Quidquid de Libycis verritur areis. Gaudentem patrios findere sarculo Agros Attalicis conditionibus Nunquam dimoveas, ut trabe Cypria Myrtoum pavidus nauta secet mare. Luctantem Icariis fluctibus Africum Mercator metuens otium et oppidi Laudat rura sui; mox reficit rates Quassas indocilis pauperiem pati. has given a list of the principal verbs so used. Verbs of all kinds signifying desire and the reverse are frequently used with the infinitive, as in this ode: "demere spernit," "refugit tendere;" C. 9. 13, fuge quaerere," &c. The student can now observe this usage for himself. 10. de Libycis verritur areis] See C. iii. 16. 26. 31. S. ii. 3. 87; and Cic. in Verr. Act. ii. 3. 14, Long's note. The 'area' was a raised floor on which the corn was threshed; and after the wind had winnowed it the floor was swept, and the corn was thus collected. 11. findere sarculo] There is something of contempt in these words, where we should have expected 'ararc.' [There is a contrast presented between a man's small Italian estate, and the great provincial wheat-growing farms.] Fea refers to Apuleius's description of Samos, where "ruratio omnis in sarculo et surculo-ager frumento piger, aratro irritus" (Florid. ii.). Scindere' is the proper word for the plough; findere' for the hoe or lesser instruments. Attalicis conditionibus' signifies, 'the most extravagant terms.' There were three kings of Pergamum of this name, which was proverbial for wealth. Of the second it is recorded, that he gave large sums for paintings and other works of art, as much as 100 talents for a single picture (Plin. N. H. vii. 39). The third Attalus left his great wealth and his kingdom to the Romans (B.c. 134); and the name has passed into a proverb. See C. ii. 18. 5. Compare for 'conditionibus' Cic. ad Qu. Fr.i.1.2: "Nulla conditio pecuniae te ab summa integritate deduxerit." 13. dimoveas] Orelli says the difference between dimoveo' and 'demoveo,' which some editions have, is that the former is used when a diversion into a new channel is intended, the latter when no such meaning is to be expressed. Dillenbr. reverses this statement, and reads 'demoveas.' The meaning of the words must be derived from 10 15 themselves, not from their use; for in the conflict of MSS., not only here, but in every place where they occur, it is impossible to derive it from the context. From the meaning of 'de,' down from,' I should be inclined to say that 'demoveo' is more properly used when the place from which the removal takes place is expressed, and dimoveo' when the sentence is absolute, as here. For instance, 'demovet' I imagine to be the proper reading in C. iv. 5.14: "Curvo nec faciem littore demovet," where the MSS. have in many instances 'dimovet.' Other examples will be found by which the reader may judge for himself. The same remark applies to 'diripio' and 'deripio.' (C. iii. 5. 21 n.)-Cypria,' . Myrtoum,' 'Icariis,' 'Africum,' are all particular names for general, as ‘Bithyna carina' (C. i. 35. 7). This need hardly have been mentioned, if reasons had not been discovered for the use of Cypria,' in which this common practice of Horace is overlooked. Turnebus, for instance, explains Cypria' by the fertility of Cyprus, which was so productive, that it could furnish all the materials for a ship from its keel to its top-gallant sails.- Horace's epithets for Africus, which was the w.s.w. wind, and corresponded to the Greek λíų, are praeceps,' pestilens,' protervus' (C. iii. 23. 5). He uses the phrase 'Africae procellae' (C. iii. 29. 57) to signify the storms for which this wind was proverbial. -Luctari,''certare,' 'decertare,' 'contendere,' are used by the poets with the dative case, instead of the ablative with cum,' after the manner of the Greek μάχεσθαί τινι. 16. otium et oppidi Laudat rura sui] He commends the peaceful fields about his native town; for otium et rura' may be taken as one subject. Bentley prefers 'tuta,' a conjectural reading of Valens Acidalius (Com. on Vell. Paterc. ii. 110), to 'rura,' and says he never met with an expression like "rura oppidi." Orelli quotes Est qui nec veteris pocula Massici three: Lucan. i. 419, "rura Nemetis," or 'Nemossi;' Sil. Ital. iv. 227, "rura Casini;" viii. 433, “rura Numanae." Gronovius approved of this conjecture, and by it corrected a verse of Paulinus. 