Saeva paupertas et avitus apto 45 50 Crescit, occulto velut arbor aevo, Gentis humanae pater atque custos, Ille seu Parthos Latio imminentes Te minor latum reget aequus orbem; 55 - 43. Saeva=dura. Apto cum lare, with a suitable house;' that is, a house suitable for a poor man, who himself cultivated the small piece of ground that he inherited from his forefathers. - 45. Velut arbor occulto aevo, like a tree whose growth is not observed ;' that is, gradually. Marcellus was at this time in his seventeenth year, and had just begun to gain honour by his conduct in official posts. - 47. Julium sidus ; that is, Augustus: the force of the expression is, “Julius (C. Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus) gleaming like a star.' The connection of the thoughts is, the fame of Marcellus growing gradually, but that of Augustus is already most brilliant.' Ignes minores =stellas minores.-- 50. Orte Saturno, son of Saturn;' namely, Jupiter. Compare line 13. —-51. Tu secundo Caesare regnes, 'reign with Caesar next be. low thee.' In prose we should say, 'let Caesar rule next to thee.' -- 54. Egerit justo - triumpho. The triumph over the Parthians, whose territory extended close to the Roman dominions (hence Latio imminentes), is called “just,' because they had before by stratagem conquered M. Crassus and M. Antonius, and almost annihilated their armies. This was the main cause why Augustus, from the very beginning of his reign, meditated a campaign against the Par. thians. — 55. Subjectos Orientis orae = subjacentes, situated or living under the sky of the East :' ora here is 'tract or quarter of heaven.' About the year 24 B. C., Augustus sent his lieutenantgeneral, Aelius Gallus, on an expedition into Arabia Felix. Its results were very trilling; in fact, it was a failure.—57. Te minor, inferior to thee, next to thee, under thee.' A equus, merciful and just.' - 58-60. The idea is this : 'as Augustus rules justly on earth, so do thou reign in heaven by thy thunder, which makes known thv power; and by ihy lightning, by which thou punishest such as offend thee. Properly, the order should have been inverted : .as thou rulest in heaven, so may Augustus rule on earth.'——58. Gravi curru. According to the descriptions of the ancient poets, what men call thunder is the noise of the wheels of Jupiter's heavy chariot, as he drives Tu parum castis inimica mittes 60 through the heavens.-~59. Parum castis inimica-lucis. Lightning often strikes trees; such trees, according to the superstitious notions of the ancients, as have been defiled or profaned by some crime. For this reason, every object struck by lightning had to be purified by numerous religious ceremonies, and the wrath of Jupiter to be appeased by a sacrifice. CARMEN XIV. AD REM PUBLICAM. This ode, as Quintilian (Instit. Orat. viii. 6, 44) has observed, is allegorical. Under the figure of a ship, which, after being much shattered in previous storms, puts out into the wild sea again, the poet describes the Roman state, which, after having come through so many civil wars, seemed likely to be again plunged into great confusion, in consequence of the quarrel between Oc. tavianus and Antony in 32 B.C. The idea of representing a state under the figure of a ship is borrowed from the Greek lyrists, who made much use of this metaphor. O NAVIS, referent in mare te novi Et malus celeri saucius Africo Aequor ? Non tibi sunt integra lintea, 1. Referent, 'shall new billows carry thee back?'--3. Nonne vides ul-gemant, .dost thou not perceive how they groan ?'--4. Nudum remigio latus. The author is thinking of a trireme, a ship of war; the main strength of which lay in its oars, just as now steam-vessels depend for motion principally on their engines. In a concussion with an enemy's ship, the great matter was to strip off the oppo. nent's oars, which was effected by drawing in one's own oars, and passing close to his side before he had time to take in his. For this reason, the state, shattered by intestine commotions, is here compared to a ship deprived of its oars.-5. Saucius ; properly, 'wounded;' here, loosened, made to totter. The mast (mālus) is treated as if it were a soldier.-6. Sine funibus, without cables ;' that is, without anchors. If thou dost not ride at anchor, and remain in harbour, thou canst not weather the storm. Notice the plural cari 10 Non di, quos iterum pressa voces malo. Jactes et genus et nomen, inutile; Nuper sollicitum quae mihi taedium, 15 20 nae, used poetically for the whole ship.-10. Non di. An allusion to Augustus. He was the deus who had saved the vessel of the state after the death of Caesar, when it seemed on the eve of de. struction. But now, if he died, who was to rescue the ship, since he would leave no son behind him ? - 11. Pontica pinus. Pontus, formerly an independent kingdom, was celebrated for its forests, which furnished the best wood for ship-building: hence, in the next line, silva-nobilis. Pontica pinys is therefore 'a ship built of the pine wood of Pontus.'