XXXII. AD TESTUDINEM.

POSCIMUR. Si quid vacui sub umbra Lusimus tecum, quod et hunc in annum Vivat et plures, age, dic Latinum,

Barbite, carmen.

Lesbio primum modulate civi,
Qui ferox bello, tamen inter arma,
Sive jactatam religarat udo

Litore navim,

Liberum et Musas, Veneremque et illi
Semper haerentem puerum canebat,
Et Lycum nigris oculis nigroque

Crine decorum.

O decus Phoebi, et dapibus supremi
Grata testudo Jovis, O laborum
Dulce lenimen, mihi cumque salve

Rite vocanti.

Horace was much attached to his brother poet Tibullus, who was

indeed a favourite with his contemporaries generally. “That he wrote elegies, was not rarely crossed in love, and that he was on some occasion in a desponding humour, are facts sufficient to form a probable foundation for this good-humoured little poem.'

CEASE, Albius, cease this too lengthened repining
For pitiless Glycera's falsehood, this whining
In pitiful dirge, of a youngster outshining

Her ancienter swain, in her sight.

Lycoris, renowned for low forehead, is burning
With passion for Cyrus, while Cyrus is yearning
For Pholoë coy; but she-goats will be turning,

With Puglian wolves to unite,

Ere Pholoë sin with adulterer base.
Such is Venus's will, who no better sport has
Than with savage glee bidding 'neath brazen yoke pass

Forms and minds with each other at war.

Me, to whom her affections a worthier gave,
Did Myrtale's ravishing fetters enslave,
A freedwoman, rougher than Adrian wave

Incurving Calabria's shore.

XXXIII. AD ALBIUM TIBULLUM.

Albi, ne doleas plus nimio, memor
Immitis Glycerae, neu miserabiles
Decantes elegos, cur tibi junior

Laesa praeniteat fide.

Insignem tenui fronte Lycorida
Cyri torret amor, Cyrus in asperam
Declinat Pholoën: sed prius Apulis

Jungentur capreae lupis,

Quam turpi Pholoë peccet adultero.
Sic visum Veneri, cui placet impares
Formas atque animos sub juga aënea

Saevo mittere cum joco.

Ipsum me, melior cum peteret Venus,
Grata detinuit compede Myrtale
Libertina, fretis acrior Hadriae

Curvantis Calabros sinus.

A SPARING and infrequent worshipper
While, steeped in an insane philosophy,
I went astray—now back again am I
Compelled to set my sail, and to recur
To my old courses: for the Sire of Heaven,
Who the cloud-masses with his fiery sheen
Cleaves mostly, has athwart the clear serene
His thundering steeds and flying chariot driven,
Whereat the stolid earth and truant streams,
Dark dens of odious Taenarus and Styx,
And Atlantean limitary peaks,
Shuddered. That deity can all extremes
Of high and low reverse: the mean uprear
And the proud humble. With shrill dissonance,
Rude fortune snatches off the plume from hence
And joys in having placed it otherwhere.

Augustus was meditating one expedition against the Britons and

another against the East, and Horace here commends him to the . care of Fortune the preserver.

GODDESS, who reign'st o’er pleasant Antium,
Potent to raise the mortal body from

Abjectest state, or triumphs proud
To cover with funereal shroud!

XXXIV.

PARCUS deorum cultor et infrequens,
Insanientis dum sapientiae
Consultus erro; nunc retrorsum

Vela dare, atque iterare cursus
Cogor relictos : namque Diespiter,
Igni corusco nubila dividens
Plerumque, per purum tonantes

Egit equos volucrem que currum, Quo bruta tellus, et vaga flumina Quo Styx, et invisi horrida Taenari Sedes, Atlanteüsque finis

Concutitur. Valet ima summis Mutare, et insignem attenuat deus, Obscura promens. Hinc apicem rapax Fortuna cum stridore acuto

Sustulit; hic posuisse gaudet.

XXXV. AD FORTUNAM.

O Diva, gratum quae regis Antium, Praesens vel imo tollere de gradu Mortale corpus, vel superbos

Vertere funeribus triumphos;