See Od. IV. 2, 1. For 'expalluit' with acc., comp. Od. 111. 27, 28.

13. "Theban Pindaric.' 'At the prompting.' See Od. 1. 7, 27, note.

14. 'mouth,' ampullari'= Gr. Aŋkvoíselv. And comp. Art. Poet. 97.

15. 'mihi' (dat. ethic.) nearly 'meus:' but also contains the meaning of 'tell me.'

'Celsus' is perhaps the friend to whom the 8th Epistle of this Book is written.

17. The temple of Apollo on the Palatine was the Imperial Library, founded by Augustus. The reference is, of course, to plagiarisms from well-known authors.

19.

'the wretched crow' in Æsop's fable. The passage is not to be taken too seriously. 'flitting.' So he speaks of himself as a bee, in Od. IV. 2, 27.

21.

23. jura' (for sing. 'jus civile,') is a sort of acc. of limitation: 'to give opinions, so far as concerns the common law.'

25. 'ivy.' See Od. 1. 1, 29, note.

26. Literally 'applications of cares.' Celsus says that there are cold, dry, and wet, as well as hot fomenta.' 'Cold' is the word used here, as opposed to the warmth of genius. The allusion is to avarice and ambition.

30. 'whether,' &c. The readings waver between 'si' and 'sit.' In the former case, supply 'sit' in the latter, utrum.'

31. 'badly sewn.' The metaphor is from a wound imperfectly dressed.

35. that are not such.' 'indigni' followed by inf. is an application of a Greek construction not uncommon in Virgil and Horace.

9. who, like you,' &c. The readings differ greatly: 'quam' or 'quam ut' for 'qui' being the principal variations. The reading and construction adopted here are those of Lambinus. The passage seems thus to give the best and most natural sense. There can be no reasonable doubt that 'alumno' is a dative.

12. "Twixt hope and care,' &c. A commonplace in Horace's usual tone. Comp. Od. IV. 7. 15. 'plump and sleek.' See Lije by Suetonius, p. 19.

'in high condition.' Epist. 1. 2, 29, note.

16. 'a hog.' A common taunt used by the Stoics. Cicero in Pison. 16, 37: 'Epicurus, our friend, you who issued from a sty, not from a school of philosophy.'

V.

1. 'Archias,' a well-known cabinet-maker at Rome, as it appears.

'through regard for his heir.' Comp. Od. IV. 7, 19.

14.

'scatter flowers.' The phrase seems to be used indefinitely, to express a certain recklessness of festivity.

16. effect,' in the imagination of the drink. er. 'designo,' lit. 'to mark out.' The sense it bears in this line is not common. Comp. Terence, Ad. 1. 2, 6. On the whole passage, comp. Od. II. 21, 13, &c.

21. 'efficiently.' The sense seems to be: 'as one who is efficient and also willing.'

25. elimino' is not elsewhere used, except in the literal sense of' to turn out of doors.'

26. The friends here mentioned are otherwise unknown to us, though it has been attempted to identify them with persons elsewhere spoken of.

28. introductions.' See Sat. 11. 8, 22, note. Horace, Torquatus, and the three other friends, would make five guests, leaving four more to be invited, so as to make the usual number, nine.

30. to bring,' lit. 'to be.' 'quotus' agrees with the person, according to the usual idiom. Orelli compares Martial, XIV. 217.

31. 'by the back-door.' Horace ends with a joke, as he often does, and as is suited to the character of this Epistle.

the temperament of the nation), by such characters as Cato, &c. Plato, on the other hand, says that wonder (τὸ θαυμάζειν) is particularly the feeling of a philosopher. The phrase seems to refer to the energy of inquiry: for Plato's master, Socrates, was certainly a model of composure and self-control.

6. 'gifts of the sea,' i. e. pearls, and the famous purple dye, now lost, which was extracted from the juice of a shell-fish.

