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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:43:30 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:43:30 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/14020-0.txt b/14020-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c0cb353 --- /dev/null +++ b/14020-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8448 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14020 *** + +Handy Literal Translations + +THE WORKS OF HORACE + +_TRANSLATED LITERALLY INTO ENGLISH PROSE_ + + + +By C. Smart, A.M. + +Of Pembroke College, Cambridge + + + +_A NEW EDITION_ + + + +REVISED BY + +Theodore Alois Buckley B.A. Of Christ Church + + + + + +THE FIRST BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE. + + + +ODE I. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +Maecenas, descended from royal ancestors, O both my protection and my +darling honor! There are those whom it delights to have collected +Olympic dust in the chariot race; and [whom] the goal nicely avoided by +the glowing wheels, and the noble palm, exalts, lords of the earth, to +the gods. + +This man, if a crowd of the capricious Quirites strive to raise him to +the highest dignities; another, if he has stored up in his own granary +whatsoever is swept from the Libyan thrashing floors: him who delights +to cut with the hoe his patrimonial fields, you could never tempt, for +all the wealth of Attalus, [to become] a timorous sailor and cross the +Myrtoan sea in a Cyprian bark. The merchant, dreading the south-west +wind contending with the Icarian waves, commends tranquility and the +rural retirement of his village; but soon after, incapable of being +taught to bear poverty, he refits his shattered vessel. There is +another, who despises not cups of old Massic, taking a part from the +entire day, one while stretched under the green arbute, another at the +placid head of some sacred stream. + +The camp, and the sound of the trumpet mingled with that of the clarion, +and wars detested by mothers, rejoice many. + +The huntsman, unmindful of his tender spouse, remains in the cold air, +whether a hart is held in view by his faithful hounds, or a Marsian boar +has broken the fine-wrought toils. + +Ivy, the reward of learned brows, equals me with the gods above: the +cool grove, and the light dances of nymphs and satyrs, distinguish me +from the crowd; if neither Euterpe withholds her pipe, nor Polyhymnia +disdains to tune the Lesbian lyre. But, if you rank me among the lyric +poets, I shall tower to the stars with my exalted head. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE II. + +TO AUGUSTUS CAESAR + + +Enough of snow and dreadful hail has the Sire now sent upon the earth, +and having hurled [his thunderbolts] with his red right hand against the +sacred towers, he has terrified the city; he has terrified the nations, +lest the grievous age of Pyrrha, complaining of prodigies till then +unheard of, should return, when Proteus drove all his [marine] herd to +visit the lofty mountains; and the fishy race were entangled in the elm +top, which before was the frequented seat of doves; and the timorous +deer swam in the overwhelming flood. We have seen the yellow Tiber, with +his waves forced back with violence from the Tuscan shore, proceed to +demolish the monuments of king [Numa], and the temples of Vesta; while +he vaunts himself the avenger of the too disconsolate Ilia, and the +uxorious river, leaving his channel, overflows his left bank, +notwithstanding the disapprobation of Jupiter. + +Our youth, less numerous by the vices of their fathers, shall hear of +the citizens having whetted that sword [against themselves], with which +it had been better that the formidable Persians had fallen; they shall +hear of [actual] engagements. Whom of the gods shall the people invoke +to the affairs of the sinking empire? With what prayer shall the sacred +virgins importune Vesta, who is now inattentive to their hymns? To whom +shall Jupiter assign the task of expiating our wickedness? Do thou at +length, prophetic Apollo, (we pray thee!) come, vailing thy radiant +shoulders with a cloud: or thou, if it be more agreeable to thee, +smiling Venus, about whom hover the gods of mirth and love: or thou, if +thou regard thy neglected race and descendants, our founder Mars, whom +clamor and polished helmets, and the terrible aspect of the Moorish +infantry against their bloody enemy, delight, satiated at length with +thy sport, alas! of too long continuance: or if thou, the winged son of +gentle Maia, by changing thy figure, personate a youth upon earth, +submitting to be called the avenger of Caesar; late mayest thou return +to the skies, and long mayest thou joyously be present to the Roman +people; nor may an untimely blast transport thee from us, offended at +our crimes. Here mayest thou rather delight in magnificent triumphs, and +to be called father and prince: nor suffer the Parthians with impunity +to make incursions, you, O Caesar, being our general. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE III. + +TO THE SHIP, IN WHICH VIRGIL WAS ABOUT TO SAIL TO ATHENS. + + +So may the goddess who rules over Cyprus; so may the bright stars, the +brothers of Helen; and so may the father of the winds, confining all +except Iapyx, direct thee, O ship, who art intrusted with Virgil; my +prayer is, that thou mayest land him safe on the Athenian shore, and +preserve the half of my soul. Surely oak and three-fold brass surrounded +his heart who first trusted a frail vessel to the merciless ocean, nor +was afraid of the impetuous Africus contending with the northern storms, +nor of the mournful Hyades, nor of the rage of Notus, than whom there is +not a more absolute controller of the Adriatic, either to raise or +assuage its waves at pleasure. What path of death did he fear, who +beheld unmoved the rolling monsters of the deep; who beheld unmoved the +tempestuous swelling of the sea, and the Acroceraunians--ill-famed +rocks? + +In vain has God in his wisdom divided the countries of the earth by the +separating ocean, if nevertheless profane ships bound over waters not to +be violated. The race of man presumptuous enough to endure everything, +rushes on through forbidden wickedness. + +The presumptuous son of Iapetus, by an impious fraud, brought down fire +into the world. After fire was stolen from the celestial mansions, +consumption and a new train of fevers settled upon the earth, and the +slow approaching necessity of death, which, till now, was remote, +accelerated its pace. Daedalus essayed the empty air with wings not +permitted to man. The labor of Hercules broke through Acheron. There is +nothing too arduous for mortals to attempt. We aim at heaven itself in +our folly; neither do we suffer, by our wickedness, Jupiter to lay aside +his revengeful thunderbolts. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IV. + +TO SEXTIUS. + + +Severe winter is melted away beneath the agreeable change of spring and +the western breeze; and engines haul down the dry ships. And neither +does the cattle any longer delight in the stalls, nor the ploughman in +the fireside; nor are the meadows whitened by hoary frosts. Now +Cytherean Venus leads off the dance by moonlight; and the comely Graces, +in conjunction with the Nymphs, shake the ground with alternate feet; +while glowing Vulcan kindles the laborious forges of the Cyclops. Now it +is fitting to encircle the shining head either with verdant myrtle, or +with such flowers as the relaxed earth produces. Now likewise it is +fitting to sacrifice to Faunus in the shady groves, whether he demand a +lamb, or be more pleased with a kid. Pale death knocks at the cottages +of the poor, and the palaces of kings, with an impartial foot. O happy +Sextius! The short sum total of life forbids us to form remote +expectations. Presently shall darkness, and the unreal ghosts, and the +shadowy mansion of Pluto oppress you; where, when you shall have once +arrived, you shall neither decide the dominion of the bottle by dice, +nor shall you admire the tender Lycidas, with whom now all the youth is +inflamed, and for whom ere long the maidens will grow warm. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE V. + +TO PYRRHA. + + +What dainty youth, bedewed with liquid perfumes, caresses you, Pyrrha, +beneath the pleasant grot, amid a profusion of roses? For whom do you +bind your golden hair, plain in your neatness? Alas! how often shall he +deplore your perfidy, and the altered gods; and through inexperience be +amazed at the seas, rough with blackening storms who now credulous +enjoys you all precious, and, ignorant of the faithless gale, hopes you +will be always disengaged, always amiable! Wretched are those, to whom +thou untried seemest fair? The sacred wall [of Neptune's temple] +demonstrates, by a votive tablet, that I have consecrated my dropping +garments to the powerful god of the sea. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VI. + +TO AGRIPPA. + + +You shall be described by Varius, a bird of Maeonian verse, as brave, +and a subduer of your enemies, whatever achievements your fierce +soldiery shall have accomplished, under your command; either on +ship-board or on horseback. We humble writers, O Agrippa, neither +undertake these high subjects, nor the destructive wrath of inexorable +Achilles, nor the voyages of the crafty Ulysses, nor the cruel house of +Pelops: while diffidence, and the Muse who presides over the peaceful +lyre, forbid me to diminish the praise of illustrious Caesar, and yours, +through defect of genius. Who with sufficient dignity will describe Mars +covered with adamantine coat of mail, or Meriones swarthy with Trojan +dust, or the son of Tydeus by the favor of Pallas a match for the gods? +We, whether free, or ourselves enamored of aught, light as our wont, +sing of banquets; we, of the battles of maids desperate against young +fellows--with pared nails. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VII. + +TO MUNATIUS PLANCUS. + + +Other poets shall celebrate the famous Rhodes, or Mitylene, or Ephesus, +or the walls of Corinth, situated between two seas, or Thebes, +illustrious by Bacchus, or Delphi by Apollo, or the Thessalian Tempe. +There are some, whose one task it is to chant in endless verse the city +of spotless Pallas, and to prefer the olive culled from every side, to +every other leaf. Many a one, in honor of Juno, celebrates Argos, +productive of steeds, and rich Mycenae. Neither patient Lacedaemon 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 +clear south wind often clears away the clouds from a lowering sky, now +teems with perpetual showers; so do you, O Plancus, wisely remember to +put an end to grief 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 his +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 re-visit the vast ocean." + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VIII. + +TO LYDIA. + + +Lydia, I conjure thee by all the powers above, to tell me why you are so +intent to ruin Sybaris by inspiring him with love? Why hates he the +sunny plain, though inured to bear the dust and heat? Why does he +neither, in military accouterments, 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 of the ring more cautiously than +viper's blood? Why neither does he, who has often acquired 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 +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? + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IX. + +TO THALIARCHUS. + + +You see how Soracte stands white with deep snow, nor can the laboring +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, O 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 +tomorrow; and whatever day fortune shall bestow on you, score it up for +gain; nor disdain, being a young fellow, pleasant 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 at the +approach of evening be repeated at the appointed hour: now, too, the +delightful laugh, the betrayer of the lurking damsel from some secret +corner, and the token ravished from her arms or fingers, pretendingly +tenacious of it. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE X. + +TO MERCURY. + + +Mercury, eloquent grandson of Atlas, thou who artful didst from the +savage manners of the early race of men by oratory, and the institution +of the graceful Palaestra: I will celebrate thee, messenger of Jupiter +and the other gods, and parent of the curved lyre; ingenious to conceal +whatever thou hast a mind to, in jocose theft. While Apollo, with angry +voice, threatened you, then but a boy, unless you would restore the +oxen, previously driven away by your fraud, he laughed, [when he found +himself] deprived of his quiver [also]. Moreover, the wealthy Priam too, +on his departure from Ilium, under your guidance deceived the proud sons +of Atreus, and the Thessalian watch-lights, and the camp inveterate +agaist Troy. You settle the souls of good men in blissful regions, and +drive together the airy crowd with your golden rod, acceptable both to +the supernal and infernal gods. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XI. + +TO LEUCONOE. + + +Inquire not, Leuconoe (it is not fitting you should know), how long a +term of life the gods have granted to you or to me: neither consult the +Chaldean calculations. How much better is it to bear with patience +whatever shall happen! Whether Jupiter have granted us more winters, or +[this as] the last, which now breaks the Etrurian waves against the +opposing rocks. Be wise; rack off your wines, and abridge your hopes [in +proportion] to the shortness of your life. While we are conversing, +envious age has been flying; seize the present day, not giving the least +credit to the succeeding one. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XII. + +TO AUGUSTUS. + + +What man, what hero, O Clio, do you undertake to celebrate on the harp, +or the shrill pipe? What god? Whose name shall the sportive echo +resound, either in the shady borders of Helicon, or on the top of +Pindus, or on cold Haemus? Whence the woods followed promiscuously the +tuneful Orpheus, who by his maternal art retarded the rapid courses of +rivers, and the fleet winds; and was so sweetly persuasive, that he drew +along the listening oaks with his harmonious strings. But what can I +sing prior to the usual praises of the Sire, who governs the affairs of +men and gods; who [governs] the sea, the earth, and the whole world with +the vicissitudes of seasons? Whence nothing is produced greater than +him; nothing springs either like him, or even in a second degree to him: +nevertheless, Pallas has acquired these honors, which are next after +him. + +Neither will I pass thee by in silence, O Bacchus, bold in combat; nor +thee, O Virgin, who art an enemy to the savage beasts; nor thee, O +Phoebus, formidable for thy unerring dart. + +I will sing also of Hercules, and the sons of Leda, the one illustrious +for his achievements on horseback, the other on foot; whose +clear-shining constellation as soon as it has shone forth to the +sailors, the troubled surge falls down from the rocks, the winds cease, +the clouds vanish, and the threatening waves subside in the sea--because +it was their will. After these, I am in doubt whom I shall first +commemorate, whether Romulus, or the peaceful reign of Numa, or the +splendid ensigns of Tarquinius, or the glorious death of Cato. I will +celebrate, out of gratitude, with the choicest verses, Regulus, and the +Scauri, and Paulus, prodigal of his mighty soul, when Carthage +conquered, and Fabricius. + +Severe poverty, and an hereditary farm, with a dwelling suited to it, +formed this hero useful in war; as it did also Curius with his rough +locks, and Camillus. The fame of Marcellus increases, as a tree does in +the insensible progress of time. But the Julian constellation shines +amid them all, as the moon among the smaller stars. O thou son of +Saturn, author and preserver of the human race, the protection of Caesar +is committed to thy charge by the Fates: thou shalt reign supreme, with +Caesar for thy second. Whether he shall subdue with a just victory the +Parthians making inroads upon Italy, or shall render subject the Seres +and Indians on the Eastern coasts; he shall rule the wide world with +equity, in subordination to thee. Thou shalt shake Olympus with thy +tremendous car; thou shalt hurl thy hostile thunderbolts against the +polluted groves. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIII. + +TO LYDIA. + + +O Lydia, when you commend Telephus' rosy neck, and the waxen arms of +Telephus, alas! my inflamed liver swells with bile difficult to be +repressed. Then neither is my mind firm, nor does my color maintain a +certain situation: and the involuntary tears glide down my cheek, +proving with what lingering flames I am inwardly consumed. I am on fire, +whether quarrels rendered immoderate by wine have stained your fair +shoulders; or whether the youth, in his fury, has impressed with his +teeth a memorial on your lips. If you will give due attention to my +advice, never expect that he will be constant, who inhumanly wounds +those sweet kisses, which Venus has imbued with the fifth part of all +her nectar. O thrice and more than thrice happy those, whom an +indissoluble connection binds together; and whose love, undivided by +impious complainings, does not separate them sooner than the last day! + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIV. + +TO THE ROMAN STATE. + + +O ship, new waves will bear you back again to sea. O what are you doing? +Bravely seize the port. Do you not perceive, that your sides are +destitute of oars, and your mast wounded by the violent south wind, and +your main-yards groan, and your keel can scarcely support the +impetuosity of the waves without the help of cordage? You have not +entire sails; nor gods, whom you may again invoke, pressed with +distress: notwithstanding you are made of the pines of Pontus, and as +the daughter of an illustrious wood, boast your race, and a fame now of +no service to you. The timorous sailor has no dependence on a painted +stern. Look to yourself, unless you are destined to be the sport of the +winds. O thou, so lately my trouble and fatigue, but now an object of +tenderness and solicitude, mayest thou escape those dangerous seas which +flow among the shining Cyclades. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XV. + +TO PARIS. + + +When the perfidious shepherd (Paris) carried off by sea in Trojan ships +his hostess Helen, Nereus suppressed the swift winds in an unpleasant +calm, that he might sing the dire fates. "With unlucky omen art thou +conveying home her, whom Greece with a numerous army shall demand back +again, having entered into a confederacy to dissolve your nuptials, and +the ancient kingdom of Priam. Alas! what sweat to horses, what to men, +is just at hand! What a destruction art thou preparing for the Trojan +nation! Even now Pallas is fitting her helmet, and her shield, and her +chariot, and her fury. In vain, looking fierce through the patronage of +Venus, will you comb your hair, and run divisions upon the effeminate +lyre with songs pleasing to women. In vain will you escape the spears +that disturb the nuptial bed, and the point of the Cretan dart, and the +din [of battle], and Ajax swift in the pursuit. Nevertheless, alas! the +time will come, though late, when thou shalt defile thine adulterous +hairs in the dust. Dost thou not see the son of Laertes, fatal to thy +nation, and Pylian Nestor, Salaminian Teucer, and Sthenelus skilled in +fight (or if there be occasion to manage horses, no tardy charioteer), +pursue thee with intrepidity? Meriones also shalt thou experience. +Behold! the gallant son of Tydeus, a better man than his father, glows +to find you out: him, as a stag flies a wolf, which he has seen on the +opposite side of the vale, unmindful of his pasture, shall you, +effeminate, fly, grievously panting:--not such the promises you made +your mistress. The fleet of the enraged Achilles shall defer for a time +that day, which is to be fatal to Troy and the Trojan matrons: but, +after a certain number of years, Grecian fire shall consume the Trojan +palaces." + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVI. + +TO A YOUNG LADY HORACE HAD OFFENDED. + + +O daughter, more charming than your charming mother, put what end you +please to my insulting iambics; either in the flames, or, if you choose +it, in the Adriatic. Nor Cybele, nor Apollo, the dweller in the shrines, +so shakes the breast of his priests; Bacchus does not do it equally, nor +do the Corybantes so redouble their strokes on the sharp-sounding +cymbals, as direful anger; which neither the Noric sword can deter, nor +the shipwrecking sea, nor dreadful fire, not Jupiter himself rushing +down with awful crash. It is reported that Prometheus was obliged to add +to that original clay [with which he formed mankind], some ingredient +taken from every animal, and that he applied the vehemence of the raging +lion to the human breast. It was rage that destroyed Thyestes with +horrible perdition; and has been the final cause that lofty cities have +been entirely demolished, and that an insolent army has driven the +hostile plowshare over their walls. Compose your mind. An ardor of soul +attacked me also in blooming youth, and drove me in a rage to the +writing of swift-footed iambics. Now I am desirous of exchanging +severity for good nature, provided that you will become my friend, after +my having recanted my abuse, and restore me your affections. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVII. + +TO TYNDARIS. + + +The nimble Faunus often exchanges the Lycaean mountain for the pleasant +Lucretilis, and always defends my she-goats from the scorching summer, +and the rainy winds. The wandering wives of the unsavory husband seek +the hidden strawberry-trees and thyme with security through the safe +grove: nor do the kids dread the green lizards, or the wolves sacred to +Mars; whenever, my Tyndaris, the vales and the smooth rocks of the +sloping Ustica have resounded with his melodious pipe. The gods are my +protectors. My piety and my muse are agreeable to the gods. Here plenty, +rich with rural honors, shall flow to you, with her generous horn filled +to the brim. Here, in a sequestered vale, you shall avoid the heat of +the dog-star; and, on your Anacreontic harp, sing of Penelope and the +frail Circe striving for one lover; here you shall quaff, under the +shade, cups of unintoxicating Lesbian. Nor shall the raging son of +Semele enter the combat with Mars; and unsuspected you shall not fear +the insolent Cyrus, lest he should savagely lay his intemperate hands on +you, who are by no means a match for him; and should rend the chaplet +that is platted in your hair, and your inoffensive garment. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVIII. + +TO VARUS. + + +O Varus, you can plant no tree preferable to the sacred vine, about the +mellow soil of Tibur, and the walls of Catilus. For God hath rendered +every thing cross to the sober; nor do biting cares disperse any +otherwise [than by the use of wine]. Who, after wine, complains of the +hardships of war or of poverty? Who does not rather [celebrate] thee, +Father Bacchus, and thee, comely Venus? Nevertheless, the battle of the +Centaurs with the Lapithae, which was fought in their cups, admonishes +us not to exceed a moderate use of the gifts of Bacchus. And Bacchus +himself admonishes us in his severity to the Thracians; when greedy to +satisfy their lusts, they make little distinction between right and +wrong. O beauteous Bacchus, I will not rouse thee against thy will, nor +will I hurry abroad thy [mysteries, which are] covered with various +leaves. Cease your dire cymbals, together with your Phrygian horn, whose +followers are blind Self-love and Arrogance, holding up too high her +empty head, and the Faith communicative of secrets, and more transparent +than glass. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIX. + +TO GLYCERA. + + +The cruel mother of the Cupids, and the son of the Theban Gemele, and +lascivious ease, command me to give back my mind to its deserted loves. +The splendor of Glycera, shining brighter than the Parian marble, +inflames me: her agreeable petulance, and her countenance, too unsteady +to be beheld, inflame me. Venus, rushing on me with her whole force, has +quitted Cyprus; and suffers me not to sing of the Scythians, and the +Parthian, furious when his horse is turned for flight, or any subject +which is not to the present purpose. Here, slaves, place me a live turf; +here, place me vervains and frankincense, with a flagon of two-year-old +wine. She will approach more propitious, after a victim has been +sacrificed. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XX. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +My dear knight Maecenas, you shall drink [at my house] ignoble Sabine +wine in sober cups, which I myself sealed up in the Grecian cask, stored +at the time, when so loud an applause was given to you in the +amphitheatre, that the banks of your ancestral river, together with the +cheerful echo of the Vatican mountain, returned your praises. You [when +you are at home] will drink the Caecuban, and the grape which is +squeezed in the Calenian press; but neither the Falernian vines, nor the +Formian hills, season my cups. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXI. + +ON DIANA AND APOLLO. + + +Ye tender virgins, sing Diana; ye boys, sing Apollo with his unshorn +hair, and Latona passionately beloved by the supreme Jupiter. Ye +(virgins), praise her that rejoices in the rivers, and the thick groves, +which project either from the cold Algidus, or the gloomy woods of +Erymanthus, or the green Cragus. Ye boys, extol with equal praises +Apollo's Delos, and his shoulder adorned with a quiver, and with his +brother Mercury's lyre. He, moved by your intercession, shall drive away +calamitous war, and miserable famine, and the plague from the Roman +people and their sovereign Caesar, to the Persians and the Britons. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXII. + +TO ARISTIUS FUSCUS. + + +The man of upright life and pure from wickedness, O Fuscus, has no need +of the Moorish javelins, or bow, or quiver loaded with poisoned darts. +Whether he is about to make his journey through the sultry Syrtes, or +the inhospitable Caucasus, or those places which Hydaspes, celebrated in +story, washes. For lately, as I was singing my Lalage, and wandered +beyond my usual bounds, devoid of care, a wolf in the Sabine wood fled +from me, though I was unarmed: such a monster as neither the warlike +Apulia nourishes in its extensive woods, nor the land of Juba, the +dry-nurse of lions, produces. Place me in those barren plains, where no +tree is refreshed by the genial air; at that part of the world, which +clouds and an inclement atmosphere infest. Place me under the chariot of +the too neighboring sun, in a land deprived of habitations; [there] will +I love my sweetly-smiling, sweetly-speaking Lalage. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXIII. + +TO CHLOE. + + +You shun me, Chloe, like a fawn that is seeking its timorous mother in +the pathless mountains, not without a vain dread of the breezes and the +thickets: for she trembles both in her heart and knees, whether the +arrival of the spring has terrified by its rustling leaves, or the green +lizards have stirred the bush. But I do not follow you, like a savage +tigress, or a Gaetulian lion, to tear you to pieces. Therefore, quit +your mother, now that you are mature for a husband. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXIV. + +TO VIRGIL. + + +What shame or bound can there be to our affectionate regret for so dear +a person? O Melpomene, on whom your father has bestowed a clear voice +and the harp, teach me the mournful strains. Does then perpetual sleep +oppress Quinctilius? To whom when will modesty, and uncorrupt faith the +sister of Justice, and undisguised truth, find any equal? He died +lamented by many good men, but more lamented by none than by you, my +Virgil. You, though pious, alas! in vain demand Quinctilius back from +the gods, who did not lend him to us on such terms. What, though you +could strike the lyre, listened to by the trees, with more sweetness +than the Thracian Orpheus; yet the blood can never return to the empty +shade, which Mercury, inexorable to reverse the fates, has with his +dreadful Caduceus once driven to the gloomy throng. This is hard: but +what it is out of our power to amend, becomes more supportable by +patience. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXV. + +TO LYDIA. + + +The wanton youths less violently shake thy fastened windows with their +redoubled knocks, nor do they rob you of your rest; and your door, which +formerly moved its yielding hinges freely, now sticks lovingly to its +threshold. Less and less often do you now hear: "My Lydia, dost thou +sleep the live-long night, while I your lover am dying?" Now you are an +old woman, it will be your turn to bewail the insolence of rakes, when +you are neglected in a lonely alley, while the Thracian wind rages at +the Interlunium: when that hot desire and lust, which is wont to render +furious the dams of horses, shall rage about your ulcerous liver: not +without complaint, that sprightly youth rejoice rather in the verdant +ivy and growing myrtle, and dedicate sapless leaves to Eurus, the +companion of winter. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXVI. + +TO AELIUS LAMIA. + + +A friend to the Muses, I will deliver up grief and fears to the wanton +winds, to waft into the Cretan Sea; singularly careless, what king of a +frozen region is dreaded under the pole, or what terrifies Tiridates. O +sweet muse, who art delighted with pure fountains, weave together the +sunny flowers, weave a chaplet for my Lamia. Without thee, my praises +profit nothing. To render him immortal by new strains, to render him +immortal by the Lesbian lyre, becomes both thee and thy sisters. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXVII. + +TO HIS COMPANIONS. + + +To quarrel over your cups, which were made for joy, is downright +Thracian. Away with the barbarous custom, and protect modest Bacchus +from bloody frays. How immensely disagreeable to wine and candles is the +sabre of the Medes! O my companions, repress your wicked vociferations, +and rest quietly on bended elbow. Would you have me also take my share +of stout Falernian? Let the brother of Opuntian Megilla then declare, +with what wound he is blessed, with what dart he is dying.--What, do you +refuse? I will not drink upon any other condition. Whatever kind of +passion rules you, it scorches you with the flames you need not be +ashamed of, and you always indulge in an honorable, an ingenuous love. +Come, whatever is your case, trust it to faithful ears. Ah, unhappy! in +what a Charybdis art thou struggling, O youth, worthy of a better flame! +What witch, what magician, with his Thessalian incantations, what deity +can free you? Pegasus himself will scarcely deliver you, so entangled, +from this three-fold chimera. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXVIII. + +ARCHYTAS. + + +The [want of the] scanty present of a little sand near the Mantinian +shore, confines thee, O Archytas, the surveyor of sea and earth, and of +the innumerable sand: neither is it of any advantage to you, to have +explored the celestial regions, and to have traversed the round world in +your imagination, since thou wast to die. Thus also did the father of +Pelops, the guest of the gods, die; and Tithonus likewise was translated +to the skies, and Minos, though admitted to the secrets of Jupiter; and +the Tartarean regions are possessed of the son of Panthous, once more +sent down to the receptacle of the dead; notwithstanding, having retaken +his shield from the temple, he gave evidence of the Trojan times, and +that he had resigned to gloomy death nothing but his sinews and skin; in +your opinion, no inconsiderable judge of truth and nature. But the game +night awaits all, and the road of death must once be travelled. The +Furies give up some to the sport of horrible Mars: the greedy ocean is +destructive to sailors: the mingled funerals of young and old are +crowded together: not a single person does the cruel Proserpine pass by. +The south wind, the tempestuous attendant on the setting Orion, has sunk +me also in the Illyrian waves. But do not thou, O sailor, malignantly +grudge to give a portion of loose sand to my bones and unburied head. +So, whatever the east wind shall threaten to the Italian sea, let the +Venusinian woods suffer, while you are in safety; and manifold profit, +from whatever port it may, come to you by favoring Jove, and Neptune, +the defender of consecrated Tarentum. But if you, by chance, make light +of committing a crime, which will be hurtful to your innocent posterity, +may just laws and haughty retribution await you. I will not be deserted +with fruitless prayers; and no expiations shall atone for you. Though +you are in haste, you need not tarry long: after having thrice sprinkled +the dust over me, you may proceed. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXIX. + +TO ICCIUS. + + +O Iccius, you now covet the opulent treasures of the Arabians, and are +preparing vigorous for a war against the kings of Saba, hitherto +unconquered, and are forming chains for the formidable Mede. What +barbarian virgin shall be your slave, after you have killed her +betrothed husband? What boy from the court shall be made your +cup-bearer, with his perfumed locks, skilled to direct the Seric arrows +with his father's bow? Who will now deny that it is probable for +precipitate rivers to flow back again to the high mountains, and for +Tiber to change his course, since you are about to exchange the noble +works of Panaetius, collected from all parts, together with the whole +Socratic family, for Iberian armor, after you had promised better +things? + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXX. + +TO VENUS. + + +O Venus, queen of Gnidus and Paphos, neglect your favorite Cyprus, and +transport yourself into the beautiful temple of Glycera, who is invoking +you with abundance of frankincense. Let your glowing son hasten along +with you, and the Graces with their zones loosed, and the Nymphs, and +Youth possessed of little charm without you and Mercury. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXXI. + +TO APOLLO. + + +What does the poet beg from Phoebus on the dedication of his temple? +What does he pray for, while he pours from the flagon the first +libation? Not the rich crops of fertile Sardinia: not the goodly flocks +of scorched Calabria: not gold, or Indian ivory: not those countries, +which the still river Liris eats away with its silent streams. Let those +to whom fortune has given the Calenian vineyards, prune them with a +hooked knife; and let the wealthy merchant drink out of golden cups the +wines procured by his Syrian merchandize, favored by the gods +themselves, inasmuch as without loss he visits three or four times a +year the Atlantic Sea. Me olives support, me succories and soft mallows. +O thou son of Latona, grant me to enjoy my acquisitions, and to possess +my health, together with an unimpaired understanding, I beseech thee; +and that I may not lead a dishonorable old age, nor one bereft of the +lyre. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXXII. + +TO HIS LYRE. + + +We are called upon. If ever, O lyre, in idle amusement in the shade with +thee, we have played anything that may live for this year and many, come +on, be responsive to a Latin ode, my dear lyre--first tuned by a Lesbian +citizen, who, fierce in war, yet amid arms, or if he had made fast to +the watery shore his tossed vessel, sung Bacchus, and the Muses, and +Venus, and the boy, her ever-close attendant, and Lycus, lovely for his +black eyes and jetty locks. O thou ornament of Apollo, charming shell, +agreeable even at the banquets of supreme Jove! O thou sweet alleviator +of anxious toils, be propitious to me, whenever duly invoking thee! + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXXIII. + +TO ALBIUS TIBULLUS. + + +Grieve not too much, my Albius, thoughtful of cruel Glycera; nor chant +your mournful elegies, because, as her faith being broken, a younger man +is more agreeable, than you in her eyes. A love for Cyrus inflames +Lycoris, distinguished for her little forehead: Cyrus follows the rough +Pholoe; but she-goats shall sooner be united to the Apulian wolves, than +Pholoe shall commit a crime with a base adulterer. Such is the will of +Venus, who delights in cruel sport, to subject to her brazen yokes +persons and tempers ill suited to each other. As for myself, the +slave-born Myrtale, more untractable than the Adriatic Sea that forms +the Calabrian gulfs, entangled me in a pleasing chain, at the very time +that a more eligible love courted my embraces. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXXIV. + +AGAINST THE EPICURIANS. + + +A remiss and irregular worshiper of the gods, while I professed the +errors of a senseless philosophy, I am now obliged to set sail back +again, and to renew the course that I had deserted. For Jupiter, who +usually cleaves the clouds with his gleaming lightning, lately drove +his thundering horses and rapid chariot through the clear serene; which +the sluggish earth, and wandering rivers; at which Styx, and the horrid +seat of detested Taenarus, and the utmost boundary of Atlas were shaken. +The Deity is able to make exchange between the highest and the lowest, +and diminishes the exalted, bringing to light the obscure; rapacious +fortune, with a shrill whizzing, has borne off the plume from one head, +and delights in having placed it on another. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXXV. + +TO FORTUNE. + + +O Goddess, who presidest over beautiful Antium; thou, that art ready to +exalt mortal man from the most abject state, or to convert superb +triumphs into funerals! Thee the poor countryman solicits with his +anxious vows; whosoever plows the Carpathian Sea with the Bithynian +vessel, importunes thee as mistress of the ocean. Thee the rough Dacian, +thee the wandering Scythians, and cities, and nations, and warlike +Latium also, and the mothers of barbarian kings, and tyrants clad in +purple, fear. Spurn not with destructive foot that column which now +stands firm, nor let popular tummult rouse those, who now rest quiet, to +arms--to arms--and break the empire. Necessity, thy minister, alway +marches before thee, holding in her brazen hand huge spikes and wedges, +nor is the unyielding clamp absent, nor the melted lead. Thee Hope +reverences, and rare Fidelity robed in a white garment; nor does she +refuse to bear thee company, howsoever in wrath thou change thy robe, +and abandon the houses of the powerful. But the faithless crowd [of +companions], and the perjured harlot draw back. Friends, too faithless +to bear equally the yoke of adversity, when casks are exhausted, very +dregs and all, fly off. Preserve thou Caesar, who is meditating an +expedition against the Britons, the furthest people in the world, and +also the new levy of youths to be dreaded by the Eastern regions, and +the Red Sea. Alas! I am ashamed of our scars, and our wickedness, and of +brethren. What have we, a hardened age, avoided? What have we in our +impiety left unviolated! From what have our youth restrained their +hands, out of reverence to the gods? What altars have they spared? O +mayest thou forge anew our blunted swords on a different anvil against +the Massagetae and Arabians. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXXVI. + + +This is a joyful occasion to sacrifice both with incense and music of +the lyre, and the votive blood of a heifer to the gods, the guardians of +Numida; who, now returning in safety from the extremest part of Spain, +imparts many embraces to his beloved companions, but to none more than +his dear Lamia, mindful of his childhood spent under one and the same +governor, and of the gown, which they changed at the same time. Let not +this joyful day be without a Cretan mark of distinction; let us not +spare the jar brought forth [from the cellar]; nor, Salian-like, let +there be any cessation of feet; nor let the toping Damalis conquer +Bassus in the Thracian Amystis; nor let there be roses wanting to the +banquet, nor the ever-green parsley, nor the short-lived lily. All the +company will fix their dissolving eyes on Damalis; but she, more +luxuriant than the wanton ivy, will not be separated from her new lover. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXXVII. + +TO HIS COMPANIONS. + + +Now, my companions, is the time to carouse, now to beat the ground with +a light foot: now is the time that was to deck the couch of the gods +with Salian dainties. Before this, it was impious to produce the old +Caecuban stored up by your ancestors; while the queen, with a +contaminated gang of creatures, noisome through distemper, was preparing +giddy destruction for the Capitol and the subversion of the empire, +being weak enough to hope for any thing, and intoxicated with her +prospering fortune. But scarcely a single ship preserved from the flames +bated her fury; and Caesar brought down her mind, inflamed with Egyptian +wine, to real fears, close pursuing her in her flight from Italy with +his galleys (as the hawk pursues the tender doves, or the nimble hunter +the hare in the plains of snowy Aemon), that he might throw into chains +this destructive monster [of a woman]; who, seeking a more generous +death, neither had an effeminate dread of the sword, nor repaired with +her swift ship to hidden shores. She was able also to look upon her +palace, lying in ruins, with a countenance unmoved, and courageous +enough to handle exasperated asps, that she might imbibe in her body the +deadly poison, being more resolved by having pre-meditated her death: +for she was a woman of such greatness of soul, as to scorn to be carried +off in haughty triumph, like a private person, by rough Liburnians. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXXVIII. + +TO HIS SERVANT. + + +Boy, I detest the pomp of the Persians; chaplets, which are woven with +the rind of the linden, displease me; give up the search for the place +where the latter rose abides. It is my particular desire that you make +no laborious addition to the plain myrtle; for myrtle is neither +unbecoming you a servant, nor me, while I quaff under this mantling +vine. + + + * * * * * + + + + +THE SECOND BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE. + + + +ODE I. + +TO ASINIUS POLLIO. + + +You are treating of the civil commotion, which began from the consulship +of Metelius, and the causes, and the errors, and the operations of the +war, and the game that fortune played, and the pernicious confederacy of +the chiefs, and arms stained with blood not yet expiated--a work full of +danger and hazard: and you are treading upon fires, hidden under +deceitful ashes: let therefore the muse that presides over severe +tragedy, be for a while absent from the theaters; shortly, when thou +hast completed the narrative of the public affairs, you shall resume +your great work in the tragic style of Athens, O Pollio, thou excellent +succor to sorrowing defendants and a consulting senate; [Pollio,] to +whom the laurel produced immortal honors in the Dalmatian triumph. Even +now you stun our ears with the threatening murmur of horns: now the +clarions sound; now the glitter of arms affrights the flying steeds, and +dazzles the sight of the riders. Now I seem to hear of great commanders +besmeared with, glorious dust, and the whole earth subdued, except the +stubborn soul of Cato. Juno, and every other god propitious to the +Africans, impotently went off, leaving that land unrevenged; but soon +offered the descendants of the conquerors, as sacrifices to the manes of +Jugurtha. What plain, enriched by Latin blood, bears not record, by its +numerous sepulchres, of our impious battles, and of the sound of the +downfall of Italy, heard even by the Medes? What pool, what rivers, are +unconscious of our deplorable war? What sea have not the Daunian +slaughters discolored? What shore is unstained by our blood? Do not, +however, rash muse, neglecting your jocose strains, resume the task of +Caean plaintive song, but rather with me seek measures of a lighter +style beneath some love-sequestered grotto. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE II. + +TO CRISPUS SALLUSTIUS. + + +O Crispus Sallustius, thou foe to bullion, unless it derives splendor +from a moderate enjoyment, there is no luster in money concealed in the +niggard earth. Proculeius shall live an extended age, conspicuous for +fatherly affection to brothers; surviving fame shall bear him on an +untiring wing. You may possess a more extensive dominion by controlling +a craving disposition, than if you could unite Libya to the distant +Gades, and the natives of both the Carthages were subject to you alone. +The direful dropsy increases by self-indulgence, nor extinguishes its +thirst, unless the cause of the disorder has departed from the veins, +and the watery languor from the pallid body. Virtue, differing from the +vulgar, excepts Phraates though restored to the throne of Cyrus, from +the number of the happy; and teaches the populace to disuse false names +for things, by conferring the kingdom and a safe diadem and the +perpetual laurel upon him alone, who can view large heaps of treasure +with undazzled eye. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE III. + +TO QUINTUS DELLIUS. + + +O Dellius, since thou art born to die, be mindful to preserve a temper +of mind even in times of difficulty, as well an restrained from insolent +exultation in prosperity: whether thou shalt lead a life of continual +sadness, or through happy days regale thyself with Falernian wine of the +oldest date, at case reclined in some grassy retreat, where the lofty +pine and hoary poplar delight to interweave their boughs into a +hospitable shade, and the clear current with trembling surface purls +along the meandering rivulet. Hither order [your slaves] to bring the +wine, and the perfumes, and the too short-lived flowers of the grateful +rose, while fortune, and age; and the sable threads of the three sisters +permit thee. You must depart from your numerous purchased groves; from +your house also, and that villa, which the yellow Tiber washes, you must +depart: and an heir shall possess these high-piled riches. It is of no +consequence whether you are the wealthy descendant of ancient Inachus, +or whether, poor and of the most ignoble race, you live without a +covering from the open air, since you are the victim of merciless Pluto. +We are all driven toward the same quarter: the lot of all is shaken in +the urn; destined sooner or later to come forth, and embark us in +[Charon's] boat for eternal exile. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IV. + +TO XANTHIAS PHOCEUS. + + +Let not, O Xanthias Phoceus, your passion for your maid put you out of +countenance; before your time, the slave Briseis moved the haughty +Achilles by her snowy complexion. The beauty of the captive Tecmessa +smote her master, the Telamonian Ajax; Agamemnon, in the midst of +victory, burned for a ravished virgin: when the barbarian troops fell by +the hands of their Thessalian conqueror, and Hector, vanquished, left +Troy more easily to be destroyed by the Grecians. You do not know that +perchance the beautiful Phyllis has parents of condition happy enough to +do honor to you their son-in-law. Certainly she must be of royal race, +and laments the unpropitiousness of her family gods. Be confident, that +your beloved is not of the worthless crowd; nor that one so true, so +unmercenary, could possibly be born of a mother to be ashamed of. I can +commend arms, and face, and well-made legs, quite chastely: avoid being +jealous of one, whose age is hastening onward to bring its eighth +mastrum to a close. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE V. + + +Not yet is she fit to be broken to the yoke; not yet is she equal to the +duties of a partner, nor can she support the weight of the bull +impetuously rushing to enjoyment. Your heifer's sole inclination is +about verdant fields, one while in running streams soothing the grievous +heat; at another, highly delighted to frisk with the steerlings in the +moist willow ground. Suppress your appetite for the immature grape; +shortly variegated autumn will tinge for thee the lirid clusters with a +purple hue. Shortly she shall follow you; for her impetuous time runs +on, and shall place to her account those years of which it abridges you; +shortly Lalage with a wanton assurance will seek a husband, beloved in a +higher degree than the coy Pholoe, or even Chloris; shining as brightly +with her fair shoulder, as the spotless moon upon the midnight sea, or +even the Gnidian Gyges, whom if you should intermix in a company of +girls, the undiscernible difference occasioned by his flowing locks and +doubtful countenance would wonderfully impose even on sagacious +strangers. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VI. + +TO SEPTIMUS. + + +Septimus, who art ready to go with me, even to Gades, and to the +Cantabrian, still untaught to bear our yoke, and the inhospitable +Syrtes, where the Mauritanian wave perpetually boils. O may Tibur, +founded by a Grecian colony, be the habitation of my old age! There let +there be an end to my fatigues by sea, and land, and war; whence if the +cruel fates debar me, I will seek the river of Galesus, delightful for +sheep covered with skins, and the countries reigned over by +Lacedaemonian Phalantus. That corner of the world smiles in my eye +beyond all others; where the honey yields not to the Hymettian, and the +olive rivals the verdant Venafrian: where the temperature of the air +produces a long spring and mild winters, and Aulon friendly to the +fruitful vine, envies not the Falernian grapes. That place, and those +blest heights, solicit you and me; there you shall bedew the glowing +ashes of your poet friend with a tear due [to his memory]. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VII. + +TO POMPEIUS VARUS. + + +O thou, often reduced with me to the last extremity in the war which +Brutus carried on, who has restored thee as a Roman citizen, to the gods +of thy country and the Italian air, Pompey, thou first of my companions; +with whom I have frequently broken the tedious day in drinking, having +my hair, shining with the Syrian maiobathrum, crowned [with flowers]! +Together with thee did I experience the [battle of] Phillippi and a +precipitate flight, having shamefully enough left my shield; when valor +was broken, and the most daring smote the squalid earth with their +faces. But Mercury swift conveyed me away, terrified as I was, in a +thick cloud through the midst of the enemy. Thee the reciprocating sea, +with his tempestuous waves, bore back again to war. Wherefore render to +Jupiter the offering that is due, and deposit your limbs, wearied with a +tedious war, under my laurel, and spare not the casks reserved for you. +Fill up the polished bowls with care-dispelling Massic: pour out the +perfumed ointments from the capacious shells. Who takes care to quickly +weave the chaplets of fresh parsely or myrtle? Whom shall the Venus +pronounce to be master of the revel? In wild carouse I will become +frantic as the Bacchanalians. 'Tis delightful to me to play the madman, +on the reception of my friends. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VIII. + +TO BARINE. + + +If any punishment, Barine, for your violated oath had ever been of +prejudice to you: if you had become less agreeable by the blackness of a +single tooth or nail, I might believe you. But you no sooner have bound +your perfidious head with vows, but you shine out more charming by far, +and come forth the public care of our youth. It is of advantage to you +to deceive the buried ashes of your mother, and the silent +constellations of the night, together with all heaven, and the gods free +from chill death. Venus herself, I profess, laughs at this; the +good-natured nymphs laugh, and cruel Cupid, who is perpetually +sharpening his burning darts on a bloody whetstone. Add to this, that +all our boys are growing up for you; a new herd of slaves is growing up; +nor do the former ones quit the house of their impious mistress, +notwithstanding they often have threatened it. The matrons are in dread +of you on account of their young ones; the thrifty old men are in dread +of you; and the girls but just married are in distress, lest your beauty +should slacken [the affections of] their husbands. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IX. + +TO TITUS VALGIUS. + + +Showers do not perpetually pour down upon the rough fields, nor do +varying hurricanes forever harass the Caspian Sea; nor, my friend +Valgius, does the motionless ice remain fixed throughout all the months, +in the regions of Armenia; nor do the Garganian oaks [always] labor +under the northerly winds, nor are the ash-trees widowed of their +leaves. But thou art continually pursuing Mystes, who is taken from +thee, with mournful measures: nor do the effects of thy love for him +cease at the rising of Vesper, or when he flies the rapid approach of +the sun. But the aged man who lived three generations, did not lament +the amiable Antilochus all the years of his life: nor did his parents or +his Trojan sisters perpetually bewail the blooming Troilus. At length +then desist from thy tender complaints; and rather let us sing the fresh +trophies of Augustus Caesar, and the Frozen Niphates, and the river +Medus, added to the vanquished nations, rolls more humble tides, and the +Gelonians riding within a prescribed boundary in a narrow tract of land. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE X. + +TO LICINIUS MURENA. + + +O Licinius, you will lead a more correct course of life, by neither +always pursuing the main ocean, nor, while you cautiously are in dread +of storms, by pressing too much upon the hazardous shore. Whosoever +loves the golden mean, is secure from the sordidness of an antiquated +cell, and is too prudent to have a palace that might expose him to +envy, if the lofty pine is more frequently agitated with winds, and high +towers fall down with a heavier ruin, and lightnings strike the summits +of the mountains. A well-provided breast hopes in adversity, and fears +in prosperity. 'Tis the same Jupiter, that brings the hideous winters +back, and that takes them away. If it is ill with us now, it will not be +so hereafter. Apollo sometimes rouses the silent lyric muse, neither +does he always bend his bow. In narrow circumstances appear in high +spirits, and undaunted. In the same manner you will prudently contract +your sails, which are apt to be too much swollen in a prosperous gale. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XI. + +TO QUINTIUS HIRPINUS. + + +O Quintius Hirpinus, forbear to be inquisitive what the Cantabrian, and +the Scythian, divided from us by the interposed Adriatic, is meditating; +neither be fearfully solicitous for the necessaries of a life, which +requires but a few things. Youth and beauty fly swift away, while +sapless old age expels the wanton loves and gentle sleep. The same glory +does not always remain to the vernal flowers, nor does the ruddy moon +shine with one continued aspect; why, therefore, do you fatigue you +mind, unequal to eternal projects? Why do we not rather (while it is in +our power) thus carelessly reclining under a lofty plane-tree, or this +pine, with our hoary locks made fragrant by roses, and anointed with +Syrian perfume, indulge ourselves with generous wine? Bacchus dissipates +preying cares. What slave is here, instantly to cool some cups of ardent +Falernian in the passing stream? Who will tempt the vagrant wanton Lyde +from her house? See that you bid her hasten with her ivory lyre, +collecting her hair into a graceful knot, after the fashion of a Spartan +maid. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XII. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +Do not insist that the long wars of fierce Numantia, or the formidable +Annibal, or the Sicilian Sea impurpled with Carthaginian blood, should +be adapted to the tender lays of the lyre: nor the cruel Lapithae, nor +Hylaeus excessive in wine and the earth born youths, subdued by +Herculean force, from whom the splendid habitation of old Saturn dreaded +danger. And you yourself, Maecenas, with more propriety shall recount +the battles of Caesar, and the necks of haughty kings led in triumph +through the streets in historical prose. It was the muse's will that I +should celebrate the sweet strains of my mistress Lycimnia, that I +should celebrate her bright darting eyes, and her breast laudably +faithful to mutual love: who can with a grace introduce her foot into +the dance, or, sporting, contend in raillery, or join arms with the +bright virgins on the celebrated Diana's festival. Would you, +[Maecenas,] change one of Lycimnia's tresses for all the rich Achaemenes +possessed, or the Mygdonian wealth of fertile Phrygia, or all the +dwellings of the Arabians replete with treasures? Especially when she +turns her neck to meet your burning kisses, or with a gentle cruelty +denies, what she would more delight to have ravished than the +petitioner--or sometimes eagerly anticipates to snatch them her self. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIII. + +TO A TREE. + + +O tree, he planted thee on an unlucky day whoever did it first, and with +an impious hand raised thee for the destruction of posterity, and the +scandal of the village. I could believe that he had broken his own +father's neck, and stained his most secret apartments with the midnight +blood of his guest. He was wont to handle Colchian poisons, and whatever +wickedness is anywhere conceived, who planted in my field thee, a sorry +log; thee, ready to fall on the head of thy inoffensive master. What we +ought to be aware of, no man is sufficiently cautious at all hours. The +Carthaginian sailor thoroughly dreads the Bosphorus; nor, beyond that, +does he fear a hidden fate from any other quarter. The soldier dreads +the arrows and the fleet retreat of the Parthian; the Parthian, chains +and an Italian prison; but the unexpected assault of death has carried +off, and will carry off, the world in general. How near was I seeing the +dominions of black Proserpine, and Aeacus sitting in judgment; the +separate abodes also of the pious, and Sappho complaining in her Aeohan +lyre of her own country damsels; and thee, O Alcaeus, sounding in fuller +strains on thy golden harp the distresses of exile, and the distresses +of war. The ghosts admire them both, while they utter strains worthy of +a sacred silence; but the crowded multitude, pressing with their +shoulders, imbibes, with a more greedy ear, battles and banished +tyrants. What wonder? Since the many headed monster, astonished at those +lays, hangs down his sable ears; and the snakes, entwined in the hair of +the furies, are soothed. Moreover, Prometheus and the sire of Pelops are +deluded into an insensibility of their torments, by the melodious sound: +nor is Orion any longer solicitous to harass the lions, or the fearful +lynxes. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIV. + +TO POSTUMUS. + + +Alas! my Postumus, my Postumus, the fleeting years gilde on; nor will +piety cause any delay to wrinkles, and advancing old age, and +insuperable death. You could not, if you were to sacrifice every passing +day three hundred bulls, render propitious pitiless Pluto, who confines +the thrice-monstrous Geryon and Tityus with the dismal Stygian stream, +namely, that stream which is to be passed over by all who are fed by the +bounty of the earth, whether we be kings or poor ninds. In vain shall we +be free from sanguinary Mars, and the broken billows of the hoarse +Adriatic; in vain shall we be apprehensive for ourselves of the noxious +South, in the time of autumn. The black Cocytus wandering with languid +current, and the infamous race of Danaus, and Sisyphus, the son of the +Aeolus, doomed to eternal toil, must be visited; your land and house and +pleasing wife must be left, nor shall any of those trees, which you are +nursing, follow you, their master for a brief space, except the hated +cypresses; a worthier heir shall consume your Caecuban wines now guarded +with a hundred keys, and shall wet the pavement with the haughty wine, +more exquisite than what graces pontifical entertainment. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XV. + +AGAINST THE LUXURY OF THE ROMANS. + + +The palace-like edifices will in a short time leave but a few acres for +the plough; ponds of wider extent than the Lucrine lake will be every +where to be seen; and the barren plane-tree will supplant the elms. Then +banks of violets, and myrtle groves, and all the tribe of nosegays shall +diffuse their odors in the olive plantations, which were fruitful to +their preceding master. Then the laurel with dense boughs shall exclude +the burning beams. It was not so prescribed by the institutes of +Romulus, and the unshaven Cato, and ancient custom. Their private income +was contracted, while that of the community was great. No private men +were then possessed of galleries measured by ten-feet rules, which +collected the shady northern breezes; nor did the laws permit them to +reject the casual turf [for their own huts], though at the same time +they obliged them to ornament in the most sumptuous manner, with new +stone, the buildings of the public, and the temples of the gods, at a +common expense. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVI. + +TO GROSPHUS. + + +O Grosphus, he that is caught in the wide Aegean Sea; when a black +tempest has obscured the moon, and not a star appears with steady light +for the mariners, supplicates the gods for repose: for repose, Thrace +furious in war; the quiver-graced Medes, for repose neither purchasable +by jewels, nor by purple, nor by gold. For neither regal treasures nor +the consul's officer can remove the wretched tumults of the mind, nor +the cares that hover about splendid ceilings. That man lives happily on +a little, who can view with pleasure the old-fashioned family +salt-cellar on his frugal board; neither anxiety nor sordid avarice robs +him of gentle sleep. Why do we, brave for a short season, aim at many +things? Why do we change our own for climates heated by another sun? +Whoever, by becoming an exile from his country, escaped likewise from +himself? Consuming care boards even brazen-beaked ships: nor does it +quit the troops of horsemen, for it is more fleet than the stags, more +fleet than the storm-driving east wind. A mind that is cheerful in its +present state, will disdain to be solicitous any further, and can +correct the bitters of life with a placid smile. Nothing is on all hands +completely blessed. A premature death carried off the celebrated +Achilles; a protracted old age wore down Tithonus; and time perhaps may +extend to me, what it shall deny to you. Around you a hundred flocks +bleat, and Sicilian heifers low; for your use the mare, fit for the +harness, neighs; wool doubly dipped in the African purple-dye, clothes +you: on me undeceitful fate has bestowed a small country estate, and the +slight inspiration of the Grecian muse, and a contempt for the malignity +of the vulgar. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVII. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +Why dost thoti kill me with thy complaints? 'Tis neither agreeable to +the gods, nor to me, that thou shouldest depart first, O Maecenas, thou +grand ornament and pillar of my affairs. Alas! if an untimely blow hurry +away thee, a part of my soul, why do I the other moiety remain, my value +lost, nor any longer whole? That [fatal] day shall bring destruction +upon us both. I have by no means taken a false oath: we will go, we will +go, whenever thou shalt lead the way, prepared to be fellow-travelers in +the last journey. Me nor the breath of the fiery Chimaera, nor +hundred-handed Gyges, were he to rise again, shall ever tear from thee: +such is the will of powerful Justice, and of the Fates. Whether Libra or +malignant Scorpio had the ascendant at my natal hour, or Capricon the +ruler of the western wave, our horoscopes agree in a wonderful manner. +Thee the benign protection of Jupiter, shining with friendly aspect, +rescued from the baleful influence of impious Saturn, and retarded the +wings of precipitate destiny, at the time the crowded people with +resounding applauses thrice hailed you in the theatre: me the trunk of a +tree, falling upon my skull, would have dispatched, had not Faunus, the +protector of men of genius, with his right hand warded off the blow. Be +thou mindful to pay the victims and the votive temple; I will sacrifice +an humble lamb. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVIII. + +AGAINST AVARICE AND LUXURY. + + +Nor ivory, nor a fretted ceiling adorned with gold, glitters in my +house: no Hymettian beams rest upon pillars cut out of the extreme parts +of Africa; nor, a pretended heir, have I possessed myself of the palace +of Attalus, nor do ladies, my dependants, spin Laconian purple for my +use. But integrity, and a liberal vein of genius, are mine: and the man +of fortune makes his court to me, who am but poor. I importune the gods +no further, nor do I require of my friend in power any larger +enjoyments, sufficiently happy with my Sabine farm alone. Day is driven +on by day, and the new moons hasten to their wane. You put out marble to +be hewn, though with one foot in the grave; and, unmindful of a +sepulcher, are building houses; and are busy to extend the shore of the +sea, that beats with violence at Baiae, not rich enough with the shore +of the mainland. Why is it, that through avarice you even pluck up the +landmarks of your neighbor's ground, and trespass beyond the bounds of +your clients; and wife and husband are turned out, bearing in their +bosom their household gods and their destitute children? Nevertheless, +no court more certainly awaits its wealthy lord, than the destined limit +of rapacious Pluto. Why do you go on? The impartial earth is opened +equally to the poor and to the sons of kings; nor has the life-guard +ferryman of hell, bribed with gold, re-conducted the artful Prometheus. +He confines proud Tantalus; and the race of Tantalus, he condescends, +whether invoked or not, to relieve the poor freed from their labors. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIX. + +ON BACCHUS. + +A DITHYRAMBIC, OR DRINKING SONG. + + +I saw Bacchus (believe it, posterity) dictating strains among the remote +rocks, and the nymphs learning them, and the ears of the goat-footed +satyrs all attentive. Evoe! my mind trembles with recent dread, and my +soul, replete with Bacchus, has a tumultuous joy, Evoe! spare me, +Bacchus; spare me, thou who art formidable for thy dreadful thyrsus. It +is granted me to sing the wanton Bacchanalian priestess, and the +fountain of wine, and rivulets flowing with milk, and to tell again of +the honeys distilling from the hollow trunks. It is granted me likewise +to celebrate the honor added to the constellations by your happy spouse, +and the palace of Pentheus demolished with no light ruin, and the +perdition of Thracian. Lycurgus. You command the rivers, you the +barbarian sea. You, moist with wine, on lonely mountain-tops bind the +hair of your Thracian priestesses with a knot of vipers without hurt. +You, when the impious band of giants scaled the realms of father Jupiter +through the sky, repelled Rhoetus, with the paws and horrible jaw of the +lion-shape [you had assumed]. Thou, reported to be better fitted for +dances, and jokes and play, you were accounted insufficient for fight; +yet it then appeared, you, the same deity, was the mediator of peace and +war. Upon you, ornamented with your golden horn, Orberus innocently +gazed, gently wagging his tail; and with his triple tongue licked your +feet and legs, as you returned. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XX. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +I, a two-formed poet, will be conveyed through the liquid air with no +vulgar or humble wing; nor will I loiter upon earth any longer; and +superior to envy, I will quit cities. Not I, even I, the blood of low +parents, my dear Maecenas, shall die; nor shall I be restrained by the +Stygian wave. At this instant a rough skin settles upon my ankles, and +all upwards I am transformed into a white bird, and the downy plumage +arises over my fingers and shoulders. Now, a melodious bird, more +expeditious than the Daepalean Icarus, I will visit the shores of the +murmuring Bosphorus, and the Gzetulean Syrtes, and the Hyperborean +plains. Me the Colchian and the Dacian, who hides his fear of the +Marsian cohort, land the remotest Gelonians, shall know: me the learned +Spaniard shall study, and he that drinks of the Rhone. Let there be no +dirges, nor unmanly lamentations, nor bewailings at my imaginary +funeral; suppress your crying, and forbear the superfluous honors of a +sepulcher. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE THIRD BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE. + + + +ODE I. + +ON CONTENTMENT. + + +I abominate the uninitiated vulgar, and keep them at a distance. +Preserve a religious silence: I, the priest of the Muses, sing to +virgins and boys verses not heard before. The dominion of dread +sovereigns is over their own subjects; that of Jupiter, glorious for his +conquest over the giants, who shakes all nature with his nod, is over +sovereigns themselves. It happens that one man, arranges trees, in +regular rows, to a greater extent than another; this man comes down into +the Campus [Martius] as a candidate of a better family; another vies +with him for morals and a better reputation; a third has a superior +number of dependants; but Fate, by the impartial law of nature, is +allotted both to the conspicuous and the obscure; the capacious urn +keeps every name in motion. Sicilian dainties will not force a delicious +relish to that man, over whose impious neck the naked sword hangs: the +songs of birds and the lyre will not restore his sleep. Sleep disdains +not the humble cottages and shady bank of peasants; he disdains not +Tempe, fanned by zephyrs. Him, who desires but a competency, neither the +tempestuous sea renders anxious, nor the malign violence of Arcturus +setting, or of the rising Kid; not his vineyards beaten down with hail, +and a deceitful farm; his plantations at one season blaming the rains, +at another, the influence of the constellations parching the grounds, at +another, the severe winters. The fishes perceive the seas contracted, by +the vast foundations that have been laid in the deep: hither numerous +undertakers with their men, and lords, disdainful of the land, send down +mortar: but anxiety and the threats of conscience ascend by the same way +as the possessor; nor does gloomy care depart from the brazen-beaked +galley, and she mounts behind the horseman. Since then nor Phrygian +marble, nor the use of purple more dazzling than the sun, nor the +Falernian vine, nor the Persian nard, composes a troubled mind, why +should I set about a lofty edifice with columns that excite envy, and in +the modern taste? Why should I exchange my Sabine vale for wealth, which +is attended with more trouble? + + * * * * * + + + +ODE II. + +AGAINST THE DEGENERACY OF THE ROMAN YOUTH. + + +Let the robust youth learn patiently to endure pinching want in the +active exercise of arms; and as an expert horseman, dreadful for his +spear, let him harass the fierce Parthians; and let him lead a life +exposed to the open air, and familiar with dangers. Him, the consort and +marriageable virgin-daughter of some warring tyrant, viewing from the +hostile walls, may sigh--- Alas! let not the affianced prince, +inexperienced as he is in arms, provoke by a touch this terrible lion, +whom bloody rage hurries through the midst of slaughter. It is sweet and +glorious to die for one's country; death even pursues the man that flies +from him; nor does he spare the trembling knees of effeminate youth, nor +the coward back. Virtue, unknowing of base repulse, shines with +immaculate honors; nor does she assume nor lay aside the ensigns of her +dignity, at the veering of the popular air. Virtue, throwing open heaven +to those who deserve not to die, directs her progress through paths of +difficulty, and spurns with a rapid wing grovelling cowards and the +slippery earth. There is likewise a sure reward for faithful silence. I +will prohibit that man, who shall divulge the sacred rites of mysterious +Ceres, from being under the same roof with me, or from setting sail with +me in the same fragile bark: for Jupiter, when slighted, often joins a +good man in the same fate with a bad one. Seldom hath punishment, though +lame, of foot, failed to overtake the wicked. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE III. + +ON STEADINESS AND INTEGRITY. + + +Not the rage of the people pressing to hurtful measures, not the aspect +of a threatening tyrant can shake from his settled purpose the man who +is just and determined in his resolution; nor can the south wind, that +tumultuous ruler of the restless Adriatic, nor the mighty hand of +thundering Jove; if a crushed world should fall in upon him, the ruins +would strike him undismayed. By this character Pollux, by this the +wandering Hercules, arrived at the starry citadels; among whom Augustus +has now taken his place, and quaffs nectar with empurpled lips. Thee, O +Father Bacchus, meritorious for this virtue, thy tigers carried, drawing +the yoke with intractable neck; by this Romulus escaped Acheron on the +horses of Mars--Juno having spoken what the gods in full conclave +approve: "Troy, Troy, a fatal and lewd judge, and a foreign woman, have +reduced to ashes, condemned, with its inhabitants and fraudulent prince, +to me and the chaste Minerva, ever since Laomedon disappointed the gods +of the stipulated reward. Now neither the infamous guest of the +Lacedaemonian adulteress shines; nor does Priam's perjured family repel +the warlike Grecians by the aid of Hector, and that war, spun out to +such a length by our factions, has sunk to peace. Henceforth, therefore, +I will give up to Mars both my bitter resentment, and the detested +grandson, whom the Trojan princes bore. Him will I suffer to enter the +bright regions, to drink the juice of nectar, and to be enrolled among +the peaceful order of gods. As long as the extensive sea rages between +Troy and Rome, let them, exiles, reign happy in any other part of the +world: as long as cattle trample upon the tomb of Priam and Paris, and +wild beasts conceal their young ones there with impunity, may the +Capitol remain in splendor, and may brave Rome be able to give laws to +the conquered Medes. Tremendous let her extend her name abroad to the +extremest boundaries of the earth, where the middle ocean separates +Europe from Africa, where the swollen Nile waters the plains; more brave +in despising gold as yet undiscovered, and so best situated while hidden +in the earth, than in forcing it out for the uses of mankind, with a +hand ready to make depredations on everything that is sacred. Whatever +end of the world has made resistance, that let her reach with her arms, +joyfully alert to visit, even that part where fiery heats rage madding; +that where clouds and rains storm with unmoderated fury. But I pronounce +this fate to the warlike Romans, upon this condition; that neither +through an excess of piety, nor of confidence in their power, they +become inclined to rebuild the houses of their ancestors' Troy. The +fortune of Troy, reviving under unlucky auspices, shall be repeated with +lamentable destruction, I, the wife and sister of Jupiter, leading on +the victorious bands. Thrice, if a brazen wall should arise by means of +its founder Phoebus, thrice should it fall, demolished by my Grecians; +thrice should the captive wife bewail her husband and her children." +These themes ill suit the merry lyre. Whither, muse, are you +going?--Cease, impertinent, to relate the language of the gods, and to +debase great things by your trifling measures. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IV. + +TO CALLIOPE. + + +Descend from heaven, queen Calliope, and come sing with your pipe a +lengthened strain; or, if you had now rather, with your clear voice, or +on the harp or lute of Phoebus. Do ye hear? or does a pleasing frenzy +delude me? I seem to hear [her], and to wander [with her] along the +hallowed groves, through which pleasant rivulets and gales make their +way. Me, when a child, and fatigued with play, in sleep the woodland +doves, famous in story, covered with green leaves in the Apulian Vultur, +just without the limits of my native Apulia; so that it was matter of +wonder to all that inhabit the nest of lofty Acherontia, the Bantine +Forests, and the rich soil of low Ferentum, how I could sleep with my +body safe from deadly vipers and ravenous bears; how I could be covered +with sacred laurel and myrtle heaped together, though a child, not +animated without the [inspiration of the] gods. Yours, O ye muses, I am +yours, whether I am elevated to the Sabine heights; or whether the cool +Praeneste, or the sloping Tibur, or the watery Baiae have delighted me. +Me, who am attached to your fountains and dances, not the army put to +flight at Philippi, not the execrable tree, nor a Palinurus in the +Sicilian Sea has destroyed. While you shall be with me with pleasure +will I, a sailor, dare the raging Bosphorus; or, a traveler, the burning +sands of the Assyrian shore: I will visit the Britons inhuman to +strangers, and the Concanian delighted [with drinking] the blood of +horses; I will visit the quivered Geloni, and the Scythian river without +hurt. You entertained lofty Caesar, seeking to put an end to his toils, +in the Pierian grotto, as soon as he had distributed in towns his +troops, wearied by campaigning: you administer [to him] moderate +counsel, and graciously rejoice at it when administered. We are aware +how he, who rules the inactive earth and the stormy main, the cities +also, and the dreary realms [of hell], and alone governs with a +righteous sway both gods and the human multitude, how he took off the +impious Titans and the gigantic troop by his falling thunderbolts. That +horrid youth, trusting to the strength of their arms, and the brethren +proceeding to place Pelion upon shady Olympus, had brought great dread +[even] upon Jove. But what could Typhoeus, and the strong Mimas, or what +Porphyrion with his menacing statue; what Rhoetus, and Enceladus, a +fierce darter with trees uptorn, avail, though rushing violently against +the sounding shield of Pallas? At one part stood the eager Vulcan, at +another the matron Juno, and he, who is never desirous to lay aside his +bow from his shoulders, Apollo, the god of Delos and Patara, who bathes +his flowing hair in the pure dew of Castalia, and possesses the groves +of Lycia and his native wood. Force, void of conduct, falls by its own +weight; moreover, the gods promote discreet force to further advantage; +but the same beings detest forces, that meditate every kind of impiety. +The hundred-handed Gyges is an evidence of the sentiments I allege: and +Orion, the tempter of the spotless Diana, destroyed by a virgin dart. +The earth, heaped over her own monsters, grieves and laments her +offspring, sent to murky Hades by a thunderbolt; nor does the active +fire consume Aetna that is placed over it, nor does the vulture desert +the liver of incontinent Tityus, being stationed there as an avenger of +his baseness; and three hundred chains confine the amorous Pirithous. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE V. + +ON THE RECOVERY OF THE STANDARDS FROM PHRAATES. + + +We believe from his thundering that Jupiter has dominion in the heavens: +Augustus shall be esteemed a present deity the Britons and terrible +Parthians being added to the empire. What! has any soldier of Crassus +lived, a degraded husband with a barbarian wife? And has (O [corrupted] +senate, and degenerate morals!) the Marsian and Apulian, unmindful of +the sacred bucklers, of the [Roman] name and gown, and of eternal Vesta, +grown old in the lands of hostile fathers-in-law, Jupiter and the city +being in safety? The prudent mind of Regulus had provided against this, +dissenting from ignominious terms, and inferring from such a precedent +destruction to the succeeding age, if the captive youth were not to +perish unpitied. I have beheld, said he, the Roman standards affixed to +the Carthaginian temples, and their arms taken away from our soldiers +without bloodshed. I have beheld the arms of our citizens bound behind +their free-born backs, and the gates [of the enemy] unshut, and the +fields, which were depopulated by our battles, cultivated anew. The +soldier, to be sure, ransomed by gold, will return a braver +fellow!--No--you add loss to infamy; [for] neither does the wool once +stained by the dye of the sea-weed ever resume its lost color; nor does +genuine valor, when once it has failed, care to resume its place in +those who have degenerated through cowardice. If the hind, disentangled +from the thickset toils, ever fights, then indeed shall he be valorous, +who has intrusted himself to faithless foes; and he shall trample upon +the Carthaginians in a second war, who dastardly has felt the thongs +with his arms tied behind him, and has been afraid of death. He, knowing +no other way to preserve his life, has confounded peace with war. O +scandal! O mighty Carthage, elevated to a higher pitch by Italy's +disgraceful downfall! He _(Regulus)_ is reported to have rejected the +embrace of his virtuous wife and his little sons like one degraded; and +to have sternly fixed his manly countenance on the ground, until, as an +adviser, by his counsel he confirmed the wavering senators, and amid his +weeping friends hastened away, a glorious exile. Notwithstanding he knew +what the barbarian executioner was providing for him, yet he pushed from +his opposing kindred and the populace retarding his return, in no other +manner, than if (after he had quitted the tedious business of his +clients, by determining their suit) he was only going to the Venafrian +plains, or the Lacedaemonian Tarentum. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VI. + +TO THE ROMANS. + + +Thou shalt atone, O Roman, for the sins of your ancestors, though +innocent, till you shall have repaired the temples and tottering shrines +of the gods, and their statues, defiled with sooty smoke. Thou boldest +sway, because thou bearest thyself subordinate to the gods; to this +source refer every undertaking; to this, every event. The gods, because +neglected, have inflicted many evils on calamitous Italy. Already has +Monaeses, and the band of Pacorus, twice repelled our inauspicious +attacks, and exults in having added the Roman spoils to their trivial +collars. The Dacian and Ethiopian have almost demolished the city +engaged in civil broils, the one formidable for his fleet, the other +more expert for missile arrows. The times, fertile in wickedness, have +in the first place polluted the marriage state, and [thence] the issue +and families. From this fountain perdition being derived, has +overwhelmed the nation and people. The marriageable virgin delights to +be taught the Ionic dances, and even at this time is trained up in +[seductive] arts, and cherishes unchaste desires from her very infancy. +Soon after she courts younger debauchees when her husband is in his +cups, nor has she any choice, to whom she shall privately grant her +forbidden pleasures when the lights are removed, but at the word of +command, openly, not without the knowledge of her husband, she will come +forth, whether it be a factor that calls for her, or the captain of a +Spanish ship, the extravagant purchaser of her disgrace. It was not a +youth born from parents like these, that stained the sea with +Carthaginian gore, and slew Pyrrhus, and mighty Antiochus, and terrific +Annibal; but a manly progeny of rustic soldiers, instructed to turn the +glebe with Sabine spades, and to carry clubs cut [out of the woods] at +the pleasure of a rigid mother, what time the sun shifted the shadows of +the mountains, and took the yokes from the wearied oxen, bringing on the +pleasant hour with his retreating chariot. What does not wasting time +destroy? The age of our fathers, worse than our grandsires, produced us +still more flagitious, us, who are about to product am offspring more +vicious [even than ourselves]. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VII. + +TO ASTERIE. + + +Why, O Asterie, do you weep for Gyges, a youth of inviolable constancy, +whom the kindly zephyrs will restore to you in the beginning of the +Spring, enriched with a Bithynian cargo? Driven as far as Oricum by the +southern winds, after [the rising] of the Goat's tempestuous +constellation, he sleepless passes the cold nights in abundant weeping +[for you]; but the agent of his anxious landlady slyly tempts him by a +thousand methods, informing him that [his mistress], Chloe, is sighing +for him, and burns with the same love that thou hast for him. He +remonstrates with him how a perfidious woman urged the credulous +Proetus, by false accusations, to hasten the death of the over-chaste +Bellerophon. He tells how Peleus was like to have been given up to the +infernal regions, while out of temperance he avoided the Magnesian +Hippolyte: and the deceiver quotes histories to him, that are lessons +for sinning. In vain; for, heart-whole as yet, he receives his words +deafer than the Icarian rocks. But with regard to you, have a care lest +your neighbor Enipeus prove too pleasing. Though no other person equally +skillful to guide the steed, is conspicuous in the course, nor does any +one with equal swiftness swim down the Etrurian stream, yet secure your +house at the very approach of night, nor look down into the streets at +the sound of the doleful pipe; and remain inflexible toward him, though +he often upbraid thee with cruelty. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VIII. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +O Maecenas, learned in both languages, you wonder what I, a single man, +have to do on the calends of March; what these flowers mean, and the +censer replete with frankincense, and the coals laid upon the live turf. +I made a vow of a joyous banquet, and a white goat to Bacchus, after +having been at the point of death by a blow from a tree. This day, +sacred in the revolving year, shall remove the cork fastened with pitch +from that jar, which was set to inhale the smoke in the consulship of +Tullus. Take, my Maecenas, a hundred cups on account of the safety of +your friend, and continue the wakeful lamps even to day-light: all +clamor and passion be far away. Postpone your political cares with +regard to the state: the army of the Dacian Cotison is defeated; the +troublesome Mede is quarreling with himself in a horrible [civil] war: +the Cantabrian, our old enemy on the Spanish coast, is subject to us, +though conquered by a long-disputed victory: now, too, the Scythians are +preparing to quit the field with their imbent bows. Neglectful, as a +private person, forbear to be too solicitous lest the community in any +wise suffer, and joyfully seize the boons of the present hour, and quit +serious affairs. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IX. + +TO LYDIA. + + +HORACE. As long as I was agreeable to thee, and no other youth more +favored was wont to fold his arms around thy snowy neck, I lived happier +than the Persian monarch. + +LYDIA. As long as thou hadst not a greater flame for any other, nor was +Lydia below Chloe [in thine affections], I Lydia, of distinguished fame, +flourished more eminent than the Roman Ilia. + +HOR. The Thracian Chloe now commands me, skillful in sweet modulations, +and a mistress of the lyre; for whom I would not dread to die, if the +fates would spare her, my surviving soul. + +LYD. Calais, the son of the Thurian Ornitus, inflames me with a mutual +fire; for whom I would twice endure to die, if the fates would spare my +surviving youth. + +HOR. What! if our former love returns, and unites by a brazen yoke us +once parted? What if Chloe with her golden locks be shaken off, and the +door again open to slighted Lydia. + +LYD. Though he is fairer than a star, thou of more levity than a cork, +and more passionate than the blustering Adriatic; with thee I should +love to live, with thee I would cheerfully die. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE X. + +TO LYCE. + + +O Lyce, had you drunk from the remote Tanais, in a state of marriage +with tome barbarian, yet you might be sorry to expose me, prostrate +before your obdurate doors, to the north winds that have made those +places their abode. Do you hear with what a noise your gate, with what +[a noise] the grove, planted about your elegant buildings, rebellows to +the winds? And how Jupiter glazes the settled snow with his bright +influence? Lay aside disdain, offensive to Venus, lest your rope should +run backward, while the wheel is revolving. Your Tyrrhenian father did +not beget you to be as inaccessible as Penelope to your wooers. O though +neither presents, nor prayers, nor the violet-tinctured paleness of your +lovers, nor your husband smitten with a musical courtezan, bend you to +pity; yet [at length] spare your suppliants, you that are not softer +than the sturdy oak, nor of a gentler disposition than the African +serpents. This side [of mine] will not always be able to endure your +threshold, and the rain. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XI. + +TO MERCURY. + + +O Mercury, for under thy instruction the ingenious Amphion moved rocks +by his voice, you being his tutor; and though my harp, skilled in +sounding, with seven strings, formerly neither vocal nor pleasing, but +now agreeable both to the tables of the wealthy and the temples [of the +gods]; dictate measures to which Lyde may incline her obstinate ears, +who, like a filly of three years old, plays and frisks about in the +spacious fields, inexperienced in nuptial loves, and hitherto unripe for +a brisk husband. You are able to draw after your tigers and attendant +woods, and to retard rapid rivers. To your blandishments the enormous +porter of the [infernal] palace yielded, though a hundred serpents +fortify his head, and a pestilential steam and an infectious poison +issue from his triple-tongued mouth. Moreover, Ixion and Tityus smiled +with a reluctant aspect: while you soothe the daughters of Danaus with +your delightful harmony, their vessel for some time remained dry. Let +Lyde hear of the crime, and the well-known punishment of the virgins, +and the cask emptied by the water streaming through the bottom, and what +lasting fates await their misdeeds even beyond the grave. Impious! (for +what greater impiety could they have committed?) Impious! who could +destroy their bridegrooms with the cruel sword! One out of the many, +worthy of the nuptial torch, was nobly false to her perjured parent, and +a maiden illustrious to all posterity; she, who said to her youthful +husband, "Arise! arise! lest an eternal sleep be given to you from a +hand you have no suspicion of; disappoint your father-in-law and my +wicked sisters, who, like lionesses having possessed themselves of +calves (alas)! tear each of them to pieces; I, of softer mold than they, +will neither strike thee, nor detain thee in my custody. Let my father +load me with cruel chains, because out of mercy I spared my unhappy +spouse; let him transport me even to the extreme Numidian plains. +Depart, whither your feet and the winds carry you, while the night and +Venus are favorable: depart with happy omen; yet, not forgetful of me, +engrave my mournful story on my tomb." + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XII. + +TO NEOBULE. + + +It is for unhappy maidens neither to give indulgence to love, nor to +wash away cares with delicious wine; or to be dispirited out of dread of +the lashes of an uncle's tongue. The winged boy of Venus, O Neobule, has +deprived you of your spindle and your webs, and the beauty of Hebrus +from Lipara of inclination for the labors of industrious Minerva, after +he has bathed his anointed shoulders in the waters of the Tiber; a +better horseman than Bellerophon himself, neither conquered at boxing, +nor by want of swiftness in the race: he is also skilled to strike with +his javelin the stags, flying through the open plains in frightened +herd, and active to surprise the wild boar lurking in the deep thicket. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIII. TO THE BANDUSIAN FOUNTAIN. + + +O thou fountain of Bandusia, clearer than glass, worthy of delicious +wine, not unadorned by flowers; to-morrow thou shalt be presented with a +kid, whose forehead, pouting with new horns, determines upon both love +and war in vain; for this offspring of the wanton flock shall tinge thy +cooling streams with scarlet blood. The severe season of the burning +dog-star cannot reach thee; thou affordest a refreshing coolness to the +oxen fatigued with the plough-share, and to the ranging flock. Thou also +shalt become one of the famous fountains, through my celebrating the oak +that covers the hollow rock, whence thy prattling rills descend with a +bound. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIV. + +TO THE ROMANS. + + +Augustus Caesar, O ye people, who was lately said, like another +Hercules, to have sought for the laurel to be purchased only by death, +revisits his domestic gods, victorious from the Spanish shore. Let the +matron (_Livia_), to whom her husband alone is dear, come forth in +public procession, having first performed her duty to the just gods; and +(_Octavia_), the sister of our glorious general; the mothers also of the +maidens and of the youths just preserved from danger, becomingly adorned +with supplicatory fillets. Ye, O young men, and young women lately +married, abstain from ill-omened words. This day, to me a real festival, +shall expel gloomy cares: I will neither dread commotions, nor violent +death, while Caesar is in possession of the earth. Go, slave, and seek +for perfume and chaplets, and a cask that remembers the Marsian war, if +any vessel could elude the vagabond Spartacus. And bid the tuneful +Neaera make haste to collect into a knot her auburn hair; _but_ if any +delay should happen from the surly porter, come away. Hoary hair +mollifies minds that are fond of strife and petulant wrangling. I would +not have endured this treatment, warm with youth in the consulship of +Plancus. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XV. + +TO CHLORIS. + + +You wife of the indigent Ibycus, at length put an end to your +wickedness, and your infamous practices. Cease to sport among the +damsels, and to diffuse a cloud among bright constellations, now on the +verge of a timely death. If any thing will become Pholoe, it does not +you Chloris, likewise. Your daughter with more propriety attacks the +young men's apartments, like a Bacchanalian roused up by the rattling +timbrel. The love of Nothus makes her frisk about like a wanton +she-goat. The wool shorn near the famous Luceria becomes you now +antiquated: not musical instruments, or the damask flower of the rose, +or hogsheads drunk down to the lees. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVI. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +A brazen tower, and doors of oak, and the melancholy watch of wakeful +dogs, had sufficiently defended the imprisoned Danae from midnight +gallants, had not Jupiter and Venus laughed at Acrisius, the anxious +keeper of the immured maiden: [for they well knew] that the way would be +safe and open, after the god had transformed himself into a bribe. Gold +delights to penetrate through the midst of guards, and to break through +stone-walls, more potent than the thunderbolt. The family of the Grecian +augur perished, immersed in destruction on account of lucre. The man of +Macedon cleft the gates of the cities and subverted rival monarchs by +bribery. Bribes enthrall fierce captains of ships. Care, and a thirst +for greater things, is the consequence of increasing wealth. Therefore, +Maecenas, thou glory of the [Roman] knights, I have justly dreaded to +raise the far-conspicuous head. As much more as any man shall deny +himself, so much more shall he receive from the gods. Naked as I am, I +seek the camps of those who covet nothing; and as a deserter, rejoice to +quit the side of the wealthy: a more illustrious possessor of a +contemptible fortune, than if I could be said to treasure up in my +granaries all that the industrious Apulian cultivates, poor amid +abundance of wealth. A rivulet of clear water, and a wood of a few +acres, and a certain prospect of my good crop, are blessings unknown to +him who glitters in the proconsulship of fertile Africa: I am more +happily circumstanced. Though neither the Calabrian bees produce honey, +nor wine ripens to age for me in a Formian cask, nor rich fleeces +increase in Gallic pastures; yet distressful poverty is remote; nor, if +I desired more, would you refuse to grant it me. I shall be better able +to extend my small revenues, by contracting my desires, than if I could +join the kingdom of Alyattes to the Phrygian plains. Much is wanting to +those who covet much. 'Tis well with him to whom God has given what is +necessary with a sparing hand. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVII. + +TO AELIUS LAMIA. + + +O Aelius, who art nobly descended from the ancient Lamus (forasmuch as +they report, that both the first of the Lamian family had their name +hence, and all the race of the descendants through faithful records +derives its origin from that founder, who is said to have possessed, as +prince, the Formian walls, and Liris gliding on the shores of Marica--an +extensive potentate). To-morrow a tempest sent from the east shall strew +the grove with many leaves, and the shore with useless sea-weed, unless +that old prophetess of rain, the raven, deceives me. Pile up the dry +wood, while you may; to-morrow you shall indulge your genius with wine, +and with a pig of two months old, with your slaves dismissed from their +labors. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVIII. + +TO FAUNUS. + +A HYMN. + + +O Faunus, thou lover of the flying nymphs, benignly traverse my borders +and sunny fields, and depart propitious to the young offspring of my +flocks; if a tender kid fall [a victim] to thee at the completion of the +year, and plenty of wines be not wanting to the goblet, the companion of +Venus, and the ancient altar smoke with liberal perfume. All the cattle +sport in the grassy plain, when the nones of December return to thee; +the village keeping holiday enjoys leisure in the fields, together with +the oxen free from toil. The wolf wanders among the fearless lambs; the +wood scatters its rural leaves for thee, and the laborer rejoices to +have beaten the hated ground in triple dance. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIX. + +TO TELEPHUS. + + +How far Codrus, who was not afraid to die for his country, is removed +from Inachus, and the race of Aeacus, and the battles also that were +fought at sacred Troy--[these subjects] you descant upon; but at what +price we may purchase a hogshead of Chian; who shall warm the water [for +bathing]; who finds a house: and at what hour I am to get rid of these +Pelignian colds, you are silent. Give me, boy, [a bumper] for the new +moon in an instant, give me one for midnight, and one for Murena the +augur. Let our goblets be mixed up with three or nine cups, according to +every one's disposition. The enraptured bard, who delights in the +odd-numbered muses, shall call for brimmers thrice three. Each of the +Graces, in conjunction with the naked sisters, fearful of broils, +prohibits upward of three. It is my pleasure to rave; why cease the +breathings of the Phrygian flute? Why is the pipe hung up with the +silent lyre? I hate your niggardly handfuls: strew roses freely. Let the +envious Lycus hear the jovial noise; and let our fair neighbor, +ill-suited to the old Lycus, [hear it.] The ripe Rhode aims at thee, +Telephus, smart with thy bushy locks; at thee, bright as the clear +evening star; the love of my Glycera slowly consumes me. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XX. + +TO PYRRHUS. + + +Do you not perceive, O Pyrrhus, at what hazard yon are taking away the +whelps from a Gutulian lioness? In a little while you, a timorous +ravisher, shall fly from the severe engagement, when she shall march +through the opposing band of youths, re-demanding her beauteous +Nearchus; a grand contest, whether a greater share of booty shall fall +to thee or to her! In the mean time, while you produce your swift +arrows, she whets her terrific teeth; while the umpire of the combat is +reported to have placed the palm under his naked foot, and refreshed his +shoulder, overspread with his perfumed locks, with the gentle breeze: +just such another was Nireus, or he that was ravished from the watery +Ida. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXI. + +TO HIS JAR. + + +O thou goodly cask, that wast brought to light at the same time with me +in the consulship of Manlius, whether thou containest the occasion of +complaint, or jest, or broils and maddening amours, or gentle sleep; +under whatever title thou preservest the choice Massic, worthy to be +removed on an auspicious day; descend, Corvinus bids me draw the +mellowest wine. He, though he is imbued in the Socratic lectures, will +not morosely reject thee. The virtue even of old Cato is recorded to +have been frequently warmed with wine. Thou appliest a gentle violence +to that disposition, which is in general of the rougher cast: Thou +revealest the cares and secret designs of the wise, by the assistance of +merry Bacchus. You restore hope and spirit to anxious minds, and give +horns to the poor man, who after [tasting] you neither dreads the +diadems of enraged monarchs, nor the weapons of the soldiers. Thee +Bacchus, and Venus, if she comes in good-humor, and the Graces loth to +dissolve the knot [of their union], and living lights shall prolong, +till returning Phoebus puts the stars to flight. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXII. + +TO DIANA. + + +O virgin, protectress of the mountains and the groves, thou three-formed +goddess, who thrice invoked, hearest young women in labor, and savest +them from death; sacred to thee be this pine that overshadows my villa, +which I, at the completion of every year, joyful will present with the +blood of a boar-pig, just meditating his oblique attack. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXIII. + +TO PHIDYLE. + + +My rustic Phidyle, if you raise your suppliant hands to heaven at the +new moon, and appease the household gods with frankincense, and this +year's fruits, and a ravening swine; the fertile vine shall neither +feel the pestilential south-west, nor the corn the barren blight, or +your dear brood the sickly season in the fruit-bearing autumn. For the +destined victim, which is pastured in the snowy Algidus among the oaks +and holm trees, or thrives in the Albanian meadows, with its throat +shall stain the axes of the priests. It is not required of you, who are +crowning our little gods with rosemary and the brittle myrtle, to +propitiate them with a great slaughter of sheep. If an innocent hand +touches a clear, a magnificent victim does not pacify the offended +Penates more acceptably, than a consecrated cake and crackling salt. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXIV. + +TO THE COVETOUS. + + +Though, more wealthy than the unrifled treasures of the Arabians and +rich India, you should possess yourself by your edifices of the whole +Tyrrhenian and Apulian seas; yet, if cruel fate fixes its adamantine +grapples upon the topmost roofs, you shall not disengage your mind from +dread, nor your life from the snares of death. The Scythians that dwell +in the plains, whose carts, according to their custom, draw their +vagrant habitations, live in a better manner; and [so do] the rough +Getae, whose uncircumscribed acres produce fruits and corn free to all, +nor is a longer than annual tillage agreeable, and a successor leaves +him who has accomplished his labor by an equal right. There the +guiltless wife spares her motherless step-children, nor does the +portioned spouse govern her husband, nor put any confidence in a sleek +adulterer. Their dower is the high virtue of their parents, and a +chastity reserved from any other man by a steadfast security; and it, is +forbidden to sin, or the reward is death. O if there be any one willing +to remove our impious slaughters, and civil rage; if he be desirous to +be written FATHER OF THE STATE, on statues [erected to him], let him +dare to curb insuperable licentiousness, and be eminent to posterity; +since we (O injustice!) detest virtue while living, but invidiously seek +for her after she is taken out of our view. To what purpose are our +woeful complaints, if sin is not cut off with punishment? Of what +efficacy are empty laws, without morals; if neither that part of the +world which is shut in by fervent heats, nor that side which borders +upon Boreas, and snows hardened upon the ground, keep off the merchant; +[and] the expert sailors get the better of the horrible seas? Poverty, a +great reproach, impels us both to do and to suffer any thing, and +deserts the path of difficult virtue. Let us, then, cast our gems and +precious stones and useless gold, the cause of extreme evil, either into +the Capitol, whither the acclamations and crowd of applauding [citizens] +call us, or into the adjoining ocean. If we are truly penitent for our +enormities, the very elements of depraved lust are to be erased, and the +minds of too soft a mold should be formed by severer studies. The noble +youth knows not how to keep his seat on horseback and is afraid to go a +hunting, more skilled to play (if you choose it) with the Grecian +trochus, or dice, prohibited by law; while the father's perjured faith +can deceive his partner and friend, and he hastens to get money for an +unworthy heir. In a word, iniquitous wealth increases, yet something is +ever wanting to the incomplete fortune. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXV. + +TO BACCHUS. + +A DITHYRAMBIC. + + +Whither, O Bacchus, art thou hurrying me, replete with your influence? +Into what groves, into what recesses am I driven, actuated with uncommon +spirit? In what caverns, meditating the immortal honor of illustrious +Caesar, shall I be heard enrolling him among the stars and the council +of Jove? I will utter something extraordinary, new, hitherto unsung by +any other voice. Thus the sleepless Bacchanal is struck with enthusiasm, +casting her eyes upon Hebrus, and Thrace bleached with snow, and Rhodope +traversed by the feet of barbarians. How am I delighted in my rambles, +to admire the rocks and the desert grove! O lord of the Naiads and the +Bacchanalian women, who are able with their hands to overthrow lofty +ash-trees; nothing little, nothing low, nothing mortal will I sing. +Charming is the hazard, O Bacchus, to accompany the god, who binds his +temples with the verdant vine-leaf. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXVI. + +TO VENUS. + + +I lately lived a proper person for girls, and campaigned it not without +honor; but now this wall, which guards the left side of [the statue] of +sea-born Venus, shall have my arms and my lyre discharged from warfare. +Here, here, deposit the shining flambeaux, and the wrenching irons, and +the bows, that threatened the resisting doors. O thou goddess, who +possessest the blissful Cyprus, and Memphis free from Sithonian snow, O +queen, give the haughty Chloe one cut with your high-raised lash. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXVII. + +TO GALATEA, UPON HER GOING TO SEA. + + +Let the omen of the noisy screech-owl and a pregnant bitch, or a tawny +wolf running down from the Lanuvian fields, or a fox with whelp conduct +the impious [on their way]; may the serpent also break their undertaken +journey, if, like an arrow athwart the road, it has frightened the +horses. What shall I, a provident augur, fear? I will invoke from the +east, with my prayers, the raven forboding by his croaking, before the +bird which presages impending showers, revisits the stagnant pools. +Mayest thou be happy, O Galatea, wheresoever thou choosest to reside, +and live mindful of me and neither the unlucky pye nor the vagrant crow +forbids your going on. But you see, with what an uproar the prone Orion +hastens on: I know what the dark bay of the Adriatic is, and in what +manner Iapyx, [seemingly] serene, is guilty. Let the wives and children +of our enemies feel the blind tumults of the rising south, and the +roaring of the blackened sea, and the shores trembling with its lash. +Thus too Europa trusted her fair side to the deceitful bull, and bold as +she was, turned pale at the sea abounding with monsters, and the cheat +now become manifest. She, who lately in the meadows was busied about +flowers, and a composer of the chaplet meet for nymphs, saw nothing in +the dusky night put stars and water. Who as soon as she arrived at +Crete, powerful with its hundred cities, cried out, overcome with rage, +"O father, name abandoned by thy daughter! O my duty! Whence, whither am +I come? One death is too little for virgins' crime. Am I awake, while I +deplore my base offense; or does some vain phantom, which, escaping from +the ivory gate, brings on a dream, impose upon me, still free from +guilt. Was it better to travel over the tedious waves, or to gather the +fresh flowers? If any one now would deliver up to me in my anger this +infamous bull, I would do my utmost to tear him to pieces with steel, +and break off the horns of the monster, lately so much beloved. +Abandoned I have left my father's house, abandoned I procrastinate my +doom. O if any of the gods hear this, I wish I may wander naked among +lions: before foul decay seizes my comely cheeks, and moisture leaves +this tender prey, I desire, in all my beauty, to be the food of tigers." +"Base Europa," thy absent father urges, "why do you hesitate to die? you +may strangle your neck suspended from this ash, with your girdle that +has commodiously attended you. Or if a precipice, and the rocks that are +edged with death, please you, come on, commit yourself to the rapid +storm; unless you, that are of blood-royal, had rather card your +mistress's wool, and be given up as a concubine to some barbarian dame." +As she complained, the treacherously-smiling Venus, and her son, with +his bow relaxed, drew near. Presently, when she had sufficiently rallied +her, "Refrain (she cried) from your rage and passionate chidings, since +this detested bull shall surrender his horns to be torn in pieces by +you. Are you ignorant, that you are the wife of the invincible Jove? +Cease your sobbing; learn duly to support your distinguished good +fortune. A division of the world shall bear your name." + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXVIII. + +TO LYDE. + + +What can I do better on the festal day of Neptune? Quickly produce, +Lyde, the hoarded Caecuban, and make an attack upon wisdom, ever on her +guard. You perceive the noontide is on its decline; and yet, as if the +fleeting day stood still, you delay to bring out of the store-house the +loitering cask, [that bears its date] from the consul Bibulus. We will +sing by turns, Neptune, and the green locks of the Nereids; you, shall +chant, on your wreathed lyre, Latona and the darts of the nimble +Cynthia; at the conclusion of your song, she also [shall be celebrated], +who with her yoked swans visits Gnidos, and the shining Cyclades, and +Paphos: the night also shall be celebrated in a suitable lay. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXIX. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +O Maecenas, thou progeny of Tuscan kings, there has been a long while +for you in my house some mellow wine in an unbroached hogshead, with +rose-flowers and expressed essence for your hair. Disengage yourself +from anything that may retard you, nor contemplate the ever marshy +Tibur, and the sloping fields of Aesula, and the hills of Telegonus the +parricide. Leave abundance, which is the source of daintiness, and yon +pile of buildings approaching near the lofty clouds: cease to admire the +smoke, and opulence, and noise of flourishing Rome. A change is +frequently agreeable to the rich, and a cleanly meal in the little +cottage of the poor has smoothed an anxious brow without carpets or +purple. Now the bright father of Andromeda displays his hidden fire; now +Procyon rages, and the constellation of the ravening Lion, as the sun +brings round the thirsty season. Now the weary shepherd with his languid +flock seeks the shade, and the river, and the thickets of rough +Sylvanus; and the silent bank is free from the wandering winds. You +regard what constitution may suit the state, and are in an anxious dread +for Rome, what preparations the Seres and the Bactrians subject to +Cyrus, and the factious Tanais are making. A wise deity shrouds in +obscure darkness the events of the time to come, and smiles if a mortal +is solicitous beyond the law of nature. Be mindful to manage duly that +which is present. What remains goes on in the manner of the river, at +one time calmly gliding in the middle of its channel to the Tuscan Sea, +at another, rolling along corroded stones, and stumps of trees, forced +away, and cattle, and houses, not without the noise of mountains and +neighboring woods, when the merciless deluge enrages the peaceful +waters. That man is master of himself and shall live happy, who has it +in his power to say, "I have lived to-day: to-morrow let the Sire invest +the heaven, either with a black cloud, or with clear sunshine; +nevertheless, he shall not render ineffectual what is past, nor undo or +annihilate what the fleeting hour has once carried off. Fortune, happy +in the execution of her cruel office, and persisting to play her +insolent game, changes uncertain honors, indulgent now to me, by and by +to another. I praise her, while she abides by me. If she moves her fleet +wings, I resign what she has bestowed, and wrap myself up in my virtue, +and court honest poverty without a portion. It is no business of mine, +if the mast groan with the African storms, to have recourse to piteous +prayers, and to make a bargain with my vows, that my Cyprian and Syrian +merchandize may not add to the wealth of the insatiable sea. Then the +gale and the twin Pollux will carry me safe in the protection of a skiff +with two oars, through the tumultuous Aegean Sea." + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXX. + +ON HIS OWN WORKS. + + +I have completed a monument more lasting than brass, and more sublime +than the regal elevation of pyramids, which neither the wasting shower, +the unavailing north wind, nor an innumerable succession of years, and +the flight of seasons, shall be able to demolish. I shall not wholly +die; but a great part of me shall escape Libitina. I shall continualy be +renewed in the praises of posterity, as long as the priest shall ascend +the Capitol with the silent [vestal] virgin. Where the rapid Aufidus +shall murmur, and where Daunus, poorly supplied with water, ruled over a +rustic people, I, exalted from a low degree, shall be acknowledged as +having originally adapted the Aeolic verse to Italian measures. +Melpomene, assume that pride which your merits have acquired, and +willingly crown my hair with the Delphic laurel. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE. + + + +ODE I. + +TO VENUS. + + +After a long cessation, O Venus, again are you stirring up tumults? +Spare me, I beseech you, I beseech you. I am not the man I was under the +dominion of good-natured Cynara. Forbear, O cruel mother of soft +desires, to bend one bordering upon fifty, now too hardened for soft +commands: go, whither the soothing prayers of youths, invoke you. More +seasonably may you revel in the house of Paulus Maximus, flying thither +with your splendid swans, if you seek to inflame a suitable breast. For +he is both noble and comely, and by no means silent in the cause of +distressed defendants, and a youth of a hundred accomplishments; he +shall bear the ensigns of your warfare far and wide; and whenever, more +prevailing than the ample presents of a rival, he shall laugh [at his +expense], he shall erect thee in marble under a citron dome near the +Alban lake. There you shall smell abundant frankincense, and shall be +charmed with the mixed music of the lyre and Berecynthian pipe, not +without the flageolet. There the youths, together with the tender +maidens, twice a day celebrating your divinity, shall, Salian-like, with +white foot thrice shake the ground. As for me, neither woman, nor youth, +nor the fond hopes of mutual inclination, nor to contend in wine, nor to +bind my temples with fresh flowers, delight me [any longer]. But why; +ah! why, Ligurinus, does the tear every now and then trickle down my +cheeks? Why does my fluent tongue falter between my words with an +unseemly silence? Thee in my dreams by night I clasp, caught [in my +arms]; thee flying across the turf of the Campus Martius; thee I pursue, +O cruel one, through the rolling waters. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE II. + +TO ANTONIUS IULUS. + + +Whoever endeavors, O Iulus, to rival Pindar, makes an effort on wings +fastened with wax by art Daedalean, about to communicate his name to the +glassy sea. Like a river pouring down from a mountain, which sudden +rains have increased beyond its accustomed banks, such the deep-mouthed +Pindar rages and rushes on immeasurable, sure to merit Apollo's laurel, +whether he rolls down new-formed phrases through the daring dithyrambic, +and is borne on in numbers exempt from rule: whether he sings the gods, +and kings, the offspring of the gods, by whom the Centaurs perished with +a just destruction, [by whom] was quenched the flame of the dreadful +Chimaera; or celebrates those whom the palm, [in the Olympic games] at +Elis, brings home exalted to the skies, wrestler or steed, and presents +them with a gift preferable to a hundred statues: or deplores some +youth, snatched [by death] from his mournful bride--he elevates both his +strength, and courage, and golden morals to the stars, and rescues him +from the murky grave. A copious gale elevates the Dircean swan, O +Antonius, as often as he soars into the lofty regions of the clouds: but +I, after the custom and manner of the Macinian bee, that laboriously +gathers the grateful thyme, I, a diminutive creature, compose elaborate +verses about the grove and the banks of the watery Tiber. You, a poet of +sublimer style, shall sing of Caesar, whenever, graceful in his +well-earned laurel, he shall drag the fierce Sygambri along the sacred +hill; Caesar, than whom nothing greater or better the fates and +indulgent gods ever bestowed on the earth, nor will bestow, though the +times should return to their primitive gold. You shall sing both the +festal days, and the public rejoicings on account of the prayed-for +return of the brave Augustus, and the forum free from law-suits. Then +(if I can offer any thing worth hearing) a considerable portion of my +voice shall join [the general acclamation], and I will sing, happy at +the reception of Caesar, "O glorious day, O worthy thou to be +celebrated." And while [the procession] moves along, shouts of triumph +we will repeat, shouts of triumph the whole city [will raise], and we +will offer frankincense to the indulgent gods. Thee ten bulls and as +many heifers shall absolve; me, a tender steerling, that, having left +his dam, thrives in spacious pastures for the discharge of my vows, +resembling [by the horns on] his forehead the curved light of the moon, +when she appears of three days old, in which part he has a mark of a +snowy aspect, being of a dun color over the rest of his body. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE III. + +TO MELPOMENE. + + +Him, O Melpomene, upon whom at his birth thou hast once looked with +favoring eye, the Isthmian contest shall not render eminent as a +wrestler; the swift horse shall not draw him triumphant in a Grecian +car; nor shall warlike achievement show him in the Capitol, a general +adorned with the Delian laurel, on account of his having quashed the +proud threats of kings: but such waters as flow through the fertile +Tiber, and the dense leaves of the groves, shall make him distinguished +by the Aeolian verse. The sons of Rome, the queen of cities, deign to +rank me among the amiable band of poets; and now I am less carped at by +the tooth of envy. O muse, regulating the harmony of the gilded shell! O +thou, who canst immediately bestow, if thou please, the notes of the +swan upon the mute fish! It is entirely by thy gift that I am marked +out, as the stringer of the Roman lyre, by the fingers of passengers; +that I breathe, and give pleasure (if I give pleasure), is yours. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IV + +THE PRAISE OF DRUSUS. + + +Like as the winged minister of thunder (to whom Jupiter, the sovereign +of the gods, has assigned the dominion over the fleeting birds, having +experienced his fidelity in the affair of the beauteous Ganymede), early +youth and hereditary vigor save impelled from his nest unknowing of +toil; and the vernal winds, the showers being now dispelled, taught him, +still timorous, unwonted enterprises: in a little while a violent +impulse dispatched him, as an enemy against the sheepfolds, now an +appetite for food and fight has impelled him upon the reluctant +serpents;--or as a she-goat, intent on rich pastures, has beheld a young +lion but just weaned from the udder of his tawny dam, ready to be +devoured by his newly-grown tooth: such did the Rhaeti and the Vindelici +behold Drusus carrying on the war under the Alps; whence this people +derived the custom, which has always prevailed among them, of arming +their right hands with the Amazonian ax, I have purposely omitted to +inquire: (neither is it possible to discover everything.) But those +troops, which had been for a long while and extensively victorious, +being subdued by the conduct of a youth, perceived what a disposition, +what a genius rightly educated under an auspicious roof, what the +fatherly affection of Augustus toward the young Neros, could effect. The +brave are generated by the brave and good; there is in steers, there is +in horses, the virtue of their sires; nor do the courageous eagles +procreate the unwarlike dove. But learning improves the innate force, +and good discipline confirms the mind: whenever morals are deficient, +vices disgrace what is naturally good. What thou owest, O Rome, to the +Neros, the river Metaurus is a witness, and the defeated Asdrubal, and +that day illustrious by the dispelling of darkness from Italy, and which +first smiled with benignant victory; when the terrible African rode +through the Latian cities, like a fire through the pitchy pines, or the +east wind through the Sicilian waves. After this the Roman youth +increased continually in successful exploits, and temples, laid waste by +the impious outrage of the Carthaginians, had the [statues of] their +gods set up again. And at length the perfidious Hannibal said; "We, like +stags, the prey of rapacious wolves, follow of our own accord those, +whom to deceive and escape is a signal triumph. That nation, which, +tossed in the Etrurian waves, bravely transported their gods, and sons, +and aged fathers, from the burned Troy to the Italian cities, like an +oak lopped by sturdy axes in Algidum abounding in dusky leaves, through +losses and through wounds derives strength and spirit from the very +steel. The Hydra did not with more vigor grow upon Hercules grieving to +be overcome, nor did the Colchians, or the Echionian Thebes, produce a +greater prodigy. Should you sink it in the depth, it will come out more +beautiful: should you contend with it, with great glory will it +overthrow the conqueror unhurt before, and will fight battles to be the +talk of wives. No longer can I send boasting messengers to Carthage: all +the hope and success of my name is fallen, is fallen by the death of +Asdrubal. There is nothing, but what the Claudian hands will perform; +which both Jupiter defends with his propitious divinity, and sagacious +precaution conducts through the sharp trials of war." + + * * * * * + + + +ODE V. + +TO AUGUSTUS. + + +O best guardian of the Roman people, born under propitious gods, already +art thou too long absent; after having promised a mature arrival to the +sacred council of the senators, return. Restore, O excellent chieftain, +the light to thy country; for, like the spring, wherever thy countenance +has shone, the day passes more agreeably for the people, and the sun has +a superior lustre. As a mother, with vows, omens, and prayers, calls for +her son (whom the south wind with adverse gales detains from his sweet +home, staying more than a year beyond the Carpathian Sea), nor turns +aside her looks from the curved shore; in like manner, inspired with +loyal wishes, his country seeks for Caesar. For, [under your auspices,] +the ox in safety traverses the meadows: Ceres nourishes the ground; and +abundant Prosperity: the sailors skim through the calm ocean: and Faith +is in dread of being censured. The chaste family is polluted by no +adulteries: morality and the law have got the better of that foul crime; +the child-bearing women are commended for an offspring resembling [the +father; and] punishment presses as a companion upon guilt. Who can fear +the Parthian? Who, the frozen Scythian? Who, the progeny that rough +Germany produces, while Caesar is in safety? Who cares for the war of +fierce Spain? Every man puts a period to the day amid his own hills, and +weds the vine to the widowed elm-trees; hence he returns joyful to his +wine, and invites you, as a deity, to his second course; thee, with many +a prayer, thee he pursues with wine poured out [in libation] from the +cups; and joins your divinity to that of his household gods, in the same +manner as Greece was mindful of Castor and the great Hercules. May you, +excellent chieftain, bestow a lasting festivity upon Italy! This is our +language, when we are sober at the early day; this is our language, when +we have well drunk, at the time the sun is beneath the ocean. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VI. + +HYMN TO APOLLO. + + +Thou god, whom the offspring of Niobe experienced as avenger of a +presumptuous tongue, and the ravisher Tityus, and also the Thessalian +Achilles, almost the conqueror of lofty Troy, a warrior superior to all +others, but unequal to thee; though, son of the sea-goddess, Thetis, he +shook the Dardanian towers, warring with his dreadful spear. He, as it +were a pine smitten with the burning ax, or a cypress prostrated by the +east wind, fell extended far, and reclined his neck in the Trojan dust. +He would not, by being shut up in a [wooden] horse, that belied the +sacred rights of Minerva, have surprised the Trojans reveling in an evil +hour, and the court of Priam making merry in the dance; but openly +inexorable to his captives, (oh impious! oh!) would have burned +speechless babes with Grecian fires, even him concealed in his mother's +womb: had not the father of the gods, prevailed upon by thy entreaties +and those of the beauteous Venus, granted to the affairs of Aeneas walls +founded under happier auspices. Thou lyrist Phoebus, tutor of the +harmonious Thalia, who bathest thy locks in the river Xanthus, O +delicate Agyieus, support the dignity of the Latian muse. Phoebus gave +me genius, Phoebus the art of composing verse, and the title of poet. Ye +virgins of the first distinction, and ye youths born of illustrious +parents, ye wards of the Delian goddess, who stops with her bow the +flying lynxes, and the stags, observe the Lesbian measure, and the +motion of my thumb; duly celebrating the son of Latona, duly +[celebrating] the goddess that enlightens the night with her shining +crescent, propitious to the fruits, and expeditious in rolling on the +precipitate months. Shortly a bride you will say: "I, skilled in the +measures of the poet Horace, recited an ode which was acceptable to the +gods, when the secular period brought back the festal days." + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VII. + +TO TORQUATUS. + + +The snows are fled, the herbage now returns to the fields, and the +leaves to the trees. The earth changes its appearance, and the +decreasing rivers glide along their banks: the elder Grace, together +with the Nymphs, and her two sisters, ventures naked to lead off the +dance. That you are not to expect things permanent, the year, and the +hour that hurries away the agreeable day, admonish us. The colds are +mitigated by the zephyrs: the summer follows close upon the spring, +shortly to die itself, as soon as fruitful autumn shall have shed its +fruits: and anon sluggish winter returns again. Nevertheless the +quick-revolving moons repair their wanings in the skies; but when we +descend [to those regions] where pious Aeneas, where Tullus and the +wealthy Ancus [have gone before us], we become dust and a mere shade. +Who knows whether the gods above will add to this day's reckoning the +space of to-morrow? Every thing, which you shall indulge to your beloved +soul, will escape the greedy hands of your heir. When once, Torquatus, +you shall be dead, and Minos shall have made his awful decisions +concerning you; not your family, not you eloquence, not your piety shall +restore you. For neither can Diana free the chaste Hippolytus from +infernal darkness; nor is Theseus able to break off the Lethaean fetters +from his dear Piri thous. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VIII. + +TO MARCIUS CENSORINUS. + + +O Censorinus, liberally would I present my acquaintance with goblets and +beautiful vases of brass; I would present them with tripods, the rewards +of the brave Grecians: nor would you bear off the meanest of my +donations, if I were rich in those pieces of art, which either +Parrhasius or Scopas produced; the latter in statuary, the former in +liquid colors, eminent to portray at one time a man, at another a god. +But I have no store of this sort, nor do your circumstances or +inclination require any such curiosities as these. You delight in +verses: verses I can give, and set a value on the donation. Not marbles +engraved with public inscriptions, by means of which breath and life +returns to illustrious generals after their decease; not the precipitate +flight of Hannibal, and his menaces retorted upon his own head: not the +flames of impious Carthage * * * * more eminently set forth his praises, +who returned, having gained a name from conquered Africa, than the +Calabrlan muses; neither, should writings be silent, would you have any +reward for having done well. What would the son of Mars and Ilia be, if +invidious silence had stifled the merits of Romulus? The force, and +favor, and voice of powerful poets consecrate Aecus, snatched from the +Stygian floods, to the Fortunate Islands. The muse forbids a +praiseworthy man to die: the muse, confers the happiness of heaven. Thus +laborious Hercules has a place at the longed-for banquets of Jove: +[thus] the sons of Tyndarus, that bright constellation, rescue shattered +vessels from the bosom of the deep: [and thus] Bacchus, his temples +adorned with the verdant vine-branch, brings the prayers of his votaries +to successful issues. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IX. + +TO MARCUS LOLLIUS. + + +Lest you for a moment imagine that those words will be lost, which I, +born on the far-resounding Aufidus, utter to be accompanied with the +lyre, by arts hitherto undivulged--If Maeonian Homer possesses the first +rank, the Pindaric and Cean muses, and the menacing strains of Alcaeus, +and the majestic ones of Stesichorus, are by no means obscure: neither, +if Anacreon long ago sportfully sung any thing, has time destroyed it: +even now breathes the love and live the ardors of the Aeolian maid, +committed to her lyre. The Lacedaemonian Helen is not the only fair, who +has been inflamed by admiring the delicate ringlets of a gallant, and +garments embroidered with gold, and courtly accomplishments, and +retinue: nor was Teucer the first that leveled arrows from the Cydonian +bow: Troy was more than once harassed: the great Idomeneus and Sthenelus +were not the only heroes that fought battles worthy to be recorded by +the muses: the fierce Hector, or the strenuous Deiphobus were not the +first that received heavy blows in defense of virtuous wives and +children. Many brave men lived before Agamemnon: but all of them, +unlamented and unknown, are overwhelmed with endless obscurity, because +they were destitute of a sacred bard. Valor, uncelebrated, differs but +little from cowardice when in the grave. I will not [therefore], O +Lollius, pass you over in silence, uncelebrated in my writings, or +suffer envious forgetfulness with impunity to seize so many toils of +thine. You have a mind ever prudent in the conduct of affairs, and +steady alike amid success and trouble: you are an avenger of avaricious +fraud, and proof against money, that attracts every thing; and a consul +not of one year only, but as often as the good and upright magistrate +has preferred the honorable to the profitable, and has rejected with a +disdainful brow the bribes of wicked men, and triumphant through +opposing bands has displayed his arms. You can not with propriety call +him happy, that possesses much; he more justly claims the title of +happy, who understands how to make a wise use of the gifts of the gods, +and how to bear severe poverty; and dreads a reproachful deed worse than +death; such a man as this is not afraid to perish in the defense of his +dear friends, or of his country. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE X. + +TO LIGURINUS. + + +O cruel still, and potent in the endowments of beauty, when an +unexpected plume shall come upon your vanity, and those locks, which now +wanton on your shoulders, shall fall off, and that color, which is now +preferable to the blossom of the damask rose, changed, O Ligurinus, +shall turn into a wrinkled face; [then] will you say (as often as you +see yourself, [quite] another person in the looking glass), Alas! why +was not my present inclination the same, when I was young? Or why do not +my cheeks return, unimpaired, to these my present sentiments? + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XI. + +TO PHYLLIS. + + +Phyllis, I have a cask full of Abanian wine, upward of nine years old; I +have parsley in my garden, for the weaving of chaplets, I have a store +of ivy, with which, when you have bound your hair, you look so gay: the +house shines cheerfully With plate: the altar, bound with chaste +vervain, longs to be sprinkled [with the blood] of a sacrificed lamb: +all hands are busy: girls mingled with boys fly about from place to +place: the flames quiver, rolling on their summit the sooty smoke. But +yet, that you may know to what joys you are invited, the Ides are to be +celebrated by you, the day which divides April, the month of sea-born +Venus; [a day,] with reason to be solemnized by me, and almost more +sacred to me than that of my own birth; since from this day my dear +Maecenas reckons his flowing years. A rich and buxom girl hath possessed +herself of Telephus, a youth above your rank; and she holds him fast by +an agreeable fetter. Consumed Phaeton strikes terror into ambitious +hopes, and the winged Pegasus, not stomaching the earth-born rider +Bellerophon, affords a terrible example, that you ought always to pursue +things that are suitable to you, and that you should avoid a +disproportioned match, by thinking it a crime to entertain a hope beyond +what is allowable. Come then, thou last of my loves (for hereafter I +shall burn for no other woman), learn with me such measures, as thou +mayest recite with thy lovely voice: our gloomy cares shall be mitigated +with an ode. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XII. + +TO VIRGIL. + + +The Thracian breezes, attendants on the spring, which moderate the deep, +now fill the sails; now neither are the meadows stiff [with frost], nor +roar the rivers swollen with winter's snow. The unhappy bird, that +piteotisly bemoans Itys, and is the eternal disgrace of the house of +Cecrops (because she wickedly revenged the brutal lusts of kings), now +builds her nest. The keepers of the sheep play tunes upon the pipe amid +the tendar herbage, and delight that god, whom flocks and the shady +hills of Arcadia delight. The time of year, O Virgil, has brought on a +drought: but if you desire to quaff wine from the Calenian press, you, +that are a constant companion of young noblemen, must earn your liquor +by [bringing some] spikenard: a small box of spikenard shall draw out a +cask, which now lies in the Sulpician store-house, bounteous in the +indulgence of fresh hopes and efficacious in washing away the +bitterness of cares. To which joys if you hasten, come instantly with +your merchandize: I do not intend to dip you in my cups scot-free, like +a man of wealth, in a house abounding with plenty. But lay aside delay, +and the desire of gain; and, mindful of the gloomy [funeral] flames, +intermix, while you may, your grave studies with a little light gayety: +it is delightful to give a loose on a proper occasion. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIII. + +TO LYCE. + + +The gods have heard my prayers, O Lyce; Lyce, the gods have heard my +prayers, you are become an old woman, and yet you would fain seem a +beauty; and you wanton and drink in an audacious manner; and when drunk, +solicit tardy Cupid, with a quivering voice. He basks in the charming +cheeks of the blooming Chia, who is a proficient on the lyre. The +teasing urchin flies over blasted oaks, and starts back at the sight of +you, because foul teeth, because wrinkles and snowy hair render you +odious. Now neither Coan purples nor sparkling jewels restore those +years, which winged time has inserted in the public annals. Whither is +your beauty gone? Alas! or whither your bloom? Whither your graceful +deportment? What have you [remaining] of her, of her, who breathed +loves, and ravished me from myself? Happy next to Cynara, and +distinguished for an aspect of graceful ways: but the fates granted a +few years only to Cynara, intending to preserve for a long time Lyce, to +rival in years the aged raven: that the fervid young fellows might see, +not without excessive laughter, that torch, [which once so brightly +scorched,] reduced to ashes. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIV. + +TO AUGUSTUS. + + +What zeal of the senators, or what of the Roman people, by decreeing the +most ample honors, can eternize your virtues, O Augustus, by monumental +inscriptions and lasting records? O thou, wherever the sun illuminates +the habitable regions, greatest of princes, whom the Vindelici, that +never experienced the Roman sway, have lately learned how powerful thou +art in war! For Drusus, by means of your soldiery, has more than once +bravely overthrown the Genauni, an implacable race, and the rapid +Brenci, and the citadels situated on the tremendous Alps. The elder of +the Neros soon after fought a terrible battle, and, under your +propitious auspices, smote the ferocious Rhoeti: how worthy of +admiration in the field of battle, [to see] with what destruction he +oppressed the brave, hearts devoted to voluntary death: just as the +south wind harasses the untameable waves, when the dance of the Pleiades +cleaves the clouds; [so is he] strenuous to annoy the troops of the +enemy, and to drive his eager steed through the midst of flames. Thus +the bull-formed Aufidus, who washes the dominions of the Apulian Daunus, +rolls along, when he rages and meditates an horrible deluge to the +cultivated lands; when Claudius overthrew with impetuous might, the iron +ranks of the barbarians, and by mowing down both front and rear strewed +the ground, victorious without any loss; through you supplying them with +troops, you with councils, and your own guardian powers. For on that +day, when the suppliant Alexandria opened her ports, and deserted court, +fortune, propitious to you in the third lustrum, has put a happy period +to the war, and has ascribed praise and wished-for honor to the +victories already obtained. O thou dread guardian of Italy and imperial +Rome, thee the Spaniard, till now unconquered, and the Mede, and the +Indian, thee the vagrant Scythian admires; thee both the Nile, who +conceals his fountain heads, and the Danube; thee the rapid Tigris; thee +the monster-bearing ocean, that roars against the remote Britons; thee +the region of Gaul fearless of death, and that of hardy Iberia obeys; +thee the Sicambrians, who delight in slaughter, laying aside their arms, +revere. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XV. + +TO AUGUSTUS, ON THE RESTORATION OF PEACE. + + +Phoebus chid me, when I was meditating to sing of battles And conquered +cities on the lyre: that I might not set my little sails along the +Tyrrhenian Sea. Your age, O Caesar, has both restored plenteous crops +to the fields, and has brought back to our Jupiter the standards torn +from the proud pillars of the Parthians; and has shut up [the temple] of +Janus [founded by] Romulus, now free from war; and has imposed a due +discipline upon headstrong licentiousness, and has extirpated crimes, +and recalled the ancient arts; by which the Latin name and strength of +Italy have increased, and the fame and majesty of the empire is extended +from the sun's western bed to the east. While Caesar is guardian of +affairs, neither civil rage nor violence shall disturb tranquillity; nor +hatred which forges swords, and sets at variance unhappy states. Not +those, who drink of the deep Danube, shall now break the Julian edicts: +not the Getae, not the Seres, nor the perfidious Persians, nor those +born upon the river Tanais. And let us, both on common and festal days, +amid the gifts of joyous Bacchus, together with our wives and families, +having first duly invoked the gods, celebrate, after the manner of our +ancestors, with songs accompanied with Lydian pipes, our late valiant +commanders: and Troy, and Anchises, and the offspring of benign Venus. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE BOOK OF THE EPODES OF HORACE. + + + +ODE I. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +Thou wilt go, my friend Maecenas, with Liburian galleys among the +towering forts of ships, ready at thine own [hazard] to undergo any of +Caesar's dangers. What shall I do? To whom life may be agreeable, if you +survive; but, if otherwise, burdensome. Whether shall I, at your +command, pursue my ease, which can not be pleasing unless in your +company? Or shall I endure this toil with such a courage, as becomes +effeminate men to bear? I will bear it? and with an intrepid soul follow +you, either through the summits of the Alps, and the inhospitable +Caucus, or to the furthest western bay. You may ask how I, unwarlike and +infirm, can assist your labors by mine? While I am your companion, I +shall be in less anxiety, which takes possession of the absent in a +greater measure. As the bird, that has unfledged young, is in a greater +dread of serpents' approaches, when they are left;--not that, if she +should be present when they came, she could render more help. Not only +this, but every other war, shall be cheerfully embraced by me for the +hope of your favor; [and this,] not that my plows should labor, yoked to +a greater number of mine own oxen; or that my cattle before the +scorching dog-star should change the Calabrian for the Lucanian +pastures: neither that my white country-box should equal the Circaean +walls of lofty Tusculum. Your generosity has enriched me enough, and +more than enough: I shall never wish to amass, what either, like the +miser Chremes, I may bury in the earth, or luxuriously squander, like a +prodigal. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE II. + +THE PRAISES OF A COUNTRY LIFE. + + +Happy the man, who, remote from business, after the manner of the +ancient race of mortals, cultivates his paternal lands with his own +oxen, disengaged from every kind of usury; he is neither alarmed by the +horrible trump, as a soldier, nor dreads he the angry sea; he shuns both +the bar and the proud portals of citizens in power. Wherefore he either +weds the lofty poplars to the mature branches of the vine; and, lopping +off the useless boughs with his pruning-knife, he ingrafts more fruitful +ones: or he takes a prospect of the herds of his lowing cattle, +wandering about in a lonely vale; or stores his honey, pressed [from the +combs], in clean vessels; or shears his tender sheep. Or, when autumn +has lifted up in the fields his head adorned with mellow fruits, how +does he rejoice, while he gathers the grafted pears, and the grape that +vies with the purple, with which he may recompense thee, O Priapus, and +thee, father Sylvanus, guardian of his boundaries! Sometimes he delights +to lie under an aged holm, sometimes on the matted grass: meanwhile the +waters glide along in their deep channels; the birds warble in the +woods; and the fountains murmur with their purling streams, which +invites gentle slumbers. But when the wintery season of the tempestuous +air prepares rains and snows, he either drives the fierce boars, with +many a dog, into the intercepting toils; or spreads his thin nets with +the smooth pole, as a snare for the voracious thrushes; or catches in +his gin the timorous hare, or that stranger the crane, pleasing rewards +[for his labor]. Among such joys as these, who does not forget those +mischievous anxieties, which are the property of love. But if a chaste +wife, assisting on her part [in the management] of the house, and +beloved children (such as is the Sabine, or the sun-burned spouse of the +industrious Apulian), piles up the sacred hearth with old wood, just at +the approach of her weary husband; and, shutting up the fruitful cattle +in the woven hurdles, milks dry their distended udders: and, drawing +this year's wine out of a well-seasoned cask, prepares the unbought +collation: not the Lucrine oysters could delight me more, nor the +turbot, nor the scar, should the tempestuous winter drive any from the +eastern floods to this sea: not the turkey, nor the Asiatic wild-fowl, +can come into my stomach more agreeably, than the olive gathered from +the richest branches from the trees, or the sorrel that loves the +meadows, or mallows salubrious for a sickly body, or a lamb slain at the +feast of Terminus, or a kid rescued from the wolf. Amid these dainties, +how it pleases one to see the well-fed sheep hastening home! to see the +weary oxen, with drooping neck, dragging the inverted ploughshare! and +slaves, the test of a rich family, ranged about the smiling household +gods! When Alfius, the usurer, now on the point of turning countryman, +had said this, he collected in all his money on the Ides; and endeavors +to put it out again at the Calends. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE III. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +If any person at any time with an impious hand has broken his aged +father's neck, let him eat garlic, more baneful than hemlock. Oh! the +hardy bowels of the mowers! What poison is this that rages in my +entrails? Has viper's blood, infused in these herbs, deceived me? Or has +Canidia dressed this baleful food? When Medea, beyond all the [other] +argonauts, admired their handsome leader, she anointed Jason with this, +as he was going to tie the untried yoke on the bulls: and having +revenged herself on [Jason's] mistress, by making her presents besmeared +with this, she flew away on her winged dragon. Never did the steaming +influence of any constellation so raging as this rest upon the thirsty +Appulia: neither did the gift [_of Dejanira_] burn hotter upon the +shoulders of laborious Hercules. But if ever, facetious Maecenas, you +should have a desire for any such stuff again, I wish that your girl may +oppose her hand to your kiss, and lie at the furthest part of the bed. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IV. + +TO MENAS. + + +As great an enmity as is allotted by nature to wolves and lambs, [so +great a one] have I to you, you that are galled at your back with +Spanish cords, and on your legs with the hard fetter. Though, +purse-proud with your riches, you strut along, yet fortune does not +alter your birth. Do you not observe while you are stalking along the +sacred way with a robe twice three ells long, how the most open +indignation of those that pass and repass turns their looks on thee? +This fellow, [say they,] cut with the triumvir's whips, even till the +beadle was sick of his office, plows a thousand acres of Falernian land, +and wears out the Appian road with his nags; and, in despite of Otho, +sits in the first rows [of the circus] as a knight of distinction. To +what purpose is it, that so many brazen-beaked ships of immense bulk +should be led out against pirates and a band of slaves, while this +fellow, this is a military tribune? + + * * * * * + + + +ODE V. + +THE WITCHES MANGLING A BOY. + + +But oh, by all the gods in heaven, who rule the earth and human race, +what means this tumult? And what the hideous looks of all these [hags, +fixed] upon me alone? I conjure thee by thy children (if invoked Lucina +was ever present at any real birth of thine), I [conjure] thee by this +empty honor of my purple, by Jupiter, who must disapprove these +proceedings, why dost thou look at me as a step-mother, or as a wild +beast stricken with a dart? While the boy made these complaints with a +faltering voice, he stood with his bandages of distinction taken from +him, a tender frame, such as might soften the impious breasts of the +cruel Thracians; Canidia, having interwoven her hair and uncombed head +with little vipers, orders wild fig-trees torn up from graves, orders +funeral cypresses and eggs besmeared with the gore of a loathsome toad, +and feathers of the nocturnal screech-owl, and those herbs, which +lolchos, and Spain, fruitful in poisons, transmits, and bones snatched +from the mouth of a hungry bitch, to be burned in Colchian flames. But +Sagana, tucked up for expedition, sprinkling the waters of Avernus all +over the house, bristles up with her rough hair like a sea-urchin, or a +boar in the chase. Veia, deterred by no remorse of conscience, groaning +with the toil, dug up the ground with the sharp spade; where the boy, +fixed in, might long be tormented to death at the sight of food varied +two or three times in a day: while he stood out with his face, just as +much at bodies suspended by the chin [in swimming] project from the +water, that his parched marrow and dried liver might be a charm for +love; when once the pupils of his eyes had wasted away, fixed on the +forbidden food. Both the idle Naples, and every neighboring town +believed, that Folia of Ariminum, [a witch] of masculine lust, was not +absent: she, who with her Thessalian incantations forces the charmed +stars and the moon from heaven. Here the fell Canidia, gnawing her +unpaired thumb with her livid teeth, what said she? or what did she not +say? O ye faithful witnesses to my proceedings, Night and Diana, who +presidest over silence, when the secret rites are celebrated: now, now +be present, now turn your anger and power against the houses of our +enemies, while the savage wild beasts lie hid in the woods, dissolved in +sweet repose; let the dogs of Suburra (which may be matter of ridicule +for every body) bark at the aged profligate, bedaubed with ointment, +such as my hands never made any more exquisite. What is the matter? Why +are these compositions less efficacious than those of the barbarian +Medea? by means of which she made her escape, after having revenged +herself on [Jason's] haughty mistress, the daughter of the mighty Creon; +when the garment, a gift that was injected with venom, took off his new +bride by its inflammatory power. And yet no herb, nor root hidden in +inaccessible places, ever escaped my notice. [Nevertheless,] he sleeps +in the perfumed bed of every harlot, from his forgetfulness [of me]. Ah! +ah! he walks free [from my power] by the charms of some more knowing +witch. Varus, (oh you that will shortly have much to lament!) you shall +come back to me by means of unusual spells; nor shall you return to +yourself by all the power of Marsian enchantments, I will prepare a +stronger philter: I will pour in a stronger philter for you, disdainful +as you are; and the heaven shall subside below the sea, with the earth +extended over it, sooner than you shall not burn with love for me, in +the same manner as this pitch [burns] in the sooty flames. At these +words, the boy no longer [attempted], as before, to move the impious +hags by soothing expressions; but, doubtful in what manner he should +break silence, uttered Thyestean imprecations. Potions [said he] have a +great efficacy in confounding right and wrong, but are not able to +invert the condition of human nature; I will persecute you with curses; +and execrating detestation is not to be expiated by any victim. +Moreover, when doomed to death I shall have expired, I will attend you +as a nocturnal fury; and, a ghost, I will attack your faces with my +hooked talons (for such is the power of those divinities, the Manes), +and, brooding upon your restless breasts, I will deprive you of repose +by terror. The mob, from village to village, assaulting you on every +side with stones, shall demolish you filthy hags. Finally, the wolves +and Esquiline vultures shall scatter abroad your unburied limbs. Nor +shall this spectacle escape the observation of my parents, who, alas! +must survive me. + + + +ODE. VI. + +AGAINST CASSIUS SEVERUS. + + +O cur, thou coward against wolves, why dost thou persecute innocent +strangers? Why do you not, if you can, turn your empty yelpings hither, +and attack me, who will bite again? For, like a Molossian, or tawny +Laconian dog, that is a friendly assistant to shepherds, I will drive +with erected ears through the deep snows every brute that shall go +before me. You, when you have filled the grove with your fearful +barking, you smell at the food that is thrown to you. Have a care, have +a care; for, very bitter against bad men, I exert my ready horns uplift; +like him that was rejected as a son-in-law by the perfidious Lycambes, +or the sharp enemy of Bupalus. What, if any cur attack me with malignant +tooth, shall I, without revenge, blubber like a boy? + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VII. + +TO THE ROMAN PEOPLE. + + +Whither, whither, impious men are you rushing? Or why are the swords +drawn, that were [so lately] sheathed? Is there too little of Roman +blood spilled upon land and sea? [And this,] not that the Romans might +burn the proud towers of envious Carthage, or that the Britons, hitherto +unassailed, might go down the sacred way bound in chains: but that, +agreeably to the wishes of the Parthians, this city may fall by its own +might. This custom [of warfare] never obtained even among either wolves +or savage lions, unless against a different species. Does blind phrenzy, +or your superior valor, or some crime, hurry you on at this rate? Give +answer. They are silent: and wan paleness infects their countenances, +and their stricken souls are stupefied. This is the case: a cruel +fatality and the crime of fratricide have disquieted the Romans, from +that time when the blood of the innocent Remus, to be expiated by his +descendants, was spilled upon the earth. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VIII. + +UPON A WANTON OLD WOMAN. + + +Can you, grown rank with lengthened age, ask what unnerves my vigor? +When your teeth are black, and old age withers your brow with wrinkles: +and your back sinks between your staring hip-bones, like that of an +unhealthy cow. But, forsooth! your breast and your fallen chest, full +well resembling a broken-backed horse, provoke me; and a body flabby, +and feeble knees supported by swollen legs. May you be happy: and may +triumphal statues adorn your funeral procession; and may no matron +appear in public abounding with richer pearls. What follows, because the +Stoic treatises sometimes love to be on silken pillows? Are unlearned +constitutions the less robust? Or are their limbs less stout? But for +you to raise an appetite, in a stomach that is nice, it is necessary +that you exert every art of language. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IX. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +When, O happy Maecenas, shall I, overjoyed at Caesar's being victorious, +drink with you under the stately dome (for so it pleases Jove) the +Caecuban reserved for festal entertainments, while the lyre plays a +tune, accompanied with flutes, that in the Doric, these in the Phrygian +measure? As lately, when the Neptunian admiral, driven from the sea, +and his navy burned, fled, after having menaced those chains to Rome, +which, like a friend, he had taken off from perfidious slaves. The Roman +soldiers (alas! ye, our posterity, will deny the fact), enslaved to a +woman, carry palisadoes and arms, and can be subservient to haggard +eunuchs; and among the military standards, oh shame! the sun beholds an +[Egyptian] canopy. Indignant at this the Gauls turned two thousand of +their cavalry, proclaiming Caesar; and the ships of the hostile navy, +going off to the left, lie by in port. Hail, god of triumph! Dost thou +delay the golden chariots and untouched heifers? Hail, god of triumph! +You neither brought back a general equal [to Caesar] from the Jugurthine +war; nor from the African [war, him], whose valor raised him a monument +over Carthage. Our enemy, overthrown both by land and sea, has changed +his purple vestments for mourning. He either seeks Crete, famous for her +hundred cities, ready to sail with unfavorable winds; or the Syrtes, +harassed by the south; or else is driven by the uncertain sea. Bring +hither, boy, larger bowls, and the Chian or Lesbian wine; or, what may +correct this rising qualm of mine, fill me out the Caecuban. It is my +pleasure to dissipate care and anxiety for Caesar's danger with +delicious wine. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE X. + +AGAINST MAEVIUS. + + +The vessel that carries the loathsome Maevius, makes her departure under +an unlucky omen. Be mindful, O south wind, that you buffet it about with +horrible billows. May the gloomy east, turning up the sea, disperse its +cables and broken oars. Let the north arise as mighty as when be rives +the quivering oaks on the lofty mountains; nor let a friendly star +appear through the murky night, in which the baleful Orion sets: nor let +him be conveyed in a calmer sea, than was the Grecian band of +conquerors, when Pallas turned her rage from burned Troy to the ship of +impious Ajax. Oh what a sweat is coming upon your sailors, and what a +sallow paleness upon you, and that effeminate wailing, and those prayers +to unregarding Jupiter; when the Ionian bay, roaring with the +tempestuous south-west, shall break your keel. But if, extended along +the winding shore, you shall delight the cormorants as a dainty prey, a +lascivious he-goat and an ewe-lamb shall be sacrificed to the Tempests. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XI. + +TO PECTIUS. + + +It by no means, O Pectius, delights me as heretofore to write Lyric +verses, being smitten with cruel love: with love, who takes pleasure to +inflame me beyond others, either youths or maidens. This is the third +December that has shaken the [leafy] honors from the woods, since I +ceased to be mad for Inachia. Ah me! (for I am ashamed of so great a +misfortune) what a subject of talk was I throughout the city! I repent +too of the entertainments, at which both a languishing and silence and +sighs, heaved from the bottom of my breast, discovered the lover. As +soon as the indelicate god [Bacchus] by the glowing wine had removed, as +I grew warm, the secrets of [my heart] from their repository, I made my +complaints, lamenting to you, "Has the fairest genius of a poor man no +weight against wealthy lucre? Wherefore, if a generous indignation boil +in my breast, insomuch as to disperse to the winds these disagreeable +applications, that give no ease to the desperate wound; the shame [of +being overcome] ending, shall cease to contest with rivals of such a +sort." When I, with great gravity, had applauded these resolutions in +your presence, being ordered to go home, I was carried with a wandering +foot to posts, alas! to me not friendly, and alas! obdurate gates, +against which I bruised my loins and side. Now my affections for the +delicate Lyciscus engross all my time; from them neither the unreserved +admonitions, nor the serious reprehensions of other friends can recall +me [to my former taste for poetry]; but, perhaps, either a new flame for +some fair damsel, or for some graceful youth who binds his long hair in +a knot, [may do so]. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XII. + +TO A WOMAN WHOSE CHARMS WERE OVER. + + +What would you be at, you woman fitter for the swarthy monsters? Why do +you send tokens, why billet-doux to me, and not to some vigorous youth, +and of a taste not nice? For I am one who discerns a polypus, or fetid +ramminess, however concealed, more quickly than the keenest dog the +covert of the boar. What sweatiness, and how rank an odor every where +rises from her withered limbs! when she strives to lay her furious rage +with impossibilities; now she has no longer the advantage of moist +cosmetics, and her color appears as if stained with crocodile's ordure; +and now, in wild impetuosity, she tears her bed, bedding, and all she +has. She attacks even my loathings in the most angry terms:--"You are +always less dull with Inachia than me: in her company you are threefold +complaisance; but you are ever unprepared to oblige me in a single +instance. Lesbia, who first recommended you--so unfit a help in time of +need--may she come to an ill end! when Coan Amyntas paid me his +addresses; who is ever as constant in his fair one's service, as the +young tree to the hill it grows on. For whom were labored the fleeces of +the richest Tyrian dye? For you? Even so that there was not one in +company, among gentlemen of your own rank, whom his own wife admired +preferably to you: oh, unhappy me, whom you fly, as the lamb dreads the +fierce wolves, or the she-goats the lions!" + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIII. + +TO A FRIEND. + + +A horrible tempest has condensed the sky, and showers and snows bring +down the atmosphere: now the sea, now the woods bellow with the Thracian +North wind. Let us, my friends, take occasion from the day; and while +our knees are vigorous, and it becomes us, let old age with his +contracted forehead become smooth. Do you produce the wine, that was +pressed in the consulship of my Torquatus. Forbear to talk of any other +matters. The deity, perhaps, will reduce these [present evils], to your +former [happy] state by a propitious change. Now it is fitting both to +be bedewed with Persian perfume, and to relieve our breasts of dire +vexations by the lyre, sacred to Mercury. Like as the noble Centaur, +[Chiron,] sung to his mighty pupil: "Invincible mortal, son of the +goddess Thetis, the land of Assaracus awaits you, which the cold +currents of little Scamander and swift-gliding Simois divide: whence the +fatal sisters have broken off your return, by a thread that cannot be +altered: nor shall your azure mother convey you back to your home. There +[then] by wine and music, sweet consolations, drive away every symptom +of hideous melancholy." + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIV. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +You kill me, my courteous Maecenas, by frequently inquiring, why a +soothing indolence has diffused as great a degree of forgetfulness on my +inmost senses, as if I had imbibed with a thirsty throat the cups that +bring on Lethean slumbers. For the god, the god prohibits me from +bringing to a conclusion the verses I promised [you, namely those] +iambics which I had begun. In the same manner they report that Anacreon +of Teios burned for the Samian Bathyllus; who often lamented his love to +an inaccurate measure on a hollow lyre. You are violently in love +yourself; but if a fairer flame did not burn besieged Troy, rejoice in +your lot. Phryne, a freed-woman, and not content with a single admirer, +consumes me. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XV. + +TO NEAERA. + + +It was night, and the moon shone in a serene sky among the lesser stars; +when you, about to violate the divinity of the great gods, swore [to be +true] to my requests, embracing me with your pliant arms more closely +than the lofty oak is clasped by the ivy; that while the wolf should +remain an enemy to the flock, and Orion, unpropitious to the sailors, +should trouble the wintery sea, and while the air should fan the +unshorn locks of Apollo, [so long you vowed] that this love should be +mutual. O Neaera, who shall one day greatly grieve on account of my +merit: for, if there is any thing of manhood in Horace, he will not +endure that you should dedicate your nights continually to another, whom +you prefer; and exasperated, he will look out for one who will return +his love; and though an unfeigned sorrow should take possession of you, +yet my firmness shall not give way to that beauty which has once given +me disgust. But as for you, whoever you be who are more successful [than +me], and now strut proud of my misfortune; though you be rich in flocks +and abundance of land, and Pactolus flow for you, nor the mysteries of +Pythagoras, born again, escape you, and you excel Nireus in beauty; +alas! you shall [hereafter] bewail her love transferred elsewhere; but I +shall laugh in my turn. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVI. + +TO THE ROMAN PEOPLE. + + +Now is another age worn away by civil wars, and Rome herself falls by +her own strength. Whom neither the bordering Marsi could destroy, nor +the Etrurian band of the menacing Porsena, nor the rival valor of Capua, +nor the bold Spartacus, and the Gauls perfideous with their innovations; +nor did the fierce Germany subdue with its blue-eyed youth, nor Annibal, +detested by parents; but we, an impious race, whose blood is devoted to +perdition, shall destroy her: and this land shall again be possessed by +wild beasts. The victorious barbarian, alas! shall trample upon the +ashes of the city, and the horsemen shall smite it with the sounding +hoofs; and (horrible to see!) he shall insultingly disperse the bones of +Romulus, which [as yet] are free from the injuries of wind and sun. +Perhaps you all in general, or the better part of you, are inquisitive +to know, what may be expedient, in order to escape [such] dreadful +evils. There can be no determination better than this; namely, to go +wherever our feet will carry us, wherever the south or boisterous +south-west shall summon us through the waves; in the same manner as the +state of the Phocaeans fled, after having uttered execrations [against +such as should return], and left their fields and proper dwellings and +temples to be inhabited by boars and ravenous wolves. Is this +agreeable? has any one a better scheme to advise? Why do we delay to go +on ship-board under an auspicious omen? But first let us swear to these +conditions--the stones shall swim upward, lifted from the bottom of the +sea, as soon as it shall not be impious to return; nor let it grieve us +to direct our sails homeward, when the Po shall wash the tops of the +Matinian summits; or the lofty Apennine shall remove into the sea, or a +miraculous appetite shall unite monsters by a strange kind of lust; +Insomuch that tigers may delight to couple with hinds, and the dove be +polluted with the kite; nor the simple herds may dread the brindled +lions, and the he-goat, grown smooth, may love the briny main. After +having sworn to these things, and whatever else may cut off the +pleasing: hope of returning, let us go, the whole city of us, or at +least that part which is superior to the illiterate mob: let the idle +and despairing part remain upon these inauspicious habitations. Ye, that +have bravery, away with effeminate grief, and fly beyond the Tuscan +shore. The ocean encircling the land awaits us; let us seek the happy +plains and prospering Islands, where the untilled land yearly produces +corn, and the unpruned vineyard punctually flourishes; and where the +branch of the never-failing olive blossoms forth, and the purple fig +adorns its native tree: honey distills from the hollow oaks; the light +water bounds down from the high mountains with a murmuring pace. There +the she-goats come to the milk-pails of their own accord, and the +friendly flock return with their udders distended; nor does the bear at +evening growl about the sheepfold, nor does the rising ground swell with +vipers; and many more things shall we, happy [Romans], view with +admiration: how neither the rainy east lays waste the corn-fields with +profuse showers, nor is the fertile seed burned by a dry glebe; the king +of gods moderating both [extremes]. The pine rowed by the Argonauts +never attempted to come hither; nor did the lascivious [Medea] of +Colchis set her foot [in this place]: hither the Sidonian mariners never +turned their sail-yards, nor the toiling crew of Ulysses. No contagious +distempers hurt the flocks; nor does the fiery violence of any +constellation scorch the herd. Jupiter set apart these shores for a +pious people, when he debased the golden age with brass: with brass, +then with iron he hardened the ages; from which there shall be a happy +escape for the good, according to my predictions. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVII. + +DIALOGUE BETWEEN HORACE AND CANIDIA. + + +Now, now I yield to powerful science; and suppliant beseech thee by the +dominions of Proserpine, and by the inflexible divinity of Diana, and by +the books of incantations able to call down the stars displaced from the +firmament; O Canidia, at length desist from thine imprecations, and +quickly turn, turn back thy magical machine. Telephus moved [with +compassion] the grandson of Nereus, against whom he arrogantly had put +his troops of Mysians in battle-array, and against whom he had darted +his sharp javelins. The Trojan matrons embalmed the body of the +man-slaying Hector, which had been condemned to birds of prey, and dogs, +after king [Priam], having left the walls of the city, prostrated +himself, alas! at the feet of the obstinate Achilles. The mariners of +the indefatigable Ulysses, put off their limbs, bristled with the hard +skins [of swine], at the will of Circe: then their reason and voice were +restored, and their former comeliness to their countenances. I have +suffered punishment enough, and more than enough, on thy account, O thou +so dearly beloved by the sailors and factors. My vigor is gone away, and +my ruddy complexion has left me; my bones are covered with a ghastly +skin; my hair with your preparations is grown hoary. No ease respites me +from my sufferings: night presses upon day, and day upon night: nor is +it in my power to relieve my lungs, which are strained with gasping. +Wherefore, wretch that I am, I am compelled to credit (what was denied, +by me) that the charms of the Samnites discompose the breast, and the +head splits in sunder at the Marsian incantations. What wouldst thou +have more? O sea! O earth! I burn in such a degree as neither Hercules +did, besmeared with the black gore of Nessus, nor the fervid flame +burning In the Sicilian Aetna. Yet you, a laboratory of Colchian +poisons, remain on fire, till I [reduced to] a dry ember, shall be +wafted away by the injurious winds. What event, or what penalty awaits +me? Speak out: I will with honor pay the demanded mulct; ready to make +an expiation, whether you should require a hundred steers, or chose to +be celebrated on a lying lyre. You, a woman of modesty, you, a woman of +probity, shall traverse the stars, as a golden constellation. Castor and +the brother of the great Castor, offended at the infamy brought on +[their sister] Helen, yet overcome by entreaty, restored to the poet his +eyes that were taken away from him. And do you (for it is in your power) +extricate me from this frenzy; O you, that are neither defiled by family +meanness, nor skillful to disperse the ashes of poor people, after they +have been nine days interred. You have an hospitable breast, and +unpolluted hands; and Pactumeius is your son, and thee the midwife has +tended; and, whenever you bring forth, you spring up with unabated +vigor. + + + +CANIDIA'S ANSWER. + + +Why do you pour forth your entreaties to ears that are closely shut +[against them]? The wintery ocean, with its briny tempests, does not +lash rocks more deaf to the cries of the naked mariners. What, shall +you, without being made an example of, deride the Cotyttian mysteries, +sacred to unrestrained love, which were divulged [by you]? And shall +you, [assuming the office] of Pontiff [with regard to my] Esquilian +incantations, fill the city with my name unpunished? What did it avail +me to have enriched the Palignian sorceress [with my charms], and to +have prepared poison of greater expedition, if a slower fate awaits you +than is agreeable to my wishes? An irksome life shall be protracted by +you, wretch as you are, for this purpose, that you may perpetually be +able to endure new tortures. Tantalus, the perfidious sire of Pelops, +ever craving after the plenteous banquet [which is always before him], +wishes for respite; Prometheus, chained to the vulture, wishes [for +rest]; Sisyphus wishes to place the stone on the summit of the mountain: +but the laws of Jupiter forbid. Thus you shall desire at one time to +leap down from a high tower, at another to lay open your breast with the +Noric sword; and, grieving with your tedious indisposition, shall tie +nooses about your neck in vain. I at that time will ride on your odious +shoulders; and the whole earth shall acknowledge my unexampled power. +What shall I who can give motion to waxen images (as you yourself, +inquisitive as you are, were convinced of) and snatch the moon from +heaven by my incantations; I, who can raise the dead after they are +burned, and duly prepare the potion of love, shall I bewail the event of +my art having no efficacy upon you? + + * * * * * + + + +THE SECULAR POEM OF HORACE. + +TO APOLLO AND DIANA. + + +Phoebus, and thou Diana, sovereign of the woods, ye illustrious +ornaments of the heavens, oh ever worthy of adoration, and ever adored, +bestow what we pray for at this sacred season: at which the Sibylline +verses have given directions, that select virgins and chaste youths +should sing a hymn to the deities, to whom the seven hills [of Rome] are +acceptable. O genial sun, who in your splendid car draw forth and +obscure the day, and who arise another and the same, may it never be in +your power to behold anything more glorious than the city of Rome! O +Ilithyia, of lenient power to produce the timely birth, protect the +matrons [in labor]; whether you choose the title of Lucina, or +Genitalis. O goddess multiply our offspring; and prosper the decrees of +the senate in relation to the joining of women in wedlock, and the +matrimonial law about to teem with a new race; that the stated +revolution of a hundred and ten years may bring back the hymns and the +games, three times by bright daylight restored to in crowds, and as +often in the welcome night. And you, ye fatal sisters, infallible in +having predicted what is established, and what the settled order of +things preserves, add propitious fates to those already past. Let the +earth, fertile in fruits and flocks, present Ceres with a sheafy crown; +may both salubrious rains and Jove's air cherish the young blood! +Apollo, mild and gentle with your sheathed arrows, hear the suppliant +youths: O moon, thou horned queen of stars, hear the virgins. If Rome be +your work, and the Trojan troops arrived on the Tuscan shore (the part, +commanded [by your oracles] to change their homes and city) by a +successful navigation: for whom pious Aeneas, surviving his country, +secured a free passage through Troy, burning not by his treachery, about +to give them more ample possessions than those that were left behind. O +ye deities, grant to the tractable youth probity of manners; to old age, +ye deities, grant a pleasing retirement; to the Roman people, wealth, +and progeny, and every kind of glory. And may the illustrious issue of +Anchises and Venus, who worships you with [offerings of] white bulls, +reign superior to the warring enemy, merciful to the prostrate. Now the +Parthian, by sea and land, dreads our powerful forces and the Roman +axes: now the Scythians beg [to know] our commands, and the Indians but +lately so arrogant. Now truth, and peace, and honor, and ancient +modesty, and neglected virtue dare to return, and happy plenty appears, +with her horn full to the brim. Phoebus, the god of augury, and +conspicuous for his shining bow, and dear to the nine muses, who by his +salutary art soothes the wearied limbs of the body; if he, propitious, +surveys the Palatine altars--may he prolong the Roman affairs, and the +happy state of Italy to another lustrum, and to an improving age. And +may Diana, who possesses Mount Aventine and Algidus, regard the prayers +of the Quindecemvirs, and lend a gracious ear to the supplications of +the youths. We, the choir taught to sing the praises of Phoebus and +Diana, bear home with us a good and certain hope, that Jupiter, and all +the other gods, are sensible of these our supplications. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE FIRST BOOK OF THE SATIRES OF HORACE. + + + +SATIRE I. + +_That all, but especially the covetous, think their own condition the +hardest_. + + +How comes it to pass, Maecenas, that no one lives content with his +condition, whether reason gave it him, or chance threw it in his way +[but] praises those who follow different pursuits? "O happy merchants!" +says the soldier, oppressed with years, and now broken down in his limbs +through excess of labor. On the other side, the merchant, when the south +winds toss his ship [cries], "Warfare is preferable;" for why? the +engagement is begun, and in an instant there comes a speedy death or a +joyful victory. The lawyer praises the farmer's state when the client +knocks at his door by cock-crow. He who, having entered into a +recognizance, is dragged from the country into the city, cries, "Those +only are happy who live in the city." The other instances of this kind +(they are so numerous) would weary out the loquacious Fabius; not to +keep you in suspense, hear to what an issue I will bring the matter. If +any god should say, "Lo! I will effect what you desire: you, that were +just now a soldier, shall be a merchant; you, lately a lawyer [shall be] +a farmer. Do ye depart one way, and ye another, having exchanged the +parts [you are to act] in life. How now! why do you stand?" They are +unwilling; and yet it is in their power to be happy. What reason can be +assigned, but that Jupiter should deservedly distend both his cheeks in +indignation, and declare that for the future he will not be so indulgent +as to lend an ear to their prayers? But further, that I may not run over +this in a laughing manner, like those [who treat] on ludicrous subjects +(though what hinders one being merry, while telling the truth? as +good-natured teachers at first give cakes to their boys, that they may +be willing to learn their first rudiments: railery, however, apart, let +us investigate serious matters). He that turns the heavy glebe with the +hard ploughshare, this fraudulent tavern-keeper, the soldier, and the +sailors, who dauntless run through every sea, profess that they endure +toil with this intention, that as old men they may retire into a secure +resting place, when once they have gotten together a sufficient +provision. + +Thus the little ant (for she is an example), of great industry, carries +in her mouth whatever she is able, and adds to the heap which she piles +up, by no means ignorant and not careless for the future. Which [ant, +nevertheless], as soon, as Aquarius saddens the changed year, never +creeps abroad, but wisely makes use of those stores which were provided +beforehand: while neither sultry summer, nor winter, fire, ocean, sword, +can drive you from gain. You surmount every obstacle, that no other man +may be richer than yourself. What pleasure is it for you, trembling to +deposit an immense weight of silver and gold in the earth dug up by +stealth? Because if you lessen it, it may be reduced to a paltry +farthing. + +But unless that be the case, what beauty has an accumulated hoard? +Though your thrashing-floor should yield a hundred thousand bushels of +corn, your belly will not on that account contain more than mine: just +as if it were your lot to carry on your loaded shoulder the basket of +bread among slaves, you would receive no more [for your own share] than +he who bore no part of the burthen. Or tell me, what is it to the +purpose of that man, who lives within the compass of nature, whether he +plow a hundred or a thousand acres? + +"But it is still delightful to take out of a great hoard." + +While you leave us to take as much out of a moderate store, why should +you extol your granaries, more than our corn-baskets? As if you had +occasion for no more than a pitcher or glass of water, and should say, +"I had rather draw [so much] from a great river, than the very same +quantity from this little fountain." Hence it comes to pass, that the +rapid Aufidus carries away, together with the bank, such men as an +abundance more copious than what is just delights. But he who desires +only so much as is sufficient, neither drinks water fouled with the mud, +nor loses his life in the waves. + +But a great majority of mankind, misled by a wrong desire cry, "No sum +is enough; because you are esteemed in proportion to what you possess." +What can one do to such a tribe as this? Why, bid them be wretched, +since their inclination prompts them to it. As a certain person is +recorded [to have lived] at Athens, covetous and rich, who was wont to +despise the talk of the people in this manner: "The crowd hiss me; but I +applaud myself at home, as soon as I contemplate my money in my chest." +The thirsty Tantalus catches at the streams, which elude his lips. Why +do you laugh? The name changed, the tale is told of you. You sleep upon +your bags, heaped up on every side, gaping over them, and are obliged to +abstain from them, as if they were consecrated things, or to amuse +yourself with them as you would with pictures. Are you ignorant of what +value money has, what use it can afford? Bread, herbs, a bottle of wine +may be purchased; to which [necessaries], add [such others], as, being +withheld, human nature would be uneasy with itself. What, to watch half +dead with terror, night and day, to dread profligate thieves, fire, and +your slaves, lest they should run away and plunder you; is this +delightful? I should always wish to be very poor in possessions held +upon these terms. + +But if your body should be disordered by being seized with a cold, or +any other casualty should confine you to your bed, have you one that +will abide by you, prepare medicines, entreat the physician that he +would set you upon your feet, and restore you to your children and dear +relations? + +Neither your wife, nor your son, desires your recovery; all your +neighbors, acquaintances, [nay the very] boys and girls hate you. Do you +wonder that no one tenders you the affection which you do not merit, +since you prefer your money to everything else? If you think to retain, +and preserve as friends, the relations which nature gives you, without +taking any pains; wretch that you are, you lose your labor equally, as +if any one should train an ass to be obedient to the rein, and run in +the Campus [Martius]. Finally, let there be some end to your search; +and, as your riches increase, be in less dread of poverty; and begin to +cease from your toil, that being acquired which you coveted: nor do as +did one Umidius (it is no tedious story), who was so rich that he +measured his money, so sordid that he never clothed him self any better +than a slave; and, even to his last moments, was in dread lest want of +bread should oppress him: but his freed-woman, the bravest of all the +daughters of Tyndarus, cut him in two with a hatchet. + +"What therefore do you persuade me to? That I should lead the life of +Naevius, or in such a manner as a Nomentanus?" + +You are going [now] to make things tally, that are contradictory in +their natures. When I bid you not be a miser, I do not order you to +become a debauchee or a prodigal. There is some difference between the +case of Tanais and his son-in-law Visellius, there is a mean in things; +finally, there are certain boundaries, on either side of which moral +rectitude can not exist. I return now whence I digressed. Does no one, +after the miser's example, like his own station, but rather praise those +who have different pursuits; and pines, because his neighbor's she-goat +bears a more distended udder: nor considers himself in relation to the +greater multitude of poor; but labors to surpass, first one and then +another? Thus the richer man is always an obstacle to one that is +hastening [to be rich]: as when the courser whirls along the chariot +dismissed from the place of starting; the charioteer presses upon those +horses which outstrip his own, despising him that is left behind coming +on among the last. Hence it is, that we rarely find a man who can say he +has lived happy, and content with his past life, can retire from the +world like a satisfied guest. Enough for the present: nor will I add one +word more, lest you should suspect that I have plundered the escrutoire +of the blear-eyed Crispinus. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE II. + +_Bad men, when they avoid certain vices, fall into their opposite +extremes._ + + +The tribes of female flute-players, quacks, vagrants, mimics, +blackguards; all this set is sorrowful and dejected on account of the +death of the singer Tigellius; for he was liberal [toward them]. On the +other hand, this man, dreading to be called a spendthrift, will not give +a poor friend wherewithal to keep off cold and pinching hunger. If you +ask him why he wickedly consumes the noble estate of his grandfather and +father in tasteless gluttony, buying with borrowed money all sorts of +dainties; he answers, because he is unwilling to be reckoned sordid, or +of a mean spirit: he is praised by some, condemned by others. Fufidius, +wealthy in lands, wealthy in money put out at interest, is afraid of +having the character of a rake and spendthrift. This fellow deducts 5 +per cent. Interest from the principal [at the time of lending]; and, the +more desperate in his circumstances any one is, the more severely be +pinches him: he hunts out the names of young fellows that have just put +on the toga virilis under rigid fathers. Who does not cry out, O +sovereign Jupiter! when he has heard [of such knavery]? But [you will +say, perhaps,] this man expends upon himself in proportion to his gain. +You can hardly believe how little a friend he is to himself: insomuch +that the father, whom Terence's comedy introduces as living miserable +after he had caused his son to run away from him, did not torment +himself worse than he. Now if any one should ask, "To what does this +matter tend?" To this: while fools shun [one sort of] vices, they fall +upon their opposite extremes. Malthinus walks with his garments trailing +upon the ground; there is another droll fellow who [goes] with them +tucked up even to his middle; Rufillus smells like perfume itself, +Gorgonius like a he-goat. There is no mean. There are some who would not +keep company with a lady, unless her modest garment perfectly conceal +her feet. Another, again, will only have such as take their station in a +filthy brothel. When a certain noted spark came out of a stew, the +divine Cato [greeted] him with this sentence: "Proceed (says he) in your +virtuous course. For, when once foul lust has inflamed the veins, it is +right for young fellows to come hither, in comparison of their meddling +with other men's wives." I should not be willing to be commended on such +terms, says Cupiennius, an admirer of the silken vail. + +Ye, that do not wish well to the proceedings of adulterers, it is worth +your while to hear how they are hampered on all sides; and that their +pleasure, which happens to them but seldom, is interrupted with a great +deal of pain, and often in the midst of very great dangers. One has +thrown himself headlong from the top of a house; another has been +whipped almost to death: a third, in his flight, has fallen into a +merciless gang of thieves: another has paid a fine, [to avoid] corporal +[punishment]: the lowest servants have treated another with the vilest +indignities. Moreover, this misfortune happened to a certain person, he +entirely lost his manhood. Every body said, it was with justice: Galba +denied it. + +But how much safer is the traffic among [women] of the second rate! I +mean the freed-women: after which Sallustius is not less mad, than he +who commits adultery. But if he had a mind to be good and generous, as +far as his estate and reason would direct him, and as far as a man might +be liberal with moderation; he would give a sufficiency, not what would +bring upon himself ruin and infamy. However, he hugs himself in this one +[consideration]; this he delights in, this he extols: "I meddle with no +matron." Just as Marsaeus, the lover of Origo, he who gives his paternal +estate and seat to an actress, says, "I never meddle with other men's +wives." But you have with actresses, you have with common strumpets: +whence your reputation derives a greater perdition, than your estate. +What, is it abundantly sufficient to avoid the person, and not the +[vice] which is universally noxious? To lose one's good name, to +squander a father's effects, is in all cases an evil. What is the +difference [then, with regard to yourself,] whether you sin with the +person of a matron, a maiden, or a prostitute? + +Villius, the son-in-law of Sylla (by this title alone he was misled), +suffered [for his commerce] with Fausta, an adequate and more than +adequate punishment, by being drubbed and stabbed, while he was shut +out, that Longarenus might enjoy her within. Suppose this [young man's] +mind had addressed him in the words of his appetite, perceiving such +evil consequences: "What would you have? Did I ever, when my ardor was +at the highest, demand a woman descended from a great consul, and +covered with robes of quality?" What could he answer? Why, "the girl was +sprung from an illustrious father." But how much better things, and how +different from this, does nature, abounding in stores of her own, +recommend; if you would only make a proper use of them, and not confound +what is to be avoided with that which is desirable! Do you think it is +of no consequence, whether your distresses arise from your own fault or +from [a real deficiency] of things? Wherefore, that you may not repent +[when it is too late], put a stop to your pursuit after matrons; whence +more trouble is derived, than you can obtain of enjoyment from success. +Nor has [this particular matron], amid her pearls and emeralds, a softer +thigh, or-limbs mere delicate than yours, Cerinthus; nay, the +prostitutes are frequently preferable. Add to this, that [the +prostitute] bears about her merchandize without any varnish, and openly +shows what she has to dispose of; nor, if she has aught more comely than +ordinary, does she boast and make an ostentation of it, while she is +industrious to conceal that which is offensive. This is the custom with +men of fortune: when they buy horses, they inspect them covered: that, +if a beautiful forehand (as often) be supported by a tender hoof, it may +not take in the buyer, eager for the bargain, because the back is +handsome, the head little, and the neck stately. This they do +judiciously. Do not you, [therefore, in the same manner] contemplate the +perfections of each [fair one's] person with the eyes of Lynceus; but be +blinder than Hypsaea, when you survey such parts as are deformed. [You +may cry out,] "O what a leg! O, what delicate arms!" But [you suppress] +that she is low-hipped, short-waisted, with a long nose, and a splay +foot. A man can see nothing but the face of a matron, who carefully +conceals her other charms, unless it be a Catia. But if you will seek +after forbidden charms (for the [circumstance of their being forbidden] +makes you mad after them), surrounded as they are with a fortification, +many obstacles will then be in your way: such as guardians, the sedan, +dressers, parasites, the long robe hanging down to the ankles, and +covered with an upper garment; a multiplicity of circumstances, which +will hinder you from having a fair view. The other throws no obstacle in +your way; through the silken vest you may discern her, almost as well as +if she was naked; that she has neither a bad leg, nor a disagreeable +foot, you may survey her form perfectly with your eye. Or would you +choose to have a trick put upon you, and your money extorted, before the +goods are shown you? [But perhaps you will sing to me these verses out +of Callimachus.] As the huntsman pursues the hare in the deep snow, but +disdains to touch it when it is placed before him: thus sings the rake, +and applies it to himself; my love is like to this, for it passes over +an easy prey, and pursues what flies from it. Do you hope that grief, +and uneasiness, and bitter anxieties, will be expelled from your breast +by such verses as these? Would It not be more profitable to inquire what +boundary nature has affixed to the appetites, what she can patiently do +without, and what she would lament the deprivation of, and to separate +what is solid from what is vain? What! when thirst parches your jaws, +are you solicitous for golden cups to drink out of? What! when you are +hungry, do you despise everything but peacock and turbot? When your +passions are inflamed, and a common gratification is at hand, would you +rather be consumed with desire than possess it? I would not: for I love +such pleasures as are of easiest attainment. But she whose language is, +"By and by," "But for a small matter more," "If my husband should be out +of the way." [is only] for petit-maitres: and for himself, Philodemus +says, he chooses her, who neither stands for a great price, nor delays +to come when she is ordered. Let her be fair, and straight, and so far +decent as not to appear desirous of seeming fairer than nature has made +her. When I am in the company of such an one, she is my Ilia and +Aegeria; I give her any name. Nor am I apprehensive, while I am in her +company, lest her husband should return from the country: the door +should be broken open; the dog should bark; the house, shaken, should +resound on all sides with a great noise; the woman, pale [with fear], +should bound away from me; lest the maid, conscious [of guilt], should +cry out, she is undone; lest she should be in apprehension for her +limbs, the detected wife for her portion, I for myself: lest I must run +away with my clothes all loose, and bare-footed, for fear my money, or +my person, or, finally my character should be demolished. It is a +dreadful thing to be caught; I could prove this, even if Fabius were the +judge. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE III. + +_We might to connive at the faults of our friends, and all offences are +not to be ranked in the catalogue of crimes_. + + +This is a fault common to all singers, that among their friends they +never are inclined to sing when they are asked, [but] unasked, they +never desist. Tigellius, that Sardinian, had this [fault]. Had Caesar, +who could have forced him to compliance, besought him on account of his +father's friendship and his own, he would have had no success; if he +himself was disposed, he would chant lo Bacche over and over, from the +beginning of an entertainment to the very conclusion of it; one while at +the deepest pitch of his voice, at another time with that which answers +to the highest string of the tetrachord. There was nothing uniform in +that fellow; frequently would he run along, as one flying from an enemy; +more frequently [he walked] as if he bore [in procession] the sacrifice +of Juno: he had often two hundred slaves, often but ten: one while +talking of kings and potentates, every thing that was magnificent; at +another--"Let me have a three-legged table, and a cellar of clean salt, +and a gown which, though coarse, may be sufficient to keep out the +cold." Had you given ten hundred thousand sesterces to this moderate man +who was content with such small matters, in five days' time there would +be nothing in his bags. He sat up at nights, [even] to day-light; he +snored out all the day. Never was there anything so inconsistent with +itself. Now some person may say to me, "What are you? Have you no +faults?" Yes, others; but others, and perhaps of a less culpable nature. + +When Maenius railed at Novius in his absence: "Hark ye," says a certain +person, "are you ignorant of yourself? or do you think to impose +yourself upon us a person we do not know?" "As for me, I forgive +myself," quoth Maenius. This is a foolish and impious self-love, and +worthy to be stigmatized. When you look over your own vices, winking at +them, as it were, with sore eyes; why are you with regard to those of +your friends as sharp-sighted as an eagle, or the Epidaurian serpent? +But, on the other hand, it is your lot that your friends should inquire +into your vices in turn. [A certain person] is a little too hasty in his +temper; not well calculated for the sharp-witted sneers of these men: he +may be made a jest of because his gown hangs awkwardly, he [at the same +time] being trimmed in a very rustic manner, and his wide shoe hardly +sticks to his foot. But he is so good, that no man can be better; but he +is your friend; but an immense genius is concealed under this unpolished +person of his. Finally, sift yourself thoroughly, whether nature has +originally sown the seeds of any vice in you, or even an ill-habit [has +done it]. For the fern, fit [only] to be burned, overruns the neglected +fields. + +Let us return from our digression. As his mistress's disagreeable +failings escape the blinded lover, or even give him pleasure (as Hagna's +wen does to Balbinus), I could wish that we erred in this manner with +regard to friendship, and that virtue had affixed a reputable +appellation to such an error. And as a father ought not to contemn his +son, if he has any defect, in the same manner we ought not [to contemn] +our friend. The father calls his squinting boy a pretty leering rogue; +and if any man has a little despicable brat, such as the abortive +Sisyphus formerly was, he calls it a sweet moppet; this [child] with +distorted legs, [the father] in a fondling voice calls one of the Vari; +and another, who is club-footed, he calls a Scaurus. [Thus, does] this +friend of yours live more sparingly than ordinarily? Let him be styled a +man of frugality. Is another impertinent, and apt to brag a little? He +requires to be reckoned entertaining to his friends. But [another] is +too rude, and takes greater liberties than are fitting. Let him be +esteemed a man of sincerity and bravery. Is he too fiery, let him be +numbered among persons of spirit. This method, in my opinion, both +unites friends, and preserves them in a state of union. But we invert +the very virtues themselves, and are desirous of throwing dirt upon the +untainted vessel. Does a man of probity live among us? he is a person of +singular diffidence; we give him the name of a dull and fat-headed +fellow. Does this man avoid every snare, and lay himself open to no +ill-designing villain; since we live amid such a race, where keen envy +and accusations are flourishing? Instead of a sensible and wary man, we +call him a disguised and subtle fellow. And is any one more open, [and +less reserved] than usual in such a degree as I often have presented +myself to you, Maecenas, so as perhaps impertinently to interrupt a +person reading, or musing, with any kind of prate? We cry, "[this +fellow] actually wants common sense." Alas! how indiscreetly do we +ordain a severe law against ourselves! For no one Is born without vices: +he is the best man who is encumbered with the least. When my dear +friend, as is just, weighs my good qualities against my bad ones, let +him, if he is willing to be beloved, turn the scale to the majority of +the former (if I have indeed a majority of good qualities), on this +condition, he shall be placed in the same balance. He who requires that +his friend should not take offence at his own protuberances, will excuse +his friend's little warts. It is fair that he who entreats a pardon for +his own faults, should grant one in his turn. + +Upon the whole, forasmuch as the vice anger, as well as others inherent +in foolish [mortals], cannot be totally eradicated, why does not human +reason make use of its own weights and measures; and so punish faults, +as the nature of the thing demands? If any man should punish with the +cross, a slave, who being ordered to take away the dish should gorge +the half-eaten fish and warm sauce; he would, among people in their +senses, be called a madder man than Labeo. How much more irrational and +heinous a crime is this! Your friend has been guilty of a small error +(which, unless you forgive, you ought to be reckoned a sour, ill-natured +fellow), you hate and avoid him, as a debtor does Ruso; who, when the +woful calends come upon the unfortunate man, unless he procures the +interest or capital by hook or by crook, is compelled to hear his +miserable stories with his neck stretched out like a slave. [Should my +friend] in his liquor water my couch, or has he thrown down a jar carved +by the hands of Evander: shall he for this [trifling] affair, or because +in his hunger he has taken a chicken before me out of my part of the +dish, be the less agreeable friend to me? [If so], what could I do if he +was guilty of theft, or had betrayed things committed to him in +confidence, or broken his word. They who are pleased [to rank all] +faults nearly on an equality, are troubled when they come to the truth +of the matter: sense and morality are against them, and utility itself, +the mother almost of right and of equity. + +When [rude] animals, they crawled forth upon the first-formed earth, the +mute and dirty herd fought with their nails and fists for their acorn +and caves, afterward with clubs, and finally with arms which experience +had forged: till they found out words and names, by which they +ascertained their language and sensations: thenceforward they began to +abstain from war, to fortify towns, and establish laws: that no person +should be a thief, a robber, or an adulterer. For before Helen's time +there existed [many] a woman who was the dismal cause of war: but those +fell by unknown deaths, whom pursuing uncertain venery, as the bull in +the herd, the strongest slew. It must of necessity be acknowledged, if +you have a mind to turn over the aeras and anuals of the world, that +laws were invented from an apprehension of the natural injustice [of +mankind]. Nor can nature separate what is unjust from what is just, in +the same manner as she distinguishes what is good from its reverse, and +what is to be avoided from that which is to be sought, nor will reason +persuade men to this, that he who breaks down the cabbage-stalk of his +neighbor, sins in as great a measure, and in the same manner, as he who +steals by night things consecrated to the gods. Let there be a settled +standard, that may inflict adequate punishments upon crimes, lest you +should persecute any one with the horrible thong, who is only deserving +of a slight whipping. For I am not apprehensive, that you should correct +with the rod one that deserves to suffer severer stripes: since you +assert that pilfering is an equal crime with highway robbery, and +threaten that you would prune off with an undistinguishing hook little +and great vices, if mankind were to give you the sovereignty over them. +If he be rich, who is wise, and a good shoemaker, and alone handsome, +and a king, why do you wish for that which you are possessed of? You do +not understand what Chrysippus, the father [of your sect], says: "The +wise man never made himself shoes nor slippers: nevertheless, the wise +man is a shoemaker." How so? In the same manner, though Hermogenes be +silent, he is a fine singer, notwithstanding, and an excellent musician: +as the subtle [lawyer] Alfenus, after every instrument of his calling +was thrown aside, and his shop shut up, was [still] a barber; thus is +the wise man of all trades, thus is he a king. O greatest of great +kings, the waggish boys pluck you by the beard; whom unless you restrain +with your staff, you will be jostled by a mob all about you, and you may +wretchedly bark and burst your lungs in vain. Not to be tedious: while +you, my king, shall go to the farthing bath, and no guard shall attend +you, except the absurd Crispinus; my dear friends will both pardon me in +any matter in which I shall foolishly offend, and I in turn will +cheerfully put up with their faults; and though a private man, I shall +live more happily than you, a king. