Servari nolit ?" dicam, Siculique poëtae
Narrabo interitum. Deus immortalis haberi
Dum cupit Empedocles, ardentem frigidus Aetnam
Insiluit. Sit jus liceatque perire poëtis:
Invitum qui servat idem facit occidenti.

Nec semel hoc fecit, nec, si retractus erit jam
Fiet homo et ponet famosae mortis amorem.
Nec satis apparet cur versus factitet, utrum
Minxerit in patrios cineres, an triste bidental
Moverit incestus: certe furit ac velut ursus
Objectos caveae valuit si frangere clathros,
Indoctum doctumque fugat recitator acerbus;
Quem vero arripuit tenet occiditque legendo,
Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo.

465

470

475

NOTES.

NOTES.

ODES.-BOOK I.

ODE I.

THIS Ode was probably written as a dedication to Mæcenas of the three first books, when they were collectively published, probably in the fortysecond year of Horace's age, B. C 24. He says that different men have different tastes; the Greek loves the Olympic games, the Roman to get place or money; one is quiet, another restless, and so on; while he only loves the lyre, and seeks to be ranked by Maecenas among lyric poets.

men.

ARGUMENT. Mæcenas, my protector, my pride, various are the aims of The Greek seeks glory from the race; the lords of the world are supremely happy, one in the honors of the state, the other in his well-filled barns. The farmer will not plough the seas; the merchant is restless on land. One man loves his ease and his wine; another, the camp and the din of war; while the huntsman braves all weathers for his sport. My glory is in the ivy crown, my delight to retire to the groves with the nymphs and the satyrs, where my muse breathes the flute or strikes the lyre. Placed by thee among the lyric choir, I shall lift my head to the skies.

1. atavis] A noun substantive, signifying properly an ancestor in the fifth degree, thus: pater,' 'avus,' 'proavus,' 'abavus,' 'atavus'; compounded of 'ad' and 'avus,' and corresponding to 'adnepos' in the descending scale. Mæcenas belonged to the family of Cilnii, formerly Lucumones or princes of Etruria, and up to a late period possessed of influence in the Etrurian town of Aretium, whence they were expelled by their own citizens B.C. 300. See Liv. x. 3. Compare Propert. iii. 9. 1:

Maecenas, eques Etrusco de sanguine regum,
Intra fortunam qui cupis esse tuam.'

""

Martial xii. 4. 2: "Maecenas atavis regibus ortus eques." See also C. iii. 29. 1. S. i. 6. 1, sqq.

2. O et praesidium] My protector, my delight, and pride.' Virgil (G. ii. 40) addresses Maecenas in the same affectionate terms:

"O decus, O famae merito pars maxima nostrae,
Maecenas";

and Propertius, ii. 1. 73.

3. Sunt quos] The Greeks say or ous. The indicative is used with 'sunt,' or 'est qui,' when particular persons are alluded to, as here the Greeks in opposition to the Romans. So Epp. ii. 2. 182: “ Argentum sunt qui non habeant, est qui non curat habere," where, by the latter, is distinctly indicated the wise man. Here Horace alludes to the Greeks of