I. AD CILNIUM MAECENATEM.
MAECENAS atavis edite regibus,
O et praesidium, et dulce decus meum!
Sunt quos curriculo pulverem Olympicum
Collegisse juvat; metaque fervidis
Evitata rotis, palmaque nobilis
Terrarum dominos evehit ad Deos.
Hunc, si mobilium turba Quiritium
Certat tergeminis tollere honoribus
Illum, si proprio condidit horreo
Quidquid de Libycis verritur areis;
Gaudentem patrios findere sarculo
Agros, Attalicis conditionibus
Nunquam dimoveas, ut trabe Cypria,
Myrtoum pavidus nauta secet mare.
Luctantem Icariis fluctibus Africum
Mercator metuens, otium et oppidi
Laudat rura sui: mox reficit rates
Quassas, indocilis pauperiem pati.
Est qui nec veteris pocula Massici,
Nec partem solido demere de die
Full length, 'neath green arbutus, to recline,
Or by some hallowed streamlet's tranquil head.
Many there are, whose taste is for camp life,
And wars that mothers hate, and mingled strains
Of trump and horn. Forgetting his fond wife,
The hunter 'neath inclement sky remains,
If his staunch hounds have spied an antler, or
Through tapering toils hath rushed a Marsic boar.
Me, doth the ivy, wreathed for learned brow,
Mix with Supernal Gods: me, forest shade
And agile choirs of Nymphs and Satyrs, now,
Distinguish from the crowd;-if, nor the aid
Of her own reed, Euterpe, nor my claim
Do Polyhymnia to her lute deny:
But if 'mid lyric bards thou place my name
With head sublime, shall I then strike the sky.
Probably written on the return of Augustus to Rome after the taking of Alexandria, when the civil wars were brought to a close, and the temple of Janus shut, B.C. 28. The poet signifies his acquiescence in the then prevailing opinion that the assumption of absolute power by Augustus would be the best remedy for reforming the disorders of the state. The prodigies referred to in the opening stanzas are supposed to have been those which followed the death of Julius, B.C. 44, and which are also described by Virgil at the end of the first Georgic.
SNOW, and dire hail sufficient hath the Father
Now upon earth sent down: and with a gleaming
Right hand, the sacred capitol assailing,
Spernit, nunc viridi membra sub arbuto
Stratus, nunc ad aquae lene caput sacrae.
Multos castra juvant, et lituo tubae
Permixtus sonitus, bellaque matribus
Detestata. Manet sub Jove frigido
Venator, tenerae conjugis immemor :
Seu visa est catulis cerva fidelibus,
Seu rupit teretes Marsus aper plagas.
Me doctarum hederae praemia frontium
Dîs miscent superis: me gelidum nemus,
Nympharumque leves cum Satyris chori
Secernunt populo; si neque tibias
Euterpe cohibet, nec Polyhymnia
Lesboum refugit tendere barbiton.
Quod si me lyricis vatibus inseris,
Sublimi feriam sidera vertice.
JAM satis terris nivis atque dirae
Grandinis misit Pater, et rubente
Dextera sacras jaculatus arces
Terruit urbem:
Frighted the nations, lest of Pyrrha, plaining
Prodigies new, the drear age were returning,
In the which Proteus, mountain heights to visit,
Did his whole herd drive.
And the fish-brood stuck on the elm-tree's summit,
Perch to wood-pigeons theretofore familiar;
And in the superjected flood were swimming
Timorous roe-deer.
Yellow Tiber saw we, with billows backward
From the Etruscan shore perforce contorted,
Rush to hurl down the monument of Numa;
Vesta's fane likewise.
While of his Ilia, overmuch repining,
Boasts himself 'venger the uxorious river,
O'er his left bank he scours erratic, spite of
Jove's disapproval.
Youths, few in number through their parents' fault, shall
Hear how we Romans 'gainst each other sharpened
Steel by which rather Persians should have perished:
Hear, ay, of battles.
Which of the Gods shall now the people call, to
Aid the condition of the toppling empire?
With what entreaties holy virgins weary
Whom with the charge our guilt of expiating
Will Jove invest? Come thou, at length, we pray thee, With a cloud veiling thy resplendent shoulders,
Terruit gentes, grave ne rediret
Seculum Pyrrhae, nova monstra questae: Omne cum Proteus pecus egit altos
Piscium et summa genus haesit ulmo,
Nota quae sedes fuerat columbis;
Et superjecto pavidae natarunt
Aequore damae.
Vidimus flavum Tiberim, retortis
Littore Etrusco violenter undis,
Ire dejectum monumenta regis,
Templaque Vestae;
Iliae dum se nimium querenti
Jactat ultorem, vagus et sinistra
Labitur ripa (Jove non probante) u-
Audiet cives acuisse ferrum,
Quo graves Persae melius perirent;
Audiet pugnas, vitio parentum
Quem vocet divûm populus ruentis
Imperî rebus prece qua fatigent
Virgines sanctae minus audientem
Carmina Vestam?
Cui dabit partes scelus expiandi
Juppiter? Tandem venias, precamur
Nube candentes humeros amictus,
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