Accustomed with his father's bow to fly
Serican arrows ? Who will now deny

That headlong rivers may flow back

Uphill, and Tiber change his track;
When you, who better hopes of you had taught,
Panaetus' noble tomes, everywhere bought,

And the entire Socratic family,
Are bartering for Iberian panoply?

Composed perhaps on the occasion of some lady friend of Horace

sacrificing, or dedicating a little chapel to the Goddess of Love.

O VENUS, queen of Cnidus and of Paphos,
Leave thy beloved Cyprus, and betake thee
To the fair shrine where Glycera invokes thee,

Sparing not incense.

Let with thee haste thy fervid boy, the Graces,
With their zones loosed, and thy attendant wood nymphs :
Mercury, too, and Youth that scantly courteous

Is when without thee.

Doctus sagittas tendere Sericas
Arcu paterno? Quis neget arduis
Pronos relabi posse rivos

Montibus, et Tiberim reverti;
Cum tu coëmptos undique nobiles
Libros Panaeti, Socraticam et domum,
Mutare loricis Hiberis,

Pollicitus meliora, tendis ?

XXX. AD VENEREM.

O VENUS, regina Cnidi Paphique, Sperne dilectam Cypron, et vocantis Ture te multo Glycerae decoram

Transfer in aedem.

Fervidus tecum puer, et solutis
Gratiae zonis, properentque Nymphae,
Et parum comis sine te Juventas

Mercuriusque,

In commemoration of his victory at Actium, Augustus dedicated to

Apollo a temple, with a library attached, built by him on the Palatine Hill. “After the ceremonies of dedication were over, we may suppose Horace putting in his own claim to the god's favour in this Ode, in which he represents himself as offering a libation, and asking for mens sana in corpore sano.'

What asks the bard in consecrated shrine
Of Phoebus ? What, outpouring the new wine,

Prays he for? Not for sacks of corn

From bountiful Sardinia shorn;
Not goodly herds from parched Calabria's fold;
Not ivory, India's offering, nor gold;

Not meads through which, with quiet play,

Liris, mute river, gnaws her way.
With pruning-hook be vines Calenian pressed
By those whom fortune therewithal hath blessed :

From golden cups rich merchants drain

Choice wines, in trade's exchanges ta'en
For Syrian wares, since to the gods' selves dear,
Three or four times revisiting each year

The Atlantic main uninjured. Me

Mild mallows nourish, olives, succory.
Grant me, Latona's son, my modest wealth
To enjoy with mind still vigorous and in health;

To pass through age, from baseness free,
Not lacking the lute's company.

XXXI. AD APOLLINEM.

Quid dedicatum poscit Apollinem
Vates? quid orat, de patera novum
Fundens liquorem ? Non opimae

Sardiniae segetes feraces ;
Non aestuosae grata Calabriae
Armenta ; non aurum, aut ebur Indicum ;
Non rura, quae Liris quieta

Mordet aqua, taciturnus amnis.
Premant Calenam falce, quibus dedit
Fortuna vitem : dives et aureis
Mercator exsiccet culullis

Vina Syra reparata merce,
Dis carus ipsis, quippe ter et quater
Anno revisens aequor Atlanticum
Impune. Me pascunt olivae,

Me cichorea, levesque malvae.
Frui paratis et valido mihi,
Latoë, dones, et precor integra
Cum mente; nec turpem senectam

Degere, nec cithara carentem.

6

In spite of all the scholiasts have written there is no clue whatever

to the occasion of this Ode. It is doubtful whether the first word should be · Poscimur'or Poscimus.' If the first, it may mean that he had been requested to write on some subject of the day, though nobody knows what; but it may also mean that he felt the poetic afflatus upon him, and was bound accordingly.

I Am required. If with thee idling ever
In the cool shade, aught have I uttered, destined
This year and more to live—a Latin carol

Sing now, my rebeck.

Thou who first tuned wert by a Lesbic townsman, Who, in arms fierce, still in the midst of conflict, Or after making fast his storm-tost galley

To the dank scabeach,

Would of wine sing, music, and lovely Venus,
And of the boy ever on her attendant,
Lycus too sing, graceful with jetty ringlets

And with jet eyeballs.

Shell, who art welcomed at high Jove's carousals, Pride of bright Phoebus, and my labour's dulcet Solace, propitiously assist whene'er I

Duly invoke thee.