Me nec tam patiens Lacedæmon, Tibur Argeo positum colono Sit meæ sedes utinam senectæ ; Sit modus lasso maris et viarum Militiæque. 2 C. vi. 5—8. IV. V. Vester, Camœnæ, vester in arduos Præneste, seu Tibur supinum, Seu liquidæ placuere Baix. 3 C. IV. 21-24. Parvum parva decent: mihi jam non regia Roma, VI. Romæ Tibur amem ventosus, Tibure Romam. (just as at an earlier period of life, he accused himself of oscillating betwixt his Rus and Rome. Roma rus optas, absentem rusticus urbem VII. Tollis ad astra levis. 2 S. VII. 28, 9.) ego apis Matinæ More modoque Grata carpentis thyma per laborem Plurimum, circa nemus uvidique Tiburis ripas, operosa parvus Carmina fingo. 4 C. 11. 27-32. VIII. Sed quæ Tibur aquæ fertile præfluunt, Et spissæ nemorum comæ, Fingent Æolio carmine nobilem. 4 C. III. 10-12. Surely, an accumulation of proofs like these, leaves no ground for any reasonable doubt. The woods and the waters, the cool groves of Tivoli, fashioned and inspired the soul of the Poet; while the amenity of its scenes with the retired quietness of the town, attached his heart to the place. He had a hortus there and a domus within it (4 C. xI. 2. 6.), and his mundæ cœnæ, parvo sub lare (3 C. xxix. 14—16.), were calculated to smooth the brow of the statesman Mæcenas. And to his ramblings, when first a resident at Tivoli, with such delight amid that romantic scenery- we are clearly indebted for Horace's assuming a poetical character entirely new, in the translation to the Romane fidicen lyra (4 C. III. 23.) from the writer of Satires and Epodes only. In one word, then, on his own express authority, on that spot, and at that time, his lyric writings had their actual commencement. Two out of the eight passages, here adduced, on which I rely for the establishment of Horace as a sojourner at Tivoli, may in that view justify a more particular notice. His invitation (No. 111.) to Septimius has been well illustrated by the late Mr. George Hardinge. (Nichols. Literary History. u. s. p. 732.) "Horace begins by telling him that he knows his friend would accompany him to the remotest and wildest part of the world: Septimi, Gades aditure mecum, et Cantabrum indoctum juga ferre nostra, et Barbaras Syrtes, ubi Maura semper Estuat unda. "Of course he should be equally desirous to accompany his friend: but he means to decline it, and he is to give the reason for it, which is, that he wishes for no Tarentum, unless DRIVEN from TIBUR. The Ode in any other sense would be unintelligible, and the wish for Tibur absurd, especially with a reference to his old age, which had not then arrived," &c. &c. That Alcaic Stanza (No. Iv.) forms quite a locus classicus in the personal history of Horace. Vester Camœnæ, vester in arduos Seu liquide placuere Baic. For such were his FOUR peculiar places out of Rome, of usual residence or occasional resort. The first was his Sabine villa and estate in the vale of Licenza; after Chaupy and Domenico de Sanctis, described and verified (as it should have been sooner told) by Mr. Bradstreet, in the "Sabine Farm," 1810. The second spot refreshed him by its coolness in the dog days, sometimes: in one summer, it bequeathed to our instruction that delightful Epistle (1 E. 11.), Trojani belli scriptorem, maxime Lolli, &c. To the fourth, his resort on the Campanian shore, he betook himself, often perhaps, for its fine mild air in winter. Quod si bruma nives Albanis illinet agris, Ad mare descendet vates tuus, et sibi parcet. The third scene, long and early admired, from being frequently visited, became at last one of his two favourite and regular places of residence out of Rome. For there is not the shadow of evidence, to rank on the same level with Tivoli as an habitation, either Præneste, the mere æstivæ delicia of our Poet, or Baie resorted to for its warm climate and its baths; least of all the distant Tarentum, deeply beloved, much talked of, but very seldom visited. Tarentum, indeed, if he were to change from Tivoli, we have just seen he would prefer to all places for his residence. And yet, of any actual visit to that spot, though so well known, with its peculiar charm; ver ubi longum tepidasque præbet | Jupiter brumas. 2 C. vi. 17, 18. he has bequeathed no memorandum whatever. None of his writings exhibit the slightest indications of having been written there; nor any where on the coast in winter does he seem to have used his pen at all: Contractusque leget, are his own words, 1 E. vii. 12, when meditating to go down to the sea, most probably to Baiæ. Let me not be considered as dwelling too long on this investigation of the Poet's principal localities. Or should it be asked, in what way those points when determined, can give aid towards the illustration of Horace, the following examples with the deductions arising out of them may serve at present for a reply. (1.) For the entire separation of Horace's residence in the Sabine valley, not only from his house at Rome, but from his humble mansion at Tivoli, we are very much indebted to the information conveyed in his xIvth Epistle. As the picture of country life in all its simplicity and innocence which the 2d Epode (Beatus ille, &c.) presents, was in its general character drawn from Horace's personal knowledge and observation in the vale of Licenza; so we may with the greater zest enjoy the moral repose in those of his writings which bear the stamp of that valley, as the subject at once and the scene of composition. Now that Epistle (the xivth) to his Villicus, besides much that it tells us not otherwise known of Horace in RURE suo and of his employments there, most fortunately tells us also, from what pests or pleasures that abode of Sabine virtue was free. vv. 21-26. fornix tibi et uncta popina Ad strepitum salias terræ gravis, &c. In consequence of this discovery, for in its application I believe it so to be, we are enabled directly to mark the scene of several of his writings as limited either to Rome or to Tivoli; and thus we distinguish, very often with little difficulty, what the great city allowed him to write from what the vacuum Tibur suggested or inspired. Look at the light and elegant Ode to Phyllis. 4 C. x1. vv. 2, 3. Est in horto, | Phylli, nectendis apium coronis, &c. But he had no hortus at Rome; as the same Epistle testifies, vv. 41, 2. invidet usum Lignorum et pecoris tibi calo argutus et horti : therefore this Ode was not written in that city. Horace goes on thus: vv. 34, 5. condisce modos, amandâ | Voce quos reddas. But here is the meretrix tibicina, or a lady hardly of purer quality therefore it was not written in the valley. : Of course Tivoli was the scene of this gay celebration of Mæcenas's birth-day. (2.) Let us proceed to place in the true light that beautiful Ode with its rational piety, Calo supinas, &c. 3 C. XXIII. The Rustica Phidyle, there addressed, is considered as having been haud dubie Villica in fundo Horatii Sabino; and even the grave and cautious Gesner says, Lepida certe Dacerii et Sanadoni suspicio, Horatium astute dissimulatá Epicurei persona sic voluisse impedire, ne in villâ suâ nimii sumtus fierent in sacrificia. Now it certainly does appear from Cato De re rusticâ, in sacrificia, that the Villica in his time was bound to offer no sacrifice without order from her master or mistress. Scito dominum, he adds, pro totâ familiâ rem divinam facere ; and Columella, who after the lapse of two centuries, has to lament the progress of refinement as deteriorating the character of the rural domini, (Lib. XII. Præfat. pp. 551, 2. Ed. Schneider,) inserts amongst the qualifications of a good Villica, that she be a superstitionibus remotissima. |