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE IV. + +_He apologizes for the liberties taken by satiric poets in general, and +particularly by himself_. + + +The poets Eupolis, and Cratinus, and Aristophanes, and others, who are +authors of the ancient comedy, if there was any person deserving to be +distinguished for being a rascal or a thief, an adulterer or a +cut-throat, or in any shape an infamous fellow, branded him with great +freedom. Upon these [models] Lucilius entirely depends, having imitated +them, changing only their feet and numbers: a man of wit, of great +keenness, inelegant in the composition of verse: for in this respect he +was faulty; he would often, as a great feat, dictate two hundred verses +in an hour, standing in the same position. As he flowed muddily, there +was [always] something that one would wish to remove; he was verbose, +and too lazy to endure the fatigue of writing--of writing accurately: +for, with regard to the quantity [of his works], I make no account of +it. See! Crispinus challenges me even for ever so little a wager. Take, +if you dare, take your tablets, and I will take mine; let there be a +place, a time, and persons appointed to see fair play: let us see who +can write the most. The gods have done a good part by me, since they +have framed me of an humble and meek disposition, speaking but seldom, +briefly: but do you, [Crispinus,] as much as you will, imitate air which +is shut up in leathern bellows, perpetually putting till the fire +softens the iron. Fannius is a happy man, who, of his own accord, has +presented his manuscripts and picture [to the Palatine Apollo]; when not +a soul will peruse my writings, who am afraid to rehearse in public, on +this account, because there are certain persons who can by no means +relish this kind [of satiric writing], as there are very many who +deserve censure. Single any man out of the crowd; he either labors under +a covetous disposition, or under wretched ambition. One is mad in love +with married women, another with youths; a third the splendor of silver +captivates: Albius is in raptures with brass; another exchanges his +merchandize from the rising sun, even to that with which the western +regions are warmed: but he is burried headlong through dangers, as dust +wrapped up in a whirlwind; in dread lest he should lose anything out of +the capital, or [in hope] that he may increase his store. All these are +afraid of verses, they hate poets. "He has hay on his horn, [they cry;] +avoid him at a great distance: if he can but raise a laugh for his own +diversion, he will not spare any friend: and whatever he has once +blotted upon his paper, he will take a pleasure in letting all the boys +and old women know, as they return from the bakehouse or the lake." But, +come on, attend to a few words on the other side of the question. + +In the first place, I will except myself out of the number of those I +would allow to be poets: for one must not call it sufficient to tag a +verse: nor if any person, like me, writes in a style bordering on +conversation, must you esteem him to be a poet. To him who has genius, +who has a soul of a diviner cast, and a greatness of expression, give +the honor of this appellation. On this account some have raised the +question, whether comedy be a poem or not; because an animated spirit +and force is neither in the style, nor the subject-matter: bating that +it differs from prose by a certain measure, it is mere prose. But [one +may object to this, that even in comedy] an inflamed father rages, +because his dissolute son, mad after a prostitute mistress, refuses a +wife with a large portion; and (what is an egregious scandal) rambles +about drunk with flambeaux by day-light. Yet could Pomponius, were his +father alive, hear less severe reproofs! Wherefore it is not sufficient +to write verses merely in proper language; which if you take to pieces, +any person may storm in the same manner as the father in the play. If +from these verses which I write at this present, or those that Lucilius +did formerly, you take away certain pauses and measures, and make that +word which was first in order hindermost, by placing the latter [words] +before those that preceded [in the verse]; you will not discern the +limbs of a poet, when pulled in pieces, in the same manner as you would +were you to transpose ever so [these lines of Ennius]: + + When discord dreadful bursts the brazen bars, + And shatters iron locks to thunder forth her wars. + +So far of this matter; at another opportunity [I may investigate] +whether [a comedy] be a true poem or not: now I shall only consider this +point, whether this [satiric] kind of writing be deservedly an object of +your suspicion. Sulcius the virulent, and Caprius hoarse with their +malignancy, walk [openly], and with their libels too [in their hands]; +each of them a singular terror to robbers: but if a man lives honestly +and with clean hands, he may despise them both. Though you be like +highwaymen, Coelus and Byrrhus, I am not [a common accuser], like +Caprius and Sulcius; why should you be afraid of me? No shop nor stall +holds my books, which the sweaty hands of the vulgar and of Hermogenes +Tigellius may soil. I repeat to nobody, except my intimates, and that +when I am pressed; nor any where, and before any body. There are many +who recite their writings in the middle of the forum; and who [do it] +while bathing: the closeness of the place, [it seems,] gives melody to +the voice. This pleases coxcombs, who never consider whether they do +this to no purpose, or at an unseasonable time. But you, says he, +delight to hurt people, and this you do out of a mischievous +disposition. From what source do you throw this calumny upon me? Is any +one then your voucher, with whom I have lived? He who backbites his +absent friend; [nay more,] who does not defend, at another's accusing +him; who affects to raise loud laughs in company, and the reputation of +a funny fellow, who can feign things he never saw; who cannot keep +secrets; he is a dangerous man: be you, Roman, aware of him. You may +often see it [even in crowded companies], where twelve sup together on +three couches; one of which shall delight at any rate to asperse the +rest, except him who furnishes the bath; and him too afterward in his +liquor, when truth-telling Bacchus opens the secrets of his heart. Yet +this man seems entertaining, and well-bred, and frank to you, who are an +enemy to the malignant: but do I, if I have laughed because the fop +Rufillus smells all perfumes, and Gorgonius, like a he-goat, appear +insidious and a snarler to you? If by any means mention happen to be +made of the thefts of Petillius Capitolinus in your company, you defend +him after your manner: [as thus,] Capitolinus has had me for a companion +and a friend from childhood, and being applied to, has done many things +on my account: and I am glad that he lives secure in the city; but I +wonder, notwithstanding, how he evaded that sentence. This is the very +essence of black malignity, this is mere malice itself: which crime, +that it shall be far remote from my writings, and prior to them from my +mind, I promise, if I can take upon me to promise any thing sincerely of +myself. If I shall say any thing too freely, if perhaps too ludicrously, +you must favor me by your indulgence with this allowance. For my +excellent father inured me to this custom, that by noting each +particular vice I might avoid it by the example [of others]. When he +exhorted me that I should live thriftily, frugally, and content with +what he had provided for me; don't you see, [would he say,] how +wretchedly the son of Albius lives? and how miserably Barrus? A strong +lesson to hinder any one from squandering away his patrimony. When he +would deter me from filthy fondness for a light woman: [take care, said +he,] that you do not resemble Sectanus. That I might not follow +adulteresses, when I could enjoy a lawful amour: the character cried he, +of Trobonius, who was caught in the fact, is by no means creditable. +The philosopher may tell you the reasons for what is better to be +avoided, and what to be pursued. It is sufficient for me, if I can +preserve the morality traditional from my forefathers, and keep your +life and reputation inviolate, so long as you stand in need of a +guardian: so soon as age shall have strengthened your limbs and mind, +you will swim without cork. In this manner he formed me, as yet a boy: +and whether he ordered me to do any particular thing: You have an +authority for doing this: [then] he instanced some one of the select +magistrates: or did he forbid me [any thing]; can you doubt, [says he,] +whether this thing be dishonorable, and against your interest to be +done, when this person and the other is become such a burning shame for +his bad character [on these accounts]? As a neighboring funeral +dispirits sick gluttons, and through fear of death forces them to have +mercy upon themselves; so other men's disgraces often deter tender minds +from vices. From this [method of education] I am clear from all such +vices, as bring destruction along with them: by lighter foibles, and +such as you may excuse, I am possessed. And even from these, perhaps, a +maturer age, the sincerity of a friend, or my own judgment, may make +great reductions. For neither when I am in bed, or in the piazzas, am I +wanting to myself: this way of proceeding is better; by doing such a +thing I shall live more comfortably; by this means I shall render myself +agreeable to my friends; such a transaction was not clever; what, shall +I, at any time, imprudently commit any thing like it? These things I +resolve in silence by myself. When I have any leisure, I amuse myself +with my papers. This is one of those lighter foibles [I was speaking +of]: to which if you do not grant your indulgence, a numerous band of +poets shall come, which will take my part (for we are many more in +number), and, like the Jews, we will force you to come over to our +numerous party. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE V. + +_He describes a certain journey of his from Rome to Brundusium with +great pleasantry_. + + +Having left mighty Rome, Aricia received me in but a middling inn: +Heliodorus the rhetorician, most learned in the Greek language, was my +fellow-traveller: thence we proceeded to Forum-Appi, stuffed with +sailors and surly landlords. This stage, but one for better travellers +than we, being laggard we divided into two; the Appian way is less +tiresome to bad travelers. Here I, on account of the water, which was +most vile, proclaim war against my belly, waiting not without impatience +for my companions while at supper. Now the night was preparing to spread +her shadows upon the earth, and to display the constellations in the +heavens. Then our slaves began to be liberal of their abuse to the +watermen, and the watermen to our slaves. "Here bring to." "You are +stowing in hundreds; hold, now sure there is enough." Thus while the +fare is paid, and the mule fastened a whole hour is passed away. The +cursed gnats, and frogs of the fens, drive off repose. While the +waterman and a passenger, well-soaked with plenty of thick wine, vie +with one another in singing the praises of their absent mistresses: at +length the passenger being fatigued, begins to sleep; and the lazy +waterman ties the halter of the mule, turned out a-grazing, to a stone, +and snores, lying flat on his back. And now the day approached, when we +saw the boat made no way; until a choleric fellow, one of the +passengers, leaps out of the boat, and drubs the head and sides of both +mule and waterman with a willow cudgel. At last we were scarcely set +ashore at the fourth hour. We wash our faces and hands in thy water, O +Feronia. Then, having dined we crawled on three miles; and arrive under +Anxur, which is built up on rocks that look white to a great distance. +Maecenas was to come here, as was the excellent Cocceius. Both sent +ambassadors on matters of great importance, having been accustomed to +reconcile friends at variance. Here, having got sore eyes, I was obliged +to use the black ointment. In the meantime came Maecenas, and Cocceius, +and Fonteius Capito along with them, a man of perfect polish, and +intimate with Mark Antony, no man more so. + +Without regret we passed Fundi, where Aufidius Luscus was praetor, +laughing at the honors of that crazy scribe, his praetexta, laticlave, +and pan of incense. At our next stage, being weary, we tarry in the city +of the Mamurrae, Murena complimenting us with his house, and Capito with +his kitchen. + +The next day arises, by much the most agreeable to all: for Plotius, and +Varius, and Virgil met us at Sinuessa; souls more candid ones than +which the world never produced, nor is there a person in the world more +bound to them than myself. Oh what embraces, and what transports were +there! While I am in my senses, nothing can I prefer to a pleasant +friend. The village, which is next adjoining to the bridge of Campania, +accommodated us with lodging [at night]; and the public officers with +such a quantity of fuel and salt as they are obliged to [by law]. From +this place the mules deposited their pack-saddles at Capua betimes [in +the morning]. Maecenas goes to play [at tennis]; but I and Virgil to our +repose: for to play at tennis is hurtful to weak eyes and feeble +constitutions. + +From this place the villa of Cocceius, situated above the Caudian inns, +which abounds with plenty, receives us. Now, my muse, I beg of you +briefly to relate the engagement between the buffoon Sarmentus and +Messius Cicirrus; and from what ancestry descended each began the +contest. The illustrious race of Messius-Oscan: Sarmentus's mistress is +still alive. Sprung from such families as these, they came to the +combat. First, Sarmentus: "I pronounce thee to have the look of a mad +horse." We laugh; and Messius himself [says], "I accept your challenge:" +and wags his head. "O!" cries he, "if the horn were not cut off your +forehead, what would you not do; since, maimed as you are, you bully at +such a rate?" For a foul scar has disgraced the left part of Messius's +bristly forehead. Cutting many jokes upon his Campanian disease, and +upon his face, he desired him to exhibit Polyphemus's dance: that he had +no occasion for a mask, or the tragic buskins. Cicirrus [retorted] +largely to these: he asked, whether he had consecrated his chain to the +household gods according to his vow; though he was a scribe, [he told +him] his mistress's property in him was not the less. Lastly, he asked, +how he ever came to run away; such a lank meager fellow, for whom a +pound of corn [a-day] would be ample. We were so diverted, that we +continued that supper to an unusual length. + +Hence we proceed straight on for Beneventum; where the bustling landlord +almost burned himself, in roasting some lean thrushes: for, the fire +falling through the old kitchen [floor], the spreading flame made a +great progress toward the highest part of the roof. Then you might have +seen the hungry guests and frightened slaves snatching their supper out +[of the flames], and everybody endeavoring to extinguish the fire. + +After this Apulia began to discover to me her well-known mountains, +which the Atabulus scorches [with his blasts]: and through which we +should never have crept, unless the neighboring village of Trivicus had +received us, not without a smoke that brought tears into our eyes; +occasioned by a hearth's burning some green boughs with the leaves upon +them. Here, like a great fool as I was, I wait till midnight for a +deceitful mistress; sleep, however, overcomes me while meditating love; +and disagreeable dreams make me ashamed of myself and every thing about +me. + +Hence we were bowled away in chaises twenty-four miles, intending to +stop at a little town, which one cannot name in a verse, but it is +easily enough known by description. For water is sold here, though the +worst in the world; but their bread is exceeding fine, inasmuch that the +weary traveler is used to carry it willingly on his shoulders; for [the +bread] at Canusium is gritty; a pitcher of water is worth no more [than +it is here]: which place was formerly built by the valiant Diomedes. +Here Varius departs dejected from his weeping friends. + +Hence we came to Rubi, fatigued: because we made a long journey, and it +was rendered still more troublesome by the rains. Next day the weather +was better, the road worse, even to the very walls of Barium that +abounds in fish. In the next place Egnatia, which [seems to have] been +built on troubled waters, gave us occasion for jests and laughter; for +they wanted to persuade us, that at this sacred portal the incense +melted without fire. The Jew Apella may believe this, not I. For I have +learned [from Epicurus], that the gods dwell in a state of tranquillity; +nor, if nature effect any wonder, that the anxious gods send it from the +high canopy of the heavens. + +Brundusium ends both my long journey, and my paper. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE VI. + +_Of true nobility_. + + +Not Maecenas, though of all the Lydians that ever inhabited the Tuscan +territories, no one is of a nobler family than yourself; and though you +have ancestors both on father's and mother's side, that in times past +have had the command of mighty legions; do you, as the generality are +wont, toss up your nose at obscure people, such as me, who has [only] a +freed-man for my father: since you affirm that it is of no consequence +of what parents any man is born, so that he be a man of merit. You +persuade yourself, with truth, that before the dominions of Tullius, and +the reign of one born a slave, frequently numbers of men descended from +ancestors of no rank, have both lived as men of merit, and have been +distinguished by the greatest honors: [while] on the other hand +Laevinus, the descendant of that famous Valerius, by whose means +Tarquinius Superbus was expelled from his kingdom, was not a farthing +more esteemed [on account of his family, even] in the judgment of the +people, with whose disposition you are well acquainted; who often +foolishly bestow honors on the unworthy, and are from their stupidity +slaves to a name: who are struck with admiration by inscriptions and +statues. What is it fitting for us to do, who are far, very far removed +from the vulgar [in our sentiments]? For grant it, that the people had +rather confer a dignity on Laevinus than on Decius, who is a new man; +and the censor Appius would expel me [the senate-house], because I was +not sprung from a sire of distinction: and that too deservedly, inasmuch +as I rested not content in my own condition. But glory drags in her +dazzling car the obscure as closely fettered as those of nobler birth. +What did it profit you, O Tullius, to resume the robe that you [were +forced] to lay aside, and become a tribune [again]? Envy increased upon +you, which had been less, it you had remained in a private station. For +when any crazy fellow has laced the middle of his leg with the sable +buskins, and has let flow the purple robe from his breast, he +immediately hears: "Who is this man? Whose son is he?" Just as if there +be any one, who labors under the same distemper as Barrus does, so that +he is ambitious of being reckoned handsome; let him go where he will, he +excites curiosity among the girls of inquiring into particulars; as what +sort of face, leg, foot, teeth, hair, he has. Thus he who engages to his +citizens to take care of the city, the empire, and Italy, and the +sanctuaries of the gods, forces every mortal to be solicitous, and to +ask from what sire he is descended, or whether he is base by the +obscurity of his mother. What? do you, the son of a Syrus, a Dana, or a +Dionysius, dare to cast down the citizens of Rome from the [Tarpeian] +rock, or deliver them up to Cadmus [the executioner]? But, [you may +say,] my colleague Novius sits below me by one degree: for he is only +what my father was. And therefore do you esteem yourself a Paulus or a +Messala? But he (Novius), if two hundred carriages and three funerals +were to meet in the forum, could make noise enough to drown all their +horns and trumpets: this [kind of merit] at least has its weight with +us. + +Now I return to myself, who am descended from a freed-man; whom every +body nibbles at, as being descended from a freed-man. Now, because, +Maecenas, I am a constant guest of yours; but formerly, because a Roman +legion was under my command, as being a military tribune. This latter +case is different from the former: for, though any person perhaps might +justly envy me that post of honor, yet could he not do so with regard to +your being my friend! especially as you are cautious to admit such as +are worthy; and are far from having any sinister ambitious views. I can +not reckon myself a lucky fellow on this account, as if it were by +accident that I got you for my friend; for no kind of accident threw you +in my way. That best of men, Virgil, long ago, and after him, Varius, +told you what I was. When first I came into your presence, I spoke a few +words in a broken manner (for childish bashfulness hindered me from +speaking more); I did not tell you that I was the issue of an +illustrious father: I did not [pretend] that I rode about the country on +a Satureian horse, but plainly what I really was; you answer (as your +custom is) a few words: I depart: and you re-invite me after the ninth +month, and command me to be in the number of your friends. I esteem it a +great thing that I pleased you, who distinguish probity from baseness, +not by the illustriousness of a father, but by the purity of heart and +feelings. + +And yet if my disposition be culpable for a few faults, and those small +ones, otherwise perfect (as if you should condemn moles scattered over a +beautiful skin), if no one can justly lay to my charge avarice, nor +sordidness, nor impure haunts; if, in fine (to speak in my own praise), +I live undefiled, and innocent, and dear to my friends; my father was +the cause of all this: who though a poor man on a lean farm, was +unwilling to send me to a school under [the pedant] Flavius, where great +boys, sprung from great centurions, having their satchels and tablets +swung over their left arm, used to go with money in their hands the very +day it was due; but had the spirit to bring me a child to Rome, to be +taught those arts which any Roman knight and senator can teach his own +children. So that, if any person had considered my dress, and the slaves +who attended me in so populous a city, he would have concluded that +those expenses were supplied to me out of some hereditary estate. He +himself, of all others the most faithful guardian, was constantly about +every one of my preceptors. Why should I multiply words? He preserved me +chaste (which is the first honor or virtue) not only from every actual +guilt, but likewise from [every] foul imputation, nor was he afraid lest +any should turn it to his reproach, if I should come to follow a +business attended with small profits, in capacity of an auctioneer, or +(what he was himself) a tax-gatherer. Nor [had that been the case] +should I have complained. On this account the more praise is due to him, +and from me a greater degree of gratitude. As long as I am in my senses, +I can never be ashamed of such a father as this, and therefore shall not +apologize [for my birth], in the manner that numbers do, by affirming it +to be no fault of theirs. My language and way of thinking is far +different from such persons. For if nature were to make us from a +certain term of years to go over our past time again, and [suffer us] to +choose other parents, such as every man for ostentation's sake would +wish for himself; I, content with my own, would not assume those that +are honored with the ensigns and seats of state; [for which I should +seem] a madman in the opinion of the mob, but in yours, I hope a man of +sense; because I should be unwilling to sustain a troublesome burden, +being by no means used to it. For I must [then] immediately set about +acquiring a larger fortune, and more people must be complimented; and +this and that companion must be taken along, so that I could neither +take a jaunt into the country, or a journey by myself; more attendants +and more horses must be fed; coaches must be drawn. Now, if I please, I +can go as far as Tarentum on my bob-tail mule, whose loins the +portmanteau galls with his weight, as does the horseman his shoulders. +No one will lay to my charge such sordidness as he may, Tullius, to you, +when five slaves follow you, a praetor, along the Tiburtian way, +carrying a traveling kitchen, and a vessel of wine. Thus I live more +comfortably, O illustrious senator, than you, and than thousands of +others. Wherever I have a fancy, I walk by myself: I inquire the price +of herbs and bread; I traverse the tricking circus, and the forum often +in the evening: I stand listening among the fortune-tellers: thence I +take myself home to a plate of onions, pulse, and pancakes. My supper is +served up by three slaves; and a white stone slab supports two cups and +a brimmer: near the salt-cellar stands a homely cruet with a little +bowl, earthen-ware from Campania. Then I go to rest; by no means +concerned that I must rise in the morning, and pay a visit to the statue +of Marsyas, who denies that he is able to bear the look of the younger +Novius. I lie a-bed to the fourth hour; after that I take a ramble, or +having read or written what may amuse me in my privacy, I am anointed +with oil, but not with such as the nasty Nacca, when he robs the lamps. +But when the sun, become more violent, has reminded me to go to bathe, I +avoid the Campus Martius and the game of hand-ball. Having dined in a +temperate manner, just enough to hinder me from having an empty stomach, +during the rest of the day I trifle in my own house. This is the life of +those who are free from wretched and burthensome ambition: with such +things as these I comfort myself, in a way to live more delightfully +than if my grandfather had been a quaestor, and father and uncle too. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE VII. + +_He humorously describes a squabble betwixt Rupilius and Persius._ + + +In what manner the mongrel Persius revenged the filth and venom of +Rupilius, surnamed King, is I think known to all the blind men and +barbers. This Persius, being a man of fortune, had very great business +at Clazomenae, and, into the bargain, certain troublesome litigations +with King; a hardened fellow, and one who was able to exceed even King +in virulence; confident, blustering, of such a bitterness of speech, +that he would outstrip the Sisennae and Barri, if ever so well equipped. + +I return to King. After nothing could be settled betwixt them (for +people among whom adverse war breaks out, are proportionably vexatious +on the same account as they are brave. Thus between Hector, the son of +Priam, and the high-spirited Achilles, the rage was of so capital a +nature, that only the final destruction [one of them] could determine +it; on no other account, than that valor in each of them was +consummate. If discord sets two cowards to work; or if an engagement +happens between two that are not of a match, as that of Diomed and the +Lycian Glaucus; the worst man will walk off, [buying his peace] by +voluntarily sending presents), when Brutus held as praetor the fertile +Asia, this pair, Rupilius and Persius, encountered; in such a manner, +that [the gladiators] Bacchius and Bithus were not better matched. +Impetuous they hurry to the cause, each of them a fine sight. + +Persius opens his case; and is laughed at by all the assembly; he extols +Brutus, and extols the guard; he styles Brutus the sun of Asia, and his +attendants he styles salutary stars, all except King; that he [he says,] +came like that dog, the constellation hateful to husbandman: he poured +along like a wintery flood, where the ax seldom comes. + +Then, upon his running on in so smart and fluent a manner, the +Praenestine [king] directs some witticisms squeezed from the vineyard, +himself a hardy vine-dresser, never defeated, to whom the passenger had +often been obliged to yield, bawling cuckoo with roaring voice. + +But the Grecian Persius, as soon as he had been well sprinkled with +Italian vinegar, bellows out: O Brutus, by the great gods I conjure you, +who are accustomed to take off kings, why do you not dispatch this King? +Believe me, this is a piece of work which of right belongs to you. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE VIII. + +_Priapus complains that the Esquilian mount is infested with the +incantations of sorceresses_. + + +Formerly I was the trunk of a wild fig-tree, an useless log: when the +artificer, in doubt whether he should make a stool or a Priapus of me, +determined that I should be a god. Henceforward I became a god, the +greatest terror of thieves and birds: for my right hand restrains +thieves, and a bloody-looking pole stretched out from my frightful +middle: but a reed fixed upon the crown of my head terrifies the +mischievous birds, and hinders them from settling in these new gardens. +Before this the fellow-slave bore dead corpses thrown out of their +narrow cells to this place, in order to be deposited in paltry coffins. +This place stood a common sepulcher for the miserable mob, for the +buffoon Pantelabus, and Nomentanus the rake. Here a column assigned a +thousand feet [of ground] in front, and three hundred toward the fields: +that the burial-place should not descend to the heirs of the estate. Now +one may live in the Esquiliae, [since it is made] a healthy place; and +walk upon an open terrace, where lately the melancholy passengers beheld +the ground frightful with white bones; though both the thieves and wild +beasts accustomed to infest this place, do not occasion me so much care +and trouble, as do [these hags], that turn people's minds by their +incantations and drugs. These I can not by any means destroy nor hinder, +but that they will gather bones and noxious herbs, as soon as the +fleeting moon has shown her beauteous face. + +I myself saw Canidia, with her sable garment tucked up, walk with bare +feet and disheveled hair, yelling together with the elder Sagana. +Paleness had rendered both of them horrible to behold. They began to +claw up the earth with their nails, and to tear a black ewe-lamb to +pieces with their teeth. The blood was poured into a ditch, that thence +they might charm out the shades of the dead, ghosts that were to give +them answers. There was a woolen effigy too, another of wax: the woolen +one larger, which was to inflict punishment on the little one. The waxen +stood in a suppliant posture, as ready to perish in a servile manner. +One of the hags invokes Hecate, and the other fell Tisiphone. Then might +you see serpents and infernal bitches wander about, and the moon with +blushes hiding behind the lofty monuments, that she might not be a +witness to these doings. But if I lie, even a tittle, may my head be +contaminated with the white filth of ravens; and may Julius, and the +effeminate Miss Pediatous, and the knave Voranus, come to water upon me, +and befoul me. Why should I mention every particular? viz. in what +manner, speaking alternately with Sagana, the ghosts uttered dismal and +piercing shrieks; and how by stealth they laid in the earth a wolf's +beard, with the teeth of a spotted snake; and how a great blaze flamed +forth from the waxen image? And how I was shocked at the voices and +actions of these two furies, a spectator however by no means incapable +of revenge? For from my cleft body of fig-tree wood I uttered a loud +noise with as great an explosion as a burst bladder. But they ran into +the city: and with exceeding laughter and diversion might you have seen +Canidia's artificial teeth, and Sagana's towering tete of false hair +falling off, and the herbs, and the enchanted bracelets from her arm. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE IX. + +_He describes his sufferings from the loquacity of an impertinent +fellow._ + + +I was accidentally going along the Via Sacra, meditating on some trifle +or other, as is my custom, and totally intent upon it. A certain person, +known to me by name only, runs up; and, having seized my hand, "How do +you do, my dearest fellow?" "Tolerably well," say I, "as times go; and I +wish you every thing you can desire." When he still followed me; "Would +you any thing?" said I to him. But, "You know me," says he: "I am a man +of learning." "Upon that account," says I: "you will have more of my +esteem." Wanting sadly to get away from him, sometimes I walked on +apace, now and then I stopped, and I whispered something to my boy. When +the sweat ran down to the bottom of my ankles. O, said I to myself, +Bolanus, how happy were you in a head-piece! Meanwhile he kept prating +on any thing that came uppermost, praised the streets, the city; and, +when I made him no answer; "You want terribly," said he, "to get away; I +perceived it long ago; but you effect nothing. I shall still stick close +to you; I shall follow you hence: Where are you at present bound for?" +"There is no need for your being carried so much about: I want to see a +person, who is unknown to you: he lives a great way off across the +Tiber, just by Caesar's gardens." "I have nothing to do, and I am not +lazy; I will attend you thither." I hang down my ears like an ass of +surly disposition, when a heavier load than ordinary is put upon his +back. He begins again: "If I am tolerably acquainted with myself, you +will not esteem Viscus or Varius as a friend, more than me; for who can +write more verses, or in a shorter time than I? Who can move his limbs +with softer grace [in the dance]? And then I sing, so that even +Hermogenes may envy." + +Here there was an opportunity of interrupting him. "Have you a mother, +[or any] relations that are interested in your welfare?" "Not one have +I; I have buried them all." "Happy they! now I remain. Dispatch me: for +the fatal moment is at hand, which an old Sabine sorceress, having +shaken her divining urn, foretold when I was a boy; 'This child, neither +shall cruel poison, nor the hostile sword, nor pleurisy, nor cough, nor +the crippling gout destroy: a babbler shall one day demolish him; if he +be wise, let him avoid talkative people, as soon as he comes to man's +estate.'" + +One fourth of the day being now passed, we came to Vesta's temple; and, +as good luck would have it, he was obliged to appear to his +recognizance; which unless he did, he must have lost his cause. "If you +love me," said he, "step in here a little." "May I die! if I be either +able to stand it out, or have any knowledge of the civil laws: and +besides, I am in a hurry, you know whither." "I am in doubt what I shall +do," said he; "whether desert you or my cause." "Me, I beg of you." "I +will not do it," said he; and began to take the lead of me. I (as it is +difficult to contend with one's master) follow him. "How stands it with +Maecenas and you?" Thus he begins his prate again. "He is one of few +intimates, and of a very wise way of thinking. No man ever made use of +opportunity with more cleverness. You should have a powerful assistant, +who could play an underpart, if you were disposed to recommend this man; +may I perish, if you should not supplant all the rest!" "We do not live +there in the manner you imagine; there is not a house that is freer or +more remote from evils of this nature. It is never of any disservice to +me, that any particular person is wealthier or a better scholar than I +am: every individual has his proper place." "You tell me a marvelous +thing, scarcely credible." "But it is even so." "You the more inflame my +desires to be near his person." "You need only be inclined to it: such +is your merit, you will accomplish it: and he is capable of being won; +and on that account the first access to him he makes difficult." "I will +not be wanting to myself: I will corrupt his servants with presents; if +I am excluded to-day, I will not desist; I will seek opportunities; I +will meet him in the public streets; I will wait upon him home. Life +allows nothing to mortals without great labor." While he was running on +at this rate, lo! Fuscus Aristius comes up, a dear friend of mine, and +one who knows the fellow well. We make a stop. "Whence come you? whither +are you going?" he asks and answers. I began to twitch him [by the +elbow], and to take hold of his arms [that were affectedly] passive, +nodding and distorting my eyes, that he might rescue me. Cruelly arch +he laughs, and pretends not to take the hint: anger galled my liver. +"Certainly," [said I, "Fuscus,] you said that you wanted to communicate +something to me in private." "I remember it very well; but will tell it +you at a better opportunity: to-day is the thirtieth sabbath. Would you +affront the circumcised Jews?" I reply, "I have no scruple [on that +account]." "But I have: I am something weaker, one of the multitude. You +must forgive me: I will speak with you on another occasion." And has +this sun arisen so disastrous upon me! The wicked rogue runs away, and +leaves me under the knife. But by luck his adversary met him: and, +"Whither are you going, you infamous fellow?" roars he with a loud +voice: and, "Do you witness the arrest?" I assent. He hurries him into +court: there is a great clamor on both sides, a mob from all parts. Thus +Apollo preserved me. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE X. + +_He supports the judgment which he had before given of Lucilius, and +intersperses some excellent precepts for the writing of Satire._ + + +To be sure I did say, that the verses of Lucilius did not run smoothly. +Who is so foolish an admirer of Lucilius, that he would not own this? +But the same writer is applauded in the same Satire, on account of his +having lashed the town with great humor. Nevertheless granting him this, +I will not therefore give up the other [considerations]; for at that +rate I might even admire the farces of Laberius, as fine poems. Hence it +is by no means sufficient to make an auditor grim with laughter: and yet +there is some degree of merit even in this. There is need of conciseness +that the sentence may run, and not embarrass itself with verbiage, that +overloads the sated ear; and sometimes a grave, frequently jocose style +is necessary, supporting the character one while of the orator and [at +another] of the poet, now and then that of a graceful rallier that curbs +the force of his pleasantry and weakens it on purpose. For ridicule +often decides matters of importance more effectually and in a better +manner, than severity. Those poets by whom the ancient comedy was +written, stood upon this [foundation], and in this are they worthy of +imitation: whom neither the smooth-faced Hermogenes ever read, nor that +baboon who is skilled in nothing but singing [the wanton compositions +of] Calvus and Catullus. + +But [Lucilius, say they,] did a great thing, when he intermixed Greek +words with Latin. O late-learned dunces! What! do you think that arduous +and admirable, which was done by Pitholeo the Rhodian? But [still they +cry] the style elegantly composed of both tongues is the more pleasant, +as if Falernian wine is mixed with Chian. When you make verses, I ask +you this question; were you to undertake the difficult cause of the +accused Petillius, would you (for instance), forgetful of your country +and your father, while Pedius, Poplicola, and Corvinus sweat through +their causes in Latin, choose to intermix words borrowed from abroad, +like the double-tongued Canusinian. And as for myself, who was born on +this side the water, when I was about making Greek verses; Romulus +appearing to me after midnight, when dreams are true, forbade me in +words to this effect; "You could not be guilty of more madness by +carrying timber into a wood, than by desiring to throng in among the +great crowds of Grecian writers." + +While bombastical Alpinus murders Memnon, and while he deforms the muddy +source of the Rhine, I amuse myself with these satires; which can +neither be recited in the temple [of Apollo], as contesting for the +prize when Tarpa presides as judge, nor can have a run over and over +again represented in the theatres. You, O Fundanius, of all men +breathing are the most capable of prattling tales in a comic vein, how +an artful courtesan and a Davus impose upon an old Chremes. Pollio sings +the actions of kings in iambic measure; the sublime Varias composes the +manly epic, in a manner that no one can equal: to Virgil the Muses, +delighting in rural scenes, have granted the delicate and the elegant. +It was this kind [of satiric writing], the Aticinian Varro and some +others having attempted it without success, in which I may have some +slight merit, inferior to the inventor: nor would I presume to pull off +the [laurel] crown placed upon his brow with great applause. + +But I said that he flowed muddily, frequently indeed bearing along more +things which ought to be taken away than left. Be it so; do you, who are +a scholar, find no fault with any thing in mighty Homer, I pray? Does +the facetious Lucilius make no alterations in the tragedies of Accius? +Does not he ridicule many of Ennius' verses, which are too light for +the gravity [of the subject]? When he speaks of himself by no means as +superior to what he blames. What should hinder me likewise, when I am +reading the works of Lucilius, from inquiring whether it be his +[genius], or the difficult nature of his subject, that will not suffer +his verses to be more finished, and to run more smoothly than if some +one, thinking it sufficient to conclude a something of six feet, be fond +of writing two hundred verses before he eats, and as many after supper? +Such was the genius of the Tuscan Cassius, more impetuous than a rapid +river; who, as it is reported, was burned [at the funeral pile] with his +own books and papers. Let it be allowed, I say, that Lucilius was a +humorous and polite writer; that he was also more correct than [Ennius], +the author of a kind of poetry [not yet] well cultivated, nor attempted +by the Greeks, and [more correct likewise] than the tribe of our old +poets: but yet he, if he had been brought down by the Fates to this age +of ours, would have retrenched a great deal from his writings: he would +have pruned off every thing that transgressed the limits of perfection; +and, in the composition of verses, would often have scratched his head, +and bit his nails to the quick. + +You that intend to write what is worthy to be read more than once, blot +frequently: and take no-pains to make the multitude admire you, content +with a few [judicious] readers. What, would you be such a fool as to be +ambitious that your verses should be taught in petty schools? That is +not my case. It is enough for me, that the knight [Maecenas] applauds: +as the courageous actress, Arbuscula, expressed herself, in contempt of +the rest of the audience, when she was hissed [by the populace]. What, +shall that grubworm Pantilius have any effect upon me? Or can it vex me, +that Demetrius carps at me behind my back? or because the trifler +Fannius, that hanger-on to Hermogenes Tigellius, attempts to hurt me? +May Plotius and Varius, Maecenas and Virgil, Valgius and Octavius +approve these Satires, and the excellent Fuscus likewise; and I could +wish that both the Visci would join in their commendations: ambition +apart, I may mention you, O Pollio: you also, Messala, together with +your brother; and at the same time, you, Bibulus and Servius; and along +with these you, candid Furnius; many others whom, though men of learning +and my friends, I purposely omit--to whom I would wish these Satires, +such as they are, may give satisfaction; and I should be chagrined, if +they pleased in a degree below my expectation. You, Demetrius, and you, +Tigellius, I bid lament among the forms of your female pupils. + +Go, boy, and instantly annex this Satire to the end of my book. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE SECOND BOOK OF THE SATIRES OF HORACE. + + + +SATIRE I. + +_He supposes himself to consult with Trebatius, whether he should desist +from writing satires, or not_. + + +There are some persons to whom I seem too severe in [the writing of] +satire, and to carry it beyond proper bounds: another set are of +opinion, that all I have written is nerveless, and that a thousand +verses like mine may be spun out in a day. Trebatius, give me your +advice, what shall I do. Be quiet. I should not make, you say, verses at +all. I do say so. May I be hanged, if that would not be best: but I can +not sleep. Let those, who want sound sleep, anointed swim thrice across +the Tiber: and have their clay well moistened with wine over-night. Or, +if such a great love of scribbling hurries you on, venture to celebrate +the achievements of the invincible Caesar, certain of bearing off ample +rewards for your pains. + +Desirous I am, my good father, [to do this,] but my strength fails me, +nor can any one describe the troops bristled with spears, nor the Gauls +dying on their shivered darts, nor the wounded Parthian falling from his +horse. Nevertheless you may describe him just and brave, as the wise +Lucilius did Scipio. I will not be wanting to myself, when an +opportunity presents itself: no verses of Horace's, unless well-timed, +will gain the attention of Caesar; whom, [like a generous steed,] if you +stroke awkwardly, he will kick upon you, being at all quarters on his +guard. How much better would this be, than to wound with severe satire +Pantolabus the buffoon, and the rake Nomentanus! when every body is +afraid for himself, [lest he should be the next,] and hates you, though +he is not meddled with. What shall I do? Milonius falls a dancing the +moment he becomes light-headed and warm, and the candles appear +multiplied. Castor delights in horsemanship: and he, who sprang from the +same egg, in boxing. As many thousands of people [as there are in the +world], so many different inclinations are there. It delights me to +combine words in meter, after the manner of Lucilius, a better man than +both of us. He long ago communicated his secrets to his books, as to +faithful friends; never having recourse elsewhere, whether things went +well or ill with him: whence it happens, that the whole life of this old +[poet] is as open to the view, as if it had been painted en a votive +tablet. His example I follow, though in doubt whether I am a Lucanian or +an Apulian; for the Venusinian farmers plow upon the boundaries of both +countries, who (as the ancient tradition has it) were sent, on the +expulsion of the Samnites, for this purpose, that the enemy might not +make incursions on the Romans, through a vacant [unguarded frontier]: or +lest the Apulian nation, or the fierce Lucanian, should make an +invasion. But this pen of mine shall not willfully attack any man +breathing, and shall defend me like a sword that is sheathed in the +scabbard which why should I attempt to draw, [while I am] safe from +hostile villains? O Jupiter, father and sovereign, may my weapon laid +aside wear away with rust, and may no one injure me, who am desirous of +peace? But that man shall provoke me (I give notice, that it is better +not to touch me) shall weep [his folly], and as a notorious character +shall be sung through all the streets of Rome. + +Cervius, when he is offended, threatens one with the laws and the +[judiciary] urn; Canidia, Albutius' poison to those with whom she is at +enmity, Turius [threatens] great damages, if you contest any thing while +he is judge. How every animal terrifies those whom he suspects, with +that in which he is most powerful, and how strong natural instinct +commands this, thus infer with me.--The wolf attacks with his teeth, the +bull with his horns. From what principle is this, if not a suggestion +from within? Intrust that debauchee Scaeva with the custody of his +ancient mother; his pious hand will commit no outrage. A wonder indeed! +just as the wolf does not attack any one with his hoof, nor the bull +with his teeth; but the deadly hemlock in the poisoned honey will take +off the old dame. + +That I may not be tedious, whether a placid old age awaits me, or +whether death now hovers about me with his sable wings; rich or poor, at +Rome or (if fortune should so order it) an exile abroad; whatever be the +complexion of my life, I will write. O my child, I fear you can not be +long, lived; and that some creature of the great ones will strike you +with the cold of death. What? when Lucilius had the courage to be the +first in composing verses after this manner, and to pull off that mask, +by means of which each man strutted in public view with a fair outside, +though foul within; was Laelius, and he who derived a well deserved +title from the destruction of Carthage, offended at his wit, or were +they hurt at Metellus being lashed, or Lupus covered over with his +lampoons? But he took to task the heads of the people, and the people +themselves, class by class; in short, he spared none but virtue and her +friends. Yet, when the valorous Scipio, and the mild philosophical +Laelius, had withdrawn themselves from the crowd and the public scene, +they used to divert themselves with him, and joke in a free manner, +while a few vegetables were boiled [for supper]. Of whatever rank I am, +though below the estate and wit of Lucilius, yet envy must be obliged to +own that I have lived well with great men; and, wanting to fasten her +tooth upon some weak part, will strike it against the solid: unless you, +learned Trebatius, disapprove of any thing [I have said]. For my part, I +can not make any objection to this. But however, that forewarned you may +be upon your guard, lest in ignorance of our sacred laws should bring +you into trouble, [be sure of this] if any person shall make scandalous +verses against a particular man, an action lies, and a sentence. +Granted, if they are scandalous: but if a man composes good ones, and is +praised by such a judge as Caesar? If a man barks only at him who +deserves his invectives, while he himself is unblamable? The process +will be canceled with laughter: and you, being dismissed, may depart in +peace. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE II. + +_On Frugality_. + + +What and how great is the virtue to live on a little (this is no +doctrine of mine, but what Ofellus the peasant, a philosopher without +rules and of a home-spun wit, taught me), learn, my good friends, not +among dishes and splendid tables; when the eye is dazzled with the vain +glare, and the mind, intent upon false appearances, refuses [to admit] +better things; but here, before dinner, discuss this point with me. Why +so? I will inform you, if I can. Every corrupted judge examines badly +the truth. After hunting the hare, or being wearied by an unruly horse, +or (if the Roman exercise fatigues you, accustomed to act the Greek) +whether the swift ball, while eagerness softens and prevents your +perceiving the severity of the game, or quoits (smite the yielding air +with the quoit) when exercise has worked of squeamishness, dry and +hungry, [then let me see you] despise mean viands; and don't drink +anything but Hymettian honey qualified with Falernian wine. Your butler +is abroad, and the tempestuous sea preserves the fish by its wintery +storms; bread and salt will sufficiently appease an importunate stomach. +Whence do you think this happens? and how is it obtained? The consummate +pleasure is not in the costly flavor, but in yourself. Do you seek for +sauce by sweating. Neither oysters, nor scar, nor the far-fetched +lagois, can give any pleasure to one bloated and pale through +intemperance. Nevertheless, if a peacock were served up, I should hardly +be able to prevent your gratifying the palate with that, rather than a +pullet, since you are prejudiced by the vanities of things; because the +scarce bird is bought with gold, and displays a fine sight with its +painted tail, as if that were anything to the purpose. "What; do you eat +that plumage, which you extol? or has the bird the same beauty when +dressed?" Since however there is no difference in the meat, in one +preferably to the other; it is manifest that you are imposed upon by the +disparity of their appearances. Be it so. + +By what gift are you able to distinguish, whether this lupus, that now +opens its jaws before us, was taken in the Tiber, or in the sea? whether +it was tossed between the bridges or at the mouth of the Tuscan river? +Fool, you praise a mullet, that weighs three pounds; which you are +obliged to cut into small pieces. Outward appearances lead you, I see. +To what intent then do you contemn large lupuses? Because truly these +are by nature bulky, and those very light. A hungry stomach seldom +loathes common victuals. O that I could see a swingeing mullet extended +on a swingeing dish! cries that gullet, which is fit for the voracious +harpies themselves. But O [say I] ye southern blasts, be present to +taint the delicacies of the [gluttons]: though the boar and turbot +newly taken are rank, when surfeiting abundance provokes the sick +stomach; and when the sated guttler prefers turnips and sharp +elecampane. However, all [appearance of] poverty is not quite banished +from the banquets of our nobles; for there is, even at this day, a place +for paltry eggs and black olives. And it was not long ago, since the +table of Gallonius, the auctioneer, was rendered infamous, by having a +sturgeon, [served whole upon it]. What? was the sea at that time less +nutritive of turbots? The turbot was secure and the stork unmolested in +her nest; till the praetorian [Sempronius], the inventor, first taught +you [to eat them]. Therefore, if any one were to give it out that +roasted cormorants are delicious, the Roman youth, teachable in +depravity, would acquiesce, in it. + +In the judgment of Ofellus, a sordid way of living will differ widely +from frugal simplicity. For it is to no purpose for you to shun that +vice [of luxury]; if you perversely fly to the contrary extreme. +Avidienus, to whom the nickname of Dog is applied with propriety, eats +olives of five years old, and wild cornels, and can not bear to rack off +his wine unless it be turned sour, and the smell of his oil you can not +endure: which (though clothed in white he celebrates the wedding +festival, his birthday, or any other festal days) he pours out himself +by little and little from a horn cruet, that holds two pounds, upon his +cabbage, [but at the same time] is lavish enough of his old vinegar. + +What manner of living therefore shall the wise man put in practice, and +which of these examples shall he copy? On one side the wolf presses on, +and the dog on the other, as the saying is. A person will be accounted +decent, if he offends not by sordidness, and is not despicable through +either extreme of conduct. Such a man will not, after the example, of +old Albutius, be savage while he assigns to his servants their +respective offices; nor, like simple Naevius, will he offer greasy water +to his company: for this too is a great fault. + +Now learn what and how great benefits a temperate diet will bring along +with it. In the first place, you will enjoy good health; for you may +believe how detrimental a diversity of things is to any man, when you +recollect that sort of food, which by its simplicity sat so well upon +your stomach some time ago. But, when you have once mixed boiled and +roast together, thrushes and shell-fish; the sweet juices will turn +into bile, and a thick phlegm will bring a jarring upon the stomach. Do +not you see, how pale each guest rises from a perplexing variety of +dishes at an entertainment. Beside this, the body, overloaded with the +debauch of yesterday, depresses the mind along with it, and dashes to +the earth that portion of the divine spirit. Another man, as soon as he +has taken a quick repast, and rendered up his limbs to repose, rises +vigorous to the duties of his calling. However, he may sometimes have +recourse to better cheer; whether the returning year shall bring on a +festival, or if he have a mind to refresh his impaired body; and when +years shall approach, and feeble age require to be used more tenderly. +But as for you, if a troublesome habit of body, or creeping old age, +should come upon you, what addition can be made to that soft indulgence, +which you, now in youth and in health anticipate? + +Our ancestors praised a boar when it was stale not because they had no +noses; but with this view, I suppose, that a visitor coming later than +ordinary [might partake of it], though a little musty, rather than the +voracious master should devour it all himself while sweet. I wish that +the primitive earth had produced me among such heroes as these. + +Have you any regard for reputation, which affects the human ear more +agreeably than music? Great turbots and dishes bring great disgrace +along with them, together with expense. Add to this, that your relations +and neighbors will be exasperated at you, while you will be at enmity +with yourself and desirous of death in vain, since you will not in your +poverty have three farthings left to purchase a rope withal. Trausius, +you say, may with justice be called to account in such language as this; +but I possess an ample revenue, and wealth sufficient for three +potentates, Why then have you no better method of expending your +superfluities? Why is any man, undeserving [of distressed +circumstances], in want, while you abound: How comes it to pass, that +the ancient temples of the gods are falling to ruin? Why do not you, +wretch that you are, bestow something on your dear country, out of so +vast a hoard? What, will matters always go well with you alone? O thou, +that hereafter shalt be the great derision of thine enemies! which of +the two shall depend upon himself in exigences with most certainty? He +who has used his mind and high-swollen body to redundancies; or he who, +contented with a little and provident for the future, like a Wise man +in time of peace, shall make the necessary preparations for war? + +That you may the more readily give credit to these things: I myself, +when a little boy, took notice that this Ofellua did not use his +unencumbered estate more profusely, than he does now it is reduced. You +may see the sturdy husbandman laboring for hire in the land [once his +own, but now] assigned [to others], with his cattle and children, +talking to this effect; I never ventured to eat any thing on a work-day +except pot-herbs, with a hock of smoke-dried bacon. And when a friend +came to visit me after a long absence, or a neighbor, an acceptable +guest to me resting from work on account of the rain, we lived well; not +on fishes fetched from the city, but on a pullet and a kid: then a dried +grape, and a nut, with a large fig, set off our second course. After +this, it was our diversion to have no other regulation in our cups, save +that against drinking to excess; then Ceres worshiped [with a libation], +that the corn might arise in lofty stems, smoothed with wine the +melancholy of the contracted brow. Let fortune rage, and stir up new +tumults what can she do more to impair my estate? How much more savingly +have either I lived, or how much less neatly have you gone, my children, +since this new possessor came? For nature has appointed to be lord of +this earthly property, neither him, nor me, nor any one. He drove us +out: either iniquity or ignorance in the quirks of the law shall [do the +same] him: certainly in the end his long lived heir shall expel him. Now +this field under the denomination of Umbrenus', lately it was Ofellus', +the perpetual property of no man; for it turns to my use one while, and +by and by to that of another. Wherefore, live undaunted; and oppose +gallant breasts against the strokes of adversity. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE III. + +_Damasippus, in a conversation with Horace, proves this paradox of the +Stoic philosophy, that most men are actually mad_. + + +You write so seldom, as not to call for parchment four times in the +year, busied in reforming your writings, yet are you angry with +yourself, that indulging in wine and sleep you produce nothing worthy to +be the subject of conversation. What will be the consequence? But you +took refuge here, it seems, at the very celebration of the Saturnalia, +out of sobriety. Dictate therefore something worthy of your promises; +begin. There is nothing. The pens are found fault with to no purpose, +and the harmless wall, which must have been built under the displeasure +of gods and poets, suffers [to no end]. But you had the look of one that +had threatened many and excellent things, when once your villa had +received you, free from employment, under its warm roof. To what purpose +was it to stow Plato upon Menander? Eupolis, Archilochus? For what end +did you bring abroad such companions? What? are you setting about +appeasing envy by deserting virtue? Wretch, you will be despised. That +guilty Siren, Sloth, must be avoided; or whatever acquisitions you have +made in the better part of your life, must with equanimity be given up. +May the gods and godnesses, O Damasippus, present you with a barber for +your sound advice! But by what means did you get so well acquainted with +me? Since all my fortunes were dissipated at the middle of the exchange, +detached from all business of my own, I mind that of other people. For +formerly I used to take a delight in inquiring, in what vase the crafty +Sisyphus might have washed his feet; what was carved in an unworkmanlike +manner, and what more roughly cast than it ought to be; being a +connoisseur, I offered a hundred thousand sesterces for such a statue; I +was the only man who knew how to purchase gardens and fine seats to the +best advantage: whence the crowded ways gave me the surname of +Mercurial. I know it well; and am amazed at your being cured of that +disorder. Why a new disorder expelled the old one in a marvelous manner; +as it is accustomed to do, when the pain of the afflicted side, or the +head, is turned upon the stomach; as it is with a man in a lethargy, +when he turns boxer, and attacks his physician. As long as you do +nothing like this, be it even as you please. O my good friend, do not +deceive yourself; you likewise are mad, and it is almost "fools all," if +what Stertinius insists upon has any truth in it; from whom, being of a +teachable disposition, I derived these admirable precepts, at the very +time when, having given me consolation, he ordered me to cultivate a +philosophical beard, and to return cheerfully from the Fabrician bridge. +For when, my affairs being desperate, I had a mind to throw myself into +the river, having covered my head [for that purpose], he fortunately was +at my elbow; and [addressed me to this effect]: Take care, how do any +thing unworthy of yourself; a false shame, says he, afflicts you, who +dread to be esteemed a madman among madmen. For in the first place, I +will inquire, what it is to be mad: and, if this distemper be in you +exclusively, I will not add a single word, to prevent you from dying +bravely. + +The school and sect of Chrysippus deem every man mad, whom vicious folly +or the ignorance of truth drives blindly forward. This definition takes +in whole nations, this even great kings, the wise man [alone] excepted. +Now learn, why all those, who have fixed the name of madman upon you, +are as senseless as yourself. As in the woods, where a mistake makes +people wander about from the proper path; one goes out of the way to the +right, another to the left; there is the same blunder on both sides, +only the illusion is in different directions: in this manner imagine +yourself mad; so that he, who derides you, hangs his tail not one jot +wiser than yourself. There is one species of folly, that dreads things +not in the least formidable; insomuch that it will complain of fires, +and rocks, and rivers opposing it in the open plain; there is another +different from this, but not a whit more approaching to wisdom, that +runs headlong through the midst of flames and floods. Let the loving +mother, the virtuous sister, the father, the wife, together with all the +relations [of a man possessed with this latter folly], cry out: "Here is +a deep ditch; here is a prodigious rock; take care of yourself:" he +would give no more attention, than did the drunken Fufius some time ago, +when he overslept the character of Ilione, twelve hundred Catieni at the +same time roaring out, _O mother, I call you to my aid_. I will +demonstrate to you, that the generality of all mankind are mad in the +commission of some folly similar to this. + +Damasippus is mad for purchasing antique statues: but is Damasippus' +creditor in his senses? Well, suppose I should say to you: receive this, +which you can never repay: will you be a madman, if you receive it; or +would you be more absurd for rejecting a booty, which propitious Mercury +offers? Take bond, like the banker Nerius, for ten thousand sesterces; +it will not signify: add the forms of Cicuta, so versed in the knotty +points of law: add a thousand obligations: yet this wicked Proteus will +evade all these ties. When you shall drag him to justice, laughing as if +his cheeks were none of his own; he will be transformed into a boar, +sometimes into a bird, sometimes into a stone, and when he pleases Into +a tree. If to conduct one's affairs badly be the part of a madman; and +the reverse, that of a man well in his senses; brain of Perillius +(believe me), who orders you [that sum of money], which you can never +repay, is much more unsound [than yours]. + +Whoever grows pale with evil ambition, or the love of money: whoever is +heated with luxury, or gloomy superstition, or any other disease of the +mind, I command him to adjust his garment and attend: hither, all of ye, +come near me in order, while I convince you that you are mad. + +By far the largest portion of hellebore is to be administered to the +covetous: I know not, whether reason does not consign all Anticyra to +their use. The heirs of Staberius engraved the sum [which he left them] +upon his tomb: unless they had acted in this manner, they were under an +obligation to exhibit a hundred pair of gladiators to the people, beside +an entertainment according to the direction of Arrius; and as much corn +as is cut in Africa. Whether I have willed this rightly or wrongly, it +was my will; be not severe against me, [cries the testator]. I imagine +the provident mind of Staberius foresaw this. What then did he moan, +when he appointed by will that his heirs should engrave the sum of their +patrimony upon his tomb-stone? As long as he lived, he deemed poverty a +great vice, and nothing did he more industriously avoid: insomuch that, +had he died less rich by one farthing, the more Iniquitous would he have +appeared to himself. For every thing, virtue, fame, glory, divine and +human affairs, are subservient to the attraction of riches; which +whoever shall have accumulated, shall be illustrious, brave, just--What, +wise too? Ay, and a king, and whatever else he pleases. This he was in +hopes would greatly redound to his praise, as if it had been an +acquisition of his virtue. In what respect did the Grecian Aristippus +act like this; who ordered his slaves to throw away his gold in the +midst of Libya; because, encumbered with the burden, they traveled too +slowly? Which is the greater madman of these two? An example is nothing +to the purpose, that decides one controversy by creating another. If any +person were to buy lyres, and [when he had bought them] to stow them in +one place; though neither addicted to the lyre nor to any one muse +whatsoever: if a man were [to buy] paring-knives and lasts, and were no +shoemaker; sails fit for navigation, and were averse to merchandizing; +he every where deservedly be styled delirious, and out of his senses. +How does he differ from these, who boards up cash and gold [and] knows +not how to use them when accumulated, and is afraid to touch them as if +they were consecrated? If any person before a great heap of corn should +keep perpetual watch with a long club, and, though the owner of it, and +hungry, should not dare to take a single grain from it; and should +rather feed upon bitter leaves: if while a thousand hogsheads of Chian, +or old Falernian, is stored up within (nay, that is nothing--three +hundred thousand), he drink nothing, but what is mere sharp vinegars +again--if, wanting but one year of eighty, he should lie upon straw, who +has bed-clothes rotting in his chest, the food of worms and moths; he +would seem mad, belike, but to few persons: because the greatest part of +mankind labors, under the same malady. + +Thou dotard, hateful to the gods, dost thou guard [these possessions], +for fear of wanting thyself: to the end that thy son, or even the +freedman thy heir, should guzzle it all up? For how little will each day +deduct from your capital, if you begin to pour better oil upon your +greens and your head, filthy with scurf not combed out? If any thing be +a sufficiency, wherefore are you guilty of perjury [wherefore] do you +rob, and plunder from all quarters? Are you in your senses? If you were +to begin to pelt the populace with stones, and the slaves, which you +purchased with your money; all the: very boys and girls will cry out +that you are a madman. When you dispatch your wife with a rope, and your +mother with poison, are you right in your head? Why not? You neither did +this at Argos, nor slew your mother with the sword, as the mad Orestes +did. What, do you imagine that he ran? mad after he had murdered his +parent; and that he was not driven mad by the wicked Furies, before he +warmed his sharp steel in his mother's throat? Nay, from the time that +Orestes is deemed to have been of a dangerous disposition, he did +nothing in fact that you can blame; he did not dare to offer violence +with his sword to Pylades, nor to his sister Electra; he only gave ill +language to both of them, by calling her a Fury, and him some other +[opprobrious name], which, his violent choler suggested. + +Opimius, poor amid silver and gold hoarded up within, who used to drink +out of Campanian ware Veientine wine on holidays, and mere dregs on +common days, was some time ago taken with a prodigious lethargy; +insomuch that his heir was already scouring about his coffers and keys, +in joy and triumph. His physician, a man of much dispatch and fidelity, +raises him in this manner: he orders a table to be brought, and the bags +of money to be poured out, and several persons to approach in order to +count it: by this method he sets the man upon his legs again. And at the +same time he addresses him to this effect. Unless you guard your money +your ravenous heir will even now carry off these [treasures] of yours. +What, while I am alive? That you may live, therefore, awake; do this. +What would you have me do? Why your blood will fail you that are so much +reduced, unless food and some great restorative be administered to your +decaying stomach. Do you hesitate? come on; take this ptisan made of +rice. How much did it cost? A trifle. How much then? Eight asses. Alas! +what does it matter, whether I die of a disease, or by theft and rapine? + +Who then is sound? He, who is not a fool. What is the covetous man? Both +a fool and a madman. What--if a man be not covetous, is he immediately +[to be deemed] sound? By no means. Why so, Stoic? I will tell you. Such +a patient (suppose Craterus [the physician] said this) is not sick at +the heart. Is he therefore well, and shall he get up? No, he will forbid +that; because his side or his reins are harassed with an acute disease. +[In like manner], such a man is not perjured, nor sordid; let him then +sacrifice a hog to his propitious household gods. But he is ambitious +and assuming. Let him make a voyage [then] to Anticyra. For what is the +difference, whether you fling whatever you have into a gulf, or make no +use of your acquisitions? + +Servius Oppidius, rich in the possession of an ancient estate, is +reported when dying to have divided two farms at Canusium between his +two sons, and to have addressed the boys, called to his bed-side, [in +the following manner]: When I saw you, Aulus, carry your playthings and +nuts carelessly in your bosom, [and] to give them and game them away; +you, Tiberius, count them, and anxious hide them in holes; I was afraid +lest a madness of a different nature should possess you: lest you +[Aulus], should follow the example of Nomentanus, you, [Tiberius], that +of Cicuta. Wherefore each of you, entreated by our household gods, do +you (Aulus) take care lest you lessen; you (Tiberius) lest you make that +greater, which your father thinks and the purposes of nature determine +to be sufficient. Further, lest glory should entice you, I will bind +each of you by an oath: whichever of you shall be an aedile or a +praetor, let him be excommunicated and accursed. Would you destroy your +effects in [largesses of] peas, beans, and lupines, that you may stalk +in the circus at large, or stand in a statue of brass, O madman, +stripped of your paternal estate, stripped of your money? To the end, +forsooth, that you may gain those applauses, which Agrippa gains, like a +cunning fox imitating a generous lion? + +O Agamemnon, why do you prohibit any one from burying Ajax? I am a king. +I, a plebeian, make no further inquiry. And I command a just thing: but, +if I seem unjust to any one, I permit you to speak your sentiments with +impunity. Greatest of kings, may the gods grant that, after the taking +of Troy, you may conduct your fleet safe home: may I then have the +liberty to ask questions, and reply in my turn? Ask. Why does Ajax, the +second hero after Achilles, rot [above ground], so often renowned for +having saved the Grecians; that Priam and Priam's people may exult in +his being unburied, by whose means so many youths have been deprived of +their country's rites of sepulture. In his madness he killed a thousand +sheep, crying out that he was destroying the famous Ulysses and +Menelaus, together with me. When you at Aulis substituted your sweet +daughter in the place of a heifer before the altar, and, O impious one, +sprinkled her head with the salt cake; did you preserve soundness of +mind? Why do you ask? What then did the mad Ajax do, when he slew the +flock with his sword? He abstained from any violence to his wife and +child, though he had imprecated many curses on the sons of Atreus: he +neither hurt Teucer, nor even Ulysses himself. But I, out of prudence, +appeased the gods with blood, that I might loose the ships detained on +an adverse shore. Yes, madman! with your own blood. With my own +[indeed], but I was not mad. Whoever shall form images foreign from +reality, and confused in the tumult of impiety, will always be reckoned +disturbed in mind: and it will not matter, whether he go wrong through +folly or through rage. Is Ajax delirious, while he kills the harmless +lambs? Are you right in your head, when you willfully commit a crime for +empty titles? And is your heart pure, while it is swollen with the vice? +If any person should take a delight to carry about with him in his sedan +a pretty lambkin; and should provide clothes, should provide maids and +gold for it, as for a daughter, should call it Rufa and Rufilla, and +should destine it a wife for some stout husband; the praetor would +take power from him being interdicted, and the management of him would +devolve to his relations, that were in their senses. What, if a man +devote his daughter instead of a dumb lambkin, is he right of mind? +Never say it. Therefore, wherever there is a foolish depravity, there +will be the height of madness. He who is wicked, will be frantic too: +Bellona, who delights in bloodshed, has thundered about him, whom +precarious fame has captivated. + +Now, come on, arraign with me luxury and Nomentanus; for reason will +evince that foolish spendthrifts are mad. This fellow, as soon as he +received a thousand talents of patrimony, issues an order that the +fishmonger, the fruiterer, the poulterer, the perfumer, and the impious +gang of the Tuscan alley, sausage-maker, and buffoons, the whole +shambles, together with [all] Velabrum, should come to his house in the +morning. What was the consequence? They came in crowds. The pander makes +a speech: "Whatever I, or whatever each of these has at home, believe it +to be yours: and give your order for it either directly, or to-morrow." +Hear what reply the considerate youth made: "You sleep booted in +Lucanian snow, that I may feast on a boar: you sweep the wintry seas for +fish: I am indolent, and unworthy to possess so much. Away with it: do +you take for your share ten hundred thousand sesterces; you as much; you +thrice the sum, from whose house your spouse runs, when called for, at +midnight." The son of Aesopus, [the actor] (that he might, forsooth, +swallow a million of sesterces at a draught), dissolved in vinegar a +precious pearl, which he had taken from the ear of Metella: how much +wiser was he [in doing this,] than if he had thrown the same into a +rapid river, or the common sewer? The progeny of Quintius Arrius, an +illustrious pair of brothers, twins in wickedness and trifling and the +love of depravity, used to dine upon nightingales bought at a vast +expense: to whom do these belong? Are they in their senses? Are they to +be marked With chalk, or with charcoal? + +If an [aged person] with a long beard should take a delight to build +baby-houses, to yoke mice to a go-cart, to play at odd and even, to ride +upon a long cane, madness must be his motive. If reason shall evince, +that to be in love is a more childish thing than these; and that there +is no difference whether you play the same games in the dust as when +three years old, or whine in anxiety for the love of a harlot: I beg to +know, if you will act as the reformed Polemon did of old? Will you lay +aside those ensigns of your disease, your rollers, your mantle, your +mufflers; as he in his cups is said to have privately torn the chaplet +from his neck, after he was corrected by the speech of his fasting +master? When you offer apples to an angry boy, he refuses them: here, +take them, you little dog; he denies you: if you don't give them, he +wants them. In what does an excluded lover differ [from such a boy]; +when he argues with himself whether he should go or not to that very +place whither he was returning without being sent for, and cleaves to +the hated doors? "What shall I not go to her now, when she invites me of +her own accord? or shall I rather think of putting an end to my pains? +She has excluded me; she recalls me: shall I return? No, not if she +would implore me." Observe the servant, not a little wiser: "O master, +that which has neither moderation nor conduct, can not be guided by +reason or method. In love these evils are inherent; war [one while], +then peace again. If any one should endeavor to ascertain these things, +that are various as the weather, and fluctuating by blind chance; he +will make no more of it, than if he should set about raving by right +reason and rule." What--when, picking the pippins from the Picenian +apples, you rejoice if haply you have hit the vaulted roof; are you +yourself? What--when you strike out faltering accents from your +antiquated palate, how much wiser are you than [a child] that builds +little houses? To the folly [of love] add bloodshed, and stir the fire +with a sword. I ask you, when Marius lately, after he had stabbed +Hellas, threw himself down a precipice, was he raving mad? Or will you +absolve the man from the imputation of a disturbed mind, and condemn him +for the crime, according to your custom, imposing, on things named that +have an affinity in signification? + +There was a certain freedman, who, an old man, ran about the streets in +a morning fasting, with his hands washed, and prayed thus: "Snatch me +alone from death" (adding some solemn vow), "me alone, for it is an easy +matter for the gods:" this man was sound in both his ears and eyes; but +his master, when he sold him, would except his understanding, unless he +were fond of law-suits. This crowd too Chrysippus places in the fruitful +family of Menenius. + +O Jupiter, who givest and takest away great afflictions, (cries the +mother of a boy, now lying sick abed for five months), if this cold +quartan ague should leave the child, in the morning of that day on which +you enjoy a fast, he shall stand naked in the Tiber. Should chance or +the physician relieve the patient from his imminent danger, the +infatuated mother will destroy [the boy] placed on the cold bank, and +will bring back the fever. With what disorder of the mind is she +stricken? Why, with a superstitious fear of the gods. + +These arms Stertinius, the eighth of the wise men, gave to me, as to a +friend, that for the future I might not be roughly accosted without +avenging myself. Whosoever shall call me madman, shall hear as much from +me [in return]; and shall learn to look back upon the bag that hangs +behind him. + +O Stoic, so may you, after your damage, sell all your merchandise the +better: what folly (for, [it seems,] there are more kinds than one) do +you think I am infatuated with? For to myself I seem sound. What--when +mad Agave carries the amputated head of her unhappy son, does she then +seem mad to herself? I allow myself a fool (let me yield to the truth) +and a madman likewise: only declare this, with what distemper of mind +you think me afflicted. Hear, then: in the first place you build; that +is, though from top to bottom you are but of the two-foot size you +imitate the tall: and you, the same person, laugh at the spirit and +strut of Turbo in armor, too great for his [little] body: how are you +less ridiculous than him? What--is it fitting that, in every thing +Maecenas does, you, who are so very much unlike him and so much his +inferior, should vie with him? The young ones of a frog being in her +absence crushed by the foot of a calf, when one of them had made his +escape, he told his mother what a huge beast had dashed his brethren to +pieces. She began to ask, how big? Whether it were so great? puffing +herself up. Greater by half. What, so big? when she had swelled herself +more and more. If you should burst yourself, says he, you will not be +equal to it. This image bears no great dissimilitude to you. Now add +poems (that is, add oil to the fire), which if ever any man in his +senses made, why so do you. I do not mention your horrid rage. At +length, have done--your way of living beyond your fortune--confine +yourself to your own affairs, Damasippus--those thousand passions for +the fair, the young. Thou greater madman, at last, spare thy inferior. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE IV. + +_He ridicules the absurdity of one Catius, who placed the summit of +human felicity in the culinary art_. + + +Whence, and whither, Catius? I have not time [to converse with you], +being desirous of impressing on my memory some new precepts; such as +excel Pythagoras, and him that was accused by Anytus, and the learned +Plato. I acknowledge my offense, since I have interrupted you at so +unlucky a juncture: but grant me your pardon, good sir, I beseech you. +If any thing should have slipped you now, you will presently recollect +it: whether this talent of yours be of nature, or of art, you are +amazing in both. Nay, but I was anxious, how I might retain all [these +precepts]; as being things of a delicate nature, and in a delicate +style. Tell me the name of this man; and at the same time whether he is +a Roman, or a foreigner? As I have them by heart, I will recite the +precepts: the author shall be concealed. + +Remember to serve up those eggs that are of an oblong make, as being of +sweeter flavor and more nutritive than the round ones: for, being +tough-shelled, they contain a male yelk. Cabbage that grows in dry +lands, is sweeter than that about town: nothing is more insipid than a +garden much watered. If a visitor should come unexpectedly upon you in +the evening, lest the tough old hen prove disagreeable to his palate, +you must learn to drown it in Falernian wine mixed [with water]: this +will make it tender. The mushrooms that grow in meadows, are of the best +kind: all others are dangerously trusted. That man shall spend his +summers healthy who shall finish his dinners with mulberries black [with +ripeness], which he shall have gathered from the tree before the sun +becomes violent. Aufidius used to mix honey with strong Falernian +injudiciously; because it is right to commit nothing to the empty veins, +but what is emollient: you will, with more propriety, wash your stomach +with soft mead. If your belly should be hard bound, the limpet and +coarse cockles will remove obstructions, and leaves of the small sorrel; +but not without Coan white wine. The increasing moons swell the +lubricating shell-fish. But every sea is not productive of the exquisite +sorts. The Lucrine muscle is better than the Baian murex: [The best] +oysters come from the Circaean promontory; cray-fish from Misenum: the +soft Tarentum plumes herself on her broad escalops. Let no one +presumptuously arrogate to himself the science of banqueting, unless the +nice doctrine of tastes has been previously considered by him with exact +system. Nor is it enough to sweep away a parcel of fishes from the +expensive stalls, [while he remains] ignorant for what sort stewed sauce +is more proper, and what being roasted, the sated guest will presently +replace himself on his elbow. Let the boar from Umbria, and that which +has been fed with the acorns of the scarlet oak, bend the round dishes +of him who dislikes all flabby meat: for the Laurentian boar, fattened +with flags and reeds, is bad. The vineyard does not always afford the +most eatable kids. A man of sense will be fond of the shoulders of a +pregnant hare. What is the proper age and nature of fish and fowl, +though inquired after, was never discovered before my palate. There are +some, whose genius invents nothing but new kinds of pastry. To waste +one's care upon one thing, is by no means sufficient; just as if any +person should use all his endeavors for this only, that the wine be not +bad; quite careless what oil he pours upon his fish. If you set out +Massic wine in fair weather, should there be any thing thick in it, it +will be attenuated by the nocturnal air, and the smell unfriendly to the +nerves will go off: but, if filtrated through linen, it will lose its +entire flavor. He, who skillfully mixes the Surrentine wine with +Falernian lees, collects the sediment with a pigeon's egg: because the +yelk sinks to the bottom, rolling down with it all the heterogeneous +parts. You may rouse the jaded toper with roasted shrimps and African +cockles; for lettuce after wine floats upon the soured stomach: by ham +preferably, and by sausages, it craves to be restored to its appetite: +nay, it will prefer every thing which is brought smoking hot from the +nasty eating-houses. It is worth while to be acquainted with the two +kinds of sauce. The simple consists of sweet oil; which it will be +proper to mix with rich wine and pickle, but with no other pickle than +that by which the Byzantine jar has been tainted. When this, mingled +with shredded herbs, has boiled, and sprinkled with Corycian saffron, +has stood, you shall over and above add what the pressed berry of the +Venafran olive yields. The Tiburtian yield to the Picenian apples in +juice, though they excel in look. The Venusian grape is proper for +[preserving in] pots. The Albanian you had better harden in the smoke. I +am found to be the first that served up this grape with apples in neat +little side-plates, to be the first [likewise that served up] wine-lees +and herring-brine, and white pepper finely mixed with black salt. It is +an enormous fault to bestow three thousand sesterces on the fish-market, +and then to cramp the roving fishes in a narrow dish. It causes a great +nausea in the stomach, if even the slave touches the cup with greasy +hands, while he licks up snacks, or if offensive grime has adhered to +the ancient goblet. In trays, in mats, in sawdust, [that are so] cheap, +what great expense can there be? But, if they are neglected, it is a +heinous shame. What, should you sweep Mosaic pavements with a dirty +broom made of palm, and throw Tyrian carpets over the unwashed furniture +of your couch! forgetting, that by how much less care and expense these +things are attended, so much the more justly may [the want of them] be +censured, than of those things which can not be obtained but at the +tables of the rich? + +Learned Catius, entreated by our friendship and the gods, remember to +introduce me to an audience [with this great man], whenever you shall go +to him. For, though by your memory you relate every thing to me, yet as +a relater you can not delight me in so high a degree. Add to this the +countenance and deportment of the man; whom you, happy in having seen, +do not much regard, because it has been your lot: but I have no small +solicitude, that I may approach the distant fountain-heads, and imbibe +the precepts of [such] a blessed life. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE V. + +_In a humorous dialogue between Ulysses and Tiresias, he exposes those +arts which the fortune hunters make use of, in order to be appointed the +heirs of rich old men_. + + +Beside what you have told me, O Tiresias, answer to this petition of +mine: by what arts and expedients may I be able to repair my ruined +fortunes--why do you laugh? Does it already seem little to you, who are +practiced in deceit, to be brought back to Ithaca, and to behold [again] +your family household gods? O you who never speak falsely to anyone, you +see how naked and destitute I return home, according to your prophecy: +nor is either my cellar, or my cattle there, unembezzled by the suitors +[of Penelope]. But birth and virtue, unless [attended] with substance, +is viler than sea weed. + +Since (circumlocutions apart) you are in dread of poverty hear by what +means you may grow wealthy. If a thrush, or any [nice] thing for your +own private [eating], shall be given you; it must wing way to that +place, where shines a great fortune, the possessor being an old man: +delicious apples, and whatever dainties your well-cultivated ground +brings forth for you, let the rich man, as more to be reverenced than +your household god, taste before him: and, though he be perjured, of no +family, stained with his brother's blood, a runaway; if he desire it, do +not refuse to go along with him, his companion on the outer side. What, +shall I walk cheek by jole with a filthy Damas? I did not behave myself +in that manner at Troy, contending always with the best. You must then +be poor. I will command my sturdy soul to bear this evil; I have +formerly endured even greater. Do thou, O prophet, tell me forthwith how +I may amass riches and heaps of money. In troth I have told you, and +tell you again. Use your craft to lie at catch for the last wills of old +men: nor, if one or two cunning chaps escape by biting the bait off the +hook, either lay aside hope, or quit the art, though disappointed in +your aim. If an affair, either of little or great consequence, shall be +contested at any time at the bar; whichever of the parties live wealthy +without heirs, should he be a rogue, who daringly takes the law of a +better man, be thou his advocate: despise the citizen, who is superior +in reputation, and [the justness of] his cause, if at home he has a son +or a fruitful wife. [Address him thus:] "Quintus, for instance, or +Publius (delicate ears delight in the prefixed name), your virtue has +made me your friend. I am acquainted with the precarious quirks of the +law; I can plead causes. Any one shall sooner snatch my eyes from me, +than he shall despise or defraud you of an empty nut. This is my care, +that you lose nothing, that you be not made a jest of." Bid him go home, +and make much of himself. Be his solicitor yourself: persevere, and be +steadfast: whether the glaring dog-star shall cleave the infant statues; +or Furius, destined with his greasy paunch, shall spue white snow over +the wintery Alps. Do not you see (shall someone say, jogging the person +that stands next to him by the elbow) how indefatigable he is, how +serviceable to his friends, how acute? [By this means] more tunnies +shall swim in, and your fish-ponds will increase. + +Further, if any one in affluent circumstances has reared an ailing son, +lest a too open complaisance to a single man should detect you, creep +gradually into the hope [of succeeding him], and that you may be set +down as second heir; and, if any casualty ahould dispatch the boy to +Hades, you may come into the vacancy. This die seldom fails. Whoever +delivers his will to you to read, be mindful to decline it, and push the +parchment from you: [do it] however in such a manner, that you may catch +with an oblique glance, what the first page intimates to be in the +second clause: run over with a quick eye, whether you are sole heir, or +co-heir with many. Sometimes a well-seasoned lawyer, risen from a +Quinquevir, shall delude the gaping raven; and the fortune-hunter Nasica +shall be laughed at by Coranus. + +What, art thou in a [prophetic] raving; or dost thou play upon me +designedly, by uttering obscurities? O son of Laertes, whatever I shall +say will come to pass, or it will not: for the great Apollo gives me the +power to divine. Then, if it is proper, relate what that tale means. + +At that time when the youth dreaded by the Parthians, an offspring +derived from the noble Aeneas, shall be mighty by land and sea; the tall +daughter of Nasica, averse to pay the sum total of his debt, shall wed +the stout Coranus. Then the son-in-law shall proceed thus: he shall +deliver his will to his father-in-law, and entreat him to read it; +Nasica will at length receive it, after it has been several times +refused, and silently peruse it; and will find no other legacy left to +him and his, except leave to lament. + +To these [directions I have already given], I subjoin the [following]: +if haply a cunning woman or a freedman have the management of an old +driveler, join with them as an associate: praise them, that you may be +praised in your absence. This too is of service; but to storm [the +capital] itself excels this method by far. Shall he, a dotard, scribble +wretched verses? Applaud them. Shall he be given to pleasure? Take care +[you do not suffer him] to ask you: of your own accord complaisantly +deliver up your Penelope to him, as preferable [to yourself]. What--do +you think so sober and so chaste a woman can be brought over, whom [so +many] wooers could not divert from the right course. Because, forsooth, +a parcel of young fellows came, who were too parsimonious to give a +great price, nor so much desirous of an amorous intercourse, as of the +kitchen. So far your Penelope is a good woman: who, had she once tasted +of one old [doting gallant], and shared with you the profit, like a +hound, will never be frighted away from the reeking skin [of the new +killed game]. + +What I am going to tell you happened when I was an old man. A wicked hag +at Thebes was, according to her will, carried forth in this manner: her +heir bore her corpse, anointed with a large quantity of oil, upon his +naked shoulders; with the intent that, if possible, she might escape +from him even when dead: because, I imagine, he had pressed upon her too +much when living. Be cautious in your addresses: neither be wanting in +your pains, nor immoderately exuberant. By garrulity you will offend the +splenetic and morose. You must not, however, be too silent. Be Davus in +the play; and stand with your head on one side, much like one who is in +great awe. Attack him with complaisance: if the air freshens, advise him +carefully to cover up his precious head: disengage him from the crowd by +opposing your shoulders to it: closely attach your ear to him if chatty. +Is he immoderately fond of being praised? Pay him home, till he shall +cry out, with his hands lifted up to heaven, "Enough:" and puff up the +swelling bladder with tumid speeches. When he shall have [at last] +released you from your long servitude and anxiety; and being certainly +awake, you shall hear [this article in his will]? "Let Ulysses be heir +to one fourth of my estate:" "is then my companion Damas now no more? +where shall I find one so brave and so faithful?" Throw out [something +of this kind] every now and then: and if you can a little, weep for him. +It is fit to disguise your countenance, which [otherwise] would betray +your joy. As for the monument, which is left to your own discretion, +erect it without meanness. The neighborhood will commend the funeral +handsomely performed. If haply any of your co-heirs, being advanced in +years, should have a dangerous cough; whether he has a mind to be a +purchaser of a farm or a house out of your share, tell him, you will +[come to any terms he shall propose, and] make it over to him gladly for +a trifling sum. But the Imperious Proserpine drags me hence. Live, and +prosper. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE VI. + +_He sets the conveniences of a country retirement in opposition to the +troubles of a life in town_. + + +This was [ever] among the number of my wishes: a portion of ground not +over large, in which was a garden, and a fountain with a continual +stream close to my house, and a little Woodland besides. The gods have +done more abundantly, and better, for me [than this]. It is well: O son +of Maia, I ask nothing more save that you would render these donations +lasting to me. If I have neither made my estate larger by bad means, nor +am in a way to make it less by vice or misconduct; if I do not foolishly +make any petition of this sort--"Oh that that neighboring angle, which +now spoils the; regularity of my field, could be added! Oh that some +accident would discover to me an urn [full] of money! as it did to him, +who having found a treasure, bought that very ground he before tilled in +the capacity of an hired servant, enriched by Hercules' being his +friend;" if what I have at present satisfies me grateful, I supplicate +you with this prayer: make my cattle fat for the use of their master, +and every thing else, except my genius: and, as you are wont, be present +as my chief guardian. Wherefore, when I have removed myself from the +city to the mountains and my castle, (what can I polish, preferably to +my satires and prosaic muse?) neither evil ambition destroys me, nor the +heavy south wind, nor the sickly autumn, the gain of baleful Libitina. + +Father of the morning, or Janus, if with more pleasure thou hearest +thyself [called by that name], from whom men commence the toils of +business, and of life (such is the will of the gods), be thou the +beginning of my song. At Rome you hurry me away to be bail; "Away, +dispatch, [you cry,] lest any one should be beforehand with you in doing +that friendly office:" I must go, at all events, whether the north wind +sweep the earth, or winter contracts the snowy day into a narrower +circle. After this, having uttered in a clear and determinate manner +[the legal form], which may be a detriment to me, I must bustle through +the crowd; and must disoblige the tardy. "What is your will, madman, and +what are you about, impudent fellow?" So one accosts me with his +passionate curses. "You jostle every thing that is in your way, if with +an appointment full in your mind you are away to Maecenas." This pleases +me, and is like honey: I will not tell a lie. But by the time I reached +the gloomy Esquiliae, a hundred affairs of other people's encompass me +on every side: "Roscius begged that you would be with him at the +court-house to-morrow before the second hour." "The secretaries +requested you would remember, Quintus, to return to-day about an affair +of public concern, and of great consequence." "Get Maecenas to put his +signet to these tablets." Should one say, "I will endeavor at it:" "If +you will, you can," adds he; and is more earnest. The seventh year +approaching to the eighth is now elapsed, from the time that Maecenas +began to reckon me in the number of his friends; only thus far, as one +he would like to take along with him in his chariot, when he went a +journey, and to whom he would trust such kind of trifles as these: "What +is the hour?" "Is Gallina, the Thracian, a match for [the gladiator] +Syrus?" "The cold morning air begins to pinch those that are ill +provided against it;"--and such things-as are well enough intrusted to a +leaky ear. For all this time, every day and hour, I have been more +subjected to envy. "Our son of fortune here, says every body, witnessed +the shows in company with [Maecenas], and played with him in the Campus +Martius." Does any disheartening report spread from the rostrum through +the streets, whoever comes in my way consults me [concerning it]: "Good +sir, have you (for you must know, since you approach nearer the gods) +heard any thing relating to the Dacians?" "Nothing at all for my part," +[I reply]. "How you ever are a sneerer!" "But may all the gods torture +me, if I know any thing of the matter." "What? will Caesar give the +lands he promised the soldiers, in Sicily, or in Italy?" As I am +swearing I know nothing about it, they wonder at me, [thinking] me, to +be sure, a creature of profound and extraordinary secrecy. + +Among things of this nature the day is wasted by me, mortified as I am, +not without such wishes as these: O rural retirement, when shall I +behold thee? and when shall it be in my power to pass through the +pleasing oblivion of a life full of solicitude, one while with the books +of the ancients, another while in sleep and leisure? O when shall the +bean related to Pythagoras, and at the same time herbs well larded with +fat bacon, be set before me? O evenings, and suppers fit for gods! with +which I and my friends regale ourselves in the presence of my household +gods; and feed my saucy slaves with viands, of which libations have been +made. The guest, according to every one's inclination, takes off the +glasses of different sizes, free from mad laws: whether one of a strong +constitution chooses hearty bumpers; or another more joyously gets +mellow with moderate ones. Then conversation arises, not concerning +other people's villas and houses, nor whether Lepos dances well or not; +but we debate on what is more to our purpose, and what it is pernicious +not to know--whether men are made happier by riches or by virtue; or +what leads us into intimacies, interest or moral rectitude; and what is +the nature of good, and what its perfection. Meanwhile, my neighbor +Cervius prates away old stories relative to the subject. For, if any one +ignorantly commends the troublesome riches of Aurelius, he thus begins: +"On a time a country-mouse is reported to have received a city-mouse +into his poor cave, an old host, his old acquaintance; a blunt fellow +and attentive to his acquisitions, yet so as he could [on occasion] +enlarge his narrow soul in acts of hospitality. What need of many words? +He neither grudged him the hoarded vetches, nor the long oats; and +bringing in his mouth a dry plum, and nibbled scraps of bacon, presented +them to him, being desirous by the variety of the supper to get the +better of the daintiness of his guest, who hardly touched with his +delicate tooth the several things: while the father of the family +himself, extended on fresh straw, ate a spelt and darnel leaving that +which was better [for his guest]. At length the citizen addressing him, +'Friend,' says he, 'what delight have you to live laboriously on the +ridge of a rugged thicket? Will you not prefer men and the city to the +savage woods? Take my advice, and go along with me: since mortal lives +are allotted to all terrestrial animals, nor is there any escape from +death, either for the great or the small. Wherefore, my good friend, +while it is in your power, live happy in joyous circumstances: live +mindful of how brief an existence you are.' Soon as these speeches had +wrought upon the peasant, he leaps nimbly from his cave: thence they +both pursue their intended journey, being desirous to steal under the +city walls by night. And now the night possessed the middle region of +the heavens, when each of them set foot in a gorgeous palace, where +carpets dyed with crimson grain glittered upon ivory couches, and many +baskets of a magnificent entertainment remained, which had yesterday +been set by in baskets piled upon one another. After he had placed the +peasant then, stretched at ease upon a splendid carpet; he bustles about +like an adroit host, and keeps bringing up one dish close upon another, +and with an affected civility performs all the ceremonies, first tasting +of every thing he serves up. He, reclined, rejoices in the change of his +situation, and acts the part of a boon companion in the good cheer: when +on a sudden a prodigious rattling of the folding doors shook them both +from their couches. Terrified they began to scamper all about the room, +and more and more heartless to be in confusion, while the lofty house +resounded with [the barking of] mastiff dogs; upon which, says the +country-mouse, 'I have no desire for a life like this; and so farewell: +my wood and cave, secure from surprises, shall with homely tares comfort +me.'" + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE VII. + +_One of Horace's slaves, making use of that freedom which was allowed +them at the Saturnalia, rates his master in a droll and severe manner_. + + +I have a long while been attending [to you], and would fain speak a few +words [in return; but, being] a slave, I am afraid. What, Davus? Yes, +Davus, a faithful servant to his master and an honest one, at least +sufficiently so: that is, for you to think his life in no danger. Well +(since our ancestors would have it so), use the freedom of December +speak on. + +One part of mankind are fond of their vices with some constancy and +adhere to their purpose: a considerable part fluctuates; one while +embracing the right, another while liable to depravity. Priscus, +frequently observed with three rings, sometimes with his left hand bare, +lived so irregularly that he would change his robe every hour; from a +magnificent edifice, he would on a sudden hide himself in a place, +whence a decent freedman could scarcely come out in a decent manner; one +while he would choose to lead the life of a rake at Rome, another while +that of a teacher at Athens; born under the evil influence of every +Vertumnus. That buffoon, Volanerius, when the deserved gout had crippled +his fingers, maintained [a fellow] that he had hired at a daily price, +who took up the dice and put them into a box for him: yet by how much +more constant was he in his vice, by so much less wretched was he than +the former person, who is now in difficulties by too loose, now by too +tight a rein. + +"Will you not tell to-day, you varlet, whither such wretched stuff as +this tends?" "Why, to you, I say." "In what respect to me, scoundrel?" +"You praise the happiness and manners of the ancient [Roman] people; and +yet, if any god were on a sudden to reduce you to to them, you, the same +man, would earnestly beg to be excused; either because you are not +really of opinion that what you bawl about is right; or because you are +irresolute in defending the right, and hesitate, in vain desirous to +extract your foot from the mire. At Rome, you long for the country; when +you are in the country, fickle, you extol the absent city to the skies. +If haply you are invited out nowhere to supper, you praise your quiet +dish of vegetables; and as if you ever go abroad upon compulsion, you +think yourself so happy, and do so hug yourself, that you are obliged to +drink out nowhere. Should Maecenas lay his commands on you to come late, +at the first lighting up of the lamps, as his guest; 'Will nobody bring +the oil with more expedition? Does any body hear?' You stutter with a +mighty bellowing, and storm with rage. Milvius, and the buffoons [who +expected to sup with you], depart, after having uttered curses not +proper to be repeated. Any one may say, for I own [the truth], that I am +easy to be seduced by my appetite; I snuff up my nose at a savory smell: +I am weak, lazy; and, if you have a mind to add any thing else, I am a +sot. But seeing you are as I am, and perhaps something worse, why do you +willfully call me to an account as if you were the better man; and, with +specious phrases, disguise your own vice? What, if you are found out to +be a greater fool than me, who was purchased for five hundred drachmas? +Forbear to terrify me with your looks; restrain your hand and your +anger, while I relate to you what Crispinus' porter taught me. + +"Another man's wife captivates you; a harlot, Davus: which of us sins +more deservingly of the cross? When keen nature inflames me, any common +wench that picks me up, dismisses me neither dishonored, nor caring +whether a richer or a handsomer man enjoys her next. You, when you have +cast off your ensigns of dignity, your equestrian ring and your Roman +habit, turn out from a magistrate a wretched Dama, hiding with a cape +your perfumed head: are you not really what you personate? You are +introduced, apprehensive [of consequences]; and, as you are altercating +With your passions, your bones shake with fear. What is the difference +whether you go condemned [like a gladiator], to be galled with scourges, +or slain with the sword; or be closed up in a filthy chest, where [the +maid], concious of her mistress' crime, has stowed you? Has not the +husband of the offending dame a just power over both; against the +seducer even a juster? But she neither changes her dress, nor place, nor +sins to that excess [which you do]; since the woman is in dread of you, +nor gives any credit to you, though you profess to love her. You must go +under the yoke knowingly, and put all your fortune, your life, and +reputation, together with your limbs, into the power of an enraged +husband. Have you escaped? I suppose, then, you will be afraid [for the +future]; and, being warned, will be cautious. No, you will seek occasion +when you may be again in terror, and again may be likely to perish. O so +often a slave! What beast, when it has once escaped by breaking its +toils, absurdly trusts itself to them again? You say, "I am no +adulterer." Nor, by Hercules, am I a thief, when I wisely pass by the +silver vases. Take away the danger, and vagrant nature will spring +forth, when restraints are removed. Are you my superior, subjected as +you are, to the dominion of so many things and persons, whom the +praetor's rod, though placed on your head three or four times over, can +never free from this wretched solicitude? Add, to what has been said +above, a thing of no less weight; whether he be an underling, who obeys +the master-slave (as it is your custom to affirm), or only a +fellow-slave, what am I in respect of you? You, for example, who have +the command of me, are in subjection to other things, and are led about, +like a puppet movable by means of wires not its own. + +"Who then is free? The wise man, who has dominion over himself; whom +neither poverty, nor death, nor chains affright; brave in the checking +of his appetites, and in contemning honors; and, perfect in himself, +polished and round as a globe, so that nothing from without can retard, +in consequence of its smoothness; against whom misfortune ever advances +ineffectually. Can you, out of these, recognize any thing applicable to +yourself? A woman demands five talents of you, plagues you, and after +you are turned out of doors, bedews you with cold water: she calls you +again. Rescue your neck from this vile yoke; come, say, I am free, I am +free. You are not able: for an implacable master oppresses your mind, +and claps the sharp spurs to your jaded appetite, and forces you on +though reluctant. When you, mad one, quite languish at a picture by +Pausias; how are you less to blame than I, when I admire the combats of +Fulvius and Rutuba and Placideianus, with their bended knees, painted in +crayons or charcoal, as if the men were actually engaged, and push and +parry, moving their weapons? Davus is a scoundrel and a loiterer; but +you have the character of an exquisite and expert connoisseur in +antiquities. If I am allured by a smoking pasty, I am a good-for-nothing +fellow: does your great virtue and soul resist delicate entertainments? +Why is a tenderness for my belly too destructive for me? For my back +pays for it. How do you come off with more impunity, since you hanker +after such dainties as can not be had for a little expense? Then those +delicacies, perpetually taken, pall upon the stomach; and your mistaken +feet refuse to support your sickly body. Is that boy guilty, who by +night pawns a stolen scraper for some grapes? Has he nothing servile +about him, who in indulgence to his guts sells his estates? Add to this, +that you yourself can not be an hour by yourself, nor dispose of your +leisure in a right manner; and shun yourself as a fugitive and vagabond, +one while endeavoring with wine, another while with sleep, to cheat +care--in vain: for the gloomy companion presses upon you, and pursues +you in your flight. + +"Where can I get a stone?" "What occasion is there for it?" "Where some +darts?" "The man is either mad, or making verses." "If you do not take +yourself away in an instant, you shall go [and make] a ninth laborer at +my Sabine estate." + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE VIII. + +_A smart description of a miser ridiculously acting the extravagant._ + + +How did the entertainment of that happy fellow Nasidienus please you? +for yesterday, as I was seeking to make you my guest, you were said to +be drinking there from mid-day. [It pleased me so], that I never was +happier in my life. Say (if it be not troublesome) what food first +calmed your raging appetite. + +In the first place, there was a Lucanian boar, taken when the gentle +south wind blew, as the father of the entertainment affirmed; around it +sharp rapes, lettuces, radishes; such things as provoke a languid +appetite; skirrets, anchovies, dregs of Coan wine. These once removed, +one slave, tucked high with a purple cloth, wiped the maple table, and a +second gathered up whatever lay useless, and whatever could offend the +guests; swarthy Hydaspes advances like an Attic maid with Ceres' sacred +rites, bearing wines of Caecubum; Alcon brings those of Chios, undamaged +by the sea. Here the master [cries], "Maecenas, if Alban or Falernian +wine delight you more than those already brought, we have both." + +Ill-fated riches! But, Fundanius, I am impatient to know, who were +sharers in this feast where you fared so well. + +I was highest, and next me was Viscus Thurinus, and below, if I +remember, was Varius; with Servilius Balatro, Vibidius, whom Maecenas +had brought along with him, unbidden guests. Above [Nasidienus] himself +was Nomentanus, below him Porcius, ridiculous for swallowing whole cakes +at once. Nomentanus [was present] for this purpose, that if any thing +should chance to be unobserved, he might show it with his pointing +finger. For the other company, we, I mean, eat [promiscuously] of fowls, +oysters, fish, which had concealed in them a juice far different from +the known: as presently appeared, when he reached to me the entrails of +a plaice and of a turbot, such as had never been tasted before. After +this he informed me that honey-apples were most ruddy when gathered +under the waning moon. What difference this makes you will hear best +from himself. Then [says] Vibidius to Balatro; "If we do not drink to +his cost, we shall die in his debt;" and he calls for larger tumblers. A +paleness changed the countenance of our host, who fears nothing so much +as hard drinkers: either because they are more freely censorious; or +because heating wines deafen the subtle [judgment of the] palate. +Vibidius and Balatro, all following their example, pour whole casks into +Alliphanians; the guests of the lowest couch did no hurt to the flagons. +A lamprey is brought in, extended in a dish, in the midst of floating +shrimps. Whereupon, "This," says the master, "was caught when pregnant; +which, after having young, would have been less delicate in its flesh." +For these a sauce is mixed up; with oil which the best cellar of +Venafrum pressed, with pickle from the juices of the Iberian fish, with +wine of five years old, but produced on this side the sea, while it is +boiling (after it is boiled, the Chian wine suits it so well, that no +other does better than it) with white pepper, and vinegar which, by +being vitiated, turned sour the Methymnean grape. I first showed the way +to stew in it the green rockets and bitter elecampane: Curtillus, [to +stew in it] the sea-urchins unwashed, as being better than the pickle +which the sea shell-fish yields. + +In the mean time the suspended tapestry made a heavy downfall upon the +dish, bringing along with it more black dust than the north wind ever +raises on the plains of Campania. Having been fearful of something +worse, as soon as we perceive there was no danger, we rise up. Rufus, +hanging his head, began to weep, as if his son had come to an untimely +death: what would have been the end, had not the discreet Nomentanus +thus raised his friend! "Alas! O fortune, what god is more cruel to us +than thou? How dost thou always take pleasure in sporting with human +affairs!" Varius could scarcely smother a laugh with his napkin. +Balatro, sneering at every thing, observed: "This is the condition of +human life, and therefore a suitable glory will never answer your labor. +Must you be rent and tortured with all manner of anxiety, that I may be +entertained sumptuously; lest burned bread, lest ill-seasoned soup +should be set before us; that all your slaves should wait, properly +attired and neat? Add, besides, these accidents; if the hangings should +tumble down, as just now, if the groom slipping with his foot should +break a dish. But adversity is wont to disclose, prosperity to conceal, +the abilities of a host as well as of a general." To this Nasidienus: +"May the gods give you all the blessings, whatever you can pray for, you +are so good a man and so civil a guest;" and calls for his sandals. Then +on every couch you might see divided whispers buzzing in each secret +ear. + +I would not choose to have seen any theatrical entertainments sooner +than these things. But come, recount what you laughed at next. While +Vibidius is inquiring of the slaves, whether the flagon was also broken, +because cups were not brought when he called for them; and while a laugh +is continued on feigned pretences, Balatro seconding it; you Nasidienus, +return with an altered countenance, as if to repair your ill-fortune by +art. Then followed the slaves, bearing on a large charger the several +limbs of a crane besprinkled with much salt, not without flour, and the +liver of a white goose fed with fattening figs, and the wings of hares +torn off, as a much daintier dish than if one eats them with the loins. +Then we saw blackbirds also set before us with scorched breasts, and +ring-doves without the rumps: delicious morsels! did not the master give +us the history of their causes and natures: whom we in revenge fled +from, so as to taste nothing at all; as if Canidia, more venomous than +African serpents, had poisoned them with her breath. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE FIRST BOOK OF THE EPISTLES OF HORACE. + + + +EPISTLE I. + +TO MAECENAS. + +_The poet renounces all verses of a ludicrous turn, and resolves to +apply himself wholly to the study of philosophy, which teaches to bridle +the desires, and to postpone every thing to virtue._ + + +Maecenas, the subject of my earliest song, justly entitled to my latest, +dost thou seek to engage me again in the old lists, having been tried +sufficiently, and now presented with the foils? My age is not the same, +nor is my genius. Veianius, his arms consecrated on a pillar of +Hercules' temple, lives snugly retired in the country, that he may not +from the extremity of the sandy amphitheater so often supplicate the +people's favor. Some one seems frequently to ring in my purified ear: +"Wisely in time dismiss the aged courser, lest, an object of derision, +he miscarry at last, and break his wind." Now therefore I lay aside both +verses, and all other sportive matters; my study and inquiry is after +what is true and fitting, and I am wholly engaged in this: I lay up, and +collect rules which I may be able hereafter to bring into use. And lest +you should perchance ask under what leader, in what house [of +philosophy], I enter myself a pupil: addicted to swear implicitly to the +ipse-dixits of no particular master, wherever the weather drives me, I +am carried a guest. One while I become active, and am plunged in the +waves of state affairs, a maintainer and a rigid partisan of strict +virtue; then again I relapse insensibly into Aristippus' maxims, and +endeavor to adapt circumstances to myself, not myself to circumstances. +As the night seems long to those with whom a mistress has broken her +appointment, and the day slow to those who owe their labor; as the year +moves lazy with minors, whom the harsh guardianship of their mothers +confines; so all that time to me flows tedious and distasteful, which +delays my hope and design of strenuously executing that which is of +equal benefit to the poor and to the rich, which neglected will be of +equal detriment to young and to old. It remains, that I conduct and +comfort myself by these principles; your sight is not so piercing as +that of Lynceus; you will not however therefore despise being anointed, +if you are sore-eyed: nor because you despair of the muscles of the +invincible Glycon, will you be careless of preserving your body from the +knotty gout. There is some point to which we may reach, if we can go no +further. Does your heart burn with avarice, and a wretched desire of +more? Spells there are, and incantations, with which you may mitigate +this pain, and rid yourself of a great part of the distemper. Do you +swell with the love of praise? There are certain purgations which can +restore you, a certain treatise, being perused thrice with purity of +mind. The envious, the choleric, the indolent, the slave to wine, to +women--none is so savage that he can not be tamed, if he will only lend +a patient ear to discipline. + +It is virtue, to fly vice; and the highest wisdom, to have lived free +from folly. You see with what toil of mind and body you avoid those +things which you believe to be the greatest evils, a small fortune and a +shameful repulse. An active merchant, you run to the remotest Indies, +fleeing poverty through sea, through rocks, through flames. And will you +not learn, and hear, and be advised by one who is wiser, that you may no +longer regard those things which you foolishly admire and wish for? What +little champion of the villages and of the streets would scorn being +crowned at the great Olympic games, who had the hopes and happy +opportunity of victory without toil? Silver is less valuable than gold, +gold than virtue. "O citizens, citizens, money is to be sought first; +virtue after riches:" this the highest Janus from the lowest inculcates; +young men and old repeat these maxims, having their bags and +account-books hung on the left arm. You have soul, have breeding, have +eloquence and honor: yet if six or seven thousand sesterces be wanting +to complete your four hundred thousand, you shall be a plebeian. But +boys at play cry, "You shall be king, if you will do right." Let this be +a [man's] brazen wall, to be conscious of no ill, to turn pale with no +guilt. Tell me, pray is the Roscian law best, or the boy's song which +offers the kingdom to them that do right, sung by the manly Curii and +Camilli? Does he advise you best, who says, "Make a fortune; a fortune, +if you can, honestly; if not, a fortune by any means"--that you may view +from a nearer bench the tear-moving poems of Puppius; or he, who still +animates and enables you to stand free and upright, a match for haughty +fortune? + +If now perchance the Roman people should ask me, why I do not enjoy the +same sentiments with them, as [I do the same] porticoes, nor pursue or +fly from whatever they admire or dislike; I will reply, as the cautious +fox once answered the sick lion: "Because the foot-marks all looking +toward you, and none from you, affright me." Thou art a monster with +many heads. For what shall I follow, or whom? One set of men delight to +farm the public revenues: there are some, who would inveigle covetous +widows with sweet-meats and fruits, and insnare old men, whom they would +send [like fish] into their ponds: the fortunes of many grow by +concealed usury. But be it, that different men are engaged in different +employments and pursuits: can the same persons continue an hour together +approving the same things? If the man of wealth has said, "No bay in the +world outshines delightful Baiae," the lake and the sea presently feel +the eagerness of their impetuous master: to whom, if a vicious humor +gives the omen, [he will cry,]--"to-morrow, workmen, ye shall convey +hence your tools to Teanum." Has he in his hall the genial bed? He says +nothing is preferable to, nothing better than a single life. If he has +not, he swears the married only are happy. With what noose can I hold +this Proteus, varying thus his forms? What does the poor man? Laugh [at +him too]: is he not forever changing his garrets, beds, baths, barbers? +He is as much surfeited in a hired boat, as the rich man is, whom his +own galley conveys. + +If I meet you with my hair cut by an uneven barber, you laugh [at me]: +if I chance to have a ragged shirt under a handsome coat, or if my +disproportioned gown fits me ill, you laugh. What [do you do], when my +judgment contradicts itself? it despises what it before desired; seeks +for that which lately it neglected; is all in a ferment, and is +inconsistent in the whole tenor of life; pulls down, builds up, changes +square to round. In this case, you think I am mad in the common way, and +you do not laugh, nor believe that I stand in need of a physician, or +of a guardian assigned by the praetor; though you are the patron of my +affairs, and are disgusted at the ill-pared nail of a friend that +depends upon you, that reveres you. + +In a word, the wise man is inferior to Jupiter alone, is rich, free, +honorable, handsome, lastly, king of kings; above all, he is sound, +unless when phlegm is troublesome. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE II. + +TO LOLLIUS. + +_He prefers Homer to all the philosophers, as a moral writer, and +advises an early cultivation of virtue_. + + +While you, great Lollius, declaim at Rome, I at Praeneste have perused +over again the writer of the Trojan war; who teaches more clearly, and +better than Chrysippus and Crantor, what is honorable, what shameful, +what profitable, what not so. If nothing hinders you, hear why I have +thus concluded. The story is which, on account of Paris's intrigue, +Greece is stated to be wasted in a tedious war with the barbarians, +contains the tumults of foolish princes and people. Antenor gives his +opinion for cutting off the cause of the war. What does Paris? He can +not be brought to comply, [though it be in order] that he may reign +safe, and live happy. Nestor labors to compose the differences between +Achilles and Agamemnon: love inflames one; rage both in common. The +Greeks suffer for what their princes act foolishly. Within the walls of +Ilium, and without, enormities are committed by sedition, treachery, +injustice, and lust, and rage. + +Again, to show what virtue and what wisdom can do, he has propounded +Ulysses an instructive pattern: who, having subdued Troy, wisely got an +insight into the constitutions and customs of many nations; and, while +for himself and his associates he is contriving a return, endured many +hardships on the spacious sea, not to be sunk by all the waves of +adversity. You are well acquainted with the songs of the Sirens, and +Circe's cups: of which, if he had foolishly and greedily drunk along +with his attendants, he had been an ignominious and senseless slave +under the command of a prostitute: he had lived a filthy dog, or a hog +delighting in mire. + +We are a mere number and born to consume the fruits of the earth; like +Penelope's suitors, useless drones; like Alcinous' youth, employed above +measure in pampering their bodies; whose glory was to sleep till +mid-day, and to lull their cares to rest by the sound of the harp. +Robbers rise by night, that they may cut men's throats; and will not you +awake to save yourself? But, if you will not when you are in health, you +will be forced to take exercise when you are in a dropsy; and unless +before day you call for a book with a light, unless you brace your mind +with study and honest employments, you will be kept awake and tormented +with envy or with love. For why do you hasten to remove things that hurt +your eyes, but if any thing gnaws your mind, defer the time of curing it +from year to year? He has half the deed done, who has made a beginning. +Boldly undertake the study of true wisdom: begin it forthwith. He who +postpones the hour of living well, like the hind [in the fable], waits +till [all the water in] the river be run off: whereas it flows, and will +flow, ever rolling on. + +Money is sought, and a wife fruitful in bearing children, and wild +woodlands are reclaimed by the plow. [To what end all this?] He, that +has got a competency, let him wish for no more. Not a house and farm, +nor a heap of brass and gold, can remove fevers from the body of their +sick master, or cares from his mind. The possessor must be well, if he +thinks of enjoying the things which he has accumulated. To him that is a +slave to desire or to fear, house and estate do just as much good as +paintings to a sore-eyed person, fomentations to the gout, music to ears +afflicted with collected matter. Unless the vessel be sweet, whatever +you pour into it turns sour. Despise pleasures, pleasure bought with +pain is hurtful. The covetous man is ever in want; set a certain limit +to your wishes. The envious person wastes at the thriving condition of +another: Sicilian tyrants never invented a greater torment than envy. He +who will not curb his passion, will wish that undone which his grief and +resentment suggested, while he violently plies his revenge with unsated +rancor. Rage is a short madness. Rule your passion, which commands, if +it do not obey; do you restrain it with a bridle, and with fetters. The +groom forms the docile horse, while his neck is yet tender, to go the +way which his rider directs him: the young hound, from the time that he +barked at the deer's skin in the hall, campaigns it in the woods. Now, +while you are young, with an untainted mind Imbibe instruction: now +apply yourself to the best [masters of morality]. A cask will long +preserve the flavor, with which when new it was once impregnated. But if +you lag behind, or vigorously push on before, I neither wait for the +loiterer, nor strive to overtake those that precede me. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE III. + + +TO JULIUS FLORUS. + +_After inquiring about Claudius Tiberius Nero, and some of his friends, +he exhorts Florus to the study of philosophy_. + + +I long to know, Julius Florus, in what regions of the earth Claudius, +the step-son of Augustus, is waging war. Do Thrace and Hebrus, bound +with icy chains, or the narrow sea running between the neighboring +towers, or Asia's fertile plains and hills detain you? What works is the +studious train planning? In this too I am anxious--who takes upon +himself to write the military achievements of Augustus? Who diffuses +into distant ages his deeds in war and peace? What is Titius about, who +shortly will be celebrated by every Roman tongue; who dreaded not to +drink of the Pindaric spring, daring to disdain common waters and open +streams: how does he do? How mindful is he of me? Does he employ himself +to adapt Theban measures to the Latin lyre, under the direction of his +muse? Or does he storm and swell in the pompous style of traffic art? +What is my Celsus doing? He has been advised, and the advice is still +often to be repeated, to acquire stock of his own, and forbear to touch +whatever writings the Palatine Apollo has received: lest, if it chance +that the flock of birds should some time or other come to demand their +feathers, he, like the daw stripped of his stolen colors, be exposed to +ridicule. What do you yourself undertake? What thyme are you busy +hovering about? Your genius is not small, is not uncultivated nor +inelegantly rough. Whether you edge your tongue for [pleading] causes, +or whether you prepare to give counsel in the civil law, or whether you +compose some lovely poem; you will bear off the first prize of the +victorious ivy. If now you could quit the cold fomentations of care; +whithersoever heavenly wisdom would lead you, you would go. Let us, +both small and great, push forward in this work, in this pursuit: if to +our country, if to ourselves we would live dear. + +You must also write me word of this, whether Munatiua is of as much +concern to you as he ought to be? Or whether the ill-patched +reconciliation in vain closes, and is rent asunder again? But, whether +hot blood, or inexperience in things, exasperates you, wild as coursers +with unsubdued neck, in whatever place you live, too worthy to break the +fraternal bond, a devoted heifer is feeding against your return. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE IV. + +TO ALBIUS TIBULLUS. + +_He declares his accomplishments; and, after proposing the thought of +death, converts it into an occasion of pleasantry_. + + +Albius, thou candid critic of my discourses, what shall I say you are +now doing in the country about Pedum? Writing what may excel the works +of Cassius Parmensis; or sauntering silently among the healthful groves, +concerning yourself about every thing worthy a wise and good man? You +were not a body without a mind. The gods have given you a beautiful +form, the gods [have given] you wealth, and the faculty of enjoying it. + +What greater blessing could a nurse solicit for her beloved child, than +that he might be wise, and able to express his sentiments; and that +respect, reputation, health might happen to him in abundance, and decent +living, with a never-failing purse? + +In the midst of hope and care, in the midst of fears and disquietudes, +think every day that shines upon you is the last. [Thus] the hour, which +shall not be expected, will come upon you an agreeable addition. + +When you have a mind to laugh, you shall see me fat and sleek with good +keeping, a hog of Epicurus' herd. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE V. + +TO TORQUATUS. + +_He invites him to a frugal entertainment, but a cleanly and cheerful +one_. + + +If you can repose yourself as my guest upon Archias' couches, and are +not afraid to make a whole meal on all sorts of herbs from a moderate +dish; I will expect you, Torquatus, at my house about sun set. You shall +drink wine poured into the vessel in the second consulship of Taurus, +produced between the fenny Minturnae and Petrinum of Sinuessa. If you +have any thing better, send for it; or bring your commands. Bright +shines my hearth, and my furniture is clean for you already. Dismiss +airy hopes, and contests about riches, and Moschus' cause. To-morrow, a +festal day on account of Caesar's birth, admits of indulgence and +repose. We shall have free liberty to prolong the summer evening with +friendly conversation. To what purpose have I fortune, if I may not use +it? He that is sparing out of regard to his heir, and too niggardly, is +next neighbor to a madman. I will begin to drink and scatter flowers, +and I will endure even to be accounted foolish. What does not wine +freely drunken enterprise? It discloses secrets; commands our hopes to +be ratified; pushes the dastard on to the fight; removes the pressure +from troubled minds; teaches the arts. Whom have not plentiful cups made +eloquent? Whom have they not [made] free and easy under pinching +poverty? + +I, who am both the proper person and not unwilling, am charged to take +care of these matters; that no dirty covering on the couch, no foul +napkin contract your nose into wrinkles; and that the cup and the dish +may show you to yourself; that there be no one to carry abroad what is +said among faithful friends; that equals may meet and be joined with +equals I will add to you Butra, and Septicius, and Sabinus, unless a +better entertainment and a mistress more agreeable detain him. There is +room also for many introductions: but goaty ramminess is offensive in +over-crowded companies. + +Do you write word, what number you would be; and setting aside business, +through the back-door give the slip to your client who keeps guard in +your court. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE VI. + +TO NUMICIUS. + +_That a wise man is in love with nothing but virtue_. + + +To admire nothing is almost the one and only thing, Numicius, which can +make and keep a man happy. There are who view this sun, and the stars, +and the seasons retiring at certain periods, untainted with any fear. +What do you think of the gifts of the earth? What of the sea, that +enriches the remote Arabians and Indians? What of scenical shows, the +applause and favors of the kind Roman? In what manner do you think they +are to be looked upon, with what apprehensions and countenance? He that +dreads the reverse of these, admires them almost in the same way as he +that desires them; fear alike disturbs both ways: an unforeseen turn of +things equally terrifies each of them: let a man rejoice or grieve, +desire or fear; what matters it--if, whatever he perceives better or +worse than his expectations, with downcast look he be stupefied in mind +and body? Let the wise man bear the name of fool, the just of unjust; if +he pursue virtue itself beyond proper bounds. + +Go now, look with transport upon silver, and antique marble, and brazen +statues, and the arts: admire gems, and Tyrian dyes: rejoice, that a +thousand eyes are fixed upon you while you speak: industrious repair +early to the forum, late to your house, that Mutus may not reap more +grain [than you] from his lands gained in dowry, and (unbecoming, since +he sprung from meaner parents) that he may not be an object of +admiration to you rather than you to him. Whatever is in the earth, time +will bring forth into open day light; will bury and hide things, that +now shine brightest. When Agrippa's portico, and the Appian way, shall +have beheld you well known; still it remains for you to go where Numa +and Ancus are arrived. If your side or your reins are afflicted with an +acute disease, seek a remedy from the disease. Would you live happily? +Who would not? If virtue alone can confer this, discarding pleasures, +strenuously pursue it. Do you think virtue mere words, as a grove is +trees? Be it your care that no other enter the port before you; that you +lose not your traffic with Cibyra, with Bithynia. Let the round sum of a +thousand talents be completed; as many more; further, let a third +thousand succeed, and the part which may square the heap. For why, +sovereign money gives a wife with a [large] portion, and credit, and +friends, and family, and beauty; and [the goddesses], Persuasion and +Venus, graced the well-moneyed man. The king of the Cappadocians, rich +in slaves, is in want of coin; be not you like him. Lucullus, as they +say, being asked if he could lend a hundred cloaks for the stage, "How +can I so many?" said he: "yet I will see, and send as many as I have;" a +little after he writes that he had five thousand cloaks in his house; +they might take part of them, or all. It is a scanty house, where there +are not many things superfluous, and which escape the owner's notice, +and are the gain of pilfering slaves. If then wealth alone can make and +keep a man happy, be first in beginning this work, be last in leaving it +off. If appearances and popularity make a man fortunate, let as purchase +a slave to dictate [to us] the names [of the citizens], to jog us on the +left-side, and to make us stretch our hand over obstacles: "This man has +much interest in the Fabian, that in the Veline tribe; this will give +the fasces to any one, and, indefatigably active, snatch the curule +ivory from whom he pleases; add [the names of] father, brother: +according as the age of each is, so courteously adopt him. If he who +feasts well, lives well; it is day, let us go whither our appetite leads +us: let us fish, let us hunt, as did some time Gargilius: who ordered +his toils, hunting-spears, slaves, early in the morning to pass through +the crowded forum and the people: that one mule among many, in the sight +of the people, might return loaded with a boar purchased with money. Let +us bathe with an indigested and full-swollen stomach, forgetting what is +becoming, what not; deserving to be enrolled among the citizens of +Caere; like the depraved crew of Ulysses of Ithaca, to whom forbidden +pleasure was dearer than their country. If, as Mimnermus thinks, nothing +is pleasant without love and mirth, live in love and mirth. + +Live: be happy. If you know of any thing preferable to these maxims, +candidly communicate it: if not, with me make use of these. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE VII. + +TO MAECENAS. + +_He apologizes to Maecenas for his long absence from Rome; and +acknowledges his favors to him in such a manner as to declare liberty +preferable to all other blessings_. + + +Having promised you that I would be in the country but five days, false +to my word, I am absent the whole of August. But, if you would have me +live sound and in perfect health, the indulgence which you grant me, +Maecenas, when I am ill, you will grant me [also] when I am afraid of +being ill: while [the time of] the first figs, and the [autumnal] heat +graces the undertaker with his black attendants; while every father and +mother turn pale with fear for their children; and while over-acted +diligence, and attendance at the forum, bring on fevers and unseal +wills. But, if the winter shall scatter snow upon the Alban fields, your +poet will go down to the seaside, and be careful of himself, and read +bundled up; you, dear friend, he will revisit with the zephyrs, if you +will give him leave, and with the first swallow. + +You have made me rich, not in the manner in which the Calabrian host +bids [his guest] eat of his pears. "Eat, pray, sir." "I have had +enough." "But take away with you what quantity you will." "You are very +kind." "You will carry them no disagreeable presents to your little +children." "I am as much obliged by your offer, as if I were sent away +loaded." "As you please: you leave them to be devoured to-day by the +hogs." The prodigal and fool gives away what he despises and hates; the +reaping of favors like these has produced, and ever will produce, +ungrateful men. A good and wise man professes himself ready to do +kindness to the deserving; and yet is not ignorant, how true coins +differ from lupines. I will also show myself deserving of the honor of +being grateful. But if you would not have me depart any whither, you +must restore my vigorous constitution, the black locks [that grew] on my +narrow forehead: you must restore to me the power of talking pleasantly: +you must restore to me the art of laughing with becoming ease, and +whining over my liquor at the jilting of the wanton Cynara. + +A thin field-mouse had by chance crept through a narrow cranny into a +chest of grain; and, having feasted itself, in vain attempted to come +out again, with its body now stuffed full. To which a weasel at a +distance cries, "If you would escape thence, repair lean to the narrow +hole which you entered lean." If I be addressed with this similitude, I +resign all; neither do I, sated with delicacies, cry up the calm repose +of the vulgar, nor would I change my liberty and ease for the riches of +the Arabians. You have often commended me for being modest; when present +you heard [from me the appellations of] king and father, nor am I a word +more sparing in your absence. Try whether I can cheerfully restore what +you have given me. Not amiss [answered] Telemachus, son of the patient +Ulysses: "The country of Ithaca is not proper for horses, as being +neither extended into champaign fields, nor abounding with much grass: +Atrides, I will leave behind me your gifts, [which are] more proper for +yourself." Small things best suit the small. No longer does imperial +Rome please me, but unfrequented Tibur, and unwarlike Tarentum. + +Philip, active and strong, and famed for pleading causes, while +returning from his employment about the eighth hour, and now of a great +age, complaining that the Carinae were too far distant from the forum; +spied, as they say, a person clean shaven in a barber's empty shed, +composedly paring his own nails with a knife. "Demetrius," [says he,] +(this slave dexterously received his master's orders,) "go inquire, and +bring me word from what house, who he is, of what fortune, who is his +father, or who is his patron." He goes, returns, and relates, that "he +is by name, Vulteius Maena, an auctioneer, of small fortune, of a +character perfectly unexceptionable, that he could upon occasion ply +busily, and take his ease, and get, and spend; delighting in humble +companions and a settled dwelling, and (after business ended) in the +shows, and the Campus Martius." + +"I would inquire of him himself all this, which you report; bid him come +to sup with me." Maena can not believe it; he wonders silently within +himself. Why many words? He answers, "It is kind." "Can he deny me?" +"The rascal denies, and disregards or dreads you." In the morning Philip +comes unawares upon Vulteius, as he is selling brokery-goods to the +tunic'd populace, and salutes him first. He pleads to Philip his +employment, and the confinement of his business, in excuse for not +having waited upon him in the morning; and afterward, for not seeing him +first. "Expect that I will excuse you on this condition, that you sup +with me to-day." "As you please." "Then you will come after the ninth +hour: now go: strenuously increase your stock." When they were come to +supper, having discoursed of things of a public and private nature, at +length he is dismissed to go to sleep. When he had often been seen, to +repair like a fish to the concealed hook, in the morning a client, and +now as a constant guest; he is desired to accompany [Philip] to his +country-seat near the city, at the proclaiming of the Latin festivals. +Mounted on horseback, he ceases not to cry up the Sabine fields and air. +Philip sees it, and smiles: and, while he is seeking amusement and +diversion for himself out of every thing, while he makes him a present +of seven thousand sesterces, and promises to lend him seven thousand +more: he persuades him to purchase a farm: he purchases one. That I may +not detain you with a long story beyond what is necessary, from a smart +cit he becomes a downright rustic, and prates of nothing but furrows and +vineyards; prepares his elms; is ready to die with eager diligence, and +grows old through a passionate desire of possessing. But when his sheep +were lost by theft, his goats by distemper, his harvest deceived his +hopes, his ox was killed with plowing; fretted with these losses, at +midnight he snatches his nag, and in a passion makes his way to Philip's +house. Whom as soon as Philip beheld, rough and unshaven, "Vulteius," +said he, "you seem to me to be too laborious and earnest." "In truth, +patron," replied he, "you would call me a wretch, if you would apply to +me my true name. I beseech and conjure you then, by your genius and your +right hand and your household gods, restore me to my former life." As +soon as a man perceives, how much the things he has discarded excel +those which he pursues, let him return in time, and resume those which +he relinquished. + +It is a truth, that every one ought to measure himself by his own proper +foot and standard. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE VIII. + +TO CELSUS ALBINOVANUS. + +_That he was neither well in body, nor in mind; that Celtics should bear +his prosperity with moderation_. + + +My muse at my request, give joy and wish success to Celsus Albinovanus, +the attendant and the secretary of Nero. If he shall inquire, what I am +doing, say that I, though promising many and fine things, yet live +neither well [according to the rules of strict philosophy], nor +agreeably; not because the hail has crushed my vines, and the heat has +nipped my olives; nor because my herds are distempered in distant +pastures; but because, less sound in my mind than in my whole body, I +will hear nothing, learn nothing which may relieve me, diseased as I am; +that I am displeased with my faithful physicians, am angry with my +friends for being industrious to rouse me from a fatal lethargy; that I +pursue things which have done me hurt, avoid things which I am persuaded +would be of service, inconstant as the wind, at Rome am in love with +Tibur, at Tibur with Rome. After this, inquire how he does; how he +manages his business and himself; how he pleases the young prince and +his attendants. If he shall say, well; first congratulate him, then +remember to whisper this admonition in his ears: As you, Celsus, bear +your fortunes, so will we bear you. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE IX. + +TO CLAUDIUS TIBERIUS NERO. + +_He recommends Septimius to him_. + + +Of all the men in the world Septimius surely, O Claudius, knows how much +regard you have for me. For when he requests, and by his entreaties in a +manner compels me, to undertake to recommend and introduce him to you, +as one worthy of the confidence and the household of Nero, who is wont +to choose deserving objects, thinking I discharge the office of an +intimate friend; he sees and knows better than myself what I can do. I +said a great deal, indeed, in order that I might come off excused: but I +was afraid, lest I should be suspected to pretend my interest was less +than it is, to be a dissembler of my own power, and ready to serve +myself alone. So, avoiding the reproach of a greater fault, I have put +in for the prize of town-bred confidence. If then you approve of modesty +being superseded at the pressing entreaties of a friend, enrol this +person among your retinue, and believe him to be brave and good. + + + +EPISTLE X. + +TO ARISTIUS FUSCUS. + +_He praises a country before a city life, as more agreeable to nature, +and more friendly to liberty_. + + +We, who love the country, salute Fuscus that loves the town; in this +point alone [being] much unlike, but in other things almost twins, of +brotherly sentiments: whatever one denies the other too [denies]; we +assent together: like old and constant doves, you keep the nest; I +praise the rivulets, the rocks overgrown with moss, and the groves of +the delightful country. Do you ask why? I live and reign, as soon as I +have quitted those things which you extol to the skies with joyful +applause. And, like a priest's, fugitive slave I reject luscious wafers, +I desire plain bread, which is more agreeable now than honied cakes. + +If we must live suitably to nature, and a plot of ground is to be first +sought to raise a house upon, do you know any place preferable to the +blissful country? Is there any spot where the winters are more +temperate? where a more agreeable breeze moderates the rage of the +Dog-star, and the season of the Lion, when once that furious sign has +received the scorching sun? Is there a place where envious care less +disturbs our slumbers? Is the grass inferior in smell or beauty to the +Libyan pebbles? Is the water, which strives to burst the lead in the +streets, purer than that which trembles in murmurs down its sloping +channel? Why, trees are nursed along the variegated columns [of the +city]; and that house is commended, which has a prospect of distant +fields. You may drive out nature with a fork, yet still she will return, +and, insensibly victorious, will break through [men's] improper +disgusts. + +Not he who is unable to compare the fleeces that drink up the dye of +Aquinum with the Sidonian purple, will receive a more certain damage +and nearer to his marrow, than he who shall not be able to distinguish +false from true. He who has been overjoyed by prosperity, will be +shocked by a change of circumstances. If you admire any thing [greatly], +you will be unwilling to resign it. Avoid great things; under a mean +roof one may outstrip kings, and the favorites of kings, in one's life. + +The stag, superior in fight, drove the horse from the common pasture, +till the latter, worsted in the long contest, implored the aid of man +and received the bridle; but after he had parted an exulting conqueror +from his enemy, he could not shake the rider from his back, nor the bit +from his mouth. So he who, afraid of poverty, forfeits his liberty, more +valuable than mines, avaricious wretch, shall carry a master, and shall +eternally be a slave, for not knowing how to use a little. When a man's +condition does not suit him, it will be as a shoe at any time; which, if +too big for his foot, will throw him down; if too little, will pinch +him. [If you are] cheerful under your lot, Aristius, you will live +wisely; nor shall you let me go uncorrected, if I appear to scrape +together more than enough and not have done. Accumulated money is the +master or slave of each owner, and ought rather to follow than to lead +the twisted rope. + +These I dictated to thee behind the moldering temple of Vacuna; in all +other things happy, except that thou wast not with me. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XI. + +TO BULLATIUS. + +_Endeavoring to recall him back to Rome from Asia, whither he had +retreated through his weariness of the civil wars, he advises him to +ease the disquietude of his mind not by the length of his journey, but +by forming his mind into a right disposition_. + + +What, Bullatius, do you think of Chios, and of celebrated Lesbos? What +of neat Samos? What of Sardis, the royal residence of Croesus? What of +Smyrna, and Colophon? Are they greater or less than their fame? Are they +all contemptible in comparison of the Campus Martius and the river +Tiber? Does one of Attalus' cities enter into your wish? Or do you +admire Lebedus, through a surfeit of the sea and of traveling? You know +what Lebedus is; it is a more unfrequented town than Gabii and Fidenae; +yet there would I be willing to live; and, forgetful of my friends and +forgotten by them, view from land Neptune raging at a distance. But +neither he who comes to Rome from Capua, bespattered with rain and mire, +would wish to live in an inn; nor does he, who has contracted a cold, +cry up stoves and bagnios as completely furnishing a happy life: nor, if +the violent south wind has tossed you in the deep, will you therefore +sell your ship on the other side of the Aegean Sea. On a man sound in +mind Rhodes and beautiful Mitylene have such an effect, as a thick cloak +at the summer solstice, thin drawers in snowy weather, [bathing in] the +Tiber in winter, a fire in the month of August. While it is permitted, +and fortune preserves a benign aspect, let absent Samos, and Chios, and +Rhodes, be commended by you here at Rome. Whatever prosperous; hour +Providence bestows upon you, receive it with a thankful hand: and defer +not [the enjoyment of] the comforts of life, till a year be at an end; +that in whatever place you are, you may say you have lived with +satisfaction. For if reason and discretion, not a place that commands a +prospect of the wide-extended sea, remove our cares; they change their +climate, not their disposition, who run beyond the sea: a busy idleness +harrasses us: by ships and by chariots we seek to live happily. What you +seek is here [at home], is at Ulubrae, if a just temper of mind is not +wanting to you. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XII. + +TO ICCIUS. + +_Leader the appearance of praising the man's parsimony, he archly +ridicules it; introduces Grosphus to him, and concludes with a few +articles of news concerning the Roman affairs_. + + +O Iccius, if you rightly enjoy the Sicilian products, which you collect +for Agrippa, it is not possible that greater affluence can be given you +by Jove. Away with complaints! for that man is by no means poor, who has +the use or everything, he wants. If it is well with your belly, your +back, and your feet, regal wealth can add nothing greater. If perchance +abstemious amid profusion you live upon salad and shell-fish, you will +continue to live in such a manner, even if presently fortune shall flow +upon you in a river of gold; either because money can not change the +natural disposition, or because it is your opinion that all things are +inferior to virtue alone. Can we wonder that cattle feed upon the +meadows and corn-fields of Democritus, while his active soul is abroad +[traveling] without his body? When you, amid such great impurity and +infection of profit, have no taste for any thing trivial, but still mind +[only] sublime things: what causes restrain the sea, what rules the +year, whether the stars spontaneously or by direction wander about and +are erratic, what throws obscurity on the moon, and what brings out her +orb, what is the intention and power of the jarring harmony of things, +whether Empedocles or the clever Stertinius be in the wrong. + +However, whether you murder fishes, or onions and garlic, receive +Pompeius Grosphus; and, if he asks any favor, grant it him frankly: +Grosphus will desire nothing but what is right and just. The proceeds of +friendship are cheap, when good men want any thing. + +But that you may not be ignorant in what situation the Roman affairs +are; the Cantabrians have fallen by the valor of Agrippa, the Armenians +by that of Claudius Nero: Phraates has, suppliant on his knees, admitted +the laws and power of Caesar. Golden plenty has poured out the fruits of +Italy from a full horn. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XIII. + +TO VINNIUS ASINA. + +_Horace cautions him to present his poems to Augustus at a proper +opportunity, and with due decorum_. + + +As on your setting out I frequently and fully gave you instructions, +Vinnius, that you would present these volumes to Augustus sealed up if +he shall be in health, if in spirits, finally, if he shall ask for them: +do not offend out of zeal to me, and industriously bring an odium upon +my books [by being] an agent of violent officiousness. If haply the +heavy load of my paper should gall you, cast it from you, rather than +throw down your pack in a rough manner where you are directed to carry +it, and turn your paternal name of Asina into a jest, and make yourself +a common story. Make use of your vigor over the hills, the rivers, and +the fens. As soon as you have achieved your enterprise, and arrived +there, you must keep your burden in this position; lest you happen to +carry my bundle of books under your arm, as a clown does a lamb, or as +drunken Pyrrhia [in the play does] the balls of pilfered wool, or as a +tribe-guest his slippers with his fuddling-cap. You must not tell +publicly, how you sweated with carrying those verses, which may detain +the eyes and ears of Caesar. Solicited with much entreaty, do your best. +Finally, get you gone, farewell: take care you do not stumble, and break +my orders. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XIV. + +TO HIS STEWARD. + +_He upbraids his levity for contemning a country life, which had been +his choice, and being eager to return to Rome_. + + +Steward of my woodlands and little farm that restores me to myself, +which you despise, [though formerly] inhabited by five families, and +wont to send five good senators to Varia: let us try, whether I with +more fortitude pluck the thorns out of my mind, or you out of my ground: +and whether Horace or his estate be in a better condition. + +Though my affection and solicitude for Lamia, mourning for his brother, +lamenting inconsolably for his brother's loss, detain me; nevertheless +my heart and soul carry me thither and long to break through those +barriers that obstruct my way. I pronounce him the happy man who dwells +in the country, you him [who lives] in the city. He to whom his +neighbor's lot is agreeable, must of consequence dislike his own. Each +of us is a fool for unjustly blaming the innocent place. The mind is in +fault, which never escapes from itself. When you were a drudge at every +one's beck, you tacitly prayed for the country: and now, [being +appointed] my steward, you wish for the city, the shows, and the baths. +You know I am consistent with myself, and loth to go, whenever +disagreeable business drags me to Rome. We are not admirers of the same +things: henoe you and I disagree. For what you reckon desert and +inhospitable wilds, he who is of my way of thinking calls delightful +places; and dislikes what you esteem pleasant. The bagnio, I perceive, +and the greasy tavern raise your inclination for the city: and this, +because my little spot will sooner yield frankincense and pepper than +grapes; nor is there a tavern near, which can supply you with wine; nor +a minstrel harlot, to whose thrumming you may dance, cumbersome to the +ground: and yet you exercise with plowshares the fallows that have been +a long while untouched, you take due care of the ox when unyoked, and +give him his fill with leaves stripped [from the boughs]. The sluice +gives an additional trouble to an idle fellow, which, if a shower fall, +must be taught by many a mound to spare the sunny meadow. + +Come now, attend to what hinders our agreeing. [Me,] whom fine garments +and dressed locks adorned, whom you know to have pleased venal Cynara +without a present, whom [you have seen] quaff flowing Falernian from +noon--a short supper [now] delights, and a nap upon the green turf by +the stream side; nor is it a shame to have been gay, but not to break +off that gayety. There there is no one who reduces my possessions with +envious eye, nor poisons them with obscure malice and biting slander; +the neighbors smile at me removing clods and stones. You had rather be +munching your daily allowance with the slaves in town; you earnestly +pray to be of the number of these: [while my] cunning foot-boy envies +you the use of the firing, the flocks and the garden. The lazy ox wishes +for the horse's trappings: the horse wishes to go to plow. But I shall +be of opinion, that each of them ought contentedly to exercise that art +which he understands. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XV. + +TO C. NEUMONIUS VALA. + +_Preparing to go to the baths either at Velia or Salernum, he inquires +after the healthfulness and agreeableness of the places_. + + +It is your part, Vala, to write to me (and mine to give credit to your +information) what sort of a winter is it at Velia, what the air at +Salernum, what kind of inhabitants the country consists of, and how the +road is (for Antonius Musa [pronounces] Baiae to be of no service to me; +yet makes me obnoxious to the place, when I am bathed in cold water +even in the midst of the frost [by his prescription]. In truth the +village murmers at their myrtle-groves being deserted and the sulphurous +waters, said to expel lingering disorders from the nerves, despised; +envying those invalids, who have the courage to expose their head and +breast to the Clusian springs, and retire to Gabii and [such] cold +countries. My course must be altered, and my horse driven beyond his +accustomed stages. Whither are you going? will the angry rider say, +pulling in the left-hand rein, I am not bound for Cumae or Baiae:--but +the horse's ear is in the bit.) [You must inform me likewise] which of +the two people is supported by the greatest abundance of corn; whether +they drink rainwater collected [in reservoirs], or from perennial wells +of never-failing water (for as to the wine of that part I give myself no +trouble; at my country-seat I can dispense and bear with any thing: but +when I have arrived at a sea-port, I insist upon that which is generous +and mellow, such as may drive away my cares, such as may flow into my +veins and animal spirits with a rich supply of hope, such as may supply +me with words, such as may make me appear young to my Lucanian +mistress). Which tract of land produces most hares, which boars: which +seas harbor the most fishes and sea-urchins, that I may be able to +return home thence in good case, and like a Phaeacian. + +When Maenius, having bravely made away with his paternal and maternal +estates, began to be accounted a merry fellow--a vagabond droll, who had +no certain place of living; who, when dinnerless, could not distinguish +a fellow-citizen from an enemy; unmerciful in forging any scandal +against any person; the pest, and hurricane, and gulf of the market; +whatever he could get, he gave to his greedy gut. This fellow, when he +had extorted little or nothing from the favorers of his iniquity, or +those that dreaded it, would eat up whole dishes of coarse tripe and +lamb's entrails; as much as would have sufficed three bears; then truly, +[like] reformer Bestius, would he say, that the bellies of extravagant +fellows ought to be branded with a red-hot iron. The same man [however], +when he had reduced to smoke and ashes whatever more considerable booty +he had gotten; 'Faith, said he, I do not wonder if some persons eat up +their estates; since nothing is better than a fat thrush, nothing finer +than a lage sow's paunch. In fact, I am just such another myself; for, +when matters are a little deficient, I commend, the snug and homely +fare, of sufficient resolution amid mean provisions; but, if any thing +be offered better and more delicate, I, the same individual, cry out, +that ye are wise and alone live well, whose wealth and estate are +conspicuous from the elegance of your villas. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XVI. + +TO QUINCTIUS. + +_He describes to Quinctius the form, situation, and advantages of his +country house: then declares that probity consists in the consciousness +of good works; liberty, in probity_. + + +Ask me not, my best Quinctius, whether my farm maintains its master with +corn-fields, or enriches him with olives, or with fruits, or meadow +land, or the elm tree clothed with vines: the shape and situation of my +ground shall be described to you at large. + +There is a continued range of mountains, except where they are separated +by a shadowy vale; but in such a manner, that the approaching sun views +it on the right side, and departing in his flying car warms the left. +You would commend its temperature. What? If my [very] briers produce in +abundance the ruddy cornels and damsens? If my oak and holm tree +accommodate my cattle with plenty of acorns, and their master with a +copious shade? You would say that Tarentum, brought nearer [to Rome], +shone in its verdant beauty. A fountain too, deserving to give name to a +river, insomuch that Hebrus does not surround Thrace more cool or more +limpid, flows salubrious to the infirm head, salubrious to the bowels. +These sweet, yea now (if you will credit me) these delightful retreats +preserve me to you in a state of health [even] in the September season. + +You live well, if you take care to support the character which you bear. +Long ago, all Rome has proclaimed you happy: but I am apprehensive, lest +you should give more credit concerning yourself to any one than +yourself; and lest you should imagine a man happy, who differs from the +wise and good; or, because the people pronounce you sound and perfectly +well, lest you dissemble the lurking fever at meal-times, until a +trembling seize your greased hands. The false modesty of fools conceals +ulcers [rather than have them cured]. If any one should mention battles +which you had fought by land and sea, and in such expressions as these +should soothe your listening ears: "May Jupiter, who consults the safety +both of you and of the city, keep it in doubt, whether the people be +more solicitous for your welfare, or you for the people's;" you might +perceive these encomiums to belong [only] to Augustus when you suffer +yourself to be termed a philosopher, and one of a refined life; say, +pr'ythee, would you answer [to these appellations] in your own name? To +be sure--I like to be called a wise and good man, as well as you. He who +gave this character to-day, if he will, can take it away to-morrow: as +the same people, if they have conferred the consulship on an unworthy +person, may take it away from him: "Resign; it is ours," they cry: I do +resign it accordingly, and chagrined withdraw. Thus if they should call +me rogue, deny me to be temperate, assert that I had strangled my own +father with a halter; shall I be stung, and change color at these false +reproaches? Whom does false honor delight, or lying calumny terrify, +except the vicious and sickly-minded? Who then is a good man? He who +observes the decrees of the senate, the laws and rules of justice; by +whose arbitration many and important disputes are decided; by whose +surety private property, and by whose testimony causes are safe. Yet +[perhaps] his own family and all the neighborhood observe this man, +specious in a fair outside, [to be] polluted within. If a slave should +say to me, "I have not committed a robbery, nor run away:" "You have +your reward; you are not galled with the lash," I reply. "I have not +killed any man:" "You shall not [therefore] feed the carrion crows on +the cross." I am a good man, and thrifty: your Sabine friend denies, and +contradicts the fact. For the wary wolf dreads the pitfall, and the hawk +the suspected snares, and the kite the concealed hook. The good, [on the +contrary,] hate to sin from the love of virtue; you will commit no crime +merely for the fear of punishment. Let there be a prospect of escaping, +you will confound sacred and profane things together. For, when from a +thousand bushels of beans you filch one, the loss in that case to me is +less, but not your villainy. The honest man, whom every forum and every +court of justice looks upon with reverence, whenever he makes an +atonement to the gods with a wine or an ox; after he has pronounced in a +clear distinguishable voice, "O father Janus, O Apollo;" moves his lips +as one afraid of being heard; "O fair Laverna put it in my power to +deceive; grant me the appearance of a just and upright man: throw a +cloud of night over my frauds." I do not see how a covetous man can be +better, how more free than a slave, when he stoops down for the sake of +a penny, stuck in the road [for sport]. For he who will be covetous, +will also be anxious: but he that lives in a state of anxiety, will +never in my estimation be free. He who is always in a hurry, and +immersed in the study of augmenting his fortune, has lost the arms, and +deserted the post of virtue. Do not kill your captive, if you can sell +him: he will serve you advantageously: let him, being inured to +drudgery, feed [your cattle], and plow; let him go to sea, and winter in +the midst of the waves; let him be of use to the market, and import corn +and provisions. A good and wise man will have courage to say, "Pentheus, +king of Thebes, what indignities will you compel me to suffer and +endure. 'I will take away your goods:' my cattle, I suppose, my land, my +movables and money: you may take them. 'I will confine you with +handcuffs and fetters under a merciless jailer.' The deity himself will +discharge me, whenever I please." In my opinion, this is his meaning; I +will die. Death is the ultimate boundary of human matters. + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XVII. + +TO SCAEVA. + +_That a life of business is preferable to a private and inactive one; +the friendship of great men is a laudable acquisition, yet their favors +are ever to be solicited with modesty and caution_. + + +Though, Scaeva, you have sufficient prudence of your own, and well know +how to demean yourself toward your superiors; [yet] hear what are the +sentiments of your old crony, who himself still requires teaching, just +as if a blind man should undertake to show the way: however see, if even +I can advance any thing, which you may think worth your while to adopt +as your own. + +If pleasant rest, and sleep till seven o'clock, delight you; if dust and +the rumbling of wheels, if the tavern offend you, I shall order you off +for Ferentinum. For joys are not the property of the rich alone: nor +has he lived ill, who at his birth and at his death has passed +unnoticed. If you are disposed to be of service to your friends, and to +treat yourself with somewhat more indulgence, you, being poor, must pay +your respects to the great. Aristippus, if he could dine to his +satisfaction on herbs, would never frequent [the tables] of the great. +If he who blames me, [replies Aristippus,] knew how to live with the +great, he would scorn his vegetables. Tell me, which maxim and conduct +of the two you approve; or, since you are my junior, hear the reason why +Aristippus' opinion is preferable; for thus, as they report, he baffled +the snarling cynic: "I play the buffoon for my own advantage, you [to +please] the populace. This [conduct of mine] is better and far more +honorable; that a horse may carry and a great man feed me, pay court to +the great: you beg for refuse, an inferior to the [poor] giver; though +you pretend you are in want of nothing." As for Aristippus, every +complexion of life, every station and circumstance sat gracefully upon +him, aspiring in general to greater things, yet equal to the present: on +the other hand, I shall be much surprised, if a contrary way of life +should become [this cynic], whom obstinacy clothes with a double rag. +The one will not wait for his purple robe; but dressed in any thing, +will go through the most frequented places, and without awkwardness +support either character: the other will shun the cloak wrought at +Miletus with greater aversion than [the bite of] dog or viper; he will +die with cold, unless you restore him his ragged garment; restore it, +and let him live like a fool as he is. To perform exploits, and show the +citizens their foes in chains, reaches the throne of Jupiter, and aims +at celestial honors. To have been acceptable to the great, is not the +last of praises. It is not every man's lot to gain Corinth. He +[prudently] sat still who was afraid lest he should not succeed: be it +so; what then? Was it not bravely done by him, who carried his point? +Either here therefore, or nowhere, is what we are investigating. The one +dreads the burden, as too much for a pusillanimous soul and a weak +constitution; the other under takes, and carries it through. Either +virtue is an empty name, or the man who makes the experiment deservedly +claims the honor and the reward. + +Those who mention nothing of their poverty before their lord, will gain +more than the importunate. There is a great difference between modestly +accepting, or seizing by violence But this was the principle and source +of every thing [which I alleged]. He who says, "My sister is without a +portion, my mother poor, and my estate neither salable nor sufficient +for my support," cries out [in effect], "Give me a morsel of bread:" +another whines, "And let the platter be carved out for me with half a +share of the bounty." But if the crow could have fed in silence, he +would have had better fare, and much less of quarreling and of envy. + +A companion taken [by his lord] to Brundusium, or the pleasant +Surrentum, who complains of the ruggedness of the roads and the bitter +cold and rains, or laments that his chest is broken open and his +provisions stolen; resembles the well-known tricks of a harlot, weeping +frequently for her necklace, frequently for a garter forcibly taken from +her; so that at length no credit is given to her real griefs and losses. +Nor does he, who has been once ridiculed in the streets, care to lift up +a vagrant with a [pretended] broken leg; though abundant tears should +flow from him; though, swearing by holy Osiris, he says, "Believe me, I +do not impose upon you; O cruel, take up the lame." "Seek out for a +stranger," cries the hoarse neighborhood. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XVIII. + +TO LOLLIUS. + +_He treats at large upon the cultivation of the favor of great men; and +concludes with a few words concerning the acquirement of peace of mind_. + + +If I rightly know your temper, most ingenuous Lollius, you will beware +of imitating a flatterer, while you profess yourself a friend. As a +matron is unlike and of a different aspect from a strumpet, so will a +true friend differ from the toad-eater. There is an opposite vice to +this, rather the greater [of the two]; a clownish, inelegant, and +disagreeable bluntness, which would recommend itself by an unshaven face +and black teeth; while it desires to be termed pure freedom and true +sincerity. Virtue is the medium of the two vices; and equally remote +from either. The one is over-prone to complaisance, and a jester of the +lowest, couch, he so reverences the rich man's nod, so repeats his +speeches, and catches up his falling words; that you would take him for +a school-boy saying his lesson to a rigid master, or a player acting an +underpart; another often wrangles about a goat's hair, and armed engages +for any trifle: "That I, truly, should not have the first credit; and +that I should not boldly speak aloud, what is my real sentiment--[upon +such terms], another life would be of no value." But what is the subject +of this controversy? Why, whether [the gladiator] Castor or Dolichos be +the cleverer fellow; whether the Minucian, or the Appian, be the better +road to Brundusium. + +Him whom pernicious lust, whom quick-dispatching dice strips, whom +vanity dresses out and perfumes beyond his abilities, whom insatiable +hunger and thirst after money, Whom a shame and aversion to poverty +possess, his rich friend (though furnished with a half-score more vices) +hates and abhors; or if he does not hate, governs him; and, like a pious +mother, would have him more wise and virtuous than himself; and says +what is nearly true: "My riches (think not to emulate me) admit of +extravagance; your income is but small: a scanty gown becomes a prudent +dependant: cease to vie with me." Whomsoever Eutrapelus had a mind to +punish, he presented with costly garments. For now [said he] happy in +his fine clothes, he will assume new schemes and hopes; he will sleep +till daylight; prefer a harlot to his honest-calling; run into debt; and +at last become a gladiator, or drive a gardener's hack for hire. + +Do not you at any time pry into his secrets; and keep close what is +intrusted to you, though put to the torture, by wine or passion. Neither +commend your own inclinations, nor find fault with those of others; nor, +when he is disposed to hunt, do you make verses. For by such means the +amity of the twins Zethus and Amphion, broke off; till the lyre, +disliked by the austere brother, was silent. Amphion is thought to have +given way to his brother's humors; so do you yield to the gentle +dictates of your friend in power: as often as he leads forth his dogs +into the fields and his cattle laden with Aetolian nets, arise and lay +aside the peevishness of your unmannerly muse, that you may sup together +on the delicious fare purchased by your labor; an exercise habitual to +the manly Romans, of service to their fame and life and limbs: +especially when you are in health, and are able either to excel the dog +in swiftness, or the boar in strength. Add [to this], that there is no +one who handles martial weapons more gracefully. You well know, with +what acclamations of the spectators you sustain the combats in the +Campus Marcius: in fine, as yet a boy, you endured a bloody campaign and +the Cantabrian wars, beneath a commander, who is now replacing the +standards [recovered] from the Parthian temples: and, if any thing is +wanting, assigns it to the Roman arms. And that you may not withdraw +yourself, and inexcusably be absent; though you are careful to do +nothing out of measure, and moderation, yet you sometimes amuse yourself +at your country-seat. The [mock] fleet divides the little boats [into +two squadrons]: the Actian sea-fight is represented by boys under your +direction in a hostile form: your brother is the foe, your lake the +Adriatic; till rapid victory crowns the one or the other with her bays. +Your patron, who will perceive that you come into his taste, will +applaud your sports with both his hands. + +Moreover, that I may advise you (if in aught you stand in need of an +adviser), take great circumspection what you say to any man, and to +whom. Avoid an inquisitive impertinent, for such a one is also a +tattler, nor do open ears faithfully retain what is intrusted to them; +and a word, once sent abroad, flies irrevocably. + +Let no slave within the marble threshold of your honored friend inflame +your heart; lest the owner of the beloved damsel gratify you with so +trifling a present, or, mortifying [to your wishes], torment you [with a +refusal]. + +Look over and over again [into the merits of] such a one, as you +recommend; lest afterward the faults of others strike you with shame. We +are sometimes imposed upon, and now and then introduce an unworthy +person. Wherefore, once deceived, forbear to defend one who suffers by +his own bad conduct; but protect one whom you entirely know, and with +confidence guard him with your patronage, if false accusations attack +him: who being bitten with the tooth of calumny, do you not perceive +that the same danger is threatening you? For it is your own concern, +when the adjoining wall is on fire: and flames neglected are wont to +gain strength. + +The attending of the levee of a friend in power seems delightful to the +unexperienced; the experienced dreads it. Do you, while your vessel is +in the main, ply your business, lest a changing gale bear you back +again. + +The melancholy hate the merry, and the jocose the melancholy; the +volatile [dislike] the sedate, the indolent the stirring and vivacious: +the quaffers of pure Falernian from midnight hate one who shirks his +turn; notwithstanding you swear you are afraid of the fumes of wine by +night. Dispel gloominess from your forehead: the modest man generally +carries the look of a sullen one; the reserved, of a churl. + +In every thing you must read and consult the learned, by what means you +may be enabled to pass your life in an agreeable manner: that insatiable +desire may not agitate and torment you, nor the fear and hope of things +that are but of little account: whether learning acquires virtue, or +nature bestows it? What lessens cares, what may endear you to yourself? +What perfectly renders the temper calm; honor or enticing lucre, or a +secret passage and the path of an unnoticed life? + +For my part, as often as the cooling rivulet Digentia refreshes me +(Digentia, of which Mandela drinks, a village wrinkled with cold); what, +my friend, do you think are my sentiments, what do you imagine I pray +for? Why, that my fortune may remain as it is now; or even [if it be +something] less: and that I may live to myself, what remains of my time, +if the gods will that aught do remain: that I may have a good store of +books, and corn provided for the year; lest I fluctuate in suspense of +each uncertain hour. But it is sufficient to sue Jove [for these +externals], which he gives and takes away [at pleasure]; let him grant +life, let him grant wealth: I myself will provide equanimity of temper. + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XIX. + +TO MAECENAS. + +_He shows the folly of some persons who would imitate; and the envy of +others who would censure him_. + + +O learned Maecenas, if you believe old Gratinus, no verses which are +written by water-drinkers can please, or be long-lived. Ever since +Bacchus enlisted the brain-sick poets among the Satyrs and the Fauns, +the sweet muses have usually smelt of wine in the morning. Homer, by his +excessive praises of wine, is convicted as a booser: father Ennius +himself never sallied forth to sing of arms, unless in drink. "I will +condemn the sober to the bar and the prater's bench, and deprive the +abstemious of the power of singing." + +As soon as he gave out this edict, the poets did not cease to contend in +midnight cups, and to smell of them by day. What! if any savage, by a +stern countenance and bare feet, and the texture of a scanty gown, +should imitate Cato; will he represent the virtue and morals of Cato? +The tongue that imitated Timagenes was the destruction of the Moor, +while he affected to be humorous, and attempted to seem eloquent. The +example that is imitable in its faults, deceives [the ignorant]. Soh! if +I was to grow up pale by accident, [these poetasters] would drink the +blood-thinning cumin. O ye imitators, ye servile herd, how often your +bustlings have stirred my bile, how often my mirth! + +I was the original, who set my free footsteps upon the vacant sod; I +trod not in the steps of others. He who depends upon himself, as leader, +commands the swarm. I first showed to Italy the Parian iambics: +following the numbers and spirit of Archilochus, but not his subject and +style, which afflicted Lycambes. You must not, however, crown me with a +more sparing wreath, because I was afraid to alter the measure and +structure of his verse: for the manly Sappho governs her muse by the +measures of Archilochus, so does Alcaeus; but differing from him in the +materials and disposition [of his lines], neither does he seek for a +father-in-law whom he may defame with his fatal lampoons, nor does he +tie a rope for his betrothed spouse in scandalous verse. Him too, never +celebrated by any other tongue, I the Roman lyrist first made known. It +delights me, as I bring out new productions, to be perused by the eyes, +and held in the hands of the ingenuous. + +Would you know why the ungrateful reader extols and is fond of many +works at home, unjustly decries them without doors? I hunt not after the +applause of the inconstant vulgar, at the expense of entertainments, and +for the bribe of a worn-out colt: I am not an auditor of noble writers, +nor a vindictive reciter, nor condescend to court the tribes and desks +of the grammarians. Hence are these tears. If I say that "I am ashamed +to repeat my worthless writings to crowded theatres, and give an air of +consequence to trifles:" "You ridicule us," says [one of them], "and you +reserve those pieces for the ears of Jove: you are confident that it is +you alone that can distill the poetic honey, beautiful in your own +eyes." At these words I am afraid to turn up my nose; and lest I should +be torn by the acute nails of my adversary, "This place is +disagreeable," I cry out, "and I demand a prorogation of the contest." +For contest is wont to beget trembling emulation and strife, and strife +cruel enmities and funereal war. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XX. + +TO HIS BOOK. + +_In vain he endeavors to retain his book, desirous of getting abroad; +tells it what trouble it is to undergo, and imparts some things to be +said of him to posterity._ + + +You seem, my book, to look wistfully at Janus and Vertumnus; to the end +that you may be set out for sale, neatly polished by the pumice-stone of +the Sosii. You hate keys and seals, which are agreeable to a modest +[volume]; you grieve that you are shown but to a few, and extol public +places; though educated in another manner. Away with you, whither you +are so solicitous of going down: there will be no returning for you, +when you are once sent out. "Wretch that I am, what have I done? What +did I want?"--you will say: when any one gives you ill treatment, and +you know that you will be squeezed into small compass, as soon as the +eager reader is satiated. But, if the augur be not prejudiced by +resentment of your error, you shall be caressed at Rome [only] till your +youth be passed. When, thumbed by the hands of the vulgar, you begin to +grow dirty; either you shall in silence feed the grovelling book-worms, +or you shall make your escape to Utica, or shall be sent bound to +Ilerda. Your disregarded adviser shall then laugh [at you]: as he, who +in a passion pushed his refractory ass over the precipice. For who would +save [an ass] against his will? This too awaits you, that faltering +dotage shall seize on you, to teach boys their rudiments in the skirts +of the city. But when the abating warmth of the sun shall attract more +ears, you shall tell them, that I was the son of a freedman, and +extended my wings beyond my nest; so that, as much as you take away from +my family, you may add to my merit: that I was in favor with the first +men in the state, both in war and peace; of a short stature, gray +before my time, calculated for sustaining heat, prone to passion, yet so +as to be soon appeased. If any one should chance to inquire my age; let +him know that I had completed four times eleven Decembers, in the year +in which Lollius admitted Lepidus as his colleague. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE SECOND BOOK OF THE EPISTLES OF HORACE. + + + +EPISTLE I. + +TO AUGUSTUS. + +_He honors him with the highest compliments; then treats copiously of +poetry, its origin, character, and excellence_. + + +Since you alone support so many and such weighty concerns, defend Italy +with your arms, adorn it by your virtue, reform it by your laws; I +should offend, O Caesar, against the public interests, if I were to +trespass upon your time with a long discourse. + +Romulus, and father Bacchus, and Castor and Pollux, after great +achievements, received into the temples of the gods, while they were +improving the world and human nature, composing fierce dissensions, +settling property, building cities, lamented that the esteem which they +expected was not paid in proportion to their merits. He who crushed the +dire Hydra, and subdued the renowned monsters by his forefated labor, +found envy was to be tamed by death [alone]. For he burns by his very +splendor, whose superiority is oppressive to the arts beneath him: after +his decease, he shall be had in honor. On you, while present among us, +we confer mature honors, and rear altars where your name is to be sworn +by; confessing that nothing equal to you has hitherto risen, or will +hereafter rise. But this your people, wise and just in one point (for +preferring you to our own, you to the Grecian heroes), by no means +estimate other things with like proportion and measure: and disdain and +detest every thing, but what they see removed from earth and already +gone by; such favorers are they of antiquity, as to assert that the +Muses [themselves] upon Mount Alba, dictated the twelve tables, +forbidding to trangress, which the decemviri ratified; the leagues of +our kings concluded with the Gabii, or the rigid Sabines; the records of +the pontifices, and the ancient volumes of the augurs. + +If, because the most ancient writings of the Greeks are also the best, +Roman authors are to be weighed in the same scale, there is no need we +should say much: there is nothing hard in the inside of an olive, +nothing [hard] in the outside of a nut. We are arrived at the highest +pitch of success [in arts]: we paint, and sing, and wrestle more +skillfully than the annointed Greeks. If length of time makes poems +better, as it does wine, I would fain know how many years will stamp a +value upon writings. A writer who died a hundred years ago, is he to be +reckoned among the perfect and ancient, or among the mean and modern +authors? Let some fixed period exclude all dispute. He is an old and +good writer who completes a hundred years. What! one that died a month +or a year later, among whom is he to be ranked? Among the old poets, or +among those whom both the present age and posterity will disdainfully +reject? He may fairly be placed among the ancients, who is younger +either by a short month only, or even by a whole year. I take the +advantage of this concession, and pull away by little and little, as [if +they were] the hairs of a horse's tail: and I take away a single one and +then again another single one; till, like a tumbling heap, [my +adversary], who has recourse to annals and estimates excellence by the +year, and admires nothing but what Libitina has made sacred, falls to +the ground. + +Ennius the wise, the nervous, and (as our critics say) a second Homer, +seems lightly to regard what becomes of his promises and Pythagorean +dreams. Is not Naevius in people's hands, and sticking almost fresh in +their memory? So sacred is every ancient poem. As often as a debate +arises, whether this poet or the other be preferable; Pacuvius bears +away the character of a learned, Accius, of a lofty writer; Afranius' +gown is said to have fitted Menander; Plautus, to hurry after the +pattern of the Sicilian Epicharmus; Caecilius, to excel in gravity, +Terence in contrivance. These mighty Rome learns by heart, and these she +views crowded in her narrow theater; these she esteems and accounts her +poets from Livy the writer's age down to our time. Sometimes the +populace see right; sometimes they are wrong. If they admire and extol +the ancient poets so as to prefer nothing before, to compare nothing +with them, they err; if they think and allow that they express some +things in an obsolete, most in a stiff, many in a careless manner; they +both think sensibly, and agree with me, and determine with the assent of +Jove himself. Not that I bear an ill-will against Livy's epics, and +would doom them to destruction, which I remember the severe Orbilius +taught me when a boy; but they should seem correct, beautiful, and very +little short of perfect, this I wonder at: among which if by chance a +bright expression shines forth, and if one line or two [happen to be] +somewhat terse and musical, this unreasonably carries off and sells the +whole poem. I am disgusted that any thing should be found fault with, +not because it is a lumpish composition or inelegant, but because it is +modern; and that not a favorable allowance, but honor and rewards are +demanded for the old writers. Should I scruple, whether or not Atta's +drama trod the saffron and flowers in a proper manner, almost all the +fathers would cry out that modesty was lost; since I attempted to find +fault with those pieces which the pathetic Aesopus, which the skillful +Roscius acted: either because they esteem nothing right, but what has +pleased themselves; or because they think it disgraceful to submit to +their juniors, and to confess, now they are old, that what they learned +when young is deserving only to be destroyed. Now he who extols Numa's +Salian hymn, and would alone seem to understand that which, as well as +me, he is ignorant of, does not favor and applaud the buried geniuses, +but attacks ours, enviously hating us moderns and every thing of ours. +Whereas if novelty had been detested by the Greeks as much as by us, +what at this time would there have been ancient? Or what what would +there have been for common use to read and thumb, common to every body. + +When first Greece, her wars being over, began to trifle, and through +prosperity to glide into folly; she glowed with the love, one while of +wrestlers, another while of horses; was fond of artificers in marble, or +in ivory, or in brass; hung her looks and attention upon a picture; was +delighted now with musicians, now with tragedians; as if an infant girl +she sported under the nurse; soon cloyed, she abandoned what [before] +she earnestly desired. What is there that pleases or is odious, which +you may not think mutable? This effect had happy times of peace, and +favorable gales [of fortune]. + +At Rome it was long pleasing and customary to be up early with open +doors, to expound the laws to clients; to lay out money cautiously upon +good securities: to hear the elder, and to tell the younger by what +means their fortunes might increase and pernicious luxury be diminished. +The inconstant people have changed their mind, and glow with a universal +ardor for learning: young men and grave fathers sup crowned with leaves, +and dictate poetry. I myself, who affirm that I write no verses, am +found more false than the Parthians: and, awake before the sun is risen, +I call for my pen and papers and desk. He that is ignorant of a ship is +afraid to work a ship; none but he who has learned, dares administer +[even] southern wood to the sick; physicians undertake what belongs to +physicians; mechanics handle tools; but we, unlearned and learned, +promiscuously write poems. + +Yet how great advantages this error and this slight madness has, thus +compute: the poet's mind is not easily covetous; fond of verses, he +studies this alone; he laughs at losses, flights of slaves, fires; he +contrives no fraud against his partner, or his young ward; he lives on +husks, and brown bread; though dastardly and unfit for war, he is useful +at home, if you allow this, that great things may derive assistance from +small ones. The poet fashions the child's tender and lisping mouth, and +turns his ear even at this time from obscene language; afterward also he +forms his heart with friendly precepts, the corrector of his rudeness, +and envy, and passion; he records virtuous actions, he instructs the +rising age with approved examples, he comforts the indigent and the +sick. Whence should the virgin, stranger to a husband, with the chaste +boys, learn the solemn prayer, had not the muse given a poet? The chorus +entreats the divine aid, and finds the gods propitious; sweet in learned +prayer, they implore the waters of the heavens; avert diseases, drive +off impending dangers, obtain both peace and years enriched with fruits. +With song the gods above are appeased, with song the gods below. + +Our ancient swains, stout and happy with a little, after the grain was +laid up, regaling in a festival season their bodies and even their +minds, patient of hardships through the hope of their ending, with their +slaves and faithful wife, the partners of their labors, atoned with a +hog [the goddess] Earth, with milk Silvanus, with flowers and wine the +genius that reminds us of our short life. Invented by this custom, the +Femminine licentiousness poured forth its rustic taunts in alternate +stanzas; and this liberty, received down through revolving years, +sported pleasingly; till at length the bitter raillery began to be +turned into open rage, and threatening with impunity to stalk through +reputable families. They, who suffered from its bloody tooth smarted +with the pain; the unhurt likewise were concerned for the common +condition: further also, a law and a penalty were enacted, which forbade +that any one should be stigmatized in lampoon. Through fear of the +bastinado, they were reduced to the necessity of changing their manner, +and of praising and delighting. + +Captive Greece took captive her fierce conqueror, and introduced her +arts into rude Latium. Thus flowed off the rough Saturnian numbers, and +delicacy expelled the rank venom: but for a long time there remained, +and at this day remain traces of rusticity. For late [the Roman writer] +applied his genius to the Grecian pages; and enjoying rest after the +Punic wars, began to search what useful matter Sophocles, and Thespis, +and Aeschylus afforded: he tried, too, if he could with dignity +translate their works; and succeeded in pleasing himself, being by +nature [of a genius] sublime and strong; for he breathes a spirit tragic +enough, and dares successfully; but fears a blot, and thinks it +disgraceful in his writings. + +Comedy is believed to require the least pains, because it fetches its +subjects from common life; but the less indulgence It meets with, the +more labor it requires. See how Plautus supports the character of a +lover under age, how that of a covetous father, how those of a cheating +pimp: how Dossennus exceeds all measure in his voracious parasites; with +how loose a sock he runs over the stage: for he is glad to put the money +in his pocket, after this regardless whether his play stand or fall. + +Him, whom glory in her airy car has brought upon the stage, the careless +spectator dispirits, the attentive renders more diligent: so slight, so +small a matter it is, which overturns or raises a mind covetous of +praise! Adieu the ludicrous business [of dramatic writing], if applause +denied brings me back meagre, bestowed [makes me] full of flesh and +spirits. + +This too frequently drives away and deters even an adventurous poet? +that they who are in number more, in worth and rank inferior, unlearned +and foolish, and (if the equestrian order dissents) ready to fall to +blows, in the midst of the play, call for either a bear or boxers; for +in these the mob delight. Nay, even all the pleasures of our knights is +now transferred from the ear to the uncertain eye, and their vain +amusements. The curtains are kept down for four hours or more, while +troops of horse and companies of foot flee over the stage: next is +dragged forward the fortune of kings, with their hands bound behind +them; chariots, litters, carriages, ships hurry on; captive ivory, +captive Corinth, is borne along. Democritus, if he were on earth, would +laugh; whether a panther a different genus confused with the camel, or a +white elephant attracted the eye of the crowd. He would view the people +more attentively than the sports themselves, as affording him more +strange sights than the actor: and for the writers, he would think they +told their story to a deaf ass. For what voices are able to overbear the +din with which our theatres resound? You would think the groves of +Garganus, or the Tuscan Sea, was roaring; with so great noise are viewed +the shows and contrivances, and foreign riches: with which the actor +being daubed over, as soon as he appears upon the stage, each right hand +encounters with the left. Has he said any thing yet? Nothing at all. +What then pleases? The cloth imitating [the color of] violets, with the +dye of Tarentum. + +And, that you may not think I enviously praise those kinds of writing +which I decline undertaking, when others handle them well: that poet to +me seems able to walk upon an extended rope, who with his fictions +grieves my soul, enrages, soothes, fills it with false terrors, as an +enchanter; and sets me now in Thebes, now in Athens. + +But of those too, who had rather trust themselves with a reader, than +bear the disdain of an haughty spectator, use a little care; if you +would fill with books [the library you have erected], an offering worthy +of Apollo, and add an incentive to the poets, that with greater +eagerness they may apply to verdant Helicon. + +We poets, it is true (that I may hew down my own vineyards), often do +ourselves many mischiefs, when we present a work to you while thoughtful +or fatigued; when we are pained, if my friend has dared to find fault +with one line; when, unasked, we read over again passages already +repeated: when we lament that our labors do not appear, and war poems, +spun out in a fine thread: when we hope the thing will come to this, +that as soon as you are apprised we are penning verses, you will kindly +of yourself send for us and secure us from want, and oblige us to write. +But yet it is worth while to know, who shall be the priests of your +virtue signalized in war and at home, which is not to be trusted to an +unworthy poet. A favorite of king Alexander the Great was that +Choerilus, who to his uncouth and ill-formed verses owed the many pieces +he received of Philip's royal coin. But, as ink when touched leaves +behind it a mark and a blot, so writers as it were stain shining actions +with foul poetry. That same king, who prodigally bought so dear so +ridiculous a poem, by an edict forbade that any one beside Apelles +should paint him, or that any other than Lysippus should mold brass for +the likeness of the valiant Alexander. But should you call that faculty +of his, so delicate in discerning other arts, to [judge of] books and of +these gifts of the muses, you would swear he had been born in the gross +air of the Boeotians. Yet neither do Virgil and Varius, your beloved +poets, disgrace your judgment of them, and the presents which they have +received with great honor to the donor; nor do the features of +illustrious men appear more lively when expressed by statues of brass, +than their manners and minds expressed by the works of a poet. Nor would +I rather compose such tracts as these creeping on the ground, than +record deeds of arms, and the situations of countries, and rivers, and +forts reared upon mountains, and barbarous kingdoms, and wars brought to +a conclusion through the whole world under your auspices, and the +barriers that confine Janus the guardian of peace, and Rome treaded by +the Parthians under your government, if I were but able to do as much as +I could wish. But neither does your majesty admit of humble poetry, nor +dares my modesty attempt a subject which my strength is unable to +support. Yet officiousness foolishly disgusts the person whom it loves; +especially when it recommends itself by numbers, and the art [of +writing]. For one learns sooner, and more willingly remembers, that +which a man derides, than that which he approves and venerates. I value +not the zeal that gives me uneasiness; nor do I wish to be set out any +where in wax with a face formed for the worse, nor to be celebrated in +ill-composed verses; lest I blush, when presented with the gross gift; +and, exposed in an open box along with my author, be conveyed into the +street that sells frankincense, and spices, and pepper, and whatever is +wrapped up in impertinent writings. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE II. + +TO JULIUS FLORUS. + +_In apologizing for not having written to him, he shows that the +well-ordering of life is of more importance than the composition of +verses_. + + +O Florus, faithful friend to the good and illustrious Nero, if by chance +any one should offer to sell you a boy born at Tibur and Gabii, and +should treat with you in this manner; "This [boy who is] both +good-natured and well-favored from head to foot, shall become and be +yours for eight thousand sesterces; a domestic slave, ready in his +attendance at his master's nod; initiated in the Greek language, of a +capacity for any art; you may shape out any thing with [such] moist +clay; besides, he will sing in an artless manner, but yet entertaining +to one drinking. Lavish promises lessen credit, when any one cries up +extravagantly the wares he has for sale, which he wants to put off. No +emergency obliges me [to dispose of him]: though poor, I am in nobody's +debt. None of the chapmen would do this for you; nor should every body +readily receive the same favor from me. Once, [in deed,] he [loitered on +an errand]; and (as it happens) absconded, being afraid of the lash that +hangs in the staircase. Give me your money, if this runaway trick, which +I have expected, does not offend you." In my opinion, the man may take +his price, and be secure from any punishment: you wittingly purchased a +good-for-nothing boy: the condition of the contract was told you. +Nevertheless you prosecute this man, and detain him in an unjust suit. + +I told you, at your setting out, that I was indolent: I told you I was +almost incapable of such offices: that you might not chide me in angry +mood, because no letter [from me] came to hand. What then have I +profited, if you nevertheless arraign the conditions that make for me? +On the same score too you complain, that, being worse than my word, I do +not send you the verses you expected. + +A soldier of Lucullus, [having run through] a great many hardships, was +robbed of his collected stock to a penny, as he lay snoring in the night +quite fatigued: after this, like a ravenous wolf, equally exasperated at +himself and the enemy, eager, with his hungry fangs, he beat off a royal +guard from a post (as they report) very strongly fortified, and well +supplied with stores. Famous on account of this exploit, he is adorned +with honorable rewards, and receives twenty thousand sesterces into the +bargain. It happened about this time that his officer being inclined to +batter down a certain fort, began to encourage the same man, with words +that might even have given courage to a coward: "Go, my brave fellow, +whither your valor calls you: go with prosperous step, certain to +receive ample rewards for your merit. Why do you hesitate?" Upon this, +he arch, though a rustic: "He who has lost his purse, will go whither +you wish," says he. + +It was my lot to have Rome for my nurse, and to be instructed [from the +Iliad] how much the exasperated Achilles prejudiced the Greeks. Good +Athens give me some additional learning: that is to say, to be able to +distinguish a right line from a curve, and seek after truth in the +groves of Academus. But the troublesome times removed me from that +pleasant spot; and the tide of a civil war carried me away, +unexperienced as I was, into arms, [into arms] not likely to be a match +for the sinews of Augustus Caesar. Whence, as soon as [the battle of] +Philippi dismissed me in an abject condition, with my wings clipped, and +destitute both of house and land, daring poverty urged me on to the +composition of verses: but now, having more than is wanted, what +medicines would be efficacious enough to cure my madness, if I did not +think it better to rest than to write verses. + +The advancing years rob us of every thing: they have taken away my +mirth, my gallantry, my revelings, and play: they are now proceeding to +force poetry from me. What would you have me do? + +In short, all persons do not love and admire the same things. Ye delight +in the ode: one man is pleased with iambics; another with satires +written in the manner of Bion, and virulent wit. Three guests scarcely +can be found to agree, craving very different dishes with various +palate. What shall I give? What shall I not give? You forbid, what +another demands: what you desire, that truly is sour and disgustful to +the [other] two. + +Beside other [difficulties], do you think it practicable for me to +write poems at Rome, amid so many solicitudes and so many fatigues? One +calls me as his security, another to hear his works, all business else +apart; one lives on the mount of Quirinus, the other in the extremity of +the Aventine; both must be waited on. The distances between them, you +see, are charmingly commodious. "But the streets are clear, so that +there can be no obstacle to the thoughtful."