'Arabs.' See Od. 1. 29, 1, note. 7. 'favours.' Political honours course, referred to.

are, of

13. 'chance to see,' 'vidit" is used in the

aoristic sense of the perfect.,

17. 'Go now,' nunc' is sarcastic, as it usually is. Virg. Æn. VII. 425. Epist. 11. 2, 76. 'works of art,' 'artes' is used in this sense in Od. iv. 8, 5.

21. The sting is in the fact that Mutus got the land without any work of his own. Mutus is not otherwise known to us.

24. Whatever is beneath the earth.' The sense is, that all material possessions are shortlived, and will soon be swept away by death. This is a favourite truism of Horace.

26. Agrippa's colonnade,' i. e. that constructed and adorned by M. Vipsanius Agrippa. Od. 1. 6. The Appian Way was the great south road from Rome. See Sat. 1. 5, 6, &c. 'Numa.' See Od. IV. 7, 15, note. 'If your chest,' &c. This is an instance of Horace's frequent comparison between_the defects of the mind and of the body. The same line occurs in Sat. II. 3, 163.

27. 28.

The

31. you think virtue to be words.' last utterance of Brutus, according to Dio, consisted of two Greek iambic verses, of which this is a translation:

"Poor Virtue, you were but a word; yet I Practised as real what was Fortune's fool." 32. 'a forest fagots,' i. e. 'you think a sacred grove to be simply so much timber: you are purely matter-of-fact; you have no imagination.'

'get into harbour before you,' 'occupet' Gr. 40ável with the participle. Od. II. 12, 28, note.

33. Cibyra was a town of Phrygia, celebrated for its iron manufactures. To miss the market' seems to refer to the market of purchase, not that of sale; i. e. 'lest another, arriving before you, buy the goods at a lower price.'

34. 'a thousand talents' about £200,000. 37. 'high birth and beauty.' That is, of course, money will make people call you noble and handsome, even if the contrary be the truth.'

39. 'the king.' Cicero speaks of his poverty in his letters to Atticus, VI. I, 4. The sense of the passage is rather loosely connected. It is; 'be anything rather than poor; aim at the superfluous wealth of Lucullus, and shun the poverty of the Cappadocian king.'

42. 'How.' Qui (quo) = Quomodo.

44. purple cloaks.' Though the word (chlamys) does not literally convey so much as

this, yet here it is used in a particular and emphatic sense. 'ut' is readily understood be fore 'tolleret;' and 'prætor,' as a subject. Plutarch says that he was the official who was bringing out the show.

45. Meagre.' The passage is sarcastic. 46. 'knaves.' This word, 'thievish slaves,' is also so used by Virg. Ecl. 111. 16.

51. 'across the tradesman's scales.' This seems the best explanation of a difficult passage. Orelli says that it is confirmed by a drawing which represents a shop in Pompeii, preserved in the Museo Borbonico at Naples. The other best known explanation is rather grotesque: to stretch out your hand beyond the centre of gravity;' so that you run the risk of tumbling down.

54. 'the ivory curule chair,' alluding particularly to the consulship. Horace writes as if the republic still existed practically.

58. We know nothing of this Gargilius.

60. before the eyes of the people,' so that they might imagine that he was a great hunter. The general sense is 'let us devote ourselves to good living; and, if we hunt at all for our game, let it be only make-believe.'

61. 'let us bathe.' It was thought that this would renew the appetite. There is a very similar passage in Juvenal, 1. 142. See Epist. I. 2, 52, note.

62. to be classed among the Cærites,' i.e. to lose our civil rights. Gellius says that they were the inhabitants of Care in Etruria; and that they were the first people who were admitted to the privileges of Romans, without the franchise: and so the censor enrolled among them any person deprived of his full rights as a citizen.

63. 'forbidden pleasure.' When they killed the oxen of the Sun. Odyss. XII. 297.

65. Mimnermus was an elegiac poet of Colophon. According to Porphyrio, he placed the chief good in indifference. The cynical and splenetic Swift is, rather oddly, the Mimnermus of Pope.

"If Swift cry wisely, 'Vive la bagatelle !' The man that loves and laughs must sure do well."

VII.

2. 'August.' In the Lat Sextilem.' The name of this month was not changed to that of 'Augustus,' till about the time of Horace's death, B. C. 8.

