final conquest of Latium, supplied the Rostra at Rome. (See Livy, viii. 14.) All people, says the poet, whatever their occupations or circumstances, fear Fortune; necessity with her emblems of stern and fixed purpose goes before the Goddess, and Hope and Fidelity are her companions. May she now grant safety to Cæsar in his contemplated expedition against Britain, and preserve the newly levied army which is on its march to the east. We gather from the allusions that the Ode was written B.C. 26. O DIVA, gratum quae regis Antium, Vertere funeribus triumphos; Te pauper ambit sollicita prece Te Dacus asper, te profugi Scythae, Injurioso ne pede proruas Stantem columnam, neu populus frequens Concitet, imperiumque frangat. Te semper anteit saeva Necessitas, Uncus abest, liquidumque plumbum. Te Spes et albo rara Fides colit Veste domos inimica linquis. At volgus1 infidum et meretrix retro 1 valgus. 5 ΙΟ 15 20 25 Serves iturum Caesarem in ultimos Partibus, Oceanoque rubro. Eheu cicatricum et sceleris pudet Liquimus? unde manum juventus Metu deorum continuit? quibus 30 35 40 Pompeius Varus, to whom this Ode is probably addressed, had been the poet's comrade at the battle of Philippi. When Sextus Pompeius made peace with the Triumvirs, B.C. 39, and granted an amnesty to all who were willing to take advantage of it, Varus was among those who returned, and had, as Horace says, his Roman citizenship restored to him. The poet speaks of him as his best and earliest friend; he alludes to his own escape from the battle-field through the intervention of Mercury, while Varus was again drawn back into the waves of civil strife. O SAEPE mecum tempus in ultimum Dis patriis Italoque caelo, Pompei meorum prime sodalium ? Malobathro Syrio capillos. Tecum Philippos et celerem fugam 5 IO Sed me per hostis Mercurius celer Ergo obligatam redde Jovi dapem, Parce cadis tibi destinatis. Oblivioso levia Massico Ciboria exple: funde capacibus Curatve myrto? quem Venus arbitrum Dulce mihi furere est amico. 15 20 25 Horace had been nearly killed by the fall of a tree, and in this Ode he inveighs bitterly against the tree itself, and the person who planted it. There is no crime, he says, which that person would not commit. He then goes on to speak of the suddenness of death, and how nearly he had himself been sent to the lower world, where Sappho and Alcaeus charm and soothe the shades with their poetic strains. ILLE et nefasto te posuit die, Quicumque primum, et sacrilega manu Perniciem opprobriumque pagi. 5 Et quidquid usquam concipitur nefas, In domini caput immerentis. Quid quisque vitet, numquam homini satis Miles sagittas et celerem fugam Quam paene furvae regna Proserpinae, Sappho puellis de popularibus ; Dura fugae mala, dura belli! Utrumque sacro digna silentio Mirantur Umbrae dicere; sed magis Ďensum umeris1 bibit aure volgus.* Quid mirum? ubi illis carminibus stupens Demittit atras beluas centiceps Aures, et intorti capillis Eumenidum recreantur angues ; Quin et Prometheus et Pelopis parens Dulci laborum decipitur sono ; Nec curat Orion leones Aut timidos agitare lyncas. 3 bellua. 2 vulgus. 1 humeris. IO 15 20 25 30 35 40 Horace wrote this Ode to console his friend Valgius Rufus, who was grieving over the loss of a young slave to whom he was warmly attached. The rain, says the poet, does not always fall, or the frosts of winter continue for ever; yet thou, my friend, dost not cease to mourn thy lost Mystes. Leave off thy weeping, and let us sing of the triumphs of Augustus. NON semper imbres nubibus hispidos Tu semper urgues' flebilibus modis Nec rapidum fugiente Solem. Caesaris, et rigidum Niphaten, Medumque flumen, gentibus additum 5 10 15 20 |