namque est ille, pater quod erat meus.' Paulus 45 50 et Messalla videris ? at hic si plostra ducenta concurrantque foro tria funera magna, sonabit1 cornua quod vincatque tubas: saltem tenet hoc nos." Nunc ad me redeo libertino patre natum, quem rodunt omnes libertino patre natum,2 nunc, quia sim3 tibi, Maecenas, convictor, at olim, quod mihi pareret legio Romana tribuno. dissimile hoc illi est, quia non, ut forsit honorem iure mihi invideat quivis, ita te quoque amicum, praesertim cautum dignos adsumere, prava ambitione procul. felicem dicere non hoc me possim, casu quod te sortitus amicum : nulla etenim mihi te fors obtulit; optimus olim Vergilius, post hunc Varius, dixere quid essem. ut veni coram, singultim pauca locutus, infans namque pudor prohibebat plura profari, non ego me claro natum patre, non ego circum me Satureiano vectari rura caballo, 55 sed quod eram narro. respondes, ut tuus est mos, 60 pauca: abeo, et revocas nono post mense iubesque esse in amicorum numero. magnum hoc ego duco, quod placui tibi, qui turpi secernis honestum non patre praeclaro, sed vita et pectore puro. Atqui si vitiis mediocribus ac mea5 paucis 1 funera, magna sonabit; so Palmer, Wickham, Vollmer. 2 natus aD. 4 possunt com. Cruq., Bentley. 3 sum D. 5 aut mea, II. 65 a Seats in the theatre were assigned according to rank, knights occupying the first fourteen rows, and the senators the orchestral space. Horace was a tribune in the army of Brutus, but each legion had six tribunes. 66 behind me, for he is only what my father was." 'Do you therefore fancy yourself a Paulus or a Messala? Why, this Novius, if two hundred carts and three big funerals come clashing in the Forum, will shout loud enough to drown horns and trumpets : that at least takes with us." 45 Now to return to myself, son of a freedman father," whom all carp at as son of a freedman father"—now, because I consort with you, Maecenas ; but in other days, because as tribune I had a Roman legion under my command. This case and that are different, for though perchance anyone may rightly grudge me the office, yet he should not grudge me your friendship as well-the less so, as you are cautious to choose as friends only the worthy, who stand aloof from base self-seeking. Fortunate I could not call myself as having won your friendship by some chance; for 'twas no case of luck throwing you in my way; that best of men, Virgil, some time ago, and after him Varius, told you what manner of man I was. On coming into your presence I said a few faltering words, for speechless shame stopped me from saying more. My tale was not that I was a famous father's son, not that I rode about my estate on a Saturian © steed: I told you what I was. As is your way, you answered little and I withdrew; then, nine months later, you sent for me again and bade me join your friends. I count it a great honour that I pleased you, who discern between fair and foul, not by a father's fame, but by blamelessness of life and heart. 65 And yet, if the flaws that mar my otherwise sound nature are but trifling and few in number, i.e. Tarentine, Saturium being the district in which Tarentum was founded. The adjective belongs quite as much to rura as to caballo. mendosa est natura, alioqui1 recta, velut si sed puerum est ausus Romam portare, docendum circum doctores aderat. quid multa? pudicum, qui primus virtutis honos, servavit ab omni non solum facto, verum opprobrio quoque turpi; 85 mercedes sequerer: neque ego essem questus: at hoc nunc laus illi debetur et a me gratia maior. 90 Nil me paeniteat sanum patris huius, eoque non, ut magna dolo factum negat esse suo pars, quod non ingenuos habeat clarosque parentis, sic me defendam. longe mea discrepat istis 1 alioquin, I, but cf. Sat. i. 4. 4. 2 nec (mala) V: ac мss.: aut Porph., Bentley. 4 octonis aera M, II, retained by Wickham. 7 ad hoc MSS. 5 si quis K, Goth. 6 servabat, II. 3 et a. a The pupils paid their small school fee on the Ides of each month. The reading octonis would imply that the school-year lasted eight months. even as you might find fault with moles spotted over a comely person-if no one will justly lay to my charge avarice or meanness or lewdness; if, to venture on self-praise, my life is free from stain and guilt and I am loved by my friends-I owe this to my father, who, though poor with a starveling farm, would not send me to the school of Flavius, to which grand boys used to go, sons of grand centurions, with slate and satchel slung over the left arm, each carrying his eightpence on the Ides a nay, he boldly took his boy off to Rome, to be taught those studies that any knight or senator would have his own offspring taught. Anyone who saw my clothes and attendant slaves-as is the way in a great city would have thought that such expense was met from ancestral wealth. He himself, a guardian true and tried, went with me among all my teachers, Need I say more? He kept me chaste-and that is virtue's first gracefree not only from every deed of shame, but from all scandal. He had no fear that some day, if I should follow a small trade as crier or like himself as taxcollector, somebody would count this to his discredit. Nor should I have made complaint, but, as it is, for this I owe him praise and thanks the more. 89 Never while in my senses could I be ashamed of such a father, and so I will not defend myself, as would a goodly number, who say it is no fault of theirs that they have not free-born and famous parents. Far different from this is what I say and what I think: I take this to mean that on going to Rome Horace's father did as the Romans did. At Venusia Horace would have gone unattended, carrying his own books. Some, however, take the words in magno ut populo with vidisset, i.e. "had anyone noticed-so far as one could notice such things in a great throng." et vox et ratio : nam si natura iuberet a certis annis aevum remeare peractum atque alios legere ad fastum quoscumque parentis 95 optaret sibi quisque,1 meis contentus honestos2 fascibus et sellis nollem mihi sumere, demens iudicio volgi, sanus fortasse tuo, quod nollem onus haud umquam solitus portare molestum. nam mihi continuo maior quaerenda foret res atque salutandi plures, ducendus et unus 100 et comes alter, uti ne solus rusve peregreve3 exirem, plures calones atque caballi pascendi, ducenda petorrita. nunc mihi curto ire licet mulo vel si libet usque Tarentum, 105 mantica cui lumbos onere ulceret atque eques armos : obiciet nemo sordes mihi, quas tibi, Tilli, cum Tiburte via praetorem quinque sequuntur te pueri, lasanum portantes oenophorumque. hoc ego commodius quam tu, praeclare senator, milibus atque aliis vivo. Quacumque libido est, incedo solus; percontor quanti holus ac far; fallacem Circum vespertinumque pererro saepe Forum; adsisto divinis; inde domum me ad porri et ciceris refero laganique catinum. cena ministratur pueris tribus, et lapis albus pocula cum cyatho duo sustinet; adstat echinus vilis, cum patera gutus, Campana supellex. deinde eo dormitum, non sollicitus mihi quod cras 2 (h)onustos. 3 1 si quisque, II. 110 115 peregre aut MSS.: Housman conjectures ne rus solusve peregre. 4 vespertinusque. a The fasces were insignia of the consuls and praetors; the curule sellae were a privilege of the aediles and censors as well. |