Iliæ dum se nimium querenti

Jactat ultorem, vagus et sinistra
Labitur ripa, Jove non probante, u-
xorius amnis.

Audiet cives acuisse ferrum,

Quo graves Persæ melius perirent;
Audiet pugnas, vitio parentum
Rara, juventus.

Quem vocet Divûm populus ruentis
Imperî rebus? prece qua fatigent
Virgines sanctæ minus audientem
Carmina Vestam?

Cui dabit partes scelus expiandi
Jupiter? Tandem venias, precamur,

the old Persian Empire.

regis, was the official residence of the | is identified, in Carm., II. ii. 17.,with Pontifex Max.; it was close to the Temple of Vesta. (See for an account of both, Cookesley's Index, and Map of Rome, pp. 46, 47.)

17. Ilia, or Silvia. When condemned by Amulius, and thrown into the river, she became the wife of the river god. "Post ex fluvio fortuna resistet." Ennius, quoted by Niebuhr, Hist. of R. vol. i. p. 175., where also see his explanation of Rhea, or Rea. 18. sinistra, the south side,' the side of Rome.

6

19. Jove. The Capitoline Jupiter, the tutelar deity. So Carm. III. v. 12., where "incolumi Jove" is interpreted by the Scholiast, "salvo Capitolio."

22. Persæ. Again, Carm. I. xxi. 15.:

So Medos, ver. 51.; Carm. I. xxix. 4., and Parthi, 1. xii. 53.

These names are all equivalent. The Persæ and Medi were included in the great Parthian Empire, which

The dynasties were these:- - Cyrus to Darius Codomanus, B. c. 331, a period of 228 years.

Then the Seleucidae, under the third of whom (Antiochus Theos.) Arsaces formed the nucleus of a new power.

The line of Arsacidæ reigned from 250 B. c. to 229 A. D., a period of 480 years, over 18 kingdoms, from the Euphrates to the Ganges, and from the Caspian to the Arabian Sea.

The Arsacidæ were in their turn succeeded by the Second Persian monarchy, and the line of Sassanidæ, from 229 to 651 A.D.

24. rara, 'lessened in number,' i. e. by the havoc of the civil wars. 28. Vestam. Virg. Georg. i. 499. minus audientem. i. e. indignant at the death of J. Cæsar. cp. Ov. Fast. iii. 697-707. Cæsar's death is again referred to in ver. 44. 29. scelus. Gr. Tò ǎyos.

Nube candentes humeros amictus,
Augur Apollo;

Sive tu mavis, Erycina ridens,

Quam Jocus circum volat et Cupido;
Sive neglectum genus et nepotes
Respicis, auctor,

Heu nimis longo satiate ludo,

Quem juvat clamor galeæque leves,
Acer et Mauri peditis cruentum
Vultus in hostem ;

Sive mutata juvenem figura
Ales in terris imitaris, almæ

Filius Maiæ, patiens vocari
Cæsaris ultor:

31. Hom. Il. o. 308.:

Φοίβος Απόλλων

εἱμένος ὤμοιιν νεφέλην. "Kerchiefed in a comely cloud."

Milton, 11 Penseroso. 32. Apollo is first invoked (properly so, if Müller is right in the meaning of the name-άπотрожаîos, Dor. vol. i. p. 323.), either as the guardian of the Cæsars (see Heyne on Virg. Ecl. iv. 10.), or as the god of augury, which is his title here; for the expiation of prodigies, in common with other points of religious ceremonial, belonged to the office of augur.

Ovid (Fast. i. 611.), connects augur both with Augustus and augeo, using the verb in the sense of promoting the empire's prosperity.

33. Erycina, Venus, so called from M. Eryx in Sicily. See Virg. Æn. v. 759.

ridens. piλoμμeidǹs 'Appodíтn. Hom. II. y. 424. 37. satiate, you who have in

35

40

dulged to the full...' nearly as ädŋv čλeisev aiuatos, in Esch. Agam. 837.

39. Mauri peditis. Gesn. and Orell. suggest that this may mean a Moor fighting on foot after his horse is slain- -an emblem of desperate courage (such as Witherington's in "Chevy Chase"), and possibly taken from a picture. Bentley conj. Marsi, an obvious correction, if needed. 41. juvenem used as in Virg. Ecl. i. 43., Georg. i. 500: an ascription perhaps of perpetual youth to Augustus as to a divinity. The whole stanza, with its context, is in a strain of most refined adulation (to be compared with the beginning and the end of Virgil's first Georgic), implying that he to whose government they look for redress and remedy of the state's sufferings is really more than man, and but lent to the earth for a time. Perhaps it is as the author of civilisation (Carm. x. 2.) that he is thus identified with Mercury.

