The ‘solidus dies’ ended at the hour of dinner, which with industrious persons was the ninth in summer and tenth in winter. The luxurious dined earlier, the busy sometimes later. The commencement of the day varied with the habits of different people.
21.viridi] This is not an idle epithet, which Horace never uses. The arbutus is an evergreen, which is expressed by ‘viridi.’
22.caput] This is used for the mouth as well as the spring of a river. Virg. Georg. iv. 319, “Tristis ad extremi sacrum caput astitit amnis.” Caes. (B. G. iv. 10) says of the Rhine, “multis capitibus in Oceanum influit.” Here it is the spring. Shrines were usually built at the fountain-head of streams, dedicated to the nymphs that protected them, which explains ‘sacrae.’
23.lituo tubae] The ‘lituus’ was curved in shape and sharp in tone, and used by the cavalry: ‘tuba,’ as its name indicates, was straight and of deep tone, and used by the infantry. “Non tuba directi, non aeris cornua flexi” (Ov. Met. i. 98). The ‘lituus’ is said to have been in shape a mean between the ‘tuba’ and the ‘cornu’; not so straight as the one, nor so twisted as the other. See C. ii. 1. 17.
24.bellaque matribus Detestata.] ‘Detestatus’ is nowhere else used passively, except by the law-writers, who use it for one convicted by evidence: ‘modulatus’ (C. i. 32. 5), ‘metatus’ (ii. 15. 15), are likewise instances of deponent participles used passively.
25.sub Jove] The atmosphere, and so the sky. Epod. iii. 2: “Nivesque deducunt Jovem.” The Latin writers represented the atmosphere by Jupiter, the Greeks by Hera.
26.tenerae] This word occurs frequently in Horace in the sense of ‘young.’ See C. 5. 19 (tenerum Lycidam).
28.teretes] This word may be rendered ‘smooth and round.’ It has always more or less closely one of these meanings, or both. It contains the same root as ‘tero,’ ‘tornus,’ τείρω, and its cognate words, and its meaningis got from the notion of rubbing and polishing. Horace applies it to a woman’s ankles, a smooth faced boy, the cords of a net, and a faultless man. It is applied by Ovid (Fast. ii. 320) to a girdle, and by Virgil (Aen. xi. 579) to the thong of a sling, where, as here, it represents the exact twisting of a cord. ‘Plagae’ were nets of thick rope with which the woods were surrounded to catch the larger beasts as they were driven out by dogs and beaters (Epod. ii. 32. Epp. i. 6. 58; 18. 46). Marsus for Marsicus, as Medus for Medicus, is the only form Horace uses. The country of the Marsi, east of Rome, Umbria, and Lucania were all famous for boars, being abundant in acorns, on which they fed and grew fat. Laurentian boars were also celebrated. See S. ii. 3. 234; 4. 41, 43.
29.Me doctarum hederae praemia frontium] The ivy, which was sacred to Bacchus, made a fit and usual garland for a lyric poet. “Doctarum frontium” is the proper description of poets, who by the Greeks were called σοφοί.
30.me gelidum nemus] This is an imaginary scene, in which Horace supposes himself wandering in cool groves, surrounded with dancing bands of wood nymphs (Dryads and Hamadryads) and satyrs, and listening to the flute of Euterpe, and the lyre of Lesbos struck by Polyhymnia. ‘Tibia’ was a sort of flageolet. When it is used in the plural (as here, C. iv. 15. 30, Epod. ix. 5), it has reference to two of these instruments played by one person. Their pitch was different, the low-pitched tibia being called ‘dextra,’ because it was held in the right hand, and the high pitched ‘sinistra,’ because it was held in the left. Euterpe, the Muse, was said to have invented the ‘tibia,’ and she especially presided over music. Polyhymnia, or Polymnia, another Muse, invented the lyre.
34.Lesboum — barbiton.] The lyre of Sappho and Alcæus, who were natives of Mytilene in the island of Lesbos, and flourished at the same time, about the end of the seventh centuryB. C.(C. 32. 5).
35.Quod si] Although the personal pronoun ‘tu’ is emphatic in this sentence, it is omitted, as is often the case in poetry, where no opposition of persons is intended—‘Lyricis’ is less common than ‘melicis,’ to describe the lyric poets of Greece.
Lyricis] The most celebrated of the lyric poets of Greece were Pindar, Alcæus, Sappho, Stesichorus, Ilycus, Bacchylides, Simonides, Alcmeon, and Anacreon.
ODE II.
ThisOde seems to have been written on the return of Augustus to Rome, after the taking of Alexandria, when the civil wars were brought to a close and the temple of Janus was shut,B. C.29. Horace here urges Augustus to take upon himself the task of reducing to order the elements of the state, which so many years of civil war had thrown into confusion, and he does so in the following manner. He refers to the prodigies at Julius Cæsar’s death, as evidences of the divine wrath for the guilt of the civil wars. He then invokes one god after another to come and restore the state, and finally fixes upon Mercury, whom he entreats to take upon himself the form of a man, and not to leave the earth till he has accomplished his mission and conquered the enemies of Rome. The man whose form Mercury is to take is Augustus.
If this Ode is read with C. ii. 15, and the others mentioned in the introduction to that Ode, the feeling with which Horace entered into the mission of Augustus as the reformer will be better understood.
Argument.—Portents enough hath Jove sent upon the earth, making it afraid lest a new deluge were coming, as the Tiber rolled back from its mouth, threatening destruction to the city, the unauthorized avenger of Ilia.
Our sons shall hear that citizens have whetted for each other the steel that should have smitten the enemy. What god shall we invoke to help us? What prayers shall move Vesta to pity? To whom shall Jove assign the task of wiping out our guilt? Come thou, Apollo; or thou, smiling Venus, with mirth and love thy companions; or thou, Mars, our founder, who hast too long sported with war; or do thou, son of Maia, put on the form of a man, and let us call thee the avenger of Cæsar; nor let our sins drive thee too soon away; here take thy triumphs; be thou our father and prince, and suffer not the Mede to go unpunished, whilst thou art our chief, O Cæsar.
1.Jam satis— ] These are the prodigies which are said to have followed the death of Julius Cæsar. They are related also by Virgil (Georg. i. 466-489), which description Horace may have had in his mind. See also Ovid, Met. xv. 782, sqq.
dirae] It is very common in Horace (though not peculiar to him) to find an epithet attached to the latter of two substantives, while it belongs to both, as here, and “fidem mutatosque Deos” (C. i. 5. 6), “poplitibus timidoque tergo” (C. iii. 2. 16), and many other places. Horace uses this construction so frequently that it may be looked upon as a feature in his style; and he often uses it with effect.
2, 3.rubente Dextera] With his right hand, glowing with the light of the thunderbolt which it grasped.
arces] The sacred buildings on the Capitoline Hill. They were called collectively Capitolium or Arx (from their position), Arx Capitolii, and sometimes “Arx et Capitolium.” (Livy, v. 39, &c.) They embraced the three temples of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Juno, and Minerva, of Jupiter Feretrius, and of Terminus. Horace uses ‘jaculari’ three times, and always with an accusative. Other writers use it absolutely. See C. ii. 16. 17; iii. 12. 9.
6.nova monstra] The prodigies alluded to are those enumerated in the following verses; namely, the occupation of the mountains by sea animals, of the waters by the deer, and the trees by the fishes.
7.pecus] The herds of Neptune, or the larger sea animals, fabulous or otherwise, which were said to be under the charge of Proteus. The deluge of Deucalion, the husband of Pyrrha, and its causes, are described at length by Ovid (Met. i. 125-347).
