Mutatosque deos flebit, et aspera Nigris aequora ventis Emirabitur insolens, Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea: Qui semper vacuam, semper amabilem Sperat, nescius aurae Fallacis! Miseri, quibus Intentata nites. Me tabula sacer Votiva paries indicat uvida Suspendisse potenti Vestimenta maris deo. VI. AD AGRIPPAM. SCRIBERIS Vario fortis, et hostium Victor, Maeonii carminis alite, Quam rem cunque ferox navibus aut equis Miles te duce gesserit. Nos, Agrippa, neque haec dicere, nec gravem Pelidae stomachum cedere nescii, Nec cursus duplicis per mare Ulixei, Nec saevam Pelopis domum, C Mean bard, I try not lofty themes, while diffidence forbids, As does withal the Muse who o'er the peaceful lyre presides, That from illustrious Caesar's, or from thy praises, I Should through defect of genius rub off the brilliancy. Who is there can, in fitting terms, the adamantine dress Wherewithal Mars is clothed, describe? or who Meriones, Blackened with Trojan dust? or who Tydidean Diomed, An equal match for gods supreme by help of Pallas made? Convivial carouses, I, and those engagements sing Where angry girls-though with pared nails-with boys are combating; These do I sing, alike when set from amorous fervours free, And when rekindling with my own habitual levity. There were two Munatii Planci, father and son, but as it is quite uncertain to which of them this ode was addressed, there would be little use in giving here biographical particulars of either. OTHERS shall celebrated Rhodes or Mitylene praise, which Apollo; And in Thessalian Tempe's praise may likewise others follow. Conamur, tenues grandia: dum pudor, Laudes egregii Caesaris, et tuas Culpa deterere ingenî. Quis Martem tunica tectum adamantina Nos convivia, nos proelia virginum VII. AD MUNATIUM PLANCUM. LAUDABUNT alii claram Rhodon, aut Mytilenen, Aut Epheson bimarisve Corinthi Moenia, vel Baccho Thebas vel Apolline Delphos Insignes, aut Thessala Tempe. There are whose one employment 'tis to celebrate the city As oftentimes the clear south wind sweeps from the darkened sky The misty clouds, and storms of rain breeds not perpetually, E'en so to wisely put an end in bowls of mellow wine To doleful thoughts and cares of life, be not thou, Plancus mine, Ever forgetful, whether thou within the camp abide, Where standards glisten, or amidst the thickset shades reside Of thine own Tibur. Teucer, when from Salamis he fled, And from his father Telamon, still not the less, 'tis said, With coronet of poplar leaves his wine-bathed temples bound, And thus addressed the saddened friends that still with him he found: 'O comrades and associates, go will we wheresoe'er Fortune, than parent kindlier, our devious course may steer, decerptae frondi Sunt quibus unum opus est, intactae Palladis urbem Carmine perpetuo celebrare, et dece ktal bonds. Undique deeeptam fronti praeponere olivam. Plurimus, in Junonis honorem, Aptum dicet equis Argos, ditesque Mycenas. Nec tam Larissae percussit campus opimae, Et praeceps Anio, et Tiburni lucus, et uda Albus ut obscuro deterget nubila caelo Perpetuos: sic tu sapiens finire memento Tristitiam vitaeque labores Molli, Plance, mero: seu te fulgentia signis Castra tenent, seu densa tenebit Tiburis umbra tui. Teucer Salamina patremque Cùm fugeret, tamen uda Lyaeo Tempora populea fertur vinxisse corona; Sic tristes affatus amicos: Quo nos cunque feret melior fortuna parente, |