THOU wilt go,' my friend Mæcenas, with Liburian' galleys among the towering forts of ships, ready at thine own [hazard] to undergo any of Cæsar's dangers. What shall I do? To whom life may be agreeable, if you survive; but, if otherwise, burdensome. Whether shall I, at your command, pursue my ease, which can not be pleasing unless in your com? Or shall I endure this toil with such a courage, as pany becomes uneffeminate men to bear? I will bear it? and with an intrepid soul follow you, either through the summits of the Alps, and the inhospitable Caucasus, or to the furthest western bay. You may ask how I, unwarlike and infirm, can assist your labors by mine? While I am your companion, I shall be in less anxiety, which takes possession of the absent in a greater measure. As the bird, that has unfledged young, is

1 Ibis. As soon as Mæcenas had received orders to hold himself in readiness to go aboard the fleet of Octavius, he imparted the news to Horace, and at the same time declared to him, that he would not permit him to make this voyage with him.

This ode was written in 723, and it shows, through the whole, a disinterested affection and gratitude. SAN.

2 Liburnis. Plutarch, speaking of this battle, says, that when one of Antony's ships was surrounded by four or five Liburnian galleys, it looked like an assault of a town. Florus, describing the vessels of Antony, says, that they had from six to nine rowers to every oar; that they carried towers and bridges of such prodigious height, as to look like castles and towns; that the seas groaned beneath their weight, and the winds labored to push them forward. Horace calls these towers propugnacula navium, and Virgil calls the vessels which bore them turritas puppes towered ships. ED. DUBLIN.

in a greater dread of serpents' approaches, when they are left: -not that, if she should be present when they came, she could render more help. Not only this, but every other war, shall be cheerfully embraced by me for the hope of your favor; [and this,] not that my plows should labor, yoked to a greater number of mine own oxen; or that my cattle before the scorching dog-star should change the Calabrian' for the Lucanian pastures: neither that my white country-box should equal the Circæan walls of lofty Tusculum. Your generosity has enriched me enough, and more than enough: I shall never wish to amass, what either, like the miser Chremes, I may bury in the earth, or luxuriously squander, like a prodigal.

ODE II.

THE PRAISES OF A COUNTRY LIFE.

HAPPY the man," who, remote from business, after the man

Thus

3 Pecusve Calabris. The wealthier Romans had different pastures for summer and winter. The poorer sort sent their flocks into the public pastures, paying a certain rent to the farmers of the revenues. Calabria was chosen for its warmth and temperature in winter, and Lucania for its coolness and verdure in summer, occasioned by its mountains. But the difficulty of the sentence depends upon the construction, which must be directly contrary to the poet's arrangement of the words. Mutat Lucana Calabris pascuis, for mutat Calabra pascua Lucanis. In the same manner in the first book, Mutat Lucretilem Lycao, for mutat Lyceum Lucretili. SCHOL.

4 Lucania, a country of Italy, in the kingdom of Naples, between Apulia and the Tuscan Sea, famous for pastures. Calabria, the most southern part of the kingdom of Naples, called also Magna Græcia; lying between the Sicilian and Ionian Seas; it brings forth fruit twice in a year. WATSON.

5 Tusculum is a city of Italy, about twelve miles from Rome, built on an eminence, where many of the Roman nobility, and Virgil, and Horace also, had country-seats. WATSON.

6 The object of the poet is to show with how much difficulty a covetous man disengages himself from the love of riches. He, therefore, supposes an usurer, who is persuaded of the happiness and tranquillity of a country life, to have formed the design of retiring into the country and renouncing his former pursuits. The latter calls in his money, and is ready to depart, when his ruling passion returns, and once more plunges him in the vortex of gain. ANTH.

ner of the ancient race of mortals, cultivates his paternal lands with his own oxen, disengaged from every kind of usury; he is neither alarmed by the horrible trump, as a soldier, nor dreads he the angry sea; he shuns both the bar and the proud portals of citizens in power. Wherefore he either weds the lofty poplars to the mature branches of the vine; and, lopping off the useless boughs with his pruning-knife, he ingrafts more fruitful ones: or he takes a prospect of the herds of his lowing cattle, wandering about in a lonely vale; or stores his honey, pressed [from the combs], in clean vessels; or shears his tender sheep. Or, when autumn has lifted up in the fields his head adorned with mellow fruits, how does he rejoice, while he gathers the grafted pears, and the grape that vies with the purple, with which he may recompense thee, O Priapus, and thee, father Sylvanus, guardian of his boundaries! Sometimes he delights to lie under an aged holm, sometimes on the matted grass: meanwhile the waters glide along in their deep channels; the birds warble in the woods; and the fountains murmur with their purling streams, which invites gentle slumbers. But when the wintery season of the tempestuous air prepares rains and snows, he either drives the fierce boars, with many a dog, into the intercepting toils; or spreads his thin nets with the smooth pole, as a snare for the voracious thrushes; or catches in his gin the timorous hare, or that stranger the crane,' pleasing rewards [for his labor]. Among such joys as these, who does not forget those mischievous anxieties, which are the property of love. But if a chaste wife, assisting on her part [in the management] of the house, and beloved children (such as is the Sabine, or the sun-burned spouse of the industrious Apulian), piles up the sacred hearth with old wood,' just at the approach of her weary husband; and, shutting up the fruitful cattle in the

7 Et advenam gruem. Cranes came to Italy and Greece in winter for the warmth of the climate; from whence Pliny calls them Hyemis advenas, the strangers of winter. LAMB.

