 
BOOK II. — ODE VII. 151 
 
 Ergo obllgatam redde Jovi dapem 
 Longaque fessum militia latus 
 Depone sub lauru mea, nee 
 Parce cadis tibi destinatis. 
 
 Oblivioso levia Massico 
 Ciboria * exple ; funde capacibus 
 Unguenta de conchis. Quis udo 
 Deproperare apio coronas 
 
 Curatve myrto? quern Venus f arbitrum 
 Dicet bibendi ? Non ego sanius 
 Bacchabor Edonis : recepto 
 Dulce mihi furere est amico. 
 
\ 
 
 152 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE VIII. 
 
 TO BARINE. 
 
 Some of the MSS., upon what authority Is unknown, pre- 
 fix Julia to Barine. Bentley objects to the name as being 
 neither Greek nor Latin. Orelli shrewdly suggests that 
 there were plenty of gay ladies at Rome who were of other 
 nations besides Greece and Rome. The name, however, is 
 
 very 
 
 If for thy vows forsworn the least infliction 
 Came from the gods ; were one white tooth less pearl-like. 
 One very nail less rosy, then, Barine, 
 I might believe thee. 
 
 But in proportion as that head perfidious 
 Thou doom'st to Orcus, brighter shines thy beauty, 
 And grows still more the universal theme of 
 Youthful adorers. 
 
 Clearly with thee it prospers to be perjured : 
 Oaths " by a mother's urn," " night's starry silence," 
 " All heaven," " the deathless gods," obtain thee blessings 
 Only when broken. 
 
 At all this treason Venus laughs, then ? laugh out 
 The very nymphs,* so truthful, and fierce Cupid, 
 Sharpening his fiery arrows on a whetstone, 
 Red with men's heart-blood. 
 
 * •* Simplices Nymphse " — "ab omni fraude alienae." — Orelli. 
 
; 
 
 BOOK 11. — ODE VIII. 153 
 
 very likely invented by Horace himself — as no doubt Cinara 
 was — and may possibly be an adaptation from Baomg, a kind 
 of fish. There is not a line in the poem to justify the wild 
 assumption of some commentators that Horace himself was 
 in love with Barine, whoever she was. Judging by internal 
 evidence, it seems to me that a real person was certainly 
 thus addressed, and in a tone which to such a person would 
 have been the most exquisite flattery ; and as certainly that 
 the person is not so addressed by a lover. 
 
 Carm. VIII. 
 
 Ulla si juris tibi pejerati 
 Poena, Barine, nocuisset unquam, 
 Dente si nigro fieres vel uno 
 Turpior ungui, 
 
 Crederem. Sed tu, simul obligasti 
 Perfidum votis caput, enitescis 
 Pulchrior multo, juvenumque prodis 
 Publica cura. 
 
 Expedit matris cineres opertos 
 Fallere, et toto taciturna noctis 
 Signa cum caelo, gelidaque divos 
 Morte carentes. 
 
 Ridet hoc, inquam, Venus ipsa, rident 
 Simplices Nymphae,"^ ferus et Cupido 
 Semper ardentes acuens sagittas 
 Cote cruenta. 
 
154 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Meanwhile, new youths grow up beneath thy thraldom 
 Grow up new slaveries ; and the earlier lovers 
 Threaten each day to quit thy faithless threshold — 
 Threaten, and throng there. 
 
 For their raw striplings tremble all the mothers, 
 And all the fathers of a thrifty temper ; 
 And, as a gale retarding home-bound husbands,* 
 Weeping brides fear thee. 
 
 * * * Tua ne retardet 
 Aura maritos." 
 There are many conjectures as to the sense of the word "aura" in this 
 passage, for which see Orelli's note. Yonge interprets it " a metaphor 
 for influence." 
 
BOOK II. — ODE VIII. 155 
 
 Adde, quod pubes tibi crescit omnis, 
 Servitus crescit nova, nee priores 
 Impiae tectum dominae relinquunt 
 Saepe minati. 
 
 Te suis matres metuunt juvehcis, 
 Te senes parci miseraeque nuper 
 Virgines nuptse, tua ne retardet 
 Aura* maritos. 
 
IS6 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE IX. 
 
 TO C. VALGIUS RUFUS. 
 
 {In Consolation.) 
 
 This Valgius, of consular rank, appears to have been 
 much esteemed in his time as a poet. He wrote elegies and 
 epigrams, and had even a high claim to the pretensions of 
 an epic poet, according to the author of the ' Panegyric 
 on Messala' — 
 
 " Est tibi, qui posset magnis se accingere rebus, 
 Valgius, astemo propior non alter Homero." 
 
 Horace might therefore well call upon him to lay aside his 
 elegiac complaints and sing the triumphs of Augustus. He 
 
 is 
 
 'Tis not always the fields are made rough by the rains, 
 'Tis not always the Caspian is harried by storm ; 
 Neither is it each month in the year 
 
 That the ice stands inert on the shores of Armenia ; 
 
 Nor on lofty Garganus the loud-groaning oaks 
 Wrestle, rocked to and fro with the blasts of the north, 
 Nor the ash-trees droop widowed of leaves. 
 
 O my friend, O my Valgius, shall grief last for ever ? 
 
 Yet thy heart in its yearning for ever pursues 
 The loved and lost Mystes ; the star of the eve. 
 And the sunrise which chases the star. 
 
 Find thy love still lamenting the loss of thy Mystes. 
 
 But the old man, who three generations lived through, 
 Did not for Antilochus mourn all his years : 
 Nor for Troilus, nipped in his bloom. 
 
 Flowed for ever the tears of his parents and sisters. 
 
BOOK II. — ODE IX. 157 
 
 is said also to have written in prose on the nature of plants, 
 &c. Torrentius endeavours, " nullo argumento," to distin- 
 guish between C. Valgius Rufus the consul and prose-writer, 
 and T. Valgius Rufus the poet. The Mystes whose loss 
 Valgius deplores must have been a slave, or of servile 
 origin, as the name denotes — not, as Dacier and Sanadon 
 suppose, the son of Valgius. — See Estre, p. 457. 
 
 Carm. IX. 
 
 Non semper imbres nubibus hispidos 
 Manant in agros, aut mare Caspium 
 Vexant inaequales procellae 
 Usque j nee Armeniis in oris, 
 
 Amice Valgi, stat glacies iners 
 Menses per omnes, aut Aquilonibus 
 Querceta Gargani laborant, 
 Et foliis viduantur orni : 
 
 Tu semper urges flebilibus modis 
 Mysten ademptum, nee tibi Vespero 
 Surgente decedunt amores 
 Nee rapidum fugiente Solem. 
 
 At non ter aevo functus amabilem 
 Ploravit omnes Antilochum senex 
 Annos, nee impubem parentes 
 Troilon aut Phrygiae sorores 
 
158 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Wean thy heart then at last from these memories too soft, 
 Let us chant the fresh trophies our Caesar has won, 
 Linking on, to the nations subdued. 
 
 Bleak Niphates* all ice-locked, the Mede's haughty 
 river, 
 
 Now submissively humbling the crest of its waves ; 
 While the edict of Rome has imprisoned the Scyths, 
 In the narrow domain of their steppes, 
 
 And the steed of each rider halts reined at the borders. 
 
 * '* Rigidum Niphaten, 
 Medutnque flumen." 
 That Niphates was the name of a mountain -range east of the Tigris is 
 certain ; whether there was also a river of that name is much disputed, 
 though Lucan and Juvenal take it for granted. Possibly the Tigris, 
 which, according to Strabo, rises on the mountain-range of Niphates, 
 may be the river here meant. There was a small river called Medus 
 which flowed into the Araxes, but this was too insignificant for the 
 mention Horace makes of the *' Medum flumen," even if he knew of its 
 existence ; and most of the later commentators concur in thinking the 
 river thus designated was the Euphrates. 
 
BOOK II. — ODE IX. 159 
 
 Flevere semper. Desine mollium 
 Tandem querellarum, et potius nova 
 Cantemus August! tropaea 
 
 Caesaris, et rigidum Niphaten,* 
 
 Medumque flumen, gentibus additum 
 Victis, minores volvere vertices, 
 Intraque praescriptum Gelonos 
 Exiguis equitare campis. 
 
 %. 
 
l6o THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE X. 
 
 TO LICINIUS. 
 
 Licinius Murena was the son of the Murena whom Cicero 
 defended, subsequently adopted by A. Terentius Varro. 
 He was then called A. Terentius Varro Murena. Maecenas 
 married his sister ; and Horace speaks of him subsequently 
 (C. iii. 19) as one of the College of Augurs. The caution 
 to discretion and moderation contained in this ode has a 
 
 melancholy 
 
 Licinius, wouldst thou steer life's wiser voyage, 
 Neither launch always into deep mid-waters, 
 Nor hug the shores, and, shrinking from the tempest, 
 Hazard the quicksand. 
 
 He who elects the golden mean of fortune. 
 Nor where dull squalor rots the time-worn hovel. 
 Nor where fierce envy storms the new-built palace. 
 Makes his safe dwelling. 
 
 The wildest winds rock most the loftiest pine-trees. 
 The heaviest crash is that of falling towers. 
 The spots on earth most stricken by the lightning 
 Are its high places. 
 
 The mind well trained to cope with either fortune, 
 Takes hope in adverse things and fear in prosperous. 
 Deforming winters are restored or banished 
 By the same Father. 
 
 If to-day frown, not therefore frowns to-morrow. 
 His deadly bow not always bends Apollo, 
 His hand at times the silent muse awakens 
 With the sweet harpstring. 
 
BOOK II. — ODE X. l6l 
 
 melancholy interest as that of a foreboding. He was put to 
 death despite the intercession of Maecenas and Proculeius, 
 on the charge, whether true or false, of having entered with 
 Fannius Coepio and others into a conspiracy against Au- 
 gustus. As his death occurred a.u.c. 732, this ode must 
 have been composed before that date. Dio speaks of the 
 unrestrained licence he allowed to his tongue, and his words 
 may have incriminated him more than his actions, the guilt 
 of which Dio leaves doubtful. 
 
 Carm. X. 
 
 Rectius vives, Licini, neque altum 
 Semper urgendo, neque, dum procellas 
 Cautus horrescis, nimium premendo 
 Litus iniquum. 
 
 Auream quisquis mediocritatem 
 Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti 
 Sordibus tecti, caret invidenda 
 Sobrius aula. 
 
 Saepius ventis agitatur ingens 
 Pinus, et celsae graviore casu 
 Decidunt turres, feriuntque summos 
 Fulgura montes. 
 
 Sperat infestis, metuit secundis 
 Alteram sortem bene praeparatum 
 Pectus. Informes hiemes reducit 
 Juppiter, idem 
 
 Summovet. Non, si male nunc, et olim 
 Sic erit : quondam cithara tacentem 
 Suscitat Musam, neque semper arcum 
 Tendit Apollo. 
 
 L 
 
l62 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 In life's sore straits brace and display thy courage.* 
 Boldness is wisdom then : as wisely timid 
 When thy sails swell with winds too strongly fav'ring, 
 Heed, and contract them. 
 
 * " Animosus atque fortis appare" — not only be, but show thyself, 
 courageous. 
 
BOOK II. — ODE X. 163 
 
 Rebus angustis animosus atque 
 Fortis appare ;* sapienter idem 
 Contrahes vento nimium secundo 
 Turgida vela. 
 
1 64 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XL 
 
 TO QUINTIUS HIRPINUS. 
 
 Who this Hirpinus was we do not know. Orelli con- 
 siders it probable that he is the Quintius to whom Ep. 
 I. xvi. is addressed. But Macleane observes " that the 
 latter appears to have been younger than the former, whom 
 Horace addresses (v. 15) as if he were a contemporary." 
 But the question is immaterial ; for we' know no more about 
 the Quintius of the Epistle than the Hirpinus of the Ode. 
 
 What the warlike Cantabrian or Scythian, 
 From ourselves by an ocean disparted, 
 Take it into their heads to devise. 
 
 Do not class with the questions that press. 
 
 Be not over-much anxious, Hirpinus, 
 For the things of a life that needs little ; 
 See how Beauty recedes from our side 
 
 With her beardless* twin playfellow Youth. 
 
 Grizzled Age, dry and sapless, comes chasing 
 Frolic Loves and the balm of light Slumbers ; 
 Not the' same glory lasts to the flower. 
 Not the same glowing face to the moon : 
 
 Why to fathom the counsels eternal 
 Strain the Mind without strength for such labour? 
 Why not rather, yon plane-tree beneath, 
 Or this pine, fling us carelessly down, 
 
 While we may ; letting locks whiten under 
 Syrian nard and the fragrance of roses. 
 Drink ! Evius dispels eating cares. 
 Ho ! which of you, boys, will assuage 
 
 This Falernian in yon running waters ? 
 Which entice that sequestered jade, Lyde,t 
 With her iv'ry lute, and with her locks, 
 Like a Spartan maid's, simply knit back. 
 
BOOK II. — ODE XI. 165 
 
 Carm. XI. 
 
 Quid bellicosus Cantaber et Scythes, 
 Hirpine Quinti, cogitet Hadria 
 Divisus objecto, remittas 
 
 Quaerere : nee trepides in usum 
 
 Poscentis aevi pauca. Fugit retro 
 Levis * Juventas, et Decor ; arida 
 Pellente lascivos Amores 
 
 Canitie facilemque Somnum. 
 
 Non semper idem floribus est honor 
 Vernis ; neque uno Luna rubens nitet 
 Voltu : quid aeternis minorem 
 Consiliis animum fatigas ? 
 
 Cur non sub alta vel platano vel hac 
 Pinu jacentes sic temere, et rosa 
 Canos odorati capillos, 
 
 Dum licet, Assyriaque nardo 
 
 Potamus uncti ? Dissipat Evius 
 Curas edaces. Quis puer ocius 
 Restinguet ardentis Falemi 
 Pocula praetereunte lympha ? 
 
 Quis devium scortum eliciet domo 
 Lyden ? t Eburna, die age, cum lyra 
 Maturet, in comptum Lacaenae 
 More comas religata nodum. 
 
 * " Levis " here means ••beardless," as in '•Levis Agyieu," Book IV. 
 Ode vi. 28. 
 
 f *• Quis devium scortum eliciet domo 
 Lyden?" 
 It need scarcely be said the word "scortum" is not used here in its most 
 uncomplimentary sense. ** Devium " — •* one who lives out of the way," 
 as Ovid, Heroid., il 118, ♦• Et cecinit maestum devia carmen avis."— 
 Orelli, Macleane. 
 
1 66 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XII. 
 
 TO MAECENAS. 
 
 The Licymnia (or, as the schoHasts spell it, Licinia) cele- 
 brated in this ode was most probably Terentia, the wife of 
 Maecenas ; and if so, the poem was evidently written within 
 a few years after their marriage. It is not pleasant to think 
 that the wedded happiness so charmingly described was of 
 brief duration, and that the faults laid to the charge of the 
 lady embittered the life of Maecenas at its close. Some of 
 
 the 
 
 Ask no high-sounding themes from this lute's relaxed num- 
 bers. 
 Suited neither to strains of long wars with Numantia, 
 Nor of Hannibal dire, nor of waters Sicilian 
 
 Which Carthage made red with her blood ; 
 
 Nor of Lapithae fierce, and the great drunken Centaur ; 
 Nor of Earth's giant sons, overborne by Alcides, 
 Threat'ning perils that shook to its starry foundations 
 Old Saturn's refulgent abode. 
 
 And far better thy prose than my verse, O Maecenas, 
 
 hall record, in grave story, the battles of Caesar, 
 And the necks of the kings who have loftily threatened 
 His Rome, to pass under her yoke. 
 
 Me the Muse has enjoined for the theme of my praises, 
 Thy lady Licymnia — her dulcet-voiced singings, 
 And the sunshine of eyes that illumine her beauty, 
 And the loving heart true to thine own. 
 
 Graced alike, whether joining at home in the dances, 
 Or contesting the palm in gay wit's playful skirmish. 
 Or amid holy sports on the feast-day of Dian, 
 With virgins entwining the arm. 
 
BOOK II. — ODE XII. 167 
 
 the commentators have, however, doubted whether Horace 
 could have ventured to speak so freely, as in the concluding 
 lines, of a Roman matron of rank so illustrious as Terentia, 
 and would therefore assume Licymnia to have been rather 
 the mistress than the wife of Maecenas. This supposition 
 is incompatible with the description of Licymnia joining in 
 the festivals of Diana; and probably Horace sufficiently 
 preserved such respect to the wife of his patron as the 
 manners of the time required by substituting a feigned 
 name for her own. 
 
 Carm. XII. 
 
 Nolis longa ferae bella Numantiae, 
 Nee dirum Hannibalem, nee Siculum mare 
 Pceno' purpureum sanguine, mollibus 
 Aptari citharae modis, 
 
 Nee saevos Lapithas, et nimium mero 
 Hylaeum, domitosque Herculea manu 
 Telluris juvenes, unde periculum 
 Fulgens contremuit domus 
 
 Saturni veteris ; tuque pedestribus 
 Dices historiis proelia Caesaris, 
 Maecenas, melius ductaque per vias 
 Regum colla minacium. 
 
 Me dulces dominae Musa Licymniae 
 Cantus, me voluit dicere lucidum 
 Fulgentes oculos et bene mutuis 
 Fidum pectus amoribus ; 
 
 Quam nee ferre pedem dedecuit choris, 
 Nee certare joco, nee dare brachia 
 Ludentem nitidis virginibus, sacro 
 Dianae Celebris die. 
 
1 68 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Say, for all that Achsemenes boasted of treasure, 
 All the wealth which Mygdonia gave Phrygia in tribute, 
 All the stores of all Araby — say, wouldst thou barter 
 One lock of Licymnia's bright hair ? — 
 
 When at moments she bends down her neck to thy kisses, 
 Or declines them with coy but not cruel denial ; 
 Rather pleased if the prize be snatched off by the spoiler. 
 Nor slow in reprisal sometimes. 
 
BOOK II. — ODE XII. 169 
 
 Num tu, quae tenuit dives Achaemenes, 
 Aut pinguis Phrygiae Mygdonias opes 
 Permutare velis crine Licymniae, 
 Plenas aut Arabum domos ? — 
 
 Dum flagrantia detorquet ad oscula 
 Cervicem, aut facili saevitia negat, 
 Quae poscente magis gaudeat eripi, 
 Interdum rapere occupet. 
 
170 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XIII. 
 
 TO A TREE. 
 
 Few of the odes are more remarkable than this for the 
 wonderful ease with which Horace rises from humorous 
 pleasantry into the higher regions of poetic imagination. 
 His escape from the falling tree seems to have made a deep 
 and lasting impression on him. The more probable date of 
 the poem is a.u.c. 728, or perhaps 729. 
 
 Evil-omened the day whosoever first planted, 
 Sacrilegious his hand whosoever first raised thee, 
 To become the perdition of races unborn, 
 
 And a stain on the country, thou infamous tree. 
 
 Ah ! I well may believe that the man was a monster, 
 Had at night stabbed his hearth-guest, and strangled his 
 father, 
 Dealt in poisons of Colchis — committed, in short. 
 
 Every crime the most fell which the thought can con- 
 ceive ; — 
 
 He, the wretch, who thus set thee malign in my meadow. 
 Felon-traitor of wood, arboretal assassin. 
 
 With remorseless design coming down unawares 
 On the head of an innocent master like me. 
 
 Who can hope to be safe ? who sufficiently cautious ? 
 Guard himself as he may, every moment's an ambush. 
 Thus the sailor of Carthage alarmed at a squall 
 In the Euxine, may find his least danger at sea. 
 
 Thus the soldier of Rome mails his breast to the Parthian, 
 And believes himself safe if secure from an arrow ; 
 
 And the Parthian, in flying Rome's dungeon ^ and chains, 
 Fondly thinks that in flight he escapes from the grave ! 
 
BOOK II. — ODE XIII. 171 
 
 Carm. XIII. 
 
 Ille et nefasto te posuit die, 
 [Quicunque primiim) et sacrilega manu 
 Produxit, arbos, in nepotum 
 Perniciem opprobriumque pagi; 
 
 Ilium et parentis crediderim sui 
 Fregisse cervicem, et penetralia 
 Sparsisse nocturne cruore 
 Hospitis ; ille venena Colcha 
 
 Et quidquid usquam concipitur nefas 
 Tractavit, agro qui statuit meo 
 Te triste lignum, te caducum 
 In domini caput immerentis. 
 
 Quid quisque vitet, nunquam homini satis 
 Cautum est in horas : navita Bosporum 
 Poenus perhorrescit, neque ultra 
 Caeca timet aliunde fata ; 
 
 Miles sagittas et celerem fugam 
 Parthi, catenas Parthus et Italum 
 Robur ; * sed improvisa leti 
 Vis rapuit rapietque gentes. 
 
 * " Italum robur." Orelli gives the weight of his authority in favour 
 of interpreting "robur" as the Roman prison ("Tullianum"), an inner 
 cell in which malefactors were placed, and in which the State captives, 
 as Jugurtha, were also sometimes immured. Yonge adopts the same in- 
 terpretation. Dillenburger translates it in the simple sense of the strength 
 or power of Italy, which Macleane also favours. 
 
1/2 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 But the death most to fear is the death we least look for — 
 Ah ! how near was I seeing dark Proserpine's kingdom, 
 And the Judge of the Dead and the Seats of the Blest, 
 Sappho wailing melodious of loves unretumed ; * 
 
 Ay, and thee, too, with strains sounding larger, Alcaeus, 
 To thy golden shell chanting of hardships in shipwreck, 
 And of hardships in exile, and hardships in war, 
 While the Shadows admiringly hearken to both ; 
 
 Due to either is silence as hushed as in temples. 
 But more presses the phantom mob, shoulder on shoulder, 
 Drinking into rapt ears the grand song, when it swells 
 With the burthen of battles and tyrants o'erthrown. 
 
 What wonder ? since, spelled by the voice of the charmer, 
 The dark hell-dog his hundred heads fawningly crouches. 
 And the serpents that writhe interweaved in the locks 
 Of the Furies, repose upon terrible brows ; 
 
 And Prometheus himself and the Father of Pelops, 
 By the dulcet delight are beguiled from their torture. 
 While the hand of Orion the arrow lets fall. 
 And the spectres of lions unheeded flit on. 
 
BOOK 11. — ODE XIII. 173 
 
 Quam paene furvae regna Proserpinae, 
 Et judicantem vidimus ^acum, 
 
 Sedesque <ii^r;retaF: piorum, et «istrip+<4s 
 Aeoliis fidibus querentem 
 
 Sappho puellis de popularibus f 
 Et te sonantem plenius aureo, 
 Alcaee, plectro dura navis, 
 Dura fugae mala, dura belli ! 
 
 Utnimque sacro digna silentio 
 Miraatur Umbrae dicere ; sed magis 
 Pugnas et exactos tyrannos 
 
 Densum humeris bibit aure-Yolgus. 
 
 Quid mjrum ? ubi illis carminibus stupens 
 Demittit atras belua centiceps 
 Aures, et intorti capillis 
 
 Eumenidum recreantur angues ; 
 
 Quin et Prometheus et Pelopis parens 
 Dulci laborum decipitur sono ; 
 Nee curat Orion leones 
 Aut timidos agitare lyncas. 
 
 * ** Querentem 
 Sappho puellis de popularibus." 
 "Incertum autem est quid quereretur." — Estre, Horat. Prosop., 26. 
 Estre cites the various interpretations, and inclines to that of the com- 
 mentators in Cruquius — viz., Sappho complained of the girls of her 
 country that they loved Phaon whom she loved. This is, at all events, 
 the most agreeable conjecture. Welcker has written with ingenious 
 eloquence in vindication of Sappho's memory from the scandal, "quod 
 nimis diu ei adhjesit." 
 
174 THE ODES OF HORACE. ^f^ 
 
 ODE XIV. 
 
 TO POSTUMUS. 
 
 Who this Postumus may have been is, in spite of the 
 various conjectures of various commentators, as uncertain 
 as, happily, it is immaterial. It is, at all events, an agree- 
 able supposition that he may be identical with the Postumus 
 
 whom 
 
 Postumus, Postumus, the years glide by us, 
 Alas ! no piety delays the wrinkles. 
 Nor old age imminent, 
 
 Nor the indomitable hand of Death. 
 
 Though thrice each day a hecatomb were offered. 
 Friend, thou couldst soften not the tearless Pluto, 
 Encoiling Tityus vast, 
 And Geryon, triple giant, with sad waves — 
 
 Waves over which we all of us must voyage. 
 All whosoe'er the fruits of earth have tasted ; 
 Whether that earth we ruled 
 
 As kings, or served as drudges of its soil. 
 
 Vainly we shun Mars and the gory battle. 
 Vainly the Hadrian hoarse with stormy breakers, 
 Vainly, each autumn's fall. 
 
 The sicklied airs through which the south wind sails.* 
 
 Still the dull-winding ooze of slow Cocytus, 
 The ill-famed Danaids, and, to task that ends not 
 Sentenced, yEolides ; 
 
 These are the sights on which we all must gaze. 
 
 * "Auster," "the sirocco." 
 
BOOK II. — ODE XIV. 
 
 175 
 
 whom Propertius (Lib. iii. Eleg. 10) reproached for leaving 
 his wife Galba to join a military expedition, possibly that of 
 ^lius Gallus against the Arabians. This supposition would 
 give a more pathetic significance to the " placens uxor " of 
 the ode. 
 
 r 
 
 Carm. XIV. 
 
 Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume, 
 Labuntur anni, nee pietas moram 
 Rugis et instanti senectse 
 
 Afferet indomitaeque Morti,— 
 
 Non, si trecenis, quotquot eunt dies, 
 Amice, places illacrimabilem 
 Plutona tauris ; qui ter amplum 
 Geryonen Tityonque tristi 
 
 j^*^- 
 
 Compescit unda, sciHcet omnibus, 
 Quicunque terras munere vescimur, 
 Enaviganda, sive reges 
 Sive inopes erimus coloni. 
 
 Frustra cruento Marte carebimus, 
 Fractisque rauci fluctibus Hadriae, 
 Frustra per auctumnos nocentem 
 Corporibus metuemus Austrum : 
 
 Visendus ater flumine languid© 
 Cocytos errans, et Danai genus 
 Infame, damnatusque longi 
 Sisyphus bolides laboris. 
 
 "y 
 
 jpiJ*^^ 
 
 MK 
 
 ...Jiit 
 
 
1^6 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Lands, home, and wife, in whom thy soul delighteth. 
 Left; and one tree alone of all thy woodlands, 
 Loathed cypress, faithful found, 
 
 Shall follow to the last the brief-lived lord. 
 
 The worthier heir thy Caecuban shall squander, 
 Bursting the hundred locks that guard its treasure. 
 And wines more rare than those 
 
 Sipped at high feast by pontiffs,* dye thy floors. 
 
 * As the English say, "A dinner fit for an alderman," so the Romans 
 said, **A banquet fit for a pontiff." ** Pontificum dapes, Saliares 
 coenae." 
 
BOOK 11. — ODE XIV. 177 
 
 Linquenda tellus, et domus, et placens 
 Uxor ; neque harum, quas colis, arborum 
 Te, praeter invisas cupressos, 
 UUa brevem dominum sequetur. 
 
 Absumet heres Caecuba dignior 
 Servata centum clavibus, et mero 
 Tinget pavimentum superbo, 
 Pontificum potiore coenis. 
 
I/S THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XV. 
 
 ON THE IMMODERATE LUXURY OF THE AGE. 
 
 This ode is generally considered to be among those 
 written to assist Augustus in his social reforms, and, as 
 Macleane observes, it should be read in connection with 
 the earlier odes of Book III. Dillenburger assigns the date 
 to A.U.C. 726, in which year Octavius, then Censor, restored 
 and adorned the public temples fallen into decay. Mac- 
 leane 
 
 Lo, those regal piles rising ! methinks, to the harrow 
 They will leave but few acres; on every side round us 
 Vasty stewponds for fishes extend 
 
 Wider bounds than the Lake of Lucrinus. 
 
 Yield the vine-wedded elms to that Caelebs the plane-tree ; 
 And, where olives sufficed for the wealth of the master, 
 The violet and myrtle encamp, 
 
 With the whole languid army of odours ; 
 
 Every sunstroke shut out by thick screen-works of laurel. 
 Ah ! not such the decrees left by Rome's hardy Founder, 
 Nor the auspice of Cato unshorn. 
 
 Nor the customs bequeathed by our fathers. 
 
 Petty then was to each man the selfish possession, 
 Mighty then was all to men the Commonwealth's treasure ; 
 No one sought the cool shade of the North 
 Under peristyles planned out for temples y' 
 
 The chance turf next at hand roofed the citizen's dwelling. 
 But the State, at its charge, rarest marble devoted 
 To the State's sacred heirlooms ; — the shrines 
 Of the gods, and the courts of a people. 
 
BOOK II.— ODE XV. 179 
 
 leane favours that date. But the poem alludes also to the 
 sumptuary laws passed by Augustus at various periods, as 
 ineffectively as sumptuary laws always must be in rich 
 communities. 
 
 Carm. XV. 
 
 Jam pauca aratro jugera regiae 
 Moles relinquent : undique latius 
 Extenta visentur Lucrino 
 Stagna lacu : platanusque caelebs, 
 
 Evincet ulmos : tum violaria et 
 Myrtus et omnis copia narium, 
 Spargent olivetis odorem 
 Fertilibus domino priori; 
 
 Tum spissa ramis laurea fervidos 
 Excludet ictus. Non ita Romuli 
 Prsescriptum et intonsi Catonis 
 Auspiciis, veterumque norma. 
 
 Privatus illis census erat brevis, 
 Commune magnum ; nulla decempedis 
 Metata privatis opacam 
 
 Porticus excipiebat Arcton ; * 
 
 Nee fortuitum spernere caespitem 
 Leges sinebant, oppida publico 
 Sumptu jubentes et deorum 
 Templa nova decorare saxo. 
 
 * "Nulla decempedis 
 Metata privatis opacam 
 
 Porticus excipiebat Arcton." 
 No private man had porticoes measured by a ten-feet rule, which appears 
 to have been a measurement for temples and public buildings. The 
 peristyles at Pompeii, which form an inner court to the house, give 
 sufficient idea of these corridors, opening to the north for coolness 
 in summer, and to the south for sunshine in winter. 
 
l8o THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XVI. 
 
 TO POMPEIUS GROSPHUS. 
 
 According to the scholiast in Cruquius, this Pompeius 
 Grosphus, a Sicilian by origin, was of the Equestrian order. 
 Cicero (in Cic. Verr. II. iii. 23) speaks of Eubulides Gros- 
 phus Centuripinus, as a man of eminent worth, noble birth, 
 and princely wealth. Estre conj ectures that this Grosphus was 
 
 made 
 For ease prays he who in the wide ^gaean 
 Storm-seized, looks up on clouds that heap their darkness 
 O'er the lost moon, while dim the constellations 
 Fade from the sailor. 
 
 Ease, still for ease, sighs Thracia fierce in battle. 
 Still for ease sighs the quivered Mede. Ah, Grosphus ! 
 Nor gems nor purple, no, nor gold can buy it ; 
 Ease is not venal. 
 
 Bribed by no king,* dispersed before no lictor, 
 Throng the wild tumults of a soul in trouble. 
 And the cares circling round a sleepless pillow, 
 Under ceiled fretwork.t 
 
 He lives on little well who, for all splendour. 
 Decks his plain board with some prized silver heirloom.J 
 From him no greed of gain, of loss no terror. 
 Snatch the light slumbers. 
 
 Why, briefly strong, with space in time thus bounded, 
 Launch we so many arrows into distance ? 
 
 * "Non enim gazse." "Gazae," from a Persian word, means "the 
 king's treasury," "the royal coffers." 
 
 + '* Laqueata tecta," " non totius domus sed cubiculorum et tricli- 
 niarum. " — Dillenburger. 
 
 % "Paternum salinum" — "the paternal or hereditary salt-cellar." 
 
BOOK II. — ODE XVI. l8l 
 
 made a Roman citizen by Pompey, and took his name, which 
 descended to the Grosphus of the ode as son or grandson. 
 In Epist. i. 12, Horace commends him to Iccius, then acting 
 as superintendent or steward to Vipsanius Agrippa's estates 
 in Sicily, as one whom Iccius might wilHngly obHge, for he 
 would never ask anything not honest and just. 
 
 Carm. XVL 7^ ..-- 
 
 ^11 
 
 Otium divos rogat in patent! — ^ - 
 
 Prensus ^gaeo, simul atra nubes 
 
 Condidit Lunam^ neque certa fulgent ^^ ^'4 
 
 Sidera nautis ; e^- 
 
 Otium bello furiosa Thrace, — - * 
 
 Otium Medi pharetra decori, ->^- ^ 
 
 Grosphe, non gemmis neque purpura ve- 
 nale neque auro. 
 
 Non enim gazae * neque consularis 
 Summovet lictor miseros tumultus 
 Mentis, et Curas laqueata circum 
 Tectat volantes. 
 
 Vivitur parvo bene, cui paternum 
 Splendet in mensa tenui salinum : :j: 
 Nee leves somnos timor aut cupido 
 Sordidus aufert. 
 
 Quid brevi fortes jaculamur aevo 
 Multa? Quid terras alio calentes 
 
 Horace here, as elsewhere, distinguishes the comparative poverty of a 
 small independence from absolute neediness and squalor. The poverty, 
 he praises is not without its own modest refinements. The board may 
 be simple, but still it can display the old family salt-cellar, kept with 
 religious care. If the owner has not increased the paternal fortune, he 
 has not diminished it. 
 
 
1 82 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Why crave new suns ? What exile from his country 
 FHes himself also ? 
 
 Diseased Care* ascends the brazen galley, 
 And rides amidst the armed men to the battle,t 
 Fleeter than stag, and fleeter than, when driving 
 Rain-clouds, the east wind. 
 
 The mind, which now is glad, should hate to carry 
 Its care beyond the Present ; what is bitter 
 With easy smile should sweeten : nought was ever 
 Happy on all sides. 
 
 Untimely death snatched off renowned Achilles ; 
 Tithonus lived to dwindle into shadow ; 
 And haply what the Hour to thee refuses 
 Me it will proffer. J 
 
 Around thine home a hundred flocks are bleating. 
 Low the Sicilian heifers, neighs the courser 
 Trained to the race-car ; woofs in Afric purple 
 Twice-tinged array thee : 
 
 To me the Fate, that cannot err,§ hath given 
 Some roods of land, some breathings, lowly murmured, 
 Of Grecian Muse, and power to scorn the malice 
 Of the mean vulgar. 
 
 * ** Vitiosa cura." In the translation, Orelli's inteqjretation of 
 **vitiosa," "morbosa"—/.^., morbid or diseased, from the vice of the 
 mind whence it springs — is adopted. But this hardly gives the full force 
 of the word. Horace means that Care, which spoils or infects every- 
 thing, ascends the galley, &c. 
 
 + "Turmas equitum," " This properly refers to the horsemen rid- 
 ing to battle made anxious by the hope of booty or the fear of death." 
 — Orelli. " With * turmas equitum' is usually compared ' post equi- 
 tem sedet atra cura/ but the sense there is a little different. Here he 
 speaks of care following a man to the field of battle ; there he refers to 
 the rich man ambling on his horse." — Macleane. 
 
 t ' * Et mihi forsan, tibi quod negarit, 
 Porriget Hora," 
 I think, with Orelli, that this simply means, " Fortune, or the Hour, 
 
BOOK II.— ODE XVI. 183 
 
 Sole mutamus ? Patriae quis exsul 
 Se quoque fugit? 
 
 Scandit aeratas vitiosa naves 
 Cura,* nee turmas equitum relinquit,t 
 Ocior cervis, et agente nimbos 
 Ocior Euro. 
 
 Laetus in praesens animus quod ultra est 
 Oderit curare, et amara lento 
 Temperet risu ; nihil est ab omni 
 Parte beatum. 
 
 Abstulit clarum cita mors Achillem, 
 Longa Tithonum minuit senectus, 
 Et mihi forsan, tibi quod negarit, 
 Porriget Hora.ij: 
 
 Te greges centum Siculaeque circum 
 Mugiunt vaccae, tibi toUit hinnitum 
 Apta quadrigis equa, te bis Afro 
 Murice tinctae 
 
 Vestiunt lanae : mihi parva rura, et 
 Spiritum Graiae tenuem Camenas 
 Parca non mendax § dedit, et malignum 
 Spernere volgus. 
 
 will perhaps give something of good to me which she denies to you ;" 
 and I dissent ahogether from the usual interpretation — viz., " Time 
 may perhaps give me a longer life than it concedes to you." That in- 
 terpretation would be very little in keeping with Horace's general polite- 
 ness in addressing a friend. Nothing can well be worse-bred than tell- 
 ing a man that perhaps you will live longer than he will. Besides, 
 Horace immediately proceeds to define that which is granted peculiarly 
 to himself in opposition to the riches bestowed upon Grosphus. 
 
 § '* Parca non mendax " — " sure," ''unfailing in the fulfilment of their 
 decrees." Compare "veraces," C. Ssecul. 25, and Persius, v. 42, 
 " Parca tenax veri." — So Orelli. " Genius is represented as the gift 
 of Fate in Pind. Od. ix. 26, 28 ; also in Nem. iv. 41-43, where the poet 
 infers from it his own eventual triumph over detraction ; as Horace may 
 be said to do here." — Yonge. 
 
1 34 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XVII. 
 
 TO M^CFNAS. 
 
 This ode is addressed to Maecenas in illness, but the date 
 of the illness is necessarily uncertain in the Hfe of a vale- 
 tudinarian like Maecenas. Though, as Macleane observes, 
 the last two lines of this ode, showing that Horace had 
 not yet paid the sacrifice he had vowed to Faunus for his 
 preservation from death, makes it most probable that it was 
 written not long after C. 13 of this book, the composition of 
 which has been assigned, with some hesitation, to a.u.c. 728. 
 Maecenas was subject to what appears to have been a low 
 nervous fever, attended with loss of sleep. According to the 
 verses attributed to him, and censured with a stoic's lofty 
 disdain by Seneca (Epp. loi), Maecenas had a passionate 
 and clinging desire for life, very uncommon in a Roman, 
 deeming that, under any suffering or infirmity, life was still 
 dear — 
 
 " Vita 
 
 Why destroyest thou me with the groan of thy sufferings ? 
 Neither I nor the gods will let thee die before me, 
 O M^cenas, the glory and grace 
 And the column itself, of my life. 
 
 Ah ! if some fatal force, prematurely bereaving. 
 Wrenched from me the one half of my soul, could the other 
 Linger on, with its dearer part lost. 
 
 And the fragment of what was a whole ? 
 
 No ! in thy life is mine ; both, the same day shall shatter. 
 I have made no false vow ; where thou lead'st me I follow ; 
 Fellow-travellers, the same solemn road 
 We will take, we will take, side by side. 
 
BOOK II. — ODE XVII. 
 
 '* Vita dum superest bene est : 
 
 Hanc mihi vel acuta 
 
 Si sedeam cruce sustine." * 
 
 <^ 
 
 If this sentiment was sincerely expressed, the pathos of the 
 poem is increased. A man so dreading death may well 
 desire a companion in the last journey. And it is not un- 
 likely that the melancholy view which Horace habitually 
 takes of the next world, and his exhortations to make the 
 best of this one, may have been coloured, perhaps insensi- 
 bly to himself, by his conversations and intercourse with 
 Maecenas. 
 
 Carm. XVIL 
 
 Cur me querelis exanimas tuis ? 
 Nee dis amicum est nee mihi te prius 
 Obire, Maecenas, mearum 
 
 Grande decus columenque rerum. 
 
 Ah ! te meae si partem animae rapit 
 Maturior vis, quid moror altera. 
 Nee earus aeque nee superstes 
 Integer? Ille dies utramque 
 
 Ducet ruinam. Non ego perfidum 
 Dixi sacramentum : ibimus, ibimus, 
 Utcunque praecedes, supremum 
 Carpere iter comites parati. 
 
 * The fragment is thus very happily rendered into English by Mr 
 Farrar in the biographical essay on Seneca, which forms the larger por- 
 tion of his impressive and eloquent work, ' The Seekers after God ' : — 
 
 * ' Numb my hands with palsy, 
 
 Rack my feet with gout, 
 Hunch my back and shoulder, 
 
 Let my teeth fall out ; 
 Still, if life be granted, 
 
 I prefer the loss — 
 Save my life and give me 
 
 Anguish on the cross." 
 
1 86 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Me, no flames bursting forth from the jaws of Chlmaera, 
 Me, no Gyas once more rising up hundred-handed, 
 Could dispart from thyself, — such the will 
 Of omnipotent Justice and Fate. 
 
 Whether Libra, or Scorpio with aspect* malignant, 
 In mine horoscope, ruled o'er the Houses of Danger, 
 Or moist Capricorn, lord of the west ; 
 It is strange how our stars have agreed. 
 
 Thee, thine own native Jupiter snatched from fell Saturn, 
 And outshining his beam, stayed the wings of the Parcae, 
 When the theatre hailed thee restored. 
 And the multitude thrice shouted joy. 
 
 Me the fall of the tree would have brained, had not Faunus, 
 To men born under Mercury, guardian benignant. 
 O'er my head stretched the saving right hand. 
 And made lighter the death-dealing blow. 
 
 Then forget not to render to Jove, the Preserver 
 Of a life so august, votive chapel and victims. 
 While I, to mine own sylvan god. 
 
 Offer grateful mine own humble lamb. 
 
 *■ "Adspicit," "aspected," is still the technical term in use among 
 astrologers, according to wliom the native star may be evilly aspected 
 in various v^'ays. But "pars violentior" would apply to the hostile 
 influences affecting "the Lord of life," chiefly found in the significa- 
 tions of the 8th and 12th House. By his allusion to Capricorn, Horace 
 clearly refers to his dangers by sea— "Sicula imda." To astrology (a 
 science then so much in fashion) Horace often refers — sometimes with 
 scorn, sometimes with a seeming credulity — always as a man who 
 knew very little about it. But where he speaks of it with scorn, as in 
 addressing Leuconoe, Book I. Ode xi., it is less to denounce astro- 
 logy itself as an imposture, than to dissuade from all attempts to 
 divine the future — "better that the future should remain unknown 
 
BOOK II. — ODE XVIL 1 8/ 
 
 Me nee Chimaerse spiritus igneas, 
 Nee, si resurgat, eentimanus Gyas 
 Divellet unquam : sie potenti 
 Justitise placitumque Parcis. 
 
 Seu Libra, seu me Scorpios adspicit * 
 Formidolosus, pars violentior 
 Natalis horae, seu tyrannus 
 Hesperiae Capricornis undae, 
 
 Utrumque nostrum ineredibili modo 
 Consentit astrum. Te Jovis impio 
 Tutela Saturno refulgens 
 Eripuit, volucrisque Fati 
 
 Tardavit alas, eum populus frequens 
 Laetum theatris ter crepuit sonum : 
 Me truncus illapsus cerebro 
 Sustulerat, nisi Faunus ictum 
 
 Dextra levasset, Mereurialium 
 Gustos virorum. Reddere victimas 
 ^demque votivam memento : 
 Nos humilem feriemus agnam. 
 
 and unconjectured." On the other hand, where, as in this ode, he 
 seems to affect credulity, it is only for a playful purpose. He regarded 
 it, as he did most of the popular beliefs affecting the future, without 
 serious examination of its truth or falsehood, as a question of specu- 
 lative philosophy, but to be freely used, whether in sport or in earnest, 
 for the purposes of poetic art. 
 
1 88 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XVIII. 
 
 AGAINST THE GRASPING AMBITION OF THE COVETOUS. 
 
 This ode is in a metre of which there is no other example 
 in Horace. It is said to have been invented by Hipponax 
 of Ephesus, and is called generally by his name ; though 
 sometimes Euripidean, because often used by Euripides. 
 
 It 
 To me nor gold nor ivory lends 
 
 Its shine to fret my ceiling ; 
 Nor shafts, in farthest Afric hewn, 
 Prop architraves Hymettian.* 
 
 I do not claim, an unknown heir. 
 The spoils of Orient kingdoms,t 
 
 No wives J of honest clients weave 
 For me Laconian purples. 
 
 Yet mine is truth and mine some vein 
 
 Of inborn genius kindly ; 
 Though poor, I do not court the rich, 
 
 But by the rich am courted. 
 
 I do not weary heaven for more ; 
 
 I tax no kindly patron ; 
 Content with all I own on earth, 
 
 Some rural acres Sabine. 
 
 * The Numidian or Libyan marble, known to us as the Giallo antico. 
 The "architraves Hymettian" (*' trabes Hymettiae") are the white 
 marble of Hymettus. 
 
 t "Neque Attali 
 Ignotus heres regiam occupavi." 
 Attains the third made by will the Romans his heirs ; the older com- 
 mentators suppose that the lines satirically imply the will to have been 
 fraudulently obtained. But the word " ignotus " does not necessarily bear 
 that signification. As Orelli observes, the irony consists in the fact that 
 
>< 
 
 BOOK II. — ODE XVIII. 189 
 
 It abounds in trochees. I can only attempt to give a 
 general idea of its trippingness and brevity of sound. It 
 treats, with more than usual beauty, Horace's favourite thesis 
 of declamation against the grasping nature of avarice ; and, 
 as Dillenburger observes, it takes up and expands the senti- 
 ment with which he had closed Ode xvi. 
 
 -X^ 
 
 Carm. XVIII. 
 / . ' .^ 
 Non ebur neque aureum ^ jfy^ 
 
 Mea repidet indomo lacunar ; yu^*'''*'^^1^ 
 
 Non trabes Hymettiae* 
 
 Premunt columnas ultima recisas 
 
 Africa ; neque Attalit 
 
 Ignotus heres regiam occupavi ; 
 Nee Laconicas mihi 
 
 
 Trahunt honestae purpuras clientae. 
 
 At fides et ingeni 
 
 Benigna vena est, pauperemque dives 
 Me petit ; nihil supra 
 
 Deos lacesso, nee potentem amicum 
 
 Largiora flagito, 
 
 Satis beatus unicis Sabinis. 
 Truditur dies die, 
 
 Novaeque pergunt interire Lunae : 
 
 Attalus did not know the persons he enriched. Torrentius supposes 
 the lines to refer to Aristonicus, who, after the death of Attakis, seized 
 on the throne by false pretences, defeated Licinius Crassus, was after- 
 ■wards conquered by Perpenna, carried to Rome, and strangled in prison 
 by orders of the Senate. The former interpretation is preferable. 
 
 X ** 'Honestae clientae.' I have seen no satisfactory explanation of 
 the words * honestae clientae.' Mr Long has suggested to me that they 
 may refer to the rustic women on a man's farms — the wives of the 
 Coloni." — Macleane. 
 
190 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Day treads upon the heels of day, 
 New moons wane on to perish ; 
 
 Thou on the brink of death dost make 
 Vain contracts for new marble ; 
 
 Building proud homes, and of thy last — 
 The sepulchre — forgetful ; 
 
 As if the earth itself too small 
 
 Thou robb'st new earth from ocean, 
 
 And, urging on a length of shore 
 Upon the deep's foundation. 
 
 Thou thrustest back the angry wave 
 That wars in vain on Baiae.* 
 
 What, must thou also, greeding still, 
 Remove thy neighbour's landmark — 
 
 Must ruthless avarice overleap 
 Each fence of humble clients ? 
 
 And man and wailing wife, expelled 
 The dear paternal dwelling, 
 
 Clasp ragged babes and exiled gods 
 To wandering homeless bosoms ? 
 
 And yet no surer hall awaits 
 The wealthy tyrant master. 
 
 Than that which yields yet ampler room 
 In yet more greedy Orcus. 
 
 Where farther tend ? Impartial earth 
 Opes both for prince and peasant ; 
 
 No gold bribed Charon to row back 
 The crafty-souled Prometheus. 
 
 Death holds the haughty Tantalus ; 
 
 Death holds his children haughty: 
 Invoked or not. Death hears the poor. 
 
 And He gives rest to labour. 
 
BOOK II.— ODE XVIII. 191 
 
 Tu secanda marmora 
 
 Locas sub ipsum funus ; et sepulcri 
 Immemor struis domos, 
 
 Marisque Bails obstrepentis urges 
 
 Summovere litora, 
 
 Parum locuples continente ripa.* 
 Quid, quod usque proximos 
 
 Revellis agri terminos, et ultra 
 
 Limites clientium 
 
 Salis avarus ? Pellitur paternos 
 In sinu ferens deos 
 
 Et uxor, et vir, sordidosque natos. 
 
 Nulla certior tamen 
 
 Rapacis Orci fine destinata 
 Aula divitem manet 
 
 Herum. Quid ultra tendis ? ^qua tellus 
 
 Pauperi recluditur 
 
 Regumque pueris, nee satelles Orci 
 Callidum Promethea - . , 
 
 Revexit auro captus. Hie superbum /tly^j^^*- ^^^ 
 
 Tantalum atque Tantali 
 
 Genus coercet, hie levare functum 
 Pauperem laboribus 
 
 Vocatus atque non vocatus audit. 
 
 * In allusion to the practice of the wealthy Romans in building villas 
 out into the sea, on artificial foundations — as, long afterwards, rose the 
 whole city of Venice. 
 
192 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XIX. 
 
 IN HONOUR OF BACCHUS. 
 
 Macleane appears to me greatly to underrate the beauty of 
 this poem, in which he says the Greek fire is wanting. This 
 is not the opinion of the earHer critics, nor of readers in 
 general. It has as much of the character of the dithyramb 
 as the taste of a Roman audience would sanction and the 
 character of the Latin language allow. The date of the 
 
 poem 
 
 Amid sequestered rocky glens, — ye future times believe 
 
 it!— 
 Bacchus I saw, in mystic verse his pupil nymphs instruct- 
 ing— 
 
 Instructing pricked ears intent 
 Of circling goat-hoofed Satyrs. 
 
 CEvoe, with the recent awe is trembling yet my spirit, 
 Filled with the god, my breast still heaves beneath the 
 stormy rapture. 
 
 CEvoe ! spare me ; Liber, spare, 
 Dread with the solemn thyrsus ! 
 
 Vouchsafed to me the glorious right to chant the head- 
 strong Thyads, 
 The wine that from the fountain welled, the rills with milk 
 o'erflowing. 
 
 And, from the trunks of charmed trees, 
 The lapse of golden honey. 
 
 Vouchsafed to sing thy consort's crown which adds a star to 
 
 heaven,* 
 Or that just wrath which overwhelmed the house of Theban 
 
 Pentheus, 
 
 * Ariadne. 
 
BOOK 11. — ODE XIX. 193 
 
 poem is uncertain. Macleane suggests that it was perhaps 
 composed at the time of the LiberaUa, though in what year 
 there are no means of determining. From its dithyrambic 
 character, OrelU conjectures it to have been a copy from 
 some Greek poem. The metre in this and the translation 
 immediately following has some slight deviations from the 
 preceding versions of the Alcaic, but not such as to affect 
 the general character and form of the rhythm. 
 
 Carm. XIX. 
 
 Bacchum in remotis carmina rupibus 
 Vidi docentem, (credite posteri ! ) 
 Nymphasque discentes, et aures 
 Capripedum Satyrorum acutas. 
 
 Euoe, recenti mens trepidat metu, 
 Plenoque Bacchi pectore turbidum 
 Laetatur. Euoe, parce. Liber, 
 Farce, gravi metuende thyrso ! 
 
 Fas pervicaces est mihi Thyiadas, 
 Vinique fontem, lactis et uberes 
 Cantare rivos, atque truncis 
 Lapsa cavis iterare mella ; 
 
 Fas et beatse conjugis additum 
 Stellis honorem, tectaque Penthei 
 
194 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 And doomed to so disastrous end 
 The frantic king Lycurgus.* 
 
 Thou bow'st the rivers to thy will, barbarian ocean rulest ; t 
 Bedewed with wine in secret hills, thy charm compels the 
 serpents 
 
 To interweave, in guileless coil, 
 The locks of Thracian Maenads. 
 
 Thou, when aloft through arduous heaven the impious host 
 
 of giants 
 Scaled to the Father's realm, didst hurl again to earth huge 
 Rhoetus — 
 
 Fronting his might with lion-fangs, 
 
 And jaws of yawning horror ; * 
 
 Albeit thou wert deemed a god more fit for choral dances, 
 For jest and sport the readiest Power, of slenderer use in 
 battle ; 
 
 Yet peace and war found thee the same, 
 Of both the soul and centre. 
 
 When flashed the golden horn that decks thy front through 
 
 Stygian shadows. 
 Harmless the Hell-dog wagged his tail to greet thy glorious 
 coming, 
 
 And gently licked with triple tongue 
 Thine hallowed feet receding. J 
 
 * Lycurgus, the King of the Edones, persecuted Bacchus on his 
 passage through Thrace, and imprisoned his train of Satyrs. The 
 mythologists vary as to the details of his punishment for this offence, 
 but he was first inflicted with madness, and finally torn to pieces by 
 horses. 
 
 + *'Tu flectis amnes, tu mare barbarum." "Flectis amnes" does 
 not mean, as it is usually translated, "thou tumest aside the course 
 
BOOK II. — ODE XIX. 195 
 
 Disjecta non leni ruina, 
 
 Thracis et exitium Lycurgi. 
 
 Tu flectis amnes, tu mare barbamm,t 
 Tu separatis uvidus in jugis 
 Nodo coerces viperino 
 
 Bistonidum sine fraude crines. 
 
 Tu, cum parentis regna per arduum 
 Cohors Gigantum scanderet impia, 
 Rhoetum retorsisti leonis 
 Unguibus horribilique mala ; 
 
 Quamquam, choreis aptior et jocis 
 Ludoque dictus, non sat idoneus 
 Pugnae ferebaris : sed idem 
 Pacis eras mediusque belli. 
 
 Te vidit insons Cerberus aureo 
 Cornu decorum, leniter atterens 
 Caudam, et recedentis trilingui 
 Ore pedes tetigitque crura.1: 
 
 of the rivers;" the reference is to the Hydaspes and Orontes, over 
 which Bacchus is said to have walked dryshod ; and "flecto" here 
 must be taken either in the sense of "to bow" or "direct," or, in 
 its more metaphorical sense, "to appease." By "mare barbarum" 
 is meant the Indian Ocean. 
 
 + Orelli observes that in this stanza there are two images, — one at 
 the entrance of Liber into Hades, when Cerberus gently wags his tail to 
 greet him — the other when Liber is leaving and the Hell-dog licks his 
 feet. The poet thus expresses the security with which the god passes 
 through the terrors of the nether world. 
 
196 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XX. 
 
 ON HIS FUTURE FAME. 
 
 Horace has no ode more remarkable than this for liveli- 
 ness of fancy and fervour of animal spirits. It is composed 
 half in sport, half in earnest, though I cannot agree with 
 Macleane that it has in its style anything of "the mock 
 heroic," properly so called, still less that it was written im- 
 promptu. Its rapid vivacity is no proof of want of artistic 
 care. Dillenburger (in his Qu. Hor.) conjectures the ode 
 to have been written in youth, and on the occasion of 
 Maecenas's first invitation (recorded Sat. I. vi), so interpret- 
 ing "quem vocas, dilecte Maecenas." But, as Macleane 
 observes, "the epithet * dilecte,' implying a familiarity of 
 
 some 
 
 I shall soar through the liquid air buoyed on a pinion 
 Not familiar, not slight ; I will tarry no longer 
 
 On this earth ; but victorious* o'er envy, two-formed. 
 Bard and bird, I abandon the cities of men. 
 
 Born of parents obscure though I be, O Maecenas, 
 I who still from thy mouth hear the title " Beloved," * 
 I shall pass not away through the portals of death, 
 I shall not be hemmed round by the waters of Styx. 
 
 Now, now on my nether limbs rougher skin settles ; 
 Now above to the form of white bird I am changing ; t 
 Swiftly now from the hands and the shoulders behold 
 Smooth and smoother the down of the plumes 
 springing forth ! 
 
 * "Quern vocas dilecte." I agree with Mr Conington in accept- 
 ing Ritter's interpretation that "dilecte" is Maecenas's address to 
 Horace. Upon this disputed point a very ilhistrious scholar, to whom, 
 indeed, I am indebted for line 6 in the translation, writes to me thus : — 
 " I rather doubt the naked use of * vocas ' in the sense of * invite to your 
 
BOOK II.— ODE XX. 197 
 
 some standing, is opposed to this view ;" to which I may add 
 the remark, that it is scarcely probable that Horace would 
 have spoken with such confidence of his future fame till his 
 claims as a lyrical poet were acknowledged by competent 
 judges, to whom most of the odes in the first two, or per- 
 haps the first three, books, if not yet collected into one pub- 
 lication, were familiarly known. It was probably enough 
 written in some moment of joyous excitement occasioned 
 by a success more signal than any private invitation from 
 Maecenas could confer ; but we know too little of the various 
 stepping-stones in Horace's poetical career to form any rea- 
 sonable conjecture as to its date and occasion. It is enough 
 that the poem itself so wonderfully vindicates the pretension 
 of the poet to be also the prophet. 
 