10.columbis,] The proper name for a wood-pigeon is ‘palumbus,’ of ‘-ba,’ or ‘-bes’; but ‘columbus,’ ‘-ba,’ are the generic terms for pigeons.—‘Damae’ is both masculine and feminine. Georg. iii. 539: “timidi damae cervique fugaces.”
11.superjecto] ‘Terris’ may be understood. Virgil uses the word (Aen. xi. 625), “Scopulisque superjacit undam.”
13.flavum] This common epithet of the Tiber arose out of the quantity of sand washed down in its stream. Aen. vii. 31: “Vorticibus rapidis et multa flavus arena.” By ‘vidimus’ Horace means that his generation had seen the prodigies he refers to, as Virgil says of the eruptions of Ætna:
“Quoties Cyclopum effervere in agrosVidimus undantem ruptis fornacibus Aetnam.”—Aen. i. 471.
13, 14.retortis Littore Etrusco violenter undis] “Its waters driven violently back from the shore of the Etruscan sea,” into which the Tiber emptied itself. It is said that the overflowings of the Tiber are still by the common people accounted for by the violence of the sea driving back the stream. They were always held to be ominous, and many such are mentioned in Livy and other writers.
15.monumenta regis] This signifies the palace of Numa adjoining the temple of Vesta, hence called ‘atrium regium’ (Liv. xxvi. 27), as forming a kind of ‘atrium’ to the temple. Ovid (Fasti, vi. 263) thus alludes to this building:—
“Hic locus exiguus, qui sustinet atria Vestae,Tunc erat intonsi regia magna Numae.”
17.Iliae — ultorem,] Tiber is represented as taking upon himself, without the sanction of Jove, and in consequence of Ilia’s complaints, to avenge the death of Julius Cæsar, the descendant of Iulus, her ancestor. Ilia, or Rea Silvia, the mother of Romulus and Remus, is variously reported to have been married to the Tiber and the Anio, because into one of those streams she was thrown by order of Amulius. Jove may be supposed to have disapproved the presumption of the river-god, because he had reserved the task of expiation for other hands and happier means. One of the chief purposes professed by Augustus was the avenging of his adoptive father’s death, and his enemies made this a handle against him.
21.cives acuisse ferrum] ‘Inter se’ or ‘in semetipsos’ may be understood. ‘Audiet acuisse’ does not mean ‘shall hear them sharpen,’ but ‘shall hear of their having sharpened.’ Horace is not predicting what is to be, but lamenting what has been.
22.Quo — perirent,] ‘By which it were better that the hostile Parthians should die.’
Persians, Medes, and Parthians are names freely interchanged by Horace. The Parthian empire, at the time Horace wrote, extended nearly from the Indus to the Roman province of Syria; and the Parthians were in the habit of making incursions into that province, which fact is referred to in the last stanza of this Ode. Although the name of Augustus, assisted by their own disputes, did something towards keeping them in check, they were held by the Romans to be their most formidable enemies. Augustus meditated, but never carried out, war with the Parthians; and the Romans never till the reign of Trajan gained any successes against them. Their empire was broken up, and succeeded by the Persian kingdom of the Sassanidæ, during the reign of Alexander Severus,A. D.226.—‘Perirent’ would in prose be ‘perituri forent.’
24.Rara juventus.] ‘Our children thinned by the crimes of their fathers.’ It took years of peace and the enactment of stringent marriage-laws to restore the population of Rome, which was thinned not only by bloodshed, but by indifference to marriage and laxity of morals.
25.Quem vocet divum] Vesta was the tutelary goddess of Rome. See Virg. Georg. i. 499, sqq.
“Dii patrii Indigetes, et Romule, Vestaque mater,Quae Tuscum Tiberim et Romana palatia servas.”
She is represented as turning a deaf ear to the prayers of her virgins, because Cæsar as Pontifex Maximus had particular charge of her temple and rites. Onvocet, see Z.
29.scelus] The guilt of the civil wars and of Cæsar’s death, which, as Horace implies in what follows, was to be expiated by Augustus in the character of Mercury, the messenger of peace—‘Partes’ means ‘office,’ ‘duty.’
Æneas was said to have preserved the fire of Vesta and brought her to Rome. ‘Carmina’ (‘hymns’) is opposed to ‘prece’ as a set formula to other prayers. ‘Carmen’ has that meaning in respect to legal or any other formal documents. Liv. i. 26: “Lex horrendi carminis.” Epp. ii. 1. 138: “Carmine Di superi placantur carmine Manes.”
31.Nube candentes humeros amictus] So Homer describes him, εἱμένος ὤμοιϊν νεφέλην (Il. xv. 308). Virg. (Aen. viii. 720): “candentis luminePhoebi.” ‘Humeros’ is the Greek accusative: ‘your bright shoulders veiled in a cloud.’
32.Augur] Applied to Apollo as the deliverer of oracles and god of divination.
33.Sive] See i. 3. 12, n. ‘Erycina ridens’ corresponds to φιλομμείδης Ἀφροδίτη. Venus is called Erycina, from Mount Eryx in Sicily, where she had a temple. Ἵμερος and Ἔρως (two forms of Love) were the sons of Venus. ‘Jocus’ is an invention of Horace’s. Apollo is appealed to as the steadfast friend of Troy, and, according to his flatterers, the father of Augustus; Venus, as the mother of Æneas and of the Julian family; and Mars, as the father of Romulus. Mercury (the son of Jove and Maia), as above stated (v. 29), is selected as the representative of Augustus, because he is the messenger of peace.
36.Respicis] ‘You regard.’ Cic. (de Legg. ii. 11) proposes the title ‘Fortuna respiciens,’ which he explains by ‘ad opem ferendam,’ for a temple of Fortune.
37.ludo,] See C. i. 28. 17: “Dant alios Furiae torvo spectacula Marti.”
38.leves,] ‘Polished’ or ‘burnished.’
39.Mauri peditis] Translate in the following order: ‘et Vultus Mauri peditis Acer in cruentum hostem.’ The force of ‘peditis’ here appears to be that the rider has had his horse killed under him, or has dismounted to attack his enemy hand to hand, or in consequence of a wound. See S. ii. 1. 13: “Aut labentis equo describit vulnera Parthi.” The troops of Mauritania were chiefly cavalry. There is a particular meaning in the reference to them rather than to any other troops.
41.juvenem] So Augustus is called, though he was forty years old at this time. So Virg. (Georg. i. 500):—
“Hunc saltem everso juvenen succurrere saecloNe prohibete.”
See C. iii. 14. 9; Epp. i. 8. 14; and S. ii. 5. 62, where the word is again applied to Augustus.
‘Juvenis’ and ‘adolescens’ were used for any age between ‘pueritia’ and ‘senectus.’ Cicero speaks of himself as ‘adolescens’ at the time he put down Catiline’s conspiracy, when he was forty-four years old, and as ‘senex’ when he delivered his 2d Philippic, at which time he was sixty-two.
42.Ales] Agreeing with ‘Filius.’
43.Filius] Is the nominative used for the vocative.—‘Patiens vocari,’ a Grecism. “Patiarque vel inconsultus haberi” (Epp. i. 5. 15). “Cum pateris sapiens emendatusque vocari” (Epp. i. 16. 30).
45.Serus in caelum redeas] Ovid, Met. xv. 868, sqq.:—
“Tarda sit illa dies et nostro serior aevoQua caput Augustum, quem temperat orbe relicto,Accedat caelo.”
See also Trist. v. 2. 47. The adjective for the adverb is common in respect of time. The instances in Horace are very numerous.
49.triumphos,] Augustus had just celebrated, or was just about to celebrate, three triumphs on three successive days, for his victories, (1.) over the Gauls, Pannonians, and Dalmatians, (2.) at Actium, and (3.) at Alexandria. ‘Triumphos’ is governed by ‘ames,’ as ‘pocula’ is governed by ‘spernit’ (i. 1. 19); in both which cases we have an accusative case and an infinitive mood governed by the same verb.
