9, 10. virginum. . puellae, of young wives, cp. 2. 8. 22, 3. 22. 2. The matrons are bidden to assist Livia and Octavia in the religious rites. The returning soldiers and the young wives to whom they are returning are bidden vonμeîv, to keep a sacred silence, or not to interrupt the ceremony by too noisy delight.

11. male ominatis, dvopnμois. This was the reading of V, and apparently of the original text which Acr. and Porph. interpreted ('ne incaute loquentes verbis omina facerent'), although 'nominatis' (the reading of B) stands in their present text. It seems to be true, as Bentley argues, that no other instance can be quoted of a hiatus between a short and a long vowel when there is no natural break in the line (unless we retain and argue upon the generally abandoned reading 'horribilesque ultimosque Britannos' of Catull. 11. 11), and such compounds as 'suaveolens,' 'graveolens,' &c., usually lose the 'e' in scansion. On the other hand, while the temptation would be strong to remedy an obvious blot, and the insertion of 'n' would easily suggest itself, we lack any authority for the use of nominatis' in any appropriate sense. Of professed conjectures, Bentley's 'inominatis' is the most plausible. In that case 'male' must mean with evil effect,' like 'fraude mala,' Od. 1. 3. 28. 14. eximet, 'banish.'

15. mori metuam, not in the sense of 3. 9. II, but in the less usual sense of 'ne moriar metuam.' With the sentiment cp. 4. 15. 17 foll. 'Custode rerum Caesare non furor Civilis,' &c.

18-20. A cask of wine of the date of the Marsic or Social War (B. C. 99-88), if one has possibly (qua is an abl., as Virg. Aen. 1. 18 'si qua fata sinant') escaped the roving bands of Spartacus (in the Servile War fifteen years later).' So the wine would be sixty-three years old; see on 3. 8. 12. Juvenal's ‘Calcatamque tenet bellis Socialibus uvam,' 5. 31, is most likely a reference to this passage rather than a real date of wine which was drinkable in his time. Ritter points out that the reference to the succession of civil wars has probably a secondary purpose as heightening the feeling of the last stanza, the peace and security conferred on the world by Caesar's rule.

19. Spartacum, Epod. 16. 5.

21. argutae, 'clear-voiced,' for she is a singer.

22. murrheum, fragrant with myrrh. Virg. Aen. 12. 100 'crines . . murrha madentes.'

cohibere crinem, i. e. to adorn herself for the purpose of coming to my house; cp. 2. 11. 12. There is no need with Bentley and Meineke to make the verbal resemblance more perfect by reading 'cohibente.'

25. albescens; as he calls himself four years afterwards, 'praecanum,' Epp. 1. 20. 24. Horace was now in his fortieth year.

27. ferrem, for the tense see Madv. § 347, obs. 2.

28. Planco. L. Munatius Plancus was consul in B. C. 42, the year of Philippi. The date is probably not quite without a meaning. The times have quieted down, and Horace has tamed down also since then.

ODE XV.

The subject is the odiousness and ridiculousness of the desires and ways of youth kept on when youth itself has departed. The spirit is rather that of the Epodes (Archilochio felle,' Mitsch.) than of the Odes; possibly a real person may be pointed at. Meineke suggested that the name 'Nothus,' a name unknown to extant Greek literature, was the poetical representative of the common Latin 'Spurius,' see Introd. to 2. 4.

'Chloris is old and poor. It is time to give up her wanton ways. What suits her daughter Pholoë does not suit her. She is the wife of a poor man. Let her take her wool and spin. That will be more becoming to her than the harp and the wine-cup.

Metre Third Asclepiad.

Line 3. famosis laboribus, disreputable as compared with 'lanificium.' 4. maturo, ripe, for which you are ready.

6. To spoil the look of their company as a cloud does a starry sky. 9. expugnat domos. The editors quote Sen. Nat. Q. 4, praef. 'Crispus Passienus saepe dicebat, adulationi nos opponere, non claudere ostium, et quidem sic quemadmodum opponi amicae solet, quae, si impulit, grata est, gratior, si effregit.'

