and life returns to illuftrious generals after their decease; not the precipitate flight of Hannibal, and his menaces retorted upon his own head; not the flames of impious Carthage more eminently fet forth his praifes, who returned,* having gained a name from conquered Africa, than the Calabriant mufes; neither, fhould writings be filent, would you have any adequate reward for your laudable actions. What would the fon of Mars and Ilia be, if invidious filence had ftifled the merits of Romulus? The force, and favour, and voice of powerful poets confecrates Aeacus, fnatched from the Stygian floods, to the fortunate iflands. The mufe forbids a praife-worthy man to die; the muse confers the happiness of heaven. Thus laborious Hercules has a place at the longed for banquets of Jupiter: thus the fons of Tyndarus, that bright conftellation, rescue fhattered vessels from the bofom of the deep: and thus Bacchus, with his temples adorned with the verdant vine branch, brings the prayers of his votaries to fuccefsful iffues. ODE * Scipio, hence named Seipio Africanus. Ennius, the famous old poet, was born in Calabria. (246) CARMEN IX. AD MARCUM LOLLIUM. Ejus nomen fuis carminibus ab hominum oblivione conatur vindicare. ΝΕ E forte credas interitura, quae Verba loquor focianda chrodis: Nec, fi quid olim lufit Anacreon, Non fola comtos arfit adulteri Conjugibus puerifque primus; 5 10 15 20 Vixere ODE IX. To MARCUS LOLLIUS. The poet endeavours, by his verses, to rescue Lollius's name from oblivion. Do not imagine that those words will perhaps be loft, which I, though born on the far-refounding Aufidas, utter to be accompanied with the lyre, by arts hitherto undivulged. If Maeonian Homer does poffefs the first rank, yet the Pindaric and Cean mufes, and the menacing trains of Alcaeus, and the majestic ones of Stefichorus, are by no means obfcure: neither, if Anacreon, though long ago and ever fo lightly fung any thing, hath time destroyed it: even now breathes the love, and live the ardours of the Aeolian maid,‡ committed to her lyre. The Lacedæmonian Helen is not the only fair who hath been inflamed by admiring the delicate ringlets of a gallant, and garments embroidered with gold, and courtly accomplishments, and retinue: or was Teucer the first that directed arrows from the Cydonian bow: Troy was more than once haraffed; the great Idomeneus and Sthenelus were not the only heroes that fought battles worthy to be recorded by the mufes: The fierce Hector or the ftrenuous Deiphobus were not the first that received heavy blows in defence of virtuous wives and children; many brave men VOL. I. P § Simonides was a Ceian. lived Sappho. Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona Nocte, carent, quia vate facro. Impune, Lolli, carpere lividas Rerumque prudens, et fecundis Sed quoties bonus atque fidus Vultu, et per obstantes catervas Non poffidentem multa vocaveris. Duramque callet pauperiem pati, [a] Diftat inertia, BENTL. 25 30 35 40. 45 50% CARMEN lived before Agamemnon: but all them, unlamented and unknown, are overwhelmed with endless obfcurity, because they were deftitute of a facred bard. Valour, uncelebrated, differs but little from cowardice, when in the grave.-I will not therefore, O Lollius, pafs you over in filence, uncelebrated in my writings, or fuffer envious forgetfulness with impunity to feize fo many glorious toils of yours. You have a mind ever prudent in the conduct of affairs, and steady alike amidst fuccefs or danger : You are an avenger of avaricious fraud, and proof against money, that attracts every thing by its influence; and a conful not of the year only, but as often as the good and upright magiftrate has preferred the honourable to the profitable, and has rejected, with a difdainful brow, the bribes of wicked men, and, triumphant through oppofing bands, has difplayed the arms of his integrity. You cannot with propriety call him happy, that poffeffes much; he more juftly claims the title of happy man, who well understands how to make a wife ufe of the gifts of the gods, and how to bear fevere poverty, and dreads a reproachful action worse than death: fuch a man as this is not afraid to perish in the defence of his dear friends, or of his country. |