50.pater] The title of ‘pater patriae’ was not assumed by Augustus tillA. U. C.752. It was the highest title of honor that could be conferred on a citizen, and was first given by the Senate to Cicero (the army had formerly bestowed it on Camillus), on the occasion of his suppressing Catiline’s conspiracy. Juv. viii. 243:—
“Roma parentem, —Roma patiem patriae Ciceronem libera dixit,”
where ‘libera’ seems to mean that the Senate were no longer free agents when Augustus took the name. See C. iii. 24. 27, n.
princeps,] Tac. Ann. i. 1: “Cuncta discordiis civilibus fessa principis sub imperium accepit.” In the Senate there was always one person who was called ‘princeps senatus,’ chosen at their own discretion by the censors. It was nominally as such that Augustus took the title of ‘princeps’ rather than ‘rex,’ which was odious to the Romans. He and his successors are more often styled ‘princeps’ than ‘imperator’ by the historians. The latter title, from which ‘emperor’ is derived, they had in virtue of the ‘imperium,’ for an explanation of which term see Smith’s Dict. Ant.
51.Medos equitare inultos,] That is, the Parthians. See above, v. 21, n.
52.Te duce, Caesar] The name of Cæsar is introduced abruptly where that of Mercury might be expected. This abruptness increases the effect.
ODE III.
ThisOde is addressed to the ship that was carrying Virgil the poet on some occasion to Greece. His constitution was weak, and he probably made several voyages for the sake of his health. He went and only returned to die inB. C.19, but this ode was written before then. It is taken up with reproaches against him who first invented navigation, and a lament for the presumption of mankind.
Argument—We commit to thee Virgil, O thou ship! deliver him safe on the shores of Attica, and preserve him whom I love as my life, and may the skies and winds prosper thee. Hard and rash was the man who first tempted the sea and defied the winds. In what shape should he fear the approach of death, who unmoved could look on the monsters of the deep, and the swelling waves, and dangerous rocks? In vain did God separate lands, if man is to leap over the forbidden waters. So doth he ever rush into sin. Prometheus brought fire into the world, and with that theft came all manner of diseases, Dædalus soared on wings, and Hercules burst into hell. Deterred by nothing, we would climb heaven itself, and our guilt suffers not Jove to lay aside his bolts.
1.Sic] ‘Sic’ in this place amounts to no more than ‘utinam’ in a strong form, as ὡς does in Greek. There are other passages where ‘sic’ follows the prayer on which it depends, as C. i. 28. 25:
“Ne parce malignus arenae — particulam dare:Sic quodcunque minabitur Eurus,” —
where the condition and its consequence are clearly marked, and an opposite wish is implied if the condition be not fulfilled. But such is not the case here; first Horace says, ‘May the stars and winds prosper thee,’ and then goes on, ‘O ship, deliver thy trust in safety.’
‘Potens,’ like its kindred word πότνια, is used with a genitive after it. Venus (a Latin divinity) is confounded by the poets with the Greek Aphrodite, who, from her supposed origin, was imagined to have power over the sea; hence Horace calls her ‘marina’ (C. iii. 26. 5; iv. 11. 15). She had the titles εὐπλοία, λιμένιας, had temples built for her in harbors and is represented on coins with a rudder, shell, and dolphin. Her principal temples were at Idalium and Paphos in Cyprus, in the island of Cythera off the Peloponnesus, Eryx (C. 2. 33) and Cnidus in Caria.
2.Sic fratres Helenae] Castor and Pollux had among other titles that of ἀρωγόναυται, ‘sailor helpers’. The appellation ‘lucida sidera’ is supposed to be derived from certain meteoric appearances after storms, which the ancients supposed to indicate the presence of Castor and Pollux. Similar phenomena are still called by the Italian sailors the fire of St. Elmo, a corruption (it is believed) from Helena, sister of Castor and Pollux. Compare Eurip. Helen. 1495, sqq., and C. iv. 8. 31.
3.pater,] Æolus is steward of the winds in Homer (Odyss. x. 21), king in Virgil, and father here.
4.praeter Iapyga:] The Iapygian or northwest wind, so called from Iapygia in Apulia, whence it blows down the Adriatic, was favorable for a voyage from Brundisium, where Virgil would embark for Greece.
6.finibus Atticis] ‘Deliver him safe on the shores of Attica’, ‘finibus’ being the ablative case. ‘Reddere’ is the word for delivering a letter.
8.animae dimidium meae] See C. ii. 17. 5. The definition of a friend ἥμισυ τῆς ψυχῆς is attributed to Pythagoras.
9.Illi robur et aes triplex] This too is an imitation of the Greek, as Aesch. Prom. 242: σιδηρόφρων τε κὰκ πέτρας εἰργασμένος. We are to understand a man whose heart is hard, as if cased in oak and a triple coat of bronze.
13.Aquilonibus] The dative, depending on ‘decertantem’.
14.tristes Hyadas,] These were three stars in the head of Taurus, whose name (derived from ὕειν, to rain) explains the epithet ‘tristes,’ ‘dull,’ ‘unhappy.’
15.arbiter] This may be rendered ‘tyrant.’ ‘Notus’ is called ‘dux turbidus Hadriae’ (C. iii. 3. 5). ‘Ponere freta’ is like Virg. (Aen. i. 66), “placide straverunt aequora venti”, and Soph. Aj. 674: δεινῶν δ᾽ ἄημα πνευμάτων ἐκοίμισε στένοντα πόντον. ‘Sive’ is omitted before ‘tollere,’ as the Greeks frequently omitted εἴτε in the first clause. This is common in Horace.
17.gradum] This is not ‘degree,’ but ‘step’. It must be rendered in some such way as this: ‘in what shape should he fear the approach of death’.
18.siccis oculis] ξηροῖς ἀκλαύστοις ὄμμασιν (Aesch. S. c. Theb. 696). The ancients were less exact in ascribing the proper signs to emotion or they wept less sparingly than men do now. Cæsar, describing the effect of fear on his men, says, “Hi neque vultum fingere neque interdum lacrimas tenere potuerunt” (B. G. i. 39); and Ovid (Met. xi. 539), describing sailors in a storm, says:—
“Non tenet hic lacrimas: stupet hic: vocat ille beatosFunera quos maneant”:
It was enough to make them weep, to think that their bodies could not meet with burial. ‘Sicci occuli’ are fitting accompaniments of a heart so hard as this venturous discoverer is said to have had.
20.Acroceraunia?] ‘Ceraunii montes’ was the ancient name for the range of mountains that runs down the coast of Epirus, the northern extremity of which was the promontory called ‘Acroceraunia’. The navigation in the neighborhood of this promontory appears to have been dangerous. Vessels going from Italy to Greece were liable to be driven upon it, which accounts for its mention here.
22.dissociabili] Used actively, as “penetrabile telum” (Aen. x. 48), “genitabilis aura Favoni” (Lucret. i. 11), and in Horace ‘amabilem’ (C. i. 5. 10), ‘illacrimabilem’ (ii. 14. 6), which is used passively C. iv. 9. 26. Tacitus uses ‘dissociabilis’ passively (Agr. 3), “res olim dissociabiles miscuerit principatum et libertatem.” ‘Prudens’ is ‘providens,’ foreseeing the evil to come.
25.Audax omnia perpeti] ‘Presumptuous (enough) to endure all sufferings.’ Compare with this Soph. Antig. 332, sqq.:—
πολλὰ τὰ δεινὰ, κοὐδὲν ἀν-θρώπου δεινότερον πέλει.τοῦτο καὶ πολιοῦ πέρανπόντου χειμερίῳ νότῳχωρεῖ, περιβρυχίοισινπερῶν ὑπ᾽ οἴδμασιν.
