Stutients' Series of Hattn Classics
HORACE
ODES AND EPODES
EDITED, WITH
INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY
PAUL SHOKEY, PH.D.
PBOFESBOB IK THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
0V TTOXX' d
BENJ. H. SANBORN & CO.
BOSTON, U.S. A.
1901
COPTEIGHT, 1898,
BY PAUL SHOKET.
yorinooti ISrrss
J. S. Gushing & Co. - Berwick ft Smith
Norwood Mass. U.S.A.
STACK
ANNEX
fA
2T0 tfjc Alumnae of
BRYN MAWR COLLEGE
18891895
TaOra
PREFACE.
FROM some friendly admonitions that have come to me it
appears that what is expected of a would-be ' literary ' edition
of Horace is commentary of the kind so admirably described by
Mr. Sarcey : 1
' Ecce autem a Tenedo gemini tranquilla per alta. Ecce autem!
Les voila, ce sont eux! A Tenedo; c'est de Tenedos qu'ils arrivent;
on les apercoit de loin ; gemini ; ils sont deux ; ils forment un couple !
Ambo serait faible : mais gemini! Tranquilla per alta ; c'est la haute
mer; die est tranquille, et les deux monstres s'avancent. Quel
tableau ! ' ,
The present edition is less ambitious in its scope. It aims to
stimulate the student's appreciation of the Odes as literature
by a somewhat fuller illustration than is generally given of
Horace's thought, sentiment, and poetic imagery. In order to
find space for the parallel passages quoted it has been neces-
sary to abbreviate somewhat the expression of the tradi-
tional exegesis and to state by implication some of the more
obvious things which the student has already met in Vergil.
But it is believed that the introductory paraphrases in con-
nection with the more explicit notes provide as much aid for
the young student as is desirable ; and it is hoped that the
1 Souvenirs de Jeunesse, p. 180.
v
vi PREFACE.
surplusage, as some may deem it, of references, citations, and
illustrations will prove of value not only to teachers and
students of literature, but to the beginner when he returns to
the most interesting and important part of his task the
review. For the Odes are to be assimilated, not merely read
through.
The young student in haste to construe will of course not
look up references to other authors. But they will not harm
him any more than the critical and grammatical discussions
found in all school editions which he always skips. Cross-
references to Horace have been designedly multiplied. No
intelligent study of an author is possible without them. It
would not have been difficult to add indefinitely to the quota-
tions from English poetry, and the task of selection was not easy.
Some commonplace quotations have been admitted merely for
the information they contain ; others as illustrations of the
taste of the. age that produced them. I should be sorry to
be thought to recommend ' parallel passages ' as a short cut to
' culture.' But Horace especially invites this treatment, and in
no other way can the right atmosphere for the enjoyment of
the Odes be so easily created. No judicious teacher will impose
such work as a task, and when it is voluntarily undertaken
the student should be taught to distinguish carefully conscious
imitation, interesting coincidences, and the mere common-
places of poetical rhetoric and imagery.
The text of the Odes is for practical purposes settled. This
edition was set up from the Teubner text of Miiller with
marginal corrections. I fear that I have not attained perfect
consistency in some minor matters. All various readings or
disputed interpretations that concern the undergraduate or the
PREFACE. Vli
literary student are briefly discussed in the notes. I have been
more careful to indicate the reasons for each of two differing
views than to insist strenuously on my own preference. Those
who wish to consult critical editions or use the Odes for exer-
cises in text criticism will be put on the track of a sufficient
preliminary bibliography by the article Horatius, in Harper's
Classical Dictionary.
In the preparation of the notes I have freely used Hirsch-
felder-Orelli, Kiessling, and Nauck, and have consulted Wick-
ham, Smith, Page, and others.
Spenser's Fairy Queen is cited as F. Q. ; Herrick, by the
numbers of Saintsbury's (Aldine Poets) edition. Lex. =
Harper's Latin Lexicon. Otto = Otto's Sprichworter der
Rbmer.
In conclusion I wish to thank Professor Pease, and Professor
Arthur T. Walker of the University of Kansas, who have read
a large part of the proof and made helpful suggestions.
Mr. George Norlin, Mr. T. C. Burgess, and Mr. H. M.
Burchard, fellows in Greek in the University of Chicago,
kindly offered to verify in the proof the references to Greek
and Latin authors. To them is mainly due such accuracy as
I may have attained in this matter.
PAUL SHOREY.
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO,
August, 1898.
NOTE. A. G. = Allen and Greenough's Latin Grammar ; B. =
Bennett ; G. L. = Gildersleeve-Lodge ; H. = Harkness.
INTRODUCTION.
THERE are many excellent lives of Horace in print, and much
good criticism is easily accessible. 1 In order to keep the pres-
ent volume within bounds this introduction will be limited to
a brief resume of the chief facts known about the poet's life,
and a few practical suggestions on (1) syntax, (2) style,
(3) meters.
The student should by all means review the history of Rome
for the period of Horace's life and familiarize himself with the
topography of Rome and the Campagna, the biographies of
Augustus and Maecenas, and the events of the years B.C. 44-20. 2
The sources for the life of Horace are the allusions in his
own writings, and the brief biography attributed to Suetonius.
Quintus 3 Horatius 4 Flaccus 5 was born on the 8th of Decem-
ber, 6 B.C. 65, 7 at Venusia, 8 a Roman colony on the confines of
1 Milman : Martin, in Blackwood's Ancient Classics for English
Readers ; Sellar, Horace and the Elegiac Poets ; Lang, Letters to Dead
Authors ; the Histories of Latin literature, Crutwell, Simcox, and es-
pecially Mackail ; articles in Encycl. Brit. ; the Classical Dictionaries,
and the Library of the World's Best Literature ; Quarterly Review,
180. Ill sqq. : 104. 325 sqq.
2 Merivale's Roman Triumvirates, and Cape's Early Empire, in
Epochs of History Series ; Hare's Days near Rome ; Burns' Rome
and the Campagna.
8 Sat. 2. 6. 37.
4 Odes 4. 6. 44; Epp. 1.14.5.
s Sat. 2. 1. 18; Epode 15. 12.
6 Suet., sexto idus Decembris.
' Odes 3. 21. 1 ; Epode 13. 6; Epp. 1. 20. 26-28.
8 Sat. 2. 1. 35 ; Odes 3. 30. 10, 4. 6. 27, 4. 9. 2.
ix
X INTRODUCTION.
Apulia and Lucania. His father was a iibertinus, or freedman, 1
by whom emancipated is not known. Horace was technically
ingenuus, having been born after his father's emancipation. 2
His mother he never mentions. In the exercise of his profes-
sion of coactor, 8 collector of taxes, or perhaps rather of the pro-
ceeds of public sales, the father acquired a small estate near
Venusia, and a competence that enabled him to give his son
the best education that Rome afforded.* To this and to his
father's personal supervision and shrewd, homely vein of moral
admonition the poet refers with affectionate gratitude. 5 At
Rome Horace pursued the usual courses in grammar and rhet-
oric, reading the older Latin poets under the famous teacher
L. Orbilius Pupillus, whom he has immortalized by the epithet
plagosus. 6 He also read Homer at this time, a^id apparently
pushed his Greek studies so far as to compose Greek verses,
which he wisely destroyed, 7 though he retained throughout life
his devotion to Greek models as the one source of literary sal-
vation. 8 About the age of twenty he went to study at Athens,
at this time virtually a university town and a finishing school
for young Romans of the better class. 9 He probably attended
the lectures of Cratippus the Peripatetic, and Theomnestus the
Academician, the chief figures in the schools at that time, and
acquired a superficial knowledge of their doctrines. In later
years, after the publication of the first three books of the Odes,
the Greek moral philosophers became his favorite reading.
He was naturally an Epicurean, but the lofty morality and
ingenious dialectic of the Stoics attracted him as they did other
1 Sat. 1. 6. 6 and 45 ; Odes 2. 20. 6.
2 Sat. 1. 6. 8.
8 Sat. 1. 6. 86; Suet., coactor exactionum.
4 Sat. 1. 6. 71 sqq. ; Epp. 2. 2. 42.
e Sat. 1. 4. 105, 1. 6. 71.
6 Epp. 2. 1. 70.
7 Epp. 2. 2. 42 ; Sat. 1. 10. 31 sqq.
8 A. P. 268.
9 Epp. 2. 2. 43; cf. Harper's Class. Diet. s.v. Education (3), and
Cape's University Life in Ancient Athens.
INTRODUCTION. xi
great Romans, and all his writings abound in allusions to Stoic
commonplaces and paradoxes.
At Athens, too, he probably studied for the first time Archi-
lochus, Alcaeus, and the Greek lyric poets who were to be his
models in the Odes and Epodes.
Among his fellow-students were Marcus Cicero, son of the
orator, M. Valerius Messalla, and many other sons of distin-
guished houses. His studies were interrupted after the assas-
sination of Caesar, B.C. 44, by the civil war, in which with
others of the young Roman nobility he joined the party of
Brutus and Cassius against the triumvirs. Plutarch relates that
Brutus, in the intervals of preparation for the campaign, at-
tended the lectures of Theomnestus at Athens. He may there
have met Horace, to whom, in spite of his youth and humble
birth, he gave the position of military tribune. 1 In this capac-
ity Horace probably accompanied Brutus in his progress through
Thessaly and Macedonia, and in the next year crossed to Asia
with him, there to await the gathering of the forces of Cassius.
Returning to Macedonia in the autumn of B.C. 42, he took part
in the battle of Philippi, from which he escaped to Italy to find
his father dead and his little estate confiscated for the use of
the veterans of the triumvirs. Many passages of his works
may be referred to these experiences of war and travel. 2
In the epistle to Floras, 8 Horace resumes the early history of
his life thus :
' I was brought up at Rome, and there was taught
What ills to Greece Achilles' anger wrought;
Then Athens bettered that dear lore of song ;
She taught me to distinguish right from wrong,
1 Suet., Bella Philippensi excitus a Marco Bruto imperatore tribu-
nus militum meruit.
2 Studies at Athens, Epp. 2. 2. 43-46 ; military tribune, Sat. 1. 6. 48,
Epp. 1. 20. 23; campaign of Philippi, Epp. 2. 2. 46, Odes 2. 7, 3. 4. 26;
anecdote of Brutus' proconsular court, Sat. 1. 7; scenes of travel:
Thessaly and Macedonia in winter, Odes 1. 37. 20, Epp. 1. 3. 3; the
Hellespont, Epp. 1. 3. 4; description of Lebedos, Epp. 1. 11. 7.
3 2. 2. 46 sqq.
xii INTRODUCTION.
And in the groves of Academe to sound
The way to truth, if so she might be found.
But from that spot so pleasant and so gay,
Hard times and troublous swept my youth away
On civil war's tempestuous tide, to fight
In ranks unmeet to cope with Caesar's might.
Whence when Philippi, with my pinions clipped,
Struck to the dust, of land and fortune stripped,
Turned me adrift, through poverty grown rash,
At the versemonger's craft I made a dash.'
Martin.
The next few years were the hardest of Horace's life. He
supported himself, according to Suetonius, by means of a clerk-
ship in the quaestor's office, 1 which he may have bought with
borrowed money or obtained through the influence of his
father's friends. The period of probation, however, did not
last long. His 'dash at the versemonger's craft,' won him
the friendship of Vergil and Varius, the rising poets of the
age, who, in B.C. 39, introduced him to Maecenas, the great
minister of Augustus :
' Lucky I will not call myself, as though
Thy friendship I to mere good fortune owe.
No chance it was secured me thy regards,
But Vergil first, that best of men and bards,
And then kind Varius mentioned what I was.
Before you brought, with many a faltering pause
Dropping some few brief words (for bashfulness
Robbed me of utterance), I did not profess
That I was sprung of lineage old and great,
Or used to canter round my own estate
On Satureian barb, but what and who
I was as plainly told. As usual, you
Brief answer make me. I retire, and then,
Some nine months after, summoning me again,
You bid me 'mongst your friends assume a place ;
And proud I feel that thus I won your grace,
Not by an ancestry long known to fame,
But by my life, and heart devoid of blame.'
Sat. 1.6, Martin.
1 Suet., Victisque partibus venia impetrata scriptum quaestorium
comparavit.
INTRODUCTION. xill
The date of this event is plausibly fixed by Sat. 2. 6. 40,
written about B.C. 31, in which Horace says that he has
enjoyed Maecenas' friendship for nearly eight years. From
this time forth Horace's path was made smooth. In B.C. 37 (?)
he accompanied Maecenas on the journey to Brundisium, of
which he has preserved a record in Sat. 1. 5. 1 About B.C. 35,
he published the first book of Satires, 2 and about B.C. 30, the
second book of Satires and the Epodes. 8 Some time after the
publication of the first book of Satires, and before the publica-
tion of the Epodes, Maecenas presented Horace with a small
estate beautifully situated about thirty miles from Rome and
twelve miles from Tibur, among the Sabine hills the famous
Sabine Farm. 4 This gift may, perhaps, be compared to the
pension that saved Tennyson for poetry. About ten years
later, in B.C. 23, Horace collected and published with a dedica-
tion to Maecenas and an epilogue, the first three books of the
Odes. The earliest Ode that can be positively dated is 1. 37,
written in B.C. 30, but several of the light compliments or
sketches from the Greek may be contemporary with the
Epodes and Satires. 8
'Before a volume of which every other line is as familiar as
a proverb criticism is almost silenced.' 6
Three or four years later the first book of the Epistles was
published. It consists of twenty little letters of friendship or
moral essays varying in length from about twenty to about
one hundred lines of hexameter verse. In urbanity, refine-
ment, gentle good sense, and genial world wisdom, they are
justly deemed the finest flower of Latin literature.
Horace's fame was now established, and his chief work done.
His frank but dignified acceptance of the empire 7 won him the
1 See Kirkland's notes. 3 See Introduction to Epodes.
2 See Kirkland's Introduction. 4 Cf. Epode 1. 30-32. n.
5 For dates of Odes, cf. on 1. 2, 1. 3, 1. 14, 1. 26, 1. 29, 1. 35, 1. 37, 2. 13,
3. 1-6, 3. 8, 3. 14.
6 Maekail, Lat. Lit. p. 112. See the whole chapter.
7 Cf. on odes, 1. 2, 1. 12, 1. 37, 3. 1-6, 3. 3. 16, 3. 4. 41 sqq., 3. 14, 3.
25. 4, 4. 4, 4. 5, 4. 14, 4. 15.
xiv INTRODUCTION.
favor of Augustus, who, in B.C. 17, commissioned him to write
the Carmen Saeculare. 1 The fourth book of odes, too, was
composed mainly at the request of the emperor, and largely in
celebration of the empire and the imperial family. 2 The list
of Horace's works closes with the second book of Epistles, three
long essays in hexameter verse on questions of literary criticism
and taste. The first, addressed to Augustus, was called forth
by the explicit request of the emperor. 3 The third is gener-
ally known as the Ars Poetica.
Horace died at the age of fifty-seven, B.C. 8, a few months after
Maecenas, near whom he was buried on the Esquiline. 4 He
was never married. In the epilogue to the first book of Epis-
tles, he describes himself thus :
' Say, that though born a freedman's son, possessed
Of slender means, beyond the parent nest
I soared on ampler wing ; thus what iu birth
I lack, let that be added to my worth.
Say, that in war, and also here at home,
I stood well with the foremost men of Rome ;
That small in stature, prematurely gray,
Sunshine was life to me and gladness ; say
Besides, though hasty in my temper, I
Was just as quick to put my anger by.'
Elsewhere he hints that when the dark locks clustered over
his low forehead he needed no adventitious recommendations
to the graces of the fair. 5 But he is already something of a
valetudinarian at the time of the journey to Brundisium, and,
though he saw enough of the gay life of the capital in his
youth to portray it with smiling irony, his own part in it was
probably less than his more boisterous admirers would have us
believe, and with advancing years his role must have become
more and more that of Thackeray's benevolent ' Fogy.' The
1 Cf. infra, p. 447. 2 cf. infra, pp. 395, 407.
3 Suet., ' Irasci me tibi scito quod non in plerisque eiusmodi scriptis
mecum potissimum loquaris. An vereris ne apudposteros infame tibi
sit quod videaris familiaris nobis essef '
* Cf. on Odes, 2. 17. Epp. 1. 14. 33.
INTRODUCTION. XV
attempt to find biographical material in his Lydes and Lydias
has long since been abandoned by all intelligent critics.
The Odes have been a school book, a classic, and a ' Golden
Treasury ' for nineteen centuries, and there is no sign of a fail-
ure in their perennial charm for the majority of lovers of
poetry.
II.
SYNTAX.
The Syntax of the Odes presents few difficulties. The stu-
dent should observe the differences between poetry and normal
prose, the most of which he has already met in Vergil. By
way of supplement to the notes especial attention is called here
to the following constructions :
1. The free use of the 'complementary' infinitive.
a) With verbs: A. G. 273. c; B. 328; G. L. 423. n. 2; H.
533. 1. II. Cf. 1. 1. 8, 1. 15. 7, 1. 15. 27, 1. 37. 30, 2. 3. 11, 2. 4.
23, 2. 12. 28, 2. 16. 39, 2. 18. 21, 2. 18. 40, 1. 34. 12, n., 4. 4. 62,
4. 9. 49. These and the countless other cases admit of classifi-
cation on a graduated scale beginning with volo cupio possum
and the like.
b) With adjectives and participles : A. G. 273. d ; B. 333 ; G.
L. 421. 1. c ; H. 533. II. 3. Cf . 1. 1. 18, 1. 3. 25, 1. 6. 6, 1. 10.
7, 1. 12. 26, 1. 12. 11, 1. 19. 8, 1. 24. 17, 1. 35. 2, 1. 37. 10, 2. 2.
7, 2. 4. 11, 2. 6. 2, 3. 3. 50, 3. 6. 38, 3. 7. 25, 3. 8. 11, 3. 11. 4, 3.
12. 10, 3. 21. 6, 3. 21. 22, 3. 29. 50, 4. 6. 39, 4. 8. 8, 4. 9. 52, 4.
12. 19, 20, 4. 13. 7, 4. 14. 23. C. S. 25, etc., etc.
2. The occasional use of the infinitive of purpose : A. G.
273. e; B. 326. n.; G. L. 421. 1. a; H. 533. II. 2. Cf. 1. 2. 8. n.;
1. 12. 2. n.; 1. 23. 10; 3. 8. 11 (?), 1. 26. 3 (?).
3. The various forms of prohibition with present and perfect
subjunctive or periphrasis of imperative and infinitive: A. G.
266. b, 269. a ; B. 276; G. L. 263, 271. 2 ; H. 489. Cf. 1. 11. 1.
n.; 2. 11. 3, 4; in 1. 33. 1, 2. 4. 1, 4. 9. 1 and the like ne with
pres. subj. may be taken as purpose of following statements.
Cf. also mitte sectari 1. 38. 3 with 1. 9. 13, 3. 29. 11.
xvi INTRODUCTION.
4. The concrete (and poetic) Latin idiom of db urbe condita:
A. G. 292. a; B. 337. 5; G. L. 664. 2; H. 549. 5. n. 2. Cf. 2. 4.
10. n. ; 3. 24. 24, 42.
5. The stylistic effect of the future participle : A. G. 293 b ;
B. 337. 4 ; G. L. 438. n. ; H. 549. 3. Cf. on. 2. 3. 4, and for
gerundive, 'fut. pass, part.' 4. 2. 9. n.
6. The free use of the partitive genitive, and of the genitive
of 'reference' or extent of application, etc., with adjectives of
plenty, want, knowledge, desire, etc. : A. G. 218. c ; B. 204. 1 ;
G. L. 374. 4. 5. 6; H. 399. I. II. III. Cf. (partitive) 1. 9. 14,
1. 10. 19, 1. 29. 5, 4. 6. 31, 2. 1. 23. n. with 4. 4. 76, 4. 12. 20.
7. The Greek gen. of separation with verbs: A. G. 243. f, R;
B. 212. 3; G. L. 383. 2; H. 410. V. 4. Cf. 3. 27. 69-70. n. with
2. 9. 18, 3. 17. 16 and 2. 13. 38. n. (?).
8. The dative of place whither: A. G. 258. n. 1; B. 193; G.
L. 358 ; H. 380. II. 4, 385. II. 4. Cf . 1. 2. 1, 1. 28. 10, 3. 23. 1, 4.
4. 69.
9. The dative of the person concerned in its extension, as
dative of agent: A. G. 232. a, b; B. 189, Appendix, 308; G. L.
354; H. 388. Cf. 1. 1. 24, 1. 21. 4, 1. 32. 5, 2. 1. 31, 3. 25. 3.
10. The dative with all words of difference and contention :
A. G. 229. c; B. 358. 3; G. L. 390. 2. n. 5; H. 385. II. 4. 2. Cf.
1. 1. 15, 4. 9. 29.
11. The dative with misceo, iungo and the like : A. G. 248 a,
R; B. 358. 3 ; G. L. 346. n. 6; H. 385. II. 4. 3. Cf. 1. 1. 30.
12. The various 'Greek,' cognate, adverbial, or specifying
accusatives : A. G. 238, 240. a, c ; B. 175. 2. d, 176. 2. b. n. ; G.
L. 333. 2, 338; H. 371. II., 378. Cf. 1. 2. 31, 2. 7. 8, 2. 11. 15,
4. 8. 33, 1. 32. 1, 4. 9. 9, 2. 11. 24, 2. 13. 38. n., 1. 28. 25, 2. 17.
26, 1. 22. 23, 3. 27. 67, 2. 12. 14, 2. 19. 6, 3. 29. 50.
13. The ablative of place where or whence without a prepo-
sition: A. G. 258. a, n. 3. b, n. 5; B. 228. d, 229. 1. c; G. L. 385.
n. 1; H. 412. II. 2, 425. II. 2. n. 3.
14. The ablative after comparatives instead of quam A. G.
247. e; G. L. 398; H. 417. n. 1. Cf. 1. 8. 9, 4. 9. 50, 3. 1. 9, 1.
13. 20.
INTRODUCTION. XVli
III.
STYLE.
A study of Horace's style must be mainly an analysis of the
art by which he compensates for the slenderness of his own
inspiration and the relative poverty of the Latin lyric vocabu-
lary. He has no very profound thought or intense emotion to
convey. His imagery lacks the imaginative splendor and
audacity of the great Greek and English lyrists ; and yet, while
literary fashions come and go, his indefectible charm abides.
Literary critics have repeatedly told us that it is due to his
unfailing tact and exquisite felicity in the expression of poetical
and moral commonplace, and the special student of the Odes
can do little more than verify and illustrate this judgment in
detail.
The chief themes or motifs of the Odes are easily enumerated.
There is the Epicurean commonplace, the Stoic commonplace,
the verse exercise modeled on the Greek, the praise of poetry,
the graceful tribute to friendship, the vers de socie'te, the ' con-
solation,' the dignified recognition of Augustus as the restorer,
of peace and tranquillity, and the imperial theme of the new
empire, heir to the double tradition of the 'glory that was
Greece and the grandeur that was Rome.'
There is no intensity of feeling. The love poetry is in
the vein of persiflage, playful admiration, banter or worse;
the patriotism with a few noble exceptions fails to thrill the
pulses, the conviviality is gracefully moderate, the criticism
of life is a blending of Stoic didacticism with gentle Epicurean
melancholy in the urbane tone of a man of the world, member
of a metropolitan and imperial society. That life is short, that
the bloom of the rose is brief, that the bird of time is on the
wing, that death comes to pauper and prince alike, that it is
pleasant to be young and in love but that you ' know the worth
of a lass once you have come to forty year,' that good wine
promotes good fellowship but must be used in moderation, that
the bow always bent makes Apollo a dull god, that we cannot
Xviii INTRODUCTION.
escape ourselves, that black care sits behind the horseman, that
the golden mean is best, that contentment passes wealth, that
he who ruleth his spirit is greater than he who sits on the
throne of Cyrus, that patience maketh easy what we cannot
alter, that brave men lived before Agamemnon, that 'tis sweet
and seemly to die for the fatherland, such are the eternal
commonplaces that Horace is ever murmuring in our ears.
But then, as he himself says, the difficult thing is so to express
commonplaces as to make them your own. If one half of the
poet's mission is to sing hymns unbidden till the world is
wrought to sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not, his
no less helpful task is to intensify by beautiful expression our
realization of those simple and obvious truths the repetition of
which somehow calms and soothes our average mood. In this
kind Horace is the supreme master. For the expression of an
every-day philosophy of life, just sufficiently illuminated with
humor, touched with pathos, and heightened by poetic feeling,
his phrases replace all others in the minds of those who have
once learned them. They are inevitable. We cannot say the
thing otherwise.
in considering the means with which he worked, the first
thing that strikes us is the simplicity, not to say poverty, of his
poetic vocabulary. In translating Greek lyric, the student must
ransack his dictionary for terms rich enough to represent the
luxuriance of the Greek compound epithets. In rendering
Horace, the problem is to select from the superior wealth of
the English poetic vocabulary synonyms which may be intro-
duced without dissonance to relieve the monotony or vagueness
of his epithets, and so reproduce by compensation the total
effect of rhythm, emphasis, and ' artful juncture ' in the original.
This parsimony may be partly explained by the simpler
taste of the ancients, partly by Horace's recognition of the
artistic value of restraint, his fondness for moderation and
understatement. But it is mainly due, first to the relative
poverty of the Latin vocabulary, and, second, to the peculiar
difficulty of forcing Latin words into the alien mold of Greek
INTRODUCTION. xix
lyric measures. Horace at times seems to base his own claims
as a poet solely on his achievements in vanquishing this diffi-
culty ; and certain it is that while modern scholars have written
excellent Latin hexameters and elegiacs, in the course of two
thousand years no one after Horace has succeeded in composing
Sapphics and Alcaics that give pleasure to any one but the
author. Those of Statius, who could improvise fluent and
sonorous hexameters, are beneath contempt. A good Sapphic
or Alcaic strophe must contain at least one flash of fancy, one
felicitous phrase, or one brilliant image that is the part of
genius or inspiration. But the associates which this happy
find will admit into its company are narrowly limited by the
resources of the language and the law of the verse. It was no
slight task to round out the measure with harmonious words
that should introduce no jarring note or trivial suggestion and
yet should not appear too obviously chosen to fill up space.
That was the part of the laborious bee to which Horace com-
pared himself. 1 These conditions perhaps made inevitable the
frequent use of simple, vague, metrically convenient epithets
and phrases. Whatever the explanation, the fact remains.
The wind-blown sand (1. 28. 23), the meandering streams
(1. 34. 9), the far-traveled Hercules (3. 3. 9), the overflowing
river (1. 2. 18), the wandering birds of the air (3. 27. 16, 4. 4. 2),
the straying herd (3. 13. 12), the wind that bloweth where it
listeth (3. 29. 24), and the nomad Scythians (3. 24. 10) are all
alike vagus.
Acer must describe the warrior's grim visage (1. 2. 39), the
bitter satirist (Epode 6. 14), the keen-scented hound (Epode
12. 6), the 'nipping eager' air of winter (1. 4. 1), the ear-pier-
cing fife (1. 12. 1), the sharp-tempered girl (1. 33. 15), the cruel
force of fate (Epode 7. 13), the petulant coquette (1. 6. 18).
Hannibal, the dropsy, hail, necessity, and the curse in the eye
of a dying child are alike ' dire.'
Care, death, the dusking wave, the lowering storm cloud, the
i 4. 2. 27-31. n.
XX INTRODUCTION.
venomous viper and his venom, the lurid flames of the funeral
pyre, and the ears of Cerberus are equally ater. Igneus includes
the parching midsummer heat (1. 17. 2), the fire-breathing Chi-
maera (2. 17. 13), and the flaming citadels of aether (3. 3. 10).
The furtive tear and the wind-blown spray are alike humor;
liquor characterizes the new wine of sacrifice and the frith that
parts Europe and Africa. The tall pine (/xa/<pa, tn/^Ads), the
mighty-limbed warrior (TreAwptos), the high-heaped piles of mi-
ser's gold, and the boundless ocean (aTreipon/) merge their dis-
tinctions in ingens. Longus measures eternal punishment, the
unawakening, everlasting sleep of death, slow-consuming age,
the long wash of the billows, and the wide expanse of the
ocean. Pholoe who coquettishly trips away, the years that are
gliding swiftly by, the soldier who is forced to retreat, and the
coward who runs away are all fugaces. Dives is rich, treasure-
laden, and 7roAvxpu(ros. Aquosus must serve for dropsical,
many-fountained, and rain-bringing; opacus and niger for eivoo-t-
<vAAos and /AeAa/A</>uAAo9, serus for wrepoTroivos, ridens for
^s, brevis for oAtyo^povios or //ivw^aSios, certus for
and a<wros, fecunda for 7roAvora<eAos or /Jorpudeis,
pinguis for Sacru/xaAAos, edax, for Ov/j<,o(36pos, etc.
Equally hard-worked are such simple words as bonus, plenus,
perftdus, dulcis, gravis, felix, fortis, levis and levis, magnus, novus,
ferox, decorus, funera, munera, beatus, chorus, clarus, candidus,
iniquus, melior, asper, viridis, gratus, minax, etc.
Corresponding to this poverty of epithet is a certain vague-
ness, impropriety, or indefiniteness of verb or phrase, indubi-
table in some cases, though in others hardly to be distinguished
from curious felicities of expression. This results partly from
the lack of the article in Latin, 1 or the omission of possessive
pronouns and defining adjectives or genitives. 2
1 3. 20. 16, 4. 1. 6.
2 Cf. cives 1. 2. 21 ; scelus 1. 2. 29; ludo 1. 2. 37; melior fortuna pa-
rente 1. 7. 25; virenti (tibi) 1. 9. 17; belli 2. 1. 34; acervos 2. 2. 24;
cumbae 2. 3. 28; virtus 2. 7. 11 ; ictus 2. 15. 10; urbes 2. 20. 5; partem
animae 2. 17. 5, etc.
INTRODUCTION. XXI
Other vague or imprecise expressions which illustrate the
point even if some of them be thought felicities are: mores
funera 1. 15. 10; laborantes in uno 1. 17. 19; remotus in auras 1.
28. 8; 2. 3. 15-16; omnis copia nanum 2. 15. 6; fregisse cervicem
2. 13. 6 ; ter amplum 2. 14. 7 ; maturior vis 2. 17. 6, cf . Epode 7.
13 ; stellis honorem, etc. 2. 19. 14; clades . . .fluxit 3. 6. 19-20 ; hoc
arte 3. 3. 14; classe releget 3. 11. 48; vectigalia porrigam 3. 16.
40; curtae abest rei 3. 24. 64; virtutem incolumem 3, 24. 31 ; medi-
asque fraudes 3. 27. 27 ; virginwn culpae 3. 27. 38 ; laedere collum
3. 27. 60 ; quis deceat status 3. 29. 25 ; redeant in aurum, etc. 4. 2.
39 ; placido lumine 4. 3. 2 ; fronde decorus 4. 2. 35 ; mutat terra
vices 4. 7. 3 ; quod male barbaras, etc. 4. 12. 7 ; plus vice simplice
4. 14. 13 ; quantis fatigaret ruinis 4. 14. 19 ; virtule functos 4. 15. 29.
Some of these are periphrases of Greek expressions, e.g., spissa
ramis 2. 15. 9; ter aevo functus 2. 9. 13; bello furiosa 2. 16. 5;
superare pugnis nobilem 1. 12. 26 ; multi nominis 3. 9. 7.
Under this general head might be brought
1. Periphrasis with careo, meluo, parum, minus, satis.
2. A number of ambiguous or extremely complicated pas-
sages in which Horace appears to be struggling with the diffi-
culties of expression: 1. 16. 13 sqq., 1. 17. 14-16, 1. 20. 9 sqq.,
1. 28, 1. 31. 17 sqq., 1. 35. 21 sqq., 1. 37. 29 sqq., 2. 1. 25, 2. 17
17 sqq., 2. 19. 25 sqq., 3. 2. 29 sqq. r 3. 3. 49 sqq., 3. 1. 19, 3. 3. 61
sqq., 3. 8. 14-15, 3. 10. 10, 3. 14. 10 sqq., 3. 16. 29 sqq., 3. 19. 11,
3. 20. 7-8, 3. 23. 17 sqq., 3. 25. 20, 4. 2. 49 sqq., 4. 8. 17 sqq., 4. 9.
35-44, 4. 11. 18-20, 4. 13. 21, 4. 14. 34 sqq., 4. 15. 1-2.
3. The frequent use of the neuter plural for an abstract
noun : 1. 16. 25-26, 1. 18. 3, 1. 29. 16, 1. 34. 12, 1. 34. 14, 2. 1. 23,
2. 10. 13, 2. 16. 26, 2. 18. 13, 3. 1. 8, 3. 3. 2, 3. 3. 72, 3. 8. 28, 4. 4.
76, 4. 7. 7, and passim; cf. also the use of quidquid, 1. 1. 10, 1. 11.
3. 1. 24. 20, etc.
4. The repetition of convenient turns of phrase ' tags,' e.g.
egregii Caesaris 1. 6. 11, 3. 25. 4 ; munera Liberi 1. 18. 7, 4. 15.
26 ; volucris dies 3. 28. 6, 4. 13. 16 ; numine Juppiter 3. 10. 8, 4.
4. 74 ; centimanus Gyas 2. 17. 14, 3. 4. 69 ; in reducta valle 1. 17.
17, Epode 2. 11 ; celerem fugam 2. 7. 9, cf. 4. 8. 15 ; non ego te
xxii INTRODUCTION.
meis 4. 9. 30, 4. 12. 22; te profugi Scythae 1. 35. 9, cf. 4. 14. 42;
et decorae 1. 10. 3, 3. 14. 7; in umttrosis 1. 4. 11, 1. 12. 5; non
ego te 1. 18. 11, 1. 23. 9, etc.; mater saeua Cupidinum 1. 19. 1, 4.
1. 5 ; quod satis est 3. 1. 25, 3. 16. 44 ; nee certare 2. 12. 18, 4. 1.
31; ^3/us nimio 1. 18. 15, 1. 33. 1; non sine 1. 23. 3. n. ; non lenis
1. 24. 17, cf . 2. 19. 15 ; sub antro 1. 5. 3, 2. 1. 39 ; grata compede
1. 33. 14, 4. 11. 24; torret amor 1. 33. 6, 3. 19. 28; nemorum coma
1. 21. 5, cf. 4. 3. 11; in ultimas 1. 35. 29, cf. 3. 3. 45; non secus
in 2. 3. 2, 3. 25. 8; nice candidum 1. 9. 1, cf. 3. 25. 10; et ultra 1.
22. 10, 2. 18. 24, 4. 11. 29; deorum et 3. 3. 71, 3. 6. 3. So quin et,
non ante, non si, non ille, neque tu, etc.
Another aspect of Horace's plainness is his restraint in the
use of metaphor and simile. Not that he abstains from im-
agery. On the contrary, his diction is colored throughout by a
pleasing vein of metaphor and personification. But the figures
employed are so simple and they are introduced so naturally
that they hardly detach themselves from the tissue of the style,
and they serve rather to entertain the fancy than to exalt the
imagination. Horace knows his own limits and does not at-
tempt to imitate the cumulative and concentrated metaphor of
Aeschylus and Pindar apart from the deeper feeling of which it
is the natural expression and the organ music that is its fit-
ting accompaniment. The Odes contain little of what Shelley
calls the 'peculiar, intense, and comprehensive imagery' of
modern English lyric.
Among the commonplaces of Horatian imagery may be enu-
merated the fires, darts, fickle breezes, troublous waters, chains,
yoke, and warfare of love; the pathway, step, snares, exile,
ferryman, river, wings, urn, lottery, knock, Damocles' sword,
fold, and everlasting sleep of death; the antithesis between the
green leaf of youth and the sere and yellow leaf of age; the
wings of death, care, fortune, love, and fame; the flight of
time, the steep path of virtue, eating cares, the horn of plenty,
the lash of the tongue, the waves or the hail, the vessel of wit,
the bridle of license, the war of win'ds and waves, the wedding
of the vine and the elm, the hair of the groves, the tooth of
INTRODUCTION.
envy, and the ever-recurring antithesis of conviviality, symbol-
ized by Falernian wine, Syrian nard, parsley wreaths, Bere-
cynthian horns and Neaera, and cares of state or war, the
Persian, the Dacian, the quivered Mede, the remotest Briton,
the Thracian mad with war.
A few other images attract attention by reason of their inge-
nuity or beauty: 1. 2:3. 5, 3. 15. 6, 2. 1. 7, 2. 13. 32, 3. 4. 14, 3.
10. 10, 3. 21. 13, 3. 27. 6, 3. 28. 4, 4. 13. 8, 4. 13. 12, 4. 13. 28.
Much of Horace's imagery may be classified as allegory, con-
tinued metaphor, or paratactic simile : e.g. the ship of state
(1. 14), the voyage of life (2. 10. 1-4, 3. 29. 57, 1. 34. 4), the
Lesson of Nature (2. 9. 1-9, 3. 29. 21-25, 2. 11. 9), avarice and
the dropsy (2. 2. 13), the oak and the reed (2. 10. 8-12), the
unripe maid and the unripe grape (2. 5), love a stormy sea (1.
5. 6), the mob of passions (2. 16. 8-12), silver in the mine and
untried virtue (2. 2. 1-4), poet and swan (2. 20), love a war-
fare (3. 26, 4. 1. 2), the lesson of the farm-yard (4. 4. 29-32),
degenerate valor and dyed wool (3. 5. 27), the war of the
giants (3. 4. 42 sqq.), the vessel of wit (4. 15. 3), the coquette
a Chimaera (i. 27. 24), the Icarian flight (4. 2. 1-4), Phaethon
and Bellerophon (4. 11. 25), the golden age (Epode 16. 40.
sqq.).
31 any of these differ from simile only in the omission of the
formal comparison, and from strict metaphor only by their con-
tinuation into allegory. Cf . 4. 4. 50, 2. 1. 7, 1. 27. 19, 1. 35. 14,
2. 7. 16, 3. 6. 19-20, Epode 6. 12, etc.
Formal similes are introduced by ut or uti 1. 8. 13, 3. 15, 10,
1. 23. 9, 4. 4. 57, 1. 15. 29 ; Epode 1. 19, 33, 5. 9 ; velut 1. 12. 45,
47, 1. 37. 17, 3. 11. 9, 41, 4. 2. 5, 4. 6. 9 ; similis 1. 23. 1, 3. 15.
12, 3. 19. 26 ; sic ... ut(i) 2. 5. 18, 4. 14. 25; Epode 5. 81 ; cf.
ut . . . sic 1. 7. 15, 4. 5. 9 ; qualis 4. 4. 1 ; cf. Epode 2. 41, 6. 5 ; ceu
4. 4. 43; prope qualis 4. 14. 20 ; non secus . . . ac (ut) 3. 25. 8;
non aliter . . . quam si 3. 5. 50 ; instar 4. 5. 6 ; more modoque 4. 2.
28 ; ritu 3. 14. 1, 3. 29. 34 ; parem 4. 13. 24.
By mere juxtaposition of the two chief terms, 4. 4. 30 ; and
very frequently by the comparative of an adjective or adverb :
xxiv INTRODUCTION.
1. 19. 6, 1. 24. 13, 1. 36. 20, 2. 7. 26, 2. 15. 2, 2. 16. 23, 3. 7. 21>
3. 9. 4, 3. 9. 21, 3. 10. 17, 3. 12. 8, 3. 13. 1, 3. 16. 10, 3. 24. 1, 3.
30. 1, 4. 4. 61 with non, 4. 10. 4 ; Epode 3. 18, 17. 54.
Personification is of the essence of imaginative writing, and
a large proportion of metaphors could be brought under that
head. We may distinguish, not very rigidly :
1. Explicit personification, passing into allegory, 1. 18. 1416.
I. 2. 13 sqq.; 3. 2. 32, 1. 35. 17, 3. 1. 40, 2. 16. 21, 3. 1. 30, 4. 7.
II, and Epode 2. 17-18.
2. The capitalized abstraction 1. 24. 6-7 n., 3. 1. 37, 4. 5. 17,
20, C. S. 57, etc.
3. The suggestion of life and personality by the use of
epithet or verb, 3. 18. 6-7, 3. 8. 14, 3. 21. 23, 2. 6. 21-22, 3. 10.
3-4, 1. 37. 30, 3. 28. 8, 4. 7. 1, 4. 7. 9-11, 4. 11. 7 avet, 4. 15. 18-
19, and passim.
We pass now to the compensations that relieve this plainness
or parsimony of vocabulary and imagery. Chief of these is the
use of proper names charged with associations of mythology,
history, literature, and travel. More than seven hundred dis-
tinct proper names or adjectives are employed in the Odes, a
sixth of the total vocabulary. The fourth book of the Golden
Treasury contains less than two hundred, and an equal amount
of Greek lyric presents at the most three or four hundred,
mostly persons known to the poet or gods directly invoked. In
the learned rhetoric of Lucan and Statius mythological and
geographical allusion passes into the conundrum. The tact of
Horace selects just those names which will arouse pleasant
associations in the mind of the average educated man, and
which will adorn without overloading his style. The sea is
the Hadrian, Cretic, Icarian, Carpathian, Aegaean, Tyrrhenian,
Apulian, or Caspian. Merchandise is Tyrian, Cyprian, or
Bithynian. Purple is Laconian, African, or Coan. Marble is
Parian, Phrygian, Numidian, or Hymettian. Riches are the
wealth of Attalus or Achaemenes, of India or the unspoiled
treasures of Araby. The ship is the Pontic pine or the
Bithynian keel. A mountain is stark Niphates or black-wooded
INTRODUCTION. XXV
Erymauthus. Snow is Sithonian, the harrow Sabine, the
pruning hook Calenian, the harvest Sardinian or African, the
feast Sicilian, the bee Calabrian, the lyric song Aeolian,
the dirge Simonidean or Cean, the lute Teian, the buskin
Cecropian, the laurel Apolline, Delphic, or Delian, the poison
Colchian or Thessalian, the pipe Berecynthian, the curse
Thyestean, the sword Norican, the coat of mail Iberian, the
lioness Gaetulian, the threshing floor Libyan. A dangerous
strait is Bosphorus or the waters that pour between the glitter-
ing Cyclades; astrology is Babylonian numbers; ointment is
Achaemenian nard or Syrian malabathron ; a storm is the
tumult of the Aegaean ; athletics is the Olympic dust, the
Isthmian labor or the Elean palm. In this way Horace
achieves effects of sensuous concreteness and picturesqueness
hardly possible otherwise to the thin, hard, abstract, Latin vo-
cabulary. In many cases the Greek proper name is used mainly
for its polysyllabic sonority or liquid smoothness. Cf. 1. 3. 20
Acroceraunia ; 1. 17. 22 Semeleius Thyoneus ; 1. 34. 11 Atlanteus
finis; 2. 1. 39 Dionaeo sub antro ; 2. 12. 21 Phrygiae Mygdonias
opes; 2. 14.20 Sisyphus Aeolides ; 2. 20. 13 Daedaleo . . . Icaro,
cf. 4. 2. 2 ; 3. '3. 28 Hectoreis; 3. 5. 56 Lacedaemonium Tarentum;
3. 16. 34 Laestrygonia amphora; 3. 16. 41 Mygdoniis . . . Aly-
attei ; 4. 4. 20 Amazonia securi; 4. 4. 64 Echioniaeve Thebae, etc.
Another obvious note of Horace's style is the frequency of the
negative. Non neque and nee occur approximately four hun-
dred times, at least twice as often as their equivalents in a cor-
responding quantity of Greek or English lyric. The negative
is sometimes employed by way of litotes to produce an effect of
moderation or understatement. More often it takes the place
of the privative and negative compounds of Greek and Eng-
lish, or serves to diversify the expression and adapt it to the
exigencies of the meter. Examples occur on every page. Cf.
Non auriga piger 1. 15. 26; non indecoro 2. 1. 22; non usitata 2.
20. 1, Epode 5. 73; non sordidus 1. 28. 14; non auspicatos 3. 6.
10 ; non sat idoneus 2. 19. 26 ; non mendax 2. 16. 39 ; non clausas
3. 5. 23; non paventis funera 4. 14. 49; non timidus mori 3. 19. 2;
XXVI INTRODUCTION.
non infideles Epode 5. 50; nee rigida, mollior aescula 3. 10. 17;
non tangenda 1. 3. 24; non erubescendis 1. 27. 15; non lenis 1. 24.
17, 2. 19. 15; non levis 1. 14. 18; non humilis 1. 37. 32; non taci-
ttts 4. 1. 14; non semel 4. 2. 50; now unm*- 4. 9. 39; non ante 1. 29.
3, 3. 29. 2, 4. 9. 3, 4. 14. 41; non alia 1. 27. 13, 1. 36. 8, 3. 7. 25,
3. 9. 5; non sine 1. 23. 3. n. ; non bene 2. 7. 10. Cf. also the neg-
ative turn of 1. 3. 15, 1. 6. 5, 1. 16. 5-8, 1. 31. 3-7, 1. 36. 10, 2. 1.
29, 2. 18. 1-9, 2. 20. 1-8, 3. 1. 17-24, 3. 3. 1-2, 3. 10. 11, 3. 12.
8-9, 3. 15. 14-16, 4. 1. 29-32, 4. 3. 3-6, 4. 7. 23, 4. 8. 13, 4. 15.
17 sqq., etc.
There is little more to be said of the vocabulary of the Odes.
Horace rarely resorts to word coinage, he employs almost no
poetic compounds, 1 and only now and then wrests a word from
its normal meaning or presses its etymological force. 2 Chief
among his rarer usages or possible word coinages are :
dissociabili 1. 3. 22, iterabimus 1. 7. 32, emirabitur 1. 5. 8, debi-
litat 1. 11. 5, auritas 1. 12. ll,sublimi (anhelitu) 1. 15. 31,furiare
1. 25. 14, cumque I. 32. 15, diffingo 1. 35. 39, 3. 29. 47, reparavit
1. 37. 24, adlabores 1. 38. 5.
decoloravere 2. 1. 35, inretorto 2. 2. 23, redonavit 2. 7. 3, depro-
perare 2. 7. 24, iuris peierati 2. 8. 1, inaequales 2. 9. 3, illacrima-
bilem 2. 14. 6, cf. 4. 9. 26, enaviganda 2. 14. 11, insons 2. 19. 29,
supervacuos 2. 20. 24.
intaminatis 3. 2. 18, impavidum 3. 3. 8, inrepertum 3. 3. 49,
immiserabilis 3. 5. 17, impermissa 3. 6. 27, denatat 3. 7. 28, funera-
tus 3. 8. 7, exsultim 3. 11. 10, illaqueant 3. 16. 16, inaudax 3. 20. 3,
immeiata 3. 24. 12, postgenitis 3. 24. 30.
iuvenescit 4. 2. 55, 4. 4. 21 obarmet, 4. 4. 32 progenerant, Faus-
titas 4. 5. 18, aeternet 4. 14. 5, tauriformis 4. 14. 25, domabilis 4.
14. 41, beluosus 4. 14. 47, inimicat 4. 15. 20, adprecati 4. 15. 28,
remixto 4. 15. 30, Genetalis C. S. 16, inemori Epode 5. 34, inomi-
nata Epode 16. 38, circumvagus Epode 16. 41.
In accordance with his own precept 8 it is on phrase coinage
rather than on word coinage, that Horace relies for the height-
1 4. 14. 25. n. 2 4. 4. 65. n. 8 A. P. 46.
INTRODUCTION. XXvii
ening of Ids style, deriving effects of novelty from the 'cunning
juncture ' of ordinary words. His phrasing, as we have seen,
may in some cases be regarded as an evasion of difficulties.
More often the ' gentle torture ' which he applies to language re-
sults in those felicities of expression which have been a part of
the lingua franca of educated men for nineteen hundred years:
nil mortalibus ardid est ; nil desperandum ; integer vitae scelerisque
pur us : dulce et decorum est pro patria mori ; deliberata mortefero-
cior ; animaeque magnae prodigutn ; non indecoro puh-ere sordidos ;
illi robur et aes triplex ; quis desiderio sit pudor out modus tarn cari
capitis? dedecorum pretiosus emptor ; iustum ac tenacem propositi
virum ; vultus instantis tyranni ; splendide mendax ; donee virenti
canities abest ; matre pulchra jilia pulchrior ; dulce est desipere in
loco; carpe diem ; vultus nimium lubricus adspici ; simplex mundi-
tiis ; arb'itrio popularis aurae ; plenum opus aleae ; aequam memento
rebus in arduis tenere mentem ; poscentis aevi pauca ; spirat adhuc
amor; vixere fortes ante Agamemnona; rosa quo locorum sera mo-
retur; Persicos odi apparatus; ille mihi angulus ridet ; quis exsul
se quoquefugit? post equitem sedet atra cura; but the list is
endless. It is hardly worth while to attempt to classify Hora-
tian phrases by any abstract or artificial scheme. Many of
them are slight variations on technical, legal, colloquial, or pro-
verbial expressions : capitis minor 3. 5. 42 ; claudere lustrum 2. 4.
24 ; motum ex Metello consule civicum 2. 1. 1 ; adscribi ordinibus,
etc., 3. 3. 35 ; opimus triumphus 4. 4. 51 ; prava iubentium 3. 3. 2 ;
numeris lege solutis 4. 2. 12 ; Latinum nomen et Italae vires 4. 15.
13 ; publicum ludum 4. 2. 42 ; felices ter et amplius 1. 13. 17 ; con-
fundet proelia 1. 17. 23 ; consultus sapientiae 1. 34. 3 ; iuris peierati
2. 8. 1 ; amori dare ludum 3. 12. 1 ; fige modum 3. 15. 2.
Others are attempts to reproduce Greek expressions, supra,
p. xxi, de tenero ungui 3. 6. 24, 3. 10. 10.
Others resume in brief compass great historic associations,
literary reminiscences, memories of travel : quid debeas, Roma,
Neronibus 4. 4. 37 ; Tydides melior patre 1. 15. 28 ; vir Macedo
3. 16. 14; Helene Lacaena 4. 9. 16; saevam Pelopis domum 1. 6.
8; Troiae prope victor altae Phtftius Achilles 4. 6. 3; fama Mar-
xxviii INTRODUCTION.
celli 1. 12. 46 ; Hannibalis minae 4. 8. 16 ; superbos Tarquim
fasces 1. 12. 34; Catonis nobile letum 1. 12. 35; longa ferae bella
Numantiae 2. 12. 1; cadum Marsi memorem duelli 3. 14. 18; in-
fecit aequor sanguine Punico 3. 6. 34 ; mens provida Reguli 3. 5.
13; Tibur Aryeo positum colono 2. 6. 5; bimaris Corinthi 1. 7. 2;
patiens Lacedaemon 1.' 7. 10 ; dites filycenas 1. 7. 9 ; infames sco
pulos Acroceraunia 1. 3. 20; Aeolio carmine nobilem 4. 3. 12;
Atlanteus finis 1. 34. 11 ; Calabrae Pierides 4. 8. 20; pede barbaro
lustratam Rhodopen 3. 25. 12, etc., etc.
The effectiveness of Horace's phrases, so far as it can be ana-
lyzed, is perhaps due to the combination of Roman directness
what Matthew Arnold calls 'the Latins' gift for coming plump
upon the fact' with an artfully concealed use of every resource
of the rhetoric of the Greeks. For it is to be observed lastly
that in spite of his apparent simplicity, the charm, the curious
felicity, of Horace result from his skillful use of rhetoric. He
is not declamatory like Lucan or Macaulay or Swinburne.
But, like Tennyson, he constantly uses what the ancients called
figures of thought and figures of diction to diversify, enliven,
and elaborate his expression. The monotony of direct cate-
gorical statement is everywhere broken up by rhetorical ques-
tions, 1 imperatives, 2 apostrophe, 3 personification, and implied
dramatic colloquy. 4 When enumeration, exposition, or reflec-
tion threatens to grow tedious, it is relieved by an exquisite
picture or dainty cameo in verse like those the modern reader
finds in Tennyson's Palace of Art, or in Austin Dobson. 5 A
1 1. 29, 1. 35. 34-7, 2. 1. 29, 2. 3. 9, 2. 7. 3, 2. 7. 23, 2. 11. 18, 3. 4. 53,
3. 19. 18, 4. 13. 16, etc.
2 1. 19. 13, 1. 38. 3, 2. 1. 37, etc.
1. 3. 1-5, 1. 5, 1. 14. 1, 1. 32. 1-4, 2. 13. 1-4, 3. 4. 2, 3. 6. 2, 3. 21. 1-4, etc.
* 1. 8, 1. 13, 1. 15, 1. 27, 1. 28, 1. 36, 2. 4, 2. 17, 3. 5, 3. 7, 3. 9, 3. 11, 3.
14, 3. 19, etc.
6 1. 12. 27, 1. 31. 7-8, 3. 4. 55-7, 60-64. Cf . 1. 2. 34, 1. 4. 5, 1. 9. 1,
1. 9. 21-4, 1. 14. 19-20, 2. 1. 19-20, 2. 8. 15, 2. 11. 23-4, 2. 12. 25, 2. 13.
21 sqq., and 3. 11. 16 sqq., 2. 19. 8-4, 3. 4. 60, 3. 6. 41, 3. 12. 6, 3. 13.
14-16, 3. 18. 14-16, 3. 20. 11 sqq., 3. 25. 9 sqq., 3. 27. 66-7, 3. 29. 21-4,
4. 2. 57-60, 4. 12. 9, etc.
INTRODUCTION.
quiet idyllic close comes to relieve the strain of a too ambitious
flight. 1 Emphasis and antithesis are cunningly brought out by
juxtaposition or metrical responsion. 2 Litotes or intentional
understatement 8 and oxymoron, 4 intentional paradox or con-
tradiction in terms, arrest the attention and emphasize the
thought.
Effects of economy and restraint are suggested by zeugma, 5
by the limitation to one of two nouns of an epithet felt with
both, 6 and by the employment of epithets in such a way as to
suggest their complementary opposites. 7 The transferred epi-
thet is frequent as in all poetry. 8 Repetition is freely employed
as a means of transition, 9 for metrical convenience and for emo-
tional effect. 10 Transitions are ingeniously managed without
the formal employment of the conjunction. 11 An effective use
is made of both polysyndeton 12 and asyndeton, or rather a
certain calculated abruptness in transition, especially to the
envoi or moral. 13
The freedom of arrangement possible in an inflected language
and required by the exigencies of the meter yields effects of
symmetry, parallelism, antithesis, and interlocked order which
will be felt by any one who reads the odes familiarly, but can-
not be reproduced in English. As many as five words may
13. 5. 53 sqq., 4. 2. 57-60. n.
2 Cf. 1. 6. 9. n.
s 1. 23. 3. n., 2. 1. 22, 2. 12. 17, 2. 19. 15, 4. 1. 35.
4 3. 11. 35. n. and passim.
1. 15. 7, 2. 13. 10, 3. 4. 8, 11, 2. 19. 17.
6 3. 12. 9, C. S. 6.
f 3. 13. 6-7, 4. 8. 7.
s 1. 15. 19. n., 1. 37. 7. n., 3. 1. 17, 42, 3. 5. 22. 3. 21. 19, 1. 3. 40, 2. 3. 8, 1.
29. 1, 2. 14. 27, 4. 7. 21, 3. 29, 1. n. Epode 10. 12. n. Cf. also 2. 7.
21 n., 3. 7. 1.
1. 2. 4-5 n., 4. 12. 16, 17, 4. 8. 11, 4. 2. 14-15, 2. 8. 18, 3. 4. 65, 1. 19.
5-7 and passim.
10 1. 13. 1, 2. 3. 17, 2. 17. 10, 3. 3. 18, 3. 5. 21, 3. 11. 30, 3. 27. 49, 4. 1.
33, 4. 13. 1, 4. 13. 18, Epode 4. 20. n. etc.
11 3. 2. 6. n. supra n. 9.
122. 1. 1. sqq., 4. 1. 13 n.
" Cf. 1. 14. 17, 1. 15. 33, 4. 4. 73.
XXX INTRODUCTION.
intervene between a noun and its modifier, and the order within
such a group may reproduce or reverse that of the extremes.
In this way a thought is suspended, a picture is gradually
unfolded, a name is effectively reserved for a climax, etc. 1
These and other features of Horace's style are illustrated in
the notes mainly by citation of similar traits from other poets.
The abstract grammatical and rhetorical analysis of poetry is a
curious intellectual exercise, but introduced as a means to
literary appreciation it is liable to be substituted for the true
educational end.
IV.
METER.
Intelligent enjoyment of the Odes is possible only to those
who habitually read them aloud. The difference between long
and short vowels (heavy and light syllables) should be clearly
marked in the reading, and the student should be able to deter-
mine instinctively by the movement of the verse the quantities
which he does not know. To accomplish this, practice is re-
quired rather than much technical knowledge of the theory and
terminology of metrical science. There is some difference of
opinion among scholars as to the amount of stress that should
be given to the verse accent in reading or ' scanning ' Latin
poetry. In practice good readers will not be found to differ
much. Many teachers find it helpful to exaggerate the sing-
song of the rhythm a little at first in order to assist the student's
memory of the schemes.
The elements of Latin prosody and the lyric meters of
Horace ars adequately treated in the grammars of Allen and
Greenough, Gildersleeve, Harkness, and others. The following
notes and tables are intended merely as practical aids.
The most frequent of Horace's meters is the Alcaic Strophe
found in thirty-seven odes. The scheme in longs and shorts is:
l Cf. 1. 2. 52, 3. 7. 5, 3. 15. 16 n., 4. 5. 9. n., 1. 9. 21-24, 2. 19. 1-2, 3. 6
46-8, 4. 4. 1-16, 1. 10. 9-12, 1. 22. 9-12, 3. 4. 9-13, etc.
INTRODUCTION. . XXXI
Modern theory assumes that the feet of a metrical series, like
the bars of a musical strain, are all equal, and to indicate this
equality employs conventional signs to denote an extra-rhyth-
mical upward beat (anacrusis) at the beginning of a series, for
irrational long syllables occurring in the place of short, for
lengthened syllables, for rests that fill out a foot, for dactyls
read trippingly in about the time of a trochee (cyclic dactyls),
etc. Cf. A. G. 355, 356 f., 357, 368. n. ; G. L. 738-744;
H. 596-598.
Expressed in these symbols the scheme of the Alcaic Strophe
Odes, L, 9, 16, 17, 26, 27, 29, 31, 34, 35, 37; II., 1, 3, 5, 7, 9,
11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20; III., 1-6, 17, 21, 23, 26, 29; IV., 4, 9,
14, 15.
The last syllable of a verse is indifferent. The combination
_ v_, _ d is called a trochaic dipody. Horace restricts himself
to the form _ w _ > within the verse which makes his Alcaics
and Sapphics weightier than those of the Greek poets, who freely
use the form _ \^> _ \j. For convenience of memory the
Alcaic Strophe may be said to consist of : (1, 2) an anacrusis
(regularly long, always in fourth book) and a trochaic dipody,
followed by three trochees the first of which is replaced by a
cyclic dactyl, and the third of which is a trochee filled out by
a rest; (3) anacrusis and two trochaic dipodies; (4) dipody of
two cyclic dactyls, and trochaic dipody. Elision occurs at end
of third verse 2. 3. 27, 3. 29. 35. The normal caesura in 1, 2 is
XXxii INTRODUCTION.
a word-ending after the first trochaic dipody. Tennyson thus
reproduces the meter in English :
' O mighty-mouth'd inventor of harmonies,
O skill'd to sing of Time or Eternity,
God-gifted organ- voice of England,
Milton, a name to resound for ages.'
Odes, 2. 14. 13-16 may be thus rendered in the meter of the
original :
' In vain we shun the weltering field of war,
In vain the storm-tossed hillows of Hadria,
In vain the noxious breath of Autumn,
Wafter of death on the wings of south winds.'
%> ^*-' The Sapphic Strophe occurs in twenty-six odes. , \
p-f>P^ -* t c
Odes, I., 2, 10, 12, 20, 22, 25, 30, 32, 38; II., 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 16;
III., 8, 11, 14, 18. 20, 22, 27; IV., 2, 6, 11.; C. S.
The meter could be described as (1, 2, 3) two trochaic dipo-
dies separated by a cyclic (short) dactyl, and (4) a clausula
consisting of a dipody of cyclic dactyl and trochee. Unlike the
Greek poets, Horace usually breaks the dactyl by a word end-
ing after the long syllable. Hence the short dactyl is written
_ v^, not \^ \s. But he also employs the so-called feminine
caesura ^ II w seven times in the first two books, twenty-two
times in the fourth book, and nineteen times in the fifty-seven
verses of the Carmen Saeculare. It gives a peculiar soft lilt to
the measure. Horace follows the Greeks in running the third
and fourth verses together, 1. 2. 19, 1. 25. 11, 2. 16. 7. But he
allows hiatus between them, 1. 2. 47, 1. 12. 7, 1. 12. 31, 1. 22. 15.
The last syllable of the third line is normally long. Hyper-
metron occurs, 2. 2. 18, 2. 16. 34, 4. 2. 22, 23, C. S. 47. Swin-
burne reproduces the Sapphic in English thus :
INTRODUCTION. XXXlii
' Clothed about with flame and with tears and singing
Songs that move the heart of the shaken heaven,
Songs, that break the heart of the earth with pity,
Hearing, to hear them.'
Lines 1-4 of 2. 16 may be rendered :
1 Peace the sailor prays on the wide Aegaean
Tempest-tossed, when gathering wracks of storm cloud
Hide the bright moon's face, and the stars no longer
Shine on his pathway.'
The beginner, misled by the word-ending after the long of
the dactyl, too often reads with the effect of Canning's ' Needy
Knife-grinder ' :
' Needy knife-grinder whither are you going?
Rough is the road, your wheel is out of order,
Bleak blows the blast ; your hat has got a hole in it,
So have your breeches.'
After mastering the Sapphic and Alcaic Strophes, the student
will be able to read the other meters by ear with an occasional
glance at the scheme. He will be very foolish to burden his
memory with the names attached to them by the later gram-
marians. A table is given for reference.
1. First Asclepiadean :
I., 1 ; III., 30 ; IV., 8. Cf. IV., 8. 17. n.
2. Second Asclepiadean :
_> |-uw l_w I _<
t_>| -vr v/ | U. II -^ w | _ v^ | V A
(repeated in tetrastichs)
I., 3, 13, 19, 36; III., 9, 15, 19, 24, 25, 28; IV., 1, 3.
3. Third Asclepiadean :
.>!-x/w|i_ II -^^ | _ w | ^ A (thrice)
_> |-^w |_w|_A
I, 6, 15, 24, 33; II., 12; III., 10, 16 ; IV., 5, 12.
XXxiv INTRODUCTION.
4. Fourth Asclepiadean :
_ v, | _ A
I., 5, 14, 21, 23 ; III., 7, 13 ; IV., 13.
5. Fifth (Greater) Asclepiadean :
_ > I-X,W|LII^W|L_II-^^!_W|_A
(four times)
I., 11, 18 ; IV., 10. Cf. 1. 11, intr.
6. Sapphic Strophe. Cf. supra.
1. (Greater) Sapphic Strophe :
-ww |_^ |L_ | _A
,- w|_>|-ww|l_||-^w|^-w|l_|_A
(repeated in tetrastichs)
I., 8.
8. Alcaic Strophe. Cf. supra.
9. First Archilochian :
Dactylic Hexameter,
_ Ow | _ Ow | || OO | C3O | W W | --
_ ^^ | _ ^^y I _ 7\ (repeated by pairs in tetrastichs)
IV., 7.
10. Second Archilochian :
Dactylic Hexameter followed by
d:_w-|_|_^/|_All_w^l v>vy|
Epode 13.
11. Third Archilochian :
An Iambic Trimeter,
INTRODUCTION. XXXV
followed by
_w^.|_^w|_Alld:_w|_d|_w|_A
Epode 11.
12. Fourth Archilochian :
/- CXy ^- CX/ j. C7w -^.W V || ^- \J \J _ O
W W ^J \J WJ^.W
which is perhaps better read as follows :
1.4.
13. Alcmanian Strophe :
Dactylic Hexameter followed by
L. 7, 28 ; Epode 12.
14. Iambic Trimeter:
Epode 17.
1 5. Iambic Strophe :
Iambic Trimeter (see 14) followed by Iambic Dimeter
Epodes 1-10.
16. First Pythiambic :
A Dactylic Hexameter and an Iambic Dimeter (cf. 15).
Epodes 14, 15.
17. Second Pythiambic:
A Dactylic Hexameter and an Iambic Trimeter (cf. 14).
Epode 16.
XXXVI
INTRODUCTION.
18. Trochaic Strophe :
A Catalectic Trochaic Dimeter and a Catalectic Iambic Tri-
meter. , . ,
II., 18.
19. An Ionic system : ten pure lonici a minore \j \j /_ ,
variously arranged by editors and metrists. III., 12.
INDEX OF ODES AND METERS.
BOOK.
I.
ODE.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1Q
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
METER.
1
6
2
10
4
3
13
7
8
6
5
6
2
4
3
8
8
5
2
6
4
6
4
3
6
8
8
13
8
6
8
BOOK.
I.
II.
III.
ODE.
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
1
2
3
METEB.
6
3
8
8
2
8
6
8
6
8
6
8
6
8
6
8
6
8
3
8
8
8
6
8
18
8
8
8
8
8
INTRODUCTION.
XXXVll
BOOK.
Til.
ODK.
METER.
4
8
5
8
6
8
7
4
8
6
9
2
10
3
11
6
12
19
13
4
14
6
15
2
16
3
17
8
18
6
19
2
20
6
21
8
22
6
23
8
24
2
25
2
26
8
27
6
28
2
29
8
BOOK.
Ot>. METEK.
III.
30
1
IV.
1
2
2
6
3
2
4
8
5
3
6
6
7
9
8
1
9
8
10
5
11
6
12
3
13
4
14
8
15
8
CARMEN
SAECULARE
6
EPODE
1-10
15
11
11
12
13
13
10
14
16
15
16
16
17
17
14
For minor points of prosody, treated in the notes, see the
grammars and the treatises of Christ, and Schmidt (translated
by John Williams White).
Aesthetic criticism of Horace's exquisite metrical art can be
addressed only to those who read him aloud precisely as they
read English poetry. Such students will observe for them-
selves in their favorite passages the reinforcement of the lead-
ing thought by the emphasis of the rhythm, the symmetrical
responsions and nice interlockings of words and phrases, the
dainty but not obtrusive alliteration, the real or fancied adap-
tation of sound to sense in softly musical, splendidly sonorous,
or picturesquely descriptive lines. This kind of criticism may
easily pass into the fantastic. It is better suited to the living
voice than to cold print.
Q. HORATII FLACCI
CARMINUM
LIBER PRIMUS.
I.
Maecenas atavis edite regibus,
et praesidium et dulce decus meum,
Sunt quos curriculo pulverem Olympic um
Collegisse iuvat metaque fervidis
Evitata rotis palmaque nobilis 5
Terrarum dominos evehit ad deos ;
Hunc, si mobilium turba Quiritium
Certat tergeminis tollere honoribus ;
Ilium, si proprio condidit horreo,
Quidquid de Libycis verritur areis. 10
Gaudentem patrios findere sarculo
Agros Attalicis condicionibus
Numquam dimoveas, ut trabe Cypria
Myrtoum pavidus nauta secet mare.
Luctantem Icariis fluctibus Africum 15
Mercator metuens otium et oppidi
Laudat rura sui ; mox reficit rates
Quassas, indocilis pauperiem pati.
Est qui nee veteris pocula Massici
Nee pattern solido demere de die 20
Spernit, nunc viridi membra sub arbuto
B 1
CAEMINUM.
Stratus nunc ad aquae lene caput sacrae.
Multos castra iuvant et lituo tubae
Permixtus sonitus bellaque matribus
Detestata. Manet sub love frigido 25
Venator tenerae coniugis immemor,
Seu visast catulis cerva fidelibus,
Seu rupit teretes Marsus aper plagas.
Me doctarum hederae praemia f routium
Dis miscent superis me, gelidum nemus 30
Nympharumque leves cum Satyris chori
Secernunt populo, si neque tibias
Euterpe cohibet nee Polyhymnia
Lesboum refugit tendere barbiton.
Quodsi me lyricis vatibus inseris, 35
Sublimi feriam sidera vertice.
II.
lam satis terris nivis atque dirae
Grandinis misit pater et rubente
Dextera sacras iaculatus arces
Terruit urbem,
Terruit gentes, grave ne rediret 5
Saeculum Pyrrhae nova monstra questae,
Omne cum Proteus pecus egit altos
Visere rnontes,
Piscium et summa genus haesit ulmo,
Nota quae sedes fuerat columbis, 10
Et superiecto pavidae natarunt
Aequore dammae.
LIBER I. 3
Vidimus flavum Tiberim retortis
Litore Etrusco violenter undis
Ire deiectum monumenta regis 16
Templaque Vestae,
Iliae dum se nimium querenti
lactat ultorem, vagus et sinistra
Labitur ripa love non probante u-
xorius anmis. 20
Audiet cives acuisse ferrum,
Quo graves Persae melius perirent,
Audiet puguas vitio parentum
Kara iuventus.
Quein.vocet divum populus mentis 25
Imperi rebus ? Piece qua f atigent
Virgines sanctae minus audientem
Carmina Vestam ?
Cui dabit partes scelus expiandi
luppiter ? Tandem venias precamur, 30
Nube candentes umeros amictus,
Augur Apollo ;
Sive tu mavis, Erycina ridens,
Quam locus circum volat et Cupido;
Sive neglectum genus et nepotes 36
Eespicis, auctor,
Heu nimis longo satiate ludo,
Quern iuvat clamor galeaeque leves
Acer et Mauri peditis cruentum
Voltus in hostem j 40
CARMINUM.
Sive mutata iuvenem figura
Ales in terris imitaris almae
Filius Maiae, patiens vocari
Caesaris ultor,
Serus in caelum redeas, diuque 45
Laetus intersis populo Quirini,
Neve te nostris vitiis iniquum
Ocior aura
Tollat ; hie magnos potius triumphos,
Hie ames dici pater atque princeps, 50
Neu sinas Medos equitare inultos
Te duce, Caesar.
III.
Sic te diva potens Cypri,
Sic fratres Helenae, lucida sidera,
Ventorumque regat pater
Obstrictis aliis praeter lapyga,
Navis, quae tibi creditum 5
Debes Vergilium, finibus Atticis
Reddas incolumem precor
Et serves animae dimidium meae.
Illi robur et aes triplex
Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci 10
Commisit pelago ratem
Primus, nee timuit praecipitem Africum
Decertantem Aquilonibus
Nee tristes Hyadas nee rabiem Noti,
Quo non arbiter Hadriae 15
Maior, tollere seu ponere volt freta.
LIBER I. 5
Quern mortis timuit gradum,
Qui siccis oculis monstra natantia,
Qui vidit mare turgidum et
Infames scopulos, Acroceraunia ? 20
Nequiquam deus abscidit
Prudens Oceano dissociabili
Terras, si tamen impiae
Non tangenda rates transiliunt vada.
Audax omnia perpeti 25
Gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas.
Audax lapeti genus
Ignem fraude mala gentibus intulit.
Post ignem aetheria domo
Subductum macies et nova febrium 30
Terris incubuit cohors,
Semotique prius tarda necessitas
Leti corripuit gradum.
Expertus vacuum Daedalus aera
Pennis non homini datis ; 35
Perrupit Acheronta Herculeus labor.
Nil mortalibus arduist ;
Caelum ipsum petimus stultitia, neque
Per nostrum patimur scelus
Iracunda lovem ponere fulmina. 40
IV.
Solvitur acris hiems grata vice veris et Favoni,
Trahuntque siccas machinae carinas,
Ac neque iam stabulis gaudet pecus aut arator igni,
Nee prata canis albicant pruinis.
Iam Cytherea choros ducit Venus imminente luna, 5
6 CARMINUM.
lunctaeque Nymphis Gratiae decentes
Alterno terram quatiunt pede, dum graves Cyclopum
Volcanus ardens urit officinas.
Nunc decet aut viridi nitidum caput impedire ruyrto
Aut flore terrae quern f erunt solutae ; 10
Nunc et in umbrosis Fauno decet immolare lucis,
Seu poscat agna sive malit haedo.
Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas
Regumque turres. beate Sesti,
Vitae summa brevis spein nos vetat incohare longam. 15
lam te premet nox, fabulaeque Manes,
Et domus exilis Plutonia ; quo simul mearis,
N"ec regna vini sortiere tails
Nee tenerum Lycidan mirabere, quo calet iuventus
Nunc omnis et mox virgines tepebunt. 20
V.
Quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa
Perfusus liquidis urget odoribus
Grato, Pyrrha, sub antro ?
Cui flavam religas coinam,
Simplex munditiis ? Heu quotiens fidem 6
Mutatosque deos flebit et aspera
Nigris aequora ventis
Emirabitur insolens,
Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea,
Qui semper vacuam, semper amabilem 10
Sperat, nescius aurae
Fallacis. Miseri, quibus
LIBER I.
Intemptata nites. Me tabula sacer
Votiva paries indicat uvida
Suspendisse potent! 15
Vestimenta maris deo.
VI.
Scriberis Vario fortis et hostium
Victor Maeonii carminis alite,
Quam rem cumque ferox navibus aut equis
Miles te duce gesserit.
Kos, Agrippa, neque haec dicere nee gravem 5
Pelidae stomachum cedere nescii
Nee cursus duplicis per mare Ulixei
Nee saevam Pelopis douium
Conamur, tenues grandia, dum pudor
Imbellisque lyrae Musa potens vetat 10
Laudes egregii Caesaris et tuas
Culpa deterere ingeni.
Quis Martem tunica tectum adamantina
Digne scripserit, aut pulvere Troico
Nigrum Merionen, aut ope Palladis 16
Tydiden superis parem ?
Nos convivia, nos proelia virginum
Sectis in iuvenes unguibus acrium
Cantamus vacui, sive quid urimur,
Non praeter solitum leves. 20
CARMINUM.
VII.
Laudabunt 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 5
Carmine perpetuo celebrare et
Undique decerptam fronti praeponere olivam.
Plurimus in lunonis honorem
Aptum dicet equis Argos ditesque Mycenas.
Me nee tarn patiens Lacedaemon 10
Nee tarn Larisae percussit campus opimae,
Quam domus Albuneae resonantis
Et praeceps Anio ac Tibtirni lucus et uda
Mobilibus pomaria rivis.
Albus ut obscuro deterget nubila caelo 15
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 20
Tiburis umbra tui. Teucer Salamina patremque
Cum fugeret, tamen uda Lyaeo
Tempora populea fertur vinxisse corona,
Sic tristes adf atus amicos :
' Quo nos cumque feret melior fortuna parente, 25
Ibimus, o socii comitesque !
Nil desperandum Teucro duce et auspice Teucro :
Certus enim promisit Apollo,
Ambiguam tellure nova Salamina futuram.
fortes peioraque passi 30
LIBER I. 9
Mecum saepe viri, mine vino pellite curas ;
Cras ingens iterabimus aequor.'
VIII.
Lydia, die, per omnes
Te deos oro, Sybarin cur properes amando
Perdere ; cur apricum
Oderit campum, patiens pulveris atque solis ?
Cur neque militates 5
Inter aequales equitat, Gallica nee lupatis
Temperat ora frenis ?
Cur timet flavum Tiberim tangere ? Cur olivum
Sanguine viperino
Cautius vitat, neque iam livida gestat arrnis 10
Bracchia, saepe disco,
Saepe trans finem iaculo nobilis expedite ?
Quid latet, ut marinae
Filium dicunt Thetidis sub lacrimosa Troiae
Funera, ne virilis 15
Cultus in caedem et Lycias proriperet catervas ?
IX.
Vides ut alta stet nive candidum
Soracte, nee iam sustineant onus
Silvae laborantes, geluque
Flumina constiterint acuto.
Dissolve frigus ligna super foco 5
Large reponens atque benignius
Deprome quadrimum Sabina,
Thaliarche, merum diota.
10 CARMINUM.
Permitte divis cetera; qui simul
Stravere ventos aequore fervido 10
Deproeliantes, nee cupressi
Nee veteres agitantur orni.
Quid sit futurum eras, fuge quaerere et
Quern fors dierum cumque dabit lucro
Adpone, nee dulces amores 15
Sperne puer neque tu choreas,
Donee virenti canities abest
Morosa. Nunc et campus et areae
Lenesque sub noctem susurri
Composita repetantur horaj 20
Nunc et latentis proditor intimo
Gratus puellae risus ab angulo
Pignusque dereptum lacertis
Aut digito male pertinaci.
X.
Mercuri, facunde nepos Atlantis,
Qui feros cultus hominum recentum
Voce formasti catus et decorae
More palaestrae,
Te canam, magni lovis et deorum 5
Nuntium curvaeque lyrae parentem,
Callidum quidquid placuit iocoso
Condere furto.
Te, boves olim nisi reddidisses
Per dolum amotas, puerum minaci 10
LIBER I. 11
Voce dum terret, viduus pharetra
Risit Apollo.
Quin et Atridas duce te superbos
Ilio dives Friamus relicto
Thessalosque ignes et iniqua Troiae 15
Castra fefellit.
Tu pias laetis animas reponis
Sedibus virgaque levem coerces
Aurea turbam, superis deorum
Gratus et imis. 20
XI.
Tu ne quaesieris, scire nefas, quern mini, quern tibi
Finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nee Babylonios
Temptaris numeros. Ut melius quidquid erit pati,
Seu plures hiemes seu tribuit luppiter ultimam,
Quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare I
Tyrrhenum : sapias, vina liques, et spatio brevi
Spem longam reseces. Dum loquimur, fugerit invida
Aetas : carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.
XII.
Quern virum aut heroa lyra vel acri
Tibia sumis celebrare, Clio ?
Quem deum ? Cuius recinet iocosa
Nomen imago
12 CARMINUM.
Aut in umbrosis Heliconis oris, 5
Aut super Pindo gelidove in Haemo ?
Unde vocalem temere insecutae
Orphea silvae,
Arte materna rapidos m or an tern
Fluminum lapsus celeresque ventos, 10
Blandum et auritas fidibus canoris
Ducere quercus.
Quid prius dicam solitis parentis
Laudibus, qui res hominum ac deorum,
Qui mare ac terras variisque mundum 15
Temperat horis ?
Unde nil maius generatur ipso,
Nee viget quicquam simile aut secundum :
Proximos illi tamen occupavit
Pallas honores. 20
Proeliis audax neque te silebo,
Liber, et saevis inimica virgo
Beluis, nee te, metuende certa
Phoebe sagitta.
Dicam et Alciden puerosque Ledae, 25
Hunc equis, ilium super are pugnis
Nobilem ; quorum simul alba nautis
Stella refulsit,
Defluit saxis agitatus humor,
Concidunt venti fugiuntque nubes, 30
Et minax, quod sic voluere, ponto
Unda recumbit.
LIBER I. 13
Romulum post hos prius an quietum
Pompili regnum memorem an superbos
Tarquini fasces dubito, an Catonis 35
Nobile letum.
Regulum et Scauros animaeque magnae
Prodigum Paullum superante Poeno
Gratus insigni referam camena
Fabriciumque. 40
Hunc, et incomptis Curium capillis
Utilem bello tulit, et Camillum
Saeva paupertas et avitus apto
Cum lare fundus.
Crescit occulto velut arbor aevo 45
Fama Marcelli ; micat inter omnes
lulium sidus velut inter ignes
Luna minores.
Gentis humanae pater atque custos,
Orte Saturno, tibi cura magni 50
Caesaris fatis data : tu secundo
Caesare regnes.
Ille seu Parthos Latio imminentes
Egerit iusto domitos triumpho,
Sive subiectos Orientis orae 55
Seras et Indos,
Te minor latum reget aequus orbem ;
Tu gravi curru quaties Olympum,
Tu parum castis inimica mittes
Fulmina lucis. 60
14 CAEMINUM.
XIII.
Cum tu, Lydia, Telephi
Cervicem roseam, cerea Telephi
Laudas bracchia, vae meum
Fervens difficili bile tumet iecur.
Turn nee mens mihi nee color 5
Certa sede manet, umor et in genas
Furtim labitur, arguens
Quam lentis penitus inacerer ignibus.
Uror, seu tibi candidos
Turparunt umeros iminodicae mero 10
Eixae, sive puer furens
Impressit memorem dente labris notam.
Non, si me satis audias,
Speres perpetuum dulcia barbare
Laedentem oscula, quae Venus 16
Quinta parte sui nectaris imbuit.
Felices ter et amplius,
Quos inrupta tenet copula nee malis
Divolsus querimoniis
Suprema citius solvet amor die. 20
XIV.
O navis, referent in mare te novi
Fluctus ! quid agis ? Fortiter occupa
Portum ! Nonne vides ut
Nudum remigio latus
Et malus celeri saucius Africo
Antemnaeque gemant, ac sine funibus
LIBER I. 15
Vix durare carinae
Possint iuiperiosius
Aequor ? Non tibi sunt Integra lintea,
Non di, quos iterum pressa voces malo. 10
Quaravis Pontica pinus,
Silvae filia nobilis,
lactes et genus et nomen inutile ;
Nil pictis timidus navita puppibus
Fidit. Tu, nisi ventis 16
Debes ludibrium, cave.
Nuper sollicitum quae mihi taedium,
Nunc desiderium curaque non levis,
Interfusa nitentes
Vites aequora Cycladas. 20
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, 6
Quam multo repetet Graecia milite,
Coniurata tuas rumpere nuptias
Et regnum Priami vetus.
Heu heu, quantus equis, quantus adest viris
Sudor ! quanta moves funera Dardanae 10
Genti ! lam galeam Pallas et aegida
Currusque et rabiem parat.
16 CARMINUM.
Nequiquam Veneris praesidio ferox
Pectes caesariem, grataque feminis
Imbelli cithara carmina divides ; 15
Nequiquam thalamo graves
Hastas et calami spicula Cnosii
Vitabis strepitumque et celerem sequi
Aiacem : tamen, heu, serus adulteros
Crines pulvere collines. 20
Non Laertiaden, exitium tuae
Genti, non Pylium Nestora respicis ?
Urgent impavidi te Salaminius
Teucer, te Sthenelus, sciens
Pugnae, sive opus est imperitare equis, 25
Non auriga piger. Merionen quoque
Nosces. Ecce furit te reperire atrox
Tydides, melior patre,
Quem tu, cervus uti vallis in altera
Visum parte lupum graminis imniemor 30
Sublimi fugies mollis anhelitu,
Non hoc pollicitus tuae.
Iracunda diem proferet Ilio
Matronisque Phrygum classis Achillei :
Post certas hiemes uret Achaicus 35
Ignis Iliacas domos.'
XVI.
matre pulchra fi'lia pulchrior,
Quem criminosis cumque voles modum
Pones iambis, sive flamma
Sive mari libet Hadriano.
LIBER I. 17
Non Dinclymene, non adytis quatit 5
Mentem sacerdotum incola Pythius,
Non Liber aeque, non acuta
Sic geminant Corybantes aera,
Tristes ut irae, quas neque Noricus
Deterret ensis nee mare naufragum 10
Nee saevus ignis nee tremendo
luppiter ipse ruens tumultu.
Fertur Prometheus addere principi
Limo coactus particulam undique
Desectam et insani leonis 16
Vim stomacho adposuisse nostro.
Irae Thyesten exitio gravi
Stravere et altis urbibus ultimae
Stetere causae cur perirent
Funditus imprimeretque muris 20
Hostile aratrum exercitus insolens.
Compesce mentem! Me quoque pectoris
Temptavit in dulci iuventa
Fervor et in celeres iambos
Misit furentem ; nunc ego mitibus 25
Mutare quaero tristia, dum mihi
Fias recantatis amiea
Opprobriis animumque reddas.
XVII.
Velox amoenum saepe Lucretilem
Mutat Lycaeo Faunus et igneam
Defendit aestatem capellis
Usque meis pluviosque ventos.
c
18 CARMINUM.
Impune tutum per nemus arbutos 6
Quaerunt latentes et thyma deviae
Olentis uxores mariti,
Nee virides inetuunt colubras
Nee Martiales haediliae lupos,
Utcumque dulci, Tyndari, fistula 10
Valles et Usticae cubantis
Levia personuere saxa.
Di me tuentur, dis pietas mea
Et Musa cordist. Hie tibi copia
Manabit ad plenum benigno 15
Ruris honorum opulenta cornu.
Hie in reducta valle Caniculae
Vitabis aestus et fide Teia
Dices laborantes in uno
Penelopen vitreamque Circen ; 20
Hie innocentis pocula Lesbii
Duces sub umbra, nee Semeleius
Cuin Marte confundet Thyoneus
Proelia, nee metues protervum
Suspecta Cyrum, ne male dispari 26
Incontinentes iniciat manus
Et scindat haerentem coronam
Crinibus immeritamque vestem.
XVIII.
Nullam, Vare, sacra vite prius severis arborem
Circa mite solum Tiburis et moenia Catili.
Siccis omnia nam dura deus proposuit neque
LIBER I. 19
Mordaces aliter diffugiunt sollicitudines.
Quis post vina gravem militiam aut pauperiem crepat ? 5
Quis non te potius, Bacche pater, teque, decens Venus ?
At nequis modici transiliat munera Liberi,
Centaurea monet cum Lapithis rixa super mero
Debellata, monet Sithoniis non levis Euhius,
Cum fas atque nefas exiguo fine libidinum 10
Discernunt avidi. Noil ego te, candide Bassareu,
Invitum quatiam nee variis obsita frondibus
Sub divum rapiam. Saeva tene cum Berecyntio
Cornu tympana, quae subsequitur caecus amor sui,
Et tollens vacuum plus nimio gloria verticem 15
Arcanique fides prodiga, perlucidior vitro.
XIX.
Mater saeva Cupidinum
Thebanaeque iubet me Semelae puer
Et lasciva Licentia
Einitis animum reddere amoribus.
Urit me Grlycerae nitor, 6
Splendentis Pario marmore purius ;
Urit grata protervitas
Et voltus nimium lubricus adspici.
In me tota ruens Venus
Cyprum deseruit, nee patitur Scythas 10
Et versis animosum equis
Parthum dicere nee quae nihil attinent.
Hie vivum mihi caespitem, hie
Verbenas, pueri, ponite turaque
Bimi cum patera meri : 16
Mactata veniet lenior hostia.
20 CARMINUM.
XX.
Vile potabis modicis Sabinum
Cantharis, Graeca quod ego ipse tesfca
Conditum levi, datus in theatre
Cum tibi plausus,
Care Maecenas eques, ut paterni 6
Fluminis ripae simul et iocosa
Redderet laudes tibi Vaticani
Montis imago.
Caecubum et prelo domitam Caleno
Tu bibes uvam : mea nee Falernae 10
Temperant vites neque Formiani
Pocula colles.
XXI.
Dianam tenerae dicite virgines,
Intonsum, pueri, dicite Cynthium
Latonamque supremo
Dilectam penitus lovi.
Vos laetam fluviis et nemorum coma, 6
Quaecumque aut gelido prominet Algido,
Nigris aut Erymanthi
Silvis aut viridis Cragi ;
Vos Tempe totidem tollite laudibus
Natalemque, mares, Delon Apollinis 10
Insignemque pharetra
Fraternaque umerum lyra.
LIBER I. 21
Hie bellum lacrimosum, hie miseram famem
Pestemque a populo et principe Caesare in
Persas atque Britaimos 15
Vestra motus aget prece.
XXII.
Integer vitae scelerisque pnrus
Non eget Mauris iaculis neque arcu
Nee venenatis gravida sagittis,
Fusee, pharetra,
Sive per Syrtes iter aestuosas, 6
Sive facturus per inhospitalem
Caucasum vel quae loca fabulosus
Lambit Hydaspes.
Namque me silva lupus in Sabina,
Dum meam canto Lalagen et ultra 10
Terminum curis vagor expeditis,
Fugit inermem,
Quale portentum neque militaris
Daunias latis alit aesculetis
Nee lubae tellus generat, leonum 15
Arida nutrix.
Pone me pigris ubi nulla campis
Arbor aestiva recreatur aura,
Quod latus mundi nebulae malusque
luppiter urget ; 20
Pone sub curru nimium propinqui
Solis in terra domibus negata :
22 CARMINUM.
Dulce ridentem Lalagen amabo,
Dulce loquentem.
XXIII.
Vitas hinuleo me similis, Chloe,
Quaerenti pavidam montibus aviis
Matrem non sine vano
Aurarum et siluae metu.
Nam seu mobilibus veris inhorruit 6
Adventus foliis, seu virides rubum
Dimovere lacertae,
Et corde et genibus tremit.
Atqui non ego te tigris ut aspera
Gaetulusve leo frangere persequor : 10
Tandem desine matrem
Tempestiva sequi viro.
XXIV.
Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus
Tarn cari capitis ? Praecipe lugubres
Cantus, Melpomene, cui liquidam pater
Vocem cum cithara dedit.
Ergo Quintilium perpetuus sopor 5
Urget ! Cui Pudor et lustitiae soror,
Incorrupta Fides, nudaque Veritas
Quando ullum inveniet parem ?
Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit,
Nulli flebilior quam tibi, Vergili. 10
LIBER I. 23
Tu frustra plus heu non ita creditum
Poscis Quintilium deos.
Quod si Threicio blandius Orpheo
Auditam moderere arboribus fidem,
Non vanae redeat sanguis imagini, 15
Quam virga semel horrida,
Non lenis precibus fata recludere,
Nigro compulerit Mercurius gregi.
Durum : sed levius fit patientia,
Quidquid corrigerest nefas. 20
XXV.
Parcius iunctas quatiunt fenestras
lactibus crebris iuvenes protervi,
Nee tibi soinnos adimunt, amatque
lanua limen,
Quae prius multum facilis movebat 5
Cardines. Audis minus et minus iam :
' Me tuo longas pereunte noctes,
Lydia, dormis ? '
Invicem moechos anus arrogantes
Flebis in solo levis angiportu, 10
Thracio bacchante magis sub inter-
lunia vento,
Cum tibi flagrans amor et libido,
Quae solet matres furiare equorum,
Saeviet circa iecur ulcerosum, 16
Non sine questu,
24 CARMINUM.
Laeta quod pubes hedera virenti
Gaudeat pulla magis atque myrto,
Aridas frondes hiemis sodali
Dedicet Euro. 20
XXVI.
Musis amicus tristitiam et metus
Tradam protervis in mare Creticum
Portare ventis, quis sub Arcto
Rex gelidae metuatur orae,
Quid Tiridaten terreat," unice 5
Securus. quae fontibus integris
Gaudes, apricos necte flores,
Necte meo Lamiae coronam,
Pimplei dulcis. Nil sine te mei
Prosunt honores : hunc fidibus novis, 10
Hunc Lesbio sacrare plectro
Teque tuasque decet sorores.
XXVII.
Natis in usum laetitiae scyphis
Pugnare Thracumst : tollite barbarum
Morem, verecundumque Bacchum
Sanguiiieis prohibete rixis.
Vino et lucernis Medus acinaces 5
Immane quantum discrepat : impium
Lenite clamorem, sodales,
Et cubito remauete presso.
LIBER I. 25
Voltis sever! me quoque sumere
Partem Falerui ? Dicat Opuntiae 10
Frater Megillae quo beatus
Volnere, qua pereat sagitta.
Cessat voluntas ? Non alia bibam
Mercede. Quae te cumque domat Venus,
Non erubescendis adurit 15
Ignibus ingenuoque semper
Amore peccas. Quidquid habes, age,
Depone tutis auribus. A miser,
Quanta laborabas Chary bdi,
Digne puer meliore flamma ! 20
Quae saga, quis te solvere Thessalis
Magus venenis, quis poterit deus ?
Vix inligatum te triformi
Pegasus expediet Chimaera.
XXVIII.
Te maris et terrae numeroque carentis arenae
Mensorem cohibent, Archyta,
Pulveris exigui prope litus parva Matinum
Munera, nee quicquam tibi prodest
Aerias temptasse domos animoque rotundum 5
Percurrisse polum morituro.
Occidit et Pelopis genitor, conviva deorum,
Tithonusque remotus in auras
Et lovis arcanis Minos admissus, habentque
Tartara Panthoiden iterum Oreo 10
26 CARMINUM.
Demissum, quamvis clipeo Troiana refixo
Tempora testatus nihil ultra
Nervos atque cutem morti concesserat atrae,
ludice te non sordidus auctor
Naturae verique. Sed omnes una manet nox 15
Et calcanda semel via leti.
Dant alios Furiae torvo spectacula Marti,
Exitiost avidum mare nautis ;
Mixta senum ac iuvenum densentur f unera ; nullum
Saeva caput Proserpina fugit : 20
Me quoque devexi rapidus comes Orionis
Illyricis Notus obruit undis.
At tu, nauta, vagae ne parce malignus areaae
Ossibus et capiti inhumato
Particulam dare : sic, quodcumque minabitur Eurus 25
Fluctibus Hesperiis, Venusinae
Plectantur silvae te sospite, multaque merces,
Unde potest, tibi defluat aequo
Ab love Neptunoque sacri custode Tarenti.
Neglegis immeritis nocituram 30
Postmodo te natis f raudem committere ? Fors et
Debita iura vicesque superbae
Te maneant ipsum : precibus non linquar inultis,
Teque piacula nulla resolvent.
Quamquam festinas, non est rnora longa ; licebit 35
Iniecto ter pulvere curras.
LIBER L 27
XXIX.
Icci, beatis nunc Arabum invides
Gazis et acreni militiam paras
Non ante devictis Sabaeae
Regibus, horribilique Medo
Nectis catenas ? Quae tibi virginum 6
Sponso necato barbara serviet ?
Puer quis ex aula capillis
Ad cyathum statuetur unctis,
Doctus sagittas tendere Sericas
Arcu paterno ? Quis neget arduis 10
Pronos relabi posse rivos
Montibus et Tiberim reverti,
Cum tu coeniptos undique nobilis
Libros Panaeti Socraticam et domum
Mutare loricis Hiberis, 16
Pollicitus meliora, tendis ?
XXX.
O Venus, regina Cnidi Paphique,
Sperne dilectam Cypron et vocantis
Ture te multo Glycerae decoram
Transfer in aedem.
Fervidus tecum puer et solutis
Gratiae zonis properentque Nymphae
Et parum comis sine te luventas
Mercuriusque.
28 CARMINUM.
XXXI.
Quid dedicatum poscit' Apollinem
Vates ? Quid orat, de patera novum
Fundens liquorem ? Non opimae
Sardiniae segetes feraces,
Non aestuosae grata Calabriae 5
Aruienta, non aurum aut ebur Indicum,
Non rura, quae Liris quieta
Mordet aqua taciturnus amnis.
Premant Galena falce quibus dedit
Fortuna vitem, dives et aureis 10
Mercator exsiccet culullis
Viua Syr a reparata merce,
Dis carus ipsis, quippe ter et quater
Anno revisens aequor Atlanticum
Impune. Me pascunt olivae, 15
Me cichorea levesque malvae.
Frui paratis et valido mihi,
Latoe, dones et precor integra
Cum mente nee turpem senectam
Degere nee cithara carentem. 20
XXXII.
Poscimur. Siquid vacui sub umbra
Lusimus tecum, quod et huno in annum
Vivat et plures, age die Latinum,
Barbite, carmen,
LIBER I. 29
Lesbio primum modulate civi, 5
Qui ferox bello taraen inter anna,
Sive iactatam religarat udo
Litore navim,
Libernm et Musas Veneremque et illi
Semper haerentem pueruni canebat, 10
Et Lycum nigris oculis nigroque
Crine decorum.
O decus Phoebi et dapibus supremi
Grata testudo lovis, o laborum
Dulce lenimen, rnihi cumque salve 16
Kite vocanti!
XXXIII.
Albi, ne doleas plus nimio memor
Immitis Glycerae, neu miserabiles
Decantes elegos, cur tibi iunior
Laesa praeniteat fide.
Insignem tenui fronte Lycorida 5
Cyri torret amor, Cyrus in asperam
Declinat Pholoen ; sed prius Apulis
lungentur capreae lupis
Quam turpi Pholoe peccet adultero.
Sic visum Veneri, cui placet impares 10
Formas atque animos sub iuga aenea
Saevo mittere cum ioco.
Ipsum me melior cum peteret Venus,
Grata detinuit compede Myrtale
30 CARMINUM.
Libertina, fretis acrior Hadriae 16
Curvantis Calabros sinus.
XXXIV.
Parcus deorum cultor et infrequens,
Insanientis dum sapientiae
Consultus erro, nunc retrorsum
Vela dare atque iterare cursus
Cogor relictos. Namque Diespiter, 6
Igni corusco nubila dividens
Plerumque, per purum tonantes
Egit equos volucremque currum,
Quo bruta tellus et vaga flumina,
Quo Styx et invisi horrida Taenari 10
Sedes Atlanteusque finis
Concutitur. Valet ima summis
Mutare et insignem attenuat deus,
Obscura promens ; hinc apicem rapax
Fortuna cum stridore acuto 15
Sustulit, hie posuisse gaudet.
XXXV.
diva, gratum quae regis Antium,
Praesens vel inio tollere de gradu
Mortale corpus vel superbos
Vertere funeribus triumphos,
LIBER I. 31
Te pauper ambit sollicita prece 6
Hurls coloiius, te dominain aequoris
Quicumque Bithyna lacessit
Carpathium pelagus carina.
Te Dacus asper, te profugi Scythae
Urbesque gentesque et Latium ferox 10
Regumque matres barbarorum et
Purpurei metuunt tyranni,
Iniurioso ne pede proruas
Stantem columnam, neu populus frequens
Ad arma cessantes, ad arma 16
Concitet imperiumque frangat.
Te semper anteit saeva Kecessitas,
Clavos trabales et cuneos manu
Gestans aena, nee severus
Uncus abest liquidumque plumbum. 20
Te Spes et albo rara Fides colit
Velata panno, nee coinitem abnegat,
Utcumque niutata potentes
Veste domos iniinica linquis.
At volgus infidum et meretrix retro 25
Periura cedit, diffugiunt cadis
Cum faece siccatis amici
Ferre iugum pariter dolosi.
Serves iturum Caesarem in ultimos
Orbis Britannos et iuvenum recens 30
Examen Eois timendum
Partibus Oceanoque rubro.
32 CARMINUM.
Eheu cicatricum et sceleris pudet
Fratrumque. Quid nos dura refugimus
Aetas ? quid intactum nef asti 3tf
Liquimus ? unde manum iuventus
Metu deorum continuit ? quibus
Pepercit aris ? utinam nova
Incude diffingas retusum in
Massagetas Arabasque f errum ! 40
XXXVI.
Et ture et fidibus iuvat
Placare et vituli sanguine debito
Custodes Numidae deos,
Qui nunc Hesperia sospes ab ultima
Caris multa sodalibus, 5
Nulli plura tamen dividit oscula
Quam dulci Lamiae, memor
Actae non alio rege puertiae
Mutataeque simul togae.
Cressa ne careat pulchra dies nota, 10
Neu promptae modus amphorae
Neu morem in Salium sit requies pedum,
Neu multi Damalis meri
Bassum Threicia vincat amystide,
Neu desint epulis rosae 16
Neu vivax apium neu breve lilium.
Omnes in Damalin putres ,
Deponent oculos, nee Damalis novo
Divelletur adultero,
Lascivis hederis ambitiosior. 20
LIBER I. 33
XXXVII.
Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero
Pulsanda tellus, nunc Saliaribus
Ornare pulvinar deorum
Te'mpus erat dapibus, sodales.
Antehac nefas depromere Caecubum 6
Cellis avitis, dum Capitolio
Eegina dementes ruinas
Funus et imperio parabat
Contaminato cum grege turpium
Morbo virorum, quidlibet impotens 10
Sperare fortunaque dulci
Ebria. Sed minuit f urorem
Vix una sospes navis ab ignibus,
Mentemque lymphatam Mareotico
Redegit in veros timores 16
Caesar, ab Italia volantem
Remis adurgens, accipiter velut
Molles columbas aut leporem citus
Venator in campis nivalis
Haemoniae, daret ut catenis 20
Fatale monstrum. Quae generosius
Perire quaerens nee muliebriter
Expavit ensem nee latentes
Classe cita reparavit oras.
Ausa et iacentem visere regiam 25
Voltu sereno, fortis et asperas
34 CARMINUM.
Tractare serpentes, ut atrum
Corpore combiberet venenum,
Deliberata morte ferocior,
Saevis Liburnis scilicet invidens 30
Privata deduci superbo
humilis mulier triumplio.
XXXVIII.
Persicos odi, puer, apparatus ;
Displicent nexae philyra coronae ;
Mitte sectari, rosa quo locorum
Sera moretur.
Simplici myrto nihil adlabores
Sedulus euro : neque te rainistrum
Dedecet myrtus neque me sub arta
Vite bibentem.
OARMINUM
LIBER SECUNDUS.
I.
Motum ex Metello consule civicum
Bellique causas et vitia et modos
Ludumque Fortunae gravesque
Principum amicitias et arma
Nonduni expiatis uncta cruoribus, 6
Periculosae plenum opus aleae,
Tractas et incedis per ignes
Suppositos cineri doloso.
Paullum severae Musa tragoediae
Desit theatris ; mox ubi publicas 10
Res ordinaris, grande munus
Cecropio repetes cothurno,
Insigne maestis praesidium reis
Et consulenti, Pollio, Curiae,
Cui laurus aeternos honores 15
Delmatico peperit triumpho.
lam mine minaci murmure cornuum
Perstringis aures, iam litui strepunt,
lam fulgor armorum fugaces
Terret equos equitumque voltus. 20
35
36 CARMINUM.
Audire magnos iam videor duces,
Non indecoro pulvere sordidos,
Et cuncta terrarum subacta
Praeter atrocem animum Catonis.
luno et deorum quisquis amicior 25
Afris inulta cesserat impotens
Tellure victomm nepotes
Kettulit inferias lugurthae.
Quis non Latino sanguine pinguior
Campus sepulcris impia proelia 30
Testatur auditumque Medis
Hesperiae sonitum ruinae ?
Qui gurges aut quae flumina lugubris
Ignara belli ? quod mare Dauniae
Non decoloravere caedes ? 35
Quae caret ora cruore nostro ?
Sed ne relictis, Musa procax, iocis
Ceae retractes munera neniae,
Mecum Dionaeo sub antro
Quaere modos leviore plectro. 40
II.
Nullus argento color est avaris
Abdito terris, inimice lamiiae
Crispe Sallusti, nisi temperato
Splendeat usu.
Vivet extento Proculeius aevo,
Notus in fratres animi paterni :
LIBER II. 37
Ilium aget penna metuente solvi
Fama superstes.
Latins regnes avidum domando
Spiritum, quam si Libyam remotis 10
Gadibus iungas et uterque Poenus
Serviat uni.
Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops
Nee sitim pellit, nisi causa morbi
Fugerit venis et aquosus albo 16
Corpore languor.
Eedditum Cyri solio Phraaten
Dissidens plebi numero beatorum
Eximit Virtus populumque falsis
Dedocet uti 20
Vocibus, regnum et diadema tutum
Deferens uni propriamque laurum,
Quisquis ingentes oculo inretorto
Spectat acervos.
III.
Aequam 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.
38 CARMINUM.
Quo pinus ingens albaque populus
Umbram hospitalem consociare amant 10
Ramis ? Quid obliquo laborat
Lympha fugax trepidare rivo ?
Hue vina et unguenta et nimium breves
Flores amoenae ferre iube rosae,
Dura res et aetas et sororum 15
Fila trium patiuntur atra.
Cedes coemptis saltibus et domo
Villaque, flavus quam Tiberis lavit,
Cedes, et exstructis in altum
Divitiis potietur heres. 20
Divesne prisco natus ab'Inacho
Nil interest an pauper et infima
De gente sub divo moreris,
Victima nil miserantis Orci.
Omnes eodem cogimur, omnium 25
Versatur urna serius ocius
Sors exitura et nos in aeternum
Exsilium impositura cumbae.
IV.
Ne sit ancillae tibi amor pudori,
Xanthia Phoceu ! Prius insolentem
Serva Briseis niveo colore
Movit Achillem ;
Movit Aiacem Telamone natum 6
Forma captivae dominum Tecmessae ;
LIBER IF. 39
Arsit Atrides medio in triumpho
Virgine rapta,
Barbarae postquam cecidere turmae
Thessalo victore et ademptus Hector 10
Tradidit fessis leviora tolli
Pergama Grais.
Nescias an te generum beati
Phyllidis flavae decorent parentes :
Regium certe genus et penates 15
Maeret iniquos.
Crede non illam tibi de scelesta
Plebe dilectam, neque sic fidelem,
Sic lucre- aversam potuisse nasci
Matre pudenda. 20
Bracchia et voltum teretesque suras
Integer laudo ; fuge suspicari,
Cuius octavum trepidavit aetas
Claudere lustrum.
V.
Nondum subacta ferre iugum valet
Cervice, nondum munia comparis
Aequare nee tauri mentis
In venerem tolerare pondus.
Circa virentes est animus tuae
Campos iuvencae, nunc fluviis gravem
Solantis aestum, nunc in udo
Ludere cum vitulis salicto
40 CARMINUM.
Praegestientis. Tolle cupidinem
Immitis uvae : iam tibi lividos 10
Distinguet autumnus racemos
Purpureo varius colore.
Iam te sequetur : currit enim f erox
Aetas, et illi, quos tibi dempserit,
Adpouet annos ; iam proterva 15
Fronte petet Lalage maiitum,
Dilecta quantum non Pholoe fugax,
Non Chloris, albo sic umero nitens
Ut pura nocturno renidet
Luna mari, Cnidiusve Gyges, 20
Quern si puellarum insereres choro,
Mire sagaces falleret hospites
Discrimen obscurum solutis
Crinibus ambiguoque voltu.
VI.
Septimi, Gades aditure mecum et
Cantabrum indoctum iuga ferre nostra et
Barbaras Syrtes, ubi Maura semper
Aestuat unda :
Tibur Argeo positum colono 5
Sit meae sedes utinam senectae,
Sit modus lasso maris et viarum
Militiaeque.
Unde si Parcae prohibent iniquae,
Dulce pellitis ovibus Galaesi 10
LIBER II. 41
Flumen et regnata petam Laconi
Kura Phalantho.
Ille terrarum mihi praeter oinnes
Angulus ridet, ubi non Hymetto
Mella decedunt viridique certat 15
Baca Venafro ;
Ver ubi longum tepidasque praebet
luppiter brumas, et amicus Aulon
Fertili Baccho minimum Falernis
Invidet uvis. 20
Ille te mecum locus et beatae
Postulant arces ; ibi tu calentem
Debita sparges lacrima favillam
Vatis amici.
VII.
saepe mecum tempus in ultimum
Deducte Bruto militiae duce,
Quis te redonavit Quiritem
Dis patriis Italoque caelo,
Pompei, meorum prime sodalium, 5
Cum quo morantem saepe diem mero
Fregi, coronatus nitentes
Malobathro Syrio capillos ?
Tecum Philippos et celerem fugam
Sensi relicta non bene parmula, 10
Cum fracta virtus et minaces
Turpe solum tetigere mento.
42 CARMINUM.
Sed me per hostes Mercurius celer
Denso paventem sustulit aere ;
Te rursus in bellum resorbens 15
Unda fretis tulit aestuosis.
Ergo obligatam redde lovi dapem,
Longaque fessum militia latus
Depone sub lauru mea nee
Parce cadis tibi destinatis. 20
Oblivioso levia Massico
Ciboria exple, funde capacibus
Unguenta de conchis. Quis udo
Deproperare apio coronas
Curatve myrto ? Quern Venus arbitrum 25
Dicet bibendi ? Non ego sanius
Bacchabor Edonis : recepto
Dulce mihi furerest amico.
VIII.
Ulla si iuris tibi peierati
Poena, Barine, nocuisset umquam,
Dente si nigro fieres vel uno
Turpior ungui,
Crederem. Sed tu simul obligasti 6
Perfidum votis caput, enitescis
Pulchrior multo, iuvenumque prodis
Publica cura.
Expedit matris cineres opertos
Fallere et toto taciturna noctis 10
LIBER II. 43
Signa cum caelo gelidaque divos
Morte carentes.
Kidet hoc, inquam, Venus ipsa, rident
Simplices Nymphae ferus et Cupido,
Semper ardentes acuens sagittas 15
Cote cruenta.
Adde quod pubes tibi crescit omnis,
Servitus crescit nova, nee priores
. Impiae tectum dominae relinquunt,
Saepe minati. 20
Te suis matres metuunt iuvencis,
Te senes parci miseraeque nuper
Virgines nuptae, tua ne retardet
Aura maritos.
IX.
Non semper imbres nubibus hispidos
Manant in agros aut mare Caspium
Vexant inaequales procellae
Usque, nee Armeniis in oris,
Amice Valgi, stat glacies iners 6
Menses per omnes, aut Aquilonibus
Querceta Gargani laborant
Et f oliis viduantur orni :
Tu semper urges flebilibus modis
Mysten ademptum, nee tibi Vespero 10
Surgente decedunt amores
Nee rapidum fugiente solem.
44 CARMINUM.
At non ter aevo functus amabilem
Ploravit omnes Antilochum senex
Annos, nee impubem parentes 15
Troilon aut Phrygiae sorores
Flevere semper. Desine mollium
Tandem querellarum, et potius nova
Contemns August! tropaea
Caesaris et rigidum Niphaten, 20
Meduraque flumen gentibus additum . *
Victis minores volvere vertices,
Intraque praescriptum Gelonos
Exiguis equitare campis.
X.
Rectius vives, Licini, neque altum
Semper urgendo neque, dum procellas
Cautus horrescis, nimium preniendo
Litus iniquum.
Auream quisquis mediocritatem 6
Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
Sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
Sobrius aula.
Saepius ventis agitatur ingens
Pinus et celsae graviore casu 10
Decidunt turres feriuntque summos
Fulgura montes.
Sperat infestis, metuit secundis
Alteram sortem bene praeparatum
LIBER II. 45
Pectus. Informes hiemes reducit 15
luppiter, idem
Submovet. Non, si male nunc, et olim
Sic erit : quondam cithara tacentem
Suscitat Musam neque semper arcum
Tendit Apollo. 20
Rebus angustis animosus atque
Fortis appare ; sapienter idem
Contrahes vento nimium secundo
Turgida vela.
XI.
Quid bellicosus Cantaber et Scythes,
Hirpine Quinti, cogitet Hadria
Divisus obiecto, remittas
Quaerere, nee trepides in usum
Poscentis aevi pauca. Fugit retro 5
Levis iuventas et decor, arida
Pellente lascivos amores
Canitie facilemque sonmum.
Non semper idem floribus est honor
Vernis, neque uno luna rubens nitet 10
Voltu : quid aeternis minorem
Consiliis animum fatigas ?
Cur non sub alta vel platano vel hac
Pinu iacentes sic teme*e et rosa
Canos odorati capillos, 15
Dum licet, Assyriaque nardo
46 CARMINUM.
Potamus uncti ? Dissipat Euhius
Curas edaces. Quis puer ocius
Restinguet ardentis Falerni
Pocula praetereunte lympha ? 20
Quis devium scortum eliciet domo
Lyden ? Eburna, die age, cum lyra
Maturet, in. comptum Lacaenae
More comam religata nodum.
XII.
Nolis longa ferae bella Numantiae
Nee durum Hannibalem nee Siculum mare
Poeuo purpureum sanguine mollibus
Aptari citharae modis,
Nee saevos Lapithas et nimium mero 6
Hylaeum domitosque Herculea manu
Telluris iuvenes, unde periculum
Fulgens contremuit domus
Saturni veteris : tuque pedestribus
Dices historiis proelia Caesaris, 10
Maecenas, melius ductaque per vias
Regum colla minacium.
Me dulces dominae Musa Licymniae
Cantus, me voluit dicere lucidum
Fulgentes oculos et bene mutuis 15
Fidum pectus amoribus ;
Quam nee ferre pedem dedecuit choris
Nee certare ioco nee dare bracchia
LIBER II. 47
Ludentem nitidis virginibus sacro
Dianae Celebris die. 20
Num tu quae tenuit dives Achaemenes
Aut pinguis Phrygiae Mygdonias opes
Permutare velis crine Licymniae,
Plenas aut Arabum domos,
Dum flagrantia detorquet ad oscula 25
Cervicem, aut facili saevitia negat
Quae poscente magis gaudeat eripi,
Interdum rapere occupet ?
XIII.
Ille et nefasto te posuit die,
Quicumque primum, et sacrilega manti
Produxit, arbos, in nepotum
Perniciem opprobriunique pagi ;
Ilium et parentis crediderim sui 6
Fregisse cervicem et penetralia
Sparsisse nocturne cruore
Hospitis ; ille venena Colcha
Et quidquid usquam concipitur nefas
Tractavit, agro qui statuit meo 10
Te triste lignum, te caducum
In domini caput immerentis.
Quid quisque vitet, numquam homini satis
Cautumst in horas : navita Bosporum
Poenus perhorrescit neque ultra 16
Caeca timet aliunde fata;
48 CARMINUM.
Miles sagittas et celerem fugam
Parthi, catenas Parthus et Italum
Robur ; sed improvisa leti
Vis rapuit rapietque gentes. 20
Quam paene furvae regna Proserpinae
Et iudicantem vidimus Aeacum
Sedesque discretas pioriim et
Aeoliis fidibus querentem
Sappho puellis de popularibus, 25
Et te sonantem plenius aureo,
Alcaee, plectro dura navis,
Dura fugae mala, dura belli.
Utrumque sacro digna silentio
Mirantur umbrae dicere ; sed magis 30
Pugnas et exactos tyrannos
Densum umeris bibit aure volgus.
Quid mirum, ubi illis carminibus stupens
Demittit atras belua centiceps
Aures, et intorti capillis 35
Eumenidum recreantur angues ?
Quin et Prometheus et Pelopis parens
Dulci laborem decipitur sono,
Nee curat Orion leones
Aut timidos agitare lyncas. 40
XIV.
Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume,
Labuntur anni, nee pietas moram
Rugis et instanti senectae
Adferet indomitaeque morti ;
LIBER II. 49
si trecenis quotquot eunt dies, 6
Amice, places inlacrimabilem
Plutona tauris, qui ter amplum
Geryonen. Tityonque tristi
Compescit unda, scilicet omnibus,
Quicumque terrae rnunere vescimur, 10
Enaviganda, sive reges
Sive inopes erimus coloni.
Frustra cruento Marte carebirnus
Fractisque rauci fluctibus Hadriae,
Frustra per autnmnos nocentem 15
Corporibus metuemus austrum :
Visendus ater flumine languido
Cocytos errans et Danai genus
Infame damnatusque longi
Sisyphus Aeolides laboris. 20
Linquenda tellus et domus et placens
Uxor, neque harum, quas colis, arborum
Te praeter invisas cupressos
Ulla brevem dominum sequetur.
Absumet heres Caecuba dignior 25
Servata centum clavibus et mero
Tinguet pavimentum superbo,
Pontificum potiore cenis.
XV.
lam pauca aratro iugera regiae
Moles relinquent ; undique latius
Extenta visentur Lucrino
Stagna lacu, platanusque caelebs
50 CARM1NUM.
Evincet ulmos ; turn violaria et 5
Myrtus et omnis copia narium
Spargent olivetis odorem
Fertilibus domino priori ;
Turn spissa ramis laurea fervidos
Excludet ictus. Non ita Romuli 10
Praescriptum et intonsi Catonis
Auspiciis veterumque norma.
Privatus illis census erat brevis,
Commune magnum : nulla decempedis
Metata privatis opacam 15
Porticus excipiebat Arcton,
Nee fortuitum spernere caespitem
Leges sinebant, oppida publico
Sumptu iubentes et deorum
Templa novo decorare saxo. 20
XVI.
Otium divos rogat in patenti
Prensus Aegaeo, simul atra nubes
Condidit lunain neque certa fulgent
Sidera nautis ;
Otium bello furiosa Thrace, 5
Otium Medi pharetra decori,
Grosphe, non gemmis neque purpura ve-
nale nee auro.
Non enim gazae neque consularis
Submovet lictor miseros tumultus 10
LIBER II. 51
Mentis et curas laqueata circum
Tecta volantes.
Vivitur parvo bene cui paternura
Splendet in mensa tenui salinum
Nee leves somnos timor aut cupido 16
Sordidus aufert.
Quid brevi fortes iaculamur aevo
Multa ? Quid terras alio calentes
Sole mutamus ? Patriae quis exsul
Se quoque fugit ? 20
Scandit aeratas vitiosa naves
Cura nee turmas equitum relinquit,
Ocior cervis et agente nimbos
Ocior Euro.
Laetus in praesens animus quod ultrast 25
Oderit curare et amara lento
Temperet risu ; nihil est ab omni
Parte beatum.
Abstulit clarum cita mors Achillem,
Longa Tithonum minuit senectus, 30
Et mihi forsan tibi quod negarit
Porriget hora.
Te greges centum Siculaeque circum
Mugiunt vaccae, tibi tollit hinnitum
Apta quadrigis equa, te bis Afro 35
Murice tinctae
Vestiunt lanae ; mihi parva rura et
Spiritum Graiae tenuem Camenae
Parca non mendax dedit et malignum
Spernere volgus. 40
CARMINUM.
XVII.
Cur me querellis exanimas tuis ?
Nee dis amicumst nee mihi te prius
Obire, Maecenas, mearum
Grande decus columenque rerum.
A, te meae si partem animae rapit 5
Maturior vis, quid moror altera,
Nee carus aeque nee superstes
Integer ? Ille dies utramque
Ducet ruinam. Non ego perfidum
Dixi sacramentum : ibimus, ibimus, 10
Utcumque praecedes, supremum
Carpere iter comites parati.
Me nee Chimaerae spiritus igneae
Nee, si resurgat, centimanus Gyas
Divellet umquam : sic potenti 15
lustitiae placitumque Parcis.
Seu Libra seu me Scorpios adspicit
Formidolosus pars violentior
Natalis horae, seu tyrannus
Hesperiae Capricornus undae, 20
Utrumque nostrum incredibili modo
Consentit astrum. Te Ipvis impio
Tutela Saturno refulgens
Eripuit volucrisque Fati
Tardavit alas, cum populus fre'quens 2&
Laetum theatris ter crepuit sonum ;
LIBER II. 53
Me truncus inlapsus cerebro
Sustulerat, nisi Faunus ictum
Dextra levasset, Mercurialium
Gustos virorum. Reddere victimas 30
Aedemque votivam memento ;
Nos humilem feriemus agnam.
XVIII.
Non ebur neque aureum
Mea renidet in domo lacunar,
Non trabes Hymettiae
Premunt columnas ultima recisas
Africa, neque Attali 5
Ignotus heres regiarn occupavi,
Nee Laconicas mihi
Trahunt honestae purpuras clientae.
At fides et ingeni
Benigna venast, pauperemque dives 10
Me petit : nihil supra
Deos lacesso nee potentem amicum
Largiora flagito,
Satis beatus unicis Sabinis.
Truditur dies die, 15
Novaeque pergunt interire lunae:
Tu secanda marmora
Locas sub ipsum funus, et sepulcri
Immemor struis domos,
Marisque Bais obstrepentis urges 20
Submovere litora,
Parum locuples continente ripa.
54 CARMINUM.
Quid quod usque proximos
Revellis agri terininos et ultra
Limites clientium 25
Sails avarus ? Pellitur paternos
In sinu ferens deos
Et uxor et vir sordidosque natos.
Nulla certior tamen
Rapacis Orel fine destiuata 30
Aula divitem manet
Erum. Quid ultra tendis ? Aequa tellus
Pauperi recluditur
Regumque pueris, nee satelles Orci
Callidum Promethea 35
Bevexit auro captus. Hie superbum
Tantalum atque Tantali
Genus coercet, hie levare functum
Pauperem laboribus
Vocatus atque non vocatus audit. 40
XIX.
Bacchum in remotis carmina rupibus
Vidi docentem, credite poster!,
Nymphasque discentes et aures
Capripedum Satyrorum acutas.
Euhoe, recenti mens trepidat metu, 6
Plenoque Bacchi pectore turbidum
Laetatur. Euhoe, parce Liber,
Parce gravi metuende thyrso.
Fas pervicaces est mihi Thyiadas
Vinique fonteni lactis et uberes 10
LIBER II. 55
Cantare rivos atque truncis
Lapsa cavis iterare mella ;
Fas et beatae coniugis additum
Stellis honorem tectaque Penthei
Disiecta non leni ruina 15
Thracis et exitium Lycurgi.
Tu flectis amnes, tu mare barbarum,
Tu separatis uvidus in iugis
Nodo coerces viperino
Bistonidum sine fraude crines. 20
Tu, cum parentis regna per arduum
Conors Gigantum scanderet impia,
Rhoetum retorsisti leonis
Unguibus horribilique mala;
Quamquam choreis aptior et iocis 26
Ludoque dictus non sat idoneus
Pugnae ferebaris ; sed idem
Pacis eras mediusque belli.
Te vidit insons Cerberus aureo
Cornu decorum, leniter atterens 30
Caudam, et recedentis trilingui
Ore pedes tetigitque crura.
XX.
Non usitata nee tenui ferar
Penna biformis per liquidum aethera
Vates, neque in terris morabor
Longius invidiaque maior
56 CARMINUM.
Urbes relinquam. Non ego pauperum 5
Sanguis parentum, non ego, quem vocas,
Dilecte Maecenas, obibo
Nee Stygia cohibebor unda.
lam iam residunt cruribus asperae
Pelles et album mutor in alitem 10
Superne, nascunturque leves
Per digitos umerosque plumae.
Iam Daedaleo notior Icaro
Visam gementis litora Bospori
Syrtesque Gaetulas canorus 15
Ales Hyperboreosque campos.
Me Colchus et qui dissimulat metum
Marsae cohortis Dacus et ultimi
Noscent Geloni, me peritus
Discet Hiber Ehodanique potor. 20
Absint inani funere neniae
Luctusque turpes et querimoniae ;
Compesce clamorem ac sepulcri
Mitte supervacuos honores.
CARMINTJM
LIBER TERTIUS.
I.
Odi profanum volgus et arceo.
Favete linguis : carmina non prius
Audita Musarum sacerdos
Virginibus puerisque canto.
Regum timendorum in proprios greges, 6
Reges in ipsos imperiumst lovis,
Clari Giganteo triumpho,
Cuncta supercilio moventis.
Est ut viro vir latius ordinet
Arbusta sulcis, hie generosior 10
Descendat in Campum petitor,
Moribus hie meliorque fama
Contendat, illi turba clientimn
Sit maior : aequa lege Necessitas
Sortitur insignes et imos ; 15
Omne capax movet urna nomen.
Destrictus ensis cui super impia
Cervice pendet, non Siculae dapes
Dulcem elaborabunt saporem,
Non avium citharaeque cantus 20
57
58 CARMINUM.
Somnum reducent. Somnus agrestium
Lenis virorum non humiles domos
Fastidit umbrosamque ripam,.
Non zephyris agitata tempe.
Desiderantem quod satis est neque 25
Tumultuosum sollicitat mare
Nee saevus Arcturi cadentis
Impetus aut orientis Haedi,
Non verberatae grandine vineae
Fundusque mendax, arbore nunc aquas 30
Culpante, nunc torrentia agros
Sidera, nunc hiemes iniquas.
Contracta pisces aequora sentiunt
lactis in altum molibus : hue frequens
Caementa demittit redernptor 35
Cum famulis dominusque terrae
Fastidiosus. Sed Timor et Minae
Scandunt eodem quo dominus, neque
Decedit aerata triremi et
Post equitem sedet atra Cura. 40
Quodsi dolentem nee Phrygius lapis
Nee purpurarum sidere clarior
Delenit usus nee Falerna
Vitis Achaemeniumque costum :
Cur invidendis postibus et novo 45
Sublime ritu moliar atrium ?
Cur valle permutem Sabina
Divitias operosiores ?
LIBER HI. 59
II.
Angustam amice pauperiem pati
Robustus acri militia puer
Condiscat et Parthos feroces
Vexet eques metuendus hasta,
Vitamque sub divo et trepidis agat 6
In rebus. Ilium ex moenibus hosticis
Matrona bellantis tyranni
Prospiciens et adulta virgo
Suspiret, eheu, ne rudis agminum
Sponsus lacessat regius asperum 10
Tactu leonem, quern cruenta
Per medias rapit ira caedes.
Dulce et decorumst pro patria mori :
Mors et fugacem persequitur virum,
Nee parcit imbellis iuventae 16
Poplitibus timidoque tergo.
Virtus repulsae nescia sordidae,
Intamiiiatis fulget honoribus,
Nee sumit aut ponit secures
Arbitrio popularis aurae. 20
Virtus recludens immeritis mori
Caelum negata temptat iter via,
Coetusque volgares et udarn
Spernit humum fugiente penna.
Est et fideli tuta silentio 26
Merces : vetabo qui Cereris sacrum
60 CARMINUM.
Volgarit arcanae sub isdem
Sit trabibus fragilemve mecum
Solvat phaselon ; saepe Diespiter
Neglectus incesto addidit integrum : 30
Raro antecedentem scelestum
Deseruit pede Poena claudo.
III.
lustum et tenacem propositi virum
Non civium ardor prava iubentium,
Non voltus instantis tyranni
Merite quatit solida, neque Auster,
Dux inquieti turbidus Hadriae, 6
Nee fulminantis magna maims lovis ;
Si fractus inlabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinae.
Hac arte Pollux et vagus Hercules
Enisus arces attigit igneas, 10
Quos inter Augustus recumbens
Purpureo bibet ore nectar.
Hac te merenteni, Bacche pater, tuae
Vexere tigres, indocili iugum
Collo trahentes ; hac Quirinus 16
Martis equis Acheronta fugit,
Gratum elocuta consiliantibus
lunone divis : ' Ilion, Ilion
Fatalis incestusque iudex
Et mulier peregrina vertit 20
LIBER III. 61
In pulverem, ex quo destituit deos
Mercede pacta Laomedon, mihi
Castaeque damnatum Minervae
Cum populo et duce fraudulento.
lam nee Lacaenae splendet adulterae 25
Famosus hospes nee Priami domus
Periura pugnaces Achivos
Hectoreis opibus refringit,
Nostrisque ductum seditionibus
Bellum resedit. Protinus et graves 30
Iras et invisum nepotem,
Troica quem peperit sacerdos,
Marti redoiiabo ; ilium ego lucidas
Inire sedes, ducere nectaris
Sucos et adscribi quietis 85
Ordinibus patiar deorum.
Dum longus inter saeviat Ilion
Eomamque pontus, qualibet exsules
In parte regnanto beati;
Dum Priami Paridisque busto 40
Insultet armentum et catulos ferae
Celent inultae, stet Capitolium
Fulgens triumphatisque possit
Roma ferox dare iura Medis.
Horrenda late nomen in ultimas 45
Extendat oras, qua medius liquor
Secernit Europen ab Afro,
Qua tumidus rigat arva Nilus,
62 CARMINUM.
Aurum inrepertum et sic melius situm,
Cum terra celat, spernere fortior 50
Quam cogere humanos in usus
Omne sacrum rapiente dextra.
Quicumque mundo terminus obstitit,
Hunc tangat armis, visere gestiens,
Qua parte debacchentur ignes, 56
Qua nebulae pluviique rores.
Sed bellicosis fata Quiritibus
Hac lege dico, ne nimium pii
Rebusque fidentes avitae
Tecta velint reparare Troiae. 60
Troiae renascens alite lugubri
Fortuna tristi clade iterabitur,
Ducente victrices catervas
Coniuge me lovis et sorore.
Ter si resurgat murus aeneus 66
Auctore Phoebo, ter pereat meis
Excisus Argivis, ter uxor
Capta virum puerosque ploret.'
Non hoc iocosae conveniet lyrae :
Quo, Musa, tendis ? Desine pervicax 70
Referre sermones deoruin et
Magna modis tenuare parvis. '
LIBER III. 63
IV.
Descende caelo et die age tibia
Regina longum Calliope inelos,
Seu voce nunc mavis acuta,
Seu fidibus citharaque Phoebi.
Auditis, an ine ludit amabilis 6
Insania? Audire et videor pios
Errare per lucos, amoenae
Quos et aquae subeunt et aurae.
Me fabulosae Volture in Apulo
Altricis extra limen Apuliae 10
Ludo fatigatumque sonmo
Fronde nova puerum palumbes
Texere, mi rum quod foret omnibus,
Quicumque celsae nidum Acherontiae
Saltusque Bantinos et arvum 15
Pingue tenent humilis Forenti,
Ut tuto ab atris corpore viperis
Dormirem et ursis, ut premerer sacra
Lauroque conlataque myrto,
Non sine dis animosus infans. 20
Vester, Camenae, vester in arduos
Tollor Sabinos, seu mihi frigidum
Praeneste seu Tibur supinum
Seu liquidae placuere Baiae.
Vestris amicum fontibus et choris 26
Non me Philippis versa acies retro,
Devota non extinxit arbos,
Nee Sicula Paliiiurus unda.
64 CAEMINUM.
Utcumque mecum vos eritis, libens
Insanientem navita Bosporuin 30
Ternptabo et urentes arenas
Litoris Assyrii viator ;
Visam Britannos hospitibus feros
Et laetum equino sanguine Concanum ;
Visam pharetratos Gelonos 35
Et Scytliicum inviolatus amnem.
Vos Caesarem altum, militia simul
Tessas cohortes abdidit oppidis,
Finire quaerentem labores,
Pierio recreatis antro. 40
Vos lene consilium et datis et dato
Gaudetis, almae. Scimus, ut impios
Titanas immanemque turmain
Fulmine sustulerit caduco
Qui terrain inertein, qui mare temperat 45
Ventosum et urbes regnaque tristia
Divosque mortalesque turbas
Imperio regit unus aequo.
Magnum ilia terrorem intulerat lovi
Fidens iuventus horrida braccljiis, 50
Fratresque tendentes opaco
Pelion imposuisse Olympo.
Sed quid Typhoeus et validus Mimas,
Aut quid minaci Porphyrion statu,
Quid Rhoetus evolsisque truncis 55
Enceladus iaculator audax
LIBER in. 65
Contra sonantem Palladia aegida
Possent ruentes ? Hinc avidus stetit
Volcanus, hinc matrona luno et
Numquam umeris positurus arcum, 60
Qui rore puro Castaliae lavit
Crines solutos, qui Lyciae tenet
Dumeta natalemque silvam,
Delius et Patareus Apollo.
Vis consili expers mole ruit sua : 65
Vim temperatam di quoque provehunt
In mains ; idem odere vires
Omne nefas animo moventes.
Testis mearum centimanns Gyas
Sententiarnm, notus et integrae 70
Temptator Orion Dianae,
Virginea domitus sagitta.
Iniecta monstris Terra dolet suis
Maeretque partus fuhnine luridum
Missos ad Orcnm ; nee peredit 75
Impositam celer ignis Aetnam.
Incontinentis nee Tityi iecur
Keliqnit ales, nequitiae additus
Gustos ; amatorem trecentae
Pirithoum cohibent catenae. 80
66 CARMINUM
V.
Caelo tonantem credidimus lovem
Regnare ; praesens divus habebitur
Augustus adiectis Britannis
Imperio gravibusque Persis.
Milesne Crassi coniuge barbara 6
Turpis maritus vixit et hostiuin,
Pro curia inversique mores !
Consenuit socerorum in armis
Sub rege Medo Marsus et Apulus,
Anciliorum et nominis et togae 10
Oblitus aeternaeque Vestae,
Incolumi love et urbe Roma?
Hoc caverat mens provida Reguli
Dissentientis condicionibus
Foedis et exemplo trahentis 15
Perniciem veniens in aevum,
Si non periret immiserabilis
Captiva pubes. ' Signa ego Punicis
Adfixa delubris et arma
Militibus sine caede ' dixit 20
' Derepta vidi ; vidi ego civium
Retorta tergo bracchia libero
Portasque non clausas et arva
Marte coli populata nostro.
Auro repensus scilicet acrior 26
Miles redibit. Flagitio additis
Damnum : neque amissos colores
Lana refert niedicata fuco,
LIBER III. 67
Nec vera virtus, cum semel excidit,
Curat reponi deterioribus. 30
Si pugnat extricata densis
Cerva plagis, erit ille fortis,
Qui perfidis se credidit hostibus,
Et marte Poenos proteret altero
Qui lora restrictis lacertis 36
Sensit iners tiinuitque mortem.
Hie, unde vitam sumeret inscius
Pacem duello miscuit. O pudor !
magna Carthago, probrosis
Altior Italiae ruinis ! ' 40
Fertur pudicae coniugis osculum
Parvosque natos ut capitis minor
Ab se removisse et virilem
Torvus hunri posuisse voltum,
Donee labantes consilio patres 46
Firrnaret auctor numquam alias dato,
Interque maerentes amicos
Egregius properaret exsul.
Atqui sciebat quae sibi barbarus
Tortor pararet ; non aliter tamen 60"
Dimovit obstantes propinquos
Et populum reditus morantem,
Quam si clientum longa negotia
Diiudicata lite relinqueret,
Tendens Venafranos in agros 66
Aut Lacedaemoniuin Tarentum.
68 CARMINUM.
VI.
Delicta maiorum immeritus lues,
Komane, donee templa refeceris
Aedesque labentes deorum et
Foeda nigro simulacra fumo.
Dis te minorem quod geris, imperas : 5
Hinc omne principium, hue. refer exitum.
Di multa neglecti dederunt
Hesperiae mala luctuosae.
lam bis Monaeses et Pacori manus
Non auspicates contudit impetus 10
Nostros et adiecisse praedam
Torquibus exiguis renidet.
Paene occupatam seditionibus
Delevit Urbem Dacus et Aethiops,
Hie classe formidatus, ille 15
Missilibus melior sagittis.
Fecunda culpae saecula nuptias
Primum inquinavere et genus et domos :
Hoc fonte derivata clades
In patriam populumque fluxit. 20
Motus doceri gaudet lonicos
Matura virgo et fingitur artibus
lam nunc et incestos amores
De tenero meditatur ungui.
Mox iuniores quaerit adulteros 25
Inter mariti vina, neque eligit
Cui donet impermissa raptim
Gaudia luminibus remotis,
LIBER III. 69
Sed iussa corara non sine conscio
Surgit marito, seu vocat institor 30
Seu navis Hispanae magister,
Dedecorum pretiosus emptor.
Non his iuventiis orta parentibus
In fecit aequor sanguine Punico
Pyrrhumque et ingentem cecidit 35
Antiochum Hannibalemque dirum ;
Sed rusticorurn. mascula militum
Proles, Sabellis docta ligonibus
Versare glaebas et severae
Matris ad arbitrium recisos 40
Portare fustes, sol ubi montium
Mutaret umbras et iuga demeret
Bobus fatigatis amicum
Tempus agens abeunte curru.
Damnosa quid non iimninuit die's ? . 45
Aetas parentum, peior avis, tulit
Nos nequiores, mox daturos
Progeniem vitiosiorem.
VII.
Quid fles, Asterie, quern tibi candidi
Primo restituent vere Favonii
Thyna merce beatum,
Constantis iuvenem fide,
Gygen ? Ille Notis actus ad Oricum 5
Post insana Caprae sidera frigidas
Noctes non sine multis
Insomnis lacrimis agit.
70 CARMINUM.
Atqui sollicitae nuntius hospitae,
Suspirare Chloen et miseram tuis 10
Dicens ignibus uri,
Temptat mille vafer modis.
Ut Proetum mulier perfida credulum
Falsis impulerit criininibus nimis
Casto Bellerophontae 15
Maturare necem ref ert ;
Narrat paene datum Pelea Tartaro,
Magnessam Hippolyten dum f ugit abstinens ;
Et peccare docentes
Fallax historias movet. 20
Frustra : nam scopulis surdior Icari
Voces audit adhuc integer. At tibi
Ne vicinus Enipeus
Plus iusto placeat cave ;
Quamvis non alius flectere equum sciens 25
Aeque conspicitur gramine Martio,
Nee quisquam citus aeque
Tusco denatat alveo.
Prima nocte domum claude neque in vias
Sub cantu querulae despice tibiae, 30
Et te saepe vocanti
Duram difficilis mane.
VIII.
Martiis caelebs quid agam Kalendis,
Quid velint flores et acerra turis
Plena miraris positusque carbo in
Caespite vivo,
LIBER III. 71
Docte sermones utriusque linguae? 5
Voverain dulces epulas et album
Libero caprum prope funeratus
Arboris ictu.
Hie dies, anno redeunte festus,
Corticem adstrictum pice demovebit 10
Amphorae fumum bibere institutae
Consule Tullo.
Sume, Maecenas, cyathos amici
Sospitis centum et vigiles lucernas
Perfer in lucem ; procul omnis esto 15
Clamor et ira.
Mitte civiles super urbe curas :
Occidit Daci Cotisonis agmen,
Medus infestus sibi luctuosis
Dissidet armis, 20
Servit Hispanae vetus hostis orae
Cantaber sera domitus catena,
lam Scythae laxo meditantur arcu
Cedere campis.
Neglegens ne qua populus laboret, 26
Parce privatus nimium cavere ;
Dona praesentis cape laetus horae,
Linque severa.
IX.
' Donee gratus eram tibi
Nee quisquam potior bracchia candidae
Cervici iuvenis dabat,
Persarum vigui rege beatior.'
72 CARMINUM.
' Donee non alia magis 5
Arsisti neque erat Lydia post CMoen,
Multi Lydia nominis
Romana vigui clarior Ilia.'
' Me nunc Thressa Chloe regit,
Dulces docta modos et citharae sciens, 10
Pro qua non metuam mori,
Si parcent animae fata superstiti.'
' Me torret face mutua
Thurini Calais filius Ornyti,
Pro quo bis patiar mori, 15
Si parcent puero fata superstiti.'
' Quid si prisca redit Venus
Diductosque iugo cogit aeneo ?
Si flava excutitur Chloe
Keiectaeque patet ianua Lydiae ? ' 20
' Quamquam sidere pulchrior
Illest, tu levior cortice et improbo
Iracundior Hadria,
Tecum vivere atnem, tecum obeam libens ! '
X.
Extremum Tanain si biberes, Lyce,
Saevo nupta viro, me tamen asperas
Porrectum ante fores obicere incolis
Plorares Aquilonibus.