--A builder in heat hurries +along with his mules and porters: the crane whirls aloft at one time a +stone, at another a great piece of timber: the dismal funerals dispute +the way with the unwieldy carriages: here runs a mad dog, there rushes a +sow begrimed with mire. Go now, and meditate with yourself your +harmonious verses. All the whole choir of poets love the grove, and +avoid cities, due votaries to Bacchus delighting in repose and shade. +Would you have me, amid so great noise both by night and day, [attempt] +to sing, and trace the difficult footsteps of the poets? A genius who +has chosen quiet Athens for his residence, and has devoted seven years +to study, and has grown old in books and study, frequently walks forth +more dumb than a statue, and shakes the people's sides with laughter: +here, in the midst of the billows and tempests of the city, can I be +thought capable of connecting words likely to wake the sound of the +lyre? + +At Rome there was a rhetorician, brother to a lawyer: [so fond of each +other were they,] that they would hear nothing but the mere praises of +each other: insomuch, that the latter appeared a Gracchus to the former, +the former a Mucius to the latter. Why should this frenzy affect the +obstreperous poets in a less degree? I write odes, another elegies: a +work wonderful to behold, and burnished by the nine muses! Observe +first, with what a fastidious air, with what importance we survey the +temple [of Apollo] vacant for the Roman poets. In the next place you may +follow (if you are at leisure) and hear what each produces, and +wherefore each weaves for himself the crown. Like Samnite gladiators in +slow duel, till candle-light, we are beaten and waste out the enemy with +equal blows: I came off Alcaeus, in his suffrage; he is mine, who? Why +who but Callimachus? Or, if he seems to make a greater demand, he +becomes Mimnermus, and grows in fame by the chosen appellation. Much do +I endure in order to pacify this passionate race of poets, when I am +writing; and submissive court the applause of the people; [but,] having +finished my studies and recovered my senses, I the same man can now +boldly stop my open ears against reciters. + +Those who make bad verses are laughed at: but they are pleased in +writing, and reverence themselves; and if you are silent, they, happy, +fall to praising of their own accord whatever they have written. But he +who desires to execute a genuine poem, will with his papers assume the +spirit of an honest critic: whatever words shall have but little +clearness and elegance, or shall be without weight and held unworthy of +estimation, he will dare to displace: though they may recede with +reluctance, and still remain in the sanctuary of Vesta: those that have +been long hidden from the people he kindly will drag forth, and bring to +light those expressive denominations of things that were used by the +Catos and Cethegi of ancient times, though now deformed dust and +neglected age presses upon them: he will adopt new words, which use, the +parent [of language], shall produce: forcible and perspicuous, and +bearing the utmost similitude to a limpid stream, he will pour out his +treasures, and enrich Latium with a comprehensive language. The +luxuriant he will lop, the too harsh he will soften with a sensible +cultivation: those void of expression he will discard: he will exhibit +the appearance of one at play; and will be [in his invention] on the +rack, like [a dancer on the stage], who one while affects the motions of +a satyr, at another of a clumsy cyclops. + +I had rather be esteemed a foolish and dull writer, while my faults +please myself, or at least escape my notice, than be wise and smart for +it. There lived at Argos a man of no mean rank, who imagined that he was +hearing some admirable tragedians, a joyful sitter and applauder in an +empty theater: who [nevertheless] could support the other duties of life +in a just manner; a truly honest neighbor, an amiable host, kind toward +his wife, one who could pardon his slaves, nor would rave at the +breaking of a bottle-seal: one who [had sense enough] to avoid a +precipice, or an open well. This man, being cured at the expense and by +the care of his relations, when he had expelled by the means of pure +hellebore the disorder and melancholy humor, and returned to himself; +"By Pollux, my friends (said he), you have destroyed, not saved me; from +whom my pleasure is thus taken away, and a most agreeable delusion of +mind removed by force." + +In a word, it is of the first consequence to be wise in the rejection +of trifles, and leave childish play to boys for whom it is in season, +and not to scan words to be set to music for the Roman harps, but +[rather] to be perfectly an adept in the numbers and proportions of real +life. Thus therefore I commune with myself, and ponder these things in +silence: "If no quantity of water would put an end to your thirst, you +would tell it to your physicians. And is there none to whom you dare +confess, that the more you get the more you crave? If you had a wound +which was not relieved by a plant or root prescribed to you, you would +refuse being doctored with a root or plant that did no good. You have +heard that vicious folly left the man, on whom the gods conferred +wealth; and though you are nothing wiser, since you become richer, will +you nevertheless use the same monitors as before? But could riches make +you wise, could they make you less covetous and mean-spirited, you well +might blush, if there lived on earth one more avaricious than yourself." + +If that be any man's property, which he has bought by the pound and +penny, [and] there be some things to which (if you give credit to the +lawyers) possession gives a claim, [then] the field that feeds you is +your own; and Orbius' steward, when he harrows the corn which is soon to +give you flour, finds you are [in effect] the proper master. You give +your money; you receive grapes, pullets, eggs, a hogshead of strong +wine: certainly in this manner you by little and little purchase that +farm, for which perhaps the owner paid three hundred thousand sesterces, +or more. What does it signify, whether you live on what was paid for the +other day, or a long while ago? He who purchased the Aricinian and +Veientine fields some time since, sups on bought vegetables, however he +may think otherwise; boils his pot with bought wood at the approach of +the chill evening. But he calls all that his own, as far as where the +planted poplar prevents quarrels among neighbors by a determinate +limitation: as if anything were a man's property, which in a moment of +the fleeting hour, now by solicitations, now by sale, now by violence, +and now by the supreme lot [of all men], may change masters and come +into another's jurisdiction. Thus since the perpetual possession is +given to none, and one man's heir urges on another's, as wave impels +wave, of what importance are houses, or granaries; or what the Lucanian +pastures joined to the Calabrian; if Hades, inexorable to gold, mows +down the great together with the small? + +Gems, marble, ivory, Tuscan statues, pictures, silver-plate, robes dyed +with Getulian purple, there are who can not acquire; and there are +others, who are not solicitous of acquiring. Of two brothers, why one +prefers lounging, play, and perfume, to Herod's rich palm-tree groves; +why the other, rich and uneasy, from the rising of the light to the +evening shade, subdues his woodland with fire and steel: our attendant +genius knows, who governs the planet of our nativity, the divinity [that +presides] over human nature, who dies with each individual, of various +complexion, white and black. + +I will use, and take out from my moderate stock, as much as my exigence +demands: nor will I be under any apprehensions what opinion my heir +shall hold concerning me, when he shall, find [I have left him] no more +than I had given me. And yet I, the same man, shall be inclined to know +how far an open and cheerful person differs from a debauchee, and how +greatly the economist differs from the miser. For there is some +distinction whether you throw away your money in a prodigal manner, or +make an entertainment without grudging, nor toil to accumulate more; or +rather, as formerly in Minerva's holidays, when a school-boy, enjoys by +starts the short and pleasant vacation. + +Let sordid poverty be far away. I, whether borne in a large or small +vessel, let me be borne uniform and the same. I am not wafted with +swelling sail before the north wind blowing fair: yet I do not bear my +course of life against the adverse south. In force, genius, figure, +virtue, station, estate, the last of the first-rate, [yet] still before +those of the last. + +You are not covetous, [you say]:--go to.--What then? Have the rest of +your vices fled from you, together with this? Is your breast free from +vain ambition? Is it free from the fear of death and from anger? Can you +laugh at dreams, magic terrors, wonders, witches, nocturnal goblins, and +Thessalian prodigies? Do you number your birth-days with a grateful +mind? Are you forgiving to your friends? Do you grow milder and better +as old age approaches? What profits you only one thorn eradicated out of +many? If you do not know how to live in a right manner, make way for +those that do. You have played enough, eaten and drunk enough, it is +time for you to walk off: lest having tippled too plentifully, that age +which plays the wanton with more propriety, and drive you [off the +stage]. + + * * * * * + + + + +HORACE'S BOOK UPON THE ART OF POETRY. + +TO THE PISOS. + + +If a painter should wish to unite a horse's neck to a human head, and +spread a variety of plumage over limbs [of different animals] taken from +every part [of nature], so that what is a beautiful woman in the upper +part terminates unsightly in an ugly fish below; could you, my friends, +refrain from laughter, were you admitted to such a sight? Believe, ye +Pisos, the book will be perfectly like such a picture, the ideas of +which, like a sick man's dreams, are all vain and fictitious: so that +neither head nor foot can correspond to any one form. "Poets and +painters [you will say] have ever had equal authority for attempting any +thing." We are conscious of this, and this privilege we demand and allow +in turn: but not to such a degree, that the tame should associate with +the savage; nor that serpents should be coupled with birds, lambs with +tigers. + +In pompous introductions, and such as promise a great deal, it generally +happens that one or two verses of purple patch-work, that may make a +great show, are tagged on; as when the grove and the altar of Diana and +the meandering of a current hastening through pleasant fields, or the +river Rhine, or the rainbow is described. But here there was no room for +these [fine things]: perhaps, too, you know how to draw a cypress: but +what is that to the purpose, if he, whe is painted for the given price, +is [to be represented as] swimming hopeless out of a shipwreck? A large +vase at first was designed: why, as the wheel revolves, turns out a +little pitcher? In a word, be your subject what it will, let it be +merely simple and uniform. + +The great majority of us poets, father, and youths worthy such a +father, are misled by the appearance of right. I labor to be concise, I +become obscure: nerves and spirit fail him, that aims at the easy: one, +that pretends to be sublime, proves bombastical: he who is too cautious +and fearful of the storm, crawls along the ground: he who wants to vary +his subject in a marvelous manner, paints the dolphin in the woods, the +boar in the sea. The avoiding of an error leads to a fault, if it lack +skill. + +A statuary about the Aemilian school shall of himself, with singular +skill, both express the nails, and imitate in brass the flexible hair; +unhappy yet in the main, because he knows not how to finish a complete +piece. I would no more choose to be such a one as this, had I a mind to +compose any thing, than to live with a distorted nose, [though] +remarkable for black eyes and jetty hair. + +Ye who write, make choice of a subject suitable to your abilities; and +revolve in your thoughts a considerable time what your strength +declines, and what it is able to support. Neither elegance of style, nor +a perspicuous disposition, shall desert the man, by whom the subject +matter is chosen judiciously. + +This, or I am mistaken, will constitute the merit and beauty of +arrangement, that the poet just now say what ought just now to be said, +put off most of his thoughts, and waive them for the present. + +In the choice of his words, too, the author of the projected poem must +be delicate and cautious, he must embrace one and reject another: you +will express yourself eminently well, if a dexterous combination should +give an air of novelty to a well-known word. If it happen to be +necessary to explain some abstruse subjects by new invented terms; it +will follow that you must frame words never heard of by the +old-fashioned Cethegi: and the license will be granted, if modestly +used: and the new and lately-formed words will have authority, if they +descend from a Greek source, with a slight deviation. But why should the +Romans grant to Plutus and Caecilius a privilege denied to Virgil and +Varius? Why should I be envied, if I have it in my power to acquire a +few words, when the language of Cato and Ennius has enriched our native +tongue, and produced new names of things? It has been, and ever will be, +allowable to coin a word marked with the stamp in present request. As +leaves in the woods are changed with the fleeting years; the earliest +fall off first: in this manner words perish with old age, and those +lately invented nourish and thrive, like men in the time of youth. We, +and our works, are doomed to death: Whether Neptune, admitted into the +continent, defends our fleet from the north winds, a kingly work; or the +lake, for a long time unfertile and fit for oars, now maintains its +neighboring cities and feels the heavy plow; or the river, taught to run +in a more convenient channel, has changed its course which was so +destructive to the fruits. Mortal works must perish: much less can the +honor and elegance of language be long-lived. Many words shall revive, +which now have fallen off; and many which are now in esteem shall fall +off, if it be the will of custom, in whose power is the decision and +right and standard of language. + +Homer has instructed us in what measure the achievements of kings, and +chiefs, and direful war might be written. + +Plaintive strains originally were appropriated to the unequal numbers +[of the elegiac]: afterward [love and] successful desires were included. +Yet what author first published humble elegies, the critics dispute, and +the controversy still waits the determination of a judge. + +Rage armed Archilochus with the iambic of his own invention. The sock +and the majestic buskin assumed this measure as adapted for dialogue, +and to silence the noise of the populace, and calculated for action. + +To celebrate gods, and the sons of gods, and the victorious wrestler, +and the steed foremost in the race, and the inclination of youths, and +the free joys of wine, the muse has alotted to the lyre. + +If I am incapable and unskilful to observe the distinction described, +and the complexions of works [of genius], why am I accosted by the name +of "Poet?" Why, out of false modesty, do I prefer being ignorant to +being learned? + +A comic subject will not be handled in tragic verse: in like manner the +banquet of Thyestes will not bear to be held in familiar verses, and +such as almost suit the sock. Let each peculiar species [of writing] +fill with decorum its proper place. Nevertheless sometimes even comedy +exalts her voice, and passionate Chremes rails in a tumid strain: and a +tragic writer generally expresses grief in a prosaic style. Telephus and +Peleus, when they are both in poverty and exile, throw aside their rants +and gigantic expressions if they have a mind to move the heart of the +spectator with their complaint. + +It is not enough that poems be beautiful; let them be tender and +affecting, and bear away the soul of the auditor whithersoever they +please. As the human countenance smiles on those that smile, so does it +sympathize with those that weep. If you would have me weep you must +first express the passion of grief yourself; then, Telephus or Peleus, +your misfortunes hurt me: if you pronounce the parts assigned you ill, I +shall either fall asleep or laugh. + +Pathetic accents suit a melancholy countenance; words full of menace, an +angry one; wanton expressions, a sportive look; and serious matter, an +austere one. For nature forms us first within to every modification of +circumstances; she delights or impels us to anger, or depresses us to +the earth and afflicts us with heavy sorrow: then expresses those +emotions of the mind by the tongue, its interpreter. If the words be +discordant to the station of the speaker, the Roman knights and plebians +will raise an immoderate laugh. It will make a wide difference, whether +it be Davus that speaks, or a hero; a man well-stricken in years, or a +hot young fellow in his bloom; and a matron of distinction, or an +officious nurse; a roaming merchant, or the cultivator of a verdant +little farm; a Colchian, or an Assyrian; one educated at Thebes, or one +at Argos. + +You, that write, either follow tradition, or invent such fables as are +congruous to themselves. If as poet you have to represent the renowned +Achilles; let him be indefatigable, wrathful, inexorable, courageous, +let him deny that laws were made for him, let him arrogate every thing +to force of arms. Let Medea be fierce and untractable, Ino an object of +pity, Ixion perfidious, Io wandering, Orestes in distress. + +If you offer to the stage any thing unattempted, and venture to form a +new character; let it be preserved to the last such as it set out at the +beginning, and be consistent with itself. It is difficult to write with +propriety on subjects to which all writers have a common claim; and you +with more prudence will reduce the Iliad into acts, than if you first +introduce arguments unknown and never treated of before. A public story +will become your own property, if you do not dwell upon the whole circle +of events, which is paltry and open to every one; nor must you be so +faithful a translator, as to take the pains of rendering [the original] +word for word; nor by imitating throw yourself into straits, whence +either shame or the rules of your work may forbid you to retreat. + +Nor must you make such an exordium, as the Cyclic writer of old: "I will +sing the fate of Priam, and the noble war." What will this boaster +produce worthy of all this gaping? The mountains are in labor, a +ridiculous mouse will be brought forth. How much more to the purpose he, +who attempts nothing improperly? "Sing for me, my muse, the man who, +after the time of the destruction of Troy, surveyed the manners and +cities of many men." He meditates not [to produce] smoke from a flash, +but out of smoke to elicit fire, that he may thence bring forth his +instances of the marvelous with beauty, [such as] Antiphates, Scylla, +the Cyclops, and Charybdis. Nor does he date Diomede's return from +Meleager's death, nor trace the rise of the Trojan war from [Leda's] +eggs: he always hastens on to the event; and hurries away his reader in +the midst of interesting circumstances, no otherwise than as if they +were [already] known; and what he despairs of, as to receiving a polish +from his touch, he omits; and in such a manner forms his fictions, so +intermingles the false with the true, that the middle is not +inconsistent with the beginning, nor the end with the middle. + +Do you attend to what I, and the public in my opinion, expect from you +[as a dramatic writer]. If you are desirous of an applauding spectator, +who will wait for [the falling of] the curtain, and till the chorus +calls out "your plaudits;" the manners of every age must be marked by +you, and a proper decorum assigned to men's varying dispositions and +years. The boy, who is just able to pronounce his words, and prints the +ground with a firm tread, delights to play with his fellows, and +contracts and lays aside anger without reason, and is subject to change +every hour. The beardless youth, his guardian being at length +discharged, joys in horses, and dogs, and the verdure of the sunny +Campus Martius; pliable as wax to the bent of vice, rough to advisers, a +slow provider of useful things, prodigal of his money, high-spirited, +and amorous, and hasty in deserting the objects of his passion. [After +this,] our inclinations being changed, the age and spirit of manhood +seeks after wealth, and [high] connections, is subservient to points of +honor; and is cautious of committing any action, which he would +subsequently be industrious to correct. Many inconviences encompass a +man in years; either because he seeks [eagerly] for gain, and abstains +from what he has gotten, and is afraid to make use of it; or because he +transacts every thing in a timorous and dispassionate manner, dilatory, +slow in hope, remiss, and greedy of futurity. Peevish, querulous, a +panegyrist of former times when he was a boy, a chastiser and censurer +of his juniors. Our advancing years bring many advantages along with +them. Many our declining ones take away. That the parts [therefore] +belonging to age may not be given to youth, and those of a man to a boy, +we must dwell upon those qualities which are joined and adapted to each +person's age. + +An action is either represented on the stage, or being done elsewhere is +there related. The things which enter by the ear affect the mind more +languidly, than such as are submitted to the faithful eyes, and what a +spectator presents to himself. You must not, however, bring upon the +stage things fit only to be acted behind the scenes: and you must take +away from view many actions, which elegant description may soon after +deliver in presence [of the spectators]. Let not Medea murder her sons +before the people; nor the execrable Atreus openly dress human entrails: +nor let Progue be metamorphosed into a bird, Cadmus into a serpent. +Whatever you show to me in this manner, not able to give credit to, I +detest. + +Let a play which would be inquired after, and though seen, represented +anew, be neither shorter nor longer than the fifth act. Neither let a +god interfere, unless a difficulty worthy a god's unraveling should +happen; nor let a fourth person be officious to speak. + +Let the chorus sustain the part and manly character of an actor: nor let +them sing any thing between the acts which is not conducive to, and +fitly coherent with, the main design. Let them both patronize the good, +and give them friendly advice, and regulate the passionate, and love to +appease those who swell [with rage]: let them praise the repast of a +short meal, and salutary effects of justice, laws, and peace with her +open gates; let them conceal what is told to them in confidence, and +supplicate and implore the gods that prosperity may return to the +wretched, and abandon the haughty. The flute, (not as now, begirt with +brass and emulous of the trumpet, but) slender and of simple form, with +few stops, was of service to accompany and assist the chorus, and with +its tone was sufficient to fill the rows that were not as yet too +crowded, where an audience, easily numbered, as being small and sober, +chaste and modest, met together. But when the victorious Romans began to +extend their territories, and an ampler wall encompassed the city, and +their genius was indulged on festivals by drinking wine in the day-time +without censure; a greater freedom arose both, to the numbers [of +poetry], and the measure [of music]. For what taste could an unlettered +clown and one just dismissed from labors have, when in company with the +polite; the base, with the man of honor? Thus the musician added now +movements and a luxuriance to the ancient art, and strutting backward +and forward, drew a length of train over the stage; thus likewise new +notes were added to the severity of the lyre, and precipitate eloquence +produced an unusual language [in the theater]: and the sentiments [of +the chorus, then] expert in teaching useful things and prescient of +futurity, differ hardly from the oracular Delphi. + +The poet, who first tried his skill in tragic verse for the paltry +[prize of a] goat, soon after exposed to view wild satyrs naked, and +attempted raillery with severity, still preserving the gravity [of +tragedy]: because the spectator on festivals, when heated with wine and +disorderly, was to be amused with captivating shows and agreeable +novelty. But it will be expedient so to recommend the bantering, so the +rallying satyrs, so to turn earnest into jest; that none who shall be +exhibited as a god, none who is introduced as a hero lately conspicuous +in regal purple and gold, may deviate into the low style of obscure, +mechanical shops; or, [on the contrary,] while he avoids the ground, +effect cloudy mist and empty jargon. Tragedy disdaining to prate forth +trivial verses, like a matron commanded to dance on the festival days, +will assume an air of modesty, even in the midst of wanton satyrs. As a +writer of satire, ye Pisos, I shall never be fond of unornamented and +reigning terms: nor shall I labor to differ so widely from the +complexion of tragedy, as to make no distinction, whether Davus be the +speaker. And the bold Pythias, who gained a talent by gulling Simo; or +Silenus, the guardian and attendant of his pupil-god [Bacchus]. I would +so execute a fiction taken from a well-known story, that any body might +entertain hopes of doing the same thing; but, on trial, should sweat and +labor in vain. Such power has a just arrangement and connection of the +parts: such grace may be added to subjects merely common. In my +judgment the Fauns, that are brought out of the woods, should not be too +gamesome with their tender strains, as if they were educated in the +city, and almost at the bar; nor, on the other hand; should blunder out +their obscene and scandalous speeches. For [at such stuff] all are +offended, who have a horse, a father, or an estate: nor will they +receive with approbation, nor give the laurel crown, as the purchasers +of parched peas and nuts are delighted with. + +A long syllable put after a short one is termed an iambus, a lively +measure, whence also it commanded the name of trimeters to be added to +iambics, though it yielded six beats of time, being similar to itself +from first to last. Not long ago, that it might come somewhat slower and +with more majesty to the ear, it obligingly and contentedly admitted +into its paternal heritage the steadfast spondees; agreeing however, by +social league, that it was not to depart from the second and fourth +place. But this [kind of measure] rarely makes its appearance in the +notable trimeters of Accius, and brands the verse of Ennius brought upon +the stage with a clumsy weight of spondees, with the imputation of being +too precipitate and careless, or disgracefully accuses him of ignorance +in his art. + +It is not every judge that discerns inharmonious verses, and an +undeserved indulgence is [in this case] granted to the Roman poets. But +shall I on this account run riot and write licentiously? Or should not I +rather suppose, that all the world are to see my faults; secure, and +cautious [never to err] but with hope of being pardoned? Though, +perhaps, I have merited no praise, I have escaped censure. + +Ye [who are desirous to excel,] turn over the Grecian models by night, +turn them by day. But our ancestors commended both the numbers of +Plautus, and his strokes of pleasantry; too tamely, I will not say +foolishly, admiring each of them; if you and I but know how to +distinguish a coarse joke from a smart repartee, and understand the +proper cadence, by [using] our fingers and ears. + +Thespis is said to have invented a new kind of tragedy, and to have +carried his pieces about in carts, which [certain strollers], who had +their faces besmeared with lees of wine, sang and acted. After him +Aeschylus, the inventor of the vizard mask and decent robe, laid the +stage over with boards of a tolerable size, and taught to speak in lofty +tone, and strut in the buskin. To these succeeded the old comedy, not +without considerable praise: but its personal freedom degenerated into +excess and violence, worthy to be regulated by law; a law was made +accordingly, and the chorus, the right of abusing being taken away, +disgracefully became silent. + +Our poets have left no species [of the art] unattempted; nor have those +of them merited the least honor, who dared to forsake the footsteps of +the Greeks, and celebrate domestic facts; whether they have instructed +us in tragedy, of comedy. Nor would Italy be raised higher by valor and +feats of arms, than by its language, did not the fatigue and tediousness +of using the file disgust every one of our poets. Do you, the decendants +of Pompilius, reject that poem, which many days and many a blot have not +ten times subdued to the most perfect accuracy. Because Democritus +believes that genius is more successful than wretched art, and excludes +from Helicon all poets who are in their senses, a great number do not +care to part with their nails or beard, frequent places of solitude, +shun the baths. For he will acquire, [he thinks,] the esteem and title +of a poet, if he neither submits his head, which is not to be cured by +even three Anticyras, to Licinius the barber. What an unlucky fellow am +I, who am purged for the bile in spring-time! Else nobody would compose +better poems; but the purchase is not worth the expense. Therefore I +will serve instead of a whetstone, which though not able of itself to +cut, can make steel sharp: so I, who can write no poetry myself, will +teach the duty and business [of an author]; whence he may be stocked +with rich materials; what nourishes and forms the poet; what gives +grace, what not; what is the tendency of excellence, what that of error. + +To have good sense, is the first principle and fountain of writing well. +The Socratic papers will direct you in the choice of your subjects; and +words will spontaneously accompany the subject, when it is well +conceived. He who has learned what he owes to his country, and what to +his friends; with what affection a parent, a brother, and a stranger, +are to be loved; what is the duty of a senator, what of a judge; what +the duties of a general sent out to war; he, [I say,] certainly knows +how to give suitable attributes to every character. I should direct the +learned imitator to have a regard to the mode of nature and manners, and +thence draw his expressions to the life. Sometimes a play, that is +showy with common-places, and where the manners are well marked, though +of no elegance, without force or art, gives the people much higher +delight and more effectually commands their attention, than verse void +of matter, and tuneful trifles. + +To the Greeks, covetous of nothing but praise, the muse gave genius; to +the Greeks the power of expressing themselves in round periods. The +Roman youth learn by long computation to subdivide a pound into an +hundred parts. Let the son of Albinus tell me, if from five ounces one +be subtracted, what remains? He would have said the third of a +pound.--Bravely done! you will be able to take care of your own affairs. +An ounce is added: what will that be? Half a pound. When this sordid +rust and hankering after wealth has once tainted their minds, can we +expect that such verses should be made as are worthy of being anointed +with the oil of cedar, and kept in the well-polished cypress? + +Poets wish either to profit or to delight; or to deliver at once both +the pleasures and the necessaries of life. Whatever precepts you give, +be concise; that docile minds may soon comprehend what is said, and +faithfully retain it. All superfluous instructions flow from the too +full memory. Let what ever is imagined for the sake of entertainment, +have as much likeness to truth as possible; let not your play demand +belief for whatever [absurdities] it is inclinable [to exhibit]: nor +take out of a witch's belly a living child that she had dined upon. The +tribes of the seniors rail against every thing that is void of +edification: the exalted knights disregard poems which are austere. He +who joins the instructive with the agreeable, carries off every vote, by +delighting and at the same time admonishing the reader. This book gains +money for the Sosii; this crosses the sea, and continues to its renowned +author a lasting duration. + +Yet there are faults, which we should be ready to pardon: for neither +does the string [always] form the sound which the hand and conception +[of the performer] intends, but very often returns a sharp note when he +demands a flat; nor will the bow always hit whatever mark it threatens. +But when there is a great majority of beauties in a poem, I will not be +offended with a few blemishes, which either inattention has dropped, or +human nature has not sufficiently provided against. What therefore [is +to be determined in this matter]? As a transcriber, if he still commits +the same fault though he has been reproved, is without excuse; and the +harper who always blunders on the same string, is sure to be laughed at; +so he who is excessively deficient becomes another Choerilus; whom, when +I find him tolerable in two or three places, I wonder at with laughter; +and at the same time am I grieved whenever honest Homer grows drowsy? +But it is allowable, that sleep should steal upon [the progress of] a +king work. + +As is painting, so is poetry: some pieces will strike you more if you +stand near, and some, if you are at a greater distance: one loves the +dark; another, which is not afraid of the critic's subtle judgment, +chooses to be seen in the light; the one has pleased once, the other +will give pleasure if ten times repeated. + +O ye elder of the youths, though you are framed to a right judgment by +your father's instructions, and are wise in yourself, yet take this +truth along with you, [and] remember it; that in certain things a medium +and tolerable degree of eminence may be admitted: a counselor and +pleader at the bar of the middle rate is far removed from the merit of +eloquent Messala, nor has so much knowledge of the law as Casselius +Aulus, but yet he is in request; [but] a mediocrity in poets neither +gods, nor men, nor [even] the booksellers' shops have endured. As at an +agreeable entertainment discordant music, and muddy perfume, and poppies +mixed with Sardinian honey give offense, because the supper might have +passed without them; so poetry, created and invented for the delight of +our souls, if it comes short ever so little of the summit, sinks to the +bottom. + +He who does not understand the game, abstains from the weapons of the +Campus Martius: and the unskillful in the tennis-ball, the quoit, and +the troques keeps himself quiet; lest the crowded ring should raise a +laugh at his expense: notwithstanding this, he who knows nothing of +verses presumes to compose. Why not! He is free-born, and of a good +family; above all, he is registered at an equestrian sum of moneys, and +clear from every vice. You, [I am persuaded,] will neither say nor do +any thing in opposition to Minerva: such is your judgment, such your +disposition. But if ever you shall write anything, let it be submitted +to the ears of Metius [Tarpa], who is a judge, and your father's, and +mine; and let it be suppressed till the ninth year, your papers being +held up within your own custody. You will have it in your power to blot +out what you have not made public: a word ice sent abroad can never +return. + +Orpheus, the priest and Interpreter of the gods, deterred the savage +race of men from slaughters and inhuman diet; once said to tame tigers +and furious lions: Amphion too, the builder of the Theban wall, was said +to give the stones moon with the sound of his lyre, and to lead them +whithersover he would, by engaging persuasion. This was deemed wisdom of +yore, to distinguish the public from private weal; things sacred from +things profane; to prohibit a promiscuous commerce between the sexes; to +give laws to married people; to plan out cities; to engrave laws on +[tables of] wood. Thus honor accrued to divine poets, and their songs. +After these, excellent Homer and Tyrtaeus animated the manly mind to +martial achievements with their verses. Oracles were delivered in +poetry, and the economy of life pointed out, and the favor of sovereign +princes was solicited by Pierian drains, games were instituted, and a +[cheerful] period put to the tedious labors of the day; [this I remind +you of,] lest haply you should be ashamed of the lyric muse, and Apollo +the god of song. + +It has been made a question, whether good poetry be derived from nature +or from art. For my part, I can neither conceive what study can do +without a rich [natural] vein, nor what rude genius can avail of itself: +so much does the one require the assistance of the other, and so +amicably do they conspire [to produce the same effect]. He who is +industrious to reach the wished-for goal, has done and suffered much +when a boy; he has sweated and shivered with cold; he has abstained from +love and wine; he who sings the Pythian strains, was a learner first, +and in awe of a master. But [in poetry] it is now enough for a man to +say of himself: "I make admirable verses: a murrain seize the hindmost: +it is scandalous for me to be outstripped, and fairly to Acknowledge +that I am ignorant of that which I never learned." + +As a crier who collects the crowd together to buy his goods, so a poet +rich in land, rich in money put out at interest, invites flatterers to +come [and praise his works] for a reward. But if he be one who is well +able to set out an elegant table, and give security for a poor man, and +relieve when entangled in glaomy law-suits; I shall wonder if with his +wealth he can distinguish a true friend from false one. You, whether +you have made, or intend to make, a present to any one, do not bring him +full of joy directly to your finished verses: for then he will cry out, +"Charming, excellent, judicious," he will turn pale; at some parts he +will even distill the dew from his friendly eyes; he will jump about; he +will beat the ground [with ecstasy]. As those who mourn at funerals for +pay, do and say more than those that are afflicted from their hearts; so +the sham admirer is more moved than he that praises with sincerity. +Certain kings are said to ply with frequent bumpers, and by wine make +trial of a man whom they are sedulous to know whether he be worthy of +their friendship or not. Thus, if you compose verses, let not the fox's +concealed intentions impose upon you. + +If you had recited any thing to Quintilius, he would say, "Alter, I +pray, this and this:" if you replied, you could do it no better, having +made the experiment twice or thrice in vain; he would order you to blot +out, and once more apply to the anvil your ill-formed verses: if you +choose rather to defend than correct a fault, he spent not a word more +nor fruitless labor, but you alone might be fond of yourself and your +own works, without a rival. A good and sensible man will censure +spiritless verses, he will condemn the rugged, on the incorrect he will +draw across a black stroke with his pen; he will lop off ambitious [and +redundant] ornaments; he will make him throw light on the parts that are +not perspicuous; he will arraign what is expressed ambiguously; he will +mark what should be altered; [in short,] he will be an Aristarchus: he +will not say, "Why should I give my friend offense about mere trifles?" +These trifles will lead into mischiefs of serious consequence, when once +made an object of ridicule, and used in a sinister manner. + +Like one whom an odious plague or jaundice, fanatic phrensy or lunacy, +distresses; those who are wise avoid a mad poet, and are afraid to touch +him; the boys jostle him, and the incautious pursue him. If, like a +fowler intent upon his game, he should fall into a well or a ditch while +he belches out his fustian verses and roams about, though he should cry +out for a long time, "Come to my assistance, O my countrymen;" not one +would give himself the trouble of taking him up. Were any one to take +pains to give him aid, and let down a rope; "How do you know, but he +threw himself in hither on purpose?" I shall say: and will relate the +death of the Sicilian poet. Empedocles, while he was ambitious of being +esteemed an immortal god, in cold blood leaped into burning Aetna. Let +poets have the privilege and license to die [as they please]. He who +saves a man against his will, does the same with him who kills him +[against his will]. Neither is it the first time that he has behaved in +this manner; nor, were he to be forced from his purposes, would he now +become a man, and lay aside his desire of such a famous death. Neither +does it appear sufficiently, why he makes verses: whether he has defiled +his father's ashes, or sacrilegiously removed the sad enclosure of the +vindictive thunder: it is evident that he is mad, and like a bear that +has burst through the gates closing his den, this unmerciful rehearser +chases the learned and unlearned. And whomsoever he seizes, he fastens +on and assassinates with recitation: a leech that will not quit the +skin, till satiated with blood. + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Horace, by Horace + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14020 *** diff --git a/14020-h/14020-h.htm b/14020-h/14020-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5dd0bbc --- /dev/null +++ b/14020-h/14020-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8538 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of THE WORKS OF HORACE, by C. Smart, A.M.. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + } + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; left: 12%; text-align: left;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14020 ***</div> + +<p class="center">Handy Literal Translations</p> + +<h1>THE WORKS OF HORACE</h1> + +<p class="center"><i>TRANSLATED LITERALLY INTO ENGLISH PROSE</i></p> + + + +<h2>By C. Smart, A.M.</h2> + +<p class="center">Of Pembroke College, Cambridge</p> + + + +<p class="center"><i>A NEW EDITION</i></p> + + + +<p class="center">REVISED BY</p> + +<p class="center">Theodore Alois Buckley B.A. Of Christ Church</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p class="center"> + <a href="#THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE"><b>THE FIRST BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THE_SECOND_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE"><b>THE SECOND BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THE_THIRD_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE"><b>THE THIRD BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THE_FOURTH_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE"><b>THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THE_BOOK_OF_THE_EPODES_OF_HORACE"><b>THE BOOK OF THE EPODES OF HORACE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_SATIRES_OF_HORACE"><b>THE FIRST BOOK OF THE SATIRES OF HORACE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THE_SECOND_BOOK_OF_THE_SATIRES_OF_HORACE"><b>THE SECOND BOOK OF THE SATIRES OF HORACE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_EPISTLES_OF_HORACE"><b>THE FIRST BOOK OF THE EPISTLES OF HORACE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THE_SECOND_BOOK_OF_THE_EPISTLES_OF_HORACE"><b>THE SECOND BOOK OF THE EPISTLES OF HORACE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#HORACES_BOOK_UPON_THE_ART_OF_POETRY"><b>HORACE'S BOOK UPON THE ART OF POETRY.</b></a><br /> + </p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE" id="THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE" />THE FIRST BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE.</h2> + + + +<p>ODE I.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>Maecenas, descended from royal ancestors, O both my protection and my +darling honor! There are those whom it delights to have collected +Olympic dust in the chariot race; and [whom] the goal nicely avoided by +the glowing wheels, and the noble palm, exalts, lords of the earth, to +the gods.</p> + +<p>This man, if a crowd of the capricious Quirites strive to raise him to +the highest dignities; another, if he has stored up in his own granary +whatsoever is swept from the Libyan thrashing floors: him who delights +to cut with the hoe his patrimonial fields, you could never tempt, for +all the wealth of Attalus, [to become] a timorous sailor and cross the +Myrtoan sea in a Cyprian bark. The merchant, dreading the south-west +wind contending with the Icarian waves, commends tranquility and the +rural retirement of his village; but soon after, incapable of being +taught to bear poverty, he refits his shattered vessel. There is +another, who despises not cups of old Massic, taking a part from the +entire day, one while stretched under the green arbute, another at the +placid head of some sacred stream.</p> + +<p>The camp, and the sound of the trumpet mingled with that of the clarion, +and wars detested by mothers, rejoice many.</p> + +<p>The huntsman, unmindful of his tender spouse, remains in the cold air, +whether a hart is held in view by his faithful hounds, or a Marsian boar +has broken the fine-wrought toils.</p> + +<p>Ivy, the reward of learned brows, equals me with the gods above: the +cool grove, and the light dances of nymphs and satyrs, distinguish me +from the crowd; if neither Euterpe withholds her pipe, nor Polyhymnia +disdains to tune the Lesbian lyre. But, if you rank me among the lyric +poets, I shall tower to the stars with my exalted head.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE II.</p> + +<p>TO AUGUSTUS CAESAR</p> + + +<p>Enough of snow and dreadful hail has the Sire now sent upon the earth, +and having hurled [his thunderbolts] with his red right hand against the +sacred towers, he has terrified the city; he has terrified the nations, +lest the grievous age of Pyrrha, complaining of prodigies till then +unheard of, should return, when Proteus drove all his [marine] herd to +visit the lofty mountains; and the fishy race were entangled in the elm +top, which before was the frequented seat of doves; and the timorous +deer swam in the overwhelming flood. We have seen the yellow Tiber, with +his waves forced back with violence from the Tuscan shore, proceed to +demolish the monuments of king [Numa], and the temples of Vesta; while +he vaunts himself the avenger of the too disconsolate Ilia, and the +uxorious river, leaving his channel, overflows his left bank, +notwithstanding the disapprobation of Jupiter.</p> + +<p>Our youth, less numerous by the vices of their fathers, shall hear of +the citizens having whetted that sword [against themselves], with which +it had been better that the formidable Persians had fallen; they shall +hear of [actual] engagements. Whom of the gods shall the people invoke +to the affairs of the sinking empire? With what prayer shall the sacred +virgins importune Vesta, who is now inattentive to their hymns? To whom +shall Jupiter assign the task of expiating our wickedness? Do thou at +length, prophetic Apollo, (we pray thee!) come, vailing thy radiant +shoulders with a cloud: or thou, if it be more agreeable to thee, +smiling Venus, about whom hover the gods of mirth and love: or thou, if +thou regard thy neglected race and descendants, our founder Mars, whom +clamor and polished helmets, and the terrible aspect of the Moorish +infantry against their bloody enemy, delight, satiated at length with +thy sport, alas! of too long continuance: or if thou, the winged son of +gentle Maia, by changing thy figure, personate a youth upon earth, +submitting to be called the avenger of Caesar; late mayest thou return +to the skies, and long mayest thou joyously be present to the Roman +people; nor may an untimely blast transport thee from us, offended at +our crimes. Here mayest thou rather delight in magnificent triumphs, and +to be called father and prince: nor suffer the Parthians with impunity +to make incursions, you, O Caesar, being our general.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE III.</p> + +<p>TO THE SHIP, IN WHICH VIRGIL WAS ABOUT TO SAIL TO ATHENS.</p> + + +<p>So may the goddess who rules over Cyprus; so may the bright stars, the +brothers of Helen; and so may the father of the winds, confining all +except Iapyx, direct thee, O ship, who art intrusted with Virgil; my +prayer is, that thou mayest land him safe on the Athenian shore, and +preserve the half of my soul. Surely oak and three-fold brass surrounded +his heart who first trusted a frail vessel to the merciless ocean, nor +was afraid of the impetuous Africus contending with the northern storms, +nor of the mournful Hyades, nor of the rage of Notus, than whom there is +not a more absolute controller of the Adriatic, either to raise or +assuage its waves at pleasure. What path of death did he fear, who +beheld unmoved the rolling monsters of the deep; who beheld unmoved the +tempestuous swelling of the sea, and the Acroceraunians—ill-famed +rocks?</p> + +<p>In vain has God in his wisdom divided the countries of the earth by the +separating ocean, if nevertheless profane ships bound over waters not to +be violated. The race of man presumptuous enough to endure everything, +rushes on through forbidden wickedness.</p> + +<p>The presumptuous son of Iapetus, by an impious fraud, brought down fire +into the world. After fire was stolen from the celestial mansions, +consumption and a new train of fevers settled upon the earth, and the +slow approaching necessity of death, which, till now, was remote, +accelerated its pace. Daedalus essayed the empty air with wings not +permitted to man. The labor of Hercules broke through Acheron. There is +nothing too arduous for mortals to attempt. We aim at heaven itself in +our folly; neither do we suffer, by our wickedness, Jupiter to lay aside +his revengeful thunderbolts.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IV.</p> + +<p>TO SEXTIUS.</p> + + +<p>Severe winter is melted away beneath the agreeable change of spring and +the western breeze; and engines haul down the dry ships. And neither +does the cattle any longer delight in the stalls, nor the ploughman in +the fireside; nor are the meadows whitened by hoary frosts. Now +Cytherean Venus leads off the dance by moonlight; and the comely Graces, +in conjunction with the Nymphs, shake the ground with alternate feet; +while glowing Vulcan kindles the laborious forges of the Cyclops. Now it +is fitting to encircle the shining head either with verdant myrtle, or +with such flowers as the relaxed earth produces. Now likewise it is +fitting to sacrifice to Faunus in the shady groves, whether he demand a +lamb, or be more pleased with a kid. Pale death knocks at the cottages +of the poor, and the palaces of kings, with an impartial foot. O happy +Sextius! The short sum total of life forbids us to form remote +expectations. Presently shall darkness, and the unreal ghosts, and the +shadowy mansion of Pluto oppress you; where, when you shall have once +arrived, you shall neither decide the dominion of the bottle by dice, +nor shall you admire the tender Lycidas, with whom now all the youth is +inflamed, and for whom ere long the maidens will grow warm.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE V.</p> + +<p>TO PYRRHA.</p> + + +<p>What dainty youth, bedewed with liquid perfumes, caresses you, Pyrrha, +beneath the pleasant grot, amid a profusion of roses? For whom do you +bind your golden hair, plain in your neatness? Alas! how often shall he +deplore your perfidy, and the altered gods; and through inexperience be +amazed at the seas, rough with blackening storms who now credulous +enjoys you all precious, and, ignorant of the faithless gale, hopes you +will be always disengaged, always amiable! Wretched are those, to whom +thou untried seemest fair? The sacred wall [of Neptune's temple] +demonstrates, by a votive tablet, that I have consecrated my dropping +garments to the powerful god of the sea.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VI.</p> + +<p>TO AGRIPPA.</p> + + +<p>You shall be described by Varius, a bird of Maeonian verse, as brave, +and a subduer of your enemies, whatever achievements your fierce +soldiery shall have accomplished, under your command; either on +ship-board or on horseback. We humble writers, O Agrippa, neither +undertake these high subjects, nor the destructive wrath of inexorable +Achilles, nor the voyages of the crafty Ulysses, nor the cruel house of +Pelops: while diffidence, and the Muse who presides over the peaceful +lyre, forbid me to diminish the praise of illustrious Caesar, and yours, +through defect of genius. Who with sufficient dignity will describe Mars +covered with adamantine coat of mail, or Meriones swarthy with Trojan +dust, or the son of Tydeus by the favor of Pallas a match for the gods? +We, whether free, or ourselves enamored of aught, light as our wont, +sing of banquets; we, of the battles of maids desperate against young +fellows—with pared nails.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VII.</p> + +<p>TO MUNATIUS PLANCUS.</p> + + +<p>Other poets shall celebrate the famous Rhodes, or Mitylene, or Ephesus, +or the walls of Corinth, situated between two seas, or Thebes, +illustrious by Bacchus, or Delphi by Apollo, or the Thessalian Tempe. +There are some, whose one task it is to chant in endless verse the city +of spotless Pallas, and to prefer the olive culled from every side, to +every other leaf. Many a one, in honor of Juno, celebrates Argos, +productive of steeds, and rich Mycenae. Neither patient Lacedaemon 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 +clear south wind often clears away the clouds from a lowering sky, now +teems with perpetual showers; so do you, O Plancus, wisely remember to +put an end to grief 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 his +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 re-visit the vast ocean."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VIII.</p> + +<p>TO LYDIA.</p> + + +<p>Lydia, I conjure thee by all the powers above, to tell me why you are so +intent to ruin Sybaris by inspiring him with love? Why hates he the +sunny plain, though inured to bear the dust and heat? Why does he +neither, in military accouterments, 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 of the ring more cautiously than +viper's blood? Why neither does he, who has often acquired 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 +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?</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IX.</p> + +<p>TO THALIARCHUS.</p> + + +<p>You see how Soracte stands white with deep snow, nor can the laboring +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, O 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 +tomorrow; and whatever day fortune shall bestow on you, score it up for +gain; nor disdain, being a young fellow, pleasant 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 at the +approach of evening be repeated at the appointed hour: now, too, the +delightful laugh, the betrayer of the lurking damsel from some secret +corner, and the token ravished from her arms or fingers, pretendingly +tenacious of it.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE X.</p> + +<p>TO MERCURY.</p> + + +<p>Mercury, eloquent grandson of Atlas, thou who artful didst from the +savage manners of the early race of men by oratory, and the institution +of the graceful Palaestra: I will celebrate thee, messenger of Jupiter +and the other gods, and parent of the curved lyre; ingenious to conceal +whatever thou hast a mind to, in jocose theft. While Apollo, with angry +voice, threatened you, then but a boy, unless you would restore the +oxen, previously driven away by your fraud, he laughed, [when he found +himself] deprived of his quiver [also]. Moreover, the wealthy Priam too, +on his departure from Ilium, under your guidance deceived the proud sons +of Atreus, and the Thessalian watch-lights, and the camp inveterate +agaist Troy. You settle the souls of good men in blissful regions, and +drive together the airy crowd with your golden rod, acceptable both to +the supernal and infernal gods.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XI.</p> + +<p>TO LEUCONOE.</p> + + +<p>Inquire not, Leuconoe (it is not fitting you should know), how long a +term of life the gods have granted to you or to me: neither consult the +Chaldean calculations. How much better is it to bear with patience +whatever shall happen! Whether Jupiter have granted us more winters, or +[this as] the last, which now breaks the Etrurian waves against the +opposing rocks. Be wise; rack off your wines, and abridge your hopes [in +proportion] to the shortness of your life. While we are conversing, +envious age has been flying; seize the present day, not giving the least +credit to the succeeding one.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XII.</p> + +<p>TO AUGUSTUS.</p> + + +<p>What man, what hero, O Clio, do you undertake to celebrate on the harp, +or the shrill pipe? What god? Whose name shall the sportive echo +resound, either in the shady borders of Helicon, or on the top of +Pindus, or on cold Haemus? Whence the woods followed promiscuously the +tuneful Orpheus, who by his maternal art retarded the rapid courses of +rivers, and the fleet winds; and was so sweetly persuasive, that he drew +along the listening oaks with his harmonious strings. But what can I +sing prior to the usual praises of the Sire, who governs the affairs of +men and gods; who [governs] the sea, the earth, and the whole world with +the vicissitudes of seasons? Whence nothing is produced greater than +him; nothing springs either like him, or even in a second degree to him: +nevertheless, Pallas has acquired these honors, which are next after +him.</p> + +<p>Neither will I pass thee by in silence, O Bacchus, bold in combat; nor +thee, O Virgin, who art an enemy to the savage beasts; nor thee, O +Phoebus, formidable for thy unerring dart.</p> + +<p>I will sing also of Hercules, and the sons of Leda, the one illustrious +for his achievements on horseback, the other on foot; whose +clear-shining constellation as soon as it has shone forth to the +sailors, the troubled surge falls down from the rocks, the winds cease, +the clouds vanish, and the threatening waves subside in the sea—because +it was their will. After these, I am in doubt whom I shall first +commemorate, whether Romulus, or the peaceful reign of Numa, or the +splendid ensigns of Tarquinius, or the glorious death of Cato. I will +celebrate, out of gratitude, with the choicest verses, Regulus, and the +Scauri, and Paulus, prodigal of his mighty soul, when Carthage +conquered, and Fabricius.</p> + +<p>Severe poverty, and an hereditary farm, with a dwelling suited to it, +formed this hero useful in war; as it did also Curius with his rough +locks, and Camillus. The fame of Marcellus increases, as a tree does in +the insensible progress of time. But the Julian constellation shines +amid them all, as the moon among the smaller stars. O thou son of +Saturn, author and preserver of the human race, the protection of Caesar +is committed to thy charge by the Fates: thou shalt reign supreme, with +Caesar for thy second. Whether he shall subdue with a just victory the +Parthians making inroads upon Italy, or shall render subject the Seres +and Indians on the Eastern coasts; he shall rule the wide world with +equity, in subordination to thee. Thou shalt shake Olympus with thy +tremendous car; thou shalt hurl thy hostile thunderbolts against the +polluted groves.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIII.</p> + +<p>TO LYDIA.</p> + + +<p>O Lydia, when you commend Telephus' rosy neck, and the waxen arms of +Telephus, alas! my inflamed liver swells with bile difficult to be +repressed. Then neither is my mind firm, nor does my color maintain a +certain situation: and the involuntary tears glide down my cheek, +proving with what lingering flames I am inwardly consumed. I am on fire, +whether quarrels rendered immoderate by wine have stained your fair +shoulders; or whether the youth, in his fury, has impressed with his +teeth a memorial on your lips. If you will give due attention to my +advice, never expect that he will be constant, who inhumanly wounds +those sweet kisses, which Venus has imbued with the fifth part of all +her nectar. O thrice and more than thrice happy those, whom an +indissoluble connection binds together; and whose love, undivided by +impious complainings, does not separate them sooner than the last day!</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIV.</p> + +<p>TO THE ROMAN STATE.</p> + + +<p>O ship, new waves will bear you back again to sea. O what are you doing? +Bravely seize the port. Do you not perceive, that your sides are +destitute of oars, and your mast wounded by the violent south wind, and +your main-yards groan, and your keel can scarcely support the +impetuosity of the waves without the help of cordage? You have not +entire sails; nor gods, whom you may again invoke, pressed with +distress: notwithstanding you are made of the pines of Pontus, and as +the daughter of an illustrious wood, boast your race, and a fame now of +no service to you. The timorous sailor has no dependence on a painted +stern. Look to yourself, unless you are destined to be the sport of the +winds. O thou, so lately my trouble and fatigue, but now an object of +tenderness and solicitude, mayest thou escape those dangerous seas which +flow among the shining Cyclades.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XV.</p> + +<p>TO PARIS.</p> + + +<p>When the perfidious shepherd (Paris) carried off by sea in Trojan ships +his hostess Helen, Nereus suppressed the swift winds in an unpleasant +calm, that he might sing the dire fates. "With unlucky omen art thou +conveying home her, whom Greece with a numerous army shall demand back +again, having entered into a confederacy to dissolve your nuptials, and +the ancient kingdom of Priam. Alas! what sweat to horses, what to men, +is just at hand! What a destruction art thou preparing for the Trojan +nation! Even now Pallas is fitting her helmet, and her shield, and her +chariot, and her fury. In vain, looking fierce through the patronage of +Venus, will you comb your hair, and run divisions upon the effeminate +lyre with songs pleasing to women. In vain will you escape the spears +that disturb the nuptial bed, and the point of the Cretan dart, and the +din [of battle], and Ajax swift in the pursuit. Nevertheless, alas! the +time will come, though late, when thou shalt defile thine adulterous +hairs in the dust. Dost thou not see the son of Laertes, fatal to thy +nation, and Pylian Nestor, Salaminian Teucer, and Sthenelus skilled in +fight (or if there be occasion to manage horses, no tardy charioteer), +pursue thee with intrepidity? Meriones also shalt thou experience. +Behold! the gallant son of Tydeus, a better man than his father, glows +to find you out: him, as a stag flies a wolf, which he has seen on the +opposite side of the vale, unmindful of his pasture, shall you, +effeminate, fly, grievously panting:—not such the promises you made +your mistress. The fleet of the enraged Achilles shall defer for a time +that day, which is to be fatal to Troy and the Trojan matrons: but, +after a certain number of years, Grecian fire shall consume the Trojan +palaces."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVI.</p> + +<p>TO A YOUNG LADY HORACE HAD OFFENDED.</p> + + +<p>O daughter, more charming than your charming mother, put what end you +please to my insulting iambics; either in the flames, or, if you choose +it, in the Adriatic. Nor Cybele, nor Apollo, the dweller in the shrines, +so shakes the breast of his priests; Bacchus does not do it equally, nor +do the Corybantes so redouble their strokes on the sharp-sounding +cymbals, as direful anger; which neither the Noric sword can deter, nor +the shipwrecking sea, nor dreadful fire, not Jupiter himself rushing +down with awful crash. It is reported that Prometheus was obliged to add +to that original clay [with which he formed mankind], some ingredient +taken from every animal, and that he applied the vehemence of the raging +lion to the human breast. It was rage that destroyed Thyestes with +horrible perdition; and has been the final cause that lofty cities have +been entirely demolished, and that an insolent army has driven the +hostile plowshare over their walls. Compose your mind. An ardor of soul +attacked me also in blooming youth, and drove me in a rage to the +writing of swift-footed iambics. Now I am desirous of exchanging +severity for good nature, provided that you will become my friend, after +my having recanted my abuse, and restore me your affections.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVII.</p> + +<p>TO TYNDARIS.</p> + + +<p>The nimble Faunus often exchanges the Lycaean mountain for the pleasant +Lucretilis, and always defends my she-goats from the scorching summer, +and the rainy winds. The wandering wives of the unsavory husband seek +the hidden strawberry-trees and thyme with security through the safe +grove: nor do the kids dread the green lizards, or the wolves sacred to +Mars; whenever, my Tyndaris, the vales and the smooth rocks of the +sloping Ustica have resounded with his melodious pipe. The gods are my +protectors. My piety and my muse are agreeable to the gods. Here plenty, +rich with rural honors, shall flow to you, with her generous horn filled +to the brim. Here, in a sequestered vale, you shall avoid the heat of +the dog-star; and, on your Anacreontic harp, sing of Penelope and the +frail Circe striving for one lover; here you shall quaff, under the +shade, cups of unintoxicating Lesbian. Nor shall the raging son of +Semele enter the combat with Mars; and unsuspected you shall not fear +the insolent Cyrus, lest he should savagely lay his intemperate hands on +you, who are by no means a match for him; and should rend the chaplet +that is platted in your hair, and your inoffensive garment.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVIII.</p> + +<p>TO VARUS.</p> + + +<p>O Varus, you can plant no tree preferable to the sacred vine, about the +mellow soil of Tibur, and the walls of Catilus. For God hath rendered +every thing cross to the sober; nor do biting cares disperse any +otherwise [than by the use of wine]. Who, after wine, complains of the +hardships of war or of poverty? Who does not rather [celebrate] thee, +Father Bacchus, and thee, comely Venus? Nevertheless, the battle of the +Centaurs with the Lapithae, which was fought in their cups, admonishes +us not to exceed a moderate use of the gifts of Bacchus. And Bacchus +himself admonishes us in his severity to the Thracians; when greedy to +satisfy their lusts, they make little distinction between right and +wrong. O beauteous Bacchus, I will not rouse thee against thy will, nor +will I hurry abroad thy [mysteries, which are] covered with various +leaves. Cease your dire cymbals, together with your Phrygian horn, whose +followers are blind Self-love and Arrogance, holding up too high her +empty head, and the Faith communicative of secrets, and more transparent +than glass.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIX.</p> + +<p>TO GLYCERA.</p> + + +<p>The cruel mother of the Cupids, and the son of the Theban Gemele, and +lascivious ease, command me to give back my mind to its deserted loves. +The splendor of Glycera, shining brighter than the Parian marble, +inflames me: her agreeable petulance, and her countenance, too unsteady +to be beheld, inflame me. Venus, rushing on me with her whole force, has +quitted Cyprus; and suffers me not to sing of the Scythians, and the +Parthian, furious when his horse is turned for flight, or any subject +which is not to the present purpose. Here, slaves, place me a live turf; +here, place me vervains and frankincense, with a flagon of two-year-old +wine. She will approach more propitious, after a victim has been +sacrificed.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XX.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>My dear knight Maecenas, you shall drink [at my house] ignoble Sabine +wine in sober cups, which I myself sealed up in the Grecian cask, stored +at the time, when so loud an applause was given to you in the +amphitheatre, that the banks of your ancestral river, together with the +cheerful echo of the Vatican mountain, returned your praises. You [when +you are at home] will drink the Caecuban, and the grape which is +squeezed in the Calenian press; but neither the Falernian vines, nor the +Formian hills, season my cups.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXI.</p> + +<p>ON DIANA AND APOLLO.</p> + + +<p>Ye tender virgins, sing Diana; ye boys, sing Apollo with his unshorn +hair, and Latona passionately beloved by the supreme Jupiter. Ye +(virgins), praise her that rejoices in the rivers, and the thick groves, +which project either from the cold Algidus, or the gloomy woods of +Erymanthus, or the green Cragus. Ye boys, extol with equal praises +Apollo's Delos, and his shoulder adorned with a quiver, and with his +brother Mercury's lyre. He, moved by your intercession, shall drive away +calamitous war, and miserable famine, and the plague from the Roman +people and their sovereign Caesar, to the Persians and the Britons.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXII.</p> + +<p>TO ARISTIUS FUSCUS.</p> + + +<p>The man of upright life and pure from wickedness, O Fuscus, has no need +of the Moorish javelins, or bow, or quiver loaded with poisoned darts. +Whether he is about to make his journey through the sultry Syrtes, or +the inhospitable Caucasus, or those places which Hydaspes, celebrated in +story, washes. For lately, as I was singing my Lalage, and wandered +beyond my usual bounds, devoid of care, a wolf in the Sabine wood fled +from me, though I was unarmed: such a monster as neither the warlike +Apulia nourishes in its extensive woods, nor the land of Juba, the +dry-nurse of lions, produces. Place me in those barren plains, where no +tree is refreshed by the genial air; at that part of the world, which +clouds and an inclement atmosphere infest. Place me under the chariot of +the too neighboring sun, in a land deprived of habitations; [there] will +I love my sweetly-smiling, sweetly-speaking Lalage.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXIII.</p> + +<p>TO CHLOE.</p> + + +<p>You shun me, Chloe, like a fawn that is seeking its timorous mother in +the pathless mountains, not without a vain dread of the breezes and the +thickets: for she trembles both in her heart and knees, whether the +arrival of the spring has terrified by its rustling leaves, or the green +lizards have stirred the bush. But I do not follow you, like a savage +tigress, or a Gaetulian lion, to tear you to pieces. Therefore, quit +your mother, now that you are mature for a husband.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXIV.</p> + +<p>TO VIRGIL.</p> + + +<p>What shame or bound can there be to our affectionate regret for so dear +a person? O Melpomene, on whom your father has bestowed a clear voice +and the harp, teach me the mournful strains. Does then perpetual sleep +oppress Quinctilius? To whom when will modesty, and uncorrupt faith the +sister of Justice, and undisguised truth, find any equal? He died +lamented by many good men, but more lamented by none than by you, my +Virgil. You, though pious, alas! in vain demand Quinctilius back from +the gods, who did not lend him to us on such terms. What, though you +could strike the lyre, listened to by the trees, with more sweetness +than the Thracian Orpheus; yet the blood can never return to the empty +shade, which Mercury, inexorable to reverse the fates, has with his +dreadful Caduceus once driven to the gloomy throng. This is hard: but +what it is out of our power to amend, becomes more supportable by +patience.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXV.</p> + +<p>TO LYDIA.</p> + + +<p>The wanton youths less violently shake thy fastened windows with their +redoubled knocks, nor do they rob you of your rest; and your door, which +formerly moved its yielding hinges freely, now sticks lovingly to its +threshold. Less and less often do you now hear: "My Lydia, dost thou +sleep the live-long night, while I your lover am dying?" Now you are an +old woman, it will be your turn to bewail the insolence of rakes, when +you are neglected in a lonely alley, while the Thracian wind rages at +the Interlunium: when that hot desire and lust, which is wont to render +furious the dams of horses, shall rage about your ulcerous liver: not +without complaint, that sprightly youth rejoice rather in the verdant +ivy and growing myrtle, and dedicate sapless leaves to Eurus, the +companion of winter.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXVI.</p> + +<p>TO AELIUS LAMIA.</p> + + +<p>A friend to the Muses, I will deliver up grief and fears to the wanton +winds, to waft into the Cretan Sea; singularly careless, what king of a +frozen region is dreaded under the pole, or what terrifies Tiridates. O +sweet muse, who art delighted with pure fountains, weave together the +sunny flowers, weave a chaplet for my Lamia. Without thee, my praises +profit nothing. To render him immortal by new strains, to render him +immortal by the Lesbian lyre, becomes both thee and thy sisters.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXVII.</p> + +<p>TO HIS COMPANIONS.</p> + + +<p>To quarrel over your cups, which were made for joy, is downright +Thracian. Away with the barbarous custom, and protect modest Bacchus +from bloody frays. How immensely disagreeable to wine and candles is the +sabre of the Medes! O my companions, repress your wicked vociferations, +and rest quietly on bended elbow. Would you have me also take my share +of stout Falernian? Let the brother of Opuntian Megilla then declare, +with what wound he is blessed, with what dart he is dying.—What, do you +refuse? I will not drink upon any other condition. Whatever kind of +passion rules you, it scorches you with the flames you need not be +ashamed of, and you always indulge in an honorable, an ingenuous love. +Come, whatever is your case, trust it to faithful ears. Ah, unhappy! in +what a Charybdis art thou struggling, O youth, worthy of a better flame! +What witch, what magician, with his Thessalian incantations, what deity +can free you? Pegasus himself will scarcely deliver you, so entangled, +from this three-fold chimera.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXVIII.</p> + +<p>ARCHYTAS.</p> + + +<p>The [want of the] scanty present of a little sand near the Mantinian +shore, confines thee, O Archytas, the surveyor of sea and earth, and of +the innumerable sand: neither is it of any advantage to you, to have +explored the celestial regions, and to have traversed the round world in +your imagination, since thou wast to die. Thus also did the father of +Pelops, the guest of the gods, die; and Tithonus likewise was translated +to the skies, and Minos, though admitted to the secrets of Jupiter; and +the Tartarean regions are possessed of the son of Panthous, once more +sent down to the receptacle of the dead; notwithstanding, having retaken +his shield from the temple, he gave evidence of the Trojan times, and +that he had resigned to gloomy death nothing but his sinews and skin; in +your opinion, no inconsiderable judge of truth and nature. But the game +night awaits all, and the road of death must once be travelled. The +Furies give up some to the sport of horrible Mars: the greedy ocean is +destructive to sailors: the mingled funerals of young and old are +crowded together: not a single person does the cruel Proserpine pass by. +The south wind, the tempestuous attendant on the setting Orion, has sunk +me also in the Illyrian waves. But do not thou, O sailor, malignantly +grudge to give a portion of loose sand to my bones and unburied head. +So, whatever the east wind shall threaten to the Italian sea, let the +Venusinian woods suffer, while you are in safety; and manifold profit, +from whatever port it may, come to you by favoring Jove, and Neptune, +the defender of consecrated Tarentum. But if you, by chance, make light +of committing a crime, which will be hurtful to your innocent posterity, +may just laws and haughty retribution await you. I will not be deserted +with fruitless prayers; and no expiations shall atone for you. Though +you are in haste, you need not tarry long: after having thrice sprinkled +the dust over me, you may proceed.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXIX.</p> + +<p>TO ICCIUS.</p> + + +<p>O Iccius, you now covet the opulent treasures of the Arabians, and are +preparing vigorous for a war against the kings of Saba, hitherto +unconquered, and are forming chains for the formidable Mede. What +barbarian virgin shall be your slave, after you have killed her +betrothed husband? What boy from the court shall be made your +cup-bearer, with his perfumed locks, skilled to direct the Seric arrows +with his father's bow? Who will now deny that it is probable for +precipitate rivers to flow back again to the high mountains, and for +Tiber to change his course, since you are about to exchange the noble +works of Panaetius, collected from all parts, together with the whole +Socratic family, for Iberian armor, after you had promised better +things?</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXX.</p> + +<p>TO VENUS.</p> + + +<p>O Venus, queen of Gnidus and Paphos, neglect your favorite Cyprus, and +transport yourself into the beautiful temple of Glycera, who is invoking +you with abundance of frankincense. Let your glowing son hasten along +with you, and the Graces with their zones loosed, and the Nymphs, and +Youth possessed of little charm without you and Mercury.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXXI.</p> + +<p>TO APOLLO.</p> + + +<p>What does the poet beg from Phoebus on the dedication of his temple? +What does he pray for, while he pours from the flagon the first +libation? Not the rich crops of fertile Sardinia: not the goodly flocks +of scorched Calabria: not gold, or Indian ivory: not those countries, +which the still river Liris eats away with its silent streams. Let those +to whom fortune has given the Calenian vineyards, prune them with a +hooked knife; and let the wealthy merchant drink out of golden cups the +wines procured by his Syrian merchandize, favored by the gods +themselves, inasmuch as without loss he visits three or four times a +year the Atlantic Sea. Me olives support, me succories and soft mallows. +O thou son of Latona, grant me to enjoy my acquisitions, and to possess +my health, together with an unimpaired understanding, I beseech thee; +and that I may not lead a dishonorable old age, nor one bereft of the +lyre.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXXII.</p> + +<p>TO HIS LYRE.</p> + + +<p>We are called upon. If ever, O lyre, in idle amusement in the shade with +thee, we have played anything that may live for this year and many, come +on, be responsive to a Latin ode, my dear lyre—first tuned by a Lesbian +citizen, who, fierce in war, yet amid arms, or if he had made fast to +the watery shore his tossed vessel, sung Bacchus, and the Muses, and +Venus, and the boy, her ever-close attendant, and Lycus, lovely for his +black eyes and jetty locks. O thou ornament of Apollo, charming shell, +agreeable even at the banquets of supreme Jove! O thou sweet alleviator +of anxious toils, be propitious to me, whenever duly invoking thee!</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXXIII.</p> + +<p>TO ALBIUS TIBULLUS.</p> + + +<p>Grieve not too much, my Albius, thoughtful of cruel Glycera; nor chant +your mournful elegies, because, as her faith being broken, a younger man +is more agreeable, than you in her eyes. A love for Cyrus inflames +Lycoris, distinguished for her little forehead: Cyrus follows the rough +Pholoe; but she-goats shall sooner be united to the Apulian wolves, than +Pholoe shall commit a crime with a base adulterer. Such is the will of +Venus, who delights in cruel sport, to subject to her brazen yokes +persons and tempers ill suited to each other. As for myself, the +slave-born Myrtale, more untractable than the Adriatic Sea that forms +the Calabrian gulfs, entangled me in a pleasing chain, at the very time +that a more eligible love courted my embraces.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXXIV.</p> + +<p>AGAINST THE EPICURIANS.</p> + + +<p>A remiss and irregular worshiper of the gods, while I professed the +errors of a senseless philosophy, I am now obliged to set sail back +again, and to renew the course that I had deserted. For Jupiter, who +usually cleaves the clouds with his gleaming lightning, lately drove +his thundering horses and rapid chariot through the clear serene; which +the sluggish earth, and wandering rivers; at which Styx, and the horrid +seat of detested Taenarus, and the utmost boundary of Atlas were shaken. +The Deity is able to make exchange between the highest and the lowest, +and diminishes the exalted, bringing to light the obscure; rapacious +fortune, with a shrill whizzing, has borne off the plume from one head, +and delights in having placed it on another.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXXV.</p> + +<p>TO FORTUNE.</p> + + +<p>O Goddess, who presidest over beautiful Antium; thou, that art ready to +exalt mortal man from the most abject state, or to convert superb +triumphs into funerals! Thee the poor countryman solicits with his +anxious vows; whosoever plows the Carpathian Sea with the Bithynian +vessel, importunes thee as mistress of the ocean. Thee the rough Dacian, +thee the wandering Scythians, and cities, and nations, and warlike +Latium also, and the mothers of barbarian kings, and tyrants clad in +purple, fear. Spurn not with destructive foot that column which now +stands firm, nor let popular tummult rouse those, who now rest quiet, to +arms—to arms—and break the empire. Necessity, thy minister, alway +marches before thee, holding in her brazen hand huge spikes and wedges, +nor is the unyielding clamp absent, nor the melted lead. Thee Hope +reverences, and rare Fidelity robed in a white garment; nor does she +refuse to bear thee company, howsoever in wrath thou change thy robe, +and abandon the houses of the powerful. But the faithless crowd [of +companions], and the perjured harlot draw back. Friends, too faithless +to bear equally the yoke of adversity, when casks are exhausted, very +dregs and all, fly off. Preserve thou Caesar, who is meditating an +expedition against the Britons, the furthest people in the world, and +also the new levy of youths to be dreaded by the Eastern regions, and +the Red Sea. Alas! I am ashamed of our scars, and our wickedness, and of +brethren. What have we, a hardened age, avoided? What have we in our +impiety left unviolated! From what have our youth restrained their +hands, out of reverence to the gods? What altars have they spared? O +mayest thou forge anew our blunted swords on a different anvil against +the Massagetae and Arabians.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXXVI.</p> + + +<p>This is a joyful occasion to sacrifice both with incense and music of +the lyre, and the votive blood of a heifer to the gods, the guardians of +Numida; who, now returning in safety from the extremest part of Spain, +imparts many embraces to his beloved companions, but to none more than +his dear Lamia, mindful of his childhood spent under one and the same +governor, and of the gown, which they changed at the same time. Let not +this joyful day be without a Cretan mark of distinction; let us not +spare the jar brought forth [from the cellar]; nor, Salian-like, let +there be any cessation of feet; nor let the toping Damalis conquer +Bassus in the Thracian Amystis; nor let there be roses wanting to the +banquet, nor the ever-green parsley, nor the short-lived lily. All the +company will fix their dissolving eyes on Damalis; but she, more +luxuriant than the wanton ivy, will not be separated from her new lover.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXXVII.</p> + +<p>TO HIS COMPANIONS.</p> + + +<p>Now, my companions, is the time to carouse, now to beat the ground with +a light foot: now is the time that was to deck the couch of the gods +with Salian dainties. Before this, it was impious to produce the old +Caecuban stored up by your ancestors; while the queen, with a +contaminated gang of creatures, noisome through distemper, was preparing +giddy destruction for the Capitol and the subversion of the empire, +being weak enough to hope for any thing, and intoxicated with her +prospering fortune. But scarcely a single ship preserved from the flames +bated her fury; and Caesar brought down her mind, inflamed with Egyptian +wine, to real fears, close pursuing her in her flight from Italy with +his galleys (as the hawk pursues the tender doves, or the nimble hunter +the hare in the plains of snowy Aemon), that he might throw into chains +this destructive monster [of a woman]; who, seeking a more generous +death, neither had an effeminate dread of the sword, nor repaired with +her swift ship to hidden shores. She was able also to look upon her +palace, lying in ruins, with a countenance unmoved, and courageous +enough to handle exasperated asps, that she might imbibe in her body the +deadly poison, being more resolved by having pre-meditated her death: +for she was a woman of such greatness of soul, as to scorn to be carried +off in haughty triumph, like a private person, by rough Liburnians.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXXVIII.</p> + +<p>TO HIS SERVANT.</p> + + +<p>Boy, I detest the pomp of the Persians; chaplets, which are woven with +the rind of the linden, displease me; give up the search for the place +where the latter rose abides. It is my particular desire that you make +no laborious addition to the plain myrtle; for myrtle is neither +unbecoming you a servant, nor me, while I quaff under this mantling +vine.</p> + + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_SECOND_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE" id="THE_SECOND_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE" />THE SECOND BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE.</h2> + + + +<p>ODE I.</p> + +<p>TO ASINIUS POLLIO.</p> + + +<p>You are treating of the civil commotion, which began from the consulship +of Metelius, and the causes, and the errors, and the operations of the +war, and the game that fortune played, and the pernicious confederacy of +the chiefs, and arms stained with blood not yet expiated—a work full of +danger and hazard: and you are treading upon fires, hidden under +deceitful ashes: let therefore the muse that presides over severe +tragedy, be for a while absent from the theaters; shortly, when thou +hast completed the narrative of the public affairs, you shall resume +your great work in the tragic style of Athens, O Pollio, thou excellent +succor to sorrowing defendants and a consulting senate; [Pollio,] to +whom the laurel produced immortal honors in the Dalmatian triumph. Even +now you stun our ears with the threatening murmur of horns: now the +clarions sound; now the glitter of arms affrights the flying steeds, and +dazzles the sight of the riders. Now I seem to hear of great commanders +besmeared with, glorious dust, and the whole earth subdued, except the +stubborn soul of Cato. Juno, and every other god propitious to the +Africans, impotently went off, leaving that land unrevenged; but soon +offered the descendants of the conquerors, as sacrifices to the manes of +Jugurtha. What plain, enriched by Latin blood, bears not record, by its +numerous sepulchres, of our impious battles, and of the sound of the +downfall of Italy, heard even by the Medes? What pool, what rivers, are +unconscious of our deplorable war? What sea have not the Daunian +slaughters discolored? What shore is unstained by our blood? Do not, +however, rash muse, neglecting your jocose strains, resume the task of +Caean plaintive song, but rather with me seek measures of a lighter +style beneath some love-sequestered grotto.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE II.</p> + +<p>TO CRISPUS SALLUSTIUS.</p> + + +<p>O Crispus Sallustius, thou foe to bullion, unless it derives splendor +from a moderate enjoyment, there is no luster in money concealed in the +niggard earth. Proculeius shall live an extended age, conspicuous for +fatherly affection to brothers; surviving fame shall bear him on an +untiring wing. You may possess a more extensive dominion by controlling +a craving disposition, than if you could unite Libya to the distant +Gades, and the natives of both the Carthages were subject to you alone. +The direful dropsy increases by self-indulgence, nor extinguishes its +thirst, unless the cause of the disorder has departed from the veins, +and the watery languor from the pallid body. Virtue, differing from the +vulgar, excepts Phraates though restored to the throne of Cyrus, from +the number of the happy; and teaches the populace to disuse false names +for things, by conferring the kingdom and a safe diadem and the +perpetual laurel upon him alone, who can view large heaps of treasure +with undazzled eye.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE III.</p> + +<p>TO QUINTUS DELLIUS.</p> + + +<p>O Dellius, since thou art born to die, be mindful to preserve a temper +of mind even in times of difficulty, as well an restrained from insolent +exultation in prosperity: whether thou shalt lead a life of continual +sadness, or through happy days regale thyself with Falernian wine of the +oldest date, at case reclined in some grassy retreat, where the lofty +pine and hoary poplar delight to interweave their boughs into a +hospitable shade, and the clear current with trembling surface purls +along the meandering rivulet. Hither order [your slaves] to bring the +wine, and the perfumes, and the too short-lived flowers of the grateful +rose, while fortune, and age; and the sable threads of the three sisters +permit thee. You must depart from your numerous purchased groves; from +your house also, and that villa, which the yellow Tiber washes, you must +depart: and an heir shall possess these high-piled riches. It is of no +consequence whether you are the wealthy descendant of ancient Inachus, +or whether, poor and of the most ignoble race, you live without a +covering from the open air, since you are the victim of merciless Pluto. +We are all driven toward the same quarter: the lot of all is shaken in +the urn; destined sooner or later to come forth, and embark us in +[Charon's] boat for eternal exile.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IV.</p> + +<p>TO XANTHIAS PHOCEUS.</p> + + +<p>Let not, O Xanthias Phoceus, your passion for your maid put you out of +countenance; before your time, the slave Briseis moved the haughty +Achilles by her snowy complexion. The beauty of the captive Tecmessa +smote her master, the Telamonian Ajax; Agamemnon, in the midst of +victory, burned for a ravished virgin: when the barbarian troops fell by +the hands of their Thessalian conqueror, and Hector, vanquished, left +Troy more easily to be destroyed by the Grecians. You do not know that +perchance the beautiful Phyllis has parents of condition happy enough to +do honor to you their son-in-law. Certainly she must be of royal race, +and laments the unpropitiousness of her family gods. Be confident, that +your beloved is not of the worthless crowd; nor that one so true, so +unmercenary, could possibly be born of a mother to be ashamed of. I can +commend arms, and face, and well-made legs, quite chastely: avoid being +jealous of one, whose age is hastening onward to bring its eighth +mastrum to a close.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE V.</p> + + +<p>Not yet is she fit to be broken to the yoke; not yet is she equal to the +duties of a partner, nor can she support the weight of the bull +impetuously rushing to enjoyment. Your heifer's sole inclination is +about verdant fields, one while in running streams soothing the grievous +heat; at another, highly delighted to frisk with the steerlings in the +moist willow ground. Suppress your appetite for the immature grape; +shortly variegated autumn will tinge for thee the lirid clusters with a +purple hue. Shortly she shall follow you; for her impetuous time runs +on, and shall place to her account those years of which it abridges you; +shortly Lalage with a wanton assurance will seek a husband, beloved in a +higher degree than the coy Pholoe, or even Chloris; shining as brightly +with her fair shoulder, as the spotless moon upon the midnight sea, or +even the Gnidian Gyges, whom if you should intermix in a company of +girls, the undiscernible difference occasioned by his flowing locks and +doubtful countenance would wonderfully impose even on sagacious +strangers.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VI.</p> + +<p>TO SEPTIMUS.</p> + + +<p>Septimus, who art ready to go with me, even to Gades, and to the +Cantabrian, still untaught to bear our yoke, and the inhospitable +Syrtes, where the Mauritanian wave perpetually boils. O may Tibur, +founded by a Grecian colony, be the habitation of my old age! There let +there be an end to my fatigues by sea, and land, and war; whence if the +cruel fates debar me, I will seek the river of Galesus, delightful for +sheep covered with skins, and the countries reigned over by +Lacedaemonian Phalantus. That corner of the world smiles in my eye +beyond all others; where the honey yields not to the Hymettian, and the +olive rivals the verdant Venafrian: where the temperature of the air +produces a long spring and mild winters, and Aulon friendly to the +fruitful vine, envies not the Falernian grapes. That place, and those +blest heights, solicit you and me; there you shall bedew the glowing +ashes of your poet friend with a tear due [to his memory].</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VII.</p> + +<p>TO POMPEIUS VARUS.</p> + + +<p>O thou, often reduced with me to the last extremity in the war which +Brutus carried on, who has restored thee as a Roman citizen, to the gods +of thy country and the Italian air, Pompey, thou first of my companions; +with whom I have frequently broken the tedious day in drinking, having +my hair, shining with the Syrian maiobathrum, crowned [with flowers]! +Together with thee did I experience the [battle of] Phillippi and a +precipitate flight, having shamefully enough left my shield; when valor +was broken, and the most daring smote the squalid earth with their +faces. But Mercury swift conveyed me away, terrified as I was, in a +thick cloud through the midst of the enemy. Thee the reciprocating sea, +with his tempestuous waves, bore back again to war. Wherefore render to +Jupiter the offering that is due, and deposit your limbs, wearied with a +tedious war, under my laurel, and spare not the casks reserved for you. +Fill up the polished bowls with care-dispelling Massic: pour out the +perfumed ointments from the capacious shells. Who takes care to quickly +weave the chaplets of fresh parsely or myrtle? Whom shall the Venus +pronounce to be master of the revel? In wild carouse I will become +frantic as the Bacchanalians. 'Tis delightful to me to play the madman, +on the reception of my friends.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VIII.</p> + +<p>TO BARINE.</p> + + +<p>If any punishment, Barine, for your violated oath had ever been of +prejudice to you: if you had become less agreeable by the blackness of a +single tooth or nail, I might believe you. But you no sooner have bound +your perfidious head with vows, but you shine out more charming by far, +and come forth the public care of our youth. It is of advantage to you +to deceive the buried ashes of your mother, and the silent +constellations of the night, together with all heaven, and the gods free +from chill death. Venus herself, I profess, laughs at this; the +good-natured nymphs laugh, and cruel Cupid, who is perpetually +sharpening his burning darts on a bloody whetstone. Add to this, that +all our boys are growing up for you; a new herd of slaves is growing up; +nor do the former ones quit the house of their impious mistress, +notwithstanding they often have threatened it. The matrons are in dread +of you on account of their young ones; the thrifty old men are in dread +of you; and the girls but just married are in distress, lest your beauty +should slacken [the affections of] their husbands.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IX.</p> + +<p>TO TITUS VALGIUS.</p> + + +<p>Showers do not perpetually pour down upon the rough fields, nor do +varying hurricanes forever harass the Caspian Sea; nor, my friend +Valgius, does the motionless ice remain fixed throughout all the months, +in the regions of Armenia; nor do the Garganian oaks [always] labor +under the northerly winds, nor are the ash-trees widowed of their +leaves. But thou art continually pursuing Mystes, who is taken from +thee, with mournful measures: nor do the effects of thy love for him +cease at the rising of Vesper, or when he flies the rapid approach of +the sun. But the aged man who lived three generations, did not lament +the amiable Antilochus all the years of his life: nor did his parents or +his Trojan sisters perpetually bewail the blooming Troilus. At length +then desist from thy tender complaints; and rather let us sing the fresh +trophies of Augustus Caesar, and the Frozen Niphates, and the river +Medus, added to the vanquished nations, rolls more humble tides, and the +Gelonians riding within a prescribed boundary in a narrow tract of land.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE X.</p> + +<p>TO LICINIUS MURENA.</p> + + +<p>O Licinius, you will lead a more correct course of life, by neither +always pursuing the main ocean, nor, while you cautiously are in dread +of storms, by pressing too much upon the hazardous shore. Whosoever +loves the golden mean, is secure from the sordidness of an antiquated +cell, and is too prudent to have a palace that might expose him to +envy, if the lofty pine is more frequently agitated with winds, and high +towers fall down with a heavier ruin, and lightnings strike the summits +of the mountains. A well-provided breast hopes in adversity, and fears +in prosperity. 'Tis the same Jupiter, that brings the hideous winters +back, and that takes them away. If it is ill with us now, it will not be +so hereafter. Apollo sometimes rouses the silent lyric muse, neither +does he always bend his bow. In narrow circumstances appear in high +spirits, and undaunted. In the same manner you will prudently contract +your sails, which are apt to be too much swollen in a prosperous gale.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XI.</p> + +<p>TO QUINTIUS HIRPINUS.</p> + + +<p>O Quintius Hirpinus, forbear to be inquisitive what the Cantabrian, and +the Scythian, divided from us by the interposed Adriatic, is meditating; +neither be fearfully solicitous for the necessaries of a life, which +requires but a few things. Youth and beauty fly swift away, while +sapless old age expels the wanton loves and gentle sleep. The same glory +does not always remain to the vernal flowers, nor does the ruddy moon +shine with one continued aspect; why, therefore, do you fatigue you +mind, unequal to eternal projects? Why do we not rather (while it is in +our power) thus carelessly reclining under a lofty plane-tree, or this +pine, with our hoary locks made fragrant by roses, and anointed with +Syrian perfume, indulge ourselves with generous wine? Bacchus dissipates +preying cares. What slave is here, instantly to cool some cups of ardent +Falernian in the passing stream? Who will tempt the vagrant wanton Lyde +from her house? See that you bid her hasten with her ivory lyre, +collecting her hair into a graceful knot, after the fashion of a Spartan +maid.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XII.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>Do not insist that the long wars of fierce Numantia, or the formidable +Annibal, or the Sicilian Sea impurpled with Carthaginian blood, should +be adapted to the tender lays of the lyre: nor the cruel Lapithae, nor +Hylaeus excessive in wine and the earth born youths, subdued by +Herculean force, from whom the splendid habitation of old Saturn dreaded +danger. And you yourself, Maecenas, with more propriety shall recount +the battles of Caesar, and the necks of haughty kings led in triumph +through the streets in historical prose. It was the muse's will that I +should celebrate the sweet strains of my mistress Lycimnia, that I +should celebrate her bright darting eyes, and her breast laudably +faithful to mutual love: who can with a grace introduce her foot into +the dance, or, sporting, contend in raillery, or join arms with the +bright virgins on the celebrated Diana's festival. Would you, +[Maecenas,] change one of Lycimnia's tresses for all the rich Achaemenes +possessed, or the Mygdonian wealth of fertile Phrygia, or all the +dwellings of the Arabians replete with treasures? Especially when she +turns her neck to meet your burning kisses, or with a gentle cruelty +denies, what she would more delight to have ravished than the +petitioner—or sometimes eagerly anticipates to snatch them her self.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIII.</p> + +<p>TO A TREE.</p> + + +<p>O tree, he planted thee on an unlucky day whoever did it first, and with +an impious hand raised thee for the destruction of posterity, and the +scandal of the village. I could believe that he had broken his own +father's neck, and stained his most secret apartments with the midnight +blood of his guest. He was wont to handle Colchian poisons, and whatever +wickedness is anywhere conceived, who planted in my field thee, a sorry +log; thee, ready to fall on the head of thy inoffensive master. What we +ought to be aware of, no man is sufficiently cautious at all hours. The +Carthaginian sailor thoroughly dreads the Bosphorus; nor, beyond that, +does he fear a hidden fate from any other quarter. The soldier dreads +the arrows and the fleet retreat of the Parthian; the Parthian, chains +and an Italian prison; but the unexpected assault of death has carried +off, and will carry off, the world in general. How near was I seeing the +dominions of black Proserpine, and Aeacus sitting in judgment; the +separate abodes also of the pious, and Sappho complaining in her Aeohan +lyre of her own country damsels; and thee, O Alcaeus, sounding in fuller +strains on thy golden harp the distresses of exile, and the distresses +of war. The ghosts admire them both, while they utter strains worthy of +a sacred silence; but the crowded multitude, pressing with their +shoulders, imbibes, with a more greedy ear, battles and banished +tyrants. What wonder? Since the many headed monster, astonished at those +lays, hangs down his sable ears; and the snakes, entwined in the hair of +the furies, are soothed. Moreover, Prometheus and the sire of Pelops are +deluded into an insensibility of their torments, by the melodious sound: +nor is Orion any longer solicitous to harass the lions, or the fearful +lynxes.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIV.</p> + +<p>TO POSTUMUS.</p> + + +<p>Alas! my Postumus, my Postumus, the fleeting years gilde on; nor will +piety cause any delay to wrinkles, and advancing old age, and +insuperable death. You could not, if you were to sacrifice every passing +day three hundred bulls, render propitious pitiless Pluto, who confines +the thrice-monstrous Geryon and Tityus with the dismal Stygian stream, +namely, that stream which is to be passed over by all who are fed by the +bounty of the earth, whether we be kings or poor ninds. In vain shall we +be free from sanguinary Mars, and the broken billows of the hoarse +Adriatic; in vain shall we be apprehensive for ourselves of the noxious +South, in the time of autumn. The black Cocytus wandering with languid +current, and the infamous race of Danaus, and Sisyphus, the son of the +Aeolus, doomed to eternal toil, must be visited; your land and house and +pleasing wife must be left, nor shall any of those trees, which you are +nursing, follow you, their master for a brief space, except the hated +cypresses; a worthier heir shall consume your Caecuban wines now guarded +with a hundred keys, and shall wet the pavement with the haughty wine, +more exquisite than what graces pontifical entertainment.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XV.</p> + +<p>AGAINST THE LUXURY OF THE ROMANS.</p> + + +<p>The palace-like edifices will in a short time leave but a few acres for +the plough; ponds of wider extent than the Lucrine lake will be every +where to be seen; and the barren plane-tree will supplant the elms. Then +banks of violets, and myrtle groves, and all the tribe of nosegays shall +diffuse their odors in the olive plantations, which were fruitful to +their preceding master. Then the laurel with dense boughs shall exclude +the burning beams. It was not so prescribed by the institutes of +Romulus, and the unshaven Cato, and ancient custom. Their private income +was contracted, while that of the community was great. No private men +were then possessed of galleries measured by ten-feet rules, which +collected the shady northern breezes; nor did the laws permit them to +reject the casual turf [for their own huts], though at the same time +they obliged them to ornament in the most sumptuous manner, with new +stone, the buildings of the public, and the temples of the gods, at a +common expense.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVI.</p> + +<p>TO GROSPHUS.</p> + + +<p>O Grosphus, he that is caught in the wide Aegean Sea; when a black +tempest has obscured the moon, and not a star appears with steady light +for the mariners, supplicates the gods for repose: for repose, Thrace +furious in war; the quiver-graced Medes, for repose neither purchasable +by jewels, nor by purple, nor by gold. For neither regal treasures nor +the consul's officer can remove the wretched tumults of the mind, nor +the cares that hover about splendid ceilings. That man lives happily on +a little, who can view with pleasure the old-fashioned family +salt-cellar on his frugal board; neither anxiety nor sordid avarice robs +him of gentle sleep. Why do we, brave for a short season, aim at many +things? Why do we change our own for climates heated by another sun? +Whoever, by becoming an exile from his country, escaped likewise from +himself? Consuming care boards even brazen-beaked ships: nor does it +quit the troops of horsemen, for it is more fleet than the stags, more +fleet than the storm-driving east wind. A mind that is cheerful in its +present state, will disdain to be solicitous any further, and can +correct the bitters of life with a placid smile. Nothing is on all hands +completely blessed. A premature death carried off the celebrated +Achilles; a protracted old age wore down Tithonus; and time perhaps may +extend to me, what it shall deny to you. Around you a hundred flocks +bleat, and Sicilian heifers low; for your use the mare, fit for the +harness, neighs; wool doubly dipped in the African purple-dye, clothes +you: on me undeceitful fate has bestowed a small country estate, and the +slight inspiration of the Grecian muse, and a contempt for the malignity +of the vulgar.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVII.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>Why dost thoti kill me with thy complaints? 'Tis neither agreeable to +the gods, nor to me, that thou shouldest depart first, O Maecenas, thou +grand ornament and pillar of my affairs. Alas! if an untimely blow hurry +away thee, a part of my soul, why do I the other moiety remain, my value +lost, nor any longer whole? That [fatal] day shall bring destruction +upon us both. I have by no means taken a false oath: we will go, we will +go, whenever thou shalt lead the way, prepared to be fellow-travelers in +the last journey. Me nor the breath of the fiery Chimaera, nor +hundred-handed Gyges, were he to rise again, shall ever tear from thee: +such is the will of powerful Justice, and of the Fates. Whether Libra or +malignant Scorpio had the ascendant at my natal hour, or Capricon the +ruler of the western wave, our horoscopes agree in a wonderful manner. +Thee the benign protection of Jupiter, shining with friendly aspect, +rescued from the baleful influence of impious Saturn, and retarded the +wings of precipitate destiny, at the time the crowded people with +resounding applauses thrice hailed you in the theatre: me the trunk of a +tree, falling upon my skull, would have dispatched, had not Faunus, the +protector of men of genius, with his right hand warded off the blow. Be +thou mindful to pay the victims and the votive temple; I will sacrifice +an humble lamb.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVIII.</p> + +<p>AGAINST AVARICE AND LUXURY.</p> + + +<p>Nor ivory, nor a fretted ceiling adorned with gold, glitters in my +house: no Hymettian beams rest upon pillars cut out of the extreme parts +of Africa; nor, a pretended heir, have I possessed myself of the palace +of Attalus, nor do ladies, my dependants, spin Laconian purple for my +use. But integrity, and a liberal vein of genius, are mine: and the man +of fortune makes his court to me, who am but poor. I importune the gods +no further, nor do I require of my friend in power any larger +enjoyments, sufficiently happy with my Sabine farm alone. Day is driven +on by day, and the new moons hasten to their wane. You put out marble to +be hewn, though with one foot in the grave; and, unmindful of a +sepulcher, are building houses; and are busy to extend the shore of the +sea, that beats with violence at Baiae, not rich enough with the shore +of the mainland. Why is it, that through avarice you even pluck up the +landmarks of your neighbor's ground, and trespass beyond the bounds of +your clients; and wife and husband are turned out, bearing in their +bosom their household gods and their destitute children? Nevertheless, +no court more certainly awaits its wealthy lord, than the destined limit +of rapacious Pluto. Why do you go on? The impartial earth is opened +equally to the poor and to the sons of kings; nor has the life-guard +ferryman of hell, bribed with gold, re-conducted the artful Prometheus. +He confines proud Tantalus; and the race of Tantalus, he condescends, +whether invoked or not, to relieve the poor freed from their labors.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIX.</p> + +<p>ON BACCHUS.</p> + +<p>A DITHYRAMBIC, OR DRINKING SONG.</p> + + +<p>I saw Bacchus (believe it, posterity) dictating strains among the remote +rocks, and the nymphs learning them, and the ears of the goat-footed +satyrs all attentive. Evoe! my mind trembles with recent dread, and my +soul, replete with Bacchus, has a tumultuous joy, Evoe! spare me, +Bacchus; spare me, thou who art formidable for thy dreadful thyrsus. It +is granted me to sing the wanton Bacchanalian priestess, and the +fountain of wine, and rivulets flowing with milk, and to tell again of +the honeys distilling from the hollow trunks. It is granted me likewise +to celebrate the honor added to the constellations by your happy spouse, +and the palace of Pentheus demolished with no light ruin, and the +perdition of Thracian. Lycurgus. You command the rivers, you the +barbarian sea. You, moist with wine, on lonely mountain-tops bind the +hair of your Thracian priestesses with a knot of vipers without hurt. +You, when the impious band of giants scaled the realms of father Jupiter +through the sky, repelled Rhoetus, with the paws and horrible jaw of the +lion-shape [you had assumed]. Thou, reported to be better fitted for +dances, and jokes and play, you were accounted insufficient for fight; +yet it then appeared, you, the same deity, was the mediator of peace and +war. Upon you, ornamented with your golden horn, Orberus innocently +gazed, gently wagging his tail; and with his triple tongue licked your +feet and legs, as you returned.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XX.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>I, a two-formed poet, will be conveyed through the liquid air with no +vulgar or humble wing; nor will I loiter upon earth any longer; and +superior to envy, I will quit cities. Not I, even I, the blood of low +parents, my dear Maecenas, shall die; nor shall I be restrained by the +Stygian wave. At this instant a rough skin settles upon my ankles, and +all upwards I am transformed into a white bird, and the downy plumage +arises over my fingers and shoulders. Now, a melodious bird, more +expeditious than the Daepalean Icarus, I will visit the shores of the +murmuring Bosphorus, and the Gzetulean Syrtes, and the Hyperborean +plains. Me the Colchian and the Dacian, who hides his fear of the +Marsian cohort, land the remotest Gelonians, shall know: me the learned +Spaniard shall study, and he that drinks of the Rhone. Let there be no +dirges, nor unmanly lamentations, nor bewailings at my imaginary +funeral; suppress your crying, and forbear the superfluous honors of a +sepulcher.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_THIRD_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE" id="THE_THIRD_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE" />THE THIRD BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE.</h2> + + + +<p>ODE I.</p> + +<p>ON CONTENTMENT.</p> + + +<p>I abominate the uninitiated vulgar, and keep them at a distance. +Preserve a religious silence: I, the priest of the Muses, sing to +virgins and boys verses not heard before. The dominion of dread +sovereigns is over their own subjects; that of Jupiter, glorious for his +conquest over the giants, who shakes all nature with his nod, is over +sovereigns themselves. It happens that one man, arranges trees, in +regular rows, to a greater extent than another; this man comes down into +the Campus [Martius] as a candidate of a better family; another vies +with him for morals and a better reputation; a third has a superior +number of dependants; but Fate, by the impartial law of nature, is +allotted both to the conspicuous and the obscure; the capacious urn +keeps every name in motion. Sicilian dainties will not force a delicious +relish to that man, over whose impious neck the naked sword hangs: the +songs of birds and the lyre will not restore his sleep. Sleep disdains +not the humble cottages and shady bank of peasants; he disdains not +Tempe, fanned by zephyrs. Him, who desires but a competency, neither the +tempestuous sea renders anxious, nor the malign violence of Arcturus +setting, or of the rising Kid; not his vineyards beaten down with hail, +and a deceitful farm; his plantations at one season blaming the rains, +at another, the influence of the constellations parching the grounds, at +another, the severe winters. The fishes perceive the seas contracted, by +the vast foundations that have been laid in the deep: hither numerous +undertakers with their men, and lords, disdainful of the land, send down +mortar: but anxiety and the threats of conscience ascend by the same way +as the possessor; nor does gloomy care depart from the brazen-beaked +galley, and she mounts behind the horseman. Since then nor Phrygian +marble, nor the use of purple more dazzling than the sun, nor the +Falernian vine, nor the Persian nard, composes a troubled mind, why +should I set about a lofty edifice with columns that excite envy, and in +the modern taste? Why should I exchange my Sabine vale for wealth, which +is attended with more trouble?</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE II.</p> + +<p>AGAINST THE DEGENERACY OF THE ROMAN YOUTH.</p> + + +<p>Let the robust youth learn patiently to endure pinching want in the +active exercise of arms; and as an expert horseman, dreadful for his +spear, let him harass the fierce Parthians; and let him lead a life +exposed to the open air, and familiar with dangers. Him, the consort and +marriageable virgin-daughter of some warring tyrant, viewing from the +hostile walls, may sigh—- Alas! let not the affianced prince, +inexperienced as he is in arms, provoke by a touch this terrible lion, +whom bloody rage hurries through the midst of slaughter. It is sweet and +glorious to die for one's country; death even pursues the man that flies +from him; nor does he spare the trembling knees of effeminate youth, nor +the coward back. Virtue, unknowing of base repulse, shines with +immaculate honors; nor does she assume nor lay aside the ensigns of her +dignity, at the veering of the popular air. Virtue, throwing open heaven +to those who deserve not to die, directs her progress through paths of +difficulty, and spurns with a rapid wing grovelling cowards and the +slippery earth. There is likewise a sure reward for faithful silence. I +will prohibit that man, who shall divulge the sacred rites of mysterious +Ceres, from being under the same roof with me, or from setting sail with +me in the same fragile bark: for Jupiter, when slighted, often joins a +good man in the same fate with a bad one. Seldom hath punishment, though +lame, of foot, failed to overtake the wicked.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE III.</p> + +<p>ON STEADINESS AND INTEGRITY.</p> + + +<p>Not the rage of the people pressing to hurtful measures, not the aspect +of a threatening tyrant can shake from his settled purpose the man who +is just and determined in his resolution; nor can the south wind, that +tumultuous ruler of the restless Adriatic, nor the mighty hand of +thundering Jove; if a crushed world should fall in upon him, the ruins +would strike him undismayed. By this character Pollux, by this the +wandering Hercules, arrived at the starry citadels; among whom Augustus +has now taken his place, and quaffs nectar with empurpled lips. Thee, O +Father Bacchus, meritorious for this virtue, thy tigers carried, drawing +the yoke with intractable neck; by this Romulus escaped Acheron on the +horses of Mars—Juno having spoken what the gods in full conclave +approve: "Troy, Troy, a fatal and lewd judge, and a foreign woman, have +reduced to ashes, condemned, with its inhabitants and fraudulent prince, +to me and the chaste Minerva, ever since Laomedon disappointed the gods +of the stipulated reward. Now neither the infamous guest of the +Lacedaemonian adulteress shines; nor does Priam's perjured family repel +the warlike Grecians by the aid of Hector, and that war, spun out to +such a length by our factions, has sunk to peace. Henceforth, therefore, +I will give up to Mars both my bitter resentment, and the detested +grandson, whom the Trojan princes bore. Him will I suffer to enter the +bright regions, to drink the juice of nectar, and to be enrolled among +the peaceful order of gods. As long as the extensive sea rages between +Troy and Rome, let them, exiles, reign happy in any other part of the +world: as long as cattle trample upon the tomb of Priam and Paris, and +wild beasts conceal their young ones there with impunity, may the +Capitol remain in splendor, and may brave Rome be able to give laws to +the conquered Medes. Tremendous let her extend her name abroad to the +extremest boundaries of the earth, where the middle ocean separates +Europe from Africa, where the swollen Nile waters the plains; more brave +in despising gold as yet undiscovered, and so best situated while hidden +in the earth, than in forcing it out for the uses of mankind, with a +hand ready to make depredations on everything that is sacred. Whatever +end of the world has made resistance, that let her reach with her arms, +joyfully alert to visit, even that part where fiery heats rage madding; +that where clouds and rains storm with unmoderated fury. But I pronounce +this fate to the warlike Romans, upon this condition; that neither +through an excess of piety, nor of confidence in their power, they +become inclined to rebuild the houses of their ancestors' Troy. The +fortune of Troy, reviving under unlucky auspices, shall be repeated with +lamentable destruction, I, the wife and sister of Jupiter, leading on +the victorious bands. Thrice, if a brazen wall should arise by means of +its founder Phoebus, thrice should it fall, demolished by my Grecians; +thrice should the captive wife bewail her husband and her children." +These themes ill suit the merry lyre. Whither, muse, are you +going?—Cease, impertinent, to relate the language of the gods, and to +debase great things by your trifling measures.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IV.</p> + +<p>TO CALLIOPE.</p> + + +<p>Descend from heaven, queen Calliope, and come sing with your pipe a +lengthened strain; or, if you had now rather, with your clear voice, or +on the harp or lute of Phoebus. Do ye hear? or does a pleasing frenzy +delude me? I seem to hear [her], and to wander [with her] along the +hallowed groves, through which pleasant rivulets and gales make their +way. Me, when a child, and fatigued with play, in sleep the woodland +doves, famous in story, covered with green leaves in the Apulian Vultur, +just without the limits of my native Apulia; so that it was matter of +wonder to all that inhabit the nest of lofty Acherontia, the Bantine +Forests, and the rich soil of low Ferentum, how I could sleep with my +body safe from deadly vipers and ravenous bears; how I could be covered +with sacred laurel and myrtle heaped together, though a child, not +animated without the [inspiration of the] gods. Yours, O ye muses, I am +yours, whether I am elevated to the Sabine heights; or whether the cool +Praeneste, or the sloping Tibur, or the watery Baiae have delighted me. +Me, who am attached to your fountains and dances, not the army put to +flight at Philippi, not the execrable tree, nor a Palinurus in the +Sicilian Sea has destroyed. While you shall be with me with pleasure +will I, a sailor, dare the raging Bosphorus; or, a traveler, the burning +sands of the Assyrian shore: I will visit the Britons inhuman to +strangers, and the Concanian delighted [with drinking] the blood of +horses; I will visit the quivered Geloni, and the Scythian river without +hurt. You entertained lofty Caesar, seeking to put an end to his toils, +in the Pierian grotto, as soon as he had distributed in towns his +troops, wearied by campaigning: you administer [to him] moderate +counsel, and graciously rejoice at it when administered. We are aware +how he, who rules the inactive earth and the stormy main, the cities +also, and the dreary realms [of hell], and alone governs with a +righteous sway both gods and the human multitude, how he took off the +impious Titans and the gigantic troop by his falling thunderbolts. That +horrid youth, trusting to the strength of their arms, and the brethren +proceeding to place Pelion upon shady Olympus, had brought great dread +[even] upon Jove. But what could Typhoeus, and the strong Mimas, or what +Porphyrion with his menacing statue; what Rhoetus, and Enceladus, a +fierce darter with trees uptorn, avail, though rushing violently against +the sounding shield of Pallas? At one part stood the eager Vulcan, at +another the matron Juno, and he, who is never desirous to lay aside his +bow from his shoulders, Apollo, the god of Delos and Patara, who bathes +his flowing hair in the pure dew of Castalia, and possesses the groves +of Lycia and his native wood. Force, void of conduct, falls by its own +weight; moreover, the gods promote discreet force to further advantage; +but the same beings detest forces, that meditate every kind of impiety. +The hundred-handed Gyges is an evidence of the sentiments I allege: and +Orion, the tempter of the spotless Diana, destroyed by a virgin dart. +The earth, heaped over her own monsters, grieves and laments her +offspring, sent to murky Hades by a thunderbolt; nor does the active +fire consume Aetna that is placed over it, nor does the vulture desert +the liver of incontinent Tityus, being stationed there as an avenger of +his baseness; and three hundred chains confine the amorous Pirithous.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE V.</p> + +<p>ON THE RECOVERY OF THE STANDARDS FROM PHRAATES.</p> + + +<p>We believe from his thundering that Jupiter has dominion in the heavens: +Augustus shall be esteemed a present deity the Britons and terrible +Parthians being added to the empire. What! has any soldier of Crassus +lived, a degraded husband with a barbarian wife? And has (O [corrupted] +senate, and degenerate morals!) the Marsian and Apulian, unmindful of +the sacred bucklers, of the [Roman] name and gown, and of eternal Vesta, +grown old in the lands of hostile fathers-in-law, Jupiter and the city +being in safety? The prudent mind of Regulus had provided against this, +dissenting from ignominious terms, and inferring from such a precedent +destruction to the succeeding age, if the captive youth were not to +perish unpitied. I have beheld, said he, the Roman standards affixed to +the Carthaginian temples, and their arms taken away from our soldiers +without bloodshed. I have beheld the arms of our citizens bound behind +their free-born backs, and the gates [of the enemy] unshut, and the +fields, which were depopulated by our battles, cultivated anew. The +soldier, to be sure, ransomed by gold, will return a braver +fellow!—No—you add loss to infamy; [for] neither does the wool once +stained by the dye of the sea-weed ever resume its lost color; nor does +genuine valor, when once it has failed, care to resume its place in +those who have degenerated through cowardice. If the hind, disentangled +from the thickset toils, ever fights, then indeed shall he be valorous, +who has intrusted himself to faithless foes; and he shall trample upon +the Carthaginians in a second war, who dastardly has felt the thongs +with his arms tied behind him, and has been afraid of death. He, knowing +no other way to preserve his life, has confounded peace with war. O +scandal! O mighty Carthage, elevated to a higher pitch by Italy's +disgraceful downfall! He <i>(Regulus)</i> is reported to have rejected the +embrace of his virtuous wife and his little sons like one degraded; and +to have sternly fixed his manly countenance on the ground, until, as an +adviser, by his counsel he confirmed the wavering senators, and amid his +weeping friends hastened away, a glorious exile. Notwithstanding he knew +what the barbarian executioner was providing for him, yet he pushed from +his opposing kindred and the populace retarding his return, in no other +manner, than if (after he had quitted the tedious business of his +clients, by determining their suit) he was only going to the Venafrian +plains, or the Lacedaemonian Tarentum.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VI.</p> + +<p>TO THE ROMANS.</p> + + +<p>Thou shalt atone, O Roman, for the sins of your ancestors, though +innocent, till you shall have repaired the temples and tottering shrines +of the gods, and their statues, defiled with sooty smoke. Thou boldest +sway, because thou bearest thyself subordinate to the gods; to this +source refer every undertaking; to this, every event. The gods, because +neglected, have inflicted many evils on calamitous Italy. Already has +Monaeses, and the band of Pacorus, twice repelled our inauspicious +attacks, and exults in having added the Roman spoils to their trivial +collars. The Dacian and Ethiopian have almost demolished the city +engaged in civil broils, the one formidable for his fleet, the other +more expert for missile arrows. The times, fertile in wickedness, have +in the first place polluted the marriage state, and [thence] the issue +and families. From this fountain perdition being derived, has +overwhelmed the nation and people. The marriageable virgin delights to +be taught the Ionic dances, and even at this time is trained up in +[seductive] arts, and cherishes unchaste desires from her very infancy. +Soon after she courts younger debauchees when her husband is in his +cups, nor has she any choice, to whom she shall privately grant her +forbidden pleasures when the lights are removed, but at the word of +command, openly, not without the knowledge of her husband, she will come +forth, whether it be a factor that calls for her, or the captain of a +Spanish ship, the extravagant purchaser of her disgrace. It was not a +youth born from parents like these, that stained the sea with +Carthaginian gore, and slew Pyrrhus, and mighty Antiochus, and terrific +Annibal; but a manly progeny of rustic soldiers, instructed to turn the +glebe with Sabine spades, and to carry clubs cut [out of the woods] at +the pleasure of a rigid mother, what time the sun shifted the shadows of +the mountains, and took the yokes from the wearied oxen, bringing on the +pleasant hour with his retreating chariot. What does not wasting time +destroy? The age of our fathers, worse than our grandsires, produced us +still more flagitious, us, who are about to product am offspring more +vicious [even than ourselves].</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VII.</p> + +<p>TO ASTERIE.</p> + + +<p>Why, O Asterie, do you weep for Gyges, a youth of inviolable constancy, +whom the kindly zephyrs will restore to you in the beginning of the +Spring, enriched with a Bithynian cargo? Driven as far as Oricum by the +southern winds, after [the rising] of the Goat's tempestuous +constellation, he sleepless passes the cold nights in abundant weeping +[for you]; but the agent of his anxious landlady slyly tempts him by a +thousand methods, informing him that [his mistress], Chloe, is sighing +for him, and burns with the same love that thou hast for him. He +remonstrates with him how a perfidious woman urged the credulous +Proetus, by false accusations, to hasten the death of the over-chaste +Bellerophon. He tells how Peleus was like to have been given up to the +infernal regions, while out of temperance he avoided the Magnesian +Hippolyte: and the deceiver quotes histories to him, that are lessons +for sinning. In vain; for, heart-whole as yet, he receives his words +deafer than the Icarian rocks. But with regard to you, have a care lest +your neighbor Enipeus prove too pleasing. Though no other person equally +skillful to guide the steed, is conspicuous in the course, nor does any +one with equal swiftness swim down the Etrurian stream, yet secure your +house at the very approach of night, nor look down into the streets at +the sound of the doleful pipe; and remain inflexible toward him, though +he often upbraid thee with cruelty.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VIII.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>O Maecenas, learned in both languages, you wonder what I, a single man, +have to do on the calends of March; what these flowers mean, and the +censer replete with frankincense, and the coals laid upon the live turf. +I made a vow of a joyous banquet, and a white goat to Bacchus, after +having been at the point of death by a blow from a tree. This day, +sacred in the revolving year, shall remove the cork fastened with pitch +from that jar, which was set to inhale the smoke in the consulship of +Tullus. Take, my Maecenas, a hundred cups on account of the safety of +your friend, and continue the wakeful lamps even to day-light: all +clamor and passion be far away. Postpone your political cares with +regard to the state: the army of the Dacian Cotison is defeated; the +troublesome Mede is quarreling with himself in a horrible [civil] war: +the Cantabrian, our old enemy on the Spanish coast, is subject to us, +though conquered by a long-disputed victory: now, too, the Scythians are +preparing to quit the field with their imbent bows. Neglectful, as a +private person, forbear to be too solicitous lest the community in any +wise suffer, and joyfully seize the boons of the present hour, and quit +serious affairs.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IX.</p> + +<p>TO LYDIA.</p> + + +<p>HORACE. As long as I was agreeable to thee, and no other youth more +favored was wont to fold his arms around thy snowy neck, I lived happier +than the Persian monarch.</p> + +<p>LYDIA. As long as thou hadst not a greater flame for any other, nor was +Lydia below Chloe [in thine affections], I Lydia, of distinguished fame, +flourished more eminent than the Roman Ilia.</p> + +<p>HOR. The Thracian Chloe now commands me, skillful in sweet modulations, +and a mistress of the lyre; for whom I would not dread to die, if the +fates would spare her, my surviving soul.</p> + +<p>LYD. Calais, the son of the Thurian Ornitus, inflames me with a mutual +fire; for whom I would twice endure to die, if the fates would spare my +surviving youth.</p> + +<p>HOR. What! if our former love returns, and unites by a brazen yoke us +once parted? What if Chloe with her golden locks be shaken off, and the +door again open to slighted Lydia.</p> + +<p>LYD. Though he is fairer than a star, thou of more levity than a cork, +and more passionate than the blustering Adriatic; with thee I should +love to live, with thee I would cheerfully die.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE X.</p> + +<p>TO LYCE.</p> + + +<p>O Lyce, had you drunk from the remote Tanais, in a state of marriage +with tome barbarian, yet you might be sorry to expose me, prostrate +before your obdurate doors, to the north winds that have made those +places their abode. Do you hear with what a noise your gate, with what +[a noise] the grove, planted about your elegant buildings, rebellows to +the winds? And how Jupiter glazes the settled snow with his bright +influence? Lay aside disdain, offensive to Venus, lest your rope should +run backward, while the wheel is revolving. Your Tyrrhenian father did +not beget you to be as inaccessible as Penelope to your wooers. O though +neither presents, nor prayers, nor the violet-tinctured paleness of your +lovers, nor your husband smitten with a musical courtezan, bend you to +pity; yet [at length] spare your suppliants, you that are not softer +than the sturdy oak, nor of a gentler disposition than the African +serpents. This side [of mine] will not always be able to endure your +threshold, and the rain.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XI.</p> + +<p>TO MERCURY.</p> + + +<p>O Mercury, for under thy instruction the ingenious Amphion moved rocks +by his voice, you being his tutor; and though my harp, skilled in +sounding, with seven strings, formerly neither vocal nor pleasing, but +now agreeable both to the tables of the wealthy and the temples [of the +gods]; dictate measures to which Lyde may incline her obstinate ears, +who, like a filly of three years old, plays and frisks about in the +spacious fields, inexperienced in nuptial loves, and hitherto unripe for +a brisk husband. You are able to draw after your tigers and attendant +woods, and to retard rapid rivers. To your blandishments the enormous +porter of the [infernal] palace yielded, though a hundred serpents +fortify his head, and a pestilential steam and an infectious poison +issue from his triple-tongued mouth. Moreover, Ixion and Tityus smiled +with a reluctant aspect: while you soothe the daughters of Danaus with +your delightful harmony, their vessel for some time remained dry. Let +Lyde hear of the crime, and the well-known punishment of the virgins, +and the cask emptied by the water streaming through the bottom, and what +lasting fates await their misdeeds even beyond the grave. Impious! (for +what greater impiety could they have committed?) Impious! who could +destroy their bridegrooms with the cruel sword! One out of the many, +worthy of the nuptial torch, was nobly false to her perjured parent, and +a maiden illustrious to all posterity; she, who said to her youthful +husband, "Arise! arise! lest an eternal sleep be given to you from a +hand you have no suspicion of; disappoint your father-in-law and my +wicked sisters, who, like lionesses having possessed themselves of +calves (alas)! tear each of them to pieces; I, of softer mold than they, +will neither strike thee, nor detain thee in my custody. Let my father +load me with cruel chains, because out of mercy I spared my unhappy +spouse; let him transport me even to the extreme Numidian plains. +Depart, whither your feet and the winds carry you, while the night and +Venus are favorable: depart with happy omen; yet, not forgetful of me, +engrave my mournful story on my tomb."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XII.</p> + +<p>TO NEOBULE.</p> + + +<p>It is for unhappy maidens neither to give indulgence to love, nor to +wash away cares with delicious wine; or to be dispirited out of dread of +the lashes of an uncle's tongue. The winged boy of Venus, O Neobule, has +deprived you of your spindle and your webs, and the beauty of Hebrus +from Lipara of inclination for the labors of industrious Minerva, after +he has bathed his anointed shoulders in the waters of the Tiber; a +better horseman than Bellerophon himself, neither conquered at boxing, +nor by want of swiftness in the race: he is also skilled to strike with +his javelin the stags, flying through the open plains in frightened +herd, and active to surprise the wild boar lurking in the deep thicket.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIII. TO THE BANDUSIAN FOUNTAIN.</p> + + +<p>O thou fountain of Bandusia, clearer than glass, worthy of delicious +wine, not unadorned by flowers; to-morrow thou shalt be presented with a +kid, whose forehead, pouting with new horns, determines upon both love +and war in vain; for this offspring of the wanton flock shall tinge thy +cooling streams with scarlet blood. The severe season of the burning +dog-star cannot reach thee; thou affordest a refreshing coolness to the +oxen fatigued with the plough-share, and to the ranging flock. Thou also +shalt become one of the famous fountains, through my celebrating the oak +that covers the hollow rock, whence thy prattling rills descend with a +bound.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIV.</p> + +<p>TO THE ROMANS.</p> + + +<p>Augustus Caesar, O ye people, who was lately said, like another +Hercules, to have sought for the laurel to be purchased only by death, +revisits his domestic gods, victorious from the Spanish shore. Let the +matron (<i>Livia</i>), to whom her husband alone is dear, come forth in +public procession, having first performed her duty to the just gods; and +(<i>Octavia</i>), the sister of our glorious general; the mothers also of the +maidens and of the youths just preserved from danger, becomingly adorned +with supplicatory fillets. Ye, O young men, and young women lately +married, abstain from ill-omened words. This day, to me a real festival, +shall expel gloomy cares: I will neither dread commotions, nor violent +death, while Caesar is in possession of the earth. Go, slave, and seek +for perfume and chaplets, and a cask that remembers the Marsian war, if +any vessel could elude the vagabond Spartacus. And bid the tuneful +Neaera make haste to collect into a knot her auburn hair; <i>but</i> if any +delay should happen from the surly porter, come away. Hoary hair +mollifies minds that are fond of strife and petulant wrangling. I would +not have endured this treatment, warm with youth in the consulship of +Plancus.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XV.</p> + +<p>TO CHLORIS.</p> + + +<p>You wife of the indigent Ibycus, at length put an end to your +wickedness, and your infamous practices. Cease to sport among the +damsels, and to diffuse a cloud among bright constellations, now on the +verge of a timely death. If any thing will become Pholoe, it does not +you Chloris, likewise. Your daughter with more propriety attacks the +young men's apartments, like a Bacchanalian roused up by the rattling +timbrel. The love of Nothus makes her frisk about like a wanton +she-goat. The wool shorn near the famous Luceria becomes you now +antiquated: not musical instruments, or the damask flower of the rose, +or hogsheads drunk down to the lees.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVI.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>A brazen tower, and doors of oak, and the melancholy watch of wakeful +dogs, had sufficiently defended the imprisoned Danae from midnight +gallants, had not Jupiter and Venus laughed at Acrisius, the anxious +keeper of the immured maiden: [for they well knew] that the way would be +safe and open, after the god had transformed himself into a bribe. Gold +delights to penetrate through the midst of guards, and to break through +stone-walls, more potent than the thunderbolt. The family of the Grecian +augur perished, immersed in destruction on account of lucre. The man of +Macedon cleft the gates of the cities and subverted rival monarchs by +bribery. Bribes enthrall fierce captains of ships. Care, and a thirst +for greater things, is the consequence of increasing wealth. Therefore, +Maecenas, thou glory of the [Roman] knights, I have justly dreaded to +raise the far-conspicuous head. As much more as any man shall deny +himself, so much more shall he receive from the gods. Naked as I am, I +seek the camps of those who covet nothing; and as a deserter, rejoice to +quit the side of the wealthy: a more illustrious possessor of a +contemptible fortune, than if I could be said to treasure up in my +granaries all that the industrious Apulian cultivates, poor amid +abundance of wealth. A rivulet of clear water, and a wood of a few +acres, and a certain prospect of my good crop, are blessings unknown to +him who glitters in the proconsulship of fertile Africa: I am more +happily circumstanced. Though neither the Calabrian bees produce honey, +nor wine ripens to age for me in a Formian cask, nor rich fleeces +increase in Gallic pastures; yet distressful poverty is remote; nor, if +I desired more, would you refuse to grant it me. I shall be better able +to extend my small revenues, by contracting my desires, than if I could +join the kingdom of Alyattes to the Phrygian plains. Much is wanting to +those who covet much. 'Tis well with him to whom God has given what is +necessary with a sparing hand.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVII.</p> + +<p>TO AELIUS LAMIA.</p> + + +<p>O Aelius, who art nobly descended from the ancient Lamus (forasmuch as +they report, that both the first of the Lamian family had their name +hence, and all the race of the descendants through faithful records +derives its origin from that founder, who is said to have possessed, as +prince, the Formian walls, and Liris gliding on the shores of Marica—an +extensive potentate). To-morrow a tempest sent from the east shall strew +the grove with many leaves, and the shore with useless sea-weed, unless +that old prophetess of rain, the raven, deceives me. Pile up the dry +wood, while you may; to-morrow you shall indulge your genius with wine, +and with a pig of two months old, with your slaves dismissed from their +labors.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVIII.</p> + +<p>TO FAUNUS.</p> + +<p>A HYMN.</p> + + +<p>O Faunus, thou lover of the flying nymphs, benignly traverse my borders +and sunny fields, and depart propitious to the young offspring of my +flocks; if a tender kid fall [a victim] to thee at the completion of the +year, and plenty of wines be not wanting to the goblet, the companion of +Venus, and the ancient altar smoke with liberal perfume. All the cattle +sport in the grassy plain, when the nones of December return to thee; +the village keeping holiday enjoys leisure in the fields, together with +the oxen free from toil. The wolf wanders among the fearless lambs; the +wood scatters its rural leaves for thee, and the laborer rejoices to +have beaten the hated ground in triple dance.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIX.</p> + +<p>TO TELEPHUS.</p> + + +<p>How far Codrus, who was not afraid to die for his country, is removed +from Inachus, and the race of Aeacus, and the battles also that were +fought at sacred Troy—[these subjects] you descant upon; but at what +price we may purchase a hogshead of Chian; who shall warm the water [for +bathing]; who finds a house: and at what hour I am to get rid of these +Pelignian colds, you are silent. Give me, boy, [a bumper] for the new +moon in an instant, give me one for midnight, and one for Murena the +augur. Let our goblets be mixed up with three or nine cups, according to +every one's disposition. The enraptured bard, who delights in the +odd-numbered muses, shall call for brimmers thrice three. Each of the +Graces, in conjunction with the naked sisters, fearful of broils, +prohibits upward of three. It is my pleasure to rave; why cease the +breathings of the Phrygian flute? Why is the pipe hung up with the +silent lyre? I hate your niggardly handfuls: strew roses freely. Let the +envious Lycus hear the jovial noise; and let our fair neighbor, +ill-suited to the old Lycus, [hear it.] The ripe Rhode aims at thee, +Telephus, smart with thy bushy locks; at thee, bright as the clear +evening star; the love of my Glycera slowly consumes me.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XX.</p> + +<p>TO PYRRHUS.</p> + + +<p>Do you not perceive, O Pyrrhus, at what hazard yon are taking away the +whelps from a Gutulian lioness? In a little while you, a timorous +ravisher, shall fly from the severe engagement, when she shall march +through the opposing band of youths, re-demanding her beauteous +Nearchus; a grand contest, whether a greater share of booty shall fall +to thee or to her! In the mean time, while you produce your swift +arrows, she whets her terrific teeth; while the umpire of the combat is +reported to have placed the palm under his naked foot, and refreshed his +shoulder, overspread with his perfumed locks, with the gentle breeze: +just such another was Nireus, or he that was ravished from the watery +Ida.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXI.</p> + +<p>TO HIS JAR.</p> + + +<p>O thou goodly cask, that wast brought to light at the same time with me +in the consulship of Manlius, whether thou containest the occasion of +complaint, or jest, or broils and maddening amours, or gentle sleep; +under whatever title thou preservest the choice Massic, worthy to be +removed on an auspicious day; descend, Corvinus bids me draw the +mellowest wine. He, though he is imbued in the Socratic lectures, will +not morosely reject thee. The virtue even of old Cato is recorded to +have been frequently warmed with wine. Thou appliest a gentle violence +to that disposition, which is in general of the rougher cast: Thou +revealest the cares and secret designs of the wise, by the assistance of +merry Bacchus. You restore hope and spirit to anxious minds, and give +horns to the poor man, who after [tasting] you neither dreads the +diadems of enraged monarchs, nor the weapons of the soldiers. Thee +Bacchus, and Venus, if she comes in good-humor, and the Graces loth to +dissolve the knot [of their union], and living lights shall prolong, +till returning Phoebus puts the stars to flight.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXII.</p> + +<p>TO DIANA.</p> + + +<p>O virgin, protectress of the mountains and the groves, thou three-formed +goddess, who thrice invoked, hearest young women in labor, and savest +them from death; sacred to thee be this pine that overshadows my villa, +which I, at the completion of every year, joyful will present with the +blood of a boar-pig, just meditating his oblique attack.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXIII.</p> + +<p>TO PHIDYLE.</p> + + +<p>My rustic Phidyle, if you raise your suppliant hands to heaven at the +new moon, and appease the household gods with frankincense, and this +year's fruits, and a ravening swine; the fertile vine shall neither +feel the pestilential south-west, nor the corn the barren blight, or +your dear brood the sickly season in the fruit-bearing autumn. For the +destined victim, which is pastured in the snowy Algidus among the oaks +and holm trees, or thrives in the Albanian meadows, with its throat +shall stain the axes of the priests. It is not required of you, who are +crowning our little gods with rosemary and the brittle myrtle, to +propitiate them with a great slaughter of sheep. If an innocent hand +touches a clear, a magnificent victim does not pacify the offended +Penates more acceptably, than a consecrated cake and crackling salt.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXIV.</p> + +<p>TO THE COVETOUS.</p> + + +<p>Though, more wealthy than the unrifled treasures of the Arabians and +rich India, you should possess yourself by your edifices of the whole +Tyrrhenian and Apulian seas; yet, if cruel fate fixes its adamantine +grapples upon the topmost roofs, you shall not disengage your mind from +dread, nor your life from the snares of death. The Scythians that dwell +in the plains, whose carts, according to their custom, draw their +vagrant habitations, live in a better manner; and [so do] the rough +Getae, whose uncircumscribed acres produce fruits and corn free to all, +nor is a longer than annual tillage agreeable, and a successor leaves +him who has accomplished his labor by an equal right. There the +guiltless wife spares her motherless step-children, nor does the +portioned spouse govern her husband, nor put any confidence in a sleek +adulterer. Their dower is the high virtue of their parents, and a +chastity reserved from any other man by a steadfast security; and it, is +forbidden to sin, or the reward is death. O if there be any one willing +to remove our impious slaughters, and civil rage; if he be desirous to +be written FATHER OF THE STATE, on statues [erected to him], let him +dare to curb insuperable licentiousness, and be eminent to posterity; +since we (O injustice!) detest virtue while living, but invidiously seek +for her after she is taken out of our view. To what purpose are our +woeful complaints, if sin is not cut off with punishment? Of what +efficacy are empty laws, without morals; if neither that part of the +world which is shut in by fervent heats, nor that side which borders +upon Boreas, and snows hardened upon the ground, keep off the merchant; +[and] the expert sailors get the better of the horrible seas? Poverty, a +great reproach, impels us both to do and to suffer any thing, and +deserts the path of difficult virtue. Let us, then, cast our gems and +precious stones and useless gold, the cause of extreme evil, either into +the Capitol, whither the acclamations and crowd of applauding [citizens] +call us, or into the adjoining ocean. If we are truly penitent for our +enormities, the very elements of depraved lust are to be erased, and the +minds of too soft a mold should be formed by severer studies. The noble +youth knows not how to keep his seat on horseback and is afraid to go a +hunting, more skilled to play (if you choose it) with the Grecian +trochus, or dice, prohibited by law; while the father's perjured faith +can deceive his partner and friend, and he hastens to get money for an +unworthy heir. In a word, iniquitous wealth increases, yet something is +ever wanting to the incomplete fortune.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXV.</p> + +<p>TO BACCHUS.</p> + +<p>A DITHYRAMBIC.</p> + + +<p>Whither, O Bacchus, art thou hurrying me, replete with your influence? +Into what groves, into what recesses am I driven, actuated with uncommon +spirit? In what caverns, meditating the immortal honor of illustrious +Caesar, shall I be heard enrolling him among the stars and the council +of Jove? I will utter something extraordinary, new, hitherto unsung by +any other voice. Thus the sleepless Bacchanal is struck with enthusiasm, +casting her eyes upon Hebrus, and Thrace bleached with snow, and Rhodope +traversed by the feet of barbarians. How am I delighted in my rambles, +to admire the rocks and the desert grove! O lord of the Naiads and the +Bacchanalian women, who are able with their hands to overthrow lofty +ash-trees; nothing little, nothing low, nothing mortal will I sing. +Charming is the hazard, O Bacchus, to accompany the god, who binds his +temples with the verdant vine-leaf.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXVI.</p> + +<p>TO VENUS.</p> + + +<p>I lately lived a proper person for girls, and campaigned it not without +honor; but now this wall, which guards the left side of [the statue] of +sea-born Venus, shall have my arms and my lyre discharged from warfare. +Here, here, deposit the shining flambeaux, and the wrenching irons, and +the bows, that threatened the resisting doors. O thou goddess, who +possessest the blissful Cyprus, and Memphis free from Sithonian snow, O +queen, give the haughty Chloe one cut with your high-raised lash.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXVII.</p> + +<p>TO GALATEA, UPON HER GOING TO SEA.</p> + + +<p>Let the omen of the noisy screech-owl and a pregnant bitch, or a tawny +wolf running down from the Lanuvian fields, or a fox with whelp conduct +the impious [on their way]; may the serpent also break their undertaken +journey, if, like an arrow athwart the road, it has frightened the +horses. What shall I, a provident augur, fear? I will invoke from the +east, with my prayers, the raven forboding by his croaking, before the +bird which presages impending showers, revisits the stagnant pools. +Mayest thou be happy, O Galatea, wheresoever thou choosest to reside, +and live mindful of me and neither the unlucky pye nor the vagrant crow +forbids your going on. But you see, with what an uproar the prone Orion +hastens on: I know what the dark bay of the Adriatic is, and in what +manner Iapyx, [seemingly] serene, is guilty. Let the wives and children +of our enemies feel the blind tumults of the rising south, and the +roaring of the blackened sea, and the shores trembling with its lash. +Thus too Europa trusted her fair side to the deceitful bull, and bold as +she was, turned pale at the sea abounding with monsters, and the cheat +now become manifest. She, who lately in the meadows was busied about +flowers, and a composer of the chaplet meet for nymphs, saw nothing in +the dusky night put stars and water. Who as soon as she arrived at +Crete, powerful with its hundred cities, cried out, overcome with rage, +"O father, name abandoned by thy daughter! O my duty! Whence, whither am +I come? One death is too little for virgins' crime. Am I awake, while I +deplore my base offense; or does some vain phantom, which, escaping from +the ivory gate, brings on a dream, impose upon me, still free from +guilt. Was it better to travel over the tedious waves, or to gather the +fresh flowers? If any one now would deliver up to me in my anger this +infamous bull, I would do my utmost to tear him to pieces with steel, +and break off the horns of the monster, lately so much beloved. +Abandoned I have left my father's house, abandoned I procrastinate my +doom. O if any of the gods hear this, I wish I may wander naked among +lions: before foul decay seizes my comely cheeks, and moisture leaves +this tender prey, I desire, in all my beauty, to be the food of tigers." +"Base Europa," thy absent father urges, "why do you hesitate to die? you +may strangle your neck suspended from this ash, with your girdle that +has commodiously attended you. Or if a precipice, and the rocks that are +edged with death, please you, come on, commit yourself to the rapid +storm; unless you, that are of blood-royal, had rather card your +mistress's wool, and be given up as a concubine to some barbarian dame." +As she complained, the treacherously-smiling Venus, and her son, with +his bow relaxed, drew near. Presently, when she had sufficiently rallied +her, "Refrain (she cried) from your rage and passionate chidings, since +this detested bull shall surrender his horns to be torn in pieces by +you. Are you ignorant, that you are the wife of the invincible Jove? +Cease your sobbing; learn duly to support your distinguished good +fortune. A division of the world shall bear your name."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXVIII.</p> + +<p>TO LYDE.</p> + + +<p>What can I do better on the festal day of Neptune? Quickly produce, +Lyde, the hoarded Caecuban, and make an attack upon wisdom, ever on her +guard. You perceive the noontide is on its decline; and yet, as if the +fleeting day stood still, you delay to bring out of the store-house the +loitering cask, [that bears its date] from the consul Bibulus. We will +sing by turns, Neptune, and the green locks of the Nereids; you, shall +chant, on your wreathed lyre, Latona and the darts of the nimble +Cynthia; at the conclusion of your song, she also [shall be celebrated], +who with her yoked swans visits Gnidos, and the shining Cyclades, and +Paphos: the night also shall be celebrated in a suitable lay.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXIX.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>O Maecenas, thou progeny of Tuscan kings, there has been a long while +for you in my house some mellow wine in an unbroached hogshead, with +rose-flowers and expressed essence for your hair. Disengage yourself +from anything that may retard you, nor contemplate the ever marshy +Tibur, and the sloping fields of Aesula, and the hills of Telegonus the +parricide. Leave abundance, which is the source of daintiness, and yon +pile of buildings approaching near the lofty clouds: cease to admire the +smoke, and opulence, and noise of flourishing Rome. A change is +frequently agreeable to the rich, and a cleanly meal in the little +cottage of the poor has smoothed an anxious brow without carpets or +purple. Now the bright father of Andromeda displays his hidden fire; now +Procyon rages, and the constellation of the ravening Lion, as the sun +brings round the thirsty season. Now the weary shepherd with his languid +flock seeks the shade, and the river, and the thickets of rough +Sylvanus; and the silent bank is free from the wandering winds. You +regard what constitution may suit the state, and are in an anxious dread +for Rome, what preparations the Seres and the Bactrians subject to +Cyrus, and the factious Tanais are making. A wise deity shrouds in +obscure darkness the events of the time to come, and smiles if a mortal +is solicitous beyond the law of nature. Be mindful to manage duly that +which is present. What remains goes on in the manner of the river, at +one time calmly gliding in the middle of its channel to the Tuscan Sea, +at another, rolling along corroded stones, and stumps of trees, forced +away, and cattle, and houses, not without the noise of mountains and +neighboring woods, when the merciless deluge enrages the peaceful +waters. That man is master of himself and shall live happy, who has it +in his power to say, "I have lived to-day: to-morrow let the Sire invest +the heaven, either with a black cloud, or with clear sunshine; +nevertheless, he shall not render ineffectual what is past, nor undo or +annihilate what the fleeting hour has once carried off. Fortune, happy +in the execution of her cruel office, and persisting to play her +insolent game, changes uncertain honors, indulgent now to me, by and by +to another. I praise her, while she abides by me. If she moves her fleet +wings, I resign what she has bestowed, and wrap myself up in my virtue, +and court honest poverty without a portion. It is no business of mine, +if the mast groan with the African storms, to have recourse to piteous +prayers, and to make a bargain with my vows, that my Cyprian and Syrian +merchandize may not add to the wealth of the insatiable sea. Then the +gale and the twin Pollux will carry me safe in the protection of a skiff +with two oars, through the tumultuous Aegean Sea."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXX.</p> + +<p>ON HIS OWN WORKS.</p> + + +<p>I have completed a monument more lasting than brass, and more sublime +than the regal elevation of pyramids, which neither the wasting shower, +the unavailing north wind, nor an innumerable succession of years, and +the flight of seasons, shall be able to demolish. I shall not wholly +die; but a great part of me shall escape Libitina. I shall continualy be +renewed in the praises of posterity, as long as the priest shall ascend +the Capitol with the silent [vestal] virgin. Where the rapid Aufidus +shall murmur, and where Daunus, poorly supplied with water, ruled over a +rustic people, I, exalted from a low degree, shall be acknowledged as +having originally adapted the Aeolic verse to Italian measures. +Melpomene, assume that pride which your merits have acquired, and +willingly crown my hair with the Delphic laurel.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_FOURTH_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE" id="THE_FOURTH_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE" />THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE.</h2> + + + +<p>ODE I.</p> + +<p>TO VENUS.</p> + + +<p>After a long cessation, O Venus, again are you stirring up tumults? +Spare me, I beseech you, I beseech you. I am not the man I was under the +dominion of good-natured Cynara. Forbear, O cruel mother of soft +desires, to bend one bordering upon fifty, now too hardened for soft +commands: go, whither the soothing prayers of youths, invoke you. More +seasonably may you revel in the house of Paulus Maximus, flying thither +with your splendid swans, if you seek to inflame a suitable breast. For +he is both noble and comely, and by no means silent in the cause of +distressed defendants, and a youth of a hundred accomplishments; he +shall bear the ensigns of your warfare far and wide; and whenever, more +prevailing than the ample presents of a rival, he shall laugh [at his +expense], he shall erect thee in marble under a citron dome near the +Alban lake. There you shall smell abundant frankincense, and shall be +charmed with the mixed music of the lyre and Berecynthian pipe, not +without the flageolet. There the youths, together with the tender +maidens, twice a day celebrating your divinity, shall, Salian-like, with +white foot thrice shake the ground. As for me, neither woman, nor youth, +nor the fond hopes of mutual inclination, nor to contend in wine, nor to +bind my temples with fresh flowers, delight me [any longer]. But why; +ah! why, Ligurinus, does the tear every now and then trickle down my +cheeks? Why does my fluent tongue falter between my words with an +unseemly silence? Thee in my dreams by night I clasp, caught [in my +arms]; thee flying across the turf of the Campus Martius; thee I pursue, +O cruel one, through the rolling waters.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE II.</p> + +<p>TO ANTONIUS IULUS.</p> + + +<p>Whoever endeavors, O Iulus, to rival Pindar, makes an effort on wings +fastened with wax by art Daedalean, about to communicate his name to the +glassy sea. Like a river pouring down from a mountain, which sudden +rains have increased beyond its accustomed banks, such the deep-mouthed +Pindar rages and rushes on immeasurable, sure to merit Apollo's laurel, +whether he rolls down new-formed phrases through the daring dithyrambic, +and is borne on in numbers exempt from rule: whether he sings the gods, +and kings, the offspring of the gods, by whom the Centaurs perished with +a just destruction, [by whom] was quenched the flame of the dreadful +Chimaera; or celebrates those whom the palm, [in the Olympic games] at +Elis, brings home exalted to the skies, wrestler or steed, and presents +them with a gift preferable to a hundred statues: or deplores some +youth, snatched [by death] from his mournful bride—he elevates both his +strength, and courage, and golden morals to the stars, and rescues him +from the murky grave. A copious gale elevates the Dircean swan, O +Antonius, as often as he soars into the lofty regions of the clouds: but +I, after the custom and manner of the Macinian bee, that laboriously +gathers the grateful thyme, I, a diminutive creature, compose elaborate +verses about the grove and the banks of the watery Tiber. You, a poet of +sublimer style, shall sing of Caesar, whenever, graceful in his +well-earned laurel, he shall drag the fierce Sygambri along the sacred +hill; Caesar, than whom nothing greater or better the fates and +indulgent gods ever bestowed on the earth, nor will bestow, though the +times should return to their primitive gold. You shall sing both the +festal days, and the public rejoicings on account of the prayed-for +return of the brave Augustus, and the forum free from law-suits. Then +(if I can offer any thing worth hearing) a considerable portion of my +voice shall join [the general acclamation], and I will sing, happy at +the reception of Caesar, "O glorious day, O worthy thou to be +celebrated." And while [the procession] moves along, shouts of triumph +we will repeat, shouts of triumph the whole city [will raise], and we +will offer frankincense to the indulgent gods. Thee ten bulls and as +many heifers shall absolve; me, a tender steerling, that, having left +his dam, thrives in spacious pastures for the discharge of my vows, +resembling [by the horns on] his forehead the curved light of the moon, +when she appears of three days old, in which part he has a mark of a +snowy aspect, being of a dun color over the rest of his body.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE III.</p> + +<p>TO MELPOMENE.</p> + + +<p>Him, O Melpomene, upon whom at his birth thou hast once looked with +favoring eye, the Isthmian contest shall not render eminent as a +wrestler; the swift horse shall not draw him triumphant in a Grecian +car; nor shall warlike achievement show him in the Capitol, a general +adorned with the Delian laurel, on account of his having quashed the +proud threats of kings: but such waters as flow through the fertile +Tiber, and the dense leaves of the groves, shall make him distinguished +by the Aeolian verse. The sons of Rome, the queen of cities, deign to +rank me among the amiable band of poets; and now I am less carped at by +the tooth of envy. O muse, regulating the harmony of the gilded shell! O +thou, who canst immediately bestow, if thou please, the notes of the +swan upon the mute fish! It is entirely by thy gift that I am marked +out, as the stringer of the Roman lyre, by the fingers of passengers; +that I breathe, and give pleasure (if I give pleasure), is yours.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IV</p> + +<p>THE PRAISE OF DRUSUS.</p> + + +<p>Like as the winged minister of thunder (to whom Jupiter, the sovereign +of the gods, has assigned the dominion over the fleeting birds, having +experienced his fidelity in the affair of the beauteous Ganymede), early +youth and hereditary vigor save impelled from his nest unknowing of +toil; and the vernal winds, the showers being now dispelled, taught him, +still timorous, unwonted enterprises: in a little while a violent +impulse dispatched him, as an enemy against the sheepfolds, now an +appetite for food and fight has impelled him upon the reluctant +serpents;—or as a she-goat, intent on rich pastures, has beheld a young +lion but just weaned from the udder of his tawny dam, ready to be +devoured by his newly-grown tooth: such did the Rhaeti and the Vindelici +behold Drusus carrying on the war under the Alps; whence this people +derived the custom, which has always prevailed among them, of arming +their right hands with the Amazonian ax, I have purposely omitted to +inquire: (neither is it possible to discover everything.) But those +troops, which had been for a long while and extensively victorious, +being subdued by the conduct of a youth, perceived what a disposition, +what a genius rightly educated under an auspicious roof, what the +fatherly affection of Augustus toward the young Neros, could effect. The +brave are generated by the brave and good; there is in steers, there is +in horses, the virtue of their sires; nor do the courageous eagles +procreate the unwarlike dove. But learning improves the innate force, +and good discipline confirms the mind: whenever morals are deficient, +vices disgrace what is naturally good. What thou owest, O Rome, to the +Neros, the river Metaurus is a witness, and the defeated Asdrubal, and +that day illustrious by the dispelling of darkness from Italy, and which +first smiled with benignant victory; when the terrible African rode +through the Latian cities, like a fire through the pitchy pines, or the +east wind through the Sicilian waves. After this the Roman youth +increased continually in successful exploits, and temples, laid waste by +the impious outrage of the Carthaginians, had the [statues of] their +gods set up again. And at length the perfidious Hannibal said; "We, like +stags, the prey of rapacious wolves, follow of our own accord those, +whom to deceive and escape is a signal triumph. That nation, which, +tossed in the Etrurian waves, bravely transported their gods, and sons, +and aged fathers, from the burned Troy to the Italian cities, like an +oak lopped by sturdy axes in Algidum abounding in dusky leaves, through +losses and through wounds derives strength and spirit from the very +steel. The Hydra did not with more vigor grow upon Hercules grieving to +be overcome, nor did the Colchians, or the Echionian Thebes, produce a +greater prodigy. Should you sink it in the depth, it will come out more +beautiful: should you contend with it, with great glory will it +overthrow the conqueror unhurt before, and will fight battles to be the +talk of wives. No longer can I send boasting messengers to Carthage: all +the hope and success of my name is fallen, is fallen by the death of +Asdrubal. There is nothing, but what the Claudian hands will perform; +which both Jupiter defends with his propitious divinity, and sagacious +precaution conducts through the sharp trials of war."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE V.</p> + +<p>TO AUGUSTUS.</p> + + +<p>O best guardian of the Roman people, born under propitious gods, already +art thou too long absent; after having promised a mature arrival to the +sacred council of the senators, return. Restore, O excellent chieftain, +the light to thy country; for, like the spring, wherever thy countenance +has shone, the day passes more agreeably for the people, and the sun has +a superior lustre. As a mother, with vows, omens, and prayers, calls for +her son (whom the south wind with adverse gales detains from his sweet +home, staying more than a year beyond the Carpathian Sea), nor turns +aside her looks from the curved shore; in like manner, inspired with +loyal wishes, his country seeks for Caesar. For, [under your auspices,] +the ox in safety traverses the meadows: Ceres nourishes the ground; and +abundant Prosperity: the sailors skim through the calm ocean: and Faith +is in dread of being censured. The chaste family is polluted by no +adulteries: morality and the law have got the better of that foul crime; +the child-bearing women are commended for an offspring resembling [the +father; and] punishment presses as a companion upon guilt. Who can fear +the Parthian? Who, the frozen Scythian? Who, the progeny that rough +Germany produces, while Caesar is in safety? Who cares for the war of +fierce Spain? Every man puts a period to the day amid his own hills, and +weds the vine to the widowed elm-trees; hence he returns joyful to his +wine, and invites you, as a deity, to his second course; thee, with many +a prayer, thee he pursues with wine poured out [in libation] from the +cups; and joins your divinity to that of his household gods, in the same +manner as Greece was mindful of Castor and the great Hercules. May you, +excellent chieftain, bestow a lasting festivity upon Italy! This is our +language, when we are sober at the early day; this is our language, when +we have well drunk, at the time the sun is beneath the ocean.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VI.</p> + +<p>HYMN TO APOLLO.</p> + + +<p>Thou god, whom the offspring of Niobe experienced as avenger of a +presumptuous tongue, and the ravisher Tityus, and also the Thessalian +Achilles, almost the conqueror of lofty Troy, a warrior superior to all +others, but unequal to thee; though, son of the sea-goddess, Thetis, he +shook the Dardanian towers, warring with his dreadful spear. He, as it +were a pine smitten with the burning ax, or a cypress prostrated by the +east wind, fell extended far, and reclined his neck in the Trojan dust. +He would not, by being shut up in a [wooden] horse, that belied the +sacred rights of Minerva, have surprised the Trojans reveling in an evil +hour, and the court of Priam making merry in the dance; but openly +inexorable to his captives, (oh impious! oh!) would have burned +speechless babes with Grecian fires, even him concealed in his mother's +womb: had not the father of the gods, prevailed upon by thy entreaties +and those of the beauteous Venus, granted to the affairs of Aeneas walls +founded under happier auspices. Thou lyrist Phoebus, tutor of the +harmonious Thalia, who bathest thy locks in the river Xanthus, O +delicate Agyieus, support the dignity of the Latian muse. Phoebus gave +me genius, Phoebus the art of composing verse, and the title of poet. Ye +virgins of the first distinction, and ye youths born of illustrious +parents, ye wards of the Delian goddess, who stops with her bow the +flying lynxes, and the stags, observe the Lesbian measure, and the +motion of my thumb; duly celebrating the son of Latona, duly +[celebrating] the goddess that enlightens the night with her shining +crescent, propitious to the fruits, and expeditious in rolling on the +precipitate months. Shortly a bride you will say: "I, skilled in the +measures of the poet Horace, recited an ode which was acceptable to the +gods, when the secular period brought back the festal days."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VII.</p> + +<p>TO TORQUATUS.</p> + + +<p>The snows are fled, the herbage now returns to the fields, and the +leaves to the trees. The earth changes its appearance, and the +decreasing rivers glide along their banks: the elder Grace, together +with the Nymphs, and her two sisters, ventures naked to lead off the +dance. That you are not to expect things permanent, the year, and the +hour that hurries away the agreeable day, admonish us. The colds are +mitigated by the zephyrs: the summer follows close upon the spring, +shortly to die itself, as soon as fruitful autumn shall have shed its +fruits: and anon sluggish winter returns again. Nevertheless the +quick-revolving moons repair their wanings in the skies; but when we +descend [to those regions] where pious Aeneas, where Tullus and the +wealthy Ancus [have gone before us], we become dust and a mere shade. +Who knows whether the gods above will add to this day's reckoning the +space of to-morrow? Every thing, which you shall indulge to your beloved +soul, will escape the greedy hands of your heir. When once, Torquatus, +you shall be dead, and Minos shall have made his awful decisions +concerning you; not your family, not you eloquence, not your piety shall +restore you. For neither can Diana free the chaste Hippolytus from +infernal darkness; nor is Theseus able to break off the Lethaean fetters +from his dear Piri thous.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VIII.</p> + +<p>TO MARCIUS CENSORINUS.</p> + + +<p>O Censorinus, liberally would I present my acquaintance with goblets and +beautiful vases of brass; I would present them with tripods, the rewards +of the brave Grecians: nor would you bear off the meanest of my +donations, if I were rich in those pieces of art, which either +Parrhasius or Scopas produced; the latter in statuary, the former in +liquid colors, eminent to portray at one time a man, at another a god. +But I have no store of this sort, nor do your circumstances or +inclination require any such curiosities as these. You delight in +verses: verses I can give, and set a value on the donation. Not marbles +engraved with public inscriptions, by means of which breath and life +returns to illustrious generals after their decease; not the precipitate +flight of Hannibal, and his menaces retorted upon his own head: not the +flames of impious Carthage * * * * more eminently set forth his praises, +who returned, having gained a name from conquered Africa, than the +Calabrlan muses; neither, should writings be silent, would you have any +reward for having done well. What would the son of Mars and Ilia be, if +invidious silence had stifled the merits of Romulus? The force, and +favor, and voice of powerful poets consecrate Aecus, snatched from the +Stygian floods, to the Fortunate Islands. The muse forbids a +praiseworthy man to die: the muse, confers the happiness of heaven. Thus +laborious Hercules has a place at the longed-for banquets of Jove: +[thus] the sons of Tyndarus, that bright constellation, rescue shattered +vessels from the bosom of the deep: [and thus] Bacchus, his temples +adorned with the verdant vine-branch, brings the prayers of his votaries +to successful issues.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IX.</p> + +<p>TO MARCUS LOLLIUS.</p> + + +<p>Lest you for a moment imagine that those words will be lost, which I, +born on the far-resounding Aufidus, utter to be accompanied with the +lyre, by arts hitherto undivulged—If Maeonian Homer possesses the first +rank, the Pindaric and Cean muses, and the menacing strains of Alcaeus, +and the majestic ones of Stesichorus, are by no means obscure: neither, +if Anacreon long ago sportfully sung any thing, has time destroyed it: +even now breathes the love and live the ardors of the Aeolian maid, +committed to her lyre. The Lacedaemonian Helen is not the only fair, who +has been inflamed by admiring the delicate ringlets of a gallant, and +garments embroidered with gold, and courtly accomplishments, and +retinue: nor was Teucer the first that leveled arrows from the Cydonian +bow: Troy was more than once harassed: the great Idomeneus and Sthenelus +were not the only heroes that fought battles worthy to be recorded by +the muses: the fierce Hector, or the strenuous Deiphobus were not the +first that received heavy blows in defense of virtuous wives and +children. Many brave men lived before Agamemnon: but all of them, +unlamented and unknown, are overwhelmed with endless obscurity, because +they were destitute of a sacred bard. Valor, uncelebrated, differs but +little from cowardice when in the grave. I will not [therefore], O +Lollius, pass you over in silence, uncelebrated in my writings, or +suffer envious forgetfulness with impunity to seize so many toils of +thine. You have a mind ever prudent in the conduct of affairs, and +steady alike amid success and trouble: you are an avenger of avaricious +fraud, and proof against money, that attracts every thing; and a consul +not of one year only, but as often as the good and upright magistrate +has preferred the honorable to the profitable, and has rejected with a +disdainful brow the bribes of wicked men, and triumphant through +opposing bands has displayed his arms. You can not with propriety call +him happy, that possesses much; he more justly claims the title of +happy, who understands how to make a wise use of the gifts of the gods, +and how to bear severe poverty; and dreads a reproachful deed worse than +death; such a man as this is not afraid to perish in the defense of his +dear friends, or of his country.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE X.</p> + +<p>TO LIGURINUS.</p> + + +<p>O cruel still, and potent in the endowments of beauty, when an +unexpected plume shall come upon your vanity, and those locks, which now +wanton on your shoulders, shall fall off, and that color, which is now +preferable to the blossom of the damask rose, changed, O Ligurinus, +shall turn into a wrinkled face; [then] will you say (as often as you +see yourself, [quite] another person in the looking glass), Alas! why +was not my present inclination the same, when I was young? Or why do not +my cheeks return, unimpaired, to these my present sentiments?</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XI.</p> + +<p>TO PHYLLIS.</p> + + +<p>Phyllis, I have a cask full of Abanian wine, upward of nine years old; I +have parsley in my garden, for the weaving of chaplets, I have a store +of ivy, with which, when you have bound your hair, you look so gay: the +house shines cheerfully With plate: the altar, bound with chaste +vervain, longs to be sprinkled [with the blood] of a sacrificed lamb: +all hands are busy: girls mingled with boys fly about from place to +place: the flames quiver, rolling on their summit the sooty smoke. But +yet, that you may know to what joys you are invited, the Ides are to be +celebrated by you, the day which divides April, the month of sea-born +Venus; [a day,] with reason to be solemnized by me, and almost more +sacred to me than that of my own birth; since from this day my dear +Maecenas reckons his flowing years. A rich and buxom girl hath possessed +herself of Telephus, a youth above your rank; and she holds him fast by +an agreeable fetter. Consumed Phaeton strikes terror into ambitious +hopes, and the winged Pegasus, not stomaching the earth-born rider +Bellerophon, affords a terrible example, that you ought always to pursue +things that are suitable to you, and that you should avoid a +disproportioned match, by thinking it a crime to entertain a hope beyond +what is allowable. Come then, thou last of my loves (for hereafter I +shall burn for no other woman), learn with me such measures, as thou +mayest recite with thy lovely voice: our gloomy cares shall be mitigated +with an ode.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XII.</p> + +<p>TO VIRGIL.</p> + + +<p>The Thracian breezes, attendants on the spring, which moderate the deep, +now fill the sails; now neither are the meadows stiff [with frost], nor +roar the rivers swollen with winter's snow. The unhappy bird, that +piteotisly bemoans Itys, and is the eternal disgrace of the house of +Cecrops (because she wickedly revenged the brutal lusts of kings), now +builds her nest. The keepers of the sheep play tunes upon the pipe amid +the tendar herbage, and delight that god, whom flocks and the shady +hills of Arcadia delight. The time of year, O Virgil, has brought on a +drought: but if you desire to quaff wine from the Calenian press, you, +that are a constant companion of young noblemen, must earn your liquor +by [bringing some] spikenard: a small box of spikenard shall draw out a +cask, which now lies in the Sulpician store-house, bounteous in the +indulgence of fresh hopes and efficacious in washing away the +bitterness of cares. To which joys if you hasten, come instantly with +your merchandize: I do not intend to dip you in my cups scot-free, like +a man of wealth, in a house abounding with plenty. But lay aside delay, +and the desire of gain; and, mindful of the gloomy [funeral] flames, +intermix, while you may, your grave studies with a little light gayety: +it is delightful to give a loose on a proper occasion.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIII.</p> + +<p>TO LYCE.</p> + + +<p>The gods have heard my prayers, O Lyce; Lyce, the gods have heard my +prayers, you are become an old woman, and yet you would fain seem a +beauty; and you wanton and drink in an audacious manner; and when drunk, +solicit tardy Cupid, with a quivering voice. He basks in the charming +cheeks of the blooming Chia, who is a proficient on the lyre. The +teasing urchin flies over blasted oaks, and starts back at the sight of +you, because foul teeth, because wrinkles and snowy hair render you +odious. Now neither Coan purples nor sparkling jewels restore those +years, which winged time has inserted in the public annals. Whither is +your beauty gone? Alas! or whither your bloom? Whither your graceful +deportment? What have you [remaining] of her, of her, who breathed +loves, and ravished me from myself? Happy next to Cynara, and +distinguished for an aspect of graceful ways: but the fates granted a +few years only to Cynara, intending to preserve for a long time Lyce, to +rival in years the aged raven: that the fervid young fellows might see, +not without excessive laughter, that torch, [which once so brightly +scorched,] reduced to ashes.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIV.</p> + +<p>TO AUGUSTUS.</p> + + +<p>What zeal of the senators, or what of the Roman people, by decreeing the +most ample honors, can eternize your virtues, O Augustus, by monumental +inscriptions and lasting records? O thou, wherever the sun illuminates +the habitable regions, greatest of princes, whom the Vindelici, that +never experienced the Roman sway, have lately learned how powerful thou +art in war! For Drusus, by means of your soldiery, has more than once +bravely overthrown the Genauni, an implacable race, and the rapid +Brenci, and the citadels situated on the tremendous Alps. The elder of +the Neros soon after fought a terrible battle, and, under your +propitious auspices, smote the ferocious Rhoeti: how worthy of +admiration in the field of battle, [to see] with what destruction he +oppressed the brave, hearts devoted to voluntary death: just as the +south wind harasses the untameable waves, when the dance of the Pleiades +cleaves the clouds; [so is he] strenuous to annoy the troops of the +enemy, and to drive his eager steed through the midst of flames. Thus +the bull-formed Aufidus, who washes the dominions of the Apulian Daunus, +rolls along, when he rages and meditates an horrible deluge to the +cultivated lands; when Claudius overthrew with impetuous might, the iron +ranks of the barbarians, and by mowing down both front and rear strewed +the ground, victorious without any loss; through you supplying them with +troops, you with councils, and your own guardian powers. For on that +day, when the suppliant Alexandria opened her ports, and deserted court, +fortune, propitious to you in the third lustrum, has put a happy period +to the war, and has ascribed praise and wished-for honor to the +victories already obtained. O thou dread guardian of Italy and imperial +Rome, thee the Spaniard, till now unconquered, and the Mede, and the +Indian, thee the vagrant Scythian admires; thee both the Nile, who +conceals his fountain heads, and the Danube; thee the rapid Tigris; thee +the monster-bearing ocean, that roars against the remote Britons; thee +the region of Gaul fearless of death, and that of hardy Iberia obeys; +thee the Sicambrians, who delight in slaughter, laying aside their arms, +revere.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XV.</p> + +<p>TO AUGUSTUS, ON THE RESTORATION OF PEACE.</p> + + +<p>Phoebus chid me, when I was meditating to sing of battles And conquered +cities on the lyre: that I might not set my little sails along the +Tyrrhenian Sea. Your age, O Caesar, has both restored plenteous crops +to the fields, and has brought back to our Jupiter the standards torn +from the proud pillars of the Parthians; and has shut up [the temple] of +Janus [founded by] Romulus, now free from war; and has imposed a due +discipline upon headstrong licentiousness, and has extirpated crimes, +and recalled the ancient arts; by which the Latin name and strength of +Italy have increased, and the fame and majesty of the empire is extended +from the sun's western bed to the east. While Caesar is guardian of +affairs, neither civil rage nor violence shall disturb tranquillity; nor +hatred which forges swords, and sets at variance unhappy states. Not +those, who drink of the deep Danube, shall now break the Julian edicts: +not the Getae, not the Seres, nor the perfidious Persians, nor those +born upon the river Tanais. And let us, both on common and festal days, +amid the gifts of joyous Bacchus, together with our wives and families, +having first duly invoked the gods, celebrate, after the manner of our +ancestors, with songs accompanied with Lydian pipes, our late valiant +commanders: and Troy, and Anchises, and the offspring of benign Venus.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_BOOK_OF_THE_EPODES_OF_HORACE" id="THE_BOOK_OF_THE_EPODES_OF_HORACE" />THE BOOK OF THE EPODES OF HORACE.</h2> + + + +<p>ODE I.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>Thou wilt go, my friend Maecenas, with Liburian galleys among the +towering forts of ships, ready at thine own [hazard] to undergo any of +Caesar's dangers. What shall I do? To whom life may be agreeable, if you +survive; but, if otherwise, burdensome. Whether shall I, at your +command, pursue my ease, which can not be pleasing unless in your +company? Or shall I endure this toil with such a courage, as becomes +effeminate men to bear? I will bear it? and with an intrepid soul follow +you, either through the summits of the Alps, and the inhospitable +Caucus, or to the furthest western bay. You may ask how I, unwarlike and +infirm, can assist your labors by mine? While I am your companion, I +shall be in less anxiety, which takes possession of the absent in a +greater measure. As the bird, that has unfledged young, is in a greater +dread of serpents' approaches, when they are left;—not that, if she +should be present when they came, she could render more help. Not only +this, but every other war, shall be cheerfully embraced by me for the +hope of your favor; [and this,] not that my plows should labor, yoked to +a greater number of mine own oxen; or that my cattle before the +scorching dog-star should change the Calabrian for the Lucanian +pastures: neither that my white country-box should equal the Circaean +walls of lofty Tusculum. Your generosity has enriched me enough, and +more than enough: I shall never wish to amass, what either, like the +miser Chremes, I may bury in the earth, or luxuriously squander, like a +prodigal.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE II.</p> + +<p>THE PRAISES OF A COUNTRY LIFE.</p> + + +<p>Happy the man, who, remote from business, after the manner of the +ancient race of mortals, cultivates his paternal lands with his own +oxen, disengaged from every kind of usury; he is neither alarmed by the +horrible trump, as a soldier, nor dreads he the angry sea; he shuns both +the bar and the proud portals of citizens in power. Wherefore he either +weds the lofty poplars to the mature branches of the vine; and, lopping +off the useless boughs with his pruning-knife, he ingrafts more fruitful +ones: or he takes a prospect of the herds of his lowing cattle, +wandering about in a lonely vale; or stores his honey, pressed [from the +combs], in clean vessels; or shears his tender sheep. Or, when autumn +has lifted up in the fields his head adorned with mellow fruits, how +does he rejoice, while he gathers the grafted pears, and the grape that +vies with the purple, with which he may recompense thee, O Priapus, and +thee, father Sylvanus, guardian of his boundaries! Sometimes he delights +to lie under an aged holm, sometimes on the matted grass: meanwhile the +waters glide along in their deep channels; the birds warble in the +woods; and the fountains murmur with their purling streams, which +invites gentle slumbers. But when the wintery season of the tempestuous +air prepares rains and snows, he either drives the fierce boars, with +many a dog, into the intercepting toils; or spreads his thin nets with +the smooth pole, as a snare for the voracious thrushes; or catches in +his gin the timorous hare, or that stranger the crane, pleasing rewards +[for his labor]. Among such joys as these, who does not forget those +mischievous anxieties, which are the property of love. But if a chaste +wife, assisting on her part [in the management] of the house, and +beloved children (such as is the Sabine, or the sun-burned spouse of the +industrious Apulian), piles up the sacred hearth with old wood, just at +the approach of her weary husband; and, shutting up the fruitful cattle +in the woven hurdles, milks dry their distended udders: and, drawing +this year's wine out of a well-seasoned cask, prepares the unbought +collation: not the Lucrine oysters could delight me more, nor the +turbot, nor the scar, should the tempestuous winter drive any from the +eastern floods to this sea: not the turkey, nor the Asiatic wild-fowl, +can come into my stomach more agreeably, than the olive gathered from +the richest branches from the trees, or the sorrel that loves the +meadows, or mallows salubrious for a sickly body, or a lamb slain at the +feast of Terminus, or a kid rescued from the wolf. Amid these dainties, +how it pleases one to see the well-fed sheep hastening home! to see the +weary oxen, with drooping neck, dragging the inverted ploughshare! and +slaves, the test of a rich family, ranged about the smiling household +gods! When Alfius, the usurer, now on the point of turning countryman, +had said this, he collected in all his money on the Ides; and endeavors +to put it out again at the Calends.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE III.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>If any person at any time with an impious hand has broken his aged +father's neck, let him eat garlic, more baneful than hemlock. Oh! the +hardy bowels of the mowers! What poison is this that rages in my +entrails? Has viper's blood, infused in these herbs, deceived me? Or has +Canidia dressed this baleful food? When Medea, beyond all the [other] +argonauts, admired their handsome leader, she anointed Jason with this, +as he was going to tie the untried yoke on the bulls: and having +revenged herself on [Jason's] mistress, by making her presents besmeared +with this, she flew away on her winged dragon. Never did the steaming +influence of any constellation so raging as this rest upon the thirsty +Appulia: neither did the gift [<i>of Dejanira</i>] burn hotter upon the +shoulders of laborious Hercules. But if ever, facetious Maecenas, you +should have a desire for any such stuff again, I wish that your girl may +oppose her hand to your kiss, and lie at the furthest part of the bed.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IV.</p> + +<p>TO MENAS.</p> + + +<p>As great an enmity as is allotted by nature to wolves and lambs, [so +great a one] have I to you, you that are galled at your back with +Spanish cords, and on your legs with the hard fetter. Though, +purse-proud with your riches, you strut along, yet fortune does not +alter your birth. Do you not observe while you are stalking along the +sacred way with a robe twice three ells long, how the most open +indignation of those that pass and repass turns their looks on thee? +This fellow, [say they,] cut with the triumvir's whips, even till the +beadle was sick of his office, plows a thousand acres of Falernian land, +and wears out the Appian road with his nags; and, in despite of Otho, +sits in the first rows [of the circus] as a knight of distinction. To +what purpose is it, that so many brazen-beaked ships of immense bulk +should be led out against pirates and a band of slaves, while this +fellow, this is a military tribune?</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE V.</p> + +<p>THE WITCHES MANGLING A BOY.</p> + + +<p>But oh, by all the gods in heaven, who rule the earth and human race, +what means this tumult? And what the hideous looks of all these [hags, +fixed] upon me alone? I conjure thee by thy children (if invoked Lucina +was ever present at any real birth of thine), I [conjure] thee by this +empty honor of my purple, by Jupiter, who must disapprove these +proceedings, why dost thou look at me as a step-mother, or as a wild +beast stricken with a dart? While the boy made these complaints with a +faltering voice, he stood with his bandages of distinction taken from +him, a tender frame, such as might soften the impious breasts of the +cruel Thracians; Canidia, having interwoven her hair and uncombed head +with little vipers, orders wild fig-trees torn up from graves, orders +funeral cypresses and eggs besmeared with the gore of a loathsome toad, +and feathers of the nocturnal screech-owl, and those herbs, which +lolchos, and Spain, fruitful in poisons, transmits, and bones snatched +from the mouth of a hungry bitch, to be burned in Colchian flames. But +Sagana, tucked up for expedition, sprinkling the waters of Avernus all +over the house, bristles up with her rough hair like a sea-urchin, or a +boar in the chase. Veia, deterred by no remorse of conscience, groaning +with the toil, dug up the ground with the sharp spade; where the boy, +fixed in, might long be tormented to death at the sight of food varied +two or three times in a day: while he stood out with his face, just as +much at bodies suspended by the chin [in swimming] project from the +water, that his parched marrow and dried liver might be a charm for +love; when once the pupils of his eyes had wasted away, fixed on the +forbidden food. Both the idle Naples, and every neighboring town +believed, that Folia of Ariminum, [a witch] of masculine lust, was not +absent: she, who with her Thessalian incantations forces the charmed +stars and the moon from heaven. Here the fell Canidia, gnawing her +unpaired thumb with her livid teeth, what said she? or what did she not +say? O ye faithful witnesses to my proceedings, Night and Diana, who +presidest over silence, when the secret rites are celebrated: now, now +be present, now turn your anger and power against the houses of our +enemies, while the savage wild beasts lie hid in the woods, dissolved in +sweet repose; let the dogs of Suburra (which may be matter of ridicule +for every body) bark at the aged profligate, bedaubed with ointment, +such as my hands never made any more exquisite. What is the matter? Why +are these compositions less efficacious than those of the barbarian +Medea? by means of which she made her escape, after having revenged +herself on [Jason's] haughty mistress, the daughter of the mighty Creon; +when the garment, a gift that was injected with venom, took off his new +bride by its inflammatory power. And yet no herb, nor root hidden in +inaccessible places, ever escaped my notice. [Nevertheless,] he sleeps +in the perfumed bed of every harlot, from his forgetfulness [of me]. Ah! +ah! he walks free [from my power] by the charms of some more knowing +witch. Varus, (oh you that will shortly have much to lament!) you shall +come back to me by means of unusual spells; nor shall you return to +yourself by all the power of Marsian enchantments, I will prepare a +stronger philter: I will pour in a stronger philter for you, disdainful +as you are; and the heaven shall subside below the sea, with the earth +extended over it, sooner than you shall not burn with love for me, in +the same manner as this pitch [burns] in the sooty flames. At these +words, the boy no longer [attempted], as before, to move the impious +hags by soothing expressions; but, doubtful in what manner he should +break silence, uttered Thyestean imprecations. Potions [said he] have a +great efficacy in confounding right and wrong, but are not able to +invert the condition of human nature; I will persecute you with curses; +and execrating detestation is not to be expiated by any victim. +Moreover, when doomed to death I shall have expired, I will attend you +as a nocturnal fury; and, a ghost, I will attack your faces with my +hooked talons (for such is the power of those divinities, the Manes), +and, brooding upon your restless breasts, I will deprive you of repose +by terror. The mob, from village to village, assaulting you on every +side with stones, shall demolish you filthy hags. Finally, the wolves +and Esquiline vultures shall scatter abroad your unburied limbs. Nor +shall this spectacle escape the observation of my parents, who, alas! +must survive me.</p> + + + +<p>ODE. VI.</p> + +<p>AGAINST CASSIUS SEVERUS.</p> + + +<p>O cur, thou coward against wolves, why dost thou persecute innocent +strangers? Why do you not, if you can, turn your empty yelpings hither, +and attack me, who will bite again? For, like a Molossian, or tawny +Laconian dog, that is a friendly assistant to shepherds, I will drive +with erected ears through the deep snows every brute that shall go +before me. You, when you have filled the grove with your fearful +barking, you smell at the food that is thrown to you. Have a care, have +a care; for, very bitter against bad men, I exert my ready horns uplift; +like him that was rejected as a son-in-law by the perfidious Lycambes, +or the sharp enemy of Bupalus. What, if any cur attack me with malignant +tooth, shall I, without revenge, blubber like a boy?</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VII.</p> + +<p>TO THE ROMAN PEOPLE.</p> + + +<p>Whither, whither, impious men are you rushing? Or why are the swords +drawn, that were [so lately] sheathed? Is there too little of Roman +blood spilled upon land and sea? [And this,] not that the Romans might +burn the proud towers of envious Carthage, or that the Britons, hitherto +unassailed, might go down the sacred way bound in chains: but that, +agreeably to the wishes of the Parthians, this city may fall by its own +might. This custom [of warfare] never obtained even among either wolves +or savage lions, unless against a different species. Does blind phrenzy, +or your superior valor, or some crime, hurry you on at this rate? Give +answer. They are silent: and wan paleness infects their countenances, +and their stricken souls are stupefied. This is the case: a cruel +fatality and the crime of fratricide have disquieted the Romans, from +that time when the blood of the innocent Remus, to be expiated by his +descendants, was spilled upon the earth.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VIII.</p> + +<p>UPON A WANTON OLD WOMAN.</p> + + +<p>Can you, grown rank with lengthened age, ask what unnerves my vigor? +When your teeth are black, and old age withers your brow with wrinkles: +and your back sinks between your staring hip-bones, like that of an +unhealthy cow. But, forsooth! your breast and your fallen chest, full +well resembling a broken-backed horse, provoke me; and a body flabby, +and feeble knees supported by swollen legs. May you be happy: and may +triumphal statues adorn your funeral procession; and may no matron +appear in public abounding with richer pearls. What follows, because the +Stoic treatises sometimes love to be on silken pillows? Are unlearned +constitutions the less robust? Or are their limbs less stout? But for +you to raise an appetite, in a stomach that is nice, it is necessary +that you exert every art of language.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IX.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>When, O happy Maecenas, shall I, overjoyed at Caesar's being victorious, +drink with you under the stately dome (for so it pleases Jove) the +Caecuban reserved for festal entertainments, while the lyre plays a +tune, accompanied with flutes, that in the Doric, these in the Phrygian +measure? As lately, when the Neptunian admiral, driven from the sea, +and his navy burned, fled, after having menaced those chains to Rome, +which, like a friend, he had taken off from perfidious slaves. The Roman +soldiers (alas! ye, our posterity, will deny the fact), enslaved to a +woman, carry palisadoes and arms, and can be subservient to haggard +eunuchs; and among the military standards, oh shame! the sun beholds an +[Egyptian] canopy. Indignant at this the Gauls turned two thousand of +their cavalry, proclaiming Caesar; and the ships of the hostile navy, +going off to the left, lie by in port. Hail, god of triumph! Dost thou +delay the golden chariots and untouched heifers? Hail, god of triumph! +You neither brought back a general equal [to Caesar] from the Jugurthine +war; nor from the African [war, him], whose valor raised him a monument +over Carthage. Our enemy, overthrown both by land and sea, has changed +his purple vestments for mourning. He either seeks Crete, famous for her +hundred cities, ready to sail with unfavorable winds; or the Syrtes, +harassed by the south; or else is driven by the uncertain sea. Bring +hither, boy, larger bowls, and the Chian or Lesbian wine; or, what may +correct this rising qualm of mine, fill me out the Caecuban. It is my +pleasure to dissipate care and anxiety for Caesar's danger with +delicious wine.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE X.</p> + +<p>AGAINST MAEVIUS.</p> + + +<p>The vessel that carries the loathsome Maevius, makes her departure under +an unlucky omen. Be mindful, O south wind, that you buffet it about with +horrible billows. May the gloomy east, turning up the sea, disperse its +cables and broken oars. Let the north arise as mighty as when be rives +the quivering oaks on the lofty mountains; nor let a friendly star +appear through the murky night, in which the baleful Orion sets: nor let +him be conveyed in a calmer sea, than was the Grecian band of +conquerors, when Pallas turned her rage from burned Troy to the ship of +impious Ajax. Oh what a sweat is coming upon your sailors, and what a +sallow paleness upon you, and that effeminate wailing, and those prayers +to unregarding Jupiter; when the Ionian bay, roaring with the +tempestuous south-west, shall break your keel. But if, extended along +the winding shore, you shall delight the cormorants as a dainty prey, a +lascivious he-goat and an ewe-lamb shall be sacrificed to the Tempests.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XI.</p> + +<p>TO PECTIUS.</p> + + +<p>It by no means, O Pectius, delights me as heretofore to write Lyric +verses, being smitten with cruel love: with love, who takes pleasure to +inflame me beyond others, either youths or maidens. This is the third +December that has shaken the [leafy] honors from the woods, since I +ceased to be mad for Inachia. Ah me! (for I am ashamed of so great a +misfortune) what a subject of talk was I throughout the city! I repent +too of the entertainments, at which both a languishing and silence and +sighs, heaved from the bottom of my breast, discovered the lover. As +soon as the indelicate god [Bacchus] by the glowing wine had removed, as +I grew warm, the secrets of [my heart] from their repository, I made my +complaints, lamenting to you, "Has the fairest genius of a poor man no +weight against wealthy lucre? Wherefore, if a generous indignation boil +in my breast, insomuch as to disperse to the winds these disagreeable +applications, that give no ease to the desperate wound; the shame [of +being overcome] ending, shall cease to contest with rivals of such a +sort." When I, with great gravity, had applauded these resolutions in +your presence, being ordered to go home, I was carried with a wandering +foot to posts, alas! to me not friendly, and alas! obdurate gates, +against which I bruised my loins and side. Now my affections for the +delicate Lyciscus engross all my time; from them neither the unreserved +admonitions, nor the serious reprehensions of other friends can recall +me [to my former taste for poetry]; but, perhaps, either a new flame for +some fair damsel, or for some graceful youth who binds his long hair in +a knot, [may do so].</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XII.</p> + +<p>TO A WOMAN WHOSE CHARMS WERE OVER.</p> + + +<p>What would you be at, you woman fitter for the swarthy monsters? Why do +you send tokens, why billet-doux to me, and not to some vigorous youth, +and of a taste not nice? For I am one who discerns a polypus, or fetid +ramminess, however concealed, more quickly than the keenest dog the +covert of the boar. What sweatiness, and how rank an odor every where +rises from her withered limbs! when she strives to lay her furious rage +with impossibilities; now she has no longer the advantage of moist +cosmetics, and her color appears as if stained with crocodile's ordure; +and now, in wild impetuosity, she tears her bed, bedding, and all she +has. She attacks even my loathings in the most angry terms:—"You are +always less dull with Inachia than me: in her company you are threefold +complaisance; but you are ever unprepared to oblige me in a single +instance. Lesbia, who first recommended you—so unfit a help in time of +need—may she come to an ill end! when Coan Amyntas paid me his +addresses; who is ever as constant in his fair one's service, as the +young tree to the hill it grows on. For whom were labored the fleeces of +the richest Tyrian dye? For you? Even so that there was not one in +company, among gentlemen of your own rank, whom his own wife admired +preferably to you: oh, unhappy me, whom you fly, as the lamb dreads the +fierce wolves, or the she-goats the lions!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIII.</p> + +<p>TO A FRIEND.