of the Tusculan hill, and near by the town.-30. Circaea. So called from Circe, as Telegonus, the founder of Tusculum, was the son of Ulysses and Circe. Compare O. iii., 29, 8. The poet in this passage means that he does not ask for a villa of glittering marble high on the hill of Tusculum. There is no allusion to his Sabine farm, which was more than twenty miles distant from Tusculum. 31. Satis, etc. Parallel passages are, O. ii., 18, 12; iii., 16, 38; Sat. ii., 6, 1.—33. Chremes. The name of an avaricious man in a play of Menander. 34. Discinctus. To appear abroad with the toga ungirded, or girded loosely, was accounted not only slovenly, but the mark of a loose, dissolute character. Nepos, in the sense of profligate, which secondary meaning it got perhaps from the fact of grandfathers often indulging and ruining their grandchildren. EPODE II A famous usurer of the day, conceiving in some lucid interval a hearty disgust of his selfish pursuits, and catching a momentary glimpse of better things, breaks out in a beautiful panegyric on the innocent occupations and delights of rural life (1-66). But alas for the inconstancy of man, and the tyrannic sway of avarice! Our usurer is just ready to haste away to these charming scenes of country life, when his old passion comes back upon him with all its force, and fastens him for ever to the town, and the sordid pur. suit of gain (67-70). Thus does the poet connect, with a most genial, inimitable description of rural life, a grave lesson on the engrossing and debasing influence of the love of money. 2. Prisca gens. That is, the men of the golden age of old. - 3. Exercet. Poetic for subigit, arat. So Virgil, Georg. 1, 99; 2, 356. There is here a force in suis and paterna. The cattle are his own, not hired, and the estate is the humble inheritance, that has come down from his fathers, which he is not ambitious to increase. There seems to be an imitation of these lines in the opening of Pope's beautiful ode on Solitude: "Happy the man, whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound; Content to breathe his native air, On his own ground." 4. Foenore. Focnus, from the obsolete feo; what is made by money, interest; here means all borrowing and lending. 5. Classico. Classi cum, sc. signum, the signal by the trumpet to summon the classes of citizens, that is, the army; hence means, as here, trumpet.—7. Forum. General word for all forensic proceedings. Superba-limina alludes to the morning visits of dependent clients to the halls of their patrons. Virgil touches upon the same point in his admirable eulogium on rural life, in Georg. 2, 458-542: 461, 62; "Si non ingentem foribus domus alta superbis Mane salutantum totis vomit aedibus undam;" which Thomson has imitated in his Autumn: "What though the dome be wanting, whose proud gate -9. Ergo. Therefore; i. e. since he is freed from all these city cares. - Adulta propagine. The layer was severed from the vine after three years' growth, when it had sufficient root of its own, and was considered full-grown.- 10. Maritat. Weds; figuratively of the training of the young vine upon the poplar. Compare note, O. ii., 15, 4. Osborne compares Milton's Paradise Lost, Book v.: "They led the vine To wed her elm; she, spoused, about him twines Her dower, the adopted clusters, to adorn -11. Reducta. Retired; as in O. i., 17, 17.- 13. Inutilesque. Sme editors, contrary to all the MSS., transpose these lines, so as to nake them immediately follow the tenth. But the poet follows the order of nature. The maritatio took place in October, and the grafting in March, and these two lines describe, as Bentley has observed, an ordinary episode between these two labors of the farmer's life. 14. Feliciores :=fecundiores, more fruitful. -17. Vel cum. Vel here simply indicates a transition. "Vel sic usurpatum eam habet potestatem, ut transitum paret ad alia, cum respicit ad praegressa." Wagner, on Virg. Aen. 11, 406 (quoted by Dillenb. and Orelli). - -20. Purpurac. Poetic for cum purpura. See n. O. i., 1, 15. ———— 22. Silvane. See note, O. iii., 29, 23.