ALBATROSS INN LIBRARY

presented to the
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
SAN DIEGO

by

Mrs. Griff ing Bancroft

FA

fc
-S5Z

HARPER'S CLASSICAL LIBRARY.

THE WORKS OF HORACE,

TRANSLATED LITERALLY.

THE

WORKS OF HORACE.

TRANSLATED LITERALLY INTO ENGLISH PROSE,

BY C. SMART, A.M.,

cr raxBKOKS COLLEGE, OAJIBBIDOX.

A NEW EDITION,

REVISED, WITH A COPIOUS SELECTION OF NOTES,
BT

THEODOBE ALOIS BUCKLEY,

O.A. OF CHRIST CHTTBCH.

NEW YORK • : • CINCINNATI • : • CHICAGO

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY

W. P. I

PREFACE.

IN the present edition of Smart's Horace, the trans-
lation has been revised wherever it seemed capable of
being rendered closer and more accurate. Orelli's
text has been generally followed, and a considerable
number of useful annotations, selected from the best
commentaries, ancient and modern, have been added.
Several quotations from Hurd on the " Ars Poetica,"
though somewhat lengthy, have been introduced, as
their admirable taste can not but render them accept-
able to readers of every class.

THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY,

CHRIST CHURCH.

INTRODUCTION.

QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS was born on the 8th
of December, in the year 65, B. c., at Venusium, a
town situated between Apulia and Lucania. Although
a freedman, his father possessed competent means, and
left him a comfortable patrimony on the banks of the
Aufidus.

To the education of our poet the greatest attention
was paid, and no means were spared to endow him
with the highest gifts of mental culture. The severe
Orbilius was his guide through the realms of Roman
literature, for the poets of which he seems to have con-
ceived an early distaste, preferring the more finished
and less rugged beauties of the Greek originals, from
whose sources he was himself destined hereafter to draw
BO largely, and with such distinguished success.

The life of Horace, although spent in the society of
those who were most actively mixed up with public
affairs, is rather a detail of every-day transactions with
the ordinary world, a table-talk of private acts and
feelings, than a succession of stirring political relations,
exploits, and embarrassments.

Viii INTRODUCTION.

While engaged in the study of philosophy at Athens,
a study which was hereafter to form the ground-work
of his literary fame, the assassination of Julius Caesar
brought on the crisis between the contending interests
of Rome. Horace joined the republican party, and
attained the rank of a military tribune under Brutus.
In whatever light we regard his flight at the subse-
quent battle of Philippi, it is certain that the disgrace
was shared but by too many upon that day, in which
the Romans lost their last hopes of freedom, and ex-
changed public virtue for private luxury and refine-
ment.

With the probability that his small possessions, like
those of Virgil, were confiscated to remunerate a sol-
diery who had fought against their own countrymen,
we may fairly suppose that this misfortune first tended
to develop the poetical genius of Horace, and that
his necessities became a powerful motive for the exer-
tion of talents which had been chastened and ripened
by every advantage afforded by the times. Gradually
his powers of wit and repartee, aided perhaps by the
propitiatory oblation of little poems " upon occasion,"
increased his friendships with the great, and introduced
him to the intimacy of Maecenas. A friendship of the
firmest kind sprang up from what was at first but a
distant and patronizing courtesy, and Horace, like Vir-
gil, henceforth became the constant friend and asso-
ciate of Maecenas, whom he accompanied upon the
most confidential missions. About the year 37, B. c.
(for the date is very uncertain,)1 Horace followed his

i See Dunlop, Lit, Rom. vol. iii. p 201, note.

INTRODUCTION. bt

patron to Brundusium, where, in company with Coc-
ceius Nerva and Capito, he was engaged in negotiating
a reconciliation between Antony and Augustus. A
most amusing description, of " travelers' miseries," in
the fifth Satire of the first Book, commemorates this
event, and gives an entertaining picture of the domes-
tic habits of the wealthier Classes at Rome during the
Augustan age. In accompanying Maecenas in the war
against Sextus Pompey, a storm arose, and our poet
narrowly escaped being drowned in the Gulf of Velia.
Nevertheless, he volunteered himself as his companion
in the expedition that ended in that decisive battle
of Actium, an offer which Maecenas, probably out of
tenderness to the health of his friend, declined to ac-
cept.

Msecenas was not a mere complimentary friend, but
one of tried liberality. To his kindness our poet was
indebted for his villa at Tibnr, and to his intercession
with Augustus, for a grant of land in the Sabine dis-
trict. The emperor even offered him the appointment
of private secretary to himself, but he declined this
honor, as it would have separated him from the fre-
quent society of Maecenas. Augustus bore this refusal
in good part, and even personally encouraged our poet
to further literary exertions.

Alternating between his dwelling on the then healthy
Esquiline hill at Rome, and the quieter and more con-
genial retirement of his villa at Prameste, Horace lived
a life of Epicurean enjoyment, nor wholly untainted
with the vices of the times, but yielding to them rather
with the carelessness of a wit, than with the wanton-
ness of a voluptuary. His mode of living at home

x INTRODUCTION.

was simple and unostentatious, but he was by no
means insensible to the pleasures of the table, especially
in society. He was a kind and indulgent master, and
a faithful friend. In fact, an unruffled amiability, re-
lieved by a keen and well-expressed perception of
other men's follies, seems to have been the leading fea-
ture in our author's conduct, and the guiding principle
of his writings. The beautiful compliment paid to the
memory of his father,3 is unsurpassed either as a de-
scription of what education ought to be, or as a grate-
ful tribute of filial affection.

At the age of fifty-seven, in the year 8, B. c., Horace
died suddenly at Home, having nominated Augustus
as his heir. Maecenas died about the same time, al-
most fulfilling the melancholy prediction of his poet
friend, though it is uncertain which first departed from
life. In death they were scarcely separated, the re-
mains of Horace being deposited near those of Maece-
nas on the Esquiline hill.

The popularity of Horace, as a writer, is, perhaps,
unexampled. Read, recited, and quoted in his own
time by all classes, throughout the cheerless period of
superstition and analytical dullness which oppressed
the middle ages, he was one of the few bright spirits,
in whose jokes and geniality the Schoolman might for-
get even his Latin Aristotle. His works became a con-
stant source of delight and imitation to almost all
subsequent poets, especially those of Italy, while com-
mentary upon commentary began to point out beau-
ties, and clear away difficulties. His manifold imita-

» Satire i. 6.

INTRODUCTION. rf

tions of the Greeks, especially in the lyrical portion of
his works, his pungent and well-defined sketches of
society and manners, his nice perception of the refine-
ments of archaeology and criticism, all in turn hegan
to call forth illustration. Yet much still remains un-
explained. As with Aristophanes, so with Horace, we
continually lack knowledge of the running current of
fashionable foibles and conventionalities, the happy
delineation of which constitute the essence of comedy
and satire. Nevertheless, imitations in every language,
in none more abundantly than our own, attest the
masterly power of Horace to interest all mankind, and
show the connection that, despite accidental variations,
one age has with the development, one race with the
sympathies, of another.

THE FIRST BOOK

OP THE

ODES OF HORACE,

ODE I.

TO MAECENAS.

S,1 descended from royal ancestors, O both my pro-
tection and my darling honor ! There are those whom it de-
lights to have collected Olympic dust in the chariot race ; and
[whom] the goal nicely avoided by the glowing wheels, and the
noble palm, exalts, lords of the earth, to the gods.

This man, if a crowd of the capricious Quiiites strive to raise
him to the highest dignities ; another, if he has stored up in
his own granary whatsoever is swept from the Libyan thrash-
iug-floors : him who delights" to cut with the hoe3 his patri-
monial fields, you could never tempt, for all the wealth of At-
talus, [to become] a timorous sailor and cross the Myrtoan sea
in a Cyprian bark. The merchant, dreading the south-west

1 flaius Cilniua Maecenas, who shared with Agrippa the favor and
confidence of Augustus, and distinguished himself by his patronage of
literary men, is said to have been descended from Elbius Volterenus, one
of the Lucumones of Etruria, who fell in the battle at the lake Vadimona,
A. u. c. 445. The Cilnian family were from a very early period attached
to the interests of Rome, when devoted alliance was of value. ANTHOX.

2 Gaudentem. This word is used to denote a separate character, him
who delights : thus, DESIDERANTEM quod satis est. 3 Carm. i. 25: him
who bounds his desire by a competency. Ftdgentem imperio, 3 C. xvL
31, etc. ANTHON.

3 Because most of the commentators take sarculum for the plow, I
have followed them. But Torrentius says, that the Romans used two
kinds of weeding-hooks ; one, when the corn was young like grass, with
which they cleft the earth, and took up the young weeds by the root ; the
other, when the corn was grown up, with which they cut out the strong
weeds as they thought proper ; for the weeds do not grow up all at the
same time, and the sarculum being no part of the plow, it can not be
taken for it by synecdoche. WATSON.

1

2 ODBS OF HORACE. BOOK t

wind contending with the Icarian waves, commends tranquillity
and the rural retirement of his village ; but soon after, inca-
pable of being taught to bear poverty, he refits his shattered
vessel. There is another, who despises not cups of old Massic,
taking a part from the entire day,4 one while stretched under
the green arbute, another at the placid head of some sacred
stream.

The camp, and the sound of the trumpet mingled with that
of the clarion, and wars detested by mothers, rejoice many.

The huntsman, unmindful of his tender spouse, remains in the
cold air, whether a hart is held in view by his faithful hounds,
or a Marsian boar has broken the fine-wrought toils.

Ivy, the reward of learned brows, equals me with the gods
above: the cool grove, and the light dances of nymphs and
satyrs, distinguish me from the crowd ; if neither Euterpe with-
holds her pipe, nor Polyhymnia disdains to tune the Lesbian
lyre. But, if you rank me among the lyric poets, I shall towei
to the stars with my exalted head.

ODE IL

TO AUGUSTUS CAESAR.*

ENOUGH of snow* and dreadful7 hail has the Sire now sent

* Demere partem de solido die, " sine ulla dubitatione est mcridiari,
i. e. ipso meridie horam uiiam aut altoram dormire ; quod qui faciuut,
diem quodammodo frangunt et dividual, neque eura solidum et u/.tiKAripov
case patiuntur. Varro alicubi (do R. R. 1, 2, 5) vocat diem diffindere
imtiticio somno." MURETUS.

5 Octavianus assumed his new title of Augustus, conferred upon him
at the suggestion of Munatius Plancus, on the 17th of January, (XVIII.
Col. Febr.) A. u. 0. 727 ; the following ni^ht Rome was visited by a
severe tempest, and an inundation of the Tiber. The present ode was
written in allusion to that event. ANTHON.

* Of snow and dreadful hail. Turnebus, lib. vi. cap. 8, Appianus,
lib. iv., and Dion, lib. xlvii., give an account of the dreadful thunder and
lightning, snow and rain, that followed the murder of Julius Caesar; that
many temples were so struck down or very much damaged, which waa
looked upon as a presage of the horrible civil war that soon after folio w-
od WATSOK.

7 Dira, an epithet applied to any thing fearful and portentous, as
"din cometae," Virg. Georg. L 49 8. ORELLI.

ODBII. ODES OF HORACE. 3

upon the earth,' and having hurled [his thunderbolts] with his
red right hand* against the sacred towers, he has terrified the
city ; he has terrified the nations, lest the grievous age of Pyr-
rha,10 complaining of prodigies till then unheard of, should re-
turn, when Proteus drove all his [marine] herd to visit the lofty
mountains; and the fishy rcae were entangled in the elm top,
which before was the frequented seat of doves ; and the timorous
deer swam in the overwhelming flood. We have seen the yel-
low Tiber,11 with his waves forced back with violence from the
Tuscan shore, proceed to demolish the monuments of king
[Nuina], and t!ie temples of Vesta ; while he vaunts himself
the avenger of the too disconsolate Ilia, and the uxorious river,
leaving his channel, overflows his left bank, notwithstanding
the disapprobation of Jupiter.

Our youth, less numerous by the vices of their fathers, shall
hear of the citizens having whetted that sword [against them-
selves], with which it had been better that the formidable Per-
sians had fallen ; they shall hear of [actual] engagement's.
Whom of the gods shall the people invoke to the affairs of the
sinking empire ? With what prayer shall the sacred virgins
importune Vesta, who is now inattentive to their hymns ? To
whom shall Jupiter assign the task of expiating our wickedness ?
Do thou at length, prophetic Apollo, (we pray thee !) come,

8 " Terris" is a Grecism for " in terras." See on Virg. EcL viii.
101.

9 Horace alludes to a superstitious opinion of the ancients, who beliov-
ed that thunders which portended any revolution in a state were more
inflamed than any other ; as they fancied that the lightnings of Jupiter
were red and fiery ; those of the other gods, pale and dark. CRUQ.

lu Wife of Deucalion, king of Thessaly: in his time came the deluge or
universal flood, which drowned all the world ; only he and his wife got
into a little shallop, whicli was carried to Mount Parnassus, and there
ataid, the dry land first appearing there. When the flood was dried up,
he consulted with the oracle of Themis, how mankind might be repair-
ed ; and was answered, If he cast his great mother's bones behind his
back ; whereupon he and Pyrrha his wife took stones, and cast them
over their shoulders, and they became men and women. WATSON.

11 The Tiber discharges itself into the Tuscan Sea, which being swollen
by tempests, and a prodigious fall of snow and hail (the wind at the same
time blowing up the channel), made the river flow backward (retorquere)
against its natural course. The Littus Etruscum means the shores of the
Tuscan Sea, into which the Tiber should naturally flow, and from whence
it turned upward to its fountain-head. CRUQ.

4 Ot>ES OF HORACE. BOOK I.

tailing thy radiant shoulders with a cloud : or thou, if it be
more agreeable to thee, smiling Venus, about whom hover the
gods of mirth and love : or thou, if thou regard" thy neglected
race and descendants, our founder Mars, whom clamor and
polished helmets, and the terrible aspect of the Moorish infantry
against their bloody enemy, delight, satiated at length with thy
aport, alas! of too long continuance: or if thou, the winged
son of gentle Maia, by changing thy figure, personate a youth1*
upon earth, submitting to be called the avenger of Caesar ; late
tnayest thou return to the skies, and long mayest thou joy-
ously be present to the Roman people ; nor may an untimely
blast transport thee from us, offended at our crimes. Here
mayest thou rather delight in magnificent triumphs,1* and to
be called father and prince : nor suffer the Parthians with
impunity to make incursions, you, O Caesar, being our gen-
eral.

ODE HL

TO THE SHIP, IN WHICH VIRGIL WAS ABOUT TO SAIL TO
ATHENS.

So may the goddess who rules over Cyprus;" so may the
bright stare, the brothers of Helen;'7 and so may the father

13 Respicis, " Thou again beholdest with a favoring eye." When the
gods were supposed to turn their eyes toward their worshipers, it was a
sign of favor ; when they averted them, of displeasure. The Greeks use
lirij&.iirtiv with the same meaning. ANTHON.

14 Sallust calls Julius Caesar Adolescentvlus, when he was thirty-six
years eld ; the same age in which Horace here calls Augustus Juvenem.
Varro tells us this last word is derived from Juvare, as if this age were
capable of rendering the most considerable services to the republic. SAN.

15 -Augustus, in the month of August, 725, had triumphed three days.
The first, for the defeat of the Pannonians and Dalmatii ; the second, for
the battle of Actium : the last, for the reduction of Egypt DAC.

i« Venus was invoked by mariners, not only because she sprung from
the ocean, but because her star was useful to navigation. CRUQ.

17 Brothers of Helen, Castor and Pollux. Leda, wife of Tyndarus, king
of Lacoriia, as fame goes, brought forth two egjrs; out of one of them
came Pollux, and Helena, born immortal, begotten by Jupiter; of the otber,
Castor and Clyteninestru, begotten by Tyndarus : because those brothers,

ODBIH. ODES OF HORACE. 5

of the winds, confining all except lapyx,18 direct thee, O ship,
who art intrusted with Virgil ; my prayer is, that thou mayest
land" him safe on the Athenian shore, and preserve the half
of my soul. Surely oak'0 and threefold brass surrounded his
heart who first trusted a frail vessel to the merciless ocean, nor
was afraid of the impetuous Africus contending with the north-
ern storms, nor of the mournful Hyades,21 nor of the rage of
Notus, than whom there is not a more absolute controller of
the Adriatic, either to raise or assuage its waves at pleasure.
What path of death" did he fear, who beheld unmoved the
rolling monsters of the deep ; who beheld unmoved the tem-
pestuous swelling of the sea, and the Acroceraunhms" — ill-
famed rocks.

In vain has God in his wisdom divided the countries of the
earth by the separating2* ocean, if nevertheless profane ships
bound over waters not to be violated. The race of man pre-
sumptuous enough to endure every thing, rushes on through
forbidden wickedness.

The presumptuous son of lapetus, by an impious fraud,

as loug as they lived, freed the seas from pirates and robbers, they are
said to have reoeived power from Neptune, the god of the sea, of help-
ing those who were in danger of being shipwrecked, by being turned
into stars, which makes our poet invoke them under this epithet, " Lucida
sidera. fratres Helenas. " WATSOX.

is The W. N. W.

]9 With reddas and serves understand ut, which stands in opposition
to sic. " Usus hie particulae sic in votis, precibus, obtestationibusque ita
proprie explicandus : ' Uti nos a te hoc vel illud optamus, sic, ubi nostras
preces exaudieris, hoc vel illud, quod tu optas. tibi contingat.' " ORELL.

2" In robur there is first the idea of sturdy oak, of which the Roman
dypeus was made, and then, metaphoricallj-, of strength of mind ; so also
in CBS triplex there is allusion to the Lorica, hence the use of c<rca pectus.

M'CAUL.

21 The Hyades are a constellation in the head of the bull, whose
rising and setting are frequently attended by rain, from whence the poet
calls them Ti-istes. FRANCIS.

22 What kind of death could affright him. The anoients dreaded
shipwreck as the worst sort of death, as being thereby liable to bo
devoured by fish, dashed against rocks, or cast upon an uninhabited
island. WATSON'.

23 The poet, with a very delicate flattery, calls these rocks infamous,
because Augustus very narrowly escaped shipwreck on them, when he
returned from the battio of Actium. FttAXClS.

24 Active, as "Genitabilis aura Favoni," Lucret. i. 11 ; "penetrabilo
fulmen," Ovid, Met. xiii. 857.

6 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK r.

brought down firo into the world. After fire was stolen from
the celestial mansions, consumption and a new train of fevers
settled upon the earth, and the slow approaching necessity of
death, which, till now, was remote, accelerated its pace.
Daedalus essayed the empty air with wings not permitted to
man. The labor of Hercules broke through Acheron. There
is nothing too arduous for mortals to attempt. We aim at
heaven" itself in our folly ; neither do we suffer, by our wicketl-
ness, Jupiter to lay aside his revengeful thunderbolts.

ODE IV.

TO 8EXTIUS.

SEVERE winter is melted away beneath the agreeable
change of spring" and the western breeze ; and engines" haul
down the dry ships. And neither does the cattle any longer
delight in the stalls, nor the plowman in the fireside ; nor
are the meadows whitened by hoary frosts. Now Cytherean
Venus leads off the dance by moonlight; and the comely
Graces, in conjunction with the Nymphs, shake the ground
with alternate feet ; while glowing Vulcan kindles the labo-
rious forges of the Cyclops. Now it is fitting to encircle the
shining head either with verdant myrtle, or with such flowers
as the relaxed earth produces. Now likewise it is fitting to
sacrifice to Faunus"* in the shady groves, whether he demand
a lamb, or be more pleased with a kid.28 Pale death knocks
at the cottages of the poor, and the palaces of kings, with an

25 Ctlum ipsum petimua. In allusion to the fable of the giants.
FRANCIS.

* According to Vegetius, the seas were unfit for navigation " ex die
iii. Id. Novembr. usque in diem vi. Id. Mart." ORELLI.

«r The ancients used to draw their ships on shore during winter. SAN.

89 Fannus, he was son to Picus, father to Latinus, and the third king
of the aborigines in Latium ; who, because he taught the people some-
what of religion and tillage, was accounted a country god. And that
rude people might be kept in awe of him, they pictured him with feet
of horn, and two horns on his head. Afterward all the gods of the
woods went by this name. WATSON.

» This use of the ablative is common with ritual words ; so, " facere,"
"immolarc." are used. ORELLI.

ODBV. ODES OF HORACE. 7

impartial foot 0 happy Sextius !30 the short sum total of
life forbids us to form remote expectations. Presently shall
darkness, and the unreal ghosts,81 and the shadowy mansion of
Pluto oppress you ; where, when you shall have once arrived,
you shall neither decide the dominion of the bottle by dice,"
nor shall you admire the tender Lycidas, with whom now all the
youth is inflamed, and for whom ere long the maidens will grow
warm.

ODE V.

TO PTREHA.

WHAT dainty youth, bedewed with liquid perfumes, caresses
you, Pyrrha, beneath the pleasant grot, amid a profusion of
roses ? For whom do you bind your golden hair, plain in your
neatness ?33 Alas ! how often shall he deplore your perfidy,
and the altered gods ; and through inexperience be amazed at
the seas, rough with blackening storms, who now credulous
enjoys you all precious, and, ignorant of the faithless gale,
hopes you will be always disengaged, always amiable ! Wretch-
ed are those, to whom thou untried seemest fair ? The sacred

30 Lucius Sextius, or Sestius, kept up a constant friendship with
Brutus, after he was routed, yet was commended by Augustus, and made
consul with Cneius Calpurnius Piso, in the year after the building of the
city 730. WATSOX.

31 By " the unreal manes" are meant, the shades of the departed, often
made the theme of the wildest fictions of poetry. Some commentators,
however, and among them Orellius, understand the expression in its
literal sense, " the manes of whom all is fable," and suppose it to imply
the disbelief of a future state. Comp. ri fte HAOVTUV • M£0of ; Call.
Epig. xiv. 3. fbbulce is the nom. plural, i. e. Manes fabulosi, inanes.
M'CAUL.

32 A king of wine : it was a custom among the ancients, at feasts, to
chose a king, or master, to order how much each guest should drink,
whom all the company were obliged to obey ; he was chosen by throw-
ing of the dice, upon whose sides were engraven or painted the images
of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, Venus, and Diana. He who threw up
Venus was made king ; as Horace, Book II. Ode vii. insinuates : Quern
Venus dicet arbitrum bibendi." WATSON.

33 I have borrowed Milton's happy version.

8 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK i

wall [of Neptune's temple] demonstrates,14 by a votive tablet
that I have consecrated my dropping garments to the powerful
god of the sea.

ODE VI
<*'

IO TO AORIPPA.

You shall be desffHbed by Varius, a bird*5 of Maeonian verse,
as brave, and a subduer of ) our enemies, whatever achievements
your fierce soldieiy shall have accomplished, under your com-
mand ; either on ship-board30 or on horseback. We, humble
writers, O Agrippa, neither undertake these high subjects, nor
the destructive wrath of inexorable Achilles, nor the voyages of
the crafty" Ulysses, nor the cruel house of Pelops : while diffi-
dence, and the Muse who presides over the peaceful lyre, forbid
me to diminish the praise of illustiious Caesar, and yours,
through defect of genius. Who with sufficient dignity will de-
scribe Mars covered with adamantine coat of mail, or Meriones
swarthy with Trojan dust, or the son of Tydeus by the favor of
Pallas a match for the gods ? We, whether free, or ourselves
enamored of aught, light as our wont, sing of banquets ; we, of
the b ittles of maids desperate against young fellows — with pared
nails.38

34 He alludes to a custom among the Romans, of offering some votive
tablet or picture to the god by whose power they thought themselves
preserved from shipwreck. In these pictures the storm and circumstances
of their escape were represented. DAC.

35 The term alile refers to a custom, in which the ancient poets oftet>
indulged, of likening themselves to the eagle and the swan; Muvauv
fy*"Xf'S- Theocr. Id. vii. ANTHOX.

38 Agrippa gained the victory in two sea-fights. The first against
Pompey's lieutenants; the second against Pompey himself, besides the
share which he had in the battle of Actium. CRCQ.

37 Perhaps the poet intended to express Ulysses' appearing through
the whole Odyssey in two characters, or, if the expression may be allow-
ed, in a double character, such as a prince and a beggar, etc. FRANCIS.

83 See Orelli ; who regards this conclusion as merely jocular.

ODE Tn. ODES OF HORACE. 9

ODE VII.

TO MUNATICS PLANCUS.

OTHER poets shall celebrate the famous Rhodes, or Mitylene,
or Ephesus, or the walls of Coiinth, situated between two seas,
or Thebes, illustrious by Bacchus, or Delplr ' Apollo, or the
Thessalian Tempe.3' There are some, wh le task it is to
chant in endless verso the city of spotless is, and to prefer
the olive culled from every side, to ever^ other leaf. Mr,ny
a one, in honor of Juno, celebrates Argos, productive of
steeds, and rich Mycenae. Neither patient Lacedaemon GO
much struck me, nor so much did the plain of fertile Larissa,
as the house of resounding Albunea, and the precipitately
rapid Anio, and the Tiburniaa groves, and the orchards
watered by ductile rivulets. As the clear south-wind often
clears away the clouds from a lowering sky, nor teems wi'h
perpetual showers; so do you, O Plancus,*0 wisely remember
to put an end to grief and the toils of lilc by mellow wine ;
whether the camp, refulgent with banners, possess you, or the
dense shade of your own Tibur shall detain you. When
Teucer fled from Salamis and his father, he is repotted,
notwithstanding, to have bound his temples, lathed in wine,
with a poplar crown, thus accosting his fnxious frienels : "O
associates and companions, we will go wherever fortune, mere
propitious than a father, shall cany us. Nothing is to be
despaired of under Teucer's conduc', and the auspices of
Teucer :41 for the infallible Apollo has promised, that a Salamis
in a new land shall renJer the name equivocal." O gallant

39 Tempe, a pleasant vale in Thessaly, lying between the hills Ossa,
Olympus and Pelion ; the river Pcneus running through the midst of it.

4U Lucius Munatius Plancus, whose country-seat was Tibur, or at least
near to it, and therefore not fur from Horace's country-house. WATSOX.

41 Teucer, the son of Scamander Cretensis, a king of Troy, who reign-
ed with his father-in-law Dardanus, from whom the Trojans are called
Teucri. But the Teucer meant here was the son of Telamon, an excel-
lent archer; at his return from Troy, being banished by his father, he
went to Cyprus, and built there a city, which he called Salamis, by the
name of his own country. WATSON.

42 Which shall be so like that Salamis which we have left, in glory
and grandeur, tha'; it shall be difficult to distinguish them. SAN.

1*

10 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK L

heroes, and often my fellow-sufferers in greater hardships than
these, now drive away your cares with wine : to-morrow we
will re-visit the vast ocean."

ODE VIE.

TO LYDIA.

LTDIA, I conjure thee" by all the powers above, to tell me
why you are so intent to ruin Sybaris by inspiring him with
love ?" Why hates he the sunny plain, though inured to bear
the dust and heat ? Why does he neither, in military accouter-
ments, appear mounted among his equals ; nor manage the
Gallic steed with bitted reins ? Why fears he to touch the
yellow Tiber ? Why shuns he the oil of the ring more cau-
tiously than viper's blood ? Why neither does he. who has
often acquired reputation by the quoit,46 often by the javelin
having cleared the mark, any longer appear with arms all
black-and-blue by martial exercises ? Why is he concealed, as
they say the son of the sea-goddess Thetis was, just before the
mournful funerals of Troy ; lest a manly habit should hurry
him to slaughter, and the Lycian troops ?

43 This is the usual collocation in adjurations ; first the preposition,
then the individual entreated, and then the object or deity by whom the
adjuration is made, and last the verb. Thus Not frpdf ae 1% of/( 6ft;id(
ciiutevov, Eurip. Hipp. 605, where Elmsley remarks, " observa syntaxin.
Graecis solenne est in juramento aliquid inter Praepositionem et Casum
ejus interponere." Virgil, also, has a similar collocation, -<En. iv. 314,
" Per ego has lacrymas, dextramque tuatn. te." etc. ANTHON.

44 Amanda has a passive signification, " By being beloved." As in
Virgil; Uritque videndo foemina. Instances of this kind are frequent in
the best authors. DAC.

45 The discus was a kind of quoit, very large and heavy, made of wood
or stone, but more commonly of iron or brass. It was almost round, and
somewhat thicker in the middle than at tiie edges. It was thrown bj
the sole force of the arm. SAN.

ODE rx. x. ODES OF HORACE. 11

ODE IX.

TO THALIARCHU8.

You see how Soracte" stands white with deep snow, nor can
the laboring woods any longer support the weight, and the
rivers stagnate with the sharpness of the frost. Dissolve the
cold, liberally piling up billets on the hearth ; and bring out,
0 Thaliarchus, the more generous wine, four years old, from
the Sabine jar. Leave the rest to the gods, who having once
laid the winds warring with the fervid ocean, neither the
cypresses nor the aged ashes are moved. Avoid inquiring
what may happen to-morrow; and whatever day fortune
shall bestow on you, score it up47 for gain; nor disdain, being
a young fellow, pleasant loves, nor dances, as long as ill-
natured hoariness keeps off from your blooming age. Now
let both the Campus Martius and the public walks, and soft
whispers4* at the approach of evening be repeated at the
appointed hour: now, too, the delightful laugh, the betrayer
of the lurking damsel from some secret corner, and the token
ravished from her arms or fingers, pretendingly tenacious
of it.

ODE X.

TO MERCURY.

MERCURY, eloquent grandson of Atlas," thou who artful

46 Soracte, a hill in Italy, in the country of the Sabines, consecrated
to Apollo ; which now is called St. Sylvester's Mount, because a pope of
that name hid himself in a cave there, when Maxentius raised a sore
persecution against the Christians. WATSOX.

47 Appone. Ponere and apponere were terms used in arithmetic by
the Romans. DAC.

43 Susurri. This word is formed by the figure onomatopoeia, from an
imitation of the sound in whispering, as in Greek, TpiOvpi&iv, in Italian,
bisbiglio, and in French, chucheter. DAC.

49 Atlas, king of Mauritania, and brother to Prometheus; he was
turned by Perseus into a mountain, whose top was so high, that it
reached heaven, and is said to bear heaven up. WATSON.

12 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK i.

didst from the savage manners of the early race of men by
oratory, r,nd the institution of the graceful Palaestra : I will
celebrate thee, messenger of Jupiter and the other gods, and
parent of the curved lyre ; ingenious to conceal whatever thou
hast a mint! to, in jocose theft. While Apollo, with angry
voice, threatened you, then but a boy, unless you would restore
(he oxen, previously driven away by your fraud, he laughed,
[when he found himself] deprived of his quiver [also].
Moreover, the wealthy Priam too, on his departure from Ilium,
under your guidance deceived the proud sons of Aliens,'0 and
the Thessa'ian watch-lights, and the camp inveterate against
Troy. You settle the souls of good men in blissful regions,
and drive together the airy crowd with your golden rod,*1
acceptable both to the supernal and infernal gods.

ODE XI.

TO LEUCONOE.

INQUIRE not, Leuconoe (it is not fitting you should know),
how long a term of life the gods have granted to you or to
me : neither consult the Chaldean" calculations. How much
better is it" to bear with patience whatever shall happen !

50 Menelaus, the son of Atreus and Aerope, brother of Agamemnon,
and king of Laccdsemonia, who (when Paris had stolen away his wife
Helen) called together all the princes of Greece to take revenge on the
Trojans for this fact, and to fetch her home again. Accordingly they met,
and made up a fleet of a thousand ships, lifting themselves under the
conduct of Agamemnon, as commander-in-chief ; and vowing never to
return home till they had sacked Troy, which cost them ten years' pains,
and that to little purpose, till at length, more by deceit than valor, they
won and ruined the city. WATSON.

51 Golden rod or tipstaff. With this he conducted the good to happi-
ness; but.it \vasferrea virr/a, an iron rod, with which he compelled the
wicked men to Pluto's dominions : he calls it the terrible rod, Ode xxiv.
" Non sanguis redeat vana? imagini, quam semel Mercunus horrida virga
compulerit nijrro gregi." WATSON*.

52 The Babylonians were infatuated with judicial astrology, and made
use of astronomical tables to calculate the fortunate or unfortunate days
of life. These tables the poet calls Numeros. FRANCIS.

•» The construction ia remarkable, " ut meliu» est, quanto melius e*t

ODES OF HORACE. 13

Whether Jupiter have granted us more winters, or [this as]
the last, which now breaks the Etrurian waves against the
opposing rocks. Be wise ; rack off" your wines, and abridge
your hopes [in proportion] to the shortness of your life.
While we are conversing, envious age has been Hying; seize
the present day, not giving the least credit to the succeeding
one.

ODE XIL

TO AUGUSTUS.

WHAT man, what hero, O Clio, do you undertake to celebrate
on the harp, or the shrill pipe ? What god ? Whose name
shall the sportive echo resound, either in the shady borders of
Helicon," or on the top of Pindus," or on cold Haemus ?"
Whence the woods followed promiscuously the tuneful Or-
pheus, who by his maternal art68 retarded the rapid courses
of rivers, and the fleet winds; and was so sweetly persuasive,
that he drew along the listening oaks with his harmonious
strings. But what can I sing prior to the usual praises of the
Sire, who governs the affairs of men and gods ; who [governs]
the sea, the earth, and thfe whole world with the vicissitudes
of seasons? Whence nothing is produced greater than him;
nothing springs either like him, or even in a second degree to
him : nevertheless, Pallas has acquired these honors, which are
next after him.

pati quicquid erit !" How much better is it to bear whatsoever shall
happen, than to depend upon the idle predictions of astrologers 1 SAN.

51 Vina liques. The ancients used to filter their wines, to render them
more soft and smooth. CatJQ.

55 Helicon, a hill of Bceotia near Thebes, now called Zagaya, conse-
crated to Apollo and the Muses. WATSON.

55 Pindus, a mountain of Arcadia, running with a long ridge into
Thessaly and Macedonia, sacred also to the nine muses. WATSON.

57 Haemus. the greatest mountain of Thrace, dividing it from the lower
Mysia : it hath divers names by the inhabitants through which it passes ;
by the Turks it is called Balkan, by the Sclavonians Cumo. WATSON.

53 Maternal art. that is, the art of music, of singing with his voice, and
playing upon the harp, as instructed by Calliope his mother, one of thp
nine Muses. WATSON.

14 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK t

Neither will I pass thee by in silence, O Bacchus, bold in
combat ; nor thee, O Virgin, who art an enemy to the savage
beasts ; nor thee, O Phoebus, formidable for thy unerring dart.

I will sing also of Hercules, and the sons of Leda, the one
illustrious for his achievements on horseback, the other on
foot; whose clear-shining6" constellation as soon as it has
shone forth to the sailors, the troubled surge falls down from
the rocks, the winds cease, the clouds vanish, and the threat-
ening waves subside in the sea — because it was their will.
After these, I am in doubt whom I shall first commemorate,
whether Romulus, or the peaceful reign of Numa, or the
splendid ensigns of Tarquinius,'0 or the glorious death of Cato.
I will celebrate, out of gratitude, with the choicest verses,
Regulus,81 and the Scauri, and Paulus, prodigal of his mighty
soul, when Carthage conquered, and Fabricius.0

Severe poverty, and an hereditary farm, with a dwelling
suited to it, formed this hero useful in war; as it did also Cu-
rius63 with his rough locks, and Camillus.84 The fame of
Marcellus" increases, as a tree does in the insensible progress

59 " Lucida atque simul coelo serenitatem reducens," ut Od. i. 7, 13 ;
eUbus nottis. ORELLI.

80 Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome, the son of Demaratus, a
Corinthian, but born at Tarquinium in Etruria, and called Lucumo, till
by the persuasion of his wife Tanaquil, an ambitious woman, and skillful
in augury and other kinds of divination, to which the Etrurians were
very much addicted, he came to Rome, where by his money and good
address he grew popular, and so insinuated himself into the favor of
Ancus Martius, that when he died he left him guardian to his children,
whom he defrauded, usurping the kingdom. WATSON.

61 Marcus Attilius Regulus, a consul of Rome in the first Punic war,
in the year of the city 420, a great example of strict honor in observing
his engagements, even with enemies. WATSON.

82 Fabricius, the name of a Roman family, of which this Caius Fabri-
cius Luscinus was a consul, who conquered Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, the
best soldier of his time. WATSON

63 Curius, a nobleman of Rome, surnamed Dentatus ; he was thrice
consul, and was noted for his courage, singular honesty, and frugality.
WATSON.

64 Camillus. a noble Roman ; he, though banished from Rome, out of
love to the welfare of his distressed country, saved Rome from its final
ruin by the Gauls. WATSON.

65 Marcellus is a diminutive from Marcus, Marculus, Marcellus : there
were several Roman knights of this name. Claudius Marcellus is meant
here, a valiant commander, called Ensis Romanorum, the Roman sword,
who first proved it was not impossible to conquer Hannibal, as Victor
expresseth it After a long siege he took Syracuse. WATSON.

ODExnx ODES OF HORACE. 15

of time. But the Julian constellation shines amid them all,
as the moon among the smaller stars. 0 thou son of Saturn,
author and preserver of the human race, the protection of
Caesar is committed to thy charge by the Fates : thou shalt
reign supreme, with Caesar for thy second. Whether he shall
subdue with a just victory the Parthians making inroads
upon Italy, or shall render subject the Seres and Indians on
the Eastern coasts ; he shall rule the wide world with equity,
in subordination to thee. Thou shalt shake Olympus with
thy tremendous car ; thou shalt hurl thy hostile thunderbolts
against the polluted88 groves.

ODE XIII.

TO LYDIA.

O LYDIA, when you commend Telephus' rosy neck, and the
waxen arms of Telephus, alas ! my inflamed liver swells with
bile difficult to be repressed. Then neither is my mind firm,67
nor does my color maintain a certain situation : and the in-
voluntary tears glide down my cheek, proving with what linger-
ing flames I am inwardly consumed. I am on fire, whether
quarrels rendered immoderate by wine have stained your fair
shoulders ; or whether the youth, in -his fury, has impressed
with his teeth a memorial on your lips. If you will give due
attention to my advice, never expect that he will be constant,
who inhumanly wounds those sweet kisses, which Venus has
imbued with the fifth part of all88 her nectar. O thrice and

sa " Castus is a religious epithet. Thus Festus has castum Cereris for
sacrum. These woods, therefore, were polluted by incest or homicide,
for such only, according to Aero, were stricken by lightning." ORELLI.

6T " The plural is here employed as equivalent to the double mantL"
ANTHON.

88 "Each god," observes Person, "was supposed to have a given
quantity of nectar at disposal : and to bestow the fifth, or the tenth part
of this on any individual was a special favor." The common, but in-
correct, interpretation of quinta parte is, " with the quintessence."
ANTHON. Yet the common opinion appears to be the correct one. The
allusion is to the fifth essence of the Pythagoreans, i. e. the aether. The
schoolmen of the fifteenth century revived the term " quinta essentia

16 ODES OP HORACE. BOOK L

more than thrice happy those, whom an indissoluble con-
nection binds together ; and whose love, undivided by impious
complainings, does not separate them sooner than the last day I

ODE XIV."

TO THE ROMAN STATE.

O SHIP, new waves will bear you back again to soa. O what
are you doing ? Bravely seize the port. Do you not perceive,
that your sides are destitute of oars, and your mast wounded
by the violent south wind, and your main-yards groan, and
your keel" can scarcely support the impetuosity of the waves.
without the help of cordage ? You havo not entire sails ; no)
gods,71 whom you may again invoke, pressed with distress :
notwithstanding you are made of the pines of Poutus," and
as the daughter of an illustrious wood, boast your race, and 9
fame now of no service to you. The timorous sailor has no
dependence on a painted stern." Look to yourself, unless

(quin'tssenz)," using the word to denote the most subtle flavors and
refined essences. For quinta, quanta was proposed by Ramirez de Prado,
and received by Scaliger and Pine. M'CAUL.

•* In tbe year 725 u. c. Augustus consulted his favorites, Maecenas
and Agrippa, whether he should resign the sovereign authority. We have
in Dion a speech of Maecenas upon that occasion, in which the allegory
of a ship and the republic is so strongly maintained, and hath something
so extremely 'ike this ode, that probably the poet took his design from
thence, as a compliment to his illustrious patron.

In the year 727 Augustus began his seventh consulship, with n, request
to the senate that *.hoy would discharge him from an office which his in-
firmities could no bnjer support. In the interval of these two events,
(the consultation of Octivius with his favorites, and his declaration to
the senate.) Horace wroto this ode, in which ho endeavors to persuade
the Romans not to suffer that prince to abandon tho government of the
empire. SAN.

'" " Of one ship, as lim:na, iecta, are often used of one house. So
Dulichias rates is used by Yii-g. Eel. vi. 7G, for tho one ship of Ulysses.",
ORELLL

11 These were tho gods whose statues were placed on the Ftern of the
ship, which, being broken by tempests, had lost its tutelary divinities.

'* A Pontic pine-tree. "Ex larnilia in Ponto," of a fh'nil" in ^ontus, a
country in Asia Minor, where Horace'* father was born- WATSON.

11 Besides the statues of the gods, ti;o ete'ns of their ship? were adorned
with paintings and other ornaments, which {he G.-eeka called in general
Acroitolia, and the Latins Aplustria. LAC.

ODEXV. ODES OF HORACE. 17

you are destined to be the sport of the winds. 0 thou, BO
lately my trouble and fatigue,74 but now an object of tenderness
and solicitude, mayest thou escape those dangerous seas which
flow among the shining Cyclades.76

ODE XV.7S

TO PARIS.

WHEN the perfidious shepherd77 (Paris) carried off by sea in
Trojan ships his hostess Helen, Nereus" suppressed the swift

74 The poet expresses by solicitum tcedium that sorrow and anxiety
which he felt, when he was engaged in the party of Brutus. TORR.

"" Cyclades, isles in the ^Egean Sea ; they are in number fifty-three, and
are now called, Isole del Archipelago. WATSON*.

76 In the year 722 u. c. Antony set sail, with a numerous fleet, from
Egypt to Peloponnesus, intending to pass over into Italy with Cleopatra,
and make his country the scene of a second civil war. Inflamed with a
violent passion for that princess, aspiring to nothing less than making her
mistress of the universe, and supported by the forces of the East, he
declared war against Octavius. Horace, therefore, in a noble and poetical
allegory, represents to Antony the fatal effects of such conduct, by pro-
posing to him the example of Paris, and the ruinous consequences which
attended his passion for Helen.

We are assured by Torrentius, that the best and most ancient manu-
script which he had seen gave this title to the Ode, "Ad Alexandrum
Paridem, sub cujus person"! exponit imminentia bella;" from whence it
appears that the allegorical manner of explaining it, is at least of an
ancient date. S.vx.

77 The treacherous shepherd, Paris, otherwise called Alexander, the
son of Priam and Hecuba, king and queen of Troy. Once upon a
time thero foil out a controversy betwixt Juno, Pallas, and Venus, about
a goUen apple that the goddess Discord had given them at Peleus'
wedding, on which it was written, "Let it bo given to the fairest:1''
They could not agree amon^ themselves, but every one thought herself
the fairest. At last they made Paris judge ; and when he had seen them
naked (but they offered him bribes besides; Venus, that if he would
judge it to her, he should have the most beautiful woman in the world ;
Juno promised him a kingdom; Pallas, the excellency of wisdom i. ho
adjudged it to Venus. After this ho came to be owned at court, and after
sometime, pretending business, ho took ship for Greece, where he became
acquainted with Helen, the famed beauty of that country, and, in the
absence of her husband, carried her home with him ; which proved tho
occasion of making good tho former dream of Hecuba, and setting all
Troy in flames. WATSON.

78 Nereus. a god of tho sea, tho son of Oceanus and Tetbys, and father
of the Nereides. Orpheus calls him the most ancient of the gods, whence

18 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK L

winds in an unpleasant calm, that he might sing" the dire
fates. "With unlucky omen art thou conveying home her,
whom Greece with a numerous army shall demand back again,
having entered into a confederacy to dissolve your nuptials,
and the ancient kingdom of Priam. Alas ! what sweat to
horses, what to men, is just at hand ! What a destruction
art thou preparing for the Trojan nation ! Even now Pallas
is fitting her helmet, and her shield, and her chariot, and her
fury. In vain, looking fierce through the patronage of Venus,
will you comb your hair, and run divisions80 upon the effemin-
ate lyre with songs pleasing to women. In vain will you
escape the spears that disturb the nuptial bed, and the point
of the Cretan dart,81 and the din [of battle], and Ajax swift
in the pursuit. Nevertheless, alas ! the time will come, though
late, when thou shalt defile thine adulterous hairs in the dust
Dost thou not see the son of Laertes, fatal to thy nation, and
Pylian Nestor, Salaminian Teucer, and Sthenelus88 skilled in
fight (or if there be occasion to manage horses, no tardy

by Yirgil he is called Grandaevus. Nereus is also sometimes taken for
the sea. WATSON.

" " Canere" is commonly used of uttering predictions.

80 The expression carmina dividere feminvs, according to Anthon,
means nothing more than to execute different airs for different females,
in succession ; but Paris would hardly do this in the presence of Helen.
Orelli's view is, " that the whole piece consists of two parts, the vocal
and the instrumental. The symphony of the lyre breaks (dividit) the
continuity of the song. The song divides the symphony," i. e. you sing,
and alternately play upon your amorous lyre, strains, etc. "We should,
I think, construe divides with carmina, and grata with feminis, as ex-
pressive of their effeminacy. The phrase means simply to execute various
soft airs upon the lyre. The word "division" in our own language,
derived, of course, from the Latin dividere, was used in the sixteenth
century, technically for musical compositions. Thus Shakespeare, Romeo
and Juliet :

Some say the lark makes sweet division,
This is not so.
Again,

And all the while sweet music did divide
Her looser strains with Lydian harmonies."

SPENC. F. Q., quoted ft// ffowell. — M'CAtnu

" Calami spicttla Gnofisii. It is probable, from this expression, that
the Cretans, who were excellent archers, instead of arrows, made use of
a kind of hard, slender, pointed reed, which erew in the sands of their
island. Thus Ovid ; "Nee Gortiniaco calamus levis exit ab arcu." SAN.

M Sthenelus, the son of Capaneus and Evadne, one of the Greek cap-
tains that was at Troy, and was also shut up in the wooden horse. WATSON.

ODBXVL ODES OF HORACE. 19

charioteer), pursue thee with intrepidity? Meriones" also
shalt thou experience. Behold ! the gallant son of Tydeus,'*
a better man than his father, glows to find you out : him, as
a stag flies a wolf, which he has seen on the opposite side of
the vale, unmindful of his pasture, shall you, effeminate, fly,
grievously panting : — not such the promises you made your
mistress. The fleet of the enraged Achilles shall defer for a
time that day, which is to be fatal to Troy and the Trojan
matrons : but, after a certain number of years, Grecian fire
shall consume the Trojan palaces."

ODE XVI.

TO A YOUNG LADY HORACE HAD OFFENDED.

O DAUGHTER, more charming than your charming mother,
put what end you please to my insulting iambics ; either in
the flames, or, if you choose it, in the Adriatic. Nor Cybele,
nor Apollo, the dweller in the shrines,84 so shakes the breast
of his priests ; Bacchus does not do it equally, nor do the
Corybantes so redouble their strokes on the sharp-sounding
cymbals, as direful anger ; which neither the Noric sword can
deter, nor the shipwrecking sea, nor dreadful fire, nor Jupiter
himself rushing down with awful crash. It is reported that
Prometheus was obliged to add to that original clay [with
which he formed mankind], some ingredient taken from every
animal, and that he applied the vehemence of the raging lion
to the human breast. It was rage that destroyed Thyestes
with horrible perdition ; and has been the final cause that
lofty cities have been entirely demolished, and that an insolen'
army has driven the hostile plowshare over their walls.*

83 Meriones, a brave captain, who went out of Crete to the siege
of Troy. WATSON.

84 Diomedes, king of ^Etolia, the son of Tydeus and Deipyle, one of
the Grecian worthies in the Trojan wars. WATSON.

85 See Orelli. Anthon and others take " incola" as meaning " hab-
itana quasi in pectore."

M Imprimeretque muris. It was a custom among the Romans, to
drve a plow over the walls of a city which they destroyed, to sig-
nify that the ground upon which it stood should be forever employed
in agriculture. TOEB.

20 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK t

Compose your mind. An ardor of soul attacked me also in
blooming youth, and drove me in a rage to the writing of
swift-footed iambics.87 Now I am desirous of exchanging
severity for good nature, provided that you will become my
friend, after my having recanted my abuse, and restore me
your affections.

ODE XVII.

TO TYNDARIS.

THK nimble Faunus often exchanges the Lycaean" mountain
for the pleasant Lucretilis," and always defends my she-goats
from the scorching summer,"0 and the rainy winds. The wan-
dering wives of the unsavory husband81 seek the hidden
strawberry-trees and thyme with security through the safe
grove : nor do the kids dread the green lizards, or the wolves
sacred to Ma-s ; whenever, my Tyndaris, the vales and the
smooth rocks of the sloping Ustica have resounded with his
melodious pipe. The gods are my protectors. My piety and
my muse are agreeable to the gods. Here plenty, rich with
rural honors, shall flow to you, with her generous horn filled
to the brim. Here, in a sequestered vale, you shall avoid the
heat of the dog-star ; and, on your Anacreontic harp, sing of
Penelope" and the frail Circe93 striving for one lover ; here

8? Cdtres iambos. The poet calls this kind of verse swift, or rapid,
because the first syllable of each foot was short, by which the cadence
was quicker. SAN.

88 Lycaeus, a mountain in Arcadia, sacred to Faunus, who is the
same with Pan. So Virgil, Eclog. ii. " Pan Primus Calamos cera con-
jungere plures instituit: Pan curat oves oviumque magistros." Pan,
who first taught us to conjoin our reeds . Pan, who protects the sheep
and their masters. WATSON.

8» Lucretilis, a mountain in the country of the Sabines, not far from
Rome, where Horace had a country-house. Mutat Lucretilem Lycaeo,
by the figure hyperbaton, which puts that first which should be last, for
Mutat Lycceum Lucretili, he interchanges Lycceus for Lucretilis. WATSON.

•° Literally, " wards off the su-r.mer from the goats." So Virg. Eel.
viL 47, " solstitium pecori defendite."

•' See note on Virg. Eel. vii. 7.

M Penelope, the daughter of Icarus ; the wife of Ulysses, a woman
of rare chastity. WATSOX.

w Circe, the daughter of Sol, and nymph of Perse ; a sorceress, and
tkillful iu the nature of herbs. WATSON.

ODE xvra. ODES OF HORACE. 21

you shall quaff, under the shade, cups of unintoxicating Lesbian.
Nor shall the raging son of Semele enter the coiubat with
Mars ; and unsuspected you shall not fear the insolent Cyrus,
lest he should savagely lay his intemperate hands on you, who
are by no means a match for him ; and should rend the chaplet
that is platted in your hair, and your inoffensive garment

ODE xvm.

TO VARUS.

O VARUS, you can plant no tree preferable to the sacred
vine, about the mellow soil of Tibur, and the walls of Catilus.
For God hath rendered every thing cross to the sober ; nor do
biting cares disperse any otherwise [than by the use of wine].
Who, after wins, complains of the hardships of war or of
poverty ? Who does not rather [celebrate] thee, Father
Bacchus, and thee, comely Venus ? Nevertheless, the battle
of the Centaurs'4 with the Lripithae,05 which was fought in
their cups, admonishes us not to exceed a, moderate use of the
gifts of Bacchus. And Bacchus himself admonishes us in his
severity to the Thracians ; when greedy to satisfy their lusts,
they make little distinction between right and wrong. 0
beauteous Bacchus,"* I will not rouse thee against thy will,
nor will I hurry abroad thy [mysteries, which are] covered

94 A people of Thessaly, near Mount Pelion, who first broke horses
for war ; whence it came to pass that they, being seen by other people
on horseback at a distance, were supposed to be but one creature, who
had the upper part like a man, and the other part of his body like a
horse. WATSON.

93 Lapithae, a people of Thessaly, near Mount Olympus. Pirithous
was their king, who having drank to excess at his wedding, the Cen-
taurs endeavored to ravish Hippodamia. the king's new-married queen ;
or, as some say, attempted to ravish the wives of the Lapifhae at the
wedding, and were therefore all put to death. WATSON.

95 The epithet candide is here very expressive, and refers to the un-
fading youth and beauty which the mythology of the Greeks and Ro-
mans assigned to the deity of wine. Compare Broukhus. ad. Tibull. iii.
vL 1, and Dryden (Ode for St. Cecilia's day), " Bacchus, ever fair and
young,r and Ovid. Fast. iii. 772 :

" Candida formosi venerabimur ora Lyaei." ANTHON.

22 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK L

with various leaves. Cease your dire cymbals, together with
your Phrygian horn, whose followers me blind Self-love and
Arrogance, holding up too high her empty head, and the Faith
communicative of secrets, and more transparent than glass.

ODE XIX.

TO GLYCERA.

THB cruel mother of the Cupids, and the son of the Thehan
Semele, and lascivious ease, command me to give back my
mind to its deserted loves. The splendor of Glycera, shining
brighter than the Parian marble, inflames me : her agree-
able petulance, and her countenance, too unsteady to be
beheld, inflame me. Venus, rushing on me with her whole
force, has quitted Cyprus ; and suffers me not to sing of the
Scythians," and the Parthian,98 furious when his horse is
turned for flight, or any subject which is not to the present
purpose. Here, slaves, place me a live turf; here, place me
vervains and frankincense, with a flagon of two-year-old wine.
She will approach more propitious, after a victim has been sac-
rificed.

ODE XX.

TO MAECENAS.

MY dear knight Maecenas, you shall drink [at my house]
ignoble Sabine wine in sober cups, which I myself scaled up
in the Grecian cask,'* stored at the time, when so loud an ap-

M Scythia was a large country, now called Tartary, divided into the
Asiatic and European. WATSON.

99 Parthian. Parthia, a country in Asia, lying between Media and
Carmania, and the Hyrcanian Sea. The Parthians fought with bows
and arrows, and that flying; so that by turning about their horses, they
shot and wounded the enemy who was pursuing them. WATSON.

» When the ancients filled their casks, they closed them with wi,
pitch, gum, or plaster, and although the Sabine wine was by no means
worthy of so much care, yet as Maecenas at that time had received some
remarkable applause in the theater, the poet preserved on his vessels the
remembrance of a day so glorious to his patron. SAN.

ODE XXL ODES OF HORACE. 23

plause was given to you in the amphitheater,100 that the banks
of your ancestral river,1 together with the cheerful echo of the
Vatican mountain, returned your praises. You [when you
are at home] will drink the Caecuban," and the grape which is
squeezed in the Calenian press ; but neither the Falernian vines,
nor the Formian' hills, season my cups.

ODE XXL

ON DIANA AND APOLLO.

YE tender virgins,4 sing Diana ; ye boys, sing Apollo with
his unshorn hair, and Latona passionately beloved by the su-
preme Jupiter. Ye (virgins), praise her that rejoices in the
rivers, and the thick groves, which project either from the cold
Algidus, or the gloomy woods of Erymanthus, or the green
Cragus. Yc boys, extol with equal praises Apollo's Delos, and
his shoulder adorned with a quiver, and with his brother Mer-
cury's lyre. He, moved by your intercession, shall drive away
calamitous war, and miserable famine, and the plague from the
Roman people and their sovereign Caesar, to the Persians and
the Britons.

100 It is probable, from the 17th Ode of the second Book, that this ap-
plause was to congratulate Maecenas for his escaping some accidental
danger ; and as the ancients were used to mark the age of their winea
by the names of the consuls, or by the most extraordinary event of the
year, the poet had chosen this instance of the glory and good fortune of
his patron, for the date of his wine. SAN.

1 Paterni fluminis. It seems as if Horace could not find a more glo-
rious epithet for the Tiber than this, which calls it the river of Maece-
nas's ancestors, who came originally from Etruria, where the Tiber has
its source. SAN.

2 Caecubum, a town in Campania, not far from Caieta, The wine pro-
duced there was much esteemed. "WATSON.

3 Mount Fonuianum, near the city Formiae, the seat of the Laestry-
gones, now swallowed up by the sea, and called Golfo di Gaietta. The
wine of the place was much valued. WATSON.

4 In the celebration of the festival of Bacchus, a select number of
virgins, of honorable families, called jiavrjyopoi, KtaaoQopoi, KtaTo<j>6pot, car-
ried small baskets of gold, in which were concealed, beneath vine, ivy,
and other leaves, certain sacred mysterious things, which were not to b«
exposed to the eyes of the profane. ANTHON.

24 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK L

ODE XXH.

TO AttlSTIUS FUSCUS.*

THE man of upright life and pure from wickedness, O Fus-
cus, has no need of the Moorish javelins or bow, or quiver
loaded with poisoned darts. Whether he is about to make his
journey through the sultry Syrtes," or the inhospitable Caucasus,'
or those places which Hydaspes,8 celebrated in story, washes.
For lately, as I was singing iny Lalage, and wandered beyond
my usual bounds, devoid of care, a wolf in the Sabine wood
fled from me, though I was unarmed :* such a monster, as
neither the warlike Apulia nourishes in its extensive woods,
nor the land of Juba,10 the dry nurse of lions, produces. Place
me in those barren plains, where no tree is refreshed by the
genial air ; at that part of the world, which clouds and an in-
clement atmosphere infest. Place me under the chariot of the

5 Aristius Fuscus, a good man, of virtuous morals. Horace, for the
most part, dedicates his poems (and writes them on a subject) suitable to
the virtues and vices of those ho addresses them to. So Sat. ix. Book i.
" Ecce Fuscus Aristius occurrit mihi charus." " Behold Aristius Fuscus,
dearly beloved by 'me, meets me." WATSON.

6 Syrtes, two quicKsands on the African shore, the greater beyond
Tripoli, about four hundred miles in compass ; the lesser on this side,
near one hundred and ninety miles in circumference. WATSON.

? Through Caucasus, a high mountain in Asia, betwixt the Euxine
and Caspian Seas, called also Garmas, and of later geographers, Cocas,
or Cochias: it is situated about Iberia and Albania, on the north part. It
is of great height, covered with snow, rocky, and full of trees. WATSOK.

8 Hydaspes. the name of two rivers in Asia; the one in Media, near
the city Susa; the other in India, near the city Nysa, which he here
calls fabulous, because there are several strange things storied of it, such
as that it abounds with golden sands, pearls, and precious stones, etc.
WATSOX.

9 " Donatus scribit Virgilium solitum dicere nullam virtutem commo-
diorem homini csse patienti,\, ac nullam fortunam adeo esse asperam,
quam prudenter patiendo vir fortis non vincat. Proprie igitur sententia
ipsum nunc consolntur Horatius." FABRIC.

lu The land of Juba. He was king of Mauritania, who in the time
of the civil war was on Pompey's side : he overthrew Curio, and, after
Pompey was overdone, he joined with Scipio, but they being conquered
by Cajsar, rather than he would be the matter of Caesar's scorn and
triumph, Petrciua and he running at each other, were purposely slain.
WATSON.

ODE xxm. xxiv. ODES OP HORACE. 25

too neighboring sun, in A land deprived of habitations ;
will I love my sweetly-smiling, sweetly-speaking

ODE XXIH.

TO CHLOE.

You shun me. Chloe, like a fawn that is seeking its timorous
mother in the pathless mountains, not without a vain dread of
the breezes and the thickets : for she trembles both in her
heart and knees, whether the arrival of the spring has terrified
by its rustling leaves, or the green lizards have stirred the
bush. But I do not follow you, like a savage tigress, or a
Gaetulian lion, to tear you to pieces. Therefore, quit your
mother, now that you are mature for a husband.

ODE XXIV.

TO VIRGIL.

WHAT shame or bound can there be to our affectionate regre*
for so dear a person ? O Melpomene,11 on whom your fathel
has bestowed a clear voice and the harp, teach me the mourn-
ful strains. Does then perpetual sleep oppress Quinctilius ?13
To whom when will modesty, and uncorrupt faith the sister of
Justice, and undisguised truth, find any equal ? He died
lamented by many good men, but more lamented by none
than by you, my Virgil. You, though pious, alas ! in vain
demand Quinctilius back from the gods, who did not lend him

11 Melpomene, one ->f the muses, who first composed tragedies; and
therefore Horace properly addresses himself to her for assistance in writ-
ing a funeral elegy on Quinctilius Varus. See Ode xviii. WATSON.

12 Quinctilius. This is not Quinctilius Varus. who commanded the
army in Germany under Augustus as his genera), who, after his army
was routed, killed himself For that was twenty-seven years after Vir-
gil's death, and eighteen after Horace died. But Quinctiljua Varus, the
poet and critic of Cremona, an intimate friend of Virgil's, who died
about the tenth consulship of Augustus. WATSON.

2

26 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK i.

to us on such terms. What, though you could strike the lyre,
listened to by the trees, wiih more sweetness than the Thrncian
Orpheus ; yet the blood can never return to the empty shade,
which Mercury, inexorable to reverse the fates, has with his
dreadful Caduceus once driven to the gloomy throng. This
is hard : but what it is out of our power to amend, becomes
more supportable by patience.

ODE XXV.

TO LYDIA.

THE wanton youths less violently shake thy fastened windows
with their redoubled knocks, nor do they rob you of your
rest ; and your door, which formerly moved its yielding
hinges freely, now sticks lovingly to its threshold. Less and
less often do you now hear : " My Lydia, dost thou sleep the
live-long night while I your lover am dying ?" Now you are
an old woman, it will be your turn to bewail the insolence of
rakes, when you are neglected in a lonely alley, while the
Thracian wind1' rages at the Interlunium :14 when that hot
desire and lust, which is wont to render furious the dams of
horses, shall rage about your ulcerous liver : not without com-
plaint, that sprightly youth rejoice rather in the verdant ivy
and growing myrtle, and dedicate sapless leaves to Eurus, the
companion of winter."

13 Between an old and new moon, the wind is usually most tempestu-
ous. " Interluniorum dies tempestatibus plenos, et navigantibus quaro
maxime metuendos, non solum peritise ratio, sed etiam vulgi usus intel-
ligit." DAC.

14 " Sub interlunia fieaoae^.i'ivi^, " at the time which intervenes be-
tween the old and new moon." Or, in freer and more poetic language,
" during the dark and stormy season when the moon has disappeared
from the skies." Interlunium, " biduum illud, quo in coitu solis luna non
conspicitur." ORELL.

15 Aridas frondes hyemis sodali dedicet. The sense and interpretation
of these words depend on the two former lines. Young men, says the
poet, are more pleased, magis gaudent, with trees which are always
green, such as are myrtle and ivy ; but despise dry and withered leaves.
Burr.

ODE xxvi. ODES OF HORACE. 27

ODE XXVI.

TO ^ELIUS LAMIA.

A FRIEND to the Muses, I will deliver up grief and fears to
the wanton winds, to waft into the Cretan Sea ; singularly
careless, what king of a frozen region is dreaded under the
pole, or what terrifies Tiridates.1* 0 sweet muse, who art
delighted with pure fountains, weave together the sunny
flowers, weave a chaplet for my Lamia.17 Without thee, my
praises profit nothing. To render him immortal by new
strains,18 to render him immortal by the Lesbian lyre," be-
comes both thee and thy sisters.

16 In the year 719, u. c., the Parthians expelled Phraates for his
cruelty, and set Tiridates upon the throne. In 724, Phraates was re-
stored by the Scythians ; and Tiridates, obliged to fly, carried with him
the son of Phraates to Octavius, who was then in Syria. That prince.
delighted with having the son of the greatest enemy of the republic in
his power, carried him to Rome, and permitted Tiridates to remain in
Syria; who being impatient to recover his throne, solicited Augustus
for succors. In 731, Phraates sent an embassy to Rome, with an offer
of restoring to Augustus the Roman eagles, which were taken in the
defeat of Crossus, if he would send his son and Tiridates to him. Au-
gustus made the report to the senate, who remitted to him the decision
of the affair. He granted the embassadors the first part of their de-
mand, but kept Tiridates at Rome, and promised to entertain him in a
manner suitable to his dignity.

This ode was written when the affair was depending, and we iray
judge how Tiridates must have been alarmed, while he was afraid of
being sent to Phraates, from whom he could expect nothing but tortures
and death. SAN.

17 .#]lius Lamia was a Roman knight, whose character is thus drawn
by Cicero : " Vir summo splendore, summa gratia ; nullo prorsus pli.8
Homine delector." DAC.

18 When the poets intended to sing any thing extraordinary, they
used to change the strings of their lyres. DAC.

However, this changing the strings of the lyre seems rather a poetical,
metaphorical expression for the change of the subject. FRAN.

19 Sappho, a famous poetess, inventress of the Sapphic verse, being re-
jected by her lover Phaon, she destroyed herself. There was a promon-
tory in Arcadia called Leucate, on the top of which was a little temple
dedicated to Apollo. WATSON.

28 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK L

ODE XXVIL

TO HIS COMPANIONS.

To quarrel over your cups, which were made for joy, is
downright Thracian. Away with the barbarous custom,
and protect modest Bacchus from bloody frays. How im-
mensely disagreeable to wine and candles3j is the saber of the
MeJes ! O my companions, repress your wicked vociferations,
and rest quietly on bended elbow. Would you have me also
take my snare of stout Falernian ? Let the brother of Opun-
tian Megilla then declare, with what wound21 he is blessed, with
what dart he is dying. — What, do you refuse? I will not
drink upon any other condition. Whatever kind of passion
rules you, it scorches you with the flames you need not be
ashamed of, and you always indulge in an honorable, an in-
genuous love. Come, whatever is your case, trust it to faith-
ful ears. Ah, unhappy ! in what a Charybdis art thou
struggling, O youth, worthy of a better flame ! What witch,
what magician, with his Thessalian incantations, what deity
can free you ? Pegasus himself will scarcely deliver you, so
entangled, from this three-fold chimera.

ODE XXVIIL

ARCHVTAS.

THE [want of the] scanty present of a little sand*' near the
Mantinian shore, confines thee, O Archytas," the surveyor of

20 A sort of hendiadys,— " revelries by night."

21 t. e. by what love.

22 Pulveris exigui munera. Tho ancients believed that the souls of
those whose bodies were left unburied, were not permitted to pass over
the river Styx, but wandered a hundred years on its banks. In allusion
to this opinion, Horace says, " Parvo munera pulveris exigui cohibent
te, retinent tuam umbram ab Elysiis campis." A little present of dust
detains you ; that is, you are detained from the Elysian fields for want
of a little present of dust DAC.

2S Arehytaq, a philosopher of Tarentum, a noble city in the furthest
part of the ancient Mapna Graecia, now Tarento ; it was inhabited by
Spartans, '..nder Phalantus their captain. Archytas was a great mathe-
matician, astrologer, and geometrician, and famous fur his mania!

ODE xrrai. ODES OF HORACE. 29

sea and earth, and of the innumerable sand : neither is it of
any advantage to you, to have explored the celestial regions,
and to have traversed the round world in your imagination,
since thou wast to die." Thus also did the father of Pelops,
the guest of the gois, die; and Tithonus3" likewise was
translated to the skies, and Minos,36 though admitted to the
secrets of Jupiter; and the Tartarean regions are possessed
of the son of Panthous," once more sent down to the receptacle
of the dead; notwithstanding, having retaken his shield**
from the temple, he gave evidence of the Trojan times, and
that he had resigned to gloomy death nothing but his sinews
and skin ; in your opinion, no inconsiderable judge of truth
and nature. But the same night awaits all, and the road of
death must once be traveled. The Furies give up some to the
sport of horrible Mars : the greedy ocean is destructive to
sailors : the mingled funerals of young and old are crowded
together : not a single person does the cruel Proserpine29 pass

exploits, having made his escape when Pythagoras and some of his dis-
ciples were killed ; he was greatly beloved by Plato and Timaeus, upon
whose account he came to Italy. WATSON.

24 This is the proper force of " moriturus." So also " moribundus" is
used in VirgiL

" Tithonus, the son of Laomedon, who, desiring long life, was so
wasted with old age, that the poets feigned him to be turned into a grass-
hopper : he was said to be beloved by Aurora (on whom he begat Prince
Momnon), for that he used early rising, whereby he preserved his life
long. WATSON.

" Minos, a king of Crete, the son of Jupiter by Europa, He first gave
Jaws to the Cretans, and for his justice was after death made chief judge
in hell ; he married Pasiphac, the daughter of Sol, and had many chil-
dren by her. WATSOX.

'" Euphorbus is here meant in name, but Pythagoras in reality. This
philosopher taught the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, and is said
to have asserted that he himself had animated various bodies, and had
been at one time Euphorbus the Trojan. To prove his identity with the
son of Panthous, report made him to have gone into the temple of Juno,
at, or near Mycenae, where the shield of Euphorbus had been preserved
among other offerings, and to have recognized and taken it down. Ax-

THON.

2f> Clypeo reftxo. Figere and refigere are terms borrowed from the
Roman law. When a law was publicly set up, and proposed to the
people, they made use of the wordjigere; when they took them down,
they used the terms refigere leges. DAC.

** Proserpina fugit. In allusion to a superstition of the ancients, who
believed that no person could die, until Proserpine or Atropoa had cut
off a lock of their hair. This ceremony was considered as a kind of first-
fruits, consecrated to Pluto. TORE.

30 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK L

by. The south wind, the tempestuous attendant on the set-
ting30 Orion, has sunk me also in the Illyrian waves. But
do not thou, O sailor, malignantly grudge to give a portion of
loose sand to my bones and uuburied head. So, whatever
the east wind shall threaten to the Italian sea, let the Venus-
iuian woods suffer, while you are in safety; and manifold
profit, from whatever port it may, come to you by favoring
Jove, and Neptune, the defender of consecrated Taientum.
But if you, by chance, make light of" committing a crime,
which will be hurtful to your innocent posterity, may just
laws and haughty retribution await you. I will not be
deserted with fiuitless prayers; and no expiations3" shall
atone for you. Though you are in haste, you need not tarry
long : after having thrice sprinkled the dust over me, you
oaay proceed.

ODE XXIX.

TO ICCIUS.

0 Iccius," you now covet the opulent treasures of the Ara-
bians, and are preparing vigorous for a war against the kings
of Saba,34 hitherto unconquered,3' and are forming chains for
the formidable Mede. What barbarian virgin shall be your
slave, after you have killed her betrothed husband ? What
boy from the court shall be made your cup-bearer, with his

30 Which declines to its setting. The rising and setting of this constel-
lation are usually attended with storms. Virgil calls it aquosum and
nimbosum. TOUR,

11 " Parura curas, pro nihilo habes culpam hujusmodi in te admittere."
ORELLI ; who, however, reads the sentence interrogatively, which ia more
animated.

" Piaculum signifies both the crime and the sacrifice by which it was
expiated. SAX.

11 Iccius, a philosopher ; he was Agrippa's procurator in Sicily, and by
him presented with much land. WATSON.

'* Sabica, the chief city of Arabia Felix, called now Zibit, where ia
great store of cinnamon, cassia, frankincense, and myrrh. WATSON.

** Non ant£ devictis. We can understand these words only of that
part of Arabia called Sabaea, for the Romans had carried their arms into
others parts of Arabia under several different generals. DAC.

ODE xxx. XXXL ODES OF HORACE. 31

perfumed locks, skilled to direct the Seric arrows with his
father's bow ? Who will now deny that it is probable for pre-
cipitate rivers to flow back again to the high mountains, and
for liber to change his course, since you are about to ex-
change the noble works of Panaetius, collected from all parts,
together with the whole Socratic family,38 for Iberian armor,
after you had promised better things ?

ODE XXX.

TO VENUS.

O VENUS, queen of Gnidus37 and Paphos, neglect your fa-
vorite Cyprus, and transport yourself into the beautiful
temple of Glycera, who is invoking you with abundance of
frankincense. Let your glowing son hasten along with you,
and the Graces with their zones loosed, and the Nymphs, and
Youth possessed of little charm without you and Mercury.

ODE XXXI.33

TO APOLLO.

WHAT does the poet beg from Phoabus on the dedication of
his temple ?M What does he pray for, while he pours from the
flagon the first libation? Not the rich crops of fertile Sar-

" Socraticum domum. Horace calls the sect of Socrates Socraticum
domum, as the schools of the philosophers were called familicn. DAC.

37 Gnidus, a town in Cana, a country in Asia Minor, between Lycia
and Ionia, on the side of the mountain Taurus, where Venus was wor-
shiped. WATSON.

'•"> In the year 726, u. c. Octavius dedicated to Apollo a temple and
library in his palace on Mount Palatine; which having been struck with
lightning, the augurs said the god demanded that it should be consecrated
to him. Horace was tlien thirty-eight years old. DAC.

SB " A god is said himself to be dedicated, to whom a new temple ia
consecrated. Cic. de N. D. 2, 23; ut fides, ut mens, quas in Capitdiis de-
dicatas videmus." ORELLI.

32 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK L

dinia:40 not the goodly flocks of scorched Calabria:41 not
gold, or Indian ivory : not those countries, which the still
river Liris eats away with its silent streams. Let those to
whom fortune has given the Caleuian vineyards, prune them
with a hooked knife ; and let the wealthy merchant drink out
of golden cups the wines procured by his Syrian merchandize,
favored by the gods themselves, inasmuch as without loss
he visits three or four times a year the Atlantic Sea. Me
olives support, me succories and soft mallows. O thou son
of Latona,4J grant me to enjoy my acquisitions, and to possess
my health, together with an unimpaired understanding, I be-
seech thee ; and that I may not lead a dishonorable old age,
nor one bereft of the lyre.

ODE XXXH.

TO HIS LYRE.

WE are called upon. If ever, O lyre, in idle amusement in
the shade with thee, we have played any thing that may live
for this year and many, come on, be responsive to a Latin
ode, my dear lyre — first tuned by a Lesbian citizen, who,
fierce in war, yet amid arms, or if he Imd made fast4' to the
watery shore his tossed vessel, sung Bacchus, and the Muses,
and Venus, and the boy her ever-close attendant, and Lycus,
lovely for his black eyes and jetty locks. O thou ornament
of Apollo, charming shell, agreeable even at the banquets of

48 Sardinia, an island of Italy, which formerly belonged to the Span-
iards, but is now subject to its own king, who is of the family of Savoy.
WATSON.

41 Calabria, a country in the uttermost part of Italy, which is almost
an isle; it brings forth fiuit twice a year, and abounds with bees and
cattle WATSON'.

42 Latona, the daughter of Ceus, the son of Titan, who made war
against Jupiter for ravishing his daughter; she, to fly Juno's wrath, fled
to the island Ortygia. that is, Delos. WATSOV.

41 Rdig iTot. This verb has two significations entirely opposite, and
might be construed either to set sail, or to cast anchor, the sense must
here determine us to the latter meaning of the word, as the poet opposes
the noise and tumult of battle to the calm and repose after a storm. SAN.

ODE xxxm. xxxrv. ODES OF HORACE. 33

supreme Jove ! 0 thou sweet alleviator of anxious toils, be
propitious to me, whenever duly invoking thee !

ODE xxxm.

TO ALBIU8 TIBULLUS.

GEIEVE not too much, my Albius," thoughtful of cruel Gly-
cera ; nor chant your mournful elegies, because, as her faith
being broken, a younger man is more agreeable than you in
her eyes. A love for Cyrus inflames Lycoris, distinguished
for her little forehead :*° Cyrus follows the rough Pholoe ;
but she-goats shall sooner be united to the Apulian wolves,
than Pholoe shall commit a crime with a base adulterer.
Such is the will of Venus, who delights in cruel sport, to
subject to her brazen yokes persons and tempers ill suited to
each other. As for myself, the slave-born Myrtale, more un-
tractable than the Adriatic Sea that forms the Calabriau gulfs,
entangled me in a pleasing chain, at the very time that a more
eligible love courted my embraces.

ODE XXXIV.

AGAINST THE EPICUREANS.

A REMISS" and irregular worshiper of the gods, while I
professed the errors of a senseless philosophy,47 I am now

44 Albius Tibullus, an eminent poet, who wrote several fine elegies,
of which four books are still extant He and Virgil died much about the
same time. WATSON.

46 Tenui fronte. The Greeks and Latins thought a low forehead a
great beauty. " Frons brevis atque modus breviter sit naribus uncis."
Mart. And Petronius in the description of Circe: "Frons minima."
DAC.

46 Parcum Deorum cultor. The Fpicureans conformed only to the
outward ceremonies of religious worship, which they thought the cre-
dulity of the people had established. This superficial kind of devotion,
the poet hath expressed by the word parcus. SAN.

47 In Lucret. v. 10, the doctrine of Epicurus is called wisdom xar

2*

84 ODES OF HORACE. BOOKL

obliged to set sail back again, and to renew the course that
I had deserted. For Jupiter,48 who usually cleaves the clouds
with his gleaming lightning, lately drove his thundering horses
and rapid chariot through the clear serene ; at which the
sluggish earth, and wandering rivers; at which Styx, and the
horrid seat of detested Taenarus,48 and the utmost boundary
of Atlas'0 were shaken. The Deity is able to make exchange
between the highest and the lowest, and diminishes the ex-
alted, bringing to light the obscure ; rapacious fortune, with
a shrill whizzing, has borne off the plume from one head, and
delights in having placed it on another.

ODE XXXV."

TO FORTUNE.

0 GODDESS, who presidest over beautiful Antium ;" thou,
that art ready to exalt mortal man from the most abject
state, or to convert superb triumphs into funerals ! Thee the
poor countryman solicits with his anxious vows ; whosoever

l£r>x'/v< the perversity of whom Horace now called insanity. Greg. Naz.
Invect Pr. in Julian, p. 79: liacxpof, lv' ovruf bvofiursu, aoipia. OUELLI.

48 Dievpiter signifies Diei pater, as Jupiter is put for Jovis paler, and
Marspiter for Mars pater. SAN.

49 Tienarus, a promontory and seaport town of Peloponnesus, full of
thick woods, where the poets feign was a descent to hell, called by
Ovid Taenaria Porta, the Taenarian Gate ; by Virgil, Taenariae Fauces,
the Tasnarian jaws. WATSON.

M Atlas, a mountain in Mauritania, so high, that the top of it is said
•X) reach to heaven, and bear it up. WATSON.

*' The subject of this ode is perfectly noble, well designed, aud well
executed The versification is flowing and harmonious, the expression
bold and sublime.

In the year 719, Augustus was on his march to Britain, but was re-
called by a revolt of the Dalmatians. In 727, having ended the civil
wars by the defeat of Antony, ho again resolved to turn his arms against
that island, but was satisfied with an embassy from thence, and a promise
of obedience to any conditions which he pleased to impose upon them.
These conditions not beinu well observed, he was determined to make the
Britons feel the effects of his displeasure, yet was again obliged to employ
the forces of the republic in suppressing an insurrection of the Salassi,
Cantabri, and Asturii. SAN.

67 Antium, an ancient city of Italy, the capital of the Volscians, the
country of Nero, and a good harbor for shipping. WATSON.

ODEXXTV. ODES OF HORACE. 35

plows the Carpathian Sea" with the Bithynian" vessel,
importunes thee, as mistress of the ocean. Thee the rough Da-
ciaii," thee the wandering Scythiat.s, and cities, and nations,
and warlike Latium also, and the mothers of barbarian kings,
and tyrants clad in purple, fear. Spurn not with destructive
foot that column which now stands firm, nor let popular tu-
mult rouse those, who now rest quiet, to arms — to arms — and
break the empire. Necessity, thy minister, always marches
before thee, holding in her brazen hand huge spikes and
wedges ; nor is the unyielding clamp absent, nor the melted
lead. Thee Hope reverences, and rare Fidelity, robed in u
white garment ; nor does she refuse to bear thee company,68
howsoever in wrath thou change thy robe, and abandon the
houses of the powerful. But the faithless crowd [of com-
panions], and the perjured harlot draw back. Friends, too
faithless to bear equally the yoke of adversity, when casks are
exhausted, very dregs and all, fly off. Preserve thou Caesar,
who is meditating an expedition against the Biitons, the
furthest people in the world, and also the new levy of youths
to be dreaded by the Eastern regions,17 and the Red Sea.
Alas ! I am ashamed of our scars, and our wickedness, and
of brethren. What have we, a hardened age, avoided ?
What have we in our impiety left unviolated ! From what
have our youth restrained their hands, out of reverence to the
gods 1 What altars have they spared ? O mayest thou forge
anew our blunted swords on a different anvil against the Mas-
eagetae and Arabians.

" The Carpathian Sea, so called from Carpathus, an irf.e between
Rhodes and Crete, which usually retaineth its ancient name. WATSON'.

64 Bithynia, a country of Asia the Less, next to Troas, over against
Thrace, and, as is supposed, planted by Thracians; whence Xenophon
calls it Thracia Asiatica. WATSON*.

65 Dacia was a country of Hungary beyond the Danube.

66 Nee comitem abnegat] se, ut Ter. Enn. 2, 3, 84, " facile ut eunucho
probes," i. e. te Ovid. A. A. i. 127, "Si qua repugnarat nimium comi-
temque negarat," se. ORELLI.

67 Eois timendum. In the end of the year 727, ^Elius Gallus marched
with an army to succeed Cornelius in the government of Egypt, and as
he wanted a fleet for his expedition against the Arabians, be ordered a
number of ships to be built in the ports of the Red Sea. As this army
alarmed all the countries of the East, so the Romans had the greatest ex-
pectations that it would revenge all the insults which the republic had
received from the Parthians. SAN.

36 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK L

ODE XXXVI."

THIS is n joyful occasion to sacrifice both with incense and
music of the lyre, and the votive blood of a heifer to the gods,
the guardians of Numicla; who, now returning in safety from
the extremest part of Spain, imparts many embraces to his
beloved companions, but to none more th;m his dear Liimia,
mindful of his childhood spent under one and the same
governor, and of the gown, which they changed at the same
time." Let not this joyful clay be without a Cretan mark of
distinction ;co let us not spare the jar brought forth [from the
cellar] ; nor, Salian-like, let there be any cessation of feet ;
nor let the toping Damalis conquer Bassus in the Thracian
Amystis ;"' nor let there be roses wanting to the banquet,
nor the ever-green parsley, nor the short-lived lily. All the
company will fix their dissolving eyes on Damalis; but she,
more luxuriant than the wanton ivy, will not be separated
from her new lover.

ODE XXXVII."

TO HIS COMPANIONS.

Now, my companions, is the time to carouse, now to beat the
ground with a light foot : now is the time that was to deck

M It is probable that this ode was written in the year 730, when Nu-
mida returned with Augustus from the war of Spain, and we may judge
with how much tenderness Horace loved his friends, when he celebrated
their return with sacrifices, songs, and dances. SAN.

** Mutatcuque simul togce. At the age of seventeen the Roman youth
put on the toga, and were no longer under the tutor's power. The toga
was a large mantle worn over the tunica, and different in length, color,
and ornaments, according to the fortune or profession of the wearer. SAN.

°a Cressa ne careat. As chalk was found in great abundance in Crete,
the ancients used to say proverbially, a Cretan mark, for any mark of joy
and happiness : on the contrary, their unlucky days were said to be
marked with black LA sin.

" Threiciti Amystide. This term is Greek, and signifies a custom
among the Thracians of drinking a certain measure of wine, without
closing the lips, or taking breath. LAMB.

" At the first announcement of the victory at Actium, Horace en-

ODE xrrvn. ODES OF HORACE. 37

the couch of the gods with Saliau03 dainties. Before this, it
was impious to produce the old Caecuban stored up by your
ancestors ; while the queen, with a contaminated gang of
creatures, noisome through distemper, was pieparing giddy
destruction for the Capitol and the subveision of the empire,
being weak enough to hope for any thing, and intoxicated
with her prospering fortune. But scarcely a single ship
preserved from the flames"* bated her fury ; and Csesar brought
down her mind, inflamed with Egyptian wine, to real fears,
close pursuing her in her flight fiom Italy with his galleys
(as the hawk pursues the tender c'oves, or the nimble hunter
the hare in the plains of snowy ^Emon), that he might throw
into chains" this destructive monster [of a woman] ; who,
seeking a more generous death, neither had an eti'eminate
dread of the sword, nor repaired "with her swift ship to hid-
den shores. She was able also to look upon her palace, lying

courages his companions to give free reins to joy and hilarity, yet still
to honor and admire the noble spirit and bold resolution of the ill-fated
Cleopatra. With the true spirit of a Roman citizen he is silent of his fellow
Roman. Antony. The senate, t<>o, had not proclaimed war against him,
but against Cleopatra, and Augustus triumphed not ostensibly over his
fallen colleague in the triumvirate, but over an Egyptian queen. It was,
indeed, his interest, that men should speedily forget that his former friend
and relative had been, by him, forced to death, and that in the glare of
victory the Romans should be flattered, not alarmed.

The tidings of the death of both were brought to Rome, in the autumn
of A. u c. 724, by M. Tullius Cicero, the sou of the orator and then
Consul Sa/ectus ; and that this is one of the earliest lyric compositions of
Horace is probable, as well from its subject as by the irregularity of its
composition, such as the synalephe in v. 5, and neglect of the cassura in
vs. 5 and 14. ANTHON:

13 The Salii were priests of Mars, instituted by Numa Pompilius. twelve
in number, of the senatorial rank ; their number was doubled by Tullus
Hostilius. These, armed with a brazen helmet, belt, and breastplate,
went through the city with a constant even pace, dancing to the sound of
musical instruments. Their solemn processions were very magnificent.
Hence the proverb Dapes Saliares, for a grand entertainment.

04 Ab iynibus. The fleet of Antony, even after his flight, made such
an obstinate resistance, that Augustus was obliged to send for fire from
his camp to destroy it.

66 Daret ut catenis. Octavius had given particular directions to Pro-
culeius and Epaphroditus to take Cleopatra alive, that he might make
himself master of her treasures, and have the glory of leading her in tri-
umph. Justly sensible of this ignominy, she had reserved a dagger for
her last extremities, and when she saw Proculeius enter, she raised it to
etab herself, but he dexterously wrenched it from her. LAMB.

38 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK L

in ruins, with a countenance unmoved, and courageous enough
to handle exasperated asps, that she might imbibe in her body
the deadly poison, being more resolved by having pre-meditated
her death : for she was a woman of such greatness of soul, as
to scorn to be carried off in haughty triumph, like a private
person, by rough Liburnians."

ODE XXXVHL

TO HIS SERVANT.

BOY, I detest the pomp of the Persians ; chaplets, which are
woven with the rind of the linden, displease me ; give up the
search for the place where the latter rose abides. It is my
particular desire that you make no laborious addition to the
plain myrtle; for myrtle is neither unbecoming you a servant,
nor me, while I quaff under this mantling vine.

88 Scevis Liburnis. The poet mentions those vessels, not only because
they were particularly serviceable in gaining the victory, but in compli-
ment to his patron Maecenas, who commanded that squadron. SAN.

THE SECOND BOOK

ODE S OF HORACE.

ODE I.

TO ASINIUS POLLIO.

You are treating of the civil commotion,1 which began from
the consulship of Metellus,2 and the causes,3 and the errors,
and the operations of the war, and the game that fortune
played, and the pernicious confederacy of the chiefs, and arms
stained with blood4 not yet expiated — a work full of danger
and hazard : and you are treading upon fires, hidden under
deceitful ashes: let therefore the muse that presides over
severe tragedy, be for a while absent from the theaters ;
shortly, when thou hast completed the narrative of the public

1 Caius Asiniua Pollio was a person who made a very considerable
figure in the court of Augustus. As he was distinguished by his valor
and conduct, he had frequently the command of the armies given him.
He vanquished the Dalmatians, and triumphed over them. He was no
less eminent for his learning, than for his warlike accomplishments.

a " From the consulship of Metellus." The narrative of Pollio, con-
sequently, began with the formation of the government denominated (al-
though erroneously, since it w;*0 no magistrates) the first triumvirate, by
Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus, A. u. c. 694, in the consulship of Q. Csecilius
Metellus Celer, and L. Afranius. This may well be considered as the
germ of the civil wars that ensued, and which blazed forth with fury ten
years later. The Romans marked the year by the names of the consuls,
and he who has most suffrages, etc., was placed first. ANTHON.

* Caitsas, i. e. the death of Crassus, the death of Julia, and the am-
bition and rivalry of Caesar and Pompey. _ORELL. The term viiia haa
here a particular reference to the rash and unwise plans of Pompey and
his followers, and, also, to the mismanagement of Crassus in his expedi-
tion against the Parthians. M'CAUL.

4 Cruoribus, i. e. "blood shed often and in many places:" thus alfiara
is used by the Tragedians, as ^Esch. Suppl. 262 :

aljjuruv fu&fffiaotv. M'CAUL.

40 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK n.

affairs, you shall resume your great work in the tragic style of
Athens,6 O Pollio, them excellent succor to sorrowing defend-
ants and a consulting senate ; [Pollio,] to whom the laurel
produced immortal honors in the Dalmatian triumph. Even
now you stnn our ears with the threatening murmur of horns :
now the clarions sound ; now the glitter of arms affrights the
flying steeis, and dalles the sight of the riders. Now I seem
to hear" of great commanders besmeared with glorious dust,
and the whole earth subdued, except the stubborn soul of
Cato.7 Juno, and every other god propitious to the Africans,
iinpotently went off, leaving that land unrevenged ; but soon
offered" the descendants of the conquerors, as sacrifices to the
manes of Jugurtha.' What plain, enriched by Latin blood,
be irs not reco/d, by its numerous sepulchers, of our impious
battles, and of the sound of the downfall of Italy, heard even
by the Medes? What pool, what livers, are unconscious of
our deplorable war? What* sea have not the Daunian10
slaujhtei s discolored ? What shore is unstained by our
blood ? Do not, however, rash muse, neglecting your jocose
strains, resume the task of Caan plaintive song,11 but rather
with me seek measures of a lighter style" beneath some love-
sequestered grotto.13

* The cothurnus (Koflopvof) is here put figuratively for tragedy.
12. Cecropio. Equivalent to Attico, and alluding to Cecrops as the
founder of Athens. ANTHON.

" On this zeugma see my notes on ./Esch. Prom. 22, ed. Bohn.

7 Cato of Utica, so remarkable fur his virtue, and the strenuous opposi-
tion he made to tyranny. After the defeat of Pompey, he was shut up
by Caesar in Utica, where, rather than fall into the hands of the conqueror,
and survive the ruin of his country, he slew himself. WATSON.

* Rettuiit inferias. The word reltulit is here taken in the same sense
as in the proverb par pari referre, and inferias alludes to a custom of the
ancients, who sacrificed a number of prisoners upon the tombs of their
generals. TOR.

" Jugurtha, a king of Numidia, who being engaged in war with the
Romans, was taken bv Sylla, and led in triumph by Marius. WATSON.

10 i. e. Roman, cf. 6d. i. 22, 13.

11 Cece retractes munera namice. Noenia is a word properly signifying
the song which was sung at funerals by the mourners. But by Nxnia, in
this passage, the poet intends the goddess Nsenia, who presided over tears,
lamentations, and funerals. DAC.

" Ovid, Met. 10, 150, "Cecini plectro graviore Gigantas — Nunc opus
eat leviore lyra." 0 BELLI.

13 DionoKO sub antro. A Ithough Dione was the mother of Venus, yet
Venus herself is called by that name. The poet therefore invites hi*

ODBIL ODES OF HORACE. 41

ODE IL

TO CRISPUS SALLUSTIUS.

0 CRISPUS SALLusTius,14 thou foe to bullion," unless it de-
rives splendor from a moderate enjoyment, there is no luster
in money concealed in the niggard earth, Pioculeius16 shall
live an extended age, conspicuous for fatherly affection to
brothers ; surviving fame shall bear him on an untiring wing.17
You may possess a more extensive dominion by controlling a
craving disposition, than if you could unite Libya to the dis-
tant Gades, and the natives of both the Carthages were sub-
ject to you alone. The direful dropsy increases by self-
indulgence, nor extinguishes its thirst, unless the cause of the
disorder has departed from the veins, and the watery languor
from the pallid body. Virtue, differing from the vulgar, ex-
cepts Phraates1' though restored to the throne of Cyrus,
from the number of the happy ; and teaches the populace to
disuse false names for things, by conferring the kingdom and
a safe diadem and the perpetual19 laurel upon him alone, who
can view large heaps of treasure with undazzled eye.

muse into the cave of Venus, there to sing of love and gallantry in a tone
less elevated, leviore plectro, and forbids her to imitate the plaintive
strains of Simonides. LAMB.

14 Tacitus, in the third book of his Annals, hath given us a very finished
picture of this Sallust. He was grand-nephew to the excellent author of
the Roman History, who adopted him, and left him his name and fortune.

'* The construction is: "iuimice, lamiife, nisi [lamna] splendeat."

18 Proculeius. He had two brothers, Terentius and Licinius. Teren-
tius was made consul elect in the year seven hundred and thirty, but died
before he could enter upon his office. Licinius unfortunately engaged
himself in a conspiracy against Augustus, nor could all the interest of
Proculeius and Ma3cenas, who had married their sister Terentia, preserve
him from banishment. An old commentator relates a particular story,
which greatly enlightens this passage : he says, that Proculeius divided
his patrimony with his brothers, whose fortunes were ruined in the civil
wars. DAC. SAN.

17 For this periphrasis cf. Od. Z, 11, 10: "metuitque tangi," Virg.
ORELLI.

ls Phraates, a king of the Parthians, who slew his own father Orodes,
thirty brothers, and his eldest son. He was expelled the kingdom by his
subjects, and afterward re-established by the Scythians in the year of
Rome 7-28. WATSON.

" So"propria munera," Sat. ii. 2, 5; "da propriam domain." Virg.
JF-r iii. 85. ORELLI.

4«2 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK u.

ODE ffl.

TO QUINTU8 DELLI08.

0 DELLius,*8 since thou art born to die, be mindful to pre-
serve a temper of mind even in times of difficulty, as well as
restrained from insolent exultation in prosperity : whether
thou shalt lead a life of continual sadness, or through happj
days regale thyself with Falernian wine of the oldest date,*1
at ease reclined in some grassy retreat, where the lofty pine
and hoary poplar delight to interweave their boughs into
a hospitable shade, and the clear current with trembling
surface purls along the meandering rivulet. Hither order
[your slaves] to bring the wine, and the perfumes, and the
too short-lived flowers of the grateful rose, while fortune, and
age, and the sable threads of the three sisters permit thee.
You must depart from your numerous purchased groves ;"
from your house also, and that villa, which the yellow Tiber
washes, you must depart: and an heir shall possess these
high-piled riches. It is of no consequence whether you are
the wealthy descendant of ancient Inachus, or whether, poor
and of the most ignoble race, you live without a covering
from the open air, since you are the victim of merciless
Pluto. We are all driven toward the same quarter : the lot
of all is shaken in the urn ; destined sooner or later to come
forth, and embark us in [Charon's] boat for eternal exile.

00 Dellius was a true picture of inconstancy. After Caesar's death he
changed his party four times in the space of twelve years, from whence
Messala used pleasantly to call him desultorem beUorum civilium, in allu-
sion to a custom of the ancient cavalry, who had two horses, and vaulted
from one to the other, as they were tired. The peace that succeeded the
civil wars, gave him an opportunity of establishing his affairs, which
naturally must have been greatly disordered by so many changes. At this
time Horace wrote this ode, in which he instructs him in the purest
maxims of Epicurean philosophy. SAN.

S1 " With the old Falernian," i. e. the choicest wine, which was placed
in the furthest part of the vault or crypt, marked with its date and growth.
Nota. Thus Catullus, Ixviii. 28, "de meliore nota;" and Curius, ap.
Cic. vii. 29, "Sulpicii successor!, nos de meliore nota commenda." Some
insert only a comma after Falnwi, and thus join the succeeding strophe
to this, "Sed propter meliorem totius periodi constructionein pra^taxe
videtur distinctio nostra." ORELL. M'CAUL.

11 " Bought up on all sides." ANTHON.

ODE IT. ODES OF HORACE. 43

ODE IV.

TO XANTHIAS PHOCEUS.

LET not, 0 Xanthias Phoceus, your passion for your maid
put you out of countenance ; before your time, the slave
Briseis2* moved the haughty Achilles by her snowy com-
plexion. The beauty of the captive Tecmessa24 smote her
master, the Telamonian Ajax ; Agamemnon, in the midst of
victory, burned for a ravished virgin : when the barbarian
troops fell by the hands of their Thessalian conqueror, and
Hector,1"' vanquished, left Troy more easily to be destroyed by
the Grecians. You do not know that perchance the beautiful
Phyllis has parents of condition happy enough to do honor
to you their son-in-law. Certainly she must be of royal
race,*0 and laments the unpropitiousness of her family-gods.
Be confident, that your beloved is not of the worthless crowd ;
nor that one so true, so unmercenary, could possibly be born
of a mother to be ashamed of. I can commend arms, and face,
and well-made legs, quite chastely • avoid being jealous of one,
whose age is hastening onward to biing its eighth lustrum87
to a close.

M Briseis. Her true name was Hippodamia, but she was called
Briseis, after her father Brises, the priest of Apollo. She was taken cap-
tive at Lyrnessus by the Greeks, and fell to the share of Achilles.
WATSON.

94 Tecmessa, a captive Trojan maid. WATSON.

96 Hector, the son of Priam, the most valiant of the Trojans, who, after
defending his country ten years against all the attacks of the Greeks, fell
at length by the hand of Achilles, who dragged his body thrice round the
walls of Troy, and afterward sold it to his father Priam. WATSON.

** There is considerable irony in this stanza, <; most undoubtedly she
is the daughter of some Eastern monarch, assuredly she laments the
severity of untoward fate." To the words regium genus, some com-
mentators supply est, but the words are governed by mceret. ANTHON.

17 A lustrum was a period of five years, so that the poet must now have
been in his fortieth year, and the ode must have been composed about
729 or 730, A. rr. c. The phrase claudere lustrum is used by Horace,
purposely to avoid the regular phrase condere lustrum, which would be
unsuited to this careless ode, and which properly refers to the sacrifice
called Suovetaurilia or Solitaurilia, which closed the census, the review of
the people taking place every lustrum, or at the end of ever five years.
ANTHON.

44 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK n.

ODE V.

NOT yet is she fit to be broken to the yoke ; not yet ia
she equal to the duties of a partner,58 nor can she support
the weight of the bull impetuously rushing to enjoyment.
Your heifer's sole inclination is about verdant fields, one
while in running streams soothing the grievous heat ; at
another, highly delighted to frisk with the steerlings in the
moist willow-ground. Suppress your appetite for the im-
mature grape ; shortly variegated autumn will tinge for thee
the livid clusters with a purple hue. Shortly she shall follow
you ; for her impetuous time runs on, and shall place to her
account those years of which it abridges you ; shortly Lahige
with a wanton assuran'Te will seek a husband, beloved in a
higher degree than the coy Pholoe, or even Chloris ; shining
as brightly with her fair shoulder, as the spotless moon upon
the midnight sea, or even the Gnidian Gyges, whom if you
should intermix in a company of girls, the undiscernible
difference occasioned by his flowing locks and doubtful
countenance would wonderfully impose even on sagacious
strangers.

ODE VI.

TO SEPTIMUS.

SEPTiMirs,*9 who art ready to go with me, even to Gades, and
to the Cantabrian, still untaught to bear our yoke, and the in-
hospitable Syrtes, where the Mauritania!! wave perpetually
boils : O may Tibur, founded by a Grecian colony, be the
habitation of my old age ! There let there be an end to my
fatigues by sea, and land, and war ; whence if the cruel fates

" Or rather, "yoke-fellow."

" Septimius, a Roman knight, and lyric and tragic poet: he was one
of Horace's school companions, and had been a fellow-soldier with him
in the army of Brutus and Cassius, and had the good fortune also to b»
received into the favor of Augustus. WATSON.

ODE TIL ODES OF HORACE. 45

debar me, I will seek the river of Galesus,30 delightful for
sheep covered with skins,31 and the countries reigned over by
Lacedaemonian Phalantus.32 That corner of the world smiles
in my eye beyond all others ; where the honey yields not to
the Hymettian, and the olive rivals the verdant Venafiian :
where the temperature of the air produces a long spring and
mild winters, and Aulon fiiendly to the fruitful vine, envies
not the Falernian grapes. That place, and those blest heights,3'
solicit you and me ; there you shall bedew the glowing ashes
of your poet friend with a tear due [to his memory].34

ODE VH.

TO POMPEIUS VARU8.

O THOU, often reduced with me to the last extremity in the war
which Brutus carried on, who has restored thee as a Roman
citizen,35 to the gods of thy country and the Italian air, Pom-

30 Galesus. a river of Calabria, that runs into the bay of Tarentum.
about five miles from the city: its waters are beautiful, and current
slow ; whence Horace says it is agreeable to the sheep. WATSON.

31 Pettitis ovibus. The sheep of Tarentum and Attica had a wool so
fine, that they were covered with skins to preserve it from the inclemency
of the weather. Pliny says, these covertures were brought from Arabia.
CRUQ.

32 Alluding to the story of Phalantus and the Parthenii. Phalantus
was expelled from Lacedaemon (B. c. 700) under the following circum-
stances: While the Spartans were absent during the Messenian wars,
their ladies, either ordered, as some traditions have it, or of their own
free will, elevated their slaves to the rank of temporary husbands. The
offspring of these connections, denominated the Parthenii, were expelled
by the Spartans on their return, and under Phalantus, their leader, they
colonized Tarentum, so called from Taras, a reputed son of Neptune.
AXTHOX.

" C£ Virg. G. iv. 461. " Rhodopei'a? arces"="the heights of Rho-
dope."

:<4 Debild sparges. These words, cum lacrymis posuit, are frequently
found in ancient epitaphs, and in the urn a little bottle filled with tear'.
TORE.

35 The name Quiritem here implies a full return to all the rights and
privileges of citizenship, which had been forfeited by his bearing arms
against the established authority of the triumvirate. ANTHON.

46 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK

\pey, thou first of my companions; with whom I have fre^
quently broken the tedious day in drinking, having my hair,
shining with the Syrian malobathrum, crowned [with flow-
ers] ! Together with thee did I experience the [battle of]
Philippi" and a precipitate flight, having shamefully enough
left my shield ; when valor was broken, and the most dar-
ing" smote the squalid earth with their faces. But Mercury"
swift conveyed me away, terrified as I was, in a thick cloud
through the midst of the enemy. Thee the reciprocating sea,
with his tempestuous waves, bore back again to war. Where-
fore render to Jupiter the olFering that is due, and deposit your
limbs, wearie 1 with a tedious war,39 under my laurel, and spare
not the casks reserved for you. Fill up the polished bowls with
care-dispelling Massic : pour out the perfumed ointments from
the capacious shells. Who takes care to quickly weave the
chaplets of fresh parsley or myrtle ? Whom shall the Venus48

** Philippi, a city of Macedonia on the borders of Thrace, famous for
the overthrow of Brutus and Cassius by Augustus. WATSON.

17 Mtnar.es. After the battle of Philippi, in which Octavius was routed
by Brutus, his soldiers demanded, in a mutinous manner, to be led
against the enemy ; they complained that they should be confined within
their camp, when the forces of Octavius, broken by their late defeat, and
oppressed by famine, might easily be conquered. Brutus, at last, fatally
gave way to their temerity and impatience, for which the poet gives
them the epithet minaces.

88 Mercury. He here alludes to the fights described by Homer,
where the gods surround those they are willing to save with a thick
cloud, and carry them off from the fury of their enemies. This is here
ascribed to Mercury, as the father of eloquence, and the protector of
learned men.

" Five years, in a party always unfortunate, might well seem a tedious
and fatiguing warfare. SAN.

'" The ancients at their feasts appointed a person to preside by throw-
ing the dice, whom they called arbiter bibendi (avpntiauiftxiK). "master
of the feast." He directed every thing at pleasure. In playing at games
of chance they used three tesxerce, and four tali. The tesserae had six
sides, marked I. If. III. IV. V. VI. The tali had four sides, longwise,
for the two ends were not regarded. On one side was marked one point
(unio, an ace, called Canis), and on the opposite side six (Senio), while
on the two other sides were three and four iternio et quaternio). The
highest or most fortunate throw was called Venus, and determined the
director of the feast. It was, of the tessera, three sixes: of the tali, when
all of them came out different numbers. The worst or lowest throw was
termed Canis, and was, of the tessera, three aces ; and of th« tali, when
they were all tho same. ANTHON.

ODB V7H. LX. ODES OF HORACE. 4f

pronounce to be master of the revel ? In wild carouse I will
become frantic as the Bacchanalians. 'T is delightful to me
to play the madman, on the reception of my friends.

ODE vm.

TO BARINE.

IP any punishment, Barine, for your violated oath had ever
been of prejudice to you : if you had become less agreeable by
the blackness of a single tooth or nail, I might believe you.
But you no sooner have bound your perfidious head with vows,
but you shine out more charming by far, and come forth the
public care of our youth. It is of advantage to you to deceive
the buried ashes of your mother, and the silent constellations
of the night, together with all heaven, and the gods free from
chill death. Venus herself, I profess, laughs at this ; the
good-natured nymphs laugh, and cruel Cupid, who is per-
petually sharpening his bui ning darts on a bloody whetstone.
Add to this, that all our boys are growing up for you ; a new
herd of slaves is growing up ; nor do the former ones quit the
house of their impious mistress, notwithstanding they often
have threatened it. The matrons are in dread of you on ac-
count of their young ones ; the thrifty old men are in dread of
you ; and the girls but just married are in distress, lest your
beauty should slacken [the affections of] their husbands.

ODE IX.

TO TITUS VALGIUS.

SHOWERS do not perpetually pour down upon the rough fields,
nor do varying hurricanes forever harass the Caspian Sea*,
nor, my friend Valgius, does the motionless ice remain fixed
throughout all the months, in the regions of Armenia ; nor do
the Garganian oaks [always] labor under the northerly winds,
nor are the ash-trees widowed of their leaves. But thou art con-
tinually pursuing Mystes, who is taken from thee, with mo"«n-

48 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK IL

ful measures : nor do the effects of thy love for him cease at
the rising of Vesper,41 or when he flies the rapid approach of
the sun. But the aged man who lived three generations, did
not lament the amiable Antilochus all the years of his life :
nor did his parents or his Trojan sisters perpetually bewail
the blooming Troilus. At length then desist from thy tender
complaints ; and rather let us sing the fresh" trophies of
Augustus Caesar, and the Frozen Niphates, and the river
Medus," added to the vanquished nations, rolls more humble
tides, and the Gelonians riding within a prescribed boundary
in a narrow tract of land.

ODE X.

TO LICINIU8 MURENA.

O LICINIUS," you will lead a more correct course of life, by
neither always pursuing the ma:n ocean, nor, while you cau-
tiously are in dread of storms, by pressing too much upon the
hazardous shore. Whosoever loves the golden mean, is secure
from the sordidness of an antiquated cell, and is too prudent to

41 Vespero. This star was called Lucifer in the morning, and Vesper
in the evening. FRAN.

41 This expedition of Augustus was the most glorious of his whole life.
He not only made the Roman name to be revered to the utmost bounds
of Asia and Africa, in imposing conditions of peace upon the Indians and
^Ethiopians: he not only confirmed the repose of the empire, by establish-
ing in Greece, Sicily, and Asia Minor a stable and uniform government,
and ordering Armenia, Cilicia, and Arabia in favor of princes attached to
the interest of the republic; but humbled the pride of the Parthiana by
obliging Phraates to restore the Roman eagles and prisoners, which were
taken thirty years before, and to pull down the trophies that Orodes had
erected for the defeat of Crassus. To perpetuate the memory of thia
success, he struck a medal with this inscription, PRO siGNis aECEPTis.
SAN.

0 By the river Medus, Horace means the Parthians, as he would dis-
tinguish the Armenians by Niphates. Euphrates dictus est primum Mtdus.
And probably the Tigris is here cai.ed Niphates, as it rises out of a
mountain of that name. SAN.

44 This Licinius, according to Dacier. is the s;tmr> with Licinius Varro
Murena, the brother of Proculeius, and Terentia. the wife of Maecenas.
L!e entered into a conspiracy against Augustus, with Flavius Cepio, in the
year of the city 731.

ODES OF HORACE. 49

have a palace that might expose him to envy. The lofty pine
is more frequently agitated with winds, and high towers fall
down with a heavier ruin, and lightnings strike the summits
of the mountains. A well-provided breast hopes in adversity,
and fears in prosperity. 'Tis the same Jupiter, that brings
the hideous winters back, and that takes them away. If it is
ill with us now, it will not be so hereafter. Apollo sometimes
rouses the silent lyric muse, neither does he always bend hi8
bow. In narrow circumstances appear in high spirits, and
undaunted. In the same manner you will prudently contract
your sails, which are apt to be too much swollen in a prosper
ous gale.

ODE XL

TO QUINTIUS HIRPINUS.

0 Qunmus HIRPINUS, forbear to be inquisitive what the
Cantabrian, and the Scythian, divided from us by the inter-
posed Adriatic, is meditating; neither be fearfully solicitous
for the necessaries of a life, which requires but a few things.
Youth and beauty fly swift away, while sapless old age expels
the wanton loves and gentle sleep. The same glory does not
always remain to the vernal flowers, nor does the ruddy moon
shine with one continued aspect ; why, therefore, do you fatigue
your mind, unequal to eternal projects ? Why do we not rather
(while it is in our power) thus carelessly reclining under p, lofty
plane-tree, or this pine, with our hoary locks mads fragrant by
roses, and anointed with Syrian perfume, indulge ourselves with
generous wine ? Bacchus dissipates preying cares. What slave
is here, instantly to cool some cups of ardent Falernian in the
passing stream ? Who will tempt the vagrant wamon Lycle
from her house ? See that you bid her h? .ten with her ivory
lyre, collecting her hair into a graceful knot, after the fashion
of a Spartan maid."

45 There is much doubt about the reading and interpretation of tni;
See Orelli.

3

50 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK n.

ODE XH.

TO MAECENAS.

Do not insist that the long wars of fierce Numantia,4* or the
formidable Annibal, or the Sicilian Sea impurpled with Car-
thaginian blood, should be adapted to the tender lays of tho
lyre : nor the cruel Lapithae, nor Hylaeus excessive in wine,
and the earth-born youths, subdued by Herculean force, from
whom the splendid habitation of old Saturn dreaded danger.
And you yourself, Maecenas, with more propriety shall re-
count the battles of Caesar, and the necks of haughty kings
led in triumph through the streets in historical prose. It was
the muse's will that I should celebrate the sweet strains of
my mistress Lycimnia," that I should celebrate her bright-
darting eyes, and her breast laudably faithful to mutual love :
who can with a grace introduce her foot into the dance, or,
sporting, contend18 in raillery, or join arms with the bright
virgins on the celebrated Diana's festival. Would you, [Mae-
cenas,] change one of Lycimnia's tresses for all the rich
Achaemenes possessed, or the Mygdonian wealth of fertile
Phrygia, or all the dwellings of the Arabians replete with

48 Numantia, a city in Spain, now called Garray : with a garrison ot
4000 men, it held out fourteen 3rears against a Roman army of 40,000
men ; at last, being sore pressed by Scipio, and like to perish by famine,
they gathered all their goods together, and setting them on fire, they
threw themselves afterward into the flames. WATSON.

" Terentia, the passionately-loved wife of the jealous Maecenas, is,
doubtless, intended. When the poets wished to avoid the direct nomi-
nation of an individual, they generally coined some word corresponding
in meter and number of syllables with the proper name of the person,
as here Lycimnia = Terentia. Thus also Persius, " Auriculas asini Midas
rex habet," where Midas is — Nero, as Plania is — Delia, in Tibullus,
etc. ; MaUhinus in Serm. i. 8, is for Maecenas, etc. A freed-woman could
not be intended, from the expression " nee ferre pedem dedecuit ohoris,"
for none but females of tho highest rank took part in these sacred dances.
WHEELER. " Neque enim periculum erat, ne inter virgines lectas saltaro
;uivis foemina3 dedecori esset, excepta forte Livia August! vel Terentia
Mfficenatis, vel Octavia aliave ex nobilissimis quarum infra dignitatem
;.d ease severioribus videri potest." ORKI.M.

<8 By the word certare, the poet alludes to a custom among the Greeks
and Romans of disputing the prize of raillery on their festival days. It
appears by a passage in Aristophanes, that the victors in these disputes
were publicly crowned by the Greeks. DAC.

ODE mi. ODES OF HORACE. 51

treasures ? Especially when she turns her neck to meet your
burning kisses, or with a gentle cruelty denies, what she would
more delight to have ravished than the petitioner — or some-
times eagerly anticipates to snatch them herself.

ODE XHI.

TO A TREE.

0 TREE4' he planted thee on an unlucky day whoever did
it first, and with an impious hand raised thee for the destruc-
tion of posterity, and the scandal of the village. I could be-
lieve that he had broken his own father's neck, and stained
his most secret apartments with the midnight blood60 of his
guest. He was wont to handle Colchian poisons, and what-
ever wickedness is any where conceived, who planted in my
field thee, a sorry log ; thee, ready to fall on the head of thy
inoffensive master. What we ought to be aware of, no man
is sufficiently cautious at all hours. The Carthaginian sailor
thoroughly dreads the Bosphorus ; nor, beyond that, does he
fear a hidden fate from any other quarter. The soldier dreads
the arrows and the fleet retreat of the Parthian ; the Pai thian,
chains and an Italian prison ;61 but the unexpected assault of
death has carried off, and will carry off, the world in general.
How near was I seeing the dominions of black Proserpine,"
and yEacms63 sitting in judgment ; the separate abodes alf o of
the pious, and Sappho complaining on her ^Eolian lyre of her

49 The construction is, " ille et nefasto te pos. die, Quicunque primum
posuit, et (postea) produxit sacr. manu." ORELLI.
5U i. e. the blood of his guest, slain at midnight.

51 The term robur appears to allude particularly to the well-known
prison at Rome, called Tuttianum. It was originally built by Ancus
Martius, and afterward enlarged by Servius Tullius, whence that part
of it which was under ground, and built by him, received the name of
Tallianum. ED. DUEL.

52 Proserpine, the daughter of Jupiter and Ceres, whom Pluto stole
and carried away with him out of Sicily. Horace here uses " Regna
furvse Proserpinae," the realms of black Proserpine, instead of " furva
Regna Proserpina," the black realms of Poserpine. WATSON.

53 ^Bacus was the son of Jupiter and ^Egina, and father of Peleus and
Telamou. His reputation for justice was so great, that after his death
he was established one of the infernal judges along with Minos and
Rhadamanthus. WATSON.

52 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK IL

own country-damsels ; aud thee, O Alcseus, sounding in fuller
strains on thy golden harp the distresses of c.\il<\ ;ni\ the dis-
tresses of war. The ghosts admire them both, while they utter
strains worthy of a sacred silence ;'4 but the crowded multitude,
pressing with their shoulders, imbibes, with a more greedy ear,
battles and banished tyrants. What wonder? Since the.
many-headed monster, astonished at those lays, hangs down his
sable ears; and the snakes, entwine 1 in the hair of the furies,
are soothed. Moreover, Prometheus and the si;e of Pelcps are
deluded into an insensibility of their torments, by the melodious
sound : nor is Orion any longer solicitous to harass the lions,
or the fearful lynxes.

ODE XIV.

TO POSTUMUS.

ALAS ! my Postumus, my Postumns, the fleeting years glide
on ; nor will piety cause any delay to wrinkles, and ad-
vancing old age, and insuperable death. You could not, if
you were to sacrifice every passing day three hundred bulls,
render propitious pitiless Pluto, who confines the thrice-
monstrous Geryon and Tityus" with the dismal Siygian
stream, namely, that stream which is to be passed over by all
who are fed by the bounty of the earth, whether we be kings
or poor hinds. In vain shall we be free fiom sanguinary
Mars, and the broken billows of the hoarse Adriatic, ; in vain
shall we be apprehensive for ourselves68 of the noxious South,

5« Sacro silentio. At the ancient sacred rites the most profound silence
was required from a!5 who stood around, both out of respect to the deity
whom they were worshiping, as also lest some ill-omened expression,
casually uttered by any one of the crowd, should mar the solemnities ol
the day. Hence the phrase " sacred silence," became eventually equiva-
lent to, and is here used genernlly as, "the deepest silence." Thua
Anthon : — 9 preferable explanation is, :1 suited to that hallowed region
of silence." "Sacris sedibus, quas umbra: silentes incolunt, Elysio."
ORELL. Corr.p. JEn. vi. 264, "Umbraeque silentes;" 443, "sileutum
conciliurn." WHEELER.

53 Titj-w, the son of Jupiter by Elora, of such a gigantic size, that
hi? body ^ras according to the poets, nine acres in length. WATSON.

** '• Tl«« construction metuemux corporibus is more correct thun ween
ton corpwibus, unless wo regard it as twofold. OUELLL

OUEXV. ODES OF HORACE. 53

in the time of autumn. The black Cocytus wandering with
languid current, and the infamous race of Danaus," and Sisy-
phus,68 the son of the ^Eolus, doomed to eternal toil, must be
visited ; your land and house and pleasing wife must be left,
nor shall any of those trees, which you are nursing, follow
you, their master for a brief space, except the hated cypresses ;
a worthier heir shall consume your Caecuban wines now
guarded with a hundred keys, and shall wet the pavement with
the haughty wine, more exquisite than what graces pontifical
entertainments.

ODE XV.

AGAINST THE LUXURY OF THE ROMANS.

THE palace-like edifices will in a short time leave but a few
acres for the plow ; ponds of wider extent than the Lucrine
lake will be every where to be seen ; and the barren plane-tree
will supplant the elms. Then banks of violets, and myrtle
groves, and all the tribe of nosegays69 shall diffuse their odors
in the olive plantations, which were fruitful to their preceding
master. Then the laurel with dense boughs shall exclude the
burning beams. It was not so prescribed by the institutes of
Romulus, and the unshaven Cato, and ancient custom. Their
private income was contracted, while that of the community
was great. No private men were then possessed of galleries
measured by ten-feet rules, which collected the shady northern
breezes; nor did the laws permit them to reject the casual
turf [for their own huts], though at the same time they
obliged them to ornament in the most sumptuous manner, with
new stone, the buildings of the public, and the temples of the
gods, at a common expense.

57 Danaus. He had fifty daughters, called the Dana'ides, who, by their
father's command, killed in one night all their husbands. WATSON.

58 Sisyphus, the most cunning of all mortals, who, for his robberies
and impious arts, was condemned to roll a stone up-hill, which immedi-
ately rolled down again ; therefore Virgil calls it " non exuperabile
aaxum," or the insurmountable stone. Georg. Lib. v. 39. WATSON.

59 Luxus odorum." SCHOL.

04 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK a

ODE XVL

TO GRO8PHU8.

O GROSPHUS, he that is caught in the wide ./Egean Sea, when
a black tempest has obscured the moon, and not a star appears
with steady light for the mariners, supplicates the gods for
repose : for repose, Thrace furious in war ; the quiver-graced
Medes, for repose neither purchasable by jewels, nor by pur-
ple, nor by gold. For neither regal treasures nor the con-
sul's officer can remove80 the wretched tumults of the mind,
nor the cares that hover about splendid ceilings. That man
lives happily on a little, who can view with pleasure the old-
fashioned family salt-cellar on his frugal board ; neither anx-
iety nor sordid avarice robs him of gentle sleep. Why do
we, brave for a short season, aim at many things ? Whv do
we change our own for climates heated by another sun ? Wl o-
ever, by becoming an exile from his country, escaped likewise
from himself? Consuming care boards even brazen-beaked
ships ; nor does it quit the troops of horsemen, for it is more
fleet than the stags, more fleet than the storm-driving east
wind. A mind that is cheerful in its present state, will disdain
to be solicitous any further, and can correct the bitters of life
with a placid smile. Nothing is on all hands completely
blessed. A premature death carried off the celebrated Achilles ;
a protracted old age wore down Tithonus ; and time perhaps
may extend to me, what it shall deny to you. Around you
a hundred flocks bleat, and Sicilian heifers low ; for your use
the mare, fit for the harness," neighs ; wool doubly dipped in
the African purple-dye clothes you : on me undeceitful fate has
bestowed a small country estate, and the slight inspiration of
the Grecian muse, and a contempt for the malignity of the
vulgar.

60 One part of the lictor's office was, to remove the crowd, and open a
way for the magistrates ; from whence the poet hath taken this beautiful
image. DAC.

81 Apia quadrigis, " Born for the chariot." The poet merely wishes to
express the generous properties of the animal. The ancients pave the
preference in respect of swiftness to mares The term quadriga properly
denotes a chariot drawn by four horses, or mares. The Romans always
yoked the animals that drew their race-chariots abreast.

ODEXVIL ODES OF HORACE. 66

ODE XVH

TO MAECENAS."

WHY dost thou kill me with thy complaints ? Tis neither
agreeable to the gods, nor to me, that thou shouldest depart
first, O Maecenas, thou grand ornament and pillar of my affairs.
Alas ! if an untimely blow hurry away thee, a part of my soul,
why do I the other moiety remain, my value lost, nor any longer
whole ? That [fatal] day shall bring destruction upon us both.
I have by no means taken a false oath :63 we will go, we will
go, whenever thou shalt lead the way, prepared to be fellow-
travelers in the last journey. Me nor the breath of the
fiery Chimaera, nor hundred-handed Gyges, were he to rise
again, shall ever tear from thee : such is the will of powerful
Justice, and of the Fates. Whether Libra or malignant
Scorpio had the ascendant at my natal hour,64 or Capricon
the ruler of the western wave, our horoscopes agree in a won-

G2 The constitution of Maecenas, naturally weak, had been impaired by
effeminacy and luxurious living. " He had labored," observes Mr. Dun-
lop, "from his youth under a perpetual fever; and for many years be-
fore his death he suffered much from watchfulness, which was greatly
aggravated by his domestic chagrins. Maecenas was fond of life and en-
joyment ; and of life even without enjoyment. He confessed, in some
verses preserved by Seneca, that ho would wish to live even under every
accumulation of physical calamity. (Seneca Epist. 101.) Hence he anx-
iously resorted to different remedies for the cure or relief of this distress-
ins: malady. Wine, soft music sounding at a distance, and various other
contrivances, were contrived in vain. At length Antonius Musa, the
imperial physician, obtained for him some alleviation of his complaint
by means of the distant murmuring of falling water. But all these re-
sources at last failed. The nervous and feverish disorder with which he
was afflicted increased so dreadfully, that for three years before his death
he never closed his eyes." (History of Roman Literature, vol. iii. p. 42,
Lond. ed.) ANTHON.

63 Psrfidum Sacramenium. Horace alludes here to an oath of fidelity
taken by soldiers when they have enlisted, and although there bo not a
formal oath expressed, yet it is included in

Illo dies utramque
Ducet ruinam. CRUQ. DAC.

64 Pars violentior natalis horce. Pars here signifies what the Greeks
call fimpa, that part of the sign which appears above the horizon at the
moment of birth ; for every sign is divided into several parts, which
make as many horoscopes, called by the poet Natalis Hbrce. DAC.

66 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK a

derful manner. Thee the benign protection of Jupiter, shin-
ing with friendly aspect, rescued from the baleful influence
of impious Saturn, and retarded the wings of precipitate des-
tiny, at the time the crowded people with resounding ap-
plauses thrice hailed you in the theater: me the trunk of a
tree, falling upon my skull, would have dispatched, had not
Faunus, the protector of men of genius, with his right hand
warded off the blow. Be thou mindful to pay the victims and
the votive temple ; I will sacrifice an humble lamb.

ODE XVIII.

AGAINST AVARICE AND LUXURY.

NOR ivory, nor a fretted ceiling adorned with gold, glitters
in my house : no Hymettian beams05 rest upon pillars cut
out of the extreme parts of Africa ; nor, a pretended heir,
have I possessed myself of the palace of Attalus," nor do
ladies, my dependants, spin Laconian purple for my use. But
integrity, and a liberal vein of genius, are mine : and tke man
of fortune makes his court to me, who am but poor. I im-
portune the gods no further, nor do I require of my friend in
power any larger enjoyments, sufficiently happy with my Sa-
bine farm alone. Day is driven on by day, and the new moons
hasten to their wane. You put out marble to be hewn, though
with one foot in the grave; and, unmindful of a sepulcher,
are building houses ; and are busy to extend the shore of the
sea, that beats with violence at Baia3," not rich enough with

65 Architraves, formed of the white marblo of Hytnettus, a mountain
near Athena. ORELLI.

68 The old commentators nnd Cruquius imagine, that there is a stroke
of satire here, by which the poet would insinuate, that the Roman peo-
ple had fraudulently obtained them the will by which Attalus made
them his heirs. But this unknown heir was undoubtedly Aristonicus,
who, after the death of Attalus, seized upon the throne, defeated Licin-
ius Crassus, and being conquered by Perpenna, was carried to Rome,
and strangled in prison by order of the senate. TORR.

•7 Baiic, a city of Campania, near the sea, situated between Puteoli
and Piccnum. People were fond of building here, because of the beauty
of the place. Here arc many hot waters, pleasant and wholesoma
WATSON.

ODES OF HORACE. 57

the shore of the mainland. Why is it, that through avarice you
even pluck up the landmarks of your neighbor's ground, and
trespass beyond the bounds of your clients ; and wife and
husband are turned out, bearing in their bosom their house-
hold gods and their destitute children ? Nevertheless, no court
more certainly awaits its wealthy lord, than the destined limit
of rapacious Pluto. Why do you go on ? The impartial earth
is opened equally to the poor and to the sons of kings ; nor
has the life-guard ferryman of hell, bribed with gold, re-con-
ducted the artful Prometheus. He confines proud Tantalus,
and the race of Tantalus ; he condescends, whether invoked or
not, to relieve the poor freed from their labors.

ODE XIX.

ON BACCHUS.
A DITHTRAMBIC, OR DRINKING SONG.

I SAW Bacchus (believe it, posterity) dictating strains among
the remote rocks, and the nymphs learning them, and the ears
of the goat-footed satyrs all attentive. Evce ! my mind trem-
bles with recent dread, and my soul, replete with Bacchus,68
has a tumultuous joy, Evoe ! 68 spare me, Bacchus ; spare me,
thou who ait formidable for thy dreadful thyrsus. It is
granted me to sing the wanton Bacchanalian priestess, and
the fountain of wine, and rivulets flowing with milk, and to
tell again of the honeys distilling from the hollow trunks. It
is granted me likewise to celebrate the honor added to the
constellations by your happy spouse,70 r.nd the palace of Pen-

63 Bacchus, the son of Jupiter by Semele. He was taken out of his
mother, and sewed into Jupiter's thigh till ripe for birth. He was the
god of wine. WATSON.

69 Evoe was a word used by the priests of Bacchus when they celebrat-
ed his mysteries, being taken from his name Evius, which was given by
Jupiter in that war which the giants waged against heaven. WATSON.

7U Ariadne, daughter to Minos, king of Crete, who, for the love she
had to Theseus, gave him a clew to guide him through the mazes of the
Labyrinth. She accompanied him as far as the island Naxos, or Dionysia,
where Theseus most ungratefully left her ; but Bacchus, pitying her, took

3*

58 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK a

theus71 demolished with no light ruin, and the perdition of
Thracian Lycurgus.71 You command the rivers, you the bar-
barian sea. You, moist with wine, on lonely mouutaiu-tops
bind the hair of your Thracian priestesses with a knot of
vipers without hurt. You, when the impious band of giants
scaled the realms of father Jupiter through the sky, repelled
Rhoetus, with the paws and horrible jaw of the lion-shape
[you had assumed]. Thou, reported to be better fitted for
dances and jokes and play, you were accounted insufficient
for fight ; yet it then appeared, you, the same deity, was the
mediator of peace and war. Upon you, ornamented with
your golden horn, Cerberus innocently gazed, gently wagging
his tail ; and with his triple tongue licked your feet and legs,
as you returned.

ODE XX.

TO MAECENAS.

I, A two-formed poet, will be conveyed through the liquid air
with no vulgar or humble wing ; nor will I loiter upon
earth any longer ; and superior to envy, I will quit cities.
Not I, even I, the blood of low parents, my dear Maecenas,
shall die ; nor shall I be restrained by the Stygian wave. At
this instant a rough skin settles upon my ankles, and all up-
wards I am transformed into a white bird, and the downy
plumage arises over my fingers and shoulders. Now, a me-
lodious bird, more expeditious than the Daedalean Icarus, I
will visit the shores of the murmuring Bosphorus, and the
Gsetulean Syrtes, and the Hyperborean plains. Me the Col-

her into heaven, made her his wife, and presented her with a diadem,
sparkling with seven stars, called Gnosia Corona. WATSON.

71 Pentheus, a king of Thebes, who, for slighting the rights of Bac-
chus, was torn in pieces by his own mother, sisters, and aunt WATSON.

72 Lycurgus, a king of Thrace, who, finding his people too much ad-
dicted to wine, ordered all the vines of the country to be rooted up.
Justin, book iii. Therefore Bacchus made him mad ; so that he cut off
his own legs. There was another of the same name, the famous Spartan
law-giver. WATSON'-

ODE xx. ODES OF HORACE. 59

chian and the Dacian, who hides his fear of the Marsian co-
hort, and the remotest Gelonians,73 shall know : me the learned
Spaniard74 shall study, and he that drinks of the Rhone. Let
there be no dirges,76 nor unmanly lamentations, nor bewailings
at my imaginary funeral ; suppress your crying, and forbear
the superfluous honors of a sepulcher.

73 Geloni, a people of Scythia, otherwise called Getse. They uaed to
paint themselves, to become more terrible to their enemies ; whence Vir-
gil calls them •' pictos Gelonos." Geor. ii. 115. They are thought to be
now the Lithuanians. WATSON.

74 In the time of Augustus learning and the sciences flourished in
Spain, whither they were carried from Asia, and where the Roman colo-
nies contributed greatly to their encouragement. DAC.

75 An imitation of Ennius' epitaph, p. 161, ed. Hessel :

" Nemo me lacrameis decoret, nee funera fletu
Pac sit, quur ? volito, vivo, per ora virum."

THE THIRD BOOK

ODES OF HORACE,

ODE I.

ON CONTENTMENT.

I ABOMINATE the uninitiated vulgar, and keep them at a dis-
tance. Preserve a religious silence : I, the priest of the Muses,
sing to virgins and boys verses not heard before. The domi-
nion of dread sovereigns is over their own subjects; that of
Jupiter, glorious for his conquest over the giants, who shakes
all nature with his nod, is over sovereigns themselves. It
happens that one man arranges trees, in regular rows, to a
greater extent than another ; this man comes down into the
Campus [Martius]1 as a candidate of a better fsjmily ; another
vies with him for morals and a better reputation ; a third has
a superior number of dependants ; but Fate, by the impartial
law of nature, is allotted both to the conspicuous and the ob-
scure ; the capacious urn keeps every name in motion. Sici-
lian dainties will not force a delicious relish to that man,
over whose impious neck the naked sword luings : the ?ongs
of birds and the lyre will not restore his sleep. Sleep disdains
not the humble cottages and shady bank of peasants ; he dis-
dains not Tempe, fanned by zephyrs. Hint, who desires but
« competency, neither the tempestuous sea renders anxious,
nor the malign violence of Arcturus setting,* or of the rising

1 The Field of Mara, where the popular assemblies were held for elec-
tions, was in the lowest ground of Romo, from whence the poet uses the
word descendat. SXK.

5 Setting Arrturas. a constollntion of fourteen stars, which follow the
Ursus Major, whence it has its name. It is thought, both at rising and
setting, to cause tempests. The ancients have observed its rising to be
in the middle of September, and its setting in the beginning of October.
WATSON.

ODEIL ODES OF HORACE. 61

Kid ; not his vineyards beaten down with hail, and a deceitful
farm ; his plantations at one season blaming the rains, at
another, the influence of the constellations parching the
groun Js, at another, the severe winters. The fishes perceive
the seas contracted, by the vast foundations that have been
laid in the deep : hither numerous undertakers with their men,
and lords, disdainful of the land, send down mortar : but
anxiety and the threats of conscience8 ascend by the same way
as the possessor ; nor does gloomy care depart from the brazen-
beaked galley, and she mounts behind the horseman. Since
then nor Phrygian marble, nor the use of purple more
dazzling than the sun, nor the Falernian vine, nor the Persian
nard, composes a troubled mind, why should I set aboat a
lofty edifice* with columns that excite envy, and in the
modern taste ? Why should I exchange my Sabine vale for
wealth, which is attended with more trouble ?

ODE II.

AGAINST THE DEGENERACY OF THE ROMAN YOUTH.

LET the robust youth learn patiently5 to endure pinching
want in the active exercise of arms ; and as an expert horse •
man, dreadful for his spear, let him harass the fierce Partial
ans; and let him lead a life exposed to the open air, r.nd
familiar with dangers. Him, the conscrt and marriageable
virgin-daughter of some warring tyrant, viewing from the
hostile wall:, may sigh — Alas ! let not the affianced prince, in-
experienced as he is in arms, provoke by a touch this terrible
lion, whom WooJy rage hurries through the midst of slaughter.
It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country ; death even
pursues the man that flies from him ; nor does he spare thfc
trembling knees of effeminate youth, nor the cowa'd back.
Virtue, unknowing of base repulse, shines with immaculate
honors ; nor does she assume nor lay aside the ensigns of

3 Mince, " internse propter facinora commissa." OKELLI.

4 Atrium was properly a great liall. in which the Romans placed the
statues of their ancestors, received their clients, and performed all their
domestic duties. It is here used for the whole dwelling. ED. DUBLIN.

5 Amice, i. e. " with a mind well-disposed toward toil," and hence,
u patiently, willingly." ORELLL

62 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK m.

her dignity,8 at the veering of the popular air. Virtue,
throwing open heaven to those who deserve not to die, directs
her progress through paths of difficulty,' and spurns with a
rapid wing groveling cowards and the slippery earth. There
is likewise a sure reward for faithful silence. I will prohibit
that man, who shall have divulged the sacred rites of mys-
terious Ceres, from being under the same roof with me, or
from setting snil with me in the same fragile bark: for
Jupiter, when slighted, often joins a good man in the same
fate with a bad one. Seldom hath punishment, though lame,
of foot, failed to overtake the wicked.

ODE m.8

ON STEADINESS AND INTEGRITY.

NOT the rage of the people pressing to hurtful measures, not
the aspect of a threatening tyrant can shake from his settled
purpose the man who is just and determined in his resolu-
tion ; nor can the south wind, that tumultuous ruler of the
restless Adriatic, nor the mighty hand of thundering Jove ; if
a crushed world should fall in upon him, the ruins would
strike him undismayed. By this character" Pollux,10 by this

e Literally, " the fasces."

7 Literally, " a forbidden track."

8 Julius Caesar, according to Suetonius, had formed a design of trans-
porting the seat of empire to Troy or Alexandria, after having exhausted
Italy of its treasures and inhabitants. This was strongly reported a little
before the dictator was put to death ; and, as Augustus seemed willing to
enter into all the schemes of his predecessor, and as Troy was usually es-
teemed the seat of the Julian family, the Romans were apprehensive
that he had resolved to carry this project into execution. It is certain,
that both Julius Caesar and Augustus, on many occasions, showed a
very remarkable inclination in favor of Troy : the first ordered it to be
rebuilt; the second settled a colony there; and they both granted it
considerable privileges. Thus the report, concerning the dictator's
intention, might naturally make the people attentive to the actions
of his successor; and their apprehensions might have engaged the
poet to write this ode. in which he boldly attempts to dissuade Augustus
from his design by representing Juno, in a full assembly of the gods,
threatening the Romans with her resentment, if they should dare to re-
build the walls of a city which had been always an object of her dis-
pleasure and revenge.

9 Hoc arte,] li/iery, " by using this same constancy." ORELLI.

10 Pollux, the son of Jupiter and Leda, and twin brother of Castor ; 01.

ODEm. ODES OF HORACE. 63

the wandering Hercules, arrived at the starry citadels ; among
whom Augustus11 has now taken his place, and quaffs nectar
with empurpled lips. Thee, 0 father Bacchus, meiitorious for
this virtue, thy tigers carried, drawing the yoke with intract-
able neck ; by this Romulus escaped Acheron on the horses of
Mars — Juno13 having spoken what the gods in full conclave
approved: "Troy, Troy, a fatal and lewd judge,13 and a
foreign woman, have reduced to ashes, condemned,14 with its
inhabitants and fraudulent prince, to me and the chaste
Minerva, ever since Laomedon15 disappointed the gods of the
stipulated reward. Now neither the infamous guest of the
Lacedaemonian adulteress shines ; nor does Priam's perjured
family repel the warlike Grecians by the aid of Hector, and
that war, spun out to such a length by our factions, has sunk
to peace. Henceforth, therefore, I will give up to Mars both
my bitter resentment, and the detested grandson,16 whom the
Trojan princes bore. Him will I suffer to enter the blight
regions, to drink the juice of nectar, and to be enrolled among
the peaceful order of gods. As long as the extensive sea rages

as others, the son of Tyndarug, whence the brothers are called Tyn-
daridte. He and his brother were immortal by turns. He was famous
for boxing, and Castor for horsemanship. They freed the seas of pirates,
and were therefore worshiped as the gods of the sea. WATSON'.

11 Divine honors were decreed to Augustus in the year 725. and the
poet here appoints him a seat in heaven among the heroes, who were
deified for their resolution and constancy, to show that his statue was
placed in Rome with those of Pollux, Hercules, and Bacchus. The
Romans painted the faces of these statues with vermilion, from whence
Dacier thinks that Horace hath taken this expression, purpureo ore.
Others understand the rays of light, with which the pods are represented;
yet more naturally it seems to mean a glowing of brightness, without re-
gard to any particular color, for the word purpureus is often thus used
by the best authors. As Virgil purpureum mare. FRAN.

'« Juno, see B. II. Ode i. WATSON.

13 Alluding to the judgment of Paris. Cf. Virg. JEn. i. 26 sq.

H Damna(/is was a term of the Roman law, which adjudged an in-
solvent debtor to his creditors in which sense it is here used, to express
the condemnation of the Trojans to the resentment of Juno and Minerva.
DAC.

13 Laomedon. The ancients relate that Neptune and Apollo assisted
him in building the walls of Troy, but that he defrauded them of the
wages he promised them for so doing. WATSON.

16 Romulus was the grandson of Juno by her son Mars, and detested
by the goddess because a Trojan priestess was his mother. Nepos, in
the time of pure Latinity, always signified a grandson, and Quintilian
first used it for a nephew. SAN.

64 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK m.

between Troy and Rome, let them, exiles, reign happy in any
other part of the world : as long as cattle trample upon the
tomb of Priam and Paris, and wild beasts conceal their young
ones there with impunity, may the Capitol remain in splendor,
and may brave Rome be able to give laws to the conquered
Medes. Tremendous let her extend her name abroad to the
extremes! boundaries of the earth, where the middle ocean
separates Europe from Africa, where the swollen Nile waters
the plains ; more brave in despising gold as yet undiscovered,
and so best situated while hidden in the earth, than in forcing
it out for the uses of mankind, with a hand ready to make
depredations on every thing that is sacred. Whatever end of
the world has made resistance, that let her reach with her
arms, joyfully alert to visit even that part where fiery heats
rage madding ; that where clouds and rains storm with un-
moderated fury. But I pronounce this fate to the warlike
Romans, upon this condition ; that neither through an excess
of piety, nor of confidence in their power, they become in-
clined to rebuild the houses of their ancestors' Troy. The
fortune of Troy, reviving under unlucky auspices, shall be re-
peated with lamentable destruction, I, the wife and sister of
Jupiter, leading on the victorious bands. Thrice, if a brazen
wall should arise by means of its founder Phoebus, thrice
should it fall, demolished by my Grecians ; thrice should the
captive wife bewail her husband and her children." These
ihemes ill suit the merry lyre. Whither, muse, are you go-
ing ? — Cease, impertinent, to relate the language of the gods,
and to debase great things by your trifling measures.

ODE IV.

TO CALLIOPE.

DESCEND from heaven, queen Calliope, and come sing with
your pipe a lengthened strain ; or, if you had now rather, with
your clear voice, or on the harp or lute of Phoebus. Do ye
hear ? or does a pleasing frenzy delude me ? I seem to
hear [her], and to wander [with her] along the hallowed
groves, through which pleasant rivulets and gales make their

ODE rv. ODES OF HORACE. 65

way. Me, when a child, and fatigued with play, in sleep the
woodland doves, famous iu story, covered with green leaves
in the Apulian Vultur, just without the limits of my native
Apulia ; so that it was matter of wonder to all that inhabit
the nest of lofty" Acherontia, the Bantine Forests, and the
rich soil of low Ferentum, how I could sleep with my body
eafe from deadly vipers and ravenous bears ; how I could be
covered with sacred laurel and myrtle heaped together, though
a child, not animated without the [inspiration of the] gods.
Yours, O ye muses, I am yours, whether I am elevated to the
Sabine heights ; or whether the cool Praeneste, or the sloping
Tibur, or the watery Baiae have delighted me. Me, who am
attached to your fountains and dances, not the army put to
flight at Philippi,18 not the execrable tree, nor a Palinurus in
the Sicilian Sea has destroyed. While you shall be with me,
with pleasure will I, a sailor, dare the raging Bosphorus ; or,
a traveler, the burning sands of the Assyrian shore :19 I will
visit the Britons inhuman to strangers,20 and the Concanian
delighted [with drinking] the blood of horses : I will visit the
quivered Geloni, and the Scythian river'21 wiihout hurt. You
entertained lofty" Cassar, seeking to put an end to his toils,
in the Pierian grotto, as soon as he had distributed in towns

17 Horace calls Acherontia a nest, because it was situated upon rocks,
on the frontiers of Lucania. Cicero says of Ulysses, " so powerful is the
love of our country, that this wisest of the Greeks preferred his Ithaca,
fixed, like a nest, upon rocks, to the enjoyment of immortality." DAC.

18 The poet here collects three facts, to show that the gods particularly
watched over his preservation. He fled from the battle of Philippi in
712; he avoided the fall of a tree, 734; and he was preserved from
shipwreck, probably, in the year 710, when he went aboard the fleet
with MaBcenas, to pass over into Sicily against Pompey. SAN.

19 Assyria, properly speaking, is an inland country, and far distant
from the sea ; it is therefore used by the poet for Syria, which extends
itself along the shore as far as Babylon. Such liberties are usual to the
poets. DAC. SAX.

2U Upon the authority of the scholiast Acron, the commentators be-
lieve that the Britons sacrificed strangers to the gods.

21 The commentators here understand the Tanais : but the poet seems
rather to speak of the Caspian Sea, which is also called ScyfMcus sinus.
The Latins, in imitation of the Greeks, make use of the word amnis in-
stead of mare. DAC.

22 Dacier and Sanadon, in opposition to all the commentators, agr^e
that this epithet is here used for alumnus, that it refers to almce in the
forty-second line, and that they are both derived from the verb alere.

66 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK m.

his troops, wearied by campaigning:" you administer [to
him] moderate counsel, and graciously rejoice at it when ad-
ministered. We are aware how he, who rules the inactive
earth and the stormy main, the cities also, and the dreary
realms [of hell], and alone governs with a righteous sway both
gods and the human multitude, how he took off the impious
Titans and the gigantic troop by his falling thunderbolts.
That horrid youth, trusting to the strength of their arms, and
flie brethren proceeding to place Pelion upon shady Olympus,
had brought great dread [even] upon Jove. But what could
Typhoeus, and the strong Mimas, or what Porphyrion with
his menacing stature ; what Rhcetus, and Em-eladus, a fierce
darter with trees uptorn, avail, though rushing violently
against the sounding shield of Pallas ? At one pait stood the
eager Vulcan, at another the matron Juno, and he, who is
never desirous to lay aside his bow from his shoulders, Apollo,
the god of Delos and Patara, who bathes his flowing hair in
the pure dew of Castalia, and possesses the groves of Lycia
and his native wood. Force, void of conduct, f;ills by its own
weight ; moreover, the gods promote discreet force to further
advantage ; but the same beings detest forces, that meditate
every kind of impiety. The hundred-handed Gyges is an
evidence of the sentiments I allege : and Orion, the tempter of
the spotless Diana, destroyed by a virgin dart. The earth,
heaped over her own monsters, grieves and laments her off-
spring, sent to murky tLides by a thunderbolt ; nor does the
active fire consume & na that is placed over it, nor does the
vulture desert the liver of incontinent Tityu*, being staiioned
there as an avenger of his baseness ; and three hundred
chains confine the amorous Pi:ichous.

& It is a noble encomium of Augustus, that he was fatigued with
conquest, which lie was always willing to end by an honorable peace.
Piso having happily terminated the Thracian war in 743, Augustus re-
turned to Ro:ne in the beginning of the year following, with Tiberius
and Drusus. who had reduced the Germans, the Dacians, and other
nations bordering upon the Danube. The empire being thus at peace,
Augustus executed a decree of the senate to shut the temple of Janus.
This naturally supposes the disbanding of his armies, of which Horace
epeaks. SAN.

ODKV. ODES OP HORACE. 67

ODE V.14

ON THE RECOVERY OF THE STANDARDS FROM PHRAATES.

WE believe" from his thundering that Jupiter has dominion
in the heavens : Augustus shall be esteemed a present deity,
the Britons and terrible Parthians being added to the empire.
What ! has any soldier of Crassus lived, a degraded husband
with a barbarian wife ? And has (O [corrupted] senate, and
degenerate morals !) the Marsian and Apulian, unmindful of
the sacred bucklers, of the [Roman] name and gown, and of
eternal Vesta, grown old in the lands of hostile fathers-in-
law, Jupiter88 and the city being in safety ? The prudent
mind of Regulus had provided against this, dissenting" from
ignominious terms, and inferring from such a precedent de-
struction to the succeeding age, if* the captive youth were not
to perish unpitied. I have beheld, said he, the Roman stand-
ards affixed to the Carthaginian temples, and their arms taken
away from our soldiers without bloodshed. I have beheld
the arms of our citizens bound behind their free-born backs,
and the gates [of the enemy] unshut, and the fields, which
were depopulated by our battles, cultivated anew. The

84 In the year of Rome 731, Phraates received his son, who was
detained as a hostage at Rome, from Augustus, on the express condition
that he would restore the Romnn standards taken from the army of
Crassus. Phraates however considered that distance was safety, and
accordingly neglected to fulfill his engagement, until a rumor prevailed
that Augustus would no longer be trifled with, and had already advanced
as far as Syria, with the intention of renewing the war. By policy then
the standards were restored, yet the vanity of the Romans transformed
this peaceable transaction into the result of a violent warfare, and accord-
ingly it was celebrated by triumphal arches, monuments and coins. WH.
" History, with correct simplicity, assures us (F. H. 228), that in B. c.
23, Tiridates being then at Rome, on an embassy arriving from Phraates,
Augustus seized the occasion, among other points, to demand the restitu-
tion of the standards ; and to the natural expectation of prompt compli-
ance, which such a demand would create, Mr. Clinton thinks may be re-
ferred this splendid stanza, when hope is at once converted into certainty."
TATE.

" " Credidimus, i. e. semper, atque etiam nunc credimus." ORELLI.

26 Jove. "Salvo capitolio." SOHOL.

" We have adopted the reading of MSS. with the interpretation of
Jahn, "of Regulus dissenting1 from this base proposal, and deducing
from this precedent destruction for all futurity," etc. WHEELER.

68 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK in.

soldier, to be sure, ransomed by gold, will return a braver
fellow ! — No — you add loss to infamy ; [for] neither does the
wool once stained by the dye of the sea-weed ever resume its
lost color; nor doL>s genuine valor, when once it has failed,
care to resumo its place in those who have degenerated through
cowardice. If the hind, disentangled from th<> thi<-k-set toils,
ever fights, then indeed shall he be valorous, who has in-
trusted himself to faithless fix's ; and he shall trample upon
the Carthaginians in a second war, who dastardly has felt the
thongs with his arms tied behind him, and has been afraid of
death. He, knowing no other way to preserve his lift;, has
confounded peace with war. O scandal ! O mighty Carthage,
elevated to a higher pitch by Italy's disgraceful downfall ! He
(JRegulus) is reported to have rejected the embrace of his
virtuous wife and his little sons like one degraded ;™ and to
have sternly fixed his manly countenance on the ground,
until, as an adviser, by his counsel he confirmed the waver-
ing senators, and amid his weeping friends hastened away, a
glorious exile. Notwithstanding he knew what the barbarian
executioner was providing for him, yet he pushed from his
opposing kindred and the populace retarding his return, in
no other m.-mner, than if (after he had quitted the tedious
business of his clients, by determining their suit) he was only
going to the Venafrian plains, or the Lacedaemonian Ta-
rentuin.

ODE VL

TO THE ROMANS.

THOU shalt atone, O Roman, for the sins of your ancestors,
though innocent, (ill you shall have repaired the temples and
tottering shrines of the gods, and their statues, defiled with
sooty smoke. Thou holiest sway, because thou bearest thy-
self subordinate to the gods ; to this source refer every under-
taking; to this, every event. The gods, because neglected,
have inflicted many evils on calamitous Italy. Already has

*• Ut capitis minor, "As one no longer a freeman." Among the
Romans, any loss of liberty or of the rights of a citizen was called
Deminviio Capitis. ANTHON.

ODEYL ODES OP HORACE. 69

Monaeses,3' and the band of Pacorus, twice repelled our in-
auspicious attacks, and exults in having added the Roman
spoils to their trivial collars. The Dacian and ./Ethiopian*0
have almost demolished the city engaged in civil broils, the
one formidable for his fleet, the other more expert for missile
arrows. The times, fertile in wickedness, have in the first
place polluted the marriage state, and [thence] the issue and
families. From this fountain perdition being derived, has
overwhelmed the nation and people. The marriageable
virgin delights to be taught the Ionic dances,31 and even at
this time is trained up in [seductive] arts, and cherishes un-
chaste desires from her very infancy. Soon after she courts
younger debauchees when her husband is in his cups, nor has
she any choice, to whom she shall privately grant her forbidden
pleasures when the lights are removed, but at the word of
command, openly, not without the knowledge of her husband,
she will come forth, whether it be a factor that calls for her,
or the captain of a Spanish ship, the extravagant purchaser
of her disgrace. It was not a youth bom from parents like
these, that stained the sea with Carthaginian gore, and slew
Pyrrhus, and mighty Antiochus, and terrific Annibal ; but a
manly progeny of rustic soldiers, instructed to turn the glebe
with Sabine spades, and to carry clubs cut [out of the woods]
at the pleasure of a rigid mother, what time the sun shifted
the shadows" of the mountains, and took the yokes from the

29 Alluding to two Parthian commanders who had proved victorious
over the Romans. Monaeses, more commonly known by the name of
Surena, is the same that defeated Crassus. Pacorus was the son of
Orodes, the Parthian monarch, and defeated Didius Saxa, the lieutenant
of Mark Antony. Monceses, here, is a proper name, but Surena is an
oriental term of dignity, indicating the person next in authority to the
monarch.

30 We are not to understand this passage as if the Dacians and
Ethiopians had twice attempted to destroy the city of Rome. Horace
means the army of Antony and Cleopatra, which was chiefly composed
of those nations. BOND.

31 The lonians were the most voluptuous people of the world ; their
music, their dances, and their poetry were formed with a peculiar soft-
ness and delicacy. Even their laughter had something so dissolute, that
'luvticdf yeAuf became a proverb. The poet mentions the marriageable
virgin, because it was shameful for a girl of that age to learn to dance.
That exercise was only permitted during their infancy. TODD.

** The sun changes the shadows, in proportion as he declines to his

70 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK in

wearied oxen, bringing on the pleasant hour with his retreat-
ing chariot. What does not wasting time destroy ? The age
of our fathers, worse than our grandsires, produced us still
more flagitious, us, who are about to produce an offspring
more vicious [even than ourselves].

ODE VH

TO A8TEBIE.

WHY, O Asterie, do you weep for Gyges, a youth of inviola-
ble constancy," whom the kindly zephyrs'4 will restore to
you in the beginning of the spring, enriched with a Bithynian
cargo?" Driven as far as Oricum by the southern winds,
after [the rising] of the Goat's tempestuous constellation, he
sleepless passes the cold nights in abundant weeping [for

.ou] ; but the agent of his anxious landlady slyly tempts him
y a thousand methods, informing him that [his mistress],
Chloe, is sighing for him, and burns- with the same love that
thou hast for him. He remonstrates with him how a perfidious
woman urged the credulous Proatus, by false accusations, to
hasten the death of the over-chaste Bellerophon. He tells
how Peleus was like to have been given up to the infernal
regions, while out of temperance he avoided the Magnesian
Hippolyte : and the deceiver quotes histories to him, that are
lessons for sinning.3* In vain ; for, heart-whole as yet, he
receives his words deafer than the Icarian rocks. But with
regard to you, have a care lest your neighbor Enipeus prove
too pleasing. Though no other person equally skillful to guide

setting. In the morning he directs them to the west, in the evening to
the east. TORR.

13 " Fide" is the ancient form of the genitive. See Orelli.

M The poet does not mean that this wind shall bring Gygea home, for
it was directly contrary to his return to Italy, but that in general it opens
the seas, and encourages navigation, by restoring fair weather. TORR

'* Toys of iron, steel, silver, and gold, which the Bithynians made with
great neatness. FRANCIS.

'* Chloe's confidant, not being able to testify Gyges into compliance,
by the dangers to which these two heroes were exposed for their chastity,
strives to seduce him by examples of those who had yielded upon easier
terms. TORR.

ODE TTIL ODES OF HORACE. 71

the steed, is conspicuous in the course, nor does any one with
equal swiftness swim down the Etrurian stream, yet secure
your house at the very approach of night, nor look down into
the streets at the sound of the doleful pipe ; and remain
inflexible toward him, though he often upbraid thee with
cruelty.

ODE VHI.

TO MAECENAS."

O MAECENAS, learned in both languages,88 you wonder what
I, a single man, have to do on the calends of March ; what
these flowers mean, and the censer replete with frankincense,
and the coals laid upon the live turf. I made a vow of a
joyous banquet, and a white goat3' to Bacchus, after having
been at the point of death by a blow from a tree. This day,
sacred in the revolving year, shall remove the cork fastened
with pitch40 from that jar, which was set to inhale the smoke

17 A festival was observed, with much religious pomp, upon the first
of March, by the Roman ladies, in memory of the day when the Sabine
women, having reconciled their husbands with their fathers, dedicated a
temple to Juno. They offered sacrifices and flowers to the goddess in
that very temple, a^d waited at home the rest of the day, to receive the
presents which their friends and husbands made them, as if to thank
them for that happy mediation. From hence the calends of March were
called MatronaHa, or Matroncdes ferice; and, while the wives performed
their offerings to Juno, their husbands sacrificed to Janus. TORR. DAG.

88 Sermones, in the language of Horace, signifies books and literary
compositions. It is here used in the same sense ; for the surprise of
Maecenas, at seeing a bachelor preparing a sacrifice on the first of March,
arises from his knowledge of the religious rites and customs of Greece,
by his being master of the books and learning of both languages. SAN.

18 The ancients usually sacrificed to the gods the beasts which they
hated. Thus a goat is sacrificed to Bacchus, because it destroyed the
vine. The victims of the celestial gods were white, those of the infernal
deities were black. CRUQ.

40 When the wine vessels were filled, and the disturbance of the liquor
had subsided, the covers or stoppers were secured with plaster, or a coat-
ing of pitch mixed with the ashes of the vine, so as to exclude all com-
munication with the external air. After this, the wines were mellowed
by the application of smoke, which was prevented, by the ample coating
of pitch or plaster on the wine vessel, from penetrating so far as to vitiate
the genuine taste of the liquor. Previously, however, to depositing the

72 ODES OP HORACE. BOOK m

in the consulship of Tullus. Take, my Maecenas, a hundred
cups on account of the safety of your friend, and continue the
wakeful lamps even to day-light : all clamor and passion be
far away. Postpone your political cares41 with regard to the
state : the army of the Dacian Cotison is defeated ; the trouble-
some Mede" is quarreling with himself in a horrible
[civil] war : the Cantabrian, our old enemy4' on the Spanish
coast, is subject to us, though conquered by a long-disputed
victory: now, too, the Scythians are preparing to quit the
field with their unbent bows. Neglectful,44 as a private per-
son, forbear to be too solicitous lest the community in any
wise suffer, and joyfully seize the boons of the present hour,
and quit serious affairs.

ODE IX.

TO LTDIA.

HORACE. As long as I was agreeable to thee, and no other

amphora in the wine-vault or apotheca, it was usual to put upon them a
label or mark indicative of the vintages, and of the names of the consuls
in authority at the time, in order that, when they were taken out, their
age and growth might be easily recognized If by the consulship of
Tullus, mentioned in the text, be meant that of L. Vflcatius Tullus, who
had M. JEmilius Lepidus for his colleague, A. u. c. 688, and if the present
ode, as would appear from verse 17 seqq., was composed A. u. c. 734,
the wine offered by Horace to his friend must have been more than
forty-six years old. ANTHON.

4* Augustus was not yet returned from his eastern expedition, and
when Agrippa went to Spain, Pannonia, and Syria, Maecenas possessed
alone the government of Rome and Italy, until September, 738, when he
resigned it to Statilius Taurus, that he might follow Augustus into Gaul.
TORR. SAK.

4a The submission which Phraates made to Augustus, was as much an
effect of his politics as of his fears. Detested for his cruelties, he en-
deavored to support himself against his own subjects by his alliance
with the Romans, and when he rendered to Augustus the Roman
standards and prisoners, he delivered four sons and four grandsons to
him, to preserve thorn from the insurrections of his own people. SAN.

41 The war in Spain continued more than 200 years before the Canta-
brians were perfectly subdued, and Strabo judiciously remarks, that it
proceeded from their not opposing their whole force at once to the
Romans. SAN.

44 Negligent: " securus, non timens." SCHOI*

ODES OF HORACE. 73

youth more favored was wont to fold his arms around thy
snowy neck, I lived happier than the Persian monarch.4*

LYDIA. As long as thou hadst not a greater flame for any
other, nor was Lydia below Chloe [in thine affections], I
Lydia, of distinguished fame, flourished more eminent than
the Roman Hia.

HOR. The Thracian Chloe now commands me, skillful in
sweet modulations, and a mistress of the lyre ; for whom I
would not dread to die, if the fates would spare her, my sur-
viving soul.

LYD. Calais, the son of the Thurian Ornitus, inflames me
with a mutual fire ; for whom I would twice endure to die, if
the fates would spare my surviving youth.

HOR. What ! if our former love returns, and unites by a
brazen yoke us once parted ? What if Chloe with her golden
locks be shaken off, and the door again open to slighted Lydia.

LYD. Though he is fairer than a star, thou of more levity
than a cork, and more passionate than the blustering Adriatic ;
with thee I should love to live, with thee I would cheerfully die.

ODE X.

TO LYCE.

O LYCE, had you drunk from the remote Tanais, in a state of
marriage with some barbarian, yet you might be sorry to ex-
pose me, prostrate before your obdurate doors, to the north
winds that have made those places their abode. Do you hear
with what a noise your gate, with what [a noise] the grove,
planted about your elegant buildings, rebellows to the winds?
And how Jupiter glazes the settled snow with his bright in-
fluence ? Lay aside disdain, offensive to Venus, lest your rope
should run backward,48 while the wheel is revolving. Your

'* The kings of Persia, in the times of Horace, might more properly be
called governors, as they were in subjection to the Parthians. The poet
therefore means the ancient kings of Persia, such as Cyrus or Darius,
who were called kings of kings ; and whose riches and power gave birth
to the proverb, " Happier than the king of Persia " CRUQ.

48 An allusion to some mechanical contrivance for raising heavyweights,
and which consists of a wheel with a rope passing in a grove along its

4

74 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK IIL

Tyrrhenian father did not beget you to be as inaccessible aa
Penelope to your wooers. O though neither presents, nor
prayers, nor the violet-tinctured paleness of your lovers, nor
your husband smitten with a musical courtezan, bend you to
pity ; yet [at length] spare your suppliants, you that are not
softer than the sturdy oak, nor of a gentler disposition than
the African serpents. This side [of mine] will not always be
able to endure your threshold, and the rain.

ODE XL

TO MERCURY.

O MERCURY, for under thy instruction the ingenious Amphion
moved rocks by his voice, you being his tutor; and though my
harp, skilled in sounding, with seven strings,47 formerly
neither vocal nor pleasing, but now agreeable both to the tables
of the wealthy and the temples [of the gods]; dictate meas-
ures to which Lyde may incline her obstinate ears, who, like
a filly of three years old, plays and frisks about in the spa-
cious fields, inexperienced in nuptial loves, and hitherto unripe
for a brisk husband. You are able to draw after you tigers
and attendant woods, and to retard rapid rivers. To your
blandishments the enormous porter of the [infernal] palace
yielded, though a hundred serpents fortify his head, and a
pestilential steam and an infectious poison issue from his triple-
tongued mouth. Moreover, Ixion and Tityus smiled with a
reluctant aspect : while you soothe the daughters of Danaus4*

outer edge. Should the weight of the mass that is to be raised prove too
heavy, the rope, unable to resist, snaps asunder, and flies back, being
drawn down by the body intended to be elevated. ANTHON.

41 Diodorus tells us, that the lyre had at first but four strings, according
to the number of seasons, or quarters of the heavens. Macrobius in-
forms us, that it was afterward, in view to the number of the planets,
mounted with seven strings; from whence Pindar calls it the seven-
tongued lyre. FRAN.

4* Danaides ; the daughters of Danaua He was the brother of Egyptus,
king of Egypt. He came into Greece, and having expelled Sthenelus,
fixed at Argos. He had fifty daughters, who were married to the fifty
sons of Egyptua, whereof all, except Hypermnestra, by their father's
command, slew their husbands upon the weddiug-night; for which they
were condemned in hell to fill a tub with water, the bottom of which was

ODE xit ODES OF HORACE. 75

with your delightful harmony, their* vessel for some time re-
mained dry. Let Lyde hear of the crime, and the well-known
punishment of the virgins, and the cask emptied by the water
streaming through the bottom, and what lasting fates await
their misdeeds even beyond the grave. Impious ! (for what
greater impiety could they have committed ?) Impious ! who
could destroy their bridegrooms with the cruel sword ! One
out of the many, worthy of the nuptial torch,4* was nobly false
to her perjured parent, and a maiden illustrious to all posterity ;
she, who said to her youthful husband, " Arise ! arise ! lest an
eternal sleep be given to you from a hand you have no suspicion
of; disappoint your father-in-law and my wicked sisters, who,
like lionesses having possessed themselves of calves (alas) !
tear each of them to pieces ; I, of softer mold than they, will
neither strike thee, nor detain the in my custody. Let my
father load me with cruel chains, because out of mercy I spared
my unhappy spouse ; let him transport me even to the extreme
Numidiau plains. Depart, whither your feet and the winds
carry you, while the night and Venus are favorable : depart
with happy omen ; yet, not forgetful of me, engrave my mourn-
ful story on my tomb."60

ODE xn.

TO KEOBULE.

IT is for unhappy maidens neither to give indulgence to love,
nor to wash away cares with delicious wine ; or to be dis-
pirited out of dread of the lashes of an uncle's tongue." The

pierced, and full of holes, that it could not retain any ; by which means
their labor was perpetually renewed. WATSON.

49 This expression is taken metaphorically for the marriage ; because
in the nuptial ceremonies the bride was conducted in the night to the
bridegroom's house by the light of torches. SAN.

50 Ovid (Her. xiv. 128) supplies the epitaph :

Scriptaque sunt titulo nostra sepulchra brevi :
" Exul Hypermnestra pretium pietatis iniquum
Quam mortem fratri depulit, ipsa tulit." ANTHON.

" Among the Romans, uncles had a great power over their nephew*:

70 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK m.

winged boy of Venus, O Neobule, has deprived you of your
spindle and your webs, and the beauty of Hebrus" from Lipara
of inclination for the labors of industrious Minerva, after he
has bathed his anointed shoulders in the waters of the Tiber ; a
better horseman than Bellerophon himself, neither conquered
at boxing, nor by want of swiftness in the race : he is also
skilled to strike with his javelin the stags flying through the
open plains in frightened herd, and active to surprise the wild-
boar lurking in the deep thicket.

ODE xm.

TO THE BANDUSIAN FOUNTAIN.

O THOU fountain of Bandusia, clearer than glass, worthy of
delicious wine," not unadorned by flowers ; to-morrow thou
shalt be presented with a kid, whose forehead, pouting with
new horns, determines upon both love and war in vain ; for
diis offspring of the wanton flock shall tinge thy cooling
streams with scarlet blood. The severe season of the burning
dog-star can not reach thee ; thou affordest a refreshing cool-
ness to tHe oxen fatigued with the plow-share, and to the
ranging flock. Thou also shalt become one of the famous
fountains, through my celebrating the oak that covers the
hollow rojk, whence thy prattling rills descend with a
bound.

ind as t!»7 Tr<m not usually so indulgent as fathers, their severity pass-
ed into a proverb. TORR.

5i Hebri. The name of a river (as above Enipeus, Od. Hi. 7, 23), is
attributed to a lover, yet the addition of his country's name indicates
some individual easily recognizable. ANTHON.

83 Ovid represents Numa sacrificing to a fountain, and placing round
it goblets crowned with flowers, a particular not mentioned by Horace,
although it was, perhaps, a usual part of the solemnity, intended to in-
rite the divinity to drink. DAC.

ODE TIT. ODES OF HORACE. 77

ODE XIV.

TO THE ROMANS.**

AUGUSTUS CAESAR, 0 ye people who was lately said, like
another Hercules, to have sought for the laurel to be pur-
chased only by death, revisits his domestic gods, victorious
from the Spanish shore. Let the matron (Livia), to whom
her husband alone is dear, come forth in public procession,
having first performed her duty to the just gods;" and (Oc-
tavici), the sister of our glorious general ; the mothers also of
the maidens and of the youths just preserved from danger,
becomingly adorned with supplicatory fillets.*' Ye, O young
men, and young women lately married, abstain from ill-
omened words. This day, to me a real festival, shall expel
gloomy cares : I will neither dread commotions,*' nor violent
death, while Caesar is in possession of the earth. Go, slave,
and seek for perfume and chaplets, and a cask that remem-
bers the Marsian war," if any vessel could elude the vaga-
bond Spartacus." And bid the tuneful Neaera make haste to

54 Augustus left Rome In the month of June, 727, for his British ex-
pedition; but satisfied with the submission of that people, he turned his
arms against the Spaniards, and did not return to Rome until the year
730. TORR.

55 The gods are here styled "just" from their granting to Augustus
the success which his valor deserved. This, of course, is mere flattery.
Augustus was never remarkable either for personal bravery or military
talents. ANTHON.

56 The Roman ladies usually bound their heads, as a mark of their
chastity, with fillets, which common women durst not wear. But Horace
rather means the sacred vails with which they covered their heads and
hands in sacrifices, public prayers, and processions upon extraordinary
occasions. DAC.

57 By tumultus the poet means the civil wars, and by vis, all foreign
wars. He with reason speaks of the tranquillity of the Roman empire ;
for Augustus a second time shut the temple of Janus when he returned
from Spain. TORR. SAN.

58 This war was called the Social and Italian war, which Horace calls
Marsian, because it was begun by the Marsi ; and as the memory of this
war was marked on the cask, for which the poet sends his slaves, the
wine must have been sixty-eight years old. SAN.

59 Spartacus, a gladiator, and Thracian by birth, who, putting him-
self at the head of a small number of gladiators, whom he had drawn

78 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK in

collect into a knot her auburn hair ; but if any delay should
happen from the surly porter, come away. Hoary hair mol-
lifies minds that arc fond of strife and petulant wrangling.
I would not have endured this treatment, warm with youth m
the consulship of Plaucus."

ODE XV.

TO CHLORIS.

You wife of the indigent Ibycus, at length put an end to your
wickedness, and your infamous practices. Cease to sport
among the damsels, and to diffuse a cloud among bright con-
stellations, now on the verge of a timely death. If any thing
will become Pholoe, it does not you Chloris, likewise. Your
daughter with more propriety attacks the young men's apart-
ments, like a Bacchanalian roused up by the rattling timbrel.
The love of Nothus makes her frisk about like a wanton she-
goat. The wool shorn near the famous Luceria becomes you
now antiquated : not musical instruments, or the damask flower
of the rose, or hogsheads drunk down to the lees.

ODE XVI.

TO MAECENAS.

A BRAZEN tower, and doors of oak, and the melancholy watch
of wakeful dogs, had sufficiently defended the imprisoned
Danae81 from midnight gallants, had not Jupiter and Venus

out of the hall of one Lentulus, at Capua, and increasing his troop by a
pr?at number of slaves, who daily flocked to him, and ranged themselves
under his banners, ravaged all Italy. WATSON.

60 Munatius Plancus was consul in the year when the battle of Phil-
jppi was fought, when our poet appeared in the cause cf liberty, and was
a tribune under Brutus. BOND.

61 Dana»% the daughter of Acrisius, king of the Argives. He being
forewarned by the oracle, that he should be slain by his own grandson,
and having no other daughter but this Danai-, he caused her to be shut
up in a strong tower, and suffered none to come near her. But all these

<JDE XTL ODES OF HORACE. 79

laughed at Acrisius, the anxious keeper of the immured
maiden : [for they well knew] that the way would be safe
and open, after the god had transformed himself into a bribe.
Gold delights to penetrate through the midst of guards, and to
break through stone-walls, more potent than the thunderbolt.
The family of the Grecian augur62 perished, immersed in de-
struction on account of lucre. The man of'Macedon" cleft
the gates of the cities and subverted rival monarchs by bribery.
Bribes enthrall fierce captains of ships. Care, and a thirst for
greater things, is the consequence of increasing wealth. There-
fore, Maecenas, thou glory of the [Roman] knights, I have
justly dreaded to raise the far-conspicuous head. As much
more as any man shall deny himself, so much more shall he
receive from the gods. Naked as I am, I seek the camps of
those who covet nothing ; and as a deserter, rejoice to quit the
side of the wealthy : a more illustrious possessor of a con-
temptible fortune, than if I could be said to treasure up in
my granaries all that the industrious Apulian cultivates, poor
amid abundance of wealth. A rivulet of clear water, and a
wood of a few acres, and a certain prospect of my good crop,"

precautions were of no effect ; for Proetus, the king's brother, finding
means to corrupt the guards, got access to Danae, who did not long re-
sist his solicitations : which, as soon as her father knew, he caused her
to be shut up in a chest, and cast her into the sea, with her son Perseus.
But being found by a poor fisherman of Apulia, she was carried to king
Pilumnus, who afterward married her. When her son Perseus came
to be of age, and had cut off the Gorgon's head, he went to Argos, and
turned his grandfather Acrisius into a stone. WATSON.

62 Eriphile discovered to her brother Edrastus, where her husband
Amphiaraus had concealed himself, that he might not be obliged to go to
the war of Thebes, from whence he knew that he should never return.
She received a necklace of pearl as the price of her treachery ; and Am-
phiaraus went to the siege, where he was slain. Her son Alcmaeon, in
revenge for his father, put her to death, and he was afterward killed by
his uncle in vengeance for their sister. Thus Horace justly says, that
the avarice of one woman was the ruin of the whole family. LAMB.

S3 Philip was advised by the oracle of Apollo to fight with golden
spears, and it was one of his maxims, that no fortress was impregnable
into which an ass could enter laden with gold. FRAN.

61 Segetis fides. This passage is particularly difficult, yet deserves to
be carefully explained. First, rivus, sylva, and fides are all to be applied
to one common verb fattit, a manner of writing very usual in Horace.
Secondly, Afr.cce is governed both of imperio and sorte. Fulgens imperio
Africa is a paraphrase for the proconsul of Africa, and sors Africa sig-
nifies the proconsulship or government of that province. The Latins

80 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK m.

are blessings unknown to him who glitters in the proconsul
ship of fertile Africa : I am more happily circumstanced.
Though neither the Calabrian bees produce honey, nor wiue
ripens to age for me in a Formian cask, nor rich fleeces in-
creases in Gallic pastures ; yet distressful poverty is remote ;
nor, if I desire4 more, would you refuse to grant it me. I
shall be better able to extend my small revenues,** by contract-
ing my desires, than if I could join the kingdom of Alynttcs
to the Phrygian plains. Much is wanting to those who covet
much. T is well with him to whom God has given what is
necessary with a sparing hand.

ODE XVIL

TO ^ELIUS LAMIA.

0 ^ELIUS, who art nobly descended from the ancient Lamus
(forasmuch as they report, that both the first of the Larnian
family had their name hence, and all the race of the descend-
ants through faithful records derives its origin from that
founder, who is said to have possessed, as prince, the Formian
walls, and Liris gliding on the shores of Marica — an exten-

usually said sors Africa ; sors Macedonia ; sors Provinciarum ; because
their governments were determined by lot. Lastly, faUit does uot signify
latet or ignoratur, but opinione sud decipit. The terms being thus ex-
plained, the construction must be thus, ager meus Sabinus beatior Africd
sorte obtentd fattit Africa proconsvlem. The proconsul was indebted to
chance for his magistracy ; Horace owed his farm to the friendship of
Maecenas. The proconsul believes himself more happy than Horace ; but
he is deceived, because he is ignorant, that great revenues and happi-
ness are very different things. Perhaps our poet intended a stroke of
satire upon the person who was then governor of Africa, and who might
have owed, like him, his fortune to Maecenas. BENTL. SAN. See Orelli
and M'Caul.

85 Vectigalia porrigam. "We shall only be capable of explaining this
passage by regularly pursuing the poet's reasoning. " By contracting
my desires I shall more largely extend my little fortune, than if I could
unite the kingdoms of Lydia and Phrygia under my government." Vecti-
galia signifies the revenues or income of an estate, and may not im-
properly be used for the estate itself, which the poet thus enlarges by
contracting his desires. The word porrigere frequently signifies, in the
beak authors, to extend, to stretch out, to enlarge. FRAN.

ODEXvm. ODES OF HORACE. 8)

sive potentate). To-morrow a tempest sent from the east
shall strew the grove with many leaves, and the shore with
useless sea-weed, unless that old prophetess of rain, the raven,
deceives me Pile up the dry wood, while you may ; to-
morrow you shall indulge your genius with wine, and with a
pig of two months old, with your slaves dismissed from their
labors.

ODE XVIIL"

TO FAtJNUS.

0 FAUNUS, thou lover of the flying nymphs, benignly traverse
my borders and sunny fields, and depart" propitious to the
young offspring of my flocks ;" if a tender kid fall [a victim]
to thee at the completion of the year, and plenty of wines be
not wanting to the goblet, the companion of Venus, and the
ancient altar smoke with liberal perfume. All the cattle sport
in the grassy plain, when the nones of December return to thee ;

66 The poet invokes the presence of Faunus, and seeks to propitiate
the favor of the god toward his fields and flocks. He then describes the
rustic hilarity of the day, made sacred, at the commencement of winter,
to this rural divinity. Faunus had two festivals (Faunalia), one on the
None (5th) of December, after all the produce of the year had been
stored away, and when the god was invoked to protect it, and to give
health and fecundity to the flocks aud herds ; and another in the begin-
ning of the spring, when the same deity was propitiated by sacrifices ;
that he might preserve and foster the grain committed to the earth. This
second celebration took place on the Ides (13th) of February. ANTHON.

67 The Romans believed, that many of their gods passed their winter
in one country and their summer in another. Faunus was of this num-
ber. He went from Arcadia to Italy the 13th of February, and returned
the 5th of December. His departure and return were celebrated with
sacrifices, and probably this ode was written for his December festival,
from whence the poet says abeas. DAC.

68 Parvis cequus alumnis. The vulgar believed that this god sent
phantoms and specters to disturb their infants in the night ; and upon
this foundation the commentators imagine that Horace entreats him to
spare the children of his domestics. But by alumni's, the poet means
the younglings of his flocks, which had most occasion for the protection
of the god. to preserve them against the inclemency of the approaching
winter. BOND.

4*

82 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK IIL

the village keeping holiday enjoys leisure in the fields, together
with the oxen free from toil. The wolf wanders among the
fearless lambs ; the wood scatters its rural leaves for thee, and
the laborer rejoices to have beaten the hated ground in triple
dance.