 Carm. XX. 
 
 Non usitata nee tenui ferar 
 Penna biformis per liquidum sethera 
 Vates ; neque in terris morabor 
 Longius; invidiaque major 
 
 Urbes relinquam. Non ego, pauperum 
 Sanguis parentum, non ego, quem vocas ! o<^^ ^^^^a^ 
 Dilecte,'" Maecenas, obibo, 
 Nee Stygia cohibebor unda. 
 
 Jam jam residunt cruribus asperae 
 Pelles ; et album mutor in alitem 
 Superne ;t nascunturque leves 
 Per digitos humerosque plumae. 
 
 society' ('revocas' is used Sat. I. vi. 61, but then of a particular repeated 
 invitation, not of a general one) ; I therefore incline to prefer the inter- 
 pretation 'Quem Maecenas, vocas "dilecte," ' though I admit the bold- 
 ness of this construction." 
 
 + "Album mutor in alitem superne." The white bird is, of course, 
 the swan — ^'^ Multa Dircaeum levat aura cycnum." — Lib. IV. Od. ii. 25. 
 
198 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Than the swift son of Daedalus swifter I travel. 
 I shall visit shores loud with the boom of the Euxine, 
 And fields Hyperborean and African sands, 
 And wherever I wander shall sing as a bird. 
 
 Me the Colchians shall know, me the Dacian* dissembling 
 His dismay at the might of his victor the Roman ; 
 Me Scythia's far son ; — learned students in me 
 
 Shall be Spain's rugged child and the drinker of 
 Rhone, t 
 
 Not for me raise the death-dirge, mine urn shall be empty;:}: 
 Hush the vain ceremonial of groans that degrade me. 
 And waste not the honours ye pay to the dead 
 On a tomb in whose silence I shall not repose. 
 
 * " Et qui dissimulat metum 
 Marsae cohortis Dacus." 
 The Marsian infantry was the flower of the Roman armies, and the Mar- 
 sian here represents the might of Rome. Either the interruption to the 
 rapidity of the verse by the allusion to the Dacian's haughty dissimula- 
 tion of the terror with which he regards the Roman arms must be con- 
 sidered, as it has been considered by critics, one of those "impertinences," 
 for the sake of a popular hit, which is noticed in the preliminary essay as 
 a defect in Horace ; or it may possibly escape that reproach, and, per- 
 tinently to the purpose of the poem, mean that whatever the disguised 
 terror in which the Dacian holds the Roman soldier, he will welcome 
 the Roman poet. 
 
 t "Me peritus 
 Discet Hiber, Rhodanique potor." 
 "Peritus Hiber" does not mean "the learned Spaniard," as it is com- 
 monly translated. The adjective applies, as in similar cases is habitual 
 with Horace, both to "Hiber" and "Rhodani potor ;" and as Dillen- 
 burger, Orelli, and Macleane agree, the meaning is, " that these barbaric 
 nations will decom e wersed in me." Macleane thinks that by "Hiber" 
 is probably meant the Caucasian people of that name ; I follow, how- 
 ever, the interpretation popularly accepted — and sanctioned by Orelli 
 — that "Hiber" means "the Spaniard." The " Drinker of Rhone " is 
 the Gaul. 
 
BOOK IL— ODE XX. I99 
 
 Jam Daedaleo-ocior Icaro 
 Visam gementis litora Bospori, 
 Syrtesque Gsetulas canorus 
 Ales Hyperboreosque campos. 
 
 Me Colchus, et qui dissimulat metum 
 Marsae cohortis Dacus,* et ultimi 
 Noscent Geloni ; me peritus 
 
 Discet Hiber, Rhodanique potor.t 
 
 Absint inani funere neniae, i 
 Luctusque turpes et querimoniae ; 
 Compesce clamorem, ac sepulcri 
 Mitte supervacuos honores. 
 
 t "Absint inani funere neniae." ** Inani funere," because the body 
 is not there.— Orelli. 
 
200 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 BOOK III.— ODE I. 
 
 ON THE WISDOM OF CONTENT. 
 
 This ode opens with a stanza which modern critics gene- 
 rally consider to be an introduction not only to the ode 
 itself, but also to the five following — all six constituting, as 
 it were, serial parts of one varied poem, written about the 
 same time and for the same object — viz., to aid in the refor- 
 mation of manners which Augustus undertook at the close 
 of the civil wars. The date of these and other odes con- 
 ceived in the same spirit (as Lib. II. Od. xv. and xviii.) 
 would therefore be referable to the period from a.u.c. 725 
 to A.u.c. 728. The first line of the introductory stanza to 
 this ode imitates the formal exhortation of the priest at the 
 Mysteries, warning away the profane. The conclusion of 
 the stanza, " Virginibus puerisque canto," if, as recent inter- 
 preters 
 I hate the uninitiate crowd — I drive it hence away ; 
 Silence, while I, the Muses' priest, chant hymns unheard 
 
 before ; 
 I chant to virgins and to youths, 
 
 I chaunt to listeners pure. 
 
 Dread kings control their subject flocks ; o'er kings them- 
 selves reigns Jove, 
 
 Glorious for triumph won in war when giants stormed his 
 heaven. 
 And moving with almighty brow * 
 The universe of things. 
 
 * ** Cuncta supercilio moventis." With his usual felicity of wording, 
 Horace avoids the commonplace expression of "the Olympian nod," 
 though the line implies that and something more ; it implies the Deity's 
 intellectual government of all things, and explains the connection with 
 the stanzas that immediately follow, — the nod of Jove confirms the law 
 of Fate to which all men are subjected. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE I. 201 
 
 preters assume, addressed to the chorus of boys and girls 
 surrounding the priests and singing the praises of the gods, 
 has also, according to the scholiasts, a much wider signi- 
 ficance, and is a special address to the rising generation. 
 " Horace," says Macleane, " speaks as if he despaired of 
 impressing his precepts on any but the young, and bids the 
 rest stand aside, as incapable of being initiated in the true 
 wisdom of life." It is not easy to assign an appropriate 
 heading to this ode. That which I select appears, on the 
 whole, better than any other in use, though not quite satis- 
 factory. The whole ode, which ranks high among the 
 noblest attempts of a poet to embody didactic purpose in 
 lyrical form, /consists in a succession of brilliant images or 
 pictures, seemingly detached, but constituting a moral 
 whole. I St, The solemn recognition of the supreme God 
 triumphant over brute force (" Clari Giganteo triumpho"), 
 and governing the universe ; 2dly, The impartiality of Fate, 
 and the certainty of death ; 3dly, The misery of the guilty 
 conscience not to be soothed by sensual or artistic enjoy- 
 ments. At hne 25, " Desiderantem quod satis est," the 
 main object of the poem — viz., in the inculcation of that 
 wisdom of contentment by which Horace contrives to unite 
 Epicurean with Stoic philosophy — develops itself, and is 
 continued to the close. 
 
 Carm. I. 
 
 Odi profanum vulgus et arceo ; 
 Favete linguis : carmina non prius 
 Audita Musarum sacerdos 
 Virginibus puerisque canto. 
 
 Regum timendorum in proprios greges, 
 Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovij, 
 Clari Giganteo triumpho, 
 Cuncta supercilio moventis.* 
 
202 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Man vies with man — 'tis so ordained ; this, wider sets his 
 
 vines,* 
 That, nobler-born, the Campus t seeks, competitor for power 
 With one who boasts of purer life, 
 
 And one of clients more : 
 
 Necessity with equal law assorts the varying lots ; 
 
 Though this may bear the lofty name and that may bear the 
 
 low, ^ 
 Each in her ample urn she shakes, 
 
 And casts the die for all.J 
 
 To him above whose guilty neck hangs down the naked 
 
 sword, 
 Sicilian arts elaborate not the sweets that flavour food. 
 Nor song of bird nor chord of lute 
 Charms back the truant sleep. § 
 
 Yet sleep is meek, nor scorns the cots that shelter rural toil, 
 Nor banks that find their pall of state in shadowy summer 
 
 boughs. 
 Nor vales in Tempe never vexed 
 
 Save by the Zephyr's wing. 
 
 * *' Est ut viro vir latius ordinet 
 Arbusta sulcis." 
 *' Est ut," "it is the case, it is ordained that men should vary in wealth 
 and condition." — Yonge. "Latius ordinet arbusta sulcis "—viz. , one 
 man may compete with another man in extent of possessions : literally, 
 that he may marshal trees — chiefly, but not exclusively, vines — in par- 
 allel lines, or in the shape of the quincunx, to a greater extent than 
 another. 
 
 + *' Descendat in Campum." It was on the Campus Martius that the 
 Comitia Centuriata, at which the election of magistrates took place, were 
 held. The Campus was on low ground ; but Yonge observes that 
 *' descendat " is the exact word to express a contest, to descend into the 
 arena. 
 

 BOOK III. — ODE I. 203 
 
 Est ut* viro vir latius ordinet 
 Arbusta sulcis, hie generosior 
 Descendat in Campumt petitgr , 
 Moribus hie meHorque fama 
 
 Contendat, illi turba elientium 
 Sit major : aequa lege Necessitas 
 Sortitur insignes et imos ; 
 
 Omne capax movet uma nomen.t 
 
 Destrietus ensis eui super impia 
 Cerviee pendet, non Sieul^ dape^ 
 Duleem elaborabunt saporem, 
 Non avium citharseque eantus § 
 
 Somnum redueent. ' Somnus agrestium 
 Lenis virorum non humiles domos 
 Fastiditj^ umbrosamque ripam, 
 Non Zephyris agitata Tempe. 
 
 t " Omne capax movet urna nomen." .The image is taken from the 
 use of the dice, so famihar to the Romans. Fate is represented as hold- 
 ing the urn which contains the lots of all men. This she keeps shaking 
 (as we shake or rattle the dice-box), and casts out the lots indifferently. 
 
 § " Non avium citharasque eantus. " It nxust not be supposed that 
 the natural song of the wild bird out of doors is here meant. Horace is 
 speaking of artificial luxuries in contradistinction to the banks and vales 
 of the following stanza, to which the song of the wild bird would apply. 
 Here he means the singing-birds which the Romans kept in aviaries 
 within their houses. Their notes, and the sound of distant music, and 
 the trickling of water, were among the artificial means for soothing the 
 nerves and inducing sleep, practised by the luxurious. Maecenas, who 
 suffered from insomnia during that kind of nervous depression which 
 saddened his later years, is said by Seneca to have endeavoured to lull 
 himself to sleep by the aid of distant music. It is not to Maecenas, how- 
 ever, that Horace here alludes, for such an allusion in this place would 
 have been an unfeeling affront. 
 
y 
 
 204 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 To him who curbs desire within the bounds of *The 
 
 Enough,' 
 The wildest blasts that heave the sea awake no fear of wreck ; 
 He quails not though Arctums set, 
 
 Or Haedus rise, in storm ; 
 
 Though reel the vines beneath the hail, though crops belie 
 
 the hope. 
 Though trees despoiled of fruit accuse now spring's corrod- 
 ing showers, 
 Now summer's scorch and fiery stars, 
 . Now winter's crowning wrongs. 
 
 Lo, where the mighty moles extend new lands into the deep. 
 The scaled races feel their sea shrink round the invading 
 
 piles ; 
 As many a builder's burly gang 
 
 Heaves the huge rubble down,* 
 
 Obedient to a lord who scorns so small a bound as earth ; 
 Yet Conscience, whispering fears and threats, ascends with 
 him the tower, 
 Black Care sits by him in the bark. 
 Behind him, on the steed, t 
 
 Since Phrygian marble J nought avails to soothe a mind 
 
 diseased. 
 And nought the pomp of purple robes albeit outshining stars. 
 And nought the Achaemenian balm. 
 
 Nought the Falernian vine ; 
 
 * "Hue frequens 
 Csementa demittit redemptor 
 Cum famulis.' 
 *■* Csementa," the rough mixture of large and small stones, mortar, &c. 
 (rubble), which served for foundations. "Redemptor," literally the 
 " contractor" or "architect." 
 
BOOK III. — ODE I. 205 
 
 Desiderantem quod satis est neque 
 Tumultuosum sollicitat mare, 
 Nee saevus Arcturi cadentis 
 Impetus, aut orientis Haedi ; 
 
 Non verberatae grandine vinese, .^ 
 Fundusque mendax, arbore nunc aquas''^ 
 Culpante, nunc torrentia agros 
 Sidera, nunc hiemes iniquas. 
 
 Contracta pisces^aequora sentiunt 
 Jactis in altum molibus ; hue frequens 
 Caementa demittit redemptor 
 
 Cum famulisj* dominusque terrae 
 
 Fastidiosus. Sed Timor et Minae 
 Scandunt eodem, quo dominus ; neque 
 Deeedit serata triremi, et 
 
 Post equitem sedet atra Cura.t 
 
 Quodsi dolentem nee Phrygius lapis J 
 Nee purpurarum sidere clarior 
 Delenit usus, nee Falerna 
 
 Vitis, Achaemeniumque costum ; 
 
 t ** Sed Timor et Minae 
 Scandunt eodem, quo dominus ; neque 
 Deeedit aerata triremi, et 
 
 Post equitem sedet atra Cura." 
 "Minae intemse propter facinora commissa." — Orelli. "Threats of 
 conscience." "Scandunt," ascend the lofty tower or belvidere, which 
 was then the fashionable appendage to the villas of the wealthy. " The 
 ' aerata triremis' was the rich man's private yacht." — Macleane. The 
 distinction between " Post equitem- sedet atra Cura," and "Cura nee 
 turmas equitum relinquit," Lib. II. Od. xvi. 22, has been noticed in the 
 note to the line last mentioned. 
 
 t " Phrygius lapis," a costly marble from Synnada in Phrygia, white, 
 with red spots, in great esteem for columns, &c. 
 
206 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Why should I rear some hall sublime to Rome's last taste 
 
 refined, ' 
 With pillared doors * which never ope but envy enters in ? 
 Oh, why for riches, wearier far, 
 
 Exchange my Sabine vale ? 
 
 * "Postibus 'invidendis." *' Postes" were the jambs, columns, or 
 pilasters that flanked the entrance door, and the word is often used for 
 the door itself. I do not know of any authority for interpreting 
 "postes" as the rows of pillars jvithin the "atrium" itself, which some 
 commentators are inclined to do. 
 
BOOK III.— ODE I. 207 
 
 Cur invidendis i)Ostibus * et novo 
 Subliine ritumoliar atrium ? 
 Cur valle permutem Sabina 
 Divitias operosiores ? 
 
208 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE II. 
 
 THE DISCIPLINE OF YOUTH. 
 
 As in the preceding ode the virtue of contentment is en- 
 forced, so this commences with enjoining that early training 
 in simple and hardy habits which engenders the spirit of 
 content, because it forms the mind betimes to disdain 
 
 luxury. 
 
 To bear privation* as a friend — to love its wholesome stint. 
 Train the youth nerved by hardy sports which form the 
 school of war, 
 A rider dread, with practised spear, 
 To harry Parthian foes, 
 
 Inured to danger and to days beneath unsheltered skies. 
 On him from high embattled walls of kings at war with Rome, 
 Matron and ripening maid shall gaze. 
 And inly sigh, " Alas ! 
 
 " O never may our princely lord in arms unskilled, provoke 
 Yon lion whom 'twere death to touch ; by the fell rage for 
 blood, 
 Where most the slaughters thicken round. 
 Hurried, in rapture, on ! " 
 
 Glorious and sweet it is to die for the dear native land ; t 
 Even him who runs away from Death, Death follows fast 
 behind — 
 Death does not spare the recreant back, 
 And hamstrings limbs that flee. 
 
 * *' Pauperiem." It is difficult here, as elsewhere, to find an English 
 word that correctly renders the sense of "pauperies." In this passage 
 I can think of no better word than "privation," interpreted as the 
 
BOOK III.— ODE II. 209 
 
 luxury. Discipline of this kind is the foundation of courage, 
 love of country, the independence of character which loves 
 virtue for its own sake, and the self-restraint which is essen- 
 tial to social good faith and honour. 
 
 Carm. II. 
 
 Angustam amice pauperiem* pati 
 Robustus acri militia puer 
 
 Condiscat, et Parthos feroces - 
 Vexet eques metuendus hasta, 
 
 Vitamque sub divo et trepidis agat 
 In rebus. Ilium ex moenibus hosticis 
 Matrona bellantis tyranni 
 Prospiciens et adulta virgo 
 
 Suspiret, Eheu, ne rudis agrainura 
 Sponsus lacessat regius asperum 
 Tactu leonem, quern cruenta 
 Per medias rapit ira caedes. 
 
 Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori : + 
 Mors et fugacem persequitur virum, 
 Nee parcit imbellis juventae 
 Poplitibus timidoque tergo. 
 
 privation of luxuries. Poverty would be here wholly inapplicable, this 
 ode being addressed, with the one that precedes and the three that fol- 
 low it, to youths quite as much of the richer classes as of the poorer. 
 " Robustus acri militia puer:" I take "robustus" with "militia" — 
 the boy made robust by martial exercise and discipline. Among the 
 Romans, the age for military exercise began at seventeen. 
 
 + "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori." "In Horace's mind 
 there was a close connection between the virtue of frugal contentment 
 and devotion to one's country." — Macleane. 
 
 O 
 
210 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Virtue ne'er knows of a defeat which brings with it disgrace ; J 
 The blazon of her honours ne'er the breath of men can stain ; 
 Her fasces she nor takes nor quits 
 As veers the popular gale. 
 
 Virtue essays her flight through ways to all but her denied ; 
 To those who do not merit death she opes the gates of 
 heaven, 
 And, spurning vulgar mobs and mire, 
 Soars with escaping wing. 
 
 There is a silence unto which a safe reward is due. 
 With him whose tongue the sacred rites of Ceres blabs abroad. 
 May I ne'er sit beneath a roof, 
 Nor launch a shallop frail ! 
 
 For Jove neglected oft confounds the good man with the 
 
 bad ; 
 And though avenging Punishment is lame indeed of foot, 
 Yet rarely lag's she long behind 
 The swiftest flight of Crime. 
 
 + " Virtus, repulsDS nescia sprdidae, 
 Intaminatis fulget honoribus." 
 The meaning of these lines has been much disputed, but seems to me 
 sufficiently clear. The point is in the epithets, "sordidse," " intamina- 
 tis." It cannot be truly said that Virtue is ignorant or unconscious of a 
 defeat or rejection (" repulsse" applies to the defeat at a popular elec- 
 tion (a), but it is. said truly that Virtue knows not any such defeat as can 
 disgrace her (sordidae). The honours that Virtue seeks are distinguished 
 from civil honours, insomuch as the latter, being conceded by the people 
 or the state, are by the people or the state to be reversed or sullied ; but 
 
 (a) Thus, in the Epistles, I. i. 42, Horace says, — 
 
 " Vides, quae maxima credis 
 Esse mala, exiguum censum turpemque repulsam ;" 
 which Macleane, referring to "repulsae — sordidae" of this ode, interprets quaintly, 
 " He who would secure an election must have a command of money." 
 
 \ 
 
BOOK III. — ODE II. 2IJ 
 
 Virtus, repulsoe nescia sordidae, J 
 Intaminatis fulget honoribus ; 
 Nee sumit aut ponit secures 
 Arbitrio popularis aurae. 
 
 Virtus, recludens immeritis mori 
 Caelum, negata tentat iter via, 
 Coetusque volgares et udam 
 Spernit humum fugiente penna. 
 
 Est et fideli tuta silentio 
 Merces : vetabo, qui Cereris sacrum 
 Volgarit arcanae, sub isdem 
 Sit trabibus fragilemve mecum 
 
 Solvat phaselon ; saepe Diespiter 
 Neglectus incesto addidit inte.grum : 
 Raro antecedentem scelestum 
 Deseruit pede Poena claudo. 
 
 the honours which Virtue seeks being acquired by herself alone, cannot 
 by others be stained or touched (intaminatis). Cicero has exactly the 
 same sentiment (Pro Sestio, 28, 60), and Horace almost literally versifies 
 the passage, "Virtus lucet in tenebris — splendetque per sese semper, 
 neque alienis unquam sordibus obsolescit." — See Orelli's note, vol, i. 
 p. 345. 
 
212 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE III. 
 ON STEADFASTNESS OF PURPOSE. 
 
 The two preceding odes, addressed to youth, inculcate 
 the formation of private character ; this ode and the two 
 that follow have a political intention and bearing. In this 
 ode Horace commences with his famous picture of the 
 steadfast man not turned aside from that which his reason 
 and conscience hold to be right, either by the excitement of 
 a populace or the threat of a tyrant. Among the mortals 
 which the exercise of this virtue has raised to the gods he 
 places Augustus, who certainly did not want firmness of pur- 
 pose in founding and cementing his authority, and to whom 
 the Senate had already decreed the honours habitually paid 
 only to the divine powers. The poet's mention of Romulus 
 amongst those thus promoted to the rank of immortals, 
 leads on to what in itself appears, at first sight, a somewhat 
 prolix and irrelevant digression — viz., the speech of Juno 
 predicting the glories of Rome, and prohibiting the resto- 
 ration of Troy. Closely examined, the digression is not 
 purely episodical, but in harmony with the preceding verses, 
 and a development of the purpose of the whole poem ; for 
 it is in the nature of the steadfast man, unswayed by the 
 fickle passions of the time, to adhere firmly to the interests 
 of his country, and cherish the memory of its glories and 
 heroes. We are told by Suetonius ('Life of Julius Caesar,' 
 c. 79), that it was a current report that Julius Caesar medi- 
 tated a design of transferring the seat of empire from Rome 
 to Alexandria, or to Ilium. Lucan, ix. 997, ascribes to him 
 the same intention. But we are not to suppose, with some, 
 that Augustus entertained any such notion : this ode in 
 
 itself 
 
 Not the rage of the million commanding things evil, 
 Not the doom frowning near in the brows of the tyrant, 
 
7- 
 BOOK III.— ODE III. 213 
 
 itself is a proof to the contrary ; for Horace would certainly 
 not have volunteered a direct opposition to the wish of 
 Augustus in poems intended to praise and support his 
 policy, and, no doubt, composed with his entire approval. 
 But it is possible enough that, when Augustus commenced 
 his work of reformation, there were many among the broken 
 remains of the old political parties who, whether from the 
 dilapidation of their fortune, the distaste for Roman institu- 
 tions, the supremacy of Augustus himself and aversion to 
 his reforms, the animosities of faction — which, if crushed 
 down, were still sore and rankling — or the restless love of 
 change and adventure, might have entertained and pro- 
 claimed a desire for establishing a settlement in the East, 
 for which the ancestral site of Troy would have been a 
 popular selection. If Julius Caesar really did entertain, or 
 was commonly supposed to have entertained, the design 
 imputed to him by Suetonius and Lucan, many of his fol- 
 lowers and disbanded soldiers may have shared in this 
 project, and rendered it a troublesome subject for Augustus 
 to deal with. The idea is not likely to have gone to the 
 extent of a transfer of the seat of empire from Rome to 
 Troy (nor does Horace intimate that notion in this ode). 
 More probably it was confined to establishing at Troy, or 
 in its neighbourhood, a colonial or branch government, 
 with special privileges and powers. Nor would there have 
 been wanting plausible political reasons for thus planting a 
 military Roman settlement to guard the empire acquired in 
 the East. Upon the assumption that such an idea had 
 favourers sufficiently numerous to raise it to importance, 
 and that Augustus wished to discourage it, the intention of 
 Horace, in the speech he ascribes to Juno, becomes clear. 
 
 Carm. III. 
 
 Justum et tenacem propositi virum 
 Non civium ardor prava jubentium. 
 
214 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Shakes the upright and resokite man 
 In his solid completeness of soul ; 
 
 No, not Auster, the Storm-King of Hadria's wild waters, 
 No, not Jove's mighty hand when it launches the thunder ; 
 If in fragments were shattered the world. 
 Him its ruins would strike undismayed. 
 
 By this virtue ^^ did Pollux and wandering Alcides 
 Scale, with toil, starry ramparts, and enter on heaven. 
 Whom between, now Augustus reclined. 
 Quaffs the nectar that purples his lip ; t 
 
 By this virtue deservedly, thee, Father Bacchus 
 Did the fierce tigers draw J with necks tamed by no mortal ; 
 By this virtue Quirinus escaped. 
 
 Rapt on coursers of Mars — Acheron : 
 
 Juno having thus spoken words heard with approval 
 By the gods met in council, § ' Troy, Troy lies in ruins — 
 By a fatal and criminal judge || 
 
 And the false foreign woman o'erthrown ; 
 
 Condemned from the day when LaomedonlF cheated 
 Vengeful gods of the guerdon agreed ; — forfeit debtor 
 With its people and fraudulent king 
 Unto me and Minerva the pure. 
 
 * " Hac arte," " dper?;," "by the virtue of this constancy, unwearied 
 by labours, unswerving in purpo^, men, becoming the heroes and 
 benefactors of the hiiman race, attain to the glory of immortals." — See 
 Orelli, note 9 to this ode. 
 
 t " Purpureo bibit ore nectar," Horace speaks in the present tense, 
 and no doubt with reference to the decree of the Senate after the battle 
 of Actium — viz., that libations should be offered to Octavian in private 
 as well as in public tables, and his name should be inserted in the hymns 
 of praise equally wdth those of the gods. — Dio. 51, 19. Compare Lib. 
 IV. Od. v. 33 et seq., and Lib, II, Ep. i. 15, 
 
 X *' Vexere tigres" — Le., to the seats of the gods, to Olympus. The 
 
h:J<^ 
 
 BOOK III. — ODE III. 215 
 
 Non voltus instantis tyranni 
 
 Mente quatit solida, neque Auster, 
 
 Dux inquieti turbidus Hadriae, 
 Nee fulminantis magna manus Jo vis ; 
 Si fractus illabatur orbis, 
 Impavidum ferient ruinae. 
 
 Hac arte* Pollux et vagus Hercules 
 Enisus arces attigit igneas : 
 
 Quos inter Augustus recumbens 
 Purpureo bibit ore nectar.t 
 
 Hac te merentem, Bacche pater, tuae ^ >, ^ Y* 
 
 Vexere tigres,:j: indocili jugum 
 Collo trahentes. Hac Quirinus 
 Martis equis Acheronta fugit, 
 
 Gratum elocuta consiliantibus 
 Junone divis : § ' Ilion, Ilion 
 Fatalis incestusque judex || 
 Et mulier peregrina vertit 
 
 In pulverem ; ex quo destituit deos 
 Mercede pacta Laomedon,1[ mihi 
 Castaeque damnatum Minervae 
 Cum populo et duce fraudulento. 
 
 tigers are the symbols of the savage ferocity tamed by Bacchus. — 
 Orelli. Bacchus is here represented as the civiliser of life. 
 
 § Met in council to deliberate whether Romulus should be admitted 
 among the gods. 
 
 il Paris adjudging the golden apple to Venus. 
 H '* Ex quo destituit deos 
 Mercede pacta Laomedon." 
 Troy is here represented as doomed by the crime of its founder Laome- 
 don, who, according to legend, defrauded Neptune and Apollo of the 
 reward promised them for building the walls of the city. It is Laome- 
 don who is meant by *' the fraudulent king," *'duce fraudulento" — not 
 Priam, on whom, innocent himself, the fraud of his ancestor is visited. 
 
 ^ 
 
2l6 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 But now the vile guest of the Spartan adult'ress 
 Glitters forth nevermore ; — the forsworn race of Priam 
 By the aid of its Hector, no more 
 
 Breaks in fragments the force of the Greek ; 
 
 Sunk to rest is the war so prolonged by our discords, 
 Ever henceforth to Mars I give up my resentment, 
 And my grudge to the grandson'^ who springs 
 From the womb of a priestess of Troy. 
 
 I admit him to enter the luminous dwellings ; 
 I admit him to sipt of the juices of nectar, 
 And, enrolled in the order serene 
 Of the gods, to partake of their calm. 
 
 While between Rome and Ilion there rage the wide ocean. 
 May the exiles be blest wheresoe'er their dominion ; 
 So long as the wild herd shall range. 
 And the wild beast shall litter her cubs 
 
 Undisturbed, 'mid the barrows of Priam and Paris, 
 May the Capitol stand, brightening earth with its glory, 
 And dauntless Rome issue her laws 
 To the Mede she subdues by her arms. 
 
 Wide and far may the awe of her name be extended 
 To the uttermost shores, where the girdle of ocean 
 Doth from Africa Europe divide. 
 
 And where Nile floods the lands with his swell. 
 
 Be she stronger in leaving disdainfully buried 
 
 In the caverns of earth the gold — better so hidden, 
 
 * Romulus being Juno's grandson, born of Mars her son, and Ilia 
 the Trojan priestess. 
 + "Ducere nectaris succos." " Ducere, " z>. , "sorbillere," to sip. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE III. 217 
 
 Jam nee Lacaenae splendet adulterae 
 Famosus hospes, nee Priami domus 
 Perjura pugnaces Achivos 
 Heetoreis opibus refringit ; 
 
 Nostrisque duetum seditionibus 
 Bellum resedijt. Protinus et graves 
 Iras, et invisum nepotem, 
 
 Troiea quern peperit saeerdos, 
 
 Marti redonabo f ilium ego lueidas 
 Inire sedes, dueere neetaris 
 Succos,t et adscribi quietis 
 
 Ordinibus patiar deorum. 
 
 Dum longus inter saeviat Ilion 
 Romamque poiitus, qualibet exsules 
 In parte regnanto beati ; 
 
 Dum Priami Paridisque busto 
 
 Insultet armentum, et catulos feras 
 Celent inultae, stet Capitolium 
 Fulgens, triumphatisque possit 
 Roma ferox dare jura Medis. 
 
 Horrenda late nomen in ultimas 
 Extendat oras, qua medius liquor 
 Secernit Europen ab Afro, 
 
 Qua tumidus rigat arva Nilus : 
 
 Aurum irrepertum, et sie melius situm 
 Cum terra celat, spemere fortior 
 
 — Orelli. Several MSS. have "discere," which reading is favoured 
 by Dillenburger. Orelli and Macleaiie prefer "dueere," "vi^hich," as 
 the latter observes, ** is in very common use in the sense of 'quaffing.'" 
 
2l8 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Than in wringing its uses to men, 
 
 With a hand that would plunder the gods.* 
 
 What limit soe'er may obstruct her in nature 
 Let her reach by her arms ; bounding blithely to visit t 
 Either pole, where the mist or the sun 
 Holds the orgies of water or fire. 
 
 I to Rome's warlike race speak such fates, on condition 
 That they never, too pious to antique forefathers, 
 Nor confiding too far in their power, 
 Even wish Trojan roofs to restore. 
 
 What though Troy could revive under auspices fatal — 
 All her fortunes should be repetition of carnage ; 
 I myself leading hosts to her doom — 
 I the consort and sister of Jove ! 
 
 Rose her brazen wall thrice, with Apollo for founder, J 
 Still her brazen wall thrice should be razed by my Argives ; 
 Thrice the captive wife mourn for her lord, 
 Thrice the mother her children deplore. 
 
 Ah, this strain does not chime to my lute's lively measures ! 
 Whither tendest thou, Muse? Cease, presumptuous, to mimic 
 The discourses of gods ; nor let down 
 To a music low-pitched, lofty themes. 
 
 * " Quam cogere humanos in usus 
 
 Omne sacrum rapiente dextra." 
 The point here, as Orelli observes, is in the antithesis between " hii- 
 manos" and " sacrum." Macleane paraphrases the general meaning of 
 the passage thus, — '* Let Rome extend her arms as she will, only let 
 her not, as her possessions increase, learn to piize gold above virtue. " 
 The more literal meaning, according to Dillenburger and Orelli, is, that 
 in the lust of gold the hand of rapine sacrilegiously despoils the sacred 
 vessels dedicated to gods in their shrines and temples. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE III. 219 
 
 Quam cogere human os in usus, 
 Omne sacrum rapiente dextra.* 
 
 Quicunque mundo terminus obstitit, 
 Hunc tanget armis, visere gestiens,t 
 Qua parte debacchentur ignes, 
 Qua nebulae pluviique rores. 
 
 Sed bellicosis fata Quiritibus 
 Hac lege dico ; ne nimium pii 
 Rebusque fidentes avitae 
 Tecta velint reparare Trojse. 
 
 Trojae renascens alite lugubri 
 Fortuna tristi clade iterabitur, 
 Ducente victrices catervas 
 Conjuge me Jovis et sorore. 
 
 Ter si resurgat murus aeneus 
 Auctore Phoebo^ ter pereat meis 
 Excisus Argivis ; ter uxor 
 
 Capta virum puerosque ploret. 
 
 Non hoc jocosae conveniet lyrae : 
 Quo, Musa, tendis ? Desine pervicax 
 Referre sermones deorum et 
 Magna modis tenuare parvis. 
 
 + "Visere gestiens." I do not think the commentators or the 
 translators have sufficiently seized the notion conveyed by "gestiens," 
 w^hich means something more than "delighted" — it means, "showing 
 delight by active movement," "bounding" or "leaping." " Laetitia 
 gestiens," Cic. Tusc. iv. 6. 
 
 t "Auctore Phoebo," the founder of the first Troy. 
 
220 ,THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE IV. 
 
 INVOCATION TO CALLIOPE. 
 
 It is observable that in this ode as well as in the last, and 
 in Odes v. and vi., composed for political purposes, Horace 
 indulges much more in the flights and fancies and seeming 
 digressions proper to poetry purely lyrical than in Odes i. 
 and ii., in which, inculcating moral or noble sentiments 
 applicable to men of all parties, he is earnestly didactic. 
 But treating political subjects, on which men's minds were 
 divided, he shows wonderful delicacy of art in conveying 
 his purpose through forms of poetry least likely to offend. 
 In Ode iii., dissuading from the project of a settlement 
 in Troy, it is not he that speaks, it is Juno. In Ode iv., 
 desiring to imply that the ascendancy of Augustus is the 
 intellectual and godlike mastery over irrational force, he 
 
 begins 
 Descend, O Queen Calliope, from heaven. 
 And on thy fife discourse in lengthened music ; '^ 
 Or lov'st thou more the lyre 
 
 By Phoebus strung ; or thrill of vocal song ? 
 
 Hear ye, or doth the sweet delirium fool me ? 
 I seem to hear her, and with her to wander 
 Where gentle winds and waves 
 
 Steal their soft entrance into hallowed groves. 
 
 Me, when a child, upon the slopes of Vultur 
 Strayed, truant, from my nurse Apulia's threshold,t 
 And tired with play and sleep. 
 
 Did mythic doves with budding leaves bestrew ; 
 
 * " Longum — melos." 
 
 " In notes, with many a winding bout 
 Of linked sweetness, long drawn out." — Milton. 
 Macleane says "longum" means a sustained and stately song. Yonge 
 observes, that though it may be so translated, it is enough to understand 
 
BOOK III. — ODE IV. 221 
 
 begins by an invocation to Calliope, intimating his ambition 
 to accomplish a majestic or sustained poem without reveal- 
 ing its purport ; passes on to the lovely stanzas descriptive 
 of his own devotion to poetry from childhood; links this 
 description with inimitable subtlety of touch to Augustus's 
 culture of the humanising arts (v. 37, "Vos Caesarem," 
 &c.); implies the union of such literary tastes with the 
 policy of peace ("militia simul Fessas cohortes addidit 
 oppidis," &c.), and with conciliatory and clement disposi- 
 tions ("lene consilium," &c). ; and then, with a lyrical sud- 
 denness, bursts into the theme for which he had invoked 
 the muse at the commencement, — " Scimus ut impios ; " 
 insinuating, in the myth of the victory obtained over brute 
 force by the gods that represent wisdom (Pallas), industry 
 (Vulcan), social and domestic order (Juno), the ennobling 
 arts (Apollo), not only the victory of Augustus, but the 
 social and civilising influences to which the victory is 
 ascribed, and by which it is lastingly maintained. 
 
 Carm. IV. 
 
 Descende cselo, et die age tihia 
 Regina longum Calliope melos,* 
 Seu voce.iiunc mavis acuta, 
 Seu fidibus citharaque Phoebi. 
 
 Auditis, an me ludit amabilis 
 Insania ? Audire et videor pios 
 Errare per lucos, amoenae 
 
 Quos et aquae subeunt et aurae. 
 
 Me fabulosae Volture in Apulo 
 Altricis extra limen Apuliae t 
 Ludo fatigatumque somno 
 
 Fronde nova puerum palumbes 
 
 it, with Orelli, as a mode of saying *' Come, and leave me not hastily or 
 soon. " 
 + See Excursus at the end of the ode. 
 
222 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 A miracle to all who hold their eyrie 
 In beetling Acherontia, or whom forests 
 Embower in Bantian glens, 
 
 Or rich Forentum's lowland glebes enclose, 
 
 That, safe from prowling bear and baleful adder^ 
 That, heaped with myrtle and the hallowing laurel, 
 Calm I should slumber on, 
 
 Infant courageous under ward divine. 
 
 Yours, yours am I, O Muses, whether lifted 
 To Sabine hills — or whether cool Praeneste, 
 Or Tibur's sunny slopes. 
 
 Or limpid Baiae * more my steps allure. 
 
 The lines arrayed and routed at Philippi, 
 The accursed tree, the rock of Palinurus,t 
 Stormed by Sicilian waves, 
 
 Spared me, the lover of your choirs and founts. 
 
 Where ye be with me I would go undaunted ; 
 Tempt, a glad mariner, the madding Euxine ; 
 Or, a blithe traveller, brave 
 
 The sands that burn upon Assyrian shores ; 
 
 Visit the Briton, terrible to strangers, 
 Concanian hordes, drunk with the blood of horses, 
 And, safe from every harm, 
 
 Quivered Geloni and the Scythian stream. 
 
 * *' Liquidae Baias." The epithet applies either to the salubrity and 
 purity of the waters, or to the clearness of the air at Baize, — Schol. 
 Cruq. Orelli prefers the latter interpretation. '* Limpid" appears the 
 best translation of " liquidas," being applicable equally to either air or 
 water, which *' liquid," in our sense of the word, would not be. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE IV. 223 
 
 Texere, mirum quod foret omnibus, 
 Quicunque celsae nidum Acherontiae, 
 Saltusque Bantinos, et arvum 
 Pingue tenent humilis Forenti ; 
 
 Ut tuto ab atris corpore viperis 
 Dormirem et ursis ; ut premerer sacra 
 Lauroque collataque myrto, 
 Non sine dis animosus infans. 
 
 Vester, Camense, vester in arduos 
 Tollor Sabinos ; seu mihi frigidum 
 Praeneste, seu Tibur supinum, 
 Seu liquidae placuere Baise."* 
 
 Vestris amicum fontibus et choris, 
 Non me Philippis versa acies retro, 
 Devota non exstinxit arbos, 
 Nee Sicula Palinurus unda.t 
 
 Utcunque mecum vos eritis, libens 
 Insanientem navita Bosporum 
 Tentabo, et urentes arenas 
 Litoris Assyrii viator ; 
 
 Visam Britannos hospitibus feros 
 Et laetum equino sanguine Concanum ; 
 Visam pharetratos Gelonos 
 
 Et Scythicum inviolatus amnem. 
 
 f *' Nee Sicula Palinunis unda." Cape Palinurus, a promontory on 
 the western coast of Lucania. All attempts to ascertain at what period 
 of his life, or on what occasion, Horace escaped shipwreck off Palinums, 
 are but mere conjectures. 
 
224 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 High Caesar, seeking to conclude his labours, 
 Settling in peaceful towns war-wearied cohorts, "^ 
 Ye solace and refresh 
 
 In the Pierian grotto's placid shade. 
 
 Ye are the natural givers of mild counsel, 
 Your joy to give it, ye yourselves so gentle ! + 
 t We know how He, whose law 
 
 Tempers the sluggish earth and windy sea. 
 
 He who, the Sole One, rules with tranquil justice 
 The 'stablished states — the varying crowd of mortals, 
 Gods, and the Ghastly Realms — 
 
 Smote with prone bolt the Titans' impious crew, 
 
 And banded giants towering into battle : 
 That horrid youth in strength of arm confiding — 
 Brethren who sought to pile 
 
 Pelion on dun Olympus, and to Jove 
 
 * " Militia simul 
 Fessas cohortes addidit oppidis." 
 The MSS. vary in the reading — "addidit," "abdidit," and "reddidit." 
 Dillenburger prefers " abdidit," which the scholiasts explain as being 
 sent to winter quarters. Orelli powerfully contends for "addidit," as 
 significant of new towns or colonies, in favour of which he cites Tacitus, 
 Ann. xiii. 31, " Colonige Capua atque Nuceria additis veteranis firmatse 
 sunt." After the conquest of the Salassi, a people of the Gaulish Alps 
 (A.U.C. 729), Augustus assigned their territory to the Prsetorian troops, 
 who built Augusta Praetoria (Aosta). To other troops were assigned 
 lands in Lusitania, Augusta Emerita (Merida). Macleane agrees with 
 Orelli. The true reading being, however, uncertain, I have left it 
 equally vague in the translation. I may observe, however, that as 
 Macleane, in common with other eminent commentators, considers this 
 ode written between A. U. C. 725 and 728, the line cannot refer to the 
 new towns in the territory taken from the Salassi, A.u.C. 729. 
 + " Vos lene consilium et datis, et dato 
 Gaudetis, alm^." 
 ,*Ye give peaceful counsel, and rejoice in giving it because ye are 
 gentle." — Macleane. 
 
BOOK III.— ODE IV. 225 
 
 Vos Caesarem altum, militia simul 
 Fessas cohortes addidit oppidis,'* 
 Finire quasrentem labores, 
 Pierio recreatis antro. 
 
 Vos lene consilium et datis, et dato 
 Gaudetis, almae.t JScimus, ut impios 
 Titanas immanemque turmam 
 Fulmine sustulerit caduco, 
 
 Qui terram inertem, qui mare temperat 
 Ventosum, et urbes regnaque tristia, 
 Divosque, mortalesque turbas 
 Imperio regit unus aequo. 
 
 Magnum ilia terrorem intulerat Jovi 
 Fidens juveritus horrida brachiis, 
 Fratresque tendentes opaco 
 Pelion imposuisse Olympo. 
 
 + Here Horace, starting from the picture of Augustus cultivating the 
 Muses, and taking from them humane counsels, proceeds with poetic 
 abruptness to symbolise the victory of Augustus over the violent and 
 irrational forces hostile to the great social interests of man. The 
 reader must not suppose (as some critics have inconsiderately done) 
 that Horace signifies Augustus himself in the attributes he assigns to 
 Jove. He would very imperfectly understand Horace who could con- 
 ceive him thus to abase to the level of an earthly vicegerent that supreme 
 divinity, to whom there is no likeness and no second. Horace does 
 but imply that the same Divine Powers who defeated the brute forces 
 of the Titans and giants were on the side of Augustus in the civil 
 wars. 
 
226 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Himself sent fear. But what availed Typhoeus, 
 What Mimas or Porphyrion's stand of menace,* 
 What Rhoetus, or the bold 
 
 Hurler of trees uptom, Enceladus, 
 
 Rushing against Minerva's sounding aegis? 
 Here, keen, stood Vulcan — here the matron Juno, 
 And he, who never more 
 
 Will from his shoulders lay aside the bow, 
 
 Who in the pure dew of Castalia's fountain 
 Laves loosened hair,t who holds the Lycian thicket 
 And his own native wood, 
 
 Apollo, Delian and Patarean king. 
 
 By its own weight sinks force, when void of counsel. 
 'Tis the force tempered which the gods make greater ; 
 But they abhor the force 
 
 Which gives blind movement to all springs of crime. 
 
 Witness this truth, the hundred-handed Gyas — 
 Witness the doom of Dian's vast assailer. 
 Lustful Orion, quelled 
 
 By the chaste conqueror with the virgin shaft. 
 
 * "Aut quid minaci Porphyrion statu." As more poetic and ex- 
 pressive, I have adopted the literal translation of "status" — i.e., "a. 
 standing still, " as opposed to motion — rather than that of "attitude,' 
 in which sense Forcellini interprets the word in these lines, — an inter- 
 pretation commended by Yonge. 
 
 + Every reader of taste will be struck by the exquisite grace with 
 which Horace lingers on this lovely picture of Apollo (Augustus's 
 favourite deity), in contrast, as Orelli observes, to the monstrous images 
 to which he is opposed. *' Delius et Patareus :" Apollo is mythically 
 said to have resided (or given oracles) at Patara, in Lycia, for six 
 months in the year — the other six at Delos, his native isle. Macleane 
 remarks that, "In enumerating the principal gods who assisted Zeus in 
 
( 
 
 . BOOK III. — ODE IV. 227 
 
 Sed quid Typhoeus et validus Mimas, 
 Aut quid minaci Porphyrion statu,* 
 Quid Rhoetus, evulsisque truncis 
 Enceladus jaculator audax. 
 
 Contra sonantem Palladis segida 
 Possent ruentes ? Hinc avidus stetit 
 Vulcanus, hinc matrona Juno, et 
 Nunquam humeris positurus arcum, 
 
 Qui rore puro Castalise lavit 
 Crines solutos,t qui Lyciae tenet 
 Dumeta, natalemque silvam, 
 Delius et Patareus Apollo. 
 
 Vis consili expers mole ruit sua : 
 Vim temperatam di quoque provehunt 
 In majus; idem odere vires 
 Omne nefas animo moventes. 
 
 Testis mearum centimanus Gyas 
 Sententiarum, notus et integrae 
 Tentator Orion Dian«, 
 Virginea domitus sagitta. 
 
 the battle, Horace means to say, that although they were present, it was 
 Pallas to whom the victory is mainly owing, otherwise the force of his 
 argument is lost. " But, as is said in the introduction, Horace appears 
 to me to have desired emphatically, though symbolically, to intimate the 
 nature of the Powers that were ranged on the side of Pallas, i.e.^ in 
 the cause of Augustus — Vulcan, the representative of industry — Juno, 
 of social order and marriage — Apollo, of arts and letters. This sup- 
 jjosition is in accordance with the social or political objects to which 
 these odes are devoted, and with the special benefits which Horace else- 
 where ascribes to the reign of Augustus. 
 
228 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Earth heaped above them mourns her burled monsters, 
 And wails her offspring, into lurid Orcus 
 Hurled by the heavenly bolt ; 
 
 The swiftest fires consume not -^tna, piled 
 
 Over the struggling giant ;*" the winged jailert 
 Of lustful Tityus never quits its captive ; 
 Three hundred fetters hold 
 
 The ravisher Pirithous fast in hell. 
 
 Excursus. 
 
 '* Me fabulosse Volture in Apulo 
 Altricis extra limen Apuliae 
 Ludo fatigatumque somno." 
 
 I omit in the translation the adjective Apulian (Apulo) 
 applied to Vultur, because, as between Apulo in one line 
 and Apuliae in the next, the text is generally supposed to be 
 corrupt. Apu(lo) in the first line, is Apu(li8e) in the second; 
 
 and 
 
 * *' Necperedit 
 Impositam celer ignis ^Etnam." 
 The fires of ^tna, however swiftly they burst forth, cannot consume 
 the heap piled above Enceladus, so as ever to free him. — Orelli. 
 Horace does not say who was the giant crushed under ^tna. Calli- 
 machus says it was Enceladus, and also Briareus ; Pindar and ^schylus 
 say it was Typhoeus. I have left this question in the translation as 
 vague as Horace leaves it, though I have been compelled to take the 
 licence of adding the words, "the struggling giant," in order to pre- 
 vent a misconception of the meaning, — such as occurs, for instance, 
 in Smart, ** Nor does the active fire consume -(Etna, that is placed 
 over it. " 
 
 t The vulture. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE IV. 229 
 
 Injecta monstris Terra dolet suis, 
 Maeretque partus fulmine luridum ' 
 Missos ad Orcum ; nee peredit 
 Impositam celer ignis ^tnam ; * 
 
 Incontinentis nee Tityi jeeur 
 Reliquit ales, nequitiae additus 
 Gustos ;t amatorem trecentae 
 Pirithoum eohibent eatenae. 
 
 and though there are sufficient instances of variation of 
 quantity in proper names — such as Priamus, Priamides, 
 Sicanus, Sicania, Italus, &c. — yet it is thought improbable 
 that in so elaborate a poem Horace would have varied the 
 quantity in two consecutive lines. Passing by the proso- 
 diacal objection, a graver difficulty has been found in the 
 construction, " Me in Apulian Vultur beyond the threshold 
 of my nurse Apulia." The Apennine range, still called 
 " Monte Vulture," was partly in Apulia, partly in Lucania. 
 And Horace, Satire ii. i, says it is doubtful whether he was 
 a Lucanian or an Apulian, for the farmers of Venusia (his 
 birthplace) ploughed the boundaries of both these provinces, 
 Had he said " Lucanian Vultur," "beyond the threshold of 
 Apulia," the passage, therefore, would have been clear ; but 
 " in Apulian Vultur, out of Apulia," is a puzzle for com- 
 mentators. It is not to be wondered at that Bentley, ever 
 ready upon slighter ground to disturb a text and hazard an 
 invention, should vehemently repudiate this reading ; and, 
 getting rid of Apulia and poetry altogether, boldly pro- 
 pose to read, " Nutricis extra limina sedulae," " beyond the 
 threshold of my careful nurse." Another critic, still more 
 ingenious, not contented with taking " altrix" or " nutrix" 
 literally as Horace's nurse in flesh and blood, has discovered 
 
230 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 her name to be Pulia, " extra limina Pulise ;" in which case 
 the lines might be imitated thus : — 
 
 " Me on the slope of Brighton Downs, 
 Beyond the threshold of nurse Downie. " 
 
 The most recent and the most plausible conjecture will be 
 found in the preface to Mr Yonge's edition, p. vi., " Altricis 
 extra limina villulae," " beyond the precincts of my native 
 homestead." Mr Yonge suggests, p. vii., a yet bolder, but, 
 we think, a less acceptable emendation, " Nutricis extra 
 limina villicae," observing, that the/' villica" was an impor- 
 tant person in a plain country-house — the responsible 
 manager for every part of the household arrangements. 
 The construction would then be, "beyond the threshold 
 of my nurse the bailiff's wife." As the obscurity of this- 
 passage has tasked the subtlest critics, I feel that I shall 
 gratify all Horatian scholars by subjecting the following 
 communication from a very high authority : — " I cannot see 
 any difficulty about the Apulise and Apulo ; the adjective 
 and substantive often differ in accent, as gallant and gallknt. 
 Horace claims Vultur as an Apulian mountain, but says 
 that he has strayed beyond its Apulian side ; just as a child 
 at Macugnaga might say that he had strayed on the ' Pied- 
 montese Monte Moro ' beyond the limits of Piedmont." 
 
 ODE V. 
 
 THE SOLDIER FORFEITS HIS COUNTRY WHO SURRENDERS 
 HIMSELF TO THE ENEMY IN BATTLE. 
 
 In this ode the political object of Horace is to stigmatise 
 the Roman soldiers, who, being made prisoners — or, to 
 use an appropriate French word, deteims — after the defeat 
 of Crassus, had accustomed themselves to the country in 
 which they were detained, married into barbarian families. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE V. 231 
 
 and accepted military service under the conqueror; and 
 in thus energetically representing the moral disgrace of 
 these men, Horace is very evidently opposing some propo- 
 sition then afloat for demanding their restoration from the 
 Parthians. Such demand, which would no doubt be urged 
 by the relatives of the 'detenus^ and perhaps by many old 
 fellow-soldiers in the Roman army, might easily have ac- 
 quired the importance of what we call a party question. 
 And if Horace here opposes it, it is pretty certain that 
 Augustus opposed it also at that time. Hence the ode 
 would have been written before Augustus redemanded (a.u.c. 
 731) the Roman captives and standards from Phraates. 
 And the date a.u.c. 728 or 729, assigned to the ode by 
 Orelli, is probably the true one. A demand which circum- 
 stances rendered reasonable and politic in 731, might have 
 been very inopportune and unwise two or three years be- 
 fore. In aiming at his political object, Horace skilfully eludes 
 its exact definition. He begins by saying, that as it is by 
 his thunder we believe in Jove, so the power of Augustus 
 will be recognised when he shall have added the Britons 
 and Parthians to his empire. Thus, agreeably with the 
 oratorical character of his poetry, on which I have ob- 
 served in the preliminary essay, his exordium propitiates 
 the ear of the party he is about to oppose — viz., those 
 clamorous for the restoration of the Parthian prisoners. 
 He follows this exordium with a rapid outburst on the 
 ignominy of these very prisoners, and then, with admirable 
 boldness, places the argument against their restoration in 
 the mouth of the national hero Regulus. It is in these and 
 similar passages that Horace not only soars immeasurably 
 above the level of didactic poetry properly so called, but 
 justifies his claim to a far higher rank even in lyrical poetry 
 than many of his modem critics are disposed to accord to 
 him. He attains to that region of the sublime which be- 
 longs to heroic sentiment, and which is the rarest variety of 
 the sublime even in the tragic drama. 
 
232 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 'Tis by his thunder we believe Jove reigns 
 In heaven : on earth,* as a presiding god, 
 When to his realm annexed 
 
 Briton and Persian,t Caesar shall be held ! 
 
 What ! hath the soldier who with Crassus served, 
 Lived the vile spouse of a barbarian wife ? 
 Shame to Rome's Senate ! :j: shame 
 
 On manners that invert the Rome of old. 
 
 Marsian, Apulian, sons-in-law to foes 
 Of their own sires ! grown grey in hireling mail 
 Beneath a Median king ! 
 
 Oblivious of the sacred shields of Mars, 
 
 Oblivious both of toga and of name, 
 And Vesta's unextinguishable fire, § 
 While yet live Jove and Rome ! || 
 
 Ah ! this the provident mind of Regulus 
 
 Foresaw, when arguing that to buy from Death 
 Captives unworthy pity, on vile terms, 
 Would serve in after days. 
 
 As the sure precedent of doom to Rome. 
 
 " I," thus he said, " have with these eyes beheld 
 The Roman standards nailed to Punic shrines ; 
 From Roman soldiers seen 
 
 The bloodless weapons wrenched without a blow ; 
 
 * *' * Prgesens divus' is obviously 'praesens in terris,' as opposed to 
 * caelo.' " — Macleane. 
 
 + Persian for Parthian, as Lib. I. Od. ii. 22. 
 
 X "Pro Curia," &c. — viz., "Shame to the Senate for the scandal 
 to its dignity in having so long endured a disgrace so ignominious." — 
 Orelli. 
 
 § ** Horace collects the most distinguished objects of a Roman's rev- 
 erence — his name, his citizenship (togse), the shield of Mars only to be 
 lost, and the fire of Vesta only to be extinguished, when Rome should 
 perish. " — M ACLEANE. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE V. ^33 
 
 Carm. v. 
 
 Caelo tonantem credidimus Jovem 
 Regnare : praesens divus* habebitur 
 Augustus, adjectis Britannis 
 Imperio gravibusque Persis.t 
 
 Milesne Crassi conjuge barbara 
 Turpis maritus vixit ? et hostium — 
 Pro Curia inversique mores ! J — 
 Consenuit socerorum in armis, 
 
 Sub rege Medo, Marsus et Apulus, 
 Anciliorum et nominis et togae 
 Oblitus, aetemaeque Vestae, § 
 Incolumi Jove et urbe Roma ? 
 
 Hoc caverat mens provida Reguli 
 Dissentientis conditionibus 
 Foedis, et exemplo trahentis 
 Pemiciem veniens in aevum. 
 
 Si non periret immiserabilis 
 Captiva pubes. ' Signa ego Punicis 
 Adfixa delubris et arma 
 Militibus sine casde,' dixit, 
 
 II "Incolumi Jove." "Salvo Capitolio," Schol. — viz., the Capitol 
 in which stood the temple of Capitoline Jove. 
 
234 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 " Seen the stout arms of Roman citizens 
 Twisted, all slave-like, behind free-bom backs. 
 While foes retilled safe fields, 
 
 And left expanded portals sentryless. 
 
 " Think ye, forsooth, the soldier whom your gold 
 Ransoms from bonds, comes back a braver man ! 
 No, you in this but swell 
 
 By a fresh damage,* the account of shame. 
 
 *' Never the wool drugged by the sea-weed's dye 
 Regains the colours lost ; never, once fled. 
 True valour cares to find 
 
 In the degenerate heart its former place. 
 
 " If, when set free from toils, the dove will fight. 
 He will be brave. He trample Carthage down 
 In some new battle-field. 
 
 Who hath confided his own recreant self 
 
 " To faithless foes, — felt passive on his wrists 
 The gall of thongs, and known the fear of death ; 
 Mingling his country's war 
 
 With terms of peace for his own recreant self; 
 
 " Not even conscious of the only way 
 By which in battle soldiers guard their lives.t 
 O shame ! great Carthage hail. 
 