</p> + + +<p>A horrible tempest has condensed the sky, and showers and snows bring +down the atmosphere: now the sea, now the woods bellow with the Thracian +North wind. Let us, my friends, take occasion from the day; and while +our knees are vigorous, and it becomes us, let old age with his +contracted forehead become smooth. Do you produce the wine, that was +pressed in the consulship of my Torquatus. Forbear to talk of any other +matters. The deity, perhaps, will reduce these [present evils], to your +former [happy] state by a propitious change. Now it is fitting both to +be bedewed with Persian perfume, and to relieve our breasts of dire +vexations by the lyre, sacred to Mercury. Like as the noble Centaur, +[Chiron,] sung to his mighty pupil: "Invincible mortal, son of the +goddess Thetis, the land of Assaracus awaits you, which the cold +currents of little Scamander and swift-gliding Simois divide: whence the +fatal sisters have broken off your return, by a thread that cannot be +altered: nor shall your azure mother convey you back to your home. There +[then] by wine and music, sweet consolations, drive away every symptom +of hideous melancholy."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIV.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>You kill me, my courteous Maecenas, by frequently inquiring, why a +soothing indolence has diffused as great a degree of forgetfulness on my +inmost senses, as if I had imbibed with a thirsty throat the cups that +bring on Lethean slumbers. For the god, the god prohibits me from +bringing to a conclusion the verses I promised [you, namely those] +iambics which I had begun. In the same manner they report that Anacreon +of Teios burned for the Samian Bathyllus; who often lamented his love to +an inaccurate measure on a hollow lyre. You are violently in love +yourself; but if a fairer flame did not burn besieged Troy, rejoice in +your lot. Phryne, a freed-woman, and not content with a single admirer, +consumes me.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XV.</p> + +<p>TO NEAERA.</p> + + +<p>It was night, and the moon shone in a serene sky among the lesser stars; +when you, about to violate the divinity of the great gods, swore [to be +true] to my requests, embracing me with your pliant arms more closely +than the lofty oak is clasped by the ivy; that while the wolf should +remain an enemy to the flock, and Orion, unpropitious to the sailors, +should trouble the wintery sea, and while the air should fan the +unshorn locks of Apollo, [so long you vowed] that this love should be +mutual. O Neaera, who shall one day greatly grieve on account of my +merit: for, if there is any thing of manhood in Horace, he will not +endure that you should dedicate your nights continually to another, whom +you prefer; and exasperated, he will look out for one who will return +his love; and though an unfeigned sorrow should take possession of you, +yet my firmness shall not give way to that beauty which has once given +me disgust. But as for you, whoever you be who are more successful [than +me], and now strut proud of my misfortune; though you be rich in flocks +and abundance of land, and Pactolus flow for you, nor the mysteries of +Pythagoras, born again, escape you, and you excel Nireus in beauty; +alas! you shall [hereafter] bewail her love transferred elsewhere; but I +shall laugh in my turn.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVI.</p> + +<p>TO THE ROMAN PEOPLE.</p> + + +<p>Now is another age worn away by civil wars, and Rome herself falls by +her own strength. Whom neither the bordering Marsi could destroy, nor +the Etrurian band of the menacing Porsena, nor the rival valor of Capua, +nor the bold Spartacus, and the Gauls perfideous with their innovations; +nor did the fierce Germany subdue with its blue-eyed youth, nor Annibal, +detested by parents; but we, an impious race, whose blood is devoted to +perdition, shall destroy her: and this land shall again be possessed by +wild beasts. The victorious barbarian, alas! shall trample upon the +ashes of the city, and the horsemen shall smite it with the sounding +hoofs; and (horrible to see!) he shall insultingly disperse the bones of +Romulus, which [as yet] are free from the injuries of wind and sun. +Perhaps you all in general, or the better part of you, are inquisitive +to know, what may be expedient, in order to escape [such] dreadful +evils. There can be no determination better than this; namely, to go +wherever our feet will carry us, wherever the south or boisterous +south-west shall summon us through the waves; in the same manner as the +state of the Phocaeans fled, after having uttered execrations [against +such as should return], and left their fields and proper dwellings and +temples to be inhabited by boars and ravenous wolves. Is this +agreeable? has any one a better scheme to advise? Why do we delay to go +on ship-board under an auspicious omen? But first let us swear to these +conditions—the stones shall swim upward, lifted from the bottom of the +sea, as soon as it shall not be impious to return; nor let it grieve us +to direct our sails homeward, when the Po shall wash the tops of the +Matinian summits; or the lofty Apennine shall remove into the sea, or a +miraculous appetite shall unite monsters by a strange kind of lust; +Insomuch that tigers may delight to couple with hinds, and the dove be +polluted with the kite; nor the simple herds may dread the brindled +lions, and the he-goat, grown smooth, may love the briny main. After +having sworn to these things, and whatever else may cut off the +pleasing: hope of returning, let us go, the whole city of us, or at +least that part which is superior to the illiterate mob: let the idle +and despairing part remain upon these inauspicious habitations. Ye, that +have bravery, away with effeminate grief, and fly beyond the Tuscan +shore. The ocean encircling the land awaits us; let us seek the happy +plains and prospering Islands, where the untilled land yearly produces +corn, and the unpruned vineyard punctually flourishes; and where the +branch of the never-failing olive blossoms forth, and the purple fig +adorns its native tree: honey distills from the hollow oaks; the light +water bounds down from the high mountains with a murmuring pace. There +the she-goats come to the milk-pails of their own accord, and the +friendly flock return with their udders distended; nor does the bear at +evening growl about the sheepfold, nor does the rising ground swell with +vipers; and many more things shall we, happy [Romans], view with +admiration: how neither the rainy east lays waste the corn-fields with +profuse showers, nor is the fertile seed burned by a dry glebe; the king +of gods moderating both [extremes]. The pine rowed by the Argonauts +never attempted to come hither; nor did the lascivious [Medea] of +Colchis set her foot [in this place]: hither the Sidonian mariners never +turned their sail-yards, nor the toiling crew of Ulysses. No contagious +distempers hurt the flocks; nor does the fiery violence of any +constellation scorch the herd. Jupiter set apart these shores for a +pious people, when he debased the golden age with brass: with brass, +then with iron he hardened the ages; from which there shall be a happy +escape for the good, according to my predictions.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVII.</p> + +<p>DIALOGUE BETWEEN HORACE AND CANIDIA.</p> + + +<p>Now, now I yield to powerful science; and suppliant beseech thee by the +dominions of Proserpine, and by the inflexible divinity of Diana, and by +the books of incantations able to call down the stars displaced from the +firmament; O Canidia, at length desist from thine imprecations, and +quickly turn, turn back thy magical machine. Telephus moved [with +compassion] the grandson of Nereus, against whom he arrogantly had put +his troops of Mysians in battle-array, and against whom he had darted +his sharp javelins. The Trojan matrons embalmed the body of the +man-slaying Hector, which had been condemned to birds of prey, and dogs, +after king [Priam], having left the walls of the city, prostrated +himself, alas! at the feet of the obstinate Achilles. The mariners of +the indefatigable Ulysses, put off their limbs, bristled with the hard +skins [of swine], at the will of Circe: then their reason and voice were +restored, and their former comeliness to their countenances. I have +suffered punishment enough, and more than enough, on thy account, O thou +so dearly beloved by the sailors and factors. My vigor is gone away, and +my ruddy complexion has left me; my bones are covered with a ghastly +skin; my hair with your preparations is grown hoary. No ease respites me +from my sufferings: night presses upon day, and day upon night: nor is +it in my power to relieve my lungs, which are strained with gasping. +Wherefore, wretch that I am, I am compelled to credit (what was denied, +by me) that the charms of the Samnites discompose the breast, and the +head splits in sunder at the Marsian incantations. What wouldst thou +have more? O sea! O earth! I burn in such a degree as neither Hercules +did, besmeared with the black gore of Nessus, nor the fervid flame +burning In the Sicilian Aetna. Yet you, a laboratory of Colchian +poisons, remain on fire, till I [reduced to] a dry ember, shall be +wafted away by the injurious winds. What event, or what penalty awaits +me? Speak out: I will with honor pay the demanded mulct; ready to make +an expiation, whether you should require a hundred steers, or chose to +be celebrated on a lying lyre. You, a woman of modesty, you, a woman of +probity, shall traverse the stars, as a golden constellation. Castor and +the brother of the great Castor, offended at the infamy brought on +[their sister] Helen, yet overcome by entreaty, restored to the poet his +eyes that were taken away from him. And do you (for it is in your power) +extricate me from this frenzy; O you, that are neither defiled by family +meanness, nor skillful to disperse the ashes of poor people, after they +have been nine days interred. You have an hospitable breast, and +unpolluted hands; and Pactumeius is your son, and thee the midwife has +tended; and, whenever you bring forth, you spring up with unabated +vigor.</p> + + + +<p>CANIDIA'S ANSWER.</p> + + +<p>Why do you pour forth your entreaties to ears that are closely shut +[against them]? The wintery ocean, with its briny tempests, does not +lash rocks more deaf to the cries of the naked mariners. What, shall +you, without being made an example of, deride the Cotyttian mysteries, +sacred to unrestrained love, which were divulged [by you]? And shall +you, [assuming the office] of Pontiff [with regard to my] Esquilian +incantations, fill the city with my name unpunished? What did it avail +me to have enriched the Palignian sorceress [with my charms], and to +have prepared poison of greater expedition, if a slower fate awaits you +than is agreeable to my wishes? An irksome life shall be protracted by +you, wretch as you are, for this purpose, that you may perpetually be +able to endure new tortures. Tantalus, the perfidious sire of Pelops, +ever craving after the plenteous banquet [which is always before him], +wishes for respite; Prometheus, chained to the vulture, wishes [for +rest]; Sisyphus wishes to place the stone on the summit of the mountain: +but the laws of Jupiter forbid. Thus you shall desire at one time to +leap down from a high tower, at another to lay open your breast with the +Noric sword; and, grieving with your tedious indisposition, shall tie +nooses about your neck in vain. I at that time will ride on your odious +shoulders; and the whole earth shall acknowledge my unexampled power. +What shall I who can give motion to waxen images (as you yourself, +inquisitive as you are, were convinced of) and snatch the moon from +heaven by my incantations; I, who can raise the dead after they are +burned, and duly prepare the potion of love, shall I bewail the event of +my art having no efficacy upon you?</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>THE SECULAR POEM OF HORACE.</p> + +<p>TO APOLLO AND DIANA.</p> + + +<p>Phoebus, and thou Diana, sovereign of the woods, ye illustrious +ornaments of the heavens, oh ever worthy of adoration, and ever adored, +bestow what we pray for at this sacred season: at which the Sibylline +verses have given directions, that select virgins and chaste youths +should sing a hymn to the deities, to whom the seven hills [of Rome] are +acceptable. O genial sun, who in your splendid car draw forth and +obscure the day, and who arise another and the same, may it never be in +your power to behold anything more glorious than the city of Rome! O +Ilithyia, of lenient power to produce the timely birth, protect the +matrons [in labor]; whether you choose the title of Lucina, or +Genitalis. O goddess multiply our offspring; and prosper the decrees of +the senate in relation to the joining of women in wedlock, and the +matrimonial law about to teem with a new race; that the stated +revolution of a hundred and ten years may bring back the hymns and the +games, three times by bright daylight restored to in crowds, and as +often in the welcome night. And you, ye fatal sisters, infallible in +having predicted what is established, and what the settled order of +things preserves, add propitious fates to those already past. Let the +earth, fertile in fruits and flocks, present Ceres with a sheafy crown; +may both salubrious rains and Jove's air cherish the young blood! +Apollo, mild and gentle with your sheathed arrows, hear the suppliant +youths: O moon, thou horned queen of stars, hear the virgins. If Rome be +your work, and the Trojan troops arrived on the Tuscan shore (the part, +commanded [by your oracles] to change their homes and city) by a +successful navigation: for whom pious Aeneas, surviving his country, +secured a free passage through Troy, burning not by his treachery, about +to give them more ample possessions than those that were left behind. O +ye deities, grant to the tractable youth probity of manners; to old age, +ye deities, grant a pleasing retirement; to the Roman people, wealth, +and progeny, and every kind of glory. And may the illustrious issue of +Anchises and Venus, who worships you with [offerings of] white bulls, +reign superior to the warring enemy, merciful to the prostrate. Now the +Parthian, by sea and land, dreads our powerful forces and the Roman +axes: now the Scythians beg [to know] our commands, and the Indians but +lately so arrogant. Now truth, and peace, and honor, and ancient +modesty, and neglected virtue dare to return, and happy plenty appears, +with her horn full to the brim. Phoebus, the god of augury, and +conspicuous for his shining bow, and dear to the nine muses, who by his +salutary art soothes the wearied limbs of the body; if he, propitious, +surveys the Palatine altars—may he prolong the Roman affairs, and the +happy state of Italy to another lustrum, and to an improving age. And +may Diana, who possesses Mount Aventine and Algidus, regard the prayers +of the Quindecemvirs, and lend a gracious ear to the supplications of +the youths. We, the choir taught to sing the praises of Phoebus and +Diana, bear home with us a good and certain hope, that Jupiter, and all +the other gods, are sensible of these our supplications.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_SATIRES_OF_HORACE" id="THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_SATIRES_OF_HORACE" />THE FIRST BOOK OF THE SATIRES OF HORACE.</h2> + + + +<p>SATIRE I.</p> + +<p><i>That all, but especially the covetous, think their own condition the +hardest</i>.</p> + + +<p>How comes it to pass, Maecenas, that no one lives content with his +condition, whether reason gave it him, or chance threw it in his way +[but] praises those who follow different pursuits? "O happy merchants!" +says the soldier, oppressed with years, and now broken down in his limbs +through excess of labor. On the other side, the merchant, when the south +winds toss his ship [cries], "Warfare is preferable;" for why? the +engagement is begun, and in an instant there comes a speedy death or a +joyful victory. The lawyer praises the farmer's state when the client +knocks at his door by cock-crow. He who, having entered into a +recognizance, is dragged from the country into the city, cries, "Those +only are happy who live in the city." The other instances of this kind +(they are so numerous) would weary out the loquacious Fabius; not to +keep you in suspense, hear to what an issue I will bring the matter. If +any god should say, "Lo! I will effect what you desire: you, that were +just now a soldier, shall be a merchant; you, lately a lawyer [shall be] +a farmer. Do ye depart one way, and ye another, having exchanged the +parts [you are to act] in life. How now! why do you stand?" They are +unwilling; and yet it is in their power to be happy. What reason can be +assigned, but that Jupiter should deservedly distend both his cheeks in +indignation, and declare that for the future he will not be so indulgent +as to lend an ear to their prayers? But further, that I may not run over +this in a laughing manner, like those [who treat] on ludicrous subjects +(though what hinders one being merry, while telling the truth? as +good-natured teachers at first give cakes to their boys, that they may +be willing to learn their first rudiments: railery, however, apart, let +us investigate serious matters). He that turns the heavy glebe with the +hard ploughshare, this fraudulent tavern-keeper, the soldier, and the +sailors, who dauntless run through every sea, profess that they endure +toil with this intention, that as old men they may retire into a secure +resting place, when once they have gotten together a sufficient +provision.</p> + +<p>Thus the little ant (for she is an example), of great industry, carries +in her mouth whatever she is able, and adds to the heap which she piles +up, by no means ignorant and not careless for the future. Which [ant, +nevertheless], as soon, as Aquarius saddens the changed year, never +creeps abroad, but wisely makes use of those stores which were provided +beforehand: while neither sultry summer, nor winter, fire, ocean, sword, +can drive you from gain. You surmount every obstacle, that no other man +may be richer than yourself. What pleasure is it for you, trembling to +deposit an immense weight of silver and gold in the earth dug up by +stealth? Because if you lessen it, it may be reduced to a paltry +farthing.</p> + +<p>But unless that be the case, what beauty has an accumulated hoard? +Though your thrashing-floor should yield a hundred thousand bushels of +corn, your belly will not on that account contain more than mine: just +as if it were your lot to carry on your loaded shoulder the basket of +bread among slaves, you would receive no more [for your own share] than +he who bore no part of the burthen. Or tell me, what is it to the +purpose of that man, who lives within the compass of nature, whether he +plow a hundred or a thousand acres?</p> + +<p>"But it is still delightful to take out of a great hoard."</p> + +<p>While you leave us to take as much out of a moderate store, why should +you extol your granaries, more than our corn-baskets? As if you had +occasion for no more than a pitcher or glass of water, and should say, +"I had rather draw [so much] from a great river, than the very same +quantity from this little fountain." Hence it comes to pass, that the +rapid Aufidus carries away, together with the bank, such men as an +abundance more copious than what is just delights. But he who desires +only so much as is sufficient, neither drinks water fouled with the mud, +nor loses his life in the waves.</p> + +<p>But a great majority of mankind, misled by a wrong desire cry, "No sum +is enough; because you are esteemed in proportion to what you possess." +What can one do to such a tribe as this? Why, bid them be wretched, +since their inclination prompts them to it. As a certain person is +recorded [to have lived] at Athens, covetous and rich, who was wont to +despise the talk of the people in this manner: "The crowd hiss me; but I +applaud myself at home, as soon as I contemplate my money in my chest." +The thirsty Tantalus catches at the streams, which elude his lips. Why +do you laugh? The name changed, the tale is told of you. You sleep upon +your bags, heaped up on every side, gaping over them, and are obliged to +abstain from them, as if they were consecrated things, or to amuse +yourself with them as you would with pictures. Are you ignorant of what +value money has, what use it can afford? Bread, herbs, a bottle of wine +may be purchased; to which [necessaries], add [such others], as, being +withheld, human nature would be uneasy with itself. What, to watch half +dead with terror, night and day, to dread profligate thieves, fire, and +your slaves, lest they should run away and plunder you; is this +delightful? I should always wish to be very poor in possessions held +upon these terms.</p> + +<p>But if your body should be disordered by being seized with a cold, or +any other casualty should confine you to your bed, have you one that +will abide by you, prepare medicines, entreat the physician that he +would set you upon your feet, and restore you to your children and dear +relations?</p> + +<p>Neither your wife, nor your son, desires your recovery; all your +neighbors, acquaintances, [nay the very] boys and girls hate you. Do you +wonder that no one tenders you the affection which you do not merit, +since you prefer your money to everything else? If you think to retain, +and preserve as friends, the relations which nature gives you, without +taking any pains; wretch that you are, you lose your labor equally, as +if any one should train an ass to be obedient to the rein, and run in +the Campus [Martius]. Finally, let there be some end to your search; +and, as your riches increase, be in less dread of poverty; and begin to +cease from your toil, that being acquired which you coveted: nor do as +did one Umidius (it is no tedious story), who was so rich that he +measured his money, so sordid that he never clothed him self any better +than a slave; and, even to his last moments, was in dread lest want of +bread should oppress him: but his freed-woman, the bravest of all the +daughters of Tyndarus, cut him in two with a hatchet.</p> + +<p>"What therefore do you persuade me to? That I should lead the life of +Naevius, or in such a manner as a Nomentanus?"</p> + +<p>You are going [now] to make things tally, that are contradictory in +their natures. When I bid you not be a miser, I do not order you to +become a debauchee or a prodigal. There is some difference between the +case of Tanais and his son-in-law Visellius, there is a mean in things; +finally, there are certain boundaries, on either side of which moral +rectitude can not exist. I return now whence I digressed. Does no one, +after the miser's example, like his own station, but rather praise those +who have different pursuits; and pines, because his neighbor's she-goat +bears a more distended udder: nor considers himself in relation to the +greater multitude of poor; but labors to surpass, first one and then +another? Thus the richer man is always an obstacle to one that is +hastening [to be rich]: as when the courser whirls along the chariot +dismissed from the place of starting; the charioteer presses upon those +horses which outstrip his own, despising him that is left behind coming +on among the last. Hence it is, that we rarely find a man who can say he +has lived happy, and content with his past life, can retire from the +world like a satisfied guest. Enough for the present: nor will I add one +word more, lest you should suspect that I have plundered the escrutoire +of the blear-eyed Crispinus.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE II.</p> + +<p><i>Bad men, when they avoid certain vices, fall into their opposite +extremes.</i></p> + + +<p>The tribes of female flute-players, quacks, vagrants, mimics, +blackguards; all this set is sorrowful and dejected on account of the +death of the singer Tigellius; for he was liberal [toward them]. On the +other hand, this man, dreading to be called a spendthrift, will not give +a poor friend wherewithal to keep off cold and pinching hunger. If you +ask him why he wickedly consumes the noble estate of his grandfather and +father in tasteless gluttony, buying with borrowed money all sorts of +dainties; he answers, because he is unwilling to be reckoned sordid, or +of a mean spirit: he is praised by some, condemned by others. Fufidius, +wealthy in lands, wealthy in money put out at interest, is afraid of +having the character of a rake and spendthrift. This fellow deducts 5 +per cent. Interest from the principal [at the time of lending]; and, the +more desperate in his circumstances any one is, the more severely be +pinches him: he hunts out the names of young fellows that have just put +on the toga virilis under rigid fathers. Who does not cry out, O +sovereign Jupiter! when he has heard [of such knavery]? But [you will +say, perhaps,] this man expends upon himself in proportion to his gain. +You can hardly believe how little a friend he is to himself: insomuch +that the father, whom Terence's comedy introduces as living miserable +after he had caused his son to run away from him, did not torment +himself worse than he. Now if any one should ask, "To what does this +matter tend?" To this: while fools shun [one sort of] vices, they fall +upon their opposite extremes. Malthinus walks with his garments trailing +upon the ground; there is another droll fellow who [goes] with them +tucked up even to his middle; Rufillus smells like perfume itself, +Gorgonius like a he-goat. There is no mean. There are some who would not +keep company with a lady, unless her modest garment perfectly conceal +her feet. Another, again, will only have such as take their station in a +filthy brothel. When a certain noted spark came out of a stew, the +divine Cato [greeted] him with this sentence: "Proceed (says he) in your +virtuous course. For, when once foul lust has inflamed the veins, it is +right for young fellows to come hither, in comparison of their meddling +with other men's wives." I should not be willing to be commended on such +terms, says Cupiennius, an admirer of the silken vail.</p> + +<p>Ye, that do not wish well to the proceedings of adulterers, it is worth +your while to hear how they are hampered on all sides; and that their +pleasure, which happens to them but seldom, is interrupted with a great +deal of pain, and often in the midst of very great dangers. One has +thrown himself headlong from the top of a house; another has been +whipped almost to death: a third, in his flight, has fallen into a +merciless gang of thieves: another has paid a fine, [to avoid] corporal +[punishment]: the lowest servants have treated another with the vilest +indignities. Moreover, this misfortune happened to a certain person, he +entirely lost his manhood. Every body said, it was with justice: Galba +denied it.</p> + +<p>But how much safer is the traffic among [women] of the second rate! I +mean the freed-women: after which Sallustius is not less mad, than he +who commits adultery. But if he had a mind to be good and generous, as +far as his estate and reason would direct him, and as far as a man might +be liberal with moderation; he would give a sufficiency, not what would +bring upon himself ruin and infamy. However, he hugs himself in this one +[consideration]; this he delights in, this he extols: "I meddle with no +matron." Just as Marsaeus, the lover of Origo, he who gives his paternal +estate and seat to an actress, says, "I never meddle with other men's +wives." But you have with actresses, you have with common strumpets: +whence your reputation derives a greater perdition, than your estate. +What, is it abundantly sufficient to avoid the person, and not the +[vice] which is universally noxious? To lose one's good name, to +squander a father's effects, is in all cases an evil. What is the +difference [then, with regard to yourself,] whether you sin with the +person of a matron, a maiden, or a prostitute?</p> + +<p>Villius, the son-in-law of Sylla (by this title alone he was misled), +suffered [for his commerce] with Fausta, an adequate and more than +adequate punishment, by being drubbed and stabbed, while he was shut +out, that Longarenus might enjoy her within. Suppose this [young man's] +mind had addressed him in the words of his appetite, perceiving such +evil consequences: "What would you have? Did I ever, when my ardor was +at the highest, demand a woman descended from a great consul, and +covered with robes of quality?" What could he answer? Why, "the girl was +sprung from an illustrious father." But how much better things, and how +different from this, does nature, abounding in stores of her own, +recommend; if you would only make a proper use of them, and not confound +what is to be avoided with that which is desirable! Do you think it is +of no consequence, whether your distresses arise from your own fault or +from [a real deficiency] of things? Wherefore, that you may not repent +[when it is too late], put a stop to your pursuit after matrons; whence +more trouble is derived, than you can obtain of enjoyment from success. +Nor has [this particular matron], amid her pearls and emeralds, a softer +thigh, or-limbs mere delicate than yours, Cerinthus; nay, the +prostitutes are frequently preferable. Add to this, that [the +prostitute] bears about her merchandize without any varnish, and openly +shows what she has to dispose of; nor, if she has aught more comely than +ordinary, does she boast and make an ostentation of it, while she is +industrious to conceal that which is offensive. This is the custom with +men of fortune: when they buy horses, they inspect them covered: that, +if a beautiful forehand (as often) be supported by a tender hoof, it may +not take in the buyer, eager for the bargain, because the back is +handsome, the head little, and the neck stately. This they do +judiciously. Do not you, [therefore, in the same manner] contemplate the +perfections of each [fair one's] person with the eyes of Lynceus; but be +blinder than Hypsaea, when you survey such parts as are deformed. [You +may cry out,] "O what a leg! O, what delicate arms!" But [you suppress] +that she is low-hipped, short-waisted, with a long nose, and a splay +foot. A man can see nothing but the face of a matron, who carefully +conceals her other charms, unless it be a Catia. But if you will seek +after forbidden charms (for the [circumstance of their being forbidden] +makes you mad after them), surrounded as they are with a fortification, +many obstacles will then be in your way: such as guardians, the sedan, +dressers, parasites, the long robe hanging down to the ankles, and +covered with an upper garment; a multiplicity of circumstances, which +will hinder you from having a fair view. The other throws no obstacle in +your way; through the silken vest you may discern her, almost as well as +if she was naked; that she has neither a bad leg, nor a disagreeable +foot, you may survey her form perfectly with your eye. Or would you +choose to have a trick put upon you, and your money extorted, before the +goods are shown you? [But perhaps you will sing to me these verses out +of Callimachus.] As the huntsman pursues the hare in the deep snow, but +disdains to touch it when it is placed before him: thus sings the rake, +and applies it to himself; my love is like to this, for it passes over +an easy prey, and pursues what flies from it. Do you hope that grief, +and uneasiness, and bitter anxieties, will be expelled from your breast +by such verses as these? Would It not be more profitable to inquire what +boundary nature has affixed to the appetites, what she can patiently do +without, and what she would lament the deprivation of, and to separate +what is solid from what is vain? What! when thirst parches your jaws, +are you solicitous for golden cups to drink out of? What! when you are +hungry, do you despise everything but peacock and turbot? When your +passions are inflamed, and a common gratification is at hand, would you +rather be consumed with desire than possess it? I would not: for I love +such pleasures as are of easiest attainment. But she whose language is, +"By and by," "But for a small matter more," "If my husband should be out +of the way." [is only] for petit-maitres: and for himself, Philodemus +says, he chooses her, who neither stands for a great price, nor delays +to come when she is ordered. Let her be fair, and straight, and so far +decent as not to appear desirous of seeming fairer than nature has made +her. When I am in the company of such an one, she is my Ilia and +Aegeria; I give her any name. Nor am I apprehensive, while I am in her +company, lest her husband should return from the country: the door +should be broken open; the dog should bark; the house, shaken, should +resound on all sides with a great noise; the woman, pale [with fear], +should bound away from me; lest the maid, conscious [of guilt], should +cry out, she is undone; lest she should be in apprehension for her +limbs, the detected wife for her portion, I for myself: lest I must run +away with my clothes all loose, and bare-footed, for fear my money, or +my person, or, finally my character should be demolished. It is a +dreadful thing to be caught; I could prove this, even if Fabius were the +judge.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE III.</p> + +<p><i>We might to connive at the faults of our friends, and all offences are +not to be ranked in the catalogue of crimes</i>.</p> + + +<p>This is a fault common to all singers, that among their friends they +never are inclined to sing when they are asked, [but] unasked, they +never desist. Tigellius, that Sardinian, had this [fault]. Had Caesar, +who could have forced him to compliance, besought him on account of his +father's friendship and his own, he would have had no success; if he +himself was disposed, he would chant lo Bacche over and over, from the +beginning of an entertainment to the very conclusion of it; one while at +the deepest pitch of his voice, at another time with that which answers +to the highest string of the tetrachord. There was nothing uniform in +that fellow; frequently would he run along, as one flying from an enemy; +more frequently [he walked] as if he bore [in procession] the sacrifice +of Juno: he had often two hundred slaves, often but ten: one while +talking of kings and potentates, every thing that was magnificent; at +another—"Let me have a three-legged table, and a cellar of clean salt, +and a gown which, though coarse, may be sufficient to keep out the +cold." Had you given ten hundred thousand sesterces to this moderate man +who was content with such small matters, in five days' time there would +be nothing in his bags. He sat up at nights, [even] to day-light; he +snored out all the day. Never was there anything so inconsistent with +itself. Now some person may say to me, "What are you? Have you no +faults?" Yes, others; but others, and perhaps of a less culpable nature.</p> + +<p>When Maenius railed at Novius in his absence: "Hark ye," says a certain +person, "are you ignorant of yourself? or do you think to impose +yourself upon us a person we do not know?" "As for me, I forgive +myself," quoth Maenius. This is a foolish and impious self-love, and +worthy to be stigmatized. When you look over your own vices, winking at +them, as it were, with sore eyes; why are you with regard to those of +your friends as sharp-sighted as an eagle, or the Epidaurian serpent? +But, on the other hand, it is your lot that your friends should inquire +into your vices in turn. [A certain person] is a little too hasty in his +temper; not well calculated for the sharp-witted sneers of these men: he +may be made a jest of because his gown hangs awkwardly, he [at the same +time] being trimmed in a very rustic manner, and his wide shoe hardly +sticks to his foot. But he is so good, that no man can be better; but he +is your friend; but an immense genius is concealed under this unpolished +person of his. Finally, sift yourself thoroughly, whether nature has +originally sown the seeds of any vice in you, or even an ill-habit [has +done it]. For the fern, fit [only] to be burned, overruns the neglected +fields.</p> + +<p>Let us return from our digression. As his mistress's disagreeable +failings escape the blinded lover, or even give him pleasure (as Hagna's +wen does to Balbinus), I could wish that we erred in this manner with +regard to friendship, and that virtue had affixed a reputable +appellation to such an error. And as a father ought not to contemn his +son, if he has any defect, in the same manner we ought not [to contemn] +our friend. The father calls his squinting boy a pretty leering rogue; +and if any man has a little despicable brat, such as the abortive +Sisyphus formerly was, he calls it a sweet moppet; this [child] with +distorted legs, [the father] in a fondling voice calls one of the Vari; +and another, who is club-footed, he calls a Scaurus. [Thus, does] this +friend of yours live more sparingly than ordinarily? Let him be styled a +man of frugality. Is another impertinent, and apt to brag a little? He +requires to be reckoned entertaining to his friends. But [another] is +too rude, and takes greater liberties than are fitting. Let him be +esteemed a man of sincerity and bravery. Is he too fiery, let him be +numbered among persons of spirit. This method, in my opinion, both +unites friends, and preserves them in a state of union. But we invert +the very virtues themselves, and are desirous of throwing dirt upon the +untainted vessel. Does a man of probity live among us? he is a person of +singular diffidence; we give him the name of a dull and fat-headed +fellow. Does this man avoid every snare, and lay himself open to no +ill-designing villain; since we live amid such a race, where keen envy +and accusations are flourishing? Instead of a sensible and wary man, we +call him a disguised and subtle fellow. And is any one more open, [and +less reserved] than usual in such a degree as I often have presented +myself to you, Maecenas, so as perhaps impertinently to interrupt a +person reading, or musing, with any kind of prate? We cry, "[this +fellow] actually wants common sense." Alas! how indiscreetly do we +ordain a severe law against ourselves! For no one Is born without vices: +he is the best man who is encumbered with the least. When my dear +friend, as is just, weighs my good qualities against my bad ones, let +him, if he is willing to be beloved, turn the scale to the majority of +the former (if I have indeed a majority of good qualities), on this +condition, he shall be placed in the same balance. He who requires that +his friend should not take offence at his own protuberances, will excuse +his friend's little warts. It is fair that he who entreats a pardon for +his own faults, should grant one in his turn.</p> + +<p>Upon the whole, forasmuch as the vice anger, as well as others inherent +in foolish [mortals], cannot be totally eradicated, why does not human +reason make use of its own weights and measures; and so punish faults, +as the nature of the thing demands? If any man should punish with the +cross, a slave, who being ordered to take away the dish should gorge +the half-eaten fish and warm sauce; he would, among people in their +senses, be called a madder man than Labeo. How much more irrational and +heinous a crime is this! Your friend has been guilty of a small error +(which, unless you forgive, you ought to be reckoned a sour, ill-natured +fellow), you hate and avoid him, as a debtor does Ruso; who, when the +woful calends come upon the unfortunate man, unless he procures the +interest or capital by hook or by crook, is compelled to hear his +miserable stories with his neck stretched out like a slave. [Should my +friend] in his liquor water my couch, or has he thrown down a jar carved +by the hands of Evander: shall he for this [trifling] affair, or because +in his hunger he has taken a chicken before me out of my part of the +dish, be the less agreeable friend to me? [If so], what could I do if he +was guilty of theft, or had betrayed things committed to him in +confidence, or broken his word. They who are pleased [to rank all] +faults nearly on an equality, are troubled when they come to the truth +of the matter: sense and morality are against them, and utility itself, +the mother almost of right and of equity.</p> + +<p>When [rude] animals, they crawled forth upon the first-formed earth, the +mute and dirty herd fought with their nails and fists for their acorn +and caves, afterward with clubs, and finally with arms which experience +had forged: till they found out words and names, by which they +ascertained their language and sensations: thenceforward they began to +abstain from war, to fortify towns, and establish laws: that no person +should be a thief, a robber, or an adulterer. For before Helen's time +there existed [many] a woman who was the dismal cause of war: but those +fell by unknown deaths, whom pursuing uncertain venery, as the bull in +the herd, the strongest slew. It must of necessity be acknowledged, if +you have a mind to turn over the aeras and anuals of the world, that +laws were invented from an apprehension of the natural injustice [of +mankind]. Nor can nature separate what is unjust from what is just, in +the same manner as she distinguishes what is good from its reverse, and +what is to be avoided from that which is to be sought, nor will reason +persuade men to this, that he who breaks down the cabbage-stalk of his +neighbor, sins in as great a measure, and in the same manner, as he who +steals by night things consecrated to the gods. Let there be a settled +standard, that may inflict adequate punishments upon crimes, lest you +should persecute any one with the horrible thong, who is only deserving +of a slight whipping. For I am not apprehensive, that you should correct +with the rod one that deserves to suffer severer stripes: since you +assert that pilfering is an equal crime with highway robbery, and +threaten that you would prune off with an undistinguishing hook little +and great vices, if mankind were to give you the sovereignty over them. +If he be rich, who is wise, and a good shoemaker, and alone handsome, +and a king, why do you wish for that which you are possessed of? You do +not understand what Chrysippus, the father [of your sect], says: "The +wise man never made himself shoes nor slippers: nevertheless, the wise +man is a shoemaker." How so? In the same manner, though Hermogenes be +silent, he is a fine singer, notwithstanding, and an excellent musician: +as the subtle [lawyer] Alfenus, after every instrument of his calling +was thrown aside, and his shop shut up, was [still] a barber; thus is +the wise man of all trades, thus is he a king. O greatest of great +kings, the waggish boys pluck you by the beard; whom unless you restrain +with your staff, you will be jostled by a mob all about you, and you may +wretchedly bark and burst your lungs in vain. Not to be tedious: while +you, my king, shall go to the farthing bath, and no guard shall attend +you, except the absurd Crispinus; my dear friends will both pardon me in +any matter in which I shall foolishly offend, and I in turn will +cheerfully put up with their faults; and though a private man, I shall +live more happily than you, a king.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE IV.</p> + +<p><i>He apologizes for the liberties taken by satiric poets in general, and +particularly by himself</i>.</p> + + +<p>The poets Eupolis, and Cratinus, and Aristophanes, and others, who are +authors of the ancient comedy, if there was any person deserving to be +distinguished for being a rascal or a thief, an adulterer or a +cut-throat, or in any shape an infamous fellow, branded him with great +freedom. Upon these [models] Lucilius entirely depends, having imitated +them, changing only their feet and numbers: a man of wit, of great +keenness, inelegant in the composition of verse: for in this respect he +was faulty; he would often, as a great feat, dictate two hundred verses +in an hour, standing in the same position. As he flowed muddily, there +was [always] something that one would wish to remove; he was verbose, +and too lazy to endure the fatigue of writing—of writing accurately: +for, with regard to the quantity [of his works], I make no account of +it. See! Crispinus challenges me even for ever so little a wager. Take, +if you dare, take your tablets, and I will take mine; let there be a +place, a time, and persons appointed to see fair play: let us see who +can write the most. The gods have done a good part by me, since they +have framed me of an humble and meek disposition, speaking but seldom, +briefly: but do you, [Crispinus,] as much as you will, imitate air which +is shut up in leathern bellows, perpetually putting till the fire +softens the iron. Fannius is a happy man, who, of his own accord, has +presented his manuscripts and picture [to the Palatine Apollo]; when not +a soul will peruse my writings, who am afraid to rehearse in public, on +this account, because there are certain persons who can by no means +relish this kind [of satiric writing], as there are very many who +deserve censure. Single any man out of the crowd; he either labors under +a covetous disposition, or under wretched ambition. One is mad in love +with married women, another with youths; a third the splendor of silver +captivates: Albius is in raptures with brass; another exchanges his +merchandize from the rising sun, even to that with which the western +regions are warmed: but he is burried headlong through dangers, as dust +wrapped up in a whirlwind; in dread lest he should lose anything out of +the capital, or [in hope] that he may increase his store. All these are +afraid of verses, they hate poets. "He has hay on his horn, [they cry;] +avoid him at a great distance: if he can but raise a laugh for his own +diversion, he will not spare any friend: and whatever he has once +blotted upon his paper, he will take a pleasure in letting all the boys +and old women know, as they return from the bakehouse or the lake." But, +come on, attend to a few words on the other side of the question.</p> + +<p>In the first place, I will except myself out of the number of those I +would allow to be poets: for one must not call it sufficient to tag a +verse: nor if any person, like me, writes in a style bordering on +conversation, must you esteem him to be a poet. To him who has genius, +who has a soul of a diviner cast, and a greatness of expression, give +the honor of this appellation. On this account some have raised the +question, whether comedy be a poem or not; because an animated spirit +and force is neither in the style, nor the subject-matter: bating that +it differs from prose by a certain measure, it is mere prose. But [one +may object to this, that even in comedy] an inflamed father rages, +because his dissolute son, mad after a prostitute mistress, refuses a +wife with a large portion; and (what is an egregious scandal) rambles +about drunk with flambeaux by day-light. Yet could Pomponius, were his +father alive, hear less severe reproofs! Wherefore it is not sufficient +to write verses merely in proper language; which if you take to pieces, +any person may storm in the same manner as the father in the play. If +from these verses which I write at this present, or those that Lucilius +did formerly, you take away certain pauses and measures, and make that +word which was first in order hindermost, by placing the latter [words] +before those that preceded [in the verse]; you will not discern the +limbs of a poet, when pulled in pieces, in the same manner as you would +were you to transpose ever so [these lines of Ennius]:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>When discord dreadful bursts the brazen bars,<br /></span> +<span>And shatters iron locks to thunder forth her wars.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>So far of this matter; at another opportunity [I may investigate] +whether [a comedy] be a true poem or not: now I shall only consider this +point, whether this [satiric] kind of writing be deservedly an object of +your suspicion. Sulcius the virulent, and Caprius hoarse with their +malignancy, walk [openly], and with their libels too [in their hands]; +each of them a singular terror to robbers: but if a man lives honestly +and with clean hands, he may despise them both. Though you be like +highwaymen, Coelus and Byrrhus, I am not [a common accuser], like +Caprius and Sulcius; why should you be afraid of me? No shop nor stall +holds my books, which the sweaty hands of the vulgar and of Hermogenes +Tigellius may soil. I repeat to nobody, except my intimates, and that +when I am pressed; nor any where, and before any body. There are many +who recite their writings in the middle of the forum; and who [do it] +while bathing: the closeness of the place, [it seems,] gives melody to +the voice. This pleases coxcombs, who never consider whether they do +this to no purpose, or at an unseasonable time. But you, says he, +delight to hurt people, and this you do out of a mischievous +disposition. From what source do you throw this calumny upon me? Is any +one then your voucher, with whom I have lived? He who backbites his +absent friend; [nay more,] who does not defend, at another's accusing +him; who affects to raise loud laughs in company, and the reputation of +a funny fellow, who can feign things he never saw; who cannot keep +secrets; he is a dangerous man: be you, Roman, aware of him. You may +often see it [even in crowded companies], where twelve sup together on +three couches; one of which shall delight at any rate to asperse the +rest, except him who furnishes the bath; and him too afterward in his +liquor, when truth-telling Bacchus opens the secrets of his heart. Yet +this man seems entertaining, and well-bred, and frank to you, who are an +enemy to the malignant: but do I, if I have laughed because the fop +Rufillus smells all perfumes, and Gorgonius, like a he-goat, appear +insidious and a snarler to you? If by any means mention happen to be +made of the thefts of Petillius Capitolinus in your company, you defend +him after your manner: [as thus,] Capitolinus has had me for a companion +and a friend from childhood, and being applied to, has done many things +on my account: and I am glad that he lives secure in the city; but I +wonder, notwithstanding, how he evaded that sentence. This is the very +essence of black malignity, this is mere malice itself: which crime, +that it shall be far remote from my writings, and prior to them from my +mind, I promise, if I can take upon me to promise any thing sincerely of +myself. If I shall say any thing too freely, if perhaps too ludicrously, +you must favor me by your indulgence with this allowance. For my +excellent father inured me to this custom, that by noting each +particular vice I might avoid it by the example [of others]. When he +exhorted me that I should live thriftily, frugally, and content with +what he had provided for me; don't you see, [would he say,] how +wretchedly the son of Albius lives? and how miserably Barrus? A strong +lesson to hinder any one from squandering away his patrimony. When he +would deter me from filthy fondness for a light woman: [take care, said +he,] that you do not resemble Sectanus. That I might not follow +adulteresses, when I could enjoy a lawful amour: the character cried he, +of Trobonius, who was caught in the fact, is by no means creditable. +The philosopher may tell you the reasons for what is better to be +avoided, and what to be pursued. It is sufficient for me, if I can +preserve the morality traditional from my forefathers, and keep your +life and reputation inviolate, so long as you stand in need of a +guardian: so soon as age shall have strengthened your limbs and mind, +you will swim without cork. In this manner he formed me, as yet a boy: +and whether he ordered me to do any particular thing: You have an +authority for doing this: [then] he instanced some one of the select +magistrates: or did he forbid me [any thing]; can you doubt, [says he,] +whether this thing be dishonorable, and against your interest to be +done, when this person and the other is become such a burning shame for +his bad character [on these accounts]? As a neighboring funeral +dispirits sick gluttons, and through fear of death forces them to have +mercy upon themselves; so other men's disgraces often deter tender minds +from vices. From this [method of education] I am clear from all such +vices, as bring destruction along with them: by lighter foibles, and +such as you may excuse, I am possessed. And even from these, perhaps, a +maturer age, the sincerity of a friend, or my own judgment, may make +great reductions. For neither when I am in bed, or in the piazzas, am I +wanting to myself: this way of proceeding is better; by doing such a +thing I shall live more comfortably; by this means I shall render myself +agreeable to my friends; such a transaction was not clever; what, shall +I, at any time, imprudently commit any thing like it? These things I +resolve in silence by myself. When I have any leisure, I amuse myself +with my papers. This is one of those lighter foibles [I was speaking +of]: to which if you do not grant your indulgence, a numerous band of +poets shall come, which will take my part (for we are many more in +number), and, like the Jews, we will force you to come over to our +numerous party.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE V.</p> + +<p><i>He describes a certain journey of his from Rome to Brundusium with +great pleasantry</i>.</p> + + +<p>Having left mighty Rome, Aricia received me in but a middling inn: +Heliodorus the rhetorician, most learned in the Greek language, was my +fellow-traveller: thence we proceeded to Forum-Appi, stuffed with +sailors and surly landlords. This stage, but one for better travellers +than we, being laggard we divided into two; the Appian way is less +tiresome to bad travelers. Here I, on account of the water, which was +most vile, proclaim war against my belly, waiting not without impatience +for my companions while at supper. Now the night was preparing to spread +her shadows upon the earth, and to display the constellations in the +heavens. Then our slaves began to be liberal of their abuse to the +watermen, and the watermen to our slaves. "Here bring to." "You are +stowing in hundreds; hold, now sure there is enough." Thus while the +fare is paid, and the mule fastened a whole hour is passed away. The +cursed gnats, and frogs of the fens, drive off repose. While the +waterman and a passenger, well-soaked with plenty of thick wine, vie +with one another in singing the praises of their absent mistresses: at +length the passenger being fatigued, begins to sleep; and the lazy +waterman ties the halter of the mule, turned out a-grazing, to a stone, +and snores, lying flat on his back. And now the day approached, when we +saw the boat made no way; until a choleric fellow, one of the +passengers, leaps out of the boat, and drubs the head and sides of both +mule and waterman with a willow cudgel. At last we were scarcely set +ashore at the fourth hour. We wash our faces and hands in thy water, O +Feronia. Then, having dined we crawled on three miles; and arrive under +Anxur, which is built up on rocks that look white to a great distance. +Maecenas was to come here, as was the excellent Cocceius. Both sent +ambassadors on matters of great importance, having been accustomed to +reconcile friends at variance. Here, having got sore eyes, I was obliged +to use the black ointment. In the meantime came Maecenas, and Cocceius, +and Fonteius Capito along with them, a man of perfect polish, and +intimate with Mark Antony, no man more so.</p> + +<p>Without regret we passed Fundi, where Aufidius Luscus was praetor, +laughing at the honors of that crazy scribe, his praetexta, laticlave, +and pan of incense. At our next stage, being weary, we tarry in the city +of the Mamurrae, Murena complimenting us with his house, and Capito with +his kitchen.</p> + +<p>The next day arises, by much the most agreeable to all: for Plotius, and +Varius, and Virgil met us at Sinuessa; souls more candid ones than +which the world never produced, nor is there a person in/the world more +bound to them than myself. Oh what embraces, and what transports were +there! While I am in my senses, nothing can I prefer to a pleasant +friend. The village, which is next adjoining to the bridge of Campania, +accommodated us with lodging [at night]; and the public officers with +such a quantity of fuel and salt as they are obliged to [by law]. From +this place the mules deposited their pack-saddles at Capua betimes [in +the morning]. Maecenas goes to play [at tennis]; but I and Virgil to our +repose: for to play at tennis is hurtful to weak eyes and feeble +constitutions.</p> + +<p>From this place the villa of Cocceius, situated above the Caudian inns, +which abounds with plenty, receives us. Now, my muse, I beg of you +briefly to relate the engagement between the buffoon Sarmentus and +Messius Cicirrus; and from what ancestry descended each began the +contest. The illustrious race of Messius-Oscan: Sarmentus's mistress is +still alive. Sprung from such families as these, they came to the +combat. First, Sarmentus: "I pronounce thee to have the look of a mad +horse." We laugh; and Messius himself [says], "I accept your challenge:" +and wags his head. "O!" cries he, "if the horn were not cut off your +forehead, what would you not do; since, maimed as you are, you bully at +such a rate?" For a foul scar has disgraced the left part of Messius's +bristly forehead. Cutting many jokes upon his Campanian disease, and +upon his face, he desired him to exhibit Polyphemus's dance: that he had +no occasion for a mask, or the tragic buskins. Cicirrus [retorted] +largely to these: he asked, whether he had consecrated his chain to the +household gods according to his vow; though he was a scribe, [he told +him] his mistress's property in him was not the less. Lastly, he asked, +how he ever came to run away; such a lank meager fellow, for whom a +pound of corn [a-day] would be ample. We were so diverted, that we +continued that supper to an unusual length.</p> + +<p>Hence we proceed straight on for Beneventum; where the bustling landlord +almost burned himself, in roasting some lean thrushes: for, the fire +falling through the old kitchen [floor], the spreading flame made a +great progress toward the highest part of the roof. Then you might have +seen the hungry guests and frightened slaves snatching their supper out +[of the flames], and everybody endeavoring to extinguish the fire.</p> + +<p>After this Apulia began to discover to me her well-known mountains, +which the Atabulus scorches [with his blasts]: and through which we +should never have crept, unless the neighboring village of Trivicus had +received us, not without a smoke that brought tears into our eyes; +occasioned by a hearth's burning some green boughs with the leaves upon +them. Here, like a great fool as I was, I wait till midnight for a +deceitful mistress; sleep, however, overcomes me while meditating love; +and disagreeable dreams make me ashamed of myself and every thing about +me.</p> + +<p>Hence we were bowled away in chaises twenty-four miles, intending to +stop at a little town, which one cannot name in a verse, but it is +easily enough known by description. For water is sold here, though the +worst in the world; but their bread is exceeding fine, inasmuch that the +weary traveler is used to carry it willingly on his shoulders; for [the +bread] at Canusium is gritty; a pitcher of water is worth no more [than +it is here]: which place was formerly built by the valiant Diomedes. +Here Varius departs dejected from his weeping friends.</p> + +<p>Hence we came to Rubi, fatigued: because we made a long journey, and it +was rendered still more troublesome by the rains. Next day the weather +was better, the road worse, even to the very walls of Barium that +abounds in fish. In the next place Egnatia, which [seems to have] been +built on troubled waters, gave us occasion for jests and laughter; for +they wanted to persuade us, that at this sacred portal the incense +melted without fire. The Jew Apella may believe this, not I. For I have +learned [from Epicurus], that the gods dwell in a state of tranquillity; +nor, if nature effect any wonder, that the anxious gods send it from the +high canopy of the heavens.</p> + +<p>Brundusium ends both my long journey, and my paper.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE VI.</p> + +<p><i>Of true nobility</i>.</p> + + +<p>Not Maecenas, though of all the Lydians that ever inhabited the Tuscan +territories, no one is of a nobler family than yourself; and though you +have ancestors both on father's and mother's side, that in times past +have had the command of mighty legions; do you, as the generality are +wont, toss up your nose at obscure people, such as me, who has [only] a +freed-man for my father: since you affirm that it is of no consequence +of what parents any man is born, so that he be a man of merit. You +persuade yourself, with truth, that before the dominions of Tullius, and +the reign of one born a slave, frequently numbers of men descended from +ancestors of no rank, have both lived as men of merit, and have been +distinguished by the greatest honors: [while] on the other hand +Laevinus, the descendant of that famous Valerius, by whose means +Tarquinius Superbus was expelled from his kingdom, was not a farthing +more esteemed [on account of his family, even] in the judgment of the +people, with whose disposition you are well acquainted; who often +foolishly bestow honors on the unworthy, and are from their stupidity +slaves to a name: who are struck with admiration by inscriptions and +statues. What is it fitting for us to do, who are far, very far removed +from the vulgar [in our sentiments]? For grant it, that the people had +rather confer a dignity on Laevinus than on Decius, who is a new man; +and the censor Appius would expel me [the senate-house], because I was +not sprung from a sire of distinction: and that too deservedly, inasmuch +as I rested not content in my own condition. But glory drags in her +dazzling car the obscure as closely fettered as those of nobler birth. +What did it profit you, O Tullius, to resume the robe that you [were +forced] to lay aside, and become a tribune [again]? Envy increased upon +you, which had been less, it you had remained in a private station. For +when any crazy fellow has laced the middle of his leg with the sable +buskins, and has let flow the purple robe from his breast, he +immediately hears: "Who is this man? Whose son is he?" Just as if there +be any one, who labors under the same distemper as Barrus does, so that +he is ambitious of being reckoned handsome; let him go where he will, he +excites curiosity among the girls of inquiring into particulars; as what +sort of face, leg, foot, teeth, hair, he has. Thus he who engages to his +citizens to take care of the city, the empire, and Italy, and the +sanctuaries of the gods, forces every mortal to be solicitous, and to +ask from what sire he is descended, or whether he is base by the +obscurity of his mother. What? do you, the son of a Syrus, a Dana, or a +Dionysius, dare to cast down the citizens of Rome from the [Tarpeian] +rock, or deliver them up to Cadmus [the executioner]? But, [you may +say,] my colleague Novius sits below me by one degree: for he is only +what my father was. And therefore do you esteem yourself a Paulus or a +Messala? But he (Novius), if two hundred carriages and three funerals +were to meet in the forum, could make noise enough to drown all their +horns and trumpets: this [kind of merit] at least has its weight with +us.</p> + +<p>Now I return to myself, who am descended from a freed-man; whom every +body nibbles at, as being descended from a freed-man. Now, because, +Maecenas, I am a constant guest of yours; but formerly, because a Roman +legion was under my command, as being a military tribune. This latter +case is different from the former: for, though any person perhaps might +justly envy me that post of honor, yet could he not do so with regard to +your being my friend! especially as you are cautious to admit such as +are worthy; and are far from having any sinister ambitious views. I can +not reckon myself a lucky fellow on this account, as if it were by +accident that I got you for my friend; for no kind of accident threw you +in my way. That best of men, Virgil, long ago, and after him, Varius, +told you what I was. When first I came into your presence, I spoke a few +words in a broken manner (for childish bashfulness hindered me from +speaking more); I did not tell you that I was the issue of an +illustrious father: I did not [pretend] that I rode about the country on +a Satureian horse, but plainly what I really was; you answer (as your +custom is) a few words: I depart: and you re-invite me after the ninth +month, and command me to be in the number of your friends. I esteem it a +great thing that I pleased you, who distinguish probity from baseness, +not by the illustriousness of a father, but by the purity of heart and +feelings.</p> + +<p>And yet if my disposition be culpable for a few faults, and those small +ones, otherwise perfect (as if you should condemn moles scattered over a +beautiful skin), if no one can justly lay to my charge avarice, nor +sordidness, nor impure haunts; if, in fine (to speak in my own praise), +I live undefiled, and innocent, and dear to my friends; my father was +the cause of all this: who though a poor man on a lean farm, was +unwilling to send me to a school under [the pedant] Flavius, where great +boys, sprung from great centurions, having their satchels and tablets +swung over their left arm, used to go with money in their hands the very +day it was due; but had the spirit to bring me a child to Rome, to be +taught those arts which any Roman knight and senator can teach his own +children. So that, if any person had considered my dress, and the slaves +who attended me in so populous a city, he would have concluded that +those expenses were supplied to me out of some hereditary estate. He +himself, of all others the most faithful guardian, was constantly about +every one of my preceptors. Why should I multiply words? He preserved me +chaste (which is the first honor or virtue) not only from every actual +guilt, but likewise from [every] foul imputation, nor was he afraid lest +any should turn it to his reproach, if I should come to follow a +business attended with small profits, in capacity of an auctioneer, or +(what he was himself) a tax-gatherer. Nor [had that been the case] +should I have complained. On this account the more praise is due to him, +and from me a greater degree of gratitude. As long as I am in my senses, +I can never be ashamed of such a father as this, and therefore shall not +apologize [for my birth], in the manner that numbers do, by affirming it +to be no fault of theirs. My language and way of thinking is far +different from such persons. For if nature were to make us from a +certain term of years to go over our past time again, and [suffer us] to +choose other parents, such as every man for ostentation's sake would +wish for himself; I, content with my own, would not assume those that +are honored with the ensigns and seats of state; [for which I should +seem] a madman in the opinion of the mob, but in yours, I hope a man of +sense; because I should be unwilling to sustain a troublesome burden, +being by no means used to it. For I must [then] immediately set about +acquiring a larger fortune, and more people must be complimented; and +this and that companion must be taken along, so that I could neither +take a jaunt into the country, or a journey by myself; more attendants +and more horses must be fed; coaches must be drawn. Now, if I please, I +can go as far as Tarentum on my bob-tail mule, whose loins the +portmanteau galls with his weight, as does the horseman his shoulders. +No one will lay to my charge such sordidness as he may, Tullius, to you, +when five slaves follow you, a praetor, along the Tiburtian way, +carrying a traveling kitchen, and a vessel of wine. Thus I live more +comfortably, O illustrious senator, than you, and than thousands of +others. Wherever I have a fancy, I walk by myself: I inquire the price +of herbs and bread; I traverse the tricking circus, and the forum often +in the evening: I stand listening among the fortune-tellers: thence I +take myself home to a plate of onions, pulse, and pancakes. My supper is +served up by three slaves; and a white stone slab supports two cups and +a brimmer: near the salt-cellar stands a homely cruet with a little +bowl, earthen-ware from Campania. Then I go to rest; by no means +concerned that I must rise in the morning, and pay a visit to the statue +of Marsyas, who denies that he is able to bear the look of the younger +Novius. I lie a-bed to the fourth hour; after that I take a ramble, or +having read or written what may amuse me in my privacy, I am anointed +with oil, but not with such as the nasty Nacca, when he robs the lamps. +But when the sun, become more violent, has reminded me to go to bathe, I +avoid the Campus Martius and the game of hand-ball. Having dined in a +temperate manner, just enough to hinder me from having an empty stomach, +during the rest of the day I trifle in my own house. This is the life of +those who are free from wretched and burthensome ambition: with such +things as these I comfort myself, in a way to live more delightfully +than if my grandfather had been a quaestor, and father and uncle too.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE VII.</p> + +<p><i>He humorously describes a squabble betwixt Rupilius and Persius.</i></p> + + +<p>In what manner the mongrel Persius revenged the filth and venom of +Rupilius, surnamed King, is I think known to all the blind men and +barbers. This Persius, being a man of fortune, had very great business +at Clazomenae, and, into the bargain, certain troublesome litigations +with King; a hardened fellow, and one who was able to exceed even King +in virulence; confident, blustering, of such a bitterness of speech, +that he would outstrip the Sisennae and Barri, if ever so well equipped.</p> + +<p>I return to King. After nothing could be settled betwixt them (for +people among whom adverse war breaks out, are proportionably vexatious +on the same account as they are brave. Thus between Hector, the son of +Priam, and the high-spirited Achilles, the rage was of so capital a +nature, that only the final destruction [one of them] could determine +it; on no other account, than that valor in each of them was +consummate. If discord sets two cowards to work; or if an engagement +happens between two that are not of a match, as that of Diomed and the +Lycian Glaucus; the worst man will walk off, [buying his peace] by +voluntarily sending presents), when Brutus held as praetor the fertile +Asia, this pair, Rupilius and Persius, encountered; in such a manner, +that [the gladiators] Bacchius and Bithus were not better matched. +Impetuous they hurry to the cause, each of them a fine sight.</p> + +<p>Persius opens his case; and is laughed at by all the assembly; he extols +Brutus, and extols the guard; he styles Brutus the sun of Asia, and his +attendants he styles salutary stars, all except King; that he [he says,] +came like that dog, the constellation hateful to husbandman: he poured +along like a wintery flood, where the ax seldom comes.</p> + +<p>Then, upon his running on in so smart and fluent a manner, the +Praenestine [king] directs some witticisms squeezed from the vineyard, +himself a hardy vine-dresser, never defeated, to whom the passenger had +often been obliged to yield, bawling cuckoo with roaring voice.</p> + +<p>But the Grecian Persius, as soon as he had been well sprinkled with +Italian vinegar, bellows out: O Brutus, by the great gods I conjure you, +who are accustomed to take off kings, why do you not dispatch this King? +Believe me, this is a piece of work which of right belongs to you.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE VIII.</p> + +<p><i>Priapus complains that the Esquilian mount is infested with the +incantations of sorceresses</i>.</p> + + +<p>Formerly I was the trunk of a wild fig-tree, an useless log: when the +artificer, in doubt whether he should make a stool or a Priapus of me, +determined that I should be a god. Henceforward I became a god, the +greatest terror of thieves and birds: for my right hand restrains +thieves, and a bloody-looking pole stretched out from my frightful +middle: but a reed fixed upon the crown of my head terrifies the +mischievous birds, and hinders them from settling in these new gardens. +Before this the fellow-slave bore dead corpses thrown out of their +narrow cells to this place, in order to be deposited in paltry coffins. +This place stood a common sepulcher for the miserable mob, for the +buffoon Pantelabus, and Nomentanus the rake. Here a column assigned a +thousand feet [of ground] in front, and three hundred toward the fields: +that the burial-place should not descend to the heirs of the estate. Now +one may live in the Esquiliae, [since it is made] a healthy place; and +walk upon an open terrace, where lately the melancholy passengers beheld +the ground frightful with white bones; though both the thieves and wild +beasts accustomed to infest this place, do not occasion me so much care +and trouble, as do [these hags], that turn people's minds by their +incantations and drugs. These I can not by any means destroy nor hinder, +but that they will gather bones and noxious herbs, as soon as the +fleeting moon has shown her beauteous face.</p> + +<p>I myself saw Canidia, with her sable garment tucked up, walk with bare +feet and disheveled hair, yelling together with the elder Sagana. +Paleness had rendered both of them horrible to behold. They began to +claw up the earth with their nails, and to tear a black ewe-lamb to +pieces with their teeth. The blood was poured into a ditch, that thence +they might charm out the shades of the dead, ghosts that were to give +them answers. There was a woolen effigy too, another of wax: the woolen +one larger, which was to inflict punishment on the little one. The waxen +stood in a suppliant posture, as ready to perish in a servile manner. +One of the hags invokes Hecate, and the other fell Tisiphone. Then might +you see serpents and infernal bitches wander about, and the moon with +blushes hiding behind the lofty monuments, that she might not be a +witness to these doings. But if I lie, even a tittle, may my head be +contaminated with the white filth of ravens; and may Julius, and the +effeminate Miss Pediatous, and the knave Voranus, come to water upon me, +and befoul me. Why should I mention every particular? viz. in what +manner, speaking alternately with Sagana, the ghosts uttered dismal and +piercing shrieks; and how by stealth they laid in the earth a wolf's +beard, with the teeth of a spotted snake; and how a great blaze flamed +forth from the waxen image? And how I was shocked at the voices and +actions of these two furies, a spectator however by no means incapable +of revenge? For from my cleft body of fig-tree wood I uttered a loud +noise with as great an explosion as a burst bladder. But they ran into +the city: and with exceeding laughter and diversion might you have seen +Canidia's artificial teeth, and Sagana's towering tete of false hair +falling off, and the herbs, and the enchanted bracelets from her arm.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE IX.</p> + +<p><i>He describes his sufferings from the loquacity of an impertinent +fellow.</i></p> + + +<p>I was accidentally going along the Via Sacra, meditating on some trifle +or other, as is my custom, and totally intent upon it. A certain person, +known to me by name only, runs up; and, having seized my hand, "How do +you do, my dearest fellow?" "Tolerably well," say I, "as times go; and I +wish you every thing you can desire." When he still followed me; "Would +you any thing?" said I to him. But, "You know me," says he: "I am a man +of learning." "Upon that account," says I: "you will have more of my +esteem." Wanting sadly to get away from him, sometimes I walked on +apace, now and then I stopped, and I whispered something to my boy. When +the sweat ran down to the bottom of my ankles. O, said I to myself, +Bolanus, how happy were you in a head-piece! Meanwhile he kept prating +on any thing that came uppermost, praised the streets, the city; and, +when I made him no answer; "You want terribly," said he, "to get away; I +perceived it long ago; but you effect nothing. I shall still stick close +to you; I shall follow you hence: Where are you at present bound for?" +"There is no need for your being carried so much about: I want to see a +person, who is unknown to you: he lives a great way off across the +Tiber, just by Caesar's gardens." "I have nothing to do, and I am not +lazy; I will attend you thither." I hang down my ears like an ass of +surly disposition, when a heavier load than ordinary is put upon his +back. He begins again: "If I am tolerably acquainted with myself, you +will not esteem Viscus or Varius as a friend, more than me; for who can +write more verses, or in a shorter time than I? Who can move his limbs +with softer grace [in the dance]? And then I sing, so that even +Hermogenes may envy."</p> + +<p>Here there was an opportunity of interrupting him. "Have you a mother, +[or any] relations that are interested in your welfare?" "Not one have +I; I have buried them all." "Happy they! now I remain. Dispatch me: for +the fatal moment is at hand, which an old Sabine sorceress, having +shaken her divining urn, foretold when I was a boy; 'This child, neither +shall cruel poison, nor the hostile sword, nor pleurisy, nor cough, nor +the crippling gout destroy: a babbler shall one day demolish him; if he +be wise, let him avoid talkative people, as soon as he comes to man's +estate.'"</p> + +<p>One fourth of the day being now passed, we came to Vesta's temple; and, +as good luck would have it, he was obliged to appear to his +recognizance; which unless he did, he must have lost his cause. "If you +love me," said he, "step in here a little." "May I die! if I be either +able to stand it out, or have any knowledge of the civil laws: and +besides, I am in a hurry, you know whither." "I am in doubt what I shall +do," said he; "whether desert you or my cause." "Me, I beg of you." "I +will not do it," said he; and began to take the lead of me. I (as it is +difficult to contend with one's master) follow him. "How stands it with +Maecenas and you?" Thus he begins his prate again. "He is one of few +intimates, and of a very wise way of thinking. No man ever made use of +opportunity with more cleverness. You should have a powerful assistant, +who could play an underpart, if you were disposed to recommend this man; +may I perish, if you should not supplant all the rest!" "We do not live +there in the manner you imagine; there is not a house that is freer or +more remote from evils of this nature. It is never of any disservice to +me, that any particular person is wealthier or a better scholar than I +am: every individual has his proper place." "You tell me a marvelous +thing, scarcely credible." "But it is even so." "You the more inflame my +desires to be near his person." "You need only be inclined to it: such +is your merit, you will accomplish it: and he is capable of being won; +and on that account the first access to him he makes difficult." "I will +not be wanting to myself: I will corrupt his servants with presents; if +I am excluded to-day, I will not desist; I will seek opportunities; I +will meet him in the public streets; I will wait upon him home. Life +allows nothing to mortals without great labor." While he was running on +at this rate, lo! Fuscus Aristius comes up, a dear friend of mine, and +one who knows the fellow well. We make a stop. "Whence come you? whither +are you going?" he asks and answers. I began to twitch him [by the +elbow], and to take hold of his arms [that were affectedly] passive, +nodding and distorting my eyes, that he might rescue me. Cruelly arch +he laughs, and pretends not to take the hint: anger galled my liver. +"Certainly," [said I, "Fuscus,] you said that you wanted to communicate +something to me in private." "I remember it very well; but will tell it +you at a better opportunity: to-day is the thirtieth sabbath. Would you +affront the circumcised Jews?" I reply, "I have no scruple [on that +account]." "But I have: I am something weaker, one of the multitude. You +must forgive me: I will speak with you on another occasion." And has +this sun arisen so disastrous upon me! The wicked rogue runs away, and +leaves me under the knife. But by luck his adversary met him: and, +"Whither are you going, you infamous fellow?" roars he with a loud +voice: and, "Do you witness the arrest?" I assent. He hurries him into +court: there is a great clamor on both sides, a mob from all parts. Thus +Apollo preserved me.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE X.</p> + +<p><i>He supports the judgment which he had before given of Lucilius, and +intersperses some excellent precepts for the writing of Satire.</i></p> + + +<p>To be sure I did say, that the verses of Lucilius did not run smoothly. +Who is so foolish an admirer of Lucilius, that he would not own this? +But the same writer is applauded in the same Satire, on account of his +having lashed the town with great humor. Nevertheless granting him this, +I will not therefore give up the other [considerations]; for at that +rate I might even admire the farces of Laberius, as fine poems. Hence it +is by no means sufficient to make an auditor grim with laughter: and yet +there is some degree of merit even in this. There is need of conciseness +that the sentence may run, and not embarrass itself with verbiage, that +overloads the sated ear; and sometimes a grave, frequently jocose style +is necessary, supporting the character one while of the orator and [at +another] of the poet, now and then that of a graceful rallier that curbs +the force of his pleasantry and weakens it on purpose. For ridicule +often decides matters of importance more effectually and in a better +manner, than severity. Those poets by whom the ancient comedy was +written, stood upon this [foundation], and in this are they worthy of +imitation: whom neither the smooth-faced Hermogenes ever read, nor that +baboon who is skilled in nothing but singing [the wanton compositions +of] Calvus and Catullus.</p> + +<p>But [Lucilius, say they,] did a great thing, when he intermixed Greek +words with Latin. O late-learned dunces! What! do you think that arduous +and admirable, which was done by Pitholeo the Rhodian? But [still they +cry] the style elegantly composed of both tongues is the more pleasant, +as if Falernian wine is mixed with Chian. When you make verses, I ask +you this question; were you to undertake the difficult cause of the +accused Petillius, would you (for instance), forgetful of your country +and your father, while Pedius, Poplicola, and Corvinus sweat through +their causes in Latin, choose to intermix words borrowed from abroad, +like the double-tongued Canusinian. And as for myself, who was born on +this side the water, when I was about making Greek verses; Romulus +appearing to me after midnight, when dreams are true, forbade me in +words to this effect; "You could not be guilty of more madness by +carrying timber into a wood, than by desiring to throng in among the +great crowds of Grecian writers."</p> + +<p>While bombastical Alpinus murders Memnon, and while he deforms the muddy +source of the Rhine, I amuse myself with these satires; which can +neither be recited in the temple [of Apollo], as contesting for the +prize when Tarpa presides as judge, nor can have a run over and over +again represented in the theatres. You, O Fundanius, of all men +breathing are the most capable of prattling tales in a comic vein, how +an artful courtesan and a Davus impose upon an old Chremes. Pollio sings +the actions of kings in iambic measure; the sublime Varias composes the +manly epic, in a manner that no one can equal: to Virgil the Muses, +delighting in rural scenes, have granted the delicate and the elegant. +It was this kind [of satiric writing], the Aticinian Varro and some +others having attempted it without success, in which I may have some +slight merit, inferior to the inventor: nor would I presume to pull off +the [laurel] crown placed upon his brow with great applause.</p> + +<p>But I said that he flowed muddily, frequently indeed bearing along more +things which ought to be taken away than left. Be it so; do you, who are +a scholar, find no fault with any thing in mighty Homer, I pray? Does +the facetious Lucilius make no alterations in the tragedies of Accius? +Does not he ridicule many of Ennius' verses, which are too light for +the gravity [of the subject]? When he speaks of himself by no means as +superior to what he blames. What should hinder me likewise, when I am +reading the works of Lucilius, from inquiring whether it be his +[genius], or the difficult nature of his subject, that will not suffer +his verses to be more finished, and to run more smoothly than if some +one, thinking it sufficient to conclude a something of six feet, be fond +of writing two hundred verses before he eats, and as many after supper? +Such was the genius of the Tuscan Cassius, more impetuous than a rapid +river; who, as it is reported, was burned [at the funeral pile] with his +own books and papers. Let it be allowed, I say, that Lucilius was a +humorous and polite writer; that he was also more correct than [Ennius], +the author of a kind of poetry [not yet] well cultivated, nor attempted +by the Greeks, and [more correct likewise] than the tribe of our old +poets: but yet he, if he had been brought down by the Fates to this age +of ours, would have retrenched a great deal from his writings: he would +have pruned off every thing that transgressed the limits of perfection; +and, in the composition of verses, would often have scratched his head, +and bit his nails to the quick.</p> + +<p>You that intend to write what is worthy to be read more than once, blot +frequently: and take no-pains to make the multitude admire you, content +with a few [judicious] readers. What, would you be such a fool as to be +ambitious that your verses should be taught in petty schools? That is +not my case. It is enough for me, that the knight [Maecenas] applauds: +as the courageous actress, Arbuscula, expressed herself, in contempt of +the rest of the audience, when she was hissed [by the populace]. What, +shall that grubworm Pantilius have any effect upon me? Or can it vex me, +that Demetrius carps at me behind my back? or because the trifler +Fannius, that hanger-on to Hermogenes Tigellius, attempts to hurt me? +May Plotius and Varius, Maecenas and Virgil, Valgius and Octavius +approve these Satires, and the excellent Fuscus likewise; and I could +wish that both the Visci would join in their commendations: ambition +apart, I may mention you, O Pollio: you also, Messala, together with +your brother; and at the same time, you, Bibulus and Servius; and along +with these you, candid Furnius; many others whom, though men of learning +and my friends, I purposely omit—to whom I would wish these Satires, +such as they are, may give satisfaction; and I should be chagrined, if +they pleased in a degree below my expectation. You, Demetrius, and you, +Tigellius, I bid lament among the forms of your female pupils.</p> + +<p>Go, boy, and instantly annex this Satire to the end of my book.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_SECOND_BOOK_OF_THE_SATIRES_OF_HORACE" id="THE_SECOND_BOOK_OF_THE_SATIRES_OF_HORACE" />THE SECOND BOOK OF THE SATIRES OF HORACE.</h2> + + + +<p>SATIRE I.</p> + +<p><i>He supposes himself to consult with Trebatius, whether he should desist +from writing satires, or not</i>.</p> + + +<p>There are some persons to whom I seem too severe in [the writing of] +satire, and to carry it beyond proper bounds: another set are of +opinion, that all I have written is nerveless, and that a thousand +verses like mine may be spun out in a day. Trebatius, give me your +advice, what shall I do. Be quiet. I should not make, you say, verses at +all. I do say so. May I be hanged, if that would not be best: but I can +not sleep. Let those, who want sound sleep, anointed swim thrice across +the Tiber: and have their clay well moistened with wine over-night. Or, +if such a great love of scribbling hurries you on, venture to celebrate +the achievements of the invincible Caesar, certain of bearing off ample +rewards for your pains.</p> + +<p>Desirous I am, my good father, [to do this,] but my strength fails me, +nor can any one describe the troops bristled with spears, nor the Gauls +dying on their shivered darts, nor the wounded Parthian falling from his +horse. Nevertheless you may describe him just and brave, as the wise +Lucilius did Scipio. I will not be wanting to myself, when an +opportunity presents itself: no verses of Horace's, unless well-timed, +will gain the attention of Caesar; whom, [like a generous steed,] if you +stroke awkwardly, he will kick upon you, being at all quarters on his +guard. How much better would this be, than to wound with severe satire +Pantolabus the buffoon, and the rake Nomentanus! when every body is +afraid for himself, [lest he should be the next,] and hates you, though +he is not meddled with. What shall I do? Milonius falls a dancing the +moment he becomes light-headed and warm, and the candles appear +multiplied. Castor delights in horsemanship: and he, who sprang from the +same egg, in boxing. As many thousands of people [as there are in the +world], so many different inclinations are there. It delights me to +combine words in meter, after the manner of Lucilius, a better man than +both of us. He long ago communicated his secrets to his books, as to +faithful friends; never having recourse elsewhere, whether things went +well or ill with him: whence it happens, that the whole life of this old +[poet] is as open to the view, as if it had been painted en a votive +tablet. His example I follow, though in doubt whether I am a Lucanian or +an Apulian; for the Venusinian farmers plow upon the boundaries of both +countries, who (as the ancient tradition has it) were sent, on the +expulsion of the Samnites, for this purpose, that the enemy might not +make incursions on the Romans, through a vacant [unguarded frontier]: or +lest the Apulian nation, or the fierce Lucanian, should make an +invasion. But this pen of mine shall not willfully attack any man +breathing, and shall defend me like a sword that is sheathed in the +scabbard which why should I attempt to draw, [while I am] safe from +hostile villains? O Jupiter, father and sovereign, may my weapon laid +aside wear away with rust, and may no one injure me, who am desirous of +peace? But that man shall provoke me (I give notice, that it is better +not to touch me) shall weep [his folly], and as a notorious character +shall be sung through all the streets of Rome.</p> + +<p>Cervius, when he is offended, threatens one with the laws and the +[judiciary] urn; Canidia, Albutius' poison to those with whom she is at +enmity, Turius [threatens] great damages, if you contest any thing while +he is judge. How every animal terrifies those whom he suspects, with +that in which he is most powerful, and how strong natural instinct +commands this, thus infer with me.—The wolf attacks with his teeth, the +bull with his horns. From what principle is this, if not a suggestion +from within? Intrust that debauchee Scaeva with the custody of his +ancient mother; his pious hand will commit no outrage. A wonder indeed! +just as the wolf does not attack any one with his hoof, nor the bull +with his teeth; but the deadly hemlock in the poisoned honey will take +off the old dame.</p> + +<p>That I may not be tedious, whether a placid old age awaits me, or +whether death now hovers about me with his sable wings; rich or poor, at +Rome or (if fortune should so order it) an exile abroad; whatever be the +complexion of my life, I will write. O my child, I fear you can not be +long, lived; and that some creature of the great ones will strike you +with the cold of death. What? when Lucilius had the courage to be the +first in composing verses after this manner, and to pull off that mask, +by means of which each man strutted in public view with a fair outside, +though foul within; was Laelius, and he who derived a well deserved +title from the destruction of Carthage, offended at his wit, or were +they hurt at Metellus being lashed, or Lupus covered over with his +lampoons? But he took to task the heads of the people, and the people +themselves, class by class; in short, he spared none but virtue and her +friends. Yet, when the valorous Scipio, and the mild philosophical +Laelius, had withdrawn themselves from the crowd and the public scene, +they used to divert themselves with him, and joke in a free manner, +while a few vegetables were boiled [for supper]. Of whatever rank I am, +though below the estate and wit of Lucilius, yet envy must be obliged to +own that I have lived well with great men; and, wanting to fasten her +tooth upon some weak part, will strike it against the solid: unless you, +learned Trebatius, disapprove of any thing [I have said]. For my part, I +can not make any objection to this. But however, that forewarned you may +be upon your guard, lest in ignorance of our sacred laws should bring +you into trouble, [be sure of this] if any person shall make scandalous +verses against a particular man, an action lies, and a sentence. +Granted, if they are scandalous: but if a man composes good ones, and is +praised by such a judge as Caesar? If a man barks only at him who +deserves his invectives, while he himself is unblamable? The process +will be canceled with laughter: and you, being dismissed, may depart in +peace.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE II.</p> + +<p><i>On Frugality</i>.</p> + + +<p>What and how great is the virtue to live on a little (this is no +doctrine of mine, but what Ofellus the peasant, a philosopher without +rules and of a home-spun wit, taught me), learn, my good friends, not +among dishes and splendid tables; when the eye is dazzled with the vain +glare, and the mind, intent upon false appearances, refuses [to admit] +better things; but here, before dinner, discuss this point with me. Why +so? I will inform you, if I can. Every corrupted judge examines badly +the truth. After hunting the hare, or being wearied by an unruly horse, +or (if the Roman exercise fatigues you, accustomed to act the Greek) +whether the swift ball, while eagerness softens and prevents your +perceiving the severity of the game, or quoits (smite the yielding air +with the quoit) when exercise has worked of squeamishness, dry and +hungry, [then let me see you] despise mean viands; and don't drink +anything but Hymettian honey qualified with Falernian wine. Your butler +is abroad, and the tempestuous sea preserves the fish by its wintery +storms; bread and salt will sufficiently appease an importunate stomach. +Whence do you think this happens? and how is it obtained? The consummate +pleasure is not in the costly flavor, but in yourself. Do you seek for +sauce by sweating. Neither oysters, nor scar, nor the far-fetched +lagois, can give any pleasure to one bloated and pale through +intemperance. Nevertheless, if a peacock were served up, I should hardly +be able to prevent your gratifying the palate with that, rather than a +pullet, since you are prejudiced by the vanities of things; because the +scarce bird is bought with gold, and displays a fine sight with its +painted tail, as if that were anything to the purpose. "What; do you eat +that plumage, which you extol? or has the bird the same beauty when +dressed? Since however there is no difference in the meat, in one +preferably to the other; it is manifest that you are imposed upon by the +disparity of their appearances. Be it so.</p> + +<p>By what gift are you able to distinguish, whether this lupus, that now +opens its jaws before us, was taken in the Tiber, or in the sea? whether +it was tossed between the bridges or at the mouth of the Tuscan river? +Fool, you praise a mullet, that weighs three pounds; which you are +obliged to cut into small pieces. Outward appearances lead you, I see. +To what intent then do you contemn large lupuses? Because truly these +are by nature bulky, and those very light. A hungry stomach seldom +loathes common victuals. O that I could see a swingeing mullet extended +on a swingeing dish! cries that gullet, which is fit for the voracious +harpies themselves. But O [say I] ye southern blasts, be present to +taint the delicacies of the [gluttons]: though the boar and turbot +newly taken are rank, when surfeiting abundance provokes the sick +stomach; and when the sated guttler prefers turnips and sharp +elecampane. However, all [appearance of] poverty is not quite banished +from the banquets of our nobles; for there is, even at this day, a place +for paltry eggs and black olives. And it was not long ago, since the +table of Gallonius, the auctioneer, was rendered infamous, by having a +sturgeon, [served whole upon it]. What? was the sea at that time less +nutritive of turbots? The turbot was secure and the stork unmolested in +her nest; till the praetorian [Sempronius], the inventor, first taught +you [to eat them]. Therefore, if any one were to give it out that +roasted cormorants are delicious, the Roman youth, teachable in +depravity, would acquiesce, in it.</p> + +<p>In the judgment of Ofellus, a sordid way of living will differ widely +from frugal simplicity. For it is to no purpose for you to shun that +vice [of luxury]; if you perversely fly to the contrary extreme. +Avidienus, to whom the nickname of Dog is applied with propriety, eats +olives of five years old, and wild cornels, and can not bear to rack off +his wine unless it be turned sour, and the smell of his oil you can not +endure: which (though clothed in white he celebrates the wedding +festival, his birthday, or any other festal days) he pours out himself +by little and little from a horn cruet, that holds two pounds, upon his +cabbage, [but at the same time] is lavish enough of his old vinegar.</p> + +<p>What manner of living therefore shall the wise man put in practice, and +which of these examples shall he copy? On one side the wolf presses on, +and the dog on the other, as the saying is. A person will be accounted +decent, if he offends not by sordidness, and is not despicable through +either extreme of conduct. Such a man will not, after the example, of +old Albutius, be savage while he assigns to his servants their +respective offices; nor, like simple Naevius, will he offer greasy water +to his company: for this too is a great fault.</p> + +<p>Now learn what and how great benefits a temperate diet will bring along +with it. In the first place, you will enjoy good health; for you may +believe how detrimental a diversity of things is to any man, when you +recollect that sort of food, which by its simplicity sat so well upon +your stomach some time ago. But, when you have once mixed boiled and +roast together, thrushes and shell-fish; the sweet juices will turn +into bile, and a thick phlegm will bring a jarring upon the stomach. Do +not you see, how pale each guest rises from a perplexing variety of +dishes at an entertainment. Beside this, the body, overloaded with the +debauch of yesterday, depresses the mind along with it, and dashes to +the earth that portion of the divine spirit. Another man, as soon as he +has taken a quick repast, and rendered up his limbs to repose, rises +vigorous to the duties of his calling. However, he may sometimes have +recourse to better cheer; whether the returning year shall bring on a +festival, or if he have a mind to refresh his impaired body; and when +years shall approach, and feeble age require to be used more tenderly. +But as for you, if a troublesome habit of body, or creeping old age, +should come upon you, what addition can be made to that soft indulgence, +which you, now in youth and in health anticipate?</p> + +<p>Our ancestors praised a boar when it was stale not because they had no +noses; but with this view, I suppose, that a visitor coming later than +ordinary [might partake of it], though a little musty, rather than the +voracious master should devour it all himself while sweet. I wish that +the primitive earth had produced me among such heroes as these.</p> + +<p>Have you any regard for reputation, which affects the human ear more +agreeably than music? Great turbots and dishes bring great disgrace +along with them, together with expense. Add to this, that your relations +and neighbors will be exasperated at you, while you will be at enmity +with yourself and desirous of death in vain, since you will not in your +poverty have three farthings left to purchase a rope withal. Trausius, +you say, may with justice be called to account in such language as this; +but I possess an ample revenue, and wealth sufficient for three +potentates, Why then have you no better method of expending your +superfluities? Why is any man, undeserving [of distressed +circumstances], in want, while you abound: How comes it to pass, that +the ancient temples of the gods are falling to ruin? Why do not you, +wretch that you are, bestow something on your dear country, out of so +vast a hoard? What, will matters always go well with you alone? O thou, +that hereafter shalt be the great derision of thine enemies! which of +the two shall depend upon himself in exigences with most certainty? He +who has used his mind and high-swollen body to redundancies; or he who, +contented with a little and provident for the future, like a Wise man +in time of peace, shall make the necessary preparations for war?</p> + +<p>That you may the more readily give credit to these things: I myself, +when a little boy, took notice that this Ofellua did not use his +unencumbered estate more profusely, than he does now it is reduced. You +may see the sturdy husbandman laboring for hire in the land [once his +own, but now] assigned [to others], with his cattle and children, +talking to this effect; I never ventured to eat any thing on a work-day +except pot-herbs, with a hock of smoke-dried bacon. And when a friend +came to visit me after a long absence, or a neighbor, an acceptable +guest to me resting from work on account of the rain, we lived well; not +on fishes fetched from the city, but on a pullet and a kid: then a dried +grape, and a nut, with a large fig, set off our second course. After +this, it was our diversion to have no other regulation in our cups, save +that against drinking to excess; then Ceres worshiped [with a libation], +that the corn might arise in lofty stems, smoothed with wine the +melancholy of the contracted brow. Let fortune rage, and stir up new +tumults what can she do more to impair my estate? How much more savingly +have either I lived, or how much less neatly have you gone, my children, +since this new possessor came? For nature has appointed to be lord of +this earthly property, neither him, nor me, nor any one. He drove us +out: either iniquity or ignorance in the quirks of the law shall [do the +same] him: certainly in the end his long lived heir shall expel him. Now +this field under the denomination of Umbrenus', lately it was Ofellus', +the perpetual property of no man; for it turns to my use one while, and +by and by to that of another. Wherefore, live undaunted; and oppose +gallant breasts against the strokes of adversity.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE III.</p> + +<p><i>Damasippus, in a conversation with Horace, proves this paradox of the +Stoic philosophy, that most men are actually mad</i>.</p> + + +<p>You write so seldom, as not to call for parchment four times in the +year, busied in reforming your writings, yet are you angry with +yourself, that indulging in wine and sleep you produce nothing worthy to +be the subject of conversation. What will be the consequence? But you +took refuge here, it seems, at the very celebration of the Saturnalia, +out of sobriety. Dictate therefore something worthy of your promises; +begin. There is nothing. The pens are found fault with to no purpose, +and the harmless wall, which must have been built under the displeasure +of gods and poets, suffers [to no end]. But you had the look of one that +had threatened many and excellent things, when once your villa had +received you, free from employment, under its warm roof. To what purpose +was it to stow Plato upon Menander? Eupolis, Archilochus? For what end +did you bring abroad such companions? What? are you setting about +appeasing envy by deserting virtue? Wretch, you will be despised. That +guilty Siren, Sloth, must be avoided; or whatever acquisitions you have +made in the better part of your life, must with equanimity be given up. +May the gods and godnesses, O Damasippus, present you with a barber for +your sound advice! But by what means did you get so well acquainted with +me? Since all my fortunes were dissipated at the middle of the exchange, +detached from all business of my own, I mind that of other people. For +formerly I used to take a delight in inquiring, in what vase the crafty +Sisyphus might have washed his feet; what was carved in an unworkmanlike +manner, and what more roughly cast than it ought to be; being a +connoisseur, I offered a hundred thousand sesterces for such a statue; I +was the only man who knew how to purchase gardens and fine seats to the +best advantage: whence the crowded ways gave me the surname of +Mercurial. I know it well; and am amazed at your being cured of that +disorder. Why a new disorder expelled the old one in a marvelous manner; +as it is accustomed to do, when the pain of the afflicted side, or the +head, is turned upon the stomach; as it is with a man in a lethargy, +when he turns boxer, and attacks his physician. As long as you do +nothing like this, be it even as you please. O my good friend, do not +deceive yourself; you likewise are mad, and it is almost "fools all," if +what Stertinius insists upon has any truth in it; from whom, being of a +teachable disposition, I derived these admirable precepts, at the very +time when, having given me consolation, he ordered me to cultivate a +philosophical beard, and to return cheerfully from the Fabrician bridge. +For when, my affairs being desperate, I had a mind to throw myself into +the river, having covered my head [for that purpose], he fortunately was +at my elbow; and [addressed me to this effect]: Take care, how do any +thing unworthy of yourself; a false shame, says he, afflicts you, who +dread to be esteemed a madman among madmen. For in the first place, I +will inquire, what it is to be mad: and, if this distemper be in you +exclusively, I will not add a single word, to prevent you from dying +bravely.</p> + +<p>The school and sect of Chrysippus deem every man mad, whom vicious folly +or the ignorance of truth drives blindly forward. This definition takes +in whole nations, this even great kings, the wise man [alone] excepted. +Now learn, why all those, who have fixed the name of madman upon you, +are as senseless as yourself. As in the woods, where a mistake makes +people wander about from the proper path; one goes out of the way to the +right, another to the left; there is the same blunder on both sides, +only the illusion is in different directions: in this manner imagine +yourself mad; so that he, who derides you, hangs his tail not one jot +wiser than yourself. There is one species of folly, that dreads things +not in the least formidable; insomuch that it will complain of fires, +and rocks, and rivers opposing it in the open plain; there is another +different from this, but not a whit more approaching to wisdom, that +runs headlong through the midst of flames and floods. Let the loving +mother, the virtuous sister, the father, the wife, together with all the +relations [of a man possessed with this latter folly], cry out: "Here is +a deep ditch; here is a prodigious rock; take care of yourself:" he +would give no more attention, than did the drunken Fufius some time ago, +when he overslept the character of Ilione, twelve hundred Catieni at the +same time roaring out, <i>O mother, I call you to my aid</i>. I will +demonstrate to you, that the generality of all mankind are mad in the +commission of some folly similar to this.</p> + +<p>Damasippus is mad for purchasing antique statues: but is Damasippus' +creditor in his senses? Well, suppose I should say to you: receive this, +which you can never repay: will you be a madman, if you receive it; or +would you be more absurd for rejecting a booty, which propitious Mercury +offers? Take bond, like the banker Nerius, for ten thousand sesterces; +it will not signify: add the forms of Cicuta, so versed in the knotty +points of law: add a thousand obligations: yet this wicked Proteus will +evade all these ties. When you shall drag him to justice, laughing as if +his cheeks were none of his own; he will be transformed into a boar, +sometimes into a bird, sometimes into a stone, and when he pleases Into +a tree. If to conduct one's affairs badly be the part of a madman; and +the reverse, that of a man well in his senses; brain of Perillius +(believe me), who orders you [that sum of money], which you can never +repay, is much more unsound [than yours].</p> + +<p>Whoever grows pale with evil ambition, or the love of money: whoever is +heated with luxury, or gloomy superstition, or any other disease of the +mind, I command him to adjust his garment and attend: hither, all of ye, +come near me in order, while I convince you that you are mad.</p> + +<p>By far the largest portion of hellebore is to be administered to the +covetous: I know not, whether reason does not consign all Anticyra to +their use. The heirs of Staberius engraved the sum [which he left them] +upon his tomb: unless they had acted in this manner, they were under an +obligation to exhibit a hundred pair of gladiators to the people, beside +an entertainment according to the direction of Arrius; and as much corn +as is cut in Africa. Whether I have willed this rightly or wrongly, it +was my will; be not severe against me, [cries the testator]. I imagine +the provident mind of Staberius foresaw this. What then did he moan, +when he appointed by will that his heirs should engrave the sum of their +patrimony upon his tomb-stone? As long as he lived, he deemed poverty a +great vice, and nothing did he more industriously avoid: insomuch that, +had he died less rich by one farthing, the more Iniquitous would he have +appeared to himself. For every thing, virtue, fame, glory, divine and +human affairs, are subservient to the attraction of riches; which +whoever shall have accumulated, shall be illustrious, brave, just—What, +wise too? Ay, and a king, and whatever else he pleases. This he was in +hopes would greatly redound to his praise, as if it had been an +acquisition of his virtue. In what respect did the Grecian Aristippus +act like this; who ordered his slaves to throw away his gold in the +midst of Libya; because, encumbered with the burden, they traveled too +slowly? Which is the greater madman of these two? An example is nothing +to the purpose, that decides one controversy by creating another. If any +person were to buy lyres, and [when he had bought them] to stow them in +one place; though neither addicted to the lyre nor to any one muse +whatsoever: if a man were [to buy] paring-knives and lasts, and were no +shoemaker; sails fit for navigation, and were averse to merchandizing; +he every where deservedly be styled delirious, and out of his senses. +How does he differ from these, who boards up cash and gold [and] knows +not how to use them when accumulated, and is afraid to touch them as if +they were consecrated? If any person before a great heap of corn should +keep perpetual watch with a long club, and, though the owner of it, and +hungry, should not dare to take a single grain from it; and should +rather feed upon bitter leaves: if while a thousand hogsheads of Chian, +or old Falernian, is stored up within (nay, that is nothing—three +hundred thousand), he drink nothing, but what is mere sharp vinegars +again—if, wanting but one year of eighty, he should lie upon straw, who +has bed-clothes rotting in his chest, the food of worms and moths; he +would seem mad, belike, but to few persons: because the greatest part of +mankind labors, under the same malady.</p> + +<p>Thou dotard, hateful to the gods, dost thou guard [these possessions], +for fear of wanting thyself: to the end that thy son, or even the +freedman thy heir, should guzzle it all up? For how little will each day +deduct from your capital, if you begin to pour better oil upon your +greens and your head, filthy with scurf not combed out? If any thing be +a sufficiency, wherefore are you guilty of perjury [wherefore] do you +rob, and plunder from all quarters? Are you in your senses? If you were +to begin to pelt the populace with stones, and the slaves, which you +purchased with your money; all the: very boys and girls will cry out +that you are a madman. When you dispatch your wife with a rope, and your +mother with poison, are you right in your head? Why not? You neither did +this at Argos, nor slew your mother with the sword, as the mad Orestes +did. What, do you imagine that he ran? mad after he had murdered his +parent; and that he was not driven mad by the wicked Furies, before he +warmed his sharp steel in his mother's throat? Nay, from the time that +Orestes is deemed to have been of a dangerous disposition, he did +nothing in fact that you can blame; he did not dare to offer violence +with his sword to Pylades, nor to his sister Electra; he only gave ill +language to both of them, by calling her a Fury, and him some other +[opprobrious name], which, his violent choler suggested.</p> + +<p>Opimius, poor amid silver and gold hoarded up within, who used to drink +out of Campanian ware Veientine wine on holidays, and mere dregs on +common days, was some time ago taken with a prodigious lethargy; +insomuch that his heir was already scouring about his coffers and keys, +in joy and triumph. His physician, a man of much dispatch and fidelity, +raises him in this manner: he orders a table to be brought, and the bags +of money to be poured out, and several persons to approach in order to +count it: by this method he sets the man upon his legs again. And at the +same time he addresses him to this effect. Unless you guard your money +your ravenous heir will even now carry off these [treasures] of yours. +What, while I am alive? That you may live, therefore, awake; do this. +What would you have me do? Why your blood will fail you that are so much +reduced, unless food and some great restorative be administered to your +decaying stomach. Do you hesitate? come on; take this ptisan made of +rice. How much did it cost? A trifle. How much then? Eight asses. Alas! +what does it matter, whether I die of a disease, or by theft and rapine?</p> + +<p>Who then is sound? He, who is not a fool. What is the covetous man? Both +a fool and a madman. What—if a man be not covetous, is he immediately +[to be deemed] sound? By no means. Why so, Stoic? I will tell you. Such +a patient (suppose Craterus [the physician] said this) is not sick at +the heart. Is he therefore well, and shall he get up? No, he will forbid +that; because his side or his reins are harassed with an acute disease. +[In like manner], such a man is not perjured, nor sordid; let him then +sacrifice a hog to his propitious household gods. But he is ambitious +and assuming. Let him make a voyage [then] to Anticyra. For what is the +difference, whether you fling whatever you have into a gulf, or make no +use of your acquisitions?</p> + +<p>Servius Oppidius, rich in the possession of an ancient estate, is +reported when dying to have divided two farms at Canusium between his +two sons, and to have addressed the boys, called to his bed-side, [in +the following manner]: When I saw you, Aulus, carry your playthings and +nuts carelessly in your bosom, [and] to give them and game them away; +you, Tiberius, count them, and anxious hide them in holes; I was afraid +lest a madness of a different nature should possess you: lest you +[Aulus], should follow the example of Nomentanus, you, [Tiberius], that +of Cicuta. Wherefore each of you, entreated by our household gods, do +you (Aulus) take care lest you lessen; you (Tiberius) lest you make that +greater, which your father thinks and the purposes of nature determine +to be sufficient. Further, lest glory should entice you, I will bind +each of you by an oath: whichever of you shall be an aedile or a +praetor, let him be excommunicated and accursed. Would you destroy your +effects in [largesses of] peas, beans, and lupines, that you may stalk +in the circus at large, or stand in a statue of brass, O madman, +stripped of your paternal estate, stripped of your money? To the end, +forsooth, that you may gain those applauses, which Agrippa gains, like a +cunning fox imitating a generous lion?</p> + +<p>O Agamemnon, why do you prohibit any one from burying Ajax? I am a king. +I, a plebeian, make no further inquiry. And I command a just thing: but, +if I seem unjust to any one, I permit you to speak your sentiments with +impunity. Greatest of kings, may the gods grant that, after the taking +of Troy, you may conduct your fleet safe home: may I then have the +liberty to ask questions, and reply in my turn? Ask. Why does Ajax, the +second hero after Achilles, rot [above ground], so often renowned for +having saved the Grecians; that Priam and Priam's people may exult in +his being unburied, by whose means so many youths have been deprived of +their country's rites of sepulture. In his madness he killed a thousand +sheep, crying out that he was destroying the famous Ulysses and +Menelaus, together with me. When you at Aulis substituted your sweet +daughter in the place of a heifer before the altar, and, O impious one, +sprinkled her head with the salt cake; did you preserve soundness of +mind? Why do you ask? What then did the mad Ajax do, when he slew the +flock with his sword? He abstained from any violence to his wife and +child, though he had imprecated many curses on the sons of Atreus: he +neither hurt Teucer, nor even Ulysses himself. But I, out of prudence, +appeased the gods with blood, that I might loose the ships detained on +an adverse shore. Yes, madman! with your own blood. With my own +[indeed], but I was not mad. Whoever shall form images foreign from +reality, and confused in the tumult of impiety, will always be reckoned +disturbed in mind: and it will not matter, whether he go wrong through +folly or through rage. Is Ajax delirious, while he kills the harmless +lambs? Are you right in your head, when you willfully commit a crime for +empty titles? And is your heart pure, while it is swollen with the vice? +If any person should take a delight to carry about with him in his sedan +a pretty lambkin; and should provide clothes, should provide maids and +gold for it, as for a daughter, should call it Rufa and Rufilla, and +should destine it a wife for some stout husband; the praetor would +take power from him being interdicted, and the management of him would +devolve to his relations, that were in their senses. What, if a man +devote his daughter instead of a dumb lambkin, is he right of mind? +Never say it. Therefore, wherever there is a foolish depravity, there +will be the height of madness. He who is wicked, will be frantic too: +Bellona, who delights in bloodshed, has thundered about him, whom +precarious fame has captivated.</p> + +<p>Now, come on, arraign with me luxury and Nomentanus; for reason will +evince that foolish spendthrifts are mad. This fellow, as soon as he +received a thousand talents of patrimony, issues an order that the +fishmonger, the fruiterer, the poulterer, the perfumer, and the impious +gang of the Tuscan alley, sausage-maker, and buffoons, the whole +shambles, together with [all] Velabrum, should come to his house in the +morning. What was the consequence? They came in crowds. The pander makes +a speech: "Whatever I, or whatever each of these has at home, believe it +to be yours: and give your order for it either directly, or to-morrow." +Hear what reply the considerate youth made: "You sleep booted in +Lucanian snow, that I may feast on a boar: you sweep the wintry seas for +fish: I am indolent, and unworthy to possess so much. Away with it: do +you take for your share ten hundred thousand sesterces; you as much; you +thrice the sum, from whose house your spouse runs, when called for, at +midnight." The son of Aesopus, [the actor] (that he might, forsooth, +swallow a million of sesterces at a draught), dissolved in vinegar a +precious pearl, which he had taken from the ear of Metella: how much +wiser was he [in doing this,] than if he had thrown the same into a +rapid river, or the common sewer? The progeny of Quintius Arrius, an +illustrious pair of brothers, twins in wickedness and trifling and the +love of depravity, used to dine upon nightingales bought at a vast +expense: to whom do these belong? Are they in their senses? Are they to +be marked With chalk, or with charcoal?</p> + +<p>If an [aged person] with a long beard should take a delight to build +baby-houses, to yoke mice to a go-cart, to play at odd and even, to ride +upon a long cane, madness must be his motive. If reason shall evince, +that to be in love is a more childish thing than these; and that there +is no difference whether you play the same games in the dust as when +three years old, or whine in anxiety for the love of a harlot: I beg to +know, if you will act as the reformed Polemon did of old? Will you lay +aside those ensigns of your disease, your rollers, your mantle, your +mufflers; as he in his cups is said to have privately torn the chaplet +from his neck, after he was corrected by the speech of his fasting +master? When you offer apples to an angry boy, he refuses them: here, +take them, you little dog; he denies you: if you don't give them, he +wants them. In what does an excluded lover differ [from such a boy]; +when he argues with himself whether he should go or not to that very +place whither he was returning without being sent for, and cleaves to +the hated doors? "What shall I not go to her now, when she invites me of +her own accord? or shall I rather think of putting an end to my pains? +She has excluded me; she recalls me: shall I return? No, not if she +would implore me." Observe the servant, not a little wiser: "O master, +that which has neither moderation nor conduct, can not be guided by +reason or method. In love these evils are inherent; war [one while], +then peace again. If any one should endeavor to ascertain these things, +that are various as the weather, and fluctuating by blind chance; he +will make no more of it, than if he should set about raving by right +reason and rule." What—when, picking the pippins from the Picenian +apples, you rejoice if haply you have hit the vaulted roof; are you +yourself? What—when you strike out faltering accents from your +antiquated palate, how much wiser are you than [a child] that builds +little houses? To the folly [of love] add bloodshed, and stir the fire +with a sword. I ask you, when Marius lately, after he had stabbed +Hellas, threw himself down a precipice, was he raving mad? Or will you +absolve the man from the imputation of a disturbed mind, and condemn him +for the crime, according to your custom, imposing, on things named that +have an affinity in signification?</p> + +<p>There was a certain freedman, who, an old man, ran about the streets in +a morning fasting, with his hands washed, and prayed thus: "Snatch me +alone from death" (adding some solemn vow), "me alone, for it is an easy +matter for the gods:" this man was sound in both his ears and eyes; but +his master, when he sold him, would except his understanding, unless he +were fond of law-suits. This crowd too Chrysippus places in the fruitful +family of Menenius.</p> + +<p>O Jupiter, who givest and takest away great afflictions, (cries the +mother of a boy, now lying sick abed for five months), if this cold +quartan ague should leave the child, in the morning of that day on which +you enjoy a fast, he shall stand naked in the Tiber. Should chance or +the physician relieve the patient from his imminent danger, the +infatuated mother will destroy [the boy] placed on the cold bank, and +will bring back the fever. With what disorder of the mind is she +stricken? Why, with a superstitious fear of the gods.</p> + +<p>These arms Stertinius, the eighth of the wise men, gave to me, as to a +friend, that for the future I might not be roughly accosted without +avenging myself. Whosoever shall call me madman, shall hear as much from +me [in return]; and shall learn to look back upon the bag that hangs +behind him.</p> + +<p>O Stoic, so may you, after your damage, sell all your merchandise the +better: what folly (for, [it seems,] there are more kinds than one) do +you think I am infatuated with? For to myself I seem sound. What—when +mad Agave carries the amputated head of her unhappy son, does she then +seem mad to herself? I allow myself a fool (let me yield to the truth) +and a madman likewise: only declare this, with what distemper of mind +you think me afflicted. Hear, then: in the first place you build; that +is, though from top to bottom you are but of the two-foot size you +imitate the tall: and you, the same person, laugh at the spirit and +strut of Turbo in armor, too great for his [little] body: how are you +less ridiculous than him? What—is it fitting that, in every thing +Maecenas does, you, who are so very much unlike him and so much his +inferior, should vie with him? The young ones of a frog being in her +absence crushed by the foot of a calf, when one of them had made his +escape, he told his mother what a huge beast had dashed his brethren to +pieces. She began to ask, how big? Whether it were so great? puffing +herself up. Greater by half. What, so big? when she had swelled herself +more and more. If you should burst yourself, says he, you will not be +equal to it. This image bears no great dissimilitude to you. Now add +poems (that is, add oil to the fire), which if ever any man in his +senses made, why so do you. I do not mention your horrid rage. At +length, have done—your way of living beyond your fortune—confine +yourself to your own affairs, Damasippus—those thousand passions for +the fair, the young. Thou greater madman, at last, spare thy inferior.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE IV.</p> + +<p><i>He ridicules the absurdity of one Catius, who placed the summit of +human felicity in the culinary art</i>.</p> + + +<p>Whence, and whither, Catius? I have not time [to converse with you], +being desirous of impressing on my memory some new precepts; such as +excel Pythagoras, and him that was accused by Anytus, and the learned +Plato. I acknowledge my offense, since I have interrupted you at so +unlucky a juncture: but grant me your pardon, good sir, I beseech you. +If any thing should have slipped you now, you will presently recollect +it: whether this talent of yours be of nature, or of art, you are +amazing in both. Nay, but I was anxious, how I might retain all [these +precepts]; as being things of a delicate nature, and in a delicate +style. Tell me the name of this man; and at the same time whether he is +a Roman, or a foreigner? As I have them by heart, I will recite the +precepts: the author shall be concealed.</p> + +<p>Remember to serve up those eggs that are of an oblong make, as being of +sweeter flavor and more nutritive than the round ones: for, being +tough-shelled, they contain a male yelk. Cabbage that grows in dry +lands, is sweeter than that about town: nothing is more insipid than a +garden much watered. If a visitor should come unexpectedly upon you in +the evening, lest the tough old hen prove disagreeable to his palate, +you must learn to drown it in Falernian wine mixed [with water]: this +will make it tender. The mushrooms that grow in meadows, are of the best +kind: all others are dangerously trusted. That man shall spend his +summers healthy who shall finish his dinners with mulberries black [with +ripeness], which he shall have gathered from the tree before the sun +becomes violent. Aufidius used to mix honey with strong Falernian +injudiciously; because it is right to commit nothing to the empty veins, +but what is emollient: you will, with more propriety, wash your stomach +with soft mead. If your belly should be hard bound, the limpet and +coarse cockles will remove obstructions, and leaves of the small sorrel; +but not without Coan white wine. The increasing moons swell the +lubricating shell-fish. But every sea is not productive of the exquisite +sorts. The Lucrine muscle is better than the Baian murex: [The best] +oysters come from the Circaean promontory; cray-fish from Misenum: the +soft Tarentum plumes herself on her broad escalops. Let no one +presumptuously arrogate to himself the science of banqueting, unless the +nice doctrine of tastes has been previously considered by him with exact +system. Nor is it enough to sweep away a parcel of fishes from the +expensive stalls, [while he remains] ignorant for what sort stewed sauce +is more proper, and what being roasted, the sated guest will presently +replace himself on his elbow. Let the boar from Umbria, and that which +has been fed with the acorns of the scarlet oak, bend the round dishes +of him who dislikes all flabby meat: for the Laurentian boar, fattened +with flags and reeds, is bad. The vineyard does not always afford the +most eatable kids. A man of sense will be fond of the shoulders of a +pregnant hare. What is the proper age and nature of fish and fowl, +though inquired after, was never discovered before my palate. There are +some, whose genius invents nothing but new kinds of pastry. To waste +one's care upon one thing, is by no means sufficient; just as if any +person should use all his endeavors for this only, that the wine be not +bad; quite careless what oil he pours upon his fish. If you set out +Massic wine in fair weather, should there be any thing thick in it, it +will be attenuated by the nocturnal air, and the smell unfriendly to the +nerves will go off: but, if filtrated through linen, it will lose its +entire flavor. He, who skillfully mixes the Surrentine wine with +Falernian lees, collects the sediment with a pigeon's egg: because the +yelk sinks to the bottom, rolling down with it all the heterogeneous +parts. You may rouse the jaded toper with roasted shrimps and African +cockles; for lettuce after wine floats upon the soured stomach: by ham +preferably, and by sausages, it craves to be restored to its appetite: +nay, it will prefer every thing which is brought smoking hot from the +nasty eating-houses. It is worth while to be acquainted with the two +kinds of sauce. The simple consists of sweet oil; which it will be +proper to mix with rich wine and pickle, but with no other pickle than +that by which the Byzantine jar has been tainted. When this, mingled +with shredded herbs, has boiled, and sprinkled with Corycian saffron, +has stood, you shall over and above add what the pressed berry of the +Venafran olive yields. The Tiburtian yield to the Picenian apples in +juice, though they excel in look. The Venusian grape is proper for +[preserving in] pots. The Albanian you had better harden in the smoke. I +am found to be the first that served up this grape with apples in neat +little side-plates, to be the first [likewise that served up] wine-lees +and herring-brine, and white pepper finely mixed with black salt. It is +an enormous fault to bestow three thousand sesterces on the fish-market, +and then to cramp the roving fishes in a narrow dish. It causes a great +nausea in the stomach, if even the slave touches the cup with greasy +hands, while he licks up snacks, or if offensive grime has adhered to +the ancient goblet. In trays, in mats, in sawdust, [that are so] cheap, +what great expense can there be? But, if they are neglected, it is a +heinous shame. What, should you sweep Mosaic pavements with a dirty +broom made of palm, and throw Tyrian carpets over the unwashed furniture +of your couch! forgetting, that by how much less care and expense these +things are attended, so much the more justly may [the want of them] be +censured, than of those things which can not be obtained but at the +tables of the rich?</p> + +<p>Learned Catius, entreated by our friendship and the gods, remember to +introduce me to an audience [with this great man], whenever you shall go +to him. For, though by your memory you relate every thing to me, yet as +a relater you can not delight me in so high a degree. Add to this the +countenance and deportment of the man; whom you, happy in having seen, +do not much regard, because it has been your lot: but I have no small +solicitude, that I may approach the distant fountain-heads, and imbibe +the precepts of [such] a blessed life.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE V.</p> + +<p><i>In a humorous dialogue between Ulysses and Tiresias, he exposes those +arts which the fortune hunters make use of, in order to be appointed the +heirs of rich old men</i>.</p> + + +<p>Beside what you have told me, O Tiresias, answer to this petition of +mine: by what arts and expedients may I be able to repair my ruined +fortunes—why do you laugh? Does it already seem little to you, who are +practiced in deceit, to be brought back to Ithaca, and to behold [again] +your family household gods? O you who never speak falsely to anyone, you +see how naked and destitute I return home, according to your prophecy: +nor is either my cellar, or my cattle there, unembezzled by the suitors +[of Penelope]. But birth and virtue, unless [attended] with substance, +is viler than sea weed.</p> + +<p>Since (circumlocutions apart) you are in dread of poverty hear by what +means you may grow wealthy. If a thrush, or any [nice] thing for your +own private [eating], shall be given you; it must wing way to that +place, where shines a great fortune, the possessor being an old man: +delicious apples, and whatever dainties your well-cultivated ground +brings forth for you, let the rich man, as more to be reverenced than +your household god, taste before him: and, though he be perjured, of no +family, stained with his brother's blood, a runaway; if he desire it, do +not refuse to go along with him, his companion on the outer side. What, +shall I walk cheek by jole with a filthy Damas? I did not behave myself +in that manner at Troy, contending always with the best. You must then +be poor. I will command my sturdy soul to bear this evil; I have +formerly endured even greater. Do thou, O prophet, tell me forthwith how +I may amass riches and heaps of money. In troth I have told you, and +tell you again. Use your craft to lie at catch for the last wills of old +men: nor, if one or two cunning chaps escape by biting the bait off the +hook, either lay aside hope, or quit the art, though disappointed in +your aim. If an affair, either of little or great consequence, shall be +contested at any time at the bar; whichever of the parties live wealthy +without heirs, should he be a rogue, who daringly takes the law of a +better man, be thou his advocate: despise the citizen, who is superior +in reputation, and [the justness of] his cause, if at home he has a son +or a fruitful wife. [Address him thus:] "Quintus, for instance, or +Publius (delicate ears delight in the prefixed name), your virtue has +made me your friend. I am acquainted with the precarious quirks of the +law; I can plead causes. Any one shall sooner snatch my eyes from me, +than he shall despise or defraud you of an empty nut. This is my care, +that you lose nothing, that you be not made a jest of." Bid him go home, +and make much of himself. Be his solicitor yourself: persevere, and be +steadfast: whether the glaring dog-star shall cleave the infant statues; +or Furius, destined with his greasy paunch, shall spue white snow over +the wintery Alps. Do not you see (shall someone say, jogging the person +that stands next to him by the elbow) how indefatigable he is, how +serviceable to his friends, how acute? [By this means] more tunnies +shall swim in, and your fish-ponds will increase.</p> + +<p>Further, if any one in affluent circumstances has reared an ailing son, +lest a too open complaisance to a single man should detect you, creep +gradually into the hope [of succeeding him], and that you may be set +down as second heir; and, if any casualty ahould dispatch the boy to +Hades, you may come into the vacancy. This die seldom fails. Whoever +delivers his will to you to read, be mindful to decline it, and push the +parchment from you: [do it] however in such a manner, that you may catch +with an oblique glance, what the first page intimates to be in the +second clause: run over with a quick eye, whether you are sole heir, or +co-heir with many. Sometimes a well-seasoned lawyer, risen from a +Quinquevir, shall delude the gaping raven; and the fortune-hunter Nasica +shall be laughed at by Coranus.</p> + +<p>What, art thou in a [prophetic] raving; or dost thou play upon me +designedly, by uttering obscurities? O son of Laertes, whatever I shall +say will come to pass, or it will not: for the great Apollo gives me the +power to divine. Then, if it is proper, relate what that tale means.</p> + +<p>At that time when the youth dreaded by the Parthians, an offspring +derived from the noble Aeneas, shall be mighty by land and sea; the tall +daughter of Nasica, averse to pay the sum total of his debt, shall wed +the stout Coranus. Then the son-in-law shall proceed thus: he shall +deliver his will to his father-in-law, and entreat him to read it; +Nasica will at length receive it, after it has been several times +refused, and silently peruse it; and will find no other legacy left to +him and his, except leave to lament.</p> + +<p>To these [directions I have already given], I subjoin the [following]: +if haply a cunning woman or a freedman have the management of an old +driveler, join with them as an associate: praise them, that you may be +praised in your absence. This too is of service; but to storm [the +capital] itself excels this method by far. Shall he, a dotard, scribble +wretched verses? Applaud them. Shall he be given to pleasure? Take care +[you do not suffer him] to ask you: of your own accord complaisantly +deliver up your Penelope to him, as preferable [to yourself]. What—do +you think so sober and so chaste a woman can be brought over, whom [so +many] wooers could not divert from the right course. Because, forsooth, +a parcel of young fellows came, who were too parsimonious to give a +great price, nor so much desirous of an amorous intercourse, as of the +kitchen. So far your Penelope is a good woman: who, had she once tasted +of one old [doting gallant], and shared with you the profit, like a +hound, will never be frighted away from the reeking skin [of the new +killed game].</p> + +<p>What I am going to tell you happened when I was an old man. A wicked hag +at Thebes was, according to her will, carried forth in this manner: her +heir bore her corpse, anointed with a large quantity of oil, upon his +naked shoulders; with the intent that, if possible, she might escape +from him even when dead: because, I imagine, he had pressed upon her too +much when living. Be cautious in your addresses: neither be wanting in +your pains, nor immoderately exuberant. By garrulity you will offend the +splenetic and morose. You must not, however, be too silent. Be Davus in +the play; and stand with your head on one side, much like one who is in +great awe. Attack him with complaisance: if the air freshens, advise him +carefully to cover up his precious head: disengage him from the crowd by +opposing your shoulders to it: closely attach your ear to him if chatty. +Is he immoderately fond of being praised? Pay him home, till he shall +cry out, with his hands lifted up to heaven, "Enough:" and puff up the +swelling bladder with tumid speeches. When he shall have [at last] +released you from your long servitude and anxiety; and being certainly +awake, you shall hear [this article in his will]? "Let Ulysses be heir +to one fourth of my estate:" "is then my companion Damas now no more? +where shall I find one so brave and so faithful?" Throw out [something +of this kind] every now and then: and if you can a little, weep for him. +It is fit to disguise your countenance, which [otherwise] would betray +your joy. As for the monument, which is left to your own discretion, +erect it without meanness. The neighborhood will commend the funeral +handsomely performed. If haply any of your co-heirs, being advanced in +years, should have a dangerous cough; whether he has a mind to be a +purchaser of a farm or a house out of your share, tell him, you will +[come to any terms he shall propose, and] make it over to him gladly for +a trifling sum. But the Imperious Proserpine drags me hence. Live, and +prosper.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE VI.</p> + +<p><i>He sets the conveniences of a country retirement in opposition to the +troubles of a life in town</i>.</p> + + +<p>This was [ever] among the number of my wishes: a portion of ground not +over large, in which was a garden, and a fountain with a continual +stream close to my house, and a little Woodland besides. The gods have +done more abundantly, and better, for me [than this]. It is well: O son +of Maia, I ask nothing more save that you would render these donations +lasting to me. If I have neither made my estate larger by bad means, nor +am in a way to make it less by vice or misconduct; if I do not foolishly +make any petition of this sort—"Oh that that neighboring angle, which +now spoils the; regularity of my field, could be added! Oh that some +accident would discover to me an urn [full] of money! as it did to him, +who having found a treasure, bought that very ground he before tilled in +the capacity of an hired servant, enriched by Hercules' being his +friend;" if what I have at present satisfies me grateful, I supplicate +you with this prayer: make my cattle fat for the use of their master, +and every thing else, except my genius: and, as you are wont, be present +as my chief guardian. Wherefore, when I have removed myself from the +city to the mountains and my castle, (what can I polish, preferably to +my satires and prosaic muse?) neither evil ambition destroys me, nor the +heavy south wind, nor the sickly autumn, the gain of baleful Libitina.</p> + +<p>Father of the morning, or Janus, if with more pleasure thou hearest +thyself [called by that name], from whom men commence the toils of +business, and of life (such is the will of the gods), be thou the +beginning of my song. At Rome you hurry me away to be bail; "Away, +dispatch, [you cry,] lest any one should be beforehand with you in doing +that friendly office:" I must go, at all events, whether the north wind +sweep the earth, or winter contracts the snowy day into a narrower +circle. After this, having uttered in a clear and determinate manner +[the legal form], which may be a detriment to me, I must bustle through +the crowd; and must disoblige the tardy. "What is your will, madman, and +what are you about, impudent fellow?" So one accosts me with his +passionate curses. "You jostle every thing that is in your way, if with +an appointment full in your mind you are away to Maecenas." This pleases +me, and is like honey: I will not tell a lie. But by the time I reached +the gloomy Esquiliae, a hundred affairs of other people's encompass me +on every side: "Roscius begged that you would be with him at the +court-house to-morrow before the second hour." "The secretaries +requested you would remember, Quintus, to return to-day about an affair +of public concern, and of great consequence." "Get Maecenas to put his +signet to these tablets." Should one say, "I will endeavor at it:" "If +you will, you can," adds he; and is more earnest. The seventh year +approaching to the eighth is now elapsed, from the time that Maecenas +began to reckon me in the number of his friends; only thus far, as one +he would like to take along with him in his chariot, when he went a +journey, and to whom he would trust such kind of trifles as these: "What +is the hour?" "Is Gallina, the Thracian, a match for [the gladiator] +Syrus?" "The cold morning air begins to pinch those that are ill +provided against it;"—and such things-as are well enough intrusted to a +leaky ear. For all this time, every day and hour, I have been more +subjected to envy. "Our son of fortune here, says every body, witnessed +the shows in company with [Maecenas], and played with him in the Campus +Martius." Does any disheartening report spread from the rostrum through +the streets, whoever comes in my way consults me [concerning it]: "Good +sir, have you (for you must know, since you approach nearer the gods) +heard any thing relating to the Dacians?" "Nothing at all for my part," +[I reply]. "How you ever are a sneerer!" "But may all the gods torture +me, if I know any thing of the matter." "What? will Caesar give the +lands he promised the soldiers, in Sicily, or in Italy?" As I am +swearing I know nothing about it, they wonder at me, [thinking] me, to +be sure, a creature of profound and extraordinary secrecy.</p> + +<p>Among things of this nature the day is wasted by me, mortified as I am, +not without such wishes as these: O rural retirement, when shall I +behold thee? and when shall it be in my power to pass through the +pleasing oblivion of a life full of solicitude, one while with the books +of the ancients, another while in sleep and leisure? O when shall the +bean related to Pythagoras, and at the same time herbs well larded with +fat bacon, be set before me? O evenings, and suppers fit for gods! with +which I and my friends regale ourselves in the presence of my household +gods; and feed my saucy slaves with viands, of which libations have been +made. The guest, according to every one's inclination, takes off the +glasses of different sizes, free from mad laws: whether one of a strong +constitution chooses hearty bumpers; or another more joyously gets +mellow with moderate ones. Then conversation arises, not concerning +other people's villas and houses, nor whether Lepos dances well or not; +but we debate on what is more to our purpose, and what it is pernicious +not to know—whether men are made happier by riches or by virtue; or +what leads us into intimacies, interest or moral rectitude; and what is +the nature of good, and what its perfection. Meanwhile, my neighbor +Cervius prates away old stories relative to the subject. For, if any one +ignorantly commends the troublesome riches of Aurelius, he thus begins: +"On a time a country-mouse is reported to have received a city-mouse +into his poor cave, an old host, his old acquaintance; a blunt fellow +and attentive to his acquisitions, yet so as he could [on occasion] +enlarge his narrow soul in acts of hospitality. What need of many words? +He neither grudged him the hoarded vetches, nor the long oats; and +bringing in his mouth a dry plum, and nibbled scraps of bacon, presented +them to him, being desirous by the variety of the supper to get the +better of the daintiness of his guest, who hardly touched with his +delicate tooth the several things: while the father of the family +himself, extended on fresh straw, ate a spelt and darnel" leaving that +which was better [for his guest]. At length the citizen addressing him, +'Friend,' says he, 'what delight have you to live laboriously on the +ridge of a rugged thicket? Will you not prefer men and the city to the +savage woods? Take my advice, and go along with me: since mortal lives +are allotted to all terrestrial animals, nor is there any escape from +death, either for the great or the small. Wherefore, my good friend, +while it is in your power, live happy in joyous circumstances: live +mindful of how brief an existence you are.' Soon as these speeches had +wrought upon the peasant, he leaps nimbly from his cave: thence they +both pursue their intended journey, being desirous to steal under the +city walls by night. And now the night possessed the middle region of +the heavens, when each of them set foot in a gorgeous palace, where +carpets dyed with crimson grain glittered upon ivory couches, and many +baskets of a magnificent entertainment remained, which had yesterday +been set by in baskets piled upon one another. After he had placed the +peasant then, stretched at ease upon a splendid carpet; he bustles about +like an adroit host, and keeps bringing up one dish close upon another, +and with an affected civility performs all the ceremonies, first tasting +of every thing he serves up. He, reclined, rejoices in the change of his +situation, and acts the part of a boon companion in the good cheer: when +on a sudden a prodigious rattling of the folding doors shook them both +from their couches. Terrified they began to scamper all about the room, +and more and more heartless to be in confusion, while the lofty house +resounded with [the barking of] mastiff dogs; upon which, says the +country-mouse, 'I have no desire for a life like this; and so farewell: +my wood and cave, secure from surprises, shall with homely tares comfort +me.'"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE VII.</p> + +<p><i>One of Horace's slaves, making use of that freedom which was allowed +them at the Saturnalia, rates his master in a droll and severe manner</i>.</p> + + +<p>I have a long while been attending [to you], and would fain speak a few +words [in return; but, being] a slave, I am afraid. What, Davus? Yes, +Davus, a faithful servant to his master and an honest one, at least +sufficiently so: that is, for you to think his life in no danger. Well +(since our ancestors would have it so), use the freedom of December +speak on.</p> + +<p>One part of mankind are fond of their vices with some constancy and +adhere to their purpose: a considerable part fluctuates; one while +embracing the right, another while liable to depravity. Priscus, +frequently observed with three rings, sometimes with his left hand bare, +lived so irregularly that he would change his robe every hour; from a +magnificent edifice, he would on a sudden hide himself in a place, +whence a decent freedman could scarcely come out in a decent manner; one +while he would choose to lead the life of a rake at Rome, another while +that of a teacher at Athens; born under the evil influence of every +Vertumnus. That buffoon, Volanerius, when the deserved gout had crippled +his fingers, maintained [a fellow] that he had hired at a daily price, +who took up the dice and put them into a box for him: yet by how much +more constant was he in his vice, by so much less wretched was he than +the former person, who is now in difficulties by too loose, now by too +tight a rein.</p> + +<p>"Will you not tell to-day, you varlet, whither such wretched stuff as +this tends?" "Why, to you, I say." "In what respect to me, scoundrel?" +"You praise the happiness and manners of the ancient [Roman] people; and +yet, if any god were on a sudden to reduce you to to them, you, the same +man, would earnestly beg to be excused; either because you are not +really of opinion that what you bawl about is right; or because you are +irresolute in defending the right, and hesitate, in vain desirous to +extract your foot from the mire. At Rome, you long for the country; when +you are in the country, fickle, you extol the absent city to the skies. +If haply you are invited out nowhere to supper, you praise your quiet +dish of vegetables; and as if you ever go abroad upon compulsion, you +think yourself so happy, and do so hug yourself, that you are obliged to +drink out nowhere. Should Maecenas lay his commands on you to come late, +at the first lighting up of the lamps, as his guest; 'Will nobody bring +the oil with more expedition? Does any body hear?' You stutter with a +mighty bellowing, and storm with rage. Milvius, and the buffoons [who +expected to sup with you], depart, after having uttered curses not +proper to be repeated. Any one may say, for I own [the truth], that I am +easy to be seduced by my appetite; I snuff up my nose at a savory smell: +I am weak, lazy; and, if you have a mind to add any thing else, I am a +sot. But seeing you are as I am, and perhaps something worse, why do you +willfully call me to an account as if you were the better man; and, with +specious phrases, disguise your own vice? What, if you are found out to +be a greater fool than me, who was purchased for five hundred drachmas? +Forbear to terrify me with your looks; restrain your hand and your +anger, while I relate to you what Crispinus' porter taught me.</p> + +<p>"Another man's wife captivates you; a harlot, Davus: which of us sins +more deservingly of the cross? When keen nature inflames me, any common +wench that picks me up, dismisses me neither dishonored, nor caring +whether a richer or a handsomer man enjoys her next. You, when you have +cast off your ensigns of dignity, your equestrian ring and your Roman +habit, turn out from a magistrate a wretched Dama, hiding with a cape +your perfumed head: are you not really what you personate? You are +introduced, apprehensive [of consequences]; and, as you are altercating +With your passions, your bones shake with fear. What is the difference +whether you go condemned [like a gladiator], to be galled with scourges, +or slain with the sword; or be closed up in a filthy chest, where [the +maid], concious of her mistress' crime, has stowed you? Has not the +husband of the offending dame a just power over both; against the +seducer even a juster? But she neither changes her dress, nor place, nor +sins to that excess [which you do]; since the woman is in dread of you, +nor gives any credit to you, though you profess to love her. You must go +under the yoke knowingly, and put all your fortune, your life, and +reputation, together with your limbs, into the power of an enraged +husband. Have you escaped? I suppose, then, you will be afraid [for the +future]; and, being warned, will be cautious. No, you will seek occasion +when you may be again in terror, and again may be likely to perish. O so +often a slave! What beast, when it has once escaped by breaking its +toils, absurdly trusts itself to them again? You say, "I am no +adulterer." Nor, by Hercules, am I a thief, when I wisely pass by the +silver vases. Take away the danger, and vagrant nature will spring +forth, when restraints are removed. Are you my superior, subjected as +you are, to the dominion of so many things and persons, whom the +praetor's rod, though placed on your head three or four times over, can +never free from this wretched solicitude? Add, to what has been said +above, a thing of no less weight; whether he be an underling, who obeys +the master-slave (as it is your custom to affirm), or only a +fellow-slave, what am I in respect of you? You, for example, who have +the command of me, are in subjection to other things, and are led about, +like a puppet movable by means of wires not its own.</p> + +<p>"Who then is free? The wise man, who has dominion over himself; whom +neither poverty, nor death, nor chains affright; brave in the checking +of his appetites, and in contemning honors; and, perfect in himself, +polished and round as a globe, so that nothing from without can retard, +in consequence of its smoothness; against whom misfortune ever advances +ineffectually. Can you, out of these, recognize any thing applicable to +yourself? A woman demands five talents of you, plagues you, and after +you are turned out of doors, bedews you with cold water: she calls you +again. Rescue your neck from this vile yoke; come, say, I am free, I am +free. You are not able: for an implacable master oppresses your mind, +and claps the sharp spurs to your jaded appetite, and forces you on +though reluctant. When you, mad one, quite languish at a picture by +Pausias; how are you less to blame than I, when I admire the combats of +Fulvius and Rutuba and Placideianus, with their bended knees, painted in +crayons or charcoal, as if the men were actually engaged, and push and +parry, moving their weapons? Davus is a scoundrel and a loiterer; but +you have the character of an exquisite and expert connoisseur in +antiquities. If I am allured by a smoking pasty, I am a good-for-nothing +fellow: does your great virtue and soul resist delicate entertainments? +Why is a tenderness for my belly too destructive for me? For my back +pays for it. How do you come off with more impunity, since you hanker +after such dainties as can not be had for a little expense? Then those +delicacies, perpetually taken, pall upon the stomach; and your mistaken +feet refuse to support your sickly body. Is that boy guilty, who by +night pawns a stolen scraper for some grapes? Has he nothing servile +about him, who in indulgence to his guts sells his estates? Add to this, +that you yourself can not be an hour by yourself, nor dispose of your +leisure in a right manner; and shun yourself as a fugitive and vagabond, +one while endeavoring with wine, another while with sleep, to cheat +care—in vain: for the gloomy companion presses upon you, and pursues +you in your flight.</p> + +<p>"Where can I get a stone?" "What occasion is there for it?" "Where some +darts?" "The man is either mad, or making verses." "If you do not take +yourself away in an instant, you shall go [and make] a ninth laborer at +my Sabine estate."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE VIII.</p> + +<p><i>A smart description of a miser ridiculously acting the extravagant.</i></p> + + +<p>How did the entertainment of that happy fellow Nasidienus please you? +for yesterday, as I was seeking to make you my guest, you were said to +be drinking there from mid-day. [It pleased me so], that I never was +happier in my life. Say (if it be not troublesome) what food first +calmed your raging appetite.</p> + +<p>In the first place, there was a Lucanian boar, taken when the gentle +south wind blew, as the father of the entertainment affirmed; around it +sharp rapes, lettuces, radishes; such things as provoke a languid +appetite; skirrets, anchovies, dregs of Coan wine. These once removed, +one slave, tucked high with a purple cloth, wiped the maple table, and a +second gathered up whatever lay useless, and whatever could offend the +guests; swarthy Hydaspes advances like an Attic maid with Ceres' sacred +rites, bearing wines of Caecubum; Alcon brings those of Chios, undamaged +by the sea. Here the master [cries], "Maecenas, if Alban or Falernian +wine delight you more than those already brought, we have both."</p> + +<p>Ill-fated riches! But, Fundanius, I am impatient to know, who were +sharers in this feast where you fared so well.</p> + +<p>I was highest, and next me was Viscus Thurinus, and below, if I +remember, was Varius; with Servilius Balatro, Vibidius, whom Maecenas +had brought along with him, unbidden guests. Above [Nasidienus] himself +was Nomentanus, below him Porcius, ridiculous for swallowing whole cakes +at once. Nomentanus [was present] for this purpose, that if any thing +should chance to be unobserved, he might show it with his pointing +finger. For the other company, we, I mean, eat [promiscuously] of fowls, +oysters, fish, which had concealed in them a juice far different from +the known: as presently appeared, when he reached to me the entrails of +a plaice and of a turbot, such as had never been tasted before. After +this he informed me that honey-apples were most ruddy when gathered +under the waning moon. What difference this makes you will hear best +from himself. Then [says] Vibidius to Balatro; "If we do not drink to +his cost, we shall die in his debt;" and he calls for larger tumblers. A +paleness changed the countenance of our host, who fears nothing so much +as hard drinkers: either because they are more freely censorious; or +because heating wines deafen the subtle [judgment of the] palate. +Vibidius and Balatro, all following their example, pour whole casks into +Alliphanians; the guests of the lowest couch did no hurt to the flagons. +A lamprey is brought in, extended in a dish, in the midst of floating +shrimps. Whereupon, "This," says the master, "was caught when pregnant; +which, after having young, would have been less delicate in its flesh." +For these a sauce is mixed up; with oil which the best cellar of +Venafrum pressed, with pickle from the juices of the Iberian fish, with +wine of five years old, but produced on this side the sea, while it is +boiling (after it is boiled, the Chian wine suits it so well, that no +other does better than it) with white pepper, and vinegar which, by +being vitiated, turned sour the Methymnean grape. I first showed the way +to stew in it the green rockets and bitter elecampane: Curtillus, [to +stew in it] the sea-urchins unwashed, as being better than the pickle +which the sea shell-fish yields.</p> + +<p>In the mean time the suspended tapestry made a heavy downfall upon the +dish, bringing along with it more black dust than the north wind ever +raises on the plains of Campania. Having been fearful of something +worse, as soon as we perceive there was no danger, we rise up. Rufus, +hanging his head, began to weep, as if his son had come to an untimely +death: what would have been the end, had not the discreet Nomentanus +thus raised his friend! "Alas! O fortune, what god is more cruel to us +than thou? How dost thou always take pleasure in sporting with human +affairs!" Varius could scarcely smother a laugh with his napkin. +Balatro, sneering at every thing, observed: "This is the condition of +human life, and therefore a suitable glory will never answer your labor. +Must you be rent and tortured with all manner of anxiety, that I may be +entertained sumptuously; lest burned bread, lest ill-seasoned soup +should be set before us; that all your slaves should wait, properly +attired and neat? Add, besides, these accidents; if the hangings should +tumble down, as just now, if the groom slipping with his foot should +break a dish. But adversity is wont to disclose, prosperity to conceal, +the abilities of a host as well as of a general." To this Nasidienus: +"May the gods give you all the blessings, whatever you can pray for, you +are so good a man and so civil a guest;" and calls for his sandals. Then +on every couch you might see divided whispers buzzing in each secret +ear.</p> + +<p>I would not choose to have seen any theatrical entertainments sooner +than these things. But come, recount what you laughed at next. While +Vibidius is inquiring of the slaves, whether the flagon was also broken, +because cups were not brought when he called for them; and while a laugh +is continued on feigned pretences, Balatro seconding it; you Nasidienus, +return with an altered countenance, as if to repair your ill-fortune by +art. Then followed the slaves, bearing on a large charger the several +limbs of a crane besprinkled with much salt, not without flour, and the +liver of a white goose fed with fattening figs, and the wings of hares +torn off, as a much daintier dish than if one eats them with the loins. +Then we saw blackbirds also set before us with scorched breasts, and +ring-doves without the rumps: delicious morsels! did not the master give +us the history of their causes and natures: whom we in revenge fled +from, so as to taste nothing at all; as if Canidia, more venomous than +African serpents, had poisoned them with her breath.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_EPISTLES_OF_HORACE" id="THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_EPISTLES_OF_HORACE" />THE FIRST BOOK OF THE EPISTLES OF HORACE.</h2> + + + +<p>EPISTLE I.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + +<p><i>The poet renounces all verses of a ludicrous turn, and resolves to +apply himself wholly to the study of philosophy, which teaches to bridle +the desires, and to postpone every thing to virtue.</i></p> + + +<p>Maecenas, the subject of my earliest song, justly entitled to my latest, +dost thou seek to engage me again in the old lists, having been tried +sufficiently, and now presented with the foils? My age is not the same, +nor is my genius. Veianius, his arms consecrated on a pillar of +Hercules' temple, lives snugly retired in the country, that he may not +from the extremity of the sandy amphitheater so often supplicate the +people's favor. Some one seems frequently to ring in my purified ear: +"Wisely in time dismiss the aged courser, lest, an object of derision, +he miscarry at last, and break his wind." Now therefore I lay aside both +verses, and all other sportive matters; my study and inquiry is after +what is true and fitting, and I am wholly engaged in this: I lay up, and +collect rules which I may be able hereafter to bring into use. And lest +you should perchance ask under what leader, in what house [of +philosophy], I enter myself a pupil: addicted to swear implicitly to the +ipse-dixits of no particular master, wherever the weather drives me, I +am carried a guest. One while I become active, and am plunged in the +waves of state affairs, a maintainer and a rigid partisan of strict +virtue; then again I relapse insensibly into Aristippus' maxims, and +endeavor to adapt circumstances to myself, not myself to circumstances. +As the night seems long to those with whom a mistress has broken her +appointment, and the day slow to those who owe their labor; as the year +moves lazy with minors, whom the harsh guardianship of their mothers +confines; so all that time to me flows tedious and distasteful, which +delays my hope and design of strenuously executing that which is of +equal benefit to the poor and to the rich, which neglected will be of +equal detriment to young and to old. It remains, that I conduct and +comfort myself by these principles; your sight is not so piercing as +that of Lynceus; you will not however therefore despise being anointed, +if you are sore-eyed: nor because you despair of the muscles of the +invincible Glycon, will you be careless of preserving your body from the +knotty gout. There is some point to which we may reach, if we can go no +further. Does your heart burn with avarice, and a wretched desire of +more? Spells there are, and incantations, with which you may mitigate +this pain, and rid yourself of a great part of the distemper. Do you +swell with the love of praise? There are certain purgations which can +restore you, a certain treatise, being perused thrice with purity of +mind. The envious, the choleric, the indolent, the slave to wine, to +women—none is so savage that he can not be tamed, if he will only lend +a patient ear to discipline.</p> + +<p>It is virtue, to fly vice; and the highest wisdom, to have lived free +from folly. You see with what toil of mind and body you avoid those +things which you believe to be the greatest evils, a small fortune and a +shameful repulse. An active merchant, you run to the remotest Indies, +fleeing poverty through sea, through rocks, through flames. And will you +not learn, and hear, and be advised by one who is wiser, that you may no +longer regard those things which you foolishly admire and wish for? What +little champion of the villages and of the streets would scorn being +crowned at the great Olympic games, who had the hopes and happy +opportunity of victory without toil? Silver is less valuable than gold, +gold than virtue. "O citizens, citizens, money is to be sought first; +virtue after riches:" this the highest Janus from the lowest inculcates; +young men and old repeat these maxims, having their bags and +account-books hung on the left arm. You have soul, have breeding, have +eloquence and honor: yet if six or seven thousand sesterces be wanting +to complete your four hundred thousand, you shall be a plebeian. But +boys at play cry, "You shall be king, if you will do right." Let this be +a [man's] brazen wall, to be conscious of no ill, to turn pale with no +guilt. Tell me, pray is the Roscian law best, or the boy's song which +offers the kingdom to them that do right, sung by the manly Curii and +Camilli? Does he advise you best, who says, "Make a fortune; a fortune, +if you can, honestly; if not, a fortune by any means"—that you may view +from a nearer bench the tear-moving poems of Puppius; or he, who still +animates and enables you to stand free and upright, a match for haughty +fortune?</p> + +<p>If now perchance the Roman people should ask me, why I do not enjoy the +same sentiments with them, as [I do the same] porticoes, nor pursue or +fly from whatever they admire or dislike; I will reply, as the cautious +fox once answered the sick lion: "Because the foot-marks all looking +toward you, and none from you, affright me." Thou art a monster with +many heads. For what shall I follow, or whom? One set of men delight to +farm the public revenues: there are some, who would inveigle covetous +widows with sweet-meats and fruits, and insnare old men, whom they would +send [like fish] into their ponds: the fortunes of many grow by +concealed usury. But be it, that different men are engaged in different +employments and pursuits: can the same persons continue an hour together +approving the same things? If the man of wealth has said, "No bay in the +world outshines delightful Baiae," the lake and the sea presently feel +the eagerness of their impetuous master: to whom, if a vicious humor +gives the omen, [he will cry,]—"to-morrow, workmen, ye shall convey +hence your tools to Teanum." Has he in his hall the genial bed? He says +nothing is preferable to, nothing better than a single life. If he has +not, he swears the married only are happy. With what noose can I hold +this Proteus, varying thus his forms? What does the poor man? Laugh [at +him too]: is he not forever changing his garrets, beds, baths, barbers? +He is as much surfeited in a hired boat, as the rich man is, whom his +own galley conveys.</p> + +<p>If I meet you with my hair cut by an uneven barber, you laugh [at me]: +if I chance to have a ragged shirt under a handsome coat, or if my +disproportioned gown fits me ill, you laugh. What [do you do], when my +judgment contradicts itself? it despises what it before desired; seeks +for that which lately it neglected; is all in a ferment, and is +inconsistent in the whole tenor of life; pulls down, builds up, changes +square to round. In this case, you think I am mad in the common way, and +you do not laugh, nor believe that I stand in need of a physician, or +of a guardian assigned by the praetor; though you are the patron of my +affairs, and are disgusted at the ill-pared nail of a friend that +depends upon you, that reveres you.</p> + +<p>In a word, the wise man is inferior to Jupiter alone, is rich, free, +honorable, handsome, lastly, king of kings; above all, he is sound, +unless when phlegm is troublesome.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE II.</p> + +<p>TO LOLLIUS.</p> + +<p><i>He prefers Homer to all the philosophers, as a moral writer, and +advises an early cultivation of virtue</i>.</p> + + +<p>While you, great Lollius, declaim at Rome, I at Praeneste have perused +over again the writer of the Trojan war; who teaches more clearly, and +better than Chrysippus and Crantor, what is honorable, what shameful, +what profitable, what not so. If nothing hinders you, hear why I have +thus concluded. The story is which, on account of Paris's intrigue, +Greece is stated to be wasted in a tedious war with the barbarians, +contains the tumults of foolish princes and people. Antenor gives his +opinion for cutting off the cause of the war. What does Paris? He can +not be brought to comply, [though it be in order] that he may reign +safe, and live happy. Nestor labors to compose the differences between +Achilles and Agamemnon: love inflames one; rage both in common. The +Greeks suffer for what their princes act foolishly. Within the walls of +Ilium, and without, enormities are committed by sedition, treachery, +injustice, and lust, and rage.</p> + +<p>Again, to show what virtue and what wisdom can do, he has propounded +Ulysses an instructive pattern: who, having subdued Troy, wisely got an +insight into the constitutions and customs of many nations; and, while +for himself and his associates he is contriving a return, endured many +hardships on the spacious sea, not to be sunk by all the waves of +adversity. You are well acquainted with the songs of the Sirens, and +Circe's cups: of which, if he had foolishly and greedily drunk along +with his attendants, he had been an ignominious and senseless slave +under the command of a prostitute: he had lived a filthy dog, or a hog +delighting in mire.</p> + +<p>We are a mere number and born to consume the fruits of the earth; like +Penelope's suitors, useless drones; like Alcinous' youth, employed above +measure in pampering their bodies; whose glory was to sleep till +mid-day, and to lull their cares to rest by the sound of the harp. +Robbers rise by night, that they may cut men's throats; and will not you +awake to save yourself? But, if you will not when you are in health, you +will be forced to take exercise when you are in a dropsy; and unless +before day you call for a book with a light, unless you brace your mind +with study and honest employments, you will be kept awake and tormented +with envy or with love. For why do you hasten to remove things that hurt +your eyes, but if any thing gnaws your mind, defer the time of curing it +from year to year? He has half the deed done, who has made a beginning. +Boldly undertake the study of true wisdom: begin it forthwith. He who +postpones the hour of living well, like the hind [in the fable], waits +till [all the water in] the river be run off: whereas it flows, and will +flow, ever rolling on.</p> + +<p>Money is sought, and a wife fruitful in bearing children, and wild +woodlands are reclaimed by the plow. [To what end all this?] He, that +has got a competency, let him wish for no more. Not a house and farm, +nor a heap of brass and gold, can remove fevers from the body of their +sick master, or cares from his mind. The possessor must be well, if he +thinks of enjoying the things which he has accumulated. To him that is a +slave to desire or to fear, house and estate do just as much good as +paintings to a sore-eyed person, fomentations to the gout, music to ears +afflicted with collected matter. Unless the vessel be sweet, whatever +you pour into it turns sour. Despise pleasures, pleasure bought with +pain is hurtful. The covetous man is ever in want; set a certain limit +to your wishes. The envious person wastes at the thriving condition of +another: Sicilian tyrants never invented a greater torment than envy. He +who will not curb his passion, will wish that undone which his grief and +resentment suggested, while he violently plies his revenge with unsated +rancor. Rage is a short madness. Rule your passion, which commands, if +it do not obey; do you restrain it with a bridle, and with fetters. The +groom forms the docile horse, while his neck is yet tender, to go the +way which his rider directs him: the young hound, from the time that he +barked at the deer's skin in the hall, campaigns it in the woods. Now, +while you are young, with an untainted mind Imbibe instruction: now +apply yourself to the best [masters of morality]. A cask will long +preserve the flavor, with which when new it was once impregnated. But if +you lag behind, or vigorously push on before, I neither wait for the +loiterer, nor strive to overtake those that precede me.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE III.</p> + + +<p>TO JULIUS FLORUS.</p> + +<p><i>After inquiring about Claudius Tiberius Nero, and some of his friends, +he exhorts Florus to the study of philosophy</i>.</p> + + +<p>I long to know, Julius Florus, in what regions of the earth Claudius, +the step-son of Augustus, is waging war. Do Thrace and Hebrus, bound +with icy chains, or the narrow sea running between the neighboring +towers, or Asia's fertile plains and hills detain you? What works is the +studious train planning? In this too I am anxious—who takes upon +himself to write the military achievements of Augustus? Who diffuses +into distant ages his deeds in war and peace? What is Titius about, who +shortly will be celebrated by every Roman tongue; who dreaded not to +drink of the Pindaric spring, daring to disdain common waters and open +streams: how does he do? How mindful is he of me? Does he employ himself +to adapt Theban measures to the Latin lyre, under the direction of his +muse? Or does he storm and swell in the pompous style of traffic art? +What is my Celsus doing? He has been advised, and the advice is still +often to be repeated, to acquire stock of his own, and forbear to touch +whatever writings the Palatine Apollo has received: lest, if it chance +that the flock of birds should some time or other come to demand their +feathers, he, like the daw stripped of his stolen colors, be exposed to +ridicule. What do you yourself undertake? What thyme are you busy +hovering about? Your genius is not small, is not uncultivated nor +inelegantly rough. Whether you edge your tongue for [pleading] causes, +or whether you prepare to give counsel in the civil law, or whether you +compose some lovely poem; you will bear off the first prize of the +victorious ivy. If now you could quit the cold fomentations of care; +whithersoever heavenly wisdom would lead you, you would go. Let us, +both small and great, push forward in this work, in this pursuit: if to +our country, if to ourselves we would live dear.</p> + +<p>You must also write me word of this, whether Munatiua is of as much +concern to you as he ought to be? Or whether the ill-patched +reconciliation in vain closes, and is rent asunder again? But, whether +hot blood, or inexperience in things, exasperates you, wild as coursers +with unsubdued neck, in whatever place you live, too worthy to break the +fraternal bond, a devoted heifer is feeding against your return.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE IV.</p> + +<p>TO ALBIUS TIBULLUS.</p> + +<p><i>He declares his accomplishments; and, after proposing the thought of +death, converts it into an occasion of pleasantry</i>.</p> + + +<p>Albius, thou candid critic of my discourses, what shall I say you are +now doing in the country about Pedum? Writing what may excel the works +of Cassius Parmensis; or sauntering silently among the healthful groves, +concerning yourself about every thing worthy a wise and good man? You +were not a body without a mind. The gods have given you a beautiful +form, the gods [have given] you wealth, and the faculty of enjoying it.</p> + +<p>What greater blessing could a nurse solicit for her beloved child, than +that he might be wise, and able to express his sentiments; and that +respect, reputation, health might happen to him in abundance, and decent +living, with a never-failing purse?</p> + +<p>In the midst of hope and care, in the midst of fears and disquietudes, +think every day that shines upon you is the last. [Thus] the hour, which +shall not be expected, will come upon you an agreeable addition.</p> + +<p>When you have a mind to laugh, you shall see me fat and sleek with good +keeping, a hog of Epicurus' herd.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE V.</p> + +<p>TO TORQUATUS.</p> + +<p><i>He invites him to a frugal entertainment, but a cleanly and cheerful +one</i>.</p> + + +<p>If you can repose yourself as my guest upon Archias' couches, and are +not afraid to make a whole meal on all sorts of herbs from a moderate +dish; I will expect you, Torquatus, at my house about sun set. You shall +drink wine poured into the vessel in the second consulship of Taurus, +produced between the fenny Minturnae and Petrinum of Sinuessa. If you +have any thing better, send for it; or bring your commands. Bright +shines my hearth, and my furniture is clean for you already. Dismiss +airy hopes, and contests about riches, and Moschus' cause. To-morrow, a +festal day on account of Caesar's birth, admits of indulgence and +repose. We shall have free liberty to prolong the summer evening with +friendly conversation. To what purpose have I fortune, if I may not use +it? He that is sparing out of regard to his heir, and too niggardly, is +next neighbor to a madman. I will begin to drink and scatter flowers, +and I will endure even to be accounted foolish. What does not wine +freely drunken enterprise? It discloses secrets; commands our hopes to +be ratified; pushes the dastard on to the fight; removes the pressure +from troubled minds; teaches the arts. Whom have not plentiful cups made +eloquent? Whom have they not [made] free and easy under pinching +poverty?</p> + +<p>I, who am both the proper person and not unwilling, am charged to take +care of these matters; that no dirty covering on the couch, no foul +napkin contract your nose into wrinkles; and that the cup and the dish +may show you to yourself; that there be no one to carry abroad what is +said among faithful friends; that equals may meet and be joined with +equals I will add to you Butra, and Septicius, and Sabinus, unless a +better entertainment and a mistress more agreeable detain him. There is +room also for many introductions: but goaty ramminess is offensive in +over-crowded companies.</p> + +<p>Do you write word, what number you would be; and setting aside business, +through the back-door give the slip to your client who keeps guard in +your court.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE VI.</p> + +<p>TO NUMICIUS.</p> + +<p><i>That a wise man is in love with nothing but virtue</i>.</p> + + +<p>To admire nothing is almost the one and only thing, Numicius, which can +make and keep a man happy. There are who view this sun, and the stars, +and the seasons retiring at certain periods, untainted with any fear. +What do you think of the gifts of the earth? What of the sea, that +enriches the remote Arabians and Indians? What of scenical shows, the +applause and favors of the kind Roman? In what manner do you think they +are to be looked upon, with what apprehensions and countenance? He that +dreads the reverse of these, admires them almost in the same way as he +that desires them; fear alike disturbs both ways: an unforeseen turn of +things equally terrifies each of them: let a man rejoice or grieve, +desire or fear; what matters it—if, whatever he perceives better or +worse than his expectations, with downcast look he be stupefied in mind +and body? Let the wise man bear the name of fool, the just of unjust; if +he pursue virtue itself beyond proper bounds.</p> + +<p>Go now, look with transport upon silver, and antique marble, and brazen +statues, and the arts: admire gems, and Tyrian dyes: rejoice, that a +thousand eyes are fixed upon you while you speak: industrious repair +early to the forum, late to your house, that Mutus may not reap more +grain [than you] from his lands gained in dowry, and (unbecoming, since +he sprung from meaner parents) that he may not be an object of +admiration to you rather than you to him. Whatever is in the earth, time +will bring forth into open day light; will bury and hide things, that +now shine brightest. When Agrippa's portico, and the Appian way, shall +have beheld you well known; still it remains for you to go where Numa +and Ancus are arrived. If your side or your reins are afflicted with an +acute disease, seek a remedy from the disease. Would you live happily? +Who would not? If virtue alone can confer this, discarding pleasures, +strenuously pursue it. Do you think virtue mere words, as a grove is +trees? Be it your care that no other enter the port before you; that you +lose not your traffic with Cibyra, with Bithynia. Let the round sum of a +thousand talents be completed; as many more; further, let a third +thousand succeed, and the part which may square the heap. For why, +sovereign money gives a wife with a [large] portion, and credit, and +friends, and family, and beauty; and [the goddesses], Persuasion and +Venus, graced the well-moneyed man. The king of the Cappadocians, rich +in slaves, is in want of coin; be not you like him. Lucullus, as they +say, being asked if he could lend a hundred cloaks for the stage, "How +can I so many?" said he: "yet I will see, and send as many as I have;" a +little after he writes that he had five thousand cloaks in his house; +they might take part of them, or all. It is a scanty house, where there +are not many things superfluous, and which escape the owner's notice, +and are the gain of pilfering slaves. If then wealth alone can make and +keep a man happy, be first in beginning this work, be last in leaving it +off. If appearances and popularity make a man fortunate, let as purchase +a slave to dictate [to us] the names [of the citizens], to jog us on the +left-side, and to make us stretch our hand over obstacles: "This man has +much interest in the Fabian, that in the Veline tribe; this will give +the fasces to any one, and, indefatigably active, snatch the curule +ivory from whom he pleases; add [the names of] father, brother: +according as the age of each is, so courteously adopt him. If he who +feasts well, lives well; it is day, let us go whither our appetite leads +us: let us fish, let us hunt, as did some time Gargilius: who ordered +his toils, hunting-spears, slaves, early in the morning to pass through +the crowded forum and the people: that one mule among many, in the sight +of the people, might return loaded with a boar purchased with money. Let +us bathe with an indigested and full-swollen stomach, forgetting what is +becoming, what not; deserving to be enrolled among the citizens of +Caere; like the depraved crew of Ulysses of Ithaca, to whom forbidden +pleasure was dearer than their country. If, as Mimnermus thinks, nothing +is pleasant without love and mirth, live in love and mirth.</p> + +<p>Live: be happy. If you know of any thing preferable to these maxims, +candidly communicate it: if not, with me make use of these.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE VII.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + +<p><i>He apologizes to Maecenas for his long absence from Rome; and +acknowledges his favors to him in such a manner as to declare liberty +preferable to all other blessings</i>.</p> + + +<p>Having promised you that I would be in the country but five days, false +to my word, I am absent the whole of August. But, if you would have me +live sound and in perfect health, the indulgence which you grant me, +Maecenas, when I am ill, you will grant me [also] when I am afraid of +being ill: while [the time of] the first figs, and the [autumnal] heat +graces the undertaker with his black attendants; while every father and +mother turn pale with fear for their children; and while over-acted +diligence, and attendance at the forum, bring on fevers and unseal +wills. But, if the winter shall scatter snow upon the Alban fields, your +poet will go down to the seaside, and be careful of himself, and read +bundled up; you, dear friend, he will revisit with the zephyrs, if you +will give him leave, and with the first swallow.</p> + +<p>You have made me rich, not in the manner in which the Calabrian host +bids [his guest] eat of his pears. "Eat, pray, sir." "I have had +enough." "But take away with you what quantity you will." "You are very +kind." "You will carry them no disagreeable presents to your little +children." "I am as much obliged by your offer, as if I were sent away +loaded." "As you please: you leave them to be devoured to-day by the +hogs." The prodigal and fool gives away what he despises and hates; the +reaping of favors like these has produced, and ever will produce, +ungrateful men. A good and wise man professes himself ready to do +kindness to the deserving; and yet is not ignorant, how true coins +differ from lupines. I will also show myself deserving of the honor of +being grateful. But if you would not have me depart any whither, you +must restore my vigorous constitution, the black locks [that grew] on my +narrow forehead: you must restore to me the power of talking pleasantly: +you must restore to me the art of laughing with becoming ease, and +whining over my liquor at the jilting of the wanton Cynara.</p> + +<p>A thin field-mouse had by chance crept through a narrow cranny into a +chest of grain; and, having feasted itself, in vain attempted to come +out again, with its body now stuffed full. To which a weasel at a +distance cries, "If you would escape thence, repair lean to the narrow +hole which you entered lean." If I be addressed with this similitude, I +resign all; neither do I, sated with delicacies, cry up the calm repose +of the vulgar, nor would I change my liberty and ease for the riches of +the Arabians. You have often commended me for being modest; when present +you heard [from me the appellations of] king and father, nor am I a word +more sparing in your absence. Try whether I can cheerfully restore what +you have given me. Not amiss [answered] Telemachus, son of the patient +Ulysses: "The country of Ithaca is not proper for horses, as being +neither extended into champaign fields, nor abounding with much grass: +Atrides, I will leave behind me your gifts, [which are] more proper for +yourself." Small things best suit the small. No longer does imperial +Rome please me, but unfrequented Tibur, and unwarlike Tarentum.</p> + +<p>Philip, active and strong, and famed for pleading causes, while +returning from his employment about the eighth hour, and now of a great +age, complaining that the Carinae were too far distant from the forum; +spied, as they say, a person clean shaven in a barber's empty shed, +composedly paring his own nails with a knife. "Demetrius," [says he,] +(this slave dexterously received his master's orders,) "go inquire, and +bring me word from what house, who he is, of what fortune, who is his +father, or who is his patron." He goes, returns, and relates, that "he +is by name, Vulteius Maena, an auctioneer, of small fortune, of a +character perfectly unexceptionable, that he could upon occasion ply +busily, and take his ease, and get, and spend; delighting in humble +companions and a settled dwelling, and (after business ended) in the +shows, and the Campus Martius."</p> + +<p>"I would inquire of him himself all this, which you report; bid him come +to sup with me." Maena can not believe it; he wonders silently within +himself. Why many words? He answers, "It is kind." "Can he deny me?" +"The rascal denies, and disregards or dreads you." In the morning Philip +comes unawares upon Vulteius, as he is selling brokery-goods to the +tunic'd populace, and salutes him first. He pleads to Philip his +employment, and the confinement of his business, in excuse for not +having waited upon him in the morning; and afterward, for not seeing him +first. "Expect that I will excuse you on this condition, that you sup +with me to-day." "As you please." "Then you will come after the ninth +hour: now go: strenuously increase your stock." When they were come to +supper, having discoursed of things of a public and private nature, at +length he is dismissed to go to sleep. When he had often been seen, to +repair like a fish to the concealed hook, in the morning a client, and +now as a constant guest; he is desired to accompany [Philip] to his +country-seat near the city, at the proclaiming of the Latin festivals. +Mounted on horseback, he ceases not to cry up the Sabine fields and air. +Philip sees it, and smiles: and, while he is seeking amusement and +diversion for himself out of every thing, while he makes him a present +of seven thousand sesterces, and promises to lend him seven thousand +more: he persuades him to purchase a farm: he purchases one. That I may +not detain you with a long story beyond what is necessary, from a smart +cit he becomes a downright rustic, and prates of nothing but furrows and +vineyards; prepares his elms; is ready to die with eager diligence, and +grows old through a passionate desire of possessing. But when his sheep +were lost by theft, his goats by distemper, his harvest deceived his +hopes, his ox was killed with plowing; fretted with these losses, at +midnight he snatches his nag, and in a passion makes his way to Philip's +house. Whom as soon as Philip beheld, rough and unshaven, "Vulteius," +said he, "you seem to me to be too laborious and earnest." "In truth, +patron," replied he, "you would call me a wretch, if you would apply to +me my true name. I beseech and conjure you then, by your genius and your +right hand and your household gods, restore me to my former life." As +soon as a man perceives, how much the things he has discarded excel +those which he pursues, let him return in time, and resume those which +he relinquished.</p> + +<p>It is a truth, that every one ought to measure himself by his own proper +foot and standard.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE VIII.</p> + +<p>TO CELSUS ALBINOVANUS.</p> + +<p><i>That he was neither well in body, nor in mind; that Celtics should bear +his prosperity with moderation</i>.</p> + + +<p>My muse at my request, give joy and wish success to Celsus Albinovanus, +the attendant and the secretary of Nero. If he shall inquire, what I am +doing, say that I, though promising many and fine things, yet live +neither well [according to the rules of strict philosophy], nor +agreeably; not because the hail has crushed my vines, and the heat has +nipped my olives; nor because my herds are distempered in distant +pastures; but because, less sound in my mind than in my whole body, I +will hear nothing, learn nothing which may relieve me, diseased as I am; +that I am displeased with my faithful physicians, am angry with my +friends for being industrious to rouse me from a fatal lethargy; that I +pursue things which have done me hurt, avoid things which I am persuaded +would be of service, inconstant as the wind, at Rome am in love with +Tibur, at Tibur with Rome. After this, inquire how he does; how he +manages his business and himself; how he pleases the young prince and +his attendants. If he shall say, well; first congratulate him, then +remember to whisper this admonition in his ears: As you, Celsus, bear +your fortunes, so will we bear you.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE IX.</p> + +<p>TO CLAUDIUS TIBERIUS NERO.</p> + +<p><i>He recommends Septimius to him</i>.</p> + + +<p>Of all the men in the world Septimius surely, O Claudius, knows how much +regard you have for me. For when he requests, and by his entreaties in a +manner compels me, to undertake to recommend and introduce him to you, +as one worthy of the confidence and the household of Nero, who is wont +to choose deserving objects, thinking I discharge the office of an +intimate friend; he sees and knows better than myself what I can do. I +said a great deal, indeed, in order that I might come off excused: but I +was afraid, lest I should be suspected to pretend my interest was less +than it is, to be a dissembler of my own power, and ready to serve +myself alone. So, avoiding the reproach of a greater fault, I have put +in for the prize of town-bred confidence. If then you approve of modesty +being superseded at the pressing entreaties of a friend, enrol this +person among your retinue, and believe him to be brave and good.</p> + + + +<p>EPISTLE X.</p> + +<p>TO ARISTIUS FUSCUS.</p> + +<p><i>He praises a country before a city life, as more agreeable to nature, +and more friendly to liberty</i>.</p> + + +<p>We, who love the country, salute Fuscus that loves the town; in this +point alone [being] much unlike, but in other things almost twins, of +brotherly sentiments: whatever one denies the other too [denies]; we +assent together: like old and constant doves, you keep the nest; I +praise the rivulets, the rocks overgrown with moss, and the groves of +the delightful country. Do you ask why? I live and reign, as soon as I +have quitted those things which you extol to the skies with joyful +applause. And, like a priest's, fugitive slave I reject luscious wafers, +I desire plain bread, which is more agreeable now than honied cakes.</p> + +<p>If we must live suitably to nature, and a plot of ground is to be first +sought to raise a house upon, do you know any place preferable to the +blissful country? Is there any spot where the winters are more +temperate? where a more agreeable breeze moderates the rage of the +Dog-star, and the season of the Lion, when once that furious sign has +received the scorching sun? Is there a place where envious care less +disturbs our slumbers? Is the grass inferior in smell or beauty to the +Libyan pebbles? Is the water, which strives to burst the lead in the +streets, purer than that which trembles in murmurs down its sloping +channel? Why, trees are nursed along the variegated columns [of the +city]; and that house is commended, which has a prospect of distant +fields. You may drive out nature with a fork, yet still she will return, +and, insensibly victorious, will break through [men's] improper +disgusts.</p> + +<p>Not he who is unable to compare the fleeces that drink up the dye of +Aquinum with the Sidonian purple, will receive a more certain damage +and nearer to his marrow, than he who shall not be able to distinguish +false from true. He who has been overjoyed by prosperity, will be +shocked by a change of circumstances. If you admire any thing [greatly], +you will be unwilling to resign it. Avoid great things; under a mean +roof one may outstrip kings, and the favorites of kings, in one's life.</p> + +<p>The stag, superior in fight, drove the horse from the common pasture, +till the latter, worsted in the long contest, implored the aid of man +and received the bridle; but after he had parted an exulting conqueror +from his enemy, he could not shake the rider from his back, nor the bit +from his mouth. So he who, afraid of poverty, forfeits his liberty, more +valuable than mines, avaricious wretch, shall carry a master, and shall +eternally be a slave, for not knowing how to use a little. When a man's +condition does not suit him, it will be as a shoe at any time; which, if +too big for his foot, will throw him down; if too little, will pinch +him. [If you are] cheerful under your lot, Aristius, you will live +wisely; nor shall you let me go uncorrected, if I appear to scrape +together more than enough and not have done. Accumulated money is the +master or slave of each owner, and ought rather to follow than to lead +the twisted rope.</p> + +<p>These I dictated to thee behind the moldering temple of Vacuna; in all +other things happy, except that thou wast not with me.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XI.</p> + +<p>TO BULLATIUS.</p> + +<p><i>Endeavoring to recall him back to Rome from Asia, whither he had +retreated through his weariness of the civil wars, he advises him to +ease the disquietude of his mind not by the length of his journey, but +by forming his mind into a right disposition</i>.</p> + + +<p>What, Bullatius, do you think of Chios, and of celebrated Lesbos? What +of neat Samos? What of Sardis, the royal residence of Croesus? What of +Smyrna, and Colophon? Are they greater or less than their fame? Are they +all contemptible in comparison of the Campus Martius and the river +Tiber? Does one of Attalus' cities enter into your wish? Or do you +admire Lebedus, through a surfeit of the sea and of traveling? You know +what Lebedus is; it is a more unfrequented town than Gabii and Fidenae; +yet there would I be willing to live; and, forgetful of my friends and +forgotten by them, view from land Neptune raging at a distance. But +neither he who comes to Rome from Capua, bespattered with rain and mire, +would wish to live in an inn; nor does he, who has contracted a cold, +cry up stoves and bagnios as completely furnishing a happy life: nor, if +the violent south wind has tossed you in the deep, will you therefore +sell your ship on the other side of the Aegean Sea. On a man sound in +mind Rhodes and beautiful Mitylene have such an effect, as a thick cloak +at the summer solstice, thin drawers in snowy weather, [bathing in] the +Tiber in winter, a fire in the month of August. While it is permitted, +and fortune preserves a benign aspect, let absent Samos, and Chios, and +Rhodes, be commended by you here at Rome. Whatever prosperous; hour +Providence bestows upon you, receive it with a thankful hand: and defer +not [the enjoyment of] the comforts of life, till a year be at an end; +that in whatever place you are, you may say you have lived with +satisfaction. For if reason and discretion, not a place that commands a +prospect of the wide-extended sea, remove our cares; they change their +climate, not their disposition, who run beyond the sea: a busy idleness +harrasses us: by ships and by chariots we seek to live happily. What you +seek is here [at home], is at Ulubrae, if a just temper of mind is not +wanting to you.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XII.</p> + +<p>TO ICCIUS.</p> + +<p><i>Leader the appearance of praising the man's parsimony, he archly +ridicules it; introduces Grosphus to him, and concludes with a few +articles of news concerning the Roman affairs</i>.</p> + + +<p>O Iccius, if you rightly enjoy the Sicilian products, which you collect +for Agrippa, it is not possible that greater affluence can be given you +by Jove. Away with complaints! for that man is by no means poor, who has +the use or everything, he wants. If it is well with your belly, your +back, and your feet, regal wealth can add nothing greater. If perchance +abstemious amid profusion you live upon salad and shell-fish, you will +continue to live in such a manner, even if presently fortune shall flow +upon you in a river of gold; either because money can not change the +natural disposition, or because it is your opinion that all things are +inferior to virtue alone. Can we wonder that cattle feed upon the +meadows and corn-fields of Democritus, while his active soul is abroad +[traveling] without his body? When you, amid such great impurity and +infection of profit, have no taste for any thing trivial, but still mind +[only] sublime things: what causes restrain the sea, what rules the +year, whether the stars spontaneously or by direction wander about and +are erratic, what throws obscurity on the moon, and what brings out her +orb, what is the intention and power of the jarring harmony of things, +whether Empedocles or the clever Stertinius be in the wrong.</p> + +<p>However, whether you murder fishes, or onions and garlic, receive +Pompeius Grosphus; and, if he asks any favor, grant it him frankly: +Grosphus will desire nothing but what is right and just. The proceeds of +friendship are cheap, when good men want any thing.</p> + +<p>But that you may not be ignorant in what situation the Roman affairs +are; the Cantabrians have fallen by the valor of Agrippa, the Armenians +by that of Claudius Nero: Phraates has, suppliant on his knees, admitted +the laws and power of Caesar. Golden plenty has poured out the fruits of +Italy from a full horn.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XIII.</p> + +<p>TO VINNIUS ASINA.</p> + +<p><i>Horace cautions him to present his poems to Augustus at a proper +opportunity, and with due decorum</i>.</p> + + +<p>As on your setting out I frequently and fully gave you instructions, +Vinnius, that you would present these volumes to Augustus sealed up if +he shall be in health, if in spirits, finally, if he shall ask for them: +do not offend out of zeal to me, and industriously bring an odium upon +my books [by being] an agent of violent officiousness. If haply the +heavy load of my paper should gall you, cast it from you, rather than +throw down your pack in a rough manner where you are directed to carry +it, and turn your paternal name of Asina into a jest, and make yourself +a common story. Make use of your vigor over the hills, the rivers, and +the fens. As soon as you have achieved your enterprise, and arrived +there, you must keep your burden in this position; lest you happen to +carry my bundle of books under your arm, as a clown does a lamb, or as +drunken Pyrrhia [in the play does] the balls of pilfered wool, or as a +tribe-guest his slippers with his fuddling-cap. You must not tell +publicly, how you sweated with carrying those verses, which may detain +the eyes and ears of Caesar. Solicited with much entreaty, do your best. +Finally, get you gone, farewell: take care you do not stumble, and break +my orders.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XIV.</p> + +<p>TO HIS STEWARD.</p> + +<p><i>He upbraids his levity for contemning a country life, which had been +his choice, and being eager to return to Rome</i>.</p> + + +<p>Steward of my woodlands and little farm that restores me to myself, +which you despise, [though formerly] inhabited by five families, and +wont to send five good senators to Varia: let us try, whether I with +more fortitude pluck the thorns out of my mind, or you out of my ground: +and whether Horace or his estate be in a better condition.</p> + +<p>Though my affection and solicitude for Lamia, mourning for his brother, +lamenting inconsolably for his brother's loss, detain me; nevertheless +my heart and soul carry me thither and long to break through those +barriers that obstruct my way. I pronounce him the happy man who dwells +in the country, you him [who lives] in the city. He to whom his +neighbor's lot is agreeable, must of consequence dislike his own. Each +of us is a fool for unjustly blaming the innocent place. The mind is in +fault, which never escapes from itself. When you were a drudge at every +one's beck, you tacitly prayed for the country: and now, [being +appointed] my steward, you wish for the city, the shows, and the baths. +You know I am consistent with myself, and loth to go, whenever +disagreeable business drags me to Rome. We are not admirers of the same +things: henoe you and I disagree. For what you reckon desert and +inhospitable wilds, he who is of my way of thinking calls delightful +places; and dislikes what you esteem pleasant. The bagnio, I perceive, +and the greasy tavern raise your inclination for the city: and this, +because my little spot will sooner yield frankincense and pepper than +grapes; nor is there a tavern near, which can supply you with wine; nor +a minstrel harlot, to whose thrumming you may dance, cumbersome to the +ground: and yet you exercise with plowshares the fallows that have been +a long while untouched, you take due care of the ox when unyoked, and +give him his fill with leaves stripped [from the boughs]. The sluice +gives an additional trouble to an idle fellow, which, if a shower fall, +must be taught by many a mound to spare the sunny meadow.</p> + +<p>Come now, attend to what hinders our agreeing. [Me,] whom fine garments +and dressed locks adorned, whom you know to have pleased venal Cynara +without a present, whom [you have seen] quaff flowing Falernian from +noon—a short supper [now] delights, and a nap upon the green turf by +the stream side; nor is it a shame to have been gay, but not to break +off that gayety. There there is no one who reduces my possessions with +envious eye, nor poisons them with obscure malice and biting slander; +the neighbors smile at me removing clods and stones. You had rather be +munching your daily allowance with the slaves in town; you earnestly +pray to be of the number of these: [while my] cunning foot-boy envies +you the use of the firing, the flocks and the garden. The lazy ox wishes +for the horse's trappings: the horse wishes to go to plow. But I shall +be of opinion, that each of them ought contentedly to exercise that art +which he understands.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XV.</p> + +<p>TO C. NEUMONIUS VALA.</p> + +<p><i>Preparing to go to the baths either at Velia or Salernum, he inquires +after the healthfulness and agreeableness of the places</i>.