- -24. Tenaci. Tenacious; firmly adhering to the ground; close and thick, so as to form a kind of couch for one who lies upon it. -25. Altis ripis; by the high banks; banks covered with bushes and flowers. -26. Querantur. Like the Greek μúpeσda; sing plaintively, Virgil, Ecl. 1, 59, uses the word gemere of the turtle-dove.-27. Obstrepunt. Murmur with their flowing waters. Lymphis, abl. of instruThe object of obstrepunt is supplied by jacere above; obstrepunt ibi jacenti, murmur in his ears as he lies there. 28. Quod invitet. Quod, i. e. id quod, which; or may be explained by quod murmur. Invitet is subjunctive because there is in it the idea of consequence; -of such a nature as to invite-such as to invite; but we may translate, ment. which invites. 35. Advenam. The foreign crane; coming from foreign climes on the approach of winter. The two anapests in this line, păvidūm, lăqueō, and the tribrachys -que lěpō-, seem to mark the swiftness of the hare and the flying of the crane. 37. Malarum, etc. The wretched cares which; same as malarum curarum, quas amor habet. See Z. ý 814. Amor perhaps in a bad sense, in contrast with the domestic affection described just below. — -39. In partem. On her part.40. Domum. In the care of the house. -41. Sabina. See note, O. iii., 6, 38.-43. Lignis. Ablative. Another construction with exstruere would be ligna in foco. Compare O. i., 9, 5.—44. Sub. Against the coming. -47. Dolio. The Dolium was an earthen vessel, in which the new wine was kept till it was drawn off into amphorae.- -49. Luerina. The best oysters came from the Lucrine lake. See, on this lake, note, O. ii., 15, 4. 50. Searl. The char. Some suppose it to be the bream. -51. Eois. The scarus was generally taken off the coast of Syria, only rarely in the Mare Tyrrhenum (hoc mare, 1. 52).- -53. Afra avis; the guinea-fowl; called also gallina Numidica. - -54. Attagen. Probably a wood-cock. -59. Terminalibus. A rustic festival, celebrated on the 23d of February in honor of the god Terminus, the guardian of boundaries. See Dict. Antiqq. under the word. - 60. Ereptus lupo. Mentioned as a sign of frugality. The frugal farmer would not slay the kid for his table, but, if he snatched it from the jaws of a wolf, instead of throwing it away as worthless, would cook and eat it. So also Martial, in a description of a frugal meal, 10, 48, 14: haedus inhumani raptus ab ore lupi.- -66. Circum, etc. Around the glittering Lares. The images of the Lares were waxen, and kept bright, highpolished. The passage furnishes a pleasant glance into the in-door life of the farm-house. The focus or hearth, usually a square platform of stone or bricks, is in the atrium or great hall of the house. This is the sacred spot of the house, consecrated to the Lares, the guardian spirits of the family, and about it are ranged their images. Here gather together the servants of the house to take their meals. 69. Redegit. Called in. A business expression, as also in next line, ponere, to put out, invest. The Calends, Nones, and Ides were the regular business days, when interest on money was due, capital was invested, and accounts settled. EPODE III. The poet seems to have suffered from eating garlic, in partaking of sorne high-seasoned dish at the house of Maecenas; whereupon he writes this sportive ode to his friend, in which he execrates the offensive plant, and pronounces it the deadliest of all poisons. 1. Olim. Ever. 17. 3. Edit. 1; Z. 162. See, on the meaning of this word, note, O. ii., 10, Old form for edat. May he eat! See A. & S. 162, 4. Messorum ilia! Exclamation of surprise that they could eat it. 8. Canidia. The name of a sorceress, which occurs also below in Epodes 5 and 17.- -9. Praeter omnes. Join with candi dum; beautiful beyond (=more beautiful than) all the Argonauts. 12. Perunxit hoc. The story was, that Medea used some sort of ointment, which made Jason proof against the flames of the fire-breathing bulls. The poet here declares that she must have used garlic. 13. Donis. The poisoned robe and crown which Medea sent as bridal gifts to Creusa, in revenge upon Jason for having married her. -14. Serpente. The chariot, drawn by winged serpents, in which Medea fled to Athens.16. Siticulosae. Comp. O. iii., 30, 11.