Young Troilus. Cease then your tender wail
At length, and rather join with me to hail
Augustus Cæsar's victories,
His last : Niphates, stiff with ice,
And Media's river, added to his list
Of subjects—rolling onward waves decreased;
And the Gelonians riding o'er
More narrow tracts than heretofore.
Licinius Murena was apparently a man of restless and ambitious
character,' and Horace may have addressed this Ode to him to warn him of the tendencies of his disposition. He belonged to the college of augurs (see Ode iii. 19), had a house at Formiae, where he received Maecenas and his party on their way to Brundusium, and was finally condemned and put to death on a charge of having plotted against the life of Augustus.
LICINIUS, more correctly
Life's voyage would you take,
Don't at all times directly
For middle ocean make :
And, when through caution fearing
The wind's tempestuous roar,
Avoid too closely steering
Beside a dangerous shore.
What man is there pursuing
Only the golden mean?
Secure he is, eschewing
The foul disorder seen
Flevere semper. Desine mollium
Tandem querelarum, et potius nova
Cantemus Augusti tropaea
Caesaris, et rigidum Niphaten,
Medumque flumen gentibus additum
Victis, minores volvere vertices,
Intraque praescriptum Gelonos
Exiguis equitare campis.
RECTIUS vives, Licini, neque altum Semper urgendo; neque, dum procellas Cautus horrescis, nimium premendo
Littus iniquum.
Auream quisquis mediocritatem
Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
In old decaying dwelling;
Calm too, eschewing all
Ambitious thoughts impelling
To envied palace hall.
Pine-tree that rises higher,
The winds more often shake;
Turrets that most aspire,
The heaviest downfall make;
Mountains that nighest heaven
Their lofty summits raise,
Are those on which the levin
With greatest fury plays.
He who by wise tuition
Has well prepared his mind,
Looks ever for transition
With fear, if fortune's kind;
With hope, if she disguises
Her face with frowns; for Jove
Who winter drear deyises
Doth winter too remove.
When evil ’tis, does 't follow
That 'twill be always so ?
Nor always does Apollo
Appear with bended bow.
Anon the Muse's slumbers
His inspiration breaks,
And to melodious numbers
The silent lyre awakes.
Sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
Sobrius aula.
Saepius ventis agitatur ingens
Pinus; et celsae graviore casu
Decidunt turres ; feriuntque summos
Fulgura moi es.
Sperat infestis, metuit secundis
Alteram sortem bene praeparatum
Pectus. Informes hiemes reducit
Juppiter, idem
Summovet. Non, si male nunc, et olim Sic erit : quondam cithara tacentem Suscitat musam, neque semper arcum
Tendit Apollo.
Misfortunes round thee closing
With gallant heart confront;
With fortitude opposing,
Sustain their fiercest brunt.
When favouring wind excelling
In strength becomes a gale,
Regard your canvas swelling,
And wisely shorten sail.
• Minorem' in line 11 is translated ‘drudge' in deference to Mr.
Macleane, who says that the word, like noowv, signifies the victim of' or 'a slave to.' I don't think I need apologise for coining the word “nardine' used in line 16. If an ointment made from nard were now-a-days in use, that would certainly be the name which English perfumers would give it.
LEAVE asking, my Quintius Hirpinus, what 'tis
That the warlike Cantabrian meditates, or
The Scyths, interposed between us and whom is
The Adrian: and be not solicitous for
The requirements of life, which but little requires.
Our youth and good looks lightly off from us sweep,
And sapless old age baffles wanton desires,
And drives away also our once ready sleep.
Spring blossoms not always retain the same hue :
With one visage not always the vivid moon shines :
Why weary your soul with such constant ado,
And make it the drudge of ne'er-ending designs ?
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