Acer et Mauri peditis cruentum
Vultus in hostem ;

Sive mutata iuvenem figura
Ales in terris imitaris almae
Filius Maiae, patiens vocari

Caesaris ultor :

Serus in caelum redeas diuque
Laetus intersis populo Quirini,
Neve te nostris vitiis iniquum

Tollat; hic magnos potius triumphos, Hic ames dici pater atque princeps,

Neu sinas Medos equitare inultos,
Te duce, Caesar.

dignity, but of princeps in republica,'
'princeps civitatis,' 'first citizen," a phrase
which had been used informally of
Pompey by Cicero (ad Fam. 1. 9) and
by Jul. Caesar of himself (Suet. Jul. 29).
It was therefore a title probably that
grew, and was not conferred at any
definite date.

51. He is to restore the disturbed order of things, vv. 21, 22, to stay the

civil war, and to retrieve the military glory of Rome, which had been tarnished by the defeat of Crassus in B. C. 53, and Antony in B. C. 36.

equitare, Od. 2. 9. 24.

52. Caesar. The true name of the incarnate Mercury is reserved to be the last word left on our ears, the word that stills all the fears and satisfies all the doubts of the preceding stanzas.

ODE III.

'O SHIP, in which Virgil is sailing to Greece, carry thy precious burden safely. It is a dreadful risk, the sea. He was a hard, bold man who first ventured upon it. The gods meant it to be a barrier impassable, but man delights in disobedience. Prometheus brought fire on earth and sickness with it. Daedalus tried to fly. Acheron was no barrier to Hercules. Where shall we stop? and when will Jove be able to lay aside his bolts of wrath?'

This Ode has been often referred to the voyage of Virgil to Athens, from which he returned only to die in B. C. 19. This, however, would fix its composition four years later than the date which on other grounds we assign to the publication of Books i-iii; nor is it an Ode which is likely to have been inserted after publication. Given to the world in Virgil's lifetime, it is playful and affectionate, but it would seem cold and irrelevant to be published after his early death, and in a volume in which it was the sole record of their friendship. Franke felt the difficulty so much that he proposed to read 'Quintilium' for 'Vergilium,' thinking that he could trace a correspondence between this Ode and i. 24, especially in v. 11 'heu non ita creditum.' It has even been suggested that it may have been another Vergilius, as is the case no doubt with Od. 4. 12. The simplest solution is that the reference is to another voyage. All we know even of the voyage in B.C. 19 is due to the fragmentary biography which goes by the name of Donatus, and which is not supposed to be earlier than the fifth century.

It is one of the many instances of Horace's careful placing of his Odes that the Ode placed next to those which express his devotion to Maecenas and to Caesar should be one that bears the name of the friend to whose introduction (Sat. 1. 6. 54) he owed his acquaintance with the former, and therefore with the latter the author of his fortunes and his literary ideal.

The form of the Ode may have been suggested by a poem of Callimachus, the beginning of which is preserved :

ἃ ναῦς ἃ τὸ μόνον φέγγος ἐμὸν τὸ γλυκὺ τᾶς ζωᾶς

ἅρπαξας, ποτί τυ Ζάνος ἱκνεῦμαι λιμενοσκόπω.

Statius' Propempticon Metio Celeri, Sylv. 3. 2, is in great part an expansion of Horace's poem. We may contrast Horace's wishes for the voyage of an enemy, Epod. 10.

The tirade against sea-travelling as one form of man's restless audacity is in part playful; and as Prof. Sellar (Roman Poets of the Augustan Age, p. 120) suggests, adapted to Virgil's own temperament and expressed feelings: but Horace recurs to the idea that commerce and the mingling of nations are against nature and a source of evil, and that if the golden age could return they would cease; Od. 3. 24. 36-41, Epod. 16. 57–62. Cp. Virg. E. 4. 32-39; and Hesiod ěpya kaì ἡμέραι 236.

Metre Third Asclepiad.

SIC te diva potens Cypri,

Sic fratres Helenae, lucida sidera,
Ventorumque regat pater
Obstrictis aliis praeter Iäpyga,

Navis, quae tibi creditum
Debes Vergilium, finibus Atticis

1-7. sic..regat..reddas. This may be taken, 'Pay back (may Venus so guide thee),' etc., a wish, with a parenthetical wish for that which is necessary to its accomplishment. But 'sic' in wishes, as in protestations, seems always to involve a condition; see Conington's note on Virg. E. 9. 30 'Sic tua Cyrneas fugiant examina taxos,.. Incipe;' cp. Od. 1. 28. 25. May you suffer shipwreck if you do not pay back,' etc. The prayer is illogical, for if the ship did suffer shipwreck on the voyage it could not land Virgil safely. But the ship is personified, and charged by its hopes of happiness to perform a certain task; and what happiness can a ship look for but calm seas and favouring winds?

1. potens Cypri, for the gen. cp. Od. 1. 5. 15 'potenti maris deo'; 1. 6. 10 musa lyrae potens.' He is addressing Venus (marina,'Od. 3. 26. 5, 4. 11. 15); she was worshipped at Cnidus under the name of evλola, Paus. 1. 1. 4. Cp. Ov. Her. 19. 160 Auso Venus ipsa favebit, Sternet et aequoreas acquore nata vias.'