8 Sabina qualis. The Sabines possessed the middle of Italy. They were a frugal and laborious people, and their wives were. remarkable for chastity and modesty, domestic housewifery, and conjugal fidelity. CRUQ.

9 Sacrum vetustis extruat. The construction is reversed: Extruere lignis focum, for extruere ligna in foco, or super foco. This fire was called sacred, because it was consecrated to Vesta and the household gods, whose statues were placed round it. CRUQ.

woven hurdles, milks dry their distended udders: and, drawing this year's wine out of a well-seasoned cask, prepares the unbought collation: not the Lucrine oysters" could delight me more, nor the turbot, nor the scar, should the tempestuous winter drive any from the eastern floods to this sea: not the turkey, nor the Asiatic wild-fowl, can come into my stomach more agreeably, than the olive gathered from the richest branches from the trees, or the sorrel that loves the meadows, or mallows salubrious for a sickly body, or a lamb slain at the feast of Terminus, or a kid rescued from the wolf. Amid these dainties, how it pleases one to see the well-fed sheep hastening home to see the weary oxen, with drooping neck, dragging the inverted plowshare! and slaves, the test of a rich family, ranged about the smiling household gods! When Alfius, the usurer, now on the point of turning countryman, had said this, he collected in all his money on the Ides; and endeavors to put it out again at the Calends.

ODE III.

TO MÆCENAS.

What

If any person at any time with an impious hand has broken his aged father's neck, let him eat" garlic, more baneful than hemlock. Oh! the hardy bowels of the mowers! poison is this that rages in my entrails? Has viper's blood, infused in these herbs, deceived me? Or has Canidia dressed this baleful food? When Medea, beyond all the [other] Argonauts, admired their handsome leader, she anointed Jason with this, as he was going to tie the untried yoke on the bulls and having revenged herself on [Jason's] mistress, by making her presents besmeared with this, she flew away on

10 Lucrina conchylia. Conchylia is a general word for all kinds of shell-fish. The Romans at first loved the oysters of the Lucrine Lake; afterward they preferred those of Brundusium and Tarentum; at length all others were insipid to them except those of the Atlantic Ocean. these expenses became excessive, the censors were obliged to forbid either fowl or shell-fish to be brought from countries so distant. DAC.

As

11 "Edit is preferable to edat; for the ancients used edim, edis, edit." SCHOL. See Orelli,

her winged dragon. Never did the steaming influence of any constellation so raging as this rest upon the thirsty Appulia: neither did the gift [of Dejanira] burn hotter upon the shoulders of laborious Hercules. But if ever, facetious Mæcenas, you should have a desire for any such stuff again, I wish that your girl may oppose her hand to your kiss, and lie at the furthest part of the bed.

As great an enmity as is allotted by nature to wolves and lambs, [so great a one] have I to you, you that are galled at your back with Spanish cords," and on your legs with the hard fetter. Though, purse-proud with your riches, you strut along, yet fortune does not alter your birth. Do you not observe while you are stalking along the sacred way with a robe twice three ells long, how the most open indignation of those

12 The manuscripts inscribe this ode in Menam libertum. Sextus Menas was a freed man of Cneius Pompeius, and during five or six years of the triumvirate had made himself considerable both to Octavius and Pompey, by betraying each of them in their turn, from whence Appian calls him the double betrayer.

In 714 he commanded Pompey's fleet; ravaged the borders of Tuscany, took Sardinia, and reduced Rome to such extremity, by shutting up the sea, that he compelled the Romans to demand a peace from Pompey. In 716, Menas became suspected by Pompey, who commanded him to give an account of his administration. He refused to obey; put the persons to death whom Pompey had sent; and surrendered himself to Octavius, with his ships, his troops, and the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. The triumvir received him with open arms, and put him on board his fleet in quality of lieutenant to Calvisius Sabinus. He there behaved himself with so much courage and conduct, in the expeditions of the following year, that, inflamed with his success, and angry that he had not the supreme command, he returned to Pompey.

In 718, discontented that he was not regarded equally to his merit, he ranged himself, with a large number of vessels, on the side of Octavius, who had made him some advantageous offers, yet never employed him afterward but with much reserve. He was killed the following year in a sea-fight. ED. DUBLIN.

13 Ibericis funibus. A Spanish herb, called spartum, had fibers so pliant and strong, that ropes were made of it; from whence a Spanish cord became a general name. TORR.