Audis, quo strepitu ianua, quo nemus
Inter pulchra satum tecta remugiat
Ventis, et positas ut glaciet nives
Puro nurnine luppiter ?
LIBER III. 73
Ingratam Veneri pone superbiam,
Ne currente retro f unis eat rota : 10
Non te Penelopen difficilem procis
Tyrrhenus genuit parens.
quamvis neque te munera nee preces
Nee tinctus viola pallor amantium
Nee vir Pieria paelice saucius 16
Curvat, supplicibus tuis
Parcas, nee rigida mollior aescnlo
Nee Mauris animnm initior anguibus.
Non hoc semper erit liminis aut aquae
Caelestis patiens latus. 20
XI.
Mercuri, nam te docilis magistro
Movit Amphion lapides canendo,
Tuque testudo resonare septem
Callida nervis,
Nee loquax olim neque grata, nunc et 5
Divitum mensis et arnica templis,
Die modos Lyde quibus obstinatas
Adplicet aiires,
Quae velut latis equa trima campis
Ludit exsultim metuitque tangi, 10
Nuptiarum expers et adhuc protervo
Cruda marito.
Tu potes tigres comitesque silvas
Ducere et rivos celeres morari ;
Cessit immanis tibi blandienti 15
Janitor aulae
CARMINUM.
Cerberus, quamvis furiale centum
Muniant angues caput, eius atque
Spiritus taeter saniesque manet
Ore trilingui. 20
Quin et Ixion Tityosque voltu
Bisit invito ; stetit urna paullum
Sicca, dum grato Danai puellas
Carmine mulces.
Audiat Lyde scelus atque notas 25
Virginum poenas et inane lymphae
Dolium fundo pereuntis imo,
Seraque fata
Quae manent culpas etiam sub Oreo.
Impiae, (nam quid potuere maius ?) 30
Impiae sponsos potuere duro
Perdere ferro.
Una de multis face nuptiali
Digna periurum fuit in parentem
Splendide mendax et in omne virgo 35
Nobilis aevum ;
' Surge ' quae dixit iuveni marito,
' Surge, ne longus tibi somnus, unde
Non times, detur ; socerum et scelestas
Falle sorores, 40
Quae, velut nactae vitulos leaenae,
Singulos eheu lacerant. Ego illis
Mollior nee te feriam neque intra
Claustra tenebo.
LIBER III. 75
Me pater saevis oneret catenis, 45
Quod viro clemens misero peperci ;
Me vel extremes Nunridaruin in agros
Classe releget.
I pedes quo te rapiunt et aurae,
Dum favet nox et Venus, i secundo 60
Omine et nostri memorem sepulcro
Scalpe querellam.'
XII.
Miserarumst neque amori dare ludum neque dulci
Mala vino lavere, aut exauimari rnetuentes
Patruae verbera linguae.
Tibi qualum Cythereae puer ales, tibi telas
Operosaeque Minervae studium aufert, Neobule, 5
Liparaei nitor Hebri
Simul unctos Tiberinis umeros lavit in undis,
Eques ipso nielior Bellerophonte, neque pugno
Neque segni pede victus ;
Catus idem per apertum fugientes agitato 10
Grege cervos iaculari et celer arto latitantem
Fruticeto excipere aprum.
XIII.
fons Bandusiae, splendidior vitro,
Dulci digne mero non sine floribus,
Cras donaberis haedo,
Cui frons turgida cornibus
76 CARMINUM.
Primis et venerem et proelia destinat ; 5
Frustra : nam gelidos inficiet tibi
Bubro sanguine rivos,
Lascivi suboles gregis.
Te flagrantis atrox hora Caniculae
Nescit tangere, tu frigus aniabile 10
Fessis vomere tauris
Praebes et pecori vago.
Fies nobilium tu quoque fontium,
Me dicente cavis impositam ilicem.
Saxis unde loquaces 15
Lymphae desiliunt tuae.
XIV.
Herculis ritu modo dictus, o plebs,
Morte venalem petiisse laurum,
Caesar Hispana repetit penates
Victor ab ora.
Unico gaudens mulier marito 5
Prodeat iustis operata sacris
Et soror clari ducis et decorae
Supplice vitta
Virginum matres iuvenumque nuper
Sospitum. Vos, o pueri et puellae 10
lam virum expertae, male ominatis
Parcite verbis.
Hie dies vere mihi festus atras
Eximet curas ; ego nee tumultum
Nee mori per vim metuam tenente 15
Caesare terras.
LIBER III. 77
I, pete unguentum, puer, et coronas
Et cadum Marsi meraorem duelli,
Spartacum si qua potuit vagantem
Fallere testa. 20
Die et argutae properet Neaerae
Murreum nodo cohibere crinem ;
Si per invisum mora ianitorem
Fiet, abito.
Lenit albescens animos capillus 25
Litium et rixae cupidos protervae ;
Non ego hoc ferrem calidus iuventa
Consule Planco.
XV.
Uxor pauperis Ibyci,
Tandein nequitiae fige modtnn tuae
Famosisque laboribus :
Mature propior desine funeri
Inter ludere virgines, 5
Et stellis nebulam spargere candidis.
Non, siquid Pholoen satis
Et te, Chlori, decet : filia rectius
Expugnat iuvenum domos,
Pulso Thyias uti concita tympano. 10
Illam cogit amor Nothi
Lascivae similem ludere capreae ;
Te lanae prope nobilem
Tonsae Luceriam, non citharae decent
Nee flos purpureus rosae 15
Nee poti vetulam faece tenus cadi.
78 CAEMINUM.
XVI.
I
Inclusam Danaen turris aenea
Robustaeque fores et vigilum canum
Tristes excubiae munierant satis
Nocturnis ab adulteris,
Si non Acrisium virginis abditae 5
Custodem pavidum luppiter et Venus
Risissent : fore enim tutum iter et patens
Converse in pretium deo.
Aurum per medios ire satellites
Et perrumpere amat saxa potentius 10
Ictu f ulmineo : concidit auguris
Argivi domus, ob lucrum
Demersa exitio ; diffidit urbium
Portas vir Macedo et submit aemulos
Reges muneribus ; munera navium 15
Saevos inlaqueant duces.
Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam
Maiorumque fames. lure perhorrui
Late conspicuum tollere verticem,
Maecenas, equitum decus. 20
Quanto quisque sibi plura negaverit,
Ab dis plura feret. Nil cupientium
Nudus castra peto et transfuga divitum
Partes linquere gestio,
Contemptae dominus splendidior rei, 25
Quam si quidquid arat impiger Apulus
Occultare meis dicerer horreis,
Magnas inter opes inops.
LIBER m. 79
Purae rivus aquae silvaque iugerum
Paucorum et segetis certa fides nieae 30
Fulgeiitem imperio fertilis Africae
Fallit sorte beatior.
Quamquam nee Calabrae mella ferunt apes,
Nee Laestrygonia Bacchus in amphora
Languescit inihi, nee pinguia Gallicis 36
Crescunt vellera pascuis ;
Importuna tamen pauperies abest,
Nee si plura velim tu dare deneges.
Contracto melius parva cupidine
Vectigalia porrigam, 40
Quam si Mygdoniis regnum Alyattei
Campis continuem. Multa petentibus
Desunt multa : benest, cui deus obtulit
Parca quod satis est inanu.
XVII.
Aeli vetusto nobilis ab Lamo,
Quando et priores hinc Lamias ferunt
Denominates et nepotum
Per memores genus omne fastos ;
Auctore ab illo ducis originem 6
Qui Formiaruin moenia dicitur
Princeps et innantem'Maricae
Litoribus tenuisse Lirim,
Late tyrannus : eras foliis nemus
Multis et alga litus inutili 10
Demissa tempestas ab Euro
Sternet, aquae nisi fallit augur
80
CARMINUM.
Annosa comix. Dum potes, aridura
Compone lignum : eras Genium mero
Curabis et porco bimestri
Cuni famulis operum solutis.
15
XVIII.
Faune, Nympharum fugientum amator,
Per meos fines et aprica rura
Lenis incedas, abeasque parvis
Aequus alumnis,
Si teiier pleno cadit haedus anno, 5
Larga nee desunt Veneris sodali
Vina craterae, vetus ara multo
Fumat odore.
Ludit herboso pecus onine campo,
Cum tibi Nonae 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 terrain.
10
'4 **
15
XIX.
Quantum distet ab Inacho
Codrus pro patria non timidus mori
Narras et genus Aeaci
Et pugnata sacro bella sub Ilio ;
Quo Chium pretio cadum
LIBER in. 81
Mercemur, quis aquara temperet ignibus,
Quo praebente domum et quota
Paelignis caream frigoribus, taces.
Da lunae propere novae,
Da noctis mediae, da, puer, auguris 10
Murenae : tribus aut novem
Miscentur cyathis pocula commodis.
Qui Musas amat impares,
Ternos ter cyathos attonitus petet
Vates ; tres prohibet supra 15
Rixarum metuens tangere Gratia
Nudis iuncta sororibus.
Insanire iuvat : cur Berecyntiae
Cessant flamina tibiae ?
Cur pendet tacita fistula cuin lyra ? 20
Parcentes ego dexteras
Odi : sparge rosas ; audiat invidus
Dementem strepitum Lycus
Et vicina seni non habilis Lyco.
Spissa te nitidum coma, *. 25
Puro te similem, Telephe, Vesperq
Tempestiva petit Rhode ;
Me lentus Glycerae torret amor meae.
XX.
Non vides quanto moveas periclo,
Pyrrhe, Gaetulae catulos leaenae ?
Dura post paullo fugies inaudax
Proelia raptor,
Cum per obstantes iuvenum catervas 5
Ibit insignem repetens Nearchum:
82 CARMINUM.
Grande certain en, tibi praeda cedat
Maior an illi.
Interim, dum tu celeres sagittas
Promis, haec dentes acuit tiniendos, 10
Arbiter pugnae posuisse nudo
Sub pede palrnam
Fertur et leni recreare vento
Sparsum odoratis umerum capillis,
Qualis aut Nireus fuit aut aquosa 15
Kaptus ab Ida.
XXI.
O nata mecum consule Manlio,
Seu tu querellas sive geris iocos
Seu rixam et insanos amores
Seu facilem, pia testa, somnum,
Quocumque lectum nomine Massicum 5
Servas, moveri digna bono die,
Descende, Corvino iubente
Promere languidiora vina.
Non ille, quamquam Socraticis madet
Sermonibus, te negleget horridus : 10
Narratur et prisci Catonis
Saepe mero caluisse virtus.
Tu lene tormentum ingenio admoves
Plerumque duro ; tu sapientium
Curas et arcanum iocoso 15
Consilium retegis Lyaeo;
LIBER III. 83
Tu spem reducis mentibus anxiis
Viresque et addis cornua pauperi,
Post te neque iratos trementi
Regum apices neque militum arma. 20
Te Liber et, si laeta aderit, Venus
Segnesque nodum solvere Gratiae
Vivaeque producent lucernae,
Dum rediens f ugat astra Phoebus.
XXII.
Montium custos nemoruraque Virgo,
Quae laborantes utero puellas
Ter vocata audis adimisque leto,
Diva triformis,
Imminens villae tua pinus esto,
Quaui per exactos ego laetus annos
Verris obliquum meditantis ictum
Sanguine donem.
XXIII.
Caelo supinas si tuleris manus
Nascente luna, rustica Phidyle,
Si ture placaris et horna
Fruge Lares avidaque porca,
Nee pestilentem sentiet Africum
Fecunda vitis nee sterilem seges
Robiginem aut dulces alumni
Pomifero grave terapus anno.
84 CARMINUM.
Nam quae nivali pascitur Algido
Devota quercus inter et ilices 10
Aut crescit Albanis in herbis
Victima pontificum secures
Cervice tinguet : te nihil attinet
Temptare multa caede bidentium
Parvos coronantem marino 15
Kore deos fragilique myrto.
Immunis aram si tetigit manus,
Non sumptuosa blandior hostia
Mollivit aversos Penates
Farre pio et saliente mica. 20
XXIV.
Intactis opulentior
Thesauris Arabum et divitis Indiae
Caementis licet occupes
Tyrrhenum omne tuis et mare Apulicum,
Si figit adamantines 5
Summis verticibus dira Necessitas
Clavos, non animnm metu,
Non mortis laqueis expedies caput.
Campestres melius Scythae,
Quorum plaustra vagas rite trahunt domos, 10
Vivunt et rigidi Getae,
Immetata quibus iugera liberas
Fruges et Cererem ferunt,
Nee cultura placet longior annua,
Defunctumque laboribus 15
Aequali recreat sorte vicarius.
LIBER III. 85
Illic matre carentibus
Privignis mulier temperat innocens,
Nee dotata regit virum
Coniunx nee nitido fidit adultero ; 20
Dos est magna parentium
Virtus et metueiis alterius viri
Certo foedere castitas,
Et peccare nefas aut pretiumst mori.
quisquis volet impias 25
Caedes et rabiem tollere civicam,
Si quaeret pater urbium
Subscribi statuis, indomitam audeat
Refrenare licentiam,
Clarus post genitis : quatenus, heu nefas ! 30
Virtutem incolumem odiums,
Sublatam ex oculis quaerimus invidi.
Quid tristes querimoniae,
Si non supplicio culpa reciditur ;
Quid leges sine moribus 35
Vanae profieiunt, si neque fervidis
Pars inclusa caloribus
Mundi nee boreae finitimum latus
Durataeque solo nives
Mercatorem abigunt, horrida callidi 40
Vincunt aequora navitae,
Magnum pauperies opprobrium iubet
Quidvis et facere et pati,
Virtutisque viam deserit arduae ?
Vel nos in Capitolium, 45
Quo clamor vocat et turba faventium,
Vel nos in mare proximum
Gemmas et lapides aurum et inutile,
86 CARMINUM.
Sum mi materiem mail,
Mittamus, scelerum si bene paenitet. 50
Eradenda cupidinis
Pravi sunt elementa et tenerae nimis
Mentes asperioribus
Formandae studiis. Nescit equo rudis
Haerere ingenuus puer 65
Venarique timet, ludere doctior,
Sen Graeco iubeas trocho,
Seu malis vetita legibus alea,
Cum periura patris fides
Consortem socium fallat et hospites, 60
Indignoque pecuniam
Heredi properet. Scilicet improbae
Crescunt divitiae ; tainen
Curtae nescio quid semper abest rei.
XXV.
Quo me, Bacche, rapis tui
Plenum ? Quae riemora aut quos agor in specus,
Velox mente nova ? Quibus
Antris egregii Caesaris audiar
Aeternum meditans decus 6
Stellis inserere et consilio lovis ?
Dicam insigne, recens, adhuc
Indictum ore alio. Non secus in iugis
Exsomnis stupet Euhias,
Hebrum prospiciens et nive candidam 10
Thracen ac pede barbaro
Lustratam Rhodopen, ut mini devio
Eipas et vacuum nemus
LIBER ra. 87
Mirari libet. O Naiadum potens
Baccharumque valentium 15
Proceras manibus vertere fraxinos,
Nil parvum aut huinili modo,
Nil mortals loquar. Dulce periculumst,
Lenaee, sequi deum
Cingentein viridi tempora pampino. 20
XXVI.
Vixi puellis nuper idoneus
Et militavi non sine gloria ;
Nunc arma defunctumque bello
Barbiton hie paries habebit,
Laevum marinae qui Veneris latus 6
Custodit. Hie, hie ponite lucida
Funalia et vectes et arcus
Oppositis foribus minaces.
quae beatam diva tenes Cyprum et
Memphin carentem Sithonia nive, 10
Eegina, sublimi flagello
Tange Chloen semel arrogaiitem.
XXVII.
Impios parrae recinentis omen
Ducat et praegnans canis aut ab agro
Kava decurrens lupa Lanuvino
Fetaque volpes ;
Rumpat et serpens iter institutum, 6
Si per obliquum similis sagittae
88 CARMINUM.
Terruit mannos : ego cui timebo,
Providus auspex,
Antequam stantes repetat paludes
Imbrium divina avis imminentum, 10
Oscinem corvum prece suscitabo
Soils ab ortu.
Sis licet felix, ubicumque mavis,
Et memor nostri, Galatea, vivas ;
Teque nee laevus vetet ire picus 15
Nee vaga cornix.
/
Sed vides quanto trepidet tumultu
Pronus Orion. Ego quid sit ater
Hadriae novi sinus et quid albus
Peccet lapyx. 20
Hostium uxores puerique caecos
Sentiant motus orientis Austri et
Aequoris nigri fremitum et trementes
Verbere ripas.
Sic et Europe niveum doloso 25
Credidit tauro latus et scatentem
Beluis pontum mediasque fraudes
Palluit audax :
Nuper in pratis studiosa florum et
Debitae Nymphis opifex coronae 30
Nocte sublustri nihil astra praeter
Vidit et undas.
Quae simul centum tetigit potentem
Oppidis Creten, 'Pater, o relictum
LIBER III. 89
Filiae nomen pietasque ' dixit, 35
' Victa furore !
Unde quo veni ? Levis una mors est
Virginum culpae. Vigilansne ploro
Turpe commissum an vitiis carentem
Ludit imago 40
Vana quae porta fugiens eburna
Somnium ducit ? Meliusne fluctus
Ire per longos fuit, an recentes
Carpere flores ?
Siquis infamem mihi nunc iuvencum 45
Dedat iratae, lacerare ferro et
Frangere enitar modo mnltum amati
Cornua monstri.
Impudens liqui patrios Penates,
Impudens Orcum moror. deorum 50
Siquis haec audis, utinam inter errem
Nuda leones !
Antequam turpis macies decentes
Occupet malas teneraeque sucus
Defluat praedae, speciosa quaero 55
Pascere tigres.
Vilis Europe, pater urget absens :
Quid mori cessas ? Potes hac ab orno
Pendulum zona bene te secuta
Laedere collum. 60
Sive te rupes et acuta leto
Saxa delectant, age te procellae
90 CARMINUM.
Crede veloci, nisi erile mavis
Carpere pensu.ni
Regius sanguis, dominaeque tradi 65
Barbarae paelex.' Aderat querenti
Perfidum ridens Venus et remisso
Filius arcu.
Mox ubi lusit satis, ' abstineto '
Dixit 'irarum calidaeque rixae, 70
Cum tibi invisus laceranda reddet
Cornua taurus.
Uxor invicti lovis esse nescis.
Mitte singultus, bene ferre magnam
Disce fortunam ; tua sectus orbis 75
Nomina ducet.'
XXVIII.
Festo quid potius die
Neptuni faciam ? Prome reconditum,
Lyde strenua Caecubum,
Munitaeque adhibe vim sapientiae.
Inclinare meridiem 5
Sentis et, veluti stet volucris dies,
Parcis deripere horreo
Cessantem Bibuli consulis amphoram.
Nos cantabimus invicem
Neptunum et virides Nereidum comas ; 10
Tu curva recines lyra
Latonam et celeris spicula Cynthiae :
Sum mo carmine quae Cnidon
LIBER in. 91
Fulgentesque tenet Cycladas, et Paphum
lunctis visit oloribus ; 15
Dieetur merita Nox quoque nenia.
XXIX.
Tyrrhena regum progenies, tibi
Non ante verso lene merum cado
Cum flore, Maecenas, rosarum et
Pressa tuis balanus capillis
lamdudum apud mest : eripe te morae, 6
Ne semper udum Tibur et Aefulae
Declive contempleris arvum et
Telegoni iuga parricidae.
Fastidiosam desere copiam et
Molem propinquam nubibus arduis, 10
Oniitte mirari beatae
Fumum et opes strepitumque Romae.
Plerumque gratae divitibus vices
Mundaeque parvo sub lare pauperum
Cenae sine aulaeis et ostro 15
Sollicitam explicuere frontem.
lam clarus occultum Andromedae pater
Ostendit ignem, iam Procyon furit
Et stella vesani Leonis,
Sole dies referente siccos ; 20
Iam pastor umbras cum grege languido
Rivumque fessus quaerit et horridi
Dumeta Silvani, caretque
Ripa vagis taciturna ventis.
92 CARMINUM.
Tu civitateui quis deceat status 25
Curas et Urbi sollicitus times
Quid Seres et regnata Cyro
Bactra parent Tanaisque discors.
Prudens futuri temporis exitum
Caliginosa nocte premit deus, 30
Kidetque si mortalis ultra
Fas trepidat. Quod adest memento
Componere aequus ; cetera fluminis
Kitu feruntur, nunc medio alveo
Cum pace delabentis Etruscum 35
In mare, nunc lapides adesos
Stirpesque raptas et pecus et domos
Volventis una non sine montiuin
Clamore vicinaeque silvae,
Cum fera diluvies quietos 40
Inritat amnes. Ille potens sui
Laetusque deget, cui licet in diem
Dixisse ' Vixi : eras vel atra
Nube polum pater occupato
Vel sole puro ; non tamen inritum 45
Quodcumque retrost efficiet, neque
Diffinget infectumque reddet
Quod fugiens semel hora vexit,'
Fortuna saevo laeta negotio et
Ludum insolentem ludere pertinax 50
Transmutat incertos lion ores,
Nune milii nunc alii benigna.
LIBER III. 93
Laudo manentem ; si celeres quatit
Pennas, resigno quae dedit et mea
Virtute me involvo probamque 55
Pauperiem sine dote quaero.
Non est meum, si mugiat Africis
Mains procellis, ad miseras preces
Decurrere et votis pacisci,
Ne Cypriae Tyriaeque merces 60
Addant avaro divitias mari :
Tune me biremis praesidio scaphae
Tutum per Aegaeos tumultus
Aura feret geminusque Pollux.
XXX.
Exegi monuuientum aere perennius
Kegalique situ pyramidum altius,
Quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens
Possit diruere aut innumerabilis
Annorum series et fuga temporum. 5
Non orrmis moriar, multaque pars mei
Vitabit Libitinam : usque ego postera
Crescam laude recens, dum Capitolium
Scandet cum tacita virgine pontifex.
Dicar, qua violens obstrepit Aufidus 10
Et qua pauper aquae Daunus agrestium
Regnavit populorum, ex humili potens
Princeps Aeolium carmen ad Italos
Deduxisse modos. Sume superbiam
Quaesitam meritis et mihi Delphica 15
Lauro cinge volens, Melpomene, comam.
CABMINUM
LIBER QUARTUS.
Intermissa, Venus, diu
Rursus bella moves ? Parce, precor, precor.
Non sum qualis eram bonae
Sub regno Cinarae. Desine, dulcium
Mater saeva Cupidinum, 5
Circa lustra decem flectere mollibus
lam durum imperils : abi,
Quo blandae iuvenum te revocant preces.
Tempestivius iu domum
Paulli, purpureis ales oloribus, 10
Comissabere Maximi,
Si torrere iecur quaeris idoneum.
Namque et nobilis et decens
Et pro sollicitis non tacitus reis
Et centum puer artium 16
Late signa feret militiae tuae,
Et quandoque potentior
Largi muneribus riserit aemuli,
Albanos prope te lacus
Ponet marmoream sub trabe citrea. 20
Illic plurima naribus
Duces tura, lyraque et Berecyntia
94
LIBER IV. 95
Delectabere tibia
Mixtis carniinibus non sine fistula ;
Illic bis pueri die 25
Numen cum teneris virginibus tuum
Laudantes pede candido
In morem Salium ter quatient humum.
Me nee femina nee puer
lam nee spes animi credula mutui, 30
Nee certare iuvat mero
Nee vincire novis tempora floribus.
Sed cur heu, Ligurine, cur
Manat rara meas lacrima per genas ?
Cur facunda parum decoro 35
Inter verba cadit lingua silentio ?
Nocturnis ego somniis
lam captuin teneo, iam volucrem sequor
Te per gramina Martii
Campi, te per aquas, dure, volubiles. 40
II.
Pindarum quisquis studet aemulari,
lule, ceratis ope Daedalea
Nititur pennis vitreo daturus
Noniina ponto.
Monte decurrens velut amnis, imbres 6
Quern super notas aluere ripas,
Fervet immensusque ruit profundo .
Pindarus ore,
Laurea donandus Apollinari,
Seu per audaces nova dithyrambos 10
96 CARMINUM.
Verba devolvit numerisque fertur
Lege solutis,
Seu deos regesve canit, deorum
Sanguinem, per quos cecidere iusta
Morte Centauri, cecidit tremendae 15
Flamma Chimaerae,
Sive quos Elea domum reducit
Palma caelestes pugilemve equumve
Dicit et centum potiore signis
Munere donat, 20
Flebili sponsae iuvenemve raptum
Plorat et vires animumque moresque
Aureos educit in astra nigroque
Invidet Oreo.
Multa Dircaeum levat aura cycnmn, 25
Tendit, Antoni, quotiens in altos
Nubium tractus. Ego apis Matinae
More modoque
Grata carpentis thy ma per laborem
Plurimum circa nemus uvidique 30
Tiburis ripas operosa parvus
Carinina fingo.
Concines maiore poeta plectro
Caesarem, quandoque trahet feroces
Per sacrum clivum merita decorus 35
Fronde Sygambros ;
Quo nihil inaius meliusve terris
Fata donavere bonique divi
LIBER IV. 97
Nec dabunt, quamvis redeant in aurum
Tempora priscum. 40
Concines laetosque dies et urbis
Publicum luduin super impetrato
Fortis Augusti reditu forumque
Litibus orbum.
Turn meae, si quid loquar audiendum, 45
Vocis accedet bona pars, et ' Sol
Pulcher, o laudande ! ' canam recepto
Caesare felix.
Teque dum procedis, ( lo Triumphs ! '
Non semel dicemus, ' lo Triumphe ! ' 50
Civitas omnis dabimusque divis
Tura benignis.
Te decem tauri totidemque vaccae,
Me tener solvet vitulus, relicta
Matre qui largis iuvenescit herbis 55
In mea vota,
Fronte curvatos imitatus ignes
Tertium lunae referentis ortum,
Qua notam duxit, niveus videri,
Cetera fulvus. 60
III.
Quern tu, Melpomene, semel
Nascentem placido lumine videris,
Ilium non labor Isthmius
Clarabit pugilem, non equus impiger
98 CARMINUM.
Curru ducet Achaico 5
Victorem, neque res bellica Deliis
Ornatum foliis ducem,
Quod regum tumidas contuderit minas,
Ostendet Capitolio ;
Sed quae Tibur aquae fertile praefluunt, 10
Et spissae nemorum comae
Fingent Aeolio carmine nobilem.
Romae principis urbium
Dignatur suboles inter amabiles
Vatum ponere me choros, 15
Et iam dente minus mordeor invido.
testudinis aureae
Dulcem quae strepitum, Fieri, temperas,
mutis quoque piscibus
Donatura cycni, si libeat, sonum, 20
Totum muneris hoc tuist,
Quod monstror digito praetereuntium
Romanae fidicen lyrae :
Quod spiro et placeo, si placeo, tuumst.
Qualem ministrum fulminis alitem,
Cui rex deorum regnum in aves vagas
Permisit expertus fidelem
luppiter in Ganymede flavo,
Olim iuventas et patrius vigor
Nido laborum propulit inscium,
Vernique iam nimbis remotis
Insolitos docuere nisus
LIBER IV. 99
Venti paventem, mox in ovilia
Demisit hostem vividus impetus, 10
Nunc in reluctantes dracones
Egit anior dapis atque pugnae ;
Qualemve laetis caprea pascuis
Intenta fulvae matris ab ubere
lam lacte depulsum leonem 15
Dente novo peritura vidit :
Videre Raetis bella sub Alpibus
Drusum gerentem Vindelici ; (quibus
Mos unde deductus per omne
Tempus Amazonia securi 20
Dextras obarmet, quaerere distuli,
Nee scire fas est omnia) ; sed diu
Lateque victrices catervae
Consiliis iuvenis revictae
Sensere quid mens rite, quid indoles 25
Nutrita faustis sub penetralibus
Posset, quid Augusti paternus
In pueros animus Nerones.
Fortes creantur f ortibus et bonis ;
Est in iuvencis, est in equis patrum 30
Virtus, neque imbellem feroces
Progenerant aquilae columbam ;
Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam,
Eectique cultus pectora roborant ;
Utcumque defecere mores, 36
Dedecorant bene nata culpae.
100 CARMINUM.
Quid debeas, o Roma, Neronibus,
Testis Metaurum flumen et Hasdrubal
Devictus et pulcher fugatis
Ille dies Latio tenebris, 40
Qui primus alma risit adorea,
Dirus per urbes Afer nt Italas
Ceu flamma per taedas vel Eurus
Per Siculas equitavit undas.
Post hoc secundis usque laboribus 45
Romana pubes crevit, et impio
Vastata Poenorum tumultu
Fana deos habuere rectos,
Dixitque tandem perfidus Hannibal :
' Cervi luporum praeda rapacium, 60
Sectamur ultro, quos opimus
Fallere et effngerest triumphus.
Gens quae cremato fortis ab Ilio
lactata Tuscis aequoribus sacra
Natosque maturosque patres 55
Pertulit Ausonias ad urbes,
Duris ut ilex torisa bipennibus
Nigrae feraci frondis in Algido,
Per damna, per caedes, ab ipso
Ducit opes animumque ferro. 60
Non hydra secto corpore firmior
Vinci dolentem crevit in Herculem,
Monstrumve submisere Colchi
Maius Echioniaeve Thebae.
LIBER IV. 101
Merses profundo, pulchrior evenit ; 65
Luctere, multa proruet integruni
Cum laude victorem geretque
Proelia coniugibus loquenda.
Carthagini iam non ego nuntios
Mittam superbos : occidit, occidit 70
Spes omnis et fortuna nostri
Nominis Hasdrubale interempto.'
Nil Claudiae non perficient manus,
Quas et benigno numine luppiter
Defendit et curae sagaces 75
Expediunt per acuta belli.
V.
Divis orte bonis, optime Romulae
Gustos gentis, abes iam nimium diu ;
Maturum reditum pollicitus patrum
Sancto concilio redi.
Lucem redde tuae, dux bone, patriae : 5
Instar veris enim voltus ubi tuus
Adf ulsit populo, gratior it dies
Et soles melius nitent.
Ut mater iuvenem, quern Notus invido
Flatu Carpathii trans maris aequora 10
Cunctantem spatio longius annuo
Dulci distinct a domo,
Votis ominibusque et precibus vocat,
Curvo nee faeiem litore demovet,
102 CARMINUM.
Sic desideriis icta fidelibus 15
Quaerit patria Caesarem.
Tutus bos etenim rura perambulat,
Nutrit rura Ceres almaque Faustitas,
Pacatum volitant per rnare navitae,
Culpari metuit fides, 20
Nullis polluitur casta domus stupris,
Mos et lex maculosum edomuit nefas,
Laudantur simili prole puerperae,
Culpam poena premit comes.
Quis Parthum paveat, quis gelidum Scythen, 25
Quis Germania quos horrida parturit
Fetus incolumi Caesare ? quis ferae
Bellum curet Hiberiae ?
Condit quisque diem collibus in suis,
Et vltem viduas ducit ad arbores ; 30
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 Graecia Castoris 35
Et magni memor Herculis.
' Longas o utinam, dux bone, ferias
Praestes Hesperiae ! ' dicimus integro
Sicci mane die, dicimus uvidi,
Cum Sol Oceaiio subest. 40
LIBER IV. 103
VI.
Dive, quern proles Niobea magnae
Vindicera linguae Tityosque raptor
Sensit et Troiae prope victor altae
Phthius Achilles,
Ceteris niaior, tibi miles impar, 5
Filius quamvis Thetidis marinae
Dardanas turres quateret tremenda
Cuspide pugnax.
Ille mordaci velut icta ferro
Pinus aut impulsa cupressus Euro, 10
Procidit late posuitque collum in
Pulvere Teucro.
Ille non inclusus equo Minervae
Sacra mentito male feriatos
Troas et laetam Priami choreis 16
Falleret aulam ;
Sed palam captis gravis, heu nefas, heu,
Nescios fari pueros Achivis
Ureret flammis, etiam latenteni
Matris in alvo, 20
Ni tuis victus Venerisque gratae
Vocibus divum pater adnuisset
Rebus Aeneae potiore ductos
Alite nruros.
Doctor Argivae fidicen Thaliae, 25
Phoebe, qui Xantho lavis amne crines,
Dauniae defende decus Camenae,
Levis Agyieu.
104 CARMINUM.
Spiritum Phoebus mihi, Phoebus artem
Carminis nomenque dedit poetae. 30
Virginum primae puerique Claris
Patribus orti,
Deliae tutela deae, fugaces
Lyncas et cervos cohibentis arcu,
Lesbium servate pedem meique 35
Pollicis ictum,
Kite Latoriae puerum canentes,
Kite crescentem face Noctilucam,
Prosperam frugum celeremque pronos
Volvere menses. 40
Nupta iam dices 'Ego dis amicum,
Saeculo festas referente luces,
Reddidi carmen docilis modorum
Vatis Horati.'
VII.
Diffugere nives, redeunt iam gramina campis
Arboribusque comae ;
Mutat terra vices et decrescentia ripas
Flumina praetereunt ;
Gratia cum Nymphis geminisque sororibus audet 5
Ducere nuda choros.
Immortalia ne speres, monet annus et a.lmum
Quae rapit hora diem.
Frigora mitescunt Zephyris, ver proterit aestas
Interitura simul 10
Pomifer autumnus fruges effuderit, et mox
Bruma recurrit iners.
LIBER IV. 105
Damna tamen celeres reparant caelestia lunae :
Nos ubi decidimus
Quo pater Aeneas, quo dives Tullus et Ancus, 15
Pulvis et umbra sumus.
Quis scit an adiciant hodiernae crastina summae
Tempora di super! ?
Cuncta manus avidas fugient heredis, amico
Quae dederis animo. 20
Cum semel occideris et de te splendida Minos
Fecerit arbitria,
Non, Torquate, genus, non te facundia, non te
Restituet pietas.
Infernis neque enira tenebris Diana pudicum 25
Liberat Hippolytum,
Nee Lethaea valet Theseus abrumpere caro
Viucula Pirithoo.
VIII.
Donarem pateras grataque commodus,
Censorine, meis aera sodalibus,
Donarem tripodas, praemia fortium
Graiorum, neque tu pessima munerum
Ferres, divite me scilicet artium, 5
Quas aut Parrhasius protulit aut Scopas,
Hie saxo, liquidis ille coloribus
Sellers nunc hominem ponere, nunc deum.
Sed non haec mini vis, nee tibi talium
Res est aut animus deliciarum egens. 10
Gaudes carminibus ; carmina possumus
Donare et pretium dicere muneris.
Non incisa notis mariuora publicis,
106 CARMINUM
Per quae spiritus et vita redit bonis
Post mortem ducibus, non celeres fugae 15
Reiectaeque retrorsum Hannibalis minae,
Non incendia Carthaginis impiae
Eius, qui domita nomeii ab Africa
Lucratus rediit, clarius indicant
Laudes quam Calabrae Pierides ; neque 20
Si chartae sileant quod bene feceris
Mercedem tuleris. Quid foret Iliae
Mavortisque puer, si taciturnitas
Obstaret meritis invida Romuli ?
Ereptum Stygiis fluctibus Aeacum 25
Virtus et favor et lingua potentium
Vatum divitibus consecrat insulis.
Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori :
Caelo Musa beat. Sic lovis interest
Optatis epulis impiger Hercules, -30
Clarum Tyndaridae sidus ab infimis
Quassas eripiunt aequoribus rates,
Ornatus viridi tempora pampino
Liber vota bonos ducit ad exitus.
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 5
Sedes Homerus, Pindaricae latent
Ceaeque et Alcaei minaces
Stesichorique graves Camenae ;
LIBER IV. 107
Nec si quid olim lusit Anacreon
Delevit aetas ; spirat adhuc amor 10
Vivuntque commissi calores
Aeoliae fidibus puellae.
sola comptos arsit adulteri
Crines et aurum vestibus illitum
Mirata regalesque cultus 16
Et comites Helene Lacaena,
Primusve Teucer tela Cydonio
Direxit arcu ; non semel Ilios
Vexata ; non pugnavit ingens
Idomeneus Sthenelusve solus 20
Dicenda Musis proelia ; non f erox
Hector vel acer Deiphobus graves
Excepit ictus pro pudicis
Coniugibus puerisque primus.
Vixere fortes ante Agarnemnona 26
Multi ; sed omnes inlacrimabiles
Urgentur ignotique longa
Nocte, carent quia vate sacro.
Paullum sepultae distat inertiae
Celata virtus. Non ego te meis 30
Chartis inornatum silebo,
Totve tuos patiar labores
Impune, Lolli, carpere lividas
Obliviones. Est animus tibi
Rerumque prudens et secundis 36
Temporibus dubiisque rectus,
CARMINUM
Vindex avarae fraudis et abstinens
Ducentis ad se cuncta pecuniae,
Consulque non unius anni,
Sed quotiens bonus atque fidus 40
ludex honestum praetulit utili,
Beiecit alto dona nocentium
Voltu, per obstantes catervas
Explicuit sua victor arma.
Non possidentem nmlta vocaveris 45
Recte beatum ; rectius occupat
Nomen beati, qui deorum
Muneribus sapienter uti
Duramque callet pauperiem pati
Peiusque leto flagitium timet, 60
Non ille pro caris amicis
Aut patria timidus perire.
X. .
O crudelis adhuc et Veneris mnneribus potens,
Insperata tuae cum veniet pluma superbiae
Et, quae mine umeris involitant, deciderint comae,
Nunc et qui color est puniceae flore prior rosae
Mutatus Ligurinum in faciem verterit hispidam,
Dices ' Heu,' quotiens te speculo videris alterum,
' Quae mens est hodie, cur eadem non puero fuit,
Vel cur his animis incolumes non redeunt genae ? '
LIBER IV. 109
XI.
Est mihi nonum superantis annum
Plenus Albani cadus ; est in horto,
Phylli, nectendis apium coronis ;
Est hederae vis
Multa, qua crines religata fulges ; 6
Bidet argento domus ; ara castis
Vincta verbenis avet immolato
Spargier agno ;
Cuncta festinat manus, hue et illuc
Cursitant mixtae pueris puellae ; 10
Sordidum flammae trepidant rotantes
Vertice fumuin.
Ut tamen noris quibus advoceris
Gaudiis, Idus tibi sunt agendae,
Qui dies mensem Veneris marinae 15
Findit Aprilem,
lure sollemnis mihi sanctiorque
Paene natali proprio, quod ex hac
Luce Maecenas meus adfluentes
Ordinat annos. 20
Telephum, quern tu petis, occupavit
Non tuae sortis iuvenem puella
Dives et lasciva, tenetque grata
Compede vinctum.
Terret ambustus Phaethon avaras 25
Spes, et exemplum grave praebet ales
Pegasus tefrenum equitem gravatus
Bellerophonten,
110 CAKMINUM
Semper ut te digna sequare et ultra
Quam licet sperare nefas putando 30
Disparem vites. Age iam, meorum
Finis amoruin,
(Non enim posthac alia calebo
Femina) condisce modos, amanda
Voce quos reddas : minuentur atrae 35
Carmine curae.
XII.
Iam veris comites, quae mare temperant,
Impellunt animae lintea Thraciae ;
Iam nee prata rigent nee fluvii strepunt
Hiberna nive turgidi.
Nidum ponit, Ityn flebiliter gemens, 5
Infelix avis et Cecropiae domus
Aeternum opprobrium, quod male barbaras
Regumst ulta libidines.
Dicunt in tenero gramine pinguium
Custodes ovium carmina fistula 10
Delectantque deum cui pecus et nigri
Colles Arcadiae placent.
Adduxere sitim tempora,Vergili ;
Sed pressum Calibus ducere Liberum
Si gestis, iuvenum nobilium cliens, 16
Nardo vina mereberis.
Nardi parvus onyx eliciet cadum,
Qui nunc Sulpiciis accubat horreis,
LIBER IV. Ill
Spes donare novas largus amaraque
Curarum eluere efficax. 20
Ad quae si properas gaudia, cum tua
Velox merce veni : non ego te meis
Iinmunem meditor tinguere poculis,
Plena dives ut in domo.
Verum pone raoras et studium lucri, 26
Nigrorumque memor, dum licet, igniuin
Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem :
Dulcest desipere in loco.
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 6
Lentum sollicitas. Ille virentis et
Doctae psallere Chiae
Pulchris excubat in genis.
Importunus enim transvolat aridas
Quercus et refugit te, quia luridi 10
Dentes te, quia rugae
Turpant et capitis nives.
Nee Coae referunt iam tibi purpurae
Nee cari lapides tempera, quae semel
Notis condita fastis 15
Inclusit volucris dies.
CARMINUM
Quo fugit venus, heu, quove color ? decens
Quo motus ? Quid habes illius, illius,
Quae spirabat amores,
Quae me surpuerat mihi, 20
Felix post Cinaram notaque et artium
Gratarum facies ? Sed Cinarae breves
Annos fata dederunt,
Servatura diu parem
Cornicis vetulae temporibus Lycen, 25
Possent ut iuvenes visere fervidi
Multo non sine risu
Dilapsam in cineres facem.
XIV.
Quae cura patrum quaeve Quiritium
Plenis honorum muneribus tuas,
Auguste, virtutes in aevum.
Per titulos memoresque fastos
Aeternet, o qua sol habitabiles 6
Inlustrat oras, maxime principum ?
Quern legis expertes Latinae
Vindelici didicere nuper
Quid marte posses. Milite nam tuo
Drusus Genaunos, implacidum genus, 10
Breunosque veloces et arces
Alpibus impositas tremendis
Deiecit acer plus vice simplici ;
Maior Neronum mox grave proelium
LIBER IV. 113
Commisit immanesque Raetos 15
Auspiciis pepulit secundis,
Spectandus in certamine Martio,
Devota morti pectora liberae
Quantis fatigaret minis,
Indomitas prope qualis undag 20
Exercet Auster, Pleiadum choro
Scindente nubes, impiger hostium
Vexare turmas et frementem
Mittere equum medios per ignes.
Sic tauriformis volvitur Aufidus, 25
Qui regna Dauni praefluit Apuli,
Cum saevit horrendamque cultis
Diluviem meditatur agris,
Ut barbarorum Claudius agmina
Ferrata vasto diruit impetu 30
Primosque et extremes metendo
Stravit humum sine clade victor,
Te copias, te consilium et tuos
Praebente divos. Nam tibi, quo die
Portus Alexandrea supplex 35
Et vacuam patefecit aulam,
Fortuna lustro prospera tertio
Belli secundos reddidit exitus,
Laudemque et optatum peractis
Imperiis decus adrogavit. 40
Te Cantaber non ante domabilis
Medusque et Indus, te profugus Scythes
114 CARMINUM
Miratur, o tutela praesens
Italiae dominaeque Romae.
Te fontium qui celat origines 45
Nilusque et Hister, te rapidus Tigris,
Te beluosus qui reinotis
Obstrepit Oceanus Britannis,
Te non paventis funera Galliae
Duraeque tellus audit Hiberiae, 60
Te caede gaudentes Sygambri
Compositis venerantur armis.
XV.
Phoebus volentem proelia me loqui
Victas et urbes increpuit lyra,
Ne parva Tyrrhenum per aequor
Vela darem. Tua, Caesar, aetas
Fruges et agris rettulit uberes 6
Et signa nostro restituit lovi
Derepta Parthorum superbis
Postibus et vacuum duellis
lanum Quirini clausit et ordinem
Rectum evaganti frena licentiae 10
Iniecit emovitque culpas
Et veteres revocavit artes,
Per quas Latinum nomen et Italae
Crevere vires famaque ef imperi
Porrecta maiestas ad ortus 15
Solis ab Hesperio cubili.
LIBER IV. 115
Custode rerum Caesare non furor
Civilis aut vis exiget otium,
Non ira, quae procudit enses
Et miseras inimicat urbes. 20
Non qui profundum Danuvium bibunt
Edicta rum pent lulia, non Getae,
Non Seres infidive Persae,
Non Tanain prope fluinen orti.
Nosque et prorestis lucibus et sacris 26
Inter iocosi munera Liberi
Cum proie matronisque nostris,
Eite deos prius adprecati,
Virtute functos more patrum duces
Lydis remixto carmine tibiis 30
Troiamque et Anchisen et almae
Progeniein Veneris canemus.
CABMEN
SAECULAKE.
Phoebe silvarumque potens Diana,
Lucidum caeli decus ; o colendi
Semper et culti, date quae precamur
Tempore sacro,
Quo Sibyllini monuere versus 5
Virgines lectas puerosque castos
Dis quibus septem placuere colles
Dicere carmen.
Alme Sol, curru nitido diem qui
Promis et celas aliusque et idem 10
Nasceris, possis nihil urbe Roma
Visere maius !
Rite matures aperire partus
Lenis, Ilithyia, tuere matres,
Sive tu Lucina probas vocari 15
Seu Genitalis :
Diva, producas subolem patrumque
Prosperes decreta super iugandis
Feminis prolisque novae feraci
Lege marita, 20
Certus undenos deciens per annos
Orbis ut cantus referatque ludos
116
CARMEN SAECULARE. 117
Ter die claro totiensque grata
Nocte frequentes.
Vosque veraces cecinisse, Parcae, 25
Quod semel dicturast stabilisque rerum
Terminus servet, boua iam peractis
lungite fata.
Fertilis frugum pecorisque tellus
Spicea donet Cererem corona ; 30
Nutriant fetus et aquae salubres
Et lovis aurae.
Condito mitis placidusque telo
Supplices audi pueros, Apollo ;
Siderura regina bicornis, audi, 35
Luna, puellas :
Roma si vestrumst opus, Iliaeque
Litus Etruscum tenuere turmae,
lussa pars mutare Lares et urbem
Sospite cursu, 40
Cui per ardentem sine fraude Troiam
Castus Aeneas patriae superstes
Liberum munivit iter, daturus
Plura relictis :
Di, probos mores docili iuventae, 45
Di, senectuti placidae quietem,
Romulae genti date remque prolemque
Et decus omne.
Quaeque vos bobus veneratur albis
Clarus Anchisae Venerisque sanguis, 50
Impetret, bellante prior, iacentem
Lenis in hostem.
118 CARMEN SAECULARE.
lam mari terraque manus potentes
Medus Albanasque timet secures,
lam Scythae responsa petunt superbi 55
Nuper, et Indi.
lam Fides et Pax et Honor Pudorque
Priscus et neglecta redire Virtus
Audet, adparetque beata pleno
Copia cornu. 60
Augur et fulgente decorus arcu
Phoebus acceptusque novem Camenis,
Qui salutari levat arte fessos
Corporis artus,
Si Palatinas videt aequus arces, 65
Remque Romanam Latiumque felix
Alterum in. lustrum meliusque semper
Prorogat aevum.
Quaeque Aventinum tenet Algidumque,
Quindecim Diana preces virorum 70
Curat et votis puerorum arnicas
Adplicat aures.
Haec lovem sentire deosque cunctos
Spem bonam certamque domum reporto,
Doctus et Phoebi chorus et Dianae 75
Dicere laudes.
EPODON
LIBER.
I.
Ibis Liburnis inter alta navium,
Amice, propugnacula,
Paratus omne Caesaris periculum
Subire, Maecenas, tuo.
Quid nos, quibus te vita si superstite 6
lucunda, si contra, gravis ?
Utrumne iussi persequemur otium
Non dulce, ni tecum simul,
An hunc laborem mente laturi, decet
Qua ferre non molles viros ? 10
Feremus, et te vel per Alpium iuga
Inhospitalem et Caucasum
Vel Occidentis usque ad ultimum sinura
Forti sequemur pectore.
Roges tuum labore quid iuvem meo, 16
Imbellis ac firmus parum ?
Comes minore sum futurus in metu,
Qui maior absentes habet :
Ut adsidens implumibus pullis avis
Serpentium adlapsus timet 20
Magis relictis, non, ut adsit, auxili
Latura plus praesentibus.
119
120 EPODON
Libenter hoc et omne militabitur
Bellum in tuae spem gratiae,
Non ut iuvencis inligata pluribus 25
Aratra -nitantur meis
Pecusve Calabris ante sidus fervidum
Lucana' mutet pascuis,
Nee ut superni villa candens Tusculi
Circaea tan gat moenia. 30
Satis superque me benignitas tua
Ditavit : haud paravero,
Quod aut avarus ut Chremes terra premam,
Discinctus aut perdam nepos.
II.
' Beatus ille qui procul negotiis,
Ut prisca gens mortalium,
Paterna rura bobus exercet suis,
VI Solutus omni faenore,
Neque excitatur classico miles truci, 5
Neque horret iratum mare,
Forumqiie vitat et superba civium
Potentiorum limina.
<-, i Ergo aut adulta vitium propagine
Altas maritat populos, 10
Aut in reducta valle mugientium
Prospectat errantes greges,
Inutilesve falce ramos amputans
t ;; Feliciores inserit,
Aut pressa puris mella condit amphoris, 15
Aut tondet infirmas oves ;
Vel, cum decorum mitibus pomis caput
LIBER. 121
Autumnus agris extulit,
Ut gaudet insitiva decerpens pira
Certantem et uvam purpurae, 20
Qua muneretur te, Priape, et te, pater
Silvane, tutor finium.
Libet iacere modo sub antiqua ilice,
Modo in tenaci graniine.
Labuntur altis interim ripis aquae. 25
Queruntur in silvis aves,
Fontesque lymphis obstrepunt manantibus,
Somnos quod invitet leves.
At cum tonantis annus hibernus lovis
Imbres nivesque comparat, 30
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 35
lucunda captat praemia.
Quis non malarum, quas amor curas habet,
Haec inter obliviscitur ?
Quodsi pudica mulier in partem iuvet
Domum atque dulces liberos, 40
Sabina qualis aut perusta solibus
Pernicis uxor Apuli,
Sacrum vetustis exstruat lignis focum
Lassi sub adventum viri,
Claudensque textis cratibus laetum pecus 45
Distenta siccet ubera,
Et horna dulci vina promens dolio
Dapes iuemptas adparet:
Non me Lucrina iuverint conchylia
122 EPODON
Magisve rhombus aut scari, 50
Si quos Eois intonata fluctibus
Hiems ad hoc vertat mare ;
Non Afra avis descendat in ventrem meum,
Non attagen lonicus
lucundior, quam lecta de pinguissimis 55
Oliva ramis arborum
Aut herba lapathi prata amantis et gravi
Malvae salubres corpori,
Vel agna festis caesa Terminalibus
Vel haedus ereptus lupo. 60
Has inter epulas ut iuvat pastas oves
Videre properantes domum,
Videre fessos vomerem inversum boves
Collo trahentes languido,
Positosque vernas, ditis examen domus, 65
Circum renidentes Lares.'
Haec ubi locutus faenerator Alfius,
lam iam futurus rusticus,
Omnem redegit Idibus pecuniam,
Quaerit Kalendis ponere. 70
III.
Parentis olim si quis impia manu
Senile guttur fregerit,
Edit cicutis allium nocentius.
dura messorum ilia !
Quid hoc veneni saevit in praecordiis ? 6
Num viperinus his cruor
Incoctus herbis me fefellit ? an malas
Canidia tractavit dapes ?
LIBER. 123
Ut Argonautas praeter omnes candidum
Medea miratast ducem, 10
Ignota tauris inligaturuin iuga
Perunxit hoc lasonem ;
Hoc delibutis ulta donis paeliceia,
Serpente fugit alite.
Nee tantus uinquam siderum insedit vapor 15
Siticulosae Apuliae,
Nee munus umeris efficacis Herculis
Inarsit aestuosius.
At si quid umquaru tale concupiveris,
locose Maecenas, precor 20
Manum puella savio opponat tuo,
Extrema et in sponda cubet.
IV.
Lupis et agnis quanta sortito obtigit
Tecuin mihi discordiast,
Hibericis peruste funibus latus
Et crura dura compede.
Licet superbus ambules pecunia, 6
Fortuna non inutat genus.
Videsne, Sacram metiente te viam
Cum bis trium ulnarum toga,
Ut ora vertat hue et-huc euntium
Liberrima indignatio ? 10
' Sectus flagellis hie trium viralibus
Praeconis ad fastidium
Arat Falerni mille fundi iugera,
Et Appiam mannis terit,
Sedilibusque magnus in primis eques 16
124 EPODON
Othone contempto sedet.
Quid attinet tot ora navium gravi
Rostrata duel pondere
Contra latrones atque servilem manum,
Hoc, hoc tribune militum ? ' 20
V.
'At, o deorum quidquid in caelo regit
Terras et humanum genus,
Quid iste fert tumultus et quid omnium
Voltus in unuin me truces ?
Per liberos te, si vocata partubus 5
Lucina veris adfuit,
Per hoc inane purpurae decus precor,
Per improbaturum haec lovem,
Quid ut noverca me intueris aut uti
Petita ferro belua ? ' 10
Ut haec trementi questus ore constitit
Insignibus raptis puer,
Impube corpus, quale posset impia
Mollire Thracum pectora ;
Canidia, brevibus implicata viperis 15
Crines et incomptum caput,
lubet sepulcris caprificos erutas,
lubet cupressus funebres
Et uncta turpis ova ranae sanguine
Plumamque nocturnae strigis 20
Herbasque quas lolcos atque Hiberia
Mittit venenorum ferax.
Et ossa ab ore rapta ieiunae canis
Flammis aduri Colchicis.
LIBER. 125
At expedita Sagana, per totam domum 25
Spargens Avernales aquas,
Horret capillis ut marinus asperis
Echinus aut currens aper.
Abacta nulla Veia conscientia
Ligonibus duris humum 30
Exhauriebat, ingemens laboribus,
Quo posset infossus puer
Longo die bis terque mutatae dapis
Inemori spectaculo,
Cum promineret ore, quantum exstant aqua 35
Suspensa mento corpora :
Exsecta uti medulla et aridum iecur
Amoris esset poculum,
Interminato cum semel fixae cibo
Intabuissent pupulae. 40
Non defuisse masculae libidinis
Ariminensem Foliam
Et otiosa credidit Neapolis
Et omne vicinum oppidum,
Quae sidera excantata voce Thessala 45
Lunamque caelo deripit.
Hie inresectum saeva dente livido
Canidia rodens pollicem,
Quid dixit aut quid tacuit ? ' rebus meis
Non infideles arbitrae, 50
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 ferae 55
Dulci sopore languidae,
126 EPODON
Senem, quod omnes rideant, adulterum
Latrent Suburanae canes,
Nardo perunctum, quale non perfectius
Meae laborarint manus. 60
Quid accidit ? Cur dira barbarae minus
Venena Medeae valent,
Quibus superbam fugit ulta paelicem,
Magni Creontis filiam,
Cum palla, tabo munus imbutum, novam 65
Incendio nuptam abstulit ?
Atqui nee herba nee latens in asperis
Radix fefellit me locis.
Indormit unctis omnium cubilibus
Oblivione paelicum. 70
A, a, solutus ambulat veneficae
Scientioris carmine !
Non usitatis, Vare, potionibus,
O multa fleturum caput,
Ad me recurres, nee vocata mens tua 76
Marsis redibit vocibus.
Mains parabo, maius infundam tibi
Fastidienti poculum,
Priusque caelum sidet iiiferius mari
Tellure porrecta super, 80
Quam non amore sic meo flagres uti
Bitumen atris ignibus.'
Sub haec puer iam non, ut ante, mollibus,
Lenire verbis impias,
Sed dubius unde rumperet silentium, 85
Misit Thyesteas preces :
' Venena maga non fas nef asque, non valent
Convertere humanam vicem.
LIBER. 127
Diris agam vos ; dira detestatio
Nulla expiatur victima. 90
Quin, ubi perire iussus exspiravero,
Nocturnus occurram Furor,
Petamque voltus umbra curvis unguibus,
Quae vis deorumst Manium,
Et inquietis adsidens praecordiis 95
Pavore somnos auferam.
Vos turba vicatira hinc et hinc saxis petens
Contundet obscenas anus ;
Post insepulta membra different lupi
Et Esquilinae alites, 100
Neque hoc parentes, heu mihi superstites,
Effugerit spectaculuin.'
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, 5
Arnica vis pastoribus,
Agam per altas aure sublata nives,
Quaecumque praecedet fera ;
Tu, cum tiinenda voce complesti nemus,
Proiectum odoraris cibum. 10
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, 15
Inultus ut flebo puer ?
128 EPODON
VII.
Quo, quo scelesti ruitis ? aut cur dexteris
Aptantur enses conditi ?
Parumne campis atque Neptuno super
Fusumst Latini sanguinis,
Non ut superbas invidae Cartliaginis 5
Romanus arces ureret,
Intactus aut Britannus ut descenderet
Sacra catenatus via,
Sed ut secundum vota Parthorum sua
Urbs haec periret dextera ? 10
Neque hie lupis rnos nee fuit leonibus
Umquam nisi in dispar feris.
Furorne caecus an rapit vis acrior
An culpa ? Responsum date !
Tacent, et albus ora pallor inficit, 15
Mentesque perculsae stupent.
Sic est : acerba fata Romanes agunt
Scelusque fraternae necis,
Ut immerentis fluxit in terrain Reini
Sacer nepotibus cruor. 20
IX.
Quando repostum Caecubum ad festas dapes,
Victore laetus Caesare,
Tecum sub alta sic lovi gratum domo,
Beate Maecenas, bibam,
Sonante mixtum tibiis carmen lyra, 5
Hac Dorium, illis barbarum ?
Ut riuper, actus cum freto Neptunius
LIBER. 129
Dux fugit ustis navibus,
Minatus Urbi vincla, quae detraxerat
Servis amicus perfidis. 10
Romanus eheu poster! negabitis
Emancipatus feminae
Fert vallum et arma miles et spadonibus
Servire rugosis potest,
Interque signa turpe militaria 15
Sol adspicit conopium.
Ad hoc frementes verterunt bis mille equos
Galli, canentes Caesarem,
Hostiliumque navium portu latent
Puppes sinistrorsum citae. 20
lo Triumphe, tu moraris aureos
Currus et intactas boves ?
lo Triumphe, nee lugurthino parem
Bello reportasti ducem,
Neque Africanum, cui super Carthaginem 25
Virtus sepulcrum condidit.
Terra marique victus hostis punico
Lugubre mutavit sagum.
Aut ille centum nobilem Cretam urbibus,
Ventis iturus non suis, 30
Exercitatas aut petit Syrtes Noto,
Aut fertur incerto mari.
Capaciores adfer hue, puer, scyphos
Et Chia vina aut Lesbia,
Vel quod fluentem nauseam coerceat 35
Metire nobis Caecubum.
Curam metumque Caesaris rerum iuvat
Dulci Lyaeo solvere.
130 EPODON
X.
Mala soluta navis exit alite,
Ferens olentem Mevium :
Ut horridis utrumque verberes latus,
Auster, memento fluctibus.
Niger rudentes Eurus inverse mari 5
Fractosque remos differat ;
Insurgat Aquilo, quantus altis montibus
Frangit trementes ilices ;
Nee sidus atra nocte amicum adpareat,
Qua tristis Orion cadit ; 10
Quietiore nee feratur aequore,
Quam Graia victorum manus,
Cum Pallas usto vertit iram ab Ilio
In impiam Aiacis ratem.
quantus instat navitis sudor tuis 15
Tibique pallor luteus
Et ilia non virilis eiulatio
Preces et aversum ad lovem,
lonius udo cum remugiens sinus
Noto carinam ruperit. 20
Opima quod si praeda curvo litore
Porrecta mergos iuverit,
Libidinosus immolabitur caper
Et agna Tempestatibus.
XIII.
Horrida tempestas caelum contraxit, et imbres
Nivesque deducunt lovem ; nunc mare, nunc siluae
Threicio Aquilone sonant. Bapiamus, amice,
LIBER. 131
Occasionem de die, dumque virent genua
Et decet, obducta solvatur fronte senectus. 5
Tu vina Torquato move consule pressa meo.
Cetera mitte loqui : deus haec fortasse benigna
Reducet in sedem vice. Nunc et Achaemenio
Perfundi nardo iuvat et fide Cyllenea
Levare diris pectora sollicitudinibus, 10
Nobilis ut grandi cecinit Centaurus alumno :
' Invicte, mortalis dea nate puer Thetide,
Te manet Assaraci tellus, quam frigida parvi
Findunt Scamandri flumina lubricus et Simois,
Unde tibi reditum certo subtemine Parcae 15
Rupere, nee mater domum caerula te revehet.
Illic omne malum vino cantuque levato,
Deformis aegriraoniae dulcibus adloquiis.'
XIV.
Mollis inertia cur tantam diffuderit imis
Oblivionem sensibus,
Pocula Lethaeos ut si ducentia somnos
Arente fauce traxerim,
Candide Maecenas, occidis saepe 'rogando : 6
Deus, deus nam me vetat
Inceptos, olim promissum carmen, iambos
Ad umbilicum adducere.
Non aliter Samio dicunt arsisse Bathyllo
Anacreonta Teium, 10
Qui persaepe cava testudine flevit amorem
IS" on elaboratum ad pedem.
Ureris ipse miser : quod si non pulchrior ignis,
Accendit obsessam Ilion,
132 EPODON
Gaude sorte tua ; me libertina nee uno 15
Coutenta Phryne macerat.
XV.
Nox erat et caelo fulgebat Luna sereno
Inter minora sidera,
Cum tu, magnorum numen laesura deorum,
In verba iurabas mea,
Artius atque hedera procera adstringitur ilex, 5
Lentis adhaerens bracchiis,
Dum pecori lupus et nautis infestus Orion
Turbaret hibernum mare,
Intonsosque agitaret Apollinis aura capillos,
Fore hunc amorem mutuum. 10
dolitura mea multum virtute Neaera !
Nam si quid in Flacco virist,
Non feret adsiduas potiori te dare noctes,
Et quaeret iratus parem :
Nee semel offensi cedet constantia formae, 15
Si certus intrarit dolor.
Et tu, quicumque's felicior atque meo nunc
Superbus incedis malo,
Sis pecore et multa dives tellure licebit
Tibique Pactolus fluat, 20
Nee te Pythagorae fallant arcana renati,
Formaque vincas Nirea,
Eheu, translates alio maerebis amores ;
Ast ego vicissim risero.
LIBER. 133
XVI.
Altera iam teritur bellis civilibus aetas,
Suis et ipsa Eoma viribus ruit.
Quam neque finitimi valuerunt perdere Marsi
Minacis aut Etrusca Porsenae manus
Aemula nee virtus Capuae neo Spartacus acer 6
Novisque rebus infidelis Allobrox,
Nee fera caerulea domuit Germania pube
Parentibusque abominatus Hannibal,
Impia perdemus devoti sanguinis aetas,
Ferisque rufsus occupabitur solum. 10
Barbarus heu cineres insistet victor et urbem
Eques sonante verberabit ungula,
Quaeque carent ventis et solibus ossa Quirini,
Nefas videre ! dissipabit insoleiis.
Forte, quid expediat, comumniter aut melior pars 15
Malis carere quaeritis laboribus.
Nulla sit hac potior seutentia : Phocaeorum
Velut profugit exsecrata civitas
Agros atque Lares patrios habitandaque fana
Apris reliquit et rapacibus lupis, 20
Ire, pedes quocumque ferent, quocumque per undas
Notus vocabit aut protervus Africus.
Sic placet ? an nielius quis habet suadere ? Secunda
Ratem occupare quid moramur alite ?
Sed iuremus in haec : ' Simul imis saxa renarint 25
Vadis levata, ne redire sit nefas,
Neu conversa doraum pigeat dare lintea, quando
Padus Matina laverit cacumina,
lu mare seu celsus procurrerit Appenninus,
Novaque monstra iunxerit libidine 30
134 EPODON
Minis amor, iuvet ut tigres subsidere cervis,
Adulteretur et columba miluo,
Credula nee ravos timeant armenta leones,
Ametque salsa levis hircus aequora.'
Haec et quae poterunt reditus abscindere dulces 35
Eamus omnis exsecrata civitas,
Aut pars indocili melior grege ; mollis et exspes
Inominata perprimat cubilia.
Vos, quibus est virtus, muliebrena tollite luctum,
Etrusca praeter et volate litora. 40
Nos raanet Oceanus circum vagus ; arva beata
Petamus, arva divites et insulas,
B-eddit ubi cererem tellus inarata quotannis
Et imputata floret usque vinea,
Germinat et numquam fallentis terrnes olivae, 45
Suamque pulla ficus ornat arborem,
Mella cava manant ex ilice, raontibus altis
Levis crepante lympha desilit pede.
Illic iniussae veniunt ad mulctra capellae,
Refertque tenta grex amicus ubera, 50
Nee vespertinus circumgemit ursus ovile,
Nee intumescit alta viperis humus.
Pluraque felices mirabimur, ut neque largis
Aquosus Eurus arva radat imbribus,
Pinguia nee siccis urantur semina glaebis, 55
Utrumque rege temperante caelitum.
Non hue Argoo contendit remige pinus,
Neque impudica Colchis intulit pedem ;
Non hue Sidonii torserunt cornua nautae,
Laboriosa nee cohors Ulixei. 60
Nulla nocent pecori contagia, nullius astri
Gregem aestuosa torret inipotentia.
LIBER. 135
luppiter ilia piae secrevit litora genti,
Ut inquinavit acre tempus aureura ;
Aere, dehinc ferro duravit saecula, quorum 65
Piis secunda vate me datur fuga.
XVII.
' lam iam efficaci do manus scientiae,
Supplex et oro regna per Proserpinae,
Per et Dianae non movenda numina,
Per atque libros carminum valentium
Refixa caelo devocare sidera, 6
Canidia, parce vocibus tandem sacris
Citumque retro solve, solve turbinem !
Movit nepotem Telephus Nereium,
In quern superbus ordinarat agmina
Mysorura et in quern tela acuta torserat. 10
Unxere matres Iliae addictum feris
Alitibus atque canibus homicidam Hectorem,
Postquam relictis moenibus rex procidit
Heu pervicacis ad pedes Achillei.
Saetosa duris exuere pellibus 15
Laboriosi remiges Ulixei
Volente Circa membra ; tune mens et sonus
Kelapsus atque notus in voltus honor.
Dedi satis superque poenarum tibi,
Amata nautis multum et institoribus. 20
. Fugit iuventas 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, nequest 25
136 EPODON
Levare tenta spiritu praecordia.
Ergo negatum vincor ut credam miser,
Sabella pectus increpare carmina
Caputque Marsa dissilire nenia.
Quid amplius vis ? mare et terra, ardeo, 30
Quantum neque atro delibutus Hercules
Nessi cruore, nee Sicana f ervida
Virens in Aetna flamma ; tu, donee cinis
Iniuriosrs aridus ventis ferar,
Gales venenis officina Colchicis. 35
Quae finis aut quod me manet stipendium ?
Effare ; iussas cum fide poenas luam,
Paratus expiare, seu poposceris
Centum iuvencos, sive mendaci lyra
Voles sonari : ' Tu pudica, tu proba 40
Perambulabis astra sidus aureum.'
Infamis Helenae Castor offensus vicem
Fraterque magni Castoris, victi prece,
Adempta vati reddidere lumina :
Et tu potes nam solve me dementia, 45
O nee paternis obsoleta sordibus,
Nee in sepulcris pauperum prudens anus
Novendiales dissipare pulveres.
Tibi hospitale pectus et purae manus
Tuusque venter Pactumeius, et tuo 50
Cruore rubros obstetrix pannos lavit,
Utcumque fortis exsilis puerpera.'
' Quid obseratis auribus fundis preces ?
Non saxa nudis surdiora navitis
Neptunus alto tundit hibernus salo. 55
Inultus ut tu riseris Cotyttia
Volgata, sacrum liberi Cupidinis,
LIBER. 137
Et Esquilini pontifex venefici
Impune ut urbeni nomine impleris meo ?
Quid proderit ditasse Paelignas anus, 60
Velociusve miscuisse toxicum ?
Sed tardiora fata te votis manent ;
Ingrata misero vita ducendast in hoc,
Novis ut usque suppetas laboribus.
Optat quietem Pelopis infidi pater, 65
Egens benignae Tantalus semper dapis,
Optat Prometheus obligatus aliti,
Optat supremo collocare Sisyphus
In rnonte saxum ; sed vetant leges lovis.
Voles modo altis desilire turribus, 70
Modo ense pectus Norico recludere,
Frustraque vincla gutturi nectes tuo,
Fastidiosa tristis aegrimonia.
Vectabor umeris tune ego inimicis eques,
Meaeque terra cedet insolentiae. 75
An quae movere cereas imagines,
Ut ipse nosti curiosus, et polo
Deripere Lunam vocibus possim meis,
Possim cremates excitare mortuos
Desideriqxie temperare pocula, 80
Plorem artis in te nil agentis exitus ? '
NOTES.
BOOK I., ODE I.
A dedication of the first three books of the Odes to Maecenas.
The first Epode, the first Satire, and the first Epistle are addressed
to the same patron and friend. Cf. Class. Diet. ; Gardthausen,
Augustus und Seine Zeit, 2. 432 sqq.; Merivale, 3. 214-16.
Various are the pursuits of men, athletics, politics, agriculture,
commerce, epicurean ease, war, the chase. Me the poet's ivy and
the muse's cool retreats delight. Rank me with the lyrists of
Greece, and I shall indeed ' knock at a star with uiy exalted head.'
For similar Apology for Poetry, cf. Sat. 2. 1. 24; Propert. 4. 8 ;
Verg. G. 2..4T5 sqq.; Pind. fr. 221 ; Solon, fr. 13 (4) 43 sqq.
Translated by Broome, Johnson's Poets, 12. 18 ; by Boyse, ibid.
14. 528 ; imitated by Blacklock, ibid. 18. 183.
1. regibus: apposition with atavis. The Augustan poets dwell
on the contrast between Maecenas' half -royal descent from ' noble
Lucumos ' of Arretium and his modesty in remaining a knight and
declining promotion to the Senate. Cf. 3. 29. 1; Sat. 1. 6. 1;
Propert. 4. 8. 1 ; El. in Maec. 13, Eegis eras Etrusce genus, tu
Caesaris almi \ dextera, Romanae tu vigil urbis eras; Martial,
12. 4. 2, Maecenas, atavis regibus ortus eques. For Maecenas as
typical patron of letters, cf. Laus Pisonis, 235 sqq.; Martial, 1.
107. 3-4; 8. 56. 5, sint Maecenates non deerunt, Flacce, Marones;
12. 4. 1-4.
2. O et: for non-elision of 0, cf. 1. 35. 38; 4. 5. 37. prae-
sidium : cf. Lucret. 3. 895, tuisque praesidium. dulce: cf. Epist.
1. 7. 12, dulcis amice. For alliteration, cf. 3. 2. 13 ; 3. 9. 10; 4. 1.
139
140 NOTES.
4; 4. 5. 12; 4. 6. 27. decus: cf. 2. 17. 4; Verg. G. 2. 40.
meum : to me.
3. aunt quos : i.e. aliquos, e<rnv ov:. On est qui, etc., with
indie, or subj., cf. Hale, Cum Constructions, p. 112: 'In poetry
we may often doubt whether a given variation ... is due to a
definite meaning or to a love of the archaic or the unusual ; but in
est qui non curat (Epp. 2. 2. 182), and est qui nee spernit (Od. 1.
1. 19-21), Horace would seem to have himself in mind. In est ubi
peccat (Epp. 2. 1. 63) he must be archaizing.' curriculo : curru,
with the chariot, rather than in the course. Olympicum: typical,
as labor Isthmius, 4. 3. 3, for Greek games generally.
4. collegisse : cf. 1. 34. 16 ; 3. 4. 52. The perfect may keep its
force, but often in Latin poetry it is a mere trick of style. Cf.
Milton, 'He trusted to have equall'd the most High'; Howard,
in Harvard Studies, I., p. 111. fervidis: cf. Verg. G. 3. 107,
volat vi fervidus axis; Milton, Comus, ' glowing axle.'
5. evitata : the skillful driver turned the half-way post as closely
as possible, to keep the inside track. Cf. II. 23. 334 ; Soph. El.
721 ; Ov. Amor. 3. 2. 12 ; Persius, 3. 68 ; Milton, P. L. 2, ' As at the
Olympian games, or Pythian fields : | Part curb their fiery steeds or
shun the goal | With rapid wheels'; F. Q. 3. 7. 41, 'the marble
pillar that is pight | Upon the top of mount Olympus' height, | (a
curious confusion of Olympia and Olympus) For the brave youthly
champions to assay | With burning charet wheels it nigh to smite ; |
But who that smites it mars his joyous play, | And is the spec-
tacle of ruinous decay.' palma : a palm branch was placed in
the hand of the Olympic victor ; Pausan. 8. 48. The practice was
borrowed by the Romans, B.C. 293 (Livy, 10. 47), and palm be-
came a symbol of victory. Cf. Epist. 1. 1. 51. nobilis: i.e.
ennobling.
6. evehit : cf . Verg. Aen. 6. 130, evexit ad aethera virtus. The
lords of earth are the gods. Others less probably : exalt the lords
of earth (i.e. the victors) to very gods. Cf. 4. 2. 17. hunc :
sc. iuvat. Others put a period after nobilis, and take hunc and
ilium in a sort of partitive apposition to dominos.
7. mobilium : fickle. Cf . Epist. 1. 19. 37, ventosae plebis suf-
fragia; Cic. pro Mur. 35; Tac. Ann. 1. 15.
9. tergeminis : simply triple ; the curule aedileship, the prae-
BOOK I., ODE I. 141
torship, and the consulship. honoribus : abl. instr. Cf. TaG
Ann. 1. 3.
9-10. For similar periphrasis for farmer's wealth, cf. 3. 16. 26 ;
Sat: 2. 3. 87, frumenti quantum metit Africa; Sen. Thyest. 856,
HOH quidquid Libyris terit \ fervens area messibus. For proverbial
fertility of Africa, cf. Otto, p. 8. proprio : not as agent or lowly
factor for another's gain. Cf. 3. 16. 27, meis.
10. verritur: Ls swept up from the circular paved threshing
floor, after threshing and winnowing.
11. gaudentem : after the owner of broad estates the humble
cultivator of an avitus fundus (1. 12. 43), who lacks enterprise to
depart from his father's footsteps. patrios : cf. paterna rura,
Epod. 2.3. sarculo : see Lex. s. v. ; hoeing suggests the little field
better than ploughing.
12. Attalicis : see Lex. s.v. Attalus. The Attalids of Pergamon
were the Medici of antiquity. Attalus III. made the Romans his
heir, B.C. 133. His treasures impressed them somewhat as those
of Charles of Burgundy did the rude Swiss who defeated him at
Granson and Morat. Cf. 2. 18. 5, Otto, p. 44. condicionibus :
terms, conditions of a bargain, offers. Cf. Sat. 2. 8. 65 ; Epp. 1.
1. 51.
13. dimoveas : seduce, lure away, cause to stir. Many editors
prefer demoveas. ut : to, so as to. trabe : the metonymy of
beam for ship (Verg. Aen. 3. 191 ; Catull. 4. 3 ; Find. Pyth. 4. 27),
and the specific Cypria and Myrtoum are more vivid and poetic
than vague general terms would be. Cf. 1. 16. 4. n. Cyprian
timber and merchandise were famous (3. 29. 60 ; Pliny, N. H. 16.
203), and it was "boasted that Cyprus could build a ship from keel to
mast top from its own resources (Ammian. Marc. 14. 8. 14).
14. Myrtoum : the western Aegean, south of Euboea ; from the
little island Myrto. The Icarian was east of it (Plin. 4. 61 ; II. 2.
144). pavidus : ancient sailors were conventionally 'timid'
(1. 14. 14; 1. 3. 12. n. ). The petty farmer turned sailor would
be especially so. secet : so rt^eiv.
15. luctantem . . . fluctibus : Horace construes verbs of differ-
ence and strife with dat. For thought, cf. ' As each with other |
Wrestle the wind and the unreluctant sea,' Swinb. Mater Tri-
umphalis. 'The winds and waves (old wranglers) took a truce,'
142 NOTES.
Tro. and Cress. 2. 2 ; Ham. 4. 1, Hen. VI. 3. 2. 5 ; Sen. Thyest. 481,
cum morte vita cum mart ventus fidem \ foedusque iunyent.
Africum : Lex. s.v. Africa, II. 2.
16. mercator : trader, f/j.iropos. Cf. 3. 24. 41. n. metuens:
a temporary mood ; with gen. (3. 19. 16 ; 3. 24. 22), a permanent
characteristic. otium : 2. 16. 1.
17. laudat : sc. as happy. Sat. 1. 1. 3. 9. rura: the fields
about, the ager attached to. mox : so with abrupt asyndeton,
4. 14. 14. Love of gain, K^pSos ae\\o/j.dxov (Anth. Pal. 7. 586), soon
makes him defy the winds.
18. quassas : 4. 8. 32. indocilis, etc.: Herrick, 106, 'those
desp'rate cares, | Th' industrious iMerchant has ; who for to find |
Gold runneth to the Western Inde [cf. 3. 24. 41. n.], | And back
again, (tortur'd with fears) doth fly, | Untaught to suffer Pov-
erty. ' pauperiem pati recurs, 3. 2. 1 ; 4. 9. 49. Cf. 3. 16. 37. n.
19. est qui : cf. Epp. 2. 2. 182, Sunt qui non habeant (indefi-
nite) est qui (pretty plainly pointing to one that shall be name-
less) non curat habere. Massici : Horace's wines are all in the
lexicon.
20. solido : what should be the unbroken business hours up to
about 3 P.M. Sen. Ep. 83. 2, hodiernus dies solidus est ; nemo
ex illo quicquam mihi eripuit. Cf. 2. 7. 6. n.
21. viridi : (ever) green. membra . . . stratus: cf. G. L.
338 ; A. G. 240. c. ; H. 378 ; Lucret. 2. 29, inter se prostrati in
gramine molli \propter aquae rivum, etc. ; Tenn. Lucret., 'under
plane or pine, | With neighbors laid along the grass,' etc.
22. lene : Epode 2. 28. n. caput : cf. sacrum caput amnis;
Verg. G. 4. 319. For sacrae, cf. also on 3. 13.
23. lituo : i.e. litni sonitu. The lituus was the cavalry trum-
pet curved at the large mouth. See cut in Class. Diet. The tuba
of the infantry was straight.
24. matribus : dat. Cf. Epode 16. 8 ; 2. 1. 31.
25. manet : all night (cf. Lex. 1. B. 1), like the hunter in Sat.
2. 3. 234, In nive Lucana dormis ocreatus ut aprum \ coenem ego.
sub love frigido : Zeus, Dyaus, Jupiter go back to a root
div or ditt, ' the bright (sky).' A consciousness of this survived
in many Greek and Latin phrases, and was revived by pantheistic
utterances of the poets. Cf. 1. 34. 5. u. ; 1. 18. 13 ; 1. 22. 20 ; 3. 2. 6,
BOOK I., ODE I. 143
siih divo ; 3. 10. 8 ; Epode 13. 2 ; Lucret. 4. 209, sub diu ; Ov. Fast.
3. 527 ; Verg. Eel. 7. 60 ; II. 5. 91, Aibs fy&pos ; the Athenian prayer,
V<TOV, Iffov S> <t>(\f ZeO, Marc. Aurel. 5. 7 ; Ennins, Sat. 41 (ed.
Miiller), Istic est is lovi pater quern dico, quern Graeci vacant
aerem, etc. ; Aesch. fr. 70.
27. seu . . . seu: cf. A. G. 315. c; G. L. 496. 2. The result
is the same whatever the game. visa est : f<f>dvrj.
28. plagas : Lex. s.v. 3, Epode 2. 31. For boar-hunting, cf. 3.
12. 11 ; Epp. 1. 6. 57.
29. me : for antithetic emphasis, cf. Milt. P. L. 9, ' Me of
these | Nor skill'd nor studious,' etc. ; Tenn. Alcaics, ' Me rather
all that bowery loneliness,' etc. Cf. 1. 5. 13 ; 1. 31. 15 ; 1. 7. 10 ;
2. 12. 13; 4. 1. 29; 2. 17. 13. doctarum : learned, or lettered,
but more especially poetic : cum apud Graecos antiquissimum e doc-
tis genus sit poetarum, Cic. Tusc. 1. 3. Early man thinks rather
(so Ruskin moralizes) of the knowledge than of the art of the
poet. Cf. the comment of Gorgo, Theoc. 15. 145-146. So (ro<f>6s
in Pindar; doctus, Tibull. (?) 3. 6. 41, etc. hederae : the ivy
of Bacchus as well as the laurel of Phoebus crowned the poet
as cliens Bacchi, Epist. 2. 2. 78. Cf. Epist. 1. 3. 25 ; Juv. 7. 29 ;
Ben Jonson, ' To come forth worth the ivy or the bays ' ; Propert.
2. 5. 25 ; Ov. Trist. 1. 7. 2 ; Verg. Eel. 7. 25.
30. miscent : cf . Pindar's free use of plyvvnt, Isth. 2. 29.
gelidum nemus : the traditional ' green retreats ' of the poet.
Cf. 3. 4. 8 ; 3. 25. 13 ; 4. 3. 10 ; Epist. 2. 2. 77 ; Verg. G. 2. 488 ;
Tac. Dial. 12, nemora vero et luci et secretum ipsum, etc.
31. Cf. 2. 19. 3-4. chori: 1.4.5; 2.12.17; 3. 4.25; 4.3.15;
4. 7. 6; 4. 14. 21.
32. secernunt : set apart (se-cernunt), make a dedicated spirit.
Cf. Milton's, ' secret top of Horeb ' ; Tenn. Lotus Eaters, ' while
they smile in secret.' 1 si: modest condition if only the muse
be gracious. tibias : two played together. Cf . Harp. Class.
Diet. s.v. ; 1. 12. 1 ; 3. 4. 1.
33. Euterpe . . . Polyhymnia : the flute and lyre represent all
lyric poetry. Cf. 1. 12. 2. n. ; Harp. Class. Diet. s.v.
34. Lesboum : of Sappho and Alcaeus. Cf . 3. 30. 13. n. ; 4. 3.
12. n. tendere : Herrick, 333, ' Aske me, why I do not sing |
To the tension of the string.'
144 NOTES.
35. quod si, etc. : but if you rank me with the nine Greek lyric
poets of the canon. Wordsworth, Personal Talk, 4, ' The Poets
Oh might my name be numbered among theirs.' inserts :
2. 5. 21 ; 3. 25. 6.
36. Proverbial. Cf. Otto, p. 63'; Ov. Met. 7. 61, vertice siclera
tangam; Ben Jonson, Sejanus, 5. 1, 'And at each step I feel my
advanced head | Knock out a star in heaven ' ; Herrick, ' And
once more yet (ere I am laid out dead) | Knock at a star with my
exalted head.'
ODE II.
The age is weary of storms and portents dire and civil strife.
What god may we invoke to iiphold the falling state and expiate
our guilt ? Apollo ? Venus ? Mars ? Or is it thou, Mercury,
already with us (in the guise of Augustus), Caesar's avenger?
Late be thy return to thy native heaven. Long may'st thou dwell
amid thy adoring people. The Mede will not ride on his raids
while thou art our captain.
A declaration of adhesion to Octavian, written apparently before
the new constitution of the Empire and the bestowal upon him of
the title of Augustus in Jan., B.C. 27 (cf. Merivale, 3. 335-336,
chap. 30).
The close resemblance to Vergil, G. 1. 465 sqq. (cf. Merivale,
3. 239, chap. 28) has led some scholars to date it as early as
B.C. 37 or 32. But this is excluded by the allusion (1. 49) to the
triumphs celebrated in Aug., B.C. 29. Nor would Horace so
early have recognized Octavian as savior of the state. Octavian
was princeps Senatus from B.C. 28 to his death. The evidence
then points to a date between the return from the East, B:C. 29,
and the renewal of the imperinm in Jan., 27, and most probably
to the latter part of B.C. 28, when Octavian, having, as he said,
fulfilled his pious duty of punishing the assassins of Caesar (cf.
on 1. 44), affected to talk of laying down his authority (Dio. 53.
4. 63. 9 ; Merivale, 3. 331-32) ; which would have been a signal
for the renewal of the disturbances of which the age was so weary
(cf. 1. 1. iam satis, and on 2. 16. 1).
The portents that accompanied or followed the death of Caesar
(Shaks. Jul. Caes. 1. 3, Hamlet, 1. 1 ; Verg. G. 1. 467 sqq. ; Dio
BOOK I., ODE II. 145
45. 17 ; Tibull. 2. 5. 71 ; Ov. Met. 15, 782 ; Petronius, 122) and
the inundation of the Tiber (cf. on 1. 13) do not date the ode.
They are the experience of a generation.
1. We may, if we please, hear the swish of the storm in the re-
peated is. Cf. II. 21. 239 ; Shelley, Alastor, ' The thunder and
the hiss of homeless streams'; Liberty, 'Waves Hiss round a
drowner's head in their tempestuous play.' terns: dat. i.e.
in terras. dirae : strictly ominous, portentous. Cf. insessum
dins avibtis Capitolium, Tac. Ann. 12. 43. Snow and hail would
be rare in Italy. Milton has ' dire hail. '
2. pater : the epic father of gods and men. Cf. on 1. 12. 13 ;
3. 29. 44. rubente: in the lightning's glare. Find. O. 9. 6,
<f><HviKOffTfp6wav. Milt. P. L. 2, 'Should intermitted vengeance
arm again | His red right hand to plague us.'
3. iaculatus: cf. 3. 12. 11 ; 3. 4. 56 ; Ov. Am. 3. 3. 35, Inppiter
igne sitos lucos iaculatur et arces. Tenn. L. and El. ' bolt . . .
javelining | With darted spikes and splinters of the wood | The
dark earth round.' Milton, 'hurl'd to and fro' with jaculation
dire.' arces: the seven temple-crowned hills of Rome; Verg.
G. 2. 535. More specifically the two summits of the Capitoline,
the tf. or Arx proper, and the S. with the temple of Jupiter, Juno,
and Minerva.
4-5. terruit . . . terruit : cf . 2. 4. 4, 5, for this linking of sen-
tences by repetition of the verb.
5. gentes: 1. 3. 28; 2. 13. 20; Lucret. 5. 1222, non populi
gentesque tremunt . . . (ne) poenarum grave sit solvendi tempus
adultum ? Psalm 2. 1, quare fremuerunt gentes.
5-12. Rome and mankind feared a return of the flood of Deu-
calion and Pyrrha ingeniously described by Ov. Met. 1. 260 sqq.
Cf. Pind. 0. 9. 47 ; Milt. P. L. 11. Horace pauses in the bare
list of portents to paint it. Cf. 1. 12. 27 ; 3. 4. 53-57, 60-64.
6. nova monstra : strange prodigies, or signs. Cf. Epode 16.
30, novaque monstra iunxerit libidine.
1. pecus : for Proteus' herd of phocae seals, cf. Odyss. 4. 405
sqq.; Verg. G. 4. 395 sqq.; F. Q. 3. 8. 30, 'Proteus is shepherd of
the seas of yore, | And hath the charge of Neptune's mighty herd.'
The imaginative origin of the myth is perhaps indicated by Shelley,
146 NOTES.
Witch of Atlas, 10, ' And every shepherdess of Ocean's flocks |
Who drives her white waves over the green sea.' Cf. Lang, Helen
of Troy, 3. 23, ' They heard that ancient shepherd Proteus call |
His flock from forth the green and tumbling lea.' For Proteus
as symbol of mutability ('protean'), of. Sat. 2. 3. 71; Epp. 1.
1. 90.
8. visere : inf. of purpose, archaic, colloquial, poetic. Cf. PI.
B. 900, abiit aedem visere Minervae, ' she went away to visit the
temple of Minerva' ; G. L. 421. 1. (a) ; 1. 23. 10 ; 3. 8. 11.
9-12. A topsy-turvy world. Cf. Ov. Met. 1. 296, hie summa
piscem deprendit in ulmo. Milton's flood has a touch of Ovid
(P. L. 11), ' and in their palaces | Where luxury late reign'd, sea-
monsters whelp'd.' Cf. Archil., fr. 74. 6.
10. nota : cf. 4. 2. 6, ' custom'd.'
11. superiecto: sc. terris. pavidae: 1.23. 2.
13. vidimus: i.e. our age has seen. Cf. Verg. G. 1. 472,
quotiens . . . vidimus. Livy, Praef . 5, malorum qnae nostra tot per
annos vidit aetas. Cf. 1.35. 34. flavum: standing epithet of the
Tiber (1. 8. 8 ; 2. 3. 18); muUa flavus arena, Verg. Aen. 7. 31.
Cf. Macaulay, Capys, 'The troubled river knew them, | And
smoothed his yellow foam'; Arnold, Consolation, 'By yellow
Tiber, | They still look fair.'
13-14. retortis litore (ab) Etrusco : the waters supposed to
be heaped up and driven back by winds or tides at the moiith
of the river, overflow on the lower left bank, flood the region of
the Velabrum between the Palatine and the Capitoline, and spread
to the Forum. Cf. Ov. Fast. 6. 401 sqq. ; Propert. 5. 9. 5. For
litus Etruscum, cf. C. S. 38 ; Epode 16. 40. Others take it of the
high right bank of the Tiber (litns = ripa, Verg. Aen. 3. 389 ; 8.
83), from which the foaming flood in freshet is violently hurled on
to the opposite low left bank, at the sharp bend below the island
(see map). Cf. further Tac. Ann. 1. 76 ; Plin. N. H. 3. 55 ; Dio.
45. 17, 53. 20, 54. 1.
15. deiectum : supine ; to overthrow. The personification of
the angry river begins to be felt. monumenta regis. etc. : the
establishment of the order of Vestal Virgins was attributed to
Numa Pompilius (Livy, 1. 20), and his palace, the official residence
of the Pontifex Maximus, adjoining the temple of Vesta at the
BOOK I., ODE II. 147
N. W. corner of the Palatine, was, with the old house of the Vestals,
called the Atrium Vestae. Cf. Ov. Fast. 6. 263, hie locus exiguus,
qui sustinet atria Vestae, \ tune erat intonsi regia magna Numae;
Trist. 3. 1. 29; Lanciani, Ancient -Rome, p. 159. Even these ven-
erable monuments are not spared. Caesar was Pontifex Maximus
at the time of his death.
16-20. Ilia, or Rhea Silvia, the mother of Romulus and Remus
by Mars (Livy, 1. 3-4), and, according to the legend followed by
Horace, daughter of Aeneas, might be called the bride of the Tiber,
into which she was thrown (on one tradition) by order of King
Amulius. The wife-doting stream is, by a far-fetched conceit, said
to avenge her complaints at the assassination of her great descend-
ant Julius Caesar, with an excess of zeal not approved by Jupiter
/fat vTTfp Aita alffav.
17-18. dum . . . iactat : for this use of dum equivalent to a
pres. part, of cause or circumstance, cf. 1. 6. 9 ; 2. 10. 2 ; 3. 7. 18 ;
G. L. 570. n. 2.
19. ripa : over, by way of.
19-20. u-xorius: cf. 1. 25. 11 (a compound); 2. 16. 7. The
license is avoided in 3d and 4th books. It is frequent in Sappho,
who treated the third and fourth verses as one. In English mostly
for comic effect : ' Here doomed to starve on water gru | el never
shall I see the U | niversity of Gottingen.' Anti-Jacobin. When
the cola were printed as separate lines, its apparent frequency in
Pindar was a stumbling-block to French critics.
21-24. audiet . . . iuventus : note position. Our sons will
marvel at the crime and folly of this generation. Cf. 1. 35. 35 ;
Epode 7.1; 16. 1-9.
21. cives : emphatic, but the ellipsis of in cives is harsh.
22. graves : 3. 5. 4. So /3apus. Persae : the empire of the East
was Parthian from B.C. 250 to A.D. 226. But Horace uses Oriental
names freely, and to a student of Greek literature Eastern was
Persian, or Mede. perirent: cf. 3. 14. 27; 4. 6. 16. These im-
perfects where We might look for pluperfects have been variously
explained as ' potential,' 4 softened assertion in past time,' or as
' future to a past ' arising from an imaginative shifting of the point
of view. Metrical convenience probably determined the resort to
them. For the general thought here, cf . Lucan, cited on Epode 7. 5.
148 NOTES.
23. vitio : gives cause of rara.
24. rara : the thought is rhetorically amplified by Lucan, 7. 398,
crimen civile videmus, \ tot vacuas urbes. Cf. ibid. 535 sqq., 1.
25 sqq. ; Verg. G. 1. 507.
25. divum : gen. plur. ; only a god can save. Ten years earlier
Vergil prayed Di patrii . . . hunc saltern everso.iuvenem succurrere
saedo | ne prohibete. mentis : cf. on 2. 1. 32 ; 3. 3. 8. Thomson,
Seasons, ' Tully, whose powerful eloquence a while | Kestrain'd
the rapid fate of rushing Rome.'
26. imperi: almost =' empire.' Cf. 4. 15. 14, and lexicon.
fatigent : importune. Cf. Verg. Aen. 1. 280.
27. Virgines : cf. 3. 5. 11; 3. 30. 9. minus audientern :
minus is idiomatic who averts her ear from their chant. Vesta
is offended by the assassination of Julius Caesar, the Pontifex
Maximus. In Ov. Fast. 3. 699, she says: ne dubita meminisse!
meusfuit ille sacerdos.
28. Carmina : any set form, chant, or litany. Possibly con-
trasted with the less formal prece.
29. partes: office, role. So A. P. 193, 315. It was the favorite
r61e of Augustus. Cf. infra, 1. 44. scelus : rb iiyos, 1. 35. 33.
expiaiidi : 2. 1. 5.
31. nube . . . amictus: II. 5. 186, vf<t>t\r) flKv^tvos &fj.ovs. Cf.
Milton's 'kerchef'd in a comely cloud.' candentes: Homer's
(pa.iSifj.oi &/J.OL Cf. on 2. 5. 18.
32. augur Apollo : so Verg. Aen. 4. 376. Apollo who helped
at Actium (Verg. Aen. 8. 704 ; Propert. 5. 6. 67) is first invoked
as Ka6<ip(nos and juofris, Purifier and Prophet. He was Augustus'
patron deity. For his new temple, cf. on 1. 31.
33. Venus is invoked as Aeneadum genetrix. Cf. Preller-Jordan,
1. 444 ; Lucret. 1. 1 ; Pervigil. Ven. 70. She had a famous temple
on Mt. Eryx in Sicily (Verg. Aen. 5. 759). Cf. John Bartlett,
' The queen of Paphos Erycine | In heart did rose-cheeked Adon
love ' ; Thos. Watson, Hekatompathia, ' He praise no starre but
Hesperus alone, | Nor any hill but Erycinus mount.' ridens :
<j>i\on/j.fi5ris, laughter-loving. Cf. her 'subtle smile' and laugh in
Tenn. CEnone.
34. locus: so Plaut. Bacch. 113. Cf. Milton's 'Jest and
youthful Jollity.' circum volat: they hover about her like the
BOOK I., ODE II. 149
loves in a picture of Albani, making a pretty contrast with the
following vision of grim-visaged war. Cf. F. Q. 4. 10. 42. Cu-
pido : Verg. Aen. 1. 663, aligerum . . . amorem. Aristoph. Birds,
697; Shaks. Rom. and Jul. 2. 5, 'And therefore hath the wind-
swift Cupid wings,' etc.
35. genus et nepotes : cf. 3. 17. 3, nepotum . . . genus.
36. respicis : regardest, dost care for. auctor : sc. Mars.
Cf. 3. 17. 5; Verg. G. 3. 36, Troiae Cynthius auctor; Macau-
lay, Capys, 20, 'And such as is the War-God | The author of
thy line.'
37. satiate : the Homeric Ares is insatiate of war ATOS
iro\f/j.oto. ludo : cf. 1. 28. 17, spectacula Marti. Cf. Ruskin on
' game of war.' Other gods have other ' games,' 1. 33. 12 ; 3. 29. 50.
38. iuvat : Maeaulay, Capys, 19, ' But thy father loves the
clashing | Of broadsword and of shield : | He loves to drink the
steam that reeks | From the fresh battlefield,' etc. Cf. Silius, 9. 664.
clamor: cf. strepitutn, 1. 16, 18; cf. 'loud-throated war,' 'the
noise of battle hurtled in the air ' ; /cu5oiyu<$s, fytaSos. IS ves : not
lews.
39. acer : the fierce light of battle upon it. Mauri peditis :
so the Mss. Marsi is generally read (cf. 2. 20. 18 ; Epode 16. 3 ;
Verg. G. 2. 167, genus acre virum ; Appian. B.C. 1. 46). But the
Maun were fierce enough, and may well have used foot-soldiers.
Or peditis may mean 'unhorsed.' cruentum : whether blood-
stained or bleeding, it is close work.
41. give : or if thou, Mercury, art already with us in mortal
disguise. The apodosis is no longer veiiias, but serus redeas, etc.
(45). iuvenem : so Sat. 2. 5. 62, iuvenis Parthis horrendus ;
Verg. G. 1. 500. Octavian was about thirty -five years old. Men
were iuvenes in the age of military service, seventeen to forty-five.
42. ales : Verg. Aen. 4. 240 ; 1. 10. notes.
43. filius : the nom. is preferred for euphony. Maiae : cf. on
1. 10. 1. patiens : cf. Epp. 1. 16. 30, patens sapiens . . . vocari.
44. ultor : Augustus dedicated a temple to Mars Ultor, B.C. 2
(cf. Merivale, 4. 24. 116; Suet. Oct. 29), and both he (Mon.
Ancyr. 1. 8-10) and the contemporary writers dwell complacently
on his mission as Caesar's avenger. Cf. Sellar, p. 161 ; Ov. Fasti,
3. 709, Hoc opus, haecpietas, hacc prima elementa fuere \ Caesaris,
150 NOTES.
ulcisci iusta per arina patrem ; ibid. 5. 577 ; Suet. Oct. 10 ; Vel-
leius, 2. 87.
45. serus . . . redeas : cf. Ov. Trist. 5. 2. 52, sic ad pacta tibi
sidera tardus eas; Met. 15. 868. Martial, as usual, outbids the
Augustan poets in flattery. He prays for the birth of a son to
Domitian, cui pater aeternas post saecula tradat habenas (6. 3. 3).
Cf. on 3. 3. 11 ; 4. 14. 43.
46. populo Quirini: so Ov. Met. 15. 572, Fast. 1. 69.
47. vitiis: cause of iniquum, offended by our faults. ini-
quum: cf. 2. 4. 16; 2. 6. 9; 1.28.28, aequo ab love; C. S. 65;
Verg. Aen. 6. 129, Fauci, qnos aequus amavit \ Iiqipiter.
48. ocior : \.Q. untimely, premature. aura: suggested by ales.
49. triumphos : tres egit, Dalmaticum, Aciiacum Alexandrinum,
continuo triduo omnes (Suet. Aug. 22). Cf. Merivale, 3. 314,
chap. 30 ; Gardthausen, 2. 257 sqq. Cf. the description in Verg.
Aen. 8. 714 ; also Verg. G. 1. 503, lam pridem nobis caeli te regia,
Caesar \ Invidet atque hominum queritur curare triumphos.
50. pater : Augustus was formally saluted as pater patriae by
the Senate in B.C. 2. But the poets had long since anticipated the
title. Cf. 3. 24. 27. n. ; Juv. 8. 244 (of Cicero); Ov. Trist. 2. 181 ;
4. 4. 13 ; Fast. 2. 127 ; as epithet of a god, 1. 18. 6 ; Epode 2. 21.
princeps : 4. 14. 6. Technically princeps Senatus was the most
dignified Senator first called upon by consul to give his opinion
in the absence of the consuls designate. Octavian affected the title
princeps, first citizen, because of its freedom from invidious asso-
ciations. Cf. Tac. Ann. 1.1. 3, quoted on 2. 16. 1. and 1. 9. 6.
Furneaux (Tac. Ann. Vol. I. p. 66) rejects its identification with
princeps Senatus.
51. Medos: cf. on 22. 3. 3. 44. equitare : cf. 2. 9. 24 ; 4. 4.
44, ride on their raids ; ride and ride (Gildersleeve). Cf. 1. 19. 11 ;
2. 13. 17. inultos: 1. 28. 33; 3. 3. 42; Epode 6. 16; here, un-
punished, with impunity. Cf. F. Q. 6. 7. 32, ' But lo ! the gods,
that mortal follies view, | Did worthily revenge (punish) this
maiden's pride.' The defeat of Carrhae and the shade of Crassus
are still unavenged. Lucan, 1. 11, umbraque erraret Crassus
inulta. Cf. on 3. 5. 5.
52. te duce : cf. Epp. 2. 1. 256, et formidatam Parthis te prin-
cipe Romam. Propert. 3. 1. 12-18. Caesar: the true name of
BOOK I., ODE m. 151
our god and savior at last. Caesar = Julius Caesar, supra, 44, and
Sat. 1. 9. 18 only. The full title of Augustus (originally Octavian)
by adoption and honorary decrees of the Senate was, at the close
of his life. ' Imp. Caesar, Divi F. Augustus Pontif. Max. Cos. XIIL
Imp. XX. Tribunic. Potestat. XXXVII. P. P.'
ODE III.
Propempticon. A prayer for the safety of the vessel that bears
Vergil to Greece, followed by reflections on the audacity of man
who braves the terrors of the deep, steals fire from heaven, essays
to fly though nature has withheld wings, finds out the way to hell,
and scales the heavens in defiance of the angry bolts of Jove.
Vergil visited Greece in B.C. 19, and died at Brundisium on his
return. The first three books of the Odes were published in B.C. 23.
We must assume another voyage, or another Vergil. Cf. on 4. 12.
See Sellar, p. 141.
For the friendship of Horace and Vergil, see Sellar, Vergil, p.
120 sqq., Ode 1. 24, Sat. 1. 5. 41, 1. 6. 54.
With the Propempticon proper, 1-8, cf. Callim. fr. 114 ; Theoc.
7. 52, The diffuse imitation of Statius, Silvae, 3. 2. Epode 10, to
an enemy ; Odes, 3. 27. Tenn. In Mem. 9, ' Fair ship, that from
the Italian shore | Sailest the placid ocean plains,' etc. ; ibid. 17.
Wordsworth's lines to Scott embarking for Naples : ' Be true | Ye
winds of ocean and the midland sea, | Wafting your Charge to soft
Parthenope ! '
For the second part of the ode, cf. Mill (On Nature, p. 22), ' There
was always a tendency, though a diminishing one, to regard any
attempt to exercise power over nature, beyond a certain degree
and a certain admitted range, as an impious effort to usurp divine
power, and dare more than was permitted to man. The lines of
Horace, in which the familiar arts of shipbuilding and navigation
are reprobated as vetitum nefas, indicate even in that sceptical age
a still unexhausted vein of the old sentiment.' For further illus-
tration of the feeling, cf. 3. 24. 36-41 ; Epode 16. 57-62 ; Tibull.
1. 3. 36-37 ; Verg. Eel. 4. 32 ; Ov. Met. 1. 94 ; Hesiod, Works and
Days, 236 ; Arat. Phaen. 110 ; Soph. Antig. 332 sqq.
152 NOTES.
The reflections of Valerius Flaccus, Argonaut. 1. 245, 530-560,
are an interesting exception.
It should be further noted that in the Latin writers the expres-
sion of this primitive feeling is combined with a reprobation of the
luxurious living to which the audacious enterprise of man panders.
See Pliny, N. H. 23 Praef., and the passages cited on Odes, 2. 15.
In similar vein Spenser, F. Q. 2. 7. 14-16. Translated by Pryden,
Johnson's Poets, 9. 158.
1-8. sic . . . regat . . . reddas : a petition in Latin (or
Greek) is often followed by a promise or blessing conditional on
its fulfilment ; the condition being resumed in sic. Cf. Tibull. 2.
5. 121, Annue : sic tibi sint intonsi, Phoebe, capilli. Or the sic
clause may precede, followed by an explicit condition, Epp. 1. 7.
69, sic ignoVisse putato \ me tibi si cenas hodie mecum ; or by an
imperative, as Verg. Eel. 9. 30 ; Catull. 17. 5-8. Here the sic
clause precedes, followed not by an explicit condition or impera-
tive, but by an apparently detached optative or final subjunctive
with precor. Cf. G. L. 546. n. 1 ; Odes, 1. 2. 30 ; Epode 3. 20.
Some editors express this by calling sic . . . lapyga a parenthe-
sis. Cf. Milt. Lye. 19; Song in Comus, 'Tell me but where, . . .
so mayst thou be translated to the skies,' etc. Matter-of-fact
critics have observed that the expression of the blessing is super-
fluous, because it fulfils itself, the safety of the ship and pas-
senger being inseparable.
1. potens: with gen. cf. 1. 5. 15; 1. 6. 10 ; C. S. 1 ; Verg. Aen.
1. 80; Homer's ^rvia 6np,v, II. 21. 470; Pind. Pyth. 4. 213; Ov.
Am. 3. 10. 35, diva potens frugum. Cypri : cf. on 1. 30. 2. For
Venus marina, cf. on 3. 26. 5, 4. 11. 16 ; Solon, fr. 18. 4 ; Pausan.
1. 1. 3, tvirKoia.
2. Castor and Pollux ; cf. 1. 12. 27, 3. 29. 64, 4. 8. 31 ; Sen. Here.
Fur. 556, non illic geminum Tyndaridae genus \ succurrunt timi-
dis sidera navibus ; Propert. 1. 17. 17. Possibly the electrical
phenomenon known to sailors as St. Elmo's light is meant. Cf.
Lucian, Navig. 9 ; Stat. Silv. 3. 2. 8 ; Pliny, N. H. 2. 101 ; Macau-
lay, Kegillus, 40, ' Safe comes the ship to haven, | Through billows
and through gales, | If once the Great Twin Brethren | Sit shining
on the sails ' ; Camoens, Lusiad. 6. 18, o lume vivo que a maritime*
BOOK I., ODE III. 153
gente \ Tern por santo em tempo di tormento ; Swinburne, * As those
great twins of air | Hailed once with old world prayer | Of all folk
alway faring forth by sea.' Cf. Frazer, Pausanias, III., p. 13.
3. Cf. Odyss. 10. 21 ; Verg. Aen. 1. 52 ; F. Q. 3. 7. 21, 'And all
his winds Dun Aeolus did keep | From stirring up their stormy
enmity. ' regat : guide.
4. lapyga : the N.W. wind off the S.E. coast of Italy (lapygia)
blowing towards Greece. Cf. Aul. Gell. 2. 22. In 3. 27. 20, albus
lapyx is stormy.
6. debes : sc. to our love. But it is possible to construe finibus
as dat. with both debes and reddas.
1. reddaa : he is a deposit to be duly delivered (cf. reddere epis-
tulam) at (or to) the appointed place. Cf. Stat. Silv. 3. 2. 5,
grande tuo rarttmque damns, Neptune, profundo \ depositum.
incolumem : safe and sound. Cf. 3. 24. 31.
8. dimidium : cf. on 2. 17. 5. ' Friendship to be two in one '
(Tenn.), the old definition (cf. Ar. Eth. 9. 4. 5, 6 <f>i\os &\\os avrts ;
Diog. Laert. 5. 1. 20 ; Cic. Lael. 92), implies that the friend is half
yourself (Anth. Pal. 12. 52 ; Callim. Ep. 43). Cf. Otto, Sprich-
worter der Romer, p. 26.
9. Cf. Herrick, 106, ' A heart thrice wall'd with Oke, and brasse,
that man | Had, first, durst plow the Ocean ' ; Milton, P. L. 2, or
arm th' obdured breast | With stubborn patience as with triple
steel'; II. 24. 205, fftifoeiov jrop ; Otto, p. 4.
10. fragilem : 3. 2. 28. For juxtaposition with truci, cf. on 1.
6. 9. truci: Catull. 4. 9, trucemve Ponticum sinum ; 63. 16, tru-
culentaque pelagi.
12. praecipitem : headlong, squally, XajSpoy f*cnylfav. Ov.
Met. 2. 184, ut acta \ praecipUi pinus Borea ; Verg. G. 4. 29, prae-
ceps . . . Eurus. Africum : 1. 1. 15 ; Epode 16. 22 ; Verg.
Aen. 1. 85.
13. decertantem : ' Auster and Aquilon tilt about the heavens '
(Marlowe). Cf. on 1. 9. 11 ; 1. 1. 15; de intensive, cf. 1. 18. 9;
3.3.55. Aquilonibus: dat. Cf. on 1. 1, 16. The plural mftri
gratia. But translate blasts of. Cf. Aesch. Prom. 1086-1086 ;
Verg. Aen. 1. 102, stridens Aquilone procella.
14. tristes Hyadas : Epode 10. 10, tristis Orion; Verg. G.
3. 279, contristat . . . caelum; Verg. Aen. 3. 516, pluviasque
154 NOTES.
Hyadas ; Term. Ulysses, ' when | Thro' scudding drifts the rainy
Hyades | Vext the dim sea ' ; Ov. Fast. 5. 166, navita quas Hya-
das Graecus ab imbre (veiv} vocat. Cf. Lexicon. Cf. 'the moist
daughters of huge Atlas = Pleiads' (F. Q. 3. 1. 57).
15. arbiter : than whom no stronger tyrant rules. Cf. 2. 17. 19,
3. 3. 5 ; Arnold, Summer Night, ' Nor doth he know how there pre-
vail | Despotic on that sea | Trade winds which cross it from eter-
nity ' ; Coleridge, Anc. Mar., 'And now the storm-blast came and
he | Was tyrannous and strong.'
16. (seu) tollere, etc. : for omitted sen, cf. 1. 6. 19 ; Sat. 2. 8.
16 ; Aesch. Ag. 1403. For similar omission of first neg., cf. Gil-
dersleeve on Find. Pyth. 6. 47. ponere: cf. componere fluctus,
Verg. Aen. 1. 135 ; Jebb on Soph. Ajax, 674.
17. gradum: step, approach, form. Cf. 1. 33; 3.2.14; 'Death's
foot,' 1. 4. 13; Shaks. M. for M. 5. 1, 'the swift celerity of his
death | Which I did think with slower foot came on' ; Tibull. 1.
10. 4, turn brevior dirae mortis aperta via est.
18. siccis : tearless, fopols (Aesch. Sept. 696). Ancient heroes
weep more freely than the ideal of mediaeval chivalry permits to
the modern. Cf. Caesar, B. G. 1. 39; Odyss. 20. 349, etc. They
were especially afraid of drowning. Cf. Arist. Eth. Nic. 3. 6. 7 ;
Verg. Aen. 1. 93; Ov. Met. 11. 539, Fast. 3. 596, etc. ; Horace
argues that the titanic audacity which did not fear the perils of the
deep would not shrink from defiance of heaven. monstra : cf.
on 3. 27. 27 ; 4. 14. 47.
19. vidit : endured the sight. turgidum : oVS/nan 0tW is per
haps more vivid than turbidum (cf. 3. 3. 5), which has about
equal authority.
20. infames : 5v<T<avv/j.ovs, because of shipwrecks. Cf. Livy, 21.
31. 8, infames frigoribus Alpes ; Milt. Comus, ' Infamous hills and
sandy perilous wilds.' Acroceraunia : a promontory of Epirus
at entrance to sheltering gulf of Oricum (cf . 3. 7. 5) ; now il Monte
della Chimera. Cf. Byron, 'And in Chimari heard the thunder-
hills of fear, | The Acroceraunian mountains of old name.' Alto,
Ceraunia, which some read here, occurs, Verg. G. 1. 332. Cf.
Propert. 1. 8. 19. See the fine description in Lucan, 2. 267 sqq.,
imitated by Macaulay, Virginia, ' When raves the Adriatic be-
neath an eastern gale, | When the Calabrian sea-marks are lost in
BOOK I., ODE III. 155
clouds of spume, | And the great Thunder-Cape has donned his
veil of inky gloom' ; Tenn., 'The vast Acroceraunian walls.'
21-22. deus . . . prudens: the providence (foresight) of God.
Cf. 3. 29. 29 ; Herod. 3. 108.
21-23. abscidit . . . terras : a majority of the editors take
this of the separation of the elements to make a habitable world,
as in Ov. Met. 1. 22, nam caelo terras, et terris abscidit undas;
dissociabili will then mean &/J.IKTOS, unmixing, incompatible. So
Swinburne, Erechtheus, ' For the sea-marks set to divide of old |
The kingdoms to Ocean and Earth assigned, | The hoar sea-fields
from the cornfield's gold, | His wine-bright waves from her vine-
yard's fold.' But it may well mean divided the lands from each
other by ' The unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea,' the ' bond-breaking
sea' of Tennyson. Man transgressed this wise decree when 'the
echoing oars | Of Argo first | Startled the unknown sea' (Ar-
nold, Strayed Reveller). Cf. Sen. Medea, 334, bene dissaepti foe-
dera mundi \ traxit in unum Thessala pinus. Contrast the modern
feeling of Pope, Windsor Forest, ' Whole nations enter with each
swelling tide, | And seas but join the regions they divide.' See
also the last stanza of Longfellow's Lighthouse. For -abilis, active,
cf. Verg. G. 1. 93, and Munro on Lucret. 1. 11.
23. impiae: contrast Tenn., 'Fly happy, happy sails, and bear
the Press, | Fly happy with the mission of the cross.'
24. Cf. Dryden's ' invade the inviolable main.' impiae non tan-
genda and transiliunt (1. 18. 7) reinforce each other in expressing
the idea that man will 'easily transgress.'
25. omnia: everything and anything. So irav and TrdvTo\fj.os.
26. ruit : of the headlong recklessness of sin, ' licentious wick-
edness | When down the hill he holds his steep career ' (Shaks.).
vetitum : i.e. even in defiance of express prohibition.
27. audax : insistent repetition leading up to the examples.
genus: sc. Prometheus. Cf. Danai genus, 2. 14. 18; Uraniae
genus, Catull. 61. 2. For his theft of fire, cf. Hes. Op. 60 ; Aeschy-
lus, Prometheus; Frazer, Pausanias, III., p. 191.
28. fraudemala: cf . dolus malus, mali fures, etc. ; or simply of
the evil consequences.
29. domo : cf. Eurip. fr. 491, parodied Aristoph. Frogs. 100.
29-30. post ignem . . . subductum : the idiom of ab urbe
156 NOTES.
condita ; cf. on 2. 4. 10 ; cf. Milton's 'since created man,' and his
'Bacchus . . . After the Tuscan mariners transforrn'd ' (Comus).
For the legend, cf. Serv. ad Verg. Eel. 6. 42, (ob Promethei furtum}
irati di duo mala immiserunt terris, febres et morbos : sicut et
Sappho et Hesiodus memorant ; Shelley, Prom. 2. 4, ' for on the
race of man | First famine, and then toil, and then disease, | Strife,
wounds and ghastly death unseen before | Fell.'
31. incubuit: cf. Lucret. 6. 1143, (mortifer aestus) incubuit . . .
populo ; Aesch. Suppl. 684, vovatav e<r(i.6s.
32. ' Mild was the slow necessity of death ' (Shelley, Queen
Mab). Cf. Hes. Op. 90 sqq. semoti . . . tarda : cumulative,
death was distant and drew nigh slowly ; prius with both words.
32-33. necessitas leti : Homer's Holpa . . . Oavaroto. Kpa.rep^
33. corripuit : quickened. Cf. Lucan, 2. 100, quantoque gradu
mors saeva cucurrit.
34. vacuum: cf. Swinburne's 'Waste of the dead void air';
Horn. II. 17. 425; Find. O. 1. 6, ty-finas Si' aWtpos. For Daedalus,
cf. 4. 2. 2 ; Verg. Aen. 6. 14 ; Ov. Met. 8. 183.
36. perrupit : cf. manet (1. 13. 6 ; 2. 6. 14 ; 2. 13. 16 ; 3. 16. 26 ;
3. 24. 5), always under verse ictus. There is no instance in the
fourth book. Acheronta : into Acheron. Herculeus labor:
cf. 2. 12. 6. A little more than the idiom of BIT; 'Hpa'fArjfir; (cf.
on 3. 21. 11), or Milton's 'Basks at the fire his hairy strength.'
It was a ' Herculean task,' and his twelfth labor. He went down
to fetch Cerberus, and released Theseus. Cf. 4. 7. 28. labor:
note how ' The line too labours, and the words move slow.'
37. nil . . . arduist : ardui with nil, too steep, literally of caelum,
metaphorically hard. Cf. Camoens, Lusiad, 4. 104.
38. stultitia : because a proverbial impossibility. Cf. Find.
Fyth. 10. 27.
40. Pull the unwilling thunder down ' (Dryden) . iracunda :
Find. Nem. 0. 50, 7x* (dKorov. For the transferred epithet, cf.
on 1. 18. 7; 3. 1. 42; 1. 37. 7; Epode 16. 60; 10. 14; Arnold,
Sohrab and Itustum, ' Come plant we here in earth our angry
spears.' ponere: deponere, lay aside. Cf. 3. 2. 19; 3. 4. 60.
BOOK I., ODE IV. 157
ODE IV.
Spring has come, and the zephyrs. Cold winter's chains are
loosed. Enjoy the spring flowers while you may. The night of
death is nigh. Cf. 4. 7, and Carew's lovely lines on Spring.
L. Sestius was consul sn/ectus in the second half of the year
6.c. 23, the probable date of the publication of the three books of
the odes. He is possibly addressed as the consul of the year.
1 . aolvitur : strictly perhaps of the frozen soil. Cf . solutae,
1. 10 ; Verg. G. 2. 331, laxant area sinus. But cf. 1. 9. 5 ; Tibull. (?)
3. 5. 4, cum se purpureo vere remittit hiems (hitmus). grata vice :
the ' season's difference ' is felt as a welcome change. Cf. 4. 7. 3 ;
E. 13. 8 ; 3. 29. 13 ; Milt. P. L. 7, 'To illuminate the earth and rule
the day | In their vicissitude.' Favoni : cf. 4. 12. 2; 3. 7. 2; Cat.
46. 2, iam caeli furor aequinoctialis \ iucundis zephyri silescit
auris ; Milton, Sonnet 20: 'Time will run | On smoother, till
Favonius re-inspire | The frozen earth' ; Lucret. 5. 737 sqq.
2. machinae : rollers (KV\IV$POI) and tackle by which the ships
were drawn down and launched at the opening of navigation.
Caes. B. C. 2. 10; Anth. Pal. 10. 16.
3. stabulis : byre. ignl: * ingle-lowe" 1 (Burns).
. 5. Cythe'rea . . . Venus : the rare tautology, found only in
later Greek poets, is perhaps justified by the separation: the god-
dess of Cythera . . . Venus. Or perhaps 'in Cythera.' chores:
cf. Horn. Hymn Apoll. Pyth. 16 ; Lucret. 5. 737 ; Rossetti, Sonnet
on Botticelli's Spring. imminente luna : Milton, P. L. 1. 780,
' while overhead the moon | Sits arbitress.' The Greek divinities,
like the modern elves and fairies, dance in the woods, sub nocte
silenti \ cum superis terrena placent (Stat. Silv. 1. 1. 95).
6. Cf. 4. 7. 5 ; Rossetti ut supra, ' The Graces circling near, |
'Neath bower-linked arch of white arms glorified' ; F. Q. 6. 10. 15,
' These were the Graces, daughters of delight, | Handmaids of
Venus, which are wont to haunt | Upon this hill and dance there
day and night.' decentes: comely, 1. 18. 6; 3. 27. 53; Milton,
Penseroso, ' And sable stole of Cyprus lawn | Over thy decent
shoulders drawn' ; Herrick, 16, ' When I thy parts runne o're, I
can't espie j In any one, the least indecensie.'
158 NOTES.
7. graves : sc. laboriosas, or perhaps ponderous.
8. Volcanus ardens : sc. in the glow of the forge, or with
eagerness ((nrfvSwv, 11. 18. 373 ; Verg. Aen. 2. 529, ardens insequi-
tur). Cf. 3. 4. 58-59. n. urit : fires up, kindles. A few Mss. and
some editors who object to seeming tautology of ardens urit, read
visit, visits. Cf. 3. 28. 15. For the forges of the Cyclopes at
Lipara (cf. 3. 12. 6. n.), cf. Verg. Aen. 8. 416 ; Ap. Rhod. 3. 41-;
Callim. Hymn 3. 46. In spring they are naturally busy with the
summer thunder-bolts. These Hesiodic (Theog. 139) Cyclopes are
to be distinguished from the pastoral monsters of Homer, Ody.
Bk. 9 ; F. Q. 4. 5. 37, ' He like a monstrous giant seem'd in sight, |
Far passing Bronteus or Pyracmon great, | The which in Lipari do
day and night | Frame thunder-bolts for Jove's avengeful threat.'
9. nitidum : with ointment, 2. 7. 7 ; but cf . 3. 19. 25 ; 3. 24. 20 ;
2. 12. 19. impedire : sc. vincire, 4. 1. 32 ; 1. 7. 23 ; Tibull. 1. 6.
67, quamvis non vitta legatos \ impediat crines. Cf. expedies caput,
3. 24. 8.
10. aolutae : cf. Verg. G. 1. 44, zephyro putris se glaeba resolvit.
Thomson, Spring, 'The well-us'd plough | Lies in the furrow,
loosen'd from the frost.'
11. Fauno : cf. 1. 17 ; 3. 18 ; umbrosis evidently cannot be pressed
if the time is the Ides of February (Ov. Fast. 2. 193). But cf. 1.
23. 5-6. n.
12. poscat: sc. immolari sibi. agna: abl. instr., as often
with verbs of sacrificing.
13. Pallida: by association. Cf. Shaks., 'death's pale flag';
Milton, P. L. 10, 'Death . . . not mounted yet | On his pale horse.'
' Where kingly death | Keeps his pale court,' Adonais, 7. Cf. also,
white death, yellow death, etc. aequo . . . pede : Cowper,
Yearly Bill of Mortality, 1787, ' Pale death with equal foot strikes
wide the door | Of royal halls and hovels of the poor.' Dickens,
David Copperfield, ch. 28, ' If we failed to hold our own, because
that equal foot at all men's doors was heard knocking somewhere,
every object in this world would slip from us.' Malherbe, Cons, a
M. Du Pe"rier : ' Le pauvre en sa cabane, oil le chaume le couvre, |
est sujet & ses lois ; | et le garde qui veille aux barrieres du Louvre |
N'en defend point nos rois.' Cf. also 2. 18. 32. n. ; 3. 1. 14.
pulsat : cf . Ov. Her. 21. 46, Persephone nostras pulsat acerba fores.
BOOK I., ODE IV. 159
For knocking with foot, cf. Plaut. Most. 444 ; Callim. Hym. Apoll. 3.
Observe alliteration.
14. regum : 2. 14. 11. n. beate : in the convention<al, if not in
the stoic sense. Cf. 3. 7. 3. n. ; 2. 2. 17. n. ; II. 11. 68.
15. summa: cf. 4. 7. 17. brevis : a commonplace. Cf. Otto
s.v. Vita, 2. spem . . . longam: 1. 11. 6. incohare: -life's
"brief sum forbids us open (a) long (account icith) hope (Gilder-
sleeve). Cf. Seneca, Ep. 101, O quanta dementia est spes longas
incohantium.
16. iam : cf. Tibull. 1. 1. 7, iam veniet tenebris mors adoperta
caput. Cf. Lucret. 3. 894, iam iam, etc. premet nox: cf. 4. 9.
27. n. ; Verg. Aen. 6. 827. fabulae : cf. Emerson, Montaigne,
' Life is eating us up. We shall be fables presently.' Herrick, 178,
' So when you or I are made | A fable, song, or fleeting shade ; | All
love, all liking, all delight | Lies drown'd with us in endless night.'
Persius, 5, 152, cinis et manes et fabulafies. For fabula = theme
of talk, cf. Epode 11. 8. There is a further Epicurean suggestion
that the tales of a future life are fabulae ! nonsense (Ter. Heaut.
2. 3. 95). Cf. Sen. Tro. 380, Verum est, an timidos fabula decipit \
umbras corporibus vivere conditis ? Callim. Ep. 15. 4.
17. exilis: cheerless, barren of comforts (cf. Epp. 1. 6. 45, and
plena domo, 4. 12. 24) or unsubstantial (cf. Verg. Aen. 6. 269,
domos Ditis vacuas et inania regna, with possible suggestion of the
' thin bat-like shrillings of the dead ' in Homer). Cf. Bacon's ' exile
sound.' The house or chamber of death is a commonplace from
Homer, the Bible, and Pindar, down. Plutonia : cf. Poe, The
Raven, ' the night's Plutonian shore.' simul: 1.9. 9. n.
18. The arbiter bibendi, symposiarch or master of the revels, was
chosen by the dice. Cf. 2. 7. 25. n. For the Epicurean moral, cf.
Fletcher, ' Drink to-day and drown all sorrow ' ; Lodge, ' Pluck
the fruit and taste the pleasure | Youthful lordlings of delight ' ;
Herrick, 541 ; 111, ' Sing o'er Horace ; for ere long | Death will
come and mar the song ' ; Theog. 567-570, 973 ; Propert. 3. 7. 23,
Dum nos fata sinunt, oculos saliemus amore : \ nox tibi longa venit
nee reditura dies.
160 NOTES.
ODE V.
What slim lad holds dalliance with thee now, O Pyrrha. He
will rue the day that first he tempted the bright and fickle sea.
I have long since hung up my dank and dripping weeds to Nep-
tune.-
Milton's version is well known. Imitation by Cowley, Johnson's
Poets, 7. 73.
1. gracilis: i<r\vos, schlank, svelte. Cf. Rossetti's 'gracile
spring.' in rosa : probably bed of roses. Marlowe, Passionate
Shepherd, 'There will I make thee beds of roses.' But potare in
rosa and esse in rosa may refer to garlands.
2. perfusus : Epode 13. 9. urget : woos.
3. sub : under (the covert of) - in. Cf. 2. 1. 39 ; 3. 29. 14 ;
Epod. 9. 3.
4. cul : cf. Swinburne, ' Ah, thy beautiful hair ! so was it once
braided for me, for me' ; Tibull. 4. 6. 3, Tibi se laetissima comp-
sit ; Anth. Pal. 5. 228, flirt rivi TrX^eis %TI poarpvxov; flavam :
Pyrrha means flava, the fashionable color. Cf. 2. 4. 14 ; 3. 9. 19 ;
4. 4. 4. religaa: 2.11. 24; 4. 11. 5.
5. simplex munditiis: 'plain in thy neatness' (Milton). Cf.
Pliny, N. H. 2. 4, Nam quern KoV/xoc Gfraeci nomine ornamenti
appellavere, eum et nos a perfecta absolutaqne elegantia mundum ;
Cic. de Off. 1. 36, Adhibenda est munditia non odiosa neque exqnisita.
Cf. Ben Jonson's, 'Still to be neat, still to be drest.' heu : cf. 1.
15. 19. n. ; 3. 2. 9. fidem : thy faithlessness. Cf. 1. 18. 16; 3.
24. 59 ; Ovid's de fide queri. Or supply mutatam. Cf. 3. 5. 7. n.
6. aspera : cf. horrida, 3. 24. 40 ; Verg. Aen. 3. 285, Et glacia-
lis hiems Aquilonibus asperat undas. And for transfer to lady's
temper, cf. 1. 33. 15. For the image, cf. Sir Charles Sedley,
'Love still has something of the sea, | From whence his mother
rose ; | No time his slaves from doubt can free, | Nor give their
thoughts repose ' ; Anth. Pal. 5. 1 ; 5. 190 ; 5. 156, ' A <f>t\fpus
X.ap'JiTo'is ' AffK \rjTrtas aila Ya.\T)vris \ u/jL/j.a.ffi avfiirtiQei irdvras 4f>(aroir\0fiv ;
Plautus Asin. 133; Simonides, fr. 7. 27; Heine, ' Oben Lust, im
Busen Tucken, | Strom, du bist der Liebchen Bild : | Die kann auch
so freundlich nicken, I Lachelt auch so from und mild.'
BOOK I., ODE VI. 161
7. Nigrla : effect as epithet of cause. Cf. Epod. 10. 5 ; 3. 7. 1 ,
candidi, 1. 7. 15; 2. 7. 21. n. For phenomenon, cf. II. 7. 64,
/ufAavei Si re ir<Wo$ vir O.VTTJS ; Tenn., 'Little breezes dusk and
shiver.'
8. emirabitur: only here. Cf. 2. 14. 11, enaviganda. in-
solens : unwonted to the sight. Cf. 2. 4. 2. n. ; 2. 3. 3 ; 1. 16. 21.
9. credulus aurea : cf . 1. 6. 9. n. For vague use of aurea, cf.
4. 2. 23 ; 2. 10. 5; Theoc. 12. 16 ; Pindar passim; Shaks., 'Golden
lads and girls all must | As chimney sweepers come to dust ' ;
Barry Cornwall, ' Lucy is a golden girl.'
10. vacuam : fancy free, and so ready to entertain him.
11. aurae : cf. 2. 8. 24. n. ; 3. 2. 20. n.
13. iiites : perhaps keeping up the metaphor. Cf. Lucret. 2.
559, Subdola cum ridet placidi pellacia ponti. But cf. Glycerae
nitor, 1. 19. 5 ; splendet, 3. 3. 25 ; Catull. 2. 5, desiderio meo
nitenti. tabula : for the votive picture, dedicated by shipwrecked
sailors to Neptune, or Isis, cf. A. P. 20 ; Verg. Aen. 12. 768 ; F. Q.
3. 4. 10, ' Then, when I shall myself in safety see, | A table for
eternal monument | Of thy great grace and my great jeopardy, |
Great Neptune, I avow to hallow unto thee ' ; Thomas Watson,
Hecatompathia, 91, ' Hang up your votive tables in the quyre | Of
Cupid's church.'
15. potent! : with man's.
ODE VI.
Varius will chant thy deeds by sea and land, Agrippa. I cannot
rise to tragic or epic heights I, the light singer of love.
M. Vipsanius Agrippa was the right hand of Augustus in war,
as Maecenas in peace. He commanded the fleet at Actium, mar-
ried the emperor's daughter Julia, adorned Rome with magnificent
buildings (the Pantheon), and was for many years virtually joint
emperor with Augustus. Gardthausen, 2. 409 sqq. ; Merivale,
3. 211-214.
L. Varius, the intimate friend of Horace and Vergil, and editor
of the Aeneid with Plotius Tucca after Vergil's death, wrote epics,
tragedies, and elegies. Before the publication of the Aeneid he
was regarded as the chief epic poet of the day. Sat. 1. 10. 43,
162 NOTES.
forte epos acer ut nemo Varius ducit. Cf. also Sat. 1. 5. 40 ; 1.
5. 93 ; 1. 9. 23 ; 2. 8. 21 ; 2. 8. 63 ; Epist. 2. 1. 247 ; A. P. 55.
The Augustan poets and their imitators frequently profess ina-
bility to do justice to the achievements of their patrons. Cf.
Sellar, p. 134 ; Sat. 2. 1. 12 ; Epist. 2. 1. 250 ; Odes, 4. 2. 28-36 ;
Propert. 2. 1. 17 sqq. ; 4. 8.
1-2. Vario . . . alite : generally taken somewhat harshly, as abl.
abs. to save the syntax, tho abl. of agent without ab being thought
inadmissible. Others emend aliti, dat. of agent. For bird = bard,
cf. 2. 20. 10; 4. 2. 25; Theoc. 7. 47, Moi<rav 8pvi X es ; Thomson,
Winter, ' Great Homer too appears of daring wing | Parent of
Song ' ; Bacchylides, 5. 19 sqq.
2. Maeonii : cf. 4. 9. 5. Enthusiastic friendship employed
' Homeric ' then as freely as it does Shakesperian now. Cf. Propert.
1. 7. 3 ; 2. 34. 66.
3. quam . . . cumque : for the tmesis, cf. 1. 7. 25 ; 1. 9. 14 ;
1. 16. 2; 1. 27. 14, etc. navibus . . . equis : abl. instr., a
variation of conventional terra marique. Agrippa defeated Sex-
tus Pompey, B.C. 36, for which navali corona a Caesare donatus
est ; qui honos nulli ante eum habitus erat, Livy, Epit. Bk. 129.
4. gesserit : with scriberis in an extension of the ' I know thee
who thou art ' construction. Cf. 4. 14. 19.
5. nos : cf. 1. 17 and 2. 17. 32, and Epist. passim. In the odes
generally ego. neque haec . . . nee: for the paratactic form of
parallels, cf. 3. 5. 27-30. dicere : very frequent in the odes for
lyric utterance. gravem : Homer's oi>\o[j.fvr)v, II. 1. 2. The
Greeks also said, &apvs x^os ; Aesch. Eumen. 800, fiapiiv nfnov.
6. stomachum : bile, gall, spleen; cf. 1. 16. 16. A homely
term, intentionally used for Homer's urivis, the epic theme of the
Iliad. The figurative use of the word is not Greek, but is frequent
in Cicero. Cf. Lex. s.v. ; F. Q. 2. 8. 23, ' But with stern looks and
stomachous disdain.' cedere nescii: cf. Verg. Aen. 12. 527,
nescia vinci pectora. Achilles was pervicax (Epod. 17. 14), impiger
iracundus inexorabilis acer (A. P. 121), and recalcitrant even to
the gods (II. 21. 223 ; Plat. Rep. 391 B).
7. After the Iliad, the Odyssey. duplicis : iroXvrpoiros, versa-
tile lowered to Snr\ovs (Eurip. Rhesus, 395), shifty, double tongued.
BOOK I., ODE VI. 163
Ulixei : cf. Epode 16. 60 ; 17. 16 ; Achillei, 1. 15. 34 ; Penthei, 2.
19. 14 ; Alyattei, 3. 16. 41.
8. Tragedy : cf. Milton, Penseroso, ' Presenting Thebes, or
Pelops' line, | Or the tale of Troy divine.' The Thyestes of
Varius was by friendly critics thought equal to any Greek trag-
edy. Quint. 10. 1. 98. saevam . . . domum: Tantalus, Pelops,
Atreus, Thyestes, Aegisthus, Agamemnon, a family upas-tree
(Symonds).
9. tenues grandia : cf. Ov. Am. 2. 18. 4, et tener ausuros
grandia frangit amor. For Horace's favorite device of antithetic
juxtaposition of contrasted words, cf. 1. 3. 10 ; 1.5-9; 1. 13. 14 ;
I. 15. 2 ; 2. 16. 17 ; 2. 18. 10 ; 3. 7. 13 ; 3. 8. 1 ; 3. 11. 46 ; 3. 29. 17 ;
3. 29. 49 ; 3. 30. 12 ; 4. 1. 6-7 ; 4. 4. 32 ; 4. 2. 31 ; 4. 4. 53 ; 4. 5. 9 ;
and Sellar, p. 193. dum : while, shades into since. Cf. 1. 2. 17 ;
3. 11. 50.
10. potens: with lyrae. Cf. 1. 3. 1 ; 1. 5. 15 ; 3. 29. 41 ; C. S.
1 ; Epist. 2. 3. 407, musa lyrae sollers. For thought, cf. Anacre-
ontea, 23, fle'Aw \eyetv 'ArpfiSas- ... a BdpfiiTos Se Xp8a7s | fptara.
flOVVOV T)X f ?-
11. egregii: cf. 3. 25. 4; 3. 5. 48 ; Marlowe, Tamb. II. 1. 1,
' Egregious viceroys of those Eastern parts.'
12. deterere : lit. impair, by wearing away. Cf. tenuare, 3. 3.
72 ; Epist. 2. 1. 235-237 ; Milton, ' Who can impair thee, mighty
king?' Raleigh, Epitaph on Sidney, 'Whose virtues wounded by
my worthless rhyme, | Let angels speak, and heaven thy praises
tell ' ; F. Q. 3. 2. 3.
13. quis : who but a Varius? adamantina : Homer's x a ^-
Kox'trui'. Cf. 3. 24. 5. n.
14. scripserit : for syntax, cf . G. L. 259 ; H. 486. The mood
of the question is that of the expected answer, nemo scripserit.
15. nigrum : swart, soiled. Cf. 1. 21. 7. n. ; 2. 1. 22. n. Meri-
ones was the charioteer of the Cretan Idomeneus. Cf. 1. 15. 26 ;
II. 8. 264, 13. 330-336. ope : cf. 4. 2. 2.
16. parem : cf. impar, 4. 6. 5 ; Tydides, urged on by Pallas,
-wounded Ares and Aphrodite, II. 5. 330-340, 846-855.
17. proelia : e.g. Propert. 4. 7. 5 ; Ov. Am. 1. 5. 15.
18. sectis : properly manicured nails are not very dreadful
weaoons. acrium in iuvenes : cf. 1. 2. 39-40.
164 NOTES.
19-20. (sive) vacui aive : cf. 1. 3. 16 ; 1. 32. 7 ; 3. 4. 21-22. But
sive quid urimur is really an afterthought. Cf. 1. 15. 25 ; 3. 27. 61.
urimur : cf. 1. 19. 4. 11011, etc. : as is my wont.
ODE VII.
Beautiful are the isles of Greece, and her cities beloved of gods,
famed in song and story. But 'Tibur is beautiful, too, and the
orchard slopes and the Anio, | Falling, falling yet to the ancient
lyrical cadence' (Clough). Thou, Plancus, whether in the shade
of thy Tiburtine villa, or in the glittering camp, remember that
wine is the best dispeller of care. This Teucer knew when, fleeing
to exile from his angry father, he consoled his despondent mates
with the promise of a new Salamis in a strange land.
The loose juncture at 1. 15 led some ancient critics to assume the
beginning of a new ode there. Lines 26 sqq. imply acquaintance
with Verg. Aen. 1. 195 sqq., and can hardly have been written
before B.C. 29.
L. Munatius Plancus, a political turn-coat (morbo proditor, Veil.
2. 83), founded Lyons as governor of Gaul in B.C. 43, was consul
in 42, was intrusted by Antony with the government of Syria and
Asia, and abandoned him for Octavian on the eve of Actiurn. In
B.C. 27 he proposed the decree conferring on Octavian the title of
Augustus, and was rewarded by the censorship B.C. 22. In what
camp he could have been serving at this time, or what were the
cares which Horace advises him to drown in wine, does not appear.
1. laudabunt alii : cf. excudent alii, Verg. Aen. 6. 847. The
antithesis is me, 1. 10. The ' praise ' need not be literary. Cf. 1. 1.
17, laudat. claram: so Martial, 4. 55. 6; sunny. Cf. I'liny, N.