--13. Genus et nomen. The author attributes to the ship the same origin and fame which the city of Rome had. Thou boastest of thy origin, since Mars and Romulus were thy builders, and of the fame (nomen) which thou hast acquired; but these bring thee no help now (inutile est.) — 14. Pictis - puppibus. The Romans used to paint their ships (for puppis stands as pars pro toto, for the whole ship) with stripes of different colours. By tími. dus navila, Horace means himself. He had been 'out,' as the English phrase goes, in the civil war after Caesar's death, and knew and feared the troubled sea of revolution. - 15. Nisi debes ludibrium ventis, 'unless thou owest sport to the winds;' that is, unless, by the decree of fate, thou art doomed (bound) to make sport for the winds by becoming a wreck.' - 17. Nuper, lately;' namely, at the time of the battle of Philippi, when the state that is, the consideration of state affairs, politics — caused me much anxiety and disquietude, but at the same time also disgust and weariness. Supply, as the verb to line 17, fuisti, and to line 18, es.-20. Vites aequora interfusa (inter) nitentes Cycladas, “avoid the seas which roll between the glittering Cyclades; that is, generally, seas full of rocks, on which thou mayest be wrecked. CARMEN XV. parpave by NEREI VATICINIUM DE EXCIDIO TROJAE. A PLAY of Horace's fancy, written, as it appears, without any ticular reference to the state of the empire; though some supposed it to contain an allusion to Antony, who was ruined 5 10 to , as Paris was by Nereus fata: 'Mala ducis avi domum, Heu ! heu! Quantus equis, quantus adest viris Nequicquam, Veneris praesidio ferox, 1. Construe thus : cum pastor (namely, Priam's son Paris, who, when tending his father's sheep, had given the well-known decision regarding the beauty of the three goddesses, Venus, Minerva, and freta (“was carrying over the sea') Ida eis navibus, ' in Idaean ships ;' -3. Ingrato, because the winds love to rage, and roam, and Mala avi = malo omine, omens being taken principally from the flight of birds.—7. Conjurata – rumpere, poetical for quae universa juravit se rupturam esse.-10. Funera = cladem, destruction, Dardana gens means the Trojans, so called from Dardanus, one of their ancient kings. - 11. Pallas, the enemy of the Trojans, is al ready preparing her helmet, her shield (the aegis, in the centre which was the frightful head of Medusa), and her chariot, a the wild ferocity of war is rising in her bosom. - 13. Ferox = cc fisus, 'trusting. Venụs was the constant friend of the Trojans 5 15 20 Imbelli cithara carmina divides ; Hastas et calami spicula Cnosii Non Laertiaden, exitium tuae Pugnae, sive opus est imperitare equis, Merionen quoque Quem tu, cervus uti vallis in altera Iracunda diem proferet Ilio 25 30 15. Divides, as in i. 36, 6, is to be connected with feminis. We can carmina dividere even to a single person, by singing to her at ditferent times. — 16. Thalamo. An allusion to Homer's Iliad, iii. 381, where it is related that on one occasion, when Paris was fighting and hard-pressed, Venus concealed him in a cloud, and took him home to his chamber. - 17. Calami spicula Cnosii. Cnosos was a town in Crete, whose inhabitants were famed during all antiquity as archers. - 18. Strepitum, the noise of war.' Celerem sequi Ajacem : this construction is Greek — swift in pursuit.' The younger Ajax, the son of Oileus, is meant; his standing, epithet in Homer being swift.' — 19. Tamen, in spite of all this, in spite of the protection of Venus; and although thou avoidest the battle, yet, &c. Serus, a poetical construction for sero. — 21. The poet enume. rates some of the chief heroes who fonght against Troy ; mention ing first Ulysses, son of Laertes, whose craftiness it was which de vised the wooden horse, the ultimate means of the taking of the city; next Nestor, from Pylos in Peloponnesus, famed for his elo. quence; then Teucer, from Salamis (compare i. 7, 21); Sthenelus, charioteer of Diomedes, and his companion in arms; Meriones, companion of Idomeneus of Crete ; and lastly, Diomedes, son of Tydeus. - 22. Non-respicis, .dost thou not think of ?'- 25. Sive =vel si, or, if, &c., also a good charioteer.'- 27. Reperire. The infinitive, according to the Greek usage, instead of ui reperiat. 28. Melior= fortior. Compare Iliad, iv. 405. - 29. In aliera parte vallis visum. The stag forgets the pasture and flees, as soon as it sees a wolf on the other side of the valley.-31. Sublimi anhelitu, with a deep-fetched breath;' that is, panting heavily. — 32. Tuae ; namely, uxori Helenae, to whom Paris had boasted of his strength and valour. See Homer, Iliad, iv. 430. — 33. Iracunda — classis Achillei. As Achilles and his companions (here |
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