ODE IV. TO XANTHIAS PHOCEUS. Xanthias Phoceus is evidently a fictitious designation. Xanthias is a Greek name, and given by Aristophanes to slaves; and Phoceus characterises the person named as a Phocian. Love for thy handmaid, Xanthias, need not shame thee : So, too, the captive form of fair Tecmessa What time had fallen the barbarian forces How dost thou know but what thy fair-haired Phyllis Believe not thy beloved of birth plebeian; A girl so faithful, so averse from lucre, Could not be born of an ignoble mother That lovely face, those arms, those tapering ankles- Insolentem-Achillem.' I agree with Yonge in his suggestion that insolentem' means not wont to be moved.' Phocian. The date of the ode is clearly A.U.C. 729, or the beginning of 730, when Horace, born A.U.C. 689, was just concluding his eighth lustre. CARM. IV. Ne sit ancillæ tibi amor pudori, Movit Achillem ; Movit Ajacem Telamone natum Barbaræ postquam cecidere turmæ Nescias, an te generum beati Phyllidis flavæ decorent parentes : Crede non illam tibi de scelesta Brachia et voltum teretesque suras Integer laudo; fuge suspicari, Cujus octavum trepidavit ætas Claudere lustrum. ODE V. TO GABINIUS. This poem is designated variously in the MSS. as Lalage,' 'To the Lover of Lalage,' &c. According to one early MS. (the Zurich), it is inscribed to Gabinius. But even Estré cannot tell us who Gabinius was, though Orelli conjectures him to have been son or grandson to A. Gabinius, Cicero's enemy. The poem is of very general application, and the leading idea is expressed with great elegance and spirit. Not yet can she bear, with neck supple, the yoke, And the fiery embrace of the bull, Thine heifer confines all her heart to green fields; Midst the sallows that drip on the shore. Till ripe, do not long for the fruit of the grape; Anon, 'tis thyself she will seek; fervent Time And then not so lovely the coy Pholoë, CARM. V. Nondum subacta ferre jugum valet In venerem tolerare pondus. Circa virentes est animus tuæ Prægestientis. Tolle cupidinem Jam te sequetur: currit enim ferox Dilecta, quantum non Pholoë fugax, Non Chloris albo sic humero nitens, Ut pura nocturno renidet Luna mari, Cnidiusve Gyges. |