H. 2. 62 ; Lucan, 8. 248, claramque relinquit \ sole Rhodon. But
cf. Catull. 46. 6, ad dams Asiae volemus urbes ; 4. 8, Bhodumque
nobilem, that is, renowned for its commerce, its art, and its schools
of rhetoric and philosophy. Mytilenen : capital of Lesbos, pul-
chritudine in primis nobilis (Cic.).
2. Ephesus : capital of 'Asia,' called by Florus lumen Asiae.
bimaris: so Ov. Met. 5. 407; Trist. 1. 11. 5, bimarem . . .
Isthmon; Her. 12. 27; d^aAoj, Find. 0. 13. 40; a./j.<j>iOd\a<roos,
BOOK I., ODE VH. 165
0. 7. 33. Ai0cUa<rffor, cited by editors, does not seem to have been so
used. Cf . Landor, ' Queen of the double sea beloved of him | Who
shakes the world's foundations'; Anth. Pal. 7. 218, aXt&voio
KopivBov ; Pind. 0. 13. 5. Corinthi : destroyed by Mummius B.C.
146. Restored as colony by Julius Caesar.
4. Tempe : Ov. Met. 1. 568, est nemus Haemoniae (Thessaly),
praerupta quod undique claudit \ Silva: vocant Tempe, per quae
Peneus, ab imo \ Effusus Pindo, spumosis volvitur undis; Tenn.,
'The long divine Peneian pass' ; Shelley, Hymn of Pan, 'Liquid
Peneus was flowing, | And all dark Tempe lay | In Pelion's (sic)
shadow outgrowing | The light of the dying day.' Cf. the descrip-
tion in Aelian, V. H. 3. 1 ; Eurip. Troad. 214.
5. unum opus : their one task, theme. intactae : virgin.
Cf. 3. 4. 70, integrae. urbem: Athens.
6. perpetuo : in continuous epic, not the short swallow-flights
of lyric. Cf. Ov. Met. 1. 3, primaque ab origine mundi \ ad mea
perpetuum deditcite tempora carmen.
7. The olive was the gift of Athena and the symbol of Athens.
To pluck from every quarter a wreath of olive for the brow, is to
gather from all sources of legend and history material for the
praise of Athens. Cf. Lucret. 1. 928, iuvatque novos decerpere
flores | insignemque meo capiti petere inde coronam, | unde prius
nulli velarint tempora musae.
8. plurimus : many a one. Cf. Martial, 7. 36. 3, plurima
. . . tegula; Verg. Aen. 2. 369; Juv. 3. 232. But in all these
cases there is a substantive. Hence some deny the use. luno-
nis: her three favorite cities were Argos, Sparta, and Mycenae
(II. 4. 51).
9. aptum . . . equis : l-mr6Borov (II. 2. 287). But this version
of the Greek is perhaps due to a reminiscence of the words of
Telemachus (Odyss. 4. 601) rendered (Epp. 1. 7. 41), ?IOM est
aptus equis Ithace locus. dites : iro\vxpv<ros (II. 7. 180 ; Soph. El.
9). ' Not yet to tired Cassandra lying low | In rich Mycenae do
the fates relent' (Lang). The gold found there by Schliemann
amply justifies the epithet. It was prehistoric to Horace as it is
to us (Lucian, Contempl. 23 ; Anth. Pal. 9. 103).
10. me: cf. on 1. 1. 29. patiens: hardy. Cf. Quintil. 3. 7.
24 ; Epp. 1. 7. 40, patientis Ulixei; ' Spread on Eurotas' bank . . .
166 NOTES.
the patient Sparta the sober, hard, | And man-subduing city '
(Thomson, Liberty).
11. Larisae . . . opimae : Thessaly is still the granary of Greece.
Cf. II. 2. 841, lpiftia\a.Ka. percussit : cf. Vergil's ingenti percus-
sus amore, G. 2. 476 ; Milton's ' Smit with the love of sacred song.'
12 sqq. In order to enjoy Horace, the student should read up
Tibur in Burn's Rome and the Campagna, or Hare's Days near
Rome, 1. 191-207. Cf Sellar, p. 179 ; Clough, Amours de Voyage,
3. 11, 'Here as I sit by the stream, as I gaze at the cell of the
Sibyl, | Here with Albunea's home and the grove of Tiburnus
beside me.' doinus : grotto. Albuneae : this old Italian oracle,
described by Verg. Aen. 7. 83, gave its name to the last of the
Sibyls. resonantis : from the cataract (Verg. Aen. 7. 84), nemo-
rum quae maxima sacro \ fonte sonat ; ' To Anio's roar and Tibur's
olive shade' (Thomson, Liberty).
13. praeceps Anio : the Teverone. Cf. Wordsworth's wish,
' To listen to Anio's precipitous flood | When the stillness of
evening hath deepened its roar' ; Macaulay, Regillus, 10, 'From
the green steeps whence Anio leaps | In floods of snow-white
foam'; Clough, 'Tivoli beautiful is and musical, O Teverone, |
Dashing from mountain to plain | Thy parted impetuous waters ' ;
Propert. 3. 30. 14 ; Stat. Silv. 1. 5. 25. Tiburni : the Argive broth-
ers Tiburnus, Catil(l)us, and Coras were the mythical founders
of Tibur. Cf. 1. 18. 2, 2. 6. 5 ; Verg. Aen. 7. 670 ; Stat. Silv. 1. 3.
74, ilia recubat Tiburnus in umbra. lucus : i.e. religious (sacred)
grove. Cf. 1. 12. 60 ; Lucret. 5. 75 ; Milton, P. L. 1, ' (Moloch)
made his grove \ The pleasant valley of Hinnom.' Tradition placed
a villa of Horace here, domusque ostenditur circa Tiburni luculum
(Suet. Vit. Horat.). uda: 4. 2. 30 ; 3. 29. 6.
14. pomaria : Macaulay, Regillus, 36, 'From where the apple
blossoms wave | On Anio's echoing banks.' Cf. Ov. Am. 3. 6.
45 ; Propert. 5. 7. 81, ramosis (pomosis) Anio qua pornifer (spu-
mifer') incubat arvis. mobilibus . . . rivis : the branches of
the Anio and their rapids, ' cascatelle.'
15. Horace may have pieced two fragments of verse together at
this point, but we cannot separate them. albus : 3. 27. 19 ; 3. 7. 1.
The south wind does not always ' rise with black wings' (Milton),
as caeli fuscator Eoi (Lucan. 4. 66) . It is often (saepe) the white
BOOK I., ODE VII. 167
(whitening) \tvit6voTos and scours away the clouds. Cf. Arnold,
Empedocles, 'As the sky-brightening south-wind clears the day, |
And makes the niass'd clouds roll, | The music of the lyre blows
away j The clouds which wrap the soul.'
16. parturit : 4. 5. 26 ; Lucret. 6. 259, fulminibus gravidam
tempestatem; Hymn. Orph. 21. 1, ce^'Aai . . . 6/n.ffpor^Kot.
17. sapiens : be wise, with the wisdom of 1. 11. 6.
17-18. finire . . . labores : so 3. 4. 39 ; Sat. 2. 3. 263, finire
doJores.
19. molli : mellow and mellowing. Tristitia is not sadness nor
are labores, 'labors.' fulgentia: cf. Tac. Hist. 3. 82, fulgentia
per colles vexilla ; They were decorated with bright silver disks,
Pliny, N. H. 33. 58. Cf. 2. 1. 19.
20. tenebit : apparently he is in camp.
21. Teucer : non receptus a patre Telamone ob segnitiam non
vindicatae fratris (Aiacis) iniuriae, ~Cyprum adpulsus cog'nomi-
nem patriae suae Salamina constituit (Veil. 1. 1). Cf. Verg. Aen.
1. 619. Ajax had slain himself because the arms of Achilles were
awarded to Ulysses. For Teucer's anticipation of his reception,
if he returned without his brother, cf. Soph. Ajax, 1007-1020.
For Telamon's passionate invective (a popular scene in the early
Roman drama), cf. the fragments of Pacuvius' play; Cic. de Or.
2. 193 ; Ribbeck, Pacuv. Teucer, fr. 12. Cf. further, Isoc. 3. 28,
9. 18. For the details that follow, Horace is our sole authority.
Teucri vox, . . . patria est ubicumque est bene (Cic. Tusc. 5. 37. 108)
expresses the sentiment of 1. 25. The personal application (if any)
of the tale to Plancus is as obscure to us as is that of Pindar's myths.
22. fugeret : sc. to exile. Cf . on 2. 13. 28 ; Sat. 1. 6. 13. uda :
cf. on 2. 19. 18, 4. 5. 39 ; Tibull. 1. 2. 3, multo perfusum tempora
Baccho. Lyaeo : Lyaeus (as if from \voa~), the releaser from care
and tongue-tied dullness, epithet of Bacchus, because, as Browning
(Aristoph. Apol.) puts it, men found 'That wine unlocked the
stiff est lip and loosed | The tongue late dry and reticent of joke.'
Cf. on 3. 21. 16, 1. 18. 4, 4. 12. 20; Fletcher, 'God Lyaeus ever
young.' The god is put for his gift as Ceres for grain (Verg. Aen.
1. 177), Venus for love, etc. Cf. Lucret. 2. 652, Bacchi nomine
abuti | mavolt quam laticis proprium proferre vocamen.
23. populea : as sacred to Hercules (Verg. Eel. 7. 61 ; Theoc.
168 NOTES.
2. 121), the wanderer (vago, 3. 3. 9) and guide, riyf/j.tav (Xen.
Anab. 4. 8. 25.) In company with Hercules Telamon had taken
Troy and won Hesione, the mother of Teucer.
25. quo . . . cumque: cf. 1. 6. 3. melior: i.e. kinder.
2(5-30. o socii . . . peioraque passi (30) : cf. Verg. Aen. 1.
199, o socii ... o passi graviora ; Odyss. 12. 208, ' Worse deaths
have we faced and fled from, | In the Cyclops' den, | When the
floor of his cave ran red from | The blood of men.' Cf. also Tenn.
Ulysses, 'My mariners, | Souls that have toil'd and wrought, and
thought with me,' etc. ; multo graviora tulisti, Ov. Trist. 5. 11. 7.
27. Teucro : the name is more inspiring than me. Cf. Macau-
lay, Horat. 43, ' But will ye dare to follow, | If Astur clears the
way ? ' So in Shaks. Julius Caesar, passim, ' Shall Caesar send
a lie?' 2. 2. duce et auspice: suggests the formal ductu et
auspiciis. A campaign was under the auspices of the Consul or
Imperator (cf. on 4. 14. 33). It might not be under his personal
conduct (Suet. Aug. 21). The auspices here are given in the next
line. They carry Teucer and his fortunes.
28. certus: unerring, j^ep-r^s. Cf. Find. Pyth. 9. 46, 3. 29.
In 1. 12. 23 certus = &<pvtcros. For the oracle, cf. Eurip. Hel. 146.
29. ambiguam : cf. 2. 5. 24. So that when Salamis was named
men would ask, ' Which Salamis ? ' Hence, Lucan, 3. 183, Manil.
5. 50, Sen. Troad. 854, seem to speak of a veram Salamina.
31. nunc : so. dum licet. Cf. 1. 9. 18. pellite : Tibull. 1. 5.
57, saepe ego temptavi curas depellere vino.
32. ingens : awfipova. In 2. 10. 9 /uaicpd, ; in 4. 9. 19 irt\<S>pios.
iterabimus : they had just returned from Troy. Cf. Odyss. 12.
293 for the formula.
ODE VIII.
Lydia, why wilt thou ruin Sybaris with thy love ? He no longer
witches the world with noble horsemanship, nor distinguishes him-
self in the manly sports of the campus. Is he hiding in woman's
dress like Achilles among the girls of Scyros ?
The names Lydia and Sybaris are perhaps symbolic of luxury
and effeminacy. Trans, by John Evelyn, imitated in Henry
Luttrell's Advice to Julia.
BOOK I., ODE VIII. 169
1-2. per te deoa: the usual order. Cf. G. L. 413. n. 2.
2. amando : by love, thine or his not distinguished. Cf. Verg.
Eel. 8. 71, rantando rumpitur anguis, by song.
4. campum : the Campus Martius by the Tiber. Cf. 3. 7. 26 ;
Epist. 1. 7. 59 ; 2. 3. 162, aprici gramint: campi ; Sat. 1. 6. 126.
patiens : He icho once bore so icell. With gen., as 3. 10. 20 ; Juv.
7. 33, pelagi patiens. Cf. Sat. 2. 2. 1 10, metuensque futnri.
aolis : so in Greek lit. the hardy man is ^A.jo>/tVos (Plat. Rep.
556. D ; Eurip. Bacchae, 457).
5. militares: among his soldier mates. Others, militaris (nom.),
like a soldier.
6. equitat : the indirect subj. is abandoned for the direct form.
6-7. Cf. 3. 7. 25; 3. 12. 8 ; 3. 24. 54 ; F. Q. 1. 7. 37, 'A goodly
person and could manage fair | His stubborn steed with curbed
canon bit'; Stat. Silv. 5. 2. 113 sqq. The Gaulish horses were
noted for their spirit. lupatis : jagged like a wolf's teeth. Cf .
Lex. s.v.
8. Tiberim: a swim naturally followed the exercises of the
campus. Cf. 3. 7. 27 ; 3. 12. 7 ; Sat. 2. 1. 7, Ter uncti \ Trans-
nanto Tiberim somno quibus est optis alto. olivum : the oil
used for anointing wrestlers.
9. sanguine, etc. : brachylogy for quam vital sanguinem. Cf.
4. 9. 50. For viper's blood as poison, cf. Epod. 3. 6.
10-12. He whose discus used to fly clear beyond the mark
(vTr(pnTa.To aripaTa iravra, Odyss. 8. 192) no longer displays ('wears,'
'sports') his arms black and blue from the bruises of the discus
and the javelin (anna campestria, A. P. 379. Cf. Epist. 1. 18. 54).
Cf. illust. in Harper's Class. Diet. s.v. Discus.
14-16. Thetis, aware of the fate that awaited him at Troy, con-
cealed Achilles in the garb of a girl among the daughters of
Lycomedes, King of Scyros. Odysseus placed arms among gifts
offered to the girls, and Achilles betrayed himself by seizing upon
them. The tale is post-Homeric. It perhaps originated in the
Cypria and Little Iliad, and was treated in a lost play of Sophocles
(V 2Kupt<m). Cf. Ov. Met. 13. 162, Praescia venturi genetrix
Nereia leti \ dissimulat cultu natum; Bion, Idyll 2. 15; Statius
Achill. 1. 325 sqq. ; Sir Thomas Browne, Urn Burial, 'What song
the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid
170 NOTES.
himself among women, though puzzling questions, are not beyond
all conjecture.' Cf. Sueton. Tib. 70, quod Achilli nomen inter
virgines fuisset.
13-14. marinae . . . Thetidis : cf. 4. 6. 6.
14. sub: towards (the time of). Cf. sub noctem, 1. 9. 19.
lacrimosa : 1. 21. 13. n.
15-16. funera: cf. Lucret. 5. 326, funera Troiae. For thought
that cities die like men, cf. Sulpicius (Cic. Fain. 4. 5), tot oppidum
cadavera; Tasso, Ger. Lib. 15. 20, 'muoj6no le citta' ; Gosse, Ballad
of Dead Cities; Lucian, Catapl. 23; Anth. Pal. 9. 151, 284; Pausan.
8. 33. cultus : garb, 4. 9. 15. The Lycians were the chief allies
of the Trojans.
ODE IX.
Winter and snow reign without. Let us enjoy a heaped hearth
and a jar of Sabine within. Permit the rest to heaven, and rejoice,
young man, in thy youth while thou inayest.
Cf . Epod. 13 ; Alcaeus, fr. 34 : "Yet f*fv 6 Zeuj, tic 8' bpa.vS> fit-yas \
Xeiytt^f, ireirdycKTiv 8' vSarcav poai. . . . K<iB&a\\f rliv x fl ^i'\ &rl M* 1 '
Ttffels | irvp, fv St Ktpvals olvov d(/>ei3a>j, etc.
Tenn. In Memoriam, 107 : ' Fiercely flies | The blast of North
and East, and ice | Makes daggers at the sharpen'd eaves | . . .
But fetch the wine, | Arrange the board and brim the glass ; [ Bring
in great logs and let them lie, | To make a solid core of heat ; | Be
cheerful-minded, talk and treat | Of all things ev'n as he were by.'
(Trans, by Dryden and by Cowper, omitting the last stanza.) Cf.
also Byron, Childe Harold, 4. 77 ; Victor Hugo, Apropos d' Horace ;
Congreve, Johnson's Poets, 10. 278, ' Bless me, 'tis cold, how chill
the air' ; ibid. 10. 421 ; Allan Ramsay's paraphrase, 'Look up to
Pentland's tow'ring tap.'
1. stet : stands out, looms up, conspicuous in its robe of white
through the clear winter air. Cf. 3. 3. 42 ; Munro on Lucret. 3. 1.
81 ; Verg. EC. 7. 53, Slant et iunipcri et castaneae hirsutae ; Aen.
6. 471 ; Goethe, 'Die Myrthe still und hoch der Lorbeer steht^ ;
Arnold, Obermann, ' The scented pines of Switzerland | Stand dark
round thy green grave.' nive candidum : cf. 3. 25. 10.
BOOK I., ODE IX. 171
2. Soracte: twenty -six miles north of Rome. Byron, Childe
Harold, 4. 74, ' Athos, Olympus, Aetna, Atlas, made | These hills
seem things of lesser dignity, | All, save the lone Soracte's height,
displayed | Not now in snow, which asks the lyric Roman's aid |
For our remembrance, and from out the plain | Heaves like a long-
swept wave about to break ' ; Macaulay, Regillus, ' White as Mount
Soracte | When winter nights are long.'
3. laborantes : cf. 2. 9. 7 ; there in the wind, here with the
load of snow.
4. constiterint : cf. Epist. 1. 3. 3, nivali compede vinctus ;
Thomson, Winter, ' An icy gale . . . arrests the bickering stream ' ;
Shelley, Sens. Plant. 3. 24 ; Ov. Trist. 5. 10. 1, Ut sumus in
Ponto ter frigore constitit Ister. It was cold in the Sabine hills,
but the Tiber rarely froze (Livy, 5. 13), and Horace is probably
merely following his Greek model. acuto : Verg. Georg. 1. 93,
penetrabile frigus ; Find. Pyth. 1. 20, x^ vos ofias.
5. dissolve: cf. 1. 4. 1, solvitur ; Shelley to Maria Gisborn,
' And we'll have fires out of the Grand Duke's wood, | To thaw the
six weeks' winter in our blood.' super: 1. 12. 6; 3. 8. 17, dif-
ferent. foco: Epod. 2. 43. The common fireplace in the atrium,
perhaps in the country something like an Adirondack bonfire place.
6. benignius : a<pfi.5fios, unstintingly. Contra, 1. 28. 23, ma-
liynus.
I. deprome : 1. 37. 5. With abl. unde. Here from the jar
rather than the apotheca. quadrimum : about the right age for
a cheap wine. Cf. 1. 20. 1 ; Theoc. 14. 16.
8. Thaliarche : master of the revels ; coined by Horace. It sug-
gests 8a\tas rbv apxovTa Or ffvjjiiroa(a.p\os. Cf. 1. 4. 18.
9. permitte: cf. Milton's, 'Live well, how long or short permit
to heaven ' ; Archil, fr. 51, TO?S deo'is n6e't(v~) avavra. cetera : cf.
3. 29. 33 ; Epod. 13. 7. simul (ac): so always in Odes. Cf. 1. 4.
17 ;. 1. 12. 27. In Satires and Epistles both simul and simul ac
occur. Cf. Keats, ' She looked at me as [if] she did love.'
10. stravere : cf. Tenn. Freedom, ' How long thine ever-grow-
ing mind | Hath stilled the blast and strown the wave.' So in
Greek, a-ropfwu^t. (Od. 3. 158), etc.
II. deproeliantes : with one another. Cf. 1. 3. 13 ; Verg. G.
1.318, Omnia ventorum concurrere proelia vidi ; Aesch. Prom. 1086.
172 NOTES.
13. Epicurean and Anacreontic commonplace : rb <rrifj.fpov ^Afi
Hot, | rb 8' aKpiov T(S olSev; Cf. 1. 11. 8 ; 2. 10. 25 ; 3. 29. 42 ; 4. 7.
17 ; Anth. Pal. 5. 72. fuge : i.e. noli. Cf. 2. 4. 22.
14. fors: Fors Fortuna.
14-15. lucro adpone : se< doicn to profit ; the language of book-
keeping. Cf. 2. 5. 15; Cat. 28. 8, refero datum lucello ; Ov. Trist.
1. 3. 68, in lucro est quae datur hora mihi and for thought, Epist.
I. 4. 13, Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum : \ Grata su-
perveniet quae non sperabitur hora.
16. puer : in thy youth. neque tu : recurs 4. 8. 4. Here tu
emphatic = <rvyt. Epist. 1. 2. 60 ; Tenn. Love and Duty, ' Should
my shadow cross thy thoughts . . . remand it thou." 1
17. virenti : sc. tibi. Cf. 4. 13. 6 ; Epod. 13. 4 ; Theoc. 14. 70,
27. 66 ; Ronsard, ' Antres, je me suis veu chez vous | Avoir jadis
verds les genous.' canities: 2. 11. 8 ; crabbed, sullen, eld.
18. campus et areae : the Campus Martius and the open
squares around temples and public buildings. Cf. Pater, Marius,
Chap. XI. sub fin., 'And, as the rich, fresh evening came on, there
was heard all over Rome, far above a whisper, the whole town
seeming hushed to catch it distinctly, the lively reckless call to
"play" from the sons and daughters of foolishness, to those in
whom their life was still green ' Donee virenti canities abest I
19. susurri : cf. vv\lois yiOtcav odpois (Anth. Pal. 16. 202. 2);
Tennyson's ' low replies ' ; Blandos audire susurros (Propert. 1.
II. 13).
20. Composita : of tryst.
22. risus : sc. repetatur, but the consciousness of the verb need
not be explicit. Cf. Pope, ' But feigns a laugh to see me search
around, | And by that laugh the willing fair is found.'
23. pignus : ' Frae her fair finger whop a ring, | As taiken of a
future bliss' (Allan Ramsay). lacertis : dat.
24. male : as neg. in normal prose with sanus only in Cic. G.
L. 439. n. 2. Said to intensify words of bad sense, and nullify
those of good sense. Cf. 1. 17. 25 ; Sat. 1. 4. 66 ; Cat. 10. 33.
Here faintly resisting or mischievously resisting, according to
point of view.
BOOK I., ODE X. 173
ODE X.
The praise of Mercury as the Greek Hermes, god of eloquence
(\6yios, facundus'), of athletics (tvay&vios), messenger of the gods
(Sta/cropos), patron of thieves (icAe'n-TTjs), helper (tpiovvios), wielder of
the golden wand and shepherd of the shades (xpiWp/ioTm ^"X~
TTO^iTTOs).
On Greek gods in Horace, cf. Sellar, pp. 161-162.
1. The Pleiads were daughters of Atlas, and 'of the eldest of
those stars of spring Maia ... is born the shepherd of the
clouds, wing-footed and deceiving, blinding the eyes of Argus,
escaping from the grasp of Apollo, restless messenger between
the highest sky and topmost earth, the herald Mercury, new
lighted on a heaven-kissing hill' (Kuskin). Cf. Alcaeus, fr. 5,
\cupt KuAAavas fa /ue'Sets <re yap juoi \ QV/J.OS t/jucrjf, rbv Kopvfyais tv aitrais \
Ma?a ffwa.ro KpoviSa fiiyfura. Simon., fr. 18 (27); Eurip. Ion, 1;
Martial, 7. 74. 1 ; Ov. Fast. 5. 663.
2. feros cultus : cf. Tenn., ' These were the rough ways of the
svorld till now.' recentum : early, i.e. ' recent ' from their origin.
3. voce ; ' I gave man speech, and speech created thought,' says
Shelley's Prometheus. Before language men were mutum et turpe
pecns (Sat. 1. 3. 100). cat us : an archaic word. Cf. 3. 12. 10.
et decorae : cf. 3. 14. 7. Grace and beauty come from gym-
nastic exercises.
4. more : habit, practice.
6. parentem : cf. ' father of chemistry and cousin of the Earl
of Cork.' Cf. on 1. 21. 11 ; 1. 32. 14 ; 3. 11. 3.
7. callidum . with complementary inf. Cf. 3. 11. 4, and collet,
4. 9. 49 ; Epist. 1. 10. 26. iocoso : fj.d\a ySeiai a! K\owal rov Oeov
(Philost. Imag. 1. 26).
8. furto Eurip. (?) Rhesus, 217, <pri\-nTcev &va ; Longfellow,
Masque of Pandora, ' by thy winged cap | and winged heels I know
thee. Thou art Hermes | captain of thieves.' Cf. Shelley's ex-
quisitely funny version of the Homeric Hymn to Hermes.
9-12. Cf: Dobson, A Case of Cameos, ' Here great Apollo with
unbended bow, | His quiver hard by on a laurel tree, | For some
new theft was rating Mercury, | Who stood with down-cast eyes
174 NOTES.
and feigned distress | As daring not for utter guiltiness, | To meet
that angry voice and aspect joined. | His very heel-wings drooped ;
but yet not less | His backward hand the sun-god's shafts pur-
loined.' reddidisses : the threat implied by minaci would run
in the direct form nisi reddideris. Dum terret is equivalent to a
secondary tense for the sequence.
11. viduus : i.e. (to see himself) bereft of. Cf. Gk. Lex. s.v.
12. risit: had to laugh. Cf. 3. 11. 22.
13. quin et : a rather prosaic transition. Cf. 2. 13. 37 ; 3. 11. 21.
Priam's stealthy visit to the Greek camp by night, under the con-
duct of Hermes, to kiss the murderous hands of Achilles, and ran-
som the body of Hector, is told in one of the most touching episodes
of the Iliad, 24. 159 sqq.
14. dives : perhaps with special reference to the rich ransom
he bore (11. 24. 232).
15. iniqua : a metrically convenient word freely used by Horace
in various shades of meaning. Cf. 1. 2. 47 ; 2. 10. 4 ; 2. 4. 16 ; 2.
6. 9 ; 3. 1. 32. Troiae : dat. of course.
17. reponis : bringest to their appointed place. For force of re,
cf. 1. 3. 7 ; 1. 9. 6. But cf. Sen. Dial. 6. 19. 5, mors . . . quae
nos in illam tranquillitatem in qua antequam nasceremur iacuimus
reponit. The idea then would be that pious souls are restored to
the Elysium from which they were taken at birth. Cf. Verg. Aen.
6. 756 sqq.
18. sedibus : abl. virga : the caduceus, Kypvufiov, pdBSos
(Hym. Herm. 529) ; ' The golden wand that causes sleep to fly |
Or in soft slumber seals the wakeful eye ; | That drives the ghosts
to realms of night or day, | Points out the long uncomfortable way '
(Pope's Odyssey, 24. 1-4) ; ' His sleepy yerde in hand he bore
upright, | And hat he wered upon his haires bright' (Chaucer) ;
' The serpent-wanded power | Draw downward into Hades with
his drift | Of flickering spectres ' (Tenn. Demeter) ; Verg. Aen.
4. 242. In Find. O. 9. 35, Hades has a similar staff. coerces:
as a shepherd his flock. Cf. 1. 24. 18.
BOOK I., ODE XI. 175
ODE XL
Have done with unlawful pryings into futurity, Leuconoe. Live
while you live. Old time is still a-flying.
Cf. Dobson's Villanelle, ' Seek not, O maid, to know, | Alas !
unblest the trying, | When thou and I must go ' ; George O. Tre-
velyan's amusing parody, ' Matilda, will you ne'er have ceased |
Apocalyptic summing, | And left the number of the beast | To
puzzle Doctor Gumming?' There is a weak imitation in Dodsley,
4. 105, and a poor version by Hamilton, Johnson's Poets, 15. 635.
For the beautiful choriambic metre, cf. 1. 18, 4. 10, Catull. 30,
Sappho, fr. 68 (19), and Swinburne's metrical experiment, 'Love,
what ailed thee to leave life that was made lovely, we thought,
with love ? '
1. quaesieris : ne with perf. subj. is a more peremptory col- \ /.^U^c
loquial prohibition than ne with present subj., or the normal polite ,. ^
periphrasis with noli. Between Terence and Livy it is found only ^
in distinctly colloquial passages in Cicero and four times in Horace.
Elmer, Latin Prohibitive, pp. 3, 19. scire nefas : cf. Lucan,
1. 127 ; Stat. Theb. 3. 563 ; infra, 4. 4. 22 ; Epode 16. 14 ; 3. 29.
32.
2. nee : Elmer, Lat. Prohib. p. 27, says that Horace is the first
poet to use nee with perf. subj. in clearly prohibitive sense following
ne. Neve or neu was normal. It will be observed that nee temptaris
is virtually a mere expansion of ne quaesieris, and adds nothing
new; temptaris = temptando. Cf. Munro on Lucret. 5. 891.
3. numeros : the calculations of Chaldaean astrologers, called
mathematici. Cf. on 2. 17, and Tac. Hist. 1. 22. ut melius :
how much better. Cf . Sat. 2. 6. 53 ; Verg. Aen. 2. 283. quid-
quid erit : cf. Verg. Aen. 5. 710, quidquid erit, superanda omnis
fort tin a ferendo est.
4. hiemes : the years are marked by summers or winters to
suit the rhetorical color. Cf. Tenn., 'A hundred winters snowed
upon his breast.' tribuit: hasassif/ned; eS<aicei>, tirtK\taafv.
5. debilitat : breaks the force of. Cf. Lucret. 2. 1155, fluctus
plangentis saxa. pumicibus : any wave-eaten stone. Cf. Verg.
Aen. 5. 214; Lucret. 1. 326, vesco sale saxa peresa.
176 NOTES.
6. liques: i.e. strain out the sediment through the colum or
colander. spatio brevi : abl. abs. of reason, because of the
briefness of our span.
7. spem longam : cf. 1. 4. 15, the 'long thoughts' of youth;
'quittez le long espoir et les vastes pens^es.' Cf. Cowley, Short-
ness of Life, ' Horace advises very wisely, and in excellent good
words, spatio brevi spem lonyam reseces ; from a short life cut off
all hopes that grow too long. They must be pruned away like
suckers that choke the mother-plant, and hinder it from bearing
fruit.' dum loquimur : cf. Persius, 5. 153, vive memor leti,
fugit hora, hoc quod loquor inde e.st; Longfellow, ' Wisely the
Hebrews admit no present tense in their language ; | While we
are speaking the word, it is already the past'; Boileau, 'Le
moment ou je parle est de"ja loin de moi.' fugerit: will be gone.
Cf. Lucret. 3. 915, iamfuerit; Milton, 'Fly, envious time, till thou
run out thy race ' ; Fitzgerald's Omar Khayyam, 7, ' The Bird of
time has but a little way | To nutter and the Bird is on the wing.'
invida : that grudges to grant the prayer of happy youth, 'O
temps, suspends ton vol,' etc. (Lamartine).
8. carpe diem : catch as it flies or pluck the flower of. Cf.
Martial, 7. 47. 11, vive velut rapto fuyitivaque gaudia carpe;
But 3. 27. 44, carpere flores ; Juv. 9. 12(i, flosculus angustae mi-
seraeque brevissima vitae Portio. The two points of view blend
in Tennyson's ' They lost their weeks ; they vexed the souls of
Deans | . . . And caught the blossom of the flying terms.' For
the general Epicurean sentiment, cf. Epist. 1. 4. 13 ; 1. 11. 23 ; Eurip.
Alcest. 782; Ecclesiastic. 14. 14. credula : cf. Epist. 1. 4. 13;
Fitzgerald's Omar Khayyam, ' To-morrow ! why, to-morrow I may
be | Myself with yesterday's seven thousand years' ; Trevelyan,
'And book me for the fifteenth valse: there just beneath my
thumb, | No, not the next to that, my girl ! The next may never
come.'
ODE XII.
What man, what hero, what god shall we sing, Clio, while
echo repeats his name in the fabled haunts of the Muses ? Of gods,
the All-father first, then Pallas, Diana. Liber, Phoebus. Of heroes,
BOOK I., ODE XII. 177
Hercules, Castor, Pollux. Of men, Romulus and the worthies
whose virtues and sacrifices built up the Empire of Rome. Bright-
est in the constellation of glory shines the Julian star. Augustus,
conqueror of the Orient, reigns on earth the vicegerent of Jove in
heaven.
The date seems fixed by 1. 46 to some time between the death
of Marcellus, in B.C. 23, and the announcement of his marriage to
Julia, which took place B.C. 25.
Translated by Pitt, Johnson's Poets, 12. 381.
1. quern virum, etc. : taken from Pindar's riva. 8t6i>, rtv 9ip<aa,
riva 8' ai>5pz Ke\a8riffo/j.fi> ; (O. 2. 2). The attempts to trace further
a spiritual resemblance between the two odes are fanciful. We
might as well compare Sir Charles Williams' poem, The States-
man, because of its beginning, ' What Statesman, what hero, what
King, | Whose name thro' the island is spread, | Will you choose,
oh, my Clio, to sing, | Of all the great living, or dead ? ' heroa :
demigod. lyra is Greek, tibia Roman, but we need not press the
distinction. acri : Quintil. 8. 2. 9. cites the epithet as aproprium.
Cf. ' ear-piercing fife. ' Aryei'j;, II. 9. 186.
2. sumis : so sumite materiem (A. P. 38 ; Epp. 1. 3. 7). cele-
brare : cclebrandum in normal prose. G. L. 421. 1. b. Clio was
later the Muse of history. But Horace uses the names of the
Muses freely on the principle of the Alexandrian poet, Rhianus,
iraffai 5' flcraiovffi, fjnTJs ore r otjvo/j.a Ae|eiy. Cf. On 1. 24. 3.
3. recinet : 3. 27. 1.
3-4. iocosa . . . imago : cf. 1. 20. 6. Imago alone may = TJX >
Varro, R. R. 3. 16. 12 ; Verg. G. 4. 50, saxa sonant vocisque offensa
resnltt imar/a ; Lucret. 4. 571, imagine verbi. Cf. Words. Power
of Sound, ' Ye voices and ye shadows and images of voice.' On
echo, cf. further, Ov. Met. 3. 356; Eurip. Hec. 1111; Soph.
Philoctet. 186; Aristoph. Thesm. 1059; Daniel, 'Echo, daughter
of the air, | Babbling guest of rocks and hills' ; Shaks. Twelfth
Night, 1. 5, 'And make the babbling gossip of the air | Cry out
Olivia ' ; Shelley, Adonais, 15.
5. oris : cf. 2. 9. 4 ; the hem, border, or edge ' where Helicon
breaks down in cliff to the sea.' Horace is thinking of the Boeo-
tian or Hesiodic school of poetry, and there are touches that sug-
N
178 -NOTES.
gest the vision of the Muses in Hes. Theog. 1-10 sqq., so exquisitely
imitated in the last song of Callicles, in Arnold's Empedocles.
6. Pindo : Verg. Eel. 10. 11. Haemo : the earlier Thracian
seat of the worship of the Muses, and the tradition of Orpheus.
Cf. Verg. G. 2. 488, 0, qui me gelidis convallibus Ifaemi \ sistat.
7. temere : blindly, in mad rout; 2. 11. 14.
8. Orphea : a symbol of the charms of music ' to soothe a sav-
age breast, | To soften rocks or bend a knotted oak.' Cf. Simon,
fr. 40; Aeschyl. Ag. 1629; Eurip. Bacchae, 562; Iph. Aul. 1211,
etc. ; Anth. Pal. 7. 8; Apoll. Rhod. 1. 26; Ov. Met. 11. 44-46;
Hor. Epp. 2. 3. 392 ; Shaks. Henry VIII. 3. 1, M. of V. 5. 1 ;
Dry den, St.. Cecilia, 'Orpheus could lead the savage race, | And
trees unrooted left their place | Sequacious of the lyre' ; Tenn.
Amphion ; Dobson, A Case of Cameos, Sardonyx ; Words. Power
of Music. Cf. also on 1. 24. 13; 3. 11. 13.
9. materna : Calliope ; Verg. Eel. 4. 57. Cf. fraterna, 1. 21. 12.
morantem : 3, 11, 14, morari. Cf. 'Thyrsis, whose artful strains
have oft delayed | The huddling brook to hear his madrigal,'
Milton, Comus ; Sen. Here. Fur. 577, ars quae praebuerat flumini-
bus moras ; Verg. Eel. 8. 4.
10. lapsus: cf. Milton's 'liquid lapse of murmuring streams,'
and his ' smooth -slid ing Mincius ' ; Horace's labitur et labettir ;
Epode 2. 25, labuntur.
11. blandum: cf. 1. 24. 13 ; 3. 11. 15 ; 4. 1. 8 ; Propert. 1. 8. 40,
blandi carminis obsequio. auritas : Tyrrell, Latin Poetry, p.
184, says that ' long-eared oaks ' is a ' strange deviation from the
lyrical manner.' Cf. Verg. G. 1. 308, auritos lepores. But cf.
Plaut. Asin. Prol. 4, face mine iam . . . omnem attrition poplum ;
Manilius, 5. 322, et sensus scopulis et silvis addidit anres ; Milton,
' that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard | In Rhodope where
woods and rocks had ears | To rapture.' fidibus canoris : Verg.
Aen. 6. 120, Threicia fretus cithara fidibusque canoris.
13. solitis : the customary ab love principium (Verg. Eel. 3. 60),
the tK Aibs apx<a/*ftrOa. of Greek poetry ; Arat. Phaen. 1 ; Find.
Nem. 2. 1. parentis: 2. 19. 21; Arnold, Empedocles, 'First,
hymn they the father | Of all things ; and then, | The rest of
immortals, | The action of men' ; Hesiod, Theog. 16-18. Cf. 3. 4.
45 ; Verg. Aen. 1. 230.
BOOK I., ODE XII. 179
15. mundum: the universe, and more specifically the heavens.
Cf. Munro on Lucret. 1. 73.
16. temperat : governs, preserves the harmonious order of. Cf .
3. 4. 45 ; Epp. 1. 12. 16 ; Propert. 4. 4. 26, quis deus hanc mundi
temperat arte domum; Ovid, cited on 1. 49; Thomson, Spring,
'And temper all, thou world-reviving sun, | Into the perfect year' ;
Pausan. 1. 40. 4. horis: seasons. Cf. 3. 13. 9; A. P. 302.
17. unde : ex quo. Cf. 1. 28. 28 ; 2. 12. 7 ; Sat. 1. 6. 12 ; 2. 6.
21. So the Deity in Milton, ' For none I know | Second to me or
like, equal much less.'
18. secundum : cf. Quintil. 10. 1. 53, ut plane manifesto
apparent quanta sit aliud proximum esse, aliud secundum; i.e.
close following (sequor). Cf. Verg. Aen. 5. 320. Hence tamen
is to be taken closely with proximus.
19. occupavit = obtinet. Some read occupabit.
20. Pallas : she is in Homer second only to Zeus. Hesiod says
her power is equal to her sire's, Theog. 896. In Aeschylus
(FAimen. 826) she boasts that she alone knows the keys of the
chambers of the thunder-bolt. Cf. Callim. Hymn 5. 132-133.
21. proeliis audax is a possible epithet of Liber conceived as
the Greek Bacchus (cf. 2. 19. 28), and balances inimica and
metuende if so taken rather than with Pallas. But the position of
neque is unusual.
22. Cf. on cohibentis arc?*, 4. 6. 34 ; Theog. 11, "Apre/ju 8ripo<p6vrj.
virgo : voc.
23-24. certa . . . sagitta : cf. Catull. 68. 113. Byron, Childe
Harold, 4. 161, 'The lord of the unerring bow,' with which he
slew the Python ; Ov. Met. 1. 438 sqq.
25. Alciden : Hercules. Cf. Lexicon. So in English poetry,
' Young Alcides when he did redeem | The virgin tribute paid by
howling Troy,' Shaks. M. of V. 3. 2. puerosque Ledae: II. 3.
237, KdiTTOpd 6' iiriroSafj.oi' Kal TTI>{ aya&bv no\vdevKea } Sat. 2. 1. 26,
Castor gaudet equis, ovo prognatus eodem \ pugnis.
27. quorum : when their. simul (c) : 1. 9. 9.
27-28. alba . . . stella : cf. on 1. 3. 2.
28. refulsit : cf. on 2. 17. 23.
29-32. Cf . Theoc. 22. 15 ; note position of verbs : back from the
rocks streams down die the winds away flee the clouds. Cf.
180 NOTES.
Tenn. Locksley Hall, ' Droops the heavy-blossomed bower, hangs
the heavy-fruited tree.' agitatus humor : wind-blown spray, or
'wind-shaked surge' (Othello, 2. 1).
30. concidunt: cf. Verg. Aen. 1. 154, sic cunctus pelagi cecidit
fragor.
31. et : joins (29 + 30) to 31, 32. sic voluere : parenthetical
formula of submission to or recognition of the inscrutable divine
power. Cf. 1. 33. 10 ; II. 1. 5. Some read sic di.
32. recumbit : Sen. Thyest. 589, mitius stayno pelagus recumbit.
33. quietum : the peaceful reign of Numa Pompilius established
the religious and civil traditions of Rome. Cf. Livy, 1. 21. 6.
35. Tarquini . . . Catonis : the last king and the last republican.
Proud rule of Tarquin = rule of Tarquin the Proud Superbus.
Cf. Cic. Phil. 3. 9, Tarquinius . . . non crndelis . . . tied superbus
habitus est et dictus. His reign was splendid on the whole, despite
its disgraceful close. Macaulay, Virginia, ' He stalked along the
Forum like King Tarquin in his pride.' dubito : the throng of
great memories crowds on the soul of the bard. Cf. Verg. Aen.
6. 842-845 ; Gray, The Bard, ' Visions of glory, spare my aching
sight.'
36. nobile letum : his suicide at Utica, which gave him the
epithet Uticensis, and made him the idol of declaimers. Cf. on
2. 1. 24.
37. Regulum : cf . on 3. 5. 13 sqq. Scauroa : Niebuhr says he
never could understand why Horace placed Scaurus in this roll of
honor. See the character of M. Atinilius Scaurus, Sail. Jug. 15.
Cicero often praises him. Cf. Juv. 11. 90. The reference is per-
haps to the story of M. Scaurus, lumen ac decus patriae (Valer.
Max. 5. 8. 4), whose stern rebuke to his son for joining the rout in
the defeat of Catulus by the Cimbri drove the young man to suicide.
38. L. Aemilius Paullus sought voluntary death on the field of
Cannae (B c. 216), lost by the rashness of his colleague in the con-
sulship, Terentius Varro. Cf. Livy, 22. 49. For prodigum, cf.
Ov. Am. 3. 9. 64, sanguinis atque animae prodige Galle tnae.
39. gratus: possibly in grateful memory, or merely pleasing.
Cf. Martial, 4. 55. 10, grata non pudeat referre versu. insigni :
in lofty strain, or quae reddit insignes. Cf. 3. 25. 7, dicam insigne.
camena: cf. Lexicon, s.v. ; 2. 16. 38 ; 3. 4. 21 ; 4. 6. 27 ; 4. 9. 8.
BOOK I., ODE XII. 181
40 sqq. Cf. Milton, P. R. , ' Canst thou not remember | Quin-
tus, Fabricius, Curius, Regulus? | For I esteem those names of
men so poor, | Who could do mighty things.' The constancy of
Fabricius, whom King Pyrrhus' gold could not seduce nor his ' big
beast ' terrify, is in all the copy books. Cf . Cic. de Off. 3. 22 ;
Plut. Pyrrhus. For M' Curius Dentatus, consul 275, who defeated
Pyrrhus at Beneventum, cf. Macaulay, cited on Epode 9. 24.
Camillus took Veii and delivered Rome from the Gauls (390).
The names of all three were proverbial to point a moral. Cf. Otto,
Sprichworter der Homer, s.v. Cf. Martial, 1. 24. 3 ; Juv. 2. 3.
41. incomptis : Quintil. (9. 3. 18) quotes this line. There were
no barbers at Rome till after B.C. 300. intonsis is read. Cf. on
2. 15. 11.
42. utilem : belongs to all these names. Cf. Eurip. Suppl. 887,
ir6\fi wapaffx^f <ru>fj.a xp^^ 1 ^ " Of\tt ; Ov. Met. 14. 321, utilium
bello . . . equorum ; Soph. Ajax, 410.
43. paupertas : cf. 3. 2. 1 ; 3. 24. 42. apto : the dwelling
matches the modesty of the little ancestral farm.
45. pcculto . . . aevo: cf. Shakspeare's 'unseen, yet crescive
in his faculty ' ; Anth. Pal. 7. 564. 3, aviaia-roio xp^voto ; Ov. Met.
10. 519, labitur occulte fallitque volatilis aetas. Nauck, however,
takes it of a tree whose roots go back to unknown antiquity,
Kiessling of growth towards an unknown future ! For the com-
parison of tree and family, cf. Find. Nem. 8. 40.
46. Horace, like Vergil (Aen. 6. 860), blends the name andfame
of M. Claudius Marcellus, who took Syracuse B.C. 212, with that
of the young Marcellus, son of Octavia, husband of the emperor's
daughter Julia, whose premature death B.C. 23 was so much de-
plored. Cf. Propert. 4. 17. 15 ; Gardthausen, 2. 399 sqq. micat :
cf. Ov. Trist. 5. 3. 41, sic micet aeternum vicinaque sidera vincat.
47. luliutn sidus : cf. Verg. Eel. 9. 47, ecce Dionaei processit
Caesaris astrum. A comet appeared after the death of Julius
Caesar. Cf . Pliny, N. H. 2. 93. Gray, Ode for Music, ' The star of
Brunswick smiles serene, | And gilds the horrors of the deep.'
ignes : 'Doubt that the stars are fire,' says Hamlet; 'cold fires,'
Tennyson calls them.
48. minores: Epode 15. 2. Cf. Sir H. Wotton, 'You common
people of the skies, | What are you, when the moon shall rise ' ?
182 NOTES.
Cf. Claudian's expansion of the image, In. Prob. et Olybr. Con.
22 sqq. ; Sappho, fr. 3 ; Bacchylides, 9. 28.
49 sqq. Jupiter in heaven, Augustus on earth. Cf. Ov. Met.
15. 858, luppiter arces \ temperat aetherias et mundi reyna tri-
formis : \ Terra sub Augusta : pater est et rector uterque. custos :
4. 5. 2 ; 4. 15. 17.
53-55. seu . . . sive : marking divers alternatives that lead to
one conclusion. Cf. 4. 2. 10 ; 1. 1. 27 ; 1. 4. 12 ; 1. 16. 3 ; 2. 3. 5 ;
1. 7. 20 ; 2. 14. 11 ; 2. 17. 17 ; 3. 4. 22 ; 3. 21. 2.
53. imminent es : cf . on 3. 6. 9.
54. egerit : the captives preceded the chariot of the triumphator.
Cf. on 4. 2. 34. iusto : legitimo, fairly earned.
55. subiectos . . . orae : beneath the margin of the eastern
sky, or simply along the farthest eastern shore. Cf. Tenn. T iresias,
'All the lands that lie | Subjected to the Heliconian ridge.'
56. Cf. 1. 2. 22. n.; 4. 15. 23 ; 3. 29. 27; 4. 14. 42.
57. minor: 3. 6. 5.
59. parum castis : desecrated, polluted, by homicide or other
crime. The stroke of the lightning was sufficient proof of the fact
and required expiation (Preller- Jordan, 1. 193).
ODE XIII.
Jealousy. When thou praisest Telephus, Lydia, I turn pale,
I weep, I burn. Deem them not pledges of a lasting love ' the
ravenous teeth that have smitten | Through the kisses that blossom
and bud.' These violent delights have violent deaths. Blest is the
tie that truly binds, unbroken to the end.
Translated by Blacklock, Johnson's Poets, 18. 216.
1. Telephi : the angry repetition has the effect of a direct quota-
tion of her fond iteration. Cf. on 1. 35. 15, and Plato, Symp. 212.
D ; Sat. 1. 6. 45. For name cf. 3. 19. 26 ; 4. 11. 21.
2. roseam: Verg. Aen. 1. 402, rosea cervice ; Tenn. Princess,
'the very nape of her white neck | was rosed,' etc. cerea: ap-
parently of the smooth even texture of the flesh. But Ovid uses
wax as type of whiteness (A. A. 3. 199; Ex Pont. 1. 10. 28).
BOOK I., ODE XIII. 183
Lin-tea has been read. Cf. ' faite de cire a l'e"gard des bras,' Me"m.
de Grammont (Munro, Eng. J. Phil. 11. 336).
4. difficili : variously referred to the unpleasantness of the bile,
or the moroseness of the bilious person. Perhaps the idea is that
of Juvenal's difficili crescente cibo (Sat. 13. 213) and Shakspeare's
' digest the venom of your spleen. 1 tumet iecur : cf. on 4. 1. 12.
In Homer, II. 9. 646, olSou'erai KpaMr) x^V> Archil, fr. 131, assigns
gall to liver; but in Sat. 2. 3. 213, Hor. writes vitio tumidum est
cor.
5. color: cf. Homer's rpfirfrat xpu*'* Eurip. Alcest. 174; Apoll.
Rhod. 3. 297 ; Propert. 1. 15. 39, multos pallere colores.
6. manet: cf. on 1. 3. 36. Some read manent after nee nee,
citing Cic. Fin. 3. 21. 70. in geuas : cf. 4. 1. 34.
8. quam : with penitiis. Cf. 2. 13.21. leutis: slow-consum-
ing. Cf. 3. 19. 28 ; Tibull. 1. 4. 81.
9. uror resumes iynibus. candidos : cf. on 2. 5. 18.
10. immodicae : cf. modici, 1. 18. 7. mero : abl. cause.
11. rixae : cf. on 1. 17. 25 ; Propert. 3. 7. 19.
12. dente: like Catull. 8. 18, Tibull. 1. 6. 14, and the heroes of
Swinburne, Telephus, in Lowell's phrase ' finds refuge from an in-
adequate vocabulary in biting.'
13. satis : idiomatic. Cf. 3. 15. 7.
14. perpetuum : a constant lover. dulcia barbare: cf. on
1. 6. 9.
15. oscula : kisses and lips need not be distinguished.
16. quinta parte : p*erhaps merely a goodly portion, as the
Greeks said that honey was the ninth part of ambrosia ; possibly
an allusion to the quintessence or W^wm) ovala of the Pythagoreans,
which, of course, has nothing to do with the essences that ' turn
the live air sick ' of the perfumer.
17. ter et amplius : cf. 1. 31. 13.
18. inrupta: unbroken = unbreakable for poetry. Cf. 1. 24. 7.
copula: the yoke of love an appriKros 5eo>o'y. Cf. on 1. 33. 11.
Hence solvet below.
20. citius . . die: cf. on 1. 8. 9,
184 NOTES.
ODE XIV.
The Ship of State : navem pro re publica, fluctus et tempesta-
tes pro bellis civilibus, portum pro pace et concordia (Quintil.
8. 6. 44).
Sellar (p. 122) thinks the poem coincident with Epode 7. It
might have been written at any time before the final establishment
of the empire. It is idle to carry the allegory into every detail of
the ode. As Professor Tyrrell wittily says : ' Horace no more had
in his mind the Mithridatic wars when he wrote Pontica pinus
than Tennyson thought of the Wars of the Roses when he wrote
in the Talking Oak "She left the novel half uncut upon the rose-
wood shelf." '
For image of Ship of State, cf. Alcaeus, fr. 18; Theog. 671;
Plato, Rep. 488 A ; Aeschyl. Septem. 1 ; Jebb on Soph. Antig. 16-'! ;
Longfellow's Ship of State ; William Everett, Atlantic Monthly,
1895; Speech of Maecenas, Dio. 52. 16.
The ode has been prettily translated by Dobson as a 'Ballade, 1
'Ship to the roadstead rolled' ; by Calverly ; Gilbert West, Dods-
ley's Poems, 2. 293; paraphrased by Swift, Johnson's Poets, 11.
451 ; cf. Ode sur la situation de la Re'publique, 1794, Marie Joseph
Che'nier.
1. in mare : ancient sailors hugged the shore. Cf. 2. 10. 1-4.
2. occupa : i.e. anticipate, ^flai/eic, the storm. Cf. Epist. 1. 6.
32, cave ne portus occupet alter. Cf. Milton's 'like a weather-
beaten vessel holds | gladly the port.'
3. vides ut: 1. 9. 1 ; 3. 10. 5-8. For one verb used of both
sight and sound, cf. Verg. Aen. 4. 490 ; Aeschyl. Prom. 21-22.
4. nudum : we may ' understand ' sit rather than strain gemant
by zeugma. remigio : cf. remigioque carens (Ov. Met. 8. 228).
5. saucius: cf. volnerata navis, Livy, 37. 24. 8; Herod. 8. 18;
and Longfellow, Wreck of the Hesperus, ' But the cruel rocks, they
gored her side | Like the horns of an angry bull. 1
6. funibus : uiro^ufj.ara, undergirding (Acts 27. 17; Plato, Rep.
616. C).
7. durare : Verg. Aen. 8. 577, durare laborem. carinae :
timbers.
BOOK I., ODE XV. 185
8. imperiosius : may this have suggested Shakspeare's ' In
cradle of the rude imperious surge ' ?
10. di : images of tutelary divinities at the stern. They have
been washed away. Cf. Ov. Trist. 1. 4. 8, et pictos verberat undo,
deos; Lucan, 3. 512; Verg. Aen. 10. 171 ; Pers. 6. 30.
11. Pontica : the Poutus was famed for ship-timber (Catull.
4.9-1:}).
1-2. filia : cf. Catull. 64. 1, Peliaco quondam prognatae vertice
pinus ; Martial, 14. 90. 1, silvae filia Maurae (of a table).
13. inutile : unavailing. Cf. on 3. 24. 48.
14. pictis : Ov. Met. 0. 511, at simul imposita est pictae Philo-
mela carinae. Cf. Verg. Aen. 7. 431, 8. 93; Sen. Ep. 76. 10.
navita: 1. 1. 14.
14-15. Unless thou art destined to be the sport of the winds,
beware. Cf. Verg. Aen. 6. 75, rapidis ludibria ventis.
15. tu: cf. 1. 9. 16. n.
17. From sheer weariness and disgust at civil strife, Horace has
passed to anxious solicitude for the prosperity of the new empire.
' Ship of the State before | A care and now to me | A hope in
my heart's core' (Dobson).
19-20. A pretty picture at the close. Cf. 3. 28. 14, fulgentes
Cycladas ; Verg. Aen. 3. 126, sparsasqne per aequor Cycladas ;
Browning, Cleon, ' the sprinkled isles, | Lily on lily, that o'erlace
the sea ' ; Dyer, The Gods in Greece, p. 365. There is a faint con-
trast between their white beauty and the danger. Cf. Wreck of
Hesperus, ' She struck where the white and fleecy waves | Looked
soft as carded wool. '
ODE XV.
Nereus, the wise old man of the sea (Hes. Theog. 233 ;
Pind. Pyth. 3. 92 ; Apoll. Rhod. 4. 771), becalms Paris, re-
turning from Sparta with Helen, in order to predict the doom
of Troy.
Cf. F. Q. 4. 11. 19, 'Thereto he was expert in prophecies, | And
could the ledden (language) of the Gods unfold ; | Through which,
when Paris brought his famous prize, | The fair Tindarid lass, he
him foretold | That her all Greece with many a champion bold |
186 NOTES.
Should fetch again, and finally destroy | Proud Priam's town : so
wise is Nereus old.'
In this, perhaps youthful, experiment, Horace attempts, as
Quintilian says of Stesichorus, to support the weight of an epic
theme on the lyre. We cannot verify Porphyrio's statement,
Hac ode Bacchyliden imitatiir, nam ut 'ille Cassandram facit
vaticinari futura belli Troiani, ita hie Proteum (probably a slip
for Nerea. Some eds. read Proteus in 1. 5). An extant frag-
ment of Bacchylides warns the Trojans of the unfailing justice
of Zeus who sitteth on high. Cf. further the imitation of Sta-
tins, Achill. 1. 20 sqq. , and the Cassandras of Schiller and George
Meredith. For the Voyage of Paris, cf. Hdt. 2. 117 ; II. 6. 290,
where he returns by way of Sidon ; Andrew Lang, Helen of
Troy, 3. 23 sqq. There is an imitation by Tickell in Dodsley's
Poems, 1. 30. With 9 sqq., cf. Campbell, Lochiel's Warning.
1. pastor: nef/s 6 jSoiWAos- (Eur. Iph. A. 180). Cf. Bion, 2.
10 ; Verg. Aen. 7. 363, Phrygius pastor ; Spenser, Shep. Cal. July,
4 But nothing such thilk shepherd was, | Whom Ida hill did bear, |
That left his flock to fetch a lass | Whose love he bought too dear.'
traheret: sc. apw^as (II. 3. 443).
2. Idaeis : the poets picturesquely treat the pines of Ida of
which the ships of Paris were built as the cause of all the woe.
Cf . Eurip. Hec. 631 ; Tenn. CEnone, ' They came, they cut away
my tallest pines.' perfidus hospitam : cf. 1. 6. 9. n. ; 3. 3. 26,
famosus hospes ; Propert. 3. 32. 7, hospes in hospitium Menelao
venit adulter ; Eurip. Tro. 866, ^evairdrrts ; Aesch. Ag. 401; II.
13. 624.
3. ingrato : the winds favored the lovers ; or as celeres (1. 12.
10) hate otium, ' Like us the Libyan wind delights to roam at large '
(Arnold) ; or the epithet suggests the feelings of Paris.
4. caneret: of prophecy. Cf. C. S. 25; Sat. 1. 9. 30; Epod.
13. 11.
5. avi : cf. 3. 3. 61 ; 4. 6. 24 ; Epod. 10. 1 ; Cat. 61. 20. So the
Greeks, ' An ox or an ass that may happen to pass, | A cry or a
word by chance overheard, I If you deem it an omen you call it a
bird' (Aristophanes, Birds, 719 sqq. Frere).
6. repetet : 'fetch again.' In Ov. Her. 15. 369, Paris assures
BOOK I., ODE XV. 187
Helen, aut igitur nullo belli repetere tumultu, \ aut cedent Marti
Dorica castra meo.
7. coniurata: at Aulis, Verg. Aen. 4. 425; Eurip. I. A. 50.
Cf. Ov. Met. 12. 5, qui rapta longmn cum coniuge bellum \ attulit
in patriam : coniurataeque seqituntur \ mille rates; Milton, 'The
third part of heaven's sons | Conjur'd against the highest.'
rumpere : a slight zeugma, dissolve and evertere. Cf. Sen.
Here. Fur. 79, Titanas ausos rumpere imperium lovis.
8. vetus : Priam was the sixth king. Cf. Aesch. Ag. 710,
Upiauov ir6\is yepaid ; Verg. Aen. 2. 363, urbs antiqua ruit.
10. sudor : cf. II. 2. 390, iSpdvf t 8 rtv 'Uwos ; Stat. Theb. 3. 210 ;
Val. Flac. 5. 288. quanta : rhetorically stronger than quot.
moves : dost stir, begin, cause. Dardanae = Dardaniae ; cf.
Romulae, C. S. 47.
11. aegida: the storm-cloud of Zeus (II. 4. 167) and his shield,
explained by popular etymology as the skin of the goat Amalthea
(and now again by the whirligig of Science as the skin of the
theanthropic goat), and worn with the Gorgon's head attached to it
by Athene as shield or breastplate. II. 5. 738 ; Eurip. Ion, 996 ;
Verg. Aen. 8. 354, 435 ; Milt. Comus, ' What was that snaky-
headed Gorgon shield, | That wise Minerva wore,' etc.
12. rabiem : for wrath as a weapon, cf. Aristoph. Birds, 401-
402, Wasps, 243. For union of abstract and concrete, cf. II. 4.
447; Ov. Met. 2. 146 and passim; Tac. Ger. 1, Germania ... a
Gallia . . . mutuo metu aut montibus separatur, and passim.
13. Veneris praesidio : he awarded her the apple. Cf. Tenn.
(Enone ; II. 3. 54. 64 sqq. ferox : trusting in.
14. caesariem : II. 3. 55 ; Odes, 4, 5. 14, crines.
15. imbelli : 1. 6. 10. divides: does this mean dividing the
strain between the voice and the instrument ? or is it simply the
division into measured times that belongs to all music ? Cf. Shaks.
Hen. IV. 1. 3. 1, ' Sung by a fair queen in a summer bower, | with
ravishing division to her lute ' ; Rom. and Jul. 3. 5, ' Some say the
lark makes sweet division ' ; Carew, ' For in your sweet dividing
throat | She [the nightingale] winters and keeps warm her note ' ;
Milton, The Passion, ' My muse with angels did divide to sing ' ;
F. Q. 3. 1. 40, ' And all the while sweet music did divide ) Her
looser notes with Lydian harmony.' Cf. fne\i(fiv.
188 NOTES.
16. thalamo : as in II. 3. 382.
17. spicula : 3.28.12. Cnosii: Cretan archers renowned. Cf.
Verg. A en. 5. 306.
18. strepitum : the din of battle. Cf. 1. 2. 38, clamor. celerem
sequi : epexegetic inf. Cf. 11. 14. 520, 'Oi'Arjos TO.XVS vios, as dis-
tinguished from Telainonian Ajax.
19. tamen: resumes ncquiquam, etc. heu: objectively, a sigh
for the doom, not of sympathy for the person. serus: adj. for
adv. Cf. xfl'Co'y, U- 1- 424. So frequently, serus (1. 2. 45)
mututinus, vespertinus, and even hodiernus (Tibull. 1. 7. 53).
19-20. adulteros crines : for transfer of epithet, cf. Eurip. Tro.
881, rrjs [juat<pov<aTa.T-r\s no/Ays fTria"!rd(7avTs ', Tenn. Prin., ' Melissa
shook her doubtful curls.' Cf. -1. 37. 7. n. ; 3. 1. 17; 3. 2. 16;
3. 5. 22.
20. pulvere collines: cf. II. 3. 55; Find. Nem. 1. 68; Verg.
Aen. 12. 99, foedare in pulvere crines \ vibratos calido ferro mur-
raque madentes.
21. Laertiaden : Ulysses' theft of the Palladium determined
the fall of Troy. Cf. Epp. 1. 2. 18.
21-22. exitium . . . genti : so Ka5jueioni/ ij\e6pov (Hes. Theog.
326). Cf. Eurip. Troad. 811. Some read yentis. Cf. nostri generis
exitium (Sen. Here. Fur. 358).
22. respicis : expresses both the warrior's furtive glance at the
pursuing foe, and the ancient conception of future time overtaking
us from behind. Cf. Verg. Aen. 8. 697 ; II. 1. 343, oniaw ; Find.
0. 10. 8.
24. Teucer: 1. 7. 21. te : cf. 1. 35. 5; 3. 21. 13; 4. 1. 39;
4. 14. 42, etc. Some Mss. read et instead of repeated te.
Sthenelus : charioteer of Diomede. He boasts, ' we are better
than our sires ' (II. 4. 405).
24-25. scie.ns pugnae : utixn* e " el8<as. Cf. II. 5. 549 ; 3. 9. 10 ;
and rudls agminum, 3. 2. 9.
25. sive : as if sive had preceded. Cf. 1. 3. 16. But it is really
an afterthought, vel si reproducing Homer's Kal Wi xph (Odyss.
9. 50).
26. Merionen: 1. 6. 15.
27. furit . . . reperire : furit is a strong volt, hence the inf.
Cf. Menelaus raging in quest of Paris (II. 3. 449).
BOOK I., ODE XVI. 189
29. cervus uti : sc. furjit. in altera ; other of two, i.e. on
opposite side, across. Cf. Term., 'As the lone hern ... lets
down its other leg.'
31. sublinii . . . anhelitu : transferred from deer to Paris by
the usual blending of the comparison and the thing compared.
Sublimi may refer to the uplifted head. Cf. in Lady of the Lake,
the 'Antler'd monarch of the waste' who 'Toss'd his beam'd
frontlet to the sky,' and Landseer's 'Monarch of the Glen.' Or
it may mean the 'shallow breathing of fear' (James' Psychology).
Cf. Eurip. Here. 1092; Apoll. Rhod. 2. 207, l vTrdroio <rHj0fos
ait-n-vtvaas ; O. W. Holmes, ' Fancying that her breathing was
somewhat hurried and high or thoracic.' Cf. juere'wpos.
32. tuae : to thy light o' love. For Paris' boasts of his prowess
to Helen, cf. Ov. Her. 15. 355-364.
33-36. ' The angry fleet of Achilles shall defer ' is the concrete
Latin way of saying that the wrath of Achilles prolonged the war.
33. diem : so ' day' in the prophets (Isa. 13. 6 ; Ps. 87. 7).
35. post certas : e<rcrerai ?ifj.a.p brav, when the predestined ten
years have elapsed.
36. Note ignis, trochaic instead of spondaic base. Hence some
read Pergameas.
ODE XVI.
The scholiasts call this poem an imitation of the ira\tva>tiia of
Stesichorus to Helen (cf. Epode 17. 42-44), cited in Plato Phaedr.
243 A. It is variously inscribed to Tyndaris, Gratidia, or Canidia.
The mock-heroic tone is too playful for a serious recantation of the
attack on the witch Canidia in Epodes 5 and 17 ; and the whole
may be a mere exercise in verse writing.
Daughter more lovely than thy lovely mother, burn or drown my
abusive iambics. No frenzy of Corybant or heat of pale-mouthed
prophet so shakes the soul as anger. Prometheus put the fury of
the lion in our hearts. By that sin fell Thyestes and many a
towered city. I, too, in my sweet youth was led astray by the fever
of the blood. But now I recant. Be my friend, and restore me
my peace of mind.
There is a coarse imitation in Johnson's Poets, 11. 457.
190 NOTES.
1. A familiar quotation. Cf. Ov. Met. 4. 210, quam mater cunctas
tarn matrem filia vicit.
2. modum : cf. 1. 24. 1 ; 3. 15. 2 ; Cic. Verres. 2. 2. 118, modum
et finem facere. The phrase seems intentionally ambiguous, ' put
an end to,' or ' set bounds to ' the excesses of.
3. iambis: cf. A. P. 79, 251 ; Epist. 1. 19. 23 ; Quint. 10. 1. 9,
scriptores iamborum. Horace calls the Epodes iambi ; but no
extant Epode is meant here. pones is a colloquial permissive
imperative, so to speak.
4. Hadriano : poetic specification. Cf. 1. 1. 14 ; 2. 13. 8,
etc.
5-8. Dindymene : Catullus' domina Dindymi (a mountain in
Phrygia), the great mother of the gods Cybele or Cybebe, whose
orgiastic rites are described in Lucret. 2. 600 sqq. Cf. Swinburne,
' Out of Dindymus heavily laden | Her lions draw bound and un-
fed | A mother, a mortal, a maiden, | A queen over death and the
dead ' ; Wordsworth, Processions, ' And a deeper dread | Scattered
on all sides by the hideous jars | Of Corybantian cymbals, while
the head | Of Cybele was seen sublimely turreted ' ; Plato, Symp.
215. adytis : felt as a foreign word, as the spelling with y shows ;
Caesar, B. C. 3. 105, quo praeter sacerdotes adirefas non est quae
Graeci aSura appellant.
6. incola : with adytis, the god who dwells in his shrine there,
the Pythian Apollo. Cf. Verg. Aen. 6. 77 sqq. ; Pind. O. 7. 32,
fvudfos e aSvrou ; Catull. 64. 228, incola Itoni, i.e. Athene.
7. Liber : cf. on 2. 19. 5.
8. sic geminant : with this reading the clause is parenthetic and
out of the main construction ; the Corybantes do not so wildly
clash cymbal on cymbal, as angry passions disturb the soul.
Reading si with Bentley ; when (if) the Corybants clash, etc.
(they do not so shake the soul as angry passions). geminant:
cf. Lucret. 2. 636, pulsarent aeribus aera; Stat. Theb. 8. 221,
gemina aera sonant. Cf. Southey's, ' And the double double peals
of the drum are there | And the startling burst of the trumpets'
blare.' Corybantes: priests of Cybele. Cf. on 5; and Plato,
Ion, 533 E. Huxley defined the Salvation Army as Corybantic
Christianity.
9. tristes . . . irae : cf . Verg. Eel. 2. 14, tristes Amaryllidis iras.
BOOK I., ODE XVI. 191
Noricus : cf. Epode 17. 71 ; Ov. Met. 14. 712, durior et ferro quod
Noricus excoyuit iynis.
10. naufragum : cf. navem fregit, was shipwrecked : Verg. Aen.
3. 553, navifragum ; Tenn. Maud, 3, ' Listening now to the tide in
its broad-flung shipwrecking roar.'
12. luppiter: cf. on 1. 1. 25. n.; Epode 13. 2. ruens : for the
Ciirli ntiiia, cf. 3. 3. 7, and Zevs KaTaiBdrijs.
12-16. Prometheus is the maker of man in Plato's Protagoras
and Lucian's Prometheus. But the fancy that the original clay
gave out and that he was forced to take back a portion from every
animal in order to finish man is peculiar to Horace. For the moral,
cf. Emerson, History, ' Every animal of the barnyard, the field, and
the forest . . . has contrived to get a footing, and to leave the print of
its features and form in some one or other of these upright, heaven-
facing speakers.' Construe fertur coactus (esse) addere et apposu-
isse, or possibly, fertur, coactus addere, apposuisse et (= etiam) ;
the construction fertur addere et apposuisse would be a dubious
coupling of present and perfect. principi limo : Mr. Churton
Collins compares Apoll. Rhod. 4. 674, wporepris e| i\vos. Cf. Soph.
Pandora, fr. 441, KOI irpHiTov apxov (&pxv?y irri\bt> bpydfeiv x f P^ 1 '-
14. undique : cf. Epist. 2. 3. 3.
15. insani leonis : cf. 3. 29. 19 ; Lucret. 3. 296-298.
16. stomacho : cf. on 1. 6. 6.
17. irae: cf. Seneca De Ira, 1. 2; Landor, 'Strong are cities:
rage o'erthrows 'em, | Rage o'erswells the gallant ship. | Stains it
not the cloud-white bosom, | Flaws it not the ruby lip ? '
Thyesten : The banquet of Thyestes, whose own sons were served'
up to him by his brother Atreus, was typical of the horrors of Greek
tragedy. Cf. on 1. 6. 8 ; Epode 5. 86.
18. altis : cf . on 4. 6. 3. ultimae : furthest back, and hence
first. Cf. Catull. 4. 15, ultima ex origine.
19. stetere: in prose exstitere, a stronger fuere. Cf. Verg. Aen.
7. 553, stnnt belli causae,
20. funditus : KUT oR-prjs, from turret to foundation stone.
21. aratrum : Propert. 4. 8. 41, moenia cum Graio Neptunia
pressit aratro \ Victor ; Jeremiah 26. 18, ' Zion shall be plowed
like a field' ; Young and Burns, 'Ruin's plowshare.' insolens;
in the pride of victory. Cf . on 1. 5. 8 ; Epod. 16. 14.
192 NOTES.
22. compesce mentem : curb your temper. Cf. Odyss. 11. 562,
tdfuurov 5e fj.lvos ; Kpist. 1. 2. 63.
23. temptavit : as a disease. Cf. Epist. 1. 6. 28. dulci : cf.
Tennyson's Gama : ' We remember love ourselves iu our sweet
youth.'
24. Cf. on 3 ; A. P. 251, pes citus ; Catull. 36. 5, truces vibrare
iambos ; Anth. Pal. 7. 674, es \vfffftavras ld/j.Bovs ; Waller, 'To one
who wrote against a fair lady: "Should thy iambics swell into a
book | All were confuted with one radiant look." '
25. mitibus : either- the abl. as here or the ace. as in 1. 17. 1-2,
may be the tiling to which the change is made with mutare. Cf.
A. G. 252. c ; G. L. 404. n. 1 ; H. 422. n. 2.
28. animumque reddas : cf. Ter. Andria, 333, reddidisti ani-
mum, my peace of mind. Others, thy heart, favor. Cf. 1. 19. 4.
ODE XVII.
Faunus oft exchanges his Lycaean mountain for my Sabine
farm. He keeps my flocks from harm. The gods cherish the
pious bard. Come, Tyndaris : here while the dog-star rages thou
wilt enjoy the cool shade and cups of mild Lesbian, nor fear
drunken brawls and the boisterous wooing of jealous Cyrus.
Translated in Dodsley's Poems, 2. 278.
1. Lucretilem : monte Gennaro, above the Saline farm, for
which, cf. Epode 1. 31. n.
2. mutat: cf. on 1. 16. 26; 2. 12. 23; 3. 1. 47. Italian Faunus
is here the mountain-ranging (opfifltirris) Lycaean Pan. Cf. on 3.
18, and Ov. Fast. 2. 424, Faunus in Arcadia templa Lycaeus habet.
3. capellis : cf . Verg. Eclog. 7. 47, solstitium pecori defendite.
4. usque: poetic for semper, like ' still ' in English. Cf. 2.9. 4;
2. 18. 23 ; 3. 30. 7 ; 4. 4. 45.
5. impune and tutum are two sides of the same fact, suggested
again in deviae : they may venture to stray in quest of pasture.
6. latentes : amid the thick growth of shrubbery.
7. 'The harem of the rank spouse,' an 'ill phrase' according to
Professor Tyrrell. Cf. Vergil's vir gregis, Eel. 7. 7 ; Theoc. 8. 49 ;
BOOK I., ODE XVII. 193
Martial, 9. 71. 1-2, pecorisque maritus lanigeri. Milton's cock
' stoutly struts his dames before.' ' There in his feathered seraglio
strutted the lordly turkey' (Longfellow).
8. virides : cf. ' Lo ! the green serpent from his dark abode '
(Thomson, Summer).
9. Martiales : the wolf is the associate of Mars for Romans.
Cf. Verg. Aen. 9. 566 ; Macaulay, Proph. of Capys, 17. haediliae :
' kids ' is the meaning wanted. There is doubt about the form.
Some take it as a proper name. Cf. Lex.
10. utcumque : whensoever, as soon as, when once. Cf. 3.4.29 ;
1. 35. 23; 2. 17. 11; 4. 4. 35; Epode 17. 52. fistula: the pipe
of Pan (fftptyt; cf. Verg. Eel. 2. 32; Tibull. 2. 5. 31) heard by
the imaginative shepherds of Lucretius, 4. 586 : et genus agricolum
late sentiscere quom Pan \ . . . unco saepe labro calamos percurrit
Mantis \ fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere musam. Mart. 9. 61.
12. Cf. Mrs. Browning's ' What was he doing, the great god
Pan ? ' dulci : ' listening to thy sweet pipings ' (Shelley, Hymn
of Pan).
11. cubantis : sloping, if Ustica is a. local hill, as Porphyrio
says. Others, low lying, rifitvca iv x^pf (Theoc. 13. 40).
12. levia : cf. \iaads . . . irfrpz. (Aeschyl. Suppl. 794).
14. For the idiom cordi est alicui, cf. Lex.
14-16. Construe copia opulenta rtiris honorum benigno cornu
tibi manabit. For legend of horn of plenty, cf. Class. Diet. s.vv.
Achelous and Amalthea ; Ov. Met. 9. 86 ; Fast. 5. 115. Cf. also
C. S. 60 ; Epist. 1. 12. 29 ; Otto, p. 94; Tenn. Ode Duke of Well.,
'and affluent fortune emptied all her horn.' benigno: cf. 1.
9. 6. n.
16. honorum : cf. Sat. 2. 5. 13, et quoscunque feret cultus tibi
fundus honores ; Stat. Theb. 10. 788, veris honor; Epode 11. 6;
Spenser, Muiopotmos, 'gathered more store | Of the field's honor.'
It is a commonplace of 18th century poetry.
17. reducta valle : cf. Epode 2. 11 ; 2. 3. 6, in remoto gramine;
Verg. Aen. 6. 703, in valle reducta; Keats, 'Deep in the shady
sadness of a vale.' Caniculae : Procyon, 3. 29. 18 ; but not dis-
tinguished from Sinus. Cf. 3. 13. 9 ; Aeschyl. Ag. 967.
18. fide Teia : abl. instr. ; of Anacreon. Cf. 4. 9. 9 ; Epode 14.
10 ; Byron's, ; The Scian and the Teian muse | The hero's harp, the
o
194 NOTES.
lover's lute.' For imitations of Anacr. or the Anacreontic tone,
cf. 1. 6. 10. 20 ; 1. 23. 1-4 ; 1. 20. 1-2 ; 1. 27 ; 2. 11. 13-24 ; 2. 7. 28 ;
3. 19. 18 ; 4. 12. 28.
19. laborantes in : cf. Catullus' love-sick Ariadne, in flavo
saepe hospite suspimntem (64. 98). uno : Odysseus.
20. The story of the Odyssey (10. 272 sqq.). vitream : cf. 3.
28. 10 ; 4. 2. 3 ; 3. 13. 1 ; Stat. Silv. 1. 3. 85, vitreae iuya perfida
Circes; Browne, Britannia's Pastorals, 2. 1, 'But of great Thetis'
train | Ye mermaids fair | That on the shores do plain | Your sea-
green hair ' ; Collins, Ode to Liberty, ' To him who decked with
pearly pride | In Adria weds his green-haired bride.'
22. duces: wilt quaff. Cf. 3. 3. 34; 4. 4. 17. sub umbra:
1. 32. 1. Cf. 1. 5. 3, sub antro.
22-23. Semele and Thyone (0.W, Find. Pyth. 3. 99, Horn.
Hymn, Dion. 21) were both names of the mother of Bacchus.
The Latin poets loved to use sonorous Greek proper names in a
decorative way. Cf. Catull. 27. 7, hie merus est Thyonianus.
Cf. Vergil's Phillyrides Chiron Amythaoniusque Melampus ;
Georg. 3. 550.
23-24. confundet . . . proelia : cf. Taparretv ir6\tiu.ov ; miscere
proelia ; incendia miscet, Aen. 2. 329 ; Lucret. 5. 439 ; Milton's
'there mingle broils.' For such irapoivix, cf. 1. 18. 8 ; 1. 27. 1-2.
25. Cyrus recurs 1. 33. 6. male here reinforces the adj. Cf.
on 1. 9. 24. suspecta : a hint that she may have given him
cause for jealousy.
26. incontinentes : cf. 1. 13. 9-10. The Roman elegists not
infrequently express mock repentance at having torn their ladies'
dress. Cf. Ov. Am. 1. 7. 3; Propert. 2. 5. 21; Tibull. 1. 10. 56;
Lucian, Dial. Mer. 8 init. ; Anth. Pal. 5. 248.
27. haerentem : Sat. 1. 10. 49, haerentem capiti cum multa
laude coronam.
28. immeritam : unoffending. Cf. 1. 28. 30 ; 2. 13. 12 ; 3. 6. 1 ;
Sat. 2. 3. 7 ; Juv. 10. 60 ; Aen. 3. 2. So wdbos. Cf. Rich. III. 2. 1,
' That all without desert have frowned on me.'
BOOK I., ODE XVIH. 195
ODE XVIII.
Plant your vines, Varus. Wine is the only dispe^ler of care.
But shun the excesses of the Centaurs and the wild Thracians,
and the blind self-love and vainglory that follow the abuse of
Father Liber's gifts.
Varus is probably the Quintilius (Varus) of 1. 24, and the
Quintilius praised as a faithful literary critic, A. P. 438. For
praise of wine, cf. 3. 21. For Bacchus, cf. 2. 19 ; 3. 25.
1. Modeled on Alcaeus' fr. 44 in same meter, ^Sfv <%\\o <pvTev<rris
Trpdrepov StvSpiov a/j.irf\<a. sacra : to Bacchus. severis : cf. on
1. 11. 1.
2. circa: with solum and moenia a slight zeugma. mite:
rarum, a light soil adapted to the vine (Verg. G. 2. 227-229).
Catili : for Catilli. Cf. on 1. 7. 13 ; 2. 6. 5.
3. siccis : cf. Epist. 1. 19. 9 ; the opposite of uvidus, 4. 5. 39.
dura : predicatively.
4. mordaces: SaKfOvpoi, 0vfj.oB6poi. Cf. 2. 11. 18 and Milton's
'eating cares'; Verg. Aen. 1. 261. aliter: sc. than by use of
wine (Eurip. Bacch. 278 sqq.). diffugiunt: Wine is 'The mighty
Mahmud, Allah-breathing Lord, | That all the misbelieving and
black Horde | Of Fears and Sorrows that infest the soul | Scatters
before him with his whirlwind sword ' (Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat, 60).
Cf. Alcaeus, dlvov \a0 KoiSea.
5-6. Cf. on 3. 21. 13-20. ' Wine is a charm, it heats the blood
too, | Cowards it will arm if the wine be good too ; | Quickens the
wit and makes the back able, | Scorns to submit to the watch or
constable' (Dekker and Ford, The Sun's Darling).
5. post vina : cf. 3. 21. 19, post te. For plural, cf. 4. 5. 31.
gravem : i.e. the hardships of. crepat : cf . Sat. 2. 3. 33 ;
Epist. 1. 7. 84; 2. 3. 247; prates, rattles on, irarayt'i, understood
by a very slight zeugma with the next verse too.
6. Bacche pater : cf. 3. 3. 13 ; Epist. 2. 1. 5, Liber pater ; Verg.
G. 2. 4 ; Ion. Eleg. 1. 13, wdrep Ai6wfft. The Greek Bacchus was
ever young, but pater is not an epithet of age. It is a half humor-
ous, half reverential recognition of the god's gifts. Cf. Villon,
' Pere Noe" qui plantastes la vigne ' ; Herrick, Hesp. 320, ' Sit
196 NOTES.
crowned with rosebuds and carouse | Till Liber pater twirles the
house.' decens: cf. 1. 4. 6.
7. at : the other side of the picture. Recent editors generally
read ac, and yet, with many Mss. Ac ne is perhaps not sufficiently
adversative here. modici : the epithet is transferred from the
use of the gift to the giver. transiliat: cf. 1. 3. 24. munera
Liberi occurs 4. 15. 26. Cf. Bacchylides' Aiowaioun Swpois ; Verg.
G. 2. 5.
8. Centaurea . . . rixa : the strife arose out of the assault of
the drunken Centaurs on the bride Hippodamia at the wedding of
Pirithous, king of the Lapithae. Cf. 2. 12. 5 ; Ovid, Met. 12. 219
sqq. ; F. Q. 4. 1. 23 : ' And there the relics of the drunken fray, |
The which amongst the Lapithees befell : | And of the bloody feast,
which sent away | So many Centaurs' drunken souls to hell ; '
Arnold, The Strayed Reveller. It was represented in the
metopes of the Parthenon. oJvos nal Kfvravpov (Odyss. 21. 295)
was proverbial. Cf. Anth. Pal. 11. 1; Callim. 62. 3. super
mero : both Horace and Vergil use this abl. for more usual ace.
Cf. 1. 9. 5 ; 1. 12. 6 ; 3. 1. 17 ; Eclog. 1. 80 ; Aen. 6. 203.
9. Sitboniis: poetic specification for Thracian. Cf. 3. 26. 10;
1. 27. 2 ; 1. 36. 14 ; 2. 7. 27. This misuse of wine is imputed to the
severity of the god in the harsher northern clime. Cf. Pater,
Greek Studies, p. 40. Euhius : from evoT. Cf. on 2. 19. 5, and
Lucretius, 5, 743. The orgiastic appellations Euhius and Bassareu
are aptly used when the darker side of the deity is emphasized
rather than the friendliness of Liber pater.
10-11. ' When in their greed they distinguish right and wrong
only by the narrow line which their desires leave between them.'
The line is untranslatable. For the general thought, cf. Arnold's
' whom what they do | Teaches the limits of the just and true ' ;
Shaks. Tim. of Athens, 5. 5, ' making your wills the scope of
justice ' ; Dyer, ' Some weigh their pleasure by their lust,' etc.
11. non ego te : recurs 1. 23. 9; 4. 12. 22. candide : 'bright
god of the vine' (Martin). Cf. Epode 3. 9; Ov. Fast. 3. 772;
Tibull. 3. 6. 1. But cf. Epode 14. 5. n. Bassareu: from the
foxskin, Qao-ffdpa, from which the Bassarids = Maenads took their
name. Macrobius (Sat. 1. 18. 9) speaks of a bearded Bacchus
under this name. Cf. Class. Review, 10. 21.
BOOK I., ODE XIX. 197
12 sqq. The thought ' I will not abuse the gifts of Bacchus,' is
clotht-d in imagery borrowed from his mystic rites. For the con-
cealing leaves and the affected mystery of Bacchic orgies, cf.
Theoc. 26. 3 ; Catullus, 64. 259, 260 ; Tibull. 1. 7. 48.
13. sub divum : cf . 1. 1. 25 ; 3. 2. 5 ; 2. 3. 23. saeva : harsh,
appalling. Saeva sonoribus anna (Verg. Aen. 9. 651). tene:
check, hush. Berecyntio: the Berecynthian horn belonged to
the worship of Cybele (Lucret. 2. 619), but was transferred to that
of Dionysus also. Cf. Catul. 64. 264 ; Eurip. Bacchae, 78 ; cf. 3. 19. 18.
14. caecus : Eigeuliebe macht die Augen triibe. Sen. Ep. 109.
16, quos amor sui excaecat.
15. plus nimio : this colloquialism, in Cicero nimio plus, recurs
1. 33. 1; Epist. 1. .10. 30. Nimio is abl. of measure. gloria:
vainglory. Cf. miles gloriosus, and the famous French epigram,
'ci-git le glorieux a c6te de la gloire.' So in older English,
'Laughter is a sudden glory' (Hobbes).
16. fides prodiga : we may say that fides is a vox media, or call
it an oxymoron, like Tennyson's ' Faith unfaithful kept him falsely
true.' Cf. 3. 24. 59, and 1. 5. 5. per | lucidior : cf. on 2. 12. 25.
vitro : cf. 3. 13. 1 ; 1. 17. 20. For the thought, cf. the proverbial olvos
KO.I a\r)6fia and Karoirrpav eldovs %aA(cos &TT', olvos 8e vov, Aesch. fr.
393 ; Alcaeus, fr. 53, 57.
ODE XIX.
I thought passion's reign was ended, but the imperious mother
of the loves resumes her sway and suffers me to sing of naught but
Glycera, whose bright beauty fires my heart. Quick ! an altar of
turf and a victim to propitiate the resistless goddess.
Imitated by Congreve, Johnson's Poets, 10. 278.
1. Repeated 4. 1. 5. Cf. Find. fr. 122. 4, parep' 'Vp&rwv. The
' Loves ' as attendants on Venus belong rather to the prettinesses
of later Greek poetry and art. But cf. Aeschyl. Suppl. 1043 ;
Bion. Epitaph. Adon. 80 sqq. ; Catull. 3. 1 ; Stat. Silv. 1. 2. 61 ;
Claud.de Nupt. Honor. 72 ; Tenn. 'a bevy of Eroses apple cheeked.'
2. Semelae puer : Bacchus, cf. 1. 17. 22. Some read Greek
gen. Semeles.
3. Licentia : vfipis, 'Love's wantonness.'
198 NOTES.
4. finitis : i.e. as I thought. animum reddere : cf. 1. 16. 28.
5. urit : cf. Verg. Eclog. 2. 68, urit amor. Glycera recurs, 1.
30. 3, 1. 33. 2. nitor : cf. 1. 5. 13 ; 2. 5. 18 ; 3. 12. 6.
6. Pario marmore : cf. Verg. Aen. 3. 126, niveamque Paron;
Ov. Fasti, 4. 135, marmoreo . . . collo ; Theoc. 6. 38; Browning,
'great, smooth, marbly limbs.'
7. grata protervitas : her pretty pertness ; her eye that ' sounds
a parley to provocation ' (Meleager, \anvpots o^ao-i ; Anth. Pal.
5. 180. 2).
8. lubricus adspici : i.e. slippery to the eye as ice to the foot.
Cf. Tenn. Lucret. 'And here an Oread how the sun delights |
To glance and shift about her slippery sides ' ; Dante, Purg. 8. 34,
' ma nelle facce 1' occhio si smarria ' ; Milton, II Pens. ' whose saintly
visage is too bright | To hit the sense of human sight,' P. L. ' His
countenance too severe to be beheld.' Somewhat differently, Suck-
ling, The Bride, ' But, Dick, her eyes so guard her face, | I durst no
more upon them gaze | Than on the sun in July.' Cf . also \nrap6rfts
o/j./j.drtav ; Tenn. The Day Dream, 'Turn your face | Nor look with
that too earnest eye | The rhymes are dazzled from their place.'
9. ruens : Cf. Eurip. Hippol. 443, Kvwpis yap ov (poprirAs })v TTO\\^
pvf.
10. Scythas : cf. 2. 11. 1; vaguely like Massagetae, Geloni,
Thraces, Dad, Medi, Persae, Parthi. Cyprum : cf. on 1. 30. 2.
11. versis . . . equis : for proverbial Parthian flight, cf. 2. 13.
18 ; Verg. G. 3. 31. animosum makes a slight oxymoron.
12. quae nihil attinent : not ipsam, but absolutely 'uncon-
cerning things.' ' What have we to do | With Kaikobad the
Great, or Kaikhosru ? ' As Keats says, ' Juliet weaning tenderly
her fancy doth more avail than these.'
13. vivum . . . caespitem : cf. 3. 8. 4.
14. verbenas : any herb or green sprig used in religious rites.
Cf. 4. 11. 7. tura : 1. 30. 3 ; 1. 36. 1 ; 3. 8. 2, etc.
15. bimi : new wine was used (cf. 1. 31. 2) unmixed with water,
men'.
16. veniet : cf. supra, 9, ruens; Eurip. Medea, 630, el 5' a\is
t\0oi Ki'mpis. mactata . . . hostia is perhaps vaguely used for
sacro peracto. Tac. Hist. 2. 3. 5, speaks of sacrifices to the Paphian
Venus, but even there the blood was not permitted to defile her altar.
BOOK I., ODE XX. 199
ODE XX.
Come, Maecenas, and quaff cheap Sabine ordinaire bottled by me
the day the Vatican hill reechoed the plaudits of the people wel-
coming you back to the theater after your illness. You may drink
Caecuban and Calenian at home. The wines of Falernus and For-
miae do not qualify my cups.
1. modicis : of quality, not size. Cf. Epp. 1. 5. 2, nee modica
cenare times olus omne patella. Sabinum : ' le vin du pays,' but
not from his own farm (Epp. 1. 14. 23).
2. Graeca . . . testa : perhaps to give it a smack of the richer
Greek wine, perhaps only an allusion to the tasteful Greek jar.
3. levi: oblevi ; sealed, sc.pice. Cf. 3. 8. 10.
4. plausus : about B.C. 30. Cf. 2. 17. 25.
5. care : cf. dilecte, 2. 20. 7 ; amice, Epode 1. 2. paterni : the
Etruscan Tiber. Cf. 1.1.1; 3. 7. 28 ; Sat. 2. 2. 32.
7. The echo of applause from Pompey's theater in the Campus
Martins was returned from the Vatican (or adjoining Janiculum)
hill on the other side of Tiber. The topographical improbability
of such an echo does not require us to pronounce the poem a for-
gery. Cf. Shaks. Jul. Caes. 1. 1, ' Have you not made an univer-
sal shout, | That Tiber trembled underneath her banks, | To hear
the replication of your sounds, | Made in her concave shores ? '
Cf. also Plat. Rep. 492 B ; F. Q. 1. 6. 8, ' far rebounded noise.'
Note Vaticani; elsewhere i.
8. imago : 1. 12. 3. n.
9-10. For the periphrasis and metonymy, cf. Tenn. ' The foam-
ing grape of Eastern France ' = Champagne ; ' Such whose father
grape grew fat I On Lusitanian summers ' = Port.
10. tu bibes : cf . introduction to ode. The passage has been
endlessly vexed. Some read turn bibes, i.e. you shall drink better
wine after the Sabine, but you must not expect the best (Falernian,
etc.) from me. The antithesis is imperfectly expressed, and the
ode is not a masterpiece, but there is no real difficulty. Lines 11
and 12 repeat the general idea, ' I have no choice wines,' with fresh
examples. But cf. Munro, Eng. J. Phil. 3. 349.
11. temperant: qualify (Epode 17. 80). The wines were mixed
with water. The vines and hills that yield the wines are personified.
200 NOTES.
ODE XXI.
A song for youths and maidens in honor of Apollo and Diana,
as averting deities, a\f'ucaKoi.
The occasion is unknown. Possibly the first celebration of the
Actian games, B.C. 28 ; or the poem may be a sketch of a carmen
saecMlare for the proposed earlier celebration of the secular games,
B.C. 23. For motif, cf. Cat. 34. 1, Dianae sumus in fide.
1. Diaiiam : the quantity of the i varies. Cf. 3. 4. 71 ; 2. 12. 20 ;
C. S. 70. tenerae . . . virgines : cf. 4. 1. 26.
2. intonsum: Milton's 'unshorn Apollo,' 'A/cfipe/c^ur/s ; Find.
Pyth. 3. 14 ; II. 20. 39 ; levis, 4. 6. 28 ; Tibull. 1. 4. 37, solis ae.ti'rna
est Phoebo Bacchoque iuventa, \ nam decet intonsns crinis utrum-
que deum. Cf. Epode 15. 9 ; Calliin. Hymn. Apoll. 38.
3. Latonam : as mother of Apollo and Diana.
4. dilectatn : so with dat. (2. 4. 18). penitus : x-npSOt.
5. vos : sc. virgines. laetam, etc.,"ApTe,uis wora/nia and Aipvans ;
Diana nemorensis. Cf. Catull. 34. 9, montium domina ut fores \
silvaritmqtte virentium \ saltuumque reconditorum \ amniinnque
sonantum ; Milton, Comus, 'And she was queen of the woods.'
nemorum coma : cf. 4. 3. 11 ; 4. 7. 2 ; II. 17. 677 ; Odyss. 23. 195,
aneKotya K^n-riv ravv<f>v\\ou Aanjs ; Soph. Antig. 419 ; Eurip. Alcest.
172; Catull. 4. 10, comata silva ; Tenn., omitted stanza in Am-
phion, ' The birch-tree swang her fragrant hair, | The bramble cast
her berry ' ; Swinburne, Erechth. 1146, ' Fields aflower with winds
and suns, | Woods with shadowing hair' ; Milton, P. L. VII., 'bush
with frizzled hair implicit ' ; Ronsard, ' ta forest d'orangers, dont la
perruque verte | De cheveux eternels en tout temps est couverte.'
6-8. Cf. Swinburne, Erechth., 'all wildwood leaves | The wind
waves on the hills of all the world '; II. 2. 632, Nrjprroc flvo(riq>v\\nv ;
Pind. Pyth. 1. 28, Afrvay tv /j.f\a./LKpv\\ois . . , Kopu<f>dis ; Ar.
Clouds, 279-280, ty-r)\Siv o/><W Kopu<f>as fin $ev5poK<i/j.ovs ; Catull.
4. 11-12 ; Thomson, Winter, ' forest-rustling mountain.'
6. gelido : cf. nivali, 3. 23. 9. Algido : a haunt of Diana.
Cf. C. S. 69 ; 4. 4. 58.
7. nigris : 4. 4. 58; 4. 12. 11. So Juv. Sat. 3. 54 renders
\os by opacus. Cf. 2. 2. 15. n. Erymanthus: rat. in
BOOK I., ODE XXII. 201
Arcadia ; Artemis there (Odyss. 0. 103) ; 6 SepSpoK^urjs 'Epvnat>0os
(Anth. Pal. 5. 19. 5).
8. viridis : the ligliter green of the oaks and beeches contrasted
with the dark green of the lirs and pines. Cragus : nit. in Lycia.
9. Tempe : 1. 7. 4. n. An early seat of the Apolline religion.
totidem: pure prose. Cf. 2. 8. 17 n. ; 4. 4. 29 n.
10. natalem : cf. 3. 4. 6:]. n.
11. insignem : sc. Apollinem. pharetra : 3. 4. 60.
12. fraterna : of Mercury, 1. 10. 6 ; cf. materna, 1. 12. 9 ; Verg.
Aen. 5. 72. umerum : ' Greek ' ace. probably, ' as to his shoulder.'
13. lacrimosum : Verg. Aen. 7. 604, lacrimabile bellum ; H.
5. 737 ; Anacr. fr. 31 ; Aeschyl. Suppl. 681, SaKpvoySvov "Apr;,
etc. famem: there was a scarcity of grain, B.C. 23. Cf. Veil.
2. 94. Famine and pestilence coupled, as Hes. *Epy. 243.
14. principe : cf . 1. 2. 50. n. ; Epist. 2. 1. 256 ; 3. 14. 15. n. ;
4. 15. 17.
15. Britannos: 1. 25. 39. n. For the antique frankness of
this prayer, cf. 3. 27. 21. n. Anth. Pal. 6. 240.
ODE XXII.
This famous ode has been translated or imitated by Campion
(ed. Bullen, p. 20), Daniel: To Countess of Cumberland; Ros-
cotnmon, Johnson's Poets, 8. 268 ; Hughes, ibid. 10. 28 ; Yalden,
ibid. 11. 73 ; Pitt, ibid. 12. 381 ; Hamilton, ibid. 15. 635.
The gods guard the pure in heart. As I strolled all unarmed in
the Sabine wood singing of Lalage, a wolf fled from me. Place
me in the burning zone or at the frozen pole, still will I love my
laughing Lalage.
There is no real inconsistency between the momentary flush of
genuine feeling (1-8) and the mock-heroic continuation and jesting
close. ' Vers de socie"te" ... is the poetry ... of solemn thought
which, lest it should be too solemn, plunges into laughter' (Preface
to Lyra Elegantiarum). We need not, however, with a worthy
German editor, speak of a ' heiliger ernst ' !
For Horace's witty friend, Aristius Fuscus, cf. Epist. 1. 10 ; Sat
1. 9. 61 ; 1. 10. 83.
202 NOTES.
1-4. ' The man of life upright, I Whose guiltless heart is free |
From all dishonest deeds, | Or thought of Vanity ' (Campion). Cf.
1. 17. 13 ; 2. 7. 12 ; 3. 4. 25-32.
1. integer: cf. Milton, ' For such thou art from sin and blame
entire ' ; Dante, Purg. 17, ' II giusto Mardocheo | Chi fu al dir ed
al far cosi intero' ; Trench, On the Study of Words, 65. vitae is
gen. of 'respect' with integer; sceleris. gen. of 'separation' with
purus. Cf. Sat. 2. 3. 220 ; A. G. 218. c. ; G. L. 374. n. 6. ; H.
399. III.
2. Mauris: poetic specification. Cf. 1. 16. 4 ; 3. 10. 18.
6. aestuosas : may refer to the hot sands of the shore or the
'boiling' waters. Cf. 1. 31. 5 ; 2. 6. 4 ; 2. 7. 16 ; Epode 9. 31.
F. Q. 1. 6. 35, ' Through boiling sands of Araby and Ind.'
6. inhospitalem Epode 1. 12 ; Aeschyl. Prom. 20, airdvOpcairov.
7. fabulosus : cf. 3. 4. 9. Storied. From the time of Alex-
ander the tales of Indian travelers were proverbial.
. 10. Lalagen: \a\f^ \x\ayew ; almost = 'Laughing Water.'
11. termiiium: the bounds of the Sabine farm? Cf. 3. 16. 29.
expeditis : the cares themselves are said to be freed (thrown
off). Cf. Catull. 31. 7, quid solutis est beatius curis ? Cf.
Epode 9. 38.
13. portentum : the wolf, mock heroically, repots. Cf. 1. 33.
7-8 for Apulian wolves.
14. Daunias: (from Daunus (3. 30. 11 ; 4. 14. 26)), a part of
Apulia, Horace's native province, to which he loves to attribute all
the old Italian virtues.
15. lubae tellus : Mauritania. The elder Juba was defeated
at Thapsus ; the younger, his son, was made king of Mauritania
by Augustus, B.C. 25, by which some date the ode.
16. arida nutrix : a slight oxymoron. Cf. Homer's ^-rtpa.
OnpSiv.
17-23. For this geographical antithesis, cf. 3. 3. 55 ; 3. 24. 37.
17. pigris: dull, barren from cold. Cf. iners (2. 9. 5 ; 4. 7. 12);
Lucret. 5. 746, bruma nives affert pigrumque rigorem.
18. recreatur : cf. 3. 20. 13 ; Catull. 62. 41, quern mulcent
anrae.
19. quod: i.e. in eo quod. latus mundi: cf. 3. 24. 38; Sir
John Mandeville's ' West syde of the world ' ; Milton's ' back side
BOOK I., ODE XXIII. 203
of the world ' ; Keats' ' heave his broad shoulder o'er the edge of
the world.'
19-20. malus luppiter : an unkind Jove = sullen sky. Cf.
1. 1. 25.
20. urget: lowers, oppresses, broods, wie^tva (Hdt. 1. 142).
21. Vergil's plaga solis iniqui (Aen. 7. 227).
22. domibus : to the abodes of men.
23. dulce : cf. on perfidum ridens (3. 26. 67). Cf. aira\bv yt\dffai
(Odyss. 14. 465), and Sappho's &du Quvticras, already imitated by
Catull. 51. 5. Roscommon's conceited rendering of these untrans-
latable lines is a curiosity : ' All cold but in her breast I will
despise, | And dare all heat but that in Caelia's eyes.'
ODE XXIII.
Cf. Dobson's roundel : ' You shun me, Chloe, wild and shy, | As
some stray fawn that seeks its mother.' For difference between
ancient and modern feeling, cf. Lander's exquisite ' Gracefully shy
is yon Gazelle.' For the comparison of the girl to a fawn, cf.
Anacreon, fr. 51.
Spenser, F. Q. 3. 7. 1 : ' Like as an hind forth singled from the
herd, | That hath escaped from a ravenous beast, | Yet flies away
of her own feet afeard ; | And every leaf, that shaketh with the
least | Murmur of wind, her terror hath increased.'
Poor translation by Hamilton, Johnson's Poets, 15. 635.
1. vitas: many Mss. read vitat, probably because of tremit
below.
2. pavidam: cf. 1. 2. 11.
3. non sine : for this favorite Horatian litotes, cf. 1. 25. 16 ; 3.
4. 20 ; 3. 6. 29 ; 3. 7. 7 ; 3. 13. 2 ; 3. 26. 2 ; 3. 29. 38 ; 4. 1. 24 ; 4.
13. 27.
4. siluae : trisyllabic. Epode 13. 2.
5-6. veris . . . adventus : so the Mss. To this bold and
beautiful expression it has been objected that at the coming of
spring the trees have no leaves (but cf. umbrosis, 1. 4. 10) and the
does no fawns, and many editors print, after Bentley, vepris . . .
204 NOTES.
ad ventum, which is ingenious and smoothly parallel with rubum
dimovere below. Cf. Rossetti, Love's Nocturne, ' Where in groves
the gracile spring | Trembles ' ; Swinburne, Atalanta, ' When the
hounds of spring are on winter's traces | The mother of months in
meadow or plain, | Fills the shadows and windy places, | With lisp
of leaves and ripple of rain.' For adventus, cf. Milton's 'Far off
his coming shone.'
6. virides: cf. Verg. EC. 2. 9, Nunc virides etiain occultant spi-
neta lacertos. Cf. XAcopo-<raC/>o.
9. atqui: 3. 5. 49 ; 3. 7. 9 ; Epode 5. 07. non ego te : 1. 18.
11 ; 4. 9. 30. aspera : cf. 1. 37. 26 ; 3. 2. 10.
10. Gaetulus : 3. 20. 2. frangere : epexegetic, to crush with
teeth. II. 11. 113-14.
12. tempestiva: with viro. Cf. 3. 19. 27 ; .4. 1. 9; Verg. Aen.
7. 53, lam matura viro plenis iam nubilis annis. sequi : with
matrem. Cf. Eugene Field's amusing ' Chaucerian paraphrase,'
' Your moder ben well enow so farre she goeth, | But that ben not
farre enow, God knoweth.' Cf- also his ' But, Chloe, you're no in-
fant thing | That should esteem a man an ogre : | Let go your
mother's apron-string [ And pin your faith upon a toga.' But we
must not forget in our amusement that free-and-easy English mis-
represents Horace's exquisite ease quite as grossly as the pseudo-
classic eighteenth century pedantry which tempts us less.
ODE XXIV.
A poetic ' consolation.' Cf. on 2. 9. Consolatur Vergilium impa-
tienter amid sui mortem lugentem (pseudo-Acron). For (Quin-
tilius) Varus, cf. 1. 18. The date is given, by entry in Jerome's
(Eusebius') Chronicon, B.C. 24. Quintilius Cremonensis Veryilii
et Horatii familiaris moritur.
The sentiment is that of Malherbe's Consolation A Monsieur du
Pe"rier : ' La Mort a des rigueurs a nulle autre pareilles ; | On a
beau la prier, | La cruelle qu'elle est se bouche les oreilles, | Et
nous laisse crier. . . . De murmurer contre elle, et perdre pa-
tience, | II est mal a propos ; | Vouloir ce que Uieu veut, est la
seule science | Qui nous met en repos.' Cf. 'Arnold, Scholar-
BOOK I., ODE XXIV. 205
Gipsy, ' and tiy to bear ; | With close-lipp'd patience for our
only friend.' Vergil himself wrote, superanda omnis r fortuna
ferendo est (Aen. 5. 710), and, according to Donatus (Life of
Vergil, chap. 18), praised patience as the chief virtue of our
mortal state : sulitus erat dicere : nullam virtutem commodiorem
homini esse patienlia; ac nullam adeo asperam esse fortunam
qnam prudenter patiendo vir fortis non vincat. Cf. Sellar,
p. 189 ; Lang, Letters to Dead Authors, Horace, init.
The Ode has been a favorite with poets. Cf., however, the
petulant criticism which Landor puts in the mouth of Boccaccio
(Pentameron): 'What man immersed in grief cares a quattrino
about Melpomene, or her father's fairing of an artificial cuckoo
and a gilt guitar ? What man on such an occasion is at leisure
to amuse himself with the little plaster images of Pudor and
Fides, of Justitia and Veritas, or disposed to make a comparison
of Virgil and Orpheus ? '
There is a translation by Hamilton, Johnson's Poets, 15. 637.
1. quis, etc. : cf. Swinburne, Erechth. 757, Who shall put a bridle
in the mourner's lips to chasten them, | Or seal up the fountains of
his tears for shame ' ; Tenn. In Mem., ' Let grief be her own mis-
tress still.' For modus, cf. 1. 16. 2, 1. 36. 11, 3. 15. 2; with
pudor, Martial, 8. 64. 15, sit tandem pudor et modus rapinis.
2. cari capitis : Shelley, Adonais, ' Oh weep for Adonais,
though our tears | Thaw not the frost which binds so dear a
head ! ' This use of caput is warm with feeling, whether of love
or hate. Cf . Epode 5. 74 ; Verg. Aen. 4. 354 ; Martial, 9. 68. 2 ;
Jebb on Soph. Antig. 1 ; II. 18. 114 ; Od. 1. 343, -roiijv yap Kp\^v
irofleo!. praecipe : teach, begin, start.
3. Melpomene: strictly the muse of tragedy; but see 1. 12.
2. n. Cf . 3. 30. 16 ; 4. 3. 1 ; George Peele, Aenone's (sic) Com-
plaint, ' Melpomene, the muse of tragic songs, | With mournful
tunes in stole of dismal hue, | Assist a silly nymph to wail her
woe ' ; Keats, Isabella, 56, ' Moan hither all ye syllables of woe |
From the deep throat of sad Melpomene' ; Tenn. In Mem., 'And
my Melpomene replies.' liquidam: Lucret. 2. 145, volucres . . .
liquidis loca vocibus opplent ; Ov. Am. 1. 13. 8; Tenn. Geraint and
Enid, 'the liquid note beloved of men' (= the nightingale).
206 NOTES.
pater : both father of the muses (Hes. Theog. 52) and All-father
(1. 2. 2X-
5. ergo : a conclusion forced upon the reluctant heart. Cf. G. L.
502. n. 1 ; Sat. 2. 5. 101, ergo nunc Dama sodalis nusquam est ;
Ov. Trist. 3. 2. 1, Ergo erat in fatis Scythiam quoque visere nostris.
Differently used, 2. 7. 17. Many critics think the poem ought to
have begun here, which would meet most of Landor's strictures.
perpetuus sopor: Catull. 5. 5, Nobis cum semel occidit brevis
lux, | nox est perpetua una dormienda ; Moschus, 3. Ill, arep^oi'a
vtiyperoi> vtrvov ; Arnold, Thyrsis, ' For there thine earth-forgetting
eyelids keep | The morningless and unawakening sleep ' ; Job 14.
12, ' till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be
raised out of their sleep ' ; Shelley, Adonais, 8, ' He will awake
no more, Oh never more ! '
6. urget: lie heavy on, weigh down (his eyelids). Cf. 4. 9. 27 ;
premet, 1. 4. 16 ; Verg. Aen. 10. 745, dura quies oculos et fcrreus
urget \ somnus, etc. ; Lucret. 3. 893, urgerive superne obtritum
pondere terras. cui: his peer. The emphasis of the introductory
relative italicizes the English demonstrative that must take its
place. Pudor: Ai8ws. The Greek and Roman religion made
these capitalized abstractions more real to the ancients than they
can be -to us, disgusted with their rhetorical use in eighteenth cen-
tury poetry. Cf. C. S. 57. Cf. Preller-Jordan, 1. 250, for Fides;
Gaston Boissier, Relig. Rom. 1. 8. soror : so Find. O. 13. 6.
7. nuda Veritas : Ov. Amor. 1. 3. 14, has nuda simplicitas.
Shaks. ' naked truth ' (Hen. VI. 2. 4) ; L. L. L. 5. 2 ; Chapman, All
Fools, 4. 1, ' Time will strip truth into her nakedness.'
8. inveniet: for sing, verb with pi. subject, cf. I. 2. 38 ; 1. 3.3;
1. 4. 16 ; 1. 6. 10 ; 1. 35. 21, etc. parem : ' For Lycidas is dead,
dead ere his prime, | Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer.'
Verg. Aen. 6. 878, of Marcellus, Heu pietas, heu prisca fides, etc.
9. multis . . . flebilis : cf. 4. 2. 21 ; G. L. 355 n. ; H. 391. I. ;
cf. Solon's wish, fr. 19.
11. frustra piua : cf. 2. 14. 2. n. ; Ovid's vive pius moriere pins ;
Verg. Aen. 2. 428, dis aliter visum ; 11. 157; Tenn. In Mem. 6,
' O mother, praying God will save | Thy sailor, while thy head is
bow'd | His heavy-shotted hammock shroud | Drops in his vast and
wandering grave.' See Lang's comment: 'Ah, not frustra pius
BOOK I., ODE XXIV. 207
was Vergil, as you say, Horace, in your melancholy song. In him,
we fancy, there was a happier mood than your melancholy pa-
tience.' non ita creditum : not thus (i.e. to this sad end) com-
mended (in thy prayers) to their keeping. Cf. 1. 3. 5; 1. 36. 3;
custudes Numidae deos. It has been taken, ' not lent to thee on
such terms ' that thou couldst rightfully demand him when with-
drawn. That is rather a Christian thought. Yet cf. Cic. Tusc. 1.
93; Sen. Dial. 11. 10. 4.
13-15. quod si ... non: modern editors mostly read, with a
majority of the Mss., quid si . . . num, with interrogation point
after gregi (18). But the conclusion durum, etc., follows less
aptly so ; and the long trailing question spoils the rhythmic effect,
and is not justified by the example of 2. 12. 21, nor by Pindar's
swift, splendid rhetorical questions. O. 13. 18 ; Pyth. 4. 70 ; Isth.
4.39.
13. blandius: 3. 11. 15. n. ; 4. 1.8. Orpheo: cf. 1. 12. 7. n.
For his descent into Hades in quest of Eurydice, cf. further Eurip.
Alcest. 357 ; Ov. Met. 10. 1-77 ; Verg. G. 4. 453-627, Aen. 6. 119 ;
Milton, II Penseroso, ' Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing | Such notes
as warbled to the string, | Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek, |
And made Hell grant what love did seek ' ; L' Allegro sub finem ;
Spenser, Vergil's Gnat, 55 ; Ruins of Time, 392 ; Arnold, Thyrsis,
1 And flute his friend like Orpheus from the dead ' ; Pope, Ode on
St. Cecilia's Day.
14. moderere : so 4. 3. 18, temperas. Milton, P. L. 7, ' All
sounds on fret by string or golden wire, | Tempered soft tunings.'
15. vanae . . . imagini : hollow wraith, empty shade. Verg.
Aen. 6. 293, temies sine corpore vitas . . . volitare cava sub ima-
gine formae. Wordsworth, Laodamia, ' But .unsubstantial form
eludes her grasp,' etc. Homer's vfxvcov ttSte\a Ka^vriav ; Verg.
Aen. 2. 785-95. sanguis : the blood is the life. Cf. the revival
of the dead by draughts of blood (Odyss. 11. 98).
16-18. virga . . . gregi : cf. 1. 10. 18. n.
16. semel : 4. 7. 21, once for all, irrevocably, eva. xp&vov (II.
15. 511) ; &ra| (Odyss. 12. 350) ; Aesch. Ag. 1019 ; Eumen. 648 ;
ffj oira| (Prom. 750); Teun. Two Voices, ' "This is more vile," he
made reply, | "To breathe and loathe, to live and sigh, | Than
once from dread of pain to die " ' ; Verg. Aen. 11. 418.
208 NOTES.
17. non lenis : -with inf. as lenis, C. S. 14; non leni occurs 2.
19. 15. precibus : perhaps abl. cause. But cf. Propert. 5. 11. 2,
panditur ad nullas ianua nigra preces. For recludere in literal
sense with dat. of person, cf. 2. 18. 33; 3. 2. 21. Valer. Flaccus,
4. 231, has reclusaque ianua leti of the gate opened to admit the
dead. The gates and gate-keeper of Hades and of death are com-
monplaces. Cf. 3. 11. 16. n. ; 11. 8. 367.
18. nigro : death and all that suggests death is niger or ater.
Cf. 4. 2. 24 ; 4. 12. 26. compulerit : cf. coercet (1. 10. 18); cogi-
mur (2. 3. 25); egerit Oreo (Sat. 2. 5. 49); 'AtSrjs aynffi\aos (Aesch.
. fr. 406),
19. patientia, etc. : ' but patience lighteneth what heaven for-
bids us to undo ' (Lang). Cf. Otto, p. 134 ; Archil, fr. 9. 5.
20. nefaa: 1. 11. 1.
ODE XXV.
The old age of the courtesan. Cf. 3. 15 ; 4. 13 ; Ov. A. A. 3. 69.
1. iunctas . . . fenestras : the closed (by a bar, sera) wooden
shutters of the window opening on the second floor.
2. iactibus : more appropriate than ictibus for stones thrown
against upper windows. protervi: cf. 2. 5. 15.
3. amat : cf. Verg. Aen. 5. 163, litus ama.
5. multum : by caesura is separated from facilis, and so, per-
haps, is better taken with movebat.
7-8. The words of the serenade, or rather TrapzK\a.vcridupoi>. Cf.
3. 10. and Aiith. Pal. 5. 23. tuo : thy slave, thy lover.
9. invicem : now in your turn. arrogantes : the pride, the
disdain of. Cf. on 2. 4. 10.
10. levis : lightly esteemed, i.e. despised. The lonely alley, the
howling winds, the moonless night, heighten the sense of deso-
lation.
11. Thracio: Epode 13. 3. bacchante : cf. 3. 3. 55, and
Sargent, 'A life on the ocean wave! | A home on the rolling
deep, | Where the scattered waters rave, | And the winds their
revels keep.' magis: i.e. ever louder and louder. sub: cf. on
1. 8. 14. interlunia the time of the new moon was proverbially
BOOK I., ODE XXVI. 209
windy. For meter, cf. 1. 2. 19. For word, cf. Milton's ' hid in her
vacant interlunar cave.'
14-15. Cf.Verg.G.3.266. iecur: the seat of passion. Of. 4. 1.12.
15-20. Her plaint is that youth prefers youth to age.
17. pubes: cf. 2. 8. 17. virenti: 1. 9. 17, the green (bloom-
ing) leaf is the symbol of youth, as the sere and yellow leaf of age.
Archil, fr. 100 ; Aeschyl. Ag. 79.
18. pulla serves to contrast the darker and lighter green. Cf.
Tenn., 'That like a purple beech among the greens | Looks out of
place.' The myrtle is viridis, 1. 4. 9.
19. aridas : 4. 13. 9. sodali : cf. 3. 18. 6 ; cf. comes, 1. 28. 21 ;
4. 12. 1. Eurus was a winter wind (Verg. G. 2. 339). The Mss.
read Hebro. But why the dry leaves shall be consigned to the
Hebrus is not clear. Cf. Shelley, Ode to West Wind, 1.
ODE XXVI.
Dear to the Muses, I give my cares to the winds, and ' what the
Mede intends and what the Dacian.' Help me, sweet nymph of
Pimplea, to twine a fresh chaplet of song for my Lamia.
Tiridates (5) was king of Parthia in place of Phraates, expelled
for tyranny. Phraates sought aid of the Scythians to recover his
throne, and Tiridates fled to Augustus in Syria (B.C. 30), accord-
ing to Dio. 51. 18 ; in Spain (B.C. 25), according to Justin, 42. 5. 5.
The usually accepted date for the ode is B.C. 30-29. Phraates' res-
toration is referred to in 2. 2. 17, and there is an allusion to the
dissensions of the ' Medes ' in 3. 8. 19, in the ode written on the
(first ?) anniversary of Horace's escape from the falling tree (2. 13 ;
3. 4. 27). Those who adopt the later date reconcile Dio. and Justin
by the hypothesis that Tiridates merely appealed to Augustus for
aid in Syria (B.C. 30), and took refuge with him in person in
Spain (B.C. 25). For Aelius Lamia, cf. on 3. 17. The poem has
been thought Horace's first attempt in the Alcaic measure ; cf.
novis (10) and the metrical awkwardness of 7 and 11.
1. musis amicua : cf. 2. 6. 18 ; 3. 4. 25 ; Verg. Aen. 9. 774, ami-
cum Crethea musis; Hes. Theog. 96 ; Theocr. 1. 141. tristitiam:
1. 7. 18.
p
210 NOTES.
2. protervis : Epode 16. 22 ; Verg. Aen. 1. 536, procacibns aus-
tris ; Lucret. 6. Ill, petulantibus anris ; 1. 14. 16, ludibrium ventis;
Shakspeare's 'the air, a chartered libertine.' Creticum : indi-
vidualizing ; cf. on 1. 16. 4. But the Cretan sea was stormy.
(Soph. Trach. 117.)
3. portare: epexegetic inf. For thought, cf. Epode 11. 16;
Homer, Odyss. 8. 408 ; Eurip. Troad. 419 ; Theoc. 22. 167 ; Apoll.
Rhod. 1. 1334 ; Otto, Sprichwb'rter der Romer, p. 364 ; Catull. 30.
10 ; Anacreontea, 41. 13, rb 5' &x os "'e^eu-ye mx^fv \ avffj.orp6<ptf
6ue\\r) ; ibid. 39. 7 ; 2. 8. Cf. also Heine, ' Ich wollt', meine
Schmerzen ergossen | Sich all' in ein einziges wort, | Das gab'
ich den lustigen Winden, | Die triigen es lustig fort.' quis :
nom. parallel with quid (5) rather than dat. ; a form not used in
odes. Cf. Epode 11. 9.
4. rex : of the Scythians perhaps, or possibly Phraates himself,
or, if the reference is not mainly to the fears of Tiridates, the king
of the Dacians. Cf. on 3. 8. 18. gelidae . . . orae : cf. Lucan,
5. 55.
5-6. unice . . . securus : quite (solely) unconcerned, se-curus.
Cf. Ronsard, ' Celuy n'a soucy quel roy | Tyrannise sous sa loy |
Ou la Perse ou la Syrie.'
6. fontibus integris : d/cijparois, cf. Eurip. Hippol. 73, Lucret.
1. 927 ; Verg. G. 2. 175 ; Sellar, p. 147.
7. necte : So in Greek ir\fK(a and v<f>aivw (Find. 0. 6. 86 ; Nem.
4. 44, fr. 179). Shelley, Alastor, 'woven hymns.' flores : sc.
yiovffeoiv &6ea.
9. Pimplei: cf. Lexicon, s.v.
9-10. mei . . . honores : of my bestowing. Cf. Lucan, 9. 983,
quantum Smyrnaei durabunt vatis honores. So n^ais (Find.
Nem. 9. 10).
10. novis : For Horace's claim to originality, cf. on 3. 30. 13 and
Epist. 1. 19. 21. But he strikes the new chords Lesbio plectra, and
his boast is that he ' tuned the Ausonian lyre | To sweeter sounds
and tempered Pindar's fire : | Pleased with Alcaeus' manly rage to
infuse | The softer spirit of the Sapphic Muse ' (Pope).
11. Lesbio : cf. 1. 1. 34. sacrare : consecrate. So Stat. Silv.
4. 7. 7. Cf. 4. 9. 25, vate sacro. plectro : see Lex.
BOOK I., ODE XXVH. 211
ODE XXVII.
Far be the barbarous Thracian dissonance and the Persian dirk
from our sober revels. And if I am to crush a cup with you, the
brother of pretty Opuntian Megilla must reveal to us the lady of
his secret thoughts. Surely he need not blush to name her.
Ah, poor fellow ! with what a Charybdis were you struggling !
No Thessalian witch will deliver you from that monster.
A verse exercise. The details are Greek, except Falerni (10).
Cf. Auacreon, fr. 63.
1. Natis. born for, made for, meant for. Cf. A. P. 82, natum
rebus agendis. scyphis: abl. of weapon. Cf. Lucian, Symp.
14 and 44.
2. Thracum : cf. on 1. 18. 9. tollite : away with. Cf. 2. 5. 9.
3. morem . in bad sense. Cf. Livy, 34. 2. 9, qui hie mos
obsidendi vias. verecundum : proleptic. Bacchus is in himself
inverecundus deus. Cf. Epode 11. 13. But the idea of the god and
the use of his gifts blends. Cf. 1. 18. 7 ; and, for whole passage,
3. 8. 15.
4. prohibete : so, with seeming reversal of natural syntax,
corpus prohibere cheragra (Epist. 1. 1. 31).
5. vino: dat. Horace said 'different to.' Cf. 2. 2. 18; 4. 9.
29. acinaces : has a distinguished foreign sound. Cf. Lex.
6. immane quantum : cf. mirum quantum, a^xavov ovov, and
Milton's 'incredible how swift.'
8. cubito . . . presso : with left arm pressed into cushion of
couch by weight of body. In Petron. Sat. 27, hie est apud quern
cubitum ponetis means 'this is your entertainer.'
9. seven : dpi/j.eos ; they were drinking dry, not sweet, Faler-
nian. Cf. Athen. 1. 26. c. Strong as contrasted with the innocentis
Lesbii of 1. 17. 21. Cf. Catull. 27. 2, calices amariores.
10. dicat : challenges to name a toast were common at ban-
quets. Cf. Theoc. 14. 18 ; Martial, 1. 71.
10-11. the details individualize. Cf. on 3. 9. 14 ; 2. 4. 2 ; 2. 5.
20 ; 3. 12. 6 ; 3. 9. 9.
11-12. beatus . . . pereat: the poets abuse oxymoron in de-
scribing what Thomson calls ' the charming agonies of love.' Cf.
212 NOTES.
Romeo and Juliet, 1.1, '0 heavy lightness, serious vanity,' etc,
pereat is technical in the lover's dialect. Cf. Catull. 45. 5 ; Propert.
1. 4. 12. Volnere, sagitta, ignibus (15) are all worn-out metaphors
of love. Cf. Lucret. 1. 34; Verg. Aen. 4. 2; Eurip. Medea, 530.
632; Odes 3. 7. 11. n. ; 2. 8. 15.
13. mercede : i.e. condition. cessat voluntas ? he won't?
his will pauses, halts, flags. For force of cesso, cf. Verg. Aen.
6. 52, cessas in vota precesqne ; Odes 3. 27. 58 ; 3. 28. 8 ; Marvell,
Ode on Cromwell, ' So restless Cromwell could not cease | In the
inglorious arts of peace.'
14. Venus: cf. on 1. 33. 13.
15. erubescendis : cf . 2. 4. 20, pudenda.
16. ingenuo : banteringly ; she is no servant maid like the flam
Phyllis of 2. 4.
17. peccas : technical. Cf. on 3. 7. 19. quidquid habes:
cf. Catull. 6. 15, quare quidquid habes boni malique \ die nobis.
18. depone : in Sat. 2. 6. 46, Horace modestly says that his
great friend Maecenas confides to him only those secrets, quae
rimosa bene deponuntur in aure. a miser ; after a pause in
which the name is told.
19. laborabas : all the while, though we knew it not ; the effect
of &pa of surprised recognition with impf . in Greek. Charybdi :
the comparison of a ruthless coquette to a gulf, abyss, or whirlpool
was as familiar to the Athens of the new comedy as it is to modern
Paris. Cf. Anaxilas apud Athen. 13. 558 A.
20. flamma : dangerously like the images to which Quintilian
objects that begin with a storm and wind up with a conflagration.
21. Thessalia : Thessaly was the land of brewed enchantments.
Cf. Propert. 1.5. 6, et bibere e tola toxica Thessalia ; Epode 5. 45.
22. venenis : potions, philters, not necessarily poisons. So
<(>dpfj.aKa. in Greek.
23. triform! : II. 6. 181; Lucret. 5. 902, prima leo, postrema
draco, media ipsa, Chimaera.
23-24. Bellerophon mounted on the winged steed Pegasus slew
the Chimaera (Find. 0. 13. 90), but from the toils of this Chimaera
of a flirt even Pegasus could not free you.
24. Chimaera : with both illigatum and expediet. For Pegasus,
cf. 4. 11. 28. n.
BOOK I., ODE XXVIH. 213
ODE XXVIII.
Apparently the dramatic monologue of the ghost of one who has
been shipwrecked near the tomb of the philosopher Archytas on
the shore near Venusia. In lines 1-6 the shade of Archytas is
directly apostrophized in the manner of the Greek sepulchral epi-
gram. Lines 0-20 moralize on the universality of death. In lines
20-36 very loosely, if at all, connected with the preceding, a ghost
that met shipwreck in the Illyrian waves implores with mingled
entreaties and imprecations a passing sailor to give it the formal
rites of burial three handfuls of earth. Attempts have been
made to interpret the poem as a dialogue with change of speaker
at 17 or 21. Cf. Sellar, p. 182.
Archytas of Tarentum, the Pythagorean philosopher and mathe-
matician, was a contemporary of Plato. Cf. Cic. Cato M. 12-41.
1. arenae: cf. Catull. 7. 3; Otto, p. 159; Pind. O. 2. 108; the
comic word ifa^a^fTia ; Milton, ' unnumbered as the sands | Of
Barca or Gyrene's torrid soil. ' Archimedes wrote a treatise entitled
^a/UjlUTTJS.
2. mensorem (terrae) : ytta/j.fTpris. cohibent : cf. 2. 20. 8 ;
3. 4. 80 ; 4. 0. :J4.
3. pulveris exigui : Verg. G. 4. 87, in exquisite symbolism.
So Lucan of Pompey, Pharsal. 8. 867, pulveris exigui sparget non
longa vetustas \ congeriem. It is the familiar contrast between the
full-blown pride of living man and the ' two handfuls of white dust
shut in an urn of brass.' Those who make Archytas himself the
unburied speaker (22-23 ; 35-36) render the boon of a little dust
(withheld). Matinum: cf. 4. 2. 27; Epode 16. 27, Matina
cacumina; glossed variously by Porphyrio as mons Apuliae and
mons Calabriae. Whether or how the tomb of Archytas was there
does not appear.
4. munera: Lex. II. B. 2.
4-5. nee . . . prodest . . . temptasae : cf. Milton's ' nor aught
availed him now | To have built in heaven high towers.' Temptasse
suggests the audacity of the attempt. Cf. 3. 4. 31 ; 1.11.3; Verg.
Eclog. 4. 32, temptare Thetim ratibus ; cf . also Lucretius of Epicurus,
1. 73, atque omnem immensum peragravit mente animoque. Whence
214 NOTES.
Swinburne, ' Past the wall unsurmounted that bars out our vision
with iron and fire | He has sent forth his soul for the stars to
comply with and suns to conspire.' Cf. Plato, Thesetet. 173. e.
6. morituro : with tibi, since thou wast doomed to die, despite
thy immortal thoughts. Cf. on 2. 3. 4.
7. Pelopis genitor, cf. 2. 13. 37. In Ov. Met. 6. 172, Pelops
says, mihi Tantalus auctor \ cui licuit soli superorum tangere
mensas. Cf. Pind. 0. 1. 55 ; Od. 11. 587 ; Goethe, Iph. 4. 5.
8. Tithonus : was translated to the skies, removed to the airs,
by Aurora who loved him. Cf. on 2. 16. 30 ; Eurip. Tro. 855.
9. Minos- Aibs fj.eyd\ov oapiffrrfs ; Odyss. 19. 179. Cf. Plato's
Minos.
10-14. The son of Panthous (Euphorbus, II. 16. 808) had to die
a second time, although in his reincarnation as Pythagoras he, to
prove his metempsychosis, entered the temple of Hera in Argos
and took down the shield which he wore in his first sojourn on
earth as Euphorbus. Cf. Ov. Met. 15. 160. ff ; Max. Tyr. 16. 2. .
10. Oreo : cf . Verg. Aen. 2. 398, multos Danaum dimittimus
Oreo.
13. concesserat : i.e. he had yielded only the body, not the
soul, to death. atrae : cf. on 2. 3. 16.
14. iudice te : Pythagoras would be no mean authority (litotes)
to a Pythagorean. Cf. Verg. Aen. 11. 339, non futilis auctor;
Livy, 30. 45, hand . . . spernendus auctor.
15. Una : Simon, fr. 38 (52), irdvra yap fj.lav iKve7rai Sao-TrArjra
XdpuBSiv. 'All that we are or know is darkly driven | Towards
one gulf (Shelley, Revolt of Is. 9. 35).
16. calcanda . . . via : 2. 17. 12, iter, ' the way to dusty death.'
Cf. Propert. 4. 17. 22, est mala sed cunctis ista terenda via est.
semel : 1. 24. 16. n.
17. spectacula: cf. on 1. 2. 37. torvo: 'he smiles a smile
more dreadful | Than his own dreadful frown,' etc.
18. exitiost : G. L. 356 ; A. and G. 233. a. avidum : cf. 3. 29.
61, but here for lives, not wealth ; cf. 2. 18. 30.
19. mixta : as in Verg. Aen. 6. 306-308.
20. saeva: imperiosa (Sat. 2. 5. 110), tiraivi). Proserpina:
cf. on Verg. Aen. 4. 698 ; Eurip. Alcest. 74. For quant. 2. 13. 21. n.
fugit : aoristic (cf. 3. 2. 32), shuns, neglects. But it is probably
BOOK I., ODE XXIX. 215
a reversal of the normal mode of expression (Proserpinam fugit),
such as Jebb, J. H. S. 3. 168, notes in Pindar, O. 1. 53, etc.
21. Orion was a proverbially stormy sign. Cf. 3. 27. 18 ; Epode
10. 10 ; 15. 7 ; Milton, ' When with fierce winds Orion armed |
Hath vexed the red seacoast' ; Apoll. Khod. 1. 1202, tvre fiA\iara
| Xfi/aepiri o\oo1o Si/vis irf\fi 'npiiavos ', Antll. Pal. 7. 273 ; Hes. Op.
619; Verg. Aen. 4. 52. comes: 4. 12. 1.
23. vagae : wind-blown. malignus: cf. on benignius, 1.9.6.
24. Note the rare and harsh hiatus.
25. sic : i.e. if you grant my prayer. Cf. on 1. 3. 1.
25-27. May the threats of the east wind spend themselves on
the forests of Venusia while thou remainest safe. plectantur :
be lashed, mulcted.
28. uiide potest : sc. defluere, parenthetic. For unde, cf. on
1. 12. 17.
29. custode : TroAtoGxos. Taras, son of Neptune, was the epony-
mous founder of Tarentum.
30. neglegis : dost thou count it a light thing ? Cf. Catull.
30. 5. The sailor seems to be about to refuse.
31. te : ace. with committere rather than abl. with natis.
ncglegis committere would probably mean neglect to commit.
fraudem: wrong. Cf. Odyss. 11. 72 sqq. fors et: seems to be
a phraseological equivalent of fortasse with a tone of confidence.
' It may be too.' Editors cite Verg. Aen. 2. 139 ; 11. 50.
32. due punishment and stern requital. debita iura has also
been interpreted 'rites and justments of the dead' (sc. withheld).
33. precibus : i.e. the denial of my prayers. inultis : cf .
1. 2. 51. linquar : left (in the lurch); cf. Sat. 1. 9. 74.
36. ter : the consecrated number. Verg. Aen. 6. 229. 506 ;
Soph. Antig. 431.
ODE XXIX.
Iccius the scholar s'en va-t-en guerre to spoil the treasures of
Araby the blest, and win a fair barbarian for his bride. Streams
may run uphill when Iccius sells his library for a coat of mail.
Cf. Epp. 1. 12, a complimentary letter written about five years
later to Iccius as steward of Agrippa's Sicilian estates. The expe-
216 NOTES.
dition referred to is the unsuccessful campaign of Aelius Gallus in
the year 25 B.C. Cf. Strabo. 16. 22 ; Augustus, Mon. Ancyr. 5.
13, In Arabiam usque in fines Sabaeorum processit exercitus ad
Oppidum Mariba ; Plin. N. H. 6. 160.
For bantering tone, cf. Cicero's playful letters to his friend Tre-
batius, who went to seek his fortune in the camp of Caesar.
1. beatis : for transferred epithet, cf. 'perfumes of price]
Eobb'd from the happy shrubs of Araby ' (William Browne, Book
2. Song 3). iiuuc : i.e. after a life of study . The position italicizes
in Latin. Cf. Arnold, Obermann Once More: 'And from the
world, with heart opprest, | Choosest thou noio to turn ? '
Arabum : Arabia is alluded to as a sort of California by the
Augustan poets. Cf. 2. 12. 24 ; 3. 24. 1 ; Ep. 1. 7. 36 ; Propert. 1.
14. 19; 3. 1. 15, India quin Augusts, tuo dat colla triumpho \ ef,
domus intactae te tremit Arabiae. Cf . also, 'the gold of Arabia'
(Ps. 72. 15) ; Otto, p. 33, 34.
2. gazis: oriental coloring. acrem militiam : 3.2.2.
3. non ante: 4. 14. 41. Sabaeae : Sheba. Cf. 1 Kings 10. 1,
and Milton's ' Sabaean odors from the spicy shore | Of Araby the
blest.'
4. Medo : Iccius will subdue the entire Orient. Cf . 1. 9, Sericas.
horribili : cf. Cat. 11. 11, horribiles Britannos. The tone is
that of Falstaff to Prince Hal, Hen. IV. 1. 1. 2. 4, ' Could the world
pick thee out three such enemies again . . . Art thou not horribly
afraid ? doth not thy blood thrill at it ? '
5. catenas : cf . the anecdotes of armies so confident of victory
that they took more chains than arms into battle (Flor. 3. 7).
6. Avoid the ambiguity of a recent English version, ' What
savage maiden having slain her lover ? '
7. ex aula : Aulicus, regius, page. Cf. Livy, 45. 6. capillis :
cf. Fitzgerald cited at 1. 38. 6, and Tenn. 'long-hair'd page.'
8. ad cyathum : as cup-bearer to dip the wine from the cratera.
Cf. Sueton. Caes. 49 ; Juv. Sat. 5. 66, flos Asiae ante ipsum ;
13. 43, nee puer lliacus, formosa nee Herculis uxor \ ad cyathos ;
Jebb on Soph. Philoct. 197 ; Daniel, 1. 3.
9. doctus : Persian youth were taught rpta povva, linrevcti>,
TociW Kal a\ri6iCeff0ai (Hdt. 1. 136). Cf. Strabo. 15. 3. 18.
BOOK I., ODE XXX. 217
teadere : strictly applicable to the bow. Cf. Verg. Aen. 9. 606,
sp>cula tendere cornu ; 5. 507. Sericas : cf. 1. 12. 56. n.
10-12. Proverbial expression for reversal of order of nature.
Cf. Eurip. Med. 410, a.v<a Trora^lav iepSiv xiapovo-t irajai ; Suppl. 520 ;
Cic. ad Att. 15. 4. 1 ; Propert. 3. 7. 33 ; 4. 18. 6 ; Verg. Aen. 11.
405 ; Ov. Trist. 1. 8. 1 ; Her. 5. 27, cum Paris Oenone poterit
spirare relicta, \ Ad fontem Xnnthi versa recurret aqua ; ex Pont.
4. 5. 43 ; 4. 6. 45 ; Claudian. Eutrop. 1. 353 ; in. Rufin. 1. 159 ; infra.
Ep. 16. 28 ; Otto, p. 139; Scott, Lay of Last Minstrel, 1. 18, ' Your
mountains shall bend and your streams ascend | Ere Margaret be
our foeman's bride ' ; Tenn., ' Against its fountain upward runs |
The current of my days.'
11. pronos : by nature. Cf. 3. 27. 18 ; 4. 6. 39 ; Shelley, Witch
of Atlas, 41, ' and ever down the prone vale . . . the pinnace
went' ; Manil. 4. 415, et pronis fugientia flumina ripis; Verg. G.
1. 203.
12. montibus : dat. -whither, or possibly abl. abs.
13. coemptos: 2.3.17. nobilis : preferably with Pa naeti.
14. Panaetius, a Stoic philosopher of Rhodes, friend of the
younger Scipio, and author of a treatise irtpl TOV KaffijKovTos, fol-
lowed by Cicero in his De Officiis. Socraticam domum : the
writings of Plato, Xenophon, and the other Socratics. Cf. Peri-
pateticorum familia (Cic. de Divin. 2. 1) ; Hor. Epist. 1. 1. 13, quo
me duce quo lore tuter ; Sen. Ep. 29 ; Julian, p. 259 B, KO\ ri>
^caxpdrovs Sufj-aTiov ; cf. Milt. P. R. 4, ' Socrates . . . from whose
mouth issued forth | Mellifluous streams that water'd all the
schools,' etc.
