'CARMEN V. Auguftum laudat, qui armorum fuorum metu Britannos, maxime vero Parthos fubegiffet. NOELO tonantem credidimus Jovem Imperio, gravibufque Perfis. Perniciem veniens in ævum, Militibus fine cæde, dixit, Derepta vidi vidi ego civium [a] Soccrorum in arvis. ODE V. He praifes Auguftus, who, by the terror of his arms, had fubdued the Britons, but most especially because he had fubdued the Parthians. WE have believed that the thundering Jupiter has dominion in the heavens: Auguftus shall be esteemed a prefent deity, the Britains and terrible Parthians being added to the Roman empire. What! has any foldier of Craffus's lived an infamous husband with a barbarian wife? And has (0 the corrupted fenate and inverted morals of the times!) the Marfian and Apulian, unmindful of the facred* fhields, of the Roman name and habit, and of eternal+ Vesta, grown old in the camps of hoftile fathers-in-law, Jupiter Capitolinus and the city being as yet in fafety? The prudent mind of Regulus had provided against this, diffenting from ignominious terms, and a precedent productive of deftruction to the fucceeding age, if the captive youth was not to perish unpitied. I have beheld, faid he, the Roman ftandards affixed to the Carthaginian temples, and their arms taken away from our foldiers without bloodshed. I have beheld the arms of our citizens inverted behind their free-born backs, and the gates of the enemy unfhut, and the fields, which were depopulated by our battles, to be cultivated * Called Ancilia, one of which being fent from heaven, was a token of empire being cftablished at Rome, which, that it might not be distinguished and stolen away, Numa caufed eleven more to be forged exactly like it, and to be kept in the temple of Mars. + Eternal, because a perpetual fire was preserved in her temple by the vestal virgins. Auro repenfus fcilicet acrior Nec vera virtus, cum femel excidit; Si pugnat extricata denfis Cerva plagis, erit ille fortis, Qui perfidis fe credidit hoftibus ; Senfit iners, timuitque mortem. 25 30 35 Hic [a] unde vitam fumeret [b] infcius, Pacem duello mifcuit: O pudor! O magna Carthago, probrofis Altior Italiæ ruinis! Fertur pudicæ conjugis ofculum, Torvus humi pofuiffe vultum ; Donec labantes confilio Patres Firmaret auctor nunquam alias dato, Atqui fciebat quæ fibi barbarus [a] Hinc, unde vitam fumeret aptius. BEN гL. [b] Vitam fumeret aptius. T " a-new. The foldier, to be fure, ranfomed by gold, will return a braver fellow.-No-you add lofs to infamy; for neither does the wool prepared in the dye ever refume its loft native colour; and genuine valour, when once it has failed, fcorns to refume the place of which it was difpoffeffed through cowardife. If the hind, difentangled from the thickfet toils, ever fights, then indeed fhall he be valorous, who has entrusted himself to faithlefs enemies; and he fhall trample the Carthaginians in a fecond war, who daftardly has felt the thongs with his arms tied behind him, and has been afraid of death. He through cowardife, knowing no other way to preserve his life, has confounded peace with the very act of war. O fcandal! O illuftrious Carthage, elevated to a higher pitch by Italy's difgraceful downfall !-He (Regulus) is reported to have rejected the embrace of his virtuous wife and his little fons, like one degraded, and to have fternly fixed his manly countenance on the ground, until he, by his unexampled counsel, had confirmed the wavering fenators, and, midft his weeping friends, he hafted away a glorious exile. Notwithstanding he knew what the barbarian executioner was providing for him, yet he pushed his oppofing kindred and the populace retarding his return, from him, in no other manner, than if (after he had Quam fic clientṛm longa negotia Tendens Venafranos in agros, CARMEN VI AD ROMANOS. 55 Religionis contemptum & morum corruptelam maxima Romanis mala intuliffe. DE ELICTA majorum immeritus lues Aedefque labentes Deorum, et Foeda nigro fimulacra fumo. Dis te minorem quod geris, imperas: [am bis Monæfes, et Pacori manus Torquibus exiguis renidet. Pene occupatem feditionibus Miffilibus melior fagittis. Foecunda culpæ fecula nuptias Primum inquinavere, et genus, et domos : Hoc fonte derivata clades In [a] patriam populumque fluxit. [a] Inque patres populumque. BENTL. 5 IQ 15 20 Motus |
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