is got from the notion of rubbing and polishing. Horace applies it to a woman's ankles, a smooth-faced boy, the cords of a net, and a faultless man. It is applied by Ovid (Fast. ii. 320) to a girdle, and by Virgil (Aen. xi. 579) to the thong of a sling; where, as here, it represents the exact twisting of a cord. Plagae' were nets of thick rope with which the woods were surrounded to catch the larger beasts as they were driven out by dogs and beaters. (Epod. ii. 32. Epp. i. 6. 58; 18. 46.) Marsus for Marsicus, as Medus for Medicus, is the only form Horace uses. The country of the Marsi, east of Rome, Umbria, and Lucania were all famous for boars, being abundant in acorns, on which they fed and grew fat. Laurentian boars were also celebrated. See S. ii. 3. 234; 4. 41. 43.

29. Me doctarum hederae praemia frontium] The ivy, which was sacred to Bacchus, made a fit and usual garland for a lyric poet. Doctarum frontium is the proper description of poets, who by the Greeks were called σοφοί.

Tibia'

30. me gelidum nemus] This is an imaginary scene, in which Horace supposes himself wandering in cool groves, surrounded with dancing bands of wood-nymphs (Dryads and Hamadryads) and satyrs, and listening to the flute of Euterpe, and the lyre of Lesbos struck by Polyhymnia. was a sort of flageolet. When it is used in the plural (as here, C. iv. 15. 30, Epod. ix. 5), it has reference to two of these instruments played by one person. Their pitch was different, the low-pitched tibia being called 'dextra,' because it was held in the right hand, and the high-pitched 'sinistra,' because it was held in the left. Euterpe, the Muse, was said to have invented the tibia,' and she especially presided over music. Polyhymnia, or Polym nia, another Muse, invented the lyre.

34. Lesboum-barbiton.] The lyre of Sappho and Alcæus, who were natives of Mytilene in the island of Lesbos, and flourished at the same time, about the end of the seventh century B. C. (C. 32. 5.)

35. Quod si Although the personal pronoun 'tu' is emphatic in this sentence, it is omitted, as is often the case in poetry, where no opposition of persons is intended. - Lyricis' is less common than melicis,' to describe the lyric poets of Greece.

Lyricis] The most celebrated of the lyric poets of Greece were Pindar, Alcæus, Sappho, Stesichorus, Ilycus, Bacchylides, Simonides, Alcmeon, and Anacreon.

ODE II.

THIS Ode seems to have been written on the return of Augustus to Rome, after the taking of Alexandria, when the civil wars were brought to a close and the temple of Janus was shut, B. C. 29. Horace here urges Augustus to take upon himself the task of reducing to order the elements of the state, which so many years of civil war had thrown into confusion, and he does so in the following manner. He refers to the prodigies at Julius Cæsar's death, as evidences of the divine wrath for the guilt of the civil wars. He then invokes one god after another to come and restore the state, and finally fixes upon Mercury, whom he entreats to take upon himself the form of a man, and not to leave the earth till he has accomplished his mission and conquered the enemies of Rome. The man whose form Mercury is to take is Augustus.

If this Ode is read with C. ii. 15, and the others mentioned in the introduction to that Ode, the feeling with which Horace entered into the mission of Augustus as the reformer will be better understood.

ARGUMENT.-Portents enough hath Jove sent upon the earth, making it afraid lest a new deluge were coming, as the Tiber rolled back from its mouth, threatening destruction to the city, the unauthorized avenger of Ilia.

Our sons shall hear that citizens have whetted for each other the steel that should have smitten the enemy. What god shall we invoke to help us? What prayers shall move Vesta to pity? To whom shall Jove assign the task of wiping out our guilt? Come thou, Apollo; or thou, smiling Venus, with mirth and love thy companions; or thou, Mars, our founder, who hast too long sported with war; or do thou, son of Maia, put on the form of a man, and let us call thee the avenger of Cæsar; nor let our sins drive thee too soon away; here take thy triumphs; be thou our father and prince, and suffer not the Mede to go unpunished, whilst thou art our chief, Ó Cæsar.