15. mutare: cf. 1. 16. 26. n. Hibeiis: cf. Shak. Othello, 5. 2,
' It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook's temper.'
16. pollicitus : cf . 1. 15. 32. tendis : cf . Epp. 1. 19. 16, tenditque
disertus haberi.
ODE XXX.
Come, Queen of Love, with thy joyous train, abandon Cyprus
and betake thee to the dainty shrine whither Glycera woos thee.
A so-called K\T/]TIK^ vpvos. Cf. Alcm. fr. 21.
Sappho, fr. 7 ; Pindar, fr. 122. 14.
218 NOTES.
1. regina : cf. Cat. 64. 96, quaeque regis Golgos, etc. ; Theoc.
15. 100; John Bartlett, 'The Queen of Paphos Erycine.' Cnidus:
Dorian town in Caria. Contained Venus of Praxiteles, of which
the Medicean Venus is supposed to be an imitation. Paphos : in
Cyprus. Cf. Odyss. 8. 362 ; Verg. Aen. 1. 415 ; Tac. Hist. 2. 2 ;
Lucan, 8. 456.
2. sperne : cf. 1. 9. 16 ; 1. 19. 10 ; 3. 2. 24.
4. aedem : temple, shrine, chapel ; pi. house. The distinction
may or may not be observed here.
5. puer : Cupid. Cf. 1. 2. 34, and Aesch. Suppl. 1039-1040.
solutis : Sen. de Ben. 1. 3. 2; Schiller, die Erwartung, 'Der
Giirtel ist von jedem Reiz gelost. '
6. gratiae : cf. 1. 4. 6. n. properentque : cf. for free position
of que and ve, 2. 7. 25 ; 2. 17. 16 ; 3. 2. 28 ; 3. 4. 11 ; 3. 3. 43 ; 3.
4. 55 ; 3. 1. 12.
7. luventas : 3jj8ij. The bloom of youth that charms not unless
it is also ' the bloom of young desire and purple light of love.' For
9i&n and Aphrodite, cf. Horn. Hymn Apoll. 195.
8. Mercurius : as god of speech and persuasion. So TlttOu and
Aphrodite constantly associated in Greek poetry. Cf. Plut.
Coniug. Praec. init. Cf. ' \Vill when speaking well can't win her,
| Saying nothing do 't ' ?
ODE XXXI.
The bard's prayer on the dedication of the temple on the Palatine
to Actian Apollo, B.C. 28. For an account of the temple and the
adjoining library, cf. Epp. 1. 3. 17 ; 2. 1. 216 ; 2. 2. 93 ; Suet. August.
29 ; Dio Cass. 53. 1 ; Propert. 3. 29.
Lanciani, Ancient Rome, p. Ill ; Duruy, History of Rome, 4. 1.
p. 127 ; Merivale, 4. 24 ; Gardthausen, 2. 574.
Horace prays neither for cornlands, vineyards, nor fat herds.
He envies not the adventurous trader's gains. He asks only for a
sound mind in a sound body and 'not to be tuneless in old age.'
Cf. Pindar's prayer, Nem. 8. 37.
1. dedicatum : used both of the deity and his temple ; perhaps
because the god and his statue were confounded. Cf. Theog. 11 ;
BOOK I., ODE XXXI. 219
Ov. Fast. 6. 637, te qiioque magnified, Concordia, dedicat aede.
Apollinem : for Apollo Palatinus, the work of Scopas, brought to
Rome by Augustus, cf. Pliny, N. H. 36. 28; Baumeister, 1. p. 99.
The statue stood between Praxiteles' Latona and Timotheus'
Diana. Cf. Propert. 3. 29. 15.
2. vates : the poet in his higher religious aspect as sacred bard.
Cf. Verg. Aen. 6. 662, qnique pii vates et Phoebo digna locuti ;
Epode 16. 66. In his prosaic mood he sneers at the old-fashioned
word rehabilitated by Vergil. CY Epist. 2. 1. 26, annosa volumina
valum. novum : new wine used in religious rites. Cf. 1. 19. 15.
3. f undens . . . de : cf. 4. 5. 34, defttso. opimae : cf. 1. 7.
11 ; Verg. Aen. 1. 621, opimam Cyprum.
4. Sardiniae : with Sicily and Africa the granary of Rome.
segetes : the harvest and the harvest field are virtually one. Cf.
Epist. 2. 2. 161.
5. aestuosae : hot, sunny. Cf. 1. 22. 5 ; Epode 1. 27.
grata : a prosperous herd is a pleasing sight, especially to the
owner.
6. For ivory and gold, cf. 2. 18. 1. Indicum : cf. Tenn., 'La-
borious Orient ivory.' The prehistoric Indian trade in ivory, silks,
and gems impressed the imagination of the Romans. Cf. Lucret.
2. 537, India . . . vallo munitur eburno. Cf. 3. 24. 2, divitis
Indiae.
7. rura : the home of Falernian and Massic. Liris : between
Latium and Campania, 3. 17. 8.
7-8. quieta, of motion ; taciturnus, of sound. Contra : longe
sonantem . . . Aufidum (4. 9. 2 ; 3. 30. 10) ; loquaces (3. 13. 15).
Cf. Longfellow, Monte Cassino, ' Beautiful valley ! through whose
verdant meads | Unheard the Garigliano glides along ; | The Liris,
nurse of rushes and of reeds ; | The river taciturn of classic song.'
8. mordet: cf. Lucret. 5. 256, et ripas radentia flumina rodunt;
Callim. Ep. 45. 3.
9. premant : i.e. putvnt, amputantes coerceant. Cf. Verg. G.
1. 157 ; like arat, Epode 4. 13, it is a poetic expression of owner-
ship. Calena : cf. 1. 20. 9; for transfer of ep'ithet from vitem to
falce, cf. 3. 6. 38, Sabellis ligonibus; Cat. 17. 19, Liguri securi.
10. vitem : with both dedit (in thought) and premant, or better
dedit (premere).
220 NOTES.
11. exsiccet : drain (greedily). Cf. 1. 35. 27. culullis : cf.
Lex. s.v. and A. P. 434.
12. Syra : eastern trade by way of Syria was greatly increased
in the Augustan age. Cf . 3. 29. 60. reparata : apparently bartered
for, taken in exchange for. Cf. 1. 37. 24.
13. carus : ironical : he must needs be dear to heaven to run
such risks with impunity. ter et quater : cf. 1. 13. 17.
13-14. quippe . . . revisens : i.e. quippe qui revisat (G. L.
626. n. 1 ; A. G. 320. e. n. 1 ; H. 517. 3). Cf. use of lire with
part.
15. me : cf. 1. 1. 29. n. olivae, etc. : a diet of herbs, the stand-
ing antithesis to cloying luxury. So already Hesiod, Works, 41.
16. leves malvae : regarded as laxative. Cf. Epode 2. 58, yravi
salubres corpori.
17-20. The expression is embarrassed. Perhaps the simplest
way is to construe: (1) frui . . . dones . . . et valido . . . et
inteyra cum mente, and (2) degere . . . (dones}, etc., extracting
the ' and ' that connects the two prayers from the first nee. Or
we may take the prayer for unimpaired faculties as part of the
senectam clause, in which case the first et is left without a sym-
metrical correspondent. The Mss. generally read at (1. 18), which
is still harsher, and rejected by most editors.
17. paratis : i.e. partis, what I have, TO. eT-ot/ta.
18. Latoe : AIJT^ . For sentiment, cf. Juv. Sat. 10. 356, Oran-
dum est, ut sit mens sana in corpore sano ; Theog. 789 ; Eurip.
Here. Fur. 676; Fr. Erechth. 369 (Nauck). And Austin Dob-
son's graceful tribute to Longfellow, ' Not to be tuneless in old
age, | Ah surely blest his pilgrimage,' etc. Lines 19-20 appear on
the title-page of Longfellow's Ultima Thule.
ODE XXXII.
A song is called for. Oh, my Lesbian lyre, we too have played
with junketing and love. Now help me to a Latin strain thai
shall sound through the ages like the spirit-stirring note thou didst
yield 'when the live chords Alcaeus smote.' He sang of war
and wine and love. Oh ' sovereign of the willing soul, enchanting
shell,' be propitious to me also, if I invoke thee aright.
BOOK I., ODE XXXII. 221
The poem reads like a discarded prelude to one of the great
patriotic odes in Alcaic measure. Translation by Hamilton,
Johnson's Poets, 15. 637.
On Alcaeus as Horace's prototype, cf. Sellar, p. 135 ; 2. 13. 27 ;
4. 9. 7 ; Epp. 1. 19. 29 ; 2. 2. 99. See also notes on 1. 37. 1 ; 1. 9 ;
1. 14; 1. 18; 2. 7.9-10; 3. 12. 1.
1. poscimur : so Ov. Met. 2. 143 ; 4. 274. Poscimus, the read-
ing of some Mss., enfeebles age die below. si : for pro forma
condition in prayer, cf. 3. 18. 5 ; C. S. 37 ; II. 1. 39. vacui :
sc. operum. Cf. 1. 6. 19, vacui, sc. amore; Verg. G. 3. 3, quae
vacuas tenuissent carmine mentes. sub umbra : Epist. 2. 2. 78 ;
Mart. 9. 84. 3, Haec ego Pieria ludebam tutus in umbra ; Swinb.
Pref . Songs before Sunrise, ' Play then and sing ; we too have
played, | We likewise in that subtle shade.'
2. lusimus : lyric verse was trifling to a Roman. Cf. 4. 9. 9 ;
Epist. 1. 1. 10 ; Cat. 50. 2 ; 68. a. 17. But cf. Find. 0. 1. 16,
Tra.ifrfj.ei> ; Verg. Eel. 1. 10. Here the reference is to the lighter
odes and studies from the Greek.
2-3. quod . . . vivat : characterizing carmen rather than quid.
Cf. Cat. 1. 10, quod, patrona virgo, plus uno maneat perenne
saeclo. Vivat : ' Something so written to after times as they
should not willingly let it die.' Cf. Epist. 1. 19. 2, vivere car-
mina.
3. age die : cf. die age, 3. 4. 1 ; 2. 11. 22. Latinum : Horace
feels himself both imitator and rival of the Greeks. Cf. 4. 6. 27 ;
4. 3. 23 ; 3. 30. 13.
5. modulate : passive as detestata (1. 1. 25) ; abominatus
(Epode 16. 8). Dative, because the chords attuned by him
yielded music to him. civi : Alcaeus in his a-TaauariKa, his
attacks on the tyrant Myrsilus, and ' Ship of State,' was emphati-
cally a citizen and political poet. Cf. 4. 9. 7 ; 2. 13. 27 ; Dion. Hal.,
de iinitat., Usener, p. 20, Tro\\a.\ov yovv rb nerpov ris trfpif\oi,
prjropeia.i' &j tvpoi iru\iri,K^v.
6. Construe : qui (quamquam} ferox bello tamen (sire) inter
arma, etc.
7. Cf. Ov. Met. 14. 445, herboso religatus ab aggere funis;
Verg. Aen. 7. 106 ; Cat. 64. 174, in Greta religasset navita funem.
222 NOTES.
udo : wave-washed, a\i'/cA.i/o"ros ; so Stat. Silv. 2. 2. 15. Note pov-
erty of Latin vocabulary. In 1. 7. 13, udus = Siepfa ; in 1. 7. 22,
0eftpeyfj.fi> os ; in 2. 5. 7, lAaSSrjy, t\e60pfirTos ; in 2. 7. 23, uyp6s,
jro\vyvafj.irTos ; in 3. 29. 6, tSuSpos ; in Epode 10. 19, HcpvSpos ; in 3.
2. 23, ^prfeis. Cf. 2. 2. 15. n.
10. puer : cf. 1. 30. 5. For haerere alicui+ cf. Verg. Aen. 10.
780, haeserat Euandro.
11. Lycum: The name is found fr. 58, Bgk. Cf. Cic. De Nat.
Deor. 1. 79. nig-ris . . . ni-gro : The variation in quantity is
intentional. Cf. II. 5. 31; Theoc. 6. 19; Callim. Artemis, 110;
Lucret. 4. 1259; Verg. Aen. 2. 663; Eel. 3. 79; F. Q. 3.2. 51,
' Thrice she her turned contrary and returned | All cdntrary.' For
black eyes and hair, cf. A. P. 37, spectandum nigris oculis nigro-
que capillo.
14. testudo : cf. 3. 11. 3. n. ; 1. 10. 6. n. ; Arnold, Merope,
' Surprised in the glens | The basking tortoises, whose striped
shell founded | In the hand of Hermes the glory of the lyre.'
15. mini : cf. x '/* 6 ' A""? ' Sei inir gegnisst.' So Verg. Aen.
11. 97.
15-16. cumque . . . vocanti : i.e. quotienscumque te vocavero.
No precedent is cited for this use of cumque, but the reading of the
Mss. must stand till some happier emendation than Lachmann's
medicumque is proposed.
ODE XXXIII.
Albius, do not ever be chanting doleful elegies for Glycera's
faithlessness. 'Tis the cruel sport of love to make lis all follow
her that flees and flee her that follows, and mismate us strangely.
Trans., Hamilton, Johnson's Poets, 15, p. 637. Cf. Dobson,
A Story from a Dictionary, 'Love mocks us all, as Horace said
of old : | From sheer perversity that arch offender | Still yokes
unequally the hot and cold | The short and tall, the hardened
and the tender.'
1. Albi: the Albius Tibullus of Epp. 1. 4, but no Glycera is
mentioned in his extant elegies, the tender sentimentality of which
might well seem lachrymose to Horace. Cf. e.g. 1. 5. 38, Saepe
BOOK I., ODE XXXIII. 223
ego temptavi curas depellere vino : \ At dolor in lacrimas verterat
omne merum, for which the ' Shepherd ' in Pickwick offers the
only parallel. ne doleas: cf. 1. 11. 1. n. It is also taken as
purpose of following statements. Cf. 4. 9. 1. plus nimio : cf.
1. 18. 15.
2. immitis : litotes with slight oxymoron, since Glycera =
sweet.
3. elegos: A. P. 75-78; Jebb, Greek Poetry, p. 95. cur:
suggests the querulous direct question more vividly than quod.
Cf. Epp. 1. 8. 10; Fronton, et Aur. Epist., p. 116, Naber, equidem
multum fratrem meum obiurgavi cur me non revocavit (revocarit).
See Hale, Cum Constr., p. 106. iunior: Tibullus was probably
about thirty. He died B.C. 19.
5. tenui fronte : a low forehead was thought a mark of youth
and beauty ; Epp. 1. 7. 26, nigros angusta fronte capillos. The
beauty in Petron. Sat. 126 has frons minima et quae radices capil-
lorum retro flexerat.
6. torret amor: recurs 3. 19. 28. Cf. also 4. 1. 12; 3. 9. 13;
Sappho, fr. 115, oirreus S/uM'- For Cyrus, cf. 1. 17. 25; Pholoe,
2. 5. 17; 3. 15. 7. asperam : possibly proleptic, 'and to him
she'll have nothing to say ' (Martin). But cf. Tibull. 1. 5. 1, asper
eram, 'I was cross, ill-natured, petulant.'
7. declinat : declinat cursus aurumque volubile tollit, says
Ovid of Atalanta, swerving to pick up the golden apple. Cf.
Tenn. Locksley Hall, ' Having known me to decline \ On a range
of lower feelings and a narrower heart than mine ' ; Hamlet, 1. 5,
' and to decline | Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor |
To those of mine. '
8. Cf. Epode 16. 30 ; Verg. Eel. 8. 27, iungentur iam grypes
eqnis.
9. turpi : unhandsome, mean (in her eyes). peccet: 3. 7.
19. n. adultero = paramo ur. Cf. 1. 36. 19; 3. 16. 4, and for
case, 1. 27. 17 ; 3. 9. 5-6.
10. sic visum : cf. Ov. Met. 1. 366, sic visum superis.
11. iuga aenea : cf. 3. 9. 18. n. ; 3. 16. 1. n. ; Otto, p. 6.
12. saevo : 1. 19. 1. ioco : Soph. Antig. 799, fyiraiCei Ofbs
'AfpoS'iTa. Cf. 3. 27. 69.
13. nielior : i.e. higher in the world. Venus: 'love.' 1.27. 14.
224 NOTES.
14. grata . . . compede : recurs 4. 11. 23. The singular first
in Horace, perhaps metri causa. Cf. Epode 4. 4 ; Epp. 1. 3. 3 ; 1.
16. 77 (plural). Cf. ' Willing chains and sweet captivity' (Milt.).
15. libertina : Epode 14. 15. fretis acrior Hadriae : cf. 3.
9. 23 ; Tarn, of Shrew, 1.2,' Were she as rough | As are the swell-
ing Adriatic seas' ; Victor Hugo, Apropos d' Horace, 'Tu courti-
sais ta belle esclave quelquefois | Myrtale aux blonds cheveux, qui
s'irrite et se cabre | Coinme la mer creusant les golfes de Calabre ' ;
Tenn. Audley Court, ' I woo'd a woman once, | But she was sharper
than an eastern wind.'
16. Curvantis: cf. 4. 5. 14; Ov. Met. 11. 229, sinus . . .
falcatus in arcus.
ODE XXXIV.
A thunder clap in a clear sky (which the Epicureans say is im-
possible, Lucret. 6. 400) has converted Horace from his youthful
belief that the gods ' lie beside their nectar careless of mankind.'
(Cf. Sat. 1. 5. 101, deos didici securum agere aevum.) He has felt
' the steadfast empyrean shake throughout ' beneath the winged
car of Zeus, and knows now that ' The Lord rnaketh poor and
maketh rich : he bringeth low and lifteth up' (1 Sam. 2. 7).
For the religion of the Odes, cf. on 3. 18 ; 3. 23 ; and Sellar,
p. 159. Dryden, Preface to Odes, observes, 'Let his Dutch com-
mentators say what they will, his philosophy was Epicurean, and
he made use of gods and Providence only to serve a turn in
poetry.' Leasing (Rettungen des Horaz) discusses this ode, and
sensibly decides that it is the half playful record of a poetical
mood which it would be sheer pedantry to interpret as a serious
recantation. He points out that Augustus, according to Suetonius
(Aug. 90), was so sensitive to thunder that he would shut himself
up in a dark chamber on the approach of a storm.
1. parcus . . . infrequens: his offerings had been scant and
niggardly, his presence at the altar rare. Cf. parca superstitio in
the beautiful lines of Statius on the worship of Pity (Theb. 12.
481 ff.).
2. insanientis . . . sapientiae : ' Because, though it cannot
be denied that the Democritic hypothesis doth much more hand-
BOOK I., ODE XXXIV. 225
somely and intelligibly solve the corporal phenomena, yet in all
other things which are of far greater moment, it is rather a mad-
ness than a philosophy' (Cudworth, Intellect. System, 1. 1. 46).
Cf. Byron, Childe Harold, 2. 8, ' Yet if, as holiest men have
deemed, there be | A land of souls beyond that sable shore | To
shame the doctrine of the Sadducee | And sophists madly vain
of dubious lore.' For the oxymoron, cf. on 3. 11. 35. It is con-
tinued by the antithesis of consultus erro, wandered, strayed from
the path of truth, (though) an adept. Lucret. (5. 10, etc.) calls
the Epicurean doctrine sapientia par excellence.
3. consultus : this use is an extension of the expression iuris
consultus. Livy, 10. 22, has iuris atque eloquentiae consultus.
Cf. Sat. 1. 1. 17 ; Epist. 2. 3. 369. mine : makes the contrasted
reference to the past in dum erro unambiguous.
4. iterare : cf. 1. 7. 32 ; 2. 19. 12.
5. relictos : the forsaken course is the naive faith of childhood.
Bentley's relectos, retraced, is idiomatically cumulative with iterare.
Horace perhaps could not have told us himself whether he meant
simply 'turn back,' or more specifically 'sail back to the point
where I started on the wrong tack and then enter on the right.'
Diespiter : an archaic word for Jupiter as Lord of light and
God of day. Cf. 3. 2. 29; 1. 1. 25. n.; Lex. s.v. ; Preller-Jordan,
1. 189.
6-7. nubila: emphatic. dividens: cf. 'Saw God divide the
night with flying fire ' (Tenn. Dr. of Fair Women) ; Psalms 29. 7.
plerumque : with dividens in preceding line. Cf. 1. 1. 23 ; 1. 31.
2 ; 1. 35. 10.
8. egit: he has this time driven across a clear sky, which is
the marvel. Cf. Homer, Odyss. 20. 112-114; Lucan, 1. 525;
Verg. Aen. 8. 524; Georg. 1. 487. currum: cf. 1. 12. 58; the
irrnvbv apua of Plato (Phaedr. 246 E) ; Find. O. 4. 1.
9. bruta : cf. mers, 3. 4. 45, contrasted with gliding streams ;
Milton's ' brute earth would lend her nerves and shake ' ; and
Tenn. In Mem. 127, "The brute earth lightens to the sky.*
vaga : cf. 1. 2. 18; Pseudo-Tibull. 4. 1. 143, vago . . . Araxe ;
Petron. Sat. 122, nee vaga passim flumina. The river as symbol
of man's life is repeatedly called the Wanderer in Wordsworth
and Arnold.
Q
226 NOTES. -
10. invisi : hateful as all associations of death. Cf. on 2. 14. 23 ;
and Verg. Aen. 8. 245. Lessing prefers to take it as imitation of
the Greek ai8r)s, the unseen world, on the ground that otherwise
horrida is tautologous. Taeuari : a rift in the rocks at Taenarum
(Cape Matapan) was deemed the mouth of hell, "A<5a cro/ua (Find.
Pyth. 4. 44). Cf. Verg. Georg. 4. 467, Taenarias etiam fauces
alta ostia ditis ; Sen. Her. Fur. 667 ; Milton, Comus, ' rifted rocks
whose entrance leads to hell.'
11. Atlanteus finis : ' Where Atlas flings his shadow | Far o'er
the western foam' (Macanlay, Proph. of Capys). Cf. reproves
'AT\O.VTIKOI, Eurip. Hippol. 3 ; 747; 1053; Milton's 'Atlantean
shoulders.'
12. valet : for syntax, cf. 2. 5. 1 ; 3. 25. 15 ; 4. 7. 27 ; Epode 16.'
3. For sentiment, cf. Job 5. 11 ; Horn. Odyss. 16. 211 ; Hesiod,
Op. 6 ; Archil, fr. 56 ; Aesop, apud Diog. Laert. 1. 3 ; Find. Fyth.
2. 89 ; Eurip. Tro. 608 ; Tac. Hist. 4. 47 ; Aristoph. Lysist. 772 ;
F. Q. 5. 2. 41, ' He pulleth down, He setteth up on high ; | He gives
to this, from that He takes away ; | For all we have is His : what
He list do He may.' ima summis: Tac. Hist. 4. 47; Otto, p. 335.
14. apicem : properly the pileus or conical cap of a flamen.
Here tiara; cf. 3. 21. 20. But Horace may be thinking of the
legend of Tarquin, Livy, 1. 34. rapax : participial or adverbial
in effect. Vi.pugnax, 4. 6. 8.
15. Fortuna : cf. next ode and 3. 29. 49. Fortuna and Deus
shift as Nature and God in Seneca and Emerson. Cf. the Homeric
fi.o'tpa Ai&s, and Find. Ol. 12. 1, ira.1 Zrjvbs . . . rvxa. Or she is con-
ceived as God's minister, as in the beautiful description of Dante,
Inferno, vii. Cf. Sir R. Fanshawe, "Tis he does all, he does it.
all : Yet this blind mortals fortune call.' So Sir Thomas Browne,
' The Romans that erected a temple to Fortune acknowledged . . .
though in a blinder way, somewhat of divinity' (Relig. Med.).
stridore: of her wings. Cf. 3. 29. 54; Verg. Aen. 1. 397, stri-
dentibus alis ; Ov. Trist. 1. 1. 75, pennae stridore, ; Milton, P. L. 1,
'and in the air, | Brush'd with the hiss of rustling wings' ; Swinb.
' resounds through the wind of her wings.'
16. sustulit : gnomic. posuisse: cf. on 1. 1. 4 ; 3. 4. 52.
BOOK I., ODE XXXV. 227
ODE XXXV.
To FORTUNE.
Queen of Antium, ruler of the vicissitudes of mortal lots, sup-
plicated by pauper and feared by prince : before thee stalks
Destiny with symbolic wedge and clamp. With thee abide
"pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope." But Folly's brood, the
summer friend, and the flatterer disperse at thy frown. Guard
Caesar in his expedition against Britain ; guard our young sol-
diers, the terror of the Orient. So may we forget our impious
fratricidal strife, and whet our blunted swords against the Scyth-
ian and the Arab.
Augustus contemplated an expedition to Britain B.C. 27 (Dio.
53. 22), but was detained in Gaul. The Arabian campaign of
Aelius Callus (see on 1. 29) was preparing B.C. 26, the probable
date of the Ode.
The introductory prayer to Fortune is suggested by Find. O. 12.
1-6. Wordsworth says of his Ode to Duty, ' This ode is on the
model of Gray's Ode to Adversity, which is copied from Horace's
Ode to Fortune.' A comparative study of the four odes illustrates
in a very interesting way the transformations and various moral
applications of a single literary motif.
On Fortune cf. 1. 34. 15. n.; 3. 29. 49. n. ; Hes. Theog. 360,
where Tuxi is an Ocean nymph; Hymn. Cer. 421; Theogn. 130;
Pausan. 7. 26. 8; Pliny, N. H. 2. 22; Lucret. 5. 107; Plautus,
Pseud. 2. 3. 14 ; Pacuvius, fr. incert. 14 ; Menander, fr. incert.
594 (Kock); Philem. fr. incert. 137 (Kock); Anth. Pal. 9. 74; 10.
70 ; Dante, Inferno, 7 ; Shaks. Henry V. 3. 6 ; Fronto, p. 157,
Naber.
Schmidt, Ethik der Griechen, 2. 68 ; Lehrs Aufsatze, p. 176.
Etc., etc. As Shaks. says, ' Fortune is an excellent moral.'
1. diva . . . regis : cf. 1. 30. 1. The divinity is pleased by the
mention of her favorite abode. gratum : sc. tibi; cf. 1. 30. 2.
But Cicero says of Antium nihil amoe.nius, ad Att. 4. 8. a. It was
the capital of the Volsci, and at this time a seaside resort ; Strabo,
5, p. 232. At the old oracle and temple of Fortune there the
Fortunae Antiates, two images, were'consulted by lots, per sortes,
228 NOTES.
and as late as Theodosius were supposed to give responses by their
movements. Cf. Mart. 5. 1. 3 ; Macrob. Sat. 1. 23. 13.
2. praesens, a 'very present help' (cf. 3. 5. 2) is also potens or
valens, which may take inf. For thought, cf. Praed, Chaunt of the
Brazen Head, ' I think one nod of Mistress Chance | Makes credi-
tors of debtors, | And shifts the funeral for the dance, | The sceptre
for the fetters : | I think that Fortune's favored guest | May live to
gnaw the platters, | And he that wears the purple vest | May wear
the rags and tatters.' imo : cf. on 1. 34. 12; Tac. Hist. 4. 47,
Magna documenta instabilis Fortunae summaque et ima miscentis.
3. Mortale corpus : our frail dust; ' Dust are our frames ; and
gilded dust, our pride,' etc. (Tenn. Aylmer's Field). Cf. Livy,
22. 22, unum vile atque infame corpus. But cf. Epode 5. 13, impube
corpus; Verg. Aen. 1. 70; 2. 18; Lucret. 1. 258, where corpus is a
mere periphrasis.
4. funeribus : vertere has construction of mutare, 1. 16. 26. Cf.
A. P. 226. The death of tlje two sons of Aemilius Paullus on the
eve of his triumph may have occurred to Horace (Livy, 45, 41).
5-6. te . . . te : cf. 4. 1. 39.
5. ambit : courts, like a canvassing candidate. Cf. Lex. s.v. and
Shaks. Cor. 2. 3. sollicita: he is anxious for his crops (3. 1. 29).
6. colonus : cf. on 2. 14. 12. dominam aequoris : she is
sometimes represented with rudder (Fortuna gubernans, Lucret.
5. 107 ; Pind. fr. 40) and a horn of plenty. Cf. Find. O. 12. 3 ;
Aesch. Ag. 664. Fortuna is still a seaman's term for storm on the
Mediterranean.
7. Bithyna: poetic specification. Cf. 1. 1. 13; 1. 16. 4. But
cf. on 3. 7. 3. lacessit : challenges, braves. For thought, cf. 1.
3. 11 sqq.
8. Carpathium: 4. 5. 10.
9. Dacus : 1. 26. 4. n. ; Verg. G. 2. 497, descendens Dacus ab
Istro. _ asper : 1 . 23. 9 ; 1. 37. 26 ; 3. 2. 10. te profugi Scythae :
a tag ; cf. 4. 14. 42 ; nomad, cf. 3. 24. 9. n.
10. urbes : 2. 20. 5 ; 3. 4. 46 ; 4. 15. 20. gentes: 1. 2. 5. n.
Latium : so 1. 12. 53; 4. 4. 40. ferox: Eoma ferox, 3. 3. 44.
Cf. 1. 6. 3; 1.32.6.
11. matres : cf. 3. 2. 7. Atossa, the mother of Xerxes (Aesch.
Persae, 163); Judges, 5. 28, the mother of Sisera.
BOOK I., ODE XXXV. 229
12. purpurei : ' And purple tyrants vainly groan ' (Gray, Hymn
to Adversity) ; Verg. G. 2. 495, purpura regum.
13. iniurioso : cf. Epode 17. 34. v&pia-riKif, insulting, contume-
lious. pede : Aesch. Persae, 163.
14. columnam : of their power. Cf. Lowell, Com. Ode,
4 Shakes all the pillared state with shock of men.'
15. ad arma : the repetition quotes their cry. Cf. Plato, Symp.
212 D, 'Aydetai* . . . 'AydScava ; Ov. Met. 11. 377 ; 12. 241 ; Tac.
Ann. 1. 59 ; Verg. Aen. 2. 314 ; 7. 460 ; 11. 453 ; Tass. Ger. Lib. 12.
44, ' onde la guarda | all' arme, all' arine in alto suon raddop-
pia' ; Pope, St. Cecilia, 'And seas and skies and rocks rebound |
To arms, to arms, to arms.' cessantes: those who timidly or
prudently hold back. On cesso cf. 3. 27. 68 ; 1. 27. 13 ; 3. 28. 8 ;
3. 19. 19 ; Verg. Aen. 6. 51.
17. anteit : like a Roman lictor before the magistrate. saeva :
Some Mss. read serva, as thy handmaiden. necessitas : necessity,
fate, and fortune are allied conceptions. Cf. Ruskin, Fors Clavigera,
2, ' "Fortune" means the necessary fate of a man, the ordinance
of his life which cannot be changed.' Dante makes Fortune one
of God's ministers, and says of her: 'Le sue permutazion non
hanno triegue, | Neeessita la fa esser veloce ' (Inf. 7). The nails,
the tightening wedge, the inexorable clamp, the molten lead, are
symbols of necessity. Cf . on 3. 24. 6 ; Aesch. Suppl. 945 ; Gilder-
sleeve on Find. Pyth. 4. 71. with Shaks. Ham. 1. 3. 'Grapple them
to thy soul with hooks of steel,' Much Ado, 4. 1, ' O, that is stronger
made | Which was before barred up with hoops of iron ' ; Webster,
White Devil, 1. 2, ' 'Tis fixed with nails of diamond to inevitable
necessity.' Lessing's hostile criticism of this strophe (Laocoon,
10. n. e.) assumes that these cumulative symbols must form an
image. Horace may "have had some picture in mind, but the brazen
(iron) hand is already beyond the limits of painting. Cf. Burke's
observations on the emotional as distinguished from the pictorial
use of words, Subl. and Beaut. 5. 5, ' The picturesque connexion
is not demanded, because no real picture is formed, nor is the
effect of the description at all the less upon this account.' It is
sheer pedantry to work out an exact image of Fortune as a builder
and Necessitas as an assistant carrying her tools.
18. clavo trabali figere was proverbial. Cf. Otto, p. 85. In the
230 NOTES.
monuments clam appear as attributes of the Fortuna of Antium
and the Etruscan Athrpa or Atropos.
20. Molten lead was used to fix the iron clamps that held the
stones together. Cf. Vitruv. 2. 8 ; Eurip. Andr. 267.
21-28. Te Spes. etc: cf. Sellar, p. 183. The imagery wavers
between the idea of this universal power (Fortune) and the Roman
personified fortune or luck of a family or institution, as Fortuna
populi Romani, Fortuna Tulliana, the fortune of the house of
Barca, 4. 4. 71. Hope and white-robed faith 'follow the fortunes
of a fallen lord,' and withhold not their companionship even when
Fortune (the great divinity) grows hostile (inimica}, and his per-
sonal Fortune puts on mourning and leaves the once lordly home.
Perfect consistency is not attained, but the meaning is clear. With
the moral sentiment of the whole, cf. Gray's imitation, Hymn to
Adversity, stanzas 3 and 4.
21. rara : cf. 1. 24. 7-8.
22. velata: transferred to Fides from the priest who by the
institution of Numa (Livy, 1. 21) worshiped her manu(que) ad
digitos usque involuta. The cloth was white (Serv. ad Verg.
Aen. 1. 292). But cf. Preller-Jordan, 1. 253; Hes. Works, 198.
comitem : sc. se (Ov. A. A. 1. 127).
23. utcumque : 1. 17. 10 ; 4. 4. 36.
25. volgus infidum : contrasted with Fides. Cf. Sen. Phaedra,
496, volgus infidum bonis ; Otto, p. 378. For the faithlessness of
fair-weather friends, cf. poor Ovid's plaint, Trist. 1. 5. 33, vix
duo tresve mihi de tot superestis amid : \ cetera Fortunae non mea
turbafuit.
27. cum faece : to the lees, dregs and all. Cf. 3. 15. 16; Theog.
643. For the thought, cf. the proverb ej x^P a Cfl <' A ' a 5 Shaks.
Timon of Athens, 2. 2, 'Feast-won, fast-lost.'
28. Not loyal to bear the yoke of either fortune, to share the
evil as the good. For the image, cf. on 1. 33. 11 ; 2. 5. 1 ; Theoc.
12. 15; Pliny, Ep. 3. 9. 8, cum uterque pariiugo . . . pro causa
niteretur ; Ov. Trist. 5. 2. 40 ; Propert. 3. 25. 8.
29. ultimos: 4. 14. 47; Catull. 11. 12; Verg. Eel. 1. 67, et
penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos.
.31. examen: etymologically exagmen, swarm, levy. Cf . Aesch.
Pers. 126.
BOOK I., ODE- XXXVI. 231
32. rubro : the Indian Ocean including the Persian Gulf and
the Red Sea.
34-38. Cf. 1. 2. 21 ; 2. 1. 29-36 ; Epodes 7 and 16.
34. fratrum : cf. Verg. G. 2. 510 ; Liv. Epit. 79 (the story of
a brother slain by a brother in the civil war) ; two epigrams,
Le Maire, Poetae Minores, 2. 258 ; Lucan, 2. 148.
35. nefasti : gen. with quid.
38. O utinam : 4. 5. 37.
39. diffingas : only here and 3. 29. 47. Here apparently recast,
forge anew. Cf. Verg. Aen. 7. 630, and Al<ra <patryavovpy6s (Aesch.
Choeph. 647). in: with diffingas, against.
40. Massagetas : Scythians east of the Caspian.
ODE XXXVI.
A welcome to Plotius Numida (unknown) returned from the
west, possibly from the Spanish campaign of Augustus, B.C. 27-
25. Cf. 3. 14. For similar theme, cf. 2. 7.
1. fidibus : fidicines as well as tibicines were employed at sac-
rifices (Schol.). Cf. 4. 1. 21-23.
2. placare : does not imply that the gods were offended. Cf.
Pater, Marius, Chap. I., 'In a faith sincere but half-suspicious, he
would fain have those Powers at least not against him.' Cf . pacem
deorem exposcere. debito : cf. obligatam, 2. 7. 17.
3. custodes: cf. 1. 24. 11. n.
4. Hesperia : Italy for the East, Spain for Italy. Cf. 2. 1. 32 ;
3. 6. 8. sospes : of safe home-coming, cf. 3. 14. 10 ; Gk. 0-<6W0ai
(Plat. Gorg. 511. D).
6. dividit : cf. Lex. s.v. I. A. 2. a.
7. Lamiae : cf. Ode 26.
8. actae : cf. A. P. 173, temporis acti se puero. non alio rege :
under the same (f e)rule. Cf . rectores imperatoriae iuventae of Nero's
teachers (Tac. Ann. 13. 2). Or rex may mean king of the boys'
games (Epp. 1. 1. 59). puertiae: syncope, cf. 2. 2. 2. n. ; 4. 13. 20.
9. mutatae . . . togae : cf. Pater, Marius, Chap. IV., 'At a
somewhat earlier age than usual he had formally assumed the
dress of manhood, going into the Forum for that purpose, accoin-
232 NOTES.
panied by his friends in festal array. ' The toga virilis was assumed
in place of the toga praetexta about the age of sixteen. For Latin
idiom here, cf. 2. 4. 10. n.
10. Cressa : ter,ra creta (cernere'), or chalk, found in abundance
at the island Kimolos near Crete, seems to have been called ' Cre-
tan earth ' by a popular etymology. Lucky days were proverbially
marked with a white line or stone. Cf. Cat. 68. 148 ; Pers. 2. 1 ;
Otto, s.v. calculus.
11. promptae : cf. 2. 4. 10. n. ; 3. 28. 2. modus: cf. 1. 16. 2.
12. Salium : for saliarem, cf. 4. 1. 28. Others take it as gen.
plur. The Salii, or jumpers, were, so to speak, the dancing Der-
vishes of Mars. Cf. Livy, 1. 20 ; Ov. Fast. 3. 387 ; see their rude
chant (Epist. 2. 1. 86, Saliare Numae carmen) ; Mommsen, Hist.,
Eng. Tr. 1, p. 294. The luxury of their banquets was proverbial.
Cf. 1. 37. 2 ; 2. 14. 28.
13. multi . . . meri : TTO^OIVOS. Cf. 3. 9. 7 ; 3. 7. 4 ; 4. 1. 15.
Cf. Cic. Fam. 9. 26, non multi cibi hospitem. Damalis : frequent
name of girls of her class, evidently from 8ayua\(s, a heifer. Cf. on
2. 5. 6. For women and wine-drinking, cf. Catull. 27. 3.
14. Bassum : unknown. amystide : a^vyri Trtvetv, draining
the cup at a gulp was attributed to the Thracians. The noun
DHOTIS (Anacr. fr. 63. 2).
15. Cf. 3. 19. 22.
16. vivax : rhetorically contrasted with breve! Cf. 2. 3. 14. n.
17. putres : cf. Lex. s.v. II. ' But Enid feared his eyes, | Moist
as they were, wine-heated from the feast' (Tenn.).
19. adultero: 1.33. 9.
20. ambitiosior : etymologically, clinging and climbing. Cf.
Catull. 61. 33. 106 ; Epode 15. 5. Cf . 4. 4. 65. n.
ODE XXXVII.
Song of triumph over the fall of Antony and Cleopatra. Written
apparently in the autumn of B.C. 30, when the news of Cleopatra's
suicide reached Rome.
Cf. on Epodes 1 and 9; Dio. 51. 6-15; Merivale, 3. 270-276;
Propert. 4. 10. 30 sqq. ; 5. 6. 63 sqq. ; Verg. Aen. 8. 675.
BOOK I., ODE XXXVII. 233
The name of Antony is ignored, as it was in the declaration of
war against Aegypt and in the triumph.
The first two lines imitate Alcaeus' song over the death of the
tyrant Myrsilus : v\>v xp^l fJ-eOvvdriv Kal nva irpbs &iav \ irivr\v tirnS})
Ka.rda.vf Mupai\os ; fr. 20. One of the earliest poems in Alcaic meter,
as shown perhaps by metrical harshness of 5 and 14.
1. pede libero: cf. 3. 18. 15; 1. 4. 7; Catull. 61. 14, pelle
humum pedibus. But libero also suggests liberation from fear of
the enemy. Cf. Hector's KprirTjpa i\ev9epov, 11. 6. 528 ; Aesch. Ag.
328.
2. Saliaribua: proverbial, as 2. 14. 28, pontificum. Cf. 1. 36.
12 ; Otto, p. 306.
3. pulvinar : see Lex. s.v., and s.v. lectisternium.
4. erat : variously taken (1) as Greek imperfect of surprise or
recognition (cf. on 1. 27. 19), or (2) more simply as rebuke of
delay. Cf.'Ov. Am. 3. 1. 23, tempus erat, thyrso pulsum yraviore
moveri, \ cessatum satis est, incipe mains opus ; Livy, 8. 5, tempus
erat . . . tandem iam vos nobiscum nihil pro impe.no agere; Ov.
Trist. 4 8. 24, me quoque donari iam rude tempus erat, \ tempus
erat nee me peregrinum ducere caelum; Her. 6. 4 ; Tibull. 3. 6. 64 ;
Arist. Eccles. 877. Logically this is somewhat inconsistent with
antehac nefas, which favors (1), but in the rapid movement of the
ode the exclamatory first strophe may be forgotten. A. and G.
311 ; III. c. R., interpret, it would be time (if it were for us to do
it, but it is a public act)*.
5. depromere : cf. 1. 9. 7. antehac: dissyllable. Caecu-
bum : cf . Epode 9. 1.
6. Capitolio the symbol of Roman empire (cf. on 3. 30. 8 ;
3. 3. 42) menaced by the foul Egyptian. Cf. Ov. Met. 15. 827,
frustraque erit ilia minata, \ servitura suo Capitolia nostra Canopo ;
Lucan, 10. 63, terruit ilia sno, si fas, Capitolia sistro.
7. regina : a doubly invidious title to Roman ears. ' There was
a Brutus once that would have brooked | The eternal devil to keep
his state in Rome | As easily as a king' (Shaks. Jul. Caes.). Cf.
3. 5. 9, sttb rege Medo; Epode 9. 12, emancipatus feminae;
Propert. 4. 10. 39, scilicet incesti meretrix regina Canopi. . . . Ausa
lovi nostro latrantem opponere Anubin. ; El. in Maec. 53. She is
234 NOTES.
called Regina or Qaaixwaa. on extant coins. Cf. Floras, 4. 11 ; Dio.
50. 5. dementes : transferred epithet. Cf. 3. 1. 42; 1. 12.34;
1. 15. 33, etc. Virgil's sceleratas poenas (Aen. 2. 576).
8. et : loosely placed as 1. 2. 18 and passim.
9-10. The Eunuchs, etc. Cf. Epode 9. 13 ; Shaks. Ant. and
Cleop. 1. 2 ; Propert. 4. 10. 30 ; Tac. Ann. 15. 37.
10. virorum: with emphatic scorn. morbo : like i/Jtroy, of
base passions. impotens : with sperare, frenzied enough to.
There is no equivalent in modern English. It denotes the weak-
ness of uncontrolled passion. Cf. Shaks. ' As some fierce thing
replete with inmost rage | Whose strength's abundance weakens
its own heart ' ; Tenn. ' Impotence of fancied power ' ; Milton,
' Will he, so wise, let loose at once his ire, | Belike through im-
potence or unaware ? ' Cf . avpar-hs and impotentia, Epode 16. 62 ;
and Trench, Study of Words, 70 ; F. Q. 5. 12. 1, ' sacred hun-
ger of ambitious minds | And impotent desire of men to reign.'
12. ebria: so n<6veiv, Demosth. Phil. 1. 49. Tenn. lias 'drunk
with loss.' Cf. ' If, drunk with sight of power, we loose j Wild
tongues that have not Thee in awe' (Rudyard Kipling, Reces-
sional) .
13. Vix una sospes: the escape of barely one ship. Cf. pn
2. 4. 10. It was the fleet of Antony that was thus destroyed.
Cleopatra fled early in the action, and Antony followed her. Cf.
Ant. and Cleopat. 3. 9 ; Propert. 3. 8. 39, hunc insanus amor versis
dare terga carinis \ iussit; and Tenn. 's youthful poem, 'Then when
the shriekings of the dying | Were heard" along the wave, | Soul
of my soul I saw thee flying, | I followed thee to save. | The
thunder of the brazen prows | O'er Actium's ocean rung ; | Fame's
garland faded from my brows, | Her wreath away I flung. | I
sought, I saw, I heard but thee, | For what to love was victory ? '
14. lymphatam : her panic is attributed to Bacchus, author of
panic fear, no less than Pan, or rather to her deep potations of
sweet Egyptian wine. ' Now no more | The juice of Aegypt's
grape shall moist this lip,' she says, in her death hour (Ant. and
Cleop. 5. 2). The superstition that the sight of a nymph (lymphae,
water-nymphs) caused madness is preserved in the word nympho-
lepsy.
15. veros: as contrasted with the panic alarms of 14. Cf.
BOOK I., ODE XXXVII. 235
Epist. 2. 1. 212, falsis terroribus ; Lucan, 1. 469, Vana quoque ad
veros accessit fama timores.
16. ab Italia : she had come against Italy, if she had not
reached it. volantem : sc. Cleopatra. Cf. Vergil's pelagoque
volamus. The imaginative transition is easy to the image of the
fleeing (flying) dove in the next strophe.
17. adurgens : as a matter of fact, Octavian returned to Italy
to quiet a mutiny of the veterans, wintered at Samos, and entered
Aegypt only in the following spring. accipiter : cf. H. 22. 139 ;
Aeschyl. Prom. 856 ; Verg. Aen. 11. 721 ; Ov. Met. 5. 606. For
Cleopatra's flight, cf. Verg. Aen. 8. 707-712 ; Propert. 4. 10. 51,
fitgisti tamen in timidi vagaflumina Nili; El. in Maec. 47.
19. Horace may have seen the plains of Thessaly white with
snow in his travels with Brutus. Winter was the hunting season
(Epode 2. 30. n.).
20. daret: sc. Caesar, who was eager to exhibit Cleopatra in
his triumph. Cf. Plut. Ant. 78.
21. monstrum : sc. Cleopatram. Cf. Lucan's dedecus Aegypti,
Latii fernlis Erinnys (10. 58). quae : synesis. generosius :
'fitting for a princess descended of so many royal kings' (Ant.
and Cleo. 5. 2).
22. quaerens : with inf. Cf. 3. 4. 39 ; 3. 24. 27 ; 3. 27. 55 ; 4. 1. 12 ;
Epode 2. 70 ; 16. 16. So Lucret. and Vergil, not, it seems, Cicero.
muliebriter : Velleius, 2. 87. 1, Cleopatra . . . expers mulie-
bris metus spiritum reddidit ; Ant. and Cleo. 5. 2, ' My resolution's
placed, and I have nothing | Of woman in me.'
23. ensem : she first attempted suicide with a dagger (Plut.
Ant. 79).
24. reparavit : Perhaps ' procured by exchange a place of
hiding by her swift fleet ' a tortuous expression for ' sought
refuge in remote lands.' Cf. 1. 31. 12. Penetravit, properavit,
repe.tivit, etc., have been proposed. Dio. 51. 6 and Plut. Ant. 69,
speak of schemes for taking refuge beyond the Red Sea, etc.
25-32. The construction is awkward. Ausa (participle) fortis
and ferocior, with their modifiers, expand the thought of 21-25.
Deliberata morte (abl. abs.) motivates ferocior, fiercely defi-
ant in (by) her resolve to die. (Non) humilis mulier effectively
contrasted by juxtaposition with superbo . . . triumpho belongs
236 NOTES.
with invidens, and the consummation of her defeat in the triumph,
privcftu deduci triumpho, is the thing Cleopatra grudges to the cruel
Liburnian galleys of Caesar.
25. iacentem : metaphorically. Cf . 4. 14. 36.
26. asperas : cf. 1. 23. 9 ; 3. 2. 10.
27. serpentes : the asps. Cf. Verg. Aen. 8. 697 ; Ant. and
Cleo. 6. 2. atrum : cf. 3. 4. 17. n.
30. Liburnis ; cf. on Epode 1. 1-2.
31-32. Cf. the cry attributed to her in Livy, Apud Porphyr.
ov Opia^evffo^ai ; Shak. Ant. and Cleo. 5. 1, ' her life in Rome |
Would be eternal in our triumph' ; 5. 2. ' Shall they hoist me up, |
And show me to the shouting varletry | Of censuring Rome ? '
Tenn. Dr. of Fair Women, ' I died a queen ' ; F. Q. 1. 6. 60, ' High-
minded Cleopatra that with stroke | Of aspes sting herself did
stoutly kill.' Her effigy was borne in the triumph. Cf. Propert.
4. 10. 63, Bracchia spectavi sacris admorsa colubris. privata :
discrowned queen. Superbo (1. 35. 3). non humilia : Martial,
7. 40. 2, pectore non humili.
ODE XXXVIII.
This pretty trifle is intended to relieve the severity of the thirty-
fifth and thirty-seventh Odes (Sellar, p. 137). Translated by
Hartley Coleridge, and in two forms by Cowper. Austin Dobson's
rendering in Triolets is well known : ' Davus, I detest Orient dis-
play.' Cf. Thackeray's amusing, ' Dear Lucy, you know what my
wish is, | I hate all your Frenchified fuss, | Your silly entries and
made dishes | Were never intended for us ' ; and the irreverent
' Persicos odi, puer apparatus, | Bring me a chop and a couple of
potatoes.'
1. Persicos: e.g. Achaemeninm costum (3. 1. 44). The ad
of apparatus and adlabores (5) marks the unnecessary additions
to the simple requirements of nature which the wiser Epicurean
rejects. Cf. Lucret. 2. 20 sqq. puer: cf. 2. 11. 18; 1. 19. 14.
Anacr. fr. 64.
2. philyra : ready-made coronae sutiles, garlands sewn on lin-
den bark, were bought at the shops. Cf. Ov. Fast. 5. 336.
BOOK II., ODE I. 237
3. mitte: cf. 3. 8. 17 ; Epode 13. 7 ; and omitte, 3. 29. 11. quo
locorum : cf. 1. 29. 5, quae viryinnm.
4. sera : the rose is a spring flower in Italy ; sub arta viie (7)
suggests midsummer heat.
6. sedulus: originally se dulo (?) malo, i.e. sine dolomalo. Here
with adlabores of the servant's officiousness, cf. A. P. 116, sedula
nutrix, and Delia serving Messalla in Tibull. 1. 5. 32, et tantum
venerata virum hunc sedula curet. euro: with adlabores. Cf.
Sat. 2. 6. 38, imprimat his, cnra, Maecenas signa tabellis. minis-
trum: cf. Cat. 27. 1, minister vetuli puer Falerni; Fitzgerald,
Omar Khayyam, ' And lose your fingers in the tresses of | The
cypress-slender minister of wine' ; Mart. 8. 67. 5.
7. arta: thick-pleached, trellised.
BOOK II., ODE I.
Pollio, forsaking the tragic stage and the triumphs of the Forum,
undertakes the history of our civil wars setting his feet ' on the
thin crust of ashes beneath which the lava is still glowing.'
(Macaulay, Hist. Eng. c. 6. ) Methinks even now I hear the trum-
pet's blare. Again ' our Italy shines o'er with civil swords.'
Again the tale is told of great captains soiled with noble dust, and
all the world subdued save Cato's indomitable soul. Now, Jugur-
tha, thou art avenged. Our blood has fertilized every field, crim-
soned every pool, and the crash of ruin in Italy rejoiced the ears of
our enemy the Mede. But hush ! my light muse. So high a
strain is not for thee.
C. Asinius Pollio had been a friend of Cicero and member of the
circle of Calvus and Catullus in his youth (Catull. 12. 8), had studied
at Athens a few years before Horace's sojourn there, and fought
under Caesar at Pharsalus. After his consulate B.C. 40 (cf. Verg.
Eel. 4) he was sent against the Parthini, a Dalmatian tribe, by
Antony, and celebrated a triumph over them B.C. 39 (cf. 1. 16;
Verg. Eel. 8 ; Dio, 48. 41). From the spoils he established the first
public library at Rome (Pliny N. H. 7. 115, 35. 10). Octavian
allowed his plea that self-respect required him to be neutral in the
conflict with Antony (Veil. 2. 86), and the remainder of his life
238 NOTES.
was devoted to letters and oratory. (Verg. Eel. 8. 10; Hor. Sat.
1. 10, 43, 85 ; Quintil. 12. 11. 28.) As literary critic he detected
faults in Cicero (Sen. Suas. 6. 15), Livy, and Sallust. His history of
the civil wars in seventeen books is mentioned by Tacitus (Ann.
4. 34), Suetonius (Caes. 30), and others. He first introduced at
Rome the custom of authors' readings from advance she*ets of their
own works (recitatio, cf. Sen. Contr. 4 praef.), which became such
a nuisance under the empire. (Cf. Mayor on Juv. 1. 1-4, 3. 9.)
The present Ode may well have been suggested by such a reading.
It also testifies to Horace's independence, for Pollio had not pre-
sented himself at court. Cf. Sellar, p. 152.
1. motum ex Metello : the war began with Caesar's passage of
the Rubicon B.C. 49, but the turmoil in the State dates from the
consulship of Q. Caecilius Metellus Celer, B.C. 60, when Caesar,
Pompey, and Crassus formed the private league known as the first
triumvirate : inita potentiae socie.tas, quae urbi orbique terrarum
nee minus . . . ipsis exitiabilis fuit (Veil. 2. 44). Cf. Suet. Caes.
19, Floras 4. 2. civicum : archaic and poetic for civile, cf. civica
corona ; hosticus, 3. 2. 6, 3. 24. 26 ; Sat. 1. 9. 31 ; civica iura (Epp.
1. 3. 23) ; civica bella (Ov. Pont. 1. 2. 124). But Lucan 1. 1, bella
per Emathios plusquam civilia campos.
2. causas : enumerated by Lucan 1. 67 sqq., e.g. among the
proximate causes the death of Crassus at Carrhae B.C. 53, nam
sola futuri \ Crassus erat belli medius mora (Lucan 1. 99) ; and
the death of Julia, the wife of Pompey and daughter of Caesar
(ibid. 112). vitia : blunders, mistakes, vitia ducum, Nep. Alt. 16.
4, but suggesting more. modos : phases, turns, vicissitudes.
3. ludum: 3. 29. 50; 1. 2. 37 ; 1. 34. 16; Plato Laws, 709 A;
Juv. 3. 40, quotiens voluit Fortuna iocari. Lucan moralizing on
the death of Pompey invokes Fortuna six times (Phars. 8. 686,
701, 708, 730, 767, 793). Cf. also 1. 84. Crassus and Caesar
were in the end equally conspicuous examples of the sport of
fortune.
3-4. graves . . . amicitias : weighty, ruinous, fateful alliances.
Cf. Lucan, 1. 84 the first triumvirate.
5. nondum expiatis : cf. 1. 2. 29; Epode 7. 3, 20. uncta :
stained, smeared, a stronger tincta (Epode, 5. 19). Cf. Silius, 9. 13,
BOOK II., ODE I. 239
unrjucre . . . tela cruorc. cruoribus: pi. mainly metri causa.
Cf. 3. 27. 76. But cf. Aescll. Suppl. 265, aipdrtav nia.apa.cnv.
6. opus: app. with sentence. Cf. 3. 20. 7. alea : proverbial
of war. Cf. Aesch. Sept. 414; Eurip. (?) Rhesus. 183; F. Q.
1. 2. 36, ' In which his harder fortune was to fall | Under my spear ;
such is the die of war' ; Swinb. Erechth., ' Now the stakes of war
are set, | For land or sea to win by throw and wear ' ; Lucan. 6. 7,
placet alea fati \ alterutrum mersura caput ; Petron. 122, 1. 174.
Caesar's famous iccta alea est, Suet. 32. Cf. Otto, p. 12. But
Horace is thinking rather of the risks of the historian, 11. 7, 8.
7. per igues. etc., per, over. Cf. 1. 6. 7 ; Propert. 1. 5. 5, et
miser ignotos vestigia ferre per ignes. Cf . Prov. irvp vtrb TJJ <riro5ia ;
Callim. Ep. 45. 2 ; Macaulay, supra (Page) ; Tyrrell, Latin Poetry,
p. 203, censures the image.
9. severae: solemn, stately ; Milton's ' gorgeous tragedy in scep-
tred pall ' ; Plato's rj <re/j.vi] avrrj Kal 0ai/yua<rr^ ; Gorg. 502 B ; Ov.
Amor. 3. 1. 11, ingenti violenta tragoedia passu. But possibly of
some new severity of method in Pollio's closet tragedies. Cf. Verg.
Eel. 3. 86, nova carmina, ibid. 8. 10 ; fidibus . . . sevens, A. P. 216.
1 0. desit : complimentary they will be missed. theatris :
cf. 2. 17. 26. There was but one (permanent), and Pollio's plays
were probably not acted. mox ubi : 3. 27. 69, i.e. simul ac.
11. ordinaris : set forth in order; Luke, 1. 1. Cf. componere,
avvTa.TTtiv, and the usage by which the poet is said to do what he
describes. munus: function, task, high themes.
12. repetes : resume, return to, ' And the Cecropian buskin don
anew,' Martin. Cecropio: Attico, 4. 12. 6. Cf. A. P. 275 sqq.
for Athens as home of tragedy. coturno : A. P. 280, nitique
coturno; Milton's 'buskin'd stage' as distinguished from the low
sock (soccus) of comedy ; Mrs. Browning, Wine of Cyprus : ' How
the cothurns trod majestic | Down the deep iambic lines ' ; Sat.
1. 5. 64 ; Mart. 5. 30. 1 ; Propert. 3. 32. 41.
13. praesidium : eight of the nine titles of his speeches known
to us are for the defense. For the turn of the compliment, cf. 4. 1.
14;'Ov. Fast. 1. 22, civica pro trepidis cum tulit arma reis ; Laus
Pisonis, 39, cum tua maestos \ defensura reos vocem facundia misit ;
Cornel. Severus on Cicero, 12 : unica sollicitis quondam tutela
salusque.
240 NOTES.
14. consulenti : i.e. consilianti, 3. 3. 17, in its counsels, with a
complimentary suggestion that it consults him. Curiae: the
Senate, the House. Cf. 3. 5. 7.
17. iam nunc, etc., complimentary anticipation of the vividness
of Pollio's descriptions of which the poet lias perhaps heard a
specimen. Cf . Petron. Sat. 120. minaci murmure : ' With harsh-
resounding trumpets' dreaded bray ' ; Shaks. Rich. II. 1. 3.
18. perstringis : see lexicon. Used of anything that dazzles,
deafens, or confounds the sense. Cf. acies praestringitur; and
gelidai stringor aquai (Lucret. 3. 687) ; Quintil. 10. 1. 30, qualis
est ferri fulgor quo mens simul visusque praestringitur. litui :
1. 1. 23, like the cornu it was used by cavalry.
19-20. The scene is the defeat of Pompey's cavalry by Caesar's
foot-soldiers at Pharsalia.
19. fulgor armorum : cf. on 1. 7. 19; Homer's XO.\KOV arfpoirh',
Shaks. Ant. and C. 1. 3, ' shines o'er with civil swords ' ; Othello,
1.2, 'keep up your bright swords; Job, 29. 33, 'the glittering
spear and the shield.' fugaces : proleptic.
20. equos equitumque : ' The horse and rider reel,' Tenn. Sir
Gal. ; 'While horse and hero fell,' Charge of the Light Brigade.
voltus : We see the fright of battle on their faces as in a picture
of Delacroix. But there may be an allusion to Caesar's command,
' miles faciem feri ' (Floras, 4. 2. 50), or to the principle stated
by Tacitus, Ger. 43, primi in omnibus proeliis oculi vincuntur,
rendered by Herrick, 291, ' 'Tis a known principle in war, | That
eies be first, that conquered are ' ; Plut. Caes. 45, oi>5' (TO\/*COV eV
o(f>0a\iJ.o7s rbv albypov op&vrts.
21. audire : he hears the clamor (1. 2. 38) and the strepitits
(I. 15. 18), and sees, hears of, or feels as a living reality the rest.
Cf. on 1. 14. 3 ; 3. 10. 5. There is a possible reference in audire to
the recitations. videor: 3. 4. 6.
22. non indecoro : cf. Tenn. Two Voices, ' When, soil'd with
noble dust, he hears | His country's war song thrill his ears.' Cf.
nigrum, 1. 6. 15 ; Verg. Aen. 2. 272. Contrast 1. 15. 20.
23. cuncta terrarum : cf. Veil. 2. 56, Caesar omnium victor
regressus in urbem. For the idiom, cf. on 4. 12. 19, 4. 4. 76.
24. atrocem: here stubborn. So in good sense, Juv. 2. 12,
Hispida membra . . . promittunt atrocem animum. Catonis:
BOOK II., ODE I. 241
already the idol of Stoics and declaimers. Cf. 1. 12. 36 ; Sen.
Suas. 6. 2, M. Cato solus maximum Vivendi moriendique exemplum
muri maluit quam rorjare. Florus, 4. 2. 70, and Plut. Cat. 59-70,
describe his suicide at Utica on hearing of the defeat of the Pom-
peians at Thapsus. Cf. Sir Thos. Browne, Urne Burial, ' And
Cato, before he durst give the fatal stroke, spent part of the night
in reading the Immortality of Plato, thereby confirming his waver-
ing hand unto the animosity of that attempt'; Lucan. 1. 128,
victrix causa deis plaruit sed victa Catoni ; Id. 2. 315-320, 380 sqq. ;
Manil. 4. 87, et invicta devictum mete Catonem ; Sen. de Prov. 2,
et passim; Cic. ad Fain. 9. 18; Val. Max. 2. 10. 8; Sen. de
Tranq. An. 15 ; Martial, 1. 8. Verg. Aen. 8. 670, makes him
judge of the blessed, secretosque pios ; his dantem iura Catonem.
Cf. Dante, Purg. I. Julius Caesar found time to compose an Anti-
Cato in reply to Cicero's encomium. Augustus stole the opposition
thunder by praising Cato himself (Macrob. Sat. 2. 4. 18). In Eng-
lish, see the literature that has gathered about Addison's Cato,
especially Pope's Prologue, 1. 21, 'A brave man struggling in the
storms of fate, | And greatly falling, with a falling state.'
25 sqq. Cato suggests Thapsus. Sallust's Jugurtha had recently
been published. Juno, in the legend, was the opponent of Aeneas
and the patron of Carthage, and so of Africa against Italy. So
Horace says in his complicated way that the gods who had with-
drawn from the Africa they were helpless to save or avenge have
now (by the terrible slaughter of Thapsus, B.C. 46) offered up the
grandsons of the former victors to the shades of Jugurtha. Metel-
lus Scipio, commander of the Pompeians, was the grandson of the
Metellus Numidicus who subdued Jugurtha.
26. cesserat : for the belief that its gods abandoned a doomed
city, cf. Verg. Aen. 2. 351 ; Aesch. Sept. 218 ; Herod. 8. 41 ; Eurip.
Tro. 25; Tac. Hist. 5. 13. The Romans had rites to draw away
the enemies' gods (Macrob. Sat. 3. 9, evocatio ; Serv. on Verg.
Aen. 12. 841). The Aztecs shut up in one great temple the gods
of conquered tribes to prevent their returning (Re"ville, Hibb. Lec-
tures, 1884, p. 31). impotens: etymologically (cf. on 4. 4. 65),
not in the usual secondary sense of 1. 37. 10.
29. Latino sanguine: Epode 7. 4. pinguior: Shaks. Rich.
II. 4. 1, 'The blood of English shall manure the ground' ; Aesch.
R
242 NOTES.
Sept. 587. In Persae, 806, cited by editors, iriacr/na refers to the
river Asopus, and not to the corpses. Verg. G. 1. 491, bis san-
guine nostro \ Emathiam et latos Haemi pinyuescere compos.
30. impia: cf. on 1. 35. 34 ; Epode 16. 9.
31. Medis: cf. on 1. 2. 22, 51. For case, cf. 1. 21. 4 ; 3. 25. 3.
So a Frenchman,, in 1871, might have spoken of the Germans
listening to Versailles bombarding the Commune of Paris.
32. Hesperiae : western, here Italian. Cf. 3. 6. 8 ; 4. 5. 38 ;
Verg. Aen. 2. 781. In 1. 36. 4, Spain. ruinae : crash, downfall
(of a building, Juv. 3. 196). Cf. 1. 2. 25 ; 3. 3. 8. n. See in
Florus, 4. 2. 6, the list of lands over which the civil war raged.
33-36. cf. 3. 6. 34 ; 2. 12. 3 ; Macaulay, Regillus, 'And how the
Lake Regillus | Bubbled with crimson foam, | What time the thirty
cities | Came forth to war with Rome ' ; Tenn. Princ. ' Or by denial
flush her babbling wells | With her own people's life.'
34. Dauniae = Apulian = Italian. 1. 22. 14; 3. 5. 9. Specific,
metrically convenient, helps alliteration.
35. decoloravere : de intensive. Cf. 1. 3. 13; 1. 9. 11.
36. caret : 2. 10. 7 ; 3. 29. 23 ; 4. 9. 28.
37. ne : cf. on 1. 6. 10 ; 1. 33. 1. The sudden check is Pindaric.
Cf. Ol. 9. 38, 3. 3. 72. n., 1. 6. 10 ; Sellar, p. 134.
38. Ceae : Simonides of Ceos, who wrote the Epitaphs on the
heroes of Thermopylae and Salamis, was noted for his pathos
(Quintil. 10. 1. 64). Cf. Catull. 38. 8, maestius lacrimis Simoni-
deis ; Swinb. 'High from his throne in heaven Simonides | Crowned
with mild aureole of perpetual tears ' ; Words. ' or unroll | One
precious tender-hearted scroll | Of pure Simonides.' neniae :
dirge, ^vos, possibly with a disparaging suggestion of the droning
monotony of the last three strophes. Cf. 3. 28. 16 ; Epode 17. 29 ;
Epp. 1. 1. 63.
39. Dionaeo: Dione was mother of Venus "(Horn. II. 5. 370;
Theoc. 15. 106, Kvwpi Aicorata). But Dione is used for Venus (Ov.
Fast. 2. 461, Pervigil. Ven.). Dionaean is a sonorous Greek adj.
for Latin poetry. Cf. on 1. 17. 22-23; Verg. Eel. 9. 47. sub
antro : 1. 5. 3 ; 3. 4. 40.
40. leviore plectro: cf. on 4. 2. 33; 2. 13. 27 ; 1. 26. 11 ; Ov.
Met. 10. 150. Cecini plectro graviore gigantas, nunc opus est
leviore lyra.
BOOK II., ODE II. 243
ODE II.
Silver shines only in use. Generous use of wealth makes Pro-
culeius immortal. He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that
taketh a city. Hydroptic immoderate desire is a disease curable
only by removal of its cause. The true king sits^not on the throne
of Cyrus. 'Tis he who is not the slave of greed.
Translated by Cotton in Johnson's Poets, 18, p. 16. For similar
'barren scraps, to say the least, of Stoic commonplaces' (Dobson),
cf. 1. 16. 17 ; 3. 2. 17 ; 4. 9. 39 ; Sat. 1. 3. 125 ; Epp. 1. 1. 106.
1-4. The parallel : silver has no lustre in the mine, wealth is
worthless except for noble uses, is given a personal application by
the substitution of the condition for its second member. All edi-
tors since Bentley warn the student that inimice is the apodosis of
nisi . . . splendeat. But the construction nullus . . . color est . . .
nisi . . . splendeat is perfectly possible despite the verbal contra-
diction, and is quite in Horace's pregnant, subtle manner. Cf.
Milton's ' for what peace will be given | To us enslaved, but custody
severe ? ' Jebb on Soph. Ajax, 100.
1. color : cf. OVK Hffr' v avrpots \fvic6s, & |eV, &pyvpos, Anon, apud
Plut. wepl dufftoirias 10. avaris: either as 1. 28. 18; 3. 29. 61;
or by association with miser's greed.
2. terris : preferably abl., if the ore of the mine is meant (CMM
terra celat, 3. 3. 50), dat. perhaps, if the reference is to the miser's
hoards (Sat. 1. 8. 43, abdiderint furt im terris). lamiiae : for syn-
cope, cf. 1. 36. 8 ; Epode 9. 1 ; Kirkland, p. xv. Bullion, bar silver \
with implied contempt for the 'pale and common drudge 'tween
man and man.'
3. Crispe Sallusti : there is, perhaps, a touch of familiarity
in putting the family name before the gentile. Cf. Hirpini Quinti
2. 11. 2 ; Fusctis Aristius, Sat. 1. 9. 61. Sallustius was the grand-
nephew and adopted son of the historian, and the fortunate owner
of the famous Horti Sallustiani and of rich copper mines. Origi-
nally an adherent of Antony, he was in later life a confident of
Augustus and a signal example of his clemency. (Sen. de Clem.
1. 10 ; Tac. Ann. 3. 30.) An epigram of the contemporary poet
Krinagoras celebrates his liberality, Anth. Pal. 16. 40.
244 NOTES.
4. usu : that to shine in use is the test of true metal, both in
physics and morals, is a favorite commonplace of Greek poetry.
Cf. Theog. 417, 449-450 ; Aeschyl. Ag. 390 ; Soph. Fr. 780, \dprrei
yap fv \plitU9ir &<rirep fKirpfir^s xaA.K<s.
5. vivet: sc. the 'life of fame in others' breath.' Cf. Ov. Met.
15. 878, perque omnia saecula fama, \ siquid habent veri vatum
praesagia, vivam. extento aevo: abl. as occulto aevo, 1. 12. 45.
Cf. 3. 11. 35 and Verg. Aen. 6. 806, virtutem extendere factis;
10. 468, famam extendere factis. Proculeius : C. Proculeius,
the brother of Maecenas' wife Terentia and of L. Licinius Murena
(2. 10) shared his estate, Porphyry tells us, with his brothers, who
lost their property in the civil wars. Cf. Cotton's naive expansion
of the passage, ' Soon as this generous Roman saw | His father's
sons proscribed by law, | The knight discharged a parent's part, |
They shared his fortune and his heart. | Hence stands consigned a
brother's name | To immortality and fame.'
6. in: cf. 4. 4. 28. animi : gen. of 'reference' with notus.
Page, holding this impossible, construes notus with vivet and animi
as gen. of qual. with Proculeius.
7. aget: bear aloft, upbear, cf. levat, 4. 2. 25. penna: cf. pin-
nata fama (Verg. Aen. 9. 473). Cf. ibid. 4. 181 ; Spenser, Ruins
of Time, ' But Fame with golden wings aloft doth fly,' etc. ; and
Matthew Arnold, ' Hither to come and to sleep | Under the wings of
Renown' (Heine's Grave). metuente solvi: unflagging, with
a possible glance at the wax-joined wings of Icarus. Indissolubilis
would be unpoetical and impracticable here. Periphrasis with
metuo ekes out the slender resources of Latin as does periphrasis
with careo. Cf. 3. 11. 10; 3. 24. 22; 4. 5. 20; Verg. G. 1. 246,
arctos . . . metuentes aequore tingui. Cf. also 3. 26. 10. n.
8. Cf. Ov. Trist. 3. 7. 50, me tamen extincto fama superstes erit.
9 sqq. The Stoic paradox, dives qui sapiens est . . . et solus
formosus et est rex, Sat. 1. 3. 125. Cf. Cic. Paradox. 6, on fj.6vos 6
ffotybs Tr\ov<nos, which goes back to Socrates' prayer, irKowiov 5e
voniCoitu rbv o-o(f>6i>, Plat. Phaedr. 279 C. regnes : cf . ' Yet he
who reigns within himself, and rules | Passions, desires, and fears
is more a king' (Milton, P. R. 2).
11. Tyrrell (Latin Poetry, p. 197) says somewhat captiously,
' What is the meaning of to "join Libya to the distant Gades" ?
BOOK II., ODE H. 245
Surely to unite Africa to Spain by a bridge.' But cf. the millionaire
in Petron. 48, mine coniungere agellis Siciliam volo ut cum Africam
Ubuerit ire per meos fines navigem. et: and (so). uterque
Poenus : sc. of Carthage and of her Spanish colonies, where rem-
nants of the old Phoenician population doubtless still lingered.
12. Serviat : perhaps literally, since the latifundia were culti-
vated by chain-gangs of slaves. With whole passage cf. 3. 16.
31-41. uni : sc. tibi.
13-16. The dropsy, symbol of greed, is personified and substi-
tuted for the thing it signifies. SSp<a^ is both the sick man and the
malady. The image is a commonplace. Cf. Polyb. 13. 2 ; Lucil.
28. 27, aquam te in animo habere intercutem; Donne, 'the worst
voluptuousness, an hydroptic immoderate desire of human learning
and languages.' For thirst of dropsy, cf. Ov. Fast. 1. 215.
15-16. aquosus . . . languor : lassitude caused by the water.
A Greek poet would have had his choice between vdardiSris, vSfp-ijs,
vtiardxpoos, A.eiwJxP* an( i a dozen other convenient derivatives in
this connection. The poorer Latin has only the vague aquosus for
all these, for 6/j.Bpotp6pos, Epode 16. 54, and Homer's iroAuu-rSaf as
well. Cf. on 3. 20. 15. fugerit: cf. Epp. 1. 6. 29, quaere fugam
morbi.
17. redditum : despite his restoration. Cyri : typical, cf.
Plut. Alex. 30, and Milton's ' won Asia and the throne of Cyrus
held | At his dispose.' Phraaten: for his restitution to throne of
Parthia, cf. on 1. 26. 5.
18. beatorum : cf. 2. 3. 27, 3. 29. 35, for hypermetron, and
4. 9, 46, and Epp. 1. 16. 18-20 for thought.
19. Virtus : the Stoic sage, spokesman of the Stoic Virtue
(3. 2. 17), uses the porticoes of the people but not their estimates
of good and evil (dissidens plebi, cf. Epp. 1. 1. 71), like Socrates
(Plato, Gorg. 470 e), refuses to count even the Great King happy
without knowing how he stands in respect of culture and virtue,
defines real kingship as ' a truer mental and higher moral state '
(Ruskin), and assigns the safer diadem and the inalienable laurel
to him who can pass by heaps of treasure with unreverting eye.
falsis : cf. Sal. Cat. 52, iam pridem . . . nos vera vocabula'rerum
amisimus.
21. regnum : for sage as king cf. Sat. 1. 3. 133 ; Epp. 1. 1. 59 ;
246 NOTES.
1. 1. 107; Sen. Thyest. 389 sqq. tutum : which the tiara of
Phraates was not.
22. propriam : cf. Sat. 2. 6. 5, propria haec mihi munera fa-sis ;
Verg. Aen. 3. 85.
23. inretorto : Cic. in Cat. 2. 1. 2 says of Catiline leaving
Rome, retorqnet oculos profecto saepe ad hanc urbem.. For same
idea in different image cf. Pers. Sat. v. 110-112.
24. acervos: sc. aeris acervos et auri, Epp. 1. 2. 47; cf. Sat.
1. 1. 44 ; 2. 2. 105 ; Epp. 1. 6. 35 ; Tenn. The Golden Year : ' When
wealth shall rest no more in mounded heaps.' Milt. Comus :
'unsunn'd heaps | Of miser's treasure.'
ODE III.
Temper thy joy and sorrow, Dellius, with the thought of death.
Gather the roses of life while you may. For Dives and Laza-
rus alike is drawn the inevitable lot that dooms us to Charon's
bark and everlasting exile from the warm precincts of the cheer-
ful day.
Quintus Dellius, the boon companion of Antony, was wittily
nicknamed by Messalla desultor bellorum civiliitm, the desultor
being the circus rider who leaps from horse to horse. His last
change of front was his desertion of Antony for Octavian through
fear of Cleopatra. He stood high in the favor of Augustus, and
was the author of memoirs of the Parthian wars and scurrilous
letters ostensibly addressed to Cleopatra. Veil. 2. 84 ; Sen. Suas.
1. 7 ; Plut. Ant. 59 ; Sen. de Clem. 1. 10.
1. Aequam . . . arduis : the verbal antithesis faintly suggests
a latent image : a level head a steep and rugged path. For
animus aequus cf. Epp. 1. 18. 112; 1. 11. 30; Plaut. Rud. 402;
Lucret. 5. 1117 ; Aequanimitas was the last watchword given out
by the Emperor Antoninus Pius on the eve of his death ; metis aequa
in arduis, the motto of Warren Hastings.
2-4. non secus . . . laetitia: parenthetic parallel to leading
idea, non secus : and likewise, nor less. Cf. 3. 25. 8.
3. insolent! : joy need not be overweening or extravagant, but
some men ' ont le bonheur insolent.' temperatam : cf. 3. 4. 6(3,
BOOK ii., ODE in. 247
and Sen. de Prov. 4. 10 : cum omnia qnae excesserunt modum
noceunt, periculosissima felicitat is intemperantia est.
4. moriture : the inevitable conclusion to the alternative con-
ditions moestus vixeris and bearis. For neat use of future parti-
ciple to express any future contingency or probability, cf. 1. 22. 6 ;
1. 28. 6 ; 2. 6. 1 ; 3. 4. 60 ; 4. 3. 20 ; 4. 4. 16 ; 4. 13. 24 ; 4. 2. 3.
Belli : some Mss. read ' Gelli.'
6. remoto gramine : cf. 1. 17. 17, in reducta valle; Epode 2. 23-
27 ; Tennyson's ' banquet in the distant woods,' In Mem. 89.
per : for distributive force, cf. 2. 14. 15 ; 3. 22. 6 ; C. S. 21 ; Epp. 2.
1. 147.
7. reclinatum : cf. 2. 11. 14; Term. Lucretius: 'No larger
feast than under plane or pine | With neighbors laid along the
grass to take | Only such cups as left us friendly warm ' (Lucret.
5. 1392-93) ; Milt. P. L., ' as they sat recline | On the soft downy
bank damask'd with flowers.'
8. interiore nota : inner brand for brand of inner-(most), i.e.
oldest and best. For nota cf. Sat. 1. 10. 24; Catull. 68. 28, de
meliore nota. The names of the consuls of the year were
stamped on or attached to the cadus. Cf. 3. 8. 12 ; 3. 21. 1.
9-12. Cf. Milton, Comus, ' Wherefore did nature pour her
bounties forth | With such a full and un withdrawing hand ? '
quo : qua and quid have been read. Cf. Epp. 1. 5. 12, quo mihi
fortunam si non conceditnr uti ? This use of quo is made clearer
by the following quid. Cf. Ov. Met. 13. 516, quo ferrea resto ?
quidve moror ? Cf. quo . . . cur, Verg. Aen. 12. 879.
9. ingens piiius : cf. 2. 10. 9. The pine is dark by implied con-
trast with albus, as well as tall. Cf. on 3. 13. 6-7.
10. hospitalem : cf. ' Under the hospitable covert nigh | Of
trees thick interwoven ' (Milt. P. R.); ' But now to form a shade |
For thee green alders have together wound | Their foliage ' (Words.
River Duddon, 5). Cf. Plat. Phaedr. 230 B. and Verg. G. 4. 24,
obviaque hospitiis teneat frondentibus arbos. amant wavers be-
tween poetic personification and (pi\ov<it, are wont.
11-12. ' Why does the huddling brook strive to bicker down its
winding way ?' Cf. Epp. 1. 10. 21, quae per pronum trepidat cum
murmure rivum ; Ov. Met. 1. 39, fluminaque obliquis cinxit declivia
ripis.
248 NOTES.
13. hue: hither bid bring. vina : ace. plur. always in odes,
but vini 1. 4. 18; vino, 1. 27. 6.
14. flores . . . rosae : cf. on 3. 29. 3. The rose has always
been the symbol of the brief ' bloom of beauty in the south '
'Et rose elle a ve'cu ce que vivent les roses, | L'espace d'un matin.'
Cf. breve lilium (1. 36. 16); cf. F. Q. 2. 12. 74-75; Waller's 'Go
lovely rose ' ; Ronsard's ' Mignonne, aliens voir si la rose ' ; Auson,
Idyll. 14 ; Herrick, 208 ; Anth. Pal. 11. 53.
15. res : like ratio and causa, a blank check to be filled out by
the context. aetas : thy youth. Cf. 1. 9. 17 ; 4. 12. 26, dum licet.
sororum : sc. Parcarum, the Greek fates. Cf. Lowell, 'Spin,
spin, Clotho, spin, Lachesis twist and Atropos sever'; Milton,
Arcades, 'those that hold the vital shears' ; Lycidas, 'comes the
blind Fury with the abhorred shears | And slits the thin-spun life' ;
Plato Rep. 617 c. ; F. Q. 4. 2. 48, '. . . most wretched men whose
days depend on threads so vain'; Boileau, Epitre VI., 'inon
esprit tranquille | Met a profit les jours que la Parque me file.'
16. atra: darkened by association with death. Cf. nigrorum
(4. 12. 26) ; Stamina pulla (Martial, 4. 73. 4) ; but aurea in com-
pliment to Domitian (6. 3. 5) ; 'whitest wool' (Herrick, 149. 17).
17. coemptis : cf. 1. 29. 13 ; and for the laying of field to field,
cf. Epp. 2. 2. 177; saltibus : hill pastures (Epp. 2. 2. 178); the
'high lawns' of Milton's Lycidas. domo is the city house.
18. villa: for villa by Tiber, cf. Propert. 1. 14. flavus :
cf. 1. 2. 13. lavit : 'laves,' not lavat, ' washes,' is the form used
in the odes.
19. cedes : pathetic anaphora. Cf. 3. 3. 18 ; 4. 4. 70, and for
sentiment, 2. 14. 21. extructis : cf. Epode 2. 43 ; Sat. 2. 3. 96,
divitiis . . . quas qni construxerit.
20. heres : cf. on 2. 14. 25.
21-24. It matters not whether rich and sprung from ancient
Inachus, or poor and of the lowliest lineage, thou lingerest in the
light of day (doomed) victim (that thou art) of unpitying Orcus.
Other renderings assume that sub divo must mean ' without a roof
to cover your head,' and can apply only to the pauper. Cf. Corio-
lanus, 4. 5, 'Where dwellest thou? Cor., Under the canopy.'
Inacho : eponym of river and first mythical king of Argos.
Cf. 3. 19. 1. n. ; Verg. Aen. 7. 372.
BOOK II., ODE IV. 249
23. sub divo : cf . 1. 18. 13 ; 3. 2. 5 ; vv a!8tpi, Aesch. Eumen.
368. moreris : life is only a mora mortis, this world, 'this bat-
tered cai'avanserai | Whose portals are alternate night and
day,' is, as Epictetus and the Imitation tell us, an inn, not a
home. ' 'Tis but a tent where takes his one day's rest | A Sultan
to the realm of death addrest ' (Omar- Khayyam) ; irapfinSruula ris
e(mv i> j8/os (Pseudo-Plat. Axiochus, 365 B) ; Commorandi enim
natnra deversorium nobis, non habitandi dedit (Cic. Cat. Maior,
23. 84) ; Paulumque morati \ serins aut citius sedem properamus
ad unam (Ov. Met. 10. 32). For commonplace of impartiality of
death, cf. 1. 4. 12 ; 2. 18. 32 ; 4. 7. 23 ; Job, 3. 19 ; Pind. Nem. 7.
19 ; Simon. Fr. 38.
24. nil miserantis: vr]\es tfrop fx wv (Hes. Theog. 456). Cf. 2.
14. 6, and Ronsard, A Son Laquais, 'que nous sert 1'estudier, |
Sinon de nous ennuyer, | Et soin dessus soin accrestre, | A nous
qui serons peut-etre, | Ou ce matin, ou ce soir | Victime de 1'Orque
noir ? | De 1'Orque qui ne pardonne, | Tant il est fier, a personne ? '
25. cogimur : as by a shepherd. So coerces, 1. 10. 18; com-
pulerit, 1. 24. 18.
26. urna : so Verg. Aen. 6. 432, quaesitor Minos urnam movet.
Cf. 3. 1. 16 and Sen. Here. Fur. 193, recipit populos urna citatos.
27-28 : ' When our lot leaps out it will put us on board Charon's
boat for everlasting exile.'
27. aeternum : note the suggestive hypermetron. Cf. 3. 29. 35.
28. exsilium : cf . Longfellow, Cemetery at Newport, * The long
mysterious exodus of death'; Dante, Infern. 23. 117, 'disteso in
croce | Tanto vilmente nel eterno esilio. ' cumbae : cf . Transla-
tions from Lucian, Emily J. Smith, p. 119; Propert. 4. 17. 24,
torvi publica cumba senis; Verg. Aen. 6. 303 j S*en. Here. Fur. 779,
cumba populorum capax; Juv. Sat. 2. 151.
ODE IV.
Horace banters with heroic precedents a gentleman who has
fallen in love with a serving-maid. Xanthias of Phocis is as real
or unreal as Gyges of Cnidus (2. 5. 20) ; or Hebrus of Lipara (3. 12.
6) ; or Calais, the son of Ornytus of Thurium (3. 9. 14) ; or the
250 NOTES.
brother of Opuntian Megilla (1. 27. 10). For theme, cf. Ov.
Am. 2. 8. 9. Translations by Duke, Johnson's Poets, 9. 215 ; by
Hamilton, ibid., 15. 638. Imitations, by Howe, ibid., 9. 471; by
Smart, ibid., 16. 76. Cf. also Ronsard's pretty ode, ' Si j'aime
depuis naguiere | Une belle chambriere.'
1. ne sit: don't blush or lest you blush. Cf. 1. 33. 1 ; 4. 9. 1.
2. prius : you are not the first. Cf. Theoc. 13. 1-3. inso-
lentem : stern, proud, as portrayed, A. P. 122, lura neget sibi
nata nihil non arroyet armis. Possibly insolentem here = albeit
unused to love. Cf. 1. 5. 8.
3. Briseis : Horn. 11. 1. 346, 9. 343. Cf. Landor, ' And never
night or day could be his | Dignity hurt by dear Briseis.' niveo
colore: abl. instr. with movit. Cf. Theoc. 11. 20, \evKorepa
iro/craj ; Supra, 1. 19. 5, Pario marmore purius. vi<p6t<rffa 'E\fvr)
is quoted from Ion. Cf . also ' Her brow is like the snawdrift ' ;
Shakspeare's ' Hide, oh, hide those hills of snow' ; 'nor scar that
whiter skin of hers than snow' (Othello, 5. 2); and F. Q. 2. 1. 11,
' Snowy breast ' ; and ' The daisies . . . looked dark against her
feet; the girl was so white' (Aucassin and Nicolette); Anth. Pal.
5. 84.
5. movit: cf. 1. 2. 5. Telamone natum: TeAa^nos Afas.
Cf. on 1. 7. 21 and 1. 15. 19.
6. captivae : app. with Tecmessae. Antithetic juxtaposition
with dominum. Tecmessae : note Greek prosody. On her, cf.
Soph. Ajax, 211.
8. virgine rapta: Cassandra, from altar of Athena, by Ajax
Oileus, Verg. Aen. 2. 404. The syntax wavers between abl. abs.
and that of 3. 9. 6 and 4. 11. 33.
9. barbarae : Phrygiae : so frequently in Euripides and in Latin
tragedy. Cf. Epp.. 1. 2. 7, Graecia barbariae lento collisa duello.
10. Thessalo victore: abl. abs., before their Thessalian con-
queror. Achilles, Neoptolemus, or the Thessalians collectively,
according to the point of view. Achilles' slaughter of the Trojans,
in the later books of the Iliad, is probably meant. ademptus
Hector : the removal of Hector. The concrete Latin reserves the
noun for the real thing or person, and denotes relations or aspects
by limiting adjectives or participles, thus avoiding the abstract
BOOK II., ODE IV. 251
verbals of English idiom. Cf. 1. 3. 29-30, ignem . . . subductum;
1. 18. 9 ; 1. 36. 9 ; 1. 37. 13 ; 2. 9. 10; 3. 7. 17 ; 3. 8. 14 ; 4. 4. 38-39 ;
Hasdrubal devictus, 4. 11. 7. Cf. also n. on 3. 24. 42.
11. leviora tolli : cf. II. 24. 243 ; Anony. Apud Sen. Suas,
2. 19, Ite triumphantes, belli mora concidit Hector, and Verg.
Aen. 9. 155.
12. Grais : with both tradidit and leviora tolli (epexegetic).
13. nescias an : Thou mayst think it likely, thou canst not
know but that. Contra 4. 7. 17, Quis scit an, who can feel sure
that ? generum : Horace playfully asks when he is to offer con-
gratulations. beati: well-to-do, rich. Cf. 3. 7. 3.
14. flavae : cf. on 1. 5. 4. The fine lady in Juvenal Sat. 6. 354
\\a.sflavam cui det mandata puellam.
15. regium : as who should say her sires were kings in the
Emerald Isle. genus : with maeret, no need to supply est. She
mourns her (lost) royal rank and the unkindness of the household
gods.
17-18. ' Rest assured that in her thou hast not chosen a love
from the base plebeian throng.'
17. scelesta : cf. infidum, profanum, malignum, volgus.
18. dilectam : with dat. 1. 21. 4.
19. aversam : perhaps playful, as the rapacity of her class was
proverbial.
20. pudenda : cf. 1. 27. 15, erubescendis.
21. teretes : shapely.
22. integer : heartwhole ; Contactus nullis cupidinibus, Propert.
1. 1. 2. Cf. 3. 7. 22. fuge: cf. 1. 9. 13.
23-24. octavum : Horace was forty years old B.C. 25. Cf.
4. 1. 6, about ten years later, circa lustra decem. The technical
phrase suggested and avoided is condere lustrum. Cf. condere
diem, 4. 5. 29. For thought, cf. Thackeray's Age of Reason :
' Then you know the worth of a lass | Once you have come to
forty year.' Landor lowers the danger line by eight years : ' I
know those ankles small and round | Are standing on forbidden
ground ; | So fear no rivalry to you | In gentlemen of thirty-two.'
trepidavit : ' has all too quickly reached ' or ' is hovering on the (j \,
verge of.' A favorite word v Cf. 2. 11. 4 ; 2. 3. 12 ; 2. 19. 5 ;
3. 27. 17; 3. 29. 32; 4. 11. 11.
252 NOTES.
ODE V.
Lalage is not yet ripe for love. Cf. 3. 11. 9-12. The elaboration
of the metaphors of the heifer and the unripe grape is displeasing
to modern taste. Cf. Anth. Pal. 6. 124.
1. valet: with inf., cf. on 1. 34. 12.
2. aequare : sc. in drawing the plow. Cf. 1. 35. 28.
5. circa : cf. 1. 18. 2 ; in this sense with animus, first in
Horace, G. L. 416. 5.
5-7 : So Silvia's pet deer alternates between the stream and the
bank (Verg. Aen. 7. 494-495).
6. iuvencae : for metaphor, cf. Judges, 14. 18; Theoc. 11. 21 ;
Soph. Trach. 529.
9. praegestientis : so praetrepidans (Cat. 46. 7). tolle : cf.
1. 27. 2 and Epp. 1. 12. 3, tolle querelas.
10. immitis : cf. contra, mitibus pornis, ripe apples (Epode 2. 17).
uvae: cf. -rtptiv oiriapa 5' evtt>v\a.KTos ov5a.fj.us (Aeschyl. Suppl.
998) ; o/x0a (Anth. Pal. 5. 20) ; ' no grape that's kindly ripe could
be | So round, so plump, so soft as she, | Nor half so full of juice '
(Sir John Suckling). lividos : the curious distinguish three
grades of ripeness marked by livor, purpureus color, and niger.
Cf. one of the rare poetic lines in Juv. (Sat. 2. 81), uvaque con-
specta livorem ducit ab uva ; Ov. Met. 3. 484, ut variis solet uva
racemis \ ducere pnrpureum, nnndum matura, colorem; Cat. 17.
16, puella . . . adservanda nigerrimis diligentius uvis.
12: varius: epithet of effect transferred to cause. Cf. Tenny-
son's ' Autumn laying here and there | A fiery finger on the leaves '
(In Mem. 99).
13. sequetur : sc. Lalage. currit : i] 8' &pr) \a/j.vdd' t\ovffa
rpt X t (Anth. Pal. 12. 29. 2; cf. 10. 81. 4). ferox: ruthless.
Cf. invida aetas (1. 11. 7).
14. dempserit : cf. Ovid's deme meis annis et demptos adde
parenti (Met. 7. 168). It is not strictly logical here since the years
added to Lalage are not taken from the lover ; but they are in a
sense taken from his prime as anni recedentes (A. P. 176). Cf.
Soph. Trach. 547 ; and Sir Charles Sedley, To Chloris : ' Age from
no face took more away | Than youth concealed in thine.'
BOOK II., ODE VI. 253
15. adponet: cf. 1. 9. 15 and Persius, Sat. 2. 1-2, Hunc, Ma-
crine, diem numera meliore lapillo \ qui tibi labentes apponit can-
didus annos. proterva : possibly continuing the image of the
heifer, but cf. 3. 11. 11. n.
17. Fholoe: cf. 1. 33. 7. fugax: cf. Pope, 'The sprightly
Sylvia trips along the green | She runs, but hopes she does not run
unseen ' ; and inter vino, fugam Cinarae maerere protervae (Epp.
I. 7. 28).
18. humero nitens: cf. 'Though my arms and shoulders |
Dazzle beholders' (Rossetti, A Last Confession). Cf. 1. 2. 31.
19. pura: in cloudless sky. Cf. 1. 34. 7. renldet: 2. 18.2;
3. 6. 12 ; Epode 2. 66.
20. luna mari : cf. Herrick, 105, ' More white than are the whitest
creams, | Or moonlight tinselling the streames.' ' A hand as
white as ocean foam in the moon' (Tenn. Maud, 25. 2).
22. mire : with falleret rather than with sagaces, though mire
novus occurs (Sat. 2. 3. 28).
23. obscurum : i.e. obscuratum. solutis : cf . 3. 4. 62 ; Epode
II. 28. Cf. long hair of boy in Juv. 16. 137.
24. So Statius, Achill. 1. 336, of Achilles hiding among the girls
at Scyros, says, fallitque tuentes \ ambiguus tenuique latens dis-
crimine sexus. Cf. 1. 8. 16. Lalage is forgotten. Of this pretty
picture Tyrrell (Latin Poetry, p. 109) severely says, 'The runnel
is exquisitely smooth, but its shallow waters flow where they will
from their natural channel and end in a puddle.'
ODE VI.
Septimius, ready if need be to go with me to the ends of the world,
may Tibur be the haven of repose for my old age, or, failing that,
Tarentum, loveliest nook of earth, in the land of the olive and the
vine. There, when the end comes, thou shall drop the tear thou
owest on the ashes of thy poet friend. Cf. Sellar, p. 147.
A Septimius is recommended to the good offices of Tiberius
(Epist. 1. 9); and the name recurs in a letter of Augustus cited in
Suetonius' life.
Imitation in Dodsley, vol. 4, p. 280.
254 NOTES.
1. Gades: i.e. the pillars of Hercules, the proverbial limit of
the known world (2. 2. 11 ; Find. Nem. 4. 69, and passim). Cf.
1. 34. 11, Atlanteus finis. aditure : sc. si opus sit. Cf. 4. 3. 20,
donatura ... si libeat, and 2. 3. 4. n. ' Where thou goest I will
go ' was the conventional expression of friendship from the time
of Pylades and Orestes. Cf. Cat. 11. 1, Furi et Aureli comites
Catulli | Sive in extremes penetrabit Indos.
2. Cantabrum : tribe of N. W. Spain attacked by Romans circa
B.C. 29, rebelled and repressed by Augustus 27-25, finally subdued
by Agrippa 19. Cf. 3. 8. 21 ; 4. 14. 41 ; Justin, 44. 5. 8 ; Flor. 4. 12.
47. These facts hardly date the ode. iuga : the image is from
oxen or horses. Cf. 2. 5. 1 ; 1. 33. 11 ; Find. Pyth. 2. 93 ; Soph.
Antig. 291. It has become a literary commonplace. Shaks. Henry
VI. 3. 3. 1, 'Yield not thy neck to fortune's yoke ' 5 Macaulay,
Proph. of Capys, 22, ' Beneath thy yoke the Volscian | Shall veil
his lofty brow ' ; Lucan, 1. 19, sub iuga iam Seres iam barbarus
isset Araxes. Perhaps there is a hint, too, of the 'passing the
enemy under the yoke,' sub iugum mittere (Caes. B. G. 1. 12).
3. Syrtes : 1. 22. 5; Verg. Aen. 4. 41, inhospita Syrtis.
Maura : is accurate enough for poetry.
5. Cf. 1. 7 ; 1. 18. 2. Argeo : 'Apyeiy. Cf. 3. 16. 12 ; 3. 3. 67 ;
4. 6. 25. positum : Verg. Aen. 4. 211-212, urbem . . . posuit.
colono : colonist, not ruris colono (1. 35. 6 ; 2. 14. 12).
6. utinam: 'A melancholy utinam of my own,' in Sir T.
Browne's phrase. Cf. 1. 35. 38. senectae : the dative is warmer.
For sentiment, cf. Martial, 4. 25. 7, vos eritis nostrae requies por-
tusque senectae.
7. sit: cf. 1. 2. 5. n. modus is felt first absolutely and then
with the genitives. lasso maris : cf. fessi rerum (Verg. Aen. 1.
178) ; peregrino labore fessi (Cat. 31. 8); odio maris atque viarum
(Epp. 1. 11. 6). oAi'/c/iT/Toj. Cf. Anth. Pal. 9. 7. 5.
9-12. Tibur and Tarentum similarly coupled Epp. 1. 7. 45.
9. unde : sc. Tibure. Parcae . . . iniquae : the unkindness
of destiny. Cf. 2. 4. 10. u., and for iniquae, 2. 4. 16. prohibent :
1. 27. 4.
10. pellitis : covered with skins to protect their fine fleece, ne
lana inquinetur (Varro, R. R. 2. 2. 18). Hence the breed some-
times called tectae oves. Cf. Plin. N. H. 8. 189. For quality of
BOOK H.. ODE VI. 255
their wool, cf . Martial, 2. 43. 3 ; 5. 37. 2 ; 8. 28. 4. ovibus : dat.
with dulce. Galaesi : the river near Tarentum (Verg. G. 4. 126).
The region was praised already by Archilochus as na\6s and
f<pi/*epos .
11. petam : subj. perhaps, putting conclusion as wish.
12. Phalantho : the Spartan Phalanthus was said to have
founded Tarentum circa B.C. 707. Cf. Paus. 10. 10. 6 ; Strabo, 6.
278. For syntax, cf. 3. 29. 27, regnata Gyro Bactra, and Verg.
Aen. 6. 794.
14. angulus : with terrarum. Cf. angulus iste, of his Sabine
farm (Epp. 1. 14. 23). Sainte-Beuve wrote on the margin of his
Horace, " Heureux Horace ! quel n'a pas e"te" son destin ! quoi !
parce qu'il a une fois exprime" en quelques vers.charmants son bon-
heur champetre et decrit son coin de terre prefere, voila que les vers
faits a plaisir pour lui seul et pour 1'ami auquel il les adressait, se
sont depuis empare"s de toutes les me"moires, et s'y sont si bien
logo's qu'on n'en conceit plus d'autres, et qu'on ne trouve que
ceux-la des qu'il s'agit pour chacun de ce"le"brer sa propre retraite
che"rie." ridet : note quantity. Hymetto : "T>T/TTIOI/ /xe'A* (Sui-
das) was proverbial (Otto, p. 169). Cf. 'And still his honied
wealth Hymettus yields.' For the comparatio compendiaria, cf.
2. 14. 28.
15. decedunt : personifies. viridi: cf. 'Thine olive green as
when Minerva smiled' (Byron); 'it is gray-green' (Ruskin) ;
y\auK6xpoos (Pindar).
16. Venafro : dat. (1. 1. 15. n.). Cf. Varro, R. R. 1. 2. 6, quod
vinum (conferam) Falerno? quod oleum Venafro? Cf. 3. 5. 55 ;
Sat. 2. 4. 69.
17-18. Cf. 'Smooth life had flock and shepherd in old time, |
Long springs and tepid winters on the banks | Of delicate Galaesus '
(Words. Prelude).
17. tepidas: cf. Epist. 1. 10. 15, est ubi plus tepeant hiemes?
Pers. Sat. 6. 6, mihi nunc Ligus ora \ intepet.
18. luppiter : cf. Epode 16. 66. Aulon : apparently a vale
(channel, av\iav), but cf. Verg. Aen. 3. 553 (C ?) Aulonisque
arces. amicus : i.e. dilectus. Cf. 1. 26. 1. Bentley reads apri-
cus, Heinsius amictits, i.e. clad with fertile vines. But forfertilis =
giver of fertility, cf. Ov. Met. 5. 642, deafertilis. Cf. also Martial,
256 NOTES.
13. 125, and Statius, Silv. 2. 2. 4, qua Bromio dilectus ager, colles-
que per altos \ uritur etprelis non invidet uva Falernis.
22. arces : heights (cf. 1. 2. 3), but with a hint of the Epicurean
sapientum templa serena (Lucret. 2. 8). Cf. Wordsworth, 'Stu-
dents with their pensive citadels.' calentem : cf. Verg. Aen. 6.
212-228; Munro on Lucret. 3. 906-907; Stat. Silv. ,2. 1. 2, et
adhuc vivente faiilla.
23. debita : cf. Shaks. Julius Caes. 5. 3, ' Friends, I owe more
tears | To this dead man than you shall see me pay ' : Cowper,
Loss of Royal George, ' And mingle with the cup | The tear that
England owes.'
24. vatis : cf. 4. 6. 44 ; 1. 31. 2. n.
ODE VII.
Welcome home at last, dear old companion of my tent and table,
Pompeius ! Together we made the campaign of Philippi. when I
lost my shield. Then Mercury snatched me away in a Homeric
cloud, while the withdrawing wave swept thee back again to war.
Come then and share the cask I have kept for thee ! I cannot
drink too deep to thy home-coming.
Pompeius is unknown. The ode tells its own story.
1. tempus in ultimum : extremest peril. Cf. Cat. 64. 151, 109,
supremo in tempore.
2. deducte . . . duce : note verbal play. Brutus was captain
of the war in the campaign of Philippi, B.C. 43-42.
3. quis : no answer is needed, but the Jove of 1. 17 is meant not
without complimentary allusion to the clemency of his vicegerent
on earth (1. 12. 51), Augustus, who says of himself, Mon. Ancyr.
1. 14, Victor omnibus superstitibus civibus pepercit. Cf. Verg.
Eel. 1. 19. redonavit : cf. 3. 3. 33, where force of re is different.
Quiritem : (the plural only, in normal prose) (1) burgher in
antithesis to miles; (2) to full citizenship, i.e. not capite deminu-
tus (3. 5. 42. n.). Cf. 'Apyelos a^p <x50(s (Aeschyl. Euin. 727).
4. Italo: cf. 2. 13. 18 ; 3. 30. 13 ; 4. 4. 42 ; 4. 15. 13.
5. Pompei : dissyllabic. Cf. Epp. 1. 7. 91. prime: earliest,
or perhaps, in the enthusiasm of the hour, first and foremost. So
BOOK ii., ODE vn. 257
Catullus (9. 1) is not thinking of Calvus when he welcomes Veranius
back from Spain, Verani omnibus e meis amicis \ antistans.
6. morantem : cf . ' The better part now of the lingering day |
They travell'd had'(F. Q. 1. 6. 34).
7. fregi : cf. Tenn. In Mem. 79, ' And break the livelong sum-
mer day | With banquet in the distant woods.'
8. malobathro : see lexicon. Construe with nitentes. Syrio :
Antioch was the emporium of Oriental trade. Cf. 1. 31. 12 ;
2. 11. 16, Assyria; Cat. 6. 8, sertis ac Syrio fragrans olivo ;
Tibull. 3. 6. 63.
9. et celerem fugam: recurs 2. 13. 17.
10. sensi : emphatic, ' they must take it in sense that feel it.'
Cf. 3. 27. 22 ; 3. 5. 36 ; 4. 4. 25 ; 4. 6. 3. relicta . . . parmula :
Alcaeus (fr. 32, Herod. 5. 95), Anacreon (fr. 26), and Archilochus
(fr. 6). The jest to an ancient lay in the contrast between the
awful severity of Spartan feeling towards the f>tya<nris [' return
with this or on it,' said the Spartan mother] and the ingenuous
avowal of Archilochus, 'Some Thracian strutteth with my shield,]
For, being somewhat flurried, | I left it by a wayside bush, | As
from the field I hurried ; | A right good targe, but I got off, | The
deuce may take the shield ; | I'll get another just as good | When
next I go afield.' The kind of folk that have no horror of a
joke will decline to discuss Horace's courage in this connection.
Cf. De Quincey's amusing diatribe, Works, Masson, Vol. XL,
p. 121.
10-11. The headlong rout, the loss of the shield, and the down-
fall of those who were so bold before the battle, are so many
indirect compliments to the prowess of Augustus. Horace is
' reconstructed ' and can afford to laugh at the ' terrible whipping
we got.' fracta virtus: cf. Cic. ad Fam. 7. 3. 3, integri . . .
fractos.
12. solum : simply, were overthrown, or bit the dust. Cf. II.
2. 418. To take it as an allusion to the pitiful supplications of the
defeated (Caes. B. C. 3. 98) would make Horace indeed the ' valet-
souled varlet of Venusia ' of Swinburne.
13. Mercurius: the guardian of poets, 2. 17. 29.
14. sustulit aere : mock-heroic imitation of Iliad, 20. 444 ;
3. 381. Cf. Verg. Aen. 1. 411.
8
258 NOTES.
15. in bellum : with both resorbens and tulit. Cf. Epp. 2. 2. 47,
civilisque rudem belli tulit aestus in anna. The image is perhaps
primarily that of a shipwrecked sailor. Cf. avapui&Se? (Odyss.
12. 105). But there is a suggestion of the commonplace wave of
war. Cf. Tyrt. 12. 22 Kv/^a /j.d^-ns ; Lucret. 5. 1288, 1433 ; Aeschyl.
Septem, 64 ; Arnold, Palladium, ' Backward and forward roll'd the
waves of fight.'
17. ergo: the conclusion of the whole matter, all's well that
ends well". With different force, 1. 24. 5. obligatam : here of
the thing vowed and due, in 2. 8. 5 of the person bound and
due to penalties. dapem: technical for feast accompanying
sacrifice.
18. longa: B.C. 44-31? latus: cf. 3. 27. 26 and corpora depo-
nunt for se deponunt (Lucret.).
19. lauiu: a shade tree, 2. 15. 9. 'Peace has its laurels,'
Horace slyly says.
21-28. Orders for the imaginary banquet. Cf. 2. 3. 13 ; 3. 19. 10.
On difference of treatment of wine in Greek and Latin poetry, cf.
interesting remarks of Sellar, p. 126.
21. oblivioso : effect as epithet of cause. Cf. Alcaeus, fr. 41,
olvov . . . \a0iKr)5fa ; Shakspeare's ' insane root ' ; ' sweet oblivious
antidote ' ; 'all the drowsy syrups of the world ' ; Milton's ' sleepy
drench ' and ' oblivious pool ' ; Chaucer's ' sleepy yerde ' (the Cadu-
ceus of Mercury); Tennyson's ' The sound of that forgetful shore '
(In Mem. 35).
22. ciboria : in this rare word Biicheler sees an allusion to
Pompeius' service with Antony in Aegypt. Cf. ra. Alyinrna Ki0wpia
(Ath. 11, p. 477). exple : cf. Till high the bowl with Samian
wine.' funde : sc. on your hair.
23. quis : rhetorical questions to work up a Bacchanalian frenzy.
Cf. 3. 19. 18; 3. 28. 1-4; 2. 11. 18-21. Mrs. Browning, Wine of
Cyprus, 6, ' Who will fetch from garden closes | Some new gar-
lands while I speak, | That the forehead, crowned with roses, |
May strike scarlet down the cheek ? ' udo : soft, lithe, rather
than dewy. Cf. vyp6s and Theoc. 7. 68, iroKvyi'a.n.Tnui re <re\(vc?.
24. deproperare : prepare with speed. Cf. properet, 3. 24. 62.
For intensifying de, cf. 3. 3. 55 ; 1. 18. 9 ; 2. 1. 35.
25. curatve:-cf. 1. 30. 6. n. Venus arbitrum: cf. 1. 4. 18.
BOOK ii., ODE vra. 259
Venus, the best throw of the four tali, showed four faces all differ-
ent; Canis, the worst, showed all four alike.
27. Edonis: i.e. Thracians. Cf. 1. 27. 2. A lost play of
Aesch., the Edoni, may have suggested the comparison. re-
cepto : 4. 2. 47.
28. furere : cf. 3. 19. 18. n.
ODE VIII.
A SONNET TO A COQUETTE.
Fair and faithless I might trust thee yet, had the gods punished
thy false oaths by marring one ivory finger nail or tarnishing one
tooth of pearl. But at lovers' perjuries they only laugh. Thy
beauty and the number of thy victims increase day by day.
Cf. Sellar, p. 169. For theme, cf. Ov. Amor. 2. 8. There is an
excellent translation by Sir Charles Sedley. Cf., also, Duke,
Johnson's Poets, 9. 216. The origin of name Barine is uncertain.
Some think it ' the maid of Bari ' (Barium).
1. iuria . . . peierati : perhaps a new coinage after analogy of
ius iurandum. pe is the pejorative per of perperqn\ and peior.
3. dente : is perhaps strictly abl. of qual. with fieres, ungui
abl. of deg. or cause with turpior, but this is to consider it too L
curiously. For superstition that perjury entailed bodily blemish,
cf . Theoc. 9. 30 ; 12. 24, and Ovid's ingenious elaboration of the
idea (Am. 3. 3. 1. sqq.).
6. votis: .dative, preferably, cf. Epode 17. 67 ; she has forfeited
her head to the penalties (devotiunculis') invoked if she lie. Cf.
Tennyson's Vivien, ' May yon just heaven that darkens o'er me
send [ One flash that, missing all things else, may make | My
scheming brain a cinder if I lie.' enitescis : cf. 1. 5. 13; 1. 19.
5 ; Cat. 2. 5.
7. prodis: walkest abroad, the cynosure of all eyes. Cf. 3.
14. 6 ; Tibull. 3. 1. 3. So procedere, Propert. 1. 2. 1. So irpoifvat.
8. cura : technical in love's vocabulary. Verg. Eel. 10. 22, tua
euro, Lycoris. Propert. 3. 32. 9, Coventry Patmore, Angel in the
House. 'And in the records of my breast, | Red-lettered, emi-
260 NOTES.
nently fair | Stood sixteen, who beyond the rest | By turns tn\
then had been my care.'
9. expedit : you actually thrive on it. matris : cf . Propert.
3. 13. 15. Ossa tibi iuro per matris et ossa parentis \ Sifallo cinis,
heu, sit mihi uterque grams. opertos: i.e. sepultos (Verg. Aen.
4. 34).
10. fallere : swear falsely by. Cf. Verg. Aen. 6. 324. taci-
tujna : the eternal poetic contrast between the severa silentia noctis,
'The silence that is in the starry skies,' and the agitation of the
human breast 'wherein no nightly calm can be.' Cf. Theoc. 2.
38-39; Epode 15. 1; Catull. 7. 7, Aut quatn sidera multa cum
tacet nox \ furtivos hominum vident amores ; O. W. Holmes, ' But
when the patient stars look down | On all their light discovers, |
The traitor's smile, the murderer's frown, | The lips of lying
lovers ' ; and Heine : ' Wenn junge Herzen brechen, | So lachen
drob die Sterne.'
11. gelida : 'Death lays his icy hand on kings' (Shirley).
'Barren rage of death's eternal cold' (Shak., Sonnet 13).
12. carentes : cf. 3. 26. 10. n.
13. ridet : cf. Rom. and Jul. 2. 2, ' Yet if thou swear'st | Thou
mayst prove false ; At lovers' perjuries, | They say Jove laughs ' ;
Pseudo-Tibull. 3. 6. 49, periuria ridet amantum; Plato, Symp.
183 B; Callim. Epig. 27. 3; Anth. Pal. 5. 6. inquam : ridet
repeats thought of expedit.
14. simplices : guileless or easy going, et>;0s, faciles (Verg.
Eel. 3. 9).
14-16. Cf. the representation in ancient gems of Cupid turning
the cos versatilis; the little loves sharpening their darts in the
corner of Correggio's Danae, and Thorwaldsen's Vulcan forging
arms for Cupid. Cruel Cupid bears irvp'nrvoa r6a, and his shafts
are ai^ar^t/pra, dripping with hearts' blood. Cf. Anth. Pal. 5.
180. 1.
16. cruenta: is transferred to cote_from sagittas.
17. adde quod : the hue accedit quod of prose. Latin poetry
can hardly avoid an occasional prosaically explicit logical juncture.
Cf. 2. 18. 23; 3. 1. 41 ; 3. 11. 21 ; Ovid. Pont. 2. 9. 47 ; Lucret.
4. 1121-1122 bis. tibi crescit : cf. Sen. Here. Fur. 874, tibi (sc.
morti) crescit omne \ et quod occasus videt et quod ortus.
BOOK II., ODE EX. 261
18. aervitus : to be thy slaves. Cf. Propert. 1. 6. 19. Turn
grave servitium nostrae cogere puellae \ discere.
19. Impiae : not necessarily because of her perjuries, but because
' the slight coquette she cannot love.' Cf. Propert. 2. 9. 20 ; Ov.
Met. 13. 301. Me pia detinuit coniux, pia mater Achillem.
domiiiae : cf. 2. 12. 13. n.
20. minati : the lover's inability to execute such threats was
a commonplace of comedy. Cf. Ter. Eunuch. 1. 1 ; Hor. Sat.
2. 3. 262 ; Pers. Sat. 5. 161 ; Tibull. 2. 6. 13 ; Anth. Pal. 5. 254,
256. 5.
21. iuvencis : for their sons, the image of 2. 6. 6. Cf. Lucret.
5. 1073.
22. miserae : from fear of Barine.
23. Virgines: so puellae (3. 14. 11).
24. aura: cf. the popularis aura (3.2. 20; 1. 5. 11); Propert.
3. 23. 15, si modo damnatum revocaverit aura puellae; Ov. Am. 2.
9. 33, incerta Cupidinis aura ; Eurip. Iph. Aul. 69, wvoia.1 . . . 'A#po-
SJTTJS ; Sir Robert Ay ton, ' Thy favors are but like the wind | That
kisses everything it meets.' ' The young girls that 'brought an aura
of infinity ' (James, Psychol. 1. 233). There is no need to continue
the metaphor of iuvencis with the aid of Verg. G. 3. 251.
ODE IX.
A poetic ' Consolation.' Nature shows not always her wintry
face, but thou, Valgius, art still mourning the loss of thy Mystes.
Even Nestor, the father of Antilochus, and the sisters of Troilus
were consoled at last. Leave thy womanish laments and let us
sing the triumphs of Caesar.
There is a translation by Dr. Johnson. Cf. Ronsard, A Mr.
Mellin, 'Toujours ne tempeste enrage"e | Centre ses bords la mer
Eg6e . . . Toujours 1'hiver de neiges blanches | Des pins n'eufarine
les branches,' etc.
C. Valgius Ruf us, consul suffectus, B.C. 12, wrote elegies said to be
alluded to by Verg. (Eel. 7. 22), medical and rhetorical works, and
an epic which Tibullus (?) thought ' Homeric.' Valgius: aetemo
propior non alter Hornero (Tibull. 4. 1. 181). Verses 19 and 20
262 NOTES.
have been thought an allusion to the Eastern embassy of Tiberius,
B.C. 20, but may refer to the Oriental envoys sent to Augustus in
Spain B.C. 27-25. Mon. Ancyr. 5. 51.
1. non semper: so 2. 11. 9. Cf. Otto, p. 113. For sentiment
and imagery, cf. Plut. Cons, ad Apoll. 5 ; Southwell, Time goes by
Turns, Ward's Poets, 1. 482 ; Herrick, Hesper. 726, ' Clouds will
noffever poure down rain ; | A sullen day will cleere again. | First,
peales of thunder we must heare, | Then lutes and harpes shall
stroke the eare ' ; Theoc. 4. 43; Sen. Ep. 107, 108. hispidos:
possibly proleptic of the effect of the rain, or suggestive of the
barren stubble of a wintry field, or of the neglected beard and hair
(hispida fades, cf. 4. 10. 5) of grief.
2. Caspium : a stormy sea. Cf. Milton, P. L. II. : ' As when
two black clouds, | With heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling
on | Over the Caspian.' But cf. 1. 1. 14. n. ; 1. 26. 2.
3. inaequales procellae: either fitful blasts, Milton's 'gusty
flaws,' or on analogy of inaequali tonsore, Epp. 1. 1. 94, roughen-
ing gales. Cf. Shelley's ' curdling winds,' and Shaks. Sonnet, 6 :
'winter's ragged hand.' 'Ruffling winds,' Herrick, 721.
4. usque: cf. 1. 17. 4. Armeniis: i.e. on Mount Taurus. Cf.
Xen. Anab. 4. 4.
5. stat: cf. 1. 9. 1. iners: cf. 3. 4. 45; 4. 7. 12; 1. 22. 17,
pigris . . . campis.
7. Garganus is an exposed sea-girt promontory of Apulia. Cf.
Epp. 2. 1. 202, Garganum mugire putes nemus. laborant : cf.
1. 9. 3. Arnold, The New Sirens, 'saw the hoarse boughs labor in
the wind' ; Shaks. M. of V. 4. 1, 'forbid the mountain pines | To
wag their high tops and to make no noise | When they are fretted
with the gusts of heaven ' ; Sappho, fr. 42, fatsos tear' tpos Spvcrlv
tjurtffwv*
8. viduantur: observe the cumulative touches that complete
the picture of desolation. Cf. Tenn. Lady of Shalott, Part IV.
init.
9. tu semper : emphasizing his disregard of the lesson of nature,
non semper. Cf. 2. 18. 17 ; 3.29. 25. urges : dwellest on, insistest
on. Cf. Propert. 5. 11. 1, desine Paulle meum lacrimis urgere
sepulcrum.
BOOK II., ODE IX. 263
10. ademptum : cf. 2. 4. 10. n.
11. surgente : cf. Verg. G. 1. 440 ; Aen. 4. 352 ; Vesper of course
does not 'rise,' but becomes visible in the west after sunset. The
same planet (Venus) as Phosphorus, the morning star, at other
times flees (vanishes in the light of) the swift rising sun. Cf. Cat.
62. 35. Cf. Tenn. In Mem. 121, ' Sweet Hesper-Phospher, double
name | For what is one, the first, the last.' Cf. Plato's exquisite
epigram, 'AvTJip irplv /j.fv e\a/j.ires fvl faoifftv 'Eqpos, | vvv df Qaviav
\d/j.wfts a E<rvfpos ft> tydtpfvois. ' Star of the morning shinedst thou, |
Ere life was fled, | Star of the evening art thou now, | Among the
dead.' decedunt amores: cf. Tenn. Mariana, 'Her tears fell
with the dews at even, | Her tears fell ere the dews were dried ;
Verg. G. 4. 465, te veniente die te decedente canebat; Helvius
Cinna's lovely lines : Te matutinus flentem conspexit Eous, \ et
flentem paullo vulit post Hesperus idem,- Tasso, G. L. xii. 90,
' Lei nel partir, lei nel tornar del sole | chiama con voce stanca, e
prega e plora.'
12. rapidum : standing epithet of sol (Verg. G. 1. 424 ; 2. 321.
Cf. Eel. 2. 10), perhaps from swift hot rays, or his rapid movement
among the constellations, or the swift sunsets and sunrises of
southern climes where twilight is short. Cf. Homer's 60^1 ct/|, and
Coleridge, ' At one stride comes the dark,' Anc. Mar.
13. ter aevo functus : Nestor, tertiam iam aetatem hominum
vivebat, Cic. Cat. Mai. 31 ; II. 1. 250 ; rpiyepwv, Odyss. 3. 245.
14. Antilochum : son of Nestor, often mentioned in Iliad.
Alluded to in Odyss. 3. 112 ; 4. 187. Saves his father's life, Find.
Pyth. 6. 28. Nestor at his funeral pyre, Juv. Sat. 10. 253 ; Propert.
3. 5. 46-50.
14-15. omnes . . . annos: the Homeric ij^ara -navra.
15-16. impubem . . . Troilon: Verg. Aen. 1. 475, infelix puer
atque impar congressus Achilli. Like Antilochus a stock example
in the literature of consolations ; Plut. Cons, ad Apoll. 24 ; Cic.
Tusc. 1. 93.
16. sorores : Polyxena, Cassandra, etc. The wailing of
Phrygian women was proverbial ; yet even they were consoled.
17. desine : with gen. as A^yi/, iratW0ai. Cf. 3. 27. 69. n. ;
2. 13. 38.
19. Canternus takes three objects, Niphaten, flumen . . . volvere,
264 NOTES.
and Gelonos . . . equitare. tropaea : for date, cf. Intr. and
Sellar, p. 143.
20. rlgidum : ice-bound, or rock-bound. Niphates : was a
mountain in Armenia. Cf. Verg. G. 3. 30, addam urbes Asiae
domitas pulsumque Niphaten. Cf. Milton, P. L. III. in fine,
' Nor stay'd till on Niphates' top he lights ' ; Lucan, 3. 245 ;
Juv. Sat. 6. 409 ; Claudian and Silius speak of it as a river.
Hence Johnson's translation has, ' Niphates .rolls an humbler
wave.'
21. medum flumen : cf. 3. 4. 36, Scythicus amnis ; 4. 4. 38,
Metaiirum flumen. Cf. Verg. Aen. 8. 726, Euphrates ibat iam
mollior undis.
22. Cf. R. C. Trench, 'Alma, roll thy waters proudly, | Proudly
roll them to the sea ' (Page) .
23. Gelonos : a Sarmatian or Scythian tribe. Cf. Herod.
4. 108 ; Verg. Aen. 8. 725 ; infra, 2. 20. 19 ; 3. 4. 35. praescrip-
tum : the limits set them.
24. exiguis : narrowed in comparison with their former liberty.
equitare: 1. 2. 51.
ODE X. .
Of the mean and sure estate : A string of sententiae in praise of
the golden mean and philosophic acceptance of the vicissitudes of
fortune, frequently imitated. Cf. Sellar, p. 175 ; Surrey, Praise
of Meane and Constante estate, Tottel's Miscellany, Arber, p. 27 ;
ibid., p. 157; Cowper, Johnson's Poets, 18. 659; Cotton, ibid. 18.
17 ; Beattie, ibid. 18. 558.
L. Licinius Murena, probably the son of the Murena of Cicero's
Pro Murena, was adopted into the Terentian gens by Terentius
Varro, and so became the adopted brother of Proculeius (2. 2. 2)
and of Terentia, the wife of Maecenas ; 3. 19 is apparently written
to celebrate his cooptation into the college of augurs. He appears
in the Consular fasti for the year 23. In the same year he was
put to death for conspiring against Augustus. Cf. Veil. Paterc.
2. 91 ; Dion. Cass. 64. 3 ; Suet. Tib. 8. It seems unlikely that
Horace would have published the first three books of the Odes with
these poems after that date. Cf. on 1. 3 and 2. 9.
BOOK II., ODE X. 265
1-4, 22-24. Life a Voyage. Cf. 1. 34. 3 ; 3. 29. 57 ; Epist. 2. 2.
201 ; Plato, Laws, 803 B, Sta ro>~i n\ov TOVTOV rfjs (wijs ; Swinb. Pre-
lude to Songs Before Sunrise, 10 ; Tenn. Crossing the Bar, etc. ;
Anth. Pal. 10. 65 ; Marc. Aurel. 3. 3 ; Plato, Phaedo, 85. d.
1. rectius : i.e. more wisely, sagely.
2. urgendo : cf . 2. 9. 9.
2-3. duni . . . horrescis : would be rendered in Greek by pres.
part. Cf. Epist. 2. 3. 465 ; A. and G. 290. c, n.
3. premendo : hugging. Cf. radere, legere, amare, litus. Cf.
Epist. 2. 3. 28, tutus nimium timidusque procellae.
4. Iniquum : cf. on 1. 10. 15 ; 1. 2. 47 ; 2. 4. 16 ; 2. 6. 9 ; 3. 1. 32.
5. mediocritatem : cf. Cic. de Off. 1. 25, mediocritatem illam . . .
quae est inter nimium et parum the peaov or ^trpiov of the Greek
gnomic poets and tragedians, which Plato and Aristotle developed
into the formal ethical doctrine that virtue ' is seated in the mean.'
Cf. iravrl /j.(ffcp r~6 Kpdros Otbs Snrafffv, Aeschyl. Eumen. 529 ; Arist.
Pol. 4. 11, rbv ptffov . . . Biov . . . 0f\rt<TTOV ; Otto, p. 216.
6. diligit tutus : discreetly affects; chooses for his safety. Cf.
A. P. 28 ; meter and concinnity favor this punctuation ; but many
take tutus with caret, is safe and eschews.
1. sordibus : the squalor of a mean hovel. invidenda : cf. 3.
1. 45. It suggests the (p96vos of the Greeks (9-12).
9-12. ingens, celsae, summos are emphatic. For the senti-
ment, cf. Herod. 7. 10 ; Lucretius, 5. 1126, invidia quoniam ceu
fulmine summa vaporant; Ovid. Trist. 3. 4. 6 ; Otto, 148. 352;
Diimler, Acadeinica, p. 3 sqq. ; Lucillius in Anth. Pal. 10. 122, ov
ffpvov ov /uoAa^Tjv &i>fu.6s irore ras Se ueyiffras \ tj dpvas T) ir\a-ravovs oiSf
xafj.a.1 Kardyf iv ; Maecenas apud Sen. Epist. 19. 9, ipsa enim altitude
attonat, summa; Wordsworth, The Oak and the Broom; Lord
Vaux, of the Mean Estate, ' The higher that the cedar tree | Into
the heavens doth grow | The more in danger is the top, | When
stormy winds gan blow ' ; Campion, Ed. Bullen, p. 32, ' The higher
trees the more storms they endure ' ; Dante, Paradise, 18, ' come
vento | che le piu alte cime piii percote ; Shaks. M. for M. 2. 2 ;
Herrick. Hesp. 484 ; 'My mind to me a Kingdom is,' 3 ; Spenser
Shep. Cal., July ; Victor Hugo, Feuilles d'Automne, 4. The
commonplace is often amplified in Seneca's Tragedies (Ag. 93 sqq.,
etc.); Seneca was imitated by Boethius, and hence, perhaps, rather
266 NOTES.
than from Aristotle's Poetics, arose the notion in mediaeval and
renaissance literature that the one theme of tragedy is the sudden
fall of the great. Cf. Chaucer, Monke's Tale, ' I will bewail in
manner of Tragedie | The harm of them that fell from high de-
gree.' And see the choruses of Gamier, and Ferrex and Porrex
passim.
11. turres: cf. 1. 4. 14; Juv. 10. 105.
12. fulgura =fulmina.
13-20 : cf. Herrick, Hesp. 726, ' In all thy need, be thou possest |
Still with a well-prepared brest : | . . . And this for comfort thou
must know, | Times that are ill wo'nt still be so. | Clouds will not
ever poure down raine (cf. 2. 9. 1) ; | A sullen day will cleere again.'
13. infestis . . . secundis : dat. rather than the abl. abs.
14. alteram : a change of lot, i.e. the other of two. Cf. 1. 15.
29. n.
15. informes : beauty was ' form ' to the ancients. Cf. Dobson,
1 A dream of form in days of thought' ; Mimnermus, and Theog.
1021, &/j.op<f>ov 7%> ; Verg. G. 3. 354, aggeribus niveis informis terra;
Juv. 4, 56, Stridebat deformis liiems ; Wither, 'Walks and ways
which winter marred ' ; Shaks. Son. 5, ' For never-resting time
leads summer on | To hideous winter a'nd confounds him there ' ;
Lucian, Kp6vos 9, ol Aeiyuw^ts &/*.op<j>oi. reducit : for re-, cf. 1. 3. 7 ;
3. 1. 21 ; 3. 8. 9.
16. luppiter: cf. on 1. 1. 25 and Theoc. 4. 43; Theog. 25.
idem : idiomatic, and likewise ; cf. 22 ; 2. 19. 27 ; 3. 4. 07.
17. non denies the inference from nunc to olirn. male: cf.
3. 16. 43, bene est ; Catull. 38. 1, male est Cornifici tuo Catullo.
et : cf. Munro on Lucret. 3. 412. olim : yon time, past or future.
Cf. on 4. 4. 5.
18. quondam: sometimes; cf. Verg. Aen. 2. 367.
19. suscitat: cf. Gray, Progress of Poesy, 'Awake, Aeolian
lyre, awake ' ; Pind. O. 9. 51 ; Nem. 10. 21 ; Lucret. 2. 413, experge-
facta.
19-20. A familiar quotation generally employed in the sense,
' All work and no play,' etc. Here it points the moral of compen-
sations the god who sends the shafts of pestilence is also the
god of music. Cf. C. S. 33. For a hint of the proverbial use, cf.
Cic. de Senect. 11, intentum enim animum tamquam arcum habe-
BOOK II., ODE XI. 267
bat; Plut. de Ed. Plier. 13, /cal -yap ra r6%a. Kal ras \vpas avie/Mev
iVo fVtrelVat 5vvr]0(a^ev ; nee semper Gnosius arcum Destinat, Laiis
Pisonis, 142. Cf. the habitual misapplication of Shakspeare's
'One touch of nature.'
21. angustis : cf. on 3. 2. 1.
23. contrahe : a frequent image in Greek drama. Cf. AT. Ran.
1220, vffffOai yuoj Sox(?s ; Soph. El. 335 ; Cic. ad Att. 1. 16. 2, con-
traxi vela. Propert. 3. 19. 30 ; Ovid. Trist. 3. 4. 32, propositiqne,
precor, contrahe vela tui. secundo : from sequi, ' A wind that
follows fast' ; Homer's i-iftevos ovpos. nimium : i.e. 'too fresh.'
24. turgida: cf. Epist. 2. 2. 201, tumidis velis aquilone secundo;
Verg. Aen. 3. 357, tumido austro ; Pind. Pyth. 1. 92, 'urriov avf^tv;
Midsummer Night's Dreain, 2. 1.
ODE XL
Forget the cares of state, friend Quintius. Man wants but little
here below. Old age will soon have us in his clutch. The chang-
ing face of nature warns us that nothing endures. Let us drink
and sport with Lyde while we may.
Cf. 3. 8. 17-27. Feeble imitation in Dodsley, 6. 255. Date
apparently B.C. 26-24 ; cf. 1. 1. Quintius Hirpinus is unknown.
Epp. 1. 16 is addressed to a Quintius.
1. Cantaber : cf. 2. 6. 2. n. Scythes : cf. 2. 9. 23.
2-3. Hirpine Quinti: cf. 2. 2. 3. n. Hadria . . . obiecto :
like a shield the barrier of the Adriatic (cf. 2. 4. 10. n.) often
checked barbarian incursions in later times.
3. remittas : as mitte, 1. 38. 3; omitte, 3. 29. 11, with further
suggestion of relaxing the mental strain ; cf. also Ter. Andr. 827,
nam si cogites remittas iam me onerare iniuriis. For thought cf.
3. 8. 17-20 ; Theog. 763-764.
4. trepides in usum : worry about (take anxious thought for)
the icants. For force of trepidare cf. 3. 29. 32 ; Verg. Aen. 9. 114,
ne trepidate meas, Teucri, defendere naves ; where the complemen-
tary inf. takes the place of the prepositional phrase in usum here.
For in, cf. ds, Soph. O. R. 980.
5. pauca: cf. for thought Lucret. 2. 20, ergo corpoream ad
268 NOTES.
naturam pauca videmus \ Esse opus omniuo; Mauil. 4. 8. sqq.
fugit: cf. the anni recedentes, A. P. 170.
6. levis : unshorn, smooth-cheeked, cf. 4. 6. 28, and contra,
hispidam, 4. 10. 5. arida: cf. 4. 13. 9; Sliaks. As You Like It,
4. 3 : ' High top bald with dry antiquity,' Much Ado, 4. 1 : ' Time
hath not yet so dried this blood of mine.' Plut. an Sen. ger. rep.
9 ; aa\eip yjjpq, wizened.
7. lascivos: 1. 19. 3; 3. 15. 12 ; 4. 11, 23.
8. canitie: 1. 9. 17. facilem: 3. 21. 4.
9. non semper : So. 2. 9. 1. Nature herself teaches muta-
bility. Cf. 4. 7. 7. honor: beauty's bloom. Cf. Epode 11. 0;
17. 18 ; cf. Martial, 6. 80. 5, tantus veris honos et odorae gratia
florae ; cf. 1. 17. 16. n.
10. rubens : This blush is as conventional as that which
'paints' earth, flowers, berries, and dawn in Pope's pastorals.
But rubens may be simply bright, ayKibs. Cf. Claudian, 29. 7,
aeterno sed veris honors rubentes. Propert. 1. 10. 8, Et mediis
caelo Luna ruberet equis. Verg. G. 1. 431, Vento semper rubet
aurea Phoebe is not to the point.
Por moon as type of change, cf. Juliet's ' swear not by the
moon, the inconstant moon | That monthly changes in her circled
orb.' Ov. Met. 15. 196, 'nee par aut eadem nocturnae forma
Dianae \ Esse potest umquam.' 1 Hence Spenser, Mutability, 7.
50, 'Besides, her face and countenance every day | We changed
see and sundry forms partake | Now horned, now round, now
bright, now brown and gray ; | So that, as changeful as the moon
men used to say.' 'This Worlde's blisse | That changeth as
the moon.' Nutbrowne Maid.
11-12. aeternis . . . consiliis : ' long thoughts ' (cf. 1. 11. 6 ;
4. 7. 7), 'thoughts that wander through eternity,' or ceaseless
anxieties.
12. consiliis : with both fatigas and minorem {unequal to them').
13. cur non : abrupt transition in imagination to a simple Anac-
reontic carouse in application of these principles of ' sober sweet
Epicurean life.' vel . . . vel : the choice is indifferent. pla-
tano : 2. 15. 4.
14. pinu : 2.3.9; cf. Tenn. ' under plane or pine.' Fitzgerald,
Rubaiyat, 12, ' A book of verses underneath the bough, | A jug
BOOK II., ODE XL 269
of wine, a loaf of bread and thou.' sic temere: oSrtas f'Krj,
Plat. Gorg. 506 D. ; cf. Plat. Syinp. 176 E ; Verg. Aen. 9. 329, te-
mere inter teJa iacentes. Munro on Lucret. 5. 970 ; supra, 1. 12. 7.
The careless easy-going phrase contrasts with Quintius's strenuous
mood. Cf. Thomson, Summer, ' on the dark-green grass . . . lie
at large.' rosa: cf. 1. 38. 3. ; Herrick, 583, 'Bring me my rose-
buds, drawer, come ; | So, while I thus sit, crowned ; | He drink
the aged Cecubum, untill the roofe turne round.'
15. Canos : Horace was praecamts. Cf. Epp. 1. 20. 24 ; Ode,
3. 14. 25. The Pseudo-Anacreon frequently alludes to his K^UJJ
\evKij. Cf. further Lovelace, ' When flowing cups run swiftly
-round, | With no allaying Thames, | Our careless heads with roses
crowned, | Our hearts with loyal flames.'
16. dura licet : ' Gather ye rose-buds while ye may," 1 Herrick,
208 ; cf. 4. 12. 26 ; 2. 3. 15. Assyria : cf. 2. 7. 8 ; 1. 31. 12 ; 3. 1. 44.
Martial, 8. 77. 3, si sapis Assyrio semper tibi crinis amomo \ splen-
deat, et cingant florea serta caput.
17. dissipat: cf. 1. 18.4; 3.21. 16. n. ; 4. 12. 20; Theog. 883,
rov iriviav dirb /Afv xaAeTrus (r/ceSaireis /j.e\efia>vas, Eurip. Bacch. 280.
Euhius: cf. 1. 18. 9. n.
18. edaces : cf. 1. 18. 4. n. quis : cf. 2. 7. 23. puer : (slave)
boy : cf . 4>f'p' v8up 0p' olvov S> ircu, Anacr. fr. 63, 64.
19. restinguet: cf. Shaks. Cor. 1. 1, ' A cup of hot wine with
not a drop of allaying Tiber in't.' ardentis: cf. Juv. Sat. 4.
138, cum pulmo Falerno arderet; 10. 27, et lato Setinum ardebit
in auro. Eurip. Ale. 758, <f>\6% otvov. Plato, Laws, 666 A.
21. devium: coy(?), way-ward, or dwelling apart, with eliciet
softens the bluntness of scortum : lure the icayward wench.
22-23. eburna : inlaid with ivory, t\f<f>avT65eros. Ar. Aves, 218.
die age : 3. 4. 1. die . . . maturet : 3. 14. 21.
23. in comptum : her hair bound back in(to~) a neat knot in
the manner of a Spartan girl. Bentley, followed by several editors,
reads incomptam . . . comam . . . nodo, which does just as well,
but is unnecessary. For Spartan coiffure, cf. Propert. 4. 13. 28,
est neque odoratae cura molesta comae. Ar. Lysist. 1316 ; Ov.
Met. 8. 318 (Atalanta). For motif, cf. 3. 14. 21.
Ronsard a son Page : ' Et dy k Barbe qu'elle vienne | Les che-
veux tors & la fagon | D'une folatre Italienne.'
270 NOTES.
ODE XII.
You would not have me adapt to the lyre's strains the wars of
Rome and the mythical combats of Greece, O Maecenas. You
yourself will more fitly narrate in prose story the exploits of
Caesar. Me the muse bids sing of my lady Licymnia, her bright
eyes, her singing, her dancing, her kisses dearer to thee than all
the unspoiled treasures of Araby.
Licymnia is said to stand for the capricious wife of Maecenas,
Terentia (Schol. Sat. 1. 2. 64), as Clodia for Lesbia in Catullus,
Delia for Plania in Tibullus, Cynthia for Hostia in Propertius.