 Throned on the ruins of a Rome disgraced ! " 
 
 * " Flagitio additis Damnum." Orelli, Dillenburger, and Macleane 
 agree in considering that "damnum" does not refer, as some suppose, 
 to the loss of the ransom, but to the damage done by the example of 
 ransoming captives M^ho had evinced so little courage. 
 + ' ' Hie, unde vitam sumeret inscius, 
 Pacem duello miscuit." 
 That is, such a man, not comprehending that it is only by his own 
 
BOOK III. — ODE V. ^ 235 
 
 * Derepta vidi ; vidi ego civium 
 Retorta tergo brachia libero, 
 Portasque non clausas, et arva 
 Marte coli populata nostro. 
 
 Auro repensus scilicet acrior 
 Miles redibit ! Flagitio additis 
 
 Damnum.* Neque amissos colores 
 Lana refert medicata fuco, 
 
 Nee vera virtus, cum semel excidit, 
 Curat reponi deterioribus. 
 Si pugnat extricata densis 
 Cerva plagis, erit ille fortis, 
 
 Qui perfidis se credidit hostibus ; 
 Et Marte Poenos proteret altero, 
 Qui lora restrictis lacertis 
 
 Sensit iners, timuitque mortem. 
 
 Hie, unde vitam sumeret inscius, 
 Pacem duello miscuit.t O pudor ! 
 O magna Carthago, probrosis 
 Altior Italiae ruinis ! ' 
 
 unyielding valour that he should save his life, confounds peace and war 
 by making peace for himself on the field of battle. Conditions of peace 
 belong to the state, not to the individual soldier, upon whom the state 
 imposes the duty to fight at any hazard of life. — See Orelli's note. 
 
236 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Then, it is said, he turned from the embrace 
 Of his chaste wife and children, as a man 
 Of social rites bereft,* 
 
 A citizen no more, and bent to earth 
 
 In stem humility his manly face. 
 Till his inflexible persistence fixed 
 The Senate's wavering will ; 
 
 And forth, bewept, the glorious exile passed. 
 
 Albeit he knew what the barbarian skill 
 Of the tormentor for himself prepared. 
 He motioned from his path 
 
 The opposing kindred, the retarding crowd, 
 
 Calmly as if, some client's tedious suit 
 Closed by his judgment, t to Venafrian plains 
 Or mild Tarentum, built 
 
 By antique Spartans, went his pleasant way. 
 
 * " Capitis minor." The expression signifies the man who has lost 
 his civil rights, as did the Roman citizen taken prisoner by the enemy. 
 
 + The patrons were accustomed to settle the dispute between their 
 clients. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE V. 237 
 
 Fertur pudicse conjugis osculum, 
 Parvosque natos, ut capitis minor,*' 
 Ab se removisse, et virilem 
 Torvus humi posuisse voltum : 
 
 Donee labantes consilio patres 
 Firmaret auctor nunquam alias dato, 
 Interque mserentes amicos 
 Egregius properaret exsul. 
 
 Atqui sciebat quae sibi barbarus 
 Tortor pararet; non aliter tamen 
 Dimovit obstantes propinquos, 
 Et populum reditus morantem, 
 
 Quam si clientum longa negotia 
 Dijudicata lite relinqueret,t 
 Tendens Venafranos in agros, 
 Aut Lacedaemonium Tarentum. 
 
238 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE VI. 
 
 ON THE SOCIAL CORRUPTION OF THE TIME. 
 
 Macleane observes that, *'As the former (five) odes are 
 addressed more to qualities of young men, this refers more 
 especially to the vices of young women, and so Horace dis- 
 charges the promise with which this series of odes begins." 
 To me, on the contrary, it is precisely because of the lines 
 which so freely describe the vices of young women, single 
 and married, that I hesitate to class this ode among those 
 to which the introductory verse of the first ode applies. Let 
 any man consider if a poet, as the Muse's priest, could have 
 
 addressed, 
 Roman, the sins thy fathers have committed, 
 From thee, though guiltless, shall exact atonement, 
 Till tottering fanes* and temples be restored, 
 And smoke-grimed t statues of neglected gods. 
 
 Thou rul'st by being to the gods subjected. 
 To this each deed's conception and completion 
 Refer ; full many an ill the gods contemned 
 Have showered upon this sorrowing Italy. 
 
 Twice have Monaeses J and the Parthian riders 
 Of Pacorus crushed our evil-omened onslaught. 
 And to their puny torques smiled to add 
 
 The spoils of armour stripped from Roman breasts. 
 
 * The restoration of the temples and fanes decayed by time, or burned 
 down in the civil wars, was among the chief reforms of Augustus. — 
 Suet., Oct. XXX. 
 
 + " Smoke-grimed," — partly by conflagrations commemorated by 
 Tacitus and Suetonius, partly by the fumes from the sacrifices. Stated 
 times for the washing of the statues, with solemn rites, were appointed. 
 
 J Pacorus, son of the Parthian king Arsaces XIV., defeated Decidius 
 
. BOOK III. — ODE VI. 239 
 
 addressed, in the original, lines from 21 to 32, not to freed- 
 women and singing-girls, but to the well-born maidens and 
 brides of Rome. That the poem was written about the same 
 time as the others is a reasonable conjecture, and probably 
 with the same intention of assisting the reforms of Augustus, 
 among which Horace subsequently celebrates the stricter 
 laws regulating and affecting marriage. But I do not think 
 the poem was or could be one of those specially addressed 
 to the young ; and, independently of the lines I have referred 
 to, the concluding stanza, in fierce condemnation of them- 
 selves and their immediate parents, would be very unlike the 
 skilful way in which Horace "admissus circum praecordia 
 ludit." 
 
 Carm. VI. 
 
 Delicta majorum immeritus lues , 
 Roman e, donee templa* refeceris, 
 ^desque labentes deorum, et 
 Foeda nigro simulacra fumo.t 
 
 ^ Dis te minorem quod gens, imperas : 
 Hinc omne principium, hue refer exitum. 
 Di multa neglecti dederunt 
 Hesperige mala luctuosae. 
 
 Jam bis Monaeses % et Pacori manus 
 Non auspicates contudit impetus 
 
 Nostros, et adjecisse praedam , 
 
 Torquibus exiguis renidet. 
 
 Saxa, legate to M. Antony. Four years later, when Pacorus was dead, 
 the Parthians defeated Antony commanding in person. It is not known 
 who is meant by Monaeses. Plutarch mentions a Parthian of that name 
 who fled to Antony, but it nowhere appears that he bore arms against 
 the Romans. Orelli and Macleane favour the conjecture that by Mon- 
 aeses is meant Surenas, who defeated Crassus, A.U.C. 701 — supposing 
 Surenas to be merely an Oriental title of dignity, and Monaeses to have 
 been the proper name of Crassus's conqueror. 
 
240 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Dacian and Ethiopian,* dread-inspiring — 
 One with his archers, with his fleets the other — 
 Well-nigh destroyed this very Rome herself, 
 
 While all her thought was on her own fierce brawls. 
 
 This age, crime-bearing, first polluted wedlock. 
 Hence race adulterate, and hence homes dishallowed ; + 
 And fi-om this fountain flowed a poisoned stream, 
 Pest-spreading through the people and the land. 
 
 The ripening virgin, blushless, learns delighted 
 Ionic dances ; in the art of wantons 
 
 Studiously fashioned ; even in the bud, 
 Tingles, within her, meditated sin.J 
 
 Later, a wife — her consort in his cups, 
 She courts some younger gallant, whom, no matter, 
 Snatching the moment from the board to slip. 
 And hide the lover from the tell-tale lights. § 
 
 Prompt at the beck (her venal spouse conniving) 
 Of some man-milliner II or rude sea-captain 
 
 Of trade-ship fresh from marts of pilfered Spain, 
 Buying full dearly the disgrace she sells. 
 
 * This is an allusion to the threats of Antony and Cleopatra against 
 
 Rome — 
 
 "Dum Capitolio 
 Regina dementes ruinas, 
 Funus et imperio parabat." 
 
 — Lib. I. Od. xxxvii. 
 
 The Dacian archers were auxiliaries in Antony's army at Actium. By 
 the -Ethiopians is meant the Egyptian fleet. The ode must therefore 
 have been written after the battle of Actium. 
 
 + Here Horace, tracing the corruption of the times to the contempt 
 of the marriage-tie, whether by adultery or the excess to which the 
 licence of divorce was carried, aids Augustus in the reforms he effected 
 in the law of marriage. 
 
 t " Jam nunc et incestos amores 
 
 De tenero meditatur ungui. " 
 I have adhered to the received and simplest interpretation of *' de 
 
BOOK III.— ODE VI. 241 
 
 Psene occupatam seditionibus . „ . 
 
 Delevit Urbem Dacus et ^thiops; 
 Hie classe formidatus, ille 
 Missilibus melior sagittis. 
 
 Fecunda culpae saecula nuptias 
 Primum inquinavere, et genus, et domos ; t 
 Hoc fonte derivata clades 
 
 In patriam populumque fluxit. 
 
 Motus doceri gaudet lonicos 
 Matura virgo, et fingitur artibus ; 
 Jam nunc et incestos amores 
 De tenero meditatur ungui^J 
 
 Mox juniores quaerit adulteros 
 Inter mariti vina ; neque eligit, 
 Cui donet impermissa raptim 
 Gaudia, luminibus remotis ; § 
 
 Sed jussa coram non sine conscio 
 Surgit marito, seu vocat institor, || 
 Seu navis Hispanae m agister, 
 Dedecorum pretiosus emptor. 
 
 terpretation, which Orelli considers veiy ingenious and appears to ap- 
 prove, will be found in his note to the passage, * ' penitus ex intimis 
 nervis" — as we say in English, "tingling to the finger-ends ; " or, as 
 the French say, clever or wicked, " au bout des ongles." 
 § " Impermissa raptim 
 Gaudia, luminibus remotis." 
 " Raptim non est * furtim ' sed ' celeriter,' ita est statim post venerem in 
 triclinium redeat," &c. — Orelli. 
 
 II "'Institor,' *an agent, a trader in articles of dress or for the 
 toilet.'" — YoNGE. I have translated this *' man -milliner," for there 
 seems some kind of antithesis intended between the effeminate occupa- 
 tions of the "institor" and the rough manners of the shipmaster. 
 
 Q 
 
242 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Not from such parents sprang that race undaunted, 
 Who reddened ocean with the gore of Carthage, 
 Beat down stout Pyrrhus, great Antiochus, 
 And broke the might of direful Hannibal. 
 
 That manly race was born of warriors rustic, 
 Tutored to cleave with Sabine spades the furrow, 
 And, at some rigid mother's bluff command. 
 
 Shouldering the logs their lusty right hands hewed. 
 
 What time the sun reversed the mountain shadows, 
 And from the yoke released the wearied oxen. 
 As his own chariot slowly passed away. 
 Leaving on earth the friendly hour of rest. 
 
 What does time dwarf not and deform, corrupting ! 
 Our father's age ignobler than our grandsires' 
 Bore us yet more depraved ; and we in turn 
 Shall leave a race more vicious than ourselves. 
 
BOOK III.— ODE VI. 243 
 
 Non his juventus orta parentibus 
 Infecit aequor sanguine Punico, 
 Pyrrhumque et ingentem cecidit 
 Antiochum, Hannibalemque dirum ; 
 
 Sed rusticorum mascula militum 
 Proles, Sabellis docta ligonibus 
 Versare glebas, et several 
 Matris ad arbitrium recisos 
 
 Portare fustes, sol ubi montium 
 Mutaret umbras et juga demeret 
 Bobus fatigatis, amicum 
 Tempus agens abeunte cumi. 
 
 Damnosa quid non imminuit dies ! 
 yEtas parentum, pejor avis, tulit 
 Nos nequiores, mox daturos 
 Progeniem vitiosiorem. 
 
244 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE VII. 
 
 TO ASTERIA. 
 
 This poem tells its own tale. It has that peculiar grace 
 in which Horace is inimitable. Orelli says, " On account 
 of its elegant pleasantry, and the mode in which the action 
 is brought out into evidence — although the whole scene, and 
 
 the 
 Nay, Asteria, why weep'st thou for Gyges, 
 Whom, enriched with Bithynia's rich cargoes, 
 The first sparkling zephyrs of spring 
 
 Shall waft back to thee, constant as ever? 
 
 By the south wind on Oricus driven, 
 At the rise of the turbulent goat-star. 
 
 Unsleeping, he weeps, through the night, 
 The dull chill of his partnerless pillow. 
 
 But the agent of Chloe, his hostess, 
 Tells the youth that in her he has kindled 
 A flame no less ardent than thine, 
 
 In a thousand ways craftily tempting v 
 
 Warns him how the false consort of Proetus 
 Duped her credulous lord, by feigned charges. 
 Into plotting Bellerophon's death, 
 
 For too chastely regarding his hostess.* 
 
 Tells how Peleus, Hippolytet slighted, 
 And was all but consigned to dark Hades ; 
 
 * Proetus, believing the story of his wife Anteia, that Bellerophon had 
 attempted to seduce her, but unwilling himself to slay his guest, sent him 
 to his father-in-law lobates, king in Lycia, with sealed letters, in which 
 lobates was requested to destroy the bearer. 
 
 + This lady, otherwise called Astydamia, made the same charge 
 against Peleus to her husband Acastor that Anteia did to Proetus against 
 
t/ 
 
 BOOK III. — ODE VII. 245 
 
 the three persons who play their part in it, are pure poetic 
 inventions — it may be classed among Horace's happiest 
 poems." It is indeed a miniature lyrical comedy, and, slight 
 though it be in substance, may be cited as an example of 
 the skill with which Horace can give to a few stanzas the 
 lively effect of a drama. The date is unknown, but is referred 
 by some to a.u.c. 729. 
 
 Carm. VIL 
 
 Quid fles, Asterie, quem tibi candidi 
 Primo restituent vere Favonii 
 Thyna merce beatum, 
 Constantis juvenem fide, 
 
 Gygen? Ille Notis actus ad Oricum 
 Post insana Caprse sidera, frigidas 
 Noctes non sine multis 
 Insomnis lacrimis agit. 
 
 Atqui sollicitae nuntius hospitae, 
 Suspirare Chloen, et miseram tuis 
 Dicens ignibus uri, 
 
 Tentat mille vafer modis. 
 
 Ut Proetum mulier perfida credulum 
 Falsis impulerit criminibus nimis 
 Casto Bellerophonti 
 
 Maturare necem, refert* 
 
 Narrat paene datum Pelea Tartaro, 
 Magnessam Hippolytent dum fugit abstinens; 
 
 Bellerophon, and for the same reason. Acastor, like Proetus, having 
 scruples of conscience which forbade him to slay his guest with his own 
 hand, invited Peleus to hunt wild beasts in Mount Pelion ; and when 
 Peleus, overcome with fatigue, fell asleep on the mountain, Acastor con- 
 cealed his sword, and left him alone and unarmed to be devoured by the 
 beasts. Peleus on waking and searching for his sword was attacked by 
 Centaurs, but saved by Chiron. 
 
246 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Then seeks to allure him by tales 
 
 Teaching lessons for sinning in safety : 
 
 All in vain ! To his words is thy true-love 
 Deaf as rocks to the breakers Icarian ; 
 But keep sharp look-out on thyself, 
 
 Lest too charmed with thy neighbour Enipeus ; 
 
 Though no rider so skilled and so noticed 
 Wheels a steed on the turf of the Campus ; * 
 No swimmer so lustily cleaves 
 
 Rapid way down the stream of the Tuscan. 
 
 Make thy door fast at eve, never looking 
 Down the street if shrill fifes serenade thee ; 
 And be but more rigidly cold 
 
 Whensoe'er he complains of thy coldness. 
 
 * " Flectere equum." This was to wheel the horse round in a small 
 circle. — Macleane. 
 
BOOK III.— ODE VII. 247 
 
 Et peccare docentes 
 Fallax historias movet : 
 
 Frustra : nam scopulis surdior Icari 
 Voces audit adhuc integer. At tibi 
 Ne vicinus Enipeus 
 
 Plus justo placeat, cave ; 
 
 Quamvis non alius flectere equum* sciens 
 ^que conspicitur gramine Martio, 
 Nee quisquam citus seque 
 Tusco denatat alveo. 
 
 Prima nocte domum claude ; neque in vias 
 Sub cantu querulae despice tibiae : 
 Et te saepe vocanti 
 Duram difficilis mane. 
 
248 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE VIII. 
 
 TO M^CENAS, ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF HORACE'S ESCAPE 
 FROM THE FALLING TREE. 
 
 According to Franke, Horace's escape from the tree was 
 in A.U.C. 728. Ritter places it in 724. This poem com- 
 memorates the anniversary of that accident. 
 
 Learned as thou art in lore of either language,"* 
 Thou marvellest why these hymeneal Kalends 
 Of March t I keep — I, solitary Caelebs, 
 Wherefore these flowerets ? 
 
 This censer full of incense ? this heaped fuel 
 On the live sod ? Know that, escaped the death-blow 
 Of the dire tree, I a white goat to Bacchus 
 Vowed, and feast-offerings. 
 
 The day, thus sacred, with the year returning, 
 Shall free from cork and all its pitch-sealed fastenings 
 That jar J which first imbibed the smoke-reek under 
 Tullus the Consul. 
 
 In honour of thy friend thus saved, Maecenas, 
 Quaff brimming cups — a hundred be the number ; 
 Let the gay lights watch with us for the morning, 
 Noise and brawl banished. 
 
 Cast off the burden of a statesman's trouble, 
 Routed are Cotiso's fierce Dacian armies, 
 Mede wroth with Mede, upon fraternal slaughter, 
 Wastes his wild fury.§ 
 
 * Viz., Greek and Latin, which, as the commentators observe, com- 
 prehended all the learning a Roman could well acquire. 
 
 + The Matronalia, in honour of Juno Lucina, were held in the March 
 Kalends, 
 
/ 
 
 BOOK III.— ODE VIII. 249 
 
 Carm. VIII. 
 
 Martiis caelebs quid agam Kalendls,t 
 Quid velint flores et acerra thuris 
 Plena, miraris, positusque carbo in 
 Cespite vivo, 
 
 Docte sermones utriusque linguae ? * 
 Voveram dulces epulas et album 
 Libero caprum, prope funeratus 
 Arboris ictu. 
 
 Hie dies anno redeunte festus 
 Corticem adstrictum pice dimovebit 
 Amphorae fumum i bib ere institutae 
 Consule Tullo. 
 
 Sume, Maecenas, cyathos amici 
 Sospitis centum, et vigiles lucemas 
 Perfer in lucem : procul omnis esto 
 Clamor et ira. 
 
 Mitte civiles super Urbe curas : 
 Occidit Daci Cotisonis agmen; 
 Medus infestus sibi luctuosis 
 Dissidet armis : § 
 
 t " Amphorae fumum." The jar, or amphora, was kept in the 
 apotheca, and ripened by the smoke from the bath below it. The 
 pitch and cork which fastened it protected the wine itself from being 
 smoked. The wine in the amphora now to be broached, dating back 
 to Tullus the Consul, A.U.C. 683, would have been a year older than 
 Horace himself. 
 
 § The precise dates of these historical allusions are matters of contro- 
 versy, and not possible to determine. By the Mede is meant the Par- 
 thian, distracted by the civil feuds between Phraates and Tiridates. 
 
250 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Subject to Rome, and curbed in tardy fetters, 
 The old Cantabrian foe on shores Hispanian ; 
 Lo ! the grim Scythians meditate retreating — 
 Lax are their bow-strings. 
 
 As one who takes in private life his leisure, 
 A while forego the over-care for nations ; 
 Leave things severe ; life offers one glad moment- 
 Seize it with gladness. 
 
BOOK III.— ODE VIII. ^51 
 
 Servit Hispanae vetus hostis orae 
 Cantaber sera domitus catena : 
 Jam Scythse laxo meditantur arcu 
 Cedere campis. 
 
 Neglegens, ne qua populus laboret, 
 Parce privatus nimium cavere : 
 Dona praesentis cape laetus horae, et 
 Linque severa. 
 
252 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE IX. 
 
 THE RECONCILIATION. 
 
 " One of Buttmann's remarks with reference to this Ode 
 is well worth quoting : ' The ancients had the skill to con- 
 struct such poems so that each speech tells us by whom it 
 is spoken ; but we let the editors treat us all our lives as 
 schoolboys, and interline such dialogues after the fashion of 
 our plays with the names. To their sedulity we are in- 
 debted 
 He. 
 
 " While I yet to thee was pleasing, 
 While no dearer youth bestowed lavish arms round thy 
 white neck, 
 Happy then, indeed, I flourished. 
 
 Never Persian king * was blest with such riches as were 
 mine." 
 
 She. 
 
 " While no other more inflamed thee, 
 
 And below no Chloe's rank Lydia in thy heart was 
 placed, 
 Glorious then did Lydia flourish, 
 
 Roman Ilia's lofty name not so honoured as was 
 mine." t 
 
 He. 
 " O'er me now reigns Thracian Chloe, 
 
 Skilled in notes of dulcet song and the science of the 
 lute: 
 
 * " Persarum vigui rege beatior. " The opposition between the lover s 
 comparison in this stanza and the girl's in the next (" Romana vigui 
 
BOOK III. — ODE IX. 
 
 debted for the alternation of the lyrical name Lydia with 
 the name Horatius in this exquisite work of art ; and yet 
 even in an English poem we should be offended by seeing 
 Collins at the side of Phyllis." — Macleane. 
 
 The poem itself is, perhaps, an imitation from the Greek. 
 Macleane observes, " It is just such a subject as one might 
 expect to find among the erotic poetry of the Greeks." 
 
 Carm. IX. 
 
 * Donee gratus eram tibi, 
 
 Nee quisquam potior braehia Candidas 
 Cervici juvenis dabat, 
 
 Persanim vigui rege beatior.' * 
 
 '■ Donee non alia magis 
 
 Arsisti, neque erat Lydia post Chloen, 
 Multi Lydia nominis 
 
 Romana vigui clarior Ilia.' t 
 
 * Me nunc Thressa Chloe regit, 
 
 Dulces doeta modes, et eitharae sciens ; 
 
 clarior Ilia") is this : The lover means that he was richer in her love 
 than the wealthiest king ; the girl that she (the humble freed-woman) 
 was more honoured in his love than the most illustrious matron. 
 
 + Ilia, as the mother of Romulus, queen and priestess, stands here as 
 the noblest type of Roman matrons, " Romanorum nobilissima." 
 
254 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 If my death her life could lengthen, 
 
 So that Fate my darling spared, I without a fear could 
 die."* 
 
 She. 
 
 " From a mutual torchlight kindled 
 
 Is my flame for Calais, son of Thurian Ornytus,+ 
 If my death his life could lengthen, 
 
 So that Fate would spare the boy, I a double death 
 would die!" 
 
 He. 
 
 " What if Venus fled — returning, 
 Forced us two, dissevered now, back into her brazen 
 yoke; 
 If I shook off auburn Chloe, 
 
 And to Lydia, now shut out, opened once again the 
 door?" 
 
 She. 
 
 " Than a star though he be fairer. 
 
 Lighter thou than drifted cork — rougher thou than 
 Hadrian wave,t 
 Yet how willingly I answer, 
 
 'Tis with thee that I would live — gladly I with thee 
 would die." 
 
 * "Si parcent animse fata superstiti." * * Animae mese " denotes a 
 familiar expression of endearment, as in Cicero, ad. Fam. xiv. 14 ; and 
 as the Italians still call their mistress, *' Anima mia." 
 
 + *'Thurini Calais — Thressa Chloe." The alliteration between the 
 names here selected seems studied. In making Chloe a Thracian and 
 Calais the son of a Sybarite (Thurium, a town of Lucania, near the site 
 of the ancient Sybaris), the poet perhaps insinuates that the lady who 
 had replaced Lydia was somewhat too rude or masculine — the gentle- 
 
BOOK III. — ODE IX. 255 
 
 Pro qua non metuam mori, 
 
 Si parcent animae fata superstiti.' * 
 
 * Me torret face mutua 
 
 Thurini Calais filius Ornyti ; t 
 Pro quo bis patiar mori, 
 
 Si parcent puero fata superstiti.* 
 
 * Quid, si prisca redit Venus 
 
 Diductosque jugo cogit aeneo? 
 Si flava excutitur Chloe, 
 
 Rejectaeque patet janua Lydiae ? ' 
 
 * Quamquam sidere pulchrior 
 
 lUe est, tu levior cortice et improbo 
 Iracundior Hadria,t 
 
 Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam libens.' 
 
 man who had replaced the lover of the dialogue somewhat too soft 
 and effeminate. 
 
 J '* Improbo — Hadria," Orelli interprets " improbo" by *■'■ tobendy'* 
 "raging." The poets use the word " improbus" to imply anything in 
 violent excess. Ritter, with perhaps over-subtlety, considers that the 
 comparison to a cork refers, not to levity of temperament, but to the 
 insignificant stature of the poet in contrast to the beauty of Calais. 
 
256 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 O D E X. 
 
 TO LYCE. 
 
 This humorous ode belongs to a kind of serenade com- 
 mon enough with the Greeks, and is probably imitated from 
 a Greek original. There is no reason for supposing the 
 Lyce whose cruelty is here complained of, to be identical 
 with the Lyce who is lampooned in Book IV. Ode xiii. 
 
 Didst thou drink the iced water of uttermost Don, 
 O Lyce ! of some cruel savage the spouse, 
 Still, thy heart with compassion might think of me stretched 
 Where the north winds are quartered outside of thy door. 
 
 Hark ! the hinge of thy gate ; hark ! the plants in thy hall,* 
 With what dissonant howl they re-echo the blasts, 
 And, oh ! how the chaste congelation of air 
 Adds a yet purer coating of frost to the snow ! 
 
 Lay the haughtiness hateful to Venus aside, 
 
 I^est the wheel should run back and the rope should be 
 
 snappedjt 
 Thy good Tyrrhene father ne'er meant to beget 
 A Penelope cruel to suitors in thee. 
 
 Ah ! although thou art proof against presents and prayers, 
 And the pale-blue complexion of lovers disdained ; 
 Nor ev'n bowed to revenge on the spouse led astray 
 By a roving Pierian J less chaste than a Muse; 
 
 * "Nemus Inter pulchra satum tecta." Small trees were sometimes 
 planted round the impluvium of a Roman house. This is the interpre- 
 tation adopted by Orelli. Ritter contends that the line refers to one of 
 the two sacred groves situated between the two heights of the Capitoline. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE X. 257 
 
 Carm. X. 
 
 Extremum Tanain si biberes, *Lyce, 
 Saevo nupta viro, me tamen asperas 
 Porrectum ante fores objicere incolis 
 Plorares Aquilonibus. 
 
 Audis quo strepit janua, quo nemus 
 Inter pulchra satum tecta* remugiat 
 Ventis, et positas ut glaciet nives 
 Puro numine Juppiter ? 
 
 Ingratam Veneri pone superbiam, 
 Ne currente retro funis eat rota.t 
 Non te Penelopen difficilem procis 
 Tyrrhenus genuit parens. 
 
 O quamvis neque te munera, nee preces, 
 Nee tinctus viola pallor amantium, 
 Nee vir Pieria pellieej saueius 
 Curvat, supplicibus tuis 
 
 + ** Ne currente retro funis eat rota." This line has been tortured to 
 many interpretations, " Lest the wheel turn back and the rope with it," 
 is Orelli's, accepted by Macleane, who observes, the metaphor in that 
 case is taken from a rope wound round a cylinder, which, being allowed 
 to run back, the rope runs down, and the weight or thing attached goes 
 with it. " The rope may break and the wheel run back," is the con- 
 struction Macleane gives in his argument to the ode. 
 
 J ** Pieria pellice," Macedonian lady of pleasure. — Orelli, Ritter. 
 There is some humour as well as wit in coupling "pellice" with an 
 epithet so suggestive of an opposite idea. 
 
 R 
 
258 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Yet, granting thy heart be not softer than oak, 
 Nor gentler than snakes — as a goddess, at least, 
 Spare the life of a suppliant ! I am of flesh. 
 
 And can bear not for ever this porch and that sleet.* 
 
 * ** Aquae Cselestis patiens." The expression can scarcely apply to 
 rain, since the night has been described as one of wind and frost : — 
 
 "Glaciet nives 
 Puro numine Juppiter;" 
 **puro" being, as Macleane observes, "an epithet well suited to a 
 clear, frosty night." The wind would keep off the snow, but there 
 might be gusty showers of sleety hail. Horace, however, no doubt, 
 uses the expression in a general sense, such as the " floods of heaven," 
 whether they be snow, rain, or sleet. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE X. 259 
 
 Parcas, nee rigida mollior aesculo 
 Nee Mauris animum mitior anguibus. 
 Non hoe semper erit liminis aut aquae 
 Cselestis patiens* latus. 
 
26o THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XI. 
 
 TO THE LYRE. 
 
 " The common inscription, ' Ad Mercurium ' (To Mer- 
 cury), adopted by Bentley and others, is plainly wrong, and 
 calculated to mislead. The inscription should be 'Ad 
 
 testitudinem' 
 Mercury (for, tutored in thy lore, Amphion 
 Charmed into motion rocks by his sweet singing). 
 And thou, my lyre, with sevenfold chord resounding 
 Measures not skill-less, 
 
 Albeit once, unmusical, unheeded,* 
 Now welcome both in banquet-halls and temples, 
 Teach me some strain resistlessly beguiling 
 Lyde to listen. 
 
 Wild as the filly in its third year, frisking 
 Through the wide meadows, the least touch dismays her ; 
 Never yet won, she views as saucy freedom 
 Even the wooing. 
 
 But thout hast power to lead away the tigers. 
 And in their train the forests ; stay swift rivers ; 
 Cerberus himself, dread jailer of dark thresholds. 
 Soothed into meekness, 
 
 Yielded to thy bland voice his hundred strongholds 
 Of fury-heads, each garrisoned with serpents. 
 And hushed the triple tongue in jaws whose breath-reek 
 Tainted the hell-gloom ; 
 
 * "Nee loquax," z.V., " canora," — Dtllenburger, Orelli. Ho- 
 race, though a born poet, if ever there was one — and telling us that even 
 as an infant, when the doves covered him with bay and myrtle, he was 
 marked out for the service of the Muses— does not disdain, here and else- 
 
BOOK III.— ODE XL 26 1 
 
 testltudinem ' (to the lyre or shell), if anything, for Mercury 
 disappears after the first two verses. The miracles alluded 
 to, except Amphion's, were those of Orpheus, and of the 
 lyre in his hands, not Mercury's — which Orelli not perceiv- 
 ing, contradicts himself." — Macleans. 
 
 Carm. XI. 
 
 Mercuri, nam te docilis magistro 
 Movit Amphion lapides canendo. 
 Tuque, Testudo, resonare septem 
 Callida nervis, 
 
 Nee loquax* olim neque grata, nunc et 
 Divitum mensis et amica templis ; 
 Die modos, Lyde quibus obstinatas 
 Applicet aures : 
 
 Qu3e, velut latis equa trima campis, 
 Ludit exsultim metuitque tangi, ' N^i 
 
 Nuptiarum expers et adhuc protervo 
 Cruda marito. 
 
 Tut potes tigres comitesque silvas 
 Ducere, et rivos celeres morari ; 
 Cessit immanis tibi blandienti 
 Janitor aulae, 
 
 Cerberus, quamvis furiale centum 
 Muniant angues caput ejus, atque 
 Spiritus teter saniesque manet 
 Ore trilingui. 
 
 where, to intimate that, if a born poet, he had taken very great pains to 
 make himself a good one. 
 
 t '* Thou" refers not to Mercury, but to the lyre — i.e.^ symbolically 
 to the power of song and music, as exercised by Orpheus. 
 
262 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 The tortured lips of Tityos and Ixion 
 Reluctant smiled ; awhile their urn stood thirsting 
 As paused the Danaids, to the charmer's music 
 Dreamily listening. 
 
 Let Lyde hear the guilt of those stern virgins, 
 Hear, too, their well-known penance ; doomed for ever 
 To toil at filling up a sieve-like vessel ; 
 Tell her how surely 
 
 Slow fates await such crimes, — though under Orcus ; 
 Impious — for can impiety be greater ? 
 Impious in giving to the sword their bridegrooms, 
 Ruthlessly murdered.* 
 
 Amidst the many, One alone was worthy 
 The nuptial torch ; — a maid, through all the ages. 
 By glorious falsehood to her perjured father, 
 Nobly immortal. 
 
 " Rise," to her youthful bridegroom, thus she whispered ; 
 *' Rise, lest there come, and whence thou dost suspect not, 
 Into thy lids the everlasting slumber ! 
 Baffle my father ; 
 
 " Elude my blood-stained sisters — lionesses ; 
 Each — woe is me ! — her separate victim rending : 
 Of softer mould, I can nor strike nor pen thee 
 Here, in these shambles ! 
 
 * The old mythologists differ among themselves as to the fable of 
 Danaus and the fate of his daughters. Horace here adopts the com- 
 mon story that Danaus, having reason to think that the fifty sons of his 
 brother ^gyptus were plotting against him, fled with his fifty daughters 
 from Libya (the domain assigned him by his father Belus, -^gyptus 
 having Arabia), and ultimately became King of Argos. His nephews 
 came to his new realm and demanded his daughters in marriage. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XI. 263 
 
 Quin et Ixion Tityosque voltu 
 Risit invito ; stetit urn a pauUum 
 Sicca, dum grato Danai puellas 
 Carmine mulces. 
 
 Audiat Lyde scelus atque notas 
 Virginum pcenas, et inane lymphae 
 Dolium fundo pereuntis imo, 
 Seraque fata, 
 
 Quae manent culpas etiam sub Oreo. 
 Impiae, nam quid potuere majus ? 
 Impiae sponsos potuere duro 
 Perdere ferro ! * 
 
 Una de multis, face nuptiali 
 Digna, perjurum fuit in parentem 
 Splendide mendax, et in omne virgo 
 T^obiHs sevum, 
 
 * Surge,' quae dixit juveni marito, 
 ' Surge, ne longus tibi somnus, unde 
 Non times, detur ; socerum et scelestas 
 Falle sorores ; 
 
 Quae velut nactae vitulos leaenae 
 Singulos eheu lacerant : ego illis 
 Mollior nee te feriam neque intra 
 Claustra tenebo. 
 
 Danaus consented, but, in distrust or revenge, enjoined his daughters 
 to murder their bridegrooms with the swords he gave them for that 
 amiable purpose. One alone, flypermnestra,' spared her husband, 
 Lynceus. According to the earlier wnlers,~~tne Danaides were puri- 
 fied of their crime, and even married again. Later poets, deeming it 
 perhaps more prudent to make a severe example of such dangerous 
 bed-fellows, sent them to Orcus. 
 
 
264 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 " Let my sire load me with his barbarous fetters, 
 Wroth with the pitying love that spares a husband, 
 Or ship me outlawed to Numidian deserts 1 
 Be it so ! Hasten ! 
 
 " Go wheresoe'er fleet foot or sail can bear thee ; 
 Blest be the auspice ! Night and Venus favour ! 
 Go, but remember me, and this sad story 
 Carve on my tombstone ! " * 
 
 * It is pleasant to think that the modern law of what is called 
 "poetic justice," has a precedent in the final restoration of this young 
 lady to the arms of the husband she had so mercifully spared. Pro- 
 bably she was the ugly one of the family, and less likely, if she killed 
 one husband, to find another. Ovid's Epistle of Hypermnestra to 
 Lynceus, supposed to be written while imprisoned by her father, is much 
 indebted to Horace's lines. But perhaps both poets borrowed from a 
 conunon source which is lost to modem discoverers. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XI. 265 
 
 Me pater saevis oneret catenis, 
 Quod viro clemens misero peperci ; 
 Me vel extremes Numidarum in agros 
 Classe releget. 
 
 I, pedes quo te rapiunt et aurae, 
 Dum favet nox et Venus : I secundo 
 Omine, et nostri memorem sepulcro 
 Scalpe querelam.''^ 
 
266 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XII. 
 
 neobule's soliloquy. 
 
 Most of the earlier commentators took it for granted that 
 the poet is here addressing Neobule. Dillenburger, OreUi, 
 and Macleane prefer to consider that Neobule is throughout 
 
 the 
 
 How unhappy the lot of poor girls ; neither play to their 
 
 fancies in love, 
 Neither balm for their sorrows in wine ! frightened out of 
 
 their souls by the lash 
 
 In the tongue of some testy relation.* 
 
 Neobule, winged Love has flown off with thy spindles and 
 
 basket of wools ! 
 And thy studious delight in the toils of Minerva is chased 
 
 from thy heart 
 
 By young Hebrus, the bright Liparaean. 
 
 Hardy swimmer in Tiber to plunge gleaming shoulders 
 
 anointed with oil ! 
 Sure, Bellerophon rode not so well ; as a boxer no arm is 
 
 so strong ; 
 
 And no foot is so fleet as a mnner. 
 
 Skilful marksman, when over the champaign the hounds 
 
 drive and scatter the deer. 
 To select the right stag for his dart ; and as nimble to start 
 
 the wild boar, 
 
 Lurking grim in the dense forest-thicket. 
 
 * Literally "uncle." "Uncles," Torrentius observes, "had consid- 
 erable power over their nephews and nieces by the Roman law, and, 
 being less indulgent than fathers, their severity passed into a proverb." 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XII. 267 
 
 the ode addressing herself. The poem is, perhaps, more or 
 less imitated from one by Alcaeus, of which only a single 
 verse is preserved.. The metre of the ode has given much 
 trouble to commentators, especially to those who insist upon 
 the theory that all Horace's odes are reducible to quatrain 
 stanzas, while this ode is in a stanza of three lines, accord- 
 ing to the authority of MSS. (with the exception of the 
 Turinese one). An attempt to remodel it into quatrain will 
 be found in Orelli's excursus to the ode, and is adopted by 
 Yonge in his edition. 
 
 Carm. XII. 
 
 Miserarum est neque amori dare ludum, neque dulci 
 Mala vino lavere, aut exanimari metuentes 
 Patruae verbera linguae.* 
 
 Tibi qualum Cythereae puer ales, tibi telas 
 Operosaeque Minervae studium aufert, Neobule, 
 Liparaei nitor Hebri, 
 
 Simul unctos Tiberinis humeros lavit in undis, 
 Eques ipso melior Bellerophonte, neque pugno 
 Neque segni pede victus ; 
 
 Catus idem per apertum fugientes agitato 
 Grege cervos jaculari, et celer alto latitantem 
 Fruticeto excipere aprum. 
 
268 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XIII. 
 
 TO THE BANDUSIAN FOUNTAIN. 
 
 The site of this fountain has been a matter of controversy, 
 interesting to those who seek to ascertain the locaHties of 
 places endeared to them by the poets. Acron and others 
 assumed it to be in the neighbourhood of Horace's Sabine 
 home, and identify it with the rivulet of Digentia (Licenza). 
 It is, however, generally now agreed, upon what appears 
 sufficiently competent authority, that Bandusia was in 
 Horace's native soil, about six miles from the site of 
 
 Venusia 
 
 Fount of Bandusia, more lucid than crystal. 
 Worthy of honeyed wine, not without flowers, 
 I will give thee to-morrow a kid. 
 
 Whose front, with the budded horn swelling. 
 
 Predicts to his future life Venus and battles ; 
 Vainly ! The lymph of thy cold running waters 
 He shall tinge with the red of his blood, 
 Fated child of the frolicsome people ! 
 
 The scorch of the dog-star's fell season forbears thee ; 
 Ever friendly to grant the sweet boon of thy. coolness 
 To the wild flocks that wander around, 
 And the oxen that reek from the harrow. 
 
 I will give thee high rank and renown among* fountains. 
 When I sing of the ilex o'erspreading the hollows 
 Of rocks, whence, in musical fall,* 
 Leap thy garrulous silvery waters. 
 
 * "Me dicente cavis impositam ilicem Saxis " — the cavern over- 
 shadowed with the ilex from which the fountain gushes. — Orelli. 
 
BOOK III.— ODE XIIL i /^'^^''''''*"^269 
 
 Venusia (Dillenburger, Orelli, Macleane). If so, it is con 
 jectured that the poem would have been written in earlier 
 life, when Horace revisited his native spot — perhaps a.u.c. 
 717 — since it is held scarcely probable that he would have 
 thought of consecrating the fountain in Venusia, when he 
 was settled in the remote district of his Sabine farm. It 
 may, however, be likely enough, as Tate contends (Horat. 
 Restit. p. 88), that Horace transferred the name, endeared 
 to him by early association, to the spring near his later home. 
 Yonge suggests the query, " Was Bandusia the name of the 
 place, or of the presiding nymph of the fountain ? " — See 
 Orelli's full and very elegant note on this subject. 
 
 Carm. XHI. 
 
 O fons Bandusiae, splendidior vitro, 
 Dulci digne mero non sine floribus, 
 Cras donaberis haedo, 
 
 Cui frons turgida comibus 
 
 Primis et venerem et proelia destinat ; 
 Frustra : nam gelidos inficiet tibi 
 Rubro sanguine rivos 
 Lascivi suboles gregis. 
 
 Te flagrantis atrox hora Caniculae 
 Nescit tangere ; tu frigus amabile 
 Fessis vomere tauris 
 Praebes, et pecori vago. 
 
 Fies nobilium tu quoque fontium, 
 Me dicente cavis impositam ilicem 
 Saxis,* unde loquaces 
 Lymphae desiliunt tuae. 
 
2/0 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XIV. 
 
 " Composed at the close of the Cantabrian war, a.u.c. 
 729, when Augustus's return was expected, or on his return 
 the following year." — Macleane. 
 
 In noticing the critical animadversions on this ode "as 
 
 unequal 
 Joy, O ye people ! it was said that Caesar 
 Went forth like Hercules, in quest of laurels 
 Bought but by death ; now home from shores Hispanian 
 Comes he back victor. 
 
 Let her whose joy in her sole lord is centred* 
 Join, in thanksgivings due, the glad procession — 
 Join with the sister of our glorious chieftain — 
 Join with the mothers. 
 
 Chastely adorned by sacrificial fillets t — 
 Mothers of children now no more imperilled ; 
 Youths and young brides hush, at such time ill-omened, 
 Each lighter whisper. 
 
 Truly to me this holiday is sacred, 
 And its bright sunshine chases cloudy troubles. 
 I fear nor open brawl nor stealthy murder, :j: 
 Caesar yet living ! 
 
 Up, boy, and bring the perfume and the garlands, 
 And wine that to the Marsian war bears witness, 
 If one jar, baffling Spartacus the Rover, 
 Somewhere lurks hidden. § 
 
 * *• Unico gaudens mulier marito." See Orelli's note on "unico," 
 which some have interpreted in the sense of "unique" or "peerless ;" 
 Dillenburger, as "dear" or "beloved." 
 
 + Worn by the Roman matrons to distinguish them from freed women. 
 X "Nee tumultum, 
 Nee mori per vim metuam." 
 "Tumultum" here evidently means "intestine feud" or "popular out- 
 break ; " " vim, " " assassination " or " personal violence. " With Csesar 
 is identified the prevailing security of law. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XIV. 271 
 
 unequal to the occasion," Macleane observes justly that 
 "it was evidently only a private affair/' The familiar light- 
 ness of the concluding stanzas would indicate a merry-mak- 
 ing kept with a few personal friends. 
 
 Carm. XIV. 
 
 Herculis ritu modo dictus, O Plebs, 
 Morte venalem petiisse laurum, 
 Caesar Hispana repetit Penates 
 Victor ab ora. 
 
 Unico gaudens mulier marito* 
 Prodeat, justis opera ta sacris ; 
 Et soror clari ducis, et decorae 
 Supplice vitta 
 
 Virginum matres, juvenumque nupert 
 Sospitum. Vos, O pueri et puellae 
 Jam virum expertae, male ominatis 
 
 Parcite verbis. 
 Hie dies vere mihi festus atras 
 Eximet curas ; ego nee tumultum, 
 Nee mori per vim metuam,;}: tenente 
 
 Caesare terras. 
 
 I, pete unguentum, puer, et coronas, 
 Et cadum Marsi memorem duelli, 
 Spartacum§ si qua potuit vagantem 
 Fallere testa. 
 
 § " The Marsic or Social war was continued from A.u.C. 663 to 665 ; 
 and the Servile war, headed by Spartacus, lasted from A.u.C. 681 to 683 ; 
 therefore the wine Horace wanted would have been sixty-five years old 
 at least. There seems to have been something remarkable in the vin- 
 tage of that period, so as to make it proverbial ; for Juvenal, one hun- 
 dred years afterwards, speaking of the selfish gentleman who keeps his 
 best wine for his own drinking, says : — 
 
 ' Ipse capillato diffusum consule potat, 
 Calcatamque tenet bellis sDcialibus uvam. * " 
 
 — S. V. 30, 89.— Macleane. 
 
272 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Go, and bid silver-tongued Neaera hasten, 
 Binding in Spartan knot her locks myrrh-scented ; 
 But, if obstructed by that brute her porter, 
 Quietly come back. 
 
 Nothing cools fiery spirits like a grey hair ; 
 In every quarrel 'tis your sure peacemaker ; 
 In my hot youth, when Plancus was the consul, 
 I was less patient, t 
 
 * ".Myrrheum crinem." The scholiasts interpreted this expression 
 "myrrh-coloured." Orelli and other recent commentators support the 
 interpretation ' ' myrrh-scented." 
 
 + Z ^., when Horace was in his twenty-third year. 
 
BOOK III.— ODE XIV. 273 
 
 Die et argutae properet Neaerae 
 Myrrheum nodo cohibere crinem ; * 
 Si per invisum mora janitorem 
 Fiet, abito. 
 
 Lenit albescens animos capillus 
 Litium et rixae cupidos protervae ; 
 Non ego hoc ferrem calidus juventa,t 
 Consule Planco. 
 
2/4 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XV. 
 
 ON AN OLD WOMAN AFFECTING YOUTH. 
 
 The names in this poem are, of course, fictitious, and the 
 satire itself is of very general application even in the pre- 
 sent day. Its date is undiscoverable. 
 
 Mend thy life — it is time ; cease such pains to be vile, 
 
 Flaunting wife of the indigent Ibycus ; 
 Fitter far for the grave, do not gambol with girls, 
 
 Interspersing a cloud 'mid the galaxy. 
 
 That which Pholoe thy daughter may suit well enough, 
 
 In thee, hoary Chloris, is horrible : * 
 'Tis permitted to her to besiege the young rakes 
 
 In their homes, with much greater propriety : 
 
 No Bacchante the timbrel excites with its clash, 
 Than that daughter of thine can be livelier; 
 
 And now that with Nothus she's fallen in love. 
 Not a roe on the hills is more frolicsome. 
 
 What becomes thee the best is a warm woollen dress ; 
 
 Get thee fleeces from famous Luceria ; t 
 What become thee the least are the lute and the rose, 
 
 And the cask tippled dry with young rioters. 
 
 * •* Anus cum ludit, Morti delicias facit." — P. Syrus. 
 
 1* A town in Apulia now called Lucera. In its neighbourhood was 
 one of the largest tracts of public pasture-land. The wools of Luceria 
 were celebrated. 
 
(0 
 
 BOOK III. — ODE XV. 275 
 
 Carm. XV. 
 
 Uxor pauperis Ibyci, 
 
 Tandem nequitise fige raodum tuoe, 
 Famosisque laboribus : 
 
 Mature propior desine funeri 
 
 Inter ludere virgines, 
 
 Et stellis nebulam spargere candidis. 
 Non, si quid Pholoen satis, 
 
 Et te, Chlori, decet :* filia rectius 
 
 Expugnat juvenum domos, 
 
 Pulso Thyias uti concita tympano. 
 Illam cogit amor Nothi 
 
 Lascivse similem ludere capreae : 
 
 Te lan^e prope nobilem 
 
 Tonsae Luceriam,t non citharae, decent 
 Nee flos purpureus rosae, 
 
 Nee poti, vetulam, faece tenus cadi. 
 
2/6 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XVI. 
 
 GOLD THE COREUPTOR. 
 
 This ode is among Horace's most striking variations of 
 the moral he so frequently preaches — content versus gold. 
 But here he does full justice to the power of gold as the 
 corruptor. I have not adopted for this ode the forms of 
 metre I have elsewhere employed for rendering odes in the 
 
 same 
 The brazen tower, the solid doors,* the vigil 
 Of dismal watch-dogs sentried night and day. 
 Might have sufficed to guard 
 
 From midnight loves imprisoned Danae; 
 
 But Jove and Venus laughed to scorn Acrisius, 
 The timorous jailer of the hidden maid,t 
 Opening at once sure way, 
 
 The god transformed himself into — a Bribe. 
 
 More subtle than the flash of the forked lightning. 
 Gold glides amidst the armed satelHtes j 
 More potent than Jove's bolt, 
 
 Gold through the walls of granite bursts its way : 
 
 So fell the Argive Augur with his kindred, % 
 Gain, tempting one, whelmed in destruction all ; 
 The man of Macedon § 
 
 By gifts cleft gates, by gifts sapped rival thrones — 
 
 Gifts baited for fierce admirals, net whole navies ; || 
 Care grows with wealth, with wealth the greed for more. 
 
 * " Robustaeque fores." Orelli suggests " firmissimae," and objects, 
 not without fine critical taste, to the interpretation of Forcellini and 
 others — viz., " oaken doors," as a descent in poetic expression, just after 
 insisting on " brazen tower." Certainly, in line 9, Ode iii., " Illi robur 
 et ses triplex," "robur" comes fii-st. 
 
 + Acrisius shut up his daughter in a brazen tower from fear of the 
 oracle, who had predicted that she should bear him a son who would 
 cause his death. He is therefore timorous or panic-stricken (pavidus) 
 because of the oracle. 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
y 
 
 o 
 
 BOOK III. — ODE XVI. 277 
 
 same measure (Asclepiadean, with a Glyconean in the 4th 
 line), but one by which I have not unfrequently rendered 
 the Alcaic stanza, with the slight variation of a monosyllabic 
 termination in the second verse, while the termination of the 
 first verse is dissyllabic. 
 
 Carm. XVI. 
 
 Inclusam Daijaen turris aenea 
 Robustasque fores,""^ et vigilum canum 
 Tristes excubise munierant satis 
 Nocturnis ab adulteris, 
 
 Si non Acrisium virginis abditaet 
 Custodem pavidum, Juppiter et Venus 
 Risissent : fore enim tutum iter et patens 
 Converso in pretium deo. 
 
 Aurum per medios ire satellites, 
 Et perrumpere amat saxa potentius 
 Ictu fulmineo : concidit auguris 
 ArgiviJ domus ob lucrum 
 
 Demersa exitio ; diffidit urbium 
 Portas vir Macedo,§ et submit aemulos 
 Reges muneribus ; munera navium 
 Ssevos illaqueant duces. || 
 
 Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam 
 Majorumque fames. Jure perhorrui 
 
 X Amphiaraus ; his wife Eriphyle, bribed by her brother Polynices, 
 persuaded him to join in the siege of Thebes. There he fell, ordering 
 his sons to put their mother to death. Alcmseon obeyed, and finally 
 perished himself in attempting to get the gold necklace with which Eri- 
 phyle had been bribed. 
 
 § Philip of Macedon. 
 
 II This is held to refer to Menas, alias Menodorus, commander of 
 Sextus Pompeius's fleet. He deserted from Pompeius to Augustus, then 
 again to Pompeius, and again to Augustus. He had been freed-man to 
 C. M. Pompeius. 
 
2y8 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 O my Maecenas ! gem 
 
 Of Roman knighthood,* ever have I feared 
 
 To lift a crest above the crowd conspicuous — 
 Rightly; the more man shall deny himself, 
 The more shall gods bestow. 
 
 I do not side with wealth, but, lightly armed. 
 
 Bound o'er the lines, deserting to Contentment ; 
 Owner more grand in means the rich despise, 
 Than were I said to hide. 
 
 In mine own granaries, all Apulia yields 
 
 Her toiling sons, want-pinched amidst heaped plenty 
 A brooklet pure, some roods of woodland cool. 
 Faith in crops, sure if small — 
 
 Are a lot happier, though he knows it not. 
 
 Than his who glitters in the spoils of Afric. 
 Though not for me toil the Calabrian bees. 
 Nor wines in Formian jars 
 
 Languish their fire in length of years away, 
 
 Nor fleecy wools gain weight in Gallic pastures. 
 Yet Penury keeps aloof; nor, lacked I more. 
 More wouldst thou me deny : 
 
 Widening my means by narrowing my desires, 
 
 I shall have ampler margin for true riches 
 
 Than if to Lydia adding Phrygian realms. 
 
 Who covets much, much wants ; 
 
 God gives most kindly giving just enough. 
 
 * " Maecenas, equitum decus." By this significant reference to 
 Maecenas as the ornament of knighthood, Horace associates Maecenas 
 with himself in the philosophy of contentment — Maecenas, having always 
 remained in the equestrian order, to which he was bom, declining pro- 
 motion to the senatorial. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XVI. 279 
 
 Late conspicuum tollere verticem, 
 Maecenas, equitum decus.* 
 
 Quanto quisque sibi plura negaverit, 
 Ab dis plura feret. Nil cupientium 
 Nudus castra peto, et transfuga divitum 
 Partes linquere gestio, 
 
 Contemptae dominus splendidior rei, 
 Quam si, quidquid arat impiger Apulus, 
 Occultare meis dicerer horreis, 
 Magnas inter opes inops. 
 
 Purae rivus aquae, silvaque jugerum 
 Paucorum, et segetis certa fides meae, 
 Fulgentem imperio fertilis Africae 
 Fallit sorte beatior. 
 
 Quamquam nee Calabrae mella ferunt apes, 
 Nee Laestr^-gonia Bacchus in amphora 
 Languescit mihi, nee pinguia Gallicis 
 Crescunt vellera pascuis, 
 
 Importuna tamen Pauperies abest ; 
 Nee, si plura velim, tu dare deneges. 
 Contracto melius parva cupidine 
 Vectigalia porrigam, 
 
 -Quam si Mygdoniis regnum Alyattei 
 Campis continuem. Multa petentibus 
 Desunt multa : bene est, cui Deus obtulit 
 Parca, quod satis est, manu. 
 
280 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XVII. 
 
 TO L. iELIUS LAMIA. 
 
 This personage was the son of the L. JE. Lamia who sup- 
 ported Cicero in the suppression of the CatiHne conspiracy, 
 and appears during the civil wars to have espoused the party 
 of Caesar. Horace's friend was consul a.d. 3 ; afterwards 
 appointed by Tiberius governor of Syria, but not allowed to 
 enter on the administration of the province. He became, 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Noble ^lius, whose house hath its rise in that Lamus 
 From whom both the first and the later descendants 
 (As attesting memorials* record) 
 The great name of Lamia inherit, 
 
 Thou canst trace back, indeed, to an absolute monarch, 
 Holding sway, it is said, over Formia's walled ramparts, 
 And the waters of Liris, that flow 
 Into grassy domains of Marica. 
 
 To-morrow the east wind shall send us a tempest, 
 Which — if true be the crow, that old seer of foul weather — ■ 
 Shall strew in the grove many leaves ; 
 On the shore,t many profitless sea-weeds. 
 
 While thou canst, then, protect from the rains the dry 
 
 faggots ; 
 Spend to-morrow in resting thyself and thy household ; 
 Feast thy genius with wine — but not mixed ; 
 And do not forget a young porker. 
 
 * "Permemores — fastos." ** Family records," not the "fasti con- 
 sulares. ' ' — Mac le a n e. 
 
 t The shore of Minturna, on the borders of Latium and Campania; 
 where the nymph Marica was worshipped. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XVII. 281 
 
 A.D. 32, "Praetectus Urbi," and died the following year. 
 Mitscherlich says : '* His own good sense will easily show 
 any well-bred gentleman (urbanum) that Horace here, in a 
 well-bred, gentlemanlike way, offers himself as a guest ; in 
 plain words, hints that Lamia should ask him to dine." On 
 which the commentator in OrelH observes, with much feel- 
 ing asperity : " In the whole poem there is not a vestige of 
 this sort of gentlemanlike good-breeding, if gentlemanlike 
 good-breeding it be, which it is permitted vehemently to 
 doubt." Evidently the commentator is an Italian. A gen- 
 tleman of that country would certainly dispute the good- 
 breeding of any friend offering to drop in at dinner. 
 