‘Perpeti’ means to endure to the end. ‘Vetitum’ with ‘nefas’ is not altogether redundant. It expresses crimes which are obviously forbidden, as shown by the obstructions thrown in the way of their commission.
27.Iapeti genus] ‘Son of Iapetus’ (Prometheus). This is after the use of γένος, which occurs not rarely in the Tragedians. Eurip. (Cyclops 104) has δριμὺ Σισύφου γένος, for Ulysses, and Virg. (Aen. iv. 12) “genus esse Deorum.” Compare S. ii. 5. 63.—Prometheus also claimed to be the inventor of ships (Aesch. P. V. 467).
28.fraude mala] ‘Mala’ means mischievous or fatal theft, referring to its consequences. Technically ‘dolus malus’ means a fraud with bad intent, and ‘dolus bonus’ with good intent, a pious fraud.
30.Subductum] ‘stolen.’ ‘Sub’ in composition has sometimes that force of ὑπό which signifies ‘suppression’ and so ‘deception’ in every form. But it does not always convey a bad meaning.
31.incubuit] This word does not always take a dative case after it. Lucret. vi. 1141:—
“Mortifer aestus —Incubuittandempopulum Pandionis omnem.”
In what follows ‘prius’ belongs to ‘semoti,’ and ‘tarda necessitas leti’ are one subject. Translate, ‘tardaque necessitas leti, prius semoti, corripuit gradum,’ ‘the power, once slow, of death remote before, hastened its step.’ So that ‘prius’ also affects ‘tarda.’ The story of the diseases and ills which issued from Pandora’s box, and which were a punishment for the theft of Prometheus, will be found in any classical dictionary.
36.Herculeus labor.] So Odyss. xi. 600, βιή Ἡρακληείη for Hercules. “Catonis virtus” (C. iii. 21. 11), “virtus Scipiadae et miris sapientia Laeli” (S. ii. 1. 72), may be taken in the same way. The descent of Hercules to Hades, for the purpose of bringing up Cerberus, was the twelfth labor imposed on him by Eurystheus.
ODE IV.
L. Sestius, whose name is used in this Ode, was one of those who served with Horace under Brutus, and they were no doubt on terms of intimacy. The Ode professes to be written at the beginning of spring, and its subject is the uncertainty of life and the duty of enjoying it.
Argument.—The winter is thawing; the spring is returning; the ships are being launched; the herds quit their stalls and the ploughman his fireside; and the meadows are no longer white with frost. Venus and the Graces are leading the dance, and the Cyclops’ forge is burning. Let us bind the head with myrtle or the earth’s first flowers and sacrifice a lamb or kid to Pan. Death calls on rich and poor alike. Life is short, O Sestius! and our hopes we must contract. The grave awaits thee, and when there, no more shalt thou preside at the feast, or sigh for the fair young Lycidas.
2.machinae] The machines here mentioned are called by Cæsar (B. C. ii. 10) ‘phalangae.’ They were rollers. Vessels were drawn up on shore from the Ides of November to the Ides of March, during which time “Defendens pisces hiemat mare” (S. ii. 2. 17). As to ‘Favonius’ see C. iii. 7. 2. The usual word for ‘to launch’ (for which ‘trahunt’ is here used) is ‘deducere,’ the reverse of which, ‘to haul up on shore,’ is ‘subducere.’
3.neque — aut — nec] The two first of these form one branch of the sentence, and the last the other. “Neque (pecus aut arator) gaudet nec prata albicant.” See C. ii. 3, at the beginning.
4.canis-pruinis] The hoar-frost.
5.imminente Luna,] ‘with the moon overhead.’ ‘Cytherea Venus’ is unusual, but is analogous to Φοῖβος Ἀπόλλων.
6.Junctaeque Nymphis] ‘Nymphis’ is dative. Translate ‘decentes’ ‘comely.’ See C. 30. 5, and 7, n.
7.graves] This epithet may have a variety of meanings. Perhaps Horace meant ‘laborious.’ The eruptions of Ætna, where the thunderbolts of Jove were supposed to be forged, taking place chiefly in the summer and early autumn, the Cyclops are fitly represented as preparing these bolts in spring.
8.urit] This seems to be an adaptation of φλέγει, ‘lights up,’ and is an unusual sense for ‘uro.’ Ovid (Fast. iv. 473) has “Antraque Cyclopum, positis exusta caminis,” which was possibly imitated from this.
9.nitidum] i.e. with oil. C. ii. 7. 22, n.; Epp. i. 5. 14, n.
11.Fauno decet immolare] The Faunalia took place on the Ides of December. But a lesser festival was observed on the Ides of February, at the advent of Faunus (Pan, the two being identified by the later Romans). See C. iii. 18. At that time the flocks and herds went out to graze, and the god was invoked for their protection. ‘Immolare’ admits of two constructions: with an ablative, as (Livy xli. 14) “immolantibus Jovi singulis bubus”; and with an accusative, as (Virg. Aen. x. 519) “inferias quas immolet umbris.” Horace himself has the latter construction elsewhere (S. ii. 3. 164): “Immolet aequis hic porcum Laribus.” So Virgil (Ecl. iii. 77), “facias vitula.”
13.pulsat] Ovid, Heroid. xxi. 46, “Persephone nostras pulsat acerba fores.”
14.Reges] This word is commonly applied to the rich by Horace, and by Terence too, as Phormio (i. 2. 20): “O! regem me esse opportuit.” The Romans, after the expulsion of the kings, used the terms ‘rex,’ ‘regnum,’ ‘regnare,’ for the most part, in an invidious sense.—‘Beatus’ means one who is rich and lives free from misfortunes. Sestius shared the defeat of Brutus at Philippi, but returning to Rome he was favored by Augustus, and rose to be consul.
15.inchoare] ‘To enter upon.’ This word means properly to begin a thing and not to bring it to an end. The derivation is uncertain.
16.premet] From this word, which belongs more properly to ‘nox,’ we must understand appropriate words for ‘Manes’ and ‘domus.’ Orelli supplies ‘circumvolitabunt’ and ‘teget.’
fabulaeque Manes] This is explained by Juv. S. ii. 149:—
“Esse aliquid (oraliquos) Manes —Nec pueri credunt nisi qui nondum aere lavantur.”
Persicus has imitated Horace, S. v. 152: “cinis et Manes et fabula fies.” ‘Fabulae,’ therefore, signifies ‘unreal.’ See Epp. ii. 2. 209, n.—‘Exilis’ is ‘bare,’ as in Epp. i. 6. 45: “Exilis domus est qua non et multa supersunt.”—‘Simul’ is used commonly by Horace for ‘simul ac,’ ‘as soon as.’—‘Mirabere,’ as expressing affection, savors of the Greek θαυμάζειν. It occurs again Epod. iii. 10.—As to ‘talis,’ ‘dice,’ see S. ii. 3. 171, n. It was usualat feasts for one to be chosen by lot, or by throw of dice, president, called by the the Greeks συμποσίαρχος, and by the Romans ‘rex bibendi’ or ‘magister bibendi,’ his office being principally to regulate the quantity and quality of wine to be drunk. Compare C. ii. 7. 25.
ODE V.
Thisis a graceful fancy poem. It expresses a lover’s jealousy, under the pretence of being glad to escape from the toils of an inconstant mistress. He supposes her to be at this time engaging the affections of some inexperienced youth unknown, who is embarked on the dangerous sea from which he has himself barely escaped. Milton has made a good translation of this Ode.