Cf. Apuleius Apol. 10; Prior, ' Euphelia serves to grace my
measure, | But Chloe is my real flame.' But the Latin poets used
metrical equivalents, as Pope did when he substituted Atticus for
Addison.
There is a translation in Dodsley's Poets, 4. 281.
1. longa . . . Numantiae: 141-133 B.C., ended by Scipio
Africanus Minor. For their desperate defense and final suicide
en masse, cf. Floras, 2. 18. 15 ; Cervantes's play ; and Schopen-
hauer's epigram.
2. durum : so Mss.'; note antithesis with mollibus. Many read
dirum. Cf. 3. 6. 36 ; 4. 4. 42 ; and Quintil. 8. 2. 9.
3. Poeno . . . sanguine: In first Punic war at Mylae, B.C. 260,
and Aegates Insulae, B.C. 242. Cf. 3. 6. 34. mollibus: cf. 1. 6.
10, imbellisque lyrae.
5-8. Cf. Spenser's Vergil's Gnat, 5-6, 'For not these leaves do
sing that dreadful stound, | When giants' blood did stain Phlegraean
ground, | Nor how th' half horsey people, Centaurs bight, | Fought
with the bloody Lapithaes at board.'
5. Lapithas : cf. on 1. 18. 8. nimium mero : cf. Tac. Hist.
1. 35, nimii verbis ; 4. 23, rebus secundis nimii ; 1. 13. 10 ; 1. 36. 13.
6. Hylaeus: cf. Verg. G. 2. 457, ct magno Hylaeum Lapithis
cratere minantem. Herculea manu: cf. 1. 3. 36. The oracle
had declared that the gods could subdue the earthborn giants
(ynyevfTs) only with the aid of a mortal. Cf. on 3. 4. 42 sqq.
7. unde : whence = from whom. Cf. 1. 12. 17 ; 2. 13. 16,
aliunde; Sat. 1. 6. 12.
BOOK II., ODE XII. 271
8. fulgens . . . domus : cf. on 1. 3. 29 ; 3. 3. 33 ; Verg. Aen.
10. 101 ; Munro on Lucret. 2. 1110; F. Q. 1. 5. 19, 'That shining
lamps in Jove's high house were light.' contremuit : cf. 3. 4. 49;
2. 19. 21 sqq.
9. tuques emphatic, and thou virtually = but thou rather.
Cf. que in 2. 20. 4. pedestribus : irffa \6yy. Cf. Plato,
Sophist. 237 A. Horace is said to be the earliest Latin author
to borrow the expression. Cf. Sat. 2. 6. 17, satiris musaque
pedextri.
10. proelia Caesaris: cf. Sat. 2. 1. 10; Epist. 2. 1. 250 sqq.
We cannot infer that Maecenas actually treated these themes
which Horace's modesty declines.
11. ducta: in triumph. Cf. 1. 12. 54; 1. 2. 49; 4. 2. 50.
12. colla : cf . Cons, ad Liviain, 273, aspiaam regum liventia
colla catenis; Propert. 2. 1. 34, aut regum auratis circuindata colla
catenis, | Actiaque in Swra currere rostra via. The whole passage
is in the vein of this ode. minacium : sc. before the battle.
Cf. 2. 7. 11 ; 4. 3. 8, quod regum tumidas contiiderit minas.
13. me: cf. on 1. 1. 29; 4. 1. 29. dominae: domina under
the empire came to = Mrs., madam, my lady. It also belonged to
the lover's vocabulary 'my queen.' A self-respecting Roman
could use the term where dominus would have been servile.
Licymniae : Terentia, if she is meant, was the half-sister of L.
Licinius Murena. Cf. on 2. 10. Maecenas is apparently a bache-
lor in the Epodes, but was married at the time of Murena' s fall.
Cf. Sueton. Aug. 66. A modern gentleman would hardly write in
this style of his friend's wife. But Terentia's coquetry was com-
mon gossip. Cf. Dio. 54. 19 ; Sen. de Prov. 3. 10, morosae uxoris
cotidiana repudia.
14. lucidum: adverbial. Cf. 1. 22. 23; 2. 19. 6; 3. 27. 67.
So Homer, II. 2. 269.
15. bene : preferably with fidum. Cf. Cicero ad Att. 14. 7,
litterae bene longae. So in French bien long. Verg. Aen. 2. 23.
has male fida.
17. ferrepedem: cf. Verg. G. 1. \\, fertesimul Faunique pedem
Dryadesque puellae. dedecuit : litotes ; it became her well (Ov.
Am. 1. 7. 12). A Roman lady might so condescend at a religious
solemnity. Cf. A. P. 232, ut festis matrona moveri iussa diebus.
272 NOTES.
Or she may have danced and sung in private in the relaxation of
the old Roman severity. Cf. on. 3. 6. 21 sqq.
18. nee certare: recurs, 4. 1. 31. ioco: in light talk. dare
bracchia : the arms were the chief feature in ancient dancing.
19. ludentem : ira(ov<Ta.v. Cf. Verg. Eel. 6. 28. nitidis: in
holiday attire. Cf. Tibull. 2. 5. 7, sed nitidus pulcherque veni.
virginibus : dat. with dare.
20. Dianae Celebris: lit. of thronged Diana. Cf. Tibull. 4. 4.
21, iam celeber iam laetus eris ; Ov. Met. 1. 446; Lucret. 5. 1166,
delubra deum . . . festis celebrare diebus.
21. Achaemenes: eponymous ancestor of kings of Persia
(Herod. 7. 11). Cf. 3. 1. 44. Cf. on 3. 9. 4.
22. Mygdonias: a sonorous tautology for Phrygian. Cf. on
1. 17. 22 ; 3. 16. 41 ; Homer, II. 3. 186. Midas, whose touch turned
all to gold, was king of Phrygia.
23. permutare veils : cf . Sappho, fr. 85 ; an old French poem
in Moliere, Le Misanthrope, 1. 2, ' Si le roi m'avoit donne | Paris,
sa grand' ville,' etc.; Aristaen. 1. 10; Catull. 45. 22. crine :
' Beauty draws us with a single hair,' but the singular is probably
collective here. Cf. 1. 32. 12.
24. Arabum : cf. 1. 29. 1-3 ; Verg. G. 2. 115 ; Propert. 3. 1. 16,
et domus intactae te tremit Arabiae. plenas : cf. 4. 12. 24.
25. detorquet ad: so that they fall on her neck (Kiesslinp,),
or on her mouth (Orelli) non nostrum inter vos. For caesura,
cf. 1. 18. 16; 1. 37. 5.
26. facili saevitia: playful cruelty; oxymoron. Cf. on
3. 11. 35.
27. poscente : Epist. 1. 17. 4.1, pins poscente ferent. gaudeat:
subj. as giving reason for facili saevitia.
28. rapere: snatch. occupet: cf. on 1. 14. 2.
ODE XIII.
Humorously exaggerated imprecations on a tree of the Sabine
farm that barely missed the owner's head in its fall (1-12). Death
comes when least expected, and no man knows the shape he will
take (12-20). Narrowly has the poet escaped the dark realm of
BOOK II., ODE XIII. 273
Proserpina, where Aeacus sits in judgment, and Sappho and Alcaeus
sing strains that charm the shades to silence and 'stay the rolling
Ixionian wheel, and numb the furies' ringlet snake ' (20-40).
For the incident, cf. 2. 17. 27 ; 3. 4. 27 ; 3. 8. 7. The probable date
is B.C. 30. Cf. on 1. 26. There is a translation by Richard Crashaw.
1-4. ille . . . ilium : guide the curse. ' He both planted thee
on an unlucky day, whoever it was that planted thee in the begin-
ning, and with a wicked hand reared thee for the destruction of
posterity and the shame of the village.'
1 . lief asto : for technical and popular meanings of the word, cf.
Lex. s.v.
2. sacrilega : in vague abusive sense.
3. in : cf. 4. 2. 56.
5. ilium et : the effect is, he, too, I am ready to believe, rather
than, et . . . et, both . . . and. crediderim : perf. subj. of
cautious assertion.
6. fregisse cervicem : strangled. Cf. Epode 3. 1-2 ; Sail. Cat.
55, frangere gulam laqueo.
6-8. penetralia . . . nocturne . . . hospites : aggravate the
horror.
8. Colcha : i.e. Colchica, which some read. We have to choose
between an exceptional hiatus, or an exceptional elision. Medea
was the typical venefica. Cf. Epode 3. 10 ; 17. 35.
10. tractavit: handled, dealt in (1. 37. 27). A slight zeugma.
Cf. Epode 3. 8 ; Shaks. As You Like It, 5. 1, ' I will deal in poison
with thee, or in bastinado, or in steel.'
11. triste lignum: sorry log. Cf. 3. 4. 27, devota arbor. ca-
ducum : ready or destined to fall. Cf . 3. 4. 44.
12. immerentis: cf. on 1. 17. 28; Epode 6. 1.
13. The special danger he should shun is never sufficiently
guarded against for man from hour to hour. quid . . . vitet :
represents the direct quid vitem. quisque : by Latin idiom keeps
close to the relative.
14. in boras : after analogy of in dies. The general proposition
is followed by particular examples the sailor, the soldier, the
Parthian. Bosporum : a typical dangerous strait. Cf. 3.4. 30;
2. 20. 14.
T
274 NOTES.
15. Poenus : a typical navigator ; but Thoenus = Thynus has
been conjectured.
15-16. ultra and aliunde: may be loosely pleonastic, or we
may explicitly distinguish, that past . . . from any other quarter.
The latter is facilitated by Lachman's timetve, which removes the
irregular quantity timet, for which see 1. 3. 36 ; 2. 6. 14.
16. caeca: like caeca saxa, not caeca fortuna. Cf. 3. 27. 21.
17. miles: sc. Italus, Romanics. sagittas: cf. Catull. 11.6,
sagittiferosve Parthos Shakspeare's 'darting Parthia.' celerem
fugam: cf. 2. 7. 9, 4. 8. 15 for the phrase, and 1. 19. 11 for the
thought.
19. robur : the dungeon of the Tullianum (cf. Lex. s.v. II. A 2),
or possibly the strength of the Italian youth. improvisa: em-
phatic, when they least expect it.
19-20. The conclusion in general terms.
20. rapuit rapiet : so it has been and so it will be.
21. quam paene: cf. Martial, 1. 12. 6 ; 6. 58. 3, quam paene
tibi Stygias ego raptus ad undas. furvae: a transferred epithet.
Cf. Propert. 5. 11. 5, fuscae deus audiat aulae. regna: cf. 3. 4.
46. PrSserpinae: so Sen. Here. Fur. 549, vidisti Siculae regna
Proserpinae. Elsewhere Proserpina. Cf. 1. 28. 20.
22. For Aeacus (son of Zeus and Aegina and Eponym of the
Aeacidae) as judge of the dead, cf. Plato, Gorg. 524 A.
23. discriptas: appointed, allotted; others prefer discretas,
the blest seclusion of the good. Cf. Verg. Aen. 8. 670, secretosque
pios. In the following picture of the world below, Horace blends
suggestions from many passages in Greek literature from Pindar
and Plato (Apol. 41) down.
24. Aeoliis : the dialect of Lesbos. querentem : Sappho, fr.
41, and Swinburne's Sappho, 'singing | Songs that move the heart
of the shaken heaven, | Songs that break the heart of the earth
with pity, | Hearing to hear them.'
25. Sappho : Greek accus.
25-28. Cf. Ronsard, ' De 1'election de son Sepulchre ; | La 1&
j'oirray d'Alcee | La lyre courroucee, | Et Sapphon qui sur tous |
Sonne plus doux.'
26. aonantem: so Ovid (?), Heroid. 15. 30, quamvis grandius
ille sonet.
BOOK II., ODE XIII. 275
26-27. atireo . . . plectro : Find. Nem. 5. 24, xP vff *V v\d^rpai ;
Quintil. 10. 1. 63, Alcaeus in parte operis aureo plectro merito dona-
tur. Cf. on 1. 26. 11, and for Alcaeus, 1. 32. 5. n.
28. fugae: exile; but Herod. 5. 95 mentions his flight from
battle.
29. silentio : cf. Milton's ' Worthy of sacred silence to be
heard.' Cf. 3. 1. 2.
30. dicere : the infinitive of direct perception, for which the
participle is more usual. magis : the multitude prefers the
themes of Alcaeus, his invective against the tyrants in his trra-
fflUTtKO..
31. exactos : cf. on 2. 4. 10.
32. densum : cf. spissa ramis, 2. 15. 9 ; spissae . . . coronae
('ring'), A. P. 381 ; Tenn. Morte D' Arthur, 'That all the decks
were dense with stately forms.' umeris : cf. ' a press | Of snowy
shoulders thick as herded ewes '(Tenn. Prin.). bibit: cf. Propert.
4. 5. 8, suspenses auribus ista bibam; Ov. Trist. 3. 5. 14; and
Rosalind's ' I prythee take the cork out of thy mouth that I may
drink thy tidings' ; Othello, 1. 3, ' with a greedy ear | Devour up
my discourse ' ; Verg. Aen. 4. 359.
33. stupens : spell-bound.
34. demittit : droops, cf. xa*<*|a'* of the plumage of the eagle
(Pindar, Pyth. 1. 6). centiceps: Cerberus has three heads gen-
erally, fifty in Hesiod, one hundred in Pindar. Possibly Horace is
thinking of the hundred snakes that enwreathe his head, 3. 11. 17.
35-36. intorti . . . angues: cf. Aeschyl. Choeph. 1048; Catull.
64. 193 ; Verg. Georg. 4. 481, quin ipsae stupuere domus atque intima
Lett | Tartara caeruleosque implexae crinibus anguis \ Eumenides,
tenuitque inhians tria Cerberus ora; Pope, Ode on St. Cecilia's
Day, IV., 'But hark ! he strikes the golden lyre ; j And see ! the
tortured ghosts respire ! | See shady forms advance ! | Thy stone,
O Sisyphus, stands still, | Ixion rests upon his wheel, | And the
pale spectres dance. | The Furies sink upon their iron beds, | And
snakes uncurled hang listening round their heads ' ; Dryden, ' Hear
ye sullen powers below,' ' Music for a while | Shall your cares
beguile | . . . Till Alecto free the dead | From their eternal
bands ; | Till the snakes drop from her head, | And whip from out
her hands' ; Green: Dyce, Vol. II., p. 237.
276 NOTES.
37. quin et : cf. 1. 10. 13; 3. 11. 21. Prometheus : Horace
here as 2. 18. 35; Epode 17. 67 represents Prometheus as de-
tained in Tartarus, contrary to all other versions of the myth.
Felopis parens: cf. 1. 28. 7; Epode 17. 65; Ody. 11. 582;
Sat. 1. 1. 68.
38. laborem decipitur: apparently a passive of decipere, fallere
laborem. Many read laborum, beguiled out of, away from, K\fTrre-
T0(. Cf. on 2. 9. 17.
39. curat : cf. Verg. Aen. 6. 654, quae euro, nitentes | pascere
equos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos. Orion: the Greek Nim-
rod. In Ody. 11. 573 he hunts over the meadow of Asphodel the
shades of the beasts he slew in the upper world.
40. lyncas : cf. 4. 6. 34.
ODE XIV.
' For of all gods death only loves not gifts ; | Nor with burnt offer-
ing nor blood sacrifice | Shalt thou do aught to get thee grace of
him ; | He will have naught of altar and altar-song, | And from him
only of all the lords in 'heaven | Persuasion turns a sweet averted
mouth' (Swinb. after Aesch., fr. Niobe).
In vain we shun the battlefield, the storm-tossed Adriatic, and
the fever-laden autumn breeze. ' Cocytos named of lamentation
loud ' we all shall see at last. One day thou must bid farewell to
earth and the wife so dear, and of all the trees whose growth thou
watchest, only the ' Cypress funeral,' shall go with thee to the
grave. Then shall the 'hard heir stride about thy lands,' and the
spilth of thy hoarded Caecuban stain thy marble floors.
Postumus is unknown : perhaps merely typical. Cf. Martial,
2. 23, non dicam, licet usque me rogetis, quis sit Postumus in meo
libello ; Juv. Sat. 6. 28, uxorem, Postume, duds; Pro pert. 4. 11,
is addressed to a Postumus.
This ode with 4. 7 is Horace's consummate expression of the
eternal commonplace of death. Cf. 1. 4. 13; 1. 9. 17 ; 1. 11. 7 ;
1. 24. 15 ; 1. 28. 15 ; 2. 3. 5 ; 2. 3. 20 ; 2. 13. 20 ; 2. 18. 31 ; 3. 24.
8 ; 4. 7 ; 4. 12. 26 ; 3. 2. 15.
Students may choose between the admiration of Matthew Arnold,
who shortly before his death selected this as one of his tw favorite
poems, and the censure of Buecheler (Rhein. Mas. N. F. 37, p. 234),
BOOK II., ODE XIV. 277
who thinks it is proved a youthful effort by ' den krass mythologi-
schen Ton, die breiten griechischen Reminiscenzen, die Neigung
zum Hyperbolischen, einige Sprachliche Harten oder Verwe-
genheiten ' (inlacrimabilis, enaviganda, carebimus, merum potius
cents). One would like to hear his opinion of Gray's Elegy.
There is a translation by Edwin Arnold. Imitated by Congreve,
Johnson's Poets, 10. 278, and by Sir Wm. Jones, ibid. 18. 445.
Cf., also, Austin Uobson's amusing skit, 'Ah ! Postumus, we all
must go'; Villon's, 'mort, j'appelle de ta rigueur' ; Herrick,
337. 1-2, ' Ah Posthumus ! our yeares hence flye, | And leave no
sound ; nor piety, | Or prayers or vow | Can keepe the wrinkle from
the brow : | But we must on,' etc. ; Locker, To My Old Friend
Postumus, ' Ay, all too vainly are we screen'd | From peril day and
night ; | Those awful rapids must be shot, | Our shallop will be
slight,' etc.
1. Postume, Postume : emotional repetition. Cf. on 3. 3. 18 ;
4. 4. 70.
2. labuntur : Ov. Fast. 6. 771, tempora labuntur tacitisque
senescimus annis. ' Le temps s'en va, le temps s'en va, ma dame 1
Las! le temps non ; mais nous, nous en allons.' The 'gliding'
and the flight of time do not make a mixed metaphor 'my days
are gliding swiftly by | And I ... would not detain them as
they fly !' pietas, etc. : cf. on 1. 24. IV; 4. 7. 24^ Omar Khay- \
yam, 71, 'The moving finger writes ; and having writ, | Moves on :
nor all your Piety nor Wit | Shall lure it back to cancel half a
Line, | Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.'
3. instant! : cf. on 3. 3. 3; Mimnermus, 5. 6, r%>ar . . . virtpitpf-
nerai ; Sen. Praef. Q. Nat. L. 3, premit a tergo (premat ergo ?}
senectus; Hamlet, 5. 1, 'But age, with his stealing steps, | Hath
caught me in his clutch.'
4. indomitae : i.e. indomabili. Cf. 1. 24. 7, incorrupta; the
ending -bilis is avoided. 'ASa/xaen-os (II. 9. 158), &\\UTTOS (Anth.
Pal. 7. 643) ; inexorable, the Conqueror Death. Cf. nemo potest
impetrare a Papa bullam numquam moriendi (Imitat. Christi).
5. The meaning is three hecatombs a day. We need hot apply
mathematics to the hyperbole. eunt : 4. 5. 7 ; Epp. 2. 2. 55,
anni . . . euntes.
278 NOTES.
6. amice : 2. 9. 5. places : conative. inlacrimabilem .
active; 4. 9. 26 passive. Cf. aSaxpuros, flebilis, 4. 2. 21 and
1. 24. 9; tutela, 4. 14. 43 and 4. 6. 33. For thought, cf. Milt.
II Pens., 'drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek;' Sen. Here. Fur.
582, deflent et lacrimis dijficiles dei.
I. ter amplum : Tpurt&naTov (Eur. Here. Fur. 423); Lucret. 5.
28, tripectora tergemini vis Geryonai ; Verg. 6. 289, forma tricor-
poris umbrae.
8. Geryonen : see Lex. and Verg. Aen. 8. 201 sqq. Heywood,
Love's Mistress, ' Wert thou more strong than Spanish Geryon |
That had three heads upon one man.' Tityon : cf. 3. 4. 77;
3. 11. 21 ; 4. 6. 2 ; Odyss. 11. 576 ; Verg. Aen. 6. 595 sqq. ; Tibull.
1. 3. 75, porrectusque novem Tityos per iugera terrae. They were
big and burly, but death was stronger. Lucret. 3. 1030 sqq. points
a similar moral with Xerxes, the Scipios, and Homer. tristi :
Verg. G. 4. 479, inamabilis unda.
9. compescit : Verg. G. 4. 480, navies Styx interfvsa coercet ;
Lucan, 9. 2, nee cinis exiguus tantam compescuit umbram.
unda : 2. 20. 8. scilicet : the wave which must in very deed.
omnibus : 3. 1. 16 ; 1. 28. 15 ; 2. 3. 25.
10. munere : the bounty of (mother) earth. Cf. II. 6. 142 ;
Simon, f r. 5 ; ' The gods do not eat grain nor drink the ruddy wine,
wherefore also they are immortal,' says Homer. For idea in
munus, cf . Comus, ' Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth |
With such a full and unwithdrawing hand ? '
II. enaviganda : an Horatian innovation e, to the further
shore.
11-12. sive . . . sive: 2. 3. 5, 6.
11. reges : lords of lands, lords and masters, not necessarily
kings. (Cf. 1.4. 14; Juv. Sat. 1. 135; 7. 45.) Contrasted with
coloni, tenant farmers (1. 35. 6). Cf. 2. 18. 33-4.
13. frustra : cf. 2. 13. 13 sqq. carebimus : cf. on 2. 1. 36;
2. 10. 7.
14. fractis : 'the breaking waves dashed high.' rauci : cf.
Arnold, 'saw the hoarse boughs labor in the wind.' 'Hoarse
torrent. '
15. autumnos : still dangerous at Rome, 3. 23. 8 ; Sat. 2. 6. 19 ;
Epp. 1. 7. 5 sqq. ; 1. 16. 16.
BOOK II., ODE XIV. 279
16. corporibus : with both nocentem and metuemus. au-
strum : the Sirocco from the Sahara. Cf. Shelley's ' wind-walking
pestilence.'
17. ater: cf. on 2. 3. 16; 2. 13. 34; 1. 28. 13; 4. 12. 26.
flumiiie, etc. : meandering with sluggish flow. Cf. Verg. G. 4.
478 ; Aen. 6. 131. Find. fr. 107, 0\nxp3i . . . irora/xoi.
18. Danai genus : cf. on 3. 11. 23 sqq.
19. longi : gen. of the sentence. G. L. 378. 3. For the word,
cf. on 3. 11. 38 ; 2. 16. 30. Eccles. 12. 5, ' Man goeth to his long
home.'
20. Sisyphus: Epode 17. 68. The crafty king of Corinth.
Odyss. 11. 593 sqq. ; F. Q. 1. 5. 35, 'And Sisyphus an huge round
stone did reel | Against an hill, ne might from labor lin ' ; Long-
fellow, Masque of Pandora, chorus of Eumenides ; Pseudo-Plat.
Axiochus,371 E. Variously moralized, Lucret. 3. 995 sqq. ; Morris,
Epic of Hades ; Ruskin, Queen of Air, 29. Aeolides : II. 6. 154.
21. liuquenda tellus : cf. the exquisite dirge in Lucret. 3. 894
sqq. ; the Earth Song in Hamatreya, Emerson. Nero, 4, 7,
' Hither you must and leave your purchased houses, | Your new-
made garden and your black-browed wife : | And of the trees
thou hast so quaintly set | No one but the displeasant Cypress
shall | Go with thee.' Gray, ' Left the warm precincts of the cheer-
ful day.' placens. 3. 7. 24 ; Ov. A. A. 1. 42, elige cui dicas l tu
mihi sola places. 1
22. colis : Petronius about to end his life changed the position
of his funeral pyre that it might not injure a favorite tree (Tac.
Ann. 11. 3).
23. invisas: by association with death (1. 34. 10). Cf. Verg.
Aen. 6. 216 ; Epode 5. 18 ; Lucan, 3. 442 ; Ov. Met. 10. 141 ; F. Q.
1.1.8; Browning, Up in a Villa, ' Except yon Cypress that points
like death's lean lifted forefinger.' ' They brought a bier and hung
it | With many a Cypress crown ' (Macaulay, Virginia).
24. brevem : 6\iyoxpviov, Lucian, Nigr. 33. Cf. 1. 36. 16 ; 1. 4.
15; 2. 3. 13; Macbeth, 5. 5, 'Out, out, brief candle'; Shelley,
Liberty, 19, ' As a brief insect dies with dying day' ; Tenn. 'Our
brief humanities.' Man is ' sick for the stubborn hardihood ' of the
tree that outlives him. See Tenn. In Mem. 2.
25. absumet : cf. Epp. 1. 15. 27. heres : Ecclesiastes 2. 18,
280 NOTES.
' Yea, I hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun : be-
cause I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.' For
the perpetual moral of the 'heir,' cf. on 4. 7. 19 ; 3. 24. 62 ; 2. 3.
20 ; Epp. 1. 5. 13 ; 2. 2. 175 ; 2. 2. 191 ; Pers. Sat. 6. 60-65. -
dignior : ironically pointing the Epicurean moral he knows the
use of wealth. Cf. 3. 24. 61. n.
26. centum : so 2. 16. 33 ; 3. 8. 14.
27. tinguet: Timon of Ath. 2. 2, 'when our vaults have wept|
With drunken spilth of wine ' ; Cic. Phil. 2. 105, natabant pavi-
menta vino madebant parietcs ; Petron. 38. superbo : we speak
of a generous liquor ; but it is conceivably an hypallage for super-
bus. The wine, too, outlasts the man. Hortensius left 10,000
casks of Chian in his cellars. Cf. Petron. 34, complosit Tri-
malchio manus et ' eheu ' inquit ' ergo diutius vivit vinurn quam
homuncio.' 1
28. pontificum : their banquets proverbially splendid, 1. 37. 2 ;
Martial, 12. 48. 12. potiore cents: comparatio compendiaria.
Cf. 2. 6. 14 ; II. 17. 51, 'Locks like the Graces.'
ODE XV.
One of those diatribes against luxury which were a standing
commonplace in the rhetorical literature of the Romans. Cf . Odes
3. 6 ; Sail. Cat. 12. 13 and 20; Petron. Sat. 119 ; Manilius, 5. 374;
Gratius Cyneget. 312 sqq. ; Lucan, 1. 170 ; Tac. Ann. 3. 53 ;
Martial, 3. 47. 58 ; Sen. Contr. 5. 5.
It was a cherished object of Augustus' policy to foster Italian
agriculture, ruined by latifundia, slave labor, the decay of the
peasantry, and the competition of Sicily and Africa. Cf. Vergil's
complaint, squalent abditctis arva colonis (G. 1. 507), and his allur-
ing picture of the delights of the farmer's life (ibid. 2. 457-510).
Horace is less successful in this perfunctory, impersonal ode ;
but he can do better. Cf. 3. 1-6.
Palaces and fish ponds, useless shade trees, and flowery parterres
are displacing the vine and olive. Our fathers roofed their homes
with turf and built their temples of marble. But we have changed
all that.
BOOK II., ODE XV. 281
1. iam : soon. Cf. 1:4. 16. regiae: regales, royal.
2. moles : piles. Cf . 3. 29. 10 ; The Deserted Village, ' Along
the lawn where scattered hamlets rose | Unwieldy wealth and
cumbrous pomp repose.'
3. visentur : cf. 1. 37. 25 ; will meet the gaze, visere is often
more convenient metrically than vldere.
4. stagna: fish ponds, piscinae. Horace says they are larger
than the Lucrine Lake (near Baiae) connected with Lake Avernus
and converted into an artificial harbor, the Portus Julius, by Agrippa.
Cf. A. P. 63. So Sen. Controv. 5. 5, naviyabilium piscinarnm freta.
Cicero (ad Att. 1. 19. 6) uses piscinarios as a nickname for the
degenerate nobles. platanus: 2. 11. 13; it was a shade tree,
d,u<piAa4>T?s. Tennyson's ' broad-leaved platan.' Cf. Nux Elegeia,
17, at postquam platanis sterilem praebentibus umbram \ uberior
quavis arbore venit honos. Quintus Hortensius was said to water
a favorite plane-tree with wine. caelebs : as contrasted with the
ulmi maritatae, the ' vine-prop elm ' (Epode 2. 10). Cf. on 4. 5. 30,
and Martial, 3. 58. 3, vidua; Ov. Met. 10. 92, 95, 100; Quintil.
8.3. 8, sterilem piatanum . . . maritam ulmum. Cf. 2. 11. 13.
5-8. Cambridge's version of this strophe (Johns. Poets, 18. 244)
is a curiosity of literature : ' Now flowers disposed in various
groups [ Dislodge those honors of your soups, | The tasteful rich
legumes.'
6. copia narium : store of (all that delights) the nostrils. Cf.
Aelian's o^OaAju&ic iravfiyupts and his avOtcav . . . fls toprriv tyews
(V. H. 13. 1); Wordsworth's 'cups the darlings of the eye';
Milton's ' Flora's earliest smells ' and his ' flowers that open now
their choicest-bosomed smells kept for thee in store ' ; Juvenal,
gustits elemcnta (11. 14).
7. olivetis : abl. of place, or possibly personifying dative. Cf.
3. 18. 14. The meaning perhaps is not that the trees are destroyed,
but that the interspaces are sown with flowers and not with useful
crops.
9. spissa ramis : cf. densum humeris (2. 13. 32); umbrae
enormes . . . lauris (Pliny). laurea : (arbor) = laurus.
10. ictus : the strokes, arrows, darts of the sun. Cf . Lucretius'
lucida tela din; Bo\a1s i)\lov (Eurip. Phoen. 169).
11. praescriptum : sc. est. intonsi: cf. on 1. 12. 41; Tibull.
282 NOTES.
2. 1. 34, intonsis . . . avis. Catonis: the elder Cato the Censor,
the type of old Roman austerity. Cf. 3. 21. 11.
12. auspiciis: i.e. example; lit. chief command, guidance.
13-14. Now it is just the reverse. Sail. Cat. 52, publice egesta-
tem, privatim opulentiam.
13. census: see Lex. brevis: i.e. the inventory is short.
Cf. exiguus (Epist. 1. 1. 43); tennis (Epist. 1. 7. 56).
14-16. No colonnade measured with ten-foot rods wooed (took,
lay in wait for, 3. 12. 12) the cool (shady) north (ern breeze) for
private (citizens') pleasaunce. Or privatis may be construed with
decempedis. Cf. Verg. Eel. 1. 52, frigus captabis opacum ; Juv. 7.
183, et algentem rapiat cenatio solem. For similar complaints and
contrasts, cf. Demosth. Olyn. 3. 25 ; Cic. pro Flacco, 28, pro Mu-
rena, 76, odit populus Romanus privatam luxuriam, publicam
magnijicentiam diligit.
17. fortuitum : the first that came to hand, die erste bests,
wporux^v (Find. Pyth. 4. 35). caespitem : cf. Verg. Eel. 1.68,
congestum caespite culmen; or perhaps the reference is to altars.
Cf. on 1. 19. 13 ; Tibull. 2. 5. 100, caespitibus mensas caespiti-
busque torum.
18. leges : Horace could hardly have cited chapter and verse.
19. iubentes : the laws which bade.
20. novo: 3.1.45. Possibly fresh-hewn ; more probably of the
marble, new and strange then, but familiar to modern luxury.
Cf. on 2. 18. 3. Possibly a compliment to Augustus, the restorer of
temples. Cf. on 3. 6. 2 ; ' " Brickwork I found thee and marble I
left thee," their emperor vaunted ; | " Marble I thought thee, and
brickwork I find thee!" the tourist may answer' (Clough); cf.
Suet. Aug. 28.
ODE XVI.
Peace is the prayer of the storm-tossed sailor and of the Thracian
mad with battle peace whose price is above purple and fine gold.
For the consul's lictor cannot dispel the mob of passions that beset
the soul. He only lives well who has 'the art to live on little with
a cheerful heart.' Vainly we strive to forget 'in action's dizzying
eddy whirled, the something that infects the world.' We cannot
escape ourselves nor the cares that pursue us swifter than the east
BOOK II., ODE XVI. 283
wind. When happy, borrow no troubles of to-morrow, and temper
adversity with slow, patient smile. There is a law of compensa-
tion. Achilles had glory and an early death. Long-lived Titho-
nus withered slowly in the arms of Aurora. A hundred herds
low for thee, me fate hath dowered with my Sabine farm, a
breath of the inspiration of the Greek, and the poet's scorn of
scorn.
Translated by Otway, Cowper, Hamilton, Johnson's Poets, 15.
638, imitated by Jenyns, ibid. 17. 607, and Hughes, 10. 28.
Poinpeius Grosphus is known only from Epistle 1. 12. 22-24, a
letter of introduction to the Iccius of Odes, 1. 29.
There was fighting in Thrace about B.C. 30. A plausible date for
the ode is 29 or 28.
1. otium : the Roman world was very tired and ready to accept
arapa^ia as the chief good in life and politics. Seneca says of
Augustus, de Brev. Vit. 5, omnis eius sermo ad hoc semper revolutus
est ut speraret otium. l Deus nobis haec otia fecit,' 1 says the
Vergilian shepherd of the firm ruler, qui cuncta discordiis civilibus
fessa nomine principis sub imperium accepit ; Tac. Ann. 1.1. Cf.
Renan, First Hibbert Lecture, Introd. Pax was the sailor's word.
Cf. Plaut. Trinum. 837 ; Lucret. 5. 1229, non divum pacem votis adit
ac prece quaesit \ ventorum pauidus paces animasque secundas ?
patent! : alto, the open.
2. prensus: i.e. deprensus. Cf. Verg. G. 4. 421 ; Lucret. 6. 429 ;
Catull. 25. 13, deprensa navis in man vesaniente vento.
3. condidit : so Verg. Aen. 6. 271, ubi caelum condidit umbra.
certa: cf. Tibull. 1. 9. 10, ducunt instabiles sidera certa rates.
Milton, Comus, ' Unmuffle, ye faint stars ' ; Tenn. Choric Song,
'Eyes grown dim with gazing on the pilot stars.'
5. bello furiosa : apfi/j.avijs, Sopi^vfis. Thrace was Mavortia
terra (Verg. Aen. 3. 13). Cf. Gray, Progress of Poesy, 'On
Thracia's hills the Lord of War | Has curb'd the fury of his car.'
6. pharetra : cf. 3. 4. 35, pharetratus. decori : 3. 14. 7.
7-8. venale : cf. 3. 14. 2, and for meter, 1. 2. 19.
ft. nee : is read for neque to remove the only case of elision in
the Adonic verse.
9-12. A favorite moral of Latin poetry. Cf. Munro on Lucret.
2. 25-50 ; Lucan, 4. 378 ; Sellar, p. 165.
284 NOTES.
10. summovet: technical of clearing a path through a mob.
tumultus : the mob of passions ; mentis is emphatic.
11. laqueata : 2. 18. 2, paneled.
12. volaiites : like bats or obscene birds. Cf. Theog. 729, for
wings of care.
13. vivitur: passive (cf. the vivere parvo of Sat. 2. 2. 1), ab eo
vivitur cui. Cf. Juv. 8-9, coram Le.pidis male vivitur. parvo :
cf. Lucret. 5. 1118; Cic. de Fin. 2. 28 ; Lucan, 4. 377 ; Claud, in
Rufin. 1. 215; Tibull. 1. 1. 25, contentus vivere parvo.
14. salinum : almost proverbial. Cf. Pers. 3. 25, purum et sine
labe salinum; Valer. Max. 4. 4. 3 ; Sen. de Tranq. An. 1. The
family salt-cellar brightly polished is the one piece of silver on
the frugal board of the man who knows, ' What and how great the
virtue and the art | To live on little with a cheerful heart ' (Pope).
splendet : cf. Epist. 1. 5. 23. tenui : cf. Epist. 1. 20. 20 ; Herrick
337. 7, ' If we can meet, and so conferre, | Both by a shining salt-
seller.'
16. leves somnos: 2. 11. 8, facilem ; 3. 1. 22, lenis; Gray,
Ode on Eton College, ' The slumbers light that fly the approach of
morn.' cupido : always masc. in Horace.
17. For sentiment, cf. Find. Nem. 11. 43; Bion. Idyll. 7. 8;
Eurip. Bacchae, 395 ; Arnold, A Southern Night, ' We who pur-
sue | Our business with unslackening stride, . . . and see all
sights from pole to pole, | And glance, and nod, and bustle by ;|
And never once possess our soul | Before we die.' brevi fortes :
cf. on 1. 6. 9 ; but aevo goes with iaculamur. iaculamur : aim
at, attempt. So ro^fvdv.
19. sole cf. Verg. G. 2. 513, atque alio quaerunt patriam sub
sole iacentem. Tenn. The Brook, ' Katie walks | Far off and holds
her head to other stars. ' mutamus: sc. patria; cf. on 1.17.2.
For moralizing on vain restlessness of travel, cf. Sen. de Tranq.
An. 2; Emerson. Patriae: cf. Ovid Met. 9. 409, exul mentisque
domusque, and Milton's 'Heaven's fugitives.' Theoc. 24. 127,
(f>vyas Apyeos.
20. ae quoque: cf. Epist. 1. 11. 27, caelum non animum mu-
tant qui trans mare currunt. Sat. 2. 7. 112-110 ; Lucret. 3. lOtiO-
1070 ; Sen. Dial. 9. 2. 14, sequitur se ipse et urget gravissimus
comes. Epist. 28, tecum fuyis. Milton, ' nor from hell | One step
BOOK II., ODE XVI. 285
no more than from himself can fly | By change of place.' Byron,
To Inez, ' What exile from himself can flee ? ' Emerson, Self-
Keliance, ' I pack my trunk . . . and at last wake up in Naples,
and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting,
identical, that I fled from.' fugit : gnomic.
21-22. Cf. 3. 1. 39; Lucret. 2. 48 sqq. vitiosa : corking, fell ;
strictly, morbid; cf. Epist. 1. 1. 85, vitiosa libido. nee . . .
relinquit: i.e. ke.eps up with.
23. Cf. Sen. Phaedra, 745, odor nubes glomerante Coro. Odor
Euro, etc. Proverbial. Cf. Otto, p. 366 ; Burger, Lied vom braven
Mamie, ' Die Wolken flogen vor ihm her, | Wie wann der Wolf die
Herde scheucht.'
25. laetus in praesens is, as it were, the condition of oderit,
an emphatic nolit. Cf . 3. 8. 27. quod ultra eat, TO. xdppw,
futura.
26. lento: cf. lenteferre, etc., pladd, quiet.
27-28. The commonplace of Emerson's Essay on Compensation,
to be illustrated in 29 sqq. ab omni parti : cf. Quintil. 1. 2. 15,
nam quid fere undique placet ? Bacchyl. 5. 54.
29. clarum cita : Achilles says, II. 9. 412, ' If I abide here
. . . then my returning home is taken from me, but my fame shall
be imperishable.' Cf. II. 1. 505, wKu/moptaTarov &\\a>v.
30. Tithonum : cf. 1. 28. 8 ; Mimnermus, fr. 4 ; Horn. Hymn
in Ven. 220. As type of old age, Aristoph. Acharn. 688 ; Otto,
p. 349. minuit : cf. Tenn. Tithonus, ' I wither slowly in thine
arms.' Gray, 'slow-consuming age.' But longa here = unending,
as 3. 11. 38; 2. 14. 19.
31. et: and so.
32. porriget: half personifies the glad hour (iro\vyr)9ijs, 11.21.
450) ' that in a gracious hand appears to bear a gift for mortals
old or young.' Cf. on 3. 29. 48 and 3. 8. 27.
33-34. greges . . . vaccae : virtually a hendiadys.
34. tibi tollit hinnitum: picturesque periphrasis for est tibi.
Cf. 2. 15. 15. For elision at end of line, cf. 2. 2. 18.
35. equa: mares were preferred for racing. Cf. Find. Pyth.
2. 8 ; Verg. G. 1. 59 ; and if any one will try to write this strophe
with equns, he will find them metrically preferable. te : cf.
Martial, 2. 43. 3, Te Lacedaemonio velat toga lota Galaeso. bis :
286 NOTES.
SiBoHpa. Cf. Epode 12. 21, muricibus Tyriis iteratae vellera lanae',
Epist. 2. 2. 181 ; Spenser, Vergil's Gnat, ' Ne cares he if the fleece
which him arrays | Be not twice steeped in Assyrian dye.' For the
murex, cf. Class. Diet, and 2. 18. 7. n.
37. parva rura : the Sabine farm. Cf . Bacchylides, fr. 28.
38. tenuem : as a term of literary criticism would mean ' re-
fined,' ' delicate ' (Epist. 2. 1. 225) ; but it seems to be used in
modest deprecation here. Cf. Burns, Epist. to James Smith,
' The star that rules my luckless lot | Has fated me the russet
coat, | And damned my fortune to the groat; | But in requit, |
Has blest me wi' a random shot | O' countra wit.'
39. non mendax: cf. C. S. 25, vosque veraces cecinisse Parcae.
Persius, 5. 48, Parca tenax veri. Buecheler fancifully takes it
'rightly named,' because sparing (parca) of her gifts.
40. spernere : the scorn of scorn. He is invidia maior.
ODE XVII.
Maecenas, though a valetudinarian tormented by fever and
insomnia, clung desperately to life (Pliny, N. H. 7. 172 ; Seneca,
Epist. 101). Horace, toying with the astrological superstitions of
the age to which Augustus and Maecenas were devoted (Sueton.
Aug. 94 ; Dio. 52. 36), assures his friend that their horoscopes
coincide, and that it is the will of Heaven that they be not divided
in their death. The poet's prayer, ' that we may die the selfsame
day,' was, in substance, granted. He died B.C. 8, not long after
Maecenas, who in his last days wrote- to Augustus, Horatii Flacci
ut mei memor esto. The allusion to the fall of the tree (27, cf.
on 2. 13) makes it probable that the ode was written soon after
B.C. 30.
Cf. Tennyson's unfulfilled prayer (In Mem. 84): 'Thy spirit
should fail from off the globe | What time mine own might also
flee, | As linked with thine in love and fate.'
1. exanimas : so occidis saepe rogando (Epode 14. 5); Enicas
(Ter. And. 660); awoKrdvfiv (Eur. Hipp. 1064). Quintil. 8. 3. 32
seems to object to the word which is used by Cic. pro Mil. 93. Cf.
BOOK ii., ODE xvn. 287
1 Carcasses exanimate ' (F. Q. 2. 12. 7); 'Be heir to those who are
now exanimate ' (Sonnets from Port. 33).
2. amicum : the Homeric <pi\oi> elvai their pleasure, their will.
3. 8bire: cf. 3. 29. 11.
4. decus: cf. 1. 1. 2. columen: cf. Tenn., 'the pillar of a
people's hope' ; the 'pillar apostles'; Ter. Phorm. 287, columen
vero familiae ; Catull. 64. 26 ; Homer's 'ipKos 'Axaitav ; Callinus, 20,
irvpyov ; Archil, fr. 17, Na|ou . . . xlovas ; Alcaeus, fr. 23; Theognis,
233 ; Pind. O. 2. 7 ; Eurip. Alcest. 311, etc.
5. partem : cf. 1. 3. 8 ; Tenn. In Mem. 85, ' I, the divided half
of such | A friendship as had master'd time ' ; Minuc. Felix, 1. 3,
crederes unam mentem duobusfuisse divisam ; Tickell on death of
Addison, ' Can I forget the dismal night that gave | My soul's best
part forever to the grave ? ' ; and Villon's ' Deux estions et n'avions
qu'ung coeur ; | S'il est mort, force est que devie.' rapit : 2. 13. 20.
6. maturior : premature,, untimely. Cf. 1. 2. 48, odor. vis:
2. 13. 20.
7. cams: sc. mihi ipsi. Cf. Epist. 1. 3. 29, si patriae volumus
si nobis vivere cari; Plato, Rep. 621 C, fifnv avroh <pi\oi, wrongly
rendered by Jowett, ' dear to one another.' aeque : i.e. as before.
So in Greek dfnoius. superstes: 3. 9. 12, Epode 1. 5, with both
cams and integer.
8. integer: because 'the divided half.' utramque : of both
of us.
9. ducet : not adducet, but dabit, faciet. Cf. Verg. Aen. 2. 466,
trahere ruiiiam. non ego : cf. on 2. 7. 26. But non here is gen-
erally taken with perfidum.
10. dixi sacramentum : the technical term for soldier's oath
(Caes. B.C. 1. 23).
11. Utcumque : cf. on 1. 17. 10. supremum : TV vearav 68bv
(Soph. Antig. 807).
12. carpere: Sat. 1. 5. 95, carpentes iter; Verg. Georg. 3. 142,
carpere prata fuga.
13. Chimaerae: 1. 27. 24; 4. 2. 16; Verg. Aen. 6. 288.
igneae : irvpTrvtovaav (Eurip. Ion, 203). Cf. 1. 17. 2; 3. 3. 10.
14. si resurgat : were he to rise up to confront me from under
the superincumbent mountains. Cf. 3. 4. 69-73. Gyas : the
spelling of the Mss. varies. Editors generally read rvijr, not
288 NOTES.
in Hes. Theog. 149. Cf. 3. 4. 69, and Ov. Trist. 4. 7. 18, centi-
manumque Gyan.
15-16. sic ... placitum : cf. 1. 33. 10.
16. iustitiae : cf. 1. 24. 6. AI'KTJ and Elptfvri are sisters of the
Fates in lies. Theog. 902-904. But Horace is thinking also of
Themis and of Sophocles' VVOIKOS ruv Kdria OeS>v AIKTJ (Antig. 451).
17-22: whether Libra or the Scorpio, shape of fear, or Capri-
cornus, tyrant of the western wave, be the predominant aspect of
my natal hour, the stars of us twain consent in wondrous wise.
17. Scorpios : lighters were born under this sign (Manil. 4. 220).
For Libra, a propitious sign, cf. Manil. 4. 548. adspicit: the
influence is present through life. The astrologers seem to have
spoken technically of the stars aspecting each other at the birth ;
but the notion of the star looking down on the birth like a deity
was a natural development of this way of speaking. Cf. on 4. 3. 2.
18. pars violentior : it is not quite clear whether this means
simply 'as the predominant,' or more specifically 'as the malign'
which may be counteracted by the more auspicious stars, such as
Libra and Jupiter.
19. tyrannus : cf. 1. 3. 15. But here the reference is to the
assignment of particular constellations to particular quarters of
the globe. Cf. Manil. 4. 791, tu, Capricorne, regis quidquid sub
sole cadente \ expositum; Propert. 5. 1. 86.
21. nostrum : gen. plur. For caesura, cf. on 2. 12. 25.
22. consentit : cf . Persius' imitation, 5. 45, non eqnidem hoc
dubites amborum foedere certo \ consentire dies et ab uno sidere
duci Shaks. Hen. VI. 1. 1, 'the bad revolting stars | That have con-
sented unto Henry's death ' ; Herrick, Hesp. 106, ' stars consenting
with thy fate.' Hence, probably, Wordsworth's 'Twice seven
consenting years. 1 astrum : cf. Epist. 2. 2. 187, scit genius natale
comes qui temperat astrum. But Horace obviously does not take
it seriously.
23. tutelar of a deity. Cf. on 4. 14. 43; Tibull. 2. 5. 113.
Technically of a constellation (Manil. 2. 334 ; 4. 698 et passim).
Saturno : with both refulgens (cf. 1. 12. 28) and eripuit. Saturn
a malign star ; Propert. 5. 1. 84, et grave Saturni sidus in omne
caput.
24. volucris : with alas. Fati : death.
BOOK II., ODE XVIH. 289
25. alas: cf. Sat. 2. 1. 58, sen Mors atris circumvolat alis;
Eurip. Alcest. 260, -n-Ttpwrbs "Aidas ; Schol. Ale. 843 ; Gratius,
Cyneg. 343 ; Byron, ' The angel of death spread his wings on the
blast ' ; Matthew Arnold, ' death's winnowing wings ' ; Lessing,
' Wie die Alten den Tod gebildet.'
25-26. Cf. on 1. 20 ; Propert. 4. 9. 4, et manibus faustos ter
crepnere sonos.
26. crepuere : cf. on 1. 18. 6.
27. truncus: cf. on 2. 13. inlapus : cf. 'The swift illapse |
Of accident disastrous ' (Thomson, Summer).
28. sustulerat: cf. on 3. 16. 3. Faunus : cf. 1. 17. 2. In
3. 4. 27 it is the Muses, in 3. 8. 7 Liber, that saves the poet.
29. Mercurialium : cf. 1. 10 and 2. 7. 13. Horace playfully
wrests the word from its meaning of devotees of Mercury, god of
gain (Sat. 2. 3. 25).
30. reddere : cf. on 2. 7. 17.
32. nos humilem : for similar contrast, cf. 4. 2. 53 and Ov.
Trist. 1. 10. 43, nonfacit ad nostras hostia maior opes.
ODE XVIII.
Rape, congere, aufer, posside : relinquendum est.
Martial, 8.44. 9.
I have no marble halls and train of prosperous clients. I am
content with my kindly poetic vein and my dear little Sabine
estate. You, with one foot in the grave, continue to rear your
seaside villas and evict your pauper tenants. But there is one
' who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter,'
the builder of the house of death. The impartial earth opens
for pauper and prince alike.
For the sentiments, cf. 1. 31. 2-6 ; 2. 16. 33-40 ; 3. 1. 40-47 ;
3. 16. 17-43 ; 3. 29. 9-16 ; Bacehylides, fr. 28 ; Verg. Georg. 2. 461
sqq. ; Tibull. 3. 3. 12 sqq. ; Propert. 4. 1. 49 sqq., etc. For free
imitation of lines, 1-8, see Crashaw, Description of a Religious
House, Ward's Poets, 2. 208.
1. ebur : of the eburnum and aureum lacnnar (cf. 2. 16. 11)
rather than of ivory tables. Cf. Propert. 4. 1. 50, nee camera
u
290 NOTES.
auratas inter eburna trabes ; Bacchylides, fr. 27. 8, xP vffc i> 8> faffavn
re fj.ap/j.aipoicnt> olKoi ; Lucret. 2. 27, nee domus argento fidget auroque
renidet.
3-4. No architraves of bluish-white marble of Mt. Hymettus rest
on columns of Numidian giallo antico in my atrium. Cf. Martial,
5. 13. 5 ; 9. 75. 7-9.
3. Hymettiae : cf. ' Where with bright marbles big and future
pomp, | Hymettus spread, amid the scented sky, | His thy my treas-
ures to the labouring bee' (Thomson, Liberty).
5. Attali : cf. 1. 1. 12.
6. ignotus expresses the surprise of the windfall, occupavi the
greedy haste of the heir.
7. Laconicas : ' Vast heaps of the shells of the murex brandaris
in Cythera and on the neighboring Laconian coast . . . demonstrate
to this day the importance of the sea to Phoenician industry '
(Holm, Hist, of Greece}. Cf. on 2. 16. 36 ; Aeschyl. Ag. 958 ; Juv.
8. 101, Spartana chlamys.
8. trahunt has been understood of trailing robes (l^a-ri(av f\fis,
<rvpfti>, traxitque per pulpita western, A. P. 215), and more simply
spin, lanam trahere. The meaning is, ' I am not so high that my
very clients are rich.' purpuras : cf. 3. 1. 42.
9. at : the other side of the medal. Cf. 3. 7. 22.
10. vena : probably a vein of ore. Cf. sine divite vena, Epist.
2. 3. 409. But the Roman poets also thought of vena aquae. Cf.
Ovid. Trist. 3. 14. 33 ; Auson. Mosella, 448, ast ego quanta met
dederit se vena liquoris. For benigna, cf. Tenn. Edwin Morris,
'But you can talk, yours is a kindly vein.' Cf. "Ercles' vein,'
etc. pauperemque dives: cf. on 1. 6. 9; Sellar, p. 176. The
Greeks rang the changes on the saying about the wise man going
to the doors of the rich. For me petit, cf. on 2. 20. 6.
12. amicum : Maecenas. Cf. nil amplius oro; Sat. 2. 6. 4.
14. satis beatus: cf. Catull. 23. 27; .Epode 1. 31; Odes,
3. 7. 3. uiiicis: cf. 3. 14. 5. Sabinis : sc. praediis. Cf. 3. 4. 22.
Cf. Martial, 4. 77, numquam divitias deos rogavi.
15. truditur: cf. onproterit, 4. 7. 9 ; urget, Epode 17. 25; sic
vita truditur, Petron. Sat. 45 ; Otto, p. 112.
16. And still (pergunt) the new moons only wax to wane. Cf.
4. 7. 7.
BOOK II., ODE XVIH. 291
17. tu : cf. on 2. 9. 9.
17-18. secanda . . . locas : allot to be cut let the contract
for cutting (sc. to the redemptor, 3. 1. 35). The Romans affected
to regard as a reprehensible luxury the use of cut marble slabs for
paneling and wainscoting. Cf. Pliny, N. H. 36. 50.
20. Bais : a famous Campanian watering-place near Naples.
Cf. 3. 4. 24; Epist. 1. 1. 83. For villas built out into the water,
cf. 3. 1. 33-38 ; Martial, 10. 30 ; Hare's Days near Rome. obstre-
pentis : cf. 3. 30. 10.
20-2 1 . urges submovere : (cf . urgere opus) press on to push
out the shore line.
22. continent!: prob. abl. abs. Variously taken as the 'con-
fining,' the 'continuous,' and 'of the mainland.' Cf. Livy, 44. 28,
continenti litore; Marlowe, Tamburlaine, 1. 1. 1, 'Africa and Europe
bordering on your land, | And continent to your dominion.'
23. quid quod : nay more, a prosaic transition. Cf. on adde
quod, 2. 8. 17 ; 3. 1. 41 ; 3. 11. 21. usque : 'still.' Cf. 1. 17. 4.
24. revellis : a picturesquely strong moves. The sanctity of
landmarks in primitive times is well known. Cf. Proverbs 22. 10,
11, 'Remove not the old landmarks, and enter not into the field
of the fatherless ' ; Plato, Laws, 843 A. In Roman inscriptions
curses are invoked on those who disturb the landmark. Terminus
was a god. et ultra : so 4. 11. 29.
25. clieiitiuin : fraus innexa clienti was the most heinous of
crimes in Roman eyes. Patronus si clienti fraudem fecerit sacer
esto (Twelve Tables).
26. sails : cf. on revellis, supra.
26-28. A picture of an eviction.
27. in sinu : cf. Tac. Ann. 1. 40, incedebat . . . perfuga duds
uxor parmilum sinujilium gerens.
29-31. But no hall awaits the rich lord more surely than the
appointed bourne of greedy Orcus. Fine (fern. Epode 17. 36) is a
virtual synonym of aula which could not well be repeated, with
the further implication that ' the vasty hall of death ' (cf. 3. 11. 16 ;
Eurip. Alcest. 259) is our final home, mors ultima linea rerum est,
Epist. 1. 16. 79 ; 0Wrojo TeAeu-Hj. It is quite unnecessary to con-
strue destinata with aula, or with aula understood, and to inter-
pret fine ' by the limit set by ' or ' in the confines of.' For the
292 NOTES.
thought, cf . Butler, ' Our noblest piles and stateliest rooms | Are
but outhouses to our tombs ' ; Longfellow, ' For thee was a house
built | Ere thou wast born.'
30. rapacis : Tibull. 1. 3. 4 ; Catull. 3. 13, malae tenebrae \
Orci quae omnia bella devoratis ; Callim. Ep. 2, ap-n-axrrip.
32. ultra: cf. 3. 29. 31, 'beyond the finis orci' ; beyond the
little that life requires ; more generally, why strive to ' pass beyond
the goal of ordinance ? ' aequa : cf. on 1. 4. 13.
33. recluditur: 1. 24. 17. n.
34. pueris . the resolution que pue in lyric iambics has been
questioned. Dogmatism is out of place. satelles : 3. 16. 9,
Charon. The force of nee, is felt with auro cap/us as well as with
revexit. Cf. Epist. 2. 2. 178, si metit Orcus \ grandia cum parvis
non exorabilis auro ; Theog. 727-728.
35. Promethea ; cf. on 1. 16. 13; 2. 13. 37. callidum:
JTOIKlAofJ.'/ITril'.
36. hie is Orcus or Charon = death = Orcus. revexit: sc.
across 'the unpermitted ferry's flow.'
37-38. Tantali genus: Pelops, etc. Cf. 1. 28. 7; 1. 6. 8;
2. 14. 18, Danai genus.
38. coercet : cf. 2. 14. 9 ; Verg. Aen. 6. 439, noviens Styx inter-
fusa coercet. levare : the zeugma of non vocatus audit is soft-
ened by construing levare with audit = consents. functum : cf .
2. 9. 13; 4. 15. 29; Epist. 2. 1. 22, suisque temporibus defuncta ;
abs. Tac. Agric. 1, narraturo vitam defuncti hominis.
39. For sentiment, cf. Aeschyl. fr. 255 ; Soph. O. C. 1220 ;
Burns, 'Man was made to mourn': '0 Death, the poor man's
dearest friend ' ; Praed, The Chant of the Brazen Head : ' I think
poor beggars court St. Giles | Rich beggars court St. Stephen ; |
And Death looks down with nods and smiles, | And makes the
odds all even' ; F. Q. 2. 1. 59, ' "Palmer," quoth he, "death is
an equal doonr| To good and bad, the common inn of rest." '
40. vocatus . . . audit: hearkens to the prayer. Cf. Shaks.,
'hearkens my brother's suit.'
BOOK II., ODE XIX. 293
ODE XIX.
Horace pretends to have caught sight of Bacchus and his train
on the lonely hillside. He affects the poetic frenzy of the dithy-
ramb, and, with many allusions to Greek poetry and legend,
affirms his right and inspiration to sing the attributes and exploits
of the God of wine and song.
Cf. 3. 25 ; Ovid. Met. 4. 17 sqq.; Propert. 4. 16 ; Ovid. Trist. 5. 3 ;
and Fletcher's ' God Lyaeus ever young.'
1. remotis : cf. 2. 3. 6. Bacchus and his train haunted solitary
mountain tops. Cf. Soph. O. T. 1105, Antig. 1126; Dyer, Gods
in Greece, pp. 112, 113 ; Anacreon, 2.
2. docentem : even as Apollo teaches his choir the nine Muses.
Cf. Pater, Study of Dionysus, pp. 10-11. credite poster!:
Epode 9. \\,posteri negabitis.
3. nymphaa : his nurses and playmates in Greek poetry. Cf .
1. 1. 31 ; Soph. O. C. 678 ; Anacr. fr. 2.
4. capripedum : cf. Lucret. 4. 580, haec loca capripedes Satyros
nymphasque tenere \ finitimi fingunt ; Tenn. Lucretius, 'Catch her,
goatfoot.' Pan is rpay6irovs, Simon, fr. 133, and the attribute is
transferred by Roman poets from the Panisci to the Satyrs. Cf.
Pater, Study of Dionysus, pp. 9-10. acutas : perhaps 'pricked
up to. listen ' ; but cf. the question of the pointed ears in Haw-
thorne's Marble Faun.
5. euhoe: i.e. efiot Cf. 1. 18. 9, euhius; Juv. Sat. 7. 62, Satur
est cum dicit Horatius euoe; Shelley, Prom., ' Like Maenads who
cry loud euoe, euoe ' ; Verg. Aen. 7. 389, euoe Bacche fremens.
trepidat : with the excitement of the vision. Cf. II. 20. 131 ;
Verg. Aen. 4. 279 sqq.
6. pleno : cf. 3. 25. 2; Ovid. Fasti, 6. 537. turbidum: TI&O-
Xta^vov. Cf. on 2. 12. 14 ; 3. 27. 67.
7. parce : the enthusiast at once courted and dreaded the mad-
dening presence of the god. Cf. Catull. 63. 91-93 ; Verg. Aen. 6.
77 sqq.
8. metuende: cf. 1. 12. 23. thyrso: 'and our fingers must
beware of the thyrsus, tossed about so wantonly by himself and
his chorus. The pine-cone at its top does but cover a spear-point !
294 NOTES.
and the thing is a weapon the sharp spear of the hunter Zagreus '
(Pater, Greek Studies, p. 60). Cf. Eurip. Ion, 216. But gram
may refer to the madness caused by its touch.
9. fas: the vision brings authentic inspiration. Cf. Ov. Fasti,
6. 7, Fas mihi praecipue voltus vidisse deorum, etc. pervicaces :
untiring, persistent. Cf. 3. 3. 70 ; Epode 17. 14. Thyiadas :
from 0v<a, to rave, a synonym of Maenad, Bacchante, Bassarid,
Euiad, etc.
10-12. For similar miracles of Bacchus, cf. Eurip. Bacchae, 141.
708 ; Plato, Ion, 534 A ; Propert. 4. 16. 20 sqq. ; Fletcher, ' From
thy plenteous hand divine | Let a river run with wine.' Cf. Exod.
3. 8 ; Hesiod, Works, 232 ; Verg. Eclog. 4. 30.
12. iterare : rehearse, tell, renew the fact in speech.
13. beatae : deified. coniugis : Ariadne. Cf . Apoll. Rhod.
3. 1002, a.ffTfp6ets tTTftyavos T^V re K\fiovcr' 'ApidSvTjs ', Mrs. Brown-
ing's How Bacchus comforts Ariadne (from Nonnus), ' But I will
wreathe thee, sweet, an astral crown | And as my queen and spouse
thou shalt be known'; Ov. Fasti, 3. 459; Heroides, 6. 115; Sen.
Here. Fur. 18 ; Propert. 4. 16. 8 ; Ov. Met. 8. 176 ; Verg. G 1. 222.
14. honorem : Verg. Aen. 7. 814, regius . , . honos. Penthei :
the Bacchae of Euripides describes the punishment of King Pen-
theus of Thebes for his impious resistance to the introduction of
the worship of the new god. His palace was thrown down by an
earthquake (633), and he was torn in pieces by his mother and
sisters in their Bacchic frenzy (Theoc. 26). Cf. Pater, Greek
Studies, pp. 68, 74. Horace moralizes the tale (Epistle 1. 16. 73).
Cf. Ov. Met. 3. 511.
15. nonleni: 1. 24. 17; 1. 18. 9.
16. Lycurgi: Homer, II. 6. 130 sqq., 'Nay moreover even
Dryas' son mighty Lykurgos was not for long when he strove
with heavenly gods, he that erst chased through the goodly land
of Nysa the nursing-mothers of frenzied Dionysos. . . . Then
IMonysos fled and plunged beneath the salt sea-wave. . . . But
with Lykurgos the gods that live at ease were wroth, and Kronos'
son made him blind, and he was not for long, because he was
hated of all the immortal gods.' Cf. Soph. Antig. 955; Propert.
4. 16. 23. Aeschylus wrote a play on the theme.
17. flectia : tamest avoids zeugma with mare. amnes : he
BOOK II., ODE XIX. 295
dried the Hydaspes and the Orontes, by the touch of his thyrsus,
in the expedition to India. mare : cf. Sen. Here. Fur. 907,
adsit Lycurgi domitor et rubri marts (the Indian Ocean).
18. separatis = remotis. uvidus: cf. 1. 7. 22; 4. 5. 39;
Eurip. El. 326, 0pf X 0(is-
19. viperino : cf. Catull. 64. 258, pars sese tortis serpentibus
incinytbant.
20. sine fraude: i.e. without harming them. Cf. C. S. 41;
an archaism found in Twelve Tables (se fraude) and in Livy
(1. 24. 5), and imitated by Milton several times; e.g. 'To draw
the proud king Ahab into fraud.'
21-32. His defense of heaven against the giants (a post-Homeric
legend), and his descent into hell to fetch his mother Semele.
21. parentis: 1. 12. 13. regna : the plural magnifies (1. 4.
18 ; 2. 13. 21 ; 3. 4. 46), but is resorted to largely metri gratia
(4. 14. 26).
22. scanderet : Pindar, fr. 162, actually speaks of a ladder.
Cf. on 2. 12. 7 and 3. 4. 42 sqq.
23. Rhoetum : a giant whose name is selected for alliterative
effect. Cf. 3. 4. 55.
24-25. He assumed the form of a lion, as in Hymn. Horn. 7. 44.
25. quamquam : with ferebaris, of which aptior dictus gives the
reason. For Liber fit for war, cf. 1. 12. 21. n.
27. sed idem : if idem is used idiomatically, as in 2. 10. 22 and
3. 12. 10, medius must = arbiter, minister, or equally adapted to.
If idem is the predicate, we construe, ' but thou wast the same in
the midst of peace and of war. '
29. iiisons : harmless to thee.
30. cornu : the reference is rather to the golden horn of wine
with which he propitiates Cerberus and the beasts than to the
horns often attributed to him by the poets (Tibull. 2. 1. 3 ; Propert.
4. 16. 19 ; Orphic Hymn 52. 2).
30-31. atterens caudam: <raiv<av, adulans, 'wagging.' Cf.
Gildersleeve on Find. O. 4. 4 ; Theoc. 6. 30.
31. trilingui: triple-beaded and triple- tongued is all one reck
oning, 'save the phrase is a little variations.'
32. tetigitque : for que, cf . on 1. 30. 6.
296 NOTES.
ODE XX.
Horace prophesies in a somewhat artificial poetic frenzy his own
immortality. He is to be translated into a ' tempest-cleaving swan
of ' Italy, and will be known to all the peoples of the earth. Let
no one weep for him or celebrate vain obsequies.
For motif, cf. 3. 30 ; 4. 3 ; Alcman, fr. 118. For transformation
of poet to swan, cf. Plato's Repub. 020 a; Eurip. fr. 911. For
bard = bird, cf. 1.6.2; Find. 01. 2. 96 ; Theoc. 7. 47 ; Verg. Eel.
9. 35, and 4. 2. 25. n. Ben Jonson's ' Sweet swan of Avon.'
1. non usitata : cf. Epode 5. 73. Cf. Milton's 'adventurous
song, | That with no middle flight intends to soar.' For the boast
of originality, cf. 3. 1. 2 ; 3. 30. 10 sqq. n.
2. biformis : swan and poet is the obvious meaning, but Por-
phyrio says quod et lyrica scribat et hexametros, and some moderns
follow him on the ground that Horace would be wholly trans-
formed into the bird. But this is to consider it too curiously.
liquidum : cf. Verg. G. 1. 404. Clear as contrasted with udam
. . . humum, 3. 2. 23, or yielding as Milton's ' buxom air ' ; Pind.
Nem. 8. 41, irpbs vypbv \ aiOtpa.
3. vates : cf. on 1. 31. 2.
4. invidia maior : cf. Tac. Agr. 8. 3, extra invidiam ; Callim.
Ep. 23, ttptiffffova BavKavtiis. Cf. on 4. 3. 16 and 3. 24. 32.
5. urbes : concretely picturesque. Cf. 1. 35. 10 ; 3. 4. 46.
5-6. pauperum . . . sanguia : Horace never disavows his
humble birth. Cf. 2. 18. 10 ; 3. 30. 12 ; Sat. 1. 6. 46, quern rodnnt
omnes libertino patre natum.
6. vocas : invitest (to thy board, or simply companionship).
Cf. Catull. 44. 21, qui turn voc.at me. If any dignity is lost, it is
recovered by dilecte. Cf. Gildersleeve on Pindar's ^I'AOS addressed
to Hieron (Pyth. 1. 92). In 2. 18. 11, he says dives me petit. The
interpretation of ' dilecte ' as direct quotation of Maecenas' words
is generally abandoned.
8. unda : cf . 2. 14. 9.
9-12. Tyrrell, Latin Poetry, p. 198, comments on the bad taste
of these details.
9. iam iam : Epode 17. 1. He begins to feel the ' feathery
BOOK II., ODE XX. 297
change ' come over him like Arnold's Philomela. cruribus :
usually taken as abl. of place ; conceivably dat. Cf. residunt in
partem (Verg. Aen. 9. 539). asperae : the skin wrinkles and
roughens as it shrinks and settles into place.
11. superng : so Lucret. 2. 1153, 6. 544, 597 ; A. P. 4. leves :
antithesis with asperae.
13. Daedaleo : cf. 1. 17. 22. n. notior : many Mss. read odor
with harsh hiatus. Cf. Ov. Amor. 1. 9. 40, notior in caelo fabula
mtlla fuit. Bentley proposed tutior, which H. doubtless meant,
but perhaps did not need to say. Cf. on 4. 2. 2 ; cf. Martial, 1. 1. 2,
Toto notus in orbe Martialis.
14-20. Cf. Sargeant's lines, ' But on strong wing, through upper
air, | Two worlds beneath, the old and new, | The Roman swan is
wafted where | The Roman eagles never flew.'
14. Visam: cf. 2. 14. 17. gementis: cf. Iliad, 16. 391,23.
330 ; Ody. 12, 97, aydurrovos ; Aeschyl. Prom. 712 ; Soph. Ajax, 674,
(TTfvovra irAvTov ; Tennyson, ' the inoanings of the homeless sea ' (In
Mem.); 'The deep | Moans round with many voices' (Ulysses);
Christina Rossetti, ' Why does the sea moan evermore ? ' Bos-
pori : 3. 4. 30.
15. Syrtes : 1. 22. 5 ; 2. 6. 3. canorus : of Swan Song, Verg.
Aen. 7. 700 ; cf. 4. 3. 20. n.
16. Hyperboreos : cf. Swinb. r ' Beyond the north wind lay the
land of old, | Where men dwelt blithe and flawless clothed and fed
| With joy's bright raiment and with love's sweet bread, | The hap-
piest flock of earth's maternal fold.' Cf . Pind. 01. 3. 16 ; Pyth. 10.
30-44 ; Aeschyl. Choeph. 373 ; Pliny, N. H. 4. 89 ; Bacchyl. 3. 59.
17. dissimulat : ' masks his fear. '
19. Geloni: 2. 9. 23. peritus: the learned Spaniard may
have sounded like a jest to Roman ears, though the next genera-
tion gave the Senecas and Quintilian to Rome. Or possibly a dis-
tinction is drawn between the ' culture ' of the province that shall
learn the poet, and the outer barbarians that shall come to know
of him. Cf. Statius, Theb. 12. 814, lam te (sc. his poem) mag-
nanimus dignatur noscere Caesar, \ Itala iam studio discit memo-
ratque iuventus.
20. potor : vivid for accola. Cf. 3. 10. 1 ; 4. 15. 21 ; Horn. 11. 2.
825 ; Pind. Ol. 6. 85 ; Verg. Eclog. 1. 63.
298 NOTES.
21-24. Cf. Epitaph of Ennius, Cic. Tusc. 1. 34, nemo me lacru-
mis decoret nee funera fletu \ faxit ! cur? Volito vivus per ora
virum.
21. inani : a cenotaph sine corpore funus. neniae : properly
the hired mourner's wailing dirge.
22. turpes : disfiguring : the gashing of cheeks and beating of
breast. querimoniae : of friends and kin.
23. clamorem : the conclamatio or clamor supremus (Lucan,
2. 20 ; Verg. Aen. 4. 665, 674).
24. mitte : 3. 8. 17. supervacuos : the Ciceronian superva-
caneus would be unmanageable in Horace's verse. Maecenas had
written cynically, nee tumulum euro, sepelit natura relictos. But
Horace means that his monument is his poetry.
BOOK III.
The first six odes of the third book were read by Porphyrio as an
cpd$) multiplex per varios deducta sensus an ode sequence whose
unity, like that of the sonnet sequences of modern poetry, depends
on identity of metre and general similarity of moral purpose and
aesthetic effect subsisting amid much diversity of detail.
Like 2. 15, 2. 18, and 3. 24, these odes are addressed not to any
individual, but to all patriotic citizens. The first, beginning with
an unusually solemn proclamation of the poet's mission, proceeds
to preach the familiar doctrine that power, wealth, and the curious
inventions of modern luxury cannot restore lost sleep or free us
from the black care that sits behind the horseman. The Sabine
farm is better than burdensome riches.
In the second the Roman youth are admonished to preserve
their vigor in the stern schools of poverty and war. Death for the
fatherland is sweet. Virtue opens the veiy heavens to those who
have merited such immortality. Fidelity, discretion, silence, also
have their sure reward.
The third opens with the famous picture of the upright and
dauntless man, firm of purpose type of the old Roman virtues
that won apotheosis for Romulus and Augustus, and world-wide
BOOK III. 299
empire for Rome. The glories of that empire are prophesied by
Juno urging upon the gods in council assembled the final destruction
of Troy. Troy shall become a lair of wild beasts it shall never
be restored. But in the West a greater than Troy shall rise.
The first half of the fourth ode is an address to the Muses who
watched over Horace's infancy when he strayed a poetic babe in
the woods of Mt. Voltur, who rescued him from the rout at
Philippi, from the fall' of the accursed tree, and from shipwreck in
Sicilian seas. They will keep him safe though he visit the fierce
tribes of Britain, or those of Spain that yet engage Caesar's arms.
When Caesar himself dismisses his war-worn legions and seeks
refreshment from cares of state, 'tis to them he turns. They give
him counsels of gentleness, and delight in his magnanimity. Then,
with seemingly abrupt transition, the poet passes to a covert warn-
ing against the folly and wickedness of rebellion against Caesar's
gentle rule. The second half of the ode depicts in flattering alle-
gory the warfare of the giants against Jupiter, Apollo, and the bright
Olympian deities, their defeat and final overthrow.
The parallel, Jove in heaven, Augustus on earth, is made explicit
in the fifth ode. Augustus will be a very present god when he
shall have added the Britons and the Persians (Parthians) to our
empire. Ah, the shame of it ! The defeat of Crassus is still un-
avenged, and his soldiers have taken barbarian brides and serve in
the ranks of our foes, forgetful of the name of Rome and the eternal
fire that burns on Vesta's hearth. Not such the temper of the men
who made Rome great of Regulus, for example, whose story
occupies the remainder of the ode.
It is the decay of religion, the sixth ode continues, that has
brought this disgrace upon us and almost delivered us as a spoil
to the Dacian and the Aethiopian amid our dissensions. The
sanctity of the family has been polluted too. 'The maiden fan-
cies wallow in the trough ' of Ionian licentiousness. Not from
such mothers as these sprang the youths who struck down Pyr-
rhus, and Antiochus, and Hannibal. They were a hardy yeomen
soldiery inured to toil by the severe discipline of stern Sabine
matrons.
On these odes, cf. further, Sellar, p. 153 sqq. ; Pliiss, Horaz
Studien, p. 185 sqq.
300 NOTES.
They seem to have been written in the years 28-24. The title
Augustus in 3. 11 probably dates that ode after Jan., B.C. 27. Cf.
on 1. 2. Ode 6 appears to have been written under the still fresh
impression of the war of Actium, and while the restoration of the
temples and the moral reforms undertaken in the year 28 were
still in contemplation or progress.
ODE I.
1-4. ' Hence, ye profane ; I hate you all ; | Both the great vulgar
and the small. | To virgin minds, which yet their native whiteness
hold . . . these truths I tell ' (Cowley's Paraphrase (Of Greatness)).
Cf. Verg. Aen. 6. 258 ; Aristoph. Frogs. 353 sqq. ; Callim. Hymn.
Apoll. 2. 2.
2. favete linguis : Verg. Aen. 5. 71, ore favete ; Ov. Am. 3. 13.
29 ; Propert. 5. 6. 1 ; Tibull. 2. 2. 1 ; ev^/j.f'tre, Aristoph. Frogs,
354, Thesm. 39; Acharn. 237. Ill-omened words could be surely
avoided only by silence. Cf. Pater, Marius, Cap. 1. ' There was
a devout effort to complete this impressive outward silence by that
inward tacitness of mind, esteemed so important by religious
Romans in the performance of their sacred functions.' Quintil.
Decl., Templum in quo verbis parcimus, in quo animos componi-
TOMS, in quo tacitam etiam mentem custodimus ; Sen. Dial. 7, hoc,
verbum no, ut plerique existimant, a favore trahitur, sed impera-
tur silentium, ut rite peragi possit sacrum nulla voce mala obstre-
pente. non prius : it is perhaps over-curious to make the novelty
consist in the employment of Alcaics for the admonitory themes of
Old Roman precept and Greek Elegiac. But cf. 2. 20. 1. n. ; 3. 30.
13. n. ; Epp. 1. 19. 23. 32.
3. sacerdos: cf. Vergil's pii vates and Musae quarum sacra
fero (G. 2. 475) ; Milt., ' Smit with the love of Sacred Song ' ; Ov.
Am. 3. 8. 23, ille ego Musarum purus Phoebique sacerdos ; Theoc.
16. 29. Ancient critics thought of the poet as a teacher ; Epp. 2.
1. 126 sqq. ; Aristoph. Frogs, 1054 ; Jebb, Gk. Poetry, p. 226.
4. virginibus puerisque : a formula and familiar quotation ;
Ov. Trist. 2. 369, Fabula iucundi nulla est sine amore Menandri, \
Et solet hie pueris virginibusque legi ; Martial, 9, 68. 2, calls a
BOOK HI., ODE I. 301
schoolmaster, invisum pueris virginibxsque caput. Cf. 3. 69. 7 ;
Horace sings to the unspoiled ' jeunesse des e"coles.'
5. regum, etc. : ' 'Twixt kings and subjects ther's this mighty
odds, 1 Subjects are taught by men ; kings by the Gods' (Herrick,
25) ; ' But hear ye this, ye sons of men ! | They that bear rule and
are obey'd, | Unto a rule more strong than theirs | Are in their
turn obedient made' (Arnold, The Sick King in Bokhara); 'And
kings sat still with awful eye, | As if they knew their sov'reign
Lord was by ' (Milt. Nativ.) ; Sov\ot &affi\f<av fia-iv 6 /Sao-iAeus Otiav,
Philemon; Suet. Caes. 6 ; Sen. Thyest. 607 sqq. in: the authority
and awe go out to. Cf. 4. 4. 2, regnum in aves ; Plaut. Men. 1030,
siquid imperist in te mihi ; Propert. 4. 10. 18, inque meum semper
stent tua regna caput ; Ov. Fast. 3. 316. greges : in the tone
rather of Seneca's ignoti servorum domino greges (Contr. 2. 1. 26)
than of Homer's kindly woi/ueVes Aoic, shepherds of the people.
7. Giganteo : 2. 12. 7 ; 2. 19. 22 ; 3. 4. 50 ; rryoKToAeTwp (Lucian,
Tim. 4).
8. supercilio moventis : the phrase is a development from the
Olympus-shaking nod of Zeus in Homer, II. 1. 528-30 ; Verg. Aen.
9. 106 ; Catull. 64. 204 ; Ov. Met. 1. 180 ; ' His black eyebrow whose
doomful dreaded beck | Is wont to wield the world unto his will '
(Spencer, Mutability, 6. 22); Dion. Orat. 12. 383 E., TOV 5Hj<rairoj
o\iy<p vtv/j.a.Ti -riav b<ppv<av rbv ffv^iravra Ohvfiirov ; Mart. 1. 4. 2, ter-
rarum dominum pone supercilium ; Tenn., Princess, ' The lifting
of whose eyelash is my lord.'
9-17. Men differ in wealth, birth, and honor, but the necessity
of death makes the odds all even.
9. estut: (it) is (indeed the case, true) that; A. G. 332. a. 3;
G. L. 553. 3. 4 ; H. 501 ; Ter. Phor. 925, sine est ut velis manere
illam apud te; Epp. 1. 12. 2, non est ut; Epp. 1. 1. 81, esto aliis
alias rebus studiisque teneri. viro vir : frequent juxtaposition.
latius: 2. 2. 9 ; 2. 15. 2. ordinet: cf. Quiutilian's directi in
quincuncem ordines, and Pope's ' rank my vines.'
10. arbusta : the vines or the trees to which they were wedded ;
Verg. Eel. 3. 10 ; G. 2. 416 ; 2. 289, ausim vel tenui vitem commit-
tere sulco.
11. descendat : literally from the heights on which the palaces
of the nobility stood ; metaphorically as competitor into the politi-
302 NOTES.
cal arena. Campum : the voting booths, saepta, were in the Cam-
pus Martins. The forms of popular election were preserved by
the policy of Augustus; Tac. Ann. 1. 15, Turn primum (at acces-
sion of Tiberius) e Campo contitia ad patres translata sunt.
13. turba : in his anteroom at the Salutatio (Epode 2. 7, 8. n.)
or in his train at the Forum, a point of honor with ambitious
Romans. Cf. Martial, 11. 24. 11, ut tibi tuontm \ Sit maior nume-
rus toyatulorum, and passim ; Cic. Muren. 34 (70).
14. aequa : impartial. 1. 4. 13 ; 2. 18. 32. n., ' Sceptre and
crown | Must tumble down, | And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade' (Shirley). Neces-
sitas : 1. 3. 32 ; 1. 35. 17 ; 3. 24. 6.
15. sortitur : Lex. s.v. II.; Verg. Aen. 3. 375, sie fata deum
rex | Sortitur. insignes: 1. 34. 13.
16. urna : 2. 3. 26. n.
17. destiictus eiisis : for the story of the proverbial hair-
suspended sword of Damocles, see Cic. Tusc. 5. 61 ; Pers. 3. 40.
Here it symbolizes the terrors of conscience. Cf. Ronsard, Au Sieur
Bertrand, ' Celuy qui sur la teste sienne | Voit l'espe"e sicilienne, |
Des douces tables 1'appareil | N'irrite sa faim, ny la noise | Du
rossignol qui se desgoise | Ne luy rameine le sommeil ' ; Shelley,
Prom. 1, 'Like the Sicilian's hair-suspended sword | Which
trembles o'er his crown.' cui : (ei) cui = cuius. impia : trans-
ferred, 1. 37. 7. n.
18. cervice : Cic. uses plural. Siculae : proverbially luxurious.
Otto, s.v. ; Athenae. 12.3 ; Plat. Rep. 404 D.
19. elaborabunt: force appetite, give artificial savor to the
viands.
20. avium. etc. : for aviaries in Roman palaces, see Pliny, N. H.
10. 72, 17. 6 ; Rutil. 1. Ill ; Varro, R. R. 3. 5. Maecenas suffered
from insomnia and was said to seek sleep, per symphoniarum can-
turn ex longinquo lene resonantium ; Sen. Dial. 1. 3. But Horace
would hardly allude to that. Cf. further Epode 2. 28. n. ; Epp. 1. 2.
31 ; Tibull. 1.2. 77 ; Tenn. Choric Song, ' Music that brings sweet
sleep down from the blissful skies.'
21-22. reduceut: re, his (lost, due) sleep. agrestium . . .
virorum : felt with domos, though the position of non . . . non
would seem to construe it with somnus. For the thought, cf. Epp.
BOOK HI., ODE I. 303
1. 7. 35, somnmn plebis laudo ; Eccles. 5. 12 ; Anacr. fr. 88 ; Teles
in Stob. 93. 31 ; King Henry's Soliloquy ; Hen. IV. 2. 3. 1 ; Dekker,
' Art thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers ? | O sweet content ! '
Greene, ' The homely house that harbors quiet rest.' Sir John
Denhaui, ' Morpheus the humble god that dwells | In cottages and
smoky cells." See also Statius' beautiful invocation to Somnus,
Silv. 5. 4.
24. tempe : 1. 7. 4. n. ; here generalized for any beautiful valley ;
Verg. G. 2. 469 ; Catull. 64. 35 ; Theoc. 1. 67.
25. desiderantem, etc. : on the concrete effect of the participle,
cf. Sellar, p. 194. The golden slumbers of sweet content serve as a
transition to moralizing on the blessedness of content generally.
quod satis est: recurs 3. 16. 44; Epp. 1. 2. 46; Publ. Syr. 677,
quod volt habet, qui velle quod satis est potest.
. 26. sollicitat : cf. 3. 29. 26 ; Epode 2. 6, and the expansion of
the thought in Merchant of Venice, 1.1,' Your mind is tossing on
the ocean,' etc.
27. Arcturi. etc. : the season of equinoctial storms ; Anth. Pal.
7. 495 ; Plaut. Kudens, Prol. 70, Nam Arcturus signum sum
omnium unum acerrimum. \ Vehemens sum exoriens quom occido
vehementior.
28. Haedi : Theoc. 7. 53 ; Verg. Aen. 9. 668, pluvialibus Haedis ;
Ov. Trist. 1. 11. 13.
29. verberatae : cf. 3. 12. 3. n., 3. 27. 24. n. ; Shelley, The Cloud,
' I wield the./?i7 | Of the (f)lashing hail. grandine : Epp. 1. 8.4,
haud quid grando \ contuderit vites ; Herrick's Christian Militant
(324), who is more Horatian than Christian, is a man that Teares
not the fierce sedition (tumultus!} of the Seas: | That's counter-
proofe against the Farm's mishaps.'
30. niendax : slightly personifies. But the thought was a com-
monplace. Cf. 3. 16. 30; Epp. 1. 7. 87, spem mentita seges ; Verg.
G. 2! 460, iustissima tfllus ; Ov. Met. 5. 480, arvaque iussit \ fallere
depositum; Cic.de Offic. 1. 15; Pliny, Letters, 9. 37; Philemon,
-rrj yrj $av(iftv KpfiTrdv effnv ^ Bporols; Tibull. 2. 3. 61 ; Ov. Fast.
4. 645 ; Hosea 9. 2 (Vulgate), et vinum mentietur eis ; Habakkuk
3. 17, mentietur opus olivae. The feigned millionnaire in Petron.
117 talks of aurum et argentum, fundosque mendaces et perpetuam
terrarum sterilitatem.
304 NOTES.
30-31. arbore . . . culpante : keeps up the personification.
30. aquas : sc. caelestes, 3. 10. 20. 11.
31. torrentia: Epode 16. 62.
32. sidera : cf. aarpa^^ra . . . <pvrd ; Theophrast. C. P. 5. 9. 1.
iniquas : Arnold, Strayed Reveller, ' Worms | In the unkind spring
have knawn | Their melon harvest to the heart 1 ; cursum mutavit
iniquum frugibus amnis, A. P. 67.
33. contracta, etc. : cf. 2. 18. 21. n. ; 3. 24. 3. n. ; Manil. 4.
262 ; Petron. Bell. Civ. 88, expelluntnr aquae saxis ; Lucan, 2. 677,
sic ora profundi \ arctantur casu nemorum. The hyperbole is per-
haps more in Lucan's manner than in that of Horace.
34. iactis : the technical word ; Sen. Thyest. 459, retro mare \
iacta fugamus mole; Verg. Aen. 9. 710-12. molibus : the massive
foundations of stone. frequens : probably frequens . . . cum . . .
famulis, with or amid a throng of laborers rather than frequens
redemptor, many a contractor. Cf. Shelley, Alastor, ' Halls | Fre-
quent with crystal column.' Cf. Verg. Aen. 6. 359, cum veste
gravatum ; Ter. Andr. 1. 1. 80, cum illis . . . aderat frequens;
Soph. 0. R. 750, e'x^ei /Sato's.
35. Caementa : cut (up) stones to fill interstices. redemptor :
cf. Lex. s.v. and 2. 18. 18. n.
36. terrae: with fastidiosus (2. 18. 22; Sen. Epist. 89. 21, nee
contenti solo, etc.).
37. minae: threatening shapes conjured up by his anxious fore-
bodings.
38. scandunt: 2. 16. 21. neque: so at end of line, 1. 3. 38;
1. 18. 3; 2. 7. 19, nee; 3. 29. 46.
39. aerata: 2. 16. 21; Tenn., 'The thunder of the brazen
prows | O'er Actium's Ocean rung.' But this is a priva triremis
(Epp. 1. 1. 93), and not a ship of war.
40. atra Cura: 3. 14. 13; 4. 11. 35; 'Old Dives there rolls in
his chariot, but mind | Atra Cura is up with the lackeys behind '
(Locker, Vanity Fair; cf. Thackeray passim) ; 'Jove, what a day,
black care upon the crupper | Nods at his post and slumbers in the
sun' (Dobson) ; 'Sorge sie steiget mit dir zu Ross, sie steiget zu
Schiffe' (Goethe, Vier Jahreszeiten. Sommer) ; 'Le chagrin monte
en croupe et galope avec lui' (Boileau, Epitre 5).
41. quodsi: 1. 24. 13. n. dolentem: i.e. me, i.e. (my) pain
BOOK III., ODE II. 305
Latin concreteness. For the thought, cf. Lucret. 2. 48, where
quodsi is more suitable, summing up a long impassioned argument.
Phrygius lapis: colored marble of Synnada, pavonazetto, used
in some of the columns of the Pantheon. Cf. 2. 18. 3 ; Stat. Silv.
1. 5. 36; Martial, 6. 42. 13.
42. purpurarum: 2. 18. 8; 2. 16. 36. aidere clarior: II.
6. 295, aff-rfyp 8' us a.irf\a/j.irv (the ireirAoy).
4.3. usus: for periphrasis, cf. Verg. G. 2. 466, nee casia liquidi
corrumpitur usus olivi. Clarior is transferred. Cf. 1. 37. 7. n.
44. Achaemenium : 2. 12. 21 ; Epode 13. 8. costum: 2. 3.
13; 2. 7. 23; 2. 11. 16.
45. invidendis: 2. 10. 7; Tibull. 3. 3. 20 ; Martial, Liber Spect.
2. 3, invidiosa feri radiabant atria regis (of Nero's Golden
House); Shaks. Tim. of Athens, 3. 4, 'Who can speak broader
than he that hath no house to put his head in ? Such may rail
against great buildings.' Does this explain Milton's 'th' Almighty
hath not built | Here for his envy,' which puzzles editors ?
46. sublime: Ov. Met. 2. 1, regia solis erat sublimibus alta
colnmnis. Novo ritu while adverbial with moliar is by position
felt rather with sublime. For meaning cf. 2. 15. 20.n. moliar: it
is a moles to build a moles, 2. 15. 2 ; 3. 29. 10 ; Verg. Aen. 1. 33.
atrium: luxury still displays itself in the large hall, correspond-
ing to the Roman atrium, 2, 18. 1-4 ; cf. Herrick, ' Low is my
porch as is my fate ; | Both void of state. '
47. permutem: 1. 16. 26. n. ; 1. 17. 2. Sabina : cf. Epode,
1. 32. n.
ODE II.
There is an imitation in Dodsley, 6. 159. Paraphrase by Pitt,
Johnson's Poets, 12. 388. Lines 13 to end translated by Swift,
ibid. 11. 402.
1. angustam : straitened; 2. 10. 21; Epp. 1. 5. 20, contracta
. . . panpertate ; Juv. 3. 165, res angusta domi ; Milt. P. R. 2, 'bred
up in poverty and straits at home.' amice . . . pati : take kindly
to, endure gladly, almost welcome as a friend. Cf. lente ferre,
aegre ferre, ayairijTus <pepnv, and the like. pauperiem pati : the
x
306 NOTES.
phrase recurs 1. 1. 18 ; 4. 9. 49. Horace passes from the vanity of
riches (3. 1. 41-48) to the fostering of the old Roman virtues in
the stern but salutary school of poverty. Cf. 1. 12. 43 ; 3. 24. 42-
63 ; 4. 9. 45-52. For praise of poverty, cf . further 3. 29. 55. n. ;
Eurip. fr. Alex. 55 ; Aristoph. Plut. 510, 558 ; Theoc. 21. 1 ; Dante,
Paradiso, 11.
2-4. robustus, and eques metuendus : are felt predicatively
as coordinate parts of the wish, and not as mere attributes.
2. acri: 1. 29. 2; ou/ "Apr] a (II. 2. 440); saevam (Epp. 1. 18.
54). militia : with robustus probably. Cf. Cic. Cat. 2. 20, genus
exercitatione robustum. puer : 1. 2. 41. n.
3. condiscat: 4. 11. 34. Cf. con-, 1. 37. 28; 4. 2. 33. Far-
thos: 1. 2. 22. n.; 1. 2. 51.
4. vexet : so 4. 14. 23. eques : as a knight. Augustus re-
established and fostered Roman cavalry. Hence perhaps the
allusions of Horace and Vergil to horsemanship (Verg. Aen. 5.
519-602 ; Odes 1. 8. 6 ; 3. 7. 25 ; 3. 24. 54).
5,6. subdivo: 1. 1.25; 2.3.23 ; 1. 18. 13. trepidis in rebus ;
cf. 2. 19. 5; 3. 27. 17; 4. 11. 11 ; amid alarums (all' artne). Cf.
Verg. Aen. 9. 14 ; Livy, 4. 17. 8 ; Tibull. 2. 3. 21, saepe (luces
trepidis petiere oracula rebus.
6. ilium : emphatic, and saves formal transition. Cf. 2. 2. 7 ;
2. 13. 5 ; 3. 3. 33 ; 4. 3. 3 ; illam (3. 15. 11) ; non ille (3. 21. 9), etc.
ex moenibus hosticis, etc.: cf. II. 3. 154, and 22. 463, where
Andromache sees Hector trailed in the dust from Achilles' chariot ;
Verg. Aen. 11. 475; Hesiod, Scut. Her. 242; Eurip. Phoeniss. 88;
Stat. Theb. 7. 240 ; Tenn. Oriana, ' She stood upon the castle wall,
Oriana : She watched my crest among them all, Oriana ' ; Andrew
Lang, ' The daughter of the Lesbian king | Within her bower she
watched the war,' etc. The bellans tyrannus is the besieged king
(e.g. Priam); the sponsus regius perhaps a young allied prince, to
whom he has promised his daughter's hand (e.g. Coroebus, Verg.
Aen. 2. 343). The position of matrona makes suspiret ne, etc., felt
only with adulta (nubias') virgo.
9, 10. ne . . . lacessat : depends on suggestion of fear in sus-
piret, or, what amounts to the same thing, is an imitation of the
Homeric half-independent wish with ^77.
9. rudis agmiimm : cf. rudem belli (Epp. 2. 2. 47) ; Verg. Aeu.
BOOK III., ODE II. 307
11. 151, belli . . . dura rudimenta (cruel initiation) ; Milton's Lat-
inism, ' lay down the rudiments \ Of his great warfare ' (P. R.).
10. 11. lacessat : i.e. needlessly, recklessly challenge. Cf. 1.
35. 7. asperum tactu: 1. 37. 26, asperas . . . tractare. Cf.
1. 23. 9. The Greeks say of the dead Hector (11. 22. 373) that he
is softer to handle, juoAo/coirepos 01^0^000-601, than when he hurled
fire on their ships.
11. leonem : so often of warrior in Homer (II. 5. 136 ; 20. 164).
cruenta : transferred from leonem, which has its epithet.
12. per medias: cf. 4. 14. 24. rapit ira : 0ep 6TO " /*"' ( u -
20. 172).
13. dulce. etc. : and if he (the young Roman lion) dies, why
' how can man die better ? ' Cf. 4. 9. 52 ; Tyrt. fr. 10 ; Eurip. Tro.
380; Cic. Phil. 14. 31, O fortunata mors, qtiae naturae debita pro
patria est potissimum reddita 1
14. mors : emphatically resumes mori, and spares formal tran-
sition. et : also ; persequitur qui non desinit sequi (Donatus).
fugacem : <pvy6fj.axoi', as 2. 1. 19. For the thought, cf. Simon, fr.
65, 6 5' av Odvaros KI'X Kal rbi> <pv-y6naxov \ Callin. fr. 1. 13-15; Cur-
tius, 4. 14 ; Otto, p. 229.
16. poplitibus, etc.: Livy, 22. 48. 4, tergaque ferientes ac popli-
tes caedentes. For the shame of wound in the back, cf. II. 8. 95 ;
Tyrt. fr. 11. 19, 20; Find. Nem. 9. 26; Macaulay, 'And in the
back false Sextus | Felt the good Roman steel.'
17. virtus : 2. 2. 19. n. Horace takes for his text the Stoic para-
dox that only the virtuous sage is praetor, consul, or king in the
truest sense. Cf. 4. 9. 39. n. ; Epp. 1. 1. 107 ; Sat. 1. 3. 136. re-
pulsae : technical for defeat of candidate for office. (Epp. 1. 1. 43,
turpemque repulsam.) nescia: perhaps suggests a soul too lofty
even to be aware of vulgar losses. Cf. Seneca, on Cato ignoring
an injury, maiore animo non agnovit quam ignovisset. sordidae :
disgraceful, humiliating, in popular esteem. ' And it would be a
poor tale indeed . . . that a gentleman like you, to say nothing
of the good of the country, should have gone to the expense and
trouble of a canvass for nothing but to find himself out of Parlia-
ment at the end of it ... it looks bad in the cleverest man to
have to sing small' (George Eliot, Felix Holt). Cf. the conduct
of Cato (Sen. Ep. 104), and Cicero's remarks (Tusc. 5. 54).
308 NOTES.
18. intaminatis : as if from tamino. i.e. incontaminatis. Politi-
cal honors (1. 1. 8) are not always unsullied. fulget : 3. 16. 31.
Virtue 'by her own radiant light' shines brighter than the ' bright
honor ' of Lucretius (3. 76, c.laro qui incedit honore) and Hotspur,
Hen. IV. 1. 1. 3. Cf. Cic. pro Sest. 60, Splendetque per sese semper,
etc.
19. secures : the fasces of the lictors. Macaulay, Virginia,
' He stalked along the Forum like King Tarquin in his pride : |
Twelve axes waited on him, six marching on a side ' ; ibid., ' The
axes and the curule chair, the car, and laurel crown.'
20. aurae: 1. 5. 11 ; 2. 8. 24; 1. 1. 7, mobilium ; Epp. 1. 19.
37, ventosae plebis suffragia; Verg. Aen. 6. 817, nimium gaudens
popularibus auris; Cic. harusp. resp. 43; pro Cluent. 130, ventus
popularis.
21. recludens : but for the multitude aequa tellus recluditur,
2. 18. 32, immeritis mori: ou5 -rtQvaai 6av6vrfs, Auth. Pal. 7.
251, of the heroes of Thermopylae. ' Some few who ne'er shall
be forgot, | Shall burst the bondage of the grave.' It is the 'sub-
jective ' immortality of 3. 3. 9-16, the only one known to Horace.
22. negata : 1. 22. 22 ; Sen. Phaedr. 229, solus negatas invenit
Theseus vias (to Hades). Virtus as subject of temptat = the
virtuous man by a natural shift. Cf. Lowell, Cominem. Ode 25,
'Virtue treads paths that end not in the grave.' For temptat, cf.
3. 4. 31.
23. udam : dank, misty, in contrast with the liquidnm aethera
(2. 20. 2. n.), 'Regions mild of calm and serene air | Above the
smoke and stir of this dim spot, | Which men call earth ' (Milt.
Comus).
24. sperait : ' Soaring the air sublime | With clang despised the
ground' (Milt. P. L. 7).
25-32. The virtues of silence and discretion which Horace would
wish to claim for Maecenas as counsellor of Augustus, and for him-
self as confidant of Maecenas. Let not the revealer of holy mys-
teries share my hearth or ship. For the divine judgment oft con-
founds the innocent with the guilty, and Justice, though she limps,
comes up with the wicked at last.
25. est, etc. : a translation of Simon, fr. 66, said to have been a
favorite maxim of Augustus, iWt /col aiyas cucivSwov yfyas (Plut.
BOOK III., ODE II. 309
Moral. 207 D). Cf. Aesch. fr. 188; Soph. fr. 78; Verg. Aen. 3.
112, fida silentia sacris ; Sat. 1. 3. 95 ; 1. 4. 84, commissa tacere \
qui nequit : hie niger est ; Odes 1. 18. 16. An allusion to Mae-
cenas' betrayal to his wife Terentia of the discovery of the con-
spiracy of Murena is extremely improbable ; Suet. Aug. 66. Horace
shows his own discretion by stoutly asseverating that Maecenas
confides to him only trifles, qiiae rimosa bene deponuntur in aure
(Sat. 2. 6. 46). So Swift of himself and Harley.
26-28. vetabo ... sit : Lex. s.v. veto, 1. b.
' 26. Cereris sacrum : the Eleusinian mysteries, or secret Roman
rites of Ceres -and Liber, or any mysteries; Cic. in Verr. 5. 187;
Soph O. C. 1051.
27-28. sub isdem . . . trabibus : 6ncap6(t>ios (Antiphon. 5. 11);
irapianos (Soph. Antig. 372); It^oroixos (Callim. Cer. 113).
28. fragilem : conventional epithet, 1. 3. 10 ; but emphasizes
the risk. Cf. Spenser, 1. 27. 19. n.
29. solvat: Epode 10. 1, soluta navis; 1. 32. 7, religarat . . .
navem. For the naive notion that the guilty facilitated the divine
vengeance when they exposed themselves at sea, cf. Ov. Her. 7. 57,
nee violasse fidem temptantibus aequora predest ; Book of Jonah,
1. 7-8; Aesch. Sept. 602; Eurip. Elect. 1354, fr. 852; Xen. Cyr.
8.1.25; Schmidt, Ethik der Griechen^ 1 . 66. Diespiter : 1 . 34. 5.
30. neglectus : a vague word covering a multitude of sins. So
Di . . . neglecti, 3. 6. 7 ; integrum : 1. 22. 1. n. For the idea that
the gods destroy the innocent in the company of the guilty, cf.
supra on 29 ; Aesch. Eumen. 285.
31-32. 'The thought itself of these lines is familiar enough to
Homer and Hesiod ; but neither Homer nor Hesiod . . . could pos-
sibly have so complicated its expression as Horace complicates it,
and purposely complicates it, by his use of deseruit ' (Arnold, On
Trans. Homer, p. 208). This complication misled the legendary
fourth-form boy into the rendering : ' Rarely has a Carthaginian
lady abandoned her criminal antecedent.'
32. Poena : in 4. 5. 24, Culpam Poena premit comes. The
image of her lame pursuit may have been suggested by the parable
of the Litae in Homer, II. 9. 503, or by the v<TTfp6irovs NfV<m or
oTrt<r66irovs AIKIJ of the Greeks. The thought is a commonplace.
Cf. Plutarch. De sera numinum vindicta; Solon, fr. 4. 16, 13. 25
310 NOTES.
sqq. ; Aesch. Ag. 58 ; Choeph. 383 ; Eurip. fr. 969 ; II. 4. 162 ;
Tibull. 1. 9. 4, sera tamen tacitis Poena venit pedibus ; Juv. 13.
100, ut sit magna tamen certe lenta ira deorum est ; Sen. Here.
Fur. 389 ; Gratius, Cyn. 455 ; George Herbeit, ' God's mill grinds
slow but sure ' ; Milt. P. L. 10, ' Justice divine mends not her slowest
pace | For prayers or cries ' ; Browning, Cenciaja, ' God's justice
tardy though it prove perchance | Rests never on the track,' etc. ;
Swinb., ' I am the queen of Rephaim. | God, that some while refrain-
eth him, I Made in the end a spoil of me,' etc.
ODE JII.
Imitated by Walsh, Johnson's Poets, 8. 417. Translated by
Addison, ibid. 9. 544 ; by Hughes, ibid. 10. 25 ; by Fenton, ibid.
10. 422.
1-4. 'No wrath of Men or rage of Seas | Can shake a just man's
purposes : | No threats of Tyrants, or the Grim | Visage of them
can alter him ; | But what he doth at first entend, | That he holds
firmly to the end' (Herrick, 616). These lines were recited by
Cornelius de Witte on the rack, and their repetition nerved Fred-
erick the Great in his desperate struggle with all Europe (Ste.-
Beuve, Causeries, 3. 202). Socrates, who withstood the ardor
civium in the trial of the generals of Arginousae, and ignored the
threats of the instans tyrannus under the Thirty (Plato, Apol.
c. 20), is the perfect type of that virtue of 'constancy' which
Horace here celebrates as the tradition of the makers of Rome.
propositi : Epp. 1. 13. 11, victor propositi. Caesar, Bell. Civ.
1. 83, has tenere propositum.
2. iubentium : suggesting the technical use, senatus decrevit
populusque iussit.
3. voltus : cf . ri> ffbv Selects irp6ffa>irov (Soph. O. T. 448) , where
Jebb comments, 'the blind man (Teiresias) speaks as though he
saw the vultus instantis tyrannV Cf. Gray, The Bard, her 'awe-
commanding face' (of Elizabeth), and the biblical use of 'face.'
Instans Tyrannus is the title of one of Browning's poems. For
the urgency of instans, cf. 2. 14. 3, and Sat. 2. 6. 39, ' Si vis,
addit et instat.
BOOK III., ODE III. 311
4. mente : is abl. of respect or specification (A. G. 253 ; B. 226 ;
G. L. 397 ; H. 424), but the analogy of <?/cirA^TTt', Aesch. Prom.
360, suggests excutit, shakes, dislodges from.
4. solida : at least an incipient image, which is developed, Sen.
de Const. Sap. 3, quemadmodum proiecti in altum scopuli mare
frangunt, ita sapientis animus solidus est. So Herrick felt it, 390,
' A just man's like a Rock that turns the wroth | Of all the raging
Waves into a froth.' Cf. Tenn., Princess, ' The roar that breaks the
Pharos from his base | Had left us rock.' See also Tenn., Will. L
5. dux . . . Hadriae : 1. 3. 15. n. ; 2. 17. 19.
6. fulminantis : when he thunders = his thunderbolts ; not so
nearly a mere epithet as tonantem, 3. 5. 1.
7-8. Should the whole frame of Nature round him break, | In
ruin and confusion hurled, | He, unconcerned, would hear the
mighty crack, | And stand secure amidst a falling world ' (Addison).
' If (though) the heavens fall ' is proverbial. Cf. Theogn. 869,
and the boast of the Celts to Alexander that they feared naught
else; Ter. Heaut. 719. See Otto, p. 61. Heywood's 'When the
skie faith we shall have Larkes' is matched in French and German
proverbs. Fiat iustitia mat caelum is modern.
8. impavidum : 1. 15. 23. ruinae : 1. 16. 12, ruens; Verg.
Aen. 1. 129, caelique niina; Milt. P. L. 6, 'hell saw | Heav'n
ruining from heaven.'
9. hac arte : sc. constantia. But cf. 4. 15. 12, artes ; ars is
as vague as res, ratio, causa, status. Cf. Ter. Andr. 32, nil istac
opus est arte ad hanc rem quam paro, \ sed eis quas semper in
te intellexi sitas, \ fide et taciturnitate ; Marvell, Horatian Ode
on Cromwell, ' The same arts that did gain | A power must it
maintain.' Pollux: as an ideal type, Aristotle, fr. 6. 9, Bgk. ;
Find. Nem. 10. 65-90 ; Epp. 2. 1. 5, cum Castore Pollux, etc. Cf.
1. 12. 25; 3. 29. 64. vagus: iro\inr\ayKTos, of his travels in the
service of man (Verg. Aen. 6. 801, nee vero Alcides tantum telluris
obivit; Eurip. Here. Fur. 1196 ; Pind. Isth. 4. 55). For Hercules,
as theme of Stoic moralizing and servant of humanity, see Munro
on Lucret. 5. 22 ; Sen. de Const. Sap. 2 ; Dio Chrys. Orat. 1, in
fine; Browning, Balaustion. The whole passage interprets the
apotheosis of the ancient religion in the sense of a conception of
"subjective immortality " akin to that expressed in George Eliot's
312 NOTES.
'Choir Invisible '; cf. Epp. 2. 1. 5-12. Pliny, N. H. 2. 7, Deus est
mortali iuvare mortalem ; et haec ad acternam gloriam via. hac
proceres iere Bomani. This is the thought that underlies the con-
ventional imagery of compliment.
10. enisus: struggling up and on ; Tac. Ann. 1. 70, in editiora
enisus. igneas : starry or of the aether. Cf. Ov. Met. 15. 858,
arces . . . aetherias; Trist, 5. 3. 19. But ignes = stars, 1. 12. 47.
Cf. Ovid's siderea arx, Am. 3. 10. 21. Statius to Domitian, Silv.
4. 3. 155, ibis qua vagus Hercules et Eultan (Bacchus) \ ultra
sidera flammeumque solem. On the "stars" in the conventional
rhetoric of immortality, cf. Cic. Somn. Scip. 16 sqq. ; Rohde,
Psyche, p. 672.
11. Augustus : he received the title B.C. 27, which seems to
date the ode; cf. on 1. 2. recumbens: at tahle, Epp. 1. 5. 1 ;
cf. Verg. Eel. 1. 1, recubans sub tegmine fagi.
12. purpureo: we may choose between the 'purple light' of
youth, the halo of apotheosis, and a 'purple-stained mouth' from
a beaker full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene. Catull. 45. 12,
illo purpureo ore saviata. Verg. Aen. 1. 590 ; 2. 593, roseo . . . ore.
bibet: the reading of some Mss. predicts, as does Verg. G.
1. 24-42, and may be thought to save Horace from sinking to the
level of Martial, 4. 8. 9, et bonus aetherio laxatur nectare Caesar.
bibit visualizes. On the imperial apotheosis and this form of
flattery, cf. 4. 5. 35. n. ; 4. 15. Gaston Boissier, Relig. Rom.
1. 109 sqq.
13. hac : with merentem, sc. caelum, such honor ; cf . Ov. Trist.
5. 3. 19, to Bacchus:- ipse qnoque aetherias mentis invectus es
arces. His travels and labors follow, ibid. 20-24. Bacche pater :
1. 18. 6. n.
14. vexere: sc. ad caelum. tigres: the Roman poets seem to
have substituted the Armenian tiger for the panther of Bacchus.
Verg. Aen. 6. 805. Ov. Am. 1. 2. 48. Ars Am. 1. 550. But
Propert. 4. 16. 8 has lyncibus ad caelum vecta Ariadna tuis; cf.
Keats, 'not charioted by Bacchus and his pards.' The tamed
tigers may symbolize his civilizing power.
15. hac : it is perhaps painfully explicit to construe hac Quiri-
nus (merens caelum') fugit. For the disappearance of Romulus
(Quirinus) in a storm, and the legend of his translation to
BOOK III., ODE III. 313
heaven in the chariot of Mars, cf. Livy, 1. 16. Plut. Rom. 28. Ov.
Fast. 2. 496, Hinc tonat, hinc missis abrumpitur ignibus aether: \
fit fuya. rex patriis astro, petebat equis. Met. 14. 820.
16. Acheronta fugit : Find. fr. 120, iropd^v irt>evy6Tes 'AX-
povros. Theoc. 17. 46.
17-68. The Roman instance provides Horace with a transition
to his central theme, the destiny of the Roman State foretold by
Juno in a speech addressed to the assembled gods deliberating on
the reception of Romulus among the immortals. The treatment
of the myth gives the ode a Pindaric cast (cf. 3. 11 ; 3. 5; 4. 4;
1. 12; 3. 27).
The vehemence of Juno's protest against any attempt to rebuild
Ilium has been taken as an allusion to some design of the Emperor
to remove the Capitol to an Eastern site (cf. Sueton. Jul. Caes.
79). Others fantastically interpret it as an allegory of the rule of
the Optimates which passed away forever at Pharsalia and Actium,
or of the vices and luxury of the old. Empires of the East which
must not be permitted to corrupt Rome. It is more simply taken
as a dramatic keeping up the character of Juno. In accepting
Romulus and consenting to join with Jupiter in cherishing the
people of the toga (Verg. Aen. 1. 280), she still remembers the
spretae iniuria formae, and is careful to explain that she abates
not one jot or tittle of her just hatred for perjured Troy. Cf. Verg.
Aen. 12. 824 sqq.
The motif of the deorum concilium was borrowed from Ennius,
who represents Jupiter as promising Mars before the foundation of
Rome the apotheosis of Romulus ; unus erit quern tu tolles in
caerula caeli \ templa; cf. Verg. Aen. 1. 254 sqq. In Eurip. Hel.
878, there is an allusion to a similar consultation.
17. gratuni : they were pleased at her yielding to the general
desire.
18. Ilion. Ilion : anadiplosis of strong feeling. Cf. Dante's
St. Peter, Paradis. 27. 22, 'quegli chi usurpa in terra il loco mio \
il loco mio, il loco mio ' ; Aesch. in Ctes. 133, Brjffai Se, TjBai-
19. fatalis : Hecuba, the mother of Paris, dreamed that she had
brought forth a fireband (Eurip. Tro. 919 ; Verg. Aen. 7. 319 sqq. ; also
AwTTrcrpis AiVoTrapis). incestus : not of his lust (cf. 3. 2. 30), though
that was his bribe. (II. 24. 30, nax^oo-vvtiv ; Teiin. CEnone, ' I prom-
314 NOTES.
ise thee | The fairest and most loving wife in Greece.') index :
Catull. 61. 18, venit ad Phrygium Venus \ iudicem ; Verg. Aen. 1.
27, indicium Paridis ; Tenn., 'Hear all, and see thy Paris judge
of gods.' The judgment of Paris, first mentioned II. 24. 28-30 (if
genuine), was told in the Cypria, and is frequently alluded to by
Euripides (Hec. 629 ; Iph. Aul. 1300 ; Troad. 925 ; Hel. 23 ; Andr.
281) and often represented on vases. In Eng. lit. it is the theme
of poems by Greene, Beattie, Parnell, Tennyson, etc. (Lang, Helen
of Troy, 1. 49-57).
20, 21. mulier : Juno disdains to name Helen. Cf. 'the strange
woman ' of the Bible. vertit in pulverem : duaflui/ei. ex quo :
from the day when, with damnatum forfeited, addictum, abandoned
to our vengeance. deos : Apollo and Poseidon served a year
with King Laomedon, and one or both (the legend varies) built
the walls of Troy. ' But when the joyous seasons were accomplish-
ing the time of hire, the redoubtable Laomedon robbed us of all hire
and sent us off with threats' (II. 21. 450 (Lang)). Cf. II. 7. 453 ;
Verg. G. 3. 36, Troiae Cynthius auctor ; Tenn., 'Like that strange
song I heard Apollo sing | When I lion like a mist rose into towers.'
22. mini: for dat., cf. dassis Teucro damnata Quirino (Propert.
5. 6. 21--24).
23. castae: 1. 7. 5.
24. fraudulento : Verg. Aen. 4. 541, necdum \ Laomedonteae
sentis periuria gentis? Pind. Isth. 5. 29, Aao/ueSoi/Teiav vxep a/nir\^-
Kinv ; Aen. 5. 811.
25. splendet : 1. 15. 13 ; 4. 9. 13-15 ; II. 3. 392, <(ti\\ei re ff ri\&tai>
ical e'tuaffi ; Eurip. Tro. 991 ; Iph. Aul. 74. adulterae: prefera-
bly dat. Cf. 1. 5. 12. For death of Paris, cf. Quint. Smyr. 10. 235 ;
Term., Death of CEnone ; Lang, Helen of Troy, 5. 54-68.
26. famosus hospes : he was the notorious and infamous ex-
ample of violated hospitality (1. 15. 2. n. ; II. 13. 626).
27. periura: perhaps alluding also to the violation of the oath
(II. 4. 157 sqq.). pugnaces: 4. 6. 8. n.
28. Hectoreis: 2.4. 10, 11. n. opibus : vague word. Cf. 1.
6. 15 ; 4. 4. 60. refringit: Lex. s.v. B. II., beats (hurls) broken
back.
29. ductum : protracted (trahere bellum, Sail.) by our divided
partisanship (se(d)itionibus}. Cf. Ov. Trist. 1. 2. 5, Mulciber in
BOOK 111., ODE III. 315
Troiam, pro Troia stabat Apollo : \ Aequa Venus Teucris, Pallas
iniqua fitit.
30. resedit: from resido ; the storm of war has abated, the
winds and waves subside. Cf. 2. 7. 15, 16. n.; Verg. Aen. 7. 27;
6. 407 ; Tenn., 'Sea was her wrath, yet working after storm.'
protinus: So noir, henceforth (since Troy is punished), Juno re-
nounces her wrath and her hatred of her grandson Romulus, the
son of Mars and Rhea Silvia or Ilia (1. 2. 15. n.; Verg. Aen. 1.
273, 274).
33. redonabo : 2. 7. 3. n. Here virtually = condonabo. There
is a slight zeugma in its use with both iras and nepotem. In Pe-
tron. 31 the angry master, pardoning a slave at intercession of
friends, says, 'do/to vobis eum." 1 ilium: 3. 2. 6. n. lucidas :
1. 10. n. ; 'O\I/HTTOU napnapoeaffav aiy\av. Soph. Antig. 610.
34. ducere: quaff (1. 17.22 ; 4.12.14). ManyMss. read discere,
grow wonted to the strange draught.
35. 36. adscribi . . . ordinibus : almost technical, be listed,
enrolled.
35. quietis: the gods who live at ease. Cf. on 1. 34 ; Sat. 1. 5.
101 ; Verg. Aen. 4. 379, ea cura quietos \ sollicitat ; Tenn., Lucret.,
'aught they fable of the quiet gods' ; Arnold, Emped., 'The rest
of immortals, | The action of men.' The rhythm of quietis here
seems to match the sense. Cf. 1. 31. 7.
36-68. Rome may grow great beyond the seas and become a
dreaded name, but Troy must not revive : occidit occideritque
sinas cum nomine Troia (Verg. Aen. 12. 828) ; ' It shall never be
inhabited. . . . But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there ; and
their houses shall be full of doleful creatures : and owls shall dwell
there,' etc. (Isaiah 13. 20, 21) ; 'But where I sought for Ilium's
walls | The quiet sheep feeds and the tortoise crawls' (Byron, Don
Juan, 4. 77) ; Lucan, 9. 969, etiam periere ruinae.
37. inter saeviat : the position produces the illusion of a com-
pound. Cf. 3. 27. 5. This may have suggested to Herrick his
quaint 'intertalkt' (264) and 'superlast' (406).
38. exsules : slightly spiteful, and with beati a faint oxymoron.
40. busto : Vergil's iacet ingens litore truncus, etc. (Aen. 2.
557) was not yet published to preoccupy the imagination.
41. insultet, etc. : Tvufy firiOpuffKiav, II. 4. 177; Eurip. El. 327 :
316 NOTES.
'They say the Lion and the Lizard keep | The Courts where
Jamshyd gloried and drank deep ; | And Bahrain, that great Hunter
the Wild Ass | Stamps o'er his Head, but cannot break his sleep '
(Omar Khayyam, 18); ' et les tombeaux des rois sont des trous
a panthere ' (Victor Hugo, Zim-Zisimi) ; Lamartine, Le Lizard sur
les Ruines de Rome ; Pope, Windsor Forest, ' The fox obscene to
gaping tombs retires. [ And savage howlings fill the sacred quires.'
42. inultae: 1. 2. 51. n. stet: 1. 9. 1. n. Capitolium: 1.
37. 6 ; 3. 30. 8. n. ; 3. 24. 45 ; 4. 3. 9.
43. fulgens : with stet predicatively. It had been gilded when
rebuilt by Catulus after the conflagration of B.C. 83. Cf. fastiyatis
supra tectis auro puro fuhjens praelucet Capitolium (Sen. Contr.
1. 6. 4). Cf. Verg. Aen. 8. 347, Capitolin . . . \ aurea nunc, olim
silvestribus horrida dumis. triumphatisque : Lex. s.v. II. Eng-
lish prose idiom "would turn the participle by a clause coordinate
with dare iura. 'Subdue and impose her laws upon.' possit :
in her might.
44. ferox : 1. 35. 10. dare iura : i.e. exercise sovereignty over.
Cf. 4. 15. 22 ; Verg. Aen. 3. 137 ; Liv. 1. 8. 1. Media: 1. 2. 22.
51. n.
45. horrenda late : horreat Aeneadas et primus et ultimus
orbis (Ov. Fast. 1. 717) ; Macaulay, Capys, 31, '. . . Where Atlas
flings his shadow | Far o'er the western foam, | Shall be great fear
on all who hear | The mighty name of Rome ' ; Tibull. 2. 5. 57-60.
But nomen is q^asi-technical ; 4. 15. 13.
46. medius liquor : at Straits of Gibraltar. For medius, cf.
Verg. Aen. 3. 417.
47. secernit: Europam Libyamque rapax ubi dividit unda,
cited Cic. Nat. D. 3. 24. ' The narrow seas, whose rapid inter-
val | Parts Afric from green Europe' (Tenn., Timbuctoo). Afro =
Afris = Africa.
48. qua . . . Nilus : Macaulay, ' Where Nile reflects the endless
length | Of dark-red colonnades.' tumidus rigat, 'As when old
father Nilus gins to swell \ With timely pride above the Egyptian
vale, | His fatty waves do fertile slime outwell, | And overflow each
plain and lowly dale ' (F. Q. 1. 1. 21) ; Verg. G. 4. 292 ; ' The higher
Nilus swells, \ The more it promises' (Ant. and Cleop. 2. 7).
49-56. aurum, etc. : Horace here is speaking through Juno.
BOOK III., ODE III. 317
sic melius situm, etc. : a well-worn moral ; Sen. Nat. Quaest.
5. 15. 3 ; Manil. 5. 276 ; Tac. Ger. 5; Boeth. Cona. Phil. 2. 5, pretiosa
pericula foclit ; Ov. Met. 1. 140 ; F. Q. 2. 7. 17 ; Milt. P. L. 1, ' with
impious hands | Rifled the bowels of their mother earth | For
treasures better hid ' ; Vaughan, The Golden Age, ' Alas ! who was
it that first found | Gold hid of purpose underground | That
sought out pearls and dived to find | Such precious perils for man-
kind ' (an unavowed translation of Boethius) ; Pope, Epist. 3,
' Opine that Nature, as in duty bound, | Deep hid the shining
mischief underground.'
50. spernere : it is pettifogging to object that the gold cannot
be spurned while yet inrepertum. We need not rush to the Klon-
dike for it. fortior: courage is displayed in resisting cupidity as
well as in confronting danger (Plato, Laches, 191 D ; Verg. Aen.
8. 364, aude hospes contemnere opes; F. Q. 2. 6. 1).
51. cogere : 2. 3. 25. humanos in usus : with rapiente
primarily. According as the period is placed after Nilus ordextra,
fortior may be made a condition of the prophecy tanget, or a
limitation on the concession horrenda . . . extendat. Either is some-
what awkward, and the strophe is in effect a parenthesis. Cf. 4.
4. 18-22.
52. omne : 1. 3. 25. n. sacrum: generally, and also more
specifically ' the hid treasures in her sacred tomb | With sacrilege
to dig' (F. Q. 2. 7. 17).
53. obstitit = oppositus est ; obstitisse (obsisto) = obstare.
54. visere : 1. 2. 8 ; 1. 37. 25 ; 4. 13. 26 ; 2. 15. 3.
55. debacchentur : revel unchecked (1. 25. 11. n.) ; 'Like us
the lightning-fires | Love to have scope and play ' (Arnold,
Emped.). For de, cf. 1. 3. 13; 1. 9. 11 ; 1. 18. 9 ; 2. 1. 35. For
the whole, cf. 1. 22. 17-22 ; Verg. G. 1. 234-236.
56. pluviique rores : mist and rain. So dpfoos.
57. fata . . . dico : cf. fatidicus; fatum (fari) = quod semel
dictum est (C. S. 26); in declaring their destinies she ratifies them.
Quiritibus : i.e. men of the spear; Ov. Fast. 2. 477, sive quod
hasta curis priscis est dicta Sabinis.
58. lege: condition, namely, ne . . . velint. pii: the piety
of a colony towards the Metropolis, and ancestral home (avitae).
In an old Roniaj* poet the soldiers of Scipio Asiaticus on first
318 NOTES.
beholding Troy exclaim, patria, divom damns Ilium et incluta
bello | Pergama.
59. tidentes : -3. 4. 50.
61. Troiae: 'Should Troy revive in evil hour, her star again
should set in gore ' (after Conington). English cannot reproduce
the transference of renascens to fortuna, and the double applica-
tion offortuna to the new city and the old. alite : 1. 15. 5. n.
63. ducente: as in Verg. Aen. 2. 612-614.
64. Verg. Aen. 1. 47; II. 16. 432.
65. ter: the conventional number (Verg. G. 1. 281).- murus
aeneus : II 21. 447, Spprj/cros. The phrase is conventional (Epp.
1. 1. 60). So ffiSdpeov Te?x os aSapavTivov rtl'X.os. Cf. 1. 33. 11,
iuga aenea.
66. auctore Phoebo : cf. 1. 21-22. n. ; Find. 0. 8. 31. meis :
1. 7. 8. n.
67. excisus : exscissus, which some read (cf. Verg. Aen. 2.
177), would be cacophonous.
Argivia : the agent is an instrument. Cf. Juv. 10. 155, Poeno
milite portas \ francjimus (which, however, is conceivably abl.
abs.). Others take it dat. agent.
69. non hoc, etc. : for the sudden check, cf. 2. 1. 37. n. and
1. 6. 10. iocosae : forgets the claim of musarum sacerdos (3.
1. 3). So Tennyson affects to rebuke his muse for darkening
'sanctities with song' (In Mem. 3. 7). Cf. Herrick, 2, To his
Muse, 'Whither, mad maiden, wilt thou roame ? ' Ronsard, Au
Sieur Bertraud, ' Taisez-vous, ma lyre mignarde, | Taisez-vous,
ma lyre jazarde, | un si haut chant n'est pas pour vous.'
70. pervicax : 2. 19. 9.
72. tenuare : cf. 1. 6. 12, and Milton's 'Who can extenuate
thee?' parvis: modestly ; cf. 4. 2. 31, petrous; 3. 25. 17. Per-
haps also contrasting the Alcaic with the versus longi of Epic.
ODE IV.
1 . descends caelo : the Muses dwell in heaven (II. 2. 484,
491). But Porphyrio fancifully understands it as a descent from
the sermones deorum (3. 3. 71). So perhaps Milton, P. L. 7 init.,
BOOK III., ODE IV. 319
'Descend from heav'n, Urania ... Up led by thee | Into the
heav'n of heav'ns I have presumed.' Cf. Tenn. In Mem. 37, 'Go
down beside thy native rill,' etc. die age : 1. 32. 3 ; 2. 11. 22.
tibia: 1. 1. 32; 1. 12. 2.
2. regina : as revered goddess (3. 26. 11) and for the time ruler
of his soul. longum : this is in fact the longest of the Odes, but
we need not take it so literally. Calliope: Tenn. Lucretius, 'Poet-
like, as the great Sicilian called | Calliope to grace his golden verse' ;
Lucret. 6. 94 ; Emped. 383 ; Hes. Theog. 79 ; Alcman, fr. 45 ; Au-
son. Idyll 20. 7, carmina Calliope libris heroica mandat. But cf.
I. 12. 2. ii.; 1. 1. 33 ; 1. 24. 3 ; 3. 30. 16 ; and the simple Musa (1.
17. 14; 2. 1. 9; 2. 12. 13; 3. 3. 70).
3, 4. seu . . . seu : 1. 4. 12. The expression is confused. The
option seems to be song or recitative to the accompaniment of pipe
or string. The Mss. mostly read citharave, but fidibus w> uld hardly
distinguish the lyre of Mercury from the cithara of Ph >ebus, and
Vergil's hendiadys, Threicia fretus cithara fidibusque can<>ris (Aen.
6. 120), favors que. Any stringed instrument will do. Cf. \vpr>
KiQapifav (Hymn Merc. 423).
5. auditia : i.e. is it real, or does the poet's ecstasy ' Pipe to the
spirit ditties of no tone ' ?
6, 7. insania : the 0eia pavta (Plat. Phaedr. 245) of 'the lunatic,
the lover, and the poet.' videor : sc. mihi. Cf. 2. 1. 21 ; 'I seem
through consecrated walks to rove, | I hear soft music die along
the grove : | Led by the sound, I roam from shade to shade | By
godlike poets venerable made' (Pope, Windsor Forest, 267-270).
pios . . . lucos : Movtrtov vdwai (Plato, Ion, 534 A). Cf. 1. 1.
30. n.
8. aubeunt : lit. enter, approach ; but more etymologically here,
beneath whose covert glide. Slight zeugma with aurae.
9-12. me : i.e. for I have been the Muse's prote"ge" from the
cradle. fabulosae . . . palumbes : the storied doves that
carry ambrosia to Zeus (Odyss. 12. 62), and fed Semiramis.
Similar tales were told of Pindar, Stesichorus, Aeschylus, Plato,
and others. Cf. Tenn. Eleanore, 2; Pind._O. 6. .54; Pliny, N. II.
10. 82; Aelian, V. H. 10. 21, 12. 45. Apulo . . . Apuliae.
we may assume an intentional variation of the quantities (cf. 1. 32.
II. n.; 3. 24. 4); or we may read limina Pulliae with an ingenious
320 NOTES.
German, who thinks fabulosa Pullia, the story-telling nurse Pullia,
a good pendant to playosus Orbilius (Epp. 2. 1. 71), the birch-loving
pedagogue. If the text is kept, Mt. Voltur must be supposed to
bestride the boundaries of Apulia and Lucania. Horace speaks
of himself as Lucanas an Apulus anceps (Sat. 2. 1. 34). Emenda-
tions are countless : altricis limina villulae ; patriae ; limina . . .
sedulae ; Volture in avio, abdito, arduo, etc.
11. fatigatumque : the trajection of que (1. 30. 6. n.) brings out,
if not intended to mark, the slight zeugma : Spent with play and
(overcome by, buried in) sleep. Cf. II. 10. 98 ; Pausan. 9. 23. 2,
I(6TTOS Kdl VTTVOS, 6tC.
12. nova: 4. 1. 32. n.
13-20. mirum quod foret (quod = ut id, tendency, characteris-
tic, or result of me . . . texere (Epode 2. 28)) ... ut ... dor-
mirem . . . ut premerer : epexegetic of quod mirum, and so of
me ... texerc, in form of indirect question. Cf. Epode 16. 53,
pluraque . . . mirabimnr : ut ; 1. 9. 1.
14. quicumque : i.e. all the dwellers round about, picturesquely
amplified by the Homeric descriptive epithets applied to the little
(modern) towns, Acerenza, Banzi, and Forenza. celsae . . .
nidum : Cic. de Or. 1. 19G ; Macaulay, Horat. 3, 'From many a
lonely hamlet, | Which, hid by beech and pine, | Like an eagle's
nest, hangs on the crest | Of purple Apennine ' ; Browning, Sor-
dello, 'The hamlets nestled on the Tyrol's brow.'
15,16. saltus : the 'high lawns' (Milt.). arvum pingue :
the fat ' well-tilled lowland.'
17. atris: deadly (1. 37. 27; Verg. G. 1. 129, ille malum virus
serpentibus addidit atris'). Cf. 1. 17. 8. n. But the viper was
black.
18. premerer : Epode 1. 33. For the picture, cf. Swinburne's
imitation of Pindar, O. 6. 54, 'Violets | fair as those that in far
years . . . hid the limbs of lamus' ; Wordsworth, The Brownie's
Cell, ' Where bud and bloom and fruitage glowed | Close-crowding
round the infant-god ' ; Arnold, Merope ; Tenn. Eleanore, 2 ;
Philostv. Imag. 2. 12. sacra : the laurel to Apollo, the myrtle to
Venus.
20. non sine dis: oi M**; (Ody. 18. 353). Cf. II. 5. 185.
animosus : the high-souled babe was confirmed in the ' animosity
BOOK III., ODE IV. 321
of that attempt,' as Sir Thomas Browne would say, by the spe-
cial favor of heaven.
21. vester . . . vaster : since he is a dedicated spirit and Moi^
ad.uv BfpzTraiv from the cradle, he is theirs everywhere.
22. tollor : climb, with a faint hint of ' soar ' ; 2. 7. 14 ; 2. 20. 1.
He is eV Moiffatffi iroTavbs in every sense (Find. Pyth. 5. 114).
22-23. frigidum Fraeneste : it was high and cool. Verg. Aen.
7. 682 ; Juv. 3. 190 ; Horace is there, Epp. 1. 2. 2, with Homer for
summer reading.
23. Tibur: 1. 7. 13 ; 2. 6. 5. supinum : the slopes of. Juv.
3. 192, proni Tibur is.
24. liquidae : cf. 2. 20. 2. n. ; Verg. G. 4. 59, per aestatem
liquidam ; Gray, Ode on Spring, ' And float amid the liquid noon ' ;
Kiessling takes it of the waters. Baiae : 2. 18. 20. n. Horace
there, Epp. 1. 15. 2 sqq.
25. amicum: because I was dear to (1. 26. 1. n.). fontibus :
1. 26. 6 ; Hes. Theog. 3 ; 3. 13. 13.
26. Philippis : 2. 7. 9. Abl., whence with versa, or place with
extinxit.
27. devota: sc. dis inferis, accursed (Epode 16. 9), 'To de-
struction sacred and devote' (Milt.). arbos : cf. on 2. 13;
2. 17. 27.
28. Nothing is known of Horace's escape from shipwreck near
the Lucanian promontory of Palinurus named from Aeneas's pilot
(Verg. Aen. 6. 381).
29. utcumque : if only you be with me. Cf. 1. 17. 10. n.
30. insanientem : cf . 3 7. 6. n. ; Tibull. 2. 4. 9, insanis . . . ven-
tis; Propert. 1. 8. 5 ; 4. 6. 6 ; Arnold, Scholar-Gipsy, ' Where the
Atlantic raves | Outside the western straits ' ; Verg. Eel. 9. 43.
Bosporum: 2. 13. 14. navita : opposed to viator, 32.
31. temptabo : 1. 28. 5. ^-urentes: cf. 1. 22. 5. n. Some
read arentes.
32. Assyrii = Syrii - Eastern. Cf. 2. 11. 16.
33. Britannos: 1.35.30; Catull. 11. 11, ultimosque Britannos;
Verg. Eel. 1. 66 ; Tac. -Ann. 14. 30, represents them as savages.
34. Concanum : a Cantabrian tribe. See on 2. 6. 2 ; Verg.
G. 3. 461, attributes the drinking of horse's blood and inilk to the
Geloni.
T
322 NOTES.
35. Gelonos: 2. 9. 23; 2. 20. 19. pharetratos : cf. Milton's
' quiver' d nymph ' (Comus).
36. Scythicum . . . amnem : the Don, Tanais. Cf. 3. 10. 1 ;
3. 29. 28, and, for the periphrasis, 2. 9. 21.
37. vos : returning to the leading thought, the muses and their
gracious influence.
38. abdidit : i.e. withdrew from public view the vast armies.
Cf. Epp. 1. 1. 5, latet abditus agro. The Mss. vary reddidit
assigned to, and addidit, apparently the technical term for enlarg-
ing a colony by a settlement of veterans (Tac. Ann. 13. 31),
are read. The disposition of. the 120,000 veterans cost Augustus
enormous sums (Mon. Ancyr. 3. 22), necessitated widespread con-
fiscations, and led to the founding of new towns whose names
indicate their origin, as Aosta Merida (Emerita Augusta), Sara-
gossa (Caesar Augusta). Cf. Merivale, 4. 65.
39. finite: 1. 7. 17; Sat. 2. 3. 263. labores : his own and
those of the Roman world. Cf. 2. 16. Intr. ; also 4. 15. 9.
40. Cf. Herrick, 1124, 'After thy labour take thine ease, | Here
with the sweet Pierides ' ; Find. Pyth. 6. 49, V /ni/xoio-t UifpiSwv ;
Martial, 12. 11. 3, Pimpleo . . . antro. For Augustus' literary
studie's, cf. Suet. Aug. 84. 85, and the lives of Horace and Vergil.
41. lene : the gentle muses are /j.fi\ix6&ov\oi, and Augustus,
who accepts the counsel they rejoice to give, is iacentem \ lenis
in hostem; C. S. 52. consilium: trisyllabic. Cf. 3. 6. 6.
42. scimus : the drift seems to be : Augustus is a benign ruler,
but those who rebel against his easy yoke and attempt to throw
the Roman world back into the chaos of civil war, will meet the
well-known fate of the blind Titanic powers that sought to over-
throw the fairer order established by Zeus and the bright Olympian
deities. Horace blends the various Greek legends in one composite
picture.
44. sustulerit: overthrew, crushed; the subj. is (I'ZZe) qui, 45.
Keep the Latin order: were struck down by the bolt (from the
hands) of him who, etc. caduco : 2. 13. 11 ; (swift) descending ;
Ko.Ta.iRa.Tns (Aesch. Prom. 359).
45-47. All-embracing antitheses: the brute earth (1. 34. 9), the
heaving wind-swept sea, the cities of the living and the dolorous
realm of death, the (quiet) gods, and the agitations of man.
BOOK III., ODE IV. 323
45. temperat : 1. 12. 16. n.
46. regna : 2. 13. 21. tristia: Milton's 'dolorous mansions'
(Nativity, 14). Cf. II. 20. 64 ; Verg. Aen. 8. 245.
49. terrorem : cf. 2. 12. 7 ; F. Q. 7. 6. 15. It is inconsistent
with the calm omnipotence of 45-48 ; but even in Aeschylus and
Milton the mythology is sometimes imperfectly harmonized with
the religion.
50. fideiis : presumptuous. horrida: i.e. horrens bracchiis,
TTf<(>piKuia. iuventus: the Hecatoncheires (Centimanus, 69), Bri-
areus (II. 1. 402), Gyas, and Cottus, the first brood of Uranus and
Gaea (Apollod. 1. 1 ; Hes. Theog. 149). In Hesiod Uranus confines
them beneath the earth. Zeus releases them, and they help him to
defeat the Titans, whom they afterwards guard in Tartarus (Theog.
617 sqq. ; 730 sqq.).
51. fratres : the Aloidae, Otus and Ephialtes. Odys. 11. 308;
Verg. G. 1. 280 ; Aen. 6. 582 ; Find. Pyth. 4. 89 ; not in Hesiod.
opaco: Homer's elvo<ri<j>u\\ov (cf. 1. 21. 6-7. n.), which Vergil,
G. 1. 282, renders frondosum. So Juvenal's opaci Tagi (Sat. 3.
55) is put back into Greek by Jebb (Bologna Ode), as /ueAa/iupuA.-
AOIO TdyoLo. Homer picturesquely puts the ' forest-rustling moun-
tain ' on top ; but the metre often places Horace's epithets. With
the whole cf. Ov. Met. 1. 151-155.
52. imposuisse : cf. 1. 1. 4. n. ; 3. 18. 15.
