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Sordidus ac dives, populi contemnere voces
Sic solitus: populus me sibilat, at mihi plando
Ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arca.
Tantalus a labris sitiens fugientia captat

Flumina . . . . Quid rides? Mutato nomine de te
Fabula narratur: congestis undique saccis
Indormis inhians, et tamquam parcere sacris
Cogeris aut pictis tamquam gaudere tabellis.
Nescis quo valeat nummus, quem praebeat usum.
Panis ematur, olus, vini sextarius, adde
Quis humana sibi doleat natura negatis.
An vigilare metu exanimem, noctesque diesque
Formidare malos fures, incendia, servos,
Ne te compilent fugientes, hoc juvat? Horum
Semper ego optarim pauperrimus esse bonorum.
'At si condoluit tentatum frigore corpus,
Aut alius casus lecto te affixit; habes qui
Assideat, fomenta paret, medicum roget, ut te
Suscitet ac natis reddat carisque propinquis?'
Non uxor salvum te vult, non filius; omnes
Vicini oderunt, noti, pueri atque puellae.
Miraris, quum tu argento post omnia ponas,
Si nemo praestet, quem non merearis amorem?
At si cognatos, nullo natura labore

streptow desires Money tagscollected from all sides,

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poet now gives an instance of a man who valued himself accord-
ing to his wealth. Why the case of Tantalus is brought up is not
so obvious: the avaricious man, to whom Horace supposes him-
self speaking, does not see its applicability, and laughs. Hereupon
Horace breaks off from his sentence (an instance of aposiopesis),
and shows him the bearing of the case. -71. Tamquam sacris, 'as
if they belonged to a god, and there was a curse upon him who
should handle them.-72. The idea is this: it is the same thing
whether you have real money, or merely a picture before your
eyes, on which are painted pieces of gold. You have as much
pleasure in the one as the other, since you only look, never use.
73. Quo valeat; that is, ad quam rem utilis sit.-74. Sextarius, the
sixth part of a congius, about half a pint, the quantity which a mo-
derate drinker will take at a banquet.-75. Quis negatis doleat na-
tura; literally, things which being denied to it, human nature
grieves; that is, which human nature grieves to be without.' In
the preceding passage the poet has mentioned the necessaries of life;
here he adds some of those things which make life comfortable and
joyous, such as a respectable dwelling, decent clothing, society, and
the like.-80. Tentatum frigore, assailed by, shivering from cold.'
The poet is thinking of the disease most common in Italy-fever
and ague.-85. Pueri atque puellae, a proverbial expression, deno-
ting all classes, old and young, male and female.'-86. Post omnia
ponas, by imesis, for postponas omnia. 88. At si, etc. The sense
is: if you try to keep the affection of your relatives, you will fail,

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Quos tibi dat, retinere velis servareque amicos,
Infelix operam perdas: ut si quis asellum
In Campo doceat parentem currere frenis.
Denique sit finis quaerendi, quumque habeas plus,
Pauperiem metuas minus et finire laborem
Incipias, parto quod avebas, ne facias quod
Ummidius quidam (non longa est fabula) dives,
Ut metiretur nummos, ita sordidus, ut se
Non unquam servo melius vestiret, ad usque
Supremum tempus ne se penuria victus
Opprimeret, metuebat. At hunc liberta securi
Divisit medium, fortissima Tyndaridarum.
Quid mi igitur suades? ut vivam Maenius? aut sic
Ut Nomentanus? Pergis pugnantia secum
Frontibus adversis componere: non ego avarum
Quum veto te fieri, vappam jubeo,ac nebulonem.
Est inter Tanain quiddam socerumque Viselli.
Est modus in rebus,, sunt certi, denique, fines,
Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum.
Illuc unde abii redeo, nemo ut avarus

Se probet, ac potius laudet diversa sequentes;