1. Jam satis-] These are the prodigies which are said to have followed the death of Julius Caesar. They are related also by Virgil (Georg. i. 466489), which description Horace may have had in his mind. See also Ovid, Met. xv. 782 sqq.

dirae] It is very common in Horace (though not peculiar to him) to find an epithet attached to the latter of two substantives, while it belongs to both, as here, and "fidem mutatosque Deos" (C. i. 5. 6), "poplitibus timidoque tergo" (C. iii. 2. 16), and many other places. Horace uses this construction so frequently that it may be looked upon as a feature in his style; and he often uses it with effect.

2, 3. rubente Dextera] With his right hand, glowing with the light of the thunderbolt which it grasped.

66

arces] The sacred buildings on the Capitoline Hill. They were called collectively Capitolium or Arx (from their position), Arx Capitolii, and sometimes Arx et Capitolium." (Livy, v. 39, &c.) They embraced the three temples of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Juno, and Minerva, of Jupiter Feretrius, and of Terminus. Horace uses 'jaculari' three times, and always with an accusative. Other writers use it absolutely. See C. ii. 16. 17; iii. 12. 9.

6. nova monstra] The prodigies alluded to are those enumerated in the following verses; namely, the occupation of the mountains by sea animals, of the waters by the deer, and the trees by the fishes.

7. pecus] The herds of Neptune, or the larger sea animals, fabulous or otherwise, which were said to be under the charge of Proteus. The deluge of Deucalion, the husband of Pyrrha, and its causes, are described at length by Ovid (Met. i. 125 – 347).

10. columbis,] The proper name for a wood-pigeon is 'palumbus,' or -ba,' or '-bes'; but columbus,' '-ba,' are the generic terms for pigeons. -'Damae' is both masculine and feminine. Georg. iii. 539: “timidi damae cervique fugaces."

11. superjecto] Terris' may be understood. xi. 625), "Scopulisque superjacit undam."

Virgil uses the word (Aen.

13. flavum] This common epithet of the Tiber arose out of the quantity of sand washed down in its stream. Aen. vii. 31: "Vorticibus rapidis et multa flavus arena" By 'vidimus' Horace means that his generation had seen the prodigies he refers to, as Virgil says of the cruptions of Ætna:

Quoties Cyclopum effervere in agros

Vidimus undantem ruptis fornacibus Aetnam."- Aen. i. 471. 13, 14. retortis Littore Etrusco violenter undis] "its waters driven violently back from the shore of the Etruscan sea," into which the Tiber emptied itself. It is said that the overflowings of the Tiber are still by the common people accounted for by the violence of the sea driving back the stream. They were always held to be ominous, and many such are mentioned in Livy and other writers.

15. monumenta regis] This signifies the palace of Numa adjoining the temple of Vesta, hence called atrium regium' (Liv. xxvi. 27), as forming a kind of 'atrium' to the temple. Ovid (Fasti, vi. 263) thus alludes to this building:

"Hic locus exiguus, qui sustinet atria Vestae;

Tunc erat intonsi regia magna Numae."

17. Iliae―ultorem,] Tiber is represented as taking upon himself, without the sanction of Jove, and in consequence of Ilia's complaints, to avenge the death of Julius Cæsar, the descendant of Iulus, her ancestor. Ilia, or Rea Silvia, the mother of Romulus and Remus, is variously reported to have been married to the Tiber and the Anio, because into one of those streams she was thrown by order of Amulius. Jove may be supposed to have disapproved the presumption of the river-god, because he had reserved the task of expiation for other hands and happier means. One of the chief purposes professed by Augustus was the avenging of his adoptive father's death, and his enemies made this a handle against him.

21. cives acuisse ferrum] 'Inter se' or 'in semetipsos' may be understood. 'Audiet acuisse' does not mean 'shall hear them sharpen,' but shall hear of their having sharpened.' Horace is not predicting what is to be, but lamenting what has been.

