Frangere, however, is very common in the si,' 'defeat,' break the back of,' and so taken ble sense the day threatened to be dull, weariAous, but Horace had a remedy quite strong enough 8 threats and make it move along very fast and So Nauck, 'to shorten.'

ronatus...] lit. 'garlanded as to my locks glistening an unguent,' i. e. wearing a garland on my locks, &c. hrum is a corruption of the Indian name for a plant from unguent was extracted. It is called 'Syrian' because y all Indian products were brought to the sea-coast through and bought by Roman merchants in Syria, so that all merchandise is indiscriminately called 'Syrian.' Cf. 2. ir. 16, Assyriaque nardo.

9. Philippos et celerem fugam] 'Philippi's hurried rout.' A good instance of Hendiadys (ev did dvoîv) or the use of two words or phrases simply put side by side, instead of a single complex phrase in which the words qualify each other. Cf. 1. 35. 23, cicatricum fratrumque, 'wounds inflicted by brethren,' 3. 4. 4, fidibus citharaque, 3. 4. 42, Titanas immanemque turmam, Caes. B. G. 4. solitudinem et silvas.

10. sensi] a favourite word of Horace, meaning 'to feel to one's cost,' to feel anything painful.' Cf. 4. 4. 25, sensere, of the conquered tribes, feeling to their cost' the power of Rome. So 3. 27. 22, sentiant motus, of those at sea, 3. 5. 36, lora sensit iners.

relicta non bene parmula] Horace always speaks of his short military career as of something he can look back upon as too curiously absurd to be talked of gravely; that he is half jesting is clear here, as Wickham well observes, from the ironical use of the diminutive parmula, 'my poor shield.' non bene is also used in jest = 'not over bravely:' in serious writing non bene would = 'most disgracefully,' by litotes, cf. 1. 18. 9 n.

Horace is probably induced to tell this tale against himself by the fact that he is imitating the example of Alcaeus, Archilochus, and Anacreon (v. Orelli ad loc.).

For the disgrace of throwing away the shield cf. the use of the word piyaonis and the Spartan mother's advice to her son, 'Return either with your shield or upon it.'

11. cum...mento] The description in these lines is of course sober earnest, all the more telling preceded and followed as it is by ironical jesting.

minaces] 'those but late so threatening touched with their chin the disgraceful dust.' The solum is called turpe, because when they bit the dust' they were defeated, and to a certain extent all defeat is disgraceful.

Orelli prefers to take tetigere mento as if referring to the abject prostration of suppliants, with their faces in the dust, rather than as an Horatian reproduction of phrases such as ööde λafolaro yaîav, Hom. I. 2. 418, and humum semel ore momordit, Virg. Aen. 10. 849. He quotes a passage of Appian to prove that certain leaders did, after the battle, 'come as suppliants' (ixéraι wpoσýeσav) to Antony: but this is really too recondite and unimportant. What Horace wishes to do is not to commemorate the cowardly behaviour of some of his fellowsoldiers after the battle-to do which would be at once unpoetical and ungenerous-but to tell us in five thrilling words how in that fierce fight those 'grim warriors bit the dust.'

18. sed me] Wickham well points out the strong opposition to tecum. Note too the emphatic position of the two words at the beginning of two stanzas.

1 n.

Mercurius celer] as the special patron of poets, cf. 1. 10.

denso aere] 'In a thick cloud.' So in Hom. jépɩ woλλy. aer from being constantly opposed to aether, the pure upper air (so too in Greek dýp and al@ńp), was frequently used as ='cloud,' 'mist.'

Horace is here satirizing Homer, who represents his divinities as rescuing a defeated hero by this somewhat unfair device whenever convenient, e. g. Il. 3. 380. Orelli's note 'mera est parrarla' is hardly more necessary than the 'This is sarcasm' of Artemus Ward.

15. resorbens] 'sucking back.' The metaphor is from a shipwreck: the breakers had cast Horace safe upon the shore; a back eddy had sucked his friend back amid 'the raging surf' (freta aestuosa), cf. ¿ȧvapo‹ßdeî, Hom. Od. 12. 105.

17. ergo] i. e. since after so many dangers you are safe at home.

obligatam redde] 'duly offer the banquet as you are bound.'

reddo is frequently not 'to give back,' but 'to give what is due,' but in fact the two senses are but one: Pompeius had doubtless bound himself by a vow (voto se obligare) to offer a

feast to Jove, and so when he 'duly offered' it, he was but 'giving back' to the god what the god had given him.

obligatam lit. 'that is bound on you,' i.e. to which you are bound: the word is a technical one with regard to religious obligations, e.g. Cic. Leg. 2. 16. 41, voti sponsio quia obligamur deo, cf. too the possible derivation of religio from religare.

21. oblivioso...] Here Horace represents the feast to which he invites his friend as actually realized, and himself as urging on the attendants to their various duties.

oblivioso, 'that brings forgetfulness,' i. e. of care, cf. Liber, Lyaeus. It is the olvov λabindea of Alcaeus.

levia] Notice the quantity of the e, and cf. 1. 2. 38 n. It is the same word as the Greek Meîos or λeɩFos, whereas lèvis = legvis the Greek ἐλαχύς.

Massico] From Mons Massicus in Campania.

