17. desine querelarum, after the model of the Greek genitive with πaúεodai, λnyei: so Virg. Aen. 10. 441 'desistere pugnae.' Horace similarly copies the genitive with ảπéxeo@ai, Od. 2. 27. 69 'abstineto irarum,' and with pooveîv, Sat. 2. 6. 84 'Sepositi ciceris nec longae invidit avenae.'

20. rigidum Niphaten, stiff frozen Niphates.' The later Roman poets took it for a river: Lucan 3. 245 'volventem saxa Niphaten'; cp. Juv. 6. 409, Sil. 13. 765; and this is perhaps the most natural interpretation of Virgil's metaphor, 'pulsum Niphaten' (cp. Aen. 11. 405 retro fugit Aufidus'). The geographers, however, recognize only a mountain of the name in Armenia. Niphatem' is, like 'tropaea,' the direct object of Cantemus.' In the next stanza Horace passes to another constr., viz. an object clause in the accus. and inf. Orelli quotes similar cases from Tibull. 1. 3. 17 and Prop. 2. 1. 19.

The expressions are very

21. Medum flumen, the Euphrates. parallel to Virg. Aen. 8. 726 Euphrates ibat iam mollior undis,' where also the Geloni and the Armenian Araxes appear.

23. intra praescriptum, 'within the bounds that we have set them.' Gelonos, see Introd. to Books i-iii, 1. § 7.

24. exiguis is predicative, and find them all too narrow.'

ODE X.

The wise sailor is neither tempted too far out to sea nor frightened on to rocks and shallows. One who has learnt to love the golden mean neither has a hovel with a roof falling in nor a palace that would attract the evil eye. The higher the seat the greater the fall. The wise man is prepared for fortune to change like everything else. Be brave and hopeful if things are against you, and so, too, do not spread all your sails because the wind chances to be favourable.'

Horace recommends moderation of life and manners. Professedly it is a mean that he praises; but it is clear throughout that it is excess that he deprecates; the danger of defect is not really before his mind. This is shown in the first part of the Ode by omission-the hypothesis would require a stanza corresponding to st. 3 to illustrate the danger of being too low, as that illustrates the danger of being too high,-in the second part by the stress laid on the alternative least contemplated, under cover of which the poet at last ventures to put plainly the lesson on which his heart is really set.

The person to whom the Ode is addressed is the same as the 'augur Murena' of Od. 3. 19. 11 (see also Sat. 1. 5. 38). He is variously called

'Lucius Murena' (Vell. Pat. 2.91), 'Licinius Murena' (Dio Cass. 54. 3), 'Varro Murena' (Suet. Tib. 8), and he is said by Dio (1. c.) to have been the brother of Terentia, the wife of Maecenas. There is one of Cicero's friends who is called A. Varro (ad Fam. 16. 12, see note in Watson's Select Letters, p. 305) and Varro Murena (ad Fam. 13. 22). The friend of Horace has been sometimes identified with the friend of Cicero, sometimes taken to be his son. The double set of names must imply that their bearer, or, if there were two, the elder bearer of them, had passed by adoption from one 'gens' to the other.

The Murena' of Horace had been employed by Augustus in B. C. 25, in the subjugation of the Salassi, the inhabitants of the Val d'Aosta, and had been named as Consul Suffectus in 23. In 22 he was accused, it' οὖν ἀληθῶς εἴτε καὶ ἐκ διαβολῆς (Dio 54. 3), of a conspiracy with Fannius Caepio, and, in spite of the efforts of 'Proculeius, his brother (see on Od. 2. 2. 5), and Maecenas, his brother-in-law' (Dio 1. c.), was put to death. In the character given of him (ἀκράτῳ καὶ κατακορεῖ παρρησίᾳ πρὸς πάντας ὁμοίως ἐχρῆτο, see Dio 1. c., who tells a story of his boldness of speech towards Augustus himself) we may probably see the appropriateness of Horace's persuasive to moderation.

On the argument drawn from this Ode as to the date of the publication of the three Books, see Introd. to Books i-iii, § 2.

Line 1. neque.. neque, not one any more than the other.

altum urgendo, steering on and on into the open sea.

3. nimium, with 'premendo,' 'hugging too close the dangerous shore.' 5. auream mediocritatem, the μéтpiov, péσov, so much praised in Greek γνῶμαι, e. g. παντὶ μέσῳ τὸ κράτος θεὸς ὤπασεν, Aesch. Εum. 529 ; πολλὰ μέσοισιν ἄριστα· μέσος θέλω ἐν πόλει εἶναι, Phocyl. ap. Arist. Pol. 4. II. It is here both the mean estate and the moderation of mind which is content with it.