 Carm. XVIL 
 
 ^li, vetusto nobilis ab Lamo, 
 Quando et priores hinc Lamias ferunt 
 Denominatos, et nepotum 
 
 Per memores genus omne fastos ;* 
 
 Auctore ab illo ducis originem. 
 Qui Formiarum moenia dicitur 
 Princeps et innantem Maricae 
 Litoribus tenuisse Lirim,t 
 
 Late tyrannus : eras foliis nemus 
 Multis et alga litus inutili 
 Demissa tempestas ab Euro 
 Stern et, aquae nisi fallit augur 
 
 Annosa cornix. Dum potis, aridum 
 Compone lignum : eras Genium mero 
 Curabis et porco bimestri, 
 Cum famulis operum solutis. 
 
282 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XVIII. 
 
 TO FAUNUS. 
 
 Faunus was not a stationary divinity. He was supposed 
 to come in the spring, and depart after the celebration of 
 his festival in December. From " parvis alumnis " (trans- 
 lated "young weanlings"), we may suppose this ode was 
 written in spring. — Macleane. Ritter denies that by 
 ''parvis alumnis" young animals are meant ; and contends 
 that the words refer to young plants, transferred from the 
 nursery to fields or orchards. Ritter also dissents from 
 the general interpretation, which I have followed, that 
 "Veneris sodali " is to be coupled with " craterae." Accord- 
 ing to him, the companion of Venus is Faunus, the lover of 
 the Nymphs, and not the wine-bowl. 
 
 Faunus, thou lover of coy nymphs who fly thee, 
 Enter my bounds, and fields that slope to sunlight ; 
 Enter them gently ; and depart, propitious 
 To my young weanlings, 
 
 If tender kid, when the year rounds, be offered ; 
 If to the bowl, Venus's boon companion, 
 Fail not libation due !* — With ample incense 
 Steams thine old altar, 
 
 Loose strays the herd on grassy meads disporting, 
 What time December's Nones bring back thy feast-day ; 
 Blithe, o'er the fields, streams forth the idling hamlet, 
 ' Freed — with its oxen. 
 
 Fearless the lambs behold the wolf prowl near them ; 
 The woodland strews its leaves before thy footstep ; 
 And on his hard task-mistress Earth, exulting, 
 Thrice stamps the delver !t 
 
 * '* Si tener pleno cadit hsedus anno, 
 Larga nee desunt Veneris sodali 
 Vina craterae. Vetus ara multo 
 Fumat odore," &c. 
 As I have here adopted a novelty in the punctuation, suggested by Mac- 
 
/ 
 
 BOOK III. — ODE XVIII. 283 
 
 Carm. XVIII. 
 
 Faune, Nymphamm fugientum amator, 
 Per meos fines et aprica nira 
 Lenis incedas abeasque parvis 
 
 ^quus alumnis ; 
 Si tener pleno cadit hsedus anno, 
 Larga nee desunt Veneris sodali 
 Vina craterae. Vetus ara multo 
 
 Fumat odore,* 
 Ludit herboso pecus omne campo, 
 Cum tibi Nonse redeunt Decembres ; 
 Festus in pratis vacat otioso 
 
 Cum bove pagus-; 
 Inter audaces lupus errat agnos ; 
 Spargit agrestes tibi silva frondes ; 
 Gaudet invisam pepulisse fossor 
 
 Ter pede terram.t 
 
 leane, it is well to subjoin his reasons for the innovation. ** I have not 
 followed the usual punctuation, which makes 'fumat' depend upon *si,' 
 with a comma at * craterae,' and a period at 'odore.' Horace claims the 
 protection of Faunus for his lambs in the spring on the ground of his 
 due observance of the rights of December, which he then goes on to 
 describe. * Pleno anno ' means at the end of the year when the Faunalia 
 took place." Therefore the division in the poem at which, after the in- 
 vitation to Faunus in the spring, Horace passes on to describe the festi- 
 val in the winter, is more intelligible, and far less abrupt, by commencing 
 it with the sacrifice on the altar. 
 
 + "Gaudet invisam pepulisse fossor 
 Ter pede terram." 
 "'Fossor' is put generally, I imagine, for a labouring husbandman, 
 who may be supposed to have no love for the earth that he digs for 
 another." — Macleane. This triple stamp is a dancing measure, which 
 is likened to the anapaest, where two feet are short and one long. Mac- 
 leane quotes Sir John Davies's poem (Orchestra) in explanation of this 
 measure — 
 
 "And still their feet an anapaest do sound," &c. 
 But it is perhaps best understood by any one who happens to have 
 learned, in the old-fashioned hornpipe, that step familiarly called "toe, 
 heel, and cloe," — touching the ground lightly with the toe, next with 
 tlie heel, and then bringing down the Avhole sole of the foot with a stamp. 
 I have seen that step, or something very like it, performed in a village 
 dance in the south of Italy. 
 
284 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XIX. 
 
 TO TELEPHUS. IN HONOUR OF MURENA'S INSTALLATION 
 
 IN THE COLLEGE OF AUGURS. 
 
 A. Terentius Varro Murena, adopted by A. Terentius 
 Varro, whose name he took, according to custom, subdued 
 the Salassi, an Alpine tribe, and divided their territory 
 among Praetorian soldiers, who founded the town of 
 Augusta, now Aosta. He was named Consul Suffectus for 
 
 B.C. 
 
 You tell us how long after Inachus flourished 
 King Codrus, who feared not to die for his country ; 
 What noble descendants from ^acus sprung. 
 What battles were fought under Ilion the sacred ; 
 
 But you say not a word upon things more important — 
 What price one must pay for a cask of old Chian ? 
 
 Baths,* rooms — where and whose ? What the moment 
 to thaw 
 These frost-bitten limbs in the sunshine of supper ? 
 
 Ho, boy, there, a cup ! t Brim it full for the New Moon ! 
 Ho, boy, there, a cup ! Brim it full for the Midnight ! 
 Ho, boy, there, a cup ! Brim it full — to the health 
 Of him we would honour ! — Murena the Augur. 
 
 Proportioned the bowls are to three or nine measures, 
 As each man likes best ; J the true poet will ever 
 Suit his to the odd-numbered Muses, and quaff 
 
 Thrice three in the rapture the Nine give to brimmers. 
 
 * "Quis aquam temperet ignibus." Orelli considers this refers to 
 the water to be warmed for the baths ; Ritter, to the water to be warmed 
 for admixture with wine. I have adopted the former interpretation, 
 though I think it doubtful. 
 
 t '* Here, in a kind of phantasy, the poet transports himself with 
 Telephus into the midst of the entertainment." — Orelli, 
 X ** Tribus aut novem 
 Miscentur cyathis pocula commodis." 
 "The * cyathus' was a ladle with which the drink was passed from the 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XIX. 285 
 
 B.C. 23. In B.C. 22 he was involved in the conspiracy of 
 Fannius Caepio against the life of Augustus, and, though 
 his guilt seems doubtful, executed. This is the same per- 
 son whom Horace addresses under the name Licinius, 
 Book XL Ode x., " Rectius vives Licini," &c. The metre 
 in the original is the second Asclepiadean ; but I have 
 found it easier to preserve fidelity to the sense and spirit of 
 the poem by employing one of the varieties of rhythm which 
 I have appropriated to the Alcaic. 
 
 Carm. XIX. 
 
 Quantum distet ab Inacho 
 
 Codrus, pro patria non timidus mori, 
 
 Narras, et genus ^aci, 
 
 Et pugnata sacro bella sub Ilio : 
 
 Quo Chium pretio cadum 
 
 Mercemur, quis aquam temperet ignibus,* 
 Quo praebente domum et quota 
 
 Pelignis caream frigoribus, taces. 
 
 t Da Lunae propere novae, 
 
 Da Noctis mediae, da, puer, auguris 
 
 Murenae : tribus aut novem 
 
 Miscentur cyathis pocula commodis.J 
 
 Qui Musas amat impares, 
 
 Ternos ter cyathos attonitus petet 
 
 Vates ; tres prohibet supra 
 
 Rixarum metuens tangere Gratia, 
 
 mixing-bowl to the drinlcing-cup. The ladle was of certain capacity, 
 and twelve ' cyathi ' went to the Sextarius. Horace says, in effect, * Let 
 the wine be mixed in the proportion of three cyathi of wine to nine of 
 water, or of nine of wine to three of water.' . . . * Commodis,' 'fit 
 and proper,' — ' cyathi,' that is, 'bumpers.'" — Macleane. The above 
 seems the best and most intelligible interpretation of a passage in which, 
 if conjectures were cyathi, the commentators would have greatly ex- 
 ceeded the number allowed to the nine Muses. 
 
286 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 But the Grace, with her twin naked sisters, shuns quarrel, 
 And to more than three measures refuses her sanction. 
 Ho ! ho ! what a joy to go mad for a time ! 
 
 Why on earth stops the breath of that fife Berecyn- 
 thian ? 
 
 And why is that harp so unsocially silent, 
 And the lively Pandban pipe idly suspended ? 
 
 Quick, roses — and more ! Let it rain with the rose ! 
 There is nothing I hate like the hand of a niggard. 
 
 Let the noise of our mirth split the ears of old Lycus. 
 He is envious — our riot shall gorge him with envy. 
 The ears of our neighbour, his wife, let it reach. 
 
 No wife could suit less the grey hairs of old Lycus.* 
 
 Thee, O Telephus, radiant with locks of thick cluster. 
 Thee, with face like the star of the eve at its clearest, 
 Budded Rhode is courting ; I too am on fire, 
 
 But me Glycera keeps in the flames burning slowly.t 
 
 * The graduated process of a drinking-bout is most naturally simulated 
 in these verses. First stage, the amiable expansion of heart in the 
 friendly toast— the toleration of differing tastes ; — each man may drink 
 as much as he likes. Secondly, the consciousness of getting drunk, and 
 thinking it a fine thing ; — joy to go mad. Thirdly, the craving for 
 noise ; — let the band strike up. Fourthly, a desire for something cool ; 
 — roses in ancient Rome — soda-water in modern England. Fifthly, 
 the combative stage ; — aggressive insult to poor old Lycus. Sixthly, 
 the maudlin stage, soft and tender ; — complimentary to Telephus, and 
 confidingly pathetic as to his own less fortunate love-affairs. 
 
 + Commentators have endeavoured to create a puzzle even here, 
 where the meaning appears very obvious. Rhode runs after you (petit), 
 who are so handsome — Glycera does not run after me, but keeps me 
 languishing ; the sense is consistent with the tone, half envious, half 
 sarcastic, with which the poet always speaks of Telephus, the typical 
 beauty-man and lady-killer. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XIX. 287 
 
 Nudis juncta sororibus. 
 
 Insanire juvat : cur Berecyntise 
 Cessant flamina tibiae ? 
 
 Cur pendet tacita fistula cum lyra ? 
 
 Parcentes ego dexteras 
 
 Odi : sparge rosas ; audiat invidus 
 Dementem strepitum Lycus 
 
 Et vicina seni non habilis Lyco.* 
 
 Spissa te nitidum coma, 
 
 Puro te similem, Telephe, Vespero, 
 Tempestiva petit Rhode : 
 
 Me lentus Glycerae torret amor meae.t 
 
 ODE XX.— Omitted. 
 
288 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXI. 
 
 T O M Y C A S K. 
 
 This poem appears composed in honour of some occasion 
 in which Horace entertained the famous L. Valerius Mes- 
 sala Corvinus. No man in that great age was more re- 
 markable for the variety of his accomplishments than this 
 Corvinus. Sprung from one of the greatest consular fami- 
 lies, he espoused the senatorian party in the civil wars, and 
 attached himself especially to Cassius. He held the third 
 place in the command of the Republican army, and at 
 
 Philippi 
 Coeval with me, born when Manlius was consul. 
 Whatsoe'er the effects of thy life, while in action — 
 Spleen or mirth, angry brawl or wild love, 
 Or, O gentle cask,'^ ready slumber — 
 
 Under what head soe'er there be entered account oft 
 The grapes thou hast kept since in Massicus gathered. 
 Thou art worth being roused on a day 
 Of good fortune; descend J for Corvinus 
 
 Asking wines by age mellowed ! He will not neglect thee, 
 All imbued though he be with Socratical maxims. 
 Father Cato, full often, 'tis said, 
 
 AVarmed his virtue with wine undiluted. § 
 
 Thou givest a soft-pricking spur to the sluggish, 
 Makest gentle the harsh, and confiding the cautious. 
 
 * *' Pia testa." The exact meaning of '* pia" here has given rise to 
 much critical disputation. Macleane says he knows no better transla- 
 tion than Francis's "gentle cask," for the meaning is to be derived 
 from its connection with "facilem somnum." Yonge adopts the same 
 interpretation, "gentle, kindly," — observing "it would be *impia' if 
 producing 'querelas, rixas,'" &c. I have translated "testa" cask, as 
 a word familiar to the English reader, but it here properly means the 
 amphora, a vessel into which the wine was, as we should say, bottled. 
 
^ 
 
 BOOK III. — ODE XXI. 289 
 
 Philippi turned Augustus's flank, stormed his camp, and 
 nearly took him prisoner. Subsequently he made terms 
 with Antony, whom he left for Augustus, after Antony's 
 league with Cleopatra — and at Actium commanded the 
 centre of the fleet with great distinction. Besides his 
 eminence as a commander and a statesman, he was con- 
 spicuous as an orator, a wit, a historian, and a grammarian. 
 He also wrote poetry. — See Smith's Dictionary for fuller 
 details of his life, art. "Messala." 
 
 Carm. XXI. 
 
 O nata mecum consule Manlio, 
 Seu tu querelas, sive geris jocos 
 Seu rixam et insanos amores, 
 Seu facilem, pia testa,* somnum, 
 
 Quocunque lectum nomine t Massicum 
 Servas, moveri digna bono die, 
 Descende,t Corvino jubente 
 Promere languidiora vina. 
 
 Non ille, quamquam Socraticis madet 
 Sermonibus, te negleget horridus : 
 Narratur et prisci Catonis 
 Saepe mero§ caluisse virtus. 
 
 Tu lene tormentum ingenio admoves 
 Plerumque duro ; tu sapientium 
 
 t " Quocunque nomine," "on whatever account." On the technical 
 meaning of "nomen," signifying "an entry in an account," see Mr 
 Long's note on Cicero in Verr. 11, i, 38. "'Lectum,' which For- 
 cellini interprets * selected, ' rather applies to the gathering of the grape 
 from which the wine was made. Massic wine was from Mons Massicus 
 in Campania." — Macleane. 
 
 X " Descend " — i. e., descend from the place where it was kept (apo- 
 theca), in the upper part of the house. 
 
 § Undiluted— " mero." 
 
 T 
 
290 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Chasing care from the brows of the wise, 
 Thou unlockest their hearts to Lyasus.* 
 
 Hope and nerve thou restorest to minds worn and harassed, 
 Add'st the horn that exalts to the front of the beggar ; 
 Fresh from thee he could face down a king, 
 Fresh from thee, brave the charge of an army. 
 
 Thee, shall Liber and Venus, if Venus come merry, 
 And the Graces, reluctant their bond to dissever. 
 And the living lights gaily prolong, 
 
 Till the stars fly from Phoebus returning. 
 
 * " Retegis Lyseo." **The dative case, 'to' Lyaeus, appears here to 
 be employed rather than the ablative." — Orelli. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XXL 29] 
 
 Curas et arcanum jocoso 
 Consilium retegis Lyaeo j* 
 
 Tu spem reducis mentibus anxiis, 
 
 Viresque et addis cornua pauperi, 
 
 Post te neque iratos trementi 
 
 Regum apices, neque militum arma. 
 
 Te Liber et, si laeta aderit, Venus, 
 
 Segnesque nodum solvere Gratiae, 
 
 Vivseque producent lucernse, 
 
 Dum rediens fugat astra Phoebus, 
 
292 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXII. 
 
 VOTIVE INSCRIPTION TO DIANA. 
 
 Nothing more need be said of this ode than that it is one 
 of the votive inscriptions common among the ancients, and 
 that a pine-tree would be very fittingly dedicated to Diana. 
 The attempts made to extract a story out of the occasion 
 and the offering are preposterous. That which is chiefly 
 noticeable in this and other poems by Horace, more or less 
 similar, is the rare and admirable merit of terseness. The 
 poet has sufficient reliance on himself to be sure that, how- 
 ever briefly and simply he expresses himself on a subject to 
 which brevity and simplicity belong, his unmistakable mark 
 will appear on the work. 
 
 Guardian of mountain-peaks, and forests — Virgin, 
 Goddess triform ed — who, thrice invoked, benignly 
 Dost hear young mothers in their hour of travail, 
 And from death save them ; 
 
 Thine be this pine which overhangs my villa. 
 To which each closing year shall be devoted 
 A youthful boar, of sidelong thrusts indulging 
 Vain meditations. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XXII. 293 
 
 Carm. XXII. 
 
 Montium custos nemommque, Virgo, 
 Quae laborantes utero puellas 
 Ter vocata audis, adimisque leto, 
 Diva triformis : 
 
 Imminens villae tua pinus esto, 
 Quam per exactos ego laetus annos 
 Verris obliquum meditantis ictum 
 Sanguine donem. 
 
294 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 O D E X X 1 1 1. 
 
 TO PHIDYLE. 
 
 Jani and other commentators have supposed the Phidyle 
 here addressed to be Horace's country housekeeper, and 
 that Horace in this ode answers some complaint of hers 
 that her master did not permit her to sacrifice in a manner 
 sufficiently handsome. Orelli observes that Phidyle could 
 
 not 
 
 If with each new-born moon thou lift to Heaven thy suppli- 
 ant hands, 
 If with some grains of frankincense, fresh corn, and flesh of 
 swine, 
 My rustic Phidyle, thy rites 
 Appease thy simple Lares, 
 
 Thy fruitful vines shall neither feel the south wind's poisoned 
 
 breath,* 
 Nor mildew blight to sterile dearth thy harvests in the ear. 
 Nor appled autumn's sicklied airs 
 Infect thy tender weanlings. 
 
 Let victims whose devoted blood shall tinge the Pontiff's 
 
 axe 
 Pasture on snow-clad Algidus, mid oak and ilex groves. 
 Or, fattening fast on Alban meads. 
 Grow ripe for pompous slaughter : t 
 
 But not from thee thy homely gods ask hecatombs of sheep ; 
 Content are they with what thou giv'st — content with rural 
 crowns ; 
 
 " Pestilentem Africum," the sirocco.— Orelli. 
 The flocks and herds that belonged to the ( 
 fed on Algidus and the meadows of Alba Longa, 
 
 + The flocks and herds that belonged to the College of Pontiffs werej 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XXIII. 295 
 
 not be Horace's servant, for she is represented as sacrificing 
 according to her own choice and will. But this no servant 
 could do : the act of sacrifice for the whole family belonged 
 exclusively to the head of the establishment. The ode, if 
 addressed to any individual at all — which it probably was 
 not — would have been addressed, therefore, to some mistress 
 of a plain country household. 
 
 Carm. XXIII. 
 
 Caelo supinas si tuleris manus 
 Nascente Luna, rustica Phidyle, 
 Si thure placaris et horna 
 Fruge Lares, avidaque porca, 
 
 Nee pestilentem sentiet Africum * 
 Fecunda vitis, nee sterilem seges 
 Robiginem, aut dulces alumni 
 Pomifero grave tempus anno. 
 
 Nam, quae nivali pascitur Algido 
 Devota quercus inter et ilices, 
 Aut crescit Albanis in herbis,t 
 Victima pontificum secures 
 
 Cervice tinget : te nihil attinet 
 Tentare multa caede bidentium 
 
296 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 So twine thy humble rosemary wreath, 
 And weave thy fragile myrtle. 
 
 The costliest offering softens not the household gods, if 
 
 wroth, 
 More surely than a votive cake or grains of crackling salt, 
 Provided that no sin pollute 
 
 The hands which touch the altar. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XXIII. 297 
 
 Parvos coronantem marino 
 Rore deos fragilique myrto. 
 
 Immunis aram si tetigit manus, 
 Non sumptuosa blandior hostia 
 Mollivit aversds Penates 
 Farre pia et s^liente mica. 
 
298 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXIV. 
 
 ON THE MONEY-SEEKING TENDENCIES OF THE AGE. 
 
 This ode, like those with which Book III. commences, 
 appears written with a design to assist Augustus in the 
 task of social reform after the conclusion of the civil 
 wars. OrelH ascribes the date to a.u.c. 725, 726, Macleane 
 
 to 
 Though, as the lord of treasures which outshine 
 
 The unrifled wealth of Araby and Indus, 
 The piles on which reposed thy palaces, 
 
 Filled up both oceans, Tuscan and Apulic ; * 
 
 Yet if dire Fate her nails of adamant 
 
 Into thy loftiest roof-tree once hath driven,+ 
 
 Thou shalt not banish terror from thy soul. 
 Nor from the snares of death thy head deliver. 
 
 Happier the Scythians, wont o'er townless wilds 
 
 To shift the wains that are their nomad dwellings ; 
 Or the rude Getae whose unmeted soil 
 • Yields its free sheaves and fruits to all in common ; + 
 
 There each man toils but for his single year — 
 Rests, and another takes his turn of labour ; 
 
 There ev'n the step-dame, mild and harmless, gives 
 To orphans motherless again the mother. 
 
 * In reference to the custom of building palaces out into the sea. 
 t Si figit adamantinos 
 
 Summis verticibus dira Necessitas 
 Clavos." 
 Various attempts have been made to explain the obscurity of this meta- 
 phor. I have adopted Orelli's interpretation, which he considers to be 
 decidedly proved the right one by an Etruscan painting — viz., that while 
 the rich man is busied in casting out the moles and raising the height of 
 his palace, Destiny is seen driving her nails into the top of the building, 
 as if saying to the master, *' Hitherto, but no farther ; the fated end is 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XXIV. 299: 
 
 to 728. It is more purely didactic than the first five odes 
 of this book — that is to say, it has less of the genuine 
 lyrical mode of treating moral subjects. If in that respect 
 inferior to those odes — as regards the higher range of 
 poetry in the abstract — it is inferior to no ode in elevation 
 of sentiment. 
 
 Carm. XXIV, 
 
 Intactis opulentior 
 
 Thesauris Arabum et divitis Indite, 
 Caementis licet occupes 
 
 Tyrrhenum omne tuis et mare Apulicum,'' 
 
 Si figit adamantines 
 
 Summis verticibus dira Necessitas 
 ClavoSjt non animum metUy- 
 
 Non mortis laqueis^xpedies caput. 
 
 Campestres melius Scythse, 
 
 Quorum plaustra vagas rite trahunt domos, 
 Vivunt, et rigidi Getse, 
 
 Immetata quibus jugera liberasj 
 
 Fruges et Cererem ferunt, 
 
 Nee cultura placet longior annua ; 
 
 Defunctumque laboribus 
 
 ^quali recreat sorte vicarius. 
 
 come to thyself." Macleane, however, prefers the interpretation of a 
 commentator in Cruquius, who takes "verticibus" for the human head, 
 the most fatal place for a blow. There is no disputing about tastes ; 
 but I confess I like this interpretation less than any. Whatever Fate is 
 about to do with her adamantine nails, it seems necessary, for connection 
 with the preceding lines, that she should fix her mark on the ambitious 
 piles which the man is building — not on himself. And if she has driven 
 her nails into his head, she might spare for that head the net or snare 
 to which the poet refers in the line that follows. 
 
 X The habits of the Suevi, as described by Caesar, Bell. Gall. IV. i., 
 are here imputed, correctly or not, to the Getse. 
 
300 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 No dowered she-despot rules her lord, nor trusts 
 The wife's protection to the leman's splendour.* 
 
 There, is the dower indeed magnificent ! 
 Ancestral virtue, chastity unbroken. 
 
 Shrinking with terror from all love save one ; 
 
 Or death the only sentence for dishonour. 
 Oh, whosoe'er would banish out of Rome 
 
 Intestine rage and fratricidal slaughter, 
 
 If he would have on reverent statues graved 
 This holy title, " Father of his Country," 
 
 Let him be bold enough to strike at vice, 
 Curb what is now indomitable — Licence, 
 
 And earn the praise of after time ! Alas ! 
 
 Virtue we hate while seen alive ; when vanished. 
 We seek her — but invidiously ; and right 
 
 The virtue dead to wrong some virtue living. 
 
 But what avails the verbiage of complaint — 
 To rail at guilt, yet punish not the guilty ? 
 
 What without morals profit empty laws ? 
 
 If nor that zone, which, as his own enclosure. 
 
 The Sun belts round with fires — nor that whose soil 
 Is ice, the hard land bordering upon Boreas — 
 
 Scare back the avarice of insatiate trade. 
 And oceans are the conquests of the sailor ; 
 
 If dread to encounter the supreme reproach 
 
 Of poverty, ordains to do and suffer 
 All things for profit, and desert as bare 
 
 The difficult way that only mounts to virtue ? 
 
 * "Nee nitido fidit adultero." Macleane follows Orelli in consider- 
 ing that this means that she does not trust to the influence of the adulterer 
 to protect her from the anger of the husband. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XXIV. 301 
 
 Illic matre carentibus 
 
 Privignis mulier temperat innocens ; 
 Nee dotata regit virum 
 
 Conjux, nee nitido fidit adultero.* 
 
 Dos est magna parentium 
 
 Virtus, et metuens alterius viri 
 Certo foedere castitas ; 
 
 Et peccare nefas, aut pretium est mori. 
 
 O quisquis volet impias 
 
 Csedes et rabiem tollere civicam, 
 Si quseret Pater urbium 
 
 Subseribi statuis, indomitam audeat 
 
 Refrenare licentiam, 
 
 Clarus postgenitis ; quatenus, heu nefas ! 
 Virtutem ineolumem odimus, 
 
 Sublatam ex oculis quasrimus invidi. 
 
 Quid tristes querimoniae, 
 
 Si non supplieio culpa reciditur ? 
 Quid leges sine moribus 
 
 Vanse profieiunt, si neque fervidis 
 
 Pars inclusa caloribus 
 
 Mundi, nee Boreae finitimum latus, 
 Durataeque solo nives, 
 
 Mereatorem abigunt, horrida callidi 
 
 Vincunt aequora navitae ? 
 
 Magnum pauperies opprobrium jubet 
 Quidvis et facere et pati 
 
 Virtutisque viam deserit arduae 
 
302 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 O were we penitent, indeed, for sins,"* 
 
 How we should haste to cast gems, gauds, gold, useless 
 Save as the raw material of all ill, 
 
 Amid the shouts of multitudes applauding, 
 
 Into the vaults of Capitolian Jove ; 
 
 Or that safe treasure-house — the nearest ocean ! 
 To weed out avarice dig down to the root. 
 
 And minds relaxed rebrace by rougher training. 
 
 Look at yon high-born boy — he cannot ride ! 
 
 Horseback too rude for him — the chase too dangerous ! 
 Skilful and brave — to trundle a Greek hoop ; 
 
 And break the laws which interdict the dice-box :t 
 
 While his mean father with a perjured oath 
 Swindles alike his partner and his hearth-guest 
 
 Spurred by one passion — how to scrape the pelf — 
 His worthless self bequeaths an heir as worthless. 
 
 The immoderate J riches grow, forsooth, and grow, 
 But ne'er in growing can attain completion ; 
 
 An unknown something, ever absent still. 
 Stints into want the unsufificing fortune. 
 
 * I adopt the punctuation of Dillenburger and Orelli — viz., that 
 the full stop is at *' bene poenitet." — See note in Orelli to lines 49, 50. 
 
 + *' Grseco trocho." This hoop, made of metal, was guided by a rod 
 like our hoops nowadays. It seems to have been used in the thorough- 
 fares, and by youths as well as mere children. The laws against gam- 
 bling were stringent, and in Cicero's time it was an offence sufficiently 
 serious for Cicero to make it a grave charge against M. Antony that he 
 had pardoned a man condemned for gambling, as he was himself a 
 habitual gambler. Juvenal says that the heir still in his infancy (bullatus) 
 learnt the dice from his father. 
 
 J '* Improbse divitise." ** Improbse " has not here the sense of "dis- 
 honest" or " iniquitous," as it is commonly translated ; it means, rather, 
 
. BOOK HI. — ODE XXIV. 303 
 
 Vel nos in Capitolium, 
 
 Quo clamor vocat et turba faventium, 
 Vel nos in mare proximum 
 
 Gemmas et lapides, aurum et inutile, 
 
 Summi materiem mali, 
 
 Mittamus, scelerum si bene poenitet.* 
 Eradenda cupidinis 
 
 Pravi sunt elementa, et tenerae nimis 
 
 Mentes asperioribus 
 
 Formandse studiis. Nescit equo rudis 
 Haerere ingenuus puer, 
 
 Venarique timet ; ludere doctior, 
 
 Seu Grseco jubeas trocho f 
 
 Seu malis vetita legibus alea : 
 Cum perjura patris fides 
 
 Consortem socium fallat et hospitem, 
 
 Indignoque pecuniam 
 
 Heredi properet. Scilicet improbae 
 Crescunt divitiae ; i tamen 
 
 Curtas nescio quid semper abest rei. 
 
 "immoderate," "out of all proportion." Macleane rightly observes 
 that " improbus" is one of the most difficult words to which to assign 
 its proper meaning. It implies excess, and that excess must be expressed 
 according to the subject described. 
 
304 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXV. 
 
 HYMN TO BACCHUS. 
 
 Of this ode Orelli says, that it belongs more properly than 
 any other ode of Horace to the dithyrambic genus, any 
 closer imitation of which was denied to the language and 
 taste of the Romans, as savouring of affectation or bombast. 
 ^N'owhere in Horace is there more of the true lyrical enthu- 
 siasm : 
 Whither, full of thee, O Bacchus, 
 
 Am I hurried by thy rapture, with a spirit strange possessed? 
 Through what forests, through what caverns ? 
 
 Underneath what haunted grottoes shall my voice be heard 
 aloud, 
 
 Pondering words to lift up Caesar 
 
 To his rank 'mid starry orders, in the council-halls of Jove ? 
 O for utterance largely sounding. 
 
 Never yet through mouth of poet made the language of 
 the world ! 
 
 As the slumberless Bacchante 
 
 From the lonely mountain-ridges, stricken still with won- 
 der, sees 
 Flash the waves of wintry Hebrus, 
 
 Sparkle snows in Thracian lowlands, soar barbarian Rho- 
 dope, 
 
 Such my rapture, wandering guideless,* 
 
 Now where river-margents open, now where forest-sha- 
 dows close. 
 
 * " Ut mihi devio 
 Ripas et vacuum nemus 
 Mirari libet." 
 Some of the MSS. have "rupes" instead of "ripas," and that reading 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XXV. 305 
 
 siasm : the picture of the Bacchante, astonished by the land- 
 scape stretched below her, is singularly beautiful. Dillen- 
 burger and Orelli conjecture the poem to have been written 
 A.U.C. 725-726; Macleane thinks it may have been on the 
 announcement of the taking of Alexandria, a.u.c. 724. It 
 was evidently while some new triumph of Caesar's was fresh 
 in the mind of the poet and of the public. 
 
 Carm. XXV. 
 
 Quo me, Bacche, rapis tui 
 
 Plenum? 'quae nemora aut quos agor in specus 
 Velox mente nova ? quibus 
 
 Antris egregii Caesaris audiar 
 
 Sternum meditans decus 
 
 Stellis inserere et consilio Jovis ? 
 Dicam insigne, recens, adhuc 
 
 Indictum ore alio. Non secus in jugis 
 
 Exsomnis stupet Evias 
 
 Hebrum prospiciens, et nive candidam 
 Thracen, ac pede barbaro 
 
 Lustratam Rhodopen, ut mihi devio 
 
 Ripas et vacuum nemus 
 
 Mirari libet* O Naiadum potens 
 
 is adopted by Lambinus and Muretus. Dillenburger, Orelli, Macleane, 
 and Yonge agree in preferring ** ripas," as having the authority of the best 
 MSS. Assuming this latter reading to be right, it renders more appro- 
 priate the previous description of the Bacchante's amaze in seeing all the 
 landscape expand before her. The poet then comes on the river-bank 
 as he emerges from the forest, the country thus opening upon him, and 
 again closed in. So in Schiller's *Der Spaziergang' the poet plunges 
 
 U 
 
306 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Lord of Naiads, lord of Maenads, 
 
 Who with hands divinely strengthened, from the mountain 
 heave the ash : 
 
 Nothing little, nothing lowly, 
 
 Nothing mortal, will I utter ! Oh, how perilously sweet 
 'Tis to follow thee, Lenseus, 
 
 Thee the god who wreathes his temples with the vine-leaf 
 for his crown ! 
 
 into the wood, and following a winding path, suddenly the veil is rent. 
 The passage is well translated by a lamented friend, Dr Whewell : — 
 
 " Lost is the landscape at once in the dark wood's secret recesses, 
 Where a mysterious path leads up the winding ascent ; 
 
 Suddenly rent is the veil ; all startled, I view with amazement, 
 Through the wood's opening glade, blazing in splendour the day." 
 
 I cannot help thinking that Horace had in his mind an actual scene, 
 as Schiller had in the Walk — that it was in some ramble amidst rocks, 
 woods, and water, that the idea of this dithyramb occurred to him. We 
 have his own authority for believing that, like most other poets, he com- 
 posed a good deal in his rural walks, — *' circa nemus uvidique Tiburis 
 ripas operosa parvus Carmina fingo." 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XXV. 307 
 
 Baccharumque valentium 
 
 Proceras manibus vertere fraxinos : 
 
 Nil parvum aut humili modo, 
 
 Nil mortale loquar. Dulce periculum est, 
 O Lenaee, sequi deum 
 
 Cingentem viridi tempora pampino. 
 
308 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXVI. 
 
 TO VENUS. 
 
 This ode has been generally supposed to be written when 
 Horace had arrived at a time of life sufficiently advanced to 
 retire from the service of the ladies, and Malherbe, the 
 French poet, had it in his eye when, at the age of fifty, he 
 made farewell visits to the fair ones he had courted till then, 
 
 and 
 I have lived till of late well approved by the fair. 
 And have, not without glory, made war in their cause ; 
 Now the wall on the left side of Venus ^ shall guard 
 My arms, and the lute which has done with the service. 
 
 Here, here, place the flambeaux which lit the night-march ; 
 Here, the bows and the crowbars — dread weapons of siege,t 
 Carrying menace of doom to the insolent gates 
 Which refused at my conquering approach to sur- 
 render. 
 
 Regal goddess who reignest o'er Cyprus the blest, 
 And o'er Memphis, unchilled by the snow-flakes of Thrace, 
 Lift on high o'er that arrogant Chloe thy scourge. 
 And by one smarting touch fright her into submission. 
 
 * In the temple of Venus, on the left wall, as being most propitious. 
 — Maclean E. The left side, as the heart side, is now, in many super- 
 stitious practices derived from the ancients, considered the best for div- 
 inations connected with the affections. In chiromancy, the left hand is 
 examined in preference to the right, not only for the line of life, but for 
 the lines supposed to prognosticate in affairs of the heart. 
 
 + The torches to light the gallant to the house he went to attack, and 
 the crowbar to burst open her door, are intelligible enough. What is 
 meant by *' arcus," '* the bows," is by no means so clear. The weapon 
 may be merely symbolical (Cupid's bow and arrows), or it may have 
 been the arbalist or cross-bow, and used to frighten the porter. — See 
 Orelli's note. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XXVI. 309 
 
 and informed them that he resigned his commission in the 
 armies of Cytherea. But I think with Macleane that the 
 ode represents nothing more than a successful gallant's first 
 refusal ; and that to apply it to Horace himself, or to assume, 
 from the opening, that he was getting into years, and about 
 to abandon lyrical poetry, is to mistake the character and 
 scope of the ode. 
 
 Carm. XXVI. 
 
 Vixi puellis nuper idoneus, 
 Et militavi non sine gloria ; 
 
 Nunc arma defunctumque bello 
 Barbiton hie paries habebit, 
 
 KeMim marinae qui Veneris* latus 
 Custodit. Hie, hie ponite lucida 
 Funalia, et vectes, et arcus 
 Oppositis foribus minaces. t 
 
 O quae beatam, diva, tenes Cyprum, et 
 Memphin carentem Sithonia nive, 
 Regina, sublimi flagello 
 
 Tange Chloen semel arrogantem. 
 
3IO THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXVII. 
 
 TO GALATEA UNDERTAKING A JOURNEY. 
 
 We know nothing more of Galatea than the ode tells us, 
 by which she appears to have been a friend of Horace's 
 meditating a journey to Greece. Upon the strength of a 
 line in which he asks her to remember him, an attempt has 
 been actually made to include her in the catalogue of Horace's 
 
 mistresses ; 
 
 Let the ill omen of the shrilling screech-owl,* 
 Or pregnant bitch, or vixen newly littered, 
 Or tawny she-wolf skulked down from Lanuvium t 
 Convoy the wicked ; 
 
 Let the snake break off their intended journey. 
 If their nags start, when arrow-like he glances 
 Slant on the road — I, where I love, a cautious 
 Provident Augur, 
 
 Ere the weird crow, reseeking stagnant marshes. 
 Predict the rain-storm, will invoke the raven 
 From the far East, who, as the priestlier croaker. 
 Shall overawe him. J 
 
 * "Parrge recinentis." Macleane observes that it is not determined 
 what this bird "parra" was, or whether it is known in these islands. 
 I venture to call it, as other translators have done, the screech-owl, 
 which is still, in Italy as elsewhere, deemed a bird of bad omen. Orelli 
 treats of the subject in an elaborate note, which, however, decides 
 nothing. Yonge says, " I believe it is the owl." — See his note. 
 
 + " Rava decurrens lupa Lanuvino. " The wolf runs down from the 
 wooded hills round Lanuvium, because that town was near the Appia 
 Via, leading to Brundusium, where Galatea would embark. — Macleane, 
 Orelli. " Rava lupa." What exact colour *' rava " means is only so 
 far clear that Horace applies it both to a lion and a wolf. Orelli says 
 
BOOK III.— ODE XXVII. 31I 
 
 mistresses ; whereas the poem, in the digressive introduction 
 of the glorious fate which awaited Europa, might much more 
 plausibly be supposed to intimate that some lover or spouse 
 of very high degree was reserved for Galatea at her journey's 
 end. The beautiful picture of Europa's flight and remorse 
 is among the instances of Horace's exquisite adaptation of 
 the dramatic element to lyrical purposes. 
 
 Carm. XXVII. 
 
 Impios parrse recinentis* omen 
 Ducat, et praegnans canis, aut ab agro 
 Rava decurrens lupa Lanuvino,t 
 Fetaque vulpes : 
 
 Rumpat et serpens iter institutum. 
 Si per obliquum similis sagittas 
 Terruit mannos : ego cui timebo 
 Providus auspex, 
 
 Antequam stantes repetat paludes 
 Imbrium divina avis imjninentum, 
 Oscinem corvum prece suscitabo 
 Solis ab ortu. ij: 
 
 the word is properly applied to the colour of the eye, and is between 
 black and tawny, as in many animals. I do not know what animals he 
 means, but the eye of most wild beasts is a deep orange colour or a slaty 
 blue. 
 
 :J: The crow flying back to his pool or marsh indicated bad weather. 
 The raven croaking from the east was an omen of good weather, there- 
 fore the poet summons the raven in time to forestall the crow. He calls 
 the raven " oscinem corvum." The epithet is technically augural. ** Os- 
 cines aves " were birds which the augurs consulted for their note, as they 
 consulted the birds called *'pr3epetes" for their flight. Perhaps the 
 epithet justifies the slight paraphrase in the last two lines of the stanza 
 in translation. 
 
312 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Go where thou mayst, be happy ; and remember . 
 Me, Galatea ! May no chough's dark shadow- 
 Lose thee a sunbeam, nor one green woodpecker 
 Dare to tap leftward.* 
 
 But see where quick and quivering with the tempest 
 Glares sloped Orion. I have known the breakers 
 In Hadria's gulf; and with what fawning smoothness 
 Sins the pale west wind. 
 
 To feel the blind tumultuous shock of Auster, 
 The howl of dark seas lashing shores that tremble — 
 This we wish only to the wives and children 
 Of our worst foemen. 
 
 Europa, thus to the fair bull deceiving 
 Trusted her snowy form ; thus, ensnared in 
 The widths of ocean, eyeing its dread monsters, 
 Paled from her courage : 
 
 She who so lately in the tranquil meadows 
 Culled wild flowers due as coronals to wood-nymphs, 
 Now beheld only through night's darkling glimmer 
 Stars and wild waters. 
 
 Once reaching Crete, Isle of the Hundred Cities, 
 " Father," she cried, o'ercome with shame and sorrow, 
 ''A daughter's name, alas, a daughter's duty 
 I have abandoned ! 
 
 * "Picus," a woodpecker or heighhould. — Orelli. "The green 
 woodpecker." — Yonge. A vast deal of erudition has been lavished 
 upon the question, why the word "Isevus," or "leftward," should sig- 
 nify ill luck as applied to the "picus," when the left was considered 
 lucky by the Romans, though unlucky by the Greeks. It is suggested 
 that the comparison may have arisen from the different practice of the 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XXVII. 313 
 
 Sis licet felix, ubicunque mavis, 
 Et memor nostri, Galatea, vivas : 
 Teque nee laevus vetet ire pious, * 
 Nee vaga cornix. 
 
 Sed vides, quanto trepidet tumultu 
 Pronus Orion. Ego quid sit ater 
 Hadriae, novi, sinus et quid albus 
 Peccet lapyx. 
 
 Hostium uxores puerique caecos 
 Sentiant motus orientis Austri, et 
 ^quoris nigri fremitum, et trementes 
 Verbere ripas. 
 
 Sic et Europe niveum doloso 
 Credidit tauro latus, et scatentem 
 Beluis pontum mediasque fraudes 
 Palluit audax. 
 
 Nuper in pratis studiosa florum, et 
 Debitae Nymphis opifex coronae, 
 Nocte sublustri nihil astra praster 
 Vidit et undas. 
 
 Quae simul centum tetigit potentem 
 Oppidis Creten : ' Pater, O relictum 
 Filiae nomen pietasque,' dixit, 
 Victa furore ! 
 
 Greeks and Romans in taking note of birds — the former facing the 
 north, the latter the south (see Orelli and Macleane). I believe, how- 
 ever, that it was the tap of the woodpecker, and not his flight, that was 
 unlucky. It is so considered still in Italy, and corresponds to our super- 
 stitious fear of the beetle called the death-watch. If, therefore, heard on 
 the left or heart side, it directly menaced life. 
 
314 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 "What have I done? what left?* The crimes of virgins 
 A single death does not suffice to punish. 
 Am I awake ? have I in truth committed 
 Sin, and so vilely ? 
 
 " Or-am I guiltless — duped by a vain phantom 
 Leading a dream out of the ivory portal ? 
 Could I indeed have left for watery deserts 
 Home and the field-flowers ? 
 
 " O that the bull were to my wrath delivered ! 
 O for a sword to hack his horns, and mangle 
 The monster now so hated, though so lately — 
 Woe is me ! — worshipped. 
 
 " Shameless, my household gods I have forsaken, 
 Shameless, I loiter on the road to Orcus ! 
 Would to the gods that I were in the desert 
 Strayed among lions ! 
 
 " While in these cheeks the bloom be yet unwithered, 
 . And all the sap of the luxuriant life-blood 
 Make their prey tempting, may this fatal beauty 
 Feast the fierce tigers. 
 
 " I hear my absent father, ' Vile Europa 
 Why pause to die ? More ways than one, O coward ! 
 Here, at this elm-tree, strangled by thy girdle, 
 Sole friend not cast off; 
 
 " *0r there, down yonder precipice, plunge headlong 
 Whirled by the storm-blast to thy grave in ocean ; 
 Unless, O royal-bom, it please thee better, 
 Sold into bondage. 
 
 * '* Unde quo veni." " * Unde ' implies not that she was so distracted 
 that she had forgotten from whence she had come, but what an exchange 
 I have made." — Macleane. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XXVII. 315 
 
 ' Unde quo veni ? * Levis una mors est 
 Virginum culpae. Vigilansne ploro 
 Turpe commissum, an vitiis carentem 
 Ludit imago 
 
 Vana, quae porta fugiens ebuma 
 Somnium ducit ? Meliusne fluctus 
 Ire per longos fuit, an recentes 
 Carpere flores ? 
 
 Si quis infamem mihi nunc juvencum 
 Dedat iratae, lacerare ferro et 
 Frangere enitar modo multum amati 
 Cornua monstri. 
 
 Impudens liqui patrios Penates ; | 
 Impudens Orcum moror. O deoruml 
 Si quis haec audis, utinam inter erremj 
 Nuda leones ! 
 
 Antequam turpis macij^ decentesi) 
 Occupet malas, teneraeque succusj 
 Defluat praedae, speciosa quaero 
 
 Pascere tigres. -" 
 
 " Vilis Europe," pater urget absens : 
 " Quid mori cessas? Potes hac ab orno 
 Pendulum zona bene te secuta 
 Laedere collum. 
 
 Sive te rupes et acuta leto 
 Saxa delectant, age te procellae 
 Crede veloci, nisi herile mavis 
 Carpere pensum, 
 
3l6 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 " ' To card the wool of some barbarian mistress, 
 And share with her the base love of a savage.'" 
 While thus she raved despairing, Venus softly 
 Neared her, arch-smiling. 
 
 With the boy-archer — but his bow was loosened ; 
 And sating first her mirth, thus spoke the goddess : 
 " Thou wilt not scold when this loathed bull returning, 
 Yields to thy mercy. 
 
 "Know thyself bride of Jove the all-subduing. 
 Hush sobs ; learn well to bear thy glorious fortune ; 
 Thou on one section of the globe* bestowest 
 Name everlasting." 
 
 * "Sectus orbis" literally means "half the world," as the ancients 
 divided our planet only into the two great divisions, Europe and Asia. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XXVII. 3 1/ 
 
 Regius sanguis, dominaeque tradi 
 Barbarae pellex." Aderat querenti 
 Perfidum ridens Venus, et remisso 
 Filius arcu. 
 
 Mox, ubi lusit satis : * Abstineto, 
 Dixit, ' irarum calidasque rixae, 
 Cum tibi invisus laceranda reddet 
 Comua taurus. 
 
 Uxor invicti Jovis esse nescis : 
 Mitte singultus, bene ferre magnam 
 Disce fortunam ; tua sectus orbis * 
 Nomina ducet.' 
 
3l8 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXVIII. 
 
 ON THE FEAST-DAY OF NEPTUNE. 
 
 It is but a waste of ingenious trifling to conjecture who or 
 what Lyde was, or, indeed, if any Lyde whatever existed 
 elsewhere than in the poet's fancy. The poem is very Uvely 
 and graceful, and evidently intended for general popularity 
 as a song, without any personal application to the writer. 
 
 What, on the feast-day of Neptune, 
 
 Can I do better? Up, Lyde ! Out from its hiding-place, 
 quick, 
 Drag forth the Caecuban hoarded ; 
 
 Make an attack upon Wisdom ! On to the siege of her 
 fort ! 
 
 See how the noon is declining. 
 
 Yet, as if day were at stand-still, laggard, thou leav'st in 
 the store 
 The cask which has lazily slumbered 
 
 Since Bibulus acted as consul ; now is its time to awake. 
 
 Sing we, by turns, of King Neptune, 
 
 And the green locks of the Nereids ; then to thy bow- 
 shapen lyre 
 Chant us a hymn to Latona, 
 
 And to the swift-footed Dian, and to her arrows of light ; 
 
 Then, as the crown of thy verses, 
 
 Chant to the goddess who visits, borne on her car by the 
 swans, 
 Cyclades, Cnidos, and Paphos ; 
 
 Night, too, shall have her deserts, and lullabies rock her 
 to sleep.* 
 
BOOK III.— ODE XXVIII. 319 
 
 Carm. XXVIII. 
 
 Festo quid potius die 
 
 Neptuni faciam ? Prome reconditiim, 
 Lyde strenua, Cascubum, 
 
 Munitseque adhibe vim sapientiae. 
 
 Inclinare meridiem 
 
 Sentis ; ac, veluti stet volucris dies, 
 Parcis deripere horreo 
 
 Cessantem Bibuli Consulis amphoram. 
 
 Nos cantabimus invicem 
 
 Neptunum, et virides Nereidum comas ; 
 Tu curva recines lyra 
 
 Latonam, et celeris spicula Cynthiae : 
 
 Summo carmine, quae Cnidon 
 
 Fulgentesque tenet Cycladas et Paphon 
 Jnnctis visit oloribus ; 
 
 Dicetur merita Nox quoque nenia.* 
 
 * " Dicetur merita Nox quoque nenia." The word "nenia" is ap- 
 plied to funereal dirges, and also, as Dillenburger observes, to the songs 
 by which nurses rocked infants to sleep ; and Orelli and Macleane sug- 
 gest that such is the meaning of the word here. 
 
320 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXIX. 
 
 INVITATION TO MAECENAS. 
 
 No ode of Horace specially addressed to Maecenas ex- 
 ceeds this in dignity of sentiment and sustained beauty of 
 treatment. Horace's descriptions of sum.mer are always 
 charming, and though he rejects the prosaic minuteness by 
 which modern poets, when describing external nature, make 
 an inventory of scenic details as tediously careful as if they 
 were cataloguing articles for auction, he succeeds in bring- 
 ing a complete picture before the eye, and elevates the sub- 
 ject of still life by the grace of the figures he places, whether 
 in the fore or the back ground. But he has seldom sur- 
 passed the beautiful image of summer in its sultry glow and 
 
 in 
 
 Long since, Maecenas sprung from Tuscan kings, 
 
 A vintage mellowing in its virgin cask, 
 Balms to anoint the hair. 
 
 And roses meet for wreaths on honoured brows, 
 
 Wait at my home for thee. Snatch leisure brief, 
 And turn thy gaze from Tibur's waterfalls'"^ 
 The slopes of ^sula,t 
 
 And parricidal Telegon's blue hills ; 
 
 Desert fastidious wealth, and that proud pile 
 Soaring aloft, the neighbour of the clouds j J 
 Cease to admire the smoke. 
 
 The riches, and the roar of prosperous Rome. 
 
 * "Ne semper udum Tibur." I interpret "udum" as referring to 
 the cascades of Anio ; it may mean the rills meandering through the 
 orchards of Tibur. 
 
 t Munro has ^fulae. " The /is found in some of the best MSS. of 
 Horace, in the best of the scholiasts, as well as of Livy, as shown by 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XXIX. 321 
 
 in its languid repose which adorns this ode, in contrast with 
 the statesman, intent on pubUc cares, and gazing on Rome 
 and the hills beyond from his lofty tower. It is unneces- 
 sary to point out the nobleness of the comparison between 
 the course of the river and the mutability of human affairs, 
 or the simple grandeur of the lines on Fortune so finely, 
 though so loosely, paraphrased by Dryden; and so applica- 
 ble to public men that it has furnished with illustrations 
 appropriate to themselves some of the greatest of English 
 statesmen. 
 
 Carm. XXIX. 
 
 Tyrrhena regum progenies, tibi 
 Non ante verso lene merum cado, 
 Cum flore, Maecenas, rosarum, et 
 Pressa tuis balanus capillis 
 
 Jamdudum apud me est. Eripe te morae ; 
 Ne semper udum Tibur,"^ et ^sulae t 
 Declive contempleris arvum, et 
 Telegoni juga parricidag. 
 
 Fastidiosam desere copiam et 
 Molem propinquam nubibus arduis ; J 
 Omitte mirari beatae 
 
 Fumum et opes strepitumque Romae. 
 
 Huebner in the Hermes, i. p. 426, who completes the proof by citing 
 three inscriptions, one of them Greek, in which the gentile names, 
 Aefolanus, Aefulanus, Al(pov\av6s, occur." — Munro's Horace, Introd. 
 xxviii. 
 
 t The lofty tower or belvidere of the palace built by Maecenas on the 
 Esquiline Hill, whence Nero looked down on the conflagration of Rome. 
 
 X 
 
322 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Sweet to the wealthy the reUef of change ; 
 Nor needs it tapestried woof nor Tyrian pall 
 For simple feast, whose mirth 
 
 In humble roofs unknits the brows of Care. 
 
 Now, hidden long, Andromeda's bright sire 
 Glares forth revealed : now rages Procyon, 
 And the mad Lion-star,* 
 
 As Sol brings back the sultry days of drought. 
 
 Now doth the shepherd, with his languid flock, 
 Seek streams and shades, and thickets dense, the lair 
 Of the rough Forest-God ; 
 
 And silent margins miss the wandering winds. 
 
 All rest save thou, intent on cares of state 
 And fears lest aught against thy Rome be planned 
 In farthest east, or realm 
 
 Of Persian Cyrus, or by factious Don. 
 
 The issues of the Future a wise God 
 Veils in the dark impenetrable Night, 
 And smiles if mortals stretch 
 
 Care beyond bounds to mortal minds assigned. 
 
 That which is present heed, and justly weigh ; 
 All else flows onward as the river runs — " • 
 Now, in mid-channel calm,t 
 
 Peacefully gliding to Etruscan seas ; 
 
 Now, when wild torrents chafe its quiet streams, 
 Rolling, along with its resistless rush, 
 
 * This fixes the season to the beginning of July, when Cepheus, a 
 northern star below Ursa Minor, rises. Cepheus was mythically King 
 of Ethiopia, and father of Andromeda, Procyon rises about the same 
 time, and is followed, eleven days afterwards, by Sirius. Leo com- 
 pletes the picture of summer heat. 
 
 t Orelli has "sequore" — most of the MSS. *' alveo,"— which last 
 reading is adopted by Ritter, Yonge, and Munro. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XXIX. 323 
 
 . / Plenimque gratae divitibus vices, 
 / Mundaeque parvo sub lare pauperum 
 ^ -^"^Gcesa», sine aulasis et ostro, 
 
 Sollicitam explicuere frontem. 
 
 Jam clams occultum Andromedae pater 
 ^ Ostendit ignem ; jam Procyon furit, 
 Et Stella vesani Leonis,* 
 Sole dies referente siccos : 
 
 ( 
 
 Jam pastor umbras cum grege languido 
 Rivumque fessus quaerit, et horridi 
 Dumeta Silvani ; caretque 
 Ripa vagis taciturna ventis. 
 
 Tu civitatem quis deceat status 
 
 Curas, et Urbi sollicitus times, 
 
 Quid Seres et regnata Cyro 
 
 Bactra parent Tanaisque discors. 
 
 Prudens futuri temporis exitum 
 ^ Caliginosa nocte premit deus, 
 Ridetque, si mortalis ultra 
 
 Fas trepidat. Quod adest memento 
 
 1' 
 
 Componere aequus ; cetera fluminis 
 Ritu feruntur, nunc medio alveot 
 Cum pace delabentis Etruscum 
 In mare, nunc lapides adesos 
 
 Stirpesque raptas, et pecus et domos 
 f ^ Volventis una, non sine montium 
 
324 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Loosed crags, uprooted trees, 
 
 And herds and flocks, and the lost homes of men, 
 
 While neighbouring forests, and far mountain-peaks 
 Mingle their roar. Happy* indeed is he, 
 Lord of himself, to whom 
 
 'Tis given to say, as each day ends, " I have lived :" 
 
 To-morrow let the Sire invest the heaven 
 .With darkest cloud or " purest ray serene," 
 He mars not what has been. 
 
 Nor from Time's sum blots out one fleeted hour. 
 
 Fortune, exulting in her cruel task — 
 Consistent in her inconsistent sport — 
 Shifts favours to and fro, 
 
 Now to myself, now to another kind. 
 
 I praise her seated by me ; t if she shake 
 Her parting wings I give back what she gave, 
 And, in my virtue wrapped, 
 
 Make honest Poverty my dowerless bride. 
 
 'Tis not for me, when groans the mast beneath 
 Fierce Africus, to gasp out piteous prayers, 
 And bargain with the gods, 
 
 Lest gainful bales from Cyprus or from Tyre 
 
 Add to the treasures of the greedy deep ; 
 Then from the wreck my slender boat J the gale 
 And the Twin star shall speed. 
 
 Safe with one rower through ^gaean storms. 
 
 * " Cui licet in diem 
 Dixisse Vixi." 
 See Orelli's note against the usual interpretation of this passage. The 
 meaning is, — *' Happy the man who at the end of each day can say, * I 
 have lived.' " Ritter connects "vixi" with all the lines that follow to 
 the end of the ode — a construction which, I suspect, few critics will be 
 inclined to favour. 
 
 t " Laudo manentem." Orelli says that there is extant a rare coin 
 
BOOK III.— ODE XXIX. 325 
 
 Clamore vicinaeque silvae, 
 Cum fera diluvies quietos. 
 
 Irritat amnes. Ille'potens sui 
 Lagtusque deget, cui licet in diem 
 Dixisse Vixi : * eras vel atra 7 
 
 Nube polum Pater occupato, ' 
 
 Vel sole puro ; non tamen irritum 
 Quodcunque retro est, efficiet, neque 
 Diffinget infectumque reddet, 
 Quod fugiens semel hora vexit. 
 
