theus" demolished with no light ruin, and the perdition of Thracian Lycurgus." You command the rivers, you the barbarian sea. You, moist with wine, on lonely mountain-tops bind the hair of your Thracian priestesses with a knot of vipers without hurt. You, when the impious band of giants scaled the realms of father Jupiter through the sky, repelled Rhoetus, with the paws and horrible jaw of the lion-shape [you had assumed]. Thou, reported to be better fitted for dances and jokes and play, you were accounted insufficient for fight; yet it then appeared, you, the same deity, was the mediator of peace and war. Upon you, ornamented with your golden horn, Cerberus innocently gazed, gently wagging his tail; and with his triple tongue licked your feet and legs, as you returned. ODE XX. TO MECENAS. At I, A two-formed poet, will be conveyed through the liquid air with no vulgar or humble wing; nor will I loiter upon earth any longer; and superior to envy, I will quit cities. Not I, even I, the blood of low parents, my dear Mæcenas, shall die; nor shall I be restrained by the Stygian wave. this instant a rough skin settles upon my ankles, and all upwards I am transformed into a white bird, and the downy plumage arises over my fingers and shoulders. Now, a melodious bird, more expeditious than the Dædalean Icarus, I will visit the shores of the murmuring Bosphorus, and the Gætulean Syrtes, and the Hyperborean plains. Me the Col her into heaven, made her his wife, and presented her with a diadem, sparkling with seven stars, called Gnosia Corona. WATSON. 71 Pentheus, a king of Thebes, who, for slighting the rights of Bacchus, was torn in pieces by his own mother, sisters, and aunt. WATSON. 72 Lycurgus, a king of Thrace, who, finding his people too much addicted to wine, ordered all the vines of the country to be rooted up. Justin, book iii. Therefore Bacchus made him mad; so that he cut off his own legs. There was another of the same name, the famous Spartan law-giver. WATSON. chian and the Dacian, who hides his fear of the Marsian cohort, and the remotest Gelonians," shall know: me the learned Spaniard" shall study, and he that drinks of the Rhone. Let there be no dirges," nor unmanly lamentations, nor bewailings at my imaginary funeral; suppress your crying, and forbear the superfluous honors of a sepulcher. 73 Geloni, a people of Scythia, otherwise called Getæ. They used to paint themselves, to become more terrible to their enemies; whence Virgil calls them "pictos Gelonos." Geor. ii. 115. They are thought to be now the Lithuanians. WATSON. 74 In the time of Augustus learning and the sciences flourished in Spain, whither they were carried from Asia, and where the Roman colonies contributed greatly to their encouragement. DAC. 75 An imitation of Ennius' epitaph, p. 161, ed. Hessel : "Nemo me lacrameis decoret, nec funera fletu THE THIRD BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE. ODE I. ON CONTENTMENT. It I ABOMINATE the uninitiated vulgar, and keep them at a distance. Preserve a religious silence: I, the priest of the Muses, sing to virgins and boys verses not heard before. The dominion of dread sovereigns is over their own subjects; that of Jupiter, glorious for his conquest over the giants, who shakes all nature with his nod, is over sovereigns themselves. happens that one man arranges trees, in regular rows, to a greater extent than another; this man comes down into the Campus [Martius]' as a candidate of a better family; another vies with him for morals and a better reputation; a third has a superior number of dependants; but Fate, by the impartial law of nature, is allotted both to the conspicuous and the obscure; the capacious urn keeps every name in motion. Sicilian dainties will not force a delicious relish to that man, over whose impious neck the naked sword hangs the songs of birds and the lyre will not restore his sleep. Sleep disdains not the humble cottages and shady bank of peasants; he disdains not Tempe, fanned by zephyrs. Him, who desires but a competency, neither the tempestuous sea renders anxious, nor the malign violence of Arcturus setting, or of the rising 2 1 The Field of Mars, where the popular assemblies were held for elections, was in the lowest ground of Rome, from whence the poet uses the word descendat. SAN. 2 Setting Arcturus, a constellation of fourteen stars, which follow the Ursus Major, whence it has its name. It is thought, both at rising and setting, to cause tempests. The ancients have observed its rising to be in the middle of September, and its setting in the beginning of October. WATSON. Kid; not his vineyards beaten down