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Pocula prætereunte lympha?

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CARMEN XII.

AD MECENATEM.

NOLIS longa feræ bella Numantiæ,
Nec dirum Annibalem, nec Siculum mare
Pœno purpureum sanguine, mollibus
Aptari citharæ modis;

Nec sævos Lapithas, et nimium mero
Hylæum, domitosque Herculea manu
Telluris juvenes; unde periculum
Fulgens contremuit don.us

NOTES.

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The poet excuses himself for not writing of wars and conquests.

1. Fera Numantia.] A city of Spain, celebrated for the war of fourteen years which, though unprotected by walls or towers, it bravely maintained against the Romans. It was at last humbled by Scipio. It is here called fera on account of the fierceness of the inhabitants, who chose to destroy themselves by sword, and fire, and poison, rather than yield to the Romans.

2. Dirum Annibalem.] A Carthaginian general, who carried on war against the Romans seventeen years; during which time he kept all Italy in continual terror and alarm, and seemed to threaten the Roman empire with utter ruin.

Siculum mare Pano purpureum sanguine.] Horace alludes to the naval victories which the Romans gained over the Carthaginians, in the Sicilian seas, during the first Punic war.

5. Lapithas.] A people of Thessaly. See book I. ode XVIII.

V. 8.

6. Hylæum.] One of the Centaurs.

Domitosque Herculea manu telluris juvenes.] The Giants, sons of Cœlus and Terra, having conspired to dethrone Jupiter, threw him into the greatest terror and consternation, and seemed likely to prevail against him, until recollecting that they were not invincible, provided he called a mortal to his assistance, he armed his son Hercules in his cause. With the aid of this celebrated hero, the Giants were quickly put to flight and defeated: some

Saturni veteris: tuque pedestribus

Dices historiis prælia Cæsaris,
Mæcenas, melius, ductaque per vias
Regum colla minantium.

Me dulces dominæ Musa Liciniæ
Cantus, me voluit dicere lucidum
Fulgentes oculos, et bene mutuis

Fidum pectus amoribus:

Quam nec ferre pedem dedecuit choris,

Nec certare joco, nec dare brachia
Ludentem nitidis virginibus, sacro

Dianæ celebris die.

Num tu, quæ tenuit dives Achæmenes,
Aut pinguis Phrygiæ Mygdonias opes,
Permutare velis crine Liciniæ,

Plenas aut Arabum domos?

Dum flagrantia detorquet ad oscula
Cervicem; aut facili sævitia negat,
Quæ poscente magis gaudeat eripi,
Interdum rapere occupat.

NOTES.

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'were crushed under mountains, or buried in the sea; others were flayed alive, or beaten to death with clubs.

9. Saturni.] The most ancient of all the gods.

13. Licinia.] Licinia, also called Terentia, was the sister of Licinius, to whom the tenth ode of this book is addressed. Though she was afterwards the wife of Mæcenas, yet it is certain she was not at this time, from her being admitted among the virgins who performed at the sacred rites of Diana.

18. Certare joco.] 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.

Dare brachia.] This expression may signify the motion and winding of their arms, or joining their hands in dancing round the altar of the goddess.

21. Achamenes.] A king of Persia, among the progenitors of Cyrus the great, whose descendants were called Achæmenides. 22. Pinguis Phrygia Mygdonias opes.] Horace means the riches of Mydas king of Mygdonia, which was a part of Phrygia, and took its name from the Mygdons or Mygdonians, a people of Thrace or Macedonia, who settled there.

CARMEN XIII.

IN ARBOREM.

ILLE et nefasto te posuit die,
Quicunque primum, et sacrilega manu
Produxit, arbos, in nepotum

Perniciem, opprobriumque pagi.
Illum et parentis crediderim sui
Fregisse cervicem, et penetralia
Sparsisse nocturno cruore

Hospitis. Ille venena Colchica

Et quidquid usquam concipitur nefas,
Tractavit, agro qui statuit meo
Te, triste lignum, te caducum

In domini caput immerentis.

Quid quisque vitet, nunquam homini satis
Cautum est in horas. Navita Bosphorum
Poenus perhorrescit, neque ultra

Cæca timet aliunde fata;

NOTES.

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1. Nefasto die.] The Romans divided their days into fasti and nefusti. On the nefasti all kinds of work, and all business of the Forum were forbidden. Horace may either mean, that the person who planted this tree, had violated a religious holiday, or that he planted it upon some unlucky day.

