Of Opuntian Megill, with what wound he is thrilling, Nay, is't so? Ah, 'gainst what a Charybdis you're pitted, Most commentators consider this to be a dialogue between the spirit of a shipwrecked and unburied sailor cast on shore near Tarentum, and that of the Tarentine philosopher Archytas; but the extreme difficulty of duly apportioning their respective parts to the interlocutors, induces me to follow Mr. Macleane and others in assigning the whole to a single speaker—to wit, the spirit of a shipwrecked sailor, moralizing upon death and asking for burial. No one, howof the numerous explanations that have been suggested is altogether satisfactory. ever, BESTOWAL of a little dust near the Matinian shore Frater Megillae, quo beatus Volnere, qua pereat sagitta. Cessat voluntas? Non alia bibam Mercede. Quae te cunque domat Venus, Ignibus, ingenuoque semper Amore peccas: quidquid habes, age, Quanta laborabas in Charybdi ! Quae saga, quis te solvere Thessalis XXVIII. TE maris et terrae numeroque carentis arenae Pulveris exigui prope litus parva Matinum Aught for that thou in spirit hast aerial mansions tried, And of the arched expanse of heaven hast made the circuit wide. The sire of Pelops likewise died, he who was guest of gods, Tithonus also, borne away along ethereal roads, And Minos, confidant of Jove. Nor less Panthoides, To Orcus once again consigned, does Tartarus possess: Though with his shield in evidence, of Trojan times he taught When to black death, save nerves and skin, he had surrendered naught: And, in your estimation, he, of truth and nature, rates As no mean judge. But one same night all human kind awaits: All must once tread the fatal path. Some, to be sport to Mars, The Furies give: the greedy sea yawns for the lives of tars: Of old and young together massed, the mingled corpses lie: No head is there that Proserpine, the ruthless, passes by. Me, also, did the stormy south, which in his downward track Accompanies Orion, 'mid Illyrian billows wrack. Then do not you, O mariner, refuse, in churlish wise, To these my bones and this my head that here unburied lies, Some particles of shifting sand. So the east wind, howe'er It menace the Hesperian sea, and woods Venusine tear, Aërias tentâsse domos, animoque rotundum Percurrisse polum, morituro. Occidit et Pelopis genitor, conviva deorum, Tithonusque remotus in auras, Et Jovis arcanis Minos admissus; habentque Demissum; quamvis clipeo Trojana refixo Nervos atque cutem morti concesserat atrae; Judice te, non sordidus auctor Naturae verique. Sed omnes una manet nox, Et calcanda semel via leti. Dant alios Furiae torvo spectacula Marti: Exitio est avidum mare nautis. Mixta senum ac juvenum densentur funera; nullum Saeva caput Proserpina fugit. Me quoque devexi rapidus comes Orionis Illyricis Notus obruit undis. At tu nauta, vagae ne parce malignus arenae Ossibus et capiti inhumato Particulam dare. Sic, quodcunque minabitur Eurus Fluctibus Hesperiis, Venusinae F Leave you in safety: so for you abundant streams of gain, Come they from whencesoe'er they may, do righteous Jove ordain, And Neptune, at Tarentum hailed as guardian deity. But, if you scruple not at fraud, foredoomed erelong to be Visited on your guiltless bairns, then may it chance for you That like neglectful scorn in turn and retribution due Shall be reserved: I shall not be left without vengeful prayer. No expiatory sacrifice will your offence repair. What though in such impatient haste-I crave but brief delay; Sprinkle but thrice the dust on me, then speed you on your way. In the year 23 B. C. an army was sent by Augustus into Arabia Felix, under Aelius Gallus, Governor of Egypt, and the prospects of plunder which the expedition held out would seem to have induced a number of young men at Rome, and among others Iccius, a man of studious habits, to join it. So, Iccius, the vast wealth which Arabs store What gentile girl, whose lover you may kill, What boy from court with essenced hair |