Cur sit Aristippi potior sententia. Namque rex, Hic est aut nusquam, quod quaerimus. Hic onus horret, Hic subit et perfert. Aut virtus nomen inane est, censures me.' This is the answer of Aristippus.-20. Equus me portet, alat rex, a Greek proverb, said of one who lives well at other people's expense. -22. Dante minor. The sense is: I am dependent on great men, you on poor.-25. Patientia was a technical term in the Cynic philosophy, designating the virtue of patiently enduring all the incidents of life. Hence Quem-velat; that is, who in striving after patientia clothes himself in rags.-27. Alter; namely, Aristippus, or any one of his followers.-30. It is related that once, when Diogenes and Aristippus were together in the bath, the latter contrived to steal away with the Cynic's tattered mantle, intending thus to oblige Diogenes to put on his purple cloak and go through the street with it. Diogenes, however, would not do so, but waited till Aristippus brought him his own cloak. Mileti texta chlamys is a mantle made at Miletus, or made of the Milesian wool, which was much famed in antiquity, and was dyed purple. 32. Sine, from sino. -34. Attingit solium Jovis, is a divine honour. Coelestia tentat, equivalent in meaning to Carm. i. 1, 36. translation cf the Greek proverb: Οὐ παντὸς ἀνδρὸς ἐς Κόρινθον ἔσθ' ὁ Tous, that is, it is impossible that all can be fortunate.-37. Sedit= otiosus fuit; time aorist. Fecit, in the next line, is also an aorist. -43. Those who pay court to any great man should not press im 36. A Succinit alter: Plus poscente ferent: distat, sumasne pudenter portunate petitions: he who modestly waits will succeed best in the end. Rex suus is the great man whom a person has chosen as his patron.-45. Hoc caput, hic fons. The source of a river is its caput and fons. Hence the meaning is: the ground, cause (source), of your connecting yourself with a great man was that you might receive money from him, and be promoted to offices of honour. This you cannot obtain if you beg too importunately. The complaints of an importunate petitioner follow.-48. Qui dicit, clamut: Victum date,' he who speaks thus is in reality screaming, "Give me bread. Succinit alter succedit alter canens, an expression taken from a row of beggars, who one after the other whine forth their complaints to the passers-by.-49. Munere, dependent on findetur. 52. Surrentum, a town of Campania, now Sorrento, celebrated for the beauty of its situation, on the sea-shore.-55. Refert, 'imitates.'-58. A juggler (planus), who exhibited his feats of legerdemain in the streets of Rome, was accustomed, after making a great leap, to fall down, as if he had broken his leg. When the bystanders came to lift him, he laughed at their simplicity, and started up. At last he broke his leg in reality, and cried for help, but no one came to his assistance. The passers-by called out to him quaere peregrinum, seek one who does not know thy tricks.'-60. The worship of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the sun, was introduced into Rome about the time of Augustus, and was much practised by the common people. EPISTOLA XIX. AD MAECENATEM. WHEN Horace had attained some reputation, a host of imitators arose, who, though destitute of poetic genius, yet attempted to write poems like his. Enviers also he had, not a few. Against these two classes this epistle is directed; in which, as it were, Maecenas is appointed umpire of the dispute. PRISCO si credis, Maecenas docte, Cratino, 5 10 15 1. Cratinus, a poet of the old Athenian comedy, usually named along with Eupolis and Aristophanes. - 3. Ut-poetas. Adscribere is a military term, 'to enlist, to add men as soldiers to the army.' Hence since the time when (ut) Bacchus enlisted mad poets in his train, to which before the Satyrs and Fauns belonged; that is, since the origin of poetry. Poets are called male sani, as being inspired.-5. Mane. The poets had drunk so much wine at night that they smelt of it even in the morning.6. Laudibus vini. He praises it, for instance, in Iliad, vi. 261, and frequently. 8. Puteal Libonis. See Sat. ii. 6, 35. This Puteal and the Forum were the places where usurers and men of business congregated.-9. Siccis. Compare Carm. i. 18, 3. -10. Edixi, laid down as a law,' that poets should seek inspiration in drinking.