Me, no flames bursting forth from the jaws of Chimæra, Whether Libra, or Scorpio with aspect1 malignant, It is strange how our stars have agreed. Thee, thine own native Jupiter snatched from fell Saturn, And outshining his beam, stayed the wings of the Parcæ, When the theatre hailed thee restored, And the multitude thrice shouted joy. Me the fall of the tree would have brained, had not Faunus, O'er my head stretched the saving right hand, Then forget not to render to Jove, the Preserver Offer grateful mine own humble lamb. ''Adspicit,' 'aspected,' is still the technical term in use among astrologers, according to whom the native star may be evilly aspected in various ways. But pars violentior' would apply to the hostile influences affecting the Lord of life,' chiefly found in the significations of the 8th and 12th House. By his allusion to Capricorn, Horace clearly refers to his dangers by sea-Sicula unda.' To astrology (a science then so much in fashion) Horace often refers-sometimes with scorn, sometimes with a seeming credulity-always as a man who knew very little about it. But where he speaks of it with scorn, as in addressing Leuconoë, Book I. Ode xi., it is less to denounce astrology itself as an imposture, than to dissuade from all attempts to divine the future-'better that the future should remain unknown Me nec Chimæræ spiritus igneæ, Seu Libra, seu me Scorpios adspicit ' Natalis horæ, seu tyrannus Utrumque nostrum incredibili modo Eripuit, volucrisque Fati Tardavit alas, cum populus frequens Dextra levasset, Mercurialium and unconjectured.' On the other hand, where, as in this ode, he seems to affect credulity, it is only for a playful purpose. He regarded 'the Science of the Chaldee,' as he did most of the popular beliefs affecting the future, without serious examination of its truth or falsehood, as a question of speculative philosophy, but to be freely used, whether in sport or in earnest, for the purposes of poetic art. ODE XVIII. AGAINST THE GRASPING AMBITION OF THE COVETOUS. This ode is in a metre of which there is no other example in Horace. It is said to have been invented by Hipponax of Ephesus, and is called generally by his name; though sometimes Euripidean, because often used by Euripides. To me nor gold nor ivory lends I do not claim, an unknown heir, Yet mine is truth and mine some vein I do not weary heaven for more; Some rural acres Sabine. It The Numidian or Libyan marble, known to us as the Giallo antico. The 'architraves Hymettian' (‘trabes Hymettiæ ') are the white marble of Hymettus. 'Neque Attali Ignotus heres regiam occupavi.' Attalus the third made by will the Romans his heirs; the older commentators suppose that the lines satirically imply the will to have been fraudulently obtained. But the word 'ignotus' does not necessarily bear that signification. As Orelli observes, the irony consists in the fact that It abounds in trochees. I can only attempt to give a general idea of its trippingness and brevity of sound. It treats, with more than usual beauty, Horace's favourite thesis of declamation against the grasping nature of avarice; and, as Dillenburger observes, it takes up and expands the sentiment with which he had closed Ode xvi. CARM. XVIII. Non ebur neque aureum Mea renidet in domo lacunar ; Non trabes Hymettia1 Premunt columnas ultima recisas Africa; neque Attali2 Ignotus heres regiam occupavi ; Nec Laconicas mihi Trahunt honestæ purpuras clientæ.3 At fides et ingeni Benigna vena est, pauperemque dives Me petit; nihil supra Deos lacesso, nec potentem amicum Largiora flagito, Satis beatus unicis Sabinis. Truditur dies die, Novæque pergunt interire Lunæ : Attalus did not know the persons he enriched. Torrentius supposes the lines to refer to Aristonicus, who, after the death of Attalus, seized on the throne by false pretences, defeated Licinius Crassus, was afterwards conquered by Perpenna, carried to Rome, and strangled in prison by orders of the Senate. The former interpretation is preferable. "Honestæ clienta." I have seen no satisfactory explanation of the words "honesta client." Mr. Long has suggested to me that they may refer to the rustic women on a man's farms-the wives of the Coloni.'-MACLEANE. Day treads upon the heels of day, Building proud homes, and of thy lastThe sepulchre-forgetful; As if the earth itself too small Thou robb'st new earth from ocean, And, urging on a length of shore What, must thou also, greeding still, Each fence of humble clients? And man and wailing wife, expelled And yet no surer hall awaits The wealthy tyrant-master, Than that which yields yet ampler room Where farther tend? Impartial earth Death holds the haughty Tantalus ; |