And not a head1 escapes the ruthless hell-queen,
Me also, Notus, hurrying on to join
His comrade setting amidst storm, Orion,

Phanged into death amid Illyrian waves.

But thou, O sailor, churlishly begrudge not
A sand-grain to my graveless bones and skull;
So may whatever the east wind shall threaten
To waves Hesperian, pass thee harmless by

And waste its wrath upon Venusian forests:

So from all-righteous Jove and him who guards Tarentum's consecrated haven, Neptune,

Be every profit they can send thee showered.

Think'st thou 'tis nought to doom thy guiltless children
To dread atonement for their father's wrong?
Nay, on thyself may fall dire retribution

And the just laws that give back scorn for scorn.

I'll not be left, with prayers disdained, revengeless,
No expiation could atone such crime;
Whate'er thy haste, this task not long delays thee—
A little dust thrice sprinkled-then away.

Nullum sæva caput Proserpina fugit-in allusion to the lock of hair which, according to the popular superstition, Proserpine cut off from the head of the dying.

2 Me also, Notus,' &c. If the poem be supposed a dialogue, it seems to me that this is the place at which the second speaker, as the ghost of an unburied man, suddenly starts up and interposes.-See Introduction.

Mixta senum ac juvenum densentur funera, nullum Sæva caput Proserpina fugit.1

Me

2 quoque devexi rapidus comes Orionis
Illyricis Notus obruit undis.

At tu, nauta, vaga ne parce malignus arenæ
Ossibus et capiti inhumato

Particulam dare: sic, quodcunque minabitur Eurus
Fluctibus Hesperiis, Venusinæ

Plectantur silvæ, te sospite, multaque merces,
Unde potest, tibi defluat æquo

Ab Jove, Neptunoque sacri custode Tarenti.
Negligis immeritis nocituram

Postmodo te natis fraudem committere ?
Debita jura vicesque superbæ

Fors et

Te maneant ipsum: precibus non linquar inultis, Teque piacula nulla resolvent.

Quamquam festinas, non est mora longa; licebit Injecto ter pulvere curras.

ODE XXIX.

TO ICCIUS.

In the 12th Ode of this Book Horace referred to the expedition into Arabia Felix meditated by Augustus, and which was sent from Egypt, A.U.C. 730, under the command of the Governor of Egypt, Ælius Gallus. Many Roman youths were attracted to this expedition by love of adventure and hope of spoil; among others, the Iccius here addressed, who survived to become the peaceful steward to Vispanius Agrippa's estates in Sicily. The good-natured banter on the warlike ardour conceived by a student of philosophy, was probably quite as much enjoyed by Iccius himself as by any one. They who suppose that so well-bred a man of the world as Horace is always insinuating moral reproofs to the friends he publicly addresses, are the only persons likely to agree with the scholiasts that he means gravely to rebuke Iccius for avarice in coveting the wealth of the Arabs.

So, Iccius, thou grudgest their wealth to the Arabs,
Wouldst war on kings Sheban, as yet never conquered,
And art sternly preparing the chains

For the limbs of the terrible Mede?

What virgin barbaric shall serve thee as handmaid,
Her betrothed being laid in the dust by thy falchion?
And what page, born and bred in a court,

Nor untaught Seric arrows to launch

From a bow-string paternal, with locks sleek and perfumed,
Shall attend at thy feasts, and replenish thy goblets?
Who that rivers can flow to their founts,

And the Tiber runs back, will deny,

If the sage of a promise so rare can surrender
All that priceless collection, the works of Panatius,
And the school in which Socrates taught,

In exchange for a Spanish coat-mail?

CARM, XXIX.

Icci, beatis nunc Arabum invides
Gazis, et acrem militiam paras
Non ante devictis Sabææ

Regibus, horribilique Medo

Nectis catenas? Quæ tibi virginum
Sponso necato barbara serviet ?
Puer quis ex aula capillis

Ad cyathum statuetur unctis,

Doctus sagittas tendere Sericas
Arcu paterno? Quis neget arduis
Pronos relabi posse rivos

Montibus, et Tiberim reverti,

Cum tu coëmptos undique nobiles Libros Panæti, Socraticam et domum, Mutare loricis Hiberis,

Pollicitus meliora, tendis ?

ODE XXX.

VENUS INVOKED TO GLYCERA'S FANE.

This ode has the air of a complimentary copy of verses to some fair freed-woman who had fitted up a pretty fane to Venus, probably in the grotto, or antrum, attached to her residence.

Venus, O queen of Cnidos and of Paphos,

Spurn thy loved Cyprus-here transfer thy presence :
Decked is the fane to which, with incense lavish,
Glycera calls thee.

Bring with thee, glowing rosy red, the Boy-god,
Nymphs and loose-girdled Graces, and-if wanting
Thee, wanting charm-bring Youth, nor let persuasive1
Mercury fail us.

For the addition of this explanatory epithet, see the notes of Orelli and Dillenburger.