Quæ manent culpas etiam sub Orco. Impiæ! sponsos potuere duro Perdere ferro. 30 35 33. Face nuptiali.] This expression is taken metaphorically for the marriage; because, in the nuptial ceremonies, the bride was conducted in the night to the bridegroom's house by the light of torches. CARMEN XII. omitted. CARMEN XIII. AD FONTEM BANDUSIE. O FONS Bandusiæ, splendidior vitro, Cui frons, turgida cornibus Primis, et Venerem, et prælia destinat: Frustra: nam gelidos inficiet tibi Rubro sanguine rivos, Lascivi soboles gregis. Te flagrantis atrox hora Čaniculæ Præbes, et pecori vago. Fies nobilium tu quoque fontium, Me dicente cavis impositam ilicem Lymphæ desiliunt tuæ. NOTES. 5 10 15 2. Dulci digne mero.] Nunia is expressed by Ovid sacrificing to a fountain, and placing round it goblets crowned with flowers; a particular not mentioned by Horace, although it was perhaps an usual part of the solemnity, intended to invite the divinity to drink. 9. Canicula.] Called also Sirius, the dog-star, whose appearance, as the ancients supposed, always caused great heat on the earth. CARMEN XIV. AD ROMANÓS. HERCULIS ritu modo dictus, ô plebs, NOTES. The poet celebrates the return of Augustus from Spain. 1. Herculis ritu modo dictus.] The resemblance between Au, gustus and Hercules was this: that Hercules having entered Spain, and penetrated as far as the Straits of Gibraltar, there sat Cæsar, Hispana repetit Penates Victor ab ora. Unico gaudens mulier marito Virginum matres, juvenumque nuper Hic dies, vere mihi festus, atras I, pete unguentum, puer, et coronas, NOTES. 5 10 15 up his pillars, and returned afterwards into that part of Italy called Latium. Augustus in like manner, having subdued Spain, as far as the pillars of Hercules, returned in triumph to Rome. It is further to be observed, for the understanding of this passage, that Augustus falling dangerously ill in Spain, gave room to the people of Rome, who were in fear for his life, to compare him to Hercules, who obtained by death alone the rewards and crowns due to his valour. From hence the poet says, laurum morte venalem. 5. Mulier. Livia, the wife of Augustus. 7. Soror.] Octavia. 8. Supplice vitta.] The Roman ladies usually bound their heads, as a mark of their chastity, with fillets, which common women durst not wear. But Horace rather means the sacred veils, with which they covered their heads and hands in sacrifices, public prayers, and processions upon extraordinary occasions. 14. Ego nec tumultum.] By tumultus the poet means the civil wars, and by vis all foreign wars. He with reason speaks of the tranquillity of the Roman empire, for Augustus a second time shut the temple of Janus when he returned from Spain. 18. Marsi memorem duelli.] This war was called the social and Italian war, which Horace calls Marsian, because it was begun by the Marsi. Spartacum si qua potuit vagantem Dic et argutæ properet Neæræ Lenit albescens animos capillus Non ego hoc ferrem calidus juventa, NOTES. 20 25 19. Spartacum.] Sixteen or seventeen years after the social war, the Romans were obliged to sustain that of Spartacus, a Thracian, who, putting himself at the head of a small number of gladiators, and having increased his party by a great many slaves, who flocked to him from all quarters, ravaged Italy. Horace could not better paint the ravages of this war, than in doubting whether a cask of wine had escaped the plunder of that gladiator. 28. Consule Planco.] Munatius was consul in the year in which the battle of Philippi was fought, where our poet appeared in the cause of liberty, and was a tribune under Brutus. CARMEN XV. omitted. CARMEN XVI.-13 AD MECENATEM. INCLUSAM Danaën, turris ahenea, The design of this ode is to shew that riches occasion the greatest evil, and that an honest contented mediocrity brings the greatest good. 1. Inclusam Danaën.] Acrisius the last king of Argos, being warned by an oracle that he should be deprived of his kingdom, and put to death by his grandson, was resoived, if possible to hinder his daughter Danae from having any children. In order to effect this he ordered her to be shut up in a strong tower, all the Tristes excubiæ, munierant satis Si non Acrisium, virginis abditæ Custodem pavidum, Jupiter et Venus Risissent: fore enim tutum iter et patens, Converso in pretium Deo. Aurum per medios ire satellites, Demersa exitio. Diffidit urbium Portas vir Macedo, et subruit æmulos Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam, NOTES. 5 10 15 avenues of which were guarded with the greatest care. But all these precautions were of no effect; for Proteus, the king's brother, finding means to corrupt the guards, got access to Danae: which, as soon as her father knew he caused her to be shut up in a chest, and cast into the sea, with her son Perseus. But being found by a poor fisherman of Apulia, she was brought to king Pilumnus, who afterwards married her. When her son Perseus came to be age, after going through a great variety of adventures, he at last punished the cruelty of Acrisius, and converted him into stone, by presenting to him the head of Medusa. This gave rise to the fable that Jupiter descending in the form of a shower of gold, became the father of Perseus by Danae. of 12. Auguris Argivi domus. Eriphile, sister of Adrastus, king of Argos, discovered to her brother, where her husband Amphiaraus had concealed himself, that he might not be obliged to go to the war of Thebes, from whence he knew 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 afterwards killed by his uncles in vengeance for their sister. Thus Horace justly says, that the avarice of one woman was the ruin of the whole family. 14. Vir Macedo.] 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 loaded with gold. |