rapid Anio, and the Tiburnian groves, and the orchards watered by ductile rivulets. As Notus* is often serene, and clears away the clouds from a lowering sky, nor teems with perpetual showers: so do you, O Plancus, wisely remember to put an end to care, and the toils of life, 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 reported, notwithstanding, to have bound his temples, bathed in wine, with a poplar crown, thus accosting his anxious friends: O associates and companions, we will go wherever fortune, more propitious than a father, shall carry us. Nothing is to be despaired of under Teucer's conduct, and the auspices of Teucer for the infallible Apollo has promised that a Salamis in a new land shall render the name equivocal. O gallant heroes, and often my fellow sufferers in greater hardships than these, now expel your cares with wine; to-morrow we will revisit the vast ocean.

ODE VIII.

TO LYDIA.

He blames Lydia for engaging Sybaris in dishonourable amours, and making him leave those manly exerciser to which he had been accustomed.

LYDIA, I conjure you by all the Powers above, to tell me why you are so intent to ruin Sybaris

Not the South, as it is usually rendered, but the SouthSouth-West.

by your amours? Why hates he the sunny plain, though so inured to bear the dust and heat? Wherefore doth he neither, in military accoutrements, appear mounted among his equals:

nor

manage the Gallic steed with bitted reins? Why fears he to touch the yellow Tibur? Why shuns he oil, used by wrestlers, more cautiously than the blood of vipers? Wherefore neither doth he, who hath often acquired so much reputation by the quoit, 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 Lyciant troops-to the destruction of the Trojan forces.

ODE IX.

TO THALIARCHUS.

You see how the mountain Soracte stands whitened with deep snow, nor can the labouring 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 draw forth, O Thaliarchus, the more generous wine, four years old, out of the Sabine jar. Leave the rest to the Gods, who having once

* Militaris equitet, alludes to the Ludus Troja, de. scribed Æneid V., in which youths performed a mock fight on horseback.

† The Lycians were auxiliaries to the Trojans. † As if it were an entire heap of snow.

laid the winds warring with the fervid ocean, neither the cypresses, nor the aged ashes, are moved. Avoid inquiring what may happen tomorrow; and whatever day fortune shall bestow on you, score it up for gain; nor disdain, being a young fellow, delicious loves, nor dances, as long as ill-natured hoariness keeps off from your blooming age. Now let both the Campas Martius, and the public walks, and soft whispers in the dark, be repeated at the appointed hour: now too the delightful laugh, the betrayer of the skulking damsel, from a secret corner, and the token ravished from her arms or finger, pretendingly tenacious of it.

ODE X.

TO MERCURY.

MERCURY, thou eloquent grandson of Atlas, who artful formed the savage manners of the first men, by oratory, and the exercise of the graceful palestra; I will celebrate thee, the messenger of mighty Jupiter and the other gods, and the sire of the bending harp: thee, ingenious to conceal whatever you have a mind to, in a jocose theft. While Apollo, in angry voice, threatened you, then but a boy, that unless you had restored the oxen, some time driven away by your fraud, he laughed when he found himself deprived of his quiver also. Moreover, the wealthy Prium, at his departure from Ilium, under your guidance, deceived the proud sons* of Atreus, and the

* Agamemnon and Menelaus.

Thessalian watch-lights, and the camp inveterate against Troy. You place the souls of good men in blissful regions, and compel together the airy crowd with your golden rod, being acceptable both to the supernal and infernal Gods.

ODE XI.

TO LEUCONOE.

INQUIRE not, Leuconoë, (it is not fitting you should know,) how long a term of life the gods have granted to you or me; neither consult the Chaldean calculations. How much better is it to bear with patience whatever shall happen! Whether Jupiter hath indulged us with more winters, or this be the last, which now breaks the Etrurian waves against the opposing rocks. Be wise; rack off your wines, and abridge your hopes proportioned to the shortness of your life. While we are conversing, envious age has been flying; seize the present day, not giving the least credit to the succeeding one.

ODE XII.

TO AUGUSTUS.

A Hymn in praise of Gods and Men.

WHAT man, what hero, O Clio, will 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 Heli

con, or on the top of Pindus, or on the cold. Hamus? whence the woods followed promiscuously the tuneful Orpheus, who, by his maternal* art, retarded the rapid courses of rivers, and the fleet winds; and was so sweet, that he drew the listening oaks with his harmonious strings. But what can I sing prior to the usual praises of the father of us all, who governs the affairs of men, and Gods; who governs the sea, the earth, and the whole world, with grateful 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 those honours which are next after him.

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 two sons‡ of Leda, the one illustrious for his achievements on horseback, the other on foot; whose benign 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 threatening 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 haughty ensigns of Tarquinis, or the glorious death of Cato. I will celebrate, out of gratitude, with the choicest verses, Regulus, and the Scauri, and Paulus,

*Calliope was the mother of Orpheus.
† Diana.
Tarquinis Priscus.

Castor and Pollux.
I Æmilius Paulus.