Quid juvat immensum te argenti pondus et auri Non tuus hoc capiet venter plus ac meus: ut si 45 Forte vehas humero, nihilo plus accipias quam Qui nil portarit. Vel dic, quid referat intra Naturae fines viventi, jugera centum an 50 Mille aret? 'At suave est ex magno tollere acervo.' Dum ex parvo nobis tantundem haurire relinquas, Cur tua plus laudes cumeris granaria nostris? Eo fit, 55 At qui tantuli eget, quanto est opus, is neque limo Turbatam haurit aquam, neque vitam amittit in undis. 60 At bona pars hominum decepta cupidine falso, เ 'Nil satis est,' inquit, quia tanti, quantum habeas, sis.' Quid facias illi? Jubeas miserum esse, libenter Quatenus id facit. Ut quidam memoratur Athenis enjoy his acquisitions, but the ant does. When the sun enters the sign of Aquarius (January 16), the closing (inversus) year assumes its most miserable aspect. -42. Furtim defossa go together. -43. The avaricious man's defence.-44. Horace replies.-45. Milia centum, thy barn-floor may have thrashed a hundred thousand of grain; supply the ordinary corn measure, modius or medimnus. 46. Plus ac. Horace frequently uses ac after comparatives, instead of quam. See Zumpt, $340, note.-47. In a troop of slaves taken to the market to be sold, one carries the bread-bag, but he does not for that reason receive more of the bread than the others who have had different burdens, or none at all.-50. Viventi, a somewhat free use of the dativus commodi, refert having commonly a different construction. Gram. § 284. -51. At. The avaricious man raises a new plea, which Horace goes on to answer. The former having compared money to a heap (acervus) of corn, the poet, in his reply, takes up the same figure, and speaks of granaries (granaria) and a small corn-chest (cumera.)—54. Liquidi = humoris, aquae.-56. Eo fit, hence it happens' that a person who wishes more than he needs, falls into danger. This truth is illustrated by the fate of the person just mentioned, who would fill his vessel from a river rather than a brook. The stream car. ries him away, along with the bank on which he was standing. As to the Aufidus, compare Carm. iv. 14, 25.59. Eget, in a rare sense, = cupit.-62. The third plea of the avaricious man: man is valued according to his wealth.-64. Quatenus: quoniam. The = Sordidus ac dives, populi contemnere voces Flumina .... Quid rides? Mutato nomine de te poet now gives an instance of a man who valued himself according to his wealth. Why the case of Tantalus is brought up is not so obvious: the avaricious man, to whom Horace supposes himself speaking, does not see its applicability, and laughs. Hereupon Horace breaks off from his sentence (an instance of aposiopesis), and shows him the bearing of the case. -71. Tamquam sacris, 'as if they belonged to a god, and there was a curse upon him who should handle them. 72. The idea is this: it is the same thing whether you have real money, or merely a picture before your eyes, on which are painted pieces of gold. You have as much pleasure in the one as the other, since you only look, never use. — 73. Quo valeat; that is, ad quam rem utilis sit.-74. Sextarius, the sixth part of a congius, about half a pint, the quantity which a moderåte drinker will take at a banquet.-75. Quis negatis doleat natura; literally, things which being denied to it, human nature grieves; that is, which human nature grieves to be without.' In the preceding passage the poet has mentioned the necessaries of life; here he adds some of those things which make life comfortable and joyous, such as a respectable dwelling, decent clothing, society, and the like.-80. Tentatum frigore, assailed by, shivering from cold.' The poet is thinking of the disease most common in Italy-fever and ague.-85. Pueri atque puellae, a proverbial expression, denoting all classes, old and young, male and female.'-86. Post omnia ponas, by imesis, for postponas omnia.· 88. At si, etc. The sense is: if you try to keep the affection of your relatives, you will fail, Quos tibi dat, retinere velis servareque amicos, Se probet, ac potius laudet diversa sequentes; 90 95 100 105 as a man would do who should try to put his ass through the exercises of a horse. Your relations will not serve you, as you have done no good to them.-92. Denique introduces the last suggestion of the poet to the avaricious man. Hence it means 'at least, then :' if you are deaf to everything else, at least agree to this proposal to have less dread of poverty and less pinching miserliness the more you acquire.-94. Ne facias quod, etc., 'lest that happen to you which did to a certain Ummidius.' -96. Metiretur. He did not count his money, but measured it by bushels.-98. Victus, genitive, governed by penuria.