Inter ludere virgines,
Et stellis nebulam spargere candidis. Non si quid Pholoën satis
Et te, Chlori, decet filia rectius Expugnat juvenum domos,
Pulso Thyas uti concita tympano.
Illam cogit amor Nothi
Lascivae similem ludere capreae :
Te lanae prope nobilem
Tonsae Luceriam, non citharae decent,
Nec flos purpureus rosae,
Nec poti vetulam faece tenus cadi.
INCLUSAM Danaën turris aënea
Robustaeque fores et vigilum canum
Tristes excubiae munierant satis
Nocturnis ab adulteris,
Si non Acrisium, virginis abditae
Custodem pavidum, Juppiter et Venus
Risissent, fore enim tutum iter et patens
Converso in pretium deo.
Aurum per medios ire satellites,
Et perrumpere amat saxa, potentius
The levin's thundering bolt. Through lucre's lust
The Argive augur's house was in the dust
Immersed in ruin. He of Macedon
With bribes cleft gates of cities, and cast down
Emulous monarchs. Bribery enthralls
Now and again ferocious admirals.
By care, and thirst for more, increasing pelf
Is followed. With just cause, am I myself,
Maecenas, glory of the knights, in dread
Of lifting high a far conspicuous head.
The more each one denies himself, the more
The gods vouchsafe. Denuded, I pass o'er
And camp with those who covet naught—with pride
In my desertion from the wealthy's side;
Of mean possession, lordly owner, more
Than if declared within my barns to store
Whate'er industrious Apulian reaps—
Indigent starveling among mighty heaps.
A rivulet of limpid flow, some few
Acres of wood, firm hope of harvest's due,
Make me, although he think it not, more blest
Than gorgeous chief of Afric's wealth possessed.
What though for me no bees Calabrian bring
Honey, nor Formian wine be ripening
In jars, nor yet on Gallic meads increase
For me the burden of the precious fleece;
Yet far aloof is irksome poverty,
Nor if I ask for more, wilt thou deny.
But better, I my scanty revenue
Extend, by narrowing ambition's view,
Ictu fulmineo: concidit auguris
Argivi domus ob lucrum
Demersa exitio; diffidit urbium
Portas vir Macedo, et subruit aemulos
Reges muneribus; munera navium
Saevos illaqueant duces.
Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam
Majorumque fames. Jure perhorrui
Late conspicuum tollere verticem,
Maecenas, equitum decus.
Quanto quisque sibi plura negaverit,
Ab dis plura feret: nil cupientium
Nudus castra peto et transfuga divitum
Partes linquere gestio,
Contemptae dominus splendidior reï,
Quam si quidquid arat impiger Apulus
Occultare meis dicerer horreis,
Magnas inter opes inops.
Purae rivus aquae silvaque jugerum
Paucorum, et segetis certa fides meae,
Fulgentem imperio fertilis Africae
Quamquam nec Calabrae mella ferunt apes,
Nec Laestrygonia Bacchus in amphora
Languescit mihi, nec pinguia Gallicis
Crescunt vellera pascuis,
Importuna tamen pauperies abest,
Nec, si plura velim, tu dare deneges..
Contracto melius parva cupidine
Vectigalia porrigam,
Than though 'twere mine Mygdonian domains
To join with Lydia's realm. To him who strains
For much, much lacks. Blest he, on whom enow
The gods with not too lavish hand bestow.
This Ode, and the 26th of the first Book, were addressed to the same person. Like other families, the Lamiae were perhaps glad to trace their origin to a fabulous hero, and believed their founder to be Lamus, king of the Laestrygonians and builder of Formiae.'
NOBLE shoot, Aelius, from old Lamus' tree,
Since hence, 'tis said, the earlier Lamiae
Were named, and since for all the race
The same descent their records trace,
Your origin you from that author draw
Whom as their founder Formian ramparts saw;
A monarch ruling far and wide
O'er tracts where Liris flows beside
Marica's strand. This coming day, unless
The raven err, rain's aged prophetess,
Loosed from the east a storm will strip
Groves of their leaves, and sea-coasts heap
With useless seaweed. Pile, while still you may,
Dry faggots; and to-morrow's natal day
Keep, 'mid your slaves released from work,
With store of wine and eight-week pork.
Quam si Mygdoniis regnum Alyattei Campis continuem. Multa petentibus Desunt multa: bene est cui deus obtulit Parca quod satis est manu.
AELI, vetusto nobilis ab Lamo,
(Quando et priores hinc Lamias ferunt
Denominatos, et nepotum
Per memores genus omne fastos
Auctore ab illo ducis originem)
Qui Formiarum moenia dicitur
Princeps, et innantem Maricae
Litoribus tenuisse Lirim
Late tyrannus, cras foliis nemus
Multis et alga litus inutili
Demissa tempestas ab Euro
Sternet, aquae nisi fallit augur Annosa cornix. Dum potes, aridum Compone lignum: cras Genium mero Curabis, et porco bimestri,
Cum famulis operum solutis.
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