15. communiter; connected by aut with melior pars, as if it were omnes. Horace here addresses the citizens, as in Ep. vii.

16. carere, usually taken as = ad carendum, with expediat intrans. Possibly expediat may be trans., and carere its object'what may bring about release.' It would not be harder than 'adimam cantare severis'-Epp. i. 19, 9. It has also been taken with melior, but the balance of words is against this. (Bentley conj. quod expediat, parenthetical optative; carere is then with quaeritis.)

17. hac, explained by ire, v. 21.

Phocaeorum. The people of Phocaea in Asia Minor (whence Massilia was founded) deserted their city, B.C. 546, rather than submit to slavery under Cyrus. They bound themselves never to return until a lump of iron which they threw into the sea should rise again (Herod. i. 165). Half of them broke their oath, and returned home; the rest ultimately settled at Elea, in Lucania.

18. exsecrata, middle-binding themselves by an oath.' 23. sic placet? Varied from placetne, the formula used in putting a question to the vote.

suadere depends on habet, and governs quid. With habeo (= 'I can') this construction is found even in Cicero; cf. Cic. de. Nat. Deor. iii. 39-'Haec fere dicere habui de natura deorum.'

25. in haec, sc. verba. The phrase is used of a prescribed and solemn form of oath.

simul, 'so soon as,' but no sooner.

saxa, copied from the oath of the Phocaeans, v. 17, note. For the form of the oath cf. Virg. Ecl. i. 60-65-'Ante leves ergo pascentur in aethere cervi.. Quam nostro illius labatur pectore vultus.'

28. Matina, Mons Matinus in Apulia.

29. in mare, instead of, as now, down the centre of Italy. 30. monstra junxerit, 'made strange unions.' The animals would become monstra if their nature were thus changed.

31. ut, so that,' dependent ou mirus-emphatic.

32. miluo. In prose a dissyllable—milvus.

33. ravos.

saevos.

Some MSS. have flavos; one or two fulvos, or

34. levis, 'become smooth.'

35. haec, acc.—of kindred meaning with exsecrata.

36, 37. omnis . . . aut pars melior; same contrast as v. 15.

38. inominata; the word is found nowhere else. note on Analysis, 46-72.

Cf. A. P.,

perprimat, 'for ever cling to.' Per expresses continuance and completion.

41. circumvagus.

The Ocean was originally believed to be a great river running round the whole world; hence this phrase. Cf. Catullus, lxiv. 31—‘Oceanusque, mari totum qui amplectitur orbem.'

42. divites et insulas. In the early Greek poets we find the fable that the heroes after death have a delightful habitation in the far West, called 'Ηλύσιον by Homer, μακάρων νῆσοι by Hesiod and Pindar. The legend was probably based on a vague knowledge of the islands afterwards called Fortunatae Insulae, viz. the Canary Islands and Madeira. To these Horace wishes to go, and speaks of them as having all the blessings of the golden age.

43. reddit, etc. Ov. Met. i. 109-'Mox etiam fruges tellus inarata ferebat.'

44. imputata, 'unpruned.' Virg. Ecl. iv. 40—‘patietur . . . non vinea falcem.'

46. pulla, 'dark,' i.e. the ripe fig. It has never been grafted.

47. mella. Ov. Met. i. 112-'Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella.' Virg. Ecl. iv. 30-'Et durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella.' Hesiod, Works and Days, 233—' dpûs . . . PÉPEL, μέστη δέ μελίσσας. The idea may have been taken from the honey sometimes found in hollow trees.

48. Levis, etc. Cf. v. 12, note.

49-52. injussae . . . humus. Virg. Ecl. iv. 21, 22, 24'Ipsae lacte domum referent distenta capellae Ubera, nec magnos metuent armenta leones . . . Occidet et serpens.'

52. alta, may be―(1) 'Deep in grass,' where the viper would not be seen. Cf. Virg. Georg. iv. 459—‘hydrum . alta non vidit in herba.' (2) 'With deep soil,' which vipers do not like (Orelli). (3) Adj. for adv. = alte intumescit. The first is most natural.

53-56. Ov. Met. i. 107-'Ver erat aeternum, placidique tepentibus auris Mulcebant Zephyri natos sine semine flores.'

53. ut, 'how.' Cf. Od. iii. 4, 17-'mirum. . . Ut tuto ab atris corpore viperis Dormirem et ursis.'

54. radat, 'sweeps.' Cf. Sat. ii. 6, 25-'Sive Aquilo radit terras.'

