Concubitu prohibere vago, dare jura maritis,
Oppida moliri, leges incidere ligno:
Sic honor et nomen divinis vatibus atque
Carminibus venit. Post hos insignis Homerus
Tyrtaeusque mares animos in Martia bella
Versibus exacuit; dictae per carmina sortes,
Et vitae monstrata via est; et gratia regum
Pieriis temptata modis; ludusque repertus,
Et longorum operum finis: né forte pudori
Sit tibi Musa lyrae sollers et cantor Apollo!

Natura fieret laudabile carmen an arte,

400

405

Quaesitum est: ego nec studium sine divite vena,
Nec rude quid possit video ingenium; alterius sic 410
Altera poscit opem res et conjurat amice.

Qui studet optatam cursu contingere metam,
Multa tulit fecitque puer, sudavit et alsit,
Abstinuit venere et vino; qui Pythia cantat
Tibicen, didicit prius extimuitque magistrum.

Nunc satis est dixisse "Ego mira poëmata pango;
Occupet extremum scabies! mihi turpe relinqui est,
Et, quod non didici, sane nescire fateri."

Ut praeco, ad merces turbam qui cogit emendas,
Assentatores jubet ad lucrum ire poëta
Dives agris, dives positis in fenore nummis.
Si vero est unctum qui recte ponere possit,
Et spondere levi pro paupere, et eripere atris
Litibus implicitum, mirabor si sciet inter-
Noscere mendacem verumque beatus amicum.
Tu, seu donâris seu quid donare voles cui,
Nolito ad versus tibi factos ducere plenum

415

420

425

430

Laetitiae; clamabit enim "Pulchre! Bene! Recte!"
Pallescet super his, etiam stillabit amicis
Ex oculis rorem, saliet, tundet pede terram.
Ut, qui conducti plorant in funere, dicunt
Et faciunt prope plura dolentibus ex animo, sic

410 prosit

416 nec codices pauci, num, non

421 foenore

423 artis 424 sciat

417 est omit.

Derisor vero plus laudatore movetur.
Reges dicuntur multis urgere culullis
Et torquere mero quem perspexisse laborant,
An sit amicitia dignus: si carmina condes,
Numquam te fallant animi sub volpe latentes.
Quintilio si quid recitares, "Corrige, sodes,
Hoc," aiebat, "et hoc." Melius te posse negares,
Bis terque expertum frustra, delere jubebat,
Et male tornatos incudi reddere versus.
Si defendere delictum quam vertere malles,

435

440

Nullum ultra verbum aut operam insumebat inanem, Quin sine rivali teque et tua solus amares.

Vir bonus et prudens versus reprehendet inertes, 445 Culpabit duros, incomptis allinet atrum

Traverso calamo signum, ambitiosa recidet
Ornamenta, parum claris lucem dare coget,
Arguet ambigue dictum, mutanda notabit,
Fiet Aristarchus; non dicet "Cur ego amicum
Offendam in nugis?" Hae nugae seria ducent
In mala derisum semel exceptumque sinistre.

Ut mala quem scabies aut morbus regius urget
Aut fanaticus error et iracunda Diana,
Vesanum tetigisse timent fugiuntque poëtam
Qui sapiunt; agitant pueri incautique sequuntur.
Hic, dum sublimis versus ructatur et errat,
Si veluti merulis intentus decidit auceps
In puteum foveamve, licet "Succurrite" longum
Clamet, "Io cives !", non sit qui tollere curet.
Si curet quis opem ferre et demittere funem,
"Qui scis an prudens huc se projecerit, atque
Servari nolit?" dicam, Siculique poëtae
Narrabo interitum. Deus immortalis haberi

450

455

460

Dum cupit Empedocles, ardentem frigidus Aetnam 465
Insiluit. Sit jus liceatque perire poëtis:
Invitum qui servat, idem facit occidenti.

435 laborent 437 fallent 440 expertum? frustra: Wakefield 441 formatos e coni., ter natos coni. Bent. 443 sumebat 446 adlinet 447 transverso 450 nec 456 secuntur 457 sublimes 462 deiecerit

Nec semel hoc fecit, nec, si retractus erit jam,
Fiet homo, et ponet famosae mortis amorem.
Nec satis apparet cur versus factitet, - utrum
Minxerit in patrios cineres, an triste bidental
Moverit incestus: certe furit, ac velut ursus,
Objectos caveae valuit si frangere clathros,
Indoctum doctumque fugat recitator acerbus;
Quem vero arripuit, tenet occiditque legendo,
Non missura cutem, nisi plena cruoris, hirudo.

470 dictitet

indude..

470

475

V. R., various reading or readings. S-J., Schmid's Jahn.

NOTES.

HORATI CARMINVM

LIBER PRIMVS.

Carm. I. Ad Maecenatem. (725-736.)

This introductory ode serves both as a preface to the first three books, which were published together, and as a dedication to Horace's friend and patron Maecenas.

ARGUMENT. Maecenas, my protector, my pride, various are the aims of men. One man delights in Olympic contests, another in the honors of the state, another in his well-filled barns. The farmer will not plough the seas, the merchant is restless on land. One loves his ease and his wine, another the camp and the din of war, while the huntsman braves all weathers for his sport. My glory is in the poet's ivy crown, my delight to retire to the groves with the nymphs and the satyrs, where my muse breathes the flute or strikes the lyre. If thou shalt rank me among the lyric choir, I shall lift my head to the skies.

1. Maecenas. See the Index of Proper Names.—Atavis. Abl. of source, after edite (from edo), a participle denoting birth. H. 425, 3, 1); A. & S. 246; B. 918; A. 54, VIII. Atavis here is a general term for ancestors. What is its proper or original meaning? (See Lex.) Regibus, in apposition with atavis, and kindred in force to a relative clause (H. 363, 3), (who were) kings. Maecēnas belonged to the family of the Cilnii (an ancient and leading house at Arretium), which was descended from Lucumones, or princes of Etruria: (Carm. III. 29, 1, Sat. I. 6, 1, 2).

2. ō ēt. A spondee. Interjections consisting only of a vowel (or of a vowel followed by h), cannot be elided; by elision the whole word would disappear in recitation.- The friendship of Maecenas was a protection to Horace against the assaults of the envious and censorious, conferred upon him many solid advantages (as the gift of the Sabine farm), and was an ornament and an honor to him, from the social prestige attending an intimacy with the first gentleman of Rome. - Notice the alliteration in dulce decus, as in dulce et decorum, dulces docta, dulci