Argument.—What slender youth art thou toying with now, Pyrrha? He thinks, poor, credulous boy, it will always be thus with thee, and will timidly wonder when the tempest ariseth. I pity those who have no experience of thee; for my part, I have escaped out of the storm, as the walls of the Sea-god show, whereon my dripping garments and the picture of my wreck are hung.
1.multa — in rosa] ‘on a bed of roses.’
5.Simplex munditiis?] ‘Munditia,’ in the singular and plural, signifies elegance of dress without pretension. Translate ‘plain in thy neatness.’
6.Mutatosque deos] ‘Mutatos’ applies equally to ‘fidem’ and ‘deos.’ See C. ii. 1, n.
8.Emirabitur] This word is not found in other good authors. It is a stronger form of ‘miror,’ which is a common effect of ‘e’ and ‘de’ in composition, as, among many other instances, ‘decertantem’ in the third Ode. ‘Demiror’ is a word used by Cicero and others, and adopted here by some editors.—‘Insolens’ is either used absolutely or with a genitive.
9.aurea:] ‘All gold’ is Milton’s translation, and none other that I know of will do. It implies perfection, just as ‘aurea mediocritas’ signifies that perfect state which transgresses neither to the right nor to the left. So Homer calls Venus χρυσέα frequently.
10.vacuam,] ‘heart free.’ “Elige de vacuis quam non sibi vindicet alter,” Ov. Herod. xx. 149. See also C. i. 6. 19: “Cantamus vacui sive quid urimur.”—‘Amabilem’ Gesner understands actively. It may be either, or both. See C. i. 3. 22.
13.tabula] This practice of persons escaped from shipwreck hanging up in the temple of Neptune or other sea-god a picture representing their wreck and the clothes they escaped in, is mentioned twice again by Horace, S. ii. 1. 33; A. P. 20. Also, among many others, by Virgil, Aen. xii. 768:
“Servati ex undis ubi figere dona solebantLaurenti divo, et votas suspendere vestes.”
The temples of Isis in particular were thus adorned, after the introduction of her worship into Rome, which was not till quite the latter years of the Republic. She was worshipped in Greece as Πελαγία, and the Romans placed themselves under her protection at sea. Juvenal asks (S. xii. 28): “Pictores quis nescit ab Iside pasci?” There is a little confusion in the sentence; for Horace says, ‘the wall shows with its votive picture that he has hung up his clothes to the sea-god.’ This may be accounted for if we suppose that he meant to say, ‘the wall with its picture shows that he hasescaped drowning,’ to which the other is equivalent, but expresses more, namely, the hanging up of the clothes.
15.potenti — maris] ‘Potenti’ governs ‘maris,’ as “potens Cypri,” C. i. 3. 1.
ODE VI.
ThisOde is addressed to M. Vipsanius Agrippa, the friend and general, and at a later time the son-in-law, of Augustus. It was probably written after the battle of Actium, where Agrippa commanded the fleet of Augustus against M. Antonius. He may have asked Horace to write an ode in his honor, and he declines in a modest way, professing to be unequal to such high exploits, which he places on the same level with those of Homer’s heroes.
Argument.—Varius shall sing in Homeric strain of thy victories by sea and land. My humble muse does not sing of these, of the wrath of Achilles, or the wanderings of Ulysses, or the fate of Pelops’s house, nor will she disparage thy glories and Cæsar’s. Who can fitly sing of Mars, mail-clad,—of Meriones, black with the dust of Troy,—of Diomed, a match for gods? I sing but of feasts, and of the battles of boys and girls.
1.Scriberis] See next Ode, v. 1, n. L. Varius Rufus was a distinguished epic and tragic poet frequently mentioned by Horace, with whom he was intimate, and whom he introduced to Mæcenas. He was popular with his contemporaries, and much admired by them. Augustus also had an affection for him (see Epp. ii. 1. 247).
2.carminis alite,] ‘Alite’ is in apposition with ‘Vario.’ Translate, ‘bird of Homeric song.’ In prose the ablative of the agent without a preposition is not admissible. But Horace has the same construction, C. iii. 5. 24. S. ii. 1. 84. Epp. i. 1. 94. It is most frequently found in Ovid. Homer is called ‘Maeonius’ from the fact that Smyrna, a town of Lydia, more anciently called Mæonia, was one of those that claimed to be his birthplace.
3.Quam rem cunque] The construction is by attraction. The full expression would be ‘scriberis et scribetur omnis res quamcunque.’ Agrippa’s great successes up to this time had been in the Perusian war against L. Antonius,B. C.41 (in which he had the principal command under Augustus), in Gaul and Germany, by land; and against Sex. Pompeius and at Actium, by sea.
4.te duce] See next Ode, v. 27, n.
5.neque haec — nec gravem] This is as if he had said: ‘I should not think of singing of these victories, any more than I should of the wrath of Achilles.’ Compare C. iii. 5. 27-30:
“Neque amissos coloresLana refert medicata fuco,Nec vera virtus cum semel exciditCurat reponi deterioribus.”
‘As the stained wool does not recover its lost color, so true virtue once lost will not be restored to the degenerate.’ ‘Gravem stomachum’ is a translation of μῆνιν οὐλομένην (Il. i. 1), and ‘cedere nescii’ is explained by ‘inexorabilis,’ A. P. 121. This construction with ‘nescius’ is not uncommon. Virgil, Aen. xii. 527: “Rumpuntur nescia vinci pectora.” Ovid, Ep. ex Pont. ii. 9. 45: “Marte ferox et vinci nescius armis.”
7.duplicis] διπλοῦς, ‘double-minded or double-tongued,’ as he is described by Hecuba in Euripides’s play of the Trojan Women (v. 285):—
ὃς πάντα τἀκεῖθεν ἐνθάδ᾽ἀντίπαλ᾽ αὖθις ἐκεῖσε διπτύχῳ γλώσσᾳφίλα τὰ πρότερ᾽ ἄφιλα τιθέμενος πάντων.
‘Ulixeï’ is a genitive of the second declension, ‘Ulixeus’ being an old Latin form of ‘Ulysses.’
8.saevam Pelopis domum] Alluding to Varius’s tragedy Thyestes. Tantalus, the founder of his house, served up his own son Pelops at a feast of the gods. Pelops, restored to life, murdered Œnomaus his father-in-law and his own son Chrysippus (Thucyd. i. 9). Atreus, the son of Pelops, murdered and placed before their father as a meal the children of Thyestes his brother, who had previously seduced the wife of Atreus. Atreus was killed by Ægisthus, his nephew and supposed son, who also seduced the wife of his cousin, Agamemnon (the son of Atreus), who was murdered by the said wife Clytemnestra, and she by her son Orestes, who was pursued to madness by the Erynnyes of his mother: all of which events furnished themes for the Greek tragedians, and were by them varied in their features as suited their purpose, or according to the different legends they followed.
11.Laudes] It is said that Varius wrote a panegyric on Augustus, and if so, it is possible Horace means indirectly to refer to it here.
13.tunica tectum adamantina] This expresses Homer’s epithet χαλκοχίτων.
15.Merionen] The charioteer of Idomeneus, king of Crete. ‘Pulvere Troico nigrum’ is like ‘non indecoro pulvere sordidos’ (C. ii. 1. 22). With the help of Pallas, Diomed encountered Mars and wounded him (Il. v. 858).
18.Sectis — acrium] The order is, ‘virginum in juvenes acrium, Sectis tamen unguibus.’
19.sive quid urimur] The construction has been noticed before (3. 15), and ‘vacuus’ occurs in the last Ode (v. 10). See Z. § 385.
20.Non praeter solitum leves.] ‘Trifling, according to my usual practice.’
ODE VII.
