'But now the vile guest of the Spartan adult'ress Glitters forth nevermore ;-the forsworn race of Priam By the aid of its Hector, no more

Breaks in fragments the force of the Greek;

'Sunk to rest is the war so prolonged by our discords,
Ever henceforth to Mars I give up my resentment,
And my grudge to the grandson1 who springs
From the womb of a priestess of Troy.

'I admit him to enter the luminous dwellings; I admit him to sip of the juices of nectar, And, enrolled in the order serene

Of the gods, to partake of their calm.

'While between Rome and Ilion there rage the wide ocean, May the exiles be blest wheresoe'er their dominion ; So long as the wild herd shall range,

And the wild beast shall litter her cubs

'Undisturbed, 'mid the barrows of Priam and Paris, May the Capitol stand, brightening earth with its glory, And dauntless Rome issue her laws

To the Mede she subdues by her arms.

'Wide and far may the awe of her name be extended To the uttermost shores, where the girdle of ocean Doth from Africa Europe divide,

And where Nile floods the lands with his swell.

'Be she stronger in leaving disdainfully buried
In the caverns of earth the gold-better so hidden,

1 Romulus being Juno's grandson, born of Mars her son, and Ilia the Trojan priestess.

2 Ducere nectaris succos.' 'Ducere,' i.e. 'sorbillere,' to sip.

'Jam nec Lacænæ splendet adulteræ
Famosus hospes, nec Priami domus
Perjura pugnaces Achivos
Hectoreis opibus refringit;

'Nostrisque ductum seditionibus
Bellum resedit. Protinus et graves
Iras, et invisum nepotem,
Troica quem peperit sacerdos,

'Marti redonabo; illum ego lucidas
Inire sedes, ducere nectaris

Succos, et adscribi quietis
Ordinibus patiar deorum.

'Dum longus inter sæviat Ilion
Romamque pontus, qualibet exsules
In parte regnanto beati;

Dum Priami Paridisque busto

'Insultet armentum, et catulos feræ
Celent inultæ, stet Capitolium
Fulgens, triumphatisque possit

Roma ferox dare jura Medis.

'Horrenda late nomen in ultimas
Extendat oras, qua medius liquor
Secernit Europen ab Afro,

Qua tumidus rigat arva Nilus:

'Aurum irrepertum, et sic melius situm
Cum terra celat, spernere fortior

-ORELLI. Several MSS. have 'discere,' which reading is favoured by Dillenburger. Orelli, Munro, and Macleane prefer 'ducere,' 'which,' as the last observes, 'is in very common use in the sense of "quaffing."'

Than in wringing its uses to men,

With a hand that would plunder the gods.1

'What limit soe'er may obstruct her in nature
Let her reach by her arms; and exultingly visit
Either pole, where the mist or the sun
Holds the orgies of water or fire.

'I to Rome's warlike race speak such fates, on condition
That they never, too pious to antique forefathers,
Nor confiding too far in their power,

Even wish Trojan roofs to restore.

'What though Troy could revive under auspices fatalAll her fortunes should be repetition of carnage;

6

I myself leading hosts to her doom

I the consort and sister of Jove!

Rose her brazen wall thrice, with Apollo for founder, 2 Still her brazen wall thrice should be razed by my Argives; Thrice the captive wife mourn for her lord,

Thrice the mother her children deplore.'

Ah, this strain does not chime to my lute's lively measures!
Whither tendest thou, Muse? Cease, presumptuous, to mimic
The discourses of gods; nor let down
To a music low-pitched, lofty themes.

1 'Quam cogere humanos in usus
Omne sacrum rapiente dextra.'

The point here, as Orelli observes, is in the antithesis between 'humanos' and 'sacrum.' Macleane paraphrases the general meaning of the passage thus, -'Let Rome extend her arms as she will, only let her not, as her possessions increase, learn to prize gold above virtue.' The more literal meaning, according to Dillenburger and Orelli, is, that in the lust of gold the hand of rapine sacrilegiously despoils the sacred vessels dedicated to gods in their shrines and temples.

Quam cogere humanos in usus,
Omne sacrum rapiente dextra.1

'Quicunque mundo terminus obstitit,
Hunc tanget armis, visere gestiens,
Qua parte debacchentur ignes,
Qua nebulæ pluviique rores.

'Sed bellicosis fata Quiritibus Hac lege dico; ne nimium pii Rebusque fidentes avitæ

Tecta velint reparare Troja.

"Troja renascens alite lugubri Fortuna tristi clade iterabitur, Ducente victrices catervas

Conjuge me Jovis et sorore.

'Ter si resurgat murus aëneus Auctore Phobo, ter pereat meis Excisus Argivis ; ter uxor

Capta virum puerosque ploret.'

Non hoc jocosæ conveniet lyræ :
Quo, Musa, tendis? Desine pervicax
Referre sermones deorum et

Magna modis tenuare parvis.

Auctore Phoebo,' the founder of the first Troy.

ODE IV.

INVOCATION TO CALLIOPE.

It is observable that in this ode as well as in the last, and in Odes v. and vi., composed for political purposes, Horace indulges much more in the flights and fancies and seeming digressions proper to poetry purely lyrical than in Odes i and ii., in which, inculcating moral or noble sentiments applicable to men of all parties, he is earnestly didactic. But treating political subjects, on which men's minds were divided, he shows wonderful delicacy of art in conveying his purpose through forms of poetry least likely to offend. In Ode iii., dissuading from the project of a settlement in Troy, it is not he that speaks, it is Juno. In Ode iv., desiring to imply that the ascendancy of Augustus is the intellectual and godlike mastery over irrational force, he begins

Descend, O Queen Calliope, from heaven,
And on thy fife discourse in lengthened music ;1
Or lov'st thou more the lyre

By Phoebus strung; or thrill of vocal song?
Hear ye, or doth the sweet delirium fool me?
I seem to hear her, and with her to wander
Where gentle winds and waves

Steal their soft entrance into hallowed groves.

Me, when a child, upon the slopes of Vultur
Strayed, truant, from my nurse Apulia's threshold,2
And tired with play and sleep,

Did mythic doves with budding leaves bestrew;

''Longum-melos.'

'In notes, with many a winding bout

Of linked sweetness, long drawn out.'-MILTON.

Macleane says 'longum' means a sustained and stately song. Yonge observes, that though it may be so translated, it is enough to understand