ODE XIX."

TO TKLEPHUS.

How far Codrus, who was not afraid to die for his country,
is removed from Inachus, and the race of ^Eacus, and the bat-
tles also that were fought at sacred Troy — [these subjects] you
descant upon ; but at what price we may purchase a hogshead
of Chian ; who shall warm the water [for bathing] ; who finds
a house : and at what hour I am to get rid of these Pelignian
colds, you are silent. Give me, boy, [a bumper] for the new
moon in an instant, give me one for midnight, and one for
Murena" the augur." Let our goblets be mixed up with three

69 A party of friends, among whom was Horace, intended to celebrate,
by a feast of contribution (ipavof ), the recent appointment of Murena to
the office of augur. Telephus, one of the number, was conspicuous for
his literary labors, and had been for some time occupied in composing a
history of Greece. At a meeting of these friends, held, as a matter of
course, in order to make arrangements for the approaching banquet, it
may be supposed that Telephus, wholly engrossed with his pursuits, had
introduced some topic of an historical nature, much to the annoyance of
the bard. The latter therefore breaks out, as it were, with an exhorta-
tion to his companion, to abandon matters BO foreign to the subject under
discussion, and attend to things of more immediate importance. Pres-
ently, fancying himself already in the midst of the feasts, he issues his
edicts as symposiarch, and regulates the number of cups to be drunk in
honor of the Moon, of Night, and of the augur Murena Then, as if
impatient of delay, he bids the music begin, and orders the roses to be
scattered. The ode terminates with a gay allusion to Telephus. ANTH.
This ode was evidently written before 732, in which year Murena, with
Fanmus Cepio, conspired against Augustus. OKKLI..

7U Murena. This is the same Lucinius Murena, who was brother-in-
law to Miecenas, and afterward conspired against Augustus. WATSON.

71 The college of augurs was instituted at Rome by Numa. They
were at first only four in number, all patricians. The commons being
afterward admitted to the same honor, they were increased to nine. In
tine, Sylla added six more, and made the number fifteen. It was an

ODB ix ODES OF HORACE. 83

or nine cups, according to every one's disposition. The en-
raptured bard, who delights in the odd-numbered muses, shall
call for brimmers thrice three. Each of the Graces/' in con-
junction with the naked sisters, fearful of broils, prohibits up-
ward of three. It is my pleasure to rave ;7S why cease the
breathings of the Phrygian flute ? Why is the pipe hung up
with the silent lyre? I hate your niggardly handfuls: strew
roses freely. Let the envious Lycus hear the jovial noise ; and
let our fair neighbor, ill-suited to the old Lycus, [hear it.] The
ripe Rhode aims at thee, Telephus, smart with thy bushy locks ;
at thee, bright as the clear evening star ; the love of my Gly-
cera slowly consumes me.

ODE XX.

TO PYRRHUS.

Do you not perceive, O Pyrrhus, at what hazard you are
taking away the whelps from a Gutulian lioness ? In a little
while you, a timorous ravisher, shall fly from the severe en-
gagement, when she shall march through the opposing band
of youths, re-demanding her beauteous Nearchus ; a grand
contest, whether a greater share of booty shall fall to thee or
to her ! In the mean time, while you produce your swift arrows,
she whets her terrific teeth ; while the umpire of the combat is
reported to have placed the palm under his naked foot, and re-
freshed his shoulder, overspread with his perfumed locks, with
the gentle breeze : just such another was Nireus, or he that
was ravished from the watery Ida.'*

office of the highest consideration, because it was in their power to ren-
der fruitless all the resolutions and debates of the senate and people.
WATSON.

72 Gratia : " tres Gratis junctae." Od. iv. 7, 5, " Gratia cum nym-
phis geminisque sororibus." Od. i. 30, 5, " solutis Gratias zonis."
ORELLI.

73 Insanire juvat. Horace now leaves the two modest Graces, and
rises in his good-humor ; for, after having ordered a certain number of
glasses, he now drinks without number or measure. CBUQ.

74 Mount Ida ; a high hill in Phrygia, not far from Troy, famous for
the controversy of Pallas, Juno, and Venus, about the apple of discord,
which was adjudged to Venus by Paris. WATSON.

84 ODES OP HORACE. BOOK UL

ODE XXL

TO HIS JAB.

O THOU goodly cask, that wast brought to light at the same
time with me in the consulship of Manlius, whether thou con-
tainest the occasion of complaint, or jests, or broils and mad-
dening amours, or gentle sleep ; under whatever title thou pre-
servest the choice Massic, worthy to be removed on an auspi-
cious day ; descend,'* Corvinus bids me draw the mellowest
wine. He, though he is imbued in the Socratic lectures, will
not morosely reject thee. The virtue even of old Cato is re-
corded to have been frequently wanned with wine. Thou ap-
pliest a gentle violence to that disposition, which is in general
of the rougher cast. Thou revealest the cares and secret de-
signs of the wise, by the assistance of merry Bacchus. You
restore hope and spirit to anxious minds,76 and give horns" to
the poor man, who after [tasting] you neither dreads the dia-
dems of enraged monarchs, nor the weapons of the soldiers.
Thee Bacchus, and Venus, if she comes in good-humor, and the
Graces loth to dissolve the knot [of their union]," and living
lights shall prolong, till returning Phoebus puts the stars to
flight

ODE xxn.

TO DIANA.

0 VIRGIN, protectress of the mountains and the groves, thou

75 The Romans had their wine-cellars at the top of their houses, that
their wines might ripen sooner by the smoke. GRUQ.

i* Tbrmentum ingenio admoves. " You offer an agreeable violence to
the mind." It is a metaphor taken from war, when a town was assault-
ed with batteries aud machines. Others understand it of giving the tor-
ture to criminals to force a secret from them, and Doctor Bentley explains
it, as if wine gave an eloquence and facility to the most heavy, barren
understanding. FRAN.

™ The expression cornua addis is one of a proverbial character. Con.
•ult note on Ode ii. 19, 29. The " horn" was the symbol of power among
all the eastern nations. See 1 Samuel, ii. 1 ; Luke i. 69. ANTHON.

i* i. e. "never dissolving it" Eurip. Hippol. 1147, x^PlTef <n>fvy«M.
OBSLLL

ODE xxm. ODES OF HORACE. 85

three-formed goddess, who thrice invoked," hearest young
women in labor, and savest them from death ; sacred to thee be
this pine that overshadows my villa, which I, at the completion
of every year, joyful will present with the blood of a boar-pig,
just meditating his oblique attack.

ODE xxm.

TO PHIDYLE.

Mr rustic Phidyle, if you raise your suppliant hands80 to heav-
en at the new moon, and appease the household gods with
frankincense, and this year's fruits,81 and a ravening swine ; the
fertile vine shall neither feel the pestilential south-west, nor the
corn the barren blight, or your dear brood the sickly season in
the fruit-bearing autumn.8' For the destined victim, which is
pastured in the snowy Algidus among the oaks and holin trees,
or thrives in the Albanian meadows, with its throat shall stain
the axes of the priests. It is not required of you, who are
crowning our little gods with rosemary and the brittle myrtle,
to propitiate them with a great slaughter of sheep. If an in-
nocent hand touches a clear, a magnificeut victim does not pa-
cify the offended Penates more acceptably, than a consecrated
cake and crackling salt.

79 Ter vocata. Horace mentions the number three, because it was al-
ways a mysterious number, or because women in labor invoked the god-
dess by% three principal names. In the next line she is called trifvrmis,
as she was Luna in heaven, Diana upon earth, and Proserpine in hell ;
from whence she was painted with three heads, one, of a lion, another,
of a bull, and the third of a dog. SAN.

80 This was the usual gesture of the ancients when they prayed ; but
with this difference, that when they addressed themselves to the celestial
gods they held the palms of their hands upward, as if to receive a
blessing ; but turned them toward the earth in their prayers to the in-
fernal gods, as if to avert an evil. CRUQ.

81 Horna, i. e. " spicis hornotinis, hujus anni." ORELLI.

«» " Annus"—" tempestas." Of. Epod. iL 39. Virg. EcL ML 87.

86 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK in,

ODE XXTV.

TO THE COVETOUS.*'

THOUGH, more wealthy than the unrifled treasures of the
Arabians and rich India, you should possess yourself by your
edifices" of the whole Tyrrhenian and Apulian seas ; yet, if
cruel fate fixes its adamantine grapples upon the topmost roofs,
you shall not disengage your mind from dread, nor your life
from the snares of death." The Scythians that dwell in {he
plains, whose carts, according to their custom, draw their va-
grant habitations, live in a better manner ; and [so do] the
rough Getae, whose uncircumscribed acres produce fruits and
corn free to all, nor is a longer than annual tillage agreeable,
and a successor relieves him who has accomplished his labor by
an equal right. There the guiltless wife spares her motherless
step-children, nor does the portioned spouse govern her hus-
band, or put any confidence in a sleek adulterer. Their dower
is the high virtue of their parents, and a chastity reserved from
any other man by a steadfast security ; and it is forbidden to
sin, or the reward is death. O if there be any one willing to
remove our impious slaughters, and civil rage ; if he be desirous
to be written FATHER OF THE STATE, on statues [erected to him],
let him dare to curb insuperable licentiousness, and be eminent
to posterity; since we (O injustice !) detest virtue while living,
but invidiously seek for her after she is taken out of our view.
To what purpose are our woeful complaints, if sin is not cut
off with punishment ? Of what efficacy are empty laws, with-
out morals ; if neither that part of the world which is shut in
by fervent heats, nor that side which borders upon Boreas,
and snows hardened upon the ground, keep off the merchant ;

83 It appears by the twenty-sixth verse, that this odo was written be-
fore the year 724, which ended the civil wars; at least it preceded the
expedition of Arabia in 727. SAN.

84 The term ccementa, quasi ccedimenta, literally means " stones for fill-
ing up." Here, however, it refers to the structures reared on these arti-
ficial foundations.

85 The poet here represents death armed with a net, which he throws
over the heads of those whom he attacks. This image is taken from the
gladiators called Retiarii, whose antagonists had the figure of a fish
upon a helmet, from whence they used in their combats to sing " Non te
peto, piflcem peto ? Quid me fugis, Galle ?" DAC.

ODE IXT. ODES OF HORACE. 87

[and] the expert sailors get the better of the horrible seas ?
IPoverty, a great reproach, impels us both to do and to suffer
any thing, and deserts the path of difficult virtue. Let us,
then, cast our gems and precious stones and useless gold,
the cause of extreme evil, either into the Capitol, whither
the acclamations and crowd of applauding [citizens] call us,
or into the adjoining ocean. If we are truly penitent for
our enormities, the very elements of depraved lust are to be
erased, and the minds of too soft a mold should be formed
by severer studies. The noble youth knows not how to keep
his seat on horseback98 and is afraid to go a hunting, more
skilled to play (if you choose it) with the Grecian trochus,'1
or dice, prohibited by law ;88 while the father's perjured faith
can deceive his partner and friend, and he hastens to get
money for an unworthy heir. In a word, iniquitous wealth
increases, yet something is ever -wanting to the incomplete for-
tune.

ODE XXV."

TO BACCHUS.
A DITHTRAMBIC.

WHITHER,'0 0 Bacchus, art thou hurrying me, replete with

88 To remedy this evil, Augustus revived the mock-fights, which were
carried by Ascanius to Italy, and which afterward continued to the time
of Claudius Caesar. FRAN.

87 At the Grecian trochus. It was formerly thought that this was
the same with the play of the top, or rather that of billiards ; but this
notion is now generally exploded. The trochus was properly an iron
hoop, of five or six feet diameter, set round with rings. Kennet, in his
Roman Antiquities, tells us, that the boys and young men used to whirl
this along, as our children do wooden hoops, directing it with a rod of
iron, having a wooden handle ; which rod the Grecians called IXarnii.
and the Romans radius. There- was need of great dexterity to guide
the hoop right. In the mean time, the rings, by the clattering which
they made, not only gave the people notice to keep out of the way, but
contributed very much to the boys' diversion. WATSON.

88 All games of hazard were forbidden by several laws, except during
the Saturnalia. FRAN.

89 As to the date of this ode, we can only be assured, that it was com-
posed before the consecration of Octavius, and perhaps it was written
for his consecration, in the year 725. SAN.

88 The poet, recovering from the strong influence of the god, and 8ur-

88 ODES OP HORACE. BOOK ra.

your influence ? Into what groves, into what recesses am I
driven, actuated with uncommon spirit ? In what caverns,
meditating the immortal honor of illustrious Caesar, shall I be
heard enrolling him among the stars and the council of Jove ?
I will utter something extraordinary, new, hitherto unsung by
any other voice. Thus the sleepless Bacchanal is struck with
enthusiasm, casting her eyes upon Hebrus, and Thrace bleached
with snow, and Rhodope traversed by the feet of barbarians.
How am I delighted in my rambles, to admire the rocks
and the desert grove! 0 lord of the Naiads and the Bac-
chanalian women, who are able with their hands to over-
throw lofty ash-trees ;*' nothing little, nothing low, nothing
mortal will I sing. Charming is the hazard, O Bacchus, to
accompany the god, who binds his temples with the verdant
vine-leaf.

ODE XXVI.

TO VENUS.

I LATELY lived a proper person for girls, and campaigned it
not without honor; but now this wall, which guards the left
side of [the statue] of sea-born Venus, shall have my arms"

veying with alarm the arduous nature of the theme to which he has
dared to approach, compares himself to the Bacchant, whom the stern
power of the deity, which she serves, has driven onward, in that blind
career, through many a strange and distant region. Awakening from
the deep slumber into which exhausted nature had at length been com-
pelled to sink, she finds herself) when returning recollection comes to
her aid, on the remote mountain-tops, far from her native scenes, and
gazes in silent wonder on the prospect before her ; the dark Hebrus, the
snow-clad fields of Thrace, and the chain of Rhodope rearing its sum-
mits to the skies. Few passages can be cited from any ancient or mod-
ern writer containing more of the true spirit of poetry. ANTHON.

»' Probably alluding to the story of Pentheus. Of. Eur. Bacch. 1109.

M Ovid tells us, that every lover is a soldier, mililat omnis amans; and
as the ancients were accustomed to consecrate their arms to Mara, when
they quitted the trade of war ; so the poet here dedicates to Venus his
lyre, his torches, and bows. He bangs up his midnight arms upon the
eastern wall of her temple, on the left side of the goddess ; for the sta-
tues of the gods were placed in such a manner as to look toward the
south ; so that the east, which was always esteemed the happy quarter
of the heavens, was upon their left hand. LAMR

ODE xxvn. ODES OF HORACE. 89

and my lyre discharged from warfare. Here, here, deposit
the shining flambeaux, and the wrenching irons, and the bows,
that threatened the resisting doors. O thou goddess, who pos-
sessest the blissful Cyprus, and Memphis free from Sithonian
8onw, O queen, give the haughty Chloe one cut with your high-
raised lash.

ODE XXVH

TO GALATEA, UPON HER GOING TO SEA.

LET the omen of the noisy screech-owl and a pregnant bitch,
or a tawny wolf running down frem the Lanuvian fields, or a
fox with whelp conduct the impious [on their way] ; may the
serpent also break their undertaken journey, if, like an arrow
athwart the road, it has frightened the horses. What shall I,
a provident augur, fear? I will invoke from the east, with
my prayers, the raven foreboding by his croaking, before
the bird which presages impending showers, revisits the stag-
nant pools. Mayest thou be happy, O Galatea, wheresoever
thou choosest to reside, and live mindful of me : and neither
the unlucky pye nor the vagrant crow forbids your going on.
But you see, with what an uproar the prone Orion hastens on ;
I know" what the dark bay of the Adriatic is, and in what
manner lapyx, [seemingly] serene, is guilty. Let the wives
and children of our enemies feel the blind tumults of the
rising south, and the roaring of the blackened sea, and the
shores trembling with its lash. Thus too Europa" trusted
her fair side to the deceitful bull, and bold as she was, turned
pale at the sea abounding with monsters, and the cheat now
become manifest. She, who lately in the meadows was busied

93 Horace knew the Adriatic Sea in his voyage to Athens, when he
went to study philosophy there ; and a second time, in his return to
Italy, after the battle of PhilippL FRAN.

94 Galatea was preparing to embark, because the skies were serene,
and the seas calm ; but Horace tells her that Europa was deceived by
the same serenity of the skies and calmness of the seas ; that she soon
had reason to repent of her boldness, when she saw nothing round her
but stars and waves. Such ia the force and justness of the comparison,
TOEB.

90 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK UL

about flowers, and a composer of the chaplet meet for nymphs,
saw nothing in the dusky night but stars and water. Who
as soon as she arrived at Crete, powerful with its hundred
cities, cried out, overcome with rage, " O father, name aban-
doned by thy daughter !'* O my duty ! Whence, whither
am I come ? One death is too little for virgins' crime. Am
I awake, while I deplore my base offense ; or does some vain
phantom, which, escaping" from the ivory gate, brings on a
dream, impose upon me, still free from guilt ? Was it better
to travel over the tedious waves, or to gather the fresh flow-
ers ? If any one now would deliver up to me in my anger
this infamous bull, 1 would do uiy utmost to tear him to pieces
with steel, and break off the horns of the monster, lately so
much beloved. Abandoned I have left my father's house,
abandoned I procrastinate my doom. O if any of the gods
hear this, I wish I may wander naked among lions : before
foul decay seizes my comely cheeks, and moisture leaves this
tender prey, I desire, in all my beauty, to be the food of
tigers." "Base Europa," thy absent father urges, "why do
you hesitate to die ? you may strangle" your neck suspended
from this ash, with your girdle that has commodiously at-
tended you. Or if a precipice, and the rocks that are edged
with death, please you, come on, commit yourself to the rapid
storm ; unless you, that are of blood-royal, had rather card
your mistress's wool,'* and be given up as a concubine to some
barbarian dame." As she complained, the treacherously-
smiling Venus, and her son, with his bow relaxed, drew near.
Presently, when she had sufficiently rallied her, " Refrain (she
cried) from your rage and passionate chidings, since this de-
tested bull shall surrender his horns to be torn in pieces by

* " Filiae" is a Grecism for " a filia."

* Dreams of falsehood, according to Homer, passed through an ivory
gate in the infernal world ; and those of truth through a gate of horn.
FRAN.

97 Hanging was the common death of ancient heroines in tragedy and
history. Areace, in Heliodorus; Jocasta and Antigone, in Sophocles;
Phaedra, in Euripides; Amata, in Virgil; and the wife of Mithridates, in
Plutarch, died in this manner. DAG.

93 Pensum was properly a certain quantity of wool, which was every
day given to female slaves for their task. It was weighed, from whence
it was called pensum, which afterward became a name for any regular
and ordinary work. From hence the proverb persolvere pensum, to do
our duty. CRUQ.

ODE xmn. TTTY, ODES OF HORACE. 91

you. Are you ignorant, that you are the wife of the invinci-
ble Jove ? Cease your sobbing ; learn duly to support your dis-
tinguished good fortune. A division of the world shall bear
your name.

ODE xxvm.

TO LYDE.

WHAT can I do better on the festal day of Neptune ? Quick-
ly" produce, Lyde, the hoarded Caecuban, and make an attack
upon wisdom, ever on her guard. You perceive the noontide
is on its decline ; and yet, as if the fleeting day stood still, you
delay to bring out of the store-house the loitering cask, [that
bears its date] from the consul Bibulus. We will sing by
turns, Neptune, and the green locks of the Nereids ; you shall
chant, on your wreathed lyre, Latona and the darts of the
nimble Cynthia ; at the conclusion of your song, she also [shall
be celebrated], who with her yoked swans visits Gnidos, and
the shining Cyclades, and Paphos : the night also shall be cele-
brated in a suitable lay.

ODE XXIX.

TO MAECENAS.

0 MAECENAS, thou progeny of Tuscan kings, there has been a
long while for you in my house some mellow wine in an un-
broached100 hogshead, with rose-flowers and expressed essence
for your hair. Disengage yourself from any thing that may
retard you, nor contemplate the ever marshy Tibur, and the
sloping fields of ^Esula, and the hills of Telegonus the parri-
cide. Leave abundance, which is the source of daintiness,
and yon pile of buildings approaching near the lofty clouds :
cease to admire the smoke, and opulence, and noise of flour-

99 "Strenua" is taken adverbially, =" actively."

lou The ancients placed their casks upon the bottom, and were there-
fore obliged to bend them forward when they poured out their wina
Cculwn vertere and crateras vertere are expressions of the same kind.
TOUR.

92 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK m.

ishing Rome.1 A change is frequently agreeable to the
rich, and a cleanly meal iu the little cottage of the poor has
smoothed an anxious brow without carpets or purple. Now
the bright father of Andromeda displays his hidden fire ; now
Procyon rages, and the constellation of the ravening Lion, as
the sun brings round the thirsty season. Now the weary
shepherd with his languid flock seeks the shade, and the river,
and the thickets of rough Sylvanus ; and the silent bank is
free from the wandering winds. You regard what constitu-
tion may suit the state, and are in an anxious dread for Rome,
what preparations the Seres and the Bactrians subject to
Cyrus, and the factious Tana'is* are making. A wise deity
shrouds in obscure darkness the events of the time to come,
and smiles if a mortal is solicitous beyond the law of nature.
Be mindful to manage duly that which is present. What re-
mains goes on in the manner of the river, at one time calmly
gliding in the middle of its channel to the Tuscan Sea, at
another, rolling along corroded stones, and stumps of trees
forced away, and cattle, and houses, not without the noise of
mountains and neighboring woods, when the merciless deluge
enrages the peaceful waters. That man is master of him-
self and shall live happy, who has it in his power to say,
" I have lived to-day : to-morrow let the Sire invest the
heaven, either with a black cloud, or with clear sunshine ;
nevertheless he shall not render ineffectual what is past, nor
undo or annihilate what the fleeting hour has once carried off.
Fortune, happy in the execution of her cruel office, and per-
sisting to play her insolent game, changes uncertain honors,
indulgent now to me, by and by to another. I praise her,
while she abides by me. If she moves her fleet wings, I re-
sign* what she has bestowed, and wrap myself up in my

1 We may compute how great the noise of a city must have been,
which reckoned three millions of inhabitants ; whose circuit, according
to Pliny, including the suburbs, was forty-eight miles ; and where the
houses might be raised seven stories, each of them ten feet high. Lam-
pridiua tells us, that Heliogabalus collected ten thousand pound weight
of cobwebs in Rome. FRAN.

8 The Scythians and Sarmatians, who bordered upon this river, were
frequently engaged in wars with each other, from whence the poet calls
it discors. LAMB.

3 Resigno quae, dedit — is a figurative expression. Resignare properly
signifies to unseal or open, in opposition to signare. It is here to be un-
derstood, reddere, restituere, to restore. LAMB.

ODE TTT ODES OF HORACE. 93

virtue, and court honest poverty without a portion. It is no
business of mine, if the mast groan with the African storms, to
have recourse to piteous prayers,4 and to make a bargain with
my vows, that my Cyprian and Syrian merchandize may not
add to the wealth of the insatiable sea. Then the gale and the
twin Pollux will carry me safe in the protection of a skitf with
two oars, through the tumultuous ^Egean Sea.

ODE XXX.

ON HIS OWN WORKS.

I HAVE completed a monument more lasting than brass, and
more sublime than the regal elevation of pyramids, which
neither the wasting shower, the unavailing north wind, nor an
innumerable succession ef years, and the flight of seasons, shall
be able to demolish. I shall not wholly die ; but a great part
of me shall escape Libitiua.6 I shall continually be renewed in
the praises of posterity, as long as the priest shall ascend the
Capitol with the silent [vestal] virgin. Where the rapid
Aufidus shall murmur, and where Daunus,8 poorly supplied
with water, ruled over a rustic people, I, exalted from a low de-
gree, shall be acknowledged as having originally adapted the
^Eolic verse' to Italian measures. Melpomene, assume that
pride which your merits have acquired, and willingly crown my
hair with the Delphic laurel.

< These conditional prayers, which virtue blushes for, and which the
gods disregard, are by Plato called Te^vaf Ifiiropucaf) a merchant's
traffic ; and by Persius, preces emaces, prayers of purchase. FRANCIS.

5 This was the goddess who presided over funerals. She is called
Venus inferno, or Epitymbia, in some ancient epitaphs, and reckoned
among the infernal deities. A place in Rome, as the ancient Scholiast
informs us, was called Libitina, where the undertaker lived, who received
a certain piece of money for every person who was buried, from whence
they knew the number of their dead. FRANCIS.

6 This Daunus was the son of Pilumnus and Danae. He reigned
over Daunia, and gave his name to the country. WATSON.

7 In this poem, which ought to be the last of his lyric works, the poet
shows that he has preserved his resolution of imitating Alcaeus and
Sappho, which he mentioned in his first ode. Nor is it probable, that
he could have so frequently boasted of being the first who formed himself
upon an imitation of the Grecian poets, if the public had not in general
acknowledged his claim. SAN.

THE FOURTH BOOK

OF THE

ODES OF HORACE,

ODE I.

TO VENUS.

AFTER a long cessation, O Venus, again are you stirring up
tumults ? Spare me, I beseech you, I beseech you. I am not
the man I was under the dominion of good-natured1 Cynara.
Forbear, O cruel mother of soft desires, to bend one border-
ing upon fifty, now too hardened for soft commands : go,
whither the soothing prayers of youths, invoke you. More
seasonably may you revel in the house of Paulus Maximus,
flying* thither with your splendid swans, if you seek to in-
flame a suitable breast. For he is both noble and comely,
and by no means silent in the cause of distressed defendants,
and a youth of a hundred accomplishments ; he shall bear the
ensigns of your warfare far and wide; and whenever, more

1 Bonce. Horace appears to intimate by this epithet, that the affec-
tion entertained for him by Cynara, was rather pure and disinterested
than otherwise. The word is often used in the sense of " generous,"
" unrapacious." Comp. Tibull. ii. 4, 45, " At bona, qu» nee avara fuit."
ANTHON.

2 Purpureis dies oloribus. The allusion is to the chariot of Venus,
drawn by swans : and hence the term ales is, by a bold and beautiful
figure, applied to the goddess herself, meaning literally " winged." As
regards purpureis, it must be remarked that the ancients called any
strong and vivid color by the name of purpureus, because that was their
richest color. Thus we have purpurece comce, purpureus capillus, lumen
juvenke purpureum, etc. Compare Virgil, ./En. i. 591. Albinovanus (El.
ii. 62) even goes so far as to apply the term to snow. The usage of
modern poetry is not dissimilar. Thus Spencer, " The Morrow next ap>
peared with purple hair;" and Milton, "waves his purple wings." So
also Gray, "The bloom of young desire and purple light of lore."
WHBELKR.

ODBIL ODES OF HORACE. 95

prevailing than the ample presents of a rival, he shall laugh
[at his expense], he shall erect thee in marble under a citron
dome near the Alban lake. There you shall smell abundant
frankincense, and shall be charmed with the mixed music of
the lyre and Berecynthian pipe,* not without the flageolet.
There the youths, together with the tender maidens,4 twice a
day celebrating your divinity, shall, Salian-like, with white
foot thrice shake the ground. As for me, neither woman, nor
youth, nor the fond hopes of mutual inclination, nor to con-
tend in wine, nor to bind my temples with fresh flowers, de-
light me [any longer]. But why ; ah ! why, Ligurinus, does
the tear every now and then trickle down my cheeks ? Why
does my fluent tongue falter between my words with an un-
seemly silence ? Thee in my dreams by night I clasp, caught
[in my arms] ; thee flying across the turf of the Campus Mar-
tius ; thee I pursue, O cruel one, through the rolling waters.

ODE E.

TO ANTONIUS IULUS.*

WHOEVER endeavors, O lulus, to rival Pindar, makes an
effort on wings fastened with wax by art Daedalean," about

3 The music in the temples was usually composed of a voice, one lyre,
one or two flutes, and a flageolet. There was at Delos a statue of Apollo,
who held in his left hand his bow and arrows, and on his right the three
Graces, each with an instrument in her hand. The first held a lyre, the
second, a flageolet, and the third, a flute. FRANCIS.

4 The ancients had not any children educated to sing in their temples,
nor employed any theatrical performers, but chose from the best families
a certain number of young people of both sexes, who sung until others
were elected to succeed them. DAC.

5 Julius Antonius, to whom the present ode is addressed, was the
second son of M. Antonius the triumvir, by Fulvia, born about A. u. c.
710. He was brought up by Octavia, whose daughter Marcella he mar-
ried. He was honored with the prsetorship, A. u. c. 741, and the con-
sulate, 744. In 752, he was guilty of a gross outrage on the family of
Augustus, by committing adultery with Julia. Julia was banished, con-
sequently, to the island Pandateria, and Julius put himself to death by
order of Augustus. "lulius Antonius rogaverat Horatium, ut scripta
Pindari Graeea in laudem Caesaris transferet." SCHOL. ANTHON.

6 Daedalus. A most ingenious artificer, so famous, that when we would

96 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK iv

to communicate his name to the glassy sea. Like a river
pouring down from a mountain, which sudden rains have in-
creased beyond its acccustomed banks, such the deep-mouthed
Pindar rages and rushes on immeasurable, sure to merit
Apollo's laurel, whether he rolls down new-formed phrases
through the daring dithyrambic, and is borne on in numbers
exempt from rule : whether he sings the gods, and kings, the
offspring of the gods, by whom the Centaurs perished with a
just destruction, [by whom] was quenched the flame of the
dreadful Chimera ; or celebrates those whom the palm, [in
the Olympic games] at Elis, brings home exalted to the skies,
wrestler or steed, and presents them with a gift preferable to
a hundred statues : or deplores some youth, snatched [by
death] from his mournful bride — he elevates both his strength,
and courage, and golden morals to the stars, and rescues him
from the murky grave.7 A copious gale elevates the Dircean
swan, O Antonius, as often as he soars into the lofty regions
of the clouds : but I, after the custom and manner of the Ma-
tinian bee, that laboriously gathers the grateful thyme, I, a
diminutive creature, compose elaborate verses about the grove
and the banks of the watery Tiber. You, a poet of sublimer
style, shall sing of Caesar, whenever, graceful in his well-
earned laurel, he shall drag the fierce Sygambri* along the
sacred hill ; Caesar, than whom nothing greater or better the
fates and indulgent gods ever bestowed on the earth, nor will
bestow, though the times should return to their primitive
gold. You shall sing both the festal days, and the public re-
joicings on account of the prayed-for return" of the brave

commend a thing for the curiousness of the work, we use the proverb
Dcedali opera. He lived in Crete, at the court of king Minoa, by whose
order he made the celebrated labyrinth, into which he was put himself
because he had discovered the windings and intricacies of it to Theseus.
WATSON.

7 i e. from oblivion.

8 Sicambros. This triumph, which the poet promises, and which was
designed for the return of Augustus, was never carried into execution.
To avoid the honors intended for him, he entered Rome in the night,
without informing the senate of his arrival. He went the next day to
the Capitol, and, taking the laurels off his statues, placed them at the
feet of Jupiter.

9 During the absence of Augustus vows were made to the gods for
hia return, which the new consuls repeated in 741 by decree of the
senate, as appears by medals and inscriptions. TORR.

ODES OF HORACE. 97

Augustus, and the forum free from law-suits. Then (if I can
offer any thing worth hearing) a considerable portion of my
voice shall join [the general acclamation], and I will sing,
happy at the reception of Caesar, " O glorious day, O worthy
thou to be celebrated." And while [the procession] moves
along, shouts of triumph we will repeat, shouts of triumph the
whole city [will raise], and we will offer frankincense to the
indulgent gods. Thee ten bulls and as. many heifers shall
absolve ; me, a tender steerling, that, having left his dam,
thrives in spacious pastures for the discharge of my vows, re-
sembling [by the horns on] his forehead the curved light of
the moon, when she appears of three days old, in which part
he has a mark of a snowy aspect, being of a dun color over
the rest of his body.

ODE HI.

TO MELPOMENE.

HIM, 0 Melpomene, upon whom at his birth thou hast once
looked with favoring eye, the Isthmian contest shall not ren-
der eminent as a wrestler ; the swift horse shall not draw him
triumphant in a Grecian car ; nor shall warlike achievement
show10 him in the Capitol, a general adorned with the Delian
laurel, on account of his having quashed the proud threats of
kings : but such waters as flow through the fertile Tiber, and
the dense leaves of the groves, shall make him distinguished
by the ^Eolian verse. The sons of Rome, the queen of cities,
deign to rank me among the amiable band of poets ; and now
I am less carped at by the tooth of envy. O muse, regulating
the harmony of the gilded shell ! O thou, who canst immediate-
ly bestow, if thou please, the notes of the swan upon the mute
fish ! It is entirely by thy gift that I am marked out, as the

10 The word ostendei is borrowed from the ceremonies and solemnities
which were made for porrp and ostentation. The conqueror was shown
in his ^iumph in the capital of the empire, where he received the homage
of the world. Ostentioncdis miles, signifies a soldier dressed for a re-
yiew ; ostentionale vestimentum is the habit which he wore. TORE.

5

98 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK n.

stringer of the Roman lyre, by the fingers of passengers ;"
that I breathe, and give pleasure (if I give pleasure), is yours.

ODE IV.

THE PRAISES OP DRUSUS.1'

LIKE" as the winged minister of thunder (to whom Jupiter,
the sovereign of the gods, has assigned the dominion over the
fleeeting birds, having experienced his fidelity in the affair of
the beauteous Ganymede), early youth and hereditary vigor
have impelled from his nest unknowing of toil ; and the ver-
nal winds, the showers being now dispelled, taught him, still
timorous, unwonted enterprises : in a little while a violent im-
pulse dispatched him, as an enemy against the sheepfolds;
now an appetite for food and fight has impelled him upon the
reluctant serpents ; — or as a she-goat, intent on rich pastures,
has beheld a youg lion but just weaned from the udder of his
tawny dam, ready to be devoured by his newly-grown tooth :
such did the Rhaeti and the Vindelici behold Drusus carrying
on the war under the Alps ; whence this people derived the
custom, which has always prevailed among them, of arming
their right hands with the Amazonian ax, I have purposely
omitted to inquire : (neither is it possible to discover every
thing.) But those troops, which had been for a long while and
extensively victorious, being subdued by the conduct of a
youth, perceived what a disposition, what a genius rightly
educated under an auspicious roof, what the fatherly affection
of Augustus14 toward the young Neros, could effect. The

11 Cf. Pers. Sat. i. 28, "At pulchrum est digito monstrari, et dicier
Hie est."

12 The victory of Drusus over the Vindelici was gained in the month
of August, 739; but it was not celebrated until the return of Augustus
in March, 741. Horace was then 53 years of age. SAN.

13 The order of construction is as follows: " Qualem olim juventas et
patrius vigor propulit nido inscium laborum alitem ministrum fulminis,
cui Jupiter, rex deorum, permisit regnum in vagas aves, expertus (eum)
fidclem in flavo Ganymede, venti, vernisque nimbis jam remotis, docuere
paventem insolitos nisus; mox vividus impetus, etc. — (tcdem) Vindelici
videre Drusum gerentem bella sub Rsetis Alpibus." ANTIION.

14 Tiberius Nero died in the same year in which he had yielded hi«

ODE iv. ODES OF HORACE. 99

brave are generated by the brave and good ; there is in steers,
there is in horses, the virtue of their sires ; nor do the cou«
rageous eagles procreate the unwarlike dove. But learning im-
proves the innate force, and good discipline confirms the mind :
whenever morals are deficient, vices disgrace what is naturally
good. What thou owest, 0 Rome, to the Neros," the river
Metaurus" is a witness, and the defeated Asdrubal, and that
day illustrious by the dispelling of darkness from Italy, and
which first smiled with benignant victory ;17 when the terrible
African rode through the Latian cities, like a fire through the
pitchy pines, or the east wind through the Sicilian waves.
After this the Roman youth increased continually in success-
ful exploits, and temples, laid waste by the impious outrage
of the Carthaginians, had the [statues of] their gods set up
again. And at length the perfidious Hannibal said ; "We, like
stags, the prey of rapacious wolves, follow of our own accord
those, whom to deceive and escape is a signal triumph. That

wife Livia to Augustus, and by his last will named that prince not only
a guardian of Tiberius, who was then four years old, but of Drusus, who
was born three months after his mother was married to Augustus. In this
manner the emperor was a second father to both the Neros. ED. DUEL.

15 Claudius Nero, being encamped in Lucania, in view of Hannibal,
went with six thousand foot and a thousand horse to join his colleague
Salinator, and oppose the passage of Asdrubal, who was bringing a con-
siderable re-enforcement to his brother. This diligence preserved Italy;
for Asdrubal was defeated near the river Metaurus ; and Nero, returning
to his camp before the Carthaginians perceived that he had been absent,
ordered Asdrubal's head to be thrown into Hannibal's camp, who cried
out, " Agnosco fortunam Carthaginis," I acknowledge the fate of Car-
thage.

Horace has chosen this action, not only because it was one of the most
important performed by the family, but because Drusus and Tiberius
were descended from both those consuls. ED. DUEL.

18 The river Metaurus. Asdrubal, who was brother to Hannibal, and
the same who had defeated the two Scipios in Spain, was sent from Car-
thage, with a powerful re-enforcement, to join his brother in Italy.
Claudius Nero, who was then encamped in Lucania, in sight of Hannibal,
privately left his camp with 6,000 foot and 1,000 horse, and arriving in
a few days in Umbria, joined his colleague Livius Salinator, who march-
ing on together, and meeting with Asdrubal at the river Metauras,
defeated and slew him. Nero immediately returned, nor did the Cartha-
ginians know of his departure, till he had caused the head of Asdrubal
to be thrown into their camp. WATSON.

17 Alma risit adored. Adorea was properly a distribution of corn,
which was made to the soldiers after a victory, from whence it waa u*ed
for victory itself. FKA.V.

100 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK rr

nation, which, tossed in the Etrurian waves, bravely trans-
ported their gods, and sons, and aged fathers, from the
burned Troy to the Italian cities, like an oak lopped by
sturdy axes in Algidum abounding in dusky leaves, through
losses and through wounds derives strength and spirit from
the very steel. The Hydra18 did not with more vigor grow
upon Hercules grieving to l>e overcome, nor did the Colchians,
or the Echionian Thebes, produce a greater prodigy. Should
you sink it in the depth, it will come out more beautiful :
should you contend with it, with great glory will it overthrow
the conqueror unhurt before, and will fight battles to be the
talk of wives. No longer can I send boasting messengers to
Carthage :" all the hope and success of my name is fallen, is
fallen by the death of Asdrubal. There is nothing, but what
the Claudian hands'0 will perform ; which both Jupiter defends
with his propitious divinity, and sagacious precaution conducts
through the sharp trials of war."

ODE V.

TO AUGUSTUS.

O BEST guardian of the Roman*1 people, born under propitious
gods, already art thou too long absent : after having promised

18 Two prodigies, perfectly alike, were performed in two different
countries. Jason sowed the teeth of a dragou in Colchis, and Cadmus
did the same in Boeotia two hundred years afterward. The teeth were
instantly transformed into men, who destroyed each other. Echion,
with four others, who remained of those sown by Cadmus, assisteu him
in building the walls of Thebes, from whence the poet calls it Echionice
Thebce. CRUQ.

19 After the battle of Cannfe, Hannibal sent his brother Mago to Car-
thage with the news of his victory. He talked in very pompous terms
of Hannibal's success, and ordered all the rings which had been taken
from the Roman knights to be thrown before the gate of the senate-
house, that the senators might compute from thence tue number of the
slain. To this story the poet alludes. LAMB.

80 It is no longer Hannibal who speaks, but the poet, who resumes the
subject of his ode ; nor are these words to be applied only to Claudiui
Nero, but to all his descendants, and particularly to Druaus. Tosa.

si CC Virg. ^En. vii. 877, "Romula tellus."

ODKT. ODES OF HORACE. 101

a mature arrival" to the sacred council of the senators, return.
Restore, O excellent chieftain, the light to thy country ; for,
like the spring, wherever thy countenance has shone, the
day passes more agreeably for the people, and the sun has a
superior luster. As a mother, with vows, omens, and prayers,
calls for her son (whom the south wind with adverse gales
detains from his sweet home, staying more than a year be-
yond the Carpathian Sea), nor turns aside her looks from the
curved shore ; in like manner, inspired with loyal wishes, his
country seeks for Caesar. For, [under your auspices,] the ox
in safety traverses the meadows : Ceres nourishes the ground,
and abundant Prosperity : the sailors skim through the calm
ocean : and Faith is in dread of being censured. The chaste
family is polluted by no adulteries : morality aud the law
have got the better of that foul crime ; the child-bearing
women are commended for an offspring resembling [the
father ; and] punishment presses as a companion upon guilt.
Who can fear the Parthian ?23 Who, the frozen Scythian ?
Who, the progeny that rough Germany produces, while
Caesar is in safety ? Who cares for the war of fierce Spain ?
Every man puts a period to the day amid his own hills, and
weds the vine to the widowed elm-trees ; hence he returns
joyful to his wine, and invites you, as a deity, to his second
course ; thee, with many a prayer, thee he pursues with wine
poured out [in libation] from the cups ; and joins your divinity
to that of his household gods, in the same manner as Greece
was mindful of Castor and the great Hercules. May you,
excellent chieftain, bestow a lasting festivity upon Italy !
This is our language, when we are sober at the early day ;
this is our language, when we have well drunk, at the time
the sun is beneath the ocean.

22 Augustus was absent from Rome about two years and a half; and
his promise of a speedy return made his absence more insupportable.
SAN.

23 Augustus had either subdued, or reduced to peace the whole east,
•north, and west. The east is marked by Parthia; the north by Scythia
and German}' ; and the west by Spain. Dion reckons the reduction of
Spain, by sending colonies thither, to be one of the happiest successes of
Augustus in this expedition. SAN.

102 ODES OF HORACE- BOOK iv

ODE VI.

HYMN TO APOLLO.

THOU god, whom the offspring of Niobe*4 experienced as
avenger of a presumptuous tongue, and the ravisher Tityus,
and also the Thessalian Achilles, almost the conqueror of lofty
Troy, a warrior superior to all others, but unequal to thee;
though, son of the sea-goddess, Thetis, he shook the Dardanian
towers, warring with his dreadful spear. He, as it were a
pine smitten with the burning ax, or a cypress prostrated by
the east wind, fell extended far, and reclined his neck in the
Trojan dust. He would not, by being shut up in a [wooden]
horse, that belied the sacred rights of Minerva, have surprised
the Trojans reveling in an evil hour, and the court of Priam
making merry in the dance ; but openly inexorable to his cap-
tives, (oh impious ! oh !) would have burned speechless babes
with Grecian fires, even him concealed in his mother's womb :
had not the father of the gods, prevailed upon by thy en-
treaties and those of the beauteous Venus, granted to the af-
fairs of ^Eneas wails founded under happier auspices. Thou
lyrist Phoebus, tutor of the harmonious Thalia, who bathest
thy locks in the river Xanthus, O delicate Agyieus, support
the dignity of the Latian muse. Phoebus gave me genius,
Phoebus the art of composing verse, and the title of poet. Ye
virgins of the first distinction, and ye youths born of illus-
trious parents, ye wards of the Delian goddess, who stops with
her bow the flying lynxes, and the stags, observe the Lesbian
measure, and the motion of my thumb ; duly celebrating the
son of Latona, duly [celebrating] the goddess that enlightens
the night with her shining crescent, propitious to the fruits,
and expeditious in rolling on the precipitate months. Shortly

94 This Niobe, says Lambiuus, was the daughter of Tantalus, and wife
of Amphion king of Thebes. She had twelve children, six males and
as many females, of which she was so proud, as to reproach Latona for
having only two, Apollo and Diana. The goddess, provoked at her in-
solence, complained to her own children, who killed all those of Niobe;
Apollo, the males, and Diana, the females. Niobe, overwhelmed with
grief for her loss, dissolved into tears. Jupiter, compassionating her
miseries, converted her into a stone; from which were said 'to issue
several springs of water. WATSON.

ODEvn. ODES OF HORACE. 103

a bride you will say: "I, skilled in the measures of the poet
Horace, recited an ode which was acceptable to the gods,
when the secular period2' brought back the festal days."

ODE VII.

TO TORQUATUS.

THE snows are fled, the herbage now returns to the fields, and
the leaves to the trees. The earth changes its appearance,
and the decreasing rivers glide along their banks : the elder
Grace, together with the Nymphs, and her two sisters, ven-
tures naked to lead off the dance. That you are not to ex-
pect things permanent, the year, and the hour that hurries
away the agreeable day, admonish us. The colds are miti-
gated by the zephyrs : the summer follows close upon the
spring, shortly to die itself, as soon as fruitful autumn shall
have shed its fruits : and anon sluggish winter returns again.
Nevertheless the quick-revolving moons repair their wanings
in the skies ; but when we descend [to those regions] where
pious ^Eneas, where Tullus and the wealthy Ancus [have
gone before us], we become dust and a mere shade. Who
knows whether the gods above will add to this day's reckon-
ing the space of to-morrow ? Every thing, which you shall
indulge to your beloved soul,28 will escape the greedy hands
of your heir. When once, Torquatus," you shall be dead,

46 The Saecular games were celebrated once every hundred and ten
years. Before the Julian reformation of the calendar, the Roman was a
lunar year, which was brought, or was meant to be brought, into harmony
with the solar year, by the insertion of an intercalary month. Joseph
Scaliger has shown that the principle was to intercalate a month, alter-
nately of twenty-two and twenty-three days, every other year during
periods of twenty-two years, in each of which periods such an intercalary
month was inserted ten times, the last biennium being passed over. A3
five years made a lustrum, so five of these periods made a saeculum of one
hundred and ten years. (Scaliger de Emendat. Temp. p. 80 sqq. Nieh-
buhr's Roman History, vol. i. p. 334. Hare and Thirlwall's transl.)
ANTHON*. 26 i. e. thyself. See OrellL

17 Torquatus was descended from Manlius, who, in a combat at Anio,
defeated Uncagula the Gaul, and took a gold chain from his neclc.
WATSON.

104 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK IT.

and Minos shall have made his awful decisions concerning
you ; not your family, not your eloquence, not your piety
shall restore you. For neither can Diana free the chaste
Hippolytus28 from infernal darkness; nor is Theseus" able
to break off the Lethaean fetters from his dear Pirithous.'0

ODE vm.

TO MARCtUS CENSORINtJS.

«i

O CENSORINUS, liberally would I present my acquaintance
with goblets and beautiful vases of brass; I would present
them with tripods, the rewards of the brave Grecians : nor
would you bear off the meanest of my donations, if I were
rich in those pieces of art, which either Parrhasius" or Sco-

88 Hippolytum. What the poet says of Hippolytus contradicts tie
fable ; and what he adds of Theseus and Pirithous destroys his reason-
ing; since, although Theseus could not bring Pirithous from hell, yet
Hercules delivered Theseus. Horace, through this whole ode, speaks
like an Epicurean ; and, according to Epicurus, all the popular opinions
concerning Hippolytus, Theseus, Pirithous, and many others, were all
pure chimaeras and fables. SAN.

a* Theseus, the son of ^Egeus, king of Athens, and j^thera. He was
related to Hercules, whose actions he imitated. He slew the Minotaur
in Crete, and conquered the Amazons, and took their queen, Hippolyte,
to wife, by whom he had Hippolytus. He subdued Thebes, worsted the
Centaurs, and did other famous actions. He and Pirithous were a noble
pair of friends. He died in the island of Paros. WATSON.

30 Pirithous, the son of Ixion, who assisted Theseus against the Cen-
taurs. They descended both together into hell, to carry off Proserpine ;
but were detained prisoners. Hercules descending some time after, and
resolving to deliver these two princes, took Theseus by the hand, who
did the same to Pirithous ; but an earthquake happening, by which they
were separated., Theseus only escaped, and Pirithous was left. WATSON.

11 Censorinus. This was Caius Marcius Censorinus, who was consul
with Asinius Gallus, in the year of the city 746. He was greatly esteemed
at Rome, and accompanied Cams Csesar, the grandson of Augustus, into
Syria, where he died, eight years after the death of Horace. WATSON.

w Parrhasius was an Ephesian ; he flourished about 400 R c. He is
celebrated for his admirable representation of a curtain, before the vine
and grapes of Zeuxis, which deceived even the artistical eyes of the lat-
ter. Scopas was a native of Paros, born Olymp. 97. A Venus, Phaeton,
and Apollo, are mentioned among his chief productions ; but he is chiefly

ODE Tin. ODES OF HORACE. 105

pas produced ; the latter in statuary, the former in liquid
colors, eminent to portray at one time a man, at another a
god. But I have no store of this sort, nor do your circum-
stances or inclination require any such curiosities as these.
You delight in verses : verses I can give, and set a value
on the donation. Not marbles engraved with public inscrip-
tions,88 by means of which breath and life returns to illustri-
ous generals after their decease ; not the precipitate flight of
Hannibal, and his menaces retorted upon his own head :34 not
the flames of impious Carthage * * * *" more eminently set
forth his praises, who returned, having gained a name from
conquered Africa,8" than the Calabrian muses ; neither, should
writings be silent, would you have any reward for having done
well. What would the son of Mars and Ilia be, if invidious
silence had stifled the merits of Romulus ? The force, and
favor, and voice of powerful poets consecrate JEacus,
snatched from the Stygian floods, to the Fortunate Islands.
The muse forbids a praiseworthy man to die : the muse con-
fers the happiness of heaven. Thus laborious Hercules has
a place at the longed-for banquets of Jove : [thus] the sons
of Tyndarus, that bright constellation, rescue shattered ves-
sels from the bosom of the deep : [and thus] Bacchus, his
temples adorned with the verdant vine-branch, brings the
prayers of his votaries to successful issues.

celebrated for his exuberant fancy, and rich invention in depicting Bac-
chic subjects, whence the use of protulit, i. e. " ut inventor finxit," not
" spectandas exposuit." ANTHOX.

*s Notce. These are probably abbreviations, but are used here for in-
scriptions ; such as S. P. Q. R. for Senatus Populusque JRomanus. TORR.

14 Rejed&que retrorsum mince. The threats of Hannibal, driven back
from Italy, when he was obliged to fly to the defense of Carthage. BOND.

** On this lacuna see the commentators.

38 Nomen ab Africa lucraius. Scipio was the first of the Romans who
was honored with the name of a conquered country. Sempronius Grac-
chus must be an unsuspected witness to his character, when he says, that
he subdued Africa ; defeated in Spain four of the most famous Cartha-
ginian generals ; took Syphax prisoner in Numidia ; vanquished Han-
nibal ; rendered Carthage tributary to Rome, and obliged Antiochus to
retire on the other side of Mount Taurus. TORE.

5*

106 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK IT.

ODE IX.

TO MARCUS LOLLIUS."

LEST you for a moment imagine that those words will be lost,
which I, born on the far-resounding Aufidus, utter to be
accompanied with the lyre, by arts hitherto undivulged — If
Maeonian Homer possesses the first rank, the Pindaric and
Cean muses, and the menacing strains of Alcaeus, and the
majestic ones of Stesichorus," are by no means obscure :
neither, if Anacreon long ago sportfully sung any thing, has
time destroyed it : even now breathes the love and live the
ardors of the ^Eolian maid, committed to her lyre. The
Lacedaemonian Helen is not the only fair, who has been in-
flamed by admiring the delicate ringlets of a gallant, and
garments embroidered with gold, and courtly accomplish-
ments, and retinue : nor was Teucer the first that leveled
arrows from the Cydonian bow : Troy was more than once
harassed : the great Idomeneus and Sthenelus were not the
only heroes that fought battles worthy to be recorded by the
muses : the fierce Hector or the strenuous Deiphobus were
not the first that received heavy blows in defense of virtuous
wives and children. Many brave men lived before Agamem-
non: but all of them, unlamented and unknown, are over-
whelmed with endless obscurity, because they were destitute
of a sacred bard. Valor, uncelebrated, differs but little from
cowardice when in the grave. I will not [therefore], O
Lollius, pass you over in silence, uncelebrated in my writings,
or suffer envious forgetfulness with impunity to seize so many
toils of thine." You have a mind ever prudent in the con-

*T Lollms. This Lollius is the same with him to whom ho addresses
the 2d and 18th Epistles of the First Book. He was consul with Q.
^Emilius Lepidus in the 732d year of the city. WATSON.

'• Stesichorus was of Himera in Sicily, and flourished about 610 years
before Christ. WATSON.

19 Ibtvc tuos patiar Idbores. Lollius commanded the Roman legions in
Germany, Thrace, and Galatia. In the German war ho lost the eagle of
the fifth legion, and his defeat was called the Lollian slaughter. LoUiana
clades ; but he soon revenged the affront, and obliged the Germans to
repass the Rhine, to demand a peace, and deliver hostages. FRAN.

ODE i. ODES OF HORACE. 107

duct of affairs, and steady alike amid success and trouble:
you are an avenger of avaricious fraud, and proof against
money, that attracts every thing; and a consul not of one
year only, but as often as the good and upright magistrate has
preferred the honorable to the profitable, and has rejected
with a disdainful brow the bribes of wicked men,40 and tri-
umphant through opposing bands has displayed his arms. You
can not with propriety call him happy, that possesses much ;
he more justly claims the title of happy, who understands how
to make a wise use of the gifts of the gods, and how to bear
severe poverty ; and dreads a reproachful deed worse than death ;
such a man as this is not afraid to perish in the defense of his
dear friends, or of his country.

ODE X.

TO LIGURINU8.

O CRUEL still, and potent in the endowments of beauty, when
an unexpected plume shall come upon your vanity, and those
locks, which now wanton on your shoulders, shall fall off, and
that color, which is now preferable to the blossom of the
damask rose, changed, 0 Ligurinus, shall turn into a wrinkled
face ; [then] will you say (as often as you see yourself,
[quite] another person in the looking-glass), Alas! why was
not my present inclination the same, when I was young ? Or
why do not my cheeks return, unimpaired, to these my pre-
sent sentiments ?

40 "Rejects with disdainful brow the bribes of the guilty; and, vic-
torious, makes for himself a way by his own arms amid opposing
crowds." Explicuit sua arma may be rendered more literally, though
less intelligibly, " displays his arms." The " opposing crowds" are the
difficulties that beset the path of the upright man, as well from the in-
herent weakness of his own nature, as from the arts of the flatterer, and
the machinations of secret foes. Calling, however, virtue and firmness
to his aid, he employs these arms of purest temper against the host that
surrounds him, and comes off victorious from the conflict. ED. DUEL.

108 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK IT.

ODE XL

TO PHYLLIS.

PHYLLIS, I have a cask full of Abanian wine, upward of
nine years old ; I have parsley in my garden, for the weaving
of chaplets ; I have a store of ivy, with which, when you have
bound your hair, you look so gay : the house shines cheerfully
with plate : the altar, bound with chaste vervain, longs to be
sprinkled [with the blood] of a sacrificed lamb : all hands are
busy : girls mingled with boys fly about from place to place :
the flames quiver, rolling on their summit the sooty smoke.41
But yet, that you may know to what joys you are invited, the
Ides are to be celebrated by you, the day which divides
April," the month of sea-born Venus ; [a day,] with reason
to be solemnized by me, and almost more sacred to me than
that of my own birth ; since from this day my dear Maecenas
reckons his flowing years. A rich and buxom girl hath pos-
sessed herself of Telephus, a youth above your rank ; and
she holds him fast by an agreeable fetter. Consumed Phae-
ton strikes terror into ambitious hopes, and the winged
Pegasus, not stomaching the earth-born rider Bellerophon,
affords a terrible example, that you ought always to pursue
things that are suitable to you . and that you should avoid a
disproportioned match, by thinking it a crime to entertain a
hope beyond what is allowable. Come then, thou last of my
loves (for hereafter I shall burn for no other woman), learn
with me such measures, as thou mayest recite with thy lovely
voice : our gloomy cares shall be mitigated with an ode.

41 The Greeks and Romans appear to have been acquainted with
the use of chimneys. The more common dwellings had merely an open-
ing in the roof, which allowed the smoke to escape ; the better class of
edifices were warmed by means of pipes enclosed in the walls, and
which communicated with a large stove, or several smaller ones, con-
structed in the earth under the building. Anthon interprets vortice,
"from the house-top;" but the explanation of Orellius is preferable,
"fumum celerrime torquentes ac glomerantes, ita ut ejus verticem
officiant." M'CAUL.

« Mentem Veneris. April was called the month of Venus, because
her grand festival began on the first day of that month. SA.N.

ODE m. ODES OF HORACE. 109

ODE XH.

TO VIRGIL.

THE Thracian breezes, attendants on the spring, which
moderate the deep, now fill the sails ; now neither are the
meadows stiff [with frost], nor roar the rivers swollen with
winter's snow. The unhappy bird, that piteously bemoans
Itys, and is the eternal disgrace of the house of Cecrops*'
(because she wickedly revenged the brutal lusts of kings), now
builds her nest. The keepers of the sheep play tunes upon
the pipe amid the tender herbage, and delight that god,
whom flocks and the shady hills of Arcadia delight. The time
of year, O Virgil, has brought on a drought : but if you de-
sire to quaff wine from the Calenian press, you, that are a
constant companion of young noblemen, must earn your liquor
by [bringing some] spikenard : a small box of spikenard shall
draw out a cask, which now lies in the Sulpician store-house,4*
bounteous in the indulgence of fresh hopes and efficacious
in washing away the bitterness of cares. To which joys if
you hasten, come instantly with your merchandize : I do not
intend to dip you in my cups scot-free, like a man of wealth,
in a house abounding with plenty. But lay aside delay, and
the desire of gain ; and, mindful of the gloomy [funeral]
flames, intermix, while you may, your grave studies with a
little light gayety : it is delightful to give a loose on a proper

43 GecropicK domus. Cecrops was founder and first king of Athens ;
from him his successors, although not of his family, took the title of Ce-
cropidce. Horace therefore uses the house of Cecrops for the kings of
Athens in general ; thus we say the Ptolemies for the kings of Egypt, and
the OcBsars for the emperors of Rome. TORE. DAC.

44 Sulpiciis horeis. In the year 633 the Romans began to drink old
wine, and several public-houses were erected where it was sold. These,
which Horace mentions, either belonged to Sulpicius, or perhaps were
built upon his estate. Sulpicia for Sulpidana horrea. SAN.

110 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK i>.

ODE xm.

TO LYCB.

THE gods have heard my prayers, 0 Lyce ; Lyce, the gods
have heard my prayers, you are become an old woman, and
yet you would fain seem a beauty ; and you wanton and drink
in an audacious manner ; and when drunk, solicit tardy Cupid,
with a quivering voice. He basks in the charming cheeks of
the blooming Chia, who is a proficient on the lyre. The teas-
ing urchin flies over blasted oaks, and starts back at the sight
of you, because foul teeth, because wrinkles and snowy hair
render you odious. Now neither Coan purples nor sparkling
jewels restore those years, which winged time has inserted in
the public annals. Whither is your beauty gone ? Alas ! or
whither your bloom ? Whither your graceful deportment ?
What have you [remaining] of her, of her, who breathed loves,
and ravished me from myself? Happy next to Cynara, and
distinguished for an aspect of graceful ways : but the fates
granted a few years only to Cynara, intending to preserve for a
long time Lyce, to rival in years the aged raven : that the fer-
vid young fellows might see, not without excessive laughter,
that torch, [which once so brightly scorched,] reduced to ashes.

ODE XIV.

TO AUGUSTUS.

WHAT zeal of the senators, or what of the Roman people, by
decreeing * the most ample honors, can eternize your virtues,
O Augustus, by monumental inscriptions and lasting records ?
0 thou, wherever the sun illuminates the habitable regions,
greatest of princes, whom the Vindelici, that never ex-
perienced the Roman sway, have lately learned how power-
ful thou art in war! For Drusus, by means of your soldiery,
has more than once bravely overthrown the Genauni, an
implacable race, and the rapid Brenci, and the citadels sit-

ODBXIV. ODES OF HORACE. HI

uated on the tremendous Alps. The elder of the Neros
soon after fought a terrible battle, and, under your pro-
pitious auspices, smote the ferocious Rhreti : how worthy
of admiration in the field of battle, [to see] with what de-
struction he oppressed the brave hearts devoted to volun-
tary death: just as the south wind harasses the untame-
able waves, when the dance4' of the Pleiades cleaves the
clouds ; [so is he] strenuous to annoy the troops of the enemy,
and to drive his eager steed through the midst of flames.
Thus the bull-formed Aufidus, who washes the dominions of
the Apulian Daunus, rolls along, when he rages and meditates
an horrible deluge to the cultivated lands; when Claudius
overthrew with impetuous might, the iron ranks of the bar-
barians, and by mowing down both front and rear strewed
the ground, victorious without any loss; through you sup-
plying them with troops, you with councils, and your own
guardian powers.4* For on that day, when the suppliant
Alexandria opened her ports and deserted court, fortune, pro-
pitious to you in the third lustrum, has put a happy period to
the war, and has ascribed praise and wished-for honor to
the victories already obtained. O thou dread guardian of
Italy and imperial Rome, thee the Spaniard,47 till now un-
conquered, and the Mede, and the Indian, thee the vagrant
Scythian admires ; thee both the Nile, who conceals his foun-
tain heads, and the Danube ; thee the rapid Tigris ; thee the
monster-bearing ocean, that roars against the remote Britons :
thee the region of Gaul fearless of death, and that of hardy
Iberia obeys ; tbee the Sicambrians, who delight in slaughter,
laying aside their arms, revere.

45 See my note on ^Esch. Ag. 4, ed. Bohn.

46 Tuos prcebente Divos. Since the Rhcetians were defeated upon the
same day in which Augustus entered Alexandria fifteen years before, the
poet concludes that the same gods had crowned both expeditions with
success. Thus by this happy circumstance he transfers the glory of
Tiberius to the emperor, and recals to his remembrance a day which
made him master of the world by ending the civil wars. The senate
had decreed that the day, upon which Alexandria was taken, should be
numbered among their sacred festivals. This day was probably the 29th
of August, 724. DAC. SAN.

47 Cantaber non ante domabilis. This epithet may be extended to the
Medes and Indians ; for although these nations had been often defeated,
yet they were never entirely subdued until the year 734, when they
were conquered by Agrippa. DAC.

112 ODES OF HORACE. BOOK IT.

ODE XV.

TO AUGUSTUS, ON THE RESTORATION OF PEACE.4"

PHCEBUS chid me, when I was meditating to sing of battles
and conquered cities on the lyre ; that I might not set my lit-
tle sails along the Tyrrhenian Sea. Your age, O Caesar, has
both restored plenteous crops to the fields, and has brought
back to our Jupiter the standards torn from the proud pillars
of the Parthians ; and has shut up [the temple] of Janus"
[founded by] Romulus, now free from war ; and nas imposed
a due discipline upon headstrong licentiousness, and has ex-
tirpated crimes, and recalled the ancient arts ; by which the
Latin name and strength of Italy have iucreased, and the
fame and majesty of the empire is extended from the sun's
western bed to the east. While Caesar is guardian of affairs,
neither civil rage nor violence shall disturb tranquillity ; nor
hatred which forges swords, and sets at variance unhappy
states. Not those, who drink of the deep Danube, shall now
break the Julian edicts : not the Getae, not the Seres, nor the
perfidious Persians, nor those born upon the river Tana'is.
And let us, both on common and festal days, amid the gifts
of joyous Bacchus, together with our wives and families, having
first duly invoked the gods, celebrate, after the manner of our
ancestors, with songs accompanied with Lydian pipes, our late
valiant commanders ; and Troy, and Anchises, and the offspring
of benign Venus.

48 In the latter end of spring, 744, Augustus shut the temple of Janus
for the third and last time, which probably gave occasion to this ode.
SAN.

*• The temple of Janus was open in war and closed in peace. It had
been closed previous to the reign of Augustus, once in the days of Numa,
and a second time at the conclusion of the first Punic war. Under Au-
gustus it was closed thrice ; once ia A. u. c. 725, after the overthrow of
Antony (compare Orosius, 6, 2-2, and Dio Cassius, 56. 23), again in A. 0. c.
729, after the reduction of the Cantabri (compare Dio Cassius, 53, 26),
and the third time, when the Dacians, Dalmatians, and some of the Ger-
man tribes were subdued by Tiberius and Drusus. (Compare Dio Caa-
sius, 54, 36.) To this last Horace is here supposed to allude. We have
retained Janum Quirini, i. «. Janum Quiritium. When the temple of
Janus was the third time closed is not clearly known. Some, with Masson,
refer it to the year 744, others to 748. Horace appears to allude merely
V> the fact of its having been closed twice. ANTHON and M'CAUL.

THE BOOK

OF THE

EPODES OF HORACE,

ODE I.

TO MAECENAS.

THOU wilt go,1 my friend Maecenas, with laburian* galleys
among the towering forts of ships, ready at thine own [hazard]
to undergo any of Caesar's dangers. What shall I do ? To
whom life may be agreeable, if you survive ; but, if other-
wise, burdensome. Whether shall I, at your command, pur-
sue my ease, which can not be pleasing unless in your com-
pany ? Or shall I endure this toil with such a courage, as
becomes uneffeminate men to bear ? I will bear it ? and with
an intrepid soul follow you, either through the summits of the
Alps, and the inhospitable Caucasus, or to the furthest western
bay. You may ask how I, unwarlike and infirm, can assist
your labors by mine ? While I am your companion, I shall
be in less anxiety, which takes possession of the absent in a
greater measure. As the bird, that has unfledged young, is

1 Ibis. As soon as Maecenas had received orders to hold himself in
readiness to go aboard the fleet of Octavius, he imparted the news to
Horace, and at the same time declared to him, that he would not permit
him to make this voyage with him.

This ode was written in 723, and it shows, through the whole, a dis-
interested affection and gratitude. SAN.

2 lAburnis. Plutarch, speaking of this battle, says, that when one of
Antony's ships was surrounded by four or five Liburnian galleys, it look-
ed like an assault of a town. Floras, describing the vessels of Antony,
says, that they had from six to nine rowers to every oar ; that they car-
ried towers and bridges of such prodigious height, as to look like castles
and towns : that the seas groaned beneath their weight, and the winds
labored to push them forward, Horace calls these towers propugnacula
navium, and Virgil calls the vessels which bore them turritas puppte,
towered ships. ED. DUBLIN.

114 EPODES OF HORACE. DDK a

in a greater dread of serpents' approaches, when they are left :
— not that, if she should be present when they came, she
could render more help. Not only this, but every other -war,
shall be cheerfully embraced by me for the hope of your
favor ; [and this,] not that my plows should labor, yoked to a
greater number of mine own oxen ; or that my cattle before
the scorching dog-star should change the Calabrian' for the
Lncanian* pastures : neither that my white country-box should
equal the Circaean walls of lofty Tusculum.* Your generosi-
ty has enriched me enough, and more than enough : I shall
never wish to amass, what either, like the miser Chremes,
I may bury in the earth, or luxuriously squander, like a
prodigal.

ODE H.

THE PRAISES OF A COUNTRY LIFE.

HAPPY the man,8 who, remote from business, after the man-

3 Pecusve Calabris. The wealthier Romans had different pastures for
summer and winter. The poorer sort sent their flocks into the public
pastures, paying a certain rent to the farmers of the revenues. Thus
Calabria was chosen for its warmth and temperature in winter, and Lu-
cania for its coolness and verdure in summer, occasioned by its moun-
tains. But the difficulty of the sentence depends upon the construction,
which must be directly contrary to the poet's arrangement of the words.
Mutat Lucana Calabria pascuis, for mutat Calabra pascua Lucanis. In
the same manner in the first book, Mutat Lucretilem Lycceo, for mutat
Lycceum Lucretili. SCHOL.

4 Lucania, a country of Italy, in the kingdom of Naples, between
Apulia and the Tuscan Sea, famous for pastures. Calabria, the most
southern part of the kingdom of Naples, called also Magna Greecia;
lying between the Sicilian and Ionian Seas ; it brings forth fruit twice in
a year. WATSON.

5 Tusculum is a city of Italy, about twelve miles from Rome, built on
an eminence, where many of the Roman nobility, and Virgil, and Horace
also, had country-seats. WATSOX.

6 The object of the poet is to show with how much difficulty a covet-
ous man disengages himself from the love of riches. He, therefore, sup-
poses an usurer, who is persuaded of the happiness and tranquillity of a
country life, to have formed the design of retiring into the country and
renouncing his former pursuits. The latter calls in his money, and is
ready to depart, when his ruling passion returns, and once more plunges
him in the vortex of gain. ANTE.

OTicn. EPODES OP HORACE. 115

ner of the ancient race of mortals, cultivates his paternal lands
with his own oxen, disengaged from every kind of usury ; he
is neither alarmed by the horrible trump, as a soldier, nor
dreads he the angry sea ; he shuns both the bar and the proud
portals of citizens in power. Wherefore he either weds the
lofty poplars to the mature branches of the vine ; and, lopping
off the useless boughs with his pruning-knife, he ingrafts
more fruitful ones : or he takes a prospect of the herds of his
lowing cattle, wandering about in a lonely vale ; or stores his
honey, pressed [from the combs], in clean vessels ; or shears
his tender sheep. Or, when autumn has lifted up in the fields
his head adorned with mellow fruits, how does he rejoice,
while he gathers the grafted pears, and the grape that vies
with the purple, with which he may recompense thee, O
Priapus, and thee, father Sylvanus, guardian of his bound-
aries ! Sometimes he delights to lie under an aged holm, some-
times on the matted grass : meanwhile the waters glide along
in their deep channels ; the birds warble in the woods ; and
the fountains murmur with their purling streams, which in-
vites gentle slumbers. But when the wintery season of the
tempestuous air prepares rains and snows, he either drives the
fierce boars, with many a dog, into the intercepting toils ; or
spreads his thin nets with the smooth pole, as a snare for the
voracious thrushes ; or catches in his gin the timorous hare,
or that stranger the crane,7 pleasing rewards [for his labor].
Among such joys as these, who does not forget those mis-
chievous anxieties, which are the property of love. But if a
chaste wife, assisting on her part [in the management] of the
house, and beloved children (such as is the Sabine,8 or the
sun-burned spouse of the industrious Apulian), piles up the
sacred hearth with old wood," just at the approach of her
weary husband ; and, shutting up the fruitful cattle in the

7 Et advenam gruem. Cranes came to Italy and Greece in winter for
the warmth of the climate ; from whence Pliny calls them Hyemis adve-
nas, the strangers of winter. LAMB.

8 Sabina qualis. The Sabines possessed the middle of Italy. Thej
were a frugal and laborious people, and their wives were remarkable for
chastity and modesty, domestic housewifery, and conjugal fidelity. CRUQ.

9 Sacrum vetustis extruai. The construction is reversed : Extruere lig-
nisfocum, for extruere ligna in face, or super foco. This fire was called
sacred, because it was consecrated to Vesta and the household gods,
whose statues were placed round it CRUQ.

116 EPODES OF HORACE ODE m

woven hurdles, milks dry their distended udders : and, draw-
ing this year's wine out of a well-seasoned cask, prepares the
unbought collation : not the Lucrine oysters10 could delight me
more, nor the turbot, nor the scar, should the tempestuous
winter drive any from the eastern floods to this sea : not the
turkey, nor the Asiatic wild-fowl, can come into my stomach
more agreeably, than the olive gathered from the richest
branches from the trees, or the sorrel thai loves the meadows,
or mallows salubrious for a sickly body, or a lamb slain at the
feast of Terminus, or a kid rescued f: oin the wolf. Amid these
dainties, how it pleases one to see the well-fed sheep hastening
home ! to see the weary oxen, with drooping neck, dragging
the inverted plowshare ! and slaves, the test of a rich family,
ranged about the smiling household gods ! When Alfius, the
usurer, now on the point of turning countryman, had said this,
he collected in all his money on the Ides ; and endeavors to put
it out again at the Calends.

ODE HI.

TO MAECENAS.

IF any person at any time with an impious hand has broken
his aged father's neck, let him eat11 garlic, more baneful than
hemlock. Oh ! the hardy bowels of the mowers ! What
poison is this that rages in my entrails ? Has viper's blood, in-
fused in these herbs, deceived me ? Or has Cauidia dressed
this baleful food ? When Medea, beyond all the [other] Ar-
gonauts, admired their handsome leader, she anointed Jason
with this, as he was going to tie the untried yoke on the
bulls : and having revenged herself on [Jason's] mistress, by
making her presents besmeared with this, she flew away on

10 Lucrina conchylia. Conchylia. la a general word for all kinds of
shell-fish. The Romans at first loved the oysters of the Lucrine Lake ;
afterward they preferred those of Brundusium and Tarentum ; at length
all others were insipid to them except those of the Atlantic Ocean. As
these expenses became excessive, the censors were obliged to forbid
either fowl or shell-fish to be brought from countries so distant. DAC.

u » Edit is preferable to edot ; for the ancients used edim, edit edit?
SCHOL. See OrellL

ODBIV. EPODES OF HORACE. 117

her winged dragon. Never did the steaming influence of any
constellation so raging as this rest upon the thirsty Appulia :
neither did the gift [of Dejanird] burn hotter upon the
shoulders of laborious Hercules. But if ever, facetious Maecenas,
you should have a desire for any such stuff again, I wish that
your girl may oppose her hand to your kiss, and lie at the
furthest part of the bed.

ODE IV.

TO MENAS."

As great an enmity as is allotted by nature to wol>es and
lambs, [so great a one] have I to you, you that are galled at
your back with Spanish cords,13 and on your legs with the
hard fetter. Though, purse-proud with your riches, you strut
along, yet fortune does not alter your birth. Do you not ob-
serve while you are stalking along the sacred way with a robe
twice three ells long, how the most open indignation of those

12 The manuscripts inscribe this ode in Menam libertum. Sextus Me-
nas was a freed man of Cneius Pompeius, and during five or six years
of the triumvirate had made himself considerable both to Octavius and
Pompey, by betraying each of them in their turn, from whence Appian
calls him the double betrayer.

In 714 he commanded Pompey 's fleet ; ravaged the borders of Tuscany,
took Sardinia, and reduced Rome to such extremity, by shutting up the
sea, that he compelled the Romans to demand a peace from Pompey. In
716, Menas became suspected by Pompey, who commanded him to give
an account of his administration. He refused to obey ; put the persons
to death whom Pompey had sent ; and surrendered himself to Octavius,
with his ships, his troops, and the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. The
triumvir received him with open arms, and put him on board his fleet in
quality of lieutenant to Calvisius Sabinus. He there behaved himself
with so much courage and conduct, in the expeditions of the following
year, that, inflamed with his success, and angry that he had not the su-
preme command, he returned to Pompey.

In 718, discontented that he was not regarded equally to his merit, he
ranged himself, with a large number of vessels, on the side of Octavius,
who had made him some advantageous offers, yet never employed him
afterward but with much reserve. He was killed the following year in
a sea-fight. ED. DUBLIN.

18 Ibericis funibus. A Spanish herb, called spartum, had fibers so
pliant and strong, that ropes were made of it ; from whence a Spanish
cord became a general name. TORE,

118 EPODES OF HORACE. ODE v.

that pass and repass turns their looks on thee ? This fel-
low, [say they,] cut with the triumvir's whips,14 even till the
beadle was sick of his office, plows a thousand acres of Faler-
nian land," and wears out the Appian road with his nags ; and,
in despite of Otho,1* sits in the first rows [of the circus] as a
knight of distinction. To what purpose is it, that so many
brazen-beaked ships of immense bulk should be led out against
pirates and a band of slaves, while this fellow, this is a military
tribune ?

ODE V.

THE WITCHES MANGLING A EOT.

Bur oh, by all the gods in heaven, who rule the earth and
human race, what means this tumult?" And what the hideous
looks of all these [hags, fixed] upon me alone ? I conjure
thee by thy children (if invoked Lucina was ever present at
any real birth of thine), I [conjure] thee by this empty honoi
of my purple,1* by Jupiter, who must disapprove these

14 Sectua flogettis triumvirolibus. There were three judges in Rome,
who took cognizance of all petty crimes, and who ordered slaves and
thieves to be chastised in their presence. The person against whom this
ode was written had gone through this discipline, until the beadle, who
used to proclaim the fault for which the criminals were punished, was
tired of his office. Prceconis adfostidium.

15 Aral Ihterni, etc. Here are two reasons for this popular indigna-
tion, that this fellow should possess a thousand acres of land, when the
ancient laws allowed the Roman citizen no more than seven ; and that
these thousand acres should lie in such a country as Campania ; a coun-
try so fertile, that Bacchus and Ceres were said to have disputed the
possession of it TORE. DAC.

18 According to the law of L. Roscius Otho, passed A. u. c. 686, four-
teen rows of benches, immediately over the orchestra, a place where the
senate sat, were appropriated in the theater and amphitheater for the ac-
commodation of the knights. As the tribunes of the soldiers had an
equal right with the Equites, they were entitled to seats in this same
quarter ; and hence the individual to whom the poet alludes, though of
servile origin, boldly takes his place on the foremost of the equestrian
benches, nor fears the law of Otho. ANTHON.

17 Tumultus. This word, in a moral sense, carries always an idea of
a criminal conspiracy. The boy sees a sentence of death in the eyes of
the witches. TORR.

18 Per hoc inane purpurcc decus. Children of quality wore a robe bor-

ODSV. EPODES OF HORACE. 119

proceedings, why dost thou look at me as a step-mother, or as
a wild beast stricken with a dart ? While the boy made these
complaints with a faltering voice, he stood with his bandages"
of distinction taken from him, a tender frame, such as might
soften the impious breasts of the cruel Thracians ; Canidia,
having interwoven her hair and uncombed head with little
vipers, orders wild30 fig-trees torn up from graves, orders
funeral cypresses and eggs besmeared with the gore of a loath-
some toad, and feathers of the nocturnal screech-owl, and those
herbs, which lolchos, and Spain, fruitful in poisons, transmits,
and bones snatched from the mouth of a hungry bitch, to be
burned in Colchian flames. But Sagana, tucked up for ex-
pedition, sprinkling the waters of Avernus all over the house,
bristles up with her rough hair like a sea-urchin, or a boai
in the chase. Veia, deterred by no remorse of conscience,
groaning with the toil, dug up the ground with the sharp
spade ; where the boy, fixed in, might long be tormented to
death at the sight of food varied two or three times in a day :
while he stood out with his face, just as much as bodies sus-
pended by the chin [in swimming] project from the water,
that his parched marrow and dried liver might be a charm
for love ; when once the pupils of his eyes had wasted away,
fixed on the forbidden food. Both the idle Naples, and every
neighboring town believed, that Folia of Ariminum, [a witoh]
of masculine lust, was not absent: she, who with her Thes-
salian incantations forces the charmed stars and the moon
from heaven."1 Here the fell Canidia, gnawing her unpaired

dered with purple, until they were fifteen years of age. The boy, there-
fore, conjures Canidia by this robe, which showed his youth and quality,
which was in itself esteemed sacred, and should therefore protect him
from danger. The Romans, with regard to this robe, used the expres-
sion majestas jweritice, the majesty of childhood. TORE. DAC.

19 Constitit insignibus raptis. His robe and bulla (which was hung
round his neck, and made of gold or silver in form of a heart) are by the
poet called insignia.

20 Jnbet sepulcris caprificos erutas. Here Canidia calls for the drugs
that witches were supposed to use in composing their philters. She
commands the wild fig-tree to be brought, because it bears neither fruit
nor flower, and is esteemed unlucky and ill-omened. To make the
charm more powerful, it must grow in a burying-place, and be torn up
by the roots. DAC.

21 That the moon could be brought down by magic was a common
superstition among the ancients, and the Thessalians were thought to b«
possessed of this art more than any other people. ANTHON.

120 EPODES OF HORACE. owt r.

thumb with her livid teeth, what said she ? or what did she
not say ? O ye faithful witnesses to my proceedings, Night
and Diana, who presidest over silence, when the secret ntes
are celebrated : now, now be present, now turn your anger
and power against the houses of our enemies, while the savage
wild beasts lie hid in the woods, dissolved in sweet repose ;
let the dogs of Suburra (which may be matter of ridicule for
every body) bark at the aged profligate, bedaubed with oint-
ment, such as my hands never made any more exquisite.
"What is the matter ? Why are these compositions less effica-
cious than those of the barbarian Medea ? by means of which
she made her escape, after having revenged herself on [Ja-
son's] haughty mistress, the daughter of the mighty Creon ;
when the garment, a gift that was infected with venom, took
off his new bride by its inflammatory power. And yet no
herb, nor root hidden in inaccessible places, ever escaped my
notice. [Nevertheless,] he sleeps in the perfumed bed of
every harlot, from his forgetfulness [of me]. Ah ! ah ! he
walks free [from my power] by the charms of some more
knowing witch. Varus, (oh you that will shortly have much
to lament !) you shall come back to me by means of unusual
spells ; nor shall you return to yourself by all the power of
Marsian enchantments.™ I will prepare a stronger philter:
I will pour in a stronger philter for you, disdainful as you
are ; and the heaven shall subside below the sea, with the
earth extended over it, sooner than you shall not burn with
love for me, in the same manner as this pitch [burns] in the
sooty flames. At these words, the boy no longer [attempted],
as before, to move the impious hags by soothing expressions ;
but, doubtful in what manner he should break silence, uttered
Thyestean imprecations. Potions [said he] have a great
efficacy in confounding right and wrong, but are not able to
invert the condition of human nature; I will persecute you
with curses ; and execrating detestation is not to be expiated
by any victim. Moreover, when doomed to death I shall have
expired, I will attend you as a nocturnal fury ; and, a ghost,
I will attack your faces with my hooked talons (for such is

** Marsis vocibus. The Marsi had the same character of witchcraft
in Italy, as the Thessaliana had in Greece. But they particularly owed
their reputation to Marsus, the founder of their nation, who was the BOB
•fCirco.

ODMTI. EPODES OF HORACE. 121

the power of those divinities, the Manes), and, brooding upon
your restless breasts, I will deprive you of repose by terror.
The mob, from village to village, assaulting you on every
side with stones, shall demolish you filthy hags. Finally, the
wolves and Esquiline'3 vultures shall scatter abroad your un-
buried limbs. Nor shall this spectacle escape the observation
of my parents, who, alas ! must survive me.

ODE VL

AGAINST CASSICS SEVERUS.

O CUR, thou coward against wolves, why dost thou persecute
innocent strangers ? Why do you not, if you can, turn your
empty yelpings hither, and attack me, who will bite again ?
For, like a Molossian," or tawny Laconian dog, that is a
friendly assistant to shepherds, I will drive with erected ears
through the deep snows every brute that shall go before me.
You, when you have filled the grove with your fearful bark-
ing, you smell at the food that is thrown to you. Have a
care, have a care ; for, very bitter against bad men, I exert
my ready horns uplift ; like him that was rejected as a son-
in-law by the perfidious Lycambes, or the sharp enemy of
Bupalus. What, if any cur attack me with malignant tooth,
shall I, without revenge, blubber like a boy ?

33 EsquilincB alites. The Esquilian Hill was a place of public execu-
tions, and the poor of Rome were buried there, in ditches called puticuli.
The birds, which came to this hill, to prey upon carcasses of criminals,
are called Esquilince alites. CRUQ.

84 The Molossian and Laconian dogs were of a robust make, and valu-
able as well in hunting wild beasts, as in defending the flocks from noc-
turnal thieves, and from the attacks of wolves. The Molossi occupied
the north-eastern part of Epirus. Virgil (Geor. iii. 405) characterizes
both species, "Vdoces Spartse catulos acremqw Molossum Pasce sero
pingui." Shakespeare praises the former. M. N. D. iv. 1 1 :

My hounds are bred out of the Spartan breed. AOTBOV.

122 EPODES OF HORACE. ODK VIL

ODE VH.

TO THE ROMAN PEOPLE."

WHITHER, whither, impious men are you rushing ? Or why
are the swords drawn," that were [so lately] sheathed ? Is
there too little of Roman blood spilled upon land and sea ?
[And this,] not that the Romans might burn the proud
towers of envious Carthage, or that the Britons, hitherto un-
assailed, might go down27 the sacred way bound in chains :a8
but that, agreeably to the wishes of the Parthians, this city
may fall by its own might. This custom [of warfare] never
obtained even among either wolves or savage lions, unless
against a different species. Does blind phrenzy, or your
superior valor, or some crime, hurry you on at this rate ?
Give answer. They are silent : and wan paleness infects
their countenances, and their stricken souls are stupefied.
This is the case : a cruel fatality and the crime of fratricide

23 After the defeat of Brutus and Cassius, the death of Sextus Porn-
peius, and the resignation of Lepidua, Octavius and Antony alone re-
mained in a condition of disputing the sovereign power. Sometimes
Octavia, sometimes their common friends reconciled them ; but, at length,
they came to an open rupture, in the year 722, when all the forces of the
republic were armed to give the last stroke to Roman liberty. During
these preparations, Horace composed five or six odes on this subject
His design here is, to represent to both parties the horrors of their
criminal dissensions, which threatened their common country with total
ruin. SAN.

» Enses conditi. Peace had sheathed their swords ever since the
death of Sextus Pompeius, that is, for more than two years. SAN.

27 Descenderet. From the top of the sacred street they went down-
ward to the forum, and the way from thence ascended to the Capitol
This ascent was called Glivus Capitolinus. LAMB.

83 Intacttu Britannia. Julius Caesar was the first of the Romans who
carried his arms into Britain ; and, although Suetonius tells us that he
obliged the Britons to give hostages, and imposed tributes upon them,
yet we may say that he rather opened a way for his successors into the
island, than that he conquered it ; or perhaps it was never totally sub-
dued by the Romans. In the time of Horace, the reduction of this people
was considered as a new conquest, reserved for the arms of Augustus,
from whence the poet here calls them intacti, as he always mentions
them with epithets of terror, which represent them as a nation formidable
to the Romans, even in the highest strength and glory of their republic
ED. DUBLIN.

ODE vra. ix. EPODES OF HORACE. 123

have disquieted the Romans, from that time when the blood
of the innocent Remus, to be expiated by his descendants, was
spilled upon the earth.

ODE vm.

UPON A WANTON OLD WOMAN.

CAN you, grown rank with lengthened age, ask what un-
nerves my vigor ? When your teeth are black, and old age
withers your brow with wrinkles : and your back sinks
between your staring hip-bones, like that of an unhealthy
cow. But, forsooth ! your breast and your fallen chest, full
well resembling a broken-backed horse, provoke me ; and a
body flabby, and feeble knees supported by swollen legs.
May you be happy : and may triumphal statues adorn your
funeral procession: and may no matron appear in public
abounding with richer pearls. What follows, because the
Stoic treatises3* sometimes love to be on silken pillows ? Are
unlearned constitutions the less robust? Or are their limbs
less stout? But for you to raise an appetite, in a stomach
that is nice, it is necessary that you exert every art of
language.

ODE IX.

TO MAECENAS."

WHEN, O happy Maecenas, shall I, overjoyed at Caesar's
being victorious, drink with you under the stately dome (for
so it pleases Jove) the Caecuban reserved for festal entertain-
ments, while the lyre plays a tune, accompanied with flutes,
that in the Doric, these in the Phrygian measure ? As lately,

" "It was a common custom to place such books on the pillows, that,
when the favored one came, the lady might pretend that philosophy, not
pleasure, was the object of her attention." SCHOL.

30 The date of this piece can not be disputed, since the battle of Actium.
which is the subject of it, was fought jn the 12th of September, 723. SAN

124 BPODBS OF HORACE. ODK x

when the Neptunian admiral, driven from the sea, and his
navy burned, fled, after having menaced those chains to
Rome, which, like a friend, he had taken off from perfidious
slaves.81 The Roman soldiers (alas! ye, our posterity, will
deny the fact), enslaved to a woman, carry palisadoes and
arms, and can be subservient to haggard eunuchs ; and among
the military standards, oh shame ! the sun beholds an [Egyp-
tian] canopy.'1 Indignant33 at this, the Gauls turned two
thousand of their cavalry, proclaiming Caesar : and the ships
of the hostile navy, going off to the left, lie by in port. Hail,
god of triumph ! Dost thou delay the golden chariots and
untouched heifers ? Hail, god of triumph ! You neither
brought back a general equal [to Caesar], from the Jugurthine
war ; nor from the African [war, him], whose valor raised
him a monument over Carthage. Our enemy, overthrown
both by land and sea, has changed his purple vestments for
mourning. He either seeks Crete, famous for her hundred
cities, ready to sail with unfavorable winds; or the Syrtes
harassed by the south ; or else is driven by the uncertain sen.
Bring hither, boy, larger bowls, and the Chian or Lesbian
wine ; or, what may correct this rising qualm of mine, fill me
out the Caecuban. It is my pleasure to dissipate care and
anxiety for Caesar's danger with delicious wine.

