Comissabere Maximi, Si torrere jecur quæris idoneum. Et pro sollicitis non tacitus reis, Late signa feret militiæ tuæ: Largis muneribus riserit æmuli, Ponet marmoream, sub trabe citrea. Duces thura, lyræque et Berecyntiæ Mixtis carminibus, non sine fistula. Numen cum teneris virginibus tuum In morem Salium ter quatient humum. Jam nec spes animi credula mutui, Nec certare juvat mero, Nec vincire novis tempora floribus. 30 14. Cp. Carm. II. i. 13. 15. centum puer artium. i. e. most accomplished. Orelli cp. Cic. Pro Rosc. Am. 41., omnium artium puerulos; and Catul. xii. 9. 18. Cp. Carm. III. xxvi. 2. 17. quandoque for quandocunque; as below, Carm. ii. 34. The sense is 'When you have gained him success against his wealthy rival, he will raise you a statue and shrine.' 20. ponet marmoream. Cp. marmoreum fecimus, Virg. Ecl. vii. 35. furniture, tables, etc. Gr. Ovia, or Ovov (Odyss. e. 60., where it is one of the odorous woods burnt in Calypso's grotto). ("Thyine wood" is mentioned in the N. T., Revelation, xviii. 12.) It is sometimes confounded with the citron (malus medica), and with the cedar. Some have identified it with the algum or almug tree of Scripture. 22. Berecyntiæ tibiæ. Carm. III. xix. 19. 28. Salium. See Carm. 1. xxxvi. citrea, of citrus wood.' The 12. citrus was a scented wood, highly 30. mutui. i. e. love returned, re Sed cur, heu, Ligurine, cur Manat rara meas lacrima per genas? Inter verba cadit lingua silentio ? Jam captum teneo, jam volucrem sequor Campi, te per aquas, dure, volubiles. 35 40 35. decoro. Observe the elision | late Pindar is to attempt to fly like at the end of the line, as in Carm. Icarus, a difficult and dangerous III. xxix. 35., and (minor instances) below, Carm. ii. 22, 23. 36. inter verba cadit. Virg. Æn. iv. 76. Sappho, Hymn. ii. ver. 9.: καμμὲν γλῶσσα ἔαγε. ODE II. Iulus Antonius, son of the Triumvir and Fulvia, favoured and distinguished by Augustus. 1. Pindarum quisquis. To emu flight.' 7. profundo ore. A phrase used with propriety both of a river (as in the metaphor) and of poets, as in Ars Poet. 323.; Ov. A. Am. i. 206. 10. dithyrambos. The dithyramb was properly the old Bacchic song. Διωνύσου ἄνακτος καλὸν ἐξάρξαι μέλος olda dilúpaμsov. Archil. Frag 72. Verba devolvit numerisque fertur Seu deos regesve canit, deorum Sive, quos Elea domum reducit Palma cœlestes, pugilemve equumve Dicit et centum potiore signis Flebili sponsæ juvenemve raptum Plorat, et vires animumque moresque Multa Dircæum levat aura cycnum, Grata carpentis thyma per laborem 12. lege solutis, 'irregular, rhyth- | Probably Horace means by potiore mical rather than metrical.' 13. seu deos, etc. Allusion is here made to the different classes of Pindar's poems. The 80úpaμ6o are mentioned, ver. 10. deos canit (ver. 13.) refers to the Suvo and Taiâves; reges to the éуkáμia; ver. 17-20. to the rivíKia-the only works of his of which we have more than fragments; ver. 21. to the Opvol. 17. reducit cœlestes. Cp. Carm. I. i. 6. 19. centum potiore signis. Cp. the opening of the fifth Nemean that which will outlast statues. Pindar's contrast (l. c.) is between poetry, actively spreading fame by recitals and publication, and statues which cannot leave (αὐτᾶς βαθμίδος, their actual base) the place where they are set up. 25. multa, full and strong.' The stanza is expressed in Gray's Progress of Poesy, iii. 3. 27. ego apis. Horace compares himself to the swan, in Carm. 11. xx. 1-16; this humbler comparison is after Lucret. iii. 11. 29. Cp. Epist. 1. iii. 21. Carm. III. Tiburis ripas operosa parvus Concines majore poëta plectro Quo nihil majus meliusve terris Fata donavere bonique divi, Nec dabunt, quamvis redeant in aurum Concines lætosque dies, et Urbis 'Publicum ludum super impetrato Fortis Augusti reditu, forumque Tum meæ (si quid loquor audiendum) Cæsare felix. Teque, dum procedit, "Io triumphe!" 32. fingo, I mould or shape,' a verb suited to the metaphor. 35. sacrum clivum, a part of the Via Sacra, along which triumphal processions passed to the Capitol. (See more on Epod. vii. 7.) 36. Sygambros, on the Lower Rhine, between the Luppia fl. and Segus fl. (just below Bonn). The Romans had suffered defeats from the tribes in that quarter; and Augustus spent two years in Gaul to secure the frontier. See Chronol. Table, B. C. 16-13. 37. Cp. Epist. II. i. 17.; Ov. Ex Ponto, I. ii. 100. 44. forum litibus orbuma justitium. 49. teque. Triumphus is here personified and addressed. dum procedit, while Cæsar moves on in procession.' Cp. Ov. Trist. iv. ii. 47. sqq. tuque dum procedis is another reading, and one perhaps more commonly adopted by editors. It suits. the context well; and a change of persons is avoided. Antony, the favourite of Augustus, is supposed to lead or take a prominent part in the procession; and he is again addressed (te decem) in the following stanza. On the other hand (in preferring the reading of the text, which is supported by the best MSS.) it ap AD MELPOMENEN. QUEM tu, Melpomene, semel Nascentem placido lumine videris, Clarabit pugilem, non equus impiger Victorem, neque res bellica Deliis ODE III. 2. Hesiod, Theog. 81.: 5 pears that the abruptness in changing | 84-88. (in the story of Jupiter and the address is not too great for lyric Europa). poetry; and though Io Triumphe sounds more naturally as an exclamation (cp. Ov. Am. 1. ii. 34.), yet Triumphus is similarly personified in Epod. ix. 21., and the stanza may be taken as in parenthesis, the regular structure of the ode, as addressed to Antony, being returned to in ver. 53. 54. Cp. Carm. II. xvii. 32. 57. fronte curvatos. i. e. with its horns (cornibus primis, Carm. III. xiii. 4.) sprouting like the partial crescent of the moon when three days old, and with a white star on the forehead. Cp. Moschus, Id. ii. ὅντινα τιμήσουσι Διὸς κούραι μεγάλοιο τῷ μὲν ἐπὶ γλώσσῃ γλυκερὴν χείουσιν ἀοιδήν. 3-10. There is a contrast not I unlike this in Ov. Fast. ii. 11-16. 4. clarabit, an old and rare word. (See note below, Carm. xiv. 5.) pugilem, equus. Above, Carm iv. ii. 18.; add Ars Poet. 84. 6. Deliis foliis, 'the bay.' Carm. iv. ii. 9. ; and 111. xxx. 15. |