56. Utrumque, neuter; rain and drought are meant.

rege, Jupiter.

57. Argoo. The great mythical voyage to Colchis; the story was founded on commercial enterprise. Ov. Met. i. 94, 95'Nondum caesa in liquidas pinus descenderat undas.' Virgil, making history repeat itself, says, Ecl. iv. 34, Alter erit tum Tiphys, et altera quae vehat Argo Delectos heroas.' But when the age of peace is fully established, iv. 38—'nec nautica pinus Mutabit merces.

58. Colchis, Medea.

59. Sidonii, Phoenicians, the predecessors of the Greeks in

commerce.

cornua, 'the ends of the sailyards;' explained by Virg. Aen. iii. 549-'Cornua velatarum obvertimus antennarum.'

60. Ulixei. There are three genitives-Ulixis, Ulixi, Ulixei. 61. astri, 'dog-star.'

64. ut. Cf. Ep. vii. 19, note. Horace leaves out the 'silver age' of Hesiod and Ovid.

65. quorum. The antecedent is saecula, 'escape from which.'

E

INTRODUCTION TO ARS POETICA.'

THE 'ARS POETICA' is addressed to a father and two sons, belonging to the celebrated family of Pisones, of the gens Calpurnia (vv. 6, 24, 235, 291, 366). It is not quite certain who these were.

According to the oldest theory, the father is L. Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus (born B. C. 48; died A.D. 32), who was Prefect of the City under Tiberius, and of whom Tacitus (Ann. vi. 10) speaks in terms of the highest praise. Horace died B. C. 8, at which time this Piso may have had a son of about twenty. Thus the poem must have been published very shortly before Horace's death. Its close connection in style and subject with the Second Book of the Epistles favours this late date.

As

The other view is that the father is Cn. Calpurnius Piso, who fought against Caesar in Africa, B. C. 46; and one of the sons the Cn. Calpurnius Piso whom Tiberius sent into Syria, B. c. 18, to thwart Germanicus, and who was suspected of poisoning him. this Piso was then at least sixty-five (Tac. Ann. 3, 16), and Horace speaks of him as quite a youth, the poem could not, on this view, have been much later than B. C. 26. There is no sufficient reason for departing from the older view.

The poem may be classed with the Second Book of the Epistles, but was reckoned by Quintilian as a separate poem, and has always been so placed.

We are not to expect in the Ars Poetica a formal treatise on the rules or the history of poetry in general. It is rather a discursive address to his friends the Pisones, and especially to the elder son, (v. 366, note) on various points connected with it. He is perhaps wishing to dissuade young Piso from writing poetry, more probably is taking opportunity to criticise much of the contemporary literature and taste. His main subject is dramatic poetry (vv. 73-85, note on Analysis). This appears to have been the fashion at the time, and Augustus himself attempted a tragedy, Ajax, without success. But neither the language nor the life of Rome was suited to the tragic muse, and the plays of this time were only bald imitations

INTRODUCTION TO ARS POETICA.'

51

of the Greek. Nothing of the kind has survived except some fragments of the Thyestes of Varius (v. 55, n.) Horace appears to attribute the failure (vv. 290-1) to want of trouble on the part of the poet. But he strikes a truer note when, as in Epp. ii. 1, 182-208, he complains of the hopelessness of writing plays for a populace devoted to the shows of the Circus. A poem in Horace's day was written for a select literary circle; and he himself and Virgil consulted both the genius of the language and the possibilities of success when they preferred to cast the product of their genius into an epic, lyric, or didactic form.

The poem is enlivened by a variety of reflections and amusing descriptions, such as the remarks on the folly and arrogance of contemporary poets (vv. 295-302), or the pettifogging character of a young Roman's education (vv. 325-332), or the necessity of excellence if you attempt poetry at all (vv. 369-378). The rules of the drama, which Horace gives us, are said to be taken from the critics of Alexandria; and the historical sketches, which are introduced by the way, are here and there legendary (vv. 391-396), confused (vv. 202-219), or incorrect (v. 276). But with all their faults they are useful and interesting.

The idea that the poem is confused in arrangement and unfinished rests on the expectation of a formal treatise, which Horace did not mean to give us. It is, like all his Satires and Epistles, varied, playful, and conversational. But the transitions are natural, and there is a continued train of thought, which I have endeavoured to indicate in the Analysis. The tableau at the close, of the mad and troublesome poetaster, so far from showing want of finish, is in Horace's best manner.