ODE X.

AGAINST MiEVIUS.

THE vessel, that carries the loathsome Maevius, makes her
departure under an unlucky omen. Be mindful, O south
wind, that you buffet it about with horrible billows. May the
gloomy east, turning up the sea, disperse its cables and broken
oars. Let the north arise as mighty as when he rives the

11 Servis amicui perfidis. Pompey received all the slaves who would
enter into his service, and the desertion was so great through Italy, that
the vestala offered sacrifices and prayers to prevent the continuance of
it. SAN.

M The derivation of " canopium" is amusing, from driving away gnata,
nuvuiraf. Cf. Orelli.

" But Orelli reads "at hoc," with Fea.

ODBXL EPODES OF HORACE. 125

quivering oaks on the lofty mountains ; nor let a friendly star
appear through the murky night, in which the baleful Orion
sets : nor let him be conveyed in a calmer sea, than was the
Grecian band of conquerors, when Pallas turned her rage
from burned Troy to the ship of impious Ajax. Oh what a
sweat is coming upon your sailors, and what a sallow paleness
upon you, and that effeminate wailing, and those prayers to
unregarding Jupiter ; when the Ionian bay, roaring with the
tempestuous south-west, shall break your keel ! But if, ex-
tended along the winding shore, you shall delight the cormo-
rants as a dainty prey, a lascivious he-goat and an ewe-lamb
shall be sacrificed to the Tempests.

ODE XL

TO PECTIUS.

IT by no means, O Pectius, delights me as heretofore to write
Lyric verses, being smitten with cruel love : with love, who
takes pleasure to inflame me beyond others, either youths or
maidens. This is the third December that has shaken the
[leafy] honors from the woods, since I ceased to be mad for
Inachia. Ah me ! (for I am ashamed of so great a misfor-
tune) what a subject of talk was I throughout the city ! I re-
pent too of the entertainments, at which both a languishing
and silence and sighs, heaved from the bottom of my breast,
discovered the lover. As soon as the indelicate god [Bac-
chus] by the glowing wine had removed, as I grew warm,
the secrets of [my heart] from their repository, I made my
complaints, lamenting to you, " Has the fairest genius of a
poor man no weight against wealthy lucre ? Wherefore, if a
generous indignation boil in my breast, insomuch as to dis-
perse to the winds these disagreeable applications, that give
no ease to the desperate wound ; the shame [of being over-
come] ending, shall cease to contest with rivals of such a
sort."34 When I, with great gravity, had applauded these
resolutions in your presence, being ordered to go home, I was
carried with a wandering foot to posts, alas! to me not

** " Imparibus, qui inferiores quam ego sunt." ORELLL

126 EPODES OF HORACE. OD« xn.

friendly, and alas ! obdurate gates, against which I bruised
my loins and side. Now my affections for the delicate Lyciscus
engross all my time : from them neither the unreserved admo-
nitions, nor the serious reprehensions of other friends, can
recall me [to my former taste for poetry] ; but, perhaps,
either a new flame for some fair damsel, or for some graceful
youth who binds his long hair in a knot," [may do so"

ODE Xtt

TO A WOMAN WHOSE CHARMS WERE OVER.

WHAT would you be at, you woman fitter for the swarthy
monsters ?38 Why do you send tokens, why billet-doux to me,
and not to some vigorous youth, and of a taste not nice ? For
I am one who discerns a polypus or fetid ramminess, however
concealed, more quickly than the keenest dog the covert of
the boar. What sweatiness, and how rank an odor every
where rises from her withered limbs ! when she strives to lay
her furious rage with impossibilities ; now she has no longer
the advantage of moist cosmetics, and her color appears as if
stained with crocodile's ordure ; and now, in wild impetuosity,
she tears her bed, bedding, and all she has. She attacks even
my loathings in the most angry terms: — "You are always
less dull with Inachia than me: in her company you are
threefold complaisance; but you are ever unprepared to
oblige me in a single instance. Lesbia, who first recommended
you — so unfit a help in time of need — may she come to an
ill end ! when Coan Amyntas paid me his addresses ; who is
ever as constant in his fair-one's service, as the young tree to
the hill it grows on. For whom were labored the fleeces of
the richest Tyrian dye ? For you ? Even so that there was not
one in company, among gentlemen of your own rank, whom
his own wife admired preferably to you : oh, unhappy me,
whom you fly, as the lamb dreads tho fierce wolves, or the
she-goats the lions!"

85 See Orelli. Others interpret, " vith loose curl*."
*i e. elephants. According to Isidorus, Orij?. 12, 2, 14, the Indian*
call an elephant "barms," its cry or voice "barritus." ORELLL

OD* xili. :nv. SPODES Otf HORACE. 12?

ODE xm.

TO A FRIEND.

A HORRIBLE tempest has condensed the sky, and showers and
snows bring down the atmosphere: now the sea, now the
woods bellow with the Thracian north wind. Let us, my
friends, take occasion from the day ; and, while our knees are
vigorous, and it becomes us, let old age with his contracted
forehead become smooth. Do you produce the wine, that was
pressed in the consulship of my Torquatus. Forbear to talk
of any other matters. The deity, perhaps, will reduce these
[present evils] to your former [happy] state by a propitious
change. Now it is fitting both to be bedewed with Persian
perfume, and to relieve our breasts of dire vexations by the
lyre, sacred to Mercury. Like as the noble Centaur, [Chiron,]
sung to his mighty pupil : " Invincible mortal, son of the god-
dess Thetis, the land of Assaracus awaits you, which the
cold currents of little Scamander and swift-gliding Simo'is
divide : whence the fatal sisters have broken off your return,
by a thread that can not be altered : nor shall your azure
mother convey you back to your home. There [then] by wine
and music, sweet consolations," drive away every symptom of
hideous melancholy."

ODE XIV.

TO MAECENAS.

You kill me, my courteous Maecenas, by frequently inquiring,
why a soothing indolence has diffused* as great a degree of
forgetfulness on my inmost senses, as if I had imbibed with
a thirsty throat the cups that bring on Lethean slumbers. For
the god, the god prohibits me from bringing to a conclusion
the verses I promised [you, namely those] iambics which I

" Orelli has completely established this meaning of " alloquiis," from
Varro L. L. 6, § 57 ; Catull. 5 ; Ovid. Trist L 8, 17.

128 EPODES OP HORACE. ODB XT.

had begun. In the same manner they report that Anacreon
of Teios burned for the. Samian Bathyllus ; who often lamented
his love to an inaccurate measure on a hollow lyre. You are
violently in love yourself; but if a fairer flame did not burn
besieged Troy, rejoice in your lot Phryne, a freed-woman,
and not content with a single admirer, consumes me.

ODE XV.

TO NK^RA.

IT was night, and the moon shone in a serene sky among the
lesser stars ; when you, about to violate the divinity of the
great gods, swore [to be true] to my requests, embracing me
with your pliant arms more closely than the lofty oak is clasped
by the ivy ; that while the wolf should remain an enemy to
the flock," and Orion, unpropitious to the sailors, should trou-
ble the wintery sea, and while the air should fan the unshorn
locks of Apollo, [so long you vowed] that this love should be
mutual. O Neaera, who shall one day greatly grieve on ac-
count of my merit : for, if there is any thing of manhood in
Horace, he will not endure that you should dedicate your
nights continually to another, whom you prefer; and exas-
perated, he will look out for one who will return his love :
and, though an unfeigned sorrow should take possession of
ou, yet my firmness shall not give way to that beauty which
as once given me disgust" But as for you, whoever you
be who are more successful [than me], and now strut proud
of my misfortune ; though you be rich in flocks and abundance
of land, and Pactolus40 flow for you, nor the mysteries of Py-

"• Dum pecori lupus. This was probably the form of the oath which
Horace dictated to Neaera)|and by which he would insinuate that earth,
air, and skies should be avengers of her perjury, as they were witnesses
of her oath. ToER.

" Semel offenses. The ancient commentator justly remarks, that this
epithet offensce is a passive, with an active signification. 0/ensa forma
therefore signifies forma, quce me offendit. En. DUEL.

40 A river in Lydia. It rises in Mount Tmolus, runs into the Hermua,
and flows along with it to the .^Jgean Sea, not far from Smyrna. In
the time of Croesus, this river rolled from the mountains a kind of gold-
Band, waich was the chief cause of that king's immense riches. WATSON.

r

h

ODE XTL EPODES OF HORACE. 129

thagoras,41 born again, escape you, and you excel Nireus in
beauty ; alas ! you shall [hereafter] bewail her love transferred
elsewhere : but I shall laugh in my turn.

ODE XVL

TO THE ROMAN PEOPLE.

Now is another age worn away by civil wars,49 and Rome
herself falls by her own strength. Whom neither the border-
ing Marsi coufd destroy, nor the Etrurian band of the men-
acing Porsena, nor the rival valor of Capua, nor the bold
Spartacus, and the Gauls perfidious with their innovations : nor
did the fierce Germany subdue with its blue-eyed youth, nor
Annibal, detested by parents ; but we, an impious race, whose
blood is devoted to perdition, shall destroy her : and this land
shall again be possessed by wild beasts. The victorious bar-
barian, alas ! shall trample upon the ashes of the city, and the
horsemen shall smite it with the sounding hoofs ; and (horrible
to see !) he shall insultingly disperse the bones of Romulus,
which [as yet] are free from the injuries of wind aud sun. Per-
haps you all in general, or the better part of you, are inquisi-
tive to know, what may be expedient, in order to escape [such]
dreadful evils. There can be no determination better than
this ; namely, to go wherever our feet will carry us, wherever
the south or boisterous south-west shall summon us through
the waves ; in the same manner as the state of the Phocaeans"

41 Nee te Pylhagorce, Horace may mean natural philosophy, of which
Pythagoras was non sordidus auctor ; or particularly his doctrince of the
metempsychosis, from whence he calls him renatus. ED. DUEL.

41 Bellis civilibus. The civil wars between Marius and Sylla, which
began in 666, were never perfectly extinguished until the death of Antony,
724. Horace therefore says, that this was the second age of those wars,
because they had commenced in the preceding century. ED. DUEL.

41 Exsecrata. The Phocseans being besieged by Harpagus, general of
the Persians, demanded one day's truce to deliberate upon the proposi-
tions which he had sent to them, and desired that he would draw off his
army from their walls. As soon as Harpagus had consented, they car-
ried their most valuable effects, their wives and children, aboard their
Bhips. Then throwing a man of glowing iron into the sea, they bound
themselves by oath never to return to their country until that mass should
tise to the iurface of the water. From hence a Grecian proverb, " AM

6*

130 EPODES OP HORACE. ODE XYL

fled, after having uttered execrations [against such as should
return], and left their fields and proper dwellings and temples
to be inhabited by boars and ravenous wolves. Is this agree-
able ? has any one a better scheme to advise ? Why do we
delay to go on shipboard under an auspicious omen ? But
first let us swear to these conditions — the stones shall swim
upward, lifted from the bottom of the sea, as soon as it shall
not be impious to return ; nor let it grieve us to direct our
sails homeward, when the Po shall wash the tops of the Mu-
tinian summits ; or the lofty Apennine shall remove into the
sea, or a miraculous appetite shall unite monsters by a strange
kind of lust ; insomuch that tigers may delight to couple with
hinds, and the dove be polluted with the late ; nor the simple
herds may dread the brindled lions, and the he-goat, grown
smooth, may love the briny main. After having sworn to
these things, and whatever else may cut off the pleasing hope
of returning, let us go, the whole city of us, or at least that
part which is superior to the illiterate mob : let the idle and
despairing part remain upon these inauspicious habitations.
Ye, that have bravery, away with effeminate grief, and fly
beyond the Tuscan shore. The ocean encircling the land
awaits us; let us seek the happy plains, and prospering
islands, where the untilled land yearly produces corn, and the
unpruned vineyard punctually flourishes ; and where the
branch of the never-failing olive blossoms forth, and the pur-
ple fig adorns its native tree : honey distills from the hollow
oaks ; the light water bounds down from the high mountains
with a murmuring pace. There the she-goats come to the
milk-pails of their own accord, and the friendly flock return
with their udders distended ; nor does the bear at evening
growl about the sheepfold, nor does the rising ground swell
with vipers : and many more things shall we, happy [Romans],
view with admiration : how neither the rainy east lays waste
the corn-fields with profuse showers, nor is the fertile seed
burned by a dry glebe ; the king of gods moderating both
[extremes]. The pine rowed by the Argonauts never at-
tempted to come hither ; nor did the lascivious [Medea] of

tong aa the Phocaean mass of iron shall continue at the bottom of the
ocean." Their story is told by Herodotus and Strabo. DUBLIN EDITOR.
Orelli observes that exsecrctia is the middle voice, —cum M diria <fo-
wvissct.

OU4XY1I. EPODES OF HORACE. 131

Colchis set her foot [in this place] : hither the Sidonian
mariners never turned their sail-yards, nor the toiling crew of
Ulysses. No contagious distempers hurt the flocks ; nor does
the fiery violence of any constellation scorch the herd. Ju-
piter set apart those shores for a pious people, when he debased
the golden age with brass : with brass, then with iron he hard-
ened the ages j from which there shall be a happy escape for
the good, according to my predictions.

ODE xvn.

DIALOGUE BETWEEN HORACE AND CANIDIA.

Now, now I yield to powerful science ; and suppliant beseech
thee by the dominions of Proserpine, and by the inflexible
divinity of Diana, and by the books of incantatloas able to call
down the stars displaced from the firmament ; O Canidia, at
length desist from thine imprecations, and quickly turn, turn
back thy magical machine." Telephus" moved [with com-
passion] the grandson of Nereus, against whom he arrogantly
had put his troops of Mysians in battle-array, and against
whom he had darted his sharp javelins. The Trojan matrons
embalmed the body of the man-slaying Hector, which had
been condemned to birds of prey, and dogs, after king [Pri-
am], having left the walls of the city, prostrated himself,
alas ! at the feet of the obstinate Achilles. The mariners of
the indefatigable Ulysses put off their limbs, bristled with
the hard skins [of swine], at the wall of Circe : then their
reason and voice were restored, and their former comeliness

44 Citumque retro. Propertius and Martial mention a magical instru-
ment called rhombus. Theocritus and Lucian tell us, that it was made
of brass ; and Ovid says, it was turned round by straps of leather, with
which it was bound. This is probably the same instrument which Horace
calls turbo, and he beseeches Canidia to turn it backward, as if to correct
the fatal effects which it produced in its natural course. TORE.

15 Telephus was king of Mysia. When the Greeks entered his country,
in their passage to Troy, he opposed them vigorously ; but being wounded
by Achilles, he was told by the oracle, that he could only be cured by
the same weapon with which he was wounded. He applied to Achilles,
who, scraping his lance, poured the filings into his wound. Pliny mentions
a picture, in which Achilles was painted performing the cure. LAMB.

133 EPODES OF HORACE. ODE xva

to their countenances. I have suffered punishment enough,
and more than enough, on thy account, O thou so dearly be-
loved by the sailors and factors. My vigor is gone away,
and my ruddy complexion has left me ; my bones are covered
with a ghastly skin ; my hair with your preparations is grown
hoary. No ease respites me from my sufferings : night presses
upon day, and day upon night : nor is it in my power to re-
lieve my lungs, which are strained with gasping. Wherefore,
wretch that I am, I am compelled to credit (what was denied,
by me) that the charms of the Samnites discompose the breast,
and the head splits in sunder at the Marsian incantations.
What wouldst thou have more ? O sea ! O earth ! I burn in
such a degree as neither Hercules did, besmeared with the
black gore of Nessus, nor the fervid flame burning in the
Sicilian ^Etna. Yet you, a laboratory4" of Colchian poisons,
remain on fire, till I, [reduced to] a dry ember, shall be
wafted away by the injurious winds. What event, or what
penalty awaits me ? Speak out : I will with honor pay the
demanded mulct; ready to make an expiation, whether you
should require a hundred steers, or chose to be celebrated on
a lying lyre. You, a woman of modesty, you, a woman of
probity, shall traverse the stars, as a golden constellation.
Castor and the brother of the great Castor, offended at the
infamy brought on [their sister] Helen, yet overcome by en-
treaty, restored to the poet his eyes that were taken away
from him. And do you (for it is in your power) extricate me
from this frenzy ; O you, that are neither defiled by family
meanness, nor skillful to disperse the ashes of poor people,4*
after they have been nine days interred.48 You have an hos-

*• Officina. The ancient Scholiast has well explained this passage,
ipsam Canidiam officinam venenorum disert'c dixil; Horace calls his witch
a shop of poisons, as we call a learned man a living library. FRAN.

47 Sepukhris pauperum. Acron well remarks, that Horace only means
the sepulchere of the poor, since those of the rich were surrounded with
walls, to protect them from the sacrilege of sorcerers. FRAN.

** Jfovendiales pulveres. Servius, in his notes upon the fifth book of
Virgil's ^Eneid, says, that a dead body was preserved seven days, burned
on the eighth, and interred on the ninth ; and that Horace intended these
ceremonies in the present passage. This explication, although contra-
dicted by Acron, has been received by our ablest commentators ; yet
there is little probability that such ceremonials were observed in the
funerals of poor people, of whom alone the poet speaks here. He seems
rather to mean, that these witches dug up the ashes of the dead nine

ODEXYH. EPODES OP HORACE. 133

pitable breast, and unpolluted hands ; and Pactumeius is your
son, and tbee the midwife has tended; and, whenever you
bring forth, you spring up with unabated vigor.

CANIDIA'S ANSWER.

WHY do you pour forth your entreaties to ears that are
closely shut [against them]? The winterj- ocean, with its
briny tempests, does not lash rocks more deaf to the cries of
the naked mariners. What, shall you, without being made
an example of, deride the Cotyttian mysteries,49 sacred to un-
restrained love, which were divulged [by you]? And shall
you, [assuming the office] of Pontiff [with regard to my]
Esquilian incantations, fill the city with my name unpunished ?
What did it avail me to have enriched the Palignian sorceress
[with my charms], and to have prepared poison of greater
expedition, if a slower fate awaits you than is agreeable to my
wishes ? An irksome life shall be protracted by you, wretch
as you are, for this purpose, that you may perpetually be able
to endure new tortures. Tantalus, the perfidious sire of
Pelops, ever craving after the plenteous banquet [which is
.always before him], wishes for respite ; Prometheus, chained
to the vulture, wishes [for rest] ; Sisyphus wishes to place
the stone on the summit of the mountain : but the laws of
Jupiter forbid. Thus you shall desire at one time to leap
down from a high tower, at another to lay open your breast
with the Noric sword ; and, grieving with your tedious indis-
position, shall tie nooses about your neck in vain. I at that
time will ride on your odious shoulders ; and the whole earth

days after they were interred ; and perhaps the number nine might have
had somewhat mysterious in it, which was thought to give force to their
enchantments. The laws of the twelve tables had nothing determined
concerning the number of days which a corpse should be kept before it
was to be carried out to burial. SAN.

4* Riseris Ootyttia vulgata. — Cotyttia vulganda ridendo propos"eris.
Cotys, or Cotytto, was the goddess of impurity ; and although she did
not preside over assemblies of witches, yet, as there were many vile and
infamous ceremonies practiced in them, the poet satirically makes Canidia
cnll them the feasts of Cotys. Better to explain his design, he adds liberi
Cupidinis sacrum, mysteries of a licentious and unbounded love. A
Roman proverb calls a person of dissolute and vicious manners, Colyoa
contvbernolis, a companion of Cotys. POLITIAN.

134 EPODES OF HORACE. ODE XVIL

stiall acknowledge my unexampled power. What shall I,
who can give motion to waxen images (as you yourself, in-
quisitive as you are, were convinced of) and snatch the moon
from heaven by my incantations ; I, who can raise the dead
after they are burned, and duly prepare the potion of love,
shall I bewail the event of my art having no efficacy upon
you!

THE SECULAR POEM

OF

HOEACE.

TO APOLLO AND DIANA.

PHCEBCS, and thou Diana, sovereign of the woods, ye illua-
trius ornaments of the heavens, oh ever worthy of adoration
and ever adored, bestow what we pray for at this sacred
season : at which the Sibylline verses have given directions,
that select virgins and chaste youths should sing a hymn to
the deities, to whom the seven hills [of Rome] are accept-
able. 0 genial sun,1 who in your splendid car draw forth
and obscure the day, and who arise another and the same,
may it never be in your power to behold any thing more
glorious than the city of Rome ! 0 Hithyia, of lenient power
to produce the timely birth, protect the matrons [in labor] ;
whether you choose the title of Lucina, or Genitalis. O
goddess, multiply our offspring ; and prosper the decrees of
the senate in relation to the joining of women in wedlock,
and the matrimonial law" about to teem with a new race ; that

1 Alme Sol. It was a superstitious custom of the heathen in their
hymns, to give the gods all their different names, for fear of omitting any
that might be more agreeable. In this piece, the boys call the son of
Latona, Phoebe, dime Sol, Apollo, Augur, decoras arcu, acceptus novem
Carruenis ; and the girls call the sister of this god, Ilithya, Lucina, Geni-
talis, siderum regina, Diana, and Luna. FRAN.

8 Lege maritd. In the year 736, Augustus made a law de maritandis
ordinibus, in which he proposed rewards to those who would marry, and
punishments or fines for those who continued in celibacy. In 762, he
made another law, by the consuls Marcus Papius Mutilus, and Quintus
Poppeus Secundus. The first called the Julian, the second, the Papian
law. They were intended to restore to Rome the number of her citizens
which had been greatly lessened during the civil wars ; yet Augustus only
revived those ancient ordinances which expressly commanded the censon

136 THE SECULAR POEM OP HORACE.

the stated revolution of a hundred and ten years' may bring
back the hymns and the games, three times by bright day-
light restored to in crowds, and as often in the welcome
night. And you, ye fatal sisters, infallible in having pre-
dicted what is established, and what the settled order of
things preserves, add propitious fates to those already past.
Let the earth, fertile in fruits and flocks, present Ceres with a
sheafy crown : may both salubrious rains and Jove's air cher-
ish the young blood ! Apollo, mild and gentle with your
sheathed arrows, hear the suppliant youths : O moon, thou
horned queen of stars, hear the virgins. If Rome be your

not to permit the citizens to live unmarried. Codibes esse prohibento.
These laws as equally regarded men as women ; but the choir of virgins
naturally mention that sex alone of which they themselves are a part
FRAN.

1 Undenos deciea per annos. There were among the Latins two opinions
concerning the duration of an age. Before the time of Augustus it
reckoned exactly a hundred years, and the Sibyllino Oracle, which then
subsisted, marked precisely the same number. The fifth secular games
gave occasion to a new opinion. Augustus, persuaded that it was of great
consequence to the state not to omit the celebration of this festival, gave
order to the Sibylline priests to consult at what time of the current age it
ought to be celebrated. They perceiving that it had been neglected in
705, under Julius Caesar, were anxious to find some way of covering
their fault, that they might not be thought answerable for all the calami-
ties of the civil war. Three things made their imposture easy. They
were the sole depositaries of the Sibylline books ; the world was not in
general agreed upon the year by which the games should be regulated ;
and it was divided even upon the date of those in which they had formerly
been celebrated. The priests did not fail to take advantage of this
diversity of sentiments to flatter Augustus, by persuading him that this
secular year regularly fell upon 737. To this purpose they published
commentaries upon the Sibylline books, in which they proved by the very
words of the Sibyl (though with some alteration from their ancient read-
ing), that an age ought to contain a hundred and ten years, and not a
hundred only.

The authority of these priests being infinitely respected by a super-
stitious people, instantly put this falsehood into the place of truth, with-
out any person daring to contradict it, since it was forbidden, upon pain
of death, to communicate the books of the Sibyls. The Prince, charmed
to see that the gods had reserved to his time the celebration of so great a
festival, immediately supported the imposture by his edicts to authorize
the discovery of the priests. Whether in flattery or credulity, the poet
gave himself to the public opinion ; and indeed he must, with a very bad
grace, have followed the ancient system in a poem composed by order of
Augustus, and sung in the presence of that prince, and of the priests hi
the name of the whole empire. FRAN.

THE SECULAR POEM OF HORACE. 137

work, and the Trojan troops arrived on the Tuscan shore (the
part, commanded [by your oracles] to change their homes
and city) by a successful navigation : for whom pious ^Eneas,
surviving his country, secured a fee passage through Troy,
burning not by his treachery, about to give them more
ample possessions than those that were left behind. 0
ye deities, grant to the tractable youth probity of manners ;
to old age, ye deities, grant a pleasing retirement; to the
Roman people, wealth, and progeny, and every kind of glory.
And may the illustrious issue of Anchises and Venus, who
worships you wuh [offerings of] white bulls, reign superior
to the warring enemy, merciful to the prostrate. Now the
Parthian, by sea and land, dreads our powerful forces and the
Roman axes : now the Scythians beg [to know] our con>
mands, and the Indians but lately so arrogant Now truth,
and peace, and honor, and ancient modesty, and neglected
virtue dare to return, and happy plenty appears, with her horn
full to the brim. Phoebus, the god of auguiy, and con-
spicuous for his shinning bow,* and dear to the nine muses, who
by his salutary art soothes the. wearied limbs of the body ; if
he, propitious, surveys the Palatine altars — may he prolong
the Roman affairs, and the happy state of Italy to another
lustrum, and to an improving age. And may Diana, who
possesses Mount Aventiue and Algidus, regard the prayers of
the Quindecemvirs,* and lend a gracious ear to the supplications

4 Augur et fulgente, etc. Torrentius observes that Horace has col-
lected, in these four verses, the four principal attributes of Apollo;
divination, archery, music, and physic.

5 Quindecim virorum. The oracles, which concerned the Roman em-
pire, were anciently put into a coffer of stone, and deposited in a subter-
raneous place in the Capitol. They were intrusted to the care of two
priests called duumviri sacrorum, whose principal business was to con-
sult those books on all occasions of the state, but never without a decree
of the senate. Tarquln added two officers, maintained at the public ex-
pense, to assist and watch over them in their ministry. In 388, were
added eight persons to the two first, and the number was afterward
augmented to fifteen, from whence they were called Decemviri and
Quindecemviri, which last name remained when they were multiplied to
forty, and even to sixty. Caesar added a sixteenth, and the senate per-
mitted Augustus to enlarge the number as he pleased.

The Capitol having been burned in 671, the Sibylline books perished
In the fire. Sylla rebuilt the Capitol, and the senate sent three deputies
into Ionia to collect whatever verses of the Sibyl Eritria tradition had
preserved, which were almost a thousand. Augustus gathered in Asia

138 THE SECULAR POEM OF HORACE.

of the youths. We, the choir taught to sing the praises oi
Phoebus and Diana, bear home with us a good and certain hope,
that Jupiter, and all the other gods are sensible of these our sup-
plications.

Minor, in the islands of the ^Egean Sea, in Africa, and the colonies of
Italy, more than two thousand volumes of Greek and Latin verses, which
passed under the name of the Sibyls ; and having burned all that the
priests judged apocryphal, he placed them, with those which he took out
of the Capitol, under the base of Apollo's statue, in the temple which he
had erected to that god. They continued in this state to the times of
Honorius, who ordered Stilicou to burn all that remained of these pre-
tended Sibylline verses. PKAN.

THE FIRST BOOK

SATIRES OF HORACE

SATIRE I.

That all, but especially the covetous, think their man condition the hardest.

How comes it to pass, Maecenas, that no one lives content
with his condition, whether reason gave it him, or chance
threw it in his way ; [but] praises those who follow different
pursuits ? "0 happy merchants !" says the soldier, oppressed
with years, and now broken down in his limbs through excess
of labor. On the other side, the merchant, when the south
winds toss his ship [cries], "Warfare is preferable;" for
why ? the engagement is begun, and in an instant there comes
a speedy death or a joyful victory. The lawyer praises the
farmer's state when the client knocks at his door by cock-
crow. He who, having entered into a recognizance,1 is dragged,
from the country into the city, cries, " Those only are happy
who live in the city." The other instances of this kind (they
are so numerous) would weary out the loquacious Fabms ;'
not to keep you in suspense, hear to what an issue I will bring
the matter. If any god should say, " Lo ! I will effect what
you desire : you, that were just now a soldier, shall be a mer-

1 Datis vadibus. In some suit, the farmer had given bail for his at-
tendance on the day appointed for the trial. The persons who had bound
themselves as bail for his appearance, are called vades. The derivation
of the word is supposed to be voder e, 'to go," because the person who
procures such persons to answer for his appearance, is allowed to go un-
til the day of the trial. M'CAUL.

2 It is not known to whom Horace alludes. The Scholiast informs us
that there was a knight of this name, a partisan of Pompey's, who had
written some treatises on the doctrines of the Stoics, and who, he says,
argued sometimes with Horace for the truth of the principles of that sect
M'CAUL.

140 SATIRES OP HORACE- BOOK L

chant ; you, lately a lawyer [shall be] a farmer. Do ye depart
one way, and ye another, having exchanged the parts [you are
to act in life. How now ! Why do you stand ?" They are un-
willing ; and yet it is in their power to be happy. What reason
can be assigned, but. that Jupiter should deservedly distend both
his cheeks in indignation, and declare that for the future ho
will not be so in lulgent as to lend an ear to their prayers ? But
further, that I may not run over this in a laughing manner,
like those [who treat] on ludicrous subjects (though what hin-
ders one being merry, while telling the truth ? as good-natured
teachers at first give cakes to their boys, that they may be will-
ing to learn their first rudiments : raillery, however, apart, let
us investigate serious matte: s) He that turns the heavy glebe
with the hard plowshare, this fraudulent tavern-keeper,3 the sol-
dier, and the sailors, who dauntless run through every sea, pro-
fess that they endure toil with this intention, that as old men
they may retire into a secure resting-place, when once they have
gotten together a sufficient provision.

Thus the little ant (for she is an example), of great industry,
carries in her mouth whatever she is able, and adds to the heap
which she piles up, by no means ignorant and not careless for
the future. Which [ant, nevertheless], as soon as Aquarius
saddens the changed year, never creeps abroad, but wisely makes
use of those stores which were provided beforehand: while
neither sultry summer, nor winter, fire, ocean, sword, can drive-
you from gain. You surmount every obstacle, that no other
man may be richer than yourself. What pleasure is it for you,
trembling to deposit an immense weight of silver and gold in
the earth dug up by stealth ?* Because, if you should lessen it,
it may be reduced to a paltry farthing.

But unless that be the case, what beauty has an accumulated
hoard ? Though your thrashing-floor should yield* a hundred
thousand bushels of corn, your belly will not on that account
contain more than mine : just as if it were your lot to carry on
your loaded shoulder the basket of bread among slaves, you
would receive no more [for your own share] than he who bore

8 27fc="cujusmodi quotidie vides." ORELLI. See the other com-
mentators.

* i. e. to hide it.

8 Literally, "wear," "rub." There is an ellipse of "si," aa in Sat L
8; ii. 4, 292; Virg. JEn. vi. 31. M'CxcL.

BAT. L SATIRES OF HORACE. 141

no part of the burthen. Or tell me, what is it to the purpose
of that man, who lives within the compass of nature, whether
he plow a hundred or a thousand acres ?

" But it is still delightful to take out of a great hoard."

While you leave us to take as much out of a moderate store
why should you extol your granaries, more than our corn-
baskets ? As if you had occasion for no more than a pitcher or
glass of water, and should say, " I had rather draw [so much]
from a great river, than the very same quantity from this little
fountain." Hence it comes to pass, thtit the rapid Aufidus
carries away, together with the bank, such men as an abundance
more copious than what is just delights. But he who desires
only so much as is sufficient, neither drinks water fouled with
the mud, nor loses his life in th • waves:

But a great majority of mankind, misled by a wrong desire,
cry, " No sum is enough ; because you are esteemed in pro-
portion to what you possess." What can one do to such a
tribe as this ? Why, bid them be wretched, since their inclina-
tion prompts them to it. As a certain person is recorded [to
have lived] at Athens, covetous and rich, who was wont to de-
spise the talk of the people in this manner : " The crowd hiss
me ; but I applaud myself at home, as soon as I contemplate
my money in my chest." The thirsty Tantalus catches at the
strvams, which elude his lips. Why do you laugh ? The nr me
changed, the tale is told of you. You sleep upon your bags,
heaped up on every side, gaping over them, and are obliged to
abstain from them, as if they were consecrated things, or to
amuse yourself with them as you would with pictures. Are
you ignorant of what value money has, what use it can afford ?
Bread, herbs, a bottle of wine may be purchased ; to which
[necessaries], add [such others], as, being withheld, human na-
ture would be uneasy with itself. What, to watch half dead
with terror, night and day, to dread profligate thieves, fire, and
your slaves, lest they should run away and plunder you ; is this
delightful ? I should always wish to be very poor in possessions
held upon these terms.

But if your body should be disordered by being seized with
a cold, or any other casualty should confine you to your bed,
have you one that will abide by you, prepare medicines, entreat
the physician that he would set you upon your feet, and restor,«
you to your children and dear relations ?

142 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK i

Neither your wife, nor your son, desires your recovery ; all
your neighbors, acquaintances, [nay the very] boys and girls
hate you. Do you wonder that no one tenders you the affec-
tion which you do not merit, since you prefer your money to
every thing else ? If you think to retain, and preserve as friends,
the relations which nature gives you, without taking any pains ;
wretch that you are, you lose your labor equally, as if any one
should train an ass to be obedient to the rein, and run in
the Campus [Marti us]. Finally, let there be some end to
your search ; and, as your riches increase, be in less dread of
poverty ; and begin to cease from your toil, that being ac-
quired which you coveted : nor do as did one Umidius (it is
no tedious story), who was so rich that lie measured his money,
so sordid that he never clothed himself any better than a
slave ; and, even to his last moments, was in dread lest want of
bread should oppress him : but his freed-woman, the bravest
of all the daughters of Tyndarus,6 cut him in two with a
hatchet

" What therefore do you persuade me to ? That I should
lead the life of Naevius, or in such a manner as a Nomen-
tanus r

You are going [now] to make things tally, that are contra
dictory in their natures.7 When I bid you not be a miser, I
do not order you to become a debauchee or a prodigal.
There is some difference between the case of Tanais and his
son-in-law Visellius : there is a mean in things ; finally, there
are certain boundaries, on either side of which moral rectitude
can not exist. I return now whence I digressed. Does no
one, after the miser's example, like his own station, but rather
praise those who have different pursuits ; and pines, because
his neighbor's she-goat bears a more distended udder; nor
considers himself in relation to the greater multitude of poor ;
but labors to surpass, first one, and then another? Thus the
richer man is always an obstacle to one that is hastening [to
be rich] : as when the courser whirls along the chariot, dis-

* As if she had been another Clytaemnestra, the daughter of Tyndarus,
who cut off her husband's head with an ax. fbrlissima Tj/ndaridarum,
from the accusative of Tyndaris, viz. Tyndarida, comes the noun TI n-
darida, Tyndaridce, etc. WATSON.

7 Pugnantia frontibus adversis means what we express by "diametri-
cally opposite." The allusion in frontibus adversis is to a fight between
bulls or rams, who butt each other with their heads. M'CxuL.

BAT. n. SATIRES OF HORACE. 143

missed from the place of starting ; the charioteer presses upon
those horses which outstrip his own, despising him that is left
behind coming on among the last. Hence it is, that we rarely
find a man who can say he has lived happy, and content with
his past life, can retire from the world like a satisfied guest.*
Enough for the present : nor will I add one word more, lest
you should suspect that I have plundered the escrutoire of the
Llear-eyed Crispinus.

SATIRE IT.
Bad men, when they avoid certain vices, fall into their opposite extremes.

THE tribes of female flute-players,' quacks, vagrants, mimics,
blackguards ;10 all this set is sorrowful and dejected on ac-
count of the death of the singer Tigellius ; for he was liberal
[toward them]. On the other hand, this man, dreading to
be called a spendthrift, will not give a poor friend wherewithal
to keep off cold and pinching hunger. If you ask him why
he wickedly consumes the noble estate of his grandfather and
father in tasteless gluttony, buying with borrowed money all
sorts of dainties ; he answers, because he is unwilling to be
reckoned sordid, or of a mean spirit : he is praised by some,
condemned by others. Fufidius, wealthy in lands, wealthy in
money put out at interest, is afraid of having the character
of a rake and spendthrift. This fellow deducts 5 per cent.
interest11 from the principal [at the time of lending] ; and,

• Of. Lucret. iii. 951, " Cur non, ut plenus vitse conviva recedis?" Se«
Orelli.

9 Ambubaiarum, " Women who played on the flute." It is derived
from a Syrian word ; for the people of that country usually excelled in
this instrument. Pharmacopolce is a general name for all who deal in
spices, essence, and perfumes. TORR.

10 Mendici, mimce, balatrones. The priests of Isis and Cybele were
beggars by profession, and under the vail of religion were often guilty of
the most criminal excesses. Mimce were players of the most debauched
and dissolute kind ; and balatrones, in general, signifies all scoundrels,
buffoons, and parasites, who had their name, according to the old com-
mentator, from Servilius Balatro. Balatrones hoc genus omne, for omn«
hoc balatronum genus, is a remarkable sort of construction. TORR SAN.

11 Quinas hie capiti mer •cedes exsecat. Caput is the principal ; merces
the interest ; and exsecare is to deduct the interest before the money ia

144 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK t

the more desperate in his circumstances any one is, the more
severely he pinches him : be hunts out the names" of young
fellows that have just put on the toga virilis under rigid fa-
thers. Who does not cry out, O sovereign Jupiter ! when he
has heard [of such knavery] ? But [you will say, perhaps,]
this man expends upon himself in proportion to his gain.
You can hardly believe how little a friend he is to himself:
insomuch that the father, whom Terence's comedy introduces
as living miserable after he had caused his son to run away
f om him, did not torment himself worse than he Now it'
any one should ask, " To what does this matter tend ?" To
this : while fools shun [one sort of] vices, they fall upon their
opposite extremes. Malthinus walks with his garments trail-
ing upon the ground ; there is another droll fellow who [goes]
with them tucked up even to his middle ; Rufillus smells like
perfume itself, Gorgonius like a he-goat. There is no moan.
There are some who would not keep company with a lady,
unless her modest garment perfectly conceal her feet. An-
other, again, will only have such as take their station in a
filthy brothel. When a certain noted spark came out of a
stew, the divine Cato [greeted] him with this sentence :
" Proceed (says he) in your virtuous course. For, when
once foul lust has inflamed the veins, it is right for young
fellows to come hither, in comparison of their meddling with
other men's wives." I should not be willing to be commended
on such terms, says Cupiennius, an admirer of the silken vail.

Ye, that do not wish well to the proceedings of adulterers,
it is worth your while to hear how they are hampered on all
sides ; and that their pleasure, which happens to them but sel-
dom, is interrupted with a great deal of pain, and often in the
midst of very great dangers. One has thrown himself head-
long from the top of a house ; another has been whipped »1-

lent For instance, Fufidius lent a hundred pounds, and at the end of
the month the borrower was to pay him a hundred and five, principal
and interest But he gives only ninety-five pounds, deducting his inter-
est when he lends the money, which thus increases in twenty months
equal to his principal. The laws allowed a usury called usura centesima.
which doubled the capital sum in a hundred months, or eight years and
four months. TORR.

'* Nomina sectatur. Nomen signifies a debt, because the borrower
gave the lender a note of acknowledgment for the money, signed with
his name. The laws forbade lending money to minors, or persons under
the age of twenty-five years. CRUQ.

SAT. TL SATIRES OF HORACE. 145

most to death : a third, in his flight, has fallen into a merciless
gang of thieves : another has paid a fine, [to avoid] corporal
[punishment] : the lowest servants have treated another with
the vilest indignities. Moreover, this misfortune happened to
a certain person, he entirely lost his manhood. Every body
said, it was with justice : Galba denied it.

But how much safer is the traffic among [women] of the
second rate ! I mean the freed-women : after which Sallus-
tius is not less mad, than he who commits adultery. But if
he had a mind to be good and generous, as far as his estate
and reason would direct him, and as far as a man might be
liberal with moderation ; he would give a sufficiency, not
what would bring upon himself ruin and infamy. However,
he hugs himself in this one [consideration] ; this he delights
in, this he extols : " I meddle with no matron." Just as Mar-
saeus, the lover of Oiigo,13 he who gives his paternal estate
and seat to an actress, says, " I never meddle with other men's
wives." But you have with actresses, you have with common
strumpets : whence your reputation derives a greater per-
dition, than your estate. What, is it abundantly sufficient to
avoid the person, and not the [vice] which is universally
noxious ? To lose one's good name, to squander a father's
effects, is in all cases an evil. What is the difference, [then,
with regard to yourself,] whether you sin with the person of
a matron, a maiden, or a prostitute ?"

Villius, the son-in-law of Sylla (by this title alone he was
misled), suffered [for his commerce] with Fausta an adequate
and more than adequate punishment, by being drubbed and
stabbed, while he was shut out, that Longarenus might
enjoy her within. Suppose this [young man's] mind had ad-
dressed him in the words of his appetite, perceiving such
evil consequences : " What would you have ? Did I ever,
when my ardor was at the highest, demand a woman de-
scended from a great consul, and covered with robes of
quality?" What could he answer? Why, "the girl was

13 Origo. There lived in Horace's time three famous courtesans at
Rome; Origo, CytheYis, and Arbuscala, all co'iiedians. The poet was
probably acquainted with them all. We are at a loss to know who
Marsteus was. WATSON".

14 Togati. A prostitute. Women of this kind were obliged, when
they went abroad, to wear a robe, called toga. The resemblance of it to
the robe worn by men, made it a mark of infamy. FRAN.

7

146 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK i.

sprung from an illustrious father." But how much better
things, and how different from this, does nature, abounding
in stores of her own, recommend ; if you would only make a
proper use of them, and not confound what is to be avoided
with that which is desirable ! Do you think it is of no con-
sequence, whether your distresses arise from your own fault
or from [a real deficiency] of things ? Wherefore, that you
may not repent [when it is too late], put a stop to your pur-
suit after matrons ; whence more trouble is derived, than you
can obtain of enjoyment from success. Nor has [this par-
ticular matron], amid her pearls and emeralds, a softer thigh,
or limbs more delicate than yours, Cerinthus ; nay, the pros-
titutes are frequently preferable. Add to this, that [the pros-
titute] bears about her merchandize without any varnish, arid
openly shows what she has to dispose of; nor, if she has aught
more comely than ordinary, does she boast and make an os-
tentation of it, while she is industrious to conceal that which
is offensive. This is the custom with men of fortune : when
they buy horses, thy inspect them covered : that, if a beauti-
ful forehand (as often) be supported by a tender hoof, it may
not take in the buyer, eager for the bargain, because, the back
is handsome, the head little, and the neck stately. This they
do judiciously. Do not you, [therefore, in the same manner]
contemplate the perfections of each [fair one's] person with
the eyes of Lynceus ; out be blinder than Hypsaea, when you
survey such parts as are deformed. [You may cry out,] " 0
what a leg ! O, what delicate arms !" But [you suppress] that
she is low-hipped, short-waisted, with a long nose, and a
splay foot. A man can see nothing but the face of a matron,
who carefully conceals her other charms, unless it be a Catia.
But if you will seek after forbidden charms (for the [circum-
stance of their being forbidden] makes you mad after them),
surrounded as they are with a fortification, many obstacle!
will then be in your way : such as guardians, the sedan,
dreaeers, parasites, the long robe hanging down to the ankles,
and covered with an upper garment; a multiplicity of cir-
cumstances, which will hinder you from Ijaving a fair view.
The other throws no obstacle in your way ; through the
silken vest you may discern her, almost as well as if she was
naked ; that she has neither a bad leg, nor a disagreeable foot,
you may survey her form perfectly with your eye. Or would

SAT. IL SATIRES OF HORACE. 147

you choose to have a trick put upon you, and your money ex-
torted, before the goods are shown you ? [But perhaps you
will sing to me these verses out of Callimachus.] As the
huntsman pursues the hare in the deep snow, but disdains to
touch it when it is placed before him : thus sings the rake,
and applies it to m'mself ; my love is like to this, for it passes
over an easy prey, and pursues what flies from it. Do you
hope that grief, and uneasiness, and bitter anxieties, will be
expelled from your breast by such verses as these ? Would it
not be more profitable to inquire what boundary nature has
affixed to the appetites, what she can patiently do without,
and what she would lament the deprivation of, and to separate
what is solid from what is vain ? What ! when thirst parches
your jaws, are you solicitous for golden cups to drink out of?
What ! when you are hungry, do you despise every thing but
peacock and turbot ? When your passions are inflamed, and a
common gratification is at hand, would you rather be con-
sumed with desire than possess it ? I would not : for I love
such pleasures as are of easiest attainment. But she whose
language is, " By and by," " But for a small matter more," " If
my husband should be out of the way," [is only] for petit-
maitres : and for himself, Philodemus says, he chooses her,
who neither stands for a great price, nor delays to come when
she is ordered. Let her be fair, and straight, and so far decent
as not to appear desirous of seeming fairer than nature has
made her. When I ain in the company of such an one, she is
my Ilia and ^Egeria ; I give her any name. Nor am I ap-
prehensive, while I am in her company, lest her husband
should return from the country ; the door should be broken
open ; the dog should bark ; the house, shaken, should re-
sound on all sides with a great noise ; the woman, pale [with
fear], should bound away from me ; lest the maid, conscious
[of guilt], should cry out, she is undone ; lest she should be
in apprehension for her limbs, the detected wife for her por-
tion, I for myself; lest I must run away with my clothes all
loose, and bare-footed, for fear my money, or my person, or,
finally my character should be demolished. It is a dreadful
thing to be caught : I could prove this, even if Fabius were
the judge.

148 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK i

SATIRE HI.

We ought to connive at the faults of our friends, and att offenses are
not to be ranked in the catalogue of crimes.

THIS is a fault common to all singers, that among their friends
they never are inclined to sing when they are asked, [but]
unasked, they never desist. Tigellius, that Sardinian, had
this [fault]. Had Caesar, who could have forced him to com-
pliance, besought him on account of his father's friendship
and his own, he would have had no success ; if he himself
was disposed, he would chant lo Bacche over and over, from
the beginning of an entertainment to the very conclusion of
it ;" one while at the deepest pitch of his voice, at another
time with that which answers to the highest string of the
tetrachord." There was nothing uniform in that fellow ; fre-
quently would he run along, as one flying from an enemy ;
more frequently [he walked], as if he bore [in procession] the
sacrifice of Juno :17 he had often two hundred slaves, often
but ten : one while talking of kings and potentates, every
thing that was magnificent; at another — "Let me have a
three-legged table, and a cellar of clean salt, and a gown which,
though coarse, may be sufficient to keep out the cold.*' Had
you given ten hundred thousand sesterces'8 to this moder-

15 Literally, " from the egg to the apples," for eggs were served first,
and fruit last.

18 The four strings of this instrument were called by the Greeks vmirri
(subsu°na), Uapvirurri (subsuma), Unpavr'iTT] (pene ima), and NIJTT) (Ima).
Thus the summa vox, which answers to the highest string, summa
chorda, must signify the bass, and ima vox, that strikes the same tone
with ima chorda, must signify the treble." — F. Summa should be joined
with chordi, not voce. G. *Ciiaret. Bentley remarks that this is a fo-
rensic word, and can not bo put for recitaret, besides that citare lo Bacche
is not Latin. He reads iteraret. The Librarians wrote ter, cer, and ler,
in a compendious form thus " over its natural place, thus the word
ITARET, with a circumflex over I, and hence CITARKT. M'CAUL.

17 This grave and solemn march, although a religions ceremony in ita
place, yet, when improperly used, is affectation and impertinence. The
solemnity of this procession became a proverb, 'H/xilov fia&i&iv, to walk
like Juno. TOKR.

19 The sestertium among the Romans was about 11. 16s. of our money,
and contained a thousand sestertii. Their manner of reckoning was this :
when a numeral noun agreed in gender and number with sestertius, it

BAT. m. SATIEES OF HOEACE. 149

ate man who was content with such small matters, m five
days' time there would be nothing in his bags. He sat up at
nights, [even] to day-light ; he snored out all the day. Never
was there any thing so incoiftistent with itself. Now some
person may say to me, " What are you ? Have you no faults ?"
Yes, others ; but others, and perhaps of a less culpable na-
ture.

When Maenius railed at Novius in his absence : " Hark ye,"
says a certain person, " are you ignorant of yourself ? or do
you think to impose yourself upon us a person we do not
know ?" " As for me, I forgive myself," quoth Maenius. This
is a foolish and impious self-love, and worthy to be stigma-
tized. When you look over your own vices, winking at them,
as it were, with sore eyes ; why are you with regard to those
of your friends as sharp-sighted as an eagle, or the Epidaurian
serpent? But, on the other hand, it is your lot that your
friends should inquire into your vices in turn. [A certain
person] is a little too hasty in his temper ; not well calculated
for the sharp-witted sneers19 of these men : he may be made
a jest of because his gown hangs awkwardly, he [at the same
time] being trimmed in a very rustic manner, and his wide
shoe hardly sticks to his foot. But he is so good, that no
man can be better ; but he is your friend : but an immense
genius is concealed under this unpolished person of his. Fi-
nally, sift yourself thoroughly, whether nature has originally
sown the seeds of any vice in you, or even an ill habit [has done
it]. For the fern, fit [only] to be burned, overruns the ne-
glected fields.

Let us return from our digression. As his mistress's dis-
agreeable failings escape the blinded lover, or even give him
pleasure (as Hagna's wen does to Balbinus), I -could wish that

denoted precisely so many sestertii, as decem sestertii, just so many ; but
if the noun was joined to the genitive plural of sestertius, it signified so
many thousands ; as decem sestertium, ten thousand sestertii. If the ad-
verb numeral was joined to the genitive plural, it denoted so many hun-
dred thousand, as dvcies sestertium, ten hundred thousand sestertii.
Sometimes they put the adverb by itself, and sometimes added the nu-
meral noun to it ; as in this place decies centena, ten hundred sestertia, or
ten hundred thousand sestertii. WATSON.

19 Acutis naribus, is the direct opposition to naribus obesis, which the
Latins used to signify a stupid person, who wants the natural quickness
and sharpness of the senses. SAN.

150 SATIRES OF HORACR BOOK i

we erred in this manner with regard to friendship, and that
virtue had affixed a reputable appellation to such an error.
And as a father ought not to contemn his son, if he has any
defect, in the same manner wt ought not [to contemn] our
friend. The father calls his squinting boy, a pretty leering
rogue ; and if any man has a little despicable brat, such as the
abortive Sisyphus" formerly was, he culls it a sweet moppet :
this [child] with distorted legs, [the father] in a fondling
voice calls one of the Vari ; and another, who is club-footed,
he calls a Scaurus.31 [Thus, does] this friend of yours live
more sparingly than ordinarily ? Let him be styled a man of
frugality. Is another impertinent, and apt to brag a little ?
He requires to be reckoned entertaining to his friends. But
[another] is too rude, and takes greater liberties than are fit-
ting. Let him be esteemed a man of sincerity and bravery.
Is he too fiery, let him be numbered among persons of spirit.
This method, in my opinion, both unites friends, and pre-
serves them in a state of union. But we invert the very vir-
tues themselves, and are desirous of throwing dirt upon the
untainted vessel. Does a man of probity live among us ? he
is a person of singular diffidence ;aa we give him the name of
a dull and fat-headed fellow. Does this man avoid every
snare, and lay himself open to no ill-designing villain ; since
we live amid such a race, where keen envy and accusations
are flourishing ? Instead of a sensible and wary man, we call
him a disguised and subtle fellow. And is any one more open,
[and less reserved] than usual in such a degree as I often
have presented myself to you, Maecenas, so as perhaps imper-
tinently to interrupt a person reading, or musing, with any
kind of prate ? We cry, " [this fellow] actually wants com-

80 Sisyphus. The dwarf of Mark Antony the triumvir. He was of a
diminutive stature, scarcely two feet high, but of a very acute wit ;
whence he got the name of Sisyphus ; for Sisyphus was so remarkable
for his dexterity and cunning, that Sisyphi artes came to be a proverb.
WATSON.

81 Bulbulit Scaurum. Rutgersius informs us that all these names,
Strabo, Pcetus, PuUus, Varus, and Scaurus are surnames of illustrious
Roman families, from whence fathers gave them to their children, to
cover their deformities with names of dignity. This is one of many
beauties in the original, which it is impossible to preserve m a transla-
tion. FRAN.

88 But Orelli interprets " demissus" to mean " abjectus, pusilli animi."
See his judicious note.

BAT. m. SATIRES OF HORACE. 151

mon sense."*3 Alas ! how indiscreetly do we ordain a severa
law against ourselves ! For no one is born without vices : he
is the best man who is encumbered with the least. When my
dear friend, as is just, weighs my good qualities against my
bad ones, let him, if he is willing to be beloved, turn the scale
to the majority of the former (if I have indeed a majority of
good qualities), on this condition, he shall be placed in the
same balance. He who requires that his friend should not
take offense at his own protuberances, will excuse his friend's
little warts. It is Mr that he who entreats a pardon for his
own faults, should grant one in his turn.

Upon the whole,24 forasmuch as the vice anger, as well as
others inherent in foolish [mortals], can not be totally eradi-
cated, why does not human reason make use of its own
weights and measures ; and so punish faults, as the nature of
the thing demands ? If any man should punish with the cross
a slave, who being ordered to take away the dish should
gorge the half-eaten fish and warm sauce ;" he would, among
people in their senses, be called a madder man than Labeo."

23 Gommuni sensu plane caret. He wants an understanding that dis-
tinguishes the common decencies to be observed in addressing the great.
Such was the Communis sensus among the Romans, for which we have
no expression in English. Sit in beneficio sensus communis : tempus,
locum, personas observet. Seneca. QUCB versantur in consuetudine rei-
publicce ; in sensu hominum communi. in naturd, in moribus, compre-
hendenda esse or atari puio. Cicero de Oratore. BENT.

Lord Shaftesbury explains the sensus communis in Juvenal, that sense
which regards the common good, the public welfare. A sense, according to
the ingenious author, seldom found among the great.

Raro enim feme sensus communis in ittd
Fortund.

24 The second part of the satire begins here. The Stoics called all
vicious people fools, stultos. Quatenus is frequently used by our poet for
quoniam, since that. FRAN.

23 Tepidumque ligurrierit jus. Horace, to excuse the slave, says, that
the sauce was yet warm, tepidum, and therefore more tempting. For the
same reason, he says, the fish was half eaten. CRUQ.

26 Labeone insanior. The Scholiasts, commentators, and interpreters
tell us, that Horace means Marcus Antistius Labeo, who, in the spirit of
liberty, frequently opposed Augustus in the senate, when he attempted
any alterations in the state. Agitabat eum libertas nimia et vecors, says
Seneca ; which might justly render him odious to Augustus. But what-
ever respect our poet had for his emperor, yet we never find that he
Ureats the patrons of liberty with outrage. Nor can we well imagine that

152 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK L

How much more irrational and heinous a crime is this ! Your
friend has been guilty of a small error (which, unless you
forgive, you ought to be reckoned a sour, ill-natured fellow),
you hate and avoid him, as a debtor does Ruso ;" who, when
the woeful calends come upon the unfortunate man, unless he
procures the interest or capital by hook or by crook, is com-
pelled to hear his miserable stories with his neck stretched
out like a slave. [Should my friend] in his liquor water my
couch, or has he thrown down a jar carved by the hands of
Evander :38 shall he for this [trifling] affair, or because in his
hunger he has taken a chicken before me out of my part of
the dish, be the less agreeable friend to me ? [If so], what
could I do if he was guilty of theft, or had betrayed things
committed to him in confidence, or broken his word. They
who are pleased [to rank all] faults nearly on an equality, are
troubled when they come to the truth of the matter : sense

he dare thus cruelly brand a man of Labeo's abilities, riches, power, and
employments in the state ; to whom Augustus himself offered the consul-
ship. Probably the person here intended was publicly known to have
been guilty of some folly not unlike what our poet mentions. Dr. Bentley
hath found a Labienus in the time of Augustus, whose character fits this
passage extremely well ; and whom he therefore recommends to a place
in the text. FRAN.

27 The alternative with Ruso was either ruin from extortion, or misery
from listening to his writings. If his wretched creditors could not pay
him, then they were condemned to hear him read his works. Perhaps
some might prefer considering historias used in the sense of " tedious
narration," and refer it to the long schedule of the items in his account
* Audit. Asinius Pollio first introduced the custom of reciting one's own
compositions at Rome. II 'CAUL.

28 Evandri manibus tritum. — Tomatum, ccelatum, fabricatum. Hint
radios trivere rolis, Virgil. Vilrum ctiiud flatu figuratur, aliud torno
teritur, Plin. But as the Latins used the word toreumata to signify any
works, either turned or wrought by the chisel, because they were made
by the same workmen, Sanadon thinks the poet probably means, that
this plate was engraved with an instrument. The Scholiast tells us,
that this Evander was carried from Athens to Rome by Mark Antony,
and that he excelled in sculpture and engraving. They who believe that
Horace means king Evander, would not only persuade us that this plate
must have been preserved so many ages by some uncommon good for-
tune, but have unluckily placed a vessel so valuable on a monarch's
table, whose palace was a cottage, his throne a chair of ordinary wood,
his beds made of leaves or rushes, and his tapestry the skins of beasts.
Res inopes Evandrus habebat. Dr. Bentley denies that the Latins ev«ir
used tritum to signify ccelatum, perfectum, and he therefore recommeD '*
iortum to us, on the authority of an ancient manuscript FHAN.

SAT. ra. SATIRES OP HORACE. 153

and morality are against them, and utility itself,29 the mother
almost of right and of equity.

When [rude] animals, they crawled30 forth upon the first-
formed earth, the mute and dirty herd fought with their nails
and fists for their acorn and caves, afterward with clubs, and
finally with arms which experience had forged : till they found
out words and names, by which they ascertained their language
and sensations : thenceforward they began to abstain from war,
to fortify towns, and establish laws : that no person should be
a thief, a robber, or an adulterer. For before Helen's time
there existed [many] a woman who was the dismal cause of
war: but those fell by unknown deaths, whom pursuing un^
certain venery, as the bull in the herd, the strongest slew.
It must of necessity be acknowledged, if you have a mind to
turn over the aeras and annals of the world, that laws were
invented from an apprehension of the natural injustice [of
mankind]. Nor can nature separate what is unjust from what
is just, in the same manner as she distinguishes what is good
from its reverse, and what is to be avoided from that which
is to be sought : nor will reason persuade men to this, that he
who breaks down the cabbage-stalk of his neighbor, sins in
as great a measure, and in the same manner, as he who steals
by night things consecrated to the gods. Let there be a set-
tled standard, that may inflict adequate punishments upon
crimes; lest you should persecute any one with the horrible
thong, who is only deserving of a slight whipping. For I am
not apprehensive, that you should correct with the rod one
that deserves to suffer severer stripes; since you assert that
pilfering is an equal crime with highway robbery, and threaten
that you would prune off with an undistinguishing hook little
and great vices, if mankind were to give you the sovereignty
over them. If he be rich, who is wise, and a good shoe-

29 Horace endeavors to prove, according to the doctrine of Epicurus,
that justice and injustice arise only from laws, and that laws have no
other foundation than public utility, by which he means the happiness of
civil society. On the contrary, the Stoics asserted, that justice and in-
iustice have their first principles in nature itself, and the first appearance
of reason in the mind of man. SAX.

30 Cam prorepserunt. This expression is extremely proper for the
system of Epicurus, who believed that the first race of men rose out of
the earth, in which they were formed by a mixture of heat and mois.
tare. TORE.

7*

154 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK L

maker, and alone handsome, and a king, why do you wish for
that which you are possessed of? You do not understand

what Chrysippus," the father [of your sect], says : " The
wise man never made himself shoes nor slippers : neverthe-
less, the wise man is a shoemaker." How so ? In the same
manner, though Hermogenes be silent^ he is a fine singer,
notwithstanding, and an excellent musician: as the subtle
[lawyer] Alfenus," after every instrument of his calling was
thrown aside, and his shop shut up, was [still] a barber ;
thus is the wise man of all trades, thus is he a king. O great-
est of great kings, the waggish boys pluck you by the beard ;
whom unless you restrain with your staff, you will be jostled
by a mob all about you, and you may wretchedly bark and
burst your lungs in vain. Not to be tedious : while you, my
king, shall go to the farthing bath, and no guard shall attend
you, except the absurd Crispinus ; my dear friends will both
pardon me in any matter in which I shall foolishly offend,
:ind I in turn will cheerfully put up with their faults ; and,
though a private man, I shall live more happily than you,
a king.

SATIRE IV.

He apologizes for the liberties taken by satiric poets in general, and
particularly by himself.

THE poets Eupolis, and Cratinus, and Aristophanes, and
others, who are authors of the ancient comedy," if there was

31 Chrysippus is here pleasantly called father, because he was the first
who explained, in this absurd manner, these excellent precepts of Zeno,
which teach us, that wisdom sets above kings ; and that the throne she
offers to us is preferable to that of the greatest monarchs. TORR.

32 Alfenus Varus, a shoemaker of Cremona, who, growing out of con-
ceit with his employment, quitted it, and came to Rome ; where attend-
ing the lectures of Servius Sulpicius, a celebrated professor of law, he
made so great proficience in that science, that he soon came to be
esteemed one of the ablest lawyers of his time, and his name often occurs
in the Pandects. He was afterward advanced to the highest honors of
the empire ; for we find him consul in the year of the city 755. ED. DUBL.

33 Gomaedia prisca. Comedy was divided into ancient and modern.
In the first, the subject and the names of the actors were real. In the
second, the drama was formed on history, but the names of the actors

BAT. rv. SATIRES OF HORACE. 155

any person deserving to be distinguished for being a rascal or
a thief, an adulterer or a cut-throat, or in any shape an in-
famous fellow, branded him with great freedom. Upon these
[models] Lucilius entirely depends, having imitated them,
changing only their feet34 and numbers : a man of wit, of great
keenness," inelegant in the composition of verse : for in this
respect he was faulty ; he would often, as a great feat, dictate
two hundred verses in an hour, standing in the same position.'
As he flowed muddily, there was [always] something that one
would wish to remove ; he was verbose, and too lazy to en-
dure the fatigue of writing— of writing accurately : for, with
regard to the quantity [of his works], I make no account of
it. See ! Crispinus challenges me even for ever so little a
wager.38 Take, if you dare, take your tablets, and I will take
mine ; let there be a place, a time, and persons appointed to
see fair play : let us see who can write the most. The gods
have done a good part by me, since they have framed me of an
humble and meek disposition, speaking but seldom, briefly :
but do you, [Crispinus,] as much as you will, imitate air
which is shut up in leathern bellows, perpetually puffing
till the fire softens the iron. Fannius is a happy man, who,
of his own accord, has presented his manuscripts37 and pic-
ture [to the Palatine Apollo] ; when not a soul will peruse

were invented. In the third, both the story and actors were formed by
the poet. ED. DUEL

34 Mutatis pedibits. Ennius and Pacuvius had written satires before
Lucilius. He was rather the restorer than inventor of this kind of
poetry ; he formed himself upon the Grecian comedy, and only changed
the measure of his verse, hexameter for iambics. FBAN.

35 Emunctce naris. Of a sagacious, penetrating genius, to discover the
follies of mankind, and of an agreeable, spirited, raillery, to turn them
into ridicule, facetus. Such is the character of Lucilius by Cicero and
Quintilian perurbanum and abunde scdis. FRAN.

86 Minima me provocat. We should understand pignore or pretio;
nor is there any instance in the Latin tongue of provocare minima digiio,
as the commentators explain it. A man well assured of the truth of
what he asserts, is willing to bet a large wager against a small one,
which Horace means by minima provocare. SAN.

37 Ultra delatia capsis. When a poet was generally esteemed, his
works and his statue were placed in the public libraries. But Horace
congratulates Fannius upon the happiness of finding a method of immor-
talizing his name, without being obliged to pass through the usual forms.
He thought he had a right to take an honor, which he was conscious he
deserved, and perhaps imagined it a proper manner of resenting the
public insensibility of his merit. DAC. SAN.

156 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK i.

my writings, who am afraid to rehearse in public, on this
account, because there are certain persons who can by no
means relish this kind [of satiric writing], as there are very
many who deserve censure. Single any man out of the crowd ;
he either labors uuder a covetous disposition, or under wretched
ambition. One is mad in love with married women, another
with youths ; a third the splendor of silver captivates : Albius
is in raptures with brass ; another exchangee his merchandize
from the rising sun, even to that with which the western re-
gions are warmed : but he is hurried headlong through dan-
gers, as dust wrapped up in a whirlwind ; in dread lest he
should lose any thing out of his capital, or [in hope] that he
may increase his store. All these are afraid of verses, they
hate poets. " He has hay on his horn,38 [they cry ;] avoid him
at a great distance : if he can but raise a laugh for his own
diversion, he will not spare any friend : and whatever he has
once blotted upon his paper, he will take a pleasure in letting
all the boys and old women know, as they return from the
bakehouse or the lake." But, come on, attend to a few words
on the other side of the question.

In the first place, I will except myself out of the number
of those I would allow to be poets : for one must not call it
sufficient to tag a verse : nor if any person, like me, writes in
a style bordering on conversation, must you esteem him to be
a poet. To him who has genius, who has a soul of a diviner
cast, and a greatness of expression, give the honor of this ap-
pellation. On this acount some have raised the question,
whether comedy be a poem or not ; because an animated spirit
and force is neither in the style, nor the subject-matter :
bating that it differs from prose by a certain measure, it is
mere prose. But [one may object to this, that even in comedy]
an inflamed father rages, because his dissolute son, mad after
a prostitute mistress, refuses a wife with a large portion; and
(what is an egregious scandal) rambles about drunk with
flambeaux by day-light. Yet could Pomponius, were his
fether alive, hear less severe reproofs! Wherefore it is not

18 Ptenum hdbet in cornu. A metaphorical expression taken from a
custom of tying hay on the horns of a mischievous bull. The laws of the
Twelve Tables ordered, that the owner of the beast should pay for what
damages it committed, or deliver it to the person injured. " Si quadrupe*
pauperiem faxit, dominus sarcito, noxseve dedito. ED. DUEL.

BAT. iv. SATIRES OF HORACE. 157

sufficient to write verses merely in proper language ; "which,
if you take to pieces, any person may storm in the same man-
ner as the father in the play. If from these verses which I
write at this present, or those that Lucilius did formerly, you
take away certain pauses and measures, and make that word
which was first in order hindermost, by placing the latter
[words] before those that preceded [in the verse] ; you will not
discern the limbs of a poet, when pulled in pieces, in the same
manner as you would were you to transpose ever so [these lines
of Ennius] :

When discord dreadful bursts the brazen bars,
And shatters iron locks to thunder forth her wars.39

So far of this matter ; at another opportunity [I may in-
vestigate] whether [a comedy] be a true poem or not : now I
shall only consider this point, whether this [satiric] kind of
writing be deservedly an object of your suspicion. Sulcius
the virulent, and Caprius hoarse with their malignancy, walk
[openly], and with their libels too [in their hands] ; each of
them a singular terror to robbers : but if a man lives honestly
and with clean hands, he may despise them both. Though
you be like highwaymen, Coelus and Byrrhus, I am not [a
common accuser], like Caprius and Sulcius ; why should you
be afraid of me ? No shop nor stall holds my books, which
the sweaty hands of the vulgar and of Hermogenes Tigellius
may soil. I repeat to nobody, except my intimates, and that
when I am pressed ; nor any where, and before any body.
There are many who recite their writings in the middle of
the forum ; and who [do it] while bathing : the closeness of
the place, [it seems,] gives melody to the voice. This pleases
coxcombs, who never consider whether they do this to no
purpose, or at an unseasonable time. But you, says he, de-
light to hurt people, and this you do out of a mischievous
disposition. From what source do you throw this calumny upon
me ? Is any one then your voucher, with whom I have lived ?
He who backbites his absent friend ; [nay more,] who does
not defend, at another's accusing him ; who affects to raise
loud laughs in company, and the reputation of a funny fellow
who can feign things he never saw ; who can not keep secrets ;

89 Literally, "After that dreadful discord bur* asunder the iron-
bound doors and gates of war."

158 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK t

he is a dangerous man : be you, Roman, aware of him. You
may often see it [even in crowded companies], where twelve
sup together on three couches ; one of which shall delight at
any rate to asperse the rest, except him who furnishes the
bath ;40 and him too afterward in his liquor, when truth-tell-
ing Bacchus opens the secrets of his heart. Yet this man
seems entertaining, and well-bred, and frank to you, who are
an enemy to the malignant : but do I, if I have laughed be-
cause the fop Rufillus smells all perfumes, and Gorgonius,
like a he-goat, appear invidious and a snarler to you?
If by any means mention happen to be made of the thefts
of Petillius Capitolinus41 in your company, you defend
him after your manner: [as thus,] Capitolinus has had me
for a companion and a friend from childhood, and being ap-
plied to, has done many things on my account : and I am glad
that he lives secure in the city; but I wonder, notwithstand-
ing, how he evaded that sentence. This is the very essence
of blac.k malignity," this is mere malice itself: which crime,
that it shall be far remote from my writings, and prior to
them from my mind, I promise, if I can take upon me to prom-
ise any thing sincerely of myself. If I shall say any thing
too freely, if perhaps too ludicrously, you must favor me by
your indulgence with this allowance. For my excellent
father inured me to this custom, that by noting each particular
vice I might avoid it by the example [of others]. When he
exhorted me that I should live thriftily, frugally, and content
with what he had provided for me ; don't you see, [would he
?ay,] how wretchedly the son of Albius lives 1 and how mis-
erably Barrus? A strong lesson to hinder any one from
squandering away his patrimony. When he would deter me
from filthy fondness for a light woman : [take care, said he,]
that you do not resemble Sectanus. That I might not follow
adulteresses, when I could enjoy a lawful amour : the character,

40 Prceter eum, qui prcebet aquam. Their host, who provided water for
the bath ; a part of their entertainment to express the whole. SAN.

41 The ancient commentator tells us, that Petillius was governor of the
Capitol, from whence he was called Capitolinus; that he was accused of
stealing a golden crown of Jupiter, and acquitted by the favor of Au-
gustus If there be any truth in this story, for we know not where the
commentator found it, he was more probably surnamed from hia theft,
than for his government of the CapitoL FRAN.

«* Properly, "the juice of the cuttle-fish."

BAT. rv. SATIRES OP HORACE. 159

cried he, of Trebonius, who was caught in the fact, is by no
means creditable. The philosopher may tell you the reasons
for what is better to be avoided, and what to be pursued. It
is sufficient for me, if I can preserve the morality traditional
from my forefathers, and keep your life and reputation in-
violate, so long as you stand in need of a guardian : so soon
as age shall have strengthened your limbs and mind, you will
swim without cork: In this manner he formed me, as yet a
boy : and whether he ordered me to do any particular thing :
You have an authority for doing this : [then] he instanced
some one out of the select magistrates :43 or did he forbid me
[any thing] ; can you doubt, [says he,] whether this thing be
dishonorable, and against your interest to be done, when this
person and the other is become such a burning shame for his
bad character [on these accounts] ? As a neighboring
funeral dispirits sick gluttor.s, and through fear of death forces
them to have mercy upon themselves ; so other men's dis-
graces often deter tender minds from vices. From this [method
of education] I am clear from all such vices, as bring destruc-
tion along with them : by lighter foibles, and such as you may
excuse, I am possessed. And even from these, perhaps, a
maturer age, the sincerity of a friend, or my own judgment,
may make great reductions. For neither when I am in bed,
or in the piazzas, am I wanting to myself : this way of pro-
ceeding is better ; by doing such a thing I shall live more
comfortably ; by this means I shall render myself agreeable to
my friends ; such a transaction was not clever ; what, shall I,
at any time, imprudently commit any thing like it ? These
things I resolve in silence by myself. When I have any
leisure, I amuse myself with my papers. This is one of those
lighter foibles [I was speaking of ] : to which if you do not
grant your indulgence, a numerous band of poets shall come,
which will take my part (for we are many more in number),44
and, like the Jews, we will force you to come over to our
numerous party.

43 Unum ex jijdicibus selectis. The most eminent, and of greatest au-
thority, among the senatorial order ; an order called Sanctissimus. Tor*
rentiua thinks the poet means the judges, whom the praetor chose out of
all degrees of the magistracy, to relieve and assist him in his office. But
this good father would probably have taken his examples out of a more
numerous, yet not less venerable order. DAC.

" See Orelli.

160 SATIRES OF HORACE.

SATIRE V."

He describes a certain journey of his from Rome *> Brundiaium vrith
great pleasantry.

HAVING left mighty Rome, Aricia received me in but a mid-
dling inn : Heliodorus the rhetorician, most learned in the
Greek language, was my fellow-traveler: thence we pro-
ceeded to Forum- Appi, stuffed with sailors and surly land-
lords. This stage, but one for better travelers" than we,
being laggard we divided into two ; the Appian way is less
tiresome to bad travelers. Here I, on account of the water,
which was most vile, proclaim war against my belly, waiting
not without impatience for my companions while at supper.
Now the night was preparing to spread her shadows upon the
earth, and to display the constellations in the heavens. Then
our slaves began to be liberal of their abuse to the watermen,
and the watermen to our slaves. " Here bring to." " You
are stowing in hundreds ; hold, now sure there is enough."
Thus while the fare is paid, and the mule fastened, a whole
hour is passed away. The cursed gnats, and frogs of the
fens, drive off repose. While the waterman and a passenger,
well-soaked with plenty of thick wine, vie with one another
in singing the praises of their absent mistresses : at length
the passenger being fatigued, begins to sleep ; and the lazy
waterman ties the halter of the mule, turned out a-grazing, to
a stone, and snores, lying flat on his back. And now the day
approached, when we saw the boat made no way ; until a
choleric fellow, one of the passengers, leaps out of the boat,
and drubs the head and sides of both mule and waterman with
a willow cudgel. At last we were scarcely set ashore at the

45 Octaviua and Antony, both aspiring to the sovereign power, must
necessarily have had frequent quarrels and dissensions. Their reconcili-
ations were of short continuance, because they were insincere. Among
many negotiations, undertaken by their common friends to reconcile
them, history mentions two more particularly. The first in the year 714,
the other in 717, which was concluded by the mediation of Octavia, and
to which our poet was carried by Maecenas. SAN.

<• Prcecinctis. Prepared for traveling, t. e. altius pnzcinctis, "to those
who were better travelers than we were." Prcednctus means having
the dress tucked up, that it may not prevent exertion. Hence uaad fot
"diligent," "active." Compare Sat ii. 8, 10.

SAT. T. SATIRES OF HORACE. 161

fourth hour.47 We wash our faces and hands in thy water, 0
Feronia. Then, having dined, we crawled on three miles ;
and arrive under Anxur, which is built upon rocks that look
white to a great distance. Maecenas was to come here, as was
the excellent Cocceius, both sent embassadors on matters of
great importance; having been accustomed to reconcile friends
at variance.48 Here, having got sore eyes, I was obliged to
use the black ointment. In the mean time came Maecenas,
and Cocceius, and Fonteius Capito49 along with them, a man
of perfect polish,60 and intimate with Mark Antony, no man
more so.

Without regret we passed Fundi, where Aufidius Luscus
was praetor,51 laughing at the honors of that crazy scribe,6'1

47 Quarto, hord. The Romans during more than four hundred and fifty
years never had names for the hours of the day. The twelve tables di-
vided it into three parts ; the rising sun, the setting sun, and mid-day.
The hours of night and day were equal in number through the year ; but
from spring to autumn, those of the day were longer than those of the
night, and from September to March the hours of night were longest. SAN.

48 Three particulars demonstrate that this journey was to the second
conference at Brundusium. Fonteius is here joined with Maecenas and
Cocceius, but was not engaged in the first. The poet says, that Maecenas
and Cocceius had been before employed to reconcile Octavius and An-
tony, soliti, which must necessarily suppose the first congress hi 714,
when Horace had not been introduced to Maecenas. MASSON.

49 Fonteius Capito. Probably the father of him who was consul two
years before the death of Augustus. He was here of the party of An-
tony, and Maecenas on the side of Augustus. Cocceius was by way
of an arbitrator between them, to settle their differences. Homo foetus
ad unguem, a complete man, every way accomplished. WATSON.

50 Ad unguem foetus homo. This figurative expression is taken from
engravers in wood or marble, who used to pass their nail over the work,
to know whether it were well polished. ERASMUS.

51 Prcelore. The colonies and municipal towns had the same dignities
and magistracies as the city of Rome ; senators, praetors, quaestors, and
sediles. It is difficult to know whether Fundi had a praetor chosen out
of her own citizens, or whether he was sent from Rome. TORR.

' 52 Prcemia scribes. Horace calls these robes prcemia scrilce, because
the secretaries in colonies and municipal towns were frequently raised to
the dignity of the praetorship. The toga praetexta was a robe bordered
with purple. Tunica clavata was a vest with two borders of purple laid
like a lace upon the middle or opening of it, down to the bottom ; in such
a manner as that when the vest was drawn close or buttoned, the two
purple borders joined and seemed to be but one. If these borders were
large, the vest was called lotus clavus, or tunica laticlavia ; if they were
narrow, then it was named angustus clavus, tunica angusticlavia. These
two sorts of tunics were worn to distinguish the magistrates in their em-

162 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK i.

his praetexta, laticlave, and pan of incense.*1 At our next
stage, being weary, we tarry in the city of the Mamurrae,"
Murena complimenting us with his house," and Capito with
his kitchen.

The next day arises, by much the most agreeable to all :
for Plotius, and Varius, and Virgil met us at Sinuessa ; souls
more candid ones than which the world never produced, nor
is there a person in the world more bound to them than my-
self. Oh what embraces, and what transports were there!
While I am in my senses, nothing can I prefer to a pleasant
friend. The village, which is next adjoining to the bridge of
Campania, accommodated us with lodging [at night]; and
the public officers" with such a quantity of fuel and salt as
they are obliged to [by law]. From this place the mules de-
posited their pack-saddles at Capua betimes [in the morning].
Maecenas goes to play [at tennis] ; but I and Virgil to our re-
pose : for to play at tennis is hurtful to weak eyes and feeble
constitutions.

From this place the villa of Cocceius, situated above the
Caudian inns, which abounds with plenty, receives us. Now,
my muse, I beg of you briefly to relate the engagement be-
tween the buffoon Sarmentus and Messius Cicirrus ; and from

ployments, and were very different from those worn by the common
people, tunicato popeUo, which were closed before, and without any pur-
ple border. They were called tunica recta. SAN.

53 Prunasque batillum. A pan for incense, frequently carried before
the emperors, of those possessed of the sovereign authority. ED. DDBL.

54 The stroke of satire here is of a delicate and almost imperceptible
malignity. Formiae, the city which Horace means, belonged to the La-
mian family, whose antiquity was a great honor to it. But our poet
paraphrases it by the name of a person, who was born there, and who
has made his country famous in a very different manner. Mamurra was
a Roman knight, who was infamous for his rapine, luxury and debauch-
ery. Catullus calls him Decoctor Formianus. ToRR.

55 Murena was brother of Licymnia, married afterward to Maecenas.
He was condemned to death for conspiring against Augustus. Variua
and Plotius Tucca were the persons to whom Augustus intrusted the
correction of the ^Eneid, after Virgil's death, but with an order not to
make any additions to it. FRAN.

M Parochi. - Before the consulship of Lucius Posthumius, the magis-
trates of Rome traveled at the public charge, without being burthensome
to the provinces. Afterward commissaries were appointed in all the
great roads to defray all expenses of those who were employed in the
business of the state. They were obliged, by the Lex Julia de province*,
to provide lodging, fire, salt, hay, straw, etc. ED. DUEL.

gAT. v. SATIRES OF HORACE. 163

what ancestry descended each began the contest. The illus-
trious race of Messius — Oscan :" Sarmentus's mistress is still
alive. Sprung from such families as these, they came to the
combat. First, Sarmentus: "I pronounce thee to have the
look of a mad horse." We laugh ; and Messius himself [says],
" I accept your challenge :" and wags his head. " O !" cries
he, " if the horn were not cut off your forehead, what would
you not do ; since, maimed as you are, you bully at such a
rate ?" For a foul scar has disgraced the left part of Mes-
sius's bristly forehead. Cutting many jokes upon his Cam-
panian disease, and upon his face, he desired him to exhibit
Polyphemus's dance :68 that he had no occasion for a mask,
or the tragic buskins. Cicirrus [retorted] largely to these:
he asked, whether he had consecrated his chain'9 to the house-
hold gods according to his vow ; though he was a scribe, [he
told him] his mistress's property in him was not the less.
Lastly, he asked, how he ever came to run away; such a lank
meager fellow, for whom a pound of corn [a-day] would be
ample.80 We were so diverted, that we continued that supper
to an unusual length.

Hence we proceed straight on for Beneventum ; where the
bustling landlord almost burned himself, in roasting some lean

" Osci is a nominative case, and we must construe it, Osci sunt clarum
genus Messii. The Oscans gave to Messius his illustrious birth, a suffi-
cient proof that he was an infamous scoundrel. The people who inhab-
ited this part of Campania were guilty of execrable debaucheries. SAN.

58 Saltaret utl Cyctopa. The raillery is founded on his gigantic size,
and the villainous gash that Messius had on his forehead, which made
him look so like a Polyphemus, that he might dance the part without
buskins or a mask. To dance a Cyclops, a Glaucus, a Ganymede, a Leda,
was an expression for representing their story by dancing. ED. DUEL.

59 Dondssetjamne catenam. Only the vilest slaves, or those who worked
in the country, were chained. It appears by an epigram of Martial, that
when they were set at liberty, they consecrated their chains to Saturn,
because slavery was unknown under his reign. But when Messius asks
Sarmentus whether he had dedicated his chain to the Dii Lares, he would
reproach him with being a fugitive. These gods were invoked by trav-
elers, because they presided over highways, from whence they were
called viales. They themselves were always represented like travelers,
as if they were ready to leave the house ; succindi. Or Sarmentus was
a slave so vile that he knew no other gods, but those who stood on the
hearth, and which it was his employment to keep clean. DAC.

60 By the laws of the twelve tables, a slave was allowed a pound of
corn a day. "Qui eum vinctum habebit, libras farris in dies dato."
TURNEBUS.

164 SATIRES OP HORACE. BOOK L

thrushes : for, the fire falling through the old kitchen [floor],
the spreading flame made a great progress toward the highest
part of the roof. Then you might have seen the hungry guests
and frightened slaves snatching their supper out [of the flames],
and every body endeavoring to extinguish the fire.

After this Apulia began to discover to me her well-known
mountains, which the Atabulus scorches [with his blasts] :
and through which we should never have crept, unless the
neighboring village of Trivicus had received us, not without
a smoke that brought tears into our eyes; occasioned by a
hearth's burning some green boughs with the leaves upon them.
Here, like ' a great fool as I was, I wait till midnight for a
deceitful mistress : sleep, however, overcomes me, while medi-
tating love ; and disagreeable dreams make me ashamed of
myself and every thing about mo.

Hence we were bowled away in chaises twenty-four miles,
intending to stop at a little town, which one can not name in
a verse, but it is easily enough known by description.'1 For
water is sold here, though the worst in the world ; but
their bread is exceeding fine, inasmuch that the weary traveler
is used to carry it willingly on his shoulders; for [the bread]
at Canusium is gritty ; a pitcher of water is worth no more
[than it is here] : which place was formerly built by the
yaliant Diomedes. Here Varius departs dejected from his
weeping friends.

Hence we came to Rubi, fatigued : because we made a long
journey, and it was rendered still more troublesome by the
rains. Next day the weather was better, the road worse,
even to the very walls of Barium that abounds in fish. In
the next place Egnatia, which [seems to have] been built on
troubled waters, gave us occasion for jests and laughter ; for
they wanted to persuade us, that at this sacred portal the in-
cense melted without fire. The Jew Apella may believe this,
not I. For I have learned [from Epicurus], that the gods dwell
in a state of tranquillity ; nor, if nature effect any wonder, that
the anxious gods send it from the high canopy of the heavens.

Brundusium ends both my long journey, and my paper.

•' This (as the SchoL informs us) was Equotuticum. The reason that
it can not occur in dactylics is, that the first is short, and the next two
syllables long, while the penultimate is short "Were the first long, there
could be no difficulty about introducing it M'CAUL.

SAT. TL SATIRES OF HORACE. 165

SATIRE VI.
Of true nobility.

NOT Maecenas, though of all the Lydians8" that ever inhab-
ited the Tuscan territories, no one is of a nobler family than
your.-elf ; and though you have ancestors both on father's and
mother's side, that in times past have had the command of
mighty legions ; do you, as the generality are wont, toss up
your nose at obscure people, such as me, who had [only] a
freed-man83 for my father : since you affirm that it is of no
consequence of what parents any man is born, so that he be
a man of merit. You persuade yourself, with truth, that before
the dominions of Tullius, and the reign of one born a
slave, frequently numbers of men descended from ancestors
of no rank, have both lived as men of merit, and have been
distinguished by the greatest honors : [while] on the other
hand Lsevinus, the descendant of that famous Valerius, by
whose means Tarquinius Superbus was expelled from his
kingdom, was not a farthing more esteemed64 [on account of
his family, even] in the judgment of the people, with whose
disposition you are well acquainted ; who often foolishly be-
stow honors on the unworthy, and are from their stupidity
slaves to a name : who are struck with admiration by inscrip-
tions and statues. What is it fitting for us to do, who are far,
very far removed from the vulgar [in our sentiments] ? For
grant it, that the people had rather confer a dignity on Las-
vinus than on Decius, who is a new man ; and the censor

62 Lydorum quicquid Etruscos. Mr. Dacier, upon the single authority
of Dionysius Halicarnassensis, asserts that the Tuscans were not de-
scended from the Lydians. Yet Horace had a poetical right to the tra-
dition, as it was generally believed, although it might possibly be false.
But it is supported by Herodotus, Tully, Virgil, Strabo, Servius. Pliny,
Tacitus, Velleius, Seneca, Plutarch, Valerius Maximus, Silms, and Sta-
tius. SAN.

63 In the first ages of the republic libertinus and libertifilius had the
same signification ; but some time before Cicero, as we are informed by
Suetonius, the manner of speaking was changed, and from thence libertus
and libertinus were used as synonymous terms to signify a man who was
made free. SAN.

64 Licuisse. Lsevinus is here pleasantly set up to auction, for licert
was the term used to signify raising the sale. TORE.

1 66 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK L

Appius would expel me [the senate-house], because I was
not sprung from a sire of distinction : and that too deservedly,
inasmuch as I rested not content in my own condition. But
glory drags in her dazzling car the obscure as closely fettered
as those of nobler birth. What did it profit you, 6 Tullius,
to resume the robe that you [were forced] to lay aside, and
become a tribune [again] ? Envy increased upon you, which
had been less, if you had remained in a private station. For
when any crazy fellow has laced the middle of his leg with
the sable buskins," and has let flow the purple robe from his
breast, he immediately hears : " Who is this man ? Whose son
is he ?" Just as if there be any one, who labors under the
same distemper as Barrus does, so that he is ambitious of being
reckoned handsome ; let him go where he will, he excites curi-
osity among the girls of inquiring into particulars ; as what
sort of face, leg, foot, teeth, hair, he has. Thus he who engages'*
to his citizens to take care of the city, the empire, and Italy,
and the sanctuaries of the gods, forces every mortal to be so-
licitous, and to ask from what sire he is descended, or whether
he is base by the obscurity of his mother. What ? do you,
the son of a Syrus," a Dama, or a Dionysius, dare to cast
down the citizens of Rome from the [Tarpeian] rock, or de-
liver them up to Cadmus [the executioner] ? But, [you may
say,] my colleague Novius sits" below me by one degree :
for he is only what my father was. And therefore do you
esteem yourself a Paulus or a Messala ? But he (Novius), if
two hundred carriages and three funerals were to meet in the
forum, could make noise enough" to drown all their horns and
trumpets :70 this [kind of merit] at least has its weight with us.

