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THE SECOND BOOK

OF THE

ODES OF HORACE.

ODE I.

TO ASINIUS POLLIO.

You are treating of the civil commotion,' which began from the consulship of Metellus,' and the causes, and the errors, and the operations of the war, and the game that fortune played, and the pernicious confederacy of the chiefs, and arms stained with blood' not yet expiated-a work full of danger and hazard and you are treading upon fires, hidden under deceitful ashes: let therefore the muse that presides over severe tragedy, be for a while absent from the theaters; shortly, when thou hast completed the narrative of the public

1 Caius Asinius Pollio was a person who made a very considerable figure in the court of Augustus. As he was distinguished by his valor and conduct, he had frequently the command of the armies given him. He vanquished the Dalmatians, and triumphed over them. He was no less eminent for his learning, than for his warlike accomplishments.

2 "From the consulship of Metellus." The narrative of Pollio, consequently, began with the formation of the government denominated (although erroneously, since it was uo magistratus) the first triumvirate, by Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus, A. U. c. 694, in the consulship of Q. Cæcilius Metellus Celer, and L. Afranius. This may well be considered as the germ of the civil wars that ensued, and which blazed forth with fury ten years later. The Romans marked the year by the names of the consuls, and he who has most suffrages, etc., was placed first. ANTHON.

3 Causas, i. e. the death of Crassus, the death of Julia, and the ambition and rivalry of Cæsar and Pompey. ORELL. The term vitia has here a particular reference to the rash and unwise plans of Pompey and his followers, and, also, to the mismanagement of Crassus in his expedition against the Parthians. M'CAUL.

4

Cruoribus, i. e. "blood shed often and in many places:" thus aiμara is used by the Tragedians, as Esch. Suppl. 262:

Παλαιῶν αἱμάτων μιάσμασιν. Μ'CAUL.

affairs, you shall resume your great work in the tragic style of Athens, O Pollio, thou excellent succor to sorrowing defendants and a consulting senate; [Pollio,] to whom the laurel produced immortal honors in the Dalmatian triumph. Even now you stun our ears with the threatening murmur of horns: now the clarions sound; now the glitter of arms affrights the flying steeds, and dazzles the sight of the riders. Now I seem to hear of great commanders besmeared with glorious dust, and the whole earth subdued, except the stubborn soul of Cato. Juno, and every other god propitious to the Africans, impotently went off, leaving that land unrevenged; but soon offered the descendants of the conquerors, as sacrifices to the manes of Jugurtha. What plain, enriched by Latin blood, bears not record, by its numerous sepulchers, of our impious battles, and of the sound of the downfall of Italy, heard even by the Medes? What pool, what rivers, are unconscious of our deplorable war? What sea have not the Daunian1o slaughters discolored? What shore is unstained by our blood? Do not, however, rash muse, neglecting your jocose strains, resume the task of Caan plaintive song," but rather with me seek measures of a lighter style" beneath some lovesequestered grotto.13

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13

The cothurnus (кołóрvoç) is here put figuratively for tragedy. 12. Cecropio. Equivalent to Attico, and alluding to Cecrops as the founder of Athens. ANTHON.

On this zeugma see my notes on Esch. Prom. 22, ed. Bohn.

7 Cato of Utica, so remarkable for his virtue, and the strenuous opposi tion he made to tyranny. After the defeat of Pompey, he was shut up by Cæsar in Utica, where, rather than fall into the hands of the conqueror, and survive the ruin of his country, he slew himself. WATSON.

• Rettulit inferias. The word rettulit is here taken in the same sense as in the proverb par pari referre, and inferias alludes to a custom of the ancients, who sacrificed a number of prisoners upon the tombs of their generals. TOR.

9

Jugurtha, a king of Numidia, who being engaged in war with the Romans, was taken by Sylla, and led in triumph by Marius. WATSON. i. e. Roman. cf. Od. i. 22, 13.

10

11 Cea retractes munera noniæ. Nania is a word properly signifying the song which was sung at funerals by the mourners. But by Nania, in this passage, the poet intends the goddess Nænia, who presided over tears, lamentations, and funerals.

12

DAC.

Ovid, Met. 10, 150, "Cecini plectro graviore Gigantas-Nunc opus est leviore lyra." ORELLI.

13 Dionæo sub antro. Although Dione was the mother of Venus, yet Venus herself is called by that name. The poet therefore invites his

ODE II.

TO CRISPUS SALLUSTIUS.

15

O CRISPUS SALLUSTIUS," thou foe to bullion, unless it derives splendor from a moderate enjoyment, there is no luster in money concealed in the niggard earth. Proculeius1 shall live an extended age, conspicuous for fatherly affection to brothers; surviving fame shall bear him on an untiring wing." You may possess a more extensive dominion by controlling a craving disposition, than if you could unite Libya to the distant Gades, and the natives of both the Carthages were subject to you alone. The direful dropsy increases by selfindulgence, nor extinguishes its thirst, unless the cause of the disorder has departed from the veins, and the watery languor from the pallid body. Virtue, differing from the vulgar, excepts Phraates1 though restored to the throne of Cyrus, from the number of the happy; and teaches the populace to disuse false names for things, by conferring the kingdom and a safe diadem and the perpetual" laurel upon him alone, who can view large heaps of treasure with undazzled eye.

muse into the cave of Venus, there to sing of love and gallantry in a tone less elevated, leviore plectro, and forbids her to imitate the plaintive strains of Simonides. LAMB.