Munatius Plancus, who followed Julius Cæsar both in Gaul and in his war with Pompeius, after Cæsar’s death attached himself to the republican party, but very soon afterwards joined Augustus; then followed Antonius to the East, andB. C.32, the year before Actium, joined Augustus again. He was consul inB. C.42. See C. iii. 14. 27,
“Non ego hoc ferrem, calidus juventa,Consule Planco.”
He had a son Munatius, who is probably the person referred to in Epp. i. 3. 31. To which of them this Ode was addressed, if to either, is uncertain. It might have been addressed to any one else, for its only subject is the praise of a quiet life and convivial pleasure, which is supported by a story about Teucer, taken from some source unknown to us. Much of the language and ideas seems to have been copied from the Greek.
Argument.—Let others sing of the noble cities of Greece, and dedicate their lives to the celebration of Athens and all its glories. For my part, I care not for Lacedæmon and Larissa, as for Albunea’s cave, the banks of Anio, and the woods and orchards of Tibur. The sky is not always dark, Plancus: drown care in wine, whether in the camp or in the shades of Tibur. As Teucer, though driven from his father’s home, bound poplar on his head, and cheered his companions, saying: “Let us follow fortune,my friends, kinder than a father: despair not, while Teucer is your chief; Apollo has promised us another Salamis: drown care in wine, for to-morrow we will seek the deep once more.”
1.Laudabunt] This future is like ‘scriberis’ in the last Ode (v. 1), ‘others shall if they please.’ ‘Claram’ means ‘bright,’ with reference to its cloudless skies. ‘Bimaris’ is an unusual word. It refers to the position of Corinth, which, standing at the south of the isthmus, commanded the shore of the Sinus Corinthiacus, by two long walls reaching from the town to the sea, and had its eastern port Cenchreæ on the Sinus Saronicus.
5.Sunt quibus] ‘There are those who make it the single business of their lives to tell of chaste Minerva’s city in unbroken song, and to gather a branch from every olive to entwine their brow.’ A ‘perpetuum carmen’ is a continuous poem, such as an Epic; and ‘a branch from every olive,’ or, more literally, an ‘olive-branch from every quarter,’ means that the various themes connected with the glory of Athens are as olive-trees, from each of which a branch is plucked to bind the poet’s brow. The figure is appropriate to the locality, where the olive flourished and was sacred to Minerva (see Herod. v. 8. Soph. Oed. Col. 694, sqq.). We do not know of any poem or poems to which Horace may have alluded, but Athens furnished subjects for the inferior poets of the day.
8.Plurimus] This word for ‘plurimi’ standing alone occurs nowhere else; with a substantive it is not uncommon, as ‘Oleaster plurimus,’ Georg. ii. 182. ‘Plurimus aeger,’ Juv. iii. 232. ‘In honorem,’ for the ablative, is an unusual construction. But Propertius (iv. 6. 13) says, “Caesaris in nomen ducuntur carmina,” which is an analogous case. See Hom. Il. iv. 51, where Here says:—
ἦ τοι ἐμοὶ τρεῖς μὲν πολὺ φίλταταί εἰσι πόληες,Ἄργος τε Σπάρτη τε καὶ εὐρυάγυια Μυκήνη.
She had a celebrated temple between Argos and Mycenæ called the Ἡραῖον. Homer (Il. ii. 287) calls Argos ἱππόβατον (‘aptum equis’), the plain in which the city was placed being famous for breeding horses.
‘Dites Mycenas’ is later: Μυκήνας τὰς πολυχρύσους (Soph. Elect. 9). ‘Opimae Larissae’ is Homeric; Λάρισσα ἐριβώλαξ (Il. ii. 841). There were several towns of this name, and it is uncertain which Homer meant, but probably that in Thessaly. Horace perhaps took his town, with its epithet, without thinking much where it was. But he may have been at all these places while he was in Greece. ‘Patiens’ is the Spartan’s historical character, but also that of Horace’s age. Cicero (Tusc. v. 27) says, “Pueri Spartiatae non ingemiscunt verberum dolore laniati. Adolescentium greges Lacedaemone vidimus ipsi, incredibili contentione certantes pugnis, calcibus, unguibus, morsu denique, ut exanimarentur prius quam se victos faterentur.” ‘Percussit’ is generally used with the ablative of the instrument or cause. Standing alone in this way, and in the aoristic perfect, it savors very much of ἔπληξε which is used in the same sense.
12.Albuneae resonantis] Albunea, one of the Sibyls worshipped at Tibur, gave her name to a grove and fountain. See Virg. Aen. vii. 81, sqq.
13.Tiburni lucus] Tiburnus (or -tus), Catillus, and Coras were the mythical founders of Tibur. See Virg. Aen. vii. 671. The brothers were worshipped and had a grove there. Tiburnus was the tutelar deity of Tibur, as Tiberinus was of the river Tiber, Anienus of the Anio, &c. They are in fact adjectives. Tibur was famous for its orchards. As to ‘uda’ see C. iii. 29. 6, n. Close to Tibur there is a fall of the Anio, which explains ‘praeceps.’
15.Albus—Notus] This is the λευκόνοτος of the Greeks. We have also ‘candidi Favonii’ (C. iii. 7. 1) and ‘albus Iapyx’ (C. iii. 27. 19). In the latter place it represents a treacherous wind. Horace prefers the older forms in ‘eo,’ as ‘deterget,’ ‘tergere’ (S. ii. 2. 24), ‘densentur’ (C. i. 28. 19).
19.fulgentia signis] The standards in front of the ‘praetorium,’ the commander-in-chief’s quarters, were decorated with plates of burnished gold or silver.
21.Teucer] Teucer was brother of Ajax, and son of Telamon, king of Salamis, that island on the southern coast of Attica where Themistocles defeated the forces of Xerxes. When he returned from Troy, his father refused to receive him, because he came without his brother, whereupon he went with his followers to Cyprus, and built a city there, which he called after his native place, Salamis. ‘Cum fugeret tamen’ is an imitation of the Greek καὶ φεύγων ὅμως. But this use of ‘tamen’ is not uncommon in Cicero. Teucer selected Hercules as his protector, and so wore a crown of poplar, which was sacred to that hero. See Virg. Aen. viii. 276.
25.Fortuna melior parente] ‘Fortune, kinder than my father.’
27.duce et auspice] Horace puts technical distinctions into Teucer’s lips, of which he could know nothing. The commander-in-chief of a Roman army had a power called ‘imperium’ given him, in virtue of which his acts in the war in which he was engaged were done on behalf of the state. He alone had the power of taking the auspices under which the war was carried on. The difference between ‘dux’ and ‘auspex’ was the difference between a commander who had the ‘imperium’ (and therefore the ‘auspicium’) and one who had not. If an ‘imperator’ commanded in person, the war was said to be carried on under his ‘ductus’ as well as his ‘auspicia’; otherwise only under his ‘auspicia,’ his ‘legatus’ being the ‘dux.’ Thus Tacitus says (Ann. ii. 41), “recepta signa cum Varo amissa ductu Germanici auspiciis Tiberii.” Tiberius as ‘imperator’ alone had the ‘auspicium,’ which the emperors rarely delegated to their generals. See last Ode, v. 4. C. iv. 14. 33. Epp. ii. 1. 254. ‘Certus’ is equivalent to σαφής in εἰ Ζεὺς ἔτι Ζεὺς χὠ Διὸς Φοῖβος σαφής (Oed. Col. 623).
29.Ambiguam] Of doubtful name, i.e. liable to be confounded with the old Salamis.
ODE VIII.
ThisOde contains an expostulation with a damsel, Lydia, who is supposed to be spoiling by her charms a youth, Sybaris, once distinguished in all manly sports, which he has now forsaken. Sybaris was the name of a Greek town on the Sinus Tarentinus, the inhabitants of which were idle and luxurious. The name, which was proverbial though the town had long been destroyed, is given to this youth by way of representing the character into which he has fallen.
