CARM. XXX.

O Venus, regina Cnidi Paphique, Sperne dilectam Cypron, et vocantis Thure te multo Glyceræ decoram Transfer in ædem.

Fervidus tecum Puer, et solutis Gratiæ zonis, properentque Nymphæ, Et parum comis sine te Juventas, Mercuriusque.1

ODE XXXI.

PRAYER TO APOLLO.

After the battle of Actium, Augustus, in commencing the task of social reformer, restored the ancient temples and built new ones. Amongst the latter, A.U.C. 726, he dedicated to Apollo a temple, with a library attached to it, on the Palatine. This charming poem expresses the poet's private supplication to the god thus newly installed.

1

What demands at Apollo's new temple the poet?
For what prays he outpouring new wine in libation?
Not fertile Sardinia's rich sheaves,

Not sunny Calabria's fair herds;

Neither prays he for gold, nor the ivory of Indus,
Nor the meadows whose margin the calm-flowing Liris
Eats into with murmurless wave.

Let those on whom Fortune bestows

So luxurious a grape, prune the vine-trees of Cales,
And let trade's wealthy magnate exchange for the vintage
Spiced cargoes of Syria, and drain

Cups' sculptured for pontiffs in gold;

Dear, indeed, to the gods must be he who revisits Twice and thrice every year the Atlantic, unpunished : To me for a feast, mallows light,

And endives and olives suffice.

Give me health in myself to enjoy the things granted,
O thou son of Latona; sound mind in sound body;
Keep mine age free from all that degrades,

And let it not fail of the lyre.

'Culullis,' sculptured cups used by the pontiffs and Vestal virgins in the sacred festivals.

CARM. XXXI.

Quid dedicatum poscit Apollinem
Vates? quid orat, de patera novum
Fundens liquorem? Non opimæ
Sardiniæ segetes feraces,

Non æstuosæ grata Calabriæ

Armenta, non aurum aut ebur Indicum, Non rura, quæ Liris quieta

Mordet aqua taciturnus amnis.

Premant Calena falce, quibus dedit
Fortuna, vitem; dives et aureis
Mercator exsiccet culullis'

Vina Syra reparata merce,

Dis carus ipsis, quippe ter et quater
Anno revisens æquor Atlanticum
Impune. Me pascunt olivæ,
Me cichorea levesque malvæ.

Frui paratis et valido mihi,
Latoë, dones, et, precor, integra
Cum mente; nec turpem senectam
Degere, nec cithara carentem.

ODE XXXII.

TO HIS LYRE.

This short invocation to his lyre has the air of a prelude to some meditated poem of greater importance. Several of the Manuscripts commence Poscimus,' which reading Bentley adopts. The modern editors agree in preferring 'Poscimur,' which has more of the outburst of song, and renders the poem more directly an address to the lyre.

We are summoned. If e'er, under shadow sequestered, Has sweet dalliance with thee in light moments of leisure Given birth to a something which lives, and may, haply, Live in years later,

Rouse thee now, and discourse in the strains of the Roman,
Vocal shell, first attuned by the patriot of Lesbos,
Who, in war though so fierce, yet in battle, or mooring
On the wet sea-sand

His bark, tempest-tossed, chaunted Liber, the Muses,
Smiling Venus, the Boy ever clinging beside her,
And, adorned by dark locks and by eyes of dark lustre,
Beautiful Lycus.

O thou grace of Apollo, O charm in Jove's banquets,
Holy shell, dulcet solace of labour and sorrow,
O respond to my greeting, when I, with rite solemn,
Duly invoke thee.

CARM. XXXIL

Poscimur. Si quid vacui sub umbra Lusimus tecum, quod et hunc in annum Vivat et plures; age, dic Latinum, Barbite, carmen,

Lesbio primum modulate civi,
Qui, ferox bello, tamen inter arma,
Sive jactatam religarat udo
Litore navim,

Liberum, et Musas, Veneremque, et illi
Semper hærentem Puerum canebat,
Et Lycum nigris oculis nigroque
Crine decorum.

O decus Phoebi, et dapibus supremi
Grata testudo Jovis, O laborum
Dulce lenimen, mihi cumque salve
Rite vocanti.