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Deinde eo dormitum, non sollicitus mihi quod cras
Surgendum sit mane, obeundus Marsya, qui se
Vultum ferre negat Noviorum posse minoris.

Ad quartam jaceo; post hanc vagor; aut ego, lecto
Aut scripto quod me tacitum juvet, ungor olivo,
Non quo fraudatis immundus Natta lucernis.
Ast ubi me fessum sol acrior ire lavatum
Admonuit fugio Campum lusumque trigonem.
Pransus non avide, quantum interpellet inani
Ventre diem durare, domesticus otior.
Vita solutorum misera ambitione gravique ;
His me consolor victurum suavius ac si

Haec est

Then to sleep I proceed, ne'er uneasy lest for me the morrow
Means early to rise, and to wait on the Statue of Marsyas,
(Who claims he can't suffer the sight of the youngest of
Novians)

Thus rest I, till fourth-hour, and after that, wander; or

reading

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And writing what pleases me-lone thus-am duly annointed
With oil of olives (not such as foul Natta robs lamps of)
Or wearied-and if by the fiercer-grown sun's-rays, to bathing 125
Admonished-I quit the Mars' Field, and my game of the

hand-ball,

And next, after dining-not grossly, but just to fend off any weakness

Of stomach, the day through--indulge in home duties.

Lo, this is A life for one freed from all wretched ambitions! I, mark you, Console myself thus, living happier far than if Quaestors My father and grandfather-uncle, to boot-had been, ever.

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FROM ODE 3. IV.

(TO CALLIOPE; A poetic Reminiscence of Infancy.)

Me, once, upon Vultur, Apulia's mountain—

Both home, and Apulian nurse, then astray from,
And weary of play; whilst in slumbers

Of childhood—with fresh-leaves, the wood-doves

Of fable enveloped, to wonder of dwellers

In nests-Acherontian lofty, and those of

The forests of Bantia; of fields, too,

In fertile and lowly Forentum :

That there, from foul vipers, and bears, in full safety

I slept, and was crowned with the green, sacred myrtle

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Lauroque collataque myrto,

Non sine dis animosus infans.
Vester, Camenae, vester in arduos.
Tollor Sabinos, seu mihi frigidum
Praeneste seu Tibur supinum

Seu liquidae placuere Baiae.
Vestris amicum fontibus et choris
Non me Philippis versa acies retro,
Devota non exstinxit arbos,

Nec Sicula Palinurus unda.

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*

*

ILLE et nefasto te posuit die,

Quicunque primum, et sacrilega manu
Produxit, arbos, in nepotum

Perniciem opprobriumque pagi;
Illum et parentis crediderim sui
Fregisse cervicem et penetralia
Sparsisse nocturno cruore

Hospitis: ille venena Colchica
Et quidquid usquam concipitur nefas
Tractavit, agro qui statuit meo
Te, triste lignum, te caducum

In domini caput immerentis.

Quid quisque vitet nunquam homini satis
Cautum est in horas:

And laurel, so gathered; nor lacking

The aid of the Gods, thus emboldened. Thine am I, ye Muses; thine wholly, tho' lofty Heights-Sabine I mount, or for me is the cooler Præneste, and slopes of fair Tibur,

Or waters of Baiae delightful.

I, friend of thy fountains and dances, lo, never
E'en Philippi's back-driven ranks-and accursed

Tree's fall-could extinguish; nor yet might
In Sicily's wave, Palinurus!

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FROM ODE 2. XIII.

(On his Escape from a Falling Tree.)

A day evil-star'd, thou wert planted-and he too,
Whoever first reared thee, of hand sacrilegious—

O Tree, to posterity thus so

Destructive; the Shame of our village!

His own father's neck, now; I'm forced to believe that
He fractured as well, and his innermost chambers

By night, with the blood of his guests he
Bespattered: ay, poisonings-Colchian;

And whatever wrong that can ever be thought of,
He practiced, who here in my field once upraised thee,
Thou vile log, thus ready to fall on

The head of an innocent master.

Nay, what should man shun best, there's never enough then
Of warning, from hour to hour, of lifetime!

For thus was Proserpiné-sombre; her realms, and
Aeacus in judgment, most nearly confronted!

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