Thee the monster-fraught ocean, which roars Round the birthplace remote of the Briton; Thee fierce Gallia, the land for which death has no terror, Thee Iberia, the stubborn, hear hushed and submissive; The Sygambri, exulting in gore, With meek arms piled in trophy, adore thee. Te beluosus qui remotis Te non paventis funera Galliæ Duræque tellus audit Hiberiæ; Te cæde gaudentes Sygambri Compositis venerantur armis. ODE XV. TO AUGUSTUS ON THE RESTORATION OF PEACE. This ode is the appropriate epilogue to the Fourth Book, of which the poems that celebrate the Roman victories under Drusus and Tiberius constitute the noblest portion. If it be true that the book was published on account of these odes, and at the desire of Augustus, Horace would naturally conclude by a special reference to the beneficial issues of the wars undertaken by Augustus, and from the final completion of which in Gaul, Germany, and Spain, he had just returned to Rome. Horace here begins by saying, that when he Of wars and vanquished cities when I longed Into so vast a deep. Cæsar, thy reign Has given back golden harvests to our fields; Closed gates of Janus, vacant of a war; To righteous order rampant licence curbed, The ancient virtues to their fatherland,2 wished 1 'Emovitque culpas.' This refers to the moral reforms undertaken by Augustus, such as the Julian law, 'de adulteriis et de pudicitia.' "Veteres artes." "Artes" here means "virtues," as in Book III. Od. iii. "Hac arte" (aperî), as prudence, fortitude, justice, temperance.' -ACRON. wished to sing of those wars, Phoebus checked him. But Phoebus does not forbid him to sing the triumphs of peace; and, with a lively lyrical abruptness, he therefore at once bursts forth : Tua, Cæsar, ætas Fruges et agris retulit uberes,' &c. That the poem was composed immediately after the return of Cæsar, and in connection with Odes iv. and xiv., is, I think, made clear by its own internal evidence. War is finished, and Augustus is celebrated as the triumphant establisher of law and order, and the author of the national prosperity, and the improvements, social and moral, which result from the security to life and property bestowed by a government at once firm and beneficent. He is here the descendant, not of Mars and Ilia, but of Anchises and Venus the gentle. CARM. XV. Phoebus volentem prælia me loqui Fruges et agris retulit uberes, Janum Quirini clausit, et ordinem Et veteres revocavit artes,2 Virtues from which have grown the Roman name, To the Sun's Orient rise, From his calm bed in our Hesperian seas. Cæsar our guardian, neither civil rage1 Nor felon violence scares us from repose, Nor ire which sharpens swords, And makes the wars of nations and their woes. Neither the drinkers of deep Danube break Nor wild men cradled on the banks of Don. So, with each sacred, with each common day Gathering our women and our children round, Let us, as did our fathers in old time, Honour with hymns and Lydian fife brave chiefs : Sing of the race from gentle Venus sprung. 1 'Non furor Civilis aut vis exiget otium, Non ira, quæ procudit enses, Et miseras inimicat urbes.' Three causes of fear are removed; Furor civilis,' 'civil war ;' 'vis,' 'personal violence ;' 'ira,' 'foreign wars.' |