22. ciboria] Cups made to imitate the pod of the Egyptian bean; cf. Athen. 11. 54, rà Alyúntia kißúpia. Bücheler brilliantly suggests that Septimius had after Philippi joined Antony in Egypt and remained there and that this Egyptian word for a 'goblet' is used designedly.

23. conchis] Shells, or vessels made to imitate shells, were used to contain unguents. So Martial, 3. 82. 27, speaks of a murez aureus as used for this purpose.

quis...myrto] 'Whose task is it speedily to fashion garlands with pliant parsley or with myrtle?' propero, 'to hasten,' is intransitive, but is frequently used transitively in the secondary sense of 'to make hastily,' cf. 2. 13. 26 n.; deproperare has the additional meaning of 'completing.' apium was used both by the Greeks (e.g. in the garland given as a prize at the Nemean games) and Romans for chaplets, cf. Virg. E. 6. 68, Floribus atque apio crines ornatus amaro. For udo cf. Theocr. 7. 69, πολυγνάμπτῳ τε σελίνῳ, ‘with easily bent parsley.

25.

curatve] For position of ve see 2. 19. 28 n.

quem...bibendi] Whom shall Venus declare lord of the revel?' At feasts a president was chosen by lot, see 1. 4. 18.

27. Edonis] The Edoni were a Thracian people near the Strymon. The Thracians were notorious for their orgiastic worship of Bacchus or Dionysus. Cf. 1. 27. 1.

28. furere] lit. 'to be mad''to hold furious revel.' So too 3. 19. 18, insanire,

ODE VIII.

An Ode to Barine, fair, fickle and forsworn. This Ode has the peculiar interest of being perhaps the only Ode of Horace of which there is an adequate English rendering-that by Sir Charles Sedley (see Selected Translations, by C. W. Cooper).

1. ulla...unquam] 'had any punishment, Barine, for faith forsworn ever marred your beauty.' The ancients believed that the gods specially punished perjury by the infliction of some personal disfigurement: the fact that Zeus did not blast the perjured (¿wlopko) with his thunder is used as an argument against his existence by the Socrates of Aristophanes, v. Nub. 399. Orelli aptly quotes Ov. Am. 3. 3. 1,

esse deos, i, crede; fidem jurata fefellit:

et facies illi, quae fuit ante, manet.

iuris pelerati] jus is never used by itself for 'an oath,' but from the analogy of its use in the word jusjurandum, Horace has invented this phrase, which is at once so clear and effective that it is a distinct addition to the Latin language. For the oxymoron, cf. 3. 11. 35 n.

3. nigro uno] Both these adjectives go with both dente and ungui; uno is emphatic, one single.

5. crederem] Notice the marked contrast between the long protasis, and the emphatic monosyllabic apodosis. Had I, he means to say, one atom of hope that you might possibly keep your word, then I would, spite of everything, then and there, unreasonably and unhesitatingly believe.

tu] emphatic.

obligasti] See note on 2. 7. 17. simul=simul ac, 'as soon

6. caput] It was customary to 'swear by the head' (cf. St Matt. 5. 36), i. e. invoking a curse on the head if the oath were broken: hence Horace's selection of the word here. But he is not uninfluenced by the recollection how very charming was that same 'perjured head,' 'wreathed' though it was with broken vows' (votis obligatum).

enitescis...cura] 'you shine forth in still more radiant beauty, and advance the cynosure of all our youth.'

enitescis and prodis are admirably used of Barine's soft and dazzling beauty as she appears: they are words that might be used of the rising moon as she 'unveils her peerless light,' in fact they almost suggest the comparison.

9. expedit] very emphatic. Not only does perjury do you no harm but it absolutely 'suits you'!

10. fallere] 'to deceive,' or 'cheat,' i. e. to swear falsely by.' Cf. Virg. Aen. 6. 324, Di cujus jurare timent et fallere numen. Cf. too the common phrase fidem fallere="to break a pledge.'

et toto...carentes] Notice how Horace heaps together words of weight and solemnity to express the awfulness of the oaths Barine had broken.

13. hoc] i.e. the fact of your perjury. Notice the climax of thought, not only does Barine not suffer for her perjury, but it absolutely does her good, nay the deities even smile approbation of it.

inquam] Just as we insert 'I assure you' parenthetically when we think what we are saying may appear incredible.

15. ardentes] burning arrows were frequently used in war: Cupid's are so called, because where they hit they kindle 'the fire' of love. Cupid sharpening his arrows is a favourite subject on antique gems.

17. adde, quod]=accedit quod, though somewhat more poetical; then too there is the fact that.' This seems better than to make Barine the vocative to be understood with adde. For the phrase see Dict. s. v. addo.

pubes crescit, servitus crescit] Notice how Horace by simply putting these two statements side by side expresses the completeness of Barine's empire: to say 'new youths are growing up,' is identical with saying 'you have new slaves growing up,' the two phrases are interchangeable.

21. te...] Barine was the dread of three classes, timid mothers, thrifty fathers, and anxious brides.

For juvencis see Intr. to 2. 5. It is used here half satirically where you might expect such a word as 'darling.'

23. tua aura] 'the breath of your love,' or perhaps the effulgence of thy beauty,' cf. enitescis and Virg. Aen. 6. 204, auri per ramos aura refulsit.