EPISTOLA X. AD ARISTIUM FUSCUM. DESCRIPTION of the advantages of country life compared with life in Rome. The epistle is addressed to Aristius Fuscus, to whom also the 22d ode of the first book is addressed. Satires, i. 10, 83. URBIS amatorem Fuscum salvere jubemus Compare 10 15 20 = noti 4. Et alter, scil. negat. -5. Vetuli notique, a hendiadys, pridem inter se. To take doves as an image of union is common, and Horace keeps up the representation by the word nidum (meaning the city of Rome) in line 6.-8. Regno; that is, I am a rez, am happy, a playful application of a philosophical expression. Compare i. 1, 106.-10. The offering-cakes (liba) which were brought to the altars, became the property of the priests, who maintained their households therewith. Hence the poet says jocularly, that he is like a priest's useless slave (fugitivus) who will no longer have fine cakes (that is, the city of Rome), but plain bread (country life.)-16. On the 23d of July the dogstar rises, and at the same time the sun enters the sign of Leo, which is expressed in the next line by arcipere solem acutum. Compare Carm. iii. 29, 19. Momentavim. 19. Libyci lapilli; that is, the Numidian variegated marble, which was used for floors. See Carm. ii. 18, 3. Extravagant people used to sprinkle their floors with perfumes. Hence olet. 20. Vici are the streets of Rome, along which the water from the neighbouring Quam quae per pronum trepidat cum murmure rivum ? Tortum digna sequi potius quam ducere funem. 25 30 65 35 40 45 hills was led in leaden pipes.-22. Even in the city people strive to make their houses as rural as possible, thus practically admitting the superiority of the country. Nempe, but assuredly.' Variae columnae are the pillars of variegated marble which stood in the middle of the atrium, enclosing the so-called impluvium, a small open space with a fountain, and, if possible, a tree.-25. Fastidia, the ennui or weariness incident to fashionable life in a city.-26. Here the second part of the epistle begins, in which Horace shows that to the attainment of a happy life striving after true good, and contempt of everything which falsely pretends to be good, is necessary. Contendere comparare, and hence also distinguere.―30. Plus nimio plus aequo, i. 2, 29.-31. Mutatae; that is, when adversae. Pones depones.-34. Melior=fortior, and in the next line minor = victus. Herbis = pascuis.-29. Metallis quam metalla sunt, than gold and silver.'-42. Ut calceus olim, a common figure. When a shoe is too large, it upsets the wearer (subvertet); when too small, it causes pains and bunions.-45. The sense is you will scold me, if my moral maxims do not please you, just as I have been scolding you, because I do not approve of your mode of life. —48. The figure is taken from a ship which is towed by a rope. Money = Haec tibi dictabam post fanum putre Vacunae, should be the ship, not the tow-rope.-49. Fanum Vacunae, a place near Horace's Sabine farm, of which the site cannot be accurately determined. Vacuna was a Sabine divinity, identified by some with Diana, by others with Ceres, and by others again with Venus. At all events, she was a country goddess, who presided over the fieids, and gave them fertility. EPISTOLA XI. AD BULLATIUM. A LETTER to a man called Bullatius, otherwise unknown, who, in travelling, was seeking rest for his mind. Horace shows that he can find it only in contentment. QUID tibi visa Chios, Bullati, notaque Lesbos, Sed neque qui Capua Romam petit, imbre lutoque Ut fortunatam plene praestantia vitam; 5 10 15 1. Quid tibi visa, scil. sunt esse.—2. Concinna, referring to the beautiful buildings in Samos, particularly the temple of Juno.-4. Sordent, are contemptible, mean.'-5. Attalicis ex urbibus. See Carm. i. 1, 12. The towns formerly governed by Attalus were Pergamus, Apollonia, Thyatira, and others.-6. The idea is: or art thou so sick of travelling that thou art pleased even with Lebedus? He himself answers this question negatively, in line 11, and following. Lebedus, one of the twelve Ionian cities, once wealthy and famous. -13. Frigus collegit, has caught cold.-16. Vendas, thus showing that you are so thoroughly disgusted with the sea, that, rather than Incolumi Rhodos et Mitylene pulchra facit, quod Coelum, non animum mutant, qui trans mare currunt. Quadrigis petimus bene vivere. Quod petis, hic est, venture on it again, you will live an exile from your country.-17. Incolumi = sano, to a man in sound mind.' Mitylene was the chief town of Lesbos.-18. Paenula, a heavy winter cloak; campestre, a thin apron, which was the only thing that young men wore when engaged in gymnastic exercises in the Campus Martius.-21. Absens. Properly, and in prose, the person himself, living in Rome, and consequently absent from Samos, would be called absens. — 25. Si, if,' as really happens, hence, 'as.'-26. Locus effusi late maris arbiter, a place which commands the sea far and wide.'-28. Strenua inertia, a busy idleness.'-30. Ulubrae, a small and deserted town near the Pomptine marshes, and consequently not a pleasant or healthful place of abode. The modern Cisterna is generally believed to occupy its site. The sense is: with contentment you may live happily in Rome (hic), ay, even at Ulubrae. EPISTOLA XII. AD ICCIUM. THIS epistle, as well as the 29th ode of the 1st book, is addressed to Iccius. In the first part of it Horace exhorts him to remain content with the comfortable and safe situation which he held; in the second part he recommends to him a certain Pompeius Grosphus. Iccius was a procurator — that is, factor in Sicily for M. Agrippa, whose estates he managed. FRUCTIBUS Agrippae Siculis, quos colligis, Icci, 1. The sense is: from the income of Agrippa's Sicilian property thou hast as much as may enable thee to live comfortably. Fructus is income generally, not necessarily agricultural produce. - 2. Non Ab Jove donari possit tibi. Tolle querelas; 5 10 Cultaque, dum peregre est animus sine corpore velox; 15 Quae mare compescant causae, quid temperet annum, = 20 25 est ut = = fieri non potest ut.-4. Cui rerum suppetit usus, 'who has as much at his command as he needs.'-7. In medio posita are things placed ready for use, so that one needs only to put out his hand to have them. -8. Sic vives protinus = perge sic vivere, the future having here the force of an imperative. Gram. 367, note. Ut, even granting or supposing that,' etiamsi. Gram. § 352, note 1. -13. Peregre est = peregrinatur, 'is wandering, is abroad on its travels.'-17. Jussaene; scil. a deo, hence, according to fixed laws.' The planets are meant.-18. The cause of the waning and waxing of the moon. 19. Rerum concordia discors; that is, the universe, in which we see great variety, and yet throughout a perfect harmony.-20. The sense is: whether the Pythagorean philosophy or that of the Stoics is false. For the joke's sake he names as the representative of the latter a certain ridiculous philosopher called Stertinius, who, as the scholiasts tell us, had written 220 books of Stoica. Stertinium acumen = Stertinius acutus.-21. A joke in regard to Iccius's simple fare. The word trucidare is used ludicrously of vegetables.-23. Verum rectum.-24. A proverb: one can easily gain friends when brave men are in want of anything-namely, by supplying their need.-26. Cantaber. See Carm. ii. 6. As to Tiberius Claudius Nero's expedition to Armenia, see Epist. i. 3. King Phraates of Parthia restored, in the year 20 B. c., the prisoners and standards taken in the unfortunate campaigns of Crassus and Antony. On coins of Augustus we find a representation of the Parthian |