 Fortuna saevo laeta negotio, et 
 Ludum insolentem ludere pertinax, 
 Transmutat incertos honores, 
 Nunc mihi, nunc alii benigna. 
 
 Laudo manentem ; t si celeres quatit 
 Pennas, resigno quae dedit, et mea 
 Virtute me involvo probamque 
 Pauperiem sine dote quaero. 
 
 Non est meum, si mugiat Africis 
 Malus procellis, ad miseras preces 
 Decurrere ; et votis pacisci, 
 Ne Cypriae Tyriaeque merces 
 
 Addant avaro divitias mari : 
 Tunc me, biremis praesidio scaphaej 
 Tutum, per ^gaeos tumultus 
 Aura feret geminusque Pollux. 
 
 of the time of Commodus, inscribed ** Fortunse Manenti," in which a 
 woman is represented seated holding a horse by the halter with her right 
 hand — in her left a cornucopia. I have availed myself of this image 
 in translating "manentem." 
 
 X " Biremis scaphce," a two-oared boat, rowed by a single rower. — 
 Orelli. 
 
326 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXX. 
 
 PREDICTION OF HIS OWN FUTURE TIME. 
 
 This ode appears clearly intended to be the completing 
 poem of some considerable collection of lyrical pieces, 
 forming in themselves an integral representation of the 
 idiosyncrasies of the poet in character and in genius, thus 
 becoming his memorial or " monumentum." It is therefore 
 generally regarded as the epilogue, not to the Third Book 
 only, but to all the first three books ; after the publication of 
 which, Horace made a considerable pause before he published 
 the Fourth. There is a great difference in tone between this 
 and Ode xx. Book II., addressed to Maecenas. That ode, 
 half sportive, half earnest, seems written in the effervescence 
 of animal spirits, and might have been called forth in any 
 moment of brilliant success. But this is written in dignified 
 and serious confidence in the firm establishment of the poet's 
 
 fame. 
 
 I have built a monument than bronze more lasting, 
 
 Soaring more high than regal pyramids. 
 Which nor the stealthy gnawing of the rain-drop. 
 
 Nor the vain rush of Boreas shall destroy ; 
 Nor shall it pass away with the unnumbered 
 
 Series of ages and the flight of time. 
 I shall not wholly die ! From Libitina* 
 
 A part, yea, much, of mine own self escapes. 
 Renewing bloom from praise in after ages. 
 
 My growth through time shall be to fresher youth. 
 Long as the High Priest, with the Silent Virgin, 
 
 Ascends the sacred Capitol of Rome.t 
 
 * Venus Libitina, the Funereal Venus—Death. 
 
BOOK III.— ODE XXX. 327 
 
 fame. It is unnecessary to defend Horace here from the 
 charge of vainglory, to which a modern poet, arrogating to 
 himself the immortality of fame, would be exposed. The 
 manners of an age decide the taste of an age. The heathen 
 poets spoke of the immortality of their verses with as little 
 scruple as Christian poets speak of the immortality of their 
 souls. Not to mention the Greek poets, Dillenburger gives 
 a tolerably long list of passages from the Latin — Ennius, 
 Virgil, Propertius, Ovid, Martial — who spoke of their con- 
 quest over time with no less confidence than Horace here 
 does. The metre in the original is the same as that of 
 Ode i. Book L, which perhaps strengthens the supposition 
 that the poem is designed to complete a collection which 
 that ode commenced. 
 
 Carm. XXX. 
 
 Exegi monumentum aere perennius, 
 Regalique situ pyramidum altius ; 
 Quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens 
 Possit diruere, aut innumerabilis 
 Annorum series et fuga temporum. 
 Non omnis moriar, multaque pars mei 
 Vitabit Libitinam.* Usque ego postera 
 Crescam laude recens, dum Capitoliumt 
 
 + Viz., "while the Pontifex Maximus shall, on the ides of every 
 month, go up to the Capitol to offer sacrifices to Vesta, her virgins 
 walking solemnly in the procession, as they did, while the boys sang 
 hymns in honour of the goddess. With a Roman this was equivalent 
 to saying ' for ever.'" — Macleane. 
 
328 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 From mean estate exalted into greatness — 
 
 Where brawls"'^ loud Aufidus with violent wave, 
 And aridt reigned o'er rustic subjects, Daunus — 
 
 I, in the lips of men a household name, 
 Shall have my record as the first who wedded 
 
 To Roman melodies JEolian song. 
 Take airs of state — the right is earned — and crown me, 
 
 Willing Melpomene, with Delphic bay. 
 
 * '* Mantua Virgilio gaudet, Verona Catullo, 
 Pelignae dicar gloria gentis ego." 
 
 — Ovid, Amores, iii. 15, 17. 
 + *' Pauper aquse Daunus," " Daunus scant of water." The epithet 
 is thus, by poetic licence, applied to the legendary king, which, in plain 
 prose, belongs to the country he ruled — z>., the southern part of Apulia, 
 as the Aufidus flowed through the western. 
 
BOOK III. — ODE XXX. 329 
 
 Scandet cum tacita Virgine pontifex. 
 Dicar, * qua violens obstrepit Aufidus, 
 Et qua pauper aquae Daunust agrestium 
 Regnavit populomm, ex humili potens, 
 Princeps Solium carmen ad Italos 
 Deduxisse modos. Sume superbiam 
 Quaesitam meritis, et mihi Delphica 
 Lauro cinge volens, Melpomene, comam. 
 
330 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 THE SECULAR HYMN. 
 
 Religious games, called Ludi Tarentini, Terentini, or 
 Taurii, had been held in Rome from an early period of the 
 Republic. Their origin is variously stated, though the most 
 probable mythical accounts agree that they were instituted 
 and devoted to Dis and Proserpina in consequence of a 
 fearful plague — whether by one Valerius in gratitude for the 
 recovery of his three children, or in the reign of Tarquinius 
 Superbus in order to propitiate those formidable deities. In 
 the latter case the plague had affected pregnant women, and 
 their children died in the womb ; and sterile cows (Taureae) 
 being sacrificed, the games were called Ludi Taurii. By 
 these accounts it would seem that the games were connected 
 with the health of offspring, and by all accounts that they 
 were instituted in honour of Dis and Proserpina. To those 
 eminent scholars who hold to the Etrurian origin of the 
 Tarquins, " the Tarenti and Taurii are but as different forms 
 of the same word, and of the same root as Tarquinius" 
 (Smith's Diet, art. "Ludi Saeculares"). If so, the deities hon- 
 oured were doubtless Etrurian — not Greek nor Roman — 
 though the Romans subsequently identified them with divini- 
 ties familiar to their own worship. 
 
 Be that as it may, during the Republic these games appear 
 to have been only celebrated three times, at irregular intervals 
 in no way connected with fixed periods or cycles (saecula). 
 
 When Augustus had completed (a.u.c. 737) the second 
 lustre, or the ten years for which the imperial power was 
 first confided to him, it was very natural that he should wish 
 for the solemnity of an extraordinary festival at once popular 
 and religious, and probably also the desire of establishing a 
 dynasty would give rise to the idea of rendering this solem- 
 nity regular, but at far-distant dates; thus associating in- 
 directly the duration of the Empire with the welfare and ex- 
 istence of Rome. The custodiers of the Sibylline books, 
 who had been increased from two to ten, and subsequently, 
 
THE SECULAR HYMN. 33 1 
 
 probably by Sulla, to fifteen (quindecimviri), were ordered 
 to consult those oracles, and they reported that the time 
 was come to revive the old Tarentine games. They intro- 
 duced, however, certain innovations, such as the cyclical 
 or secular period, for their celebration (pretending that such 
 periods had been always observed, or at least enjoined), 
 and the substitution of Apollo and Diana for Dis and 
 Proserpina. The latter change seems natural enough. 
 Diana had among her attributes those of Proserpina, and 
 Apollo was the deity whom Augustus especially honoured 
 as his patron god. Dis and Proserpina were no longer 
 in fashion, and were probably never very popular with the 
 genuine Romans ; while, as the festival was not designed, 
 like the old Tarentine games, foi* the averting of some 
 national calamity or mortal disease, but rather to attest the 
 blessings enjoyed under the Empire, and implore their con- 
 tinuance, the direct invocation of the infernal divinities 
 would have been very inappropriate; and, indeed, their 
 powers as averters of evil had become transferred to Apollo 
 and Diana (as the sun and moon), who were also the be- 
 stowers of good. Sacrifices were, however, offered to Dis 
 and Proserpina on the first day of the ceremony among 
 other gods, in the list of whom they are placed last. 
 Still it may be seen in the following Hymn that much of 
 the original character of the Tarentine or Taurian games 
 was retained, however modified to suit altered circumstances. 
 Diana is especially implored to protect mothers and mature 
 their offspring. Augustus approaches the altar with white 
 steers for sacrifice, as cows had been sacrificed to Dis in the 
 Taurian games (though, as black animals had been offered to 
 the infernal deities in time of calamity, the white colour of 
 the steers was significant of the change to celestial divinities 
 and the felicity of the period), and the games commenced 
 in the Tarentum — i.e., the same ground that had been con- 
 secrated to the Tarentine games. The nature and order of 
 the ceremonies, which lasted three days and three nights, 
 
332 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 was intrusted to Ateius Capito, a celebrated jurist and anti- 
 quary, and Horace was requested to compose the principal 
 hymn on the occasion. The games were held in the sum- 
 mer of the year B.C. 17. They were repeated four times 
 during the Empire, but not at the periods enjoined by 
 the Quindecimviri under Augustus ■ — viz., in cycles of 
 no years. The second took place, a.d. 47, in the reign 
 of Claudius; the third, a.d. 88, in the reign of Domitian; 
 and the fourth in the reign of PhiHppus, a.d. 248. For 
 further particulars of the ceremony the general reader is re- 
 ferred to Smith's Diet, art. " Ludi Saeculares"; and for the 
 mystical belief that the world was moving in a cycle, the 
 completion of which constituted the Magnus Annus, when 
 all the heavenly bodies returned to their original relative 
 places, see OreUi and Macleane's introduction to the Secular 
 Hymn. As the length of the ten saecula which constituted 
 the great Platonic year of the universe was not defined, but 
 declared from time to time by prodigies from heaven, so 
 this belief may account for the irregular periods in which 
 the Secular Festival was held during the Empire. 
 
 When Horace boasts (Lib. III. Carm. xxx.) that he shall 
 be spoken of as the first who adapted ^olian song to 
 Italian measures, he must mean something more than the 
 mere introduction of Greek lyrical metres into the Italian 
 language. In this task Catullus had preceded him. He 
 nowhere mentions Catullus ; and though that omission has 
 been ascribed to jealousy, there is no evidence of so envious 
 a defect in Horace's general character. He bestows lavish 
 praise on the eminent poets of his own time ; and a jealous 
 poet is more apt to be jealous of living contemporaries than 
 of defunct predecessors. Nor is it to be forgotten that, if 
 Horace confines his boast to the mere introduction of Les- 
 bian metres, the Sapphics of Catullus must have been suffi- 
 ciently fresh in popular recollection to afford his enemies 
 one of those opportunities for confuting a boast and turning 
 it into ridicule which are not voluntarily courted by a man 
 
r^' 
 
 THE SECULAR HYMN. 333 
 
 of such good sense and of such knowledge of the world as 
 Horace is allowed to have been. And it is not to the 
 Alcaic metre, but exclusively to the Sapphic, as connected 
 with his name, that he refers. Lib. IV. Carm. vi. 
 
 *' Ego dis amicum, 
 Saeculo festas referente luces, 
 Reddidi carmen, docilis modonim 
 Vatis Horati." 
 
 Horace's boast, then, is only to be justified by the supposition 
 that although Catullus had preceded him in the adoption of 
 the Sapphic metre, he had not adapted it to song — had not 
 incorporated it in the popular form of lyrical music — and 
 Horace had done so, and been the first to do it. 
 
 I apprehend, therefore, that Horace's vaunted originality 
 consisted in being the first by whom the borrowed metres 
 were set to Italian music — the first by whom, through arts 
 not before divulged, the words were to be united with 
 musical strings (" Non ante volgatas per artes Verba loquor 
 socianda chordis" — Lib. IV. Carm. ix.), and thus popularised 
 in banquet-halls and temples as national songs (Lib. III. 
 Carm. xi.) It seems to me that in this sense he says he 
 is pointed out as "Romanae fidicen lyrae" (Lib. IV. Carm iii.), 
 "fidicen" being a word especially applicable to a musician, 
 and only metaphorically to a poet. 
 
 That several of the odes were not adapted to singing 
 does not invaHdate this supposition. Such will be the case 
 with every copious lyrical poet, who may, nevertheless, like 
 Moore, have achieved his main popularity through the adapta- 
 tion of his verse to musical accompaniment and national airs. 
 
 Whether the music to which the measures employed by 
 Horace were set was composed by himself in whole or in 
 part, or by others, is a question on which there are no data 
 for legitimate conjecture. If by himself, one might suppose 
 that some record of the fact would be preserved by Suetonius 
 or the scholiasts. On the other hand, if composed by 
 another, it seems strange that a poet of character so grateful 
 
334 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 as Horace's should have refrained from all mention of one to 
 whom he was under no mean obligations for the popularity 
 his verses had acquired, and with whom he must have been 
 necessarily brought into frequent and familiar intercourse. 
 It may, however, be said, as sufficient reason for such silence 
 in either case, that a Roman of Horace's day would not 
 have held the art of a musical composer in high account. 
 
 The writers who have sought to elucidate the obscure 
 subject of ancient music consider it probable that nothing 
 like the modern system of musical rhythm existed among 
 the ancients, and that, since there is no mention of notation 
 distinct from the metre of the song, the time was marked 
 by that metre where vocal music was united with instru- 
 mental (Burney's ' History of Music ;' Hawkins's ' Hist, of 
 Music;' Smith's Diet., art. "Musica"). By this the reader 
 can judge for himself whether Horace's task in timing the 
 music to his own rhythms would not have been compara- 
 tively easy; and whether, if it were thus easy, it would have 
 been considered worthy of commemoration by his con- 
 temporaries, or been preserved in such brief records of his 
 life as were consulted by Suetonius, or known to the 
 scholiasts. 
 
 At all events, Horace appears, on the occasion of the 
 Secular Hymn, to have superintended the rehearsal of the 
 
 recitative 
 
 O Phoebus, and O forest-queen Diana, 
 Ye the twin lustrous ornament of heaven, 
 Though ever holy, in this time most hallowed 
 Be most benign to prayer ! 
 
 For duly now, as Sibyl verse enjoins us, 
 Pure youths, with chosen virgins linked in chorus, 
 To Powers divine o'er the Seven Hills presiding, 
 Uplift the solemn hymn. 
 
THE SECULAR HYMN. 335 
 
 recitative as " dtddffxaXog,^^ according to the custom of dra- 
 matic and lyric poets of Greece ; and (Lib. IV. Carm. vi.) the 
 young girls who take part in the chorus are enjoined not 
 only to preserve the Lesbian metre, in which the hymn was 
 composed, but to remember " pollicis ictum," the beat of 
 his finger in marking time. 
 
 Regarded only as a poem, the Secular Hymn, though it 
 deserves higher praise than Maclean e and other critics have 
 bestowed on it, cannot be said to equal the genius exhibited 
 in many of the odes, especially in Book III. But if set — 
 whether by Horace himself, or by others whom he more or 
 less schooled and directed — to some music which became a 
 grand national air, such as " God save the King," or " The 
 Marseillaise," we can readily account for the special pride 
 with which he refers to it, and the increased rank which it 
 appears to have won for him in popular estimation. 
 
 In the Secular Hymn, and in some of the Sapphic odes 
 of the Fourth Book, Horace more conforms than he does in 
 the first three books to the Greek usage, in the variation of 
 the caesura and the introduction of the trochee in the second 
 place. I have judged it necessary, for the solemnity of 
 feeling which is instilled into this poem, to add another foot 
 to the fourth line in the translation, 
 
 Carm. S^culare. 
 
 Phoebe, silvarumque potens Diana, 
 Lucidum caeli decus, O colendi 
 Semper et culti, date, quae precamur 
 Tempore sacro ; 
 
 Quo Sibyllini monuere versus 
 Virgin es lectas puerosque castos 
 Dis, quibus septem placuere colles, 
 Dicere carmen. 
 
336 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 O Sun, the nurturer,* in bright chariot leading 
 Day into light to hide it under shadow, 
 Born still the same, yet other, mayst thou never 
 See aught more great than Rome ! 
 
 Blest Ilithyia,t mild to watch o'er mothers, 
 And aid the timely coming of the new-born, 
 Whether thou rather wouldst be as Lucina 
 Or Genitalis hailed, 
 
 Goddess as each, mature our offspring ; prosper 
 The law that guards the sanctity of marriage, :j: 
 And may it give new blossom and new fruitage 
 To the grand parent-stem ! 
 
 So that as each eleventh solennial decade 
 Round to its close, this sacred feast renewing. 
 In song and sport, assembled Rome may hallow 
 Three days and joyous nights. 
 
 And ye, O Parcae, who have sung prophetic 
 Truths, § which, once said, the sure events determine. 
 Fixed as divine decrees, — a glorious future 
 Join to the glorious past. 
 
 Fertile in fruits and flocks, let Earth maternal 
 With spiked corn-wreath crown the brows of Ceres ; 
 
 * " Alme Sol." This epithet is to be taken in its proper sense as 
 derived from «/<?, Sun the Nurturer. — Macleane. 
 
 + " Ilithyia." This name, here applied to Diana, is equally applicable 
 to Juno, and, in the plural number, to the minor deities attending on child- 
 birth. There appears to me, if I mistake not, a singular beauty which 
 has escaped the commentators in the choice of names here given to 
 Diana. Ilithyia and Lucina (the one Greek, the other Latin) are names 
 vi'hich Diana shares vi^ith Juno, and therefore, as applied to childbirth, 
 imply the children born in sacred wedlock. The name "Genitalis" 
 is that which Diana shares with Venus, and therefore implies the off- 
 spring of chaste if ardent love. Thus, "whether thou preferrest the 
 name of Lucina or Genitalis," would mean, " whether thou preferrest 
 
THE SECULAR HYMN. 337 
 
 Alme Sol,* cumi nitido diem qui 
 Promis et celas, aliusque et idem 
 Nasceris, possis nihil urbe Roma 
 Visere majus. 
 
 Rite maturos aperire partus 
 Lenis, Ilithyia,t tuere matres ; 
 Sive tu Lucina probas vocari, 
 Seu Genitalis : 
 
 Diva, producas sobolem, Patrumque 
 Prosperes decreta super jugandis 
 Feminis, prolisque novae feraci 
 Lege marita : J 
 
 Certus undenos decies per annos 
 Orbis ut cantus referatque ludos, 
 Ter die claro, totiesque grata 
 Nocte frequentes. 
 
 Vosque veraces cecinisse, § Parcae, 
 Quod semel dictum est, stabilisque rerum 
 Terminus servat, bona jam peractis 
 Jungite fata. 
 
 Fertilis frugum pecorisque Tellus j. 
 
 Spicea donet Cererem corona ; 
 
 the name that associates thee with Juno or that which associates thee 
 with Love." 
 
 X The Julian law (de maritandis ordinibus), for the discouragement of 
 celibacy and the regulation of marriage, was among the social and moral 
 reforms aimed at by Augustus, and passed the year before the celebra- 
 tion of the Secular games. It appears to have been a law well meant, 
 but in some respects singularly unwise and impracticable. The unmar- 
 ried person could not succeed to a legacy unless he married within a 
 hundred days after the bequest. Fancy poor Horace himself condemned 
 to decide between forfeiting the bequest of a villa at Tarentum or marry- 
 ing some Glycera or Pyrrha ! 
 
 § Viz., the oracular Sibylline verses. 
 
 Y 
 
33^ THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Pure from all taint let airs and dews of heaven 
 Nourish the new-born life. 
 
 Mild, all thine arrows sheathed within the quiver, 
 Hear thy boy-suppliants, merciful Apollo;'"' 
 Hear thy girl-votaries, crescent-crowned Luna, 
 Queen of the clustered stars. 
 
 If Rome be your work — if beneath your safeguard 
 A band of wanderers, Ilion's scanty remnant. 
 Ordained to change their city and their Lares, 
 Have held this Tuscan land — 
 
 They, unto whom, through Troy that blazed unharming, 
 Pure-souled JEneas, his lost land's survivor. 
 Opened free path, and heritage more ample 
 Than aught relinquished gave ; 
 
 Gods, grant to docile youth worth's upright manners — 
 Gods, grant to placid age worth's calm contentment — 
 Grant to the Roman race growth, power, and riches,t 
 And all that can adorn 1 
 
 Bless him who nears with milk-white steers your altars. 
 Whose blood flows bright from Venus and Anchises ; 
 Still every foe in battle may he conquer, 
 And after conquest spare. 
 
 Awed by our arms, and by the Alban lictors, J 
 Now the Mede owns our power on land and ocean ; 
 Now Ind and Scythia, she of late so haughty, 
 To Rome for pardon sue. § 
 
 * This line seems to refer to the new statue of the Apollo of Actium 
 set up by Augustus in the Palatine temple. In the Apollo of Actium 
 invoked by Augustus before his battle with M. Antony, the bow is bent 
 — in the Apollo of the Palatine the bow is laid aside for the lyre and 
 plectrum,— See Macleane's excellent note on this line. 
 
THE SECULAR HYMN. 339 
 
 Nutriant fetus et aquae salubres, 
 Et Jovis aurae. 
 
 Condito mitis placidusque telo 
 Supplices audi pueros, Apollo;* 
 Sidemm regina bicornis, audi, 
 Luna, puellas : 
 
 Roma si vestrum est opus, Iliaeque 
 Litus Etruscum tenuere turmae, 
 Jussa pars mutare Lares et urbem 
 Sospite cursu ; 
 
 Cui per ardentem sine fraude Trojara 
 Castus vEneas patriae superstes 
 Liberum munivit iter, daturus 
 Plura relictis ; 
 
 Di, probos mores docili juventae, 
 Di, senectuti placidse quietem, 
 Romulae genti date remquet prolemque 
 Et decus omne ! 
 
 Quaeque vos bobus veneratur albis 
 Clarus Anchisae Venerisque sanguis, 
 Impetret, bellante prior, jacentem 
 Lenis in hostem ! 
 
 Jam mari terraque manus potentes 
 Medus, Albanasque timet secures ; X 
 Jam Scythae responsa§ petunt, superbi 
 Nuper, et Indi. 
 
 t " Remque prolemque." ** Res" seems here used in its double sig- 
 nification of power and riches. The nearest approach to its sense in a 
 single word would perhaps be the old Anglo-Saxon "weal." 
 
 X Viz., by our military prowess and civil justice. 
 
 § " Responsa petunt." " Responsa" here has many significations, the 
 
340 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Now Faith and Peace, and antique Shame and Honour 
 Flock fearless back, and Virtue long-neglected ; . 
 And with them comes their sure companion Plenty, 
 Rich with o'erflowing horn. 
 
 May he adorned with fulgent bow — the Augur, 
 Phoebus, the darling of the nine Camenae — 
 He the mild Healer, lifting the sore burden 
 That weighs down weary limbs* — 
 
 If shrines in Palatine he views with favour. 
 The coming lustre bless, and link it onward 
 To those yet brighter, through all time prolonging 
 Rome and the Latian race. 
 
 And oh, may She who holds the sacred hill-tops 
 Of Aventine and Algidus, Diana, 
 To the Fifteen,t and to her own young vot'ries, 
 Lend an approving ear ! 
 
 So we, the choir of Dian and of Phoebus, 
 Versed in their praise, take home with us hope certain 
 That, heard by Jove and each divine Immortal, 
 These words are felt in heaven. 
 
 choice of which may well baffle a translator. It may mean replies to 
 proffered amity and submission— it may mean the opinions given by a 
 jurisconsult to his client, or the mandates of the imperial government 
 to its dependants — or it may mean replies to the prayer of the barbar- 
 ians to be admitted to the protection and equity of the Roman laws, or 
 the responses vouchsafed by an oracular or godlike power to a suppliant 
 for relief or pardon. The last construction is adopted in the translation. 
 * Apollo is here addressed in his fourfold capacity : istly. As the god 
 of power, but adorned rather than armed (as at Actium) with his bow ; 
 2dly, As the prophetic seer or augur (the religious attribute) ; 3dly, As 
 the beloved of the Muses — i. e., the patron of peaceful arts and letters ; 
 4thly, As the divine healer, which may, perhaps, here be used in a 
 
THE SECULAR HYMN. 34I 
 
 Jam Fides, et Pax, et Honos, Pudorque 
 Pfiscus, et neglecta redire Virtus 
 Audet ; apparetque beata pleno 
 Copia cornu. 
 
 Augur, et fulgente decorus arcu 
 Phcebus, acceptusque novem Camenis, 
 Qui salutari levat arte fessos 
 Corporis artus,* 
 
 Si Palatinas videt aequus arces, 
 Remque Romanam Latiumque felix 
 Alterum in lustrum, meliusque semper 
 Proroget aevum. 
 
 Quaeque Aventinum tenet Algidumquc, 
 Quindecim Diana preces virorum t 
 Curet, et votis puerorum amicas 
 Applicet aures. 
 
 Haec Jovem sentire, deosque cunctos, 
 Spem bonam certamque domum reporto, 
 Doctus et Phoebi chorus et Dianae 
 Dicere laudes. 
 
 latent signification, healer of the pains and wounds of the civil wars. 
 Possibly all these attributes may have been symbolised in the pedestal 
 of the statue, or on the walls of the Palatine temple, to which direct 
 reference is made in the following stanza. 
 
 •f- " Quindecim — virorum," the elect Fifteen who had the custody of 
 the Sibyl books, the charge of the Secular games and solemnities, and 
 in fact, were the priesthood of Apollo. — See Smith's Dictionar)', art. 
 '* Ludi Sseculares." 
 
342 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 BOOK IV. — ODE I. 
 
 Franke, in his ' Fasti Horatiani/ assumes the first three 
 books of the Odes to have been composed between a.u.c. 
 724 and 730, in which latter year, or in the beginning of 
 731, they were given to the pubHc, in the interval between 
 Horace's thirty-eighth and forty-first year. Horace then 
 appears to have devoted himself chiefly to his Epistles, and 
 not to have published the Fourth Book of Odes till a.u.c. . 
 741, when he was in his fifty-second year. It is said that 
 Augustus had expressed a desire for its publication, as com- 
 prising the odes (iv. and xiv.) in honour of the victories of 
 Drusus and Tiberius. These two odes are indeed unex- 
 celled, even by the finest in the three preceding books ; nor 
 are most of the others below the standard of Horace's matured 
 
 genius. 
 Wars long suspended, now 
 Urgest thou, Venus ? Spare ! O spare ! I pray ; 
 
 I am not what I was 
 Under the reign of good Queen Cinara. 
 
 Mother of loves so sweet, 
 Thyself so cruel, cease to subject him 
 
 Whom the tenth lustre finds 
 No longer pliant to thy soft commands : 
 
 Go where, with blandishing prayers. 
 Youth calls thee back ; hearts easier kindled seek, 
 
 And, borne on purple wings, 
 Greet Paullus Maximus ^ in banquet hours. 
 
 * If, as Estre observes ('Horat. Prosop.'), this be the Paullus Fabius 
 Maximus who was consul A.u.c. 743, the words " centum artium puer " 
 could scarcely be applied to him, even in the widest sense in which the 
 poets took the word "puer" or "juvenis." In fact he could not well 
 have been younger than Horace. On the other hand, if, as some com- 
 
BOOK IV. — ODE I. 343 
 
 genius. The first ode was, he says himself, written in his 
 fiftieth year. Macleane, in common with some other com- 
 mentators, conjectures that it may have been an imitation 
 from the Greek, and adds " that he may have published it 
 to fill up his book, not as. a prologue to it, as many of the 
 chronologists say, — for what is there in this ode that bears 
 that character ? " Not much, indeed, unless Horace wished 
 to apprise his readers that they are not to expect in this 
 book the lighter gallantries which had place in the former 
 books. This book, indeed, only contains two love-poems 
 besides the first — viz., the tenth and the eleventh ; and 
 one is glad to think that the tenth (omitted in the trans- 
 lation) was merely an artistic imitation or translation from 
 the Greek. 
 
 Carm. I. 
 
 Intermissa, Venus, diu 
 
 Rursus bella moves ? Parce, precor, precor. 
 Non sum qualis eram bonae 
 
 Sub regno Cinarae. Desine, dulcium 
 
 Mater saeva Cupidinum, 
 
 Circa lustra decem flectere mollibus 
 Jam durum imperils : abi, 
 
 Quo blandae juvenum te revocant preces. 
 
 Tempestivius in domum 
 
 Paulli, purpureis ales oloribus, 
 Comissabere Maximi,* 
 
 Si torrere jecur quseris idoneum : 
 
 mentators, including Ritter, suppose, it was the son of this P. Maximus 
 and the friend of Ovid who is meant, he would, it is true, have only been 
 about twenty ; but how could the line "pro sollicitis non tacitus reis," 
 which refers to his eloquence as an advocate, apply to a youth of that 
 age? 
 
344 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Noble and fair is he ; 
 Nor his the lips to pleading suitors mute ; 
 
 Youth of a hundred arts 
 To bear thy conquering standards wide and far ; 
 
 Whene'er some rival, rich 
 In gifts, he conquers, laughing, h^ shall place. 
 
 By Alban waters, under citron roofs, 
 Imaged in marble, Thee. 
 
 There shalt thou take delight 
 In spiced balms, and songs commingled sweet 
 
 With Berecynthian fife 
 And lyre — nor silent be the fluten reed. 
 
 There, twice a-day, shall youths 
 Choral with tender maidens, chant thy name, 
 
 As thrice, in Salian dance, 
 Quakes the green sod to feet that twinkle white. 
 
 But me nor youth nor maid 
 Allures, nor faith in intermingled souls, 
 
 Nor to contend in wine ; 
 No vernal flowerets wreathe my temples now. 
 
 « * * # if. 
 
 » * * * * 
 
 ***** 
 
BOOK IV. — ODE I. 345 
 
 Namque et nobilis, et decens, 
 
 Et pro soUicitis non tacitus reis, 
 Et centum puer artium 
 
 Late signa feret militiae tuas : 
 
 Et, quandoque potentior 
 
 Largi muneribus riserit aemuli, 
 Albanos prope te lacus 
 
 Ponet marmoream, sub trabe citrea. 
 
 Illic plurima naribus 
 
 Duces thura, lyraeque et Berecyntic'e 
 Delectabere tibias 
 
 Mixtis carminibus, non sine fistula. 
 
 Illic bis pueri die 
 
 Numen cum teneris virginibus tuum 
 Laudantes, pede candido 
 
 In morem Salium ter quatient humum. 
 
 Me nee femina nee puer 
 
 Jam nee spes animi credula mutui, 
 Nee certare juvat mero, 
 
 Nee vincire novis tempora floribus. 
 
 Sed cur heu, Ligurine,xur 
 
 Manat rara meas lacrima per genas ? 
 
 Cur facunda parum decoro 
 
 Inter verba cadit lingua silentio ? 
 
 Noctumis ego somniis 
 
 Jam captum teneo, jam volucrem sequor 
 Te per gramina Martii 
 
 Campi, te per aquas, dure, volubiles. 
 
346 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE 11. 
 
 TO lULUS ANTONIUS. 
 
 lulus Antonius was the second son of M. Antony the 
 triumvir by Fulvia ; the elder, Antyllus, was put to death by 
 Octavian after the battle of Actium. lulus, then in his 
 infancy, was brought up with great tenderness by his step- 
 mother Octavia, married her daughter Marcella, and rose to 
 the highest honours of the §tate — praetor, a.u.c. 741 ; con- 
 sul, A.U.C. 744. His end was tragical. He was either 
 executed by Augustus or destroyed himself, a.u.c. 752, in 
 the forty-second year of his age, on the charge of adultery 
 with Julia, to which crime he is said to have been induced 
 by ambitious designs on the Empire. lulus possessed the 
 literary accompHshments for which so many of the Roman 
 nobles in that day were remarkable. He was a pupil of L. 
 Crassitius, a celebrated grammarian, at whose school were 
 instructed youths of the first Roman families. According to 
 the scholiasts, he composed not only works in prose, but 
 twelve books in heroic verse upon Diomed, which Acron 
 styles " egregios ; " though, as Macleane observes with his 
 customary good sense, "As it is most likely Acron never 
 
 saw 
 lulus, he who would with Pindar vie, 
 Soars, with Daedalian art, on waxen wings. 
 And falling, gives his name unto the bright 
 Deeps of an ocean.* 
 
 As from the mountain-top a headlong stream, 
 Nourished by rains beyond familiar banks, 
 So seethes, and, measureless with utterance deep. 
 Rushes down Pindar. 
 
 As Icarus gave his name to the Icarian sea. 
 
BOOK IV. — ODE II. 347 
 
 saw them, his testimony is not worth much." Horace, how- 
 ever, in this ode pays a high comphment to his poetic 
 powers. The ode itself is a noble homage to Pindar, and 
 interesting for Horace's estimate of his own peculiar powers, 
 and his frank confession of the pains he took with his verses. 
 The poem was written during Augustus's absence from Rome 
 for two years, when, a.u.c. 737, the Sygambri, a fierce German 
 tribe (whose name Jac. Grimm derives from " sigu," victory, 
 and "gomber," strong), had, with two other tribes, invaded 
 the Roman territory in Gaul, and defeated the Roman legate 
 Lollius with great slaughter. Augustus went in person into 
 Gaul. The German tribes retreated at his approach, gave 
 hostages, and obtained peace. Augustus, however, did not 
 return to Rome till he had restored order in Germany, Gaul, 
 and Spain. As he was expected in Rome long before he 
 returned, the ode was probably written soon after the 
 Sygambri had given hostages and obtained peace, a.u.c. 
 738, or beginning of 739. It is commonly supposed that 
 Antonius had urged Horace to celebrate the triumphs of 
 Augustus in Pindaric style, and that he modestly excuses 
 himself from that request. The tone of the ode favours this 
 assumption, though it does not leave it clear that Antonius 
 had made such a request. 
 
 Carm. H. 
 
 Pindarum quisquis studet aemulari, 
 lule, ceratis ope Daedalea 
 Nititur pennis vitreo daturus 
 Nomina ponto.* 
 
 Monte decurrens velut amnis, imbres 
 Quem super notas aluere ripas, 
 Fervet immensusque ruit profundo 
 Pindarus ore ; 
 
348 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 All due to him Apollo's laureate crown, 
 Whether through daring dithyrambs he roll 
 Language new-formed,* borne on the lawless wave 
 Of his wild music ; 
 
 Whether he sing of gods or god-born kings, 
 By whom the Centaurs with just doom were slain, 
 And dire Chimaera's flame was quenched ; or those 
 Palm-crowned in Elis, 
 
 Led as Celestials home ; and chants the strife 
 Of steed or cestus ; offering gifts, o'er time 
 More potent than a hundred monuments 
 Wrought from the marble ; 
 
 Or wails the youth snatched from a weeping bride, 
 And, in lamenting, lifts his force of soul. 
 Valour, and golden worth, unto the stars, 
 Foiling black Orcus. 
 
 Ample the gale which buoys the Theban swan. 
 Oft as he seeks his altitude in clouds. 
 I, like the bee of the Matinian hill. 
 Gather the wild-thyme. 
 
 With lavish labour hiving thrifty sweets ; 
 Lowly, by Tibur's grove and dewy banks, 
 I seek the honey that I store in song,t 
 Kneaded with labour. 
 
 But thou, the minstrel of a grander lyre, 
 Celebrate Caesar, when his laurelled brow 
 
 * "Nova verba," "new forms of expression. " 
 
 f " Carmina fingo." "Fingo" corresponds to *' TrAaxTcw," which 
 word the Greeks used especially with reference to the making of honey. 
 -Orelli, Macleane, 
 
BOOK IV. — ODE II. 349 
 
 Laurea donandus Apollinari, 
 Seu per audaces nova dithyrambos 
 Verba * devolvit numerisque fertur 
 Lege solutis ; 
 
 Seu deos regesve canit, deorum 
 Sanguinem, per quos, cecidere justa 
 Morte Centauri, cecidit tremendas 
 Flamma Chimaerae ; 
 
 Sive quos Elea domum reducit 
 Palma caelestes, pugilemve equumve 
 Dicit et centum potiore signis 
 Munere donat ; 
 
 Flebili sponsae juvenemve raptum 
 Plorat, et vires animumque moresque 
 Aureos educit in astra, nigroque 
 Invidet Oreo. 
 
 Multa Dircaeum levat aura cycnum, 
 Tendit, Antoni, quotiens in altos 
 Nubium tractus. Ego apis Matins 
 More modoque, 
 
 Grata carpentis thyma per laborem 
 Plurimum circa nemus uvidique 
 Tiburis ripas operosa parvus 
 Carmina fingo.t 
 
 Concines majore poeta plectro 
 Caesarem, quandoque trahet feroces 
 
350 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Looks from the car which, up the sacred hill, 
 Drags the Sygambri ; 
 
 He, than whom never to this earth have Fate 
 And kind gods given, nor shall give, ev'n if yet 
 The Golden Age come back to mortals, aught 
 Better or greater. 
 
 Chant thou the games that honour the return 
 Of brave Augustus granted to our prayer ; 
 The joyous feast-days, the hushed courts of law, 
 Vacant of suitors. 
 
 Then, too, if aught that I can speak be heard, 
 My voice shall aid to swell the choral hymn. 
 And sing " All hail, thou fair auspicious sun,'^ 
 Bringing back Csesar ! " 
 
 And while, O god of triumph, slowly ont 
 He moves in state, shout upon shout repeats 
 " lo Triumphe ! " through the length of Rome ; 
 Frankincense steaming 
 
 Up to benignant gods. Ten bulls, ten kine. 
 Acquit thy vow; a single steerling mine. 
 Fresh-weaned, and browsing into youth amid 
 Prodigal pastures ; 
 
 * "Et, O Sol 
 Pulcher ! O laudande ! canam, recepto 
 Caesare felix." 
 It is uncertain whether "felix" refers to Horace, as "happy in the re- 
 tui'n of Caesar," or to the sun, forming part of the exclamation ; Mac- 
 leane leaves the choice to the reader's taste ; Vossius and others prefer 
 the latter application ; Orelli considers the former more tender. To me 
 it seems more according to the genius of lyrical composition to apply 
 the epithet to the sun. tVe know already that Horace is happy in the 
 return of Csesar, otherwise he would not be joining in the procession and 
 the hymn. 
 
BOOK IV. — ODE 11. 351 
 
 Per sacrum clivum merita decorus 
 Fronde Sygambros, 
 
 Quo nihil majus meliusve terris 
 Fata donavere bonique divi, 
 Nee dabunt, quamvis redeant in aurum 
 Tempora priscum. 
 
 Concines IcJetosque dies et Urbis 
 Publicum ludum super impetrato 
 Fortis Augusti reditu, forumque 
 Litibus orbum. 
 
 Turn meae, si quid loquar audiendum, 
 Vocis accedet bona pars, et, O Sol 
 Pulcher ! O laudande ! canam, recepto 
 Caesare felix.* 
 
 Teque, dum procedit, io Triumphe,t 
 Non semel dicemus, io Triumphe, 
 Civitas omnis dabimusque divis 
 Thura benignis. 
 
 Te decem tauri totidemque vaccse. 
 Me tener. solvet vitulus, relicta 
 Matre qui largis juvenescit herbis 
 In mea vota. 
 
 t " Teque, dum procedit, io Triumphe," not " tumque dum procedit," 
 as in some of our popular editions. It is the god Triumph which is 
 invoked by "io Triumphe." Orelli prefers "procedit" to " procedis," 
 which has good authority in the MSS. (see his note), and refers it to 
 Augustus : " O god of Triumph; while he, Augustus, proceeds, we," &c. 
 Macleane sees no reason for this preference, and adopts the text of 
 Dillenburger, "procedis," which is also favoured by Ritter and Munro. 
 Yonge follows Orelli. 
 
352 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 His frontal imitates the curved gleam 
 Of the young moon in her third night ; — all else 
 Of tawny colour, on that front of snow 
 Shimmers her signet* 
 
 * The conclusion of the ode has been, plausibly enough, blamed for 
 a discrepancy amounting to bathos between the gravity and elevation of 
 the preceding stanzas, and the familiar details of the steerling to be 
 sacrificed — "Desinit in vitulum mulier formosa superne" (Steiner). 
 Orelli, on the contrary, thinks it conformable to poetic art, that the 
 height of enthusiasm should subside, as it were, in the placid anticipa- 
 tion of the destined sacrifice. Possibly Horace meant also, in describ- 
 ing the animal so minutely as already reserved for the sacrifice, to imply 
 how eagerly expected was the return of Augustus ; — the victims were 
 already marked, the preparations already made. 
 
BOOK IV. — ODE II. 353 
 
 Fronte curvatos imitatus ignes 
 Tertium Lunae referentis ortum, 
 Qua notam duxit, niveus videri, 
 Cetera fulvus.* 
 
354 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE III. 
 
 TO MELPOMENE. 
 
 The sweetness and dignity of this ode have been a theme 
 of unquahfied praise to the critics. It was^ evidently written 
 after the Secular Hymn, which gave authority and sanction 
 to Horace's claim to be " Romans fidicen lyrae." 
 
 Whom thou, Melpomene, 
 Hast once with still bright aspect marked at birth,* 
 
 On him no Isthmian toils 
 Shall shed the lustre of an athlete's fame ; 
 
 Him shall no fiery steed 
 Ravish to victory in Achaian car ; 
 
 In him no warlike deeds 
 Shall, from the hill-top of the Capitol, t 
 
 Show to a world's applause 
 The glorious image of a conquering chief, 
 
 With Delian leaves adorned, 
 Who crushed 'the swelling menaces of kings ; 
 
 Yet him shall streams that flow 
 Through fertile Tibur, and the thick-grown locks 
 
 Of the green forest-kings. 
 Endow with lordship — in ^olian song. 
 
 Me have the sons of Rome, 
 Sovereign of cities, deigned to enrol amidst 
 
 The choir beloved of bards ; 
 And now even Envy bites with milder fang. 
 
 * "Nascentem placido lumine videris." The image here is taken 
 from astrology. To Melpomene is ascribed the influence of the planet 
 ascendant at birth, and by which, in technical terms, the "Native" (or 
 new-born) is "aspected." 
 
/ 
 
 BOOK IV. — ODE III. 355 
 
 Carm. III. 
 
 Quern tu, Melpomene, semel 
 
 Nascentem placido lumine videris,* 
 
 Ilium non labor Isthmius 
 
 Clarabit pugilem, non equus impiger 
 
 Curm ducet Achaico 
 
 Victorem, neque res bellica Deliis 
 Ornatum foliis ducem, 
 
 Quod regum tumidas contuderit minas, 
 
 Ostendet Capitolio : t 
 
 Sed quae Tibur aquae fertile prsefluunt, 
 Et spissae nemorum comae, 
 
 Fingent ^olio carmine nobilem. 
 
 Romae principis urbium 
 
 Dignatur soboles inter amabiles 
 Vatum ponere me choros ; 
 
 Et jam dente minus mordeor invido. 
 
 + *' Neque res bellica Deliis 
 ^ Ornatum foliis ducem, 
 
 Quod regum tumidas contuderit minas, 
 Ostendet Capitolio." 
 ' * Ostendet " is a word borrowed from the ceremonies designed for 
 pomp and ostentation. The victorious general was shown at the 
 Capitol, where he returned thanks to Jove and the gods, deposited 
 the spoils, and received the homage of the world. — Torrentius, 
 Dacier. 
 
356 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 O thou Pierian Muse, 
 That tun'st the sweet clash of the golden shell ; 
 
 Thou who, if such thy will, 
 Couldst make mute fishes musical as swans, 
 
 Thine is the boon, all thine. 
 That I am singled from the passers-by, 
 
 " Lyrist of Roman song ! " — 
 Thine that I breathe and please, if please I may.* 
 
 * "Quod spiro," "that I breathe the breath of song"— "quod 
 movet me spiritus poeticus." — Dillenburger, Orelli, Ritter. 
 
J 
 
 BOOK IV.— ODE III. 357 
 
 O testudinis aureae 
 
 Dulcem quae strepitum, Fieri, temperas, 
 O, mutis quoque piscibus 
 
 Donatura cycni, si libeat, sonum, 
 
 Totum muneris hoc tui est. 
 
 Quod monstror digito praetereuntium 
 Romanae fidicen lyrae : 
 
 Quod spiro et placeo, si placeo, tuum est.* 
 
358 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE IV. 
 IN PRAISE OF DRUSUS AND THE RACE OF THE NEROS. 
 
 When, A.u,c. 738-9, Augustus and Tiberius were in Trans- 
 alpine Gaul, the fierce tribes of the Vindelici and Raeti (the 
 first occupying a considerable range of country between the 
 Danube and Lake Constance, the last neighbouring them to 
 the south, and extending to Lake Como) made forays into 
 Italy and Cisalpine Gaul, attended with great cruelty and 
 massacre. Augustus sent against them Drusus, the younger 
 brother of Tiberius, who was then in his twenty-third year. 
 He defeated and drove them from Italy. It is clearly in 
 honour of the victory under Drusus that the ode is com- 
 posed. But as these tribes renewed their predatory incur- 
 sions into Gaul, Tiberius was sent to the aid of Drusus with 
 additional forces. Thus united, the two brothers reduced 
 these and other tribes — such as the Genauni and Breuni 
 — into the Roman province of Raetiae (Rsetia Prima and 
 Secunda). It was in honour of this completed conquest, 
 and of the part which Tiberius had in it, that Ode xiv. was 
 composed, and, as may be reasonably supposed, somewhat 
 subsequently to Ode iv. The opening of this poem is un- 
 usually 
 Even as the thunder's winged minister — 
 To whom, proved true to Jove's entrusted charge 
 In gold-haired Ganymede, 
 
 Heaven's king gave kingdom over wandering birds — 
 
 Urged from his eyrie by the goad of youth. 
 And pulses glowing with ancestral fire, 
 
 Learns from the winds of spring, ^ 
 
 When gone the rain-clouds, timidly to soar. 
 
 Till on the sheepfold rushes down its foe ; 
 Next, bolder grown, the hungering greed not less 
 
BOOK IV. — ODE IV. 359 
 
 usually lengthy and involved. It takes four strophes, or 
 sixteen verses, before it disentangles itself of its similes, and 
 reaches their application. I do not think that it deserves 
 the blame some critics have attached to it for the slowness 
 and complication with which the image of the young eagle 
 is worked out ; perhaps, indeed, the hesitating efforts of the 
 bird before it gathers strength to attack dragons are artisti- 
 cally expressed in the labour of the verse. But I venture 
 to doubt whether the poem would not have been better 
 without the second simile of the lion-whelp, which has no 
 novelty to recommend it, and is very inferior in picturesque 
 vigour to the first one, while it is less appropriate to the 
 eulogy on Drusus. The young eagle training itself to grap- 
 ple with dragons that resist it, conveys an image of force 
 against force ; but it is very little honour to a lion-whelp to 
 conquer a helpless roe-deer or she-goat. " Caprea" means 
 either, but Yonge appears to me right in giving the former 
 interpretation to the word in this passage. Ritter vindicates 
 the simile of the lion-whelp, observing that the illustration 
 of the sheepfold and the dragons would not be appropriate 
 to the Raeti, and that therefore the poet adds the image by 
 which they and Drusus are comprehended. 
 
 Carm. IV. 
 
 Qualem ministrum fulminis alitem, 
 Cui rex deorum regnum in aves vagas 
 Permisit, expertus fidelem 
 Juppiter in Ganymede flavo, 
 
 Olim juventas et patrius vigor 
 Nido laborum propulit inscium : 
 Vernique, jam nimbis remotis, 
 Insolitos docuere nisus 
 
 Venti paventem : mox in ovilia 
 Demisit hostem vividus impetus : 
 
 i 
 
360 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Of battle than of food, 
 
 Drives him on dragons that resist his beak ; 
 
 Or as in gladsome pastures the wild roe, 
 About to die by fangs unfleshed before, 
 
 Sees the fierce lion-whelp, '■' 
 
 Fresh from the udders of the tawny dam ; — 
 
 So the Vindelici young Drusus saw 
 Leading war home to their own Rastian Alps ; * 
 Whence from all time they learned 
 
 To arm their hands with Amazonian axe t 
 
 I pause not now to ask ; nor is the lore 
 Of all things lore allowed ; enough that hosts. 
 Victorious long and far. 
 
 Vanquished in turn by a young arm and brain, 
 
 Felt what the mind and what the heart achieve. 
 When reared and fostered amidst blest abodes, 
 And with parental love 
 
 A Caesar's soul inspires a Nero's sons. 
 
 Brave and good natures generate natures brave. 
 In steer and steed ancestral virtue shows. 
 Bold eagles never yet, 
 
 Instead of eaglets, begot timorous doves. 
 
 * '* Videre Rsetis bella sub Alpibus." Macleane agrees with Orelli 
 in adopting Bentley's emendation — " Raetis " instead of "Raeti." — See 
 Orelli's excursus to this ode, and Macleane's comprehensive note. Ritter 
 and Munro have "Raeti." 
 
 t "Quibus 
 Mos unde deductus per omne 
 Tempus Amazonia securi 
 Dextras obarmet, quserere distuli : 
 Nee scire fas est omnia." 
 These lines are so Uttle in poetic keeping with the noble earnestness of 
 
BOOK IV. — ODE IV. 361 
 
 Nunc in reluctantes dracones 
 Egit amor dapis atque pugnse : 
 
 Qualemve laetis caprea pascuis 
 Intenta fulvae matris ab ubere 
 Jam lacte depulsum leonem, 
 Dente novo peritura vidit : 
 
 Videre Raetis bella sub Alpibus* 
 Drusum gerentem Vindelici ; quibus 
 Mos unde deductus per omne 
 Tempus Amazonia securi t 
 
 Dextras obarmet, quaerere distuli : 
 Nee scire fas est omnia ; sed diu 
 Lateque victrices catervse, 
 Consiliis juvenis revictae, 
 
 Sen sere, quid mens rite, quid indoles 
 Nutrita faustis sub penetralibus, 
 Posset, quid Augusti patemus 
 In pueros animus Nerones. 
 
 Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis ; 
 Est in juvencis, est in equis patrum 
 Virtus ; neque imbellem feroces 
 Progenerant aquilae columbam. 
 
 those immediately before and after them, that they have been summarily 
 rejected by several editors, and Franke asserts them to be a silly inter- 
 polation. They are, however, justly no doubt, considered genuine by 
 the best of the later authorities. Nor, indeed, are they inconsistent 
 with Horace's habit of introducing a sudden change of playfulness or 
 irony in the midst of his gravest verse. To me they seem evidently a 
 satirical allusion either to some rival poem or to some prosy archaeolo- 
 gical treatise of his own day upon the origin or customs of the Vindelici ; 
 and we lose the point because we have lost the poem or the treatise. 
 Ritter vindicates the digression, and cites in precedent. Find. 01. I. 
 28-42. 
 
362 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Still training speeds the inborn vigour's growth ; 
 Sound culture is the armour of the breast. 
 Where fails the moral lore, 
 
 Vice disennobles even the noblest born. 
 
 What to the Neros owest thou, O Rome ! 
 Witness Metaurus, routed Hasdrubal, 
 And that all-glorious day 
 
 Which chased from Latium the receding shades, 
 
 First dawn that laughed with victory, what time 
 Rode through Italia the dire African, 
 As fire through forest-pines. 
 
 Or Eurus over the Sicilian waves. 
 
 But from that day, labouring illustrious on, 
 Victory to victory linked, the Roman grew — 
 Till in the shrines laid waste 
 
 By Punic riot and fierce sacrilege, 
 
 Once more erect stood forth the gods of Rome. 
 Then thus outspoke perfidious Hannibal : 
 " We deer, foredoomed as prey 
 
 To ravenous wolves, our own destroyers chase, 
 
 " Whom 'tis our amplest triumph to elude, 
 And, hiding from, escape. Race which, cast forth 
 A waif on Tuscan seas 
 
 From Troy's red crater, still had strength to house 
 
 " In cities ravished from Ausonian soil. 
 Its gods, its worship, and its grey-haired sires, 
 Yea, and its new-born babes. 
 
 The destined fathers of the men to be ; 
 
 " Even as the ilex, lopped by axes rude. 
 Where, rich with dusky boughs, soars Algidus, 
 
BOOK IV. — ODE IV. 363 
 
 Doctrina sed vim promovet Insitam, 
 Rectique cultus pectora roborant ; 
 Utcunque defecere mores, 
 Indecorant bene nata culpae. 
 
 Quid debeas, O Roma, Neronibus, 
 Testis Metaurum flumen, et Hasdmbal 
 Devictus, et pulcher fugatis 
 Ille dies Latio tenebris, 
 
 Qui primus alma risit adorea, 
 Dirus per urbes Afer ut Italas, 
 Ceu flamma per taedas, vel Eurus 
 Per Siculas equitavit undas. 
 
 Post hoc secundis usque laboribus 
 Romana pubes crevit, et impio 
 Vastata Poenorum tumultu 
 Fana deos habuere rectos : 
 
 Dixitque tandem perfidus Hannibal : 
 ' Cervi, luporum prseda rapacium, 
 Sectamur ultro, quos opimus 
 
 Fallere et effugere est triumphus. 
 
 Gens, quae cremato fortis ab Ilio 
 Jactata Tuscis aequoribus sacra, 
 Natosque maturosque patres 
 Pertulit Ausonias ad urbes, 
 
 Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus 
 Nigrae feraci frondis in Algido, 
 
364 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Through loss, through wounds, receives 
 
 New gain, new life — yea, from the very steel : 
 
 " Not fiercer did the Hydra hewn, regrow 
 Against Alcides, chafed to be o'ercome ; 
 Nor dragon-teeth, earth-sown 
 
 In Thebes or Colchis, spring to armed men ; 
 
 " Merged in the deeps, more fair comes forth its star :* 
 Wrestle and win, it bears the winner down ; 
 And widowed wives shall tell 
 
 Of victors vanquished on the fields it fought.t 
 
 " No more to Carthage shall I send proud news ; 
 Dies, dies the power, the fortune, the renown 
 Of the great Punic name ; 
 
 Dies hope itself, for Hasdrubal is slain. J 
 
 " There's nought the hands of men from Claudius sprung 
 Shall not achieve, with Jove their guardian god. 
 Through the sharp stress of war 
 
 Sped by the providence of heedful cares." 
 
 * "Evenit." Orelli, following Jahn, has "exiit" — a reading un- 
 sanctioned by more recent editors. 
 
 + "Proelia conjugibus loquenda." Orelli considers that the line re- 
 fers to the Roman wives speaking with exultation of the wars waged by 
 their husbands. Ritter, on the other hand, powerfully supports the 
 interpretation of Mitscherlich — viz., that the line refers to the widows 
 of the slain. His argument seems ro me convincing. 
 
 t Torrentius considers that here ends the speech attributed to Han- 
 nibal, and that in the last verse Horace speaks in his own person — 
 an opinion which has had many followers, and is defended by Ritter. 
 Orelli, supported by Macleane and Yonge, on the other hand, contends 
 that the speech of Hannibal is continued to the close of the ode — 
 firstly, because it is more complimentary to the Neros that their praise 
 and predicted renown should come from the mouth of their foe ; second- 
 ly, because it is more poetical to conclude the poem with the prophecy 
 of Hannibal, and more in the spirit of Pindar, as Olymp. 4, and Nem. 4. 
 Munro gives his authority to this reading. 
 
BOOK IV. — ODE IV. 365 
 
 Per damna, per caedes, ab ipso 
 Ducit opes animumque ferro. 
 
 Non Hydra secto corpore firmior 
 Vinci dolentem crevit in Herculem, 
 Monstrumve submisere Colchi 
 Majus, Echioniseve Thebae. 
 
 Merses profundo, pulchrior evenit ; * 
 Luctere, multa proruet integrum 
 Cum laude victorem, geretque 
 Proelia conjugibus loquenda.t 
 
 Carthagini jam non ego nuntios 
 Mittam superbos : occidit, occidit 
 Spes omnis et fortuna nostri 
 
 Nominis, Hasdrubale interempto. i 
 
 Nil Claudiae non perficient manus ; 
 Quas et benigno numine Jupiter 
 Defendit, et curae sagaces 
 Expediunt per acuta belli.' 
 
366 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE V. 
 
 TO AUGUSTUS, THAT HE WOULD HASTEN HIS RETURN 
 TO ROME. 
 
 This ode, which Dillenburger rightly calls " dulcissimum 
 carmen," may be taken in connection with the preceding 
 and with Ode xiv. It was composed during the absence 
 of Augustus in Germany and Gaul, and after the victories 
 of Tiberius and Drusus. Augustus had been absent from 
 September a.u.c. 738 to February 741. In the description 
 of the blessings ascribed to the reign of Augustus, the se- 
 curity to life and property, the reformation of the previous 
 
 licence 
 Best guardian of the race of Romulus, 
 And sprung thyself from deities benign. 
 Absent too long, fulfil thy promise, pledged 
 To Rome's high court* — return. 
 