22. Quo-perirent,] By which it were better that the hostile Parthians should die.'

Persians, Medes, and Parthians are names freely interchanged by Horace. The Parthian empire, at the time Horace wrote, extended nearly from the Indus to the Roman province of Syria; and the Parthians were in the habit of making incursions into that province, which fact is referred to in the last stanza of this Ode. Although the name of Augustus, assisted by their own disputes, did something towards keeping them in check, they were held by the Romans to be their most formidable enemies. Augustus meditated, but never carried out, war with the Parthians; and the Romans never till the reign of Trajan gained any successes against them. Their empire was broken up, and succeeded by the Persian kingdom of the Sassanidæ, during the reign of Alexander Severus, A.D. 226.—' Perirent' would in prose be 'perituri forent.'

24. Rara juventus.] Our children thinned by the crimes of their fathers.' It took years of peace and the enactment of stringent marriage-laws to restore the population of Rome, which was thinned not only by bloodshed, but by indifference to marriage and laxity of morals.

25. Quem vocet divum] Vesta was the tutelary goddess of Rome. See Virg. Georg. i. 499, sqq.

"Dii patrii Indigetes, et Romule, Vestaque mater, Quae Tuscum Tiberim et Romana palatia servas." She is represented as turning a deaf ear to the prayers of her virgins, because Cæsar as Pontifex Maximus had particular charge of her temple and rites. On vocet, see Z.

29. scelus] The guilt of the civil wars and of Cæsar's death, which, as Horace implies in what follows, was to be expiated by Augustus in the character of Mercury, the messenger of peace.- -'Partes' means 'office,' 'duty.'

Rome.

Eneas was said to have preserved the fire of Vesta and brought her to 'Carmina' (hymns') is opposed to 'prece' as a set formula to other prayers. 'Carmen' has that meaning in respect to legal or any other formal documents Liv. i 26: Lex horrendi carminis." Epp. ii. 1. 138: "Carmine Di superi placantur carmine Manes."

31. Nube candentes humeros amictus] So Homer describes him, εἱμένος wμoïïv veþéλŋv (Il. xv. 308). Virg. (Aen. viii. 720): "candentis lumine

Phoebi." 'Humeros' is the Greek accusative: 'your bright shoulders veiled in a cloud'

32. Augur Applied to Apollo as the deliverer of oracles and god of divination.

33. Sive] See i. 3. 12, n. 'Erycina ridens' corresponds to piλouμeidns 'Appodirn. Venus is called Erycina, from Mount Eryx in Sicily, where she had a temple. "Iμepos and "Epws (two forms of Love) were the sons of Venus. Jocus' is an invention of Horace's. Apollo is appealed to as the steadfast friend of Troy, and, according to his flatterers, the father of Augustus; Venus, as the mother of Eneas and of the Julian family; and Mars, as the father of Romulus. Mercury (the son of Jove and Maia), as above stated (v. 29), is selected as the representative of Augustus, because he is the messenger of peace. You regard.' Cic. (de Legg. ii. 11) proposes the title 'Fortuna respiciens,' which he explains by ad opem ferendam,' for a temple of Fortune.

36. Respicis

37. ludo,] See C. i. 28. 17: "Dant alios Furiae torvo spectacula Marti." 38. leves,] Polished' or 'burnished.'

39. Mauri peditis] Translate in the following order: et Vultus Mauri peditis Acer in cruentum hostem.' The force of 'peditis' here appears to be that the rider has had his horse killed under him, or has dismounted to attack his enemy hand to hand, or in consequence of a wound. See S. ii. 1. 13: "Aut labentis equo describit vulnera Parthi." The troops of Mauritania were chiefly cavalry. There is a particular meaning in the reference to them rather than to any other troops.

41. juvenem] So Augustus is called, though he was forty years old at this time. So Virg. (Georg. i. 500): ·

"Hunc saltem everso juvenen succurrere saeclo
Ne prohibete."

See C. iii. 14.9; Epp. i. 8. 14; and S. ii. 5. 62, where the word is again applied to Augustus.

Juvenis' and 'adolescens' were used for any age between 'pueritia' and 'senectus.' Cicero speaks of himself as 'adolescens' at the time he put down Catiline's conspiracy, when he was forty-four years old, and as 'senex when he delivered his 2d Philippic, at which time he was sixty-two. 42. Ales] Agreeing with 'Filius.'

