Wean thy heart then at last from such softening laments, Chant we rather fresh trophies our Cæsar has won, Linking on, to the nations subdued,

Bleak Niphates all ice-locked, the Mede's haughty river,

Now submissively humbling the crest of its waves ;
While the edict of Rome has imprisoned the Scyths
In the narrow domain of their steppes,

And the steed of each rider halts reined at the borders.

That Niphates was the name of a mountain-range east of the Tigris is certain; whether there was also a river of that name is much disputed, though Lucan and Juvenal take it for granted. Possibly the Tigris, which, according to Strabo, rises on the mountain-range of Niphates, may be the river here meant. which flowed into the Araxes, mention Horace makes of the existence; and most of the later commentators concur in thinking the river thus designated was the Euphrates.

There was a small river called Medus but this was too insignificant for the Medum flumen,' even if he knew of its

Tandem querellarum, et potius nova Cantemus Augusti tropea

Cæsaris, et rigidum Niphaten,1

Medumque flumen, gentibus additum Victis, minores volvere vertices, Intraque præscriptum Gelonos Exiguis equitare campis.

ODE X.

TO LICINIUS.

Licinius Murena was the son of the Murena whom Cicero defended, subsequently adopted by A. Terentius Varro. He was then called A. Terentius Varro Murena. Mæcenas married his sister; and Horace speaks of him subsequently (C. iii. 19) as one of the College of Augurs. The caution to discretion and moderation contained in this ode has a

melancholy

Licinius, wouldst thou steer life's wiser voyage,
Neither launch always into deep mid-waters,
Nor hug the shores, and, shrinking from the tempest,
Hazard the quicksand.

He who elects the golden mean of fortune,
Housing life safely, not in sordid hovels

Nor in proud halls, shuns with an equal prudence
Pen'ry and Envy.

Winds rock most oft the pine that tops the forest,
The heaviest crash is that of falling towers,
The spots on earth most stricken by the lightning
Are its high places.

The mind well trained to cope with either fortune,
Fears when Fate favours, hopes when Fate is adverse.
Jove, at his will, brings back deforming winters,
Jove, when he wills it,

Scatters them. Sad days may have happy morrows.
His deadly bow not always bends Apollo,

His hand at times the silent muse awakens
With the sweet harpstring.

melancholy interest as that of a foreboding.

He was put to

death despite the intercession of Mæcenas and Proculeius, on the charge, whether true or false, of having entered with Fannius Cæpio and others into a conspiracy against Augustus. As his death occurred A.U.C. 732, this ode must have been composed before that date. Dio speaks of the unrestrained license he allowed to his tongue, and his words may have incriminated him more than his actions, the guilt of which Dio leaves doubtful.

CARM. X.

Rectius vives, Licini, neque altum
Semper urgendo, neque, dum procellas
Cautus horrescis, nimium premendo
Litus iniquum.

Auream quisquis mediocritatem
Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
Sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
Sobrius aula.

Sæpius ventis agitatur ingens

Pinus, et celsæ graviore casu
Decidunt turres, feriuntque summos
Fulgura montes.

Sperat infestis, metuit secundis

Alteram sortem bene præparatum

Pectus. Informes hiemes reducit
Juppiter, idem

Summovet. Non, si male nunc, et olim
Sic erit quondam cithara tacentem
Suscitat Musam, neque semper arcum
Tendit Apollo.

M

In life's sore straits brace and display thy courage.1
Boldness is wisdom then: as wisely timid

When thy sails swell with winds too strongly fav'ring,
Heed, and contract them.

1 'Animosus atque fortis appare'-not only be, but show thyself,

courageous.