ODE II.

TO IULUS ANTONIUS.

Iulus Antonius was the second son of M. Antony the triumvir by Fulvia; the elder, Antyllus, was put to death by Octavian after the battle of Actium. Iulus, then in his infancy, was brought up with great tenderness by his stepmother Octavia, married her daughter Marcella, and rose to the highest honours of the State-prætor, A.U.C. 741; consul, A.U.C. 744. His end was tragical. He was either executed by Augustus or destroyed himself, A.U.C. 752, in the forty-second year of his age, on the charge of adultery with Julia, to which crime he is said to have been induced by ambitious designs on the Empire. Iulus possessed the literary accomplishments for which so many of the Roman nobles in that day were remarkable. He was a pupil of L. Crassitius, a celebrated grammarian, at whose school were instructed youths of the first Roman families. According to the scholiasts, he composed not only works in prose, but twelve books in heroic verse upon Diomed, which Acron styles egregios ;' though, as Macleane observes with his customary good sense, 'As it is most likely Acron never

Iulus, he who would with Pindar vie,
Soars, with Dædalian art, on waxen wings,
And falling, gives his name unto the bright
Deeps of an Ocean.1

As from the mountain-top a headlong stream,
Nourished by rains beyond familiar banks,

saw

Seethes, and immense with might of deep-mouth'd sound, Rushes down Pindar.

As Icarus gave his name to the Icarian sea.

saw them, his testimony is not worth much.' Horace, however, in this ode pays a high compliment to his poetic powers. The ode itself is a noble homage to Pindar, and interesting for Horace's estimate of his own peculiar powers, and his frank confession of the pains he took with his verses. The poem was written during Augustus's absence from Rome for two years, when, A.U.C. 737, the Sygambri, a fierce German tribe (whose name Jac. Grimm derives from 'sigu,' victory, and 'gomber,' strong), had, with two other tribes, invaded the Roman territory in Gaul, and defeated the Roman legate Lollius with great slaughter. Augustus went in person into Gaul. The German tribes retreated at his approach, gave hostages, and obtained peace. Augustus, however, did not return to Rome till he had restored order in Germany, Gaul, and Spain. As he was expected in Rome long before he returned, the ode was probably written soon after the Sygambri had given hostages and obtained peace, A.U.C. 738, or beginning of 739. It is commonly supposed that Antonius had urged Horace to celebrate the triumphs of Augustus in Pindaric style, and that he modestly excuses himself from that request. The tone of the ode favours this assumption, though it does not leave it clear that Antonius had made such a request.

CARM. II.

Pindarum quisquis studet æmulari,

Iule, ceratis ope Dædalea

Nititur pennis vitreo daturus

Nomina ponto.1

Monte decurrens velut amnis, imbres

Quem super notas aluere ripas,
Fervet immensusque ruit profundo

Pindarus ore;

All due to him Apollo's laureate crown,

Whether through daring dithyrambs he roll
Language, new-formed,' borne on the lawless wave
Of his wild music;

Whether he sing of gods or god-born kings,

By whom the Centaurs with just doom were slain,
And dire Chimæra's flame was quenched; or those
Palm-crowned in Elis,

Led as Celestials home; and chants the strife
Of steed or cestus; offering gifts, o'er Time
More potent than a hundred monuments
Wrought from the marble;

Or wails the youth snatched from a weeping bride,
And, in lamenting, lifts his force of soul,
Valour, and golden worth, unto the stars,
Foiling black Orcus.

Ample the gale which buoys the Theban swan,
Whene'er to heights amid the cloud he soars.
I, like the bee of the Matinian hill,

Gather the wild thyme,

With lavish labour hiving thrifty sweets;
Lowly, by Tibur's grove and dewy banks,
I seek the honey that I store in song,2
Kneaded with labour.

But thou, the minstrel of a grander lyre,
Celebrate Cæsar, when his laurelled brow

1 'Nova verba,' new forms of expression.'

2

'Carmina fingo.' 'Fingo' corresponds to ‘TλάTT,' which word

the Greeks used especially with reference to the making of honey.— ORELLI, MACLEANE.

Laurea donandus Apollinari,
Seu per audaces nova dithyrambos
Verba' devolvit numerisque fertur
Lege solutis ;

Seu deos regesve canit, deorum Sanguinem, per quos, cecidere justa Morte Centauri, cecidit tremendæ Flamma Chimæræ ;

Sive quos Elea domum reducit Palma cælestes, pugilemve equumve Dicit et centum potiore signis Munere donat;

Flebili sponsæ juvenemve raptum Plorat, et vires animumque moresque Aureos educit in astra, nigroque Invidet Orco.

Multa Dircæum levat aura cycnum, Tendit, Antoni, quotiens in altos Nubium tractus. Ego apis Matinæ More modoque,

Grata carpentis thyma per laborem
Plurimum circa nemus uvidique

Tiburis ripas operosa parvus
Carmina fingo.2

Concines majore poëta plectro

Cæsarem, quandoque trahet feroces

Looks from the car which, up the Sacred Hill,
Drags the Sygambri;

He, than whom never to this earth have Fate
And kind gods given, nor shall give, aught more great
Or aught more good, ev'n tho' the ages rolled
Back to the Golden.

Chant thou the games that honour the return
Of brave Augustus granted to our prayer;
The joyous feast-days, the hushed courts of law,
Vacant of suitors.

Then, too, if aught that I can speak be heard,
My voice shall aid to swell the choral hymn,
And sing 'All hail, thou fair auspicious sun,1
Bringing back Cæsar!'

2

And while, O god of triumph, slowly on
He moves in state, shout upon shout repeats
'Io Triumphe!' through the length of Rome;
Frankincense steaming

Up to benignant gods. Ten bulls, ten kine,
Acquit thy vow; a single steerling mine,
Fresh-weaned, and browsing into youth amid
Prodigal pastures;

1 'Et, O Sol

Pulcher! O laudande! canam, recepto

Cæsare felix.'

It is uncertain whether 'felix' refers to Horace, as 'happy in the return of Cæsar,' or to the sun, forming part of the exclamation; Macleane leaves the choice to the reader's taste; Vossius and others prefer the latter application; Orelli considers the former more tender. To me it seems more according to the genius of lyrical composition to apply the epithet to the sun. We know already that Horace is happy in the return of Cæsar, otherwise he would not be joining in the procession and the hymn.