43. Filius] Is the nominative used for the vocative. - 'Patiens vocari,' a Grecism. 'Patiarque vel inconsultus haberi " (Epp. i. 5. 15). "Cum pateris sapiens emendatusque vocari" (Epp. i. 16. 30).

45. Serus in caelum redeas] Ovid, Met. xv. 868, sqq.: "Tarda sit illa dies et nostro serior acvo

Qua caput Augustum, quem temperat orbe relicto,
Accedat caelo."

See also Trist. v. 2. 47. The adjective for the adverb is common in respect of time. The instances in Horace are very numerous.

49. triumphos,] Augustus had just celebrated, or was just about to cele brate, three triumphs on three successive days, for his victories, (1.) over the Gauls, Pannonians, and Dalmatians, (2.) at Actium, and (3.) at Alexandria. Triumphos' is governed by 'ames,' as 'pocula' is governed by 'spernit' (i. 1. 19); in both which cases we have an accusative case and an infinitive mood governed by the same verb.

50. pater] The title of 'pater patriao' was not assumed by Augustus till A.U.C. 752. It was the highest title of honor that could be conferred on a citizen, and was first given by the Senate to Cicero (the army had formerly bestowed it on Camillus), on the occasion of his suppressing Catiline's con spiracy. Juv. viii. 243:

"Roma parentem, —

Roma patrem patriae Ciceronem libera dixit," where libera' seems to mean that the Senate were no longer free agents when Augustus took the name. See C. iii. 24. 27, n.

princeps,] Tac. Ann. i. 1: "Cuncta discordiis civilibus fessa principis sub imperium accepit." In the Senate there was always one person who was called princeps senatus,' chosen at their own discretion by the censors. It was nominally as such that Augustus took the title of princeps' rather than "rex,' which was odious to the Romans. He and his successors are more often styled princeps' than 'imperator' by the historians. The latter title, from which emperor' is derived, they had in virtue of the 'imperium,' for an explanation of which term see Smith's Dict. Ant.

51. Medos equitare inultos,] That is, the Parthians. See above, v. 21, n. 52. Te duce, Caesar.] The name of Cæsar is introduced abruptly where that of Mercury might be expected. This abruptness increases the effect.

ODE III.

This Ode is addressed to the ship that was carrying Virgil the poet on some occasion to Greece. His constitution was weak, and he probably made several voyages for the sake of his health. He went, and only returned to die in B. C. 19, but this ode was written before then. It is taken up with reproaches against him who first invented navigation, and a lament for the presumption of mankind.

ARGUMENT. - We commit to thee Virgil, O thou ship! deliver him safe on the shores of Attica, and preserve him whom I love as my life; and may the skies and winds prosper thee. Hard and rash was the man who first tempted the sea and defied the winds. In what shape should he fear the approach of death, who unmoved could look on the monsters of the deep, and the swelling waves, and dangerous rocks? In vain did God separate lands, if man is to leap over the forbidden waters. So doth he ever rush into sin. Prometheus brought fire into the world, and with that theft came all manner of diseases; Daedalus soared on wings, and Hercules burst into hell. Deterred by nothing, we would climb heaven itself; and our guilt suffers not Jove to lay aside his bolts.

1. Sic] Sic' in this place amounts to no more than utinam'in a strong form, as is does in Greek. There are other passages where 'sic' follows the prayer on which it depends, as C. i. 28. 25:

"Ne parce malignus arenae

Sic quodcunque minabitur Eurus,'

particulam dare:

where the condition and its consequence are clearly marked, and an opposite wish is implied if the condition be not fulfilled. But such is not the case here; first Horace says, May the stars and winds prosper thee,' and then goes on, O ship, deliver thy trust in safety.'

'Potens,' like its kindred word Tóτvia, is used with a genitive after it. Venus (a Latin divinity) is confounded by the poets with the Greek Aphrodite, who, from her supposed origin, was imagined to have power over the sea; hence Horace calls her marina' (C. iii. 26. 5; iv. 11. 15). She had the titles evλoia, λipévias, had temples built for her in harbors, and is represented on coins with a rudder, shell, and dolphin. Her principal temples were at Idalium and Paphos in Cyprus, in the island of Cythera off the Peloponnesus, Eryx (C. 2. 33) and Cnidus in Caria.