55. debacchentur, see on 'decertantem,' 1. 3. 13. For the description of the torrid and frigid zones cp. 1. 22. 17 foll., and Virg. G. 1. 234-236 una corusco Semper sole rubens et torrida semper ab igni, Quam circum extremae dextra laevaque trahuntur Caerulea glacie concretae atque imbribus atris.'

57. bellicosis, 'they will seek empire by arms; the destiny which I have announced is theirs on this condition.'

58. pii. . fidentes, two motives may induce them to forget her warning; filial feeling towards their unтpóñoλis, overweening confidence in their own powers.

61. alite lugubri='malis auspiciis'; 1. 15. 5 'mala avi,' 4. 6. 23 'potiore alite.'

62. iterabitur, 'the fortunes of Troy, if in an evil hour it is called to life again, shall be repeated in an overthrow as sad as before.' The hypallage whereby renascens' is made to agree with Troy's fortunes rather than with Troy helps in point of feeling to make it more clear that any new life of the city would be but the old life repeated, and would end in the same catastrophe; in point of grammar it leaves ' iterabitur' without any proper subject, for it is the past destiny which can properly be said to be repeated, not the one which is reopened. 63. victrices, victorious before and to be victorious again.

64. Virg. Aen. 1. 46 Iovis. . Et soror et conjux,' Hom. Il. 16. 432. Her pre-eminent dignity is a second assurance that the armament will not be led in vain.

65. ter.. ter, Virg. G. 1. 281, 283.

aëneus, almost a proverbial phrase for great strength, Epp. 1. 1. 60, Aesch. in Ctes. § 84 χαλκοῖς καὶ ἀδαμαντίνοις τείχεσιν.

66. auctore Phoebo. A few MSS. read 'ductore,' which might be paralleled by 'potiore ductos Alite muros,' 4. 6. 23, but the vulg. is amply supported by Virg. G. 3. 36 Troiae Cynthius auctor.' The expression might have been used to mean merely with the advice of Phoebus,' but it doubtless refers to the legend that Apollo himself built the walls of Troy; cp. Propert. 4. 6. 43 murorum Romulus auctor.'

meis Argivis, Argos being a chief seat of Juno's worship, 1. 7. 8. 67. uxor. . virum pueros, the men slain, the women sold to slavery.

69. conveniet, the future suits the following 'Quo, Musa, tendis'? Horace would suggest that there is something left unsaid. With the end of the Ode cp. that of 2. I.

72. tenuare, as 'deterere,' 1. 6. 12.

ODE IV.

Calliope, aid me in my song. Is it a delusion, or am I already among the Muses, hearing and seeing them? I am their favourite. In my childhood the wood-pigeons covered me with leaves when I was asleep on the hillside, and through life the Muses have given me a special protection. For their love I escaped Philippi, and the falling tree, and shipwreck off Palinurus. And they are Caesar's solace and refreshment too. They give him gentle counsels, and he accepts them. We all know how Jove's bolt swept away the brutal Titans; for all their strength of arm, and piled mountains and uprooted trees, they could not stand against Pallas and the gods who ranged themselves around her. Strength without mind falls of its own weight; strength, tempered with moderation, the gods advance and protect. The giants are in Tartarus, and will never be released. Lawless lust is punished with

endless chains.'

This Ode deals with the side of the imperial régime which probably did most to attract and hold fast such adherents as Horace himself. The Muses themselves 'gave gentle counsels to Caesar.' It was the régime of moderation, of refinement, of literary culture. Those who still continued to conspire against this gentle rule were as the giants trying to overthrow the Olympian gods, and restore the dominion of insensate force and lawless lust. But force without wisdom is powerless.

Line 1. descende caelo, for the Muses were 'Oλvμmiádes, Hom. II. 2. 491 not, as the Scholiast thought, with reference to the last Ode and the sermones deorum.'

dic.. melos, see on 1. 32. 3.

tibia.. seu voce acuta.. seu fidibus. The construction is not quite perfect. There are not three choices offered, as might appear, the pipe, or the voice, or the stringed instruments, but (as Ritter points out) two. The voice will be used in any case; the alternative is between two tones of the voice and two several accompaniments which suit them. Horace asks first that the melody shall be on the pipe; he corrects this, and laying the emphasis on 'longum,' leaves it to Calliope (so long as in this respect it is such as he asks for) to decide whether it shall be voce acuta' (and so accompanied by the pipe) or 'voce gravi' (and so accompanied by the stringed instrument). There is the same choice given to Clio (1. 12. 2), 'lyra vel acri [cp. 'acuta voce'] Tibia'; and the two kinds of accompaniment for lyric poetry are common in

Horace, as in Od. 1. 1. 32, where they are assigned respectively to Polyhymnia and Euterpe. Cp. also 4. 1. 22.

