Virtus, repulsæ nescia sordidæ,' Virtus, recludens immeritis mori Cœtusque volgares et udam Spernit humum fugiente penna. Est et fideli tuta silentio Sit trabibus fragilemve mecum Solvat phaselon; sæpe Diespiter Deseruit pede Pœna claudo. the honours which Virtue seeks, being acquired by herself alone, cannot by others be stained or touched (intaminatis). Cicero has exactly the same sentiment (Pro Sestio, 28, 60), and Horace almost literally versifies the passage, 'Virtus lucet in tenebris-splendetque per sese semper, neque alienis unquam sordibus obsolescit.'-See Orelli's note, vol. i. P. 345. ODE III. ON STEADFASTNESS OF PURPOSE. The two preceding odes, addressed to youth, inculcate the formation of private character; this ode and the two that follow have a political intention and bearing. In this ode Horace commences with his famous picture of the steadfast man not turned aside from that which his reason and conscience hold to be right, either by the excitement of a populace or the threat of a tyrant. Among the mortals which the exercise of this virtue has raised to the gods he places Augustus, who certainly did not want firmness of purpose in founding and cementing his authority, and to whom the Senate had already decreed the honours habitually paid only to the Divine Powers. The poet's mention of Romulus among those thus promoted to the rank of immortals, leads on to what in itself appears, at first sight, a somewhat prolix and irrelevant digression-viz., the speech of Juno predicting the glories of Rome, and prohibiting the restoration of Troy. Closely examined, the digression is not purely episodical, but in harmony with the preceding verses, and a development of the purpose of the whole poem; for it is in the nature of the steadfast man, unswayed by the fickle passions of the time, to adhere firmly to the interests of his country, and cherish the memory of its glories and heroes. We are told by Suetonius ('Life of Julius Cæsar,' c. 79), that it was a current report that Julius Cæsar meditated a design of transferring the seat of empire from Rome to Alexandria, or to Ilium. Lucan, ix. 997, ascribes to him the same intention. But we are not to suppose, with some, that Augustus entertained any such notion: this ode in itself Not the rage of the million commanding things evil, Not the doom frowning near in the brows of the tyrant, itself is a proof to the contrary; for Horace would certainly not have volunteered a direct opposition to the wish of Augustus in poems intended to praise and support his policy, and, no doubt, composed with his entire approval. But it is possible enough that, when Augustus commenced his work of reformation, there were many among the broken remains of the old political parties who, whether from the dilapidation of their fortune, the distaste for Roman institutions, the supremacy of Augustus himself and aversion to his reforms, the animosities of faction-which, if crushed down, were still sore and rankling-or the restless love of change and adventure, might have entertained and proclaimed a desire for establishing a settlement in the East, for which the ancestral site of Troy would have been a popular selection. If Julius Cæsar really did entertain, or was commonly supposed to have entertained, the design imputed to him by Suetonius and Lucan, many of his followers and disbanded soldiers may have shared in this project, and rendered it a troublesome subject for Augustus to deal with. The idea is not likely to have gone to the extent of a transfer of the seat of empire from Rome to Troy (nor does Horace intimate that notion in this ode). More probably it was confined to establishing at Troy, or in its neighbourhood, a colonial or branch government, with special privileges and powers. Nor would there have been wanting plausible political reasons for thus planting a military Roman settlement to guard the empire acquired in the East. Upon the assumption that such an idea had favourers sufficiently numerous to raise it to importance, and that Augustus wished to discourage it, the intention of Horace, in the speech he ascribes to Juno, becomes clear. CARM. III. Justum et tenacem propositi virum Shakes the upright and resolute man In his solid completeness of soul; No, not Auster, the Storm-King of Hadria's wild waters, No, not Jove's mighty hand when it launches the thunder; If in fragments were shattered the world, Him its ruins would strike undismayed. By this virtue' did Pollux and wandering Alcides 2 Quaffs the nectar that purples his lip ;2 By this virtue deservedly, thee, Father Bacchus Did the fierce tigers draw 3 with necks tamed by no mortal; By this virtue Quirinus escaped, Rapt on coursers of Mars-Acheron : Juno having thus spoken words heard with approval And the false foreign woman o'erthrown; 'Condemned from the day when Laomedon cheated ''Hac arte,' 'aperŷ,' 'by the virtue of this constancy, unwearied by labours, unswerving in purpose, men, becoming the heroes and benefactors of the human race, attain to the glory of immortals.'-See Orelli, note 9 to this ode. 2 'Purpureo bibit ore nectar.' Horace speaks in the present tense, and no doubt with reference to the decree of the Senate after the battle of Actium-viz., that libations should be offered to Octavian in private as well as in public tables, and his name should be inserted in the hymns of praise equally with those of the gods.—D10. 51, 19. Compare Lib. IV. Od. v. 33 et seq., and Lib. II. Ep. i. 15. Vexere tigres'-i.e. to the seats of the gods, to Olympus. The Non voltus instantis tyranni Mente quatit solida, neque Auster, Dux inquieti turbidus Hadria, Hac arte' Pollux et vagus Hercules Hac te merentem, Bacche pater, tuæ Gratum elocuta consiliantibus 'In pulverem ; ex quo destituit deos Cum populo et duce fraudulento. tigers are the symbols of the savage ferocity tamed by Bacchus.ORELLI. Bacchus is here represented as the civiliser of life. 'Met in council to deliberate whether Romulus should be admitted among the gods. * Paris adjudging the golden apple to Venus. • Ex quo destituit deos Mercede pacta Laomedon.' Troy is here represented as doomed by the crime of its founder Laomedon, who, according to legend, defrauded Neptune and Apollo of the reward promised them for building the walls of the city. It is Laomedon who is meant by the fraudulent king,' 'duce fraudulento '--not Priam, on whom, innocent himself, the fraud of his ancestor is visited. |