«' The buskins worn by senators were black, and sometimes white ;
those of the curule magistrates were red. TORR.

66 Sic qui promittit. This was the form of a senator's and a magi*
trate's oath. CRUQ.

47 Syri, Damce, aut Dionysi. These three names are the names of
slaves. Damas or Dama is a contraction of Demetrius ; Syrus is fre-
quently the slave in comedy. DAO.

w Sedet is a law word, properly applied to senators, praetors, and other
judges when seated on the bench, in execution of their office. TORR.

•» Magna sondbit. Funerals usually passed through the forum, and
Novius could pronounce an oration with a voice of thunder. Horace
laughs at hia being made a senator for an accomplishment which coulcj
only entitle him to the office of a crier. DAC.

70 Trumpets were used at the funerals of men, and flutes at those of

SAT. vr SATIRES OF HORACE. 167

Now I return to myself, who am descended from a freed-
man ; whom every body nibbles at, as being descended from a
freed-man. Now, because, Maecenas, I am a constant guest of
yours ; but formerly, because a Roman legion was under my
command, as being a military tribune. This latter case is dif-
ferent from the former : for, though any person perhaps might
justly envy me that post of honor, yet could he not do so with
regard to your being my friend ! especially as you are cautious
to admit such as are worthy ; and are far from having any sin-
ister ambitious views. I can not reckon myself a lucky fellow
on this account, as if it were by accident that I got you for my
friend ; for no kind of accident threw you in my way. That
best of men, Virgil, long ago, and after him, Varius, told you
what I was. When first I came into your presence, I spoke a
few words in a broken manner (for childish bashfulness hin-
dered me from speaking more) ; I did not tell you that I was
the issue of an illustrious father : I did not [pretend] that I rode
about the country on a Satureian horse, but plainly what I real-
ly was ; you answer (as your custom is) a few words : I depart :
and you re-invite me after the ninth month, and command me
to be in the number of your friends. I esteem it a great thing
that I pleased you, who distinguish probity from baseness, not
by the illustriousness of a father, but by the purity of heart and
feelings.

And yet if my disposition be culpable for a few faults, and
those small ones, otherwise perfect (as if you should condemn
moles scattered over a beautiful skin), if no one can justly lay
to my charge avarice, nor sordidness, nor impure haunts; if,
in fine (to speak in my own praise), I live undefiled, and in-
nocent, and dear to my friends ; my father was the cause of
all this : who though a poor man on a lean farm, was unwill-
ing to send me to a school under [the pedant] Flavius, where
great boys, sprung from great centurions, having tneir sat-
chels and tablets swung over their left arm, used to go with
money in their hands the very day it was due ;T1 but had the

children. The twelve tables confined them to ten in number. " Decem
tibicines adhibeto, hoc plus ne facito." ED. DUBL.

" Octonis referentes idibus aura. The Romans had many stated times of
paying their schoolmasters. Some imagine it was at the beginning, others
at the end of the year, or at the grand festival of Minerva, called quinqua-
trus, or quinquatria, which began the 19th of March. But the Minerval
then given to the master was not a salary, but a voluntary present

168 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK i.

spirit to bring me a child to Rome, to be taught those art*
which any Roman knight and senator can teach his own chil-
dren. So that, if any person had considered my dress, and
the slaves who attended me in £O populous a city, he would
have concluded that those expenses were supplied to me out of
some hereditary estate. He himself, of all others the most
faithful guardian, was constantly about every one of my pre-
ceptors. Why should I multiply words ? He preserved me
chaste (which is the first honor of virtue) not only from
every actual guilt, but likewise from [every] foul imputation,
nor was he afraid lest any should turn it to nis reproach, if I
should come to follow a business attended with small profits,
in capacity of an auctioneer, or (what he was himself) a tax-
gatherer. Nor [had that been the case] should I have com-
plained. On this account the more praise is due to him, and
from me a greater degree of gratitude. As long as I am in
my senses, I can never be ashamed of such a father as this,
and therefore shall not apologize [for my birth], in the man-
ner that numbers do, by affirming it to be no fault of theirs.
My language and way of thinking is far different from such
persons. For if nature were to make us from a certain term of
years to go over our past time again, and [suffer us] to choose
other parents, such as every man for ostentation's sake would
wish for himself; I, content with my own, would not assume
those that are honored with the ensigns and seats of state ;
[for which I should seem] a madman in the opinion of the
mob, but in yours, I hope a man of sense ; because I should
be unwilling to sustain a troublesome burden, being by no
means used to it. For I must [then] immediately set about
acquiring a larger fortune, and more people must be compli-
mented ; and this and that companion must be taken along,
so that I could neither take a jaunt into the country, or a jour-
ney by myself; more attendants and more horses must be
fed ; coaches must be drawn. Now, if I please, I can go as
far as Tarentum on my bob-tailed mule, whose loins the port-"

This word has no particular force here. It merely means that the Ides
were eight days from the Nones. With regard to idibus comp. Sat. i. 3,
87. M'CAUL. It appears from a passage of Martial that the Roman
youths had full four months' vacation ; hence Octonis idibus denote the
period of tuition : trana, ''bringing the money for eight months' instruc-
tion." WHEELEB.

SAT. vi SATIRES OF HORACE. 169

manteau galls with his weight, as does the horseman his shoul-
ders. No one will lay to my charge such sordidness as he
may, Tullius, to you, when five slaves follow you, a praetor,
along the Tiburtian way, carrying a traveling kitchen, and a
vessel of wine. Thus I live more comfortably, O illustrious
senator, than you, and than thousands of others. Wherever I
have a fancy, I walk by myself : I inquire the price of herbs
and bread : I traverse the tricking circus,78 and the forum
often in the evening: I stand listening among the for-
tune-tellers : thence I take myself home to a plate of onions,
pulse, and pancakes. My supper is served up by three slaves ;
and a white stone slab supports two cups and a brimmer :
near the salt-cellar stands a homely cruet " with a little bowl,
earthen-ware from Campania. Then I go to rest ; by no
means concerned that I must rise in the morning, and pay a
visit to the statue of Marsyas,74 who denies that he is able to
bear the look of the younger Novius. I lie a-bed to the fourth
hour ; after that I take a ramble, or having read or written
what may amuse me in my privacy, I am anointed with oil,
but not with such as the nasty Nacca, when he robs the lamps.
But when the sun, become more violent, has reminded me to
go to bathe, I avoid the Campus Martius70 and the game of
hand-ball. Having dined in a temperate manner, just enough
to hinder me from having an empty stomach, during the rest
of the day I trifle in my own house. This is the life of those
who are free from wretched and burthensome ambition : with
such things as these I comfort myself, in a way to live more

72 He calls the circus fattacem, deceiving, because diviners, fortune-
tellers, interpreters of dreams, astrologers, and impostors of all sorts
usually assemble there. TURNER.

73 Echino vilis. We can not precisely determine what the guttus and
echinus were. Mr. Dacier thinks the first was a little urn, out of which
they poured water into a basin, echinus, to wash their hands. ED. DUEL.

74 Marsyas, a satyr, who, challenging Apollo to a trial of skill in music,
was overcome and flayed alive by the god. A statue was erected to him
Jn the forum, opposite to the rostra where the judges determined causes,
and the poet pleasantly says, it stood in such an attitude as showed its
indignation to behold a man who had been a slave, now sitting among
the magistrates of Rome. The satyr forgets, in his resentment of such
a sight, the pain of being flayed alive. TORR.

73 Fugio campum, lusumque trigonem. Campus is the Campus Afartius,
and lusus trigon was a game played with a ball, otherwise called lusua
trigonalis, because the players stood in a triangle. Martial speaks of it
in more than one place. FRAN.

1 70 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK L

delightfully than if my grandfather had been a quaestor, and
father and uncle too.

SATIRE VII.

He humorously describes a squabble betwixt Rupilius and Peraius.

IN what manner the mongrel Persius7' revenged the filth and
venom of Rupilius, surnaraed King, is I think known to all
the blind men and barbers. This Persius, being a man of
fortune, had very great business at Clazomenae, and, into the
bargain, certain troublesome litigations wtth King ; a hardened
fellow, and one who was able to exceed even King in viru-
lence ; confident, blustering, of such a bitterness of speech,
that he would outstrip the Sisennae" and Barri, if ever so well
equipped.

I return to King. After nothing could be settled betwixt
them (for people among whom adverse war breaks out, are
proportionably vexatious on the same account as they are
brave. Thus between Hector, the son of Priam, and the high-
spirited Achilles, the rage was of so capital a nature, that only
the final destruction [of one of them] could determine it ; on
no other account, than that valor in each of them was consum-
mate. If discord sets two cowards to work ; or if an engage-
ment happens between two that are not of a match, as that of
Diomed and the Lycian Glaucus ; the worse man will walk off,
[buying his peace] by voluntarily sending presents), when Bru-
tus held as praetor" the fertile Asia, this pair, Rupilius and Per-
sius, encountered; in such a manner, that [the gladiators]

7« Ibrida Persius. Persius was a Greek by his father, and an Italian
by his mother. The Romans gave the name of Ibrida to those whom
parents were of different nations, or different conditions. TORE.

" Cornelius Sisenna being reproached by the senate with the bad con-
duct of his wife, replied, " I married her by the advice of Augustus."
Insinuating, Augustus had obliged him to marry her, that he might
have a more easy commerce with her. Titus Veturius Barras, having
ruined himself by his extravagance, was put to death for violating a
vestal virgin. ED. DUEL.

78 Marcus Brutus and Cassius were praetors of Rome when Cassar was
put to death. In 7 1 1 Brutus went to take possession of his Macedonian
government, and praetor may be understood proprcetor : a manner of
•peaking of which there are many examples. SAN.

SAT. nn. SATIRES OF HORACE 171

Bacchius and Bithus™ were not better matched. Impetuous
they hurry to the cause, each of them a fine sight.

Persius opens his case ; and is laughed at by all the assem-
bly ; he extols Brutus, and extols the guard ; he styles Brutus
the sun of Asia, and his attendants he styles salutary stars, all
except King ; that he [he says,] came like that dog, the con-
stellation hateful to husbandman : he poured along like a wintery
flood, where the ax seldom comes.

Then, upon his running on in so smart and fluent a manner,
the Praenestine [king] directs some witticisms squeezed from the
vineyard,'0 himself* a hardy vine-dresser, never defeated, to whom
the passenger had often been obliged to yield, bawling cuckoo
with roaring voice.

But the Grecian Persius, as soon as he had been well sprin-
kled with Italian vinegar, bellows out : O Brutus, by the great
gods I conjure you, who are accustomed to take off kings," why
do you not dispatch this King ? Believe me, this is a piece of
work which of right belongs to you.

SATIRE VHL

Priapus complains that the Esquilian mount is infested with the
incantations of sorceresses,

FORMERLY I was the trunk of a wild fig-tree, an uselss log :"
when the artificer, in doubt whether he should make a stool
or a Priapus of me, determined that I should be a god.
Henceforward I became a god, the greatest terror of thieve*

TO The Scholiast tells us, that Bithus and Bacchius were two gladiators,
who certainly put to death whoever fought with them. They afterward
engaged together, and both expired on the stage. ED. DUEL.

80 Horace means a particular kind of vine, arbustiva, that grew round
trees, in which the people who gathered the grapes stood exposed to the
raillery of the travelers. In such an attitude our durus Vindemiator had
often appeared. All sort of injurious language was allowed during the
vintage; a custom that still continues in Naples. DAC.

81 Lucius Junius Brutus expelled Tarquinius Superbus. Marcus Bru-
tus freed his country from the imperial power of Julius Caesar. From the
introduction of this, we may conjecture that Horace, at the time of writ*
ing this satire, had not yet espoused the side of Augustus. M'CAUL.

82 The wood of a fig-tree was very little used, on account of its brit
tleness. SCHOL.

172 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK L

and birds : for my right hand restrains thieves, and a bloody-
looking pole stretched out from my frightful middle : but a
reed fixed upon the crown of my head terrifies the mischievous
birds, and hinders them from settling in these new gar-
dens."1 Before this the fellow-slave bore dead corpses thrown
out of their narrow cells to this place, in order to be deposited
in paltry coffins. This place stood a common sepulcher for
the miserable mob, for the buffoon Pantolabus, and Nomen-
tanus the rake. Here a column assigned a thousand feet64 [of
ground] in front, and three hundred toward the fields: that
the burial-place should not descend to the heirs of the es-
tate. Now one may live in the Esquiliae,*6 [since it is made]
a healthy place ; and walk upon an open terrace, where lately
the melancholy passengers beheld the ground frightful with
white bones ; though both the thieves and wild beasts accus-
tomed to infest this place, do not occasion me so much care
and trouble, as do [these hags], that turn people's minds by
their incantations and drugs. These I can not by any means
destroy nor hinder, but that they will gather bones and noxious
herbs, as soon as the fleeting moon" has shown her beauteous
face.

I myself saw Canidia, with her sable garment tucked up,
walk with bare feet and disheveled hair, yelling together with
the elder Sagana. Paleness had rendered both of them hor-
rible to behold. They began to claw up the earth with their
nails, and to tear a black ewe-lamb to pieces with their teeth.

83 Octavius, willing to correct the infection of this hill, which was a
common burial-place for all the poor of Rome, got the consent of the
senate and people to give part of it to Maecenas, who built a magnificent
house there with very extensive gardens. Hence the poo calls them
novia horiis SAN.

84 Mitte pedes in fronte. Such was the title of the grave-yard, pre-
served on a pillar of stone, cippus, to show its extent, and to declare it
was never to return to the heirs of the estate. "We have numberless in-
scriptions of this kind, ITA NB UNQUAM DK NOMINE FAMILLB NOSTR-E

EXEAT HOC MONCMENTUM. HOC MONUMEXTUM IIEREDES NON 8EQUITUR,

IN FRONTE LAT. FED. XX. ET DIG. II. Ix AGR, LONG. FED. XX. In
fronte signifies to the road: in agro, to the fields. Dabat is for indicabat,
teslabatur. TORR.

85 The air was afterward so healthy, that Augustus was carried thither
when he was ill. TORR.

88 The moon presided over all enchantments, and was believed to be
most favorable when in the full, decorum 03, because she th*n infused a
•tronger spirit into the magical herbs. TORR.

SAT. vra. SATIRES OP HORACE. 173

The blood was poured into a ditch, that thence they might
charm out the shades87 of the dead, ghosts that were to give
them answers. There was a woolen effigy'8 too, another of
wax : the woolen one larger, which was to inflict punishment
on the little one.89 The waxen stood in a suppliant posture,
as ready to perish in a servile manner. One of the hags in-
vokes Hecate, and the other fell lisiphone. Then might you
see serpents and infernal bitches90 wander about ; and the
moon with blushes hiding behind the lofty monuments, that
she might not be a witness to these doings. But if I lie, even
a tittle, may my head be contaminated with the white filth of
ravens; and may Julius, and the effeminate Miss Pediatous,91
and the knave Voranus, come to water upon me, and befoul
me. Why should I mention every particular ? viz. in what
manner, speaking alternately with Sagana, the ghosts uttered
dismal and piercing shrieks ; and how by stealth they laid in
the earth a wolf's beard, with the teeth of a spotted snake ;
and how a great blaze flamed forth from the waxen image 1
And how I was shocked at the voices and actions of these
two furies, a spectator however by no means incapable of re-
venge ? For from my cleft body of fig-tree93 wood I uttered
a loud noise with as great an explosion as a burst bladder.
But they ran into the city : and with exceeding laughter and
diversion might you have seen Canidia's artificial teeth, and

" Black victims alone were sacrificed to the infernal gods, nor was
any thing supposed more delicious to the souls of the departed than
blood. They could not foretell any future events, or answer any ques-
tions, until they had drank of it. Ulysses was obliged to draw his sword
to frighten them away from the blood he had poured into the trench for
Tiresias. DAC.

88 The image of wool represented the person they were willing should
survive the other represented by that of wax. 'T is for this reason that
the images were made of different materials, that their fates might be
different. WATSOX.

89 This little figure probably represented Darius, who had forsaken
Canidia, as we find in the fifth epode. SAN.

9<J The serpents were forerunners of Tisiphone, and the bitches foretold
that her infernal majesty was coming. TORE.

91 Julius et fragilis Pediatia. We know not who Julius was. Pedi-
atius was an infamous Roman knight, whom Horace, "for his effeminacy,
calls Pediatia. Thus Aristophanes calls Cleonymus Cleonyma; Sostra-
tus, Sostrata, CRUQ.

92 Ficus, i. e. I, an image made of the truncus Jictdmis. The heat made
the wood crack with a noise, which put the witches to flight.

174 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK i.

Sagana's towering tete of false hair falling off, and the herbs,
and the enchanted bracelets from her arms.

SATIRE IX.

He describes his sufferings from the loquacity of an impertinent feUow.

I WAS accidentally going along the Via Sacra, meditating on
some trifle or other, as is my custom, and totally intent upon
it. A certain person, known to me by name only, runs up ;
and, having seized my hand, " How do you do, my dearest
fellow ?" " Tolerably well," say I, " as times go ; and I wish
you every thing you can desire." When he still followed me ;
" Would you any thing *"" said I to him. But, " You know
me," says he: "I am a man of learning." "Upon that ac-
count," says I : " you will have more of my esteem." Wanting
sadly to get away from him, sometimes I walked on apace,
now and then I stopped, and I whispered something to my boy.
When the sweat ran down to the bottom of my ankles. O,
said I to myself, Bolanus,94 how happy were you in a head-
piece! Meanwhile he kept prating on any thing that came
uppermost, praised the streets, the city; and, when I made
him no answer; "You want terribly," said he "to get away;
I perceived it long ago; but you effect nothing. I shall still

93 Numquid vis. Donatus tells us in a remark upon a passage in Ter-
ence, that it was a polite customary manner of speaking among the
Romans, that they might not seom to take their leave too abruptly, to
say at parting, " numquid vis ?" as in modern phrase, "have you any
commands?" "Abituri, ne id dure facerent, 'numquid vis' dicebant
his, quibuscum constitissent." ED. DUEL

•* Bolanus was a very irritable person. SOHOL. Horace then pro-
nounces him cerebri felicem ; for were he but in this fellow's company,
he would break out into a storm of passion that would drive him away.
It appears more humorous to suppose him a heavy, stupid person, so
apathetic that not even this fellow would annoy him. P. Similarly
Demea in Terent. Adelph. v. 5, exclaims,

" fortunatus, qui istoc animo sies ;

Ego sentio." M'CAUL.

Bolanus was a surname of the Vettii derived from Bola, a town of the
^EquL — Celebri felicem. Thus ficiKapi^j at rr)f nafifirioiaf, and Virg.
Geor. L 277, "felicea operum dies." WUEELEB.

SAT. ix. SATIRES OP HORACE. 175

stick close to you ; I shall follow you hence : where are you
at present bound for?" "There is no need for your being
carried so much about : I want to see a person, who is un-
known to you : he lives a great way oft' across the Tiber, just
by Caesar's gardens." " I have nothing to do, and I am not
lazy ; I will attend you thither." I hang down my ears like
an ass of surly disposition, when a heavier load than ordinary
is put upon his back. He begins again : " If I am tolerably
acquainted with myself, you will not esteem Viscus or Varius
as a friend, more than me ; for who can write more verses, or
in a shorter time than I ? Who can move his limbs with softer
grace [in the dance] ? And then I sing, so that even Hermo-
geues may envy."

Here there was an opportunity of interrupting him. "Have
you a mother, [or any] relations that are interested in your
welfare ?" " Not one have I ; I have buried them all."
" Happy they ! now I remain. Dispatch me : for the fatal
moment is at hand, which an old Sabine sorceress, having
shaken her divining urn,95 foretold when I was a boy ; ' This
child, neither shall cruel poison, nor the hostile sword, nor
pleurisy, nor cough, nor the crippling gout destroy : a babbler
shall one day demolish him ; if he be wise, let him avoid talk-
ative people, as soon as he comes to man's estate.' "

One fourth" of the day being now passed, we came to Vesta's
temple ; and, as good luck would have it, he was obliged to
appear to his recogniaznce ; which unless he did, he must
have lost his cause. "If you love me," said he, "step
in here a little." " May I die ! if I be either able to stand it
out,*7 or have any knowledge of the civil laws : and besides,

93 The divination was performed in this manner. A number of letters
and entire words were thrown into an urn and shaken together. When
they were well mixed, they were poured out, and if any thing intelligible
appeared in them, from thence the witch formed her divination and
answers. FRAN.

96 The first hour of the day among the Romans answered to our
sixth. Martial says the courts were open at nine o'clock, "exercet
raucos tertia causidicos;" it was, therefore, more than an hour after their
opening, that Horace passed by the temple of Vesta.

97 Aut vcdeo stare. Horace uses the law terms, " respondere, adesse,
•tare, rem relinquere." The first signifies to appear before a judge upon
a summons ; the second was properly to attend on the person who ap-
peared, and to support his cause ; the third marks the posture in which

176 SATIRES OP HORACE. BOOK L

I am in a hurry, you know whither." " I am in doubt what
I shall do," said he ; " whether desert you or my cause."
" Me, I beg of you." " I will not do it," said he ; and began
to take the lead of me. I (as it is difficult to contend with
one's master) follow him. " How stands it with Maecenas
and you ?" Thus he begins his prato again. " He is one of
few intimates,*8 and of a very wise way of thinking. No man
ever made use of opportunity with more cleverness. You
should have a powerful assistant," who could play an under-
part, if you were disposed to recommend this man ; may I
perish, if you should not supplant all the rest !" " We do not
live there in the manner you imagine ; there is not a house
that is freer or more remote from evils of this nature. It is
never of any disservice to me, that any particular person is
wealthier or a better scholar than I am : every individual has
his proper placed' " You tell me a marvelous thing, scarcely
credible." " But it is even so." " You the more inflame my
desires to be near his person." " You need only be inclined to
it : such is your merit, you will accomplish it : and he is
capable of being won ;100 and on that account the first access

he stood, and relinqttere causam to suffer himself to be non-suited for not
appearing. ED. DUBL.

18 Paucorum hominum. " A man of discernment, who does not con-
verse with the multitude," as in Terence, " hie homo est perpaucorum,
hominum." Scipio having engaged three or four friends to sup with him,
and intending to make some others, who came to see him, stay with him,
Pontius whispered him, " Consider, Scipio, what you are doing ; this is
a delicate fish, paucorum hominum, and does not love a great deal of
company." ED. DUEL.

* Adjutor was a person who assisted a player either with his voice or
action, but in what manner is to us inconceivable, as we have nothing
like it in our stage. Ferre secundas may be somewhat better explained
by a passage in Cicero: " He will not exert his utmost eloquence, but
consult your honor and reputation, by lowering his own abilities and
raising yours. Thus we see among the Grecian actors, that he who plays
the second or third part, conceals his own power, that the principal player
may appear to the best advantage." ED. DUEL.

Our impertinent therefore promises Horace, that far from any design
of supplanting him in the favor of Maecenas, he will be contented to play
the second part, and use his utmost abilities to raise our poet's character,
as a principal actor. The reader may turn to the note on the twelfth
line in the eighteenth epistle. FRAN*.

100 The poet says Maecenas was naturally easy to be gained, but that
a sense of his own weakness obliged him to guard himself against the
first addresses of a stranger. " E5," for " ideo difficiles aditus primes habet,

BAT. IX SATIRES OF HORACE. 177

to him he makes difficult." " I will not be wanting to myself:
I will corrupt his servants with presents ; if I am excluded
to-day, I will not desist ; I will seek opportunities ; I will
meet him in the public streets ; I will wait upon him home.
Life allows nothing to mortals without great labor." While
he was running on at this rate, lo ! Fuscus Aristius comes up,
a dear friend of mine, and one who knows the fellow well.
We make a stop. "Whence come you? whither are you
going ?" he asks and answers. I began to twitch him [by the
elbow], and to take hold of his arms [that were affectedly]
passive, nodding and distorting my eyes, that he might rescue
me. Cruelly arch he laughs, and pretends not to take the
hint : anger galled my liver. " Certainly," [said I, " Fuscus,]
you said that you wanted to communicate something to me in
private." "I remember it very well ; but will tell it you at
a better opportunity : to-day is the thirtieth sabbath.1 Would
you affront the circumcised Jews ?" I reply, " I have no
scruple [on that account]." "But I have: I am something
weaker, one of the multitude. You must forgive me : I will
speak with you on another occasion." And has this sun arisen
so disastrous upon me! The wicked rogue runs away, and
leaves me under the knife. But by luck his adversary met
him : and, " Whither are you going, you infamous fellow ?"
roars he with a loud voice : and, " Do you witness the arrest ?'"

quia est qui vinci possit:" as in Terence, "eo tibi videtur fcedus, quia
vestem illam non habet." BENT.

1 The Jews began their year the first of September, and celebrated
their paschal festival the fifteenth of April, in the thirtieth week, from
whence Horace calls it " tricesima sabbata." It continued eight days, of
which the two first and two last were observed with so much solemnity,
that it was not permitted even to talk of business. Augustus, in imita^
tion of Julius Caesar, allowed the Jews uncommon privileges.

2 "When a man had given bail in a court of justice, if he neglected the
time of appearance, he might be taken by force before the praetor. But
the person who would arrest him was obliged, before he used him with
violence, to have a witness of his capture, antestari. This, however, could
not be done without the consent of the witnesses ; he, therefore, willingly
offered the captor his ear to touch, who was liable, if these forms were
not observed, to an action, injuriarum actionem. But thieves and people
of infamous characters were not treated with so much formality. When
a fellow in Plautus cries out, " Will you not call a witness before you
seize me, nonne antestaris?" he is answered, " Whac, shall I touch an
honest man's ear for such a scoundrel as you are ?" Pliny tells us. the
lowest part of the ear is the seat of memory, iroiu whence camfr tnig
form of their laws. FRAK

8*

178 SATIRES OP HORACE. BOOK L

I assent.' He hurries him into court : there is a great cla-
mor on both sides, a mob from all parts. Thus Apollo pre-
served me.4

SATIRE X.'

He supports the judgment which he had before given of Lucilius, and inter-
sperses some excellent precepts for the writing of Satire.

To be sure I did say, that the verses of Lucilius did not run
smoothly. Who is so foolish an admirer of Lucilius, that he
would not own this ? But the same writer is applauded in
the same Satire," on account of his having lashed the town with
great humor. Nevertheless granting him this, I will not
therefore give up the other [considerations] ; for at that rate
I might even admire the farces of Laberius,7 as fine poems.
Hence it is by no means sufficient to make an auditor grin
with laughter : and yet there is some degree of merit even in
this. There is need of conciseness that the sentence may run,
and not embarrass itself with verbiage, that overloads the
sated ear ; and sometimes a grave, frequently jocose style is

3 Oppono auriculam. Such was the law term, which our poet ver/
willingly pronounced, to signify the consent of the witness.

4 Horace ascribes his rescue from the intruder to Apollo, as the patron
of poets. Perhaps he alludes to the statue of that god, which was in the
forum, where the courts were held, and as it was a law proceeding that
saved him from the garrulus, he ascribes his preservation to the god, that
from his vicinity to the courts, was called juris peritus. Juven. i. 113.
Orellius considers reference to be made to Apollo, u/lfftxu/cof, or uno-
rpoiraiof, and that the passage is founded on 11. T. 443 ; rot 6' tltfpna&v
'ATTO/Uu. M'CAUL.

6 Lucilius had his numerous admirers in Rome, who were greatly
disobliged by the freedom with which onr poet had treated him in his
fourth Satire. Horace was determined to support his own judgment,
and instead of making an apology, confirms what he had said, with his
utmost force and address. ED. DUBLIN. Respecting the eight spurious
Terses usually prefixed to this satire, see Orclli's Excursus.

« Cf. Sat. 4.

7 Mimi were farces written purely for diversion and laughing. De-
cimus Laberius was made a Roman knight by Julius Caesar. He had
long maintained the flirt character in this kind of writing, but Publius
Syrus at last became his rival, and carried off all the applause of the
theater. FRAK

SAT. i SATIRES OF HORACE. 179

necessary, supporting the character one while of the orator,
and [at another] of the poet, now and then that of a graceful
rallier that curbs the force of his pleasantry and weakens it on
purpose. For ridicule often decides matters of importance
more effectually and in a better manner, than severity. Those
poets by whom the ancient comedy was written, stood upon
this [foundation], and in this are they worthy of imitation :
whom neither the smooth-faced Hermogenes ever read, nor
that baboon who is skilled in nothing but singing [the wanton
compositions of] Calvus and Catullus.

But [Lucilius, say they,] did a gregt thing, when he inter-
mixed Greek words with Latin. O late-learned dunces !
What ! do you think that arduous and admirable, which was
done by Pitholeo the Rhodian ? But [still they cry] the style
elegantly composed of both tongues is the more pleasant, as
if Falernian wine is mixed with Chian. When you make verses,
I ask you this question ; were you to undertake the difficult
cause of the accused Petillius, would you (for instance), for-
getful of your country and your father, while Pedius,8 Popli-
cola, and Corvinus9 sweat through their causes in Latin,
choose to intermix words borrowed from abroad, like the
double-tongued Canusinian.10 And as for myself, who was
born on this side the water, when I was about making Greek
verses ; Romulus appearing to me after midnight, when dreams
are true, forbade me in words to this effect ; " You could not
be guilty of more madness by carrying timber into a wood,
than by desiring to throng in among the great crowds of
Grecian writers."

While bombastical Alpinus11 murders Memnon, and while

8 Pedius. This is, without doubt, the son of that Q. Pedius whom
Julius Caesar made heir to the fourth part of his estate, and who was
chosen consul with Octavius, in room of Hirtius and Pansa. WATSON.

9 Corvinus. V. Messala Corvinus, no less distinguished by his elo-
quence than by his noble birth. He was descended from the famed Va.
lerius Poplicola, WATSON.

10 Canusium was built by Diomede. Its inhabitants, originally Greeks
had preserved many words of their first language, which being mixed
with Latin, made a ridiculous, disagreeable jargon. Virgil for the same
reason, calls the Tyrians, " Tyriosque bilingues." FRAN.

11 Alpinus. The most probable conjectures induce us to believe, that
Horace means Furius Bibaculus, a poet of some reputation, and not with-
out merit. He describes him in another Satire " pingui tentus omaso,"
and here he calls him " turgidus," not only from the fatness of hia per*

180 SATIRES OF HORACE BOOB, t

he deforms the muddy source of the Rhine, I amuse myself
with these satires; which can neither be recited in the temple1"
[of Apollo], as contesting for the prize when Tarpa presides
as judge, nor can have a run over and over again represented
in the theaters. You, O Fundauius,'* of all men breathing,
are the most capable of prattling tales in a comic vein, how
an artful courtesan and a Davus impose upon an old Chremes, :
Pollio sings the actions of kinjp in iambic14 measure ; the
sublime Varius composes the manly epic, in a manner that no
one can equal : to Virgil the Muses, delighting in rural scenes,
have granted the delicate and the elegant. It was this kind
[of satiric writing], the Aticinian Varro and some others hav-
ing attempted it without success, in which 1 may have some
slight merit, inferior to the inventor : nor would I presume
to pull off the [laurel] crown placed upon his brow with
great applause.

But I said that he flowed muddily, frequently indeed bear-
ing along more things which ought to be taken away than
left, Be it so; do you, who are a scholar, find no fault with
any thing in mighty Homer, I pray ? Does the facetious Lu-
cilius make no alterations in the tragedies of Accius ? Does
not he ridicule many of Ennius' verses, which are too light for
the gravity [of the subject] ? When he speaks of himself
by no means as superior to what he blames. What should
hinder me likewise, when I am reading the works of Lucilius,
from inquiring whether it be his [genius], or the difficult

son, but the flatulency of his style. The surname of Alpinus marks his
being born among the Gauls, who lived on the Alps ; or, as Dr. Bentley
pleasantly understands it, from a famous line, which our poet laughs at
in another place : " Jupiter hibernas can4 nive conspuit Alpes." "Ju-
gulat dum Memnona" is a tone and style of bombast in the true spirit
»f ridicule.

12 Qua nee in ^Ede sonent. The commentator tells that Augustus ap-
pointed five judges, of whom Metius Tarpa was one, to distribute poeti-
cal prizes, and determine what plays should be presented on the stage.
Vossius believes they were established in imitation of the Sicilians and
Athenians. Mr. Dacier thinks they were continued under the reign of
Domitian. ED. DUEL.

13 Fundanius. He is known only by this elogium of Horace. This
passage refers to the Andria of Terence, where Chremes is deceived by
the artifices of Davus. WATSON.

11 Pede ter percusso. The tragic Iambics had but three measures, each
measure having two feet, from whence they were sometimes oalled
tenarii, and sometimes trimetra

BAT. x. SATIRES OP HORACE. 181

nature of his subject^ that will not suffer his verses to be more
finished, and to run more smoothly than if some one, thinking
it sufficient to conclude a something of six feet, be fond of
writing two hundred verses before he eats, and as many after
supper ? Such was the genius of the Tuscan Cassius, more
impetuous than a rapid river ; who, as it is reported, was
burned [at the funeral pile] with his own books15 and papers.
Let it be allowed, I say, that Lucilius was a humorous and
polite writer ; that he was also more correct than [Ennius],
the author'8 of a kind of poetry [not yet] well cultivated, nor
attempted by the Greeks, and [more correct likewise] than
the tribe of our old poets : but yet he, if he had been brought
down by the Fates to this age of ours, would have retrenched a
great deal from his writings : he would have pruned off every
thing that transgressed the limits of perfection ; and, in the
composition of verses, would often have scratched his head,
and bit his nails to the quick.

You that intend to write what is worthy to be read more
than once, blot frequently : and take no pains to make the
multitude admire you, content with a few [judicious] read-
ers. What, would you be such a fool as to be ambitious that
your verses should be taught in petty schools? That is not
my case. It is enough for me, that the knight [Maecenas]
applauds : as the courageous actress, Arbuscula, expressed her-
self, in contempt of the rest of the audience, when she was
hissed [by the populace]. What, shall that grubworm Pan-
tilius" have any effect upon me ? Or can it vex me, that
Demetrius carps. at me behind my back ? or because the trifler
Fannius, that hanger-on to Hermogenes Tigellius, attempts
to hurt me ? May Plotius and Varius, Maecenas and Virgil,
Valgius and Octavius18 approve these Satires, and the excellent

15 The funeral piles on which dead bodies were burned were made of
wood. Cassius had written so much, that Horace sportively gives it as
a rumor, that his books formed his funeral pile. M'CAUL.

16 There is a great variation in the interpretation of this passage.
They may be found collected in M 'Caul's notes.

17 Pantilius. A buffoon, and a great enemy of Horace, whom he calls
Cimex, an insect, out of contempt. Fannius is the same of whom he
speaks in Satire iv. WATSON.

18 Octavius. An excellent poet and historian. The Visci were two
brothers, and both senators. Bibulus was the son of him that had been
consul in 695, and Servius the son of Servius Sulpicius, who corresponded

182 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK L

Fuscus likewise ; and I could wish that both the Visci would
join in their commendations : ambition apart, I may mention
you, O Pollio : you also, Messala, together with your brother ;
and at the same time, you, Bibulus and Servius ; and along
with these you, candid Furnius ; many others whom, though
men of learning and my friends, I purposely omit — to whom
I could wish these Satires, such as they are, may give satisfac-
tion ; and I should be chagrined, if they pleased in a degree
below my expectation. You, Demetrius, and you, ligellius,
I bid lament among the forms of your female pupils.

Go, boy, and instantly annex this Satire to the end of mj
book.

with Cicero. Furnius was consul in the year 737, aua equally master
of the pen and the sword.

THE SECOND BOOK

SATIRES OF HORACE,

SATIRE I.

Bit supposes himself to consult with Trebatius, whether he should desist
from writing satires, or not.

THERE are some persons to whom I seem too severe in [the
writing of] satire, and to cany it beyond proper bounds:'
another set are of opinion, that all I have written is nerveless,
and that a thousand verses like mine may be spun out in a
day. Trebatius,2 give me your advice, what I shall do. Be
quiet. I should not make, you say, verses at all. I do say
so. May I be hanged, if that would not be best : but I can not
sleep. Let those, who want sound sleep, anointed swim thrice
across the Tiber : and have their clay well moistened with
wine over-night. Or, if such a great love of scribbling hur-
ries you on, venture to celebrate the achievements of the in-
vincible Caesar, certain of bearing off ample rewards for your
pains.

Desirous I am, my good father, [to do this,] but my strength
fails me, nor can any one describe the troops bristled with
spears, nor the Gauls3 dying on their shivered darts, nor the

1 UUra legem. The laws of the twelve tables punished these poetical
slanderers with death ; but they were grown obsolete, and had lost great
part of their vigor, when they were renewed by Augustus. DAC.

2 Trebatius. This is C. Trebatius Testa, the most celebrated lawyer
of that age, as is evident from the letters which Cicero wrote to him.
He was greatly in favor both with Julius Caesar and Augustus. As he
accompanied the first in his wars in Gaul, thirty years before this Satire
was written, he must, by this time, have been of an advanced age.
Horace applies to him as one of great authority, on account of his age
and skill in the law. He was further a good judge of raillery, and had
often used it with delicacy and success. WATSON.

* The Gauls of Aquitain having rebelled 726, Octaviua sent Mesaala,

184 SATIRES OP HORACE. BOOK it

wounded Parthian falling from his horse. Nevertheless you
may describe him just and brave, as the wise Lucilius did
Scipio. I will not be wanting to myself, when an opportunity
presents itself: no verses of Horace's, unless well-timed, will
gain the attention of Caesar ; whom, [like a generous steed,]
if you stroke awkwardly, he will kick back upon you, being
at all quarters on his guard. How much better would this
be, than to wound with severe satire Pantolabus the buffoon,
and the rake Nomentanus ! when every body is afraid for
himself, [lest he should be the next,] and hates you, though
he is not meddled with. What shall I do ? Milonius falls a
dancing the moment he becomes light-headed and warm, and
the candles appear multiplied. Castor delights in horseman-
ship : and he, who sprang from the same egg, in boxing. As
many thousands of people [as there are in the world], so
many different inclinations are there. It delights me to com-
bine words in meter, after the manner of Lucilius, a better
man than both of us.4 He long ago communicated his secrets
to his books, as to faithful friends : never having recourse
elsewhere, whether things went well or ill with him : whence
it happens, that the whole life of this old [poet] is as open to
the view, as if it had been painted on a votive tablet. His
example I follow, though in doubt whether I am a Lucauian
or an Apulian ; for the Venusinian farmers plow upon the
boundaries of both countries, who (as the ancient tradition has
it) were sent, on the expulsion of the Samnites, for this pur-
pose, that the enemy might not make incursions on the Ro-
mans, through a vacant [unguarded frontier] : or lest the
Apulian nation, or the fierce Lucanian, should make an inva-
sion. But this pen of mine shall not willfully attack any man
breathing, and shall defend me like a sword that is sheathed
in the scabbard : which why should I attempt to draw, [while
I am] safe from hostile villains ? O Jupiter, father and sove-
reign, may my weapon laid aside wear away with rust, and
may no one injure me, who am desirous of peace ? But that

with the title of governor of the province, to reduce them to his obedi-
ance. He conquered them in the year following, and had the honor of
a triumph the 25th of September. SAN.

4 When the Romans mentioned a man of great reputation, and whose
example had a sort of authority, their usual expression in conversation,
was, Who w far better, and more valuable than you or me. RtTTQEBS.

BAT. L SATIRES OF HORACE. 185

man who shall provoke me (I give notice, that it is better not
to touch me) shall weep [his folly], and as a notorious charac-
ter shall be sung through all the streets of Rome.

Cervius,* when he is offended, threatens one with the laws
and the [judiciary] urn ; Canidia, Albutius' poison to those with
whom she is at enmity ; Turius [threatens] great damages,
if you contest any thing while he is judge. How every
animal* terrifies those whom he suspects, with that in which
he is most powerful, and how strong natural instinct com-
mands this, thus infer with me. — The wolf attacks with his teeth,
the bull with his horns. From what principle is this, if not
a suggestion from within? Intrust that debauchee Scaeva
with the custody of his ancient mother ; his pious hand will
commit no outrage. A wonder indeed ! just as the wolf does
not attack any one with his hoof, nor the bull with his teeth ;
but the deadly hemlock in the poisoned honey will take off the
old dame.

That I may not be tedious, whether a placid old age awaits
me, or whether death now hovers about me with his sable
wings ; rich or poor, at Rome or (if fortune should so order
it) an exile abroad ; whatever be the complexion of my life, I
will write. O my child, I fear you can not be long-lived ; and
that some creature of the great ones will strike you with the
cold of death.7 What ? when Lucilius had the courage to be
the first in composing verses after this manner, and to pull

5 A criminal was acquitted or condemned by the number of votes,
which the judges threw into a judiciary urn. Virgil tells us this custom
was observed among the dead, " quaesitor Minos urnam movet." TORR.

6 Horace's weapon is satire. This he will use against his enemies,
just as every one, quo valet, suspectos terret, and according to the dictates
of nature, which prompt her creatures to make use of the arms which she
has given them, i. e. ne longum faciam, he will write. ED. DUEL.

Mirum, etc. Ironically said, for it is not mirum ut neque calce lupus
quenquam neque dente petat bos, for dente lupus, cornu taurus petit.
Horace means that Scseva's not polluting his right hand with the blood
of his mother is no more wonderful than that a wolf does not attack a
person calce, or an ox, dente. Bentley's conjecture mirum si is specious.
Similarly we have Terent. Andr. iv. 4, 16; Mirum vero, impudentur
mulier sifacit meretrix. M'CAtrL.

7 i. e. " lest some one of your powerful friends conceive a coldness
toward you, and deprive you of his friendship." So Persius i. 107, " Sed
quid opus teneras mordaci radere vero Auriculas ? Vide sis ne majorum
tibi forte Limina et rigescunt." ORELLI.

186 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK It

off that mask,8 by means of which each man strutted in public
view with a fair outside, though foul within ; was Laelius,
and he who derived a well-deserved title from the destruction
of Carthage, offended at his wit, or were they hurt at Metel-
lus being lashed, or Lupus covered over with his lampoons ?
But he took to task the heads of the people, and the people
themselves^ class by class ;* in short, he spared none but
virtue and her friends. Yet, when the valorous Soipio, and
the mild philosophical Lselius, had withdrawn themselves
from the crowd and the public scene, they used to divert
themselves with him, and joke in a free manner, while a few
vegetables were boiled [for supper]. Of whatever rank I am,
though below the estate and wit of Lucilius, yet envy must
be obliged to own that I have lived well with great men ; and,
wanting to fasten her tooth upon some weak part, will strike
it against the solid:10 unless you, learned Trebatius, disap-
prove of any thing [I have said]. For my part, I can not
make J*ny objection to this. But however, that forewarned
you may be upon your guard, lest an ignorance of our sacred
laws should bring you into trouble, [be sure of this :] if any
person" shall make scandalous verses against a particular
man, an action lies, and a sentence. Granted, if they are
scandalous : but if a man composes good ones, and is praised
by such a judge as Caesar ? If a man barks only at him who
deserves his invectives, while he himself is unblamable?

8 Detrahere pellem. A figurative expression taken from the stage.
The ancient masks were of skins. DAC.

• The great men, and people of whatever tribe. It is plain from what
remains to us of Lucilius, that he did not spare the great. Besides Me-
tellus and Lupus already mentioned, he attacked also Mutius Soevola,
Titus Albutius, Torquatus, Marcus Carbo, Lucius Tubulus, Publius
Gallonius, Caius Cassius, Lucius Gotta, Clodius Asellus, Quintus Opi-
rnius, Nomentanus, Caius Cecilius Index, Trebellius, Publius Pavua
Tuditanua. And not satisfied with this, he run through all the thirty-
five tribes, one after another. WATSON.

lv In allusion to the fable of the serpent and the file.

11 Si mala condickrit. Trebatius with much solemnity cites the laws
of the twelve tables as his last argument. A lawyer could produce
nothing more strong, and Horace being unable to defend himself by a
direct answer, finds a way of getting out of the difficulty by playing on
the words maium carmen, and giving them a different sense from what
they had in the text of tho law. ED. DUBL.

SAT. n. SATIRES OF HORACE. 187

The process will be canceled10 with laughter : and you, being
dismissed, may depart in peace.

SATIRE IL
On Frugality.

WHAT and how great is the virtue to live on a little (this is
no doctrine of mine, but what Ofellus the peasant, a philoso-
pher without rules13 and of a home-spun14 wit, taught me),
learn, my good friends, not among dishes and splendid tables ;
when the eye is dazzled with the vain glare, and the mind,
intent upon false appearances, refuses [to admit] better things ;
but here, before dinner, discuss this point with me. Why so ?
I will inform you, if I can. Every corrupted judge examines
badly the truth. After hunting the hare, or being wearied
by an unruly horse, or (if the Roman exercise fatigues you,
accustomed to act the Greek) whether the swift ball, while
eagerness softens and prevents your perceiving the severity
of the game, or quoits (smite the yielding air with the quoit)
when exercise has worked off squeamishness, dry and hungry,
[then let me see you] despise mean viands ; and don't drink
any thing but Hymettian honey qualified16 with Falernian

!2 TabulcB are the process and information laid before the judge, which,
says the poet, shall be torn in pieces. Dacier observes, that this line is
an imitation of Aristophanes, where a father dissuades his son from an
excess of wine, by representing to him a thousand disorders which it
occasions ; quarreling, breaking houses open. No, says the son, this
never happens when we converse with men of honor ; for either they
will satisfy the people whom they have offended, or turn the affair into
ridicule, and by some happy jest make the judges, and even the prosecu-
tors, laugh. The process is dismissed, and you escape without being
punished. ED. DUEL.

13 Abnormis. " A philosopher without rules." Ofellus was an Epi-
curean without knowing it, but his morality was in a medium between
the very rigid and very dissolute followers of that sect. DAC.

'* Minerva presides over spinning, hence this proverbial expression
for " of a thick thread," t. e. of a coarse texture. This Cic. Ep. Fam.
ix. 12, Grassofila. M'CAUL.

15 DUuta. This mixture was called mulsum, mead. Ofella says:
Don't drink any thing but mead made of the best honey and the best

188 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK n.

wine. Your butler is abroad, and the tempestuous sea pre-
serves the fish by its wintery storms : bread and salt will suffi-
ciently appease an importunate stomach. Whence do you
think this happens ? and how is it obtained ? The consummate
pleasure is not in the costly flavor, but in yourself. Do you
seek for sauce by sweating. Neither oysters, nor scar, nor the
far-fetched lagois,'6 can give any pleasure to one bloated and
pale through intemperance. Nevertheless, if a peacock" were
served up, I should hardly be able to prevent your gratifying
the palate with that, rather than a pullet, since you are
prejudiced by the vanities of things ; because the scarce bird
is bought with gold, and displays a fine sight with its painted
tail : as if that were any thing to the purpose. What, do you
eat that plumage, which you extol ? or has the bird the same
beauty when dressed ? Since however there is no difference in
the meat, in one preferably to the other ; it is manifest that
you are imposed upon by the disparity of their appearances.
Be it sc.

By what gift are you able to distinguish, whether this lupus,
that now opens its jaws before us, was taken in the Tiber,
or in the sea ? whether it was tossed between the bridges, or
at the mouth of the Tuscan river ? Fool, you praise a mullet,
that weighs three pounds ; which you are obliged to cut into
small pieces. Outward appearances lead you, I see. To
what intent then do you contemn large lupuses ? Because
truly these are by nature bulky, and those very light. A hun-

wine. Diluere is applied to those things which are melted by the addi-
tion of fluid. Thus Virg. Geor. i. 341,

Cui tu lacte favos et miti dilue Baccho.
And Sat. ii. 3, 214,

-art'to

DUuit insignem baccam. M'CAUL.

" Lagois. We do not find this word in any other author. It was
probably a foreign bird, whose flesh tasted and looked like that of a
hare; a favorite dish among the Romans. Ostrea is of two syllables,
as in Virgil, "Bis patrise cecidere manus: quin protenus omnia."

17 Quintus Hortensius was the first who gave the Romans a taste for
peacocks, and it soon became so fashionable a dish, that all the people of
fortune had it at their tables. Cicero very pleasantly says, he had the
boldness to invite Hirtius to sup with him, even without a peacock.
"Sed vide audaciam, etiam Hirtio coenain dedi sine pavone." M.
Aufidius Latro made a prodigious fortune by fattening them for gala
ED- DCBL.

BAT. n. SATIRES OF HORACE ] 89

gry stomach seldom loathes common victuals. 0 that I could
see a swingeing mullet extended on a swingeing dish ! criea
that gullet, which is fit for the voracious harpies themselves.
But O [say I] ye southern blasts, be present to taint the delica-
cies of the [gluttons] : though the boar and turbot newly taken
are rank, when surfeiting abundance provokes the sick
stomach ; and when the sated guttler prefers turnips and
sharp elecampane. However, all [appearance of] poverty is
not quite banished from the banquets of our nobles ; for there
is, even at this day, a place for paltry eggs and black olives.1*
And it was not long ago, since the table of Gallonius, the auc-
tioneer, was rendered infamous, by having a sturgeon [served
up whole upon it]. What ? was the sea at that time less nu-
tritive of turbots ?19 The turbot was secure and the stork
unmolested in her nest; till the praetorian [Sempronius], the
inventor,20 first taught you [to eat them]. Therefore, if any
one were to give it out that roasted cormorants are delicious,
the Roman youth, teachable in depravity, would acquiesce
in it

In the judgment of Ofellus, a sordid way of living will differ
widely from frugal simplicity. For it is to no purpose for
you to shun that vice [of luxury] ; if you perversely fly to
the contrary extreme. Avidienus, to whom the nickname of
Dog is applied with propriety, eats olives of five years old,
and wild cornels, and can not bear to rack off his wine unless
it be turned sour, and the smell of his oil you can not endure :
which (though clothed in white he celebrates the wedding

18 Olives, intended for the table, were gathered when they began to
ripen and turn black. CRUQ.

19 The fanciful, fashionable taste is but of short continuance; that of
nature is unalterable. You are now as fond of turbot as Gallonius was of
sturgeon. But were there no turbots in his time ? Certainly there were ;
but no coxcomb had made them fashionable, and the praetor decided in
favor of sturgeon. Another glutton brought turbots and storks into
vogue, and perhaps we only wait for a third man of taste to assure us,
that a roasted cormorant is infinitely more delicious than sturgeons, tur-
bots, or storks. DAC.

20 The storks built their nests in safety until the time of A ugustus, when
your praetor taught you to eat them. Asinius Sempronius, or, according
to others, Rutilius Rufus, when candidate for the praetorship, entertained
the people with a dish of storks. But the people, according to an ancient
epigram, revenged the death of the poor birds by refusing the praetorehip
to their murderer. From this refusal the poet pleasantly calls him prae-
tor. TORR

190 SATIRES OP HORACE. BOOK n.

festival,11 his birth-day, or any other festal days) he pours out
himself by little and little from a horn cruet, that holds two
pounds, upon his cabbage, [but at the same time] is lavish
enough of his old vinegar.

What manner of living therefore shall the wise man put in
practice, and which of these examples shall he copy ? On one
side the wolf presses on, and the dog on the other, as the saying
is. A person will be accounted decent, if he offends not by
sordidness, and is not despicable through either extreme of con-
duct. Such a man will not, after the example of old Albutius,
be savage while he assigns to his servants their respective
offices ; nor, like simple Naevius, will he offer greasy water to
his company : for this too is a great fault.

Now learn what and how great benefits a temperate diet
will bring along with it. In the first place, you will enjoy
good health ; for you may believe how detrimental a diversity
of things is to any man, when you recollect that sort of food,
which by its simplicity sat so well upon your stomach some
timo ago. But, when you have once mixed boiled and roast
together, thrushes and shell-fish; the sweet juices will turn
into bile, and the thick phlegm will bring a jarring upon the
stomach. Do not you see, how pale each guest rises from a
perplexing variety of dishes at an entertainment. Beside
this, the body, overloaded with the debauch of yesterday, de-
presses the mind along with it, and dashes to the earth that
portion of the divine spirit." Another man, as soon as he
has taken a quick repast, and rendered up his limbs to re-
pose, rises vigorous to the duties of his calling. However,
he may sometimes have recourse to better cheer ; whether the
returning year shall bring on a festival, or if he have a mind

21 Repotia was a festival the day after the nuptials, when they drank
and ate whatever remained of yesterday's entertainment, quid iterum po-
taretur The construction is remarkable, olios dierum festos, for olios qui
ex diebuifesti sunt. Albatus, white was usually the color of the Roman
robe even at funeral feasts. Ipse, is a circumstance that strongly marks
the avarice of Avidienus. Afraid that his guests or his servants should
be too profuse of his oil, he pours it himself. The poet tells us, his bot-
tle was of two pounds weight, as if it were his whole store, although ho
was extremely rich ; and the vessel was of horn, that it might last a long
time. All these particulars are in character. TORE. SAN.

2i Divinat particnlam aurce. To raise the nobleness of the mind, Horace
has borrowed the language of Plato, who says, that it is a portion of the
universal soul of the world, that is, of the divinity himself. SAN.

BAT. IL SATIRES OF HORACE. 191

to refresh his impaired body ; and when years shall approach,
and feeble age require to be used more tenderly. But as for
you, if a troublesome habit of body, or creeping old age,
should come upon you, what addition can be made to that
soft indulgence, which you, now in youth and in health,
anticipate ?

Our ancestors praised a boar when it was stale: not be-
cause they had no noses ; but with this view, I suppose, that
a visitor coming later than ordinary [might partake of it],
though a little musty, rather than the voracious master should
devour it all himself while sweet. I wish that the primitive
earth had produced me among such heroes as these.

Have you any regard for reputation, which affects the hu-
man ear more agreeably than music? Great turbots and
dishes bring great disgrace along with them, together with
expense. Add to this, that your relations and neighbors
will be exasperated at you, while you will be at enmity with
yourself and desirous of death in vain, since you will not in
your poverty have three farthings left to purchase a rope
withal. Trausius, you say, may with justice be called to
account in such language as this ; but, I possess an ample
revenue, and wealth sufficient for three potentates. Why
then have you no better method of expending your super-
fluities? Why is any man, undeserving [of distressed cir-
cumstances], in want, while you abound ? How comes it to
pass, that the ancient temples of the gods are falling to ruin ?
Why do not you, wretch that you are, bestow something on
your dear country, out of so vast a hoard ? What, will mat-
ters always go well with you alone ? O thou, that hereafter
shalt be the great derision of thine enemies ! which of the
two shall depend upon himself in exigences with most cer-
tainty ? He who has used his mind and high-swollen body
to redundancies ; or he who, contented with a little and provi-
dent for the future, like a wise man in time of peace, shall
make the necessary preparations for war ?

That you may the more readily give credit to these things :
I myself, when a little boy, took notice that this Ofellus did
not use his unencumbered estate more profusely, than he does
now it is reduced. You may see the sturdy husbandman
laboring for hire in the land [once his own, but now] as-

192 SATIRES OP HORACE. BOOK u.

signed [to others],*' with his cattle and children, talking to
this effect ; I never ventured to eat any thing on a work-day
except pot-herbs, with a hock of smoke-dried bacon. And
when a friend came to visit me after a long absence, or a
neighbor, an acceptable guest to me resting from work on
account of the rain, we lived well ; not on fishes fetched from
the city, but on a pullet and a kid : then a dried grape, and
a nut, with a large fig,'4 set off our second course. After
this, it was our diversion to have no other regulation in our
cups, save that against drinking to excess :™ then Ceres wor-
shiped [with a libation], that the corn might arise in lofty
stems, smoothed with wine the melancholy of the contracted
brow. Let fortune rage, and stir up new tumults : what can
she do more to impair my estate ? How much more savingly
have either I lived, or how much less neatly have you gone,
my children, since this new possessor came ? For nature has
appointed to be lord of this earthly property, neither him, nor
me, nor any one. He drove us out : either iniquity or ignor-
ance in the quirks of the law shall [do the same by] him :

83 Metato in agetto. Ofellus was involved in the same disgrace and
ruin as Virgil, Tibullus, and Propertius. Their estates were given by
Octavius to the veterans who had served against Brutus and Cassius in
the battle of Philippi. That of Ofellus was given to Umbrenus, who
hired its former master to till the ground for him, mercede colonum. An
each soldier had a certain number of acres, the land was measured, me-
tato agdlo, before it was divided. FRAN.

a4 Duplice, a kind of large fig, called Marisca. TURNED. B. i. e. bi-
fida. SCH. CRUQ. D. Figs were split into two parts, and when dried,
served up mensis secundis. M'CACL. *The last is proved to be the cor-
rect interpretation from Pallad. R. R. iv. 10,35: "Subinde ficus, sicut
eat divisa, vertatur, ut ficorum coria siccentur et pulpae tune duplicate
in cistellis serventur aut loculis." WHEELER.

85 It was customary with the Romans to appoint some person magister
bibendi, who directed the number of cups to be taken, and the toasts,
etc. Ofella says there was no such person appointed, but that the only
president that they had at their table wns culpa, i. e. "excess." Each
person took as much as he pleased, restricted only by the feeling that
excess waa culpable. The ancients had a ludus, which was intended to
prevent the intoxication that might arise from being obliged to obey the
magister bibendi in taking the number of cups which he directed. The
person who (aliqun in re peccdrat) violated any of the convivial laws or
customs, was punished by being obliged to drink a cupful, poculo multa-
batur, so that aa no one drank but those who committed some breach of
the laws, bibere pcence et dedecoris esset, non invitationis aut magisterii
Thua cttlpa waa magistra bibendi. TURNEB.

SAT. ra. SATIRES OP HORACE. 19 J

certainly in the end his long-lived heir shall expel him. Now
this field under the denomination of Umbrenus', lately it was
Ofellus', the perpetual property of no man ; for it turns to my
use one while, and by and by to that of another. Where-
fore, live undaunted ; and oppose gallant breasts against the
strokes of adversity.

SATIRE III

Damasippus, in a conversation with, Horace, proves this paradox of the
Stoic philosophy, that most men are actually mad.

You write so seldom, as not to call for parchment four times
in the year, busied in reforming your writings, yet are you
angry with yourself, that indulging in wine and sleep you pro-
duce nothing worthy to be the subject of conversation. What
will be the consequence ? But you took refuge here, it seems,
at the very celebration of the Saturnalia, out of sobriety.
Dictate therefore something worthy of your promises : begin.
There is nothing. The pens are found fault with to no pur-
pose, and the harmless wall, which must have been built un-
der the displeasure of gods and poets, suffers [to no end].
But you had the look of one that threatened many and excel-
lent things, when once your villa had received you, free from
employment, under its warm roof. To what purpose was it
to stow Plato upon Menander ? Eupolis, Archilochus ? For
what end did you bring abroad such companions ? What ?
are you setting about appeasing envy by deserting virtue?
Wretch, you will be despised. That guilty Siren, Sloth, must
be avoided ; or whatever acquisitions you have made in the
better part of your life, must with equanimity be given up.
May the gods and goddesses, O Damasippus, present you with
a barber for your sound advice ! But by what means did you
get so well acquainted with me ? Since all my fortunes were
dissipated at the middle of the Exchange,28 detached from all
business of my own, I mind that of other people. For

* The name of Janus was sometimes given to those great arcades
which crossed the streets of Rome. Livy tella ua there were three of
them erected in the forum, the middle of which Horace means, and which
he distinguishes from the Janus summus and Janus imus. ED. DUBL.

9

194 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK u.

formerly I used to take a delight in inquiring, in what vase
the crafty Sisyphus might have washed his feet; what was
carved in an unworkmanlike manner, and what more roughly
cast than it ought to be ; being a connoisseur, I offered a hun-
dred thousand sesterces for such a statue ; I was the only man
who knew how to purchase gardens and fine seats to the best
advantage : whence the crowded ways gave me the surname
of Mercurial.27 I know it well ; and am amazed at your
being cured of that disorder. Why a new disorder expelled
the old one in a marvelous manner ; as it is accustomed to
do, when the pain of the afflicted side, or the head, is turned
upon the stomach ; as it is with a man in a lethargy, when he
turns boxer, and attacks his physician. As long as you do
nothing like this, be it even as you please. 0 my good friend,
do not deceive yourself; you likewise are mad, and it is
almost " fools all,"" if what Stertinius insists upon has any
truth in it; from whom, being of a teachable disposition, I
derived these admirable precepts, at the very time when, hav>
ing given me consolation, he ordered me to cultivate a philo-
sophical beard, and to return cheerfully from the Fabrician
bridge. For when, my affairs being desperate, I had a mind
to throw myself into the river, having covered my head" [for
that purpose], he fortunately80 was at my elbow ; and [ad-
dressed me to this effect] : Take care," how you do any thing

27 Mercuriale. Damasippus, ever in character, boasts of a surname,
which was given him in raillery. Mercury was the god of commerce,
and when a man had an uncommon skill in buying and selling, he was
usually called Mercurialis, or favorite of Mercury. A number of mer-
chants, in 259, formed themselves into a body with this title, and dedi-
cated a temple to the god. ED. DUEL.

28 It was an absurd and ridiculous maxim among the Stoics, that all
vicious people were equally fools and madmen. Prpe does not therefore
lessen the universality of the proposition, for the Latins frequently use
prope and fere for semper. In the next line, si is not said in any manner
of doubt, but has the force of an affirmative. FRAN.

29 They who devoted themselves to death for the good of their coun-
try, covered their heads with their robe ; and it is pleasant enough to
see Damasippus doing that, in an excess of despair and folly, which
Decius did in a transport of religion and generosity. This image gives
rise to the raillery of Stertinius, when he says, " nil verbi, pereas quin
fortiter. addam." SAN.

30 Dexter. — Opportunus, propititts. The right was by the ancients
esteemed the lucky side.

" Cave faxis. The Stoics despised death when it was honorable or ne-

SAT. m. SATIRES OF HORACE. 195

unworthy of yourself; a false shame, says he, afflicts you, who
dread to be esteemed a madman among madmen. For in the
first place I will inquire, what it is to be mad : and, if this
distemper be in you exclusively, I will not add a single word,
to prevent you from dying bravely.

The school and sect of Chrysippus" deem every man mad,
whom vicious folly or the ignorance of truth drives blindly
forward. This definition takes in whole nations, this even
great kings, the wise man [alone] excepted. Now learn, why
all those, who have fixed the name of madman upon you, are
as senseless as yourself. As in the woods, where a mistake
makes people wander about from the proper path ; one goes
out of the way to the right, another to the left ; there is the
same blunder on both sides, only the illusion is in different
directions : in this manner imagine yourself mad ; so that he,
who derides you, hangs his tail33 not one jot wiser than your-
self. There is one species of folly, that dreads things not in
the least formidable ; insomuch that it will complain of fires,
and rocks, and rivers opposing it in the open plain ; there is
another different from this, but not a whit more approaching
to wisdom, that runs headlong through the midst of flames
and floods. Let the loving mother, the virtuous sister, the
father, the wife, together with all the relations [of a man pos-
sessed with this latter folly], cry out : " Here is a deep ditch ;
here is a prodigious rock; take care of yourself:" he would
give no more attention, than did the drunken Fufius34 some

cessary, but to drown himself in despair was a villainous death for a phi-
losopher. But the pleasantry of the scene is, that Stertinius is going to
convince him he is a fool, and then advises him not to do any thing
which may dishonor his character. SAN. DAC.

32 Chrysippi porticus. The Porticus was a famous gallery at Athens,
where Zeno held his school, which, from the Greek word 2 roc, Porticus,
took the name of Stoic. SAN

33 Caudam trahat. A metaphor, as the old commentator well observes,
taken from a custom among children, who tied a tail behind a person
whom they had a mind to laugh at. FRAN.

34 Fufius was an actor who, playing the character of Ilione. was sup-
posed to be asleep, when the ghost of her son Polydore called to her,
" Dear mother, hear me." Fufius, having drunk too much, fell really
asleep ; and Catienus, who played Polydore, having called to him, with-
out waking him, the whole house, as if each of them was a Catienus,
cried out, "Dear mother, hear me." The number of twelve hundred ia

196 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK a

time ago, when he overslept the character of Hione, twelve
hundred Catieni at the same time roaring out, 0 mother, I
call you to my aid. I will demonstrate to you, that the
generality of all mankind are mad in the commission of some
folly similar to this.

Damasippus is mad for purchasing antique statues : but is
Damasippus' creditor in his senses? Well, suppose I should
say to you : receive this," which you can never repay : will
you be a madman, if you receive it ; or would you be more
absurd for rejecting a booty, which propitious Mercury offers ?
Take bond," like the banker Nerius, for ten thousand ses-
terces; it will not signify: add the forms of Cicuta," so
versed in the knotty points of law : add a thousand obliga-
tions : yet this wicked Proteus will evade all these ties. When
you shall drag him to justice, laughing as if his cheeks were
none of his own ;38 he will be transformed into a boar, some-
times into a bird, sometimes into a stone, and when he pleases

a pleasant exaggeration. Acciua or Pacuvius wrote a tragedy on the
story of Uione, and the whole passage is preserved to us in Cicero :
" Mater, te adpello, tu quae somno curam suspensam levaa,
Neque te mei miseret, surge et sepeli natum
Priusquam ferae volucresque." FRAN.

85 Stertinius goes on to prove, not only that Damasippus is not a fool,
In buying statues, since he does not pay for them, but that he would be
a fool indeed, to refuse the favor which Mercury offers him, in the cre-
dulity of Perillius. DAO.

» Scribere is sometimes used in the sense " to acknowledge the receipt
of a sum borrowed;" hence some have supposed that the meaning here
is scribe te decem sestertia accepisse a Nerio, as said by Damasippus'
creditor. Thus, Nerius is a banker, with whom Damasippus' creditor
{Perillius) had lodged his money, and in whose books Damasippus, when
drawing the ten sestertia, was required to acknowledge (scribere) the re-
ceipt of so much money. But I prefer Gesner's interpretation, scribe
decem tabulas a Nerio, i.e. "draw out ten bonds with all the niceties
of Nerius," a usurer, well known for his care in wording the bonds, so
that there could be no evasion. M-CAEL.

37 Cicuta was an old notary, who knew too well the practice of bonds,
to neglect any clauses or forms, capable of finding these engagements.
Such ia the force of nodosus. Tabulae are the bonds or contracts, from
whence notaries were called tabularii. ED. DUBL.

M People are not usually too careful of what belongs to others, from
whence this kind of proverbial expression, " laughing with another man's
cheeks." Dacier very well observes, that our poet hath translated it
from Homer, when he says of Penelope's lovers,

OI f fjin yvadfioioi yeXuuv u^optotau

ODYSS. lib. xx. v. 346.

BAT. m. SATIRES OF HORACE. 197

into a tree. If to conduct one's affairs badly be the part of a
the madman ; and the reverse, that of a man well in his senses ;
brain of Perillius (believe me), who orders you [that sum of
money], which you can never repay, is much more unsound
[than yours].

Whoever grows pale with evil ambition, or the love of money :
whoever is heated with luxury, or gloomy superstition, or any
other disease of the mind, I command him to adjust his garment
and attend : hither, all of ye, come near me in order, while I
convince you that you are mad.

By far the largest portion of hellebore is to be administered
to the covetous : I know not, whether reason does not consign
all Anticyra to their use. The heirs of Staberius engraved
the sum [which he left them] upon his tomb : unless they had
acted in this manner, they were under an obligation38 to ex-
hibit a hundred pair of gladiators to the people, beside an en-
tertainment according to the direction of Arrius ; and as much
corn as is cut in Africa. Whether I have willed this rightly or
wrongly, it was my will ; be not severe against me, [cries the
testator]. I imagine the provident mind of Staberius foresaw
this. What then did he mean, when he appointed by will that
his heirs should engrave the sum of their patrimony upon his
tomb-stone ? As long as he lived, he deemed poverty a great
vice, and nothing did he more industriously avoid : insomuch
that, had he died less rich by one farthing, the more iniquitous
would he have appeared to himself. For every thing, virtue,
fame, glory, divine and human affairs, are subservient to the
attraction of riches ; which whoever shall have accumulated,
shall be illustrious, brave, just — What, wise too ? Ay, and a
king, and whatever else he pleases. This he was in hopes
would greatly redound to his praise, as if it had been an acqui-
sition of his virtue. In what respect did the Grecian Aristip-
pus40 act like this ; who ordered his slaves to throw away his

39 Damnati populo. Alluding to the form of the will, in which the
testator required any thing of his heir, HERES DAMNAS ESTO.

40 Aristippus was the chief of the Cyrenaic sect. He held that pleas-
tire was the summum bonum, and virtue only valuable as it was a means
of gaining that pleasure. Epicurus was perfectly rigid when compared
to his master Aristippus, and by our author's manner of mentioning him
in many parts of his works, we may believe he was no enemy to so con-
venient a philosophy. Staberius, who was a Stoic, has given an ill-
natured turn to this story, which is much commended by Cicero ; for
Aristippus had only one slave, whom he commanded to throw away as
much of his money as was too heavy to carry. DAC. SAN.

198 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK n.

gold in the midst of Libya ; because, encumbered with the bur-
den, they traveled too slowly ? Which is the greater madman
of these two ? An example is nothing to the purpose, that de-
cides one controversy by creating another. If auy person were
to buy lyres, and [when he had bought them] to stow them in
one place, though neither addicted to the lyre nor to any
one muse whatsoever : if a man were [to buy] paring-knives
and lasts, and were no shoemaker ; sails fit for navigation, and
were averse to merchandising ; he would every where deserved-
ly be styled delirious, and out of his senses. How does he
differ from these, who hoards up cash and gold [and] knows
not how to use them when accumulated, and is afraid to touch
them as if they were consecrated ? If any person before a great
heap of corn should keep perpetual watch with a long club,
and, though the owner of it, and hungry, should not dare to
take a single grain from it ; and should rather feed upon bitter
leaves : if, while a thousand hogsheads of Chian, or old Faler-
nian, is stored up within (nay, that is nothing — three hundred
thousand), he drink nothing, but what is mere sharp vinegar :
again — if, wanting but one year of eighty, he should lie upon
straw, who has bed-clothes rotting in his chest, the food of
worms and moths ; he would seem mad, belike, but to few per-
sons : because the greatest part of mankind labors under the
same malady.

Thou dotard, hateful to the gods, dost thou guard [these
possessions], for fear of wanting thyself: to the end that thy
son, or even the freedman thy heir, should guzzle it all up ?
For how little will each day deduct from your capital, if you
begin to pour better oil upon your greens and your head, filthy
with scurf not combed out? If any thing be a sufficiency,
wherefore are you guilty of perjury [wherefore] do you rob,
and plunder from all quarters ? Are you in your senses ? If
you were to begin to pelt the populace with stones, and the
slaves, which you purchased with your money ; all the very
boys and girls will cry out that you are a madman. When
you dispatch your wife with a rope, and your mother with poi-
son, are you right in your head ? Why not ? You neither did
this at Argos, nor slew your mother with the sword as the mad
Orestes did. What, do you imagine that he ran mad after he
had murdered his parent ; and that he was not driven mad by
the wicked Furies, before he warmed his sharp steel in his

BAT. m. SATIRES OF HORACE. 199

mother's throat ? Nay, from the time that Orestes is deemed
to have been of a dangerous disposition, he did nothing in
fact that you can blame ; he did not dare to offer violence
with his sword to Pylades, nor to his sister Electra ; he only
gave ill language to both of them, by calling her a Fury, and
him some other [opprobrious name], which his violent choler
suggested.

Opimius, poor amid silver and gold hoarded up within, who
used to drink out of Campanian ware Veientine41 wine on holi-
days, and mere dregs on common days, was some time ago
taken with a prodigious lethargy ; insomuch that his heir was
already scouring about his coffers and keys, in joy and tri-
umph. His physician, a man of much dispatch and fidelity,
raises him in this manner : he orders a table to be brought,
and the bags of money to be poured out, and several persons to
approach in order to count it : by this method he sets the man
upon his legs again. And at the same time he addresses him
to this effect.. Unless you guard your money your ravenous
heir will even now carry off these [treasures] of yours. What,
while I am alive ? That you may live, therefore, awake ; do
this. What would you have me do ? Why your blood will
fail you that are so much reduced, unless food and some great
restorative be administered to your decaying stomach. Do you
hesitate ? come on ; take this ptisan" made of rice. How
much di(V it cost ? A trifle. How much then ? Eight asses.
Alas ! what does it matter, whether I die of a disease, or by
theft and rapine ?

Who then is sound ? He, who is not a fool. What is the
covetous man ? Both a fool and a madman. What — if a man
be not covetous, is he immediately [to be deemed] sound ? By
no means. Why so, Stoic ? I will tell you. Such a patient
(suppose Craterus [the physician] said this) is not sick at the
heart. Is he therefore well, and shall he get up ? No, he will
forbid that ; because his side or his reins are harassed with an
acute disease. [In like manner], such a man is not perjured,

41 This wine was of a very poor kind. See Lamb and Orelli.

«2 Ptisanarium. The diminutive from ptsana, unbusked barley or
rice, from Trriaau, tundo, tundendo decortico. Here it means a decoction, a
kind of gruel made oforyza, rice. M'CAUL. Rice was not then cultivat-
ed in Italy, but brought from Egypt. The physician purposely uses the
diminutive ptisanarium, lest he should terrify the patient. WHEELEB.

200 SATIRES OP HORACE. BOOK it

nor sordid; let him then sacrifice a hog to his propitious*'
household gods. But he is ambitious and assuming. Let him
make a voyage [then] to Anticyra. For what is the difference,
whether you fling whatever you have into a gulf, or make no
use of your acquisitions ?

Servius Oppidius, rich in the possession of an ancient estate,
is reported when dying to have divided two farms at Canusium
between his two sons, and to have addressed the boys, called to
his bed-side, [in the following manner] : When I saw you, Au-
lus, carry your playthings and nuts carelessly in your bosom,
[and] to give them and game them away ; you, Tiberius, count
them, and anxious hide them in holes ; I was af-aid lest a mad-
ness of a different nature should possess you : lest you [Aulus],
should follow the example of Nomentanus, you, [Tiberius], that
of Cicuta. Whe-efore each of you, entreated by our household
gods, do you (Aulus) take care lest you lessen ; you (Tiberius)
lest you make that greater, which your father thinks and the
purposes of nature determine to be sufficient. Further, lest
glory should entice you, I will bind each of you by an oath :
whichever of you shall be an aedile or a praetor, let him be
excommunicated and accursed. Would you destroy your effects
in [largesses of] peas, beans, and lupines,44 that you may stalk
in the circus at large, or stand in a statue of brass, 0 madman,
stripped of your paternal estate, stripped of your money ?
To the end, forsooth, that you may gain those applauses,
which Agrippa" gains, like a cunning fox imitating a generous
lion?

43 All the good and bad accidents that happened in families were gen-
erally attributed to the domestic gods, and as these gods were the eons
of the goddess of madness, they were particularly worshiped by persons
disordered in their understanding. Stertinius therefore advises the man,
who, by the favor of these gods, is neither perjured nor a miser, grate-
fully to sacrifice a swine to them, which was their usual sacrifice.
" Fruge Lares, avidaque porca." Od. xxiii. lib. ii. TORR.

44 Distributions of these were frequently made to the people by can-
didates for offices, or by the aediles at the celebration of the games, etc.
Oppidius asks whether his son would be so mad as to squander his prop-
erty in largesses, for the sake of obtaining an office in the state. Comp.
Pere. Sat v. 177 :

" Vigila et cioer ingere large

Rixanti populo, nostra ut Floralia possint
Aprici meminisse senes." M 'CAUL.

*• This compliment to Agrippa is introduced with great art, aa if ft

SAT. m, SATIRES OF HORACE 201

0 Agamemnon, why do you prohibit any one from bury-
ing" Ajax ? I am a king. I, a plebeian,47 make no further in-
quiry. And I command a just thing : but, if I seem unjust to
any one, I permit you to speak your sentiments with impunity.
Greatest of kings, may the gods grant that, after the taking of
Troy, you may conduct your fleet sate home : may I then
have the liberty to ask questions, and repl}" in my turn ?
Ask. Why does Ajax, the second hero after Achilles, rot
[above ground], so often renowned for having saved the Gre-
cians ; that Priam and Priam's people may exult in his being
unburied, by whose means so many youths have been deprived
of their country's rites of sepulture. In his madness he killed
a thousand sheep, crying out that he was destroying the fa-
mous Ulysses and Menelaus, together with me. When you at
Aulis substituted your sweet daughter in the place of a heifer
before the altar, and, 0 impious one, sprinkled her head with
the salt cake ; did you preserve soundness of mind ? Why
do you ask ? What then did the mad Ajax do, when he sle'w
the flock with his sword ? He abstained from any violence to
his wife and child, though he had imprecated many curses on
the sons of Atreus : he neither hurt Teucer, nor even Ulyssea
himself. But I, out of prudence, appeased the gods with blood,
that I might loose the ships detained on an adverse shore.
Yes, madman ! with your own blood. With my own [indeed],
but I was not mad. Whoever shall form images foreign from
reality, and confused in the tumult of impiety,48 will always be
reckoned disturbed in mind : and it will not matter, whether
he go wrong through folly or through rage. Is Ajax delirious,

escaped accidentally, and it is enlivened by a comparison, short but no-
ble. Although Agrippa had been consul in 717, yet he condescended
to accept the office of sedile in 720, when he entertained the people with
a magnificence and expense beyond what they had ever seen. SAN.

1)6 Here opens another scene, in which a king and a Stoic are engaged,
and in which the philosopher proves in good form, that this greatest of
monarchs is a fool and a madman. The debate arises from an incident
in a play of Sophocles, in which Agamemnon refuses to let Ajax be bu-
ried. SAN.

47 Agamemnon finding his answer, lam a king, a little too tyrannical,
adds, our decree was just. Perhaps the humility of the philosopher, either
ironical or serious, in seeming to allow his royal manner of deciding the
question, extorted this condescension from the monarch. En. DUEL.

48 i. e. the perturbation of mind leading to the commission «f impious
deeds. ORELLL

e*

202 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK n.

while he kills the harmless lambs? Are you right in your
head, when you willfully commit a crime for empty titles 1
And is your heart pure, while it is swollen with the vice ?4' T
any person should take a delight to carry about with him in
his sedan a pretty lambkin ; and should provide clothes, should
provide maids and gold for it, as for a daughter ; should call it
Rufa and Rufilla, and should destine it a wife for some stout
husband ; the praetor would take power frpm him being in-
terdicted, and the management of him would devolve to his
relations, that were in their senses. What, if a man devote
his daughter instead of a dumb lambkin, is he right of
mind ? Never say it. Therefore, wherever there is a foolish
depravity, there will be the height of madness. He who is
wicked, will be frantic too : Bellona, who delights in blood-
shed, has thundered about him, whom precarious fame has cap-
tivated.

Now, come on, arraign with me luxury and Nomentanus ;
for reason will evince that foolish spendthrifts are mad. This
fellow, as soon as he received a thousand talents of patrimony,
issues an order that the fishmonger, the fruiterer, the poul-
terer, the perfumer, and the impious gang of the Tuscan alley,
sausage-maker, and buffoons, the whole shambles, together
with [all] Velabrum, should come to his house in the morn-
ing. What was the consequence ? They came in crowds.
The pander makes a speech : " Whatever I, or whatever each
of these has at home, believe it to be yours : and give your
order for it either directly, or to-morrow." Hear what reply
the considerate youth made : " You sleep booted in Lucaman
snow, that I may feast on a boar : you sweep the wintery seas
for fish : I am indolent, and unworthy to possess so much.
Away with it : do you take for your share ten hundred
thousand sesterces ; you as much ; you thrice the sum, from
whose house your spouse runs, when called for, at midnight."
The son of ^Esopus, [the actor] (that he might, forsooth,
swallow a million of sesterces at a draught), dissolved in
vinegar a precious pearl, which he had taken from the ear
of Metella : how much wiser was he [in doing this,] than if
he had thrown the same into a rapid river, or the common
sewer? The progeny of Quintius Arrius, an illustrious pair
of brothers, twins in wickedness and trifling and the lov«
*• i e. of madness.

BAT. m. SATIRES OF HORACE. 203

of depravity, used to dine upon nightingales bought at a
vast expense : to whom do these belong ? Are they in their
senses ? Are they to be marked with chalk, or with
charcoal ?60

If aa [aged person] with a long beard should take a de-
light to build baby-houses, to yoke mice to a go-cart, to play
at odd and even, to ride upon a long cane, madness must be
his motive. If reason shall evince, that to be in love is a
more childish thing than these; and that there is no differ-
ence whether you play the same games in the dust as when
three years old, or whine in anxiety for the love of a harlot :
I beg to know, if you will act as the reformed Polemon61 did
of old ? Will you lay aside those ensigns of your disease,
your rollers, your mantle, your mufflers ; as he in his cups is
said to have privately torn the chaplet from his neck, after
he was corrected by the speech of his fasting master ? When
you offer apples to an angry boy, he refuses them : here, take
them, you little dog ; he denies you : if you don't give them,
he wants them. In what does an excluded lover differ [from
such a boy] ; when he argues with himself whether he should
go or not to that very place whither he was returning with-
out being sent for, and cleaves to the hated doors ? " What
shall I not go to her now, when she invites me of her own
accord? or shall I rather think of putting an end to my
pains ? She has excluded me ; she recalls me : shall I re-
turn ? No, not if she would implore me." Observe the
servant, not a little wiser : " O master, that which has nei-
ther moderation nor conduct, can not be guided by reason or
method. In love these evils are inherent ; war [one while],
then peace again. If any one should endeavor to ascertain
these things, that are various as the weather, and fluctuating

50 A proverbial expression. Are they to be acquitted or condemned ?
Are they wise or foolish ?

51 Polemon was a young Athenian, who, running one day through the
streets, inflamed with wine, had the curiosity to go into the school of
Xenocrates to hear him. The philosopher dexterously turned his dis-
course upon sobriety, and spoke with so much force, that Polemon from
that moment renounced his intemperance, and pursued his studies with
such application, as to succeed Xenocrates in his school. Thus, as Va-
lerius Maximus remarks, being cured by the wholesome medicine of one
oration, he became a celebrated philosopher, from an infamous prodigal
FRAN.

204 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK n.

by blind chance ; he will make no more of it, than if he
should set about raving by right reason and rule." What —
when, picking the pippins" from the Picenian apples, you
rejoice if haply you have hit the vaulted roof; are you your-
self? What — when you strike out faltering accents from
your antiquated palate, how much wiser are you than [a
child] that builds little houses ? To the folly [of love] add
bloodshed, and stir the fire with a sword." I ask you, when
Marius lately, after he had stabbed Hellas, threw himself
down a precipice, was he raving mad ? Or will you absolve
the man from the imputation of a disturbed mind, and con-
demn him for the crime, according to your custom, imposing
on things names that have an affinity in signification ?

There was a certain freedman, who, an old man, ran about
the streets in a morning fasting, with his hands washed, and
prayed thus : " Snatch me alone from death" (adding some
solemn vow), " me alone, for it is an easy matter for the gods:"
this man was sound in both his ears and eyes ; but his master,
when he sold him, would except his understanding, unless he
were fond of law-suits.*4 This crowd too Chrysippus places
in the fruitful family of Menenius.

O Jupiter, who givest and takest away great afflictions,
(cries the mother of a boy, now lying sick a-bed for five
months), if this cold quartan ague should leave the child, in
the morning of that day on which you enjoin a fast,8* he shall
stand naked in the Tiber. Should chance or the physician
relieve the patient from his imminent danger, the infatuated

58 The allusion is to a habit of determining the good or bad fortune of
love by trying to strike the ceiling of a room with the pippins of apples.
They were raised by pressing them between the first two fingers. If
they struck the ceiling, it was considered a good omen. WHEELER.

53 Ignum gladio scrutar',, a proverbial precept of Pythagoras, " Do not
stir the fire with a sword." Our poet uses it as an easy transition from
the folly to the madness of lovers. We shall have another proverb in
the same sense, " Oleum adde camino." CROQ. SAN.

st For an action would lay against those who gave a false character
to a slave.

53 The Romans had regular fasts in honor of Jupiter, which were usu-
ally celebrated on Thursday, which was consecrated to that god. They
began on the eve ; and the next morning, which was properly the fast-
day, was observed with great rigor and austerity. Aristophanes, in hig
Clouds, introduces the chorus, complaining that they had a fast, rather
than a feast ; which was observed ou the third day of the festival of
Cerea DAC. SAN.

SAT. m. SATIRES OP HORACE. 205

mother will destroy [the boy] placed on the cold bank, and
will bring back the fever. With what disorder of the mind is
she stricken ? Why, with a superstitious fear of the gods.

These arms Stertinius, the eighth of the wise men, gave to
me, as to a friend, that for the future I might not be roughly
accosted without avenging myself. Whosoever shall call me
madman, shall hear as much from me [in return] ; and shall
Jearn to look back upon the bag that haugs behind him.6*

0 Stoic, so may you, after your damage, sell all your mer-
chandise the better : what folly (for, fit seems,] there are
more kinds than one) do you think I am infatuated with ? For
to myself I seem sound. What — when mad Agave carries
the amputated head of her unhappy son, does she then seem
mad to herself? I allow myself a fool (let me yield to the
truth) and a madman likewise : only declare this, with what
distemper of mind you think me afflicted. Hear, then : in the
first place you build ; that is, though from top to bottom you
are but of the two-foot size you imitate the tall : and you, the
same person, laugh at the spirit and strut of Turbo in armor,
too great for his [little] body: how are you less ridiculous
than him? What — is it fitting that, in every thing Maecenas
does, you, who are so very much unlike him and so much his
inferior, should vie with him ? The young ones of a frog be-
ing in her absence crushed by the foot of a calf, when one of
them had made his escape, he told his mother what a huge
beast had dashed his brethren to pieces. She began to ask,
how big ? Whether it were so great ? puffing herself up.
Greater by half. What, so big ? when she had swelled her-
self more and more. If you should burst yourself, says he,
you will not be equal to it. This image bears no great dis-
similitude to you. Now add poems (that is, add oil to the
fire), which if ever any man in his senses made, why so do
you. I do not mention your horrid rage. At length, have
done — your way of living beyond your fortune— confine your-
self to your own affairs, Damasippus — those thousand passions
for the fair, the young. Thou greater madman, at last, spare
thy inferior.

56 Respicere ignoto. This passage may be explained by the fifty-third
fine, caudam irahat, or by the fable, which says that Jupiter threw over
the shoulder of every mortal two bags ; that the faults of his neighbor were
put into the bag before him, and his own into that behind him. FRAH.

206 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK n.

SATIRE IV.

He ridicules the absurdity of one Catius, who placed the summit of human
felicity in the, culinary art.

WHENCE, and whither, Catius ? I have not time [to converse
with you], being desirous of impressing on my memory some
new precepts; such as excel Pythagoras, and him that was
accused by Anytus,*7 and the learned Plato. I acknowledge
my offense, since I have interrupted you at so unlucky a
juncture : but grant me your pardon, good sir, I beseech you.
If any thing should have slipped you now, you will presently
recollect it : whether this talent of yours be of nature, or of
art, you are amazing in both. Nay, but I was anxious, how
I might retain all [these precepts] ; as being things of a
delicate nature, and in a delicate style. Tell me the name of
this man ; and at the same time whether he is a Roman, or a
foreigner ? As I have them by heart, I will recite the pre-
cepts : the author shall be concealed.

Remember to serve up those eggs that are of an oblong
make, as being of sweeter flavor and more nutritive than the
round ones : for, being tough-shelled, they contain a male
yelk. Cabbage that grows in dry lands, is sweeter than
that about town : nothing is more insipid than a garden much
watered. If a visitor should come unexpectedly upon you in
the evening, lest the tough old hen prove disagreeable to his
palate, you must learn to drown it in Falernian wine mixed
[with water] :" this will make it tender. The mushrooms
that grow in meadows," are of the best kind : all others are
dangerously trusted. That man shall spend his summers
healthy who shall finish his dinners with mulberries'0 black
[with ripeness], which he shall have gathered from the tree

87 Anyt,ique reum. Socrates, when Anytus and Melitus accused.

58 But Bentley is doubtless right in reading " musto" for " misto."

59 Nothing is more false. The best mushrooms, generally speaking,
are those gathered in woods, heaths, or downs. They are more whole
some and better flavored than those of meadows. TORR. DAC.

