Q. HORATII FLACCI CARMINUM LIBER III. CARMEN I. Felicitatem in honoribus ac divitiis positam non esse. ODI profanum vulgus, et arceo. Virginibus puerisque canto. Regum timendorum in proprios greges, THE THIRD BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE. ODE I. That happiness consists not in honours and riches. I ABOMINATE the uninitiated vulgar, and drive them off. Give a religious attention: I, the priest of the muses, sing to virgins and boys verses not heard before. The dominion of dread sovereigns is only over their own subjects,* that of Jupiter, glorious for his conquest over the giants, who shakes all nature with his nod, is over sovereigns themselves. It happens that one man plants * Literally flocks. Homer is fond of terming kings shepherds of the people, Thus the true Gon entitles himself the shepherd of his people, and them, the sheep of his pasture: the expression therefore is not too low for the pomp of the strophe. Est, ut viro vir latiùs ordinet Moribus hic meliorque famâ Omne capax movet urna nomen. Somnum reducent. Somnus agrestium Lenis virorum non humiles domos Desiderantem quod satis est, neque Tumultuosum solicitat mare, Nec sævus Arcturi cadentis Impetus, aut orientis Hodi: Non verberatæ grandine vineæ, Fundusque mendax'; arbore nunc aquas Contracta pisces æquora sentiunt, Cum famulis, dominusque terræ Fastidiosus: sed timor, et minæ Post equitem sedet atra cura. Esto ut viro. Bentl. trees, in regular rows, to a greater extent than another; this man comes down into the Campus Martius as a candidate of a better family, while another vies with him for morals and a better reputation; a third has a superior number of dependents: but death, by the impartial law of nature, is allotted both to the conspicuous and the obscure: the capacious urn keeps every name in motion. Sicilian dainties will not force a delicious relish* to that man, over whose impious neck the naked sword impends: the songs of birds or the lyre will not restore his sleep. Gentle sleep disdains not the humble cottages of peasants, and the shady bank; he disdains not Tempe, fanned by zephyrs. Him, who desires but a competency, neither the tempestuous sea renders anxious, nor the malign violence of Arcturus setting, or of the rising kid; nor his vineyards beaten down with hail, and a deceitful farm, his plantations at one season blaming the rains, at another, the influence of the constellations parching the grounds; at another, severe winters disturb him. The fishes perceive the seas contracted by the vast foundations that have been laid into the deep hither numerous undertakers, with their men, and lords disdainful of the land, send down mortar but anxiety, and the threats of conscience, ascend by the same way as the possessor: nor does gloomy care depart from the brazen-beaked galley, and she mounts behind the horseman. Seeing then neither the Phrygian marble, nor the Quòd si dolentem nec Phrygius lapis, Vitis, Achæmeniumve costum; CARMEN II. AD AMICOS. Bellicam fortitudinem, probitatem, et arcani fidem commendat. ANGUSTAM, amici, pauperiem pati Condiscat, et Parthos feroces Vexet eques metuendus hastâ; Vitamque sub dio, et trepidis agat Prospiciens, et adulta virgo, Suspiret Eheu! ne rudis agminum * Divitias onerosiores. Bentl. |