53. Typhoeus : in Hesiod, Theog. 820, the latest born monstrous
offspring of earth, who, after the defeat of the Titans, wages war alone
against Zeus; cf. also II. 2. 782 ; Verg. Aen. 9. 716 ; Aesch. Prom.
354; Find. Pyth. 1. 16, with Arnold's imitation in ' Empedocles.'
Milt. Nativity, 25, 'Typhon huge ending in snaky twine.' P. L. 1,
'As whom the fables name of monstrous size, | Titanian, or Earth-
born, that warred on Jove, | Briareus, or Typhon, whom the den |
By ancient Tarsus held.' Mimas: in Hes. Scut. Her. 186, a cen-
taur (?). In Eurip. Ion, 214, a giant repelled by Pallas. Apoll.
Khod. 3. 1227.
54. Porphyrion : king of the giants, Pind. Pyth. 8. 17 ; cf .
Aristoph. Birds, 1252 ; cf. Keats's list, Hyper. 2 ; ' Coeus, and
Gyges, and Briareus, | Typhon, and Dolor, and Porphyrion.'
55. Rhoetus : 2. 19. 23. truncis : ' thrower with ' by analogy
of ' throw with.'
324 NOTES.
56. Enceladus : Verg. Aen. 3. 578 ; Eurip. Ion, 209.
57-58. contra . . . (possent) ruentes : cf. ruit, 65 ; Pallas,
the type of heavenly wisdom, is put first. sonantem : II. 17. 595,
Zeus thunders and shakes the Aegis. Or it may be vaguely con-
ceived as a ringing shield; cf. 1. 15. 11. n.
58. nine, etc.: cf. dough, Amours de Voyage, 1. 8; ' Eager for
battle here | Stood Vulcan, here matronal Juno, | And with the
bow to his shoulder faithful | He who with pure dew laveth of
Castaly | His flowing locks, who holdeth of Lycia | The oak forest
and the wood that bore him, | Delos' and Patara's own Apollo.'
The monotonous enumeration is relieved by a picture ; cf. on
1. 12. 29 sqq. avidus : both as devouring element (cf. Lucret.
2. 1066, Milton's 'huge convex of fire | Outrageous to devour')
and \i\ia6/j.evos iro\ftj.oio ; cf. Verg. Aen. 9. 661, avidnm pugnae.
Tac. Hist. 4. 71 ; % Ann. 1. 51 ; F. Q. 1. 8. 6, 'And at him fiercely
flew, with courage fill'd, | And eager greediness through every
member thrill'd.'
60. arcum: cf. 1. 21. 11 ; Eurip. Alcest. 40.
61. Castaliae: Pind. Pyth. 1. 39; 'O Phoibos, lord of Lykia
and of Delos, who lovest the Spring of Castaly on thy Parnassos '
(Myers). lavit: cf. 4. 6. 26; 2. 3. 18. n.
63. natalemque: cf. 1. 21. 10.
64. Patareus : of Patara in Lycia, where he spent the six win-
ter months. Serv. on Verg. Aen. 4. 143-4. Ov. Met. 1. 516.
65. vis, etc. : the moral of the myth in a Pindaric Sententia ;
cf. Pyth. 8. 15; Euenus, fr. 4; F. Q. 3. 10. 2, 'Might wanting
measure moveth surquedry ' (presumption, u/3pis); Eurip. fr. 732;
Milton, Samson Ag. 53.
66. temperatam : cf. Milton's 'temper'd awe,' Comus.
67. idem odere : but they likewise hate. Cf. 2. 10. 15, 22 ; 3.
12. 10 ; Eurip. Hel. 903.
68. omne : cf . 3. 3. 52. n.
69. testis : in Pindar's manner ; cf. fr. 146, rfKnalpoft.au. 0. 2.
24; 9. 105; cf. juapTi/pe? 5e in tragedy. Gyas : 2. 17. 14. n.
70. integrae : 1. 7. 5, intactae.
71. temptator : only here ; a rendering of weipav (not wfipdfciv
as eds. say). Pind. Nem. 5. 30 ; ' In part she is to blame that has
been tried, 11 Lady Mary Montagu ; cf. F. Q. 1. 5. 35, ' tempt the
BOOK III., ODE V. 325
queen of heaven,' etc. Orion: 2. 13. 39. The legends varied.
Horace follows that found in Cic. Arat. 420. Hygin. astr. 2. 34.
72. domitus sagitta : Solely biary. Cf. Find. Pyth. 4. 90,
' moreover, Tityos was the quarry of Artemis' swift arrow sped
from her invincible quiver' (Myers).
73. iniecta : vasta giganteis iniecta est insula membris, Ov.
Met. 5. 346. The material earth groans with physical oppression
((TTovax'C T ffTeivoufvri, Hes. Theog. 160), the poetically per-
sonified earth mourns her offspring, as she does in the Pergamene
frieze.
74. luridum : the realm of ' flickering spectres lighted from
below | By the red race of fiery Phlegethon' (Tenn.).
75. nee peredit : his punishment endures. Fire eats already
in II. 23. 182. It 'devours with angry jaws,' Aesch. Prom. 368.
76. impositam . . . Aetnam : the legends varied. Cf. Claud,
de R. Pros. 1. 152, Aetna giganteos (over the giants, cf. 3. 1. 7)
numquam tacitura triumphos; Verg. Aen. 3. 578, Callim. Hymn.
Del. 141-143 ; Arnold, Empedocles, ' Typho only, the rebel o'er-
thrown, | Through whose heart Etna drives her roots of stone.'
77. incontinentis : lustful. Tityi : cf. 2. 14. 8. n. ; Find.
Pyth. 4. 90; Spenser, Vergil's Gnat, 48, 'And there is mournful
Tityus mindful yet | Of thy displeasure, O Latona fair.'
78. ales : the vulture that preyed on his liver (Verg. Aen. 6,
597). nequitiae : technical, like peccare. Cf. 3. 15. 2 ; Ov. Am.
2. 1. 2, Ille ego nequitiae Naso poeta meae. additus: a guard
that can't be shaken off. Cf. Vergil's Teucris addita luno (Aen.
6. 90) ; so vpooKtiiJitvos, Plato, Apol. 30 E.
79. amatorem : ironical ; not amantem. Cf. the jealous wife
in Plautus, surge, amator, i domum; some detect a hint of
Antony, who 'kissed away kingdoms.' trecentae: 2. 14. 5, 26.
80. Pirithoum : cf. 4. 7. 28. n. ; with Theseus he attempted to
carry, off Proserpina.
ODE V.
Of this poem Landor (Pentameron) says, ' in competition with
which ode, the finest in the Greek language itself has to my ear
too many low notes and somewhat of a wooden sound.'
326 NOTES.
See, also, Lang, Letters to Dead Authors, p. 209, ' We talk of
the Greeks as your teachers. Your teachers they were, but that
poem could only have been written by a Roman ! The strength,
the tenderness, the noble and monumental resolution and resig-
nation, these are the gifts of the lords of human things, the
masters of the world.'
1. caelo: with regnare. Cf. 1. 12. 57-58. tonantem : both
epithet (Lex. s.v. II. B), and cause of credidimus Lucret. 5.
1187-93.
2. praesens: cf. 1. 35. 2; 4. 14. 43; Epp. 2. 1. 15; Ov. Trist.
2. 54, per te praeseutem conspicuumque deum; Veget. R. M. 2. 5,
imperator . . . tamquam praesenti et corpora?! deo.
3. adiectis : i.e. cum adiecerit. Britannia: 1. 35. 30. n.
4. imperio : 1. 2. 26. n. gravibus: 1. 2. 22.
5. Crassi : cf. Intr. 3. 1-6. coniuge barbara : abl. abs.
motivating turpis maritus. But ' husband by a wife ' = ' husband
of a wife ' is a possible construction. For the shame cf. Vergil's
nefas, Aegyptia coniux (Aen. 8. 688).
6. vixit : closely with maritus, endured to live as. curia, that
Senate (house) which the envoy of Pyrrhus pronounced an assem-
bly of kings, whose elders, refusing to abandon Rome, had awaited,
each on his curule chair, the approach of the victorious Gauls
(Livy, 5. 41). Cf. Cic. pro Plancio, 71, stante urbe et curia.
8. socerorum : avoid father-in-law. Cf. 3. 11. 39. n. For pi.,
cf. II. 3. 49. in armis : Bentley would read, with some Mss.,
in arvisj the Parthians enlisted captives and slaves (Justin. 41.
2. 5).
9. The good old Italian names in invidious juxtaposition with
the hateful name of king and Mede. Cf. 1. 37. 7. n.
10. Cf. Macaulay, Regillus, 38, ' Hail to the great Asylum !
Hail to the hill-tops seven ! Hail to the fire that burns for aye, |
And the shield that fell from heaven.' Anciliorum : cf. Lex.
s.v. and Harper's Class. Diet. s.v. fialii. nominis : civis Eoma-
nussum! togae : Verg. Aen. 1. 282, Romanos, rerum dominos
gentemque togatam.
11. Vestae: Macaulay, Capys, 15, 'And there, unquenched
through ages, | Like Vesta's sacred fire, | Shall live the spirit of
BOOK HI., ODE V. 327
thy nurse, | The spirit of thy sire.' Virginesque Vestales in
urbe custodiunto ignem foci publici sempiteruum (Cic. de. leg.
2. 20).
12. Incolumi love: i.e. Salvo Capitolio. Cf. 3. 30. 8. n.
13. hoc : note effective Latin order, ' 'twas just this ... he
guarded against ... in his forethought . . . did Regulus when he,'
etc. "Twas this that Regulus foresaw, | What time he spurn'd'
(Conington). Reguli : Consul, 256, captured in Africa by Car-
thaginians, 255 (Polyb. 1. 34). Sent by them to Roman Senate,
250, to treat for peace, or, failing that, for an exchange of pris-
oners, he advised the Senate (auctor . . . fuit) to reject both propo-
sitions (Livy, Epit. XVIII). A favorite text ; cf. Cic. de Or. 3.
109; deOff. 1. 39; 3. 99.
14. condicionibus : the terms of peace ; dative.
15. exemplo : the precedent of ransoming soldiers that had not
known how to die. Cf. Livy, 22. 60. trahentis: so Mss. ; with
Beguli ; drawing from such precedent (a presage of) ruin for
future time. The precedent is defined by si non periret. Ovid
has traxit in exemplitm, Met. 8. 245. Eds. generally read trahenti
with exemplo, which they construe.with dissentientis.
16. veniens : Lucan, 7. 390, populos aevi venientis. Cf. Vavenir,
and the ' To-come ' in Tenn. and Shelley.
17. periret: cf. 1. 3. 36. n. But the ictus does not fall on
the lengthened syllable here, and some read perires or perirent.
Or we may say that Horace permits himself the Greek form
\j w-
18. signa : Horace wishes the reader to think of the standards
of Crassus in Parthia. Cf . 4. 15. 6. ego : his own eyes have
seen the shame during his five years' captivity.
20-21. militibus sine caede . . . derepta: with cumulative
irony. Cf. Arnold, Culture and Anarchy, chap. 2, ' If he had
allowed his soldiers to interfere their rifles (might have been)
taken from them . . . with bloodshed' ; Verg. Aen. 11. 193, spolia
occisis derepta Latinis.
21. civium: yes, civium Romanorum.
22. retorta (u) tergo: cf. Epp. 2. 1, max trahitur manibus
regum fortunn retortis. An ingenious commentator has recently
taken it not of the Roman captives but of the Carthaginians strolling
328 NOTES.
peacefully with hands clasped behind their backs! libero: a
liberty they had not known how to guard like the freeman. Cf.
4. 14. 18. For the transfer, cf. 3. 2. 10, timido teryo.
23. portas: of Carthage no longer fearing the Romans, cf.
A. P. 199, apertis otia portis. Cf. Lang, Helen of Troy, 6. 9.
23-24. arva . . . coli: for syntax, cf. 2. 9. 19-22. n.
25. Cf. Livy, 22. 60, speech of T. Manlius Torquatus against
ransoming the captives of Cannae, pretio redituri estis eo unde
iynavia ac neqiiitia abiistis?
26. flagitio : the disgrace of their cowardice.
27. damnum: the injury to the morale of the Roman army
hinted at in scilicet acrior, and explained in 26-3G. Others take
it naively of the ' damnation of the expense,' a satiric (Sat. 2. 2.
96) but hardly an heroic thought. Cf. The Tempest, 4. 1, 'There
is not only disgrace and dishonor in that, monster, but an infinite
loss 1 ; Eurip.(?) Rhes. 102.
27-32. neque . . . nee ... si ... erit : two allegorical parallels
illustrating the thought that valor, like chastity, is irrecoverably
forfeited by a single lapse. For this scheme of expression by para-
tactic simile, cf. Aesch. Sept. 564 ; Suppl. 226, 443 sqq. ; Ag. 322 ;
Eumen. 694 ; Choeph. 258 ; Find. 0. 10. 13, etc.
27. colores: i.e. its native hues, the simplex ille candor of
Quintil. 1. 1. 5.
28. medicata : dyed with false hues. So <f>ap/j.d<T<Teii>.
29. semel: 1. 24. 16. n.
30. curat: with inf. 2. 13. 39. deterioribus : dat., the loss
(excidit) makes them so. Homer could never have so complicated
his simple, ' Whatever day | Makes man a slave, takes half his
worth away' ; Od. 17. 302 (Pope).
33. perfidis: cf. 4. 4. 49. n. ; with credidit, cf. 3. 7. 13; 3.
27. 25.
34. marte : as in 24, war; cf. 1. 7. 22. n. altero: a second
= another = some future.
36. iners : helpless, submissively, tamely. Cf . inertiae, 4. 0.
29 ; Epp. 1. 5. 17, ad proelia trudit inertem.
37. unde . . . sumeret : represents dubitative unde sumam.
Forgetting that the soldier must keep his life with the sword, he
confounds war with peace (and tries to buy it ?).
BOOK III , ODE V. 329
40. minis: 'by the,' instr. abl., but virtually 'above the.'
41. fertur : ' sti'.l is the story told ' how, etc. Note the modula-
tion from the passion of Rcgu'.us' peroratiori to the quiet, awestruck
description of his heroic sel. -sacrifice. Lines 41-56 are translated
by Thomson, Liberty, 3, ' Hence Regulus the wavering fathers
firmed | By dreadful counsel never given before ; (45, 46) . . . On
earth his manly look | Relentless fix'd, he from a last embrace, |
By chains polluted, put his wife aside,' etc. pudicae : 4. 9. 23.
42. capitis minor : caput is status ; capitis deminutio is total or
partial loss of civic rights. Cf. Livy, 22. 60, sero mine desideratis,
deminuti capite, abalienati iure civium, servi Carthaginiensium
facti. With heroic Roman pedantry Regulus, applying this tech-
nicality to himself, declined to speak from his place in the Senate
(Cic. de Off. 3. 27) or to claim the rights of a paterfamilias.
44. torvus : sternly, grimly.
45-46. donee . . . firmaret: may be taken as determined by
the dependence on fertur ; but ' while he was ' blends with ' until
he could' (get through with the hard duty). Cf. Verg. Aen. 1. 5.
46. auctor : by the weight of his authority ; but cf. Livy, cited
on 1. 13. alias : before or after.
48-51. egregius . . . exsul: cf.' 3. 3. 38. n. ; 3. 11. 35. n.
properaret and dimovit may express the alacrity of duty done, or
his impatience of distressing importunity, and desire to 'have it
over. '
49. atqui : and yet, /ecu'. Cf. 3. 7. 9 ; 1. 23. 9 ; Cic. Off. 3. 27,
neque vero turn ignorabat he knew all the while.
50. tortor: completes the legend (Cic. Off. 3. 27; Gell. 7. 4),
but has no historical authority. The whole story is unknown to
Polybius.
50-53. non aliter . . . quam si: with like unconcern as
though, Con.
52. reditus : -um -um -em would have been cacophonous. Cf .
Epode 16. 35.
53. longa : tedious. For this burdensome duty of a great Roman
towards his clients, cf. Epp. 2. 1. 104 ; 1. 5. 31.
54. diiudicata : it does not appear whether he is conceived
as counsel or judge (arbitrator) . relinqueret : had been or
were leaving ; rura subnrbana indu-tis . . . ire Latinis, Epp.
330 NOTES.
1. 7. 76 is an anachronism for the age of Regulus ; but the
picture is timeless.
55. Venafranos : 2. 6. 16.
56. Lacedaemonium : 2. 6. 12-13. n. Note the quiet, idyllic
close. Cf. Sellar, p. 184.
ODE VI.
Horace apparently sets out to celebrate the moral and religious
reforms of Augustus, but lapses into pessimistic reflections on
modern degeneracy, from which he fails to return to the more
cheerful theme.
Cf. on 3. 24 ; 2. 15 ; 4. 5. 20-25 ; 4. 15. 10-15 ; C. S. 17-20, 45.
Translation in Dodsley, 3. 18 ; by Roscommon, Johnson's Poets,
8. 271.
1. maiorum : especially the generation of the civil wars, 8831.
immeritus : cf. 1. 17. 28. n. ; here not generally guiltless, but
innocent of the ' sins of the fathers,' which are visited upon them.
Cf. Solon, fr. 13. 29-32 ; Eurip. fr. 980 ; Exod. 20. 5 ; Ezek. 18. 2.
2. Romane : so sing, Sat. 1. 4. 85 ; Verg. Aen. 6. 851 ; Macaul.,
' Thine, Roman, is the pilum.' refeceris, etc. ; aedas sacras vetns-
tate conlapsas aut incendio absumptas refecit (Suet. Aug. 30). Cf.
Mon. Ancyr. 4. 17 ; Ov. Fast. 2. 63, templorum sancte repostor.
3. deorum et : 3. 3. 71.
5. 6. dis, etc. : even Greek sceptics commended the Roman
religion as a social and political safeguard (Polyb. 6. 56 ; Gaston
Boissier, Relig. Rom. 1. 28-36). Cf. Propert. 4. 10. 64, haec di
condiderunt, haec di quoque moenia servant; Cic. N. D. 3. 5.
minorem : 1. 12. 57 ; ' walkest humbly with thy gods.'
6. nine : a verb corresponding to refer is felt, but not ' supplied.'
Cf. hinc illae lacrimae. principium : as 3. 4. 41. Cf. Liv. 45.
39, maiores vestri omnium magnarum rerum et principia exorsi ab
dis sunt et finem statuerunt.
7. neglect! : 3. 2. 30; Liv. 3. 20, sed nondum haec quae nunc
tenet saeculum neglegentia deorum venerat.
8. Hesperiae: 2. 1. 32; 1. 36. 4.
9. ' Let Crassus' ghost and Labienus' tell | How twice in Par-
BOOK III., ODE VI. 331
thian plains their legions fell. | Since Rome hath been so jealous of
her fame, | That few know Pacorus' or Monaeses' name ' (Ros-
common, Essay on Translated Verse). bis: three defeats are
known : that of Crassus at Carrhae, B.C. 53 ; that of Decidius Saxa
by Pacorus, B.C. 40 ; avenged by Ventidius, B.C. 38 (cf. Ant. and
Cle. 3. 1); the disastrous repulse of Antony, B.C. 36. A Monaeses
is mentioned (Dio, 49. 23. 24) as an exiled pretendant to the
Parthian throne, supported by Antony. Horace cared as little for
the historical details as we do. mantis : 4. 11. 9 ; Epode 16. 4.
10. non auspicatos : may refer vaguely to the dire auspices
under which Crassus set out (Veil. 2. 46; Cic. Div. 1. 29), or to
neglect of auspices in some other campaign, or to the general dis-
- pleasure of heaven. contudit : 4. 3. 8.
11. adiecisse: 1. 1.4. n. praedam : our rich spoils, contrasted
with exiyuis.
12. torquibus : cf. the a-rptirTol and tyt\ia mentioned as insignia
of honor (Xen. Anab. 1. 2. 27 ; Cyrop. 8. 2. 8). renidet : 2. 18. 2 ;
yrins with delight, beams with joy, = gaudet, hence inf.
13. paene : with delevit.
14. Dacus : i.e. the tribes of the north with Antony (Dio, 51.
22; Verg. G. 2. 497, descendens Dacus ab Histro). Aethiops:
the Egyptian fleet of Cleopatra (Verg. Aen. 8. 687 sqq.).
17 sqq. The fountain-head of evil is the corruption of the pure
family life of old Rome. Cf. 3. 24. 20-24 ; 4. 5. 21-24 ; C. S. 17 ;
Juv. Sat. 2. 126, pater nrbis \ unde nefastantum Latiis pastoribus?
18. inquinavere : Epode 16. 64.
21. motus . . . lonicos : ' skirt-dances ' will serve. Cf. Athen.
14. 629 E ; Plaut. Pseud. 1274 ; Stich. 767. With motus cf. Epp.
2. 2. 125, movetur ; A. P. 232, moveri. Roman moralists were as
severe censors of dancing as Byron. Cf. Sail. Cat. 25, psallere et
saltare elegantius quam necesse est probae.
22. matura : 'the rare ripe maid' (Gildersleeve). artibus :
of the coquette.
23. iam nunc : before marriage. Cf. mox, 25.
24. de tenero . . . ungui : e'| aira\uv ovvxtav, i.e. from the quick,
means in every fibre, with all her soul, through every nerve, to the
finger-tips. Cf. Anth. Pal. 5. 129 ; 5. 14 ; Plut. de lib. educ. 5 ;
Plaut. Stich. 759, usque ex unguiculis. It is apparently also used
332 NOTES.
in the sense 'from infancy' (Lyd. de Magg. 2. 26; Cic. ad Fam.
1.6).
33. non his : not from such fathers and mothers sprang the
youth who, etc.
34. infecit aequor : 2. 12. 3 ; sc. in the great naval battles of
the first Punic war.
35. Pyrrhum: at Beneventum, B.C. 275. Of. 1. 12. 41. n.
ingentem : i.e. magnum, Antiochus the Great, defeated at Mag-
nesia, B.C. 190.
36. dirum : 2. 12. 2. n. ; 4. 4. 42 ; ' the dreaded name of
Hannibal ' (Martin) ; ' Forced even dire Hannibal to yield, |
And won the long-disputed world at Zama's fatal field ' (Ros-
common). ,
37. 'The hardy offspring of a yeoman soldiery.'
38. Sabellis : cf. 1. 31. 9. The Sabines type the old Italian
virtue (Verg. G. 2. 532, hanc olim veteres vitam coluere Sabini).
Cf. Livy, 1. 18. 4.
39. severae : cf. Lucret. 5. 1357, agricolae . . . severi.
41-44. portare fustes : after field work was done they must
still hew and fetch fagots, at the command and to the content-
ment of (ad arbitrium} the stern matron. sol . . . curru: a
quiet evening idyll. Cf. Tenn. In Mem. 121, ' The team is loosened
from the wain, |"The boat is drawn upon the shore,' etc.
41-42. ubi . . . mutaret : probably subj. of repeated action (cf.
Catull. 63. 67), though ^t may be taken in subordination to the
implied command (arbitrium). In the cases of the plupf. indie,
cited from Horace, the ubi clause is more distinctly prior in time,
and the subj. would be metrically inconvenient. Epp. 1. 15. 34.
39 ; Epode 11. 13.
42. umbras : Verg. Eel. 1. 84, maioresque cadunt altis de monti-
bus umbrae. iuga demeret: cf. 0ov\vr6s; Verg. Eel. 2. 66,
aspice, aratra iugo refemnt suspensa iuvenci. In Hesiod, Op. 581,
dawn TTO\\O'IITI 5' twl vya /3ov<rl Tidrfffi ; El. in Maec. 99-100.
43. amicum : welcome ; ' Oh Hesperus, thou bringest all things
good.'
44. agens abeunte : faint oxymoron. For agens, cf. Verg.
Eel. 8. 17. curru: Epp. 1. 16. 6, sol . . . discedens curru fugi-
ente. Cf. Car. Saec. 9-10. n.
BOOK III., ODE VII. 333
45. damnosa : note effective position : alas ! the ravages of
time. imminuit : has and does.
46. peior avis : cf. 2. 14. 28. n.
47. daturos : cf. 2. 3. 4. n. Without this fut. part. Horace
could hardly have packed four generations in three lines. Cf.
Arat. Phaen. 123.
ODE VII.
The best commentary on this pretty idyl which comes to relieve
the severity of the preceding odes is Austin Dobson's charming
imitation, 'Outwai'd Bound.' Cf. also Sellar, p. 170.
There is a coarse imitation by Stepney, Johnson's Poets, 8. 360.
Weep not, Asterie, for thy absent lover Gyges. He will remain
constant despite the arts of his hostess Chloe and the naughty mytho-
logical precedents quoted by her emissaries. But thou 'On thy
side forbear | To greet with too impressed an air,' the gallant
Enipeus who witches the world with noble horsemanship on the
Campus Martius.
' Without a trace | Of acquiescence in your face | Hear in the
waltz's breathing space | His airy chatter. | If when you sing you
find his look | Grow tender, close your music book, | And end the
matter.'
1. Asterie: the name is significant. Cf. on sidere pulchrior,
3. 9. 21 ; Anacreon's 'Acrrepis and Plato's 'Ayr-ftp. candidi : i.e.
brightening. Epithet, fr. effect. . Cf. on 1. 5. 7 ; 1. 7. 15 ; 2. 9. 3.
Swinburne, 'Rolls under the whitening wind | Of the future the
wave of the world.'
2. Favonii : cf. on 1. 4. 1 ; 4. 12. 2.
3. Thyna = Bithyna here. Cf. Claud. Eutrop. 2. 247 ; Thyni
Thraces arant qnae nunc Bithynia fertur. merce: cf. 1. 35. 7;
Epp. 1. 6. 33, Bithyna negotia. beatum: cf. on 1. 4. 14; Manil.
4. 758, Bithynia dives; Catull. 31. 5.
4. fide: archaic gen.
5. Gygen : note position. For the name, cf. Tvyns 6 Tro\i>xpvtros
(Archil, fr. 25). Oiicum . Gyges has been driven into the harbor
of Oricum in Epirus by autumn storms, and there impatiently
awaits the opening of the next season's navigation to cross the
Adriatic to Italy. Cf. Propert. 1. 8. 19, Ut tefelicipost laeta Ce~
334 NOTES.
raunia (cf. on 1. 3. 20) remo \ accipiat placidis Oricos aequoribus
cf. on 4. 5. 9-12.
6. insana: cf. on 3. 4. 30 ; 3. 29. 19. Caprae : its rising was
end q Sept., its setting end of Dec., signum pluviale Capellae (Ov.
Fast. 5. 113).
7. non sine : cf. on 1. 23. 3.
9. atqui: 1. 23. 9; 3. 5. 49 ; Epode 5. 67. sollicitae : sc.
amore, as in Sat. 2. 3. 253. hospitae : i.e. Chloe, at whose house
he lodges.
10-11. tuis . . . ignibus uri: subtly blends Gyye and Gyyis
amore. Chloe burns for Asterie's ' flame ' with a fire of love such
as Asterie feels. Cf. Ov. Am. 3. 9. 56, vixisti dum tuus ignis eram ;
cf. 1. 27. 20. And for the internal 'flame,' cf. 1. 19. 5; 4. 1. 12;
3. 19. 28. In this sense meis ignihus is like meos sentire furores
(Propert. 1. 5. 3); tuis of course is the indirect report of the poet.
12. temptat: cf. on tentntor, 3. 4. 71. mille vafer modis :
in a thousand artful ways (Martin).
12-20. Chloe's messenger tells of the Josephs of antiquity, Bel-
lerophon (II. 6. 155 sqq.) and Peleus (Pind. Nem. 4. 56 ; Plato, Rep.
391 C; Aristoph. Clouds, 1063), each falsely accused by a woman
scorned, and almost done to death by the too credulous husband.
13. perfida credulum : cf. on 1. 6. 9.
16. maturare : note force of verb ; inflict untimely death.
17. datum . . . Tartaro : cf. leto dare. datum Pelea : cf. on
2. 4. 10.
18. Magnessam : as distinguished from the Amazon Hippolyte.
19. peccare: technical. Cf. 1. 27. 17; Propert. 3. 30. 51, quam
facere ut nostrae nolint peccare puellae.
20. movet: starts. Cf. mentionem movere. Some read monet.
21-22. frustra: cf. 3. 13. 6. 'In vain. Let doubts assail the
weak. | Unmoved and calm as "Adam's Peak" | Your "blame-
less Arthur" hears them speak' (Dobson). scopulis surdior
. . . audit : cf. Epode 17. 54 ; Verg. Aen. 6. 471 ; and for the oxy-
moron Eurip. Medea, 28. Icari : probably the island, cf. 1. 1. 15.
22. integer: 2. 4. 22. at: 'But Laura, on your side, forbear'
(Dobson). Cf. on 2. 18. 9 ; Epode 2. 29.
23. Enipeus : the name of a Thessalian river, the chider,
brawler. Cf. Hebri, 3. 12. 6.
BOOK III., ODE VIII. 335
24. plus iusto : so plus aequo in Ovid's cur mihi plus aequo
fl'i.i-l pliit-nere capilU f
25. flectere equum : cf. Tac. Ger. 6, variare gyros, ghaks.
Hen. IV. 1, 'Turn and wind a fiery Pegasus'; F. Q., 'and under
him a gray steed he did wield.' Verg. Aen. 9. 606, flectere ludus
equos.
2(3. gramine Martio : cf. Epp. 2. 3. 162, gramlne Campi.
28. Tusco: 1. 20. 6. n. denatat : for the swiui in Tiber, cf.
1. 8. 8. n. ; 3. 12. 7. The word is found only here.
29-30. Cf. Ov. Am. 2. 19. 38, Incipe iam prima claudere nocte
forem; and Shylock's admonition to Jessica, M. of V. 2. 6,
' Lock up my doors, and when you hear the drum | And the vile
squealing of the wrynecked fife, | Clamber not you up to the case-
ments then.' sub cantu, i.e. during the serenade ; contrast sub
with ace. 1.9. 19. querulae: plaining. despice : not despise,
but look down.
32. duram: cruel; Catull. 30.2; Verg. Aen. 4. 428. diffi-
cilis : obdurate ; cf. 3. 10. 11.
ODE VIII.
You are puzzled, learned friend Maecenas, by a bachelor's sacri-
ficing on the ladies' Kalends. 'Tis the day of my escape from the
falling tree. Come, quaff a hundred cups to the preservation of
your friend. Dismiss your cares of state, ' and what the Mede
intends and what the Dacian.' Our foes have yielded to Roman
prowess or are wrangling among themselves. Forget for once that
you are a public personage, cease to borrow trouble, and enjoy the
gifts of the passing hour.
The date is fixed by 17-23. Maecenas is in fact, if not in title,
iirbis cuslodiis praepositus (Veil. 2. 88. 2 ; cf. Tac. Ann. 6. 11), in
the absence of Octavian, who returned to Rome in the summer of
B.C. 29. There was fighting against the Dacians, who had helped
Antony, in B.C. 30-28. Rome perhaps heard of the contest between
Phraates and Tirklates for the throne of Parthia in January, B.C. 29.
Cf. on 1. 26. The dramatic date, then, is March 1st, 29, and the fall
of the tree occurred March 1st, B.C. 30. Cf. on 2. 13. But Friedrich,
Horatius, p. 74, argues for date of March, B.C. 26.
336 NOTES.
1. Martiia . . . Kalendis: the femineae Kalendae of Juvenal
(9. 53), on which the Matronalia were celebrated near Maecenas'
house on the Esquiline in honor of Juno Lucina. Cf. Ov. Fast.
3. 245 sqq. ; Martial, 5. 84. 10.
2. velint: mean. flores: Ov. 1. 1. 253, ferte cleae flores.
4. caespite: 1. 19. 13. n.
5. docte: Epp. 1. 19. 1, Maecenas docte. sermones: in the lore,
the literature. utriusque : only Greek and Latin count. Cf . utrius-
que linguae auctoribus, Suet. Aug. 89 ; Plut. Lucull. 1 ; Cic. Off. 1.
1 ; Plin. N. H. 12. 11 ; Stat. Silv. 5. 3. 90, gemina . . . lingua. Fried-
rich, Op. 1. p. 75, thinks Latin and Etruscan are the two tongues.
6. voveram : sc. prior to these preparations and your wonder.
album : black victims were offered dis inferis.
I. Libero : the poet's protector, though Faunus warded off the
blow, 2. 17. 28. capiuni : the enemy of the vine was appro-
priately sacrificed to the vine god. Verg. G. 2. 380 ; Ov. Fast.
1. 357 = Anth. Pal. 9. 75 ; 9. 99. 5-6 ; Mart. 3. 24. 2.
9. anno redeunte : with the returning season. Cf. Sat. 2. 2.
83, Sive diem festum rediens advexerit annus 3. 18. 10; 3. 22. 6.
festus : 3. 14. 13.
10-12. In order to mellow the wine, the Apotheca was placed so
as to receive the smoke of the furnaces. This necessitated careful
sealing (with pitch). Cf. Columell. 1. 6. 20 ; Ov. Fast. 5. 518,
promit fumoso condita vina cado.
II. bibere : to smoke is viveiv Kaw6v in modern Greek.
institutae : set or placed (so as) to ; others ' taught. '
12. Consule Tullo: a Tullus was consul in B.C. 66 and in 33.
Horace probably served something better than Sabine Ordinaire
on this occasion. Cf. 3. 21. 1. n. ; Tibull. 2. 1. 27.
13-14. amici sospitis : gen. of the toast. Cf. 3. 19. 9. n.
14. vigiles : cf. Anth. Pal. 5. 197, <f>i\d-ypvTrvov \i>xvov. Cf. 3.
21. 23-24.
15. perfer : Tyrrell, Lat. Poetry, 197, says this can only mean
' endure the smoke of the lamps till dawn.' But vigiles is a trans-
ferred epithet, and to ' wake with the lamps till dawn ' would try
the nerves of the valetudinarian Maecenas. procul, etc. : it is
to be verecundus Bacchus, 1. 27. 3, not a noisy revel. Cf. Ody. 1.
369, /UTjSe &Or)TVS | fffTW.
BOOK III., ODE IX. 337
17. mitte, etc. Cf. the defense of Maecenas' Epicureanism in
El. in Maec. 93, sic est, victor amet, victor potiatur in umbra, \
victor odorata dormiat inque rosa. The victors of Actium had
earned the right to take their ease. But Horace does not mention
Actium. super : 1. 9. 5; 1. 12. 6.
18. occidit: 1. 28. 7 ; 4. 4. 70. Cotisonis : cf. Introd. and
Suet. Aug. 63.
19. infestus; sc. Romanis, our enemy the Mede. sibi: best
taken primarily with luctuosis, but felt with infestus and perhaps
with dissidet, which, however, may be used absolutely.
22. Cantaber : 2. 6. 2. n. Spain was the first province entered
by the Romans, but the last to be finally subdued (Livy, 28. 12).
domitua : referring to the successes of Statilius Taurus and Cal-
visius Sabinus, B.C. 29-28.
23. Scythae : 2. 9. 23 ; 4. 14. 42.
25. neglegens ne : as if nee . . . legens, not taking anxious
thought lest.
26. parce : i.e. noli.
27. dona . . . horae : cf . 2. 16. 32 ; 3. 29. 48. n. Cf. Milton to
Cyriac Skinner, 'For other things mild Heav'n a time ordains, |
And disapproves that care, though wise in show, | That with
superfluous burden loads the day, | And, when God sends a cheer-
ful hour, refrains.'
ODE IX.
Horace (?) and Lydia, or the lovers' quarrel. Amantium irae
amoris integratio est (Ter. Andr. 555; cf. Plaut. Amphitr. 940-
944). 'And little quarrels often prove | To be but new recruits
of love' (Butler). 'Blessings on the falling out, which all the
more endears ' (Tenn.).
A general favorite. Translations or imitations, by Ben Jonson,
Herrick (181), Austin Dobson, Edwin Arnold, Alfred de Musset,
Ponsard (who expands it into a charming little drama), etc.
Cf. also Rowe, Johnson's Poets, 9. 472 ; Somervile, ibid. 11.
206; Boyse, ibid. 14. 542; Jenyns, ibid. 17. 616; Cambridge,
ibid. 18. 294 ; Dodsley's Poems, 2. 49 ; Davidson's Poetical Rhap-
sody (ed. Sullen), Vol. 1, p. 87 ; ibid. Vol. 2, p. 181.
338 NOTES.
2. potior: i.e. preferred, favored. Cf. Tibull. 1. 5. 69, At tu,
qui potior nunc es, meafata timeto.
3. dabat: i.e. circumdabat.
4. Persarum rege : proverbial for happiness (2. 2. 17 ; 2. 12.
21); in Elizabethan version, ' King of Spain.'
5-6. alia . . . arsisti : burn with love for another. Cf. 2. 4. 7.
6. Lydia : cf. 1. 8. 1 ; 1. 13. 1 ; 1. 25. 8. Chloe : cf. 1. 23. 1 ;
3. 7. 10 ; 3. 26. 12.
7. multi nominis : lit. of much name ; gen. of quality ; iro\v<e-
W/J.OS, [ieya.\(ai>ufj.os ; his verses spread her name and fame abroad.
Cf. 1. 36. 13 ; r, VijS^Tos (Anth. Pal. 5. 150; 7. 345).
8. Ilia : 1. 2. 17 ; 3. 3. 32.
10. docta . . . modos : cf. docte sermones (3. 8. 5). Cf. 4.
6. 43; 3. 11. 7; 4. 11. 34. citharae sciens : 1. 15. 24.
12. animae : animast arnica amanti (Plaut. Bacch. 191); 'Soul
of my soul,' Ant. to Cleopatra (Term.); 'HAio5a>/>ac | i^X??" "}*
^"X^ s (Anth. Pal. 5. 155). superstiti : proleptic, to survive ine.
13. mutua: 4. 1. 30.
14. Thurini, etc. : the details lend verisimilitude. Cf. 1. 27.
10-11 ; 3. 12. 6. There may be a hint of the luxury of Thurii on
the site of old Sybaris.
15. bis : so in Vergil's eclogues the respondent strives to outbid
the expression of the first singer; 51 y Qavftv (Eurip. Orest. 1116).
17. redit Venus : cf. Dobson, ' Love comes back to his vacant
dwelling, | The old old love that we knew of yore.'
18. cogit: 2.3.25; 3. 3. 51. iugo. . . aeneo : 1. 33. 11 ; 1. 13.
18. Merchant of V. 3. 4, 'whose souls do bear an equal yoke of
love.'
19. flava: 1. 5. 4 ; 2. 4. 14. excutitur faintly suggests excu-
tere collo iugum ; 'Admit I Chloe put away | And love again love-
cast-off Lydia ' ( Herri ck).
20. ianua : metaphorical if Lydiae is dative, literal if genitive.
To cite 3. 15. 9 is to insult Lydia. But cf. Anth. Pal. 5. 164. For
metaphor, cf. Much Ado, 4. 1, ' For thee I'll lock up all the gates
of love.'
21. sidere pulchrior : cf . 3. 19. 26 ; II. 6. 401 ; ' And like a star
upon her bosom lay | His beautiful and shining golden head '
(Hobbes) ; ' Fair as a star when only one | Is shining in the sky '
BOOK in., ODE x. 339
(Wordsworth); 'Whereon the lily maid of Astolat | Lay smiling
like a star in blackest night' (Tenn. Lan. and Elaine).
22. levior : lighter, i.e. unstable, fickle. improbo : 3. 24. 62. n.
23. iracundior : Horace says of himself, irasci celerem, tamen
ut placabilis essem. Hadria : 1. 33. 15.
24. tecum, etc.: Tibull. 1. 1. 59, Te spectem, suprema mihi
cum venerit hora, \ Te teneam moriens deficiente manu ; 'Then
finish, dear Chloe, this pastoral war ; | And let us, like Horace and
Lydia, agree : | For thou art a girl as much brighter than her, | As
he was a poet subliiner than me' (Prior, A Better Answer).
ODE X.
An imitation of the vapaK\avffiOvpov, or lament of the excluded
lover before the door of his mistress. Cf. 1. 25. 7 ; Anth. Pal. 5.
23 ; Propert. 1. 16 ; Ov. Am. 2. 19. 21 ; Burns, ' O Lassie, art thou
sleeping yet ? '
Rendered as Rondeau by Austin Dobson, ' Not Don's barbarian
maids I trow | Would treat their luckless lovers so.'
A Lyce grown old is addressed in 4. 13.
1. Tanain . . . biberes : cf . on 2. 20. 20 ; 4. 15. 21.
2. saevo : a part of the supposition, for Scythians punished
infidelity with death, 3. 24. 24. asperas : cf. Epode 11. 21, non
amicos . . . pastes.
3. porrectum: stretched out, prone; Epode 10. 22. incolis:
native there. Cf. 1. 16. 6.
5. nemus: probably the trees of the inner court. Cf. Epp. 1.
10. 22, nempe inter varias nutritur silva columnas. This implies a
large mansion.
6. remugiat : cf. 3. 29. 57 ; Epp. 2. 1. 202 ; Verg. Aen. 12. 722;
Martial, 1. 49. 20.
7. ventis : abl. cause, or more prettily dat. with remugiat.
ut : so 1. 9. 1. The zeugma audis . . . remugiat . . . glaciet (hear-
ing for seeing) is too common to need further illustration. Cf . on
1. 14. 3-6; Aeschyl. Prom. 22. glaciet nives : the clear cold
glasses with ice the fallen snow.
340 NOTES.
8. luppiter is in a sense the sky. Cf. on 1. 1. 25. numine
is the divinity and ' operation ' of a god, Verg. Aen. 4. 2(>9 ; puro
numine combines as no English phrase can the ideas of cloudless
sky and divine power. Cf., however, Tennyson's 'Once more the
Heavenly Power makes all things new | And domes the red-
ploughed hills | With loving blue ' ; numine luppiter recurs 4.
4. 74.
9. superbiam : cf. 3. 26. 12 ; Anth. Pal. 5. 280. 8 ; and the
Hippolytus of Euripides, which turns wholly on Venus' displeasure
at this kind of ' pride.'
10. ne, etc. : an overstrained virtue will break, and great will be
the fall. ' Lest the wheel fly back with the rope ' seems to be a
Greek proverb (Lucian, Dial. Mer. 3; Aristid. Panath. 118, Jebb)
taken from the sudden breaking or slipping of a windlass. retro :
with both currente and eat.
11. Penelopen: the type of wifely virtue. difficilem : 3.7.32.
12. Tyrrhenus : individualizing, with a suggestion of Tuscan
luxury. She is anything but an austere Scythian.
13. quamvis : in 3. 11. 18, with subj.
14. tinctus viola pallor: the lover is proverbially pale and
wan ; Sappho, fr. 2, x*&>poTe'pa iroias ; Shelley's 'Naiad like Lily of
the Vale | Whom youth makes so fair and passion so pale ' ; Tibull.
1. 8. 52 ; Verg. Eel. 2. 47, pallentes violas of the pale yellow violet
\euic6iov.
15. Pieria: cf. Thressa Chloe, 3. 9. 9. saucius: 1. 14. 5; sc.
volnere amoris. Cf. Lucret. 1. 34; Verg. Aen. 4. 1. The lover
urges the husband's infidelity as in a ' scrofulous French novel.'
16. curvat: flectit; the image is continued in rigida. sup-
plicibus : i.e. if human motives fail to move thee, spare thy suppli-
cant as a goddess.
18. Mauris: cf. 1. 22. 2. For the snakes of the Libyan desert,
cf. Lucan, 9. 700 sqq. ; pestiferos ardens facit Africa, ibid. 729.
19-20. aquae caelestis : so Epp. 2. 1. 135, of rain.
20. latus: he is lying on the doorstep ; Epode 2. 11. 22.
BOOK III., ODE XI. 341
ODE XI.
Yield me a strain, O my lyre, to which obdurate Lyde, shy as
any colt, may lend an ear. Thon canst charm tigers and Cerberus,
keeper of the gate of hell ; thou didst soothe the anguish of the
damned and madest the daughters of Danaus forget to fill their
leaky urns. Let my Lyde mark the tale of their crime and the
late punishment that awaits girls who sin against love. They slew
their husbands, all save one who nobly false to her perjured sire
said to her young lord: Arise and escape from my wicked sisters.
Me my father may punish as he will ; but thou depart night and
Venus be thy speed and carve a plaint for me upon an empty
tomb.
Lyde (the name, 2. 11. 22; 3. 28. 3) merely supplies a motive
and setting for Horace's pretty treatment of the more pleasing side
of the myth.
Danaus, descendant of lo the daughter of Inachus, returned with
fifty daughters from Aegypt to his ancestral home, Argos. Con-
strained to marry his daughters to their cousins, who had pursued
them from Aegypt, he bound the girls to assassinate their husbands
on the bridal night. Hypermnestra alone spared her husband
Lynceus, and became the ancestress of the line of Danae, Perseus,
and Hercules.
Cf. Find. Nem. 10. 6 ; Aesch. Prom. 853-869 ; Supplices passim,
and the lost play the Danaids ; Apollod. 2. 1. 5; Ovid, Heroides,
14, an Epistle from Hypermnestra to Lynceus, should be compared
throughout. Also Chaucer, Legend of Good Women.
Horace's readers were familiar with the statues of .the Danaids
that stood in the intercolumniations of the temple and library of
Palatine Apollo. Cf. on 1. 31. 1 ; Propert. 3. 29. 3, Tola erat in
speciem Poenis digesta columnis, \ inter quas Danai femina turba
senisj Ov. Trist. 3. 1. 61, si$na peregrinis ubi sunt alterna
columnis \ Belides et stricto barbarus ense pater.
1. nam : motivates invocation of Mercury, the author of the
lyre (1. 10. 6). Cf. Epode 17. 45 ; Horn. II. 24. 334 ; Od. 1. 337 ;
Verg. Aen. 1. 65, Aeole namque tibi; 1. 731 ; Milton, P. L. 3,
'Uriel, for thou,' etc. docilia : with te magistro^ teachable and
taught an apt pupil.
342 NOTES.
2. Amphion : he reared ' the song-built towers and gates '
(Tenn. Teires.) of Thebes. Cf. A. P. 394, Dictus et Amphion
Thebanae conditor arcis \ saxa movere sono testudinis; Tenn.
Amphion. See on 1. 12. 12.
3. testudo: cf. on 1. 32. 14 ; 4. 3. 17, ' Upon an empty tortoise
shell | He stretched some chords and drew | Music that made men's
bosom swell | Fearless, or brimmed their eyes with dew,' Lowell,
The Shepherd of King Admetus ; Gray, ' enchanting shell ' ;
Shelley, Trans. Hymn to Mercury, 5. 6. 7-9. septem : Hymn
Merc. 51 ; Pind. Pyth. 2. 70 ; Nem. 5. 24 ; Terpander, fr. 5, boasted
that he first rejected the four-stringed lyre for that of seven strings ;
Ion, fr. 3, boasts a lyre of eleven strings.
4. callida: cf. on 1. 10. 7.
5. loquax : Sappho, fr. 45, "Aye (8))) x& v 8 "* M' | ^ovdtaaa
yevoio ; Shelley, ubi supra, ' I know you will sing sweetly when
you're dead' ; Odyss. 17. 270, rjirvft. Note Latin poverty (3. 13. 15,
loquaces). Cf. AoAos, \d\ios. mine et: cf. 4. 13. 6. Elsewhere
Horace elides final et. Cf. 1. 7. 6 ; 1. 3. 19 ; 1. 9. 13 ; 1. 35. 11 ;
2. 6. 1, 2 ; 2. 13. 23 ; 2. 15. 5 ; 2. 16. 37 ; 3. 1. 39 ; 3. 3. 71 ; 3. 4.
59 ; 3. 6. 3 ; 3. 8. 27 ; 3. 26. 9 ; 3. 27. 29 ; 3. 27. 46 ; 3. 27. 22 ;
3. 29. 3 ; 3. 29. 7 ; 3. 29. 9 ; 3. 29. 49. He avoids it in the fourth
book. Cf. on 4. 6. 11.
6. mensis : 1. 32. 13 ; Odyss. 17. 270 ; Shelley, ut supra, ' King
of the dance, companion of the feast ' ; Ronsard, A Sa Lyre,
' Toy qui jadis des grands rois les viandes | Faisois trouver plus
douces et friandes.' The nurse in Eurip. Medea, 201-203, cen-
sures the custom, but II Trovatore still sweetens the viands at
the 'Grand Hotel.' templis: cf. on 1. 36. 1 ; 4. 1. 23; Dionys.
Hal. 7. 32.
9, 10. Cf. Anacr. fr. 75 ; Theog. 257 ; Eurip. Hippol. 547 ; Aris-
toph. Lysistr. 1308 ; Lucil. 30, 61 ; Ronsard, Amours de Marie,
'Mais tout ainsi qu'un beau poulain farouche,' etc. ; Tenn. Talk-
ing Oak, ' Then ran she gamesome as the colt,' etc. Cf. also on
1. 23. 1 ; 2. 5. 6 ; 3. 15. 12.
9. trima : colts were broken in fourth year (Verg. G. 3. 190).
10. exsultim : only here. Cf. exultare of horses, and Anacre-
on's ffKipTwira Troi'Cfu. metuit . . . tangi : cf. on 2. 2. 7 ; 4. 5. 20 ;
Catull. 62. 45, sic virgo, dum intacta manet.
BOOK III., ODE XI. 343
11. protervo ; cf. on 2. 5. 15 ; 'And he may be rude, and yet
I may forgive' (Lady Mary W. Montagu).
12. cruda : 2. 5. 10 ; 3. 6. 22, matura.
13. 14. Cf. on 1. 2 and 1. 12. 7 sqq. que: cf. on 1. 30. 6.
15-24. Cf. on 1. 24. 13; 2. 13. 33-40; Verg. G. 4. 510, mulcen-
tem tigres.
15. immanis : 3. 4. 43; 4. 14. 15; preferably with aulae, iani-
tor being sufficiently characterized in next strophe. Cf. Sil. 2.
552, insomnis lacrimosae ianitor anlae. For aulae, cf. on 2.
18. 31. Verg. Aen. 6. 400 has ingens ianitor; 6. 417-418, Cer-
berus . . . recubans immanis in antro. blandienti: 1. 12. 11;
1. 24. 13.
17-20. Cerberus, etc. : cf. on 2. 13. 34, belua centiceps.
17. furiale: fury-like. Cf. 2. 13. 36.
18. angues : F. Q. 1. 5. 34, ' Before the threshold dreadful Cer-
berus | His three deformed heads did lay along, | Curled with
thousand adders venomous'; Verg. Aen. 6. 419, horrere videns
iam colla colubris; Callim.fr. 161, ^x'^a'O" SaKer6v. eius:
may be made emphatically demonstrative by a comma after caput.
Cf. 4. 8. 18. But Vergil avoids the word altogether, Ovid uses it
about twice, and so some critics reject the strophe as unworthy
of Horace.
20. trilingui : 2. 19. 31 ; Verg. Aen. 6. 417, trifauci.
21. quin et: 2. 13. 37. Ixion: F. Q. 1. 5. 35, 'There was
Ixion turned on a wheel, | For daring tempt the queen of heaven
to sin' ; Find. Pyth. 2. 21 ; Soph. Philoct. 671 ; Sen. Here. Fur.
752 ; Verg. G. 4. 484, Atque Ixionii vento (cantu f) rota constitit
orbis ; Ov. Met. 10. 42, stupuitque Ixionis orbis; Tenn., 'And
stay'd the rolling Ixionian wheel'; 'Onstept the bard. Ixion's
wheel stood still' (Landor, Orpheus and Eurydice); Browning,
Ixion in Jocoseria. He is not found with Tantalus (2. 13. 37),
Sisyphus (2. 14. 20), and Tityos (2. 14. 8; 3. 4. 77; 4. 6. 2), in
Homer's Hades.
22. risit: cf. 1. 10. 12. urna: Phaedr. App. 1. 5. 10, Urnis
scelestae Danaides portant aquas \ Pertnsa nee complere possunt
dolia ; F. Q. 1. 5. 35, ' And fifty sisters water in leak vessels draw.'
This form of punishment, alluded to by Plato (Gorg. 493 B) and
Bion (Diog. Laert. 4. 7. 50), is first specifically appropriated to the
344 NOTES.
Danaids in Pseudo-Plat. Axiochus, 371 E. It appears on Italian
vases of the 3d century B.C. Moralized, Lucret. 3. 1007-1010.
25. notas : the scelus also is notum, of course.
26. lymphae : with inane, gen. 'plenty and want.'
27. dolium : Horace puts the leak in the larger jar. Cf. supra,
on urna, and the illustration hi Harper's Class. Diet. s.v. fundo :
by (way of). pereuntis: etymologically, running out by. Cf.
on 4. 4. 65. But cf. Odyss. 11. 686 (in diff. connection), vSwp CLTTU-
\eaK(To ; Lucret. 1. 250, pereunt imbres.
28. sera : cf. on 3. 2. 32 ; Verg. Aeii. 6. 569, distulit in seram
commisscC piacula mortem.
29. sub Oreo : sc. rege, editors say, citing 3. 5. 9, 2. 18. 30, on
the doubtful ground that Horace always personifies Orcus. Cf. 1.
28. 10 ; 2. 3. 24 ; 3. 4. 75 ; 3. 27. 50 ; 4. 2. 24 ; Epp. 2. 2. 178. But
virb xOov)>s, KaTet 705 (Pind. O. 2. 65) is the meaning wanted. Cf.
Aesch. Eum. 175, vn6 re yav (pvylav ov TTOT' f\evBfpovrai.
30. 31. impiae: cf. 3. 27. 49, 50. potuere : in 30 of physical
or logical, in 31 of moral, possibility er\-ri(ra.v, 'had the heart to.'
duro : Homer's /IJA. x^^v- Cf . saevis, 1. 45.
33. una : one only. Cf. Aesch. Prom. 865, piav Se TraiSwv ; Pind.
Nem. 10. 6, novAtyaQov . . . |i<pos. face: of Hymen. Cf. Milt.
L' Allegro, ' There let Hymen oft appear | In saffron robe with
taper clear.'
34. periurum : the betrothal involved a plighted faith.
35. splendide mendax : cf . Tac. Hist. 4. 50, egregio mendacio ;
Cic. pro Mil. 72, mentiri gloriose ; Aesch. fr. 301, airdrris StKaias;
Soph. Antig. 74 ; Eurip. Hel. 1633 ; Sen. Ep. 95. 30, gloriosum sce-
lus ; Tasso, Ger. Lib. 2. 22, magnanima menzogna ; Ruskin, 'splen-
did avarice' ; Tenn., 'Bright dishonour' ; 'His honour rooted in
dishonour stood,' etc. For oxymoron in Horace, cf. 1. 18. 16 ; 1.
33. 2 ; 1. 34. 2 ; 1. 22. 16 ; 1. 33. 14 ; 2. 12. 26 ; 3. 4. 5-6 ; 3. 20. 3 ;
3. 24. 59 ; 3. 5. 48 ; 3. 27. 28 ; 3. 3. 38 ; 3. 6. 44 ; 3. 8. 1 ; 3. 16. 28 ;
3. 25. 18 ; 3. 27. 25-26, etc. On the ethical question, cf. Jacobi,
cited by Coleridge ; the quaint ' Christian Horace,' published for
young Catholics at Lyons, eliminates the dangerous suggestion,
reading : digna crudelisfera iussa patris \ iure contempsit.
37. surge : Ov. Her. 14. 73, surge age, Belide, de tot modo free-
tribus unus : \ nox, tibi niproperas, ista perennis erit.
BOOK III., ODE XI. 345
38. longus somnus : cf. 1. 24. 5,perpetnns sopor; the passage
is parodied by Ausonius (Ephemeris, 18-19). For poverty of
vocab., note use of longus, 2. 14. 19 ; 4. 9. 27 ; 3. 3. 37 ; 2. 16. 30 ;
3. 27. 43 ; 3. 5. 53, etc. Or is it restraint ?
39. socerum : my father; avoid -in-iaw.
40. falle : Aa0e ; 1. 10. 16 ; postico falle clientem, Epp. 1. 5. 31,
elude. sorores : may mean cousins. Here perhaps ' the sisters,'
without, distinction of meum and tuum.
41. leaenae : as in II. 5. 161.
42. singulos : suum quaeque maritum; Aesch. Prom. 862, yw)i
yap i>5p' e/caoTov. lacerant : the lions, blending image and thing
compared as usual. For the details, cf. Ov. Her. 14. 35.
44. tenebo = retinebo.
45. In Ov. Her. 14. 3, she writes, clausa domo teneor gravibus-
que coercita vinclis. Cf. Pausan. 2. 19. 6, for her trial !
46. clemens misero : cf. on 1. 6. 9.
47. me : ' as for me, he may do his worst, I will not regret hav-
ing spared thee' ; Ov. Her. 14. 13-4, non tamen ut dicant morientia
'paenitet' 1 ora, \efficiet. extremes: 3. 10. 1; Epp. 1. 1. 45;
Catull. 11. 2.
48. classe : vyvalv &yav, II. 21. 41. releget : suggesting the
technical rclegatio, banishment.
49. pedes et aurae : an all-including formula. Cf. Epode 16.
21. Those who choose may take it literally, to the coast on foot
and then back to Aegypt by sea.
50. Venus: who prompted her to spare him (Aesch. Prom.
865), and by whose intervention she was saved in Aeschylus' lost
Dan aids, fr. 43.
51. nostri : i.e. mei, of me, as 3. 27. 14 ; TibuU. 3. 5. 31 ; 3. 2. 25.
52. querellam : in Ov. Her. 14. 128, she composes it, exul
Hypermnestra, pretium pietatis iniquum, \ quam mortem fratri
(cousin) depulit, ipsa tulit. In the age of Trajan, a Cook's
tourist, who knew her Horace, scrawled on the Pyramid of
Gizeh : et nostri memorem luctus hanc sculpo querelam.
Unlike Pindar, Horace closes with the myth, and Lyde is
forgotten.
346 NOTES.
ODE XII.
Monologue of love-lorn Neobule (the name is from Archilochus),
who cannot spin for thinking on the bright beauty of young
Hebrus, horseman, athlete, hunter.
The pure Ionic meter, one of Horace's 'metrical experiments,'
is identical with that of a line of Alcaeus preserved by Hephaes-
tion : %fi.e 5ei\av epe itaaav KO.Kord.r<av irtf\oiaav (Fr. 59).
For the theme, cf. Sappho (Fr. 90) y\vicfia fnarep oUrot 5vva.fj.ai
KpfKyv rbv larov ir69cfi Sojuetua iraiSos fipaSlvav 8i" 'A((>p65iTav ; also
Lander's pretty imitation, ' Mother, I cannot mind my wheel, | My
fingers ache, my lips are dry.' Seneca, Hippol. 104.
1. miserarum : not that she herself desires the solace of the
wine cup. She merely contrasts the narrow lot of woman with the
distractions open to men. Cf. the soliloquy of a girl in Agathias,
Anth. Pal. 5. 297. dare ludum : faintly suggests dare operam.
But dare ludum is used by Plautus in sense of humor, give free
play to, Bacch. 1082. Cf. hidere, 3. 15. 12.
2. lavere : cf. on 2. 3. 18, and eluere, 4. 12. 20. aut : or else ;
on pain of. Cf. 3. 24. 24. So ^, Plat. Theaetet. 205 A and often.
exanimari : 2. 17. 1. metuentes : the shift from the gen. to
the ace. with inf. is natural.
3. patruae : the proverbial cruel paternal uncle of the ancients.
Cf . Sat. 2. 3. 88, ne sis patruus mihi. verbera : cf. 3. 1. 29 ;
3. 27. 24. Verba and verbera were easily associated. Cf. Ter.
Heaut. 2. 3. 115, tibi erunt parata verba huic hornini verbera. But
the metaphor is a commonplace. Cf. verberari convicio. Shaks.
King John, 2. 2, 'He gives the bastinado with his tongue; | Our
ears are cudgelled.' Tarn. Shrew, 1. 2, 'And do you tell me of a
woman's tongue, That gives not half so great a blow to the ear ? '
4. tibi: she addresses herself, as often in monologue. Cf.
Catull. 8. 1, and examples in Orelli. Some less aptly make the
poet the speaker throughout. ales: i.e. alatus; Love is so
represented in the oldest works of art. Cf. ' The first born love
out of his cradle leapt | And clove dun chaos with his wings of
gold' (Shelley, Witch of Atlas, 32, after Aristoph. Birds, 697).
5. Operosae Minervae : Athena tpyavri. ' But farther : Athena
BOOK III., ODE XIII. 347
presides over industry as well as battle ; typically over women's
industry, that brings comfort with pleasantness.' Ruskin, Queen
of the Air. Cf. Moore, ' Thus, girls, would you keep quiet hearts, |
Your snowy fingers must be nimble : | The safest shield against
the darts | Of Cupid is Minerva's thimble.'
6. Liparaei : the specific local epithet merely individualizes. Cf.
on 1. 27. 10. Lipara was a small volcanic island off the north
coast of Sicily. Cf. Arnold, ' To Aetna's Liparaean sister fires.'
There is a possible suggestion of \nrap6s, sleek, shining. nitor
Hebri : with puer the subject of aufert. Love, the lover, and the
lover's bright beauty are 'all one reckoning.' nitor: 1. 19. 5;
Anth. Pal. 16. 77, /jiapnapvyfiv. Hebrus is a river in Thrace.
7. simul (ac) . . . lavit: closely with nitor rather than with
eques, which is better taken in opposition with nitor Hebri =
Hebrus. unctos : cf. 1. 8. 8. Sat. 2. 1. 7, ter uncti \ transnanto
Tiberim somno quibus est opus alto. Cf. the trr-tiffta <n'i\$ovra.
which took the maiden's eyes in Theoc. 2. 79 ; note lavit. Tibe-
rinis : Roman details with Greek names, as often.
8. eques: cf. on 3. 7. 25. Bellerophonte : from n. Bellero-
phontes. Cf. 3. 7. 15.
9. segni pede i.e. because of sloth of foot. Cf. nulla . . . fuga
segnis equorum ; Verg. Aen. 10. 592. Some equivalent of segni is
implied with pugno.
10-11. catus: 1. 10. 3. idem: 2. 10. 22; 2. 19. 27.-^per
apertum : across the open. agitato . . . grege : with fu gient es.
celer : with inf. 1. 15. 18.
11-12. arto . . . fruticeto: deep covert. Homer's $v AC*XMJ
Ttvxivri. Odyss. 19. 439.
12. excipere : sc. venabulo, or absolutely of lying in wait to
take something. Cf. Epp. 1. 1. 79; Verg. Eel. 3. 18.
ODE XIII.
A mediaeval document mentions a fans Bandusinus near Hor-
ace's birthplace, Venusia, and tradition or Horace himself may
have transferred the name to the fons rivo dare nomen idoneus
(Epp. 1. 16. 12 ; cf. Sat. 2. 6. 2) on his Sabine estate.
348 NOTES.
There is an interesting description of the locality, together with
an account of the theories of antiquarians, in Ancient Classics for
English Readers, 'Horace.' Of. Epode 1. 31, 32. n.
The occasion of the poem may have been the festival of the Fon-
tanalia, October 13, when, according to Varro, L. L. 6. 22, et in
fontes coronas iaciunt et puteos coronant. Cf. Ruskin, Aratra.
Pentel. 88, for this feeling of the ancients; also 1. 1. 22. It has
been a general favorite. Cf. Sellar, p. 187. Cf. Dobson's version
as a Rondeau ; Ronsard, A la Fontaine Bellerie ; Warton in John-
son's Poets, 18. 99; ibid. 167 ; Beattie, ibid. 18. 559; Wordsworth,
River Duddon, 1, ' Not envying Latian shades if yet they throw |
A grateful coolness round that crystal spring, | Blandusia, prattling
as when long ago | The Sabiiie Bard was moved her praise to sing.'
1. Bandusiae : possibly a corruption of navdotrla. Nymph and
fount blend as in Pindar. vitro: cf. on 1. 18. 16; 4. 2. 3. Ov.
Met. 13. 791 has splendidior vitro of Galatea. Cf. Verg. Aen. 7.
759. Lucret. 4. 211 has splendor aquai.
2. The wine was poured into the fountain with the flowers.
Cf. Varro, supra. non sine : 1. 23. 3.
4. cui irons : 'A qui 1'une et 1'autre corne | Sortent du front
nouvelet' (Ronsard). For the description of the victim, cf. 3. 22.
7 ; 4. 2. 55.
5. destinat : marks him for, presages.
6. 7. frustra : cf . 3. 7. 21 ; the nequicquam of ruthless destiny
in Lucretius and Vergil. gelidos and rubro : suggest as ' com-
plementary colors ' calido and limpidos. Cf. 2. 3. 9.
6. inficiet: cf. 3. 6. 34. For the practice, cf. II. 23. 148, ts
7r)7as ; Ov. Fast. 3. 300 ; Martial, 6. 47, where a porca is offered.
8. lascivi: 3. 15. 12.
9-12. Cf. Wordsworth, Near the spring of the Hermitage, ' Parch-
ing Summer hath no warrant | To consume this crystal well ' ; Proc-
tor, Inscript. for a Fount., 'Whosoe'er shall wander near | When
the Syrian heat is worst, | Let him hither come nor fear | Lest he
may not slake his thirst' ; Ronsard, 'Ton ombre est espaisse ei
drue | Aux pasteurs venans des pares, | Aux boeufs las de la char-
rue, | Et au bestial espars' ; cf. Anth. Pal. 16. 228.
9. bora: season (Epp. 1. 16. 16); A. P. 302, sub verni temporis
BOOK III., ODE XIV. 349
horarn. Caniculae: cf. on 1. 17. 17 ; 3. 29. 18 ; ' L'ardeur de la
canicule | Tou verd rivage ne brule' (Ronsard).
10. frigus: i.e. cool shade. Cf. 3. 29. 21 ; Verg. Eel. 1. 52, hie,
inter flumina nota \ etfontis sacros, frigus captabis opacum.
11, 12. fessis . . . vago : cf. Ronsard, supra.
13. nobilium : one 'of those we read about.' 'Such,' says
Nauck naively, ' were Arethusa, Castalia, Dirce, Hippocrene, and
is now near Schulpforte die Klopstocksquelle.'
14. me: et me fecere poetam \ Pierides is Horace's feeling.
impositam : 4. 14. 12. For the picture, cf. on 3. 25. 10.
15. unde : cf. II. 2. 307, Sflec, etc. loquacea: Anth. Pal. 16.
13. 3, Kax\dovffiv . . . va^aai. Cf. Leigh Hunt, Rimini, 'There
gushed a rill | Whose low sweet talking seemed as if it said | Some-
thing eternal to that happy shade ' ; Words., ' Or when the prattle
of Blandusia's spring j Haunted his ear, he only listening' ; Ron-
sard, ' L'eau de ta source jazarde | Qui trepillante se suit.' The
' prattle ' is perhaps suggested by the repeated i's. Contrast taci-
turnus amnis (1. 31. 8).
16. desiliunt : cf. Epode 16. 48.
ODE XIV.
The conquering hero returns. Go forth to greet him, Livia,
Octavia, and ye mothers and brides of our young soldiers. I too
will celebrate the glad day, fearing nought while Caesar rules the
world. Go, page. Fetch chaplets and old wine and bid Neaera
join me. If the surly'porter will not admit you give it up. Yet
I had not been so patient in my hot youth when Plancus was consul.
In honor of the return of Augustus, B.C. 24, from an absence of
three years in the West, where he had been engaged in subduing
the Cantabrians and settling the affairs of the Provinces. For
some months before his return he had been ill at Tarraco, and
much anxiety had been felt at Rome (Dio, 53. 25). He declined a
formal triumph (Justin. 2. 53). For the theme, cf. 4. 2 and 4. 5.
1. Herculis : cf. 3. 3. 9. n. For the comparison with Augustus,
cf. 3. 3. 9 ; 4. 5. 36 ; Verg. Aen. 6. 802. Hercules too had re-
turned victor from Spain. plebs : the people generally ; not in
its special political sense.
350 NOTES.
2. morte venalem : cf. emit morte immortalitatem, Quintil. 9.
3. 71; Aesch. in Ctes. 160; Isoc. 6. 109; Verg. Aen. 5. 230; 9.
206 ; Find. Pyth. 6. 39 ; ' He came and bought with price of purest
breath | A grave among the eternal ' (Shelley, Adonais, 7); Hen. VI.,
2. 3. 1, ' Or sell my title for a glorious grave.' venalem . 2. 16. 7.
3-4. Hispana . . . ora : the west coast of Spain. Cf. 3. 8. 21.
5. unico: cf. 1. 26. 5 ; 2. 18. 14. It suggests unice amare, etc.
He is her all in all. Others take it peerless, comparing Catull. 29.
11, unice imperator. mulier: the empress Livia. See Merivale,
3. 218 ; 4. 124.
6. operata : the present and past force of this part, need hardly
be distinguished. She has been and is engaged in the religious
offices of the day. Cf. Lex. s.v. Some read divis for sacris.
1. soror: Octavia. et decorae : cf. 1. 10. 3; 2. 16. 6.
8. supplice vitta : there was probably a supplicatio in place of
the declined triumph. This special vitta may have been something
more elaborate than that ordinarily worn by free-born women.
9-12. The stanza seems to be either carelessly composed or cor-
rupt. If virginum and puellae both refer to the wives of the
young soldiers, as by linguistic usage they may (cf. 3. 22. 2 ; 2. 8.
23), the emphatic repetition and antithesis with matres are awk-
ward. Moreover, pueri et puellae is the standing phrase for un-
wedded youth. Bentley reads non virum expertae, which gives
three classes : the matrons, the young soldiers and their wives,
and the boys and girls.
10. aospitum : 1. 36. 4. It is felt with virginum also.
11-12. male ominatis : to cure the hiatus nominatis a sup-
posed equivalent of Suffcavi/nots is read in some Mss. Bentley con-
jectured inominatis (Epode 16. 38), male being intensive (1. 9. 24).
parcite : cf. Ep. 17. 6. The meaning is favete linguis (3. 1. 2).
13 sqq. The poet shares the public rejoicing. Cf. 1. 37 ; 4. 2.
45; Epode 9. 1. vere : with/esiws, which is taken predicatively.
Cf. 3. 8. 9. atras : 3. 1. 40 ; 4. 11. 35.
14. tumultum : cf. on 4. 4. 47.
15. metuam: with inf. 2. 2. 7; 4. 5. 20. tenente : 3. 17. 8.
For the thought, cf. 4. 15. 17, and Nux Elegeia, 143, sed neque
tolluntur nee dum regit omnia Caesar, \ incolumis tanto praeside
raptor erit.
BOOK III., ODE XV. 351
17 sqq. Cf. the sudden orders for the carouse in 2. 3. 13 ;
2. 11. 17; 3. 19. 9. puer: cf. 1. 19. 14.
18. cadum: 3. 29. 2 ; 4. 11. 2. Marsi: the Marsic or Social
War, B.C. 90-89. Spartacus and his gladiators (Epode 1G. 5)
plundered Italy in 73-71. Cf. Juv. 5. 31, calcatamque tenet bellis
socialibus uvam (dives'). Sir Thomas Browne, Urne Burial, 'The
draughts of consulary date were but crude unto these ' ; Tenn.
' Whether the vintage, yet unkept, | Had relish fiery-new, | Or,
elbow-deep in sawdust, slept, | As old as Waterloo.' Cf. also
Martial, 3. 62. 2 ; 7. 79. 1.
19. si qua : if haply. Cf. Verg. Aen. 1. 18, si qua fata sinunt.
21. die . . . properet: cf. Epp. 1. 7. 60, die \ ad coenam
veniat. argutae : \iyia, 4. 6. 25. n. Neaerae : borrowed per-
haps from Parthenius. Cf. Gildersleeve, A. J. P. 18. 1, p. 122.
Cf. Milton, Lycidas, 'Or with the tangles of Neaera's hair.' For
the motif, cf. 2. 11. 21.
22. murreum : as fragrant as myrrh, rather than chestnut. Cf.
Lex.
25. lenit: cf. Epp. 2. 2. 211, lenior et melior fis accedente
senecta ? The line was quoted by Fox on a famous occasion.
albescens: Horace was forty-one, but prematurely gray, prae-
canus; Epp. 1. 20. 24. Cf. Anth. Pal. 11. 25, -fi owrH) Kpor<i<t>tav
awTfTai rifierfpcav.
26. protervae : 2.5.15.
27. nonego: 2. 7. 26; 2. 17. 9; 2. 20. 5. ferrem: for tense,
cf. on 1. 2. 22 ; Ennius, Medea, nam numquam era errans mea
domo ecferret pedem.
28. L. Munatius Plancus was consul in B.C. 42, the year of the
campaign of Philippi. The fever in Horace's blood has cooled with
that in the body politic.
ODE XV.
The unpleasant theme of 1.25; 4. 13 ; Epode 8: Turpe senilis
(still more anilis) amor.
2. nequitiae: technical. Cf. 3. 4. 78 ; Propert. 1. 6. 26. fige
modum : the forcible word fige suits the impatience of tandem.
Cf. 1. 16. 2 ; 1. 24. 1.
352 NOTES.
3. famosis : in bad sense. Cf . Epp. 2. 3. 469, where it is neutral
or ironical. laboribus : love is 'sweating labor' for her as it
was for Cleopatra, Anth. and Cle. 1. .3.
4. maturo : her death would not be immatura.
6. inter: cf. 3. 3. 37 ; 3. 27. 51. ludere : 4. 13. 4. So irai^v.
6. nebulam: 'Nor fling thy hideous shadow o'er | Their pure
and starry graces' (Martin).
7. non si: cf. 4. 9. 5 ; 2. 10. 17. Pholoen: 2. 5. 17 ; 1. 33. 7.
satis: 1. 13. 13. She may more fitly sport, hers is the lasciva
decentius aetas ; Epp. 2. 2. 216.
8. filia: i.e. Pholoe.
9. expugnat: in the revel or comus, reversing the relation of
3. 26. 7. To prove it possible editors quote Sen. Praef. Nat. Quaest.
4. 6. They might as well quote Congreve, Double-Dealer, 1.1.
10. pulso: cf. on 2. 4. 10. Thyias: cf. on 2. 19. 9; Horn.
Hym. Cer. 387. tympano : 1. 18. 14.
12. lascivae: cf. 3. 13. 8, and Epp. 2. 2. 216, cited on line 7.
similem : so 1. 23. 1.
13-14. Spinning is the fit occupation of the old woman. Cf.
Tibull. 1. 6. 77. The wool of Luceria in Apulia was celebrated
(nobilis). Cf. Plin. N. H. 8. 190.
15. flos rosae : cf. 3. 29. 3; 4. 10. 4. purpureus : cf. on
4. 1. 10.
16. poti : pass, with cadi ; 4. 13. 5, active. vetulam : with te.
Cf. 4. 13. 25. Note the effectiveness of reserving it to the end.
faece terms: anb rpvybs, h rpv-ya, cumfaece, 1. 35. 27.
ODE XVI.
The myth of Danae as a symbol of the power of gold and a
preface to moralizing on the superior happiness of contented com-
petency. Cf. 2. 2 ; 2. 16 ; 3. 1.
Acrisius, king of Argos, fearing the fulfillment of an oracle that
his grandson should slay him, shut up his daughter Danae from all
suitors. But Jupiter found access to her in a shower of gold, and
she became the mother of Perseus.
Cf. 11. 14. 319 (where there is no brazen tower) ; Apollod. 2. 4 ;
BOOK III., ODE XVI. 353
Pausan. 2. 23. 7 ; Simon, fr. 37 (the exquisite lament of Danae);
Find. Pyth. 12. 16 ; Is. 6. (7) 5 ; Jebb on Soph. Antig. 945 ; The
fragments of Naevius' Danae ; Ter. Eun. 585-590 ; Spenser, F. Q.
3. 11. 31 ; Herrick, 284, 15; 298, etc. ; John Fletcher, ' Danae in
a brazen tower | Where no love was loved a shower ' ; Prior, An
English Padlock, ' Miss Danae when fair and young | (As Horace
has divinely sung) | Could not be kept from Jove's embrace | By
doors of steel and walls of brass.'
Cf. also Correggio's Danae, and Tennyson's beautiful line, ' Now
lies the earth all Danae to the stars.' The conceits of Cowley's
quaint and subtle paraphrase of this ode are interesting (Essays,
Of Avarice).
Horace's cynical interpretation of the myth seems to have been
a commonplace. Cf . Anth. Pal. 5. 31. 6 ; 5. 33 ; 5. 217 ; Ovid,
Amores, 3. 8. 33 ; Petronius, Le Maire Poetae Minores, 2. 120 ;
Find. fr. 2G9.
1. inclusam : ichen Danae was shut. turrisaenea: foraenea,
cf. on 3. 3. 65. But the prehistoric (Mycenaean) bronze-plated
walls may be meant. Cf. Soph. Antig. 946, tv x x ' )5e ' Ta '* av\ais ;
Ov. Am. 2. 19. 27, si numquam Danaen habuisset aenea turris;
Herrick, 298, ' Rosamund was in a bower | Kept as Danae in a
tower ' ; id. 284, ' It be with Rock, or Walles of Brass | Ye Towre
her up, as Danae was.'
2. robustae: of oak. Cf. 1. 3. 9; 2. 13. 19 (?).
3. tristes : surly, grim. Cf. Propert. 2. 6. 39 ; Ov. A. A. 3. 601,
trirtis ciistodia servi. excubiae : 4. 13. 8 ; Verg. Aen. 9. 159.
munierant : cf. on 2. 17. 28, they had and would still have si non.
4. adulteris : 1. 33. 9. n.
5. si non : 3. 24. 34.
6. pavidum : he feared the oracle, like Pelias in Find. Pyth.
4. 97.
7-8. risissent : ' But Venus laughed to see and hear him sleep ! '
(Cowley). fore enim. etc. : their thought in indirect disc. Cf.
Verg. Aen. 1. 444 ; F. Q. 3. 11. 31, 'Vain was the watch, and bootless
all the ward, | Whenas the god to golden hue himself transfar'd.'
The unpicturesque pretntm, perhaps the best word his vocabulary
supplied (cf. 3. 19. 5 ; 3. 24. 24 ; 4. 8. 12), serves Horace to intro-
2A
354 NOTES.
duce the rationalization of the myth. Cf. Ov. Am. 3. 8. 33 ;
Marlowe, Ed. 2. 3. 3, 'like the guard | That suffered Jove
to pass in showers of gold | To Danae.' deo: probably
dative.
9. aurum, etc. : that ' every door is barred with gold and opens
but to golden keys ' has always been a commonplace. Cf. Pind.
fr. 222; Shaks., 'saint-seducing gold'; Menander's, xP uff bs 5'
avoiyei na.vra. Kal adov irv\as. satellites : Cf. 2. 18. 34.
10. amat: gaudet and solet. Cf. 2. 3. 10. n. perrumpere:
cf. on 1. 3. 36. saxa : walls of stone ?
11-12. ictu : cf. on 1. 8. 9. auguris Argivi : Amphiaraus,
whose wife Eriphyle was bribed by Polynices with the necklace of
Harmonia to constrain her husband to join the expedition of the
Seven against Thebes, in which he met a foreseen death. Their
son, Alcmaeon, slew Eriphyle to avenge his father, and was
haunted by the furies of his mother, like Orestes. The ' house '
was thus like that of Pelops (1. 6. 8), a theme of tragedy. Cf.
Ody. 11. 326-327; Plato, Rep. 590 A; Apollod. 3. 6; Ov. Met.
9. 406; Stat. Theb. 2. 267; Arnold, Frag, of an Antigone, 'nor
... his beloved Argive seer would Zeus retain \ From his ap-
pointed end ' ; Frazer, Pausanias, III. 608, 5. 30.
13. demersa : possibly a hint of Amphiaraus' end, swallowed
up by the earth (Pind. O. 6. 16). exitio: 1. 16. 17. diftidit:
with bribes, as with the cleaving ax or thunder-bolt. urbium :
as Potidaea, Olynthus, Amphipolis.
14. vir Macedo : Milton's 'Macedonian Philip'; Demosthe-
nes' MaKfS&v avfy (Phil. 1. 10). For his briberies, cf. Plut.
Aem. Paul. 12; Juv. 12. 47, callidus emptor Olynthi; his saying
that any fortress could be taken that could be reached by an ass
laden with gold, Cic. ad Alt. 1. 16. The oracle of Delphi bade him
'fight with silver spears.' submit: undermined.
14, 15. aemulos . . . reges: his rivals for the throne of Mace-
don (Diodor. 16. 3), and others.
15. munera : Ov. A. A. 3. 653, munera, crede mihi, capiunt
hominesque deosque. Hence Spenser, F. Q. 5. 2. 9, quaintly per-
sonifies munera (as if fern, sing.) as daughter of Pollente, ' Her
name is Munera, agreeing with her deeds.' Note resumption of
aurum (1. 10) by lucrum, munera, and pecuniam.
BOOK III., ODE XVI. 355
15, 16. navium . . . duces : possibly an allusion to Menodorus
or Menas, the faithless admiral of Sextus Pompey. Cf. Dio, 48.
45 ; Suet. Oct. 74 ; Epode 4 ; Shaks. Ant. and Cle. 2. 7. With the
whole, cf. Andrew Lang's Ballade of Worldly Wealth, ' Money
taketh town and wall | Fort and ramp without a blow.'
17. crescentem, etc.: but for all its power, the sage will desire
it in moderation. Cf. 2. 2 ; 2. 16. 9-12 ; 2. 18. 12 ; 3. 1. 47 ; 3. 24.
1-5 ; 3. 29. 56-60.
18. maiorum : neuter. fames: cf. Epp. 1. 18. 23; Vergil's
aim sacra fames (Aen. 3. 57); Odes 2. 2. 13; 3. 24. 63; Juv. 14.
139, crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crevit; Theoc. 16.
64. perhorrui: airtpptya. So Emerson often states his counsels
of perfection in the first person indie.
19. conspicuum : proleptic. tollere verticem: 1. 18. 15.
20. Maecenas: an example of sage restraint. Cf. on 1. 1. 1,
1. 20. 5, and Propert. 4. 8. 2.
21-22. plura : in worldly goods. plura: in real goods.
23. castra, etc. : the image of the two camps may have been
suggested by Grantor's famous comparison of wealth and virtue.
Cowley ingeniously expands, ' From towns and courts, camps of
the rich and great, | The vast Xerxean army, I retreat, | And to
the small Laconic forces fly | Which hold the straits of poverty.'
nudus: i.e. unincumbered by the impedimenta of riches. Cf.
the philosopher's boast, omnia mea mecum porto ; Job 1. 21,
' Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return
thither.'
25. contemptae : despised by the millionnaire. Cf. Cic. Para-
dox, 6. 47, meam pecuniam contemnis, etc. splendidior : in the
eyes of the sage who uses words rightly (2. 2. 19).
26. arat : i.e. the produce of the plow. For quantity, cf. 1.3.
36. n. impiger: cf. Epode 2. 42. For fertility of Apulia see
Strabo, 6. 284. But any other name would serve.
27. occultare : i.e. condere, 1. 1. 9. meis: so proprio, 1. 1. 9.
Cf. mea in the periphrasis for riches, Epode 1. 26. dicerer :
wealth so great as to be a theme of rumor.
28. inter opes inops : oxymoron arising from the contrast of
the popular and the philosophic point of view. Cf. Epp. 2. 18. 98,
semper inops . . . cupido ; 1. 2. 56, semper avarus eget ; Claud, in
356 NOTES.
Ruf. 1. 200, semper inops quicumque mpit; Herrick, 106, 'Those
who have the itch | Of craving more are never rich.'
29. rivus, etc. : see the descriptions of his own farm, Epp. 1.
16. 12 ; 1. 18. 104 ; 1. 14. 1 ; and Odes, 1. 22. 9.
30. fides: cf. 3. 1. 30. n. ; Lucan, 1. 647.
31. 32. 7s a truer happiness than the glittering lot of the lord of
fertile Africa, though he knows it not; lit., escapes him (his notice)
(being) happier in lot, in imitation of the Greek \av6dfti bx&uLrfpov
*ov. The want of bv makes the Latin awkward. The great procon-
sul of Africa may be meant. Cf. sors Asiae, the proconsulship of
Asia (Tac. Ann. 3. 58). But fertilis and the context make 'lord
of great African estates ' more probable. Cf . Sat. 2. 3. 87 ; Odes,
2. 2. 10-12 ; Anth. Pal. 5. 31. 6.
33-36. Cf. 1. 31. 5. n. ; 2. 16. 33 sqq. n.
33. Calabrae . . . apes : 2. 6. 14 ; 4. 2. 27(?).
34. Laestrygoiiia : Formian. Cf. on 3. 17 and 1. 20. 11.
35. languescit: mellows (3. 21. 8, languidiora vinci). pin-
guia : the Greek could say 5affufj.a\\ot. Gallicis : Cisalpine Gaul,
renowned for fine white wool (Pliny, N. H. 8. 190).
37. importuiia : (4. 13. 9) the pinch of poverty, distressful pov-
erty. Cf. Epp. 2. 2. 199, immunda pauperies. Not the 8ei\}] or
ouAojUfVrj irevii) of Theogn. 351, Hes. Theog. 593. Poverty in itself
Horace commends (1. 12. 43 ; 3. 2. 1 ; 3. 29. 56).
38. Cf. 2. 18. 12 ; Epode 1. 31.
39. contracto, etc. : cf. 2. 2. 9 ; Plato, Laws, 736 E ; Lucret.
5. 1118 ; Cowley, 'The most gentlemanly manner of obliging him,
which is not to add anything to his estate, but to take something
from his desires ' (after Epicurus); Sen. Epist. 21. 7; Min. Felix,
36. 5, omnia si non concupiscimus possidemus.
40. vectigalia : Sat. 2. 2. 100, ego vectigalia magna divitiasque
habeo ; Cic. Paradox. 6. 49, qitam magnum vectlgal sit parsimonia.
Cf. Hamlet's use of ' revenues.' porrigam: Sen. Epist. 89. 20,
quousque arationes vestras porrigetis.
41. quam si: 2. 2. 10. Mygdoniis: Phrygian, 2. 12. 22.
Alyattei : Bentley's reading of the hopelessly confused Mss.
Horace's readers would think of Croesus, recalling Herod. 1. 6 :
'Croesus was a Lydian and son of Alyattes.' Cf. Croesi regia
Sardes (Epp. 1. 11. 2). The longer sonorous name helps the
BOOK HI., ODE XVII. 357
meter. Cf. on 1. 17. 22-23. Bacchyl. 5. 40, 'A\v<i[r]Ta. SJ/w.
For form of gen., cf. 1. 6. 7.
42. campis : preferably dat. continuem : Livy, 34. 4 has
ingens cupido agros continuandi ; Isaiah 5. 8, 'Woe unto them
that join house to house, that lay field to field.'
43. bene est : almost colloquial. Cf. Epist. 1. 1. 89 ; Catull.
14. 10 ; 38. 1, male est; Cowley, ' Thrice happy he | To whom the
wise indulgency of Heaven, | With sparing hand but just enough
has given.'
44. quod satis est : 3. 1. 25.
ODE XVII.
To L. Aelius Lamia, the friend of 1. 26, and probably the con-
sul of A.D. 2. Under the empire the Lamiae became types of
ancient nobility. Cf. Juv. Sat. 4. 154 ; 6. 385. Lamia appar-
ently is at his seaside villa. Horace playfully traces his friend's
pedigree back to Homer's cannibal king Lamos, and bids him, since
a storm is brewing, get in his firewood and prepare to ' loaf and
invite his soul.'
2. quando motivates duds. Since all the Lamiae are descended
from Lamos, you too must derive your lineage from the founder
of Formiae (which Cicero, ad Att. 2. 13, identifies with Homer's
Laestrygonia ; Odyss. 10. 82); the parenthesis ends with tyrannus,
1. 9. hinc: cf. unde (1. 12. 17); hinc (Verg. Aen. 1. 21).
4-5. fastos : cf. on 4. 14. 4. Here (family) records. They do
not appear in the consular fasti till A.D. 2. auctore: cf. 1.
2. 36. n.
7. innantem : the quiet Liris (1. 31. 7) near its mouth over-
flows in marshes at Minturnae, where the Italian nymph Marica
(sometimes identified with Circe) was worshiped.
9. late tyrannus : tvpvKpfiwv. Cf. Verg. Aen. 1. 21, late regem;
Epp. 1. 11. 26 ; Pliny, Epp. 3. 5, latissime victor.
10. inutlli : cf. on 3. 24. 48. Here proverbially worthless. Cf.
vilior alga (Sat. 2. 5. 8 ; Verg. Eel. 7. 42).
12. aquae . . . augur : vfro^avr^. Cf. 3. 27. 10 ; Lucret. 5.
1086 = Verg. G. 1. 388. ster.iit: bestrew. Cf. 4. 14. 32.
358 NOTES.
13. annosa: cf. 4. 13. 25; lies. fr. 183; A rat. Phaen. 1022;
Lucret. 5. 1084. Tennyson's ' many-wintered crow ' ; Bryant's
' century -living crow.'
14. geiiium : the ghost, spiritual double, inner animistic self,
birth-spirit, or guardian angel of anything. Under the influence
of the Platonic doctrine of the Daimon or Guardian Angel and
higher self, this conception of the popular Roman religion was
deeply moralized in later literature and poetry. Cf. Plato, Tim.
90 A; Rep. 619 E ; Boissier, Religion Romaine, Vol. II., p. 145;
Schmidt, Ethik der Griechen, 1. 153; Hor. Kpp. 1. 7. 94 ; 2. 2. 187 ;
2. 1. 144 ; 2. 3. 210 ; Petron. 62 ; Ter. Phorm. 44 ; Pers. Sat. 2. 3 ;
F. Q. 2. 12. 47-48; Shaks. Jul. Caes. 2. 1, 'The genius and the
mortal instruments ' ; Ant. and Cleop. 2. 3, with Macbeth, 3. 1 ;
Matthew Arnold, Palladium, Scholar-Gipsy, ' To the just-pausing
genius we remit | Our well-worn life, and are what we have been ' ;
Mrs. Browning, Son. fr. Port. 42, 'my ministering life-angel.' Phrases
like indulge, care for, propitiate your genius, etc., were used collo-
quially like our ' be good to yourself,' ' invite your soul,' etc.
15. bimestri : see Lex. ; bimenstri is perhaps better.
16. operum solutis : cf. on 2. 9. 17 ; 3. 27. 69. For solutus
with abl., cf. Sat. 1. 6. 129.
ODE XVIII.
To Faunus, guardian of the flocks. The Faunalia occurred on
the 13th of February (Ov. Fast. 2. 193). Horace here seems to
speak of a local festival in December. Cf. 1. 17. 1-8.
There is a charm in the Epicurean poet's kindly affectation of
sympathy with the rustic faith of his neighbors. Cf. on 3. 23 ; also
the beautiful lines of Lucret. 4. 580 sqq. ; Probus ad Verg. G.
1. 10, Eusticis persuasum est incolentibus earn partem Italiae quae
suburbana est saepe eos (sc. Faunos) in ayris conspici ; Herrick,
Hesp. 106, ' While Faunus in the Vision comes to keep, | From
rav'ning wolves the fleecie sheep ' ; Ronsard, Pour Helene : ' Faunes,
qui habitez ma terre paternelle, | Qui menez sur le Loir vos dances
et vos tours, | Favorisez la plante et lui donnez secours, | Que 1'este"
ne la brusle et 1'hyver ne la gelle.'
There is a translation by Warton, Johnson's Poets, 18. 99.
BOOK III., ODE XVIII. 359
1. amator : by identification with the Greek Pan (1. 17. 2). Cf.
Ov. Met. 1. 701 sqq. ; Shelley's Pan, ' Singing how down the vale
of Maenalus I pursued a maiden ' ; Thomas Warton, Hecatom-
pathia, ' If country Pan might follow nymphs in chase ' ; Brown-
ing, The Bishop orders his Tomb : ' Those Pans and nymphs ye
wot of.' For ' Dan Faunus ' as lover of the nymphs, cf. F. Q. 2. 2. 7.
3. Note chiastic order. lends : Pan's wrath was dreaded
(Theoc. 1. 16).
4. alumnis : yeanlings, tender young. Cf. 3. 23. 7.
5. si : the purely formal condition in prayers. pleno : exacto
(3. 22. 6) ; redeunte (3. 8. 9). cadit : as a victim, sc. tibi.
6. Veneris sodali : Pan is often associated with Aphrodite in
Gk. art. But to separate sodali from craterae would be very
harsh, and the bowl may be personified as Venus' mate on the
principle Sine Libe.ro et Cerere friget Venus. Cf. Aristoph. fr.
490, oii/os "AcppoS/TTjy yd\a.
7-8. vetus : possibly an old altar which Horace found on the
estate. Note the asyndeton. multo . . . odore : cf. 1. 30. 3,
multo ture.
9-16. The suggested image of the festival develops into a descrip-
tion. Cf. the festival of Anna Perenna (Ov. Fast. 3. 523 sqq.).
10. tibi : emphatic ; thy.
12. pagus : Mandela, now Bandela. Cf. Ov. Fast. 1. 669, pagus
agat festum.
13. audaces : Shelley's ' dreadless kid.' Faunus is conceived
as Lupercus qui lupos arcet.
14. spargit : the December 'fall of the leaf (Epode 11. 5,
December . . . silvis honorem decutit) is by a pretty personifica-
tion taken as a <pv\\o&o\ia, in honor of the god. Cf. Pind. Pyth.
9. 134, 'Many the leaves and wreaths they showered on him ' ;
Verg. Eel. 5.' oO ; Tenn. Princess, ' Shall strip a hundred hollows
bare of spring | To rain an April of ovation round.'
15. invisam : because of the toil she exacts. pepulisse : cf.
1. 4. 7 ; 1. 37. 2; and, for the tense, 1. 1. 4 ; 3. 4. 52. fossor:
delver, slave working in chains on great estates (Martial, 9. 22. 4).
Here, generally, peasant.
16. Note the adaptation of sound to sense, and cf. the rustic
jollity in Lucret. 5. 1401-2, atque extra numerum procedere
360 NOTES.
membra moventes \ duriter et duro terrain pede pellere matrem.
ter : cf. tripudinm. Cf. 4. 1. 28 ; sen cantare iuvat sen ter pede
laeta ferire \ gramina (carmina?) nullus obest sings the shepherd
in Calpuruius, Eclog. 4. 128.
ODE XIX.
' You prate of Inachus and ancient history,' Horace cries to a
learned prosy friend, ' when the question is what brand of Chian
shall we procure, and at whose house shall we dine together to-
night.' Then, transferring himself in imagination to the carouse,
he takes the chair as arbiter bibendi, gives out toasts, orders the
mixing of the wine and water, and bids them wake the echoes till
envious old January, ill-mated with beauteous May next door,
hears their revelry.
Or we may conceive the whole scene, the inopportune antiquarian
talk and the jovial interruption, to take place at the banquet.
If the Murena of 1. 11 is the Murena of 2. 10, the date can hardly
be later than his conspiracy against Augustus, B.C. 23 (Veil. 2. 91 ;
Suet. Octav. 19. 66 ; Sen. de Clem. 9 ; Dio, 54. 3).
1. distet: chronologically. Inacho : cf. on 2. 3. 21; F. Q. 2.
9. 56, ' The wars he well remembered of King Nine, | Of old As-
saracus and Inachus divine.'
2. Codrus : semi-mythical last king of Athens. In war with
Dorians he provoked his own death because of prophecy that the
enemy would win if they spared the life of the Athenian king (Cic.
Tusc. 1. 116). timidus: so 4. 9. 52.
3. narras : colloquial, almost slangy, like French 'Qu'est-ce que
tu chantes ? ' The lexicons do not bring this out. Cf. Sat. 1. 9.
52 ; 2. 7. 5 ; Martial, 3. 46. 7 ; 4. 61. 16 ; 3. 63. 13 ; 4. 37. 6 ; 8. 17. 3,
etc.; Propert. 3. 7. 3 ; Petron. Sat. 44 ; Sen. de Morte Cl. 6 ; Per-
sius, 1. 81, quid dia poemata narrent, where this force is necessary
to the point. genus Aeaci : Zeus, Aeacus, Peleus, Achilles, Ne-
optolemus, Telamon, Ajax, and Teucer.
4. pugnata . . . bella: cf. on 4. 9. 19; Epp. 1. 16. 25, beUa tibi
terra pugnata mariqne. sacro: *IA<OS Irf. For gender, see 1. 10. 14.
. 6-7. Apparently the feast is to be a ffvfj.Bo\-fi, where each con-
BOOK III., ODE XIX. 361
tributes his part and one lends his house and. provides the hot water.
A Chian cask = a cask of Chian. Cf. Sabina diota, 1.9.7. The
Chian was prized. Cf. Epode 9. 34 ; Mrs. Browning, Wine of Cy-
prus, 7, ' Go ! let others praise the Chian.'
6. aquam temperet : perhaps for the bath ; perhaps, since it
is cold, for the wine. Sat. 1. 4. 88, qui praebet aquam is the host.
7. praebente domum : in Sat. 2. 8. 36 he is playfully called
parochus, the purveyor. quota: sc. hora.
8. Paelignis : the Paeligni, high in the Apennines, were prover-
bially cold (Ov. Fast. 4. 81). taces : what you speak-of you can
be-silent^of. Cf. 4. 9. 31.
9. da: sc. cyathos, vinum. lunae : gen. of toast. Cf. 3.8.
13; Anth. Pal. 3. 136; 5. 110; 5. 137; Theoc. 14. 18. novae:
the month was originally lunar, and the Kalends would be conven-
tionally the new moon. Cf. 3. 23. 2.
10. noctis : 3.28.16. mediae: they won't go home till morn-
ing. auguris : apparently Murena has recently been chosen into
the college of augurs.
11. 12. The cups shall be mingled with 3 or 9 cyathi (of wine)
at your choice. Fractions were reckoned in twelfths of the as or
the sextanus by unciae and cyathi respectively. Anacreon drank
10 water to 5 wine (fr. 64). Cf. Athenae, 10. 426 sqq. Page takes
3 and 9 of the quantity the number of ladles to a bumper.
12. commodis : cf. 4. 8. 1. Others render 'just,' or 'full.'
13. impares : they were nine.
14. ternos ter : T 9 ^ wine, the stronger mixture. attonitus :
cf. Lex. s.v. B; otvtf ffvyKpavi'<a6e\s (pptvas (Archil, fr. 74).
15. tres . . . supra : probably above three (the weaker mix-
ture), suited to him who sacrifices to the graces! It has been
taken the three beyond (9) ; that would make it unmixed wine. Cf .
Ov. Fast. 3. 813, altera tresque super.
16-17. metuens: with gen. (3. 24. 22). Gratia, etc. : cf. on
1. 4. 6 ; 4. 7. 5. nudis : until the third century B.C. art showed
them clothed. Cf. P>azer on Pausan. 9. 35. 6.
18. insanire iuvat: cf. on 2. 7. 28. Berecyntiae : cf. 1. 18.
13 ; 4. 1. 22 ; Epode 9. 5. 6. The tibia was orgiastic.
19. cessant : cf. on 1. 27. 13 ; 3. 27. 58. flamina : \urov
na.ro. (Eurip. Phoen. 788).
362 NOTES.
20. pendet . harps and lyres conventionally hang when not in
use (Odyss. 8. 671 ; Pind. O. 1. 17 ; Scott, Prelude, L. of L., ' Harp
of the north! that mouldering long hast hung,' etc.). fistula:
4. 1. 24 ; 1. 17. 10. Tacita with both nouns.
22. sparge rosas : cf. 1. 36. 15 ; Epp. 1. 5. 14, potare et spargere
flores Herrick's and Martial's ' Now raignes (regnat) the rose.'
The hand that scattered winter roses would not be niggardly. Cf.
Martial, 4. 29. 3 ; 6. 80 ; Lucian, Nigrin. 31 ; Pater, Marius, Chap.
12, sub fin., ' And at no time had the winter roses from Carthage
seemed more lustrously yellow and red.' audiat, etc. : Propert.
4. 8. 9, dulciaqne ingratos adimant convivia somnos. \ publica
vicinae perstrepat aura viae.
23-24. Lycus . . . Lyco : cf. on 1. 13. 1-2 for invidious repe-
tition. There is a neighbor AUKOS in Theoc. 14. 24.
24. non habilis : not tempestiva (27).
25. spissa : no 'thin and icy crown.' nitidum : cf. on 2. 12.
19, 'well-groomed.' But cf. Pind. Nem. 1. 68, <}>ai8i/4av . . . tcS^ar.
Tenn. El., ' Her bright hair blown about the serious face.'
26. puro: i.e. in a clear sky. Cf. 2. 5. 19; 3. 10. 8; 3. 29. 45.
similem . . . vespero: cf. on 3. 7. 1; 3. 9.21. Telephe : 1.
13. 1; 4. 11.21.
27. tempestiva : cf. 1. 23. 12; 4. 1. 9, supra, non habilis.
petit: 1. 33. 13. Rhode : ' whose name and fame are of roses'
(Symonds).
28. me: Epode 14. 15. lentus: 1. 13. 8; Tibull. 1. 4. 81,
lento me torquet amore. Glycerae: 1. 19. 5; 1. 30. 3 ; 1. 33. 2.
torret : 1. 33. 6 ; 4. 1. 12. It is a smoldering fire. Theoc. 3.
17, os (it Karafffivxtav.
ODE XX.
Have a care, Pyrrhus. Thy furious rival will rush upon thee as
the Homeric lioness robbed of her whelps charges the hunt. Mean-
while Nearchus, the object of your strife, stands unconcerned, the
breeze fanning his perfumed locks, a Greek marble, fair as Nireus
or Ganymede.
1. non vides : you don't see? nonne vides (1. 14. 3); don't you
sesf moveas : Kivttv, disturb.
2. Gaetulae: 1. 23. 10.
BOOK III., ODE XXI. 363
3. post paullo : so Epist. 1. 6. 43. The usual paullo post
would be intolerably prosaic. iiiaudax : apparently an Horatian
coinage for oroAjuos ; with raptor it forms a slight oxymoron.
5-10. The imagery is Homeric. Cf. II. 18. 318 ; per obstantes
catenas recurs in a martial setting, 4. 9. 43 ; here the expression
is a mock heroic equivalent of the 0aAepoi al^rjoi, the lusty war-
riors of the Homeric hunt.
6. insignem : he is easily known by his beauty. Cf. 1. 33. 5 ;
Verg. Aen. 7. 762, Virbius insignem quern mater Aricia misit.
7. grande certamen : apposition with sentence. Cf. Verg.
Aeu. 6. 223, and Shaks. 'Hangs one that gathers samphire
dreadful trade.'
8. illi : so the Mss. ; maior must then be rendered rather. Of
course, strictly speaking, the prize falls to one or the other, and
there is no greater or less portion. But provided the meaning be
clear, poets are quite ready to sacrifice this kind of logic to the
rhythm or the desired turn of phrase. Modern editors generally
read ilia and render maior superior, i.e. victorious.
10. dentes acuit : still Homeric. Cf. II. 13. 474 ; 11. 416, of
the boar.
11. arbiter : he is prize and judge in one. posuisse : his foot
is planted on it. nudo: helps the picture. Cf. Tenn. CEnone,
' From the violets her light foot | Shone rosy white' ; cf. 4. 1. 27.
12. palmam : of victory, 1. 1. 5.
13. recreare : 1. 22. 18.
14. umerum : cf. on 4. 10. 3.
15. Nireus : ' Nireus was the fairest man that to fair Ilion
came' (Chapman), II. 2. 672. aquosa: cf. on 2. 2. 15; Tenny-
son's ' many-fountained Ida' ; cf. II. 11. 183.
16. raptus : Latin has no article. For Ganymede, cf. 4. 4. 4 ;
II. 20. 233.
ODE XXL
To a wine-jar born with Horace in the year 65, and now to be
opened in honor of (M. Valerius Messala) Corvinus.
Messala was a student at Athens, B.C. 42, with Horace and
Marcus Cicero. After Philippi, he declined the leadership of the
remnant of the republican party and joined the triumvirs. At
364 NOTES.
the time of the peace of Brundisium, he left the service of Antony
for that of Octavian, on whose side he was found at Actium. He
was consul B.C. 31, and was granted a triumph for victories over
the Aquitanians B.C. 27. Henceforth he devoted himself to his
law practice and lettered ease. His eloquence is praised and com-
pared with that of Asinius Pollio by Quintil., 10. 1. 113. He was
the Maecenas of the circle of Tibullus. Servius (on Verg. Aen.
8. 310) reports a symposium graced by the presence of Maecenas,
Horace, and Vergil, cum ex persona Messallaede vi vini loqueretur
the theme of this ode.
Paraphrase by Rowe, Johnson's Poets, 9. 472.
1. L. Manlius Torquatus was consul B.C. 65. Cf. Epode 13. 6.
2. queiellas . . . geris: some men ont le vin triste; others,
gai. For the fancy that the bottle contains its effects, cf. Heine,
Buch Le Grand, V., 'Gestern bei Tische horte ich jemand eine
Thorheit sprechen die anno 1811 in einer Weintraube gesessen,
welche ich damals selbst auf dem Johannisberge wachsen sah.'
So Emerson, ' there is much eloquence in a cup of tea.'
3. 1. 13. 10-11 ; 1. 17. 25. Or cf. 1. 27. 4 ; 1. 18. 8.
4. facilem . . . somnum: cf. 2. 11. 8 ; 3. 1. 20-21. n. pia :
the position emphasizes the preferable alternative. Or it may
be felt merely as a half-humorous fondling epithet of the ' dive
bouteille.' Others explain, faithful to its charge (servas,!).
testa : 1. 20. 2 ; 3. 14. 20 ; Epp. 1. 2. 70.
5. quocumque . . . nomine : strictly a figure from book-
keeping, on whatever account. lectum . . . Massicum : gath-
ered (grapes of) Massic, i.e. Massic vintage. Or, choice Massic.
6. moveri : cf. Epode 13. 6, tu vina . . . move. For inf. pass,
with dignus, cf. Sat. 1. 3. 24. It is common in silver prose.
7. descende : from the apotheca. Cf. 3. 8. 11. n. ; 3. 28. 7.
8. promere : cf. 1. 36. 11 ; 1. 37. 5. languidiora : cf. 3. 16. 35.
9. non ille : cf. 4. 9. 51; non ego, I. 18. 11. madet : he is
steeped in Socratic discourse, but has no churlish (horridus)
aversion to other steepings. Cf. madidus homo, uvidi, 4. 5. 39,
' a wet night,' and the like. For the metaphor, cf. Martial, 7. 51.
6, iure madens ; 1. 39. 3,' si quis Cecropiae madidus Latiaeque
Minervae.
BOOK III., ODE XXI. 365
11-12. prisci : stern old, good old. Cf. 2. 3. 21 ; 4. 2. 40 ; Epode
2. 2 ; Catull. 64. 159, saevaquod horrcbas prisci praecepta parentis ;
Epp. 2. 2. 117, priscis . . . Catonibtts atque Cethegis. Catonis :
cf. 2. 15. 11. n., and for the periphrasis with virtus, cf. 1. 3. 36.
n. ; Sat. 2. 1. 72, virtus Scipiadae et mitis sapientia Laeli.
13-20. For similar praises of wine, cf. 1. 18. 3-6. n. ; 4. 12.
19-20 ; Epp. 1. 5. 19 ; Bacchylides, fr. 27 ; Ovid, A. A. 1. 237-242,
an imitation of this passage ; Cotton, Ode upon Winter ; Herrick,
197, 'The Welcome to Sack' ; 773, A Hymn to Bacchus ; Burns,
'Scotch drink,' John Barleycorn, sub fin., The Holy Fair, 'Leeze
me on drink ! it gies us mair | Than either school or college : It
kindles wit, it waukens lair, | It pangs us fu' o' knowledge' ; Agnes
Repplier, Atlantic Monthly, Oct., 1896.
13. tormentum : rack, spur, pressure. Cf. Lex. s.v. III. A. ;
Bacchyl. fr. 27, y\vK*i' avdyKa ; Epp. 2. 3. 435, torquere mero; with
lene an oxymoron.
14. plerumque : cf. 1. 34. 7.
14-16. Cf. Odyss. 14. 463-466, ' Wildering wine that sets even a
wise man on to sing aloud, and to laugh merrily, and uttereth a
word that were better left unsaid.' iocoso : cf. 4. 15. 26. Lyaeo :
cf. 1. 7. 22. n. The Romans associated Liber (Aei/Sa ?) with liber,
free. Cf. Sen. Dial. 9. 17. 8, Liberque non ob licentiam linguae dictus
est inventor vini, sed quid liberal servitio curarum animum, etc.
17. spem, etc. : cf. 4. 12. 19 ; Epp. 1. 5. 17 ; 1. 15. 19.
18. viresque : que connects reduc.is and addis. cornua : cf.
2. 19. 30. n., Lex. s.v. II. ; Coleridge, Biographia Literaria, p. 208 ;
1 Sam. 2. 1.
19-20. ' Inspiring, bold John Barleycorn ! | What dangers thou
canst mak' us scorn' (Burns, Tarn o' Shanter).
19. post te : cf. 1. 18. 5, post vina. iratos : transferred epithet
or hypallage. Cf. 3. 1. 42-43.
20. apices : cf. 1. 34. 14.
22. segues . . . solvere : loath to loose. nodum : of twining
arms. Cf. 1. 4. 6. n. ; 3. 19. 17.
23. vivae : cf. 3. 8. 14. producent : prolong, keep up. So
cenam producimus (Sat. 1. 5. 70); noctem producere vino (Martial,
2. 89. 1); Tibull. 1. 4. 5. lucemae : the lamps are personified
with the rest.
366 NOTES.
24. dum . . . fugat : (all the) while he is doing it virtually =
until he can get it done. Cf. Lucret. 1. 949, dum perspicis omnem \
naturam rerum. For image, cf. ' And Phoebus in his chair | En-
saffroning sea and air | Makes vanish every star' (Drurmnond of
Hawthornden) ; ' Wake ! For the Sun who scatter'd into flight | The
Stars before him from the Field of Night,' etc. (Omar Khayyam, I.).
ODE XXII.
Dedication of a pine, at the poet's villa, to Diana Nemorensis.
1. For Diana, Queen of the Woods, etc., cf. on 1. 21. 5; Catull.
34. 9.
2. In this function, "Apre/as Diana was identified with Juno
Lucina. Cf. Catull. 34. 9, Tu Lucina dolentibus \ luno dicta puer-
peris, | tu potens trivia et notho es \ dicta lumine luna. puellas:
so Ov. Am. 2. 13. 19, tuque laborantes utero miserata puellas.
3. ter : 1. 28. 36.
4. Diva triformis : as Luna, Diana, Hecate. Cf . Catull., supra ;
Verg. Aen. 4. 511, tergeminamque Hecaten, tria virginis or a Dia-
nae; Ov. Met. 7. 94, per sacra triformis \ ille deae. Her image at
the crossways had three faces. Ov. Fast. 1. 141, or a vides Hecates
in tres vertentia partes, \ servet ut in ternas compita secta vias.
Modern poetry variously symbolizes it : ' Goddess whom all gods
love with threefold heart, | Being treble in thy divided deity '
(Swinb. Atalanta, init.}; 'Thro' Heaven I roll my lucid moon
along; | I shed in Hell o'er my pale people peace, | On Earth,' etc.
(Browning, Artemis Prologuizes) ; ' Goddess triform I own thy
triple spell : | Queen of my earth, Queen too of my heaven and
hell ' (Lowell) ; ' With borrowed light her countenance triform |
Hence fills,' etc. (Milton). Cf. the quaint old Latin distich,
Terret, lustrat, agit, Proserpina, luna, Diana, \ ima, suprema,
feras, sceptro, fulgore, sagitta.
5. tua : sacred to thee. Cf. Verg. Aen. 10. 423, tua quercus.
6-8. quam . . . doiiem : that I may, etc.
6. per: 2. 3. 6. exactos : 3. 18. 5; Verg. Aen. 5. 46, annuus
exactis completur mensibus orbis. laetus: the libens merito of
votive inscriptions.
BOOK III., ODE XXIII. 367
7. obliquum : Homer's \tKpifls eu'|as (Od. 19. 451 ; H. 12. 148).
Cf. Ov. Her. 4. 104, obliquo dente timendus aper ; Met. 8. 344, et
olliqno latrantes (the dogs) dissipat ictu. For the periphrastic
description of the victim, cf. 3. 13. 4; 4. 2. 54.
ODE XXIII.
Horace, Epicurean and Student of Greek Philosophy, "tells the
farmer's little girl that the Gods will love her, though she has only
a handful of salt arid meal to give them " (Ruskin, Queen of the
Air, 48).
Translated, as a sonnet, by Austin Dobson. Cf. Lang, Letters to
Dead Authors, p. 210. For Horace's religion, cf. on 1. 34, 3. 18 ;
Sellar, pp. 159-160.
1. caelo : dat. Cf. manusque susum ad caelum sustulit suas
rex; avarftvats ovpavy x f *p* (Find. Is. 5. 41). supinas : like
SJTTIOJ, of upturned palms (Aesch. Prom. 1005; Verg. Aen. 4. 205).
2. nascente luna : on the first day of each (lunar) month. Cf.
3. 19. 9. Phidyle : <t>eiSo/j.ai, the sparing, thrifty one.
3. ture : Tibull. 1. 3. 34, reddereqite antiquo menstrua turn Lari ;
Herrick, 334, To Larr. horna : Epode 2. 47 ; a sheaf or garland
of the new grain as first fruits. Tibull. 1. 10. 22, sen dederat sanc-
tae spicea serta comae.
8. Lares: cf. Harper's Class. Diet. s.v. avida : the homely
proprium lends a touch of intimacy. Cf. Keats' ' small gnats,'
Vergil's exiguus TOMS. porca: Tibull. 1. 10. 26. Cf. 3. 17. 15;
Sat. 2. 3. 165, porcum Laribus. Servius, on Verg. Aen. 8. 641, says
that female victims are more efficacious. Quintilian, 8. 3. 19, thinks
that the form porco would have destroyed the Vergilian elegance of
caesa iungebat foedera porca.
5. Africum : 'sirocco.' 'Africbane' (Dobson).
6. fecunda : /Jorpuo'eis, thick-clustered. sterilem : active, as
sterilis Sirius (Verg. Aen. 3. 141).
7. Robigo : blight was regularly worshiped as a deity to be
propitiated (Ov. Fast. 4. 907). alumni : 3. 18. 4.
8. Pomifer autumnus (4. 7. 11) is 'season of mists and mellow
fruitfulness,' as well as of the nocentem Austrum (2. 14. 15).
368 NOTES.
grave tempus : Liv. 3. 6, grave tempus et . . . pestilens annus.
anno : season ; P^pode 2. 29. ' The sick apple-tide '(Dobson).
9. Algido : 1. 21. 6; 4. 4. 58 ; Macaulay, Herat., ' When round
the lonely cottage | Roars loud the tempest's din, | And the good
logs of Algidus | Roar louder yet within.'
10. devota . . . victima : Milton has ' to death devote.' Cf.
4. 14. 18.
11. crescit : cf. 4. 2. 55. Albania: in the pastures assigned to
the temples for the purpose (Dionys. 3. 29).
13. te : for similar contrast, cf. 4. 2. 53. attinet : it concerns
thee not, thou hast no need.
14. temptare : try, besiege, importune. Cf. 1. 2. 26, fatigare ;
2. 18. 12, lacesso. bidentium : see Lex. s.v. B, first explanation.
15-16. parvos . . . decs : Ov. Fast. 5. 130, signaque parva deum ;
the little images of the Lares ; in her case of wood.
17-20. immunis, etc. : ' If there is no guilt in the hand that
touches the altar, it could not (hath not, doth not, gnomic) more
acceptably with costly sacrifice appease the estranged Penates (than
it doth) with pious grain and crackling salt.' The gnomic perfect
mollivit does double duty, and is a somewhat harsh expression of
the conditional idea (others make non . . . hostia a parenthesis,
and blandior = blandior futura). Immunis, in Horace, usually
means without a gift. Cf. 4. 12. 23 ; Epp. 1. 14. 33. In the sense
immunis scelerum it would seem to require a genitive. Cf. Ovid's
immunes caedis habere manus. But the absolute use is no harsher
than that of acervos in 2. 2. 24. In any case, the thought is the
religious commonplace that Heaven prefers innocence and the
pauper's mite to the splendid offerings of the rich. Immunis is
the emphatic word ; the rendering without a gift merely says that
the small offering is as acceptable as the great, and misses the
main point of the utterance. Cf. Gildersleeve, on Persius, 2. 75 ;
Psalms 69. 31 ; Eurip., frs. 946, 327, Nauck; Isoc. 2. 20.
18. sumptuosa : if we could read sumptuosa blandior, assum-
ing that Horace allowed the form w w , hostia could be the
subject of mollivit, and the sentence would run smoothly enough.
19. aversos : cf . Epode 10. 18. But they are not positively
hostile in Phidyle's case. Cf. 1. 36. 2. n.
20. Cf. Pliny, N. H. Praef., mola tantum salsa litant qui non
BOOK III., ODE XXIV. 369
habent tura ; Lev. 2. 13, 'with all thine offerings thou shalt offer
salt' ; Herrick, 106, ' Making thy peace with heav'n, for some late
fault, | With Holy-meale, and spirting-salt ' ; Swinb. At Eleusis,
' Faint grape-flowers and cloven honey-cake | And the just grain
with dues of the shed salt'; Tibull. 3. 4. 10, Et natum in curas
hominum genus omina noctis \ Farre pio placant et saliente sale.
saliente : ' that crackles in the blaze.'
ODE XXIV.
Villas by the sea and all the wealth of Araby or Ind cannot
deliver thee from death or the fear of death. Better the rude
virtues of the nomad Scythian than our luxury and vice. Who
will prove the true father of his country and curb this license ?
Posterity will give him the honors that envious contemporaries
grudge. But of what avail are laws or complaints when our
manners recognize no disgrace save poverty ? Away with our
gems and pernicious gold. Our youths must be trained in a
sterner school. What marvel if the son cannot keep his saddle
and prefers dicing to the hunt, when his perjured sire defrauds
his associate and still piles up gold for an \xnworthy heir ?
The moralizing is in the vein of 3. 1. 14-45, 3. 2. 1-7, 3. 6, 2. 15,
with the fervid rhetoric of Epode 16. In 4. 5. 21-25 and 4. 15. 10-
15 the savior of society here invoked is found in Augustus. Cf.
Sellar, p. 156; Sueton. Octav. 34. 89; and the boast of Augustus,
Mon. Ancyr. 2. 12-14, Legibus novis latis complura exempla maio-
rum exolentia iam ex nostro usu reduxi et ipse multarum rerum
exempla imitanda posteris tradidi.
The date may be approximately that of 3. 6, B.C. 28-27.
1. intactis: unrijled(cf. on 1.29. 1); ' richer than the treasures '
is a natural brachylogy (cf. on 2. 14. 28; 1. 8. 9).
2-3. Indiae : 1. 31. 6. n. caementis : 3. 1. 35.
4. Tyrrhenum . . . Apulicum : All Mss. read Tyrrhenum.
For Apulicum many have publicum. The text can be defended
only as a loose hyperbole for 'every coast.' Lachmann's ingen-
ious terrenum . . . et mare publicum is not really proved, as
German editors affirm, by Porphyrio's non terrain tantum, verum
etiam maria occupantem, etc., which might be said, whatever the
2B
370 NOTES.
text here, by any one familiar with 2. 18. 22 and 3. 1. 36. Mare
publicum, it is true, prettily brings out the special force of occu-
pes ; we cannot dogmatize about the quantity of Apulicum. Cf.
3. 1. 40.
5. figit : cf. 1. 3. 36. n. adamantines : cf. Plat. Rep. 616 C ;
L. and S. s.v. dSefytas. Older English writers use 'diamond.' Cf.
'nails of diamond,' 1. 35. 17. n.
6. summis verticibus : the image will not square with matter-
of-fact logic. The meaning seems to be, ' You build, but the last
nail will be driven by destiny.' Cf. on 2. 18. 29-31 ; 1. 35. 17.
Summis verticibus will then be in (or into) the topmost gable. It
has also been taken ' up to the heads ' (of the nails), and, somewhat
grotesquely, 'into the heads ' (of men).
8. laqueis : 0. T. passim, e.g., Psalms 18. 5, 'the snares of
death prevented me ' ; Stat. Silv. 5. 155, ' undique leti \ vallavere
plagaeS The Hindoo death-god Yama flings a noose. Aeschylus
is fond of the 'net of doom' (Ag. 361, 1048, 1376; Prom. 1078).
Milton has ' tangled in the fold | Of dire necessity' (Sams. Ag.);
Shelley, Cenci, ' a net of ruin.'
9. campestres : of the plains (steppes). Cf. 3. 8. 24 ; 1. 35. 9.
melius : Tac. Ger. 19, melius quidem adhuc eae civitates, etc.
10. vagas : not proleptic, but a poetic oxymoron with domos.
Cf. Pind. fr. 105, a.^o<p^pr]Tov olxov ; Arnold, Strayed Reveller,
'They see the Scythian | On the wide steppe, unharnessing | His
wheel'd house at noon' ; Sen. Here. Fur. 537, intravit (Hercules')
Scythiae multivagas domos. Cf. also. Aesch. Prom. 709 ; Milton,
P. L. 3, ' the barren plains | Of Sericana where Chineses drive |
With sails and wind their cany waggons light.' rite : after their
manner (Verg. Aen. 9. 252).
11. rigid! : frozen (2. 9. 20), or stern and rude, severe; Epp.
1. 1. 17, virtutis verae custos rigidusque satelles ; Epp. 2. 1. 25.
12. immetata . . . liberas : the land is undivided and its
produce common, as in the golden age. Verg. G. 1. 126, ne sig-
nare quidem aut partiri limite campum \ fas erat : in medium
quaerebant ; Ov. Met. 1. 135; Claud, in Rufin. 1. 380.
13. Cererem : cf. 1. 7. 22. n. ; Epode 16. 43.
14. cultura . . . annua : i.e. they stay only a year in one place,
and only a part of the tribe is detailed to raise the year's crops. So
BOOK III., ODE XXIV. 371
Caesar, B. G. 4. 1, relates of the Suevi, and Tac. Ger. 19, of the
Germans.
15. defunctum : of the year's labors here ; in 2. 18. 38, functum,
of .all life's labors. Cf. Bre"al, Se"mantique, 170.
16. recreat : i.e. 'spells,' relieves. sorte : abl. manner, on
like terms.
17. illic : there among those children of nature all the virtues
flourish for Horace's imagination, as they did for Tacitus (Ger-
mania), for the Greek rhetors of the empire (Dio Chrysost. Or.
69), and for Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Goldsmith in China,
Persia, or Peru.
18. temperat : spares (deals kindly with) the motherless step-
children. The cruelty of the iniusta noverca was proverbial. Cf.
Epode 5. 9 ; Otto, s.v. innocens : tcronging them not, perhaps
etymologically not nocens. Cf. on 4. 4. 65.
19. nee dotata : dowries ai-e unknown. By the Greek proverb,
' a dowerless woman cannot speak her mind.' The richly dowered
apparently could (Plaut. Men. 759; Aul. 526; Martial, 8. 12).
The dower had to be returned if the husband divorced her.
20. nitido : spruce, dandified. Cf. 3. 19. 25. fidit : coniunx,
rather than dotata coniunx, is felt as the subject.
21. dos . . . magna : a moral or metaphorical dower. Cf.
Plaut. Amphitr. 839 ; Anth. Pal. 9. 96. 6.
22-23. Cf. Tennyson's daintier expression ' . . . The laws of
marriage character'd in gold | Upon the blanched tablets of her
heart . . . crown'd Isabel . . . The queen of marriage, a most
perfect wife.' metuens : cf. 3. 19. 16; 3. 11. 10. certo
foedere : cf. 1. 13. 18. Loose characterizing (or absolute ?) abl.
24. et peccare nefas : editors generally supply illic est. It
can be more idiomatically taken as the third part of the dowry,
which consists of (1) honorable birth, (2) sensitive purity, (3) the
stern tradition of Scythian morality. The idiom is an extension
of that of ademptus Hector (2. 4. 10) , which young students cannot
take too much pains to master. Cf. Lucan, 2. 656, where Roma
. . . capi . . . facilis is one third of the subject ; Juv. 10. 1 10,
summus nempe locus nulla non arte petitus = the unscrupulous
pursuit of power. peccare: cf. 3. 7. 19. n. aut: 3. 12. 2. n.
pretium : a vox media. Cf . Juv. 13. ' 105, ille crucem sceleris
372 NOTES.
pretium tulit, hie diadema ; so /j.i<r66s (Aesch. Ag. 1261); Spenser,
'Bold Procrustes' hire 11 (punishment). Or, oxymoron.
25. O quiaquis : returning to wicked Rome and the hope of
reform. impias: 1. 35. 34-35. n.
26. rabiem : Epode 7. 13. civicam : 2. 1. 1. n.
27. pater urbium : a variation on pater patriae. Cf. 1. 2. 50. n. ;
Cic. ad Q. Fr. 1. 1. 31, parentem Asiae ; Stat. Silv. 3. 4. 48,
pater . . . urbis. Augustus appears in an inscription as parens
coloniae. The provinces and cities of Asia took the lead in the
apotheosis of the emperor. Hence conceivably urbium is to be
taken with statuis. Some editors print PATER URBIUM, but it is
to be taken predicatively with subscribe.
29. refrenare : cf. Tennyson's etymological ' trade refrain the
powers.' For the image, cf. 4. 15. 10; Cic. de Or. 3. 41, validae
legum habenae (quotation); Cic. de Div. 2. 20; Shaks. Hen. V.,
5. 3. 3, ' What rein can hold licentious wickedness | When down
the hill he holds his steep career?' Hen. IV., 2. 4. 4, 'For the
fourth Harry from curb'd license plucks | The muzzle of re-
straint.'
30. post genitia : posteris, 6tyiy6vois, posterity, found only here.
quatenus : in so far as, inasmuch as, since. G. L. 538. n. 5.
It motivates post genitis. The thought is elaborated, Epp. 2. 1.
10-20, 86-89, whence Pope's imitation, ' These suns of glory please
not till they set.' Cf. Menander, Stob. 125. 3 ; Veil. 2. 92 ; Propert.
4. 1. 22 ; Ov. Am. 1. 15. 39 ; Phaedr. Fab. 5 Praefat. Mart. 5. 10. 12,
5. 13. 4 ; Herrick, 624, ' I make no haste to have my numbers
read : | Seldome comes Glorie till a man be dead' ; Tenn., ' neither
count on praise : | It grows to guerdon after-days' ; Ruskin, Pref.
Modern Painters, 2d ed. heu nefas : 4. 6. 17.
31. incolumem : in the living, 1. 3. 7, 3. 5. 12, 4. 5. 27.
32. quaerimus : i.e. requirimus, miss. Cf. Mart. 5. 10. 5, sic
veterem ingrati Pompei quaerimus umbram.
33. tristes : dismal, austere, not sad. Cf. 3. 16. 3.
34. reciditur : in Sat. 1. 3. 122, of pruning (furta) falce recisu-
rum. In Ov. Met. 1. 190, the metaphor is surgical : sed immedi-
cabile minus \ ense recidendum ne pars sincera trahatur.
35-36. leges sine moribus vanae : the words reinforce each
other as in the phrases, coram a presentibus, ignari casu aliquo,
BOOK III., ODE XXIV. 373
palam ante oculos. Cf. Verg. Aen. 1. 392. For thought, cf. 4. 5.
22 ; Tac. Ger. 19, plus ibi boni mores valent quam alibi bonae
leges.
30-41. For thought, cf. 1. 3, Intr.
37. pars: 3. 3. 55. inclusa: shut in (away) from man
domibus negata, 1. 22. 22. Cf. Lucret. 5. 204, inde duas porro prope
partis fervidus ardor \ adsiduusque geli casus mortalibus aufert.
38. latus : 1. 22. 19.
39. solo : i.e. (in) solo.
40. mercatorem : the thought of 1. 3 (Intr.), The restless
merchant seeks unnatural gains. Cf. 1. 1. 16 ; A. P. 117 ; Sat. 1.
1. 6, 29 ; Epp. 1. 1. 46, per mare pauperiem fugiens; Pers. 5. 55,
132 sqq. ; Herrick, 106, ' Thou never plow'st the Ocean's foame |
To seek and bring rough pepper home.' horrida callidi : man's
cunning pitted against nature. Cf. on 1. 6. 9; Soph. Antig. 335
sqq.; ' And skilful shipmen flout the horrors of the deep ' (Martin).
42. Cf. on 1. 24, for Latin and English idiom.
43. quidvis : cf. 1. 3. 25. n. ; 3. 3. 52, omne. Cf. Sat. 2. 3. 91-
92 ; Lucian de Merc. Cond. 717, treviav iracTo iroitiv Kal traffx^v avairfi-
aovtrav ; Eurip. El. 375 ; Shak. R. and J. 6. 1, ' My poverty but not
my will consents.'
44. virtutis viam : r^v 5i' aper^s 6dl>v, Xen. Mem. 2. 1. 21. It is
proverbially steep. Hamlet, 1. 3, ' Show me the steep and thorny
way to heaven ' ; Hes. Op. 289 ; Simon, fr. 58 ; Tenn. Ode on
Duke of Well. 8 ; Stat. Theb. 10. 8. 45, ardua virtus. Cf. tier, 3.
2. 22. deserit : the felt subject is pauper.
45. Horace, in the role of a Savonarola, calls for a 'bonfire of
vanities,' so to speak.
45-47. vel . . . vel : the method is indifferent, so the end be
attained.
45. in Capitolium : sc. feramus latent in mittamus (50), to
dedicate them to Jupiter amid the plaudits of the crowd, clamor et
turba (46), as in a triumph. For the enormous treasures deposited
there by Augustus una donatione, cf. Suet. Octav. 30.
47. proximum : cf. onfortuitum, 2. 15. 17.
48. gemmas et lapides: the separate application of these
terms to pearls, cut gems, and precious stones generally, is dis-
puted. See Lex. inutile : not as 1. 14. 13, unavailing, or
374 NOTES.
(3. 17. 10) worthless, but by litotes, baneful. So Cic. Phil. 1. 19,
iniquum et inutile.
49. materiem : wealth is not merely the root but the constituent
matter of evil, or perhaps the fuel that feeds the fire. Cf. Sail.
Cat. 10, igitur primo pecuniae, deinde imperi cupido crevit : ea
quasi (so to speak) materies omnium malorum fuere.
50. si ... paenitet : if our repentance is sincere.
51-52. eradenda . . . elementa : if Horace felt elementa here
as letters, the figure is that of making tabula rasa ; if he felt it as
seed-germs (root ol 'grow'), we must think of the gardener's hoe.
Perhaps he did not go back of the faded generalized meaning.
55. haerere : apparently the normal word. Cf. Cic. pro Deiot.
28, haerere in eo (sc. equo*) ; Ov. Met. 4. 26, pando non fortiter
haeret asello. ingenuus : heightening the shame. 'But chiefly
skill to ride seems a science | Proper to gentle blood ' (F. Q. 2. 4. 1).
56. doctior : scornful antithesis to rudis.
57. trocho : the Greek name invidiously (Juv. 3. 67) for the
effeminate sport (hoop-trundling, KpiKtt\a.ffia) opposed to the manlier
exercises of Rome. Cf. Sat. 2. 2. 9 ; Epp. 1. 18. 49. For the vogue
of the trochus, cf. A. P. 380 ; Ov. Trist. 2. 486 ; Martial, 14. 169.
58. mails: not mails! vetita : nominally, Cic. Philip. 2. 56;
Ov. Trist. 2. 471.
59-60. cum . . . fallat : cf. Hale, Cum-Const., p. 191 ; ' Faith-
less faith such as Jove kept with thee ' (Shelley, Prom. 3. 3) .
59. fides : 1. 5. 5. n. ; 1. 18. 16. n.
60. consortem sociem : his associate in business, partner.
Sors is the capital of the business.
61. indigno : contrast the irony of 2. 14. 25, dignior.
62. properet : trans.; cf. 2. 7. 24. scilicet: yes, truly, 'Let
us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.' improbae : 3. 9. 22,
unconscionable, transferred from the man who is never satisfied
to the object of his insatiate greed. Cf . Verg. Aen. 2. 356 ; Lucret.
5. 1006.
63. crescentem : 3. 16. 17 ; 3. 16. 42.
64. curtae : no estate is ever complete ; it always falls short of
the owner's growing desires. Epp. 1. 6. 34-35 ; wealth is an
faapov, AT. Eth. Cf. Solon, fr. 13. 71 sqq. rei: 3. 16. 25.
BOOK HI., ODE XXV. 375
ODE XXV.
A dithyramb. Horace affects the Bacchic inspiration in order
to set the name and fame of Caesar among the stars. The new
theme, recens (1. 7) may possibly be the overthrow of Cleopatra
(cf. 1. 37, Epode 9) or more probably the bestowal of the title
Augustus upon Octavian, B.C. 27.
On the apotheosis of Augustus, cf. 3. 3. 16. n. ; 4. 5. 35. n. ; Sellar,
p. 156. With the whole, cf. the ode to Bacchus, 2. 19.
1. Cf. Herrick, 416, ' Whither dost thou whorry (hurry) me, |
Bacchus, being full of thee ? '
2. plenum: cf. on 2. 19. 6. quae : (in) nemora, etc. Cf.
Verg. Aen. 6. 692, quas ego te (per) terras et quanta per aequora
vectum.
4. antris : as dat. rather than loc. abl. personifies grots as listen-
ers and avoids tautology with in specus. egregii : 1. 6. 11. n.
5. aeternum : perhaps proleptic. meditans : ^eXerwi/. Cf.
Verg. Eel. 1. 2 ; 6. 82. j Milton's, ' strictly meditate the thankless
muse. ' Perhaps composing aloud, as was the practice of Words-
worth.
6. stellis inserere : - Tac. Dial. 10, et nomen inserere possunt
famae; Tenn., 'Not this way will you set your name | A star
among the stars ' ; Id. Last Tournament, ' The knights | glorying
in each new glory set his name | High on all hills and in the signs
of heaven ' ; Lucret. 5. 329.
7. insigne: cf. 1. 12.39.
8. indictum : Epp. 1. 19. 32, non olio dictum prius ore.
8-12. non secus . . . ut : so aeque . . . ut (1. 16. 7-9). Ac mihi
after ac ped,e (1. 11) would have been a horrible cacophony. Non
secus (2. 3. 2). Horace compares his sensations to those of ' the
Maenad, in the glorious amaze of her morning waking on the
mountain top' (George Eliot, Romola), as she looks out on
the panorama of the Thracian plain, the river Hebrus, and the
snow-capped summit of Mt. Rhodope in the distance. This assumes
the reading ex somnis. Exsomnis, &VMOS, pervigil must mean
sleepless (all the night). Either conception is possible. The
Maenads certainly reveled through the night (Soph. Ant. 1152),
376 NOTES.
and they as certainly slept the sleep of exhaustion and awoke to
frightened soberness or to fresh revels (Eurip. Bacchae, 682 ; Ov.
Am. 1. 14. 21).
8. in iugis : cf . Anth. Pal. 6. 74, Parrirapis . . . o-KOTreAoSp^uos ;
Verg. Aen. 3. 125 ; Sil. 4. 776 ; Lucan, 1. 674, qualis vertice Pindi \
Edonis (cf. 2. 7. 27) Ogygio decurrit plena Lyaeo.
9. stupet: Ov. Trist. 4. 1. 42, dum stupet Edonis exuhilata
iugis. Euhiaa : cf. on 2. 19. 7 ; 2. 11. 17.
10. Hebrum : the poetic river of Orpheus, Verg. G. 4. 524.
prospiciens : a picture like the Ariadne of Catullus (64. 61) on
the seashore straining her gaze for Theseus, quern procul ex alga
maestis Minois ocellis \ Saxea ut effigies Bacchantis prospicet eheu.
Or rather, the spirit of a Greek marble is caught by the poet. Cf.
3. 20. 11-14. nive candidam : 1. 9. 1.
11. Thracen : 2. 16. 5. barbaro : a wild desolate scene; or
merely Phrygian, Thracian, by Greek usage.
12. lustratam : cf. Vergil's virginibus bacchata Lacaenis \ Tay-
getn. English poets render lustrare by ' trace.' Cf . Milton, Comu*,
' May trace huge forests and unharbour'd heaths.' Rhodopen :
Milton, P. L. 7. init., 'But drive far off the barbarous dissonance |
Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race | Of that wild rout that tore
the Thracian bard | In Rhodope.'
13. ripas: so absolutely, 3. 1. 23; 4. 2. 31. nemus : 1. 1. 30.
14-20. Cf. Arnold, The Strayed Reveller, ' And sometimes, for
a moment, | Passing through the dark stems | Flowing-robed, the
beloved, | The desired, the divine, | Beloved lacchus' ; cf. ibid.
Bacchanalia, I., too long to quote.
14. potens : 1. 3. 1. Cf. 2. 19. 3.
15-16. valentium . . . vertere : as they do in Eurip. Bacch.
1109. vertere : evertere. For inf. with valeo, cf. 1. 34. 12.
17. parvum : 3.3.72. humili modo : rairtivov, sermones . . .
repentes per humum, Epp. 2. 1. 250.
18. mortale : Milton, P. L. 7, when his muse descends from
heaven, says : ' Standing on earth not rapt above the pole, | more
safe I sing with mortal voice.' But Horace is resolved to be ' rapt.'
dulce periculum : oxymoron. Cf. 'sweet sorrow,' /caAbs 6
Kivtiwos. For the danger, cf . on 2. 19. 5 sqq. ; Homer, II. 20. 131 ;
Judges 13. 22.
BOOK III., ODE XXVI. 377
19. Lenaee : cf. Orph. Hymn. 50, ATjvcue (\r)i>6s, a wine-press).
20. Cf. on 4. 8. 33. cingentem : perhaps of the god (cf . Mil-
ton's ' ivy-crowned Bacchus ' ; Pindar's KurffoSfTav 6ebi>, if. 75. 9),
possibly of the poet his follower (cf. on 1. 1. 29).
ODE XXVI.