 Bring to thy country back, beloved chief, 
 The light : thy looks are to thy people Spring, 
 And where they smile, more grateful glides the day. 
 More genial shines the sun. 
 
 As the fond mother with all passionate prayers 
 Calls back the son more than one year away. 
 By adverse winds beyond Carpathian seas 
 Kept from sweet home afar. 
 
 Fixing intent upon the curving shore 
 The unmoving stillness of her wistful eyes ; — 
 So for her Caesar, smit with faithful love. 
 His country looks and pines. 
 
 * " Sancto concilio" — the Senate, 
 
BOOK IV. — ODE V. l^J 
 
 licence of manners, — in short, the change from the calami- 
 ties of civil war to the felicity of a government firm in 
 maintaining order, and mild enough to be popular beyond 
 all recorded precedent, Horace conveys his own vindication 
 from the charge inconsiderately made against him for his 
 attachment to the empire, and his enthusiasm for the em- 
 peror. And however adulatory the language he employs 
 may appear to modern taste, it is no exaggerated expression 
 of the common national sentiment in the times which had 
 exalted Augustus to a share in the honours privately as well 
 as publicly paid to the gods. 
 
 Carm. V. 
 
 Divis orte bonis, optime Romulae 
 Gustos gentis, abes jam nimium diu ; 
 Maturum reditum pollicitus Patrum 
 Sancto concilio, redi.* 
 
 Lucem redde tuae, dux bone, patriae : 
 Inster veris enim voltus ubi tuus 
 Affulsit populo, gratior it dies, 
 Et soles melius nitent. 
 
 Ut mater juvenem, quem Notus invido 
 Flatu Carpathii trans maris aequora 
 Cunctantem spatio longius annuo 
 Dulci distinct a domo, 
 
 Votis ominibusque et precibus vocat, 
 Curvo nee faciem litore dimovet : 
 Sic desideriis icta fidelibus 
 Quaerit patria Caesarem. 
 
368 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Safe * plods the steer among the rural fields ; 
 The rural fields Ceres and Plenty bless ] 
 The wmged ships fly through unmolested seas ; t 
 Honour's fine dread of shame 
 
 Returns ; no lusts pollute the modest home ; 
 Licence is tamed by manners as by laws ; :j: 
 Nor reads the husband in his infant's face 
 A likeness not his own. 
 
 Fast by Crime stands its comrade Punishment. 
 Who fears the Parthian, who the frozen Scyth ? 
 Who (Caesar safe) whatever monstrous birth 
 Germania's womb conceives ? 
 
 Let fierce Iberia threaten war — who cares? 
 Each spends safe days on his own hills, and weds 
 His vine to widowed elms, then, home regained, 
 Brims his glad cup to thee. 
 
 Blending with prodigal libation prayers ; § 
 And, as Greece honoured Leda's starry son. 
 Or great Alcides, — with his household gods 
 Mingles thy hallowed name. 
 
 * I.e., under the auspices of Augustus. ' ' Rura perambulat. " I adopt 
 Ritter's interpretation that this refers to the ox at the plough, not rov- 
 ing through the pastures. Pales presided over pastures ; Ceres, named 
 in the following line, over fields under the plough. The repetition of 
 **rura" — "bos rura perambulat, Nutrit rura Ceres," condemned as a 
 false reading by Bentley and other critics less illustrious, appears to me a 
 peculiar beauty. "Faustitas" is another name for " Copia," "plenty." 
 
 f " Pacatum per mare." "Pacatum," "unmolested by pirates." 
 The gratitude of the merchantmen and sailors to Augustus (then Octa- 
 vian) for putting down piracy is very forcibly expressed in Suetonius, 
 Oct. 98. 
 
 X Horace here refers to the " Lex Julia de Adulteriis," passed by 
 Augustus, A.U.C. 737, and also to an improved standard of national 
 manners. Dion. Cassius (54, 19) implies that one reason for Augustus's 
 expedition to Gaul (that is, absenting himself from Rome) was to get 
 rid of scandal in regard to his alleged intrigue with Terentia, the wife 
 
BOOK IV. — ODE V. 369 
 
 Tutus bos etenim rura perambulat,* 
 Nutrit rura Ceres, almaque Faustitas, 
 Pacatum volitant per mare navitse,t 
 Culpari metuit Fides, 
 
 Nullis polluitur casta domus stupris, 
 Mos et lex maculosum edomuit nefas,J 
 Laudantur simili prole puerperae, 
 Culpam Poena premit comes. 
 
 Quis Parthum paveat ? quis gelidum Scythen ? 
 Quis Germania quos horrida parturit 
 Fetus, incolumi Caesare? quis ferse 
 Bellum curet Hiberise ? 
 
 Condit quisque diem collibus in suis, 
 Et vitem viduas ducit ad arbores ; 
 Hinc ad vina redit laetus, et alteris 
 Te mensis adhibet deum ; § 
 
 Te multa prece, te prosequitur mero 
 Defuso pateris, et Laribus tuum 
 Miscet numen, uti Grsecia Castoris 
 Et magni memor Herculis. 
 
 of Maecenas — which Macleane rightly dismisses as mere gossip. It is 
 pretty clear, by these verses, either that Horace had heard of no such 
 scandal, or that both he and Maecenas regarded it with contempt. A 
 poet of so exquisite a taste, and so consummate a knowledge of the 
 world, would not have ventured on the line, "Nullis polluitur casta 
 domus stupris," if such scandal were rife at that very time, or, at least, 
 if any credit were attached to it ; for thus the compliment would have 
 been turned into a bitter irony against Augustus, and a cruel insult to 
 Maecenas. 
 
 § Literally " at his second course ;" or rather, as we should say, ** at 
 dessert" — "alteris mensis." By a decree of the Senate, libations were 
 to be offered to Octavian after the battle of Actium at private tables as 
 well as in public banquets, and his name to be inscribed in hymns of 
 praise as those of the gods. — Dion. Cass., 1. 1-19. It is to these 
 national honours that Horace alludes whenever he speaks of Augustus 
 as enrolled among the gods. 
 
 2 A 
 
370 
 
 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Live, O good chief, Rome's feast-days to prolong ! 
 This is our orison at sober morn. 
 Our prayer with wine-dews on the Up, when sinks 
 Underneath seas the sun. 
 
BOOK IV.— ODE V. 371 
 
 Longas, O utinam, dux bone, ferias 
 Praestes Hesperiae ! dicimus integro 
 Sicci mane die, dicimus uvidi. 
 Cum Sol Oceano subest. 
 
372 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE VI. 
 
 TO APOLLO. 
 
 This ode may be considered the prooemium to the Secular 
 H)rmn, A.U.C. 737, although evidently written after it. As 
 that hymn celebrates Apollo and Diana, so this ode appro- 
 priately commences with an invocation to Apollo, whom 
 Horace invokes (line 27) to defend the dignity of the 
 
 Roman 
 God, in whom Niobe's sad offspring felt 
 The stem chastiser of the vaunting tongue. 
 And Tityos vast, the ravisher, — and he, 
 Phthian Achilles, 
 
 Almost the victor of high Troy (to thee 
 Unequal, over other force supreme) ; 
 Though warring with dread spear the Sea-nymph's son 
 Shook Dardan towers. 
 
 As falls a pine beneath the biting steel, 
 Or cypress wrenched by Eurus from its root. 
 He fell, and wide and far on Trojan dust 
 Stamped his great image. 
 
 The false horse, duping, in Minerva's name. 
 Lost Trojans mirthful at their feast of death. 
 With choral dances blithe in Priam's hall. 
 Hid not Achilles. 
 
 His prey, alas ! he slew with open hand ; 
 His wrath, alas ! had given to Argive flames 
 The harmless infants even within the womb. 
 Smiting the unborn. 
 
 Had not the Father of the gods, subdued 
 By thee and Venus, with imploring prayer, 
 
BOOK IV.— ODE VI. 373 
 
 Roman Muse. The poet lingers specially on the praise of 
 Apollo as the slayer of Achilles ; because, had he who 
 spared not the babe in the womb survived, ^neas, an- 
 cestor of Augustus, and the Trojan exiles who founded 
 the Roman empire, would have perished. Horace, then, 
 after a brief reference to Diana, turns, as choragus, to 
 address the chorus of the Secular Hymn. 
 
 Carm. VI. 
 
 Dive, quem proles Niobea magnae 
 Vindicem linguae, Tityosque raptor, 
 Sensit, et Trojae prope victor altae 
 Phthius Achilles, 
 
 Ceteris major, tibi miles impar ; 
 Filius quamvis Thetidis marinae 
 Dardanas turres quateret tremenda 
 Cuspide pugnax. 
 
 Ille, mordaci velut icta ferro 
 Pinus, aut impulsa cupressus Euro, 
 Procidit late posuitque collum in 
 Pulvere Teucro. 
 
 Ille non inclusus equo Minervae 
 Sacra mentito male feriatos 
 Troas et laetam Priami choreis 
 Falleret aulam ; 
 
 Sed palam captis gravis, heu nefas ! heu ! 
 Nescios fari pueros Achivis 
 Ureret flammis, etiam latentem 
 Matris in alvo ; 
 
 Ni, tuis victus Venerisque gratae 
 Vocibus, divum pater annuisset 
 
374 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Pledged to -^neas by his solemn nod 
 Walls more auspicious. 
 
 Tuneful Thalia's sovereign melodist, 
 Laving in Xanthian waves thy golden hair, 
 Support the honour of the Daunian Muse, 
 Beardless Agyieus ! * 
 
 Phoebus on me bestowed the soul, on me 
 The art of song, on me the poet's name, 
 t O noblest virgins, and O ye young sons 
 Of noble fathers, 
 
 Wards of the Delian goddess, with her bow 
 Striking the flight of stags and lynxes still. 
 The Lesbian :j: measure timed and tuned by me, 
 Guard unforgetful. 
 
 Chanting, with ritual due, Latona's son. 
 And her who kindles night with crescent beam, 
 Prospers the harvests, and the sliding months 
 Speeds in their circle. 
 
 Say, maid, then wedded, § " In that hallowed year 
 Which did the secular feast-lights reillume. 
 Song dear to gods I sang — song taught by him, 
 Horace the poet." 
 
 * The name of Agyieus seems here very appropriately invoked, be- 
 cause Apollo takes that name from the Greeks, as presiding over the 
 thoroughfares of cities, "quasi viis praepositus urbanis;" and all the 
 streets of Rome would have been alive with the festival and processions 
 connected with the Secular Hymn which the ode refers to. 
 
 t Here Horace turns to the chorus of the Secular Hymn. 
 t " Lesbium servate pedem, meique 
 Pollicis ictum." 
 By "pollicis ictum" is meant the motion of the thumb in marking the 
 rhythm or time of the song, not the striking of the lyre. 
 
l/ 
 
 BOOK IV.— ODE VI. 375 
 
 Rebus ^neae potiore ductos 
 Alite muros. 
 
 Doctor argutse fidicen Thaliae, 
 Phoebe, qui Xantho lavis amne crines, 
 Dauniae defende decus Camenae, 
 Levis Agyieu.* 
 
 Spiritum Phoebus mihi, Phoebus artem 
 Carminis, nomenque dedit poetae. 
 Virginum primae, puerique Claris 
 Patribus orti,t 
 
 Delias tutela deae, fugaces 
 Lyncas et cervos cohibentis arcu, 
 Lesbium servate pedem, meique 
 Pollicis ictum,J 
 
 Rite Latonse puerum canentes, 
 Rite crescentem face Noctilucam, 
 Prosperam frugum, celeremque pronos 
 Volvere menses. 
 
 Nupta jam dices : § Ego dis amicum, 
 Saeculo festas referente luces, 
 Reddidi carmen, docilis modorum 
 Vatis Horati. 
 
 § "Nupta jam dices." Horace here admonishes those who were 
 young virgins in the chorus at the date of the Secular Hymn to re- 
 member, when wedded wives, their part in the festival, with which he 
 associates his name. 
 
3/6 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE VII. 
 
 TO TORQUATUS. 
 
 The Torquatus here addressed appears to be the same 
 Torquatus whom Horace invites to supper, Epist. Lib. I. v. 
 Estre, considering there was no ground for Weichert's as- 
 sumption that this person was C. Nonius Asprenas Tor- 
 quatus, mentioned in Suetonius (in Vit Augusti), expresses 
 his surprise that the commentators had not thought of 
 
 Aulus 
 
 Fled the snows — now the grass has returned to the meadows. 
 
 And their locks to the trees ; 
 Now the land's face is changed, dwindled rivers receding 
 
 Glide in calm by their shores. 
 
 Now, unrobed, may the Grace intertwined with her sisters 
 
 Join the dance of the Nymphs. 
 " Things immortal, hope not ! " saith the Year — saith the 
 Moment 
 
 Stealing off this soft day. 
 
 Winter thaws, Spring has breathed ; quick on Spring tramples 
 Summer, 
 
 And is gone to his grave ; 
 Appled Autumn his fruits will have shed forth, and then 
 
 Dearth and winter once more. 
 
 But the swift moons'^'' restore change and loss in the heavens, 
 
 When we go where have gone 
 Sire ^neas, and Tullus,t and opulent Ancus, 
 
 We are dust and a shade.if 
 
 * ** Damna tamen celeres reparant caelestia lunse." Macleane ap- 
 pears to me right in differing from Orelli, who refers " damna caelestia" 
 to the changes of the moon. "'Tamen' shows that the changes and 
 deteriorations of the weather and seasons are intended, and ' celeres 
 lunse' are the quick-revolving months" — i.e.^ without metaphor, time 
 
BOOK IV. — ODE vii. 377 
 
 Aulus Torquatus, of whom Nepos speaks in his Life of 
 Atticus, c. II, who had served with Brutus and Cassius 
 at Philippi, and was therefore Horace's old fellow-soldier. 
 Macleane considers the poem to be one of Horace's earlier 
 odes, and introduced to swell the fasciculus — or, as we 
 should say, fill up the volume. I do not see much cause 
 for that supposition. The sentiment is one habitual to 
 Horace at every stage of his life, and it is in harmony with 
 the tone of the epistle, published probably five or six years 
 before the Fourth Book of Odes. 
 
 Carm. VII. 
 
 Diffugere nives : redeunt jam gramina campis 
 
 Arboribusque comae ; 
 Mutat terra vices et decrescentia ripas 
 
 Flumina praetereunt ; 
 
 Gratia cum Nymphis geminisque sororibus audet 
 
 Ducere nuda choros. 
 Immortalia ne speres, monet Annus et almum 
 
 Quae rapit Hora diem. 
 
 Frigora mitescunt Zephyris, Ver proterit ^stas 
 
 Interitura, simul 
 Pomifer Auctumnus fruges effuderit, et mox 
 
 Bruma recurrit iners. 
 
 Damna tamen celeres reparant caelestia lunae ;* 
 
 Nos, ubi decidimus. 
 Quo pater ^2neas, quo TuUus, t dives et Ancus, 
 
 Pulvis et umbra sumus.J 
 
 brings back the seasons — time does not bring back us men when we 
 once vanish. 
 
 + Ritter has " Tullus, dives et Ancus," not " dives Tullus," observing 
 that there is no just cause for calling Tullus rich, whereas the riches 
 of Ancus were celebrated. Munro adopts Ritter's collocation. 
 
 :J: I.e.^ dust in the tomb, and a shade in Hades. 
 
37^ THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Who knows if the gods will yet add a to-morrow 
 
 To the sum of to-day ? 
 Count as saved from an heir's greedy hands all thou givest 
 
 To that friend — thine own self. 
 
 When once dead, the resplendent* tribunal of Minos 
 
 Having once pronounced doom, 
 Noble birth, suasive tongue, moral worth, O Torquatus, 
 
 Reinstate thee no more. 
 
 Her Hippolytus chaste from the midnight of Hades 
 
 Dian's self could not free ; 
 Lethe's chains coiled around his own best-loved Pirithous, 
 
 Theseus' self could not rend. 
 
 * " * Splendida,' an epithet more proper of the court and tribunal 
 than of the judgment (arbitria) given. . . . The choice of poetic figure 
 by which to enlarge the simple notion, * cum semel occideris,' was pro- 
 bably suggested by Torquatus's own profession as an advocate, alluded 
 to in Ep. I. V. 8, 9." — YONGE. Ritter takes the epithet as referring to 
 the splendour which surrounded the tribunal of Minos, enabling him 
 more searchingly to inspect the souls whom he judged ; and observes 
 that the splendour is here opposed to " tenebris," line 25. ^ 
 
y 
 
 BOOK IV. — ODE VII. 379. 
 
 Quis scit, an adjiciant hodiernse crastina summse 
 
 Tempora di superi ? 
 Cuncta maniis avidas fugient heredis, amico 
 
 Quae dederis animo. 
 
 Cum semel occideris, et de te splendida* Minos 
 
 Fecerit arbitria, 
 Non, Torquate, genus, non te facundia, non te 
 
 Restituet pietas ; 
 
 Infernis neque enim tenebris Diana pudicum 
 
 Liberat Hippolytum ; 
 Nee Lethaea valet Theseus abrumpere caro 
 
 Vincula Pirithoo. 
 
380 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE VIII. 
 TO CENSORINUS. 
 
 On Stated times, as in the Kalends of March and January, 
 it was the custom of the wealthier Romans to make presents 
 to their friends. To this custom Horace refers, sending his 
 verses to Censorinus, as the most acceptable gift he could 
 offer. C. Marcus Censorinus was a man of consular rank, 
 bore a high reputation, and died greatly regretted. 
 
 Goblets and bronzes rare, my Censorinus, 
 
 I on my friends would heartily bestow; 
 I'd give them tripods, as Greece gave her heroes — 
 
 Nor should the meanest of my gifts be thine, 
 Were I but rich in artful masterpieces 
 
 Such as a Scopas or Parrhasius wrought,* 
 When one in stone, in liquid hues the other. 
 
 Now fixed a mortal, now enshrined a god. 
 Not mine that wealth,t nor do such dainty treasures 
 
 Fail to thine affluence nor allure thy mind ; 
 That which charms thee is song : song I can proffer. 
 
 And set a value on the gift I bring. 
 Marbles inscribed with a state's grateful praises, 
 
 Wherein great chieftains live and breathe again : 
 The flights :{: of Hannibal, his threats hurled backward, 
 
 And impious Carthage perishing in flames, 
 Made not more famed than did Calabrian Muses 
 
 Him who bore off from conquered Africa 
 As his own spoils — a Name.§ Nor aught thy guerdon. 
 
 If scrolls be mute upon thy deeds of good. 
 
 * Scopas was a famous sculptor of Paros, according to Pausanias, 
 flourishing about 450 years B.C. Parrhasius, a painter, native of Ephe- 
 sus, about 400 B.C. He was a contemporary and rival of Zeuxis. 
 
BOOK IV. — ODE VIII. 381 
 
 Carm. VIII. 
 
 Donarem pateras grataque commodus, 
 Censorine, meis sera sodalibus ; 
 Donarem tripodas, prsemia fortium 
 Graiorum ; neque tu pessima munerum 
 Ferres, divite me scilicet artium, 
 Quas aut Parrhasius protulit, aut Scopas,* 
 Hie saxo, liquidis ille coloribus 
 Sellers nunc hominem ponere, nunc deum. 
 Sed non haec mihi vis ; t non tibi talium 
 Res est, aut animus deliciarum egens. 
 Gaudes carminibus ; carmina possumus 
 Donare, et pretium dicere muneri. 
 Non incisa notis marmora publicis, 
 Per quae spiritus et vita redit bonis 
 Post mortem ducibus ; non celeres fugae,:j: 
 Rejectaeque retrorsum Hannibalis minse, 
 Non incendia Carthaginis impiae, 
 Ejus, qui domita nomen ab Africa § 
 Lucratus rediit, clarius indicant 
 Laudes, quam Calabrae Pierides : neque, 
 
 t " Sed non hsec mihi vis." The sense is approached by our Eng- 
 lish idiomatic slang expression, '* I am not of that force." 
 
 X " Celeres fugae" means Hannibal's hasty recall from Italy (Liv. xxx. 
 20). — Orelli. 
 
 § " Scipio Africanus." This passage has given infinite trouble to the 
 commentators. Ennius (denoted here by the " Calabrian Muses") cele- 
 brated the elder Scipio. But Carthage was burned, not by the elder 
 Scipio, but by the younger Scipio Africanus, many years after the death 
 of Ennius ; and it cannot be supposed that Horace w^as so ignorant as to 
 ascribe to the elder Scipio the act of the younger. It was even proposed 
 by Bentley to omit the seventeenth verse, referring to Carthage, alto- 
 gether ; but the line is in all the MSS. extant. Others suggest that two 
 lines are wanting after the seventeenth, which would have removed the 
 alleged confusion ; and this theory is supported by the assertion that 
 odes in this measure are so constituted as to be reducible to stanzas of 
 
382 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Though son of Mars and Ilia, what — had silence 
 
 Been his worth's cold obstruction — Romulus? 
 The genius, favour, voice of powerful poets 
 
 Consecrate ^acus, from waves of Styx 
 Ravished to golden isles.* The Muse permits not 
 
 The mortal worthy of her praise to die ; 
 Him the Muse hallows to the bHss of heaven. 
 
 Thus in the longed-for banquet-hall of Jove 
 Sits resolute Hercules ; the sons of Leda 
 
 Thus — one twin-star — from Ocean's nether deep 
 Snatch tempest-shattered barks ; and thus doth Liber, 
 
 His brows adorned with the vine's lusty green, 
 Hear as a god our mortal supplications. 
 
 And guide the votive prayer to happy ends. 
 
 four lines each, while this ode wants at present two verses necessary to 
 establish that rule. But, as Macleane observes, ' ' the rule itself is arbi- 
 trary, and a precarious foundation for such an assumption as the loss of 
 two verses, of which no traces are to be found in the oldest MSS. and 
 commentators." Macleane thinks "that the confusion is easily seen 
 through by those who avoid the commentators andjudge for themselves. 
 . . . "When Horace says that the defeat of Hannibal by the elder 
 Scipio, and the destruction of Carthage by the younger, do not hold up 
 their name more nobly than the Muse of Calabria, — who does not sup- 
 ply, in his own mind, ' which was employed in doing honour to the 
 elder ' ? " To me the meaning seems clear enough. Just as Horace, 
 Lib. I., Carm. xii. v. 46, makes the name of Marcellus, who took Syra- 
 cuse, stand for all his family, and include the young Marcellus, so he 
 here makes the name of Africanus stand for the whole family, and in- 
 clude especially the younger Scipio. Or, as Ritter expresses it, the 
 fame of the elder Scipio, recorded by Ennius, was revived in the destruc- 
 tion of Carthage by the younger. 
 
 * " Virtus et favor et lingua potentium 
 Vatum divitibus consecrat insulis." 
 *' 'Virtus et favor' are generally taken, like 'lingua,' as belonging to 
 'potentium vatum,' so that 'virtus' is 'vis ingenii, facultas poetica.' I 
 doubt the accuracy of that interpretation ; I think it rather means that 
 though ^acus was virtuous (and he was much celebrated for his justice), 
 his virtue would not have raised him to the skies but for the applause 
 
y 
 
 BOOK IV. — ODE VIII. 383 
 
 Si chartas sileant, quod bene feceris, 
 Mercedem tuleris. Quid foret Iliae 
 Mavortisque puer, si taciturnitas 
 Obstaret meritis invida Romuli ? 
 Ereptum Stygiis fluctibus ^acum 
 Virtus et favor et lingua potentium 
 Vatum divitibus consecrat insulis.* 
 Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori : 
 Cselo Musa beat. Sic Jovis interest 
 Optatis epulis impiger Hercules 
 Clarum Tyndaridae sidus ab infimis 
 Quassas eripiunt aequoribus rates ; 
 Ornatus viridi tempora pampino 
 Liber vota bonos ducit ad exitus. 
 
 won him by the poets. The causes, therefore, are, his virtue and the 
 public esteem (* favor'), and the poet's praise that made his virtue known." 
 — Macleane. This interpretation is very ingenious, but as it is op- 
 posed to that accepted by the general body of Horatian commentators, 
 I do not admit it in translation, though, like all the suggestions of this 
 eminent critic, it merits respectful attention. I may add that Ritter 
 also separates " virtus" and "favor" from "lingua potentium vatum." 
 
384 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE IX. 
 
 TO LOLLIUS. 
 
 As the preceding poem was addressed to a man who re- 
 tained unblemished a popular reputation to the last, and 
 whose death was considered a public calamity, so this poem, 
 which equally treats of the immortality it is the gift of poets 
 to bestow, is addressed to one who, if we are to take for 
 granted such historical records of him as are left, was the 
 subject of merited obloquy in his later years, and died by 
 poison which he administered to himself, to the great joy of 
 his countrymen. And it was for the vices most opposite to 
 the special virtues Horace here ascribes to Lollius — viz., for 
 rapacity and corruption — that his character, rightly or wrong- 
 ly, has been most defamed. His vindication has been, how- 
 ever, very ably attempted by Tate (' Vindicias Lollianae'), and 
 the evidence against him is generally considered to rest 
 upon prejudiced and questionable authority. — See Estrd, 
 
 Hor. 
 
 Lest, perchance, thou believe that the words which to music, 
 I, whose birth was where Aufidus rushes far-sounding. 
 Linked by arts not before me divulged. 
 Are but sounds that are fated to die ; 
 
 Remember, that though the first throne be great Homer's, 
 There are muses not tuneless, Pindaric and Csean ; 
 With Alcaeus, yet threatening and fierce ; 
 With Stesichorus, stately and grave. 
 
 Time destroys not what once sported loose in Anacreon ; 
 To this day breathes the love, to this day glows the ardour, 
 Which the girl of ^olia consigned 
 To the strings of her passionate lyre. 
 
I 
 
 BOOK IV. — ODE IX. 385 
 
 Hor. Pros. At all events it is dear that the vices imputed 
 to him by his personal enemy, Sulpicius Quirinus, and Vel- 
 leius Paterculus, the adulator of Tiberius, were not sus- 
 pected by Augustus, with whom, even after his defeat by 
 the Sygambri, a.u.c. 737, he retained eminent favour and 
 influence, and who subsequently appointed him tutor to his 
 grandson, Caius Caesar. If Lollius could deceive Augustus 
 as to his real nature, it has been shrewdly observed that he 
 might well deceive Horace. The exact date of the ode is 
 unknown, but it has the appearance of being written after 
 Lollius's defeat and recall ; at all events, it was published 
 not long after it, and is therefore an evidence of Horace's 
 generous desire to soothe and sustain his friend in a time 
 of reverse, and, no doubt, of unpopularity. The latter part 
 of the poem is in Horace's noblest style of sentiment and 
 expression. Ritter maintains that Epistles ii. and xviii.. 
 Lib. I., are addressed to the LolHus of the ode ; but most 
 critics consider them to be addressed to his eldest son. 
 
 Carm. IX. 
 
 Ne forte credas interitura, quae 
 Longe sonantem natus ad Aufidum, 
 Non ante volgatas per artes 
 Verba loquor socianda chordis ; 
 
 Non, si priores Maeonius tenet 
 Sedes Homerus, Pindaricae latent, 
 Ceseque, et Alcaei minaces, 
 Stesichorique graves Camenae ; 
 
 Nee, si quid olim lusit Anacreon, 
 Delevit aetas ; spirat adhuc amor, 
 Vivuntque commissi calores 
 JEolidd fidibus puellag. 
 2 B 
 
386 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Spartan Helen was not the sole woman inflamed by 
 An adulterer's sleek locks ; or seduced by the glitter 
 Of the vestments embroidered in gold, 
 And the graces and pomp of a prince; 
 
 Teucer bent not the first skilful bow of the Cretan ; 
 Troy was more than once harassed by valiant besiegers ; 
 Other chiefs, besides Sthenelus strong. 
 Or Idomeneus mighty, achieved 
 
 Deeds as worthy as theirs of a Muse to record them ; 
 Not the first was Deiphobus keen, or fierce Hector, 
 Who has met, without flinching, the blow, 
 In defence of his children and wife. 
 
 Many brave men have lived long before Agamemnon, 
 But o'er them darkly presses the slumber eternal ; 
 All unwept and unknown, wanting Him — 
 Everlastingly sacred — the Bard ! 
 
 Little differs worth hidden from worthlessness buried ; 
 In the page I shall speak, and the page shall adorn thee ; 
 I will let not, O Lollius, thy toils 
 Fade in livid oblivion away. 
 
 In thy mind thou conjoinest life's practical knowledge. 
 And a temper unmoved by the changes of fortune,* 
 Whatsoever her smile or her frown. 
 Neither bowed nor elate, — but erect; 
 
 The avenger of greedy and fraudful Corruption, 
 The abstainer from Gold, which draws all to its magnet — 
 Consul not of the one year alone. 
 
 For thy mind must be always in power 
 
 * " Secundis 
 Temporibus dubiisque rectus." 
 I agree with Orelli and Macleane in thinking these lines refer to the de- 
 
, BOOK IV.— ODE IX. ' 387 
 
 Non sola comptos arsit adulter! 
 Crines, et aurum vestibus illitum 
 Mirata, regalesque cultus 
 Et comites Helene Lacaena ; 
 
 Primusve Teucer tela Cydonio 
 Direxit arcu ; non semel Ilios 
 Vexata ; non pugnavit ingens 
 Idomeneus Sthenelusve solus 
 
 Dicenda Musis proelia ; non ferox 
 Hector, vel acer Deiphobus graves 
 Excepit ictus pro pudicis 
 
 Conjugibus puerisque primus. 
 
 Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona 
 Multi ; sed omnes illacrimabiles 
 Urgentur ignotique longa 
 
 Nocte, carent quia vate sacro. 
 
 Paullum sepultas distat inertiae 
 Celata virtus. Non ego te meis 
 Chartis inornatum silebo, 
 Totve tuos patiar labores 
 
 Impune, LoUi, carpere lividas 
 Obliviones. Est animus tibi 
 Eerumque prudens, et secundis 
 Temporibus dubiisque rectus;* 
 
 Vindex avarae fraudis, et abstinens 
 Ducentis ad se cuncta pecuniae ; 
 Consulque non unius anni, 
 Sed quoties bonus atque fidus 
 
 feat of Lollius in Germany ; and it seems that not only Horace here em- 
 phatically seeks to pay tribute to the steadfastness and integrity of his 
 friend's character, but in the concluding stanza to vindicate his courage, 
 and intimate that he was the last man who would have feared death. 
 
388 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Whensoever an arbiter, faithful to justice, 
 Over what is expedient exalts what is honest. 
 Awes the briber with one lofty look, 
 
 And through hosts clears, victorious, his way.* 
 
 It is not large possessions themselves that are blessings ; 
 More rightly called " blest," he whose claim to the title 
 Is the wisdom which puts to their use 
 All the gifts that he owes to the gods, 
 
 He who hardens his soul to reverse and privation — 
 He who looks upon death as less dread than dishonour — 
 Never fears, for the friends of his love 
 Or the cause of his country, to die. 
 
 * The meaning of these lines seems explained by reference to Lib. HI. 
 Od. ii. lines 19, 20, — 
 
 ** Nee sumit aut ponit secures 
 Arbitrio popularis aurae ;" 
 
 i.e.^ Lollius is not the mere official consul of a single year — he never lays 
 down the insignia of his majestic virtue. It seems to me that the image 
 is still continued through the lines^ — 
 
 " Per obstantcs catervas 
 Explicuit sua victor arma." 
 
 The lictors dispersed opposing crowds to make way for the consul ; and 
 '*arma" here may signify their axes. Yonge renders the passage yet 
 more symbolically, in this eloquent paraphrase : "The soul has an inde- 
 pendent dignity so long as, true in principle and judgment, it rejects cor- 
 ruption, and bursts in a moral victory through the host of vices." Rit- 
 ter insists on construing the lines literally, and refers them to Lollius's 
 military administration of his province. 
 
BOOK IV.— ODE IX. 389 
 
 Judex honestum praetulit iitili, 
 Rejecit alto dona nocentium 
 Voltu, per obstantes catervas 
 Explicuit sua victor arma. * 
 
 Non possidentem multa vocaveris 
 Recte beatum : rectius occupat 
 Nomen beati, qui deorum 
 Muneribus sapienter uti, 
 
 Duramque callet pauperiem pati, 
 Pejusque leto flagitium timet ; 
 Non ille pro caris amicis 
 Aut patria timidus perire. 
 
 ODE X. Omitted. 
 
390 THE "ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XI. 
 
 TO PHYLLIS. 
 
 As Horace had before (Lib. III. Od. xxviii.) invited Lyde 
 to the feast-day of Neptune, so he here invites PhylHs to cele- 
 brate the birthday of Maecenas in the Ides of April. The date 
 of the ode cannot be determined, though it may be reasonably 
 conjectured that when he speaks of Phyllis as his last love, 
 he was of an age correspondent with the period at which the 
 Fourth Book was published. Nevertheless this is no sure in- 
 dex; for, as Macleane shrewdly intimates, most men promise 
 the women they woo that she shall be the last love. To those 
 who insist upon giving literal individual personality to the 
 fictitious names Horace introduces into his poems, this poem 
 would seem written at a much earlier period, since Telephus, 
 that universal ladykiller, is still described as " juvenis." But 
 we have already seen that ''juvenis" by no means necessar- 
 ily signifies a youth. I do not believe, with Macleane, that 
 
 Telephus 
 
 I've a cask of rich Alban wine full in my cellar — 
 It has passed its ninth year ; in my garden, fair Phyllis, 
 There is parsley for chaplets, and O, in profusion, 
 Ivy too, ivy. 
 
 Thou art dazzling whenever that binds up thy tresses. 
 
 All my house laughs with plate ; clasped around with chaste 
 
 vervain, 
 Lo, mine altar stands thirsting the blood of a lambkin 
 Soon to be sprinkled. 
 
 And all hands are at work ; here and there run the servants. 
 Men and maids, helter-skelter ; the flame mounts in flicker, 
 
• BOOK IV.— ODE XL '39! 
 
 Telephus is altogether a poetic fiction; neither am I satis- 
 fied with the grounds upon which Ritter identifies the 
 Telephus of Ode xiii. Book L, and xix. Book III., with 
 Heliodorus, the grammarian and Greek scholar mentioned 
 Serm. i. 5-, 2, and assumes that another person is designated 
 under that name in this ode. Nothing is more likely than 
 that among Horace's gayer companions there was some one 
 very good-looking gallant, celebrated for his bonnes fortunes 
 among the freedwomen of Rome, whom the poet always 
 designates under the name of Telephus. It is observable 
 that there is considerable consistency in the way in which 
 Telephus is mentioned in . Horace, with a good-humoured, 
 half-envious admiration for personal gifts, and whom, on the 
 single occasion (Carm. xix. Lib. III.) in which the hand- 
 some gentleman seems disposed to bore with an unseason- 
 able display of learning, he puts back into his right place 
 as reveller and gallant, with a certain superiority, such as, 
 when it came to a display of learning, a Horace might be 
 disposed to assume towards a Telephus. 
 
 Carm. XI. 
 
 Est mihi nonum superantis annum 
 Plenus Albani cadus ; est in horto, 
 Phylli, nectendis apium coronis ; 
 Est hederae vis 
 
 Multa, qua crines religata fulges ; 
 Ridet argento domus ; ara castis 
 Vincta verbenis avet immolato 
 Spargier agno ; 
 
 Guncta festinat manus, hue et illuc 
 Gursitant mixtse pueris puellse ; 
 
392 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 As it whirls the smoke cresting the point of its summit 
 Round and around it* 
 
 But that now thou mayst know to what mirth I invite thee, 
 'Tis in honour of Ides, not ungrateful to Phyllis, 
 'Tis the day that halves April, sweet month in which Venus 
 Rose out of ocean ; 
 
 Day, indeed, that by me should be solemnised duly — 
 Scarce mine own natal day I hold equally sacred, 
 Since it is by its light, year on year, my Maecenas 
 Sums up life's riches. 
 
 Come, that Telephus whom thou art seeking (poor Phyllis ! 
 He's a youth above thee) is now chained to another. 
 She is wanton and rich, and she holds him in bondage, 
 Pleased with his fetters. 
 
 Phaethon, burnt in his chariot, deters from ambition, 
 Winged Pegasus spurning Bellerophon earth-born 
 May admonish thee also by this solemn lesson, 
 " Seek but what suits thee ; " 
 
 Deeming Hope, when it flies out of reach, is unlawful, 
 O set not thy heart where the lots are unequal. 
 Come, with me be contented, of all loves my latest ; 
 Love with thee endeth. 
 
 After thee never more woman's face shall inflame me ; 
 
 O, be cheered, then, and come ; let me teach thee such 
 
 measures 
 As the voice which I love into sweetness shall render j 
 Song lessens sorrow. 
 
 * ** Sordidum flammse trepidant rotantes 
 Vertice fumum." 
 *' 'Vertice ' is the top of the flame, M'hich flickers as it whirls the dark 
 smoke on its crest — a spiral flame, culminating in a column of smoke. 
 It seems as if Horace were writing with a fire burning before him, and 
 caught the idea as he wrote." — Macleane. 
 
BOOK IV. — ODE XI. 393 
 
 Sordidum flammae trepidant rotantes 
 Vertice fumum.* 
 
 Ut tamen noris, quibus advoceris 
 Gaudiis, Idus tibi sunt agendse, 
 Qui dies mensem Veneris marinae 
 Findit Aprilem ; 
 
 Jure soUemnis mihi, sanctiorque, 
 Pasne natali proprio, quod ex hac 
 Luce Maecenas mens adfluentes 
 Ordinat annos. 
 
 Telephum, quem tu petis, occupavit, 
 Non tuae sortis juvenem, puella 
 Dives et lasciva, tenetque grata 
 Compede vinctum. 
 
 Terret ambustus Phaethon avaras 
 Spes ; et exemplum grave praebet ales 
 Pegasus, terrenum equitem gravatus 
 Bellerophontem ; 
 
 Semper ut te digna sequare, et ultra 
 Quam licet sperare nefas putando 
 Disparem vites. Age jam, meorm 
 Finis amorum, 
 
 Non enim posthac alia calebo 
 Femina, — condisce modos, amanda 
 Voce quos reddas ; minuentur atrae 
 Carmine curae. 
 
394 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE Xll. 
 
 INVITATION TO VIRGIL. 
 
 It Is a vexed question among commentators whether the 
 Virgil here addressed be Virgil the poet. Yonge says that 
 the general authority of critics is against that identification. 
 Macleane is disposed to favour it, and it is not without other 
 and very eminent defenders. 
 
 The main objections to the assumption are — ist, the 
 chronological one. Virgil was dead many years before the 
 publication of the Fourth Book ; but, in answer to this, it is 
 said that, in making up the collection composed for Book 
 IV., Horace might have included poems composed at a 
 much earlier date. Dillenburger considers that this ode was 
 written in youth, and published in the final book of the 
 Odes, as if Horace wished to refresh and record the memory 
 of his friend. 
 
 2d, It is asked, " How can Virgil the poet be called 
 the client of noble youths ? " To this it has been replied, 
 that the youths referred to might be the stepsons of Augus- 
 tus, or (more generally by Dillenburger), that the phrase 
 means nothing more than the familiarity with persons of 
 high station, such as Agrippa, PoUio, and others. 
 
 3d, That an injunction to lay aside the care or study of 
 gain (studium lucri) is very inappropriate to the liberal and 
 generous character assigned to the poet. But here again it 
 is said, that it is absurd to take literally what is obviously 
 written in jest. If a man, the most indifferent to gain, had, 
 for instance, informed us that he thought he could sell an 
 
 olive 
 
 Now Thracian breezes, comrades of the spring, 
 Temper the ocean and impel the sails ; 
 Frost crisps not now the fields, nor rage the floods, 
 Swollen with winter snows. 
 
, BOOK IV.— ODE XII. ' \^QS 
 
 olive crop well, or that he had found a good investment for 
 his money, we might very well say to him, *' Put aside those 
 mercenary thoughts of gain, and come and sup with us." 
 There would be at once a jest and a compliment in the 
 irony of the implied accusation. That the Virgil addressed 
 must be a vender of perfumes, because he is asked to con- 
 tribute a pot of nard ; or a banker or negotiator, because he 
 is exhorted to put aside the care of gain — and a scholiast in 
 a Paris MS. inscribes the ode, " Ad Virgilium Negotiator- 
 em," — is a conjecture less plausible than that he was a physi- 
 cian of that name to the Neros, or a relation of C. Virgil 
 the praetor, Cicero's friend. 
 
 Orelli and Yonge quote with approval Gesner's remark, 
 " That there is nothing in the poem itself which pertains 
 more to the poet Virgil than to any other friend of Horace's." 
 On the other hand, it has been said that the mythological 
 imagery and the description of Spring with which the poem 
 opens, are addressed with appropriate felicity to the Poet of 
 the Eclogues and Georgics. 
 
 The question does not seem to admit of positive solution 
 one way or the other. The reader must judge for himself 
 whether it is probable that Horace included in theFourth 
 Book a poem that, if addressed to Virgil the poet, he must 
 have written many years before ; and whether if he did thus, 
 as Dillenburger contends, seek to revive the memory of his 
 early friend, it would have been in a poem of a compara- 
 tively light character, and so wholly free from any reference 
 to the loss he had sustained. 
 
 Carm. XH. 
 
 Jam Veris comites, ^juae mare temperant, 
 Impellunt animae lintea Thraciae ; 
 Jam nee prata rigent nee fluvii strepunt 
 Hiberna nive turgidi. : ... 
 
396 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Now builds her nest the melancholy bird 
 Yet moaning Itys ; she, the eternal shame 
 Of Cecrops' house for vengeance too severe 
 On barbarous lusts of kings.* 
 
 Swains of sleek flocks on the young grass reclined, 
 Chant pastoral songs attuned to piping reeds, 
 Charming the god who loves the darksome slopes 
 And folds of Arcady ; 
 
 These, O my Virgil, are the days of thirst ; 
 But if, O client of illustrious youths, 
 Calenian juices tempt, bring thou the nard, 
 And with it earn my wine ; 
 
 One tiny box of spikenard will draw forth 
 The cask now ripening in Sulpician t vaults, — . 
 Cask large enough to hold a world of hope, 
 And drown a world of care. 
 
 Quick ! if such merriments delight thee, come 
 With thine own contributions to the feast ; 
 Not like rich host in prodigal halls — my cups 
 Thou shalt not tinge scot-free. 
 
 But put aside delays and care of gain. 
 Warned, while yet time, by the dark death-fires ; mix 
 With thought brief thoughtlessness ; to be unwise 
 In time and place is sweet. 
 
 * '* Quod male barbaras, 
 Regum est ulta libidines." 
 Most authorities, Orelli amongst them, take "male" with "ulta" — 
 viz., that the bird, whether Philomela or Procne, avenged too cruelly 
 (nimis atrociter) the guilt of Tereus. I have translated accordingly, 
 but am by no means sure that "male" should not be taken, as 
 Macleane suggests, with "barbaras" — viz., the too barbarous, or evilly 
 barbarous, lusts of kings. The bird is the eternal reproach to the house 
 of Cecrops, not on account of the severity of her vengeance, but on ac- 
 
BOOK IV.— ODE XII. 397 
 
 Nidum ponit, Ityn flebiliter gemens, 
 Infelix avis et Cecropiae domus 
 Sternum opprobrium, quod male barbaras 
 Regum est ulta libidines.* 
 
 Dicunt in tenero gramine pinguium 
 Custodes ovium carmina fistula, 
 Delectantque deum, cui pecus et nigri 
 Colles Arcadise placent. 
 
 Adduxere sitim tempora, Virgili ; 
 Sed pressum Calibus ducere Liberum 
 Si gestis, juvenum nobilium cliens, 
 Nardo vina merebere. 
 
 Nardi parvus onyx eliciet cadum, 
 Qui nunc Sulpiciis accubat horreis,'^ 
 Spes donare novas largus, amaraque 
 Curarum eluere efficax. 
 
 Ad quae si properas gudia, cum tua 
 Velox merce veni : non ego te meis 
 Immunem meditor tingere poculis, 
 Plena dives ut in domo. 
 
 Verum pone moras et studium lucri, 
 Nigrorumque memor, dum licet, ignium, 
 Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem : 
 Dulce est desipere in loco. 
 
 count of the atrocity of the crimes she avenged. Most commentators of 
 authority agree that the bird here meant is the swallow, not nightin- 
 gale. Ritter understands by "flebiliter" the swallow's inarticulate twitter, 
 t ** Sulpiciis horreis." The Sulpician wine-vaults were famous, and 
 the scholiast Porphyrion says they were still the great magazines for 
 wine and oil in his day, under the name of the Galban cellars. Ritter 
 considers that Orelli is mistaken in supposing that Horace intimates 
 that he will buy the wine there ; and maintains that he refers to his own 
 cask, which had been warehoused in the Sulpician magazine. 
 
398 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XIII. 
 
 TO LYCE, A FADED BEAUTY. 
 
 No subject of inquiry can be less interesting to a critic of 
 good sense than that on which so many learned disputants 
 have wasted their time — viz., who among the ladies cele- 
 brated by Horace were real persons or imaginary ; and who 
 are to be admitted into or rejected from the genuine cata- 
 logue of his loves? We have absolutely no data to go 
 upon. There is no reason, except that he chooses to apply 
 the same name to both, to suppose that the Lyce over whose 
 ruined charms he now exults was the Lyce of whose cruelty 
 he complains, Lib. III. Od. x. ; nay, I believe that most 
 recent scholars are pretty well agreed that the ode last 
 mentioned was an artistic exercise, imitated from the Greek 
 
 serenades. 
 
 They have heard my prayers, Lyce, the gods ; 
 The gods have heard, Lyce ; thou'rt old, 
 Yet still, setting up for a beauty. 
 
 Thou wouldst tipple and frisk with the young ; 
 
 Courting, maudlin, with tremulous chant. 
 Laggard Cupid : he's absent on guard 
 
 O'er the bloom on the cheeks of young Chia, 
 Whose lute is more sweet than thy song.* 
 
 For he roosts not on oaks without sap ; 
 Hollow teeth and dry wrinkles he flies. 
 
 He is chilled by the snow of grey tresses. 
 And thus has retreated from thee. 
 
 * There is an opposition between Lyce's tremulous quaver, "cantu 
 tremulo," and Chia's musical skill, " doctse psallere," which can only, 
 perhaps, be made clear by some slight paraphrase, as is attempted in the 
 last line of the stanza, in translation. 
 
BOOK IV. — ODE XIII. 399 
 
 serenades. But, so far as mere conjecture from internal 
 evidence may be allowed, the present ode seems to have 
 in it a tone of earnestness which warrants a belief that the 
 Lyce addressed was a real person. In the three conclud- 
 ing stanzas, the bitterness of sarcasm is tinged with a certain 
 melancholy pathos which appears to indicate the memory 
 of a former passion ; and the direct reference to Cinara — 
 to whom all interpreters agree in considering Horace was 
 attached (whether or not he celebrates her under names of 
 the same metrical quantity, Lalage, Glycera, &c.) — gives a 
 peculiar air of individual truthfulness to the poem. Be this 
 as it may, the ode is remarkable for its eternal applicability 
 to a type in fejnale character, and is replete with beauties 
 of expression. The image in the last stanza is extremely 
 striking. The simile is so simple that one might fancy it 
 would have occurred to any poet, yet it is so expressed as 
 to be quite original. 
 
 Carm. XIII. 
 
 Audivere, Lyce, di mea vota, di 
 Audivere, Lyce ; fis anus, et tamen 
 Vis formosa videri, 
 
 Ludisque et bibis impudens, 
 
 Et cantu tremulo pota Cupidinem 
 Lentum sollicitas. Ille virentis et 
 Doctae psallere Chiae 
 
 Pulchris excubat in genis.* 
 
 Importunus enim transvolat aridas 
 Quercus, et refugit te, quia luridi 
 Dentes, te quia rugae 
 Turpant et capitis nives. 
 
400 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Sparkling gems, and the purples of Cos,* 
 Cannot back to thee bring the dead years 
 Rapid Time has interred in our annals, 
 For all men to number their graves.t 
 
 Whither fled is the beauty ? alas ! 
 Where the bloom ? where the movement of grace ? 
 Of that— O of that— what is left thee, 
 
 Breathing loves, which stole me from myself, 
 
 Blest successor to Cinara thou. 
 Gracious form, J for arts pleasing renowned ? 
 But to Cinara few years were conceded. 
 By the Fates who have Lyce preserved 
 
 To be rival in age to the crow, 
 That the young, glowing yet, may behold. 
 As a subject of mirth, in those ashes 
 The fallen remains of a torch. 
 
 * Horace speaks of the robes from Cos in Sat. I. ii. line lOO, as so 
 transparent that they left nothing to conceal. 
 
 t * ' Tempora, quce semel 
 Notis condita fastis - 
 
 Inclusit volucris dies." 
 "Horace means to say that the days she has seen are all buried, as it 
 were, in the grave of the public annals (as Acron says), and there any 
 one may find them, but she cannot get them back. It is a graphic way 
 of identifying the years, and marking their decease, to point to the 
 record in which each is distinguished by its consuls and its leading 
 events. ' Notis ' merely expresses the publicity and notoriety of the 
 record by which the lapse of time is marked." — Macleane. 
 X "Notaque et artium 
 GrataiTim facies?" 
 " 'Facies' does not mean the face alone, but the whole form and 
 presence. 'Facies autem totam corporis speciem significat.'" — DiL- 
 LENBURGER. See, too, Orelli's note. 
 
BOOK IV.— ODE XIII. 401 
 
 Nec Co^ refemnt jam tibi purpuras,* 
 Nee clari lapides tempora, quae semel 
 Notis condita fastis 
 Inclusit volucris dies.t 
 
 Quo fugit Venus ? heu, quove color ? decens 
 Quo motus ? (juid habes illius, illius, 
 Quae spirabat Amores, 
 Quae me surpuerat mihi, 
 
 Felix post Cinaram, notaque et artium 
 Gratarum facies ? J Sed Cinarae breves 
 Annos fata dederunt, 
 Servatura diu parem 
 
 Comicis vetulae temporibus Lycen ; 
 Possent ut juvenes visere fervidi, 
 Multo non sine risu, 
 
 Dilapsam in cineres facem. 
 
 2 c 
 
402 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XIV. 
 
 TO AUGUSTUS, AFTER THE VICTORIES OF TIBERIUS. 
 
 The introduction to Ode iv. in this book has, sufficiently 
 for the purpose, sketched the outline of the events which led 
 to the composition of this ode. As the former was devoted 
 
 to 
 
 By what care can the Senate of Rome, and Rome's people. 
 With a largess of honours sufficiently ample, 
 By what titles, what archives to time. 
 Eternise thy virtues, Augustus, 
 
 Prince supremest, wherever the sun lights a region 
 That man can inhabit ? What in war thou availest, 
 The Vindelici lately have learned. 
 
 Free till then from the law of the Roman. 
 
 By no even exchange in the barter of bloodshed,'^ 
 Drusus, leading thy hosts, overthrew the fleet Breuni — 
 The Genauni — implacable race — 
 And the citadels piled upon Alps 
 
 Horror-breathing ; then Nero the elder completed 
 Glories due to thine auspice in one crowning battle ; 
 Closed the raid of the savage, and crushed 
 The grim might of the giant-like Rseti. 
 
 All conspicuous he rode where the fight raged the fiercest. 
 Wasting down, to what wrecks ! that array of stern bosoms, 
 Self-surrendered as offerings to death, 
 In the stubborn devotion to freedom. 
 
 Through the foe went his way, as the blast o'er the billows 
 When the Pleiads are cleaving the rain-clouds asunder, 
 
 * ** Plus vice simplici." This does not mean "more than once," but, 
 as the scholiasts interpret, "with double loss to the enemy;" or lite- 
 
. BOOK IV.— ODE XIV. ' ;403 
 
 to the praises of Dmsus, so the latter commemorates the sub- 
 sequent and completing conquests of Tiberius, and refers all 
 to the honour of Augustus in the establishment of his empire, 
 and the consummation of his fortunes and his glory. 
 
 Carm. XIV. 
 
 Quae cura Patrum, quseve Quiritium, 
 Plenis honorum muneribus tuas, 
 Auguste, virtutes in aevum 
 
 Per titulos memoresque fastos 
 
 ^^ternet, O, qua sol habitabiles 
 lUustrat oras, maxime principum ? 
 Quem legis expertes Latinae, 
 Vindelici didicere nuper, 
 
 Quid Marte posses. Milite nam tuo 
 Drusus Genaunos, implacidum genus, 
 Breunosque veloces, et arces 
 Alpibus impositas tremendis, - 
 
 Dejecit acer plus vice simplici ;* 
 , Major Neronum mox grave proelium 
 Commisit, immanesque Raetos 
 Auspiciis pepulit secundis : 
 
 Spectandus in certamine Martio, 
 Devota morti pectora liberae 
 Quantis fatigaret minis ; 
 
 Indomitas prope qualis undas 
 
 Exercet Auster, Pleiadum choro 
 
 Scindente nubes, impiger hostium , 
 
 rally, as Macleane renders it, ' ' with more than an even exchange ' 
 i.e., of blood. „ . . . . ... ^. 
 
404 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 And the snort of his war-horse was heard 
 In the midst of the Hghtnings of battle.* 
 
 As when Aufidus, laving the kingdoms of Daunus, 
 Bursts in wrath, and in form of the wild bull,t his borders, 
 And prepares the dread deluge he drives 
 
 O'er the fields that are rife with the harvest, — 
 
 So in storm, through that barbarous array swept the Nero, 
 Mowing, foremost to hindmost, ranks serried in iron. 
 Till a victor he stood, without loss, 
 
 On a ground that was strewn with the foemen ; 
 
 But he owed to thyself the resources, the counsels, 
 And the gods. From the day that her gates and void palace. 
 Suppliant Egypt threw open to thee. 
 
 Had thy reign reached its third happy lustre. 
 
 When, in crowning thy wish and completing thy glory. 
 Fortune ended the wars which her favour had prospered, J 
 And established in triumph the peace 
 Of a world underneath thy dominion. 
 
 Thee the dauntless Cantabrian, before never conquered ; 
 Thee the Mede and the Indian, and Scyth, the wild Nomad, 
 Mark in wonder and awe, guardian shield 
 Of Italia, and Rome the earth's mistress. 
 
 Thee the Nile, unrevealing the source of its waters ; 
 Thee the Danube ; and thee the swift rush of the Tigris ; 
 
 * " Medios per ignes" — i.e., "per medium ardorem belli" (COM, 
 Cruq.) 
 
 + ** Tauriformis Aufidus;" literally, "tauriform" or "bull-formed 
 Aufidus." The image is applied to many rivers by the Greek and 
 Latin poets. Macleane suggests that the branches of so many large 
 streams at the mouths of rivers might have suggested the idea of the 
 horns ; but it seems to me that the comparison to the bull in general 
 applies to the blind and senseless violence of the animal, who runs on 
 
BOOK IV.— ODE XIV. 405 
 
 Vexare turmas, et frementem 
 
 Mittere equum medios per ignes.* 
 
 Sic tauriformis volvitur Aiifidus,t 
 Qui regna Dauni praefluit Apuli, 
 Cum saevit, horrendamque cultis 
 Diluviem meditatur agris, 
 
 Ut barbarorum Claudius agmina 
 Ferrata vasto diruit impetu, 
 
 Primosque et extremes metendo 
 Stravit humum, sine clade victor, 
 
 Te copias, te consilium et tuos 
 Praebente divos. Nam tibi, quo die 
 Portus Alexandrea supplex 
 Et vacuam patefecit aulam, 
 
 Fortuna lustro prospera tertio 
 Belli secundos reddidit exitus, t 
 Laudemque et optatum peractis 
 Imperils decus arrogavit. 
 
 Te Cantaber non ante domabilis, 
 Medusque, et Indus, te profugus Scythes 
 Miratur, O tutela praesens 
 Italiae dominaeque Romae : 
 
 Te, fontium qui celat origines 
 Nilusque et Ister, te rapidus Tigris, 
 
 indiscriminately, trampling and destroying everything in his way — ^just 
 as the inundation of a torrent does. 
 
 t Horace, here addressing Augustus, ascribes it to him as his crown- 
 ing victory that he has at last got the wish of his heart, which was 
 peace — the peace of the world, subjected to the Roman Empire. The 
 victory of Tiberius was on the fifteenth anniversary of the day on which 
 Augustus entered Alexandria, and, thus terminating the civil war, be- 
 came supreme. 
 