with hail, and a deceitful farm; his plantations at one season blaming the rains, at another, the influence of the constellations parching the grounds, at another, the severe winters. The fishes perceive the seas contracted, by the vast foundations that have been laid in the deep: hither numerous undertakers with their men, and lords, disdainful of the land, send down mortar: but anxiety and the threats of conscience' ascend by the same way as the possessor; nor does gloomy care depart from the brazenbeaked galley, and she mounts behind the horseman. Since then nor Phrygian marble, nor the use of purple more dazzling than the sun, nor the Falernian vine, nor the Persian nard, composes a troubled mind, why should I set about a lofty edifice with columns that excite envy, and in the modern taste? Why should I exchange my Sabine vale for wealth, which is attended with more trouble? ODE II. AGAINST THE DEGENERACY OF THE ROMAN YOUTH. LET the robust youth learn patiently to endure pinching want in the active exercise of arms; and as an expert horseman, dreadful for his spear, let him harass the fierce Parthians; and let him lead a life exposed to the open air, and familiar with dangers. Him, the consort and marriageable virgin-daughter of some warring tyrant, viewing from the hostile walls, may sigh-Alas! let not the affianced prince, inexperienced as he is in arms, provoke by a touch this terrible lion, whom bloody rage hurries through the midst of slaughter. It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country; death even pursues the man that flies from him; nor does he spare the trembling knees of effeminate youth, nor the coward back. Virtue, unknowing of base repulse, shines with immaculate honors; nor does she assume nor lay aside the ensigns of 3 Mina, "internæ propter facinora commissa." ORELLI. 4 Atrium was properly a great hall, in which the Romans placed the statues of their ancestors, received their clients, and performed all their domestic duties. It is here used for the whole dwelling. ED. DUBLIN. 5 Amice, i. e. "with a mind well-disposed toward toil," and hence, "patiently, willingly." ORELLI. 6 Virtue, her dignity, at the veering of the popular air. throwing open heaven to those who deserve not to die, directs her progress through paths of difficulty," and spurns with a rapid wing groveling cowards and the slippery earth. There is likewise a sure reward for faithful silence. I will prohibit that man, who shall have divulged the sacred rites of mysterious Ceres, from being under the same roof with me, or from setting sail with me in the same fragile bark: for Jupiter, when slighted, often joins a good man in the same fate with a bad one. Seldom hath punishment, though lame, of foot, failed to overtake the wicked. ODE III. ON STEADINESS AND INTEGRITY. Nor the rage of the people pressing to hurtful measures, not the aspect of a threatening tyrant can shake from his settled purpose the man who is just and determined in his resolution; nor can the south wind, that tumultuous ruler of the restless Adriatic, nor the mighty hand of thundering Jove; if a crushed world should fall in upon him, the ruins would strike him undismayed. By this character Pollux,1o by this 6 Literally, 7 Literally, "" the fasces." 66 a forbidden track." 8 Julius Cæsar, according to Suetonius, had formed a design of transporting the seat of empire to Troy or Alexandria, after having exhausted Italy of its treasures and inhabitants. This was strongly reported a little before the dictator was put to death; and, as Augustus seemed willing to enter into all the schemes of his predecessor, and as Troy was usually esteemed the seat of the Julian family, the Romans were apprehensive that he had resolved to carry this project into execution. It is certain, that both Julius Cæsar and Augustus, on many occasions, showed a very remarkable inclination in favor of Troy: the first ordered it to be rebuilt; the second settled a colony there; and they both granted it considerable privileges. Thus the report, concerning the dictator's intention, might naturally make the people attentive to the actions of his successor; and their apprehensions might have engaged the poet to write this ode, in which he boldly attempts to dissuade Augustus from his design by representing Juno, in a full assembly of the gods, threatening the Romans with her resentment, if they should dare to rebuild the walls of a city which had been always an object of her displeasure and revenge. 9 Hac arte,] άper, "by using this same constancy." ORELLI. 10 Pollux, the son of Jupiter and Leda, and twin brother of Castor; or, |