laughed at Acrisius, the anxious keeper of the immured maiden: [for they well knew] that the way would be safe and open, after the god had transformed himself into a bribe. Gold delights to penetrate through the midst of guards, and to break through stone-walls, more potent than the thunderbolt. The family of the Grecian augura perished, immersed in destruction on account of lucre. The man of Macedon63 cleft the gates of the cities and subverted rival monarchs by bribery. Bribes enthrall fierce captains of ships. Care, and a thirst for greater things, is the consequence of increasing wealth. Therefore, Mæcenas, thou glory of the [Roman] knights, I have justly dreaded to raise the far-conspicuous head. As much more as any man shall deny himself, so much more shall he receive from the gods. Naked as I am, I seek the camps of those who covet nothing; and as a deserter, rejoice to quit the side of the wealthy: a more illustrious possessor of a contemptible fortune, than if I could be said to treasure up in my granaries all that the industrious Apulian cultivates, poor amid abundance of wealth. A rivulet of clear water, and a wood of a few acres, and a certain prospect of my good crop,

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precautions were of no effect; for Protus, the king's brother, finding means to corrupt the guards, got access to Danaë, who did not long resist his solicitations: which, as soon as her father knew, he caused her to be shut up in a chest, and cast her into the sea, with her son Perseus. But being found by a poor fisherman of Apulia, she was carried to king Pilumnus, who afterward married her. When her, son Perseus came to be of age, and had cut off the Gorgon's head, he went to Argos, and turned his grandfather Acrisius into a stone. WATSON.

62 Eriphile discovered to her brother Edrastus, where her husband Amphiaraus had concealed himself, that he might not be obliged to go to the war of Thebes, from whence he knew that he should never return. She received a necklace of pearl as the price of her treachery; and Amphiaraus went to the siege, where he was slain. Her son Alcmæon, in revenge for his father, put her to death, and he was afterward killed by his uncle in vengeance for their sister. Thus Horace justly says, that the avarice of one woman was the ruin of the whole family. LAMB.

63 Philip was advised by the oracle of Apollo to fight with golden spears, and it was one of his maxims, that no fortress was impregnable into which an ass could enter laden with gold. FRAN.

64 Segetis fides. This passage is particularly difficult, yet deserves to be carefully explained. First, rivus, sylva, and fides are all to be applied to one common verb fallit, a manner of writing very usual in Horace. Secondly, Afr ca is governed both of imperio and sorte. Fulgens imperio Africa is a paraphrase for the proconsul of Africa, and sors Africa signifies the proconsulship or government of that province. The Latins

are blessings unknown to him who glitters in the proconsul ship of fertile Africa: I am more happily circumstanced. Though neither the Calabrian bees produce honey, nor wine ripens to age for me in a Formian cask, nor rich fleeces increases in Gallic pastures; yet distressful poverty is remote; nor, if I desired more, would you refuse to grant it me. I shall be better able to extend my small revenues, by contracting my desires, than if I could join the kingdom of Alyattes to the Phrygian plains. Much is wanting to those who covet much. 'Tis well with him to whom God has given what is necessary with a sparing hand.

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ODE XVII.

TO ELIUS LAMIA.

O ALIUS, who art nobly descended from the ancient Lamus (forasmuch as they report, that both the first of the Lamian family had their name hence, and all the race of the descendants through faithful records derives its origin from that founder, who is said to have possessed, as prince, the Formian walls, and Liris gliding on the shores of Marica-an exten

usually said sors Africa; sors Macedonia; sors Provinciarum; because their governments were determined by lot. Lastly, fallit does not signify latet or ignoratur, but opinione sud decipit. The terms being thus explained, the construction must be thus, ager meus Sabinus beatior Africa sorte obtenta fallit Africæ proconsulem. The proconsul was indebted to chance for his magistracy; Horace owed his farm to the friendship of Mæcenas. The proconsul believes himself more happy than Horace; but he is deceived, because he is ignorant, that great revenues and happiness are very different things. Perhaps our poet intended a stroke of satire upon the person who was then governor of Africa, and who might have owed, like him, his fortune to Mæcenas. BENTL. SAN. See Orelli and M'Caul.

65 Vectigalia porrigam. We shall only be capable of explaining this passage by regularly pursuing the poet's reasoning. "By contracting my desires I shall more largely extend my little fortune, than if I could unite the kingdoms of Lydia and Phrygia under my government." Vectigalia signifies the revenues or income of an estate, and may not improperly be used for the estate itself, which the poet thus enlarges by contracting his desires. The word porrigere frequently signifies, in the best authors, to extend, to stretch out, to enlarge. FRAN.

sive potentate). To-morrow a tempest sent from the eas shall strew the grove with many leaves, and the shore with useless sea-weed, unless that old prophetess of rain, the raven, deceives me Pile up the dry wood, while you may; tomorrow you shall indulge your genius with wine, and with a pig of two months old, with your slaves dismissed from their labors.

ODE XVIII.""

TO FAUNUS.

A HYMN.

