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IX.

Septimius, Claudi, nimirum intellegit unus, quanti me facias. nam cum rogat et prece cogit scilicet ut tibi se laudare et tradere coner, dignum mente domoque legentis honesta Neronis, munere cum fungi propioris censet amici, quid possim videt ac novit1 me valdius ipso. multa quidem dixi cur excusatus abirem; sed timui mea ne2 finxisse minora putarer, dissimilator opis propriae, mihi commodus uni. sic ego, maioris fugiens opprobria culpae, frontis ad urbanae descendi praemia. quod si depositum laudas ob amici iussa pudorem. scribe tui gregis hunc et fortem crede bonumque.

1 ac novit aE Goth: agnovit A2, II.

2 non 4.

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EPISTLE IX

Only Septimius of course understands how much, Claudius, you make of me. For when he begs and by prayer forces me-mark you !—to an endeavour to commend and present him to you, as one worthy of the mind and household of Nero, the lover of virtue-when he deems that I fill the place of a closer friend, he sees and knows what I can do more fully than myself. To be sure I gave him many reasons for letting me go excused; but I feared that I might be thought to have made out my influence too small, falsely hiding my real power and seeking favour for myself alone. So to avoid the reproach of a graver fault, I have stooped to win the reward of town-bred impudence. But if you approve of my thus doffing modesty at the bidding of a friend, enrol him in your circle and believe him brave and good.

X

TO ARISTIUS FUSCUS

ACCORDING to the scholiasts, Aristius Fuscus, to whom this letter is addressed, was a dramatic writer and a scholar. He appears in the list of Horace's literary friends given in Sat. i. 10. 83, figures in an amusing rôle in Sat. i. 9. 61 ff., and is best known as the man to whom the famous Integer vitae ode (Carm. i. 22) is dedicated.

The Epistle is a rhapsody upon the simplicity and charm of country life addressed to a cultivated man of the town. In the country Horace is perfectly content, save for the fact that his friend is elsewhere.

X.

Urbis amatorem Fuscum salvere iubemus ruris amatores. hac in re scilicet una multum dissimiles, at1 cetera paene gemelli fraternis animis (quidquid2 negat alter, et alter) adnuimus pariter vetuli notique columbi.3 Tu nidum servas; ego laudo ruris amoeni rivos et musco circumlíta saxa nemusque. quid quaeris? vivo et regno, simul ista reliqui

quae vos ad caelum effertis1 rumore secundo, utque sacerdotis fugitivus liba recuso;

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pane egeo iam mellitis potiore placentis. Vivere Naturae si5 convenienter oportet, ponendaeque domo quaerenda est area primum, novistine locum potiorem rure beato? est ubi plus tepeant hiemes, ubi gratior aura leniat et rabiem Canis et momenta Leonis, cum semel accepit Solem furibundus acutum ? est ubi divellat7 somnos minus invida Cura ? deterius Libycis olet aut nitet herba lapillis? 1 at VE: ad a, II. 2 si quid E. 3 vetulis notisque columbis V (corrected). Lambinus had conjectured the same reading, columbis being governed by pariter. 4 effertis V: fertis MSS. sic 4. • ponendaque one Bland.

' depellat a.

a The slave in a priest's household was fed so much on sacrificial cakes that he ran away to get plain fare.