14. Luceriam, an important town in the interior of Apulia. It is called 'nobilem,' as famous for its wool, Plin. H. N. 8. 48. She is to think now only of getting the best wool. The editors compare

an anonymous epigram, Brunck, An. 3, p. 116 'H тò прìν aixhoɑoa πολυχρύσοις ἐπ' ἐρασταίς, Ἡ Νέμεσιν δεινὴν οὐχὶ κύσασα θεάν, Μίσθια νῦν σπαθίοις πενιχροῖς πηνίσματα κρούει Οψέ γ' Αθηναίη Κύπριν ἐληΐσατο.

16. vetulam. The better MSS. are in favour of 'vetula'; the Comm. Cruq. and one half of Porph.'s scholium in favour of 'vetulam,' 'non decet aetatem tuam in convivio multum potare.' Vetula would be easily altered by omitting the mark of the m, and the distance of 'te' would tempt a copyist to assimilate the adjective to the nearer substantive 'faece.' Cf. the question of 'coma' and 'comam' in 1. 21. 5.

ODE XVI.

'Gold is all-powerful, and powerful for harm. Mythology and history prove it. And with the growth of wealth care grows and the thirst for greater wealth. I take example by you, Maecenas, and shun eminence. The more we deny ourselves the more the gods give us. I am prouder and happier in my poor little farm, its clear stream, its wood, and unfailing crops, than the man who owns all Africa. I have no superfluous luxuries, but I never feel the pains of penury. Reduced desires give a larger revenue than the widest "latifundia." Who seek much want much. Happy the man who has, though little, yet enough?'

The Ode is on Horace's common theme, the praise of contentment and the aurea mediocritas' of fortune.

Metre-Fourth Asclepiad.

Line 2. robustae, probably with Ritter, ' of oak.' Cp. 1.3.9 'robur et aes triplex.'

3. tristes, dúσkoλo, 'surly.'

munierant; see on 2. 17. 28 'sustulerat nisi. . levasset.'

6. pavidum, from his fear of the oracle which had predicted that a son of his daughter should slay him.

4

7. fore. For such an introduction of the orat. obl. cp. Virg. Aen. 1. 444 Effodere loco signum quod regia Iuno Monstrarat, caput acris equi; nam sic fore bello Egregiam et facilem victu per secula gentem.'

8. pretium, bribes. Horace ironically rationalizes the legend. 9. aurum. Notice the emphatic positions of 'aurum' and 'lucrum,' as of 'muneribus' and 'munera' in the following stanza.

per medios satellites, i. e. in order to reach and strike at a tyrant. 10. perrumpere saxa, munitiones expugnare,' Acr.

6

amat = 'gaudet,' 'gestit,' an imitation of pλev, but see on 2. 3. 9. 11. auguris. Amphiaraus the seer went to the Theban war, though he foresaw its issue, at the persuasion of his wife Eriphyle, who had been bribed by Polynices with a necklace; ὄλετ' ἐν Θήβῃσι yuvaíav eiveka dúpav, Hom. Od. 15. 247; cp. ib. 11. 325, Soph. El. 837 foll.

13. demersa, possibly, as the Schol. thinks, an allusion to the legendary form of Amphiaraus' end-the earth opened and swallowed him, Pind. Nem. 9. 25.

14. vir Macedo, a proverbial instance from history. Cp. Cic. ad Att. 1. 16 'Philippus omnia castella expugnari posse dicebat in quae

modo asellus onustus auro posset ascendere.' Plut. Vit. Aem. Paull. 12 ἐρρέθη γοῦν ὅτι τὰς πόλεις αἱρεῖ τῶν Ἑλλήνων οὐ Φίλιππος ἀλλὰ τὸ Þiλinnov Xpvolov. He is said (in the collection of proverbs of Diogenianus) to have received an oracle from the Pythia, ἀργυρέαις λόγχαισι μáxον Kai máνта Kратησeis. So Juvenal, 12. 47, calls him 'callidus emptor Olynthi,' and Val. Max. 7. 2. 10 Mercator Graeciae.' In 'diffidit' and 'subruit' (undermined') we have a continuance of the metaphors of the last stanza.

14. aemulos reges, such as his rivals for the throne, Pausanias and Argaeus; the Thracian Cersobleptes, &c.

15. navium duces. Horace is generally supposed to be taking an instance from contemporary history, and to aim at Menas or Menodorus, the freedman of Sextus Pompeius and chief captain of his fleet, who twice deserted him to serve under Octavius, and once deserted Octavius to return to him. See Introd. to Epod. 4, which has been taken by some to refer to him.