8. Venena Colchica.] Ancient Colchis, now Mingrelia, was a country on the Black sea, between Circassia, Georgia, and Aladulia, very fruitful in poisonous herbs.

11. Caducum.] Is here used for casurum, which should fall upon its master's head, as if it had been planted with that design. Thus Virgil says juvenis caducus for casurus, or moriturus.

14. Bosphorum.] Two narrow straits, situate at the confines of Europe and Asia. One was called Cimmerian, and joined the Palus Mæotis to the Euxine, now known by the name of the straits of Caffa; and the other, which was called the Thracian Bosphorus, and by the moderns the straits of Constantinople, made a communication between the Euxine sea and the Propontis.

15. Panus.] Horace here represents a Carthaginian as dreading the dangers of the Bosphorus, because Carthage was a city of very extensive commerce.

Miles sagittas, et celerem fugam
Parthi; catenas Parthus, et Italum
Robur: sed improvisa lethi

acum,

Vis rapuit, rapietque gentes.
Quam pene furvæ regna Proserpinæ,
Et judicantem vidimus
Sedesque discretas piorum, et
Eoliis fidibus querentem
Sappho puellis de popularibus;
Et te sonantem plenius aureo,
Alcæe, plectro, dura navis,

Dura fugæ mala, dura belli.

Utrumque sacro digna silentio
Mirantur umbræ dicere: sed magis

Pugnas et exactos tyrannos

Ďensum humeris bibit aure vulgus.
Quid mirum? ubi illis carminibus stupens

Demittit atras bellua centiceps

NOTES.

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17. Celerem fugam Parthi.] The flight of the Parthians was considered more formidable than their attack, from their peculiar custom of discharging their arrows while retiring full speed.

21. Proserpina.] The daughter of Jupiter and Ceres. Pluto carried her away from Sicily, the place of her residence, to the infernal regions, of which she became the queen.

22. Eacum.] Son of Jupiter and Ægina, was a man of such integrity that the ancients have made him one of the judges of the infernal regions, with Minos and Rhadamanthus.

24. Eoliis fidibus.] The Eolians had several cities in the island of Lesbos, among others Mitylene the capital, where Sappho was born. Hence we have the reason why Horace says here Eoliis fidibus.

27. Alcae.] Alcæus was cotemporary, country man, and friend of Sappho; he is justly rewarded with a golden plectrum (an instrument with which they struck the strings of the lyre) for that part of his works in which he pursues the tyrants of his country. His style was close, magnificent, and chaste.

34. Bellua centiceps.] Cerberus, the dog that guarded the entrance of the infernal regions. He is sometimes represented as having fifty heads, sometimes an hundred, but more commonly only three.

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Aures, et intorti capillis

Eumenidum recreantur angues.
Quin et Prometheus, et Pelopis parens
Dulci laborum decipitur sono:

Nec curat Orion leones,

Aut timidos agitare lyncas.

NOTES.

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36. Eumenidum.] The Furies, Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megæra. They were generally represented with a grim and frightful aspect, with a black and bloody garment, and serpents wreathing round their heads.

37. Prometheus.] Prometheus, the son of Japetus, and father of Deucalion, formed a statue of clay in the likeness of man. In order to give it life, he climbed into heaven, by the assistance of Minerva, and stole fire from the chariot of the sun, by means of which he animated his statue. By way of punishment for this sacrilege, he was bound on mount Caucasus, where a vulture continually fed upon his liver, which, to perpetuate his torment, grew again as fast as devoured.

Pelopis parens.] Tantalus. See Book. I. Ode XXVIII. v. 7. 39. Nec curat Orion leones.] Orion who loved hunting while living, is here described pursuing the same sport, after death. The ancients believed, that the ghosts of the departed retained the same passions, as those with which they were animated upon earth.

CARMEN XIV.

AD POSTUMUMS

EHEU! fugaces, Postume, Postume,

Labuntur anni! nec pietas moram
Rugis et instanti senectæ

Afferet, indomitæque morti.

Non, si trecenis, quotquot eunt dies,
Amice, places illacrymabilem

Plutona tauris; qui ter amplum
Geryonen Tityonque tristi

NOTES.

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7. Plutona.] A son of Saturn and Ops, God of the infernal regions.

8. Geryonen. Son of Chrysaor and Callirhœ, who, because he governed three islands on the coast of Spain, was said to have three bodies.

Tityon.] Tityus, a celebrated giant, son of Tena, of such an

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