6

2. longum, sustained.' usual; maius opus movet.'

He is preparing for a longer effort than

Calliope, see on 1. 1. 32; she is called 'regina' as a goddess, as ǎvaoσa, nóτvia in Greek. The repetition of the vocative, and the separation which gives greater emphasis to each utterance of it, are intended to mark the earnestness of his appeal.

4. fidibus citharave. If, with the great majority of the MSS., we retain 've,' we must take 'fidibus' of the lyra. Such expressions as λúρŋ kilapíšew (Hom. Hymn. ad Merc. 473) show that in early times the two names belonged to the same instrument, but they were subsequently distinguished. The 'cithara,' whose invention was ascribed to Apollo, was like a modern guitar, its strings stretched over the sounding body; the 'lyra,' which remained the property of Hermes (Epod. 13. 9 fide Cyllenca '), had its strings open on both sides like a harp. Bentley, and most subsequent editors, have altered 've' to 'que,' so that 'fidibus citharaque' will be='fidibus citharae.' Cp. Virg. Aen. 6. 120 Threïcia cithara fidibusque canoris.'

5. Is it a real sound that others too can hear, or is it a "fine fancy" of mine?'

amabilis insania, an oxymoron; madness, but one of which I should not wish to be cured. Horace claims the ἐνθουσιασμός, μανία (Plat. Phaedr. p. 245 A) of a poet.

6. pios lucos, not, as Acron interpreted it, of Elysium, but of the woods which the Muses haunt: Movo@v vámai, Plat. Ion, p. 534 A. Cp. Od. 1. 1. 30, 3. 25. 2, 4. 2. 30, 4. 3. 10. 'Pios' either = 'sacros,' 'haunted by gods,' or because the profanum vulgus' is excluded from them, 3. I. 1 foll.

9. me fabulosae. The emphasis on 'me' points out the connection with the preceding stanzas, 'no wonder that I should hear the Muses' voice, though you do not. I have been their favourite from my babyhood.'

fabulosae, 'legendary.' 'De quibus fabulantur poetae.' They are the birds of Venus that draw her car; they carry ambrosia to Zeus himself (Hom. Od. 12. 62). The suggestion is that their action in covering the child-poet in leaves was, like their actions of which legends tell, non sine Dis'; and, as Conington remarks, the emphatic conjunction 'me fabulosae,' &c. is as much as to say, 'I, too, like other poets (as Stesichorus, Pindar, Aeschylus), have a legend of my infancy.' Cp. Homer's epithet in Odyss. 19. 162 οὐ γὰρ ἀπὸ δρυός ἑσσι παλαιφάτου, 'some legendary oak.'

Volture, now Monte Voltore, a mountain 4433 feet high, some five

miles west of Venusia, near the point where Apulia, Samnium, and Lucania join.

10. nutricis, so Keller, with the oldest MSS.; but it is hard to account for the variant 'altricis,' which divides the authorities with it.

