25 30 Quam quae per pronum trepidat cum murmure rivum? Tortum digna sequi potius quam ducere funem. 65 35 40 45 hills was led in leaden pipes.-22. Even in the city people strive to make their houses as rural as possible, thus practically admitting the superiority of the country. Nempe, but assuredly.' Variae columnae are the pillars of variegated marble which stood in the middle of the atrium, enclosing the so-called impluvium, a small open space with a fountain, and, if possible, a tree.-25. Fastidia, the ennui or weariness incident to fashionable life in a city.-26. Here the second part of the epistle begins, in which Horace shows that to the attainment of a happy life striving after true good, and contempt of everything which falsely pretends to be good, is necessary. Contendere = comparare, and hence also distinguere. -30. Plus nimio plus aequo, i. 2, 29.-31. Mutatae; that is, when adversae. Pones depones.-34. Melior=fortior, and in the next line minor victus. Herbis = pascuis = 29. Metallis quam metalla sunt, than gold and silver."-42. Ut calceus olim, a common figure. When a shoe is too large, it upsets the wearer (subvertet); when too small, it causes pains and bunions.-45. The sense is: you will scold me, if my moral maxims do not please you, just as I have been scolding you, because I do not approve of your mode of life.—48. The figure is taken from a ship which is towed by a rope. Money Haec tibi dictabam post fanum putre Vacunae, 50 should be the ship, not the tow-rope.-49. Fanum Vacunae, a place near Horace's Sabine farm, of which the site cannot be accurately determined. Vacuna was a Sabine divinity, identified by some with Diana, by others with Ceres, and by others again with Venus. At all events, she was a country goddess, who presided over the fields, and gave them fertility. EPISTOLA XI. AD BULLATIUM. A LETTER to a man called Bullatius, otherwise unknown, who, in travelling, was seeking rest for his mind. Horace shows that he can find it only in contentment. QUID tibi visa Chios, Bullati, notaque Lesbos, 5 10 Sed neque qui Capua Romam petit, imbre Intoque Frigus collegit, furnos et balnea laudat Ut fortunatam plene praestantia vitam; 15 1. Quid tiba visa, scil. sunt esse.-2. Concinna, referring to the beautiful buildings in Samos, particularly the temple of Juno.-4. Sordent, are contemptible, mean.'-5. Attalicis ex urbibus. See Carm. i. 1, 12. The towns formerly governed by Attalus were Pergamus, Apollonia, Thyatira, and others.-6. The idea is: or art thou so sick of travelling that thou art pleased even with Lebedus? He himself answers this question negatively, in line 11, and following. Lebedus, one of the twelve Ionian cities, once wealthy and famous. -13. Frigus collegit, has caught cold.'-16. Vendas, thus showing that you are so thoroughly disgusted with the sea, that, rather than Incolumi Rhodos et Mitylene pulchra facit, quod Tu, quamcunque deus tibi fortunaverit horam, Coelum, non animum mutant, qui trans mare currunt. Quadrigis petimus bene vivere. Quod petis, hic est, 25. venture on it again, you will live an exile from your country.-17. Incolumi 6 = sano, to a man in sound mind.' Mitylene was the chief town of Lesbos.-18. Paenula, a heavy winter cloak; campestre, a thin apron, which was the only thing that young men wore when engaged in gymnastic exercises in the Campus Martius. — 21. Absens. Properly, and in prose, the person himself, living in Rome, and consequently absent from Samos, would be called absens. Si,if,' as really happens, hence, ‘as.'- 26. Locus effusi late maris arbiter, a place which commands the sea far and wide.'- -28. Strenua inertia, a busy idleness.' 30. Ulubrae, a small and deserted town near the Pomptine marshes, and consequently not a pleasant or healthful place of abode. The modern Cisterna is generally believed to occupy its site. The sense is: with contentment you may live happily in Rome (hic), ay, even at Ulubrae. 