BOOK III.-ODE VI.

TO THE ROMANS.

YOUR fathers' sins shall on you rest! The land with guilt shall be opprest, Wrought by their impious hand; While mould'ring dust the gods defiles, And fanes, and temples, tottering piles, In careless ruin stand.

Your power by Piety's upborne ; Hence trace its brightly opening dawn, And hence its noonday power.

The slighted Gods, with 'venging hand Have fiercely scourged the guilty land, And yet in terror lower.

Twice did Monæses' light-armed band
Our inauspicious shocks withstand,
And scour unchecked the plains;
And Pacorus, o'er the ensanguined soil,
Rejoicing snatch a Roman spoil,

To grace their trifling chains.

Pæne occupatam seditionibus
Delevit urbem Dacus et Æthiops;
Hic classe formidatus, ille
Missilibus melior sagittis.

Fœcunda culpæ sæcula nuptias
Primum inquinavêre, et genus, et domos.
Hoc fonte derivata clades

In patriam populumque fluxit.

Motus doceri gaudet Ionicos
Matura virgo, et fingitur artubus
Jam nunc, et incestos amores
De tenero meditatur ungui.

Mox juniores quærit adulteros
Inter mariti vina: neque eligit
Cui donet impermissa raptim
Gaudia, luminibus remotis.

The city, wrecked on Faction's waves,
No more the Dacian fury braves,
And shrinks from Ethiops' fight;
This, for his tow'ring navy dread,
That, skilled with oft reverted head,
To wing the arrow's flight.

The age of guilt's wide-spreading reign First dared the nuptial couch to stain, And family and race;

Polluting source of bitt'rest ill!

Hence troubles dire our country fill,
And hence her sons' disgrace.

The blooming girl delights to tread
Ionia's wanton dances, led

In soft voluptuous maze;
Developed now her graceful form,
Unlawful loves her bosom warm,
Nor tender age delays.

Next, 'neath her rev'lling husband's eye Returns the younger gallant's sigh,

And courts degrading vice;

Sed jussa coràm non sine conscio
Surgit marito, seu vocat institor.
Seu navis Hispanæ magister,
Dedecorum pretiosus emptor.

Non his juventus orta parentibus
Infecit æquor sanguine Punico;
Pyrrhumque, et ingentem cecidit
Antiochum, Hannibalemque dirum :

Sed rusticorum mascula militum
Proles, Sabellis docta ligonibus
Versare glebas, et severæ
Matris ad arbitrium recisos

Portare fustes; sol ubi montium
Mutaret umbras, et juga demeret
Bobus fatigatis, amicum

Tempus agens, abeunte curru.

Consenting to her guilty flame,

His sordid soul approves her shame,
And hails its baneful price.

Not sprung from parents thus depraved
The youth, who stained the crims'ning wave,
With Carthage' streaming blood;
Who great Antiochus defied,

And Pyrrhus threat'ning conquest wide,
And Hannibal withstood.

But rustic vet'rans' offspring bold
Taught the rude Sabine plough to hold,

And break the stubborn soil.

The hardy mother gives command,
They homeward bear the gathered brand,
Nor shun the lengthened toil.

When yielding hours of cool repose
The parting sun refulgent glows,
Far in the western sky,

And frees the steers by toil opprest,
For lengthened, as he sinks to rest,

The mountain shadows lie.