ODE XV. TO AUGUSTUS, ON THE RESTORATION OF PHOEBUS chided me, when I was meditating to sing of battles and conquered cities on the lyre, that I might not set my little sails along the vast Tyrrhenian sea. Your age, O Cæsar, hath both restored plenteous crops to the fields, and has brought back to our Jupiter * the Roman standards, torn from the proud pillars of the Parthians; and has shut up the temple of Janus, founded by Romulus, now free from war; and has imposed a due discipline upon headstrong licentiousness, and has extirpated crimes, and recalled the ancient arts; by which the Latin name and strength of Italy have increased, and the fame and majesty of the empire are extended, from the sun's western bed, even to the east. While Cæsar is at the head of affairs, neither civil rage, nor violence, shall disturb the general tranquillity; nor hatred, which forges swords, and sets at variance unhappy states. Not those who drink of the deep Danube shall now break the Julian edicts; not the Getæ, not the Seres, or the perfidious Persiars, nor those born upon * The temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. Nosque et profestis lucibus et sacris, Cum prole, matronisque nostris, Virtute functos, more patrum, duces, Trojamque, et Anchisen, et almæ the river Tanais. And let us, both on common and festal days, amidst the gifts of joyous Bacchus, together with our wives and families,, having first, duly invoked the gods, celebrate, after the manner of our ancestors, with songs accompanied with Lydian pipes, our late valiant commanders, and Troy, and Anchises, and the offspring of benign Venus. QUINTI HORATII FLACCI ΕΠΟΔΩΝ LIBER. CARMEN I. AD MECENATEM. Ad bellum Actiacum profecturo comitem se offert. IBIS Liburnis inter alta navium, Amice, propugnacula, Paratus omne Cæsaris periculum Subire, Mæcenas, tuo. Quid nos? quibus te vita* sit superstite Jucunda; si contrà, gravis.? Utrumne jussi persequemur otium Non dulce, ni tecum simul? • Vitâ si superstite. 5 HORACE'S EPODES; OR THE FIFTH BOOK OF THE ODES. ODE I. TO MECENAS. / Horace offers to accompany him, on his departure for the Actian expedition. YOU will go, my friend Mæcenas, with Liburnian galleys, amongst the towering forts of Antony's large ships, ready at your own hazard to undergo any of Cæsar's dangers. What shall I do? to whom life may indeed be agreeable if you survive, but, if otherwise, it will be insupportable. Whether shall I, at your commands, pursue my ease, which cannot be pleasing unless in your company? or shall I endure this toil with such a courage as becomes uneffeminate men to bear?--I |