-12. Horace deals a blow at his wretched imitators. If a man dress, and try to look like Cato (Uticensis), this does not make him a Cato in soul. — 13. Textore exiguae togae, instrumental ablative, by the weaver of a short toga,' a poetical expression for 'by causing a weaver to make a short toga;' such as, contrary to the fashion of his time, Cato wore. - -15. Timagenes of Alexandria was a historian and rhetorician. Being brought as a captive to Rome, he gained the favour of Augustus, but lost it by uttering his opinions too freely, and was then received by Asinius Pollio into his house. A certain Iarbita, by birth a Moor, endeavoured Dum studet urbanus tenditque disertus haberi. to equal the oratory of Timagenes by mere strength of voice; but by his exertions he split his diaphragm, and died. Hence: 'the emulous oratory of Timagenes split Iarbita,' said for the desire to equal Timagenes in eloquence split Iarbita.' 17. Decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile; that is, a model which we desire to follow deceives and leads us astray, because its very faults appear worthy of imitation. It is a trite but true remark, that the faults of great men are the first things in them which are imitated. - 23. Archilochus of Paros is said to have invented iambic poetry. Hence Pari iambi. Horace in his Epodes had imitated Archilochus so far as the metre and style of writing are concerned, but he had not translated. Sappho and Alcaeus had done the same.-25. As to Lycambes, see Epode 6, 13, note. Connect verba agentia (= exagitantia, 'abusing') Lycamben.-26. Folia here are laurels.'-28. Construe thus: Sappho mascula (of manly courage') temperat Musam pede Archilochi, writes in the same verse as Archilochus.' Temperare =regere.-30. This and the following line refer to Lycambes and his daughter.-32. Hunc; namely, Alcaeum.-33. Immemorata, things not before mentioned,' here the lyric poetry of Alcaeus. -36. Premat, 'cries down.' Iniquus inimicus.-37. Ventosae. See i. 8, 12. What Horace here censures was really done by certain wealthy people who wished to pass for poets. They gave dinners, and read their compositions to their assembled friends, who of course praised them. These are the nobiles scriptores mentioned in line 39, whose ultor, 'punisher,' Horace is, because he writes better poems, and Grammaticas ambire tribus et pulpita dignor. 40 45 obtains more honour. -40. Tribus, corporations, societies.' The expression 'tribes,' is used here intentionally, because the schoolmasters assumed, as it were, a legislative or judicial function, the power of determining the merits of authors, by either introducing their works into the schools or rejecting them.-41. Hinc illae lacrimae, 'hence comes the censure which makes me weep;' a proverbial expression taken from the Andria of Terence, i. 1, 99.-42. Scripta, scil. mea. 43. Ait, some one says.' Jovis auribus ista servas, thinking them too good for mortals. 44. Manare mella, 'flowest with honey.' The verb is used transitively. Gram. 249, note 2. -45. Naribus uti = naso adunco suspendere. See Sat. i. 6, 5, and ii. 8, 64.-46. Luctantis-ungui; that is, that I may not be still more severely handled.-47. Diludia are properly the pauses, breathing-times, which were given to the gladiators between the single fights, that they might recover themselves. Hence the sense is: I demand more time to improve my poems. - EPISTOLA XX. AD LIBRUM SUUM. THE last epistle of the first book. It is addressed to the book itself, and, in a playful strain, mentions the fate with which it may meet. VERTUMNUM Janumque, liber, spectare videris, Scilicet ut prostes Sosiorum pumice mundus. Paucis ostendi gemis et communia laudas, 1. Vertumnus, the god of all change (from verto), and hence of buying and selling. He had a temple in the Forum near the Janus, and its neighbourhood was filled with shops, bookshops among the rest.-2. The brothers Sosii were the principal booksellers in Rome at this time. See Ars Poët., 345. Books, when put up for sale, were made smooth with pumice. Hence pumice mundus.-3. Grata pudico, which are pleasant to a modest book.' Sealing was very commonly used in ancient times in place of the locks which we put on chests and boxes.-4. Gemis is here construed with the mere |