ODE V.

28

Nor yet is she fit to be broken to the yoke; not yet is she equal to the duties of a partner, nor can she support the weight of the bull impetuously rushing to enjoyment. Your heifer's sole inclination is about verdant fields, one while in running streams soothing the grievous heat; at another, highly delighted to frisk with the steerlings in the moist willow-ground. Suppress your appetite for the immature grape; shortly variegated autumn will tinge for thee the livid clusters with a purple hue. Shortly she shall follow you; for her impetuous time runs on, and shall place to her account those years of which it abridges you; shortly Lalage with a wanton assurance will seek a husband, beloved in a higher degree than the coy Pholoë, or even Chloris; shining as brightly with her fair shoulder, as the spotless moon upon the midnight sea, or even the Gnidian Gyges, whom if you should intermix in a company of girls, the undiscernible difference occasioned by his flowing locks and doubtful countenance would wonderfully impose even on sagacious strangers.

ODE VI.

ΤΟ SEPTIMUS.

SEPTIMIUS,29 who art ready to go with me, even to Gades, and to the Cantabrian, still untaught to bear our yoke, and the inhospitable Syrtes, where the Mauritanian wave perpetually boils: O may Tibur, founded by a Grecian colony, be the habitation of my old age! There let there be an end to my fatigues by sea, and land, and war; whence if the cruel fates

28 Or rather, "yoke-fellow."

29 Septimius, a Roman knight, and lyric and tragic poet: he was one of Horace's school companions, and had been a fellow-soldier with him in the army of Brutus and Cassius, and had the good fortune also to be received into the favor of Augustus. WATSON.

debar me, I will seek the river of Galesus," delightful for sheep covered with skins," and the countries reigned over by Lacedæmonian Phalantus.32 That corner of the world smiles in my eye beyond all others; where the honey yields not to the Hymettian, and the olive rivals the verdant Venafrian : where the temperature of the air produces a long spring and mild winters, and Aulon friendly to the fruitful vine, envies not the Falernian grapes. That place, and those blest heights," solicit you and me; there you shall bedew the glowing ashes of your poet friend with a tear due [to his memory]."

ODE VII.

TO POMPEIUS VARUS.

O THOU, often reduced with me to the last extremity in the war which Brutus carried on, who has restored thee as a Roman citizen," to the gods of thy country and the Italian air, Pom

30 Galesus, a river of Calabria, that runs into the bay of Tarentum, about five miles from the city: its waters are beautiful, and current slow; whence Horace says it is agreeable to the sheep. WATSON.

31 Pellitis ovibus. The sheep of Tarentum and Attica had a wool so fine, that they were covered with skins to preserve it from the inclemency of the weather. Pliny says, these covertures were brought from Arabia. CRUQ.

32 Alluding to the story of Phalantus and the Parthenii. Phalantus was expelled from Lacedæmon (B. C. 700) under the following circumstances: While the Spartans were absent during the Messenian wars, their ladies, either ordered, as some traditions have it, or of their own free will, elevated their slaves to the rank of temporary husbands. The offspring of these connections, denominated the Parthenii, were expelled by the Spartans on their return, and under Phalantus, their leader, they colonized Tarentum, so called from Taras, a reputed son of Neptune. ANTHON.

33 Cf. Virg. G. iv. 461. dope."

"Rhodopeia arces"="the heights of Rho

34 Debitâ sparges. These words, cum lacrymis posuit, are frequently found in ancient epitaphs, and in the urn a little bottle filled with tears. TORR.

35 The name Quiritem here implies a full return to all the rights and privileges of citizenship, which had been forfeited by his bearing arms against the established authority of the triumvirate.

ANTHON.

pey, thou first of my companions; with whom I have frequently broken the tedious day in drinking, having my hair, shining with the Syrian malobathrum, crowned [with flowers]! Together with thee did I experience the battle of] Philippi" and a precipitate flight, having shamefully enough left my shield; when valor was broken, and the most daring" smote the squalid earth with their faces. But Mercury" swift conveyed me away, terrified as I was, in a thick cloud through the midst of the enemy. Thee the reciprocating sea, with his tempestuous waves, bore back again to war. Wherefore render to Jupiter the offering that is due, and deposit your limbs, wearied with a tedious war," under my laurel, and spare not the casks reserved for you. Fill up the polished bowls with care-dispelling Massic: pour out the perfumed ointments from the capacious shells. Who takes care to quickly weave the chaplets of fresh parsley or myrtle? Whom shall the Venus1o

40

" Philippi, a city of Macedonia on the borders of Thrace, famous for the overthrow of Brutus and Cassius by Augustus. WATSON.

37 Minaces. After the battle of Philippi, in which Octavius was routed by Brutus, his soldiers demanded, in a mutinous manner, to be led against the enemy; they complained that they should be confined within their camp, when the forces of Octavius, broken by their late defeat, and oppressed by famine, might easily be conquered. Brutus, at last, fatally gave way to their temerity and impatience, for which the poet gives them the epithet minaces.