6. undertaker.' The word literally means 'one who arranges.' 'lictor,' the appointed servant of an officer of state, is here applied with a sort of grim humour. The word is used in the general sense of 'an attendant,' also in Plautus, Pan. Prol. 18. The unhealthiness of Rome in the autumn was (and is now still more) notorious. Od. 11. 14, 16; Sat. 11. 6, 19.

7. 'fond mother. Such is the force of the diminutive matercula.' See 1. 65, note.

8. 'courtesies.' Especially those rendered to a patron, the calling on friends, &c.

IO. 'But when,' 'si' is used in this sense in Sat. II. 3, 10.

12. crouching in a corner,' i.e. wrapped up and taking care of himself.

14.

48. Carinæ,' a fashionable quarter of Rome, where were the mansions of Pompey, Q. Cicero,

22.

'professes himself ready.' The construction of the nom. 'paratus' is Gr. See Od. III. 27, 73, note.

23. counters,' lit. 'lupine-seeds,' used as sham money on the stage, &c.

24.

'my benefactor," 'merentis'' bene merentis de me.' Virg. Æn. vi. 664.

26. 'strength of chest.' 'latus' is often used in the sense of physical strength, as in Cicero, de Sen. IX. 27. slender brow,' i.e. seeming so, because the thick hair clustered at the sides. Comp. Od. 1. 33, 5.

27.my winning words.' 'loqui' and the two following infinitives are here used substantively, like Gr. inf. with article: Tò yeλav, &c.

28. 'Cinara.' See Int. to Odes, p. 22.

29. 'fox.' So all the MSS. Bentley ingeniously conjectured 'nitedula,' 'a dormouse,' and he has been followed by most modern commentators. The principal reasons for the change are, that a fox is rather too large an animal to pass through a chink into a corn-bin, and does not eat corn. However, Æsop's fables are full of grotesque fictions; such as that of various beasts going to hunt together, of the lion eating his meat cooked, &c.

34. 'challenged,' 'compellor' is used in the same sense in Sat. 11. 3, 297. It nearly='rebuked.'

36. the Arabs.' See Od. 1. 29, 1, note. 37. 'king,' a word often used by clients, in speaking of their patron. Epist. I. 17, 20. For 'father,' comp. Epist. 1. 6, 54,

38. received from me,' lit. 'have heard ;' Gr. dκoveLv. Milton has attempted to transplant the phrase into English. Par. Lost, 111. 7: "Or hear'st thou rather pure ethereal stream?" Comp. Sat. 11. 6, 20.

39. 'have the power.' The pres. indic. of the original is meant to express his confidence that he does possess this power.

40. 'Telemachus.' The passage is taken from Odyss. IV. 601. 'enduring' TOλÚTλas. 42. 'level tracts. The whole phrase seems simply='spatiosus.' There is no sufficient reason for explaining' spatiis' (as Orelli does) in its more technical sense of 'race-courses.' 44. 'imperial Rome.' Comp. 'dominæ Romæ,' Od. IV. 14, 44.

45.

vacuæ

'free from crowds.' Comp. Athenæ,' Epist. 11. 2, 81: and with 'peaceful Tarentum,' molle Tarentum,' Sat. II. 4, 34.

46. This Philippus was consul in B. C. 91. Cicero describes him (de Orat. 3, 1, 4,) as 'energetic and fluent, and particularly determined in fighting a case.'

47.

'the eighth hour,' about 2 p.m.

50. 'just shaved.' The word ('adrasum') has the same force in Petronius, c. 32.

'then empty.' Most people would have been shaved earlier; but Mena on this day was taking his ease.

51. 'his own nails,' i. e. not having them dressed by the barber. But the word, which seems Gr. píλovs, gives additional expression to the lazy carelessness of the attitude. 'Demetrius,' a Greek page. Greek servants, as is often mentioned by Juvenal, were fashionable at Rome.

52.

53. 'what place,' i.e. 'what country?' Lit. 'from whence from home?' So in En. VIII. 114. 54. 'his patron.' This appears to mean, 'or, in case he is a freedman, who is his patron?'