Argument.—Lydia, why art thou spoiling Sybaris thus, so that he shuns all manly exercises? He who was once so active, why does he no longer ride and swim and wrestle, and throw the quoit and javelin in the Campus Martius? Why does he hide himself with thee, like Achilles, in woman’s apparel?
3, 4.apricum campum] The Campus Martius, where the youth of Rome used to practise manly and warlike exercises.
5.militaris] ‘as a soldier should.’
6.Gallica nec lupatis] The best horses were bred in Cisalpine Gaul. Lupata (plur.) is used as a substantive by Virgil (Georg. iii. 208). It was the sharpest kind of bit, so called from the jagged teeth of the wolf, which it resembled. It was also called ‘lupus.’ The participle is not elsewhere used.
8.Tiberim tangere?Cur olivum] The Romans bathed often in the Tiber, before which, and before their exercises in the Campus Martius, they were wont to rub oil on their limbs. C. iii. 12. 6. S. i. 6. 123; ii. 1. 8.
10.armis] The discus (S. ii. 2. 13) and lance, the violent use of which strained and discolored the arms.
13.Quid latet,] ‘Why is he hiding himself in your house?’ as Achilles was hid in a woman’s dress, in the palace of Lycomedes, in the island of Scyros, lest he should be carried to Troy; a legend which Homer knew nothing of. Thetis foresaw that the siege of Troy would be fatal to Achilles. In Ovid (Met. xiii. 165, sqq.) Ulysses relates the story, and tells how he discovered Achilles and dragged him to the war.
16.Lycias—catervas?] The Lycians assisted the Trojans under the command of Sarpedon and Glaucus.
ODE IX.
Thisis a drinking song for the winter, imitated from an Ode of Alcæus. A party is supposed to be assembled in the city, and one calls upon the master of the feast to bring out his best wine, and make the fire burn bright, that they may banish care and all thought for the future, since youth is the time for innocent enjoyment.
Argument.—You see how Soracte stands out with snow, and the woods are bending with their burden, and the sharp frost hath frozen the streams. Heap logs on the fire, and draw your best Sabine wine, feast-master, and leave the rest to the gods, at whose bidding the fierce winds are still and the woods have rest. Ask not what is to come; enjoy the present day; let the dance be ours while we are young, the Campus Martius, the promenade, the nightly assignation, and the coy girl that loves to be caught.
1.stet] ‘stands out.’ This signifies a fixed and prominent appearance. ‘Stant lumina flamma’ (Aen. vi. 300) may be rendered in the same way. Soracte was one of the Faliscan range of hills, about 2200 feet high and twenty-four miles from Rome. It is now called Monte Tresto, a corruption from ‘San Oreste.’ It is seen very clearly from the northern point of the city. Apollo had a temple there: “Summe deum sancti custos Soractis Apollo,” Aen. xi. 785.
4.constiterint] ‘have ceased flowing.’ See Ov. Tr. v. 10. 1: “Ut sumus in Ponto ter frigore constitit Ister.” ‘Acuto,’ as applied to cold, corresponds to the ὀξεῖα χιών of Pindar, and ‘penetrabile frigus’ of Virgil. But Horace also applies it to heat (Epp. i. 10. 17): “Cum semel accepit solem furibundus acutum.” In English, we say ‘a sharp frost,’ but do not use the same word for heat.
7.Deprome quadrimum Sabina, — diota.] The first of these words means here to draw the wine from the ‘diota’ into the crater or bowl in which it was mixed with water. The diota (so called from its having two handles or ears, ὦτα) was the same as the ‘amphora’ (so called for the same reason), ‘testa,’ or ‘cadus,’ which were names for the vessels of earthen-ware or glass in which the wine was kept, as we keep it in bottles, after it was drawn fromthe ‘dolium,’ the larger vessel in which it was put to ferment when new. The name of the wine is applied to the vessel containing it here, as in ‘Graeca testa’ (i. 20. 2); ‘Laestrygonia amphora’ (iii. 16. 34). Sabine wine was not among the best, nor was it of the worst sort. It was a sweet wine, and probably after four years’ keeping was in its prime. Horace calls it elsewhere (C. i. 20. 1) “vile Sabinum,” but that was as compared with Mæcenas’s more expensive sorts.
14.Fors] ‘Chance.’ Cic. (de Legg. ii. 11) distinguishes ‘Fors’ from ‘Fortuna’ thus: “Fortuna valet in omnes dies; Fors in quo incerti casus significantur magis.” ‘Fors’ and ‘Sors’ differ as cause and effect. See S. i. 1. 1. ‘Quem dierum cunque’ is equivalent to ‘quemcunque diem’; ‘whatever day chance shall bestow.’
lucro Appone,] ‘set it down to good luck.’ Cic. Div. 9. 17: “de lucro prope jam quadriennium novimus,” i.e. of good luck and contrary to expectation. Liv. (xi. 8) has the same expression: “De lucro vivere me scito.” ‘Lucrari’ is said of things gained without our own effort, according to Forcellini’s explanation.
17.virenti] Epod. 13. 4: “dumque virent genua.” The Greeks used γόνυ χλωρόν. ‘Virere’ is also applied to old age, and we speak commonly of a ‘green old age.’ “Cruda ac viridis senectus,” Tac. Agr. 29.
18.areae] Courts and open places about the temples and in different parts of the town, used as promenades and for games. ‘Any place in a city not built upon,’ is the jurists’ definition of ‘area.’
24.male pertinaci.] ‘slyly obstinate,’ or ‘not obstinate,’ that is, which does not resist the snatching of the ring; for ‘male’ may be taken in either sense. See below, C. 17. 25, n.
ODE X.
Inthe following Ode, which is a translation or close adaptation of one written by Alcæus, the attributes and legends belonging to Hermes, the Greek divinity, are applied to Mercurius, the Latin, who was properly the god who presided over commerce. Ovid gives much the same account of Mercurius in the fifth book of the Fasti (663, sqq.). His description begins with the same apostrophe as this, ‘Clare nepos Atlantis.’
Argument.—Mercury, thou who in their infancy didst tame the human race by the gifts of speech and the palæstra, of thee will I sing, thou messenger of the gods, thou master of the lyre and prince of thieves. Why, while Apollo was threatening thee for stealing his cows, he turned and laughed to find his quiver gone. By thee Priam passed through the Grecian camp. Thou conductest souls to their last home, thou favorite of the gods above and gods below!
1.nepos Atlantis,] Hermes was the son of Zeus and Maia the daughter of Atlas.
3.Voce formasti] Hermes was looked upon as the herald of the gods, and so as gifted above all others with eloquence; hence he was called λόγιος. He was said to have invented the first written language.
decorae More palaestrae,] ‘The practice (exercise) of the graceful palæstra,’ so called as giving grace to the limbs. As the inventor and patron of gymnastic exercises, Hermes was called ἀγώνιος.
6.lyrae parentem,] Hermes was said, when a child, to have taken the shell of a tortoise and put strings to it, and so to have invented the lyre.
7.Callidum quidquid] All arts of cunning were supposed to have originated with Hermes, who as the god of gain patronized thieving.
9.Te boves olim] Translate in the following order: ‘Olim Apollo, dum Te puerum terret (terrebat) minaci Voce, nisi reddidisses boves per dolum amotas, Risit viduus (spoliatus) pharetra.’ Hermes is also said to have stolen when a child some cows of Apollo’s. After some time, that god discovered the thief, and when threatening to punish him if he did not restore them, he turned and found his bow and arrows gone; and Horace says he smiled at the expertness of the theft. This story is said to have been first told by Alcæus. Ovid, in the place above mentioned, relates it.