18. indocilis-pati] Examples of this Greek construction for 'ad patiendum' are very numerous. Bentley, as we have seen, tries to apply it to v. 6, reading 'nobilis evehere.' To go no further than this book, we have audax perpeti,' 'blandum ducere,' 'nobilem superare,' 'impotens sperare,''callidum condere,' 'doctus tendere,' 'praesens tollere,' 'ferre dolosi,' 'fortis tractare,'-'Pauperies,' 'paupertas,' 'pauper,' are never used by Horace to signify privation,' or any thing beyond a humble estate, as among many other instances "meo sum pauper in aere" (Epp. ii. 2. 12). Probamque pauperiem sine dote quaero" (C. iii. 29. 56). Aristophanes describes shortly the difference between 'egens' (Twxos) aud pauper' (Tévns), and his description will generally explain Horace's meaning when he uses the latter word: πτωχοῦ μὲν γὰρ βίος ὃν σὺ λέγεις ζῆν ἔστιν μηδὲν ἔχοντα, τοῦ δὲ πένητος ζῆν φειδόμενον καὶ τοῖς ἔργοις προσέχοντα, περιγίγνεσθαι δ ̓ αὐτῷ μηδὲν, μὴ μέντοι μήδ ̓ ἐπιλείπειν.-Plut. 552, sqq. 'Paupertas,' inopia,' 'egestas,' is the climax given by Seneca (de Tranq. Animi, 8). 20. solido demere de die] That is, to interrupt the hours of business. So (C. ii. 7.6), “morantem saepe diem mero fregi." 'Solidus' signifies that which has no vacant part or space; and hence solidus dies comes to signify the business hours, or occupied part of the day. Juvenal says (xi. 201) : : "Jam nunc in balnea salva Senec. Ep. 84, "Hodiernus dies solidus est: nemo ex illo quicquam mihi eripuit." Stat. Silv. iv. 3. 36,— "At nunc, quae solidum diem terebat, Horarum via facta vix duarum." The solidus dies' ended at the hour of dinner, which with industrious persons was the ninth in summer, and tenth in winter. The luxurious dined earlier (as "Exul ab octava Marius bibit," Juv. i. 49), the busy sometimes later. See Becker's Gallus, Exc. i. sc. 9, on the meals of the Romans. The commencement of the day varied with the habits of different people. 22. caput] This is used for the mouth, as well as the spring of a river. Virg. Georg. iv. 319, "Tristis ad extremi sacrum caput astitit amnis." Caesar (B. G. iv. 10) says of the Rhine, "multis capitibus in Oceanum influit." Here it is the spring. Shrines were usually built at the fountain-head of streams, dedicated to the nymphs that protected them, which explains sacrae.' 23. lituo tubae] The 'lituus' was curved in shape and sharp in tone, and used by the cavalry : ' tuba, as its name indicates, was straight, and of deep tone, and used by the infantry. “ Non tuba directi, non aeris cornua flexi" (Ov. Met. i. 98). Lipsius de Mil. Rom. says the lituus was in shape a mean between the tuba' and the cornu;' not so straight as the one, nor so twisted as the other. Aulus Gellius (N. A. i. 11) makes a distinction between the three, but does not See C. ii. 1. 17. explain what it is. testatus' is nowhere else used passively, 24. Bellaque matribus Detestata] 'Deexcept by the law-writers, who use it for one convicted by evidence (Dig. 50. 16. 238). Modulatus' (C. i. 32. 5), 'metatus' (ii. 15. 15), are likewise used passively. 25. sub Jove] Epod. xiii. 2: "Nives Fronte licet vadas, quamquam solida hora que deducunt Jovem." The Latin writers supersit Ad sextam." represented the atmosphere by Jupiter, the Greeks by Hera (Serv. ad Aen. i. 51). Seu rupit teretes Marsus aper plagas. 28. teretes] This word Festus describes to mean long and round as a pole,' which definition will not always help us to the meaning. It has always more or less closely the meaning of roundness or smoothness, or both as here. It contains the same root as 'tero,' 'tornus,' Teipw, and its cognate words, and its meaning is got from the notion of rubbing and polishing. Horace applies it to a woman's ancles, a smooth-faced boy, the cords of a net, and a faultless man (see Index). It is applied by Ovid (Fast. ii. 318) to a girdle, and by Virgil (Aen. xi. 579) to the thong of a sling; where, as here, it represents the exact twisting of a cord. 