66

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40 Who is the “ good man"? "He who observes the Senate's decrees, the statutes and laws; whose judgement settles many grave suits; whose surety means safety for property; whose testimony wins suits at law. α Yet this very man all his household and all his neighbours see to be foul within, though fair without, under his comely skin. If a slave were to say to me, "I never stole or' ran away : my reply would be, You have your reward; you are not flogged." "I never killed anyone.' You'll hang on no cross to feed crows." "I am good and honest." Our Sabine friend' shakes his head and says, No, no!" For the wolf is wary and dreads the pit, the hawk the suspected snare, the pike the covered hook. The good hate vice because they love virtue; you will commit no crime because you dread punishment. Suppose there's a hope of escaping detection; you will make no difference between sacred and profane. For when from a thousand bushels of beans you steal one, my loss in that case is less, but not your sin. This good man," for forum and tribunal the cynosure of every eye, whenever with swine or ox he makes atonement to the gods, cries with loud voice "Father Janus," with loud voice Apollo," then moves his lips, fearing to be heard: Fair Laverna, grant me to escape detection; grant me to pass as just and upright, shroud my sins in night, my lies in clouds !

c

63 How the miser is better than a slave, or is more free, when he stoops at the cross-roads to pick up carrying on a dialogue with an imaginary interlocutor. So tu" in l. 53.

By Sabellus Horace means one of his honest Sabine neighbours. ci.e. the slave. d The goddess of theft.

non video; nam qui cupiet, metuet quoque ; porro, 65 qui metuens vivet, liber mihi non erit umquam. perdidit arma, locum Virtutis deseruit, qui semper in augenda festinat et obruitur re. vendere cum possis captivum, occidere noli ; serviet utiliter; sine pascat durus aretque, naviget ac mediis hiemet mercator in undis, annonae prosit, portet frumenta penusque. Vir bonus et sapiens audebit dicere : Pentheu, rector Thebarum, quid me perferre patique indignum coges?

Adimam bona."

lectos, argentum tollas licet."

70

66

Nempe pecus, rem, 75

'In manicis et

compedibus saevo te sub custode tenebo."

Ipse deus, simul atque volam, me solvet." opinor, hoc sentit " moriar." mors ultima linea rerum est.1

1 est omitted by E.

a We are told that Roman boys would solder a coin to the pavement and then ridicule those who tried to pick it up (so scholiast on Persius, v. 111).

Such a man is really a slave, and should be treated as such.

As opposed to the man called bonus in ll. 32 and 57.

The dialogue following is paraphrased from Euripides, Bacchae, 492-8, a scene where the disguised Dionysus defies

the copper fastened there," I do not see: for he who covets will also have fears; further, he who lives in fear, will never, to my mind, be free. A man has lost his weapons, has quitted his post with Virtue, who is ever busied and lost in making money. When you can sell a captive, don't kill him: he will make a useful slave. If hardy, let him be shepherd or ploughman: let him go to sea, and winter as a trader in the midst of the waves: let him help the market : let him carry food and fodder.

с

73 The truly good and wise man will have courage to say: “ Pentheus, lord of Thebes, what shame will you compel me to stand and suffer? I will take away your goods."

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66

You mean my cattle, my substance, couches, plate? You may take them.'

"I will keep you in handcuffs and fetters, under a cruel jailer.

God himself, the moment I choose, will set me free." This, I take it, is his meaning: "I will die." e Death is the line that marks the end of all.

Pentheus, king of Thebes. The latter, intent on suppressing the Bacchic worship, has made a prisoner of the Lydian stranger, who, being really a god, sets the king's threats at nought.

e The moriar does not belong to the scene. The Stoics sanctioned suicide as an escape from life's evils.

A chalk-line marked the goal in the race-course.

フ

XVII

TO SCAEVA

THE subject of this and the following Epistle is personal independence, as illustrated in the relations of patron and protégé. Horace's own happy connexion with Maecenas, which he sets forth so admirably in Epist. i. 7, furnished him with an experience which possibly led others to seek his advice as to their conduct toward men of high station. As to Scaeva, however, nothing is known about him, and it is quite possible that there was no such person in real life, but that the name was chosen to fit an assumed character, it being the same as σκαιός, awkward" or gauche."

66

After disclaiming any peculiar right to give advice on such a subject (1-5), and assuring Scaeva that if he really wants to live a quiet, comfortable life, he should retire from Rome altogether (6-10), Horace proceeds in reality to defend himself against the attacks made on him as a sycophant of the great. He therefore contrasts the conduct of the Cyrenaic Aristippus, who had plenty of savoir faire and could adapt himself to any circumstances, with the less sensible behaviour of Diogenes, the boorish Cynic, who courted the common people and knew how to live only amid sordid surroundings (13-32). To

gain distinction in life oneself is the highest ambition, but it is also no mean achievement to win favour with the great. He who succeeds in doing so is a true man and plays a manly part (33-42).

Here the tone abruptly changes, and in the last twenty lines (43-62) Horace lays down rules which the young aspirant for favour is supposed to follow. In this part the poet is far from serious, but, after his fashion, is indulging in good-natured irony.