56. 'known,' &c. There is much doubt whether it is right to take the passage thus, or to take 'notum' absolutely, or to connect it with the next line. The force of 'notum,' taken by itself, does not seem very pointed. If notum' be taken with the next line, 'gaudentem' governs 'sodalibus,' &c. According to the arrangement adopted here, these ablatives are those of quality.'

61. 'ut' is understood before 'veniat,' according to the usual idiom.

'not quite.' Orelli says that 'non sane "= où Távu. And this is certainly sometimes the meaning of the Greek phrase; though it has been violently contended that it always='by

no means."

62. 'very kind.' See note on I. 16.

63. Can it be,' &c. This is the 'deliberative' subj.

'the rascal.' 'improbus' seems always to contain the notion of excess; here, of excess in perversity. Comp. 'improbus anser,' Virg. Georg. 1. 119, which Conington proposes oddly to translate the unconscionable goose.'

65. second-hand goods.' scruta' Gr. Ypúτn. The old commentator says that the popular form of the word was 'grutæ.' the poor. 'popello.' The diminutive is slightly contemptuous. Sometimes it expresses a sort of endearment; as in 1. 7, and in Epist. 1. 4, 8. Comp. the French 'petit papa," the Italian 'signorino,' &c.

56. 'accosts. Orelli well compares Gr. φθάνει προσαγορεύων.

70. 'As you please.' The shade of meaning is slightly different in l. 19.

71. 72.

'the ninth hour.' About 3 p. m.

'meet and unmeet.' Gr. ῥητὰ ἄῤῥητα. In this and the next line it is gently, but clearly hinted, that Mena showed himself not well versed in the usages of good society, and that he drank more wine than was good for him.

76. 'the Latin Holidays.' These did not occur at any fixed period, but were proclaimed by the Consul, according to the convenience of public business.

77. 'carriage.' Some explain the phrase as meaning when mounted on nags.' But the

use of the plural, and the age of Philippus, are against this construction. Mannis' is also held to mean 'mules.' Od. III. 27, 7.

'Sabine country,' which was not very beautiful, and where the climate was rather cold.

80. 'seven thousand sesterces'=about £56. Money (in the time of Horace, at least,) was cheap; but so was land in the country, though not at Rome.

84.

'prates. Comp. Od. 1. 18, 5. 'makes ready." 'vitibus' is easily understood after 'præparat."

85. half kills himself,' lit. 'dies over his pursuits.' 'studiis' is dat. passion for gain.' This phrase seems taken from Virg. Georg. IV. 177, where it is applied to bees.

87. 'disappointed. Comp. Od. III. 1, 30. 91. 'you seem to me. The composed manner of the old lawyer is amusingly contrasted with the angry despair of Mena.

92. 'Pol'=' 'per Pollucem.' The phrase is very common in Plautus and Terence.

94. The 'Genius' of each man came into the world at his birth, and left it at his death, and was a sort of guardian angel. Epist. II. 2, 187, note.

98. 'should measure himself;' i. e. 'should find out what suits him, and what does not.' Comp. the subject of Sat. 1. 1.

VIII.

I. Celsus is probably the friend who is mentioned in 1. 3, 15. It seems right to explain the infinitives in this line as substantival=Gr. τὸ χαίρειν καὶ τὸ εὖ πράττειν.

3.

'threaten.' Comp. Sat. 11. 3, 9.

4. perfect nor pleasant.' This is the only one of Horace's compositions which can be said to be written in at all a morbid tone. See Gen. Int.

6. 'distant pastures.' Orelli mentions the large pasture-lands of Calabria and Cisalpine Gaul. The word 'longinquis' seems also to express the idea of large extent.

7. 'all my body.' That is, 'the least healthy part of my body is sounder than the healthiest part of my mind.'

IO. 'shield me from.' The usual construction after 'arceo' is acc. of the thing repelled: but this is an inverted construction, in the style of Virgil: so in Art. Poet. 64. 'Cur'=' propterea quod,' is used in the same way in Od. 1.

