134 INTRODUCTION TO THE CARMEN SECULARE.

Ενθεν πορσύνῃς μεμνημένος. Ημασι δ ̓ ἔστω
Νυξί τ ̓ ἐπασσυτέρῃσι θεοπρέπτους κατὰ θώκους
Παμπληθὴς ἄγυρις σπουδὴ δὲ γέλωτι μεμίχθω.

Ταῦτά τοι ἐν φρεσὶ σῇσιν ἀεὶ μεμνημένος εἶναι,
Καί σοι πᾶσα χθὼν Ιταλὴ καὶ πᾶσα Λατίνη
Αἰὲν ὑπὸ σκήπτροισιν ὑπαυχένιον ζυγὸν ἕξει.

35

CARMEN SECULARE.

PHOEBE silvarumque potens Diana,
Lucidum caeli decus, o colendi

Semper et culti, date, quae precamur
Tempore sacro,

Quo Sibyllini monuere versus
Virgines lectas puerosque castos
Dis, quibus septem placuere colles,

Dicere carmen.

Alme Sol, curru nitido diem qui
Promis et celas aliusque et idem
Nasceris, possis nihil urbe Roma
Visere maius.

Rite maturos aperire partus
Lenis, Ilithyia, tuere matres,
Sive tu Lucina, probas vocari
Seu Genitalis.

Diva, producas subolem patrumque
Prosperes decreta super iugandis
Feminis prolisque novae feraci

Lege marita,

Certus undenos decies per annos
Orbis ut cantus referatque ludos
Ter die claro totiesque grata

Nocte frequentes.

5

ΙΟ

15

20

Vosque veraces cecinisse, Parcae,
Quod semel dictum est stabilisque rerum
Terminus servet, bona iam peractis

Iungite fata.

Fertilis frugum pecorisque Tellus
Spicea donet Cererem corona;
Nutriant fetus et aquae salubres

Et Iovis aurae.

Condito mitis placidusque telo
Supplices audi pueros, Apollo;
Siderum regina bicornis, audi,

Luna, puellas:

Roma si vestrum est opus, Iliaeque

Litus Etruscum tenuere turmae,

Iussa pars mutare Lares et urbem

25

30

35

Iam mari terraque manus potentes
Medus Albanasque timet secures,

Iam Scythae responsa petunt, superbi

Nuper, et Indi.

55

Iam Fides et Pax et Honos Pudorque
Priscus et neglecta redire Virtus

Audet, apparetque beata pleno

Copia cornu.

Augur et fulgente decorus arcu

Phoebus acceptusque novem Camenis,
Qui salutari levat arte fessos

Corporis artus,

Si Palatinas videt aequus aras,

Remque Romanam Latiumque felix
Alterum in lustrum meliusque semper

Prorogat aevum.

Quaeque Aventinum tenet Algidumque,
Quindecim Diana preces virorum

60

65

70

GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE

EPODES.

‘LIBER EPODON,' 'Liber Vtus qui Epodon inscribitur,' are the titles by which this Book is headed in MSS, and cited by the grammatical and metrical writers of the 4th and 5th centuries, Marius Victorinus, Diomedes, Fortunatianus. The separate poems are called Odae. The word Epode (endós) was a recognized metrical term for the shorter verse of a couplet, which is as it were the echo (énάderal, 'accinitur') of the longer one, and then σuvekdoxikŵs for the metre or poem (more properly 'carmen epodicum') in which such a sequence occurred'. Elegiac verses are thus admitted as Epodic by Victorinus (p. 2500), but in common use the term was appropriated to the couplet metres of Archilochus and their Horatian imitations. It may be noticed that such metres are not peculiar to the so-called 'Epodes.' Two of the couplets known specially by Archilochus' name occur only in the Odes (1. 4, and 4. 7); the latter is the one example of an 'Epodus' quoted from Horace by Terentianus Maurus.

Horace's own name for these poems is ‘Iambi' (Epod. 14. 7, Od. 1. 16. 3 and 24, Epp. 1. 19. 25), a term which implied their character at least as much as their metre (cp. the Greek verb

1 Terent. Maur. (end of first century), p. 2422, Hephaestion (second century), p. 133 (ed. Gaisford), Mar. Vict. pp. 2500, 2618 foll., Diomedes. p. 482, Fortunat. p. 2699. The correlative πpowdós is applied sometimes to the first line of a couplet, as the Hexameter in Elegiacs, sometimes to the first line only when it is the shorter of the two, as in Od. 2. 18; but Epodus' is used often to cover such couplets as this. Various attempts have been made to find other meanings for the term 'Liber Epodon' as applied to Horace's poems. Scaliger (Poet. 1. 44), ignoring apparently the chronological difficulty, interpreted it to mean after Odes.' Torrentius made the word a case of end, liber incantationum,' a general name given to the book from the character of two of its most important poems, Epod. 5 and 17.