si neque Euterpe fistulas coërcet,

Bacchus. But what poet, among the ancients, has not done so?

31. Leves.] Describes the agility of the nymphs dancing with the satyrs.

32. Secernunt populo.] The sense must be interpreted in correspondence with Diis miscent superis-lift me above the common lot, and place me among the Gods. Od. iii. 1. Odi profanum vulgus et arceo.

33. Euterpe-Polyhymnia.] The names of the Muses seem to be taken at random, without confining them to particular functions, just as musical instruments, wind and stringed, are often named promiscuously. It is the same with other poets.

34. Lesboum.] Alcæus and Sappho, who were both natives of the isle of Lesbos, are here alluded to.

Barbiton.] The form of the instrument is unknown. The Scholiast describes it as an

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ivory lyre of seven strings. Theocritus speaks of it as πολύχορδος.

35. Quod si, &c.] The honours of the poetthe rapt retirement of rural scenes- the propitious favours of the Muses charm me, and attach me to poetry; wherefore, if you, my friend and patron, enrol me in the list of lyric poets, I shall be at the summit of felicity-I shall touch the stars-my renown will reach the skies.

Lyricis vatibus.] Among the Greeks the chief, such as were universally recognised, were Pindar, Alcæus, Sappho, Stesichorus, Ibycus, Bacchylides, Simonides, Aleman, and Anacreon. Among the Romans, Horace himself was the first, and perhaps the only one, unless Catullus be added. Quintilian, lib. x. c. 1. is willing to add one Casius Bassus, who, however, he observes, was far surpassed by the genius of some living poets. Who they were, posterity has never heard.

vibransque fulmina in sacras arces manu flammatâ

ODE II. METRE VI.

Addressed to Augustus, or rather Octavius,

on the occasion of some unusual storms and floods. These commotions of the elements were signs of the still existing wrath of Jupiter, for the civil wars not yet fully atoned for;

while the devastations of the Tiber were nothing but the result of a fond but unwarranted subserviency to his wife's (Ilia's) resentments for the death of Cæsar. Jupiter must be appeased, and who so proper to conciliate him as Octavius, or Mercury, who had long assumed the form of Octavius. A prayer that he may still long abide with the Romans, enjoy his honours and triumphs, and repel the encroachments of the East, concludes this piece of more than Oriental adulation.

The date may be fixed with some probability. Octavius is called, in the Ode, pater atque princeps. The first is, of course, but a courtly term of respect; for he was not styled Pater Patriæ till after Horace's death; 9

but the last was a title of honour, conferred by special appointment, 726 U. C. His memorable triumphs, on the conclusion of the civil wars, mentioned in the same stanza, were celebrated only five months before the title of Princeps was conferred. The very coupling of these events, on such an occasion, shews they were fresh in the writer's recollection.

Had the subsequent, and of course superior, title of Augustus been in existence, it would not have been here forgotten. That title was not sanctioned till 727 U. C. Dion Cassius refers both Princeps and Augustus to the same year, but he is plainly mistaken. The piece may be safely assigned to the early part of 726 U. C.

1. Nivis.] The flood was the consequence of a deep fall of snow.

hills; but the addition of sacre here points to 3. Arces.] This word indicates the tops of the capitol, or rather the cluster of temples within the precincts of the capitol.

4. Urbem.] Rome. Town; precisely as we speak of London.

5. Gentes.] Only the people of Rome, hyperbolically.

Grave.] Dreadful.

6. Pyrrhæ.] The wife of Deucalion; her name is used instead of his, a woman's, the better to express the intense alarm. Deucalion's flood in Thessaly is sufficiently familiar from Ovid's Met. i. 260, &c.

Nova monstra.] Monstrum is a phænomenon-any thing out of the usual order of things, or of common experience. Specifically, the monstra are what follow. Pyrrha saw Proteus taking his phoca (seals) to the tops of the mountains-fishes on the trees-and deer swimming in fields.

7. Proteus.] A sea-deity, the keeper of Neptune's flock of seals. For his prophetic powers, and the mode of forcing him to exercise them, see Hom. Odyss. iv. 386, and Virg. Georg. iv. 395.

10. Columbis.]

Columba is the common pigeon, which does not build in trees. The wood-pigeon is palumbes; but columba may have been a generic term, embracing both. Besides, Horace was not writing like a naturalist.

11. Superjecto.] Supply in pruta, or something similar. The deer were swimming in the waters covering the fields, which had been their pastures.

13. Retortis.] The waters of the Tiber, instead of entering the sea, seemed driven back till they rose above its banks, and flooded the town. The fact, of course, is, that the bed of the river filled too rapidly, from the higher grounds, to carry off the water as usual. The stream did not recoil.

14. Litore Etrusco.] The mare Tyrrhenum, or mare inferum: the sea which washes the western shores of Italy, and into which the Tiber flows.

15. Ire dejectum.] The inundation washed

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Romæ terrorem incussit. Alias etiam nationes fecit timere, ne rediret triste tempus Pyrrhæ conquerentis ob prodigia inaudita; quando Proteus totum armentum duxit in excelsos montes; atque piscium genus adhæsit ulmi fastigio, qui locus 10 fuerat columbis cognitus, necnon damæ timidi nataverunt in mari superfuso. Aspeximus flavum Tiberim ire prostratum monumenta Regis Numa et ædem Vestæ, aquis magno impetu reflexis à ripâ Tusciam spectante; 15 dum hic fluvius, Jove indignante, nimiùm indulgens uxori Ilia dolenti præter modum, se vindicem ostentat, atque in lævum littus

the monumenta-the edifices of Numa-and threatened their destruction. Ire dejectum is not dejicere; it is, to go, in order to destroy; but the completion of the intention may or may not follow. It did not follow in this case; for "Numa regia et delubrum Vestæ," are expressly enumerated by Tacitus among the ancient buildings burnt in the conflagration of Rome, A.D. 65. Tac. Ann. xv. 41.

Monumenta regis.] The edifices built by Numa. These were the regia (domus) and the templa, i. e. ædes Veste. Nothing is recorded of any other, and these were, it appears, both within the same small enclosure.

Hic locus exiguus, qui sustinet atria Vesta Tunc erat intonsi regia magna Numæ. Ovid. Fast. vi. 263. 16. Templaque Vesta.] Monumenta is a generic term, and includes Templa Vestæ. If the expressions are to be closely pressedthey may be construed-" The monuments of the king, and (especially) the temple of Vesta" -particularised as being the more venerable.

17. Ilia.] Ilia, or Rhæa Silvia, the mother of Romulus. She was descended from Iulus, or Ascanius, Æneas's son, from whom also the family of Julius Cæsar traced their descent.

Nimium.] Must be construed with se ultorem, for, though Ilia stimulates, it is the Tiber which does the mischief. The word uxorius implies an excess in his devotion to his wife's commands.

Querenti.] Complaining of the assassination of her blood-relation, Julius Cæsar. Ilia had been thrown by her persecutors into the Anio, and was the wife of that river, which flows into the Tiber a few miles above Rome, and after its junction is of course identified with the Tiber. The Tiber is therefore represented as her husband, and the executor of her vengeance.

18. Vagus.] Going out of its channeloverflowing its banks.