ODE VII. TO MUNATIUS PLANCUS. He describes the pleasant retreat of Tibur. The poet advises him to drive away care with wine, after the example of Teucer. OTHER poets shall celebrate the famous Rhodes, or Mitylene, or Ephesus, or the walls of Corinth situated between two seas, or Thebes illustrious by the birth of Bacchus, or Delphi by Apollo's Oracle, or the Thessalian Tempe. There are some, whose sole employment is to chant in endless verse the city of the spotless virgin goddess Pallas, and to prefer the olive * to every other leaf that is gathered. Many a one, in honour of Juno celebrates Argos productive of generous horses, and rich Mycenæ. Neither patient Lacedæmon so much struck me, nor so much did the plain of fertile Larissa, as the house of resounding Albunea †, and the precipitately rapid Anio, and the Tiburnian groves, and the orchards watered by ductile rivulets. As the pure south-wind often clears away the clouds from a lowering sky, nor teems with perpetual showers; so do you, O Plancus, wisely remember to put an end to care and the toils of life by mellow wine; whether the camp refulgent with banners possess you, or the dense shade of your own Tibur shall detain you. When Teucer fled from Salamis and The favourite tree of Pallas. +His house at Tibur, near the lake of Albunea. Towns or houses situated on rivers, lakes, &c. were called by the ancients, the towns or houses of those rivers, &c. A great way round the lake of Albunea, the earth sounds hollow under the feet, which probably gave occasion to the epithet resounding here made use of. See SPENCE's Polym. Cùm fugeret, tamen uda Lyxo Tempora populeâ fertur vinxisse coronâ, Sic tristes affatus amicos: Quo nos cunque feret melior fortuna parente, 25 Nil desperandum Teucro duce, et auspice* Teucro +: Certus enim promisit Apollo Ambiguam tellure nova Salamina futuram. O fortes, pejoraque passi Mecum sæpe viri, nunc vino pellite curas : CARMEN VIII. AD LYDIAM. Lydia exprobrat, quòd juvenem turpi amore implicatum apud se retineat, et ab honestis exercitationibus avocet. LYDIA, dic, per omnes Te Deos oro, Sybarin cur properes }} amando Perdere: cur apricum Oderit campum, patiens pulveris atque solis : Cur neque militaris Inter æquales equitet ||, Gallica nec lupatis Temperet ora frænis? Cur timet flavum Tiberim tangere? cur olivum Sanguine viperino 5 Cautiùs vitat? neque jam livida gestat armis 10 Brachia, sæpe disco, Sæpe trans finem jaculo nobilis expedito ? Obside. Cunn. + Phœbo. Bentl. Properas, equitat, et temperat. Bentl. ̧ bis father, he is reported, notwithstanding, to have bound his temples bathed in wine with a poplar crown, thus accosting his anxious friends: “O associates and companions, we will go wherever fortune, more propitious than a father, shall carry us. Nothing is to be despaired of under Teucer's conduct, and the auspices of Teucer: for the infallible Apollo has promised, that a Salamis in a new land shall render the name equivocal. O gallant heroes, and often my fellow-sufferers in greater hardships than these, now drive away your cares with wine: to-morrow we will revisit the vast ocean." 'ODE VIII. TO LYDIA. He blames Lydia for engaging Sybaris in dishonourable amours, and making him leave those manly exercises, to which he had been accustomed. LYDIA, I conjure you by all the powers above, to tell me why you are so intent to ruin Sybaris by your amours? Why hates he the sunny plain, though so inured to bear the dust and heat? Why does he neither, in military accoutrements, appear mounted among his equals*; nor manage the gallic steed with bitted reins? Why fears he to touch the yellow Tiber? Why shuns he the oil, used by wrestlers, more cautiously than the blood of vipers? Why neither does he, who has often acquired so much reputation by the quoit, often by the javelin having cleared the mark, any longer appear with arms all black-and-blue by martial exercises? Why is he ❤Militaris equitet alludes to the Ludus Troja, described neid V; in which youth performed a mock-fight on horseback. Quid latet, ut marinæ Filium dicunt Thetidis sub lacrymosa Trojæ Funera; ne virilis Cultu in cædem et Lycias proriperet catervas? CARMEN IX. AD THALIARCHUM. Hortatur ad hiemem hilarè transigendam. VIDES, ut altâ stet nive candidum Flumina constiterint acuto. O Thaliarche, merum diotâ. Permitte Divis cætera: qui simul Stravere ventos æquore fervido Depræliantes, nec cupressi, Nec veteres agitantur orni. Quid sit futurum cras, fuge quærere; et Quem fors dierum cunque dabit, lucro Appone; nec dulces amores Sperne puer, neque tu choreas, Morosa. Nunc et campus, et areæ, Compositâ repetantur horâ ; 15 10 15 20 concealed, as they say the son of the sea-Goddess Thetis was, just before the mournful funerals of Troy; lest a manly habit should hurry him to slaughter and the Lycian * troops-to a conflict with the Trojan forces. ODE IX. TO THALIARCHUS. He advises him to spend the winter season chearfully. You see how the mountain Soracte stands whitened + with deep snow, nor can the labouring woods any longer support the weight, and the rivers stagnate with the sharpness of the frost. Dissolve the cold, liberally piling up billets on the hearth; and bring out, Thaliarchus, the more generous wine, four years old, from the Sabine jar. Leave the rest to the Gods, who having once laid the winds warring with the fervid ocean, neither the cypresses, nor the aged ashes are moved. Avoid inquiring, what may happen to-morrow and whatever day fortune shall bestow on you, score it up for gain; nor disdain, being a young fellow, delicious loves, nor dances, as long as ill-natured hoariness keeps off from your blooming age. Now let both the Campus Martius, and the public walks, and soft whispers in the dark be repeated at the appointed hour: now too the delightful laugh, the betrayer of the sculking damsel from a secret corner, and the token ravished from her arms or finger, pretendingly tenacious of it. The Lycians were auxiliaries to the Trojans. † As if it were an entire heap of snow. |