60 The ancients had only one meal, but they who could not wait for
supper usually eat bread, figs, grapes, or mulberries in the morning.
But our doctor, who loved to dine in form, taught another method, and
in contradiction to Galen and the faculty, would have his disciples eat
mulberries after dinner. ED. DCBL.

•AT. iv. SATIRES OF HORACE. 207

before the sun becomes violent. Aufidius used to mix honey
with strong Falernian injudiciously; because it is right to
commit nothing to the empty veins, but what is emollient :
you will, with more propriety, wash your stomach with soft
mead. If your belly should be hard bound, the limpet and
coarse cockles will remove obstructions, and leaves of the
small sorrel ; but not without Coan white wine. The in-
creasing moons swell the lubricating shell-fish. But every sea
is not productive of the exquisite sorts. The Lucrine muscle
is better than the Baian murex: [The best] oysters come
from the Circaean promontory ; cray-fish from Misenum : the
soft Tarentum plumes herself on her broad escalops. Let no
one presumptuously arrogate to himself the science of ban-
queting, unless the nice doctrine of tastes hr.s been previously
considered by him with exact system. Nor is it enough to
sweep away a parcel of fishes from the expensive stalls, [while
he remains] ignorant for what sort stewed sauce is more
proper, and what being roasted, the sated guest will presently
replace himself on his elbow. Let the boar from Umbria, and
that which has been fed with the acorns of the scarlet oak,
bend the round dishes of him who dislikes all flabby meat :
for the Laurentian*1 boar, fattened with flags and reeds, is
bad. The vineyard does not always aflbrd the most eatable
kids. A man of sense will be fond of the shoulders of a
pregnant hare. What is the proper age and nature of fish
and fowl, though inquired after, was never discovered before
my palate. There are some, whose genius invents nothing
but new kinds of pastry. To waste one's care upon one thing,
is by no means sufficient ; just as if any person should use all
his endeavors for this only, that the wine be not bad ; quite
careless what oil he pours upon his fish. If you set out
Massic" wine in fair weather, should there be any thing thick
in it, it will be attenuated by the nocturnal air, and the smell
unfriendly to the nerves will go off : but, if filtrated through
linen, it will lose its entire flavor. He, who skillfully mixes
the Surrentine wine with Falernian lees, collects the sedi-
ment with a pigeon's egg : because the yelk sinks to the bot-

61 All people of taste have ever esteemed boars fed in marshy ground
as of higher flavor, although Catius is of another opinion. DAC.

62 Pliny advises, that all the best Campanian wines should be exposed
night and day to the sun, moon, rain, and winds. ED. DCBL.

208 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK n.

torn, rolling down with it all the heterogeneous parts. You
may rouse the jaded toper with roasted shrimps and African
cockles ; for lettuce after wine floats upon the soured stom-
ach : by ham preferably, and by sausages, it craves to be
restored to its appetite : nay, it will prefer every thing which
is brought smoking hot from the nasty eating-houses. It is
worth while to be acquainted with the two kinds of sauce. The
simple consists of sweet oil ; which it will be proper to mix
with rich wine and pickle, but with no other pickle than that
by which the Byzantine jar has been tainted. When this,
mingled with shredded herbs, has boiled, and sprinkled with
Corycian saffron, has stood, you shall over and above add
what the pressed berry of the Venafran olive yields. The
Tiburtian yield to the Picenian apples in juice, though they
excel in look. The Venusian grape is proper for [preserving
in] pots. The Albanian you had better harden in the smoke.
I am found to be the first that served up this grape with ap-«
pies in neat .little side-plates, to be the first [likewise that
served up] wine-lees and herring-brine, and white peppei
finely mixed with black salt. It is an enormous fault, to be-
stow three thousand sesterces on the fish-market, and then to
cramp the roving fishes in a narrow dish. It causes a great
nausea in the stomach, if even the slave touches the cup with
greasy .hands, while he licks up snacks, or if offensive grime
has adhered to the ancient goblet. In trays, in mats, in saw-
dust, [that are so] cheap, what great expense can there be 1
But, if they are neglected, it is a heinous shame. What,
should you sweep Mosaic pavements with a dirty broom made
of palm, and throw Tyrian carpets over the unwashed furni-
ture of your couch ! forgetting, that by how much less care
and expense these things are attended, so much the more
justly may [the want of them] be censured, than of those
things which can not be obtained but at the tables of the
rich?

Learned Catius, entreated by our friendship and the gods,
remember to introduce me to an audience [with this great
man], whenever you shall go to him. For, though by your
memory you relate every thing to me, yet as a relater you
can not delight me in so high a degree. Add to this the coun-
tenance and deportment of the man ; whom you, happy in
having seen, do not much regard, because it has been your

BAT. v. SATIRES OF HORACE. 209

lot : but I have no small solicitude, that I may approach the
distant fountain-heads, and imbibe the precepts of [such] a
blessed life.

SATIRE V.

In a humorous dialogue between Ulysses and Tiresias, he exposes those arts
which the fortune hunters make use of, in order to be appointed the heirs
of rich old men.

BESIDE what you have told me, O Tiresias, answer to this
petition of mine : by what arts and expedients may I be able
to repair my ruined fortunes — why do you laugh? Does it
already seem little to you, who are practiced in deceit, to be
brought back to Ithaca, and to behold [again] your family
household gods ? O you who never speak falsely to any one,
you see how naked and destitute I return home, according to
your prophecy : nor is either my cellar, or my cattle there,
unembezzled by the suitors [of Penelope]. But birth and
virtue, unless [attended] with substance, is viler than sea-
weed.

Since (circumlocutions apart) you are in dread of poverty,
hear by what means you may grow wealthy. If a thrush, or
any [nice] thing for your own private [eating], shall be given
you ; it must wing way to that place, where shines a great
fortune, the possessor being an old man : ^delicious apples, and
whatever dainties your well-cultivated ground brings forth for
you, let the rich man, as more to be reverenced than youf
household god, taste before him : and, though he be perjured,
of no family, stained with his brother's blood, a runaway ; if
he desire it, do not refuse to go along with him, his compan-
ion on the outer side.'3 What, shall I walk cheek by jole
with a filthy Damas ? I did not behave myself in that man-
ner at Troy, contending always with the best. You must
then be poor. I will command my sturdy soul to bear this
evil ; I have formerly endured even greater. Do thou, O proph-
et, tell me forthwith how I may amass riches, and heaps of

19 Comes exterior. In walking with a companion, the side which is
most exposed was called the outer side. When three people walk to-
gether, the middle is, for the same reason, the most honorable place, and
is therefore always given to the person of most distinction, interior comes.

210 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK u

money. In croth I have told you, and tell you again. Use
your craft to lie at catch for the last wills of old men : nor,
if one or two cunning chaps escape by biting the bait off the
hook, either lay aside hope, or quit the art, though disap-
pointed in your aim. If an affair, either of little or great con-
sequence, shall be contested at any time at the bar ; which-
ever of the parties live wealthy without heirs, should he be
a rogue, who daringly takes the law of a better man, be thou
his advocate : despise the citizen, who is superior in reputa-
tion, and [the justness of] his cause, if at home he has a son or
a fruitful wife. [Address him thus :] " Quintus, for instance,
or Publius*4 (delicate ears delight in the prefixed name), your
virtue has made me your friend. I am acquainted with the
precarious quirks of the law ; I can plead causes. Any one
shall sooner snatch my eyes from me, than he shall despise
or defraud you of an empty nut This is my care, that you
lose nothing, that you be not made a jest of." Bid him go
home, and make much of himself. Be his solicitor yourself:
persevere, and be steadfast : whether the glaring dog-stai
shall cleave the infant statues ; or Furius, destined with his
greasy paunch,61 shall spue white sno wover the wintery Alps.
Do not you see (shall some one say, jogging the person that
stands next to him by the elbow) how indefatigable he is, how
serviceable to his friends, how acute ? [By this means] more
tunnies shall swim in, and your fish-ponds will increase.

Further, if any one in affluent circumstances has reared"

84 Quinie, ptUa, aut Publi. A slave was no sooner made free, than he
qualified himself with a surname, such as Marcus, Quintus, Publius,
which carried a sort of dignity with it. The Romans saluted each other
by their surnames. ED. DUEL.

** Pingui tentus omaso. Furius, in a poem on the Gallic war, had said,
" Jupiter hibernas cana nive conspuet Alpes." Horace applies it to the
author himself, adding " pingui tentus omaso" in ridicule of his appear-
ance. "Furius poeta immanis ventris, qui nivem spumam (sputum)
Jovis dixit. Ideo hoc ejus person* dedit, tanquam ipse spuat." Sch.
Acr. Orelli considers three several passages of Furius to be referred to :
"rubra canicula findit infantes statuas," is a passage in which FuriuB de-
Scribes a statuary, and thought he had a happy expression in infantes,
since statues are uy^wrrot By "pingui tentus omasi," some general
opposed to Caesar is described as a voracious barbarian. " Hibernas,"
etc., formed the first line of his poetical history of Caesar. WHEELER.

" Sublatus. A word taken from a Roman custom of laying their
new-born infants on the ground, and educating only those tbe father
look up.

BAT. y. SATIRES OF HORACE.. 211

an ailing son, lest a too open complaisance to a single man
should detect you, creep gradually into the hope [of succeed-
ing him], and that you may be set down as second heir ; and,
if any casualty should dispatch the boy to Hades, you may
come into the vacancy. This die seldom fails. Whoever
delivers his will to you to read, be mindful to decline it, and
push the parchment from you : [do it] however in such a
manner, that you may catch with an oblique glance, what the
first page" intimates to be in the second clause : run over
with a quick eye, whether you are sole heir, or co-heir with
many. Sometimes a well-seasoned lawyer, risen from a
Quinquevir,68 shall delude the gaping raven ; and the fortune-
hunter Nasica shall be laughed at by Coranus.

What, art thou in a [prophetic] raving ; or dust thou play
upon me designedly, by uttering obscurities ? O son of Laertes,
whatever I shall say will come to pass, or it will not :60 for the
great Apollo gives me the power to divine. Then, if it is
proper, relate what that tale means.

At that time when the youth dreaded by the Parthians, an
offspring derived from the noble -^Eneas, shall be mighty by
land and sea ; the tall daughter of Nasica, averse to pay the
sum total of his debt, shall wed the stout Coranus. Then the
son-in-law shall proceed thus : he shall deliver his will to his
father-in-law, and entreat him to read it ; Nasica will at length
receive it, after it has been several times refused, and silently
peruse it ; and will find no other legacy left to him and his,
except leave to lament.

61 Prima cera signifies the first page of the will, in which the testator's
name was written. Secundo versu was the second line, which contained
the names of the heirs and co-heirs. ED. DUEL.

68 The quinqueviri were a kind of tip-staff or bailiff, in the colonies and
municipal towns. A man who had passed through these little offices
may well be supposed to be sufficiently knowing in what we call the
practice, and from this body public notaries and registers were chosen.
Horace therefore means, by scriba recoctus, a notary sufficiently refined
in tricks and cunning of the law. Recoctus is properly double-dyed, that
hath fully taken its color. ED. DUEL.

** Quidquid dicam, aut erit, ant non. It is well disputed, whether
these words be spoken in jest by Tiresias, to rally the monarch who con-
sults him, or whether he too carelessly discovers his real opinion of his
art. There is an acknowledged ambiguity and double meaning in his
expression, under which, perhaps, the poet disguises his own sentiments
of the skill of these diviners, and the frequent ambiguity of their answer*.
ED. DCBL.

212 SATIRES OP HORACE. BOOK n.

To these [directions I have already given], I subjoin the .
[following] : if haply a cunning woman or a freedman have
the management of an old driveler, join with them as an
associate: praise them, that you may be praised in your
absence. This too is of service ; but to storm [the capital]
itself excels this method by far. Shall he, a dotard, scribble
wretched verses 0 Applaud them. Shall he be given to
pleasure? Take care [you do not suffer him] to ask you:
of your own accord complaisantly deliver up your Penelope
to him, as preferable [to yourself]. What — do you think so
sober and so chaste a woman can be brought over, whom [so
many] wooers could not divert from the right course ?
Because, forsooth, a parcel of young fellows came,70 who were
too parsimonious to give a great price, nor so much desirous
of an amorous intercourse, as of the kitchen. So far your
Penelope is a good woman : who, had she once tnsted of one
old [doting gallant], and shared with you the profit, like a
hound, will never be frighted away from the reeking skin [of
the new-killed game].

What I am going to tell you happened when I was an old
man. A wicked hag at Thebes was, according to her will,
carried forth" in this manner : her heir bore her corpse,
anointed with a large quantity of oil, upon his naked shoul-
ders ; with the intent that, if possible, she might escape from
him even when dead : because, I imagine, he had pressed
upon her too much when living. Be cautious in your ad-
dresses : neither be wanting in your pains, nor immoderately
exuberant. By garrulity you will offend the splenetic and
morose. You must not, however, be too silent. Be Davus
in the play ; and stand with your head on one side, much like
one who is in great awe. Attack him with complaisance : if
the air freshens, advise him- carefully to cover up his precious
head : disengage him from the crowd by opposing your
shoulders to it : closely attach your ear to him, if <>.hatty. Is

T* Although Tiresias gives Ulysses no better reason for his wife's
virtue than the avarice of her lovers, yet the monarch hears him
patiently, since even this reason proves her sufficiently virtuoua. Our
poet probably took the hint of this passage from Homer, who makes
Penelope reproach her wooers with their want of generosity, and never
having made her any presents. The next line is almost s translation
from the Odyssey. DAC.

11 Elata. Carried out to the funeral pile. Ter. Andr. L Effertut, Law*.

SAT. VL SATIRES OF HORACE. 213

he immoderately fond of being praised ? Pay him home, till
he ehall cry out, with his hands lifted up to heaven, " Enough :"
and puff up the swelling bladder with tumid speeches. When
he shall have [at last] released you from your long servitude
and anxiety ; and being certainly awake, you shall hear [this
article in his will] ? "Let Ulysses be heir to one fourth of my
estate :" " is then my companion Damas now no more ?
Where shall I find one so brave and so faithful T' Throw
out [something of this kind] every now and then : and if you
can a little, weep forx him. It is fit to disguise your coun-
tenance, which [otherwise] would betray your joy. As for
the monument, which is left to your own discretion, erect it
without meanness. The neighborhood will commend the
funeral handsomely performed. If haply any of your co-heirs,
being advanced in years, should have a dangerous cough ;
whether he has a mind to be a purchaser of a farm or a house
out of your share, tell him, you will [come to any terms he
shall propose, and] make it over to him gladly for a trifling
sum." But the imperious Proserpine drags me hence. Live,
and prosper.

SATIRE VL

He sets the conveniences of a country retirement in opposition to On
troubles of a life in town.

This was [ever] among the number of my wishes : a portion
of ground not over large, in which was a garden, and a foun-
tain with a continual stream close to my house, and a little
woodland besides. The gods have done more abundantly,
and better, for me [than this]. It is well : 0 son of Maia,"

75 Nummo addicere. "When a counterfeit sale was made of any thing
left by will, the forms of law were to be observed. The buyer and seller
went to a public officer called Libripens, or keeper of the scales; and
the purchaser, in the presence of witnesses, put a piece of money into the
scales, which the seller took out, and the sale was afterward deemed
legal. " Nummo addicere" means here " to sell for nothing." DAC.

11 Maid nate. He addresses his prayer to Mercury, not only because
this god was a patron of poets in general, and that our poet, as we find
in his Odes, was particularly obliged to his protection, but because ho
presided over industry and merchandize, as Hercules did over any sud-
d^u, accidental increase of riches. Besides, he was a rural deity, from

214 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK n.

I ask nothing more save that you would render these dona-
tions lasting to me. If I have neither nude iny estate larger
by bad means, nor am in a way to make it less by vice or
misconduct ; if I do not foolishly make any petition of this
sort — "Oh that that neighboring angle, which now spoils the
regularity74 of my field, could be adde 1 ! Oh that some ac-
cident would discover to me an urn [full] of money ! as it
did to him, who having found a treasure, bought that very
ground he before tilled in the capacity of an hired servant,
enriched by Hercules' being his friend ;" if what I have at
present satisfies me grateful, I supplicate you with this prayer:
make my cattle fat for the use of their master, and every thing
else, except my genius :75 and, as you are wont, be present
as my chief guardian. Wherefore, when I have removed my-
self from the city to the mountains and my castle," (what can
I polish, preferably to my sa'i es and prosaic muse?77) neitl^
evil ambition destroys me, nor the heavy78 south wind, nor the
sickly autumn, the gain of baleful Libitina.

Father of the morning," or Janus, if with more pleasure

whence, as Dacier observes, the poet recommends the preservation of
hia cattle to him, in the fourteenth verse. ED. DUBL.

'* DenarmaL We do not find this word in any other author.

'* Et ccetera prader ingenium. The Latins, in speaking of style, have
expressions not unlike this, "pingue et adipatum dicendi genus; poeta
pinguae quiddam sonantes." This playing on the double meaning of the
word is much in our author's manner. Besides, Mercury was a good-
humored god, who understood raillery, "de Dis non tristibus." Yet,
for fear the deity should understand the word ccetera in its full extent,
and without any exception, the petitioner pleasantly guards against the fat-
ness of his understanding. SAN.

" In arcem. He considers his country-house as a citadel inaccessible
to the cares that besieged him at Rome. SAX.

" Musdque pedestri. The muse of satire, if such an expression maybe
allowed, is a muse on foot. She borrowed nothing from poetry but the
measures of her verses, the only particular in which she differs from
prose. SAN.

" Plumbeus. This epithet very well expresses the weight of air in
autumn, when the south wind was usually attended at Rome with pesti-
lential disorders. Our poet's country-house was covered by mountains,
in such a manner, that he had nothing to fear from its bad effects.
SAN.

" MattUine pater. The satire properly begins here, and all before thii
line LH a kind of preface. Janus presided over time, and therefore Horace
calls him god of the morning, as if time seemed to be renewed every
morning. DAG.

SAT. vr. SATIRES OF HORACE. 215

thou hearest thyself [called by that name], from whom men
commence the toils of business, and of life (such is the will of
the gods), be thou the beginning of my song. At Rome you
hurry me away to be bail ; " Away, dispatch, [you cry,] lest
any one should be beforehand with you in doing that friendly
office :"flo I must go, at all events, whether the north wind
sweep the earth, or winter contracts the snowy day into a
narrower circle.81 After this, having uttered in a clear and
determinate manner [the legal form], which may be a detri-
ment to me, I must bustle through the crowd ; and must dis-
oblige the tardy. "What is your will, madman, and what
are you about, impudent fellow ?" So one accosts me with
his passionate curses. " You jostle every thing that is in
your way, if with an appointment full in your mind you are
posting away to Maecenas." This pleases me, and is like
honey : I will not tell a lie. But by the time I reach the
gloomy Esquiliae, a hundred affairs of other people's encom-
pass me on every side : " Roscius begged that you would be
with him at the court-house88 to-morrow before the second
hour." "The secretaries83 requested you would remember,
Quintus, to return to-day about an affair of public concern,
and of great consequence." " Get Maecenas to put his signet84

80 To show that all his distresses begin with the morning, the poet in-
troduces Janus, the god of the morning, pressing them upon him, Urgt
sive Aquilo, etc. DAC.

81 Interiore diem. The northern part of the circle which the sun de-
scribes in summer is more distant from our earth than the southern part,
which he describes in winter. From hence our days are shorter in winter
than in summer, and he may therefore be poetically said to drive the day
in a smaller course. Horace calls this circle "interiorem gyrum," by a
figure taken from chariot races, in which the driver who turned nearest
the goal marked a narrower circle, and was therefore called "interior
quadriga," with regard to those who were obliged to take a larger com-
pass, " exteriores." TORR.

82 Ad Puteal. He describes a part of the forum by a monument
erected there to show that the place had been struck with thunder.
Some of the praetors held a kind of sessions there to decide private
causes. TORR.

83 Horace had purchased an employment of register or secretary to
the treasury ; from whence he is desired to return early from Maecenas
to consult about some important affair that concerned the whole body.
TORR.

84 Imprimat his, cura. Dion informs us, that Maecenas was intrusted
with the great seal of the Roman Empire, and was a kind of Lord High
Chancellor to Augustus. ED. DUBL.

216 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK it

to these tablets." Should one say, " I will endeavor at
it :" " If you will, you can," adds he ; and is more earnest.
The seventh year approaching to the eighth is now elapsed,
from the time that Maecenas began to reckon me in the num-
ber of his friends ; only thus far, as one he would like to take
along with him in his chariot, when he went a journey, and
to whom he would trust such kind of trifles as these : "What
is the hour ?" " Is Gallina, the Thracian, a match for [the
gladiator] Syrus?" "The cold morning air begins to pinch
those that are ill provided against it ;" — and such things as
are well enough intrusted to a leaky ear. For all this time,
every day and hour, I have been more subjected to envy.
Our son of fortune here, says every body, witnessed the
shows in company with [Maecenas], and played with him in
the Campus Martius." Does any disheartening report spread
from the rostrum through the streets, whoever comes in my
way consults me [concerning it] : " Good sir, have you (for
you must know, since you approach nearer the gods) heard
any thing relating to the Dacians ?"" " Nothing at all for
my part," [I reply]. " How you ever are a sneerer !" " But
may all the gods torture me, if I know any thing of the mat-
ter." " What ? will Caesar give the lands86 he promised the
soldiers, in Sicily, or in Italy ?" As I am swearing I know
nothing about it, they wonder at me, [thinking] me, to be
sure, a creature of profound and extraordinary secrecy.

Among things of this nature the day is wasted by me,
mortified as I am, not without such wishes as these : O rural
retirement, when shall I behold thee ? and when shall it be

85 The Dacians had engaged in Antony's array at the battle of Actium,
in 723. and Octavius had disobliged them by refusing some favors which
they demanded by their embassadors. He was obliged to send Marcus
Crassus against them the year following. SAN.

• M Octavius promised the soldiers who had served under him in re-
ducing Sicily, that he would divide some of the conquered lands among
them. But the war in which he was engaged against Antony obliged
him to defer the division, and immediately after the battle of Actium,
the troops, which he had sent to Brandusium, mutinied on this occasion.
He went himself to stop the beginning of a revolt, which might have
been attended with most dangerous consequences. This aflair was all
the news at Rome when our poet wrote the present Satire.

Sicily was called Triquetra from its triangular figure, and in some
ancient coins it is represented under the figure of a woman with thr»e
lego. DAC. SAN.

•AT. TI. SATIRES OF HORACE. 217

in my power to pass through the pleasing oblivion of a life
full of solicitude, one while with the books of the ancients,
another while in sleep and leisure ? O when shall the bean
related to Pythagoras,87 and at the same time herbs well larded
with fat bacon, be set before me ? O evenings, aad suppers
fit for gods ! with which I and my friends regale ourselves in
the presence of my household gods ; and fe^d my saucy slaves
with viands, of which libations have been .nade. The guest,
according to every one's inclination, takes off the glasses of
different sizes, free from mad laws : whether one of a strong
constitution chooses hearty bumpers ; or another more joyously
gets mellow with moderate ones. Then conversation arises,
not concerning other people's villas and houses, nor whether
Lepos dances well or not ; but we debate on what is more to
our purpose, and what it is pernicious not to know — whether
men are made happier by riches or by virtue ; or what leads
us into intimacies, interest or moral rectitude ; and what is
.the nature of good, and what its perfection. Meanwhile, my
neighbor Cervius prates away old stories relative to the sub-
ject. For, if any one ignorantly commends the troublesome
riches of Aurelius, he thus begins : " On a time a country-
mouse is reported to have received a city-mouse into his poor
cave, an old host, his old acquaintance ; a blunt fellow and at-
tentive to his acquisitions, yet so as he could [on occasion 1
enlarge his narrow soul in acts of hospitality. What need of
many words ? He neither grudged him the hoarded vetches,
uor the long oats ; and bringing in his mouth a dry plum, and
nibbled scraps of bacon, presented them to him, being desir-
ous by the variety of the supper to get the better of the dainti-
ness of his guest, who hardly touched with his delicate tooth
the several things : while the father of the family himself, ex-
tended on fresh straw, ate a spelt and darnel, leaving that
which was better [for his guest]. At length the citizen ad-
dressing him, ' Friend,' says he, ' what delight have you to live
laboriously on the ridge of a rugged thicket ? Will you not

87 It was one of Pythagoras' precepts, that beans should not be used
as food by any of his disciples, lest in the course of transformation the
aoul of some relative should be placed therein, and thus the impiety (as
Lucian, MicylL, represents it) be as great as that of eating human flesh.
Hence Horace humorously calls the bean " Pythagorae cognata." There
are various reasons assigned for the origin of this precept. M'CAUL.

10

218 SATIRES OP HORACE. BOOK a

prefer men and the city to the savage woods ? Take my ad-
vice, and go along with me : since mortal lives are allotted to
all terrestrial animals, nor is there any escape from death,
either for the great or the small. Wherefore, my good friend,
while it is in your power, live happy in joyous circumstances :
live mindful of how brief an existence you are.' Soon as
tho^e speeches had wrought upon the peasant, he leaps nimbly
from his cave : thence they both pursue their intended journey,
being desirous to steal under the city walls by night. And
now the night possessed the middle region of the heavens,
when each of them set foot in a gorgeous palace, where car-
pets dyed with crimson grain glittered upon ivory couches,
and many baskets of a magnificent entertainment remained,
which had yesterday been set by in baskets piled upon one
another. After he had placed the peasant then, stretched at
ease, upon a splendid carpet ; he bustles about like an adroit
host, and keeps bringing up one dish close upon another, and
with an affected civility performs all the ceremonies, first
tasting of every thing he serves up. He, reclined, rejoices in*
the change of his situation, and acts the part of a boon com-
panion in the good cheer : when on a sudden a prodigious
rattling of the folding doors shook them both from their
couches. Terrified they began to scamper all about the room,
and more and more heartless to be in confusion, while the
lofty house resounded with [the barking of] mastiff dogs;
upon which, says the country-mouse, ' I have no desire for
a life like this ; and so farewell : my wood and cave, secure
from surprises, shall with homely tares comfort me.' "

SATIRE YE.

One of Horace's slaves, making use of that freedom which was allowed them
at the Saturnalia,88 rates his master in a droll and severe manner.

I HAVE a long while been attending [to you], and would fain
speak a few words [in return ; but, being] a slave, I am

S9 The particular design of the Saturnalia was to represent that equality,
which reigned among mankind in the reign of Saturn, when they lived
according to the laws of nature, without distinction of conditions. Horace
here introduces a slave, asserting that a wise man alone is free, and that

SAT. vn. SATIRES OF HORACE. 219

afraid. What, Davus ? Yes, Davus, a faithful servant to his
master89 and an honest one, at least sufficiently so : that is,
for you to think his life in no danger. Well (since our an-
cestors would have it so), use the freedom of December :
speak on.

One part of mankind are fond of their vices with some con-
stancy and adhere to their purpose : a considerable part fluc-
tuates ; one while embracing the right, another while liable
to depravity. Priscus, frequently observed with three rings,
sometimes with his left hand bare,90 lived so irregularly that
he would change his robe every hour ; from a magnificent
edifice, he would on a sudden hide himself in a place, whence
a decent freedman could scarcely come out in a decent man-
ner ; one while he would choose to lead the life of a rake at
Rome, another while that of a teacher at Athens ; born under
the evil influence of every Vertumnus.91 That buffoon, Vo-
lanerius, when the deserved gout had crippled his fingers,
maintained [a fellow] that he had hired at a daily price, who
took up the dice and put them into a box for him : yet by
how much more constant was he in his vice, by so much less
wretched was he than the former person, who is now in diffi-
culties by too loose, now by too tight a rein.

" Will you not tell to-day, you varlet, whither such wretched
stuff as this tends ?" " Why, to you, I say." " In what re>
spect to me, scoundrel ?" " You praise the happiness and
manners of the ancient [Roman] people ; and yet, if any god
were on a sudden to reduce you to them, you, the same man,

real liberty consists in not obeying our passions, or being enslaved to vice.
He boldly reproaches his master with his faults and follies. His reason-
ing is so natural, sensible, and pressing, that Horace, not being able to
answer him, at last loses his temper, and is obliged to make use of men-
aces to silence him. DAC. SAN.

89 Frugi quod sit satis ; hoc est. The common people have always
imagined that persons of eminent merit do not live so long as others.
From thence the proverb, " Too witty to live long." TORE.

*" Lcevd Priscus inani. Before the time of Horace it was infamous to
wear more than one ring, and when they began to wear more, they car-
ried them only on the left hand, which was less exposed to public view,
as if they would seem ashamed of such marks of effeminacy. BOND.

91 Vertumnis natis iniquis. Vertumnus presided over the regular sea-
sons of the year, established by the laws of nature. Priscus was there-
fore born in despite of the god, because all his changes were an effect of
oddness and whim. Horace multiplies this god, Vertumni, from the dif-
ferent forms under which he was represented. BOND. SAN.

f 20 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK n

would earnestly beg to be excused ; either because you are
not really of opinion that what you bawl about is right ; or
because you are irresolute in defending the right, and hesi-
tate, in vain desirous to extract your foot from the mire. At
Rome, you long for the country ; when you are in the coun-
try, fickle, you extol the absent city to the skies. If haply
you are invited out nowhere to supper, you praise your quiet
dish of vegetables ; and as if you ever go abroad upon com-
pulsion, you think yourself so happy, and do so hug yourself,
that you are obliged to drink out nowhere. Should Maecenas
lay his commands on you to come late, at the first lighting
up of the lamps, as his guest ; ' Will nobody bring the oil
with more expedition ? Does any body hear ?' You stutter
with a mighty bellowing, and storm with rage. Milvius, and
the buffoons [who expected to sup with you], depart, after
having uttered curses not proper to be repeated. Any one
may say, for I own [the truth], that I am easy to be seduced
by my appetite ; I snuff up my nose at a savory smell : I am
weak, lazy ; and, if you have a mind to add any thing else, I
am a sot. But seeing you are as I am, and perhaps something
worse, why do you willfully call me to an account, as if you
were the better man ; and, with specious phrases, disguise
your own vice ? What, if you are found out to be a greater
fool than me, who was purchased for five hundred drachmas ?
Forbear to terrify me with your looks ; restrain your hand
end your anger, while I relate to you what Crispinus' porter
taught me.

" Another man's wife captivates you ; a harlot, Davus :
which of us sins more deservingly of the cross ? When keen
nature inflames me, any common wench that picks me up,
dismisses me neither dishonored, nor caring whether a richer
or a handsomer man enjoys her next. You, when you have
cast off your ensigns of dignity, your equestrian ring and
your Roman habit, turn out from a magistrate a wretched
Dama," hidtng with a cape your perfumed head : are you not
really what you personate ? You are introduced, apprehensive

n Davus calls his master a judge, because Augustus had granted him
the privilege of wearing a ring and a robe, called Angusticlavium. Thus
he was in some measure incorporated into the body of Roman knights,
whom Augustus appointed to determine civil causes. DAC. by " Dama"
he means a mere slave.

SAT. vn. SAT1KES Off JtlORACE. 221

[of consequences] ; and, as you are altercating with your
passions, your bones shake with fear. What is the difference
whether you go condemned [like a gladiator], to be galled
with scourges,83 or slain with the sword ; or be closed up in a
filthy chest, where [the maid], conscious of her mistress' crime,
has stowed you ? Has not the husband of the offending damo
a just power over both ; against the seducer even a juster ?
But she neither changes her dress, nor place, nor sins to
that excess [which you do] ; since the woman is in dread of
you, nor gives any credit to you, though you profess to love
her. You must go under the yoke knowingly, and put all
your fortune, your life, and reputation, together with your
limbs, into the power of an enraged husband. Have you
escaped ? I suppose, then, you will be afraid [for the future] ;
and, being warned, will be cautious. No, you will seek occa-
sion when you may be again in terror, and again may be like-
ly to perish. O so often a slave ! What beast, when it has
once escaped by breaking its toils, absurdly trusts itself to
them again 1 You say, " I am no adulterer." Nor, by Her-
cules, am I a thief, when I wisely pass by the silver vases.
Take away the danger, and vagrant nature will spring forth,
when restraints are removed. Are you my superior, subject-
ed as you are, to the dominion of so many things and per-
sons,, whom the praator's rod,"4 though placed on your head
three or four times over, can never free from this wretched so-
licitude ? Add, to what has been said above, a thing of no
less weight ; whether he • be an underling,'4 who obeys the
master-slave (as it is your custom to affirm), or only a fellow-
slave, what am I in respect of you ? You, for example, who
have the command of me, are in subjection to other things, and
are led about, like a puppet movable by means of wires not its
own.

93 Uri virgiy. The people who sold themselves to a master of gladia-
tors, engaged in a form or bond, called auctoramentum, to suffer every
thing, sword, fire, whips, chains, and death. They were then received
into the profession, and styled auctorati. From thence the terms came
to be used for all kinds of infamous engagements. TORE.

94 Vindicta was a rod, which the lictor laid on the head of a person
whom the praetor made free. Plautus calls it festuca.

93 Nam sive vicariiis. The Romans generally had a master-slave in
every family, servus atriensis, and all other slaves were called by one
common name, vicarii. The first, who commands, is not less a si***
than those who obey. SAN.

222 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK a

" Who then is free ? The wise man, who has dominion
over himself; whom neither poverty, nor death, nor chains
affright ; brave in the checking of his appetites, and in con-
temning-honors ; and, perfect in himself, polished and round
as a globe,"' so that nothing from without can retard, in con-
sequence of its smoothness ; against whom misfortune ever ad-
vances ineffectually. Can you, out of these, recognize any
thing applicable to yourself? A woman demands five talents
of you, plagues you, and after you are turned out of doors,
bedews you with cold water : she calls you again. Rescue
your neck from this vile yoke ; come, say, I am free, I am
free. You are not able : for an implacable master oppresses
your mind, and claps the sharp spurs to your jaded appetite,
and forces you on though reluctant. When you, mad one,
quite languish at a picture by Pausias ;*7 how are you less to
blame than I, when I admire the combats of Fulvius and
Rutuba and Placideianus, with their bended knees, painted in
crayons88 or charcoal, as if the men were actually engaged,
and push and parry, movingt heir weapons ? Davus is a
scoundrel and a loiterer ; but you have the character of an
exquisite and expert connoisseur in antiquities. If I am al-
lured by a smoking pasty, I am a good-for-nothing fellow :
does your great virtue and soul resist delicate entertainments ?
Why is a tenderness for my belly too destructive for me ? For
my back pays for it. How do you come off with more im-
punity, since you hanker after such dainties as can not be had
for a little expense ? Then those delicacies, perpetually taken,
pall upon the stomach ; and your mistaken feet refuse to sup-
port your sickly body. Is that boy guilty, who by night
pawns a stolen scraper for some grapes ? Has he nothing ser-
vile about him, who in indulgence to his guts sells his estates?
Add to this, that you yourself can not be an hour by yourself,
nor dispose of your leisure in a right manner ; and shun your-
self as a fugitive and vagabond, one while endeavoring with

98 Teres aJtquc rotundiis. The metaphor is taken from a globe, and our
vices are those inequalities which stop us in our course of virtue. ED. DUEL.

w Pausias was a famous flower-painter. Lucullus gave a thousand
crowns for a picture, in which he drew his mistress Glycera sitting, and
making a wreath of flowers. He was a cotemporary of Apelles. ED. DUEL.

99 Masters of gladiators hung the pictures of their beat champions,
such as Fulvius, Rutuba, or Placideianus, at the door of the house where
they fought ED. DUEL.

PAT. vm SATIRES OF HORACE. 223

wine, another while with sleep, to cheat care — in vain : for the
gloomy companion presses upon you, and pursues you in your
flight.

" Where can I get a stone ?" " What occasion is there for
it ?" " Where some darts ?" " The man is either mad, or
making verses." " If you do not take yourself away in an in-
stant, you shall go [and make] a ninth laborer" at my Sabine
estate."

SATIRE

A smart description of a miser ridiculously acting the extravagant.

How did the entertainment of that happy fellow Nasidienus
please you ? for yesterday, as I was seeking to make you my
guest, you were said to be drinking there from mid-day.100
[It pleased me so], that I never was happier in my life. Say
(if it be not troublesome) what food first calmed your raging
appetite.

In the first place, there was a Lucanian boar, taken when
the gentle south wind blew,1 as the father of the entertain-
ment affirmed ; around it sharp rapes, lettuces, radishes ; such
things as provoke a languid appetite ; skirrets, anchovies,
dregs of Coan wine. These once removed, one slave, tucked
high with a purple cloth,* wiped the maple table, and a
second gathered up whatever lay useless, and whatever could
offend the guests ;3 swarthy Hydaspes advances like an

99 Accedes opera. Opera for servits. Slaves who were employed in
tilling their lands were generally chained, so that the threat was enough
to alarm Davus, and end the conversation. DAC.

i DO JJasidienus, to give himself an air of a rake, dines three or four
hours before the usual time ; or perhaps Fundanius would insinuate that
ihis was too solemn a feast for vulgar hours. ED. DUEL.

1 Either by buying it cheap, or keeping it too long, the boar was
tainted ; but our host would insinuate that it had a particular flavor,
by being taken when the wind was south, which made it delicate and
tender. ED. DUBL.

4 The table was made of maple, a cheap and common wood ; but
Nasidienus, in an air of polite extravagance, makes the slaves wipe it
with a purple napkin. DAC.

3 This was the pretense, that nothing might offend hia gue.te, but
his design was that nothing might be lost DAC.

224 SATIRES OP HORACE. BOOK a

Attic maid with Ceres' sacred rites, bearing wines of Caecu-
bum ; Alcon brings those of Chios, undamaged by the sea.*
Here the master [cries], "Maecenas, if Alban or Falernian
wine delight you more than those already brought, we have
both."

Ill-fated riches ! But, Fundanius, I am impatient to know,
who were sharers in this feast where you fared so well.

I was highest, and next me was Viscus Thurinus, and be-
low, if I remember, was Varius ; with Servilius Balatro, Vi-
bidius, whom Maecenas had brought along with him, unbidden
guests. Above [Nasidienus] himself was Nomentanus, below
him Porcius, ridiculous for swallowing whole cakes at once.
Nomentanus [was present] for this purpose, that if any thing
should chance to be unobserved, he might show it with his
pointing finger. For the other company, we, I mean, eat [pro-
miscuously] of fowls, oysters, fish, which had concealed in
them a juice far different from the known : as presently ap-
peared, when he reached to me the entrails of a plaice and of a
turbot, such as had never been tasted before. After this he in-
formed me that honey-apples were most ruddy when gathered
under the waning moon. What difference this makes you will
hear best from himself. Then [says] Vibidius to Balatro ; " If
we do not drink to his cost, we shall die in his debt ;" and he
calls for larger tumblers. A paleness changed the countenance
of our host, who fears nothing so much as hard drinkers : either
because they are more freely censorious ; or because heating
wines deafen the subtle [judgment of the] palate. Vibidius
and Balatro, all following their example, pour whole casks into
Alliphanians ;* the guests of the lowest couch did no hurt to
the flagons. A lamprey is brought in, extended in a dish, in
the midst of floating shrimps. Whereupon, " This," says the
master, " was caught when pregnant ; which, after having
young, would have been less delicate in its flesh." For these
a sauce is mixed up ; with oil which the best cellar of Venafrum
pressed, with pickle from the juices of the Iberian fish, with
wine of five years old, but produced on this side the sea, while

4 It was customary to mix sea-water with the strong wines of Greece ;
but Fundanius, when lie tells us that the wine Alcon carried had not
a drop of water in it, would have us understand that this wine had never
crossed the seas, and that it was an Italian wine which Nasidienus recom-
meuded for Chian. LAMB.

6 Large cups, so called from Allife, a town of Samnium. SCHOL.

BAT. vm. SATIRES OF HORACE. 225

it is boiling (after it is boiled, the Chian wine suits it so well,
that no other does better than it) with white pepper, and vinegar
which, by being vitiated, turned sour the Methymnean grape.
I first showed the way to stew in it the green rockets and bit-
ter elecampane : Curtillus, [to stew in it] the sea-urchins un-
washed, as being better than the pickle which the sea shell-fish
yields.

In the mean time the suspended tapestry made a heavy
downfall upon the dish, bringing along with it more black
dust than the north wind ever raises on the plains of Cam-
pania. Having been fearful of something worse, as soon as
we perceive there was no danger, we rise up. Rufus, hang-
ing his head, began to weep, as if his son had come to an un-
timely death : what would have been the end, had not the
discreet Nomentanus thus raised his friend ! " Alas ! 0 for-
tune, what god is more cruel to us than thou ? How dost
thou always take pleasure in sporting with human affairs P
Varius could scarcely smother a laugh with his napkin. Ba-
latro, sneering at every thing, observed : " This is the con-
dition of" human life, and therefore a suitable glory will never
answer your labor. Must you be rent and tortured with all
manner of anxiety, that I may be entertained sumptuously ;
lest burned bread, lest ill-seasoned soup should be set before
us; that all your slaves should wait, properly attired and
neat ? Add, besides, these accidents ; if the hangings should
tumble down, as just now, if the groom slipping with his foot
should break a dish. But adversity is wont to disclose, pros-
perity to conceal, the abilities of a host as well as of a general."
To this Nasidienus : " May the gods give you all the bless-
ings, whatever you can pray for, you are so good a man and
so civil a guest ;" and calls for his sandals.' Then on every
couch you might see divided whispers buzzing in each secret
ear.

I would not choose to have seen any theatrical entertain-
ments sooner than these things. But come, recount what
you laughed at next. While Vibidius is inquiring of . the
slaves, whether the flagon was also broken,7 because cups were

' That he might rise from table. The guests laid their slippers at the
end of the bed when they went to supper. TORR.

7 Vibidius asks whether the groom had broken the bottle at the same
time that he broke the dish, for quoque certainly refers to patinam lapsut

10*

226 SATIRES OF HORACE. BOOK n

not brought when he called for them ; and while a laugh is
continued on feigned pretences, Balatro seconding it ; you, Nasi-
dienus, return with an altered countenance, as if to repair your
ill-fortune by art. Then followed the slaves, bearing on a large
charger the several limbs of a crane besprinkled with much
salt, not without flour, and the liver of a white goose fed with
fattening figs, and the wings of hares torn off, as a much dain-
tier dish than if one eats them with the loins. Then we saw
blackbirds also set before us with scorched breasts, and ring-
doves without the rumps : delicious morsels ! did not the master
give us the history of their causes and natures : whom we in
revenge fled from, so as to taste nothing at all ; as if Canidia,
more venomous than African serpents, had poisoned them with
her breath.

frangat agaso. He seems to insinuate that Nasidienus had given orders
to his slaves no*- to be in too much haste to supply the guests with wine,
but to let them call for it more than once. CBUQ. DAO.

THE FIRST BOOK

EPISTLE I.

TO MAECENAS.

The poet renounces all verses of a ludicrous turn, and resolves to apply him-
self wholly to the study of philosophy, which teaches to bridle the desires
and to postpone every thing to virtue.

MAECENAS, the subject of my earliest song, justly entitled to
my latest, dost thou seek to engage me again in the old lists,1
having been tried sufficiently, and now presented with the
foils ?a My age is not the same, nor is my genius. Veianius,
his arms consecrated on a pillar of Hercules' temple,3 lives
snugly retired in the country, that he may not form the ex-
tremity of the sandy amphitheater so often supplicate the
people's favor.4 Some one seems frequently to ring in my

1 Horace began to write at about four-and-twenty years of age, and he
is now past fifty, which he expresses by antiquo ludo, in allusion to the
schools, where the gladiators performed their exercises. Mens may be
understood either for a poetical genius, or an inclination to poetry.
SAN. DAC.

2 Donatum jam rude. The poet compares himself with a gladiator ;
hence the use here of the terms of that art. A gladiator, who had been
relieved from the necessity of appearing before the public — who had re-
ceived his discharge — is said to be donatus rude, and called rudio.rius.
The rudis with which he was presented, as an emblem of freedom, was
a rod, or wooden sword. M'CAUL.

3 After Hercules had wandered through the world-destroying monsters,
he was received by Greece and Italy among the gods who presided over
athletic exercises. There was generally a temple of this god near their
amphitheaters, in which the ceremonies of receiving a new gladiator
into the company were performed. From thence the custom of conse-
crating their arms to Hercules. FRAN.

• Horace would authorize his resolution of writing no more, by the

228 EPISTLES OP HORACE. BOOK i

purified ear : " Wisely in time dismiss the aged courser, lest,
an object of derision, he miscarry at last, and break his wind."
Now therefore I lay aside both verses, and all other sportive
matters; my study and inquiry is after what is true and
fitting, and I am wholly engaged in this : I lay up, and collect
rules which I may be able hereafter to bring into use. And
lest you should perchance ask under what leader, in what
house [of philosophy], I enter myself a pupil : addicted to
swear implicitly to the ipse-dixits" of no particular master,
wherever the weather drives me, I am carried a guest One
while I become active, and am plunged in the waves of state
affairs, a maintainer and a rigid partisan of strict virtue ; then
again I relapse insensibly into Aiisiippus' maxims,' and en-
deavor to adapt circumstances to myself, not myself to cir-
cumstances. As the night seems long to those with whom a
mistress has broken her appointment, and the day slow to
those who owe their labor; as the year moves lazy with
minors, whom the harsh guardianship of their mothers con-
fines; so all that time to me flows tedious and distasteful,
which delays my hope and design of strenuously executing
that which is of equal benefit to the poor and to the rich,
which neglected will be of equal detriment to young and tc
old. It remains, that I conduct and comfort myself by these

example of Veianius, who, having often fought with success, was now
retired into the country, determined never to expose himself on the stage
again ; for if a gladiator, who had obtained his discharge, ever engaged
a second time, he was obliged to have a second dismission, and going to
the end of the stage, er-trsma arena, implored the people to give him his
freedom. CRUQ.

6 Jurare in verba magis'ri. Similarly, Epod. 15, in verba jurant mea.
Soldiers jurabant in verba imperatoris, when entering on service; whence
some think Horace alludes to this ; others suppose the reference is to the
great respect paid to Pythagoras by his disciples, so that the words ipse
dixit were sufficient to decide any question. M'CAUL.

6 This naturally follows the three preceding lines. Horace could not
long be reconciled to the two former systems ; one required too much
action, the other too much severity ; and neither of them was agreeable
to his inclination. The morals of Aristippus. who founded the Epicurean
sect, were more to his taste ; but as this philosophy was very severely
treated by the Stoics and Cynics, the poet pleasantly says, he was obliged
with privacy, furtim, to follow its doctrines. SAN.

Horace, by the word furtim, might probably mean, that he did not
pass, at once, from the sentiments of Zeno to those of Aristippus, as it
were from one extreme to another, but by degrees, and insensibly. DAC.
This latter view is correct ED. DPBL.

EP. L EPISTLES OF HORACE. 229

principles : your sight is not so piercing as that of Lynceus ;
you will not however therefore despise being anointed, if you
are sore-eyed : nor because you despair of the muscles of the
invincible Glycon,7 will you be careless of preserving your body
from the knotty gout. There is some point to which we may
reach, if we can go no further. Docs your heart burn with
avarice, and a wretched desire of more ? Spells there are, and
incantations, with which you may mitigate this pain, and rid
yourself of a great part of the distemper. Do you swell with
the love of praise ? There are certain purgations which can re-
store you, a certain treatise being perused thrice with purity of
mind. The envious, the choleric, the indolent, the slave to
vrine, to women — none is so savage that he can not be tamed, if
he will only lend a patient ear to discipline.

It is virtue, to fly vice ; and the highest wisdom, to have
lived free from folly. You see with what toil of mind and
body you avoid those things which you believe to be the
greatest evils, a small fortune and a shameful repulse. An
active merchant, you run to the remotest Indies,8 fleeing
poverty through sea, through rocks, through flames. And
will you not learn, and hear, and be advised by one who is
wiser, that you may no longer regard those things which you
foolishly admire and wish for ? What little champion of the
villages and of the streets would scorn being crowned at the
great Olympic* games, who had the hopes and happy oppor-

7 The commentators tell us, from Diogenes Laertius, that Grycon was
a philosopher who had made himself famous by his dexterity and skill in
athletic exercises. But more probably the poet alluded to a statue,
which is still preserved in Rome, and of which Montfaucon speaks thus :
Hercules of Farnese, the finest of all, is a master-piece of art. It is the
performance of Glycon the Athenian, who hat'u immortalized his name
by putting it at the bottom of this admirable statue. It is a common
language to say of pictures and statues, that is a Titian ; this an Apelles.
FRAN.

8 Before the reduction of Egypt and Arabia, the passage to India was
unknown to the Romans. Strabo tells us that while ^Elius Gallus
governed Egypt, in the year 727, a fleet of twenty-six merchantmen set
sail from the Red Sea for India. The Romans, attentive to their in-
terests, flattered by an immense profit arising from this trade, and
allured by the rich and beantiful merchandize which it brought home,
applied themselves earnestly to this commerce, from whence the poet
reproaches them with excessive covetousness. SAN.

9 Horace, in imitation of Pindar, calls the Olympic games " magna,"
great, because they were the most famous oi all that were celebrated in

230 EPISTLES OP HORACE. BOOK L

tunity of victory without toil ? Silver is less valuable than
gold, gold than virtue. " O citizens, citizens, money is to be
sought first ; virtue after riches :" this the highest Janus'*
from the lowest inculcates ; young men and old repeat these
maxims, having their bags and account-books hung on the
left arm. You have- soul, have breeding, have eloquence and
honor : yet if six or seven thousand sesterces be wanting to
complete your four hundred thousand, you shall be a ple-
beian.11 But boys at play" cry, "You shall be king, if you
will do right." Let this be a [man's] brazen wall, to be
conscious of no ill, to turn pale with no guilt. Tell me, pray,
is the Roscian law best, or the boy's song which offers the
kingdom to them that do right, sung by the manly Curii and
Camilli ? Does he advise you best, who says, " Make a
fortune ; a fortune, if you can, honestly ; if not, a fortune by
any means" — that you may view from a nearer bench the
tear-moving poems of Puppius : or he, who still animates and
enables you to stand free and upright, a match for haughty
fortune ?

If now perchance the Roman people should ask me, why I
do not enjoy the same sentiments with them, as [I do the
same] porticoes, nor pursue or fly from whatever they admire
or dislike ; I will reply, as the cautious fox once answered the
sick lion : " Because the foot-marks all looking toward you,

Greece. " Coronari Olympia" may be considered as a Greek phrase, or
we may understand inter or ad. " Vincere Olympia" is found in Ennius,
Hiid "qui Pythia, Isthmia, Nemea, Olympia vicit," in Festus. TORR.

lu The Latins sometimes gave the name of "Janus" to those grand
arcades which crossed their streets, like triumphal arches, and under
which they walked. They had many of this kind in the different streets
of Rome, but we are expressly told by Livy, that there were three in the
forum. (i Forum porticibus tabernisque claudendum, et Janus tres
faciendos locavere." Here the bankers, merchants, and usurers had
their shops. SAN.

11 Plebs eris. Horace here speaks according to the law of Roscius
Otho, by which a Roman knight was to be possessed of four hundred
thousand sesterces (about 3.125/. of our money), and a senator, of eight
hundred thousand. Augustus afterward raised the sum to twelve huu-
dred thousand. A sesterce is here computed at one penny, half-penny,
farthing, half-farthing of our money. ED. DUBL.

12 We can not justly say what this game was. Torrentius, with much
probability, conjectures that it was the Urania of the Greeks, in which
ft bail was thrown into the air, and the boy who struck it oftenest, be-
fore it fell to the ground, was called king of the game. ED. DCBL.

CT. I EPISTLES OF HORACE. 231

and none from you, affright me." Thou art a monster with
many heads. For what shall I follow, or whom ? One set of
men delight to farm the public revenues: there are some,
who would inveigle covetous widows with sweet-meats and
fruits, and insnare old men, whom they would send [like fish]
into their ponds: the fortunes of many grow by concealed
usury. But be it, that different men are engaged in different
employments and pursuits : can the same persons continue an
hour together approving the same things ? If the man of
wealth has said, " No bay in the world outshines delightful
Baiae," the lake and the sea presently feel the eagerness of their
impetuous master : to whom, if a vicious humor gives the
omen, [he will cry,] — " to-morrow, workmen, ye shall convey
hence your tools to Teanum," Has he in his hall the genial11
bed ? He says nothing is preferable to, nothing better than a
single life. If he has not, he swears the married only are hap-
py. With what noose can I hold this Proteus, varying thus
his forms ? What does the poor man ? Laugh [at him too] :
is he not forever changing his garrets, beds, baths, barbers ?
He is as much surfeited in a hired boat, as the rich man is,
whom his own galley conveys.

If I meet you with my hair cut'4 by an uneven barber, you
laugh [at me] : if I chance to have a ragged shirt under a
handsome coat, or if my dispropoitioned gown fits me ill, you
laugh. What [do you do], when my judgment contradicts
itself? it despises what it before desired; seeks for that
which lately it neglected ; is all in a ferment, and is incon-
sistent in the whole tenor of life ; pulls down, builds up,
changes square to round. In this case, you think I am mad

13 The nuptial bed was consecrated to Genius, the god of nature, who
presided over the birth of human kind. It was placed in the " aula,"
or " atrium," the hall, where the statues of the ancestors of the family
were ranged, and where the women generally sat, to let the public be
witnesses of their domestic industry. " Matres familias vestrse in atriis
operantur domorum, industrias testificantes suas." Arnobius. ED.
DUBLIN.

14 Curatus. This is the reading of all the manuscripts. The Romans
used " curare capillos" for " tondere, secare ;" " cura" and " curatio
capillorum" for " capillorum sectio" and " tonsura." " Curtatus," which
hath been received by very many editors, is entirely useless, and can by
no means agree with the poet's thought. He is not ridiculous because
the barber hath cut his hair too short, but because he hath cut it un-
equally, " intequalis tonsor." BENT. CtTN. SAN.

282 EPISTLES OP HORACE. BOOK I.

in the common way, and you do not laugh, nor believe that I
stand in need of a physician, or of a guardian assigned by the
praetor ; though you are the patron of my affairs, and are dis-
gusted at the ill-paired nail of a friend that depends upon you,
that reveres you.

In a word, the wise man is inferior to Jupiter alone, is rich,
free, honorable, handsome, lastly, king of kings ; above all, he
&> suund, unless when phlegm is troublesome.1*

EPISTLE H.

TO LOLLIUS.1*

He prefers Homer to all the philosophers, as a moral writer, and
advises an early cultivation of virtue.

WHILE you, great Lollius, declaim at Rome, I at Praeneste
have perused over again the writer of the Trojan war ; who
teaches more clearly, and better than Chrysippus and Grantor,
what is honorable, what shameful, what profitable, what not
so. If nothing hinders you, hear why I have thus concluded.
The story is which, on account of Paris's intrigue, Greece is
stated to be wasted in a tedious war with the barbarians, con-
tains the tumults of foolish princes and people. Antenor
gives his opinion for cutting oft' the cause of the war. What
does Paris ? He can not be brought to comply, [though it be
in order] that he may reign safe, and live happy. Nestor

15 This ridicule will appear in a stronger light by reading a passage of
Epictetus, which hath been preserved to us by Arrian. " Can there be
a providence," cries an Epicurean, " or could it suffer this continual
defluxion to torment me thus?" "Slave as thou art," says Epicurus,
" why are you formed with hands ? Were they not given you to wipe
your nose?" "Yes; but were it not better," answers the disciple,
" that there was no such thing as phlegm in the world?" " And is it
not better," replies Epicurus, " to wipe your nose, than deny the being
of providence?" FRAN.

" Lollius, who was consul in the year 736, had two sons, one of whom
was the father of the empress Lollia Paulina, Horace writes this epistle
to the elder brother, Maxime Lotti, and while he directs him in what
manner to read Homer, he gives him some excellent precepts to guard
him against envy, avarice, debauchery, and anger. Eo. DUEL.

EP. n. EPISTLES OF HORACE. 233

labors to compose the differences between Achilles and Aga-
memnon : love inflames one ; rage both in common. The
Greeks suffer for what their princes act foolishly.17 Within the
walls of Hium, and without, enormities are committed by sedi-
tion, treachery, injustice, and lust, and rage.

Again, to show what virtue and what wisdom can do, he
has propounded Ulysses an instructive pattern : who, having
subdued Troy, wisely got an insight into the constitutions and
customs of many nations ; and, while for himself and his as-
sociates he is contriving a return, endured many hardships on
the spacious sea, not to be sunk by all the waves of adversity.
You are well acquainted with the songs of the Sirens, and
Circe's cups : of which, if he had foolishly and greedily drunk
along with his attendants, he had been an ignominious and
senseless slave under the command of a prostitute : he had
lived a filthy dog, or a hog delighting in mire.

We are a mere number and born to consume the fruits of
the earth ; like Penelope's suitors, useless drones ; like Alci-
nous' youth, employed above measure in pampering their bo-
dies ; whose glory was to sleep till mid-day, and to lull their
cares to rest by the sound of the harp. Robbers rise by night,
that they may cut men's throats ; and will not you awake to
save yourself? But, if you will not when you are in health,
you will be forced to take exercise when you are in a dropsy ;
and unless before day you call for a book with a light, unless
you brace your mind with study and honest employments, you
will be kept awake and tormented with envy or with love.
For why do you hasten to remove things that hurt your eyes,
but if any thing gnaws your mind, defer the time of curing it
from year to year ? He has half the deed done, who has made
a beginning. Boldly undertake the study of true wisdom :
begin it forthwith. He who postpones the hour of living well,
like the hind [in the fable], waits till [all the water in] the
river be run off: whereas it flows, and will flow, ever roll-
ing on.

Money is sought, and a wife fruitful in bearing children,

1T The people suffer for the folly of their kings. Thus in the Iliad, the

dispute between Agamemnon and Achilles causes the latter to withdraw

• himself and his forces from taking any active part in the war, and the

result is that the Grecians are routed and driven within their entrencn-

menta by the Trojans.

234 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK i.

and wild woodlands are reclaimed by the plow. [To what
end all this ?] He, that has got a competency, let him wish
for no more. Not a house and farm, nor a heap of brass
and gold, can remove fevers from the body of their sick mas-
ter, or cares from his mind. The possessor must be well, if
he thinks of enjoying the things which he has accumulated.
To him that is a slave to desire or to fear, house and estate
do just as much good as paintings to a sore-eyed person, fo-
mentations to the gout, music to ears afflicted with collected
matter. Unless the vessel be sweet, whatever you pour into
it turns sour. Despise pleasures : pleasure bought with pain
is hurtful. The covetous man is ever in want : set a certain
limit to your wishes. The envious person wastes at the
thriving condition of another: Sicilian tyrants'8 never in-
vented a greater torment than envy. He who will cot curb
his passion, will wish that undone which his grief and resent-
ment suggested, while he violently plies his revenge with un-
sated rancor. Rage is a short madness. Rule your passion,
which commands, if it do not obey ; do you restrain it with a
bridle, and with fetters. The groom forms the docile horse,
while his neck is yet tender, to go the way which his rider
directs him : the young hound, from the time that he barked
at the deer's skin in the hall, campaigns it in the woods. Now,
while you are young," with an untainted mind imbibe instruc-
tion : now apply yourself to the best [masters of morality]. A
cask will long preserve the flavor,, with which when new it was
once impregnated. But if you lag behind, or vigorously push
on before,80 I neither wait for the loiterer, nor strive to overtake
those that precede me.

18 Such as Phalaris, Agathocles, and the D'onysii. The saying was
almost proverbial. Cf. Cicer. Ace. 5, 66, " Sicilia tulit quondam multos
et crudeles tyrannos." ORELLI.

'» These expressions of samis, puro pectore, and puer, can be justly ap-
plied only to a youth. The younger Lollius went with Augustus to the
war of Spain, when he was about sixteen years of age, as we shall flnd in
the eighteenth Epistle, which is addressed to him. SAN.

90 If you will run the race of wisdom with me, let us run together; for
if you either stop, or endeavor to get before me, I shall neither wait for
you, nor strive to overtake you. When we enter the lists of virtue, to
wait for those behind us is indolence ; too earnestly to pursue those be-
fore us ia envy. TUKK. DAC.

SP. ra EPISTLES OF HORACE. 235

EPISTLE rn

TO JULIUS FLORUS.11

Afler inquiring about Claudius Tiberius Nero, and some of his friends,
he exhorts Floras to the study of philosophy.

I LONG to know, Julius Florus, in what regions of the earth
Claudius, the step-son of Augustus, is waging war. Do
Thrace and Hebius, bound with icy chains, or the narrow
sea running between the neighboring towers," or Asia's
fertile plains and hills detain you ? What works is the studi-
ous train planning ? In this too I am anxious — who takes
upon himself to write the military achievements of Augus-
tus ?" Who diffuses into distant ages his deeds in war and
peace ? What is Titius about, who shortly will be celebrated
by every Roman tongue ; who dreaded not to drink of the
Pindaric spring, daring to disdain common waters and open
streams : how does he do ? How mindful is he of me ? Does
he employ himself to adapt Theban measures to the Latin
lyre, under the direction of his muse? Or does he storm
and swell'4 in the pompous style of tragic art ? What is my
Celsus doing ? He has been advised, and the advice is still
often to be repeated, to acquire stock of his own, and forbear
to touch whatever writings the Palatine Apollo has received :

21 Florus attended Tiberius in his Dalmatian expedition. This prince
continued some years visiting and regulating the Eastern provinces, until
he had orders to lead his troops into Armenia, while Augustus proposed
to march against the Parthians through Syria. Our poet here marks the
route of Tiberius through Thrace, the Hellespont, and Asia Minor, and
thus makes his epistle a kind of public, historical monument. "We may
fix the date of this epistle in the year 733. SAN.

22 Vir.inas inter currentia turres. Musaeus names two cities, Sestos
and Abydos, on the opposite shores of Europe and Asia.

23 Quid studiosa cohors. The young gentlemen who attended Tiberius
in this expedition, at once to form his court and to guard his person,
were men of letters and genius, from whence they are called " studiosa
cohors." FRAN.

2* f. e. use a lofty style, more or less prone to exaggeration. The phrase
is derived from the saying of Aristophanes concerning the prologues of
Euripides, /.nKvdiov dnufaaf. Ran. 1208. ORELLI.

236 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK t

lest, if it chance that the flock of birds should some time or
other come to demand their feathers, he, like the daw stripped
of his stolen colors, be exposed to ridicule. What do you
yourself undertake? What thyme are you busy hovering
about ? Your genius is not small, is not uncultivated nor in-
elegantly rough. Whether you edge your tongue for [plead-
ing] causes,5* or whether you prepare to give counsel in the
civil law, or whether you compose some lovely poem ; you
will bear off the first prize of the victorious ivy. If now you
could quit the cold fomentations of care ;" whithersoever
heavenly wisdom would lead you, you would go. Let us, both
small and great, push forward in this work, in this pursuit : if to
our country, if to ourselves we would live dear.

You must also write me word of this, whether Munatius is
of as much concern to you as he ought to be ? Or whether the
ill-patched reconciliation in vain closes, and is rent asunder
again ? But, whether hot blood, or inexperience in things, ex-
asperates you, wild as coursers with unsubdued neck, in what-
ever place you live, too worthy to break the fraternal bond,"
a devoted heifer is feeding against your return.

25 Whether you form your eloquence for the public pleadings at the
bar, or give advice and counsel to your clients. Civica jura respondere
paras, which our poet in another place expresses, "Clientis promere
jura." TORR.

86 The commentator thinks that ambition, riches, power, were those
cold remedies that Horace means, which only soothe, not allay the dis-
temper. But, since he has not mentioned what they were, we can only
say that Floras could not mistake them, and consequently must have felt
the moral which the poet draws from them. ED. DUBL.

27 Fraternum rumpere fcedus. This does not say, as it is generally
understood, that they were really brothers, but that they lived in an union
such as ought to be preserved between brothers. There was not at this
time any person at Rome who bore the name of Julius, except Augustus,
whose family was greatly distinguished from that of Munatius ; nor does
it appear that Munatius ever took the surname of Floras. Mr. Dacier
imagines, with reason, that Floras was of some principal family, whom
Julius Csesar permitted to take his name, when he made them citizens
of Rome. Tacitus speaks of three Julii in Gallia Belgica in the time
of Tiberius, one of whom was called Floras. From whence it is not
improbable that the person to whom this letter is written, was of that
nation. RODELLIUS. SAN.

BP. nr. T. EPISTLES OF HORACE. 237

EPISTLE IV.

TO ALBIUS TIBULLUS.

He declares his accomplishments ; and, after proposing the thought of
death, converts it into an occasion of pleasantry.

ALBIUS, thou candid critic of my discourses, what shall I say
you are now doing in the country about Pedum ? Writing
what may excel the works'8 of Cassius Parmensis ; or saun-
tering silently among the healthful groves, concerning your-
self about every thing worthy a wise and good man ? You
were not a body without a mind. The gods have given you
a beautiful form, the gods [have given] you wealth, and the
faculty of enjoying it.

What greater blessing could a nurse solicit for her beloved
child, than that he might be wise, and able to express his
sentiments ; and that respect, reputation, health might happen
to him in abundance, and decent living, with a never-failing
purse ?

In the midst of hope and care, in the midst of fears and dis-
quietudes, think every day that shines upon you is the last.
[Thus] the hour, which shall not be expected, will come upon
you an agreeable addition.

When you have a mind to laugh, you shall see me fat and
sleek with good keeping, a hog of Epicurus' herd.

EPISTLE V.

TO TORQtTATUS.
He invites him to a frugal entertainment, but a cleanly and cheerful one.

IF you can repose yourself as my guest upon Archias"*
couches, and are not afraid to make a whole meal on all sorts

23 Opuscula. The terra alludes only to his lesser writings, such as ele-
gies, epigrams, etc. Thus Pliny, Epist. viii. 21 : "Liber fuit et opusculis
varius et metris." The other interpretation arose from the confounding
of Cassius Parmensis with Cassius Etruscus. WHEELER.

88 Such is the reading of all the manuscripts ; " priscorum quantum

238 EPISTLES OP HORACE. BOOK i.

of herbs from a moderate dish ; I will expect you, Torquatus,
at my house about sun set You shall drink wine poured in-
to the vessel in the second consulship of Taurus,30 produced
between the fenny Minturnse and Petrinum of Sinuessa. If
you have any thing better, send for it ; or bring your com-
mands. Bright shines my hearth, and my furniture is clean
for you already. Dismiss airy hopes, and contests about
riches, and Moschus' " cause. To-morrow, a festal day on
account of Caesar's birth,33 admits of indulgence and repose.
We shall have free liberty to prolong the summer evening
with friendly conversation. To what purpose have I fortune,
if I may not use it ? He that is sparing out of regard to his heir,
and too niggardly, is next neighbor to a madman. I will begin
to drink and scatter flowers, and I will endure even to be ac-
counted foolish. What does not wine freely drunken enter-

ubique est codicum," says Dr. Bentley: and both the Scholiasts tell us,
that Archias was a person who made beds of a lower, shorter kind.
Besides, Archaids has the second syllable long ; nor is it, indeed, a Latin
word. ED. DUEL.

3U The second consulship of Taurus was in the year 728, so that this
wine must be four or five years old. SAN.

31 The Scholiasts inform us, that Moschus was a rhetorician of Perga-
mus, whose defense Torquatus undertook when he was accused of pois-
oning. ED. DtiBL.

32 Cras nato Ccesare. Dacier and Masson are here, in Dr. Bentley's
language, upon another occasion, at daggers-drawing, digladiantur,
in defense of Julius Caesar and Augustus. The latter was born the
twenty-third of September, which could not be justly called a sum-
mer's night, cestivam noctem. The other on the twelfth of July. Two
years after his death, the triumvirs ordered that his birthday should be
celebrated by the people crowned with laurel, and that whosoever ne-
glected it should be devoted to the vengeance of Jupiter and the deceased
god himself. But, as the Apollinarian games were annually celebrated,
and that it was forbidden to mix the festivals of any other god with those
of Apollo, Caesar's birthday was ordered to be solemnized on the llth.
Thus we have not only the year and month, but the very day when this
letter was written, the 10th of July. En. DUEL.

This opinion is at least as old as Porphyrion, who says, " Divi Csesaris na-
talem significat." Torrentius thinks Horace means the birth of some young
prince, grandson of Augustus, which the words will indeed very well bear.
Nato CR.ia.re, for ob Ca>sarem recens natum. To give this conjecture a
kind of certainty, Rodellius and Mr. Sanadon proclaim this festival in
honor of Caius Caesar, eldest son of Agrippa and Julia, But Caius was
born in the beginning of September, and the critics probably forgot the
circumstance of lengthening the summer night. ED. DCBL. Orelli de*
termines in favor of Augustus.

IP. TL EPISTLES OF HORACE. 239

prise ? It discloses secrets ; commands our hopes to be ratified ;
pushes the dastard on to the fight ; removes" the pressure from
troubled minds ; teaches the arts. Whom have not plentiful
cups made eloquent ? Whom have they not [made] free and
easy under pinching poverty ?

I, who am both the proper person and not unwilling, am
charged to take care of these matters ; that no dirty covering
on the couch, no foul napkin contract your nose into wrinkles ;
and that the cup and the dish may show you to yourself; that
there be no one to carry abroad what is said among faithful
friends ; that equals may meet and be joined with equals. I
will add to you Butra, and Septicius, and Sabinus, unless a bet-
ter entertainment and a mistress more agreeable detain him.
There is room33 also for many introductions : but goaty rammi-
ness is offensive in over-crowded companies.

Do you write word, what number you would be ; and setting
aside business, through the back-door give the slip to your
client who keeps guard in your court.

EPISTLE VI.

TO NUMICIUS.
That a wise man is in love with nothing but virtue.

To admire nothing is almost the one and only thing, Numi-
cius, which can make and keep a man happy. There are
who view this sun, and the stars, and the seasons retiring at
certain periods, untainted with any fear. What do you think
of the gifts of the earth ? What of the sea, that enriches the
remote Arabians and Indians ? What of scenical shows, the
applause and favors of the kind Roman ? In what manner
do you think they are to be looked upon, with what appre-

33 Locus est et pluribus umbris. It was a civility paid to an invited
guest among the ancients, to let him know, whatever stranger came with,
him should be welcome. This was done, says Plutarch, in imitation of
those who, sacrificing to some god, sacrificed at the same time to all the
gods that inhabited the temple in which he was worshiped, although
they did not call any of them by their names. FRAN. For " umbris,"
c£ Sat ii. 8, 22.

240 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK i

hensions and countenance ? He that dreads the reverse of
these, admires them almost in the same way as he that desires
them ; fear alike disturbs both ways : an unforeseen turn of
things equally terrifies each of them : let a man rejoice or
grieve, desire or fear ; what matters it — if, whatever he per-
ceives better or worse than his expectations, with downcast
look he be stupefied in mind and body? Let the wise man
bear the name of fool, the just of unjust ; if he pursue virtue
itself beyond proper bounds.

Go now, look with transport upon silver, and antique mar-
ble, and brazen statues, and the arts : admire gems, and Ty-
nan dyes : rejoice, that a thousand eyes are fixed upon you
while you speak : industrious repair early to the forum, late
to your house, that Mutus may not reap more grain [than
you] from his lands gained in dowry, and (unbecoming, since
he sprung from meaner parents) that he may not be an object
of admiration to you, rather than you to him. Whatever is
in the earth, time will bring forth into open day light ; will
bury and hide things, that now shine brightest. When
Agrippa's portico,'4 and the Appian way, shall have beheld
you well known ; still it remains for you to go where Numa
and Ancus are arrived. If your side or your reins are af-
flicted with an acute disease, seek a remedy from the disease.
Would you live happily ? Who would not ? If virtue" alone
can confer this, discarding pleasures, strenuously pursue it Do
you think virtue mere words, as a grove is trees ? Be it your
care that no other enter the port before you ; that you lose
not your traffic with Cibyra, with Bithynia. Let the round
sum" of a thousand talents be completed ; as many more ;
further, let a third thousand succeed, and the part which may
square the heap. For why, sovereign money gives a wife
with a [large] portion, and credit, and friends, "and family,

34 Particus Agrippce. It was called the arcade of good luck, Porticos
boni eventus, and situated near the Pantheon, at the entrance of the Cam-
pus Martius. This Epistle must have been written after the year 729,
when the arcade was finished. ED. DCBL.

35 If riches and honors can not cure the body, much less can they cure
the disorders of the soul. But if you think that religion and virtue are
mere creatures of our imagination, then pursue the pleasures of life ; give
a loose to the passions ; and enter into trade, that you may get wealth to
support them. FRAN*.

* Rotundare and quadrare were terms of the Treasury to signify a com-
plete Bum. Cicero says, quadrare sestertia. ED. DUEL.

*p. YI EPISTLES OF HORACE. 241

and beauty ; and [the goddesses], Persuasion and Venus,
grace the well-moneyed man. The king of the Cappadocians,"
rich in slaves, is in want of coin ; be not you like him. Lu-
cullus, as they say, being asked if he could lend a hundred
cloaks for the stage,88 " How can I so many ?" said he : " yet
I will see, and send as many as I have ;" a little after he
writes that he had five thousand cloaks in his house; they
might take part of them, or all. It is a scanty house, where
there are not many things superfluous, and which ^scape the
owner's notice, and are the gain of pilfering slaves. If then
wealth alone can make and keep a man happy, be first in be-
ginning this work, be last in leaving it off. If appearances
and popularity make a man fortunate, let us purchase a slave
to dictate [to us] the names [of the citizens], to jog us on
the left-side, and to make us stretch our hand over obsta-
cles :39 " This man has much interest in the Fabian, that in
the Veline tribe ; this will give the fasces to any one, and, in-
defatigably active, snatch the curule ivory from whom he
pleases ; add [the names of] father, brother : according as
the age of each is, so courteously adopt him. If he who
feasts well, lives well ; it is day, let us go whither our appe-
tite leads us : let us fish, let us hunt, as did some time Gar-
gilius : who ordered his toils, hunting-spears, slaves, early in
the morning to pass through the crowded forum and the peo-
ple : that one mule among many, in the sight of the people,
might return loaded with a boar purchased with money. Let
us bathe with an indigested and full-swollen stomach, forget-

" These people were so born for slavery, that when the Romans of-
fered them freedom they refused it, and said, they were not able to sup-
port liberty. They were so poor, that in the time of Lucullus an ox waa
sold for four pence, and a man for about sixteen pence. But they loved
their slavery and poverty with the same ardor with which others pursue
liberty and riches. All things considered, says Mr. Sanadon, they were
perhaps more happy. A remark well worthy of a Cappadocian or a
Frenchman. FRAN.

33 These robes were probably wanted for some such entertainment
as we find in the first Epistle of the second Book ; though Plutarch tells
us, Horace calls them five thousand, that he may enliven his tale by
such an exargeration, for the real number was two hundred.

39 Trans pondera dextram porrigere. The streets of Rome were crowd-
ed with coaches and wagons : the Nomenclator, qui dictet nomina, di-
rects his master to turn these impediments to his advantage, by making
an acquaintance with those who are stopped with him, or by crossing
to tnose who are on the other side of the way. SAH.

11

242 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK L

ting what is becoming, what not; deserving to be enrolled
among the citizens of Caere ;40 like the depraved crew of Ulysses
of Ithaca, to whom forbidden pleasure was dearer than their
country. If, as Mimnermus" things, nothing is pleasant with-
out love and mirth, live in love and mirth.

Live : be happy. If you know of any thing preferable to
these maxims, candidly communicate it : if not, with me make
use of these.

EPISTLE VH.

TO MAECENAS."

He apologizes to Maecenas for his long absence from Rome ; and acknowl-
edges his favors to him in such a manner as to declare liberty preferable
to att other blessings.

HAVING promised you that I would be in the country but
five days, false to my word, I am absent the whole of August41
But, if you would have me live sound and in perfect health,
the indulgence which you grant me, Maecenas, when I am ill,
you will grant me [also] when I am afraid of being ill : while
[the time of] the first figs, and the [autumnal] heat graces
the undertaker with his black attendants ; while every father
and mother turn pale with fear for their children ; and while
over-acted diligence,44 and attendance at the forum, bring on

40 The Caerites having received the vestal virgins and tutelary gods of
Rome when it was sacked by the Gauls, the Romans in gratitude gave
them the privileges of citizens. But having engaged in the cause of Tar-
quin, they were deprived of the right of voting at elections, and a partic-
ular roll was made for their names, to which those of other infamous
citizens were afterward added. From thence came a manner of speak-
ing, " dignus Cferitum tabulis: Caerite cera digni." TORR.

41 Mimnermus was an Ionian poet, who lived about sixhundred years be-
fore the Christian era. He had a peculiar happiness in descriptions of ten-
derness, pleasure, and love. His style was easy, rich, and florid. ED. DUEL.

42 This epistle was probably written in 731, when our author was
in his forty-second year. SAX.

43 Sextilem. The Romans began their year at March, from whence the
sixth month was called Sextilis, even after January and February were
added to the calendar of Romulus. It afterward took the name of
Augustus, " mensis Augustus," as the month before was called " mensii
Julius," from Julius Caesar. ED. DUEL.

44 Offlciosa sedulitas. That earnestness and assiduity of making our

KP. TIL EPISTLES OF HORACE. 243

fevers and unseal wills." But, if the winter shall scatter snow
upon the Alban fields, your poet will go down to the sea-side,
and be careful of himself, and read bundled up ;4° you, dear
friend, he will revisit with the zephyrs, if you will give him
leave, and with the first swallow.

You have made me rich, not in the manner in which the
Calabrian host bids [his guest] eat of his pears. " Eat, pray,
sir." " I have had enough." " But take away with you what
quantity you will." "You are very kind."" "You will
carry them no disagreeable presents to your little children."
"I am as much obliged by your offer, as if I were sent away
loaded. " " As you please : you leave them to be devoured
to-day by the hogs." The prodigal and fool gives away what
he despises and hates ; the reaping of favors like these has
produced, and ever will produce, ungrateful men. A good
and wise man professes himself ready to do kindness to the
deserving ; and yet is not ignorant, how true coins differ from
lupines.48 I will also show myself deserving of the honor
of being grateful. But if you would not have, me depart any
whither, you must restore my vigorous constitution, the black
locks [that grew] on my narrow forehead : you must restore

court to the great. Opetta forensis, the pleadings, and business of the
courts. DAC.

45 Testamenta resignat. "Puts us to death;" for wills were never
opened until the death of the testator.

« Contractusque leget. These words have been very differently ex-
plained by different commentators. Some think it a metaphorical ex-
pression taken from a mariner's furling the sails in a tempest. The poet
must then mean, that ho will read with less application and earnestness,
" et sibi parcet." Others believe, that he would image to us a man chilled
with cold, who collects and brings himself into less compass, " frigore
duplicatus." Sanadon translates it, "shut up, and warmly clothed,"
against the severity of the weather. Yet in his notes he thinks contractus
may signify " contract© in loco ; in augusto conclavi," because small
apartments are less cold, and consequently more proper for winter. FRAN.

47 Bene and benigne were words of politeness and modesty among the
Romans, as /caAaif and liratvu among the Greeks when they refused any
thing offered to them. DAC.

*s Lupina, a sort of pulse, used for play-house money. Plautus in hu
Pcenulus, Act iii. scene 2 :

AGAM. Agite, inspicite : aurum est. COL. Profecto, spectatores, comi-
cum. Macerato hoc pingues fiunt auro in Barbaria boves. — Agam.

" AGAM. Hold ; see ; it is gold. COL. Yes. truly, the gold of comedy.
This is the gold, with which, when it is well watered, they fatten oxen
in Italy." ED. DUBL.

244 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK L

to me the power of talking pleasantly : you must restore to me
the art of laughing with becoming ease, and whining over my
liquor at the jilting of the wanton Cynara.

A thin field-mouse had by chance crept through a narrow
cranny into a chest of grain; and, having feasted itself, in
vain attempted to come out again, with its body now stuffed
full. To which a weasel at a distance cries, " If you would
escape thence, repair lean to the narrow hole which you fil-
tered lean." If I be addressed with this similitude, I resign
all ; neither do I, sated with delicacies, cry up the calm re-
pose of the vulgar, nor would I change my liberty and ease
for the riches of the Arabians. You have often commended
me for being modest ; when present you heard [from me the
appellations of] king and father, nor am I a word more
sparing in your absence. Try whether I can cheerfully re-
store what you have given me. Not amiss [answered] Tele-
machus, son of the patient Ulysses : " The country of Ithaca
is not proper for horses, as being neither extended into cham-
paign fields, noj abounding with much grass : Atrides, I will
leave behind me your gifts, [which are] more proper for your-
self." Small things best suit the small. No longer does im-
perial Rome please me, but unfrequented Tibur, and unwarlike
Tarentum.

Philip, active and strong, and famed for pleading causes,
while returning from his employment about the eighth hour,
and now of a great age, complaining that the Cannae were
too far distant from the forum ; spied, as they say, a person
clean shaven in a barber's empty shed, composedly paring his
own nails with a knife. " Demetrius," [says he,] (this slave
iexterously received his master's orders,) "go inquire, and
bring me word from what house, who he is, of what fortune,
who is his father, or who is his patron." He goes, returns,
and relates, that " he is by name Vulteius Maena,49 an auc-
tioneer, of small fortune, of a character perfectly unexcep-
tionable, that he could upon occasion ply busily, and take his
ease, and get, and spend ; delighting in humble companions

49 Vulleium nomine Ifenam. By these words Philip might know he
was a stranger ; that he had been made free, and that his patron's name
was Vulteius. Slaves had no surname ; but when they were made
free, they took the names or surnames of their patrons, to which they
added those of their slavery. SAN.

«p. m. EPISTLES OF HORACE. 245

and a settled dwelling, and (after business ended) in the shows,
and the Campus Martius."

"I would inquire of him himself all this, which you report;
bid him come to sup with me." Maena can not believe it : he
wonders silently within himself. Why many words ? He
answers, " It is kind." " Can he deny me ?" " The rascal
denies, and disregards or dreads you." In the morning Philip
comes unawares upon Vulteius, as he is selling brokery-goods
to the tunic'd populace, and salutes him first. He pleads to
Philip his employment, and the confinement of his business,
in excuse for not having waited upon him in the morning;
and afterward, for not seeing him first. " Expect that I
will excuse you on this condition, that you sup with me to-
day." '' As you please." " Then you will come after the
ninth hour : now go, strenuously increase your stock." "When
they were come to supper, having discoursed of things of a
public and private nature, at length he is dismissed to go to
sleep. When he had often been seen to repair like a fish to
the concealed hook, in the morning a client, and now as a con-
stant guest ; he is desired to accompany [Philip] to his country-
seat near the city, at the proclaiming of the Latin festivals.'0
Mounted on horseback, he ceases not to cry up the Sabine
fields and air. Philip sees it, and smiles : and, while he is
seeking amusement and diversion for himself out of every
thing, while he makes him a present of seven thousand ses-
terces,11 and promises to lend him seven thousand more : he
persuades him to purchase a farm : he purchases one. That
I may not detain you with a long story beyond what is neces-
sary, from a smart cit he becomes a downright rustic, and
prates of nothing but furrows and vineyards; prepares his
elms; is ready to die with eager diligence, and grows old
through a passionate desire of possessing. But when his
sheep were lost by theft, his goats by a distemper, his harvest
deceived his hopes, his ox was killed with plowing; fretted
with these losses, at midnight he snatches his nag, and in a

5° Indictis Latinus. Philip could go to the country only in the holidays.
They were called indictee or conceptivcs, because they were not celebrated
upon any stated days, which they called statas, but appointed at the
pleasure of the consul They were instituted in honor of Jupiter, in
memory of a peace concluded beween Tarquinius Superbua and the
people of Latium. FRAN.

61 Dum septem donat sestertia. A.bout 54Z. 13s. 9c£ of our money.

246 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK L

passion makes his way to Philip's house. Whom as soon as
Philip beheld, rough and unshaven, " Vulteius," said he, " you
seem to me to be too laborious and earnest." " In truth, patron,"
replied he, " you would call me a wretch, if you would apply to
me my true name. I beseech and conjure you then, by your
genius and your right hand and your household gods, restore
me to my former life." As soon as a man perceives, how much
the things he has discarded excel those which he pursues, let
him return in time, and resume those which he relinquished.

It is a truth, that every one ought to measure himself by his
own proper foot and standard.

EPISTLE

TO CELSUS ALBINOVANUS.

That he wot neither well in body, nor in mind; that Celsus should bear
his prosperity with moderation.

Mr muse at my request, give joy and wish success to Celsua
Albinovanus, the attendant and the secretary of Nero. If he
shall inquire, what I am doing, say that I, though promising
many and fine things, yet live neither well [according to the
rules of strict philosophy], nor agreeably ;M not because the
hail has crushed my vines, and the heat has nipped my olives ;
nor because my herds are distempered in distant pastures;
but because, less sound in my mind than in my whole body, I
will hear nothing, learn nothing which may relieve me,
diseased as I am ; that I am displeased with my faithful
physicians, am angry with my friends for" being industrious
to rouse me from a fatal lethargy ; that I pursue things
which have done me hurt, avoid things which I am persuaded
would be of service, inconstant as the wind, at Rome am in
love with Tibur, at Tibur with Rome. After this, inquire
how he does ; how he manages his business and himself ; now

5S Vivere nee rectl- nee suaviter. This distinction ia of pure Epicurean
morality. Recte vivere, to live according to the rules of virtue ; vivere
suaviier, to have no other guidance for our actions but pleasure and our
passions. ED. DUBL.

53 Cur me funesio. The poet uses cur for quod, and it is too remarka-
ble to be passed over. ED. DUBL.

to-, tt. EPISTLES OF HORACE. 247

he pleases the young prince and his attendants. If he shall
say, well ; first congratulate him, then remember to whisper
this admonition in his ears : As you, Celsus, bear your for-
tunes, so will we bear you.

EPISTLE IX.

TO CLAUDIUS TIBERIUS NERO.**
He recommends Septimi'us to him.

OP all the men in the world Septimius surely, 0 Claudius,
knows how much regard you have for me. For when he
requests, and by his entreaties in a manner compels me, to
undertake to recommend and introduce him to you, as one
worthy of the confidence and the household of Nero, who is
wont to choose deserving objects, thinking I discharge the
office of an intimate friend ; he sees and knows better than
myself what I can do. I said a great deal, indeed, in order
that I might come off excused : but I was afraid, lest I should
be suspected to pretend my interest was less than it is, to be a
dissembler of my own power, and ready to serve myself alone.
So, avoiding the reproach of a greater fault, I have put in for
the prize of town-bred confidence." If then you approve of
modesty being superseded at the pressing entreaties of a friend,

s< Among all the duties of civil life, there is not any that requires more
discretion and delicacy, than that of recommending a friend, especially
to a superior. This letter is a proof of the remark. The poet was com-
pelled to write by a sort of violent importunity, which yet is not inex-
cusable in Septimius, persuaded as he was of our author's interest with
Tiberius. There is through the whole letter a certain happy mixture of
that manly zeal, which a friend has a right to demand, and that modest
respect due to a great prince. It may be a pleasure to the reader to
know, that it had all the success it deserved, for Septimius was after-
ward honored with the confidence and affection both of Tiberius and
Augustus. "We may date the letter in 732, for Tiberius was sent the
year before to visit and regulate the government of the eastern provinces.
SAN.

55 After all the disputed explanations of this expression, I think there
is but little difficulty in understanding a " gentlemanly confidence," a
freedom from mauvais honte, as the quality to which the poet lays claim.
The phrase is perhaps slightly ironical

248 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK L

enrol this person among your retinue, and believe him to be
brave and good.

EPISTLE X.

TO ARISTIUS FUSCUS.

H» praises a country before a city life, as more agreeable to nature, and
more friendly to liberty.

