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praecipitem, Virg. G. 4. 29 'praeceps Eurus,' of sudden gusts that seem to fall from the sky; 2. 310 'si tempestas a vertice silvis Incubuit.' 13. decertantem, Od. 1. 9. 11 'ventos deproeliantes'; 1. 18. 8 'rixa super mero debellata'; 3. 3. 55 'debacchentur ignes': 'fighting to the death.' The preposition expresses the pertinacity and unrestrained fierceness of the struggle, not its conclusion.

14. Hyadas, 'Navita quas Hyadas Graecus ab imbre vocat,' Ov. Fast. 5. 165 rain-stars.' Cic. de N. D. 2. 43, says that the Romans, mistaking the derivation, called them ""Suculae” a suibus.'

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15. arbiter Hadriae, Od. 3. 3. 5 ‘Auster. . Dux inquieti turbidus Hadriae.'

16. tollere seu ponere. For the omission of the first 'seu,' cp. Od. 1. 6. 19 'vacui sive quid urimur,' and Sat. 2. 8. 16. So ere is omitted in Greek, Aesch. Ag. 1403, Soph. O. T. 517.

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ponere, the wind 'lays' the waves when it ceases to blow; Virg. Aen. 5. 763 placidi straverunt aequora venti'; Soph. Aj. 674 deivŵv ἄημα πνευμάτων ἐκοίμισε στένοντα πόντον.

17. quem gradum. To fear the step, the footfall, of death would be a natural expression, and the personification suits v. 33, where death 'corripit gradum': 'quem gradum' must then mean, 'What kind of footfall?' the approach of death in what guise?' It has also been taken (1) as parallel to 'leti via,' &c.=' quem aditum ad mortem'; (2) by the Scholiasts, who are followed by Gesner, as='what degree of death?' i.e. what death is so terrible that he feared it if he feared not the sea?

18. siccis, Enpoîs årλaúσтois õμμaσi, Aesch. S. c. T. 696. Bentley, after Heinsius, would alter 'siccis' to 'rectis' (Cunningham proposed 'fixis') with no MS. authority, on the ground that tears are not with us the natural indication of terror. But Orelli quotes, amongst other passages, Ov. Met. 11. 539, of a shipwreck, 'Non tenet hic lacrimas, stupet hic.' When the panic falls on the Suitors in Hom. Od. 20. 349, their eyes δακρυόφιν πίμπλαντο.

monstra natantia, Od. 3. 27. 27'scatentem Beluis pontum,' one of the stock dangers of the sea, perhaps helped to become conventional in poetry by the popular misunderstanding of Homer's μεγακητέα πόντον, cp. 4. 14. 47.

20. infames, dvowvúμovs, with reference perhaps to their terrible name, the headlands of thunder.' They were proverbial for storms and shipwrecks, Virg. G. 1. 332.

Acroceraunia. After Horace's manner he names a special dangerous headland, as he has a special wind in v. 12, a special sea in v. 15. They are all, however, actual dangers which Virgil himself must encounter in passing from Brundusium to Dyrrhachium.

22. prudens, 'in his providence,' Od. 3. 29. 29.

dissociabili, 'estranging'; cp. the active use of 'illacrimabilis' in Od. 2. 14. 6, though Horace himself uses it passively in Od. 4. 9. 26 ; so 'penetrabilis,' Virg. G. 1. 93; 'genitabilis,' Lucret. I. II. Ritter and others deny this active use, and render it by agevos; but it is formed upon the verb 'dissociare' and must mean either 'able to sever,' as here, orable to be severed,' as in Claud. Ruf. 2. 238' non dissociabile corpus.' 23. impiae, pred. 'in their impiety.'

24. transiliunt, leap lightly over.' The word is expressive, as Ritter says, 'et levitatis et impudentiae.' Cp. its use in Od. 18. 7, and Sil. Pun. 4. 71, of Hånnibal, ‘qui sacros montes rupesque profundas Transiluit.'

25. perpeti =Tλva, uniting the ideas of 'to bear' and 'to dare.' Compare the tone of Soph. Ant. 333 foll.

26. per vetitum nefas, 'through sin, despite of prohibitions.'

27. Iäpeti genus, Prometheus; 'genus' as the Greek yévos. Ziσúpov yévos, for Ulysses, Eur. Cycl. 104; cp. Sat. 1. 6. 12 'Laevinum Valeri genus.'

28. fraude mala, an unhappy theft.' There seems to be no instance of 'fraus' in a neutral sense, otherwise we might take it as a parallel of Cicero's 'malus dolus,' Off. 3. 15.

30. macies, wasting sickness,' not to be distinguished from the 'febres.' The things coupled are the effect of the fevers and their number.