'Slender' will not do; for plagae' were nets of thick cord with which the woods were surrounded, to catch the larger beasts as they were driven out by dogs and beaters. Smart renders the words, "circling toils;" Francis, "spreading toils;" Dacier omits 'teretes' altogether. [Ritter explains teretes' correctly. Teretes plagae' are nets, the cords of which are made of a great number of threads, fitted together, and fashioned into a round form. But still we want one word, which shall express both thick or strong and round.] Marsus for Marsicus, as Colchus for Colchicus, Medus for Medicus, and many others, is the only form Horace uses. 29. Me doctarum hederae praemia frontium]-Te' has been proposed for me;' and Mr. Tate has declared, that this "true reading, on necessity arising from internal evidence against 'me' and the MSS., after the assent of scholars generally given, may now take its place as it were by acclamation." Orelli says, in opposition to Mr. Tate, "conjecturam-jam ab omnibus ex plosam esse arbitror." It was originally conjectured by Hare, and the only editors as far as I know, who had adopted it when Mr. Tate wrote, are Jones and Sanadon. Other critics have defended it, but very lamely: and more recently Fea has adopted this reading, but on grounds very different from his predecessors. "Thou, Maecenas," he says, "art ever occupied in crowning poets with the ivy, and they in return exalt thee to the gods in their songs." The ivy, which was sacred to Bacchus, made a fit and usual garland for a lyric poet. "Doctarum frontium," which Mr. Tate defends, as applied to Maecenas, is the proper description of poets, who by the Greeks were called σopoí. So doidol σopioraí (Pind. Isth. ii. 36). 34. Lesboum-barbiton] The lyre of Sappho and Alcaeus (C. i. 32. 5). 35. Quod si] A reference to the Index will show that quod si' does not occur, as Orelli says it does, but rarely in the poets. The MSS. vary between 'inseris' and 'inseres.' The present seems to be more in keeping with what goes before, and Horace had no occasion to express a doubt as to whether Maecenas ranked him among lyric poets. Although the personal pronoun tu' is emphatic in this sentence, Horace omits it, as the poets often do, where no opposition of persons is intended. Orelli and Dillenbr. have quoted a fragment of Sappho (15 Bergk), from which it might appear that the last line was imitated: but the reading is so doubtful, that nothing certain can be made out of it. The idea will be found frequently in Ovid.- Lyri cis' is less common than melicis,' to describe the lyric poets of Greece. CARMEN II. A.U.C. 725. This ode was probably written on the return of Caesar Octavianus [named Augustus, B.C. 27] to Rome, after the taking of Alexandria, when the civil wars were ended, and the temple of Janus was shut, A.U.C. 725. Horace expresses the opinion which Tacitus (Ann. i. 9) states was held by reflecting men of all parties, "non aliud discordantis patriae remedium fuisse quam ut ab uno regeretur," that the only remedy left for the troubles of the state was an absolute government in the hands of one person. He has been charged with deserting his republican principles, and even urging the destruction of those whose party he had once belonged to, and with whom he had fought at Philippi. But Horace urges reform, not bloodshed; and he had lived long enough to see that reform was not to be expected at the hands of republican leaders, or from any but him whose genius was now in the ascendant. It is not therefore in any mean spirit that he urges Octavianus to take upon himself the task of reducing to order the elements of the state, which so many years of civil war had thrown into confusion.-None of Horace's odes are more justly celebrated than this for the imagery it contains, for its genuine feeling, and for the delicacy with which it flatters Octavianus, investing him with divine attributes, but inviting him to exercise them as a father correcting and defending his children, and thus to avenge in the noblest manner his great-uncle's murder. The way in which he introduces the name of Caesar unexpectedly at the end has always appeared to me an instance of consummate art. The prodigies described at the beginning of this ode are those which were said to have followed the death of C. Julius Caesar. They are related also by Virgil, Georg. i. 466— 489, which passage, and the verses that follow it to the end of the book, should be read in connexion with this ode. It will appear to any reader of both very probable that Horace had this description in his mind when he wrote. It has been thought that Horace could not have referred to prodigies which had occurred