6 EPISTOLA XII. AD ICCIUM. THIS epistle, as well as the 29th ode of the 1st book, is addressed to Iccius. In the first part of it Horace exhorts him to remain content with the comfortable and safe situation which he held; in the second part he recommends to him a certain Pompeius Grosphus. Iccius was a procurator · that is, factor in Sicily for M. Agrippa, whose estates he managed. FRUCTIBUS Agrippae Siculis, quos colligis, Icci, 1. The sense is: from the income of Agrippa's Sicilian property thou hast as much as may enable thee to live comfortably. Fructus is income generally, not necessarily agricultural produce. · 2. Non Ab Jove donari possit tibi. Tolle querelas ; 5 10 Cultaque, dum peregre est animus sine corpore velox; 15 Quae mare compescant causae, quid temperet annum, Quid premat obscurum lunae, quid proferat, orbem, = 20 25 est ut = fieri non potest ut. — -4. Cui rerum suppetit usus, 'who has as much at his command as he needs.'-7. In medio posita are things placed ready for use, so that one needs only to put out his hand to have them. 8. Sic vives protinus perge sic vivere, the future having here the force of an imperative. Gram. § 367, note. Ut, 'even granting or supposing that,' etiamsi. Gram. 352, note 1. -13. Peregre est = peregrinatur, is wandering, is abroad on its travels.'-17. Jussaene; scil. a deo, hence, according to fixed laws.' The planets are meant.-18. The cause of the waning and waxing of the moon. 19. Rerum concordia discors; that is, the universe, in which we see great variety, and yet throughout a perfect harmony.-20. The sense is: whether the Pythagorean philosophy or that of the Stoics is false. For the joke's sake he names as the representative of the latter a certain ridiculous philosopher called Stertinius, who, as the scholiasts tell us, had written 220 books of Stoica. Stertinium acumen = Stertinius acutus.-21. A joke in regard to Iccius's simple fare. The word trucidare is used ludicrously of vegetables.-23. Verum = rectum.-24. A proverb: one can easily gain friends when brave men are in want of anything-namely, by supplying their need.-26. Cantaber. See Carm. ii. 6. As to Tiberius Claudius Nero's expedition to Armenia, see Epist. i. 3. King Phraates of Parthia restored, in the year 20 B. c., the prisoners and standards taken in the unfortunate campaigns of Crassus and Antony. On coins of Augustus we find a representation of the Parthian Armenius cecidit; jus imperiumque Phraates Caesaris accepit genibus minor; aurea fruges 'Italiae pleno defundit Copia cornu. monarch kneeling (genibus minor), and doing homage to the emperor.-29. As to the horn of plenty, see Carm. Saec., 60. EPISTOLA XIII. AD VINIUM ASELLAM. THE poet gives injunctions to his servant, C. Vinius Fronto Asella, to whom he has intrusted some of his poems to be taken to the emperor of Rome. Ur proficiscentem docui te saepe diuque, = 5 10 2. Signata obsignata. Vinius is not to open them by the way, nor show them to any one.- 4. Studio nostri, from love to me.' Do not be too zealous in your services (sedulus minister), lest your hurry to give Augustus the poems should prejudice him against them.-6. Uret. A heavy load inflames the shoulder on which it rests. The joke which follows is founded on Asina, the nickname of Vinius's father. The figure is taken from an ass, which, when it reaches its destination, madly eager to get rid of its packsaddle, pushes against a wall, and thus breaks it off. — 9. Fabula fias; that is, become the subject of a story among the wits at court, about the boorish fashion in which my poems were brought to the emperor. 11. Victor propositi, when thou hast fulfilled thy resolution' to carry the poems to the emperor. 12. The messenger is not to carry in the packet under his arm, but elegantly in his right hand, and thus to hand it to the emperor. -14. Pyrrhia, the name of a slave in a play by a certain Titinnius. She stole a bundle of wool, 6 |