</p> + + +<p>It is your part, Vala, to write to me (and mine to give credit to your +information) what sort of a winter is it at Velia, what the air at +Salernum, what kind of inhabitants the country consists of, and how the +road is (for Antonius Musa [pronounces] Baiae to be of no service to me; +yet makes me obnoxious to the place, when I am bathed in cold water +even in the midst of the frost [by his prescription]. In truth the +village murmers at their myrtle-groves being deserted and the sulphurous +waters, said to expel lingering disorders from the nerves, despised; +envying those invalids, who have the courage to expose their head and +breast to the Clusian springs, and retire to Gabii and [such] cold +countries. My course must be altered, and my horse driven beyond his +accustomed stages. Whither are you going? will the angry rider say, +pulling in the left-hand rein, I am not bound for Cumae or Baiae:—but +the horse's ear is in the bit.) [You must inform me likewise] which of +the two people is supported by the greatest abundance of corn; whether +they drink rainwater collected [in reservoirs], or from perennial wells +of never-failing water (for as to the wine of that part I give myself no +trouble; at my country-seat I can dispense and bear with any thing: but +when I have arrived at a sea-port, I insist upon that which is generous +and mellow, such as may drive away my cares, such as may flow into my +veins and animal spirits with a rich supply of hope, such as may supply +me with words, such as may make me appear young to my Lucanian +mistress). Which tract of land produces most hares, which boars: which +seas harbor the most fishes and sea-urchins, that I may be able to +return home thence in good case, and like a Phaeacian.</p> + +<p>When Maenius, having bravely made away with his paternal and maternal +estates, began to be accounted a merry fellow—a vagabond droll, who had +no certain place of living; who, when dinnerless, could not distinguish +a fellow-citizen from an enemy; unmerciful in forging any scandal +against any person; the pest, and hurricane, and gulf of the market; +whatever he could get, he gave to his greedy gut. This fellow, when he +had extorted little or nothing from the favorers of his iniquity, or +those that dreaded it, would eat up whole dishes of coarse tripe and +lamb's entrails; as much as would have sufficed three bears; then truly, +[like] reformer Bestius, would he say, that the bellies of extravagant +fellows ought to be branded with a red-hot iron. The same man [however], +when he had reduced to smoke and ashes whatever more considerable booty +he had gotten; 'Faith, said he, I do not wonder if some persons eat up +their estates; since nothing is better than a fat thrush, nothing finer +than a lage sow's paunch. In fact, I am just such another myself; for, +when matters are a little deficient, I commend, the snug and homely +fare, of sufficient resolution amid mean provisions; but, if any thing +be offered better and more delicate, I, the same individual, cry out, +that ye are wise and alone live well, whose wealth and estate are +conspicuous from the elegance of your villas.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XVI.</p> + +<p>TO QUINCTIUS.</p> + +<p><i>He describes to Quinctius the form, situation, and advantages of his +country house: then declares that probity consists in the consciousness +of good works; liberty, in probity</i>.</p> + + +<p>Ask me not, my best Quinctius, whether my farm maintains its master with +corn-fields, or enriches him with olives, or with fruits, or meadow +land, or the elm tree clothed with vines: the shape and situation of my +ground shall be described to you at large.</p> + +<p>There is a continued range of mountains, except where they are separated +by a shadowy vale; but in such a manner, that the approaching sun views +it on the right side, and departing in his flying car warms the left. +You would commend its temperature. What? If my [very] briers produce in +abundance the ruddy cornels and damsens? If my oak and holm tree +accommodate my cattle with plenty of acorns, and their master with a +copious shade? You would say that Tarentum, brought nearer [to Rome], +shone in its verdant beauty. A fountain too, deserving to give name to a +river, insomuch that Hebrus does not surround Thrace more cool or more +limpid, flows salubrious to the infirm head, salubrious to the bowels. +These sweet, yea now (if you will credit me) these delightful retreats +preserve me to you in a state of health [even] in the September season.</p> + +<p>You live well, if you take care to support the character which you bear. +Long ago, all Rome has proclaimed you happy: but I am apprehensive, lest +you should give more credit concerning yourself to any one than +yourself; and lest you should imagine a man happy, who differs from the +wise and good; or, because the people pronounce you sound and perfectly +well, lest you dissemble the lurking fever at meal-times, until a +trembling seize your greased hands. The false modesty of fools conceals +ulcers [rather than have them cured]. If any one should mention battles +which you had fought by land and sea, and in such expressions as these +should soothe your listening ears: "May Jupiter, who consults the safety +both of you and of the city, keep it in doubt, whether the people be +more solicitous for your welfare, or you for the people's;" you might +perceive these encomiums to belong [only] to Augustus when you suffer +yourself to be termed a philosopher, and one of a refined life; say, +pr'ythee, would you answer [to these appellations] in your own name? To +be sure—I like to be called a wise and good man, as well as you. He who +gave this character to-day, if he will, can take it away to-morrow: as +the same people, if they have conferred the consulship on an unworthy +person, may take it away from him: "Resign; it is ours," they cry: I do +resign it accordingly, and chagrined withdraw. Thus if they should call +me rogue, deny me to be temperate, assert that I had strangled my own +father with a halter; shall I be stung, and change color at these false +reproaches? Whom does false honor delight, or lying calumny terrify, +except the vicious and sickly-minded? Who then is a good man? He who +observes the decrees of the senate, the laws and rules of justice; by +whose arbitration many and important disputes are decided; by whose +surety private property, and by whose testimony causes are safe. Yet +[perhaps] his own family and all the neighborhood observe this man, +specious in a fair outside, [to be] polluted within. If a slave should +say to me, "I have not committed a robbery, nor run away:" "You have +your reward; you are not galled with the lash," I reply. "I have not +killed any man:" "You shall not [therefore] feed the carrion crows on +the cross." I am a good man, and thrifty: your Sabine friend denies, and +contradicts the fact. For the wary wolf dreads the pitfall, and the hawk +the suspected snares, and the kite the concealed hook. The good, [on the +contrary,] hate to sin from the love of virtue; you will commit no crime +merely for the fear of punishment. Let there be a prospect of escaping, +you will confound sacred and profane things together. For, when from a +thousand bushels of beans you filch one, the loss in that case to me is +less, but not your villainy. The honest man, whom every forum and every +court of justice looks upon with reverence, whenever he makes an +atonement to the gods with a wine or an ox; after he has pronounced in a +clear distinguishable voice, "O father Janus, O Apollo;" moves his lips +as one afraid of being heard; "O fair Laverna put it in my power to +deceive; grant me the appearance of a just and upright man: throw a +cloud of night over my frauds." I do not see how a covetous man can be +better, how more free than a slave, when he stoops down for the sake of +a penny, stuck in the road [for sport]. For he who will be covetous, +will also be anxious: but he that lives in a state of anxiety, will +never in my estimation be free. He who is always in a hurry, and +immersed in the study of augmenting his fortune, has lost the arms, and +deserted the post of virtue. Do not kill your captive, if you can sell +him: he will serve you advantageously: let him, being inured to +drudgery, feed [your cattle], and plow; let him go to sea, and winter in +the midst of the waves; let him be of use to the market, and import corn +and provisions. A good and wise man will have courage to say, "Pentheus, +king of Thebes, what indignities will you compel me to suffer and +endure. 'I will take away your goods:' my cattle, I suppose, my land, my +movables and money: you may take them. 'I will confine you with +handcuffs and fetters under a merciless jailer.' The deity himself will +discharge me, whenever I please." In my opinion, this is his meaning; I +will die. Death is the ultimate boundary of human matters.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XVII.</p> + +<p>TO SCAEVA.</p> + +<p><i>That a life of business is preferable to a private and inactive one; +the friendship of great men is a laudable acquisition, yet their favors +are ever to be solicited with modesty and caution</i>.</p> + + +<p>Though, Scaeva, you have sufficient prudence of your own, and well know +how to demean yourself toward your superiors; [yet] hear what are the +sentiments of your old crony, who himself still requires teaching, just +as if a blind man should undertake to show the way: however see, if even +I can advance any thing, which you may think worth your while to adopt +as your own.</p> + +<p>If pleasant rest, and sleep till seven o'clock, delight you; if dust and +the rumbling of wheels, if the tavern offend you, I shall order you off +for Ferentinum. For joys are not the property of the rich alone: nor +has he lived ill, who at his birth and at his death has passed +unnoticed. If you are disposed to be of service to your friends, and to +treat yourself with somewhat more indulgence, you, being poor, must pay +your respects to the great. Aristippus, if he could dine to his +satisfaction on herbs, would never frequent [the tables] of the great. +If he who blames me, [replies Aristippus,] knew how to live with the +great, he would scorn his vegetables. Tell me, which maxim and conduct +of the two you approve; or, since you are my junior, hear the reason why +Aristippus' opinion is preferable; for thus, as they report, he baffled +the snarling cynic: "I play the buffoon for my own advantage, you [to +please] the populace. This [conduct of mine] is better and far more +honorable; that a horse may carry and a great man feed me, pay court to +the great: you beg for refuse, an inferior to the [poor] giver; though +you pretend you are in want of nothing." As for Aristippus, every +complexion of life, every station and circumstance sat gracefully upon +him, aspiring in general to greater things, yet equal to the present: on +the other hand, I shall be much surprised, if a contrary way of life +should become [this cynic], whom obstinacy clothes with a double rag. +The one will not wait for his purple robe; but dressed in any thing, +will go through the most frequented places, and without awkwardness +support either character: the other will shun the cloak wrought at +Miletus with greater aversion than [the bite of] dog or viper; he will +die with cold, unless you restore him his ragged garment; restore it, +and let him live like a fool as he is. To perform exploits, and show the +citizens their foes in chains, reaches the throne of Jupiter, and aims +at celestial honors. To have been acceptable to the great, is not the +last of praises. It is not every man's lot to gain Corinth. He +[prudently] sat still who was afraid lest he should not succeed: be it +so; what then? Was it not bravely done by him, who carried his point? +Either here therefore, or nowhere, is what we are investigating. The one +dreads the burden, as too much for a pusillanimous soul and a weak +constitution; the other under takes, and carries it through. Either +virtue is an empty name, or the man who makes the experiment deservedly +claims the honor and the reward.</p> + +<p>Those who mention nothing of their poverty before their lord, will gain +more than the importunate. There is a great difference between modestly +accepting, or seizing by violence But this was the principle and source +of every thing [which I alleged]. He who says, "My sister is without a +portion, my mother poor, and my estate neither salable nor sufficient +for my support," cries out [in effect], "Give me a morsel of bread:" +another whines, "And let the platter be carved out for me with half a +share of the bounty." But if the crow could have fed in silence, he +would have had better fare, and much less of quarreling and of envy.</p> + +<p>A companion taken [by his lord] to Brundusium, or the pleasant +Surrentum, who complains of the ruggedness of the roads and the bitter +cold and rains, or laments that his chest is broken open and his +provisions stolen; resembles the well-known tricks of a harlot, weeping +frequently for her necklace, frequently for a garter forcibly taken from +her; so that at length no credit is given to her real griefs and losses. +Nor does he, who has been once ridiculed in the streets, care to lift up +a vagrant with a [pretended] broken leg; though abundant tears should +flow from him; though, swearing by holy Osiris, he says, "Believe me, I +do not impose upon you; O cruel, take up the lame." "Seek out for a +stranger," cries the hoarse neighborhood.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XVIII.</p> + +<p>TO LOLLIUS.</p> + +<p><i>He treats at large upon the cultivation of the favor of great men; and +concludes with a few words concerning the acquirement of peace of mind</i>.</p> + + +<p>If I rightly know your temper, most ingenuous Lollius, you will beware +of imitating a flatterer, while you profess yourself a friend. As a +matron is unlike and of a different aspect from a strumpet, so will a +true friend differ from the toad-eater. There is an opposite vice to +this, rather the greater [of the two]; a clownish, inelegant, and +disagreeable bluntness, which would recommend itself by an unshaven face +and black teeth; while it desires to be termed pure freedom and true +sincerity. Virtue is the medium of the two vices; and equally remote +from either. The one is over-prone to complaisance, and a jester of the +lowest, couch, he so reverences the rich man's nod, so repeats his +speeches, and catches up his falling words; that you would take him for +a school-boy saying his lesson to a rigid master, or a player acting an +underpart; another often wrangles about a goat's hair, and armed engages +for any trifle: "That I, truly, should not have the first credit; and +that I should not boldly speak aloud, what is my real sentiment—[upon +such terms], another life would be of no value." But what is the subject +of this controversy? Why, whether [the gladiator] Castor or Dolichos be +the cleverer fellow; whether the Minucian, or the Appian, be the better +road to Brundusium.</p> + +<p>Him whom pernicious lust, whom quick-dispatching dice strips, whom +vanity dresses out and perfumes beyond his abilities, whom insatiable +hunger and thirst after money, Whom a shame and aversion to poverty +possess, his rich friend (though furnished with a half-score more vices) +hates and abhors; or if he does not hate, governs him; and, like a pious +mother, would have him more wise and virtuous than himself; and says +what is nearly true: "My riches (think not to emulate me) admit of +extravagance; your income is but small: a scanty gown becomes a prudent +dependant: cease to vie with me." Whomsoever Eutrapelus had a mind to +punish, he presented with costly garments. For now [said he] happy in +his fine clothes, he will assume new schemes and hopes; he will sleep +till daylight; prefer a harlot to his honest-calling; run into debt; and +at last become a gladiator, or drive a gardener's hack for hire.</p> + +<p>Do not you at any time pry into his secrets; and keep close what is +intrusted to you, though put to the torture, by wine or passion. Neither +commend your own inclinations, nor find fault with those of others; nor, +when he is disposed to hunt, do you make verses. For by such means the +amity of the twins Zethus and Amphion, broke off; till the lyre, +disliked by the austere brother, was silent. Amphion is thought to have +given way to his brother's humors; so do you yield to the gentle +dictates of your friend in power: as often as he leads forth his dogs +into the fields and his cattle laden with Aetolian nets, arise and lay +aside the peevishness of your unmannerly muse, that you may sup together +on the delicious fare purchased by your labor; an exercise habitual to +the manly Romans, of service to their fame and life and limbs: +especially when you are in health, and are able either to excel the dog +in swiftness, or the boar in strength. Add [to this], that there is no +one who handles martial weapons more gracefully. You well know, with +what acclamations of the spectators you sustain the combats in the +Campus Marcius: in fine, as yet a boy, you endured a bloody campaign and +the Cantabrian wars, beneath a commander, who is now replacing the +standards [recovered] from the Parthian temples: and, if any thing is +wanting, assigns it to the Roman arms. And that you may not withdraw +yourself, and inexcusably be absent; though you are careful to do +nothing out of measure, and moderation, yet you sometimes amuse yourself +at your country-seat. The [mock] fleet divides the little boats [into +two squadrons]: the Actian sea-fight is represented by boys under your +direction in a hostile form: your brother is the foe, your lake the +Adriatic; till rapid victory crowns the one or the other with her bays. +Your patron, who will perceive that you come into his taste, will +applaud your sports with both his hands.</p> + +<p>Moreover, that I may advise you (if in aught you stand in need of an +adviser), take great circumspection what you say to any man, and to +whom. Avoid an inquisitive impertinent, for such a one is also a +tattler, nor do open ears faithfully retain what is intrusted to them; +and a word, once sent abroad, flies irrevocably.</p> + +<p>Let no slave within the marble threshold of your honored friend inflame +your heart; lest the owner of the beloved damsel gratify you with so +trifling a present, or, mortifying [to your wishes], torment you [with a +refusal].</p> + +<p>Look over and over again [into the merits of] such a one, as you +recommend; lest afterward the faults of others strike you with shame. We +are sometimes imposed upon, and now and then introduce an unworthy +person. Wherefore, once deceived, forbear to defend one who suffers by +his own bad conduct; but protect one whom you entirely know, and with +confidence guard him with your patronage, if false accusations attack +him: who being bitten with the tooth of calumny, do you not perceive +that the same danger is threatening you? For it is your own concern, +when the adjoining wall is on fire: and flames neglected are wont to +gain strength.</p> + +<p>The attending of the levee of a friend in power seems delightful to the +unexperienced; the experienced dreads it. Do you, while your vessel is +in the main, ply your business, lest a changing gale bear you back +again.</p> + +<p>The melancholy hate the merry, and the jocose the melancholy; the +volatile [dislike] the sedate, the indolent the stirring and vivacious: +the quaffers of pure Falernian from midnight hate one who shirks his +turn; notwithstanding you swear you are afraid of the fumes of wine by +night. Dispel gloominess from your forehead: the modest man generally +carries the look of a sullen one; the reserved, of a churl.</p> + +<p>In every thing you must read and consult the learned, by what means you +may be enabled to pass your life in an agreeable manner: that insatiable +desire may not agitate and torment you, nor the fear and hope of things +that are but of little account: whether learning acquires virtue, or +nature bestows it? What lessens cares, what may endear you to yourself? +What perfectly renders the temper calm; honor or enticing lucre, or a +secret passage and the path of an unnoticed life?</p> + +<p>For my part, as often as the cooling rivulet Digentia refreshes me +(Digentia, of which Mandela drinks, a village wrinkled with cold); what, +my friend, do you think are my sentiments, what do you imagine I pray +for? Why, that my fortune may remain as it is now; or even [if it be +something] less: and that I may live to myself, what remains of my time, +if the gods will that aught do remain: that I may have a good store of +books, and corn provided for the year; lest I fluctuate in suspense of +each uncertain hour. But it is sufficient to sue Jove [for these +externals], which he gives and takes away [at pleasure]; let him grant +life, let him grant wealth: I myself will provide equanimity of temper.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XIX.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + +<p><i>He shows the folly of some persons who would imitate; and the envy of +others who would censure him</i>.</p> + + +<p>O learned Maecenas, if you believe old Gratinus, no verses which are +written by water-drinkers can please, or be long-lived. Ever since +Bacchus enlisted the brain-sick poets among the Satyrs and the Fauns, +the sweet muses have usually smelt of wine in the morning. Homer, by his +excessive praises of wine, is convicted as a booser: father Ennius +himself never sallied forth to sing of arms, unless in drink. "I will +condemn the sober to the bar and the prater's bench, and deprive the +abstemious of the power of singing."</p> + +<p>As soon as he gave out this edict, the poets did not cease to contend in +midnight cups, and to smell of them by day. What! if any savage, by a +stern countenance and bare feet, and the texture of a scanty gown, +should imitate Cato; will he represent the virtue and morals of Cato? +The tongue that imitated Timagenes was the destruction of the Moor, +while he affected to be humorous, and attempted to seem eloquent. The +example that is imitable in its faults, deceives [the ignorant]. Soh! if +I was to grow up pale by accident, [these poetasters] would drink the +blood-thinning cumin. O ye imitators, ye servile herd, how often your +bustlings have stirred my bile, how often my mirth!</p> + +<p>I was the original, who set my free footsteps upon the vacant sod; I +trod not in the steps of others. He who depends upon himself, as leader, +commands the swarm. I first showed to Italy the Parian iambics: +following the numbers and spirit of Archilochus, but not his subject and +style, which afflicted Lycambes. You must not, however, crown me with a +more sparing wreath, because I was afraid to alter the measure and +structure of his verse: for the manly Sappho governs her muse by the +measures of Archilochus, so does Alcaeus; but differing from him in the +materials and disposition [of his lines], neither does he seek for a +father-in-law whom he may defame with his fatal lampoons, nor does he +tie a rope for his betrothed spouse in scandalous verse. Him too, never +celebrated by any other tongue, I the Roman lyrist first made known. It +delights me, as I bring out new productions, to be perused by the eyes, +and held in the hands of the ingenuous.</p> + +<p>Would you know why the ungrateful reader extols and is fond of many +works at home, unjustly decries them without doors? I hunt not after the +applause of the inconstant vulgar, at the expense of entertainments, and +for the bribe of a worn-out colt: I am not an auditor of noble writers, +nor a vindictive reciter, nor condescend to court the tribes and desks +of the grammarians. Hence are these tears. If I say that "I am ashamed +to repeat my worthless writings to crowded theatres, and give an air of +consequence to trifles:" "You ridicule us," says [one of them], "and you +reserve those pieces for the ears of Jove: you are confident that it is +you alone that can distill the poetic honey, beautiful in your own +eyes." At these words I am afraid to turn up my nose; and lest I should +be torn by the acute nails of my adversary, "This place is +disagreeable," I cry out, "and I demand a prorogation of the contest." +For contest is wont to beget trembling emulation and strife, and strife +cruel enmities and funereal war.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XX.</p> + +<p>TO HIS BOOK.</p> + +<p><i>In vain he endeavors to retain his book, desirous of getting abroad; +tells it what trouble it is to undergo, and imparts some things to be +said of him to posterity.</i></p> + + +<p>You seem, my book, to look wistfully at Janus and Vertumnus; to the end +that you may be set out for sale, neatly polished by the pumice-stone of +the Sosii. You hate keys and seals, which are agreeable to a modest +[volume]; you grieve that you are shown but to a few, and extol public +places; though educated in another manner. Away with you, whither you +are so solicitous of going down: there will be no returning for you, +when you are once sent out. "Wretch that I am, what have I done? What +did I want?"—you will say: when any one gives you ill treatment, and +you know that you will be squeezed into small compass, as soon as the +eager reader is satiated. But, if the augur be not prejudiced by +resentment of your error, you shall be caressed at Rome [only] till your +youth be passed. When, thumbed by the hands of the vulgar, you begin to +grow dirty; either you shall in silence feed the grovelling book-worms, +or you shall make your escape to Utica, or shall be sent bound to +Ilerda. Your disregarded adviser shall then laugh [at you]: as he, who +in a passion pushed his refractory ass over the precipice. For who would +save [an ass] against his will? This too awaits you, that faltering +dotage shall seize on you, to teach boys their rudiments in the skirts +of the city. But when the abating warmth of the sun shall attract more +ears, you shall tell them, that I was the son of a freedman, and +extended my wings beyond my nest; so that, as much as you take away from +my family, you may add to my merit: that I was in favor with the first +men in the state, both in war and peace; of a short stature, gray +before my time, calculated for sustaining heat, prone to passion, yet so +as to be soon appeased. If any one should chance to inquire my age; let +him know that I had completed four times eleven Decembers, in the year +in which Lollius admitted Lepidus as his colleague.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_SECOND_BOOK_OF_THE_EPISTLES_OF_HORACE" id="THE_SECOND_BOOK_OF_THE_EPISTLES_OF_HORACE" />THE SECOND BOOK OF THE EPISTLES OF HORACE.</h2> + + + +<p>EPISTLE I.</p> + +<p>TO AUGUSTUS.</p> + +<p><i>He honors him with the highest compliments; then treats copiously of +poetry, its origin, character, and excellence</i>.</p> + + +<p>Since you alone support so many and such weighty concerns, defend Italy +with your arms, adorn it by your virtue, reform it by your laws; I +should offend, O Caesar, against the public interests, if I were to +trespass upon your time with a long discourse.</p> + +<p>Romulus, and father Bacchus, and Castor and Pollux, after great +achievements, received into the temples of the gods, while they were +improving the world and human nature, composing fierce dissensions, +settling property, building cities, lamented that the esteem which they +expected was not paid in proportion to their merits. He who crushed the +dire Hydra, and subdued the renowned monsters by his forefated labor, +found envy was to be tamed by death [alone]. For he burns by his very +splendor, whose superiority is oppressive to the arts beneath him: after +his decease, he shall be had in honor. On you, while present among us, +we confer mature honors, and rear altars where your name is to be sworn +by; confessing that nothing equal to you has hitherto risen, or will +hereafter rise. But this your people, wise and just in one point (for +preferring you to our own, you to the Grecian heroes), by no means +estimate other things with like proportion and measure: and disdain and +detest every thing, but what they see removed from earth and already +gone by; such favorers are they of antiquity, as to assert that the +Muses [themselves] upon Mount Alba, dictated the twelve tables, +forbidding to trangress, which the decemviri ratified; the leagues of +our kings concluded with the Gabii, or the rigid Sabines; the records of +the pontifices, and the ancient volumes of the augurs.</p> + +<p>If, because the most ancient writings of the Greeks are also the best, +Roman authors are to be weighed in the same scale, there is no need we +should say much: there is nothing hard in the inside of an olive, +nothing [hard] in the outside of a nut. We are arrived at the highest +pitch of success [in arts]: we paint, and sing, and wrestle more +skillfully than the annointed Greeks. If length of time makes poems +better, as it does wine, I would fain know how many years will stamp a +value upon writings. A writer who died a hundred years ago, is he to be +reckoned among the perfect and ancient, or among the mean and modern +authors? Let some fixed period exclude all dispute. He is an old and +good writer who completes a hundred years. What! one that died a month +or a year later, among whom is he to be ranked? Among the old poets, or +among those whom both the present age and posterity will disdainfully +reject? He may fairly be placed among the ancients, who is younger +either by a short month only, or even by a whole year. I take the +advantage of this concession, and pull away by little and little, as [if +they were] the hairs of a horse's tail: and I take away a single one and +then again another single one; till, like a tumbling heap, [my +adversary], who has recourse to annals and estimates excellence by the +year, and admires nothing but what Libitina has made sacred, falls to +the ground.</p> + +<p>Ennius the wise, the nervous, and (as our critics say) a second Homer, +seems lightly to regard what becomes of his promises and Pythagorean +dreams. Is not Naevius in people's hands, and sticking almost fresh in +their memory? So sacred is every ancient poem. As often as a debate +arises, whether this poet or the other be preferable; Pacuvius bears +away the character of a learned, Accius, of a lofty writer; Afranius' +gown is said to have fitted Menander; Plautus, to hurry after the +pattern of the Sicilian Epicharmus; Caecilius, to excel in gravity, +Terence in contrivance. These mighty Rome learns by heart, and these she +views crowded in her narrow theater; these she esteems and accounts her +poets from Livy the writer's age down to our time. Sometimes the +populace see right; sometimes they are wrong. If they admire and extol +the ancient poets so as to prefer nothing before, to compare nothing +with them, they err; if they think and allow that they express some +things in an obsolete, most in a stiff, many in a careless manner; they +both think sensibly, and agree with me, and determine with the assent of +Jove himself. Not that I bear an ill-will against Livy's epics, and +would doom them to destruction, which I remember the severe Orbilius +taught me when a boy; but they should seem correct, beautiful, and very +little short of perfect, this I wonder at: among which if by chance a +bright expression shines forth, and if one line or two [happen to be] +somewhat terse and musical, this unreasonably carries off and sells the +whole poem. I am disgusted that any thing should be found fault with, +not because it is a lumpish composition or inelegant, but because it is +modern; and that not a favorable allowance, but honor and rewards are +demanded for the old writers. Should I scruple, whether or not Atta's +drama trod the saffron and flowers in a proper manner, almost all the +fathers would cry out that modesty was lost; since I attempted to find +fault with those pieces which the pathetic Aesopus, which the skillful +Roscius acted: either because they esteem nothing right, but what has +pleased themselves; or because they think it disgraceful to submit to +their juniors, and to confess, now they are old, that what they learned +when young is deserving only to be destroyed. Now he who extols Numa's +Salian hymn, and would alone seem to understand that which, as well as +me, he is ignorant of, does not favor and applaud the buried geniuses, +but attacks ours, enviously hating us moderns and every thing of ours. +Whereas if novelty had been detested by the Greeks as much as by us, +what at this time would there have been ancient? Or what what would +there have been for common use to read and thumb, common to every body.</p> + +<p>When first Greece, her wars being over, began to trifle, and through +prosperity to glide into folly; she glowed with the love, one while of +wrestlers, another while of horses; was fond of artificers in marble, or +in ivory, or in brass; hung her looks and attention upon a picture; was +delighted now with musicians, now with tragedians; as if an infant girl +she sported under the nurse; soon cloyed, she abandoned what [before] +she earnestly desired. What is there that pleases or is odious, which +you may not think mutable? This effect had happy times of peace, and +favorable gales [of fortune].</p> + +<p>At Rome it was long pleasing and customary to be up early with open +doors, to expound the laws to clients; to lay out money cautiously upon +good securities: to hear the elder, and to tell the younger by what +means their fortunes might increase and pernicious luxury be diminished. +The inconstant people have changed their mind, and glow with a universal +ardor for learning: young men and grave fathers sup crowned with leaves, +and dictate poetry. I myself, who affirm that I write no verses, am +found more false than the Parthians: and, awake before the sun is risen, +I call for my pen and papers and desk. He that is ignorant of a ship is +afraid to work a ship; none but he who has learned, dares administer +[even] southern wood to the sick; physicians undertake what belongs to +physicians; mechanics handle tools; but we, unlearned and learned, +promiscuously write poems.</p> + +<p>Yet how great advantages this error and this slight madness has, thus +compute: the poet's mind is not easily covetous; fond of verses, he +studies this alone; he laughs at losses, flights of slaves, fires; he +contrives no fraud against his partner, or his young ward; he lives on +husks, and brown bread; though dastardly and unfit for war, he is useful +at home, if you allow this, that great things may derive assistance from +small ones. The poet fashions the child's tender and lisping mouth, and +turns his ear even at this time from obscene language; afterward also he +forms his heart with friendly precepts, the corrector of his rudeness, +and envy, and passion; he records virtuous actions, he instructs the +rising age with approved examples, he comforts the indigent and the +sick. Whence should the virgin, stranger to a husband, with the chaste +boys, learn the solemn prayer, had not the muse given a poet? The chorus +entreats the divine aid, and finds the gods propitious; sweet in learned +prayer, they implore the waters of the heavens; avert diseases, drive +off impending dangers, obtain both peace and years enriched with fruits. +With song the gods above are appeased, with song the gods below.</p> + +<p>Our ancient swains, stout and happy with a little, after the grain was +laid up, regaling in a festival season their bodies and even their +minds, patient of hardships through the hope of their ending, with their +slaves and faithful wife, the partners of their labors, atoned with a +hog [the goddess] Earth, with milk Silvanus, with flowers and wine the +genius that reminds us of our short life. Invented by this custom, the +Femminine licentiousness poured forth its rustic taunts in alternate +stanzas; and this liberty, received down through revolving years, +sported pleasingly; till at length the bitter raillery began to be +turned into open rage, and threatening with impunity to stalk through +reputable families. They, who suffered from its bloody tooth smarted +with the pain; the unhurt likewise were concerned for the common +condition: further also, a law and a penalty were enacted, which forbade +that any one should be stigmatized in lampoon. Through fear of the +bastinado, they were reduced to the necessity of changing their manner, +and of praising and delighting.</p> + +<p>Captive Greece took captive her fierce conqueror, and introduced her +arts into rude Latium. Thus flowed off the rough Saturnian numbers, and +delicacy expelled the rank venom: but for a long time there remained, +and at this day remain traces of rusticity. For late [the Roman writer] +applied his genius to the Grecian pages; and enjoying rest after the +Punic wars, began to search what useful matter Sophocles, and Thespis, +and Aeschylus afforded: he tried, too, if he could with dignity +translate their works; and succeeded in pleasing himself, being by +nature [of a genius] sublime and strong; for he breathes a spirit tragic +enough, and dares successfully; but fears a blot, and thinks it +disgraceful in his writings.</p> + +<p>Comedy is believed to require the least pains, because it fetches its +subjects from common life; but the less indulgence It meets with, the +more labor it requires. See how Plautus supports the character of a +lover under age, how that of a covetous father, how those of a cheating +pimp: how Dossennus exceeds all measure in his voracious parasites; with +how loose a sock he runs over the stage: for he is glad to put the money +in his pocket, after this regardless whether his play stand or fall.</p> + +<p>Him, whom glory in her airy car has brought upon the stage, the careless +spectator dispirits, the attentive renders more diligent: so slight, so +small a matter it is, which overturns or raises a mind covetous of +praise! Adieu the ludicrous business [of dramatic writing], if applause +denied brings me back meagre, bestowed [makes me] full of flesh and +spirits.</p> + +<p>This too frequently drives away and deters even an adventurous poet? +that they who are in number more, in worth and rank inferior, unlearned +and foolish, and (if the equestrian order dissents) ready to fall to +blows, in the midst of the play, call for either a bear or boxers; for +in these the mob delight. Nay, even all the pleasures of our knights is +now transferred from the ear to the uncertain eye, and their vain +amusements. The curtains are kept down for four hours or more, while +troops of horse and companies of foot flee over the stage: next is +dragged forward the fortune of kings, with their hands bound behind +them; chariots, litters, carriages, ships hurry on; captive ivory, +captive Corinth, is borne along. Democritus, if he were on earth, would +laugh; whether a panther a different genus confused with the camel, or a +white elephant attracted the eye of the crowd. He would view the people +more attentively than the sports themselves, as affording him more +strange sights than the actor: and for the writers, he would think they +told their story to a deaf ass. For what voices are able to overbear the +din with which our theatres resound? You would think the groves of +Garganus, or the Tuscan Sea, was roaring; with so great noise are viewed +the shows and contrivances, and foreign riches: with which the actor +being daubed over, as soon as he appears upon the stage, each right hand +encounters with the left. Has he said any thing yet? Nothing at all. +What then pleases? The cloth imitating [the color of] violets, with the +dye of Tarentum.</p> + +<p>And, that you may not think I enviously praise those kinds of writing +which I decline undertaking, when others handle them well: that poet to +me seems able to walk upon an extended rope, who with his fictions +grieves my soul, enrages, soothes, fills it with false terrors, as an +enchanter; and sets me now in Thebes, now in Athens.</p> + +<p>But of those too, who had rather trust themselves with a reader, than +bear the disdain of an haughty spectator, use a little care; if you +would fill with books [the library you have erected], an offering worthy +of Apollo, and add an incentive to the poets, that with greater +eagerness they may apply to verdant Helicon.</p> + +<p>We poets, it is true (that I may hew down my own vineyards), often do +ourselves many mischiefs, when we present a work to you while thoughtful +or fatigued; when we are pained, if my friend has dared to find fault +with one line; when, unasked, we read over again passages already +repeated: when we lament that our labors do not appear, and war poems, +spun out in a fine thread: when we hope the thing will come to this, +that as soon as you are apprised we are penning verses, you will kindly +of yourself send for us and secure us from want, and oblige us to write. +But yet it is worth while to know, who shall be the priests of your +virtue signalized in war and at home, which is not to be trusted to an +unworthy poet. A favorite of king Alexander the Great was that +Choerilus, who to his uncouth and ill-formed verses owed the many pieces +he received of Philip's royal coin. But, as ink when touched leaves +behind it a mark and a blot, so writers as it were stain shining actions +with foul poetry. That same king, who prodigally bought so dear so +ridiculous a poem, by an edict forbade that any one beside Apelles +should paint him, or that any other than Lysippus should mold brass for +the likeness of the valiant Alexander. But should you call that faculty +of his, so delicate in discerning other arts, to [judge of] books and of +these gifts of the muses, you would swear he had been born in the gross +air of the Boeotians. Yet neither do Virgil and Varius, your beloved +poets, disgrace your judgment of them, and the presents which they have +received with great honor to the donor; nor do the features of +illustrious men appear more lively when expressed by statues of brass, +than their manners and minds expressed by the works of a poet. Nor would +I rather compose such tracts as these creeping on the ground, than +record deeds of arms, and the situations of countries, and rivers, and +forts reared upon mountains, and barbarous kingdoms, and wars brought to +a conclusion through the whole world under your auspices, and the +barriers that confine Janus the guardian of peace, and Rome treaded by +the Parthians under your government, if I were but able to do as much as +I could wish. But neither does your majesty admit of humble poetry, nor +dares my modesty attempt a subject which my strength is unable to +support. Yet officiousness foolishly disgusts the person whom it loves; +especially when it recommends itself by numbers, and the art [of +writing]. For one learns sooner, and more willingly remembers, that +which a man derides, than that which he approves and venerates. I value +not the zeal that gives me uneasiness; nor do I wish to be set out any +where in wax with a face formed for the worse, nor to be celebrated in +ill-composed verses; lest I blush, when presented with the gross gift; +and, exposed in an open box along with my author, be conveyed into the +street that sells frankincense, and spices, and pepper, and whatever is +wrapped up in impertinent writings.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE II.</p> + +<p>TO JULIUS FLORUS.</p> + +<p><i>In apologizing for not having written to him, he shows that the +well-ordering of life is of more importance than the composition of +verses</i>.</p> + + +<p>O Florus, faithful friend to the good and illustrious Nero, if by chance +any one should offer to sell you a boy born at Tibur and Gabii, and +should treat with you in this manner; "This [boy who is] both +good-natured and well-favored from head to foot, shall become and be +yours for eight thousand sesterces; a domestic slave, ready in his +attendance at his master's nod; initiated in the Greek language, of a +capacity for any art; you may shape out any thing with [such] moist +clay; besides, he will sing in an artless manner, but yet entertaining +to one drinking. Lavish promises lessen credit, when any one cries up +extravagantly the wares he has for sale, which he wants to put off. No +emergency obliges me [to dispose of him]: though poor, I am in nobody's +debt. None of the chapmen would do this for you; nor should every body +readily receive the same favor from me. Once, [in deed,] he [loitered on +an errand]; and (as it happens) absconded, being afraid of the lash that +hangs in the staircase. Give me your money, if this runaway trick, which +I have expected, does not offend you." In my opinion, the man may take +his price, and be secure from any punishment: you wittingly purchased a +good-for-nothing boy: the condition of the contract was told you. +Nevertheless you prosecute this man, and detain him in an unjust suit.</p> + +<p>I told you, at your setting out, that I was indolent: I told you I was +almost incapable of such offices: that you might not chide me in angry +mood, because no letter [from me] came to hand. What then have I +profited, if you nevertheless arraign the conditions that make for me? +On the same score too you complain, that, being worse than my word, I do +not send you the verses you expected.</p> + +<p>A soldier of Lucullus, [having run through] a great many hardships, was +robbed of his collected stock to a penny, as he lay snoring in the night +quite fatigued: after this, like a ravenous wolf, equally exasperated at +himself and the enemy, eager, with his hungry fangs, he beat off a royal +guard from a post (as they report) very strongly fortified, and well +supplied with stores. Famous on account of this exploit, he is adorned +with honorable rewards, and receives twenty thousand sesterces into the +bargain. It happened about this time that his officer being inclined to +batter down a certain fort, began to encourage the same man, with words +that might even have given courage to a coward: "Go, my brave fellow, +whither your valor calls you: go with prosperous step, certain to +receive ample rewards for your merit. Why do you hesitate?" Upon this, +he arch, though a rustic: "He who has lost his purse, will go whither +you wish," says he.</p> + +<p>It was my lot to have Rome for my nurse, and to be instructed [from the +Iliad] how much the exasperated Achilles prejudiced the Greeks. Good +Athens give me some additional learning: that is to say, to be able to +distinguish a right line from a curve, and seek after truth in the +groves of Academus. But the troublesome times removed me from that +pleasant spot; and the tide of a civil war carried me away, +unexperienced as I was, into arms, [into arms] not likely to be a match +for the sinews of Augustus Caesar. Whence, as soon as [the battle of] +Philippi dismissed me in an abject condition, with my wings clipped, and +destitute both of house and land, daring poverty urged me on to the +composition of verses: but now, having more than is wanted, what +medicines would be efficacious enough to cure my madness, if I did not +think it better to rest than to write verses.</p> + +<p>The advancing years rob us of every thing: they have taken away my +mirth, my gallantry, my revelings, and play: they are now proceeding to +force poetry from me. What would you have me do?</p> + +<p>In short, all persons do not love and admire the same things. Ye delight +in the ode: one man is pleased with iambics; another with satires +written in the manner of Bion, and virulent wit. Three guests scarcely +can be found to agree, craving very different dishes with various +palate. What shall I give? What shall I not give? You forbid, what +another demands: what you desire, that truly is sour and disgustful to +the [other] two.</p> + +<p>Beside other [difficulties], do you think it practicable for me to +write poems at Rome, amid so many solicitudes and so many fatigues? One +calls me as his security, another to hear his works, all business else +apart; one lives on the mount of Quirinus, the other in the extremity of +the Aventine; both must be waited on. The distances between them, you +see, are charmingly commodious. "But the streets are clear, so that +there can be no obstacle to the thoughtful."—A builder in heat hurries +along with his mules and porters: the crane whirls aloft at one time a +stone, at another a great piece of timber: the dismal funerals dispute +the way with the unwieldy carriages: here runs a mad dog, there rushes a +sow begrimed with mire. Go now, and meditate with yourself your +harmonious verses. All the whole choir of poets love the grove, and +avoid cities, due votaries to Bacchus delighting in repose and shade. +Would you have me, amid so great noise both by night and day, [attempt] +to sing, and trace the difficult footsteps of the poets? A genius who +has chosen quiet Athens for his residence, and has devoted seven years +to study, and has grown old in books and study, frequently walks forth +more dumb than a statue, and shakes the people's sides with laughter: +here, in the midst of the billows and tempests of the city, can I be +thought capable of connecting words likely to wake the sound of the +lyre?</p> + +<p>At Rome there was a rhetorician, brother to a lawyer: [so fond of each +other were they,] that they would hear nothing but the mere praises of +each other: insomuch, that the latter appeared a Gracchus to the former, +the former a Mucius to the latter. Why should this frenzy affect the +obstreperous poets in a less degree? I write odes, another elegies: a +work wonderful to behold, and burnished by the nine muses! Observe +first, with what a fastidious air, with what importance we survey the +temple [of Apollo] vacant for the Roman poets. In the next place you may +follow (if you are at leisure) and hear what each produces, and +wherefore each weaves for himself the crown. Like Samnite gladiators in +slow duel, till candle-light, we are beaten and waste out the enemy with +equal blows: I came off Alcaeus, in his suffrage; he is mine, who? Why +who but Callimachus? Or, if he seems to make a greater demand, he +becomes Mimnermus, and grows in fame by the chosen appellation. Much do +I endure in order to pacify this passionate race of poets, when I am +writing; and submissive court the applause of the people; [but,] having +finished my studies and recovered my senses, I the same man can now +boldly stop my open ears against reciters.</p> + +<p>Those who make bad verses are laughed at: but they are pleased in +writing, and reverence themselves; and if you are silent, they, happy, +fall to praising of their own accord whatever they have written. But he +who desires to execute a genuine poem, will with his papers assume the +spirit of an honest critic: whatever words shall have but little +clearness and elegance, or shall be without weight and held unworthy of +estimation, he will dare to displace: though they may recede with +reluctance, and still remain in the sanctuary of Vesta: those that have +been long hidden from the people he kindly will drag forth, and bring to +light those expressive denominations of things that were used by the +Catos and Cethegi of ancient times, though now deformed dust and +neglected age presses upon them: he will adopt new words, which use, the +parent [of language], shall produce: forcible and perspicuous, and +bearing the utmost similitude to a limpid stream, he will pour out his +treasures, and enrich Latium with a comprehensive language. The +luxuriant he will lop, the too harsh he will soften with a sensible +cultivation: those void of expression he will discard: he will exhibit +the appearance of one at play; and will be [in his invention] on the +rack, like [a dancer on the stage], who one while affects the motions of +a satyr, at another of a clumsy cyclops.</p> + +<p>I had rather be esteemed a foolish and dull writer, while my faults +please myself, or at least escape my notice, than be wise and smart for +it. There lived at Argos a man of no mean rank, who imagined that he was +hearing some admirable tragedians, a joyful sitter and applauder in an +empty theater: who [nevertheless] could support the other duties of life +in a just manner; a truly honest neighbor, an amiable host, kind toward +his wife, one who could pardon his slaves, nor would rave at the +breaking of a bottle-seal: one who [had sense enough] to avoid a +precipice, or an open well. This man, being cured at the expense and by +the care of his relations, when he had expelled by the means of pure +hellebore the disorder and melancholy humor, and returned to himself; +"By Pollux, my friends (said he), you have destroyed, not saved me; from +whom my pleasure is thus taken away, and a most agreeable delusion of +mind removed by force."</p> + +<p>In a word, it is of the first consequence to be wise in the rejection +of trifles, and leave childish play to boys for whom it is in season, +and not to scan words to be set to music for the Roman harps, but +[rather] to be perfectly an adept in the numbers and proportions of real +life. Thus therefore I commune with myself, and ponder these things in +silence: "If no quantity of water would put an end to your thirst, you +would tell it to your physicians. And is there none to whom you dare +confess, that the more you get the more you crave? If you had a wound +which was not relieved by a plant or root prescribed to you, you would +refuse being doctored with a root or plant that did no good. You have +heard that vicious folly left the man, on whom the gods conferred +wealth; and though you are nothing wiser, since you become richer, will +you nevertheless use the same monitors as before? But could riches make +you wise, could they make you less covetous and mean-spirited, you well +might blush, if there lived on earth one more avaricious than yourself."</p> + +<p>If that be any man's property, which he has bought by the pound and +penny, [and] there be some things to which (if you give credit to the +lawyers) possession gives a claim, [then] the field that feeds you is +your own; and Orbius' steward, when he harrows the corn which is soon to +give you flour, finds you are [in effect] the proper master. You give +your money; you receive grapes, pullets, eggs, a hogshead of strong +wine: certainly in this manner you by little and little purchase that +farm, for which perhaps the owner paid three hundred thousand sesterces, +or more. What does it signify, whether you live on what was paid for the +other day, or a long while ago? He who purchased the Aricinian and +Veientine fields some time since, sups on bought vegetables, however he +may think otherwise; boils his pot with bought wood at the approach of +the chill evening. But he calls all that his own, as far as where the +planted poplar prevents quarrels among neighbors by a determinate +limitation: as if anything were a man's property, which in a moment of +the fleeting hour, now by solicitations, now by sale, now by violence, +and now by the supreme lot [of all men], may change masters and come +into another's jurisdiction. Thus since the perpetual possession is +given to none, and one man's heir urges on another's, as wave impels +wave, of what importance are houses, or granaries; or what the Lucanian +pastures joined to the Calabrian; if Hades, inexorable to gold, mows +down the great together with the small?</p> + +<p>Gems, marble, ivory, Tuscan statues, pictures, silver-plate, robes dyed +with Getulian purple, there are who can not acquire; and there are +others, who are not solicitous of acquiring. Of two brothers, why one +prefers lounging, play, and perfume, to Herod's rich palm-tree groves; +why the other, rich and uneasy, from the rising of the light to the +evening shade, subdues his woodland with fire and steel: our attendant +genius knows, who governs the planet of our nativity, the divinity [that +presides] over human nature, who dies with each individual, of various +complexion, white and black.</p> + +<p>I will use, and take out from my moderate stock, as much as my exigence +demands: nor will I be under any apprehensions what opinion my heir +shall hold concerning me, when he shall, find [I have left him] no more +than I had given me. And yet I, the same man, shall be inclined to know +how far an open and cheerful person differs from a debauchee, and how +greatly the economist differs from the miser. For there is some +distinction whether you throw away your money in a prodigal manner, or +make an entertainment without grudging, nor toil to accumulate more; or +rather, as formerly in Minerva's holidays, when a school-boy, enjoys by +starts the short and pleasant vacation.</p> + +<p>Let sordid poverty be far away. I, whether borne in a large or small +vessel, let me be borne uniform and the same. I am not wafted with +swelling sail before the north wind blowing fair: yet I do not bear my +course of life against the adverse south. In force, genius, figure, +virtue, station, estate, the last of the first-rate, [yet] still before +those of the last.</p> + +<p>You are not covetous, [you say]:—go to.—What then? Have the rest of +your vices fled from you, together with this? Is your breast free from +vain ambition? Is it free from the fear of death and from anger? Can you +laugh at dreams, magic terrors, wonders, witches, nocturnal goblins, and +Thessalian prodigies? Do you number your birth-days with a grateful +mind? Are you forgiving to your friends? Do you grow milder and better +as old age approaches? What profits you only one thorn eradicated out of +many? If you do not know how to live in a right manner, make way for +those that do. You have played enough, eaten and drunk enough, it is +time for you to walk off: lest having tippled too plentifully, that age +which plays the wanton with more propriety, and drive you [off the +stage].</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="HORACES_BOOK_UPON_THE_ART_OF_POETRY" id="HORACES_BOOK_UPON_THE_ART_OF_POETRY" />HORACE'S BOOK UPON THE ART OF POETRY.</h2> + +<p>TO THE PISOS.</p> + + +<p>If a painter should wish to unite a horse's neck to a human head, and +spread a variety of plumage over limbs [of different animals] taken from +every part [of nature], so that what is a beautiful woman in the upper +part terminates unsightly in an ugly fish below; could you, my friends, +refrain from laughter, were you admitted to such a sight? Believe, ye +Pisos, the book will be perfectly like such a picture, the ideas of +which, like a sick man's dreams, are all vain and fictitious: so that +neither head nor foot can correspond to any one form. "Poets and +painters [you will say] have ever had equal authority for attempting any +thing." We are conscious of this, and this privilege we demand and allow +in turn: but not to such a degree, that the tame should associate with +the savage; nor that serpents should be coupled with birds, lambs with +tigers.</p> + +<p>In pompous introductions, and such as promise a great deal, it generally +happens that one or two verses of purple patch-work, that may make a +great show, are tagged on; as when the grove and the altar of Diana and +the meandering of a current hastening through pleasant fields, or the +river Rhine, or the rainbow is described. But here there was no room for +these [fine things]: perhaps, too, you know how to draw a cypress: but +what is that to the purpose, if he, whe is painted for the given price, +is [to be represented as] swimming hopeless out of a shipwreck? A large +vase at first was designed: why, as the wheel revolves, turns out a +little pitcher? In a word, be your subject what it will, let it be +merely simple and uniform.</p> + +<p>The great majority of us poets, father, and youths worthy such a +father, are misled by the appearance of right. I labor to be concise, I +become obscure: nerves and spirit fail him, that aims at the easy: one, +that pretends to be sublime, proves bombastical: he who is too cautious +and fearful of the storm, crawls along the ground: he who wants to vary +his subject in a marvelous manner, paints the dolphin in the woods, the +boar in the sea. The avoiding of an error leads to a fault, if it lack +skill.</p> + +<p>A statuary about the Aemilian school shall of himself, with singular +skill, both express the nails, and imitate in brass the flexible hair; +unhappy yet in the main, because he knows not how to finish a complete +piece. I would no more choose to be such a one as this, had I a mind to +compose any thing, than to live with a distorted nose, [though] +remarkable for black eyes and jetty hair.</p> + +<p>Ye who write, make choice of a subject suitable to your abilities; and +revolve in your thoughts a considerable time what your strength +declines, and what it is able to support. Neither elegance of style, nor +a perspicuous disposition, shall desert the man, by whom the subject +matter is chosen judiciously.</p> + +<p>This, or I am mistaken, will constitute the merit and beauty of +arrangement, that the poet just now say what ought just now to be said, +put off most of his thoughts, and waive them for the present.</p> + +<p>In the choice of his words, too, the author of the projected poem must +be delicate and cautious, he must embrace one and reject another: you +will express yourself eminently well, if a dexterous combination should +give an air of novelty to a well-known word. If it happen to be +necessary to explain some abstruse subjects by new invented terms; it +will follow that you must frame words never heard of by the +old-fashioned Cethegi: and the license will be granted, if modestly +used: and the new and lately-formed words will have authority, if they +descend from a Greek source, with a slight deviation. But why should the +Romans grant to Plutus and Caecilius a privilege denied to Virgil and +Varius? Why should I be envied, if I have it in my power to acquire a +few words, when the language of Cato and Ennius has enriched our native +tongue, and produced new names of things? It has been, and ever will be, +allowable to coin a word marked with the stamp in present request. As +leaves in the woods are changed with the fleeting years; the earliest +fall off first: in this manner words perish with old age, and those +lately invented nourish and thrive, like men in the time of youth. We, +and our works, are doomed to death: Whether Neptune, admitted into the +continent, defends our fleet from the north winds, a kingly work; or the +lake, for a long time unfertile and fit for oars, now maintains its +neighboring cities and feels the heavy plow; or the river, taught to run +in a more convenient channel, has changed its course which was so +destructive to the fruits. Mortal works must perish: much less can the +honor and elegance of language be long-lived. Many words shall revive, +which now have fallen off; and many which are now in esteem shall fall +off, if it be the will of custom, in whose power is the decision and +right and standard of language.</p> + +<p>Homer has instructed us in what measure the achievements of kings, and +chiefs, and direful war might be written.</p> + +<p>Plaintive strains originally were appropriated to the unequal numbers +[of the elegiac]: afterward [love and] successful desires were included. +Yet what author first published humble elegies, the critics dispute, and +the controversy still waits the determination of a judge.</p> + +<p>Rage armed Archilochus with the iambic of his own invention. The sock +and the majestic buskin assumed this measure as adapted for dialogue, +and to silence the noise of the populace, and calculated for action.</p> + +<p>To celebrate gods, and the sons of gods, and the victorious wrestler, +and the steed foremost in the race, and the inclination of youths, and +the free joys of wine, the muse has alotted to the lyre.</p> + +<p>If I am incapable and unskilful to observe the distinction described, +and the complexions of works [of genius], why am I accosted by the name +of "Poet?" Why, out of false modesty, do I prefer being ignorant to +being learned?</p> + +<p>A comic subject will not be handled in tragic verse: in like manner the +banquet of Thyestes will not bear to be held in familiar verses, and +such as almost suit the sock. Let each peculiar species [of writing] +fill with decorum its proper place. Nevertheless sometimes even comedy +exalts her voice, and passionate Chremes rails in a tumid strain: and a +tragic writer generally expresses grief in a prosaic style. Telephus and +Peleus, when they are both in poverty and exile, throw aside their rants +and gigantic expressions if they have a mind to move the heart of the +spectator with their complaint.</p> + +<p>It is not enough that poems be beautiful; let them be tender and +affecting, and bear away the soul of the auditor whithersoever they +please. As the human countenance smiles on those that smile, so does it +sympathize with those that weep. If you would have me weep you must +first express the passion of grief yourself; then, Telephus or Peleus, +your misfortunes hurt me: if you pronounce the parts assigned you ill, I +shall either fall asleep or laugh.</p> + +<p>Pathetic accents suit a melancholy countenance; words full of menace, an +angry one; wanton expressions, a sportive look; and serious matter, an +austere one. For nature forms us first within to every modification of +circumstances; she delights or impels us to anger, or depresses us to +the earth and afflicts us with heavy sorrow: then expresses those +emotions of the mind by the tongue, its interpreter. If the words be +discordant to the station of the speaker, the Roman knights and plebians +will raise an immoderate laugh. It will make a wide difference, whether +it be Davus that speaks, or a hero; a man well-stricken in years, or a +hot young fellow in his bloom; and a matron of distinction, or an +officious nurse; a roaming merchant, or the cultivator of a verdant +little farm; a Colchian, or an Assyrian; one educated at Thebes, or one +at Argos.</p> + +<p>You, that write, either follow tradition, or invent such fables as are +congruous to themselves. If as poet you have to represent the renowned +Achilles; let him be indefatigable, wrathful, inexorable, courageous, +let him deny that laws were made for him, let him arrogate every thing +to force of arms. Let Medea be fierce and untractable, Ino an object of +pity, Ixion perfidious, Io wandering, Orestes in distress.</p> + +<p>If you offer to the stage any thing unattempted, and venture to form a +new character; let it be preserved to the last such as it set out at the +beginning, and be consistent with itself. It is difficult to write with +propriety on subjects to which all writers have a common claim; and you +with more prudence will reduce the Iliad into acts, than if you first +introduce arguments unknown and never treated of before. A public story +will become your own property, if you do not dwell upon the whole circle +of events, which is paltry and open to every one; nor must you be so +faithful a translator, as to take the pains of rendering [the original] +word for word; nor by imitating throw yourself into straits, whence +either shame or the rules of your work may forbid you to retreat.</p> + +<p>Nor must you make such an exordium, as the Cyclic writer of old: "I will +sing the fate of Priam, and the noble war." What will this boaster +produce worthy of all this gaping? The mountains are in labor, a +ridiculous mouse will be brought forth. How much more to the purpose he, +who attempts nothing improperly? "Sing for me, my muse, the man who, +after the time of the destruction of Troy, surveyed the manners and +cities of many men." He meditates not [to produce] smoke from a flash, +but out of smoke to elicit fire, that he may thence bring forth his +instances of the marvelous with beauty, [such as] Antiphates, Scylla, +the Cyclops, and Charybdis. Nor does he date Diomede's return from +Meleager's death, nor trace the rise of the Trojan war from [Leda's] +eggs: he always hastens on to the event; and hurries away his reader in +the midst of interesting circumstances, no otherwise than as if they +were [already] known; and what he despairs of, as to receiving a polish +from his touch, he omits; and in such a manner forms his fictions, so +intermingles the false with the true, that the middle is not +inconsistent with the beginning, nor the end with the middle.</p> + +<p>Do you attend to what I, and the public in my opinion, expect from you +[as a dramatic writer]. If you are desirous of an applauding spectator, +who will wait for [the falling of] the curtain, and till the chorus +calls out "your plaudits;" the manners of every age must be marked by +you, and a proper decorum assigned to men's varying dispositions and +years. The boy, who is just able to pronounce his words, and prints the +ground with a firm tread, delights to play with his fellows, and +contracts and lays aside anger without reason, and is subject to change +every hour. The beardless youth, his guardian being at length +discharged, joys in horses, and dogs, and the verdure of the sunny +Campus Martius; pliable as wax to the bent of vice, rough to advisers, a +slow provider of useful things, prodigal of his money, high-spirited, +and amorous, and hasty in deserting the objects of his passion. [After +this,] our inclinations being changed, the age and spirit of manhood +seeks after wealth, and [high] connections, is subservient to points of +honor; and is cautious of committing any action, which he would +subsequently be industrious to correct. Many inconviences encompass a +man in years; either because he seeks [eagerly] for gain, and abstains +from what he has gotten, and is afraid to make use of it; or because he +transacts every thing in a timorous and dispassionate manner, dilatory, +slow in hope, remiss, and greedy of futurity. Peevish, querulous, a +panegyrist of former times when he was a boy, a chastiser and censurer +of his juniors. Our advancing years bring many advantages along with +them. Many our declining ones take away. That the parts [therefore] +belonging to age may not be given to youth, and those of a man to a boy, +we must dwell upon those qualities which are joined and adapted to each +person's age.</p> + +<p>An action is either represented on the stage, or being done elsewhere is +there related. The things which enter by the ear affect the mind more +languidly, than such as are submitted to the faithful eyes, and what a +spectator presents to himself. You must not, however, bring upon the +stage things fit only to be acted behind the scenes: and you must take +away from view many actions, which elegant description may soon after +deliver in presence [of the spectators]. Let not Medea murder her sons +before the people; nor the execrable Atreus openly dress human entrails: +nor let Progue be metamorphosed into a bird, Cadmus into a serpent. +Whatever you show to me in this manner, not able to give credit to, I +detest.</p> + +<p>Let a play which would be inquired after, and though seen, represented +anew, be neither shorter nor longer than the fifth act. Neither let a +god interfere, unless a difficulty worthy a god's unraveling should +happen; nor let a fourth person be officious to speak.</p> + +<p>Let the chorus sustain the part and manly character of an actor: nor let +them sing any thing between the acts which is not conducive to, and +fitly coherent with, the main design. Let them both patronize the good, +and give them friendly advice, and regulate the passionate, and love to +appease those who swell [with rage]: let them praise the repast of a +short meal, and salutary effects of justice, laws, and peace with her +open gates; let them conceal what is told to them in confidence, and +supplicate and implore the gods that prosperity may return to the +wretched, and abandon the haughty. The flute, (not as now, begirt with +brass and emulous of the trumpet, but) slender and of simple form, with +few stops, was of service to accompany and assist the chorus, and with +its tone was sufficient to fill the rows that were not as yet too +crowded, where an audience, easily numbered, as being small and sober, +chaste and modest, met together. But when the victorious Romans began to +extend their territories, and an ampler wall encompassed the city, and +their genius was indulged on festivals by drinking wine in the day-time +without censure; a greater freedom arose both, to the numbers [of +poetry], and the measure [of music]. For what taste could an unlettered +clown and one just dismissed from labors have, when in company with the +polite; the base, with the man of honor? Thus the musician added now +movements and a luxuriance to the ancient art, and strutting backward +and forward, drew a length of train over the stage; thus likewise new +notes were added to the severity of the lyre, and precipitate eloquence +produced an unusual language [in the theater]: and the sentiments [of +the chorus, then] expert in teaching useful things and prescient of +futurity, differ hardly from the oracular Delphi.</p> + +<p>The poet, who first tried his skill in tragic verse for the paltry +[prize of a] goat, soon after exposed to view wild satyrs naked, and +attempted raillery with severity, still preserving the gravity [of +tragedy]: because the spectator on festivals, when heated with wine and +disorderly, was to be amused with captivating shows and agreeable +novelty. But it will be expedient so to recommend the bantering, so the +rallying satyrs, so to turn earnest into jest; that none who shall be +exhibited as a god, none who is introduced as a hero lately conspicuous +in regal purple and gold, may deviate into the low style of obscure, +mechanical shops; or, [on the contrary,] while he avoids the ground, +effect cloudy mist and empty jargon. Tragedy disdaining to prate forth +trivial verses, like a matron commanded to dance on the festival days, +will assume an air of modesty, even in the midst of wanton satyrs. As a +writer of satire, ye Pisos, I shall never be fond of unornamented and +reigning terms: nor shall I labor to differ so widely from the +complexion of tragedy, as to make no distinction, whether Davus be the +speaker. And the bold Pythias, who gained a talent by gulling Simo; or +Silenus, the guardian and attendant of his pupil-god [Bacchus]. I would +so execute a fiction taken from a well-known story, that any body might +entertain hopes of doing the same thing; but, on trial, should sweat and +labor in vain. Such power has a just arrangement and connection of the +parts: such grace may be added to subjects merely common. In my +judgment the Fauns, that are brought out of the woods, should not be too +gamesome with their tender strains, as if they were educated in the +city, and almost at the bar; nor, on the other hand; should blunder out +their obscene and scandalous speeches. For [at such stuff] all are +offended, who have a horse, a father, or an estate: nor will they +receive with approbation, nor give the laurel crown, as the purchasers +of parched peas and nuts are delighted with.</p> + +<p>A long syllable put after a short one is termed an iambus, a lively +measure, whence also it commanded the name of trimeters to be added to +iambics, though it yielded six beats of time, being similar to itself +from first to last. Not long ago, that it might come somewhat slower and +with more majesty to the ear, it obligingly and contentedly admitted +into its paternal heritage the steadfast spondees; agreeing however, by +social league, that it was not to depart from the second and fourth +place. But this [kind of measure] rarely makes its appearance in the +notable trimeters of Accius, and brands the verse of Ennius brought upon +the stage with a clumsy weight of spondees, with the imputation of being +too precipitate and careless, or disgracefully accuses him of ignorance +in his art.</p> + +<p>It is not every judge that discerns inharmonious verses, and an +undeserved indulgence is [in this case] granted to the Roman poets. But +shall I on this account run riot and write licentiously? Or should not I +rather suppose, that all the world are to see my faults; secure, and +cautious [never to err] but with hope of being pardoned? Though, +perhaps, I have merited no praise, I have escaped censure.</p> + +<p>Ye [who are desirous to excel,] turn over the Grecian models by night, +turn them by day. But our ancestors commended both the numbers of +Plautus, and his strokes of pleasantry; too tamely, I will not say +foolishly, admiring each of them; if you and I but know how to +distinguish a coarse joke from a smart repartee, and understand the +proper cadence, by [using] our fingers and ears.</p> + +<p>Thespis is said to have invented a new kind of tragedy, and to have +carried his pieces about in carts, which [certain strollers], who had +their faces besmeared with lees of wine, sang and acted. After him +Aeschylus, the inventor of the vizard mask and decent robe, laid the +stage over with boards of a tolerable size, and taught to speak in lofty +tone, and strut in the buskin. To these succeeded the old comedy, not +without considerable praise: but its personal freedom degenerated into +excess and violence, worthy to be regulated by law; a law was made +accordingly, and the chorus, the right of abusing being taken away, +disgracefully became silent.</p> + +<p>Our poets have left no species [of the art] unattempted; nor have those +of them merited the least honor, who dared to forsake the footsteps of +the Greeks, and celebrate domestic facts; whether they have instructed +us in tragedy, of comedy. Nor would Italy be raised higher by valor and +feats of arms, than by its language, did not the fatigue and tediousness +of using the file disgust every one of our poets. Do you, the decendants +of Pompilius, reject that poem, which many days and many a blot have not +ten times subdued to the most perfect accuracy. Because Democritus +believes that genius is more successful than wretched art, and excludes +from Helicon all poets who are in their senses, a great number do not +care to part with their nails or beard, frequent places of solitude, +shun the baths. For he will acquire, [he thinks,] the esteem and title +of a poet, if he neither submits his head, which is not to be cured by +even three Anticyras, to Licinius the barber. What an unlucky fellow am +I, who am purged for the bile in spring-time! Else nobody would compose +better poems; but the purchase is not worth the expense. Therefore I +will serve instead of a whetstone, which though not able of itself to +cut, can make steel sharp: so I, who can write no poetry myself, will +teach the duty and business [of an author]; whence he may be stocked +with rich materials; what nourishes and forms the poet; what gives +grace, what not; what is the tendency of excellence, what that of error.</p> + +<p>To have good sense, is the first principle and fountain of writing well. +The Socratic papers will direct you in the choice of your subjects; and +words will spontaneously accompany the subject, when it is well +conceived. He who has learned what he owes to his country, and what to +his friends; with what affection a parent, a brother, and a stranger, +are to be loved; what is the duty of a senator, what of a judge; what +the duties of a general sent out to war; he, [I say,] certainly knows +how to give suitable attributes to every character. I should direct the +learned imitator to have a regard to the mode of nature and manners, and +thence draw his expressions to the life. Sometimes a play, that is +showy with common-places, and where the manners are well marked, though +of no elegance, without force or art, gives the people much higher +delight and more effectually commands their attention, than verse void +of matter, and tuneful trifles.</p> + +<p>To the Greeks, covetous of nothing but praise, the muse gave genius; to +the Greeks the power of expressing themselves in round periods. The +Roman youth learn by long computation to subdivide a pound into an +hundred parts. Let the son of Albinus tell me, if from five ounces one +be subtracted, what remains? He would have said the third of a +pound.—Bravely done! you will be able to take care of your own affairs. +An ounce is added: what will that be? Half a pound. When this sordid +rust and hankering after wealth has once tainted their minds, can we +expect that such verses should be made as are worthy of being anointed +with the oil of cedar, and kept in the well-polished cypress?</p> + +<p>Poets wish either to profit or to delight; or to deliver at once both +the pleasures and the necessaries of life. Whatever precepts you give, +be concise; that docile minds may soon comprehend what is said, and +faithfully retain it. All superfluous instructions flow from the too +full memory. Let what ever is imagined for the sake of entertainment, +have as much likeness to truth as possible; let not your play demand +belief for whatever [absurdities] it is inclinable [to exhibit]: nor +take out of a witch's belly a living child that she had dined upon. The +tribes of the seniors rail against every thing that is void of +edification: the exalted knights disregard poems which are austere. He +who joins the instructive with the agreeable, carries off every vote, by +delighting and at the same time admonishing the reader. This book gains +money for the Sosii; this crosses the sea, and continues to its renowned +author a lasting duration.</p> + +<p>Yet there are faults, which we should be ready to pardon: for neither +does the string [always] form the sound which the hand and conception +[of the performer] intends, but very often returns a sharp note when he +demands a flat; nor will the bow always hit whatever mark it threatens. +But when there is a great majority of beauties in a poem, I will not be +offended with a few blemishes, which either inattention has dropped, or +human nature has not sufficiently provided against. What therefore [is +to be determined in this matter]? As a transcriber, if he still commits +the same fault though he has been reproved, is without excuse; and the +harper who always blunders on the same string, is sure to be laughed at; +so he who is excessively deficient becomes another Choerilus; whom, when +I find him tolerable in two or three places, I wonder at with laughter; +and at the same time am I grieved whenever honest Homer grows drowsy? +But it is allowable, that sleep should steal upon [the progress of] a +king work.</p> + +<p>As is painting, so is poetry: some pieces will strike you more if you +stand near, and some, if you are at a greater distance: one loves the +dark; another, which is not afraid of the critic's subtle judgment, +chooses to be seen in the light; the one has pleased once, the other +will give pleasure if ten times repeated.</p> + +<p>O ye elder of the youths, though you are framed to a right judgment by +your father's instructions, and are wise in yourself, yet take this +truth along with you, [and] remember it; that in certain things a medium +and tolerable degree of eminence may be admitted: a counselor and +pleader at the bar of the middle rate is far removed from the merit of +eloquent Messala, nor has so much knowledge of the law as Casselius +Aulus, but yet he is in request; [but] a mediocrity in poets neither +gods, nor men, nor [even] the booksellers' shops have endured. As at an +agreeable entertainment discordant music, and muddy perfume, and poppies +mixed with Sardinian honey give offense, because the supper might have +passed without them; so poetry, created and invented for the delight of +our souls, if it comes short ever so little of the summit, sinks to the +bottom.</p> + +<p>He who does not understand the game, abstains from the weapons of the +Campus Martius: and the unskillful in the tennis-ball, the quoit, and +the troques keeps himself quiet; lest the crowded ring should raise a +laugh at his expense: notwithstanding this, he who knows nothing of +verses presumes to compose. Why not! He is free-born, and of a good +family; above all, he is registered at an equestrian sum of moneys, and +clear from every vice. You, [I am persuaded,] will neither say nor do +any thing in opposition to Minerva: such is your judgment, such your +disposition. But if ever you shall write anything, let it be submitted +to the ears of Metius [Tarpa], who is a judge, and your father's, and +mine; and let it be suppressed till the ninth year, your papers being +held up within your own custody. You will have it in your power to blot +out what you have not made public: a word ice sent abroad can never +return.</p> + +<p>Orpheus, the priest and Interpreter of the gods, deterred the savage +race of men from slaughters and inhuman diet; once said to tame tigers +and furious lions: Amphion too, the builder of the Theban wall, was said +to give the stones moon with the sound of his lyre, and to lead them +whithersover he would, by engaging persuasion. This was deemed wisdom of +yore, to distinguish the public from private weal; things sacred from +things profane; to prohibit a promiscuous commerce between the sexes; to +give laws to married people; to plan out cities; to engrave laws on +[tables of] wood. Thus honor accrued to divine poets, and their songs. +After these, excellent Homer and Tyrtaeus animated the manly mind to +martial achievements with their verses. Oracles were delivered in +poetry, and the economy of life pointed out, and the favor of sovereign +princes was solicited by Pierian drains, games were instituted, and a +[cheerful] period put to the tedious labors of the day; [this I remind +you of,] lest haply you should be ashamed of the lyric muse, and Apollo +the god of song.</p> + +<p>It has been made a question, whether good poetry be derived from nature +or from art. For my part, I can neither conceive what study can do +without a rich [natural] vein, nor what rude genius can avail of itself: +so much does the one require the assistance of the other, and so +amicably do they conspire [to produce the same effect]. He who is +industrious to reach the wished-for goal, has done and suffered much +when a boy; he has sweated and shivered with cold; he has abstained from +love and wine; he who sings the Pythian strains, was a learner first, +and in awe of a master. But [in poetry] it is now enough for a man to +say of himself: "I make admirable verses: a murrain seize the hindmost: +it is scandalous for me to be outstripped, and fairly to Acknowledge +that I am ignorant of that which I never learned."</p> + +<p>As a crier who collects the crowd together to buy his goods, so a poet +rich in land, rich in money put out at interest, invites flatterers to +come [and praise his works] for a reward. But if he be one who is well +able to set out an elegant table, and give security for a poor man, and +relieve when entangled in glaomy law-suits; I shall wonder if with his +wealth he can distinguish a true friend from false one. You, whether +you have made, or intend to make, a present to any one, do not bring him +full of joy directly to your finished verses: for then he will cry out, +"Charming, excellent, judicious," he will turn pale; at some parts he +will even distill the dew from his friendly eyes; he will jump about; he +will beat the ground [with ecstasy]. As those who mourn at funerals for +pay, do and say more than those that are afflicted from their hearts; so +the sham admirer is more moved than he that praises with sincerity. +Certain kings are said to ply with frequent bumpers, and by wine make +trial of a man whom they are sedulous to know whether he be worthy of +their friendship or not. Thus, if you compose verses, let not the fox's +concealed intentions impose upon you.</p> + +<p>If you had recited any thing to Quintilius, he would say, "Alter, I +pray, this and this:" if you replied, you could do it no better, having +made the experiment twice or thrice in vain; he would order you to blot +out, and once more apply to the anvil your ill-formed verses: if you +choose rather to defend than correct a fault, he spent not a word more +nor fruitless labor, but you alone might be fond of yourself and your +own works, without a rival. A good and sensible man will censure +spiritless verses, he will condemn the rugged, on the incorrect he will +draw across a black stroke with his pen; he will lop off ambitious [and +redundant] ornaments; he will make him throw light on the parts that are +not perspicuous; he will arraign what is expressed ambiguously; he will +mark what should be altered; [in short,] he will be an Aristarchus: he +will not say, "Why should I give my friend offense about mere trifles?" +These trifles will lead into mischiefs of serious consequence, when once +made an object of ridicule, and used in a sinister manner.</p> + +<p>Like one whom an odious plague or jaundice, fanatic phrensy or lunacy, +distresses; those who are wise avoid a mad poet, and are afraid to touch +him; the boys jostle him, and the incautious pursue him. If, like a +fowler intent upon his game, he should fall into a well or a ditch while +he belches out his fustian verses and roams about, though he should cry +out for a long time, "Come to my assistance, O my countrymen;" not one +would give himself the trouble of taking him up. Were any one to take +pains to give him aid, and let down a rope; "How do you know, but he +threw himself in hither on purpose?" I shall say: and will relate the +death of the Sicilian poet. Empedocles, while he was ambitious of being +esteemed an immortal god, in cold blood leaped into burning Aetna. Let +poets have the privilege and license to die [as they please]. He who +saves a man against his will, does the same with him who kills him +[against his will]. Neither is it the first time that he has behaved in +this manner; nor, were he to be forced from his purposes, would he now +become a man, and lay aside his desire of such a famous death. Neither +does it appear sufficiently, why he makes verses: whether he has defiled +his father's ashes, or sacrilegiously removed the sad enclosure of the +vindictive thunder: it is evident that he is mad, and like a bear that +has burst through the gates closing his den, this unmerciful rehearser +chases the learned and unlearned. And whomsoever he seizes, he fastens +on and assassinates with recitation: a leech that will not quit the +skin, till satiated with blood.</p> + +<p>THE END</p> + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14020 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..56bfcfd --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #14020 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14020) diff --git a/old/14020-h.zip b/old/14020-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..99b8006 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14020-h.zip diff --git a/old/14020-h/14020-h.htm b/old/14020-h/14020-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db0fe12 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14020-h/14020-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8956 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of THE WORKS OF HORACE, by C. Smart, A.M.. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + } + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; left: 12%; text-align: left;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Horace, by Horace + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Works of Horace + +Author: Horace + +Release Date: November 11, 2004 [EBook #14020] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF HORACE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<p class="center">Handy Literal Translations</p> + +<h1>THE WORKS OF HORACE</h1> + +<p class="center"><i>TRANSLATED LITERALLY INTO ENGLISH PROSE</i></p> + + + +<h2>By C. Smart, A.M.</h2> + +<p class="center">Of Pembroke College, Cambridge</p> + + + +<p class="center"><i>A NEW EDITION</i></p> + + + +<p class="center">REVISED BY</p> + +<p class="center">Theodore Alois Buckley B.A. Of Christ Church</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p class="center"> + <a href="#THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE"><b>THE FIRST BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THE_SECOND_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE"><b>THE SECOND BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THE_THIRD_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE"><b>THE THIRD BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THE_FOURTH_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE"><b>THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THE_BOOK_OF_THE_EPODES_OF_HORACE"><b>THE BOOK OF THE EPODES OF HORACE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_SATIRES_OF_HORACE"><b>THE FIRST BOOK OF THE SATIRES OF HORACE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THE_SECOND_BOOK_OF_THE_SATIRES_OF_HORACE"><b>THE SECOND BOOK OF THE SATIRES OF HORACE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_EPISTLES_OF_HORACE"><b>THE FIRST BOOK OF THE EPISTLES OF HORACE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THE_SECOND_BOOK_OF_THE_EPISTLES_OF_HORACE"><b>THE SECOND BOOK OF THE EPISTLES OF HORACE.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#HORACES_BOOK_UPON_THE_ART_OF_POETRY"><b>HORACE'S BOOK UPON THE ART OF POETRY.</b></a><br /> + </p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE" id="THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE" />THE FIRST BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE.</h2> + + + +<p>ODE I.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>Maecenas, descended from royal ancestors, O both my protection and my +darling honor! There are those whom it delights to have collected +Olympic dust in the chariot race; and [whom] the goal nicely avoided by +the glowing wheels, and the noble palm, exalts, lords of the earth, to +the gods.</p> + +<p>This man, if a crowd of the capricious Quirites strive to raise him to +the highest dignities; another, if he has stored up in his own granary +whatsoever is swept from the Libyan thrashing floors: him who delights +to cut with the hoe his patrimonial fields, you could never tempt, for +all the wealth of Attalus, [to become] a timorous sailor and cross the +Myrtoan sea in a Cyprian bark. The merchant, dreading the south-west +wind contending with the Icarian waves, commends tranquility and the +rural retirement of his village; but soon after, incapable of being +taught to bear poverty, he refits his shattered vessel. There is +another, who despises not cups of old Massic, taking a part from the +entire day, one while stretched under the green arbute, another at the +placid head of some sacred stream.</p> + +<p>The camp, and the sound of the trumpet mingled with that of the clarion, +and wars detested by mothers, rejoice many.</p> + +<p>The huntsman, unmindful of his tender spouse, remains in the cold air, +whether a hart is held in view by his faithful hounds, or a Marsian boar +has broken the fine-wrought toils.</p> + +<p>Ivy, the reward of learned brows, equals me with the gods above: the +cool grove, and the light dances of nymphs and satyrs, distinguish me +from the crowd; if neither Euterpe withholds her pipe, nor Polyhymnia +disdains to tune the Lesbian lyre. But, if you rank me among the lyric +poets, I shall tower to the stars with my exalted head.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE II.</p> + +<p>TO AUGUSTUS CAESAR</p> + + +<p>Enough of snow and dreadful hail has the Sire now sent upon the earth, +and having hurled [his thunderbolts] with his red right hand against the +sacred towers, he has terrified the city; he has terrified the nations, +lest the grievous age of Pyrrha, complaining of prodigies till then +unheard of, should return, when Proteus drove all his [marine] herd to +visit the lofty mountains; and the fishy race were entangled in the elm +top, which before was the frequented seat of doves; and the timorous +deer swam in the overwhelming flood. We have seen the yellow Tiber, with +his waves forced back with violence from the Tuscan shore, proceed to +demolish the monuments of king [Numa], and the temples of Vesta; while +he vaunts himself the avenger of the too disconsolate Ilia, and the +uxorious river, leaving his channel, overflows his left bank, +notwithstanding the disapprobation of Jupiter.</p> + +<p>Our youth, less numerous by the vices of their fathers, shall hear of +the citizens having whetted that sword [against themselves], with which +it had been better that the formidable Persians had fallen; they shall +hear of [actual] engagements. Whom of the gods shall the people invoke +to the affairs of the sinking empire? With what prayer shall the sacred +virgins importune Vesta, who is now inattentive to their hymns? To whom +shall Jupiter assign the task of expiating our wickedness? Do thou at +length, prophetic Apollo, (we pray thee!) come, vailing thy radiant +shoulders with a cloud: or thou, if it be more agreeable to thee, +smiling Venus, about whom hover the gods of mirth and love: or thou, if +thou regard thy neglected race and descendants, our founder Mars, whom +clamor and polished helmets, and the terrible aspect of the Moorish +infantry against their bloody enemy, delight, satiated at length with +thy sport, alas! of too long continuance: or if thou, the winged son of +gentle Maia, by changing thy figure, personate a youth upon earth, +submitting to be called the avenger of Caesar; late mayest thou return +to the skies, and long mayest thou joyously be present to the Roman +people; nor may an untimely blast transport thee from us, offended at +our crimes. Here mayest thou rather delight in magnificent triumphs, and +to be called father and prince: nor suffer the Parthians with impunity +to make incursions, you, O Caesar, being our general.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE III.</p> + +<p>TO THE SHIP, IN WHICH VIRGIL WAS ABOUT TO SAIL TO ATHENS.</p> + + +<p>So may the goddess who rules over Cyprus; so may the bright stars, the +brothers of Helen; and so may the father of the winds, confining all +except Iapyx, direct thee, O ship, who art intrusted with Virgil; my +prayer is, that thou mayest land him safe on the Athenian shore, and +preserve the half of my soul. Surely oak and three-fold brass surrounded +his heart who first trusted a frail vessel to the merciless ocean, nor +was afraid of the impetuous Africus contending with the northern storms, +nor of the mournful Hyades, nor of the rage of Notus, than whom there is +not a more absolute controller of the Adriatic, either to raise or +assuage its waves at pleasure. What path of death did he fear, who +beheld unmoved the rolling monsters of the deep; who beheld unmoved the +tempestuous swelling of the sea, and the Acroceraunians—ill-famed +rocks?</p> + +<p>In vain has God in his wisdom divided the countries of the earth by the +separating ocean, if nevertheless profane ships bound over waters not to +be violated. The race of man presumptuous enough to endure everything, +rushes on through forbidden wickedness.</p> + +<p>The presumptuous son of Iapetus, by an impious fraud, brought down fire +into the world. After fire was stolen from the celestial mansions, +consumption and a new train of fevers settled upon the earth, and the +slow approaching necessity of death, which, till now, was remote, +accelerated its pace. Daedalus essayed the empty air with wings not +permitted to man. The labor of Hercules broke through Acheron. There is +nothing too arduous for mortals to attempt. We aim at heaven itself in +our folly; neither do we suffer, by our wickedness, Jupiter to lay aside +his revengeful thunderbolts.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IV.</p> + +<p>TO SEXTIUS.</p> + + +<p>Severe winter is melted away beneath the agreeable change of spring and +the western breeze; and engines haul down the dry ships. And neither +does the cattle any longer delight in the stalls, nor the ploughman in +the fireside; nor are the meadows whitened by hoary frosts. Now +Cytherean Venus leads off the dance by moonlight; and the comely Graces, +in conjunction with the Nymphs, shake the ground with alternate feet; +while glowing Vulcan kindles the laborious forges of the Cyclops. Now it +is fitting to encircle the shining head either with verdant myrtle, or +with such flowers as the relaxed earth produces. Now likewise it is +fitting to sacrifice to Faunus in the shady groves, whether he demand a +lamb, or be more pleased with a kid. Pale death knocks at the cottages +of the poor, and the palaces of kings, with an impartial foot. O happy +Sextius! The short sum total of life forbids us to form remote +expectations. Presently shall darkness, and the unreal ghosts, and the +shadowy mansion of Pluto oppress you; where, when you shall have once +arrived, you shall neither decide the dominion of the bottle by dice, +nor shall you admire the tender Lycidas, with whom now all the youth is +inflamed, and for whom ere long the maidens will grow warm.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE V.</p> + +<p>TO PYRRHA.</p> + + +<p>What dainty youth, bedewed with liquid perfumes, caresses you, Pyrrha, +beneath the pleasant grot, amid a profusion of roses? For whom do you +bind your golden hair, plain in your neatness? Alas! how often shall he +deplore your perfidy, and the altered gods; and through inexperience be +amazed at the seas, rough with blackening storms who now credulous +enjoys you all precious, and, ignorant of the faithless gale, hopes you +will be always disengaged, always amiable! Wretched are those, to whom +thou untried seemest fair? The sacred wall [of Neptune's temple] +demonstrates, by a votive tablet, that I have consecrated my dropping +garments to the powerful god of the sea.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VI.</p> + +<p>TO AGRIPPA.</p> + + +<p>You shall be described by Varius, a bird of Maeonian verse, as brave, +and a subduer of your enemies, whatever achievements your fierce +soldiery shall have accomplished, under your command; either on +ship-board or on horseback. We humble writers, O Agrippa, neither +undertake these high subjects, nor the destructive wrath of inexorable +Achilles, nor the voyages of the crafty Ulysses, nor the cruel house of +Pelops: while diffidence, and the Muse who presides over the peaceful +lyre, forbid me to diminish the praise of illustrious Caesar, and yours, +through defect of genius. Who with sufficient dignity will describe Mars +covered with adamantine coat of mail, or Meriones swarthy with Trojan +dust, or the son of Tydeus by the favor of Pallas a match for the gods? +We, whether free, or ourselves enamored of aught, light as our wont, +sing of banquets; we, of the battles of maids desperate against young +fellows—with pared nails.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VII.</p> + +<p>TO MUNATIUS PLANCUS.</p> + + +<p>Other poets shall celebrate the famous Rhodes, or Mitylene, or Ephesus, +or the walls of Corinth, situated between two seas, or Thebes, +illustrious by Bacchus, or Delphi by Apollo, or the Thessalian Tempe. +There are some, whose one task it is to chant in endless verse the city +of spotless Pallas, and to prefer the olive culled from every side, to +every other leaf. Many a one, in honor of Juno, celebrates Argos, +productive of steeds, and rich Mycenae. Neither patient Lacedaemon 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 +clear south wind often clears away the clouds from a lowering sky, now +teems with perpetual showers; so do you, O Plancus, wisely remember to +put an end to grief 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 his +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 re-visit the vast ocean."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VIII.</p> + +<p>TO LYDIA.</p> + + +<p>Lydia, I conjure thee by all the powers above, to tell me why you are so +intent to ruin Sybaris by inspiring him with love? Why hates he the +sunny plain, though inured to bear the dust and heat? Why does he +neither, in military accouterments, 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 of the ring more cautiously than +viper's blood? Why neither does he, who has often acquired 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 +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?</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IX.</p> + +<p>TO THALIARCHUS.</p> + + +<p>You see how Soracte stands white with deep snow, nor can the laboring +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, O 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 +tomorrow; and whatever day fortune shall bestow on you, score it up for +gain; nor disdain, being a young fellow, pleasant 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 at the +approach of evening be repeated at the appointed hour: now, too, the +delightful laugh, the betrayer of the lurking damsel from some secret +corner, and the token ravished from her arms or fingers, pretendingly +tenacious of it.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE X.</p> + +<p>TO MERCURY.</p> + + +<p>Mercury, eloquent grandson of Atlas, thou who artful didst from the +savage manners of the early race of men by oratory, and the institution +of the graceful Palaestra: I will celebrate thee, messenger of Jupiter +and the other gods, and parent of the curved lyre; ingenious to conceal +whatever thou hast a mind to, in jocose theft. While Apollo, with angry +voice, threatened you, then but a boy, unless you would restore the +oxen, previously driven away by your fraud, he laughed, [when he found +himself] deprived of his quiver [also]. Moreover, the wealthy Priam too, +on his departure from Ilium, under your guidance deceived the proud sons +of Atreus, and the Thessalian watch-lights, and the camp inveterate +agaist Troy. You settle the souls of good men in blissful regions, and +drive together the airy crowd with your golden rod, acceptable both to +the supernal and infernal gods.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XI.</p> + +<p>TO LEUCONOE.</p> + + +<p>Inquire not, Leuconoe (it is not fitting you should know), how long a +term of life the gods have granted to you or to me: neither consult the +Chaldean calculations. How much better is it to bear with patience +whatever shall happen! Whether Jupiter have granted us more winters, or +[this as] the last, which now breaks the Etrurian waves against the +opposing rocks. Be wise; rack off your wines, and abridge your hopes [in +proportion] to the shortness of your life. While we are conversing, +envious age has been flying; seize the present day, not giving the least +credit to the succeeding one.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XII.</p> + +<p>TO AUGUSTUS.</p> + + +<p>What man, what hero, O Clio, do you undertake to celebrate on the harp, +or the shrill pipe? What god? Whose name shall the sportive echo +resound, either in the shady borders of Helicon, or on the top of +Pindus, or on cold Haemus? Whence the woods followed promiscuously the +tuneful Orpheus, who by his maternal art retarded the rapid courses of +rivers, and the fleet winds; and was so sweetly persuasive, that he drew +along the listening oaks with his harmonious strings. But what can I +sing prior to the usual praises of the Sire, who governs the affairs of +men and gods; who [governs] the sea, the earth, and the whole world with +the vicissitudes of seasons? Whence nothing is produced greater than +him; nothing springs either like him, or even in a second degree to him: +nevertheless, Pallas has acquired these honors, which are next after +him.</p> + +<p>Neither will I pass thee by in silence, O Bacchus, bold in combat; nor +thee, O Virgin, who art an enemy to the savage beasts; nor thee, O +Phoebus, formidable for thy unerring dart.</p> + +<p>I will sing also of Hercules, and the sons of Leda, the one illustrious +for his achievements on horseback, the other on foot; whose +clear-shining constellation as soon as it has shone forth to the +sailors, the troubled surge falls down from the rocks, the winds cease, +the clouds vanish, and the threatening waves subside in the sea—because +it was their will. After these, I am in doubt whom I shall first +commemorate, whether Romulus, or the peaceful reign of Numa, or the +splendid ensigns of Tarquinius, or the glorious death of Cato. I will +celebrate, out of gratitude, with the choicest verses, Regulus, and the +Scauri, and Paulus, prodigal of his mighty soul, when Carthage +conquered, and Fabricius.</p> + +<p>Severe poverty, and an hereditary farm, with a dwelling suited to it, +formed this hero useful in war; as it did also Curius with his rough +locks, and Camillus. The fame of Marcellus increases, as a tree does in +the insensible progress of time. But the Julian constellation shines +amid them all, as the moon among the smaller stars. O thou son of +Saturn, author and preserver of the human race, the protection of Caesar +is committed to thy charge by the Fates: thou shalt reign supreme, with +Caesar for thy second. Whether he shall subdue with a just victory the +Parthians making inroads upon Italy, or shall render subject the Seres +and Indians on the Eastern coasts; he shall rule the wide world with +equity, in subordination to thee. Thou shalt shake Olympus with thy +tremendous car; thou shalt hurl thy hostile thunderbolts against the +polluted groves.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIII.</p> + +<p>TO LYDIA.</p> + + +<p>O Lydia, when you commend Telephus' rosy neck, and the waxen arms of +Telephus, alas! my inflamed liver swells with bile difficult to be +repressed. Then neither is my mind firm, nor does my color maintain a +certain situation: and the involuntary tears glide down my cheek, +proving with what lingering flames I am inwardly consumed. I am on fire, +whether quarrels rendered immoderate by wine have stained your fair +shoulders; or whether the youth, in his fury, has impressed with his +teeth a memorial on your lips. If you will give due attention to my +advice, never expect that he will be constant, who inhumanly wounds +those sweet kisses, which Venus has imbued with the fifth part of all +her nectar. O thrice and more than thrice happy those, whom an +indissoluble connection binds together; and whose love, undivided by +impious complainings, does not separate them sooner than the last day!</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIV.</p> + +<p>TO THE ROMAN STATE.</p> + + +<p>O ship, new waves will bear you back again to sea. O what are you doing? +Bravely seize the port. Do you not perceive, that your sides are +destitute of oars, and your mast wounded by the violent south wind, and +your main-yards groan, and your keel can scarcely support the +impetuosity of the waves without the help of cordage? You have not +entire sails; nor gods, whom you may again invoke, pressed with +distress: notwithstanding you are made of the pines of Pontus, and as +the daughter of an illustrious wood, boast your race, and a fame now of +no service to you. The timorous sailor has no dependence on a painted +stern. Look to yourself, unless you are destined to be the sport of the +winds. O thou, so lately my trouble and fatigue, but now an object of +tenderness and solicitude, mayest thou escape those dangerous seas which +flow among the shining Cyclades.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XV.</p> + +<p>TO PARIS.</p> + + +<p>When the perfidious shepherd (Paris) carried off by sea in Trojan ships +his hostess Helen, Nereus suppressed the swift winds in an unpleasant +calm, that he might sing the dire fates. "With unlucky omen art thou +conveying home her, whom Greece with a numerous army shall demand back +again, having entered into a confederacy to dissolve your nuptials, and +the ancient kingdom of Priam. Alas! what sweat to horses, what to men, +is just at hand! What a destruction art thou preparing for the Trojan +nation! Even now Pallas is fitting her helmet, and her shield, and her +chariot, and her fury. In vain, looking fierce through the patronage of +Venus, will you comb your hair, and run divisions upon the effeminate +lyre with songs pleasing to women. In vain will you escape the spears +that disturb the nuptial bed, and the point of the Cretan dart, and the +din [of battle], and Ajax swift in the pursuit. Nevertheless, alas! the +time will come, though late, when thou shalt defile thine adulterous +hairs in the dust. Dost thou not see the son of Laertes, fatal to thy +nation, and Pylian Nestor, Salaminian Teucer, and Sthenelus skilled in +fight (or if there be occasion to manage horses, no tardy charioteer), +pursue thee with intrepidity? Meriones also shalt thou experience. +Behold! the gallant son of Tydeus, a better man than his father, glows +to find you out: him, as a stag flies a wolf, which he has seen on the +opposite side of the vale, unmindful of his pasture, shall you, +effeminate, fly, grievously panting:—not such the promises you made +your mistress. The fleet of the enraged Achilles shall defer for a time +that day, which is to be fatal to Troy and the Trojan matrons: but, +after a certain number of years, Grecian fire shall consume the Trojan +palaces."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVI.</p> + +<p>TO A YOUNG LADY HORACE HAD OFFENDED.</p> + + +<p>O daughter, more charming than your charming mother, put what end you +please to my insulting iambics; either in the flames, or, if you choose +it, in the Adriatic. Nor Cybele, nor Apollo, the dweller in the shrines, +so shakes the breast of his priests; Bacchus does not do it equally, nor +do the Corybantes so redouble their strokes on the sharp-sounding +cymbals, as direful anger; which neither the Noric sword can deter, nor +the shipwrecking sea, nor dreadful fire, not Jupiter himself rushing +down with awful crash. It is reported that Prometheus was obliged to add +to that original clay [with which he formed mankind], some ingredient +taken from every animal, and that he applied the vehemence of the raging +lion to the human breast. It was rage that destroyed Thyestes with +horrible perdition; and has been the final cause that lofty cities have +been entirely demolished, and that an insolent army has driven the +hostile plowshare over their walls. Compose your mind. An ardor of soul +attacked me also in blooming youth, and drove me in a rage to the +writing of swift-footed iambics. Now I am desirous of exchanging +severity for good nature, provided that you will become my friend, after +my having recanted my abuse, and restore me your affections.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVII.</p> + +<p>TO TYNDARIS.</p> + + +<p>The nimble Faunus often exchanges the Lycaean mountain for the pleasant +Lucretilis, and always defends my she-goats from the scorching summer, +and the rainy winds. The wandering wives of the unsavory husband seek +the hidden strawberry-trees and thyme with security through the safe +grove: nor do the kids dread the green lizards, or the wolves sacred to +Mars; whenever, my Tyndaris, the vales and the smooth rocks of the +sloping Ustica have resounded with his melodious pipe. The gods are my +protectors. My piety and my muse are agreeable to the gods. Here plenty, +rich with rural honors, shall flow to you, with her generous horn filled +to the brim. Here, in a sequestered vale, you shall avoid the heat of +the dog-star; and, on your Anacreontic harp, sing of Penelope and the +frail Circe striving for one lover; here you shall quaff, under the +shade, cups of unintoxicating Lesbian. Nor shall the raging son of +Semele enter the combat with Mars; and unsuspected you shall not fear +the insolent Cyrus, lest he should savagely lay his intemperate hands on +you, who are by no means a match for him; and should rend the chaplet +that is platted in your hair, and your inoffensive garment.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVIII.</p> + +<p>TO VARUS.</p> + + +<p>O Varus, you can plant no tree preferable to the sacred vine, about the +mellow soil of Tibur, and the walls of Catilus. For God hath rendered +every thing cross to the sober; nor do biting cares disperse any +otherwise [than by the use of wine]. Who, after wine, complains of the +hardships of war or of poverty? Who does not rather [celebrate] thee, +Father Bacchus, and thee, comely Venus? Nevertheless, the battle of the +Centaurs with the Lapithae, which was fought in their cups, admonishes +us not to exceed a moderate use of the gifts of Bacchus. And Bacchus +himself admonishes us in his severity to the Thracians; when greedy to +satisfy their lusts, they make little distinction between right and +wrong. O beauteous Bacchus, I will not rouse thee against thy will, nor +will I hurry abroad thy [mysteries, which are] covered with various +leaves. Cease your dire cymbals, together with your Phrygian horn, whose +followers are blind Self-love and Arrogance, holding up too high her +empty head, and the Faith communicative of secrets, and more transparent +than glass.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIX.</p> + +<p>TO GLYCERA.</p> + + +<p>The cruel mother of the Cupids, and the son of the Theban Gemele, and +lascivious ease, command me to give back my mind to its deserted loves. +The splendor of Glycera, shining brighter than the Parian marble, +inflames me: her agreeable petulance, and her countenance, too unsteady +to be beheld, inflame me. Venus, rushing on me with her whole force, has +quitted Cyprus; and suffers me not to sing of the Scythians, and the +Parthian, furious when his horse is turned for flight, or any subject +which is not to the present purpose. Here, slaves, place me a live turf; +here, place me vervains and frankincense, with a flagon of two-year-old +wine. She will approach more propitious, after a victim has been +sacrificed.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XX.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>My dear knight Maecenas, you shall drink [at my house] ignoble Sabine +wine in sober cups, which I myself sealed up in the Grecian cask, stored +at the time, when so loud an applause was given to you in the +amphitheatre, that the banks of your ancestral river, together with the +cheerful echo of the Vatican mountain, returned your praises. You [when +you are at home] will drink the Caecuban, and the grape which is +squeezed in the Calenian press; but neither the Falernian vines, nor the +Formian hills, season my cups.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXI.</p> + +<p>ON DIANA AND APOLLO.</p> + + +<p>Ye tender virgins, sing Diana; ye boys, sing Apollo with his unshorn +hair, and Latona passionately beloved by the supreme Jupiter. Ye +(virgins), praise her that rejoices in the rivers, and the thick groves, +which project either from the cold Algidus, or the gloomy woods of +Erymanthus, or the green Cragus. Ye boys, extol with equal praises +Apollo's Delos, and his shoulder adorned with a quiver, and with his +brother Mercury's lyre. He, moved by your intercession, shall drive away +calamitous war, and miserable famine, and the plague from the Roman +people and their sovereign Caesar, to the Persians and the Britons.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXII.</p> + +<p>TO ARISTIUS FUSCUS.</p> + + +<p>The man of upright life and pure from wickedness, O Fuscus, has no need +of the Moorish javelins, or bow, or quiver loaded with poisoned darts. +Whether he is about to make his journey through the sultry Syrtes, or +the inhospitable Caucasus, or those places which Hydaspes, celebrated in +story, washes. For lately, as I was singing my Lalage, and wandered +beyond my usual bounds, devoid of care, a wolf in the Sabine wood fled +from me, though I was unarmed: such a monster as neither the warlike +Apulia nourishes in its extensive woods, nor the land of Juba, the +dry-nurse of lions, produces. Place me in those barren plains, where no +tree is refreshed by the genial air; at that part of the world, which +clouds and an inclement atmosphere infest. Place me under the chariot of +the too neighboring sun, in a land deprived of habitations; [there] will +I love my sweetly-smiling, sweetly-speaking Lalage.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXIII.</p> + +<p>TO CHLOE.</p> + + +<p>You shun me, Chloe, like a fawn that is seeking its timorous mother in +the pathless mountains, not without a vain dread of the breezes and the +thickets: for she trembles both in her heart and knees, whether the +arrival of the spring has terrified by its rustling leaves, or the green +lizards have stirred the bush. But I do not follow you, like a savage +tigress, or a Gaetulian lion, to tear you to pieces. Therefore, quit +your mother, now that you are mature for a husband.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXIV.</p> + +<p>TO VIRGIL.</p> + + +<p>What shame or bound can there be to our affectionate regret for so dear +a person? O Melpomene, on whom your father has bestowed a clear voice +and the harp, teach me the mournful strains. Does then perpetual sleep +oppress Quinctilius? To whom when will modesty, and uncorrupt faith the +sister of Justice, and undisguised truth, find any equal? He died +lamented by many good men, but more lamented by none than by you, my +Virgil. You, though pious, alas! in vain demand Quinctilius back from +the gods, who did not lend him to us on such terms. What, though you +could strike the lyre, listened to by the trees, with more sweetness +than the Thracian Orpheus; yet the blood can never return to the empty +shade, which Mercury, inexorable to reverse the fates, has with his +dreadful Caduceus once driven to the gloomy throng. This is hard: but +what it is out of our power to amend, becomes more supportable by +patience.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXV.</p> + +<p>TO LYDIA.</p> + + +<p>The wanton youths less violently shake thy fastened windows with their +redoubled knocks, nor do they rob you of your rest; and your door, which +formerly moved its yielding hinges freely, now sticks lovingly to its +threshold. Less and less often do you now hear: "My Lydia, dost thou +sleep the live-long night, while I your lover am dying?" Now you are an +old woman, it will be your turn to bewail the insolence of rakes, when +you are neglected in a lonely alley, while the Thracian wind rages at +the Interlunium: when that hot desire and lust, which is wont to render +furious the dams of horses, shall rage about your ulcerous liver: not +without complaint, that sprightly youth rejoice rather in the verdant +ivy and growing myrtle, and dedicate sapless leaves to Eurus, the +companion of winter.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXVI.</p> + +<p>TO AELIUS LAMIA.</p> + + +<p>A friend to the Muses, I will deliver up grief and fears to the wanton +winds, to waft into the Cretan Sea; singularly careless, what king of a +frozen region is dreaded under the pole, or what terrifies Tiridates. O +sweet muse, who art delighted with pure fountains, weave together the +sunny flowers, weave a chaplet for my Lamia. Without thee, my praises +profit nothing. To render him immortal by new strains, to render him +immortal by the Lesbian lyre, becomes both thee and thy sisters.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXVII.</p> + +<p>TO HIS COMPANIONS.</p> + + +<p>To quarrel over your cups, which were made for joy, is downright +Thracian. Away with the barbarous custom, and protect modest Bacchus +from bloody frays. How immensely disagreeable to wine and candles is the +sabre of the Medes! O my companions, repress your wicked vociferations, +and rest quietly on bended elbow. Would you have me also take my share +of stout Falernian? Let the brother of Opuntian Megilla then declare, +with what wound he is blessed, with what dart he is dying.—What, do you +refuse? I will not drink upon any other condition. Whatever kind of +passion rules you, it scorches you with the flames you need not be +ashamed of, and you always indulge in an honorable, an ingenuous love. +Come, whatever is your case, trust it to faithful ears. Ah, unhappy! in +what a Charybdis art thou struggling, O youth, worthy of a better flame! +What witch, what magician, with his Thessalian incantations, what deity +can free you? Pegasus himself will scarcely deliver you, so entangled, +from this three-fold chimera.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXVIII.</p> + +<p>ARCHYTAS.</p> + + +<p>The [want of the] scanty present of a little sand near the Mantinian +shore, confines thee, O Archytas, the surveyor of sea and earth, and of +the innumerable sand: neither is it of any advantage to you, to have +explored the celestial regions, and to have traversed the round world in +your imagination, since thou wast to die. Thus also did the father of +Pelops, the guest of the gods, die; and Tithonus likewise was translated +to the skies, and Minos, though admitted to the secrets of Jupiter; and +the Tartarean regions are possessed of the son of Panthous, once more +sent down to the receptacle of the dead; notwithstanding, having retaken +his shield from the temple, he gave evidence of the Trojan times, and +that he had resigned to gloomy death nothing but his sinews and skin; in +your opinion, no inconsiderable judge of truth and nature. But the game +night awaits all, and the road of death must once be travelled. The +Furies give up some to the sport of horrible Mars: the greedy ocean is +destructive to sailors: the mingled funerals of young and old are +crowded together: not a single person does the cruel Proserpine pass by. +The south wind, the tempestuous attendant on the setting Orion, has sunk +me also in the Illyrian waves. But do not thou, O sailor, malignantly +grudge to give a portion of loose sand to my bones and unburied head. +So, whatever the east wind shall threaten to the Italian sea, let the +Venusinian woods suffer, while you are in safety; and manifold profit, +from whatever port it may, come to you by favoring Jove, and Neptune, +the defender of consecrated Tarentum. But if you, by chance, make light +of committing a crime, which will be hurtful to your innocent posterity, +may just laws and haughty retribution await you. I will not be deserted +with fruitless prayers; and no expiations shall atone for you. Though +you are in haste, you need not tarry long: after having thrice sprinkled +the dust over me, you may proceed.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXIX.</p> + +<p>TO ICCIUS.</p> + + +<p>O Iccius, you now covet the opulent treasures of the Arabians, and are +preparing vigorous for a war against the kings of Saba, hitherto +unconquered, and are forming chains for the formidable Mede. What +barbarian virgin shall be your slave, after you have killed her +betrothed husband? What boy from the court shall be made your +cup-bearer, with his perfumed locks, skilled to direct the Seric arrows +with his father's bow? Who will now deny that it is probable for +precipitate rivers to flow back again to the high mountains, and for +Tiber to change his course, since you are about to exchange the noble +works of Panaetius, collected from all parts, together with the whole +Socratic family, for Iberian armor, after you had promised better +things?</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXX.</p> + +<p>TO VENUS.</p> + + +<p>O Venus, queen of Gnidus and Paphos, neglect your favorite Cyprus, and +transport yourself into the beautiful temple of Glycera, who is invoking +you with abundance of frankincense. Let your glowing son hasten along +with you, and the Graces with their zones loosed, and the Nymphs, and +Youth possessed of little charm without you and Mercury.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXXI.</p> + +<p>TO APOLLO.</p> + + +<p>What does the poet beg from Phoebus on the dedication of his temple? +What does he pray for, while he pours from the flagon the first +libation? Not the rich crops of fertile Sardinia: not the goodly flocks +of scorched Calabria: not gold, or Indian ivory: not those countries, +which the still river Liris eats away with its silent streams. Let those +to whom fortune has given the Calenian vineyards, prune them with a +hooked knife; and let the wealthy merchant drink out of golden cups the +wines procured by his Syrian merchandize, favored by the gods +themselves, inasmuch as without loss he visits three or four times a +year the Atlantic Sea. Me olives support, me succories and soft mallows. +O thou son of Latona, grant me to enjoy my acquisitions, and to possess +my health, together with an unimpaired understanding, I beseech thee; +and that I may not lead a dishonorable old age, nor one bereft of the +lyre.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXXII.</p> + +<p>TO HIS LYRE.</p> + + +<p>We are called upon. If ever, O lyre, in idle amusement in the shade with +thee, we have played anything that may live for this year and many, come +on, be responsive to a Latin ode, my dear lyre—first tuned by a Lesbian +citizen, who, fierce in war, yet amid arms, or if he had made fast to +the watery shore his tossed vessel, sung Bacchus, and the Muses, and +Venus, and the boy, her ever-close attendant, and Lycus, lovely for his +black eyes and jetty locks. O thou ornament of Apollo, charming shell, +agreeable even at the banquets of supreme Jove! O thou sweet alleviator +of anxious toils, be propitious to me, whenever duly invoking thee!</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXXIII.</p> + +<p>TO ALBIUS TIBULLUS.</p> + + +<p>Grieve not too much, my Albius, thoughtful of cruel Glycera; nor chant +your mournful elegies, because, as her faith being broken, a younger man +is more agreeable, than you in her eyes. A love for Cyrus inflames +Lycoris, distinguished for her little forehead: Cyrus follows the rough +Pholoe; but she-goats shall sooner be united to the Apulian wolves, than +Pholoe shall commit a crime with a base adulterer. Such is the will of +Venus, who delights in cruel sport, to subject to her brazen yokes +persons and tempers ill suited to each other. As for myself, the +slave-born Myrtale, more untractable than the Adriatic Sea that forms +the Calabrian gulfs, entangled me in a pleasing chain, at the very time +that a more eligible love courted my embraces.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXXIV.</p> + +<p>AGAINST THE EPICURIANS.</p> + + +<p>A remiss and irregular worshiper of the gods, while I professed the +errors of a senseless philosophy, I am now obliged to set sail back +again, and to renew the course that I had deserted. For Jupiter, who +usually cleaves the clouds with his gleaming lightning, lately drove +his thundering horses and rapid chariot through the clear serene; which +the sluggish earth, and wandering rivers; at which Styx, and the horrid +seat of detested Taenarus, and the utmost boundary of Atlas were shaken. +The Deity is able to make exchange between the highest and the lowest, +and diminishes the exalted, bringing to light the obscure; rapacious +fortune, with a shrill whizzing, has borne off the plume from one head, +and delights in having placed it on another.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXXV.</p> + +<p>TO FORTUNE.</p> + + +<p>O Goddess, who presidest over beautiful Antium; thou, that art ready to +exalt mortal man from the most abject state, or to convert superb +triumphs into funerals! Thee the poor countryman solicits with his +anxious vows; whosoever plows the Carpathian Sea with the Bithynian +vessel, importunes thee as mistress of the ocean. Thee the rough Dacian, +thee the wandering Scythians, and cities, and nations, and warlike +Latium also, and the mothers of barbarian kings, and tyrants clad in +purple, fear. Spurn not with destructive foot that column which now +stands firm, nor let popular tummult rouse those, who now rest quiet, to +arms—to arms—and break the empire. Necessity, thy minister, alway +marches before thee, holding in her brazen hand huge spikes and wedges, +nor is the unyielding clamp absent, nor the melted lead. Thee Hope +reverences, and rare Fidelity robed in a white garment; nor does she +refuse to bear thee company, howsoever in wrath thou change thy robe, +and abandon the houses of the powerful. But the faithless crowd [of +companions], and the perjured harlot draw back. Friends, too faithless +to bear equally the yoke of adversity, when casks are exhausted, very +dregs and all, fly off. Preserve thou Caesar, who is meditating an +expedition against the Britons, the furthest people in the world, and +also the new levy of youths to be dreaded by the Eastern regions, and +the Red Sea. Alas! I am ashamed of our scars, and our wickedness, and of +brethren. What have we, a hardened age, avoided? What have we in our +impiety left unviolated! From what have our youth restrained their +hands, out of reverence to the gods? What altars have they spared? O +mayest thou forge anew our blunted swords on a different anvil against +the Massagetae and Arabians.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXXVI.</p> + + +<p>This is a joyful occasion to sacrifice both with incense and music of +the lyre, and the votive blood of a heifer to the gods, the guardians of +Numida; who, now returning in safety from the extremest part of Spain, +imparts many embraces to his beloved companions, but to none more than +his dear Lamia, mindful of his childhood spent under one and the same +governor, and of the gown, which they changed at the same time. Let not +this joyful day be without a Cretan mark of distinction; let us not +spare the jar brought forth [from the cellar]; nor, Salian-like, let +there be any cessation of feet; nor let the toping Damalis conquer +Bassus in the Thracian Amystis; nor let there be roses wanting to the +banquet, nor the ever-green parsley, nor the short-lived lily. All the +company will fix their dissolving eyes on Damalis; but she, more +luxuriant than the wanton ivy, will not be separated from her new lover.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXXVII.</p> + +<p>TO HIS COMPANIONS.</p> + + +<p>Now, my companions, is the time to carouse, now to beat the ground with +a light foot: now is the time that was to deck the couch of the gods +with Salian dainties. Before this, it was impious to produce the old +Caecuban stored up by your ancestors; while the queen, with a +contaminated gang of creatures, noisome through distemper, was preparing +giddy destruction for the Capitol and the subversion of the empire, +being weak enough to hope for any thing, and intoxicated with her +prospering fortune. But scarcely a single ship preserved from the flames +bated her fury; and Caesar brought down her mind, inflamed with Egyptian +wine, to real fears, close pursuing her in her flight from Italy with +his galleys (as the hawk pursues the tender doves, or the nimble hunter +the hare in the plains of snowy Aemon), that he might throw into chains +this destructive monster [of a woman]; who, seeking a more generous +death, neither had an effeminate dread of the sword, nor repaired with +her swift ship to hidden shores. She was able also to look upon her +palace, lying in ruins, with a countenance unmoved, and courageous +enough to handle exasperated asps, that she might imbibe in her body the +deadly poison, being more resolved by having pre-meditated her death: +for she was a woman of such greatness of soul, as to scorn to be carried +off in haughty triumph, like a private person, by rough Liburnians.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXXVIII.</p> + +<p>TO HIS SERVANT.</p> + + +<p>Boy, I detest the pomp of the Persians; chaplets, which are woven with +the rind of the linden, displease me; give up the search for the place +where the latter rose abides. It is my particular desire that you make +no laborious addition to the plain myrtle; for myrtle is neither +unbecoming you a servant, nor me, while I quaff under this mantling +vine.</p> + + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_SECOND_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE" id="THE_SECOND_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE" />THE SECOND BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE.</h2> + + + +<p>ODE I.</p> + +<p>TO ASINIUS POLLIO.</p> + + +<p>You are treating of the civil commotion, which began from the consulship +of Metelius, and the causes, and the errors, and the operations of the +war, and the game that fortune played, and the pernicious confederacy of +the chiefs, and arms stained with blood not yet expiated—a work full of +danger and hazard: and you are treading upon fires, hidden under +deceitful ashes: let therefore the muse that presides over severe +tragedy, be for a while absent from the theaters; shortly, when thou +hast completed the narrative of the public affairs, you shall resume +your great work in the tragic style of Athens, O Pollio, thou excellent +succor to sorrowing defendants and a consulting senate; [Pollio,] to +whom the laurel produced immortal honors in the Dalmatian triumph. Even +now you stun our ears with the threatening murmur of horns: now the +clarions sound; now the glitter of arms affrights the flying steeds, and +dazzles the sight of the riders. Now I seem to hear of great commanders +besmeared with, glorious dust, and the whole earth subdued, except the +stubborn soul of Cato. Juno, and every other god propitious to the +Africans, impotently went off, leaving that land unrevenged; but soon +offered the descendants of the conquerors, as sacrifices to the manes of +Jugurtha. What plain, enriched by Latin blood, bears not record, by its +numerous sepulchres, of our impious battles, and of the sound of the +downfall of Italy, heard even by the Medes? What pool, what rivers, are +unconscious of our deplorable war? What sea have not the Daunian +slaughters discolored? What shore is unstained by our blood? Do not, +however, rash muse, neglecting your jocose strains, resume the task of +Caean plaintive song, but rather with me seek measures of a lighter +style beneath some love-sequestered grotto.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE II.</p> + +<p>TO CRISPUS SALLUSTIUS.</p> + + +<p>O Crispus Sallustius, thou foe to bullion, unless it derives splendor +from a moderate enjoyment, there is no luster in money concealed in the +niggard earth. Proculeius shall live an extended age, conspicuous for +fatherly affection to brothers; surviving fame shall bear him on an +untiring wing. You may possess a more extensive dominion by controlling +a craving disposition, than if you could unite Libya to the distant +Gades, and the natives of both the Carthages were subject to you alone. +The direful dropsy increases by self-indulgence, nor extinguishes its +thirst, unless the cause of the disorder has departed from the veins, +and the watery languor from the pallid body. Virtue, differing from the +vulgar, excepts Phraates though restored to the throne of Cyrus, from +the number of the happy; and teaches the populace to disuse false names +for things, by conferring the kingdom and a safe diadem and the +perpetual laurel upon him alone, who can view large heaps of treasure +with undazzled eye.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE III.</p> + +<p>TO QUINTUS DELLIUS.</p> + + +<p>O Dellius, since thou art born to die, be mindful to preserve a temper +of mind even in times of difficulty, as well an restrained from insolent +exultation in prosperity: whether thou shalt lead a life of continual +sadness, or through happy days regale thyself with Falernian wine of the +oldest date, at case reclined in some grassy retreat, where the lofty +pine and hoary poplar delight to interweave their boughs into a +hospitable shade, and the clear current with trembling surface purls +along the meandering rivulet. Hither order [your slaves] to bring the +wine, and the perfumes, and the too short-lived flowers of the grateful +rose, while fortune, and age; and the sable threads of the three sisters +permit thee. You must depart from your numerous purchased groves; from +your house also, and that villa, which the yellow Tiber washes, you must +depart: and an heir shall possess these high-piled riches. It is of no +consequence whether you are the wealthy descendant of ancient Inachus, +or whether, poor and of the most ignoble race, you live without a +covering from the open air, since you are the victim of merciless Pluto. +We are all driven toward the same quarter: the lot of all is shaken in +the urn; destined sooner or later to come forth, and embark us in +[Charon's] boat for eternal exile.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IV.</p> + +<p>TO XANTHIAS PHOCEUS.</p> + + +<p>Let not, O Xanthias Phoceus, your passion for your maid put you out of +countenance; before your time, the slave Briseis moved the haughty +Achilles by her snowy complexion. The beauty of the captive Tecmessa +smote her master, the Telamonian Ajax; Agamemnon, in the midst of +victory, burned for a ravished virgin: when the barbarian troops fell by +the hands of their Thessalian conqueror, and Hector, vanquished, left +Troy more easily to be destroyed by the Grecians. You do not know that +perchance the beautiful Phyllis has parents of condition happy enough to +do honor to you their son-in-law. Certainly she must be of royal race, +and laments the unpropitiousness of her family gods. Be confident, that +your beloved is not of the worthless crowd; nor that one so true, so +unmercenary, could possibly be born of a mother to be ashamed of. I can +commend arms, and face, and well-made legs, quite chastely: avoid being +jealous of one, whose age is hastening onward to bring its eighth +mastrum to a close.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE V.</p> + + +<p>Not yet is she fit to be broken to the yoke; not yet is she equal to the +duties of a partner, nor can she support the weight of the bull +impetuously rushing to enjoyment. Your heifer's sole inclination is +about verdant fields, one while in running streams soothing the grievous +heat; at another, highly delighted to frisk with the steerlings in the +moist willow ground. Suppress your appetite for the immature grape; +shortly variegated autumn will tinge for thee the lirid clusters with a +purple hue. Shortly she shall follow you; for her impetuous time runs +on, and shall place to her account those years of which it abridges you; +shortly Lalage with a wanton assurance will seek a husband, beloved in a +higher degree than the coy Pholoe, or even Chloris; shining as brightly +with her fair shoulder, as the spotless moon upon the midnight sea, or +even the Gnidian Gyges, whom if you should intermix in a company of +girls, the undiscernible difference occasioned by his flowing locks and +doubtful countenance would wonderfully impose even on sagacious +strangers.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VI.</p> + +<p>TO SEPTIMUS.</p> + + +<p>Septimus, who art ready to go with me, even to Gades, and to the +Cantabrian, still untaught to bear our yoke, and the inhospitable +Syrtes, where the Mauritanian wave perpetually boils. O may Tibur, +founded by a Grecian colony, be the habitation of my old age! There let +there be an end to my fatigues by sea, and land, and war; whence if the +cruel fates debar me, I will seek the river of Galesus, delightful for +sheep covered with skins, and the countries reigned over by +Lacedaemonian Phalantus. That corner of the world smiles in my eye +beyond all others; where the honey yields not to the Hymettian, and the +olive rivals the verdant Venafrian: where the temperature of the air +produces a long spring and mild winters, and Aulon friendly to the +fruitful vine, envies not the Falernian grapes. That place, and those +blest heights, solicit you and me; there you shall bedew the glowing +ashes of your poet friend with a tear due [to his memory].</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VII.</p> + +<p>TO POMPEIUS VARUS.</p> + + +<p>O thou, often reduced with me to the last extremity in the war which +Brutus carried on, who has restored thee as a Roman citizen, to the gods +of thy country and the Italian air, Pompey, thou first of my companions; +with whom I have frequently broken the tedious day in drinking, having +my hair, shining with the Syrian maiobathrum, crowned [with flowers]! +Together with thee did I experience the [battle of] Phillippi and a +precipitate flight, having shamefully enough left my shield; when valor +was broken, and the most daring smote the squalid earth with their +faces. But Mercury swift conveyed me away, terrified as I was, in a +thick cloud through the midst of the enemy. Thee the reciprocating sea, +with his tempestuous waves, bore back again to war. Wherefore render to +Jupiter the offering that is due, and deposit your limbs, wearied with a +tedious war, under my laurel, and spare not the casks reserved for you. +Fill up the polished bowls with care-dispelling Massic: pour out the +perfumed ointments from the capacious shells. Who takes care to quickly +weave the chaplets of fresh parsely or myrtle? Whom shall the Venus +pronounce to be master of the revel? In wild carouse I will become +frantic as the Bacchanalians. 'Tis delightful to me to play the madman, +on the reception of my friends.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VIII.</p> + +<p>TO BARINE.</p> + + +<p>If any punishment, Barine, for your violated oath had ever been of +prejudice to you: if you had become less agreeable by the blackness of a +single tooth or nail, I might believe you. But you no sooner have bound +your perfidious head with vows, but you shine out more charming by far, +and come forth the public care of our youth. It is of advantage to you +to deceive the buried ashes of your mother, and the silent +constellations of the night, together with all heaven, and the gods free +from chill death. Venus herself, I profess, laughs at this; the +good-natured nymphs laugh, and cruel Cupid, who is perpetually +sharpening his burning darts on a bloody whetstone. Add to this, that +all our boys are growing up for you; a new herd of slaves is growing up; +nor do the former ones quit the house of their impious mistress, +notwithstanding they often have threatened it. The matrons are in dread +of you on account of their young ones; the thrifty old men are in dread +of you; and the girls but just married are in distress, lest your beauty +should slacken [the affections of] their husbands.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IX.</p> + +<p>TO TITUS VALGIUS.</p> + + +<p>Showers do not perpetually pour down upon the rough fields, nor do +varying hurricanes forever harass the Caspian Sea; nor, my friend +Valgius, does the motionless ice remain fixed throughout all the months, +in the regions of Armenia; nor do the Garganian oaks [always] labor +under the northerly winds, nor are the ash-trees widowed of their +leaves. But thou art continually pursuing Mystes, who is taken from +thee, with mournful measures: nor do the effects of thy love for him +cease at the rising of Vesper, or when he flies the rapid approach of +the sun. But the aged man who lived three generations, did not lament +the amiable Antilochus all the years of his life: nor did his parents or +his Trojan sisters perpetually bewail the blooming Troilus. At length +then desist from thy tender complaints; and rather let us sing the fresh +trophies of Augustus Caesar, and the Frozen Niphates, and the river +Medus, added to the vanquished nations, rolls more humble tides, and the +Gelonians riding within a prescribed boundary in a narrow tract of land.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE X.</p> + +<p>TO LICINIUS MURENA.</p> + + +<p>O Licinius, you will lead a more correct course of life, by neither +always pursuing the main ocean, nor, while you cautiously are in dread +of storms, by pressing too much upon the hazardous shore. Whosoever +loves the golden mean, is secure from the sordidness of an antiquated +cell, and is too prudent to have a palace that might expose him to +envy, if the lofty pine is more frequently agitated with winds, and high +towers fall down with a heavier ruin, and lightnings strike the summits +of the mountains. A well-provided breast hopes in adversity, and fears +in prosperity. 'Tis the same Jupiter, that brings the hideous winters +back, and that takes them away. If it is ill with us now, it will not be +so hereafter. Apollo sometimes rouses the silent lyric muse, neither +does he always bend his bow. In narrow circumstances appear in high +spirits, and undaunted. In the same manner you will prudently contract +your sails, which are apt to be too much swollen in a prosperous gale.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XI.</p> + +<p>TO QUINTIUS HIRPINUS.</p> + + +<p>O Quintius Hirpinus, forbear to be inquisitive what the Cantabrian, and +the Scythian, divided from us by the interposed Adriatic, is meditating; +neither be fearfully solicitous for the necessaries of a life, which +requires but a few things. Youth and beauty fly swift away, while +sapless old age expels the wanton loves and gentle sleep. The same glory +does not always remain to the vernal flowers, nor does the ruddy moon +shine with one continued aspect; why, therefore, do you fatigue you +mind, unequal to eternal projects? Why do we not rather (while it is in +our power) thus carelessly reclining under a lofty plane-tree, or this +pine, with our hoary locks made fragrant by roses, and anointed with +Syrian perfume, indulge ourselves with generous wine? Bacchus dissipates +preying cares. What slave is here, instantly to cool some cups of ardent +Falernian in the passing stream? Who will tempt the vagrant wanton Lyde +from her house? See that you bid her hasten with her ivory lyre, +collecting her hair into a graceful knot, after the fashion of a Spartan +maid.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XII.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>Do not insist that the long wars of fierce Numantia, or the formidable +Annibal, or the Sicilian Sea impurpled with Carthaginian blood, should +be adapted to the tender lays of the lyre: nor the cruel Lapithae, nor +Hylaeus excessive in wine and the earth born youths, subdued by +Herculean force, from whom the splendid habitation of old Saturn dreaded +danger. And you yourself, Maecenas, with more propriety shall recount +the battles of Caesar, and the necks of haughty kings led in triumph +through the streets in historical prose. It was the muse's will that I +should celebrate the sweet strains of my mistress Lycimnia, that I +should celebrate her bright darting eyes, and her breast laudably +faithful to mutual love: who can with a grace introduce her foot into +the dance, or, sporting, contend in raillery, or join arms with the +bright virgins on the celebrated Diana's festival. Would you, +[Maecenas,] change one of Lycimnia's tresses for all the rich Achaemenes +possessed, or the Mygdonian wealth of fertile Phrygia, or all the +dwellings of the Arabians replete with treasures? Especially when she +turns her neck to meet your burning kisses, or with a gentle cruelty +denies, what she would more delight to have ravished than the +petitioner—or sometimes eagerly anticipates to snatch them her self.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIII.</p> + +<p>TO A TREE.</p> + + +<p>O tree, he planted thee on an unlucky day whoever did it first, and with +an impious hand raised thee for the destruction of posterity, and the +scandal of the village. I could believe that he had broken his own +father's neck, and stained his most secret apartments with the midnight +blood of his guest. He was wont to handle Colchian poisons, and whatever +wickedness is anywhere conceived, who planted in my field thee, a sorry +log; thee, ready to fall on the head of thy inoffensive master. What we +ought to be aware of, no man is sufficiently cautious at all hours. The +Carthaginian sailor thoroughly dreads the Bosphorus; nor, beyond that, +does he fear a hidden fate from any other quarter. The soldier dreads +the arrows and the fleet retreat of the Parthian; the Parthian, chains +and an Italian prison; but the unexpected assault of death has carried +off, and will carry off, the world in general. How near was I seeing the +dominions of black Proserpine, and Aeacus sitting in judgment; the +separate abodes also of the pious, and Sappho complaining in her Aeohan +lyre of her own country damsels; and thee, O Alcaeus, sounding in fuller +strains on thy golden harp the distresses of exile, and the distresses +of war. The ghosts admire them both, while they utter strains worthy of +a sacred silence; but the crowded multitude, pressing with their +shoulders, imbibes, with a more greedy ear, battles and banished +tyrants. What wonder? Since the many headed monster, astonished at those +lays, hangs down his sable ears; and the snakes, entwined in the hair of +the furies, are soothed. Moreover, Prometheus and the sire of Pelops are +deluded into an insensibility of their torments, by the melodious sound: +nor is Orion any longer solicitous to harass the lions, or the fearful +lynxes.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIV.</p> + +<p>TO POSTUMUS.</p> + + +<p>Alas! my Postumus, my Postumus, the fleeting years gilde on; nor will +piety cause any delay to wrinkles, and advancing old age, and +insuperable death. You could not, if you were to sacrifice every passing +day three hundred bulls, render propitious pitiless Pluto, who confines +the thrice-monstrous Geryon and Tityus with the dismal Stygian stream, +namely, that stream which is to be passed over by all who are fed by the +bounty of the earth, whether we be kings or poor ninds. In vain shall we +be free from sanguinary Mars, and the broken billows of the hoarse +Adriatic; in vain shall we be apprehensive for ourselves of the noxious +South, in the time of autumn. The black Cocytus wandering with languid +current, and the infamous race of Danaus, and Sisyphus, the son of the +Aeolus, doomed to eternal toil, must be visited; your land and house and +pleasing wife must be left, nor shall any of those trees, which you are +nursing, follow you, their master for a brief space, except the hated +cypresses; a worthier heir shall consume your Caecuban wines now guarded +with a hundred keys, and shall wet the pavement with the haughty wine, +more exquisite than what graces pontifical entertainment.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XV.</p> + +<p>AGAINST THE LUXURY OF THE ROMANS.</p> + + +<p>The palace-like edifices will in a short time leave but a few acres for +the plough; ponds of wider extent than the Lucrine lake will be every +where to be seen; and the barren plane-tree will supplant the elms. Then +banks of violets, and myrtle groves, and all the tribe of nosegays shall +diffuse their odors in the olive plantations, which were fruitful to +their preceding master. Then the laurel with dense boughs shall exclude +the burning beams. It was not so prescribed by the institutes of +Romulus, and the unshaven Cato, and ancient custom. Their private income +was contracted, while that of the community was great. No private men +were then possessed of galleries measured by ten-feet rules, which +collected the shady northern breezes; nor did the laws permit them to +reject the casual turf [for their own huts], though at the same time +they obliged them to ornament in the most sumptuous manner, with new +stone, the buildings of the public, and the temples of the gods, at a +common expense.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVI.</p> + +<p>TO GROSPHUS.</p> + + +<p>O Grosphus, he that is caught in the wide Aegean Sea; when a black +tempest has obscured the moon, and not a star appears with steady light +for the mariners, supplicates the gods for repose: for repose, Thrace +furious in war; the quiver-graced Medes, for repose neither purchasable +by jewels, nor by purple, nor by gold. For neither regal treasures nor +the consul's officer can remove the wretched tumults of the mind, nor +the cares that hover about splendid ceilings. That man lives happily on +a little, who can view with pleasure the old-fashioned family +salt-cellar on his frugal board; neither anxiety nor sordid avarice robs +him of gentle sleep. Why do we, brave for a short season, aim at many +things? Why do we change our own for climates heated by another sun? +Whoever, by becoming an exile from his country, escaped likewise from +himself? Consuming care boards even brazen-beaked ships: nor does it +quit the troops of horsemen, for it is more fleet than the stags, more +fleet than the storm-driving east wind. A mind that is cheerful in its +present state, will disdain to be solicitous any further, and can +correct the bitters of life with a placid smile. Nothing is on all hands +completely blessed. A premature death carried off the celebrated +Achilles; a protracted old age wore down Tithonus; and time perhaps may +extend to me, what it shall deny to you. Around you a hundred flocks +bleat, and Sicilian heifers low; for your use the mare, fit for the +harness, neighs; wool doubly dipped in the African purple-dye, clothes +you: on me undeceitful fate has bestowed a small country estate, and the +slight inspiration of the Grecian muse, and a contempt for the malignity +of the vulgar.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVII.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>Why dost thoti kill me with thy complaints? 'Tis neither agreeable to +the gods, nor to me, that thou shouldest depart first, O Maecenas, thou +grand ornament and pillar of my affairs. Alas! if an untimely blow hurry +away thee, a part of my soul, why do I the other moiety remain, my value +lost, nor any longer whole? That [fatal] day shall bring destruction +upon us both. I have by no means taken a false oath: we will go, we will +go, whenever thou shalt lead the way, prepared to be fellow-travelers in +the last journey. Me nor the breath of the fiery Chimaera, nor +hundred-handed Gyges, were he to rise again, shall ever tear from thee: +such is the will of powerful Justice, and of the Fates. Whether Libra or +malignant Scorpio had the ascendant at my natal hour, or Capricon the +ruler of the western wave, our horoscopes agree in a wonderful manner. +Thee the benign protection of Jupiter, shining with friendly aspect, +rescued from the baleful influence of impious Saturn, and retarded the +wings of precipitate destiny, at the time the crowded people with +resounding applauses thrice hailed you in the theatre: me the trunk of a +tree, falling upon my skull, would have dispatched, had not Faunus, the +protector of men of genius, with his right hand warded off the blow. Be +thou mindful to pay the victims and the votive temple; I will sacrifice +an humble lamb.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVIII.</p> + +<p>AGAINST AVARICE AND LUXURY.</p> + + +<p>Nor ivory, nor a fretted ceiling adorned with gold, glitters in my +house: no Hymettian beams rest upon pillars cut out of the extreme parts +of Africa; nor, a pretended heir, have I possessed myself of the palace +of Attalus, nor do ladies, my dependants, spin Laconian purple for my +use. But integrity, and a liberal vein of genius, are mine: and the man +of fortune makes his court to me, who am but poor. I importune the gods +no further, nor do I require of my friend in power any larger +enjoyments, sufficiently happy with my Sabine farm alone. Day is driven +on by day, and the new moons hasten to their wane. You put out marble to +be hewn, though with one foot in the grave; and, unmindful of a +sepulcher, are building houses; and are busy to extend the shore of the +sea, that beats with violence at Baiae, not rich enough with the shore +of the mainland. Why is it, that through avarice you even pluck up the +landmarks of your neighbor's ground, and trespass beyond the bounds of +your clients; and wife and husband are turned out, bearing in their +bosom their household gods and their destitute children? Nevertheless, +no court more certainly awaits its wealthy lord, than the destined limit +of rapacious Pluto. Why do you go on? The impartial earth is opened +equally to the poor and to the sons of kings; nor has the life-guard +ferryman of hell, bribed with gold, re-conducted the artful Prometheus. +He confines proud Tantalus; and the race of Tantalus, he condescends, +whether invoked or not, to relieve the poor freed from their labors.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIX.</p> + +<p>ON BACCHUS.</p> + +<p>A DITHYRAMBIC, OR DRINKING SONG.</p> + + +<p>I saw Bacchus (believe it, posterity) dictating strains among the remote +rocks, and the nymphs learning them, and the ears of the goat-footed +satyrs all attentive. Evoe! my mind trembles with recent dread, and my +soul, replete with Bacchus, has a tumultuous joy, Evoe! spare me, +Bacchus; spare me, thou who art formidable for thy dreadful thyrsus. It +is granted me to sing the wanton Bacchanalian priestess, and the +fountain of wine, and rivulets flowing with milk, and to tell again of +the honeys distilling from the hollow trunks. It is granted me likewise +to celebrate the honor added to the constellations by your happy spouse, +and the palace of Pentheus demolished with no light ruin, and the +perdition of Thracian. Lycurgus. You command the rivers, you the +barbarian sea. You, moist with wine, on lonely mountain-tops bind the +hair of your Thracian priestesses with a knot of vipers without hurt. +You, when the impious band of giants scaled the realms of father Jupiter +through the sky, repelled Rhoetus, with the paws and horrible jaw of the +lion-shape [you had assumed]. Thou, reported to be better fitted for +dances, and jokes and play, you were accounted insufficient for fight; +yet it then appeared, you, the same deity, was the mediator of peace and +war. Upon you, ornamented with your golden horn, Orberus innocently +gazed, gently wagging his tail; and with his triple tongue licked your +feet and legs, as you returned.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XX.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>I, a two-formed poet, will be conveyed through the liquid air with no +vulgar or humble wing; nor will I loiter upon earth any longer; and +superior to envy, I will quit cities. Not I, even I, the blood of low +parents, my dear Maecenas, shall die; nor shall I be restrained by the +Stygian wave. At this instant a rough skin settles upon my ankles, and +all upwards I am transformed into a white bird, and the downy plumage +arises over my fingers and shoulders. Now, a melodious bird, more +expeditious than the Daepalean Icarus, I will visit the shores of the +murmuring Bosphorus, and the Gzetulean Syrtes, and the Hyperborean +plains. Me the Colchian and the Dacian, who hides his fear of the +Marsian cohort, land the remotest Gelonians, shall know: me the learned +Spaniard shall study, and he that drinks of the Rhone. Let there be no +dirges, nor unmanly lamentations, nor bewailings at my imaginary +funeral; suppress your crying, and forbear the superfluous honors of a +sepulcher.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_THIRD_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE" id="THE_THIRD_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE" />THE THIRD BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE.</h2> + + + +<p>ODE I.</p> + +<p>ON CONTENTMENT.</p> + + +<p>I abominate the uninitiated vulgar, and keep them at a distance. +Preserve a religious silence: I, the priest of the Muses, sing to +virgins and boys verses not heard before. The dominion of dread +sovereigns is over their own subjects; that of Jupiter, glorious for his +conquest over the giants, who shakes all nature with his nod, is over +sovereigns themselves. It happens that one man, arranges trees, in +regular rows, to a greater extent than another; this man comes down into +the Campus [Martius] as a candidate of a better family; another vies +with him for morals and a better reputation; a third has a superior +number of dependants; but Fate, by the impartial law of nature, is +allotted both to the conspicuous and the obscure; the capacious urn +keeps every name in motion. Sicilian dainties will not force a delicious +relish to that man, over whose impious neck the naked sword hangs: the +songs of birds and the lyre will not restore his sleep. Sleep disdains +not the humble cottages and shady bank of peasants; he disdains not +Tempe, fanned by zephyrs. Him, who desires but a competency, neither the +tempestuous sea renders anxious, nor the malign violence of Arcturus +setting, or of the rising Kid; not his vineyards beaten down with hail, +and a deceitful farm; his plantations at one season blaming the rains, +at another, the influence of the constellations parching the grounds, at +another, the severe winters. The fishes perceive the seas contracted, by +the vast foundations that have been laid in the deep: hither numerous +undertakers with their men, and lords, disdainful of the land, send down +mortar: but anxiety and the threats of conscience ascend by the same way +as the possessor; nor does gloomy care depart from the brazen-beaked +galley, and she mounts behind the horseman. Since then nor Phrygian +marble, nor the use of purple more dazzling than the sun, nor the +Falernian vine, nor the Persian nard, composes a troubled mind, why +should I set about a lofty edifice with columns that excite envy, and in +the modern taste? Why should I exchange my Sabine vale for wealth, which +is attended with more trouble?</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE II.</p> + +<p>AGAINST THE DEGENERACY OF THE ROMAN YOUTH.</p> + + +<p>Let the robust youth learn patiently to endure pinching want in the +active exercise of arms; and as an expert horseman, dreadful for his +spear, let him harass the fierce Parthians; and let him lead a life +exposed to the open air, and familiar with dangers. Him, the consort and +marriageable virgin-daughter of some warring tyrant, viewing from the +hostile walls, may sigh—- Alas! let not the affianced prince, +inexperienced as he is in arms, provoke by a touch this terrible lion, +whom bloody rage hurries through the midst of slaughter. It is sweet and +glorious to die for one's country; death even pursues the man that flies +from him; nor does he spare the trembling knees of effeminate youth, nor +the coward back. Virtue, unknowing of base repulse, shines with +immaculate honors; nor does she assume nor lay aside the ensigns of her +dignity, at the veering of the popular air. Virtue, throwing open heaven +to those who deserve not to die, directs her progress through paths of +difficulty, and spurns with a rapid wing grovelling cowards and the +slippery earth. There is likewise a sure reward for faithful silence. I +will prohibit that man, who shall divulge the sacred rites of mysterious +Ceres, from being under the same roof with me, or from setting sail with +me in the same fragile bark: for Jupiter, when slighted, often joins a +good man in the same fate with a bad one. Seldom hath punishment, though +lame, of foot, failed to overtake the wicked.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE III.</p> + +<p>ON STEADINESS AND INTEGRITY.</p> + + +<p>Not the rage of the people pressing to hurtful measures, not the aspect +of a threatening tyrant can shake from his settled purpose the man who +is just and determined in his resolution; nor can the south wind, that +tumultuous ruler of the restless Adriatic, nor the mighty hand of +thundering Jove; if a crushed world should fall in upon him, the ruins +would strike him undismayed. By this character Pollux, by this the +wandering Hercules, arrived at the starry citadels; among whom Augustus +has now taken his place, and quaffs nectar with empurpled lips. Thee, O +Father Bacchus, meritorious for this virtue, thy tigers carried, drawing +the yoke with intractable neck; by this Romulus escaped Acheron on the +horses of Mars—Juno having spoken what the gods in full conclave +approve: "Troy, Troy, a fatal and lewd judge, and a foreign woman, have +reduced to ashes, condemned, with its inhabitants and fraudulent prince, +to me and the chaste Minerva, ever since Laomedon disappointed the gods +of the stipulated reward. Now neither the infamous guest of the +Lacedaemonian adulteress shines; nor does Priam's perjured family repel +the warlike Grecians by the aid of Hector, and that war, spun out to +such a length by our factions, has sunk to peace. Henceforth, therefore, +I will give up to Mars both my bitter resentment, and the detested +grandson, whom the Trojan princes bore. Him will I suffer to enter the +bright regions, to drink the juice of nectar, and to be enrolled among +the peaceful order of gods. As long as the extensive sea rages between +Troy and Rome, let them, exiles, reign happy in any other part of the +world: as long as cattle trample upon the tomb of Priam and Paris, and +wild beasts conceal their young ones there with impunity, may the +Capitol remain in splendor, and may brave Rome be able to give laws to +the conquered Medes. Tremendous let her extend her name abroad to the +extremest boundaries of the earth, where the middle ocean separates +Europe from Africa, where the swollen Nile waters the plains; more brave +in despising gold as yet undiscovered, and so best situated while hidden +in the earth, than in forcing it out for the uses of mankind, with a +hand ready to make depredations on everything that is sacred. Whatever +end of the world has made resistance, that let her reach with her arms, +joyfully alert to visit, even that part where fiery heats rage madding; +that where clouds and rains storm with unmoderated fury. But I pronounce +this fate to the warlike Romans, upon this condition; that neither +through an excess of piety, nor of confidence in their power, they +become inclined to rebuild the houses of their ancestors' Troy. The +fortune of Troy, reviving under unlucky auspices, shall be repeated with +lamentable destruction, I, the wife and sister of Jupiter, leading on +the victorious bands. Thrice, if a brazen wall should arise by means of +its founder Phoebus, thrice should it fall, demolished by my Grecians; +thrice should the captive wife bewail her husband and her children." +These themes ill suit the merry lyre. Whither, muse, are you +going?—Cease, impertinent, to relate the language of the gods, and to +debase great things by your trifling measures.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IV.</p> + +<p>TO CALLIOPE.</p> + + +<p>Descend from heaven, queen Calliope, and come sing with your pipe a +lengthened strain; or, if you had now rather, with your clear voice, or +on the harp or lute of Phoebus. Do ye hear? or does a pleasing frenzy +delude me? I seem to hear [her], and to wander [with her] along the +hallowed groves, through which pleasant rivulets and gales make their +way. Me, when a child, and fatigued with play, in sleep the woodland +doves, famous in story, covered with green leaves in the Apulian Vultur, +just without the limits of my native Apulia; so that it was matter of +wonder to all that inhabit the nest of lofty Acherontia, the Bantine +Forests, and the rich soil of low Ferentum, how I could sleep with my +body safe from deadly vipers and ravenous bears; how I could be covered +with sacred laurel and myrtle heaped together, though a child, not +animated without the [inspiration of the] gods. Yours, O ye muses, I am +yours, whether I am elevated to the Sabine heights; or whether the cool +Praeneste, or the sloping Tibur, or the watery Baiae have delighted me. +Me, who am attached to your fountains and dances, not the army put to +flight at Philippi, not the execrable tree, nor a Palinurus in the +Sicilian Sea has destroyed. While you shall be with me with pleasure +will I, a sailor, dare the raging Bosphorus; or, a traveler, the burning +sands of the Assyrian shore: I will visit the Britons inhuman to +strangers, and the Concanian delighted [with drinking] the blood of +horses; I will visit the quivered Geloni, and the Scythian river without +hurt. You entertained lofty Caesar, seeking to put an end to his toils, +in the Pierian grotto, as soon as he had distributed in towns his +troops, wearied by campaigning: you administer [to him] moderate +counsel, and graciously rejoice at it when administered. We are aware +how he, who rules the inactive earth and the stormy main, the cities +also, and the dreary realms [of hell], and alone governs with a +righteous sway both gods and the human multitude, how he took off the +impious Titans and the gigantic troop by his falling thunderbolts. That +horrid youth, trusting to the strength of their arms, and the brethren +proceeding to place Pelion upon shady Olympus, had brought great dread +[even] upon Jove. But what could Typhoeus, and the strong Mimas, or what +Porphyrion with his menacing statue; what Rhoetus, and Enceladus, a +fierce darter with trees uptorn, avail, though rushing violently against +the sounding shield of Pallas? At one part stood the eager Vulcan, at +another the matron Juno, and he, who is never desirous to lay aside his +bow from his shoulders, Apollo, the god of Delos and Patara, who bathes +his flowing hair in the pure dew of Castalia, and possesses the groves +of Lycia and his native wood. Force, void of conduct, falls by its own +weight; moreover, the gods promote discreet force to further advantage; +but the same beings detest forces, that meditate every kind of impiety. +The hundred-handed Gyges is an evidence of the sentiments I allege: and +Orion, the tempter of the spotless Diana, destroyed by a virgin dart. +The earth, heaped over her own monsters, grieves and laments her +offspring, sent to murky Hades by a thunderbolt; nor does the active +fire consume Aetna that is placed over it, nor does the vulture desert +the liver of incontinent Tityus, being stationed there as an avenger of +his baseness; and three hundred chains confine the amorous Pirithous.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE V.</p> + +<p>ON THE RECOVERY OF THE STANDARDS FROM PHRAATES.</p> + + +<p>We believe from his thundering that Jupiter has dominion in the heavens: +Augustus shall be esteemed a present deity the Britons and terrible +Parthians being added to the empire. What! has any soldier of Crassus +lived, a degraded husband with a barbarian wife? And has (O [corrupted] +senate, and degenerate morals!) the Marsian and Apulian, unmindful of +the sacred bucklers, of the [Roman] name and gown, and of eternal Vesta, +grown old in the lands of hostile fathers-in-law, Jupiter and the city +being in safety? The prudent mind of Regulus had provided against this, +dissenting from ignominious terms, and inferring from such a precedent +destruction to the succeeding age, if the captive youth were not to +perish unpitied. I have beheld, said he, the Roman standards affixed to +the Carthaginian temples, and their arms taken away from our soldiers +without bloodshed. I have beheld the arms of our citizens bound behind +their free-born backs, and the gates [of the enemy] unshut, and the +fields, which were depopulated by our battles, cultivated anew. The +soldier, to be sure, ransomed by gold, will return a braver +fellow!—No—you add loss to infamy; [for] neither does the wool once +stained by the dye of the sea-weed ever resume its lost color; nor does +genuine valor, when once it has failed, care to resume its place in +those who have degenerated through cowardice. If the hind, disentangled +from the thickset toils, ever fights, then indeed shall he be valorous, +who has intrusted himself to faithless foes; and he shall trample upon +the Carthaginians in a second war, who dastardly has felt the thongs +with his arms tied behind him, and has been afraid of death. He, knowing +no other way to preserve his life, has confounded peace with war. O +scandal! O mighty Carthage, elevated to a higher pitch by Italy's +disgraceful downfall! He <i>(Regulus)</i> is reported to have rejected the +embrace of his virtuous wife and his little sons like one degraded; and +to have sternly fixed his manly countenance on the ground, until, as an +adviser, by his counsel he confirmed the wavering senators, and amid his +weeping friends hastened away, a glorious exile. Notwithstanding he knew +what the barbarian executioner was providing for him, yet he pushed from +his opposing kindred and the populace retarding his return, in no other +manner, than if (after he had quitted the tedious business of his +clients, by determining their suit) he was only going to the Venafrian +plains, or the Lacedaemonian Tarentum.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VI.</p> + +<p>TO THE ROMANS.</p> + + +<p>Thou shalt atone, O Roman, for the sins of your ancestors, though +innocent, till you shall have repaired the temples and tottering shrines +of the gods, and their statues, defiled with sooty smoke. Thou boldest +sway, because thou bearest thyself subordinate to the gods; to this +source refer every undertaking; to this, every event. The gods, because +neglected, have inflicted many evils on calamitous Italy. Already has +Monaeses, and the band of Pacorus, twice repelled our inauspicious +attacks, and exults in having added the Roman spoils to their trivial +collars. The Dacian and Ethiopian have almost demolished the city +engaged in civil broils, the one formidable for his fleet, the other +more expert for missile arrows. The times, fertile in wickedness, have +in the first place polluted the marriage state, and [thence] the issue +and families. From this fountain perdition being derived, has +overwhelmed the nation and people. The marriageable virgin delights to +be taught the Ionic dances, and even at this time is trained up in +[seductive] arts, and cherishes unchaste desires from her very infancy. +Soon after she courts younger debauchees when her husband is in his +cups, nor has she any choice, to whom she shall privately grant her +forbidden pleasures when the lights are removed, but at the word of +command, openly, not without the knowledge of her husband, she will come +forth, whether it be a factor that calls for her, or the captain of a +Spanish ship, the extravagant purchaser of her disgrace. It was not a +youth born from parents like these, that stained the sea with +Carthaginian gore, and slew Pyrrhus, and mighty Antiochus, and terrific +Annibal; but a manly progeny of rustic soldiers, instructed to turn the +glebe with Sabine spades, and to carry clubs cut [out of the woods] at +the pleasure of a rigid mother, what time the sun shifted the shadows of +the mountains, and took the yokes from the wearied oxen, bringing on the +pleasant hour with his retreating chariot. What does not wasting time +destroy? The age of our fathers, worse than our grandsires, produced us +still more flagitious, us, who are about to product am offspring more +vicious [even than ourselves].</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VII.</p> + +<p>TO ASTERIE.</p> + + +<p>Why, O Asterie, do you weep for Gyges, a youth of inviolable constancy, +whom the kindly zephyrs will restore to you in the beginning of the +Spring, enriched with a Bithynian cargo? Driven as far as Oricum by the +southern winds, after [the rising] of the Goat's tempestuous +constellation, he sleepless passes the cold nights in abundant weeping +[for you]; but the agent of his anxious landlady slyly tempts him by a +thousand methods, informing him that [his mistress], Chloe, is sighing +for him, and burns with the same love that thou hast for him. He +remonstrates with him how a perfidious woman urged the credulous +Proetus, by false accusations, to hasten the death of the over-chaste +Bellerophon. He tells how Peleus was like to have been given up to the +infernal regions, while out of temperance he avoided the Magnesian +Hippolyte: and the deceiver quotes histories to him, that are lessons +for sinning. In vain; for, heart-whole as yet, he receives his words +deafer than the Icarian rocks. But with regard to you, have a care lest +your neighbor Enipeus prove too pleasing. Though no other person equally +skillful to guide the steed, is conspicuous in the course, nor does any +one with equal swiftness swim down the Etrurian stream, yet secure your +house at the very approach of night, nor look down into the streets at +the sound of the doleful pipe; and remain inflexible toward him, though +he often upbraid thee with cruelty.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VIII.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>O Maecenas, learned in both languages, you wonder what I, a single man, +have to do on the calends of March; what these flowers mean, and the +censer replete with frankincense, and the coals laid upon the live turf. +I made a vow of a joyous banquet, and a white goat to Bacchus, after +having been at the point of death by a blow from a tree. This day, +sacred in the revolving year, shall remove the cork fastened with pitch +from that jar, which was set to inhale the smoke in the consulship of +Tullus. Take, my Maecenas, a hundred cups on account of the safety of +your friend, and continue the wakeful lamps even to day-light: all +clamor and passion be far away. Postpone your political cares with +regard to the state: the army of the Dacian Cotison is defeated; the +troublesome Mede is quarreling with himself in a horrible [civil] war: +the Cantabrian, our old enemy on the Spanish coast, is subject to us, +though conquered by a long-disputed victory: now, too, the Scythians are +preparing to quit the field with their imbent bows. Neglectful, as a +private person, forbear to be too solicitous lest the community in any +wise suffer, and joyfully seize the boons of the present hour, and quit +serious affairs.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IX.</p> + +<p>TO LYDIA.</p> + + +<p>HORACE. As long as I was agreeable to thee, and no other youth more +favored was wont to fold his arms around thy snowy neck, I lived happier +than the Persian monarch.</p> + +<p>LYDIA. As long as thou hadst not a greater flame for any other, nor was +Lydia below Chloe [in thine affections], I Lydia, of distinguished fame, +flourished more eminent than the Roman Ilia.</p> + +<p>HOR. The Thracian Chloe now commands me, skillful in sweet modulations, +and a mistress of the lyre; for whom I would not dread to die, if the +fates would spare her, my surviving soul.</p> + +<p>LYD. Calais, the son of the Thurian Ornitus, inflames me with a mutual +fire; for whom I would twice endure to die, if the fates would spare my +surviving youth.</p> + +<p>HOR. What! if our former love returns, and unites by a brazen yoke us +once parted? What if Chloe with her golden locks be shaken off, and the +door again open to slighted Lydia.</p> + +<p>LYD. Though he is fairer than a star, thou of more levity than a cork, +and more passionate than the blustering Adriatic; with thee I should +love to live, with thee I would cheerfully die.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE X.</p> + +<p>TO LYCE.</p> + + +<p>O Lyce, had you drunk from the remote Tanais, in a state of marriage +with tome barbarian, yet you might be sorry to expose me, prostrate +before your obdurate doors, to the north winds that have made those +places their abode. Do you hear with what a noise your gate, with what +[a noise] the grove, planted about your elegant buildings, rebellows to +the winds? And how Jupiter glazes the settled snow with his bright +influence? Lay aside disdain, offensive to Venus, lest your rope should +run backward, while the wheel is revolving. Your Tyrrhenian father did +not beget you to be as inaccessible as Penelope to your wooers. O though +neither presents, nor prayers, nor the violet-tinctured paleness of your +lovers, nor your husband smitten with a musical courtezan, bend you to +pity; yet [at length] spare your suppliants, you that are not softer +than the sturdy oak, nor of a gentler disposition than the African +serpents. This side [of mine] will not always be able to endure your +threshold, and the rain.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XI.</p> + +<p>TO MERCURY.</p> + + +<p>O Mercury, for under thy instruction the ingenious Amphion moved rocks +by his voice, you being his tutor; and though my harp, skilled in +sounding, with seven strings, formerly neither vocal nor pleasing, but +now agreeable both to the tables of the wealthy and the temples [of the +gods]; dictate measures to which Lyde may incline her obstinate ears, +who, like a filly of three years old, plays and frisks about in the +spacious fields, inexperienced in nuptial loves, and hitherto unripe for +a brisk husband. You are able to draw after your tigers and attendant +woods, and to retard rapid rivers. To your blandishments the enormous +porter of the [infernal] palace yielded, though a hundred serpents +fortify his head, and a pestilential steam and an infectious poison +issue from his triple-tongued mouth. Moreover, Ixion and Tityus smiled +with a reluctant aspect: while you soothe the daughters of Danaus with +your delightful harmony, their vessel for some time remained dry. Let +Lyde hear of the crime, and the well-known punishment of the virgins, +and the cask emptied by the water streaming through the bottom, and what +lasting fates await their misdeeds even beyond the grave. Impious! (for +what greater impiety could they have committed?) Impious! who could +destroy their bridegrooms with the cruel sword! One out of the many, +worthy of the nuptial torch, was nobly false to her perjured parent, and +a maiden illustrious to all posterity; she, who said to her youthful +husband, "Arise! arise! lest an eternal sleep be given to you from a +hand you have no suspicion of; disappoint your father-in-law and my +wicked sisters, who, like lionesses having possessed themselves of +calves (alas)! tear each of them to pieces; I, of softer mold than they, +will neither strike thee, nor detain thee in my custody. Let my father +load me with cruel chains, because out of mercy I spared my unhappy +spouse; let him transport me even to the extreme Numidian plains. +Depart, whither your feet and the winds carry you, while the night and +Venus are favorable: depart with happy omen; yet, not forgetful of me, +engrave my mournful story on my tomb."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XII.</p> + +<p>TO NEOBULE.</p> + + +<p>It is for unhappy maidens neither to give indulgence to love, nor to +wash away cares with delicious wine; or to be dispirited out of dread of +the lashes of an uncle's tongue. The winged boy of Venus, O Neobule, has +deprived you of your spindle and your webs, and the beauty of Hebrus +from Lipara of inclination for the labors of industrious Minerva, after +he has bathed his anointed shoulders in the waters of the Tiber; a +better horseman than Bellerophon himself, neither conquered at boxing, +nor by want of swiftness in the race: he is also skilled to strike with +his javelin the stags, flying through the open plains in frightened +herd, and active to surprise the wild boar lurking in the deep thicket.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIII. TO THE BANDUSIAN FOUNTAIN.</p> + + +<p>O thou fountain of Bandusia, clearer than glass, worthy of delicious +wine, not unadorned by flowers; to-morrow thou shalt be presented with a +kid, whose forehead, pouting with new horns, determines upon both love +and war in vain; for this offspring of the wanton flock shall tinge thy +cooling streams with scarlet blood. The severe season of the burning +dog-star cannot reach thee; thou affordest a refreshing coolness to the +oxen fatigued with the plough-share, and to the ranging flock. Thou also +shalt become one of the famous fountains, through my celebrating the oak +that covers the hollow rock, whence thy prattling rills descend with a +bound.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIV.</p> + +<p>TO THE ROMANS.</p> + + +<p>Augustus Caesar, O ye people, who was lately said, like another +Hercules, to have sought for the laurel to be purchased only by death, +revisits his domestic gods, victorious from the Spanish shore. Let the +matron (<i>Livia</i>), to whom her husband alone is dear, come forth in +public procession, having first performed her duty to the just gods; and +(<i>Octavia</i>), the sister of our glorious general; the mothers also of the +maidens and of the youths just preserved from danger, becomingly adorned +with supplicatory fillets. Ye, O young men, and young women lately +married, abstain from ill-omened words. This day, to me a real festival, +shall expel gloomy cares: I will neither dread commotions, nor violent +death, while Caesar is in possession of the earth. Go, slave, and seek +for perfume and chaplets, and a cask that remembers the Marsian war, if +any vessel could elude the vagabond Spartacus. And bid the tuneful +Neaera make haste to collect into a knot her auburn hair; <i>but</i> if any +delay should happen from the surly porter, come away. Hoary hair +mollifies minds that are fond of strife and petulant wrangling. I would +not have endured this treatment, warm with youth in the consulship of +Plancus.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XV.</p> + +<p>TO CHLORIS.</p> + + +<p>You wife of the indigent Ibycus, at length put an end to your +wickedness, and your infamous practices. Cease to sport among the +damsels, and to diffuse a cloud among bright constellations, now on the +verge of a timely death. If any thing will become Pholoe, it does not +you Chloris, likewise. Your daughter with more propriety attacks the +young men's apartments, like a Bacchanalian roused up by the rattling +timbrel. The love of Nothus makes her frisk about like a wanton +she-goat. The wool shorn near the famous Luceria becomes you now +antiquated: not musical instruments, or the damask flower of the rose, +or hogsheads drunk down to the lees.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVI.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>A brazen tower, and doors of oak, and the melancholy watch of wakeful +dogs, had sufficiently defended the imprisoned Danae from midnight +gallants, had not Jupiter and Venus laughed at Acrisius, the anxious +keeper of the immured maiden: [for they well knew] that the way would be +safe and open, after the god had transformed himself into a bribe. Gold +delights to penetrate through the midst of guards, and to break through +stone-walls, more potent than the thunderbolt. The family of the Grecian +augur perished, immersed in destruction on account of lucre. The man of +Macedon cleft the gates of the cities and subverted rival monarchs by +bribery. Bribes enthrall fierce captains of ships. Care, and a thirst +for greater things, is the consequence of increasing wealth. Therefore, +Maecenas, thou glory of the [Roman] knights, I have justly dreaded to +raise the far-conspicuous head. As much more as any man shall deny +himself, so much more shall he receive from the gods. Naked as I am, I +seek the camps of those who covet nothing; and as a deserter, rejoice to +quit the side of the wealthy: a more illustrious possessor of a +contemptible fortune, than if I could be said to treasure up in my +granaries all that the industrious Apulian cultivates, poor amid +abundance of wealth. A rivulet of clear water, and a wood of a few +acres, and a certain prospect of my good crop, are blessings unknown to +him who glitters in the proconsulship of fertile Africa: I am more +happily circumstanced. Though neither the Calabrian bees produce honey, +nor wine ripens to age for me in a Formian cask, nor rich fleeces +increase in Gallic pastures; yet distressful poverty is remote; nor, if +I desired more, would you refuse to grant it me. I shall be better able +to extend my small revenues, by contracting my desires, than if I could +join the kingdom of Alyattes to the Phrygian plains. Much is wanting to +those who covet much. 'Tis well with him to whom God has given what is +necessary with a sparing hand.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVII.</p> + +<p>TO AELIUS LAMIA.</p> + + +<p>O Aelius, who art nobly descended from the ancient Lamus (forasmuch as +they report, that both the first of the Lamian family had their name +hence, and all the race of the descendants through faithful records +derives its origin from that founder, who is said to have possessed, as +prince, the Formian walls, and Liris gliding on the shores of Marica—an +extensive potentate). To-morrow a tempest sent from the east shall strew +the grove with many leaves, and the shore with useless sea-weed, unless +that old prophetess of rain, the raven, deceives me. Pile up the dry +wood, while you may; to-morrow you shall indulge your genius with wine, +and with a pig of two months old, with your slaves dismissed from their +labors.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVIII.</p> + +<p>TO FAUNUS.</p> + +<p>A HYMN.</p> + + +<p>O Faunus, thou lover of the flying nymphs, benignly traverse my borders +and sunny fields, and depart propitious to the young offspring of my +flocks; if a tender kid fall [a victim] to thee at the completion of the +year, and plenty of wines be not wanting to the goblet, the companion of +Venus, and the ancient altar smoke with liberal perfume. All the cattle +sport in the grassy plain, when the nones of December return to thee; +the village keeping holiday enjoys leisure in the fields, together with +the oxen free from toil. The wolf wanders among the fearless lambs; the +wood scatters its rural leaves for thee, and the laborer rejoices to +have beaten the hated ground in triple dance.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIX.</p> + +<p>TO TELEPHUS.</p> + + +<p>How far Codrus, who was not afraid to die for his country, is removed +from Inachus, and the race of Aeacus, and the battles also that were +fought at sacred Troy—[these subjects] you descant upon; but at what +price we may purchase a hogshead of Chian; who shall warm the water [for +bathing]; who finds a house: and at what hour I am to get rid of these +Pelignian colds, you are silent. Give me, boy, [a bumper] for the new +moon in an instant, give me one for midnight, and one for Murena the +augur. Let our goblets be mixed up with three or nine cups, according to +every one's disposition. The enraptured bard, who delights in the +odd-numbered muses, shall call for brimmers thrice three. Each of the +Graces, in conjunction with the naked sisters, fearful of broils, +prohibits upward of three. It is my pleasure to rave; why cease the +breathings of the Phrygian flute? Why is the pipe hung up with the +silent lyre? I hate your niggardly handfuls: strew roses freely. Let the +envious Lycus hear the jovial noise; and let our fair neighbor, +ill-suited to the old Lycus, [hear it.] The ripe Rhode aims at thee, +Telephus, smart with thy bushy locks; at thee, bright as the clear +evening star; the love of my Glycera slowly consumes me.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XX.</p> + +<p>TO PYRRHUS.</p> + + +<p>Do you not perceive, O Pyrrhus, at what hazard yon are taking away the +whelps from a Gutulian lioness? In a little while you, a timorous +ravisher, shall fly from the severe engagement, when she shall march +through the opposing band of youths, re-demanding her beauteous +Nearchus; a grand contest, whether a greater share of booty shall fall +to thee or to her! In the mean time, while you produce your swift +arrows, she whets her terrific teeth; while the umpire of the combat is +reported to have placed the palm under his naked foot, and refreshed his +shoulder, overspread with his perfumed locks, with the gentle breeze: +just such another was Nireus, or he that was ravished from the watery +Ida.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXI.</p> + +<p>TO HIS JAR.</p> + + +<p>O thou goodly cask, that wast brought to light at the same time with me +in the consulship of Manlius, whether thou containest the occasion of +complaint, or jest, or broils and maddening amours, or gentle sleep; +under whatever title thou preservest the choice Massic, worthy to be +removed on an auspicious day; descend, Corvinus bids me draw the +mellowest wine. He, though he is imbued in the Socratic lectures, will +not morosely reject thee. The virtue even of old Cato is recorded to +have been frequently warmed with wine. Thou appliest a gentle violence +to that disposition, which is in general of the rougher cast: Thou +revealest the cares and secret designs of the wise, by the assistance of +merry Bacchus. You restore hope and spirit to anxious minds, and give +horns to the poor man, who after [tasting] you neither dreads the +diadems of enraged monarchs, nor the weapons of the soldiers. Thee +Bacchus, and Venus, if she comes in good-humor, and the Graces loth to +dissolve the knot [of their union], and living lights shall prolong, +till returning Phoebus puts the stars to flight.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXII.</p> + +<p>TO DIANA.</p> + + +<p>O virgin, protectress of the mountains and the groves, thou three-formed +goddess, who thrice invoked, hearest young women in labor, and savest +them from death; sacred to thee be this pine that overshadows my villa, +which I, at the completion of every year, joyful will present with the +blood of a boar-pig, just meditating his oblique attack.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXIII.</p> + +<p>TO PHIDYLE.</p> + + +<p>My rustic Phidyle, if you raise your suppliant hands to heaven at the +new moon, and appease the household gods with frankincense, and this +year's fruits, and a ravening swine; the fertile vine shall neither +feel the pestilential south-west, nor the corn the barren blight, or +your dear brood the sickly season in the fruit-bearing autumn. For the +destined victim, which is pastured in the snowy Algidus among the oaks +and holm trees, or thrives in the Albanian meadows, with its throat +shall stain the axes of the priests. It is not required of you, who are +crowning our little gods with rosemary and the brittle myrtle, to +propitiate them with a great slaughter of sheep. If an innocent hand +touches a clear, a magnificent victim does not pacify the offended +Penates more acceptably, than a consecrated cake and crackling salt.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXIV.</p> + +<p>TO THE COVETOUS.</p> + + +<p>Though, more wealthy than the unrifled treasures of the Arabians and +rich India, you should possess yourself by your edifices of the whole +Tyrrhenian and Apulian seas; yet, if cruel fate fixes its adamantine +grapples upon the topmost roofs, you shall not disengage your mind from +dread, nor your life from the snares of death. The Scythians that dwell +in the plains, whose carts, according to their custom, draw their +vagrant habitations, live in a better manner; and [so do] the rough +Getae, whose uncircumscribed acres produce fruits and corn free to all, +nor is a longer than annual tillage agreeable, and a successor leaves +him who has accomplished his labor by an equal right. There the +guiltless wife spares her motherless step-children, nor does the +portioned spouse govern her husband, nor put any confidence in a sleek +adulterer. Their dower is the high virtue of their parents, and a +chastity reserved from any other man by a steadfast security; and it, is +forbidden to sin, or the reward is death. O if there be any one willing +to remove our impious slaughters, and civil rage; if he be desirous to +be written FATHER OF THE STATE, on statues [erected to him], let him +dare to curb insuperable licentiousness, and be eminent to posterity; +since we (O injustice!) detest virtue while living, but invidiously seek +for her after she is taken out of our view. To what purpose are our +woeful complaints, if sin is not cut off with punishment? Of what +efficacy are empty laws, without morals; if neither that part of the +world which is shut in by fervent heats, nor that side which borders +upon Boreas, and snows hardened upon the ground, keep off the merchant; +[and] the expert sailors get the better of the horrible seas? Poverty, a +great reproach, impels us both to do and to suffer any thing, and +deserts the path of difficult virtue. Let us, then, cast our gems and +precious stones and useless gold, the cause of extreme evil, either into +the Capitol, whither the acclamations and crowd of applauding [citizens] +call us, or into the adjoining ocean. If we are truly penitent for our +enormities, the very elements of depraved lust are to be erased, and the +minds of too soft a mold should be formed by severer studies. The noble +youth knows not how to keep his seat on horseback and is afraid to go a +hunting, more skilled to play (if you choose it) with the Grecian +trochus, or dice, prohibited by law; while the father's perjured faith +can deceive his partner and friend, and he hastens to get money for an +unworthy heir. In a word, iniquitous wealth increases, yet something is +ever wanting to the incomplete fortune.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXV.</p> + +<p>TO BACCHUS.</p> + +<p>A DITHYRAMBIC.</p> + + +<p>Whither, O Bacchus, art thou hurrying me, replete with your influence? +Into what groves, into what recesses am I driven, actuated with uncommon +spirit? In what caverns, meditating the immortal honor of illustrious +Caesar, shall I be heard enrolling him among the stars and the council +of Jove? I will utter something extraordinary, new, hitherto unsung by +any other voice. Thus the sleepless Bacchanal is struck with enthusiasm, +casting her eyes upon Hebrus, and Thrace bleached with snow, and Rhodope +traversed by the feet of barbarians. How am I delighted in my rambles, +to admire the rocks and the desert grove! O lord of the Naiads and the +Bacchanalian women, who are able with their hands to overthrow lofty +ash-trees; nothing little, nothing low, nothing mortal will I sing. +Charming is the hazard, O Bacchus, to accompany the god, who binds his +temples with the verdant vine-leaf.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXVI.</p> + +<p>TO VENUS.</p> + + +<p>I lately lived a proper person for girls, and campaigned it not without +honor; but now this wall, which guards the left side of [the statue] of +sea-born Venus, shall have my arms and my lyre discharged from warfare. +Here, here, deposit the shining flambeaux, and the wrenching irons, and +the bows, that threatened the resisting doors. O thou goddess, who +possessest the blissful Cyprus, and Memphis free from Sithonian snow, O +queen, give the haughty Chloe one cut with your high-raised lash.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXVII.</p> + +<p>TO GALATEA, UPON HER GOING TO SEA.</p> + + +<p>Let the omen of the noisy screech-owl and a pregnant bitch, or a tawny +wolf running down from the Lanuvian fields, or a fox with whelp conduct +the impious [on their way]; may the serpent also break their undertaken +journey, if, like an arrow athwart the road, it has frightened the +horses. What shall I, a provident augur, fear? I will invoke from the +east, with my prayers, the raven forboding by his croaking, before the +bird which presages impending showers, revisits the stagnant pools. +Mayest thou be happy, O Galatea, wheresoever thou choosest to reside, +and live mindful of me and neither the unlucky pye nor the vagrant crow +forbids your going on. But you see, with what an uproar the prone Orion +hastens on: I know what the dark bay of the Adriatic is, and in what +manner Iapyx, [seemingly] serene, is guilty. Let the wives and children +of our enemies feel the blind tumults of the rising south, and the +roaring of the blackened sea, and the shores trembling with its lash. +Thus too Europa trusted her fair side to the deceitful bull, and bold as +she was, turned pale at the sea abounding with monsters, and the cheat +now become manifest. She, who lately in the meadows was busied about +flowers, and a composer of the chaplet meet for nymphs, saw nothing in +the dusky night put stars and water. Who as soon as she arrived at +Crete, powerful with its hundred cities, cried out, overcome with rage, +"O father, name abandoned by thy daughter! O my duty! Whence, whither am +I come? One death is too little for virgins' crime. Am I awake, while I +deplore my base offense; or does some vain phantom, which, escaping from +the ivory gate, brings on a dream, impose upon me, still free from +guilt. Was it better to travel over the tedious waves, or to gather the +fresh flowers? If any one now would deliver up to me in my anger this +infamous bull, I would do my utmost to tear him to pieces with steel, +and break off the horns of the monster, lately so much beloved. +Abandoned I have left my father's house, abandoned I procrastinate my +doom. O if any of the gods hear this, I wish I may wander naked among +lions: before foul decay seizes my comely cheeks, and moisture leaves +this tender prey, I desire, in all my beauty, to be the food of tigers." +"Base Europa," thy absent father urges, "why do you hesitate to die? you +may strangle your neck suspended from this ash, with your girdle that +has commodiously attended you. Or if a precipice, and the rocks that are +edged with death, please you, come on, commit yourself to the rapid +storm; unless you, that are of blood-royal, had rather card your +mistress's wool, and be given up as a concubine to some barbarian dame." +As she complained, the treacherously-smiling Venus, and her son, with +his bow relaxed, drew near. Presently, when she had sufficiently rallied +her, "Refrain (she cried) from your rage and passionate chidings, since +this detested bull shall surrender his horns to be torn in pieces by +you. Are you ignorant, that you are the wife of the invincible Jove? +Cease your sobbing; learn duly to support your distinguished good +fortune. A division of the world shall bear your name."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXVIII.</p> + +<p>TO LYDE.</p> + + +<p>What can I do better on the festal day of Neptune? Quickly produce, +Lyde, the hoarded Caecuban, and make an attack upon wisdom, ever on her +guard. You perceive the noontide is on its decline; and yet, as if the +fleeting day stood still, you delay to bring out of the store-house the +loitering cask, [that bears its date] from the consul Bibulus. We will +sing by turns, Neptune, and the green locks of the Nereids; you, shall +chant, on your wreathed lyre, Latona and the darts of the nimble +Cynthia; at the conclusion of your song, she also [shall be celebrated], +who with her yoked swans visits Gnidos, and the shining Cyclades, and +Paphos: the night also shall be celebrated in a suitable lay.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXIX.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>O Maecenas, thou progeny of Tuscan kings, there has been a long while +for you in my house some mellow wine in an unbroached hogshead, with +rose-flowers and expressed essence for your hair. Disengage yourself +from anything that may retard you, nor contemplate the ever marshy +Tibur, and the sloping fields of Aesula, and the hills of Telegonus the +parricide. Leave abundance, which is the source of daintiness, and yon +pile of buildings approaching near the lofty clouds: cease to admire the +smoke, and opulence, and noise of flourishing Rome. A change is +frequently agreeable to the rich, and a cleanly meal in the little +cottage of the poor has smoothed an anxious brow without carpets or +purple. Now the bright father of Andromeda displays his hidden fire; now +Procyon rages, and the constellation of the ravening Lion, as the sun +brings round the thirsty season. Now the weary shepherd with his languid +flock seeks the shade, and the river, and the thickets of rough +Sylvanus; and the silent bank is free from the wandering winds. You +regard what constitution may suit the state, and are in an anxious dread +for Rome, what preparations the Seres and the Bactrians subject to +Cyrus, and the factious Tanais are making. A wise deity shrouds in +obscure darkness the events of the time to come, and smiles if a mortal +is solicitous beyond the law of nature. Be mindful to manage duly that +which is present. What remains goes on in the manner of the river, at +one time calmly gliding in the middle of its channel to the Tuscan Sea, +at another, rolling along corroded stones, and stumps of trees, forced +away, and cattle, and houses, not without the noise of mountains and +neighboring woods, when the merciless deluge enrages the peaceful +waters. That man is master of himself and shall live happy, who has it +in his power to say, "I have lived to-day: to-morrow let the Sire invest +the heaven, either with a black cloud, or with clear sunshine; +nevertheless, he shall not render ineffectual what is past, nor undo or +annihilate what the fleeting hour has once carried off. Fortune, happy +in the execution of her cruel office, and persisting to play her +insolent game, changes uncertain honors, indulgent now to me, by and by +to another. I praise her, while she abides by me. If she moves her fleet +wings, I resign what she has bestowed, and wrap myself up in my virtue, +and court honest poverty without a portion. It is no business of mine, +if the mast groan with the African storms, to have recourse to piteous +prayers, and to make a bargain with my vows, that my Cyprian and Syrian +merchandize may not add to the wealth of the insatiable sea. Then the +gale and the twin Pollux will carry me safe in the protection of a skiff +with two oars, through the tumultuous Aegean Sea."