WE, who love the country, salute Fuscus that loves the town ;
in this point alone [being] much unlike, but in other things
almost twins, of brotherly sentiments : whatever one denies,
the other too [denies] ; we assent together : like old and con-
stant doves, you keep the nest ; I praise the rivulets, the
rocks overgrown with moss, and the groves of the delightful
country. Do you ask why ? I live and reign, as soon as I
have quitted those things which you extol to the skies with
joyful applause. And, like a priest's fugitive slave, I reject
luscious wafers ;" I desire plain bread, which is more agree-
able now than honied cakes.

If we must live suitably to nature, and a plot of ground is
to be first sought to raise a house upon, do you know any
place preferable to the blissful country ? Is there any spot
where the winters are more temperate ? where a more agree-
able breeze moderates the rage of the Dog-star, and the sea-
son of the Lion, when once that furious sign has received the
scorching sun ? Is there a place where envious care less dis-
turbs our slumbers ? Is the grass inferior in smell or beauty
to the Libyan pebbles ?" Is the water, which strives to burst
the lead in the streets, purer than that which trembles in

M The priest's slave, who is tired of living 011 the delicacies offered to
his master's god, runs away from his service, that he may get a little
common bread : thus our poet would retreat from the false taste and
relish of town pleasures to the simple and natural enjoyments of the
country. ED. DUEL.

57 Than the tcssolated or mosaic pavements made of Numidian marble.
M. Lepidus was the first who introduced the Numidian marble at Rome,
for which he was severely censured. Plin. xxxvi. 6. Lapitti, At0o-
ffrpwro, are the small pieces which were arranged so as to form figures
on the pavement, as pebbles, or shells of different colors, are sometime!
uaed at present to form the floor of summer-houses.

KP. r. EPISTLES OF HORACE. 249

murmurs duwu iis sloping channel ? Why, trees are nursed
along the variegated columns [of the city] ; and that house
is commended, which has a prospect of distant fields. You
may drive out nature with a fork,68 yet still she will return,
and, insensibly victorious, will break through [men's] im-
proper disgusts.

Not he who is unable to compare the fleeces that drink up
the dye of Aquinum with the Sidonian purple, will receive a
more certain damage and nearer to his marrow, than he who
shall not be able to distinguish false from true. He who has
been overjoyed by prosperity, will be shocked by a change of
circumstances. If you admire any thing [greatly], you will
be unwilling to resign it. Avoid great things ; under a
mean roof one may outstrip kings, and the favorites of
kings, in one's life.

The stag, superior in fight, drove the horse from the com-
mon pasture, till the latter, worsted in the long contest, im-
plored the aid of man and received the bri lie ; but after he
had parted an exulting conqueror from his enemy, he could
not shake the rider from his back, nor the bit from his mouth.
So he who, afraid of poverty, forfeits his liberty, more valuable
than mines, avaricious wretch, shall carry a master, and shali
eternally be a slave, for not knowing how to use a little.
When a man's condition does not suit him, it will be as a shoe
at any time ; which, if too big for his foot, will throw him
down ; if too little, will pinch him. [If you are] cheerful
under your lot, Aristius, you will live wisely ; nor shall you
let me go uncorrected, if I appear to scrape together more
than enough and not have done. Accumulated money is the
master or slave of each owner, and ought rather to follow
than to lead the twisted rope.69

These I dictated to thee behind the moldering temple of
Vacuna ;'* in all other things happy, except that thou wast
not with me.

58 ExpeUes furcd. A. proverbial expression for removing, putting away,
what we dislike or despise, derived from the use of the fork in the (arm-
yard. The Greek expression is, diKpuvoif udeiv. Comp. Lucian. Timon.,
KOI fiororovxi 6iKpuvot£ /ul tS-Eudet T?/£ 0/KtOf. M'CAUL.

59 Tortnm digna sequi. A metaphor taken from beasts that are led
with a cord. Persius hath used the same figure, "funem reduco-" SAN.

10 Vacuna was the goddess of vacations, whose festival was celebrated
in December. There are still some remains of her temple on our poet's

11*

250 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK u

EPISTLE XL

TO BULLATIU8.

Endeavoring to recall him back to Rome from Asia, whither Tie had re-
treated through his weariness of the civil wars, he advises him to ease the
disquietude of his mind not by the length of his journey, but by forming
his mind into a right disposition.

WHAT, Bullatius, do you think of Chios, and of celebrated
Lesbos ?" What of neat Samos ?" What of Sardis, the royal
residence of Croesus ? What of Smyrna, and Colophon ? Are
they greater or less than their tame ? Are they all contempti-
ble in comparison of the Campus Martius and the river Ti-
ber ? Does one of Attalus' cities enter into your wish ? Or
do you admire Lebedus, through a surfeit of the sea and of
traveling ? You know what Lebedus is ; it is a more unfre-
quented town than Gabii and Fidense ; yet there would I be
willing to live ; and, forgetful of my friends and forgotten by
them, view from land Neptune" raging at a distance. But
neither he who comes to Rome from Capua, bespattered with
rain and mire, would wish to live in an inn ; nor does he, who
has contracted a cold, cry up stoves and bagnios as completely
furnishing a happy life : nor, if the violent south wind has
tossed you in the deep, will you therefore sell your ship on
the other side of the ^Egean** Sea. On a man sound in

estate. He dates his letter behind this temple, to insult Aristius with
that idleness and liberty which he enjoyed in the country, in opposition
to the business and confinement of Rome. ToRR.

61 Notaque Lesbos. The island in the ^Egean, south of Tenedos. Its
principal towns were Mitylene and Methymna. It wasnota, not so much
on account of its excellent wine, as that it was the birthplace of Sappho
and Alcaeus. ED. DUBL.

*' Concinna Samos. To the south-east of Chios, well known as the
favorite island of Juno : and as the birthplace of Pythagoras. The epi-
thet concinna, neat, refers, perhaps, to the character of the buildings and
appointments of its chiof city, which also was called Samos. ED. DUEL.

63 Neptunum procul e terra. This image perfectly well represents the
condition of Rome and Italy. A sea agitated by tempests, is a natural
figure of a state distracted by the intentions of an intestine war. SAN.

M jEgceum mare. The Archipelago between Europe and Asia, said by
Borne to derive its name from JEgeus, the father of Theseus, who flung
himself into it from the promontory of Sunium, when he saw black sail*

EP. Tit EPISTLES OP HORACE. 251

mind" Rhodes and beautiful Mitylene have such an effect,
as a thick cloak at the summer solstice, thin drawers in snowy
weather, [bathing in] the Tiber in winter, a fire" in the
month of August. While it is permitted, and fortune pre-
serves a benign aspect, let absent Samos, and Chios, and
Rhodes, be commended by you here at Rome. Whatever pros-
perous hour Providence bestows upon you, receive it with a
thankful hand : and defer not [the enjoyment of] the com-
forts of life, till a year be at an end ; that in whatever place
you are, you may say you have lived with satisfaction. For
if reason and discretion, not a place that commands a prospect
of the wide-extended sea, remove our cares ; they change their
climate, not their disposition, who run beyond the sea : a busy
idleness harrasses us : by ships and by chariots we seek to live
nappily. What you seek is here [at home], is at Ulubrae, if
a just temper of mind is not wanting to you.

EPISTLE XH.

TO ICCIUS.

Under the appearance of praising the man's parsimony, he archly ridicules
it; introduces Grosphus to him, and concludes with a few articles of news
concerning the Roman affairs.

0 Iccius, if you rightly enjoy the Sicilian products,87 which
you collect08 for Agrippa, it is not possible that greater afflu-
ence can be given you by Jove. Away with complaints ! for
that man is by no means poor, who has the use of every thing

in the vessel which was returning to Crete. Others gave different deri-
vations. ED. DUEL.

65 " Incolumi, integro, sanse mentis homini." SCHOL.

66 Caminus was a room exposed to the south, and contrived in such a
manner as to collect the rays of the sun in winter. It was called helio-
caminus and solarium. ED. DUEL.

67 Pructibus Agrippce Siculis. Augustus was obliged to Agrippa for
the reduction of Sicily, and gave him, in acknowledgment, an estate
there, to which Iccius was agent or farmer. His father had been gov-
ernor of the island four-and-twenty years before. ED. DUEL.

68 Quos colligis. This expression and the last line of the letter seem
to say that it was harvest-time, both in Sicily and Italy, which will more
exactly direct us to fix the date of it. SAN.

252 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK L

he wants. If it is well with your belly, your back, and your
feet, regal wealth can add nothing greater. If perchance ab-
stemious amid profusion you live upon salad and shell-fish,"
you will continue to live in such a manner, even if10 presently
fortune shall flow upon you in a river of gold : either because
money can not change the natural disposition, or because it ii
your opinion that all things are inferior to virtue alone. Can
we wonder that cattle feed upon the meadows and corn-fields
of Democritus,71 while his active soul is abroad [traveling]
without his body ?'3 When you, amid such great impurity
and infection of profit, have no taste for any thing trivial,
but still mind [only] sublime things :7S what causes restrain
the sea, what rules tne year, whether the stars spontaneously
or by direction wander about and are erratic, what throws ob-
scurity on the moon, and what brings out her orb, what is the
intention and power of the jarring harmony of things, wheth-
er Empedocles or the clever Stertinius be in the wrong ?

However, whether you murder fishes, or onions and garlic,

" Orelli maintains that the nettle is intended, which the Italians, even
at the present day, are wont to cook at spring time, while its leaves are
tender. Plin. xxi. 15 : Urtica incipiens nasci vere, non ingrata, mul-
tis eliam religioso in cibo est ad peUandos totius anni morbos. The Urtica
Marina belongs to the genus Medusa, and was only served up at the most
expensive banquets. Herbis el Urtica are joined as Sihte et quercus, Od.
L 12, 1. F lores mille colorum Liliaque, Ovid. Met. x. 261. WIIEELEB.

70 Sic vives protenus, ut te. Ut here signifies quamvis, which only can
determine the sense. Protenus is for uno eodertique tenore, in one con-
tinued, unbroken length. TORE. See Orelli.

71 This comparison hath much ironical pleasantry. Democritus was
so engaged in his philosophical speculations, that he left his estate a prey
to his neighbors. But the severe and frugal life of Iccius rose from very
different principles. He denied himself only those pleasures which his
avarice would not allow him to purchase. But virtue, says our laugh-
ing poet, was a source of real wealth to him, and he wanted only those
riches which his Stoical wisdom had taught him to despise. SAN.

7S The Platonics, explaining the powers of the soul, talk as if they
could really, by strength of imagination, separate the soul from the
body, and raise it above all earthly ideas. Aristophanes, to ridicule this
language, introduces Socrates, telling his disciples that he could never
have penetrated into things sublime, but by mixing his most refined
ideas with air most like them. He then pleasantly advises them not to
restrain their imagination, but to let it soar, like a butterfly, which boys
tie to a thread. FRAN.

73 It was now seventeen years since Iccius had quitted philosophy
for the army ; but, as his Arabian expedition had not the success it
promised, our new soldier returned to his first profession. SAN.

EP. xm. EPISTLES OP HORACE. 253

receive Pompeius Grosphus ; and, if lie asks any favor, grant it
him frankly : Grosphus will desire nothing but what is right
and just. The proceeds of friendship are cheap, when good
men want any thing.

But that you may not be ignorant in what situation the Ro-
man affairs are ; the Cantabrians74 have iallen by the valor of
Agrippa, the Armenians by that of Claudius Nero : Phraates
has, suppliant on his knees," admitted the laws and power of
Caesar. Golden plenty has poured out the fruits of Italy from
a full horn.

EPISTLE XUL

TO VINNTUS ASINA.

Horact cautions him to present his poems to Augustus at a proper
opportunity, and with due decorum.

As on your setting out I frequently and fully gave you in-
structions, Vinnius, that you would present these volumes to
Augustus sealed up70 if he shall be in health, if in spirits,
finally, if he shall ask for them : do not offend out of zeal to

i* Cantaber. A nation of Spain (inhabiting what is now Biscay, and
part of Asturias), distinguished for the spirited opposition which they
made to the Romans. In A. u. c. 729 Augustus, in person, headed an
expedition to punish them, but no sooner had he left their country than
this warlike people reasserted their independence. Horace alludes here
(and also Carm. iii. 8, 22, Cantaber sera domitus catena) to the chastise-
ment which they received from Agrippa, A. u. c. 734. M'CAOL.

73 Genibus minor. The poet only means that Phraates was reduced
to the lowest submissions, to purchase the protection of Augustus against
his ovrn subjects. Dacier understands the words literally, and that
Caesar-is means Tiberius, from whose hand the Parthian monarch received
his crown. But is it not astonishing that Velleius Paterculus, always
disposed to flatter Tiberius, hath forgotten a circumstance so glorious to
him, and that we have not the least marks of it in any other his-
torian. SA.N.

76 Our poet sent Augustus not only the letter addressed to him (the
first of the second Book), but also the last odes and last epistles he had
written. He calls these pieces volumina, because they were separately
rolled up ; and he desires Vinnius to present them sealed, that they
alight not be exposed to the impertinent curiosity of the court. RODELL.

254 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK i.

me, and industriously bring an odium upon my books [by
being] an agent of violent officiousness. If haply the heavy
load of my paper should gall you," cast it from you, r;ith< r
than throw down your pack in a rough manner where you are
directed to carry it, and turn your paternal name of Asina
into a jest, and make yourself a common story. Make use of
your vigor over the hills, the rivers, and the fens. As soon
as you have achieved your enterprise, and arrived there, you
must keep your burden in this position ; lest you happen to
carry my bundle of books under your arm, as a clown does a
lamb, or as drunken Pyrrhia [in the play does] the balls of
pilfered wool, or as a tribe-guest78 his slippers with his fuddling-
cap. You must not tell publicly, how you sweated with carry-
ing those verses, which may detain the eyes and ears of Caesar.
Solicited with much entreaty, do your best. Finally, get you
gone, farewell : take care you do not stumble, and break my
orders.

EPISTLE XTV.

TO HIS STEWARD.

He upbraids his levity for contemning a country life, which had been his
choice, and being eager to return to Rome.

STEWARD of my woodlands and little farm that restores me to
myself, which you despise, [though formerly] inhabited by five
families, and wont to send five good senators to Varia : let us
try, whether I with more fortitude pluck the thorns out of my
mind, or you out of my ground : and whether Horace or his
estate be ia a better condition.

Though my affection and solicitude for Lamia, mourning

77 Augustus had rallied Horace for the shortness of his epistles, "ve-
reri mihivideris ne majores libelli tui sint quamipsees;" you seem afraid
that your letters should be longer than you are. The poet therefore
Bends a number of them together that ho might make up in weight what
he wanted in length. ED. DUBL.

73 Conviva tribulis. Athenaeus tells us, that people of the same tribe
had entertainments, called ccEnce thiasas (probably not unlike our modern
clubs), which were regulated by laws. The guests carried their bonnets,
to preserve them from the weather ; and slippers to put on when thsy
went into the house of the master of the feast ED. DUBL.

fcp. rrv. EPISTLES OF HORACE. 255

for his brother, lamenting inconsolably for his brother's loss,
detain me ; nevertheless my heart and soul70 carry me thither
and long to break through those barriers that obstruct my way.
I pronounce him the happy man who dwells in the country,
you him [who lives] in the city. He to whom his neigh-
bor's lot is agreeable, must of consequence dislike his own.
Each of us is a fool for unjustly blaming the innocent place.
The mind is in fault, which never escapes from itself. When
you were a drudgefo at every one's beck, you tacitly prayed
for the country : and now, [being appointed] my steward, you
wish for the city, the shows, and the baths. You know I am
consistent with myself, and loth to go, whenever disagreeable
business drags me to Rome. We are not admirers of the
same things : hence you and I disagree. For what you reckon
desert and inhospitable wilds, he who is of my way of think-
ing calls delightful places; and dislikes what you esteem
pleasant. The bagnio, I perceive, and the greasy tavern raise
your inclination for the city : and this, because my little spot
will sooner yield frankincense and pepper than grapes ; nor is
there a tavern near, which can supply you with wine ; cor
a minstrel harlot, to whose thrumming you may dance, cum-
bersome to the ground : and yet you exercise with plow-
shares the fallows that have been a long while untouched,
you take due care of the ox when unyoked, and give him
his fill with leaves stripped [from the boughs]. The sluice
gives an additional trouble to an idle fellow, which, if a shower
fall, must be taught by many a mound to spare the sunny
meadow.

Come now, attend to what hinders our agreeing. [Me,]
whom fine garments"1 and dressed locks adorned, whom you

79 When the Latins use mens animusque or mens animi, they would
express all the faculties of the soul. Mens regards the superior and in-
telligent part, anirmts the sensible and inferior, the source of the passions.
DAC.

80 Mediastinus was a slave of the lowest kind, who had no regular serv-
ice appointed for him, but waited upon other slaves in the vilest employ-
ments. Among other directions given by Cato to his son, when he went
to the army, " Ille imperator, tu illi ac cjfiteris Mediastinus." ED. DUEL.

81 Horace, to render the comparison between himself and his slave
more just, draws a picture of the life they passed in their youth at Roms.
He confesses that his own conduct had not been extremely regular, yet
that of his slave, who was probably the confidant of his pleasures, had
not been more wise. But while the master renounces the follies of his

256 EPISTLES OP HORACE. BOOK L

know to have pleased venal Cynara without a present, whom
[you have seen] quaff flowing Falernian from noon — a short
supper [now] delights, and a nap upon the green turf by the
stream side : nor is it a shame to have been gay, but not to
break off that gayety. There there is no one who reduces81
my possessions with envious eye, nor poisons them with ob-
bcure malice and biting slander ; the neighbors smile at me re-
moving clods and stones. You had rather be munching your
daily allowance with the slaves in town ; you earnestly pray
to be of the number of these : [while my] cunning foot-boy
envies you the use of the firing, the flocks, and the garden.
The lazy ox wishes for the horse's trappings : the horse
wishes to go to plow. But I shall be of opinion, that each
of them ought contentedly to exercise that art which he un-
derstands.

EPISTLE XV.

TO C. NEUMONIU8 VALA.

Preparing to go to the baths either at Velia or Salernum, he inquires after
the healthftdness and agreeableness of the places.

IT is your part," Vala, to write to me (and mine to give

youth, though without blushing for them, the servant would continue in
them as long as he lived. DAG.

82 Limat. Limis oculis aspicere aliquem, to look askew, or askance ;
but the Latins never used limare in that sense. The Scholiast explains
the word limat by deterit, imminuit, for it was a superstition among the
ancients, as Dacier observes, that an envious eye could lessen what it
looked at, and corrupt our enjoyment of it. ED. DDE. " limat"=" quasi
lima atterit, attenuare conatur." ORELLI.

83 Qua sit hiems Velice, etc. The arrangement in this Epistle is very
intricate. The first twenty-five lines form one strained hyperbaton. Th»
natural order is:

25. Scribere te nobis, tibi nos accedere par est,

Quae sit hiems Veliae, quod coelum, Vala, Salerni ;
Quorum hominum regio, et qualis via; ( - )

14. Major utrum populum frumenti copia pascat ;
Collectosne bibant imbres, puteosne perennes
Jugia aquae ; ( ) 4

22. Tractus uter plures lepores, uter educet apros;
Utni magis pisces et ochinos aequora celent,
Pinguia ut inde domum possim Phaeaxque reverti.

BP. xv. EPISTLES OP HORACE. 257

credit to your information) what sort of a winter it is at Velia,
what the air at Salernum, what kind of inhabitants the
country consists of, and how the road is (for Antonius Musa"4
[pronounces] Baiae to be of no service to me ; yet makes me
obnoxious to the place, when I am bathed in cold water"*
even in the midst of the frost [by his prescription]. In truth,
the village murmurs at their myrtle-groves being deserted,
and the sulphurous waters, said to expel lingering disorders
from the 'nerves, despised; envying those invalids, who have
the courage to expose their head and breast to the Clusian
springs, and retire to Gabii and [such] cold countries. My
course must be altered,88 and my horse driven beyond his ac-
customed stages. Whither are you going ? will the angry
rider say, pulling in the left-hand rein,87 I am not bound for
Cumae or Baiae : — but the horse's ear is in the bit.) [You
must inform me likewise] which of the two people is sup-

84 Antonius Musa was a freeman of Augustus, and brother of Euphor-
bus, physician to king Juba. He had the happiness of curing Augustus
of a distemper, which his other physicians thought desperate, and thia
cure raised both the faculty and its professors out o£ contempt. The
prince and people contended in honoring a man who had restored a life
so valuable to the state. He was rewarded with a considerable sum of
money ; he was exempted from all public taxes ; he was made free of
Rome, allowed to wear a gold ring, and his statue was placed next to
that of JEsculapius. These glorious distinctions were not confined to
him alone, but extended to all of the profession, and the disciples of Hip-
pocrates were then first allowed the privileges and immunities of a Roman
citizen. The cold bath was now prescribed for all disorders, but the
same prescription which had cured Augustus, having unhappily killed
Marcellus, the science of physic, and the people who practiced it, fell
into their original contempt. After this example, we may believe, that
Horace would not be willing to run the same hazard, and therefore we
may naturally date this letter in the beginning of 731, six or seven
months after the recovery of Augustus, which happened in August. SAN.

85 This does not suppose that he had already gone into the cold bath,
but that he proposed it, and was yet undetermined between that of Sal-
ernum and Velia. " Perluor" does not mark a past action, but the pres-
ent disposition, as if he had said, "cum in eo sum ut perluar." SAX.

86 Mutandus locus est. "We must go no more to Baise;" where the
poet had frequently been. Sanadon blames this apostrophe ; for although
a rider naturally enough may sometimes talk to his horse, yet an author
can hardly be supposed to sit down to write to him.

87 At the entrance into Campania the road divides ; the right leads to
Cuma and Baiae ; the left to Capua, Salernum, and Velia. The horse is
going to his usual stage at Baise, but Horace turns him to the left, to the
Lucanian road. ToRR.

258 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK I.

ported by the greatest abundance of corn ; whether they drink
rain-water collected [in reservoirs], or from perennial wells of
never-failing wafer (for as to the wine of that part I give my-
self no trouble ; at my country-seat I can dispense and bear
with any thing : but when I have arrived at a sea-port, I insist
upon that which is generous and mellow, such as may drive
away my cares, such as may flow into my veins and animal
spirits with a rich supply of hope, such as may supply me with
words, such as may make me appear young to my Lucanian
mistress). Which tract of land produces most hares, which
boars : which seas harbor the most fishes and sea-urchins, that
I may be able to return home thence in good case, and like a
Phaeacian.

When Maenius, having bravely made away with his paternal
and maternal estates, began to be accounted a merry fellow — a
vagabond droll, who had no certain place of living ; who,
when dinnerless, could not distinguish a fellow-citizen from an
enemy ; unmerciful in forging any scandal against any per-
son ; the pest, and hurricane, and gulf of the market ; what-
ever he could get, he gave to his greedy gut. This fellow,
when he had extorted little or nothing from the favorers
of his iniquity, or those that dreaded it, would eat up whole
dishes of coarse tripe and lamb's entrails ; as much as would
have sufficed three bears ; then truly, [like] reformer Bestius,1"
would he say, that the bellies'* of extravagant fellows ought
to be branded with a red-hot iron. The same man [how-
ever], when he liad reduced to smoke and ashes'" whatever
more considerable booty he had gotten ; 'Faith, said he, I do
not wonder if some persons eat up their estates ; since nothing
is better than a fat thrush, nothing finer than a large sow's
paunch. In fact, I am just such another myself; for, when

88 Cruquius happily entered into the spirit of this passage, when he
understood Bestius as a person of different character from that of
Maenius. Our commentators have not only mistaken the sense of their
author, but substituted Maenius, in direct contradiction to all the manu-
scripts, in the place of Bestius. Corrector hath been luckily preserved
in a manuscript extremely ancient, and well agrees with the charac-
ter of Cornelius Bestius, whom Persius mentions as remarkable for a
severity of manners. FRAN.

89 The Greeks and Romans branded the belly of a gluttonou%slave ; the
feet of a fugitive : the hands of a thief; and the tongue of a babbler. D AC.

90 Vrrterat infumum ac cinerem. A proverbial expression, as if smoke
and ashes were all the remains of the large estate he had consumed.

EP. XVL EPISTLES OP HORACE. 259

matters are a little deficient, I commend the snug and homely
fare, of sufficient resolution amid mean provisions ; but, if
any thing be oftered better and more delicate, I, the same indi-
vidual, cry out, that ye are wise and alone live well, whose
wealth and estate are conspicuous from the elegance of your
villas.

EPISTLE XVL

TO QUINCTIUS.*1

He describes to Quinctius the form, situation, and advantages of his coun-
try-hoitse : then declares thai probity consists in the consciousness of good
works; liberty, in probity.

ASK me not, my best Quinctius, whether my farm maintains
its master with cornfields, or enriches" him with olives, or
with fruits, or meadow land, or the elm-tree clothed with
vines : the shape and situation of my ground shall be described
to you at laige.

There is a continued range of mountains, except where
they are separated by a shadowy vale ; but in such a manner,
that the approaching sun views it on the right side, and de-
parting in his flying car warms the left. You would com-
mend its temperature. What? If my [very] briers produce
in abundance the ruddy cornels and damsens ? If my oak
and holm-tree accommodate my cattle with plenty of acorns,
and their master with a copious shade ? You would say that
Tarentum, brought nearer [to Rome], shone in its verdant
beauty. A fountain too, deserving to give name to a rivei,
insomuch that Hebrus does not surround Thrace more cool or
more limpid, flows salubrious to the infirm head, salubrious

91 We may suppose, that Quinctius had often rallied our poet on the
situation, extent, and revenues of his estate. After having satisfied all
his questions in very few words, he throws himself into the moral, and
touches upon certain points, probably of much importance to Quinc-
tius; but all is pleasing, interesting, and instructive. The name of
Augustus in the twenty-ninth line is a proof, that the letter was writ-
ten after the year 726. SAN.

92 Oputentet is purely a country word derived from ops, terra. It is
not easy to say whether Horace invented the word, but at least he gave
it credit, and it was afterward used by Columella. SAN.

260 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK i

to the bowels. These sweet, yea now (if you will credit me)
these delightful retreats preserve me to you in a state of health
[even] in the September season.

You live well, if you take care to support the charactei
which you bear. Long ago, all Rome has proclaimed you
happy : but I am apprehensive, lest you should give more credit
concerning yourself to any one than yourself; and lest you
should imagine a man happy, who differs from the wise and
good ; or, because the • people pronounce you sound and per-
fectly well, lest you dissemble the lurking fever at meal-times,
until a trembling seize your greased hands. The false modesty
of fools conceals ulcers [rather than have them cured]. If
any one should mention battles which you had fought by land
and sea, and in such expressions as these should soothe your
listening ears : " May Jupiter, who consults the safety both of
you and of the city, keep it in doubt, whether the people
be more solicitous for your welfare, or you for the people's ;"
you might perceive these encomiums to belong [only] to Au-
gustus : when you suffer yourself to be termed a philosopher,
and one of a refined life ; say, pr'ythee, would you answer [to
these appellations] in your own name ? To be sure — I like
to be called a wise and good man, as well as you. lie
who gave this character to-day, if he will, can take it away to-
morrow : as the same people, if they have conferred the con-
sulship on an unworthy person, may take it away from him :
" Resign ; it is ours," they cry : I do resign it accordingly,
and chagrined withdraw. Thus if they should call me rogue,
deny me to be temperate, assert that I had strangled my
own father with a halter ; shall I be stung, and change
color at these false reproaches ? Whom does false honor de-
light, or lying calumny terrify, except the vicious and sickly-
minded ? Who then is a good man ? He who observes the
decrees of the senate, the laws and rules of justice ; by whose
arbitration many and important disputes are decided ; by
whose surety private property, and by whose testimony causes
are safe. Yet [perhaps] his own family and all the neighbor-
hood observe this man, specious in a fair outside, [to be] pol-
luted within. If a slave should say to me, " I have not com-
mitted a robbery, nor run away :" " You have your reward •
you are not galled with the lash," I reply. " I have not killed
any man :" " You shall not [therefore] feed the carrion crows*

JCP. xn. EPISTLES OF HORACE. 261

on the cross." I am a good man, and thrifty : your Sabine
friend denies, and contradicts the fact. For the wary wolf
dreads the pitfall, and the hawk the suspected snares, and the
kite the concealed hook. The good, [on the contrary,] hate to
sin from the love of virtue ; you will commit no crime merely
for the fear of punishment. Let there he a prospect of escap-
ing, you will confound sacred and profane things together.
For, when from a thousand hushels of beans you filch one, the
loss in that case to me is less, but not your villainy. The hon-
est man, whom every forum and every court of justice looks
upon with reverence, whenever he makes an atonement to the
gods with a swine or an\>x ; after he has pronounced in a clear
distinguishable voice, " O father Janus, 0 Apollo ;" moves his
lips as one afraid of being heard ; " O fair Laverna93 put it in
my power to deceive ; grant me the appearance of a just and
upright man : throw a cloud of night over my frauds." I do
not see how a covetous man can be better, how more free than
a slave, when he stoops down for the sake of a penny, stuck in
the road [for sport].94 For he who will be covetous, will also
be anxious : but he that lives in a state of anxiety, will never
in my estimation be free. He who is always in a hurry, and
immersed in the study of augmenting his fortune, has lost the
arms, and deserted the post of virtue. Do not kill your captive,
if you can sell him : he will serve you advantageously : let
him, being inured to drudgery, feed [your cattle], and plow ;
let him go to sea, and winter in the midst of the waves ; let
him be of use to the market, and import corn and provisions.
A good and wise man95 will have courage to say, " Pentheus,
king of Thebes, what indignities will you compel me to suf-

•* In a religion where every one made his own gods, it was natural
that thieves and robbers, being persecuted upon earth, should seek the
assistance of some divinity in heaven. That horror with which they are
usually regarded, ought to have extended to the goddess who was their
protectress ; but as she was also the guardian of those who would not
have their designs discovered, she was publicly worshiped, and her
votaries were called " Laverniones." TORR. SAN.

9* Coinp. Pers. Sat. v. 3, Inque Into fixum possis tranxcendere num-
mum. The allusion is to a trick of boys placing money on the ground,
either fixed so tight that it can not be removed, or secured by a string,
by which they withdraw it when any passenger stoops to take it up.
M'CACL.

93 A really good man is he, whom the loss of fortune, liberty, and life,
can not deter from doing his duty. The poet, with an unexpected spirit

262 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK L

fer and endure. ' I will take away your goods :' my cattle,
I suppose, my land, my movables and money : you may take
them. ' I will confine you with hand-cufts and fetters un-
der a merciless jailer.' The deity himself will discharge me,
whenever I please." In my opinion, this is his meaning ; I
will die." Death97 is the ultimate boundary9* of human mat-
ters.

EPISTLE XVIL

TO SC^EVA.

That a life of business is preferable to a private and inactive one ; the friend-
ship of great men is a laudable acquisition, yet their favors are ever to be
solicited with modesty and cauti.m.

THOUGH, Scjeva, you have sufficient prudence of your own,
and well know how to demean yourself toward your superiors ;
[yet] hear what are the sentiments of your old crony, who
himself still requires teaching, just as if a blind man should un-
dertake to show the way : however see, if even I can advance
any thing, which you may think worth your while to adopt as
your own.

If pleasant rest, and sleep till seven o'clock, delight you ;
if dust and the rumbling of wheels, if the tavern offend you ;
I shall order you off for Ferentinum. For joys are not the
property of the rich alone : nor has he lived ill, who at his

and addreas, brings a god upon the stage under the character of this good
man. The whole passage is almost an exact translation of a scene in the
Bacchantes of Euripides. FRAN.

•* This could not be the sense of Bacchus in Euripides, because he
would have Pentheus acknowledge him a god, and of consequence im-
mortal. Horace therefore leaves the Grecian poet, and explains the words
conformably to his own design of showing that the fear even of death is
not capable of shaking the courage of a good man, or obliging him to
abandon the cause of virtue. SAN.

»7 This does not mean, as it is generally understood, that death is an
end of all things, but of all our misfortunes. Rerum for rerun malarum,
as in Virgil, " fessi, rerum, sunt lacrymae rerum, trepidse rerum. ED.
DUBL.

t} Linea, a trench drawn round tho arena, to mark the course for those
who entered tho lists. Toiin. SAX.

SP. xvii. EPISTLES OF HORACE. 263

birth and at his death has passed unnoticed." If you are dis-
posed to be of service to your friends, and to treat yourself
with somewhat more indulgence, you, being poor, must pay
your respects to the great.100 Aristippus, if he could dine to
his satisfaction on herbs, would never frequent [the tables] of
the great. If he who blames me, [replies Aristippus,] knew
how to live with the great, he would scorn his vegetables.
Tell me, which maxim and conduct of the two you approve ;
or, since you are my junior, hear the reason why Aristippus'
opinion is preferable ; for thus, as they report, he baffled the
snarling cynic : u I play the buffoon for my own advantage,1
you [to please] the populace. This [conduct of mine] is bet-
ter and far more honorable ; that a horse may carry, and a
great man feed me, pay court to the great : you beg for refuse,
an inferior to the [poor] giver ; though you pretend you are
in want of nothing."3 As for Aristippus, every complexion3
of life, every station and circumstance sat gracefully upon him,
aspiring in general to greater things, yet equal to the present :
on the other hand, I shall be much surprised, if a contrary way
of life should become [this cynic], whom obstinacy clothes with
a double rag.4 The one will not wait for his purple robe ;

99 Cf. Eur. Iph. Aul. 17, &%u 6' dvdpuv of uicivdvvov fiiov
dyvuc, d/c/E7/f. ORELLI.

Iuu Accedes siccus ad unctum. People of easy fortunes never lay down
at the table without perfuming themselves with essences ; from whence
the words unctus and siccus were used to signify a rich and a poor man.
TORE.

1 Aristippus does not acknowledge he was a buffoon, but makes use of
the term to insult Diogenes, and dexterously puts other words of civiler
meaning into the place of it, when he speaks of himself — Ojficium facio.
My buffoonery, says he, procures me profit and honor; yours leaves
you in meanness, indigence, nastiness, and contempt. My dependence
is on kings, to whom we are born in subjection ; you are a slave to the
people, whom a wise man should despise. SAN.

2 Aristippus pays his court to Diouysius, without making any request-
Diogenes asks even the vilest things from the vilest of people. He would
excuse himself, by saying he asks only because what he asks is of little
value ; but, if the person who receives an obligation is inferior, at that
time, to the person who bestows it, he is inferior in proportion to the
meanness of the favor he receives. DAC.

3 Omnis Aristippum decu.it color. Mr. Sanadon understands color for
dress or habit. You are the only person, says Plato to Aristippus, who
can appear equally well-dressed in a coarse cloth, as in purple.

* Duplici panno. A Greek poet calls Diogenes,
'O (Joycrpo^opof,

264 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK i

but dressed in any thing, will go through the most frequent-
ed places, and without awkwardness support either charac-
ter : the other will shun the cloak wrought at Miletus with
greater aversion than [the bite of] dog or viper : he will die
with cold,* unless you restore him his ragged garment : restore
it, and let him live like a fool as he is. To perform exploits,
and show the citizens their foes in chains, reaches the thione
of Jupiter, and aims at celestial honors, lo have been ac-
ceptable to the great, is not the last of praises. It is not every
man's lot to gain Corinth.' He [prudently] sat still, who was
afraid lest he should not succeed : be it so ; what then ? Was
it not bravely done by him, who carried his point ? Either
here therefore, or nowhere, is what we are investigating.
The one dreads the burden, as too much for a pusillanimous
soul and a weak constitution ; the other undertakes, and carries
it through. Either virtue is an empty name,7 or the man who
makes t.ie experiment deservedly claims the honor and the re-
ward.

The man who carries a cudgel, wears a double coat, and feeds upon air.
This last expression means a sophist, who, according to Aristophanes,
lives upon the clouds. However, Horace probably meant only a double
mantle, or one as thick as two ; a coarse, heavy coat, in opposition to
purpureum amictum. Servius explains duplicem ex humeris rejecit amic-
tum, in Virgil, in the same manner. ED. DUEL

6 Aristippus engaged Diogenes to go with him into the bath, and,
coming tirst out of the water, took the cynic's mantle, and left him his
purple robe. But Diogenes declared he would rather go naked out of
the bath than put it on. DAC.

6 Suidas informs us, that the danger and difficulty of going into the
ports of Corinth pave rise to a proverb. Horace makes use of it, to show
that all people have not talents proper for succeeding in a court, and to
raise the glory of those who have courage to attempt and address to con-
quer the difficulties there. Others apply the proverb to Lais, a famous
Corinthian courtezan ; but such an application is too light and trivial for
the solemnity of these lines, nor is it just to the poet's thought. If money
could purchase her favors, it required no great degree of courage to at-
tempt them. SAN.

i This is the decision which necessarily results from the proofs. The
poet introduces a person, who may be supposed to object that, if it be so
difficult to succeed at court, a wise man had better not attempt it. " Se-
dit, qui timuit " Horace acknowledges the force of this objection, " esto,1'
but draws from it a very different conclusion; that, if there be difficulty
or danger, he certainly deserves the highest praise who tries to succeed,
" experiens vir;" and, if virtue be any* thing more than a chimerical
name, he may with justice claim a reward proportionable to bis merit,
" rectw petit." ED. DUEL.

EP. xvn. EPISTLES OF HORACE. 265

Those who mention nothing of their poverty before their
lord, wiil gain more than the importunate. There is a great
difference between modestly accepting, or seizing by violence.
But this was the principle and source of every thing [which I
alleged]. He who says, " My sister is without a portion, my
mother poor, and my estate neither saleable nor sufficient for
my support," cries out [in effect], " Give me a morsel of bread :"
another whines, " And let the platter be carved out for me with
half a share of the bounty."8 But if the crow could have fed
in silence, he would have had better fare, and much less of
quarreling and of envy.

A companion taken [by his lord] to Brundusium, or the
pleasant Surrentum, who complains of the ruggedness of the
roads and the bitter cold and rains, or laments that his chest
is broken open and his provisions stolen ; resembles the well-
known tricks of a harlot, weeping frequently lor her necklace,
frequently for a garter forcibly taken from her ; so that at
length no credit is given to her real griefs and losses. Nor does
he, who has been once ridiculed in the streets, care to lift up a
vagrant* with a [pretended] broken leg ; though abundant tears
should flow from him; though, swearing by holy Osiris,10 he
says, " Believe me, I do not impose upon you ; O cruel, take
up the lame." " Seek out for a stranger,"11 cries the hoarse
neighborhood.

8 This importunate not only teases his patron with perpetual requests,
but provokes others to make the same demands. The poet compares them
to beggars in the street, and gives the same language, for "quadra" sig-
nifies the plate upon which they received their bread at a public distri-
bution. ED. DUBL.

9 Planum. In Greek this signifies a vagabond. Decimus Laberius
first Latinized it, and Aulus Gellius blames the boldness of it. But Ci-
cero and Horace refute the censure of the grammarian. BOND,

lu Osiris was the god of vagabonds, and brother of Isis, whose power
of healing distempers was so universally believed, that, as Juvenal ex-
presses it, she maintained the painters by votive pictures to her honor,
" Pictores qui nescit ab Iside pasci?" TORR.

11 This was a trick so frequent among beggars, that it produced a prov»
«rb, "Tollat tequi non novit." ED DUEL.

12

266 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK i

EPISTLE XVm.

TO LOLLIU8.

He treats at large upon the cultivation of the favor of great men; and con-
eludes with a few words concerning the acquirement of peace of mind,

IF I rightly know your temper, most ingenuous Lollius, you
will beware of imitating a flatterer, while you profess yourself
a friend. As a matron is unlike and of a different aspect from
a strumpet, so will a true friend differ from the toad-eater.
There is an opposite vice to this, rather the greater [of
the two] ; a clownish, inelegant, and disagreeable bluntness,
which would recommend itself by an unshaven face and black
teeth ; while it desires to be termed pure freedom and true sin-
cerity. Virtue is the medium of the two vices ; and equally
remote from either. The one is over-prone to complaisance,
and a jester of the lowest couch," he so reverences the rich
man's nod, so repeats his speeches, and catches up his falling
words ; that you would take him for a school-boy saying his
lesson to a rigid master, or a player acting an underpart ; an-
other often wrangles about a goat's hair, and armed engages"
for any trifle : " That I, truly, should not have the first credit ;
and that I should not boldly speak aloud, what is my real sen-
timent— [upon such terms], another life would be of no value."
But what is the subject of this controversy ? Why, whether
[the gladiator] Castor or Dolichos be the cleverer fellow ; wheth-
er the Minucian,14 or the Appian, be the better road to Brundu-
aium?

12 Imi derisor lecti, i. «., a buffoon, who is invited to an entertainment
for the amusement of the host and his guests, that never has an opinion
of his own, but merely supports the sentiments of others, and serves as
an auxiliary to his host, when he fails in conversation. Imi — lecti refers
to the place where such persons were stationed ; scil. on the lowest couch.
Hence in Sat. ii. 8, 40, Nomentanus and Porcius, Nasidienus' jesters, are
termed " imi lecti convive." M'CAUL.

13 But, says Torrentius, " they who divide the word propugnat, to con-
strue it pugnat pro nugis, lose tlie beauty of the passage : nuyis armatus,
armed with trifles and nonsense." So also Orelli.

'* There were two roads to Rome from Brundusium, the Appian, which
went along the Tuscan Sea ; and the Minucian, which crossed over the
country of the Sabines and Samnites, joining the Appian road at Bene-

CP. ZYTTI. EPISTLES OF HORACE. 267

Him whom pernicious lust, whom quick-dispatching dice
strips, whom vanity dresses out and perfumes beyond his
abilities, whom insatiable hunger and thirst after money,
whom a shame and aversion to poverty possess, his rich
friend (though furnished with a half-score more vices) hates
and abhors ; or if he does not hate, governs him ; and, like a
pious mother, would have him more wise and virtuous than
himself ; and says what is nearly true : " My riches (think
not to emulate me) admit of extravagance ; your income is
but small : a scanty gown becomes a prudent dependant :
cease to vie with me." Whomsoever Eutrapelus had a mind
to punish, he presented with costly garments. For now [said
he] happy in his fine clothes, he will assume new schemes
and hopes ; he will sleep till daylight ; prefer a harlot to his
honest-calling ; run into debt ; and at last become a gladiator,
or drive a gardener's hack for hire.

Do not you at any time pry into his secrets ; and keep close
what is intrusted to you, though put to the torture, by wine
or passion. Neither commend your own inclinations, nor
find fault with those of others ; nor, when he is disposed to
hunt, do you make verses. For by such means the amity of
the twins Zethus and Amphion, broke off; till the lyre, dis-
liked by the austere brother, was silent. Amphion is thought
to have given way to his brother's humors ; so do you yield
to the gentle dictates of your friend in power : as often as he
leads forth his dogs into the fields and his cattle laden with
^Etolian nets, arise and lay aside the peevishness of your un-
mannerly muse,16 that you may sup together on the delicious
fare purchased by your labor ; an exercise habitual to the
manly Romans, of service to their fame and life and limbs :
especially when you are in health, and are able either to excel
the dog in swiftness, or the boar in strength. Add [to this],
that there is no one who handles martial weapons more grace
fully. You well know, with what acclamations of the spec-
tators you sustain the combats in the Campus Martius : in fine,

ventum. This last had its name from the consul, Tiberius Minuciua,
who made it in 448, seven years after that of Appius. SAN.

15 Scnium depone Camcence. The muse is here called inhumarux,
from t le peevishness of poets when they are interrupted in their poetical
studies ; or because they generally love solitude and retirement from
company. TOER.

268 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK L

as yet a boy," you endured a bloody campaign and the Can-
tabrian wars, beneath a commander, who is now replacing
the standards [recovered] from the Parthian temples :17 and,
if any thing is wanting,18 assigns it to the Roman arms. And
that you may not withdraw yourself, and inexcusably be
absent, ; though you are careful to do nothing out of measure
and moderation, yet you sometimes amuse yourself at your
country-seat. The [mock] fleet divides the little boats [into
two squadrons] : the Actian sea-fight" is represented by boys
under your direction in a hostile form : your brother is the
foe, your lake the Adriatic ; till rapid victory crowns the one
or the other with her bays. Your patron, who will perceive
that you come into his taste, will applaud your sports with
both his hands."

Moreover, that* I may advise you (if in aught you stand in
need of an adviser), take great circumspection what you say
to any man, and to whom. Avoid an inquisitive impertinent,
for such a one is also a tattler, nor do open ears faithfully

15 Lollius, to whom Horace writes, was with Augustus in his expedi-
tion against the Cantabrians, when he was very young, puer. But
Augustus departed from Rome in 727, when Lollius, the father, had
been some years in Galatia, where he was governor after the death of
Amyntas, whose kingdom became a province of the Roman empire.
He returned to Rome in 732, and entered upon his consulship in the
beginning of the year following. It is, therefore, impossible that he
could have been with Augustus in the war of Spain, and consequently
this letter could not have been written to him. CARDINAL NORRIS.

17 All our commentators agree, that refigit is in almost all the manu-
scripts. It is of more than ordinary value, because it determines the
precise date of this Epistle in 734, when Phraates restored the Roman
eagles to Augustus. Horace was then forty-five years of age.

IJ Nn ic et si quid abest. Nunc must be construed with refigit, as ap-
pears by the best copies ; "sic enim distinguunt potiora exemplaria."
BE*r.

'• This little sea-fight is well introduced by our poet, and does much
honor to Lollius. Augustus, in memory of the battle of Actium, insti-
tuted a tournament, under the name of Actian games, which were
annually celebrated every 1st of August. Sanadon thinks it probable,
that this naval engagement of Lollius gave the Romans a first idea of
those naumachia, with which they were afterward entertained by their
emperors. FRMJ.

au A metaphorical manner of speaking, taken from the arena. When
a gladiator was thrown in fighting, the people asked hia life by turning
down their thumbs, or his death by lifting them up. " Cum faveamus
pollices premere etiam proverbio jubemur." PLIN. TOBR.

HP. xvm. EPISTLES OP HORACE. 269

retain what is intrusted to them ; and a word, once sent abroad,
flies irrevocably.

Let no slave within the marble threshold of your honored
friend inflame your heart ; lest the owner of the beloved
damsel gratify you with so trifling a present, or, mortifying [to
your wishes], torment you [with a refusal].

Look over and over again [into the merits of] such a one,
as you recommend ; lest afterward the faults of others strike
you with shame. We are sometimes imposed upon, and now
and then introduce an unworthy person. Wherefore, once
deceived, forbear to defend one who suffers by his own bad
conduct ; but protect one whom you entirely know, and with
confidence guard him with your patronage, if false accusations
attack him : who being bitten with the tooth21 of calumny, do
you not perceive that the same danger is threatening you ?
For it is your own concern, when the adjoining wall is on fire :
and flames neglected are wont to gain strength.

The attending of the levee of a friend in power seems de-
lightful to the unexperienced ; the experienced dreads it. Do
you, while your vessel is in the main, ply your business, lest a
changing gale bear you back again.

The melancholy hate the merry, and the jocose the melan-
choly ; the volatile [dislike] the sedate, the indolent the stirring
and vivacious : the quaffers of pure Falernian from midnight
hate one who shirks his turn ; notwithstanding you swear you
are afraid of the fumes of wine by night. Dispel gloominess
from your forehead : the modest man generally carries the look
of a sullen one ; the reserved, of a churl.

In every thing you must read and consult the learned, by
what means you may be enabled to pass your life in an agree-
able manner : that insatiable desire may not agitate and tor-
ment you, nor the fear and hope of things that are but of
little account: whether learning acquires virtue, or nature
bestows it ? What lessens cares, what may endear you to
yourself? What perfectly renders the temper calm ; honor,
or enticing lucre, or a secret passage and the path of an un-
noticed life ?

For my part, as often as the cooling rivulet Digentia re-
s' Dente Theonino. Theon was a Grecian poet, so remarkable for the
severity and acrimony of his writings, that his name gave rise to a prov-
erb, dene Theoninus. DAC.

270 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK L

freshes me (Digentia, of which Mandela drinks, a village
wrinkled with cold) ; what, my friend, do you think are my
sentiments, what do you imagine I pray for ? Why, that my
fortune may remain as it is now ; or even [if it be something]
less: and that I may live to myself, what remains of my time,
if the gods will that aught do remain : that I may have a good
store of books, and corn provided for the year ; lest I fluctuate
in suspense of each uncertain hour. But it is sufficient to sue
to Jove [for these externals], which he gives and takes away
[at pleasure] ; let him grant life, let him grant wealth : I my-
self will provide equanimity of temper.

EPISTLE XIX.

TO MAECENAS.

He shouts the folly of tome persona, who would imitate ; and the envy of
ot/urs, who would censure him.

O LEARNED Maecenas," if you believe old Cratinus," no verses
which are written by water-drinkers can please, or be long-
lived. Ever since Baor.hus enlisted the brain-sick poets among
the Satyrs and the Fauns, the sweet muses have usually smelt
of wine in the moraine*. Homer, by his excessive praises of
wine, is convicted as a booser: father Ennius himself never
sallied forth to sing of arms, unless in drink. " I will condemn
the sober to the bar and tho praetor's bench," and deprive the
abstemious of the power of singing."

As soon as he gave out this edict, the poets did not cease
to contend in midnight cups, and to smell of them by day.

M DocU Maecenas. This is not an expression of flattery, for Maecenas
had not only very considerable abilities for the field and the council, but
was really a man of learning. ED. DuuL.

M Cratinus loved wine to such an excess, that Aristophanes tells us
he died with grief at seeing a hogshead broken and the wine running
out. ED. DCBL.

2< Fbrum putealque Libonis. Torrentius first perceived that these words
could not be spoken either by Cratinus or Ennius, who wore both dead
long before Lifoo was born ; nor by Bacchus, who surely would not have
waited so long to publish a decree, which the usages of so mpny poets
had already established ; nor by Maecenas, unless ve read edixti and
pallere*, contrary to all the manuscripts. ED. DUEI-

EP. XJX. EPISTLES OF HORACE. 271

What ! if any savage, by a stern countenance and bare feet,
and the texture of a scanty gown, should imitate Cato; will
he represent the virtue and morals of Cato? The tongue
that imitated Timagenes was the destruction of the Moor,"
while he affected to be humorous, and attempted to seem elo-
quent. The example that is imitable in its faults, deceives
[the ignorant]. Soh ! if I was to grow up pale by accident,
[these poetasters] would drink the blood-thinning cumin."
0 ye imitators, ye servile herd, how often your bustlings have
stirred my bile, how often my mirth !

I was the original, who set my free footsteps upon the
vacant sod ; I trod not in the steps of others. He who de-
pends upon himself, as leader, commands the swarm. I first
showed to Italy the Parian iambics: following the numbers
and spirit of Archilochus," but not his subject and style,
which afflicted Lycambes. You must not, however, crown
me with a more sparing wreath, because I was afraid to alter
the measure and structure of his verse : for the manly Sappho
governs her muse28 by the measures of Archilochus, so does

25 larbita, says the Scholiast, was a Moor, whose name was Cordus,
who attempting in vain to imitate the wit and pleasantry of Timagenes,
almost burst with despair and vexation, invidid quodammodo ruptus est.
Timagenes was a rhetorician of Alexandria, who, having provoked Au-
gustus by too great a freedom of raillery, was forbidden to enter the
palace. In resentment of such an affront he burned a history which he
had written of that emperor's life. FKAN.

26 Dioscorides assures us, that cumin will make people pale who drink
it. or wash themselves with it. Pliny says it was reported, that the dis-
ciples of Porcius Latro, a famous master of the art of speaking, used it
to imitate that paleness which he had contracted by his studies. FRAN.

27 Horace tells us he had imitated Archilochus in taking from him
some particular measure, and if we may judge from the fragments of the
Grecian poet which remain to us, these three following verses aro some
of them.

" Pulvis et umbra sumus."

" Exitio est avidum mare nautis."

" Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam."

Canidia, Cassius Severus, and some others, must acknowledge that

Horace had but too well imitated the satire and severity of Archilochus,

although he did not servilely follow his expressions, or allow himsell

that bitterness which made Lycambes and his daughter Neobule hang

themselves. SAX.

23 Sappho et Akceus Musam suam temperant pede Archilochi; and tern-
perat signifies, "to mix," not, as is generally understood, "to soften,"
or "make musical," for the verses of Archilochus were more violent an(*

272 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOKL

Alcaeus ; but differing from him in the materials and disposi-
tion [of his lines], neither does he seek for a father-in-law
whom he may defame with his fatal lampoons, nor does he
tie a rope for his betrothed spouse in scandalous verse. Him''"
too, never celebrated by any other tongue, I the Roman lyrist
first made known. It delights me, as I bring out new pro-
ductions, to be perused by the eyes, and held in the hands of
the ingenuous.

Would you know why the ungrateful reader extols and is
fond of many works at home, unjustly decries them without
doors ? I hunt not after the applause of the inconstant vul-
gar, at the expense of entertainments, and for the bribe of a
worn-out coat : I am not an auditor of noble writers, nor a
vindictive reciter, nor condescend to court*0 the tribes and
desks of the grammarians. Hence are these tears. If I say
that " I am ashamed to repeat my worthless writings to
crowded theaters, and give an air of consequence to trifles :"
" You ridicule us," says [one of them], " and you reserve those
pieces for the ears of Jove : you are confident that it is you
alone that can distill the poetic honey, beautiful in your own
eyes." At these words I am afraid to turn up my nose ; and
lest I should be torn by the acute nails of my adversary,
"This place is disagreeable," I cry out, "and I demand a

less harmonious than those of Alcaeus or Sappho. They took from him
several sorts of verse for their odes, and Horace, by their example, hath
taken from each of them whatever might enrich hia Latin Lyric poetry.
SAN.

29 Horace can only mean Alcaeus. He hath already said ho was the
first Roman who had imitated in Latin the iambics of Archilochus, and
it were ridiculous to repeat it within eight or nine verses. When ho
says, "Latinus fidicen," he not only marks his being a lyric poet him-
self, but that the writer whom he had imitated was so likewise, which
can not be said of Archilochus, who was never reckoned in their number.
This reason will be more sensible, if we examine the different expressions
of Horace with attention. He tells us that he was the first Roman Lyric
poet who had imitated Alcaeus, " hunc ego, non alio dictum priiis ore,
Latinus fidicen;" and ten verses before this ho says he was the first who
showed the iambics of Archilochus to the Latins, " Parios ego primus
iambos ostendi Latio." It is remarkable, that although Horace did not
imitate Sappho less than Archilochus and Alcaeus, yet ho does not say
he was the first of the Romans, because Catullus and some other Latin
poets had written Sapphic verses before him. BEST.

30 Horace laughs at the meanness of a bad poet who pays his court to
schoolmasters, that they may give hia works a little reputation by making
their scholars read them. TORE.

IP. anc. EPISTLES OF HORACE. 273

prorogation81 of the contest." For contest is wont to beget
trembling emulation and strife, and strife cruel enmities and
funereal war.

EPISTLE XX."

TO HIS BOOK.

In vain he endeavors to retain his book, desirous of getting abroad ; tells it
what trouble it is to undergo, and imparts some things to be said of him
to posterity.

You seem, my book, to look wistfully at Janus and Vertum-
nus ;SI to the end that you may be set out for sale, neatly
polished by the pumice-stone of the Sosii." You hate keys
and seals, which are agreeable to a modest [volume] ; you
grieve that you are shown but to a few, and extol public
places ; though educated in another manner. Away with you,
whither you are so solicitous of going down :35 there will be
no returning for you, when you are once sent out. " Wretch
that I am, what have I done ? What did I want ?" — you will
eay : when any one gives you ill treatment, and you know

31 Diludia posco. The Latins used deludere, to leave off playing.
From thence came diludia, to signify a space of time and intermission of
fighting given to the gladiators during the public games. Horace there-
fore pleasantly begs he may have time allowed him to correct his verses,
before he mounts the stage and plays for the prize in public. FRAN.

32 In 733, Horace published a collection of his Epistles and Satires,
and probably placed this Epistle at the head of them, from whence
Sanadon places it as a preface to his moral poetry. Under an allegory of
a child, unwillingly confined in his father's house, and wishing for liberty,
the poet gives his book some critical advice, which may be of much im-
portance to authors in general. The character he draws of himself is
natural, and nothing is disguised by modesty or vanity. FRAN.

33 Vertumnum Janumque. Vertumnus, according to the Scholiast,
was the god who presided over buying and selling, from whence he had
a statue and temple in the forum.

84 The Sosii were a plebeian family, well known in Rome, two
brothers of which distinguished themselves by the correctness of their
books and the beauty of the binding. COMMENT.

33 The forum was situated between the hills on which Rome was built,
from whence we frequently find in forum decendere in Cicero and
Seneca. The present reading is of all the manuscripts. BENT. CUN.
SAN.

12*

274 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK i

that you will be squeezed into small compass,*' as soon as the
eager reader is satiated." But, if the augur be not prejudiced
by resentment of your error, you shall be caressed at Rome
[only] till your youth be passed." When, thumbed by the
nands of the vulgar, you begin to grow dirty; either you
shall in silence feed the grovelling book-worms, or you shall
make your escape to Utica, or shall be sent bound to Derda.
Your disregarded adviser shall then laugh [at you] : as he,
who in a passion pushed his refractory ass over the precipice.
For who would save [an ass] against his will ? This too
awaits you, that faltering dotage shall seize on you, to teach
boys their rudiments iu the skirts of the city." But when
the abating warmth of the sun40 shall attract more ears, you
shall tell them, that I was the son of a freedman, and extended
my wings beyond my nest ; so that, as much as you take
away from my family,41 you may add to my merit : that I was
in favor with the first men in the state, both in war and
peace ; of a short stature, gray before my time, calculated for

38 In breve to cogi. In arctum volumen contrahi. The poet threatens
his book, that it shall be rolled up as if condemned never to be read
again. The books of the ancient? were written on skins of parchment,
which they were obliged to unfold and extend when they designed to
read. TORR.

37 The lover here signifies a passionate reader ; he seizes a book with
rapture ; runs it over in haste ; his curiosity begins to be satisfied ; his
appetite is cloyed ; he throws it away, and never opens it again. FRAN.

31 Novelty is a kind of youth, which gives to every thing a certain
grace and value. Tew books have a privilege of not growing old. In
general, their youth is extremely short, and scarce divided from their
age. SAN.

39 There were schools in the most frequented parts of the city, where
professors of abilities and reputation explained the best Greek and Latin
authors. Children were taught to read in the suburbs, whither Horace
presages his book should be banished in its old age. This prediction
should be considered as a modest pleasantry, for our poet knew too well
the value of his works to be afraid of such a destiny. TORR. SAN.

<° <SM tepidus. M. Dacier and the rest of the commentators under-
stand the middle of the day, when the sun is most violent; but this was
a time when people usually retired into their houses to avoid the heat
Sol tepidua may therefore mean the mildness and moderate warmth of
evening, when men of letters assembled, either in the public walks or
ehops of booksellers, to read any works lately published. SAN.

41 Nature made Horace the son of a public crier, but his own merit
made him the companion of an emperor, and gained him the friendship
of the greatest, as well as most ingenious men of the Augustan age. FRAN-

EP. ix EPISTLES OP HORACE. 275

sustaining heat," prone to passion, yet so as to be soon ap-
peased. If any one should chance to inquire my age ; let
him know that I had completed four times eleven Decembers,
in the year in which Lollius admitted Lepidus" as his
colleague.

4a We may remark, in many places of his works, that our poet was
very sensible to cold ; that in winter he went to the sea-coast, and that
he was particularly fond of Tarentum in that season, because it was
milder there. We may likewise understand the words of his exercises
in the Campus Martius, as in his Odes patiens pulveris atque solis, but
the former sense is more natural. SAN.

43 Augustus being in the year 733 in Sicily, the senate made him an
offer of the consulship, which he refused. This refusal and his absence
occasioned a very strongly disputed election between Lepidus and Silanus,
who pretended to fill his place. Augustus sent for them into Sicily, and
forbade them to return to Rome until the election was ended. By thia
means Lollius, who had been appointed colleague with Augustus, easily
carried the votes in favor of Lepidus, which Horace means by the word
duxit. Our poet was born on the 8th of December, 689, and conse-
quently his forty-fourth year ended 733. SAN.

THE SECOND BOOK

OF THE

EPISTLES OF HORACE,

EPISTLE L

TO AUGUSTUS.1

He honors him with the highest compliments ; then treats copiously of
poetry, its origin, character, and excellence.

SINCE you alone support so many and such weighty concerns,
defend Italy with your arms, adorn it by your virtue, reform

1 Augustus had written to Horace to reproach him for not having
addressed any part of his works to him. Know, says he, that I am angry
with you; or are you apprehensive it shall injure your reputation with
posterity, that you have been one of my friends ? These reproaches,
probably, occasioned this Epistle, which is justly ranked among the best
performances of our author, aud not unworthy of a prince of superior
genius, delicate taste, and more than common erudition. It may be
divided into four parts. In the first, the poet examines the comparison
between ancients and moderns, which had been a matter of dispute in
almost all ages. He then shows, that novelty is the mother of all polite
arts, especially of poetry, that divine art, which deserves the greatest
praises and greatest rewards. In the third part he treats of the theater,
and the difficulty of succeeding there. In the last, he would inform
princes how much they are interested to animate an emulation among
Epic and Lyric poets, who have it in their power to make them immortal.
These different parts are enlivened by a continual criticism upon the
manner in which the Romans judged of poets, and by many reflections,
equally useful and agreeable, upon the origin and progress of poetry.

The date of this Epistle is determined by so many facts, and so strongly
marked, that it is unaccountable how it hath been mistaken. It mentions
the divine honors paid to Augustus in 726: the sovereign authority
which he received from the senate in 727 : the reduction of the Parthians
in 734: the laws which he made for the reformation of manners in 737 :
the conquests of Tiberius and Drusus in 739, 742, 743, and shutting the
temple of Janus in 744, when this letter was written, and when Horace
was in his fifty-second year, about two years before his death. FRA.N.

EP. i. EPISTLES OP HORACE. 277

it by your laws ; I should offend, O Caesar, against the public
interests, if I were to trespass upon your time with a long
discourse."

Romulus, and father Bacchus, and Castor and Pollux, after
great achievements, received into the temples of the gods,
while they were improving the world and human nature, com-
posing fierce dissensions, settling property, building cities, la-
mented that the esteem which they expected was not paid in
proportion to their merits. He who crushed the dire Hydra,
and subdued the renowned monsters by his forefated labor,
found envy was to be tamed by death [alone]. For he burns
by his very splendor, whose superiority is oppressive to the
arts beneath him :3 after his decease, he shall be had in hon-

' The poet is thought to be^In with apologizing for the shortness of this
Epistle. And yet it is one of the longest he ever wrote. How is this incon-
sistency to be reconciled ? The case, I believe, was this. The genius of
epistolary writing demands, that the subject-matter be not abruptly de-
livered, or hastily obtruded on the person addressed ; but, as the law of
decorum prescribes (for the rule holds in writing, as in conversation), be
gradually and respectfully introduced to him. This obtains more par-
ticularly in applications to the great, and on important subjects. But now
the poet, being to address his prince on a point of no small delicacy, and
on which he foresaw he should have occasion to hold him pretty long,
prudently contrives to get as soon as possible into his subject ; and, to
that end, hath the art to convert the very transgression of this rule into
the justest and most beautiful compliment.

That cautious preparation, which is ordinarily requisite in our ap-
proaches to greatness, had been, the poet observes, in the present case,
highly unseasonable, as the business and interests of the empire must, in
the mean time, have stood still and been suspended. By sermone, then,
we are to understand, not the body of the Epistle, but the proem or in-
troduction only. The body, as of public concern, might bo allowed to
engage, at full length, the emperor's attention ; but the introduction, con-
sisting of ceremonial only, the common good required him to shorten as
much as possible. It was no time for using an insignificant preamble, or,
in our English phrase, of making long speeches. This reason, too, is
founded, not merely in the elevated rank of the emperor, but in the pe-
culiar diligence and solicitude with which, history tells us, he endeav-
ored to promote, by various ways, the interests of his country. So that
the compliment is as just as it is polite. It may be further observed, that
sermo is used in Horace to signify the ordinary style of conversation (see
1 Sat. 3. 65, and 4, 42), and therefore not improperly denotes the familiar-
ity of the epistolary address, which, in its easy expression, so nearly ap-
proaches to it. HURD.

3 I have partly followed Anthon, but the variety of interpretations in
this passage is most perplexing. See M 'Caul's notes.

278 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK n.

or. On you, while present4 among us, we confer mature
honors, and rear altars where your name is to be sworn by ;
confessing that nothing equal to you has hitherto risen, or
will hereafter rise. But this your people, wise and just in one
point (for preferring you to our own, you to the Grecian
heroes), by no means estimate other things with like proportion
and measure : and disdain and detest every thing, but what
they see removed from earth and already gone by ; such favor-
ers are they of antiquity, as to assert that the Muses [them-
selves] upon Mount Alba, dictated the twelve tables, forbidding
to transgress,6 which the decemviri ratified; the leagues of our
kings concluded with the Gabii, or the rigid Sabincs ; the
records of the pontifices, and the ancient volumes of the
augurs.

If, because the most ancient writings of the Greeks are also
the best,' Roman authors are to be weighed in the same scale,

4 We are not to wonder at this and the like extravagances of .adulation
in the Augustan poets. They had ample authority for what they did of
this sort We know that altars were decreed and erected to the emperor
by the command of the senate, and that he was publicly invoked, as aa
established tutelary divinity. But the seeds of the corruption had been
sown much earlier. For we find it sprung up, or rather (as of all the ill
weeds, which the teeming soil of human depravity throws forth, none is
more thriving and grows faster than this of flattery) flourishing at its
height, in the tyranny of J. Caesar. Balbus, in a letter to Cicero (Ep. ad
Att 1, ix.) "swears by the health and safety of Caesar:" "ita, incolumi
Csesare, moriar." And Dio tells us (L. xliv.) that it was, by the express
injunction of the senate, decreed, even in Caesar's life-time, that tho Ro-
mans should bind themselves by this oath. The senate also (as wo lean?
from the same writer, L. xliii.) upon the receiving the news of his defeat
of Pompey's sons, caused his statue to bo set up, in tho temple of Romu-
lus, with this inscription, DEO INVICTO. HURD.

• The laws of the twelve tables, which Horace hero means, might not
want elegance of expression, with regard to the time when they were
written. The treaty of peace between Tarquinius Superbus and the Gabii
was recorded on a bull's hide stretched upon a piece of wood called Cly-
pcum, and we may believe the style was answerable to the paper. The
Sibylline books, which regulated all the ceremonies of religion; and the
works of poets in the first infancy of the Latin tongue, might have been
venerable for their antiquity, but could not bo models of good writing.
FRAN.

• The common interpretation of this place supposes the poet to admit
the most ancient of the Greek writings to be the best — which were even
contrary to all experience and common sense, and is directly confuted by
the history of the Greek learning. What he allows is, the superiority of
the oldest Greek writings extant, which is a very different thing- The

IP. L EPISTLES OF HORACE. 279

there is no need we should say much : there is nothing hard
in the inside of an olive, nothing [hard] in the outside of a
nut. We are arrived at the highest pitch of success [in arts] :
we paint, and sing, and wrestle more skillfully than me
annoiuted7 Greeks. If length of time makes poems better, as
it does wine, I would fain know how many years will stamp
a value upon writings. A writer who died a hundred years
ago, is he to be reckoned among the perfect and ancient, or
among the mean and modern authors ? Let some fixed period
exclude all dispute. He is an old and good writer who com-
pletes a hundred years. What ! one that died a month or a
later, among whom is he to be ranked ? Among the old

turn of his argument confines us to this sense. For he would show the
folly of concluding the same of the old Roman writers, on their first rude
attempts to copy the finished models of Greece, as of the old Greek writ-
ers themselves, who were furnished with the means of producing those
models by long discipline and cultivation. This appears, certainly, from
what follows :

"Venimus ad summum fortunae: pingimus atque

Psallimus et luctamur Achivis doctiiis unctis.

The design of which hath been entirely overlooked ; for it hath been
taken only for a general expression of falsehood and absurdity, of just the
same import as the proverbial line,

" Nil intra est oleam, nil extra est in nuce duri."

Whereas it was designedly pitched upon to convey a particular illustra-
tion of the very absurdity in question, and to show the maintainera of it,
from the nature of things, how senseless their position was. It is to this
purpose : " As well may it be pretended that we Romans surpass the
Greeks in the arts of painting, music, and the exercises of the palaestra,
which yet it is confessed we do not, as that our old writers surpass the
modern. The absurdity, in either case, is the same. For, as the Greeks,
who had long devoted themselves, with great and continued application,
to the practice of these arts (which is the force of the epithet uncti, here
given them), must for that reason carry the prize from the Romans, who
have taken very little pains about them ; so, the modern Romans, who
have for a long time been studying the arts of poetry and composition,
must needs excel the old Roman writers, who had little or no acquaint-
ance with those arts, and had been trained by no previous discipline to
the exercise of them." HURD.

? Unctis. This is by no means a general, unmeaning epithet ; but is
beautifully chosen to express the unwearied assiduity of the Greek artists.
For the practice of anointing being essential to their agonistic trials, the
poet elegantly puts the attending circumstance for the thing itself. And
so, in speaking of them as uncti, he does the same as if he had called
them "the industrious, or exercising Greeks;" which was the very idea
his argument required him to suggest to us. HURD.

280 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK a

poets, or among those whom both the present age and. pos-
terity will disdainfully reject? He may fairly be placed
among the ancients, who is younger either by a short month
only, or even by a whole year. I take the advantage of this
concession, and pull away by little and little, as [if they were]
the hairs of a horse's tail : and I take away a single one, and
then again another single one ; till, like a tumbling heap,*
[my adversary], who has recourse to annals and estimates ex-
cellence by the year, and admires nothing but what Libitina*
has made sacred, falls to the ground.

Ennius10 the wise, the nervous, and (as our critics say) a
second Homer, seems lightly to regard what becomes of his
promises and Pythagorean dreams. Is not Naevius" in peo-
ple's hands, and sticking almost fresh in their memory ? So
sacred is every ancient poem. As often as a debate arises,
whether this poet or the other be preferable ; Pacuvius bears
away the character of a learned, Accius, of a lofty writer ;
Afranius' gowu" is said to have fitted Menander; Plautus, to
hurry af.er the pattern of the Sicilian Epicharmus ; Caecilius,
to excel in gravity, Terence in contrivance. These mighty
Rome learns by heart, and these she views crowded in her
narrow theater ; these she esteems and accounts her poets
from Livy" the writer's age down to our time. Sometimes

8 Ratione mentis acervi. This argument, called sorites, from a Greek
word ff<j/)of, signifying a heap, is composed of many propositions very
little different from each other, and chained together in such a manner,
that beginning with a sensible, incontestible truth, they lead by degrees
to a conclusion evidently false. FRAN.

» The goddess of funerals. Cf. Sat, iL 6, 19.

10 Ennius, who boasted himself another Homer; who, when alive, was
anxious to preserve this mighty character, is no longer disquieted about
his reputation. Death has consecrated his name ; the critics confirm his
title ; his promises are fulfilled, and his opinion of a transmigration of
souls is no longer a dream, as his enemies pretend. PORPHYRION.

11 The commentators are much divided whether these words are spoken
by Horace or the person who disputes with him. Bentley, Cunningham,
and Sanadon read them with a point of interrogation. " Is not Naeviua
in the hands of every reader, and do we not repeat his works as if he
was a modern ?" FRAN.

'* Afrani toga. A new and happy expression, alluding to the subjects
of his comedies, which were formed on the manners and customs of the
Romans, and played in Roman dresses. They were therefore called to~
gatae, as the Grecians were palliatce. FRAN.

13 Livius Andronicus, the most ancient of the Latin poets, brought hia
first play upon the stage in 514 SAN.

«p. L EPISTLES OF HORACE. 281

the populace see right ; sometimes they are wrong. If they
admire and extol the ancient poets so as to prefer nothing
before, to compare nothing with them, they err ; if they think
and allow that they express some things in an obsolete, most in
a stifi', many in a careless manner ; they both think sensibly,
and agree with me, and determine with the assent of Jove him-
self. Not that I bear an ill-will against Livy's epics, and would
doom them to destruction, which I remember the severe Or-
bilius taught me when a boy ; but they should seem correct,
beautiful, and very little short of perfect, this I wonder at :
among which if by chance a bright expression shines forth,
and if one line or two [happen to be] somewhat terse and
musical, this unreasonably carries off and sells the whole poem.
I am disgusted that any thing should be found fault with, not
because it is a lumpish composition or inelegant, but because
it is modern ; and that not a favorable allowance, but honor
and rewards14 are demanded for the old writers. Should I
scruple, whether or not Atta's drama trod the saffron and
flowers15 in a proper manner, almost all the fathers would cry
out that modesty was lost ; since I attempted to find fault
with those pieces which the pathetic ./Esopus,16 which the
skillful Roscius acted : either because they esteem nothing
right, but what has pleased themseives ; or because they
think it disgraceful to submit to their juniors, and to confess,
now they are old, that what they learned when young is de-
serving only to be destroyed. Now he who extols Numa's

u Honorem et prcemia. The rewards and honors which this disputant
demands for his favorite ancients, were, having their works placed, and
their statues erected, in the library of Apollo. DAC.

15 Perfumed waters were scattered through the Roman theaters, and
the stage was covered with flowers, to which Horace pleasantly alludes,
when he supposes the plays of Atta limping over the stage like their
lame author. Titus Quintius had the surname of Atta given him, which
signifies a man who walks on tip-toe. We are obliged to Scah'ger for
discovering the beauty of this passage. FRAN.

16 .^Esopus excelled in tragedy, from whence Horace calls him gravis,
pathetic. Roscius had a lively, natural, familiar manner of speaking,
proper for comedy. He composed a book upon theatrical eloquence, in
which he attempted to prove, that any sentiment might be as variously
expressed by action, as by the power of language. Cicero gives him this
amiable character : " he was so excellent an actor, that he alone seemed
worthy to appear upon a stage ; but he was a man of so much probity
that he alone should never have appeared there." FRAN.

282 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK u.

Salian" hymn, and would alone seem to understand that
which, as well as me, he is ignorant of, does not favor and
applaud the buried geniuses, but attacks ours, enviously hating
us moderns and every thing of ours. Whereas if novelty
had been detested by the Greeks as much as by us, what at
this time would there have been ancient ? Or what would
there have been for common use to read and thumb, common
to every body.

When first Greece, her wars being over, began to trifle,
and through prosperity to glide into folly ; she glowed with
the love, one while of wrestlers,18 another while of horses ;
was fond of artificers in marble, or in ivory, or in brass ;
hung her looks and attention upon a picture ; was delighted
now with musicians, now with tragedians ; as if an infant
girl, she sported under the nurse ; soon cloyed, she abandoned
torhat [before] she earnestly desired. What is there that
pleases or is odious, which you may not think mutable ?
This effect had happy times of peace, and favorable gales
[of fortune].

At Rome it was long pleasing and customary to be up early
with open doors, to expound the laws to clients ; to lay out
money cautiously upon good securities :1B to hear the elder,
and to tell the younger by what means their fortunes might
increase and pernicious luxury be diminished. The inconstant
people have changed their mind, and glow with a universal
urdor for learning : young men and grave fathers sup crowned
with leaves, and dictate poetry. I myself, who affirm that I

17 Saliare Numce carmen. Numa composed hymns in honor of Mars,
which were sung by his priests. They were called axamenta, because
they were written upon tables of wood, axes. The language of them
was grown so dark and obsolete, that Cicero confesses he did not under-
stand them ; and Quintilian says, in his time they were scarce intelligible
to the priests themselves. FRAN.

18 The Greeks were so passionately fond of these athletic exercises,
that Herodotus tells us they would not discontinue them, even during
the most destructive wars; and Plutarch assures us, that the Romans of
his time were persuaded that nothing contributed more to reduce them
to slavery than their love for these diversions. FRAN.

'• Cautos nominilus rectis. " Cauti nummi," sums of money lent upon
good security. Thus the Latins used ;'cautum tempus, cauta summa,
cautum chirographum." By " certis nominibus" are to be understood,
solvent debtors, as in Cicero, " bona nomina." TORR.

EP. L EPISTLES OF HORACE. 283

write no verses, am found more false than the Parthians :**
and, awake before the sun is risen, I call for my pen and
papers and desk. He that is ignorant of a ship is afraid to
work a ship ; none but he who has learned, dares administer
[even] southern wood to the sick ; physicians undertake what
belongs to physicians ; mechanics handle tools ; but we, un-
learned and learned, promiscuously write poems.

Yet how great advantages this error and this slight mad-
ness has, thus compute : the poet's mind is not easily covet-
ous ; fond of verses, he studies this alone ; he laughs at losses,
flights of slaves, fires ; he contrives no fraud against his
partner, or his young ward ; he lives on husks, and brown
bread; though dastardly and unfit for war, he is useful at
home, if you allow this, that great things may derive assist-
ance from small ones. The poet fashions the child's tender
and lisping mouth, and turns his ear even at this time from
obscene language ; afterward also he forms his heart with
friendly precepts, the corrector of his rudeness, and envy, and
passion; he records virtuous actions, he instructs the rising
age with approved examples, he comforts the indigent and the
sick. Whence should the virgin, stranger to a husband, with
the chaste boys, learn the solemn prayer, had not the muse
given a poet ? The chorus entreats the divine aid, and finds
the gods propitious ; sweet in learned prayer, they implore
the waters of the heavens ;" avert diseases, drive off impend-

20 The Romans had frequent experience of Parthian perfidy. Such
was their amusing Crassus with a treaty of peace, and cutting his army
in pieces. Even their manner of flying when they fought, was a kind of
military lie and imposture, which spoke the character of the nation ; nor
is it an ill resemblance of a poet who renounces rhyming, yet continues
to write. CnuQ.

21 In the time of a general drought, sacrifices, called aquilicia, were
performed to Jupiter to implore rain. The people walked barefooted
in procession, and hymns were sung by a chorus of boys and girls. But
to reduce the god to a necessity of hearing them, they rolled a great
stone, called lapis manalis, through the streets, being persuaded it had a
virtue of bringing down rain. But the priests never brought forth this
miraculous stone, until they were tolerably well assured of the success.
Tages and Baccis, Boeotian and Etruscan soothsayers, had remarked,
that the fibers of the sacrifices were of a yellow color, when the wind
turned to rain after a long drought, and ordered the water-stones to be
then immediately rolled. " Fibrae jecinoris sandaracei colons dum fuant,
manales tune verrere opus est petras." Such miracles required iucb art
to support them. FRAK.

284 EPISTLES OP HORACE BOOK a

ing dangers, obtain both peace and years enriched with fruits.
With song the gods above are appeased, with song the gods
below.

Our ancient swains, stout and happy with a little, after the
grain was laid up, regaling in a festival season their bodies
and even their minds, patient of hardships through the hope
of their ending, with their slaves and faithful wife, the part-
ners of their labors, atoned with a hog [the goddess]
Earth, with milk Silvanus, with flowers and wine the genius
that reminds us of our short life. Invented by this custom,
the Fescennine" licentiousness poured forth its rustic taunts
in alternate stanzas ; and this liberty, received down through
revolving years, sported pleasingly ; till at length the bitter
raillery began to be turned into open rage, and threatening
with impunit}- to stalk through reputable families. They, who
suffered from its bloody tooth smarted with the pain ; the
unhurt likewise were concerned for the common condition :
further also, a law and a penalty81 were enacted, which for-
bade that any one should be stigmatized in lampoon. Through
fear of the bastinado, they were reduced to the necessity of
changing their manner, and of praising and delighting.

Captive Greece took captive her fierce conqueror, and in-
troduced her arts into rude Latium. Thus flowed off the

22 The peasants of Latium had as little regard to modesty in their di.
versions, as the Tuscans had in their verses. Fescenina was a town in
Etruria, whose inhabitants, in all their public entertainments, and in their
marriage festivals especially, were not ashamed of licentious and obscene
expressions in the verses pronounced on such occasions. When the
Romans began to form their stage, as the Tuscans were famous for danc-
ing, and theatrical representations, a company of them were sent for to
Rome in the year 342. They did not speak, because the Romans did
not understand their language, but they supplied their want of speech
by a kind of dumb declamation. By their dancing, gesture, and move-
ments, regulated by the sound of the flute, they presented every thought
and sentiment to the eyes of the spectators. From iLese beginnings the
Roman theater arose. SAN.

23 This law was thus expressed, " Si occentassit malum carmen, sive
condid^set, quod infamiam faxit flagitiumque alteri, capital esto." If
any one sinp or compose verses injurious to the reputation or honor of
another, let him be punished with death. This law was made in 302.
which is a proof, says Mr. Sanadon, that the Romans wrote verses in the
first ages of their state. The poets from thence changed their tone
for fear of being beaten to death. The punishment was called Fuatuari
urn. FRAN

HM. EPISTLES OF HORACE. 283

rough Saturnian numbers, and delicacy expelled the rank
venom : but for a long time there remained, and at this day-
remain traces of rusticity. For late [the Roman writer] ap-
plied his genius to the Grecian pages ; and enjoying rest after
the Punic wars,24 began to search what useful matter Sophocles,
and Thespis, and ^Eschylus afforded : he tried, too, if he could
•with dignity translate their works ; and succeeded in pleasing
himself, being by nature [of a genius] sublime and strong :
for he breathes a spirit tragic enough, and dares successfully ;
but fears a blot, and thinks it disgraceful in his writings.

Comedy is believed to require the least pains, because it
fetches its subjects from common life ; but the less indul-
gence it meets with, the more labor it requires. See how
Plautus" supports the character of a lover under age, how
that of a covetous father, how those of a cheating pimp:
how Dossennus exceeds all measure in his voracious parasites ;
with how loose a sock he runs over the stage : for he is glad
to put the money in his pocket, after this regardless whether
his play stand or fall.

Him, whom glory in her airy car20 has brought upon the

2* In 514, a year after the first Punic war, Livius Andronicus first
brought a play divided into acts upon the Roman stage. The republic
then enjoyed an universal peace, for the temple of Janus was shut in
619. DAC.

25 Our best interpreters imagine that Horace praises Plautus and Dos-
sennus, and proposes them as examples worthy of our imitation in the
beautiful characters in their plays. On the contrary, Horace, better to
show the difficulty of succeeding in comedy, is willing to mark some of
the faults which the best theatrical poets have committed. Plautus,
who succeeded so well in the plots and intrigues of his plays, is very un-
happy in his characters, which are generally either too tame, or too much
outraged. Dossennus was in great reputation for the morality of his plays,
as appears by his epitaph, "Hospes, resiste. et sophiam Dossenni lege ;"
but his characters were of one unvaried kind, and only fit for the diver-
eion of the crowd. Horace pleasantly marks this negligence by saying,
he walked over the stage with his comic slippers loose and untied.
HEINSIUS. DAC.

26 Quern tulit ad scenam ventoso gloria curru, exanimat lentus spectator,
etc. There is an exquisite spirit of pleasantry in these lines, which hath
quite evaporated in the hands of the critics. These have gravely supposed
them to come from the person of the poet, and to contain his serious cen-
sure of the vanity of poetic fame. Whereas, besides the manifest absurdity
of the thing, its inconsistency with what is delivered elsewhere on this
eubject (A. P. v. 324), where the Greeks are commended as being " prae-
ter laudem nullius avari," absolutely requires us to understand them aa

286 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK n.

stage, the careless spectator dispirits, the attentive renders
more diligbut : so slight, so small a matter it is, which over-
turns or raises a mind covetous of praise ! Adieu the ludicrous
business [of dra«iatic writing], if applause denied brings me
back meager, bestowed [makes me] full of flesh and spirits.

This too frequently drives away and deters even an adven-
turous poet ? that they who are in number more, in worth and
rank inferior, unlearned and foolish, and (if the equestrian
order dissents) ready to fall to blows, in the midst of the play,
call for either a bear or boxers ; for in these the mob delight.
Nay, even all the pleasurse of our knights is now transferred
from the ear to the uncertain eye, and their vain amusements.
The curtains'" are kept down for four hours or more, while
troops of horse and companies of foot flee over the stage : next
is dragged forward the fortune of kings, with their hands bound
behind them ; chariots, litters, carriages, ships29 hurry on ; cap-
tive ivory, captive Corinth, is borne along. Democritus, if he
were on earth, would laugh; whether a panther a different

proceeding from an objector; who, as the poet hath very satirically con-
trived, is left to exposo himself in the very terms of his objection. Ho
had just been blaming the venality of the Roman dramatic writers. They
had shown themselves more solicitous about filling their pockets, than de-
serving the reputation of good poets. And, instead of insisting further
on the excellence of this latter motive, he stops short, and brings in a
bad poet himself to laugh at it.

" And what then," says he, " you would have us yield ourselves to the
very wind and gust of praise ; and, dropping all inferior considerations,
drive away to the expecting stage in the puffed car of vainglory? For
wh:it/ To ba dispirited, or blown up with air, as the capricious spectator
shall think fit to enforce or withhold his inspirations. And is this the
mighty banefit of your vaunted passion for fame ? No ; farewell the
stage, if the breath of others is that on which the silly bard is to depend
for the contraction or enlargement of his dimensions." HCRD.

27 A'dzx. The curtain, in the ancient theater, when the play began,
or, upon extraordinary occasions, between the acts, was let down and
placed under the stage. Thus they said " tollere aulaea" when the play
was done, and " premero aulaea" when it began and the actors appeared.
We say just tho contrary. FRAN.

2i Ships either in picture, says the old commentator, or drawn along
the Tiber, which was not far from Pompey's theater. Dacier thinks,
there wera subterranean conduits, which poured forth such a sea of wa-
ter, that a naval combat might be represented on it. Indeed, if we believe
the proiioriou'? accounts given bv historians of the magnificence and ex-
pense of the Roman shows, public entertainments, and triumphs, nothing
of this kind can appear incredible to us. However, as the towns in this
procession were built of ivory, we may believe the ships were pictures
FBAIT

BP. I EPISTLES OF HORACE. 287

genus confused" with the camel, or a white elephant at-
tracted the eye of the crowd. He would view the people
more attentively than the sports themselves, as affording him
more strange sights than the actor : and for the writers, he
would think they told their story to a deaf ass. For what
voices are able to overbear the din with which our theaters
resound ? You would think the groves of Garganus, or the
Tuscan Sea, was roaring ; with so great noise are viewed the
shows and contrivances, and foreign riches : with which the
actor being daubed over, as soon as he appears upon the stage,
each right hand encounters with the left. Has he said any
thing yet ? Nothing at all. What then pleases ? The cloth
imitating [the color of] violets, with the dye of Tarentum.

And, that you may not think I enviously praise those kinds
of writing which I decline undertaking, when others handle
them well : that poet to me seems able to walk upon an ex-
tended rope,80 who with his fictions31 grieves my soul, en-
rages, soothes, fills it with false terrors, as an enchanter ; and
sets me now in Thebes, now in Athens.32

But of those too, who had rather trust themselves with a
reader, than bear the disdain of an haughty spectator, use a

29 Diversum confusa genus. " Panthera camelo confusa, diversum ta-
men ab utroque genus" is the construction. This creature was first
shown to the people by Julius Caesar, as a tame tiger was by Augustus,

TORR.

30 The Romans, who were immoderately addicted to spectacles of
every kind, had in particular esteem the funambuli, or rope-dancers ;

" Ita populus studio stupidus in funambulo
Animum occuparat." PROL. IN HECTR.

Prom the admiration of whose tricks the expression " ire per extentum
funem" came to denote, proverbially, an uncommon degree of excellence
and perfection in any thing. The allusion is here made with much
pleasantry, as the poet had just been rallying their fondness for these
extraordinary achievements. HURD.

31 Qui pectus inaniter angit. The word inaniter, as well as falsis,
applied in the following line to terroribus, would express that wondrous
force of dramatic representation, which compels us to take part in feigned
adventures and situations, as if they were real ; and exercises the pas-
sions with the same violence in remote, fancied scenes, as in the present
distresses of real life. HURD.

