Quo bruta tellus et vaga flumina, Concutitur. Valet ima summis Mutare, et insignem attenuat deus, Obscura promens; hinc apicem rapax ODE XXXV. TO FORTUNE. Macleane places the date of this ode A.U.C. 728, when Augustus was meditating an expedition against the Britons. and another against the Arabs. Fortune is here distinguished from Necessity, and recognised as a Divine Intelligence, rather with the attributes of Providence than those of Fate. As Fortune had her oldest temples in Rome, so she seems to have been the last goddess whose worship was deserted by the Roman emperors. 1 Goddess, who o'er thine own loved1 Antium reignest, From life's last mean degree, Or change his haughtiest triumphs into graves; To thee the earth's poor tiller prays imploring- A passing furrow in Carpathian seas.2 Thee Dacian rude-thee Scythia's vagrant nomad3— Thee states and races-thee Rome's haughty children— Thee purple tyrants dread, And the pale mothers of Barbarian kings, Lest thou spurn down with scornful foot the pillar Whereon rest States; lest all, from arms yet ling'ring, 6 'Gratum-Antium.' Orelli prefers interpreting gratum' as 'dilectum,' dear to the goddess,' rather than as amoenum,' or 'pleasant.' 2 I.e. whether man ploughs earth or sea he equally prays to Fortune. Profugi Scythia.' The epithet 'profugi' applies to the nomad character of the Scyth, not to simulated flights as those of the Parthian cavalry. Stantem columnam.' The standing column was the emblem of CARM. XXXV. 1 O Diva, gratum quæ regis Antium, Te pauper ambit sollicita prece Te Dacus asper, te profugi Scythæ,3 Injurioso ne pede proruras Stantem columnam, neu populus frequens fixity and firmness. In ancient monuments,' says Dillenburger, the column is thus assigned to images of Peace, Security, Felicity.' Horace naturally writes in the spirit of his land and age in deprecating civil tumult as the most formidable agency for the overthrow of the column and the destruction of government and order. To arms some madding crowd Rouse with the shout to which an empire falls. Thee doth untamed Necessity for ever Stalk fierce before;-the ship nails and the wedges Which lacks nor molten lead nor stedfast clamp.' And from the homes of Power Passest away, in mourning weeds, a foe; While the false herd, the parasite, the harlot, Their necks will halve no yoke that Sorrow draws. Guard Cæsar, seeking on earth's verge the Briton,Guard Rome's young swarm of warriors on the wing, Where they alight, to awe The rebel East and Araby's red sea. Shame for the scars, the guilt, the blood of brothers! What youthful hand has fear of heaven restrained, And turn its edge on Arab and on Scyth! 1 Most recent commentators of authority agree in rejecting the notion of the commentator in Cruquius, adopted by earlier editors, that 'uncus' and plumbum' are used here as emblems of punishment and crime, and consider them as emblems of tenacity and fixity of purpose. Macleane observes that the metaphor of molten lead for strengthening buildings is employed by Euripides, 'Androm.,' 267. Herder suggests that the whole picture of Necessity and her attributes is taken from some picture in the temple of Fortune at Antium. Ad arma cessantes, ad arma Concitet, imperiumque frangat. Te semper anteit sæva Necessitas, Uncus abest, liquidumque plumbum.' Te Spes et albo rara Fides colit Veste domos inimica linquis. At volgus infidum et meretrix retro Ferre jugum pariter dolosi. Serves iturum Cæsarem in ultimos Eheu! cicatricum et sceleris pudet Metu deorum continuit? quibus |