laμßíčew, and see Arist. Poet. c. 4, 5, cp. Hor. A. P. 79 ‘Archilochum proprio rabies armavit iambo'). All the indications of date to be discovered in the poems themselves fix them to the first period of his life as an author. Their references to current politics, both positively, as in the allusions to the war with Sextus Pompeius, and negatively, in the vagueness with which they deal with the general situation at home (see on Epod. 7 and 16), belong to the decade between the battles of Philippi and Actium. We notice in their style indications which point the same way-occasional harshnesses of construction, a redundancy of epithets, a tendency even in the best poems to poetical commonplace, we may add a grossness of subject and language, which his mature taste would have pruned away. The Epodes stand with the Satires at the opening of Horace's literary life—not unconnected with them in tone, nor in their literary antecedents, nor in their treatment in his hands. The Roman Satirist, he tells us, looked, for all but the poetical form of his composition, to Greek Comedy. In the Epode he has returned to the personal lampoon, the earliest use of poetry for purposes of attack and caricature, and that of which Comedy, according to Aristotle (Poet. 1. c.), was the development. It is in the taste which leads him for models to Lucilius and Archilochus, rather than in any bitterness of special poems, that we may trace probably his own description already referred to (Epp. 2. 2. 51; see Introd. to Books i-iii, § 1) of the personal motives that first drove him to write poetry. In any case it is characteristic of the man that his Satires should mellow and humanize into the Epistles, and that the Epodes should drop so early their laμßikη idéa, and soften and generalize into the Odes. The process in both cases is nearly complete before the name of the composition is changed. Horace himself speaks (Epod. 14) of the Book as preparing for publication, and as having occupied some space of time in composition. The date of its publication is generally held to be fixed by the relation between Epod. 9 and Od. 1. 37 to the year B.C. 31-30. HORATII EPODON LIBER. EPO DE I. IBIS Liburnis inter alta navium, Amice, propugnacula, Paratus omne Caesaris periculum Subire, Maecenas, tuo. Quid nos, quibus te vita si superstite An hunc laborem mente laturi decet Qua ferre non molles viros? Vel Occidentis usque ad ultimum sinum Roges, tuum labore quid iuvem meo, Imbellis ac firmus parum? Comes minore sum futurus in metu, Qui maior absentes habet; Ut assidens implumibus pullis avis Serpentium allapsus timet Bellum in tuae spem gratiae, 5 ΙΟ 15 20 Non ut iuvencis illigata pluribus Aratra nitantur mea, Pecusve Calabris ante sidus fervidum Lucana mutet pascuis, Neque ut superni villa candens Tusculi Circaea tangat moenia. Satis superque me benignitas tua Ditavit haud paravero, Quod aut avarus ut Chremes terra premam, 25 30 EPODE II. BEATUS ille, qui procul negotiis, Solutus omni fenore, Neque excitatur classico miles truci, Neque horret iratum mare, Forumque vitat et superba civium Potentiorum limina. Ergo aut adulta vitium propagine Aut in reducta valle mugientium Inutilesque falce ramos amputans Aut pressa puris mella condit amphoris, Aut tondet infirmas oves; Vel cum decorum mitibus pomis caput 5 ΙΟ 15 Ut gaudet insitiva decerpens pira, Qua muneretur te, Priape, et te, pater Libet iacere modo sub antiqua ilice, Modo in tenaci gramine. Labuntur altis interim rivis aquae, Queruntur in silvis aves, Fontesque lymphis obstrepunt manantibus, Somnos quod invitet leves. At cum tonantis annus hibernus Iovis Imbres nivesque comparat, Aut trudit acres hinc et hinc multa cane Apros in obstantes plagas, Aut amite levi rara tendit retia, Turdis edacibus dolos, 20 25 30 Pavidumque leporem et advenam laqueo gruem Iucunda captat praemia. Quis non malarum, quas amor curas habet, Haec inter obliviscitur? Quodsi pudica mulier in partem iuvet 36 Domum atque dulces liberos, Sabina qualis aut perusta solibus Pernicis uxor Apuli, Sacrum vetustis exstruat lignis focum Lassi sub adventum viri, Claudensque textis cratibus laetum pecus Distenta siccet ubera, Et horna dulci vina promens dolio Dapes inemptas apparet: Non me Lucrina iuverint conchylia Si quos Eois intonata fluctibus Hiems ad hoc vertat mare; Non Afra avis descendat in ventrem meum, Non attagen Ionicus Iucundior, quam lecta de pinguissimis Oliva ramis arborum Aut herba lapathi prata amantis et gravi Malvae salubres corpori, Vel haedus ereptus lupo. 55 Vel agna festis caesa Terminalibus бо Has inter epulas ut iuvat pastas oves Videre properantes domum, Videre fessos vomerem inversum boves 65 Collo trahentes languido, Positosque vernas, ditis examen domus, Haec ubi locutus fenerator Alfius, Iam iam futurus rusticus, |