ODE XII.

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 desire 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,** 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

occasion.

43 Cecropia domûs. Cecrops was founder and first king of Athens; from him his successors, although not of his family, took the title of Cecropida. 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 Caesars for the emperors of Rome. TORR. 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 Sulpiciana horrea. SAN.

ODE XIII.

TO LYCE.

THE gods have heard my prayers, O 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 teasing 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 fervid young fellows might see, not without excessive laughter, that torch, [which once so brightly scorched,] reduced to ashes.

ODE XIV.

ΤΟ AUGUSTUS.

ex-.

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? O thou, wherever the sun illuminates the habitable regions, greatest of princes, whom the Vindelici, that never perienced the Roman sway, have lately learned how powerful 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

uated on the tremendous Alps. The elder of the Neros soon after fought a terrible battle, and, under your propitious auspices, smote the ferocious Rhoti: how worthy of admiration in the field of battle, [to see] with what destruction he oppressed the brave hearts devoted to voluntary death just as the south wind barasses the untameable waves, when the dance 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 barbarians, and by mowing down both front and rear strewed the ground, victorious without any loss; through you supplying them with troops, you with councils, and your own guardian powers. For on that day, when the suppliant Alexandria opened her ports and deserted court, fortune, propitious 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," till now unconquered, and the Mede, and the Indian, thee the vagrant Scythian admires; thee both the Nile, who conceals his fountain 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; thee the Sicambrians, who delight in slaughter, laying aside their arms, revere.

46

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

46 Tuos præbente Divos. Since the Rhotians 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.

ODE XV.

TO AUGUSTUS, ON THE RESTORATION OF PEACE.

48

PHOEBUS chid me, when I was meditating to sing of battles and conquered cities on the lyre; that I might not set my little sails along the Tyrrhenian Sea. Your age, O Cæsar, 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 has imposed a due discipline upon headstrong licentiousness, and has extirpated crimes, and recalled the ancient arts; by which the Latin name and strength of Italy have increased, and the fame and majesty of the empire is extended from the sun's western bed to the east. While Cæsar 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 Getæ, not the Seres, nor the perfidious Persians, nor those born upon the river Tanaïs. 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.

49 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 Augustus it was closed thrice; once in A. U. C. 725, after the overthrow of Antony (compare Orosius, 6, 22, and Dio Cassius, 56, 23), again in A. U. 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 German tribes were subdued by Tiberius and Drusus. (Compare Dio Cassius, 54, 36.) To this last Horace is here supposed to allude. We have retained Janum Quirini, i. e. 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 to the fact of its having been closed twice. ANTHON and M'CAUL.

THE BOOK

OF THE

EPODES OF HORACE.

ODE I.

TO MECENAS.

THOU wilt go, my friend Mæcenas, with Liburian2 galleys among the towering forts of ships, ready at thine own [hazard] to undergo any of Cæsar's dangers. What shall I do? To whom life may be agreeable, if you survive; but, if otherwise, burdensome. Whether shall I, at your command, pursue my ease, which can not be pleasing unless in your company? 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 Mæcenas 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 disinterested affection and gratitude. SAN.

2 Liburnis. Plutarch, speaking of this battle, says, that when one of Antony's ships was surrounded by four or five Liburnian galleys, it looked like an assault of a town. Florus, describing the vessels of Antony, says, that they had from six to nine rowers to every oar; that they carried 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 puppes, towered ships. ED. DUBLIN.