plause was given to you in the amphitheater,100 that the banks of your ancestral river,' together with the cheerful echo of the Vatican mountain, returned your praises. You [when you are at home] will drink the Cæcuban,' and the grape which is squeezed in the Calenian press; but neither the Falernian vines, nor the Formian' hills, season my cups.

ODE XXI.

ON DIANA AND APOLLO.

4

YE tender virgins, sing Diana; ye boys, sing Apollo with his unshorn hair, and Latona passionately beloved by the supreme Jupiter. Ye (virgins), praise her that rejoices in the rivers, and the thick groves, which project either from the cold Algidus, or the gloomy woods of Erymanthus, or the green Cragus. Ye boys, extol with equal praises Apollo's Delos, and his shoulder adorned with a quíver, and with his brother Mercury's lyre. He, moved by your intercession, shall drive away calamitous war, and miserable famine, and the plague from the Roman people and their sovereign Cæsar, to the Persians and the Britons.

100 It is probable, from the 17th Ode of the second Book, that this applause was to congratulate Mecenas for his escaping some accidental danger; and as the ancients were used to mark the age of their wines by the names of the consuls, or by the most extraordinary event of the year, the poet had chosen this instance of the glory and good fortune of his patron, for the date of his wine. SAN.

1 Paterni fluminis. It seems as if Horace could not find a more glorious epithet for the Tiber than this, which calls it the river of Mæcenas's ancestors, who came originally from Etruria, where the Tiber has its source. SAN.

2 Cæcubum, a town in Campania, not far from Caieta. The wine produced there was much esteemed. WATSON.

3 Mount Formianum, near the city Formiæ, the seat of the Læstrygones, now swallowed up by the sea, and called Golfo di Gaietta. The wine of the place was much valued. WATSON.

4 In the celebration of the festival of Bacchus, a select number of virgins, of honorable families, called κανηφόροι, κισσοφόροι, κιστοφόροι, carried small baskets of gold, in which were concealed, beneath vine, ivy, and other leaves, certain sacred mysterious things, which were not to be exposed to the eyes of the profane. ANTHON.

ODE XXII.

TO ARISTIUS FUSCUS."

6

8

THE man of upright life and pure from wickedness, O Fuscus, has no need of the Moorish javelins or bow, or quiver loaded with poisoned darts. Whether he is about to make his journey through the sultry Syrtes, or the inhospitable Caucasus," or those places which Hydaspes, celebrated in story, washes. For lately, as I was singing my Lalage, and wandered beyond my usual bounds, devoid of care, a wolf in the Sabine wood fled from me, though I was unarmed: such a monster, as neither the warlike Apulia nourishes in its extensive woods, nor the land of Juba," the dry nurse of lions, produces. Place me in those barren plains, where no tree is refreshed by the genial air; at that part of the world, which clouds and an inclement atmosphere infest. Place me under the chariot of the

5 Aristius Fuscus, a good man, of virtuous morals. Horace, for the most part, dedicates his poems (and writes them on a subject) suitable to the virtues and vices of those he addresses them to. So Sat. ix. Book i. "Ecce Fuscus Aristius occurrit mihi charus." "Behold Aristius Fuscus, dearly beloved by me, meets me." WATSON.

6 Syrtes, two quicksands on the African shore, the greater beyond Tripoli, about four hundred miles in compass; the lesser on this side, near one hundred and ninety miles in circumference. WATSON.

7 Through Caucasus, a high mountain in Asia, betwixt the Euxine and Caspian Seas, called also Garmas, and of later geographers, Cocas, or Cochias: it is situated about Iberia and Albania, on the north part. It is of great height, covered with snow, rocky, and full of trees. WATSON. 8 Hydaspes, the name of two rivers in Asia; the one in Media, near the city Susa; the other in India, near the city Nysa, which he here calls fabulous, because there are several strange things storied of it, such as that it abounds with golden sands, pearls, and precious stones, etc. WATSON.

9 "Donatus scribit Virgilium solitum dicere nullam virtutem commodiorem homini esse patientiâ, ac nullam fortunam adeo esse asperam, quam prudenter patiendo vir fortis non vincat. Proprie igitur sententia ipsum nunc consolatur Horatius." FABRIC.

10 The land of Juba. He was king of Mauritania, who in the time of the civil war was on Pompey's side; he overthrew Curio, and, after Pompey was overcome, he joined with Scipio; but they being conquered by Cæsar, rather than he would be the matter of Cæsar's scorn and triumph, Petreius and he running at each other, were purposely slain. WATSON.

too neighboring sun, [there] will I love Lalage.

in a land deprived of habitations; my sweetly-smiling, sweetly-speaking

ODE XXIII.

TO CHLOE.

You shun me, Chloe, like a fawn that is seeking its timorous mother in the pathless mountains, not without a vain dread of the breezes and the thickets: for she trembles both in her heart and knees, whether the arrival of the spring has terrified by its rustling leaves, or the green lizards have stirred the bush. But I do not follow you, like a savage tigress, or a Gætulian lion, to tear you to pieces. Therefore, quit your mother, now that you are mature for a husband.