2. fratres Helenae, Castor and Pollux,' Od. 4. 8. 31 Clarum Tyndaridae sidus ab infimis Quassas eripiunt aequoribus rates.' Cp. 1. 12. 25 foll.,

5

3. 29. 64. They were especial protectors of sailors, who saw their presence in the electric lights which are said to play about the spars of a vessel at times after stormy weather in the Mediterranean, and which are now called St. Elmo's fire. It is these, and not the constellation Gemini, that are the 'lucida sidera.' Cp. Statius Pro. Met. Cel. 8 Proferte benigna Sidera, et antennae gemino considite cornu.'

3. regat, for the number, see on v. 10. pater, Aeolus,' from Hom. Od. 10. 21; cp. Virg. Aen. 1. 52.

say, by both.

Reddas incolumem, precor,
Et serves animae dimidium meae.
Illi robur et aes triplex

Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci
Commisit pelago ratem

Primus nec timuit praecipitem Africum
Decertantem Aquilonibus

Nec tristes Hyadas nec rabiem Noti,
Quo non arbiter Hadriae
Maior, tollere seu ponere vult freta.

This is a construction which Horace often adopts for the sake of brevity, and to avoid clumsy and unmanageable pronouns and particles. Compare the position of 'consiliis' in Od. 2. 11. II; of 'sibi' in 3. 8. 19; of 'cantare' in Sat. 1. 3. 2. The metaphor of a 'depositum' (Stat. 1. c. 5 'Grande tuo rarumque damus, Neptune, profundo Depositum') is sustained through the words 'creditum,' 'debes,' 'reddas'; with incolumem' the' safety' of Virgil becomes again more prominent than the entireness' of the repayment.

8. et, and so.' It couples two descriptions of the same action, first in its relation to Virgil, then in its relation to Horace, cp. 2. 2. 10, 4. 13. 10.

animae dimidium, 'secundum illam amicitiae definitionem φιλία ἐστὶ μία ψυχὴ ἐν δυοῖν σώμασιν, Porph. ; Call. Εp. 43 ἥμισύ μεν ψυχῆς ἔτι τὸ πνέον, ἥμισυ δ ̓ οὐκ οἶδ' ͵ εἶτ ̓ Ἔρος εἴτ ̓ Αΐδης ἥρπασε, πλὴν ἀφανές. Cp. Od. 2. 17. 5 'te meae partem animae.'

9. robur et aes triplex. The original of this and other expressions of the kind is the Homeric σιδήρεος θυμός, II. 21 357; σιδήρειον ἦτορ, 24. 205. Jani took the words as='robur aeris triplicis,' quoting Virg. Aen. 7. 609 'aeternaque robora ferri.' But the accumulation oak and triple brass' is like Aesch. P. V. 242 σιδηρόφρων τε κἀκ πέτρας εἰργασμένος: ep. Od. 3. 16. 2 'turris aenea Robustaeque fores.' It is common both in Greek and Latin to put the two things conjunctively, rather than as alternatives; cp. Hector's wish for Paris, Il. 3. 40 αἴθ ̓ ὄφελες ἄγονός τ' ἔμεναι ἄγαμός τ' ἀπολέσθαι. See on Od. 3. 11. 49.

10. erat. It is common in Horace to find a singular verb with two or three subjects where all, or the one nearest

1Ο

15

to the verb, are singular. Bentley gives a list on Od. 1. 24. 8 Cui Pudor et Iustitiae soror Incorrupta Fides nudaque Veritas Quando ullum inveniet parem?' Od. 1. 2. 38, 1. 3. 3, 1. 4. 16, 1. 6. 10, I. 34. 12, 1. 35. 21, 26, 2. 13. 38, 2. 18. 26, 3. 3. 10, 3. 6. 10, 12, 14, 3. 11. 20, 50, 3. 16. 32, 4. 5. 18, 22, 4. 8. 27.

fragilem truci. For the collocation of the contrasted epithets, cp. Od. 1. 6. 9 tenues grandia'; 1. 15. 2 'perfidus hospitam'; 1. 29. 10, 2. 4. 2, 3, 2. 10. 6, 8, 2. 12. 1, 37. 13, 3.11. 46.

12. nec timuit. We may compare the curious remark about the possible excess of fearlessness in Arist. Eth. N. 3. 7. 7 εἴη δ' ἄν τις μαινόμενος ἢ ἀνάλγητος, εἰ μηδὲν φοβοῖτο, μήτε σεισμὸν μήτε τὰ κύματα, καθάπερ φασὶ τοὺς Κελτούς.

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, III, says that the Romans, mistaking the derivation, called them ""Suculae a suibus.'

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

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

ponere, the wind 'lays' the waves

Quem Mortis timuit gradum, Qui siccis oculis monstra natantia, Qui vidit mare turbidum et Infames scopulos Acroceraunia? Nequiquam deus abscidit

Prudens Oceano dissociabili

Terras, si tamen impiae

Non tangenda rates transiliunt vada. Audax omnia perpeti

Gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas.