errat exundans. Juvenes pauci Labitur ripâ, Jove non probante, ux culpâ parentum audient aliquan do Romanos strinxisse gladios, orius amnis. quibus justè magis confoderen- Audiet cives acuisse ferrum, tur Persæ graves: discentque Quo graves Persæ melius perirent; bella civilia. Quem Deorum Audiet pugnas vitio parentum populus invocet labente Republicâ? quibus votis instabunt Vir Rara juventus. gines sacratæ apud Vestam ob- Quem vocet Divom populus ruentis secrationes minimè suscipien- Imperî rebus? prece quâ fatigent tem? Cui Jupiter dabit munus eluendi crimen ? ô Phoebe fati- Virgines sanctæ minus audientem dice, obsecramus ut succurras, albos humeros nube habens. Seu vis potiùs adesse, Carmina Vestam? velatos Cui dabit partes scelus expiandi ô blanda Venus, circa quam Jupiter? Tandem venias, precamur, Joci et Amores volitant: seu Nube candentes humeros amictus, abjectam prolem atque posteros respicis, O Mars Romanæ gentis Augur Apollo; parens, eheu bello nimis diutur- Sive tu mavis, Erycina ridens, vum Respicis, auctor, NOTES. Sinistra ripâ.] Except the part on the Janiculum, the whole of Rome was built on the left bank of the river. The low grounds between the Aventine and Palatine hills were most exposed to inundations. The right and left bank of a river apply to the downward direction of the stream. 19. Jove non probante.] Disapproving of the unauthorized act of the Tiber. Jupiter himself had hurled his thunders at the capitol, but only to warn-to prompt the Romans to atonement for the crimes of civil war-not, like the Tiber, the blind agent of another, and with intent to destroy. 22. Persa.] The Parthians. Perirent.] For perituri fuissent. 20 25 30 35 so much the more calculated to alienate the goddess. 29. Scelus.] Crimes committed by the civil wars. 31. Nube candentes humeros amictus.] Veiled with a brilliant cloud. The bright colour is propitious, the dark the contrary. Candentes.] The effect of the resplendent cloud. Usually, when gods or men are enveloped in clouds, it is for the purpose of not being seen; but then, the cloud is equally invisible. 32. Augur.] Apollo especially presided over auguries, and was therefore the best qualified to assign the appropriate expiation. 33. Sive tu mavis.] Or if you would rather chil-supply venias, do you come to expiate, &c. 24. Rara juventus.] Our youth, our dren-the rising generation-few in number, from the destruction of the present, will learn from these dreaded signs of Jupiter's wrath, that the Romans sharpened their swords against each other, instead of avenging, as they ought to have done, the blow inflicted on them by the Parthians. The defeat of Crassus left a deep and lasting impression upon the Romans. Horace makes frequent allusion to the event. 26. Rebus.] Dative, instead of ad res,— whom should the people invoke to protect the affairs of the falling or sinking empire? 28. Carmina.] Precatory addresses chanted. Vestam.] Julius Cæsar, as Pontifex Maximus, was officially and closely connected with the worship of Vesta. His assassination was 8 Erycina.] From Eryx, a mountain in Sicily. A temple was dedicated at Rome, extra portam Collinam, expressly to Venus Erycina. Venus is here invoked as the progenetrix of Julius Cæsar. 35. Neglectum.] Supply à te-long, apparently, abandoned to mutual destruction by you (Mars). 36. Auctor.] Mars, the father of Romulus, and so the founder of the Roman race. 37. Heu! nimis longo satiate ludo.] Wearied at last with your sport, which has lasted, alas! too long. The ludus, or game of Mars, is, of course, war. 38. Clamor.] The battle-shout. 33.-4. of Conist thon rather, Eryx laughing Ringed by the hovering play of theith and done. Lord Lytton. best and stoutest soldiers of Italy. Od. ii. 20. 18. iii. 5. 9. Acer-cruentum.] The fierce glance (cast) at his bleeding foe. 41. Sive mutatá, &c.] Or, winged son of Maia, Mercury, do you come, or be you the expiator, if it be you who take the figure of the youth (Octavius), and suffer yourself to be styled the Avenger of Cæsar. Jurenem.] Octavius Cæsar was, at least, thirty-six years old; but the term was complimentary: Apollo, Mercury, Bacchus, are always juvenes. 44. Cæsaris ultor.] To avenge the death 40 adversarium feroci. Sive immu tatâ specie adolescentem exhibes in terrâ, tu alatus filius benignæ Maiæ, sinens te dici vindicem Julii Cæsaris: tarde remigres in cœlum; diuque maneas cum populo Romano, neque celerior 45 ventus rapiat te nostris criminibus infensum. Ama potiùs hic ingentes triumphos, et appellationem parentis auctorisque : neque patiaris, O Cæsar, te imperante, Medos impunè in equis 50 vagari. CARMEN III. AD VIRGILIUM. SIC te Diva potens Cypri, Obstrictis aliis præter Iapyga, ODE III. METRE II. NOTES. Virgil embarked 735 U. C. for Athens, to complete and correct his great national poem, the Æneid; but, doubtless, the poem may have been written on the occasion of some earlier voyage. Horace addresses the ship with an earnest invocation for the safety of his friend, and breaks into angry vituperations against the man whose daring temerity first tempted the deep-and all who have attempted to pass the grand barriers of nature. 1. Sic te, &c.] So may the gods direct your course in all future time, I pray, as you land Virgil in safety on the shores of Attica, O ship, who (debes) art pledged thither to conduct my friend, entrusted to your charge. Unpunished yet for their defeat Ita te salvam ducant Cypri Domina, et Helenæ fratres, astra fulgentia, et parens ventorum, conclusis reliquis, excepto Iapyge; Potens Cypri.] Mistress or queen of Cy prus. So Neptune, Od. i. 5. 15. is maris potens, master or lord of the sea; and, Carm. Sæc. Diana, potens sylvarum. Cyprus was the chief seat of her worship, and her favourite residence. 2. Fratres Helena.] Castor and Polluxthe Dioscuri, i. e. sons of Jupiter. The two conspicuous stars in the third sign of the zodiac-the Gemini. 3. Ventorumque pater.] Eolus, who controlled the winds within his cave, in one of the Vulcanian or the Lipari islands, not far from the north coast of Sicily. No winds could quit the cave without the sanction of Eolus. Virgil. Æn. i. 63. 4. Obstrictis aliis.] Aliis for ceteris. All O navis, quæ debes Virgilium Navis, quæ tibi creditum tibi commissum, oro ut eum sospitem applices ad littus Athe Debes Virgilium, finibus Atticis niense, ac tuearis partem dimi- Reddas incolumem, precor, diam animæ meæ. Is profectò Et serves animæ dimidium meæ. circa cor habebat lignum tresque Illi robur, et æs triplex Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci lem, neque metuit Africum vio- Commisit pelago ratem lentum cum Boreâ pugnantem, Primus, nec timuit præcipitem Africum neque Hyadas noxias, neque Decertantem Aquilonibus, furorem Austri: quo nullus est dominator in Adriatico mari Nec tristes Hyadas, nec rabiem Noti, potentior, sive concitare sive Quo non arbiter Hadria placare fluctus velit. Quid mor tis genus formidavit, qui oculis Major, tollere seu ponere vult freta. rectis aspexit pisces monstrosos Quem mortis timuit gradum, nantes, ac mare intumescens, et alta Ceraunia rupes naufragiis famosas ? Qui rectis oculis monstra natantia, 5 10 15 20 NOTES. the rest being tied up, in allusion to winds tied up in a bag, and given by olus to Ulysses. Homer. Odys. x. 29. Præter Iapyga.] W. N. W. wind, the most direct wind from the shores of Apulia-from Brundusium, the common point of departure in Italy, to the ports of Greece. 5. Creditum.] Credere, debere, reddere, are all terms in perfect correspondence with each other. 6. Finibus Atticis.] Depending upon reddas, apparently, though, elliptically, the words may be referred to creditum. Atticis.] Attica, a region of Greece, of which Athens was the capital. 8. Animæ dimidium meæ.] In Od. ii. 17. 5. Horace speaks of Mecenas as partem ani ma. 9. Robur.] Oak strictly; the hardest oak -heart of oak. The word is in frequent use for the most impenetrable substance. Es triplex, a triple plate of brass, is added, to give increased energy to the expression. Illi circa pectus.] i. e. around the heart (illius) of that man, who first, &c. Primus meaning neither Tiphys, nor Janus, nor Jason specifically, but whoever he or they might be who first floated a vessel for navigation. 12. Præcipitem.] Sweeping. Od. i. 1. 15. 14. Hyadas.] The cluster of small stars in the head of Taurus. Ovid must have derived the word from vet, to rain. Navita quos Hyadas Graius ab imbre vocat. Fast. v. 165. Both the rising and the setting of these stars were rainy seasons. The rising and the setting of stars, with the poets, are both referable to the sun's rising. The Hyades rose, according to Ovid, vi. Cal. Jun. i. e. the 27th May, and the setting, of course, six months after. Tristes.] Expressive of the effect of rains-miserable weather. Noti.] Notus or notos, from voric, mois. ture a wet wind. Notus is the Latin Auster, south-wind. 15. Quo non arbiter Hadria.] Than which Notus, there is no greater ruler-no wind which exercises a more powerful dominion over the Adriatic. When the Notus subsides, the Adriatic calms again; and so the Notus may be said to appease the waters as well as to rouse them. Od. iv. 14. 21. Hadria.] The Gulf of Venice; but as often still called the Adriatic, unaspirated. 17. Quem mortis gradum.] Scil. in via ad Orcum. What kind of death could he have dreaded, who beheld, &c. He must have been inaccessible-insensible to the feelings of fear, 18. Rectis oculis, &c.] Who looked with eyes direct-i. e. which did not shrink from the fearful sights before him. Rectis was Bentley's happy suggestion, now generally recognized, if not as perfectly sound, at least as more appropriate than siccis, the common reading. Fear, except in very feeble and delicate natures, does not readily draw tears. 18. Monstra natantia.] Large fishes, not usually seen near populous shores. 20. Infames-alta Ceraunia?] Now Cape della Lingueta, lofty rocks on the coast of Epirus, projecting far into the sea, and perilous in the navigation from Italy to Greece. Ceraunia (Kɛpavvia, scil. akoa) are "heights struck by lightning." Infames, from the frequency of wrecks; but doubtless Horace alludes to Octavius's narrow escape off these rocks, after the battle of Actium. |