-100. Fortissima Tyndaridarum. Tyndarides, a son of Tyndareus, plural Tyndaridae, descendants of Tyndareus. One of the children of Tyndareus was Clytaemnestra, who killed her husband Agamemnon. The freed-woman who slew her patron and husband is here, in jest, compared with the high-born Clytaemnestra, and called the boldest of husband-killers. 101. Ut vivam Maenius, to live like Maenius,' who, as well as Nomentanus, was a well-known debauchee at Rome.-102. Connect pugnantia secum adversis frontibus, the sense being things quite opposed to each other.'-104. Vappa; properly, stale wine,' here a useless fellow ;' nebulo, one who, like a mist (nebula) or the wind, has no solidity or regularity'a vagabond.' -105. Tanais and the father-in-law of Visellius were two well-known men at Rome, who suffered under opposite bodily infirmities.-108. Illuc-redeo; that is, I return to the proper theme of my satire-namely, that no one is content with his lot. On redeo depend first ut nemo avarus se probet, that nobody, in his avarice, approves of himself, is pleased, content with himself;' then afterwards, laudet, tabescat, comparet, and laboret. Observe the hiatus in nemo ut, which is bearable, as the arsis rests Quodque aliena capella gerat distentius uber, 110 Tabescat; neque se majori pauperiorum Turbae comparet, hunc atque hunc superare laboret. Sic festinanti semper locupletior obstat: Ut, quum carceribus missos rapit ungula currus, Instat equis auriga suos vincentibus, illum 115 120 on the last syllable of nemo. — 114. Carceribus (ablative) missos,= emissos ex carceribus. Ungula for equus. 116. Temnens, poetical for contemnens.-120. Crispinus was a Stoic philosopher, notorious in Rome for his moral harangues. He is called lippus, perhaps because he was really blear-eyed; perhaps, metaphorically, because he did not judge aright the faults and weaknesses of his fellow-men. SATIRA VI. THIS Satire contains a defence against the charge that Horace, though of humble birth, had pushed himself forward into the society of the great, with the view of being considered a man of importance. The moral of the satire is this—that nobility does not lie in birth, but in character; that virtue alone makes true nobility. NON quia, Maecenas, Lydorum quidquid Etruscos Nec quod avus tibi maternus fuit atque paternus, Ut plerique solent, naso suspendis adunco 1. Lydorum quidquid, etc.; that is, omnium Lydorum qui Etruscos fines incolunt. It was a general belief in antiquity that Etruria was colonised by Lydians from Asia Minor. As to the high descent of Maecenas, see Carm. i. 1, 1.-4. Olim qui. Supply, of such a rank as to.' Legiones here are the armies of the ancient Etruscans. -5. Naso suspendis adunco, a witty expression for despisest, turnest up thy nose at.' We see here that Horace was somewhat proud of his being ingenuus. His father had been a slave, and afterwards, being manumitted by his master, a libertinus, he himself Quum referre negas quali sit quisque parente was therefore freeborn.-9. Tulli. Servius Tullius was said by tradition to have been the son of a slave of Tarquinius Priscus, and was therefore looked up to by the slaves in Rome as a notable instance of good luck. Hence ignobile regnum, the government, which he obtained, though of ignoble birth.'-12. M. Valerius Laevinus was, as the scholiasts tell us, a young man of the time of Horace, who, though a member of the ancient and distinguished patrician gens Valeria, one of whose members had assisted in expelling Tarquinius Superbus, yet, on account of his vicious life, obtained no posts of honour. Unde = a quo, scil. genere. - 13. Fugit, historical present. 14. Construe thus: licuisse (has been put up for sale; that is, has been valued) non unquam pluris (quam) pretio unius assis. - 15. Quo nosti = quem nosti, an attraction common in Greek, but rare and poetical in Latin.-17. Tituli, 'inscriptions' recording the great deeds of ancestors, imagines, 'busts' of ancestors.-19. Mallet. The imperfect-subjunctive shows that the sup position is not true; for Laevinus was not promoted, and Appius Claudius, censor in 50 B. c., who was very strict, did not remove good men from the senate, even though they were ignoble. Properly, great-grandsons of freedmen (that is, nepotes ingenuorum) were their nearest descendants who could be admitted into the senate, but Appius had introduced grandsons; that is, filii ingenuorum. 20. Novo = novo homini. Decio is 'a Decius, a man like the Decii;' who were plebeians, and yet among the most distinguished men in Roman history. 22. Vel merito, scil. me moveret censor, even justly.' Propria in pelle quiescere, a proverbial expression for to be content with one's lot.'-24. Tillius, a person, as the scholiast tells us, who was removed from the senate as a Pompeian, by the dictator Caesar, but, after his murder, became tribunus plebis, |