16. saevos illaqueant, an intended antithesis. 'Illaqueare' is found nowhere else till Prudentius (A.D. 350-400), who uses it in its natural sense of snaring birds.

17. crescentem, imit. by Juv. 14. 139 Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit.' "Cura," ne perdantur; "fames," ut augeantur,

opes,' Dill.

18. maiorum, neu . gen. μeisóvæv.

19. conspicuum, prolept. = 'ita ut conspicuum fiat.'

20. equitum decus, 'the lesson which you preach to us, Maecenas, by being content to be the pride of the equestrian order instead of accepting any office which would qualify you to become a senator,' see on I. 20. 5.

23. nudus. To join the army of the 'nil cupientes' he must be, like them, 'nudus'; he must strip himself of the gifts of fortune which he no longer wants, and be content with the cloak of which he speaks in 3. 29. 54. The metaphor of the camp hardly begins till 'castra.' Orelli points out that the second clause, 'transfuga .. gestio,' is an amplification of the first, and one which brings out more clearly, though it does not create, the inexactness of the original metaphor. To satisfy it completely, Horace must have been a rich man who gave up his wealth. All he really means is, that he would choose a modest competence in preference to great wealth.

25. contemptae, 'which wealthier men despise.' 'Satis beatus unicis Sabinis.' Bentley takes it as 'contemptae a se ipso,' and so as = 'non possessae,' making it an oxymoron answering to inter opes inops': the poor man possessing all things though he has nothing, the rich man a pauper in the midst of his riches.

26, 27.

For the mode of expressing the height of wealth sec on 1. 1. 9 'si proprio condidit horreo Quicquid de Libycis verritur areis.'

26. quicquid arat, the fruits of his ploughing. Strabo (6, p. 284) speaks of the plains of North Apulia as πάμφοροί τε καὶ πολύφοροι, but we hear of them chiefly as used for pasture. Possibly Horace, in want of the name of a corn-growing Italian district, might insert Apulia without weighing its pretensions very nicely (see on 1. 22. 13). He singles out the industry of the husbandman rather than the fertility of the soil. For the lengthening of the last syllable of' arat' see on 1. 3. 36. impiger, Epod. 2. 42.

28. Cp. the similar oxymoron in Sat. 2. 3. 142 Pauper argenti positi intus et auri.'

29. Cp. the description of his farm, Sat. 2. 6. I 'modus agri non ita magnus, Hortus ubi et tecto vicinus iugis aquae fons Et paulum silvae super his.' So also Epp. 1. 16. 1-14.

30. segetis certa fides. The opposite is 'fundus mendax,' 3. 1. 30. Cp. Virg. G. 1. 226 ‘illos Expectata seges vanis elusit aristis.'

31. Constr. 'fallit beatior sorte (Aavoávei ¿dßiæтépa ovoa) fulgentem fertilis Africae imperio,' 'is a lot happier than his, though he cannot see it, who glitters in the lordship of fertile Africa.' This seems to be a hyperbolical way of describing a man who owns wide corn-lands in Africa, as another is said in v. 41 to join in one sweep the kingdom of Alyattes to the broad plains of Phrygia.' Cp. 2. 2. 10-12 ‘si Libyam remotis Gadibus iungas et uterque Poenus Serviat uni,' and read with this the note there. Ritter takes 'fertilis Africae' with 'sorte,' comparing Sors Asiae'=' the proconsulship of Asia,' Tac. Ann. 3. 58 and 71, ‘is a happiness beyond the proconsulship of rich Africa, though he cannot see it who is in the dazzling light of power' ('fulgentem verum latere facilius potest quod dignitatis splendor oculos praestrinxit'). But in this rendering, if stress is to be laid on the glory of power, we lose the force of the epithet 'fertilis' and of the direct comparison with the poet's few acres and certain crops. If we emphasize' fertilis,' as implying that the proconsul of Africa has the opportunity of enriching himself, fulgentem imperio' loses much of its meaning. The metaphors grow to a great extent out of the context. Fulgentem imperio' is an echo of dominus splendidior': 'regnum Alyattei,' &c., as an exemplification of vectigalia porrigam,' is suggested by the proverbial wealth of Croesus.

33 foll. Cp. the enumeration of the forms of Roman wealth in 1.

31.3-12.

Calabrae apes, 2. 6. 14.

34. Laestrygonia, from Formiae. Cp. 1. 20. 11, and see Introd. to