of three days old, in which part alfo he has a mark of a fnowy afpect, but is of a dun colour over the rest of his body. O DE III. To MELP OMENE.. He acknowledges the favour to her, that he obtains Some place and rank among ft poets. H IM, O Melpomene, whom at his birth you have once view'd with a benign afpect, the Ifthmian conteft fhall not render eminent as a wreftler; the fwift horfe fhall not draw him triumphant in a Grecian car; nor fhall warlike atchievement fhew him in the capitol, a general adorned with the Delian laurel, on account of his having quafhed the proud threats of kings: but fuch waters as flow thro' the fertile Tibur, and the denfe leaves of the groves fhall make him diftinguished for the* Æolian verfe. The fons of Rome, the queen of cities, deign to rank me amongst the amiable band of poets; and now I am lefs carped at by the tooth of envy. O thou muse, who regulates the fweet harmony of the gilded† fhell! O thou, who can immediately beftow, if you pleafe, the notes of the dying fwan upon the mute fish! it is entirely your gift that I am marked out, as the fringer of the Roman lyre, by the fingers of paffengers that I breathe, and give pleasure, if I give pleasure, is yours. Alcaic The lyre was made of a tortoife shell. A ODE CARMEN IV. DRUSI LAUDES. Claudii Drufi Neronis de Vindelicis vi&oriam Ο celebrat. UALEM miniftrum fulminis alitem, (Cui rex Deorum regnum in aves vagas Permifit, expertus fidelem Jupiter in Ganymede flavo,) * n; Olim juventas, et patrius vigor Venti paventem; mox in ovilia Jam lacte depulfum leonem, Videre f Rhæti bella fub Alpibus Drufum gerentem, et Vindelici; quibus Dextras obarmet, quærere diftuli: Nec fcire fas eft omnia. Sed diu Lateque victrices catervæ Confiliis juvenis | revicte, Nido laborum protulit. 10 15 20 Senfere + Fervidus impetus. Confiliis juvenis Jam mane depulfum. Bentl. Jam jamque. Kufter. Videre Rætis bella. Bent!. reffe. ODE IV. The PRAISES of DRUSUS. He celebrates the victory of Claudius Drufus Nere over the Vindelici. L IKE as the winged minifter of thunder (*to whom Jupiter, the fovereign of the Gods, has affigned the dominion over the fleeting birds, having experienced his fidelity in the affair of the beauteous Ganymede,) at one time youth and hereditary vigour drew him from his neft, unused to toil; and the vernal winds, the fhowers being now difpélled, taught him, at first timorous, unwonted enterprizes; in a little while his violent impetuo fity dispatched him, as an enemy, to the sheepfolds; and now an appetite for food and fight has impelled him upon the reluctant dragons: or as a fhe-goat, intent on rich paftures, has beheld a young lion but juft weaned from the udder of his tawny dam, ready to be devoured by his newlygrown tooth: fuch did the Rhoti and the Vindelici behold Drufus carrying on the war under the Alps; (whence this people derived the custom, which has always prevailed amongst them of arming their right hands with the Amazonian ax, I have purpofely omitted to enquire: neither can we discover every thing.) But thofe troops, which had been for along while and extenfively victorious, being fubdued by the conduct of a youth, perceived what a difpofition, • This parenthèfis is omitted by many authors. Senfere quid mens rite, quid indoles Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis: Quid debeas, ô Roma, Neronibus, Qui primus alma rifit adorea; Ceu flamma per tedas, vel Eurus Poft hoc fecundis ufque laboribus Fana Deos habuere rectos: Dixitque tandem perfidus Annibal; Fallere et effugere eft triumphus. Gens, quæ cremato fortis ab Ilio, Natofque, maturofque patres Indecorant bene nata culpæ. 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 Duris pofition, what a genius rightly educated under an aufpicious roof, what the fatherly affection of Auguftus towards the young Neros cou'd jointly effect. The brave are generated by the brave; and there is in fteers, there is in horfes the virtue of their fires; nor do the courageous eagles procreate the unwarlike dove. But yet learning improves the innate force, and good difcipline confirms the mind: whenever morals are deficient, vices difgrace what is naturally good. What thou owest, O Rome, to the Neros, the river Metaurus is a witnefs, and the defeated Afdrubal, and that day which was illuftrious by the difpelling of darkness from Italy, and which firft fmiled with benignant *victory; when the terrible + African rode thro' the Latian cities, like a fire thro' the pitchy pines, or the eaft-wind thro' the Sicilian wave After this, the Roman youth increafed continually in fuccefsful exploits, and temples, laid wafte by the impious outrage of the Carthaginians, had the ftatues of their Gods fet up again. And, at length, the perfidious Hannibal faid, we, like ftags, the prey of rapacious wolves, follow of our own accord thefe, whom to deceive and efcape is a fignal triumph. That nation, which toffed in the Etrugian-waves, bravely tranfported their Gods, and fons, antl aged fathers, from the burnt Troy to VOL. I. X the Adorea, here used for victory, is properly the distribu tion of corn to the foldiers after viltory. Hannibal. |