406 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Thee the monster-fraught ocean, which roars 
 Round the birthplace remote of the Briton ; 
 
 Thee fierce Gallia, the land for which death has no terror, 
 Thee Iberia, the stubborn, hear hushed and submissive ; 
 The Sygambri, exulting in gore. 
 
 With meek arms piled in trophy, adore thee. 
 
'BOOK IV. — ODE XIV. 407 
 
 Te beluosus qui remotis 
 
 Obstrepit Oceanus Britannis ; 
 
 Te non paventis funera Galliae ' 
 
 Durseque tellus audit Hiberiae ; . . , 
 
 Te csede gaudentes Sygambri 
 Compositis venerantur armis. 
 
40S THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XV. 
 
 TO AUGUSTUS ON THE RESTORATION OF PEACE. 
 
 This ode is the appropriate epilogue to the Fourth Book, 
 of which the poems that celebrate the Roman victories under 
 Drusus and Tiberius consitute the noblest portion. If it be 
 true that the book was published on account of these odes, 
 and at the desire of Augustus, Horace would naturally con- 
 clude by a special reference to the beneficial issues of the 
 wars undertaken by Augustus, and from the final completion 
 of which in Gaul, Germany, and Spain, he had just returned 
 to Rome. Horace here begins by saying, that when he 
 
 wished 
 
 Of wars and vanquished cities when I longed 
 To sing, Apollo checked me with his lyre, 
 Lest I launched sails so slight 
 
 Into so vast a deep. Caesar, thy reign 
 
 Has given back golden harvests to our fields ; 
 Our standards, torn from Parthia's haughty walls, 
 Restored to Roman Jove ; 
 
 Closed gates of Janus, vacant of a war j 
 
 To righteous order rampant licence curbed. 
 Thrust from the state the vices ^ which defiled. 
 And, in their stead, recalled 
 
 The ancient virtues to their fatherland, t — 
 
 * * ' Emovitque culpas. " This refers to the moral reforms undertaken 
 by Augustus, such as the Julian law, '*de adulteriis et de pudicitla." 
 
 + " ' Veteres artes.' ' Artes' here means 'virtues,' as in Book HI. 
 Od. iii. ' Hac arte' {aperrj), as prudence, fortitude, justice, temperance." 
 — ACRON. 
 
BOOK IV.— ODE XV. 4O9 
 
 wished to sing of those wars, Phoebus checked him. But 
 Phoebus does not forbid him to sing the triumphs of peace ; 
 and, with a Hvely lyrical abruptness, he therefore at once 
 bursts forth : — 
 
 "Tua, Csesar, aetas 
 Fruges et agris retulit uberes," &c. 
 
 That the poem was composed immediately after the return 
 of Cassar, and in connection with Odes iv. and xiv., is, I 
 think, made clear by its own internal evidence. War is 
 finished, and Augustus is celebrated as the triumphant 
 establisher of law and order, and the author of the na- 
 tional prosperity, and the improvements, social and moral, 
 which result from the security to life and property bestowied 
 by a government at once firm and beneficent. He is here 
 the descendant, not of Mars and Ilia, but of Anchises and 
 Venus the gentle. 
 
 Carm. XV. 
 
 Phoebus volentem proelia me loqui 
 Victas et urbes, increpuit lyra ; 
 Ne parva Tyrrhenum per aequor 
 Vela darem. Tua, Caesar, aetas 
 
 Fruges et agris retulit uberes, 
 Et signa nostro restituit Jovi, 
 Derepta Parthorum superbis 
 Postibus, et vacuum duellis 
 
 Janum Quirini clausit, et ordinem 
 Rectum evaganti frena Licentiae 
 Injecit, emovitque culpas,* 
 Et veteres revocavit artes,t 
 
4ICX THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Virtues from which have grown the Roman name, 
 '■ ItaHa's might, fame, and majestic sway, 
 :; To the Sun's Orient rise. 
 
 From his calm bed in our Hesperian seas. 
 
 Caesar our guardian, neither civil rage *^ 
 Nor felon violence scares us from repose. 
 Nor ire which sharpens swords. 
 And makes the wars of nations and their woes. 
 
 Neither the drinkers of deep Danube break 
 The Julian Laws, nor Scyths, nor Seres fierce. 
 Nor Persia's faithless sons, 
 
 Nor wild men cradled on the banks of Don. 
 
 So, with each sacred, with each common day 
 (Prayer, as is due, first rendered to the gods), 
 'Mid blithesome Liber's boons. 
 
 Gathering our women and our children round, 
 
 Let us, as did our fathers in old time. 
 Honour with hymns and Lydian fife brave chiefs : 
 Sing Troy ; Anchises sing ; 
 
 Sing of the race from gentle Venus sprung. 
 
 * " Noil furor 
 Civilis aut vis exiget otium, 
 Non ira, quae procudit enses, 
 Et miseras inimicat urbes. " 
 Three causes of fear are removed : ** Furor civilis," "civil war 
 "personal violence ;" "ira," " foreign wars. " 
 
BOOK IV.— ODE XV. 411 
 
 Per quas Latinum nomen et Italae 
 Crevere vires, famaque et imperi 
 Porrecta majestas ad ortus 
 Solis ab Hesperio cubili. 
 
 Custode rerum C^sare, non furor 
 Civilis aut vis exiget otium, 
 Non ira, quae procudit enses, 
 Et miseras inimicat urbes. "' 
 
 Non, qui profundum Danubium bibunt, 
 Edicta rumpent Julia, non Getae, 
 Non Seres, infidive Persae, 
 
 Non Tanain prope flumen orti. 
 
 Nosque et profestis lucibus et sacris, 
 Inter jocosi munera Liberi, 
 
 Cum prole matronisque nostris. 
 Rite deos prius apprecati, 
 
 Virtute functos, more patrum, duces, 
 Lydis remixto carmine tibiis, 
 Trojamque et Anchisen et almae 
 Progeniem Veneris canemus. 
 
THE EPODES 
 
414 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Orelli, Dillenburger, and Macleane concur in accepting 
 Franke's date for the publication of the book of Epodes — 
 viz., A.u.c. 724, when Horace was thirty-five years old. The 
 poems contained in the book appear to have been written 
 between 713 and the date at which they were pubhshed; 
 and, no doubt, many of them were known to Horace's 
 friends before publication. It is to these Epodes that 
 Horace refers in the boast, Epist. i. 19-23, that " He first 
 introduced the Parian iambics, following the numbers and 
 the spirit of Archilochus" (of Paros). Their title of Epode 
 was not given to them (any more than that of Ode was given 
 to the poems classed under that name) by Horace himself. 
 Such designations are the inventions of some long-subse- 
 quent grammarian. 
 
 These poems are not lyrical in point of form, though they 
 are occasionally so in point of spirit — especially, I think, 
 the 13th Epode. They serve as an intermediate link between 
 Horace's Odes and his earlier Satires. 
 
 The first ten Epodes are all in the same metre — alternate 
 trimeter and dimeter iambics ; they admit spondees only in 
 the uneven places, and there is but one instance (ii. 35) in 
 which an anapaest is admitted. 
 
 In the translation, the metre selected for the more im- 
 
INTRODUCTION. , 415. 
 
 portant of these Epodes has been employed in the version 
 of a few of the graver odes — viz., the ordinary form of 
 blank verse converted into a couplet by alternate termina- 
 tions in a dissyllable and monosyllable. 
 
 In the lighter of these first ten Epodes — viz., Ep. vi. x. — I 
 have thought that the variation of a more easy and rapid 
 measure was necessary to represent the lively spirit of the 
 Latin. 
 
41 6 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 EPODE I. 
 
 TOM^CENAS, 
 
 This epode is generally supposed to have been composed 
 when Augustus had summoned the leading public men, 
 whether senators or equites, to meet him at Brundusium 
 prior to the expedition against Antony and Cleopatra which 
 resulted in the battle of Actium, a.u.c. 723. The poem war- 
 rants the assumption that Maecenas had been then appointed 
 to, or offered, a naval command; but it seems (Dio. 51, 3, 
 and Seneca, Ep. 114, 6) that Augustus decided on retaining 
 
 him 
 
 So thou wilt go with thy Libumian galleys. 
 
 Amongst, O friend, those giant floating towers ; 
 Prepared to share all perils braved by Caesar, 
 
 And ward them off, Maecenas, by thine own. 
 But what of us, to whom, while thou survivest, 
 
 Life is a joy ; — thee lost, a weary load? 
 Shall we, as bidden, take our ease contented ? 
 
 Ease has no sweetness if not shared with thee ; 
 Or shall we bear our part in thy great labour 
 
 As fitting men of no unmanly mould ? 
 Yes, we would bear ; and thee o'er Alpine summits, 
 
 Or through the wastes of guestless Caucasus, 
 Or where the last pale rim of the horizon 
 
 Fades on the farthest waters of the west, 
 Follow with soul undaunted. Dost thou ask me 
 
 How, weak in body, and unskilled in war, 
 My toil could lighten thine ? I should be present 
 
 With terrors less than those the absent know ; 
 Even as the bird more dreads for her young nestlings, 
 
 If for a moment left, the gliding snake ; 
 
EPODE I. 417 
 
 him at home to watch over the affairs of Italy, and maintain 
 order at Rome. Mr Dyer, in the ^ Classical Museum/ vol. ii. 
 p. 199, and subsequently in Smith's 'Biographical Diction- 
 ary' (art. " Maecenas"), contends that the poem refers to the 
 Sicilian expedition against Sextus Pompeius, a.u.c. 718. 
 Macleane objects to this supposition — "that the language 
 of affection is too strong for the short acquaintance which 
 Horace had then enjoyed with Maecenas, and that there is 
 evidence in the poem itself of the Sabine farm having come 
 into Horace's possession when he wrote it; but that this 
 did not occur till after the publication of the First Book of 
 Satires is certain, and it is generally referred to a.u.c. 720." 
 
 Carm. I. 
 
 Ibis Liburnis inter alta navium. 
 
 Amice, propugnacula, 
 Paratus omne Caesaris periculum 
 
 Subire, Maecenas, tuo. 
 Quid nos, quibus te vita si superstite 
 
 Jucunda, si contra, gravis ? 
 Utrumne jussi persequemur otium, 
 
 Non dulce, ni tecum simul, 
 An hunc laborem mente laturi, decet 
 
 Qua ferre non molles viros ? 
 Feremus ; et te vel per Alpium juga 
 
 Inhospitalem et Caucasum, 
 Vel Occidentis usque ad ultimum sinum 
 
 Forti sequemur pectore. 
 Roges, tuum labore quid juvem meo, 
 
 Imbellis ac firmus parum ? 
 Comes minore sum futurus in metu, 
 
 Qui major absentes habet; 
 Ut assidens implumibus puUis avis 
 
 Serpentium allapsus timet 
 2 D 
 
4l8 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Not that her presence could avail for succour, 
 
 Albeit she felt them underneath her wing. 
 Gladly in this or any war a soldier 
 
 Would I enlist, for hope of thy dear grace ; 
 Not that, attached by ampler teams of oxen. 
 
 My ploughs may struggle through the stubborn glebe- 
 Not that my flocks should, ere the dog-star parcheth. 
 
 Change hot Calabria for Lucanian slopes * — 
 Not that for me some villa's pomp of marble 
 
 Should shine down white upon luxuriant vales, 
 Touching the walls with which the son of Circe t 
 
 Girded enchanted land in Tusculum. 
 Enough, and more than I can need, for riches, 
 
 Thanks to thy bounty, is already mine ; 
 I am no Chremes, hoarding gold to bury J — 
 
 No loose-robed spendthrift lusting gold to waste. 
 
 * The wealthy proprietors sent their flocks in summer from the hot 
 Calabrian plains to the wooded hills of Lucania. 
 
 + Telegonus, son of Circe by Ulysses, said to have founded ancient 
 Tusculum on the summit of the hill, the slope of which is occupied by 
 the modern Frascati, and to have there introduced the magic arts of his 
 mother. The lines in the original are slightly paraphrased in the trans- 
 lation, in order not to lose to the English reader the poetic idea associ- 
 ating Tusculum with legendary enchantment, which the words " Circaea 
 mcenia" would have conveyed to the Latin. 
 
 J " ' Chremes.' The allusion is, perhaps, to a character in some play 
 of Menander."— Macleane. 
 
EPODE I. 419 
 
 Magis relictis ; non, ut adsit, auxili 
 
 Latura plus praesentibus. 
 Libenter hoc et omne militabitur 
 
 Bellum in tuae spem gratiae : 
 Non ut juvencis illigata pluribus 
 
 Aratra nitantur mea ; 
 Pecusve Calabris ante sidus fervidum 
 
 Lucana mutet pascuis ; * 
 Neque ut superni villa candens Tusculi 
 
 Circaea tangat moenia.t 
 Satis superque me benignitas tua 
 
 Ditavit : haud paravero, 
 Quod aut avarus ut Chremes terra premam,J 
 
 Discinctus aut perdam nepos. 
 
420 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 EPODE II. 
 
 ALFIUS. — THE CHARMS OF RURAL LIFE. 
 
 This poem, in which a glowing description of country 
 life and its innocent attractions is placed in the mouth of 
 the rich usurer Alfius, is one of the happiest examples of 
 Horace's power of polished and latent irony. Macleane 
 thinks that the poem was originally written in praise of 
 rural life, and that the last lines were added to give the rest 
 a moral. "At any rate," he says, "the greater part of the 
 speech must be admitted to be rather out of keeping with 
 the supposed speaker." This alleged want of keeping does 
 not strike me, nor do I believe that the last lines were " an 
 afterthought." The idea is in complete harmony with the 
 substance of Satire i. Book I., in which Horace says that the 
 
 miser 
 
 " Blessed is he — remote, as were the mortals 
 
 Of the first age, from business and its cares — 
 Who ploughs paternal fields with his own oxen 
 
 Free from the bonds of credit or of debt. '^ 
 No soldier he, roused by the savage trumpet. 
 
 Not his to shudder at the angry sea ; t 
 His life escapes from the contentious forum. 
 
 And shuns the insolent thresholds of the great. 
 And so he marries to the amorous tendrils 
 
 Of the young vine the poplar's lofty stem ; 
 
 * *'Solutus omni fenore" — "who neither lends nor borrows upon 
 usury : " so Torrentius and OrelH. Macleane says the words would 
 equally suit any other person besides a city usurer, and would mean 
 that in the country he would not be subject to the calls of creditors, and 
 need not get into debt. This interpretation is perhaps too loosely 
 hazarded. An illustrious Horatian critic, to whom the translator is 
 largely indebted, observes that '*solutus" evidently refers to usurious 
 
EPODE II. 421 
 
 miser is never contented with his own lot, but rather extols 
 
 those who follow opposite pursuits : — 
 
 ** Nemo ut avarus 
 Se probet, ac potius laudet diversa sequentes ; " 
 
 but that nevertheless the nature of the man returns to him ; 
 and if you offered to let him exchange with the person he 
 envies, and so be happy, he would not accept the offer. The 
 same idea is expressed more briefly, Book I. Ode i. lines 
 15, 35 — "The merchant, terrified by the storms, lauds the 
 ease of the country, but very soon refits his battered ves- 
 sels." That a rich money-lender might at some moment feel 
 and express very glowingly an enthusiasm for country life 
 is natural enough ; we have instances of that every day. No 
 one praises or covets a country life more than a rich Jew or 
 contractor. We do not know the occasion which may have 
 suggested the poem ; but nothing is more likely than that 
 there was a report that the famous usurer was about to buy 
 a country place and retire from business ; and on the strength 
 of that rumour Horace wrote the poem. 
 
 Carm. II. 
 
 ' Beatus ille, qui procul negotiis, 
 
 Ut prisca gens mortalium, . 
 Paterna rura bobus exercet suis, 
 
 Solutus omni fenore,"^ 
 Neque excitatur classico miles truci, 
 
 Neque horret iratum mare,t 
 Forumque vitat et superba civium 
 
 Potentiorum limina. 
 Ergo aut adulta vitium propamine 
 
 Altas maritat populos, 
 
 bonds, and is so employed in the Satires ; and suggests, as a more literal 
 translation, " Unshackled by the bonds of usury." 
 
 t " Nee horret iratum mare." This does not apply to the sailor, but 
 to the trader or merchant — '*nec mercaturam exercet." — Orelli. 
 
422 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Or marks from far the lowing herds that wander 
 
 Leisurely down the calm secluded vale ; 
 Or, pruning with keen knife the useless branches, 
 
 Grafts happier offspring on the parent tree ; 
 Or in pure jars he stores the clear-prest honey ; 
 
 Or shears the fleeces of his tender sheep ; * 
 Or, when brown Autumn from the fields uplifteth 
 
 Brows with ripe coronal of fruits adorned. 
 What joy to pluck the pear himself hath grafted. 
 
 And his own grape, that with the purple vies, 
 Wherewith he pays thee, rural god Priapus, 
 
 And, landmark-guardian. Sire Silvanus, thee : t 
 Free to recline, now under aged ilex, 
 
 Now in frank sunshine on the matted grass, 
 While through the steep banks slip the gliding waters. 
 
 And birds are plaintive in the forest glens, 
 And limpid fountains, with a drowsy tinkle, 
 
 Invite the light wings of the noonday sleep. 
 
 " But when the season of the storm, rude winter, 
 
 Gathers together all its rains and snows. 
 Or here and there, into the toils before them. 
 
 With many a hound he drives the savage boars ; 
 'Or with fine net, on forked stake suspended, 
 
 Spreads for voracious thrushes fraudful snare. 
 And — ^joyful prizes — captures in his springes 
 
 The shy hare and that foreigner the crane. 
 yVho would not find in these pursuits oblivion 
 
 Of all the baleful cares which wait on love ? 
 Yet, if indeed he boasts an honest helpmate, 
 
 Who, like the Sabine wife or sunburnt spouse 
 
 * **Aut tondet infirmas oves." Baxter strangely interprets "in- 
 firmas" as "sickly" (aegrotas) ; Orelli as "feeble" (imbecillas). Voss 
 translates it "zarter," and so far agrees with Macleane, who considers 
 it a purely ornamental expression. 
 
EPODE II. 423 
 
 Aut in reducta valle mugientium 
 
 Prospectat errantes greges ; 
 Inutilesque fake ramos amputans 
 
 Feliciores inserit; 
 Aut pressa puris fnella condit amphoris ; 
 
 Aut tondet infirmas oves ; ^ 
 Vel, cum decorum mitibus pomis caput 
 
 Auctumnus agris extulit, 
 Ut gaudet insitiva decerpens pira, 
 
 Certantem et uvam purpurse, 
 Qua muneretur te, Priape, et te, pater 
 
 Silvan e, tutor finium ! t 
 Libet jacere, modo sub antiqua ilice, 
 
 Modo in tenaci gramine. 
 Labuntur altis interim ripis aquas, 
 
 Queruntur in silvis aves, 
 Fontesque lymphis obstrepunt manantibus, 
 
 Somnos quod invitet leves. 
 At cum Tonantis annus hibernus Jovis 
 
 Imbres nivesque comparat, 
 Aut trudit acres hinc et hinc multa cane 
 
 Apros in obstantes plagas ; 
 Aut amite levi rara tendit retia, 
 
 Turdis edacibus dolos ; ^ 
 
 Pavidumque leporem et advenam laqueo gruem 
 
 Jucunda captat praemia. 
 Quis non malarum, quas amor curas habet, 
 
 Hsec inter obliviscitur ? 
 Quod si pudica mulier in partem juvet 
 
 Domum atque dulces liberos, 
 
 + ** Pater Silvane, tutor finium." Silvanus, whose more usual 
 attribute is the care of corn-fields and cattle, is here made to un- 
 dertake the protection of boundaries, which properly belonged to 
 Terminus. 
 
424 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Of brisk Apulian, in the cares of household 
 
 And of sweet children bears her joyous part ; 
 Who on the sacred hearth the oldest fagots 
 
 Piles 'gainst the coming of her wearied lord ; 
 And in the wattled close the milch-kine penning, 
 
 Drains the distended udders of their load ; 
 From the sweet cask draws forth the year's new vintage, 
 
 And spreads the luxuries of an unbought feast ; 
 Such fare would charm me more than rarest dainties — 
 
 Than delicate oyster of the Lucrine lake, 
 Or (if from eastern floods loud-booming winter 
 
 Drive to our seas) the turbot or the scar. 
 Not softer sinks adown the grateful palate 
 
 The Nubian pullet or the Ionian snipe, ''^ 
 Than olives chosen where they hang the thickest ; 
 
 Or sorrel, lusty lover of green fields ; 
 Or mallows, wholesome for the laden body. 
 
 Or lambkin slain on Terminus' high feast, 
 Or kidling rescued from the wolfs fierce hunger. 
 
 How sweet, amid such feasts, to view the sheep 
 Flock blithe from field to fold, see the tired oxen 
 
 With languid neck draw back the inverted share, 
 And home-born t labourers round the shining Lares 
 
 Gathered — the faithful swarm of the rich hive !" 
 Thus said the usurer Alfius, and all moneys 
 
 Lent till the mid-month at that date calls in, 
 And, hot for rural pleasures, that day fortnight 
 
 Our would-be farmer — lends them out again.J 
 
 * "Afra avis" — "attagen lonicus." What bird is meant by the 
 ** Afra avis" is a matter of uncertainty. Yonge says it is the guinea- 
 fowl — Macleane inclines to the same opinion ; but we know little more 
 of it than that it was speckled. The *' attagen " is variously interpreted 
 woodcock, snipe, and, more commonly, moorfowl. The Ionian snipe 
 is to this day so incomparably the best of the snipe race, that I venture 
 to think it is the veritable "attagen lonicus." 
 
 f "Positosque vemas, ditis examen domus." This is a picture of 
 the primitive rustic life, in which the labourers, familiarly with the master, 
 
EPODE II. 425 
 
 Sabina quails, aut pemsta solibus 
 
 Pernicis uxor Apuli, 
 Sacrum vetustis exstruat lignis focum 
 
 Lassi sub adventum viri ; 
 Claudensque textis cratibus laetum pecus 
 
 Distenta siccet ubera ; 
 Et horna dulci vina promens dolio 
 
 Dapes inemptas apparet : 
 Non me Lucrina juverint conchylia, 
 
 Magisve rhombus, aut scari, 
 Si quos Eois intonata fluctibus 
 
 Hiems ad hoc vertat mare ; 
 Non Afra avis descendat in ventrem meum, 
 
 Non attagen lonicus * 
 Jucundior, quam lecta de pinguissimis 
 
 Oliva ramis arborum, 
 Aut herba lapathi ,prata amantis, et gravi 
 
 Malvas salubres corpori, 
 Vel agna festis caesa Terminalibus, 
 
 Vel ha^dus ereptus lupo. 
 Has inter epulas, ut juvat pastas oves 
 
 Videre properantes domum, 
 Videre fessos vomerem inversum boves 
 
 Collo trahentes languido, 
 Positosque vernas, ditis examen domus,t 
 ^^ Circum renidentes Lares ! ' 
 Haec \ibi locutus fenerator Alfius, 
 
 Jam jam fu turns rusticus, 
 Omnem redegit Idibus pecuniam, — 
 
 Quaerit Kalendis ponere. J 
 
 gathered at supper round the Lares. — Colum. xi. 1,19. " The home- 
 bom slaves cluster round the master, as the bees round the queen-bee." 
 — RiTTER. 
 
 J ** Omnem redegit Idibus pecuniam, — 
 Quaerit Kalendis ponere." 
 The ides, nones, and kalends were the settling days of Rome. 
 
426 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 EPODE III. 
 
 TO M^CENAS IN EXECRATION OF GARLIC. 
 
 Horace appears to have been tempted to eat, when dining 
 with Maecenas, some dish over-seasoned with garHc, miaware 
 of the prevalence of that ingredient, or unprescient of its 
 effects. Some commentators, whom Dillenburger follows, 
 suppose this to have been a kind of compound salad called 
 " moretum," in which cheese, oil, milk, and wine contributed 
 their motley aid to the garlic. This, however, was a primi- 
 tive rustic comestible not likely to have been found at the 
 table of Maecenas. Whatever the dish might have been, 
 Horace seems to have considered the recommendation of 
 
 it 
 If e'er a parricide with hand accursed 
 
 Hath cut a father's venerable throat, 
 Hemlock's too mild a poison — give him garlic ; 
 
 O the strong stomachs of your country clowns ! 
 What deadly drug is raging in my vitals ? 
 
 Was viper's venom in those fraudful herbs ? 
 Or was Canidia, armed with all her poisons, 
 
 The awful cook of that infernal feast ? 
 Surely Medea, wonderstruck with Jason, 
 
 As of all Argonauts the comeliest chief,''" 
 Smeared him with this soul-sickening preparation, 
 AVhich quelled the bulls to the unwonted yoke. 
 In this she steeped her present to the rival, 
 From whom, avenging, soared her dragon-car. 
 
 * * * Ut Argonautas praster omnes candidum 
 Medea mirata est ducem." 
 "Posteaquam Medea Jasonis ceteris omnibus Argonautis pulchrioris 
 forma capta est, sic construe, * non vero Jasonem candidum mirata est 
 
EPODE III. 427 
 
 it a bad joke, and he takes revenge upon the chief criminal, 
 gariic, in the following humorous anathema. 
 
 The commentators in general assume that Horace could 
 not have taken the liberty to refer to Terentia in the con- 
 cluding lines, " Manum puella," &c., and that the poem was 
 therefore written before Maecenas's marriage, probably a.u.c. 
 719 or 720. Ritter, on the contrary, denounces with much 
 indignation the idea that Horace could impute the inde- 
 corum of so familiar an intercourse with a freedwoman to 
 a man of the grave occupations and dignified position of 
 Maecenas, and insists on applying " puella " to Terentia, in 
 which case the poem would be written shortly after the 
 marriage of Maecenas, which Ritter chooses to date, a.u.c. 
 725 {i.e., a year after Franke's date for the publication of 
 the Epodes). 
 
 Carm. in. 
 
 Parentis olim si quis impia manu 
 
 Senile guttur fregerit. 
 Edit cicutis allium nocentius. 
 
 O dura messorum ilia ! 
 Quid hoc veneni saevit in praecordiis ? 
 
 Num viperinus his cruor 
 Incoctus herbis me fefellit ? an malas 
 
 Canidia tractavit dapes ? 
 Ut Argonautas praeter omnes candidum* 
 
 Medea mirata est ducem, 
 Ignota tauris illigaturum juga 
 
 Perunxit hoc Jasonem ; 
 Hoc delibutis ulta donis pellicem. 
 
 Serpente fugit alite. 
 
 praeter omnes Argonautas.' " — Orelli. Macleane prefers the con- 
 struction which Orelli prohibits, but I like Orelli's the best. 
 
428 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Never such heat from pestilential comets 
 
 Parched dry Apulia, thirsting for a shower ; 
 Less hot that gift which, through the massive shoulders 
 
 Of sturdy Hercules, burned life away. 
 Jocose Maecenas, 'tis no laughing matter : 
 
 If e'er thou try it, may thy sweetheart's hand 
 Ward off thy kiss ; and sacred be her refuge 
 
 In the remotest borders of the bed. 
 

 EPODE III. 429 
 
 Nee tantus unquam siderum insedit vapor 
 
 Siticulosae Apuliae, 
 Nee munus humeris effieacis Herculis 
 
 Inarsit sestuosius. 
 At, si quid unquam tale eoneupiveris, 
 
 Joeose Maecenas, preeor 
 Manum puella savio opponat tuo, 
 
 Extrema et in sponda eubet. 
 
430 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 EPODE IV. 
 
 AGAINST AN UPSTART. 
 
 All the scholiasts agree in considering that the person 
 satirised in this ode was the freedman Menas, lieutenant to 
 Sextus Pompeius, who deserted to Augustus a.u.c. 716. 
 Modern critics have objected to this assumption, and their 
 objections are tersely summed up and answered by Mac- 
 
 leane 
 
 As tow'rds the wolf the lamb's inborn repugnance 
 
 Nature makes my antipathy to thee, 
 Thou on whose flank still burns the Iberian whipcord,'^ 
 
 Thou on whose Hmbs still galls the bruise of chains, 
 Strut as thou wilt in arrogance of purse-pride, 
 
 Fortune can change not the man's native breed. 
 Mark, as along the Sacred Wayt thou flauntest, 
 
 Puffing thy toga, twice three cubits wide J — 
 Mark with what frankness indignation loathes thee, 
 
 Seen in the looks of every passer-by !§ 
 " He, by Triumvirs so inured to lashes. 
 
 As tired the pubHc crier to proclaim, || 
 Now ploughs some thousand fat Falernian acres. 
 
 And wears the Appian Road out with his nags; 
 
 * " Ibericis funibus." These were cords made of " spartum," usually 
 said to be the Spanish broom. It was made into ropes, especially for 
 ships' rigging. ' ' It may be added, in favour of the theory which makes 
 Menas the hero, that the mention of Spanish ropes seems to imply that 
 the person had suffered on board ship, if not in the country itself, since, 
 as Pliny tells us, ropes of spartum were especially used in ships ; and 
 the only way to give point to the epithet is to suppose it had reference 
 to Spain itself, or to the fleet." — Macleane. 
 
 + The Sacred Way, leading to the Capitol, was the favourite lounge 
 of the idlers. 
 
EPODE IV. 431 
 
 leane in his prefatory comment on the ode. In some in- 
 scriptions Vedius Rufus has been named instead of Menas. 
 Ritter , maintains the accuracy of this identification, and 
 affirms that it was no other than Vedius PolUo, a Roman 
 knight, who had been originally a freedman, mentioned by 
 Seneca, Pliny, and others. — See Ritter's note. 
 
 Carm. IV. 
 
 Lupis et agnis quanta sortito obtigit, 
 
 Tecum mihi discordia est, 
 Hibericis peruste funibus* latus, 
 
 Et crura dura compede. 
 Licet superbus ambules pecunia, 
 
 Fortuna non mutat genus. 
 Videsne, Sacram metiente te Viam t 
 
 Cum bis trium ulnarum toga, J 
 Ut ora vertat hue et hue euntium 
 
 Liberrima indignatio ? § 
 * Sectus flagellis hie triumviralibus 
 
 Prasconis ad fastidium || 
 Arat Falerni mille fundi jugera 
 
 Et Appiam mannis terit," 
 
 t "Cum bis trium ulnarum toga." According to Macleane, this 
 applies to the width of the toga, not the length, as commonly trans- 
 lated ; I follow his interpretation, but it is disputed. 
 
 § " Ut ora vertat hue et hue euntium 
 Liberrima indignatio." 
 I think with Macleane that this appears rather to mean the open in- 
 dignation which made the passengers turn their looks tmvards him, than 
 turn atvay in disgust, which is the construction of the scholiasts. Yonge 
 suggests a totally different interpretation: "See how a free" {i.e., 
 unreserved, undisguised) "scorn alters the countenance'''' (ora vertat) 
 "of all who pass along." 
 
 II The Triumviri Capitales had the power of inflicting summary chas- 
 tisement on slaves. When the scourge was inflicted, a public crier stood 
 by and proclaimed the nature of the crime. 
 
432 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 In public shows, despite the law of Otho,* 
 He takes a foremost place and sits — a knight. 
 
 What boots the equipment of yon floating bulwarks, 
 Yon vast array of ponderous brazen prores ? 
 
 What ! against slaves and pirates launch an army, t 
 Which has for officer, — that man — that man ! " 
 
 * Fourteen rows in the theatre and amphitheatre, immediately over 
 the orchestra, were by the law of L. Roscius Otho, A.u.c. 686, appro- 
 priated to the knights. As the tribunes of the soldiers had equestrian 
 rank, if the person satirised were one of them, he could therefore take his 
 seat in one of the fourteen rows, despite the intention of Otho, which 
 was to reserve the front seats for persons of genuine rank. 
 
 t The slaves and pirates are supposed to refer to the fleet of Sextus 
 Pompeius. 
 
EPODE IV. 433 
 
 Sedilibusque magnus in primis eques, 
 
 Othone contempto, sedet !* 
 Quid attinet tot ora navium gravi 
 
 Rostrata duci pondere 
 Contra latrones atque servilemt manum, 
 
 Hoc, hoc tribuno militum ? ' 
 
 2 E 
 
434 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 EPODE V. 
 
 ON THE WITCH CANIDIA. 
 
 None of Horace's poems excels this in point of power — 
 and the power herein exhibited is of the highest kind ; it is 
 power over the passions of pity and terror. The degree of 
 humour admitted is just sufficient to heighten the effect of 
 the more tragic element. The scene is brought before the 
 eye of the reader with a marvellous distinctness. A boy of 
 good birth, as is shown by the toga prcetexta and bulla which 
 he wears, has been decoyed or stolen from his home, and 
 carried at night to some house — probably Canidia's. The 
 poem opens with his terrified exclamations, as Canidia and 
 her three associate witches stand around him. He is stripped, 
 buried chin-deep in a pit, and tantalised with the sight of 
 food which he is not permitted to taste, till, thus wasted 
 away, his liver and marrow may form the crowning ingre- 
 dient of the caldron in which the other materials for a philter 
 have been placed. That it is for an old profligate, whom 
 
 Canidia 
 
 " But O,* whatever Power divine in heaven. 
 O'er earth and o'er the human race presideth,t 
 
 What means this gathering ? why on me alone. 
 Fixed in fierce stare, those ominous dread faces ? 
 
 By thine own children, if, indeed, for thee :j: 
 Lucina brought to light true fleshly children — 
 
 * "At, O deorum," &c. The word "at," thus commencing the 
 ode, is significant of the commotion and hurry of the speaker, and also 
 brings the whole scene more vividly before the reader. The poem 
 begins, as it were, in the middle of the boy's address to the witches, 
 omitting what had gone before. 
 
EPODE V. 435 
 
 Canidia is resolved to charm back to her, that the philter is 
 prepared, adds to the vileness which the poet ascribes to the 
 hag. This epode was probably composed about the same 
 time as the 8th Satire of the First Book, in which Canidia 
 and Sagana are represented seeking the ghastly materials of 
 their witchcraft, and invoking Hecate and Tisiphone in the 
 Esquilinian burial-ground. The poem has little of the graces 
 of expression which characterise Horace's maturer odes, 
 and in one or two passages the construction is faultily ob- 
 scure ; but the grandeur of the whole conception, and the 
 vigour of the execution, need no comment, and compensate 
 for all defects. 
 
 The scholiasts say that Canidia'-s real name was Gratidia, 
 and that she was a Neapolitan perfume-vender. That she 
 was ever a mistress of Horace's is a conjecture founded 
 upon no evidence, and nothing extant in Horace justifies 
 the assumption. This poem was written when Horace was 
 young, and he could sc-arcely have remembered, except in 
 his childhood, Canidia more lovely than he invariably repre- 
 sents her. 
 
 Carm. V. 
 
 ' At,'"^ O deorum quidquid in c3elo regit t 
 
 Terras et humanum genus ! 
 Quid iste fert tumultus ? aut quid omnium 
 
 Voltus in unum me truces ? 
 Per liberos te,J si vocata partubus 
 
 Lucina veris affuit,§ 
 
 + "Regit," not " regis"— " presides," not "presidest." The boy 
 does not invoke the gods ; he is addressing Canidia. It is but a dis- 
 ordered exclamation. 
 
 + Here he addresses Canidia. 
 
 § Ritter, Yonge, and Munro have " adftiit.''^ 
 
436 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 By this vain purple's childish ornament ''*' — 
 
 By Jove's sure wrath — why are thy looks as deadly 
 As the stepmother's on the babe she loathes, 
 
 Or wounded wild beast's, glaring on the hunter ? " 
 As the boy pleaded thus, with tremulous lip. 
 
 From him fierce hands rent childhood's robe and bulla. 
 And naked stood that form which might have moved, 
 
 With its young innocence, a Thracian's pity. 
 
 Canidia, all her tangled tresses crisped 
 
 By the contracted folds of angry vipers, 
 Spake, and bade mandrakes, torn from dead men's graves,^ 
 
 Bade dismal branches of funereal cypress. 
 And eggs and plumes of the night screech-owl, smeared 
 
 With the toad's loathsome and malignant venom. 
 Herbs which lolcos and Hiberia send, J 
 
 From soils whose richest harvest-crops are poison. 
 And bones, from jaw of famished wild-bitch snatched, § — 
 
 Bade them all simmer in the Colchian caldron. || 
 
 Meanwhile, bare-legged, fell Sagana bedews 
 
 The whole abode with hell-drops from Avernus,ir 
 
 Her locks erect as some sea-urchin barbed. 
 Or wild boar bristling as he runs. Then Veia, 
 
 * "Per hoc inane purpurse decus precor," This is the "toga pr£e- 
 texta" which was worn by free Roman children, together with the 
 "bulla," a small round plate of gold suspended from the neck. Both 
 were relinquished on the adoption of the "toga virilis," about the age 
 of fifteen. 
 
 + " Sepulcris caprificos erutas," the wild fig rooted up from graves. 
 
 J Hiberia here does not, as elsewhere, mean Spain, but a region, 
 now part of Georgia, east of Colchis. lolcos was a seaport of Thessaly. 
 
 § Why bones snatched from the jaws of a hungry bitch should have 
 the virtue that fits them for ingredients in the witches' caldron is not 
 clearly explained by the commentators. It is not only the angry slaver 
 of the famishing bitch robbed of her food that gives the bone its necro- 
 
EPODE V. 437 
 
 Per hoc inane purpurae decus precor,* 
 
 Per improbaturum haec Jovem, 
 Quid ut noverca me intueris, aut uti 
 
 Petita ferro belua?' 
 Ut haec trementi questus ore constitit 
 
 Insignibus raptis puer, 
 Impube corpus, quale posset impia 
 
 Mollire Thracum pectora ; 
 Canidia, brevibus impHcata viperis 
 
 Crines et incomptum caput, 
 Jubet sepulcris caprificos erutas,t 
 
 Jubet cupressus funebres, 
 Et uncta turpis ova ranae sanguine 
 
 Plumamque nocturnae strigis. 
 Herbasque, quas lolcos atque Hiberia i 
 
 Mittit venenorum ferax, 
 Et ossa ab ore rapta jejunae canis, § 
 
 Flammis aduri Colchicis. || 
 At expedita Sagana, per totam domum 
 
 Spargens Avernales aquas, IF 
 Horret capilHs ut marinus asperis 
 
 Echinus, aut currens aper. 
 
 mantic value — there is virtue in the bone itself. The dog meant is one 
 of the ownerless wild dogs that prowled at night for food, and haunted 
 burial-grounds such as the Esquiline, where the lowest class of the poor 
 were buried so near the surface of the ground that their remains could 
 be easily scratched up, and the bone adapted for the caldron would be a 
 human bone. So, in the '* Siege of Corinth " — 
 
 "And he saw the lean dogs beneath the wall 
 Hold o'er the dead their carnival. 
 Gorging and growling o'er carcass and limb," &c. 
 
 II "Flammis aduri Colchicis." The materials thus collected by the 
 witches are not burned as fuel in the magic (Colchian) flames, but are 
 boiled as materials for the philter, of which the marrow and liver of the 
 unhappy child are the completing ingredients. 
 
 IT From the fount Avemus. 
 
43§ THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Remorseless crone, loud grunting o'er the toil, 
 
 With her fell spade the yawning death-pit hollows, 
 Wherein they bury the yet living child, 
 
 And twice and thrice each long day mock his famine."' 
 Chin-deep (as waters on their brim suspend 
 
 The swimmer) plunged, lingering he lives in dying, 
 To gaze upon the food denied his lips, 
 
 Till the parched liver and the shrivelled marrow 
 Shall into philters for vile love consume. 
 
 When once, yet staring on the food forbidden, 
 The glazing eyeballs waste themselves away. 
 
 If idle Naples and each neighbouring city 
 Rightly believe, the Ariminian hag. 
 
 Unnatural Folia, failed not that grim conclave, 
 She who could draw the moon and subject stars. 
 
 With her Thessalian witch-song, down from heaven. 
 
 To them, with thumb-nail pressed to livid tooth, 
 
 Which gnawed and mumbled it, spake dire Canidia. 
 What said she, or what horror left untold ? 
 
 " Ye of my deeds sure arbiters and faithful, 
 O Night, O Hecate, who o'er silence reign 
 
 In darksome hours to rites mysterious sacred, 
 Now, now be present ; now on hostile homes 
 
 Turn wrath invoked, and demon power revengeful ; 
 Now, while amid the horror-breathing woods 
 
 Lurk the wild beasts, couched languid in soft slumber, 
 Dogs of Subura,+ up ! bark loud ; let all 
 
 Mock the old lecher, with a nard anointed 
 
 * " Longo die bis terque mutatse dapis 
 Inemori spectaculo." 
 " Longo " belongs to "die," and not to " spectaculo." " Inemori " is 
 not found anywhere else ; the oi-dinary form is "immori." — Macleane. 
 + *' Subura," one of the most populous and one of the most profligate 
 streets of Rome. Canidia prays that the barking of the dogs may rouse 
 the street to mock the old man, skulking to other mistresses than herself, 
 
EPODE V. 439 
 
 Abacta nulla Veia conscientia 
 
 Ligonibus duris humum 
 Exhauriebat, ingemens laboribus ; 
 
 Quo posset infossus puer 
 Longo die bis terque mutatae dapis 
 
 Inemori spectaculo ; * 
 Cum promineret ore, quantum exstant aqua 
 
 Suspensa mento corpora ; 
 Exsucta uti medulla et aridum jecur 
 
 Amoris esset poculum, 
 Interminato cum semel fixae cibo 
 
 Intabuissent pupulae. 
 Non defuisse masculae libidinis 
 
 Ariminensem Foliam, 
 Et otiosa credidit Neapolis, 
 
 Et omne vicinum oppidum ; 
 Quae sidera excantata voce Thessala 
 
 Lunamque caelo deripit. 
 Hie irresectum saeva dente livido 
 
 Canidia rodens pollicem 
 Quid dixit aut quid tacuit ? ' O rebus meis 
 
 Non infideles arbitrae, 
 Nox et Diana, quae silentium regis. 
 
 Arcana cum fiunt sacra, 
 Nunc, nunc adeste : nunc in hostiles domos 
 
 Iram atque numen vertite ! 
 Formidolosis dum latent silvis feras, 
 
 Dulci sopore languidae, 
 Senem, quod omnes rideant, adulterum 
 
 Latrent Suburanae t canes 
 
 and thus scare him back to her. It seems clear from what follows that 
 the nard or unguent was composed by Canidia, though that is disputed by 
 commentators, and the construction itself is obscure. It is this magical 
 unguent that is to cause the dogs to bark — see Orelli's note. Absurdly 
 enough it has been assumed, on the authority of this passage (for what 
 other authority is there ?) that Canidia was by profession a vender of 
 perfumes. 
 
440 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Than which none subtler could these hands complete. 
 
 But how? '^ what's this? Have they, then, lost their virtue? 
 The barbarous Medea's direful drugs. 
 
 Wherewith she wreaked her wrongs on that proud rival, 
 Great Creon's daughter, yea, consumed the bride 
 
 By venom steeped into the murderous mantle. 
 And soared away destroying : — Me, nor herb 
 
 Nor root hath failed to render its dark secrets 
 Latent in inaccessible ravines. 
 
 The beds he sleeps on are by me besprinkled t 
 With Lethe of all other loves than mine. 
 
 Ho ! ho ! yet struts he free, — at large,— protected 
 By charm of witch more learned than myself. 
 
 Ah, Varus, ah ! by no trite hackneyed philters 
 Ill-fated wretch, shalt thou rush back to me. 
 
 Thy truant heart no Marsian charms recover J — 
 A mightier spell I weave ; a direr bowl 
 
 Now will I brim, to tame thy scornful bosom. 
 Sooner the sky shall sink below the sea. 
 
 And over both the earth shall be extended, 
 Than thou not burn for me, as in the smoke 
 
 Of these black flames now burns this dull bitumen." 
 Then the child spoke, not seeking, as before, 
 
 Those impious hell-hags with mild words to soften. 
 
 * " Quid accidit ? " The spell fails — the dogs do not bark. Varus 
 does not go forth into Subura, nor come to Canidia. " Do the drugs of 
 Medea fail?" &c. " She speaks," says Macleane, "as if she had been 
 actually using the drugs of Medea. " 
 
 + '* Indormit unctis omnium cubilibus 
 Oblivione pellicum." 
 The sense of this passage is exceedingly obscure, and has been subjected 
 to various interpretations. I adopt that of Orelli, viz, — Canidia had 
 smeared the couch on which Varus slept with drugs to make him for- 
 getful of all women but herself; taking "unctis" with "oblivione," 
 anointed with oblivion — "omnium pellicum," "of all wantons." Still 
 this construction is not satisfactory, because, just before, Canidia sup- 
 poses that Varus was out on his rambles, from which the barking dogs 
 
EPODE V. 441 
 
 Nardo pemnctum, quale non perfectius 
 
 Meae laborarint manus. — 
 Quid accidit ? * Cur dira barbarae minus 
 
 Venena Medeas valent, 
 Quibus superbam fugit ulta pellicem, 
 
 Magni Creontis filiam, 
 Cum palla, tabo munus imbutum, novam 
 
 Incendio nuptam abstulit ? 
 Atqui nee herba, nee latens in asperis 
 
 Radix fefellit me locis. 
 Indormit unctis omnium cubilibus 
 
 Oblivione pellicum.t — 
 Ah ! ah ! solutus ambulat veneficae 
 
 Scientioris carmine. 
 Non usitatis, Vare, potionibus, 
 
 O multa fleturum caput, 
 Ad me recurres ; nee vocata mens tua 
 
 Marsis redibit vocibus : % 
 Majus parabo, majus infundam tibi 
 
 Fastidienti poculum. 
 Priusque caelum sidet inferius mari, 
 
 Tellure porrecta super, 
 Quam non amore sic meo flagres, uti 
 
 Bitumen atris ignibus.' — 
 Sub haec puer, jam non, ut ante, mollibus 
 
 Lenire verbis impias ; 
 
 were to scare him to her, and she is surprised to find that he is quietly 
 asleep. 
 
 J " Ad me recurres ; nee vocata mens tua 
 Marsis redibit vocibus. " 
 The Marsian witchcrafts were those in vogue with the populace. The 
 sense is not, as commonly translated, that his mind or reason (mens), 
 maddened by Canidia's spell, shall not be restored to him by the counter- 
 charms of the Marsian witchcraft ; but that he shall run back to her, 
 and that his mind or heart will not be thus restored to her by her em- 
 ployme^.of any common vulgar incantations. No, she is now preparing 
 a mightier^owl (referring to the victim present), &c. 
 
442 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 But pausing long, now in his last despair, 
 
 Launched the full wrath of Thyestean curses.'* 
 " Witchcrafts invert not the great laws divine 
 
 Of right and wrong as they invert things human ; t 
 So to those laws my dooming curse appeals. 
 
 And draws down wrath too dire for expiation. 
 Mark where thus foully murdered I expire, 
 
 With every night I haunt you as a Fury, t 
 Mangle your cheeks, a ghost with bird-like claws ; 
 
 For such the power of those dread gods the Manes. 
 On your unquiet bosoms I shall sit 
 
 An incubus, and murder sleep with horror ; 
 And at the last, as through the streets ye slink, 
 
 Street after street the crowd shall rise against you, 
 Hither and thither hounded, till to death 
 
 Stoned by fierce mobs, vile hags obscene, ye perish 
 
 * "Thyesteas preces." Curses such as Thyestes might have invoked 
 on Atreus, who slaughtered and served up at the banquet his brother's 
 children. 
 
 + " Venena magnum fas nefasque non valent 
 Convertere humanam vicem ; 
 Diris agam vos." 
 Of all the obscure passages in the poem this is the most obscure. The 
 contradictory interpretations of various commentators have not served 
 to render it less so. The translation most in A'^ogue is that suggested 
 by Lambinus : " Witchcraft (venena) can invert the great principle of 
 wrong and right, but cannot invert the condition or fate (or vicissitude 
 in the fate) of men," "valent" being understood in the first clause. 
 Munro, Introduction, p. xxviii, adopts the arrangement of Lambinus, 
 with one point of difference. " I do not think," he says, *' ' Magnum ' 
 can be joined with ' fas nefasque.' I have therefore made it parenthet- 
 ical where it seems to me to have much force. The meaning is, 
 * venena (id quod magnum est) fas nefasque valent Convertere, humanam 
 vicem non valent. ' " Ritter takes "venena" as poisons which may be ben- 
 eficial as medicaments, or deadly, used with malignant purposes, and are 
 thus "magnum fas nefasque;" and takes "humanam vicem" as the retri- 
 bution due to human deeds. Orelli, in an excursus, gives, with his usual 
 
EPODE V. 443 
 
 Sed dubius unde rumperet silentium, 
 
 Misit Thyesteas preces : * 
 * Venena magnum fas nefasque non valent 
 
 Convertere humanam vicem ; 
 Diris agam vos ; t dira detestatio 
 
 Nulla expiatur victima. 
 Quin, ubi perire jussus exspiravero, 
 
 Nocturnus occurram Furor, J 
 Petamque voltus umbra curvis unguibus, 
 
 Quae vis deorum est Manium ; 
 Et inquietis assidens praecordiis, 
 
 Pavore somnos auferam. 
 Vos turba vicatim hinc et hinc saxis petens 
 
 Contundet obscoenas anus ; 
 
 candour, not less than nine various interpretations, but very decidedly 
 pronounces himself in favour of that which I believe he originates, and 
 which is certainly a bold one. He assumes *' magnum fas nefasque " to 
 be the subject, and that the sense is, * ' the great law of wrong and right 
 (divinae leges), according to human sense (humanam vicem), cannot con- 
 vert (soften and bend) witchcraft or the hearts of witches." Macleane 
 says, I think correctly, "that if this view of the construction were 
 adopted, it would be better to render * humanam vicem ' * on behalf of 
 men or of humanity.'" Macleane suggests two other interpretations 
 (see his note), which appear to me more open to objection, Yonge, 
 following Orelli in the main points, asks whether it may not be better 
 to reverse the order, and take "venena" for the nominative case — thus, 
 "sorceries (and those who use them) cannot change [z.e., turn aside or 
 defeat) the divine law, as they can men and men's law ; therefore I 
 appeal to them : such an appeal will draw down a wrath implacable. " 
 He renders "humanam vicem" "inhuman fashion," "after the man- 
 ner of men." I have adopted the sense of this interpretation. Witch- 
 crafts is a better word here than sorceries, which properly signify divina- 
 tion by lot. Two other interpretations have been suggested to me by 
 eminent scholars : ist, "Witchcraft cannot distort (or overthrow) the 
 great rules of right and wrong in the interest of men (taking "human- 
 am vicem " in the sense, "hominum causa"). 2d, Witchcraft cannot 
 overthrow the great law of wrong and right — human retribution. 
 X "Furor" — literally, " a personified madness." 
 
444 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 By wolves and Esquilinian birds of prey 
 
 Your limbs unburied shall be rent and scattered. 
 
 Nor shall my parents, who alas ! survive 
 
 To mourn me, lose this spectacle of vengeance." 
 
EPODE V. 445 
 
 Post insepulta membra different lupi 
 
 Et Esquilinae alites ; 
 Neque hoc parentes, heu mihi superstites, 
 
 Eftugerit spectaculum.' 
 
44^ THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 EPODE VI. 
 
 AGAINST CASSIUS. 
 
 It is by no means clear who is the unlucky object of 
 these verses. Acron says he was a satirical poet of the 
 name of Cassius, upon the strength of which the scholiast 
 in Cruqaius assumes him to have been the not uncelebrated 
 orator Cassius Severus, who was banished by Augustus, and 
 died in poverty and exile about sixty-three years after the 
 
 date 
 
 Why snap at the guests who do nobody harm, 
 
 Turning tail at the sight of a wolf? 
 O cur ! thy vain threats why not venture on me, 
 
 Who can give back a bite for a bite ? 
 Like mastiff Molossian or Sparta's dun hound, . 
 
 Kindly friend to the shepherd am I ; 
 But I prick up my ears, and away through the snows. 
 
 If a wild beast of prey run before ; 
 But thou, if thou fiUest the woods with thy bark, 
 
 Art struck dumb at the sniff of a bone. 
 Ah, beware ! I am rough when I come upon knaves. 
 
 Ah, beware of a toss from my horns ! 
 I'm as sharp as the wit whom Lycambes deceived, 
 
 Or the bitter foe Bupalus roused ; ^ 
 Dost thou think, when a cur shows the grin of his teeth, 
 
 That I'll weep, unavenged, like a child ? 
 
 * Archilochus, to whom Lycambes refused his daughter Neobule, 
 after having first promised her to him. The poet avenged himself in 
 verses so stinging, that Lycambes is said to have hanged himself. Bu- 
 palus was a sculptor, who, with his brother artist Athenis, ridiculed or 
 caricatured the uncomely features of Hipponax, and his verses are said 
 (though not tnily) to have had the same fatal effect on the sculptor that 
 those of Archilochus had upon Lycambes. 
 
EPODE VI. 447 
 
 date of this ode. This supposition is not tenable, for Cassius 
 Sevems, as Orelli remarks, must have been a boy, or a youth 
 of about twenty, when the ode was composed ; nor is there 
 any authority on record that Cassius Severus was a poet. 
 Other commentators have supposed the person meant was 
 Maevius or Bavius. If the right name be Cassius, nothing 
 is known about him ; nor is it of any importance. Horace's 
 invective, for what we know to the contrary, might have 
 been as unjust and inappropriate as the lampoons of irritable 
 young poets generally are. Ritter conjectures the person 
 there satirised to have been Furius Bibaculus, notorious for 
 the bitterness of his iambics, and who included Octavian 
 Cagsar in his attacks. 
 
 Carm. VI. 
 
 Quid immerentes hospites vexas, canis, 
 
 Ignavus adversum lupos ? 
 Quin hue inanes, si potes, vertis minas, 
 
 Et me remorsurum petis ? 
 Nam, qualis aut Molossus, aut fulvus Lacon, 
 
 Amica vis pastoribus, 
 Agam per altas aure sublata nives, 
 
 Quaecunque praecedet fera : 
 Tu, cum timenda voce complesti nemus, 
 
 Projectum odoraris cibum. 
 Cave, cave : namque in malos asperrimus 
 
 Parata tollo cornua; 
 Qualis Lycambae spretus infido gener, 
 
 Aut acer hostis Bupalo.* 
 An, si quis atro dente me petiverit, 
 
 Inultus ut flebo puer? 
 
448 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 EPODE VII. 
 
 TO THE ROMANS. 
 
 This poem is referred by Orelli (who rightly considers it 
 composed at a comparatively early age) to the beginning of 
 the war of Periisia, a.u.c. 713-14, to which period the i6th 
 Epode is ascribed. Others refer it to a.u.c. 716, the expe- 
 dition 
 
 O guilty ! whither, whither would ye run ? 
 
 Why swords just sheathed to those right hands refitted ? 
 Is there too little of the Latian blood 
 
 Shed on the land or wasted on the ocean. 
 Not that the Roman may consign to flames 
 
 The haughty battlements of envious Carthage ; 
 Not that the intact Briton may be seen 
 
 In captive chains the Sacred Slope descending ; 
 But that, compliant to the Parthian's prayer, 
 
 By her own right hand this great Rome shall perish? 
 Not so with wolves ; lions not lions rend ; 
 
 The wild beast preys not on his own wild kindred. 
 Is it blind frenzy, or some demon Power,* 
 
 Or wilful crime that hurries you thus headlong ? 
 Reply ! All silent ; pallor on all cheeks. 
 
 And on all minds dumb conscience-stricken stupor. 
 So is it then ! so rest on Roman heads 
 
 Doom, and the guilt of fratricidal murder, 
 Ever since t Remus shed upon this soil 
 
 The innocent blood atoned for by descendants. 
 
 * "Vis acrior," "a fatal necessity;" equivalent to 6eov fiiau. — 
 Orelli, Macleane. 
 
 t "Ut immerentis, " &c. "lit" here has the signification of *'ex 
 quo," ever since. — Orelli, Macleane. 
 
EPODE VII. 449 
 
 dition of Augustus against Sextus Pompeius, which is not 
 very probable ; others, again, including Franke, to the 
 much later date of 722, the last war between Augustus and 
 Mark Antony. Ritter contends that it relates to the war 
 against Brutus and Cassius. 
 
 Carm. VII. 
 
 Quo, quo scelesti ruitis ? aut cur dexteris 
 
 Aptantur enses conditi ? 
 Parumne campis atque Neptuno super 
 
 Fusum est Latini sanguinis, 
 Non, ut superbas invidae Carthaginis 
 
 Romanus arces ureret ; 
 Intactus aut Britannus ut descenderet 
 
 Sacra catenatus Via, 
 Sed ut, secundum vota Parthorum, sua 
 
 Urbs hsec periret dextera ? 
 Neque hie lupis mos, nee fuit leonibus 
 
 Unquam, nisi in dispar, feris. 
 Furorne caecus, an rapit vis acrior ? * 
 
 An culpa ? Responsum date ! 
 Tacent ; et albus ora pallor inficit, 
 
 Mentesque perculsae stupent. 
 Sic est : acerba fata Romanos agunt, 
 
 Scelusque fraternae necis, 
 Ut t immerentis fluxit in terram Remi 
 
 Sacer nepotibus cruor. 
 
