ODE XXX.

PREDICTION OF HIS OWN FUTURE TIME.

This ode appears clearly intended to be the completing poem of some considerable collection of lyrical pieces, forming in themselves an integral representation of the idiosyncrasies of the poet in character and in genius, thus becoming his memorial or 'monumentum.' It is therefore generally regarded as the epilogue, not to the Third Book only, but to all the first three books; after the publication of which, Horace made a considerable pause before he published the Fourth. There is a great difference in tone between this and Ode xx. Book II., addressed to Mæcenas. That ode, half sportive, half earnest, seems written in the effervescence of animal spirits, and might have been called forth in any moment of brilliant success. But this is written in dignified and serious confidence in the firm establishment of the poet's fame.

I have built a monument than bronze more lasting,
Soaring more high than regal pyramids,
Which nor the stealthy gnawing of the rain-drop,
Nor the vain rush of Boreas shall destroy;
Nor shall it pass away with the unnumbered
Series of ages and the flight of time.

I shall not wholly die! From Libitina1

A part, yea, much, of mine own self escapes.
Renewing bloom from praise in after ages,

My growth through time shall be to fresher youth,
Long as the High Priest, with the Silent Virgin,
Ascends the sacred Capitol of Rome.2

Venus Libitina, the Funereal Venus-Death.

fame. It is unnecessary to defend Horace here from the charge of vainglory, to which a modern poet, arrogating to himself the immortality of fame, would be exposed. The manners of an age decide the taste of an age. The heathen poets spoke of the immortality of their verses with as little scruple as Christian poets speak of the immortality of their souls. Not to mention the Greek poets, Dillenburger gives a tolerably long list of passages from the Latin-Ennius, Virgil, Propertius, Ovid, Martial-who spoke of their con

quest over time with no less confidence than Horace here does. The metre in the original is the same as that of Ode i. Book I., which perhaps strengthens the supposition that the poem is designed to complete a collection which that ode commenced.

CARM. XXX.

Exegi monumentum ære perennius,
Regalique situ pyramidum altius ;

Quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens
Possit diruere, aut innumerabilis

Annorum series et fuga temporum.

Non omnis moriar, multaque pars mei
Vitabit Libitinam.1 Usque ego postera
Crescam laude recens, dum Capitolium 2

Viz., while the Pontifex Maximus shall, on the ides of every month, go up to the Capitol to offer sacrifices to Vesta, her virgins walking solemnly in the procession, as they did, while the boys sang hymns in honour of the goddess. With a Roman this was equivalent to saying "for ever."-MACLEANE.

From mean estate exalted into greatness

Where brawls loud Aufidus with violent wave,
And arid reigned o'er rustic subjects, Daunus-
I, in the lips of men a household name,
Shall have my record as the first who wedded
To Roman melodies Æolian song.

Take airs of state-the right is earned-and crown me,
Willing Melpomene, with Delphic bay.

Mantua Virgilio gaudet, Verona Catullo,

Pelignæ dicar gloria gentis ego.'

-OVID, Amores, iii. 15, 17. 2 Pauper aquæ Daunus,' 'Daunus scant of water.' The epithet thus, by poetic licence, applied to the legendary king, which, in plain prose, belongs to the country he ruled-i. e., the southern part of Apulia, as the Aufidus flowed through the western.

Scandet cum tacita Virgine pontifex.
Dicar,' qua violens obstrepit Aufidus,
Et qua pauper aquæ Daunus agrestium
Regnavit populorum, ex humili potens,
Princeps Æolium carmen ad Italos
Deduxisse modos. Sume superbiam
Quæsitam meritis, et mihi Delphica

Lauro cinge volens, Melpomene, comam.

THE SECULAR HYMN.

Religious games, called Ludi Tarentini, Terentini, or Taurii, had been held in Rome from an early period of the Republic. Their origin is variously stated, though the most probable mythical accounts agree that they were instituted and devoted to Dis and Proserpina in consequence of a fearful plague-whether by one Valerius in gratitude for the recovery of his three children, or in the reign of Tarquinius Superbus, in order to propitiate those formidable deities. In the latter case the plague had affected pregnant women, and their children died in the womb; and sterile cows (Taureæ) being sacrificed, the games were called Ludi Taurii. By these accounts it would seem that the games were connected with the health of offspring, and by all accounts that they were instituted in honour of Dis and Proserpina. To those eminent scholars who hold to the Etrurian origin of the Tarquins, the Tarenti and Taurii are but as different forms of the same word, and of the same root as Tarquinius' (Smith's Dict., art. 'Ludi Sæculares'). If so, the deities honoured were doubtless Etrurian-not Greek nor Roman -though the Romans subsequently identified them with divinities familiar to their own worship.

Be that as it may, during the Republic these games appear to have been only celebrated three times, at irregular intervals in no way connected with fixed periods or cycles (sæcula).

When Augustus had completed (A.U.C. 737) the second lustre, or the ten years for which the imperial power was first confided to him, it was very natural that he should wish for the solemnity of an extraordinary festival at once popular and religious; and probably also the desire of establishing a dynasty would give rise to the idea of rendering this solemnity regular, but at far-distant dates; thus associating indirectly the duration of the Empire with the welfare and existence of Rome. The custodiers of the Sibylline books, who had been increased from two to ten, and subsequently,