- 17. Munus. The poisoned robe, dipped in the blood of the centaur Nessus, sent to Hercules by Deianira. EPODE IV. An invective against some parvenu of corrupt character, who had risen from a servile condition to great wealth, and to the rank of knight and military tribune. The point of the invective is, that his change of fortune has nowise improved his character, that on the contrary, his newly acquired rank and riches only make him an object of more obvious and general detestation. 1. Sortito. By the law of nature. So early as Homer we find this proverbial illustration of a strong natural antipathy; Iliad, 22, 263. – 3. Hibericls. Made of the Spanish broom, spartum.· 4. Crura. In same construction as latus; Greek acc. with peruste. Join dura with compede. The form compede, and also compedis and compedem, are poetic; in prose only the plural is usual. - -7. Sacram-Viam. The Sacred Way led from the Porta Triumphalis to the Forum, and thence along the north side of the Forum to the foot of the Capitoline. Being thus in a much frequented part of the city, it seems to have been a place of promenade, and of resort for idlers. Comp. Sat. i., 9, 1.- -8. Bisulnarum; in length. The ulna, as a measure, is generally used as equi valent to the cubitus, which was a foot and a half. The toga here described was so long that it dropped upon the ground; hence metiatur. 11. Sectus, etc. These are the imagined words of the people, as they see the vile upstart strut along the Sacred Way. - -Triumviralibus; i. e. of the Triumviri Capitoles, a part of whose business was to punish slaves. When they condemned a slave, the praeco proclaimed the offence and its penalty.-14. Appiam. The Appia Via, called by Statius (Sylv. 2, 2, 12) regina viarum, was begun by the censor Appius Claudius Caecus, u. c. 442. It issued from the Porta Capena, and terminated at Capua. On Mannis, see note, O. iii., 27, 7.- -16. Othone contempto. The tribune, L. Roscius Otho, had a law passed B. c. 67, which restricted the first fourteen rows of seats, in the theatre, immediately behind the senators, to the equites. The poet means here, that this person's property so far exceeded the sum requisite for an eques, that he had nothing to fear from this law, and boldly took his seat among the most distinguished equites. Juvenal has a similar allusion to this law, in Sat. 3, 159. 17. Tot-Rostrata. Au unusual expres sion, which is equivalent to tot naves rostratas. EPODE V. The poet describes the magical process by which Canidia, with the help of three other sorceresses, strives to win back her lover Varus. Besides other potions, they are to use the marrow and dried liver of a boy, whom they half bury and starve to death. True to his own rule in the Ars Poetica, line 148, the poet at once brings the reader in medias res, by picturing the sad condition of the poor boy, and giving his words of remonstrance (1-10); then follows a description of the sorceries (11-46); next the invocation of Canidia, her disappointment at the failure of her charms, and her purpose to resort to yet more powerful ones (47-82); and lastly, the imprecations of the boy (83-102). 1. At. This particle, here, as often in questions, expresses indignant astonishment. So Hand, Tursell. 1, 438, on the force of at; "cum interrogatione conjuncta est indignatio, admiratio, acrimonia.”- Quidquid deorum. This use of the neuter is common both in prose and poetry. See Sat. i., 6, 1. Also Livy, B. 1, 25, quidquid civium; 23, 9, quidquid deorum. 6. Veris. Genuine; i. e. if you have really had children of your own, not those which have been stolen from others. -7. Purpurae decus. The toga praetexta, which had a purple border, worn by Roman boys till they put on the toga virilis. Being worn by children, it was a badge of tender age, and ought to have shielded the boy from the sorceress. 12. Insignibus. The toga just described, to which must here be added, to explain the plural insignia, the bulla aurea, golden boss, worn about the neck by Roman children, es |