Quam si clientum longa negotia Tendens Venafranos in agros, 55 Marcus Lollius, to whom this Ode is addressed, was a legate in Gaul, B.C. 16, and was defeated by the Sugambri. He seems, however, to have regained the confidence of Augustus, as he was chosen by him to accompany his grandson C. Cæsar into the east, as a kind of confidential friend and tutor. Both the elder Pliny and Velleius Paterculus speak of him as an unprincipled man, who thought of nothing but making money by any sort of means, and he would appear to have left a bad name behind him. We must, however, remember that he was much disliked by the Emperor Tiberius, and may have been undeservedly abused because he was out of court favour. Perhaps he may really have had some of the virtues attributed to him by Horace in this Ode. Its general drift and purpose is that he alone who knows how to use the gifts of the gods wisely, is not afraid of poverty, and hates corruption, and is ready to die for his friends and his country, is alone truly happy. NE forte credas interitura, quae, Longe sonantem natus ad Aufidum, Non sola comptos arsit adulteri Et comites Helene Lacaena; 5 ΙΟ 15 Paulum sepultae distat inertiae Celata virtus. Non ego te meis Totve tuos patiar labores Impune, Lolli, carpere lividas Sed quotiens bonus atque fidus Non possidentem multa vocaveris Duramque callet pauperiem pati, Aut patria timidus perire. The occasion of this Ode is sufficiently obvious. It celebrates Augustus' victory at Actium, and the death of Cleopatra. There is no allusion to Antony; all the poet's wrath is concentrated on the Egyptian queen. It is now, he says, time to drink, to rejoice, and to thank the gods; the proud and terrible queen, who threatened us with ruin, despairing of her cause after the destruction of her fleet, has preferred to die than to be dragged in the conqueror's triumph. News of the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra was brought to Rome by Cicero's son in the autumn of B.C. 30. NUNC est bibendum, nunc pede libero Tempus erat dapibus, sodales. Antehac nefas depromere Caecubum Regina dementis ruinas, Contaminato cum grege turpium Ebria. Sed minuit furorem Vix una sospes navis ab ignibus ; Caesar, ab Italia volantem Remis adurguens,' accipiter velut Fatale monstrum; quae generosius 5 ΙΟ 15 20 Ausa et jacentem visere regiam Deliberata morte ferocior, Saevis Liburnis scilicet invidens Privata deduci superbo Non humilis mulier triumpho. VII. [II. 1.] 25 30 Asinius Pollio, to whom this Ode is addressed, was an allaccomplished man. He was a soldier, poet, historian, and advocate. In B.C. 39 he won a great victory over the Parthini, an Illyrian tribe, after which he retired from public life and devoted himself to letters. He was the founder of the first public library at Rome. Horace wishes him to cease for a time from the writing of tragedies, and only to resume it when he had completed his labours as a historian. He was engaged, it would seem, on a history of the recent civil wars, a work, as Horace says, of peculiar difficulty and danger. The Ode was probably written after Horace had heard Pollio read aloud, before a select circle, portions of his work. This in time became a regular practice with Roman authors, and Pollio is said to have been the first to introduce it. MOTUM ex Metello consule civicum, Nondum expiatis uncta cruoribus, Paulum severae Musa tragoediae Insigne maestis praesidium reis Cui laurus aeternos honores Delmatico' peperit triumpho. Jam nunc minaci murmure cornuum Terret equos equitumque voltus. Praeter atrocem animum Catonis. Juno et deorum quisquis amicior Rettulit inferias Jugurthae. Quis non Latino sanguine pinguior Qui gurges, aut quae flumina lugubris Non decoloravere caedes? Quae caret ora cruore nostro ? Sed ne relictis, Musa procax, jocis, Quaere modos leviore plectro. 15 20 25 30 35 This Ode is an invocation of the Goddess Fortune, whose temples in Rome were ancient and numerous. She was, however, in Horace's time chiefly worshipped at Praeneste and Antium, at which latter place she had an oracle. Antium (now Porto-Anzo) was a very old Latin city, and its ships, after the 1 Dalmatice. |