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XXX.</p> + +<p>ON HIS OWN WORKS.</p> + + +<p>I have completed a monument more lasting than brass, and more sublime +than the regal elevation of pyramids, which neither the wasting shower, +the unavailing north wind, nor an innumerable succession of years, and +the flight of seasons, shall be able to demolish. I shall not wholly +die; but a great part of me shall escape Libitina. I shall continualy be +renewed in the praises of posterity, as long as the priest shall ascend +the Capitol with the silent [vestal] virgin. Where the rapid Aufidus +shall murmur, and where Daunus, poorly supplied with water, ruled over a +rustic people, I, exalted from a low degree, shall be acknowledged as +having originally adapted the Aeolic verse to Italian measures. +Melpomene, assume that pride which your merits have acquired, and +willingly crown my hair with the Delphic laurel.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_FOURTH_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE" id="THE_FOURTH_BOOK_OF_THE_ODES_OF_HORACE" />THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE.</h2> + + + +<p>ODE I.</p> + +<p>TO VENUS.</p> + + +<p>After a long cessation, O Venus, again are you stirring up tumults? +Spare me, I beseech you, I beseech you. I am not the man I was under the +dominion of good-natured Cynara. Forbear, O cruel mother of soft +desires, to bend one bordering upon fifty, now too hardened for soft +commands: go, whither the soothing prayers of youths, invoke you. More +seasonably may you revel in the house of Paulus Maximus, flying thither +with your splendid swans, if you seek to inflame a suitable breast. For +he is both noble and comely, and by no means silent in the cause of +distressed defendants, and a youth of a hundred accomplishments; he +shall bear the ensigns of your warfare far and wide; and whenever, more +prevailing than the ample presents of a rival, he shall laugh [at his +expense], he shall erect thee in marble under a citron dome near the +Alban lake. There you shall smell abundant frankincense, and shall be +charmed with the mixed music of the lyre and Berecynthian pipe, not +without the flageolet. There the youths, together with the tender +maidens, twice a day celebrating your divinity, shall, Salian-like, with +white foot thrice shake the ground. As for me, neither woman, nor youth, +nor the fond hopes of mutual inclination, nor to contend in wine, nor to +bind my temples with fresh flowers, delight me [any longer]. But why; +ah! why, Ligurinus, does the tear every now and then trickle down my +cheeks? Why does my fluent tongue falter between my words with an +unseemly silence? Thee in my dreams by night I clasp, caught [in my +arms]; thee flying across the turf of the Campus Martius; thee I pursue, +O cruel one, through the rolling waters.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE II.</p> + +<p>TO ANTONIUS IULUS.</p> + + +<p>Whoever endeavors, O Iulus, to rival Pindar, makes an effort on wings +fastened with wax by art Daedalean, about to communicate his name to the +glassy sea. Like a river pouring down from a mountain, which sudden +rains have increased beyond its accustomed banks, such the deep-mouthed +Pindar rages and rushes on immeasurable, sure to merit Apollo's laurel, +whether he rolls down new-formed phrases through the daring dithyrambic, +and is borne on in numbers exempt from rule: whether he sings the gods, +and kings, the offspring of the gods, by whom the Centaurs perished with +a just destruction, [by whom] was quenched the flame of the dreadful +Chimaera; or celebrates those whom the palm, [in the Olympic games] at +Elis, brings home exalted to the skies, wrestler or steed, and presents +them with a gift preferable to a hundred statues: or deplores some +youth, snatched [by death] from his mournful bride—he elevates both his +strength, and courage, and golden morals to the stars, and rescues him +from the murky grave. A copious gale elevates the Dircean swan, O +Antonius, as often as he soars into the lofty regions of the clouds: but +I, after the custom and manner of the Macinian bee, that laboriously +gathers the grateful thyme, I, a diminutive creature, compose elaborate +verses about the grove and the banks of the watery Tiber. You, a poet of +sublimer style, shall sing of Caesar, whenever, graceful in his +well-earned laurel, he shall drag the fierce Sygambri along the sacred +hill; Caesar, than whom nothing greater or better the fates and +indulgent gods ever bestowed on the earth, nor will bestow, though the +times should return to their primitive gold. You shall sing both the +festal days, and the public rejoicings on account of the prayed-for +return of the brave Augustus, and the forum free from law-suits. Then +(if I can offer any thing worth hearing) a considerable portion of my +voice shall join [the general acclamation], and I will sing, happy at +the reception of Caesar, "O glorious day, O worthy thou to be +celebrated." And while [the procession] moves along, shouts of triumph +we will repeat, shouts of triumph the whole city [will raise], and we +will offer frankincense to the indulgent gods. Thee ten bulls and as +many heifers shall absolve; me, a tender steerling, that, having left +his dam, thrives in spacious pastures for the discharge of my vows, +resembling [by the horns on] his forehead the curved light of the moon, +when she appears of three days old, in which part he has a mark of a +snowy aspect, being of a dun color over the rest of his body.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE III.</p> + +<p>TO MELPOMENE.</p> + + +<p>Him, O Melpomene, upon whom at his birth thou hast once looked with +favoring eye, the Isthmian contest shall not render eminent as a +wrestler; the swift horse shall not draw him triumphant in a Grecian +car; nor shall warlike achievement show him in the Capitol, a general +adorned with the Delian laurel, on account of his having quashed the +proud threats of kings: but such waters as flow through the fertile +Tiber, and the dense leaves of the groves, shall make him distinguished +by the Aeolian verse. The sons of Rome, the queen of cities, deign to +rank me among the amiable band of poets; and now I am less carped at by +the tooth of envy. O muse, regulating the harmony of the gilded shell! O +thou, who canst immediately bestow, if thou please, the notes of the +swan upon the mute fish! It is entirely by thy gift that I am marked +out, as the stringer of the Roman lyre, by the fingers of passengers; +that I breathe, and give pleasure (if I give pleasure), is yours.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IV</p> + +<p>THE PRAISE OF DRUSUS.</p> + + +<p>Like as the winged minister of thunder (to whom Jupiter, the sovereign +of the gods, has assigned the dominion over the fleeting birds, having +experienced his fidelity in the affair of the beauteous Ganymede), early +youth and hereditary vigor save impelled from his nest unknowing of +toil; and the vernal winds, the showers being now dispelled, taught him, +still timorous, unwonted enterprises: in a little while a violent +impulse dispatched him, as an enemy against the sheepfolds, now an +appetite for food and fight has impelled him upon the reluctant +serpents;—or as a she-goat, intent on rich pastures, has beheld a young +lion but just weaned from the udder of his tawny dam, ready to be +devoured by his newly-grown tooth: such did the Rhaeti and the Vindelici +behold Drusus carrying on the war under the Alps; whence this people +derived the custom, which has always prevailed among them, of arming +their right hands with the Amazonian ax, I have purposely omitted to +inquire: (neither is it possible to discover everything.) But those +troops, which had been for a long while and extensively victorious, +being subdued by the conduct of a youth, perceived what a disposition, +what a genius rightly educated under an auspicious roof, what the +fatherly affection of Augustus toward the young Neros, could effect. The +brave are generated by the brave and good; there is in steers, there is +in horses, the virtue of their sires; nor do the courageous eagles +procreate the unwarlike dove. But learning improves the innate force, +and good discipline confirms the mind: whenever morals are deficient, +vices disgrace what is naturally good. What thou owest, O Rome, to the +Neros, the river Metaurus is a witness, and the defeated Asdrubal, and +that day illustrious by the dispelling of darkness from Italy, and which +first smiled with benignant victory; when the terrible African rode +through the Latian cities, like a fire through the pitchy pines, or the +east wind through the Sicilian waves. After this the Roman youth +increased continually in successful exploits, and temples, laid waste by +the impious outrage of the Carthaginians, had the [statues of] their +gods set up again. And at length the perfidious Hannibal said; "We, like +stags, the prey of rapacious wolves, follow of our own accord those, +whom to deceive and escape is a signal triumph. That nation, which, +tossed in the Etrurian waves, bravely transported their gods, and sons, +and aged fathers, from the burned Troy to the Italian cities, like an +oak lopped by sturdy axes in Algidum abounding in dusky leaves, through +losses and through wounds derives strength and spirit from the very +steel. The Hydra did not with more vigor grow upon Hercules grieving to +be overcome, nor did the Colchians, or the Echionian Thebes, produce a +greater prodigy. Should you sink it in the depth, it will come out more +beautiful: should you contend with it, with great glory will it +overthrow the conqueror unhurt before, and will fight battles to be the +talk of wives. No longer can I send boasting messengers to Carthage: all +the hope and success of my name is fallen, is fallen by the death of +Asdrubal. There is nothing, but what the Claudian hands will perform; +which both Jupiter defends with his propitious divinity, and sagacious +precaution conducts through the sharp trials of war."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE V.</p> + +<p>TO AUGUSTUS.</p> + + +<p>O best guardian of the Roman people, born under propitious gods, already +art thou too long absent; after having promised a mature arrival to the +sacred council of the senators, return. Restore, O excellent chieftain, +the light to thy country; for, like the spring, wherever thy countenance +has shone, the day passes more agreeably for the people, and the sun has +a superior lustre. As a mother, with vows, omens, and prayers, calls for +her son (whom the south wind with adverse gales detains from his sweet +home, staying more than a year beyond the Carpathian Sea), nor turns +aside her looks from the curved shore; in like manner, inspired with +loyal wishes, his country seeks for Caesar. For, [under your auspices,] +the ox in safety traverses the meadows: Ceres nourishes the ground; and +abundant Prosperity: the sailors skim through the calm ocean: and Faith +is in dread of being censured. The chaste family is polluted by no +adulteries: morality and the law have got the better of that foul crime; +the child-bearing women are commended for an offspring resembling [the +father; and] punishment presses as a companion upon guilt. Who can fear +the Parthian? Who, the frozen Scythian? Who, the progeny that rough +Germany produces, while Caesar is in safety? Who cares for the war of +fierce Spain? Every man puts a period to the day amid his own hills, and +weds the vine to the widowed elm-trees; hence he returns joyful to his +wine, and invites you, as a deity, to his second course; thee, with many +a prayer, thee he pursues with wine poured out [in libation] from the +cups; and joins your divinity to that of his household gods, in the same +manner as Greece was mindful of Castor and the great Hercules. May you, +excellent chieftain, bestow a lasting festivity upon Italy! This is our +language, when we are sober at the early day; this is our language, when +we have well drunk, at the time the sun is beneath the ocean.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VI.</p> + +<p>HYMN TO APOLLO.</p> + + +<p>Thou god, whom the offspring of Niobe experienced as avenger of a +presumptuous tongue, and the ravisher Tityus, and also the Thessalian +Achilles, almost the conqueror of lofty Troy, a warrior superior to all +others, but unequal to thee; though, son of the sea-goddess, Thetis, he +shook the Dardanian towers, warring with his dreadful spear. He, as it +were a pine smitten with the burning ax, or a cypress prostrated by the +east wind, fell extended far, and reclined his neck in the Trojan dust. +He would not, by being shut up in a [wooden] horse, that belied the +sacred rights of Minerva, have surprised the Trojans reveling in an evil +hour, and the court of Priam making merry in the dance; but openly +inexorable to his captives, (oh impious! oh!) would have burned +speechless babes with Grecian fires, even him concealed in his mother's +womb: had not the father of the gods, prevailed upon by thy entreaties +and those of the beauteous Venus, granted to the affairs of Aeneas walls +founded under happier auspices. Thou lyrist Phoebus, tutor of the +harmonious Thalia, who bathest thy locks in the river Xanthus, O +delicate Agyieus, support the dignity of the Latian muse. Phoebus gave +me genius, Phoebus the art of composing verse, and the title of poet. Ye +virgins of the first distinction, and ye youths born of illustrious +parents, ye wards of the Delian goddess, who stops with her bow the +flying lynxes, and the stags, observe the Lesbian measure, and the +motion of my thumb; duly celebrating the son of Latona, duly +[celebrating] the goddess that enlightens the night with her shining +crescent, propitious to the fruits, and expeditious in rolling on the +precipitate months. Shortly a bride you will say: "I, skilled in the +measures of the poet Horace, recited an ode which was acceptable to the +gods, when the secular period brought back the festal days."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VII.</p> + +<p>TO TORQUATUS.</p> + + +<p>The snows are fled, the herbage now returns to the fields, and the +leaves to the trees. The earth changes its appearance, and the +decreasing rivers glide along their banks: the elder Grace, together +with the Nymphs, and her two sisters, ventures naked to lead off the +dance. That you are not to expect things permanent, the year, and the +hour that hurries away the agreeable day, admonish us. The colds are +mitigated by the zephyrs: the summer follows close upon the spring, +shortly to die itself, as soon as fruitful autumn shall have shed its +fruits: and anon sluggish winter returns again. Nevertheless the +quick-revolving moons repair their wanings in the skies; but when we +descend [to those regions] where pious Aeneas, where Tullus and the +wealthy Ancus [have gone before us], we become dust and a mere shade. +Who knows whether the gods above will add to this day's reckoning the +space of to-morrow? Every thing, which you shall indulge to your beloved +soul, will escape the greedy hands of your heir. When once, Torquatus, +you shall be dead, and Minos shall have made his awful decisions +concerning you; not your family, not you eloquence, not your piety shall +restore you. For neither can Diana free the chaste Hippolytus from +infernal darkness; nor is Theseus able to break off the Lethaean fetters +from his dear Piri thous.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VIII.</p> + +<p>TO MARCIUS CENSORINUS.</p> + + +<p>O Censorinus, liberally would I present my acquaintance with goblets and +beautiful vases of brass; I would present them with tripods, the rewards +of the brave Grecians: nor would you bear off the meanest of my +donations, if I were rich in those pieces of art, which either +Parrhasius or Scopas produced; the latter in statuary, the former in +liquid colors, eminent to portray at one time a man, at another a god. +But I have no store of this sort, nor do your circumstances or +inclination require any such curiosities as these. You delight in +verses: verses I can give, and set a value on the donation. Not marbles +engraved with public inscriptions, by means of which breath and life +returns to illustrious generals after their decease; not the precipitate +flight of Hannibal, and his menaces retorted upon his own head: not the +flames of impious Carthage * * * * more eminently set forth his praises, +who returned, having gained a name from conquered Africa, than the +Calabrlan muses; neither, should writings be silent, would you have any +reward for having done well. What would the son of Mars and Ilia be, if +invidious silence had stifled the merits of Romulus? The force, and +favor, and voice of powerful poets consecrate Aecus, snatched from the +Stygian floods, to the Fortunate Islands. The muse forbids a +praiseworthy man to die: the muse, confers the happiness of heaven. Thus +laborious Hercules has a place at the longed-for banquets of Jove: +[thus] the sons of Tyndarus, that bright constellation, rescue shattered +vessels from the bosom of the deep: [and thus] Bacchus, his temples +adorned with the verdant vine-branch, brings the prayers of his votaries +to successful issues.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IX.</p> + +<p>TO MARCUS LOLLIUS.</p> + + +<p>Lest you for a moment imagine that those words will be lost, which I, +born on the far-resounding Aufidus, utter to be accompanied with the +lyre, by arts hitherto undivulged—If Maeonian Homer possesses the first +rank, the Pindaric and Cean muses, and the menacing strains of Alcaeus, +and the majestic ones of Stesichorus, are by no means obscure: neither, +if Anacreon long ago sportfully sung any thing, has time destroyed it: +even now breathes the love and live the ardors of the Aeolian maid, +committed to her lyre. The Lacedaemonian Helen is not the only fair, who +has been inflamed by admiring the delicate ringlets of a gallant, and +garments embroidered with gold, and courtly accomplishments, and +retinue: nor was Teucer the first that leveled arrows from the Cydonian +bow: Troy was more than once harassed: the great Idomeneus and Sthenelus +were not the only heroes that fought battles worthy to be recorded by +the muses: the fierce Hector, or the strenuous Deiphobus were not the +first that received heavy blows in defense of virtuous wives and +children. Many brave men lived before Agamemnon: but all of them, +unlamented and unknown, are overwhelmed with endless obscurity, because +they were destitute of a sacred bard. Valor, uncelebrated, differs but +little from cowardice when in the grave. I will not [therefore], O +Lollius, pass you over in silence, uncelebrated in my writings, or +suffer envious forgetfulness with impunity to seize so many toils of +thine. You have a mind ever prudent in the conduct of affairs, and +steady alike amid success and trouble: you are an avenger of avaricious +fraud, and proof against money, that attracts every thing; and a consul +not of one year only, but as often as the good and upright magistrate +has preferred the honorable to the profitable, and has rejected with a +disdainful brow the bribes of wicked men, and triumphant through +opposing bands has displayed his arms. You can not with propriety call +him happy, that possesses much; he more justly claims the title of +happy, who understands how to make a wise use of the gifts of the gods, +and how to bear severe poverty; and dreads a reproachful deed worse than +death; such a man as this is not afraid to perish in the defense of his +dear friends, or of his country.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE X.</p> + +<p>TO LIGURINUS.</p> + + +<p>O cruel still, and potent in the endowments of beauty, when an +unexpected plume shall come upon your vanity, and those locks, which now +wanton on your shoulders, shall fall off, and that color, which is now +preferable to the blossom of the damask rose, changed, O Ligurinus, +shall turn into a wrinkled face; [then] will you say (as often as you +see yourself, [quite] another person in the looking glass), Alas! why +was not my present inclination the same, when I was young? Or why do not +my cheeks return, unimpaired, to these my present sentiments?</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XI.</p> + +<p>TO PHYLLIS.</p> + + +<p>Phyllis, I have a cask full of Abanian wine, upward of nine years old; I +have parsley in my garden, for the weaving of chaplets, I have a store +of ivy, with which, when you have bound your hair, you look so gay: the +house shines cheerfully With plate: the altar, bound with chaste +vervain, longs to be sprinkled [with the blood] of a sacrificed lamb: +all hands are busy: girls mingled with boys fly about from place to +place: the flames quiver, rolling on their summit the sooty smoke. But +yet, that you may know to what joys you are invited, the Ides are to be +celebrated by you, the day which divides April, the month of sea-born +Venus; [a day,] with reason to be solemnized by me, and almost more +sacred to me than that of my own birth; since from this day my dear +Maecenas reckons his flowing years. A rich and buxom girl hath possessed +herself of Telephus, a youth above your rank; and she holds him fast by +an agreeable fetter. Consumed Phaeton strikes terror into ambitious +hopes, and the winged Pegasus, not stomaching the earth-born rider +Bellerophon, affords a terrible example, that you ought always to pursue +things that are suitable to you, and that you should avoid a +disproportioned match, by thinking it a crime to entertain a hope beyond +what is allowable. Come then, thou last of my loves (for hereafter I +shall burn for no other woman), learn with me such measures, as thou +mayest recite with thy lovely voice: our gloomy cares shall be mitigated +with an ode.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XII.</p> + +<p>TO VIRGIL.</p> + + +<p>The Thracian breezes, attendants on the spring, which moderate the deep, +now fill the sails; now neither are the meadows stiff [with frost], nor +roar the rivers swollen with winter's snow. The unhappy bird, that +piteotisly bemoans Itys, and is the eternal disgrace of the house of +Cecrops (because she wickedly revenged the brutal lusts of kings), now +builds her nest. The keepers of the sheep play tunes upon the pipe amid +the tendar herbage, and delight that god, whom flocks and the shady +hills of Arcadia delight. The time of year, O Virgil, has brought on a +drought: but if you desire to quaff wine from the Calenian press, you, +that are a constant companion of young noblemen, must earn your liquor +by [bringing some] spikenard: a small box of spikenard shall draw out a +cask, which now lies in the Sulpician store-house, bounteous in the +indulgence of fresh hopes and efficacious in washing away the +bitterness of cares. To which joys if you hasten, come instantly with +your merchandize: I do not intend to dip you in my cups scot-free, like +a man of wealth, in a house abounding with plenty. But lay aside delay, +and the desire of gain; and, mindful of the gloomy [funeral] flames, +intermix, while you may, your grave studies with a little light gayety: +it is delightful to give a loose on a proper occasion.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIII.</p> + +<p>TO LYCE.</p> + + +<p>The gods have heard my prayers, O Lyce; Lyce, the gods have heard my +prayers, you are become an old woman, and yet you would fain seem a +beauty; and you wanton and drink in an audacious manner; and when drunk, +solicit tardy Cupid, with a quivering voice. He basks in the charming +cheeks of the blooming Chia, who is a proficient on the lyre. The +teasing urchin flies over blasted oaks, and starts back at the sight of +you, because foul teeth, because wrinkles and snowy hair render you +odious. Now neither Coan purples nor sparkling jewels restore those +years, which winged time has inserted in the public annals. Whither is +your beauty gone? Alas! or whither your bloom? Whither your graceful +deportment? What have you [remaining] of her, of her, who breathed +loves, and ravished me from myself? Happy next to Cynara, and +distinguished for an aspect of graceful ways: but the fates granted a +few years only to Cynara, intending to preserve for a long time Lyce, to +rival in years the aged raven: that the fervid young fellows might see, +not without excessive laughter, that torch, [which once so brightly +scorched,] reduced to ashes.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIV.</p> + +<p>TO AUGUSTUS.</p> + + +<p>What zeal of the senators, or what of the Roman people, by decreeing the +most ample honors, can eternize your virtues, O Augustus, by monumental +inscriptions and lasting records? O thou, wherever the sun illuminates +the habitable regions, greatest of princes, whom the Vindelici, that +never experienced the Roman sway, have lately learned how powerful thou +art in war! For Drusus, by means of your soldiery, has more than once +bravely overthrown the Genauni, an implacable race, and the rapid +Brenci, and the citadels situated on the tremendous Alps. The elder of +the Neros soon after fought a terrible battle, and, under your +propitious auspices, smote the ferocious Rhoeti: how worthy of +admiration in the field of battle, [to see] with what destruction he +oppressed the brave, hearts devoted to voluntary death: just as the +south wind harasses the untameable waves, when the dance of the Pleiades +cleaves the clouds; [so is he] strenuous to annoy the troops of the +enemy, and to drive his eager steed through the midst of flames. Thus +the bull-formed Aufidus, who washes the dominions of the Apulian Daunus, +rolls along, when he rages and meditates an horrible deluge to the +cultivated lands; when Claudius overthrew with impetuous might, the iron +ranks of the barbarians, and by mowing down both front and rear strewed +the ground, victorious without any loss; through you supplying them with +troops, you with councils, and your own guardian powers. For on that +day, when the suppliant Alexandria opened her ports, and deserted court, +fortune, propitious to you in the third lustrum, has put a happy period +to the war, and has ascribed praise and wished-for honor to the +victories already obtained. O thou dread guardian of Italy and imperial +Rome, thee the Spaniard, till now unconquered, and the Mede, and the +Indian, thee the vagrant Scythian admires; thee both the Nile, who +conceals his fountain heads, and the Danube; thee the rapid Tigris; thee +the monster-bearing ocean, that roars against the remote Britons; thee +the region of Gaul fearless of death, and that of hardy Iberia obeys; +thee the Sicambrians, who delight in slaughter, laying aside their arms, +revere.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XV.</p> + +<p>TO AUGUSTUS, ON THE RESTORATION OF PEACE.</p> + + +<p>Phoebus chid me, when I was meditating to sing of battles And conquered +cities on the lyre: that I might not set my little sails along the +Tyrrhenian Sea. Your age, O Caesar, has both restored plenteous crops +to the fields, and has brought back to our Jupiter the standards torn +from the proud pillars of the Parthians; and has shut up [the temple] of +Janus [founded by] Romulus, now free from war; and has imposed a due +discipline upon headstrong licentiousness, and has extirpated crimes, +and recalled the ancient arts; by which the Latin name and strength of +Italy have increased, and the fame and majesty of the empire is extended +from the sun's western bed to the east. While Caesar is guardian of +affairs, neither civil rage nor violence shall disturb tranquillity; nor +hatred which forges swords, and sets at variance unhappy states. Not +those, who drink of the deep Danube, shall now break the Julian edicts: +not the Getae, not the Seres, nor the perfidious Persians, nor those +born upon the river Tanais. And let us, both on common and festal days, +amid the gifts of joyous Bacchus, together with our wives and families, +having first duly invoked the gods, celebrate, after the manner of our +ancestors, with songs accompanied with Lydian pipes, our late valiant +commanders: and Troy, and Anchises, and the offspring of benign Venus.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_BOOK_OF_THE_EPODES_OF_HORACE" id="THE_BOOK_OF_THE_EPODES_OF_HORACE" />THE BOOK OF THE EPODES OF HORACE.</h2> + + + +<p>ODE I.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>Thou wilt go, my friend Maecenas, with Liburian galleys among the +towering forts of ships, ready at thine own [hazard] to undergo any of +Caesar's dangers. What shall I do? To whom life may be agreeable, if you +survive; but, if otherwise, burdensome. Whether shall I, at your +command, pursue my ease, which can not be pleasing unless in your +company? Or shall I endure this toil with such a courage, as becomes +effeminate men to bear? I will bear it? and with an intrepid soul follow +you, either through the summits of the Alps, and the inhospitable +Caucus, or to the furthest western bay. You may ask how I, unwarlike and +infirm, can assist your labors by mine? While I am your companion, I +shall be in less anxiety, which takes possession of the absent in a +greater measure. As the bird, that has unfledged young, is in a greater +dread of serpents' approaches, when they are left;—not that, if she +should be present when they came, she could render more help. Not only +this, but every other war, shall be cheerfully embraced by me for the +hope of your favor; [and this,] not that my plows should labor, yoked to +a greater number of mine own oxen; or that my cattle before the +scorching dog-star should change the Calabrian for the Lucanian +pastures: neither that my white country-box should equal the Circaean +walls of lofty Tusculum. Your generosity has enriched me enough, and +more than enough: I shall never wish to amass, what either, like the +miser Chremes, I may bury in the earth, or luxuriously squander, like a +prodigal.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE II.</p> + +<p>THE PRAISES OF A COUNTRY LIFE.</p> + + +<p>Happy the man, who, remote from business, after the manner of the +ancient race of mortals, cultivates his paternal lands with his own +oxen, disengaged from every kind of usury; he is neither alarmed by the +horrible trump, as a soldier, nor dreads he the angry sea; he shuns both +the bar and the proud portals of citizens in power. Wherefore he either +weds the lofty poplars to the mature branches of the vine; and, lopping +off the useless boughs with his pruning-knife, he ingrafts more fruitful +ones: or he takes a prospect of the herds of his lowing cattle, +wandering about in a lonely vale; or stores his honey, pressed [from the +combs], in clean vessels; or shears his tender sheep. Or, when autumn +has lifted up in the fields his head adorned with mellow fruits, how +does he rejoice, while he gathers the grafted pears, and the grape that +vies with the purple, with which he may recompense thee, O Priapus, and +thee, father Sylvanus, guardian of his boundaries! Sometimes he delights +to lie under an aged holm, sometimes on the matted grass: meanwhile the +waters glide along in their deep channels; the birds warble in the +woods; and the fountains murmur with their purling streams, which +invites gentle slumbers. But when the wintery season of the tempestuous +air prepares rains and snows, he either drives the fierce boars, with +many a dog, into the intercepting toils; or spreads his thin nets with +the smooth pole, as a snare for the voracious thrushes; or catches in +his gin the timorous hare, or that stranger the crane, pleasing rewards +[for his labor]. Among such joys as these, who does not forget those +mischievous anxieties, which are the property of love. But if a chaste +wife, assisting on her part [in the management] of the house, and +beloved children (such as is the Sabine, or the sun-burned spouse of the +industrious Apulian), piles up the sacred hearth with old wood, just at +the approach of her weary husband; and, shutting up the fruitful cattle +in the woven hurdles, milks dry their distended udders: and, drawing +this year's wine out of a well-seasoned cask, prepares the unbought +collation: not the Lucrine oysters could delight me more, nor the +turbot, nor the scar, should the tempestuous winter drive any from the +eastern floods to this sea: not the turkey, nor the Asiatic wild-fowl, +can come into my stomach more agreeably, than the olive gathered from +the richest branches from the trees, or the sorrel that loves the +meadows, or mallows salubrious for a sickly body, or a lamb slain at the +feast of Terminus, or a kid rescued from the wolf. Amid these dainties, +how it pleases one to see the well-fed sheep hastening home! to see the +weary oxen, with drooping neck, dragging the inverted ploughshare! and +slaves, the test of a rich family, ranged about the smiling household +gods! When Alfius, the usurer, now on the point of turning countryman, +had said this, he collected in all his money on the Ides; and endeavors +to put it out again at the Calends.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE III.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>If any person at any time with an impious hand has broken his aged +father's neck, let him eat garlic, more baneful than hemlock. Oh! the +hardy bowels of the mowers! What poison is this that rages in my +entrails? Has viper's blood, infused in these herbs, deceived me? Or has +Canidia dressed this baleful food? When Medea, beyond all the [other] +argonauts, admired their handsome leader, she anointed Jason with this, +as he was going to tie the untried yoke on the bulls: and having +revenged herself on [Jason's] mistress, by making her presents besmeared +with this, she flew away on her winged dragon. Never did the steaming +influence of any constellation so raging as this rest upon the thirsty +Appulia: neither did the gift [<i>of Dejanira</i>] burn hotter upon the +shoulders of laborious Hercules. But if ever, facetious Maecenas, you +should have a desire for any such stuff again, I wish that your girl may +oppose her hand to your kiss, and lie at the furthest part of the bed.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IV.</p> + +<p>TO MENAS.</p> + + +<p>As great an enmity as is allotted by nature to wolves and lambs, [so +great a one] have I to you, you that are galled at your back with +Spanish cords, and on your legs with the hard fetter. Though, +purse-proud with your riches, you strut along, yet fortune does not +alter your birth. Do you not observe while you are stalking along the +sacred way with a robe twice three ells long, how the most open +indignation of those that pass and repass turns their looks on thee? +This fellow, [say they,] cut with the triumvir's whips, even till the +beadle was sick of his office, plows a thousand acres of Falernian land, +and wears out the Appian road with his nags; and, in despite of Otho, +sits in the first rows [of the circus] as a knight of distinction. To +what purpose is it, that so many brazen-beaked ships of immense bulk +should be led out against pirates and a band of slaves, while this +fellow, this is a military tribune?</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE V.</p> + +<p>THE WITCHES MANGLING A BOY.</p> + + +<p>But oh, by all the gods in heaven, who rule the earth and human race, +what means this tumult? And what the hideous looks of all these [hags, +fixed] upon me alone? I conjure thee by thy children (if invoked Lucina +was ever present at any real birth of thine), I [conjure] thee by this +empty honor of my purple, by Jupiter, who must disapprove these +proceedings, why dost thou look at me as a step-mother, or as a wild +beast stricken with a dart? While the boy made these complaints with a +faltering voice, he stood with his bandages of distinction taken from +him, a tender frame, such as might soften the impious breasts of the +cruel Thracians; Canidia, having interwoven her hair and uncombed head +with little vipers, orders wild fig-trees torn up from graves, orders +funeral cypresses and eggs besmeared with the gore of a loathsome toad, +and feathers of the nocturnal screech-owl, and those herbs, which +lolchos, and Spain, fruitful in poisons, transmits, and bones snatched +from the mouth of a hungry bitch, to be burned in Colchian flames. But +Sagana, tucked up for expedition, sprinkling the waters of Avernus all +over the house, bristles up with her rough hair like a sea-urchin, or a +boar in the chase. Veia, deterred by no remorse of conscience, groaning +with the toil, dug up the ground with the sharp spade; where the boy, +fixed in, might long be tormented to death at the sight of food varied +two or three times in a day: while he stood out with his face, just as +much at bodies suspended by the chin [in swimming] project from the +water, that his parched marrow and dried liver might be a charm for +love; when once the pupils of his eyes had wasted away, fixed on the +forbidden food. Both the idle Naples, and every neighboring town +believed, that Folia of Ariminum, [a witch] of masculine lust, was not +absent: she, who with her Thessalian incantations forces the charmed +stars and the moon from heaven. Here the fell Canidia, gnawing her +unpaired thumb with her livid teeth, what said she? or what did she not +say? O ye faithful witnesses to my proceedings, Night and Diana, who +presidest over silence, when the secret rites are celebrated: now, now +be present, now turn your anger and power against the houses of our +enemies, while the savage wild beasts lie hid in the woods, dissolved in +sweet repose; let the dogs of Suburra (which may be matter of ridicule +for every body) bark at the aged profligate, bedaubed with ointment, +such as my hands never made any more exquisite. What is the matter? Why +are these compositions less efficacious than those of the barbarian +Medea? by means of which she made her escape, after having revenged +herself on [Jason's] haughty mistress, the daughter of the mighty Creon; +when the garment, a gift that was injected with venom, took off his new +bride by its inflammatory power. And yet no herb, nor root hidden in +inaccessible places, ever escaped my notice. [Nevertheless,] he sleeps +in the perfumed bed of every harlot, from his forgetfulness [of me]. Ah! +ah! he walks free [from my power] by the charms of some more knowing +witch. Varus, (oh you that will shortly have much to lament!) you shall +come back to me by means of unusual spells; nor shall you return to +yourself by all the power of Marsian enchantments, I will prepare a +stronger philter: I will pour in a stronger philter for you, disdainful +as you are; and the heaven shall subside below the sea, with the earth +extended over it, sooner than you shall not burn with love for me, in +the same manner as this pitch [burns] in the sooty flames. At these +words, the boy no longer [attempted], as before, to move the impious +hags by soothing expressions; but, doubtful in what manner he should +break silence, uttered Thyestean imprecations. Potions [said he] have a +great efficacy in confounding right and wrong, but are not able to +invert the condition of human nature; I will persecute you with curses; +and execrating detestation is not to be expiated by any victim. +Moreover, when doomed to death I shall have expired, I will attend you +as a nocturnal fury; and, a ghost, I will attack your faces with my +hooked talons (for such is the power of those divinities, the Manes), +and, brooding upon your restless breasts, I will deprive you of repose +by terror. The mob, from village to village, assaulting you on every +side with stones, shall demolish you filthy hags. Finally, the wolves +and Esquiline vultures shall scatter abroad your unburied limbs. Nor +shall this spectacle escape the observation of my parents, who, alas! +must survive me.</p> + + + +<p>ODE. VI.</p> + +<p>AGAINST CASSIUS SEVERUS.</p> + + +<p>O cur, thou coward against wolves, why dost thou persecute innocent +strangers? Why do you not, if you can, turn your empty yelpings hither, +and attack me, who will bite again? For, like a Molossian, or tawny +Laconian dog, that is a friendly assistant to shepherds, I will drive +with erected ears through the deep snows every brute that shall go +before me. You, when you have filled the grove with your fearful +barking, you smell at the food that is thrown to you. Have a care, have +a care; for, very bitter against bad men, I exert my ready horns uplift; +like him that was rejected as a son-in-law by the perfidious Lycambes, +or the sharp enemy of Bupalus. What, if any cur attack me with malignant +tooth, shall I, without revenge, blubber like a boy?</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VII.</p> + +<p>TO THE ROMAN PEOPLE.</p> + + +<p>Whither, whither, impious men are you rushing? Or why are the swords +drawn, that were [so lately] sheathed? Is there too little of Roman +blood spilled upon land and sea? [And this,] not that the Romans might +burn the proud towers of envious Carthage, or that the Britons, hitherto +unassailed, might go down the sacred way bound in chains: but that, +agreeably to the wishes of the Parthians, this city may fall by its own +might. This custom [of warfare] never obtained even among either wolves +or savage lions, unless against a different species. Does blind phrenzy, +or your superior valor, or some crime, hurry you on at this rate? Give +answer. They are silent: and wan paleness infects their countenances, +and their stricken souls are stupefied. This is the case: a cruel +fatality and the crime of fratricide have disquieted the Romans, from +that time when the blood of the innocent Remus, to be expiated by his +descendants, was spilled upon the earth.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE VIII.</p> + +<p>UPON A WANTON OLD WOMAN.</p> + + +<p>Can you, grown rank with lengthened age, ask what unnerves my vigor? +When your teeth are black, and old age withers your brow with wrinkles: +and your back sinks between your staring hip-bones, like that of an +unhealthy cow. But, forsooth! your breast and your fallen chest, full +well resembling a broken-backed horse, provoke me; and a body flabby, +and feeble knees supported by swollen legs. May you be happy: and may +triumphal statues adorn your funeral procession; and may no matron +appear in public abounding with richer pearls. What follows, because the +Stoic treatises sometimes love to be on silken pillows? Are unlearned +constitutions the less robust? Or are their limbs less stout? But for +you to raise an appetite, in a stomach that is nice, it is necessary +that you exert every art of language.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE IX.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>When, O happy Maecenas, shall I, overjoyed at Caesar's being victorious, +drink with you under the stately dome (for so it pleases Jove) the +Caecuban reserved for festal entertainments, while the lyre plays a +tune, accompanied with flutes, that in the Doric, these in the Phrygian +measure? As lately, when the Neptunian admiral, driven from the sea, +and his navy burned, fled, after having menaced those chains to Rome, +which, like a friend, he had taken off from perfidious slaves. The Roman +soldiers (alas! ye, our posterity, will deny the fact), enslaved to a +woman, carry palisadoes and arms, and can be subservient to haggard +eunuchs; and among the military standards, oh shame! the sun beholds an +[Egyptian] canopy. Indignant at this the Gauls turned two thousand of +their cavalry, proclaiming Caesar; and the ships of the hostile navy, +going off to the left, lie by in port. Hail, god of triumph! Dost thou +delay the golden chariots and untouched heifers? Hail, god of triumph! +You neither brought back a general equal [to Caesar] from the Jugurthine +war; nor from the African [war, him], whose valor raised him a monument +over Carthage. Our enemy, overthrown both by land and sea, has changed +his purple vestments for mourning. He either seeks Crete, famous for her +hundred cities, ready to sail with unfavorable winds; or the Syrtes, +harassed by the south; or else is driven by the uncertain sea. Bring +hither, boy, larger bowls, and the Chian or Lesbian wine; or, what may +correct this rising qualm of mine, fill me out the Caecuban. It is my +pleasure to dissipate care and anxiety for Caesar's danger with +delicious wine.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE X.</p> + +<p>AGAINST MAEVIUS.</p> + + +<p>The vessel that carries the loathsome Maevius, makes her departure under +an unlucky omen. Be mindful, O south wind, that you buffet it about with +horrible billows. May the gloomy east, turning up the sea, disperse its +cables and broken oars. Let the north arise as mighty as when be rives +the quivering oaks on the lofty mountains; nor let a friendly star +appear through the murky night, in which the baleful Orion sets: nor let +him be conveyed in a calmer sea, than was the Grecian band of +conquerors, when Pallas turned her rage from burned Troy to the ship of +impious Ajax. Oh what a sweat is coming upon your sailors, and what a +sallow paleness upon you, and that effeminate wailing, and those prayers +to unregarding Jupiter; when the Ionian bay, roaring with the +tempestuous south-west, shall break your keel. But if, extended along +the winding shore, you shall delight the cormorants as a dainty prey, a +lascivious he-goat and an ewe-lamb shall be sacrificed to the Tempests.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XI.</p> + +<p>TO PECTIUS.</p> + + +<p>It by no means, O Pectius, delights me as heretofore to write Lyric +verses, being smitten with cruel love: with love, who takes pleasure to +inflame me beyond others, either youths or maidens. This is the third +December that has shaken the [leafy] honors from the woods, since I +ceased to be mad for Inachia. Ah me! (for I am ashamed of so great a +misfortune) what a subject of talk was I throughout the city! I repent +too of the entertainments, at which both a languishing and silence and +sighs, heaved from the bottom of my breast, discovered the lover. As +soon as the indelicate god [Bacchus] by the glowing wine had removed, as +I grew warm, the secrets of [my heart] from their repository, I made my +complaints, lamenting to you, "Has the fairest genius of a poor man no +weight against wealthy lucre? Wherefore, if a generous indignation boil +in my breast, insomuch as to disperse to the winds these disagreeable +applications, that give no ease to the desperate wound; the shame [of +being overcome] ending, shall cease to contest with rivals of such a +sort." When I, with great gravity, had applauded these resolutions in +your presence, being ordered to go home, I was carried with a wandering +foot to posts, alas! to me not friendly, and alas! obdurate gates, +against which I bruised my loins and side. Now my affections for the +delicate Lyciscus engross all my time; from them neither the unreserved +admonitions, nor the serious reprehensions of other friends can recall +me [to my former taste for poetry]; but, perhaps, either a new flame for +some fair damsel, or for some graceful youth who binds his long hair in +a knot, [may do so].</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XII.</p> + +<p>TO A WOMAN WHOSE CHARMS WERE OVER.</p> + + +<p>What would you be at, you woman fitter for the swarthy monsters? Why do +you send tokens, why billet-doux to me, and not to some vigorous youth, +and of a taste not nice? For I am one who discerns a polypus, or fetid +ramminess, however concealed, more quickly than the keenest dog the +covert of the boar. What sweatiness, and how rank an odor every where +rises from her withered limbs! when she strives to lay her furious rage +with impossibilities; now she has no longer the advantage of moist +cosmetics, and her color appears as if stained with crocodile's ordure; +and now, in wild impetuosity, she tears her bed, bedding, and all she +has. She attacks even my loathings in the most angry terms:—"You are +always less dull with Inachia than me: in her company you are threefold +complaisance; but you are ever unprepared to oblige me in a single +instance. Lesbia, who first recommended you—so unfit a help in time of +need—may she come to an ill end! when Coan Amyntas paid me his +addresses; who is ever as constant in his fair one's service, as the +young tree to the hill it grows on. For whom were labored the fleeces of +the richest Tyrian dye? For you? Even so that there was not one in +company, among gentlemen of your own rank, whom his own wife admired +preferably to you: oh, unhappy me, whom you fly, as the lamb dreads the +fierce wolves, or the she-goats the lions!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIII.</p> + +<p>TO A FRIEND.</p> + + +<p>A horrible tempest has condensed the sky, and showers and snows bring +down the atmosphere: now the sea, now the woods bellow with the Thracian +North wind. Let us, my friends, take occasion from the day; and while +our knees are vigorous, and it becomes us, let old age with his +contracted forehead become smooth. Do you produce the wine, that was +pressed in the consulship of my Torquatus. Forbear to talk of any other +matters. The deity, perhaps, will reduce these [present evils], to your +former [happy] state by a propitious change. Now it is fitting both to +be bedewed with Persian perfume, and to relieve our breasts of dire +vexations by the lyre, sacred to Mercury. Like as the noble Centaur, +[Chiron,] sung to his mighty pupil: "Invincible mortal, son of the +goddess Thetis, the land of Assaracus awaits you, which the cold +currents of little Scamander and swift-gliding Simois divide: whence the +fatal sisters have broken off your return, by a thread that cannot be +altered: nor shall your azure mother convey you back to your home. There +[then] by wine and music, sweet consolations, drive away every symptom +of hideous melancholy."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XIV.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + + +<p>You kill me, my courteous Maecenas, by frequently inquiring, why a +soothing indolence has diffused as great a degree of forgetfulness on my +inmost senses, as if I had imbibed with a thirsty throat the cups that +bring on Lethean slumbers. For the god, the god prohibits me from +bringing to a conclusion the verses I promised [you, namely those] +iambics which I had begun. In the same manner they report that Anacreon +of Teios burned for the Samian Bathyllus; who often lamented his love to +an inaccurate measure on a hollow lyre. You are violently in love +yourself; but if a fairer flame did not burn besieged Troy, rejoice in +your lot. Phryne, a freed-woman, and not content with a single admirer, +consumes me.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XV.</p> + +<p>TO NEAERA.</p> + + +<p>It was night, and the moon shone in a serene sky among the lesser stars; +when you, about to violate the divinity of the great gods, swore [to be +true] to my requests, embracing me with your pliant arms more closely +than the lofty oak is clasped by the ivy; that while the wolf should +remain an enemy to the flock, and Orion, unpropitious to the sailors, +should trouble the wintery sea, and while the air should fan the +unshorn locks of Apollo, [so long you vowed] that this love should be +mutual. O Neaera, who shall one day greatly grieve on account of my +merit: for, if there is any thing of manhood in Horace, he will not +endure that you should dedicate your nights continually to another, whom +you prefer; and exasperated, he will look out for one who will return +his love; and though an unfeigned sorrow should take possession of you, +yet my firmness shall not give way to that beauty which has once given +me disgust. But as for you, whoever you be who are more successful [than +me], and now strut proud of my misfortune; though you be rich in flocks +and abundance of land, and Pactolus flow for you, nor the mysteries of +Pythagoras, born again, escape you, and you excel Nireus in beauty; +alas! you shall [hereafter] bewail her love transferred elsewhere; but I +shall laugh in my turn.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVI.</p> + +<p>TO THE ROMAN PEOPLE.</p> + + +<p>Now is another age worn away by civil wars, and Rome herself falls by +her own strength. Whom neither the bordering Marsi could destroy, nor +the Etrurian band of the menacing Porsena, nor the rival valor of Capua, +nor the bold Spartacus, and the Gauls perfideous with their innovations; +nor did the fierce Germany subdue with its blue-eyed youth, nor Annibal, +detested by parents; but we, an impious race, whose blood is devoted to +perdition, shall destroy her: and this land shall again be possessed by +wild beasts. The victorious barbarian, alas! shall trample upon the +ashes of the city, and the horsemen shall smite it with the sounding +hoofs; and (horrible to see!) he shall insultingly disperse the bones of +Romulus, which [as yet] are free from the injuries of wind and sun. +Perhaps you all in general, or the better part of you, are inquisitive +to know, what may be expedient, in order to escape [such] dreadful +evils. There can be no determination better than this; namely, to go +wherever our feet will carry us, wherever the south or boisterous +south-west shall summon us through the waves; in the same manner as the +state of the Phocaeans fled, after having uttered execrations [against +such as should return], and left their fields and proper dwellings and +temples to be inhabited by boars and ravenous wolves. Is this +agreeable? has any one a better scheme to advise? Why do we delay to go +on ship-board under an auspicious omen? But first let us swear to these +conditions—the stones shall swim upward, lifted from the bottom of the +sea, as soon as it shall not be impious to return; nor let it grieve us +to direct our sails homeward, when the Po shall wash the tops of the +Matinian summits; or the lofty Apennine shall remove into the sea, or a +miraculous appetite shall unite monsters by a strange kind of lust; +Insomuch that tigers may delight to couple with hinds, and the dove be +polluted with the kite; nor the simple herds may dread the brindled +lions, and the he-goat, grown smooth, may love the briny main. After +having sworn to these things, and whatever else may cut off the +pleasing: hope of returning, let us go, the whole city of us, or at +least that part which is superior to the illiterate mob: let the idle +and despairing part remain upon these inauspicious habitations. Ye, that +have bravery, away with effeminate grief, and fly beyond the Tuscan +shore. The ocean encircling the land awaits us; let us seek the happy +plains and prospering Islands, where the untilled land yearly produces +corn, and the unpruned vineyard punctually flourishes; and where the +branch of the never-failing olive blossoms forth, and the purple fig +adorns its native tree: honey distills from the hollow oaks; the light +water bounds down from the high mountains with a murmuring pace. There +the she-goats come to the milk-pails of their own accord, and the +friendly flock return with their udders distended; nor does the bear at +evening growl about the sheepfold, nor does the rising ground swell with +vipers; and many more things shall we, happy [Romans], view with +admiration: how neither the rainy east lays waste the corn-fields with +profuse showers, nor is the fertile seed burned by a dry glebe; the king +of gods moderating both [extremes]. The pine rowed by the Argonauts +never attempted to come hither; nor did the lascivious [Medea] of +Colchis set her foot [in this place]: hither the Sidonian mariners never +turned their sail-yards, nor the toiling crew of Ulysses. No contagious +distempers hurt the flocks; nor does the fiery violence of any +constellation scorch the herd. Jupiter set apart these shores for a +pious people, when he debased the golden age with brass: with brass, +then with iron he hardened the ages; from which there shall be a happy +escape for the good, according to my predictions.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>ODE XVII.</p> + +<p>DIALOGUE BETWEEN HORACE AND CANIDIA.</p> + + +<p>Now, now I yield to powerful science; and suppliant beseech thee by the +dominions of Proserpine, and by the inflexible divinity of Diana, and by +the books of incantations able to call down the stars displaced from the +firmament; O Canidia, at length desist from thine imprecations, and +quickly turn, turn back thy magical machine. Telephus moved [with +compassion] the grandson of Nereus, against whom he arrogantly had put +his troops of Mysians in battle-array, and against whom he had darted +his sharp javelins. The Trojan matrons embalmed the body of the +man-slaying Hector, which had been condemned to birds of prey, and dogs, +after king [Priam], having left the walls of the city, prostrated +himself, alas! at the feet of the obstinate Achilles. The mariners of +the indefatigable Ulysses, put off their limbs, bristled with the hard +skins [of swine], at the will of Circe: then their reason and voice were +restored, and their former comeliness to their countenances. I have +suffered punishment enough, and more than enough, on thy account, O thou +so dearly beloved by the sailors and factors. My vigor is gone away, and +my ruddy complexion has left me; my bones are covered with a ghastly +skin; my hair with your preparations is grown hoary. No ease respites me +from my sufferings: night presses upon day, and day upon night: nor is +it in my power to relieve my lungs, which are strained with gasping. +Wherefore, wretch that I am, I am compelled to credit (what was denied, +by me) that the charms of the Samnites discompose the breast, and the +head splits in sunder at the Marsian incantations. What wouldst thou +have more? O sea! O earth! I burn in such a degree as neither Hercules +did, besmeared with the black gore of Nessus, nor the fervid flame +burning In the Sicilian Aetna. Yet you, a laboratory of Colchian +poisons, remain on fire, till I [reduced to] a dry ember, shall be +wafted away by the injurious winds. What event, or what penalty awaits +me? Speak out: I will with honor pay the demanded mulct; ready to make +an expiation, whether you should require a hundred steers, or chose to +be celebrated on a lying lyre. You, a woman of modesty, you, a woman of +probity, shall traverse the stars, as a golden constellation. Castor and +the brother of the great Castor, offended at the infamy brought on +[their sister] Helen, yet overcome by entreaty, restored to the poet his +eyes that were taken away from him. And do you (for it is in your power) +extricate me from this frenzy; O you, that are neither defiled by family +meanness, nor skillful to disperse the ashes of poor people, after they +have been nine days interred. You have an hospitable breast, and +unpolluted hands; and Pactumeius is your son, and thee the midwife has +tended; and, whenever you bring forth, you spring up with unabated +vigor.</p> + + + +<p>CANIDIA'S ANSWER.</p> + + +<p>Why do you pour forth your entreaties to ears that are closely shut +[against them]? The wintery ocean, with its briny tempests, does not +lash rocks more deaf to the cries of the naked mariners. What, shall +you, without being made an example of, deride the Cotyttian mysteries, +sacred to unrestrained love, which were divulged [by you]? And shall +you, [assuming the office] of Pontiff [with regard to my] Esquilian +incantations, fill the city with my name unpunished? What did it avail +me to have enriched the Palignian sorceress [with my charms], and to +have prepared poison of greater expedition, if a slower fate awaits you +than is agreeable to my wishes? An irksome life shall be protracted by +you, wretch as you are, for this purpose, that you may perpetually be +able to endure new tortures. Tantalus, the perfidious sire of Pelops, +ever craving after the plenteous banquet [which is always before him], +wishes for respite; Prometheus, chained to the vulture, wishes [for +rest]; Sisyphus wishes to place the stone on the summit of the mountain: +but the laws of Jupiter forbid. Thus you shall desire at one time to +leap down from a high tower, at another to lay open your breast with the +Noric sword; and, grieving with your tedious indisposition, shall tie +nooses about your neck in vain. I at that time will ride on your odious +shoulders; and the whole earth shall acknowledge my unexampled power. +What shall I who can give motion to waxen images (as you yourself, +inquisitive as you are, were convinced of) and snatch the moon from +heaven by my incantations; I, who can raise the dead after they are +burned, and duly prepare the potion of love, shall I bewail the event of +my art having no efficacy upon you?</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>THE SECULAR POEM OF HORACE.</p> + +<p>TO APOLLO AND DIANA.</p> + + +<p>Phoebus, and thou Diana, sovereign of the woods, ye illustrious +ornaments of the heavens, oh ever worthy of adoration, and ever adored, +bestow what we pray for at this sacred season: at which the Sibylline +verses have given directions, that select virgins and chaste youths +should sing a hymn to the deities, to whom the seven hills [of Rome] are +acceptable. O genial sun, who in your splendid car draw forth and +obscure the day, and who arise another and the same, may it never be in +your power to behold anything more glorious than the city of Rome! O +Ilithyia, of lenient power to produce the timely birth, protect the +matrons [in labor]; whether you choose the title of Lucina, or +Genitalis. O goddess multiply our offspring; and prosper the decrees of +the senate in relation to the joining of women in wedlock, and the +matrimonial law about to teem with a new race; that the stated +revolution of a hundred and ten years may bring back the hymns and the +games, three times by bright daylight restored to in crowds, and as +often in the welcome night. And you, ye fatal sisters, infallible in +having predicted what is established, and what the settled order of +things preserves, add propitious fates to those already past. Let the +earth, fertile in fruits and flocks, present Ceres with a sheafy crown; +may both salubrious rains and Jove's air cherish the young blood! +Apollo, mild and gentle with your sheathed arrows, hear the suppliant +youths: O moon, thou horned queen of stars, hear the virgins. If Rome be +your work, and the Trojan troops arrived on the Tuscan shore (the part, +commanded [by your oracles] to change their homes and city) by a +successful navigation: for whom pious Aeneas, surviving his country, +secured a free passage through Troy, burning not by his treachery, about +to give them more ample possessions than those that were left behind. O +ye deities, grant to the tractable youth probity of manners; to old age, +ye deities, grant a pleasing retirement; to the Roman people, wealth, +and progeny, and every kind of glory. And may the illustrious issue of +Anchises and Venus, who worships you with [offerings of] white bulls, +reign superior to the warring enemy, merciful to the prostrate. Now the +Parthian, by sea and land, dreads our powerful forces and the Roman +axes: now the Scythians beg [to know] our commands, and the Indians but +lately so arrogant. Now truth, and peace, and honor, and ancient +modesty, and neglected virtue dare to return, and happy plenty appears, +with her horn full to the brim. Phoebus, the god of augury, and +conspicuous for his shining bow, and dear to the nine muses, who by his +salutary art soothes the wearied limbs of the body; if he, propitious, +surveys the Palatine altars—may he prolong the Roman affairs, and the +happy state of Italy to another lustrum, and to an improving age. And +may Diana, who possesses Mount Aventine and Algidus, regard the prayers +of the Quindecemvirs, and lend a gracious ear to the supplications of +the youths. We, the choir taught to sing the praises of Phoebus and +Diana, bear home with us a good and certain hope, that Jupiter, and all +the other gods, are sensible of these our supplications.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_SATIRES_OF_HORACE" id="THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_SATIRES_OF_HORACE" />THE FIRST BOOK OF THE SATIRES OF HORACE.</h2> + + + +<p>SATIRE I.</p> + +<p><i>That all, but especially the covetous, think their own condition the +hardest</i>.</p> + + +<p>How comes it to pass, Maecenas, that no one lives content with his +condition, whether reason gave it him, or chance threw it in his way +[but] praises those who follow different pursuits? "O happy merchants!" +says the soldier, oppressed with years, and now broken down in his limbs +through excess of labor. On the other side, the merchant, when the south +winds toss his ship [cries], "Warfare is preferable;" for why? the +engagement is begun, and in an instant there comes a speedy death or a +joyful victory. The lawyer praises the farmer's state when the client +knocks at his door by cock-crow. He who, having entered into a +recognizance, is dragged from the country into the city, cries, "Those +only are happy who live in the city." The other instances of this kind +(they are so numerous) would weary out the loquacious Fabius; not to +keep you in suspense, hear to what an issue I will bring the matter. If +any god should say, "Lo! I will effect what you desire: you, that were +just now a soldier, shall be a merchant; you, lately a lawyer [shall be] +a farmer. Do ye depart one way, and ye another, having exchanged the +parts [you are to act] in life. How now! why do you stand?" They are +unwilling; and yet it is in their power to be happy. What reason can be +assigned, but that Jupiter should deservedly distend both his cheeks in +indignation, and declare that for the future he will not be so indulgent +as to lend an ear to their prayers? But further, that I may not run over +this in a laughing manner, like those [who treat] on ludicrous subjects +(though what hinders one being merry, while telling the truth? as +good-natured teachers at first give cakes to their boys, that they may +be willing to learn their first rudiments: railery, however, apart, let +us investigate serious matters). He that turns the heavy glebe with the +hard ploughshare, this fraudulent tavern-keeper, the soldier, and the +sailors, who dauntless run through every sea, profess that they endure +toil with this intention, that as old men they may retire into a secure +resting place, when once they have gotten together a sufficient +provision.</p> + +<p>Thus the little ant (for she is an example), of great industry, carries +in her mouth whatever she is able, and adds to the heap which she piles +up, by no means ignorant and not careless for the future. Which [ant, +nevertheless], as soon, as Aquarius saddens the changed year, never +creeps abroad, but wisely makes use of those stores which were provided +beforehand: while neither sultry summer, nor winter, fire, ocean, sword, +can drive you from gain. You surmount every obstacle, that no other man +may be richer than yourself. What pleasure is it for you, trembling to +deposit an immense weight of silver and gold in the earth dug up by +stealth? Because if you lessen it, it may be reduced to a paltry +farthing.</p> + +<p>But unless that be the case, what beauty has an accumulated hoard? +Though your thrashing-floor should yield a hundred thousand bushels of +corn, your belly will not on that account contain more than mine: just +as if it were your lot to carry on your loaded shoulder the basket of +bread among slaves, you would receive no more [for your own share] than +he who bore no part of the burthen. Or tell me, what is it to the +purpose of that man, who lives within the compass of nature, whether he +plow a hundred or a thousand acres?</p> + +<p>"But it is still delightful to take out of a great hoard."</p> + +<p>While you leave us to take as much out of a moderate store, why should +you extol your granaries, more than our corn-baskets? As if you had +occasion for no more than a pitcher or glass of water, and should say, +"I had rather draw [so much] from a great river, than the very same +quantity from this little fountain." Hence it comes to pass, that the +rapid Aufidus carries away, together with the bank, such men as an +abundance more copious than what is just delights. But he who desires +only so much as is sufficient, neither drinks water fouled with the mud, +nor loses his life in the waves.</p> + +<p>But a great majority of mankind, misled by a wrong desire cry, "No sum +is enough; because you are esteemed in proportion to what you possess." +What can one do to such a tribe as this? Why, bid them be wretched, +since their inclination prompts them to it. As a certain person is +recorded [to have lived] at Athens, covetous and rich, who was wont to +despise the talk of the people in this manner: "The crowd hiss me; but I +applaud myself at home, as soon as I contemplate my money in my chest." +The thirsty Tantalus catches at the streams, which elude his lips. Why +do you laugh? The name changed, the tale is told of you. You sleep upon +your bags, heaped up on every side, gaping over them, and are obliged to +abstain from them, as if they were consecrated things, or to amuse +yourself with them as you would with pictures. Are you ignorant of what +value money has, what use it can afford? Bread, herbs, a bottle of wine +may be purchased; to which [necessaries], add [such others], as, being +withheld, human nature would be uneasy with itself. What, to watch half +dead with terror, night and day, to dread profligate thieves, fire, and +your slaves, lest they should run away and plunder you; is this +delightful? I should always wish to be very poor in possessions held +upon these terms.</p> + +<p>But if your body should be disordered by being seized with a cold, or +any other casualty should confine you to your bed, have you one that +will abide by you, prepare medicines, entreat the physician that he +would set you upon your feet, and restore you to your children and dear +relations?</p> + +<p>Neither your wife, nor your son, desires your recovery; all your +neighbors, acquaintances, [nay the very] boys and girls hate you. Do you +wonder that no one tenders you the affection which you do not merit, +since you prefer your money to everything else? If you think to retain, +and preserve as friends, the relations which nature gives you, without +taking any pains; wretch that you are, you lose your labor equally, as +if any one should train an ass to be obedient to the rein, and run in +the Campus [Martius]. Finally, let there be some end to your search; +and, as your riches increase, be in less dread of poverty; and begin to +cease from your toil, that being acquired which you coveted: nor do as +did one Umidius (it is no tedious story), who was so rich that he +measured his money, so sordid that he never clothed him self any better +than a slave; and, even to his last moments, was in dread lest want of +bread should oppress him: but his freed-woman, the bravest of all the +daughters of Tyndarus, cut him in two with a hatchet.</p> + +<p>"What therefore do you persuade me to? That I should lead the life of +Naevius, or in such a manner as a Nomentanus?"</p> + +<p>You are going [now] to make things tally, that are contradictory in +their natures. When I bid you not be a miser, I do not order you to +become a debauchee or a prodigal. There is some difference between the +case of Tanais and his son-in-law Visellius, there is a mean in things; +finally, there are certain boundaries, on either side of which moral +rectitude can not exist. I return now whence I digressed. Does no one, +after the miser's example, like his own station, but rather praise those +who have different pursuits; and pines, because his neighbor's she-goat +bears a more distended udder: nor considers himself in relation to the +greater multitude of poor; but labors to surpass, first one and then +another? Thus the richer man is always an obstacle to one that is +hastening [to be rich]: as when the courser whirls along the chariot +dismissed from the place of starting; the charioteer presses upon those +horses which outstrip his own, despising him that is left behind coming +on among the last. Hence it is, that we rarely find a man who can say he +has lived happy, and content with his past life, can retire from the +world like a satisfied guest. Enough for the present: nor will I add one +word more, lest you should suspect that I have plundered the escrutoire +of the blear-eyed Crispinus.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE II.</p> + +<p><i>Bad men, when they avoid certain vices, fall into their opposite +extremes.</i></p> + + +<p>The tribes of female flute-players, quacks, vagrants, mimics, +blackguards; all this set is sorrowful and dejected on account of the +death of the singer Tigellius; for he was liberal [toward them]. On the +other hand, this man, dreading to be called a spendthrift, will not give +a poor friend wherewithal to keep off cold and pinching hunger. If you +ask him why he wickedly consumes the noble estate of his grandfather and +father in tasteless gluttony, buying with borrowed money all sorts of +dainties; he answers, because he is unwilling to be reckoned sordid, or +of a mean spirit: he is praised by some, condemned by others. Fufidius, +wealthy in lands, wealthy in money put out at interest, is afraid of +having the character of a rake and spendthrift. This fellow deducts 5 +per cent. Interest from the principal [at the time of lending]; and, the +more desperate in his circumstances any one is, the more severely be +pinches him: he hunts out the names of young fellows that have just put +on the toga virilis under rigid fathers. Who does not cry out, O +sovereign Jupiter! when he has heard [of such knavery]? But [you will +say, perhaps,] this man expends upon himself in proportion to his gain. +You can hardly believe how little a friend he is to himself: insomuch +that the father, whom Terence's comedy introduces as living miserable +after he had caused his son to run away from him, did not torment +himself worse than he. Now if any one should ask, "To what does this +matter tend?" To this: while fools shun [one sort of] vices, they fall +upon their opposite extremes. Malthinus walks with his garments trailing +upon the ground; there is another droll fellow who [goes] with them +tucked up even to his middle; Rufillus smells like perfume itself, +Gorgonius like a he-goat. There is no mean. There are some who would not +keep company with a lady, unless her modest garment perfectly conceal +her feet. Another, again, will only have such as take their station in a +filthy brothel. When a certain noted spark came out of a stew, the +divine Cato [greeted] him with this sentence: "Proceed (says he) in your +virtuous course. For, when once foul lust has inflamed the veins, it is +right for young fellows to come hither, in comparison of their meddling +with other men's wives." I should not be willing to be commended on such +terms, says Cupiennius, an admirer of the silken vail.</p> + +<p>Ye, that do not wish well to the proceedings of adulterers, it is worth +your while to hear how they are hampered on all sides; and that their +pleasure, which happens to them but seldom, is interrupted with a great +deal of pain, and often in the midst of very great dangers. One has +thrown himself headlong from the top of a house; another has been +whipped almost to death: a third, in his flight, has fallen into a +merciless gang of thieves: another has paid a fine, [to avoid] corporal +[punishment]: the lowest servants have treated another with the vilest +indignities. Moreover, this misfortune happened to a certain person, he +entirely lost his manhood. Every body said, it was with justice: Galba +denied it.</p> + +<p>But how much safer is the traffic among [women] of the second rate! I +mean the freed-women: after which Sallustius is not less mad, than he +who commits adultery. But if he had a mind to be good and generous, as +far as his estate and reason would direct him, and as far as a man might +be liberal with moderation; he would give a sufficiency, not what would +bring upon himself ruin and infamy. However, he hugs himself in this one +[consideration]; this he delights in, this he extols: "I meddle with no +matron." Just as Marsaeus, the lover of Origo, he who gives his paternal +estate and seat to an actress, says, "I never meddle with other men's +wives." But you have with actresses, you have with common strumpets: +whence your reputation derives a greater perdition, than your estate. +What, is it abundantly sufficient to avoid the person, and not the +[vice] which is universally noxious? To lose one's good name, to +squander a father's effects, is in all cases an evil. What is the +difference [then, with regard to yourself,] whether you sin with the +person of a matron, a maiden, or a prostitute?</p> + +<p>Villius, the son-in-law of Sylla (by this title alone he was misled), +suffered [for his commerce] with Fausta, an adequate and more than +adequate punishment, by being drubbed and stabbed, while he was shut +out, that Longarenus might enjoy her within. Suppose this [young man's] +mind had addressed him in the words of his appetite, perceiving such +evil consequences: "What would you have? Did I ever, when my ardor was +at the highest, demand a woman descended from a great consul, and +covered with robes of quality?" What could he answer? Why, "the girl was +sprung from an illustrious father." But how much better things, and how +different from this, does nature, abounding in stores of her own, +recommend; if you would only make a proper use of them, and not confound +what is to be avoided with that which is desirable! Do you think it is +of no consequence, whether your distresses arise from your own fault or +from [a real deficiency] of things? Wherefore, that you may not repent +[when it is too late], put a stop to your pursuit after matrons; whence +more trouble is derived, than you can obtain of enjoyment from success. +Nor has [this particular matron], amid her pearls and emeralds, a softer +thigh, or-limbs mere delicate than yours, Cerinthus; nay, the +prostitutes are frequently preferable. Add to this, that [the +prostitute] bears about her merchandize without any varnish, and openly +shows what she has to dispose of; nor, if she has aught more comely than +ordinary, does she boast and make an ostentation of it, while she is +industrious to conceal that which is offensive. This is the custom with +men of fortune: when they buy horses, they inspect them covered: that, +if a beautiful forehand (as often) be supported by a tender hoof, it may +not take in the buyer, eager for the bargain, because the back is +handsome, the head little, and the neck stately. This they do +judiciously. Do not you, [therefore, in the same manner] contemplate the +perfections of each [fair one's] person with the eyes of Lynceus; but be +blinder than Hypsaea, when you survey such parts as are deformed. [You +may cry out,] "O what a leg! O, what delicate arms!" But [you suppress] +that she is low-hipped, short-waisted, with a long nose, and a splay +foot. A man can see nothing but the face of a matron, who carefully +conceals her other charms, unless it be a Catia. But if you will seek +after forbidden charms (for the [circumstance of their being forbidden] +makes you mad after them), surrounded as they are with a fortification, +many obstacles will then be in your way: such as guardians, the sedan, +dressers, parasites, the long robe hanging down to the ankles, and +covered with an upper garment; a multiplicity of circumstances, which +will hinder you from having a fair view. The other throws no obstacle in +your way; through the silken vest you may discern her, almost as well as +if she was naked; that she has neither a bad leg, nor a disagreeable +foot, you may survey her form perfectly with your eye. Or would you +choose to have a trick put upon you, and your money extorted, before the +goods are shown you? [But perhaps you will sing to me these verses out +of Callimachus.] As the huntsman pursues the hare in the deep snow, but +disdains to touch it when it is placed before him: thus sings the rake, +and applies it to himself; my love is like to this, for it passes over +an easy prey, and pursues what flies from it. Do you hope that grief, +and uneasiness, and bitter anxieties, will be expelled from your breast +by such verses as these? Would It not be more profitable to inquire what +boundary nature has affixed to the appetites, what she can patiently do +without, and what she would lament the deprivation of, and to separate +what is solid from what is vain? What! when thirst parches your jaws, +are you solicitous for golden cups to drink out of? What! when you are +hungry, do you despise everything but peacock and turbot? When your +passions are inflamed, and a common gratification is at hand, would you +rather be consumed with desire than possess it? I would not: for I love +such pleasures as are of easiest attainment. But she whose language is, +"By and by," "But for a small matter more," "If my husband should be out +of the way." [is only] for petit-maitres: and for himself, Philodemus +says, he chooses her, who neither stands for a great price, nor delays +to come when she is ordered. Let her be fair, and straight, and so far +decent as not to appear desirous of seeming fairer than nature has made +her. When I am in the company of such an one, she is my Ilia and +Aegeria; I give her any name. Nor am I apprehensive, while I am in her +company, lest her husband should return from the country: the door +should be broken open; the dog should bark; the house, shaken, should +resound on all sides with a great noise; the woman, pale [with fear], +should bound away from me; lest the maid, conscious [of guilt], should +cry out, she is undone; lest she should be in apprehension for her +limbs, the detected wife for her portion, I for myself: lest I must run +away with my clothes all loose, and bare-footed, for fear my money, or +my person, or, finally my character should be demolished. It is a +dreadful thing to be caught; I could prove this, even if Fabius were the +judge.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE III.</p> + +<p><i>We might to connive at the faults of our friends, and all offences are +not to be ranked in the catalogue of crimes</i>.</p> + + +<p>This is a fault common to all singers, that among their friends they +never are inclined to sing when they are asked, [but] unasked, they +never desist. Tigellius, that Sardinian, had this [fault]. Had Caesar, +who could have forced him to compliance, besought him on account of his +father's friendship and his own, he would have had no success; if he +himself was disposed, he would chant lo Bacche over and over, from the +beginning of an entertainment to the very conclusion of it; one while at +the deepest pitch of his voice, at another time with that which answers +to the highest string of the tetrachord. There was nothing uniform in +that fellow; frequently would he run along, as one flying from an enemy; +more frequently [he walked] as if he bore [in procession] the sacrifice +of Juno: he had often two hundred slaves, often but ten: one while +talking of kings and potentates, every thing that was magnificent; at +another—"Let me have a three-legged table, and a cellar of clean salt, +and a gown which, though coarse, may be sufficient to keep out the +cold." Had you given ten hundred thousand sesterces to this moderate man +who was content with such small matters, in five days' time there would +be nothing in his bags. He sat up at nights, [even] to day-light; he +snored out all the day. Never was there anything so inconsistent with +itself. Now some person may say to me, "What are you? Have you no +faults?" Yes, others; but others, and perhaps of a less culpable nature.</p> + +<p>When Maenius railed at Novius in his absence: "Hark ye," says a certain +person, "are you ignorant of yourself? or do you think to impose +yourself upon us a person we do not know?" "As for me, I forgive +myself," quoth Maenius. This is a foolish and impious self-love, and +worthy to be stigmatized. When you look over your own vices, winking at +them, as it were, with sore eyes; why are you with regard to those of +your friends as sharp-sighted as an eagle, or the Epidaurian serpent? +But, on the other hand, it is your lot that your friends should inquire +into your vices in turn. [A certain person] is a little too hasty in his +temper; not well calculated for the sharp-witted sneers of these men: he +may be made a jest of because his gown hangs awkwardly, he [at the same +time] being trimmed in a very rustic manner, and his wide shoe hardly +sticks to his foot. But he is so good, that no man can be better; but he +is your friend; but an immense genius is concealed under this unpolished +person of his. Finally, sift yourself thoroughly, whether nature has +originally sown the seeds of any vice in you, or even an ill-habit [has +done it]. For the fern, fit [only] to be burned, overruns the neglected +fields.</p> + +<p>Let us return from our digression. As his mistress's disagreeable +failings escape the blinded lover, or even give him pleasure (as Hagna's +wen does to Balbinus), I could wish that we erred in this manner with +regard to friendship, and that virtue had affixed a reputable +appellation to such an error. And as a father ought not to contemn his +son, if he has any defect, in the same manner we ought not [to contemn] +our friend. The father calls his squinting boy a pretty leering rogue; +and if any man has a little despicable brat, such as the abortive +Sisyphus formerly was, he calls it a sweet moppet; this [child] with +distorted legs, [the father] in a fondling voice calls one of the Vari; +and another, who is club-footed, he calls a Scaurus. [Thus, does] this +friend of yours live more sparingly than ordinarily? Let him be styled a +man of frugality. Is another impertinent, and apt to brag a little? He +requires to be reckoned entertaining to his friends. But [another] is +too rude, and takes greater liberties than are fitting. Let him be +esteemed a man of sincerity and bravery. Is he too fiery, let him be +numbered among persons of spirit. This method, in my opinion, both +unites friends, and preserves them in a state of union. But we invert +the very virtues themselves, and are desirous of throwing dirt upon the +untainted vessel. Does a man of probity live among us? he is a person of +singular diffidence; we give him the name of a dull and fat-headed +fellow. Does this man avoid every snare, and lay himself open to no +ill-designing villain; since we live amid such a race, where keen envy +and accusations are flourishing? Instead of a sensible and wary man, we +call him a disguised and subtle fellow. And is any one more open, [and +less reserved] than usual in such a degree as I often have presented +myself to you, Maecenas, so as perhaps impertinently to interrupt a +person reading, or musing, with any kind of prate? We cry, "[this +fellow] actually wants common sense." Alas! how indiscreetly do we +ordain a severe law against ourselves! For no one Is born without vices: +he is the best man who is encumbered with the least. When my dear +friend, as is just, weighs my good qualities against my bad ones, let +him, if he is willing to be beloved, turn the scale to the majority of +the former (if I have indeed a majority of good qualities), on this +condition, he shall be placed in the same balance. He who requires that +his friend should not take offence at his own protuberances, will excuse +his friend's little warts. It is fair that he who entreats a pardon for +his own faults, should grant one in his turn.</p> + +<p>Upon the whole, forasmuch as the vice anger, as well as others inherent +in foolish [mortals], cannot be totally eradicated, why does not human +reason make use of its own weights and measures; and so punish faults, +as the nature of the thing demands? If any man should punish with the +cross, a slave, who being ordered to take away the dish should gorge +the half-eaten fish and warm sauce; he would, among people in their +senses, be called a madder man than Labeo. How much more irrational and +heinous a crime is this! Your friend has been guilty of a small error +(which, unless you forgive, you ought to be reckoned a sour, ill-natured +fellow), you hate and avoid him, as a debtor does Ruso; who, when the +woful calends come upon the unfortunate man, unless he procures the +interest or capital by hook or by crook, is compelled to hear his +miserable stories with his neck stretched out like a slave. [Should my +friend] in his liquor water my couch, or has he thrown down a jar carved +by the hands of Evander: shall he for this [trifling] affair, or because +in his hunger he has taken a chicken before me out of my part of the +dish, be the less agreeable friend to me? [If so], what could I do if he +was guilty of theft, or had betrayed things committed to him in +confidence, or broken his word. They who are pleased [to rank all] +faults nearly on an equality, are troubled when they come to the truth +of the matter: sense and morality are against them, and utility itself, +the mother almost of right and of equity.</p> + +<p>When [rude] animals, they crawled forth upon the first-formed earth, the +mute and dirty herd fought with their nails and fists for their acorn +and caves, afterward with clubs, and finally with arms which experience +had forged: till they found out words and names, by which they +ascertained their language and sensations: thenceforward they began to +abstain from war, to fortify towns, and establish laws: that no person +should be a thief, a robber, or an adulterer. For before Helen's time +there existed [many] a woman who was the dismal cause of war: but those +fell by unknown deaths, whom pursuing uncertain venery, as the bull in +the herd, the strongest slew. It must of necessity be acknowledged, if +you have a mind to turn over the aeras and anuals of the world, that +laws were invented from an apprehension of the natural injustice [of +mankind]. Nor can nature separate what is unjust from what is just, in +the same manner as she distinguishes what is good from its reverse, and +what is to be avoided from that which is to be sought, nor will reason +persuade men to this, that he who breaks down the cabbage-stalk of his +neighbor, sins in as great a measure, and in the same manner, as he who +steals by night things consecrated to the gods. Let there be a settled +standard, that may inflict adequate punishments upon crimes, lest you +should persecute any one with the horrible thong, who is only deserving +of a slight whipping. For I am not apprehensive, that you should correct +with the rod one that deserves to suffer severer stripes: since you +assert that pilfering is an equal crime with highway robbery, and +threaten that you would prune off with an undistinguishing hook little +and great vices, if mankind were to give you the sovereignty over them. +If he be rich, who is wise, and a good shoemaker, and alone handsome, +and a king, why do you wish for that which you are possessed of? You do +not understand what Chrysippus, the father [of your sect], says: "The +wise man never made himself shoes nor slippers: nevertheless, the wise +man is a shoemaker." How so? In the same manner, though Hermogenes be +silent, he is a fine singer, notwithstanding, and an excellent musician: +as the subtle [lawyer] Alfenus, after every instrument of his calling +was thrown aside, and his shop shut up, was [still] a barber; thus is +the wise man of all trades, thus is he a king. O greatest of great +kings, the waggish boys pluck you by the beard; whom unless you restrain +with your staff, you will be jostled by a mob all about you, and you may +wretchedly bark and burst your lungs in vain. Not to be tedious: while +you, my king, shall go to the farthing bath, and no guard shall attend +you, except the absurd Crispinus; my dear friends will both pardon me in +any matter in which I shall foolishly offend, and I in turn will +cheerfully put up with their faults; and though a private man, I shall +live more happily than you, a king.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE IV.</p> + +<p><i>He apologizes for the liberties taken by satiric poets in general, and +particularly by himself</i>.</p> + + +<p>The poets Eupolis, and Cratinus, and Aristophanes, and others, who are +authors of the ancient comedy, if there was any person deserving to be +distinguished for being a rascal or a thief, an adulterer or a +cut-throat, or in any shape an infamous fellow, branded him with great +freedom. Upon these [models] Lucilius entirely depends, having imitated +them, changing only their feet and numbers: a man of wit, of great +keenness, inelegant in the composition of verse: for in this respect he +was faulty; he would often, as a great feat, dictate two hundred verses +in an hour, standing in the same position. As he flowed muddily, there +was [always] something that one would wish to remove; he was verbose, +and too lazy to endure the fatigue of writing—of writing accurately: +for, with regard to the quantity [of his works], I make no account of +it. See! Crispinus challenges me even for ever so little a wager. Take, +if you dare, take your tablets, and I will take mine; let there be a +place, a time, and persons appointed to see fair play: let us see who +can write the most. The gods have done a good part by me, since they +have framed me of an humble and meek disposition, speaking but seldom, +briefly: but do you, [Crispinus,] as much as you will, imitate air which +is shut up in leathern bellows, perpetually putting till the fire +softens the iron. Fannius is a happy man, who, of his own accord, has +presented his manuscripts and picture [to the Palatine Apollo]; when not +a soul will peruse my writings, who am afraid to rehearse in public, on +this account, because there are certain persons who can by no means +relish this kind [of satiric writing], as there are very many who +deserve censure. Single any man out of the crowd; he either labors under +a covetous disposition, or under wretched ambition. One is mad in love +with married women, another with youths; a third the splendor of silver +captivates: Albius is in raptures with brass; another exchanges his +merchandize from the rising sun, even to that with which the western +regions are warmed: but he is burried headlong through dangers, as dust +wrapped up in a whirlwind; in dread lest he should lose anything out of +the capital, or [in hope] that he may increase his store. All these are +afraid of verses, they hate poets. "He has hay on his horn, [they cry;] +avoid him at a great distance: if he can but raise a laugh for his own +diversion, he will not spare any friend: and whatever he has once +blotted upon his paper, he will take a pleasure in letting all the boys +and old women know, as they return from the bakehouse or the lake." But, +come on, attend to a few words on the other side of the question.</p> + +<p>In the first place, I will except myself out of the number of those I +would allow to be poets: for one must not call it sufficient to tag a +verse: nor if any person, like me, writes in a style bordering on +conversation, must you esteem him to be a poet. To him who has genius, +who has a soul of a diviner cast, and a greatness of expression, give +the honor of this appellation. On this account some have raised the +question, whether comedy be a poem or not; because an animated spirit +and force is neither in the style, nor the subject-matter: bating that +it differs from prose by a certain measure, it is mere prose. But [one +may object to this, that even in comedy] an inflamed father rages, +because his dissolute son, mad after a prostitute mistress, refuses a +wife with a large portion; and (what is an egregious scandal) rambles +about drunk with flambeaux by day-light. Yet could Pomponius, were his +father alive, hear less severe reproofs! Wherefore it is not sufficient +to write verses merely in proper language; which if you take to pieces, +any person may storm in the same manner as the father in the play. If +from these verses which I write at this present, or those that Lucilius +did formerly, you take away certain pauses and measures, and make that +word which was first in order hindermost, by placing the latter [words] +before those that preceded [in the verse]; you will not discern the +limbs of a poet, when pulled in pieces, in the same manner as you would +were you to transpose ever so [these lines of Ennius]:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>When discord dreadful bursts the brazen bars,<br /></span> +<span>And shatters iron locks to thunder forth her wars.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>So far of this matter; at another opportunity [I may investigate] +whether [a comedy] be a true poem or not: now I shall only consider this +point, whether this [satiric] kind of writing be deservedly an object of +your suspicion. Sulcius the virulent, and Caprius hoarse with their +malignancy, walk [openly], and with their libels too [in their hands]; +each of them a singular terror to robbers: but if a man lives honestly +and with clean hands, he may despise them both. Though you be like +highwaymen, Coelus and Byrrhus, I am not [a common accuser], like +Caprius and Sulcius; why should you be afraid of me? No shop nor stall +holds my books, which the sweaty hands of the vulgar and of Hermogenes +Tigellius may soil. I repeat to nobody, except my intimates, and that +when I am pressed; nor any where, and before any body. There are many +who recite their writings in the middle of the forum; and who [do it] +while bathing: the closeness of the place, [it seems,] gives melody to +the voice. This pleases coxcombs, who never consider whether they do +this to no purpose, or at an unseasonable time. But you, says he, +delight to hurt people, and this you do out of a mischievous +disposition. From what source do you throw this calumny upon me? Is any +one then your voucher, with whom I have lived? He who backbites his +absent friend; [nay more,] who does not defend, at another's accusing +him; who affects to raise loud laughs in company, and the reputation of +a funny fellow, who can feign things he never saw; who cannot keep +secrets; he is a dangerous man: be you, Roman, aware of him. You may +often see it [even in crowded companies], where twelve sup together on +three couches; one of which shall delight at any rate to asperse the +rest, except him who furnishes the bath; and him too afterward in his +liquor, when truth-telling Bacchus opens the secrets of his heart. Yet +this man seems entertaining, and well-bred, and frank to you, who are an +enemy to the malignant: but do I, if I have laughed because the fop +Rufillus smells all perfumes, and Gorgonius, like a he-goat, appear +insidious and a snarler to you? If by any means mention happen to be +made of the thefts of Petillius Capitolinus in your company, you defend +him after your manner: [as thus,] Capitolinus has had me for a companion +and a friend from childhood, and being applied to, has done many things +on my account: and I am glad that he lives secure in the city; but I +wonder, notwithstanding, how he evaded that sentence. This is the very +essence of black malignity, this is mere malice itself: which crime, +that it shall be far remote from my writings, and prior to them from my +mind, I promise, if I can take upon me to promise any thing sincerely of +myself. If I shall say any thing too freely, if perhaps too ludicrously, +you must favor me by your indulgence with this allowance. For my +excellent father inured me to this custom, that by noting each +particular vice I might avoid it by the example [of others]. When he +exhorted me that I should live thriftily, frugally, and content with +what he had provided for me; don't you see, [would he say,] how +wretchedly the son of Albius lives? and how miserably Barrus? A strong +lesson to hinder any one from squandering away his patrimony. When he +would deter me from filthy fondness for a light woman: [take care, said +he,] that you do not resemble Sectanus. That I might not follow +adulteresses, when I could enjoy a lawful amour: the character cried he, +of Trobonius, who was caught in the fact, is by no means creditable. +The philosopher may tell you the reasons for what is better to be +avoided, and what to be pursued. It is sufficient for me, if I can +preserve the morality traditional from my forefathers, and keep your +life and reputation inviolate, so long as you stand in need of a +guardian: so soon as age shall have strengthened your limbs and mind, +you will swim without cork. In this manner he formed me, as yet a boy: +and whether he ordered me to do any particular thing: You have an +authority for doing this: [then] he instanced some one of the select +magistrates: or did he forbid me [any thing]; can you doubt, [says he,] +whether this thing be dishonorable, and against your interest to be +done, when this person and the other is become such a burning shame for +his bad character [on these accounts]? As a neighboring funeral +dispirits sick gluttons, and through fear of death forces them to have +mercy upon themselves; so other men's disgraces often deter tender minds +from vices. From this [method of education] I am clear from all such +vices, as bring destruction along with them: by lighter foibles, and +such as you may excuse, I am possessed. And even from these, perhaps, a +maturer age, the sincerity of a friend, or my own judgment, may make +great reductions. For neither when I am in bed, or in the piazzas, am I +wanting to myself: this way of proceeding is better; by doing such a +thing I shall live more comfortably; by this means I shall render myself +agreeable to my friends; such a transaction was not clever; what, shall +I, at any time, imprudently commit any thing like it? These things I +resolve in silence by myself. When I have any leisure, I amuse myself +with my papers. This is one of those lighter foibles [I was speaking +of]: to which if you do not grant your indulgence, a numerous band of +poets shall come, which will take my part (for we are many more in +number), and, like the Jews, we will force you to come over to our +numerous party.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE V.</p> + +<p><i>He describes a certain journey of his from Rome to Brundusium with +great pleasantry</i>.</p> + + +<p>Having left mighty Rome, Aricia received me in but a middling inn: +Heliodorus the rhetorician, most learned in the Greek language, was my +fellow-traveller: thence we proceeded to Forum-Appi, stuffed with +sailors and surly landlords. This stage, but one for better travellers +than we, being laggard we divided into two; the Appian way is less +tiresome to bad travelers. Here I, on account of the water, which was +most vile, proclaim war against my belly, waiting not without impatience +for my companions while at supper. Now the night was preparing to spread +her shadows upon the earth, and to display the constellations in the +heavens. Then our slaves began to be liberal of their abuse to the +watermen, and the watermen to our slaves. "Here bring to." "You are +stowing in hundreds; hold, now sure there is enough." Thus while the +fare is paid, and the mule fastened a whole hour is passed away. The +cursed gnats, and frogs of the fens, drive off repose. While the +waterman and a passenger, well-soaked with plenty of thick wine, vie +with one another in singing the praises of their absent mistresses: at +length the passenger being fatigued, begins to sleep; and the lazy +waterman ties the halter of the mule, turned out a-grazing, to a stone, +and snores, lying flat on his back. And now the day approached, when we +saw the boat made no way; until a choleric fellow, one of the +passengers, leaps out of the boat, and drubs the head and sides of both +mule and waterman with a willow cudgel. At last we were scarcely set +ashore at the fourth hour. We wash our faces and hands in thy water, O +Feronia. Then, having dined we crawled on three miles; and arrive under +Anxur, which is built up on rocks that look white to a great distance. +Maecenas was to come here, as was the excellent Cocceius. Both sent +ambassadors on matters of great importance, having been accustomed to +reconcile friends at variance. Here, having got sore eyes, I was obliged +to use the black ointment. In the meantime came Maecenas, and Cocceius, +and Fonteius Capito along with them, a man of perfect polish, and +intimate with Mark Antony, no man more so.</p> + +<p>Without regret we passed Fundi, where Aufidius Luscus was praetor, +laughing at the honors of that crazy scribe, his praetexta, laticlave, +and pan of incense. At our next stage, being weary, we tarry in the city +of the Mamurrae, Murena complimenting us with his house, and Capito with +his kitchen.</p> + +<p>The next day arises, by much the most agreeable to all: for Plotius, and +Varius, and Virgil met us at Sinuessa; souls more candid ones than +which the world never produced, nor is there a person in/the world more +bound to them than myself. Oh what embraces, and what transports were +there! While I am in my senses, nothing can I prefer to a pleasant +friend. The village, which is next adjoining to the bridge of Campania, +accommodated us with lodging [at night]; and the public officers with +such a quantity of fuel and salt as they are obliged to [by law]. From +this place the mules deposited their pack-saddles at Capua betimes [in +the morning]. Maecenas goes to play [at tennis]; but I and Virgil to our +repose: for to play at tennis is hurtful to weak eyes and feeble +constitutions.</p> + +<p>From this place the villa of Cocceius, situated above the Caudian inns, +which abounds with plenty, receives us. Now, my muse, I beg of you +briefly to relate the engagement between the buffoon Sarmentus and +Messius Cicirrus; and from what ancestry descended each began the +contest. The illustrious race of Messius-Oscan: Sarmentus's mistress is +still alive. Sprung from such families as these, they came to the +combat. First, Sarmentus: "I pronounce thee to have the look of a mad +horse." We laugh; and Messius himself [says], "I accept your challenge:" +and wags his head. "O!" cries he, "if the horn were not cut off your +forehead, what would you not do; since, maimed as you are, you bully at +such a rate?" For a foul scar has disgraced the left part of Messius's +bristly forehead. Cutting many jokes upon his Campanian disease, and +upon his face, he desired him to exhibit Polyphemus's dance: that he had +no occasion for a mask, or the tragic buskins. Cicirrus [retorted] +largely to these: he asked, whether he had consecrated his chain to the +household gods according to his vow; though he was a scribe, [he told +him] his mistress's property in him was not the less. Lastly, he asked, +how he ever came to run away; such a lank meager fellow, for whom a +pound of corn [a-day] would be ample. We were so diverted, that we +continued that supper to an unusual length.</p> + +<p>Hence we proceed straight on for Beneventum; where the bustling landlord +almost burned himself, in roasting some lean thrushes: for, the fire +falling through the old kitchen [floor], the spreading flame made a +great progress toward the highest part of the roof. Then you might have +seen the hungry guests and frightened slaves snatching their supper out +[of the flames], and everybody endeavoring to extinguish the fire.</p> + +<p>After this Apulia began to discover to me her well-known mountains, +which the Atabulus scorches [with his blasts]: and through which we +should never have crept, unless the neighboring village of Trivicus had +received us, not without a smoke that brought tears into our eyes; +occasioned by a hearth's burning some green boughs with the leaves upon +them. Here, like a great fool as I was, I wait till midnight for a +deceitful mistress; sleep, however, overcomes me while meditating love; +and disagreeable dreams make me ashamed of myself and every thing about +me.</p> + +<p>Hence we were bowled away in chaises twenty-four miles, intending to +stop at a little town, which one cannot name in a verse, but it is +easily enough known by description. For water is sold here, though the +worst in the world; but their bread is exceeding fine, inasmuch that the +weary traveler is used to carry it willingly on his shoulders; for [the +bread] at Canusium is gritty; a pitcher of water is worth no more [than +it is here]: which place was formerly built by the valiant Diomedes. +Here Varius departs dejected from his weeping friends.</p> + +<p>Hence we came to Rubi, fatigued: because we made a long journey, and it +was rendered still more troublesome by the rains. Next day the weather +was better, the road worse, even to the very walls of Barium that +abounds in fish. In the next place Egnatia, which [seems to have] been +built on troubled waters, gave us occasion for jests and laughter; for +they wanted to persuade us, that at this sacred portal the incense +melted without fire. The Jew Apella may believe this, not I. For I have +learned [from Epicurus], that the gods dwell in a state of tranquillity; +nor, if nature effect any wonder, that the anxious gods send it from the +high canopy of the heavens.</p> + +<p>Brundusium ends both my long journey, and my paper.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE VI.</p> + +<p><i>Of true nobility</i>.</p> + + +<p>Not Maecenas, though of all the Lydians that ever inhabited the Tuscan +territories, no one is of a nobler family than yourself; and though you +have ancestors both on father's and mother's side, that in times past +have had the command of mighty legions; do you, as the generality are +wont, toss up your nose at obscure people, such as me, who has [only] a +freed-man for my father: since you affirm that it is of no consequence +of what parents any man is born, so that he be a man of merit. You +persuade yourself, with truth, that before the dominions of Tullius, and +the reign of one born a slave, frequently numbers of men descended from +ancestors of no rank, have both lived as men of merit, and have been +distinguished by the greatest honors: [while] on the other hand +Laevinus, the descendant of that famous Valerius, by whose means +Tarquinius Superbus was expelled from his kingdom, was not a farthing +more esteemed [on account of his family, even] in the judgment of the +people, with whose disposition you are well acquainted; who often +foolishly bestow honors on the unworthy, and are from their stupidity +slaves to a name: who are struck with admiration by inscriptions and +statues. What is it fitting for us to do, who are far, very far removed +from the vulgar [in our sentiments]? For grant it, that the people had +rather confer a dignity on Laevinus than on Decius, who is a new man; +and the censor Appius would expel me [the senate-house], because I was +not sprung from a sire of distinction: and that too deservedly, inasmuch +as I rested not content in my own condition. But glory drags in her +dazzling car the obscure as closely fettered as those of nobler birth. +What did it profit you, O Tullius, to resume the robe that you [were +forced] to lay aside, and become a tribune [again]? Envy increased upon +you, which had been less, it you had remained in a private station. For +when any crazy fellow has laced the middle of his leg with the sable +buskins, and has let flow the purple robe from his breast, he +immediately hears: "Who is this man? Whose son is he?" Just as if there +be any one, who labors under the same distemper as Barrus does, so that +he is ambitious of being reckoned handsome; let him go where he will, he +excites curiosity among the girls of inquiring into particulars; as what +sort of face, leg, foot, teeth, hair, he has. Thus he who engages to his +citizens to take care of the city, the empire, and Italy, and the +sanctuaries of the gods, forces every mortal to be solicitous, and to +ask from what sire he is descended, or whether he is base by the +obscurity of his mother. What? do you, the son of a Syrus, a Dana, or a +Dionysius, dare to cast down the citizens of Rome from the [Tarpeian] +rock, or deliver them up to Cadmus [the executioner]? But, [you may +say,] my colleague Novius sits below me by one degree: for he is only +what my father was. And therefore do you esteem yourself a Paulus or a +Messala? But he (Novius), if two hundred carriages and three funerals +were to meet in the forum, could make noise enough to drown all their +horns and trumpets: this [kind of merit] at least has its weight with +us.</p> + +<p>Now I return to myself, who am descended from a freed-man; whom every +body nibbles at, as being descended from a freed-man. Now, because, +Maecenas, I am a constant guest of yours; but formerly, because a Roman +legion was under my command, as being a military tribune. This latter +case is different from the former: for, though any person perhaps might +justly envy me that post of honor, yet could he not do so with regard to +your being my friend! especially as you are cautious to admit such as +are worthy; and are far from having any sinister ambitious views. I can +not reckon myself a lucky fellow on this account, as if it were by +accident that I got you for my friend; for no kind of accident threw you +in my way. That best of men, Virgil, long ago, and after him, Varius, +told you what I was. When first I came into your presence, I spoke a few +words in a broken manner (for childish bashfulness hindered me from +speaking more); I did not tell you that I was the issue of an +illustrious father: I did not [pretend] that I rode about the country on +a Satureian horse, but plainly what I really was; you answer (as your +custom is) a few words: I depart: and you re-invite me after the ninth +month, and command me to be in the number of your friends. I esteem it a +great thing that I pleased you, who distinguish probity from baseness, +not by the illustriousness of a father, but by the purity of heart and +feelings.</p> + +<p>And yet if my disposition be culpable for a few faults, and those small +ones, otherwise perfect (as if you should condemn moles scattered over a +beautiful skin), if no one can justly lay to my charge avarice, nor +sordidness, nor impure haunts; if, in fine (to speak in my own praise), +I live undefiled, and innocent, and dear to my friends; my father was +the cause of all this: who though a poor man on a lean farm, was +unwilling to send me to a school under [the pedant] Flavius, where great +boys, sprung from great centurions, having their satchels and tablets +swung over their left arm, used to go with money in their hands the very +day it was due; but had the spirit to bring me a child to Rome, to be +taught those arts which any Roman knight and senator can teach his own +children. So that, if any person had considered my dress, and the slaves +who attended me in so populous a city, he would have concluded that +those expenses were supplied to me out of some hereditary estate. He +himself, of all others the most faithful guardian, was constantly about +every one of my preceptors. Why should I multiply words? He preserved me +chaste (which is the first honor or virtue) not only from every actual +guilt, but likewise from [every] foul imputation, nor was he afraid lest +any should turn it to his reproach, if I should come to follow a +business attended with small profits, in capacity of an auctioneer, or +(what he was himself) a tax-gatherer. Nor [had that been the case] +should I have complained. On this account the more praise is due to him, +and from me a greater degree of gratitude. As long as I am in my senses, +I can never be ashamed of such a father as this, and therefore shall not +apologize [for my birth], in the manner that numbers do, by affirming it +to be no fault of theirs. My language and way of thinking is far +different from such persons. For if nature were to make us from a +certain term of years to go over our past time again, and [suffer us] to +choose other parents, such as every man for ostentation's sake would +wish for himself; I, content with my own, would not assume those that +are honored with the ensigns and seats of state; [for which I should +seem] a madman in the opinion of the mob, but in yours, I hope a man of +sense; because I should be unwilling to sustain a troublesome burden, +being by no means used to it. For I must [then] immediately set about +acquiring a larger fortune, and more people must be complimented; and +this and that companion must be taken along, so that I could neither +take a jaunt into the country, or a journey by myself; more attendants +and more horses must be fed; coaches must be drawn. Now, if I please, I +can go as far as Tarentum on my bob-tail mule, whose loins the +portmanteau galls with his weight, as does the horseman his shoulders. +No one will lay to my charge such sordidness as he may, Tullius, to you, +when five slaves follow you, a praetor, along the Tiburtian way, +carrying a traveling kitchen, and a vessel of wine. Thus I live more +comfortably, O illustrious senator, than you, and than thousands of +others. Wherever I have a fancy, I walk by myself: I inquire the price +of herbs and bread; I traverse the tricking circus, and the forum often +in the evening: I stand listening among the fortune-tellers: thence I +take myself home to a plate of onions, pulse, and pancakes. My supper is +served up by three slaves; and a white stone slab supports two cups and +a brimmer: near the salt-cellar stands a homely cruet with a little +bowl, earthen-ware from Campania. Then I go to rest; by no means +concerned that I must rise in the morning, and pay a visit to the statue +of Marsyas, who denies that he is able to bear the look of the younger +Novius. I lie a-bed to the fourth hour; after that I take a ramble, or +having read or written what may amuse me in my privacy, I am anointed +with oil, but not with such as the nasty Nacca, when he robs the lamps. +But when the sun, become more violent, has reminded me to go to bathe, I +avoid the Campus Martius and the game of hand-ball. Having dined in a +temperate manner, just enough to hinder me from having an empty stomach, +during the rest of the day I trifle in my own house. This is the life of +those who are free from wretched and burthensome ambition: with such +things as these I comfort myself, in a way to live more delightfully +than if my grandfather had been a quaestor, and father and uncle too.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE VII.</p> + +<p><i>He humorously describes a squabble betwixt Rupilius and Persius.</i></p> + + +<p>In what manner the mongrel Persius revenged the filth and venom of +Rupilius, surnamed King, is I think known to all the blind men and +barbers. This Persius, being a man of fortune, had very great business +at Clazomenae, and, into the bargain, certain troublesome litigations +with King; a hardened fellow, and one who was able to exceed even King +in virulence; confident, blustering, of such a bitterness of speech, +that he would outstrip the Sisennae and Barri, if ever so well equipped.</p> + +<p>I return to King. After nothing could be settled betwixt them (for +people among whom adverse war breaks out, are proportionably vexatious +on the same account as they are brave. Thus between Hector, the son of +Priam, and the high-spirited Achilles, the rage was of so capital a +nature, that only the final destruction [one of them] could determine +it; on no other account, than that valor in each of them was +consummate. If discord sets two cowards to work; or if an engagement +happens between two that are not of a match, as that of Diomed and the +Lycian Glaucus; the worst man will walk off, [buying his peace] by +voluntarily sending presents), when Brutus held as praetor the fertile +Asia, this pair, Rupilius and Persius, encountered; in such a manner, +that [the gladiators] Bacchius and Bithus were not better matched. +Impetuous they hurry to the cause, each of them a fine sight.</p> + +<p>Persius opens his case; and is laughed at by all the assembly; he extols +Brutus, and extols the guard; he styles Brutus the sun of Asia, and his +attendants he styles salutary stars, all except King; that he [he says,] +came like that dog, the constellation hateful to husbandman: he poured +along like a wintery flood, where the ax seldom comes.</p> + +<p>Then, upon his running on in so smart and fluent a manner, the +Praenestine [king] directs some witticisms squeezed from the vineyard, +himself a hardy vine-dresser, never defeated, to whom the passenger had +often been obliged to yield, bawling cuckoo with roaring voice.</p> + +<p>But the Grecian Persius, as soon as he had been well sprinkled with +Italian vinegar, bellows out: O Brutus, by the great gods I conjure you, +who are accustomed to take off kings, why do you not dispatch this King? +Believe me, this is a piece of work which of right belongs to you.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE VIII.</p> + +<p><i>Priapus complains that the Esquilian mount is infested with the +incantations of sorceresses</i>.</p> + + +<p>Formerly I was the trunk of a wild fig-tree, an useless log: when the +artificer, in doubt whether he should make a stool or a Priapus of me, +determined that I should be a god. Henceforward I became a god, the +greatest terror of thieves and birds: for my right hand restrains +thieves, and a bloody-looking pole stretched out from my frightful +middle: but a reed fixed upon the crown of my head terrifies the +mischievous birds, and hinders them from settling in these new gardens. +Before this the fellow-slave bore dead corpses thrown out of their +narrow cells to this place, in order to be deposited in paltry coffins. +This place stood a common sepulcher for the miserable mob, for the +buffoon Pantelabus, and Nomentanus the rake. Here a column assigned a +thousand feet [of ground] in front, and three hundred toward the fields: +that the burial-place should not descend to the heirs of the estate. Now +one may live in the Esquiliae, [since it is made] a healthy place; and +walk upon an open terrace, where lately the melancholy passengers beheld +the ground frightful with white bones; though both the thieves and wild +beasts accustomed to infest this place, do not occasion me so much care +and trouble, as do [these hags], that turn people's minds by their +incantations and drugs. These I can not by any means destroy nor hinder, +but that they will gather bones and noxious herbs, as soon as the +fleeting moon has shown her beauteous face.</p> + +<p>I myself saw Canidia, with her sable garment tucked up, walk with bare +feet and disheveled hair, yelling together with the elder Sagana. +Paleness had rendered both of them horrible to behold. They began to +claw up the earth with their nails, and to tear a black ewe-lamb to +pieces with their teeth. The blood was poured into a ditch, that thence +they might charm out the shades of the dead, ghosts that were to give +them answers. There was a woolen effigy too, another of wax: the woolen +one larger, which was to inflict punishment on the little one. The waxen +stood in a suppliant posture, as ready to perish in a servile manner. +One of the hags invokes Hecate, and the other fell Tisiphone. Then might +you see serpents and infernal bitches wander about, and the moon with +blushes hiding behind the lofty monuments, that she might not be a +witness to these doings. But if I lie, even a tittle, may my head be +contaminated with the white filth of ravens; and may Julius, and the +effeminate Miss Pediatous, and the knave Voranus, come to water upon me, +and befoul me. Why should I mention every particular? viz. in what +manner, speaking alternately with Sagana, the ghosts uttered dismal and +piercing shrieks; and how by stealth they laid in the earth a wolf's +beard, with the teeth of a spotted snake; and how a great blaze flamed +forth from the waxen image? And how I was shocked at the voices and +actions of these two furies, a spectator however by no means incapable +of revenge? For from my cleft body of fig-tree wood I uttered a loud +noise with as great an explosion as a burst bladder. But they ran into +the city: and with exceeding laughter and diversion might you have seen +Canidia's artificial teeth, and Sagana's towering tete of false hair +falling off, and the herbs, and the enchanted bracelets from her arm.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE IX.</p> + +<p><i>He describes his sufferings from the loquacity of an impertinent +fellow.</i></p> + + +<p>I was accidentally going along the Via Sacra, meditating on some trifle +or other, as is my custom, and totally intent upon it. A certain person, +known to me by name only, runs up; and, having seized my hand, "How do +you do, my dearest fellow?" "Tolerably well," say I, "as times go; and I +wish you every thing you can desire." When he still followed me; "Would +you any thing?" said I to him. But, "You know me," says he: "I am a man +of learning." "Upon that account," says I: "you will have more of my +esteem." Wanting sadly to get away from him, sometimes I walked on +apace, now and then I stopped, and I whispered something to my boy. When +the sweat ran down to the bottom of my ankles. O, said I to myself, +Bolanus, how happy were you in a head-piece! Meanwhile he kept prating +on any thing that came uppermost, praised the streets, the city; and, +when I made him no answer; "You want terribly," said he, "to get away; I +perceived it long ago; but you effect nothing. I shall still stick close +to you; I shall follow you hence: Where are you at present bound for?" +"There is no need for your being carried so much about: I want to see a +person, who is unknown to you: he lives a great way off across the +Tiber, just by Caesar's gardens." "I have nothing to do, and I am not +lazy; I will attend you thither." I hang down my ears like an ass of +surly disposition, when a heavier load than ordinary is put upon his +back. He begins again: "If I am tolerably acquainted with myself, you +will not esteem Viscus or Varius as a friend, more than me; for who can +write more verses, or in a shorter time than I? Who can move his limbs +with softer grace [in the dance]? And then I sing, so that even +Hermogenes may envy."</p> + +<p>Here there was an opportunity of interrupting him. "Have you a mother, +[or any] relations that are interested in your welfare?" "Not one have +I; I have buried them all." "Happy they! now I remain. Dispatch me: for +the fatal moment is at hand, which an old Sabine sorceress, having +shaken her divining urn, foretold when I was a boy; 'This child, neither +shall cruel poison, nor the hostile sword, nor pleurisy, nor cough, nor +the crippling gout destroy: a babbler shall one day demolish him; if he +be wise, let him avoid talkative people, as soon as he comes to man's +estate.'"</p> + +<p>One fourth of the day being now passed, we came to Vesta's temple; and, +as good luck would have it, he was obliged to appear to his +recognizance; which unless he did, he must have lost his cause. "If you +love me," said he, "step in here a little." "May I die! if I be either +able to stand it out, or have any knowledge of the civil laws: and +besides, I am in a hurry, you know whither." "I am in doubt what I shall +do," said he; "whether desert you or my cause." "Me, I beg of you." "I +will not do it," said he; and began to take the lead of me. I (as it is +difficult to contend with one's master) follow him. "How stands it with +Maecenas and you?" Thus he begins his prate again. "He is one of few +intimates, and of a very wise way of thinking. No man ever made use of +opportunity with more cleverness. You should have a powerful assistant, +who could play an underpart, if you were disposed to recommend this man; +may I perish, if you should not supplant all the rest!" "We do not live +there in the manner you imagine; there is not a house that is freer or +more remote from evils of this nature. It is never of any disservice to +me, that any particular person is wealthier or a better scholar than I +am: every individual has his proper place." "You tell me a marvelous +thing, scarcely credible." "But it is even so." "You the more inflame my +desires to be near his person." "You need only be inclined to it: such +is your merit, you will accomplish it: and he is capable of being won; +and on that account the first access to him he makes difficult." "I will +not be wanting to myself: I will corrupt his servants with presents; if +I am excluded to-day, I will not desist; I will seek opportunities; I +will meet him in the public streets; I will wait upon him home. Life +allows nothing to mortals without great labor." While he was running on +at this rate, lo! Fuscus Aristius comes up, a dear friend of mine, and +one who knows the fellow well. We make a stop. "Whence come you? whither +are you going?" he asks and answers. I began to twitch him [by the +elbow], and to take hold of his arms [that were affectedly] passive, +nodding and distorting my eyes, that he might rescue me. Cruelly arch +he laughs, and pretends not to take the hint: anger galled my liver. +"Certainly," [said I, "Fuscus,] you said that you wanted to communicate +something to me in private." "I remember it very well; but will tell it +you at a better opportunity: to-day is the thirtieth sabbath. Would you +affront the circumcised Jews?" I reply, "I have no scruple [on that +account]." "But I have: I am something weaker, one of the multitude. You +must forgive me: I will speak with you on another occasion." And has +this sun arisen so disastrous upon me! The wicked rogue runs away, and +leaves me under the knife. But by luck his adversary met him: and, +"Whither are you going, you infamous fellow?" roars he with a loud +voice: and, "Do you witness the arrest?" I assent. He hurries him into +court: there is a great clamor on both sides, a mob from all parts. Thus +Apollo preserved me.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE X.</p> + +<p><i>He supports the judgment which he had before given of Lucilius, and +intersperses some excellent precepts for the writing of Satire.</i></p> + + +<p>To be sure I did say, that the verses of Lucilius did not run smoothly. +Who is so foolish an admirer of Lucilius, that he would not own this? +But the same writer is applauded in the same Satire, on account of his +having lashed the town with great humor. Nevertheless granting him this, +I will not therefore give up the other [considerations]; for at that +rate I might even admire the farces of Laberius, as fine poems. Hence it +is by no means sufficient to make an auditor grim with laughter: and yet +there is some degree of merit even in this. There is need of conciseness +that the sentence may run, and not embarrass itself with verbiage, that +overloads the sated ear; and sometimes a grave, frequently jocose style +is necessary, supporting the character one while of the orator and [at +another] of the poet, now and then that of a graceful rallier that curbs +the force of his pleasantry and weakens it on purpose. For ridicule +often decides matters of importance more effectually and in a better +manner, than severity. Those poets by whom the ancient comedy was +written, stood upon this [foundation], and in this are they worthy of +imitation: whom neither the smooth-faced Hermogenes ever read, nor that +baboon who is skilled in nothing but singing [the wanton compositions +of] Calvus and Catullus.</p> + +<p>But [Lucilius, say they,] did a great thing, when he intermixed Greek +words with Latin. O late-learned dunces! What! do you think that arduous +and admirable, which was done by Pitholeo the Rhodian? But [still they +cry] the style elegantly composed of both tongues is the more pleasant, +as if Falernian wine is mixed with Chian. When you make verses, I ask +you this question; were you to undertake the difficult cause of the +accused Petillius, would you (for instance), forgetful of your country +and your father, while Pedius, Poplicola, and Corvinus sweat through +their causes in Latin, choose to intermix words borrowed from abroad, +like the double-tongued Canusinian. And as for myself, who was born on +this side the water, when I was about making Greek verses; Romulus +appearing to me after midnight, when dreams are true, forbade me in +words to this effect; "You could not be guilty of more madness by +carrying timber into a wood, than by desiring to throng in among the +great crowds of Grecian writers."</p> + +<p>While bombastical Alpinus murders Memnon, and while he deforms the muddy +source of the Rhine, I amuse myself with these satires; which can +neither be recited in the temple [of Apollo], as contesting for the +prize when Tarpa presides as judge, nor can have a run over and over +again represented in the theatres. You, O Fundanius, of all men +breathing are the most capable of prattling tales in a comic vein, how +an artful courtesan and a Davus impose upon an old Chremes. Pollio sings +the actions of kings in iambic measure; the sublime Varias composes the +manly epic, in a manner that no one can equal: to Virgil the Muses, +delighting in rural scenes, have granted the delicate and the elegant. +It was this kind [of satiric writing], the Aticinian Varro and some +others having attempted it without success, in which I may have some +slight merit, inferior to the inventor: nor would I presume to pull off +the [laurel] crown placed upon his brow with great applause.</p> + +<p>But I said that he flowed muddily, frequently indeed bearing along more +things which ought to be taken away than left. Be it so; do you, who are +a scholar, find no fault with any thing in mighty Homer, I pray? Does +the facetious Lucilius make no alterations in the tragedies of Accius? +Does not he ridicule many of Ennius' verses, which are too light for +the gravity [of the subject]? When he speaks of himself by no means as +superior to what he blames. What should hinder me likewise, when I am +reading the works of Lucilius, from inquiring whether it be his +[genius], or the difficult nature of his subject, that will not suffer +his verses to be more finished, and to run more smoothly than if some +one, thinking it sufficient to conclude a something of six feet, be fond +of writing two hundred verses before he eats, and as many after supper? +Such was the genius of the Tuscan Cassius, more impetuous than a rapid +river; who, as it is reported, was burned [at the funeral pile] with his +own books and papers. Let it be allowed, I say, that Lucilius was a +humorous and polite writer; that he was also more correct than [Ennius], +the author of a kind of poetry [not yet] well cultivated, nor attempted +by the Greeks, and [more correct likewise] than the tribe of our old +poets: but yet he, if he had been brought down by the Fates to this age +of ours, would have retrenched a great deal from his writings: he would +have pruned off every thing that transgressed the limits of perfection; +and, in the composition of verses, would often have scratched his head, +and bit his nails to the quick.</p> + +<p>You that intend to write what is worthy to be read more than once, blot +frequently: and take no-pains to make the multitude admire you, content +with a few [judicious] readers. What, would you be such a fool as to be +ambitious that your verses should be taught in petty schools? That is +not my case. It is enough for me, that the knight [Maecenas] applauds: +as the courageous actress, Arbuscula, expressed herself, in contempt of +the rest of the audience, when she was hissed [by the populace]. What, +shall that grubworm Pantilius have any effect upon me? Or can it vex me, +that Demetrius carps at me behind my back? or because the trifler +Fannius, that hanger-on to Hermogenes Tigellius, attempts to hurt me? +May Plotius and Varius, Maecenas and Virgil, Valgius and Octavius +approve these Satires, and the excellent Fuscus likewise; and I could +wish that both the Visci would join in their commendations: ambition +apart, I may mention you, O Pollio: you also, Messala, together with +your brother; and at the same time, you, Bibulus and Servius; and along +with these you, candid Furnius; many others whom, though men of learning +and my friends, I purposely omit—to whom I would wish these Satires, +such as they are, may give satisfaction; and I should be chagrined, if +they pleased in a degree below my expectation. You, Demetrius, and you, +Tigellius, I bid lament among the forms of your female pupils.</p> + +<p>Go, boy, and instantly annex this Satire to the end of my book.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_SECOND_BOOK_OF_THE_SATIRES_OF_HORACE" id="THE_SECOND_BOOK_OF_THE_SATIRES_OF_HORACE" />THE SECOND BOOK OF THE SATIRES OF HORACE.</h2> + + + +<p>SATIRE I.</p> + +<p><i>He supposes himself to consult with Trebatius, whether he should desist +from writing satires, or not</i>.</p> + + +<p>There are some persons to whom I seem too severe in [the writing of] +satire, and to carry it beyond proper bounds: another set are of +opinion, that all I have written is nerveless, and that a thousand +verses like mine may be spun out in a day. Trebatius, give me your +advice, what shall I do. Be quiet. I should not make, you say, verses at +all. I do say so. May I be hanged, if that would not be best: but I can +not sleep. Let those, who want sound sleep, anointed swim thrice across +the Tiber: and have their clay well moistened with wine over-night. Or, +if such a great love of scribbling hurries you on, venture to celebrate +the achievements of the invincible Caesar, certain of bearing off ample +rewards for your pains.</p> + +<p>Desirous I am, my good father, [to do this,] but my strength fails me, +nor can any one describe the troops bristled with spears, nor the Gauls +dying on their shivered darts, nor the wounded Parthian falling from his +horse. Nevertheless you may describe him just and brave, as the wise +Lucilius did Scipio. I will not be wanting to myself, when an +opportunity presents itself: no verses of Horace's, unless well-timed, +will gain the attention of Caesar; whom, [like a generous steed,] if you +stroke awkwardly, he will kick upon you, being at all quarters on his +guard. How much better would this be, than to wound with severe satire +Pantolabus the buffoon, and the rake Nomentanus! when every body is +afraid for himself, [lest he should be the next,] and hates you, though +he is not meddled with. What shall I do? Milonius falls a dancing the +moment he becomes light-headed and warm, and the candles appear +multiplied. Castor delights in horsemanship: and he, who sprang from the +same egg, in boxing. As many thousands of people [as there are in the +world], so many different inclinations are there. It delights me to +combine words in meter, after the manner of Lucilius, a better man than +both of us. He long ago communicated his secrets to his books, as to +faithful friends; never having recourse elsewhere, whether things went +well or ill with him: whence it happens, that the whole life of this old +[poet] is as open to the view, as if it had been painted en a votive +tablet. His example I follow, though in doubt whether I am a Lucanian or +an Apulian; for the Venusinian farmers plow upon the boundaries of both +countries, who (as the ancient tradition has it) were sent, on the +expulsion of the Samnites, for this purpose, that the enemy might not +make incursions on the Romans, through a vacant [unguarded frontier]: or +lest the Apulian nation, or the fierce Lucanian, should make an +invasion. But this pen of mine shall not willfully attack any man +breathing, and shall defend me like a sword that is sheathed in the +scabbard which why should I attempt to draw, [while I am] safe from +hostile villains? O Jupiter, father and sovereign, may my weapon laid +aside wear away with rust, and may no one injure me, who am desirous of +peace? But that man shall provoke me (I give notice, that it is better +not to touch me) shall weep [his folly], and as a notorious character +shall be sung through all the streets of Rome.</p> + +<p>Cervius, when he is offended, threatens one with the laws and the +[judiciary] urn; Canidia, Albutius' poison to those with whom she is at +enmity, Turius [threatens] great damages, if you contest any thing while +he is judge. How every animal terrifies those whom he suspects, with +that in which he is most powerful, and how strong natural instinct +commands this, thus infer with me.—The wolf attacks with his teeth, the +bull with his horns. From what principle is this, if not a suggestion +from within? Intrust that debauchee Scaeva with the custody of his +ancient mother; his pious hand will commit no outrage. A wonder indeed! +just as the wolf does not attack any one with his hoof, nor the bull +with his teeth; but the deadly hemlock in the poisoned honey will take +off the old dame.</p> + +<p>That I may not be tedious, whether a placid old age awaits me, or +whether death now hovers about me with his sable wings; rich or poor, at +Rome or (if fortune should so order it) an exile abroad; whatever be the +complexion of my life, I will write. O my child, I fear you can not be +long, lived; and that some creature of the great ones will strike you +with the cold of death. What? when Lucilius had the courage to be the +first in composing verses after this manner, and to pull off that mask, +by means of which each man strutted in public view with a fair outside, +though foul within; was Laelius, and he who derived a well deserved +title from the destruction of Carthage, offended at his wit, or were +they hurt at Metellus being lashed, or Lupus covered over with his +lampoons? But he took to task the heads of the people, and the people +themselves, class by class; in short, he spared none but virtue and her +friends. Yet, when the valorous Scipio, and the mild philosophical +Laelius, had withdrawn themselves from the crowd and the public scene, +they used to divert themselves with him, and joke in a free manner, +while a few vegetables were boiled [for supper]. Of whatever rank I am, +though below the estate and wit of Lucilius, yet envy must be obliged to +own that I have lived well with great men; and, wanting to fasten her +tooth upon some weak part, will strike it against the solid: unless you, +learned Trebatius, disapprove of any thing [I have said]. For my part, I +can not make any objection to this. But however, that forewarned you may +be upon your guard, lest in ignorance of our sacred laws should bring +you into trouble, [be sure of this] if any person shall make scandalous +verses against a particular man, an action lies, and a sentence. +Granted, if they are scandalous: but if a man composes good ones, and is +praised by such a judge as Caesar? If a man barks only at him who +deserves his invectives, while he himself is unblamable? The process +will be canceled with laughter: and you, being dismissed, may depart in +peace.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE II.</p> + +<p><i>On Frugality</i>.</p> + + +<p>What and how great is the virtue to live on a little (this is no +doctrine of mine, but what Ofellus the peasant, a philosopher without +rules and of a home-spun wit, taught me), learn, my good friends, not +among dishes and splendid tables; when the eye is dazzled with the vain +glare, and the mind, intent upon false appearances, refuses [to admit] +better things; but here, before dinner, discuss this point with me. Why +so? I will inform you, if I can. Every corrupted judge examines badly +the truth. After hunting the hare, or being wearied by an unruly horse, +or (if the Roman exercise fatigues you, accustomed to act the Greek) +whether the swift ball, while eagerness softens and prevents your +perceiving the severity of the game, or quoits (smite the yielding air +with the quoit) when exercise has worked of squeamishness, dry and +hungry, [then let me see you] despise mean viands; and don't drink +anything but Hymettian honey qualified with Falernian wine. Your butler +is abroad, and the tempestuous sea preserves the fish by its wintery +storms; bread and salt will sufficiently appease an importunate stomach. +Whence do you think this happens? and how is it obtained? The consummate +pleasure is not in the costly flavor, but in yourself. Do you seek for +sauce by sweating. Neither oysters, nor scar, nor the far-fetched +lagois, can give any pleasure to one bloated and pale through +intemperance. Nevertheless, if a peacock were served up, I should hardly +be able to prevent your gratifying the palate with that, rather than a +pullet, since you are prejudiced by the vanities of things; because the +scarce bird is bought with gold, and displays a fine sight with its +painted tail, as if that were anything to the purpose. "What; do you eat +that plumage, which you extol? or has the bird the same beauty when +dressed? Since however there is no difference in the meat, in one +preferably to the other; it is manifest that you are imposed upon by the +disparity of their appearances. Be it so.</p> + +<p>By what gift are you able to distinguish, whether this lupus, that now +opens its jaws before us, was taken in the Tiber, or in the sea? whether +it was tossed between the bridges or at the mouth of the Tuscan river? +Fool, you praise a mullet, that weighs three pounds; which you are +obliged to cut into small pieces. Outward appearances lead you, I see. +To what intent then do you contemn large lupuses? Because truly these +are by nature bulky, and those very light. A hungry stomach seldom +loathes common victuals. O that I could see a swingeing mullet extended +on a swingeing dish! cries that gullet, which is fit for the voracious +harpies themselves. But O [say I] ye southern blasts, be present to +taint the delicacies of the [gluttons]: though the boar and turbot +newly taken are rank, when surfeiting abundance provokes the sick +stomach; and when the sated guttler prefers turnips and sharp +elecampane. However, all [appearance of] poverty is not quite banished +from the banquets of our nobles; for there is, even at this day, a place +for paltry eggs and black olives. And it was not long ago, since the +table of Gallonius, the auctioneer, was rendered infamous, by having a +sturgeon, [served whole upon it]. What? was the sea at that time less +nutritive of turbots? The turbot was secure and the stork unmolested in +her nest; till the praetorian [Sempronius], the inventor, first taught +you [to eat them]. Therefore, if any one were to give it out that +roasted cormorants are delicious, the Roman youth, teachable in +depravity, would acquiesce, in it.</p> + +<p>In the judgment of Ofellus, a sordid way of living will differ widely +from frugal simplicity. For it is to no purpose for you to shun that +vice [of luxury]; if you perversely fly to the contrary extreme. +Avidienus, to whom the nickname of Dog is applied with propriety, eats +olives of five years old, and wild cornels, and can not bear to rack off +his wine unless it be turned sour, and the smell of his oil you can not +endure: which (though clothed in white he celebrates the wedding +festival, his birthday, or any other festal days) he pours out himself +by little and little from a horn cruet, that holds two pounds, upon his +cabbage, [but at the same time] is lavish enough of his old vinegar.</p> + +<p>What manner of living therefore shall the wise man put in practice, and +which of these examples shall he copy? On one side the wolf presses on, +and the dog on the other, as the saying is. A person will be accounted +decent, if he offends not by sordidness, and is not despicable through +either extreme of conduct. Such a man will not, after the example, of +old Albutius, be savage while he assigns to his servants their +respective offices; nor, like simple Naevius, will he offer greasy water +to his company: for this too is a great fault.</p> + +<p>Now learn what and how great benefits a temperate diet will bring along +with it. In the first place, you will enjoy good health; for you may +believe how detrimental a diversity of things is to any man, when you +recollect that sort of food, which by its simplicity sat so well upon +your stomach some time ago. But, when you have once mixed boiled and +roast together, thrushes and shell-fish; the sweet juices will turn +into bile, and a thick phlegm will bring a jarring upon the stomach. Do +not you see, how pale each guest rises from a perplexing variety of +dishes at an entertainment. Beside this, the body, overloaded with the +debauch of yesterday, depresses the mind along with it, and dashes to +the earth that portion of the divine spirit. Another man, as soon as he +has taken a quick repast, and rendered up his limbs to repose, rises +vigorous to the duties of his calling. However, he may sometimes have +recourse to better cheer; whether the returning year shall bring on a +festival, or if he have a mind to refresh his impaired body; and when +years shall approach, and feeble age require to be used more tenderly. +But as for you, if a troublesome habit of body, or creeping old age, +should come upon you, what addition can be made to that soft indulgence, +which you, now in youth and in health anticipate?</p> + +<p>Our ancestors praised a boar when it was stale not because they had no +noses; but with this view, I suppose, that a visitor coming later than +ordinary [might partake of it], though a little musty, rather than the +voracious master should devour it all himself while sweet. I wish that +the primitive earth had produced me among such heroes as these.</p> + +<p>Have you any regard for reputation, which affects the human ear more +agreeably than music? Great turbots and dishes bring great disgrace +along with them, together with expense. Add to this, that your relations +and neighbors will be exasperated at you, while you will be at enmity +with yourself and desirous of death in vain, since you will not in your +poverty have three farthings left to purchase a rope withal. Trausius, +you say, may with justice be called to account in such language as this; +but I possess an ample revenue, and wealth sufficient for three +potentates, Why then have you no better method of expending your +superfluities? Why is any man, undeserving [of distressed +circumstances], in want, while you abound: How comes it to pass, that +the ancient temples of the gods are falling to ruin? Why do not you, +wretch that you are, bestow something on your dear country, out of so +vast a hoard? What, will matters always go well with you alone? O thou, +that hereafter shalt be the great derision of thine enemies! which of +the two shall depend upon himself in exigences with most certainty? He +who has used his mind and high-swollen body to redundancies; or he who, +contented with a little and provident for the future, like a Wise man +in time of peace, shall make the necessary preparations for war?</p> + +<p>That you may the more readily give credit to these things: I myself, +when a little boy, took notice that this Ofellua did not use his +unencumbered estate more profusely, than he does now it is reduced. You +may see the sturdy husbandman laboring for hire in the land [once his +own, but now] assigned [to others], with his cattle and children, +talking to this effect; I never ventured to eat any thing on a work-day +except pot-herbs, with a hock of smoke-dried bacon. And when a friend +came to visit me after a long absence, or a neighbor, an acceptable +guest to me resting from work on account of the rain, we lived well; not +on fishes fetched from the city, but on a pullet and a kid: then a dried +grape, and a nut, with a large fig, set off our second course. After +this, it was our diversion to have no other regulation in our cups, save +that against drinking to excess; then Ceres worshiped [with a libation], +that the corn might arise in lofty stems, smoothed with wine the +melancholy of the contracted brow. Let fortune rage, and stir up new +tumults what can she do more to impair my estate? How much more savingly +have either I lived, or how much less neatly have you gone, my children, +since this new possessor came? For nature has appointed to be lord of +this earthly property, neither him, nor me, nor any one. He drove us +out: either iniquity or ignorance in the quirks of the law shall [do the +same] him: certainly in the end his long lived heir shall expel him. Now +this field under the denomination of Umbrenus', lately it was Ofellus', +the perpetual property of no man; for it turns to my use one while, and +by and by to that of another. Wherefore, live undaunted; and oppose +gallant breasts against the strokes of adversity.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE III.</p> + +<p><i>Damasippus, in a conversation with Horace, proves this paradox of the +Stoic philosophy, that most men are actually mad</i>.</p> + + +<p>You write so seldom, as not to call for parchment four times in the +year, busied in reforming your writings, yet are you angry with +yourself, that indulging in wine and sleep you produce nothing worthy to +be the subject of conversation. What will be the consequence? But you +took refuge here, it seems, at the very celebration of the Saturnalia, +out of sobriety. Dictate therefore something worthy of your promises; +begin. There is nothing. The pens are found fault with to no purpose, +and the harmless wall, which must have been built under the displeasure +of gods and poets, suffers [to no end]. But you had the look of one that +had threatened many and excellent things, when once your villa had +received you, free from employment, under its warm roof. To what purpose +was it to stow Plato upon Menander? Eupolis, Archilochus? For what end +did you bring abroad such companions? What? are you setting about +appeasing envy by deserting virtue? Wretch, you will be despised. That +guilty Siren, Sloth, must be avoided; or whatever acquisitions you have +made in the better part of your life, must with equanimity be given up. +May the gods and godnesses, O Damasippus, present you with a barber for +your sound advice! But by what means did you get so well acquainted with +me? Since all my fortunes were dissipated at the middle of the exchange, +detached from all business of my own, I mind that of other people. For +formerly I used to take a delight in inquiring, in what vase the crafty +Sisyphus might have washed his feet; what was carved in an unworkmanlike +manner, and what more roughly cast than it ought to be; being a +connoisseur, I offered a hundred thousand sesterces for such a statue; I +was the only man who knew how to purchase gardens and fine seats to the +best advantage: whence the crowded ways gave me the surname of +Mercurial. I know it well; and am amazed at your being cured of that +disorder. Why a new disorder expelled the old one in a marvelous manner; +as it is accustomed to do, when the pain of the afflicted side, or the +head, is turned upon the stomach; as it is with a man in a lethargy, +when he turns boxer, and attacks his physician. As long as you do +nothing like this, be it even as you please. O my good friend, do not +deceive yourself; you likewise are mad, and it is almost "fools all," if +what Stertinius insists upon has any truth in it; from whom, being of a +teachable disposition, I derived these admirable precepts, at the very +time when, having given me consolation, he ordered me to cultivate a +philosophical beard, and to return cheerfully from the Fabrician bridge. +For when, my affairs being desperate, I had a mind to throw myself into +the river, having covered my head [for that purpose], he fortunately was +at my elbow; and [addressed me to this effect]: Take care, how do any +thing unworthy of yourself; a false shame, says he, afflicts you, who +dread to be esteemed a madman among madmen. For in the first place, I +will inquire, what it is to be mad: and, if this distemper be in you +exclusively, I will not add a single word, to prevent you from dying +bravely.</p> + +<p>The school and sect of Chrysippus deem every man mad, whom vicious folly +or the ignorance of truth drives blindly forward. This definition takes +in whole nations, this even great kings, the wise man [alone] excepted. +Now learn, why all those, who have fixed the name of madman upon you, +are as senseless as yourself. As in the woods, where a mistake makes +people wander about from the proper path; one goes out of the way to the +right, another to the left; there is the same blunder on both sides, +only the illusion is in different directions: in this manner imagine +yourself mad; so that he, who derides you, hangs his tail not one jot +wiser than yourself. There is one species of folly, that dreads things +not in the least formidable; insomuch that it will complain of fires, +and rocks, and rivers opposing it in the open plain; there is another +different from this, but not a whit more approaching to wisdom, that +runs headlong through the midst of flames and floods. Let the loving +mother, the virtuous sister, the father, the wife, together with all the +relations [of a man possessed with this latter folly], cry out: "Here is +a deep ditch; here is a prodigious rock; take care of yourself:" he +would give no more attention, than did the drunken Fufius some time ago, +when he overslept the character of Ilione, twelve hundred Catieni at the +same time roaring out, <i>O mother, I call you to my aid</i>. I will +demonstrate to you, that the generality of all mankind are mad in the +commission of some folly similar to this.</p> + +<p>Damasippus is mad for purchasing antique statues: but is Damasippus' +creditor in his senses? Well, suppose I should say to you: receive this, +which you can never repay: will you be a madman, if you receive it; or +would you be more absurd for rejecting a booty, which propitious Mercury +offers? Take bond, like the banker Nerius, for ten thousand sesterces; +it will not signify: add the forms of Cicuta, so versed in the knotty +points of law: add a thousand obligations: yet this wicked Proteus will +evade all these ties. When you shall drag him to justice, laughing as if +his cheeks were none of his own; he will be transformed into a boar, +sometimes into a bird, sometimes into a stone, and when he pleases Into +a tree. If to conduct one's affairs badly be the part of a madman; and +the reverse, that of a man well in his senses; brain of Perillius +(believe me), who orders you [that sum of money], which you can never +repay, is much more unsound [than yours].</p> + +<p>Whoever grows pale with evil ambition, or the love of money: whoever is +heated with luxury, or gloomy superstition, or any other disease of the +mind, I command him to adjust his garment and attend: hither, all of ye, +come near me in order, while I convince you that you are mad.</p> + +<p>By far the largest portion of hellebore is to be administered to the +covetous: I know not, whether reason does not consign all Anticyra to +their use. The heirs of Staberius engraved the sum [which he left them] +upon his tomb: unless they had acted in this manner, they were under an +obligation to exhibit a hundred pair of gladiators to the people, beside +an entertainment according to the direction of Arrius; and as much corn +as is cut in Africa. Whether I have willed this rightly or wrongly, it +was my will; be not severe against me, [cries the testator]. I imagine +the provident mind of Staberius foresaw this. What then did he moan, +when he appointed by will that his heirs should engrave the sum of their +patrimony upon his tomb-stone? As long as he lived, he deemed poverty a +great vice, and nothing did he more industriously avoid: insomuch that, +had he died less rich by one farthing, the more Iniquitous would he have +appeared to himself. For every thing, virtue, fame, glory, divine and +human affairs, are subservient to the attraction of riches; which +whoever shall have accumulated, shall be illustrious, brave, just—What, +wise too? Ay, and a king, and whatever else he pleases. This he was in +hopes would greatly redound to his praise, as if it had been an +acquisition of his virtue. In what respect did the Grecian Aristippus +act like this; who ordered his slaves to throw away his gold in the +midst of Libya; because, encumbered with the burden, they traveled too +slowly? Which is the greater madman of these two? An example is nothing +to the purpose, that decides one controversy by creating another. If any +person were to buy lyres, and [when he had bought them] to stow them in +one place; though neither addicted to the lyre nor to any one muse +whatsoever: if a man were [to buy] paring-knives and lasts, and were no +shoemaker; sails fit for navigation, and were averse to merchandizing; +he every where deservedly be styled delirious, and out of his senses. +How does he differ from these, who boards up cash and gold [and] knows +not how to use them when accumulated, and is afraid to touch them as if +they were consecrated? If any person before a great heap of corn should +keep perpetual watch with a long club, and, though the owner of it, and +hungry, should not dare to take a single grain from it; and should +rather feed upon bitter leaves: if while a thousand hogsheads of Chian, +or old Falernian, is stored up within (nay, that is nothing—three +hundred thousand), he drink nothing, but what is mere sharp vinegars +again—if, wanting but one year of eighty, he should lie upon straw, who +has bed-clothes rotting in his chest, the food of worms and moths; he +would seem mad, belike, but to few persons: because the greatest part of +mankind labors, under the same malady.</p> + +<p>Thou dotard, hateful to the gods, dost thou guard [these possessions], +for fear of wanting thyself: to the end that thy son, or even the +freedman thy heir, should guzzle it all up? For how little will each day +deduct from your capital, if you begin to pour better oil upon your +greens and your head, filthy with scurf not combed out? If any thing be +a sufficiency, wherefore are you guilty of perjury [wherefore] do you +rob, and plunder from all quarters? Are you in your senses? If you were +to begin to pelt the populace with stones, and the slaves, which you +purchased with your money; all the: very boys and girls will cry out +that you are a madman. When you dispatch your wife with a rope, and your +mother with poison, are you right in your head? Why not? You neither did +this at Argos, nor slew your mother with the sword, as the mad Orestes +did. What, do you imagine that he ran? mad after he had murdered his +parent; and that he was not driven mad by the wicked Furies, before he +warmed his sharp steel in his mother's throat? Nay, from the time that +Orestes is deemed to have been of a dangerous disposition, he did +nothing in fact that you can blame; he did not dare to offer violence +with his sword to Pylades, nor to his sister Electra; he only gave ill +language to both of them, by calling her a Fury, and him some other +[opprobrious name], which, his violent choler suggested.</p> + +<p>Opimius, poor amid silver and gold hoarded up within, who used to drink +out of Campanian ware Veientine wine on holidays, and mere dregs on +common days, was some time ago taken with a prodigious lethargy; +insomuch that his heir was already scouring about his coffers and keys, +in joy and triumph. His physician, a man of much dispatch and fidelity, +raises him in this manner: he orders a table to be brought, and the bags +of money to be poured out, and several persons to approach in order to +count it: by this method he sets the man upon his legs again. And at the +same time he addresses him to this effect. Unless you guard your money +your ravenous heir will even now carry off these [treasures] of yours. +What, while I am alive? That you may live, therefore, awake; do this. +What would you have me do? Why your blood will fail you that are so much +reduced, unless food and some great restorative be administered to your +decaying stomach. Do you hesitate? come on; take this ptisan made of +rice. How much did it cost? A trifle. How much then? Eight asses. Alas! +what does it matter, whether I die of a disease, or by theft and rapine?</p> + +<p>Who then is sound? He, who is not a fool. What is the covetous man? Both +a fool and a madman. What—if a man be not covetous, is he immediately +[to be deemed] sound? By no means. Why so, Stoic? I will tell you. Such +a patient (suppose Craterus [the physician] said this) is not sick at +the heart. Is he therefore well, and shall he get up? No, he will forbid +that; because his side or his reins are harassed with an acute disease. +[In like manner], such a man is not perjured, nor sordid; let him then +sacrifice a hog to his propitious household gods. But he is ambitious +and assuming. Let him make a voyage [then] to Anticyra. For what is the +difference, whether you fling whatever you have into a gulf, or make no +use of your acquisitions?</p> + +<p>Servius Oppidius, rich in the possession of an ancient estate, is +reported when dying to have divided two farms at Canusium between his +two sons, and to have addressed the boys, called to his bed-side, [in +the following manner]: When I saw you, Aulus, carry your playthings and +nuts carelessly in your bosom, [and] to give them and game them away; +you, Tiberius, count them, and anxious hide them in holes; I was afraid +lest a madness of a different nature should possess you: lest you +[Aulus], should follow the example of Nomentanus, you, [Tiberius], that +of Cicuta. Wherefore each of you, entreated by our household gods, do +you (Aulus) take care lest you lessen; you (Tiberius) lest you make that +greater, which your father thinks and the purposes of nature determine +to be sufficient. Further, lest glory should entice you, I will bind +each of you by an oath: whichever of you shall be an aedile or a +praetor, let him be excommunicated and accursed. Would you destroy your +effects in [largesses of] peas, beans, and lupines, that you may stalk +in the circus at large, or stand in a statue of brass, O madman, +stripped of your paternal estate, stripped of your money? To the end, +forsooth, that you may gain those applauses, which Agrippa gains, like a +cunning fox imitating a generous lion?</p> + +<p>O Agamemnon, why do you prohibit any one from burying Ajax? I am a king. +I, a plebeian, make no further inquiry. And I command a just thing: but, +if I seem unjust to any one, I permit you to speak your sentiments with +impunity. Greatest of kings, may the gods grant that, after the taking +of Troy, you may conduct your fleet safe home: may I then have the +liberty to ask questions, and reply in my turn? Ask. Why does Ajax, the +second hero after Achilles, rot [above ground], so often renowned for +having saved the Grecians; that Priam and Priam's people may exult in +his being unburied, by whose means so many youths have been deprived of +their country's rites of sepulture. In his madness he killed a thousand +sheep, crying out that he was destroying the famous Ulysses and +Menelaus, together with me. When you at Aulis substituted your sweet +daughter in the place of a heifer before the altar, and, O impious one, +sprinkled her head with the salt cake; did you preserve soundness of +mind? Why do you ask? What then did the mad Ajax do, when he slew the +flock with his sword? He abstained from any violence to his wife and +child, though he had imprecated many curses on the sons of Atreus: he +neither hurt Teucer, nor even Ulysses himself. But I, out of prudence, +appeased the gods with blood, that I might loose the ships detained on +an adverse shore. Yes, madman! with your own blood. With my own +[indeed], but I was not mad. Whoever shall form images foreign from +reality, and confused in the tumult of impiety, will always be reckoned +disturbed in mind: and it will not matter, whether he go wrong through +folly or through rage. Is Ajax delirious, while he kills the harmless +lambs? Are you right in your head, when you willfully commit a crime for +empty titles? And is your heart pure, while it is swollen with the vice? +If any person should take a delight to carry about with him in his sedan +a pretty lambkin; and should provide clothes, should provide maids and +gold for it, as for a daughter, should call it Rufa and Rufilla, and +should destine it a wife for some stout husband; the praetor would +take power from him being interdicted, and the management of him would +devolve to his relations, that were in their senses. What, if a man +devote his daughter instead of a dumb lambkin, is he right of mind? +Never say it. Therefore, wherever there is a foolish depravity, there +will be the height of madness. He who is wicked, will be frantic too: +Bellona, who delights in bloodshed, has thundered about him, whom +precarious fame has captivated.</p> + +<p>Now, come on, arraign with me luxury and Nomentanus; for reason will +evince that foolish spendthrifts are mad. This fellow, as soon as he +received a thousand talents of patrimony, issues an order that the +fishmonger, the fruiterer, the poulterer, the perfumer, and the impious +gang of the Tuscan alley, sausage-maker, and buffoons, the whole +shambles, together with [all] Velabrum, should come to his house in the +morning. What was the consequence? They came in crowds. The pander makes +a speech: "Whatever I, or whatever each of these has at home, believe it +to be yours: and give your order for it either directly, or to-morrow." +Hear what reply the considerate youth made: "You sleep booted in +Lucanian snow, that I may feast on a boar: you sweep the wintry seas for +fish: I am indolent, and unworthy to possess so much. Away with it: do +you take for your share ten hundred thousand sesterces; you as much; you +thrice the sum, from whose house your spouse runs, when called for, at +midnight." The son of Aesopus, [the actor] (that he might, forsooth, +swallow a million of sesterces at a draught), dissolved in vinegar a +precious pearl, which he had taken from the ear of Metella: how much +wiser was he [in doing this,] than if he had thrown the same into a +rapid river, or the common sewer? The progeny of Quintius Arrius, an +illustrious pair of brothers, twins in wickedness and trifling and the +love of depravity, used to dine upon nightingales bought at a vast +expense: to whom do these belong? Are they in their senses? Are they to +be marked With chalk, or with charcoal?</p> + +<p>If an [aged person] with a long beard should take a delight to build +baby-houses, to yoke mice to a go-cart, to play at odd and even, to ride +upon a long cane, madness must be his motive. If reason shall evince, +that to be in love is a more childish thing than these; and that there +is no difference whether you play the same games in the dust as when +three years old, or whine in anxiety for the love of a harlot: I beg to +know, if you will act as the reformed Polemon did of old? Will you lay +aside those ensigns of your disease, your rollers, your mantle, your +mufflers; as he in his cups is said to have privately torn the chaplet +from his neck, after he was corrected by the speech of his fasting +master? When you offer apples to an angry boy, he refuses them: here, +take them, you little dog; he denies you: if you don't give them, he +wants them. In what does an excluded lover differ [from such a boy]; +when he argues with himself whether he should go or not to that very +place whither he was returning without being sent for, and cleaves to +the hated doors? "What shall I not go to her now, when she invites me of +her own accord? or shall I rather think of putting an end to my pains? +She has excluded me; she recalls me: shall I return? No, not if she +would implore me." Observe the servant, not a little wiser: "O master, +that which has neither moderation nor conduct, can not be guided by +reason or method. In love these evils are inherent; war [one while], +then peace again. If any one should endeavor to ascertain these things, +that are various as the weather, and fluctuating by blind chance; he +will make no more of it, than if he should set about raving by right +reason and rule." What—when, picking the pippins from the Picenian +apples, you rejoice if haply you have hit the vaulted roof; are you +yourself? What—when you strike out faltering accents from your +antiquated palate, how much wiser are you than [a child] that builds +little houses? To the folly [of love] add bloodshed, and stir the fire +with a sword. I ask you, when Marius lately, after he had stabbed +Hellas, threw himself down a precipice, was he raving mad? Or will you +absolve the man from the imputation of a disturbed mind, and condemn him +for the crime, according to your custom, imposing, on things named that +have an affinity in signification?</p> + +<p>There was a certain freedman, who, an old man, ran about the streets in +a morning fasting, with his hands washed, and prayed thus: "Snatch me +alone from death" (adding some solemn vow), "me alone, for it is an easy +matter for the gods:" this man was sound in both his ears and eyes; but +his master, when he sold him, would except his understanding, unless he +were fond of law-suits. This crowd too Chrysippus places in the fruitful +family of Menenius.</p> + +<p>O Jupiter, who givest and takest away great afflictions, (cries the +mother of a boy, now lying sick abed for five months), if this cold +quartan ague should leave the child, in the morning of that day on which +you enjoy a fast, he shall stand naked in the Tiber. Should chance or +the physician relieve the patient from his imminent danger, the +infatuated mother will destroy [the boy] placed on the cold bank, and +will bring back the fever. With what disorder of the mind is she +stricken? Why, with a superstitious fear of the gods.</p> + +<p>These arms Stertinius, the eighth of the wise men, gave to me, as to a +friend, that for the future I might not be roughly accosted without +avenging myself. Whosoever shall call me madman, shall hear as much from +me [in return]; and shall learn to look back upon the bag that hangs +behind him.</p> + +<p>O Stoic, so may you, after your damage, sell all your merchandise the +better: what folly (for, [it seems,] there are more kinds than one) do +you think I am infatuated with? For to myself I seem sound. What—when +mad Agave carries the amputated head of her unhappy son, does she then +seem mad to herself? I allow myself a fool (let me yield to the truth) +and a madman likewise: only declare this, with what distemper of mind +you think me afflicted. Hear, then: in the first place you build; that +is, though from top to bottom you are but of the two-foot size you +imitate the tall: and you, the same person, laugh at the spirit and +strut of Turbo in armor, too great for his [little] body: how are you +less ridiculous than him? What—is it fitting that, in every thing +Maecenas does, you, who are so very much unlike him and so much his +inferior, should vie with him? The young ones of a frog being in her +absence crushed by the foot of a calf, when one of them had made his +escape, he told his mother what a huge beast had dashed his brethren to +pieces. She began to ask, how big? Whether it were so great? puffing +herself up. Greater by half. What, so big? when she had swelled herself +more and more. If you should burst yourself, says he, you will not be +equal to it. This image bears no great dissimilitude to you. Now add +poems (that is, add oil to the fire), which if ever any man in his +senses made, why so do you. I do not mention your horrid rage. At +length, have done—your way of living beyond your fortune—confine +yourself to your own affairs, Damasippus—those thousand passions for +the fair, the young. Thou greater madman, at last, spare thy inferior.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE IV.</p> + +<p><i>He ridicules the absurdity of one Catius, who placed the summit of +human felicity in the culinary art</i>.</p> + + +<p>Whence, and whither, Catius? I have not time [to converse with you], +being desirous of impressing on my memory some new precepts; such as +excel Pythagoras, and him that was accused by Anytus, and the learned +Plato. I acknowledge my offense, since I have interrupted you at so +unlucky a juncture: but grant me your pardon, good sir, I beseech you. +If any thing should have slipped you now, you will presently recollect +it: whether this talent of yours be of nature, or of art, you are +amazing in both. Nay, but I was anxious, how I might retain all [these +precepts]; as being things of a delicate nature, and in a delicate +style. Tell me the name of this man; and at the same time whether he is +a Roman, or a foreigner? As I have them by heart, I will recite the +precepts: the author shall be concealed.</p> + +<p>Remember to serve up those eggs that are of an oblong make, as being of +sweeter flavor and more nutritive than the round ones: for, being +tough-shelled, they contain a male yelk. Cabbage that grows in dry +lands, is sweeter than that about town: nothing is more insipid than a +garden much watered. If a visitor should come unexpectedly upon you in +the evening, lest the tough old hen prove disagreeable to his palate, +you must learn to drown it in Falernian wine mixed [with water]: this +will make it tender. The mushrooms that grow in meadows, are of the best +kind: all others are dangerously trusted. That man shall spend his +summers healthy who shall finish his dinners with mulberries black [with +ripeness], which he shall have gathered from the tree before the sun +becomes violent. Aufidius used to mix honey with strong Falernian +injudiciously; because it is right to commit nothing to the empty veins, +but what is emollient: you will, with more propriety, wash your stomach +with soft mead. If your belly should be hard bound, the limpet and +coarse cockles will remove obstructions, and leaves of the small sorrel; +but not without Coan white wine. The increasing moons swell the +lubricating shell-fish. But every sea is not productive of the exquisite +sorts. The Lucrine muscle is better than the Baian murex: [The best] +oysters come from the Circaean promontory; cray-fish from Misenum: the +soft Tarentum plumes herself on her broad escalops. Let no one +presumptuously arrogate to himself the science of banqueting, unless the +nice doctrine of tastes has been previously considered by him with exact +system. Nor is it enough to sweep away a parcel of fishes from the +expensive stalls, [while he remains] ignorant for what sort stewed sauce +is more proper, and what being roasted, the sated guest will presently +replace himself on his elbow. Let the boar from Umbria, and that which +has been fed with the acorns of the scarlet oak, bend the round dishes +of him who dislikes all flabby meat: for the Laurentian boar, fattened +with flags and reeds, is bad. The vineyard does not always afford the +most eatable kids. A man of sense will be fond of the shoulders of a +pregnant hare. What is the proper age and nature of fish and fowl, +though inquired after, was never discovered before my palate. There are +some, whose genius invents nothing but new kinds of pastry. To waste +one's care upon one thing, is by no means sufficient; just as if any +person should use all his endeavors for this only, that the wine be not +bad; quite careless what oil he pours upon his fish. If you set out +Massic wine in fair weather, should there be any thing thick in it, it +will be attenuated by the nocturnal air, and the smell unfriendly to the +nerves will go off: but, if filtrated through linen, it will lose its +entire flavor. He, who skillfully mixes the Surrentine wine with +Falernian lees, collects the sediment with a pigeon's egg: because the +yelk sinks to the bottom, rolling down with it all the heterogeneous +parts. You may rouse the jaded toper with roasted shrimps and African +cockles; for lettuce after wine floats upon the soured stomach: by ham +preferably, and by sausages, it craves to be restored to its appetite: +nay, it will prefer every thing which is brought smoking hot from the +nasty eating-houses. It is worth while to be acquainted with the two +kinds of sauce. The simple consists of sweet oil; which it will be +proper to mix with rich wine and pickle, but with no other pickle than +that by which the Byzantine jar has been tainted. When this, mingled +with shredded herbs, has boiled, and sprinkled with Corycian saffron, +has stood, you shall over and above add what the pressed berry of the +Venafran olive yields. The Tiburtian yield to the Picenian apples in +juice, though they excel in look. The Venusian grape is proper for +[preserving in] pots. The Albanian you had better harden in the smoke. I +am found to be the first that served up this grape with apples in neat +little side-plates, to be the first [likewise that served up] wine-lees +and herring-brine, and white pepper finely mixed with black salt. It is +an enormous fault to bestow three thousand sesterces on the fish-market, +and then to cramp the roving fishes in a narrow dish. It causes a great +nausea in the stomach, if even the slave touches the cup with greasy +hands, while he licks up snacks, or if offensive grime has adhered to +the ancient goblet. In trays, in mats, in sawdust, [that are so] cheap, +what great expense can there be? But, if they are neglected, it is a +heinous shame. What, should you sweep Mosaic pavements with a dirty +broom made of palm, and throw Tyrian carpets over the unwashed furniture +of your couch! forgetting, that by how much less care and expense these +things are attended, so much the more justly may [the want of them] be +censured, than of those things which can not be obtained but at the +tables of the rich?</p> + +<p>Learned Catius, entreated by our friendship and the gods, remember to +introduce me to an audience [with this great man], whenever you shall go +to him. For, though by your memory you relate every thing to me, yet as +a relater you can not delight me in so high a degree. Add to this the +countenance and deportment of the man; whom you, happy in having seen, +do not much regard, because it has been your lot: but I have no small +solicitude, that I may approach the distant fountain-heads, and imbibe +the precepts of [such] a blessed life.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE V.</p> + +<p><i>In a humorous dialogue between Ulysses and Tiresias, he exposes those +arts which the fortune hunters make use of, in order to be appointed the +heirs of rich old men</i>.</p> + + +<p>Beside what you have told me, O Tiresias, answer to this petition of +mine: by what arts and expedients may I be able to repair my ruined +fortunes—why do you laugh? Does it already seem little to you, who are +practiced in deceit, to be brought back to Ithaca, and to behold [again] +your family household gods? O you who never speak falsely to anyone, you +see how naked and destitute I return home, according to your prophecy: +nor is either my cellar, or my cattle there, unembezzled by the suitors +[of Penelope]. But birth and virtue, unless [attended] with substance, +is viler than sea weed.</p> + +<p>Since (circumlocutions apart) you are in dread of poverty hear by what +means you may grow wealthy. If a thrush, or any [nice] thing for your +own private [eating], shall be given you; it must wing way to that +place, where shines a great fortune, the possessor being an old man: +delicious apples, and whatever dainties your well-cultivated ground +brings forth for you, let the rich man, as more to be reverenced than +your household god, taste before him: and, though he be perjured, of no +family, stained with his brother's blood, a runaway; if he desire it, do +not refuse to go along with him, his companion on the outer side. What, +shall I walk cheek by jole with a filthy Damas? I did not behave myself +in that manner at Troy, contending always with the best. You must then +be poor. I will command my sturdy soul to bear this evil; I have +formerly endured even greater. Do thou, O prophet, tell me forthwith how +I may amass riches and heaps of money. In troth I have told you, and +tell you again. Use your craft to lie at catch for the last wills of old +men: nor, if one or two cunning chaps escape by biting the bait off the +hook, either lay aside hope, or quit the art, though disappointed in +your aim. If an affair, either of little or great consequence, shall be +contested at any time at the bar; whichever of the parties live wealthy +without heirs, should he be a rogue, who daringly takes the law of a +better man, be thou his advocate: despise the citizen, who is superior +in reputation, and [the justness of] his cause, if at home he has a son +or a fruitful wife. [Address him thus:] "Quintus, for instance, or +Publius (delicate ears delight in the prefixed name), your virtue has +made me your friend. I am acquainted with the precarious quirks of the +law; I can plead causes. Any one shall sooner snatch my eyes from me, +than he shall despise or defraud you of an empty nut. This is my care, +that you lose nothing, that you be not made a jest of." Bid him go home, +and make much of himself. Be his solicitor yourself: persevere, and be +steadfast: whether the glaring dog-star shall cleave the infant statues; +or Furius, destined with his greasy paunch, shall spue white snow over +the wintery Alps. Do not you see (shall someone say, jogging the person +that stands next to him by the elbow) how indefatigable he is, how +serviceable to his friends, how acute? [By this means] more tunnies +shall swim in, and your fish-ponds will increase.</p> + +<p>Further, if any one in affluent circumstances has reared an ailing son, +lest a too open complaisance to a single man should detect you, creep +gradually into the hope [of succeeding him], and that you may be set +down as second heir; and, if any casualty ahould dispatch the boy to +Hades, you may come into the vacancy. This die seldom fails. Whoever +delivers his will to you to read, be mindful to decline it, and push the +parchment from you: [do it] however in such a manner, that you may catch +with an oblique glance, what the first page intimates to be in the +second clause: run over with a quick eye, whether you are sole heir, or +co-heir with many. Sometimes a well-seasoned lawyer, risen from a +Quinquevir, shall delude the gaping raven; and the fortune-hunter Nasica +shall be laughed at by Coranus.</p> + +<p>What, art thou in a [prophetic] raving; or dost thou play upon me +designedly, by uttering obscurities? O son of Laertes, whatever I shall +say will come to pass, or it will not: for the great Apollo gives me the +power to divine. Then, if it is proper, relate what that tale means.</p> + +<p>At that time when the youth dreaded by the Parthians, an offspring +derived from the noble Aeneas, shall be mighty by land and sea; the tall +daughter of Nasica, averse to pay the sum total of his debt, shall wed +the stout Coranus. Then the son-in-law shall proceed thus: he shall +deliver his will to his father-in-law, and entreat him to read it; +Nasica will at length receive it, after it has been several times +refused, and silently peruse it; and will find no other legacy left to +him and his, except leave to lament.</p> + +<p>To these [directions I have already given], I subjoin the [following]: +if haply a cunning woman or a freedman have the management of an old +driveler, join with them as an associate: praise them, that you may be +praised in your absence. This too is of service; but to storm [the +capital] itself excels this method by far. Shall he, a dotard, scribble +wretched verses? Applaud them. Shall he be given to pleasure? Take care +[you do not suffer him] to ask you: of your own accord complaisantly +deliver up your Penelope to him, as preferable [to yourself]. What—do +you think so sober and so chaste a woman can be brought over, whom [so +many] wooers could not divert from the right course. Because, forsooth, +a parcel of young fellows came, who were too parsimonious to give a +great price, nor so much desirous of an amorous intercourse, as of the +kitchen. So far your Penelope is a good woman: who, had she once tasted +of one old [doting gallant], and shared with you the profit, like a +hound, will never be frighted away from the reeking skin [of the new +killed game].</p> + +<p>What I am going to tell you happened when I was an old man. A wicked hag +at Thebes was, according to her will, carried forth in this manner: her +heir bore her corpse, anointed with a large quantity of oil, upon his +naked shoulders; with the intent that, if possible, she might escape +from him even when dead: because, I imagine, he had pressed upon her too +much when living. Be cautious in your addresses: neither be wanting in +your pains, nor immoderately exuberant. By garrulity you will offend the +splenetic and morose. You must not, however, be too silent. Be Davus in +the play; and stand with your head on one side, much like one who is in +great awe. Attack him with complaisance: if the air freshens, advise him +carefully to cover up his precious head: disengage him from the crowd by +opposing your shoulders to it: closely attach your ear to him if chatty. +Is he immoderately fond of being praised? Pay him home, till he shall +cry out, with his hands lifted up to heaven, "Enough:" and puff up the +swelling bladder with tumid speeches. When he shall have [at last] +released you from your long servitude and anxiety; and being certainly +awake, you shall hear [this article in his will]? "Let Ulysses be heir +to one fourth of my estate:" "is then my companion Damas now no more? +where shall I find one so brave and so faithful?" Throw out [something +of this kind] every now and then: and if you can a little, weep for him. +It is fit to disguise your countenance, which [otherwise] would betray +your joy. As for the monument, which is left to your own discretion, +erect it without meanness. The neighborhood will commend the funeral +handsomely performed. If haply any of your co-heirs, being advanced in +years, should have a dangerous cough; whether he has a mind to be a +purchaser of a farm or a house out of your share, tell him, you will +[come to any terms he shall propose, and] make it over to him gladly for +a trifling sum. But the Imperious Proserpine drags me hence. Live, and +prosper.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE VI.</p> + +<p><i>He sets the conveniences of a country retirement in opposition to the +troubles of a life in town</i>.</p> + + +<p>This was [ever] among the number of my wishes: a portion of ground not +over large, in which was a garden, and a fountain with a continual +stream close to my house, and a little Woodland besides. The gods have +done more abundantly, and better, for me [than this]. It is well: O son +of Maia, I ask nothing more save that you would render these donations +lasting to me. If I have neither made my estate larger by bad means, nor +am in a way to make it less by vice or misconduct; if I do not foolishly +make any petition of this sort—"Oh that that neighboring angle, which +now spoils the; regularity of my field, could be added! Oh that some +accident would discover to me an urn [full] of money! as it did to him, +who having found a treasure, bought that very ground he before tilled in +the capacity of an hired servant, enriched by Hercules' being his +friend;" if what I have at present satisfies me grateful, I supplicate +you with this prayer: make my cattle fat for the use of their master, +and every thing else, except my genius: and, as you are wont, be present +as my chief guardian. Wherefore, when I have removed myself from the +city to the mountains and my castle, (what can I polish, preferably to +my satires and prosaic muse?) neither evil ambition destroys me, nor the +heavy south wind, nor the sickly autumn, the gain of baleful Libitina.</p> + +<p>Father of the morning, or Janus, if with more pleasure thou hearest +thyself [called by that name], from whom men commence the toils of +business, and of life (such is the will of the gods), be thou the +beginning of my song. At Rome you hurry me away to be bail; "Away, +dispatch, [you cry,] lest any one should be beforehand with you in doing +that friendly office:" I must go, at all events, whether the north wind +sweep the earth, or winter contracts the snowy day into a narrower +circle. After this, having uttered in a clear and determinate manner +[the legal form], which may be a detriment to me, I must bustle through +the crowd; and must disoblige the tardy. "What is your will, madman, and +what are you about, impudent fellow?" So one accosts me with his +passionate curses. "You jostle every thing that is in your way, if with +an appointment full in your mind you are away to Maecenas." This pleases +me, and is like honey: I will not tell a lie. But by the time I reached +the gloomy Esquiliae, a hundred affairs of other people's encompass me +on every side: "Roscius begged that you would be with him at the +court-house to-morrow before the second hour." "The secretaries +requested you would remember, Quintus, to return to-day about an affair +of public concern, and of great consequence." "Get Maecenas to put his +signet to these tablets." Should one say, "I will endeavor at it:" "If +you will, you can," adds he; and is more earnest. The seventh year +approaching to the eighth is now elapsed, from the time that Maecenas +began to reckon me in the number of his friends; only thus far, as one +he would like to take along with him in his chariot, when he went a +journey, and to whom he would trust such kind of trifles as these: "What +is the hour?" "Is Gallina, the Thracian, a match for [the gladiator] +Syrus?" "The cold morning air begins to pinch those that are ill +provided against it;"—and such things-as are well enough intrusted to a +leaky ear. For all this time, every day and hour, I have been more +subjected to envy. "Our son of fortune here, says every body, witnessed +the shows in company with [Maecenas], and played with him in the Campus +Martius." Does any disheartening report spread from the rostrum through +the streets, whoever comes in my way consults me [concerning it]: "Good +sir, have you (for you must know, since you approach nearer the gods) +heard any thing relating to the Dacians?" "Nothing at all for my part," +[I reply]. "How you ever are a sneerer!" "But may all the gods torture +me, if I know any thing of the matter." "What? will Caesar give the +lands he promised the soldiers, in Sicily, or in Italy?" As I am +swearing I know nothing about it, they wonder at me, [thinking] me, to +be sure, a creature of profound and extraordinary secrecy.</p> + +<p>Among things of this nature the day is wasted by me, mortified as I am, +not without such wishes as these: O rural retirement, when shall I +behold thee? and when shall it be in my power to pass through the +pleasing oblivion of a life full of solicitude, one while with the books +of the ancients, another while in sleep and leisure? O when shall the +bean related to Pythagoras, and at the same time herbs well larded with +fat bacon, be set before me? O evenings, and suppers fit for gods! with +which I and my friends regale ourselves in the presence of my household +gods; and feed my saucy slaves with viands, of which libations have been +made. The guest, according to every one's inclination, takes off the +glasses of different sizes, free from mad laws: whether one of a strong +constitution chooses hearty bumpers; or another more joyously gets +mellow with moderate ones. Then conversation arises, not concerning +other people's villas and houses, nor whether Lepos dances well or not; +but we debate on what is more to our purpose, and what it is pernicious +not to know—whether men are made happier by riches or by virtue; or +what leads us into intimacies, interest or moral rectitude; and what is +the nature of good, and what its perfection. Meanwhile, my neighbor +Cervius prates away old stories relative to the subject. For, if any one +ignorantly commends the troublesome riches of Aurelius, he thus begins: +"On a time a country-mouse is reported to have received a city-mouse +into his poor cave, an old host, his old acquaintance; a blunt fellow +and attentive to his acquisitions, yet so as he could [on occasion] +enlarge his narrow soul in acts of hospitality. What need of many words? +He neither grudged him the hoarded vetches, nor the long oats; and +bringing in his mouth a dry plum, and nibbled scraps of bacon, presented +them to him, being desirous by the variety of the supper to get the +better of the daintiness of his guest, who hardly touched with his +delicate tooth the several things: while the father of the family +himself, extended on fresh straw, ate a spelt and darnel" leaving that +which was better [for his guest]. At length the citizen addressing him, +'Friend,' says he, 'what delight have you to live laboriously on the +ridge of a rugged thicket? Will you not prefer men and the city to the +savage woods? Take my advice, and go along with me: since mortal lives +are allotted to all terrestrial animals, nor is there any escape from +death, either for the great or the small. Wherefore, my good friend, +while it is in your power, live happy in joyous circumstances: live +mindful of how brief an existence you are.' Soon as these speeches had +wrought upon the peasant, he leaps nimbly from his cave: thence they +both pursue their intended journey, being desirous to steal under the +city walls by night. And now the night possessed the middle region of +the heavens, when each of them set foot in a gorgeous palace, where +carpets dyed with crimson grain glittered upon ivory couches, and many +baskets of a magnificent entertainment remained, which had yesterday +been set by in baskets piled upon one another. After he had placed the +peasant then, stretched at ease upon a splendid carpet; he bustles about +like an adroit host, and keeps bringing up one dish close upon another, +and with an affected civility performs all the ceremonies, first tasting +of every thing he serves up. He, reclined, rejoices in the change of his +situation, and acts the part of a boon companion in the good cheer: when +on a sudden a prodigious rattling of the folding doors shook them both +from their couches. Terrified they began to scamper all about the room, +and more and more heartless to be in confusion, while the lofty house +resounded with [the barking of] mastiff dogs; upon which, says the +country-mouse, 'I have no desire for a life like this; and so farewell: +my wood and cave, secure from surprises, shall with homely tares comfort +me.'"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE VII.</p> + +<p><i>One of Horace's slaves, making use of that freedom which was allowed +them at the Saturnalia, rates his master in a droll and severe manner</i>.</p> + + +<p>I have a long while been attending [to you], and would fain speak a few +words [in return; but, being] a slave, I am afraid. What, Davus? Yes, +Davus, a faithful servant to his master and an honest one, at least +sufficiently so: that is, for you to think his life in no danger. Well +(since our ancestors would have it so), use the freedom of December +speak on.</p> + +<p>One part of mankind are fond of their vices with some constancy and +adhere to their purpose: a considerable part fluctuates; one while +embracing the right, another while liable to depravity. Priscus, +frequently observed with three rings, sometimes with his left hand bare, +lived so irregularly that he would change his robe every hour; from a +magnificent edifice, he would on a sudden hide himself in a place, +whence a decent freedman could scarcely come out in a decent manner; one +while he would choose to lead the life of a rake at Rome, another while +that of a teacher at Athens; born under the evil influence of every +Vertumnus. That buffoon, Volanerius, when the deserved gout had crippled +his fingers, maintained [a fellow] that he had hired at a daily price, +who took up the dice and put them into a box for him: yet by how much +more constant was he in his vice, by so much less wretched was he than +the former person, who is now in difficulties by too loose, now by too +tight a rein.</p> + +<p>"Will you not tell to-day, you varlet, whither such wretched stuff as +this tends?" "Why, to you, I say." "In what respect to me, scoundrel?" +"You praise the happiness and manners of the ancient [Roman] people; and +yet, if any god were on a sudden to reduce you to to them, you, the same +man, would earnestly beg to be excused; either because you are not +really of opinion that what you bawl about is right; or because you are +irresolute in defending the right, and hesitate, in vain desirous to +extract your foot from the mire. At Rome, you long for the country; when +you are in the country, fickle, you extol the absent city to the skies. +If haply you are invited out nowhere to supper, you praise your quiet +dish of vegetables; and as if you ever go abroad upon compulsion, you +think yourself so happy, and do so hug yourself, that you are obliged to +drink out nowhere. Should Maecenas lay his commands on you to come late, +at the first lighting up of the lamps, as his guest; 'Will nobody bring +the oil with more expedition? Does any body hear?' You stutter with a +mighty bellowing, and storm with rage. Milvius, and the buffoons [who +expected to sup with you], depart, after having uttered curses not +proper to be repeated. Any one may say, for I own [the truth], that I am +easy to be seduced by my appetite; I snuff up my nose at a savory smell: +I am weak, lazy; and, if you have a mind to add any thing else, I am a +sot. But seeing you are as I am, and perhaps something worse, why do you +willfully call me to an account as if you were the better man; and, with +specious phrases, disguise your own vice? What, if you are found out to +be a greater fool than me, who was purchased for five hundred drachmas? +Forbear to terrify me with your looks; restrain your hand and your +anger, while I relate to you what Crispinus' porter taught me.</p> + +<p>"Another man's wife captivates you; a harlot, Davus: which of us sins +more deservingly of the cross? When keen nature inflames me, any common +wench that picks me up, dismisses me neither dishonored, nor caring +whether a richer or a handsomer man enjoys her next. You, when you have +cast off your ensigns of dignity, your equestrian ring and your Roman +habit, turn out from a magistrate a wretched Dama, hiding with a cape +your perfumed head: are you not really what you personate? You are +introduced, apprehensive [of consequences]; and, as you are altercating +With your passions, your bones shake with fear. What is the difference +whether you go condemned [like a gladiator], to be galled with scourges, +or slain with the sword; or be closed up in a filthy chest, where [the +maid], concious of her mistress' crime, has stowed you? Has not the +husband of the offending dame a just power over both; against the +seducer even a juster? But she neither changes her dress, nor place, nor +sins to that excess [which you do]; since the woman is in dread of you, +nor gives any credit to you, though you profess to love her. You must go +under the yoke knowingly, and put all your fortune, your life, and +reputation, together with your limbs, into the power of an enraged +husband. Have you escaped? I suppose, then, you will be afraid [for the +future]; and, being warned, will be cautious. No, you will seek occasion +when you may be again in terror, and again may be likely to perish. O so +often a slave! What beast, when it has once escaped by breaking its +toils, absurdly trusts itself to them again? You say, "I am no +adulterer." Nor, by Hercules, am I a thief, when I wisely pass by the +silver vases. Take away the danger, and vagrant nature will spring +forth, when restraints are removed. Are you my superior, subjected as +you are, to the dominion of so many things and persons, whom the +praetor's rod, though placed on your head three or four times over, can +never free from this wretched solicitude? Add, to what has been said +above, a thing of no less weight; whether he be an underling, who obeys +the master-slave (as it is your custom to affirm), or only a +fellow-slave, what am I in respect of you? You, for example, who have +the command of me, are in subjection to other things, and are led about, +like a puppet movable by means of wires not its own.</p> + +<p>"Who then is free? The wise man, who has dominion over himself; whom +neither poverty, nor death, nor chains affright; brave in the checking +of his appetites, and in contemning honors; and, perfect in himself, +polished and round as a globe, so that nothing from without can retard, +in consequence of its smoothness; against whom misfortune ever advances +ineffectually. Can you, out of these, recognize any thing applicable to +yourself? A woman demands five talents of you, plagues you, and after +you are turned out of doors, bedews you with cold water: she calls you +again. Rescue your neck from this vile yoke; come, say, I am free, I am +free. You are not able: for an implacable master oppresses your mind, +and claps the sharp spurs to your jaded appetite, and forces you on +though reluctant. When you, mad one, quite languish at a picture by +Pausias; how are you less to blame than I, when I admire the combats of +Fulvius and Rutuba and Placideianus, with their bended knees, painted in +crayons or charcoal, as if the men were actually engaged, and push and +parry, moving their weapons? Davus is a scoundrel and a loiterer; but +you have the character of an exquisite and expert connoisseur in +antiquities. If I am allured by a smoking pasty, I am a good-for-nothing +fellow: does your great virtue and soul resist delicate entertainments? +Why is a tenderness for my belly too destructive for me? For my back +pays for it. How do you come off with more impunity, since you hanker +after such dainties as can not be had for a little expense? Then those +delicacies, perpetually taken, pall upon the stomach; and your mistaken +feet refuse to support your sickly body. Is that boy guilty, who by +night pawns a stolen scraper for some grapes? Has he nothing servile +about him, who in indulgence to his guts sells his estates? Add to this, +that you yourself can not be an hour by yourself, nor dispose of your +leisure in a right manner; and shun yourself as a fugitive and vagabond, +one while endeavoring with wine, another while with sleep, to cheat +care—in vain: for the gloomy companion presses upon you, and pursues +you in your flight.</p> + +<p>"Where can I get a stone?" "What occasion is there for it?" "Where some +darts?" "The man is either mad, or making verses." "If you do not take +yourself away in an instant, you shall go [and make] a ninth laborer at +my Sabine estate."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>SATIRE VIII.</p> + +<p><i>A smart description of a miser ridiculously acting the extravagant.</i></p> + + +<p>How did the entertainment of that happy fellow Nasidienus please you? +for yesterday, as I was seeking to make you my guest, you were said to +be drinking there from mid-day. [It pleased me so], that I never was +happier in my life. Say (if it be not troublesome) what food first +calmed your raging appetite.</p> + +<p>In the first place, there was a Lucanian boar, taken when the gentle +south wind blew, as the father of the entertainment affirmed; around it +sharp rapes, lettuces, radishes; such things as provoke a languid +appetite; skirrets, anchovies, dregs of Coan wine. These once removed, +one slave, tucked high with a purple cloth, wiped the maple table, and a +second gathered up whatever lay useless, and whatever could offend the +guests; swarthy Hydaspes advances like an Attic maid with Ceres' sacred +rites, bearing wines of Caecubum; Alcon brings those of Chios, undamaged +by the sea. Here the master [cries], "Maecenas, if Alban or Falernian +wine delight you more than those already brought, we have both."</p> + +<p>Ill-fated riches! But, Fundanius, I am impatient to know, who were +sharers in this feast where you fared so well.