Da mihi fallere, da justo sanctoque videri, In triviis fixum quum se demittit ob assem, Non video; nam qui cupiet, metuet quoque; porro rem, Nempe pecus Lectos, argentum? tollas licet.' 'In manicis et 'Ipse deus, simul atque volam, me solvet.' Opinor, 65 70 75 thieves, had a temple on the via Salaria. Thieves used to pray to her before they attempted any theft.-63. Qui= quomodo.-64. As fixus in triviis is an as lying in the public street among the mud, which no one but a miser would lift.--67. Perdidit arma, locum deseruit. The figure is taken from a soldier, for whom it is the highest disgrace to have lost his arms, especially his shield, in battle (see Carm. ii. 7, 10), or to have left the post assigned to him. Hence the sense of the passage is: he who gives himself up to a passion is a conquered mana captive. The poet (lines 69-72) gives us the thoughts of the passion represented as a person. She resolves not to kill the captive, as, according to the laws of war, she might, but to make him serve her as long as he lives.-73. Pentheu, etc. This is in imitation of a passage in the Bacchae of Euripides (line 492 and following.) Pentheus, king of Thebes, had taken Bacchus prisoner, and the captive replied to all his threats, that divine power would release him whenever he wished it.-78. Opinor, etc. Horace borrows this opinion in regard to suicide from the Stoics, who considered it as not merely lawful, but in certain circumstances laudable and necessary.-79. Ultima linea. The figure is taken from the circus, where a white stroke was drawn as the boundary of the chariot course. EPISTOLA XVII. AD SCAEVAM. WITTY and instructive observations on intercourse with men of QUAMVIS, Scaeva, satis per te tibi consulis et scis, Disce docendus adhuc, quae censet amiculus, ut si = 5 10 16 1. Quamvis is here, as in Carm. i. 28, 13, construed with the indicative, which is contrary to practice in classic prose.-2. Majorı. bus nobilioribus.-3. The two clauses disce, etc. and ut si caecus velit do not hang logically together; however, disce quae censet amiculus is ego te docebo.-5. Fecisse, aorist. Gram. 371, note 2.-6. Primam in horam, 'till seven o'clock in the morning,' long before which hour business had begun. The visits, too, to great men had to be made much earlier.-8. Caupona caupones, the bustling and thronging of the shopkeepers in Rome. Ferentinum was a town of the Hernici, about forty-eight Roman miles from the city. It is mentioned here as the representative of small towns in general, for the sense is if you hate noise, go to the country, or to some small town, and there you may enjoy quiet. This latter idea is stated in lines 9-10. - 10. Fefellit, scil. homines, whose birth and death have been unknown to the mass of men.'-11. Prodesse tuis; namely, by obtaining for them official posts, and the like. - 12. Unctum = pinguem. Hence siccus ad unctum, a poor man to a great.'14. Aristippus, the originator of the Cyrenaic philosophy, from which the Epicurean was to a great extent derived. The words Si pranderet Aristippus are put in the mouth of Diogenes the Cynic (line 18), who sought freedom and happiness in independence of men and of everything like luxury.-15. Qui me notat. 'he who Cur sit Aristippi potior sententia. Namque 1 Dante minor, quamvis fers te nullius egentem.” Hic est aut nusquam, quod quaerimus. Hic onus horret, Ut parvis animis et parvo corpore majus; 20 25 80 35 40 Hic subit et perfert. Aut virtus nomen inane est, Aut decus et pretium recte petit experiens vir, censures me.' This is the answer of Aristippus.-20. Equus me portet, alat rex, a Greek proverb, said of one who lives well at other people's expense. 22. Dante minor. The sense is: I am depend. ent on great men, you on poor.-25. Patientia was a technical term in the Cynic philosophy, designating the virtue of patiently enduring all the incidents of life. Hence Quem-velat; that is, who in striving after patientia clothes himself in rags.-27. Alter; namely, Aristippus, or any one of his followers.