Horace is no longer fit ' to trail a pike under love's colours '
(Chapman), and he dedicates to Venus his useless arms, the lover's
lute, the torch that lights him to his lady's door, the ' portal-
bursting bar ' (Dobson) that wins him admission. His one prayer
is that the goddess may give that disdainful Chloe one touch of
her uplifted lash.
The sixth book of the Anthology is full of serious or playful
dedications of arms or implements by superannuated warriors,
craftsmen, or coquettes. Cf. Epp. 1.1.4; Sat. 1. 5. 65.
Paraphrased by Austin Dobson, Rondeau of Villon.
1. vixi : 'tis over. Cf. 3. 29. 43, and Dido, Verg. Aen. 4. 653.
idoneus : 4. 1. 12 ; 2. 19. 26.
2. militavi : cf. 4. 1. 2 ; Ov. Am. 1. 9. 1, militat omnis amans
et habet sua castra Cupido; A. A. 2. 233; Propert, 1. 6. 29, non
ego sum laudi non natus idoneus armis. \ Hanc me militiam fata
subire volunt; 'Love calls to war, | Sighs his alarms, | Lips his
swords are, | The field his arms ' (Chapman) ; Herrick, 873 ; Tibull.
1. 1. 75. non sine : cf. 1. 23. 3. n.
4. barbiton : the barbiton of Anaoreon. Cf . on 1. 6. 10.
5. laevum : why the left side does not appear. Possibly as of
good omen ; perhaps a particular temple is meant. marinae :
4. 11. 15 ; 1. 3. 1 ; Eurip. Hippoly. 415, Secrirotva -nov-ria. Kvirpi ; Anth.
Pal. 6. 11 ; ibid. 5. 17. 6. Ovid's explanation will do, Her. 15. 24,
in mare nimirum ius habet orta mari. ' It is through Cyprus that
the religion of Aphrodite comes from Phoenicia to Greece. . . .
First of all, on the prows of Phoenician ships, the tutelary image
of Aphrodite Euploea, the protectress of sailors, comes to Cyprus
to Cythera ; it is in this simplest sense that she is primarily
Anadyomene' (Pater, Greek Studies, p. 229). The 'Science of
Mythology,' of course, has many other explanations.
378 NOTES.
6. ponite. 1. 19. 14.
7. fuualia : torches of rope or tow dipped in wax or resin. Cf.
Verg. Aen. 1. 727. And for their use here, Theoc. 2. 128. They
are by nature lucid, though not burning, as soiled garments in
Homer are resplendent, and the midday heavens starry. arcus :
if genuine, is best understood of Cupidinis arcus, transferred, by
loose association of ideas, to the lover. The bow would hardly help
to burst in a door. Bentley read securesque.
9. beatam : rich and prosperous, and blest in her favor.
tenes : 3. 4. 62. n.
10. Memphin : Herod. 2. 112, speaks of a worship of fyiv-ri 'Atppo-
Sir-n there. Bacchylides, fr. 39, calls it axti/JLavros. carentem . . .
nive : these periphrases with careo show the poverty of the lyric
vocabulary at Horace's service. Cf. 1. 28. 1, numero carentis,
avJipiOf*.!)* ', 1. 31. 20, cithara carentem, aniOapis, &\vpov, a<p6p/j.tKTos ;
2. 8. 12, morte carentes, dflai'aroj ; 3. 24. 17, matre carentibits,
dyUTJrcop, 6p<f>a.i>os ; 3. 27. 39, vitiif carentem. Sithonia : 1. 18. 9;
Verg. Eel. 10. 66, Sithoniasque nives ; Ov. Am. 3. 7. 8. For the
use of the epithet here, cf. on 4. 2. 27.
11. regina : 1.30. 1. sublimi : 1. 1. 36. We see the lash in
air. flagello : for the image, cf. Find. Pyth. 4. 219 ; Nonnus, 4.
177 ; Tibull. 1. 8. 6 ; Martial, 6. 21. 9.
12. For the surprise, cf. 4. 1. 33.
ODE XXVII.
Bad omens for the bad. All good omens go with thee, Galatea,
since go thou must ; be happy and forget me not. I know the ter-
rors of the wintry Adriatic ; but may the wives and children of our
foes tremble at them even as Europa trembled ; and with this
forced transition Horace passes to his real theme, the rape of
Europa (25-34), her self-reproachful soliloquy far from home on
the Cretan shore (34-66), her consolation by Venus (66-76).
Galatea (the name Theoc. 6 and 11, Callim.) is a pretext. The
ode (in this unlike Pindar) closes with the myth, one aspect of
which is chosen for detailed lyric treatment. Cf. the structure of
3. 11 and 3. 5. But in 4. 4. 72 and 1. 12. 49, Horace returns after
the myth (history) to the person honored.
BOOK III., ODE XXVIL 379
For propempticon to a lady, cf. Ov. Am. 2. 11 ; Propert. 1. 8.
For legend of Europa, cf. II. 14. 321; Mosch. Idyll. 2 ; Ov. Met.
2. 836 ; Fast. 5. 605 ; Lucian, Dial. Mer. 15 ; Anacreontea, 35. It
had been treated also in lyric by Stesichorus, Bacchylides, and
Simonides. Cf. further Spenser, Muiopotmos, F. Q. 3. 11. 30;
Lanclor, Europa and her Mother ; Tenn., Palace of Art.
There is an amusing travesty of the myth by Burger. It has
been a favorite theme of art in ancient and modern times.
1. impios : emphatic, as hostium (21), in antithesis with ego
(7). The powers of evil are to spend their malice on the wicked ;
/will invoke the good to guard thee. parrae: unknown; owl
will do. recinentis: probably of insistent droning repetition.
'The moping owl does to the moon complain.' Cf. 1. 12. 3. The
omens mentioned are 'signs seen on the way,' eV<J5<o< <rifytj3oAoi
(Aesch. Prom. 487).
2. ducat : attend.
3. rava : Epode 16. 33, ravos leones, tawny, fire-eyed. Lanu-
vium lay on a height (decurrens), about a mile east of the Appian
Way, the route to Brtmdisium and Greece.
5. rumpat : it is quibbling to object that the same journey can-
not be attended and broken off by bad omens. If Galatea was
superstitious, she would turn back and start with happier auspices.
Gaston Boissier, Religion Romaine, 1. 15.
6. per obliquum : i.e. darting athwart. similis sagittae :
Aeschylus, Eumen. 181, calls the arrow ir-r^i/bj' apy-riffr^v 6<piv.
Dante, Inferno, 25, Come il ramarro . . . Folgore par, se la via
attraversa ; ibid. 8. 13 ; Verg. G. 4. 313.
7. mamios : Gallic ponies, Epode 4. 14. n. cui: i.e. ei cui
timebo . . . suscitabo (11).
9-12. In writing Sapphics it is often necessary to choose be-
tween giving nothing or an entire strophe to the expression of
an idea. Hence perhaps this awkward expansion of the simple
thought, 'I will prevent (anticipate) bad omens with good.'
stantes : stagnant. Or does it suggest the dead lull before the
shower ? For the signs of rain, cf. Arat. Phaen. 949 ; Verg.
G. 1. 388.
10. divina avis: cf. 3. 17. 12; Lucret. 5. 1083; A. P. 218,
380 NOTES.
divina futuri ; Milton, P. L. 9, ' Yet oft his heart, divine of some-
thing ill' ; ibid. 7, (birds) that 'wedge their way intelligent of sea-
sons/ Verg. G. 1. 415 denies that it is quia sit divinitus illis \
ingenium.
11. oscinem : for special force and distinction from praepes, cf.
Lex. s.v. oscen ; Verg. Aen. 3. 361.
12. soils ab ortu : the lucky quarter. Cf. laevus, 15 ; solis ab,
4. 15. 16.
13. sis: optative. licet helps fill the measure. Sis licet is
phraseological (Plaut. Rud. 139). But the suggestion per me licet
is not really wanted. Yet cf. Propert. 1. 8. 17, sed quocumqne
modo de me periura mereris, \ Sit Galatea tune non aliena viae.
The smooth sweetness of this strophe seems intentional.
14. memor nostri : a formula. Cf. 3. 11. 51. n.
15. laevus : boding ill on the left. Cf. Verg. Eel. 9. 15, sinistra
. . . comix. In augural usage laevus was propitious. Cf. Lex.
s.v. II. C. The Augustan poets generally follow Greek usage,
which conforms to the natural associations of ' right' and 'left.'
16. vaga : on the icing to the pools (10). Cf. 4. 4. 2. n.
18. pronus : Lex. I. B. Cf. 1. 29. 11, 4. 6. 39, for other uses
of the hardworked word. Orion : 1. 28. 21. n. quid sit: Sat.
1. 6. 15 ; Epp. 1. 11. 7 ; almost ' all about.' ater : fatal, 1. 28. 13,
atrae ; or, in the darkness of the storm, 2. 16. 2 ; Macaulay cited
on 1. 3. 20, and Regillus 36, ' So comes the squall blacker than
night | Upon the Adrian main ' ; or, when its waves blacken under
the wind (1. 5. 7. n. ; Verg. Aen. 3. 195), so contrasting with the
bright sky overhead (albus lapyx, 1. 1. 15).
19. novi : he had crossed to Greece. Cf. also 2. 6. 7 ; 3. 4. 28.
sinus : Epode 10. 19 ; Catull. 4. 9, trucemve Ponticum sinum ;
F. Q. 2. 7. 14, 'And in frail wood on Adrian gidfdoih. fleet.'
19-20. quid . . . peccet : his misdeeds ; possibly his treachery.
Cf. Lucret. 2. 557.
20. lapyx: 1. 3.4.
21. bostium : hostibus eveniat was almost proverbial. Cf. Ov.
A. A. 3. 247 ; Propert. 4. 7. 20 ; Verg. G. 3. 513. See 1. 21. 13-16 ;
Apoll. Rhod. 4. 448, 8vff(j.fvt<ai> M -natalv. caecos: un(fore)seen,
i.e. squalls. Cf. 2. 13. 16, caeca . . . fata; Verg. Aen. 3. 200,
caecis erramus in undis, ' where noway appears' ; cf. Tenn., Talk-
BOOK III., ODE XXVII. 381
ing Oak, ' those blind motions of the-spring, | That show the year
is turned.'
22. sentiant : 2.7.10; 4.4.25. orientis: surgentis normal
of wind. Cf. Verg. Aen. 3. 481, surgentes Austros.
23. nigri : 1. 5. 7. n. Note the r-sounds. Cf. Pope, ' But when
loud surges lash the sounding shore | The hoarse, rough verse should
like the torrent roar.'
24. verbere: cf. 3. 1. 29; 3. 12. 3; Verg. Aen. 3. 423, et
sidera verberat undo; Ov. Trist. 1. 4. 8; Procl. Hyrnn. 6, KC/xa |
Trdvra Tro\v<p\oi<r&oi(nv tots pttOpoimv tfj.dffaov. The wind lashing the
waves is more common. Cf. Anth. Pal. 5. 180. 5 ; 7. 696 ; Lucret.
6. 115.
25-26. doloso credidit : see 1. 6. 9. n. ; 3. 5. 33.
26. latus: 2. 7. 18.
26-27. scatentem beluis : 1. 3. 18; 4. 14. 47.
27. medias fraudes : the perils that environed, or possibly the
ruse that betrayed her. She had come into the midst of dangers,
or the ambush planned by Zeus.
28. palluit audax : but now so bold, paled with fear at. So
expalluit trans., Epist. 1. 3. 10. Contrast the oxymoron of 3. 20. 3.
Cf. Ov. Met. 2. 860, metuit contingere primo ; 868-869, ansa est . . .
tergo considere tauri; 873, Pavet haec, litusque ablata relictnm \
respicit.
29. nuper : pointing the contrast between the picture in 29-30
and that in 31-32. studiosa : puellari studio, Ov. Met. 5. 393,
of Proserpina in like case.
30. debitae : 1. 36. 2 ; 2. 7. 17.
31. sublustri : Verg. Aen. 9. 373, sublustri noctis in umbra;
Shaks. M. N. Dream, 2. 1, 'Didst thou not lead him through the
glimmering night ?' These two lines follow Moschus, 2. 127. Cf.
Spenser, Muiopotmos, ' But (Lord !) how she in every member
shook, | When as the land she saw no more appear, | But a wild
wilderness of waters deep : | Then 'gan she greatly to lament and
weep.'
33 sqq. The bull vanishes, and Venus consoles the conscience-
stricken maid, pending the return of the god in his proper shape.
Moschus, 2. 158, and Lucian, Dial. Mar. 15, are more direct.
33. simul: 1. 9. 9. n. centum, etc. : Homer's K^rrj f/car^-
382 NOTES.
iro\n, II. 2, 649, was a literary commonplace ; Epode 9. 29 ; Verg.
Aen. 3. 106 ; Sen. Tro. 830, urbibus centum spatiosa Crete ; ' In the
hundred cities of Crete such glory was not of old,' Swinb. Ode on
Insurrection in Candia.
34. pater : in Homer, II. 14. 321, Phoenix ; in Ovid and Lucian,
Age nor.
35. If filiae is dat. agent, nomen refers to pater ; if, preferably,
genitive, she breaks off incoherently: 'Father nay, I have re-
nounced the name of daughter.' Cf. Andromache's cry, 11. 22. 477,
"EKTOP, lyb Svarrivos ; Eurip. Medea, 166. Note the nominatives in
exclamation.
36. victa : Ov. Met. 13. 663, victa metu pietas.
37. unde quo : the eager Greek double interrog. of excitement,
TI'S ir69fv, and the like ; Verg. Aen. 10. 670, quo feror, unde abii.
But there may be also a hint of the Greek, airb o'las . . . es o"av
(Thucyd. 7. 75), i.e. from that flowery mead to this desolate shore.
una mors : seems quasi-proverbial, like Greek 'die many times.'
Cf. Propert. 5. 4, 17, et satis una malae potuit mors esse puellae ?
38. virginum : the plural generalizes and softens. culpae :
dat. ; see 3. 6. 17. vigilans, etc. : do I wake, or am I innocent, and
is it all a dream ?
39. vitiis : suggests and avoids vitio.
40. ludit : 3. 4. 5 ; Verg. Aen. 1. 408.
41. vana quae : cf. nota quae, 1.2. 10; proxima quae, Verg.
Aen. 3. 397. Others, vana, quae against rhythm and idiom.
eburna : the ivory gate of false dreams is well known from Verg.
Aen. 6. 898 ; Odyss. 19. 562.
42. meliusne : self-taunting irony.
42-43. fluctus . . . longos : not Homer's Kv/aia-ra /j.at<pd, but the
r6(Ti}v a\a of Moschus, 2. 153. Cf. 3. 3. 37, longus pontus.
43. recentes : cf. 4. 1. 32. n.
45. siquis : Horace's familiarity with Greek makes it safe to
say that this is a wish passing into a condition. The bull has dis-
appeared.
46. lacerare : cf. 1. 71 ; the big words, frangere, enitar, express
the impotens ira of the petulant girl.
47. modo . . . amati : she had twined its horns with flowers.
Ov. Met. 2. 868 ; *al Kvae -ravpov, Mosch. 96.
BOOK III., ODE XXVII. 383
49. impudens : cf. 3. 11. 30, impiae.
50. Orcum moror : to keep death or Charon waiting is a familiar
expression in Greek. Eurip. Alcest. 255. Cf. 1. 58, quid mori
cessas ? Stat. Theb. 7. 364.
52. nuda : may, but need not, mean defenseless. With the
whole cf. Catull. 45. 6, Solus in Libya Indiaque tosta \ caesio
veniam obvius leoni ; Shaks., All's Well, 3. 2, ' better 'twere | I met
the ravin lion when he roared | With sharp constraint of hunger.'
53. decentes : cf. 1. 4. 6. n.
54. sucus : she was still, like Sir John Suckling's 'Bride,' and
the girl in Terence, 'full of juice,' corpus solidum et suci plenum
(Ter. Eun. 318). Cf. arida, 2. 11. 6 ; inrfo i}3ijy, A nth. Pal. 5. 258.
55. praedae : with self-pity. speciosa : still fair. A solici-
tude avowed by Sir John Falstaff ('a death that I abhor; for the
water swells a man ') may be permitted a coquettish girl. But
the feeling is a 'survival' of primitive beliefs. Cf. Odyss. 11;
Verg. Aen. 6. 494 ; Soph. Antig. 817 ; Stat. Silv. 2. 1. 154 ; Chariton,
I. 5. 7, Gtyunfv Ka\\ipr>6r)v en Ka\r)t> ; F. Q. 1. 10.42, 'Ah, dearest
God, me grant. I dead be not defoul'd ! '
57. pater urget : his stern image pursues her ; but the words
that follow belong still to her soliloquy. For urget, cf. 1. 22. 20 ;
Ep. 17. 25 ; Milton, P. L. 1, 'but torture without end | still urges. 1
58-59. potes hac . . . zona : everything is ready.
59. bene : bitter irony. Cf. non bene, 2. 7. 10. The zone was
the symbol of maidenhood. Odyss. 11. 245 ; Catull. 2. 13.
00. laedere collum : perhaps intentional ,ueia><m. But we must
not overinterpret. The prosaic elidere fauces would be hard to
manage.- Cf. 2. 13. 6. n. The heroines of Greek tragedy choose
hanging as method of suicide.
61. sive : 1. 15. 25. rupes, etc.: the cliffs and the jagged
rocks below made sharp for thy death. Cf. lo in Aesch. Prom. 748.
62. procellae : the gale that will waft her out and down.
63. erile : set by a mistress. So erilis Jilius, ' master's son.'
64. carpere pensum : to card the stint of wool, and aid the
mistress in spinning, was the traditional task of the bond maiden.
II. 6. 456 ; Propert. 4. 5. 15.
65. regius sanguis : emphasizing the ignominy. So Creusa,
Verg. Aen. 2. 785-786, non ego . . . Graiis servitum matribus ibo \
384 NOTES.
Dardanis et divae Veneris nurus. For sanguis, cf . 2. 20. 6 ; 4. 2.
14. tradi : to her mercies. Cf. the treatment of Andromache by
Hermione, Eurip. Andr.
66-67. barbarae : not Greek or Latin, 1. 29. 6. Europa herself
is ' barbarian.' But Horace has the plaints of Greek tragedy in
mind. Cf., however, 3. 5. 49 ; 4. 12. 7, 'cruel.' paelex : and hence
an object of jealousy, 3. 10. 15; Epode 3. 13. aderat : dramati-
cally we see her approach with mocking smile while the heroine
declaims. perfidum: cf. 1. 22. 23; 2. 12. 14.
67-68. remisso . . . arcu : his bolt was shot. Somewhat dif-
ferently Tenn., Eleanore, 7, ' His bow-string slacken'd, languid
Love, | Leaning his cheek upon his hand, | Droops both his wings,
regarding thee.'
69-70. lusit : sc. Venus. irarum : see 2. 9. 1 7 ; 4. 9. 38 for gen.
71. cum: tune cum. laceranda, etc., mocking repetition of 45.
73. uxor . . . esse : by Greek idiom for te uxarem esse. But
disce, below, favors ' knowest not how to comport thyself as.'
74. mitte: 3. 8. 17.
75. sectus orbis : half the world, which some divided into two
parts (Sail. Jug. 17 ; Varro, L. L. 5. 31 ; Isoc. Pan. 179 ; Pliny,
N. H. 3. 5) ; others into three (Find. Pyth. 9. 8 ; Cic. de Nat. Deor.
2. 165 ; Ov. Fast. 5. 617). In Moschus, she dreams that two con-
tinents contend for her.
76. nomina : 4. 2. 3. n. ; Ov. Met. 15. 96, nomen. ducet : so
Sat. 2. 1. 66, duxit . . . nomen.
ODE XXVIII.
A summons to Lyde to celebrate the festival of Neptune (Nep-
tunalia, July 23), not in the company of the picnicking mob, but
with good old Caecuban wine and Amoebean song at home.
1-2. A happy thought. Cf. Tibull. 2. 1. 29, non festa luce ma-
dere \ est rubor errantes et male ferre pedes.
2. prome: 1. 36. 1 1 . reconditum : 1. 20. 3; 2. 3. 8 ; Ep. 9. 1.
3. strenua : if we could determine the controversy which rages
in Germany as to whether Lyde is the severe housekeeper at the
Sabine farm (like the ' Lyddy ' of Felix Holt), or a casual flute girl,
BOOK III., ODE XXVIII. 385
we should know whether strenua is to be taken as an attribute, or
adverbially with prome.
4. Cf. F. Q. 2. 11. 1, ' What war so cruel, or what siege so sore |
As that which strong affections do apply | Against the fort of
reason evermore.' Cf. 3. 21. 14; 4. 12. 28, for the moral. For
the image, cf. further, Munro on Lucret. 2. 7, bene quam munita
tenere \ edita doctrina sapientum templa serena; Wordsworth,
' Students with their pensive citadels.'
5. inclinare : cf. inclinato iam in postmeridianum tempus die
(Cic. Tusc. 3. 3. 7) ; Sol meridie se inclinavit (Livy, 9. 32. 6) ; Sol
inclinat (Juv. 3. 316) ; inclinabat dies (Tac. Ann. 12. 39. 2) ;
$tie\tvbv K\'LVOVTOS vwb 6$ov i)(\ioio (Apoll. Rhod. 1. 432). The
whole heaven revolves, carrying the sun and stars with it. Cf.
Lucret. 2. 1097, 5. 510 ; Verg. Aen. 2. 250 ; Milton, P. L. 4, 'for the
sun | Declined was hasting now with prone career | To th' ocean
isles, and in th' ascending scale | Of heaven the stars that usher
evening rose.'
6. et : and yet. stet volucris : cf. on 1. 6. 9 ; 1.11.7; 4. 13. 16.
7. deripere: cf. 3. 21. 7, the strong word like the reproachful
parcis expresses impatient haste. horreo : i.e. the apotheca.
Cf. on 3. 8. 11.
8. cessantem: cf. on 3. 27. 58; 1. 27. 13. To his impatience
it seems to linger. Bibuli : the faineant consul with Caesar,
B.C. 59, when the wits dated their letters, lulio et Caesare con-
sulibus. The name Bibnlus is ominous. For dating of wine, cf.
3. 21. 1 ; 3. 8. 12.
9. The result is the same, whether nos means we, and invicem,
in turn, ' I 1 being implied for 1. 10, or (preferably) nos is ' T,' and
invicem, in my turn.
10. virides: cf. on 1. 17. 20; Epode 13. 16. Sea-goddesses
wear the hues of ' the pale-green sea-groves' (Tenn. The Merman).
11. curva: 1. 10. 6. recines: 3. 27. 1 ; 1. 12. 3.
12. Cf. 1. 21. 3; 1. 15. 17 ; 1. 12. 22 ; 1. 21. 2.
13. summo carmine : apparently, we will join in a final hymn
to Venus (earn) quae . . . tenet. For summo, cf. Epp. 1. 1. 1,
summa dicende Camena. Cnidon: cf. on 1. 30. 1.
14. tenet: cf. 3. 4. 62. Cycladas : cf. on 1. 14. 19-20; Verg.
Aen. 3. 126.
2c
386 NOTES.
15. iunctis . . . oloribus: so 4. 1. 10. In Sappho, Aphrodite's
car is drawn by (TTpouBji, sparrows. Statins, Silv. 1. 2. 141, Silius,
7. 440, assign her a team of swans. So Ovid, Met. 10. 708, 718.
English poets vary. Spenser, Prothal. 63, 'that same pair (of
swans) | Which through the sky draw Venus' silver team ' ; Shaks.
R. and J. 2. 5, 'Therefore do nimble-pinioned doves draw love.'
Cf. Tempest, 4. 1, 'dove-drawn'; Marlowe, Hero and Leander,
' and then God knows I play, | With Venus' swans and sparrows
all the day'; 'His mother's doves and team of sparrows' (Lyly,
Cupid and Campaspe). iunctis: 'like Juno's swans | Still they
went coupled and inseparable' (Shaks.).
16. dicetur: hence perhaps ea cantabitur, not earn cantabimus,
above, 1. 13. nenia : not a dirge, as 2. 1. 38, but a sweet and low,
plaintive good-night song.
ODE XXIX.
Come, Maecenas, to the wine and roses that await you at the
Sabine farm. Linger no more amid the smoke and din of Home,
gazing longingly from the cloud-capt towers of your gorgeous
palace towards Tusculum and Tibur. Luxury palls at times.
Come, ' give thy soul a loose, and taste 'the pleasures of the poor.'
The dog-star rages ; the midsummer midday quiet holds the hill.
'Tis better up in a villa than down in the city. A truce to cares
of state. God veils the future from us. The course of our life is
a rushing stream. To-day only is ours. The well-filled hour is a
gift which, once granted, God himself cannot withdraw. Cruel
Fortune loves to sport with the life of man ; but I will be no stop
for her finger to play what tune it will. If she smile, ' we smile
the lords of many lands ' ; and if she frown, ' we smile the lords of
our own hands.' When the Southwester descends on the Aegean,
and the wealthy merchant grovels in prayer lest he be driven to
' enrobe the roaring waters with his silks,' my little life-boat and
the great Twin Brethren shall bear me safely through the storm.
Lines 25-28 point to the date of Augustus' absence in the West,
B.C. 25 and 26.
There is a translation by Sir John Beaumont (Johnson's Poets,
6. 19). Dryden's Pindaric Paraphrase is a classic. See also- the
Sargent prize translation, Scribner's Magazine, vol. 8, p. 683.
1. Tyrrhena : cf. 1. 1. 1. n. For the hypallage, cf. Epode 10
12. n. ; Munro on Lucret. 1. 474 ; 4. 734.
BOOK III., ODE XXIX. 387
2. verso : tipped, decanted, broached. The cadus held about
t\\\> uallons. lene: mellow. Cf. 3. 21. 8 ; Epp. 1. 15. 18.
3. flore . . . rosarum : 2. 3. 14 ; 3. 15. 15 ; 4. 10. 4 ; Simon.
fr. 148, fidSwv aa>Tois ; Browning, Fra Lippo Lippi, ' Flower o' the
rose, | If I've been merry what matter who knows ? '
4. tuis : cf. 2. 7. 20, tibi destinatis. balanus: 'ben nut.' See
Lex. ; ' Arabian dew ' or ' Tirian balm ' will serve. Cf. Herrick,
201 , ' Now raignes the Rose, and now | Th' Arabian Dew besmears I
My uncontrolled brow, | And my retorted haires.'
5. iamdudum : he has been waiting. So Epp. 1.5. 7, iamdu-
dum splendet focus et tibi munda supellex.
6. ne: some Mss. read nee. udum : 1.7.13; 4.2.30; Ov. Fast.
4. 71, et iam Telegoni iam moenia Tiburis udi \ Stabant. Aefulae:
in the hills between Praeneste and Tibur. Formerly misspelled
Aesulae (Livy, 26. 9. 9). Cf. Clough, Amours de Voyage, ' Seen
from Montorio's height Tibur and Aesula's hills.'
8. Telegoni iuga : Tusculum, founded by Telegonus, son of
Circe and Ulysses, who traveled in search of his father and unwit-
tingly slew him in Ithaca. Arist. Poet. 14 ; Hygin. Fab. 127 ;
Epode 1. 29.
9. fastidiosam : 3. .1. 37, that palls, cloys,' Propert. 1. 2. 32,
taedia dum miserae sint tibi divitiae. Fastu taedium (?).
4 Deep weariness and sated lust made human life a hell.' For
this Roman ennui, cf. Lucret. 3. 1060 sqq.; Victor Hugo, Odes et
Ballades, 4. 8.
10. niolem : pile (2. 15. 2), his palace on the Esquiline. See
Sat. 1. 8. 14 ; Lanciani, Ancient Rome, p. 67 ; Merivale, 4. 199 ;
Epode 9. 3. From its tower, the turris Maecenatiana, Nero was
said to have watched Rome burn (Suet. Nero, 38). It commanded
the entire Campagna towards Tusculum and Tibur.
11. 5mitte : 1. 16. 19, stetere; Epp. 1. 18. 79, omitte tueri.
beatae : 1. 4. 14 ; 3. 26. 9.
12. A famous line. Cf. Tenn. In Mem. 89, 'The dust and din
and steam of town.' To Rev. F. D. Maurice, 'far from noise and
smoke of town ' ; Stat. Silv. 1. 1. 65, Septem per culmina caelo \ it
fragor et magnae vincit vaga murmura Bomae ; Arnold, Resigna-
tion, ' Here, whence the eye first sees, far down | Capp'd with faint
smoke the noisy town.'
388 NOTES.
13. gratae: sc. sunt. vices: change (Quint. 1. 12. 5).
14. mundae : 1. 5. 5 ; Sat. 2. 2. 05 ; Epp. 2. 2. 199. sub lare -.
i.e. beneath the humble roof. Cf. 1. 5. 3 ; 1. 12. 44.
15. aulaeis : tapestries, strictly canopies above the dining-hall,
triclinium (Verg. Aen. 1. 697 ; Sat. 2. 8. 54). ostro : the purple
of tapestries and upholstery (Lucret. 2. 35-36).
16. explicuere : gnomic. Sat. 2. 2. 125, explicuit vino con-
tractae seria frontis.
17. clams occultum : 1. 6. 9. n.; Epist. 1. 12. 18, obscimtm.
Cepheus, King of Aethiopia, the father of Andromeda, was
'sphered up with Cassiopeia' her mother 'that starr'd Ethiop
queen that strove | To set her beauty's praise above | The Sea-
nymphs, and their pow'rs offended ' (Milton, II. Pens. ; Ov. Met. 4.
667). The constellation begins to show bright the light hidden
before early in July.
18. ostendit : Catull. 62. 7, nimirum Oetaeos ostendit noctifer
icjnes. Procyon: (lit. antecanis) the minor dog-star rises in the
morning, July 15, about eleven days before Sirius the ' dog of
Orion.' furit : Pope, 'the dog-star rages' ; Dryden, ' The Syrian
(sic) star [ Barks from afar. 1
19. stella . . . Leonis : Regulus, a Leonis, rises July 30.
vesani : the word, A. P. 455 ; the thing, Epp. 1. 10. 16, et rabiem
Canis et momenta Leonis ; Mart. 9. 90. 12, et fervens iuba saeviet
leonis. Cf. insana, 3. 7. 6.
20. siccos : also in sense of 4. 12. 13.
21-24. A summer picture. Cf.Tenn., CEnone, 'For now the noon-
day quiet holds the hill' ; Theoc. 7.22; Tibull. 1.1.27; Sellar, p. 180;
Odes, 2. 5. 6 ; 3. 13. 9-12 ; and the idyll of spring, 4. 12. 9-12.
22-23. horridi : shagged, the god of the bush is bushy. Cf.
4. 5. 26. n. Silvani: Epode 2. 22. n.
23-24. caret . . . ventis : ' No stir of air was there, | Not so
much life as on a summer's day | Robs not one light seed from
the feathered grass ' (Keats, Hyperion).
25. tu : 2. 9. 9. n. status : policy, constitution. As vague a
word as ratio, res causa. Maecenas had been chief counselor in
the establishment of the new constitution of the Empire. Dio,
52. 16. He would feel the burden of responsibility in Augustus'
absence. For the tone of the strophe, see 2. 11. 1-4 ; 3. 8. 16-20.
BOOK III., ODE XXIX. 389
26. urbi : with times preferably Urbi et Orbi, of course.
27. Seres: 1. 12. 56; 4. 15. 23, ironical hyperbole. regnata:
2. 6. 11. Gyro: 2. 2. 17. n.
28. Bactra: Xen. Cyr. 1. 1. 4, ^p{ 8e Kal BaKTplav. A Greek
Bactrian kingdom existed circa 250-125 B.C. The remotest
Parthian province is put for the Parthian Empire. Propert. 4.
1. 16, qui finem imperil Bactra futura cement. Tanais: i.e.
Tunain props flumen orti (4. 15. 24), the Scythians. Cf. 2. 9. 21 ;
2. 20. 20. discors : and so less dangerous to us. 3. 8. 19.
29. prudens: 1. 3. 22. n. For the commonplace, cf. Pind. O.
12. 7-9 ; Solon, fr. 17 ; Isoc. 13. 2 ; Eurip. Alcest. 786 ; Thucyd.
passim; Benn, Greek Philosophers, 1. 46; 2. 126; Peele, 'But
things to come exceed our human reach | And are not painted yet
in angel's eyes ' ; Pope, Essay on Man, ' Heaven from all creatures
hides the book of fate | All but the page prescribed the present
state ' ; Arnold, To a Gipsy Child, ' The Guide of our dark steps a
triple veil | Betwixt our senses and our sorrow keeps ' ; Emerson,
Experience, ' God delights to isolate' us every day, and hide from
us the past and the future. . . He draws down before us an im-
penetrable screen,' etc. Cf. Bacchyl. 16. 32, 10. 46.
30. caliginosa: Juv. 6. 556, et genus humanum damnat caligo
futuri ; Theog. 1077, opQvr) yap rerarai. preniit : 1. 4. 16.
31. ridet : ' The gods laugh in their sleeve | To watch man
doubt and fear' (Arnold, Ernped.) ; 'But God laughs at a man
who says to his soul, Take thy ease ' (Cowley, Of Myself) ; ' And
how God laughs in heaven when any man | Says " Here I'm learned,
this I understand"' (Mrs. Browning). Cf. also, Psalms 2. 4;
Aesch. Eumen. 560 ; Milt. P. L. 8, ' perhaps to move | His laugh-
ter. ' mortalis : emphasizing the Ov-nra <ppovtlv of the Greeks.
Cf. 2. 16. 17 ; 1. 4. 15 ; 1. 11. 6 ; 4. 7. 7.
31-32. ultra fas: 1. 11. 1.
32. trepidat : 2. 11. 4 ; 2. 3. 12. We need not take it definitely
of unlawful pryings into futurity, but merely of man's vain agita-
tions rhomme s'agite.
32-33. quod adest . . . componere : ri> irapbv OeoQai ica\>s,
' Improve the present hour, for all beside (cetera) \ Is a mere
feather on the torrent's tide ' (Cowper, On Bill of Mortality, 1788).
32. memento: 1. 7. 17; 2. 3. 1.
390 NOTES.
33. aequus: 2. 3. 1. n. cetera: 1. 0. 9.
33-34. fluminis ritu: 3. 14. 1 ; A. P. 62; Sat. 2. 3. 268, tern-
pestatis prope ritu. For comparison of life to personified river,
cf. Words. River Duddon, 9, 32, 33 ; Arnold, Sohrab and Rustum,
in fine, ; Shelley, Alastor, etc.
34. medio: cf. 4. 7. 3-4; 1. 2. 18. alveo: 3. 7. 28.
35. cum pace: A. G. 248; B. 220; G. L. 399; H. 419. III.
The line too flows peaceably. Etruscum : for elision, cf. 2. 3. 27.
36. adesos : for wave-worn pebbles, cf. Theoc. 22. 49.
37-41. For river in flood, cf. 4. 14. 28 ; Ov. Met. 1. 285 ; Lucret.
1. 281 ; Verg. G. 1. 481 ; Aen. 2. 496, 12. 523 ; F. Q. 2. 11. 18.
39. clamore: II. 17. 165; Verg. Aen. 3. 566.
40. diluvies: 4. 14. 28; Lucret. 5. 255, 6. 292, ad diluviem
revocari. diluvium normal. quietos r sc. before. Cf. occultum,
17. Cf. 1. 31. 7, quieta.
41. inritat : cf. Milton's 'vexed the Red Sea coast'; Tenn.,
' vext the dim sea.' amnes: its waters, or possibly the minor
tributary streams. See Pliny, Epp. 8. 17. potens sui : fyKpa-r^s
eavrov, avrdpKris. ' This man is freed from servile bands | Of hope
to rise, or fear to fall ; | Lord of himself, though not of lands ; |
| And having nothing, yet hath all' (Sir H. Wotton). Cf. Epp.
1. 16. 65.
42. in diem: Sat. 2. 6. 47 with dixisse; in diem vivere is to
live from hand to mouth.
43. vixi : see Seneca's sermon on this text, Epist. 12 ; Cowley,
Of Myself, ' But boldly say each night, | To-morrow let my sun his
beams display | Or in clouds hide them I have lived to-day';
Emerson, Works and Days, 'so that I shall not say . . . "Behold,
also an hour of my life has gone " but rather, " I have lived an
hour." ' eras : cf. Martial, 2. 90. 3 ; 1. 15. 11, non est, crede mihi,
sapientis dicere ' vivam ' ; | Sera nimis vita est crastina ; vive hodie ;
Herrick, 656, ' Drink wine, and live here blithefull, while ye may :
The morrow's life too late is, Live to-day.' But that is rather the
lighter vein of 1. 11. 8. Stoic and Epicurean unite in the faith
that respect for the present hour is the only wisdom.
44. polum: 1. 28. 6. pater: 1. 2. 2.
45. puro : 3. 10. 8. n. inritum : void; diffingct, 1. 35. 39,
recast, reshape ; infectum, undone, are cumulative expressions of
BOOK HI., ODE XXIX. 391
the old thought : ' But past who can recall, or done undo ? | Not
God omnipotent, nor Fate ' (Milton, P. L. 9). Cf. Find. O. 2. 18-20 ;
Theog. 583 ; Simon, fr. 69 ; Agathon in Aristot. Eth. 6. 2 ; Tenn. In
Mem. 85, 'The all-assuming months and years | Can take no part
away from this ' ; Pliny, N. H. 2. 27 ; Plato, Protag. 324 B.
48. fugiens : 1. 11. 7. n. nor a vexit: some insist that vexit =
avexit into the past because of semel (1. 24. 16). But semel can
mean what is once (for all) mine as well as what is once past ; and
the hours as bringers of gifts are a tradition of poetry. Homer,
II. 21. 450 ; Theoc. 15. 104 ; Spenser, Epithal. ' But first come ye
fair Hours,' etc.; Mrs. Browning, Son. fr. Port. I., 'I thought
once how Theocritus had sung | Of the sweet years, the dear and
wished-for years, | Who each one in a gracious hand appears | To
bear a gift for mortals, old or young ' ; Congreve, Mourning Bride,
1. 1. 7 ; Tenn., Love and Duty, ' The slow, sweet hours that bring
us all things good, | The slow, sad hours that bring us all things
ill.' See also 3. 8. 27, dona home, and for vexit, Verg. G. 1. 461,
quid vesper serus vehat; Lucret. 3. 1085, posteraque in dubiost
fortunam quam vehat aetas.
49-56. Fortuna, etc. : see Dryden in Lyra Elegantiarum, 87.
49. saevo laeta : 1. 6. 9. n. ; Boeth. Cons. Phil. 2. 1, gemitus
dura quos fecit ridet ; sic ilia ludit, sic suas probat vires.
50. ludum : 2. 1. 3. n. ; Sat. 2. 8. 62; 1. 34. 15-16 ; 1. 35; Tenn.
Enid's Song in Geraint and Enid ; Anth. Pal. 10. 64, 10. 80 ; Juv.
6. 608 ; F. Q. 3. 7. 4, ' That fortune all in equal lance (scales) doth
sway | And mortal miseries doth make her play.'
53. laudo manentem, etc. : ' I can enjoy her while she's kind ; |
But when she dances in the wind, | And shakes her wings and will
not stay, | I puff the prostitute away : | The little or the much she
gave, is quietly resigned : | Content with poverty my soul I arm ; |
And virtue, tho' in rags, will keep me warm-' (Dryden). Cf. The
Newcomes ; Burns, ' Blind chance, let her snapper and stoyte on her
way ; | Be't to me, be't frae me, e'en let the jade gae.' manen-
tem: a rare coin of Commodus is inscribed, FORTUNAE MANENTI.
Plutarch (de Fort. Rom. c. 4) said that Fortune laid aside her
wings when she came to the Romans. So the Greeks worshiped
a Wingless Victory.
54. Pemuu : cf . 1. 34. 15. Cf. Frouto, Oral. p. 157, ed. Naber.
392 NOTES.
Fortunas omnes cum pennis, cum rotis, CMVI gubernaculo rcperias,
resigno : so Epp. 1. 7. 34. Apparently a commercial term =
rescribo (Festus), I make an entry on the opposite side, and so
cancel the debt, repay, resign. See Lex. s.v. II.
55. virtute . . . involve : in the cloak of my virtue. So the
women in Plato, Rep. 457 A, are clothed in virtue, as Tennyson's
Godiva is ' clothed on with chastity.'
56. sine dote : choosing Poverty for a bride, like St. Francis,
in Dante.
57. non est meum is sermo familiaris. Cf. Plaut. As. 190.
mugiat, etc. : 3. 10. 6. n. ; 1. 1'4. 5-6.
58. miseras : craven, abject, groveling.
59. decurrere: Verg. Aen. 5. 782, preces descendere in omnes;
Herod. 1. 116, Ka-raftaivfiv. votis pacisci : contemptuously of
the mercantile conception of prayer. Cf. 1. 31. 1 ; Plato, Eu-
thyphro, 14 E.
60-61. merces addant: M. of V. 1. 1, 'dangerous rocks |
Which, touching but my gentle vessel's side, | Would scatter all
her spices on , the stream, | Enrobe the roaring waters with my
silks.'
61. avaro . . . mari: 1. 28. 18, avidum; Shaks. Hen. V. 1. 2,
'And make your chronicles as rich with praise | As is the ooze
and bottom of the sea | With sunken wreck and sumless (sunless ?)
treasuries' ; Rich. III. 1. 4, 'unvalued jewels | All scattered in the
bottom of the sea.'
62. biremis: two-oared, not bireme with two banks of oars.
The scapha is a light skiff, or life-boat, attached to a larger vessel.
If we press the image, Horace escapes in this from the wreck of
the merchantman without lamenting the wealth he abandons. But
that is perhaps an over-curious interpretation , and the figure may
be merely the voyage of life.
63. Aegaeos: 2. 16. 2. tumultus: 3. 1. 26.
64. geminusque Pollux : cf. Catull. 4. 27, gcmelle Castor et
gemelle Castoris ; Epode 17. 42. See also, 1. 3. 2. n.
BOOK III., OLE XXX. 393
ODE XXX.
Epilogue to the three books of the Odes, circ. B.C. 24-23.
'There are but two strong conquerors of the forgetfulness of
men, Poetry and Architecture' (Ruskin, Lamp of Memory).
Horace boasts that he has built ' A forted residence 'gainst the
tooth of time and razure of Oblivion.'
For similar utterances of ancient poets, cf. Sappho, fr. 32 ;
Propert. 4. 1. 55; Ov. Am. 1. 15. 41 ; Met. 15. 871 sqq.; Phaedr.
Epil. bk. 4 ; Martial, 7. 84. 7. Cf. also Spenser's Epilogue to
Shepherd's Calendar ; Cowley on the Praise of Poetry ; and F. T.
Palgrave, Ancient and Modern Muse, 'The monument outlasting
bronze Was promised well by bards of old ; The lucid outline of
their lay Its sweet precision keeps for aye, Fix'd in the ductile lan-
guage gold.' ' Wonderful it seems to me ... that an infirm
and helpless creature, such as I am, should be capable of laying
thoughts up in their cabinets of words which time as he moves by,
with the revolutions of stormy and eventful years, can never move
from their places ' (Boccaccio, in Landor's Pentameron).
1. exegi : Ov. Met. 15. 871, iamque opus exegi. Cf . Ruskin's
phrase, ' I think the Dunciad is the most absolutely chiseled and
monumental work ' exacted' in our country.' aere : statues and
brazen tablets.
2. regali : cf. regiae, 2. 15. 1. situ: loosely for 'structure,'
' pile.' Others, less probably, ' crumbling magnificence,' 1 citing Mar-
tial, 8. 3. 5. pyramidum : cf . Spenser, Ruins of Time, ' In vain
do earthly Princes then, in vain, | Seek with Pyraniides, to heaven
aspired j ... To make their memories for ever live,' etc. ; cf.
Herrick, 201, ' Trust to good verses then ; they onely will aspire,
When Pyramids as men, Are lost, i' th' funerall fire'; cf. 211,
' His Poetrie His Pillar.' The last poem of the Hesperides is
quaintly printed as a pillar of fame. Cf. Milton's Epitaph on
Shakspere, 'Under a star-y-pointing Pyramid.'
3-5. edax : cf. Ov. Met. 15. 234, tempus edax rerum ; nee edax
abolere vetustas (Met. 15. 872). Cf. Burns, On Pastoral Poetry,
'The teeth o' Time may gnaw Tantallan, | But thou'9 forever.'
For tooth of time, cf. further Shaks. Son. 19, ' Devouring Time ' ;
394 NOTES.
Otto, p. 113 ; Simon, fr. 176. For imber, cf. Pindar, Pyth. 6. 10.
impotens: cf. on 1. 37. 10. fuga : cf. 2. 14. 1 ; 3. 29. 48.
6. non omuls : Herrick, 367, 'Thou shalt not All die.' pars :
cf. Ovid's parsque mei multa superstes erit (Am. 1. 15. 41), and
his parte tamen meliore mei super alia perennis \ astraferar (Met.
15. 875; Sen. Tro. 382).
7. Libitinam : melon omy for death, or rather to avoid tautol-
ogy with moriar, the rites of death. Cf. Lex. s.v. II. B. usque :
'still' with crescam. postera: of after-days, i.e. posterorum,
'It grows to guerdon after-days,' says Tennyson of 'praise.'
8. crescam: i.e. his fame. Cf. Propert. 4. 1. 34, posteritate
suum crescere sensit opus. recens : cf. Epist. 2. 1. 53, Naevius
in manibus non est et mentibus haeret \ paene recens?
8. Capitolium : the symbol of the eternity of Rome. Cf. 3. 3.
42 ; 1. 2. 3. n. ; Verg. Aen. 9. 448 ; Ovid, Trist. 3. 7. 51. Cf.
Sergeant, cited on 2. 20. 14.
9. scandet, etc. : there is a doubtful tradition (Lydus, de mens.
4. 36) that the Pontifex Maximus and the chief Vestal (virgo
maxima) went up to the Capitol on the ides of March to pray for
the welfare of the State. But Horace's impressive picture is
symbolical.
10. qua : with princeps . . . deduxisse rather than with dicor ;
but it is virtually the same thing to be remembered as a poet in his
humble birthplace, and to be remembered as one who in or from
that humble place attained the poet's fame. obstrepit: brawls.
Cf. 2. 18. 20 ; 4. 14. 48 ; Aufidus : 4. 9. 2 ; 4. 14. 25. It was sub-
ject to freshets.
11. pauper aquae : cf. Epode 3. 16, siticulosae Apuliae.
Daunus : 4. 14. 26 ; 1. 22. 14. agrestium : cf. 3. 16. 26 ; 4. 14.
26-27.
12. regnavit populorum : Pind. 0. 6. 34, avtipiav ' ' Pip>td*><av &va<rrr(.
Greek gen. ; cf. G. L. 383. 1. 3 ; H. 409, V. 3. ex humili potens :
cf. Soph. 0. T. 454, rv<t>\bs etc SeSopKdros, and Milton's ' speakable
of mute.' Horace always anticipates the sneers at his humble
origin. Cf. 2. 20. 5 ; Epist. 1. 20. 20. potens : cf. 4. 8. 26, poten-
tium vatum. Or, with Daunus to save Horace's modesty.
13-14. Horace's claim to originality is that he first introduced
Greek lyric measures into Latin poetry. He ignores the few
BOOK IV., ODE I. 395
experiments of Catullus. Cf. Sellar, p. 118, and Epist. 1. 19. 19-32.
Aeolium : cf. 1. 1. 34 ; 2. 13. 24 ; 4. 3. 12 ; 4. 9. 12.
14. deduxisse : has been interpreted by deducere coloniam, and
by such phrases as tenui deduct u poemata Jilo, Epp. 2. 1. 225 (from
spinning), and mille die versus deduci posse, S. 2. 1. 4. Sume
superbiam : opposite of pone superbiam, 3. 10. 9. modes:
loosely, the measures, the strains, the sounds and special laws of
the Latin tongue.
15. Delphica : Apollinari, 4. 2. 9 ; Phoebi Delphica laurus
(Lucret, 0. 154).
16. volens : so Qt\aiv, 0eAowo (Find, and Aeschyl.), graciously.
Serv. ad Aen. 1. 731, Sic enim dicunt : Volens propitiusque sis.
Cf . Livy, 7. 26 ; 1. 16. Melpomene : 1. 24. 3 ; 4. 3. 1 ; 1. 12. 2. n.
BOOK IV., ODE I.
Collecting at the age of fifty this little aftermath of occasional
poems, the chief of which were written in the quasi-official capacity
of poet laureate at the request of Augustus, Horace hi phrases
reminiscent of the earlier odes gracefully warns the friendly reader
that he must no longer be regarded as the light singer of the loves.
Cruel Venus shall spare him. He is too old for Cupid's wars.
Paulus Maxitnus, young, handsome, eloquent, all accomplished,
will grace her service more. Horace has ceased to dream that
' two human hearts can blend in one.' And yet . . .
For the main occasion of the book, see the introductions to 4,
5, 14, and 15. Ode 2 is a second deprecatory preface Horace
does not claim to be a Pindar. Odes 3, 6, 8, 9 proclaim the poet's
proud consciousness of his own fame and the power of poetry.
Ode 11 shows him still loyal to the old friendship for Maecenas.
Odes 10 and 13 recall old erotic motifs. Ode 7 is an exquisite
summary of his gentle Epicureanism tinged with poetic melancholy.
There is a translation of this ode by Jonson, Works, 3. 385 ;
by Rowe, Johnson's Poets, 9. 472 ; by Hamilton, ibid. 15. 639.
It is imitated by Pope and by Prior (Cantata).
396 NOTES.
I. intermissa : with bella. Again! after so long a respite.
2-3. bella : cf. on 3. 26. 2. moves : cf. on 1. 15. 10.
parce : 2. 19. 7. non sum quails: cf. 3. 14. 27 ; Epp. 1. 1. 4.
4. regno : metaphorical. Cf. regit, 3. 9. 9. Cinarae: appar-
ently the only creature of flesh and blood among all Horace's
Lydes and Lydias. Cf. on 4. 13. 21 ; Epp. 1. 14. 33, 1. 7. 28.
5. = 1. 19. 1. The love Leitmotiv is faintly heard again.
4-5. dulcium . . . saeva : cf. Sappho's y\v><vinKpov, and Catull.
68. A. 17, dea . . . quae dtilcem curis miscet amaritiem j Theog.
1353 ; cf. 1. 27. 11 n.
6. circa : the prepositional phrase without pronoun (me) or
participle is somewhat harsh. Latin has no definite article or
pres. part, of sum. lustra decem : Horace was 50, B.C. 15. Cf.
on 2. 4.24. flectere: 3. 7. 25. The figure seems to be that of a
hard-mouthed horse. mollibus : antithesis with durum.
7. imperils : dat. with durum rather than abl. with flectere.
So durus ad and ditrus with complementary inf.
8. revocant : re, (more) fitly, or simply back.
9. tempestivius : cf. tempestiva, 3. 19. 27.
10. Paulus Fabius Maximus, consul B.C. 11, a friend of Ovid
(ex Ponto, 1. 2 ; 2. 3. 75) and of Augustus (Tac. Ann. 1. 5). pur-
pureis : little more than bright. Cf. El. in Maec. 62, Bracchia
purpurea candidiora nive ; Vergil's lumenque iuventae purpureum
(Aen. 1. 590); Gray's 'purple light of love,' etc. ales: winged,
i.e. charioted by. oloribus : cf. on 3. 28. 15.
II. comissabere : Kwnafciv, hie with joyous revelry. Hence
in domum, like K. els or iro-rl.
12. torrere: 1. 33. 6, 3. 19. 28. iecur: 1. 13. 4. quaeris
with inf., 3. 24. 27.
13 sqq. et . . . et : the polysyndeton draws out the list of his
qualities. Cf. 2. 1. 1-5 ; 3. 11. 25 sqq.; 1. 36. 11 sqq., neu. nobi-
lis : Ov. ex Ponto, 1. 2. 1, Maxima, qui tanti mensuram nominis
imples.
14. Cf. 2. 1. 13 ; Ov. Pont. 1. 2. 118. non tacitus : cf. Intr.
15. centum : 2. 14. 26.. artium : cf . Catull. 12, 8, est enim
leporum disertus puer ac facetiarum.
16. signa feret : cf . Merry Wives, 3. 4, 'I must advance the
colors of my love.'
BOOK IV., ODE I. 397
17-20. And when by the grace of Venus he shall have smiled
in triumph over the gifts of a lavish rival, he will dedicate her
marble image in a shrine (possibly at his villa), by the lovely
lakes of the Alban Hills. quandoque : cf. 4. 2. 34 ; A. P. 359 ;
Lex. s.v. I.
18. muneribus : 3. 10. 13. Abl. comp. with potentior. riserit
. . . potentior: like risit . . . viduus, 1. 10. 12.
19. See description of the Lago d'Albano and the Lago di Nemi
in Hare's Days Near Rome.
20. ponet : cf. Sat. 2. 3. 183, aeneus tit stes ; Verg. Eel. 7. 31.
So in Gk. Iff-rdvai. citrea : The Romans misapplied the name
citrus (Vergil's Medic apple) to the African cedar. Cf. Hehn,
Kultur Pflanzen, p. 431. Milt. P. R. 4, 'Their sumptuous glut-
tonies and gorgeous feasts | On citron tables.'
21-29. The worship of Venus in the temple of the Poet's imagi-
nation. Cf. the Temple of Augustus, Verg. G. 3. 13 ; of Venus,
Chaucer, Knightes Tale, 1939 sqq. ; of Pysche in Keats' Ode.
22. duces : so ducere aerem, spiritum. tura : 1. 19. 14, 1. 30. 3.
Berecyntia: 1. 18. 13; 3. 19. 18. If we read lyra . . . Bere-
cyntia . . . tibia (abl. instr.), mixtis carminibus will be abl. abs.;
if we read lyrae, etc., with many editors and Mss., lyrae and tibiae
may be gen. with mixtis carminibus, or, conceivably, tibiae gen.
with carminibus, and lyrae dat. with mixtis. Cf. Epode 9. 5 ; and
for fistula, 1. 17. 10, 3. 19. 20.
25-26. At morning song and even song. teneris : 1. 21. 1.
27. candido : the naked foot gleams white in the dance, as in
Homer. Cf. on 3. 20. 11.
28-29. Salium: 1. 36. 12. ter : 3. 18. 16. humum : 1. 4. 7,
1. 37. 2. me: cf. on 1. 1. 29.
30 sqq. Cf. Sellar, p. 173. credula : 1. 5. 9. mutul : 3. 9. 13.
Cf. Arnold, To Marguerite, ' And love, if love, of happier men. |
Of happier men, for they at least | Have dreamed two human hearts
might blend | In one, and were through faith released | From iso-
lation without end.'
31. certare: 2. 12. 18; certare mero^Epp. 1.19. 11. Cf. 1.36. 18.
32. vincire: 1. 7. 23; 1. 4. 9. noviu: of spring, 1. 4. 10 ; or
fresh-plucked, 3. 4. 12. Cf. 3. 27. 43, recentes.
33-40. The playful inconsistency of 3. 26. 11.
398 NOTES.
33. Ligurine : the imaginary personage of 4. 10.
34. rara: cf. 1. 13. 6 ; furtim; contra, plurima Iccrima (Epp. 1.
17. 59). Or can it be, as a German editor suggests, that years have
dried the source ? Cf . Tenn. The Grandmother, ' Nor can I weep for
the rest ; | Only at your age, Annie, I could have wept with the best.'
35-36. Cf. Epode 11. 9; Catull. 51. 9, lingua sed torpet; Dido
in Verg. Aen. 4. 76, incipit effari, mediaque in voce resistit.
decora . . . inter : synapheia. Cf. 3. 29. 35.
40. aquas : cf on 3. 7. 26. volubilis: cf. Epp. 1. 2. 43, labi-
tur et labetur in omne volubilis aevum.
ODE II.
To vie with Pindar is to essay an Icarus flight. Like a river in
flood his lawless verse rushes on through Dithyramb, Paean, Epini-
kian, or Dirge. He is the tempest-cleaving swan of Dirce. I am
the laborious bee that gathers honey from flower to flower. 'Tis
thou, friend Julius, that must sing in lofty strain the pomp that
shall wind down the Sacred Way and the people's joy at Caesar's
vouchsafed return. Thou wilt sacrifice ten bulls in honor of the
glad day. A young calf will be a fit offering for me.
Apparently composed, like 5, about B.C. 14 in anticipation of
Augustus' return from the west, whither he had gone in B.C. 16
after the defeat of M. Lollius (cf. on 9) by the Sygambri. Julius
Antonius may have suggested that Horace should celebrate the
achievements of the emperor in Pindaric strain. Or the ode may
be a deprecatory preface to 4 and 14. The failure to mention the
victories of Drusus does not prove that it was written later.
Julius Antonius, the son of the triumvir and Fulvia, was brought
up by his step-mother Octavia and treated as a member of the
Julian house by Augustus, who married him to Marcella, the
daughter of Octavia, and raised him to the consulship B.C. 10.
He was the author of an Epic in twelve books, the Diomedea.
On the discovery of his intrigue with the emperor's daughter, Julia,
he was put to death, B.C. 2. Cf. Veil. 2. 100 ; Dio. 55. 10.
For the influence of Pindar upon Horace, see Arnold, Grie-
chischen Studien des Horaz, p. 102 sqq ; cf. also notes on 1. 12. 1 ;
2. 1. 37 ; 3. 3 ; 3. 4. 69 ; 3. 11 ; 3. 27 ; 4. 4. 18 and 73.
BOOK IV., ODE H. 399
Cowley's Praise of Pindar (Johnson's Poets, 7. 129) is an imita-
tion of this ode.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the ' Pindaric Ode '
was a recognized and very quaint literary type. Cf. Gosse, English
Odes, Intr. ; Garnett, Ital. Lit., p. 278.
1-4. Cf. Quintil. 10. 1. 61, Homtius eum [Pl'ndorum] merito
credidit nemini imitabilem. Yet he smilingly encourages (Epist.
1. 3. 9) his young literary friend Titius, \ Pindanci fontis qui non
expalluit haustus.
2. Iul(l)e : found in an inscription as praenomen of Julian
gens. Vergil wrote lulus as trisyllable. To get the required dis-
syllable Peerlcamp read ille. The use of the praenomen is fa-
miliar, but * Julian ' is always complimentary in the Augustan
poets. lulius a magno demissum nomen lulo (Verg. Aen. 1. 288).
' Valerius smote down Julius | Of Rome's great Julian line ' (Ma-
caulay, Reg.). ceratis: wax-joined. ope: 1. 6. 15. Daeda-
lea : cf. on 1. 3. 34 ; Ov. Met. 8. 189.
3. nititur : cf . nisus (4. 4. 8) ; Verg. Aen. 4. 252, paribus nitens
Cyllenius alis. Soars, balances, poises, strains. vitreo : cf. on
3. 13. 1 ; and Wordsworth's 'glassy sea' ; Arnold's 'clear, green
sea ' ; Milton, ' On the clear hyaline, the glassy sea.' daturas :
cf. on 2. 3. 4.
4. iiomina : cf. 3. 27. 76 ; Ov. Trist. 1. 1. 90, Icarus aequoreis
nomina fecit aquis; Stat. Theb. 12. 625, casurum in nomina ponti.
That the plural is merely for metrical convenience appears from
Trist. 3. 4. 22, Icarus immensas nomine signet aquas.
5 sqq. Cf . Cowley, Praise of Pindar, ' So Pindar does new words
and figures roll | Down his impetuous dithyrambic tide, | Which
in no channel deigns to abide, | Which neither banks nor dikes
control.' decurrens : cf. Lucret. 5. 946, montibus e magnis
decursus aquai. amnis : Cicero has flumen ingenii, flumen ora-
tionis. Cf. Tenn. ' full-flowing river of speech ' ; Dante, ' quella
fonte, | che spande di parlar si largo fiume.'
6. Cf. King John, 3. 1, ' Like a proud river peering o'er his
bounds ' ; Mids. Night's Dr. 2. 1, ' Have every pelting river made so
proud, | That they have overborne their continents.' notas : cf.
1. 2. 10 ; Ov. Met. 1. 370, ut nondum liquidas sic iam vada nota
400 NOTES.
secantes; Milt., II Pens., 'while Cynthia checks her dragon yoke |
Gently o'er the accustomed oak.' aluere : cf. Tenn., 'full-fed
river' ; Homer, II. 15. 621, Kv^ard re rpo^fVTa.
I. fervet : cf . Sat. 1. 10. 62, rapido ferventius amni ingenium.
immensus ruit : like TTOA.I/S e?. The language of the image is
retained in the application to the poet. The whole expresses the
beatissima rerum verborumque copia of Quintilian (10. 1. 61).
7-8. profundo . . . ore : i.e. deep-mouthed. Not the mouth
of the river, but the os magnum (Ov. Pont. 4. 16. 5); the os magna
sonaturum (Sat. 1. 4. 43); the osrotundum (A. P. 323), of the poet.
9. laurea : 3. 30. 16. donandus : the conclusion of sen . . .
seu . . . sive, etc. The 'fut. pass.'. part, is only less convenient
than the fut. act. (cf. on 2. 3. 4). Horace employs it with special
frequency in this book. Cf. 45; 47; 4.68; 9. 4 ; 9. 21; 11. 3;
11. 14; 11. 34; 14. 17. Cf. also on 11. 30. Apollinari : cf.
3. 30. 15. n. ; Ov. Met. 1. 557-565.
10. audaces : bold metaphors and compounds were character-
istic of dithyrainbic poetry. Cf. Cope, on Aristotle's Rhet., 3. 3.
Boileau in his Discours Sur L'Ode, prefixed to his Ode sur la Prise
de Namur, naively says, ' A 1'exemple des anciens poetes dithy-
rambiques j'y ai employe" les figures les plus audacieuses, jusqu'a
y faire un astre de la plume blanche que le roi porte ordinairement
a son chapeau. '
II. devolvit: cf. volventis, 3. 29. 38; Tenn., A Character,
' devolved his rounded periods ' ; ' Devolving through the maze of
eloquence | A roll of periods ' (Thomson, Autumn).
12. lege solutis : Soluta oratio normally means prose. One is
legibus solutus who is not bound by a law. Pindar's difficult meas-
ures may have seemed lawless to Horace, or he may mean -merely
poems not composed in strophes. Cf. Klopfstock (Nauck), ' Willst
du zu Strophen werden, O Haingesang ? Willst du gesetzlos ? '
etc. ; Cowley, Liberty, 6, ' The more heroic strain let others take, |
Mine the Pindaric way I'll make : | The matter shall be grave, the
numbers loose and free.' On the error of this view, cf. Jebb,
Greek Class. Poetry, p. 141. It is as old in Greek lit. as Himerius
(Orat. 3. 1). But in the school of Statins' father the boys were
taught qua lege recurrat \ Pindaricae vox flexa lyrae (Silv. 6.
3. 151).
BOOK IV., ODE IL 401
13-16. The hymns and Paeans.
13. reges : not the historical kings, Hieron, Theron, etc., cele-
brated in the Epiuikian odes, but the legendary heroes, Pirithous,
Theseus, Bellerophon.
14. sanguinem : cf. 3. 27. 65.
15-16. Centauri: cf. on 1. 18. 8; Pind. fr. 143. tremendae :
4. 6. 7; 4. 14. 12. Chimaerae : 1. 27. 24 ; 2. 17. 13.
16-20. The Epinikian hymns.
17. Elea : the palm of Elis, Olympia, is typical of the four great
games. Cf. on 4. 3. 3.
17-18. domum . . . caelestes : the triumphant home-bringing
of the victor is everywhere emphasized by Pindar, who warns him
that he must not strive to become as a god and that he cannot
scale the brazen heavens. Cf. 1. 1. 6.
18. pugilemve equumve : the boxing and riding of Castor and
Pollux (1. 12. 26) stand for all athletic contests. Cf. Epp. 2. 3. 83.
Pindar does not forget the horse (O. 1. 18), but equum here is
probably used for metrical convenience.
19. potiore signis : cf. the expansion of the thought 4. 8 ; also,
Pind. Nem. 4. 81 ; Agathias, Anth. Pal. 4. 4. 9.
21-24. The lost Dirges (Bp^voC). Horace seems to have a par-
ticular poem in mind.
21. flebili : cf. on 1. 24. 9.
22-23. Note hypermetra. Cf. 3. 29. 35.
23. aureos ; is it 'golden lads' (cf. 1. 5. 9), or such as the
golden age knew, or, proleptically, ' to the golden skies ' ? Cf .
Arnold, Thyrsis, 'And all the marvel of the golden skies.'
astra : 3. 25. 6. nigro : cf. on 1. 24. 18.
24. invidit Oreo : cf. 3. 2. 21 ; 4. 3. 27, caelo musa beat.
25. Cf. Denham, On death of Cowley, 'On a stiff gale (as
Flaccus sings) | The Theban swan extends his wings, | When
through th' ethereal clouds he flies ; | To the same pitch our swan
doth rise.' Dircaeum : for fountain Dirce, cf. Lex. cycnum :
cf. on 4. 3. 20 ; 2. 20. Gray, Progress of Poesy, describes Pindar
as the Theban eagle ' sailing with supreme dominion | Through the
azure deep of air.'
27. apis : cf. Epp. 1. 3. 21 ; 1. 19. 44 ; Pind. fr. 152 ; Pyth. 10.
54; Bacchyl. 10. 10; Plat. Ion, 534. A; Aristoph. Birds, 749;
402 NOTES.
Erinna, Anth. Pal. 7. 13. 1. Matinae : 1. 28. 3. The Matinian
bee is at Tibur as the Hyblaean bee is in Lombardy (Verg. Eel. 1.
55). Cf. 3. 26. 10.
28. more modoque : mere alliterative formula. Cf. A. G.
248. K.
29. per laborem : cf. per dolum (1. 10. 10); per vim (3. 14. 15).
30. plurimum : with laborem rather than with nemus. Cf.
De Quincey (Masson, 11. 379), 'There are single odes of Horace
that must have cost him a six weeks' seclusion from the wicked-
ness of Home ' ; Tenn. In Mem. 65, ' And in that solace can 1
sing, | Till out of painful phases (phrases ?) wrought | There nut-
ters up a happy thought | Self-balanced on a lightsome wing.'
circa: 1. 18. 2. uvidi: 1. 7. 13.
31. operosa : cf . Ruskin's Queen of the Air, 48, ' I, little thing
that I am, weave my laborious songs as earnestly as the bee among
the bells of thyme on the Matin mountains.' See the whole passage.
Cf. 3. 1. 48 ; 3. 12. 5 ; and Philips' ' operose Dr. Bentley.'
33. conchies : the transition is abrupt, but pronouns and adver-
sative particles were not easy to manage in Latin Sapphics. Cf. 1.
20. 10. Possibly we should read concinet. maiore . . . plec-
tro: cf. on 2. 1. 40 ; 2. 13. 26. It may be abl. char, with poeta,
or abl. instr. with concines.
34. quandoque : cf. on 4. 1. 17. trahet : 'dragged in triumph'
is the natural phrase. Cf. Epp. 2. 1. 191. But in the order of the
triumph the captives preceded. Cf. 1. 12. 54.
35. sacrum clivum : the part of the Sacred Way from the Arch
of Titus to the Forum. Cf. Epode 7. 8 ; Martial, 1. 70. 5, sacro
. , . clivo ; Macaulay, Proph. of Capys, 30, ' Blest and thrice blest
the Roman | Who sees Rome's brightest day, | Who sees that long
victorious pomp | Wind down the Sacred Way | And through the
bellowing Forum, | And round the Suppliants' Grove, | Up to the
everlasting gates | Of Capitolian Jove.' decorus: cf. 3. 14. 7;
2. 16. 6.
36. fronde : the wreath of laurel. Sygambros : they had de-
feated the legate Lollius (cf. Intr.), but hastened to make peace
with Augustus. Cf. 4. 14. 51.
37-40. Augustus is heaven's last best gift to man. The phrase
suggests Cic. Acad. Post. 1. 7, and Plato, Tim. 47. b. For the
BOOK IV., ODE II. 403
flattery, cf. Epp. 2. 1. 17 ; Ov. ex Pont. 1. 2. 98 ; Sellar, p. 157,
' In the odes of the 4th book the ideal is supposed to be realized ;
but there is less perhaps of the ring of genuine sincerity in the cele-
bration of its triumph. The tone of the poet is more distinctly
imperial than national. . . . The adulation which was the bane
of the next century begins to be heard.' Cf. on 4. 15. 4 ; 3. 3. 16.
38. boni : cf. 4. 5. 1.
39. aurum : i.e. tempus aureum (Epode 16. 64).
40-41. priscum: cf. Epode 2. 2. laetos: festos.
42. ludum : the technical phrase is ludos, but Horace prefers to
vary familiar formulas, and, like Tennyson, would almost rather
sacrifice the sense than bring two s's together, though, like Ten-
nyson, he sometimes does, e.g. 1. 2. 27 ; 1. 25. 19 ; 3. 18. 6 ; 4. 7. 17 ;
4. 9. 10. Cf. on 3. 5. 52. impetrato : vouchsafed in answer to
our prayers. There are coins of B.C. 16 inscribed S. P. Q. R. V. S.
(vota suscepta) Pro S. (salute) ET RED. AVG. Cf. also Dio, 54.
19.
44. litibus orbum : the closing of the courts, iustitium. For
or&MW, cf. Lucret. 5. 840, orba pedum; Pind. Isth. 3. 26, upipavoi
v&pios.
45 sqq. The Augustan poets frequently describe themselves as
humble spectators of the emperor's triumphs. Cf . Propert. 4. 3 ;
Cons, ad Liv. 273 sqq. In this case, Augustus declined the triumph
and entered the city by night. The ludi took place in the year 14
(Dio, 54. 27). audiendum : i.e. worth hearing.
46. bona pars : i.e. my voice shall freely swell the acclaim.
46-47. Sol pulcher: cf. 4. 4. 39. recepto: 2. 7. 27.
49. teque: personifies the Triumph itself, as in Epode 9. 21.
Tuque, found in some Mss., would imply that Antonius is to be
the chief figure of the procession. Moreover, 53 begins with an
emphatic te, referring to Antonius in a different connection.
51-52. dabimus : at the totam delubra per urbem (Verg. Aen.
8. 716). tura: 4. 1. 22.
53-54. te . . . me : cf. 2. 17. 30-32.
54. solvet : sc. voto ; he would be voti retts.
55-60. Quiet, homely or idyllic ending. Cf. 2. 19. 29-32 ; 3. 5.
53-56. So Tennyson closes Walking to the Mail, Edwin Morris
and The Golden Year.
404 NOTES.
55. iuvenescit : ordinarily to grow young. Cf . Lex. herbis :
cf. 3. 23. 11.
56. in: i.e. to pay.
57-58. The phrasing is suggested by the familiar expression,
cornua lunae. Cf. C. S. 35 ; Claudian de Rapt. Pros. 1. 129,
(vitula) nee nova lunatae curvavit germina frontis. The new
rnoon shows a slight sickle, or crescent, on the third evening.
Shelley, Hellas, 'The young moon hasted | Her exhausted horn.'
referentis: 3. 29. 20.
59-60. Cf. Horn. II. 23. 454, 'A chestnut all the rest of him, but
in the forehead marked with a white star.' Cf. \fvnofteTcairos. Cf.
Moschus, 2. 84. Cf. ' The glory of the herd, a bull | Snow-white,
save 'twixt his horns one spot there grew; | Save that one stain,
he was of milky hue.' (?)
59. duxit : so ducere . . . colorem (Ov. Met. 3. 484) ; Juv. 2.
8l', uvaque conspecta livorem ducit ab uva; Verg. Eel. 9. 49.
ODE III.
The propitious eye of Melpomene upon the natal hour makes of
the poet a dedicated spirit who has no part in the labors, ambitions,
and rewards of ordinary men. Such a spirit Rome now recognizes in
Horace, the voice of Envy is silenced, and the poet thanks the sweet
Muse to whom he owes his inspiration and power to please.
The poem celebrates the realization of the aspirations of 1. 1.
Cf. Sellar, p. 190 ; Andrew Lang's pretty Ballade of the Muse ;
Ronsard, A sa Lyre. There is a good translation by Bishop Atter-
bury. Cf. also Pitt, Johnson's Poets, 12. 388.
1. Melpomene: cf. 3. 30. 16. n. semel: 1. 24. 16 ; C. S. 26.
2. nascentem . . . videris : not astrological, as adspicit (2. 17.
17). Cf. Hes. Theog. 82 ; Find. O. 7. 11 ; Boileau, A. P. 1 ; Les-
sing, To his brother, 'Auch dich hat, da du wardst geboren, Die
Muse lachelnd angeblickt.'
3. Isthmius: typical, as Olympicum (1. 1. 3), Elea (4. 2. 17).
labor: -nAvos (Pind. 0. 5. 15, et passim). Cf. 4. 2. 18.
6. Achaico : simply Greek. The glory of the Greek chariot
race is compared with the grandeur of a Roman triumph.
BOOK IV., ODE III. 405
6. res bellica : cf. res ludicra, comedy (Epp. 2. 1. 180).
Deliis : of Apollo. Cf. 4. 2. 9; 3. 30. 15. A branch of laurel was
borne by the triumphator. Cf. F. Q. 1. 1. 9.
8. regum . . . minas: cf. 2. 12. 12. tumidas: Sat. 1. 7. 7.
contuderit: cf. 3. 6. 10; Verg. Aen. 1. 263; Cons, ad Liv. 17,
Ille genus Suevos acre indomitosque Sicambros \ contudit inque
fugam barbara terga dedit.
9. ostendet Capitolio : cf. on 4. 2. 35, and Propert. 4. 3. 13.
10. Tibur : his own favorite retirement put typically for the
Muse's 'green retreats.' Cf. on 1. 1. 30; 1. 7. 13 sqq. prae-
fluunt: so 4. 14. 26 for praeterfluunt.
11-12. spissae: 3. 19. 25. nemorum comae: cf. on 1.21.5;
4. 7. 2. Aeolio: 3. 30. 13.
13. Cf. 4. 14. 44 ; Epp. 1. 7. 44, regia Roma.
15. ponere: cf. inserere (1. 1. 35) ; ponetur (Epp. 2. 1. 43).
16. dente : cf. Epode 6. 15; Sat. 1. 6. 46, quern rodunt omnes;
Sat. 2. 1. 77 ; Epist. 2. 1. 151 ; Pindar, Pyth. 2. 53 ; Ov. Trist. 4.
10. 123 ; ex Ponto, 3. 4. 74 ; Phaedr. Prol. 6 ; Martial, 5. 28. 7 ;
Anth. Pal. 9. 356 ; 16. 265. 5 ; Shaks. Jul. Cats. 2. 3. ' My heart
laments that virtue cannot live | Out of the teeth of emulation ' ;
Gray, Eton College, ' Or jealousy with rankling tooth.'
17. testudinis: 3. 11. 3; 1. 32. 14. aurea: cf. on 2. 13. 26;
Pind. Pyth. 1. 1, xpv<*f<* 4><W'7l-
18. dulcem : with strepitum, a slight oxymoron. Or it is con-
ceivably proleptic. strepitum : Epp. 1. 2. 31 ; float/, Pind. O.
3. 8 ; Pyth. 1. 13 ; Nem. 5. 38 ; Homer, II. 18. 495 ; y\vK^u av\S,v
OTO&OV (Soph. Ajax, 1202) ; ' How they seemed to fill the sea and
air | With their sweet jargoning ' (Col. Anc. Mar.); 'La noise du
rossignol ' (Ronsard) ; ' That melodious noise ' (Milton, At a
Solemn Music ) ; ' For all their groves, which with the heavenly
noises | Of their sweet instruments were wont to sound ' (Spenser,
Tears of the Muses). temperas: dost govern, modulate. Cf. on
1. 24. 14, moderere; Propert. 3. 32. 80.
19. mutis : traditional epithet. Cf. eAAoirej, l\Aol, SvauSoi, in
Greek Lex. The Scarus was thought the only exception. Cf.
Anth. Pal. 10. 16. 13; Oppian,'Hal. 1. 134. But the trout of the
river Aroanius in Arcadia were believed to sing (Pausan. 8. 21. 2).
IxOvwv a.(j>iat>6Tpoi was a proverb. Cf. Troilus and Cress. 3. 3, ' He
406 NOTES.
is grown a very land-fish, languageless ' ; Shelley, Hellas, ' Joy
waked the voiceless people of the sea'; Swmb. Erech., 'tongue-
less waterherds. ' After Aeschyl. Persae, 577. quoque: even.
20. donatura: cf. on 2. 3. 4. cycni : cycnum (4. 2. 25). For
swan's song, cf . 2. 20 15 ; Plato, Phaedo, 84. E ; Aeschyl. Ag. 1445 ;
Ov. Her. 7. 1 ; Callim. Hymn. Del. 252 ; Wordsworth's Sonnet, ' I
heard (alas ! 'twas only in a dream) ' ; Byron, ' There, swan-like,
let me sing and die ' (Don Juan, 3. 86. 16) ; Shaks. Merch. of V. 3. 2 ;
King John, 5. 7 ; Othello, 5. 2 ; Hale's Folia Literaria, p. 231 sqq. ;
Ael. Var. Hist. 1. 14, e-ya> 8e qSovros KVKVOV OVK ^ou<ra, tcrcas 5f ovSf
&\\os- TTfiriffTevrai 5' olv on dSfi. Frazer, Paus. 2. 395.
21. Cf. Ov. (Trist. 1. 6. 6) to his wife, siquid adhuc ego sum
muneris omne tui est.
22. Proverbial. Cf. Pers. 1. 28 ; Lucian, Herod. 1, Somnium 11 ;
Aeschyl. Ag. 1332 ; Tac. Dial, 7 ; Martial, 9. 97. 3 ; Cic. Tusc. 5.
36, etc. Sometimes it signifies finger of scorn (Ov. Am. 3. 1. 19).
23. fidicen is Latin (cf. Epp. 1. 19. 32); lyrae, Greek (cf. 4. 6.
25-27).
24. spiro : cf. 2. 16. 38, 4. 6. 29 ; Epp. 2. 1. 166 ; Find. O. 13.
22, Mo<a' advirvoos ; Ronsard, A sa Lyre, ' Par toy je plais, et par
toy je suis leu : c'est toy qui fais que Ronsard soit esleu Harpeur
Fran9ois, et quand on le rencontre, Qu'avec le doigt par la rue on
le monstre,' etc. tuum est: but cf. 4. 6. 29, Apollo; 2. 16. 39,
Parca ; 3. 30. 15, mentis.
ODE IV.
Like a new-fledged eagle swooping down on its quarry, like a
fresh-weaned lion rending its first kid, in such guise have the
Vindelici beheld young Drusus waging war beneath the Raetian
Alps. Subdued at last, those fierce tribes have been taught what
the sons of the Neros, bred at the hearth of Augustus, can achieve.
What Rome owes to the house of Nero let the battle of the river
Metaurus bear witness, the overthrow of Hasdrubal, and the first
day of hope that dawned on Italy after all the years in which Han-
nibal rode like a storm wind or forest fire over her fields. That
was the beginning of the end. Hannibal knew it, and said : ' We
are like deer that madly turn upon their natural pursuers. The
indomitable race that issued from burning Troy grows stronger
through hardship and defeat, and renews itself like the hydra of
Hercules. Never again shall I send proud heralds of victory to
BOOK IV., ODE IV. 407
Carthage. All is lost with the fall of Hasdrubal.' Such were the
deeds of the Claudians. And what may they not do, guarded by
Jupiter and guided by sagacious counsels ?
The campaign celebrated in this ode was undertaken in order
to give Rome control of the eastern passes of the Alps and put a
stop to the incursions of the unruly Alpine tribes. " P. Silius
engaged these tribes in 738, and worsted them. The year fol-
lowing . . . Drusus, the emperor's younger stepson, now in his
twenty-third year, took the command of the legions from Silius,
overthrew the Rhaetians in the Tridentine Alps, traversed the
Brenner pass, and defeated the Breuni and Genauni in the valley
of the Inn. It is ... probable that he turned westward to effect
a junction with his brother Tiberius, who had been dispatched at
the same time to attack the Vindelicians in the rear. . . . Tiberius
penetrated the gorges of the Upper Rhine and Inn in every direc-
tion ; and at the conclusion of a brilliant and rapid campaign, the
two brothers had effected the complete subjugation of the country
of the Orisons and the Tyrol," which with adjacent territory were
constituted the province of Rhaetia. "The free tribes of the Eastern
Alps appear then for the first time in history, only to disappear again
for a thousand years." (Abridged from Merivale, 4. 160. Cf. Dio,
54. 22; Strabo, 4, p. 206.)
Tiberius (afterwards emperor), born 713, and Drusus, born 716,
sons of the empress Livia by her divorced husband Tiberius Claudius
Nero, were adopted by Augustus. Drusus was the emperor's favor-
ite (Suet. Claud. 1), and is, with some partiality, celebrated not only
in this ode, but in the fourteenth, which treats of the exploits of
Tiberius.
Horace often professes that he is unapt to sing of war. Cf. 1. 6.
5, 4. 2. 30 sqq. ; Sat. 2. 1. 12 sqq. This ode, and indeed the fourth
book generally, was written, Suetonius tells us, at the express com-
mand of the emperor : Scripta quidem eius usque adeo probavit
mansuraque perpetua opinatus est, ut non modo Seculare carmen
componendum iniunxerit sed et Vindelicam victoriam Tiberii Drusi-
que, privignorum suorum, eumque coegerit propter hoc tribus carmi-
num libris ex longo intervallo quartum addere. Horace evades the
difficulty by a Pindaric treatment, the long historical digression 37-
73 representing the myth.
408 NOTES.
Translation by Lyttleton, Johnson's Poets, 14. 182. Prior's Ode
to the Queen (1706) is a feeble imitation.
1. The construction is qualem . . . propulit (6) ... vernique
. . . docuere (8) . . . mox . . . demisit (10) . . . nunc . . . egit
(12) . . . qualemve . . . vidit (13. 16) . . . (talem~) videre (17).
In translating, disregard the Latin syntax and follow the Latin
order. ministrum : flammigerum, lovis armiger ( Verg. Aen. 6.
255). Attribute of alitem, but we translate winged minister.
The eagle clasping the thunderbolt is fouml on coins.
2. regnum: oltavuv &acn\ta (Find. Ol. 13. 21). Cf. Pyth. 1. 7;
Isth. 5. 50. Bacchyl. 5. 17 sqq. 'Sailing with supreme dominion
through the azure deep of air.' in: cf. on 3. 1. 5. vagas: rjepo-
QO'ITOVS. Cf. 3. 27. 16, vaga comix.
3. permisit : Lex. s.v. II. B. 2. expertus, etc.: having found
him faithful in (the case of}.
4. Ganymede : cf. 3. 20. 16 ; Verg. Aen. 5. 255 ; Tenn. Pal. of
Art, 'Or else flushed Ganymede, his rosy thigh | Half-buried in
the eagle's down, | Sole as a flying star shot thro' the sky | Above
the pillar'd town.' The eagle is post-Homeric. Cf. II. 20. 233-
235. flavo : cf. on 1. 5. 4.
5. olim : yon time, once, sometimes. Used even with future
(Epist. 1. 3. 18). Hence frequent with gnomic utterances, whether
with the present (Sat. 1. 1. 25) or aoristic perfect. Olim, mnx,
nunc (11), mark the stages in the growth of the young eagle,
which is, of course, no longer the particular bird that carried off
Ganymede. First it essays its wings, then swoops down on the
folds, then does battle with serpents.
6. propulit : ' gnomic ' aorist of simile.
7. vemique : the fact that eagles are hatched in late spring
and are not full-fledged till autumn need trouble us no more
than Pindar's golden-horned doe, Keats' ' Stout Cortez ' on Da-
rien or his ' warm gules ' in the moonlight, or the singing of
Tennyson's female nightingale. Cf. Aristotle, Poetics, 1460. b.
31-33.
8. nisus : sc. pennarum = labores. Cf. 4. 2. 3, nititur pennis,
and Lucretius, 6. 911, pedum nisus.
9. mox: 1. 1. 17; 2. 1. 10; 4. 14. 14.
BOOK IV., ODE IV. 409
10. vividus impetus: the inner impulse or, more idiomati-
cally, the actual swoop ; Spenser's ' dreadful souse ' (F. Q. 4.
3. 19).
11. dracones: serpentes would not fit the meter, and the poeti-
cal Greek word suggests the combat of eagle and snake in Homer
(II. 12. 200 sqq.). Cf. Verg. Aen. 11. 751; Shelley, Revolt of
Islam, 1. 8.
13. laetis : luxuriant ; ' laetas segetes ' etiam rustici dicunt
(Cic. de Or. 3. 38). But there is a suggestion of the joy of the
new-bom flocks, as in Lucretius' pabula laeta (1. 257).
14. matris ab ubere : with caprea rather than, somewhat tauto-
logically, with lacte depulsum leonem ; fulvus, though a more fre-
quent epithet of the |av0bs A<=W (Verg. Aen. 4. 159, etc.), is a pos-
sible epithet of the goat. Cf. 4. 2. 60, and the German ' Rotwild.'
Ab ubere virtually = relicta matre. Ab with intenta means that it
has turned away from the udder and is intent upon the pasture.
lam, like ^877, is timeless, or rather marks a point of time to be em-
phasized. The lion has reached the point where, being weaned,
he begins to be dangerous. The two descriptions, then, though
parallel, are by no means identical. It is considering it too curi-
ously to object that Horace would not represent the enemies of
Drusus as feeble and timid. For eagle and lamb, cf. Macaulay,
Regillus, 15.
15. depulsum : the technical word. Cf. Verg. Eel. 7. 15 ; &9ij\os.
. 16. peritura : it looks up ... into the jaws of death. Cf. on 2.
3. 4. Raetis : i.e. Baetids. So Heinsius for Eaeti of Mss. ' The
Vindelici saw ... at foot of Raetian Alps ' is equivalent to ' the
Vindelici and Raeti saw.'
17-22. quibus . . . omnia : this inopportune archaeological
digression has been much discussed. It may be a mere failure of
Horace's art, an attempted Pindarism, or, as has been conjectured,
a sly allusion to some contemporaneous pedantry, e.g. in the Ama-
zonis of Domitius Marsus. The scholiast is ready with a theory to
account for the Amazonian battle ax in the hands of the-Vindelici.
Ovid calls Amazons securigeras puellas (Her. 4. 117). Cf. Class.
Diet. s.v. securis, and Xen. Anab. 4. 4. 16.
21-22. obarmet: coined by Horace. sed: 5' olv, resumptive.
24. consiliis : Cicero renders ffroarriyrjua by consilium impera-
410 NOTES.
torium. revictae : long victric.es, now defeated in their turn.
But cf. refringit, 3. 3. 28.
25. sensere : 2. 7. 10 ; 4. 6. 3.
25-26. rite . . . nutrita : go with both mens and indoles, mind
and heart (character, temper).
26. sub : cf. sub lare, 3. 29. 14. penetralibus : cf . Velleius,
2. 94, innutritus (sc. Tiberius) caelestium praeceptorum disciplinis.
28. in : cf. 2. 2. 6. Nerones : Neronis . . . quo significatur
lingua Sabinafortis ac strenuus (Suet. Tib. 1).
29. Strong and brave are the offspring of the brave and good.
Not the strong and brave are born of sires brave and good. Cf.
Skaks. Cymbeline, 4. 2, ' Cowards father cowards, and base things
sire base ' ; Pindar, Pyth. 8. 44 ; Plato, Menex. 237 A ; Theog.
537. Fortis et bonus is a formula, cf. Epp. 1. 9. 13.
30-32. ' Even the homely farm can teach us there is something
in descent' (Tenn., Locksley Hall Sixty Years After).
31. imbellem feroces : cf. on 1. 6. 9.
33. Bed -. concede what we will to nature, nurture too plays its
part. Cf. Pind. Ol. 10. 20 ; Eurip. Iph. Aul. 557 ; Cic. Tusc. 2. 5.
13 ; Poet Archias 15 ; Quintil. 2. 19. 2.
34. cultus : cf. Bacon's Georgics of the Mind ; and Cic. Tusc.
2. 5. 13. roborant : we say ' hearts of oak ' but ' steel the breast.'
35. utcumque: when once. Cf. 1. 17. 10 ; 1. 35. 23 ; 2. 17. 11.
mores: i.e. recta morum disciplina.
36. dedecorant : so Epist. 2. 1. 245. Most editors read inde-
corant. bene nata: the neuter generalizes (cf. 1. 34. 12), but
metrical convenience may determine its use.
37. quid debeas : the defeat of Hasdrubal at the river Metaurus
B.C. 207 was due mainly to the audacity of C. Claudius Nero, who,
leaving half his army in camp before Hannibal in Southern Italy,
marched with the remainder the whole length of the peninsula to
reinforce his colleague, M. Livius Salinator (ancestor of Drusus on
the mother's side) to whom the northern province had been as-
signed, and returned victorious with the head of Hasdrubal before
Hannibal had discovered his absence. See the spirited account in
Livy, 27. 43 sqq. ; Polyb. 11. 1.
38. testis : cf. Catull. 64. 357. Metaurum flumeii: some-
what differently 2. 9. 21, Medum flumen.
BOOK IV., ODE IV. 411
38-39. Hasdrubal devictus : cf . on 2. 4. 10.
39. pulcher : cf . 4. 2. 47 ; Romeo and Jul. 4. 5, ' Never was
seen so black a day as this, | O woeful day, O woeful day.'
40. Latio : abl. with fugatis rather than dat. with risit .
41. risit : cf. 4. 11. 6. n. adorea: an archaic, metrically con-
venient, and sonorous synonym of Victory. Cf. Lexicon.
42. dims: cf. 2. 12. 2 ; 3. 6. 36. ut: since. Cf. Epode, 7, 19.
Ov. Trist. 4. 6. 19, ut patria careo bisfrugibus area trita est.
43. ceu : only here in Horace.
44. equitavit: cf. 1. 2. 51. Afer is the grammatical, flamma
or, rather, Eurus the felt, subject. Cf. Eurip. Phoen. 211, 2i/ceAt'as
Ze<t>vpov irvoais iirirevffa.vTos.
45. post hoc : Cicero (Brutus, 3) dates the turn of fortune
from the battle of Nola, posteaque prosperae res deinceps multae
consecutae sunt. usque: cf. on 1. 17. 4; 3. 30. 7. secundis
. . . laboribus : prosperous enterprises. For labor, cf. 4. 3. 3 ;
and the Greek irows = battle ; H. 6. 77 ; Theog. 987.
46. pubes : 3. 5. 18. crevit : waxed strong. Cf. 3. 30. 8.
irnpio : they pillaged the temples.
47. tumultu : of the distress and confusion of a home or border
war. Horace slightly extends the technical force of the word as
seen in tumultus Italicus, tumultus Gallicus. Cf. Cic. Phil. 8. 1.
48. rectos : upright, and righted. Cf. deiecta simulacra;
1 Sam. 5. 3, ' Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth . . .
And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.'
49. perfidus : perfidia plus quam Punica, Livy, 21. 4. 9. Cf.
on 3. 5. 33 ; Livy, 9. 3, Romano in perfidum Samnitem pugnanti;
Martial, 4. 14. 4.
50 sqq. Cf. Livy, 27. 51, 'Hannibal . . . agnoscere se fortunam
Karthaginis fertur dixisse. cervi : cf . II. 13. 101 sqq. lupo-
rum : Macaulay, Horatius, 43, ' Quoth he, " The she-wolf's litter |
Stands savagely at bay." '
51. ultro : beyond what is reasonable or natural ; ' actually.'
Cf. Verg. Eel. 8. 52, nunc et ovis ultro fugiat lupus. opimus
suggests the technical spolia opima.
52. Slight oxymoron, as also is 53. fallere : 1. 10. 16 ; 3. 11. 40.
53 sqq. The central idea of the Aeneid, which everybody had
been reading. Cf. Juno's complaint, 7. 295, Num capti potuere
412 NOTES.
capi, num incensa cremavit Troia viros? medias acies mediosque
per ignes, \ invenere viam. Cf. 3. 3. 40.
54. iactata : preferably with sacra. Gens is sufficiently de-
scribed. Cf. iactatus, Aen. 1. 3 ; Victosque Penates, ibid. 1. 67.
57-60. Cf. Thomson, Liberty, ' This firm Republic, that against
the blast | Of opposition rose ; that (like an oak, | Nursed on fera-
cious Algidum, whose boughs | Still stronger shoot beneath the
rigid axe) | By loss, by slaughter, from the steel itself | Even force
and spirit drew. ' He uses the same image in Rule Britannia, ' Still
more majestic shalt thou rise, | More dreadful from each foreign
stroke ; | As the loud blast that tears the skies | Serves but to root
thy native oak.'
58. iiigrae: cf. on 1. 21. 7 ; Verg. Eclog. 6, 54, ilice siib nigra.
Algido: 1. 21. 6; 3. 23. 9.
59. caedes is equally applicable to lopping a tree and cutting
up an army.
61-62. This image applied to Rome is attributed to Cineas, the
counsellor of Pyrrhus, in Plutarch, Pyrrh. 19. Cf. also 'Flor. Epit.
1. 18; Ov. Met. 9. 74, crescentemque malo domui; Verg. Aen. 8.
300 ; Eurip. Here. Fur. 1274. The first symbolic literary use of
the image is Plato, Repub. 426. E.
63. submisere : the Roman soldiers spring up like the fabled
brood of the dragon's teeth sown by Jason at Colchi or Cadmus at
Thebes. Cf. Lucret. 1. 7, daedala tellus submittit flores.
64. Echion was one of the survivors of the Theban Dragon
brood, and, by marriage with the daughter of Cadmus, ancestor of
the Theban kings. Any person associated with a place in Greek
mythology may supply the Latin poet with a sonorous epithet for
the place. Cf. 1. 17. 22, 23. n.
65. merses : hortatory (imperative) subj. as virtual protasis to
evenit. For the word, cf. 3. 16. 13 ; Verg. Aen. 6. 512 ; Lucan,
1. 159, quae populos semper mersere potentes. profundo : abl.
evenit : used here in its primary etymological, not in its sec-
ondary, sense. Cf. on 1. 5. 8 ; 3. 11. 27, pereuntis ; I. 36. 20,
ambitiosior ; 2. 1. 26, impotens ; 3. 24. 18, innocens; Epode
17. 67, obligatus; 3. 3. 51, cogere ; 3. 7. 30, despice; 4. 2. 7,
immensus f Epode 2. 14, feliciores.
66. luctere : so Aristophanes boasts of the Athenians, that if
BOOK IV., ODE V. 413
they ever chanced to take a fall they wiped off the dust and
denied it. Eq. 571-572.
66-67. niulta . . . cum laude : amid loud acclaim. But cf.
Catull. 64, 112.
66. integrum : the victor would be unscathed, a.Kpai<t>vljs.
proruet : the shift to the f ut. need trouble nobody.
68. coniugibus : of the enemy ? Cf. Catull. 64. 349, illius . . .
claraque facia. \ Saepe fatebuntur gnatorum in funere matres ; II.
8. 157 ; or in fireside talks at Roman hearths ? Cf. Macaulay,
Horatius, 70. For Roman constancy in defeat, cf. Livy, 9. 3, ea
est Romana gens quae victa quiescere nesciat ; Livy, 27. 14 ;
Justin, 31. 6.
69. Cf. the story in Livy, 23. 12, of the three bushels of gold
rings, taken from Roman knights, poured out on the floor of the
Carthaginian senate.
70. Cf. Isaiah, 20. 9, 'and he answered and said: "Babylon is
fallen, is fallen"' ; Dryden, Alexander's Feast, 'He sang Darius
great and good | By too severe a fate | Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen, |
Fallen from his high estate ' ; Tenn. Princess, ' Our enemies have
fallen, have fallen.'
73-76. Closing reflections after the myth in Pindaric manner.
74. numine luppiter: 3. 10. 8.
75. curae : possibly, their own sagacity ; more probably, that
of Augustus balancing Jupiter, as often in the Augustan poets.
Cf. also, 4. 14. 33, te consilinm.
76. expediunt : bring safely through ; disengage. Cf . Verg.
Aen. 2. 633. acuta belli : possibly metaphorically of dangerous
rocks. But cf. subita belli, Livy, 6. 32; 33. 11, aspera belli,'
Tac. Hist. 2. 77, 4. 23, proeliorum incerta, fortuita belli; Homer,
II. 4. 352, ovv "Ap-na. Also, Lucan, 7. 684, prospera bellorum;
Catull. 63. 16, truculentaque pelagt.
ODE V.
Too long absent, great guardian of the race of Romulus, restore
the light of thy countenance to thy people, who yearn for thee as a
mother longs for a son detained beyond seas by contrary winds.
Bounteous harvests, seas freed from pirates, faith, chastity, justice
414 NOTES.
at home, the barbarian cowed abroad, such are the blessings of
thy reign. After a busy day among his vines the husbandman
pours his after-dinner libation to thee as to his household gods,
and invokes thy name as grateful Greece invokes her mythic bene-
factors.
The three years following the defeat of Lollius by the Sygambri
(B.C. 16; cf. 4. 2. 36), Augustus spent in the West, partly with a
view to restoring order in Gaul and Spain, partly, as was said (Dio,
55. 19), in order, like Solon, to escape by absence the invidium
aroused by his measures of reform. In this carefully polished offi-
cial utterance the Poet Laureate expresses the loyalty of the growing
class who gratefully recognized that ' 1'einpire c'est la paix.' Cf.
Sellar, p. 189, and Velleius, 2. 89. The ode follows the praise of
Drusus in 4, as 15 follows the praise of Tiberius in 14.
1. divis . . . bonis: may be abl. abs. (cf. Sat. 2. 3. 8, iratis
natus dis) , or abl. of origin with orte. The birth of Augustus was
a gift of boni divi (4. 2. 38); and he was Veneris sanguis (C. S. 50).
Romulae : as adj. Cf. C. S. 47. But Catull. 34. 22 has Romuli
. . . gentem. The oblique cases of Romulus have to be replaced
by those of Remus in hexameters, but he comes to his own in lyric.
2. custos: 1. 12. 49; 4. 15. 17.
4. sancto : august ; a standing epithet of Senatus. Cf . Verg.
Aen. 1. 426.
5. lucem: the Homeric- $605. Cf. Aeschyl. Persae, 300; Verg.
Aen. 2. 281. tuae: emphatic. dux bone: cf. 37, and 3. 14. 7.
He is the war-lord and captain to whom allegiance is due.
6. instar : usually of quantity, as in Vergil's instar mantis equum.
veris: cf. Shelley, Revolt of Is. Ded. 7. 2, 'Thou friend, whose
presence on my wintry heart | Fell like bright spring upon some
herbless plain.'
7. it dies : cf. 2. 14. 5, quotquot eunt dies.
8. soles : for poetry, as for Heracleitus, the sun is veos it? rjntpri.
Cf. 4. 2. 46.
9-14. Editors cite, for the image, Oppian, Hal. 4. 335. Kiessling
suspects that the mother is substituted here for some love-lorn hero-
ine (of Callimachus) waiting like Asterie (3. 7) for her lover.
9. mater iuvenem : note juxtaposition ; the details may follow.
invido : so the river that keeps Ovid's lover from his tryst is
BOOK IV., ODE V. 415
'invidious,' and the first rays of the dawn that is to sever Romeo
and Juliet are 'envious streaks.' Carpathii : 1. 35. 8.
11. longius annuo : navigation has closed, and he must pass the
winter in the East, as Gyges (3. 7. 5) in Oricum.
13. Cf. Livy, Pref. 13, cum bonis potius ominibus votisque et
precationibus, etc. She makes vows, consults the omens, and
offers prayers in her impatience.
14. curvo : a standing epithet. Cf. Epode 10. 21 ; Verg. Aen.
3. 223, etc.
15. icta : Ifiiptf irfir\Tjy/j.fvos. Cf. Lucret. 2. 360, desiderio per-
fixa iuvenci. desideriis : pi. mainly metri causa.
16. quaerit : cf . 3. 24. 32. patria Caesarem : cf . 9.
17 sqq. Cf. Ov. Fasti, 1. 701-704, Gratia dis domuique tuae, reli-
gata catenis \ lampridem vestro sub pede bella iacent. | Sub iuga
bos veniat, sub terras semen aratas, \ Pax Cererem nutrit, pads
alumna Ceres ; Germanicus, Aratea, 9, Si non parta quies te prae-
side puppibus aequor | cultorique daret terras.
17. tutus: cf. 1. 17. 5. perambulat : grazing in conscious
security. Others, walks before the plough.
18. rura : the fields which. Horace repeats and dwells on the
image with complacency. The contrast with the picture in Verg.
G. 1. 506-508 would flatter Augustus. Faustitas: found only
here. There was a Fausta Felicitas. Cf. Austria (Hdt. 5. 82),
Auw, and 0aAA.cc.
19. pacatum : from pirates, by defeat of Sextus Pompey, B.C. 36.
Cf. Ant. and Cleop. 1. 4, ' Menecrates and Menas famous pirates |
make the sea serve them.' Augustus boasts (Mon. Ancyr. 5. 1),
mare pacavi a praedonibus. Cf. also Suet. Oct. 98 ; Epode 4. 19..
volitant: cf. Vergil's pelagoque volamus (Aen. 3. 124); Epode
16. 40 ; Catull. 4. 5 ; Homer, Odyss. 11. 125, 23. 272 ; Hes. Op. 626 ;
Verg. Aen. 1. 224, mare velivolum; Lucret. 5. 1442; Eurip. Tro.
1086 ; Hippol. 752 ; Aeschyl. Pers. 565 ; Prom. 468 ; Tenn. In Mem.
9; Merchant of Ven. 1. 1, 'As they fly by them with their woven
wings,' etc.
20. metuit: cf. 3. 11. 10; 2. 2. 7. fides: commercial, as in
3. 24. 59.
22. mos et lex: 3. 24. 35. lex: the leges luliae de adulteriis
etpudicitia (B. C. 18). Cf. C. S. 18-20. edomuit : e, completely.
416 NOTES.
'The publication of the AYS Amandi a few years later, and the
career of the two Julias, afford an impressive commentary on these
lines' (Sellar, p. 155).
23. simili prole : for, or rather by, the resemblance of the child
to the father. Cf. Hes. Op. 235; Catull. 61. 226, sit suo similis
patri, etc.; Martial, 6. 27. 3; Shaks. Winter's Tale, 1. 2; Pater.
Marius, chap. 13.
24. Punishment no longer limps with tardy foot (3. 2. 32). For
premit comes, cf. Sat. 2. 7. 115.
25-28. Cf. 3. 14. 15 ; 4. 15. 17 ; and the fine epigram of Crinago-
ras (Anth. Pal. 9. 291).
26. lionida : suggests Germany silvis horrida, Tac. Ger. 5. Cf.
Verg. Aen. 9. 382.
26-27. parturit fetus: 1. 7. 16; German fecundity. Cf. Mil-
ton's 'A multitude like which the populous North | Poured never,
from her frozen loins to pass | Rhene or the Danau'; ovS' V rep,ua-
vii\ "Pyvov airavr' ftpir) (Crinagoras). incolunii : 3. 5. 12.
28. Hiberiae : cf. on 2. 6. 2 ; 4. 14. 50.
29. condit: cf. cantando . . . condere soles (Verg. Eclog. 9.
52); Georg. 1. 458; Munro on Lucret. 3. 1088, condere saeda.
colllbus: 1. 20. 12; Verg. Georg. 2. 521-522, et alte \ mills in
apricis t coquitur vindemia saxis. suis : emphatic ; his own vine
and fig tree, as it were.
30-31. viduas: i.e. unwedded. Cf. on 2. 15. 4 ; Epode 2. 10.
ducit : cf . ' or they led the vine | To wed her elm ; she spoused
about him twines | Her marriageable arms ' (Milton, P. L. 5) ;
Catull. 62. 49 ; Shaks. Com. of Err. 2. 2, ' Thou art an elm, my
husband, I a vine'; F. Q. 1. 1. 8, 'The vine-prop elm'; Gray's
letters from Italy, ' Very public and scandalous doings between
the vine and the elm trees, and how the olive trees are shocked
thereat' ; Juv. 8. 78 ; Martial, 3. 58. 3, etc. redit: sc. domum.
31-32. alteris . . . mensis : at dessert ; ' across the walnuts and
the wine.' This 'second course,' mensae . . . secundae (Verg.
Georg. 2. 101), was prefaced by libations to the household Lares,
with whom, by popular feeling and express decree of the Senate,
Augustus' name was associated. Cf. Merivale, chap. 33 ; Dio, 51.
19 ; Kirkland on Epist. 2. 1. 16 ; Ov. Fast, 2. 633.
32. adhibet: cf. Verg. Aen. 5. 62, adhibete Penates . . . epulis.
BOOK IV., ODE VI. 417
33. te : for stylistic effect of the repetition, cf. 4. 14. 41 sqq.
prosequitur : cf. Lex. s.v. II. A.
34. defuso : cf. 1. 31. 2-3, de . . . f widens. For Latin concrete-
ness here, cf. ou 2. 4. 10.
35-36. The genitives are construed with numen, but felt also
with memor. For the popular feeling towards Augustus, cf.
further Epist. 2. 1. 16; Renan, Hibbert Lectures, p. 15; Boissier,
Religion Roinaine, 1. 141 ; Ov. Fasti, 2. 633 sqq.
37. o utinam: 1. 36. 38. feriaa: 'vacation' is peace.
38. Hesperiae: cf. on 2. 1. 32. integro: when the day is
still intact and wholly ours. Cf. Pater, ' Marius,' p. 132, ' that
youth the days of which he had already begun to count jealously
in entire possession.'
39. sicci: 1. 18. 3. uvidi: 1. 7. 22; 2. 19. 18; 3. 21. 9; Sat.
2. 6. 70, uvescit; Sat. 2. 1. 9, irriguum.
40. Quiet close ; cf. 4. 2. 55-60. n.
ODE VI.
A prelude addressed to the chorus of noble youths and maidens
who were to sing the carmen saeculare (q.v.).
Apollo that didst punish Niobe and Tityos and overthrow even
Achilles (4-12), who else would have left alive no child of Troy to
found Rome under happier auspices (12-24), thou inspirer of the
Grecian muse, uphold to-day the honor of Latin song. And you,
noble maids, mark well the measure of this sacred chant. Happy
matrons one day you will boast that on the great festival day you
learned and sang the strains of Horace the Bard.
1. Dive: lines 5-23 are a digression suggested- by Achilles;
and the verb of the prayer is defende (line 27). Apollo slew
Achilles and so made possible the escape of Aeneas and the found-
ing of Rome. Niobea : cf. Tenn. ' a Niobean daughter ' ; II. 24.
608, 'for that Niobe matched herself against fair-cheeked Leto,
saying that the goddess bare but twain, but herself many children :
so they, though they (Apollo and Diana) were but twain, destroyed
the others all' ; Ovid, Met. 6. 135; Jebb on Soph. Antig. 823 ;
Landor's Niobe ; and the famous group of statues at Florence.
2E
418 NOTES.
2. linguae : a big tongue is Greek for boastful tongue. Cf.
Soph. Antig. 127 ; Verg. Aen. 10. 547 ; Swinburne, Erechtheus,
' Yet happiest was once of the daughters of gods and divine by her
sire and her lord | Ere her tongue was a shaft for the hearts of her
sons, for the heart of her husband a sword ' ; Dante (Purg. 12)
cites Niobe among the examples of punita superbia. This moral
significance of the myth was first emphasized in a lost play of
Aeschylus. It was also represented in the reliefs carved on the
throne of the Olympian Zeus. Horace had seen a Niobe group at
Rome. Cf. Plin. N. H. 36. 28, Par haesitatio est in templo Apol-
linis Sosiani Niobae liberos morientes Scopas an Praxiteles fecerit.
The relation of this group to the one now at Florence is uncertain.
Cf. Anth. Pal. 16. 129-134. Tityos : cf. on 2. 14. 8; 3. 11. 21;
3. 4. 77 ; Ody. 11. 576 ; Pind. Pyth. 4. 90. raptor : sc. Latonae.
Cf. ATJTOI yap T^\Kri<re.
3. sensit : cf. 4. 4. 25. prope victor: by slaying Hector
(cf. on 2. 4. 11), who dying prophesies his death by the hand of
Apollo (II. 22. 359). Cf. Quint. Smyrn. 3. 62. altae : cf. 1. 16.
18 ; II. 13. 773, "l\tos alireivfi ; Verg. Aen. 1. 7 ; 1. 95 ; 10. 469.
5. impar : cf. Verg. Aen. 1. 475, impar congressus Achilli.
6. films : son of Thetis though he (was and) shook. marinae :
cf. 1. 8. 13 ; Pind. Nein. 3. 35, irovriav Qtriv.
7. tremenda : see its description, II. 16. 140-144.
8. pngnax : participial effect of adj. Cf. Livy, 22. 37. 8, pug-
nacesque alias missili telo gentes ; Simonides, alxwral irpb TT^XTJOJ.
9. mordaci : cf . Macaulay, Regillus, 8, ' Camerium knows how
deeply the sword of Aulus bites ' ; Arnold, Strayed Reveller,
; They feel the biting spears | Qf the grim Lapithae ' ; Shaks. Merry
Wives, 2. 1, 'I have a sword and it shall bite upon my necessity ' ;
Aeschyl. Sept. 399 ; Eurip. Cycl. 395, ire\eKftai> yvddois. icta :
Verg. Aen. 6. 180, icta securibus ilex.
10-11. Cf. II. 5. 560; 16. 483; Macaulay, Horatius, 46, 'And
the great Lord of Luna | Fell at that deadly stroke | As falls on
Mount Alvernus | A thunder-smitten oak ' ; Catull. 64. 105-109.
10. impulsa : cf. Juv. Sat. 10. 107, et impulsae praeceps im-
mane ruinae.
11. late : Homer's jue'-ya* ^ya^oxrrl (Od. 24. 40) ; but the fallen
tree is still present to the mind. Cf. Verg. Aen. 2. 466, Danaum
BOOK IV., ODE VI. 419
super agmina late \ incidit; Macaulay, ut supra, 'Far o'er the
crashing forest | The giant arms lie spread. 1
13. ille non: cf. non ille (4. 9. 51). The stratagem of the
Wooden Horse is familiar from Verg. Aen. 2. Minervae: per-
haps with both equo and sacra.
14. mentito : cf. Lex. s.v. II. B ; Verg. Aen. 2. 17, votum
pro reditu simulant. male : it was a luckless holiday for
them. Cf. Aen. 2. 248 ; Eurip. Tro. 616 ; Lang, .Helen of Troy,
6. 8 sqq.
16. falleret : virtually = the metrically inconvenient fefellisset.
Cf. on 1.2. 22.
17. palam : with captis, antithesis to falleret. gravis: /3apvs.
heu : 1. 15. 9, 19. heu nefas : 3. 24. 30.
18. nescios fari : infantes; vy-ina. T^KVO. (II. 22. 63).
19. latentem, etc.: cf. II. 6. 58.
21. ni: freely used in the Satires and by Vergil (Aen. 1. 58).
Elsewhere in odes, nisi.
22. pater: cf. 1. 2. 2 ; 1. 12. 13; Verg. Aen. 1. 254, 10. 2.
adnuisset : cf. on 3. 1. 8. Horace by this time knew the scene in
Verg. Aen. 1. 257.
23. rebus : cf. rerum (2. 17. 4) and Vergil's res Troiae (Aen.
8. 471).
23-24. potiore . . . alite : melioribus auspiciis. Cf. on 1. 15.
5 ; and for thought, C. S. 41-44.
23. ductos : traced in line rather than built up. Cf . Verg. Aen.
1. 423, ducere muros, and ducere valhim, etc.
25. Argivae : some read argutae, \tytias. Cf. on 3. 14. 21.
The reading Argivae brings out more clearly the antithesis be-
tween the Greek Thalia and the Italian Camena. Horace is
Somanae fidicen lyrae (4. 3. 23).
26. Cf. on 3. 4. 61. The Lycian Xanthus is meant.
27. Note alliteration. Dauniae: 2. 1. 34.
28. levis: unshorn. Cf. on 1. 21. 2; Callim. Hymn Apoll. 36.
Agyieu : guardian of the ways (Aeschyl. Ag. 1081), used more
for its pretty Greek sound than for the sense.
29. spiritum : cf. on 2. 16. 38.
30. poetae : elsewhere in Odes votes, etc.
32. orti : 4. 5. 1.
420 NOTES.
33. tutela : maids are Dianae . . . in fide (Catull. 34. 1). The
word is passive here as in Ovid, Trist. 1. 10. 1, flavae tutela Min-
ervae. For active use, cf. 4. 14. 43; Juv. Sat. 14. 112 ; Dekker's
Lullaby, 'Care is heavy, therefore sleep you, | You are care, and
care must keep you.' fugaces : 2. 1. 19.
34. cohibentis : her shafts stay their flight. Diana has "a
hand | To all things fierce and fleet that roar and range | Mortal,
with gentler shjafts than snow or sleep " (Swinburne). Cf. Ben
Jonson, ' Lay thy bow of pearl apart | And thy crystal-shining
quiver ; | Give unto the flying hart | Space to breathe, how short
soever' ; Callim. Hymn Dian. 16.
35. Lesbium : Sapphic. Cf. on 1. 1. 34.
36. pollicis : marking time or, perhaps, assuming the time de-
scribed by Lesbium peclem, touching the lyre to guide the melody
like Greek x<>po5i5o<r/ca\os, to whom, in imagination, Horace likens
himself.
37. rite : duly, meetly. It was a solemn function performed ex
ritu majorum.
38. crescentem : not of shape. Cf. Milton's ' Astarte, queen
of heaven with crescent horns.' face: cf. Lex. s.v. I. B, 2 ;
Orph. Hymn, 9. 3, SoiSoCxe. Noctilucam : wKTi^a^s. The ar-
chaic word has a hieratic effect. Luna had a temple on the Pala-
tine under the name. Cf. Varro, L. L. v. 68.
38. prosperam : transitively. Cf. C. S. 29, fertilis frugum.
Connected with spes, as spero and old form speres show. Cf. spem
mentita seges ; Tennyson's ' lead through prosperous floods his holy
urn ' (In Mem. 9); and the ' prosperous flight ' of Jeremy Taylor's
lark. pronos : cf. 1. 29. 11 ; Tennyson's 'cherish my prone year'
and his 'I heard the watchman peal the sliding season.'
40. volvere : cf. Verg. Aen. 9. 7, volvenda dies; 1. 269, vol-
vendis mensibus. menses: cf. Shelley, Witch of Atlas, 4, 'the
mother of the months ' = the moon ; Hymn Orph. 9. 5 (5ia o-e-
\i\vri) xpdvov fj.ijr'jjp <pepeicc.pirf ; Catull. 34. 17.
41. nupta : one, as often, represents the chorus, and the old
teacher naturally addresses the girls of the class. iam : with
nupta, idiomatically ; presently, i.e. you will soon find yourself
already married and looking back on your girlhood. Not ' many
years hence.' Cf. on iam, 4. 4. 14.
BOOK IV., ODE VII. 421
42. saeculo : cf . C. S. Introd. referente : cf . 3. 29. 20 ; C.
S. 22. luces : so 4. 15. 25.
43. reddidi : cf. reciting what has been learned (4. 11. 35).
modorum : cf. on 1. 15. 24-25 ; 3. 9. 10.
44. vatia : cf. on 2. 6. 24.
ODE VII.
Spring is here once more. The seasons come and go, and come
again ; but man goes, and comes again no more.
For sentiment, cf. 1. 4.
For Torquatus, cf. Epp. 1. 5. The date is not known.
There is a translation by Johnson.
1. diffugere: cf. Verg. Aen. 2. 399 ; and for expansion of meta-
phor, Wordsworth, ' Like an army defeated | The snow has re-
treated | And now doth fare ill | On the top of the bare hill.'
campis : ' whither ' and ' for whom ' dative blended.
2. comae: cf. on 1. 21. 6; 4. 3. 11.
3. mutat . . . vices: undergoes her annual changes, 'the
season's difference.' Mutat may be intransitive. For vices, cf.
1. 4. 1 ; Epode 13. 8 ; and the imitations of later Latin poets in
Orelli. Cf. Milton's ' rule the day | in their vicissitude ' and
Gray's Ode on Vicissitude. Cf. also Rossetti, House of Life, 83,
'Once more the changed year's turning wheel returns' ; Tenn.,
' Once more the Heavenly Power | Makes all things new.' terra :
tersa, the dry land. decrescentia : no longer nive turgidi (4.
12. 4).
4. praetereunt : not as in 1. 2. 19 or 4. 2. 6. So Jonson,
Underwoods, ' The rivers in their shores do run, | The clouds
rack clear before the sun.'
5-6. The three Graces. Cf. on 3. 19. 16 and 1. 4. 6. Spenser,
Shepherd's Cal. 6. 25.
7. immortalia : neuter plural for English abstract. So also in
Homer. monet : is the warning of; 1. 18. 8. annus : the
revolving year, irfpnr\6fi.fvos eviavrAs. almum : fostering, kindly,
cheerful. Cf. C. S. 9 ; Verg. Aen. 5. 64.
8. hora : cf. on 3. 29. 48.
422 NOTES.
9. Zephyris: cf. on 1. 4. 1 ; 4. 12. 2. preterit: cf. 3. 5. 34.
For metaphorical use here, cf. Romeo and Juliet, 1. 2, 'Such
comfort as do lusty young men feel | When well-apparelled April
on the heel | Of limping winter treads ' ; Tenn. Poets and Cities,
' Year will graze the heel of year ' ; Faber, The Shadow of the
Rock, Night treads upon the heels of day ' ; Swinburne, ' When
the hounds of spring are on winter's traces ' ; supra, 2. 18. 15,
truditur dies die. Others take it of the heat trampling down and
destroying the vegetation of spring.
10. interitura : cf. on 2. 3. 4.
11. pomifer : cf . 3. 23. 8 ; Epode 2. 17. Keats' Autumn con-
spires with the maturing sun 'To bend with apples the mossed
cottage trees.' effuderit : suggests the horn of plenty (Epist.
1. 12. 29, aurea fruges \ Italiae pleno defundit Copia cornu. But
fundo is regularly used by Lucretius of the production of crops.
Cf. Verg. Georg. 2. 460.
9-12. The March of the Seasons is a favorite motif of Poetry.
Cf. Lucret. 5. 737 ; Ov. Met. 15. 206 ; Claudian, 1. 269 ; Spenser,
Mutability, 7. 28 ; Shelley, Revolt of Islam, 9. 21 ; Tenn. In Mem.
85 ; Herrick, 70, ' The Succession of the Foure Sweet Months ' ;
Burns, Bonnie Bell, ' The flowery spring leads sunny summer, |
And yellow autumn presses near, | Then in his turn comes gloomy
winter, | Till smiling spring again appear.' Dobson, A Song of
the Four Seasons. iners: cf. on 1. 22. 17 ; 2. 9. 5.
13-16. Cf. Arnold on Translating Homer, p. 207, ' "The losses
of the heavens," says Horace, "fresh moons speedily repair ; we,
when we have gone down where the pious Aeneas, where the rich
Tullus and Ancus are, pulms et umbra swmws." He never
actually says where we go to ; he only indicates it by saying
that it is that place where Aeneas, Tullus, and Ancus are.
But Homer, when he has to speak of going down to the grave,
says definitely, " The immortals shall send thee to the Elysian
plain." '
13. reparant : cf. Milton, Lycidas, ' So sinks the day-star in
the ocean bed, | And yet anon repairs his drooping head ' ; P. L.,
' roses which the morn repaired ' ; Ov. Met. 1. 11 ; Lucret. 5. 666,
solis reparare nitorcm.
14. decidimus : cf. Epist. 2. 1. 36 ; Ov. Met. 10. 18, where the
BOOK IV., ODE VII. 423
word suggests the falling into the pit, abysm, or Sao-irA
(Simonides), of death.
15. Aeneas is pater as indiges. Cf. Liv. 1.2; Tib. 2. 544 ;
Ennius, fr. 33; Verg. Aen. 1. 699. But plus, his usual epithet in
the recently published Aeneid, is perhaps preferable. All his piety
could not save him. Tullus dives: for his glory and wealth, cf.
Livy, 1. 31. Ancus: a consecrated example. Cf. Epp. 1. 6. 27;
Lucret. 3. 1023 = Ennius, Ann. 151, lumina sis (suis) oculis etiam
bonus Ancus reliquit.
16. pulvis : ' Two handfuls of white dust shut in an urn of
brass ' (Term) ; ' Af5a rav o\iyav ffiroStdv (Erinna) . umbra : in
lower world, Verg. Aen. 6. 264; Soph. Electra, 1159, aitoUv -re
KO.\ aKLav a.va><l>\ri ; Auth. Pal. 5. 85, ocrrea Kal cnroSrf). Herond.
fr. 1.
17. quis scit : cf. on nescias an 2. 4. 13 ; also 1. 9. 13 ; and
for thought, Eurip. Alcest. 783 ; Sen. Thyest. 619 ; Herrick 170.
sum in ae : cf. 1. 4. 15.
19-20. So in Epist. 1. 5. 15, Horace tells Torquatus that it is
folly to stint yourself for your heir. Cf. Persius, Sat. 6. 60. sqq.
For the ' heir ' as a poetical memento mori, cf. on 3. 24. 62 ; 2. 14.
25. Horace was a bachelor, amico animo (dare) is equivalent
to indulgere genio, genio bona facere, <pi\y tyvxfi x a P' l ffft)ai i e ^ c -
Cf. Simon, fr. 85. 11 ; Aeschyl. Pers. 840. Cf. on 3. 17. 14.
21. semel: cf. on 1. 24. 16. splendida: transferred from
Minos, whose state is described Odyss. 11. 568, to his august
decrees. occideris . so Catull. 5. 4, in Jonson's imitation, ' Suns
that set may rise again | But if once (semel) we lose this light |
'Tis with us perpetual night.' For sentiment here and supra (10-
15), cf. also Ronsard, A Sa Maitresse, 'La lune est coustumiere |
De nestre tous les mois : | Mais quand nostre lumiere | Est esteinte
une fois, | Sans nos yeux reveiller | Faut long temps sommeiller ' ;
Herrick, 337. 3, ' We see the seas, | And moons to wain ; | But they
fill up their ebbs again : | But vanisht. man | Like to a Lilly -lost,
nere can, | Nere can repullulate, or bring | His dayes to see a
second spring,' etc.; El. in Maecen. 113, redditur arboribus florens
revirentibus aetas | et ver non homini quod fuit ante redit; Mos-
chus, Epitaph. Bion. 109 sqq. ; Herrick 185.
23-24. Cf. Martial, 7. 96. 5, quid species, quid lingua mihi quid
424 NOTES.
profuit aetas; Landor, Rose Aylmer, 'Ah ! what avails the scep-
tred race, | Ah ! what the form divine ! '
23. facundia: the lawyer's eloquence (Epist. 1. 5. 15) avails
nothing at that bar. pietas : cf. on 2. 14. 2 ; 1. 24. 11.
25-26. neque . . . liberat: so in the Hippolytus of Euripides.
In the legend followed by Vergil (Aen. 7. 761 sqq.), Ovid (Met.
16. 533 sqq.), and Browning (in Artemis Prologuizes), she restores
him to life, and transfers him, under the name of Virbius, to the
grove of Diana at Aricia.
25. pudicum : his death was caused by the fury of a woman
scorned, his step-mother Phaedra, who, when repulsed, de-
nounced him to his father Theseus.
27. valet : cf. on 1. 34. 12 ; 3. 25. 15.
28. Pirithoo: cf. on 3. 4. 80. Theseus, who shared P.'s pun-
ishment, was freed by Hercules, but could not free his friend.
There were other versions of the legend. Cf. Frazer, Paus. 5. 381.
Cf. Chaucer, Knightes Tale, ' So well they loved as olde bokes
sain | That when the one was dead, sothely to tell | His felawe
went and sought him down in hell.' These mythological examples
merely exemplify the general truth, non te restituet.
ODE VIII.
Marbles and bronzes are not mine to give, friend Censorin'us, nor
do you want them. In song thou delightest, and my present is a
song.
' Who will not honor noble numbers when
Verses out-live the bravest deeds of men ? '
Herrick.
C. Marcius Censorinus, consul B.C. 8, is known only by this poem
which thus fulfils its boast and by Velleius' mention of him
(2. 102) as virum demerendis hominilnis genitum.
Imitations by Jenyns, Johnson's Poets, 17. 608, and by Mason,
ibid. 18. 418.
For the theme, cf. on 3. 30 and 4. 9 ; Cowley, Praise of Poetry ;
Martial, 10. 2: 9-12 ; Eleg. in Maecen. 37. Statius, Silvae, 5. 1.
1-10, expands the first few lines. Cf. also Propert. 4. 1. 57.
1. donarem: probably as strenae (e"trennes) on the Saturnalia
and Kalends of March. Divite me (5) is the protasis. commo-
BOOK iv., ODE vm. 425
dus : if the gifts are grata, the giver is complaisant, prevenant.
Cf. Epp. 2. 1. 227 ; 1. 9. 9, Odes 3. 19. 12.
2. aera: vasa Corinthia, 'bronzes.'
3. tripodas: cf. Pind. Isth. 1. 18, 'And at the games they
entered oftenest for the strife, and with tripods and caldrons and
cnps of gold they made fair their houses' (Myers); Hesiod, Works,
656 ; Homer, Odyss. 13. 13.
5. ferres : i.e. auferres. artium : so Tf^vri frequently in Pausa-
nias, for work of art.
6. Parrhasius : the great painter of the close of the fifth cen-
tury B.C. In an epigram in Athenaeus (12. 543. C) he boasts that
he had attained the limits of art. Scopas : the great sculptor of
the first half of the fourth century ; author of a Niobe group, per-
haps the prototype of that now in Florence. protulit : created,
invented. Cf. Tibull. 1. 10. 1, quis fuit horrendos primus qui pro-
tulit enses ?
7. liquidis : suggests as complement the hard stone. Cf. 3. 13.
0. n.
8. ponere : technical. Cf . Lex.
9. vis: i.e. I have not the power (to give them). Hederae vis
(4. 11. 4), a quantity of, is not parallel.
10. egens: with res, he is rich and could buy them; with ani-
mus, his desires are not set on such ' curios.'
12. pretium dicere : tell the worth ; a slight variation on pre-
tium ponere or statuere, set a price, Sat 2. 3. 23.
13-20. Not inscribed marbles, nor all the deeds of Scipio, confer
so sure an immortality of fame as the Calabrian muse (of Ennius).
The general proposition is stated with reference to the special case
of Scipio the Elder. But incendia Karthaginis impiae was the deed
of the younger Scipio (B.C. 146). We may, then, either reject the
line (which lacks the caesura), or assume that Horace mingled the
glories of the two Scipios and meant the phrase, eius qui domita
nomen ab Africa, etc., to apply to both, as it conceivably may,
regardless of the fact that Ennius did not live to sing the younger.
If we omit also line 33, we get 32 = 8 x 4 lines, which is an object
with some critics.
13. ' The marbles cut by the letters ' is more plastic than the
' letters cut in or into the marbles ' would be. There is a possible
426 NOTES.
allusion to Augustus' design of setting up, in the portico of his
Forum, statues of the great Roman generals, with inscriptions re-
counting their deeds. Cf. Suet. Octav. 31 ; Cell. N. A. 9. 11.
14. spiritus et vita: cf. Verg. Aen. 6. 847, imitated in Macau-
lay's ' The stone that breathes and struggles, | The brass that seems
to speak' (Proph. of Capys, 28).
15. celeres fugae : the abandonment of Italy or the flight from
the field of Zama, or both. Editors query the force of the plural.
The nom. sing, would not give the rhythm. Cf. celerem fugam
(2. 13. 17 ; 2. 7. 9).
16. minae : cf . 4. 3. 8. The threats of ' Hannibal at the gates '
of Rome were hurled back at Carthage by Scipio after Zama.
17. impiae : cf. 4. 4. 46.
18. Cf. Sat. 2. 1. 66, qui duxit ab oppressa meritum Karthagine
nomen ; Milton, P. R., 'How he surnamed of Africa dismissed |
In his prime youth the fair Iberian maid.' eius : cf. on 3. 11. 18.
19. lucratus : a purposely low word. In Val. Max. 3. 8. 1,
Scipio boasts that he has gained nothing from the subjugation of
all Africa but a cognomen.
20. Calabrae Pierides: is a contradiction, if we consider Pie-
rides too curiously. Ennius was a native of Rudiae in Calabria.
Nos sumus Romani qui fuvimus ante Rudini, he boasts. He had
celebrated Scipio, both in his Annals and in a special poem.
21. chartae: so 4. 9. 31. sileant: transitive, cf. 3. 19. 8. n.
22. Iliae: cf. on 1.2. 17.
23-24. puer: cf. 4. 6. 37. invida: cf. on 4. 9. 33 ; 4. 5. 9.
25. Aeacum : cf. on 2. 13. 22.
26. virtus: his virtue. Cf. 3. 2. 21, and Find. Isth. 8. 24.
favor: may be 'popular acclaim,' or it may, like lingua, go with
vatum. potentium: the power of which Corneille boasts when
he cries to a young beauty, ' Vous ne passerez pour belle | Qu'autant
que je 1'aurai dit.' Cf. Shaks. Sonnet 55, 'Not marble, not the
gilded monuments, | Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme.'
27. divitibus = beatis. Cf. 1. 4. 14. insulis: loc. abl. For
Islands of Blessed, cf. on Epode 16. 42.
28-30. Cf. Sellar, p. 181. Horace is not careful to distinguish
the immortality of mythical or imperial apotheosis, that of the
' choir invisible,' and that conferred by poetry. Cf. on 3. 3. 9-12.
BOOK IV., ODE IX. 427
28-29. Cf. Bacchyl. 3. 92. sic: i.e. by the power of song.
Cf. hac arte, resuming what precedes 3. 3. 9.
30. optatis : it was the goal of his striving. Cf. Epp. 2. 3. 412.
So Hercules frequently points the moral in Pindar.
31. Cf. 1. 3. 2; 1. 12. 27.
32-33. quassas: cf. 1. 1. 18. 33. Cf. 3. 25. 20.
34. vota . . . ducit : like interest and eripiunt is a concrete
expression of the general idea of deification. Cf. Verg. Eclog.
5. 79.
ODE IX.
Scorn not the lyre ! The Greek lyrists have their place after
Homer. The heroes of Troy were not the first who loved and
fought. Brave men were living before Agamemnon, but their
fame is lost in the dark backward and abysm of time because
they lacked the sacred bard. But my song shall guard thee,
friend Lollius, from the iniquity of oblivion. Thine is a states-
man's soul, sagacious, steadfast, upright. Thou art the Stoic
sage, consul not for one year only, but whenever the right pre-
vails. Happy he who uses wisely the gifts of heaven, and fears
not poverty, or death for friends and fatherland.
M. Lollius, a trusted minister-of Augustus, was consul in B.C. 21,
and governor of Gaul, where he was defeated by the Sygambri,
B.C. 16. He died in the East, B.C. 1, while acting as tutor and
adviser of the Emperor's grandson, Gaius Caesar. Velleius (2. 97 ;
2. 102) accuses him of cupidity and hypocrisy. There seems a note
of loyal defiance in Horace's defense of his friend. But a man is
not on oath in an ode any more than, according to Dr. Johnson, in
a lapidary inscription. Velleius was possibly prejudiced by the
dislike of his patron Tiberius for Lollius (Tac. Ann. 3. 48 ; Sueton.
Tib. 12. 13).
The ode is partly translated by Pope. There is a deliciously
na'ive imitation by Ronsard. Lines 35 to end are freely rendered
by Swift, 'To Archbishop King.'
Cf. also Stepney, Johnson's Poets, 8. 361 ; Somerville, ibid. 11. 192.
1. ne . . . credas : the purpose of the statements, non . . . latent,
etc. Cf. on 1. 33. 1 ; 2. 4. 1.
2. longe sonantem : cf. 3. 30. 10 ; 4. 14. 25 ; Catull. 34. 12,
428 NOTES.
amniumque sonantum ; Hes. Theog. 367 ; Aristoph. Clouds, 283 ;
Lucret. 5. 940; 11. 18. 576.
3. Cf. on 3. 30. 13. There is a suggestion also of 3. 1. 1-4.
4. socianda chordis: lyric, as distinguished from the i|/i\a of
epic poetry. Cf. Ronsard, A Sa Lyre, ' de marier aux cordes les
victoires' ; Epp. 2. 2. 86, verba lyrae motura sonum; ibid. 143,
verba sequi fidibus modulanda Latinis.
5. non, ai: cf. 3. 15. 7; 2. 10. 17. Maeonius : 1. 6. 2.
7. Ceae: 2. 1. 38. Alcaei: cf. on 1. 32. 5; 2. 13. 30.
minaces: 'what new Alcaeus fancy-blest | Shall sing the sword in
myrtles drest?' (Collins, Ode to Liberty) ; 'Nor such the spirit-
stirring note | When the live chords Alcaeus smote, | Inflamed by
sense of wrong ' (Wordsworth) ; ' L'audacieuse encre d'Alce"e '
(Ronsard).
8. Stesichori : cf. on 1. 16. graves: epici carminis onera
lyra sustinentem (Quintil. 10. 1. 62). He treated long myths in
lyric form, and is an important link, in the development of Greek
legends, between Homer and Pindar.
9. lusit: cf. on 1. 32. 2. Anacreon: cf. 1. 17. 18; Epode 14.
10. Horace is probably thinking of the Anacreontea, pretty
Alexandrian trifles known to English readers in Moore's version.
10. spirat adhuc amor: cf. her words in Swinburne's Anac-
toria, ' I, Sappho, shall be one with all these things, | With all
high things forever . . . and . . . my songs once heard . . . cleave to
men's lives.'
11. vivunt : cf. spiritus et vita (4. 8. 14). commissi : i.e.
' with this key' Sappho unlocked her heart. Cf. Sat. 2. 1. 31, cre-
debat libris.
12. puellae : Sappho. Construe with fidibus.
13-16. Cf. on 3. 3. 25 and 1. 15. 20.
13. arait probably governs crines directly ; but we forget this
flash of passion in the long admiring gaze that follows, and feel
mirata with all four accusatives.
14. crines: cf. 1. 15. 20. illitum : cf. oblitus (Epp. 2. 1. 204);
Verg. Aen. 3. 483, picturatos auri subtemine vestis ; Milton,
4 grooms besmear'd with gold.'
15. cultus: 1. 8. 16.
16. Helene Lacaena: i.e. the ' Heavenborn Helen, Sparta's
BOOK IV., ODE IX. 429
Queen,' of song and story. Cf. Vcrg. Aen. 2. 601 ; Ronsard, Au
Sieur Bertrand, ' Hele"ne Grecque estant gaigne"e | D'une perruque
bien peigne"e ' ; and, for the sentiment, Landor, ' Past ruined Ilion
Helen lives, | Alcestis rises from the shades : | Verse calls them
forth; 'tis verse that gives | Immortal youth to mortal maids.'
17. Teucer : cf. 1. 7. 21. The best archer of the Achaeans (H.
13. 313). Cydonio : cf. 1. 15. 17 and Lexicon.
18. non semel Ilios does not refer to the various legendary
sieges of Troy, but to the infinite possibilities of the unknown
past. Cf. Plato, Laws, 676 B, 'and have not thousands upon
thousands of cities come into being in this (boundless) time, and
as many been destroyed ? ' Shelley, Queen Mab, II. ; the final
Chorus in Hellas ; and Verg. Eel. 4. 36.
19. ingens : 1. 7. 32. n.
19-21. pugnavit . . . proelia: cf, pugnata bella (3. 19. 4).
20. Idomeneus : leader of the Cretans in Homer. Sthenelus :
1. 15. 24.
22. vel: ve. Mainly metri gratia.
22-23. Cf. Andromache's lament for Hector (II. 24. 729). De-
iphobus was brother of Hector. Cf. Verg. Aen. 6. 494 ; Ronsard,
naively, ' Hector le premier des gendarmes. '
23. excepit : cf. Lex. and 2. 15. 16. pudicis: 3. 5. 41 ; alSol-ps
(H. 6. 250).
25. A familiar quotation. Cf. Byron, Don Juan, 1. 5, 'Brave
men were living before Agamemnon | And since exceeding valor-
ous and sage, | A good deal like him too, though quite the same
none ; | But then they shone not on the poets' page. Cf. also,
Ben Jonson's elaborate imitation, The Forest, 12 ; Boileau, Epitre,
1 ; and, for the general idea, Sat. 1. 3. 107 ; Find. Nem. 7. 12.
For immortality of poetry, cf. further on 3. 30 ; 4. 8 ; Theognis,
237 ; Tibull. 1. 4. 65 ; Propert. 4. 1 . 23 ; Theocr. 16. 48 ; Sappho,
fr. 68, 'Thou shalt die and be laid low in the grave, hidden from
mortal ken | Unremembered, and no song of the muse wakens thy
name again ; | No Pierian rose brightens thy brow, lost in the
nameless throng, | Thy dark spirit shall flit forth like a dream,
bodiless ghosts among.'
26. inlacrimabiles : virtually passive here ; active, 2. 14. 6. Cf.
Wordsworth's ' incommunicable sleep.'
430 NOTES.
27. urgentur: cf. on 1. 24. 6 ; 1. 4. 16. longa: cf. 3. 11. 38;
Propert. 3. 7. 24, nox tibi longa venit nee reditura dies.
28. sacro : cf. on 3. 1. 3 ; Lucan, 9, 980, sacer et magnus
vatum labor, omnia fato \ Eripis, et populis donas mortalibus
aevum.
29. Cf. Herrick, 460, ' Vertue couceal'd (with Horace you'l
confesse,) Differs not much from drowzie slothf uhiesse.' Cf. also,
iners (3. 5. 36). Sepultae and celata are felt with both nouns.
30. non ego te : cf. on 1. 18. 11.
31. chartis: 4. 8. 21; Sat. 1. 4. 36; 1. 4. 139. inornatum :
proleptic.
32. labores is taken by some editors as a hint that his efforts
were not achievements.
33. carpere suggests tooth of envy. Cf. 4. 3. 16. lividas :
cf . 4. 8. 24 ; Shaks. ' envious and calumniating time ' ; Temporum
iniuria ; ' Soon | Oblivion will steal silently the remnant of its
fame,' Shelley, Queen Mab ; 'The iniquity of oblivion blindly scat-
tereth her poppy,' Sir Thomas Browne, Urn Burial.
