Pennis non homini datis.

Perrupit Acheronta Herculeus labor.
Nil mortalibus ardui est.

Caelum ipsum petimus stultitia: neque
Per nostrum patimur scelus
Iracunda Jovem ponere fulmina.

IV. AD SESTIUM.

SOLVITUR acris hiems grata vice veris et Favonî:

Trahuntque siccas machinae carinas:

Ac neque jam stabulis gaudet pecus, aut arator igni;

Nec prata canis albicant pruinis.

Jam Cytherea choros ducit Venus, imminente Luna,

Junctaeque Nymphis Gratiae decentes

Alterno terram quatiunt pede; dum graves Cyclopum

Volcanus ardens urit officinas.

Nunc decet aut viridi nitidum caput impedire myrto,

Aut flore, terrae quem ferunt solutae.

To Faunus, now, to sacrifice, is meet in shady grove, Whether an ewe lamb he demand, or ram kid more

approve.

With foot impartial, pallid Death, knocks at the pauper's cot

And monarch's tower;

permits thee not,

the sum,

so brief, of life

O favoured Sestius, to begin a far extending hope.
The storied Manes are at hand, and night's funereal cope,
And Pluto's narrow domicile, where, after entering,
No more shall it be thine to throw the dice for festal king,
Or gaze on tender Lycidas, whom, now, all youths admire,
And for whom maidens, too, ere long, shall warm with
kindling fire.

'We have no clue to the origin of this poem, which expresses a lover's jealousy under pretence of his being glad of escape from the toils of an inconstant mistress. That Pyrrha was a freedwoman of exquisite beauty but loose character, and one of Horace's early loves, is all imagination.' (Macleane.) I do not of course offer 'at thy neat toilet' as a literal translation of 'simplex munditiis,' but the spirit, if not the words, of the original is, I think, better rendered so than it would be by 'in simple neatness.' I have not been able to devise any version of line 9 which would satisfactorily reproduce 'aurea.' The best I can think of is 'Who deems thee gold, now fondling thee' or 'Who deems thee golden, fondling thee.'

PYRRHA, what slender youth, bedewed
With liquid fragrance, t'ward thee presses,
In pleasant grot, with roses strewed?
For whom, at thy neat toilet wooed,
Dost thou bind up thy golden tresses?

Nunc et in umbrosis Fauno decet immolare lucis,

Seu poscat agnam, sive malit haedum.

Pallida Mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas,

Regumque turres. O beate Sesti,

Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam.
Jam te premet nox, fabulaeque Manes,

Et domus exilis Plutonia: quo simul meâris,
Nec regna vini sortiere talis,

Nec tenerum Lycidan mirabere, quo calet juventus
Nunc omnis et mox virgines tepebunt.

V. AD PYRRHAM.

QUIS multa gracilis te puer in rosa
Perfusus liquidis urget odoribus

Grato, Pyrrha, sub antro?

Cui flavam religas comam,

Simplex munditiis? Heu, quoties fidem

Alas! how oftentimes will he,

Who, full of trust, now fondles thee,
And, dreaming not of treacherous wind,
Pictures thee ever fair and kind,—
How often will he mourn at last
Thine and the gods' inconstancy!
How, unaccustomed, stare aghast
Upon a dark, storm-roughened sea!
Woe will abide

With them on whom thou shin'st untried!
But that to ocean's sovereign

I have hung up my dripping dress,
My tablet in his holy fane,

My votive tablet witnesses.

Horace may here be supposed to have been asked to write an ode on the exploits of Agrippa, and to have gracefully declined on the ground that such a subject required rather an epic for its adequate treatment, and would therefore better suit the genius of Varius.

THY gallantry and victories shall Varius rehearse, Winged minstrel, rivalling the flights of old Maeonian

verse,

With whatsoe'er thy fiery troops have, under thy command,

On ship-board or on horse-back performed by sea or land. But I, Agrippa, I to speak of such achievements shun. Not mine to sing the baleful wrath of Peleus' stubborn son, Nor of the wanderings of astute Ulysses o'er the sea, Nor of the sanguinary house of the Pelopidae.

Mutatosque deos flebit, et aspera

Nigris aequora ventis

Emirabitur insolens,

Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea:
Qui semper vacuam, semper amabilem
Sperat, nescius aurae

Fallacis! Miseri, quibus

Intentata nites. Me tabula sacer

Votiva paries indicat uvida

Suspendisse potenti

Vestimenta maris deo.

VI. AD AGRIPPAM.

SCRIBERIS Vario fortis, et hostium

Victor, Maeonii carminis alite,

Quam rem cunque ferox navibus aut equis

Miles te duce gesserit.

Nos, Agrippa, neque haec dicere, nec gravem

Pelidae stomachum cedere nescii,

Nec cursus duplicis per mare Ulixei,

Nec saevam Pelopis domum,

C