utrum

Nec semel hoc fecit, nec, si retractus erit jam,
Fiet homo, et ponet famosae mortis amorem.
Nec satis apparet cur versus factitet,
Minxerit in patrios cineres, an triste bidental
Moverit incestus: certe furit, ac velut ursus,
Objectos caveae valuit si frangere clathros,
Indoctum doctumque fugat recitator acerbus;
Quem vero arripuit, tenet occiditque legendo,
Non missura cutem, nisi plena cruoris, hirudo.

470 dictitet

470

475

V. R., various reading or readings. S-J., Schmid's Jahn.

A., Allen's. Allen & Greenough's.* Bl., Metrical translation in Black

*The numbering of the sections in these two Grammars is identical.

NOTES.

HORATI CARMINVM

LIBER PRIMVS.

Carm. I.-Ad Maecenatem. (725–736.)

This introductory ode serves both as a preface to the first three books, which were published together, and as a dedication to Horace's friend and patron Maecenas.

ARGUMENT. Maecenas, my protector, my pride, various are the aims of men. One man delights in Olympic contests, another in the honors of the state, another in his well-filled barns. The farmer will not plough the seas, the merchant is restless on land. One loves his ease and his wine, another the camp and the din of war, while the huntsman braves all weathers for his sport. My glory is in the poet's ivy crown, my delight to retire to the groves with the nymphs and the satyrs, where my muse breathes the flute or strikes the lyre. If thou shalt rank me among the lyric choir, I shall lift my head to the skies.

1. Maecenas. See the Index of Proper Names. - Atavis. Abl. of source, after edite (from edo), a participle denoting birth. H. 425, 3, 1); A. & S. 246; B. 918; A. 54, VIII. Atavis here is a general term for ancestors. What is its proper or original meaning? (See Lex.) — Regibus, in apposition with atavis, and kindred in force to a relative clause (H. 363, 3), (who were) kings. Maecenas belonged to the family of the Cilnii (an ancient and leading house at Arretium), which was descended from Lucumones, or princes of Etruria: (Carm. III. 29, 1, Sat. I. 6, 1, 2).

2. ō ēt. A spondee. Interjections consisting only of a vowel (or of a vowel followed by h), cannot be elided; by elision the whole word would disappear in recitation. The friendship of Maecenas was a protection to Horace against the assaults of the envious and censorious, conferred upon him many solid advantages (as the gift of the Sabine farm), and was an ornament and an honor to him, from the social prestige attending an intimacy with the first gentleman of Rome. Notice the alliteration in dulce decus, as in dulce et decorum, dulces docta, dulci

digne, desine dulcium, dulci distinet a domo, Dauniae defende decus, etc., in subsequent odes. Con. "The shield at once and glory of my life." 3. Curriculo (from curro as vehiculum from veho) = curru, "with the car." A few commentators give the other possible translation, in the race-course. - Olympicum. N. suggests that the allusion here is not to the Grecian games, but to the imitations of them at Rome, instituted by Augustus. (See Suet. Oct. 45.)

4, 5. Collegisse. The tense need give us no trouble, for a literal translation of it is perfectly intelligible in English. The remembrance of the race is pleasant, as well as the race itself; and even during the race, the dust has been raised, before it is thought of. But Horace chose this form without any very subtile consideration of the sense, from the exigencies of his metre, which would not admit colligere. Notice the exact force of collegisse, — the gathering together or collecting the scattered atoms of dust into a cloud, as by a whirlwind. Cf. Sat. I. 4, 31. Juvat. After sunt qui the subj. is ordinarily found. By the use of the indicative here, the poet represents the action as particular rather than general, and hence with more liveliness and definiteness, as if he had the very persons in his mind who are pleased by such contests. Sunt quos is here equivalent to nonnullos, (as est qui (v. 19)= nonnemo, sunt quibus (I. 7, 5) == nonnullis). Hence the construction is continued by hunc (7) and illum (9): sc. juvat. The indic. cannot be used after negative expressions, such as nemo est qui. — Meta. At each extremity of the spina (a low wall running lengthways down the centre of the racecourse), were three conical pillars of wood, called metae, the goal. "It was the mark of a skilful driver to turn the goal as closely as possible, which is implied in fervidis evitata rotis.” — Fervidis, glowing.— Palma. A palm-branch was given to the victors in the Grecian games, to be borne in the hand, in addition to the garland of olive, laurel, pine, or parsley (and sometimes of palm), for the head.

6. Terrarum dominos, in apposition with deos. Cf. Ovid. Pont. I. 9, 36: Terrarum dominos quam colis ipse deos. T. dom. is wrongly taken by D. and R. as the object of evehit. - Evehit ad deos, transports to the gods; i. e., makes them, applauded and proud, feel themselves great as the gods. Notice how lively a picture Horace has given us by a few simple touches, -the chariot, the cloud of dust, the skilful turning of the goal, and the palm-branch given to the proud victor.

7. Hunc. sc. juvat. G. H., J., and Ob. supply here evehit ad deos as well as juvat.-Mobilium, fickle. Cf. ventosae plebis, Epp. I. 19, 37. 8. Honoribus, abl. of means (the Latin idiom being "raise with honors" where we should say to honors). The threefold honors are the

curule aedileship, the praetorship, and the consulship.- Certat tollere. This use of certo with the infin. is almost exclusively confined to the poets. H. 553, V.; A. & S. 271, note 3; M. 389, obs. 2; B. 1160; A. 58, IV.; Z. 616.

9. Illum, sc. juvat.· Proprio horreo, abl. of mode or means; it is usually explained, as it is most conveniently translated, as abl. of place with the prep. in omitted by poetical usage.

10, 11. Libya, Sicily, and Egypt were the most fertile provinces of Rome. The area was a raised floor on which the grain was threshed, under the open sky. After the wind had winnowed it, the floor was swept, and the grain was thus collected. - There seems to be a certain contempt for wealth and honors in the use of the words pulverem, mobilium, and verritur. Gaudentem, sc. aliquem (one). - Patrius means belonging to one's fathers, ancestral; paternus, belonging to one's father. 12. Attalicis condicionibus (conditionibus), lit., by Attalic offers, i. e., by the most splendid offers, the Attăli (kings of Pergamus), and especially Attǎlus II., Philadelphus, being famous for the munificence with which they rewarded artists who adorned their palace with pictures and statues, and for the liberal prices they paid for books.

13-15. The four proper names in these lines are introduced for the sake of particularity and consequent vivacity and picturesqueness. The specification of a particular kind of vessel, and of particular seas and winds, brings more definite images before the mind than would be presented had the poet confined himself to general terms. It suggests, moreover, whatever poetic associations belong to the names; "Cypria," for example, calls up "dreamy recollections of all the lovely myths about Cyprus." Apart from such local coloring, the most obvious interpretation is that given by Bl.: "You could not tempt him even to a short passage on board the best-built ship: " Cyprus being celebrated for shipbuilding, and the Myrtōan sea a short though rough passage. --- Fluctibus, dative. H. 385, 5; A. & S. 223, Rem. 2, note, (b); B. 833, 3. "Luetari, certare, decertare, contendere, are used by the poets with the dat., after the manner of the Greek μάχεσθαι τινι.”

16. Otium et oppidi rura sui, generally tr. (as hendiadys) the peaceful fields around his town. In such cases, however, we must not lose sight of the twofold object. The merchant praises both the tranquillity (calm, freedom from care) of his native town, and the beautiful fields around it.

18, 19. Pati. Find in your grammar (by the index) the rule for the infinitive after adjectives. Massici, sc. vini.

20. Nec spernit, litõtês.

Solido. The business-hours constituted