34. est animus : for the turn of phrase, cf . Verg. Aen. 9. 205,
est hie, est animus lucis contemptor, etc.
35. rerum prudens: cf. rerum inscitia (Epp. 1. 3. 33) ; rerum
. . . prudentia (Verg. G. 1.416).
36. dubiis : virtually = adversis. rectus connotes both firm
and upright. Cf. mentes rectae quae stare solebant (Ennius, Ann.
208).
37-38. He punishes cupidity in others and is abstinent himself.
abstinens . . . pecuniae : cf . on 3. 27. 69 n.
38. Cf. on 3. 16. 9;"Epist. 1. 1. 52; and Vergil's auri sacra
fames. cuncta: 2. 1. 23; 3. 1. 8.
39. The Stoic sage was pedantically affirmed to be the only true
consul or king. Cf. on 2. 2. 21 ; 3. 2. 17. Popular etymology may
help here, qui recte consulat, consul cluat. See Lex. Cf. Martial,
4. 40. 4, pauper eras et eques sed mihi consul eras. ' John Brad-
shaw, ' says Milton, ' appears like a consul from whom the fasces
are not to depart with the year ; so that not on the tribunal only,
but throughout his life, you would regard him as sitting in judg-
ment upon kings.'
40-44. Confused lines, variously interpreted. Horace is shifting
BOOK IV., ODE X. 431
from animus to Lollius and from Lollius to the ideal sage, whose
authority is displayed whenever he prefers the right and triumphs
over wrong. Rendering index as a judge, we refer it explicitly to
Lollius, who may have been a index selectus or may have exercised
judicial functions in the senate. We may take quotiens with all
these clauses and understand explicuit . . . victor literally ; or we
may conceivably take explicuit . . . victor metaphorically and make
it the apodosis of quotiens praetnlit (et) reiecit, in which case a
colon is required after anni.
41-42. honestum . . . utili: the Ka\bv and ffv^epov of Greek
ethics. dona nocentium : i.e. bribes of the guilty.
43-44. Cf. 3. 5. 51. explicuit: cf. expediunt (4. 4. 76).
45. non ... vocaveris : ' Ton would not rightly call blessed. 1
The thought of 2. 2. 17-20. Cf. Sellar, p. 167 ; Epist. 1. 16. 20.
46. occupat: cf. on 1. 14. 2 ; 4. 11. 21.
49. callet: cf. on 1. 10. 7. pauperiem pati : 1. 1. 18.
50. peiusque leto: cf. on 1. 8. 9; Epp. 1. 17. 30, cane peius et
anyui.
51. non ille: cf. 3. 21. 9 ; Verg. Aen. 5. 334, 6. 593 ; ille non
(4. 6. 13).
52. Cf. 3. 19. 2 ; 3. 2. 13.
ODE X.
To the beautiful boy Ligurinus (cf. 4. 1. 33). Youth's a stuff
will not endure.
For the vein of .sentiment, cf. Anth. Pal. 12. 186, 12. 35, and
Shakspere's Sonnet," ' When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,'
and his 'Look in thy glass and tell that face thou vie west.' Old
translation in Musarum Deliciae, Vol. I. p. 181.
1. muneribus : Homer's gifts of Aphrodite (II. 3. 54).
2. insperata : perhaps more than unexpected, dreaded.
plurna : apparently down. Bentley's bruma would be prettily
illustrated by Heine's ' Es liegt der heisse Sommer Auf deinen
Wangelein; Es liegt der Winter, der kalte, In deineni Herzchen
Klein. Das wird sich bei dir andern, Du Vielgeliebte mein !
Der Winter wird auf den Wangen, Der Sommer in Herzen sein '
(Xauck).
432 NOTES.
3. humeris involitant: the long hair usually shorn on the
assumption of the toga virilis (cf. Juv. 3. 186). Cf. 3. 20. 14 ;
2. 5. 23 ; Epode 11. 28 ; and Pindar's Jason, Pyth. 4. 82, ' nor were
the bright locks of his hair shorn from him, but over all his back
ran rippling down.' deciderint: i.e. tonsae, under the scissors.
4. flore . . . rosae : cf. on 3. 29. 3. est . . . prior : outvies.
5. Some editors read Ligurine, taking verterit as intransitive.
hispidam : cf. on 2. 9. 1 ; the opposite of levis, 4. 6. 28.
6. speculo : by means of = in. Cf. Lais'" ' dedication of her
mirror,' Anth. Pal. 6. 1. alterum: cf. Ronsard, 'Jeune beaute,
inais trop outrecuid^e | T)es presens de Venus, | Quand tu voirras
ta peau toute rid^e | Et tes cheveaux chenus, | Centre le temps et
contre toy rebelle, | Diras en te tan9ant : | Que ne pensois-je alors
que j'estois belle | Ce que je vay pensant?' Cf. also Auson. Ep.
13. 5 ; Herrick, 62, 164.
8. incolumes : fresh, unwrinkled. Cf. Shaks. Son. 68, ' Thus
is his cheek the map of days outworn.'
ODE XI.
Come, Phyllis, and help me keep Maecenas' birthday, dearer than
my own. Telephus is a youth out of thy star. Fling away ambi-
tion ; by that sin fell Phaethon and Bellerophon. Come, last of
my loves, and learn a song to drive dull care away.
Cf . the motif of 3. 28.
Maecenas was out of favor at court, during the last years of his
life, and is not elsewhere mentioned in this book devoted especially
to Augustus.
2. Albani : in Sat. 2. 8. 16, Maecenas is given his choice of Alba-
nian or Falernian. Cf. Juv. 13. 214, Albani veteris pretiosa senectus.
3. nectendis : dat. of purpose. Cf. gerundive in legal expres-
sions (A. G. 299. b ; G. L. 429; H. 544. 2. n. 3). apium: cf. 1.
36. 16 ; 2. 7. 24.
4. vis = copia is Ciceronian. Nauck doubts multa vis, and con-
strues multa with fulges.
5. qua: with fulges only. religata : cf. 2. 11. 24. fulges:
may be present of fulgeo, or future of fulgo.
BOOK IV., ODE XI. 433
6. ridet : cf . II. 19. 362 ; Hes. Theog. 40 ; Lucret. 2. 326, acre
renidescit tellus ; Catull. 64. 284 ; Milton's ' pleased with the grate-
ful smell, old ocean smiles'; splendet (Epist. 1. 5. 7). ara : of
turf, caespite vivo.
7. verbenis : cf. on 1. 19. 14. avet: faint personification.
8. spargier : archaic inf. pass, only here in odes. In Sat. 1.
2. 35. 78 ; 2. 8. 67 ; Epist. 2. 1. 94 ; 2. 2. 148.
9. manus : not hand, but band ; as Verg. Aen. 6. 660. Cf. 3.
6. 9. Cf. the bustle of preparation for the guest in Juv. 14. 59.
10. cursitant : developing festinat. pueris : dat.
11. sordidum: sooty, alBa\6fvra. trepidant: bicker, quiver
with eagerness ; personifying, as avet.
11-12. rotantes vertice : whirling in eddies. Cf. Homer's
f\tff<To/j.evn irtp\ Ka.itv<f (II. 1. 317); Apoll. Rhod. 1. 438, \ryvi>v \
TtopQvpfais k\'iKeaaiv (vaiffifjLov otitraovffav ; Lucret. 6. 202 ; Milt. P. L.
6, ' smoke to roll | In dusky wreaths reluctant flames ; ' Herrick,
871. 18, 'And (while we the gods invQke), | Reade acceptance by
the smoake.'
13. ut tamen noris : cf. Epp. 1. 12. 25, ne tamen ignores.
14. Idus : thought to be derived from iduare, to divide ; V findit.
15. Veneris marinae : cf. 1. 4. 5 ; 3. 26. 5.
16. Aprilem : perhaps, because of false etymology, a<j>p6s, 'A<f>po-
S'lTfl.
17. sollemnis = anno redeunte festus (3. 8. 9).. mihi : more
closely with sanctior. Cf. Tibull. 4. 5. 1, qui mihi te, Cerinthe,
dies dedit hie mihi sanctus \ atque inter festos semper habendus erit.
19-20. '"This is the birthday of Maecenas" is expressed by
words which should mean from this day forth Maecenas revises
the calendar,' says Tyrrell captiously (Latin Poetry, p. 197).
19. adfluentes : the years that flow to us on the stream of time ;
not quite the venientes anni of A. P. 175. Cf . Tennyson's ' There's
somewhat flows to us in life ' ; Persius, Sat. 2. 1-2, Hunc, Macrine,
diem numera meliore lapillo \ qui tibi labentes apponit candidus
annos. Or it may be the rich or bounteous years.
21. Telephum: cf. 1. 13. 1; 3. 19. 26. occupavit : cf. on
1. 14. 2.
23-24. grata compede: cf. 1. 33. 14.
25-29. The tone is mock heroic.
2F
434 NOTES.
25. ambustus Phaethon : cf. ^uiSaijs *ae0a/ (Apoll. Rhod. 4.
598); Catull. 64. 291, flammati Phaethontis. Shakspere also uses
the myth to symbolize a too-ambitious love : ' Why, Phaeton (for
thou art Merop's son), Wilt thou aspire to guide the heavenly car,
And with thy daring folly burn the world ? Wilt thou reach stars
because they shine on thee' (Two Gent. 3. 1). Cf. Rich. II. 3. 3,
' Down ? Down I come ; like glistering Phaeton Wanting the man-
age of unruly jades ' ; Marlowe, ' Clymene's brain-sick son | That
almost brent the axle-tree of heaven ' ; Ov. Met. 2. 1-328.
28. Bellerophonten : cf. on 3. 12. 8 ; 3. 7. 15. Pindar first
made the myth a symbol of vaulting ambition (Isth. 6. 44): 'Thus
did winged Pegasus throw his lord Bellerophon, when he would'
fain enter into the heavenly habitations and mix among the com-
pany of Zeus. Unrighteous joyance a bitter end awaiteth.' Pega-
sus opened the fountain Hippocrene with his hoof, and is called
Utip-nvaioi u(a\os by Eurip. (El. 475). This and Persius' Prologue
would readily suggest the conception of him as the poet's steed.
It has not been traced back of the Italian poet Boiardo. Spenser
already has it (Ruins of Time): 'Then who so will with virtuous
deeds assay | To mount to heaven on Pegasus must ride, | And
with sweet poets' verse be glorified.'
29-31. semper ut . . . vites: this is pure prose, with all the
logical links exposed. Exemplum praebet = monet . . . ut sequare
. . . et putando = putans . . . (ut~) vites. For the form, cf . Pindar,
Pyth. 4. 90, 'Yea, and the swift shaft of Artemis made Tityos its
prey in order that men may set their desires on permitted loves.'
For the general sentiment disparem vites, cf. the proverbial /ojSeCffat
Kad' taurbv of the Greek (Aeschyl. Prom. 890).
30. putando : for this use of the abl. of gerund, cf. A. G. 301 ;
G. L. 431. n. 3 ; H. 542. IV. Cf. also Propert. 1.1.9; 1. 4. 1.
It sometimes has virtually passive force, as uritque videndo (Verg.
Georg. 3. 215); sometimes active, as tuendo (Aen. 1. 713).
32. finis : cf. Propert. 1. 12. 20, Cynthia prima fuit, Cynthia
finis erit.
33. calebo : cf. 3. 9. 6 ; 1. 4. 19.
34. condisce : cf. on 3. 2. 3. inodos : this ode, or any other
song.
35. reddas: cf. 4. 6. 43. atrae: cf. 3. 1. 40; 3. 14. 13.
BOOK IV., ODE XII. 435
ODE XII.
The swallow and the spring zephyrs are here again. 'Tis a
thirsty season. Couie, Vergilius, and quaff a cup with me. But
you must pay for your wine. An alabaster box of your precious
nard will lure forth a cask from the Sulpician cellars. Come, let
be the pursuit of gain, forget the funeral pyre. 'Tis sweet to relax
in season.
The phrases iuvenum nobilium cliens and studium lucri hardly
fit Vergil the poet, who, for the rest, had been dead six years when
this book was published. The scholiasts sagely conjecture that an
unguentarius, a mercator, or medicus is meant. A physician dis-
pensed his own drugs and would charge well for the precious
nard.
There is a translation by Lord Thurlow. For the spring motif,
cf. 1. 4 and 4. 7. For the jocose invitation, cf. Catull. 13. Cf.
also, Herrick, Hesperides, 643, ' Fled are the frosts and now the
fields appear | Reclothed in fresh and verdant Diaper. | Thaw'd
are the snowes and now the lusty spring | Gives to each Mead a
neat enameling. | The palms put forth their Gemmes, and every
Tree | Now swaggers in her Leavy gallantry. | The while the Dau-
lian Minstrell sweetly sings | With warbling notes, her Tyrrean
(qy. Terean ?) sufferings ' ; Anth. Pal. 9. 363, 10. 5, 10. 14, and
passim ; Sellar, p. 197.
1. lam: cf. Catull. 46. 1, lam ver egelidos refert tepores; Anth.
Pal. 9. 363. 9, fjSt) 5e irXuovaiv ^JT' tvpea Kvfj.a.Ta. vavrat \ trvoiri ainij-
tj.d.vT<f Ze<f>vpov \lva. KoKirdxjainos. temperant : soothe, calm. Cf.
on 1. 12. 16 ; 2. 16. 27 ; 3. 4. 45.
2. impellunt : cf. Tenn. Maud, ' when the far-off sail is blown
by the breeze of a softer clime' ; Seneca, Thyest. 126, nives . . .
aestas veliferis soluit etesiis. Thraciae : cf. 1. 25. 11 ; Epode
13. 3. Editors differ as to whether north winds blowing at the end
of winter, or the zephyrs are meant. Homer (II. 9. 5) makes both
Zephyr and Boreas blow from Thrace, and Zephyrus, as the paral-
lel passages show, is the conventional spring wind. Cf. Lucret.
1. 11; 5. 737-738; Chaucer, Prologue, 5.
3. prata: cf. 1. 4. 4. rigent: rigidum Niphaten, 2. 9. 20.
fluvii: 4. 7. 3-4. strepunt: cf. on 3. 30. 10.
436 NOTES.
4. Cf. on 4. 7. 3-4.
5-8. For the story of Itys, Procne, and Philomela, cf. Class.
Diet. s.v. Tereus ; Ovid, Met. 6. 424 sqq. ; Matthew Arnold's Phil-
omela ; Swinburne's Itylus ; and the allusive summary of the tale
in the spring chorus in ' Atalanta,' ' And the brown bright nightin-
gale amorous | Is half assuaged for Itylus, | For the Thracian
ships and the foreign faces, | The tongueless vigil and all the
pain.'
There is some question whether the bird that moans for Itys is
the swallow or, according to the other version of the legend, the
nightingale. But though Sappho calls the nightingale, in Ben
Jonson's paraphrase, ' the dear glad angel of the spring ' (%pos
&yyf\os l/n.ep6(ptavos a^tav\ the swallow is the regular poetical har-
binger of spring. Cf. PIomeric(?) Elpeauevn, 11; Hes. Works, 564 ;
Simon, fr. 74; Aristoph. Eq. 419; the popular song, $\6', 3\0e
XeAiSwj' ; Hor. Epist. 1. 7. 13, cum zephyris . . . et hirundine
prima; the proverb, 'one swallow does not make a spring,' Aris-
totle, Eth. 1. 7. 15; Ovid, Fasti, 2. 853, veris praenuntia; Anth.
Pal. 10. 14. 5, ot e<f>vpoi trvfiouffi tirirpv^et 8f x f A.iSaii' | Kap(pfin KO\\riTbv
irri^/j.fvn Bd\a/j.ov ; Verg. Georg. 4. 306 ; in Gray's Ode to Spring,
' The Attic warbler pours her throat ' ; Cicero's \a\aytvffav, ad
Att. 9. 18.
6. et connects infelix and opprobrium. Cecropiae: cf. on 2.
1. 12. Pandion, the third mythical king of Athens, was the father
of Philomela and Procne, who served up her own son Itys at the
table of King Tereus, her husband, to avenge his maltreatment of
herself and violation of her sister.
7. male : i.e. with excessive cruelty.
8. regum : the plural generalizes. Cf . on 3. 27. 38.
9. dicunt: sing. .Cf. on 1. 6. 5. tenero : it is early spring
' when all the wood stands in a mist of green | And nothing perfect '
(Tenn.). Later it would be in tenaci gramine (Epode 2, 24).
10. fistula: cf. on 1. 17. 10; abl. instr.
11. deum: Pan deus Arcadiae (Verg. Eel. 10. 26) ; Pan curat
ovcs oviumque magistros (Ibid. 2. 33). nigri: cf. on 1. 21. 7.
12. placent : cf. C. S. 7.
14. pressum Calibus: cf. on 1. 20. 9 ; 1. 31. 9. ducere : cf.
1. 17. 22.
BOOK IV., ODE XII. 437
16. merebere : fut. = colloquial imperative. nardo : cf . on
2. 11. 10. vina: cf. on 1. 18. 5.
17. eliciet suggests personification. Cf. 2. 11. 21 and descends
(3. 21. 7.)
18. We can only guess whether Horace bought or stored his
wine at the Sulpician vaults or storehouses, which later scholiasts
and inscriptions place at foot of the Aventine.
19. donare . . . largus: cf. Intr. , notes on syntax.
19-20. amara . . . curarum : cf. on 4. 4. 76. For thought,
cf. 3. 21. 17.
21. gaudia: cf. 4. 11. 14. properas : not physical hurry. Cf.
Sat. 1. 9. 40 ; Epp. 1. 3. 28.
2:2. merce continues the jest of merebere, if it is a jest. non
ego te : cf. 1. 18. 11 ; 4. 9. 30; 1. 23. 9.
23. immnnem : acrvn&o\ov, 'without paying your scot.' Cf.
Ter. Phorm. 339 ; Epist. 1. 14. 33, immunem Cinarae placutsse
rapaci.
24. tinguere : cf. Alcaeus' reyye irvfiiuovas olvtf, jSpe'xf"', madidus,
irriguus mero, 'a wet night,' and similar phrases.
24. plena : cf. 2. 12. 24.
25. verum : only here in odes. pone moras : cf . 3. 29. 5,
eripe te morae.
26. Cf. Lucretius, 3. 913-915 ; and Tennyson, Maud, ' O, why
should Love, like men in drinking songs, | Spice his fair banquet
with the dust of death?' nigrorum . . . ignium: the fires of
the funeral pyre are conventionally 'dark.' Cf. Verg. Aen. 11.
186 ; 2. 3. 16, fila atra; Lucretius, 2. 580, funeris atri. memor:
cf . Sat. 2. 6. 97 ; Martial, 2. 59. 4. dum licet : cf . Sat. 2. 6. 96 ;
Epist. 1. 11. 20; also, odes 2. 3. 15-16; 2. 11. 16.
27. consiliis : dat. For thought, cf. 3. 28. 4.
28. A familiar quotation, ' A little nonsense now and then | Is
relished by the wisest men.' in loco : kv xaip-f. Cf. Ter. Adelph.
216, pecuniam in loco neglegere.
438 NOTES.
ODE XIII.
The old age of the wanton. The unpleasant theme of 1. 25 and
3. 15. For the motif, cf. Anth. Pal. 5. 21, 5. 27, 5. 271, 5. 273 ;
and Swinburne, ' The Complaint of the Fair Armouress,' after
Villon.
There is an imitation by Gilbert West in Dodsley's Poems, 2,
p. 318.
1-2. Lyce : perhaps meant for the Lyce of 3. 10, though line 21
is against it. For anaphora, cf. 3. 5. 18 ; 3. 11. 30 ; 4. 6. 37.
I. vota : sc. devotiones as 2. 8. 6.
4. ludis : cf. on 2. 12. 19 ; 3. 15. 5.
* 5. pota : cf. 3. 15. 16 n.
6. virentis: cf. 1. 9. 17 ; and, for contrast with aridas (9), cf.
on'l. 25. 17-19. et: Cf. 3. 11. 15.
7. doctae : cf . 3. 9. 10. Cliiae : cf . Delia and Lesbia, like-
wise named from places.
8. excubat : cf. on 3. 16. 3. in genis : cf. Jebb on Soph.
Antig. 783 ; Rom. and Jul. 5. 3, ' beauty's ensign yet | Is crimson
in thy lips and in thy cheeks. '
9. importunus : a vague word ; not conducive, distressful,
ruthless. Cf. 3. 16. 37, and F. Q. 2. 6. 29, ' And with importune
outrage him assailed.' aridas: cf. on 2. 11. 6. transvolet:
"Epus . . . wa.pne-ra.rai (Callim. Ep. 32).
10. luridi: cf. livido dente (Epode 5. 47).
II. te : with both fugit and turpant.
12. capitis nives : Quintil. 8. 6. 17, censures the image as
far-fetched, sunt et durae, id est a longinqua similitudine ductae
translationes nt capitis nives. Cf. Anth. Pal. 6. 198, iro\icp yi.pai
vi<p6iJLtvov ; Catull. 64. 309, niveo . . . vertice; Ronsard, 'Ja cin-
quante et six ans ont neige" sur ma teste ' ; Carew, ' or if that
golden fleece must grow | Forever free from aged snow ' ; Donne,
' Ride ten thousand days and nights | Till age snow white hairs on
thee ' ; Tenn. Pal. of Art., ' A hundred winters snowed upon his
breast | From cheek and throat and chin ' ; Herrick, 164, ' And
time will come when you shall weare | Such frost and snow upon
your haire. '
BOOK IV., ODE XIV. 439
13. Coae : a costly gauzy silk affected by the demi-monde and
often alluded to by Roman poets. Cf. Sat. 1. 2. 101 ; Tibull. 2. 3. 56.
14. cari lapides : sc. gems. Cf. Ovid, A. A. 3. 129, can's aures
onerata lapillis. Others read clari. semel : cf. on 1. 24. 16.
14. notis condita : her years are known and irrecoverable.
16. volucris dies : cf. 3. 28. 6 ; and Eurip. Troad. 847, rZs
\tvKowrepov apepas.
17. venus: charm, grace.
18. illius, illius : cf . 3. 26. 6 ; ' Long, long ago ' ; Sappho, fr. 33,
ypapav . . . fffOev . . . ird\a.i irord ; ' For he is like to something I
remember | A great while since, a long, long time ago' (Ford).
19. spirabat: cf. on 4. 9. 10.
20. surpuerat : surripuerat, syncope. Cf. on 1. 36. 8 and Sat.
2. 3. 283. For thought, cf. Catull. 51. 6, eripit sensus mihi; and,
on a higher plane, Tennyson's ' Smote the chord of self that trem-
bling passed in music out of sight.'
21-22. The meaning seems to be, ' happy (as the reigning belle)
after (in lime or possibly order of precedence) Cinara (cf. on 4.
1. 4) and a face (beauty, aspect, " vision of delight ") well known,
too, for arts of pleasing.' For genitive, cf. on 2. 2. 6.
24. servatura . cf. on 2. 3. 4.
25. cornicis : cf. on 3. 17. 13. ut : we need not distinguish
purpose and result. fervidi : ' Let temple burn or flax : an equal
light | Leaps in the flame from cedar-plank or weed : | And love is
fire' (Sonnets from the Portuguese, 10). But Lyce is a burned-
out torch, 5a\As (Anth. Pal. 12. 41). Cf. Tenn. Merlin and Vivien,
' the lists of such a beard | As youth gone out had left in ashes ' ;
Shaks. R. and Jul. 4. 1, 'The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall
fade | To paly ashes.'
27. non sine : cf. on 1. 23. 3.
28. dilapsam : delapsam would mean fallen into the ashes.
in cineres: cf. Vergil's considere in ignes (Aen. 2. 624 ; 9. 145).
ODE XIV.
Augustus, first in war. Under thy auspices Drusus has over-
thrown the fierce tribes of the Alps, and Tiberius descended upon
the Raeti as Auster descends on the storm waves or Aufidus in
440 NOTES.
flood time on the fertile fields. For three lustres, since the day
when Alexandria opened to thee her harbor and her deserted
palaces, fortune has crowned with success all thy campaigns. All
the peoples of the earth bow beneath thy yoke, from India to
Britain, from the Nile to the Tigris and the Danube.
For the events alluded to, cf. 4. 4. Intr. and Sellar, p. 156-157.
There is an imitation, in the form of an ode to Queen Anne, in
Dodsley's Poems, 1, p. 69.
1. Poetic variation of the official formula, Senatus populusque
Bomanus.
2. plenis: iustis, adequate. honorum : both offices (1. 1.8)
and honorary decrees here.
3. in aevum : cf. on 3. 11. 35-36 ; Epist. 1. 3. 8. Augusts :
cf. on 1. 2. 52; 3. 3. 11 ; 3. 5. 3.
4. titulos: inscriptions. Cf. notis publicis (4. 8. 13). me-
moresque fastos : cf. on 3. 17. 4 ; Claudian, 1. 279, Longaque
perpetui ducent in saecula fasti.
5. Aeternet : ae(vi)ternet (with aevum as ludum ludere, 3.
29. 50), a rare archaic word. Cf. F. Q. 1. 10. 59, ' in the immortal
book of fame to be eternized ' ; Milton, ' their names eternize here
on earth ' ; Dante, ' Come 1'uoin si eterna.'
6-6. habitabiles . . . eras : y otKovufvij.
6. maxime principum: i.e. maxime princeps. Cf. on. 1. 2. 50.
7-9. quern . . . didicere . . . quod . . . posses: the Greek
construction, 'I know thee who thou art.' Cf. Tennyson's ' Hast
thou heard the butterflies, | What they say between their wings ? '
7. legis expertes : i.e. as yet unsubdued.
8. didicere : cf. 4. 4. 25, sensere.
10. implacidum : first found here. genus : cf. Verg. Aen. 4.
40, Hinc Gaetulae urbes, genus insuperabile bello.
10-13. Cf. Crinagoras, Anth. Pal. 9. 283.
12. impositas : 3. 13. 14 ; Sat. 1. 5. 26 ; Epist. 2. 1. 253.
13. deiecit: a slight zeugma with Breunos and arces. Cf.
Epist. 2. 2. 30, praesidium regale loco deiecit. plus vice sim-
plici : lit. with requital more than one-fold, i.e. inflicting heavier
loss than he suffered. For plus, cf. Lex. s.v. multus II. A. 8. ;
for vice, cf. on 1. 28. 32.
14. maior Neronum = Tiberius, a nomen, ' quod versu dicere
BOOK IV., ODE XIV. 441
non esf.' Cf. on 4. 4. 28 ; Cons, ad Liviam, 149, Nee quom victo-
rem referetur adesse Neronem, \ Dicere iam potero ' motor an alter
adest" 1 f mox : the attack of Tiberius from the north came a
little later. Cf. the description of the campaign in Veil. 2. 95, and
Dio, 54. 22.
15. immania : cf. 3. 4. 43 ; 3 11. 15. For their cruelty, cf.
Strabo, 4. 6. 8.
17-19. spectandus . . . fatigaret : cf. on 7-10.
17. Note absence of normal caesura. Cf. 1. 37. 14.
18. devota : cf. 3. 4. 27 ; 3. 23. 10 ; Wordsworth, ' the guardian
Pass, | Where stood, sublime, Leonidas | Devoted to the tomb.'
liberae suggests ' freely dying' and 'a freeman's death.'
20. indomitas: slightly personifies the waves. Literally, the
Raeti were not ' unsubdued,' but their tempers were as tameless as
the waves. prope seems a rather prosaic limitation. Cf. Sat. 2.
3. 268 ; Epist. 2. 2. 61 (?). Perhaps Horace is trying to reproduce
the Greek o-xeSoV n.
21. exercet : cf. Epod*. 9. 31 ; Milt. P. L. 2, 'Pain of unextin-
guishable fire | Must exercise us without hope of end.' Auster :
cf . 3. 3. 4. choro : cf . Propert. 4. 5. 36, Pleiadum spisso cur coit
igne chorus.
22. sciudente nubea : cf. Tennyson's ' When | Thro' scudding
drifts the rainy Hyades | Vext the dim sea.'
22-23. impiger . . . vexare : cf. on 4. 12. 19.
23. vexare : cf. 3. 2. 4. turmas : cf. 2. 16. 22.
24. per ignes : the fires of the burning villages, if the fire of
battle is thought too sudden a plunge into metaphor. Bentley read
per enses. Cf. Silius, 14, 175, per medios ignes mediosque per
enses.
25-28. Cf . Maeaulay, Regillus, 36, ' So comes the Po in flood-
time | Upon the Celtic plain ; ' Iliad, 5. 87 sqq.
25. tauriformia : ravponoppos. Cf. tnformis (3. 22. 5). Horace
avoids the picturesque compounds of Greek, English, and early
Latin poetry. Diespiter (\. 34. 5) , noctUucam (4. 6. 38) , homicidam
(Ep. 17. 12) are archaic or legal. Naiifrayus, locuples, and sacri-
legus were in common use. Otherwise he does not venture beyond
compounds with numerals or prepositions, e.g. centimanus (2. 17.
14). Greek art and poetry represent the genii of rivers with head
442 NOTES.
and horns of a bull, symbolizing, perhaps, the roar of the rushing
stream. Cf. II. 21. 237, nfnvichs rivre ravpos ; Verg. Georg. 4. 371;
Jebb on Soph. Trach. 507. Aufidus : cf. 3. 30. 10 ; 4. 9. 2.
26. Dauni : cf. 1. 22. 14 ; 3. 30. 11. praefluit : cf. on 4. 3. 10.
It is on the boundary.
28. diluviem : cf. 3. 29. 40. meditatur : some Mss., mini-
tatur.
29. Claudius : Tiberius. Cf. on 14 supra, and Epist. 1. 3. 2.
29-30. Cf. Homer's eppri^e <t>d\ayyas, and Tennyson's 'clad in
iron burst the ranks of war.'
30. f errata may refer to the use of mail (cf. Lex. s.v. n.), or of
chains to hold the men together, or it may be loosely figurative.
31. metendo : cf. on 4. 11. 30. For image, cf. II. 11. 67,
19. 223 ; Catull. 64. 353-355 ; Verg. Aen. 10. 513 ; Aeschyl. Suppl.
637; Gray, The Bard, 'And thro' the kindred squadrons mow
their way ' ; Macaulay, Regillus, 23, ' Like corn before the sickle |
The stout Lavinians fell ' ; Swinburne, Erectheus, ' Sickles of man-
slaughtering edge | Ground for no hopeful harvest of live grain ' ;
Shaks. Tro. and Cress. 5. 5, 'And there the strawy Greeks ripe for
his edge | Fall down before him like the mower's swath.'
32. stravit : cf. 3. 17. 12. sine clade : majore cum perictdo
quam damno Bomani exercitus (Veil. 2. 95. 2). Cf. Shaks. Much
Ado, 1.1, 'A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home
full numbers.'
33-34. I.e. (ductu) atque auspiciis tuis. Cf. on 1. 7. 27.
34. quo die : from the day when, rather than on the anniversary
of the day. Alexandria was taken and the civil wars ended B.C. 30,
in the month Sextilis, to which the name Augustus was given by
decree of the Senate B.C. 8.
36. vacuam : cf. on 1. 37. 25. Abandoned by death of Antony
and Cleopatra.
37. lustro . . . tertio : through three lustrums, perhaps, rather
than at the expiration of the third lustrum. This effect is helped
by the position of prospera between lustro and tertio. The con-
tinued favor of fortune through fifteen years is the point. pros-
pera : cf. on 4. 6. 39.
39-40. And has associated glory and honor to heart's desire
(optatum, coveted, 4. 8. 30 ; Epp. 2. 3. 412) with (to) the accom-
BOOK IV., ODE XIV. 443
plishment of thy imperial commands. Arrogavit is virtually
equivalent to addidit ; its associations for a Roman, as well as those
of imperils, must be learned from the lexicon s.v. Others inter-
pret, ' and has now added this glory (the victory of Drusus) to
thy past achievements' (cf. C. S. 27). But Horace is done with
Drusus and is reviewing the reign.
40. arrogavit : cf. Epp. 2. 1. 35 ; 2. 3. 122.
41-52. The subject nations, victae longo online gentes (Verg.
Aen. 8. 722). For a similar imperial theme, cf. Oscar Wilde's
Ace Imperatrix, 'The brazen-throated clarion blows | Across the
Pathan's reedy fen, | And the high steeps of Indian snows | Shake
to the tread of armed men. . . . The fleet-foot Marri scout who
comes | To tell how he hath heard afar | The measured roll of
English drums | Beat at the gates of Kandahar.'
41. Cantaber : cf. 2. 6. 2 ; 3. 8. 22. non ante: 1. 29. 3.
42. profugus : cf. 1. 35. 9 ; 3. 24. 9. Medus : cf. on 1. 2. 22.
Indus : cf. Suet. Aug. 21 ; Mon. Ancyr. 5. 5.
43-44. Cf. Cons, ad Liv. 473; Martial, 5. 1. 7 (of Dornitian),
O rcmm felix tutela salusque. As Lucan says. 5. 385, Namque
omnes voces per quas jam tempore tanto \ mentimur dominis haec
primum repent aetas. Cf. on 3. 3. 11.
43. tutela: cf. 2. 17. 23; 4. 6. 33. praesens : cf. 1. 35. 2;
3. 5. 2.
44. dominae : cf. on 4. 3. 13, and Martial, 1. 3. 3 ; 10. 103. 9.
45. A commonplace of classical poetry. Tibull. 1. 7. 23 ; Lucan,
10. 193. Cf. Swift, Apollo's Edict, ' No simile shall be begun |
With rising or with setting sun, | And let the secret head of Nile |
Be ever banished from your isle.'
46. Nilus : the Aethiopians (Mon. Ancyr. 108). Hister: the
Dacians (4. 15. 21 ; Verg. Georg. 2. 497). Tigris : cf. on 2.
9. 21.
47. beluosus: cf. on 1. 3. 18; 3. 27. 26; Milton, Lycidas,
' Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide | Visit'st the bottom
of the monstrous world.' Cf. Homer's fj.eya.Kiirris (Od. 3. 158),
commonly interpreted ' monster-teeming.'
48. obstrepit: 2. 18. 20; 3. 30. 10. Britannis : cf. on 1.
35. 30.
49. The Romans imagined that the teaching of the Druids kept
444 NOTES.
the Gauls from fearing death. Cf. Caesar, B. G. 6. 14. 5 ; Lucan,
1. 459 ; Arnold on Celtic Lit. , p. 38.
51. Sygambri: cf. on 4. 2. 36.
52. Resembles, in metrical structure, 1. 9. 20.
ODE XV.
Augustus, first in peace and first in the hearts of his country-
men. When I would sing of wars, Phoebus rebuked me. (But I
may tell how) thy age, O Caesar, has brought back the harvests
to our fields, recovered our standards from the Parthians, curbed
licentious wickedness, and renewed the old Roman virtue that built
up the empire. No fear of civic strife or external foe disturbs us
now. But lingering over the wine with wife and child, after due
prayer to the gods, we will sing in old time fashion the great
captains of the past and the scion of Venus and Auchises.
The poem has been read as a continuation of the preceding. It
is, in any case, its complementary antithesis. It is ' 1'envoi ' to
Augustus, and affirms the fulfillment of the hopes expressed in 1. 2
and elsewhere, as 3. 24, 3. 1-6.
1-2. Cf. Verg. Eclog. 6. 3 ; Propert. 3. 3. 25. Lyra is probably
to be construed with loqui, as' the scholiasts take it. Cf. Quintil.
10. 1. 62, epici .carminis onera lyra sustinentem. The trajection is
harsh, but it would not be easy to find a better place for the word
in the two lines. Editors generally construe with increpmt, quot-
ing Ovid, A. A. 2. 493, Haec ego cum caiifrem subito manifestus
Apollo | movit inauratae pollice fila lyrae. But ' sounded at me on
his lyre' is an ill phrase. For thought, cf. on 1. 6. 5; 3. 3. 70;
Epp. 2. 1. 251 sqq.
3. For the metaphor, cf. Propert. 4. 2. 22 ; 4. 8. 4, quid me scri-
bendi tarn vastum mittis in aequor? \ Non sunt apta meac grandia
vela mti ; Verg. Georg. 2. 41 ; Ovid. Trist. 2. 329 ; .Shaks. Sonnet,
86, ' Was it the proud full sail of his great verse ? ' Dante's ' la
navicella del mio ingegno' ; and Cowley's quaint Piudarique Ode
to Mr. Hobbes, ' The Baltic, Euxine, and the Caspian, | And slen-
der-limbed Mediterranean | Seemed narrow creeks to thee and
only fit | For the poor wretched fisher-boats of wit. | Thy nobler
vessel the vast ocean tried' ; Boileau, Epitre I., Au lioi, ' Cette
BOOK IV., ODE XV. 445
mer ou tu cours est celebre en naufrages,' etc. Tyrrhenum : cf.
on 1. 16. 4.
5. Cf. on 4. 5. 17-18. Observe polysyndeton of et, correspond-
ing to anaphora of non in lines 19-24.
6. The recovery, by Augustus' diplomacy in B.C. 20, of the
standards lost to the Parthians by Crassus at Carrhae (cf . 3. 5. 6 ;
3. 6. 9) was regarded as a triumph by the court poets. Cf. August.
in Mon. Ancyr. 40 ; Epp. 1. 18. 66, 1. 12. 27 ; Verg. Aen. 7. 606,
Purthosque rcposcere signa; Propert. 4. 4. 48. nostro . . .
lovi : i.e. Jupiter Capitolinus. So Propert. 4. 10. 41, ausa Jovi
nostro latrantem opponere Anubim. Cf. 3. 5. 12. The standards
were afterwards deposited in the temple of Mars Ultor, dedicated
B.C. 2. Cf. Mon. Ancyr. 5, 40, and supra on 1. 2. 44.
8. vacuum : proleptic. duellis : cf . on 3. 5. 38.
9. lanum Quirini : apparently an intentional variation of the
official phrase lanum Quirinum. Cf. on 3. 6. 42. For two-headed
Janus, the god of gates and beginnings, cf. Class. Diet. s.v. The
gates of the covered arcade passage near the Forum, commonly
called the temple of Janus, were closed only in time of peace by
the institution of Numa. Cf. Livy, 1. 19. 2. They were shut once
. in the reign of Numa, once at the end of the first Punic war, and
thrice by Augustus, in 725, 729, 746. Suet. Oct. 22 ; Mon. Ancyr.
2. 42; Verg. Aen. 7. 607, 1. 294; Ovid, Epist. Ex Ponto, 1. 2. 126,
clausit et aeterna civica bella sera.
10. evaganti: cf. Lex. s.v. II. frena: cf. on 3. 24. 29, and
Sat. 2. 7. 74, lam vaga prosiliet frenis natura remotis.
12. artes : cf. on 3. 3. 9 ; and, for thought, Verg. Georg. 2. 532-
535, and Gratian, Cyneget. 320 sqq.
13-14. Note the three stages of the growth of, the empire.
13. nomen : cf. on. 3. 3. 45.
14. imperi: cf. on 1. 2. 26.
15. maiestas is more than majesty. Cf. Lex. s.v. 1. 2.
ortus : some read ortum. Cf. 3. 27. 12.
16. Cf. Sail. Cat. 36 ; Dion. Chrysost. orat. 1, p. 13, cwr' &vl-
ffXovros r)\iov (ifX.pi Suopfvov iracrrjj i}px e "YQS-
17-18. Cf. on 3. 14. 15.
17. custode : cf. 4. 5. 2.
18. exiget : used normally of persons (cf. 2. 13. 31), slightly
446 NOTES.
personifies. Some read eximet. For personification in procudit,
cf. Aeschyl. Choeph. 647 ; Soph. Ajax, 1034.
19. ira : cf. 1. 16.
20. inimicat : new coinage of Horace, as apprecati, 28.
21. qui . . . bibunt : cf. on 2. 20. 20 ; Crinagoras, Anth. Pal.
16. 61,5, olSev 'Apdr]s \ Kal 'Pijvos, Sov\ois fOveffi wiv6^voL.
22-24. Cf. C. S. 51-56.
22. edicta . . . lulia : the ordinances of Augustus ; not to be
taken technically, though it suggests the legis luliae. Getae : cf.
3. 24. 11.
23. Seres: cf. 1. 12. 56. Fersae: cf. 1. 2. 22. infidi : cf.
perfide Albion, Graecia mendax, Punica fides, Parthis mendacior
(Epp. 2. 1. 112), perfidus Hannibal (4. 4. 49), and similar inter-
national amenities.
24. The Scythians.
25. uosque : emphatic. profestis : cf. Sat. 2. 2. 116, profesta
luce ; working days plus holidays are all days.
26. Cf. on 4. 5. 31-32. munera Liberi : cf. 1. 18. 7. iocosi :
cf. 3. 21. 15.
29-32. It was the policy of Augustus to foster the sentiment of
historic patriotism. Cf. Suet. Aug. 31, and supra on 3. 1-6.
29. virtute functos : a variation on vita functus, laboribus
functus (2. 18. 38). Cf. aevoftmctus (2. 9. 13). more patrum:
cf. Cic. Tusc. 1. 3, est in Originibus (Cato's Origins) solitos esse
in epulis canere convicas ad tibicinem de clarorum hominum
mrtutibus.
30. Lydis : perhaps ' soft Lydian airs ' suited the wine (cf.
Plato, Rep. 398 E), perhaps the epithet is used merely for poetic
specification. remixto : a rare word. Cf. A. P. 151, ver is falsa
remiscet.
31. almae : cf. 4. 5. 18; Lucretius, 1.2, alma Venus.
32. progeniem : sc. Augustus. Cf. 4. 5. 1, and C. S. 50.
CAKMEN SAECULABE.
The student will find in Harper's Classical Dictionary, s.v. Ludi
21, a practically sufficient account of the origins of the Secular
games, their revival and transformation by Augustus, B.C. 17, in
somewhat tardy celebration of the establishment of the empire and
the ceremonies of the festival as described by the historian Zosimus
and the Sibylline oracle. These ceremonies are more accurately
known from the official inscription discovered in Rome, September,
1890. It has been edited by Mommsen, Monumenti Antichi . . .
della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1891 ; Ephemeris Epigraphica,
1891, pp. 222-274. It is interestingly discussed by Lanciani,
Atlantic Monthly, February, 1892 ; Moramsen, die Nation, Decem-
ber, 1891 ; Gaston Boissier, Revue des Deux Mondes, March 1,
1892; Professor Slaughter, Transactions of the American Philo-
logical Association, 1895.
Carmen composuit Q. Hor[at] ius Flaccus are the words that
chiefly concern us. Horace was thus virtually recognized as the
laureate of the new empire, a position won by such odes as 1. 2 ;
1. 12 ; 3. 1-6 ; and sustained by 4. 4, 5, 14, and 15. Something
of his pride in this official recognition is reflected in 4. 6. 25-44,
and 4. 3. The poem itself is an extremely polished formal official
production marked by the dignity and by something of the stark
rigidity of the tables of the old law. The vague mystic humanitarian
inspirations which Vergil's fourth eclogue (circa B.C. 40) draws
from the thought of the world's great age beginning anew are
wholly wanting. From Vergil, however, is derived the one central
poetic idea (37 sqq.) standing out amid the prescribed formulas of
the ritual the idea of the imperial destiny of Rome embodied in
the recently published Aeneid. To be just we must remember the
447
448 NOTES.
ceremonial character of the poem, composed, not to "be studied in
the closet, but to be chanted before a vast concourse in the open
air. Horace's unfailing tact recognized that the austere simplicity
of Roman ritualistic language was more consonant with the dignity
of the occasion, than any. elaborate prettiness of phrase, or imita-
tion of the splendid lyric diction of the Greeks that it was in his
power to achieve.
The sapphics are finished with the utmost care. Notable is the
frequent lilt of the feminine caesura, 11. 1, 14, 15, 18, 19, 35, 39, etc.
The poem was sung on the third and last day of the festival
before the temple of Apollo on the Palatine. Sacrijicioque per-
fecto pueri [X~\XVII quibus denuntiatum erat patrimi et matrimi
[whose fathers and mothers were still living] et puellae totidem
carmen cecinerunt ; eodemque modo in Capitolio. The natural
meaning of the last words is that the rendering of the ode was
repeated on the Capitol. There has been some idle debate as to
whether the repetition was prearranged or an encore. Mommsen
chooses to suppose that the ode was sung as the procession moved
from the Palatine to the Capitol and back ; and exercises his
ingenuity in determining the precise point at which each group of
stanzas was chanted. The distribution of the strophes between the
youths, the maidens, and the ensemble has been endlessly debated.
1. Phoebe : Actian and Palatine Apollo, the patron deity of the
emperor and the empire, is fittingly invoked first. Cf. 1. 31. 1. n.;
1. 21 ; 3. 4. 60 sqq. silvarum potens : cf. 1. 21. 5. n. ; 1. 3. 1. n.
2. caeli decus : as sun and moon, cf. 9, 36 ; Verg. Aen. 9. 405,
Astrorum decus et nemorum Latonia custos ; Sen. Hippol. 408.
2-3. colendi . . . culti : a worshipful fullness of expression.
Cf. Ov. Met. 8. 350, si te coluique coloque ; ibid. 726 ; Odes 4. 2. 38,
donavere . . . dabunt; Epp. 1. 1. 1., prima dicte mihi summaque
dicende Camena.
5. quo: with dicere (8). Sibyllini : cf. Harper's Class. Diet.
s.v. Sibyllae. The old collections which Tarquin was said to have
bought of the Sibyl were burned with the Capitol, B.C. 83. Augustus
as Pontifex, B.C. 12, deposited a revised collection in the temple of
Apollo Palatinus. The extant collections are late forgeries. The
CARMEN SAECULARE. 449
thirty-seven Greek hexameter verses prescribing the order of the
ceremonies preserved in Zosiuius were compiled or invented by
the scholars who organized the festival for Augustus. They fix the
safculum as 110 years (see 1. 21), and an attempt was made to show
that this period had been observed four times. Claudius, however,
adopting 100 years, repeated the celebration in A.D. 47, and 41
years later Domitian again summoned the people to the spectacle,
' which no living man had seen or would ever see again.'
6. lectas . . . castos : both epithets felt with each noun. Cf.
4. 6. 31.
7. dls : the guardian deities generally, 0eo?s iro\io6xi*- sep-
tem : Verg. Georg. 2. 535 ; Martial, 4. 64. 11, septem dominos videre
monies; Macaulay, Regillus, 38, 'Hail to the hill-tops seven.'
placuere : were and still are dear. Cf. 3. 4. 24, 4. 12. 12 ; Propert.
4. 10. 64, Haec, di condiderunt, haec di quoque moenia servant.
9-10. Alme : cf. 4. 7. 7. Sol : *o?os '\ic6\\a>v \ oart Kal
r^Aio? KiK\-f]ffKfrat, the Orac. 16. curru . . . celas : cf. 3. 6.
44. n. Also Mayor on Cic. Nat. Deor. 2. 19. 49 ; Jebb on Soph.
Ajax, 674.
10. alius et idem : similarly Catullus, 62. 34-35, of Venus,
identical as morning star and evening star.
12. visere : sc. in thy course; but cf . 1. 2. 8. n. mains: cf.
Verg. Aen. 7. 602, maxima rerum ] Roma; Goethe, Elegien XV.,
' Hohe Sonne du weilst und du beschauest dein Rom. | Grosseres
sahest du nichts und wirst nichts grosseres sehen, | Wie es dein
Priester Horaz in der Entziickung versprach.'
13-14. rite: fulfilling thine office. aperire . . . lends : cf. 1.
24. 17. n. ; lenis is included in the prayer (cf. fertilis 29, and 3. 2. 2)
and is felt again with the imperative tuere.
14. Ilithyia : the birth goddess identified with Juno Lucina
(15) ; cf. Lex. and Class. Diet. s.v. According to the inscription,
consecrated cakes were offered, Deis Ilythyis, on the second night.
Cf. Orac. 9, f.l\ei6uias dpeVa<r#ai | TraidordKovs.
15-16. sive . . . seu: the scrupulous care of the ancient religion
to propitiate the god by the apt epithet is reflected in this usage of
the poets. Cf. Aesch. Ag. 160; Catull. 34. 21, sis quocumque tibi
placet | sancta nomine ; Milt. P. L. 3. 7, ' or hear'st thou rather,'
etc. ; Sat. 2. 6. 20, Seu lane libentius audis.
450 NOTES.
16. Genitalis : only here as name ; perhaps imitation of ftve-
TV\\IS.
17-20. Pure prose. producas : rear, as Kovporp6<t>os. Cf . 2.
13. 3. subolem: 4. 3. 14; 3. 13. 8. patrum . . . decreta :
the lex lulia de maritandis ordinibus, B.C. 18, encouraged marriage
and imposed pains and penalties on celibacy. Horace, a bachelor
of fifty, celebrates it with a somewhat artificial ardor. Cf. Meri-
vale, 4. 39, Chap. 33 ; Suet. Aug. 34 ; Livy, Epit. 59 ; Dio. 54. 16.
Cf. 3. 6.
18. super : cf. Lex. s.v. II. B. 2. b.
20. lege marita : so Propert. 5. 11. 33, facibus maritis, the torch
of marriage.
21-24. 'That so this festival may not fail (certus) to be kept by
joyous throngs at each returning saeculum of 110 years ' is the
meaning.
22. orbis : cycle. referatque: cf. 1. 30. 6. n.
24. frequentes : with ludos. Certus and frequentes emphasize
by position the main idea.
25. veraces : cf. 2. 16. 39. n. ; Catull. 64. 306 ; Arnold, Myce-
rinus, ' Fell this dread voice from lips that cannot lie, | Stern
sentence of the Powers of Destiny.' cecinisse : an extreme case
of complementary inf. with adjectives. Parcae: 2. 17. 16. n.;
2. 3. 15. n. The sacrifices of the first night were to them. Cf.
the Orac. 9, Upa. . . . Motpais &pvas re Kal alyas. The Moerae were
originally birth-goddesses. Cf. Pind. Nem. 7. 1 ; Arnold's ' He
does well too who keeps the clue the mild | Birth-goddess and the
austere Fates first gave. '
26. quod semel dictumst = fatum (cf. 3. 3. 57-58. n.), in
this case the 'manifest destiny of Rome.' Cf. Verg. Aen. 1. 257,
manent immota tuorum fata tibi, etc. semel : cf. 4. 3. 1 ; 1. 24.
16. n.
26-27. rerum terminus : cf. Verg. Aen. 4. 614, hie terminus
haeret. The phrase suggests the god Terminus whose refusal to
yield to Jupiter "was taken as an omen of the stability of Roman
power. Livy, 1. 55; Ov. Fast. 2. 667.
27. servet : sudden, somewhat illogical transition to prayer
that the fate be accomplished. Servat is also read. peractis:
4. 14. 39.
CARMEN SAECULARE. 451
20. fertilis fmgum : so Livy, 5. 34. 2, Gallia . . . frugum
hominumque fertilis fuit. Cf. 4. 6. 39; and, for the blessings
invoked, cf. Aesch. Suppl. 689-692; Eumen. 924-926, 938 sqq.;
Psalms 94. 13. tellus : a black sow was offered to Terra Mater
on the third night.
30. spicea . . . corona : cf. AT/O? T# in-axvoffTetyavy, Anth.
Pal. 6. 104. 8 ; Cf. Tibull. 1. 1. 15, flam Ceres tibi sit nostro de
rure corona \ Spicea. (At the Ambarvalia, see Pater, Marius,
Chap. I.) Cf. Warton, First of April, 'Fancy . . . sees Ceres
grasp her crown of corn | And Plenty load her ample horn ' ;
Hamlet, 5. 2, 'As Peace should still her wheaten garland wear.'
31-32. cf. Catull. 62. 41, (flos) quern mulcent aurae, firmat sol,
educat imber. lovis : cf. 1. 1. 25. n.; Epode 2. 29. fetus: i.e.
crops.
33-34. condito . . . telo . . . Apollo : not showering the shafts
of pestilence as in Hoiner, II. 1. 45 sqq., but gracious and benign
as represented in his Palatine temple. Cf. 2. 10. 19 ; 3. 4. 60.
35. siderum regina : cf. 1. 12. 47. n. bicornis : cf. 4. 2. 57 ;
Anth. Pal. 5. 123, SiKtptas 2eATjj>*? ; ibid. 5. 16, xP' JffOK ^P (as '> Milt.
P. L. 1, ' Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians call'd | Astarte, queen
of heaven, with crescent horns.'
37-44. si : cf. 3. 18. 5. If, as the Aeneid had recently brought
home to every Roman, the world-empire of Rome was a divine
dispensation, the gods should cherish their own handiwork.
38. litus Etruscum : i.e. Lavinia litora. tenuere : won
(their way to).
39. iussa pars : and if it was by divine command that a part of
them. Cf. Verg. Aen. 4. 346, Italiam Lyciae iussere capessere
sortes. pars: i.e. the companions of Aeneas; apposition with
turmae.
41. per ardentem: cf. Verg. Aen. 7. 296, mediosque per ignes
invenere viam. sine fraude : cf . 2. 19. 20. n.
42. castus: i.e. plus. Cf. incestus, 3. 2. 30. patriae : so
mihi, Epode 5. 101.
43. munivit : cf. Lex. s.v. munire, II. B.; Lucret. 5. 102.
daturas : cf. 2. 3. 4. n.
44. plura relictis : Rome is more than Troy. Cf. Propert.
5. 1. 87, Dicam, Troia cades, et Troica Roma resurges.
452 NOTES.
45-46. docili and placidae are proleptic.
47. Romulae : cf. 4. 5. 1. n. ; 1. 15. 10, Dardanae. pro-
lemque : hypermetron the cup runs over.
49. quaeque : object of veneratur, construerl as verb of asking.
Cf. Sat. 2. 6. 8 ; Cic. Fam. 6. 7. 2. bobus . . . albis : white
.bulls were sacrificed by Augustus and Agrippa to Jupiter Capito-
linus on the first clay, white cows to Juno Regina on the second.
Cf. the Orac. 12. For white bulls as victims, cf. Verg. Aen. 2.
146 ; Macaulay, Horatius, 7 ; Capys, 29 ; Epode 9. 22.
50. Anchisae: 4. 15. 31. sanguis: 4. 2. 14.
51-52. Perhaps meant as a quotation of the famous parcere sub-
jectis, etc. (Verg. Aen. 6. 853). With the following, cf. Aen. 6. 792.
With iam, etc., 54 sqq., a favorable answer to the prayer is assumed.
53-56. Cf. 4. 14. 41-52. n. ; 4. 15. 6-8, 20-24. The civil wars
are ignored.
54. Albanas : i.e. Roman. Cf. Verg. Aen. 1. 7.
55. Scythae: cf. 2. 9. 23; 4. 14. 42; 3. 8. 23. responsa
petunt : as from a god, an oracle, or declarer of the law. Cf.
Verg. Eel. 1. 45 ; Aen. 7. 86, Hinc Italae gentes . . . in dnbiis
rcsponsa petunt.
57-60. The empire means peace, plenty, and the old Roman
virtues. Cf. 4. 5. 17 ; 4. 15. 5, 10-13.
57. Fides, etc.: cf. 1. 24. 6-7. n. ; 1. 35. 21. Pax : Peace had
an altar at Athens, and is called fairest of the gods by Euripides
(Orest. 1682). Honor: Marcellus dedicated a temple Honori et
Virtuti (Livy, 27. 25).
68. priscus: Verg. Aen. 6. 879, heu prisca fides.
60. copia: cf. 1. 17. 14. n.; Epp. 1. 12. 28.
61-75. Concluding prayer to Apollo, prophet, musagetes, and
healer, and to Diana.
61. augur: cf. 1. 2. 32. fulgente: with silver (II. 1. 37) or
gold (Pind. O. 14. 10).
62. Cf. Arnold, Empedocles, ' 'Tis Apollo comes leading | His
choir the nine.'
63-64. Cf. 1. 21. 13-14.
65. si : if, as he surely does. aequus : cf. 1. 28. 28 ; 1. 2. 47. n.
arces : so most Mas. Others, aras of the special altars on which
the sacrifices were offered before the temple.
CARMEN SAECULARE. 453
66. rem Romanam : cf. Verg. Georg. 2. 498, res Romanae;
Enmus, Ann. 479, qui rem Romanam Latiumque augescere voltis.
felix : the prosperity of Latium. Others take it with lustrum.
67. lustrum : cf. 2. 4. 24. The imperium conferred on Augustus
for ten years, B.C. 27 (cf. on 1. 2), was renewed. B.C. 17, for five
years. semper: i.e. from lustrum to lustrum. Cf. Tibull. 1.
7. 63, At tu natalis mnltos celebrande per annos \ candidior semper
candidiorque veni ; Ov. Fast. 1. 87.
68. prorogat : there is good Ms. authority for the subjunctive,
but not in 70 and 71. The chorus no longer implore but feel the
presence of the deity. Cf. Epp. 2. 1. 134. The que of remque (66)
does not connect videt and prorogat.
69. Aventinum : for the great Latin temple of Diana there, cf.
Livy, 1. 45. Algidum : 1. 21. 6.
70. quindecim, etc. : the quindecimviri sacris faciundis were
one of the four great priestly colleges of Rome. They stood to the
foreign religions much as the Pontiffs to the national cult. They
were said to have been instituted by Tarquin to guard the Sibyl-
line verses (cf. Verg. Aen. 6. 72). They took charge of the cere-
monies under the presidency of Augustus and Agrippa. Pro
conlegio XV virorum magister conlega -M. Agrippa ludos saeculares
fed (Mon. Ancyr. 4. 36).
71. puerorum : includes the girls. Cf. Naevius' Cereris puer
Proserpina.
73-74. haec . . . sentire : depends on spem reporto. For
reporto sing., as in Greek chorus, cf. 4. 6. 41. n.
75. doctus : cf. 4. 6. 43.
EPODES.
Epode in later Greek meant the shorter verse, or iambic dimeter,
of an Archilochian couplet following as a refrain the longer iambic
trimeter (cf. Liddell and Scott s.v.). The grammarians gave the
"name to these poems of Horace composed mainly in thai measure.
Horace himself called them iambi with reference botn to the pre-
vailing iambic meter and the satirical tone (lan&tKi) iSea. Cf. Od.
1. 16. 3, 24. n.; Epod. 14. 7 ; Epp. 1. 19. 23).
They seem to have been written in the decade following Philippi,
B.C. 41-31, and were published contemporaneously with the second
book of Satires about B.C. 30 (cf. Epode 9 with Ode 1. 37). They
have little of the mellow charm of the Odes, but are of interest as
enabling us to watch the origin and growth of Hoi ace's lyric style.
Odes 1. 4 and 4. 7 are composed in an Archilochian epodic measure,
and Epodes 1, 9, 13, and 14 would be equally in place among the
odes of the first book. Epodes 2 and 16 display a youthful exuber-
ance of expression which Horace's maturer judgment would have
pruned. The harsh and sometimes indecent invective of 4, 5, 6, 8,
10, 12, 17 may reflect Horace's mood in the h'ard years of his early
manhood when he was still seeking his way, or it may be merely a
scholastic imitation of tha manner of Archilochus.
EPODE I.
To Maecenas about to accompany Augustus in the campaign of
Actium. Maecenas probably was not present at Actium, but
returned from Brundisium to take charge of the government of
Italy (cf. Sen. Epist. 114. 6 ; Dio. 51. 3). The author of the Eleg.
in Maec. (45) however affirms Maecenas' presence at the battle,
454
EPODE I. 455
and the vividness of Epode 9 is sometimes alleged as proof that
Horace was with him.
Horace, though unapt for war, will accompany his friend. He
will fear less so. No hope of gain impels him. Maecenas' bounty
has already filled his cup to overflowing.
1. ibis: can it be that, etc. So Tibull. 1. 3. 1, Ibitis Aegaeas
sine me, Messalla, per undas. Liburnis : abl. instr. The light
Liburnian galleys of Octavian are contrasted with the ponderous
battlemented ships of Antony in all descriptions of the battle. Cf.
Verg. Aen. 8. 691 ; Merivale, 3. 252 ; Shaks. Ant. and Cleop. 3. 7,
' Their ships are yare, yours heavy.'
4. tuo : sc. periculo, i.e. to share.
5. te . . . super stite alone is a sufficient condition for the con-
clusion quibus vita iucunda ; but the formula si contra used to
avoid the ill-omened te mortuo introduces the parallel si which
must be completed in thought by est or vivitur. For the senti-
ment, cf. 2. 17. 5-9 ; Catull. 68. 160, Lux mea, qua viva vivere
dulce mihi est.
7. utnunne : is said not to occur before Horace. iussi :
submissively, as you bid. persequemur : yield myself to
idleness, seek ease. Cf. Cic. de Off. 3. 1, otium perseque-
mur. otium: Verg. Georg. 4. 564, studiis florentem ignobi-
lis oti.
9-10. laturi (sumus ?) : 'Or shall we with such spirit share |
Thy toils, as men of gallant heart should bear?' (Martin).
If the ellipsis of sumus is thought too harsh, we may insert
a comma after laborem and construe it with persequemur by a
slight zeugma.
12. inhospitalem . . . Caucasum : cf. 1. 22. 6. n. For thought,
cf. 2. 6. 1.
13. sinum : cf. Verg. Georg. 2. 122, India . . . extremi sinus
orbis.
15. roges: A. G. 310. b; H. 507. III. 1. labore : laborem of
the Mss. violates the meter.
16. Homer's dirrJAeyuos Kal &va\Kts. But firmus parum refers to
his health.
18. qui: sc. metus. maior: adverbially.
456 NOTES.
19. adsidens: the brooding bird need not be actually on the nest.
20. aerpentium adlapsus : II. 2. 308 ; Aesch. Sept. 290 ; Mos-
chus, 4. 21 ; Verg. Aen. 2. 225, lapsu . . . dracones.
21. relictis: dat. Cf. Verg. Aen. 2. 729, comitiqne onerique
timentem ; or abl. abs. ut adsit: concessive, even if she were
with them. A. G. 266. c; G. L. 608 ; H. 515. III.
22. latura: cf. 2. 3. 4. n. praesentibus : cumulative resump-
tion of adsit by frequent Latin usage. Plaut. Pseud. 1142 ; Ter.
Adelph. 393 ; Verg. Aen. 4. 83.
23-24. militabitur bellum : cf. 3. 19. 4,pugnata bella.
25-28. Cf. 1. 31. 3-5. nitantur : 'the ox toils through the
furrow,' suggesting the richness of the loamy soil. meis : the
main idea. mutet : 1. 16. 26; 1. 17. 2.
29-30. Perhaps a contrast is suggested between the heights of
Tusculum crowned with the villas of Cicero, Lucullus, Hortensius,
etc., and the poet's humbler retreat, 'Folded in Sabine recesses the
valley and villa of Horace' (dough). The villas of Frascati still
gleam white against the dark foliage. Cf . Hare, Days Near Rome.
Circaea : founded by Telegonus, sou of Circe and Ulysses. Cf.
3. 29. 8.
31. satis superque: cf. 17. 19; Sat. 2. 6. 4, nil amplhis oro.
benignitas : generosity. The Sabine farm, ' the fittest gift ever
made by a liberal man of fortune to a needy man of parts,' was
given to the poet by Maecenas about B.C. 34, the time of the publi-
cation of the first book of Satires. To the dignity and the tran-
quillity it brought into Horace's life we probably owe the Odes.
Horace describes it lovingly, Epp. 1. 16. 1-17, and often contrasts
his beloved retreat with the smoke and din and fever of Rome.
Cf. Sat. 2. 6. 1-4 ; Epp. 1. 10. 8 ; 1. 14. 1 ; 1. 7. 1-15 ; Odes, 1. 17 ;
1. 22. 9 ; 2. 16. 37 ; 2. 18. 14 ; 3. 1. 47 ; 3. 4. 22 ; 3. 13 ? ; 3. 18 ;
3. 29. There is an interesting account of it in Blackwood's
Horace for English readers (Martin), p. 69. Cf. also Gaston
Boissier's delightful chapter in his ' Nouvelles Promenades Arch-
fiologiques.'
32. paravero : note exactness of Latin tense. The acquisition
must precede the use.
33. Chi ernes : apparently the typical miser of some comedy not
extant.
EPODE II. 457
34. disciiictus : for ' IOOSP airdk d ' metaphorically as ' dissolute '
cf. Sulla's warning about Caesar, Sueton. Caes. 45, ut male prae-
cinctum puerum caverent. perdam : some Mss. read perdam ut.
EPODE II.
The praise of country life in the manner of Vergil (Georg.
2. 458 sqq. ), with touches resembling, if not suggested by, the
idyllic passages in Aristophanes (Pax, 569 ; N}<roj, 1). 'The pro-
fusion of detail is a mark of Horace's earlier muse ' (Sellar) ; but
the poem is very beautiful, and is converted into a satire only by
the Heinesque surprise at the close. Cf. Sellar, p. 126-127.
It has been often imitated or translated. Cf. Tibull. 1.1;
Martial, 1. 49, in same meter; also 3. 58; Ben Jonson. The
Forest. 3 ; Works, Vol. 3, p. 264 ; ibid. Vol. 3, p. 384. A transla-
tion is appended to Cowley's Essay of Agriculture. There are
also translations by Dryden (Johnson's Poets, 9. 160), and by
Somervile (ibid. 11. 208). Cf. Herrick, 106, 663, The Country
Life ; Klopstock, Der Kamin.
1. beatus : cf. .Pope, Solitude, ' Happy the man whose wish
and care | A few paternal acres bound ' ; Verg. Georg. 2. 458,
fortunatos nimiurn, etc. procul negotiis : diraAAa7eWa r<a JCT'
ayopav irpaynarcav, Aristoph. Nijffot ; ' Far from the madding crowd's
Ignoble strife.'
2. prisca : cf. 3. 21. 11; 'Like the first gplden mortals'
(Cowley) ; Hunc olim veteres vitam coluere Sabini (Verg. Georg.
2. 532).
3. exercet : Verg. Georg. 1. 99, exercetque frequens tellurem,
atque imperat arms. Cf. 4. 14. 21.
4: He is neither a borrower nor a lender. Anticipatory hint
of 67.
5. Nor a soldier. Cf. Verg. Georg. 2. 539 ; Tibull. 1. 1. 4, Martia
cm sornnos classica pulsa fugent.
6. horret: cf. 1. 1. 15-17 ; Sat, 1. 1. 6.
7. forum : law and politics. Verg. Georg. 2. 501, nee ferrea
iura \ insanuiitquc furttm aut populi tabularia vidit.
458 NOTES.
7-8. superba . . . limina : the morning salutatio of the rich
patron, which Vergil describes so magnificently (Georg. 2. 461),
and Martial found so burdensome.
9. ergo : and so, being free. adulta : after three years'
growth. propagine : sets, layers, slips. Cf. Lex. s.v.
10. alias : the tall slim branchless poplar (II. 4. 482) and the
elm were especially suited for this. maritat: cf. on 2. 15. 4;
4. 5. 30 ; Cato, R. R. 32, arbores facito ut bene maritae sint.
11. in reducta valle : 1. 17. 17. mugientium : mugitusque
bourn (Verg. Georg. 2. 470). 'The lowing herd winds slowly o'er
the lea.' Cf. balantum, sheep (Verg. Georg. 1. 272) ; natantum,
fishes (ibid. 3. 541); Lucret. 1. 887, laniyerae. And on such ap-
pellations of animals generally, see Classical Review, November,
1894.
12. errantes : 3. 13. 12, pecori vago.
13-14. Pruning and grafting. Cf. Verg. Georg. 2. 69, 81.
14. feliciores : etymologically. Cf. femina, fecundus. Cf.
4. 4. 65. n.
15. pressa : cf. Verg. Georg. 4. 140, spumantia coy ere pressis
mella fams. More properly of wine (Epode 13. 6).
16. infirmas : the standing epithet. Cf. Ov. Ib. 44 ; Lucret.
1. 260.
17. vel : the choice of another aspect of country joys to contem-
plate. Aut is merely disjunctive. Que (13) must be given the
force of ve, which some would read.
17-18. For Autumn personified, cf. on 4. 7. 11 ; 3. 23. 8.
17. mitibuq: cf. immitis, (2. 5. 10). If agris is abl., Autumn
rises from (in) the fields ; if dat., she displays her beauties to
(for) them.
19. ut : how. Cf. 1. 61; 1. 11. 3. decerpens: cf. carpsit
(Verg. Georg. 2. 501). Normal prose would use inf. with gaudet.
Cf. Greek '/iStrai Sptiruif.
20. purpurae : with the purple (dyes of art). Cf. 2. 5. 12. And,
for dat., 2. 2. 18; 1. 1. 15.
21. Priape : the Hellespontic garden god, to whom so many of
the licentious epigrams of the Anthology are addressed. pater:
cf. on 1. 18. 6 ; Verg. Georg. 2. 494, Pannque Silvanumque senem.
22. Silvane : cf. 3. 29. 23. Old Italian wood god, and so perhaps
EPODE II. 459
tutor finium as guardian of the bounds of the primitive farmers'
clearing. Cf. Freller-Jordan, Rom. Myth.
23. iacere: 1. 1. 22 ; 2. 7. 19; 2. 11. 14.
24. tenaci : matted (Dry den). Cf. ' Ripe grasses trammel a
travelling foot ' (Swinburne, Atalanta). Cf. on 4. 12. 9.
25. altis . . . ripis : brimming, to the height of their banks
apparently. Cf. Lucret. 2. 362, summis labentia ripis; Quintil.
12. 2, 11, ut vis omnium maior est altis ripis multoque gurgitis
tractu fluentium, etc. Others, with Bentley, take it of the height
of the banks brought out by the low water of summer. Some
Mss. and eds. read rivis.
26. queruntur : cf. on 4. 12. 5 ; Ov. Am. 3. 1. 4, et latere ex
omni dulce queruntur aves ; Verg. Eel. 1. 59.
26-27. ' Though haply you should fall asleep | To clink of silver
waters ' (Mrs. Browning).
27. lymphis : somewhat tautological instr. abl. obstrepunt :
absolutely as 3. 30. 10. Markland's conjecture frondes is tempting.
The foliage then murmurs to the waters, as in Propert. 6. 4. 4,
mnltaque natims obstrepit arbor aquis, and slumber distils down
through the rustling leaves, as in Sappho's exquisite fragment,
aiduaffoiJLfixav 5e if>v\\wi> \ KW/JLO. Karappfi. Cf. 3. 1. 21 ; ThCOC. 8.
79 ; Verg. Georg. 2. 469 ; Sen. Phaedr. 508, an imitation of the
whole passage.
28. quod: its antecedent is the cognate ace. felt with obstre-
punt, a sound such as to. leves : 2. 16. 15.
29. at : a corresponding winter scene. Cf. on 3. 7. 22 ; 3. 18. 9.
tonantis : the standing epithet (cf. on 3. 5. 1) has special fitness
here. annus : cf. on 3. 23. 8.
31 sqq. Cf. Herrick, 663 : ' To these, thou hast thy times to goe |
And trace the Hare i' th' treacherous snow ; | . . . Thou hast thy
Cockrood, and thy glade | To take the precious pheasant made : |
Thy Lime-twigs, Snares and Pit-falls then | To catch the pilfring
birds, not men.'
31. trudit: a stronger agit. Cf. 2. 18. 15. hinc et hinc:
5. 97. multa : so Verg. Aen. 1. 334 multa ... hostia.
32. plagas: 1. 1. 28 ; 3. 5. 32. Lex. s.v. 3.
33. Smite levi : the smooth pole, or pertica aucupali. Cf . Lex.
s.v. rara . . . retia : wide-meshed. So Verg. Aen. 4. 131.
460 NOTES.
34. turdis : Martial, 3. 58. 20, Sed tendit avidis rete subdolum
turdis. dolos : apposition with ret ia.
35. Note the two anapests and the tribrach. But some get rid
of that in the fifth foot by taking laqueo as a dissyllable by syni-
zesis. Cf. 1. 79, and 11. 23. advenam: migratory. Milt. P. L.,
' So steers the prudent crane | Her annual voyage, borne on winds.'
37. curas : attracted to rel. clause for metrical convenience
probably.
39-60. Construe quodsi . . . mutter iuvet . . . exstruat (43) . . .
siccet (46) . . . adparet (48) . . . non me iuverint, etc. (49 sqq.
apodosis). Nbn . . . descendat, etc., is not felt as a part of the
apodosis, but as an independent development of the thought that
far-fetched and dear-bought luxuries would give less pleasure than
the unbought joys of a simple country home.
39. in partem : she plays her woman's part ei's Sow uQevu in
the words of Electra, Eurip. El. 71 ; cf. the picture of chaste
domestic happiness, Verg. Georg. 2. 523-524.
41. Sabiiia : cf. 3. 6. 37 sqq. the type of antique virtue
hand similis tibi Cynthia, as Juvenal says. Cf. the imitation of
the passage in Stat. Silv. 5. 1. 122 sqq. perusta : tanned, fi\i6-
Kuvffros ; Arnold, Empedocles, ' His hard-task'd, sunburnt wife, |
His often laboured fields.' solibus : cf. on 4. 5. 8. ; Verg. Georg.
1. 66, maturis solibus; Lucret. 5. 251, perusta | solibus adsiduis;
Epode, 16. 13.
42. pernicis : cf. impiger, 3. 16. 26.
43-44 : cf. Gray's Elegy, ' For them no more the blazing hearth
shall burn, | Or busy housewife ply her evening care ' ; Tibull. 1. 10.
42. The details of in partem iuvet without conjunction.
43. sacrum : to the Lares. Cf. 3. 23. 15 ; 4. 5. 34 ; Herrick,
334, to Larr, ' Go where I will, thou luckie Larr stay here, | Warme
by a glit'ring chimney all the year.' vetustis : hence dry.
44. sub : 'against.'
45. textis cratibus : a-qnois, ' wattled folds.' laetum : cf . on
4. 4. 13 ; Verg. Georg. 2. 144, armentaque laeta.
47. hoi na : 3. 23. 3. dulci : hardly yet fermented in the great
earthen jars where it was kept till bottled.
48. inemptas : cf . y\vKta na.1itiira.va. (Aristoph. Pax. 593) ; Verg.
Georg. 4. 132, dapibus mensas onembat inemptis; Martial, 4. 66.
EPODE II. 461
5, etc. In imitation of this usage of the Latin poets, English
writers of the eighteenth century employ the expression freely as a
laudatory term. Cf. Burke's famous characterization of chivalry :
' The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations.'
49. Lucrine oysters were much prized. Cf. Juv. 4. 140 ; Martial,
6. 11. 5 ; Milt. P. R. 2, * All fish from sea or shore ... for
which was drain' d | Pontus and Lucrine bay, and Afric coast.'
For the Lucrine bay, cf. 2. 15. 3.
51-52. The scar was supposed to be driven down into the Mediter-
ranean from the Pontus by storms. Ennius, Heduphagetica (8)
calls it cerebrum lovis paene supremi. For the rhombus, cf. Juv.
Sat. 4. 39-43.
52. intonata : deponent.
53. Afra avis : Numidian hen, guinea-fowl.
54. attagen : heathcock ? Martial, 13. 61.
55. pinguissimis : what bears fat olives should itself be fat.
57. gravi : costive. Cf. Martial, 10. 48. 7.
58. malvae, etc.: cf. on 1. 31. 16.
59. Terminalibus : the festival of the god Terminus, VII Kal.
Mart. (Ov. Fast. 2. 655, spargitur et caeso communis Terminus
agno}. The rustic tastes meat only when it is provided by a sacri-
fice or an accident.
60. lupo : Martial, 10. 48. 14, haedus inhumani raptus ab ore
lupi. There was a belief that the wolf selected the best, and that
rek \vtt60pa>Ta were most toothsome (Plut. Sympos. 2. 9).
63-64. Cf. on 3. 6. 42 ; Verg. Eel. 2. 66, aspice, aratra iugo
referunt suspensa iuvenci; Ov. Fast. 5. 497.
65. The swarm of homebred slaves, a sign of rustic opulence,
sit at supper near the fire in the atrium, while the wooden images
of the Lares, polished and gleaming in the firelight, seem to smile
upon the scene. Cf . Sat. 2. 6. 66, quibus . . . ante Larem proprium
vescor vernasque procaces \ pasco libatis dapibus; Tibull. 2. 1. 23,
turbaque vernarum, saturi bona signa coloni ; Martial, 3. 58. 22 ;
4. 66. 10.
67. Alfius : apparently a traditional type like many of the names
in the Satires. Cf. Columella, 1. 7. Dryden substitutes ' More-
craft.'
68. iam iam : ironically emphasizing his eagerness.
462 NOTES.
69-70. redigere and ponere are the technical terms for calling
in and placing loans, cf. Lex. ; for Ides and Kalends as settling days,
cf. Cic. Cat. 1. 4 ; Hor. Sat. 1. 3. 87.
EPODE III.
Horace has eaten at Maecenas' table a dish perhaps intentionally
(iocose, 20) overseasoned with garlic, and relieves his feelings by
mock-heroic imprecations.
1. olim : ever. Cf . on 4. 4. 6.
2. guttur fregerit : cf. 2. 13. 6.
3. edit: archaic subj. for edat. Cf. Sat. 2. 8. 90. cicutis: the
hemlock, employed in the execution of Socrates. Cf. Epp. 2. 2. 53.
4. messorum: cf. Verg. Eel. 2. 10, Thestylis et rapido fessis
tnessoribus aestu \ alia serpyllumque herbas contundit olentis.
6-6. veneni: with quid. viperinus: 1.8.9.
7. fefellit : without my knowledge. Cf. 3. 16. 32. malas :
Verg. Aen. 2. 471, coluber mala gramina pastus. Cf. mala cicitta
(Sat. 2. 1. 56).
8. Canidia: cf. Epodes 5 and 17 for this poisonous witch.
tractavit : handled, had a finger in, cf. 2. 13. 10.
9. ut : when. Cf . 6. 11. praeter omnes : with mirata est.
candidum : 1. 18. 11.
10. Medea: the typical venefica of mythology. ducem: Jason.
mirata: cf. 4. 9. 15.
11. igiiota : insueta, cf. 4. 2. 6; they were not wonted to the
yoke. For the story, cf. on 4. 4. 63.
12. peranxit: cf. 1. 5. 2, perfusus. A potent drug may be
poison or antidote. Medea anointed Jason to preserve him from
the fire-breathing bulls which he was required to yoke in order to
plow the furrows for the dragon's teeth. Cf. Find. Pyth. 4. 220,
' Then speedily she showed him the accomplishment of the tasks
her father set, and many drugs withal gave him for his anointment,
antidotes of cruel pain.' hoc : emphatic.
13. paelicem : so in Seneca's Medea she names (Glauce) Cre-
ousa, the young Corinthian princess for whom Jason abandons, her,
and whom she slays by the gift of a poisoned robe, escaping, at the
EPODE IV. 463
end of the play, in a chariot drawn by winged dragons. Cf. Epode
5. 61 sqq. ; Eurip. Medea.
15. siderum : the dog star is meant. Cf. 16. 61 ; 3. 29. 18.
insedit : cf. Sen. Oed. 47, sed grams et ater incubat terris vapor.
vapor : heat, as in Lucret. 1. 663.
16. siticulosae : 2. 41 ; 3. 30. 11 ; Eurip. Alcest. 560, ^lav
\06fa.
17. munus: the sacrificial robe steeped in the poisoned blood of
the Centaur Nessus, which jealous Deianira sent to Hercules as a
love charm. Cf. 17. 31; Ov. Met. 9. 130; Milt. P. L. 2, -As
when Alcides from Oechalia crown'd | With conquest felt th'
envenomed robe, and tore | Through pain up by the roots Thes-
salian pines ' ; Soph. Trach. efficacis : for all his mighty deeds
reduced to sob like a girl, as he says in Soph. Trach. 1071.
19. at : in imprecations, as 5. 1.
EPODE IV.
A bitter invective against a typical parvenu of those troublous
times. Still scarred with the brands of slavery, he struts down the
Sacred Way, farms huge Apulian estates, sits in the knights' place
at the theater, and commands the soldiers of Rome.
Variously referred by scholiasts and moderns to Menas or Meno-
dorus, the freedman of Sextus Pompey, who twice deserted to
Augustus (cf. on 3. 16. 15, and Merivale, 3. 194); and to a Vedius
Rufus supposed to be the magnus nebulo of Cic. ad Att. 6. 1. 25.
Cf. Anacreon, fr. 21.
1. sortito: by allotment, or law of nature. The enmity of
wolves and lambs was proverbial from II. 22. 263. Cf. Ov.
Ibis, 43.
3. hibericis: thongs of Spanish broom used for whips.
peruste : burn, for sting. Cf. 0d\iros, and Epp. 1. 16. 47, lor is
non ureris; Sat. 2. 7. 58, uri virgis; Martial, 10. 12. 6, colla
perusta lugo ; Anth. Pal. 5. 254, fj.<iarTi KaTafftivty.
4. dura : Tibull. 1. 7. 42, crura licet dura compede pulsa sonent.
5. ambules : strut. Cf. 5. 71 ; Odes, 4. 5. 17.
7. Sacram . . . viam : the fashionable lounge. Cf . Sat. 1. 9. 1,
464 NOTES.
ibam forte via Sacra sicut meus est mos ; 4. 2. 35. n. metiente :
possibly of the sweeping toga, or merely striding along, pacing ;
Ov. Met. 9. 447 ; Lucan, 5. 656 ; Wordsworth, ' the sailor measur-
ing o'er and o'er | His short domain upon the vessel's deck.'
8. trium : most Mss. read ter.
9. ut: cf. 1. 9. 1. vertat: the scholiast and Nauck interpret
averts; others, 'plucks all gaze your way.' Cf. Epp. 2. 1. 196,
vulgi converteret ora. Kiessling, ' changes their color, makes them
flush with anger.' Cf. Sat. 2. 8. 35, vertere pallor turn . . . faciem.
For hue et hue with euntium we should expect hue et illuc. Cf.
hinc et hinc (2. 31).
11 sqq. The expression of the liberrima indignatio. Cf. libera
bills (11. 16).
11. sectuB : a stronger caesus. triumviralibus : the triumviri
capitales inflicted summary punishment on slaves, foreigners, and
the lower classes. A herald, perhaps, proclaimed the nature of the
offense during the whipping, as in Plato's Laws, 917 D.
13. 'Plows' is a poetical 'possesses.' Cf. 1. 26.
14. ' In his cool hall with haggard eyes | The Roman noble lay |
He drove abroad in furious guise | Upon the Appian way ' (Arnold,
Obermann). mannis: 3.27.7; Lucret. 3. 1061,'cwm'f agensman-
nos ad villam praecipitanter. The Appian Way led to the Falernian
vineyards. terit: cf. Martial, 11. 13, quisquis Flaminlam teris
viator , Statius, Silv. 2. 2. 12, Appia longarum teritur regina via-
rum.
15-16. He snaps his fingers at the famous law of L. Roscius
Otho, Tribune of the people 67 B.C., which reserved for the equites
the fourteen rows of seats in the theater next to the senators, who
occupied the orchestra. Cf. Epp. 1. 1. 58, and Juvenal and Martial
passim.
15. magnus : with scornful irony.
17. quid attinet : what is the use of sending ships against the
runaway slaves of Pompey's piratical fleet, when we ourselves make
military tribunes out of slaves ?
17-18. ora rostrata navium : virtually equals naves rostratas.
20. hoc, hoc : this angry repetition frequent in epodes. Cf.
5. 53; 6. 11; 7. 1 ; 14. 6; 17. 1 ; 17. 7.
EPODE V. 465
EPODE V.
Canidia, the venomous witch, in company with three grewsome
hags, is about to torture to death a young boy in order to prepare
from his liver and marrow a love philter (37-38) for her faithless
paramour, old Varus (73). The scene of the horrid drama is a
house in the Subura at Rome, not Naples, as has sometimes been
inferred from 43. Lines 1-10 contain the pitiful appeals of the
child, dimly aware of the fate in store for him. From 15 to 24
Canidia casts into the magic flames ingredients resembling those
of the witches' caldron in Macbeth. Lines 25-28 briefly depict
Sagana sprinkling the house with unholy water. In 29-40 Veia
digs the pit in which the naked child is to be planted up to the
chin, there to die with starving eyes fixed on food beyond his
reach. Lines 41-46 tell of the presence, affirmed by the gossips of
Neapolis, of lewd Folia, who can draw down the moon and stars
like a Thessalian witch ; 49-82 repeat Canidia's invocations of the
powers of darkness, her objurgations of her disreputable old lover
still unaffected by her conjurations, her dark hints of yet more
dreadful spells to which she may resort. Thereupon, 83-102 the
despairing child breaks out into open imprecations, and threatens
that his ghost will haunt her.
The whole is a genre picture, a dramatic study of the hideous
superstitions that flourished in the teeming lower life of the cosmo-
politan capital. Cf. Ov. Am. 1. 8 ; Cic. Vat. 14 ; Apuleius, Apol.
47 ; C. I. L. VI. 19747, an inscription on a boy supposed to have
been similarly done to death by a witch.
That Canidia was a mistress of Horace with whom he had quar-
reled, that her real name was Gratidia, and that to her is addressed
the Palinode of 1. 16, are unverified fancies of the scholiasts.
Epode 17 is a mock recantation of this poem and an appeal for
mercy by the poet. There are further allusions to her in Epode
3. 8 ; Sat. 1. 8 ; Sat. 2. 1. 48 ; 8. 95.
1-2. Nay by all the gods. at : cf . Epode 3. 19 ; Verg. Aen. 2.
535. quidquid : so Lydorum quidquid, etc., 'all the Lydians'
(Sat. 1. 6. 1).
3. fert : imports, means.
2n
466 NOTES.
4. voltus in : 1. 2. 40.
6. te : Canidia.
6. Lucina : C. S. 15. veris : a sneer of the poet not wholly
appropriate in the mouth of the child. Cf. 17. 50.
7. The purple hem of the toga praetexta of childhood ought to
protect him, but does not ; hence inane.
8. improbaturum : litotes.
11-14. The child is stripped by the witches. insignibus: the
bulla and praetexta. corpus : apposition with^Her.
15-16. A Medusa-like head. Cf. furiale caput (3. 11. 17).
17. caprificos : often mentioned as growing on tombstones and
abandoned walls ; Juv. 10. 145 ; Martial, 10. 2. 9, marmora Mes-
salae findit caprificus ; Tenn. Princ., 'And the wild fig-tree split |
Their monstrous idols.'
18. funebris : cf. 2. 14. 23.
19-20. Construe : ova strigfs uncta (2. 1. 5) sanguine ranae (cf.
Lex. s.v. rubeta) plumamque (strigis).
21. lolcos: in Thessaly. Cf. 1. 27. 21. n. Hiberia : near
Colchis in the Pontus. Cf. Verg. Eel. 8. 95, haec Panto mihi lecta
venena. With the whole, cf. the witches' scene in Macbeth, and
Propert. 4. 5. 27-30.
24. Colchicis : 2. 13. 8. n.
25. expedita : succincta. Sagaiia : the tribrach expresses the
lightness of her movements.
26. Avernales : lake Avernus was an entrance of hell, and its
waters were appropriate in the rites of the infernal deities. Cf.
Verg. Aen. 4. 512.
28. currens : balancing expedita, not limiting horret.
29. Ruthless, deterred by no sense of guilt. conscientia: is not
quite our ' conscience. ' It is more the knowledge of the guilty
secret, conscire sibi.
30. duris : perhaps suggests her hard heart. Cf. 3. 11. 31.
humum : of the inner court or impluvium.
32. quo : with infossus.
33. longo : lengthened by torture. bis terque : often, repeat-
edly, cf . ' once and again ' ; bis terve, two or three times at most.
mutatae : shifted to whet his desire.
34. iuemori : with dat., an expressive coinage.
EPODE V. 467
35. cum promineret : is equivalent to a participle of attendant
circumstance.
36. suspensa mento, etc. : i.e., swimmers. Cf. Macaulay,
Horat. 62, 'And our good father Tiber | Bore bravely up his chin.'
37. exsecta : exsucta is also read. iecur : the seat of passion.
The boy's liver dried with unsatisfied longing for food would com-
municate the property of awakening desire to the philter. For this
development of the idea similia similibus, cf. J. S. Mill, Logic, 1.
3. 8, and the advertisements of patent medicines.
39. cum semel : cf. 4. 7. 21.
41. defuisse : she would have been missed ! Cf. 2. 1. 10. n.
43. otiosa : idle, gossipy. Cf . Ov. Met. 15. 711, in otia natam \
Parthenopen.
44. omne, etc.: every village and villa on the luxurious bay of
Naples.
45-46. F. Q. 3. 3. 12, ' For he [Merlin] by words could call out
of the sky | Both sun and moon, and make them him obey.' Cf.
Epode 17. 6; Verg. Eel. 8. 69; Aristoph. Clouds 748; Propert.
1. 1. 19 ; Tibull. 1. 2. 43 ; Plat. Gorg. 513 A.
47. hie : here (upon), then. inresectum: as befits a fury.
Cf. 1. 6. 18.
48. rodens : in her rage. Cf. Propert. 2. 4. 13, et saepe immeri-
tos coivumpas dentibus ungues; Martial, 4. 27. 5.
49. dixit . . . tacuit : probably merely the familiar idiom of
dicenda tacenda locutus, Epp. 1. 7. 72, faro. KO.\ &ppijra. But tacuit
has been rendered 'or rather thought,' as if even she would not
venture to give such thoughts utterance.
50. arbitrae : witnesses. Cf. Lex. and Milton's ' overhead the
moon sits arbitress.'
51. Diana : of the crossways = Hecate ; cf. Medea in Ov. Met.
7. 194, tuque triceps Hecate quae coeptis conscia nostris, etc.
silentium : a condition of magic as of holy rites.
53. hostilis : belongs to the formula of ancient prayers. Cf. 1.
21. 15; 3.27.21.
55-56. Cf. the description of night in Verg. Aen. 4. 522.
57-60. She prays that the dogs may bark at the perfumed old
dandy as he pursues his amours in the slums of the Subura, or that
they may give her notice of his approach to her door (Verg. Eel.
468 NOTES.
8. 107). If the latter is meant, the contemptuous tone expresses
the poet's feeling rather than hers. quod omnes rideant : closely
with senem . . . adulterum. Cf. Satan's speech in Milt. P. L.
10, 'him by fraud I have seduced | From his creator, and, the more
to increase your wonder, with an apple.'
61 gqq. Why have her spells failed? minus: idiomatic with
valent. Cf. 1. 2. 27.
62. venena Medeae : identical with those of Medea. In the
Medea of Euripides, Jason abandons Medea in order to marry
the daughter of King Creon of Corinth. The forsaken wife sends
the new bride a poisoned robe, which corrodes her flesh and causes
her to die in exquisite torture. Medea then slays her own children
and escapes in a car drawn by winged dragons to Athens.
66. munus : apposition with palla.
66. abstulit : 2. 16. 29.
67-70. She has missed no herb required for the philter. And
yet he sleeps in his perfumed bed oblivious of every mistress (in-
cluding Canidia) . Or, possibly, he sleeps in a couch anointed with
(drugs to bring) oblivion of every mistress (other than Canidia) .
71-72. I have it the spell of some more potent witch frees him.
ambulat : Epode 4. 5.
73-78. No ordinary potion, no mere Marsic spell will I employ
to bring thee back.
74. caput : 1. 24. 2. n.
76. For Marsic spells, cf. Epode 17. 29 ; Verg. Aen. 7. 760.
77. maius : sc. aliquid.
78. fastidienti : sc. me.
79. inferius : scanned inferyus.
81-82. utt bitumen: cf. Verg. Eel. 8. 82. atria: sooty,
smoky.
88. sub haec : thereupon.
85. unde : i.e. with what words. Cf. Dido's quae quibus ante-
feram (Verg. Aen).
86. Thyesteas : such imprecations as Thyestes utters in the
play when he learns that he has been made to devour the flesh of
his own children, Aesch. Ag. 1600 sqq. ; Enn. fr. 309 ; Cic. Tusc.
1. 107, in Pis. 43 ; Sen. Thyest.
87-88. venena, etc. : sorceries, witch, cannot reverse (confound)
EPODE VI. 469
right and wrong after the fashion of men. Cf. Verg. Georg. 1. 506,
fas versum atque nefas. For vicem, cf . Lex. s.v. vicis II. 2. 0.
This rendering treats maya as a noun, and non . . . non as pathetic
repetition. Others render : ' magic philters cannot reverse right and
wrong, nor (avert ?) human retribution (the punishment that
awaits guilty men).' Vicem is then explained by vices, 1. 28. 82.
M<i [Hi non is Haupt's emendation of the Mss. magnum, which is
rendered ' change the great (divine) laws of right and wrong,' with
the alternative interpretations of humanam vicem already given.
89. detestatio : ' my solemn curse.'
90. Cf. 1. 28. 34.
91-93. Cf. Dido's threat, Verg. Aen. 4. 385, et cum frigida mors
anima seduxerit artus \ omnibus umbra locis adero.
93. quae vis : such is the -power of. Cf. Livy, 3. 68, on the
manes of the murdered Virginia.
95. adsidens : like an incubus.
97 sqq. ' You, foul hags, will be stoned by the mob and your
bodies cast to the vultures of the Esquiline ; my parents alas, not
I, will see it.'
100. Esquilinae : for Maecenas' purification and conversion into
villa grounds, of the ' Potter's Field ' there cf. Sat. 1. 8. 14 ;
Lanciani, Ancient Rome, p. 67.
EPODE VI.
Invective against a cowardly defamer, a hound who snaps at the
wayfarer and flees the wolf. But Horace is a faithful shepherd-
dog who can bite back, a bull with sharp horns for his enemies, a
second Archilochus or Hipponax, who will not tamely submit to
insult.
1. hospites : passers by. So in epitaphs, and, perhaps, Catull.
4. 1, phaselus Hie quern videtis hospites.
3. quin : Verg. Eel. 2. 71, quin tu . . . paras? But here it is
more of a direct question. potes : virtually audes. Cf. 8. 11. 31.
4-5. remorsurum : cf . on 2. 3. 4. For Molossian and Spartan
hounds, cf. Verg. Georg. 3. 405 ; Mids. Night's Dream, 4. 1, 'they
bay'd the bear | With hounds of Sparta.'
470 NOTES.
6. via: Lucret. 6. 1220, fida canum vis; Verg. Aen. 4. 132,
odora canum vis ; Theoc. 5. 100, KVOIV <f>t\oirotfj.vi>s.
7. agam : the image and the thing compared are blended.
sublata : arrecta. Cf. demittit aures (2. 13. 34). nives: 2.30;
1. 37. 19.
8. fera : attracted to case of quaecumque.
9-10. His bark is terrible, but a morsel of meat contemptuously
flung to him (proiectum) stays his bite. Cf. Cerberus (Verg. Aen.
6. 422).
12. cornua : cf. the proverbial faenum habet in cornu (Sat.
1. 4. 34) of a vicious bull.
13. The satirists Archilochus and Hipponax were said to have
driven their victims Lycambes and Bupalus to suicide. infido
gener : Lycambes promised Archilochus the hand of his daughter,
Neobule, and then broke faith.
15. an: cf. 17. 76. atro : cf. Epp. 1. 19. 30, versibus atris;
Martial, 5. 28. 7, robiginosis cuncta dentibus rodit. dente: cf. on
4. 3. 16 ; Epp. 2. 1. 150, doluere cruento \ dente lacessiti.
16. inultus : probably with subject of flebo, not with puer ; but
cf. order in 1. 34.
EPODE VII.
Hold your fratricidal hands ! Too much of Latin blood has been
spilt in wars that bring no triumphs. When wolf spares wolf,
what curse is Jhis that sets Roman against Roman ? The curse of
a brother's blood that stained Rome's first walls.
Perhaps written in B.C. 38 on the prospect of a renewal of hos-
tilities with Sextus Pompeius.
There is an imitation (addressed to the English) by Duke
(Johnson's Poets, 9. 222).
1. quo quo : cf. 4. 20 n. scelesti : cf. 1. 2. 29 ; 1. 35. 33 ; 2.
1. 5. ruitis : cf. 1. 3. 26. dexteris : dat. with aptantur. Cf.
2. 12. 4.
2. conditi : sheathed after Philippi. Cf. C. S. 33.
3. Three constructions have been proposed, super campis atque
(super) Neptuno ; (in) campis atque super Neptuno ; superfusum
campis, etc.
EPODE VII. 471
5. non ut: the preceding rhetorical question is virtually an
affirmation. For the thought, cf. Lucan, 1. 10, cumque superba
foret Babylon spolianda tropaeis. . . . Bella geri placuit nullos
habitura triumphos ? invidae : cf. Sal. Cat. 10. 1, Carthago
aemula imperi Romani.
6-7. arces : 2. 6. 22. intactus : cf. 3. 24. 1. The hasty inva-
sion of Britain by Julius Caesar is ignored. Cf. 3. 5. 3 ; 1. 35. 30.
7-8. descenderet . . . via : cf. on 4. 2. 35.
8. catenatus: cf. Jul. Caesar, 1. 1, 'wherefore rejoice? | What
conquest brings he home ? | What tributaries follow him to Rome, |
To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels ? '
9. secundum vota : the natural feeling of an enemy. Cf . 2.
1. 31 ; II. 1. 255. sua : cf. 16. 2.
11-12. Umquarn, besides doing duty with mos fuit, is felt as
numquam with feris owing to the position of neque : never fierce
to their own kind (except to their unlike). Some editors read
numquam, holding that fuit as gnomic can dispense with the
adverb. Others construe in dispar with mos, not with feris. The
thought is a commonplace. Cf. Plin. N. H. 7. Praef. 5 ; Seneca,
Controv. 2. 9 ; Sen. Ep. 95. 31 ; Juv. 15. 159.
13. Is it sheer madness, fate, or conscious guilt ? caccua :
Verg. Aen. 2. 244, caecique furore. vis acrior : apparently a
variation of the legal phrase, vis maior quam Graeci Oeov Blav . . .
appellant (Gaius); ' the act of God.' Cf. the vis abdita quaedam of
Lucretius, 5. 1231, and supra, 2. 17. 6, maturior vis.
15. albus . . . pallor : so Tasso, ' bianca pallidezza.'
17. sic est : it is fate determined by guilt, as in the Greek
drama. agunt : so ditaicciv of avenging furies. Cf. 5. 89.
18. fraternae : i.e. of Remus, cf. Lucan, 1. 95, fraterno primi
maduerunt sanguine muri.
19. ut : cf . on 4. 4. 42. in terrain : cf . Aesch. Choeph. 401 ;
Eumen. 261 ; Genesis 4. 10, ' And he said, What hast thou done ?
the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.'
So strong was the feeling that the ground was sometimes covered
to prevent the victim's blood from reaching it. Cf. Frazer, Golden
Bough, 1. 181.
20. sacer : see Lex. s.v. II. B. b.
472 NOTES.
EPODE IX.
A song of triumph on the receipt of the news of the victory of
Actium, September, B.C. 81. The direction of Antony's flight is
still unknown (29-32). Cf. on 1. 37, Epode 1, and Sellar, p. 124.
I. repostum : cf. 3. 28. 2, reconditum. For the syncope, cf. 1.
36. 8; 4. 13. 20. ad: for.
3. sub: 1. 5. 3. alta: 3. 29. 10.
4. beate : generally rich and happy (1. 4. 14), especially happy
to-day.
5. mixtum : for the blending of wind and stringed instruments,
cf. II. 18. 495 ; Pindar, 0. 7. 12.
6. barbarum = Phrygian, as opposed to Dorian. Cf. 3. 19. 17 ;
4. 1. 22 ; 2. 4. 9 ; Catull. 64. 264.
7. nuper : after the defeat of Sextus Pompeius at Naulochus,
B.C. 36. actus : cf. ayam (6. 7); sc. fugatus (in) freto (Sicnlo).
Neptunius : Sextus Pompeius called himself the Son of Neptune
(Appian, B. C. 5. 100).
8. ustis: cf. 1. 37. 13; Appian, 5. 121.
10. servis : with detraxerat grammatically, but by scornful im-
plication also with amicus. Cf. 4. 19. n.
II. Romanus is felt by itself (3. 6. 2; Verg. Aen. 6. 861), and
miles is felt in separate antithesis to spadonibus, but we need not
commit the construction to a comma before or after miles.
posteri : cf. 2. 19. 2.
12. emancipatus : the bond slave of. See Lex. The schol.
on Aen. 8. 696 says Antony bade his legions obey Cleopatra. Cf.
Shaks. Ant. and Cleop. 3. 7, ' so our leader's led | And we are
women's men.'
13. spadonibua: cf. on 1. 37. 10; Plut. Ant. 60; Shaks. Ant.
and Cleop. 3. 7, ' and 'tis said in Rome, | That Photinus an eunuch
and your maids, | Manage this war. '
14. rugosis: cf. Ter. Eun. 689. potest : 3. 11. 31.
16. sol: from Homer down, the sun, who oversees and over-
hears all things (II. 3. 277), has been invoked as a witness
of shameful deeds. Cf. Aesch. Choeph. 986. conoplum : a
mosquito net, from Kiovcety ; then tent or luxurious canopied
EPODE IX. 473
couch. Cf. Propert. 4. 10. 45, foedaque Tarpeio conopia tendere
saxo.
17. ad hoc : (in disgust) at this. So Bentley, quoting Epp. 1.
19. 45, ad haec ego naribus utl \ formido. The Mss. vary, and
editors read at hue, ad hunc, adhuc, etc. Two thousand Galatians
deserted to Octavius (Plut. Ant. 63) and a part of Antony's fleet
apparently sought refuge in the port sinistrorsum citae (20), left-
ward urged, the precise interpretation of which would demand
more knowledge of the topographical details than we possess.
It has been taken ' backing water. ' frementes : cf . 4. 14. 23.
Note verier unt.
18. canentes: cf. Verg. Aen. 7. 698, ibant aequati numero,
regemque canebant.
21. Triumphe : the personified (as in 4. 2. 49) and eagerly
awaited triumph seems to delay its own progress.
22. intactas : uncontaininated by human service, unyoked.
Vergil's intacta totidem cervice iuvencas (Georg. 4. 540). They
were white and richly adorned for sacrifice. Cf. Plut. Aem. 33 ;
Macaulay, Capys. 29, 'And deck the bull, Mevania's bull, | The
bull as white as snow.'
23-26. Octavius is greater than Marius, who subdued Jugurtha,
and than Scipio Africanus, who overthrew Carthage.
24. reportasti : ' Hurrah ! for Manius Curius, | The bravest son
of Eoine, | Thrice in utmost need sent forth, | Thrice drawn in tri-
umph home' (Macaulay, Capys. 29).
25. neque Africanum : nor (so great a captain) in that (Scipio)
Africanus for whom, etc. Exact parallelism would require ' nor
from the Punic war,' but Horace varies the expression. Scipio, of
course, was not buried at Carthage, but her destruction was his
monument, as Velleius (1. 12. 4) says. Many read Africano,
sc. bello, and interpret sepulchrum condidit, ended, citing Cicero's
bellum . . , sublatum ac sepiiltum. But the Jugurthine war was
also African, and the figure which Caesar helps out by a synonym
would be harsh here, and would hardly bear expansion into the
clause cui . . . condidit.
27. hostis: Antony. He (the poet's imagination tells him) has
exchanged the general's purple paludamentum for a common sol-
dier's cloak. So Pompey, after Pharsalia. Cf. Caes. B. C. 3. 96.
474 NOTES.
28-29. mutavit: cf. on 1. 17. 2. centum: cf. on 3. 27. 33.
30. non suis : situs ventus is a favorable wind. Ignoranti quern
portum petal nullus suus ventus est (Sen. Ep. 71. 3).
31. exercitatas: cf. 4. 14. 21, exercet. Syrtes: 1. 22. 5;
2. 6. 3.
32. incerto : i.e. incertus, aimlessly.
33. capaciores: cf. 2. 7. 21-23; Catull. 27.
34-35. Chian and Lesbian were sweet Greek wines which would
be sickening in excess. Hence vel, or rather (?), the dry tonic
Caecuban.
35. nauseam : the ancients were painfully frank. Buecheler,
to save Horace's taste, argues that he was actually at sea, returning
from Actium (cf. on Epode 1), and feared seasickness.
36. metire : wine and water with the cyathi (3. 19. 12).
38. Lyaeo: 1. 7. 22; 3. 21. 16.
EPODE X.
Propempticon to an enemy, the counterpart of 1. 3 ; cf. Swin-
burne's ' Launch of the Livadia.'
The poetaster Maevius is damned to everlasting fame by Vergil's
qui Bavium non odit amet tua carmina, Maevi (Eel. 3. 90).
1. mala . . . alite: cf. on 1. 15. 5. soluta: 3. 2. 29.
2. olentem: merely abusive. But cf. Sat. 1. 2. 27.
3. ut : as in colloquial and older Latin, ut ilium di 'perdant ;
memento is parenthetical. verberes: cf. on 3. 27. 24. latus:
1. 14. 4.
4. auster, etc. : contrast 1. 3. 4.
5. niger : cf. on 1. 5. 7. inverse : Verg. Aen. 1. 43 ; 1. 84-85.
6-7. differat: cf. 5. 99. quantus : as fierce as when.
8. frangit. . . ilices: Lucret. 5. 1096 ; Homer, II. 16, 769.
10. qua : it is to be not only a starless night, but the prover-
bially stormy night of Orion's setting. Cf. 1. 28. 21 ; 3. 27. 18 ;
Epode 15. 7. tristis: 1. 3. 14.
11. feratur : sc. Maevius.
12. Graia victorum maims : for this ' derangement of epitaphs,'
as Mrs. Malaprop would say, see Munro on Lucret. 1. 474 ; Gilder-
EPODE XIII. 475
sleeve on Find. Pyth. 4. 149 ; and Find. fr. 112,
ayf\a, ' a Spartiin bevy of maids.'
13-14. cum Pallas: cf. Verg. Aen. 1. 39 sqq. ; Homer, Odys. 4.
499 sqq. usto : cf. cremato, 4. 4. 53. impiam : because of the
rape of Cassandra from her temple, Verg. Aen. 2. 404.
15. instat: cf. adest, 1. 15. 9.
16. luteus : Homer's x^upo" Stos, the yellow paleness of the
olive southron. Cf. 3. 10. 14, and Tibull. 1. 8. 52.
17. ilia: deictic, 'hear him'; or perhaps his (customary).
eiulatio : Cic. Tusc. 2. 55, ingemescere nonnumquam viro concessum
est idque raro, eiulatus ne mulieri quidem.
18. aversum : cf. Winter's Tale, 3. 3, 'A thousand knees, | Ten
thousand years together, . . . could not move the gods | To look
that way thou wert.'
19. Idnius : the lower Adriatic. Maevius, like Vergil in 1. 3, is
going to Greece. udo : Cf. Verg. Georg. 1. 462, umidus Auster;
Ov. Met. 1. 264, madidis Notus evolat alis. remugiens : 3. 10.
6. sinus: 1. 33. 16; 3. 27. 19.
21. opima . . . praeda : cf. Macaulay, Capys. 25, ' And Apen-
nine's gray vultures | Shall have a noble feast.' curvo : 4. 5. 14.
22. porrecta : as a corpse. Cf. 3. 10. 3. merges : generally
for birds of prey (as in Pers. 6. 30). They do not touch corpses.
iuverit : cibo iuvere is not uncommon. iuveris is the conjecture
of a painfully explicit mind.
23. libidinosus . . . caper : the victim is humorously suited to
the person, olentem (2).
24. agna : Tempestatibus agnam \ Caedere delude iubet (Verg.
Aen. 5. 772).
EPODE XIII.
Without the winter rages. Let us banish care with wine and
song and cheerful discourse. Such was the Centaur Cheiron's
teaching : ' Great Thetis' son, thou wilt not return from Troy.
Solace all thy troubles there with song and wine.'
Cf. Odes 1. 9.
1. contraxit: has narrowed the heavens to 'one cloudless
chink in a black stormy sky ' (Macaulay); or, 'drawn the clouds
476 NOTES.
down close about the earth.' There is a suggestion of contractae
frontis (Sat. 2. 2. 125), the scowling face of heaven. Contraxit
may conceivably govern imbres also by zeugma.
2. deducunt lovem: cf. 1. 1. 25. n.; Verg. Eel. 7. 60, luppiler
et laeto descendet plurimus imbri; Anacr. fr. 6 (?). siliiae :
1. 23. 4.
3. Threicio: &pi\nd<f. Cf. 1. 25. 11. Note hiatus.
4. de die : i.e. ' which the day presents,' with a further com-
plicating suggestion of the phrases de die bibere, de die convivia
facere, etc. virent : 1. 9. 17. n. genua : Homer notes that the
weakness of old age is felt first in the knees. Cf. Verg. Aen.
6. 432.
6. obducta: clouded. senectus: i.e. the moroseness of age.
Cf. 1. 9. 18.
6. Cf. 3. 21. 1. n.
7. cetera : 1. 9. 9 ; 3. 29. 33. But there is more definite ref-
erence here to the recent anxieties and losses of the civil wars.
mitte: 1. 38. 3. deus haec, etc.: for thought, cf. 2. 10. 15-17.
Haec is our present troubles, and possibly the gloomy weather
which types them.
7-8. benigna . . . vice : generous compensation. Cf. 1. 4. 1 ;
4. 14. 13.
8-9. Achaemenio : 3. 1. 44. perfundi : 1. 5. 2. Cyllenea:
i.e. of Mercury. Cf. Lex. and 1. 10. 6. n.
11. grandi : i.e. of heroic stature. cecinit : as an oracle.
Centaurus : for the education of Achilles by Cheiron, cf. II. 11.
832 ; Find. Nem. 3. 43. Xfipuvos uTrofl^ai, the counsels of Cheiron,
is the title of a gnomic poem attributed to Hesiod. Cf. Dodsley's
Poems, 1. 172.
12. invicte : may be a noun, as Verg. Aen. 6. 365. mortalis
dea : cf. 1. 6. 9. n.
13. temanet: cf. 16. 41, nos manet. Assaraci: i.e. of Troy.
Cf. Verg. Aen. 1. 284.
13-14. Cf. Catull. 64. 357, where the fates prophesy of Achilles,
testis erit magnis virtutibus undo, Scamandri, etc.
13. frigida : with reference to the cold spring at its source (II.
22. 151); or general, like Tennyson's 'flow down, cold rivulet, to
the sea.' parvi : it is ^eyas U1 H- 20. 73.
EPODE XIV. 477
14. findunt: cf. Tenn. (Enone, 'river-sundered champaign.'
lubricus : 'smooth-sliding.' Cf. Lucret. 5. 947.
15. uiide : with reditum. subtemine: abl. instr. with rvpere.
The web or spinning of the Fates is or fulfills destiny. Catull. 64.
327, currite ducentes subtegmina, cun'ite, fusi; Tibull. 1. 7. 1.
Cf. 2. 3. 16. n.
16. caerula : cf. 3. 28. 10. n.
17. illic : the supplicatory embassy finds him singing to the lyre
(II. 9. 186).
18. adloquiis : trap-nyopiau (?) ; perhaps slightly personifies aegri-
moniae. Cf. Catull. 38. 5, qua solatus es adlocutione ?
EPODE XIV.
Love's languors will not let Horace complete the promised volume
of epodes. So burned Teian Auacreon. Maecenas, too, knows
the flame but more happily.
1. cur . . . diffuderit depends on rogando (5).
1-2. imis . . . sensibus : so Verg. Eel. 3. 54, sensibus haec
imis . . . reponas.
3. Lethaeos : cf. 4. 7. 27 ; Plato, Rep. 10. 621 ; Verg. Aen.
6. 714; Keats, Ode to a Nightingale, 'My heart aches, and a
drowsy numbness pains | My sense, as though of hemlock I had
drunk, | Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains | One minute
past, and Lethe- wards had sunk.' ducentia : cf. 3. 1. 21 ; Tibull.
1. 2. 79, soporem ducere ; Epp. 1. 2. 31.
4. traxerim : a stronger ducere; 1. 17. 22; 4, 12. 14. Cf.
fUmr.
5. candlde : so Epp. 1. 4. 1, he calls Tibullus nostrorum sermo-
num candide index. Cf. Sat. 1. 5. 41, and the frequent use of
candid and candour in eighteenth-century English. occidis :
cf. 2. 17. 1. n. It belongs to the sermo familiaris. Cf. Plaut.
Men. 922, occidis fabulans.
6. deus : the god, i.e. Cupid. nam r ' you slay me with your
questions, for I tell you.'
7. carmen : -apposition with iambos. For position, cf. Verg.
Eel. 2. 3, inter densas, umbrosa cacumina, fagos. For promissum,
478 NOTES.
cf . promissi carminis auctor (A. P. 45) . iatnbos : the epodes.
Cf. Epp. 1. 19. 23 ; 2. 2. 59.
8. umbilicum: cf. Lex. s.v. III. C ; Martial, 4. 89. 1, Ohe iam
satis est, ohe libelle, \ iam pervenimus usque ad umbilicos.
9. arsisse : 2. 4. 7 ; 3. 9. 6.
10. Teium: 1. 17. 18.
11. flevit : flebiliter cecinit.
12. non elaboratum : the poems to Bathyllus are not preserved.
The reference is probably to the simple glyconic measures.
13. ignis : equivocally of the fire of love, its object, and ' The
fire that left a roofless Ilion,' (Tenn. Lucret.). Cf. Lucret. 1. 474,
ignis Alexandri Phrygio sub pectore gliscens; Marlowe, 'the face
that launch'd a thousand ships, | And burnt the topless towers of
Ilium.'
15-16. tino contenta : the standing phrase. Cf. Catull. 68. 95.
16. macerat : 1. 13. 8.
EPODE XV.
Thou didst swear eternal faith to me, Neaera, beneath the moon
and stars. Now thou art another's. But he, too, be he rich as
Midas, wise as Pythagoras, beautiful as Nireus, shall weep thy
changed faith.
There is a paraphrase by Somervile (Johnson's Poets, 11. 205).
2-3. inter, etc.: cf. 1. 12. 47. cum: so-called cum inversum
(G. L. 581). laesura : by perjury. Cf. quo numine laeso (Verg.
Aen. 1. 8).
4. in verba, etc. : technically of repeating the military oath,
sacramentum, at dictation. For another metaphorical use, cf.
Epp. 1. 1. 14, nullius addictus iurare in verba magistri.
5-6. 'More closely than the clinging vine | About the wedded
tree, | Clasp thou thine arms, oh, mistress mine, | About the heart
of me ' (Lang, A la belle Helene ; after Ronsard). Cf. 1. 36. 20 ;
Catull. 61. 33. atque: than.
1. The line is complete in itself. The addition of 1. 8 causes a
slight anacoluthon. For wolf and lamb, cf. Epode 4. 1. For
Orion, 1. 28. 21.
EPODE XVI. 479
9. intonsos: cf. on 1. 21. 2. For the terms of the oath, cf.
Verg. Eel. 5. 76 ; Aen. 1. 607.
10. hunc : my, ' this of ours.' mutuum : 4. 1. 30.
11. dolitura : Catull. 8. 14, at tu dolebis. virtute : explained
by viri, etc. (12). If she be not fair to him, he will be too much of
a man to endure her caprices longer. Cf. Ter. Eun. 154, eu, noster,
laudo, tandem perdoluit ; vires.
13. potiori : 3. 9. 2.
14. et : English idiom expects an adversative. parepi : one
whose soul doth bear an equal yoke of love. Cf. on 1. 33. 10 ;
Propert. 1. 1. 32.
15. offensi : sc. Flacci from Flacco (12). When I have once
taken offense and the iron has entered into my soul, my resolution
will not give way to your beauty. Offensi is Bentley's conjecture
for offensae, which can be construed with formae, thy beauty once
grown hateful (a stone of offense) to me.
16. si ... dolor : he postpones the ultimatum ; the door is
not yet shut ; nondum perdoluit.
17. et tu : Tibull. 1. 2. 88, at tu, qui laetus rides mala nostra,
caveto ; Id. 1. 5. 69, At tu, qui potior nunces, meafata timeto.
18. superbus incedis : the complacent strut of the successful
rival. Cf. 4. 5.
19. sis ... licebit : rare for sis licet. So Sat. 2. 2. 59.
20. tibi : 2. 16. 34. Pactolus fluat : as for Midas, \4yerai 8*
roiircfrbv TlaKTtii\bv ^puar'bv pevtrai (Schol. Aristoph. Plut. 287).
21-22. Pythagorae : cf. on 1. 28. 10. arcana : the secret or
esoteric doctrines. Nirea : 3. 20. 15.
24. ast: archaic form used in Sat. 1. 6. 125, 1. 8. 6, and by Ver-
gil. riser o : the fut. perf. which represents the thing as good as
done, expresses confidence or colloquial emphasis. So in Greek.
EPODE XVI.
A second generation is wearing away in civil strife, and Rome,
that no foreign foe availed to harm, will be made a desert by her
own impious offspring (1-14). What resource remains for those
who would choose the better part ? Let us abandon our city like
the Phocaeans of old, and swear a mighty oath not to return till
480 NOTES.
stones shall swim and the lion lie down with the lamb (1538).
Somewhere in the western seas the fabled islands of the blest await
us, reserved by Jupiter for the saving remnant of the golden age in
an age of iron.
Cf. Epode 7. The poem may have been written at the outbreak
of the Perusine war, B.C. 41. At any rate it represents Horace's
feelings in the years immediately following Philippi, before he
became the friend of Maecenas and accepted the rule of Octavian.
Cf. Sellar, p. 120, ' Horace seems to express the feelings of the
losing side before the peace of Brundisium ; Vergil [Eel. 4], those
of the winning side after its conclusion. '
The motif of the Fortunate Isles may have been suggested to
Horace by the tradition that Sertorius after his defeat purposed to
take refuge in the Canary islands. Plut. Sert. 8; Sallust, fr. 1. 61.
For the Islands of the Blest in Greek literature, cf. Rohde, Psyche,
p. 68. 504 sqq.; Odyss. 4. 563; Hes. Works and Days, 170; Pind.
01. 2. 78, etc. In modern poetry cf. inter alia, Shelley, Epipsy-
chidion ; Tenn. Voyage of Maldune ; Teires. in fin. after Pindar,
Ulysses ; Dennis Florence McCarthy, The Voyage of St. Brendan,
pt. 6 ; Andrew Lang, Fortunate Islands.
The youthful ardor and luxuriant imagery of the poem have
made it a general favorite. 'Dean Berkeley used to apply the
same description to Bermuda, and his scheme of going thither, and
was so fond of the epode . . . that he got Mr. Pope to translate it
into English' (Spence's Anecdotes). Berkeley's famous poem, ' On
the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America' (' Westward
the course of empire takes its way ' ) , witnesses to this admiration.
1. altera : the first generation was that of Marius and Sulla
(B.C. 88). aetas ; 1. 9, and 1. 35. 35 ; 3. 6. 46.
2. Cf. 7. 10; Odes, 3. 4. 65; Livy, Praef., ut iam magnitudine
laboret SM, and Lucan's nee se Roma ferens (1. 72) express a
slightly different shade of thought.
3. Marsi : the leaders in the Social war, B.C. 91 (cf. 3. 14. 18),
the avowed object of which was to destroy Rome and make Cor-
finium the capital of Italy.
4. Porsgnae : ' Lars Porsena of Clusium | By the nine gods he
swore | That the great house of Tarquin should suffer wrong no
EPODE XVI. 481
more' (Macaulay, Horatius). The legend of Horatius was perhaps
invented to hide the fact that the Etruscans took Rome. For
PorsSna, cf. Macaulay's preface.
5. Capuae: the Romans never forgave Capua for going over
to Hannibal after Cannae and aiming at the hegemony of Italy.
Cf. Livy, 23. 6 ; Cic. de Leg. Agr. 2. 87. Spartacus : 3. 14. 19. n.
6. novis rebus : in time of revolution (treason). The story is
familiar from Cic. in Cat. 3. 4 ; Sail. Cat. 40 sqq.
7. The invasion of the Ciuibri and Teutones, B.C. 102-101.
caerulea : blue-eyed. Cf. Juv. 13. 164 ; Tac. Ger. 4.
8. parentibus abominatus : cf. 1. 1. 24.
9. Cf. 1. 35. 34. devoti : 7. 20 ; Odes, 3. 23. 10.
10. feria, etc.: cf. 3. 3. 40-41. n.
11. barbarus: cf. 3. 6. 14.
12. eques : with barbarus, but not necessarily in translation ;
cf. Ezekiel 26. 11, 'With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread
down all thy streets.'
13. osaa : though Romulus was rapt to heaven in the chariot of
Mars (3. 3. 15. n.), his grave was shown post Rostra.
15-16. The sentence takes an unexpected turn. If we must be
explicit, the simplest construction is (si) forte quid expediat commu-
niter (quaeritis) aut (si) melior pars quaeritis carere, etc. From
the question of the best counsel for all, there is a sudden shift to
the desire of the better part to be rid altogether of what is past
mending. Some Eds. read quod and take carere as inf. of purpose
with expediat, i.e. ad carendum. For pars, cf. C. S. 39.
17. hac : sc. (quam) ire (21). Fhocaeorum, etc.: B. C. 534,
rather than submit to Harpagus, the general of Cyrus. Cf. Herod.
1. 165.
18. exsecrata : having bound themselves by imprecations.
QwKatwv dpa 'seems to have been proverbial (Herod. I. c. ivoffiaavro
Iffxvpas Kardpas, etc.).
19. agroa . . . Lares : with profugit. Some take them with exse-
crata or with reliquit.
19-20. habitanda . . . reliquit, etc. : cf. 3. 3. 40.
21. Cf. 3. 11. 49.
22. vocabit : cf. Catull. 4. 19, laeva sive dextera \ Vocaret aura.
protervus : cf. 1. 26. 2.
2i
482 NOTES.
23. sic placet : suggesting the legal placetne? placere Senatui,
and the like.
23-24. secunda . . . alite : cf. 10. 1.
25. in haec (verba) : 15. 4. n. One aSi/varov sufficed the Pho-
caeans. They sunk a mass of iron, and swore not to return till it
came to the surface. The rhetorical Roman elaborates the conceit :
the river Poe shall wash the mountain tops, the Apennine shall
extend into the sea. animals shall join in monstrous unions, and
the shaggy goat grow smooth and inhabit the salt sea. For this
rhetoric of impossibles (dStWra) cf. II. 1. 234 ; Archil, fr. 74 ;
Verg. Eel. 1. 59-64; 8. 27; Odes, 1. 33. 7; Herrick, 154, 198.
renarint : 2 Kings 6. 6, 'and the iron did swim '; Swinb., the
Bloody Son, ' When chuckie-stanes shall swim in the sea, | O dear
mither'; Plut. Aristeid. 24.
30. monstra : the unnatural union makes them 'prodigious.'
32. miluo : dat., trisyllable.
33. credula : proleptic. ravos : 3. 27. 3.
35. haec : obj. of exsecrata. et quae : and whatever else.
reditus : pi. mainly metri causa, cf. 3. 5. 52 ; 3. 27. 76. dulcea :
Homer's MfAujS^s or y\vxepbs v6<nos (Od. 11. 99 ; 22. 323).
36. Cf. 1. 18.
37. pars: cf. 1. 15.
37-38. The unteachable mob, the weakling and the faint-heart,
may remain. exspes : 'We judge of a man's wisdom by his
hope' (Emerson).
38. inominata : only here ; but cf. 3. 14. 11. n.
39. virtus, muliebrem : cf. 1. 6. 9. n. tollite : cf/2. 5. 9.
40. Etrusca : of Etruria, supposing them to follow the coast.
praeter : 3. 27. 31.
41. nos : the bard and the melior pars whom he now addresses.
manet : cf. Milt. P. L. 9, 'Ale of these nor skilled nor studious,
higher argument | Remains.' 1 circumvagus : coined by Horace,
perhaps for Homer's Stream of Ocean returning upon itself, tydppoos.
Cttjcircumftuus (Ov. Met. 1. 30). This merges in the idea of the
all-surrounding ocean, Aesch. Prom. 138; Bryant, Thanatopsis,
' and, poured round all, | Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste.'
Porphyrio construed circum with arva, and, though that is not the
construction, the idea is suggested. Cf. Pind. O. 2. 79 ; Shelley,
EPODE XVI. 483
Hellas, ' where the stream | Of ocean sleeps, around those foam-
less isles ' ; Swinb. Atalauta : ' Lands indiscoverable in the un-
heard-of west, | Round which the strong stream of a sacred sea |
Rolls without wind forever,' etc.
41-42. arva . . . arva : cf. 4. 5. 17-18, rura . . . rura.
43. reddit: cf. on 1. 3. 7, 1. 9. 20, 3. 1. 21, 4. 1. 8. Cererem :
cf. 1. 7. 22. n. inarata : Verg. Eel. 4. 39-40 ; Ronsard, 'La terre
sans labeur de sa grasse marnuielle | Toute chose y produit.'
45. numquani fallentis : cf. 3. 1. 30. n.
46. suaru : i.e., not grafted. Cf. Verg. Georg. 2. 82, non sua
poma. pulla dark, ripe.
47. mella. etc.: cf. Ov. Met. 1. 112 (the golden age), Flavaque
de viridi stillabant ilice mella. montibus altis . cf. montibus e
magnis decursus aquai (Lucret. 5. 943).
48. desilit pede : 3. 13. 16. Cf. Lucret. 5. 272, liquido pede
detulit undas. Words : ' No fountain from its rocky cave | E'er
tripped with foot so free.'
49. iniussae : cf. Verg. Eel. 4. 21, Ipsae lacte domum referent
distenta capellae \ ubera.
51. vespertinus ; cf. 1. 15. 19. n.
52. intumescit alta . swells and heaves with. Others take alta
of the deep soil, and intumescit of the snakes swollen with wrath.
53. Some editors plausibly transfer 11. 60-61 to this place. ut :
cf. 3. 4. 17. n.
54. Aquosus : cf. 2. 7. 21. n. ; 2. 2. 15. n.; Propert. 3. 8. 51,
Aquosus Orion. radat imbribus: cf. 2. 9. 1. n.
55. urantur : cf. Verg. Aen. 3. 141, sterilis exurere Sirius agros.
56. utrumque : i.e. either extreme of inoist or hot. temper-
ante : cf. 1. 12. 16. n.
57-60. For vein of sentiment, cf. on Odes, 1. 3.
57. pinus : so -Catullus' description of the voyage of the ship
Argo .begins, Peliaco quondam prognatae vertice pinus (64. 1). Cf.
1. 14. 12.
58. impudica : Medea, who left her home with Jason. Cf. 3.
27. 49, impndens.
59. Sidonii : The Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon were the first
great navigators. cornua : Lex. s.v. II. B. 2. e. ; Verg. Aen. 3.
549.
484 NOTES.
60. laboriosa : cf. 17. 16. Tenn. Lotos-Eaters, 'Most weary
seem'd the sea, weary the oar, | Weary the wandering fields of
barren foam.'
61-62. Cf. 53. n. contagia : Verg. Eel. 1. 50-51. astri: i.e
Sirius. Cf. 3. 29. 18 ; Alcaeus fr. 40, rb yap Harpov it tpn (\\trai.
62. impotentia : cf. 1. 37. 10. n.; 3. 30. 3.
64. inquinavit : alloyed.
65. aere : cf. 1. 2. 4. n. dehinc ferro : Hesiod's five ages are
gold, silver, bronze, age of Trojan heroes, iron (Works and Days,
109 sqq.). Cf. Ov. Met. 1. 89. sqq.; Juv. 13. 30. quorum : with
piis the melior pars. Others take it with fuga, an escape from
which.
66. secunda : cf. 1. 23.
EPODE XVII.
An ironical palinode to Canidia. Cf. Epode 5.
1. iam iam : cf. Catull. 63, 73, iam iam dolet quod egi. do
manus : as a captive yields his hands to the fetter ; yield, ' throw
up the sponge.'
3. non movenda : not to be disturbed (vexed) with impunity,
inviolable, possibly pitiless.
4. libros : of magic. So Prospero says, 'And deeper than did
ever plummet sound, | I'll drown my book.'
5. retixa : proleptic. They are nailed to the spangled vault of
heaven. Cf. 1. 28. 11. devocare : cf. 5. 45-46. n.
6. sacris : may mean one thing to Canidia and another to
Horace. Cf. 7. 20. n.
7. For the rhombus, or ' bull-roarer,' whirled at the end of a
string in magic rites, cf. Lang, Custom and Myth, p. 29 ; Proper t.
4. 5. 26 ; Lucian, Dial. Meretr. 4. 5. citum (ciere ; cf. 9. 20) :
proleptic with retro. Reversing the motion unbinds the spell.
8-18. Three mythological instances of supplication and relent-
ment. (1) Telephus, king of Mysia, wounded by Achilles, was
told by the oracle that he could be healed only by the rust of the
spear that bit him. Achilles took pity on him. (2) The body of
Hector was withheld from burial by Achilles ' Till Priam did what
EPODE XVII. 485
no man born hath done, | Who dared to pass among the Argive
bands, | And clasp'd the knees of him that slew his son, | And
kiss'd his awful homicidal hands' (Lang, Helen of Troy, 5. 30).
Cf. 1. 10. 14. n. (3) Ulysses constrained rather than implored
Circe to restore his companions, transformed into swiue by her
spells (Odyss. 10. 320 sqq.).
8. nepotem : Thetis was daughter of Nereus.
11. unxere in the style of the Epodes may stand for the rites of
burial. Others, luxere, lamented, with reference to the dirges in
II. 24. 719 sqq. addictum, etc.: so Achilles vows in his grief
and wrath at the death of Patroclus (II. 23. 180).
12. homicidam : dvSpo^oVoj, ' kill-man,' is Hector's standing
epithet.
14. heu : Macaulay could not read the passage of the Iliad with-
out tears. Cf. Trevelyan's Life.
16. laboriosi : epithet of the much enduring Ulysses ; or possi-
bly with remiges. Cf. 16. 60.
20. amata . . . multum : in ironical compliment. instito-
ribus : 3. 6. 30.
21-36. Mock heroic description of his sufferings.
21. verecundua : the blush of modesty resembles the glow of
health.
22. reliquit : the subject is color, or the general notion iuventas
et color.
24. reclinat : Lex. s.v. II. Cf. Keats, 'the dreadful leisure |
Of weary days, made deeper exquisite, | By a foreknowledge of
unslumbrous night.'
25. urget : cf. 3. 27. 57 ; Shelley, Adonais, 21, ' As long as skies
are blue and fields are green, | Evening must usher night, night
urge the morrow.' Cf. 2. 18. 15. neque eat : and (but) it is not
(possible).
26. tenta spiritu : strained, oppressed, gasping. Cf. Archil, fr.
9. 4, olSa\fovs 5' ttyu<' dSvvytr' ?x o M I/ I ifvevftovaf.
27. negatum : i.e. quod negaveram.
28. Sabella: for Sabine witchcraft, cf. Sat. 1. 9. 29. incre-
pare : do agitate with their clamors.
29. dissilire : 'be split.'
31-32. Cf. Epode 3. 17. n. fervida : with ./
486 NOTES.
34-35. ventis : dat. agent. cales : dost glow ; literally, and
with eagerness. Cf. Epp. 2. 1. 108, calet uno scribendi studio.
officina : she is a whole laboratory of poisons in herself. Col-
chicis : 2. 13. 8.
30. stipeiidium : ransom.
38. expiare : to do penance. Some omit the comma and read
iuvencis, in 1. 39, 'make expiation with.'
38-39. seu . . . sive : gives her a choice of two methods.
39. mendaci : ambiguously referring either to what he has said
or to what he promises to say. The irony is transparent.
40. sonari : others read sonare, construed with paratus. tu
pudica, etc.: cf. Catullus' mock apology (42. 24), Pudica et proba,
redde codicillos.
42-44. Stesichorus was blinded by Castor and Pollux for insult-
ing Helen in his verse. He wrote a Palinode, and recovered his
sight. Cf. Odes, 1. 16. intr.
42. Helenas . . . vicem : cf. meam vicem, for my sake, on
my behalf.
46-52. He heaps insults upon her by affecting to deny them,
she is no daughter of a squalid hovel, no ghoulish graveyard witch,
her generous hospitality to all men, her happy motherhood, are
well known.
46. obsoleta : cf. 2. 10. 6, 7.
48. novendiales : 'newly buried.' Cf. Lex. s.v. II.
50. venter : i.e. child. Similarly aSis, Aesch. Ag. 1418.
52. fortis : implying that the indisposition was feigned, and the
child supposititious.
53-81. The reply of Canidia.
54. non saxa . . . surdiora : English idiom presents the rele-
vant aspect of the fact : the rocks are not more deaf when, etc. ;
Latin idiom presents the material fact : Neptune lashes the rocks
(not more deaf). nudis : i.e. shipwrecked.
56. 'What! Think, unpunished, to deride' (Martin). For this
use of ut, cf A. G. 332. c ; G. L. 558 ; H. 486. II. n. Cotyttia :
of the Thracian Cotytto, cf. Lex. ; Milt. Coinus, ' Dark- veiled
Cotytto, t' whom the secret flame | Of midnight torches burns ;
mysterious dame,' etc.
67. volgata : cf. 3. 2. 27.
EPODE XVII. 487
58-59. Sat. 1. 8, burlesques her foul rites on the Esquiline.
pontifex is either a sneer at Horace for undertaking the role of
Grand Inquisitor, or a hint that he too dabbled in forbidden arts.
60. quid proderit : i.e. what profits my skill if it cannot pro-
cure me revenge ? Paelignas anus : her teachers in sorcery.
61. velocius : with toxicum.
62. qq. But no swift poison shall end his miseries. The linger-
ing tortures of Tantalus, etc., await him. votis : sc. tuis.
63. in hoc : her purpose, further denned by ut . . . suppetas.
64. laboribus : cf. 2. 13. 38, 2. 14. 20. Some Mss. read dolori-
bus.
65. infidi : Catull. 64. 346, periuri Pelopis. He hurled into the
sea his charioteer Myrtilus, by whose aid he had won the race with
Oenomaus for the hand of Hippodamla. Soph. Electr. 504-515,
traces the curse of the house of Pelops to this crime.
66. benignae : in tantalizing abundance. Cf. 1. 9. 6. n.
67-68. obligatus : cf. 4. 4. 65. n. Sisyphus : cf. 2. 14. 20. n.
70-74. Thou wilt essay all modes of suicide.
71. Norico : 1. 16. 9.
72. vincla : noose, rope.
73. fastidosa : 3. 29. 9.
74-75. She will ride him like an old man of the sea, and spurn
the earth in her pride.
76. an, etc. : cf . 6. 15. movere cereas imagines : to animate
waxen images, as she did in the magic rites on which he spied
(curiosus) in Sat. 1. 8. 30. Cf. Verg. Eel. 8. 81 ; Theoc. 2. 28 ;
Rossetti, Sister Helen, ' Why did you melt your waxen man, Sister
Helen ? '
78. deripere Lunam : 1. 5, and 5. 46. n.
80. desideri . . . pocula : cf. 5. 38.
81. plorem, etc. : i.e. ' bewail the failure of my arts on thee,'
in thy case.
THE STUDENTS' SERIES OF LATIN CLASSICS.
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SALLUST, Catiline, based upon the edition of Schmalz. By CHARLES
G. HERBERMANN, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor in the College of the
City of New York. Ready.
SENECA, Select Letters. By E. C. WmsLow, A.M.
TACITUS, Annals, Book I and Selections from Book II, based upon
the edition of Nipperdey-Andresen. By E. M. HYDE, Ph.D., Pro-
fessor in Lehigh University.
TACITUS, Agricola and Germania, based upon the editions of Schwei-
zer-Sidler and Driiger. By A. G. HOPKINS, Ph.D., Professor in
Hamilton College. Ready.
TACITUS, Histories, Book I and Selections from Books n-V, based
upon the edition of Wolff. By EDWARD H. SPIEKER, Ph.D., Pro-
fessor in the Johns Hopkins University.
TEEENCE, Adelphoe, for rapid reading. By WILLIAM L. COWLES,
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TEKENCE, Phormio, based upon the edition of Dziatzko. By HER-
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CIBULLUS AND PEOPEBTIUS, Selections, based upon the edition of
Jacoby. By HENRY F. BURTON, A.M., Professor in the University
of Rochester.
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VALERIUS MAXIMUS, Fifty Selections, for rapid reading. By
CHARLES S. SMITH, A.M., Late College of New Jersey. Ready.
VELLEIUS PATEECULUS, Historia Komana, Book H. By F E.
ROCKWOOD, A.M., Professor in Bucknell University. Ready.
VERGIL, Books I-VI. By JAMES H. KIRKLAND, Ph.D., Professor of
Latin, and WILLIAM H. KIRK, Ph.D., Instructor in Latin, Vander-
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VEEGIL, The Story of Turnus from Aen. VII-XII, for rapid reading.
By MOSES SLAUGHTER, Ph.D., Professor in University of Wis-
consin. Ready.
VIRI ROMAE, Selections. With Prose Exercises. By G. M. WHICHER,
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LATIN COMPOSITION, for college use. By WALTER MILLER, A.M.,
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LATIN COMPOSITION, for advanced classes. By H. R. FAIRCLOUGH,
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HAND-BOOK OF LATIN SYNONYMS. By Mr. MILLER.
A FIEST BOOK IN LATIN. By HIRAM TUELL, A.M., late Principal
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Western Reserve University. Ready.
A NEW LATIN COMPOSITION, for schools. By M. GRANT DANIELL,
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THE PEIVATE LIFE OF THE ROMANS, a manual for the use of
schools and colleges. By HARRIET WATERS PRESTON and LOUISE
DODGE. Ready.
BEEEK AND EOMAN MYTHOLOGY, based on the recent work of
Steuding. By KARL P. HARRINGTON, A.M., Professor in the Uni-
versity of Maine, and HERBERT C. TOLMAN, Ph.D., Professor in
Vanderbilt University. Ready.
ATLAS ANTIQUUS, twelve maps of the ancient world, for schools and
colleges. By Dr. HENRY KIEPERT, M.R. Acad. Berlin. Ready.
Tentative arrangements have been made for other books not ready
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BENJ. H. SANBORN & CO., Publishers,
110 and 120 Boylston Street, Boston.
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