ODE XXIV.

TO VIRGIL.

WHAT shame or bound can there be to our affectionate regret for so dear a person? O Melpomene," on whom your father has bestowed a clear voice and the harp, teach me the mournful strains. Does then perpetual sleep oppress Quinctilius ?12 To whom when will modesty, and uncorrupt faith the sister of Justice, and undisguised truth, find any equal? He died lamented by many good men, but more lamented by none than by you, my Virgil. You, though pious, alas! in vain demand Quinctilius back from the gods, who did not lend him

11 Melpomene, one of the muses, who first composed tragedies; and therefore Horace properly addresses himself to her for assistance in writing a funeral elegy on Quinctilius Varus. See Ode xviii. WATSON.

12 Quinctilius. This is not Quinctilius Varus, who commanded the army in Germany under Augustus as his general, who, after his army was routed, killed himself. For that was twenty-seven years after Virgil's death, and eighteen after Horace died. But Quinctilius Varus, the poet and critic of Cremona, an intimate friend of Virgil's, who died about the tenth consulship of Augustus. WATSON.

to us on such terms. What, though you could strike the lyre, listened to by the trees, with more sweetness than the Thracian Orpheus; yet the blood can never return to the empty shade, which Mercury, inexorable to reverse the fates, has with his dreadful Caduceus once driven to the gloomy throng. This is hard but what it is out of our power to amend, becomes more supportable by patience.

ODE XXV.

TO LYDIA.

THE wanton youths less violently shake thy fastened windows with their redoubled knocks, nor do they rob you of your rest; and your door, which formerly moved its yielding hinges freely, now sticks lovingly to its threshold. Less and less often do you now hear: "My Lydia, dost thou sleep the live-long night while I your lover am dying?" Now you are an old woman, it will be your turn to bewail the insolence of rakes, when you are neglected in a lonely alley, while the Thracian wind13 rages at the Interlunium:1 when that hot desire and lust, which is wont to render furious the dams of horses, shall rage about your ulcerous liver: not without complaint, that sprightly youth rejoice rather in the verdant ivy and growing myrtle, and dedicate sapless leaves to Eurus, the companion of winter. 15

13 Between an old and new moon, the wind is usually most tempestuous. "Interluniorum dies tempestatibus plenos, et navigantibus quàm maximè metuendos, non solùm peritiæ ratio, sed etiam vulgi usus intelligit." DAC.

14 "Sub interlunia μɛooσeλnv, "at the time which intervenes between the old and new moon.' 19 Or, in freer and more poetic language, "" during the dark and stormy season when the moon has disappeared from the skies." Interlunium, "biduum illud, quo in coitu solis Iuna non conspicitur." ORELL.

15 Aridas frondes hyemis sodali dedicet. The sense and interpretation of these words depend on the two former lines. Young men, says the poet, are more pleased, magis gaudent, with trees which are always green, such as are myrtle and ivy; but despise dry and withered leaves. BENT.

ODE XXVI.

TO ELIUS LAMIA.

A FRIEND to the Muses, I will deliver up grief and fears to the wanton winds, to waft into the Cretan Sea; singularly careless, what king of a frozen region is dreaded under the pole, or what terrifies Tiridates.1 O sweet muse, who art delighted with pure fountains, weave together the sunny flowers, weave a chaplet for my Lamia." Without thee, my praises profit nothing. To render him immortal by new strains,18 to render him immortal by the Lesbian lyre," becomes both thee and thy sisters.

16 In the year 719, U. C., the Parthians expelled Phraates for his cruelty, and set Tiridates upon the throne. In 724, Phraates was restored by the Scythians; and Tiridates, obliged to fly, carried with him the son of Phraates to Octavius, who was then in Syria. That prince, delighted with having the son of the greatest enemy of the republic in his power, carried him to Rome, and permitted Tiridates to remain in Syria; who being impatient to recover his throne, solicited Augustus for succors. In 731, Phraates sent an embassy to Rome, with an offer of restoring to Augustus the Roman eagles, which were taken in the defeat of Crassus, if he would send his son and Tiridates to him. Augustus made the report to the senate, who remitted to him the decision of the affair. He granted the embassadors the first part of their demand, but kept Tiridates at Rome, and promised to entertain him in a manner suitable to his dignity.

This ode was written when the affair was depending, and we may judge how Tiridates must have been alarmed, while he was afraid of being sent to Phraates, from whom he could expect nothing but tortures and death. SAN.

17 Ælius Lamia was a Roman knight, whose character is thus drawn by Cicero: "Vir summo splendore, summá gratiâ; nullo prorsùs plùs Homine delector." DAC.

18 When the poets intended to sing any thing extraordinary, they used to change the strings of their lyres. DAC.

However, this changing the strings of the lyre seems rather a poetical, metaphorical expression for the change of the subject. FRAN.

19 Sappho, a famous poetess, inventress of the Sapphic verse, being rejected by her lover Phaon, she destroyed herself. There was a promontory in Arcadia called Leucate, on the top of which was a little temple dedicated to Apollo. WATSON.