extra+limen Apuliae. This is the reading of the great number of MSS., and apparently was found by Acr. and Porph. It is usually interpreted of part of Mt. Voltur, just beyond the border line. Horace dwells on the character of the neighbourhood as 'debateable land' on the frontier of the two provinces, Sat. 2. 1. 34 Lucanus an Apulus anceps,' &c. There is, however, some reason for suspecting that this reading was an early corruption. The minuteness of the local description and its paradoxical form have no special point; and the instances quoted from other poets of variation of the quantity in such names as Italus, Italia; Priamus, Priamides; Sicanus, &c. are hardly parallel to the inversion of the quantity of two syllables in the same word, in the same part of two consecutive lines. It is doubtful besides, whether the Roman poets ever shortened the first syllable of Apulia. The only instance alleged is the 'mare Apulicum' of 3. 24. 4, where the reading is at least as doubtful as the present one. Meanwhile, of the oldest MSS. (we have no testimony with respect to V) the Berne and the Paris A, in its first reading, have limina Pullie,' and the Scholiast on y reads the same, and explains it as the proper name of the nurse. Acr. and Porph. seem to have read 'Apuliae,' but, oddly, to have interpreted it in the same way: Fabulosam nutricem appellavit quod hae fere alumnis suis narrare fabulas solent. Extra limen fabulosae Apuliae meae nutricis. Provinciae nomen posuit pro nutricis,' Acr. So also on v. 19, Acr. extra casae limen.' 'Pollia' or 'Pullia' is a name that occurs in several inscriptions. It is barely possible then that we have here the name of Horace's nurse, although it cannot be thought likely that none of his readers and imitators in antiquity should have preserved her memory. It is possible, again, that the word which completed the verse may have been lost early, the copyist's eye being caught by the conclusion of the preceding verse; and it may have been some adjective such as 'sedulae' (Bentl.) agreeing with 'nutricis.' It is possible, Ritter thinks, that Apuliae' was a gloss to explain some other name of the district, such as 'Daunsae.' Mr. Yonge's alternative suggestions, 'villulae' and 'vilicae' (='house-keeper '), both rest on their resemblance to the latter part of the MS. reading Apuliae: the first also on its agreement with Acron's gloss' casae.' Mr. Munro refuses' villulae' on the ground of the rarity of diminutives, and this would be a double diminutive, in Augustan poetry.

11. Hom. Il. 10. 98 kaμáty åddŋkótes ǹdè kal ünvợ. For the position of 'que' see on 1. 30. 5.

13. mirum quod foret. The subjunctive expresses, if not a purpose, at least a result foreseen at the time of the action: to be the marvel of all that,' &c. Cp. Virg. E. 9. 48 processit . . Astrum quo segetes gauderent frugibus.'

14. nidum Acherontiae, of a town nestling, where you would not look for it, on a ledge of a hill. So Cic. de Orat. 1. 44 'Ithacam illam in asperrimis saxulis tanquam nidulum affixam.' Acerenza retains the name and site of the ancient town. 'It is built on a hill of considerable elevation, precipitous on three sides, and affording only a very steep approach on the fourth.'

15. Bantinos, on the borders of Lucania and Apulia, for Pliny speaks of it as belonging to the former, Livy to the latter. The name is preserved in the convent of Sta. Maria di Banzi.

16. Forenti. The name (Forenza) still remains in the locality, but is at present applied to a village on a hill. The Pseudo-Acron speaks of the ancient village having been deserted in his time, 'nunc sine habitatore est.'

17. ut. . ut, explaining the subject of their wonder, 'how it could be that I slept,' &c. Horace has 'mirabimur ut' in Epod. 16. 53.

18. sacra, the bay to Apollo, the myrtle to Venus; and so they are emblematic both of the future poet and specially of the poet of love. 'Collata,' like sacra,' is intended to cover both substantives. See 2. 15. 18-20 n.

20. non sine dis, où beŵv άтep, oùк åðèéí (Нom. Od. 18. 353). This is their explanation of the marvel: 'such bravery in a babe must come from the gods, and must be under their special protection.' 'And so it was,' Horace continues, 'I was under the Muses' care, and have been all my life.'

22. tollor, the Muses take him, as a god snatches a hero from the fight in Homer, and carry him up in montes et in arcem ex urbe' (Sat. 2. 6. 16). Cp. Od. 2. 7. 13.

23. seu.. seu.. seu. An apodosis must be applied to each supposition, or if Praeneste be my choice, or Tibur, or Baiae,' 'ibi vester sum,' 'eo vester feror.' The epithets contrast the situations: the breezy hill-top (Praeneste is 2100 feet above the sea), the sloping hill-side ('supinum' must refer to the S. W. side of Tibur, where the hill slopes gently towards the Campagna), and the sea-shore.

25. amicum, the welcome guest in the haunts of the Muses; 1. 26. I 'Musis amicus.'

fontibus et choris, 1. 26. 6; Hes. Theog. 3 (of the Muses) kai te περὶ κρήνην ἰοειδέα πόσσ ̓ ἁπαλοῖσιν Ὀρχεῦνται.

26. Not the rout at Philippi,' 2. 7. 13.

27. devota, sc. 'dis inferis,' and so 'accursed.' Epod. 16. 9. arbos, 2. 13 passim, 2. 17. 27, 3. 8. 7.