 Epode VIII. Omitted. 
 
 2 F 
 
450 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 EPO D E IX. 
 
 To MAECENAS. 
 
 The date of this ode is not to be mistaken. It "was 
 written when the news of Actium was fresh, in September 
 A.u.c. 723. It was addressed to Maecenas, and it is impos- 
 sible to read it and suppose he had just arrived from Actium, 
 where some will have it he was engaged." — Macleane. 
 
 The fine ode, Book I. 37, "Nunc est bibendum," was writ- 
 ten a year later, after the news of the taking of Alexandria 
 and the death of Cleopatra. In both these odes it will be 
 observable that Horace avoids naming Mark Antony — some 
 say from his friendship to the Triumvir's son lulus, to whom 
 he addresses Ode ii. Lib. IV.; but at the battle of Actium 
 lulus was a mere boy, and it is not possible to conceive how 
 
 Horace 
 
 When (may Jove grant it !) shall I quaff with thee 
 Under thy lofty dome, my glad Maecenas,* 
 
 Cups of that Caecuban reserved for feasts — 
 Quaff in rejoicing for victorious Caesar, 
 
 While with the hymn symphonious music swells- 
 Here Dorian lyre, there Phrygian fifes commingling ? 
 
 As late we feasted, when from ocean chased. 
 The Son of Neptune fled his burning navies,t 
 
 He who did threaten to impose on Rome 
 
 That which he took from slaves, his friends — the fetter. 
 
 A Roman (ah ! deny it after times), J ^ 
 
 Sold into bondage to a female master. 
 
 Empales her camp-works, § and parades her arms. 
 And serves, her soldier, under wrinkled eunuchs. 
 
 * "Beate Maecenas." The epithet "beate" seems here to apply to 
 the gladness of Maecenas at the good news, rather than to his general 
 opulence or felicitous fortunes. 
 
 t "Neptunius dux," Sextus Pompeius, who boasted himself to be 
 
EPODE IX. .; 451 
 
 Horace was even acquainted with him at that time. There 
 must have been some other reason for this reticence, and 
 it is quite as Hkely to have been one of artistic taste as one 
 founded on personal or poHtical considerations ; for Horace 
 does not mention by name Cleopatra, nor even Sextus 
 Pompeius. It is consistent with the dignity of lyric song 
 to avoid the direct mention of the name of our national 
 enemy, especially if conquered. In an English lyrical 
 poem on the Crimean war, we should scarcely think it 
 strange if the poet did not obtrude on us the name of 
 Nicholas. 
 
 Carm. IX. 
 
 Quando repostum Caecubum ad festas dapes, 
 
 Victore lastus Caesare, 
 Tecum sub alta, sic Jovi gratum, domo, 
 
 Beate Maecenas,* bibam, 
 Sonante mixtum tibiis carmen lyra, 
 
 Hac Dorium, illis barbarum ? 
 Ut nuper, actus cum freto Neptunius 
 
 '' Dux t fugit, ustis navibus, 
 Minatus Urbi vincla, quae detraxerat 
 
 Servis amicus perfidis. 
 Romanus, + eheu, posteri negabitis, 
 
 Emancipatus feminae, 
 Fert vallum § et arma miles, et spadonibus 
 
 Servire rugosis potest, • ^ 
 
 the Son of Neptune. Though Horace speaks of the rejoicing at the 
 defeat of Sextus Pompeius as if it were of late (" ut nuper"), it occurred 
 between five and six years before (a.U.C. 71S). Fugitive slaves formed 
 a large part of the force of Sextus Pompeius. 
 
 t This does not refer to Mark Antony himself, but to the Roman 
 soldiers under him. The singular number is used poetically. 
 
 § "Fert vallum." The Roman soldier carried palisades ("vallum") 
 for an empaled camp. 
 
452 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Shaming war's standards, in their midst, the sun 
 
 Beholds a tent lawn-draped against mosquitoes.* 
 Hitherwards,t then, Gaul's manly riders wheeled 
 
 Two thousand fretting steeds, and shouted '^ Caesar." 
 And all along the hostile fleet swift prores 
 
 Backed from the fight, and slunk into the haven, t 
 Hail, God of Triumph ! why delay so long 
 
 The golden cars and sacrificial heifers ? 
 Hail, God of Triumph ! from Jugurthine wars 
 
 Thou brought'st not back to Rome an equal chieftain ; 
 Not Africanus,§ to whom Valour built 
 
 A sepulchre on ground which once was Carthage. 
 Routed by sea, by land, the Foe hath changed 
 
 For weeds of mourning his imperial purple j 
 Or spreading sails to unpropitious winds 
 
 For Crete, ennobled by her hundred cities ; 
 Or by the south blast dashed on Afric's sands. 
 
 Or, drifting shoreless, lost in doubtful seas. 
 
 Ho there, good fellow ! out with larger bowls, 
 And delicate Chian wines, or those of Lesbos ; 
 
 Or rather, mix us lusty Caecuban, 
 
 A juice austere, which puts restraint on sickness ; 
 
 The Care-Unbinder well may free us now 
 
 From every doubt that fortune smiles on Caesar. 
 
 * * ' Conopium. " The mosquito net or ciu-tain in use in Egypt, and 
 still common in Italy and hot climates, placed in the midst of the 
 "signa militaria" — i.e., the rising ground on which the military stand- 
 ards were grouped round the praetorium or imperial tent. 
 
 t "At hue." The reading in the MSS. varies. Orelli has "at 
 hoc," and takes "hoc" with " frementes Galli." I prefer Macleane's 
 reading, "at hue," taking "frementes" with " equos ; " "hue" thus 
 means * hither," " to our side." Ritter has "ad hunc," contending that 
 " ad" has the force of " adversus " — i. e., against Antonius, who is signi- 
 fied, though not named. Munro has also " ad hunc," observing that " it 
 has most authority ; but what Horace did here write it is impossible to 
 
EPODE IX. 453 
 
 Interque signa turpe militaria 
 
 Sol adspicit conopium.* 
 At hue t frementes verterunt bis mille equos 
 
 Galli, canentes Caesarem, 
 Hostiliumque navium portu latent 
 
 Puppes sinistrorsum citae. % 
 lo Triumphe, tu moraris aureos 
 
 Currus, et intactas boves ? 
 lo Triumphe, nee Jugurthino parem 
 
 Bello reportasti ducem, 
 Neque Africanum, § eui super Carthaginem 
 
 Virtus sepulerum condidit. 
 Terra marique vietus hostis punieo 
 
 Lugubre mutavit sagum ; 
 Aut ille eentum nobilem Cretam urbibus, 
 
 Ventis iturus non suis, 
 Exereitatas aut petit Syrtes Noto, 
 
 Aut fertur ineerto mari. 
 Capaeiores affer hue, puer, seyphos, 
 
 Et Chia vina aut Lesbia. 
 Vel, quod fluentem nauseam eoereeat, 
 
 Metire nobis Caeeubum : 
 Curam metumque Cassaris rerum juvat 
 
 Dulci Lyaeo solvere. 
 
 say. ' Ad hunc' may = *ad solem.' " As the line refers to the desertion 
 to Caesar of the Gauls, or cavalry of Galatia, under their king Deiotarus, 
 "at hue" seems the simplest interpretation. 
 
 X * ' Hostiliumque navium portu latent 
 Puppes sinistrorsum citse." 
 Macleane considers the meaning of the words impenetrably obscure, 
 from our ignorance of the Roman nautical phrases. He inclines to 
 favour Bentley's supposition, that ** sinistrorsum citae " may be equiva- 
 lent to TTVfxv-nuKpva-aa-dai, " to back water ;" adding, " something of that 
 sort, connected with flight, I have no doubt it means." 
 
 § •* Neque Africanum," not, as some would have it, "Africano," as 
 referring to the African war. 
 
454 THE EPOI^ES OF HORACE. 
 
 EPODE X. 
 
 ON Mi^VIUS SETTING OUT ON A VOYAGE. 
 
 The name of Maevius has become proverbially identified 
 with the ideal of a bad poet ; but, after all, the justice of 
 this very unpleasant immortality rests upon no satisfactory 
 evidence. Virgil, with laconic disdain, dismisses him and 
 Bavius to obloquy, and this poem is a specimen of Horace's 
 mode, in his hot youth, of treating a person to whom he 
 owed a grudge. But poets are very untrustworthy judges of 
 the merits of a contemporary poet, whom, for some reason 
 or other, they dislike. If nothing of Southey be left to 
 remote posterity, and he is only then to be judged by what 
 Byron has said of him, Southey would appear a sort of 
 Maevius. On the other hand, what would Byron seem if 
 nothing were left of his works, and, one or two thousand 
 years hence, he were to be judged by the opinions of his 
 verse which Southey and Wordsworth and Coleridge have 
 left on record ? As to the severest things said of Maevius 
 by writers of a later generation, and who had probably 
 never read a line of him, they are but echoes of the old 
 lampoons, " Give a dog a bad name," &c. If it be true, 
 as the commentator in Cruquius says, that Maevius was " a 
 detractor of all learned men," and a cultivator of archaisms, 
 or an elder school of expression, "sectator vocum antiqua- 
 
 rum," 
 
 Under ill-boding auspices puts forth the vessel 
 
 Which has Maevius— a rank-smelling cargo — on board : 
 
 Either side of that vessel, with surges the roughest, 
 O be mindful, I pray thee, wild Auster, to scourge ! 
 
 On an ocean upheaved from its inmost foundations, 
 May the dark frowning Eurus snap cables and bars ; 
 
EPODE X. 455 
 
 rum," it is probable enough that he incurred the resentment 
 of Horace and the scorn of Virgil by his attacks on their 
 modem style, and that his adherence to the elder forms of 
 Latin poetry was uncongenial to their own taste. Fo;" 
 Virgil's contemptuous mention, indeed, there might be 
 some cause less general, if Maevius and Bavius wrote the 
 Anti-Bucolica ascribed to them — i.e., two pastorals in parody 
 of the Eclogues ; and especially if Msevius were the author 
 of a very ready and a very witty attempt to turn him into 
 ridicule. Virgil, reciting the First Book of his Georgics, 
 after the words, " Nudus ara, sere nudus," came to a dead 
 halt, when some one, said to be either Maevius or Bavius, 
 finished the line by calling out, " habebis frigore febrem." 
 Whoever made that joke must have been clever enough to 
 be a disagreeable antagonist. One thing, at all events, 
 seems pretty evident — viz., that Maevius must have had 
 power of some kind to excite the muse of Horace to so 
 angry an excess. Had he been a man wholly without mark 
 or following, he could scarcely have stung to such wrath 
 even a youthful poet. Be that as it may, this ode has all 
 the vigour of a good hater, and there is much of the gusto 
 of true humour in its extravagance. The exact date of its 
 composition is unknown, but it bears the trace of very 
 early youth. Grotefend assigns it to A.u.c. 716, when 
 Horace was twenty-seven. 
 
 Carm. X. 
 
 Mala soluta navis exit alite, 
 Ferens olentem Maevium : 
 
 Ut horridis utrumque verberes latus, 
 Auster, memento fluctibus ! 
 
 Niger rudentes Eurus, inverso mari, 
 Fractosque remos differat ; 
 
456 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 And may Aquilo rise in his might as when rending 
 
 Upon hill-peaks the holm-oaks that rock to his blast ! 
 On the blackness of night let no friendly star glimmer 
 
 Save the baleful Orion, whose setting is storm ; 
 Nor the deep know a billow more calm than the breakers 
 
 Which o'erwhelmed the victorious armada of Greece, 
 When, from Ilion consumed, to the vessel of Ajax 
 
 Pallas * turned the wrath due to her temple profaned ! 
 Ha, what sweat-drops will run from the brows of thy sailors. 
 
 And how palely thy puddle-blood ooze from thy cheeks ; 
 As thou call'st out for aid — with that shriek which shames 
 manhood t — 
 
 On the Jove who disdains such a caitiff to hear ; 
 When thy keel strains and cracks in the deep gulf Ionic, 
 
 Howling back the grim howl of the stormy south-blast. 
 But O ! if in some desolate creek thou shalt furnish 
 
 To the maw of the sea-gulls a banquet superb, ' 
 To the Tempests a lamb and lewd goat shall be offered 
 
 As a tribute of thanks for deliverance from thee. 
 
 * Tl is cleverly said by one of the critics, that Pallas is appropriately 
 enough referred to here as the avenger of the bad poetry with which 
 Maevius had insulted her. 
 
 t *'///a non virilis ejulatio." He speaks as though he heard the 
 man crying. — Macleane. 
 
EPODE X. 457 
 
 Insurgat Aquilo, quantus altis montibus 
 
 Frangit trementes ilices ; 
 Nee sidus atra nocte amicum appareat, 
 
 Qua tristis Orion cadit ; 
 Quietiore nee feratur aequore, 
 
 Quam Graia victorum manus, 
 Cum Pallas * usto vertit iram ab Ilio 
 
 In impiam Ajacis ratem ! 
 O quantus instat navitis sudor tuis, 
 
 Tibique pallor luteus, 
 Et ilia non virilis ejulatio, t 
 
 Preces et aversum ad Jovem, 
 lonius udo cum remugiens sinus 
 
 Noto earinam ruperit ! 
 Opima quod si prseda curvo litore 
 
 Porreeta mergos juveris, 
 Libidinosus immolabitur caper 
 
 Et agna Tempestatibus. 
 
 Epodes XL AND XII. Omitted. 
 
458 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 EPODE XIII. 
 
 TO FRIENDS. 
 
 Of all the Epodes, this, of which the metre consists of a 
 hexameter verse, with one made up of a dimeter iambic 
 and half a pentameter, appears to have most of the lyrical 
 spirit and character of the Odes. The poem, addressed 
 to a party of friends in winter, suggests comparison with 
 the 9th Ode of the First Book, " Vides, ut alta stet nive 
 candidum," also a winter song; but the occasion is very 
 different, and the spirit that pervades it not less so. Ode 
 ix. Lib. I. has no reference to public troubles ; unless, 
 indeed, a reader should indorse the very far-fetched sup- 
 position that verse 7, " Permitte divis csetera," has a poli- 
 tical allusion. Its main image is in the picture of an 
 individual, and the happy mode in which, while yet young, 
 that individual may pass his day. Its tone is cheerful, and 
 with no insinuation of pathos. This epode, on the other 
 hand, is evidently addressed to friends excited by anxieties 
 
 and 
 
 Frowning storm has contracted the face of the heaven, 
 
 Rains and snows draw the upper air heavily down ; 
 Now the sea, now the forests, resound with the roar 
 
 Of wild Aquilo rushing from hill-tops on Thrace. 
 Seize, my friends, on To-day^foul or fair it is ours — 
 
 While yet firm are the knees, nor unseemly is joy; 
 And let Gravity loosen his hold on the brows'"" 
 
 Which he now overcasts with the cloud of his scowl. 
 
 * "Obducta solvatur fronte senectus." "Obducta," as if clouded 
 with care and sadness. — Orelli. Orelli interprets "senectus" in the 
 sense of " morositas," " tsedium," to which the word "senium " is more 
 frequently applied. Macleane renders it "melancholy," in which sense, 
 however, he allows it is used nowhere else. I think the right meaning 
 is "gravity" or "austerity," in which sense it is employed by Cicero, 
 De Clar. Orat. 76, "Plena litteratae senectutis oratio." 
 
EPODE XIII. 459 
 
 and apprehensions in common. If it be allowable to draw 
 a conjecture from the touching illustration of the fate of 
 Achilles, doomed in the land of Assaracus to a stormy life 
 and an early death, the poem might have been written be- 
 tween the date of Horace's departure into Asia Minor, in the 
 service of Brutus, and that of the trials and dangers which 
 closed at the field of Philippi, a.u.c. 712. Ritter, indeed, 
 places its date in the interval between the death of Cassius 
 and the battle of Philippi. It may, however, be observed, 
 that if the invitation to the feastmaster to bring forth the 
 wine stored in the consulship of Torquatus is to be taken 
 literally, wine of that age could scarcely have been found in 
 the commissariat of Brutus. If not written while in the camp 
 of Brutus, it was probably composed between a.u.c. 712 and 
 716, soon after Horace's return to Rome, before the fortunes 
 of his life, and perhaps his political views, were changed by 
 the favour of Maecenas, and while his chief associates would 
 naturally have been among the remnants of the party with 
 whom he had fought, and to whose minds (if there be any- 
 thing peculiarly appropriate in the reference to Achilles) 
 military dangers in a foreign land might still be the salient 
 apprehension. It is evidently written some years before 
 Ode ix. Lib. I. Horace here classes himself emphatically 
 with the young. In Ode ix. he addresses Thaliarchus, or 
 the feastmaster, with the half-envious sentiment of a man 
 who points out the pleasures of youth to another — who yet 
 sympathises with those pleasures, but is somewhat receding 
 from them himself. 
 
 Carm. XIII. 
 
 Horrida tempestas caelum contraxit, et imbres 
 
 Nivesque deducunt Jovem ; nunc mare, nunc siluae 
 
 Threicio Aquilone sonant : rapiamus, amici, 
 Occasionem de die, dumque virent genua, 
 
 Et decet, obducta solvatur fronte senectus.* 
 
\ 
 
 460 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Broach the cask which was born with myself in the year 
 
 Of the Consul Torquatus.* All else be unsaid; 
 For, perchance, by some turn in our fortunes, a god 
 
 May all else to their place in times brighter restore. 
 Now let nard Achaemenian afford us its balm ; 
 
 Doubt and dread let the chords of Cyllenet dispel ; 
 Listen all to the song which the Centaur renowned 
 
 Sang of old to the ears of his great foster-son : — 
 " Boy invincible, goddess-born, mortal thyself, J 
 
 The domain of Assaracus waits thee afar ; 
 There the petty § Scamander's cold streams cut their way, 
 
 And there slidingly lapses the smooth Simois. 
 From that land, by the certain decree of their woof. 
 
 Have the Weavers of Doom broken off thy return. 
 And thy mother, the blue-eyed, shall never again 
 
 Bear thee back o'er the path of her seas to thy home. 
 But when there, let each burden of evils ordained, 
 
 From thy bosom be lifted by wine and by song ; 
 Soothers they of a converse so sweet, it can charm 
 
 All the cares which deform our existence away." 
 
 * " Tu vina Torquato," &c. Here he addresses himself to the master 
 of the feast. Sextus Manhus Torquatus was consul A.u.C. 689, the year 
 of Horace's birth — "O nata mecum consule Manlio," Lib. III. xxi., i. 
 
 t "Fide Cyllenea," — viz., the lyre, invented by Mercury, born on 
 Mount Cyllene, in Arcadia. There seems to me much beauty in the 
 choice of the word, which introduces an image of Arcadian freedom 
 from care — the ideal holiday life. 
 
 t Achilles. 
 
 § Ritter supposes that the Scamander is here emphatically called 
 small (parvi Scamandri flumina) antithetically to "grandi alumno" — 
 the great hero who found the scene of his actions by a stream so small. 
 Should this conjecture, exquisitely critical, if not too refined, be ad- 
 mitted, then "lubricus et Simois" must form a part of the antithesis 
 insinuated; i.e., actions so great beside a stream so small — actions so 
 vehement and of renown so loud, beside a stream so smooth. 
 
EPODE XIII. 461 
 
 Tu vina Torquato move Consule pressa meo.* 
 
 ■— - \^ — V.' <.,• „- •. - •^ - •■ '. '. .- -' ' . '•■ 
 Cetera mitte loqui : deus haec fortasse benigna 
 
 Reducet in sedem vice. Nunc et Achaemenio 
 Perfundi nardo juvat, et fide Cyllenea t 
 
 Levare diris pectora sollicitudinibus ; 
 Nobilis ut grandi cecinit Centaurus alumno : 
 
 * Invicte, mortalis dea nate puer Thetide, J 
 Te manet Assaraci tellus, quam fi^igida parvi § 
 
 Findunt Scamandri flumina lubricus et Simois, 
 Unde tibi reditum certo subtemine Parcae 
 
 Rupere ; nee mater domum caerula te revehet. 
 Illic omne malum vino cantuque levato, 
 1 Deformis aegrimoniae dulcibus alloquiis.' 
 
462 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 EPODE XIV. 
 
 TO M^CENAS IN EXCUSE FOR INDOLENCE IN COMPLETING 
 THE VERSES HE HAD PROMISED. 
 
 It is impossible to say whether the verses thus promised 
 and deferred were, as commonly supposed, the collection 
 composed in this Book of Epodes, or some single iambic 
 poem. The context seems to favour the latter supposition. 
 
 The 
 
 Why this soft sloth, through inmost sense diffusing 
 
 Oblivion as complete 
 As if with parched lip I had drained from Lethe 
 
 Whole beakers brimmed with sleep ? — 
 Thou kill'st me with that question oft-repeated — 
 
 Maecenas, truthful man,* 
 A song I promised thee ; to keep my promise 
 
 A god, a god forbids — 
 Forbids the iambics, for I have begun them. 
 
 To shape themselves to close. t 
 Thus it is said, by love inflamed, the Teian 
 
 Lost his diviner art : 
 And on the shell to which he wailed his sorrow, 
 
 Music imperfect died. 
 Thou too art scorched; enjoy thy lot; no fairer 
 
 Flame, shot from Helen's eyes. 
 Fired Troy : — me Phryne burns — a wench too glowing 
 
 To stint her warmth to one. 
 
 * "Candide Maecenas." "Candide" here has the signification of 
 honourable or truthful. You kill me — you, a man of honour — asking 
 me so often why I do not fulfil my promise. 
 
 t "Ad umbilicum adducere," is to bring a volume to the last sheet. 
 — Macleane. 
 
EPODE XIV. 463 
 
 The beauty who inflames Maecenas, so gracefully mentioned 
 at the close of the poem, is, according to the scholiasts, 
 certainly Terentia, whom Maecenas was then either married 
 to or courting. And that assumption is generally adopted 
 by modern critics. Still it scarcely seems consistent with 
 Roman manners, or with Horace's good breeding and knov/- 
 ledge of the world, that he should imply a comparison be- 
 tween his passing caprice for a public wanton, and the 
 honourable love of a man of the highest station to the lady 
 he had married, or was wooing in marriage. 
 
 Carm. XIV. 
 
 Mollis inertia cur tantam diffuderit imis 
 
 Oblivionem sensibus, 
 Pocula Lethaeos ut si ducentia somnos 
 
 Arente fauce traxerim, 
 Candide Maecenas,* occidis sagpe rogando : 
 
 Deus, deus nam me vetat 
 Inceptos, olim promissum carmen, iambos 
 
 Ad umbilicum adducere.t 
 Non aliter Samio dicunt arsisse Bathyllo 
 
 Anacreonta Teium, 
 Qui persaepe cava testudine flevit amorem, 
 
 Non elaboratum ad pedem. 
 Ureris ipse miser : quod si non pulchrior ignis 
 
 Accendit obsessam Ilion, 
 Gaude sorte tua ; me libertina, neque uno 
 
 Contenta, Phryne macerat. 
 
464 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 EPODE XV. 
 
 TO NE^RA. 
 
 This poem may have been an imitation of the Greek, but 
 as Horace pointedly introduces his own name as that of the 
 complainant, it must be inferred that, at all events, he meant 
 to be understood as speaking in his own person. The pro- 
 
 babiUty 
 
 'Twas night — the moon shone forth in cloudless heaven 
 
 Amid the lesser stars, 
 When thou didst mock, in vows myself had taught thee, 
 
 The great presiding gods ; 
 Closer than round the ilex clings the ivy, 
 
 Clasping me with twined arms : 
 " Long as the wolf shall prey upon the sheepfold — 
 
 Long as the seaman's foe. 
 Baleful Orion, rouse the wintry billows — 
 
 Or the caressing breeze 
 Ripple the unshorn ringlets of Apollo, 
 
 Our mutual love shall be ! " 
 Ah ! thou shalt mourn to find me firm, Neaera ; 
 
 For if in Flaccus aught 
 Of man be left, he brooks not halved embraces ; 
 
 Stooped to no second rank, 
 His love shall leave thee, and explore its equal. 
 
 The heart, in which the pang 
 Of the last treason once makes sure its entry, 
 
 Is ever henceforth proof 
 To charms which perfidy has rendered hateful. 
 
 And thou, O happier one ! 
 Whoe'er thou art, in my defeat exulting, 
 
 Be rich in herds and lands ; 
 
EPODE XV. 465 
 
 bability is in favour of the supposition that it was the ex- 
 pression of a genuine sentiment, and addressed to a real per- 
 son. Macleane pushes too far his sceptical theory that 
 Horace's love-poems are merely artistic exercises, like those 
 of Cowley. 
 
 Carm. XV. 
 
 Nox erat, et cselo fulgebat Luna sereno 
 
 Inter minora sidera, 
 Cum tu, magnorum numen Ises'ura deorum, 
 
 In verba jurabas mea, 
 Artius atque hedera procera adstringitur ilex, 
 
 Lentis adhaerens brachiis : 
 Dum pecori lupus, et nautis infestus Orion 
 
 Turbaret hibernum mare, 
 Intonsosque agitaret Apollinis aura capillos, 
 
 Fore hunc amorem mutuum. 
 O dolitura mea multum virtute Neaera ! 
 
 Nam, si quid in Flacco viri est, 
 Non feret assiduas potiori te dare noctes, 
 
 Et quaeret iratus parem, 
 Nee semel offensae cedet constantia form^, 
 
 Si certus intrarit dolor. 
 Et tu, quicunque es felicior atque meo nunc 
 
 Superbus incedis malo, 
 
 2 G 
 
466 THE EPpDES OF HORACE. 
 
 And as for gold, I give thee all Pactolus; 
 
 Know all the lore occult 
 Stored by Pythagoras re-born ; in beauty 
 
 Nireus himself excel ; 
 And yet, alas ! in store for thee my sorrow, 
 
 Thou too wilt mourn 
 Loves with such ease made over to another- 
 
 My turn for mockery then ! 
 
EPODE XV. 467 
 
 Sis pecore et multa dives tellure licebit, 
 
 Tibique Pactolus fluat, 
 Nee te Pythagorae fallant arcana renati, 
 
 Formaque vincas Nirea ; 
 Eheu ! translates alio mserebis amores : 
 
 Ast ego vicissim risero. 
 
468 THE EPOUES OF HORACE. 
 
 EPODE XVI. 
 
 TO THE ROMAN PEOPLE (OR RATHER TO HIS OWN 
 POLITICAL friends). 
 
 This poem is generally supposed to have been composed 
 at the commencement of the Perusian war, a.u.c. 713 — 
 the year following the battle of Philippi, when the state of 
 Italy was indeed deplorable, and the fortunes of Horace 
 himself at the worst. He had forfeited his patrimony, and 
 it was two years before he was even introduced to Maecenas. 
 At that time he would have been twenty-four. The poem 
 
 has 
 Another age worn out in civil wars,* 
 
 And Rome sinks weighed down by her own sheer forces, 
 Whom nor the bordering Marsians could destroy ; 
 
 Nor Porsena, threatening with Etruscan armies ; 
 Nor rival Capua,t nor fierce Spartacus, 
 
 Nor Allobroge J in all revolts a traitor ; 
 Nor fierce Germania's blue-eyed giant sons ; 
 
 Nor Hannibal, abhorred by Roman mothers, § — 
 That is the Rome which we, this race, destroy ; 
 
 We, impious victims by ourselves devoted, 
 And to the wild beast and the wilderness 
 
 Restoring soil which Romans called their country. 
 Woe ! on the ashes of Imperial Rome 
 
 Shall the barbarian halt his march, a victor ; 
 And the wild horseman with a clanging hoof 
 
 Trample the site which was the world's great city, 
 And — horrid sight — in scorn to winds and sun 
 
 Scatter the shrouded bones of Rome's first founder. 11 
 
 * " Altera aetas," the preceding age being that of Sulla. 
 
 + "^mula nee virtus Capuse." Capua, after the battle of Cannse, 
 aspired to the 'imperium' of Italy. — Liv. 23, 2. 
 
 X "Novisque rebus infidelis Allobrox." This line is generally sup- 
 posed to refer to the Allobrogian ambassadors, who, at the time of 
 
EPODE XVI. 469 
 
 has the character of youth in its defects and its beauties. 
 The redundance of its descriptive passages is in marked 
 contrast to the terseness of description which Horace studies 
 in his odes ; and there is something declamatory in its gen- 
 eral tone which is at variance with the simpler utterance 
 of lyrical art. On the other hand, it has all the warmth 
 of genuine passion; and in sheer vigour of composition 
 Horace has rarely excelled it. 
 
 Carm. XVI. 
 
 Altera jam teritur bellis civilibus aetas,* 
 
 Suis et ipsa Roma viribus ruit : 
 Quam neque finitimi valuerunt perdere Marsi, 
 
 Minacis aut Etrusca Porsenae manus, 
 ^mula nee virtus Capuae,t nee Spartacus acer, 
 
 Novisque rebus infideHs Allobrox, J 
 Nee fera caerulea domuit Germania pube, 
 
 Parentibusque abominatus Hannibal, § 
 Impia perdemus devoti sanguinis aetas, 
 
 Ferisque rursus occupabitur solum. 
 Barbarus, heu ! cineres insistet victor, et Urbem 
 
 Eques sonante verberabit ungula, 
 Quaeque carent ventis et solibus ossa Quirini, || 
 
 Nefas videre ! dissipabit insolens. 
 
 Catiline's conspiracy, promised to aid it, but afterwards betrayed the 
 conspirators, and became the chief witnesses against them. The Allo- 
 broges, a Gallic people on the left bank of the Rhone, two years later 
 broke out in war, and, invading Gallia Narbonensis, were defeated by 
 the governor of that province, C. Pomptinius. The line may, however, 
 be intended to designate the general character of this people, without 
 any special reference to the conduct of their ambassadors in the con- 
 spiracy of Catiline. 
 
 § "Parentibusque abominatus Hannibal," Orelli and Dillenburger 
 interpret "parentibus" as "our fathers," "the former generation." 
 Doering, Ritter, and Macleane, interpret the word in the sense of 
 "bella matribus detestata," c. i. i, 24, in which latter sense the line is 
 translated. 
 
 II "Quaeque carent ventis et solibus ossa Quirini." I have rendered 
 
470 THE EP^DES OF HORACE. 
 
 if haply all, or those amongst you all, 
 
 Who be of nobler nature, ask for counsel 
 How to escape the endurance of such ills, 
 
 I know none better than this old example : 
 Leaving their lands, their Lares, and their shrines. 
 
 To wolf and wild boar, went forth the Phocaeans,* 
 One State entire, accursing the return ; — 
 
 Go we wherever a free foot may lead us, 
 No matter what the billow or the blast. 
 
 Welcome alike be Africus or Notus. 
 Are ye agreed ? t Who can this vote amend ? 
 
 Why pause ? To sea ! accept the favouring auspice. 
 Yet ere we part thus swear : When the firm rocks, 
 
 In the deep bosom of the ocean buried, J 
 Rise to the light and float along the wave. 
 
 Then, nor till then, return for us be lawful ! 
 Back unrepentant we will veer the sail 
 
 When Po shall lave the summits of Matinus ; 
 When into ocean juts the Apennine ; 
 
 When herds no longer fear the tawny lions ; 
 When nature's self becomes unnatural. 
 
 And, love reversing all its old conditions, 
 Tigers woo does, the kite pairs with the dove ; 
 
 When into scales the he-goat smooths his fleeces. 
 And quits the hill-top for the briny seas. 
 
 So swear, swear aught that cuts us off" for ever 
 From the old homes, and go, one State entire, 
 
 Accursing the return. If all not willing. 
 
 the simple meaning of the line, but the literal construction is, that he 
 shall scatter the bones of Romulus, hitherto free, in their secret place, 
 from wind and sun. Elsewhere (Car. iii. 3, 16) Horace speaks of 
 Romulus as rapt to heaven, according to the popular belief. Varro, 
 according to Porphyrion, says the tomb of Romulus was behind the 
 Rostra. Orelli suggests that Romulus (Quirinus) is not literally signified 
 in the verse, but rather symbolically, as the ideal representative {der 
 
EPODE XVI. 471 
 
 Forte quid expediat communiter aut melior pars ' 
 
 Malis carere quaeritis laboribus ; 
 Nulla sit hac potior sententia : Phocaeonim 
 
 Velut profugit exsecrata civitas ^ 
 Agros atque Lares patrios, habitandaque fana 
 
 Apris reliquit et rapacibus lupis ; 
 Ire pedes quocunque ferent, quocunque per undas 
 
 Notus vocabit, aut protervus Africus. 
 Sic placet ? t an melius quis habet suadere ? Secunda 
 
 Ratem occupare quid moramur alite ? 
 Sed juremus in haec : — Simul imis saxa renarint 
 
 Vadis levata, ne redire sit nefas ; 
 Neu conversa domum pigeat dare lintea, quando 
 
 Padus Matina laverit cacumina, 
 In mare seu celsus procurrerit Appenninus, 
 
 Novaque monstra junxerit libidine 
 Mirus amor, juvet ut tigres subsidere cervis, 
 
 Adulteretur et columba miluo, 
 Credula nee ravos timeant armenta leones, 
 
 Ametque salsa levis hircus sequora. — 
 Haec, et quae poterunt reditus abscindere dulces, 
 
 Eamus omnis exsecrata civitas, 
 
 ideale representani) of the other Roman citizens, whose bones shall be 
 scattered to wind and sun. 
 
 * "Phocaeorum — exsecrata civitas." "Exsecrata" is used in a 
 double sense, "binding themselves under a curse." — Macleane. The 
 oath of the Phocoeans, who left their city when besieged by Harpagus 
 (Herod, i. 165) never to return till an iron bar they threw into the sea 
 should float on the surface, is amplified in the oath which Horace sug- 
 gests to his political friends. 
 
 + "Sic placet" — " placetne, " the usual formula. The poet fancies 
 himself addressing a meeting of the citizens. — Macleane. 
 
 + " In the deep bosom of the ocean buried."— Shakespeare. 
 
4/2 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 At least that part which is of nobler mind 
 
 Than the unteachable herd. To beds ill-omened 
 Let those nought hoping, those nought daring, cling. 
 
 Ye in whom manhood lives, cease woman wailings, 
 Wing the sail far beyond Etruscan shores. 
 
 Lo ! where awaits an all-circumfluent ocean — 
 Fields, the Blest Fields we seek, the Golden Isles 
 
 Where teems a land that never knows the ploughshare — 
 Where, never needing pruner, laughs the vine — 
 
 Where the dusk fig adorns the stem it springs from,'"' 
 And the glad olive ne'er its pledge belies t — 
 
 There from the creviced ilex wells the honey ; 
 There, down the hillside bounding light, the rills 
 
 Dance with free foot, whose fall is heard in music ; 
 There, without call, the she-goat yields her milk. 
 
 And back to browse, with unexhausted udders, 
 Wanders the friendly flock ; no hungry bear 
 
 Growls round the sheepfold in the starry gloaming, J 
 Nor high with rippling vipers heaves the soil. § 
 
 These, and yet more of marvel, shall we witness, 
 We, for felicity reserved ; how ne'er 
 
 Dank Eurus sweeps the fields with flooding rain-storm, 
 
 * Viz., ungrafted. 
 
 t "Nunquam fallen tis termes olivse." The olive crop is still as 
 fickle as the English hop crop — one good year for two bad ones is the 
 accredited average. The olive crop, like the hop, was and still is often 
 ruinous, from the speculative gambling which its uncertainty tends to 
 stimulate. Horace says that which came home to every olive-grower 
 when he speaks of an olive-tree that never deceived its cultivator. 
 
 + " Vespertinus ursus." 
 
 § **Neque intumescit alta viperis humus." Orelli, in one of those 
 notes, exquisite for accuracy of perception, in which his edition is so 
 rich, objects to the common translation of "alta humus" — mountainous 
 or rising ground, in which vipers are not found. He suggests, on 
 various Greek authorities, that **alta," in its sense of "deep," not 
 "high," has the signification of "fertile" (we say a deep rich soil, 
 in antithesis to a thin poor one) ; and to those who dissent from that 
 
EPODE XVI. 473 
 
 Aut pars indocili melior grege ; mollis et exspes 
 
 Inominata perprimat cubilia ! 
 Vos, quibus est virtus, muliebrem tollite lucturri, 
 
 Etrusca praeter et volate litora. 
 Nos manet Oceanus circumvagus : arva, beata 
 
 Petamus arva divites et insulas ; 
 Reddit ubi Cererem tellus inarata quotannis, 
 
 Et imputata floret usque vinea, 
 Germinat et nunquam fallentis termes olivae, t 
 
 Suamque pulla ficus ornat arborem, 
 Mella cava manant ex ilice, montibus altis 
 
 Levis crepante lympha desilit pede. 
 Illic injussae veniunt ad mulctra capellae, 
 
 Refertque tenta grex amicus ubera ; 
 Nee vespertinus circumgemit ursus ovile, J 
 
 Neque intumescit alta viperis humus. § 
 Pluraque felices mirabimur : ut neque largis 
 
 Aquosus Eurus arva radat imbribus, || 
 
 interpretation, Orelli commends Jahn's proposed construction to take 
 "alta" with "intumescit" — "swells high." Macleane indorses it. 
 Orelli refers "tumescit" not to the sweltering venom, but to the 
 undulous movement of the reptile, alternately rising and falling, so 
 that the ground literally seems to heave, as the commentator in Orelli 
 says he has himself noticed, in his solitary walks along the meadows 
 and water-banks of Italy, which, but for the vipers, would have been 
 exceedingly pleasant. In the translation it is sought to render this 
 idea, drawn from the critic's personal observation, and which, as a 
 friend suggests, is in curious accordance with a passage in Humboldt's 
 ' Aspects of Nature,' where he describes the reptiles, snakes, breaking 
 their way through the clay soil left by the inundations of the Orinoco, 
 and lifting the ground into little heaps. Ritter finds fault with Orel- 
 li's interpretation, and contends that "alta" denotes the high grass and 
 herbage of the soil. 
 
 II "Aquosus Eurus arva radat imbribus." The literal and vernacular 
 meaning of "rado" is "to shave," as "radere caput;" " radere lit- 
 tora " {generally construed " to coast along ") is better interpreted by 
 the phrase familiar enough to our English sailor, "to shave the shore." 
 Orelli here construes "radat" "deluges," or "lays waste." 
 
474 I'HE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Nor rich seeds parch within the sweltering glebe. 
 
 Either extreme the King of Heaven has tempered. 
 Thither ne'er rowed the oar of Argonaut, 
 
 The impure Colchian never there had footing. 
 There Sidon's trader brought no lust of gain ; 
 
 No weary toil there anchored with Ulysses ; 
 Sickness is known not ; on the tender lamb 
 
 No ray falls baneful from one star in heaven. 
 When Jove's decree alloyed the golden age, 
 
 He kept these shores for one pure race secreted ; 
 For all beside the golden age grew brass 
 
 Till the last centuries hardened to the iron, 
 Whence to the pure in heart a glad escape,* 
 
 By favour of my prophet-strain is given.t 
 
 * "Quomm" depends on "fuga" — flight from the iron ages, 
 " Piis " has the signification of "pure from crime." 
 
 + It has been supposed by some that the description of these happy 
 islands, and the idea of migrating thither, is taken from the account ot 
 the Western Islands, which almost tempted Sertorius to seek in them 
 a refuge from the cares of his life, and the harassment of unceasing 
 wars. This story, which is told by Plutarch in his life of Sertorius, is 
 said by Acron to have been given by Sallust. But the general tradi- 
 tion of a happy land separated from the rest of the world was popular 
 among the ancients from the earliest time, and Horace might have got 
 the notion from Hesiod or Pindar. The poem, however, would assume 
 a much deeper and more earnest character if we could suppose that 
 the passage in question has a symbolical signification, and refers to the 
 isle of happy souls in which Achilles was wed to Helen. In that case 
 the latent meaning would apply to another world beyond this, and its 
 moral would be, ' ' Rather than submit to the ills and ignominy in store 
 for us, let us take our chance of those seats in Elysium reserved for the 
 pure." 
 
. . EPODE XVI. 475 
 
 Pinguia nee siccis urantur semina glebis ; 
 
 Utnimque rege temperante caelitum. 
 Non hue Argoo eontendit remige pinus, 
 
 Neque impudiea Colchis intuUt pedem ; 
 Non hue Sidonii torsemnt eornua nautae, 
 
 Laboriosa nee eohors UHxei. 
 Nulla noeent peeori contagia, nullius astri 
 
 Gregem aestuosa torret impotentia. 
 Jupiter ilia piae seerevit litora genti, 
 
 Ut inquinavit sere tempus aureum ; 
 ^re, dehine ferro duravit saeeula; quorum* 
 
 Piis secunda, vate me, datur fuga. 
 
4/6 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 EPODE XVII. 
 
 TO CANIDIA — IN APOLOGY. 
 
 This poem completes Horace's attacks on Canidia by an 
 ironical pretence of submission and apology. I state in 
 a note my conjecture that he was really suffering from an 
 illness when it was written. There is no reason to infer 
 
 with 
 
 Now, O now, I submit to the might of thy science ; 
 
 Now behold, as a suppliant, I lift up my hands ! 
 I adjure thee by Proserpine, and by great Hecate — 
 
 I adjure thee by all the most pitiless Powers — 
 I adjure thee by all thy weird black-books of magic, 
 
 Strong in charms to call down loosened stars from the 
 sky — 
 Dread Canidia, O spare me thy grim incantations ! 
 
 And O slacken, O slacken, thy swift-whirling wheel ! * 
 Even Telephus moved the fierce grandson of Nereus,t 
 
 Against whom he had marshalled, in insolent pride. 
 The host of his Mysians, and levelled his arrows ; — 
 
 Even Hector the homicide (sternly consigned 
 To the maw of the dog and the beak of the vulture) 
 
 Weeping matrons of Troy were allowed to embalm, 
 After Priam, alas (his stout walls left behind him) 
 
 At the feet of the stubborn Achilles knelt down. 
 So the rowers of toil-worn Ulysses, witch Circe 
 
 Released from the force of enchantment, at will, 
 
 * '* Citumque retro solve, solve turbinem." All the MSS. have 
 "solve." Lambinus has "volve" without authority. "Turbo" is a 
 wheel of some sort used by sorceresses; " rhombos" is the Greek name 
 for it. Ovid, Propertius, and Martial mention it. — Macleane. This 
 critic considers that " retro solvere" means to relax the onward motion 
 of the wheel, which will then of itself roll back. I may observe that 
 
EPODE XVII. 477 
 
 with some, that, because he says his hair was turning grey, 
 the verses were written in later Hfe. " But now at thirty 
 years my hair is grey," says Byron. At what age Horace 
 detected his first grey hair — and he became grey early — no 
 one can guess. The poem has all the character of the 
 early ones comprised in this book. It is the only epode in 
 which the same metre (trimeter iambic) is adopted. 
 
 Carm. XVIL 
 
 Jam jam efficaci do manus scientiae, 
 Supplex, et oro regna per Proserpinse, 
 Per et Dianae non movenda numina, 
 Per atque libros carminum valentium 
 Refixa caelo devocare sidera, 
 Canidia, parce vocibus tandem sacris, 
 Citumque retro solve, solve turbinem.* 
 Movit nepotem Telephus N'ereiumjt 
 In quem superbus ordinarat agmina 
 Mysorum, et in quem tela acuta torserat. 
 Unxere matres Ihae addictum feris 
 Alitibus atque canibus homicidam Hectorem, 
 Postquam relictis moenibus rex procidit 
 Heu ! pervicacis ad pedes Achillei. 
 Setosa duris exuere pellibus 
 Laboriosi remiges Ulixei, 
 
 " turbo," which means both a whirlwind and a spinning-top, probably 
 implies the shape of the witch's wheel, as being wide at its upper part 
 (the hoop), and spiral at the bottom. Party-coloured threads attached 
 to it formed a web to entangle the victim operated upon. 
 
 + Telephus, king of Mysia, opposed the Greeks on their expedition 
 to Troy, was wounded by Achilles, grandson of Nereus, and son of 
 Thetis. Achilles cured him by the scrapings of the spear with which 
 he was wounded. 
 
47,8 THE EPODES OF liORACE. 
 
 Giving back to limbs bristled* the voice and the reason, 
 
 And the glory that dwells in the aspect of Man. 
 Enough, and much more than enough, for all penance 
 
 Thy wrath has inflicted, O greatly beloved — 
 O greatly beloved both by huckster and sailor ! t ; 
 
 Fled away from my form is the vigour of youth, 
 And the blush-rose of health from my cheeks has departed, 
 
 Leaving nought but pale bones scantly covered with 
 skin. 
 And my hair is grown grey with, the spell of thy perfumes ; 
 
 From my suffering I snatch not a moment's repose. 
 Still the night vexes day, and still day the night vexes ; 
 
 I can free not the lungs strained with gaspings for breath. J 
 Wherefore, wretch that I am, I confess myself conquered; 
 
 I acknowledge the truth I had dared to deny ; 
 Yes, the chant of a Samnite can rattle a bosom. 
 
 And the Marsian's witch-ditty can split up a head ! 
 What more wouldst thou have ? Earth and Sea ! I am 
 hotter 
 
 Than Alcides in fell Nessian venom imbued, 
 Or than Sicily's flame budding fresh in fierce yEtna.§ 
 
 Dost thou mean, then, for ever to keep up this fire — 
 
 * Previously transformed to swine. Bentley's reading of Circ^ in- 
 stead of Circ^ (the Latin instead of the Greek termination), founded on 
 the statement of Valerius Probus, is adopted by all the more recent 
 editors. 
 
 t As the lowest of the low. 
 
 t *' Neque est 
 Levare tenta spiritu praecordia." 
 The symptoms described are those of a real malady — emaciation, 
 fever, sleeplessness, difficulty of breathing — a malady familiar enough 
 to those who have experienced an Italian malaria. The whole poem 
 seems to me to have the air of being written at some period of actual 
 illness, in the attempt to draw amusement from humorous exaggeration 
 of his own complaints, which is common enough among witty invalids. 
 The nature of the poem would perhaps scarcely suggest itself to. him if 
 he were quite well in health at the time. . ..„.,.:, .. : , • : 
 
EPQDE xvn. _■ 479 
 
 Volente Circa, membra ; * tunc mens et sonus 
 
 Relapsus, atque notus in voltus honor. 
 
 Dedi satis superque poenamm tibi, 
 
 Amata nautis multum et institoribus.t 
 
 Fugit juventas, et verecundus color 
 
 Reliquit ossa pelle amicta lurida ; 
 
 Tuis capillus albus est odoribus ; 
 
 Nullum ab labore me reclinat otium ; 
 
 Urget diem nox, et dies noctem, neque est 
 
 Levare tenta spiritu praecordia.^ 
 
 Ergo negatum vincor ut credam miser, 
 
 Sabella pectus increpare carmina, 
 
 Caputque Marsa dissilire nenia. 
 
 Quid amplius vis ? O mare, O terra ! ardeo, 
 
 Quantum neque atro delibutus Hercules 
 
 Nessi cruore, nee Sicana fervida 
 
 Virens in ^tna flamma;§ tu, donee cinis 
 
 Injuriosis aridus ventis ferar, 
 
 § *' Nee Sicana fervida 
 Virens in ^tna flamma." 
 I take " virens" to have the same signification here that it has Lib. IV. 
 Carrn. xiii. 6, '*Virentis doctse psallere Chise " — i.e., youthful, bloom- 
 ing or budding, in the spring of life. * * Virens flamma " may be compared 
 M^ith Lucretius's " Flos flammse." I agree, therefore, with Macleane, 
 who follows Lambinus and the scholiast in Cruquius, in interpreting the 
 meaning to be "the flame, always fresh and renewing itself," and hav- 
 ing no more to do with the colour of the flame as of sulphurous green, 
 which is the supposition favoured by Orelli and Dillenburger, than it 
 has in the line quoted above, where it is certainly not meant to imply 
 that Chia is "green." The emendation of "furens," suggested by 
 Bentley on inferior MS. authority, and rejected by most recent com- 
 mentators, would substitute a prosaic commonplace for a poetic image. 
 
480 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 thou warehouse of venomous fuel from Colchis, — 
 
 Till I'm whirled, a parched cinder, the waif of the winds ? 
 What the death that awaits or the fine that redeems me ? 
 
 Every penalty asked I will honestly pay : 
 Speak ! a hundred young steers ; or a couple of stanzas 
 
 To be sung to a lute-string attuned to a lie, 
 
 1 will chant thee as chaste, I will chant thee as honest; 
 
 Thou shalt traverse, a gold constellation, the stars. 
 Moved by prayer Castor's self, and the twin of great 
 Castor, 
 
 Gave back sight to the bard who had Helen defamed.* 
 So mayst thou, for thou canst, from this frenzy release 
 me — 
 
 O thou, by no filth-scum paternal defiled t — 
 O thou who didst never, an aged wise-woman,J 
 
 From his grave the first day§ rake a beggar-man's dust ! 
 O thy breast is the kindest, thy hands are the purest 
 
 On earth ; Pactumeius is really thy son ; || 
 And whenever thou bearest the pangs of a mother, 
 
 'Tis to rise from thy bed with the bloom of a maid ! 
 
 * *' Infamis Helenoe Castor offensus vicem, 
 Fraterque magni Castoris, victi prece," 
 The poet alluded to is Stesichorus, punished with blindness for libel- 
 ling Helen, and recovering his sight after writing an apology (palinodia), 
 of which a fragment remains. Other writers ascribe to Helen the grace 
 of restoring the poet's sight. Probably Horace follows some other 
 version of the story lost to us, in attributing the restoration to her two 
 brothers. The allusion to Castor and Pollux, twin stars, comes natu- 
 rally enough after saying that Canidia shall become a constellation 
 herself. 
 
 + "Obsoleta." This word, as Macleane observes, is applied in an 
 unusual sense. It usually signifies *'that which is gone to decay," "out 
 of use ; " and so it comes to mean that which is spoilt and worthless (in 
 which sense Macleane implies that he would take it here). Orelli, I 
 think, better explains it as '"' inquinata," " deformata." I apprehend that 
 " inquinata," in the sense of "stained," or "defiled," is the right 
 meaning — as in Seneca (Agam. 971, a line which appears to have 
 
EPODE XVII. 48 ^ 
 
 Cales venenis officina Colchicis. 
 
 Quae finis, aut quod me manet stipendium ? 
 
 Effare ; jussas cum fide poenas luam, 
 
 Paratus expiare, seu poposceris 
 
 Centum juvencos, sive mendaci lyra 
 
 Voles sonari : tu pudica, tu proba 
 
 Perambulabis astra sidus aureum. 
 
 Infamis Helense Castor ofiensus vicem, 
 
 Fraterque magni Castoris, victi prece,* 
 
 Adempta vati reddidere lumina. 
 
 Et tu, potes nam, solve me dementia, 
 
 O nee paternis obsoletat sordibus, 
 
 Neque in sepulcris pauperum prudens anus J 
 
 Novendiales dissipare pulveres.§ 
 
 Tibi hospitale pectus et purae manus, 
 
 Tuusque venter Pactumeius,|| et tuo 
 
 Cruore rubros obstetrix pannos lavit, 
 
 Utcunque fortis exilis puerpera. 
 
 escaped the commentators on the passage), "Dextera obsoleta san- 
 guine." 
 
 t "Neque in sepulcris pauperum prudens anus." Macleane, in his 
 note on Canidia, Epode iii. p. 280, observes, that Horace says Canidia 
 is not an old woman, and refers to this very line as proving it. It 
 proves just the contrary. Horace, speaking in the most obvious irony, 
 had before asked if he should celebrate her with a lying lyre, and all he 
 is now saying about her is, of course, to be read in the opposite sense. 
 
 § "Novendiales pulveres." This has been variously interpreted; 
 but Orelli and all recent commentators agree in accepting the general 
 authority of Servius, Ad. JEn. 5, that the ashes were buried the ninth 
 day after death — the body -having been burned on the eighth. Probably 
 enough the poor were not kept so long above ground ; but the phrase 
 "novendiales" might have come into conventional usage as signifying 
 the first day of burial. It means, at all events, fresh buried, while 
 warmth was yet in the ashes — that being essential for the purposes of 
 witchcraft ; and the ashes were scattered and reduced to powder for 
 those purposes. 
 
 II "Tuusque venter Pactumeius." It would seem that the person, 
 whoever she might have been, represented by Canidia, was rather sen- 
 
 2 H 
 
482 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 " Why on ears locked against thee pour prayer unavaiUng ? 
 
 Not more deaf to the sailor, stripped bare to the skin, 
 Are the rocks upon which, in the depth of the winter, 
 
 Breaks in thunder the reef of a merciless sea. 
 What, forsooth ! raise a laugh at the rites of Cotytto* 
 
 Divulged ? Mock the Cupid of Cupids most free ? 
 As if thou wert high-priest to the witchcraft of charnels. 
 
 And in safety mightst make a town-talk of my name ! 
 What my gain to have squandered on beldames Pelignian 
 
 My gold, and have mixed up the poisons most quick ? 
 Yet they are not so quick, but their work shall seem tardy t 
 
 To thy longings for death to escape from thy pain. 
 Ay, for this shall thy thankless existence be lengthened, 
 
 That with every new day there shall come a new pang. 
 For reprieve sighed the father of Pelops the faithless, 
 
 Hungry Tantalus, yearning in vain for the food ; 
 For reprieve sighed Prometheus, fast bound to the vulture, 
 
 And Sisyphus upward vain-heaving the stone. 
 But reprieve is just that which Jove's law has denied thee. 
 
 So shalt thou, in the weary revolt from thy woes, 
 Now wish to leap down from the height of a turret. 
 
 Now with Norican blade to gash open thy breast, 
 And to garland thy throat with a noose, but wish vainly. 
 
 Conquered foe, on thy shoulders in state I will ride, 
 And the earth shall acknowledge my scorn and my triumph. 
 
 What ! shall I who, as thou, curious fool, knowest well. 
 Mould and move human life in the wax of an image ; 
 
 Who can snatch with my chantings the moon from the 
 sky; 
 
 sitive to the charge of sterility, or that, for some reason or other, she 
 had palmed off a supposititious child (Pactumeius) as her own. In the 
 former poem on Canidia, Horace had implied a doubt if she had any 
 
EPODE XVII. 483 
 
 CANIDIA. 
 
 ' Quid obseratis auribus fundis preces ? 
 Non saxa nudis surdiora navitis 
 Neptunus alto tundit hibemus salo. 
 Inultus ut tu riseris Cotyttia"^" 
 Vulgata, sacrum liberi Cupidinis, 
 Et Esquilini Pontifex venefici 
 Impune ut Urbem nomine impleris meo ? 
 Quid proderat ditasse Pelignas anus, 
 Velociusve miscuisse toxicum ? 
 Sed tardiora fata te votis manent : t 
 Ingrata misero vita ducenda est in hoc, 
 Novis ut usque suppetas laboribus. 
 Optat quietem Pelopis infidi pater, 
 Egens benignae Tantalus semper dapis ; 
 Optat Prometheus obligatus aliti; 
 Optat supremo collocare Sisyphus 
 In monte saxum ; sed vetant leges Jovis. 
 Voles modo altis desilire turribus, 
 Modo ense pectus Norico recludere, 
 Frustraque vincla gutturi nectes tuo, 
 Fastidiosa tristis segrimonia. 
 Vectabor humeris tunc ego inimicis eques, 
 Meaeque terra cedet insolentiae. 
 An qu^ movere cereas imagines, 
 Ut ipse nosti curiosus, et polo 
 Deripere lunam vocibus possim meis, 
 
 real offspring, ** Si vocata partubus Lucina veris affuit." He now ironi- 
 cally appears to make it up with her, by declaring that Pactumeius is 
 really her son. Ritter has partumeius instead of Pactumeius. 
 
 * The rites of Cotytto, of Thracian origin, were celebrated only by 
 women, with one presiding priest. 
 
 + " Sed tardiora fata te votis manent." There is dispute about the 
 reading and interpretation of this passage. I adopt those sanctioned by 
 Orelli and Macleane. 
 
4^4 THE EPODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Who can raise up the dead, though consumed into ashes, 
 And can temper at pleasure the bowl of desire ;~ 
 
 What ! shall I bring mine arts to an end in lamenting 
 That they have not the slightest effect upon thee?" 
 
EPODE XVII. I 485 
 
 > 
 
 Possim cremates excitare mortuos, 
 Desiderique temperare pocula, 
 Plorem artis, in te nil agentis, exitus ? ' 
 
 THE END. 
 
 PRINTED BV WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH. 
 
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