No Coan purple can to you restore, The public rolls interred have been. Where has your beauty fled? that hue, ah! where? Could tear me from myself away ? Our amorous youth might see to white The Latin superscription of this Ode sufficiently indicates that its real object was the praise of Augustus, to which the part taken by Tiberius, together with Drusus, in the victories over the German tribes, is made subservient. For the circumstances in which it was written, see prefatory note to Ode 4 of this Book. How shall the senate's or the people's care, Nec Coae referunt jam tibi purpurae, Nec clari lapides, tempora, quae semel Inclusit volucris dies. Quo fugit Venus? heu, quove color? decens Quae me surpuerat mihi? Felix post Cinaram, notaque et artium Servatura diu parem Cornicis vetulae temporibus Lycen, Multo non sine risu, Dilapsam in cineres facem. XIV. AD AUGUSTUM. QUAE cura patrum, quaeve Quiritium, Per titulos memoresque fastos Aeternet, o qua sol habitabiles U How far thy martial prowess may attain With dire destruction on the embattled plain. The fearful deluge of his rabid waves. When the mailed bands of those barbarian churls Claudius with his impetuous onslaught cleaves, And mowing van and rear, yet losing none On his own side, with corpses strews the ground, Thou troops and counsels lendest, thou thine own Tutelar gods. For when three lustres round Had fully run from the same day whereon Submissive Alexandria was found Opening to thee her ports and palace lone, Quem legis expertes Latinae Quid Marte posses. Milite nam tuo Alpibus impositas tremendis Dejecit acer plus vice simplici. Indomitas prope qualis undas Mittere equum medios per ignes. Sic tauriformis volvitur Aufidus, Qui regna Dauni praefluit Apuli, Cum saevit, horrendamque cultis Diluviem meditatur agris. Ut barbarorum Claudius agmina Ferrata vasto diruit impetu, Primosque et extremos metendo, Stravit humum sine clade victor; Te copias te consilium, et tuos Praebente divos. Nam tibi quo die Portus Alexandrea supplex Et vacuam patefecit aulam, Kind fortune gave thy wars a prosperous end, Thee, Danube, rapid Tigris, mystic Nile To thee the blood-thirsty Sicambrians, An appropriate epilogue to the Fourth Book, which is supposed to have been compiled and published by desire of Augustus, mainly for the purpose of giving to the world the Odes celebrating the victories of Drusus and Tiberius, and which, on that supposition, could not conclude better than with an address to the Emperor himself recounting the series of successes whereby he had conferred upon the people the blessings of universal peace. FAIN had I sung of fights and cities ta'en, |