so long before (A.U.C. 710, fifteen years before this ode was written), when he was at Athens, and therefore could not have witnessed them. Other prodigies therefore have been assumed as the subject of these opening stanzas. But the only other occasions, about this time, when the Tiber is recorded to have overflowed its banks, were A.U.c. 727 and 732, the earliest of which years would be too late for this ode, in which the allusions to the state of Rome and the triumphs of Augustus (v. 49), and the proposal that he should assume supreme authority, would in that case have been out of date and unnecessary. One of the chief purposes professed by Augustus was the avenging of his adoptive father's death; see Suet. Octav. x.: "Nihil convenientius ducens quam necem avunculi vindicare tuerique acta." Tacitus also speaks of him (Ann. i. 9) as "pietate erga parentemad arma civilia actum;" which his enemies turned against him, saying, "Cassii et Brutorum exitus paternis inimicitiis datos, quanquam fas sit privata odia in publicis utilitatibus remittere." According to Dion Cassius (liii. 4) his declared purpose was ὄντως τῷ τε πατρὶ δεινῶς σφαγέντι τιμωρῆσαι καὶ τὴν πόλιν ἐκ μεγάλων καὶ ἐπαλλήλων kakāv ¿¿eλéσbai. Ovid (Fast. v. 573, sqq.) introduces him as uttering this prayer to Mars: "Si mihi bellandi pater est Vestaeque sacerdos This being the case, Horace could not judiciously have passed over the death of C. Julius Caesar, in an ode which hailed the return of Octavianus; nor could he have alluded to it better than in connexion with those prodigies which seemed to speak the wrath of Heaven against civil discord. Other poets wrote of these prodigies, which were very notorious. See Tibull. ii. 5. 71, sqq.; Ovid, Met. xv. 782, sqq.; and one phenomenon poetically described by Horace is recorded by Dion. (xlv. 17): xai ixlûs ¿K Tĥs θαλάσσης ἀμύθητοι κατὰ τὰς τοῦ Τιβέριδος ἐκβολὰς ἐς τὴν ἤπειρον ἐξέπεσον. If this ode is read with C. ii. 15, and the others mentioned in the Introduction to that ode, the feeling with which Horace entered into the mission of Augustus as the reformer will be better understood. ARGUMENT Portents enough hath Jove sent upon the earth, making it afraid lest a new deluge were coming, as the Tiber rolled back from its mouth threatening destruction to the city, the unauthorized avenger of Ilia! Our sons shall hear that citizens have whetted for each other the steel that should have smitten the enemy. What god shall we invoke to help us? What prayers shall move Vesta to pity? To whom shall Jove assign the task of wiping out our guilt? Come thou, Apollo; or thou, smiling Venus, with mirth and love thy companions; or thou, Mars, our founder, who hast too long sported with war; or do thou, son of Maia, put on the form of a man, and let us call thee the avenger of Caesar; nor let our sins drive thee too soon away; here take thy triumphs; be thou our father and our prince, and suffer not the Mede to go unpunished whilst thou art our chief, O Caesar. JAM satis terris nivis atque dirae Terruit gentes, grave ne rediret 1. Jam satis-] See Introduction. dirae] It is very common in Horace (though not peculiar to him) to find an epithet which is attached to the latter of two substantives, but belongs to both, as here, and "fidem mutatosque Deos" (C. i. 5. 6); "poplitibus timidoque tergo" (C. iii. 2. 16), and many other places which the student will observe for himself. Horace uses this construction so frequently, that it may be looked upon as a feature in his style; and he often uses it with effect. 5 the termination of the ablative in 'e,' not i.' This is not true in respect to some words, which though they have the force of adjectives, are in fact participles. For instance, "Ab insolenti temperatam laetitia" (C. ii. 3. 3). Bentley, therefore, attributes too much perhaps to the authority of his grammarian in adopting this as an invariable rule in respect to the participle. 3. arces] The sacred buildings on the Capitoline hill. They were called collectively Capitolium or Arx (from their position), Arx Capitolii, and sometimes by hendiadys, "Arx Capitoliumque" (Livy, v. 39, &c.) They embraced the three temples of Jup. Opt. Max., Juno, and Minerva, of Jupiter Feretrius, and of Terminus. 10. columbis] The proper name for a wood-pigeon is palumbus,' or 'ba,' or |