6-8. In point of grammar, doubtless, 'tutus' belongs to the first clause, 'sobrius' to the second; he avoids the meanness of a ruinous hovel and is safe, is sober and avoids the palace that raises envy'; but in sense, sober and therefore safe' is the idea of the sentence, and neither adjective is confined to its own clause. The safety of moderation is dwelt on further in the next stanza, its prudence in the one following, which suggests the mutability of fortune.

7. invidenda, as Od. 3. 1. 45 ‘invidendis postibus,' in the same connection.

9-11. ingens, celsae, summos, all in emphatic positions, for their height. Cp. Herod. 7. 1ο ὁρᾷς τὰ ὑπερέχοντα ζῶα ὡς κεραυνοῖ ὁ θεὸς οὐδὲ

ἐξ φαντάζεσται, τὰ δὲ σμικρὰ οὐδέν μιν κνίζει· ὁρᾷς δὲ ὡς ἐς οἰκήματα τὰ μέγιστα αἰεὶ καὶ δένδρεα τὰ τοιαῦτ ̓ ἀποσκήπτει τὰ βέλεα,

..

13. infestis, secundis, ablatives absolute.

14. alteram sortem, 'a change of fortune.'

15. informes, Virg. G. 3. 354, 'sed iacet aggeribus niveis informis terra.'

17. summovet, opp. to 'reducit,'' banishes.'

male, sc. 'est,' Od. 3. 16. 43, Epp. 1. 1. 89 'bene est.'

18. quondam, 'sometimes.' 'Quondam etiam victis redit in praecordia virtus,' Virg. Aen. 2. 367.

19. arcum, the bow with which he inflicts death, plague, &c., as in Hom. Il. 1. 49. 382, &c. Cp. Carm. Saec. 33 'Condito mitis placidusque telo.'

21. angustis, in straits of fortune.' This metaphor seems to suggest the return to the metaphor of the first stanza, good fortune being the oupos before which we run fast and free.

22. appare, 'show yourself.'

23. nimium, with 'secundo,' ' dangerously favourable,' cp. duσoupioτos.

ODE XI.

'Do not trouble yourself with foreign politics, Quintius, nor with schemes of business. Life wants very little, and it is flying fast: spring flowers die and moons wane. Do not weary yourself over plans as if things remained for ever. Better crown with roses our hairs already whitening with age, and drink and play while we may.'

Nothing is known of Quintius Hirpinus; possibly he is the same as the Quintius to whom Epp. 1. 16 is addressed.

The nature of the name 'Hirpinus' is not certain. It is very probably a local name (as 'Marrucine Asini,' Catull. 12. 1), the Hirpini being a Samnite tribe, of which Beneventum was the capital.

Line 1. bellicosus, Od. 2. 6. 2, 3. 8. 21, 4. 14. 41: cp. Virg. G. 3. 408 'impacatos Hiberos.' Notice that 'bellicosus' really applies to 'Scythes' also, and ‘divisus Hadria' suggests a parallel 'divisus Tyrrheno mari' for the 'Cantaber.' See on Od. 2. 10. 6, 8. 2. 15, 18, 20.

2. Hadria divisus objecto, a reason for not troubling ourselves about him, 'the broad barrier of Hadria is between us.'

3. remittas, with infinitive, forbear,' as 'mittere,' Od. 1. 38. 3; 'omittere,' 3. 29. II.

4. trepides in usum, as Orelli interprets it, 'anxie provideas usui,'

worry thyself about provision for life, which needs but little.' 'Tre pidare' is used in the same sense in 3. 29. 31 'Ridetque si mortalis ultra Fas trepidat.' Orelli quotes Plat. Phaed. 68, C тồ nepì tàs émiovμías Tоñola. There is no need with Dill". to join 'trepides aevi.' He compares Virg. Aen. 12. 589 'trepidae rerum.'

5. fugit retro, said of those who have passed the flower of youth, ta whom its years are 'recedentes,' no longer 'venientes,' A. P. 175.

6. levis, opposed to 'rugosa,' '‘arida' (v. 6), ‘hispida' (4. 10. 5), which are epithets of 'senectus.' So, ‘levis Agyieu,' 4. 6. 28, of the everyoung Apollo.