34 We must understand this of different plays, for the Greek and Ro-
man stage by no means allowed that change of scones which is indulged
to an English theater. Argos, Thebes, Athens, according to the expres-
sion of Torrentius, were the dwelling-houses of tragedy. FRAN.

288 EPISTLES OF HORACE BOOK n

little care ; if you would fill with books [the library you have
erected], an offering worthy of Apollo, and add an incentive
to the poets, that with greater eagerness they may apply to
verdant Helicon.

We poets, it is true (that I may hew down my own vine-
yards), often do ourselves many mischiefs, when we present
a work to you while thoughtful or fatigued ; when we are
pained, if my friend has dared to find fault with one line :
when, unasked, we read over again passages already repeated :
when we lament that our labors do not appear, and our
poems, spun out in a fine thread: when we hope the thing
will come to this, that as soon as you are apprised we are
penning verses, you will kindly of yourself send for us, and
secure us from want, and oblige us to write. But yet it is
worth while to know, who shall be the priests" of your virtue
signalized in war and at home, which is not to be trusted to
an unworthy poet. A favorite of king Alexander the
Great** was that Choerilus, who to his uncouth and ill-formed
verses owed the many pieces he received of Philip's royal

33 ^Edittios. Since the time that Augustus had received divine
honors, our poet looked upon his actions as things sacred. His virtue
is now become a goddess, and hath a temple consecrated to her, and
poets are tiie guardians of it and of its mysteries. Such is the meaning
of^Edituos. FRAN.

34 This praise of Augustus, arising from the comparison of his charac-
ter with that of Alexander, is extremely fine. It has been observed of
the Macedonian, by his historians and panegyrists, that to the stern virtues
of the conqueror, he had joined the softer accomplishments of the virtu-
oso, in a just discernment and love of poetry and of the elegant arts. The
one was thought clear, from his admiration and study of Homer; and the
other, from his famour edict concerning Apelles and Lysippus, could not
be denied. Horace finds means to turn both these circumstances in his
story to the advantage of his prince.

From his extravagant pay of such a wretched versifier as ChoeriluB, he
would insinuate that Alexander's love of the muse was, in fact, but a
blind, unintelligent impulse toward glory. And, from his greater skill
in the arts of sculpture and of painting than of verse, he represents him
as more concerned about the drawing of his figure than the portraiture
of his manners and mind. "Whereas Augustus, by his liberalities to Varius
and Virgil, had discovered the truest taste in the art from which he ex-
pected immortality ; and, in trusting to that as the chief instrument of
his fame, had confessed a prior regard to those mental virtues which are
the real ornament of humanity, before that look of terror, and air and
attitude of victory, in which the brute violence of Alexander most de-
lighted to be shown. HCED-

UP. L EPISTLES OP HORACK 289

coin. But, as ink when toucued leaves behind it a mark and
a blot, so writers as it were stain shining actions with foul
poetry. That same king, who prodigally bought so dear so
ridiculous a poem, by an edict forbaJe that any one beside
Apelles should paint him, or that any other than Lysippus
should mold brass for the likeness of the valiant Alexander.
But should you call that faculty of his, so delicate in discern-
ing other arts, to [judge of] books and of these gifts of the
muses, you would swear he had been born in the gross air of
the Boeotians. Yet neither do Virgil and Varius, your beloved
poets, disgrace your judgment of them, and the presents which
they have received with great honor to the donor ; nor do the
features of illustrious men appear more lively when expressed
by statues of brass, than their manners and minds expressed
by the works of a poet. Nor would I rather compose such
tracts as these creeping on the ground, than record deeds, of
arms, and the situations of countries, and rivers, and forts reared
upon mountains, and barbarous kingdoms, and wars brought
to a conclusion through the whole world under your auspices,8*
and the barriers that confine Janus the guardian of peace, and
Rome dreaded by the Partisans under your government, if I
were but able to do as much as I could wish. But neither
does your majesty" admit of humble poetry, nor dares my
mo lesty attempt a subject which my strength is unable to sup-
port. Yet uinciousness foolishly disgusts the person whom it
loves ; especially when it recommends itself by numbers, and
the art [of writing.] For one learns sooner, and more will-
ingly remembers, that which a man derides, than that which
he approves and venerates. I value not the zeal that gives
me uneasiness ; nor do I wish to be set out any where in

35 The wars being ended through the Roman empire under the aus-
picia of Augustus, that is, by his lieutenants, he shut the temple of Janus.
But the two first times that he had shut this temple, in 725 and 730, he
had commanded in person. Historians inform us, that it was open from
732 to 744, when it was shut on occasion of the victories of Tiberius and
Drusus ; and that it was again opened at the end of the same year, and
never shut during the life of Augustus. In this year we may date the
present epistle. SAN.

36 Majestas. In the time of the republic, this title was given to the
body of the people and the principal magistrates ; but when the sovereign
power was placed in a single person, the title of majesty was given to him
and to his house, " Majestas August! ; majestas divinae domus."

13

290 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK n.

wax" with a face formed for (he worse, nor to be celebrated in
ill-composed verses ; lest I blush, when presented with the
gross gift ; and, exposed in an open box along with my author,
be conveyed into the street that sells frankincense, and spices,
and pepper, and whatever is wrapped up in impertinent writ-
ings.

EPISTLE n.

TO JULIUS FLORUS.

In apologizing for not having written to him, he shows thai the well-ordering
of life is of more importance than the composition of verses.

0 FLORUS, faithful friend to the good and illustrious Nero,
if by chance any one should offer to sell you a boy born at
Tibur and Gabii, and should treat with you in this manner ;
" This [boy who is] both good-natured and well-favored from
head to foot, shall become and be yours for eight thou-
sand sesterces ; a domestic slave, ready in his attendance at
his master's nod ; initiated in the Greek language, of a ca-
pacity for any art ; you may shape out any thing with [such]
moist clay ; besides, he will sing in an artless manner, but
yet entertaining to one drinking. Lavish promises lessen
credit, when any one cries up extravagantly the wares he has
for sale, which he wants to put off. No emergency obliges
me [to dispose of him] : though poor, I am in nobody's debt
None of the chapmen would do this for you ; nor should every
body readily receive the same favor from me. Once, [in
deed,] he [loitered31 on an errand] ; and (as it happens)

" Horace, with much solemn pleasantry, talks as if he were a man who
deserved a statue to be erected to his honor, or was to be made the hero
of an epic poem. In the next line he seems determined to refuse any
honors that might be paid him by a fulsome poetical flatterer, and is
justly apprehensive of being carried with his author to wrap up frankin-
cense and spices in vico thuario. FRAN.

89 Cessavit. This word, which properly signifies to loiter, remisse et
oscitanter agere, gives only a general idea of a trivial fault, but this idea
is determined Toy fuya in the second line following. The lad is found to
be a common fugitive, a fault BO considerable, that a merchant was
obliged to mention it particularly, or the sale was void. FRAN.

IP. n. EPISTLES OF HORACE. 291

absconded, being afraid of the lash that hangs in the stair-
case.3' Give me your money, if this runaway trick, which I
have expected, does not offend you." In my opinion, the man
may take his price, and be secure from any punishment : you wit-
tingly purchased a good-for-nothing boy : the condition of the
contract40 was told you. Novertheless you prosecute this man,
and detain him in an unjust suit.

I told you, at your setting out, that I was indolent :41 I told
you I was almost incapable of such offices : that you might
not chide me in angry mood, because no letter [from me] came
to hand. What then have I profited, if you nevertheless
arraign the conditions that make for me ? On the same score
too you complain, that, being worse than my word, I do not
send you the verses you expected.

A soldier of Lucullus, [having run through] a great many
hardships, was robbed of his collected stock to a penny, as he
lay snoring in the night quite fatigued : after this, like a
ravenous wolf, equally exasperated at himself and the enemy,
eager, with his hungry fangs, he beat off a royal guard from a
post (as they report) very strongly fortified, and well supplied
with stores. Famous on account of this exploit, he is adorned
with honorable rewards, and receives twenty thousand ses-
terces into the bargain. It happened about this time that his
officer being inclined to batter down a certain fort, began to
encourage the same man, with words that might even have
given courage to a coward : " Go, my brave fellow, whither
your valor calls you : go with prosperous step, certain to re-
ceive ample rewards of your merit. Why do you hesitate ?
Upon this, he arch, though a rustic : " He who has lost hie
purse," will go whither you wish," says he.

39 The construction is, latuit metuens fiabence pendentis in scalis. Tliat
their slaves might have the punishment always before their eyes, the
whip was hung on the staircase. TORE. DAC.

40 Lex does not here signify law, but the form, the condition of the
bargain when the sale was made, des nummos, excepta nihil te si fuga
kedat, without which, the merchant was liable to an action, actionem
redhibitoriam during six months. ED. DUBL.

II The first of seven reasons, which Horace gives for not writing, is
his natural indolence. The second is an allusion to the story of Lucullua
his soldier ; that a poet of an easy fortune should write verses only for
his amusement. SAX.

<s The ancients carried their money in a purse tied to their girdles,
from wLence we find in Plautus, " sector zonarius," a cut-purse. Aiex-

292 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK n.

It was my lot to have Rome for my nurse," and to be in-
structed [from the Iliad] how much the exasperated Achilles
prejudiced the Greeks. Good Athens44 give me some addi-
tional learning : that is to say, to be able to distinguish a right
line from a curve, and seek after truth in the groves of Aca-
demus.4* But the troublesome times removed me from that
plesant spot ; and the tide of a civil war carried me away,
unexperienced as I was, into arms, [into arms] not likely to
be a match for the sinews of Agustus Caesar. Whence, as»
soon as [the battle of] Philippi dismissed me in an abject
coniition, with my wings clipped, and destitute both of house
and land, daring poverty4* urged me on to (he composition of
verses : but now, having more than is wanted, what medicines
would be efficacious enough to cure my madness, if I did not
think it better to rest than to write verses.

The advancing years rob us of every thing : they have
taken away my mirth, my gallantry, my revelings, and play :
they are now proceeding to force poetry from me. What
would you have me do ?

In short, all persons do not love and admire the same things.

ander Severus, used to say, a soldier is never afraid but when he is well
armed, well clothed, well fed. and has money in hi? pursa When he is
poor and hungry, he is fit for any desperate action. FRAN.

«3 Horace went to Rome in 696, when he was about seventeen or eight-
een years of age, and read humanity under Orbilius Pupillus. SAN.

44 He went to Athens in 709, when he was nineteen years old, to
study philosophy. His reading Homer, and his father's instructions, had
already much improved him, but at Athens he acquired something more ;
for he not only studied other parts of philosophy there, but learned mo-
rality by reasoning and principles. S.VK.

43 The nann of Academus is one of those which the sciences have
cons3crat3d to immortality with the greatest justice. He was a rich
Ath3nian, who in his regard for philosophy, left to the philosophers, for
holding their asssmblies, a fi:io house at Athens, adorned with a mag-
nificant gallery, a number of statues, and a park, planted with trees.
Plato hai his school there, from whom the philosophers of his sect were
called Academicians. Horace characterizes this school by what dis-
tinguished it fro-n all others; its not boasting that it had found truth,
but onlv professing to search for it, " quaerere verum." TORR.

43 W3 must not understand theso words literally, as if Horace never
wrote verses before the b-Utle of Philippi, but that he did not apply his go-
niu* to poetrv, as to a profession, before that time. The satire '• Prescript!
R3?is Rapili," was apparently written while he was in Brutus's army.
This frank confession of his misfortunes has much sincerity, and he makes
it more willingly, since it turns to the glory of Augustus. DAO.

EP. n. EPISTLES OF HORACE. 293

Ye delight in the ode: one man is pleased with iambics;
another with satires written in the manner of Bion, and vi-
rulent wit. Three guests scarcely can be found to agree,
craving very different dishes with various palate. What shall
I give ? What shall I not give ? You forbid, what another
demands : what you desire, that truly is sour and disgustful to
the [other] two.

Beside other [difficulties], do you think it practicable for
me to write poems at Rome, amid so many solicitudes and
so many fatigues ? One calls me as his security, another to
hear his works, all business else apart ; one lives on the
mount of Quiiinus, the other in the extremity of the Aven-
tine ; both must be waited on. The distances between them,
you see, are charmingly commodious.47 " But the streets are
clear, so that there can be no obstacle to the thoughtful." — A
builder in heat hurries along with his mules and porters : the
crane whirls aloft at one time a stone, at another a great piece
of timber : the dismal funerals dispute the way with the un-
wieldy carriages : here runs a mad dog, there rushes a sow
begrimed with mire. Go now, and meditate with yourself
your harmonious verses. All the whole choir of poets love the
grove, and avoid cities, due votaries to Bacchus'18 delighting
in repose and shade. Would you have me, amid so great
noise both by night and day, [attempt] to sing, and trace the
difficult footsteps of the poets ? A genius who has chosen
quiet Athens for his residence, and has devoted seven years
to study, and has grown old in books and study, frequently
walks forth more dumb than a statue, and shakes the people's
sides with laughter : here, in the midst of the billows and
tempests of the city, can I be thought capable of connecting
words likely to wake the sound of the lyre ?

At Rome there was a rhetorician, brother to a lawyer ; [so
fond of each other were they,] that they would hear nothing
but the mere praises of each other : insomuch, that the latter
appeared a Gracchus to the former, the former a Mucius" to

*7 These hills were at the extremities of Rome north atid south, from
whence the poet ironically says "humane commoda, no unreasonable
distance." ED. DCBL.

<5 The poets sacrificed to Bacchus every year in the month of March.
His festival \vas called Liberalia, and Ovid tells us he bad frequently
assisted at them. The summits of Parnassus were consecrated to that god.

49 Commentators have caused some confusion here bj not perceiving

294 EPISTLES OF HORACE. BOOK a

the latter. Why should this frenzy affect the obstreperous
poets in a leas degree ? I write odes, another elegies : a work
wonderful to behold, and burnished by the nine muses ! Ob-
serve first, with what a fastidious air, with what importance
we survey the temple [of Apollo] vacant for the Roman poets.
In the next place you may follow (if you are at leisure) and
hear what each produces, and wherefore each weaves for him-
self the crown. Like Samnite gladiators in slow duel, till
candle-light, we are beaten and waste out the enemy with
equal blows : • I came off Alcaeus, in his suffrage ; he is mine,
who ? Why who but Callimachus ? Or, if he seems to make
a greater demand, he becomes Mimnermus, and grows in fame
by Ihe chosen appellation. Much do I endure in order to
pacify this passionate race of poets, when I am writing ; and
• submissive court the applause of the people ; [but,] having
finished my studies and recovered my senses, I the same man
can now boldly stop my open ears against reciters.

Those who make bad verses are laughed at : but they are
pleased in writing, and reverence themselves ; and if you are
silent, they, happy, fall to praising of their own accord what
ever they have written. But he who desires to execute a
genuine poem, will with his papers assume the spirit of an
honest critic : whatever words shall have but little clearness
and elegance, or shall be without weight and held unworthy
of estimation, he will dare to displace : though they may re-
cede with reluctance, and still remain in the sanctuary of
Vesta : those that have been long hidden from the people he
kindly will drag forth, and bring to light those expressive
denominations of things that were used by the Catos and

to what Mucius reference is made. There were three celebrated lawyers
of this name, P. Mucius Scsevola, and two Q. Mucii Scsevolse. P. Mu-
cius Scsevola, consul A. u. c. 620, the same year that Tiberius Gracchus
was tribune, is the person here mentioned. Q. Mucius Scaevola, son of
that Publiua, and called by Crassus, Cic. de Orat. i. 39, " Jurisperitorum
eloquentissimus, eloquentium jurisperitissimus," was the colleague of
Crassus in the consulship, A. u. c. 658, while tho Q. Mucius Scsevola
under whoso care Cicero was placed by his father on assuming the toga
virilis, was the son-in-law of Laelius, and tho father-in-law of L. Crassua
the orator. Bentley insists that he should read Crassus for Gracchus.
Crassus and Scaevola were cotemporaries, and colleagues in tribunato,
censorship, and consulship, A. U. C. 659. Gracchus was much senior to
Mucius, and inferior to him in eloquence. Crassus and Mucius support
the dialogue in the first book of Cic. de Orat. M'CAUL.

cp. n. EPISTLES OF HORACE. 295

Cethegi of ancient times, though now deformed dust and
neglected age presses upon them : he will adopt new words,
which use, the parent [of language], shall produce : forcible
and perspicuous, and bearing the utmost similitude to a limpid
stream, he will pour out his treasures, and enrich Latium
with a comprehensive language. The luxuriant he will lop,
the too harsh he will soften with a sensible cultivation : those
void of expression he will discard : he will exhibit the appear-
ance of one at play ; and will be [in his invention] on the rack,
like [a dancer on the stage], who one while affects the motions
of a satyr, at another of a clumsy cyclops.

I had rather be esteemed a foolish and dull writer, while
my faults please myself, or at least escape my notice, than be
wise and smart for it. There lived at Argos a man of no
mean rank, who imagined that he was hearing some admir-
able tragedians, a joyful sitter and applauder in an empty
theater : who [nevertheless] could support the other duties of
life in a just manner ; a truly honest neighbor, an amiable
host, kind toward his wife, one who could pardon his slaves,
nor would rave at the breaking of a bottle-seal : one who
[had sense enough] to avoid a precipice, or an open well.
This man, being cured at the expense and by the care of his
relations, when he had expelled by the means of pure helle-
bore the disorder and melancholy humor, and returned to
himself; "By Pollux, my friends (said he), you have de-
stroyed, not saved me ; from whom my pleasure is thus taken
away, and a most agreeable delusion of mind removed by
force."

In a word, it is of the first consequence to be wise in the
rejection of trifles, and leave childish play to boys for whom
it is in season, and not to scan words to be set to music for
the Roman harps, but [rather] to be perfectly an adept in the
numbers and proportions of real life. Thus therefore I com-
/nune with myself, and ponder these things in silence : " If
no quantity of water would put an end to your thirst, you
would tell it to your physicians. And is there none to whom
you dare confess, that the more you get the more you crave ?
If you had a wound which was not relieved by a plant or
root prescribed to you, you would refuse being doctored
with a root or plant that did no good. You have heard
that vicious folly left the man, on whom the gods conferred

290 EPISTLES OF HORACE. Boor n.

wealth ; and though you are nothing wiser, since you become
richer, will you nevertheless use the same monitors as before ?
But could riches make you wise, could they make you less
covetous and mean-spirited, you well might blush, if there lived
on earth one more avaricious than yourself."

If that be any man's property which he has bought by the
.pound and penny,60 [and] there be some things to which (if
you give credit to the lawyers) possession gives a claim,"
[then] the field that feeds you is your own ; and Orbius'
steward, when he harrows the corn which is soon to give you
flour, finds you are [in effect] the proper master. You give
your money ; you receive grapes, pullets, eggs, a hogshead of
strong wine : certainly in this manner you by little and little
purchase that farm, for which perhaps the owner paid three
hundred thousand sesterces, or more. What does it signify,
whether you live on what was paid for the other day, or a
long while ago ? He who purchased the Aricinian and Vei-
entine fields some time since, sups on bought vegetables, how-
ever he may think otherwise ; boils his pot with bought wood
at the approach of the chill evening. But he calls all that
his own, as far as where the planted poplar prevents quarrels
among neighbors by a determinate limitation : as if any
thing were a man's property, which in a moment of the fleet-
ing hour, now by solicitations, now by sale, now by violence,
and now by the supreme lot [of all men], may change masters
and come into another's jurisdiction. Thus since the per-
petual possession is given to none, and one man's heir urges
on another's, as wave impels wave, of what importance are
houses, or granaries ; or what the Lucanian pastures joined to
the Calabnan ; if Hades, inexorable to gold, mows down the
great together with the small ?

Gems, marble, ivory, Tuscan" statues, pictures, silver-
plate, robes dyed with Getulian purple, there are who can

*° Librd mercatur et cere. In the reign of Servius Tullus, the Romans
weighed their money before witnesses, in a bargain of buying and selling.
When this custom was afterward changed, yet the same expression con-
tinued. ED. DUBL.

*l Mancipat units. To prevent the perpetual vexations of law-suits, the
laws wisely established, that possession and enjoymeut for a certain num-
ber of years should confirm a title and ascertain the property of an estate.
This right of prescription was called usucapio. ED. DUEL.

s* The Tuscans were famous for making statues and vases of earth and

n». n. EPISTLES OF HORACE. 297

not acquire; and there are others, who are not solicitous
of acquiring. Of two brothers, why one prefers lounging,
play, and perfume, to Herod's rich palm-tree groves ;w why
the other, rich and uneasy, from the lising of the light to the
evening shade, subdues his woodland with fire and steel : our
attendant genius knows, who governs the planet of our na-
tivity, the divinity [that presides] over human nature, who
dies with each individual, of various complexion, white and
black.

I will use, and take out from my moderate stock, as much
as my exigence demands : nor will I be under any apprehen-
sions what opinion my heir shall hold concerning me, when
he shall find [I have left him] no more than I had given me.
And yet I, the same man, shall be inclined to know how far
an open and cheerful person differs from a debauchee, and
how greatly the economist differs from the miser. For there
is some distinction whether you throw away your money in a
prodigal manner, or make an entertainment without grudging,
nor toil to accumulate more ; or rather, as formerly iifMinerva's
holidays," when a school-boy, enjoy by starts the short and
pleasant vacation.

Let sordid poverty be far away. I, whether borne in a
large or small vessel, let me be borne uniform and the same. I
am not wafted with swelling sail before the north wind blow-
ing fair : yet I do not bear my course of life against the ad-
copper gilt, with which they decorated their temples and apartments.
Vestes, in the next line, not only signifies clothes, but all sorts of tapes'
try, carpets, etc. ; and, to show how unnecessary these ornaments are,
the poet says there are many people who never give themselves any
trouble or concern about them, SAN.

53 Judea was famous for its woods of palm, from whence Herod drew
a considerable revenue. He began to reign in 717 ; he reigned seventeen
years, and died in 750, between the 13th and 28th of March, three month*
after the birth of our Saviour. SAN.

54 Festis quinquairibtis. According to the mythological traditions, Mi-
nerva came into the world the 1 9th of March, and therefore that day waa
consecrated to her. Four days afterward there was another festival,
called tubilustrium sacrorum, the purification of the musical instruments
used in the sacrifices. These two festivals were afterward united, by
including the three days which separated thorn, and they were from
thence called quinquatrus or quinquatria. This festival was a joyful va-
cation for school-boys, and some of them diverted themselves at their
master's expense, by spending their Minerval, a present sent to hio, ia
money by their parents. DAC. SAN.

13*

298 EPISTLES OP HORACE. BOOK n.

verse south. In force, genius, figure, virtue, station, estate, the
last of the first-rate, [yet] still before those of the last.

You are not covetous, [you say] : — go to. — What then ?
Have the rest of your vices fled from you, together with this ?
Is your breast free from vain ambition ? Is it free from the
fear of death and from anger? Can you laugh at dreams,
magic terrors, wonders, witches, nocturnal goblins, and Thes-
salian prodigies ? Do you number your birth-days with a
grateful mind ? Are you forgiving to your frien Is ? Do you
grow milder and better as old age approaches ? What profits
you only one thorn eradicated out of many? If you do not
know how to live in a right manner, make way for those that
do. You have played enough, eaten and drunk enough, it is
time for you to walk off: lest having tippled too plentifully,
that age which plays the wanton with more propriety, should
ridicule and drive you [off the stage].

HOKACE'S BOOK

UPOX

THE ART OF POETRY,

TO THE PISOS.

IF a painter1 should wish to unite a horse's neck to a human
head, and spread a variety of plumage over limbs [of different
animals] taken from every part [of nature],3 so that what is
a beautiful woman in the upper part terminates unsightly in
an ugly fish below ; could you, my friends, refrain from

1 All that our poet says here may be referred, in general, to three
heads, the fable, the manners, and the diction. We should take notice
that this piece particularly regards epic and dramatic poetry, and that our
author only occasionally mentions any other kind.

The most important precept for the composition of a poem is unity and
simplicity of design. There should be only one action, to which all the
incidents ought to refer; and this point of perfection, every regular work
requires. To show the necessity of this rule, Horace compares an irreg-
ular poem to pictures formed by a wild assortment of many parts en-
tirely unlike each other. Every part, considered in itself may have its
proper, natural perfection, while their union produces nothing but what
is monstrous and ridiculous. FRAN.

The critic's rules must be taken either, 1 . from the general standing
laws of composition ; or, 2. from the peculiar ones, appropriated to tho
kind. Now the direction to be fetched from the former of these sources
will of course precede, as well on account of its superior dignity, as that
the mind itself delights to descend from universals to the consideration of
particulars. Agreeably to this rule of nature, the poet, having to correct,
in the Roman drama, these three points, 1. a misconduct in the disposi-
tion ; 2. an abuse of language ; and, 3. a disregard of the peculiar char-
acters and colorings of its different species, hath chosen to do this on
principles of universal nature ; which, while they include the case of the
drama, at the same time extend to poetic composition at large. These
prefatory, universal observations being delivered, he then proceeds, with
advantage, to the second source of this art, viz., the consideration of the
laws and rules peculiar to the kind. HUBD.

2 But Orelli more rightly treats "collatis membris" as the ablative
absolute.

300 HORACE'S ART OF POETRY.

laughter, were you admitted to such a sight? Believe, ye
Pisos, (he book will be perfectly like such a picture, the iJeas
of which, like a sick man's dreams, are all vain and fictitious :
so that neither head nor foot can correspond to any one form.
" Poets and painters [you will say] have ever had equal au^
thority for attempting any thing." We are conscious of this,
and this privilege we demand and allow in turn: but not to
such a degree, that the tame should associate with the savage ;
nor that serpents should be coupled with birds, lambs with
tigers.

In pompous introductions,3 and such as promise a great
deal, it generally happens that one or two verses of purple
pa'tch-woik, that may make a great show, are tagged on ; as
when the grove and the altar of Diana and the meandering of
a current hastening through pleasant fields, or the river
Rhine, or the rainbow is described. But here there was no
room for these [fine things] : perhaps, too, you know how to
draw a cypress :4 but what is that to the purpose, if he, who
is painted for the given price, is [to be represented as] swim-
ming hcpeless out of a shipwreck ? A large vase at first was

8 These preparatory observations, concerning the laws of poetic com-
position at large, have been thought to glance more particulaly at the
epic poetry which was not improper: for, 1. the drama which he was
about to criticise, had its rise and origin from the epos. Thus we are told
by the great critic, that Homer was the first who invented dramatic imi-
tations [tovof — 6ri f2ipi)aEif fipafiaTLKiig ttroiiiae. 2. The several cen-
sures, here pointed at the epic, would bear still more directly against the
tragic poem ; it being more glaringly inconsistent with the genius of the
drama to admit of foreign and digressive ornaments, than of the extended,
episodical epopceia. For both these reasons, it was altogether pertinent
to the poet's purpose, in a criticism on the drama, to expose the vicious
practice of the epic models. Though, to preserve the unity of his piece,
and for a further reason (see note on v. 1), he hath artfully done this
under the cover of general criticism. HCRD.

4 Boughs of cypress were carried in funeral processions, and placed
before the houses of the great, upon particular occasions of sorrow,
Et non plebeioa luctus testata cupressus. Lucan. From hence, perhaps,
this tree was usually drawn in votive tablets ; in pictures carried by
beggars, to excite charity ; and in those used by lawyers in courts of
justice, to raise the compassion of the judges, by representing the dis-
tresses of their clients. A painter might, by frequent practice, excel in
drawing a tree for which there was such demand ; and he therefore
absurdly determines to show his skill upon all occasions, even by painting
it in the middle of the ocean, and making it overshadow the storm. The
commentators understand this passage in a different manner. FRAN.

HORACE'S ART OF POETRY. 301

designed : why, as the wheel revolves, turns out a little pitcher f
la a word, be your subject what it will, let it be merely simple
and uniform.

The great majority of us poets, father, and youths worthy
suca a father, are misled by the appearance of right. I labor
to be concise, I become obscure : nerves and spirit fail him,
that aims at the easy : one, that pretends to be sublime, proves
bombastical : he who is too cautious and fearful of the storm,
crawls along the ground : he who wants to vary his subject
in u marvelous manner,6 paints the dolphin in the woods, the
boar in the sea. The avoiding of an error leads to a fault, if it
lack skill.

A statuary about the ^Emilian school shall of himself, with
singular skill,8 both express the nails, and imitate in brass the
flexible hair ; unhappy yet in the main, because he knows not
how to finish a complete piece. I would no more choose to be
such a one as this, had I a mind to compose any thing, than to
live with a distorted nose, [though] remarkable for black eyea
and jetty hair.

Ye who write, make choice of a subject suitable to your
abilities ; and revolve in your thoughts a considerable time
what your strength7 declines, and what it is sble to support.
Neither elegance of style, nor a perspicuous disposition, shall
desert the man, by whom the subject matter is chosen ju-
diciously.

5 The word prodigicditer apparently refers to that fictitious monster,
under which the poet allusively shadows out the idea of absurd and in-
consistent composition. The application, however, differs in this, that,
whereas the monster, there painted, was intended tr expose the extrava-
gance of putting together incongruous parts, withoi c any reference to a
whole, this prodigy is designed to characterize a whole, but deformed by
the ill-judged position of its parts. The former is like a monster, whose
several members as of right belonging to different auimals, could by no
disposition be made to constitute one consistent animal The other, like
a landscape which hath no objects absolutely irrelative, or irreducible to
a whole, bat which a wrong position of the parts only renders prodigious.
Send the boar to the woods, and the dolphin to the waves; and the
painter might show them both on the same canvas.

Each is a violation of the law of unity, and a real monster: the one,
because it contains an assemblage of natural incoherent parts ; the other,
because its parts, though in themselves coherent, are misplaced and dis-
jointed. HtJRD.

6 "Unus''='-praeter caeteros." "melius quam reliqui omnes."
The reading before Bentley was "imus."

7 Literally, "shoulders," a phrase derived from wrestler*.

502 HORACE'S ART OF POETRY.

This, or I am mistaken, will constitute the merit and beauty
of arrangement, that the poet just now say what ought just
now to be said, put off most of his thoughts, and waive them
for the present.

In the choice of his words, too, the author of the projected
poem must be delicate and cautious, he must embrace one and
reject another: you will express yourself eminently well, if a
dexterous combination should give an air of novelty to a well-
known word. If it happen to be necessary to explain some
abstruse subjects by new invented terms ; it will follow that
you must frame words never heard of by the old-fashioned"
Cethegi : and the license will be granted, if modestly used :
and new and lately-formed words will have authority, if they
descend from a Greek source, with a slight deviation. But
why should the Romans grant to Plutus and Caecilius a priv-
ilege denied to Virgil and Vaiius ? Why should I be envied,
if I have it in my power to acquire a few words, when the
language of Cato and Ennius has enriched our native tongue,
and produced new names of tilings ? It has been, and ever
will be, allowable to coin a word marked with the stamp in
present request. As leaves in the woods are changed with
the fleeting years ; the earliest fall off first : in this manner
words perish with old age, and those lately invented flourish
and thrive, like men in the time of youth. We, and our works,
are doomed to death : whether Neptune,9 admitted into the
continent, defends our fleet from the north winds, a kingly
work ; or the lake, for a long time unfertile and fit for oars,
now maintains its neighboring cities and feels the heavy
plow ; or the river, taught to run in a more convenient

8 Cinctutis. Having the tunic tightened by tho cinctus, or wearing the
einctus instead of tho tunic, as appears to have been the custom of the
ancient Romans. This was a vest which passed round the waist, and
extended down to tho feet. That it was an ancient vesture may appear
from its being used by the Luperci. Comp. Ovid. Fast. v. 101. As it
did not embarrass tho motion of the arms, oven after the tunic became
part of the dress, it was sometimes substituted for it by those who had
occasion to use much bodily exertion. Hence cinctutis is supposed by
some to have a meaning here similar to that of sitccinctua, " active, in-
dustrious." Others explain the word as referring to that arrangement of
the toga cnlled '; cinctus Gabinus." M'CAUL.

• Agrippa opened a communication between the Lucrine and Avernian
Lakes in 717, and built a magnificent haven there, which he named
Portius Julius, in honor of Augustus, who was at that time only called
Julius Octavianus. SAN.

HORACE'S ART OF POETRY. 303;

channel, has changed its course which was so destructive10
to the fruits. Mortal works must perish : much less can the
honor and elegance of language be long-lived. Many words
shall revive,11 which now have fallen off; and many which
are now in esteem shall fall off, if it be the will of custom,
in whose power is the decision and right and standard of
language.

Homer has instructed us in what measure the achieve-,
ments" of kings, and chiefs, and direful war might be
written.

Plaintive strains originally were appropriated to the un-
equal numbers [of the elegiac] :13 afterward [love and] suc-
cessful desires were included. Yet what author first published
humble1* elegies, the critics dispute, and the controversy still
waits the determination of a judge.

10 The Scholiast informs us, that Agrippa opened a canal to receive the
waters of the Tiber, which had overflowed the country.

11 This revival of old words is one of those niceties in composition, not
to be attempted by any but great masters. It may be done two ways :
1. by restoring such terms as are grown entirely obsolete : or 2. by select-
ing out of those which have still a currency, and are not quite laid aside,
such as are most forcible and expressive. These choice words, among
such as are still in use, I take to be those which are employed by the old
writers in some peculiarly strong and energetic sense, yet so as with good
advantage to be copied by the moderns, without appearing barbarous or
affected. (See Hor. lib. ii. ep. ii. v. 115.) The other use of old terms,
i. e. when become obsolete, he says, must be made parci; more sparingly.
HtJRD.

12 The purport of these lines (from v. 73 to 86), and their connection
with what follows, hath not been fully seen. They would express this
general proposition, "That the several kinds of poetry essentially differ
from each other, as may be gathered, not solely from their different sub-
jects, but their different measures ; which good sense, and an attention
to the peculiar natures of each, instructed the great inventors and mas-
ters of them to employ. The use made of this proposition is to infer",
" That therefore the like attention should be had to the different species
of the same kind of poetry (v. 89, etc.), as in the case of tragedy and
comedy (to which the application is made), whose peculiar differences
and correspondences, as resulting from the natures of each, should, in
agreement to the universal law of decorum, be exactly known and dili-
gently observed by the poet." HURD.

13 Elegy was at first only a lamentation for the death of a person be-
loved, and probably arose frem the death of Adonis. It was afterward
applied to the joys and griefs of lovers. TORR.

14 The pentameter, which Horace calls "exiguum," because it has a
Toot less than the hexameter. For the same reason he says, " versibua
impariter junctis." DAC. • '•

304 HORACE'S ART OF POETRY.

Rage armed Archilochus with the iambic of his own in-
vention. The sock and the majestic buskin assumed this
measure as adapted for dialogue, and to silence the noise of
the populace, and calculated for action.

To celebrate gods, and the sons of gods, and the victorious
wrestler, and the steed foremost in the race, and the in-
clination of youths, and the free joys of wine, the muse has
allotted to the lyre.

If I am incapable and unskillful to observe the distinction
described, and the complexions of works [of genius], why am
I accosted by the name of " Poet ?" Why, out of false modesty,
do I prefer being ignorant to being learned ?

A comic subject will not be handled in tragic verse :" in
like manner the banquet of Thyestes will not bear to be held
in familiar verses, and such as almost suit the sock. Let

13 Indignatur item, etc. — Coena Thyesta. " II met le souper de Thyeste
pour toutes sortes de tragedies," says M. Dacier, with whom agrees the
whole band of commentators : but why this subject should be singled out,
as the representative of the rest, is nowhere explained by any of them.
We may be sure, it was not taken up at random. The reason was, that
the Thyestes of Ennius was peculiarly chargeable with the fault here
censured ; as is plain from a curious passage in the Orator, where Cicero,
speaking of the loose numbers of certain poets, observes this, in particu.
lar, of the tragedy of Thyestes, "Similia sunt quaedam apud nostros:
velut in Thyeste,

Quemnam te esse dicam ? qui tarda in senectute,

et quse sequuntur : quae, nisi cum tibicen accesserit, oratione sunt solutaa
aimillimae:" which character exactly agrees to this of Horace, wherein
the language of that play is censured, as flat and prosaic, and hardly
rising above the plain narrative of an ordinary conversation in comedy.
This allusion to a particular play, written by one of their best poets, and
frequently exhibited on the Roman stage, gives great force and spirit to
the precept, at the same time that it exemplifies it in the happiest man-
ner. It seems further probable to me, that the poet also designed an in-
direct compliment to Varius, whose Thyestes we are told (Quinctil. L x.
c. 1) was not inferior to any tragedy of the Greeks. This double inten-
tion of these lines well suited to the poet's general aim, which is seen
through all his critical works, of beating down the excessive admiration
of the old poets, and of asserting and advancing the just honors of the
deserving moderns. It may further be observed, that the critics have not
felt the force of the words exponi and narrari in this precept. They are
admirably chosen to express the two faults condemned: the first imply-
ing a kind of pomp and ostentation in the language, which is thereforo
improper for the low subjects of comedy ; and the latter, as I have hinted,
a flat, prosaic expression, not above the cast of a common narrative, and
therefore equally unfit for tragedy. Hciux

HORACE'S ART OP POETRY. 305

each peculiar species [of writing] fill with decorum its proper
place. Nevertheless sometimes even comedy exalts her voice,
and passionate Chremes rails in a tumid strain : and a tragic
writer generally expresses grief in a prosaic style. Telephus
and Peleus, when they are both in poverty and exile, throw
aside their rants and gigantic expressions if they have a mind
to move the heart of the spectator with their complaint.

It is not enough that poems be beautiful ;" let them b«
tender and affecting, and bear away the soul of the auditor
whithersoever they please. As the human countenance smiles
on those that smile, so does it sympathize with those that
weep. If you would have me weep you must first express
the passion of grief yourself; then, Telephus or Peleus, your
misfortunes hurt me : if you pronounce the parts assigned you
ill, I shall either fall asleep or laugh.

Pathetic accents suit a melancholy countenance ; words full
of menace, an angry one ; wanton expressions, a sportive look ;
and serious matter, an austere one. For nature forms us first
within to every modification of circumstances ; she delights or
impels us to anger, or depresses us to the earth and afflicts us
with heavy sorrow : then expresses those emotions of the
mind by the tongue, its interpreter. If the words be dis-
cordant to the station of the speaker, the Roman knights and
plebians will raise an immoderate laugh. It will make a
wide difference, whether it be Davus that speaks, or a hero ;
a man well-stricken in years, or a hot young fellow in his
bloom ; and a matron of distinction, or an officious nurse ; a
roaming merchant, or the cultivator of a verdant little farm ;
a Colchian, or an Assyrian ; one educated at Thebes, or one
at Argos.

You, that write, either follow tradition," or invent such

16 Non satis est pulchra, etc. Bentley objects to jndchra because
this, he says, is a general term including under it every species of beauty,
and therefore that of dulcis or the affecting. As if general terms were
not frequently restrained and determined to a peculiar sense by the con-
text. But the great critic did not sufficietly attend to the connection,
which, as F. Robertellus, in his paraphrase on the epistle, well observes,
stands thus: "It is not enough, that tragedies have that kind of beauty
which arises from a pomp and splendor of diction, they must also be
pathetic or affecting. HURD.

17 The connection lies thus: language must agree with character:
character with fame, or at least with itsel£ HURD.

308 HORACE'S ART OF POETRY.

fables as arc congruous to thomselves. If as poet you hav«
to represent the renowned Achilles ; let him be indefatigable,
wrathful, inexorable, courageous, let him deny that laws were
made for him, let him arrogate every thing to force of arms.
Let Medea be fierce and untractable, Ino an object of pity,
Ixion perfidious, lo wandering, Orestes in distress.

If you offer to the stage any thing unattempted, and venture
to form a new character ; let it be preserved to the last'*
such as it set out at the beginning, and be consistent with
itself. It is difficult to write with propriety10 on subjects to
which all writers have a common claim ; and you with more
prudence will reduce the Iliad into acts, than if you first in-
troduce arguments unknown and never treated of before. A
public story will become your own property,88 if you do not
dwell upon the whole circle of events, which is paltry and
open to every one ; nor must you be so faithful a translator, as
to take the pains of rendering [the original] word for word ;
nor by imitating throw yourself into straits, whence either
shame or the rules of your work may forbid you to retreat.

13 Tho rule is, as appears from the reason of the thing, and from Aris-
totle, i;Let a uniformity of character be preserved, or at least a consist-
ency:" t. e. either let tho manners be exactly the same from the begin-
ning to the end of the play, as those of Medea, for instance, and Orestes;
or, if any change be necessary, let it be such as may consist with, and be
easily reconciled to, the manners formerly attributed, as is seen in the
case of Electra and Iphigenia. KURD.

19 Difficile estpropri; communia dicere. Lambin's comment is, "Com-
munia hoc loco appellat Horatius argumenta fabularum a nullo adhuc
tractata : et ita, qua3 cuivis exposita suut et iu medio quadammodo posita,
quasi vacua ct a nemine occupata." And that this is the true meaning
of communia is evidently fixed by the words ignota indictaque, which are
explanatory of it HUKD.

i0 Publica materies is just tho reverse of what the poet had before styled
communia : the latter meaning such subjects or characters as, though by
their nature left in common to all, had yet, in fact, not been occupied by
any writer ; tho former, those which had already been made public by
occupation. In order to acquire a property in subjects of this sort, the
poet directs us to observe tho three following cautions : 1. Not to follow
the trite, obvious round of the original work; i. e. not servilely and
scrupulously to adhere to its plan of method. 2. Not to be translators,
instead of imitators, i. e. if it shall be thought fit to imitate more ex-
pressly any part of the original, to do it with freedom and spirit, and
without a slavish attachment to the mode of expression. 3. Not to adopt
any particular incident that may occur in the proposed model, which
cither decency or tho nature of the work would reject. Hum

HORACE'S ART OF POETRY. 307

Nor must you make such an exordium, as the Cyclic1"
writer of old : " I will sing the fate of Priam, and the noblo
war." What will this boaster produce worthy of all this
gaping? The mountains are in labor, a lidiculous mouse
will be brought forth-. How much more to the purpose he,
who attempts nothing improperly ? " Sing for me, my muse,
the man who, after the time of the destruction of Troy, sur-
veyed the manners and cities of many men." He meditates
not [to produce] smoke from a flash, but out of smoke to
elicit fire, that he may thence bring forth his instances of the
marvelous with beauty, [such as] Antiphates, Scylla, the
Cyclops, and Charybdis. Nor does he date Diomede's return
from Meleager's death, nor trace the rise of the Trojan war
from [Leda's] eggs : he always hastens on to the event ; and
hurries away his reader in the midst of interesting circum-
stances, no otherwise than as if they were [already] known ;
and what he despairs of, as to receiving a polish from his
touch, he omits ; and in such a manner forms his fictions, so
intermingles the false with the true, that the middle is not in-
consistent with the beginning, nor the end with the middle.

Do you attend to what I, and the public in my opinion,
expect from you [as a dramatic writer]. If you are desirous
of an applauding spectator, who will wait for [the falling of]
the curtain, and till the chorus calls out " your plaudits ;" the
manners of every age must be marked by you, and a proper
decorum assigned to men's varying dispositions and years.
The boy, who is just able to pronounce his words, and prints
the ground with a firm tread, delights to play with his fel-
lows, and contracts and lays aside anger without reason, and
is subject to change every hour. The beardless youth, his
guardian being at length discharged, joys in horses, and dogs,
and the verdure of the sunny Campus Martius ; pliable as wax
to the bent of vice, rough to advisers, a slow provider of use-
ful things, prodigal of his money, high-spirited, and amorous,
and hasty in deserting the objects of his passion. [After

21 Scriptor cyclicus. Some author of the cyclus, described above, 1, 132.
*The chief Cyclic poems are the following: 1. TU KvApia, of Stasinus
or Hegesinus. 2. The AidioTrif of Arctinus. 3. The M/u«f //.i.upd. by.
Lesches. 4. The '\~Aiov r^^ir of Arctinus. 5. The Noarm attributed
to Agias. 6. The Tri^.Eyoi>ia of Eugammon. These were collected,
more for the sake of philology than poetry, by the Alexandiine gram-.
mariaiis. M'CAUL.

808 HORACE'S ART OF POETRY.

this,] our inclinations being changed, the age and spirit of
manhood seeks after wealth, and [high] connections, is sub-
servient to points of honor; and is cautious of committing
any action, which he would subsequently be industrious to
correct. Many inconveniences encompass a man in years;
either because he seeks [eagerly] for gain," and abstains from
what he has gotten, and is afraid to make use of it ; or be-
cause he transacts every thing in a timorous and uispassionate
manner, dilatory, slow in hope, remiss, and greedy of futurity.
Peevish, querulous, a panegyrist of former times when he was
a boy, a chastiser and censurer of his juniors. Our advancing
years" bring many advantages along with them. Many our
declining ones take away. That the parts [therefore] belong-
ing to age may not be given to youth, and those of a man
to a boy, we must dwell upon those qualities which are joined
and adapted to each person's age.*4

An action is either represented on the stage, or being done
elsewhere is there related. The things which enter by the
ear affect the mind more languidly, than such as are sub-
mitted to the faithful eyes, and what a spectator presents to
himself. You must not, however, bring upon the stage
things fit only to be acted behind the scenes : and you must
take away from view many actions, which elegant descrip-
tion** may soon after deliver in presence [of the spectators].
Let cot Medea murder her sons before the people; nor the
execrable Atreus openly dress human entrails : nor let Progue
be metamorphosed into a bird, Cadmus into a serpent What-
ever you show to me in this manner, not able to give credit
to, I detest

JJ "Quserit"="quae8tus facit," as in Virg. Georg. i. "In medium
qiuerebant."

23 He returns to his first division of human life into two part*. " Anni
venientea," the years preceding manhood; "anni recedentes," the years
going back toward old age and death. The ancients reckoned the former
by addition : the latter by subtraction. The French have an expression
like this of "recedentes anni." They say, "cst sur son retour,1' "he is
upon his return," when a person is declining in years. DAC.

** Semper in adjunctis. " Adjuncta asvo," every thing which attends
age; "apta sevo," every thing proper to it.

25 Fecundia prcesens. The recital of an actor present, which ought to
be made with all the pathetic; "facundia;" or a recital instead of the
action, " facundia facti vicaria, qua rem quasi oculia prsesentera sistit-"
DAG.

HORACE'S ART OF POETRY. 308

Let a play which would be inquired after, and though seen,
represented anew, be neither shorter nor longer than the fifth
act. Neither let a god interfere, unless a difficulty worthy a
god's unraveling should happen ; nor let a fourth person be
officious to speak.26

Let the chorus" sustain the part and manly78 character of
an actor : nor let them sing any thing between the acts which
is not conducive to, and fitly coherent with, the main design.
Let them both patronize the good,80 and give them friendly

26 The poet does not forbid a fourth person to speak, but would have
him say very little, as the Scholiast understands the precept. Indeed, a
conversation of three people is most agreeable, because it is less confused
and less divides the attention of an audience. RODELL.

27 The chorus was not introduced between the acts, merely to relieve
the audience, but had a part in the play, and concurred with the other
actors to carry on the plot, and support the probability of it. The Chori-
phaeus, or first person of the chorus, entered in the acts, and spoke for
all those of whom the chorus was composed ; '' officiumque virile de-
fendat." The chorus filled up the intervals of the acts with their songs,
which were composed of reflections upon what was past, or their appre-
hensions of what might happen. FRAN.

28 Officiumque virile. Heinsius takes virile adverbially, for viriliter.
But this is thought harsh. What hinders, but that it may be taken ad-
jectively ? And then, agreeably to his interpretation, " officium virile"
will mean a strenuous, diligent office, such as becomes a person interested
in the progress of the action. The precept is leveled against the prac-
tice of those poets who, though they allow the part of a persona dramatis
to the chorus, yet for the most part make it so idle and insignificant a
one, as is of little consequence in the representation ; by which means
the advantage of probability, intended to be drawn from this use of the
chorus, is, in great measure, forfeited. KURD.

29 The chorus, says the poet, is to take the side of the good and virtu-
ous; i. e. (see note on v. 193), is always to sustain amoral character.
But this will need some explanation and restriction. To conceive aright
of its office, we must suppose the chorus to be a number of persons, by
some probable cause assembled together, as witnesses and spectators of
the great action of the drama. Such persons, as they can not be wholly
uninterested in what passes before them, will very naturally bear some
share in the representation. This will principally consist in declaring
their sentiments, and indulging their reflections freely on the several
events and distresses as they shall arise. Thus we see the moral at-
tributed to the chorus, will be no other than the dictates of plain sense ;
such as must be obvious to every thinking observer of the action, who is
under the influence of no peculiar partialities from affection or interest.
Though even these may be supposed, in cases where the character to-
ward which they draw is represented as virtuous.

A chorus, thus constituted, must always, it is evident, take the part of
virtue ; because this ;s the natural, and almost necessary determination

310 HORACE'S ART OF POETRY.

advice, and regulate the passionate, and love to appease those
who swell [with rage] :30 let them praise the repast of a
short meal, the salutary effects of justice, laws, and peace
with her open gates ; let them conceal what is told to them in
confidence,"1 and supplicate and implore the gods that pros-
perity may return to the wretched, and abandon the haughty.
The flute," (not as now, begirt with brass and emulous of

of mankind, in all ages and nations, when acting freely and uncon-
strained. HUKD.

su I read " pacare tumentes," with Bentley, Orelli, and others.

31 The Choriphaeus was present through the whole play, and was often
necessarily intrusted with the secrets of the persons of the drama. To
preserve the probability, the poets chose a chorus, that was obliged by
t'aeir own interest to keep those secrets, and without acting contrary to
their duty. Euripides hath greatly offended against this precept. DAO.

3* Tibia non ut nunc orichalco, etc. (From v. 202 to v. 220.) This is
one of those many passages in the epistle about which the critics have
said a great deal, without explaining any thin?. In support of what I
mean to offer, as the true interpretation, I observe,

I. That the poet's intention certainly was, not to censure the false re-
finements of their stage music ; but, in a short digressive history (such
as the didactic form will sometimes require), to describe the rise and
progress of the true. This I collect, 1. From the expression itself, which
can not, without violence, be understood in any other way. For, as to the
words licentia and pracepis, which have occasioned much of the difficulty,
the first means a freer use, not a licentiousness properly so-called ; and
the other only expresses a vehemence and rapidity of language, naturally
productive of a quicker elocution, such as must of course attend the
more numerous harmony of the lyre : not, as M. Dacier translates it,
" une eloquence temeraire et outree," an extravagant straining and af-
fectation of stylo. 2. From the reason of tl;e thing, which makes it in-
credible that the music of the theater should then be most complete,
when the times were barbarous, and entertainments of this kind littlo
encouraged or understood. 3. From the character of that music itself;
for the rudeness of which, Horace, in effect, apologizes, in defending it
only on the score of the imperfect state of the stage, and the simplicity
of its judges. This then being clear, I observe,

IL That those two verses,

" Indoctus quid enim saperet liberque laborum,

Rusticus urbano confusus, turpis honesto ?"

are, as they now stand, utterly inexplicable. This hath appeared long
since, from the fruitless labors of the critics, and, above all, of Lambin,
one of the best of them, who, after several repeated efforts to elucidate
this place, leaves it just as dark and unintelligible as ho found it. The
interpretation, without them, stands thus: "The tibia," says the poet,
" was at first low and simple. The first, as best agreeing to the then
state of the stage, which required only a soft music to go along with and
aaaut the chorus, tuere being no large and crowded theaters to fill in

HORACE'S ART OF POETRY. 311

the trumpet, but) slender and of simple form, with few stops,
was of service to accompany and assist the chorus, and with
its tone was sufficient to fill the rows that were not as yet too
crowded, where an audience, easily numbered, as being small
and sober, chaste and modest, met together. But when the
victorious Romans began to extend their territories, and an
ampler wall encompassed the city, and their genius was in-
dulged on festivals by drinking wine in the day-time without
censure ; a greater freedom arose both to the numbers [of
poetry], and the measure [of music]." For what taste could
an unlettered clown and one just dismissed from labors have,

those days. And the latter, as suiting best to the then state of the times,
whose simplicity and frugal manners exacted the severest temperance, as
in every thing else, so in their dramatic ornaments and decorations. But,
when conquest had enlarged the territory and widened the walls of Rome,
and, in consequence thereof, a social spirit had dispelled that severity of
manners, by the introduction of frequent festival solemnities, then, as
was natural to expect, a freer and more varied harmony took place. And
thus it was, that the tilictn, the musician who played to the declamation
in the acts, instead of the rude and simpler strain of the old times, gave
a richness and variety of tone ; and instead of the old inactive posture,
added the grace of motion to his art. Just in the same manner," con-
tinues ho, " it happened to the lyre, i. e. the music in the chorus, which
originally, as that of the tilia, was severe and simple ; but, by degrees,
acquired a quicker aud more expressive modulation, such as correspond-
ed to the more elevated and passionate turn of the poet's style, and the
diviner enthusiasm of his sentiment." KURD.

33 Accessit numerisque modisque licentia major. M. Dacier is out again,
when he takes licentia major in a bad sense, as implying "lascivete," a
culpable and licentious refinement. The license here spoken of, with re-
gard to numbers and sounds, like that in another place, which respects
words (1. 51), is one of those which is allowed, when sumpta pudenter.
The comparative major, which is a palliative, shows this ; and is further
justified by a like passage in Cicero de Oratore (I. iii. c. 48), where,
speaking of this very license in poetry, he observes, that out of the heroic
and iambic measure, which was at first strictly observed, there arose by
degrees the anapaest, " procerior quidam numerus, et ille licentior et di-
vitior dithyrambus;" evidently not condemning this change, but oppos-
ing it to the rigorous and confined measures of the elder poet. But the
expression itself occurs in the piece entitled " Orator," in which, com-
paring the freedoms of the poetical and oratorical style, " in ea" (i. e.
poetici), says he, " licentiam statuo majorem esse, quum in nobis facien-
dorum jungendorumnue verborum." The poet says this license extend-
ed " numeris modisque," the former of which words will express that
license of meter spoken of by Cicero, and which is further explained,
v. 256, etc., where an account is given of the improvement of the iambic.
verse. HUBD.

312 HORACE'S ART OF POETRY.

when ia company with the polite ; the base, with the man of
hoeior ? Thus the musician added" new movements and a

34 Sicpriscce — arti tibicen, etc. — Sicfidibus etiam, etc. This is the ap-
plication of what hath been said, in general, concerning the refinement
of theatrical music to the case of tragedy. Some commentators say, and
to comedy. But in this they mistake, as will appear presently, il. Da-
cier hatii I know not what conceit about a comparison betwixt the Roman
and Greek stage. His reason is, that the lyre was used in the Greek
chorus, as appears, he says, from Sophocles playing upon this instrument
himself in one of his tragedies. And was it not used too in the Roman
chorus, as appears from Nero's playing upon it in several tragedies ? But
the learned critic did not apprehend this matter. Indeed, from the cau-
tion with which his guides, the dealers in antiquities, always touch this
point, it should seem that they too had no very clear conception of it.
The case I take to have been this : the tibia, as being most proper to
accompany the declamation of the acts, cantanti sticcinere, was constantly
employed, as will in the Roman tragedy as comedy. This appears from
many authorities. I mention only two from Cicero. " Quam multa (Acad.

1. ii. 7) quae nosfugiunt in cantu, exaudiunt in eo genere exercitati: Qui,
primo inflatu tibicinis, Antiopam esse aiunt aut Audromachem, cum nos
ne suspicemur quidem." The other is still more express. In his piece
entitled " Orator," speaking of the negligence of the Roman writers in
respect of numbers, ho observes, that there were even many passages in
their tragedies, which, unless the tibia played to them, could not be dis-
tinguished from mere prose : " quse nisi cum tibicen accesserit, oration!
sint solutae simillima." One of these passages is expressely quoted from
Thyestes, a tragedy of Eunius, and, as appears from the measure, taken
out of one of the acts. It is clear, then, that the tibia was certainly used
in the declamation of tragedy. But now the song of the tragic chorus,
being of the nature of the ode, of course required fides, the lyre, the
peculiar and appropriated instrument of the lyric muse. And this is
clearly collected, if not from express testimonies, yet from some occasional
hints dropped by the ancients. For, 1. The lyre we are told (Cic. do
Leg. ii. 9 and 15), and is agreed on all hands, was an instrument of the
Roman theater ; but it was not employed in comedy. This we certainly
know from the short accounts of the music prefixed to Terrence's plays.

2. Further, the iibicen, as we saw, accompanied the declamation of the
acts in tragedy. It remains, then, that the proper place of the lyre was,
where one should naturally look for it, in the songs of the chorus ; but
we need not go further than this very passage for a proof It is un-
questionable, that the poet is here speaking of the chorus only, the fol-
lowing lines not admitting any other possible interpretation. Byfidibut,
then, it is necessarily understood the instrument peculiarly used in it. In
this view, the whole digression is more pertinent and connects better.
The poet had before been speaking of tragedy. All his directions, from
1. 100, respect this species of the drama only. The application of what
he had said concerning music is then most naturally made, 1. To the
tibia, the music of the acts ; and, 2. To fides, that of the choir: thus con-
fining himself, as tho tenor of this part required, to tragedy only. Hence
is seen the mistake, not only of M. Dacier, whoso comment is in everj

HORACE'S ART OF POETRT. 313

luxuriance to the ancient art, and strutting backward and for-
ward, drew a length of train over the stage ; thus likewise new
notes were added to the severity of the lyre, and precipitate elo-
quence produced an unusual language [in the theater] : and
the sentiments [of the chorus, then] expert in teaching useful
things and prescient of futurity, differ hardly from the oracular
Delphi."

The poet, who first tried his skill in tragic verse for the
paltry [prize of a] goat, soon after exposed to view wild
satyrs naked," and attempted raillery with severity, still pre-
serving the gravity [of tragedy] : because the spectator on
festivals, when heated with wine37 and disorderly, was to be

view insupportable ; but, as was hinted, of Heinsius, Lambin, and others,
who, with more probability, explained this of the Roman tragedy and
comedy. For, though tibia might be allowed to stand for comedy, as
opposed to tragcedia (as, in fact, we find it in II. Ep. 1. 98), that being
the only instrument employed in it ; yet, in speaking expressly of the
music of the stage, fides could not determinately enough, and in contra-
distinction to tibia, denote that of tragedy, it being an instrument used
solely or principally in the chorus, of which the context shows, he alone
speaks. It is further to be observed, that in the application here made,
besides the music, the poet takes in the other improvements of the tragic
chorus, these happening, as from the nature of the thing they must, at
the same time. HURD.

35 Sententia Del/phis. Sententia is properly an aphorism taken from
life, briefly representing either what is or what ought to be the conduct of
it : " Oratio sumpta de vita, quse aut quid sit aut quid esse oporteat in vita,
breviter ostendit." (Ad Herenn. Rhet. 1. iv.) These aphorisms are here
mentioned, as constituting the peculiar praise and beauty of the chorus.
This is finely observed, and was intended to convey an oblique censure
on the practice of those poets, who stuff out every part of the drama alike
with moral sentences, not considering that the only proper receptacle of
them is the chorus, where indeed they have an extreme propriety, it
being the peculiar office and character of the chorus to moralize. HURD.

36 There was a kind of tragic comedies among the Greeks, which they
called Satyrs, because the chorus was formed of Satyrs, who sung the
praises of Bacchus between the acts, and said a thousand low pleasantries.
The only piece of this kind remaining to us is the Cyclops of Euripides,
in which Ulysses is the principal actor. The Romans, in imitation of the
Greek Satyrs, had their Atettanae, so called from Atella, the city where
they were first played. NAN.

« Potus et exlex. The lines,

" Indoctus quid enim saperet liberque laborum
Rusticus urbano confusus, turpis honesto ?"

I observed, certainly misplaced. They should, I think, come in
14

314 HORACE'S ART OF POETRY.

amused with captivating shows and agreeable novelty. But
it will be expedient so to recommend the bantering, so the
rallying satyrs, so to turn earnest into jest ; that none who
shall be exhibited as a god, none who is introduced as a hero
lately" conspicuous in regal purple and gold, may deviate in-
to the low style of obscure, mechanical shops; or, [on the
contrary,] while he avoids the ground, affect cloudy mist and
empty jargon. Tragedy*' disdaining to prate forth trivial
verses, like a matron commanded to dance on the festival

here, where their sense is extremely pertinent. The poet had been
speaking of the satyric drama, which, says he, was added to the tragic,

" eo quod

Illecebris erat, et grata novitate morandus
Spectator, functusque sacris, et potus, et exlex."

But why, it might be asked, this compliance, in so false a taste, with a
drunken, lawless rabble ? The answer is natural and to the purpose.
" Because their theaters necessarily consisted of a mixed assembly, every
part of which was to be considered in the public diversions." The ques-
tion then hath an extreme propriety,

" Indoctus quid enim saperet liberque laborum,

Rusticus urbano confusus, tnrpis honesto ?"

The rusticus and turpis demanded the satyric piece. It was the necessary
result of this mixutre ; as, to gratify the better sort, the urbanus and ho-
nestus, the tragic drama was exhibited. It is some prejudice in favor of
this conjecture, that it explains to us, what would otherwise appear very
strange, that such gross ribaldry, as we know the Atellanes consisted of,
could ever be endured by the politest age of Rome. But scenical repre-
sentations being then intended, not as in our days, for the entertainment
of the better sort, but on certain great solemnities, indifferently for the
diversion of the whole city, it became necessary to consult the taste of
the multitude, as well as of those, quibus esl equus et pater et res. HURD.

33 This proves that the same actor, as M. Dacier observes, who had been
an Orestes or Ulysses in the tragic part, played the same chraracter in the
comic, or, AteUance. Thus Plautus in the prologue to his Mcncchmes,
"this town, during this play, shall bo Epidamnum, and when it has been
acted, it may be any other city. As in a company of players, the same
person shall, at different times, be a pander, a youth, an old man, a beg-
gar, a king, a parasite, a soothsayer." St. Jerome hath finely imitated
this passage ; " our vices oblige us to play many characters, for every vice
wears a different mask. Thus in a theater, the same person plays a robust
and nervous Hercules, a dissolute Venus, and a furious Cyclops." FRAN.

88 Indigna tragaedia versus. Horace means the AteUance, which were
in so much esteem, that the persons, who acted in them, were not ranked
with the comedians, nor were obliged to unmask on the Rtare when
they played ill, as others were ; and, as a peculiar honor, thev were
allowed to enlist in the army. Therefore low and trivial veraca were
beneath the dignity of the Atellance. DAG.

HORACE'S ART OF POETRY. 815

days,48 will assume an air of modesty, even in the midst of
wanton satyrs. As a writer of satire, ye Pisos, I shall never
be fond of unornamented and reigning terms :41 nor shall I la-
bor to differ so widely from the complexion of tragedy, as to
make no distinction, whether Davus be the speaker. And the
bold Pythias, who gained a talent by gulling Simo ; or Silenus,
the guardian and attendant of his pupil-god (Bacchus]. I
would so execute a fiction" taken from a well-known story,
that any body might entertain hopes of doing the same thing ;
but, on trial, should sweat and labor in vain. Such power has
a just arrangement and connection of the parts : such grace
may be added to subjects merely common. In my judgment
the Fauns, that are brought out of the woods, should not be too
gamesome with their tender strains, as if they were educated in
the city, and almost at the bar; nor, on the other hand, should
blunder out their obscene and scandalous speeches. For [at
such stuff] all are offended, who have a horse,4* a father, or an

40 Young \vomen were usually chosen to dance in honor of the gods,
but in some festivals, as in that of the great goddess, the pontiffs obliged
married women to dance. Hence the poet says jussa. DAC.

41 Dominantia verba. What t le Greeks call Kvpta, as if they were
masters of the thing they would express ; as we say in English, "calling
things by their proper names." FRAN.

42 This precept (from v. 240 to 244) is analogous to that before given
(v. 129) concerning tragedy. It directs to form the Satyrs out of a
known subject. The reasons are, in general, the same for both. Only
one seems peculiar to the Satyrs. For, the cast of them being necessarily
romantic, and the persons those fantastic beings called satyrs, the TO
5/toiov, or probable, will require the subject to have gained a popular
belief, without which the representation must appear unnatural. Now,
these subjects which have gained a popular belief, in consequence of old
tradition, and their frequent celebration in the poets, are what Horace
calls nota ; just as newly invented subjects, or, which comes to the same
thing, such as had not been employed by other writers, indicia, he, on
a like occasion, terms ignota. The connection lies thus. Having men-
tioned Silenus in v. 239, one of the commonest characters in this drama,
an objection immediately offers itself; " But what good poet will engage
in subjects and characters so trite and hackneyed ?" The answer is,
"ex noto fictum carmen sequar," i. e. however trite and well known this
and some other characters, essential to the Satyr, are and must be ; yet
will there be still room for fiction and genius to show itself. The con-
duct and disposition of the play may be wholly new, and above the ability
of common writers, "tantum series juncturaque poilet." HURD.

43 Quibus est equus, etc., the knights who have a horse, kept at public
expense; "quibusest pater," people of birth, patricians; "quibus eat
res," they who have wealth, and are therefore distinguished from knights
and patricians. DAC.

316 HORACE'S ART OF POETRY.

estate : nor will they receive with approbation, nor give the
laurel crown, as the purchasers of parched peas and nuts are
delighted with.

A long syllable put after a short one is termed an iambus,
a lively measure, whence also it commanded the name of
trimeters to be added to iambics, though it yielded six beats
of time, l*>;ng similar to itself from first to last. Not long
ago, that h, might come somewhat slower and with more maj-
esty to the ear, it obligingly and contentedly admitted into its
paternal heritage the steadfast spondees ; agreeing however, by
social league, that it was not to depart from the second"
and fourth place. But this [kind of measure] rarely makes
its appearance in the notable" trimeters of Accius, and brands
the verse of Ennius .brought upon the stage with a clumsy
weight of spondees, with the imputation of being too precipitate
and careless, or disgracefully accuses him of ignorance in his
art

It is not every judge that discerns inharmonious verses, and
an undeserved indulgence is [in this case] granted to the Ro-
man poets. But shall I on tins account run riot and write li-
centiously? Or should not I rather suppose, that all the world
are to see my faults ; secure, and cautious [never to err] but
with hope of being pardoned ? Though, perhaps, I have mer-
ited no praise, I have escaped censure.

Ye [who are desirous to excel,] turn over the Grecian models
by night, turn them by day. But our ancestors commended
both the numbers of Plautus, and his strokes of pleasantry ;
too tamely, I will not say foolishly, admiring each of them ; if
you and I but know how to distinguish a coarse joke from a
smart repartee, and understand the proper cadence, by [using]
our fingers and ears.

Thespis4* is said to have invented a new kind of tragedy,

44 The iambic yields only the odd places to the spondee, the first,
third, and fifth, but preserves the second, fourth, and sixth for itself.
This mixture renders the verse more noble, and it may be still trimeter,
the second foot being iambic. The comic poets, better to disguise their
verse, and make it appear more like common conversation, inverted the
tragic order, and put spondees in the even places. DAC.

45 Ironically spoken.

46 Thespis. A native of Icarius, a village in Attica, to whom the in-
vention of tho drama has been ascribed. Before his time there were no
performers except the chorus. He led the way to the formation of a
dramatic plot and language, by directing a pause in the pertbnnance of

HORACE'S ART OF POETRY. 317

and to have carried his pieces about in carts, which [certain
strollers], who had their faces besmeared with lees of wine,
sang and acted. After him ^Eschylus, the inventor of the
vizard mask and decent robe, kid the stage over with boards
of a tolerable size, and taught to speak in lofty tone, and strut
in the buskin. To these succeeded the old comedy, not with-
out considerable praise : but its personal freedom degenerated
into excess and violence, worthy to be regulated by law ; a law
was made accordingly, and the chorus, the right of abusing be-
ing taken away, disgracefully became silent.

Our poets have left no species [of the art] unattempted ;
nor have those of them merited the least honor, who dared
to forsake the footsteps of the Greeks, and celebrate do-
mestic facts ; whether they have instructed us in tragedy,
or comedy.47 Nor would Italy be raised higher by valor

the chorus, during which he came forward and recited with gesticulation
a mythological story. Comp. note Epist ii. 1. 163. M'CAUL. The date is
thus given by the Par. Chron. Boeckh. : 'A^ov QKCTTI^ 6 noiTiTf/f [tfy
irpuroe of edida^e [(5p]u[//a iv d]ar[ei KOI Qredr) 6 [r]payof [ufl
ITIJ HHFI[AA] - upxovrof '\6\rjvriai\... vaiov TOV Trporepov. "Quo
ad annum attinet, consistendum sane in Olymp. 61, eiusque tribus
prioribus annis." Boeckh. in Chr. WHEELER.

47 Vtl qui prcetextas, vel qui docuere togatas. There hath been much
difficulty here in settling a very plain point. The question is, whether
prcetextas means tragedy or a species of comedy. The answer is very
clear from Diomedes, whose account is, in short, this : " Togatce is a gen-
eral term for all sorts of Latin plays adopting the Roman customs and
dresses ; as Palliates is for all adopting the Grecian. Of the Togatce, the
several species are, 1. Prcetexta or prcetextata, in which the Roman kings
or generals were introduced, and is so called because the prcetexta was
the distinguishing habit of such persons; 2. Tabernaria, frequently called
Togata. though that word, as we have seen, had properly a larger sense.
3. Atellana. 4. Planipedis." He next marks the difference of these
several sorts of the Togatce from the similar corresponding ones of the
PaMiatce, which are these: 1. " Tragosdia, absolutely so styled. 2. Co-
moedia. 3. Satyri. 4. M?,uof." (These four sorts of the PaMiatce were
also probably in use at Rome ; certainly, at least, the two former.) It
appears then fromth ence, that prcetextaia was properly the Roman trag-
edy. But he adds, " Ibgata prcetextata d tragcedid differtj" and it is
also said, " to be only like tragedy, tragcedice simil's." What is this differ-
ence and this likeness ? The explanation follows. " Heroes are intro-
duced into tragedy, such as Orestes, Chryses, and the like. In the prce-
textata, Brutus, Decius, or Marcellus." So then we see when Graecian
characters were introduced, it was called simply tragcedia; when Roman,
pratextata; yet both, tragedies. The sole difference lay in the persons
oeing foreign or domestic. The correspondence in every other respect

318 HORACE'S ART OF POETRY.

and feats of arms, than by its language, did not the fatigue
and tediousncss of using the file disgust every one of our
poets. Do you, the descendants of Fompilius, reject that
poem, which many days and many a blot have not ten times
subdued to the most perfect accuracy. Because Democritus
believes that genius is more successful than wretched art, and
excludes from Helicon all poets who are in their senses, a
great number do not care to part with their nails or beard,
frequent places of solitude, shun the baths. For he will ac-
quire, [he thinks,] the esteem and title of a poet, if he neither
submits his head, which is not to be cured by even three An-
ticyras, to Licinius the barber. What an unlucky fellow am
I, who am purged for (he lile in spring-time ! Else nobody
would compose better poems ; but the purchase is not worth
the expense. Therefore I will serve instead of a whetstone,
which though not able of itself to cut, can make steel sharp :
so I, who can write no poetry myself, will teach the duty and
business [of an author]; whence he may be stocked with rich
ma'.ei ia!s ; what nourishes and forms the poet ; what gives
grace, what not; what is the tendency of excellence, what that
cf error.

To have good sense, is the first principle and fountain of
writing well. The Socratic papers will direct you in the
choice of your subjects; and words will spontaneously accom-
pany the subject, when it is well conceived. He who has
learned what he owes to his country, and what to his friends ;
with what affection a parent, a brother, and a stranger, are to
be loved ; what is the duty of a senator, what of a judge ;
what the duties of a general sent out to war ; lie, [I say,]
certainly knows how to give suitable attributes to every char-
acter. I should direct the learned imitator to have a regard
to the mode of nature and manners, and thence draw his ex-
pressions to the life.48 Sometimes a play, that is showy with

was exact. The same is observed of the Roman comedy ; when it adopted
Greek characters, it was called comcedia ; when Roman, togata labernaria,
or togata, simply. HUHD.

<3 Truth, in poetry, means such an expression as conforms to the gen-
eral nature of things ; falsehood, that which, however suitable to the
particular instance in view, doth yet not correspond to such general na-
ture. To attain to this truth of expression in dramatic poetry two thinga
are prescribed: 1. A diligent study of the Socratic philosophy; and, 2,
A masterly knowledge and comprehension of human life. The first, be-

HORACE'S ART OF POETRY. 319

common-places,49 and where the manners are well marked,
though of no elegance, without force or art, gives (he people
much higher delight and more effectually commando their at-
tention, than verse void of matter, and tuneful trifles.

To the Greeks, covetous of nothing but praise, the muso
gave genius ; to the Greeks the power of expressing them-
selves in round periods. The Roirr.n youth learn by long com-
putation to subdivide a pound into an hundred parts. Lot
the son of Albinus tell me, if from five ounces one be subtracted,
what remains ? He would have said the third of a pound. —
Bravely done ! you will bo able to take care of your own af-
fairs. An ounce is added : what will that be ? Half a pound.

cause it 13 the peculiar distinction of this school " ad veritatem vit;e pro-
pius accedere." (Cic. de. Or. i. 51.) And the latter as rendering the
imitation more universally striking. HCRD.

49 Interd'j,m speciosa locis, etc. The poet's science in ethics will prin-
cipally show itself in these two ways: 1. in furnishing proper matter for
general reflection on human life and conduct; and, 2, in a due adjust-
ment of the manners. By the former of these two applications of moral
knowledge a play becomes, what the poet calls, speciosa locis. i. e. (for
the term is borrowed from the rhetoricians) striking in its moral topics:
a merit of tha highest importance on the ancient stage, and which, if
prudently employed in subserviency to the latter more essential requisite
of the drama, a just expression of the manners, will deserve to be so re-
puted at all times, and on every theater. The danger is, lest a studied,
declamatory moral, affectedly introduced, or indulged to access, should
prejudice the natural exhibition of the characters, and so convert the
image of human lifa into an unaffecting, philosophical dialogue.

Ib. Moralque reef: fabula, etc. This judgment of the poet, in regard of
the superior efficacy of manners, is generally thought to be contradicted
by Aristotle ; who, in treating this subject, observes, " that let a piece be
ever so perfect in the manners, sentiments, and style, it will not so well
answer the end and purpose of tragedy, as if defective in these, and
finished only in the fable and composition." M. Dacier thinks to clear
this matter by saying, " that what Aristotle remarks holds true of tragedy,
but not of comedy, of which alone Horace is hero speaking." But grant-
ing that the artificial contexture of the fable is less necessary to the per-
fection of comedy than of tragedy, yet. the tenor of this whole division,
exhorting to correctness in general, makes it unquestionable that Horace
must intend to include both. The case, as it seems to me, is this. The
poet is not comparing the respective importance of the fable and manners,
but of the manners and diction, under this word including also numbers.
He gives them the preference not to a good plot, nor even to fine senti-
ments, but, to versus inopesrerum nugceque canorce. The art he speaks of,
is the art of expressing the thoughts properly, gracefully, and harmonious-
ly: the pondus is the force and energy of good versification. Venus is a
general term including both kinds of beauty. Fabula does not mean the
fable (in distinction from the rest), but simply a play. HDBD.

320 HORACE'S ART OF POETRY.

When this sordid rust60 and hankering after wealth has onot
tainted their minds, can we expect that such verses should be
made as are worthy of being anointed with the oil of cedar,
and kept in the well-polished cypress ?"

Poets wish either to profit or to delight ; or to deliver at
once both the pleasures and the necessaries of life. Whatever
precepts you give, be concise; that docile minds may soon
comprehend what is said, and faithfully retain it. All super-
fluous instructions flow from the too full memory. Let what-
ever is imagined for the sake of entertainment, have as much
likeness to truth as possible ; let not your play demand belief
for whatever [absurdities] it is inclinable [to exhibit] : nor
take out of a witch's belly a living child that she had dined
upon. The tribes of the seniors rail against every thing that is
void of edification : the exalted knights disregard poems which
are austere. He who joins the instructive with the agreeable,
carries off" every vote,6* by delighting and at the same time ad-
monishing the reader. This book gains money for the Sosii ;
this crosses the sea, and continues to its renowned author a
lasting duration.

Yet there are faults, which we should be ready to pardon :
for neither does the string [always] form the sound which the
hand and conception [of the performer] intends, but very often
returns a sharp note when he demands a flat ; nor will the
bow always hit whatever mark it threatens. But when there

50 ^Erugo et cura peculi cum semel imbtteril, etc. This love of gain, to
which Horace imputes the imperfect state of the Roman poetry, hath
been uniformly assigned, by the wisdom of ancient times, as the specific
bane of arts and letters. Longinus and Quinctilian account, from hence,
for the decay of eloquence, Galen of physic, Petronius of painting, and
Pliny of the whole circle of the liberal arts. For being, as Longinus
calls it, vlt^iin (UKpo-xoibv, a disease which narrows and contracts the
soul, it must, of course, restrain the generous efforts and expansions of
genius ; cramp the free powers and energies of the mind, and render it
unapt to open itself to wide views, and to the projection of great, exten-
sive designs. It is so in its consequences. For, as one says elegantly,
when the passion of avarice grows general in a country, the temples of
honor are soon pulled down, and all men's sacrifices are made to fortune*
HURD.

51 To preserve their books, the ancients rubbed them with oil of cedar,
and kept them in cases of cypress, because these kinds of wood were not
liable to corruption. NAN.

" Omne tulit punctum. Alluding to the manner of voting at the
comitia by putting a point over the name of a candidate.

HORACE'S ART OF POETRY. 821

is a great majority of beauties in a poem, I will not be offended
with a few blemishes, which either inattention has dropped,
or human nature has not sufficiently provided against. What
therefore [is to be determined in this matter] ? As a tran-
scriber, if ne still commits the same fault though he has been
reproved, is without excuse ; and the harper who always
blunders on the same string, is sure to be laughed at ; so he
who is excessively deficient becomes another Choerilus ; whom,
when I find him tolerable in two or three places, I wonder at
with laughter ; and at the same time am I grieved whenever
honest Homer grows drowsy ? But it is allowable, that sleep
should steal upon [the progress of ] a long work.

As is painting, so is poetry : some pieces will strike you
more if you stand near, and some, if you are at a greater dis-
tance : one loves the dark ; another, which is not afraid of the
critic's subtle judgment, chooses to be seen in the light ; the
one has pleased once , the other will give pleasure if ten times
repeated.

O ye elder of the youths, though you are framed to a right
judgment by your father's instructions, and are wise in your-
self, yet take this truth along with you, [and] remember it ;
that in certain things a medium and tolerable degree of emi-
nence may be admitted : a counselor and pleader at the bar
of the middle rate is far removed from the merit of eloquent
Messala, nor has so much knowledge of the law as Casselius
Aulus, but yet he is in request ; [but] a mediocrity in poets"
neither gods, nor men, nor [even] the booksellers' shops have
endured. As at an agreeable entertainment discordant music,
and muddy perfume, and poppies mixed with Sardinian" honey
give offense, because the supper might have passed without
them ; so poetry, created and invented for the delight of our
souls, if it comes short ever so little of the summit, sinks to
the bottom.

M This judgment, however severe it may seem, is according to the
practice of the best critics. We have a remarkable instance in the case
of ApoUonius Rhodius, who though, in the judgment of Quinctilian, the
author of no contemptible poem, yet on account of that equal medi-
ocrity which every where prevails in him, was struck out of the list of
good writers by such sovereign judges of poetical merit as Aristophanes
and Aristarchus. (Quinct. L. x. c. 1.) HURD.

54 Sardinia was full of bitter herbs, from whence the honey was bittet
White poppy seed, roasted, was mingled with honey by the ancients.
NAN.

14*

322 HORACE'S ART OF POETRY.

He who does not understand the game, abstains from the
weapons of the Campus Martius : and the unskillful in the
tennis-ball, the quoit, and the troques keeps himself quiet;
lest the crowded ring should raise a laugh at his expense :
notwithstanding this, he who knows nothing of verses pre-
sumes to compose. Why not ! He is free-born, and of a good
family ; above all, he is registered at an equestrian sum of
moneys, and clear from every vice. You, [I am persuaded,]
will neither say nor do any thing in opposition to Minerva :'*
such is your judgment, such your disposition. But if ever
you shall write any thing, let it be submitted to the ears of
M«'tius [Tarpa], who is a judge, and your father's, and mine ;
and let it be suppressed till the ninth year, your papers being
laid up within your own custody. You will have it in your
power to blot out what you have not made public : a word
once sent abroad can never return.

Orpheus, the priest and interpreter of the gods, deterred
the savage race of mc-n from slaughters and inhuman diet ;
hence said to tame tigers and furious lions : Amphion too, the
builder of the Thebaii wall, was said to give the stones mo-
tion with the sound of his lyre, and to lead them whither-
soever he would, by engaging persuasion. This was deemed
wisdom of yore, to distinguish the public from private weal;
things sacred from things profane; to prohibit a promiscuous
commerce between the sexes ; to give laws to married people ;
to plan out cities; to engrave laws on [tables of] wood.
Thus honor accrued to divine poets, and their songs. After
these, excellent Homer and Tyrtams animated the manly mind
to martial achievements with their verses. Oracles were de-
livered in postry, and the economy of life pointed out, and
the favor of sovereign princes was solicited by Pierian5*

85 Inviti — Minerva. Cicero, de Off. i. 31, explains this phrase; "ad-
versan'e et repugnante natura." And yet the meaning here is not very
evident. Does Horace say that young Piso will neither do nor say any
thing contrary to his natural endowments; implying that he will not
attempt poetry, as his abilities are inadequate ? Or does be mean to com-
pliment him on his capabilities, by saying that there is nothing which he
will attempt, in which genius will not favor and assist him? The latter
appears to b^ the correct interpretation. Thus the obvious meaning of
invit I Minerv I is — Minerva refusing her assistance, or discountenancing
the attempt : anrl t'io interpretation — natural endowments refusing their
assistance, or marring the effort.

W i, 6, strains of the muses, surpamed Pieridea

HORACE'S ART OF POETRY. 323

strains, games were instituted, and a [cheerful] period put to
the tedious labors of the day ; [this I remind you of,] test
haply you should be ashamed of the lyric muse, and Apollo
the god of song.

It has been made a question, whether good poetry be de-
rived from nature or from art. For my part, I can neither
conceive what study can do without a rich [natural] vein,
nor what rude genius can avail of itself: so much does the
one require the assistance of the other, and so amicably do
they conspire [to produce the same effect]. He who is in-
dustrious to reach the wished-for goal, has done and suffered
much when a boy ; he has sweated and shivered with cold ;
he has abstained from love and wine ; he who sings the Pythian
strains,67 was first a learner, and in awe of a master. But [in
poetry] it is now enough for a man to say of himself : " I make
admirable verses : a murrain seize the hindmost : it is scandal-
ous fur me to be outstripped, and fairly to acknowledge that I
am ignorant of that which I never learned."

As a crier who collects the crowd together to buy his
goods, so a poet rich in land, rich in money put out at inter-
est, invites flatterers to come [and praise his works] for a re-
ward. But if he be one who is well able to set 'out an
elegant table/8 and give security for a poor man, and relieve
him when entangled in gloomy law-suits ; I shall wonder if
with his wealth he can distinguish a true friend from a false
one. You, whether you have made, or intend to make, a
present to any one, do not bring him full of joy directly to
your finished verses : for then he will cry out, " Charming,
excellent, judicious," he will turn pale ; at some parts he will
even distill the dew from his friendly eyes; he will jump
about ; he will beat the ground [with ecstasy]. As those
who mourn at funerals for pay, do and say more than those

" Pyfhia cantica, songs like the hymns which were sung in honor of
Apollo, by the chorus in some comedies. A player, called Pythaules,
played during the intervals when the chorus left off singing.

5:i But compare M'Caul's note: " Unctum. A savory dish, a delicacy.
Comp. note, Epist. i. 15. 44, and 17, 12. Thus Pers. Sat. i. 50: 'Call-
dura scis ponere sumen, Scis comitem horridulum trit.i donarc lacernj,'
etc.. where scis is a kind of comment on possit here ns calidum sumen on
unctum. Comp. also Sat. vi. 15: 'aut coenare sine undo.' Gesner and
Doiiring, however, explain unctum as used for convivam (note. Epist i.
17, 12), and ponere for coUocare. to place at table on a couch."

324 HORACE'S ART OF POETRY.

that are afflicted from their hearts ; so the sham admirer ia
more moved than he that praises with sincerity. Certain
kings are said to ply with frequent bumpers, and by wine
make trial of a man whom they are sedulous to know,
whether he be worthy of their friendship or not. Thus, if
you compose verses, let not the fox's concealed intentions im-
pose upon you.

If you had recited any thing to Quintilius, he would say,
" Alter, I pray, this and this :" if you replied, you could do
it no better, having made the experiment twice or thrice in
vain ; he would order you to blot out, and once more apply to
the anvil your ill-formed verses : if you choose rather to de-
fend than correct a fault, he spent not a word more nor fruit-
less labor, but you alone might be fond of yourself and your
own works, without a rival. A good and sensible man will
censure spiritless verses, he will condemn the rugged, on the
incorrect he will draw across a black stroke wilh his pen ; he
will lop off ambitious [and redundant] ornaments ; he -will
make him throw light on the parts that are not perspicuous ;
he will arraign what is expressed ambiguously ; he will mark
what should be altered ; [in short,] he will be an Aristarchus :'•
he will not say, "Why should I give my friend offense about
mere trifles?" These trifles will lead into mischiefs of serious
consequence, when once made an object of ridicule, and used
in a sinister manner.

Like one whom an odious plague or jaundice, fanatic
phrensy or lunacy, distresses ; those who are wise avoid a
mad poet, and are afraid to touch him ; the boys jostle him,
and the incautious pursue him. If, like a fowler intent upon
his game, he should fall into a well or a ditch while he belches
out his fustian verses and roams about, though he should cry
out for a long time, " Come to my assistance, O my country-
men ;" not one would give himself the trouble of taking him
up. Were any one to take pains to give him aid, and let
down a rope ; " How do you know, but he threw himself
in hither on purpose?" I shall say: and will relate the
death of the Sicilian poet. Empedocles, while he was am-

•• Aristarchus was a critic, who wrote above four score volumes of com-
ments on the Greek poets. His criticisms on Homer were so much
esteemed, that no line was thought genuine until he had acknowledged
it H« was surnamed the prophet or diviner, for his sagacity. FBAK.

HORACE'S ART OF POETRY. 325

bilious of being esteemed an immortal god, in cold blood
leaped into burning ^Etna.80 Let poets have the privilege
and license to die [as they please]. He who saves a man
against his will, does the same with him who kills him
[against his will]. Neither is it the first time that he has
behaved in this manner ; nor, were he to be forced fi om his
purposes, would he now become a man, and lay aside his de-
sire of such a famous death. Neither does it appear suffi-
ciently, why he makes verses : whether he has defiled his
father's ashes, or sacrilegiously removed the sad enclosure61
of the vindictive thunder : it is evident that he is mad, r.nd
like a bear that has burst through the gates closing his den,
this unmerciful rehearser chases (he learned and unlearned.
And whomsoever he seizes, he fastens on r.nd assassinates with
recitation: a "eech that will not quit the skin, till satiated
with blood."

60 Ardentem frigidus ^Etnam insiluit. "In cold blood, deliberately."
Horace, by playing on the words ardentum frigidus, would show that he
did not believe the story, and told it as ono of the traditions, which poets
may use without being obliged to vouch tho truth of them. The pleas-
antry continues, when he says, it is murder to hinder a poet from killing
himself; a maxim, which could not be said seriously. SAN.

61 An triste bidental What crime must that man have committed
whom the gods in vengeance have possessed with a madness of writing
verses? Bidental was a place struck with lightning, which the aruspices
purified and consecrated with a sacrifice of a sheep, biderttal. It was
an act of sacrilege ever to remove tho bounds of it, movere bidental.
FRAN.

62 In concluding the annotations on the Art of Poetry, I must beg
to recommend to the reader's notice my translation of Aristotle's
Poetic, with a collection of notes, as the two treatises contribute to each
other's illustration in the fullest extent.

THE END.

RY FACILITY

ii " •":. ,,