14.Ilio dives Priamus] Horace uses the forms Ilios (feminine) and Ilion (neuter). The story of Priam going through the Grecian camp to beg the body of his son Hector of Achilles, is told by Homer in the 24th book of the Iliad (334, sqq.).
15.Thessalos ignes] The watch-fires of the troops of Achilles.
17.Tu pias laetis] As the conductor of the dead, Hermes was called ψυχοπομπός, and as the bearer of a golden wand, he was named χρυσόῤῥαπις. This wand the Greeks called κηρυκεῖον, the Latins ‘caduceus.’
20.imis.] That is, Pluto and Proserpine.
ODE XI.
Theswarms of impostors from the East, who pretended to tell fortunes and cast nativities at Rome in the time of the empire, became a public nuisance, and they were expelled and laws passed against them, but without the effect of putting them down. Tacitus (Hist. i. 22) describes them as “Genus hominum infidum, sperantibus fallax, quod in civitate nostra et vetabitur semper et retinebitur.” They were becoming numerous in Cicero’s time. As might be supposed, they were most successful in engaging the attention of women (Juv. vi. 569, sqq.), and Horace here addresses himself to one of that sex, whom he calls Leuconoë, a name which appears to be equivalent to ‘folly.’
Argument.—Look not into the book of fate, Leuconoë, nor consult the astrologers. How much better to be satisfied, whether we have yet many winters to see, or this be the last! Be wise, strain the wine, think of the shortness of life, and cut your expectations short. Even while we speak, time flies. Live to-day; trust not to-morrow.
1.scire nefas,] ‘Nefas’ means that which is not permitted by the gods. It does not always signify what is wrong, but sometimes what is impossible for the above reason.
2.Babylonios numeros.] ‘The calculations of the Chaldeans.’
6.vina liques,] ‘strain the wine.’ See S. ii. 4. 51, n.
spatio brevi] This means ‘cut down distant hopes, and confine them within a narrow compass.’
8.Carpe diem] ‘Seize the (present) day.’
ODE XII.
Theobject of this Ode is to celebrate the popular divinities and heroes of Rome; but the design is so worked out as to draw the chief attention toAugustus. The Muse is asked whom she will praise,—Jove and his children, or some one of the worthies of Rome, of whom many are mentioned, beginning with Romulus and ending with Augustus, of whom it is declared that he is under the especial care of Jove, and that he holds from him the sceptre of the world. These persons are mentioned without reference to chronological order, and it does not appear why some were chosen rather than others of more or equal note who are omitted.
Argument.—Whom wilt thou sing among gods or men, Clio? Whose name shall the echoes of Pindus or Helicon repeat, or of Hæmus, whose woods followed the sweet music of Orpheus? Whom, before the Almighty Father, who knows no equal or second? After him cometh Pallas, and then brave Liber, and the huntress Diana, and Phœbus the archer, and Hercules, and Leda’s sons, the horseman and the fighter, before whose star the tempests fly. Then shall it be Romulus, or the peaceful Numa, or proud Tarquin, or Cato, who nobly died? Regulus, and the Scauri, and Paulus, who gave up his great soul to the Carthaginian, gratefully I will sing, and Fabricius and Curius and Camillus, all trained for war in poverty’s school. The fame of Marcellus is growing up insensibly, like a tree, and the star of Julius is brighter than all stars. To thee, great Father, is given the care of Cæsar; share with him thy kingdom. Putting Parthians to flight, and subduing the nations of the East, he shall rule the world, as thy vicegerent, with a righteous sway, while thou dost shake Olympus, and hurlest thy bolts on the haunts of impiety.
1.Quem virum] This opening is taken from the beginning of the second Olympic Ode of Pindar:—
ἀναξιφόρμιγγες ὕμνοιτίνα θεόν, τίν᾽ ἥρωα, τίνα δ᾽ ἄνδρα κελαδήσομεν;
2.sumis celebrare,] See C. i. 1. 8, n. Horace invokes the Muses without much discrimination; but Clio is not improperly invoked here, as the Muse of history, to which the names of the worthies recounted belong. Calliope, the Epic Muse, is invoked C. iii. 4. 2; Melpomene, the tragic, is asked for a dirge, i. 24. 3, and is invoked by Horace as his patroness in iv. 3; Euterpe and Polymnia, the proper lyric Muses, occur i. 1. 33. ‘Imago’ is used absolutely for the echo (for which the Romans had no corresponding term) by Cicero, Tusc. iii. 2: “ea (laus bonorum) virtuti resonat tanquam imago.” Virgil gives the full expression, Georg. iv. 50: “Vocisque offensa resultat imago.” See C. i. 20. 8. Our verse-writers are fond of Horace’s epithet, ‘sportive echo.’
5.Heliconis oris] Helico was a range of mountains in Bœotia, and Pindus between Thessaly and Epirus. Both were celebrated as the abodes of the Muses. Hæmus was a range on the north of Thrace, and Orpheus was a Thracian. See A. P. 391, 405, n.
9.Arte materna] Orpheus was the son of the Muse Calliope.
15, 16.Qui mare ac terras] Virgil addresses Jove in the same way:—
“O qui res hominumque deumqueAeternis regis imperiis et fulmine terres.”—Aen. i. 230.
variisque mundum — horis] ‘Mundum’ here signifies ‘the sky,’ as in Georg. i. 240, and ‘horis’ has its Greek signification,—‘seasons.’
17.Unde nil majus] ‘Unde’ occurs several times in Horace as referring to persons. See, among other places, Cicero de Senect. 4, fin., “fore unde discerem neminem.”
19.Proximos] This, signifying the next in order without reference to distance, does not contradict what goes before. ‘Secundum’ means close proximity. Pallas is said to hold the next place to Jupiter, notabsolutely, but among those ‘qui generantur ipso,’ and only these are mentioned.
21.Proeliis audax] Horace confounds the Latin divinity Liber with the Greek Dionysus or Bacchus, whose Indian wars and contests with the giants (ii. 19. 21) are here alluded to.
26.Hunc equis, —] S. ii. 1. 26.
29.Defluit saxis agitatus humor,] The waters that in their fury covered the rocks flow back to their bed. See C. i. 3. 2, n.
33.Romulum post hos, etc.] The order is, ‘dubito utrum prius post hos memorem Romulum, an quietum Pompili regnum,’ etc.
34.superbos Tarquini fasces] Tarquinius Priscus is probably referred to, and ‘superbos’ must in that case be taken in a good sense.
35.Catonis] M. Cato, surnamed Uticensis from the fortress of Utica in Africa, where he died. He put himself to death, rather than fall into the hands of Julius Cæsar,B. C.46.
37.Scauros] The plural is used for the singular (see S. i. 7. 8, n.), and M. Æmilius Scaurus is meant, who was consulB. C.115. The story of M. Atilius Regulus, who as consul commanded the Roman army in the first Punic war, and was taken by the Carthaginians, is told in C. iii. 5. L. Æmilius Paullus commanded with Varro, his colleague in the consulship, at the battle of Cannæ, when the Romans were defeated by Hannibal, and Paullus lost his life by refusing to fly when he might have done so. C. Fabricius Luscinus was consul, and commanded in the war with Pyrrhus,B. C.278, three years after which M. Curius Dentatus was consul and commander in the same war. Both of these consuls were celebrated for the simplicity of their habits, and for rejecting the bribes of the Samnites, in respect to which a notable saying of Curius is related by Cicero (De Senect. c. 16). The older Romans wore their hair and beards long. These heroes are represented as negligent of their appearance. L. Furius Camillus is he who was said to have forced the Gauls to raise the siege of the Capitol,B. C.390.