14 Tacitus, in the third book of his Annals, hath given us a very finished picture of this Sallust. He was grand-nephew to the excellent author of the Roman History, who adopted him, and left him his name and fortune. 16 The construction is: "inimice, lamnæ, nisi [lamna] splendeat."

16 Proculeius. He had two brothers, Terentius and Licinius. Terentius was made consul elect in the year seven hundred and thirty, but died before he could enter upon his office. Licinius unfortunately engaged himself in a conspiracy against Augustus, nor could all the interest of Proculeius and Mæcenas, who had married their sister Terentia, preserve him from banishment. An old commentator relates a particular story, which greatly enlightens this passage: he says, that Proculeius divided his patrimony with his brothers, whose fortunes were ruined in the civil wars. DAC. SAN.

"For this periphrasis cf. Od. 3, 11, 10: "metuitque tangi," Virg. ORELLI.

18 Phraates, a king of the Parthians, who slew his own father Orodes, thirty brothers, and his eldest son. He was expelled the kingdom by his subjects, and afterward re-established by the Scythians in the year of Rome 728. WATSON.

"So "propria munera," Sat. ii. 2, 5; "da propriam domum." Virg. Ar iii. 85. ORELLI.

ODE III.

TO QUINTUS DELLIUS.

21

O DELLIUS,20 since thou art born to die, be mindful to preserve a temper of mind even in times of difficulty, as well as restrained from insolent exultation in prosperity: whether thou shalt lead a life of continual sadness, or through happy days regale thyself with Falernian wine of the oldest date," at ease reclined in some grassy retreat, where the lofty pine and hoary poplar delight to interweave their boughs into a hospitable shade, and the clear current with trembling surface purls along the meandering rivulet. Hither order [your slaves] to bring the wine, and the perfumes, and the too short-lived flowers of the grateful rose, while fortune, and age, and the sable threads of the three sisters permit thee. You must depart from your numerous purchased groves;" from your house also, and that villa, which the yellow Tiber washes, you must depart: and an heir shall possess these high-piled riches. It is of no consequence whether you are the wealthy descendant of ancient Inachus, or whether, poor and of the most ignoble race, you live without a covering from the open air, since you are the victim of merciless Pluto. We are all driven toward the same quarter: the lot of all is shaken in the urn; destined sooner or later to come forth, and embark us in [Charon's] boat for eternal exile.

20 Dellius was a true picture of inconstancy. After Cæsar's death he changed his party four times in the space of twelve years, from whence Messala used pleasantly to call him desultorem bellorum civilium, in allusion to a custom of the ancient cavalry, who had two horses, and vaulted from one to the other, as they were tired. The peace that succeeded the civil wars, gave him an opportunity of establishing his affairs, which naturally must have been greatly disordered by so many changes. At this time Horace wrote this ode, in which he instructs him in the purest maxims of Epicurean philosophy. SAN.

21 "With the old Falernian," i. e. the choicest wine, which was placed in the furthest part of the vault or crypt, marked with its date and growth. Nota. Thus Catullus, lxviii. 28, "de meliore nota;" and Curius, ap. Cic. vii. 29, "Sulpicii successori, nos de meliore nota commenda." Some insert only a comma after Falerni, and thus join the succeeding strophe to this, "Sed propter meliorem totius periodi constructionem præstare videtur distinctio nostra." ORELL. M'CAUL

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ODE IV.

TO XANTHIAS PHOCEUS.

LET not, O Xanthias Phoceus, your passion for your maid put you out of countenance; before your time, the slave Briseis" moved the haughty Achilles by her snowy complexion. The beauty of the captive Tecmessa" smote her master, the Telamonian Ajax; Agamemnon, in the midst of victory, burned for a ravished virgin: when the barbarian troops fell by the hands of their Thessalian conqueror, and Hector," vanquished, left Troy more easily to be destroyed by the Grecians. You do not know that perchance the beautiful Phyllis has parents of condition happy enough to do honor to you their son-in-law. Certainly she must be of royal race," and laments the unpropitiousness of her family-gods. Be confident, that your beloved is not of the worthless crowd; nor that one so true, so unmercenary, could possibly be born of a mother to be ashamed of. I can commend arms, and face, and well-made legs, quite chastely: avoid being jealous of one, whose age is hastening onward to bring its eighth lustrum2 to a close.

23 Briseis. Her true name was Hippodamia, but she was called Briseïs, after her father Brises, the priest of Apollo. She was taken captive at Lyrnessus by the Greeks, and fell to the share of Achilles. WATSON.

24 Tecmessa, a captive Trojan maid. WATSON.

25 Hector, the son of Priam, the most valiant of the Trojans, who, after defending his country ten years against all the attacks of the Greeks, fell at length by the hand of Achilles, who dragged his body thrice round the walls of Troy, and afterward sold it to his father Priam. WATSON.

26 There is considerable irony in this stanza, "most undoubtedly she is the daughter of some Eastern monarch, assuredly she laments the severity of untoward fate." To the words regium genus, some commentators supply est, but the words are governed by mæret.

ANTHON.

27 A lustrum was a period of five years, so that the poet must now have been in his fortieth year, and the ode must have been composed about 729 or 730, A. U. C. The phrase claudere lustrum is used by Horace, purposely to avoid the regular phrase condere lustrum, which would be unsuited to this careless ode, and which properly refers to the sacrifice called Suovetaurilia or Solitaurilia, which closed the census, the review of the people taking place every lustrum, or at the end of ever five years. ANTHON.

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