33, 3.

12. 'fickle as the wind.' Horace makes the same charge against his slave, in Sat. II. 7, 28. 14. 'his youthful patron.'" Tiberius was at this time about 22. 'the staff.' Comp. Sat. 1. 7, 23, &c.

15. 'wish him joy.' 'Gaudere'seems='illum gaudere jubere.'

16. 'delicate ears.' This is again a different shade of meaning conveyed by the diminutive. Comp. Epist. 1. 7, 65, note.

3. 'actually,' 'scilicet.' This force of the word is uncommon; though it is often used in an ironical, as well as in its properly demonstrative sense. Æn. IV. 379.

4. 'what is honourable." The indefinite use of the neuter seems-Gr. Tà Kaλά.

9. 'a dissembler. Such as Aristotle describes in the Ethics, IV. 3, as 'one who seems to deny or disparage what he really possesses.'

II. 'stooped.' This seems the force of the word, meaning, as in Cicero, in Cæcil. 1. 1, something which to a certain extent lowers selfrespect.

'the prize.' This word, used ironically, ='disgrace.'

13. staff,'

among your flock, i. e. among your 'gregis' is the partitive genitive.

X.

I. 'Aristius.' See Od. 1. 22. 1, note. In the present epistle the ideas are mostly Stoical; and Horace seems to have had a real admiration for this school of philosophy, though he often makes jokes on certain forms which it assumed.

2. actually. Comp. Epist. 1. 9. 3, note.

3. twins, lit. being almost twins,' &c. 'animis' is abl. of quality. After the second 'alter,' 'negat' must be understood. I. 4. is a sort of parenthesis.

8. 'am a king.' This is the language of a Stoic. Comp. Epist. 1. 1, 107.

9.

'loud applause.' Comp. the meaning of the same phrase in En. VIII. 90. There, on the whole, it seems to refer to the voices of the

crew.

IO. The priest's 'sweet wafers,' a surfeit of which made his slave run away, here denote the artificial, as opposed to the natural life, which is signified by bread.

13.

'to live,' &c. A well-known doctrine of the Stoics. Δεῖ ὁμολογουμένως τῇ φύσει ζῇν. Cicero uses the same phrase as Horace, in de Off. III. 3, 13.

15. 'winters are milder.' If the phrase has any point at all, it must mean that in the country you have more freedom of choice in selecting a place of abode, than you have in the town. Comp. Od. II. 7, 17.

16. The 'dog-star' rises on the 20th of July, and the Sun enters Leo on the 23rd. The word 'momenta' seems rather to mean 'influence,' (as it often does,) than 'season,' as some explain it.

17. 'full of fury; as if made so by the 'stinging Sun.'

18.

distracts.' Another reading is 'depellat'; but 'divellat' certainly seems the most expressive, as it is also the less common of the

two.

20. 'the leaden pipes' which received the water from the enormous aqueducts which supplied Rome.

21. 'which dances noisily.' Comp. Od. 11.

3, II.

22. 'Why,' &c. i. e. 'We even try to reproduce nature in the midst of the town.'

24. ut' or 'licet' is, of course, understood before 'expellas;' the other reading, 'expelles,' seems clearly wrong.

26. to compare, &c. That is, to distinguish the real Tyrian (Sidonian) purple from that manufactured in Italy. 'ostro' is the dative.

28. his heart,' lit. 'marrow.' So in Æn. IV. 66; Psalm XXXI. 10. The passage means, that artificial knowledge on minute and technical points is worthless, when compared with discernment on the great truths of natural philosophy.

30. the man,' &c. Comp. Epist. vi. beginning, 'overmuch.' See Od. 1. 18, 13, note.

34. 'a stag,' Aristotle (Rhet. 11. 20, 5) says that Stesichorus employed this fable to prevent the people of Himera from accepting the sovereignty of Phalaris.

40. in his covetousness.' 63, note.

See Epist. 1. 7,

41. 'for ever,' 'æternum' is an adverb, like 'lucidum' in Od. II. 12, 14.