38 Mercury. He here alludes to the fights described by Homer, where the gods surround those they are willing to save with a thick cloud, and carry them off from the fury of their enemies. This is here ascribed to Mercury, as the father of eloquence, and the protector of learned men.

39 Five years, in a party always unfortunate, might well seem a tedious and fatiguing warfare. SAN.

40 The ancients at their feasts appointed a person to preside by throwing the dice, whom they called arbiter bibendi (oνμñоσιúрxnç), “master of the feast." He directed every thing at pleasure. In playing at games of chance they used three tessera, and four tali. The tessera had six sides, marked I. II. III. IV. V. VI. The tali had four sides, longwise, for the two ends were not regarded. On one side was marked one point (unio, an ace, called Canis), and on the opposite side six (Senio), while or the two other sides were three and four (ternio et quaternio). The highest or most fortunate throw was called Venus, and determined the director of the feast. It was, of the tessere, three sixes: of the tali, when all of them came out different numbers. The worst or lowest throw was termed Canis, and was, of the tessero, three aces; and of the tali, when they were all the same. ANTHON.

pronounce to be master of the revel? In wild carouse I will become frantic as the Bacchanalians. 'T is delightful to me to play the madman, on the reception of my friends.

ODE VIII.

TO BARINE.

Ir any punishment, Barine, for your violated oath had ever been of prejudice to you: if you had become less agreeable by the blackness of a single tooth or nail, I might believe you. But you no sooner have bound your perfidious head with vows, but you shine out more charming by far, and come forth the public care of our youth. It is of advantage to you to deceive the buried ashes of your mother, and the silent constellations of the night, together with all heaven, and the gods free from chill death. Venus herself, I profess, laughs at this; the good-natured nymphs laugh, and cruel Cupid, who is perpetually sharpening his burning darts on a bloody whetstone. Add to this, that all our boys are growing up for you; a new herd of slaves is growing up; nor do the former ones quit the house of their impious mistress, notwithstanding they often have threatened it. The matrons are in dread of you on account of their young ones; the thrifty old men are in dread of you; and the girls but just married are in distress, lest your beauty should slacken [the affections of] their husbands.

ODE IX.

TO TITUS VALGIUS.

SHOWERS do not perpetually pour down upon the rough fields, nor do varying hurricanes forever harass the Caspian Sea; nor, my friend Valgius, does the motionless ice remain fixed throughout all the months, in the regions of Armenia; nor do the Garganian oaks [always] labor under the northerly winds, nor are the ash-trees widowed of their leaves. But thou art continually pursuing Mystes, who is taken from thee, with mourn

ful measures: nor do the effects of thy love for him cease at the rising of Vesper," or when he flies the rapid approach of the sun. But the aged man who lived three generations, did not lament the amiable Antilochus all the years of his life: nor did his parents or his Trojan sisters perpetually bewail the blooming Troïlus. At length then desist from thy tender complaints; and rather let us sing the fresh" trophies of Augustus Cæsar, and the Frozen Niphates, and the river Medus," added to the vanquished nations, rolls more humble tides, and the Gelonians riding within a prescribed boundary in a narrow tract of land.

ODE X.

TO LICINIUS MURENA.

O LICINIUS," you will lead a more correct course of life, by neither always pursuing the main ocean, nor, while you cautiously are in dread of storms, by pressing too much upon the hazardous shore. Whosoever loves the golden mean, is secure from the sordidness of an antiquated cell, and is too prudent to

41 Vespero. This star was called Lucifer in the morning, and Vesper in the evening. FRAN.

42 This expedition of Augustus was the most glorious of his whole life. He not only made the Roman name to be revered to the utmost bounds of Asia and Africa, in imposing conditions of peace upon the Indians and Ethiopians; he not only confirmed the repose of the empire, by establishing in Greece, Sicily, and Asia Minor a stable and uniform government, and ordering Armenia, Cilicia, and Arabia in favor of princes attached to the interest of the republic; but humbled the pride of the Parthians, by obliging Phraates to restore the Roman eagles and prisoners, which were taken thirty years before, and to pull down the trophies that Orodes had erected for the defeat of Crassus. To perpetuate the memory of this success, he struck a medal with this inscription, PRO SIGNIS RECEPTIS. SAN.

43 By the river Medus, Horace means the Parthians, as he would distinguish the Armenians by Niphates. Euphrates dictus est primùm Medus. And probably the Tigris is here called Niphates, as it rises out of a mountain of that name. SAN.

44 This Licinius, according to Dacier, is the same with Licinius Varro Murena, the brother of Proculeius, and Terentia, the wife of Mæcenas. He entered into a conspiracy against Augustus, with Flavius Cepio, in the year of the city 731.