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as a man would do who should try to put his ass through the exercises of a horse. Your relations will not serve you, as you have done no good to them.-92. Denique introduces the last suggestion of the poet to the avaricious man. Hence it means 'at least, then :' if you are deaf to everything else, at least agree to this proposalto have less dread of poverty and less pinching miserliness the more you acquire.-94. Ne facias quod, etc., 'lest that happen to you which did to a certain Ummidius.' 96. Metiretur. He did not count his money, but measured it by bushels.-98. Victus, genitive, governed by penuria.-100. Fortissima Tyndaridarum. Tyndarides, a son of Tyndareus, plural Tyndaridae, descendants of Tyndareus. One of the children of Tyndareus was Clytaemnestra, who killed her husband Agamemnon. The freed-woman who slew her patron and husband is here, in jest, compared with the high-born Clytaemnestra, and called the boldest of husband-killers.—101. Ut vivam Maenius, to live like Maenius,' who, as well as Nomentanus, was a well-known debauchee at Rome.-102. Connect pugnantia secum adversis frontibus, the sense being things quite opposed to each other.'-104. Vappa; properly, stale wine,' here a useless fellow ;' nebulo, one who, like a mist (nebula) or the wind, has no solidity or regularity'a vagabond.' -105. Tanais and the father-in-law of Visellius were two well-known men at Rome, who suffered under opposite bodily infirmities.-108. Illuc-redeo; that is, I return to the proper theme of my satire-namely, that no one is content with his lot. On redeo depend first ut nemo avarus se probet, 'that nobody, in his avarice, approves of himself, is pleased, content with himself;' then afterwards, laudet, tabescat, comparet, and laboret. Observe the hiatus in nemō ut, which is bearable, as the arsis rests

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Quodque aliena capella gerat distentius uber,

110

Tabescat; neque se majori pauperiorum

Turbae comparet, hunc atque hunc superare laboret.

Sic festinanti semper locupletior obstat:

Ut, quum carceribus missos rapit ungula currus,

115

Instat equis auriga suos vincentibus, illum
Praeteritum temnens extremos inter euntem.
Inde fit, ut raro, qui se vixisse beatum
Dicat et exacto contentus tempore vita
Cedat, uti conviva satur, reperire queamus.
Jam satis est. Ne me Crispini scrinia lippi
Compilasse putes, verbum non amplius addam.

120

on the last syllable of nemo.- 114. Carceribus (ablative) missos, emissos ex carceribus. Ungula for equus. 116. Temnens, poetical for contemnens.-120. Crispinus was a Stoic philosopher, notorious in Rome for his moral harangues. He is called lippus, perhaps because he was really blear-eyed; perhaps, metaphorically, because he did not judge aright the faults and weaknesses of his fellow-men.

SATIRA VI.

THIS Satire contains a defence against the charge that Horace, though of humble birth, had pushed himself forward into the society of the great, with the view of being considered a man of importance. The moral of the satire is this-that nobility does not lie in birth, but in character; that virtue alone makes true nobility.

NON quia, Maecenas, Lydorum quidquid Etruscos
Incoluit fines, nemo generosior est te,

Nec quod avus tibi maternus fuit atque paternus,
Olim qui magnis legionibus imperitarent,
Ut plerique solent, naso suspendis adunco
Ignotos, ut me libertino patre natum.

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1. Lydorum quidquid, etc.; that is, omnium Lydorum qui Etruscos fines incolunt. It was a general belief in antiquity that Etruria was colonised by Lydians from Asia Minor. As to the high descent of Maecenas, see Carm. i. 1, 1.-4. Olim qui. Supply, of such a rank as to.' Legiones here are the armies of the ancient Etruscans. -5. Naso suspendis adunco, a witty expression for despisest, turnest up thy nose at.' We see here that Horace was somewhat proud of his being ingenuus. His father had been a slave, and afterwards, being manumitted by his master, a libertinus, he himself

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Quum referre negas quali sit quisque parente
Natus, dum ingenuus; persuades hoc tibi vere,
Ante potestatem Tulli atque ignobile regnum
Multos saepe viros nullis majoribus ortos
Et vixisse probos, amplis et honoribus auctos;
Contra Laevinum, Valeri genus, unde Superbus
Tarquinius regno pulsus fugit, unius assis
Non unquam pretio pluris licuisse, notante
Judice, quo nosti, populo, qui stultus honores
Saepe dat indignis et famae servit ineptus,
Qui stupet in titulis et imaginibus. Quid oportet
Nos facere a vulgo longe longeque remotos?
Namque esto, populus Laevino mallet honorem
Quam Decio mandare novo, censorque moveret
Appius, ingenuo si non essem patre natus:

Vel merito, quoniam in propria non pelle quiessem.
Sed fulgente trahit constrictos gloria curru
Non minus ignotos generosis. Quo tibi, Tilli,.
Sumere depositum clavum fierique tribuno?
Invidia accrevit, privato quae minor esset.