42. in the story,' 'olim' is often used in somewhat the same sense, as in Sat. 1. 1, 25. 45. ' and not let me go,' &c. Horace courteously throws upon himself the contemplated possibility of becoming covetous.

twined

48. 'twisted rope,' i. e. simply rope.' The metaphor is very clear; and it seems useless to attempt to identify it with the notion of a pulley, a cart-rope, a game, &c.

49. 'am dictating for you,' i.e. am dictating to my amanuensis, to be sent to you.' In the Latin was dictating:' for the Romans used tenses applicable to the time at which the letter would be read.

Vacuna was an ancient Sabine goddess, said to correspond to the Roman 'Victoria."

50. 'Excepto' is abl. abs. 'cetera' is acc. of limitation.

I.

XI.

Bullatius is otherwise unknown.

2. 'pretty Samos;' probably referring to its buildings, especially its temple of Herè.

5. 'cities of Attalus.' Pergamus, Tralles, Thyatira, Myndus. Od. 1. 1, 12, note.

6. Lebedus was one of the twelve cities of Ionia. It seems from the next line, that Bullatius had been the comrade of Horace in the army of Brutus.

7. Gabii and Fidene were two deserted towns of the Prisci Latini. They are coupled by Virgil, Æn. vi. 773; and by Juvenal, x.

100.

10. 'the deep.' Comp. Lucretius, II. 1. Here the sentiment is Stoic; 'the perfect man can be happy in the most desolate and wild of places.

14. caught cold,' lit. gathered cold.' So 'sitim collegerat,' Ovid, Met. v. 446.

17. 'in perfect soundness.' Incolumi' is here a word of the Stoic philosophy, like 'sanus' in I. 1, 108.

18. 'at midsummer,' 'æstivo' is readily understood after 'solstitio.'

'athlete's dress.' 'Campestre' (subligaculum) is lit. 'a dress for the Campus Martius.' 19. 'August.' I. 7, 2, note.

HOR.

22. 'bless you with,' 'fortuno' was a word used in religious formulas.

23. 'from year to year,' lit. 'for a year;' but it seems better to explain the phrase as having the former sense, than as denoting an indefinite time. So in I. 2, 38.

27. they change.' Comp. Od. 11. 16, 19. 28. a vigorous idleness,' in always beginning but never achieving.

30. 'at Ulubræ,' i. e. 'anywhere, even at Ulubræ.' This was a little town near the Pomptine marshes. It is called 'vacua' by Juvenal, X. 102. XII.

I. 'Iccius.' Comparing this Epistle with Od. 1. 29, we see that Iccius, though a dabbler in philosophy, had an eye to the main chance, like many other philosophers.

'Agrippa.' Probably he got these estates in Sicily after his defeat of Sextus Pompeius off the coast of Sicily.

5. 'your digestion is good.' Horace speaks as one who knew what that dreadful monster, indigestion, was.

7. 'nettle broth,' said to be still used in Scotland.

12. 'Democritus' of Abdera, founder of the atomic system.

16. 'inquiring,' &c. Comp. Virg. Æn. 1.

742.

20. 'Empedocles,' a very early philosopher, B.C. 520, contrasted with 'Stertinius,' a modern and voluminous oracle of the Stoics.

21. 'fish,' 'leeks and onions.' 'fish,' a luxury: 'leeks and onions,' common food; and, besides, the mention of fish alludes to Empedocles, the leeks and onions' to Pythagoras, to whose philosophy Iccius may have been attached.

26.

'Cantabrians,' reduced B. C. 26.

27. 'Armenians to Claudius Nero,' i. e. Tiberius. Here is one of the usual exaggerations of Horace and Virgil; and generally the Romans were 'awful liars' about their enemies.

'Phraates on bended knee.' This 'bended knee' is really too bad as an exaggeration.

29. 'Plenty' with her cornucopia, the horn of Amalthea. Comp. Od. 1. 17, 15. Velleius Paterculus says that when the civil wars of Rome were over, cultivation was restored to the fields, thanks to Augustus. Od. IV. 15, 4.