Serus in cœlum redeas, diuque
Lætus intersis populo Quirini,
Neve te, nostris vitiis iniquum,
Ocior aura

Tollat: hic magnos potius triumphos,
Hic ames dici Pater atque Princeps,
Neu sinas Medos equitare inultos,
Te duce, Cæsar.

45

50

CARMEN III.

AD VIRGILIUM.

SIC te Diva potens Cypri,

Sic fratres Helena, lucida sidera,
Ventorumque regat pater,

Obstrictis aliis præter Iapyga,
Navis, quæ tibi creditum

Debes Virgilium finibus Atticis

Reddas incolumem, precor,

Et serves animæ dimidium meæ.

voked for a fair passage in Solon, Fr. x.:

αὐτὰρ ἐμὲ ξὺν νῆϊ θοῇ κλεινῆς ἀπὸ νήσου

ἀσκηθῆ πέμποι Κύπρις ἰοστέφανος. So Neptune says, Virg. Æn. v. 800: Fas omne est, Cytherea, meis te fidere regnis

Unde genus ducis.

Cp. Ov. Epist. xv. 213., xvi. 24.
2. fratres Helenæ, Castor and
Pollux. See Carm. 1. xii. 27.

4. Iapyx. The wind blowing from Iapygia, the north-west; therefore in this case a favourable wind.

5. creditum. So Catull, Ixiv. 213., concrederet.

8. animæ dimidium. See Carm.

Illi robur et æs triplex

Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci
Commisit pelago ratem

Primus, nec timuit præcipitem Africum
Dercertantem Aquilonibus,

Nec tristes Hyadas, nec rabiem Noti,

Quo non arbiter Hadriæ

Major, tollere seu ponere vult freta.
Quem Mortis timuit gradum,

Qui siccis oculis monstra natantia,
Qui vidit mare turgidum et

Infames scopulos Acroceraunia?
Nequidquam Deus abscidit

Prudens Oceano dissociabili

Terras, si tamen impiæ

Non tangenda rates transiliunt vada.
Audax omnia perpeti

P. L. ii.

20. Acroceraunia. A headland of Epirus, famous for storms. Der. Kepavvós. Alta Ceraunia, Virg. Georg. i. 332. Used proverbially: hæc Acroceraunia vita, Ov. Rem.

22. Oceano dissociabili. "Has separated continents by means of the Ocean, disuniting them.'

dissoc. used actively. So in Lucret. i. 11., genitabilis; in Ov. Met. xiii. 837., and Virg. Georg. i. 93.,

Navita quas Hyadas Graius ab
imbre vocat. Ov. Fast. v. 165.
Virgil, alluding to the same deriva-penetrabilis.
tion (ev, pluere), calls them plu-
vias: En. iii. 516.

15. arbiter. Carm. III. iii. 5.: Dux Hadriæ.

16. ponere seu tollere. Seu is

omitted in the first clause.

18. siccis, i. e. unmoved. So Mil

26. Cf. Ov. Am. 11. iv. 9.:

Semina nequitiæ languidiora facit. ipsa potestas

Nitimur in vetitum semper, cupi

musque negata.

Audax Iapeti genus

Ignem fraude mala gentibus intulit:
Post ignem ætheria domo

Subductum, Macies et nova Febrium
Terris incubuit cohors,

Semotique prius tarda necessitas

Leti corripuit gradum.

Expertus vacuum Dædalus aëra

Pennis non homini datis ;

Perrupit Acheronta Herculeus labor.

Nil mortalibus ardui est ;

Coelum ipsum petimus stultitia, neque

Per nostrum patimur scelus

Iracunda Jovem ponere fulmina.

27. Iapeti g. Prometheus. See | fore) slow in its approach, quickened

sch. P. V. 252., πûρ ¿yú op ὤπασα ; and for the benefits and inventions assigned to him, see vv. 250.457-468. 482. sq. See also below, Carm. xvi. 13.: Проμndeús, 'possessed of forethought.' Esch. P. V. 86. his brother, 'Emunoeús, 'afterthought.'

30. ignem subductum, 'the withdrawal of fire.' See note on Carm. 11. iv. 10.

31. incubuit. So Lucret. vi. 1142. 32. i. e. the duration of man's life was shortened.

semoti and prius tarda, express the same idea.: 'Death, which seemed at a distance and (there

its pace.'

necessitas leti, poet. for letum. Gr. ȧvayкaîov μap.

34. Dædalus. Virg. Æn. vi. 14.; Ov. A. A. ii. 21. sqq.

35. non homini, i. e. 'not meant for man.'

Gr. βίη

36. Herculeus labor. 'Нpakλnein, Hom. Od. λ. 600. But Orell. int.: "Hercules qui omnes labores fortiter exantlavit," and adds "Haud cogitandum de Græco modo."

38. stultitiâ, 'in our folly.' 40. iracunda. ἔγχεις ζακότοιο, Pind. Nem. vi. 55.