Young Troilus. Cease then your tender wail At length, and rather join with me to hail Augustus Cæsar's victories, His last Niphates, stiff with ice, And Media's river, added to his list Of subjects-rolling onward waves decreased; More narrow tracts than heretofore. Licinius Murena 'was apparently a man of restless and ambitious character,' and Horace may have addressed this Ode to him to warn him of the tendencies of his disposition. He belonged to the college of augurs (see Ode iii. 19), had a house at Formiae, where he received Maecenas and his party on their way to Brundusium, and was finally condemned and put to death on a charge of having plotted against the life of Augustus. LICINIUS, more correctly Life's voyage would you take, For middle ocean make: And, when through caution fearing The wind's tempestuous roar, Avoid too closely steering Beside a dangerous shore. What man is there pursuing Only the golden mean? Flevere semper. Desine mollium Caesaris, et rigidum Niphaten, 'X. AD LICINIUM MURENAM. RECTIUS Vives, Licini, neque altum Semper urgendo; neque, dum procellas Cautus horrescis, nimium premendo Littus iniquum. Auream quisquis mediocritatem Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti In old decaying dwelling; Calm too, eschewing all Pine-tree that rises higher, He who by wise tuition Doth winter too remove. When evil 'tis, does 't follow Sordibus tecti, caret invidenda Sobrius aula. Saepius ventis agitatur ingens Pinus; et celsae graviore casu Decidunt turres; feriuntque summos Sperat infestis, metuit secundis Pectus. Informes hiemes reducit Summovet. Non, si male nunc, et olim Sic erit quondam cithara tacentem Suscitat musam, neque semper arcum Tendit Apollo. Misfortunes round thee closing 'Minorem' in line II is translated 'drudge' in deference to Mr. Macleane, who says that the word, like oowv, signifies the victim of' or a slave to.' I don't think I need apologise for coining the word 'nardine' used in line 16. If an ointment made from nard were now-a-days in use, that would certainly be the name which English perfumers would give it. LEAVE asking, my Quintius Hirpinus, what 'tis The requirements of life, which but little requires. Spring blossoms not always retain the same hue: |