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was therefore freeborn.-9. Tulli. Servius Tullius was said by tradition to have been the son of a slave of Tarquinius Priscus, and was therefore looked up to by the slaves in Rome as a notable instance of good luck. Hence ignobile regnum, the government, which he obtained, though of ignoble birth.'-12. M. Valerius Laevinus was, as the scholiasts tell us, a young man of the time of Horace, who, though a member of the ancient and distinguished patrician gens Valeria, one of whose members had assisted in expelling Tarquinius Superbus, yet, on account of his vicious life, obtained no posts of honour. Unde = a quo, scil. genere. -13. Fugit, historical present.-14. Construe thus: licuisse (has been put up for sale; that is, has been valued) non unquam pluris (quam) pretio unius assis. 15. Quo nosti = quem nosti, an attraction common in Greek, but rare and poetical in Latin.-17. Tituli, 'inscriptions' recording the great deeds of ancestors, imagines, 'busts' of ancestors. 19. Mallet. The imperfect-subjunctive shows that the sup position is not true; for Laevinus was not promoted, and Appius Claudius, censor in 50 B. c., who was very strict, did not remove good men from the senate, even though they were ignoble. Properly, great-grandsons of freedmen (that is, nepotes ingenuorum) were their nearest descendants who could be admitted into the senate, but Appius had introduced grandsons; that is, filii ingenuorum. 20. Novo = novo homini. Decio is 'a Decius, a man like the Decii,' who were plebeians, and yet among the most distinguished men in Roman history.-22. Vel merito, scil. me moveret censor, even justly.' Propria in pelle quiescere, a proverbial expression for to be content with one's lot."— 24. Tillius, a person, as the scholiast tells us, who was removed from the senate as a Pompeian, by the dictator Caesar, but, after his murder, became tribunus plebis,

Nam ut quisque insanus nigris medium impediit crus
Pellibus et latum demisit pectore clavum,

Audit continuo: Quis homo hic aut quo patre natus?
Ut si qui aegrotet, quo morbo Barrus, haberi
Ut cupiat formosus, eat quacunque, puellis
Injiciat curam quaerendi singula, quali
Sit facie, sura, quali pede, dente, capillo;
Sic qui promittit, cives, urbem sibi curae,
Imperium fore et Italiam et delubra deorum,
Quo patre sit natus, num ignota matre inhonestus,
Omnes mortales curare et quaerere cogit.
'Tune, Syri, Damae, aut Dionysi filius, audes
Dejicere e saxo cives aut tradere Cadmo?"
'At Novius collega gradu post me sedet uno;

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Namque est ille, pater quod erat meus.' Hoc tibi Paullus
Et Messalla videris? At hic, si plostra ducenta
Concurrantque foro tria funera, magna souabit

Cornua quod vincatque tubas; saltem tenet hoc nos.
Nunc ad me redeo libertino patre natum,
Quem rodunt omnes libertino patre natum,

Nunc, quia sim tibi, Maecenas, convictor, at olim
Quod mihi pareret legio Romana tribuno.

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and thereby again a senator.—27. An allusion to the latus clavus and high buskins, which were the badges of a senator.-30. Barrus, a man otherwise unknown, but often mentioned by Horace on account of his vanity -35. Qui promittit, by becoming a senator.— 36. Num, whether he is-but of course he is not.' This is implied in num.-38. Tune, etc. This is what one of the people is supposed to say to the son of a freedman, who has obtained honours. The answer of the upstart follows in line 40. Syrus, Dama, and Dionysius, were common names of slaves.-39 Saxo is the Tarpeian rock, and this refers to the ancient punishment which the Roman magistrates could inflict for high treason and other heinous crimes. Cadmus, a well-known executioner. 40. Gradu post me sedet uno, figurative is a degree more ignoble than I; that is, is himself a libertinus. The figure is taken from the theatre, in which the front seats were the most honourable.-41. Hoc, 'on this account,' as in line 52. Paullus and Messalla are named, as representatives of the Aemilii and Valerii, two of the most ancient and distinguished gentes in Rome. 42. Hic; that is, thy colleague Novius. He has at least the merit of possessing a tremendous voice; so that amid all the bustle and noise of a great man's funeral, ay, even of three together, he will make himself be heard above the big horns (for magna cornua go together) and the trumpets. -44. Tenet nos, binds, captivates us,' induces us to elect him to offices of state. This is put into the mouth of one of the common people. -47. Nunc answers to the following olim. Horace had been a tribune in the army of Brutus. This was a post (honor) to which commonly

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