O FAUNUS, thou lover of the flying nymphs, benignly traverse my borders and sunny fields, and depart" propitious to the young offspring of my flocks; if a tender kid fall [a victim] to thee at the completion of the year, and plenty of wines be not wanting to the goblet, the companion of Venus, and the ancient altar smoke with liberal perfume. All the cattle sport in the grassy plain, when the nones of December return to thee;

66 The poet invokes the presence of Faunus, and seeks to propitiate the favor of the god toward his fields and flocks. He then describes the rustic hilarity of the day, made sacred, at the commencement of winter, to this rural divinity. Faunus had two festivals (Faunalia), one on the None (5th) of December, after all the produce of the year had been stored away, and when the god was invoked to protect it, and to give health and fecundity to the flocks and herds; and another in the beginning of the spring, when the same deity was propitiated by sacrifices; that he might preserve and foster the grain committed to the earth. This second celebration took place on the Ides (13th) of February. ANTHON. 67 The Romans believed, that many of their gods passed their winter in one country and their summer in another. Faunus was of this number. He went from Arcadia to Italy the 13th of February, and returned the 5th of December. His departure and return were celebrated with sacrifices, and probably this ode was written for his December festival, from whence the poet says abeas. DAC.

68 Parvis æquus alumnis. The vulgar believed that this god sent phantoms and specters to disturb their infants in the night; and upon this foundation the commentators imagine that Horace entreats him to spare the children of his domestics. But by alumnis, the poet means the younglings of his flocks, which had most occasion for the protection of the god, to preserve them against the inclemency of the approaching winter. BOND.

the village keeping holiday enjoys leisure in the fields, together with the oxen free from toil. The wolf wanders among the fearless lambs; the wood scatters its rural leaves for thee, and the laborer rejoices to have beaten the hated ground in triple dance.

How far Codrus, who was not afraid to die for his country, is removed from Inachus, and the race of Æacus, and the battles also that were fought at sacred Troy-[these subjects] you descant upon; but at what price we may purchase a hogshead of Chian; who shall warm the water [for bathing]; who finds a house and at what hour I am to get rid of these Pelignian colds, you are silent. Give me, boy, [a bumper] for the new moon in an instant, give me one for midnight, and one for Murena" the augur. Let our goblets be mixed up with three

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69 A party of friends, among whom was Horace, intended to celebrate, by a feast of contribution (pavos), the recent appointment of Murena to the office of augur. Telephus, one of the number, was conspicuous for his literary labors, and had been for some time occupied in composing a history of Greece. At a meeting of these friends, held, as a matter of course, in order to make arrangements for the approaching banquet, it may be supposed that Telephus, wholly engrossed with his pursuits, had introduced some topic of an historical nature, much to the annoyance of the bard. The latter therefore breaks out, as it were, with an exhortation to his companion, to abandon matters so foreign to the subject under discussion, and attend to things of more immediate importance. Presently, fancying himself already in the midst of the feasts, he issues his edicts as symposiarch, and regulates the number of cups to be drunk in honor of the Moon, of Night, and of the augur Murena. Then, as if impatient of delay, he bids the music begin, and orders the roses to be scattered. The ode terminates with a gay allusion to Telephus. ANTH. This ode was evidently written before 732, in which year Murena, with Fannius Cepio, conspired against Augustus. ORELL.

70 Murena. This is the same Lucinius Murena, who was brother-inlaw to Mæcenas, and afterward conspired against Augustus. Watson. 71 The college of augurs was instituted at Rome by Numa. They were at first only four in number, all patricians. The commons being afterward admitted to the same honor, they were increased to nine. In fine, Sylla added six more, and made the number fifteen. It was an

or nine cups, according to every one's disposition. The enraptured bard, who delights in the odd-numbered muses, shall call for brimmers thrice three. Each of the Graces," in conjunction with the naked sisters, fearful of broils, prohibits upward of three. It is my pleasure to rave;" why cease the breathings of the Phrygian flute? Why is the pipe hung up with the silent lyre? I hate your niggardly handfuls: strew roses freely. Let the envious Lycus hear the jovial noise; and let our fair neighbor, ill-suited to the old Lycus, [hear it.] The ripe Rhode aims at thee, Telephus, smart with thy bushy locks; at thee, bright as the clear evening star; the love of my Glycera slowly consumes me.

ODE XX.

TO PYRRHUS.

Do you not perceive, O Pyrrhus, at what hazard you are taking away the whelps from a Gutulian lioness? In a little while you, a timorous ravisher, shall fly from the severe engagement, when she shall march through the opposing band of youths, re-demanding her beauteous Nearchus; a grand contest, whether a greater share of booty shall fall to thee or to her! In the mean time, while you produce your swift arrows, she whets her terrific teeth; while the umpire of the combat is reported to have placed the palm under his naked foot, and refreshed his shoulder, overspread with his perfumed locks, with the gentle breeze: just such another was Nireus, or he that was ravished from the watery Ida.”

office of the highest consideration, because it was in their power to repder fruitless all the resolutions and debates of the senate and people. WATSON.

72 Gratia: "tres Gratiæ junctæ." Od. iv. 7, 5, "Gratia cum nymphis geminisque sororibus." Od. i. 30, 5, "solutis Gratiæ zonis."

ORELLI.

73 Insanire juvat. Horace now leaves the two modest Graces, and rises in his good-humor; for, after having ordered a certain number of glasses, he now drinks without number or measure.

CRUQ.

74 Mount Ida; a high hill in Phrygia, not far from Troy, famous for the controversy of Pallas, Juno, and Venus, about the apple of discord, which was adjudged to Venus by Paris. WATSON.