31. incubuit, énéoknyev, Lucret. 6. 1141 morbifer aestus Incubuit populo Pandionis,' ' fell upon,' like a storm, or a bird of prey.

32. necessitas, with 'leti,' 'the doom of death.' Horace elsewhere personifies Necessitas' (Od. 1. 35. 17, 3. I. 14, 3. 24. 6), but it is doubtful whether one person could be said 'corripere gradum' of another.

36. perrupit Acheronta. For the lengthening of the short syllable, cp. Od. 2. 6. 14 Angulus ridet, ubi '; 2. 13. 16 Caeca timet aliunde'; 3. 16. 26 'quidquid arat impiger.' In all these cases the metrical accent falls on the lengthened syllable. It is noticed that this licence does not occur in the Fourth Book of Odes nor in the Epistles.

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Herculeus labor, not without reference to the Greek Bin 'Hpakλein, but as in all Horace's imitations of the idiom, with a more definite purpose and emphasis on the substantive. 'Labor' does not represent an inert or habitual epithet. It was a labour of Hercules to burst the barrier of Acheron.' Cp. Od. 3. 21. 11 ‘Narratur et prisci Catonis Saepe mero caluisse virtus'; Sat. 2. 1. 72 Virtus Scipiadae et mitis sapientia Laeli.'

37. ardui, so V and the majority of older MSS., though a fair proportion have 'arduum.' The gen. is supported by Horace's custom, Epp. 2. 1. 31 Nil intra est oleam, nil extra est in nuce duri.'

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38. A proverbial impossibility, Pind. P. 10. 41 ȧ xáλкeos oυpavòs. οὔποτ ̓ ἀμβατὸς αὐτῷ.

40. iracunda fulmina, 'the bolts of his wrath.' The epithet properly belongs to Jove himself, cp. Od. 1. 37. 7 'dementes ruinas.'

ODE IV.

The lesson of the Ode is the same, though not so explicitly put, as that of Od. 4. 7 'Immortalia ne speres monet annus.'

'We have spring once more, all nature is enjoying itself. Take thy fill of pleasure, Sestius, for death, which comes to rich and poor alike, will soon be here, and then no more pleasures.'

The Sestius to whom it is addressed is probably identified with L. Sestius, son of the P. Sestius whom Cicero defended. He had served in M. Brutus' army with Horace. Dio C. 53. 32 mentions it to the credit of Augustus, that he appointed Sestius Consul suffectus' in his own room in B.C. 23, although he was notorious for preserving images of Brutus, and honouring his memory.

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The Metre (Archilochium IVtum) is from Archilochus, Fr. 91 :

οὐκέθ ̓ ὁμῶς θάλλεις ἁπαλὸν χρόα· κάρφεται γὰρ ἤδη,
ὄγμος κακοῦ δὲ γήραος καθαιρεῖ.

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Line 1. solvitur, winter is a chain in which the world is bound. 'Rura gelu.. claudit hiems,' Virg. G. 2. 317; cp. Od. 1. 9. 5' solve frigus.'

grata vice, 'the pleasant succession.' Epod. 13. 7 benigna vice.' 2. machinae, 'rollers,' such as those described by Caesar, B. G. 2. 10 hoc opus omne. . machinatione navali phalangis subiectis ad turrim admovent.' The meaning of 'trahunt' is defined by 'siccas'; 'draw down to the sea the keels long high and dry,' navigation having been suspended during the winter.

5. Cytherea Venus. The conjunction of the two names is not found in any other classical writer, cp. Od. 1. 17. 22 Semeleius Thyoneus.' In the procession of the seasons, Lucret. 5. 736, Venus is the companion of Spring, as Ceres of Summer, and

Autumn.

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Evius Evan' of

5. imminente Luna, 'when the moon is high overhead,' merely = 'by moonlight.'

6. Od. 4. 7. 5 Gratia cum Nymphis geminisque sororibus audet Ducere nuda choros.'

decentes, Od. 1. 18. 6 'decens Venus'; 3. 27. 53 'decentes malas,' of a handsome person; Od. 4. 1. 3 'decens . . Paulus.'

7. alterno pede, ' rhythmic,' falling one after the other each in its due turn and time.

graves, with their ponderous forges.'

8. Volcanus. The employments of Venus and Vulcan (the latter probably suggested by the former) are a mythological way of saying that pleasures and labours begin again with spring.