-30. It is related that once, when Diogenes and Aristippus were together in the bath, the latter contrived to steal away with the Cynic's tattered mantle, intending thus to oblige Diogenes to put on his purple cloak and go through the street with it. Diogenes, however, would not do so, but waited till Aristippus brought him his own cloak. Mileti texta chlamys is a mantle made at Miletus, or made of the Milesian wool, which was much famed in antiquity, and was dyed purple.-32. Sine, from sino. 34. Attingit solium Jovis, is a divine honour. Coelestia tentat, equivalent in meaning to Carm. i. 1, 36. —36. A translation of the Greek proverb: Οὐ παντὸς ἀνδρὸς ἐς Κόρινθον ἔσθ' ὁ λous, that is, it is impossible that all can be fortunate.-37. Sedit= otiosus fuit; time aorist. Fecit, in the next line, is also an aorist. -43. Those who pay court to any great man should not press im Plus poseente ferent: distat, sumasne pudenter 45 50 55 60 portunate petitions: he who modestly waits will succeed best in the end. Rex suus is the great man whom a person has chosen as his patron.-45. Hoc caput, hic fons. The source of a river is its caput and fons. Hence the meaning is: the ground, cause (source), of your connecting yourself with a great man was that you might receive money from him, and be promoted to offices of honour. This you cannot obtain if you beg too importunately. The complaints of an importunate petitioner follow.-48. Qui dicit, clamat: Victum date,' he who speaks thus is in reality screaming, "Give me bread." Succinit alter=succedit alter canens, an expression taken from a row of beggars, who one after the other whine forth their complaints to the passers-by.-49. Munere, dependent on findetur. -52. Surrentum, a town of Campania, now Sorrento, celebrated for the beauty of its situation, on the sea-shore.-55. Refert, 'imitates.'-58. A juggler (planus), who exhibited his feats of legerdemain in the streets of Rome, was accustomed, after making a great leap, to fall down, as if he had broken his leg. When the bystanders came to lift him, he laughed at their simplicity, and started up. At last he broke his leg in reality, and cried for help, but no one came to his assistance. The passers-by called out to him quaere peregrinum, seek one who does not know thy tricks.'-60. The worship of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the sun, was introduced into Rome about the time of Augustus, and was much practised by the common people. EPISTOLA XIX. AD MAECENATEM. WHEN Horace had attained some reputation, a host of imitators arose, who, though destitute of poetic genius, yet attempted to write poems like his. Enviers also he had, not a few. Against these two classes this epistle is directed; in which, as it were, Maecenas is appointed umpire of the dispute. ad arma PRISCO si credis, Maecenas docte, Cratino, 5 10 15 1. Cratinus, a poet of the old Athenian comedy, usually named along with Eupolis and Aristophanes. 3. Ut poetas. Adscribere is a military term, 'to enlist, to add men as soldiers to the army.' Hence: 'since the time when (ut) Bacchus enlisted mad poets in his train, to which before the Satyrs and Fauns belonged; that is, since the origin of poetry. Poets are called male sani, as being inspired.-5. Mane. The poets had drunk so much wine at night that they smelt of it even in the morning.-6. Laudibus vini. He praises it, for instance, in Iliad, vi. 261, and frequently.-8. Puteal Libonis. See Sat. ii. 6, 35. This Puteal and the Forum were the places where usurers and men of business congregated.-9. Siccis. Compare Carm. i. 18, 3. -10. Edixi, laid down as a law,' that poets should seek inspiration in drinking.-12. Horace deals a blow at his wretched imitators. If a man dress, and try to look like Cato (Uticensis), this does not make him a Cato in soul. - 13. Textore exiguae togae, instrumental ablative, by the weaver of a short toga,' a poetical expression for by causing a weaver to make a short toga;' such as, contrary to the fashion of his time, Cato wore.- -15. Timagenes of Alexandria was a historian and rhetorician. Being brought as a captive to Rome, he gained the favour of Augustus, but lost it by uttering his opinions too freely, and was then received by Asinius Pollio into his house. A certain Iarbita, by birth a Moor, endeavoured |