9-12. 'Immortalia ne speres monet annus,' 4. 7. 7. Aeterna consilia' are plans for a life that is not to end. Compare the advice of 1. 11. 6 'spatio brevi Spem longam reseces.'

9. honor, pride of beauty. Epod. 17. 18.

10. rubens nitet. This phrase for the brightness of the moon, which is not common (though Propertius uses it 1. 10. 8 Et mediis caelo Luna ruberet equis'), is helped by the metaphor of 'vultu.' 'It is not with one and the same blushing face that the moon shines on us.'

11. minorem, ттоvα='imparem,' 'overtasked by them.'

12. consiliis. The ablative is constructed ảnò коivоû with minorem' and fatigas.' See on 1. 3. 6.

13. cur non .. vel hac, this very pine, without looking for another.' 14. sic ouтws, as we are.'

temere, eix, with no preparation.' All express the easiness of the alternative which Horace proposes for Quintius' anxious scheming.

rosa odorati capillos='rosis bene olentibus coronati.' The singular (see on 1. 5. 1) seems to be usual.

16. dum licet, 'while we may,' we shall soon be unable; 2. 3. 15 foll. Assyria. There is no need to alter the gender. 'Nardus,' feminine, is the plant from which the oil was obtained, and is used for its produce as 'balanus,' 3. 29. 4; 'uva,' 1. 20. 10. 'Assyria,' probably='Syria'; see 3. 4. 32.

18. quis puer. For the form of issuing orders, cp. 2. 7. 23.

19. restinguet, 'put out the fire of the wine.'

21. devium,' shy,' it modifies and makes playful the coarse substantive.

23. in comptum. Some good MSS. have incomptum.' The editors who have retained this reading seem generally to have constructed 'nodum' after 'maturet,' 'make quickly her simple knot.' Cp. 3. 14. 21 'Dic et argutae properet Neaerae Murrheum nodo cohibere crinem'; but, as Bentley remarked, 'cum lyra' is an odd accompaniment to that action. He reads 'comam,' with some fair MS. authority to back him, 'incomptam' with one MS. of Torrentius, and 'nodo' ex mera coniec

tura. Mr. Munro, though reading 'incomptum,' puts a comma at 'maturet,' constructing, I suppose, 'incomptum nodum' as a cognate accusative with 'religata.'

ODE XII.

'No, Maecenas, my lyric style will not do for the great feats of Roman arms, any more than it would for the heroic myths. You will celebrate Caesar's glories far better in your prose history. I will content myself with singing the charms of your Licymnia and your love for her?

With the Ode generally compare 1. 6.

The Scholiasts (on Sat. 1. 2. 64) gave the tradition that Licymnia (or, as they write it, 'Licinnia,' probably a corruption to suit her relationship to the Licinia gens; see Introd. to Od. 2. 10) is a name invented by Horace to veil and yet to represent to the initiated that of Terentia, Maecenas' wife. For the practice both in Horace and in other poets, see App. I.

Bentley pointed out that the mention of the public dance in Diana's honour implies that the person imagined is not merely a 'libertina.'

The third stanza seems clearly (though Orelli doubts it, taking ‘tu' generally for any one') to imply a hope or a wish that Maecenas may write some memoirs of the reign of Augustus. Servius (on Virg. G. 2. 42) vouches for his having done so; but the only older authority that can be quoted is a doubtful expression of Pliny, N. H. 7. 46.

Line 1. nolis, either imperative, 'desire me not'; or, perhaps better, with Orelli, potential, 'you would not desire the old wars of Rome to be set to the lyre, any more than the fights of the Centaurs or the Titans.' The conclusion in either case is, no more ask me to set Augustus' exploits.'

longa ferae. The two adjectives answer to one another after Horace's manner; see on I. 3. 10. Numantia was taken, after its long resistance, by Scipio Africanus Minor, in B.C. 133. Numantia, Hannibal, and the sea-fights of the First Punic War, stand for Roman wars generally.

2. durum, so the great majority of MSS. Bentley compares Virg. G. 3. 4 Eurysthea durum,' and points out that there is a Horatian antithesis between it and the 'molles citharae modi.' Orelli follows earlier editors in altering it on very slight MS. authority to 'dirum,' the epithet of Hannibal in Od. 3. 6. 32, 4. 4. 42, quoting Quintil. 8. 2. 9 'proprie dictum id est quo nihil inveniri possit significantius ut Horatius “ tibiam," "Hannibalemque dirum."'

acrem