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ardens, glowing red in the blaze,' cp. ' rubente dextera,' Od. 1. 2. 2. urit, makes them fiery hot.' The metaphor offended Scaliger, Bentley, and others. Scaliger conj. urget.' Mr. Munro makes a strong case for visit,' the reading of the Paris MS. A, which Bentley preferred, and which Keller edits. Among the variants are 'ussit,' 'vissit,' 'iussit,' all of which he refers to the old spelling of 'visit' with the double s, as caussa, cassus, divissiones (Quintil. 1. 7. 20. For this as a disturbing cause in the text of Virgil he refers to Ribbeck's Proleg. P. 445, quoting esp. G. 1. 167, where 'provissa' is read in the Pal. MS., and Aen. 5. 637, where 'iussa,' a correction of 'vissa,' represents 'visa'). It must be confessed, however, that the epithetardens' suits 'urit' better than visit.'

9. Now is the time for pleasure, for drinking bouts in town, and rural holidays.

viridi, of the fresh green of the young leaves that are now opening. nitidum, Od. 2. 7. 7' coronatus nitentes Malobathro Syrio capillos.' 11. Fauno. Ovid, Fast. 2. 193, mentions a sacrifice to Faunus on the island in the Tiber on the Ides of February. The Faunalia of Od. 3. 18. 10 are in December.

12. agna, sc. ́immolare,' as Virg. E. 3. 77 ' quum faciam vitula.' So in prose, Cic. Legg. 2. 12 'quibus hostiis immolandum sit.' 'Immolare' has lost its special meaning 'to sprinkle the salted meal on the victim's head.'

13. pulsat pede, of knocking at the door, not merely treading the threshold. Plaut. Most. 2. 2. 23 pulsando pedibus poene confregi hasce ambas [fores]'; Call. Hym. Apoll. 3 kaì dýτov tà Oúpetpa kadậ ποδὶ Φοῖβος ἀράσσει.

14. regum, of the great and wealthy. Od. 2. 14. 11'sive reges Sive inopes erimus coloni.' Sat. 2. 2. 45. Epulis regum.'

15. inchoare,' to enter upon what will not be finished,' cp. Od. 1. 11. 6 'spatio brevi spem longam reseces.'

16. premet, 'night will be upon thee,' used by a zeugma with 'Manes' and 'domus.' For the sing. see on Od. 1. 3. 10.

fabulae, the nominative; best explained by Persius' imitation (5. 152), 'Cinis et manes et fabula fies,' 'something to talk of, a name and nothing more.' Transl. 'the world of names and shadows.' There is nothing in it of Juvenal's Esse aliquid Manes. . Nec pueri credunt.'

17. exilis. Bentley takes it as = 'egena,' opposed to the luxury of Sestius' present life, quoting Epp. 1. 6. 45 Exilis domus est ubi non et multa supersunt'; or, it may be 'hollow,' 'unsubstantial,' like 'levis turba,' Od. 1. 10. 18; Virgil's 'domos Ditis vacuas et inania regna,' Aen. 6. 269. Rutgers explained it of the narrow home' of the grave. simul simul ac.'

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18. regna vini, the post of σvμmoσíapxos, ‘arbiter bibendi,' 'rex mensae,' Macr. Sat. 2. 1; see Dict. Ant. s. v. Symposium.'

talis, dice made of the knuckle-bones of some animal, åσrpáɣaλoi; Sat. 2. 7. 17 mitteret in phimum talos.' See on Od. 2. 7. 25' quem Venus arbitrum dicet bibendi.' It has also been understood as = τοίου, ' of such wine as this,' as if the poet pointed to his delicate wines and young Lycidas by his side; but we could hardly say 'regna vini talis' any more than we could say 'regna vini tui.' So far as 'vini' qualifies 'regna' and forms part of one notion with it, it is general.

ODE V.

'Who is the delicate stripling now, Pyrrha, that is wooing thee? Poor boy! disappointment is in store for him. Thy love is as the sea, as bright and tempting, and as treacherous. I was shipwrecked on it once, but I escaped alive.

Metre-Fifth Asclepiad.

Line 1. multa in rosa, 'in rosa' might mean 'crowned with roses,' as Cicero's 'potare in rosa,' de Fin. 2. 20; perhaps the epithet multa' points rather to a ‘bed of rose leaves,' which can be equally well illustrated. Sen. Epp. 36. 9 'in rosa iacere'; Arist. Fr. 116 év hdvóσμois στρώμασι παννυχίζων.

4. cui 'cuius in gratiam,'' for whose eye,' cp. Od. 3. 3. 25.

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flavam, Od. 2. 4. 14, 3. 9. 19, 4. 4. 4. The correspondence of the name 'Pyrrha,' muррá, 'Golden-hair,' is enough to show, if it were needful to show, that it is a fictitious name.

5. simplex munditiis,' plain in thy neatness,' Milton. Munditiae' meant a scrupulously exact toilet, not necessarily excluding, but not

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