</p> + +<p>I was highest, and next me was Viscus Thurinus, and below, if I +remember, was Varius; with Servilius Balatro, Vibidius, whom Maecenas +had brought along with him, unbidden guests. Above [Nasidienus] himself +was Nomentanus, below him Porcius, ridiculous for swallowing whole cakes +at once. Nomentanus [was present] for this purpose, that if any thing +should chance to be unobserved, he might show it with his pointing +finger. For the other company, we, I mean, eat [promiscuously] of fowls, +oysters, fish, which had concealed in them a juice far different from +the known: as presently appeared, when he reached to me the entrails of +a plaice and of a turbot, such as had never been tasted before. After +this he informed me that honey-apples were most ruddy when gathered +under the waning moon. What difference this makes you will hear best +from himself. Then [says] Vibidius to Balatro; "If we do not drink to +his cost, we shall die in his debt;" and he calls for larger tumblers. A +paleness changed the countenance of our host, who fears nothing so much +as hard drinkers: either because they are more freely censorious; or +because heating wines deafen the subtle [judgment of the] palate. +Vibidius and Balatro, all following their example, pour whole casks into +Alliphanians; the guests of the lowest couch did no hurt to the flagons. +A lamprey is brought in, extended in a dish, in the midst of floating +shrimps. Whereupon, "This," says the master, "was caught when pregnant; +which, after having young, would have been less delicate in its flesh." +For these a sauce is mixed up; with oil which the best cellar of +Venafrum pressed, with pickle from the juices of the Iberian fish, with +wine of five years old, but produced on this side the sea, while it is +boiling (after it is boiled, the Chian wine suits it so well, that no +other does better than it) with white pepper, and vinegar which, by +being vitiated, turned sour the Methymnean grape. I first showed the way +to stew in it the green rockets and bitter elecampane: Curtillus, [to +stew in it] the sea-urchins unwashed, as being better than the pickle +which the sea shell-fish yields.</p> + +<p>In the mean time the suspended tapestry made a heavy downfall upon the +dish, bringing along with it more black dust than the north wind ever +raises on the plains of Campania. Having been fearful of something +worse, as soon as we perceive there was no danger, we rise up. Rufus, +hanging his head, began to weep, as if his son had come to an untimely +death: what would have been the end, had not the discreet Nomentanus +thus raised his friend! "Alas! O fortune, what god is more cruel to us +than thou? How dost thou always take pleasure in sporting with human +affairs!" Varius could scarcely smother a laugh with his napkin. +Balatro, sneering at every thing, observed: "This is the condition of +human life, and therefore a suitable glory will never answer your labor. +Must you be rent and tortured with all manner of anxiety, that I may be +entertained sumptuously; lest burned bread, lest ill-seasoned soup +should be set before us; that all your slaves should wait, properly +attired and neat? Add, besides, these accidents; if the hangings should +tumble down, as just now, if the groom slipping with his foot should +break a dish. But adversity is wont to disclose, prosperity to conceal, +the abilities of a host as well as of a general." To this Nasidienus: +"May the gods give you all the blessings, whatever you can pray for, you +are so good a man and so civil a guest;" and calls for his sandals. Then +on every couch you might see divided whispers buzzing in each secret +ear.</p> + +<p>I would not choose to have seen any theatrical entertainments sooner +than these things. But come, recount what you laughed at next. While +Vibidius is inquiring of the slaves, whether the flagon was also broken, +because cups were not brought when he called for them; and while a laugh +is continued on feigned pretences, Balatro seconding it; you Nasidienus, +return with an altered countenance, as if to repair your ill-fortune by +art. Then followed the slaves, bearing on a large charger the several +limbs of a crane besprinkled with much salt, not without flour, and the +liver of a white goose fed with fattening figs, and the wings of hares +torn off, as a much daintier dish than if one eats them with the loins. +Then we saw blackbirds also set before us with scorched breasts, and +ring-doves without the rumps: delicious morsels! did not the master give +us the history of their causes and natures: whom we in revenge fled +from, so as to taste nothing at all; as if Canidia, more venomous than +African serpents, had poisoned them with her breath.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_EPISTLES_OF_HORACE" id="THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_EPISTLES_OF_HORACE" />THE FIRST BOOK OF THE EPISTLES OF HORACE.</h2> + + + +<p>EPISTLE I.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + +<p><i>The poet renounces all verses of a ludicrous turn, and resolves to +apply himself wholly to the study of philosophy, which teaches to bridle +the desires, and to postpone every thing to virtue.</i></p> + + +<p>Maecenas, the subject of my earliest song, justly entitled to my latest, +dost thou seek to engage me again in the old lists, having been tried +sufficiently, and now presented with the foils? My age is not the same, +nor is my genius. Veianius, his arms consecrated on a pillar of +Hercules' temple, lives snugly retired in the country, that he may not +from the extremity of the sandy amphitheater so often supplicate the +people's favor. Some one seems frequently to ring in my purified ear: +"Wisely in time dismiss the aged courser, lest, an object of derision, +he miscarry at last, and break his wind." Now therefore I lay aside both +verses, and all other sportive matters; my study and inquiry is after +what is true and fitting, and I am wholly engaged in this: I lay up, and +collect rules which I may be able hereafter to bring into use. And lest +you should perchance ask under what leader, in what house [of +philosophy], I enter myself a pupil: addicted to swear implicitly to the +ipse-dixits of no particular master, wherever the weather drives me, I +am carried a guest. One while I become active, and am plunged in the +waves of state affairs, a maintainer and a rigid partisan of strict +virtue; then again I relapse insensibly into Aristippus' maxims, and +endeavor to adapt circumstances to myself, not myself to circumstances. +As the night seems long to those with whom a mistress has broken her +appointment, and the day slow to those who owe their labor; as the year +moves lazy with minors, whom the harsh guardianship of their mothers +confines; so all that time to me flows tedious and distasteful, which +delays my hope and design of strenuously executing that which is of +equal benefit to the poor and to the rich, which neglected will be of +equal detriment to young and to old. It remains, that I conduct and +comfort myself by these principles; your sight is not so piercing as +that of Lynceus; you will not however therefore despise being anointed, +if you are sore-eyed: nor because you despair of the muscles of the +invincible Glycon, will you be careless of preserving your body from the +knotty gout. There is some point to which we may reach, if we can go no +further. Does your heart burn with avarice, and a wretched desire of +more? Spells there are, and incantations, with which you may mitigate +this pain, and rid yourself of a great part of the distemper. Do you +swell with the love of praise? There are certain purgations which can +restore you, a certain treatise, being perused thrice with purity of +mind. The envious, the choleric, the indolent, the slave to wine, to +women—none is so savage that he can not be tamed, if he will only lend +a patient ear to discipline.</p> + +<p>It is virtue, to fly vice; and the highest wisdom, to have lived free +from folly. You see with what toil of mind and body you avoid those +things which you believe to be the greatest evils, a small fortune and a +shameful repulse. An active merchant, you run to the remotest Indies, +fleeing poverty through sea, through rocks, through flames. And will you +not learn, and hear, and be advised by one who is wiser, that you may no +longer regard those things which you foolishly admire and wish for? What +little champion of the villages and of the streets would scorn being +crowned at the great Olympic games, who had the hopes and happy +opportunity of victory without toil? Silver is less valuable than gold, +gold than virtue. "O citizens, citizens, money is to be sought first; +virtue after riches:" this the highest Janus from the lowest inculcates; +young men and old repeat these maxims, having their bags and +account-books hung on the left arm. You have soul, have breeding, have +eloquence and honor: yet if six or seven thousand sesterces be wanting +to complete your four hundred thousand, you shall be a plebeian. But +boys at play cry, "You shall be king, if you will do right." Let this be +a [man's] brazen wall, to be conscious of no ill, to turn pale with no +guilt. Tell me, pray is the Roscian law best, or the boy's song which +offers the kingdom to them that do right, sung by the manly Curii and +Camilli? Does he advise you best, who says, "Make a fortune; a fortune, +if you can, honestly; if not, a fortune by any means"—that you may view +from a nearer bench the tear-moving poems of Puppius; or he, who still +animates and enables you to stand free and upright, a match for haughty +fortune?</p> + +<p>If now perchance the Roman people should ask me, why I do not enjoy the +same sentiments with them, as [I do the same] porticoes, nor pursue or +fly from whatever they admire or dislike; I will reply, as the cautious +fox once answered the sick lion: "Because the foot-marks all looking +toward you, and none from you, affright me." Thou art a monster with +many heads. For what shall I follow, or whom? One set of men delight to +farm the public revenues: there are some, who would inveigle covetous +widows with sweet-meats and fruits, and insnare old men, whom they would +send [like fish] into their ponds: the fortunes of many grow by +concealed usury. But be it, that different men are engaged in different +employments and pursuits: can the same persons continue an hour together +approving the same things? If the man of wealth has said, "No bay in the +world outshines delightful Baiae," the lake and the sea presently feel +the eagerness of their impetuous master: to whom, if a vicious humor +gives the omen, [he will cry,]—"to-morrow, workmen, ye shall convey +hence your tools to Teanum." Has he in his hall the genial bed? He says +nothing is preferable to, nothing better than a single life. If he has +not, he swears the married only are happy. With what noose can I hold +this Proteus, varying thus his forms? What does the poor man? Laugh [at +him too]: is he not forever changing his garrets, beds, baths, barbers? +He is as much surfeited in a hired boat, as the rich man is, whom his +own galley conveys.</p> + +<p>If I meet you with my hair cut by an uneven barber, you laugh [at me]: +if I chance to have a ragged shirt under a handsome coat, or if my +disproportioned gown fits me ill, you laugh. What [do you do], when my +judgment contradicts itself? it despises what it before desired; seeks +for that which lately it neglected; is all in a ferment, and is +inconsistent in the whole tenor of life; pulls down, builds up, changes +square to round. In this case, you think I am mad in the common way, and +you do not laugh, nor believe that I stand in need of a physician, or +of a guardian assigned by the praetor; though you are the patron of my +affairs, and are disgusted at the ill-pared nail of a friend that +depends upon you, that reveres you.</p> + +<p>In a word, the wise man is inferior to Jupiter alone, is rich, free, +honorable, handsome, lastly, king of kings; above all, he is sound, +unless when phlegm is troublesome.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE II.</p> + +<p>TO LOLLIUS.</p> + +<p><i>He prefers Homer to all the philosophers, as a moral writer, and +advises an early cultivation of virtue</i>.</p> + + +<p>While you, great Lollius, declaim at Rome, I at Praeneste have perused +over again the writer of the Trojan war; who teaches more clearly, and +better than Chrysippus and Crantor, what is honorable, what shameful, +what profitable, what not so. If nothing hinders you, hear why I have +thus concluded. The story is which, on account of Paris's intrigue, +Greece is stated to be wasted in a tedious war with the barbarians, +contains the tumults of foolish princes and people. Antenor gives his +opinion for cutting off the cause of the war. What does Paris? He can +not be brought to comply, [though it be in order] that he may reign +safe, and live happy. Nestor labors to compose the differences between +Achilles and Agamemnon: love inflames one; rage both in common. The +Greeks suffer for what their princes act foolishly. Within the walls of +Ilium, and without, enormities are committed by sedition, treachery, +injustice, and lust, and rage.</p> + +<p>Again, to show what virtue and what wisdom can do, he has propounded +Ulysses an instructive pattern: who, having subdued Troy, wisely got an +insight into the constitutions and customs of many nations; and, while +for himself and his associates he is contriving a return, endured many +hardships on the spacious sea, not to be sunk by all the waves of +adversity. You are well acquainted with the songs of the Sirens, and +Circe's cups: of which, if he had foolishly and greedily drunk along +with his attendants, he had been an ignominious and senseless slave +under the command of a prostitute: he had lived a filthy dog, or a hog +delighting in mire.</p> + +<p>We are a mere number and born to consume the fruits of the earth; like +Penelope's suitors, useless drones; like Alcinous' youth, employed above +measure in pampering their bodies; whose glory was to sleep till +mid-day, and to lull their cares to rest by the sound of the harp. +Robbers rise by night, that they may cut men's throats; and will not you +awake to save yourself? But, if you will not when you are in health, you +will be forced to take exercise when you are in a dropsy; and unless +before day you call for a book with a light, unless you brace your mind +with study and honest employments, you will be kept awake and tormented +with envy or with love. For why do you hasten to remove things that hurt +your eyes, but if any thing gnaws your mind, defer the time of curing it +from year to year? He has half the deed done, who has made a beginning. +Boldly undertake the study of true wisdom: begin it forthwith. He who +postpones the hour of living well, like the hind [in the fable], waits +till [all the water in] the river be run off: whereas it flows, and will +flow, ever rolling on.</p> + +<p>Money is sought, and a wife fruitful in bearing children, and wild +woodlands are reclaimed by the plow. [To what end all this?] He, that +has got a competency, let him wish for no more. Not a house and farm, +nor a heap of brass and gold, can remove fevers from the body of their +sick master, or cares from his mind. The possessor must be well, if he +thinks of enjoying the things which he has accumulated. To him that is a +slave to desire or to fear, house and estate do just as much good as +paintings to a sore-eyed person, fomentations to the gout, music to ears +afflicted with collected matter. Unless the vessel be sweet, whatever +you pour into it turns sour. Despise pleasures, pleasure bought with +pain is hurtful. The covetous man is ever in want; set a certain limit +to your wishes. The envious person wastes at the thriving condition of +another: Sicilian tyrants never invented a greater torment than envy. He +who will not curb his passion, will wish that undone which his grief and +resentment suggested, while he violently plies his revenge with unsated +rancor. Rage is a short madness. Rule your passion, which commands, if +it do not obey; do you restrain it with a bridle, and with fetters. The +groom forms the docile horse, while his neck is yet tender, to go the +way which his rider directs him: the young hound, from the time that he +barked at the deer's skin in the hall, campaigns it in the woods. Now, +while you are young, with an untainted mind Imbibe instruction: now +apply yourself to the best [masters of morality]. A cask will long +preserve the flavor, with which when new it was once impregnated. But if +you lag behind, or vigorously push on before, I neither wait for the +loiterer, nor strive to overtake those that precede me.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE III.</p> + + +<p>TO JULIUS FLORUS.</p> + +<p><i>After inquiring about Claudius Tiberius Nero, and some of his friends, +he exhorts Florus to the study of philosophy</i>.</p> + + +<p>I long to know, Julius Florus, in what regions of the earth Claudius, +the step-son of Augustus, is waging war. Do Thrace and Hebrus, bound +with icy chains, or the narrow sea running between the neighboring +towers, or Asia's fertile plains and hills detain you? What works is the +studious train planning? In this too I am anxious—who takes upon +himself to write the military achievements of Augustus? Who diffuses +into distant ages his deeds in war and peace? What is Titius about, who +shortly will be celebrated by every Roman tongue; who dreaded not to +drink of the Pindaric spring, daring to disdain common waters and open +streams: how does he do? How mindful is he of me? Does he employ himself +to adapt Theban measures to the Latin lyre, under the direction of his +muse? Or does he storm and swell in the pompous style of traffic art? +What is my Celsus doing? He has been advised, and the advice is still +often to be repeated, to acquire stock of his own, and forbear to touch +whatever writings the Palatine Apollo has received: lest, if it chance +that the flock of birds should some time or other come to demand their +feathers, he, like the daw stripped of his stolen colors, be exposed to +ridicule. What do you yourself undertake? What thyme are you busy +hovering about? Your genius is not small, is not uncultivated nor +inelegantly rough. Whether you edge your tongue for [pleading] causes, +or whether you prepare to give counsel in the civil law, or whether you +compose some lovely poem; you will bear off the first prize of the +victorious ivy. If now you could quit the cold fomentations of care; +whithersoever heavenly wisdom would lead you, you would go. Let us, +both small and great, push forward in this work, in this pursuit: if to +our country, if to ourselves we would live dear.</p> + +<p>You must also write me word of this, whether Munatiua is of as much +concern to you as he ought to be? Or whether the ill-patched +reconciliation in vain closes, and is rent asunder again? But, whether +hot blood, or inexperience in things, exasperates you, wild as coursers +with unsubdued neck, in whatever place you live, too worthy to break the +fraternal bond, a devoted heifer is feeding against your return.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE IV.</p> + +<p>TO ALBIUS TIBULLUS.</p> + +<p><i>He declares his accomplishments; and, after proposing the thought of +death, converts it into an occasion of pleasantry</i>.</p> + + +<p>Albius, thou candid critic of my discourses, what shall I say you are +now doing in the country about Pedum? Writing what may excel the works +of Cassius Parmensis; or sauntering silently among the healthful groves, +concerning yourself about every thing worthy a wise and good man? You +were not a body without a mind. The gods have given you a beautiful +form, the gods [have given] you wealth, and the faculty of enjoying it.</p> + +<p>What greater blessing could a nurse solicit for her beloved child, than +that he might be wise, and able to express his sentiments; and that +respect, reputation, health might happen to him in abundance, and decent +living, with a never-failing purse?</p> + +<p>In the midst of hope and care, in the midst of fears and disquietudes, +think every day that shines upon you is the last. [Thus] the hour, which +shall not be expected, will come upon you an agreeable addition.</p> + +<p>When you have a mind to laugh, you shall see me fat and sleek with good +keeping, a hog of Epicurus' herd.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE V.</p> + +<p>TO TORQUATUS.</p> + +<p><i>He invites him to a frugal entertainment, but a cleanly and cheerful +one</i>.</p> + + +<p>If you can repose yourself as my guest upon Archias' couches, and are +not afraid to make a whole meal on all sorts of herbs from a moderate +dish; I will expect you, Torquatus, at my house about sun set. You shall +drink wine poured into the vessel in the second consulship of Taurus, +produced between the fenny Minturnae and Petrinum of Sinuessa. If you +have any thing better, send for it; or bring your commands. Bright +shines my hearth, and my furniture is clean for you already. Dismiss +airy hopes, and contests about riches, and Moschus' cause. To-morrow, a +festal day on account of Caesar's birth, admits of indulgence and +repose. We shall have free liberty to prolong the summer evening with +friendly conversation. To what purpose have I fortune, if I may not use +it? He that is sparing out of regard to his heir, and too niggardly, is +next neighbor to a madman. I will begin to drink and scatter flowers, +and I will endure even to be accounted foolish. What does not wine +freely drunken enterprise? It discloses secrets; commands our hopes to +be ratified; pushes the dastard on to the fight; removes the pressure +from troubled minds; teaches the arts. Whom have not plentiful cups made +eloquent? Whom have they not [made] free and easy under pinching +poverty?</p> + +<p>I, who am both the proper person and not unwilling, am charged to take +care of these matters; that no dirty covering on the couch, no foul +napkin contract your nose into wrinkles; and that the cup and the dish +may show you to yourself; that there be no one to carry abroad what is +said among faithful friends; that equals may meet and be joined with +equals I will add to you Butra, and Septicius, and Sabinus, unless a +better entertainment and a mistress more agreeable detain him. There is +room also for many introductions: but goaty ramminess is offensive in +over-crowded companies.</p> + +<p>Do you write word, what number you would be; and setting aside business, +through the back-door give the slip to your client who keeps guard in +your court.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE VI.</p> + +<p>TO NUMICIUS.</p> + +<p><i>That a wise man is in love with nothing but virtue</i>.</p> + + +<p>To admire nothing is almost the one and only thing, Numicius, which can +make and keep a man happy. There are who view this sun, and the stars, +and the seasons retiring at certain periods, untainted with any fear. +What do you think of the gifts of the earth? What of the sea, that +enriches the remote Arabians and Indians? What of scenical shows, the +applause and favors of the kind Roman? In what manner do you think they +are to be looked upon, with what apprehensions and countenance? He that +dreads the reverse of these, admires them almost in the same way as he +that desires them; fear alike disturbs both ways: an unforeseen turn of +things equally terrifies each of them: let a man rejoice or grieve, +desire or fear; what matters it—if, whatever he perceives better or +worse than his expectations, with downcast look he be stupefied in mind +and body? Let the wise man bear the name of fool, the just of unjust; if +he pursue virtue itself beyond proper bounds.</p> + +<p>Go now, look with transport upon silver, and antique marble, and brazen +statues, and the arts: admire gems, and Tyrian dyes: rejoice, that a +thousand eyes are fixed upon you while you speak: industrious repair +early to the forum, late to your house, that Mutus may not reap more +grain [than you] from his lands gained in dowry, and (unbecoming, since +he sprung from meaner parents) that he may not be an object of +admiration to you rather than you to him. Whatever is in the earth, time +will bring forth into open day light; will bury and hide things, that +now shine brightest. When Agrippa's portico, and the Appian way, shall +have beheld you well known; still it remains for you to go where Numa +and Ancus are arrived. If your side or your reins are afflicted with an +acute disease, seek a remedy from the disease. Would you live happily? +Who would not? If virtue alone can confer this, discarding pleasures, +strenuously pursue it. Do you think virtue mere words, as a grove is +trees? Be it your care that no other enter the port before you; that you +lose not your traffic with Cibyra, with Bithynia. Let the round sum of a +thousand talents be completed; as many more; further, let a third +thousand succeed, and the part which may square the heap. For why, +sovereign money gives a wife with a [large] portion, and credit, and +friends, and family, and beauty; and [the goddesses], Persuasion and +Venus, graced the well-moneyed man. The king of the Cappadocians, rich +in slaves, is in want of coin; be not you like him. Lucullus, as they +say, being asked if he could lend a hundred cloaks for the stage, "How +can I so many?" said he: "yet I will see, and send as many as I have;" a +little after he writes that he had five thousand cloaks in his house; +they might take part of them, or all. It is a scanty house, where there +are not many things superfluous, and which escape the owner's notice, +and are the gain of pilfering slaves. If then wealth alone can make and +keep a man happy, be first in beginning this work, be last in leaving it +off. If appearances and popularity make a man fortunate, let as purchase +a slave to dictate [to us] the names [of the citizens], to jog us on the +left-side, and to make us stretch our hand over obstacles: "This man has +much interest in the Fabian, that in the Veline tribe; this will give +the fasces to any one, and, indefatigably active, snatch the curule +ivory from whom he pleases; add [the names of] father, brother: +according as the age of each is, so courteously adopt him. If he who +feasts well, lives well; it is day, let us go whither our appetite leads +us: let us fish, let us hunt, as did some time Gargilius: who ordered +his toils, hunting-spears, slaves, early in the morning to pass through +the crowded forum and the people: that one mule among many, in the sight +of the people, might return loaded with a boar purchased with money. Let +us bathe with an indigested and full-swollen stomach, forgetting what is +becoming, what not; deserving to be enrolled among the citizens of +Caere; like the depraved crew of Ulysses of Ithaca, to whom forbidden +pleasure was dearer than their country. If, as Mimnermus thinks, nothing +is pleasant without love and mirth, live in love and mirth.</p> + +<p>Live: be happy. If you know of any thing preferable to these maxims, +candidly communicate it: if not, with me make use of these.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE VII.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + +<p><i>He apologizes to Maecenas for his long absence from Rome; and +acknowledges his favors to him in such a manner as to declare liberty +preferable to all other blessings</i>.</p> + + +<p>Having promised you that I would be in the country but five days, false +to my word, I am absent the whole of August. But, if you would have me +live sound and in perfect health, the indulgence which you grant me, +Maecenas, when I am ill, you will grant me [also] when I am afraid of +being ill: while [the time of] the first figs, and the [autumnal] heat +graces the undertaker with his black attendants; while every father and +mother turn pale with fear for their children; and while over-acted +diligence, and attendance at the forum, bring on fevers and unseal +wills. But, if the winter shall scatter snow upon the Alban fields, your +poet will go down to the seaside, and be careful of himself, and read +bundled up; you, dear friend, he will revisit with the zephyrs, if you +will give him leave, and with the first swallow.</p> + +<p>You have made me rich, not in the manner in which the Calabrian host +bids [his guest] eat of his pears. "Eat, pray, sir." "I have had +enough." "But take away with you what quantity you will." "You are very +kind." "You will carry them no disagreeable presents to your little +children." "I am as much obliged by your offer, as if I were sent away +loaded." "As you please: you leave them to be devoured to-day by the +hogs." The prodigal and fool gives away what he despises and hates; the +reaping of favors like these has produced, and ever will produce, +ungrateful men. A good and wise man professes himself ready to do +kindness to the deserving; and yet is not ignorant, how true coins +differ from lupines. I will also show myself deserving of the honor of +being grateful. But if you would not have me depart any whither, you +must restore my vigorous constitution, the black locks [that grew] on my +narrow forehead: you must restore to me the power of talking pleasantly: +you must restore to me the art of laughing with becoming ease, and +whining over my liquor at the jilting of the wanton Cynara.</p> + +<p>A thin field-mouse had by chance crept through a narrow cranny into a +chest of grain; and, having feasted itself, in vain attempted to come +out again, with its body now stuffed full. To which a weasel at a +distance cries, "If you would escape thence, repair lean to the narrow +hole which you entered lean." If I be addressed with this similitude, I +resign all; neither do I, sated with delicacies, cry up the calm repose +of the vulgar, nor would I change my liberty and ease for the riches of +the Arabians. You have often commended me for being modest; when present +you heard [from me the appellations of] king and father, nor am I a word +more sparing in your absence. Try whether I can cheerfully restore what +you have given me. Not amiss [answered] Telemachus, son of the patient +Ulysses: "The country of Ithaca is not proper for horses, as being +neither extended into champaign fields, nor abounding with much grass: +Atrides, I will leave behind me your gifts, [which are] more proper for +yourself." Small things best suit the small. No longer does imperial +Rome please me, but unfrequented Tibur, and unwarlike Tarentum.</p> + +<p>Philip, active and strong, and famed for pleading causes, while +returning from his employment about the eighth hour, and now of a great +age, complaining that the Carinae were too far distant from the forum; +spied, as they say, a person clean shaven in a barber's empty shed, +composedly paring his own nails with a knife. "Demetrius," [says he,] +(this slave dexterously received his master's orders,) "go inquire, and +bring me word from what house, who he is, of what fortune, who is his +father, or who is his patron." He goes, returns, and relates, that "he +is by name, Vulteius Maena, an auctioneer, of small fortune, of a +character perfectly unexceptionable, that he could upon occasion ply +busily, and take his ease, and get, and spend; delighting in humble +companions and a settled dwelling, and (after business ended) in the +shows, and the Campus Martius."</p> + +<p>"I would inquire of him himself all this, which you report; bid him come +to sup with me." Maena can not believe it; he wonders silently within +himself. Why many words? He answers, "It is kind." "Can he deny me?" +"The rascal denies, and disregards or dreads you." In the morning Philip +comes unawares upon Vulteius, as he is selling brokery-goods to the +tunic'd populace, and salutes him first. He pleads to Philip his +employment, and the confinement of his business, in excuse for not +having waited upon him in the morning; and afterward, for not seeing him +first. "Expect that I will excuse you on this condition, that you sup +with me to-day." "As you please." "Then you will come after the ninth +hour: now go: strenuously increase your stock." When they were come to +supper, having discoursed of things of a public and private nature, at +length he is dismissed to go to sleep. When he had often been seen, to +repair like a fish to the concealed hook, in the morning a client, and +now as a constant guest; he is desired to accompany [Philip] to his +country-seat near the city, at the proclaiming of the Latin festivals. +Mounted on horseback, he ceases not to cry up the Sabine fields and air. +Philip sees it, and smiles: and, while he is seeking amusement and +diversion for himself out of every thing, while he makes him a present +of seven thousand sesterces, and promises to lend him seven thousand +more: he persuades him to purchase a farm: he purchases one. That I may +not detain you with a long story beyond what is necessary, from a smart +cit he becomes a downright rustic, and prates of nothing but furrows and +vineyards; prepares his elms; is ready to die with eager diligence, and +grows old through a passionate desire of possessing. But when his sheep +were lost by theft, his goats by distemper, his harvest deceived his +hopes, his ox was killed with plowing; fretted with these losses, at +midnight he snatches his nag, and in a passion makes his way to Philip's +house. Whom as soon as Philip beheld, rough and unshaven, "Vulteius," +said he, "you seem to me to be too laborious and earnest." "In truth, +patron," replied he, "you would call me a wretch, if you would apply to +me my true name. I beseech and conjure you then, by your genius and your +right hand and your household gods, restore me to my former life." As +soon as a man perceives, how much the things he has discarded excel +those which he pursues, let him return in time, and resume those which +he relinquished.</p> + +<p>It is a truth, that every one ought to measure himself by his own proper +foot and standard.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE VIII.</p> + +<p>TO CELSUS ALBINOVANUS.</p> + +<p><i>That he was neither well in body, nor in mind; that Celtics should bear +his prosperity with moderation</i>.</p> + + +<p>My muse at my request, give joy and wish success to Celsus Albinovanus, +the attendant and the secretary of Nero. If he shall inquire, what I am +doing, say that I, though promising many and fine things, yet live +neither well [according to the rules of strict philosophy], nor +agreeably; not because the hail has crushed my vines, and the heat has +nipped my olives; nor because my herds are distempered in distant +pastures; but because, less sound in my mind than in my whole body, I +will hear nothing, learn nothing which may relieve me, diseased as I am; +that I am displeased with my faithful physicians, am angry with my +friends for being industrious to rouse me from a fatal lethargy; that I +pursue things which have done me hurt, avoid things which I am persuaded +would be of service, inconstant as the wind, at Rome am in love with +Tibur, at Tibur with Rome. After this, inquire how he does; how he +manages his business and himself; how he pleases the young prince and +his attendants. If he shall say, well; first congratulate him, then +remember to whisper this admonition in his ears: As you, Celsus, bear +your fortunes, so will we bear you.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE IX.</p> + +<p>TO CLAUDIUS TIBERIUS NERO.</p> + +<p><i>He recommends Septimius to him</i>.</p> + + +<p>Of all the men in the world Septimius surely, O Claudius, knows how much +regard you have for me. For when he requests, and by his entreaties in a +manner compels me, to undertake to recommend and introduce him to you, +as one worthy of the confidence and the household of Nero, who is wont +to choose deserving objects, thinking I discharge the office of an +intimate friend; he sees and knows better than myself what I can do. I +said a great deal, indeed, in order that I might come off excused: but I +was afraid, lest I should be suspected to pretend my interest was less +than it is, to be a dissembler of my own power, and ready to serve +myself alone. So, avoiding the reproach of a greater fault, I have put +in for the prize of town-bred confidence. If then you approve of modesty +being superseded at the pressing entreaties of a friend, enrol this +person among your retinue, and believe him to be brave and good.</p> + + + +<p>EPISTLE X.</p> + +<p>TO ARISTIUS FUSCUS.</p> + +<p><i>He praises a country before a city life, as more agreeable to nature, +and more friendly to liberty</i>.</p> + + +<p>We, who love the country, salute Fuscus that loves the town; in this +point alone [being] much unlike, but in other things almost twins, of +brotherly sentiments: whatever one denies the other too [denies]; we +assent together: like old and constant doves, you keep the nest; I +praise the rivulets, the rocks overgrown with moss, and the groves of +the delightful country. Do you ask why? I live and reign, as soon as I +have quitted those things which you extol to the skies with joyful +applause. And, like a priest's, fugitive slave I reject luscious wafers, +I desire plain bread, which is more agreeable now than honied cakes.</p> + +<p>If we must live suitably to nature, and a plot of ground is to be first +sought to raise a house upon, do you know any place preferable to the +blissful country? Is there any spot where the winters are more +temperate? where a more agreeable breeze moderates the rage of the +Dog-star, and the season of the Lion, when once that furious sign has +received the scorching sun? Is there a place where envious care less +disturbs our slumbers? Is the grass inferior in smell or beauty to the +Libyan pebbles? Is the water, which strives to burst the lead in the +streets, purer than that which trembles in murmurs down its sloping +channel? Why, trees are nursed along the variegated columns [of the +city]; and that house is commended, which has a prospect of distant +fields. You may drive out nature with a fork, yet still she will return, +and, insensibly victorious, will break through [men's] improper +disgusts.</p> + +<p>Not he who is unable to compare the fleeces that drink up the dye of +Aquinum with the Sidonian purple, will receive a more certain damage +and nearer to his marrow, than he who shall not be able to distinguish +false from true. He who has been overjoyed by prosperity, will be +shocked by a change of circumstances. If you admire any thing [greatly], +you will be unwilling to resign it. Avoid great things; under a mean +roof one may outstrip kings, and the favorites of kings, in one's life.</p> + +<p>The stag, superior in fight, drove the horse from the common pasture, +till the latter, worsted in the long contest, implored the aid of man +and received the bridle; but after he had parted an exulting conqueror +from his enemy, he could not shake the rider from his back, nor the bit +from his mouth. So he who, afraid of poverty, forfeits his liberty, more +valuable than mines, avaricious wretch, shall carry a master, and shall +eternally be a slave, for not knowing how to use a little. When a man's +condition does not suit him, it will be as a shoe at any time; which, if +too big for his foot, will throw him down; if too little, will pinch +him. [If you are] cheerful under your lot, Aristius, you will live +wisely; nor shall you let me go uncorrected, if I appear to scrape +together more than enough and not have done. Accumulated money is the +master or slave of each owner, and ought rather to follow than to lead +the twisted rope.</p> + +<p>These I dictated to thee behind the moldering temple of Vacuna; in all +other things happy, except that thou wast not with me.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XI.</p> + +<p>TO BULLATIUS.</p> + +<p><i>Endeavoring to recall him back to Rome from Asia, whither he had +retreated through his weariness of the civil wars, he advises him to +ease the disquietude of his mind not by the length of his journey, but +by forming his mind into a right disposition</i>.</p> + + +<p>What, Bullatius, do you think of Chios, and of celebrated Lesbos? What +of neat Samos? What of Sardis, the royal residence of Croesus? What of +Smyrna, and Colophon? Are they greater or less than their fame? Are they +all contemptible in comparison of the Campus Martius and the river +Tiber? Does one of Attalus' cities enter into your wish? Or do you +admire Lebedus, through a surfeit of the sea and of traveling? You know +what Lebedus is; it is a more unfrequented town than Gabii and Fidenae; +yet there would I be willing to live; and, forgetful of my friends and +forgotten by them, view from land Neptune raging at a distance. But +neither he who comes to Rome from Capua, bespattered with rain and mire, +would wish to live in an inn; nor does he, who has contracted a cold, +cry up stoves and bagnios as completely furnishing a happy life: nor, if +the violent south wind has tossed you in the deep, will you therefore +sell your ship on the other side of the Aegean Sea. On a man sound in +mind Rhodes and beautiful Mitylene have such an effect, as a thick cloak +at the summer solstice, thin drawers in snowy weather, [bathing in] the +Tiber in winter, a fire in the month of August. While it is permitted, +and fortune preserves a benign aspect, let absent Samos, and Chios, and +Rhodes, be commended by you here at Rome. Whatever prosperous; hour +Providence bestows upon you, receive it with a thankful hand: and defer +not [the enjoyment of] the comforts of life, till a year be at an end; +that in whatever place you are, you may say you have lived with +satisfaction. For if reason and discretion, not a place that commands a +prospect of the wide-extended sea, remove our cares; they change their +climate, not their disposition, who run beyond the sea: a busy idleness +harrasses us: by ships and by chariots we seek to live happily. What you +seek is here [at home], is at Ulubrae, if a just temper of mind is not +wanting to you.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XII.</p> + +<p>TO ICCIUS.</p> + +<p><i>Leader the appearance of praising the man's parsimony, he archly +ridicules it; introduces Grosphus to him, and concludes with a few +articles of news concerning the Roman affairs</i>.</p> + + +<p>O Iccius, if you rightly enjoy the Sicilian products, which you collect +for Agrippa, it is not possible that greater affluence can be given you +by Jove. Away with complaints! for that man is by no means poor, who has +the use or everything, he wants. If it is well with your belly, your +back, and your feet, regal wealth can add nothing greater. If perchance +abstemious amid profusion you live upon salad and shell-fish, you will +continue to live in such a manner, even if presently fortune shall flow +upon you in a river of gold; either because money can not change the +natural disposition, or because it is your opinion that all things are +inferior to virtue alone. Can we wonder that cattle feed upon the +meadows and corn-fields of Democritus, while his active soul is abroad +[traveling] without his body? When you, amid such great impurity and +infection of profit, have no taste for any thing trivial, but still mind +[only] sublime things: what causes restrain the sea, what rules the +year, whether the stars spontaneously or by direction wander about and +are erratic, what throws obscurity on the moon, and what brings out her +orb, what is the intention and power of the jarring harmony of things, +whether Empedocles or the clever Stertinius be in the wrong.</p> + +<p>However, whether you murder fishes, or onions and garlic, receive +Pompeius Grosphus; and, if he asks any favor, grant it him frankly: +Grosphus will desire nothing but what is right and just. The proceeds of +friendship are cheap, when good men want any thing.</p> + +<p>But that you may not be ignorant in what situation the Roman affairs +are; the Cantabrians have fallen by the valor of Agrippa, the Armenians +by that of Claudius Nero: Phraates has, suppliant on his knees, admitted +the laws and power of Caesar. Golden plenty has poured out the fruits of +Italy from a full horn.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XIII.</p> + +<p>TO VINNIUS ASINA.</p> + +<p><i>Horace cautions him to present his poems to Augustus at a proper +opportunity, and with due decorum</i>.</p> + + +<p>As on your setting out I frequently and fully gave you instructions, +Vinnius, that you would present these volumes to Augustus sealed up if +he shall be in health, if in spirits, finally, if he shall ask for them: +do not offend out of zeal to me, and industriously bring an odium upon +my books [by being] an agent of violent officiousness. If haply the +heavy load of my paper should gall you, cast it from you, rather than +throw down your pack in a rough manner where you are directed to carry +it, and turn your paternal name of Asina into a jest, and make yourself +a common story. Make use of your vigor over the hills, the rivers, and +the fens. As soon as you have achieved your enterprise, and arrived +there, you must keep your burden in this position; lest you happen to +carry my bundle of books under your arm, as a clown does a lamb, or as +drunken Pyrrhia [in the play does] the balls of pilfered wool, or as a +tribe-guest his slippers with his fuddling-cap. You must not tell +publicly, how you sweated with carrying those verses, which may detain +the eyes and ears of Caesar. Solicited with much entreaty, do your best. +Finally, get you gone, farewell: take care you do not stumble, and break +my orders.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XIV.</p> + +<p>TO HIS STEWARD.</p> + +<p><i>He upbraids his levity for contemning a country life, which had been +his choice, and being eager to return to Rome</i>.</p> + + +<p>Steward of my woodlands and little farm that restores me to myself, +which you despise, [though formerly] inhabited by five families, and +wont to send five good senators to Varia: let us try, whether I with +more fortitude pluck the thorns out of my mind, or you out of my ground: +and whether Horace or his estate be in a better condition.</p> + +<p>Though my affection and solicitude for Lamia, mourning for his brother, +lamenting inconsolably for his brother's loss, detain me; nevertheless +my heart and soul carry me thither and long to break through those +barriers that obstruct my way. I pronounce him the happy man who dwells +in the country, you him [who lives] in the city. He to whom his +neighbor's lot is agreeable, must of consequence dislike his own. Each +of us is a fool for unjustly blaming the innocent place. The mind is in +fault, which never escapes from itself. When you were a drudge at every +one's beck, you tacitly prayed for the country: and now, [being +appointed] my steward, you wish for the city, the shows, and the baths. +You know I am consistent with myself, and loth to go, whenever +disagreeable business drags me to Rome. We are not admirers of the same +things: henoe you and I disagree. For what you reckon desert and +inhospitable wilds, he who is of my way of thinking calls delightful +places; and dislikes what you esteem pleasant. The bagnio, I perceive, +and the greasy tavern raise your inclination for the city: and this, +because my little spot will sooner yield frankincense and pepper than +grapes; nor is there a tavern near, which can supply you with wine; nor +a minstrel harlot, to whose thrumming you may dance, cumbersome to the +ground: and yet you exercise with plowshares the fallows that have been +a long while untouched, you take due care of the ox when unyoked, and +give him his fill with leaves stripped [from the boughs]. The sluice +gives an additional trouble to an idle fellow, which, if a shower fall, +must be taught by many a mound to spare the sunny meadow.</p> + +<p>Come now, attend to what hinders our agreeing. [Me,] whom fine garments +and dressed locks adorned, whom you know to have pleased venal Cynara +without a present, whom [you have seen] quaff flowing Falernian from +noon—a short supper [now] delights, and a nap upon the green turf by +the stream side; nor is it a shame to have been gay, but not to break +off that gayety. There there is no one who reduces my possessions with +envious eye, nor poisons them with obscure malice and biting slander; +the neighbors smile at me removing clods and stones. You had rather be +munching your daily allowance with the slaves in town; you earnestly +pray to be of the number of these: [while my] cunning foot-boy envies +you the use of the firing, the flocks and the garden. The lazy ox wishes +for the horse's trappings: the horse wishes to go to plow. But I shall +be of opinion, that each of them ought contentedly to exercise that art +which he understands.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XV.</p> + +<p>TO C. NEUMONIUS VALA.</p> + +<p><i>Preparing to go to the baths either at Velia or Salernum, he inquires +after the healthfulness and agreeableness of the places</i>.</p> + + +<p>It is your part, Vala, to write to me (and mine to give credit to your +information) what sort of a winter is it at Velia, what the air at +Salernum, what kind of inhabitants the country consists of, and how the +road is (for Antonius Musa [pronounces] Baiae to be of no service to me; +yet makes me obnoxious to the place, when I am bathed in cold water +even in the midst of the frost [by his prescription]. In truth the +village murmers at their myrtle-groves being deserted and the sulphurous +waters, said to expel lingering disorders from the nerves, despised; +envying those invalids, who have the courage to expose their head and +breast to the Clusian springs, and retire to Gabii and [such] cold +countries. My course must be altered, and my horse driven beyond his +accustomed stages. Whither are you going? will the angry rider say, +pulling in the left-hand rein, I am not bound for Cumae or Baiae:—but +the horse's ear is in the bit.) [You must inform me likewise] which of +the two people is supported by the greatest abundance of corn; whether +they drink rainwater collected [in reservoirs], or from perennial wells +of never-failing water (for as to the wine of that part I give myself no +trouble; at my country-seat I can dispense and bear with any thing: but +when I have arrived at a sea-port, I insist upon that which is generous +and mellow, such as may drive away my cares, such as may flow into my +veins and animal spirits with a rich supply of hope, such as may supply +me with words, such as may make me appear young to my Lucanian +mistress). Which tract of land produces most hares, which boars: which +seas harbor the most fishes and sea-urchins, that I may be able to +return home thence in good case, and like a Phaeacian.</p> + +<p>When Maenius, having bravely made away with his paternal and maternal +estates, began to be accounted a merry fellow—a vagabond droll, who had +no certain place of living; who, when dinnerless, could not distinguish +a fellow-citizen from an enemy; unmerciful in forging any scandal +against any person; the pest, and hurricane, and gulf of the market; +whatever he could get, he gave to his greedy gut. This fellow, when he +had extorted little or nothing from the favorers of his iniquity, or +those that dreaded it, would eat up whole dishes of coarse tripe and +lamb's entrails; as much as would have sufficed three bears; then truly, +[like] reformer Bestius, would he say, that the bellies of extravagant +fellows ought to be branded with a red-hot iron. The same man [however], +when he had reduced to smoke and ashes whatever more considerable booty +he had gotten; 'Faith, said he, I do not wonder if some persons eat up +their estates; since nothing is better than a fat thrush, nothing finer +than a lage sow's paunch. In fact, I am just such another myself; for, +when matters are a little deficient, I commend, the snug and homely +fare, of sufficient resolution amid mean provisions; but, if any thing +be offered better and more delicate, I, the same individual, cry out, +that ye are wise and alone live well, whose wealth and estate are +conspicuous from the elegance of your villas.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XVI.</p> + +<p>TO QUINCTIUS.</p> + +<p><i>He describes to Quinctius the form, situation, and advantages of his +country house: then declares that probity consists in the consciousness +of good works; liberty, in probity</i>.</p> + + +<p>Ask me not, my best Quinctius, whether my farm maintains its master with +corn-fields, or enriches him with olives, or with fruits, or meadow +land, or the elm tree clothed with vines: the shape and situation of my +ground shall be described to you at large.</p> + +<p>There is a continued range of mountains, except where they are separated +by a shadowy vale; but in such a manner, that the approaching sun views +it on the right side, and departing in his flying car warms the left. +You would commend its temperature. What? If my [very] briers produce in +abundance the ruddy cornels and damsens? If my oak and holm tree +accommodate my cattle with plenty of acorns, and their master with a +copious shade? You would say that Tarentum, brought nearer [to Rome], +shone in its verdant beauty. A fountain too, deserving to give name to a +river, insomuch that Hebrus does not surround Thrace more cool or more +limpid, flows salubrious to the infirm head, salubrious to the bowels. +These sweet, yea now (if you will credit me) these delightful retreats +preserve me to you in a state of health [even] in the September season.</p> + +<p>You live well, if you take care to support the character which you bear. +Long ago, all Rome has proclaimed you happy: but I am apprehensive, lest +you should give more credit concerning yourself to any one than +yourself; and lest you should imagine a man happy, who differs from the +wise and good; or, because the people pronounce you sound and perfectly +well, lest you dissemble the lurking fever at meal-times, until a +trembling seize your greased hands. The false modesty of fools conceals +ulcers [rather than have them cured]. If any one should mention battles +which you had fought by land and sea, and in such expressions as these +should soothe your listening ears: "May Jupiter, who consults the safety +both of you and of the city, keep it in doubt, whether the people be +more solicitous for your welfare, or you for the people's;" you might +perceive these encomiums to belong [only] to Augustus when you suffer +yourself to be termed a philosopher, and one of a refined life; say, +pr'ythee, would you answer [to these appellations] in your own name? To +be sure—I like to be called a wise and good man, as well as you. He who +gave this character to-day, if he will, can take it away to-morrow: as +the same people, if they have conferred the consulship on an unworthy +person, may take it away from him: "Resign; it is ours," they cry: I do +resign it accordingly, and chagrined withdraw. Thus if they should call +me rogue, deny me to be temperate, assert that I had strangled my own +father with a halter; shall I be stung, and change color at these false +reproaches? Whom does false honor delight, or lying calumny terrify, +except the vicious and sickly-minded? Who then is a good man? He who +observes the decrees of the senate, the laws and rules of justice; by +whose arbitration many and important disputes are decided; by whose +surety private property, and by whose testimony causes are safe. Yet +[perhaps] his own family and all the neighborhood observe this man, +specious in a fair outside, [to be] polluted within. If a slave should +say to me, "I have not committed a robbery, nor run away:" "You have +your reward; you are not galled with the lash," I reply. "I have not +killed any man:" "You shall not [therefore] feed the carrion crows on +the cross." I am a good man, and thrifty: your Sabine friend denies, and +contradicts the fact. For the wary wolf dreads the pitfall, and the hawk +the suspected snares, and the kite the concealed hook. The good, [on the +contrary,] hate to sin from the love of virtue; you will commit no crime +merely for the fear of punishment. Let there be a prospect of escaping, +you will confound sacred and profane things together. For, when from a +thousand bushels of beans you filch one, the loss in that case to me is +less, but not your villainy. The honest man, whom every forum and every +court of justice looks upon with reverence, whenever he makes an +atonement to the gods with a wine or an ox; after he has pronounced in a +clear distinguishable voice, "O father Janus, O Apollo;" moves his lips +as one afraid of being heard; "O fair Laverna put it in my power to +deceive; grant me the appearance of a just and upright man: throw a +cloud of night over my frauds." I do not see how a covetous man can be +better, how more free than a slave, when he stoops down for the sake of +a penny, stuck in the road [for sport]. For he who will be covetous, +will also be anxious: but he that lives in a state of anxiety, will +never in my estimation be free. He who is always in a hurry, and +immersed in the study of augmenting his fortune, has lost the arms, and +deserted the post of virtue. Do not kill your captive, if you can sell +him: he will serve you advantageously: let him, being inured to +drudgery, feed [your cattle], and plow; let him go to sea, and winter in +the midst of the waves; let him be of use to the market, and import corn +and provisions. A good and wise man will have courage to say, "Pentheus, +king of Thebes, what indignities will you compel me to suffer and +endure. 'I will take away your goods:' my cattle, I suppose, my land, my +movables and money: you may take them. 'I will confine you with +handcuffs and fetters under a merciless jailer.' The deity himself will +discharge me, whenever I please." In my opinion, this is his meaning; I +will die. Death is the ultimate boundary of human matters.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XVII.</p> + +<p>TO SCAEVA.</p> + +<p><i>That a life of business is preferable to a private and inactive one; +the friendship of great men is a laudable acquisition, yet their favors +are ever to be solicited with modesty and caution</i>.</p> + + +<p>Though, Scaeva, you have sufficient prudence of your own, and well know +how to demean yourself toward your superiors; [yet] hear what are the +sentiments of your old crony, who himself still requires teaching, just +as if a blind man should undertake to show the way: however see, if even +I can advance any thing, which you may think worth your while to adopt +as your own.</p> + +<p>If pleasant rest, and sleep till seven o'clock, delight you; if dust and +the rumbling of wheels, if the tavern offend you, I shall order you off +for Ferentinum. For joys are not the property of the rich alone: nor +has he lived ill, who at his birth and at his death has passed +unnoticed. If you are disposed to be of service to your friends, and to +treat yourself with somewhat more indulgence, you, being poor, must pay +your respects to the great. Aristippus, if he could dine to his +satisfaction on herbs, would never frequent [the tables] of the great. +If he who blames me, [replies Aristippus,] knew how to live with the +great, he would scorn his vegetables. Tell me, which maxim and conduct +of the two you approve; or, since you are my junior, hear the reason why +Aristippus' opinion is preferable; for thus, as they report, he baffled +the snarling cynic: "I play the buffoon for my own advantage, you [to +please] the populace. This [conduct of mine] is better and far more +honorable; that a horse may carry and a great man feed me, pay court to +the great: you beg for refuse, an inferior to the [poor] giver; though +you pretend you are in want of nothing." As for Aristippus, every +complexion of life, every station and circumstance sat gracefully upon +him, aspiring in general to greater things, yet equal to the present: on +the other hand, I shall be much surprised, if a contrary way of life +should become [this cynic], whom obstinacy clothes with a double rag. +The one will not wait for his purple robe; but dressed in any thing, +will go through the most frequented places, and without awkwardness +support either character: the other will shun the cloak wrought at +Miletus with greater aversion than [the bite of] dog or viper; he will +die with cold, unless you restore him his ragged garment; restore it, +and let him live like a fool as he is. To perform exploits, and show the +citizens their foes in chains, reaches the throne of Jupiter, and aims +at celestial honors. To have been acceptable to the great, is not the +last of praises. It is not every man's lot to gain Corinth. He +[prudently] sat still who was afraid lest he should not succeed: be it +so; what then? Was it not bravely done by him, who carried his point? +Either here therefore, or nowhere, is what we are investigating. The one +dreads the burden, as too much for a pusillanimous soul and a weak +constitution; the other under takes, and carries it through. Either +virtue is an empty name, or the man who makes the experiment deservedly +claims the honor and the reward.</p> + +<p>Those who mention nothing of their poverty before their lord, will gain +more than the importunate. There is a great difference between modestly +accepting, or seizing by violence But this was the principle and source +of every thing [which I alleged]. He who says, "My sister is without a +portion, my mother poor, and my estate neither salable nor sufficient +for my support," cries out [in effect], "Give me a morsel of bread:" +another whines, "And let the platter be carved out for me with half a +share of the bounty." But if the crow could have fed in silence, he +would have had better fare, and much less of quarreling and of envy.</p> + +<p>A companion taken [by his lord] to Brundusium, or the pleasant +Surrentum, who complains of the ruggedness of the roads and the bitter +cold and rains, or laments that his chest is broken open and his +provisions stolen; resembles the well-known tricks of a harlot, weeping +frequently for her necklace, frequently for a garter forcibly taken from +her; so that at length no credit is given to her real griefs and losses. +Nor does he, who has been once ridiculed in the streets, care to lift up +a vagrant with a [pretended] broken leg; though abundant tears should +flow from him; though, swearing by holy Osiris, he says, "Believe me, I +do not impose upon you; O cruel, take up the lame." "Seek out for a +stranger," cries the hoarse neighborhood.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XVIII.</p> + +<p>TO LOLLIUS.</p> + +<p><i>He treats at large upon the cultivation of the favor of great men; and +concludes with a few words concerning the acquirement of peace of mind</i>.</p> + + +<p>If I rightly know your temper, most ingenuous Lollius, you will beware +of imitating a flatterer, while you profess yourself a friend. As a +matron is unlike and of a different aspect from a strumpet, so will a +true friend differ from the toad-eater. There is an opposite vice to +this, rather the greater [of the two]; a clownish, inelegant, and +disagreeable bluntness, which would recommend itself by an unshaven face +and black teeth; while it desires to be termed pure freedom and true +sincerity. Virtue is the medium of the two vices; and equally remote +from either. The one is over-prone to complaisance, and a jester of the +lowest, couch, he so reverences the rich man's nod, so repeats his +speeches, and catches up his falling words; that you would take him for +a school-boy saying his lesson to a rigid master, or a player acting an +underpart; another often wrangles about a goat's hair, and armed engages +for any trifle: "That I, truly, should not have the first credit; and +that I should not boldly speak aloud, what is my real sentiment—[upon +such terms], another life would be of no value." But what is the subject +of this controversy? Why, whether [the gladiator] Castor or Dolichos be +the cleverer fellow; whether the Minucian, or the Appian, be the better +road to Brundusium.</p> + +<p>Him whom pernicious lust, whom quick-dispatching dice strips, whom +vanity dresses out and perfumes beyond his abilities, whom insatiable +hunger and thirst after money, Whom a shame and aversion to poverty +possess, his rich friend (though furnished with a half-score more vices) +hates and abhors; or if he does not hate, governs him; and, like a pious +mother, would have him more wise and virtuous than himself; and says +what is nearly true: "My riches (think not to emulate me) admit of +extravagance; your income is but small: a scanty gown becomes a prudent +dependant: cease to vie with me." Whomsoever Eutrapelus had a mind to +punish, he presented with costly garments. For now [said he] happy in +his fine clothes, he will assume new schemes and hopes; he will sleep +till daylight; prefer a harlot to his honest-calling; run into debt; and +at last become a gladiator, or drive a gardener's hack for hire.</p> + +<p>Do not you at any time pry into his secrets; and keep close what is +intrusted to you, though put to the torture, by wine or passion. Neither +commend your own inclinations, nor find fault with those of others; nor, +when he is disposed to hunt, do you make verses. For by such means the +amity of the twins Zethus and Amphion, broke off; till the lyre, +disliked by the austere brother, was silent. Amphion is thought to have +given way to his brother's humors; so do you yield to the gentle +dictates of your friend in power: as often as he leads forth his dogs +into the fields and his cattle laden with Aetolian nets, arise and lay +aside the peevishness of your unmannerly muse, that you may sup together +on the delicious fare purchased by your labor; an exercise habitual to +the manly Romans, of service to their fame and life and limbs: +especially when you are in health, and are able either to excel the dog +in swiftness, or the boar in strength. Add [to this], that there is no +one who handles martial weapons more gracefully. You well know, with +what acclamations of the spectators you sustain the combats in the +Campus Marcius: in fine, as yet a boy, you endured a bloody campaign and +the Cantabrian wars, beneath a commander, who is now replacing the +standards [recovered] from the Parthian temples: and, if any thing is +wanting, assigns it to the Roman arms. And that you may not withdraw +yourself, and inexcusably be absent; though you are careful to do +nothing out of measure, and moderation, yet you sometimes amuse yourself +at your country-seat. The [mock] fleet divides the little boats [into +two squadrons]: the Actian sea-fight is represented by boys under your +direction in a hostile form: your brother is the foe, your lake the +Adriatic; till rapid victory crowns the one or the other with her bays. +Your patron, who will perceive that you come into his taste, will +applaud your sports with both his hands.</p> + +<p>Moreover, that I may advise you (if in aught you stand in need of an +adviser), take great circumspection what you say to any man, and to +whom. Avoid an inquisitive impertinent, for such a one is also a +tattler, nor do open ears faithfully retain what is intrusted to them; +and a word, once sent abroad, flies irrevocably.</p> + +<p>Let no slave within the marble threshold of your honored friend inflame +your heart; lest the owner of the beloved damsel gratify you with so +trifling a present, or, mortifying [to your wishes], torment you [with a +refusal].</p> + +<p>Look over and over again [into the merits of] such a one, as you +recommend; lest afterward the faults of others strike you with shame. We +are sometimes imposed upon, and now and then introduce an unworthy +person. Wherefore, once deceived, forbear to defend one who suffers by +his own bad conduct; but protect one whom you entirely know, and with +confidence guard him with your patronage, if false accusations attack +him: who being bitten with the tooth of calumny, do you not perceive +that the same danger is threatening you? For it is your own concern, +when the adjoining wall is on fire: and flames neglected are wont to +gain strength.</p> + +<p>The attending of the levee of a friend in power seems delightful to the +unexperienced; the experienced dreads it. Do you, while your vessel is +in the main, ply your business, lest a changing gale bear you back +again.</p> + +<p>The melancholy hate the merry, and the jocose the melancholy; the +volatile [dislike] the sedate, the indolent the stirring and vivacious: +the quaffers of pure Falernian from midnight hate one who shirks his +turn; notwithstanding you swear you are afraid of the fumes of wine by +night. Dispel gloominess from your forehead: the modest man generally +carries the look of a sullen one; the reserved, of a churl.</p> + +<p>In every thing you must read and consult the learned, by what means you +may be enabled to pass your life in an agreeable manner: that insatiable +desire may not agitate and torment you, nor the fear and hope of things +that are but of little account: whether learning acquires virtue, or +nature bestows it? What lessens cares, what may endear you to yourself? +What perfectly renders the temper calm; honor or enticing lucre, or a +secret passage and the path of an unnoticed life?</p> + +<p>For my part, as often as the cooling rivulet Digentia refreshes me +(Digentia, of which Mandela drinks, a village wrinkled with cold); what, +my friend, do you think are my sentiments, what do you imagine I pray +for? Why, that my fortune may remain as it is now; or even [if it be +something] less: and that I may live to myself, what remains of my time, +if the gods will that aught do remain: that I may have a good store of +books, and corn provided for the year; lest I fluctuate in suspense of +each uncertain hour. But it is sufficient to sue Jove [for these +externals], which he gives and takes away [at pleasure]; let him grant +life, let him grant wealth: I myself will provide equanimity of temper.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XIX.</p> + +<p>TO MAECENAS.</p> + +<p><i>He shows the folly of some persons who would imitate; and the envy of +others who would censure him</i>.</p> + + +<p>O learned Maecenas, if you believe old Gratinus, no verses which are +written by water-drinkers can please, or be long-lived. Ever since +Bacchus enlisted the brain-sick poets among the Satyrs and the Fauns, +the sweet muses have usually smelt of wine in the morning. Homer, by his +excessive praises of wine, is convicted as a booser: father Ennius +himself never sallied forth to sing of arms, unless in drink. "I will +condemn the sober to the bar and the prater's bench, and deprive the +abstemious of the power of singing."</p> + +<p>As soon as he gave out this edict, the poets did not cease to contend in +midnight cups, and to smell of them by day. What! if any savage, by a +stern countenance and bare feet, and the texture of a scanty gown, +should imitate Cato; will he represent the virtue and morals of Cato? +The tongue that imitated Timagenes was the destruction of the Moor, +while he affected to be humorous, and attempted to seem eloquent. The +example that is imitable in its faults, deceives [the ignorant]. Soh! if +I was to grow up pale by accident, [these poetasters] would drink the +blood-thinning cumin. O ye imitators, ye servile herd, how often your +bustlings have stirred my bile, how often my mirth!</p> + +<p>I was the original, who set my free footsteps upon the vacant sod; I +trod not in the steps of others. He who depends upon himself, as leader, +commands the swarm. I first showed to Italy the Parian iambics: +following the numbers and spirit of Archilochus, but not his subject and +style, which afflicted Lycambes. You must not, however, crown me with a +more sparing wreath, because I was afraid to alter the measure and +structure of his verse: for the manly Sappho governs her muse by the +measures of Archilochus, so does Alcaeus; but differing from him in the +materials and disposition [of his lines], neither does he seek for a +father-in-law whom he may defame with his fatal lampoons, nor does he +tie a rope for his betrothed spouse in scandalous verse. Him too, never +celebrated by any other tongue, I the Roman lyrist first made known. It +delights me, as I bring out new productions, to be perused by the eyes, +and held in the hands of the ingenuous.</p> + +<p>Would you know why the ungrateful reader extols and is fond of many +works at home, unjustly decries them without doors? I hunt not after the +applause of the inconstant vulgar, at the expense of entertainments, and +for the bribe of a worn-out colt: I am not an auditor of noble writers, +nor a vindictive reciter, nor condescend to court the tribes and desks +of the grammarians. Hence are these tears. If I say that "I am ashamed +to repeat my worthless writings to crowded theatres, and give an air of +consequence to trifles:" "You ridicule us," says [one of them], "and you +reserve those pieces for the ears of Jove: you are confident that it is +you alone that can distill the poetic honey, beautiful in your own +eyes." At these words I am afraid to turn up my nose; and lest I should +be torn by the acute nails of my adversary, "This place is +disagreeable," I cry out, "and I demand a prorogation of the contest." +For contest is wont to beget trembling emulation and strife, and strife +cruel enmities and funereal war.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE XX.</p> + +<p>TO HIS BOOK.</p> + +<p><i>In vain he endeavors to retain his book, desirous of getting abroad; +tells it what trouble it is to undergo, and imparts some things to be +said of him to posterity.</i></p> + + +<p>You seem, my book, to look wistfully at Janus and Vertumnus; to the end +that you may be set out for sale, neatly polished by the pumice-stone of +the Sosii. You hate keys and seals, which are agreeable to a modest +[volume]; you grieve that you are shown but to a few, and extol public +places; though educated in another manner. Away with you, whither you +are so solicitous of going down: there will be no returning for you, +when you are once sent out. "Wretch that I am, what have I done? What +did I want?"—you will say: when any one gives you ill treatment, and +you know that you will be squeezed into small compass, as soon as the +eager reader is satiated. But, if the augur be not prejudiced by +resentment of your error, you shall be caressed at Rome [only] till your +youth be passed. When, thumbed by the hands of the vulgar, you begin to +grow dirty; either you shall in silence feed the grovelling book-worms, +or you shall make your escape to Utica, or shall be sent bound to +Ilerda. Your disregarded adviser shall then laugh [at you]: as he, who +in a passion pushed his refractory ass over the precipice. For who would +save [an ass] against his will? This too awaits you, that faltering +dotage shall seize on you, to teach boys their rudiments in the skirts +of the city. But when the abating warmth of the sun shall attract more +ears, you shall tell them, that I was the son of a freedman, and +extended my wings beyond my nest; so that, as much as you take away from +my family, you may add to my merit: that I was in favor with the first +men in the state, both in war and peace; of a short stature, gray +before my time, calculated for sustaining heat, prone to passion, yet so +as to be soon appeased. If any one should chance to inquire my age; let +him know that I had completed four times eleven Decembers, in the year +in which Lollius admitted Lepidus as his colleague.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_SECOND_BOOK_OF_THE_EPISTLES_OF_HORACE" id="THE_SECOND_BOOK_OF_THE_EPISTLES_OF_HORACE" />THE SECOND BOOK OF THE EPISTLES OF HORACE.</h2> + + + +<p>EPISTLE I.</p> + +<p>TO AUGUSTUS.</p> + +<p><i>He honors him with the highest compliments; then treats copiously of +poetry, its origin, character, and excellence</i>.</p> + + +<p>Since you alone support so many and such weighty concerns, defend Italy +with your arms, adorn it by your virtue, reform it by your laws; I +should offend, O Caesar, against the public interests, if I were to +trespass upon your time with a long discourse.</p> + +<p>Romulus, and father Bacchus, and Castor and Pollux, after great +achievements, received into the temples of the gods, while they were +improving the world and human nature, composing fierce dissensions, +settling property, building cities, lamented that the esteem which they +expected was not paid in proportion to their merits. He who crushed the +dire Hydra, and subdued the renowned monsters by his forefated labor, +found envy was to be tamed by death [alone]. For he burns by his very +splendor, whose superiority is oppressive to the arts beneath him: after +his decease, he shall be had in honor. On you, while present among us, +we confer mature honors, and rear altars where your name is to be sworn +by; confessing that nothing equal to you has hitherto risen, or will +hereafter rise. But this your people, wise and just in one point (for +preferring you to our own, you to the Grecian heroes), by no means +estimate other things with like proportion and measure: and disdain and +detest every thing, but what they see removed from earth and already +gone by; such favorers are they of antiquity, as to assert that the +Muses [themselves] upon Mount Alba, dictated the twelve tables, +forbidding to trangress, which the decemviri ratified; the leagues of +our kings concluded with the Gabii, or the rigid Sabines; the records of +the pontifices, and the ancient volumes of the augurs.</p> + +<p>If, because the most ancient writings of the Greeks are also the best, +Roman authors are to be weighed in the same scale, there is no need we +should say much: there is nothing hard in the inside of an olive, +nothing [hard] in the outside of a nut. We are arrived at the highest +pitch of success [in arts]: we paint, and sing, and wrestle more +skillfully than the annointed Greeks. If length of time makes poems +better, as it does wine, I would fain know how many years will stamp a +value upon writings. A writer who died a hundred years ago, is he to be +reckoned among the perfect and ancient, or among the mean and modern +authors? Let some fixed period exclude all dispute. He is an old and +good writer who completes a hundred years. What! one that died a month +or a year later, among whom is he to be ranked? Among the old poets, or +among those whom both the present age and posterity will disdainfully +reject? He may fairly be placed among the ancients, who is younger +either by a short month only, or even by a whole year. I take the +advantage of this concession, and pull away by little and little, as [if +they were] the hairs of a horse's tail: and I take away a single one and +then again another single one; till, like a tumbling heap, [my +adversary], who has recourse to annals and estimates excellence by the +year, and admires nothing but what Libitina has made sacred, falls to +the ground.</p> + +<p>Ennius the wise, the nervous, and (as our critics say) a second Homer, +seems lightly to regard what becomes of his promises and Pythagorean +dreams. Is not Naevius in people's hands, and sticking almost fresh in +their memory? So sacred is every ancient poem. As often as a debate +arises, whether this poet or the other be preferable; Pacuvius bears +away the character of a learned, Accius, of a lofty writer; Afranius' +gown is said to have fitted Menander; Plautus, to hurry after the +pattern of the Sicilian Epicharmus; Caecilius, to excel in gravity, +Terence in contrivance. These mighty Rome learns by heart, and these she +views crowded in her narrow theater; these she esteems and accounts her +poets from Livy the writer's age down to our time. Sometimes the +populace see right; sometimes they are wrong. If they admire and extol +the ancient poets so as to prefer nothing before, to compare nothing +with them, they err; if they think and allow that they express some +things in an obsolete, most in a stiff, many in a careless manner; they +both think sensibly, and agree with me, and determine with the assent of +Jove himself. Not that I bear an ill-will against Livy's epics, and +would doom them to destruction, which I remember the severe Orbilius +taught me when a boy; but they should seem correct, beautiful, and very +little short of perfect, this I wonder at: among which if by chance a +bright expression shines forth, and if one line or two [happen to be] +somewhat terse and musical, this unreasonably carries off and sells the +whole poem. I am disgusted that any thing should be found fault with, +not because it is a lumpish composition or inelegant, but because it is +modern; and that not a favorable allowance, but honor and rewards are +demanded for the old writers. Should I scruple, whether or not Atta's +drama trod the saffron and flowers in a proper manner, almost all the +fathers would cry out that modesty was lost; since I attempted to find +fault with those pieces which the pathetic Aesopus, which the skillful +Roscius acted: either because they esteem nothing right, but what has +pleased themselves; or because they think it disgraceful to submit to +their juniors, and to confess, now they are old, that what they learned +when young is deserving only to be destroyed. Now he who extols Numa's +Salian hymn, and would alone seem to understand that which, as well as +me, he is ignorant of, does not favor and applaud the buried geniuses, +but attacks ours, enviously hating us moderns and every thing of ours. +Whereas if novelty had been detested by the Greeks as much as by us, +what at this time would there have been ancient? Or what what would +there have been for common use to read and thumb, common to every body.</p> + +<p>When first Greece, her wars being over, began to trifle, and through +prosperity to glide into folly; she glowed with the love, one while of +wrestlers, another while of horses; was fond of artificers in marble, or +in ivory, or in brass; hung her looks and attention upon a picture; was +delighted now with musicians, now with tragedians; as if an infant girl +she sported under the nurse; soon cloyed, she abandoned what [before] +she earnestly desired. What is there that pleases or is odious, which +you may not think mutable? This effect had happy times of peace, and +favorable gales [of fortune].</p> + +<p>At Rome it was long pleasing and customary to be up early with open +doors, to expound the laws to clients; to lay out money cautiously upon +good securities: to hear the elder, and to tell the younger by what +means their fortunes might increase and pernicious luxury be diminished. +The inconstant people have changed their mind, and glow with a universal +ardor for learning: young men and grave fathers sup crowned with leaves, +and dictate poetry. I myself, who affirm that I write no verses, am +found more false than the Parthians: and, awake before the sun is risen, +I call for my pen and papers and desk. He that is ignorant of a ship is +afraid to work a ship; none but he who has learned, dares administer +[even] southern wood to the sick; physicians undertake what belongs to +physicians; mechanics handle tools; but we, unlearned and learned, +promiscuously write poems.</p> + +<p>Yet how great advantages this error and this slight madness has, thus +compute: the poet's mind is not easily covetous; fond of verses, he +studies this alone; he laughs at losses, flights of slaves, fires; he +contrives no fraud against his partner, or his young ward; he lives on +husks, and brown bread; though dastardly and unfit for war, he is useful +at home, if you allow this, that great things may derive assistance from +small ones. The poet fashions the child's tender and lisping mouth, and +turns his ear even at this time from obscene language; afterward also he +forms his heart with friendly precepts, the corrector of his rudeness, +and envy, and passion; he records virtuous actions, he instructs the +rising age with approved examples, he comforts the indigent and the +sick. Whence should the virgin, stranger to a husband, with the chaste +boys, learn the solemn prayer, had not the muse given a poet? The chorus +entreats the divine aid, and finds the gods propitious; sweet in learned +prayer, they implore the waters of the heavens; avert diseases, drive +off impending dangers, obtain both peace and years enriched with fruits. +With song the gods above are appeased, with song the gods below.</p> + +<p>Our ancient swains, stout and happy with a little, after the grain was +laid up, regaling in a festival season their bodies and even their +minds, patient of hardships through the hope of their ending, with their +slaves and faithful wife, the partners of their labors, atoned with a +hog [the goddess] Earth, with milk Silvanus, with flowers and wine the +genius that reminds us of our short life. Invented by this custom, the +Femminine licentiousness poured forth its rustic taunts in alternate +stanzas; and this liberty, received down through revolving years, +sported pleasingly; till at length the bitter raillery began to be +turned into open rage, and threatening with impunity to stalk through +reputable families. They, who suffered from its bloody tooth smarted +with the pain; the unhurt likewise were concerned for the common +condition: further also, a law and a penalty were enacted, which forbade +that any one should be stigmatized in lampoon. Through fear of the +bastinado, they were reduced to the necessity of changing their manner, +and of praising and delighting.</p> + +<p>Captive Greece took captive her fierce conqueror, and introduced her +arts into rude Latium. Thus flowed off the rough Saturnian numbers, and +delicacy expelled the rank venom: but for a long time there remained, +and at this day remain traces of rusticity. For late [the Roman writer] +applied his genius to the Grecian pages; and enjoying rest after the +Punic wars, began to search what useful matter Sophocles, and Thespis, +and Aeschylus afforded: he tried, too, if he could with dignity +translate their works; and succeeded in pleasing himself, being by +nature [of a genius] sublime and strong; for he breathes a spirit tragic +enough, and dares successfully; but fears a blot, and thinks it +disgraceful in his writings.</p> + +<p>Comedy is believed to require the least pains, because it fetches its +subjects from common life; but the less indulgence It meets with, the +more labor it requires. See how Plautus supports the character of a +lover under age, how that of a covetous father, how those of a cheating +pimp: how Dossennus exceeds all measure in his voracious parasites; with +how loose a sock he runs over the stage: for he is glad to put the money +in his pocket, after this regardless whether his play stand or fall.</p> + +<p>Him, whom glory in her airy car has brought upon the stage, the careless +spectator dispirits, the attentive renders more diligent: so slight, so +small a matter it is, which overturns or raises a mind covetous of +praise! Adieu the ludicrous business [of dramatic writing], if applause +denied brings me back meagre, bestowed [makes me] full of flesh and +spirits.</p> + +<p>This too frequently drives away and deters even an adventurous poet? +that they who are in number more, in worth and rank inferior, unlearned +and foolish, and (if the equestrian order dissents) ready to fall to +blows, in the midst of the play, call for either a bear or boxers; for +in these the mob delight. Nay, even all the pleasures of our knights is +now transferred from the ear to the uncertain eye, and their vain +amusements. The curtains are kept down for four hours or more, while +troops of horse and companies of foot flee over the stage: next is +dragged forward the fortune of kings, with their hands bound behind +them; chariots, litters, carriages, ships hurry on; captive ivory, +captive Corinth, is borne along. Democritus, if he were on earth, would +laugh; whether a panther a different genus confused with the camel, or a +white elephant attracted the eye of the crowd. He would view the people +more attentively than the sports themselves, as affording him more +strange sights than the actor: and for the writers, he would think they +told their story to a deaf ass. For what voices are able to overbear the +din with which our theatres resound? You would think the groves of +Garganus, or the Tuscan Sea, was roaring; with so great noise are viewed +the shows and contrivances, and foreign riches: with which the actor +being daubed over, as soon as he appears upon the stage, each right hand +encounters with the left. Has he said any thing yet? Nothing at all. +What then pleases? The cloth imitating [the color of] violets, with the +dye of Tarentum.</p> + +<p>And, that you may not think I enviously praise those kinds of writing +which I decline undertaking, when others handle them well: that poet to +me seems able to walk upon an extended rope, who with his fictions +grieves my soul, enrages, soothes, fills it with false terrors, as an +enchanter; and sets me now in Thebes, now in Athens.</p> + +<p>But of those too, who had rather trust themselves with a reader, than +bear the disdain of an haughty spectator, use a little care; if you +would fill with books [the library you have erected], an offering worthy +of Apollo, and add an incentive to the poets, that with greater +eagerness they may apply to verdant Helicon.</p> + +<p>We poets, it is true (that I may hew down my own vineyards), often do +ourselves many mischiefs, when we present a work to you while thoughtful +or fatigued; when we are pained, if my friend has dared to find fault +with one line; when, unasked, we read over again passages already +repeated: when we lament that our labors do not appear, and war poems, +spun out in a fine thread: when we hope the thing will come to this, +that as soon as you are apprised we are penning verses, you will kindly +of yourself send for us and secure us from want, and oblige us to write. +But yet it is worth while to know, who shall be the priests of your +virtue signalized in war and at home, which is not to be trusted to an +unworthy poet. A favorite of king Alexander the Great was that +Choerilus, who to his uncouth and ill-formed verses owed the many pieces +he received of Philip's royal coin. But, as ink when touched leaves +behind it a mark and a blot, so writers as it were stain shining actions +with foul poetry. That same king, who prodigally bought so dear so +ridiculous a poem, by an edict forbade that any one beside Apelles +should paint him, or that any other than Lysippus should mold brass for +the likeness of the valiant Alexander. But should you call that faculty +of his, so delicate in discerning other arts, to [judge of] books and of +these gifts of the muses, you would swear he had been born in the gross +air of the Boeotians. Yet neither do Virgil and Varius, your beloved +poets, disgrace your judgment of them, and the presents which they have +received with great honor to the donor; nor do the features of +illustrious men appear more lively when expressed by statues of brass, +than their manners and minds expressed by the works of a poet. Nor would +I rather compose such tracts as these creeping on the ground, than +record deeds of arms, and the situations of countries, and rivers, and +forts reared upon mountains, and barbarous kingdoms, and wars brought to +a conclusion through the whole world under your auspices, and the +barriers that confine Janus the guardian of peace, and Rome treaded by +the Parthians under your government, if I were but able to do as much as +I could wish. But neither does your majesty admit of humble poetry, nor +dares my modesty attempt a subject which my strength is unable to +support. Yet officiousness foolishly disgusts the person whom it loves; +especially when it recommends itself by numbers, and the art [of +writing]. For one learns sooner, and more willingly remembers, that +which a man derides, than that which he approves and venerates. I value +not the zeal that gives me uneasiness; nor do I wish to be set out any +where in wax with a face formed for the worse, nor to be celebrated in +ill-composed verses; lest I blush, when presented with the gross gift; +and, exposed in an open box along with my author, be conveyed into the +street that sells frankincense, and spices, and pepper, and whatever is +wrapped up in impertinent writings.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<p>EPISTLE II.</p> + +<p>TO JULIUS FLORUS.</p> + +<p><i>In apologizing for not having written to him, he shows that the +well-ordering of life is of more importance than the composition of +verses</i>.</p> + + +<p>O Florus, faithful friend to the good and illustrious Nero, if by chance +any one should offer to sell you a boy born at Tibur and Gabii, and +should treat with you in this manner; "This [boy who is] both +good-natured and well-favored from head to foot, shall become and be +yours for eight thousand sesterces; a domestic slave, ready in his +attendance at his master's nod; initiated in the Greek language, of a +capacity for any art; you may shape out any thing with [such] moist +clay; besides, he will sing in an artless manner, but yet entertaining +to one drinking. Lavish promises lessen credit, when any one cries up +extravagantly the wares he has for sale, which he wants to put off. No +emergency obliges me [to dispose of him]: though poor, I am in nobody's +debt. None of the chapmen would do this for you; nor should every body +readily receive the same favor from me. Once, [in deed,] he [loitered on +an errand]; and (as it happens) absconded, being afraid of the lash that +hangs in the staircase. Give me your money, if this runaway trick, which +I have expected, does not offend you." In my opinion, the man may take +his price, and be secure from any punishment: you wittingly purchased a +good-for-nothing boy: the condition of the contract was told you. +Nevertheless you prosecute this man, and detain him in an unjust suit.</p> + +<p>I told you, at your setting out, that I was indolent: I told you I was +almost incapable of such offices: that you might not chide me in angry +mood, because no letter [from me] came to hand. What then have I +profited, if you nevertheless arraign the conditions that make for me? +On the same score too you complain, that, being worse than my word, I do +not send you the verses you expected.</p> + +<p>A soldier of Lucullus, [having run through] a great many hardships, was +robbed of his collected stock to a penny, as he lay snoring in the night +quite fatigued: after this, like a ravenous wolf, equally exasperated at +himself and the enemy, eager, with his hungry fangs, he beat off a royal +guard from a post (as they report) very strongly fortified, and well +supplied with stores. Famous on account of this exploit, he is adorned +with honorable rewards, and receives twenty thousand sesterces into the +bargain. It happened about this time that his officer being inclined to +batter down a certain fort, began to encourage the same man, with words +that might even have given courage to a coward: "Go, my brave fellow, +whither your valor calls you: go with prosperous step, certain to +receive ample rewards for your merit. Why do you hesitate?" Upon this, +he arch, though a rustic: "He who has lost his purse, will go whither +you wish," says he.</p> + +<p>It was my lot to have Rome for my nurse, and to be instructed [from the +Iliad] how much the exasperated Achilles prejudiced the Greeks. Good +Athens give me some additional learning: that is to say, to be able to +distinguish a right line from a curve, and seek after truth in the +groves of Academus. But the troublesome times removed me from that +pleasant spot; and the tide of a civil war carried me away, +unexperienced as I was, into arms, [into arms] not likely to be a match +for the sinews of Augustus Caesar. Whence, as soon as [the battle of] +Philippi dismissed me in an abject condition, with my wings clipped, and +destitute both of house and land, daring poverty urged me on to the +composition of verses: but now, having more than is wanted, what +medicines would be efficacious enough to cure my madness, if I did not +think it better to rest than to write verses.</p> + +<p>The advancing years rob us of every thing: they have taken away my +mirth, my gallantry, my revelings, and play: they are now proceeding to +force poetry from me. What would you have me do?</p> + +<p>In short, all persons do not love and admire the same things. Ye delight +in the ode: one man is pleased with iambics; another with satires +written in the manner of Bion, and virulent wit. Three guests scarcely +can be found to agree, craving very different dishes with various +palate. What shall I give? What shall I not give? You forbid, what +another demands: what you desire, that truly is sour and disgustful to +the [other] two.</p> + +<p>Beside other [difficulties], do you think it practicable for me to +write poems at Rome, amid so many solicitudes and so many fatigues? One +calls me as his security, another to hear his works, all business else +apart; one lives on the mount of Quirinus, the other in the extremity of +the Aventine; both must be waited on. The distances between them, you +see, are charmingly commodious. "But the streets are clear, so that +there can be no obstacle to the thoughtful."—A builder in heat hurries +along with his mules and porters: the crane whirls aloft at one time a +stone, at another a great piece of timber: the dismal funerals dispute +the way with the unwieldy carriages: here runs a mad dog, there rushes a +sow begrimed with mire. Go now, and meditate with yourself your +harmonious verses. All the whole choir of poets love the grove, and +avoid cities, due votaries to Bacchus delighting in repose and shade. +Would you have me, amid so great noise both by night and day, [attempt] +to sing, and trace the difficult footsteps of the poets? A genius who +has chosen quiet Athens for his residence, and has devoted seven years +to study, and has grown old in books and study, frequently walks forth +more dumb than a statue, and shakes the people's sides with laughter: +here, in the midst of the billows and tempests of the city, can I be +thought capable of connecting words likely to wake the sound of the +lyre?</p> + +<p>At Rome there was a rhetorician, brother to a lawyer: [so fond of each +other were they,] that they would hear nothing but the mere praises of +each other: insomuch, that the latter appeared a Gracchus to the former, +the former a Mucius to the latter. Why should this frenzy affect the +obstreperous poets in a less degree? I write odes, another elegies: a +work wonderful to behold, and burnished by the nine muses! Observe +first, with what a fastidious air, with what importance we survey the +temple [of Apollo] vacant for the Roman poets. In the next place you may +follow (if you are at leisure) and hear what each produces, and +wherefore each weaves for himself the crown. Like Samnite gladiators in +slow duel, till candle-light, we are beaten and waste out the enemy with +equal blows: I came off Alcaeus, in his suffrage; he is mine, who? Why +who but Callimachus? Or, if he seems to make a greater demand, he +becomes Mimnermus, and grows in fame by the chosen appellation. Much do +I endure in order to pacify this passionate race of poets, when I am +writing; and submissive court the applause of the people; [but,] having +finished my studies and recovered my senses, I the same man can now +boldly stop my open ears against reciters.</p> + +<p>Those who make bad verses are laughed at: but they are pleased in +writing, and reverence themselves; and if you are silent, they, happy, +fall to praising of their own accord whatever they have written. But he +who desires to execute a genuine poem, will with his papers assume the +spirit of an honest critic: whatever words shall have but little +clearness and elegance, or shall be without weight and held unworthy of +estimation, he will dare to displace: though they may recede with +reluctance, and still remain in the sanctuary of Vesta: those that have +been long hidden from the people he kindly will drag forth, and bring to +light those expressive denominations of things that were used by the +Catos and Cethegi of ancient times, though now deformed dust and +neglected age presses upon them: he will adopt new words, which use, the +parent [of language], shall produce: forcible and perspicuous, and +bearing the utmost similitude to a limpid stream, he will pour out his +treasures, and enrich Latium with a comprehensive language. The +luxuriant he will lop, the too harsh he will soften with a sensible +cultivation: those void of expression he will discard: he will exhibit +the appearance of one at play; and will be [in his invention] on the +rack, like [a dancer on the stage], who one while affects the motions of +a satyr, at another of a clumsy cyclops.</p> + +<p>I had rather be esteemed a foolish and dull writer, while my faults +please myself, or at least escape my notice, than be wise and smart for +it. There lived at Argos a man of no mean rank, who imagined that he was +hearing some admirable tragedians, a joyful sitter and applauder in an +empty theater: who [nevertheless] could support the other duties of life +in a just manner; a truly honest neighbor, an amiable host, kind toward +his wife, one who could pardon his slaves, nor would rave at the +breaking of a bottle-seal: one who [had sense enough] to avoid a +precipice, or an open well. This man, being cured at the expense and by +the care of his relations, when he had expelled by the means of pure +hellebore the disorder and melancholy humor, and returned to himself; +"By Pollux, my friends (said he), you have destroyed, not saved me; from +whom my pleasure is thus taken away, and a most agreeable delusion of +mind removed by force."</p> + +<p>In a word, it is of the first consequence to be wise in the rejection +of trifles, and leave childish play to boys for whom it is in season, +and not to scan words to be set to music for the Roman harps, but +[rather] to be perfectly an adept in the numbers and proportions of real +life. Thus therefore I commune with myself, and ponder these things in +silence: "If no quantity of water would put an end to your thirst, you +would tell it to your physicians. And is there none to whom you dare +confess, that the more you get the more you crave? If you had a wound +which was not relieved by a plant or root prescribed to you, you would +refuse being doctored with a root or plant that did no good. You have +heard that vicious folly left the man, on whom the gods conferred +wealth; and though you are nothing wiser, since you become richer, will +you nevertheless use the same monitors as before? But could riches make +you wise, could they make you less covetous and mean-spirited, you well +might blush, if there lived on earth one more avaricious than yourself."</p> + +<p>If that be any man's property, which he has bought by the pound and +penny, [and] there be some things to which (if you give credit to the +lawyers) possession gives a claim, [then] the field that feeds you is +your own; and Orbius' steward, when he harrows the corn which is soon to +give you flour, finds you are [in effect] the proper master. You give +your money; you receive grapes, pullets, eggs, a hogshead of strong +wine: certainly in this manner you by little and little purchase that +farm, for which perhaps the owner paid three hundred thousand sesterces, +or more. What does it signify, whether you live on what was paid for the +other day, or a long while ago? He who purchased the Aricinian and +Veientine fields some time since, sups on bought vegetables, however he +may think otherwise; boils his pot with bought wood at the approach of +the chill evening. But he calls all that his own, as far as where the +planted poplar prevents quarrels among neighbors by a determinate +limitation: as if anything were a man's property, which in a moment of +the fleeting hour, now by solicitations, now by sale, now by violence, +and now by the supreme lot [of all men], may change masters and come +into another's jurisdiction. Thus since the perpetual possession is +given to none, and one man's heir urges on another's, as wave impels +wave, of what importance are houses, or granaries; or what the Lucanian +pastures joined to the Calabrian; if Hades, inexorable to gold, mows +down the great together with the small?</p> + +<p>Gems, marble, ivory, Tuscan statues, pictures, silver-plate, robes dyed +with Getulian purple, there are who can not acquire; and there are +others, who are not solicitous of acquiring. Of two brothers, why one +prefers lounging, play, and perfume, to Herod's rich palm-tree groves; +why the other, rich and uneasy, from the rising of the light to the +evening shade, subdues his woodland with fire and steel: our attendant +genius knows, who governs the planet of our nativity, the divinity [that +presides] over human nature, who dies with each individual, of various +complexion, white and black.</p> + +<p>I will use, and take out from my moderate stock, as much as my exigence +demands: nor will I be under any apprehensions what opinion my heir +shall hold concerning me, when he shall, find [I have left him] no more +than I had given me. And yet I, the same man, shall be inclined to know +how far an open and cheerful person differs from a debauchee, and how +greatly the economist differs from the miser. For there is some +distinction whether you throw away your money in a prodigal manner, or +make an entertainment without grudging, nor toil to accumulate more; or +rather, as formerly in Minerva's holidays, when a school-boy, enjoys by +starts the short and pleasant vacation.</p> + +<p>Let sordid poverty be far away. I, whether borne in a large or small +vessel, let me be borne uniform and the same. I am not wafted with +swelling sail before the north wind blowing fair: yet I do not bear my +course of life against the adverse south. In force, genius, figure, +virtue, station, estate, the last of the first-rate, [yet] still before +those of the last.</p> + +<p>You are not covetous, [you say]:—go to.—What then? Have the rest of +your vices fled from you, together with this? Is your breast free from +vain ambition? Is it free from the fear of death and from anger? Can you +laugh at dreams, magic terrors, wonders, witches, nocturnal goblins, and +Thessalian prodigies? Do you number your birth-days with a grateful +mind? Are you forgiving to your friends? Do you grow milder and better +as old age approaches? What profits you only one thorn eradicated out of +many? If you do not know how to live in a right manner, make way for +those that do. You have played enough, eaten and drunk enough, it is +time for you to walk off: lest having tippled too plentifully, that age +which plays the wanton with more propriety, and drive you [off the +stage].</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="HORACES_BOOK_UPON_THE_ART_OF_POETRY" id="HORACES_BOOK_UPON_THE_ART_OF_POETRY" />HORACE'S BOOK UPON THE ART OF POETRY.</h2> + +<p>TO THE PISOS.</p> + + +<p>If a painter should wish to unite a horse's neck to a human head, and +spread a variety of plumage over limbs [of different animals] taken from +every part [of nature], so that what is a beautiful woman in the upper +part terminates unsightly in an ugly fish below; could you, my friends, +refrain from laughter, were you admitted to such a sight? Believe, ye +Pisos, the book will be perfectly like such a picture, the ideas of +which, like a sick man's dreams, are all vain and fictitious: so that +neither head nor foot can correspond to any one form. "Poets and +painters [you will say] have ever had equal authority for attempting any +thing." We are conscious of this, and this privilege we demand and allow +in turn: but not to such a degree, that the tame should associate with +the savage; nor that serpents should be coupled with birds, lambs with +tigers.</p> + +<p>In pompous introductions, and such as promise a great deal, it generally +happens that one or two verses of purple patch-work, that may make a +great show, are tagged on; as when the grove and the altar of Diana and +the meandering of a current hastening through pleasant fields, or the +river Rhine, or the rainbow is described. But here there was no room for +these [fine things]: perhaps, too, you know how to draw a cypress: but +what is that to the purpose, if he, whe is painted for the given price, +is [to be represented as] swimming hopeless out of a shipwreck? A large +vase at first was designed: why, as the wheel revolves, turns out a +little pitcher? In a word, be your subject what it will, let it be +merely simple and uniform.</p> + +<p>The great majority of us poets, father, and youths worthy such a +father, are misled by the appearance of right. I labor to be concise, I +become obscure: nerves and spirit fail him, that aims at the easy: one, +that pretends to be sublime, proves bombastical: he who is too cautious +and fearful of the storm, crawls along the ground: he who wants to vary +his subject in a marvelous manner, paints the dolphin in the woods, the +boar in the sea. The avoiding of an error leads to a fault, if it lack +skill.</p> + +<p>A statuary about the Aemilian school shall of himself, with singular +skill, both express the nails, and imitate in brass the flexible hair; +unhappy yet in the main, because he knows not how to finish a complete +piece. I would no more choose to be such a one as this, had I a mind to +compose any thing, than to live with a distorted nose, [though] +remarkable for black eyes and jetty hair.</p> + +<p>Ye who write, make choice of a subject suitable to your abilities; and +revolve in your thoughts a considerable time what your strength +declines, and what it is able to support. Neither elegance of style, nor +a perspicuous disposition, shall desert the man, by whom the subject +matter is chosen judiciously.</p> + +<p>This, or I am mistaken, will constitute the merit and beauty of +arrangement, that the poet just now say what ought just now to be said, +put off most of his thoughts, and waive them for the present.</p> + +<p>In the choice of his words, too, the author of the projected poem must +be delicate and cautious, he must embrace one and reject another: you +will express yourself eminently well, if a dexterous combination should +give an air of novelty to a well-known word. If it happen to be +necessary to explain some abstruse subjects by new invented terms; it +will follow that you must frame words never heard of by the +old-fashioned Cethegi: and the license will be granted, if modestly +used: and the new and lately-formed words will have authority, if they +descend from a Greek source, with a slight deviation. But why should the +Romans grant to Plutus and Caecilius a privilege denied to Virgil and +Varius? Why should I be envied, if I have it in my power to acquire a +few words, when the language of Cato and Ennius has enriched our native +tongue, and produced new names of things? It has been, and ever will be, +allowable to coin a word marked with the stamp in present request. As +leaves in the woods are changed with the fleeting years; the earliest +fall off first: in this manner words perish with old age, and those +lately invented nourish and thrive, like men in the time of youth. We, +and our works, are doomed to death: Whether Neptune, admitted into the +continent, defends our fleet from the north winds, a kingly work; or the +lake, for a long time unfertile and fit for oars, now maintains its +neighboring cities and feels the heavy plow; or the river, taught to run +in a more convenient channel, has changed its course which was so +destructive to the fruits. Mortal works must perish: much less can the +honor and elegance of language be long-lived. Many words shall revive, +which now have fallen off; and many which are now in esteem shall fall +off, if it be the will of custom, in whose power is the decision and +right and standard of language.</p> + +<p>Homer has instructed us in what measure the achievements of kings, and +chiefs, and direful war might be written.</p> + +<p>Plaintive strains originally were appropriated to the unequal numbers +[of the elegiac]: afterward [love and] successful desires were included. +Yet what author first published humble elegies, the critics dispute, and +the controversy still waits the determination of a judge.</p> + +<p>Rage armed Archilochus with the iambic of his own invention. The sock +and the majestic buskin assumed this measure as adapted for dialogue, +and to silence the noise of the populace, and calculated for action.</p> + +<p>To celebrate gods, and the sons of gods, and the victorious wrestler, +and the steed foremost in the race, and the inclination of youths, and +the free joys of wine, the muse has alotted to the lyre.</p> + +<p>If I am incapable and unskilful to observe the distinction described, +and the complexions of works [of genius], why am I accosted by the name +of "Poet?" Why, out of false modesty, do I prefer being ignorant to +being learned?</p> + +<p>A comic subject will not be handled in tragic verse: in like manner the +banquet of Thyestes will not bear to be held in familiar verses, and +such as almost suit the sock. Let each peculiar species [of writing] +fill with decorum its proper place. Nevertheless sometimes even comedy +exalts her voice, and passionate Chremes rails in a tumid strain: and a +tragic writer generally expresses grief in a prosaic style. Telephus and +Peleus, when they are both in poverty and exile, throw aside their rants +and gigantic expressions if they have a mind to move the heart of the +spectator with their complaint.</p> + +<p>It is not enough that poems be beautiful; let them be tender and +affecting, and bear away the soul of the auditor whithersoever they +please. As the human countenance smiles on those that smile, so does it +sympathize with those that weep. If you would have me weep you must +first express the passion of grief yourself; then, Telephus or Peleus, +your misfortunes hurt me: if you pronounce the parts assigned you ill, I +shall either fall asleep or laugh.</p> + +<p>Pathetic accents suit a melancholy countenance; words full of menace, an +angry one; wanton expressions, a sportive look; and serious matter, an +austere one. For nature forms us first within to every modification of +circumstances; she delights or impels us to anger, or depresses us to +the earth and afflicts us with heavy sorrow: then expresses those +emotions of the mind by the tongue, its interpreter. If the words be +discordant to the station of the speaker, the Roman knights and plebians +will raise an immoderate laugh. It will make a wide difference, whether +it be Davus that speaks, or a hero; a man well-stricken in years, or a +hot young fellow in his bloom; and a matron of distinction, or an +officious nurse; a roaming merchant, or the cultivator of a verdant +little farm; a Colchian, or an Assyrian; one educated at Thebes, or one +at Argos.</p> + +<p>You, that write, either follow tradition, or invent such fables as are +congruous to themselves. If as poet you have to represent the renowned +Achilles; let him be indefatigable, wrathful, inexorable, courageous, +let him deny that laws were made for him, let him arrogate every thing +to force of arms. Let Medea be fierce and untractable, Ino an object of +pity, Ixion perfidious, Io wandering, Orestes in distress.</p> + +<p>If you offer to the stage any thing unattempted, and venture to form a +new character; let it be preserved to the last such as it set out at the +beginning, and be consistent with itself. It is difficult to write with +propriety on subjects to which all writers have a common claim; and you +with more prudence will reduce the Iliad into acts, than if you first +introduce arguments unknown and never treated of before. A public story +will become your own property, if you do not dwell upon the whole circle +of events, which is paltry and open to every one; nor must you be so +faithful a translator, as to take the pains of rendering [the original] +word for word; nor by imitating throw yourself into straits, whence +either shame or the rules of your work may forbid you to retreat.</p> + +<p>Nor must you make such an exordium, as the Cyclic writer of old: "I will +sing the fate of Priam, and the noble war." What will this boaster +produce worthy of all this gaping? The mountains are in labor, a +ridiculous mouse will be brought forth. How much more to the purpose he, +who attempts nothing improperly? "Sing for me, my muse, the man who, +after the time of the destruction of Troy, surveyed the manners and +cities of many men." He meditates not [to produce] smoke from a flash, +but out of smoke to elicit fire, that he may thence bring forth his +instances of the marvelous with beauty, [such as] Antiphates, Scylla, +the Cyclops, and Charybdis. Nor does he date Diomede's return from +Meleager's death, nor trace the rise of the Trojan war from [Leda's] +eggs: he always hastens on to the event; and hurries away his reader in +the midst of interesting circumstances, no otherwise than as if they +were [already] known; and what he despairs of, as to receiving a polish +from his touch, he omits; and in such a manner forms his fictions, so +intermingles the false with the true, that the middle is not +inconsistent with the beginning, nor the end with the middle.</p> + +<p>Do you attend to what I, and the public in my opinion, expect from you +[as a dramatic writer]. If you are desirous of an applauding spectator, +who will wait for [the falling of] the curtain, and till the chorus +calls out "your plaudits;" the manners of every age must be marked by +you, and a proper decorum assigned to men's varying dispositions and +years. The boy, who is just able to pronounce his words, and prints the +ground with a firm tread, delights to play with his fellows, and +contracts and lays aside anger without reason, and is subject to change +every hour. The beardless youth, his guardian being at length +discharged, joys in horses, and dogs, and the verdure of the sunny +Campus Martius; pliable as wax to the bent of vice, rough to advisers, a +slow provider of useful things, prodigal of his money, high-spirited, +and amorous, and hasty in deserting the objects of his passion. [After +this,] our inclinations being changed, the age and spirit of manhood +seeks after wealth, and [high] connections, is subservient to points of +honor; and is cautious of committing any action, which he would +subsequently be industrious to correct. Many inconviences encompass a +man in years; either because he seeks [eagerly] for gain, and abstains +from what he has gotten, and is afraid to make use of it; or because he +transacts every thing in a timorous and dispassionate manner, dilatory, +slow in hope, remiss, and greedy of futurity. Peevish, querulous, a +panegyrist of former times when he was a boy, a chastiser and censurer +of his juniors. Our advancing years bring many advantages along with +them. Many our declining ones take away. That the parts [therefore] +belonging to age may not be given to youth, and those of a man to a boy, +we must dwell upon those qualities which are joined and adapted to each +person's age.</p> + +<p>An action is either represented on the stage, or being done elsewhere is +there related. The things which enter by the ear affect the mind more +languidly, than such as are submitted to the faithful eyes, and what a +spectator presents to himself. You must not, however, bring upon the +stage things fit only to be acted behind the scenes: and you must take +away from view many actions, which elegant description may soon after +deliver in presence [of the spectators]. Let not Medea murder her sons +before the people; nor the execrable Atreus openly dress human entrails: +nor let Progue be metamorphosed into a bird, Cadmus into a serpent. +Whatever you show to me in this manner, not able to give credit to, I +detest.</p> + +<p>Let a play which would be inquired after, and though seen, represented +anew, be neither shorter nor longer than the fifth act. Neither let a +god interfere, unless a difficulty worthy a god's unraveling should +happen; nor let a fourth person be officious to speak.</p> + +<p>Let the chorus sustain the part and manly character of an actor: nor let +them sing any thing between the acts which is not conducive to, and +fitly coherent with, the main design. Let them both patronize the good, +and give them friendly advice, and regulate the passionate, and love to +appease those who swell [with rage]: let them praise the repast of a +short meal, and salutary effects of justice, laws, and peace with her +open gates; let them conceal what is told to them in confidence, and +supplicate and implore the gods that prosperity may return to the +wretched, and abandon the haughty. The flute, (not as now, begirt with +brass and emulous of the trumpet, but) slender and of simple form, with +few stops, was of service to accompany and assist the chorus, and with +its tone was sufficient to fill the rows that were not as yet too +crowded, where an audience, easily numbered, as being small and sober, +chaste and modest, met together. But when the victorious Romans began to +extend their territories, and an ampler wall encompassed the city, and +their genius was indulged on festivals by drinking wine in the day-time +without censure; a greater freedom arose both, to the numbers [of +poetry], and the measure [of music]. For what taste could an unlettered +clown and one just dismissed from labors have, when in company with the +polite; the base, with the man of honor? Thus the musician added now +movements and a luxuriance to the ancient art, and strutting backward +and forward, drew a length of train over the stage; thus likewise new +notes were added to the severity of the lyre, and precipitate eloquence +produced an unusual language [in the theater]: and the sentiments [of +the chorus, then] expert in teaching useful things and prescient of +futurity, differ hardly from the oracular Delphi.</p> + +<p>The poet, who first tried his skill in tragic verse for the paltry +[prize of a] goat, soon after exposed to view wild satyrs naked, and +attempted raillery with severity, still preserving the gravity [of +tragedy]: because the spectator on festivals, when heated with wine and +disorderly, was to be amused with captivating shows and agreeable +novelty. But it will be expedient so to recommend the bantering, so the +rallying satyrs, so to turn earnest into jest; that none who shall be +exhibited as a god, none who is introduced as a hero lately conspicuous +in regal purple and gold, may deviate into the low style of obscure, +mechanical shops; or, [on the contrary,] while he avoids the ground, +effect cloudy mist and empty jargon. Tragedy disdaining to prate forth +trivial verses, like a matron commanded to dance on the festival days, +will assume an air of modesty, even in the midst of wanton satyrs. As a +writer of satire, ye Pisos, I shall never be fond of unornamented and +reigning terms: nor shall I labor to differ so widely from the +complexion of tragedy, as to make no distinction, whether Davus be the +speaker. And the bold Pythias, who gained a talent by gulling Simo; or +Silenus, the guardian and attendant of his pupil-god [Bacchus]. I would +so execute a fiction taken from a well-known story, that any body might +entertain hopes of doing the same thing; but, on trial, should sweat and +labor in vain. Such power has a just arrangement and connection of the +parts: such grace may be added to subjects merely common. In my +judgment the Fauns, that are brought out of the woods, should not be too +gamesome with their tender strains, as if they were educated in the +city, and almost at the bar; nor, on the other hand; should blunder out +their obscene and scandalous speeches. For [at such stuff] all are +offended, who have a horse, a father, or an estate: nor will they +receive with approbation, nor give the laurel crown, as the purchasers +of parched peas and nuts are delighted with.</p> + +<p>A long syllable put after a short one is termed an iambus, a lively +measure, whence also it commanded the name of trimeters to be added to +iambics, though it yielded six beats of time, being similar to itself +from first to last. Not long ago, that it might come somewhat slower and +with more majesty to the ear, it obligingly and contentedly admitted +into its paternal heritage the steadfast spondees; agreeing however, by +social league, that it was not to depart from the second and fourth +place. But this [kind of measure] rarely makes its appearance in the +notable trimeters of Accius, and brands the verse of Ennius brought upon +the stage with a clumsy weight of spondees, with the imputation of being +too precipitate and careless, or disgracefully accuses him of ignorance +in his art.</p> + +<p>It is not every judge that discerns inharmonious verses, and an +undeserved indulgence is [in this case] granted to the Roman poets. But +shall I on this account run riot and write licentiously? Or should not I +rather suppose, that all the world are to see my faults; secure, and +cautious [never to err] but with hope of being pardoned? Though, +perhaps, I have merited no praise, I have escaped censure.</p> + +<p>Ye [who are desirous to excel,] turn over the Grecian models by night, +turn them by day. But our ancestors commended both the numbers of +Plautus, and his strokes of pleasantry; too tamely, I will not say +foolishly, admiring each of them; if you and I but know how to +distinguish a coarse joke from a smart repartee, and understand the +proper cadence, by [using] our fingers and ears.</p> + +<p>Thespis is said to have invented a new kind of tragedy, and to have +carried his pieces about in carts, which [certain strollers], who had +their faces besmeared with lees of wine, sang and acted. After him +Aeschylus, the inventor of the vizard mask and decent robe, laid the +stage over with boards of a tolerable size, and taught to speak in lofty +tone, and strut in the buskin. To these succeeded the old comedy, not +without considerable praise: but its personal freedom degenerated into +excess and violence, worthy to be regulated by law; a law was made +accordingly, and the chorus, the right of abusing being taken away, +disgracefully became silent.</p> + +<p>Our poets have left no species [of the art] unattempted; nor have those +of them merited the least honor, who dared to forsake the footsteps of +the Greeks, and celebrate domestic facts; whether they have instructed +us in tragedy, of comedy. Nor would Italy be raised higher by valor and +feats of arms, than by its language, did not the fatigue and tediousness +of using the file disgust every one of our poets. Do you, the decendants +of Pompilius, reject that poem, which many days and many a blot have not +ten times subdued to the most perfect accuracy. Because Democritus +believes that genius is more successful than wretched art, and excludes +from Helicon all poets who are in their senses, a great number do not +care to part with their nails or beard, frequent places of solitude, +shun the baths. For he will acquire, [he thinks,] the esteem and title +of a poet, if he neither submits his head, which is not to be cured by +even three Anticyras, to Licinius the barber. What an unlucky fellow am +I, who am purged for the bile in spring-time! Else nobody would compose +better poems; but the purchase is not worth the expense. Therefore I +will serve instead of a whetstone, which though not able of itself to +cut, can make steel sharp: so I, who can write no poetry myself, will +teach the duty and business [of an author]; whence he may be stocked +with rich materials; what nourishes and forms the poet; what gives +grace, what not; what is the tendency of excellence, what that of error.</p> + +<p>To have good sense, is the first principle and fountain of writing well. +The Socratic papers will direct you in the choice of your subjects; and +words will spontaneously accompany the subject, when it is well +conceived. He who has learned what he owes to his country, and what to +his friends; with what affection a parent, a brother, and a stranger, +are to be loved; what is the duty of a senator, what of a judge; what +the duties of a general sent out to war; he, [I say,] certainly knows +how to give suitable attributes to every character. I should direct the +learned imitator to have a regard to the mode of nature and manners, and +thence draw his expressions to the life. Sometimes a play, that is +showy with common-places, and where the manners are well marked, though +of no elegance, without force or art, gives the people much higher +delight and more effectually commands their attention, than verse void +of matter, and tuneful trifles.</p> + +<p>To the Greeks, covetous of nothing but praise, the muse gave genius; to +the Greeks the power of expressing themselves in round periods. The +Roman youth learn by long computation to subdivide a pound into an +hundred parts. Let the son of Albinus tell me, if from five ounces one +be subtracted, what remains? He would have said the third of a +pound.—Bravely done! you will be able to take care of your own affairs. +An ounce is added: what will that be? Half a pound. When this sordid +rust and hankering after wealth has once tainted their minds, can we +expect that such verses should be made as are worthy of being anointed +with the oil of cedar, and kept in the well-polished cypress?</p> + +<p>Poets wish either to profit or to delight; or to deliver at once both +the pleasures and the necessaries of life. Whatever precepts you give, +be concise; that docile minds may soon comprehend what is said, and +faithfully retain it. All superfluous instructions flow from the too +full memory. Let what ever is imagined for the sake of entertainment, +have as much likeness to truth as possible; let not your play demand +belief for whatever [absurdities] it is inclinable [to exhibit]: nor +take out of a witch's belly a living child that she had dined upon. The +tribes of the seniors rail against every thing that is void of +edification: the exalted knights disregard poems which are austere. He +who joins the instructive with the agreeable, carries off every vote, by +delighting and at the same time admonishing the reader. This book gains +money for the Sosii; this crosses the sea, and continues to its renowned +author a lasting duration.</p> + +<p>Yet there are faults, which we should be ready to pardon: for neither +does the string [always] form the sound which the hand and conception +[of the performer] intends, but very often returns a sharp note when he +demands a flat; nor will the bow always hit whatever mark it threatens. +But when there is a great majority of beauties in a poem, I will not be +offended with a few blemishes, which either inattention has dropped, or +human nature has not sufficiently provided against. What therefore [is +to be determined in this matter]? As a transcriber, if he still commits +the same fault though he has been reproved, is without excuse; and the +harper who always blunders on the same string, is sure to be laughed at; +so he who is excessively deficient becomes another Choerilus; whom, when +I find him tolerable in two or three places, I wonder at with laughter; +and at the same time am I grieved whenever honest Homer grows drowsy? +But it is allowable, that sleep should steal upon [the progress of] a +king work.</p> + +<p>As is painting, so is poetry: some pieces will strike you more if you +stand near, and some, if you are at a greater distance: one loves the +dark; another, which is not afraid of the critic's subtle judgment, +chooses to be seen in the light; the one has pleased once, the other +will give pleasure if ten times repeated.</p> + +<p>O ye elder of the youths, though you are framed to a right judgment by +your father's instructions, and are wise in yourself, yet take this +truth along with you, [and] remember it; that in certain things a medium +and tolerable degree of eminence may be admitted: a counselor and +pleader at the bar of the middle rate is far removed from the merit of +eloquent Messala, nor has so much knowledge of the law as Casselius +Aulus, but yet he is in request; [but] a mediocrity in poets neither +gods, nor men, nor [even] the booksellers' shops have endured. As at an +agreeable entertainment discordant music, and muddy perfume, and poppies +mixed with Sardinian honey give offense, because the supper might have +passed without them; so poetry, created and invented for the delight of +our souls, if it comes short ever so little of the summit, sinks to the +bottom.</p> + +<p>He who does not understand the game, abstains from the weapons of the +Campus Martius: and the unskillful in the tennis-ball, the quoit, and +the troques keeps himself quiet; lest the crowded ring should raise a +laugh at his expense: notwithstanding this, he who knows nothing of +verses presumes to compose. Why not! He is free-born, and of a good +family; above all, he is registered at an equestrian sum of moneys, and +clear from every vice. You, [I am persuaded,] will neither say nor do +any thing in opposition to Minerva: such is your judgment, such your +disposition. But if ever you shall write anything, let it be submitted +to the ears of Metius [Tarpa], who is a judge, and your father's, and +mine; and let it be suppressed till the ninth year, your papers being +held up within your own custody. You will have it in your power to blot +out what you have not made public: a word ice sent abroad can never +return.</p> + +<p>Orpheus, the priest and Interpreter of the gods, deterred the savage +race of men from slaughters and inhuman diet; once said to tame tigers +and furious lions: Amphion too, the builder of the Theban wall, was said +to give the stones moon with the sound of his lyre, and to lead them +whithersover he would, by engaging persuasion. This was deemed wisdom of +yore, to distinguish the public from private weal; things sacred from +things profane; to prohibit a promiscuous commerce between the sexes; to +give laws to married people; to plan out cities; to engrave laws on +[tables of] wood. Thus honor accrued to divine poets, and their songs. +After these, excellent Homer and Tyrtaeus animated the manly mind to +martial achievements with their verses. Oracles were delivered in +poetry, and the economy of life pointed out, and the favor of sovereign +princes was solicited by Pierian drains, games were instituted, and a +[cheerful] period put to the tedious labors of the day; [this I remind +you of,] lest haply you should be ashamed of the lyric muse, and Apollo +the god of song.</p> + +<p>It has been made a question, whether good poetry be derived from nature +or from art. For my part, I can neither conceive what study can do +without a rich [natural] vein, nor what rude genius can avail of itself: +so much does the one require the assistance of the other, and so +amicably do they conspire [to produce the same effect]. He who is +industrious to reach the wished-for goal, has done and suffered much +when a boy; he has sweated and shivered with cold; he has abstained from +love and wine; he who sings the Pythian strains, was a learner first, +and in awe of a master. But [in poetry] it is now enough for a man to +say of himself: "I make admirable verses: a murrain seize the hindmost: +it is scandalous for me to be outstripped, and fairly to Acknowledge +that I am ignorant of that which I never learned."</p> + +<p>As a crier who collects the crowd together to buy his goods, so a poet +rich in land, rich in money put out at interest, invites flatterers to +come [and praise his works] for a reward. But if he be one who is well +able to set out an elegant table, and give security for a poor man, and +relieve when entangled in glaomy law-suits; I shall wonder if with his +wealth he can distinguish a true friend from false one. You, whether +you have made, or intend to make, a present to any one, do not bring him +full of joy directly to your finished verses: for then he will cry out, +"Charming, excellent, judicious," he will turn pale; at some parts he +will even distill the dew from his friendly eyes; he will jump about; he +will beat the ground [with ecstasy]. As those who mourn at funerals for +pay, do and say more than those that are afflicted from their hearts; so +the sham admirer is more moved than he that praises with sincerity. +Certain kings are said to ply with frequent bumpers, and by wine make +trial of a man whom they are sedulous to know whether he be worthy of +their friendship or not. Thus, if you compose verses, let not the fox's +concealed intentions impose upon you.</p> + +<p>If you had recited any thing to Quintilius, he would say, "Alter, I +pray, this and this:" if you replied, you could do it no better, having +made the experiment twice or thrice in vain; he would order you to blot +out, and once more apply to the anvil your ill-formed verses: if you +choose rather to defend than correct a fault, he spent not a word more +nor fruitless labor, but you alone might be fond of yourself and your +own works, without a rival. A good and sensible man will censure +spiritless verses, he will condemn the rugged, on the incorrect he will +draw across a black stroke with his pen; he will lop off ambitious [and +redundant] ornaments; he will make him throw light on the parts that are +not perspicuous; he will arraign what is expressed ambiguously; he will +mark what should be altered; [in short,] he will be an Aristarchus: he +will not say, "Why should I give my friend offense about mere trifles?" +These trifles will lead into mischiefs of serious consequence, when once +made an object of ridicule, and used in a sinister manner.</p> + +<p>Like one whom an odious plague or jaundice, fanatic phrensy or lunacy, +distresses; those who are wise avoid a mad poet, and are afraid to touch +him; the boys jostle him, and the incautious pursue him. If, like a +fowler intent upon his game, he should fall into a well or a ditch while +he belches out his fustian verses and roams about, though he should cry +out for a long time, "Come to my assistance, O my countrymen;" not one +would give himself the trouble of taking him up. Were any one to take +pains to give him aid, and let down a rope; "How do you know, but he +threw himself in hither on purpose?" I shall say: and will relate the +death of the Sicilian poet. Empedocles, while he was ambitious of being +esteemed an immortal god, in cold blood leaped into burning Aetna. Let +poets have the privilege and license to die [as they please]. He who +saves a man against his will, does the same with him who kills him +[against his will]. Neither is it the first time that he has behaved in +this manner; nor, were he to be forced from his purposes, would he now +become a man, and lay aside his desire of such a famous death. Neither +does it appear sufficiently, why he makes verses: whether he has defiled +his father's ashes, or sacrilegiously removed the sad enclosure of the +vindictive thunder: it is evident that he is mad, and like a bear that +has burst through the gates closing his den, this unmerciful rehearser +chases the learned and unlearned. And whomsoever he seizes, he fastens +on and assassinates with recitation: a leech that will not quit the +skin, till satiated with blood.</p> + +<p>THE END</p> + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Horace, by Horace + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF HORACE *** + +***** This file should be named 14020-h.htm or 14020-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/0/2/14020/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/old/14020.txt b/old/14020.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de367f6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14020.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8836 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Horace, by Horace + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Works of Horace + +Author: Horace + +Release Date: November 11, 2004 [EBook #14020] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF HORACE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team + + + + + +Handy Literal Translations + +THE WORKS OF HORACE + +_TRANSLATED LITERALLY INTO ENGLISH PROSE_ + + + +By C. Smart, A.M. + +Of Pembroke College, Cambridge + + + +_A NEW EDITION_ + + + +REVISED BY + +Theodore Alois Buckley B.A. Of Christ Church + + + + + +THE FIRST BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE. + + + +ODE I. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +Maecenas, descended from royal ancestors, O both my protection and my +darling honor! There are those whom it delights to have collected +Olympic dust in the chariot race; and [whom] the goal nicely avoided by +the glowing wheels, and the noble palm, exalts, lords of the earth, to +the gods. + +This man, if a crowd of the capricious Quirites strive to raise him to +the highest dignities; another, if he has stored up in his own granary +whatsoever is swept from the Libyan thrashing floors: him who delights +to cut with the hoe his patrimonial fields, you could never tempt, for +all the wealth of Attalus, [to become] a timorous sailor and cross the +Myrtoan sea in a Cyprian bark. The merchant, dreading the south-west +wind contending with the Icarian waves, commends tranquility and the +rural retirement of his village; but soon after, incapable of being +taught to bear poverty, he refits his shattered vessel. There is +another, who despises not cups of old Massic, taking a part from the +entire day, one while stretched under the green arbute, another at the +placid head of some sacred stream. + +The camp, and the sound of the trumpet mingled with that of the clarion, +and wars detested by mothers, rejoice many. + +The huntsman, unmindful of his tender spouse, remains in the cold air, +whether a hart is held in view by his faithful hounds, or a Marsian boar +has broken the fine-wrought toils. + +Ivy, the reward of learned brows, equals me with the gods above: the +cool grove, and the light dances of nymphs and satyrs, distinguish me +from the crowd; if neither Euterpe withholds her pipe, nor Polyhymnia +disdains to tune the Lesbian lyre. But, if you rank me among the lyric +poets, I shall tower to the stars with my exalted head. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE II. + +TO AUGUSTUS CAESAR + + +Enough of snow and dreadful hail has the Sire now sent upon the earth, +and having hurled [his thunderbolts] with his red right hand against the +sacred towers, he has terrified the city; he has terrified the nations, +lest the grievous age of Pyrrha, complaining of prodigies till then +unheard of, should return, when Proteus drove all his [marine] herd to +visit the lofty mountains; and the fishy race were entangled in the elm +top, which before was the frequented seat of doves; and the timorous +deer swam in the overwhelming flood. We have seen the yellow Tiber, with +his waves forced back with violence from the Tuscan shore, proceed to +demolish the monuments of king [Numa], and the temples of Vesta; while +he vaunts himself the avenger of the too disconsolate Ilia, and the +uxorious river, leaving his channel, overflows his left bank, +notwithstanding the disapprobation of Jupiter. + +Our youth, less numerous by the vices of their fathers, shall hear of +the citizens having whetted that sword [against themselves], with which +it had been better that the formidable Persians had fallen; they shall +hear of [actual] engagements. Whom of the gods shall the people invoke +to the affairs of the sinking empire? With what prayer shall the sacred +virgins importune Vesta, who is now inattentive to their hymns? To whom +shall Jupiter assign the task of expiating our wickedness? Do thou at +length, prophetic Apollo, (we pray thee!) come, vailing thy radiant +shoulders with a cloud: or thou, if it be more agreeable to thee, +smiling Venus, about whom hover the gods of mirth and love: or thou, if +thou regard thy neglected race and descendants, our founder Mars, whom +clamor and polished helmets, and the terrible aspect of the Moorish +infantry against their bloody enemy, delight, satiated at length with +thy sport, alas! of too long continuance: or if thou, the winged son of +gentle Maia, by changing thy figure, personate a youth upon earth, +submitting to be called the avenger of Caesar; late mayest thou return +to the skies, and long mayest thou joyously be present to the Roman +people; nor may an untimely blast transport thee from us, offended at +our crimes. Here mayest thou rather delight in magnificent triumphs, and +to be called father and prince: nor suffer the Parthians with impunity +to make incursions, you, O Caesar, being our general. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE III. + +TO THE SHIP, IN WHICH VIRGIL WAS ABOUT TO SAIL TO ATHENS. + + +So may the goddess who rules over Cyprus; so may the bright stars, the +brothers of Helen; and so may the father of the winds, confining all +except Iapyx, direct thee, O ship, who art intrusted with Virgil; my +prayer is, that thou mayest land him safe on the Athenian shore, and +preserve the half of my soul. Surely oak and three-fold brass surrounded +his heart who first trusted a frail vessel to the merciless ocean, nor +was afraid of the impetuous Africus contending with the northern storms, +nor of the mournful Hyades, nor of the rage of Notus, than whom there is +not a more absolute controller of the Adriatic, either to raise or +assuage its waves at pleasure. What path of death did he fear, who +beheld unmoved the rolling monsters of the deep; who beheld unmoved the +tempestuous swelling of the sea, and the Acroceraunians--ill-famed +rocks? + +In vain has God in his wisdom divided the countries of the earth by the +separating ocean, if nevertheless profane ships bound over waters not to +be violated. The race of man presumptuous enough to endure everything, +rushes on through forbidden wickedness. + +The presumptuous son of Iapetus, by an impious fraud, brought down fire +into the world. After fire was stolen from the celestial mansions, +consumption and a new train of fevers settled upon the earth, and the +slow approaching necessity of death, which, till now, was remote, +accelerated its pace. Daedalus essayed the empty air with wings not +permitted to man. The labor of Hercules broke through Acheron. There is +nothing too arduous for mortals to attempt. We aim at heaven itself in +our folly; neither do we suffer, by our wickedness, Jupiter to lay aside +his revengeful thunderbolts. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IV. + +TO SEXTIUS. + + +Severe winter is melted away beneath the agreeable change of spring and +the western breeze; and engines haul down the dry ships. And neither +does the cattle any longer delight in the stalls, nor the ploughman in +the fireside; nor are the meadows whitened by hoary frosts. Now +Cytherean Venus leads off the dance by moonlight; and the comely Graces, +in conjunction with the Nymphs, shake the ground with alternate feet; +while glowing Vulcan kindles the laborious forges of the Cyclops. Now it +is fitting to encircle the shining head either with verdant myrtle, or +with such flowers as the relaxed earth produces. Now likewise it is +fitting to sacrifice to Faunus in the shady groves, whether he demand a +lamb, or be more pleased with a kid. Pale death knocks at the cottages +of the poor, and the palaces of kings, with an impartial foot. O happy +Sextius! The short sum total of life forbids us to form remote +expectations. Presently shall darkness, and the unreal ghosts, and the +shadowy mansion of Pluto oppress you; where, when you shall have once +arrived, you shall neither decide the dominion of the bottle by dice, +nor shall you admire the tender Lycidas, with whom now all the youth is +inflamed, and for whom ere long the maidens will grow warm. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE V. + +TO PYRRHA. + + +What dainty youth, bedewed with liquid perfumes, caresses you, Pyrrha, +beneath the pleasant grot, amid a profusion of roses? For whom do you +bind your golden hair, plain in your neatness? Alas! how often shall he +deplore your perfidy, and the altered gods; and through inexperience be +amazed at the seas, rough with blackening storms who now credulous +enjoys you all precious, and, ignorant of the faithless gale, hopes you +will be always disengaged, always amiable! Wretched are those, to whom +thou untried seemest fair? The sacred wall [of Neptune's temple] +demonstrates, by a votive tablet, that I have consecrated my dropping +garments to the powerful god of the sea. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VI. + +TO AGRIPPA. + + +You shall be described by Varius, a bird of Maeonian verse, as brave, +and a subduer of your enemies, whatever achievements your fierce +soldiery shall have accomplished, under your command; either on +ship-board or on horseback. We humble writers, O Agrippa, neither +undertake these high subjects, nor the destructive wrath of inexorable +Achilles, nor the voyages of the crafty Ulysses, nor the cruel house of +Pelops: while diffidence, and the Muse who presides over the peaceful +lyre, forbid me to diminish the praise of illustrious Caesar, and yours, +through defect of genius. Who with sufficient dignity will describe Mars +covered with adamantine coat of mail, or Meriones swarthy with Trojan +dust, or the son of Tydeus by the favor of Pallas a match for the gods? +We, whether free, or ourselves enamored of aught, light as our wont, +sing of banquets; we, of the battles of maids desperate against young +fellows--with pared nails. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VII. + +TO MUNATIUS PLANCUS. + + +Other poets shall celebrate the famous Rhodes, or Mitylene, or Ephesus, +or the walls of Corinth, situated between two seas, or Thebes, +illustrious by Bacchus, or Delphi by Apollo, or the Thessalian Tempe. +There are some, whose one task it is to chant in endless verse the city +of spotless Pallas, and to prefer the olive culled from every side, to +every other leaf. Many a one, in honor of Juno, celebrates Argos, +productive of steeds, and rich Mycenae. Neither patient Lacedaemon 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 +clear south wind often clears away the clouds from a lowering sky, now +teems with perpetual showers; so do you, O Plancus, wisely remember to +put an end to grief 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 his +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 re-visit the vast ocean." + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VIII. + +TO LYDIA. + + +Lydia, I conjure thee by all the powers above, to tell me why you are so +intent to ruin Sybaris by inspiring him with love? Why hates he the +sunny plain, though inured to bear the dust and heat? Why does he +neither, in military accouterments, 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 of the ring more cautiously than +viper's blood? Why neither does he, who has often acquired 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 +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? + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IX. + +TO THALIARCHUS. + + +You see how Soracte stands white with deep snow, nor can the laboring +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, O 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 +tomorrow; and whatever day fortune shall bestow on you, score it up for +gain; nor disdain, being a young fellow, pleasant 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 at the +approach of evening be repeated at the appointed hour: now, too, the +delightful laugh, the betrayer of the lurking damsel from some secret +corner, and the token ravished from her arms or fingers, pretendingly +tenacious of it. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE X. + +TO MERCURY. + + +Mercury, eloquent grandson of Atlas, thou who artful didst from the +savage manners of the early race of men by oratory, and the institution +of the graceful Palaestra: I will celebrate thee, messenger of Jupiter +and the other gods, and parent of the curved lyre; ingenious to conceal +whatever thou hast a mind to, in jocose theft. While Apollo, with angry +voice, threatened you, then but a boy, unless you would restore the +oxen, previously driven away by your fraud, he laughed, [when he found +himself] deprived of his quiver [also]. Moreover, the wealthy Priam too, +on his departure from Ilium, under your guidance deceived the proud sons +of Atreus, and the Thessalian watch-lights, and the camp inveterate +agaist Troy. You settle the souls of good men in blissful regions, and +drive together the airy crowd with your golden rod, acceptable both to +the supernal and infernal gods. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XI. + +TO LEUCONOE. + + +Inquire not, Leuconoe (it is not fitting you should know), how long a +term of life the gods have granted to you or to me: neither consult the +Chaldean calculations. How much better is it to bear with patience +whatever shall happen! Whether Jupiter have granted us more winters, or +[this as] the last, which now breaks the Etrurian waves against the +opposing rocks. Be wise; rack off your wines, and abridge your hopes [in +proportion] to the shortness of your life. While we are conversing, +envious age has been flying; seize the present day, not giving the least +credit to the succeeding one. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XII. + +TO AUGUSTUS. + + +What man, what hero, O Clio, do you undertake to celebrate on the harp, +or the shrill pipe? What god? Whose name shall the sportive echo +resound, either in the shady borders of Helicon, or on the top of +Pindus, or on cold Haemus? Whence the woods followed promiscuously the +tuneful Orpheus, who by his maternal art retarded the rapid courses of +rivers, and the fleet winds; and was so sweetly persuasive, that he drew +along the listening oaks with his harmonious strings. But what can I +sing prior to the usual praises of the Sire, who governs the affairs of +men and gods; who [governs] the sea, the earth, and the whole world with +the vicissitudes of seasons? Whence nothing is produced greater than +him; nothing springs either like him, or even in a second degree to him: +nevertheless, Pallas has acquired these honors, which are next after +him. + +Neither will I pass thee by in silence, O Bacchus, bold in combat; nor +thee, O Virgin, who art an enemy to the savage beasts; nor thee, O +Phoebus, formidable for thy unerring dart. + +I will sing also of Hercules, and the sons of Leda, the one illustrious +for his achievements on horseback, the other on foot; whose +clear-shining constellation as soon as it has shone forth to the +sailors, the troubled surge falls down from the rocks, the winds cease, +the clouds vanish, and the threatening waves subside in the sea--because +it was their will. After these, I am in doubt whom I shall first +commemorate, whether Romulus, or the peaceful reign of Numa, or the +splendid ensigns of Tarquinius, or the glorious death of Cato. I will +celebrate, out of gratitude, with the choicest verses, Regulus, and the +Scauri, and Paulus, prodigal of his mighty soul, when Carthage +conquered, and Fabricius. + +Severe poverty, and an hereditary farm, with a dwelling suited to it, +formed this hero useful in war; as it did also Curius with his rough +locks, and Camillus. The fame of Marcellus increases, as a tree does in +the insensible progress of time. But the Julian constellation shines +amid them all, as the moon among the smaller stars. O thou son of +Saturn, author and preserver of the human race, the protection of Caesar +is committed to thy charge by the Fates: thou shalt reign supreme, with +Caesar for thy second. Whether he shall subdue with a just victory the +Parthians making inroads upon Italy, or shall render subject the Seres +and Indians on the Eastern coasts; he shall rule the wide world with +equity, in subordination to thee. Thou shalt shake Olympus with thy +tremendous car; thou shalt hurl thy hostile thunderbolts against the +polluted groves. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIII. + +TO LYDIA. + + +O Lydia, when you commend Telephus' rosy neck, and the waxen arms of +Telephus, alas! my inflamed liver swells with bile difficult to be +repressed. Then neither is my mind firm, nor does my color maintain a +certain situation: and the involuntary tears glide down my cheek, +proving with what lingering flames I am inwardly consumed. I am on fire, +whether quarrels rendered immoderate by wine have stained your fair +shoulders; or whether the youth, in his fury, has impressed with his +teeth a memorial on your lips. If you will give due attention to my +advice, never expect that he will be constant, who inhumanly wounds +those sweet kisses, which Venus has imbued with the fifth part of all +her nectar. O thrice and more than thrice happy those, whom an +indissoluble connection binds together; and whose love, undivided by +impious complainings, does not separate them sooner than the last day! + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIV. + +TO THE ROMAN STATE. + + +O ship, new waves will bear you back again to sea. O what are you doing? +Bravely seize the port. Do you not perceive, that your sides are +destitute of oars, and your mast wounded by the violent south wind, and +your main-yards groan, and your keel can scarcely support the +impetuosity of the waves without the help of cordage? You have not +entire sails; nor gods, whom you may again invoke, pressed with +distress: notwithstanding you are made of the pines of Pontus, and as +the daughter of an illustrious wood, boast your race, and a fame now of +no service to you. The timorous sailor has no dependence on a painted +stern. Look to yourself, unless you are destined to be the sport of the +winds. O thou, so lately my trouble and fatigue, but now an object of +tenderness and solicitude, mayest thou escape those dangerous seas which +flow among the shining Cyclades. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XV. + +TO PARIS. + + +When the perfidious shepherd (Paris) carried off by sea in Trojan ships +his hostess Helen, Nereus suppressed the swift winds in an unpleasant +calm, that he might sing the dire fates. "With unlucky omen art thou +conveying home her, whom Greece with a numerous army shall demand back +again, having entered into a confederacy to dissolve your nuptials, and +the ancient kingdom of Priam. Alas! what sweat to horses, what to men, +is just at hand! What a destruction art thou preparing for the Trojan +nation! Even now Pallas is fitting her helmet, and her shield, and her +chariot, and her fury. In vain, looking fierce through the patronage of +Venus, will you comb your hair, and run divisions upon the effeminate +lyre with songs pleasing to women. In vain will you escape the spears +that disturb the nuptial bed, and the point of the Cretan dart, and the +din [of battle], and Ajax swift in the pursuit. Nevertheless, alas! the +time will come, though late, when thou shalt defile thine adulterous +hairs in the dust. Dost thou not see the son of Laertes, fatal to thy +nation, and Pylian Nestor, Salaminian Teucer, and Sthenelus skilled in +fight (or if there be occasion to manage horses, no tardy charioteer), +pursue thee with intrepidity? Meriones also shalt thou experience. +Behold! the gallant son of Tydeus, a better man than his father, glows +to find you out: him, as a stag flies a wolf, which he has seen on the +opposite side of the vale, unmindful of his pasture, shall you, +effeminate, fly, grievously panting:--not such the promises you made +your mistress. The fleet of the enraged Achilles shall defer for a time +that day, which is to be fatal to Troy and the Trojan matrons: but, +after a certain number of years, Grecian fire shall consume the Trojan +palaces." + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVI. + +TO A YOUNG LADY HORACE HAD OFFENDED. + + +O daughter, more charming than your charming mother, put what end you +please to my insulting iambics; either in the flames, or, if you choose +it, in the Adriatic. Nor Cybele, nor Apollo, the dweller in the shrines, +so shakes the breast of his priests; Bacchus does not do it equally, nor +do the Corybantes so redouble their strokes on the sharp-sounding +cymbals, as direful anger; which neither the Noric sword can deter, nor +the shipwrecking sea, nor dreadful fire, not Jupiter himself rushing +down with awful crash. It is reported that Prometheus was obliged to add +to that original clay [with which he formed mankind], some ingredient +taken from every animal, and that he applied the vehemence of the raging +lion to the human breast. It was rage that destroyed Thyestes with +horrible perdition; and has been the final cause that lofty cities have +been entirely demolished, and that an insolent army has driven the +hostile plowshare over their walls. Compose your mind. An ardor of soul +attacked me also in blooming youth, and drove me in a rage to the +writing of swift-footed iambics. Now I am desirous of exchanging +severity for good nature, provided that you will become my friend, after +my having recanted my abuse, and restore me your affections. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVII. + +TO TYNDARIS. + + +The nimble Faunus often exchanges the Lycaean mountain for the pleasant +Lucretilis, and always defends my she-goats from the scorching summer, +and the rainy winds. The wandering wives of the unsavory husband seek +the hidden strawberry-trees and thyme with security through the safe +grove: nor do the kids dread the green lizards, or the wolves sacred to +Mars; whenever, my Tyndaris, the vales and the smooth rocks of the +sloping Ustica have resounded with his melodious pipe. The gods are my +protectors. My piety and my muse are agreeable to the gods. Here plenty, +rich with rural honors, shall flow to you, with her generous horn filled +to the brim. Here, in a sequestered vale, you shall avoid the heat of +the dog-star; and, on your Anacreontic harp, sing of Penelope and the +frail Circe striving for one lover; here you shall quaff, under the +shade, cups of unintoxicating Lesbian. Nor shall the raging son of +Semele enter the combat with Mars; and unsuspected you shall not fear +the insolent Cyrus, lest he should savagely lay his intemperate hands on +you, who are by no means a match for him; and should rend the chaplet +that is platted in your hair, and your inoffensive garment. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVIII. + +TO VARUS. + + +O Varus, you can plant no tree preferable to the sacred vine, about the +mellow soil of Tibur, and the walls of Catilus. For God hath rendered +every thing cross to the sober; nor do biting cares disperse any +otherwise [than by the use of wine]. Who, after wine, complains of the +hardships of war or of poverty? Who does not rather [celebrate] thee, +Father Bacchus, and thee, comely Venus? Nevertheless, the battle of the +Centaurs with the Lapithae, which was fought in their cups, admonishes +us not to exceed a moderate use of the gifts of Bacchus. And Bacchus +himself admonishes us in his severity to the Thracians; when greedy to +satisfy their lusts, they make little distinction between right and +wrong. O beauteous Bacchus, I will not rouse thee against thy will, nor +will I hurry abroad thy [mysteries, which are] covered with various +leaves. Cease your dire cymbals, together with your Phrygian horn, whose +followers are blind Self-love and Arrogance, holding up too high her +empty head, and the Faith communicative of secrets, and more transparent +than glass. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIX. + +TO GLYCERA. + + +The cruel mother of the Cupids, and the son of the Theban Gemele, and +lascivious ease, command me to give back my mind to its deserted loves. +The splendor of Glycera, shining brighter than the Parian marble, +inflames me: her agreeable petulance, and her countenance, too unsteady +to be beheld, inflame me. Venus, rushing on me with her whole force, has +quitted Cyprus; and suffers me not to sing of the Scythians, and the +Parthian, furious when his horse is turned for flight, or any subject +which is not to the present purpose. Here, slaves, place me a live turf; +here, place me vervains and frankincense, with a flagon of two-year-old +wine. She will approach more propitious, after a victim has been +sacrificed. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XX. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +My dear knight Maecenas, you shall drink [at my house] ignoble Sabine +wine in sober cups, which I myself sealed up in the Grecian cask, stored +at the time, when so loud an applause was given to you in the +amphitheatre, that the banks of your ancestral river, together with the +cheerful echo of the Vatican mountain, returned your praises. You [when +you are at home] will drink the Caecuban, and the grape which is +squeezed in the Calenian press; but neither the Falernian vines, nor the +Formian hills, season my cups. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXI. + +ON DIANA AND APOLLO. + + +Ye tender virgins, sing Diana; ye boys, sing Apollo with his unshorn +hair, and Latona passionately beloved by the supreme Jupiter. Ye +(virgins), praise her that rejoices in the rivers, and the thick groves, +which project either from the cold Algidus, or the gloomy woods of +Erymanthus, or the green Cragus. Ye boys, extol with equal praises +Apollo's Delos, and his shoulder adorned with a quiver, and with his +brother Mercury's lyre. He, moved by your intercession, shall drive away +calamitous war, and miserable famine, and the plague from the Roman +people and their sovereign Caesar, to the Persians and the Britons. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXII. + +TO ARISTIUS FUSCUS. + + +The man of upright life and pure from wickedness, O Fuscus, has no need +of the Moorish javelins, or bow, or quiver loaded with poisoned darts. +Whether he is about to make his journey through the sultry Syrtes, or +the inhospitable Caucasus, or those places which Hydaspes, celebrated in +story, washes. For lately, as I was singing my Lalage, and wandered +beyond my usual bounds, devoid of care, a wolf in the Sabine wood fled +from me, though I was unarmed: such a monster as neither the warlike +Apulia nourishes in its extensive woods, nor the land of Juba, the +dry-nurse of lions, produces. Place me in those barren plains, where no +tree is refreshed by the genial air; at that part of the world, which +clouds and an inclement atmosphere infest. Place me under the chariot of +the too neighboring sun, in a land deprived of habitations; [there] will +I love my sweetly-smiling, sweetly-speaking Lalage. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXIII. + +TO CHLOE. + + +You shun me, Chloe, like a fawn that is seeking its timorous mother in +the pathless mountains, not without a vain dread of the breezes and the +thickets: for she trembles both in her heart and knees, whether the +arrival of the spring has terrified by its rustling leaves, or the green +lizards have stirred the bush. But I do not follow you, like a savage +tigress, or a Gaetulian lion, to tear you to pieces. Therefore, quit +your mother, now that you are mature for a husband. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXIV. + +TO VIRGIL. + + +What shame or bound can there be to our affectionate regret for so dear +a person? O Melpomene, on whom your father has bestowed a clear voice +and the harp, teach me the mournful strains. Does then perpetual sleep +oppress Quinctilius? To whom when will modesty, and uncorrupt faith the +sister of Justice, and undisguised truth, find any equal? He died +lamented by many good men, but more lamented by none than by you, my +Virgil. You, though pious, alas! in vain demand Quinctilius back from +the gods, who did not lend him to us on such terms. What, though you +could strike the lyre, listened to by the trees, with more sweetness +than the Thracian Orpheus; yet the blood can never return to the empty +shade, which Mercury, inexorable to reverse the fates, has with his +dreadful Caduceus once driven to the gloomy throng. This is hard: but +what it is out of our power to amend, becomes more supportable by +patience. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXV. + +TO LYDIA. + + +The wanton youths less violently shake thy fastened windows with their +redoubled knocks, nor do they rob you of your rest; and your door, which +formerly moved its yielding hinges freely, now sticks lovingly to its +threshold. Less and less often do you now hear: "My Lydia, dost thou +sleep the live-long night, while I your lover am dying?" Now you are an +old woman, it will be your turn to bewail the insolence of rakes, when +you are neglected in a lonely alley, while the Thracian wind rages at +the Interlunium: when that hot desire and lust, which is wont to render +furious the dams of horses, shall rage about your ulcerous liver: not +without complaint, that sprightly youth rejoice rather in the verdant +ivy and growing myrtle, and dedicate sapless leaves to Eurus, the +companion of winter. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXVI. + +TO AELIUS LAMIA. + + +A friend to the Muses, I will deliver up grief and fears to the wanton +winds, to waft into the Cretan Sea; singularly careless, what king of a +frozen region is dreaded under the pole, or what terrifies Tiridates. O +sweet muse, who art delighted with pure fountains, weave together the +sunny flowers, weave a chaplet for my Lamia. Without thee, my praises +profit nothing. To render him immortal by new strains, to render him +immortal by the Lesbian lyre, becomes both thee and thy sisters. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXVII. + +TO HIS COMPANIONS. + + +To quarrel over your cups, which were made for joy, is downright +Thracian. Away with the barbarous custom, and protect modest Bacchus +from bloody frays. How immensely disagreeable to wine and candles is the +sabre of the Medes! O my companions, repress your wicked vociferations, +and rest quietly on bended elbow. Would you have me also take my share +of stout Falernian? Let the brother of Opuntian Megilla then declare, +with what wound he is blessed, with what dart he is dying.--What, do you +refuse? I will not drink upon any other condition. Whatever kind of +passion rules you, it scorches you with the flames you need not be +ashamed of, and you always indulge in an honorable, an ingenuous love. +Come, whatever is your case, trust it to faithful ears. Ah, unhappy! in +what a Charybdis art thou struggling, O youth, worthy of a better flame! +What witch, what magician, with his Thessalian incantations, what deity +can free you? Pegasus himself will scarcely deliver you, so entangled, +from this three-fold chimera. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXVIII. + +ARCHYTAS. + + +The [want of the] scanty present of a little sand near the Mantinian +shore, confines thee, O Archytas, the surveyor of sea and earth, and of +the innumerable sand: neither is it of any advantage to you, to have +explored the celestial regions, and to have traversed the round world in +your imagination, since thou wast to die. Thus also did the father of +Pelops, the guest of the gods, die; and Tithonus likewise was translated +to the skies, and Minos, though admitted to the secrets of Jupiter; and +the Tartarean regions are possessed of the son of Panthous, once more +sent down to the receptacle of the dead; notwithstanding, having retaken +his shield from the temple, he gave evidence of the Trojan times, and +that he had resigned to gloomy death nothing but his sinews and skin; in +your opinion, no inconsiderable judge of truth and nature. But the game +night awaits all, and the road of death must once be travelled. The +Furies give up some to the sport of horrible Mars: the greedy ocean is +destructive to sailors: the mingled funerals of young and old are +crowded together: not a single person does the cruel Proserpine pass by. +The south wind, the tempestuous attendant on the setting Orion, has sunk +me also in the Illyrian waves. But do not thou, O sailor, malignantly +grudge to give a portion of loose sand to my bones and unburied head. +So, whatever the east wind shall threaten to the Italian sea, let the +Venusinian woods suffer, while you are in safety; and manifold profit, +from whatever port it may, come to you by favoring Jove, and Neptune, +the defender of consecrated Tarentum. But if you, by chance, make light +of committing a crime, which will be hurtful to your innocent posterity, +may just laws and haughty retribution await you. I will not be deserted +with fruitless prayers; and no expiations shall atone for you. Though +you are in haste, you need not tarry long: after having thrice sprinkled +the dust over me, you may proceed. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXIX. + +TO ICCIUS. + + +O Iccius, you now covet the opulent treasures of the Arabians, and are +preparing vigorous for a war against the kings of Saba, hitherto +unconquered, and are forming chains for the formidable Mede. What +barbarian virgin shall be your slave, after you have killed her +betrothed husband? What boy from the court shall be made your +cup-bearer, with his perfumed locks, skilled to direct the Seric arrows +with his father's bow? Who will now deny that it is probable for +precipitate rivers to flow back again to the high mountains, and for +Tiber to change his course, since you are about to exchange the noble +works of Panaetius, collected from all parts, together with the whole +Socratic family, for Iberian armor, after you had promised better +things? + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXX. + +TO VENUS. + + +O Venus, queen of Gnidus and Paphos, neglect your favorite Cyprus, and +transport yourself into the beautiful temple of Glycera, who is invoking +you with abundance of frankincense. Let your glowing son hasten along +with you, and the Graces with their zones loosed, and the Nymphs, and +Youth possessed of little charm without you and Mercury. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXXI. + +TO APOLLO. + + +What does the poet beg from Phoebus on the dedication of his temple? +What does he pray for, while he pours from the flagon the first +libation? Not the rich crops of fertile Sardinia: not the goodly flocks +of scorched Calabria: not gold, or Indian ivory: not those countries, +which the still river Liris eats away with its silent streams. Let those +to whom fortune has given the Calenian vineyards, prune them with a +hooked knife; and let the wealthy merchant drink out of golden cups the +wines procured by his Syrian merchandize, favored by the gods +themselves, inasmuch as without loss he visits three or four times a +year the Atlantic Sea. Me olives support, me succories and soft mallows. +O thou son of Latona, grant me to enjoy my acquisitions, and to possess +my health, together with an unimpaired understanding, I beseech thee; +and that I may not lead a dishonorable old age, nor one bereft of the +lyre. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXXII. + +TO HIS LYRE. + + +We are called upon. If ever, O lyre, in idle amusement in the shade with +thee, we have played anything that may live for this year and many, come +on, be responsive to a Latin ode, my dear lyre--first tuned by a Lesbian +citizen, who, fierce in war, yet amid arms, or if he had made fast to +the watery shore his tossed vessel, sung Bacchus, and the Muses, and +Venus, and the boy, her ever-close attendant, and Lycus, lovely for his +black eyes and jetty locks. O thou ornament of Apollo, charming shell, +agreeable even at the banquets of supreme Jove! O thou sweet alleviator +of anxious toils, be propitious to me, whenever duly invoking thee! + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXXIII. + +TO ALBIUS TIBULLUS. + + +Grieve not too much, my Albius, thoughtful of cruel Glycera; nor chant +your mournful elegies, because, as her faith being broken, a younger man +is more agreeable, than you in her eyes. A love for Cyrus inflames +Lycoris, distinguished for her little forehead: Cyrus follows the rough +Pholoe; but she-goats shall sooner be united to the Apulian wolves, than +Pholoe shall commit a crime with a base adulterer. Such is the will of +Venus, who delights in cruel sport, to subject to her brazen yokes +persons and tempers ill suited to each other. As for myself, the +slave-born Myrtale, more untractable than the Adriatic Sea that forms +the Calabrian gulfs, entangled me in a pleasing chain, at the very time +that a more eligible love courted my embraces. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXXIV. + +AGAINST THE EPICURIANS. + + +A remiss and irregular worshiper of the gods, while I professed the +errors of a senseless philosophy, I am now obliged to set sail back +again, and to renew the course that I had deserted. For Jupiter, who +usually cleaves the clouds with his gleaming lightning, lately drove +his thundering horses and rapid chariot through the clear serene; which +the sluggish earth, and wandering rivers; at which Styx, and the horrid +seat of detested Taenarus, and the utmost boundary of Atlas were shaken. +The Deity is able to make exchange between the highest and the lowest, +and diminishes the exalted, bringing to light the obscure; rapacious +fortune, with a shrill whizzing, has borne off the plume from one head, +and delights in having placed it on another. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXXV. + +TO FORTUNE. + + +O Goddess, who presidest over beautiful Antium; thou, that art ready to +exalt mortal man from the most abject state, or to convert superb +triumphs into funerals! Thee the poor countryman solicits with his +anxious vows; whosoever plows the Carpathian Sea with the Bithynian +vessel, importunes thee as mistress of the ocean. Thee the rough Dacian, +thee the wandering Scythians, and cities, and nations, and warlike +Latium also, and the mothers of barbarian kings, and tyrants clad in +purple, fear. Spurn not with destructive foot that column which now +stands firm, nor let popular tummult rouse those, who now rest quiet, to +arms--to arms--and break the empire. Necessity, thy minister, alway +marches before thee, holding in her brazen hand huge spikes and wedges, +nor is the unyielding clamp absent, nor the melted lead. Thee Hope +reverences, and rare Fidelity robed in a white garment; nor does she +refuse to bear thee company, howsoever in wrath thou change thy robe, +and abandon the houses of the powerful. But the faithless crowd [of +companions], and the perjured harlot draw back. Friends, too faithless +to bear equally the yoke of adversity, when casks are exhausted, very +dregs and all, fly off. Preserve thou Caesar, who is meditating an +expedition against the Britons, the furthest people in the world, and +also the new levy of youths to be dreaded by the Eastern regions, and +the Red Sea. Alas! I am ashamed of our scars, and our wickedness, and of +brethren. What have we, a hardened age, avoided? What have we in our +impiety left unviolated! From what have our youth restrained their +hands, out of reverence to the gods? What altars have they spared? O +mayest thou forge anew our blunted swords on a different anvil against +the Massagetae and Arabians. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXXVI. + + +This is a joyful occasion to sacrifice both with incense and music of +the lyre, and the votive blood of a heifer to the gods, the guardians of +Numida; who, now returning in safety from the extremest part of Spain, +imparts many embraces to his beloved companions, but to none more than +his dear Lamia, mindful of his childhood spent under one and the same +governor, and of the gown, which they changed at the same time. Let not +this joyful day be without a Cretan mark of distinction; let us not +spare the jar brought forth [from the cellar]; nor, Salian-like, let +there be any cessation of feet; nor let the toping Damalis conquer +Bassus in the Thracian Amystis; nor let there be roses wanting to the +banquet, nor the ever-green parsley, nor the short-lived lily. All the +company will fix their dissolving eyes on Damalis; but she, more +luxuriant than the wanton ivy, will not be separated from her new lover. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXXVII. + +TO HIS COMPANIONS. + + +Now, my companions, is the time to carouse, now to beat the ground with +a light foot: now is the time that was to deck the couch of the gods +with Salian dainties. Before this, it was impious to produce the old +Caecuban stored up by your ancestors; while the queen, with a +contaminated gang of creatures, noisome through distemper, was preparing +giddy destruction for the Capitol and the subversion of the empire, +being weak enough to hope for any thing, and intoxicated with her +prospering fortune. But scarcely a single ship preserved from the flames +bated her fury; and Caesar brought down her mind, inflamed with Egyptian +wine, to real fears, close pursuing her in her flight from Italy with +his galleys (as the hawk pursues the tender doves, or the nimble hunter +the hare in the plains of snowy Aemon), that he might throw into chains +this destructive monster [of a woman]; who, seeking a more generous +death, neither had an effeminate dread of the sword, nor repaired with +her swift ship to hidden shores. She was able also to look upon her +palace, lying in ruins, with a countenance unmoved, and courageous +enough to handle exasperated asps, that she might imbibe in her body the +deadly poison, being more resolved by having pre-meditated her death: +for she was a woman of such greatness of soul, as to scorn to be carried +off in haughty triumph, like a private person, by rough Liburnians. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXXVIII. + +TO HIS SERVANT. + + +Boy, I detest the pomp of the Persians; chaplets, which are woven with +the rind of the linden, displease me; give up the search for the place +where the latter rose abides. It is my particular desire that you make +no laborious addition to the plain myrtle; for myrtle is neither +unbecoming you a servant, nor me, while I quaff under this mantling +vine. + + + * * * * * + + + + +THE SECOND BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE. + + + +ODE I. + +TO ASINIUS POLLIO. + + +You are treating of the civil commotion, which began from the consulship +of Metelius, and the causes, and the errors, and the operations of the +war, and the game that fortune played, and the pernicious confederacy of +the chiefs, and arms stained with blood not yet expiated--a work full of +danger and hazard: and you are treading upon fires, hidden under +deceitful ashes: let therefore the muse that presides over severe +tragedy, be for a while absent from the theaters; shortly, when thou +hast completed the narrative of the public affairs, you shall resume +your great work in the tragic style of Athens, O Pollio, thou excellent +succor to sorrowing defendants and a consulting senate; [Pollio,] to +whom the laurel produced immortal honors in the Dalmatian triumph. Even +now you stun our ears with the threatening murmur of horns: now the +clarions sound; now the glitter of arms affrights the flying steeds, and +dazzles the sight of the riders. Now I seem to hear of great commanders +besmeared with, glorious dust, and the whole earth subdued, except the +stubborn soul of Cato. Juno, and every other god propitious to the +Africans, impotently went off, leaving that land unrevenged; but soon +offered the descendants of the conquerors, as sacrifices to the manes of +Jugurtha. What plain, enriched by Latin blood, bears not record, by its +numerous sepulchres, of our impious battles, and of the sound of the +downfall of Italy, heard even by the Medes? What pool, what rivers, are +unconscious of our deplorable war? What sea have not the Daunian +slaughters discolored? What shore is unstained by our blood? Do not, +however, rash muse, neglecting your jocose strains, resume the task of +Caean plaintive song, but rather with me seek measures of a lighter +style beneath some love-sequestered grotto. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE II. + +TO CRISPUS SALLUSTIUS. + + +O Crispus Sallustius, thou foe to bullion, unless it derives splendor +from a moderate enjoyment, there is no luster in money concealed in the +niggard earth. Proculeius shall live an extended age, conspicuous for +fatherly affection to brothers; surviving fame shall bear him on an +untiring wing. You may possess a more extensive dominion by controlling +a craving disposition, than if you could unite Libya to the distant +Gades, and the natives of both the Carthages were subject to you alone. +The direful dropsy increases by self-indulgence, nor extinguishes its +thirst, unless the cause of the disorder has departed from the veins, +and the watery languor from the pallid body. Virtue, differing from the +vulgar, excepts Phraates though restored to the throne of Cyrus, from +the number of the happy; and teaches the populace to disuse false names +for things, by conferring the kingdom and a safe diadem and the +perpetual laurel upon him alone, who can view large heaps of treasure +with undazzled eye. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE III. + +TO QUINTUS DELLIUS. + + +O Dellius, since thou art born to die, be mindful to preserve a temper +of mind even in times of difficulty, as well an restrained from insolent +exultation in prosperity: whether thou shalt lead a life of continual +sadness, or through happy days regale thyself with Falernian wine of the +oldest date, at case reclined in some grassy retreat, where the lofty +pine and hoary poplar delight to interweave their boughs into a +hospitable shade, and the clear current with trembling surface purls +along the meandering rivulet. Hither order [your slaves] to bring the +wine, and the perfumes, and the too short-lived flowers of the grateful +rose, while fortune, and age; and the sable threads of the three sisters +permit thee. You must depart from your numerous purchased groves; from +your house also, and that villa, which the yellow Tiber washes, you must +depart: and an heir shall possess these high-piled riches. It is of no +consequence whether you are the wealthy descendant of ancient Inachus, +or whether, poor and of the most ignoble race, you live without a +covering from the open air, since you are the victim of merciless Pluto. +We are all driven toward the same quarter: the lot of all is shaken in +the urn; destined sooner or later to come forth, and embark us in +[Charon's] boat for eternal exile. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IV. + +TO XANTHIAS PHOCEUS. + + +Let not, O Xanthias Phoceus, your passion for your maid put you out of +countenance; before your time, the slave Briseis moved the haughty +Achilles by her snowy complexion. The beauty of the captive Tecmessa +smote her master, the Telamonian Ajax; Agamemnon, in the midst of +victory, burned for a ravished virgin: when the barbarian troops fell by +the hands of their Thessalian conqueror, and Hector, vanquished, left +Troy more easily to be destroyed by the Grecians. You do not know that +perchance the beautiful Phyllis has parents of condition happy enough to +do honor to you their son-in-law. Certainly she must be of royal race, +and laments the unpropitiousness of her family gods. Be confident, that +your beloved is not of the worthless crowd; nor that one so true, so +unmercenary, could possibly be born of a mother to be ashamed of. I can +commend arms, and face, and well-made legs, quite chastely: avoid being +jealous of one, whose age is hastening onward to bring its eighth +mastrum to a close. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE V. + + +Not yet is she fit to be broken to the yoke; not yet is she equal to the +duties of a partner, nor can she support the weight of the bull +impetuously rushing to enjoyment. Your heifer's sole inclination is +about verdant fields, one while in running streams soothing the grievous +heat; at another, highly delighted to frisk with the steerlings in the +moist willow ground. Suppress your appetite for the immature grape; +shortly variegated autumn will tinge for thee the lirid clusters with a +purple hue. Shortly she shall follow you; for her impetuous time runs +on, and shall place to her account those years of which it abridges you; +shortly Lalage with a wanton assurance will seek a husband, beloved in a +higher degree than the coy Pholoe, or even Chloris; shining as brightly +with her fair shoulder, as the spotless moon upon the midnight sea, or +even the Gnidian Gyges, whom if you should intermix in a company of +girls, the undiscernible difference occasioned by his flowing locks and +doubtful countenance would wonderfully impose even on sagacious +strangers. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VI. + +TO SEPTIMUS. + + +Septimus, who art ready to go with me, even to Gades, and to the +Cantabrian, still untaught to bear our yoke, and the inhospitable +Syrtes, where the Mauritanian wave perpetually boils. O may Tibur, +founded by a Grecian colony, be the habitation of my old age! There let +there be an end to my fatigues by sea, and land, and war; whence if the +cruel fates debar me, I will seek the river of Galesus, delightful for +sheep covered with skins, and the countries reigned over by +Lacedaemonian Phalantus. That corner of the world smiles in my eye +beyond all others; where the honey yields not to the Hymettian, and the +olive rivals the verdant Venafrian: where the temperature of the air +produces a long spring and mild winters, and Aulon friendly to the +fruitful vine, envies not the Falernian grapes. That place, and those +blest heights, solicit you and me; there you shall bedew the glowing +ashes of your poet friend with a tear due [to his memory]. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VII. + +TO POMPEIUS VARUS. + + +O thou, often reduced with me to the last extremity in the war which +Brutus carried on, who has restored thee as a Roman citizen, to the gods +of thy country and the Italian air, Pompey, thou first of my companions; +with whom I have frequently broken the tedious day in drinking, having +my hair, shining with the Syrian maiobathrum, crowned [with flowers]! +Together with thee did I experience the [battle of] Phillippi and a +precipitate flight, having shamefully enough left my shield; when valor +was broken, and the most daring smote the squalid earth with their +faces. But Mercury swift conveyed me away, terrified as I was, in a +thick cloud through the midst of the enemy. Thee the reciprocating sea, +with his tempestuous waves, bore back again to war. Wherefore render to +Jupiter the offering that is due, and deposit your limbs, wearied with a +tedious war, under my laurel, and spare not the casks reserved for you. +Fill up the polished bowls with care-dispelling Massic: pour out the +perfumed ointments from the capacious shells. Who takes care to quickly +weave the chaplets of fresh parsely or myrtle? Whom shall the Venus +pronounce to be master of the revel? In wild carouse I will become +frantic as the Bacchanalians. 'Tis delightful to me to play the madman, +on the reception of my friends. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VIII. + +TO BARINE. + + +If any punishment, Barine, for your violated oath had ever been of +prejudice to you: if you had become less agreeable by the blackness of a +single tooth or nail, I might believe you. But you no sooner have bound +your perfidious head with vows, but you shine out more charming by far, +and come forth the public care of our youth. It is of advantage to you +to deceive the buried ashes of your mother, and the silent +constellations of the night, together with all heaven, and the gods free +from chill death. Venus herself, I profess, laughs at this; the +good-natured nymphs laugh, and cruel Cupid, who is perpetually +sharpening his burning darts on a bloody whetstone. Add to this, that +all our boys are growing up for you; a new herd of slaves is growing up; +nor do the former ones quit the house of their impious mistress, +notwithstanding they often have threatened it. The matrons are in dread +of you on account of their young ones; the thrifty old men are in dread +of you; and the girls but just married are in distress, lest your beauty +should slacken [the affections of] their husbands. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IX. + +TO TITUS VALGIUS. + + +Showers do not perpetually pour down upon the rough fields, nor do +varying hurricanes forever harass the Caspian Sea; nor, my friend +Valgius, does the motionless ice remain fixed throughout all the months, +in the regions of Armenia; nor do the Garganian oaks [always] labor +under the northerly winds, nor are the ash-trees widowed of their +leaves. But thou art continually pursuing Mystes, who is taken from +thee, with mournful measures: nor do the effects of thy love for him +cease at the rising of Vesper, or when he flies the rapid approach of +the sun. But the aged man who lived three generations, did not lament +the amiable Antilochus all the years of his life: nor did his parents or +his Trojan sisters perpetually bewail the blooming Troilus. At length +then desist from thy tender complaints; and rather let us sing the fresh +trophies of Augustus Caesar, and the Frozen Niphates, and the river +Medus, added to the vanquished nations, rolls more humble tides, and the +Gelonians riding within a prescribed boundary in a narrow tract of land. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE X. + +TO LICINIUS MURENA. + + +O Licinius, you will lead a more correct course of life, by neither +always pursuing the main ocean, nor, while you cautiously are in dread +of storms, by pressing too much upon the hazardous shore. Whosoever +loves the golden mean, is secure from the sordidness of an antiquated +cell, and is too prudent to have a palace that might expose him to +envy, if the lofty pine is more frequently agitated with winds, and high +towers fall down with a heavier ruin, and lightnings strike the summits +of the mountains. A well-provided breast hopes in adversity, and fears +in prosperity. 'Tis the same Jupiter, that brings the hideous winters +back, and that takes them away. If it is ill with us now, it will not be +so hereafter. Apollo sometimes rouses the silent lyric muse, neither +does he always bend his bow. In narrow circumstances appear in high +spirits, and undaunted. In the same manner you will prudently contract +your sails, which are apt to be too much swollen in a prosperous gale. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XI. + +TO QUINTIUS HIRPINUS. + + +O Quintius Hirpinus, forbear to be inquisitive what the Cantabrian, and +the Scythian, divided from us by the interposed Adriatic, is meditating; +neither be fearfully solicitous for the necessaries of a life, which +requires but a few things. Youth and beauty fly swift away, while +sapless old age expels the wanton loves and gentle sleep. The same glory +does not always remain to the vernal flowers, nor does the ruddy moon +shine with one continued aspect; why, therefore, do you fatigue you +mind, unequal to eternal projects? Why do we not rather (while it is in +our power) thus carelessly reclining under a lofty plane-tree, or this +pine, with our hoary locks made fragrant by roses, and anointed with +Syrian perfume, indulge ourselves with generous wine? Bacchus dissipates +preying cares. What slave is here, instantly to cool some cups of ardent +Falernian in the passing stream? Who will tempt the vagrant wanton Lyde +from her house? See that you bid her hasten with her ivory lyre, +collecting her hair into a graceful knot, after the fashion of a Spartan +maid. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XII. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +Do not insist that the long wars of fierce Numantia, or the formidable +Annibal, or the Sicilian Sea impurpled with Carthaginian blood, should +be adapted to the tender lays of the lyre: nor the cruel Lapithae, nor +Hylaeus excessive in wine and the earth born youths, subdued by +Herculean force, from whom the splendid habitation of old Saturn dreaded +danger. And you yourself, Maecenas, with more propriety shall recount +the battles of Caesar, and the necks of haughty kings led in triumph +through the streets in historical prose. It was the muse's will that I +should celebrate the sweet strains of my mistress Lycimnia, that I +should celebrate her bright darting eyes, and her breast laudably +faithful to mutual love: who can with a grace introduce her foot into +the dance, or, sporting, contend in raillery, or join arms with the +bright virgins on the celebrated Diana's festival. Would you, +[Maecenas,] change one of Lycimnia's tresses for all the rich Achaemenes +possessed, or the Mygdonian wealth of fertile Phrygia, or all the +dwellings of the Arabians replete with treasures? Especially when she +turns her neck to meet your burning kisses, or with a gentle cruelty +denies, what she would more delight to have ravished than the +petitioner--or sometimes eagerly anticipates to snatch them her self. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIII. + +TO A TREE. + + +O tree, he planted thee on an unlucky day whoever did it first, and with +an impious hand raised thee for the destruction of posterity, and the +scandal of the village. I could believe that he had broken his own +father's neck, and stained his most secret apartments with the midnight +blood of his guest. He was wont to handle Colchian poisons, and whatever +wickedness is anywhere conceived, who planted in my field thee, a sorry +log; thee, ready to fall on the head of thy inoffensive master. What we +ought to be aware of, no man is sufficiently cautious at all hours. The +Carthaginian sailor thoroughly dreads the Bosphorus; nor, beyond that, +does he fear a hidden fate from any other quarter. The soldier dreads +the arrows and the fleet retreat of the Parthian; the Parthian, chains +and an Italian prison; but the unexpected assault of death has carried +off, and will carry off, the world in general. How near was I seeing the +dominions of black Proserpine, and Aeacus sitting in judgment; the +separate abodes also of the pious, and Sappho complaining in her Aeohan +lyre of her own country damsels; and thee, O Alcaeus, sounding in fuller +strains on thy golden harp the distresses of exile, and the distresses +of war. The ghosts admire them both, while they utter strains worthy of +a sacred silence; but the crowded multitude, pressing with their +shoulders, imbibes, with a more greedy ear, battles and banished +tyrants. What wonder? Since the many headed monster, astonished at those +lays, hangs down his sable ears; and the snakes, entwined in the hair of +the furies, are soothed. Moreover, Prometheus and the sire of Pelops are +deluded into an insensibility of their torments, by the melodious sound: +nor is Orion any longer solicitous to harass the lions, or the fearful +lynxes. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIV. + +TO POSTUMUS. + + +Alas! my Postumus, my Postumus, the fleeting years gilde on; nor will +piety cause any delay to wrinkles, and advancing old age, and +insuperable death. You could not, if you were to sacrifice every passing +day three hundred bulls, render propitious pitiless Pluto, who confines +the thrice-monstrous Geryon and Tityus with the dismal Stygian stream, +namely, that stream which is to be passed over by all who are fed by the +bounty of the earth, whether we be kings or poor ninds. In vain shall we +be free from sanguinary Mars, and the broken billows of the hoarse +Adriatic; in vain shall we be apprehensive for ourselves of the noxious +South, in the time of autumn. The black Cocytus wandering with languid +current, and the infamous race of Danaus, and Sisyphus, the son of the +Aeolus, doomed to eternal toil, must be visited; your land and house and +pleasing wife must be left, nor shall any of those trees, which you are +nursing, follow you, their master for a brief space, except the hated +cypresses; a worthier heir shall consume your Caecuban wines now guarded +with a hundred keys, and shall wet the pavement with the haughty wine, +more exquisite than what graces pontifical entertainment. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XV. + +AGAINST THE LUXURY OF THE ROMANS. + + +The palace-like edifices will in a short time leave but a few acres for +the plough; ponds of wider extent than the Lucrine lake will be every +where to be seen; and the barren plane-tree will supplant the elms. Then +banks of violets, and myrtle groves, and all the tribe of nosegays shall +diffuse their odors in the olive plantations, which were fruitful to +their preceding master. Then the laurel with dense boughs shall exclude +the burning beams. It was not so prescribed by the institutes of +Romulus, and the unshaven Cato, and ancient custom. Their private income +was contracted, while that of the community was great. No private men +were then possessed of galleries measured by ten-feet rules, which +collected the shady northern breezes; nor did the laws permit them to +reject the casual turf [for their own huts], though at the same time +they obliged them to ornament in the most sumptuous manner, with new +stone, the buildings of the public, and the temples of the gods, at a +common expense. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVI. + +TO GROSPHUS. + + +O Grosphus, he that is caught in the wide Aegean Sea; when a black +tempest has obscured the moon, and not a star appears with steady light +for the mariners, supplicates the gods for repose: for repose, Thrace +furious in war; the quiver-graced Medes, for repose neither purchasable +by jewels, nor by purple, nor by gold. For neither regal treasures nor +the consul's officer can remove the wretched tumults of the mind, nor +the cares that hover about splendid ceilings. That man lives happily on +a little, who can view with pleasure the old-fashioned family +salt-cellar on his frugal board; neither anxiety nor sordid avarice robs +him of gentle sleep. Why do we, brave for a short season, aim at many +things? Why do we change our own for climates heated by another sun? +Whoever, by becoming an exile from his country, escaped likewise from +himself? Consuming care boards even brazen-beaked ships: nor does it +quit the troops of horsemen, for it is more fleet than the stags, more +fleet than the storm-driving east wind. A mind that is cheerful in its +present state, will disdain to be solicitous any further, and can +correct the bitters of life with a placid smile. Nothing is on all hands +completely blessed. A premature death carried off the celebrated +Achilles; a protracted old age wore down Tithonus; and time perhaps may +extend to me, what it shall deny to you. Around you a hundred flocks +bleat, and Sicilian heifers low; for your use the mare, fit for the +harness, neighs; wool doubly dipped in the African purple-dye, clothes +you: on me undeceitful fate has bestowed a small country estate, and the +slight inspiration of the Grecian muse, and a contempt for the malignity +of the vulgar. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVII. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +Why dost thoti kill me with thy complaints? 'Tis neither agreeable to +the gods, nor to me, that thou shouldest depart first, O Maecenas, thou +grand ornament and pillar of my affairs. Alas! if an untimely blow hurry +away thee, a part of my soul, why do I the other moiety remain, my value +lost, nor any longer whole? That [fatal] day shall bring destruction +upon us both. I have by no means taken a false oath: we will go, we will +go, whenever thou shalt lead the way, prepared to be fellow-travelers in +the last journey. Me nor the breath of the fiery Chimaera, nor +hundred-handed Gyges, were he to rise again, shall ever tear from thee: +such is the will of powerful Justice, and of the Fates. Whether Libra or +malignant Scorpio had the ascendant at my natal hour, or Capricon the +ruler of the western wave, our horoscopes agree in a wonderful manner. +Thee the benign protection of Jupiter, shining with friendly aspect, +rescued from the baleful influence of impious Saturn, and retarded the +wings of precipitate destiny, at the time the crowded people with +resounding applauses thrice hailed you in the theatre: me the trunk of a +tree, falling upon my skull, would have dispatched, had not Faunus, the +protector of men of genius, with his right hand warded off the blow. Be +thou mindful to pay the victims and the votive temple; I will sacrifice +an humble lamb. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVIII. + +AGAINST AVARICE AND LUXURY. + + +Nor ivory, nor a fretted ceiling adorned with gold, glitters in my +house: no Hymettian beams rest upon pillars cut out of the extreme parts +of Africa; nor, a pretended heir, have I possessed myself of the palace +of Attalus, nor do ladies, my dependants, spin Laconian purple for my +use. But integrity, and a liberal vein of genius, are mine: and the man +of fortune makes his court to me, who am but poor. I importune the gods +no further, nor do I require of my friend in power any larger +enjoyments, sufficiently happy with my Sabine farm alone. Day is driven +on by day, and the new moons hasten to their wane. You put out marble to +be hewn, though with one foot in the grave; and, unmindful of a +sepulcher, are building houses; and are busy to extend the shore of the +sea, that beats with violence at Baiae, not rich enough with the shore +of the mainland. Why is it, that through avarice you even pluck up the +landmarks of your neighbor's ground, and trespass beyond the bounds of +your clients; and wife and husband are turned out, bearing in their +bosom their household gods and their destitute children? Nevertheless, +no court more certainly awaits its wealthy lord, than the destined limit +of rapacious Pluto. Why do you go on? The impartial earth is opened +equally to the poor and to the sons of kings; nor has the life-guard +ferryman of hell, bribed with gold, re-conducted the artful Prometheus. +He confines proud Tantalus; and the race of Tantalus, he condescends, +whether invoked or not, to relieve the poor freed from their labors. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIX. + +ON BACCHUS. + +A DITHYRAMBIC, OR DRINKING SONG. + + +I saw Bacchus (believe it, posterity) dictating strains among the remote +rocks, and the nymphs learning them, and the ears of the goat-footed +satyrs all attentive. Evoe! my mind trembles with recent dread, and my +soul, replete with Bacchus, has a tumultuous joy, Evoe! spare me, +Bacchus; spare me, thou who art formidable for thy dreadful thyrsus. It +is granted me to sing the wanton Bacchanalian priestess, and the +fountain of wine, and rivulets flowing with milk, and to tell again of +the honeys distilling from the hollow trunks. It is granted me likewise +to celebrate the honor added to the constellations by your happy spouse, +and the palace of Pentheus demolished with no light ruin, and the +perdition of Thracian. Lycurgus. You command the rivers, you the +barbarian sea. You, moist with wine, on lonely mountain-tops bind the +hair of your Thracian priestesses with a knot of vipers without hurt. +You, when the impious band of giants scaled the realms of father Jupiter +through the sky, repelled Rhoetus, with the paws and horrible jaw of the +lion-shape [you had assumed]. Thou, reported to be better fitted for +dances, and jokes and play, you were accounted insufficient for fight; +yet it then appeared, you, the same deity, was the mediator of peace and +war. Upon you, ornamented with your golden horn, Orberus innocently +gazed, gently wagging his tail; and with his triple tongue licked your +feet and legs, as you returned. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XX. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +I, a two-formed poet, will be conveyed through the liquid air with no +vulgar or humble wing; nor will I loiter upon earth any longer; and +superior to envy, I will quit cities. Not I, even I, the blood of low +parents, my dear Maecenas, shall die; nor shall I be restrained by the +Stygian wave. At this instant a rough skin settles upon my ankles, and +all upwards I am transformed into a white bird, and the downy plumage +arises over my fingers and shoulders. Now, a melodious bird, more +expeditious than the Daepalean Icarus, I will visit the shores of the +murmuring Bosphorus, and the Gzetulean Syrtes, and the Hyperborean +plains. Me the Colchian and the Dacian, who hides his fear of the +Marsian cohort, land the remotest Gelonians, shall know: me the learned +Spaniard shall study, and he that drinks of the Rhone. Let there be no +dirges, nor unmanly lamentations, nor bewailings at my imaginary +funeral; suppress your crying, and forbear the superfluous honors of a +sepulcher. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE THIRD BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE. + + + +ODE I. + +ON CONTENTMENT. + + +I abominate the uninitiated vulgar, and keep them at a distance. +Preserve a religious silence: I, the priest of the Muses, sing to +virgins and boys verses not heard before. The dominion of dread +sovereigns is over their own subjects; that of Jupiter, glorious for his +conquest over the giants, who shakes all nature with his nod, is over +sovereigns themselves. It happens that one man, arranges trees, in +regular rows, to a greater extent than another; this man comes down into +the Campus [Martius] as a candidate of a better family; another vies +with him for morals and a better reputation; a third has a superior +number of dependants; but Fate, by the impartial law of nature, is +allotted both to the conspicuous and the obscure; the capacious urn +keeps every name in motion. Sicilian dainties will not force a delicious +relish to that man, over whose impious neck the naked sword hangs: the +songs of birds and the lyre will not restore his sleep. Sleep disdains +not the humble cottages and shady bank of peasants; he disdains not +Tempe, fanned by zephyrs. Him, who desires but a competency, neither the +tempestuous sea renders anxious, nor the malign violence of Arcturus +setting, or of the rising Kid; not his vineyards beaten down with hail, +and a deceitful farm; his plantations at one season blaming the rains, +at another, the influence of the constellations parching the grounds, at +another, the severe winters. The fishes perceive the seas contracted, by +the vast foundations that have been laid in the deep: hither numerous +undertakers with their men, and lords, disdainful of the land, send down +mortar: but anxiety and the threats of conscience ascend by the same way +as the possessor; nor does gloomy care depart from the brazen-beaked +galley, and she mounts behind the horseman. Since then nor Phrygian +marble, nor the use of purple more dazzling than the sun, nor the +Falernian vine, nor the Persian nard, composes a troubled mind, why +should I set about a lofty edifice with columns that excite envy, and in +the modern taste? Why should I exchange my Sabine vale for wealth, which +is attended with more trouble? + + * * * * * + + + +ODE II. + +AGAINST THE DEGENERACY OF THE ROMAN YOUTH. + + +Let the robust youth learn patiently to endure pinching want in the +active exercise of arms; and as an expert horseman, dreadful for his +spear, let him harass the fierce Parthians; and let him lead a life +exposed to the open air, and familiar with dangers. Him, the consort and +marriageable virgin-daughter of some warring tyrant, viewing from the +hostile walls, may sigh--- Alas! let not the affianced prince, +inexperienced as he is in arms, provoke by a touch this terrible lion, +whom bloody rage hurries through the midst of slaughter. It is sweet and +glorious to die for one's country; death even pursues the man that flies +from him; nor does he spare the trembling knees of effeminate youth, nor +the coward back. Virtue, unknowing of base repulse, shines with +immaculate honors; nor does she assume nor lay aside the ensigns of her +dignity, at the veering of the popular air. Virtue, throwing open heaven +to those who deserve not to die, directs her progress through paths of +difficulty, and spurns with a rapid wing grovelling cowards and the +slippery earth. There is likewise a sure reward for faithful silence. I +will prohibit that man, who shall divulge the sacred rites of mysterious +Ceres, from being under the same roof with me, or from setting sail with +me in the same fragile bark: for Jupiter, when slighted, often joins a +good man in the same fate with a bad one. Seldom hath punishment, though +lame, of foot, failed to overtake the wicked. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE III. + +ON STEADINESS AND INTEGRITY. + + +Not the rage of the people pressing to hurtful measures, not the aspect +of a threatening tyrant can shake from his settled purpose the man who +is just and determined in his resolution; nor can the south wind, that +tumultuous ruler of the restless Adriatic, nor the mighty hand of +thundering Jove; if a crushed world should fall in upon him, the ruins +would strike him undismayed. By this character Pollux, by this the +wandering Hercules, arrived at the starry citadels; among whom Augustus +has now taken his place, and quaffs nectar with empurpled lips. Thee, O +Father Bacchus, meritorious for this virtue, thy tigers carried, drawing +the yoke with intractable neck; by this Romulus escaped Acheron on the +horses of Mars--Juno having spoken what the gods in full conclave +approve: "Troy, Troy, a fatal and lewd judge, and a foreign woman, have +reduced to ashes, condemned, with its inhabitants and fraudulent prince, +to me and the chaste Minerva, ever since Laomedon disappointed the gods +of the stipulated reward. Now neither the infamous guest of the +Lacedaemonian adulteress shines; nor does Priam's perjured family repel +the warlike Grecians by the aid of Hector, and that war, spun out to +such a length by our factions, has sunk to peace. Henceforth, therefore, +I will give up to Mars both my bitter resentment, and the detested +grandson, whom the Trojan princes bore. Him will I suffer to enter the +bright regions, to drink the juice of nectar, and to be enrolled among +the peaceful order of gods. As long as the extensive sea rages between +Troy and Rome, let them, exiles, reign happy in any other part of the +world: as long as cattle trample upon the tomb of Priam and Paris, and +wild beasts conceal their young ones there with impunity, may the +Capitol remain in splendor, and may brave Rome be able to give laws to +the conquered Medes. Tremendous let her extend her name abroad to the +extremest boundaries of the earth, where the middle ocean separates +Europe from Africa, where the swollen Nile waters the plains; more brave +in despising gold as yet undiscovered, and so best situated while hidden +in the earth, than in forcing it out for the uses of mankind, with a +hand ready to make depredations on everything that is sacred. Whatever +end of the world has made resistance, that let her reach with her arms, +joyfully alert to visit, even that part where fiery heats rage madding; +that where clouds and rains storm with unmoderated fury. But I pronounce +this fate to the warlike Romans, upon this condition; that neither +through an excess of piety, nor of confidence in their power, they +become inclined to rebuild the houses of their ancestors' Troy. The +fortune of Troy, reviving under unlucky auspices, shall be repeated with +lamentable destruction, I, the wife and sister of Jupiter, leading on +the victorious bands. Thrice, if a brazen wall should arise by means of +its founder Phoebus, thrice should it fall, demolished by my Grecians; +thrice should the captive wife bewail her husband and her children." +These themes ill suit the merry lyre. Whither, muse, are you +going?--Cease, impertinent, to relate the language of the gods, and to +debase great things by your trifling measures. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IV. + +TO CALLIOPE. + + +Descend from heaven, queen Calliope, and come sing with your pipe a +lengthened strain; or, if you had now rather, with your clear voice, or +on the harp or lute of Phoebus. Do ye hear? or does a pleasing frenzy +delude me? I seem to hear [her], and to wander [with her] along the +hallowed groves, through which pleasant rivulets and gales make their +way. Me, when a child, and fatigued with play, in sleep the woodland +doves, famous in story, covered with green leaves in the Apulian Vultur, +just without the limits of my native Apulia; so that it was matter of +wonder to all that inhabit the nest of lofty Acherontia, the Bantine +Forests, and the rich soil of low Ferentum, how I could sleep with my +body safe from deadly vipers and ravenous bears; how I could be covered +with sacred laurel and myrtle heaped together, though a child, not +animated without the [inspiration of the] gods. Yours, O ye muses, I am +yours, whether I am elevated to the Sabine heights; or whether the cool +Praeneste, or the sloping Tibur, or the watery Baiae have delighted me. +Me, who am attached to your fountains and dances, not the army put to +flight at Philippi, not the execrable tree, nor a Palinurus in the +Sicilian Sea has destroyed. While you shall be with me with pleasure +will I, a sailor, dare the raging Bosphorus; or, a traveler, the burning +sands of the Assyrian shore: I will visit the Britons inhuman to +strangers, and the Concanian delighted [with drinking] the blood of +horses; I will visit the quivered Geloni, and the Scythian river without +hurt. You entertained lofty Caesar, seeking to put an end to his toils, +in the Pierian grotto, as soon as he had distributed in towns his +troops, wearied by campaigning: you administer [to him] moderate +counsel, and graciously rejoice at it when administered. We are aware +how he, who rules the inactive earth and the stormy main, the cities +also, and the dreary realms [of hell], and alone governs with a +righteous sway both gods and the human multitude, how he took off the +impious Titans and the gigantic troop by his falling thunderbolts. That +horrid youth, trusting to the strength of their arms, and the brethren +proceeding to place Pelion upon shady Olympus, had brought great dread +[even] upon Jove. But what could Typhoeus, and the strong Mimas, or what +Porphyrion with his menacing statue; what Rhoetus, and Enceladus, a +fierce darter with trees uptorn, avail, though rushing violently against +the sounding shield of Pallas? At one part stood the eager Vulcan, at +another the matron Juno, and he, who is never desirous to lay aside his +bow from his shoulders, Apollo, the god of Delos and Patara, who bathes +his flowing hair in the pure dew of Castalia, and possesses the groves +of Lycia and his native wood. Force, void of conduct, falls by its own +weight; moreover, the gods promote discreet force to further advantage; +but the same beings detest forces, that meditate every kind of impiety. +The hundred-handed Gyges is an evidence of the sentiments I allege: and +Orion, the tempter of the spotless Diana, destroyed by a virgin dart. +The earth, heaped over her own monsters, grieves and laments her +offspring, sent to murky Hades by a thunderbolt; nor does the active +fire consume Aetna that is placed over it, nor does the vulture desert +the liver of incontinent Tityus, being stationed there as an avenger of +his baseness; and three hundred chains confine the amorous Pirithous. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE V. + +ON THE RECOVERY OF THE STANDARDS FROM PHRAATES. + + +We believe from his thundering that Jupiter has dominion in the heavens: +Augustus shall be esteemed a present deity the Britons and terrible +Parthians being added to the empire. What! has any soldier of Crassus +lived, a degraded husband with a barbarian wife? And has (O [corrupted] +senate, and degenerate morals!) the Marsian and Apulian, unmindful of +the sacred bucklers, of the [Roman] name and gown, and of eternal Vesta, +grown old in the lands of hostile fathers-in-law, Jupiter and the city +being in safety? The prudent mind of Regulus had provided against this, +dissenting from ignominious terms, and inferring from such a precedent +destruction to the succeeding age, if the captive youth were not to +perish unpitied. I have beheld, said he, the Roman standards affixed to +the Carthaginian temples, and their arms taken away from our soldiers +without bloodshed. I have beheld the arms of our citizens bound behind +their free-born backs, and the gates [of the enemy] unshut, and the +fields, which were depopulated by our battles, cultivated anew. The +soldier, to be sure, ransomed by gold, will return a braver +fellow!--No--you add loss to infamy; [for] neither does the wool once +stained by the dye of the sea-weed ever resume its lost color; nor does +genuine valor, when once it has failed, care to resume its place in +those who have degenerated through cowardice. If the hind, disentangled +from the thickset toils, ever fights, then indeed shall he be valorous, +who has intrusted himself to faithless foes; and he shall trample upon +the Carthaginians in a second war, who dastardly has felt the thongs +with his arms tied behind him, and has been afraid of death. He, knowing +no other way to preserve his life, has confounded peace with war. O +scandal! O mighty Carthage, elevated to a higher pitch by Italy's +disgraceful downfall! He _(Regulus)_ is reported to have rejected the +embrace of his virtuous wife and his little sons like one degraded; and +to have sternly fixed his manly countenance on the ground, until, as an +adviser, by his counsel he confirmed the wavering senators, and amid his +weeping friends hastened away, a glorious exile. Notwithstanding he knew +what the barbarian executioner was providing for him, yet he pushed from +his opposing kindred and the populace retarding his return, in no other +manner, than if (after he had quitted the tedious business of his +clients, by determining their suit) he was only going to the Venafrian +plains, or the Lacedaemonian Tarentum. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VI. + +TO THE ROMANS. + + +Thou shalt atone, O Roman, for the sins of your ancestors, though +innocent, till you shall have repaired the temples and tottering shrines +of the gods, and their statues, defiled with sooty smoke. Thou boldest +sway, because thou bearest thyself subordinate to the gods; to this +source refer every undertaking; to this, every event. The gods, because +neglected, have inflicted many evils on calamitous Italy. Already has +Monaeses, and the band of Pacorus, twice repelled our inauspicious +attacks, and exults in having added the Roman spoils to their trivial +collars. The Dacian and Ethiopian have almost demolished the city +engaged in civil broils, the one formidable for his fleet, the other +more expert for missile arrows. The times, fertile in wickedness, have +in the first place polluted the marriage state, and [thence] the issue +and families. From this fountain perdition being derived, has +overwhelmed the nation and people. The marriageable virgin delights to +be taught the Ionic dances, and even at this time is trained up in +[seductive] arts, and cherishes unchaste desires from her very infancy. +Soon after she courts younger debauchees when her husband is in his +cups, nor has she any choice, to whom she shall privately grant her +forbidden pleasures when the lights are removed, but at the word of +command, openly, not without the knowledge of her husband, she will come +forth, whether it be a factor that calls for her, or the captain of a +Spanish ship, the extravagant purchaser of her disgrace. It was not a +youth born from parents like these, that stained the sea with +Carthaginian gore, and slew Pyrrhus, and mighty Antiochus, and terrific +Annibal; but a manly progeny of rustic soldiers, instructed to turn the +glebe with Sabine spades, and to carry clubs cut [out of the woods] at +the pleasure of a rigid mother, what time the sun shifted the shadows of +the mountains, and took the yokes from the wearied oxen, bringing on the +pleasant hour with his retreating chariot. What does not wasting time +destroy? The age of our fathers, worse than our grandsires, produced us +still more flagitious, us, who are about to product am offspring more +vicious [even than ourselves]. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VII. + +TO ASTERIE. + + +Why, O Asterie, do you weep for Gyges, a youth of inviolable constancy, +whom the kindly zephyrs will restore to you in the beginning of the +Spring, enriched with a Bithynian cargo? Driven as far as Oricum by the +southern winds, after [the rising] of the Goat's tempestuous +constellation, he sleepless passes the cold nights in abundant weeping +[for you]; but the agent of his anxious landlady slyly tempts him by a +thousand methods, informing him that [his mistress], Chloe, is sighing +for him, and burns with the same love that thou hast for him. He +remonstrates with him how a perfidious woman urged the credulous +Proetus, by false accusations, to hasten the death of the over-chaste +Bellerophon. He tells how Peleus was like to have been given up to the +infernal regions, while out of temperance he avoided the Magnesian +Hippolyte: and the deceiver quotes histories to him, that are lessons +for sinning. In vain; for, heart-whole as yet, he receives his words +deafer than the Icarian rocks. But with regard to you, have a care lest +your neighbor Enipeus prove too pleasing. Though no other person equally +skillful to guide the steed, is conspicuous in the course, nor does any +one with equal swiftness swim down the Etrurian stream, yet secure your +house at the very approach of night, nor look down into the streets at +the sound of the doleful pipe; and remain inflexible toward him, though +he often upbraid thee with cruelty. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VIII. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +O Maecenas, learned in both languages, you wonder what I, a single man, +have to do on the calends of March; what these flowers mean, and the +censer replete with frankincense, and the coals laid upon the live turf. +I made a vow of a joyous banquet, and a white goat to Bacchus, after +having been at the point of death by a blow from a tree. This day, +sacred in the revolving year, shall remove the cork fastened with pitch +from that jar, which was set to inhale the smoke in the consulship of +Tullus. Take, my Maecenas, a hundred cups on account of the safety of +your friend, and continue the wakeful lamps even to day-light: all +clamor and passion be far away. Postpone your political cares with +regard to the state: the army of the Dacian Cotison is defeated; the +troublesome Mede is quarreling with himself in a horrible [civil] war: +the Cantabrian, our old enemy on the Spanish coast, is subject to us, +though conquered by a long-disputed victory: now, too, the Scythians are +preparing to quit the field with their imbent bows. Neglectful, as a +private person, forbear to be too solicitous lest the community in any +wise suffer, and joyfully seize the boons of the present hour, and quit +serious affairs. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IX. + +TO LYDIA. + + +HORACE. As long as I was agreeable to thee, and no other youth more +favored was wont to fold his arms around thy snowy neck, I lived happier +than the Persian monarch. + +LYDIA. As long as thou hadst not a greater flame for any other, nor was +Lydia below Chloe [in thine affections], I Lydia, of distinguished fame, +flourished more eminent than the Roman Ilia. + +HOR. The Thracian Chloe now commands me, skillful in sweet modulations, +and a mistress of the lyre; for whom I would not dread to die, if the +fates would spare her, my surviving soul. + +LYD. Calais, the son of the Thurian Ornitus, inflames me with a mutual +fire; for whom I would twice endure to die, if the fates would spare my +surviving youth. + +HOR. What! if our former love returns, and unites by a brazen yoke us +once parted? What if Chloe with her golden locks be shaken off, and the +door again open to slighted Lydia. + +LYD. Though he is fairer than a star, thou of more levity than a cork, +and more passionate than the blustering Adriatic; with thee I should +love to live, with thee I would cheerfully die. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE X. + +TO LYCE. + + +O Lyce, had you drunk from the remote Tanais, in a state of marriage +with tome barbarian, yet you might be sorry to expose me, prostrate +before your obdurate doors, to the north winds that have made those +places their abode. Do you hear with what a noise your gate, with what +[a noise] the grove, planted about your elegant buildings, rebellows to +the winds? And how Jupiter glazes the settled snow with his bright +influence? Lay aside disdain, offensive to Venus, lest your rope should +run backward, while the wheel is revolving. Your Tyrrhenian father did +not beget you to be as inaccessible as Penelope to your wooers. O though +neither presents, nor prayers, nor the violet-tinctured paleness of your +lovers, nor your husband smitten with a musical courtezan, bend you to +pity; yet [at length] spare your suppliants, you that are not softer +than the sturdy oak, nor of a gentler disposition than the African +serpents. This side [of mine] will not always be able to endure your +threshold, and the rain. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XI. + +TO MERCURY. + + +O Mercury, for under thy instruction the ingenious Amphion moved rocks +by his voice, you being his tutor; and though my harp, skilled in +sounding, with seven strings, formerly neither vocal nor pleasing, but +now agreeable both to the tables of the wealthy and the temples [of the +gods]; dictate measures to which Lyde may incline her obstinate ears, +who, like a filly of three years old, plays and frisks about in the +spacious fields, inexperienced in nuptial loves, and hitherto unripe for +a brisk husband. You are able to draw after your tigers and attendant +woods, and to retard rapid rivers. To your blandishments the enormous +porter of the [infernal] palace yielded, though a hundred serpents +fortify his head, and a pestilential steam and an infectious poison +issue from his triple-tongued mouth. Moreover, Ixion and Tityus smiled +with a reluctant aspect: while you soothe the daughters of Danaus with +your delightful harmony, their vessel for some time remained dry. Let +Lyde hear of the crime, and the well-known punishment of the virgins, +and the cask emptied by the water streaming through the bottom, and what +lasting fates await their misdeeds even beyond the grave. Impious! (for +what greater impiety could they have committed?) Impious! who could +destroy their bridegrooms with the cruel sword! One out of the many, +worthy of the nuptial torch, was nobly false to her perjured parent, and +a maiden illustrious to all posterity; she, who said to her youthful +husband, "Arise! arise! lest an eternal sleep be given to you from a +hand you have no suspicion of; disappoint your father-in-law and my +wicked sisters, who, like lionesses having possessed themselves of +calves (alas)! tear each of them to pieces; I, of softer mold than they, +will neither strike thee, nor detain thee in my custody. Let my father +load me with cruel chains, because out of mercy I spared my unhappy +spouse; let him transport me even to the extreme Numidian plains. +Depart, whither your feet and the winds carry you, while the night and +Venus are favorable: depart with happy omen; yet, not forgetful of me, +engrave my mournful story on my tomb." + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XII. + +TO NEOBULE. + + +It is for unhappy maidens neither to give indulgence to love, nor to +wash away cares with delicious wine; or to be dispirited out of dread of +the lashes of an uncle's tongue. The winged boy of Venus, O Neobule, has +deprived you of your spindle and your webs, and the beauty of Hebrus +from Lipara of inclination for the labors of industrious Minerva, after +he has bathed his anointed shoulders in the waters of the Tiber; a +better horseman than Bellerophon himself, neither conquered at boxing, +nor by want of swiftness in the race: he is also skilled to strike with +his javelin the stags, flying through the open plains in frightened +herd, and active to surprise the wild boar lurking in the deep thicket. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIII. TO THE BANDUSIAN FOUNTAIN. + + +O thou fountain of Bandusia, clearer than glass, worthy of delicious +wine, not unadorned by flowers; to-morrow thou shalt be presented with a +kid, whose forehead, pouting with new horns, determines upon both love +and war in vain; for this offspring of the wanton flock shall tinge thy +cooling streams with scarlet blood. The severe season of the burning +dog-star cannot reach thee; thou affordest a refreshing coolness to the +oxen fatigued with the plough-share, and to the ranging flock. Thou also +shalt become one of the famous fountains, through my celebrating the oak +that covers the hollow rock, whence thy prattling rills descend with a +bound. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIV. + +TO THE ROMANS. + + +Augustus Caesar, O ye people, who was lately said, like another +Hercules, to have sought for the laurel to be purchased only by death, +revisits his domestic gods, victorious from the Spanish shore. Let the +matron (_Livia_), to whom her husband alone is dear, come forth in +public procession, having first performed her duty to the just gods; and +(_Octavia_), the sister of our glorious general; the mothers also of the +maidens and of the youths just preserved from danger, becomingly adorned +with supplicatory fillets. Ye, O young men, and young women lately +married, abstain from ill-omened words. This day, to me a real festival, +shall expel gloomy cares: I will neither dread commotions, nor violent +death, while Caesar is in possession of the earth. Go, slave, and seek +for perfume and chaplets, and a cask that remembers the Marsian war, if +any vessel could elude the vagabond Spartacus. And bid the tuneful +Neaera make haste to collect into a knot her auburn hair; _but_ if any +delay should happen from the surly porter, come away. Hoary hair +mollifies minds that are fond of strife and petulant wrangling. I would +not have endured this treatment, warm with youth in the consulship of +Plancus. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XV. + +TO CHLORIS. + + +You wife of the indigent Ibycus, at length put an end to your +wickedness, and your infamous practices. Cease to sport among the +damsels, and to diffuse a cloud among bright constellations, now on the +verge of a timely death. If any thing will become Pholoe, it does not +you Chloris, likewise. Your daughter with more propriety attacks the +young men's apartments, like a Bacchanalian roused up by the rattling +timbrel. The love of Nothus makes her frisk about like a wanton +she-goat. The wool shorn near the famous Luceria becomes you now +antiquated: not musical instruments, or the damask flower of the rose, +or hogsheads drunk down to the lees. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVI. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +A brazen tower, and doors of oak, and the melancholy watch of wakeful +dogs, had sufficiently defended the imprisoned Danae from midnight +gallants, had not Jupiter and Venus laughed at Acrisius, the anxious +keeper of the immured maiden: [for they well knew] that the way would be +safe and open, after the god had transformed himself into a bribe. Gold +delights to penetrate through the midst of guards, and to break through +stone-walls, more potent than the thunderbolt. The family of the Grecian +augur perished, immersed in destruction on account of lucre. The man of +Macedon cleft the gates of the cities and subverted rival monarchs by +bribery. Bribes enthrall fierce captains of ships. Care, and a thirst +for greater things, is the consequence of increasing wealth. Therefore, +Maecenas, thou glory of the [Roman] knights, I have justly dreaded to +raise the far-conspicuous head. As much more as any man shall deny +himself, so much more shall he receive from the gods. Naked as I am, I +seek the camps of those who covet nothing; and as a deserter, rejoice to +quit the side of the wealthy: a more illustrious possessor of a +contemptible fortune, than if I could be said to treasure up in my +granaries all that the industrious Apulian cultivates, poor amid +abundance of wealth. A rivulet of clear water, and a wood of a few +acres, and a certain prospect of my good crop, are blessings unknown to +him who glitters in the proconsulship of fertile Africa: I am more +happily circumstanced. Though neither the Calabrian bees produce honey, +nor wine ripens to age for me in a Formian cask, nor rich fleeces +increase in Gallic pastures; yet distressful poverty is remote; nor, if +I desired more, would you refuse to grant it me. I shall be better able +to extend my small revenues, by contracting my desires, than if I could +join the kingdom of Alyattes to the Phrygian plains. Much is wanting to +those who covet much. 'Tis well with him to whom God has given what is +necessary with a sparing hand. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVII. + +TO AELIUS LAMIA. + + +O Aelius, who art nobly descended from the ancient Lamus (forasmuch as +they report, that both the first of the Lamian family had their name +hence, and all the race of the descendants through faithful records +derives its origin from that founder, who is said to have possessed, as +prince, the Formian walls, and Liris gliding on the shores of Marica--an +extensive potentate). To-morrow a tempest sent from the east shall strew +the grove with many leaves, and the shore with useless sea-weed, unless +that old prophetess of rain, the raven, deceives me. Pile up the dry +wood, while you may; to-morrow you shall indulge your genius with wine, +and with a pig of two months old, with your slaves dismissed from their +labors. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVIII. + +TO FAUNUS. + +A HYMN. + + +O Faunus, thou lover of the flying nymphs, benignly traverse my borders +and sunny fields, and depart propitious to the young offspring of my +flocks; if a tender kid fall [a victim] to thee at the completion of the +year, and plenty of wines be not wanting to the goblet, the companion of +Venus, and the ancient altar smoke with liberal perfume. All the cattle +sport in the grassy plain, when the nones of December return to thee; +the village keeping holiday enjoys leisure in the fields, together with +the oxen free from toil. The wolf wanders among the fearless lambs; the +wood scatters its rural leaves for thee, and the laborer rejoices to +have beaten the hated ground in triple dance. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIX. + +TO TELEPHUS. + + +How far Codrus, who was not afraid to die for his country, is removed +from Inachus, and the race of Aeacus, and the battles also that were +fought at sacred Troy--[these subjects] you descant upon; but at what +price we may purchase a hogshead of Chian; who shall warm the water [for +bathing]; who finds a house: and at what hour I am to get rid of these +Pelignian colds, you are silent. Give me, boy, [a bumper] for the new +moon in an instant, give me one for midnight, and one for Murena the +augur. Let our goblets be mixed up with three or nine cups, according to +every one's disposition. The enraptured bard, who delights in the +odd-numbered muses, shall call for brimmers thrice three. Each of the +Graces, in conjunction with the naked sisters, fearful of broils, +prohibits upward of three. It is my pleasure to rave; why cease the +breathings of the Phrygian flute? Why is the pipe hung up with the +silent lyre? I hate your niggardly handfuls: strew roses freely. Let the +envious Lycus hear the jovial noise; and let our fair neighbor, +ill-suited to the old Lycus, [hear it.] The ripe Rhode aims at thee, +Telephus, smart with thy bushy locks; at thee, bright as the clear +evening star; the love of my Glycera slowly consumes me. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XX. + +TO PYRRHUS. + + +Do you not perceive, O Pyrrhus, at what hazard yon are taking away the +whelps from a Gutulian lioness? In a little while you, a timorous +ravisher, shall fly from the severe engagement, when she shall march +through the opposing band of youths, re-demanding her beauteous +Nearchus; a grand contest, whether a greater share of booty shall fall +to thee or to her! In the mean time, while you produce your swift +arrows, she whets her terrific teeth; while the umpire of the combat is +reported to have placed the palm under his naked foot, and refreshed his +shoulder, overspread with his perfumed locks, with the gentle breeze: +just such another was Nireus, or he that was ravished from the watery +Ida. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXI. + +TO HIS JAR. + + +O thou goodly cask, that wast brought to light at the same time with me +in the consulship of Manlius, whether thou containest the occasion of +complaint, or jest, or broils and maddening amours, or gentle sleep; +under whatever title thou preservest the choice Massic, worthy to be +removed on an auspicious day; descend, Corvinus bids me draw the +mellowest wine. He, though he is imbued in the Socratic lectures, will +not morosely reject thee. The virtue even of old Cato is recorded to +have been frequently warmed with wine. Thou appliest a gentle violence +to that disposition, which is in general of the rougher cast: Thou +revealest the cares and secret designs of the wise, by the assistance of +merry Bacchus. You restore hope and spirit to anxious minds, and give +horns to the poor man, who after [tasting] you neither dreads the +diadems of enraged monarchs, nor the weapons of the soldiers. Thee +Bacchus, and Venus, if she comes in good-humor, and the Graces loth to +dissolve the knot [of their union], and living lights shall prolong, +till returning Phoebus puts the stars to flight. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXII. + +TO DIANA. + + +O virgin, protectress of the mountains and the groves, thou three-formed +goddess, who thrice invoked, hearest young women in labor, and savest +them from death; sacred to thee be this pine that overshadows my villa, +which I, at the completion of every year, joyful will present with the +blood of a boar-pig, just meditating his oblique attack. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXIII. + +TO PHIDYLE. + + +My rustic Phidyle, if you raise your suppliant hands to heaven at the +new moon, and appease the household gods with frankincense, and this +year's fruits, and a ravening swine; the fertile vine shall neither +feel the pestilential south-west, nor the corn the barren blight, or +your dear brood the sickly season in the fruit-bearing autumn. For the +destined victim, which is pastured in the snowy Algidus among the oaks +and holm trees, or thrives in the Albanian meadows, with its throat +shall stain the axes of the priests. It is not required of you, who are +crowning our little gods with rosemary and the brittle myrtle, to +propitiate them with a great slaughter of sheep. If an innocent hand +touches a clear, a magnificent victim does not pacify the offended +Penates more acceptably, than a consecrated cake and crackling salt. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXIV. + +TO THE COVETOUS. + + +Though, more wealthy than the unrifled treasures of the Arabians and +rich India, you should possess yourself by your edifices of the whole +Tyrrhenian and Apulian seas; yet, if cruel fate fixes its adamantine +grapples upon the topmost roofs, you shall not disengage your mind from +dread, nor your life from the snares of death. The Scythians that dwell +in the plains, whose carts, according to their custom, draw their +vagrant habitations, live in a better manner; and [so do] the rough +Getae, whose uncircumscribed acres produce fruits and corn free to all, +nor is a longer than annual tillage agreeable, and a successor leaves +him who has accomplished his labor by an equal right. There the +guiltless wife spares her motherless step-children, nor does the +portioned spouse govern her husband, nor put any confidence in a sleek +adulterer. Their dower is the high virtue of their parents, and a +chastity reserved from any other man by a steadfast security; and it, is +forbidden to sin, or the reward is death. O if there be any one willing +to remove our impious slaughters, and civil rage; if he be desirous to +be written FATHER OF THE STATE, on statues [erected to him], let him +dare to curb insuperable licentiousness, and be eminent to posterity; +since we (O injustice!) detest virtue while living, but invidiously seek +for her after she is taken out of our view. To what purpose are our +woeful complaints, if sin is not cut off with punishment? Of what +efficacy are empty laws, without morals; if neither that part of the +world which is shut in by fervent heats, nor that side which borders +upon Boreas, and snows hardened upon the ground, keep off the merchant; +[and] the expert sailors get the better of the horrible seas? Poverty, a +great reproach, impels us both to do and to suffer any thing, and +deserts the path of difficult virtue. Let us, then, cast our gems and +precious stones and useless gold, the cause of extreme evil, either into +the Capitol, whither the acclamations and crowd of applauding [citizens] +call us, or into the adjoining ocean. If we are truly penitent for our +enormities, the very elements of depraved lust are to be erased, and the +minds of too soft a mold should be formed by severer studies. The noble +youth knows not how to keep his seat on horseback and is afraid to go a +hunting, more skilled to play (if you choose it) with the Grecian +trochus, or dice, prohibited by law; while the father's perjured faith +can deceive his partner and friend, and he hastens to get money for an +unworthy heir. In a word, iniquitous wealth increases, yet something is +ever wanting to the incomplete fortune. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXV. + +TO BACCHUS. + +A DITHYRAMBIC. + + +Whither, O Bacchus, art thou hurrying me, replete with your influence? +Into what groves, into what recesses am I driven, actuated with uncommon +spirit? In what caverns, meditating the immortal honor of illustrious +Caesar, shall I be heard enrolling him among the stars and the council +of Jove? I will utter something extraordinary, new, hitherto unsung by +any other voice. Thus the sleepless Bacchanal is struck with enthusiasm, +casting her eyes upon Hebrus, and Thrace bleached with snow, and Rhodope +traversed by the feet of barbarians. How am I delighted in my rambles, +to admire the rocks and the desert grove! O lord of the Naiads and the +Bacchanalian women, who are able with their hands to overthrow lofty +ash-trees; nothing little, nothing low, nothing mortal will I sing. +Charming is the hazard, O Bacchus, to accompany the god, who binds his +temples with the verdant vine-leaf. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXVI. + +TO VENUS. + + +I lately lived a proper person for girls, and campaigned it not without +honor; but now this wall, which guards the left side of [the statue] of +sea-born Venus, shall have my arms and my lyre discharged from warfare. +Here, here, deposit the shining flambeaux, and the wrenching irons, and +the bows, that threatened the resisting doors. O thou goddess, who +possessest the blissful Cyprus, and Memphis free from Sithonian snow, O +queen, give the haughty Chloe one cut with your high-raised lash. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXVII. + +TO GALATEA, UPON HER GOING TO SEA. + + +Let the omen of the noisy screech-owl and a pregnant bitch, or a tawny +wolf running down from the Lanuvian fields, or a fox with whelp conduct +the impious [on their way]; may the serpent also break their undertaken +journey, if, like an arrow athwart the road, it has frightened the +horses. What shall I, a provident augur, fear? I will invoke from the +east, with my prayers, the raven forboding by his croaking, before the +bird which presages impending showers, revisits the stagnant pools. +Mayest thou be happy, O Galatea, wheresoever thou choosest to reside, +and live mindful of me and neither the unlucky pye nor the vagrant crow +forbids your going on. But you see, with what an uproar the prone Orion +hastens on: I know what the dark bay of the Adriatic is, and in what +manner Iapyx, [seemingly] serene, is guilty. Let the wives and children +of our enemies feel the blind tumults of the rising south, and the +roaring of the blackened sea, and the shores trembling with its lash. +Thus too Europa trusted her fair side to the deceitful bull, and bold as +she was, turned pale at the sea abounding with monsters, and the cheat +now become manifest. She, who lately in the meadows was busied about +flowers, and a composer of the chaplet meet for nymphs, saw nothing in +the dusky night put stars and water. Who as soon as she arrived at +Crete, powerful with its hundred cities, cried out, overcome with rage, +"O father, name abandoned by thy daughter! O my duty! Whence, whither am +I come? One death is too little for virgins' crime. Am I awake, while I +deplore my base offense; or does some vain phantom, which, escaping from +the ivory gate, brings on a dream, impose upon me, still free from +guilt. Was it better to travel over the tedious waves, or to gather the +fresh flowers? If any one now would deliver up to me in my anger this +infamous bull, I would do my utmost to tear him to pieces with steel, +and break off the horns of the monster, lately so much beloved. +Abandoned I have left my father's house, abandoned I procrastinate my +doom. O if any of the gods hear this, I wish I may wander naked among +lions: before foul decay seizes my comely cheeks, and moisture leaves +this tender prey, I desire, in all my beauty, to be the food of tigers." +"Base Europa," thy absent father urges, "why do you hesitate to die? you +may strangle your neck suspended from this ash, with your girdle that +has commodiously attended you. Or if a precipice, and the rocks that are +edged with death, please you, come on, commit yourself to the rapid +storm; unless you, that are of blood-royal, had rather card your +mistress's wool, and be given up as a concubine to some barbarian dame." +As she complained, the treacherously-smiling Venus, and her son, with +his bow relaxed, drew near. Presently, when she had sufficiently rallied +her, "Refrain (she cried) from your rage and passionate chidings, since +this detested bull shall surrender his horns to be torn in pieces by +you. Are you ignorant, that you are the wife of the invincible Jove? +Cease your sobbing; learn duly to support your distinguished good +fortune. A division of the world shall bear your name." + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXVIII. + +TO LYDE. + + +What can I do better on the festal day of Neptune? Quickly produce, +Lyde, the hoarded Caecuban, and make an attack upon wisdom, ever on her +guard. You perceive the noontide is on its decline; and yet, as if the +fleeting day stood still, you delay to bring out of the store-house the +loitering cask, [that bears its date] from the consul Bibulus. We will +sing by turns, Neptune, and the green locks of the Nereids; you, shall +chant, on your wreathed lyre, Latona and the darts of the nimble +Cynthia; at the conclusion of your song, she also [shall be celebrated], +who with her yoked swans visits Gnidos, and the shining Cyclades, and +Paphos: the night also shall be celebrated in a suitable lay. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXIX. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +O Maecenas, thou progeny of Tuscan kings, there has been a long while +for you in my house some mellow wine in an unbroached hogshead, with +rose-flowers and expressed essence for your hair. Disengage yourself +from anything that may retard you, nor contemplate the ever marshy +Tibur, and the sloping fields of Aesula, and the hills of Telegonus the +parricide. Leave abundance, which is the source of daintiness, and yon +pile of buildings approaching near the lofty clouds: cease to admire the +smoke, and opulence, and noise of flourishing Rome. A change is +frequently agreeable to the rich, and a cleanly meal in the little +cottage of the poor has smoothed an anxious brow without carpets or +purple. Now the bright father of Andromeda displays his hidden fire; now +Procyon rages, and the constellation of the ravening Lion, as the sun +brings round the thirsty season. Now the weary shepherd with his languid +flock seeks the shade, and the river, and the thickets of rough +Sylvanus; and the silent bank is free from the wandering winds. You +regard what constitution may suit the state, and are in an anxious dread +for Rome, what preparations the Seres and the Bactrians subject to +Cyrus, and the factious Tanais are making. A wise deity shrouds in +obscure darkness the events of the time to come, and smiles if a mortal +is solicitous beyond the law of nature. Be mindful to manage duly that +which is present. What remains goes on in the manner of the river, at +one time calmly gliding in the middle of its channel to the Tuscan Sea, +at another, rolling along corroded stones, and stumps of trees, forced +away, and cattle, and houses, not without the noise of mountains and +neighboring woods, when the merciless deluge enrages the peaceful +waters. That man is master of himself and shall live happy, who has it +in his power to say, "I have lived to-day: to-morrow let the Sire invest +the heaven, either with a black cloud, or with clear sunshine; +nevertheless, he shall not render ineffectual what is past, nor undo or +annihilate what the fleeting hour has once carried off. Fortune, happy +in the execution of her cruel office, and persisting to play her +insolent game, changes uncertain honors, indulgent now to me, by and by +to another. I praise her, while she abides by me. If she moves her fleet +wings, I resign what she has bestowed, and wrap myself up in my virtue, +and court honest poverty without a portion. It is no business of mine, +if the mast groan with the African storms, to have recourse to piteous +prayers, and to make a bargain with my vows, that my Cyprian and Syrian +merchandize may not add to the wealth of the insatiable sea. Then the +gale and the twin Pollux will carry me safe in the protection of a skiff +with two oars, through the tumultuous Aegean Sea." + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XXX. + +ON HIS OWN WORKS. + + +I have completed a monument more lasting than brass, and more sublime +than the regal elevation of pyramids, which neither the wasting shower, +the unavailing north wind, nor an innumerable succession of years, and +the flight of seasons, shall be able to demolish. I shall not wholly +die; but a great part of me shall escape Libitina. I shall continualy be +renewed in the praises of posterity, as long as the priest shall ascend +the Capitol with the silent [vestal] virgin. Where the rapid Aufidus +shall murmur, and where Daunus, poorly supplied with water, ruled over a +rustic people, I, exalted from a low degree, shall be acknowledged as +having originally adapted the Aeolic verse to Italian measures. +Melpomene, assume that pride which your merits have acquired, and +willingly crown my hair with the Delphic laurel. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE ODES OF HORACE. + + + +ODE I. + +TO VENUS. + + +After a long cessation, O Venus, again are you stirring up tumults? +Spare me, I beseech you, I beseech you. I am not the man I was under the +dominion of good-natured Cynara. Forbear, O cruel mother of soft +desires, to bend one bordering upon fifty, now too hardened for soft +commands: go, whither the soothing prayers of youths, invoke you. More +seasonably may you revel in the house of Paulus Maximus, flying thither +with your splendid swans, if you seek to inflame a suitable breast. For +he is both noble and comely, and by no means silent in the cause of +distressed defendants, and a youth of a hundred accomplishments; he +shall bear the ensigns of your warfare far and wide; and whenever, more +prevailing than the ample presents of a rival, he shall laugh [at his +expense], he shall erect thee in marble under a citron dome near the +Alban lake. There you shall smell abundant frankincense, and shall be +charmed with the mixed music of the lyre and Berecynthian pipe, not +without the flageolet. There the youths, together with the tender +maidens, twice a day celebrating your divinity, shall, Salian-like, with +white foot thrice shake the ground. As for me, neither woman, nor youth, +nor the fond hopes of mutual inclination, nor to contend in wine, nor to +bind my temples with fresh flowers, delight me [any longer]. But why; +ah! why, Ligurinus, does the tear every now and then trickle down my +cheeks? Why does my fluent tongue falter between my words with an +unseemly silence? Thee in my dreams by night I clasp, caught [in my +arms]; thee flying across the turf of the Campus Martius; thee I pursue, +O cruel one, through the rolling waters. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE II. + +TO ANTONIUS IULUS. + + +Whoever endeavors, O Iulus, to rival Pindar, makes an effort on wings +fastened with wax by art Daedalean, about to communicate his name to the +glassy sea. Like a river pouring down from a mountain, which sudden +rains have increased beyond its accustomed banks, such the deep-mouthed +Pindar rages and rushes on immeasurable, sure to merit Apollo's laurel, +whether he rolls down new-formed phrases through the daring dithyrambic, +and is borne on in numbers exempt from rule: whether he sings the gods, +and kings, the offspring of the gods, by whom the Centaurs perished with +a just destruction, [by whom] was quenched the flame of the dreadful +Chimaera; or celebrates those whom the palm, [in the Olympic games] at +Elis, brings home exalted to the skies, wrestler or steed, and presents +them with a gift preferable to a hundred statues: or deplores some +youth, snatched [by death] from his mournful bride--he elevates both his +strength, and courage, and golden morals to the stars, and rescues him +from the murky grave. A copious gale elevates the Dircean swan, O +Antonius, as often as he soars into the lofty regions of the clouds: but +I, after the custom and manner of the Macinian bee, that laboriously +gathers the grateful thyme, I, a diminutive creature, compose elaborate +verses about the grove and the banks of the watery Tiber. You, a poet of +sublimer style, shall sing of Caesar, whenever, graceful in his +well-earned laurel, he shall drag the fierce Sygambri along the sacred +hill; Caesar, than whom nothing greater or better the fates and +indulgent gods ever bestowed on the earth, nor will bestow, though the +times should return to their primitive gold. You shall sing both the +festal days, and the public rejoicings on account of the prayed-for +return of the brave Augustus, and the forum free from law-suits. Then +(if I can offer any thing worth hearing) a considerable portion of my +voice shall join [the general acclamation], and I will sing, happy at +the reception of Caesar, "O glorious day, O worthy thou to be +celebrated." And while [the procession] moves along, shouts of triumph +we will repeat, shouts of triumph the whole city [will raise], and we +will offer frankincense to the indulgent gods. Thee ten bulls and as +many heifers shall absolve; me, a tender steerling, that, having left +his dam, thrives in spacious pastures for the discharge of my vows, +resembling [by the horns on] his forehead the curved light of the moon, +when she appears of three days old, in which part he has a mark of a +snowy aspect, being of a dun color over the rest of his body. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE III. + +TO MELPOMENE. + + +Him, O Melpomene, upon whom at his birth thou hast once looked with +favoring eye, the Isthmian contest shall not render eminent as a +wrestler; the swift horse shall not draw him triumphant in a Grecian +car; nor shall warlike achievement show him in the Capitol, a general +adorned with the Delian laurel, on account of his having quashed the +proud threats of kings: but such waters as flow through the fertile +Tiber, and the dense leaves of the groves, shall make him distinguished +by the Aeolian verse. The sons of Rome, the queen of cities, deign to +rank me among the amiable band of poets; and now I am less carped at by +the tooth of envy. O muse, regulating the harmony of the gilded shell! O +thou, who canst immediately bestow, if thou please, the notes of the +swan upon the mute fish! It is entirely by thy gift that I am marked +out, as the stringer of the Roman lyre, by the fingers of passengers; +that I breathe, and give pleasure (if I give pleasure), is yours. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IV + +THE PRAISE OF DRUSUS. + + +Like as the winged minister of thunder (to whom Jupiter, the sovereign +of the gods, has assigned the dominion over the fleeting birds, having +experienced his fidelity in the affair of the beauteous Ganymede), early +youth and hereditary vigor save impelled from his nest unknowing of +toil; and the vernal winds, the showers being now dispelled, taught him, +still timorous, unwonted enterprises: in a little while a violent +impulse dispatched him, as an enemy against the sheepfolds, now an +appetite for food and fight has impelled him upon the reluctant +serpents;--or as a she-goat, intent on rich pastures, has beheld a young +lion but just weaned from the udder of his tawny dam, ready to be +devoured by his newly-grown tooth: such did the Rhaeti and the Vindelici +behold Drusus carrying on the war under the Alps; whence this people +derived the custom, which has always prevailed among them, of arming +their right hands with the Amazonian ax, I have purposely omitted to +inquire: (neither is it possible to discover everything.) But those +troops, which had been for a long while and extensively victorious, +being subdued by the conduct of a youth, perceived what a disposition, +what a genius rightly educated under an auspicious roof, what the +fatherly affection of Augustus toward the young Neros, could effect. The +brave are generated by the brave and good; there is in steers, there is +in horses, the virtue of their sires; nor do the courageous eagles +procreate the unwarlike dove. But learning improves the innate force, +and good discipline confirms the mind: whenever morals are deficient, +vices disgrace what is naturally good. What thou owest, O Rome, to the +Neros, the river Metaurus is a witness, and the defeated Asdrubal, and +that day illustrious by the dispelling of darkness from Italy, and which +first smiled with benignant victory; when the terrible African rode +through the Latian cities, like a fire through the pitchy pines, or the +east wind through the Sicilian waves. After this the Roman youth +increased continually in successful exploits, and temples, laid waste by +the impious outrage of the Carthaginians, had the [statues of] their +gods set up again. And at length the perfidious Hannibal said; "We, like +stags, the prey of rapacious wolves, follow of our own accord those, +whom to deceive and escape is a signal triumph. That nation, which, +tossed in the Etrurian waves, bravely transported their gods, and sons, +and aged fathers, from the burned Troy to the Italian cities, like an +oak lopped by sturdy axes in Algidum abounding in dusky leaves, through +losses and through wounds derives strength and spirit from the very +steel. The Hydra did not with more vigor grow upon Hercules grieving to +be overcome, nor did the Colchians, or the Echionian Thebes, produce a +greater prodigy. Should you sink it in the depth, it will come out more +beautiful: should you contend with it, with great glory will it +overthrow the conqueror unhurt before, and will fight battles to be the +talk of wives. No longer can I send boasting messengers to Carthage: all +the hope and success of my name is fallen, is fallen by the death of +Asdrubal. There is nothing, but what the Claudian hands will perform; +which both Jupiter defends with his propitious divinity, and sagacious +precaution conducts through the sharp trials of war." + + * * * * * + + + +ODE V. + +TO AUGUSTUS. + + +O best guardian of the Roman people, born under propitious gods, already +art thou too long absent; after having promised a mature arrival to the +sacred council of the senators, return. Restore, O excellent chieftain, +the light to thy country; for, like the spring, wherever thy countenance +has shone, the day passes more agreeably for the people, and the sun has +a superior lustre. As a mother, with vows, omens, and prayers, calls for +her son (whom the south wind with adverse gales detains from his sweet +home, staying more than a year beyond the Carpathian Sea), nor turns +aside her looks from the curved shore; in like manner, inspired with +loyal wishes, his country seeks for Caesar. For, [under your auspices,] +the ox in safety traverses the meadows: Ceres nourishes the ground; and +abundant Prosperity: the sailors skim through the calm ocean: and Faith +is in dread of being censured. The chaste family is polluted by no +adulteries: morality and the law have got the better of that foul crime; +the child-bearing women are commended for an offspring resembling [the +father; and] punishment presses as a companion upon guilt. Who can fear +the Parthian? Who, the frozen Scythian? Who, the progeny that rough +Germany produces, while Caesar is in safety? Who cares for the war of +fierce Spain? Every man puts a period to the day amid his own hills, and +weds the vine to the widowed elm-trees; hence he returns joyful to his +wine, and invites you, as a deity, to his second course; thee, with many +a prayer, thee he pursues with wine poured out [in libation] from the +cups; and joins your divinity to that of his household gods, in the same +manner as Greece was mindful of Castor and the great Hercules. May you, +excellent chieftain, bestow a lasting festivity upon Italy! This is our +language, when we are sober at the early day; this is our language, when +we have well drunk, at the time the sun is beneath the ocean. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VI. + +HYMN TO APOLLO. + + +Thou god, whom the offspring of Niobe experienced as avenger of a +presumptuous tongue, and the ravisher Tityus, and also the Thessalian +Achilles, almost the conqueror of lofty Troy, a warrior superior to all +others, but unequal to thee; though, son of the sea-goddess, Thetis, he +shook the Dardanian towers, warring with his dreadful spear. He, as it +were a pine smitten with the burning ax, or a cypress prostrated by the +east wind, fell extended far, and reclined his neck in the Trojan dust. +He would not, by being shut up in a [wooden] horse, that belied the +sacred rights of Minerva, have surprised the Trojans reveling in an evil +hour, and the court of Priam making merry in the dance; but openly +inexorable to his captives, (oh impious! oh!) would have burned +speechless babes with Grecian fires, even him concealed in his mother's +womb: had not the father of the gods, prevailed upon by thy entreaties +and those of the beauteous Venus, granted to the affairs of Aeneas walls +founded under happier auspices. Thou lyrist Phoebus, tutor of the +harmonious Thalia, who bathest thy locks in the river Xanthus, O +delicate Agyieus, support the dignity of the Latian muse. Phoebus gave +me genius, Phoebus the art of composing verse, and the title of poet. Ye +virgins of the first distinction, and ye youths born of illustrious +parents, ye wards of the Delian goddess, who stops with her bow the +flying lynxes, and the stags, observe the Lesbian measure, and the +motion of my thumb; duly celebrating the son of Latona, duly +[celebrating] the goddess that enlightens the night with her shining +crescent, propitious to the fruits, and expeditious in rolling on the +precipitate months. Shortly a bride you will say: "I, skilled in the +measures of the poet Horace, recited an ode which was acceptable to the +gods, when the secular period brought back the festal days." + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VII. + +TO TORQUATUS. + + +The snows are fled, the herbage now returns to the fields, and the +leaves to the trees. The earth changes its appearance, and the +decreasing rivers glide along their banks: the elder Grace, together +with the Nymphs, and her two sisters, ventures naked to lead off the +dance. That you are not to expect things permanent, the year, and the +hour that hurries away the agreeable day, admonish us. The colds are +mitigated by the zephyrs: the summer follows close upon the spring, +shortly to die itself, as soon as fruitful autumn shall have shed its +fruits: and anon sluggish winter returns again. Nevertheless the +quick-revolving moons repair their wanings in the skies; but when we +descend [to those regions] where pious Aeneas, where Tullus and the +wealthy Ancus [have gone before us], we become dust and a mere shade. +Who knows whether the gods above will add to this day's reckoning the +space of to-morrow? Every thing, which you shall indulge to your beloved +soul, will escape the greedy hands of your heir. When once, Torquatus, +you shall be dead, and Minos shall have made his awful decisions +concerning you; not your family, not you eloquence, not your piety shall +restore you. For neither can Diana free the chaste Hippolytus from +infernal darkness; nor is Theseus able to break off the Lethaean fetters +from his dear Piri thous. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VIII. + +TO MARCIUS CENSORINUS. + + +O Censorinus, liberally would I present my acquaintance with goblets and +beautiful vases of brass; I would present them with tripods, the rewards +of the brave Grecians: nor would you bear off the meanest of my +donations, if I were rich in those pieces of art, which either +Parrhasius or Scopas produced; the latter in statuary, the former in +liquid colors, eminent to portray at one time a man, at another a god. +But I have no store of this sort, nor do your circumstances or +inclination require any such curiosities as these. You delight in +verses: verses I can give, and set a value on the donation. Not marbles +engraved with public inscriptions, by means of which breath and life +returns to illustrious generals after their decease; not the precipitate +flight of Hannibal, and his menaces retorted upon his own head: not the +flames of impious Carthage * * * * more eminently set forth his praises, +who returned, having gained a name from conquered Africa, than the +Calabrlan muses; neither, should writings be silent, would you have any +reward for having done well. What would the son of Mars and Ilia be, if +invidious silence had stifled the merits of Romulus? The force, and +favor, and voice of powerful poets consecrate Aecus, snatched from the +Stygian floods, to the Fortunate Islands. The muse forbids a +praiseworthy man to die: the muse, confers the happiness of heaven. Thus +laborious Hercules has a place at the longed-for banquets of Jove: +[thus] the sons of Tyndarus, that bright constellation, rescue shattered +vessels from the bosom of the deep: [and thus] Bacchus, his temples +adorned with the verdant vine-branch, brings the prayers of his votaries +to successful issues. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IX. + +TO MARCUS LOLLIUS. + + +Lest you for a moment imagine that those words will be lost, which I, +born on the far-resounding Aufidus, utter to be accompanied with the +lyre, by arts hitherto undivulged--If Maeonian Homer possesses the first +rank, the Pindaric and Cean muses, and the menacing strains of Alcaeus, +and the majestic ones of Stesichorus, are by no means obscure: neither, +if Anacreon long ago sportfully sung any thing, has time destroyed it: +even now breathes the love and live the ardors of the Aeolian maid, +committed to her lyre. The Lacedaemonian Helen is not the only fair, who +has been inflamed by admiring the delicate ringlets of a gallant, and +garments embroidered with gold, and courtly accomplishments, and +retinue: nor was Teucer the first that leveled arrows from the Cydonian +bow: Troy was more than once harassed: the great Idomeneus and Sthenelus +were not the only heroes that fought battles worthy to be recorded by +the muses: the fierce Hector, or the strenuous Deiphobus were not the +first that received heavy blows in defense of virtuous wives and +children. Many brave men lived before Agamemnon: but all of them, +unlamented and unknown, are overwhelmed with endless obscurity, because +they were destitute of a sacred bard. Valor, uncelebrated, differs but +little from cowardice when in the grave. I will not [therefore], O +Lollius, pass you over in silence, uncelebrated in my writings, or +suffer envious forgetfulness with impunity to seize so many toils of +thine. You have a mind ever prudent in the conduct of affairs, and +steady alike amid success and trouble: you are an avenger of avaricious +fraud, and proof against money, that attracts every thing; and a consul +not of one year only, but as often as the good and upright magistrate +has preferred the honorable to the profitable, and has rejected with a +disdainful brow the bribes of wicked men, and triumphant through +opposing bands has displayed his arms. You can not with propriety call +him happy, that possesses much; he more justly claims the title of +happy, who understands how to make a wise use of the gifts of the gods, +and how to bear severe poverty; and dreads a reproachful deed worse than +death; such a man as this is not afraid to perish in the defense of his +dear friends, or of his country. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE X. + +TO LIGURINUS. + + +O cruel still, and potent in the endowments of beauty, when an +unexpected plume shall come upon your vanity, and those locks, which now +wanton on your shoulders, shall fall off, and that color, which is now +preferable to the blossom of the damask rose, changed, O Ligurinus, +shall turn into a wrinkled face; [then] will you say (as often as you +see yourself, [quite] another person in the looking glass), Alas! why +was not my present inclination the same, when I was young? Or why do not +my cheeks return, unimpaired, to these my present sentiments? + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XI. + +TO PHYLLIS. + + +Phyllis, I have a cask full of Abanian wine, upward of nine years old; I +have parsley in my garden, for the weaving of chaplets, I have a store +of ivy, with which, when you have bound your hair, you look so gay: the +house shines cheerfully With plate: the altar, bound with chaste +vervain, longs to be sprinkled [with the blood] of a sacrificed lamb: +all hands are busy: girls mingled with boys fly about from place to +place: the flames quiver, rolling on their summit the sooty smoke. But +yet, that you may know to what joys you are invited, the Ides are to be +celebrated by you, the day which divides April, the month of sea-born +Venus; [a day,] with reason to be solemnized by me, and almost more +sacred to me than that of my own birth; since from this day my dear +Maecenas reckons his flowing years. A rich and buxom girl hath possessed +herself of Telephus, a youth above your rank; and she holds him fast by +an agreeable fetter. Consumed Phaeton strikes terror into ambitious +hopes, and the winged Pegasus, not stomaching the earth-born rider +Bellerophon, affords a terrible example, that you ought always to pursue +things that are suitable to you, and that you should avoid a +disproportioned match, by thinking it a crime to entertain a hope beyond +what is allowable. Come then, thou last of my loves (for hereafter I +shall burn for no other woman), learn with me such measures, as thou +mayest recite with thy lovely voice: our gloomy cares shall be mitigated +with an ode. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XII. + +TO VIRGIL. + + +The Thracian breezes, attendants on the spring, which moderate the deep, +now fill the sails; now neither are the meadows stiff [with frost], nor +roar the rivers swollen with winter's snow. The unhappy bird, that +piteotisly bemoans Itys, and is the eternal disgrace of the house of +Cecrops (because she wickedly revenged the brutal lusts of kings), now +builds her nest. The keepers of the sheep play tunes upon the pipe amid +the tendar herbage, and delight that god, whom flocks and the shady +hills of Arcadia delight. The time of year, O Virgil, has brought on a +drought: but if you desire to quaff wine from the Calenian press, you, +that are a constant companion of young noblemen, must earn your liquor +by [bringing some] spikenard: a small box of spikenard shall draw out a +cask, which now lies in the Sulpician store-house, bounteous in the +indulgence of fresh hopes and efficacious in washing away the +bitterness of cares. To which joys if you hasten, come instantly with +your merchandize: I do not intend to dip you in my cups scot-free, like +a man of wealth, in a house abounding with plenty. But lay aside delay, +and the desire of gain; and, mindful of the gloomy [funeral] flames, +intermix, while you may, your grave studies with a little light gayety: +it is delightful to give a loose on a proper occasion. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIII. + +TO LYCE. + + +The gods have heard my prayers, O Lyce; Lyce, the gods have heard my +prayers, you are become an old woman, and yet you would fain seem a +beauty; and you wanton and drink in an audacious manner; and when drunk, +solicit tardy Cupid, with a quivering voice. He basks in the charming +cheeks of the blooming Chia, who is a proficient on the lyre. The +teasing urchin flies over blasted oaks, and starts back at the sight of +you, because foul teeth, because wrinkles and snowy hair render you +odious. Now neither Coan purples nor sparkling jewels restore those +years, which winged time has inserted in the public annals. Whither is +your beauty gone? Alas! or whither your bloom? Whither your graceful +deportment? What have you [remaining] of her, of her, who breathed +loves, and ravished me from myself? Happy next to Cynara, and +distinguished for an aspect of graceful ways: but the fates granted a +few years only to Cynara, intending to preserve for a long time Lyce, to +rival in years the aged raven: that the fervid young fellows might see, +not without excessive laughter, that torch, [which once so brightly +scorched,] reduced to ashes. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIV. + +TO AUGUSTUS. + + +What zeal of the senators, or what of the Roman people, by decreeing the +most ample honors, can eternize your virtues, O Augustus, by monumental +inscriptions and lasting records? O thou, wherever the sun illuminates +the habitable regions, greatest of princes, whom the Vindelici, that +never experienced the Roman sway, have lately learned how powerful thou +art in war! For Drusus, by means of your soldiery, has more than once +bravely overthrown the Genauni, an implacable race, and the rapid +Brenci, and the citadels situated on the tremendous Alps. The elder of +the Neros soon after fought a terrible battle, and, under your +propitious auspices, smote the ferocious Rhoeti: how worthy of +admiration in the field of battle, [to see] with what destruction he +oppressed the brave, hearts devoted to voluntary death: just as the +south wind harasses the untameable waves, when the dance of the Pleiades +cleaves the clouds; [so is he] strenuous to annoy the troops of the +enemy, and to drive his eager steed through the midst of flames. Thus +the bull-formed Aufidus, who washes the dominions of the Apulian Daunus, +rolls along, when he rages and meditates an horrible deluge to the +cultivated lands; when Claudius overthrew with impetuous might, the iron +ranks of the barbarians, and by mowing down both front and rear strewed +the ground, victorious without any loss; through you supplying them with +troops, you with councils, and your own guardian powers. For on that +day, when the suppliant Alexandria opened her ports, and deserted court, +fortune, propitious to you in the third lustrum, has put a happy period +to the war, and has ascribed praise and wished-for honor to the +victories already obtained. O thou dread guardian of Italy and imperial +Rome, thee the Spaniard, till now unconquered, and the Mede, and the +Indian, thee the vagrant Scythian admires; thee both the Nile, who +conceals his fountain heads, and the Danube; thee the rapid Tigris; thee +the monster-bearing ocean, that roars against the remote Britons; thee +the region of Gaul fearless of death, and that of hardy Iberia obeys; +thee the Sicambrians, who delight in slaughter, laying aside their arms, +revere. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XV. + +TO AUGUSTUS, ON THE RESTORATION OF PEACE. + + +Phoebus chid me, when I was meditating to sing of battles And conquered +cities on the lyre: that I might not set my little sails along the +Tyrrhenian Sea. Your age, O Caesar, has both restored plenteous crops +to the fields, and has brought back to our Jupiter the standards torn +from the proud pillars of the Parthians; and has shut up [the temple] of +Janus [founded by] Romulus, now free from war; and has imposed a due +discipline upon headstrong licentiousness, and has extirpated crimes, +and recalled the ancient arts; by which the Latin name and strength of +Italy have increased, and the fame and majesty of the empire is extended +from the sun's western bed to the east. While Caesar is guardian of +affairs, neither civil rage nor violence shall disturb tranquillity; nor +hatred which forges swords, and sets at variance unhappy states. Not +those, who drink of the deep Danube, shall now break the Julian edicts: +not the Getae, not the Seres, nor the perfidious Persians, nor those +born upon the river Tanais. And let us, both on common and festal days, +amid the gifts of joyous Bacchus, together with our wives and families, +having first duly invoked the gods, celebrate, after the manner of our +ancestors, with songs accompanied with Lydian pipes, our late valiant +commanders: and Troy, and Anchises, and the offspring of benign Venus. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE BOOK OF THE EPODES OF HORACE. + + + +ODE I. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +Thou wilt go, my friend Maecenas, with Liburian galleys among the +towering forts of ships, ready at thine own [hazard] to undergo any of +Caesar's dangers. What shall I do? To whom life may be agreeable, if you +survive; but, if otherwise, burdensome. Whether shall I, at your +command, pursue my ease, which can not be pleasing unless in your +company? Or shall I endure this toil with such a courage, as becomes +effeminate men to bear? I will bear it? and with an intrepid soul follow +you, either through the summits of the Alps, and the inhospitable +Caucus, or to the furthest western bay. You may ask how I, unwarlike and +infirm, can assist your labors by mine? While I am your companion, I +shall be in less anxiety, which takes possession of the absent in a +greater measure. As the bird, that has unfledged young, is in a greater +dread of serpents' approaches, when they are left;--not that, if she +should be present when they came, she could render more help. Not only +this, but every other war, shall be cheerfully embraced by me for the +hope of your favor; [and this,] not that my plows should labor, yoked to +a greater number of mine own oxen; or that my cattle before the +scorching dog-star should change the Calabrian for the Lucanian +pastures: neither that my white country-box should equal the Circaean +walls of lofty Tusculum. Your generosity has enriched me enough, and +more than enough: I shall never wish to amass, what either, like the +miser Chremes, I may bury in the earth, or luxuriously squander, like a +prodigal. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE II. + +THE PRAISES OF A COUNTRY LIFE. + + +Happy the man, who, remote from business, after the manner of the +ancient race of mortals, cultivates his paternal lands with his own +oxen, disengaged from every kind of usury; he is neither alarmed by the +horrible trump, as a soldier, nor dreads he the angry sea; he shuns both +the bar and the proud portals of citizens in power. Wherefore he either +weds the lofty poplars to the mature branches of the vine; and, lopping +off the useless boughs with his pruning-knife, he ingrafts more fruitful +ones: or he takes a prospect of the herds of his lowing cattle, +wandering about in a lonely vale; or stores his honey, pressed [from the +combs], in clean vessels; or shears his tender sheep. Or, when autumn +has lifted up in the fields his head adorned with mellow fruits, how +does he rejoice, while he gathers the grafted pears, and the grape that +vies with the purple, with which he may recompense thee, O Priapus, and +thee, father Sylvanus, guardian of his boundaries! Sometimes he delights +to lie under an aged holm, sometimes on the matted grass: meanwhile the +waters glide along in their deep channels; the birds warble in the +woods; and the fountains murmur with their purling streams, which +invites gentle slumbers. But when the wintery season of the tempestuous +air prepares rains and snows, he either drives the fierce boars, with +many a dog, into the intercepting toils; or spreads his thin nets with +the smooth pole, as a snare for the voracious thrushes; or catches in +his gin the timorous hare, or that stranger the crane, pleasing rewards +[for his labor]. Among such joys as these, who does not forget those +mischievous anxieties, which are the property of love. But if a chaste +wife, assisting on her part [in the management] of the house, and +beloved children (such as is the Sabine, or the sun-burned spouse of the +industrious Apulian), piles up the sacred hearth with old wood, just at +the approach of her weary husband; and, shutting up the fruitful cattle +in the woven hurdles, milks dry their distended udders: and, drawing +this year's wine out of a well-seasoned cask, prepares the unbought +collation: not the Lucrine oysters could delight me more, nor the +turbot, nor the scar, should the tempestuous winter drive any from the +eastern floods to this sea: not the turkey, nor the Asiatic wild-fowl, +can come into my stomach more agreeably, than the olive gathered from +the richest branches from the trees, or the sorrel that loves the +meadows, or mallows salubrious for a sickly body, or a lamb slain at the +feast of Terminus, or a kid rescued from the wolf. Amid these dainties, +how it pleases one to see the well-fed sheep hastening home! to see the +weary oxen, with drooping neck, dragging the inverted ploughshare! and +slaves, the test of a rich family, ranged about the smiling household +gods! When Alfius, the usurer, now on the point of turning countryman, +had said this, he collected in all his money on the Ides; and endeavors +to put it out again at the Calends. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE III. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +If any person at any time with an impious hand has broken his aged +father's neck, let him eat garlic, more baneful than hemlock. Oh! the +hardy bowels of the mowers! What poison is this that rages in my +entrails? Has viper's blood, infused in these herbs, deceived me? Or has +Canidia dressed this baleful food? When Medea, beyond all the [other] +argonauts, admired their handsome leader, she anointed Jason with this, +as he was going to tie the untried yoke on the bulls: and having +revenged herself on [Jason's] mistress, by making her presents besmeared +with this, she flew away on her winged dragon. Never did the steaming +influence of any constellation so raging as this rest upon the thirsty +Appulia: neither did the gift [_of Dejanira_] burn hotter upon the +shoulders of laborious Hercules. But if ever, facetious Maecenas, you +should have a desire for any such stuff again, I wish that your girl may +oppose her hand to your kiss, and lie at the furthest part of the bed. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IV. + +TO MENAS. + + +As great an enmity as is allotted by nature to wolves and lambs, [so +great a one] have I to you, you that are galled at your back with +Spanish cords, and on your legs with the hard fetter. Though, +purse-proud with your riches, you strut along, yet fortune does not +alter your birth. Do you not observe while you are stalking along the +sacred way with a robe twice three ells long, how the most open +indignation of those that pass and repass turns their looks on thee? +This fellow, [say they,] cut with the triumvir's whips, even till the +beadle was sick of his office, plows a thousand acres of Falernian land, +and wears out the Appian road with his nags; and, in despite of Otho, +sits in the first rows [of the circus] as a knight of distinction. To +what purpose is it, that so many brazen-beaked ships of immense bulk +should be led out against pirates and a band of slaves, while this +fellow, this is a military tribune? + + * * * * * + + + +ODE V. + +THE WITCHES MANGLING A BOY. + + +But oh, by all the gods in heaven, who rule the earth and human race, +what means this tumult? And what the hideous looks of all these [hags, +fixed] upon me alone? I conjure thee by thy children (if invoked Lucina +was ever present at any real birth of thine), I [conjure] thee by this +empty honor of my purple, by Jupiter, who must disapprove these +proceedings, why dost thou look at me as a step-mother, or as a wild +beast stricken with a dart? While the boy made these complaints with a +faltering voice, he stood with his bandages of distinction taken from +him, a tender frame, such as might soften the impious breasts of the +cruel Thracians; Canidia, having interwoven her hair and uncombed head +with little vipers, orders wild fig-trees torn up from graves, orders +funeral cypresses and eggs besmeared with the gore of a loathsome toad, +and feathers of the nocturnal screech-owl, and those herbs, which +lolchos, and Spain, fruitful in poisons, transmits, and bones snatched +from the mouth of a hungry bitch, to be burned in Colchian flames. But +Sagana, tucked up for expedition, sprinkling the waters of Avernus all +over the house, bristles up with her rough hair like a sea-urchin, or a +boar in the chase. Veia, deterred by no remorse of conscience, groaning +with the toil, dug up the ground with the sharp spade; where the boy, +fixed in, might long be tormented to death at the sight of food varied +two or three times in a day: while he stood out with his face, just as +much at bodies suspended by the chin [in swimming] project from the +water, that his parched marrow and dried liver might be a charm for +love; when once the pupils of his eyes had wasted away, fixed on the +forbidden food. Both the idle Naples, and every neighboring town +believed, that Folia of Ariminum, [a witch] of masculine lust, was not +absent: she, who with her Thessalian incantations forces the charmed +stars and the moon from heaven. Here the fell Canidia, gnawing her +unpaired thumb with her livid teeth, what said she? or what did she not +say? O ye faithful witnesses to my proceedings, Night and Diana, who +presidest over silence, when the secret rites are celebrated: now, now +be present, now turn your anger and power against the houses of our +enemies, while the savage wild beasts lie hid in the woods, dissolved in +sweet repose; let the dogs of Suburra (which may be matter of ridicule +for every body) bark at the aged profligate, bedaubed with ointment, +such as my hands never made any more exquisite. What is the matter? Why +are these compositions less efficacious than those of the barbarian +Medea? by means of which she made her escape, after having revenged +herself on [Jason's] haughty mistress, the daughter of the mighty Creon; +when the garment, a gift that was injected with venom, took off his new +bride by its inflammatory power. And yet no herb, nor root hidden in +inaccessible places, ever escaped my notice. [Nevertheless,] he sleeps +in the perfumed bed of every harlot, from his forgetfulness [of me]. Ah! +ah! he walks free [from my power] by the charms of some more knowing +witch. Varus, (oh you that will shortly have much to lament!) you shall +come back to me by means of unusual spells; nor shall you return to +yourself by all the power of Marsian enchantments, I will prepare a +stronger philter: I will pour in a stronger philter for you, disdainful +as you are; and the heaven shall subside below the sea, with the earth +extended over it, sooner than you shall not burn with love for me, in +the same manner as this pitch [burns] in the sooty flames. At these +words, the boy no longer [attempted], as before, to move the impious +hags by soothing expressions; but, doubtful in what manner he should +break silence, uttered Thyestean imprecations. Potions [said he] have a +great efficacy in confounding right and wrong, but are not able to +invert the condition of human nature; I will persecute you with curses; +and execrating detestation is not to be expiated by any victim. +Moreover, when doomed to death I shall have expired, I will attend you +as a nocturnal fury; and, a ghost, I will attack your faces with my +hooked talons (for such is the power of those divinities, the Manes), +and, brooding upon your restless breasts, I will deprive you of repose +by terror. The mob, from village to village, assaulting you on every +side with stones, shall demolish you filthy hags. Finally, the wolves +and Esquiline vultures shall scatter abroad your unburied limbs. Nor +shall this spectacle escape the observation of my parents, who, alas! +must survive me. + + + +ODE. VI. + +AGAINST CASSIUS SEVERUS. + + +O cur, thou coward against wolves, why dost thou persecute innocent +strangers? Why do you not, if you can, turn your empty yelpings hither, +and attack me, who will bite again? For, like a Molossian, or tawny +Laconian dog, that is a friendly assistant to shepherds, I will drive +with erected ears through the deep snows every brute that shall go +before me. You, when you have filled the grove with your fearful +barking, you smell at the food that is thrown to you. Have a care, have +a care; for, very bitter against bad men, I exert my ready horns uplift; +like him that was rejected as a son-in-law by the perfidious Lycambes, +or the sharp enemy of Bupalus. What, if any cur attack me with malignant +tooth, shall I, without revenge, blubber like a boy? + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VII. + +TO THE ROMAN PEOPLE. + + +Whither, whither, impious men are you rushing? Or why are the swords +drawn, that were [so lately] sheathed? Is there too little of Roman +blood spilled upon land and sea? [And this,] not that the Romans might +burn the proud towers of envious Carthage, or that the Britons, hitherto +unassailed, might go down the sacred way bound in chains: but that, +agreeably to the wishes of the Parthians, this city may fall by its own +might. This custom [of warfare] never obtained even among either wolves +or savage lions, unless against a different species. Does blind phrenzy, +or your superior valor, or some crime, hurry you on at this rate? Give +answer. They are silent: and wan paleness infects their countenances, +and their stricken souls are stupefied. This is the case: a cruel +fatality and the crime of fratricide have disquieted the Romans, from +that time when the blood of the innocent Remus, to be expiated by his +descendants, was spilled upon the earth. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE VIII. + +UPON A WANTON OLD WOMAN. + + +Can you, grown rank with lengthened age, ask what unnerves my vigor? +When your teeth are black, and old age withers your brow with wrinkles: +and your back sinks between your staring hip-bones, like that of an +unhealthy cow. But, forsooth! your breast and your fallen chest, full +well resembling a broken-backed horse, provoke me; and a body flabby, +and feeble knees supported by swollen legs. May you be happy: and may +triumphal statues adorn your funeral procession; and may no matron +appear in public abounding with richer pearls. What follows, because the +Stoic treatises sometimes love to be on silken pillows? Are unlearned +constitutions the less robust? Or are their limbs less stout? But for +you to raise an appetite, in a stomach that is nice, it is necessary +that you exert every art of language. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE IX. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +When, O happy Maecenas, shall I, overjoyed at Caesar's being victorious, +drink with you under the stately dome (for so it pleases Jove) the +Caecuban reserved for festal entertainments, while the lyre plays a +tune, accompanied with flutes, that in the Doric, these in the Phrygian +measure? As lately, when the Neptunian admiral, driven from the sea, +and his navy burned, fled, after having menaced those chains to Rome, +which, like a friend, he had taken off from perfidious slaves. The Roman +soldiers (alas! ye, our posterity, will deny the fact), enslaved to a +woman, carry palisadoes and arms, and can be subservient to haggard +eunuchs; and among the military standards, oh shame! the sun beholds an +[Egyptian] canopy. Indignant at this the Gauls turned two thousand of +their cavalry, proclaiming Caesar; and the ships of the hostile navy, +going off to the left, lie by in port. Hail, god of triumph! Dost thou +delay the golden chariots and untouched heifers? Hail, god of triumph! +You neither brought back a general equal [to Caesar] from the Jugurthine +war; nor from the African [war, him], whose valor raised him a monument +over Carthage. Our enemy, overthrown both by land and sea, has changed +his purple vestments for mourning. He either seeks Crete, famous for her +hundred cities, ready to sail with unfavorable winds; or the Syrtes, +harassed by the south; or else is driven by the uncertain sea. Bring +hither, boy, larger bowls, and the Chian or Lesbian wine; or, what may +correct this rising qualm of mine, fill me out the Caecuban. It is my +pleasure to dissipate care and anxiety for Caesar's danger with +delicious wine. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE X. + +AGAINST MAEVIUS. + + +The vessel that carries the loathsome Maevius, makes her departure under +an unlucky omen. Be mindful, O south wind, that you buffet it about with +horrible billows. May the gloomy east, turning up the sea, disperse its +cables and broken oars. Let the north arise as mighty as when be rives +the quivering oaks on the lofty mountains; nor let a friendly star +appear through the murky night, in which the baleful Orion sets: nor let +him be conveyed in a calmer sea, than was the Grecian band of +conquerors, when Pallas turned her rage from burned Troy to the ship of +impious Ajax. Oh what a sweat is coming upon your sailors, and what a +sallow paleness upon you, and that effeminate wailing, and those prayers +to unregarding Jupiter; when the Ionian bay, roaring with the +tempestuous south-west, shall break your keel. But if, extended along +the winding shore, you shall delight the cormorants as a dainty prey, a +lascivious he-goat and an ewe-lamb shall be sacrificed to the Tempests. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XI. + +TO PECTIUS. + + +It by no means, O Pectius, delights me as heretofore to write Lyric +verses, being smitten with cruel love: with love, who takes pleasure to +inflame me beyond others, either youths or maidens. This is the third +December that has shaken the [leafy] honors from the woods, since I +ceased to be mad for Inachia. Ah me! (for I am ashamed of so great a +misfortune) what a subject of talk was I throughout the city! I repent +too of the entertainments, at which both a languishing and silence and +sighs, heaved from the bottom of my breast, discovered the lover. As +soon as the indelicate god [Bacchus] by the glowing wine had removed, as +I grew warm, the secrets of [my heart] from their repository, I made my +complaints, lamenting to you, "Has the fairest genius of a poor man no +weight against wealthy lucre? Wherefore, if a generous indignation boil +in my breast, insomuch as to disperse to the winds these disagreeable +applications, that give no ease to the desperate wound; the shame [of +being overcome] ending, shall cease to contest with rivals of such a +sort." When I, with great gravity, had applauded these resolutions in +your presence, being ordered to go home, I was carried with a wandering +foot to posts, alas! to me not friendly, and alas! obdurate gates, +against which I bruised my loins and side. Now my affections for the +delicate Lyciscus engross all my time; from them neither the unreserved +admonitions, nor the serious reprehensions of other friends can recall +me [to my former taste for poetry]; but, perhaps, either a new flame for +some fair damsel, or for some graceful youth who binds his long hair in +a knot, [may do so]. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XII. + +TO A WOMAN WHOSE CHARMS WERE OVER. + + +What would you be at, you woman fitter for the swarthy monsters? Why do +you send tokens, why billet-doux to me, and not to some vigorous youth, +and of a taste not nice? For I am one who discerns a polypus, or fetid +ramminess, however concealed, more quickly than the keenest dog the +covert of the boar. What sweatiness, and how rank an odor every where +rises from her withered limbs! when she strives to lay her furious rage +with impossibilities; now she has no longer the advantage of moist +cosmetics, and her color appears as if stained with crocodile's ordure; +and now, in wild impetuosity, she tears her bed, bedding, and all she +has. She attacks even my loathings in the most angry terms:--"You are +always less dull with Inachia than me: in her company you are threefold +complaisance; but you are ever unprepared to oblige me in a single +instance. Lesbia, who first recommended you--so unfit a help in time of +need--may she come to an ill end! when Coan Amyntas paid me his +addresses; who is ever as constant in his fair one's service, as the +young tree to the hill it grows on. For whom were labored the fleeces of +the richest Tyrian dye? For you? Even so that there was not one in +company, among gentlemen of your own rank, whom his own wife admired +preferably to you: oh, unhappy me, whom you fly, as the lamb dreads the +fierce wolves, or the she-goats the lions!" + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIII. + +TO A FRIEND. + + +A horrible tempest has condensed the sky, and showers and snows bring +down the atmosphere: now the sea, now the woods bellow with the Thracian +North wind. Let us, my friends, take occasion from the day; and while +our knees are vigorous, and it becomes us, let old age with his +contracted forehead become smooth. Do you produce the wine, that was +pressed in the consulship of my Torquatus. Forbear to talk of any other +matters. The deity, perhaps, will reduce these [present evils], to your +former [happy] state by a propitious change. Now it is fitting both to +be bedewed with Persian perfume, and to relieve our breasts of dire +vexations by the lyre, sacred to Mercury. Like as the noble Centaur, +[Chiron,] sung to his mighty pupil: "Invincible mortal, son of the +goddess Thetis, the land of Assaracus awaits you, which the cold +currents of little Scamander and swift-gliding Simois divide: whence the +fatal sisters have broken off your return, by a thread that cannot be +altered: nor shall your azure mother convey you back to your home. There +[then] by wine and music, sweet consolations, drive away every symptom +of hideous melancholy." + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XIV. + +TO MAECENAS. + + +You kill me, my courteous Maecenas, by frequently inquiring, why a +soothing indolence has diffused as great a degree of forgetfulness on my +inmost senses, as if I had imbibed with a thirsty throat the cups that +bring on Lethean slumbers. For the god, the god prohibits me from +bringing to a conclusion the verses I promised [you, namely those] +iambics which I had begun. In the same manner they report that Anacreon +of Teios burned for the Samian Bathyllus; who often lamented his love to +an inaccurate measure on a hollow lyre. You are violently in love +yourself; but if a fairer flame did not burn besieged Troy, rejoice in +your lot. Phryne, a freed-woman, and not content with a single admirer, +consumes me. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XV. + +TO NEAERA. + + +It was night, and the moon shone in a serene sky among the lesser stars; +when you, about to violate the divinity of the great gods, swore [to be +true] to my requests, embracing me with your pliant arms more closely +than the lofty oak is clasped by the ivy; that while the wolf should +remain an enemy to the flock, and Orion, unpropitious to the sailors, +should trouble the wintery sea, and while the air should fan the +unshorn locks of Apollo, [so long you vowed] that this love should be +mutual. O Neaera, who shall one day greatly grieve on account of my +merit: for, if there is any thing of manhood in Horace, he will not +endure that you should dedicate your nights continually to another, whom +you prefer; and exasperated, he will look out for one who will return +his love; and though an unfeigned sorrow should take possession of you, +yet my firmness shall not give way to that beauty which has once given +me disgust. But as for you, whoever you be who are more successful [than +me], and now strut proud of my misfortune; though you be rich in flocks +and abundance of land, and Pactolus flow for you, nor the mysteries of +Pythagoras, born again, escape you, and you excel Nireus in beauty; +alas! you shall [hereafter] bewail her love transferred elsewhere; but I +shall laugh in my turn. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVI. + +TO THE ROMAN PEOPLE. + + +Now is another age worn away by civil wars, and Rome herself falls by +her own strength. Whom neither the bordering Marsi could destroy, nor +the Etrurian band of the menacing Porsena, nor the rival valor of Capua, +nor the bold Spartacus, and the Gauls perfideous with their innovations; +nor did the fierce Germany subdue with its blue-eyed youth, nor Annibal, +detested by parents; but we, an impious race, whose blood is devoted to +perdition, shall destroy her: and this land shall again be possessed by +wild beasts. The victorious barbarian, alas! shall trample upon the +ashes of the city, and the horsemen shall smite it with the sounding +hoofs; and (horrible to see!) he shall insultingly disperse the bones of +Romulus, which [as yet] are free from the injuries of wind and sun. +Perhaps you all in general, or the better part of you, are inquisitive +to know, what may be expedient, in order to escape [such] dreadful +evils. There can be no determination better than this; namely, to go +wherever our feet will carry us, wherever the south or boisterous +south-west shall summon us through the waves; in the same manner as the +state of the Phocaeans fled, after having uttered execrations [against +such as should return], and left their fields and proper dwellings and +temples to be inhabited by boars and ravenous wolves. Is this +agreeable? has any one a better scheme to advise? Why do we delay to go +on ship-board under an auspicious omen? But first let us swear to these +conditions--the stones shall swim upward, lifted from the bottom of the +sea, as soon as it shall not be impious to return; nor let it grieve us +to direct our sails homeward, when the Po shall wash the tops of the +Matinian summits; or the lofty Apennine shall remove into the sea, or a +miraculous appetite shall unite monsters by a strange kind of lust; +Insomuch that tigers may delight to couple with hinds, and the dove be +polluted with the kite; nor the simple herds may dread the brindled +lions, and the he-goat, grown smooth, may love the briny main. After +having sworn to these things, and whatever else may cut off the +pleasing: hope of returning, let us go, the whole city of us, or at +least that part which is superior to the illiterate mob: let the idle +and despairing part remain upon these inauspicious habitations. Ye, that +have bravery, away with effeminate grief, and fly beyond the Tuscan +shore. The ocean encircling the land awaits us; let us seek the happy +plains and prospering Islands, where the untilled land yearly produces +corn, and the unpruned vineyard punctually flourishes; and where the +branch of the never-failing olive blossoms forth, and the purple fig +adorns its native tree: honey distills from the hollow oaks; the light +water bounds down from the high mountains with a murmuring pace. There +the she-goats come to the milk-pails of their own accord, and the +friendly flock return with their udders distended; nor does the bear at +evening growl about the sheepfold, nor does the rising ground swell with +vipers; and many more things shall we, happy [Romans], view with +admiration: how neither the rainy east lays waste the corn-fields with +profuse showers, nor is the fertile seed burned by a dry glebe; the king +of gods moderating both [extremes]. The pine rowed by the Argonauts +never attempted to come hither; nor did the lascivious [Medea] of +Colchis set her foot [in this place]: hither the Sidonian mariners never +turned their sail-yards, nor the toiling crew of Ulysses. No contagious +distempers hurt the flocks; nor does the fiery violence of any +constellation scorch the herd. Jupiter set apart these shores for a +pious people, when he debased the golden age with brass: with brass, +then with iron he hardened the ages; from which there shall be a happy +escape for the good, according to my predictions. + + * * * * * + + + +ODE XVII. + +DIALOGUE BETWEEN HORACE AND CANIDIA. + + +Now, now I yield to powerful science; and suppliant beseech thee by the +dominions of Proserpine, and by the inflexible divinity of Diana, and by +the books of incantations able to call down the stars displaced from the +firmament; O Canidia, at length desist from thine imprecations, and +quickly turn, turn back thy magical machine. Telephus moved [with +compassion] the grandson of Nereus, against whom he arrogantly had put +his troops of Mysians in battle-array, and against whom he had darted +his sharp javelins. The Trojan matrons embalmed the body of the +man-slaying Hector, which had been condemned to birds of prey, and dogs, +after king [Priam], having left the walls of the city, prostrated +himself, alas! at the feet of the obstinate Achilles. The mariners of +the indefatigable Ulysses, put off their limbs, bristled with the hard +skins [of swine], at the will of Circe: then their reason and voice were +restored, and their former comeliness to their countenances. I have +suffered punishment enough, and more than enough, on thy account, O thou +so dearly beloved by the sailors and factors. My vigor is gone away, and +my ruddy complexion has left me; my bones are covered with a ghastly +skin; my hair with your preparations is grown hoary. No ease respites me +from my sufferings: night presses upon day, and day upon night: nor is +it in my power to relieve my lungs, which are strained with gasping. +Wherefore, wretch that I am, I am compelled to credit (what was denied, +by me) that the charms of the Samnites discompose the breast, and the +head splits in sunder at the Marsian incantations. What wouldst thou +have more? O sea! O earth! I burn in such a degree as neither Hercules +did, besmeared with the black gore of Nessus, nor the fervid flame +burning In the Sicilian Aetna. Yet you, a laboratory of Colchian +poisons, remain on fire, till I [reduced to] a dry ember, shall be +wafted away by the injurious winds. What event, or what penalty awaits +me? Speak out: I will with honor pay the demanded mulct; ready to make +an expiation, whether you should require a hundred steers, or chose to +be celebrated on a lying lyre. You, a woman of modesty, you, a woman of +probity, shall traverse the stars, as a golden constellation. Castor and +the brother of the great Castor, offended at the infamy brought on +[their sister] Helen, yet overcome by entreaty, restored to the poet his +eyes that were taken away from him. And do you (for it is in your power) +extricate me from this frenzy; O you, that are neither defiled by family +meanness, nor skillful to disperse the ashes of poor people, after they +have been nine days interred. You have an hospitable breast, and +unpolluted hands; and Pactumeius is your son, and thee the midwife has +tended; and, whenever you bring forth, you spring up with unabated +vigor. + + + +CANIDIA'S ANSWER. + + +Why do you pour forth your entreaties to ears that are closely shut +[against them]? The wintery ocean, with its briny tempests, does not +lash rocks more deaf to the cries of the naked mariners. What, shall +you, without being made an example of, deride the Cotyttian mysteries, +sacred to unrestrained love, which were divulged [by you]? And shall +you, [assuming the office] of Pontiff [with regard to my] Esquilian +incantations, fill the city with my name unpunished? What did it avail +me to have enriched the Palignian sorceress [with my charms], and to +have prepared poison of greater expedition, if a slower fate awaits you +than is agreeable to my wishes? An irksome life shall be protracted by +you, wretch as you are, for this purpose, that you may perpetually be +able to endure new tortures. Tantalus, the perfidious sire of Pelops, +ever craving after the plenteous banquet [which is always before him], +wishes for respite; Prometheus, chained to the vulture, wishes [for +rest]; Sisyphus wishes to place the stone on the summit of the mountain: +but the laws of Jupiter forbid. Thus you shall desire at one time to +leap down from a high tower, at another to lay open your breast with the +Noric sword; and, grieving with your tedious indisposition, shall tie +nooses about your neck in vain. I at that time will ride on your odious +shoulders; and the whole earth shall acknowledge my unexampled power. +What shall I who can give motion to waxen images (as you yourself, +inquisitive as you are, were convinced of) and snatch the moon from +heaven by my incantations; I, who can raise the dead after they are +burned, and duly prepare the potion of love, shall I bewail the event of +my art having no efficacy upon you? + + * * * * * + + + +THE SECULAR POEM OF HORACE. + +TO APOLLO AND DIANA. + + +Phoebus, and thou Diana, sovereign of the woods, ye illustrious +ornaments of the heavens, oh ever worthy of adoration, and ever adored, +bestow what we pray for at this sacred season: at which the Sibylline +verses have given directions, that select virgins and chaste youths +should sing a hymn to the deities, to whom the seven hills [of Rome] are +acceptable. O genial sun, who in your splendid car draw forth and +obscure the day, and who arise another and the same, may it never be in +your power to behold anything more glorious than the city of Rome! O +Ilithyia, of lenient power to produce the timely birth, protect the +matrons [in labor]; whether you choose the title of Lucina, or +Genitalis. O goddess multiply our offspring; and prosper the decrees of +the senate in relation to the joining of women in wedlock, and the +matrimonial law about to teem with a new race; that the stated +revolution of a hundred and ten years may bring back the hymns and the +games, three times by bright daylight restored to in crowds, and as +often in the welcome night. And you, ye fatal sisters, infallible in +having predicted what is established, and what the settled order of +things preserves, add propitious fates to those already past. Let the +earth, fertile in fruits and flocks, present Ceres with a sheafy crown; +may both salubrious rains and Jove's air cherish the young blood! +Apollo, mild and gentle with your sheathed arrows, hear the suppliant +youths: O moon, thou horned queen of stars, hear the virgins. If Rome be +your work, and the Trojan troops arrived on the Tuscan shore (the part, +commanded [by your oracles] to change their homes and city) by a +successful navigation: for whom pious Aeneas, surviving his country, +secured a free passage through Troy, burning not by his treachery, about +to give them more ample possessions than those that were left behind. O +ye deities, grant to the tractable youth probity of manners; to old age, +ye deities, grant a pleasing retirement; to the Roman people, wealth, +and progeny, and every kind of glory. And may the illustrious issue of +Anchises and Venus, who worships you with [offerings of] white bulls, +reign superior to the warring enemy, merciful to the prostrate. Now the +Parthian, by sea and land, dreads our powerful forces and the Roman +axes: now the Scythians beg [to know] our commands, and the Indians but +lately so arrogant. Now truth, and peace, and honor, and ancient +modesty, and neglected virtue dare to return, and happy plenty appears, +with her horn full to the brim. Phoebus, the god of augury, and +conspicuous for his shining bow, and dear to the nine muses, who by his +salutary art soothes the wearied limbs of the body; if he, propitious, +surveys the Palatine altars--may he prolong the Roman affairs, and the +happy state of Italy to another lustrum, and to an improving age. And +may Diana, who possesses Mount Aventine and Algidus, regard the prayers +of the Quindecemvirs, and lend a gracious ear to the supplications of +the youths. We, the choir taught to sing the praises of Phoebus and +Diana, bear home with us a good and certain hope, that Jupiter, and all +the other gods, are sensible of these our supplications. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE FIRST BOOK OF THE SATIRES OF HORACE. + + + +SATIRE I. + +_That all, but especially the covetous, think their own condition the +hardest_. + + +How comes it to pass, Maecenas, that no one lives content with his +condition, whether reason gave it him, or chance threw it in his way +[but] praises those who follow different pursuits? "O happy merchants!" +says the soldier, oppressed with years, and now broken down in his limbs +through excess of labor. On the other side, the merchant, when the south +winds toss his ship [cries], "Warfare is preferable;" for why? the +engagement is begun, and in an instant there comes a speedy death or a +joyful victory. The lawyer praises the farmer's state when the client +knocks at his door by cock-crow. He who, having entered into a +recognizance, is dragged from the country into the city, cries, "Those +only are happy who live in the city." The other instances of this kind +(they are so numerous) would weary out the loquacious Fabius; not to +keep you in suspense, hear to what an issue I will bring the matter. If +any god should say, "Lo! I will effect what you desire: you, that were +just now a soldier, shall be a merchant; you, lately a lawyer [shall be] +a farmer. Do ye depart one way, and ye another, having exchanged the +parts [you are to act] in life. How now! why do you stand?" They are +unwilling; and yet it is in their power to be happy. What reason can be +assigned, but that Jupiter should deservedly distend both his cheeks in +indignation, and declare that for the future he will not be so indulgent +as to lend an ear to their prayers? But further, that I may not run over +this in a laughing manner, like those [who treat] on ludicrous subjects +(though what hinders one being merry, while telling the truth? as +good-natured teachers at first give cakes to their boys, that they may +be willing to learn their first rudiments: railery, however, apart, let +us investigate serious matters). He that turns the heavy glebe with the +hard ploughshare, this fraudulent tavern-keeper, the soldier, and the +sailors, who dauntless run through every sea, profess that they endure +toil with this intention, that as old men they may retire into a secure +resting place, when once they have gotten together a sufficient +provision. + +Thus the little ant (for she is an example), of great industry, carries +in her mouth whatever she is able, and adds to the heap which she piles +up, by no means ignorant and not careless for the future. Which [ant, +nevertheless], as soon, as Aquarius saddens the changed year, never +creeps abroad, but wisely makes use of those stores which were provided +beforehand: while neither sultry summer, nor winter, fire, ocean, sword, +can drive you from gain. You surmount every obstacle, that no other man +may be richer than yourself. What pleasure is it for you, trembling to +deposit an immense weight of silver and gold in the earth dug up by +stealth? Because if you lessen it, it may be reduced to a paltry +farthing. + +But unless that be the case, what beauty has an accumulated hoard? +Though your thrashing-floor should yield a hundred thousand bushels of +corn, your belly will not on that account contain more than mine: just +as if it were your lot to carry on your loaded shoulder the basket of +bread among slaves, you would receive no more [for your own share] than +he who bore no part of the burthen. Or tell me, what is it to the +purpose of that man, who lives within the compass of nature, whether he +plow a hundred or a thousand acres? + +"But it is still delightful to take out of a great hoard." + +While you leave us to take as much out of a moderate store, why should +you extol your granaries, more than our corn-baskets? As if you had +occasion for no more than a pitcher or glass of water, and should say, +"I had rather draw [so much] from a great river, than the very same +quantity from this little fountain." Hence it comes to pass, that the +rapid Aufidus carries away, together with the bank, such men as an +abundance more copious than what is just delights. But he who desires +only so much as is sufficient, neither drinks water fouled with the mud, +nor loses his life in the waves. + +But a great majority of mankind, misled by a wrong desire cry, "No sum +is enough; because you are esteemed in proportion to what you possess." +What can one do to such a tribe as this? Why, bid them be wretched, +since their inclination prompts them to it. As a certain person is +recorded [to have lived] at Athens, covetous and rich, who was wont to +despise the talk of the people in this manner: "The crowd hiss me; but I +applaud myself at home, as soon as I contemplate my money in my chest." +The thirsty Tantalus catches at the streams, which elude his lips. Why +do you laugh? The name changed, the tale is told of you. You sleep upon +your bags, heaped up on every side, gaping over them, and are obliged to +abstain from them, as if they were consecrated things, or to amuse +yourself with them as you would with pictures. Are you ignorant of what +value money has, what use it can afford? Bread, herbs, a bottle of wine +may be purchased; to which [necessaries], add [such others], as, being +withheld, human nature would be uneasy with itself. What, to watch half +dead with terror, night and day, to dread profligate thieves, fire, and +your slaves, lest they should run away and plunder you; is this +delightful? I should always wish to be very poor in possessions held +upon these terms. + +But if your body should be disordered by being seized with a cold, or +any other casualty should confine you to your bed, have you one that +will abide by you, prepare medicines, entreat the physician that he +would set you upon your feet, and restore you to your children and dear +relations? + +Neither your wife, nor your son, desires your recovery; all your +neighbors, acquaintances, [nay the very] boys and girls hate you. Do you +wonder that no one tenders you the affection which you do not merit, +since you prefer your money to everything else? If you think to retain, +and preserve as friends, the relations which nature gives you, without +taking any pains; wretch that you are, you lose your labor equally, as +if any one should train an ass to be obedient to the rein, and run in +the Campus [Martius]. Finally, let there be some end to your search; +and, as your riches increase, be in less dread of poverty; and begin to +cease from your toil, that being acquired which you coveted: nor do as +did one Umidius (it is no tedious story), who was so rich that he +measured his money, so sordid that he never clothed him self any better +than a slave; and, even to his last moments, was in dread lest want of +bread should oppress him: but his freed-woman, the bravest of all the +daughters of Tyndarus, cut him in two with a hatchet. + +"What therefore do you persuade me to? That I should lead the life of +Naevius, or in such a manner as a Nomentanus?" + +You are going [now] to make things tally, that are contradictory in +their natures. When I bid you not be a miser, I do not order you to +become a debauchee or a prodigal. There is some difference between the +case of Tanais and his son-in-law Visellius, there is a mean in things; +finally, there are certain boundaries, on either side of which moral +rectitude can not exist. I return now whence I digressed. Does no one, +after the miser's example, like his own station, but rather praise those +who have different pursuits; and pines, because his neighbor's she-goat +bears a more distended udder: nor considers himself in relation to the +greater multitude of poor; but labors to surpass, first one and then +another? Thus the richer man is always an obstacle to one that is +hastening [to be rich]: as when the courser whirls along the chariot +dismissed from the place of starting; the charioteer presses upon those +horses which outstrip his own, despising him that is left behind coming +on among the last. Hence it is, that we rarely find a man who can say he +has lived happy, and content with his past life, can retire from the +world like a satisfied guest. Enough for the present: nor will I add one +word more, lest you should suspect that I have plundered the escrutoire +of the blear-eyed Crispinus. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE II. + +_Bad men, when they avoid certain vices, fall into their opposite +extremes._ + + +The tribes of female flute-players, quacks, vagrants, mimics, +blackguards; all this set is sorrowful and dejected on account of the +death of the singer Tigellius; for he was liberal [toward them]. On the +other hand, this man, dreading to be called a spendthrift, will not give +a poor friend wherewithal to keep off cold and pinching hunger. If you +ask him why he wickedly consumes the noble estate of his grandfather and +father in tasteless gluttony, buying with borrowed money all sorts of +dainties; he answers, because he is unwilling to be reckoned sordid, or +of a mean spirit: he is praised by some, condemned by others. Fufidius, +wealthy in lands, wealthy in money put out at interest, is afraid of +having the character of a rake and spendthrift. This fellow deducts 5 +per cent. Interest from the principal [at the time of lending]; and, the +more desperate in his circumstances any one is, the more severely be +pinches him: he hunts out the names of young fellows that have just put +on the toga virilis under rigid fathers. Who does not cry out, O +sovereign Jupiter! when he has heard [of such knavery]? But [you will +say, perhaps,] this man expends upon himself in proportion to his gain. +You can hardly believe how little a friend he is to himself: insomuch +that the father, whom Terence's comedy introduces as living miserable +after he had caused his son to run away from him, did not torment +himself worse than he. Now if any one should ask, "To what does this +matter tend?" To this: while fools shun [one sort of] vices, they fall +upon their opposite extremes. Malthinus walks with his garments trailing +upon the ground; there is another droll fellow who [goes] with them +tucked up even to his middle; Rufillus smells like perfume itself, +Gorgonius like a he-goat. There is no mean. There are some who would not +keep company with a lady, unless her modest garment perfectly conceal +her feet. Another, again, will only have such as take their station in a +filthy brothel. When a certain noted spark came out of a stew, the +divine Cato [greeted] him with this sentence: "Proceed (says he) in your +virtuous course. For, when once foul lust has inflamed the veins, it is +right for young fellows to come hither, in comparison of their meddling +with other men's wives." I should not be willing to be commended on such +terms, says Cupiennius, an admirer of the silken vail. + +Ye, that do not wish well to the proceedings of adulterers, it is worth +your while to hear how they are hampered on all sides; and that their +pleasure, which happens to them but seldom, is interrupted with a great +deal of pain, and often in the midst of very great dangers. One has +thrown himself headlong from the top of a house; another has been +whipped almost to death: a third, in his flight, has fallen into a +merciless gang of thieves: another has paid a fine, [to avoid] corporal +[punishment]: the lowest servants have treated another with the vilest +indignities. Moreover, this misfortune happened to a certain person, he +entirely lost his manhood. Every body said, it was with justice: Galba +denied it. + +But how much safer is the traffic among [women] of the second rate! I +mean the freed-women: after which Sallustius is not less mad, than he +who commits adultery. But if he had a mind to be good and generous, as +far as his estate and reason would direct him, and as far as a man might +be liberal with moderation; he would give a sufficiency, not what would +bring upon himself ruin and infamy. However, he hugs himself in this one +[consideration]; this he delights in, this he extols: "I meddle with no +matron." Just as Marsaeus, the lover of Origo, he who gives his paternal +estate and seat to an actress, says, "I never meddle with other men's +wives." But you have with actresses, you have with common strumpets: +whence your reputation derives a greater perdition, than your estate. +What, is it abundantly sufficient to avoid the person, and not the +[vice] which is universally noxious? To lose one's good name, to +squander a father's effects, is in all cases an evil. What is the +difference [then, with regard to yourself,] whether you sin with the +person of a matron, a maiden, or a prostitute? + +Villius, the son-in-law of Sylla (by this title alone he was misled), +suffered [for his commerce] with Fausta, an adequate and more than +adequate punishment, by being drubbed and stabbed, while he was shut +out, that Longarenus might enjoy her within. Suppose this [young man's] +mind had addressed him in the words of his appetite, perceiving such +evil consequences: "What would you have? Did I ever, when my ardor was +at the highest, demand a woman descended from a great consul, and +covered with robes of quality?" What could he answer? Why, "the girl was +sprung from an illustrious father." But how much better things, and how +different from this, does nature, abounding in stores of her own, +recommend; if you would only make a proper use of them, and not confound +what is to be avoided with that which is desirable! Do you think it is +of no consequence, whether your distresses arise from your own fault or +from [a real deficiency] of things? Wherefore, that you may not repent +[when it is too late], put a stop to your pursuit after matrons; whence +more trouble is derived, than you can obtain of enjoyment from success. +Nor has [this particular matron], amid her pearls and emeralds, a softer +thigh, or-limbs mere delicate than yours, Cerinthus; nay, the +prostitutes are frequently preferable. Add to this, that [the +prostitute] bears about her merchandize without any varnish, and openly +shows what she has to dispose of; nor, if she has aught more comely than +ordinary, does she boast and make an ostentation of it, while she is +industrious to conceal that which is offensive. This is the custom with +men of fortune: when they buy horses, they inspect them covered: that, +if a beautiful forehand (as often) be supported by a tender hoof, it may +not take in the buyer, eager for the bargain, because the back is +handsome, the head little, and the neck stately. This they do +judiciously. Do not you, [therefore, in the same manner] contemplate the +perfections of each [fair one's] person with the eyes of Lynceus; but be +blinder than Hypsaea, when you survey such parts as are deformed. [You +may cry out,] "O what a leg! O, what delicate arms!" But [you suppress] +that she is low-hipped, short-waisted, with a long nose, and a splay +foot. A man can see nothing but the face of a matron, who carefully +conceals her other charms, unless it be a Catia. But if you will seek +after forbidden charms (for the [circumstance of their being forbidden] +makes you mad after them), surrounded as they are with a fortification, +many obstacles will then be in your way: such as guardians, the sedan, +dressers, parasites, the long robe hanging down to the ankles, and +covered with an upper garment; a multiplicity of circumstances, which +will hinder you from having a fair view. The other throws no obstacle in +your way; through the silken vest you may discern her, almost as well as +if she was naked; that she has neither a bad leg, nor a disagreeable +foot, you may survey her form perfectly with your eye. Or would you +choose to have a trick put upon you, and your money extorted, before the +goods are shown you? [But perhaps you will sing to me these verses out +of Callimachus.] As the huntsman pursues the hare in the deep snow, but +disdains to touch it when it is placed before him: thus sings the rake, +and applies it to himself; my love is like to this, for it passes over +an easy prey, and pursues what flies from it. Do you hope that grief, +and uneasiness, and bitter anxieties, will be expelled from your breast +by such verses as these? Would It not be more profitable to inquire what +boundary nature has affixed to the appetites, what she can patiently do +without, and what she would lament the deprivation of, and to separate +what is solid from what is vain? What! when thirst parches your jaws, +are you solicitous for golden cups to drink out of? What! when you are +hungry, do you despise everything but peacock and turbot? When your +passions are inflamed, and a common gratification is at hand, would you +rather be consumed with desire than possess it? I would not: for I love +such pleasures as are of easiest attainment. But she whose language is, +"By and by," "But for a small matter more," "If my husband should be out +of the way." [is only] for petit-maitres: and for himself, Philodemus +says, he chooses her, who neither stands for a great price, nor delays +to come when she is ordered. Let her be fair, and straight, and so far +decent as not to appear desirous of seeming fairer than nature has made +her. When I am in the company of such an one, she is my Ilia and +Aegeria; I give her any name. Nor am I apprehensive, while I am in her +company, lest her husband should return from the country: the door +should be broken open; the dog should bark; the house, shaken, should +resound on all sides with a great noise; the woman, pale [with fear], +should bound away from me; lest the maid, conscious [of guilt], should +cry out, she is undone; lest she should be in apprehension for her +limbs, the detected wife for her portion, I for myself: lest I must run +away with my clothes all loose, and bare-footed, for fear my money, or +my person, or, finally my character should be demolished. It is a +dreadful thing to be caught; I could prove this, even if Fabius were the +judge. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE III. + +_We might to connive at the faults of our friends, and all offences are +not to be ranked in the catalogue of crimes_. + + +This is a fault common to all singers, that among their friends they +never are inclined to sing when they are asked, [but] unasked, they +never desist. Tigellius, that Sardinian, had this [fault]. Had Caesar, +who could have forced him to compliance, besought him on account of his +father's friendship and his own, he would have had no success; if he +himself was disposed, he would chant lo Bacche over and over, from the +beginning of an entertainment to the very conclusion of it; one while at +the deepest pitch of his voice, at another time with that which answers +to the highest string of the tetrachord. There was nothing uniform in +that fellow; frequently would he run along, as one flying from an enemy; +more frequently [he walked] as if he bore [in procession] the sacrifice +of Juno: he had often two hundred slaves, often but ten: one while +talking of kings and potentates, every thing that was magnificent; at +another--"Let me have a three-legged table, and a cellar of clean salt, +and a gown which, though coarse, may be sufficient to keep out the +cold." Had you given ten hundred thousand sesterces to this moderate man +who was content with such small matters, in five days' time there would +be nothing in his bags. He sat up at nights, [even] to day-light; he +snored out all the day. Never was there anything so inconsistent with +itself. Now some person may say to me, "What are you? Have you no +faults?" Yes, others; but others, and perhaps of a less culpable nature. + +When Maenius railed at Novius in his absence: "Hark ye," says a certain +person, "are you ignorant of yourself? or do you think to impose +yourself upon us a person we do not know?" "As for me, I forgive +myself," quoth Maenius. This is a foolish and impious self-love, and +worthy to be stigmatized. When you look over your own vices, winking at +them, as it were, with sore eyes; why are you with regard to those of +your friends as sharp-sighted as an eagle, or the Epidaurian serpent? +But, on the other hand, it is your lot that your friends should inquire +into your vices in turn. [A certain person] is a little too hasty in his +temper; not well calculated for the sharp-witted sneers of these men: he +may be made a jest of because his gown hangs awkwardly, he [at the same +time] being trimmed in a very rustic manner, and his wide shoe hardly +sticks to his foot. But he is so good, that no man can be better; but he +is your friend; but an immense genius is concealed under this unpolished +person of his. Finally, sift yourself thoroughly, whether nature has +originally sown the seeds of any vice in you, or even an ill-habit [has +done it]. For the fern, fit [only] to be burned, overruns the neglected +fields. + +Let us return from our digression. As his mistress's disagreeable +failings escape the blinded lover, or even give him pleasure (as Hagna's +wen does to Balbinus), I could wish that we erred in this manner with +regard to friendship, and that virtue had affixed a reputable +appellation to such an error. And as a father ought not to contemn his +son, if he has any defect, in the same manner we ought not [to contemn] +our friend. The father calls his squinting boy a pretty leering rogue; +and if any man has a little despicable brat, such as the abortive +Sisyphus formerly was, he calls it a sweet moppet; this [child] with +distorted legs, [the father] in a fondling voice calls one of the Vari; +and another, who is club-footed, he calls a Scaurus. [Thus, does] this +friend of yours live more sparingly than ordinarily? Let him be styled a +man of frugality. Is another impertinent, and apt to brag a little? He +requires to be reckoned entertaining to his friends. But [another] is +too rude, and takes greater liberties than are fitting. Let him be +esteemed a man of sincerity and bravery. Is he too fiery, let him be +numbered among persons of spirit. This method, in my opinion, both +unites friends, and preserves them in a state of union. But we invert +the very virtues themselves, and are desirous of throwing dirt upon the +untainted vessel. Does a man of probity live among us? he is a person of +singular diffidence; we give him the name of a dull and fat-headed +fellow. Does this man avoid every snare, and lay himself open to no +ill-designing villain; since we live amid such a race, where keen envy +and accusations are flourishing? Instead of a sensible and wary man, we +call him a disguised and subtle fellow. And is any one more open, [and +less reserved] than usual in such a degree as I often have presented +myself to you, Maecenas, so as perhaps impertinently to interrupt a +person reading, or musing, with any kind of prate? We cry, "[this +fellow] actually wants common sense." Alas! how indiscreetly do we +ordain a severe law against ourselves! For no one Is born without vices: +he is the best man who is encumbered with the least. When my dear +friend, as is just, weighs my good qualities against my bad ones, let +him, if he is willing to be beloved, turn the scale to the majority of +the former (if I have indeed a majority of good qualities), on this +condition, he shall be placed in the same balance. He who requires that +his friend should not take offence at his own protuberances, will excuse +his friend's little warts. It is fair that he who entreats a pardon for +his own faults, should grant one in his turn. + +Upon the whole, forasmuch as the vice anger, as well as others inherent +in foolish [mortals], cannot be totally eradicated, why does not human +reason make use of its own weights and measures; and so punish faults, +as the nature of the thing demands? If any man should punish with the +cross, a slave, who being ordered to take away the dish should gorge +the half-eaten fish and warm sauce; he would, among people in their +senses, be called a madder man than Labeo. How much more irrational and +heinous a crime is this! Your friend has been guilty of a small error +(which, unless you forgive, you ought to be reckoned a sour, ill-natured +fellow), you hate and avoid him, as a debtor does Ruso; who, when the +woful calends come upon the unfortunate man, unless he procures the +interest or capital by hook or by crook, is compelled to hear his +miserable stories with his neck stretched out like a slave. [Should my +friend] in his liquor water my couch, or has he thrown down a jar carved +by the hands of Evander: shall he for this [trifling] affair, or because +in his hunger he has taken a chicken before me out of my part of the +dish, be the less agreeable friend to me? [If so], what could I do if he +was guilty of theft, or had betrayed things committed to him in +confidence, or broken his word. They who are pleased [to rank all] +faults nearly on an equality, are troubled when they come to the truth +of the matter: sense and morality are against them, and utility itself, +the mother almost of right and of equity. + +When [rude] animals, they crawled forth upon the first-formed earth, the +mute and dirty herd fought with their nails and fists for their acorn +and caves, afterward with clubs, and finally with arms which experience +had forged: till they found out words and names, by which they +ascertained their language and sensations: thenceforward they began to +abstain from war, to fortify towns, and establish laws: that no person +should be a thief, a robber, or an adulterer. For before Helen's time +there existed [many] a woman who was the dismal cause of war: but those +fell by unknown deaths, whom pursuing uncertain venery, as the bull in +the herd, the strongest slew. It must of necessity be acknowledged, if +you have a mind to turn over the aeras and anuals of the world, that +laws were invented from an apprehension of the natural injustice [of +mankind]. Nor can nature separate what is unjust from what is just, in +the same manner as she distinguishes what is good from its reverse, and +what is to be avoided from that which is to be sought, nor will reason +persuade men to this, that he who breaks down the cabbage-stalk of his +neighbor, sins in as great a measure, and in the same manner, as he who +steals by night things consecrated to the gods. Let there be a settled +standard, that may inflict adequate punishments upon crimes, lest you +should persecute any one with the horrible thong, who is only deserving +of a slight whipping. For I am not apprehensive, that you should correct +with the rod one that deserves to suffer severer stripes: since you +assert that pilfering is an equal crime with highway robbery, and +threaten that you would prune off with an undistinguishing hook little +and great vices, if mankind were to give you the sovereignty over them. +If he be rich, who is wise, and a good shoemaker, and alone handsome, +and a king, why do you wish for that which you are possessed of? You do +not understand what Chrysippus, the father [of your sect], says: "The +wise man never made himself shoes nor slippers: nevertheless, the wise +man is a shoemaker." How so? In the same manner, though Hermogenes be +silent, he is a fine singer, notwithstanding, and an excellent musician: +as the subtle [lawyer] Alfenus, after every instrument of his calling +was thrown aside, and his shop shut up, was [still] a barber; thus is +the wise man of all trades, thus is he a king. O greatest of great +kings, the waggish boys pluck you by the beard; whom unless you restrain +with your staff, you will be jostled by a mob all about you, and you may +wretchedly bark and burst your lungs in vain. Not to be tedious: while +you, my king, shall go to the farthing bath, and no guard shall attend +you, except the absurd Crispinus; my dear friends will both pardon me in +any matter in which I shall foolishly offend, and I in turn will +cheerfully put up with their faults; and though a private man, I shall +live more happily than you, a king. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE IV. + +_He apologizes for the liberties taken by satiric poets in general, and +particularly by himself_. + + +The poets Eupolis, and Cratinus, and Aristophanes, and others, who are +authors of the ancient comedy, if there was any person deserving to be +distinguished for being a rascal or a thief, an adulterer or a +cut-throat, or in any shape an infamous fellow, branded him with great +freedom. Upon these [models] Lucilius entirely depends, having imitated +them, changing only their feet and numbers: a man of wit, of great +keenness, inelegant in the composition of verse: for in this respect he +was faulty; he would often, as a great feat, dictate two hundred verses +in an hour, standing in the same position. As he flowed muddily, there +was [always] something that one would wish to remove; he was verbose, +and too lazy to endure the fatigue of writing--of writing accurately: +for, with regard to the quantity [of his works], I make no account of +it. See! Crispinus challenges me even for ever so little a wager. Take, +if you dare, take your tablets, and I will take mine; let there be a +place, a time, and persons appointed to see fair play: let us see who +can write the most. The gods have done a good part by me, since they +have framed me of an humble and meek disposition, speaking but seldom, +briefly: but do you, [Crispinus,] as much as you will, imitate air which +is shut up in leathern bellows, perpetually putting till the fire +softens the iron. Fannius is a happy man, who, of his own accord, has +presented his manuscripts and picture [to the Palatine Apollo]; when not +a soul will peruse my writings, who am afraid to rehearse in public, on +this account, because there are certain persons who can by no means +relish this kind [of satiric writing], as there are very many who +deserve censure. Single any man out of the crowd; he either labors under +a covetous disposition, or under wretched ambition. One is mad in love +with married women, another with youths; a third the splendor of silver +captivates: Albius is in raptures with brass; another exchanges his +merchandize from the rising sun, even to that with which the western +regions are warmed: but he is burried headlong through dangers, as dust +wrapped up in a whirlwind; in dread lest he should lose anything out of +the capital, or [in hope] that he may increase his store. All these are +afraid of verses, they hate poets. "He has hay on his horn, [they cry;] +avoid him at a great distance: if he can but raise a laugh for his own +diversion, he will not spare any friend: and whatever he has once +blotted upon his paper, he will take a pleasure in letting all the boys +and old women know, as they return from the bakehouse or the lake." But, +come on, attend to a few words on the other side of the question. + +In the first place, I will except myself out of the number of those I +would allow to be poets: for one must not call it sufficient to tag a +verse: nor if any person, like me, writes in a style bordering on +conversation, must you esteem him to be a poet. To him who has genius, +who has a soul of a diviner cast, and a greatness of expression, give +the honor of this appellation. On this account some have raised the +question, whether comedy be a poem or not; because an animated spirit +and force is neither in the style, nor the subject-matter: bating that +it differs from prose by a certain measure, it is mere prose. But [one +may object to this, that even in comedy] an inflamed father rages, +because his dissolute son, mad after a prostitute mistress, refuses a +wife with a large portion; and (what is an egregious scandal) rambles +about drunk with flambeaux by day-light. Yet could Pomponius, were his +father alive, hear less severe reproofs! Wherefore it is not sufficient +to write verses merely in proper language; which if you take to pieces, +any person may storm in the same manner as the father in the play. If +from these verses which I write at this present, or those that Lucilius +did formerly, you take away certain pauses and measures, and make that +word which was first in order hindermost, by placing the latter [words] +before those that preceded [in the verse]; you will not discern the +limbs of a poet, when pulled in pieces, in the same manner as you would +were you to transpose ever so [these lines of Ennius]: + + When discord dreadful bursts the brazen bars, + And shatters iron locks to thunder forth her wars. + +So far of this matter; at another opportunity [I may investigate] +whether [a comedy] be a true poem or not: now I shall only consider this +point, whether this [satiric] kind of writing be deservedly an object of +your suspicion. Sulcius the virulent, and Caprius hoarse with their +malignancy, walk [openly], and with their libels too [in their hands]; +each of them a singular terror to robbers: but if a man lives honestly +and with clean hands, he may despise them both. Though you be like +highwaymen, Coelus and Byrrhus, I am not [a common accuser], like +Caprius and Sulcius; why should you be afraid of me? No shop nor stall +holds my books, which the sweaty hands of the vulgar and of Hermogenes +Tigellius may soil. I repeat to nobody, except my intimates, and that +when I am pressed; nor any where, and before any body. There are many +who recite their writings in the middle of the forum; and who [do it] +while bathing: the closeness of the place, [it seems,] gives melody to +the voice. This pleases coxcombs, who never consider whether they do +this to no purpose, or at an unseasonable time. But you, says he, +delight to hurt people, and this you do out of a mischievous +disposition. From what source do you throw this calumny upon me? Is any +one then your voucher, with whom I have lived? He who backbites his +absent friend; [nay more,] who does not defend, at another's accusing +him; who affects to raise loud laughs in company, and the reputation of +a funny fellow, who can feign things he never saw; who cannot keep +secrets; he is a dangerous man: be you, Roman, aware of him. You may +often see it [even in crowded companies], where twelve sup together on +three couches; one of which shall delight at any rate to asperse the +rest, except him who furnishes the bath; and him too afterward in his +liquor, when truth-telling Bacchus opens the secrets of his heart. Yet +this man seems entertaining, and well-bred, and frank to you, who are an +enemy to the malignant: but do I, if I have laughed because the fop +Rufillus smells all perfumes, and Gorgonius, like a he-goat, appear +insidious and a snarler to you? If by any means mention happen to be +made of the thefts of Petillius Capitolinus in your company, you defend +him after your manner: [as thus,] Capitolinus has had me for a companion +and a friend from childhood, and being applied to, has done many things +on my account: and I am glad that he lives secure in the city; but I +wonder, notwithstanding, how he evaded that sentence. This is the very +essence of black malignity, this is mere malice itself: which crime, +that it shall be far remote from my writings, and prior to them from my +mind, I promise, if I can take upon me to promise any thing sincerely of +myself. If I shall say any thing too freely, if perhaps too ludicrously, +you must favor me by your indulgence with this allowance. For my +excellent father inured me to this custom, that by noting each +particular vice I might avoid it by the example [of others]. When he +exhorted me that I should live thriftily, frugally, and content with +what he had provided for me; don't you see, [would he say,] how +wretchedly the son of Albius lives? and how miserably Barrus? A strong +lesson to hinder any one from squandering away his patrimony. When he +would deter me from filthy fondness for a light woman: [take care, said +he,] that you do not resemble Sectanus. That I might not follow +adulteresses, when I could enjoy a lawful amour: the character cried he, +of Trobonius, who was caught in the fact, is by no means creditable. +The philosopher may tell you the reasons for what is better to be +avoided, and what to be pursued. It is sufficient for me, if I can +preserve the morality traditional from my forefathers, and keep your +life and reputation inviolate, so long as you stand in need of a +guardian: so soon as age shall have strengthened your limbs and mind, +you will swim without cork. In this manner he formed me, as yet a boy: +and whether he ordered me to do any particular thing: You have an +authority for doing this: [then] he instanced some one of the select +magistrates: or did he forbid me [any thing]; can you doubt, [says he,] +whether this thing be dishonorable, and against your interest to be +done, when this person and the other is become such a burning shame for +his bad character [on these accounts]? As a neighboring funeral +dispirits sick gluttons, and through fear of death forces them to have +mercy upon themselves; so other men's disgraces often deter tender minds +from vices. From this [method of education] I am clear from all such +vices, as bring destruction along with them: by lighter foibles, and +such as you may excuse, I am possessed. And even from these, perhaps, a +maturer age, the sincerity of a friend, or my own judgment, may make +great reductions. For neither when I am in bed, or in the piazzas, am I +wanting to myself: this way of proceeding is better; by doing such a +thing I shall live more comfortably; by this means I shall render myself +agreeable to my friends; such a transaction was not clever; what, shall +I, at any time, imprudently commit any thing like it? These things I +resolve in silence by myself. When I have any leisure, I amuse myself +with my papers. This is one of those lighter foibles [I was speaking +of]: to which if you do not grant your indulgence, a numerous band of +poets shall come, which will take my part (for we are many more in +number), and, like the Jews, we will force you to come over to our +numerous party. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE V. + +_He describes a certain journey of his from Rome to Brundusium with +great pleasantry_. + + +Having left mighty Rome, Aricia received me in but a middling inn: +Heliodorus the rhetorician, most learned in the Greek language, was my +fellow-traveller: thence we proceeded to Forum-Appi, stuffed with +sailors and surly landlords. This stage, but one for better travellers +than we, being laggard we divided into two; the Appian way is less +tiresome to bad travelers. Here I, on account of the water, which was +most vile, proclaim war against my belly, waiting not without impatience +for my companions while at supper. Now the night was preparing to spread +her shadows upon the earth, and to display the constellations in the +heavens. Then our slaves began to be liberal of their abuse to the +watermen, and the watermen to our slaves. "Here bring to." "You are +stowing in hundreds; hold, now sure there is enough." Thus while the +fare is paid, and the mule fastened a whole hour is passed away. The +cursed gnats, and frogs of the fens, drive off repose. While the +waterman and a passenger, well-soaked with plenty of thick wine, vie +with one another in singing the praises of their absent mistresses: at +length the passenger being fatigued, begins to sleep; and the lazy +waterman ties the halter of the mule, turned out a-grazing, to a stone, +and snores, lying flat on his back. And now the day approached, when we +saw the boat made no way; until a choleric fellow, one of the +passengers, leaps out of the boat, and drubs the head and sides of both +mule and waterman with a willow cudgel. At last we were scarcely set +ashore at the fourth hour. We wash our faces and hands in thy water, O +Feronia. Then, having dined we crawled on three miles; and arrive under +Anxur, which is built up on rocks that look white to a great distance. +Maecenas was to come here, as was the excellent Cocceius. Both sent +ambassadors on matters of great importance, having been accustomed to +reconcile friends at variance. Here, having got sore eyes, I was obliged +to use the black ointment. In the meantime came Maecenas, and Cocceius, +and Fonteius Capito along with them, a man of perfect polish, and +intimate with Mark Antony, no man more so. + +Without regret we passed Fundi, where Aufidius Luscus was praetor, +laughing at the honors of that crazy scribe, his praetexta, laticlave, +and pan of incense. At our next stage, being weary, we tarry in the city +of the Mamurrae, Murena complimenting us with his house, and Capito with +his kitchen. + +The next day arises, by much the most agreeable to all: for Plotius, and +Varius, and Virgil met us at Sinuessa; souls more candid ones than +which the world never produced, nor is there a person in the world more +bound to them than myself. Oh what embraces, and what transports were +there! While I am in my senses, nothing can I prefer to a pleasant +friend. The village, which is next adjoining to the bridge of Campania, +accommodated us with lodging [at night]; and the public officers with +such a quantity of fuel and salt as they are obliged to [by law]. From +this place the mules deposited their pack-saddles at Capua betimes [in +the morning]. Maecenas goes to play [at tennis]; but I and Virgil to our +repose: for to play at tennis is hurtful to weak eyes and feeble +constitutions. + +From this place the villa of Cocceius, situated above the Caudian inns, +which abounds with plenty, receives us. Now, my muse, I beg of you +briefly to relate the engagement between the buffoon Sarmentus and +Messius Cicirrus; and from what ancestry descended each began the +contest. The illustrious race of Messius-Oscan: Sarmentus's mistress is +still alive. Sprung from such families as these, they came to the +combat. First, Sarmentus: "I pronounce thee to have the look of a mad +horse." We laugh; and Messius himself [says], "I accept your challenge:" +and wags his head. "O!" cries he, "if the horn were not cut off your +forehead, what would you not do; since, maimed as you are, you bully at +such a rate?" For a foul scar has disgraced the left part of Messius's +bristly forehead. Cutting many jokes upon his Campanian disease, and +upon his face, he desired him to exhibit Polyphemus's dance: that he had +no occasion for a mask, or the tragic buskins. Cicirrus [retorted] +largely to these: he asked, whether he had consecrated his chain to the +household gods according to his vow; though he was a scribe, [he told +him] his mistress's property in him was not the less. Lastly, he asked, +how he ever came to run away; such a lank meager fellow, for whom a +pound of corn [a-day] would be ample. We were so diverted, that we +continued that supper to an unusual length. + +Hence we proceed straight on for Beneventum; where the bustling landlord +almost burned himself, in roasting some lean thrushes: for, the fire +falling through the old kitchen [floor], the spreading flame made a +great progress toward the highest part of the roof. Then you might have +seen the hungry guests and frightened slaves snatching their supper out +[of the flames], and everybody endeavoring to extinguish the fire. + +After this Apulia began to discover to me her well-known mountains, +which the Atabulus scorches [with his blasts]: and through which we +should never have crept, unless the neighboring village of Trivicus had +received us, not without a smoke that brought tears into our eyes; +occasioned by a hearth's burning some green boughs with the leaves upon +them. Here, like a great fool as I was, I wait till midnight for a +deceitful mistress; sleep, however, overcomes me while meditating love; +and disagreeable dreams make me ashamed of myself and every thing about +me. + +Hence we were bowled away in chaises twenty-four miles, intending to +stop at a little town, which one cannot name in a verse, but it is +easily enough known by description. For water is sold here, though the +worst in the world; but their bread is exceeding fine, inasmuch that the +weary traveler is used to carry it willingly on his shoulders; for [the +bread] at Canusium is gritty; a pitcher of water is worth no more [than +it is here]: which place was formerly built by the valiant Diomedes. +Here Varius departs dejected from his weeping friends. + +Hence we came to Rubi, fatigued: because we made a long journey, and it +was rendered still more troublesome by the rains. Next day the weather +was better, the road worse, even to the very walls of Barium that +abounds in fish. In the next place Egnatia, which [seems to have] been +built on troubled waters, gave us occasion for jests and laughter; for +they wanted to persuade us, that at this sacred portal the incense +melted without fire. The Jew Apella may believe this, not I. For I have +learned [from Epicurus], that the gods dwell in a state of tranquillity; +nor, if nature effect any wonder, that the anxious gods send it from the +high canopy of the heavens. + +Brundusium ends both my long journey, and my paper. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE VI. + +_Of true nobility_. + + +Not Maecenas, though of all the Lydians that ever inhabited the Tuscan +territories, no one is of a nobler family than yourself; and though you +have ancestors both on father's and mother's side, that in times past +have had the command of mighty legions; do you, as the generality are +wont, toss up your nose at obscure people, such as me, who has [only] a +freed-man for my father: since you affirm that it is of no consequence +of what parents any man is born, so that he be a man of merit. You +persuade yourself, with truth, that before the dominions of Tullius, and +the reign of one born a slave, frequently numbers of men descended from +ancestors of no rank, have both lived as men of merit, and have been +distinguished by the greatest honors: [while] on the other hand +Laevinus, the descendant of that famous Valerius, by whose means +Tarquinius Superbus was expelled from his kingdom, was not a farthing +more esteemed [on account of his family, even] in the judgment of the +people, with whose disposition you are well acquainted; who often +foolishly bestow honors on the unworthy, and are from their stupidity +slaves to a name: who are struck with admiration by inscriptions and +statues. What is it fitting for us to do, who are far, very far removed +from the vulgar [in our sentiments]? For grant it, that the people had +rather confer a dignity on Laevinus than on Decius, who is a new man; +and the censor Appius would expel me [the senate-house], because I was +not sprung from a sire of distinction: and that too deservedly, inasmuch +as I rested not content in my own condition. But glory drags in her +dazzling car the obscure as closely fettered as those of nobler birth. +What did it profit you, O Tullius, to resume the robe that you [were +forced] to lay aside, and become a tribune [again]? Envy increased upon +you, which had been less, it you had remained in a private station. For +when any crazy fellow has laced the middle of his leg with the sable +buskins, and has let flow the purple robe from his breast, he +immediately hears: "Who is this man? Whose son is he?" Just as if there +be any one, who labors under the same distemper as Barrus does, so that +he is ambitious of being reckoned handsome; let him go where he will, he +excites curiosity among the girls of inquiring into particulars; as what +sort of face, leg, foot, teeth, hair, he has. Thus he who engages to his +citizens to take care of the city, the empire, and Italy, and the +sanctuaries of the gods, forces every mortal to be solicitous, and to +ask from what sire he is descended, or whether he is base by the +obscurity of his mother. What? do you, the son of a Syrus, a Dana, or a +Dionysius, dare to cast down the citizens of Rome from the [Tarpeian] +rock, or deliver them up to Cadmus [the executioner]? But, [you may +say,] my colleague Novius sits below me by one degree: for he is only +what my father was. And therefore do you esteem yourself a Paulus or a +Messala? But he (Novius), if two hundred carriages and three funerals +were to meet in the forum, could make noise enough to drown all their +horns and trumpets: this [kind of merit] at least has its weight with +us. + +Now I return to myself, who am descended from a freed-man; whom every +body nibbles at, as being descended from a freed-man. Now, because, +Maecenas, I am a constant guest of yours; but formerly, because a Roman +legion was under my command, as being a military tribune. This latter +case is different from the former: for, though any person perhaps might +justly envy me that post of honor, yet could he not do so with regard to +your being my friend! especially as you are cautious to admit such as +are worthy; and are far from having any sinister ambitious views. I can +not reckon myself a lucky fellow on this account, as if it were by +accident that I got you for my friend; for no kind of accident threw you +in my way. That best of men, Virgil, long ago, and after him, Varius, +told you what I was. When first I came into your presence, I spoke a few +words in a broken manner (for childish bashfulness hindered me from +speaking more); I did not tell you that I was the issue of an +illustrious father: I did not [pretend] that I rode about the country on +a Satureian horse, but plainly what I really was; you answer (as your +custom is) a few words: I depart: and you re-invite me after the ninth +month, and command me to be in the number of your friends. I esteem it a +great thing that I pleased you, who distinguish probity from baseness, +not by the illustriousness of a father, but by the purity of heart and +feelings. + +And yet if my disposition be culpable for a few faults, and those small +ones, otherwise perfect (as if you should condemn moles scattered over a +beautiful skin), if no one can justly lay to my charge avarice, nor +sordidness, nor impure haunts; if, in fine (to speak in my own praise), +I live undefiled, and innocent, and dear to my friends; my father was +the cause of all this: who though a poor man on a lean farm, was +unwilling to send me to a school under [the pedant] Flavius, where great +boys, sprung from great centurions, having their satchels and tablets +swung over their left arm, used to go with money in their hands the very +day it was due; but had the spirit to bring me a child to Rome, to be +taught those arts which any Roman knight and senator can teach his own +children. So that, if any person had considered my dress, and the slaves +who attended me in so populous a city, he would have concluded that +those expenses were supplied to me out of some hereditary estate. He +himself, of all others the most faithful guardian, was constantly about +every one of my preceptors. Why should I multiply words? He preserved me +chaste (which is the first honor or virtue) not only from every actual +guilt, but likewise from [every] foul imputation, nor was he afraid lest +any should turn it to his reproach, if I should come to follow a +business attended with small profits, in capacity of an auctioneer, or +(what he was himself) a tax-gatherer. Nor [had that been the case] +should I have complained. On this account the more praise is due to him, +and from me a greater degree of gratitude. As long as I am in my senses, +I can never be ashamed of such a father as this, and therefore shall not +apologize [for my birth], in the manner that numbers do, by affirming it +to be no fault of theirs. My language and way of thinking is far +different from such persons. For if nature were to make us from a +certain term of years to go over our past time again, and [suffer us] to +choose other parents, such as every man for ostentation's sake would +wish for himself; I, content with my own, would not assume those that +are honored with the ensigns and seats of state; [for which I should +seem] a madman in the opinion of the mob, but in yours, I hope a man of +sense; because I should be unwilling to sustain a troublesome burden, +being by no means used to it. For I must [then] immediately set about +acquiring a larger fortune, and more people must be complimented; and +this and that companion must be taken along, so that I could neither +take a jaunt into the country, or a journey by myself; more attendants +and more horses must be fed; coaches must be drawn. Now, if I please, I +can go as far as Tarentum on my bob-tail mule, whose loins the +portmanteau galls with his weight, as does the horseman his shoulders. +No one will lay to my charge such sordidness as he may, Tullius, to you, +when five slaves follow you, a praetor, along the Tiburtian way, +carrying a traveling kitchen, and a vessel of wine. Thus I live more +comfortably, O illustrious senator, than you, and than thousands of +others. Wherever I have a fancy, I walk by myself: I inquire the price +of herbs and bread; I traverse the tricking circus, and the forum often +in the evening: I stand listening among the fortune-tellers: thence I +take myself home to a plate of onions, pulse, and pancakes. My supper is +served up by three slaves; and a white stone slab supports two cups and +a brimmer: near the salt-cellar stands a homely cruet with a little +bowl, earthen-ware from Campania. Then I go to rest; by no means +concerned that I must rise in the morning, and pay a visit to the statue +of Marsyas, who denies that he is able to bear the look of the younger +Novius. I lie a-bed to the fourth hour; after that I take a ramble, or +having read or written what may amuse me in my privacy, I am anointed +with oil, but not with such as the nasty Nacca, when he robs the lamps. +But when the sun, become more violent, has reminded me to go to bathe, I +avoid the Campus Martius and the game of hand-ball. Having dined in a +temperate manner, just enough to hinder me from having an empty stomach, +during the rest of the day I trifle in my own house. This is the life of +those who are free from wretched and burthensome ambition: with such +things as these I comfort myself, in a way to live more delightfully +than if my grandfather had been a quaestor, and father and uncle too. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE VII. + +_He humorously describes a squabble betwixt Rupilius and Persius._ + + +In what manner the mongrel Persius revenged the filth and venom of +Rupilius, surnamed King, is I think known to all the blind men and +barbers. This Persius, being a man of fortune, had very great business +at Clazomenae, and, into the bargain, certain troublesome litigations +with King; a hardened fellow, and one who was able to exceed even King +in virulence; confident, blustering, of such a bitterness of speech, +that he would outstrip the Sisennae and Barri, if ever so well equipped. + +I return to King. After nothing could be settled betwixt them (for +people among whom adverse war breaks out, are proportionably vexatious +on the same account as they are brave. Thus between Hector, the son of +Priam, and the high-spirited Achilles, the rage was of so capital a +nature, that only the final destruction [one of them] could determine +it; on no other account, than that valor in each of them was +consummate. If discord sets two cowards to work; or if an engagement +happens between two that are not of a match, as that of Diomed and the +Lycian Glaucus; the worst man will walk off, [buying his peace] by +voluntarily sending presents), when Brutus held as praetor the fertile +Asia, this pair, Rupilius and Persius, encountered; in such a manner, +that [the gladiators] Bacchius and Bithus were not better matched. +Impetuous they hurry to the cause, each of them a fine sight. + +Persius opens his case; and is laughed at by all the assembly; he extols +Brutus, and extols the guard; he styles Brutus the sun of Asia, and his +attendants he styles salutary stars, all except King; that he [he says,] +came like that dog, the constellation hateful to husbandman: he poured +along like a wintery flood, where the ax seldom comes. + +Then, upon his running on in so smart and fluent a manner, the +Praenestine [king] directs some witticisms squeezed from the vineyard, +himself a hardy vine-dresser, never defeated, to whom the passenger had +often been obliged to yield, bawling cuckoo with roaring voice. + +But the Grecian Persius, as soon as he had been well sprinkled with +Italian vinegar, bellows out: O Brutus, by the great gods I conjure you, +who are accustomed to take off kings, why do you not dispatch this King? +Believe me, this is a piece of work which of right belongs to you. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE VIII. + +_Priapus complains that the Esquilian mount is infested with the +incantations of sorceresses_. + + +Formerly I was the trunk of a wild fig-tree, an useless log: when the +artificer, in doubt whether he should make a stool or a Priapus of me, +determined that I should be a god. Henceforward I became a god, the +greatest terror of thieves and birds: for my right hand restrains +thieves, and a bloody-looking pole stretched out from my frightful +middle: but a reed fixed upon the crown of my head terrifies the +mischievous birds, and hinders them from settling in these new gardens. +Before this the fellow-slave bore dead corpses thrown out of their +narrow cells to this place, in order to be deposited in paltry coffins. +This place stood a common sepulcher for the miserable mob, for the +buffoon Pantelabus, and Nomentanus the rake. Here a column assigned a +thousand feet [of ground] in front, and three hundred toward the fields: +that the burial-place should not descend to the heirs of the estate. Now +one may live in the Esquiliae, [since it is made] a healthy place; and +walk upon an open terrace, where lately the melancholy passengers beheld +the ground frightful with white bones; though both the thieves and wild +beasts accustomed to infest this place, do not occasion me so much care +and trouble, as do [these hags], that turn people's minds by their +incantations and drugs. These I can not by any means destroy nor hinder, +but that they will gather bones and noxious herbs, as soon as the +fleeting moon has shown her beauteous face. + +I myself saw Canidia, with her sable garment tucked up, walk with bare +feet and disheveled hair, yelling together with the elder Sagana. +Paleness had rendered both of them horrible to behold. They began to +claw up the earth with their nails, and to tear a black ewe-lamb to +pieces with their teeth. The blood was poured into a ditch, that thence +they might charm out the shades of the dead, ghosts that were to give +them answers. There was a woolen effigy too, another of wax: the woolen +one larger, which was to inflict punishment on the little one. The waxen +stood in a suppliant posture, as ready to perish in a servile manner. +One of the hags invokes Hecate, and the other fell Tisiphone. Then might +you see serpents and infernal bitches wander about, and the moon with +blushes hiding behind the lofty monuments, that she might not be a +witness to these doings. But if I lie, even a tittle, may my head be +contaminated with the white filth of ravens; and may Julius, and the +effeminate Miss Pediatous, and the knave Voranus, come to water upon me, +and befoul me. Why should I mention every particular? viz. in what +manner, speaking alternately with Sagana, the ghosts uttered dismal and +piercing shrieks; and how by stealth they laid in the earth a wolf's +beard, with the teeth of a spotted snake; and how a great blaze flamed +forth from the waxen image? And how I was shocked at the voices and +actions of these two furies, a spectator however by no means incapable +of revenge? For from my cleft body of fig-tree wood I uttered a loud +noise with as great an explosion as a burst bladder. But they ran into +the city: and with exceeding laughter and diversion might you have seen +Canidia's artificial teeth, and Sagana's towering tete of false hair +falling off, and the herbs, and the enchanted bracelets from her arm. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE IX. + +_He describes his sufferings from the loquacity of an impertinent +fellow._ + + +I was accidentally going along the Via Sacra, meditating on some trifle +or other, as is my custom, and totally intent upon it. A certain person, +known to me by name only, runs up; and, having seized my hand, "How do +you do, my dearest fellow?" "Tolerably well," say I, "as times go; and I +wish you every thing you can desire." When he still followed me; "Would +you any thing?" said I to him. But, "You know me," says he: "I am a man +of learning." "Upon that account," says I: "you will have more of my +esteem." Wanting sadly to get away from him, sometimes I walked on +apace, now and then I stopped, and I whispered something to my boy. When +the sweat ran down to the bottom of my ankles. O, said I to myself, +Bolanus, how happy were you in a head-piece! Meanwhile he kept prating +on any thing that came uppermost, praised the streets, the city; and, +when I made him no answer; "You want terribly," said he, "to get away; I +perceived it long ago; but you effect nothing. I shall still stick close +to you; I shall follow you hence: Where are you at present bound for?" +"There is no need for your being carried so much about: I want to see a +person, who is unknown to you: he lives a great way off across the +Tiber, just by Caesar's gardens." "I have nothing to do, and I am not +lazy; I will attend you thither." I hang down my ears like an ass of +surly disposition, when a heavier load than ordinary is put upon his +back. He begins again: "If I am tolerably acquainted with myself, you +will not esteem Viscus or Varius as a friend, more than me; for who can +write more verses, or in a shorter time than I? Who can move his limbs +with softer grace [in the dance]? And then I sing, so that even +Hermogenes may envy." + +Here there was an opportunity of interrupting him. "Have you a mother, +[or any] relations that are interested in your welfare?" "Not one have +I; I have buried them all." "Happy they! now I remain. Dispatch me: for +the fatal moment is at hand, which an old Sabine sorceress, having +shaken her divining urn, foretold when I was a boy; 'This child, neither +shall cruel poison, nor the hostile sword, nor pleurisy, nor cough, nor +the crippling gout destroy: a babbler shall one day demolish him; if he +be wise, let him avoid talkative people, as soon as he comes to man's +estate.'" + +One fourth of the day being now passed, we came to Vesta's temple; and, +as good luck would have it, he was obliged to appear to his +recognizance; which unless he did, he must have lost his cause. "If you +love me," said he, "step in here a little." "May I die! if I be either +able to stand it out, or have any knowledge of the civil laws: and +besides, I am in a hurry, you know whither." "I am in doubt what I shall +do," said he; "whether desert you or my cause." "Me, I beg of you." "I +will not do it," said he; and began to take the lead of me. I (as it is +difficult to contend with one's master) follow him. "How stands it with +Maecenas and you?" Thus he begins his prate again. "He is one of few +intimates, and of a very wise way of thinking. No man ever made use of +opportunity with more cleverness. You should have a powerful assistant, +who could play an underpart, if you were disposed to recommend this man; +may I perish, if you should not supplant all the rest!" "We do not live +there in the manner you imagine; there is not a house that is freer or +more remote from evils of this nature. It is never of any disservice to +me, that any particular person is wealthier or a better scholar than I +am: every individual has his proper place." "You tell me a marvelous +thing, scarcely credible." "But it is even so." "You the more inflame my +desires to be near his person." "You need only be inclined to it: such +is your merit, you will accomplish it: and he is capable of being won; +and on that account the first access to him he makes difficult." "I will +not be wanting to myself: I will corrupt his servants with presents; if +I am excluded to-day, I will not desist; I will seek opportunities; I +will meet him in the public streets; I will wait upon him home. Life +allows nothing to mortals without great labor." While he was running on +at this rate, lo! Fuscus Aristius comes up, a dear friend of mine, and +one who knows the fellow well. We make a stop. "Whence come you? whither +are you going?" he asks and answers. I began to twitch him [by the +elbow], and to take hold of his arms [that were affectedly] passive, +nodding and distorting my eyes, that he might rescue me. Cruelly arch +he laughs, and pretends not to take the hint: anger galled my liver. +"Certainly," [said I, "Fuscus,] you said that you wanted to communicate +something to me in private." "I remember it very well; but will tell it +you at a better opportunity: to-day is the thirtieth sabbath. Would you +affront the circumcised Jews?" I reply, "I have no scruple [on that +account]." "But I have: I am something weaker, one of the multitude. You +must forgive me: I will speak with you on another occasion." And has +this sun arisen so disastrous upon me! The wicked rogue runs away, and +leaves me under the knife. But by luck his adversary met him: and, +"Whither are you going, you infamous fellow?" roars he with a loud +voice: and, "Do you witness the arrest?" I assent. He hurries him into +court: there is a great clamor on both sides, a mob from all parts. Thus +Apollo preserved me. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE X. + +_He supports the judgment which he had before given of Lucilius, and +intersperses some excellent precepts for the writing of Satire._ + + +To be sure I did say, that the verses of Lucilius did not run smoothly. +Who is so foolish an admirer of Lucilius, that he would not own this? +But the same writer is applauded in the same Satire, on account of his +having lashed the town with great humor. Nevertheless granting him this, +I will not therefore give up the other [considerations]; for at that +rate I might even admire the farces of Laberius, as fine poems. Hence it +is by no means sufficient to make an auditor grim with laughter: and yet +there is some degree of merit even in this. There is need of conciseness +that the sentence may run, and not embarrass itself with verbiage, that +overloads the sated ear; and sometimes a grave, frequently jocose style +is necessary, supporting the character one while of the orator and [at +another] of the poet, now and then that of a graceful rallier that curbs +the force of his pleasantry and weakens it on purpose. For ridicule +often decides matters of importance more effectually and in a better +manner, than severity. Those poets by whom the ancient comedy was +written, stood upon this [foundation], and in this are they worthy of +imitation: whom neither the smooth-faced Hermogenes ever read, nor that +baboon who is skilled in nothing but singing [the wanton compositions +of] Calvus and Catullus. + +But [Lucilius, say they,] did a great thing, when he intermixed Greek +words with Latin. O late-learned dunces! What! do you think that arduous +and admirable, which was done by Pitholeo the Rhodian? But [still they +cry] the style elegantly composed of both tongues is the more pleasant, +as if Falernian wine is mixed with Chian. When you make verses, I ask +you this question; were you to undertake the difficult cause of the +accused Petillius, would you (for instance), forgetful of your country +and your father, while Pedius, Poplicola, and Corvinus sweat through +their causes in Latin, choose to intermix words borrowed from abroad, +like the double-tongued Canusinian. And as for myself, who was born on +this side the water, when I was about making Greek verses; Romulus +appearing to me after midnight, when dreams are true, forbade me in +words to this effect; "You could not be guilty of more madness by +carrying timber into a wood, than by desiring to throng in among the +great crowds of Grecian writers." + +While bombastical Alpinus murders Memnon, and while he deforms the muddy +source of the Rhine, I amuse myself with these satires; which can +neither be recited in the temple [of Apollo], as contesting for the +prize when Tarpa presides as judge, nor can have a run over and over +again represented in the theatres. You, O Fundanius, of all men +breathing are the most capable of prattling tales in a comic vein, how +an artful courtesan and a Davus impose upon an old Chremes. Pollio sings +the actions of kings in iambic measure; the sublime Varias composes the +manly epic, in a manner that no one can equal: to Virgil the Muses, +delighting in rural scenes, have granted the delicate and the elegant. +It was this kind [of satiric writing], the Aticinian Varro and some +others having attempted it without success, in which I may have some +slight merit, inferior to the inventor: nor would I presume to pull off +the [laurel] crown placed upon his brow with great applause. + +But I said that he flowed muddily, frequently indeed bearing along more +things which ought to be taken away than left. Be it so; do you, who are +a scholar, find no fault with any thing in mighty Homer, I pray? Does +the facetious Lucilius make no alterations in the tragedies of Accius? +Does not he ridicule many of Ennius' verses, which are too light for +the gravity [of the subject]? When he speaks of himself by no means as +superior to what he blames. What should hinder me likewise, when I am +reading the works of Lucilius, from inquiring whether it be his +[genius], or the difficult nature of his subject, that will not suffer +his verses to be more finished, and to run more smoothly than if some +one, thinking it sufficient to conclude a something of six feet, be fond +of writing two hundred verses before he eats, and as many after supper? +Such was the genius of the Tuscan Cassius, more impetuous than a rapid +river; who, as it is reported, was burned [at the funeral pile] with his +own books and papers. Let it be allowed, I say, that Lucilius was a +humorous and polite writer; that he was also more correct than [Ennius], +the author of a kind of poetry [not yet] well cultivated, nor attempted +by the Greeks, and [more correct likewise] than the tribe of our old +poets: but yet he, if he had been brought down by the Fates to this age +of ours, would have retrenched a great deal from his writings: he would +have pruned off every thing that transgressed the limits of perfection; +and, in the composition of verses, would often have scratched his head, +and bit his nails to the quick. + +You that intend to write what is worthy to be read more than once, blot +frequently: and take no-pains to make the multitude admire you, content +with a few [judicious] readers. What, would you be such a fool as to be +ambitious that your verses should be taught in petty schools? That is +not my case. It is enough for me, that the knight [Maecenas] applauds: +as the courageous actress, Arbuscula, expressed herself, in contempt of +the rest of the audience, when she was hissed [by the populace]. What, +shall that grubworm Pantilius have any effect upon me? Or can it vex me, +that Demetrius carps at me behind my back? or because the trifler +Fannius, that hanger-on to Hermogenes Tigellius, attempts to hurt me? +May Plotius and Varius, Maecenas and Virgil, Valgius and Octavius +approve these Satires, and the excellent Fuscus likewise; and I could +wish that both the Visci would join in their commendations: ambition +apart, I may mention you, O Pollio: you also, Messala, together with +your brother; and at the same time, you, Bibulus and Servius; and along +with these you, candid Furnius; many others whom, though men of learning +and my friends, I purposely omit--to whom I would wish these Satires, +such as they are, may give satisfaction; and I should be chagrined, if +they pleased in a degree below my expectation. You, Demetrius, and you, +Tigellius, I bid lament among the forms of your female pupils. + +Go, boy, and instantly annex this Satire to the end of my book. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE SECOND BOOK OF THE SATIRES OF HORACE. + + + +SATIRE I. + +_He supposes himself to consult with Trebatius, whether he should desist +from writing satires, or not_. + + +There are some persons to whom I seem too severe in [the writing of] +satire, and to carry it beyond proper bounds: another set are of +opinion, that all I have written is nerveless, and that a thousand +verses like mine may be spun out in a day. Trebatius, give me your +advice, what shall I do. Be quiet. I should not make, you say, verses at +all. I do say so. May I be hanged, if that would not be best: but I can +not sleep. Let those, who want sound sleep, anointed swim thrice across +the Tiber: and have their clay well moistened with wine over-night. Or, +if such a great love of scribbling hurries you on, venture to celebrate +the achievements of the invincible Caesar, certain of bearing off ample +rewards for your pains. + +Desirous I am, my good father, [to do this,] but my strength fails me, +nor can any one describe the troops bristled with spears, nor the Gauls +dying on their shivered darts, nor the wounded Parthian falling from his +horse. Nevertheless you may describe him just and brave, as the wise +Lucilius did Scipio. I will not be wanting to myself, when an +opportunity presents itself: no verses of Horace's, unless well-timed, +will gain the attention of Caesar; whom, [like a generous steed,] if you +stroke awkwardly, he will kick upon you, being at all quarters on his +guard. How much better would this be, than to wound with severe satire +Pantolabus the buffoon, and the rake Nomentanus! when every body is +afraid for himself, [lest he should be the next,] and hates you, though +he is not meddled with. What shall I do? Milonius falls a dancing the +moment he becomes light-headed and warm, and the candles appear +multiplied. Castor delights in horsemanship: and he, who sprang from the +same egg, in boxing. As many thousands of people [as there are in the +world], so many different inclinations are there. It delights me to +combine words in meter, after the manner of Lucilius, a better man than +both of us. He long ago communicated his secrets to his books, as to +faithful friends; never having recourse elsewhere, whether things went +well or ill with him: whence it happens, that the whole life of this old +[poet] is as open to the view, as if it had been painted en a votive +tablet. His example I follow, though in doubt whether I am a Lucanian or +an Apulian; for the Venusinian farmers plow upon the boundaries of both +countries, who (as the ancient tradition has it) were sent, on the +expulsion of the Samnites, for this purpose, that the enemy might not +make incursions on the Romans, through a vacant [unguarded frontier]: or +lest the Apulian nation, or the fierce Lucanian, should make an +invasion. But this pen of mine shall not willfully attack any man +breathing, and shall defend me like a sword that is sheathed in the +scabbard which why should I attempt to draw, [while I am] safe from +hostile villains? O Jupiter, father and sovereign, may my weapon laid +aside wear away with rust, and may no one injure me, who am desirous of +peace? But that man shall provoke me (I give notice, that it is better +not to touch me) shall weep [his folly], and as a notorious character +shall be sung through all the streets of Rome. + +Cervius, when he is offended, threatens one with the laws and the +[judiciary] urn; Canidia, Albutius' poison to those with whom she is at +enmity, Turius [threatens] great damages, if you contest any thing while +he is judge. How every animal terrifies those whom he suspects, with +that in which he is most powerful, and how strong natural instinct +commands this, thus infer with me.--The wolf attacks with his teeth, the +bull with his horns. From what principle is this, if not a suggestion +from within? Intrust that debauchee Scaeva with the custody of his +ancient mother; his pious hand will commit no outrage. A wonder indeed! +just as the wolf does not attack any one with his hoof, nor the bull +with his teeth; but the deadly hemlock in the poisoned honey will take +off the old dame. + +That I may not be tedious, whether a placid old age awaits me, or +whether death now hovers about me with his sable wings; rich or poor, at +Rome or (if fortune should so order it) an exile abroad; whatever be the +complexion of my life, I will write. O my child, I fear you can not be +long, lived; and that some creature of the great ones will strike you +with the cold of death. What? when Lucilius had the courage to be the +first in composing verses after this manner, and to pull off that mask, +by means of which each man strutted in public view with a fair outside, +though foul within; was Laelius, and he who derived a well deserved +title from the destruction of Carthage, offended at his wit, or were +they hurt at Metellus being lashed, or Lupus covered over with his +lampoons? But he took to task the heads of the people, and the people +themselves, class by class; in short, he spared none but virtue and her +friends. Yet, when the valorous Scipio, and the mild philosophical +Laelius, had withdrawn themselves from the crowd and the public scene, +they used to divert themselves with him, and joke in a free manner, +while a few vegetables were boiled [for supper]. Of whatever rank I am, +though below the estate and wit of Lucilius, yet envy must be obliged to +own that I have lived well with great men; and, wanting to fasten her +tooth upon some weak part, will strike it against the solid: unless you, +learned Trebatius, disapprove of any thing [I have said]. For my part, I +can not make any objection to this. But however, that forewarned you may +be upon your guard, lest in ignorance of our sacred laws should bring +you into trouble, [be sure of this] if any person shall make scandalous +verses against a particular man, an action lies, and a sentence. +Granted, if they are scandalous: but if a man composes good ones, and is +praised by such a judge as Caesar? If a man barks only at him who +deserves his invectives, while he himself is unblamable? The process +will be canceled with laughter: and you, being dismissed, may depart in +peace. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE II. + +_On Frugality_. + + +What and how great is the virtue to live on a little (this is no +doctrine of mine, but what Ofellus the peasant, a philosopher without +rules and of a home-spun wit, taught me), learn, my good friends, not +among dishes and splendid tables; when the eye is dazzled with the vain +glare, and the mind, intent upon false appearances, refuses [to admit] +better things; but here, before dinner, discuss this point with me. Why +so? I will inform you, if I can. Every corrupted judge examines badly +the truth. After hunting the hare, or being wearied by an unruly horse, +or (if the Roman exercise fatigues you, accustomed to act the Greek) +whether the swift ball, while eagerness softens and prevents your +perceiving the severity of the game, or quoits (smite the yielding air +with the quoit) when exercise has worked of squeamishness, dry and +hungry, [then let me see you] despise mean viands; and don't drink +anything but Hymettian honey qualified with Falernian wine. Your butler +is abroad, and the tempestuous sea preserves the fish by its wintery +storms; bread and salt will sufficiently appease an importunate stomach. +Whence do you think this happens? and how is it obtained? The consummate +pleasure is not in the costly flavor, but in yourself. Do you seek for +sauce by sweating. Neither oysters, nor scar, nor the far-fetched +lagois, can give any pleasure to one bloated and pale through +intemperance. Nevertheless, if a peacock were served up, I should hardly +be able to prevent your gratifying the palate with that, rather than a +pullet, since you are prejudiced by the vanities of things; because the +scarce bird is bought with gold, and displays a fine sight with its +painted tail, as if that were anything to the purpose. "What; do you eat +that plumage, which you extol? or has the bird the same beauty when +dressed?" Since however there is no difference in the meat, in one +preferably to the other; it is manifest that you are imposed upon by the +disparity of their appearances. Be it so. + +By what gift are you able to distinguish, whether this lupus, that now +opens its jaws before us, was taken in the Tiber, or in the sea? whether +it was tossed between the bridges or at the mouth of the Tuscan river? +Fool, you praise a mullet, that weighs three pounds; which you are +obliged to cut into small pieces. Outward appearances lead you, I see. +To what intent then do you contemn large lupuses? Because truly these +are by nature bulky, and those very light. A hungry stomach seldom +loathes common victuals. O that I could see a swingeing mullet extended +on a swingeing dish! cries that gullet, which is fit for the voracious +harpies themselves. But O [say I] ye southern blasts, be present to +taint the delicacies of the [gluttons]: though the boar and turbot +newly taken are rank, when surfeiting abundance provokes the sick +stomach; and when the sated guttler prefers turnips and sharp +elecampane. However, all [appearance of] poverty is not quite banished +from the banquets of our nobles; for there is, even at this day, a place +for paltry eggs and black olives. And it was not long ago, since the +table of Gallonius, the auctioneer, was rendered infamous, by having a +sturgeon, [served whole upon it]. What? was the sea at that time less +nutritive of turbots? The turbot was secure and the stork unmolested in +her nest; till the praetorian [Sempronius], the inventor, first taught +you [to eat them]. Therefore, if any one were to give it out that +roasted cormorants are delicious, the Roman youth, teachable in +depravity, would acquiesce, in it. + +In the judgment of Ofellus, a sordid way of living will differ widely +from frugal simplicity. For it is to no purpose for you to shun that +vice [of luxury]; if you perversely fly to the contrary extreme. +Avidienus, to whom the nickname of Dog is applied with propriety, eats +olives of five years old, and wild cornels, and can not bear to rack off +his wine unless it be turned sour, and the smell of his oil you can not +endure: which (though clothed in white he celebrates the wedding +festival, his birthday, or any other festal days) he pours out himself +by little and little from a horn cruet, that holds two pounds, upon his +cabbage, [but at the same time] is lavish enough of his old vinegar. + +What manner of living therefore shall the wise man put in practice, and +which of these examples shall he copy? On one side the wolf presses on, +and the dog on the other, as the saying is. A person will be accounted +decent, if he offends not by sordidness, and is not despicable through +either extreme of conduct. Such a man will not, after the example, of +old Albutius, be savage while he assigns to his servants their +respective offices; nor, like simple Naevius, will he offer greasy water +to his company: for this too is a great fault. + +Now learn what and how great benefits a temperate diet will bring along +with it. In the first place, you will enjoy good health; for you may +believe how detrimental a diversity of things is to any man, when you +recollect that sort of food, which by its simplicity sat so well upon +your stomach some time ago. But, when you have once mixed boiled and +roast together, thrushes and shell-fish; the sweet juices will turn +into bile, and a thick phlegm will bring a jarring upon the stomach. Do +not you see, how pale each guest rises from a perplexing variety of +dishes at an entertainment. Beside this, the body, overloaded with the +debauch of yesterday, depresses the mind along with it, and dashes to +the earth that portion of the divine spirit. Another man, as soon as he +has taken a quick repast, and rendered up his limbs to repose, rises +vigorous to the duties of his calling. However, he may sometimes have +recourse to better cheer; whether the returning year shall bring on a +festival, or if he have a mind to refresh his impaired body; and when +years shall approach, and feeble age require to be used more tenderly. +But as for you, if a troublesome habit of body, or creeping old age, +should come upon you, what addition can be made to that soft indulgence, +which you, now in youth and in health anticipate? + +Our ancestors praised a boar when it was stale not because they had no +noses; but with this view, I suppose, that a visitor coming later than +ordinary [might partake of it], though a little musty, rather than the +voracious master should devour it all himself while sweet. I wish that +the primitive earth had produced me among such heroes as these. + +Have you any regard for reputation, which affects the human ear more +agreeably than music? Great turbots and dishes bring great disgrace +along with them, together with expense. Add to this, that your relations +and neighbors will be exasperated at you, while you will be at enmity +with yourself and desirous of death in vain, since you will not in your +poverty have three farthings left to purchase a rope withal. Trausius, +you say, may with justice be called to account in such language as this; +but I possess an ample revenue, and wealth sufficient for three +potentates, Why then have you no better method of expending your +superfluities? Why is any man, undeserving [of distressed +circumstances], in want, while you abound: How comes it to pass, that +the ancient temples of the gods are falling to ruin? Why do not you, +wretch that you are, bestow something on your dear country, out of so +vast a hoard? What, will matters always go well with you alone? O thou, +that hereafter shalt be the great derision of thine enemies! which of +the two shall depend upon himself in exigences with most certainty? He +who has used his mind and high-swollen body to redundancies; or he who, +contented with a little and provident for the future, like a Wise man +in time of peace, shall make the necessary preparations for war? + +That you may the more readily give credit to these things: I myself, +when a little boy, took notice that this Ofellua did not use his +unencumbered estate more profusely, than he does now it is reduced. You +may see the sturdy husbandman laboring for hire in the land [once his +own, but now] assigned [to others], with his cattle and children, +talking to this effect; I never ventured to eat any thing on a work-day +except pot-herbs, with a hock of smoke-dried bacon. And when a friend +came to visit me after a long absence, or a neighbor, an acceptable +guest to me resting from work on account of the rain, we lived well; not +on fishes fetched from the city, but on a pullet and a kid: then a dried +grape, and a nut, with a large fig, set off our second course. After +this, it was our diversion to have no other regulation in our cups, save +that against drinking to excess; then Ceres worshiped [with a libation], +that the corn might arise in lofty stems, smoothed with wine the +melancholy of the contracted brow. Let fortune rage, and stir up new +tumults what can she do more to impair my estate? How much more savingly +have either I lived, or how much less neatly have you gone, my children, +since this new possessor came? For nature has appointed to be lord of +this earthly property, neither him, nor me, nor any one. He drove us +out: either iniquity or ignorance in the quirks of the law shall [do the +same] him: certainly in the end his long lived heir shall expel him. Now +this field under the denomination of Umbrenus', lately it was Ofellus', +the perpetual property of no man; for it turns to my use one while, and +by and by to that of another. Wherefore, live undaunted; and oppose +gallant breasts against the strokes of adversity. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE III. + +_Damasippus, in a conversation with Horace, proves this paradox of the +Stoic philosophy, that most men are actually mad_. + + +You write so seldom, as not to call for parchment four times in the +year, busied in reforming your writings, yet are you angry with +yourself, that indulging in wine and sleep you produce nothing worthy to +be the subject of conversation. What will be the consequence? But you +took refuge here, it seems, at the very celebration of the Saturnalia, +out of sobriety. Dictate therefore something worthy of your promises; +begin. There is nothing. The pens are found fault with to no purpose, +and the harmless wall, which must have been built under the displeasure +of gods and poets, suffers [to no end]. But you had the look of one that +had threatened many and excellent things, when once your villa had +received you, free from employment, under its warm roof. To what purpose +was it to stow Plato upon Menander? Eupolis, Archilochus? For what end +did you bring abroad such companions? What? are you setting about +appeasing envy by deserting virtue? Wretch, you will be despised. That +guilty Siren, Sloth, must be avoided; or whatever acquisitions you have +made in the better part of your life, must with equanimity be given up. +May the gods and godnesses, O Damasippus, present you with a barber for +your sound advice! But by what means did you get so well acquainted with +me? Since all my fortunes were dissipated at the middle of the exchange, +detached from all business of my own, I mind that of other people. For +formerly I used to take a delight in inquiring, in what vase the crafty +Sisyphus might have washed his feet; what was carved in an unworkmanlike +manner, and what more roughly cast than it ought to be; being a +connoisseur, I offered a hundred thousand sesterces for such a statue; I +was the only man who knew how to purchase gardens and fine seats to the +best advantage: whence the crowded ways gave me the surname of +Mercurial. I know it well; and am amazed at your being cured of that +disorder. Why a new disorder expelled the old one in a marvelous manner; +as it is accustomed to do, when the pain of the afflicted side, or the +head, is turned upon the stomach; as it is with a man in a lethargy, +when he turns boxer, and attacks his physician. As long as you do +nothing like this, be it even as you please. O my good friend, do not +deceive yourself; you likewise are mad, and it is almost "fools all," if +what Stertinius insists upon has any truth in it; from whom, being of a +teachable disposition, I derived these admirable precepts, at the very +time when, having given me consolation, he ordered me to cultivate a +philosophical beard, and to return cheerfully from the Fabrician bridge. +For when, my affairs being desperate, I had a mind to throw myself into +the river, having covered my head [for that purpose], he fortunately was +at my elbow; and [addressed me to this effect]: Take care, how do any +thing unworthy of yourself; a false shame, says he, afflicts you, who +dread to be esteemed a madman among madmen. For in the first place, I +will inquire, what it is to be mad: and, if this distemper be in you +exclusively, I will not add a single word, to prevent you from dying +bravely. + +The school and sect of Chrysippus deem every man mad, whom vicious folly +or the ignorance of truth drives blindly forward. This definition takes +in whole nations, this even great kings, the wise man [alone] excepted. +Now learn, why all those, who have fixed the name of madman upon you, +are as senseless as yourself. As in the woods, where a mistake makes +people wander about from the proper path; one goes out of the way to the +right, another to the left; there is the same blunder on both sides, +only the illusion is in different directions: in this manner imagine +yourself mad; so that he, who derides you, hangs his tail not one jot +wiser than yourself. There is one species of folly, that dreads things +not in the least formidable; insomuch that it will complain of fires, +and rocks, and rivers opposing it in the open plain; there is another +different from this, but not a whit more approaching to wisdom, that +runs headlong through the midst of flames and floods. Let the loving +mother, the virtuous sister, the father, the wife, together with all the +relations [of a man possessed with this latter folly], cry out: "Here is +a deep ditch; here is a prodigious rock; take care of yourself:" he +would give no more attention, than did the drunken Fufius some time ago, +when he overslept the character of Ilione, twelve hundred Catieni at the +same time roaring out, _O mother, I call you to my aid_. I will +demonstrate to you, that the generality of all mankind are mad in the +commission of some folly similar to this. + +Damasippus is mad for purchasing antique statues: but is Damasippus' +creditor in his senses? Well, suppose I should say to you: receive this, +which you can never repay: will you be a madman, if you receive it; or +would you be more absurd for rejecting a booty, which propitious Mercury +offers? Take bond, like the banker Nerius, for ten thousand sesterces; +it will not signify: add the forms of Cicuta, so versed in the knotty +points of law: add a thousand obligations: yet this wicked Proteus will +evade all these ties. When you shall drag him to justice, laughing as if +his cheeks were none of his own; he will be transformed into a boar, +sometimes into a bird, sometimes into a stone, and when he pleases Into +a tree. If to conduct one's affairs badly be the part of a madman; and +the reverse, that of a man well in his senses; brain of Perillius +(believe me), who orders you [that sum of money], which you can never +repay, is much more unsound [than yours]. + +Whoever grows pale with evil ambition, or the love of money: whoever is +heated with luxury, or gloomy superstition, or any other disease of the +mind, I command him to adjust his garment and attend: hither, all of ye, +come near me in order, while I convince you that you are mad. + +By far the largest portion of hellebore is to be administered to the +covetous: I know not, whether reason does not consign all Anticyra to +their use. The heirs of Staberius engraved the sum [which he left them] +upon his tomb: unless they had acted in this manner, they were under an +obligation to exhibit a hundred pair of gladiators to the people, beside +an entertainment according to the direction of Arrius; and as much corn +as is cut in Africa. Whether I have willed this rightly or wrongly, it +was my will; be not severe against me, [cries the testator]. I imagine +the provident mind of Staberius foresaw this. What then did he moan, +when he appointed by will that his heirs should engrave the sum of their +patrimony upon his tomb-stone? As long as he lived, he deemed poverty a +great vice, and nothing did he more industriously avoid: insomuch that, +had he died less rich by one farthing, the more Iniquitous would he have +appeared to himself. For every thing, virtue, fame, glory, divine and +human affairs, are subservient to the attraction of riches; which +whoever shall have accumulated, shall be illustrious, brave, just--What, +wise too? Ay, and a king, and whatever else he pleases. This he was in +hopes would greatly redound to his praise, as if it had been an +acquisition of his virtue. In what respect did the Grecian Aristippus +act like this; who ordered his slaves to throw away his gold in the +midst of Libya; because, encumbered with the burden, they traveled too +slowly? Which is the greater madman of these two? An example is nothing +to the purpose, that decides one controversy by creating another. If any +person were to buy lyres, and [when he had bought them] to stow them in +one place; though neither addicted to the lyre nor to any one muse +whatsoever: if a man were [to buy] paring-knives and lasts, and were no +shoemaker; sails fit for navigation, and were averse to merchandizing; +he every where deservedly be styled delirious, and out of his senses. +How does he differ from these, who boards up cash and gold [and] knows +not how to use them when accumulated, and is afraid to touch them as if +they were consecrated? If any person before a great heap of corn should +keep perpetual watch with a long club, and, though the owner of it, and +hungry, should not dare to take a single grain from it; and should +rather feed upon bitter leaves: if while a thousand hogsheads of Chian, +or old Falernian, is stored up within (nay, that is nothing--three +hundred thousand), he drink nothing, but what is mere sharp vinegars +again--if, wanting but one year of eighty, he should lie upon straw, who +has bed-clothes rotting in his chest, the food of worms and moths; he +would seem mad, belike, but to few persons: because the greatest part of +mankind labors, under the same malady. + +Thou dotard, hateful to the gods, dost thou guard [these possessions], +for fear of wanting thyself: to the end that thy son, or even the +freedman thy heir, should guzzle it all up? For how little will each day +deduct from your capital, if you begin to pour better oil upon your +greens and your head, filthy with scurf not combed out? If any thing be +a sufficiency, wherefore are you guilty of perjury [wherefore] do you +rob, and plunder from all quarters? Are you in your senses? If you were +to begin to pelt the populace with stones, and the slaves, which you +purchased with your money; all the: very boys and girls will cry out +that you are a madman. When you dispatch your wife with a rope, and your +mother with poison, are you right in your head? Why not? You neither did +this at Argos, nor slew your mother with the sword, as the mad Orestes +did. What, do you imagine that he ran? mad after he had murdered his +parent; and that he was not driven mad by the wicked Furies, before he +warmed his sharp steel in his mother's throat? Nay, from the time that +Orestes is deemed to have been of a dangerous disposition, he did +nothing in fact that you can blame; he did not dare to offer violence +with his sword to Pylades, nor to his sister Electra; he only gave ill +language to both of them, by calling her a Fury, and him some other +[opprobrious name], which, his violent choler suggested. + +Opimius, poor amid silver and gold hoarded up within, who used to drink +out of Campanian ware Veientine wine on holidays, and mere dregs on +common days, was some time ago taken with a prodigious lethargy; +insomuch that his heir was already scouring about his coffers and keys, +in joy and triumph. His physician, a man of much dispatch and fidelity, +raises him in this manner: he orders a table to be brought, and the bags +of money to be poured out, and several persons to approach in order to +count it: by this method he sets the man upon his legs again. And at the +same time he addresses him to this effect. Unless you guard your money +your ravenous heir will even now carry off these [treasures] of yours. +What, while I am alive? That you may live, therefore, awake; do this. +What would you have me do? Why your blood will fail you that are so much +reduced, unless food and some great restorative be administered to your +decaying stomach. Do you hesitate? come on; take this ptisan made of +rice. How much did it cost? A trifle. How much then? Eight asses. Alas! +what does it matter, whether I die of a disease, or by theft and rapine? + +Who then is sound? He, who is not a fool. What is the covetous man? Both +a fool and a madman. What--if a man be not covetous, is he immediately +[to be deemed] sound? By no means. Why so, Stoic? I will tell you. Such +a patient (suppose Craterus [the physician] said this) is not sick at +the heart. Is he therefore well, and shall he get up? No, he will forbid +that; because his side or his reins are harassed with an acute disease. +[In like manner], such a man is not perjured, nor sordid; let him then +sacrifice a hog to his propitious household gods. But he is ambitious +and assuming. Let him make a voyage [then] to Anticyra. For what is the +difference, whether you fling whatever you have into a gulf, or make no +use of your acquisitions? + +Servius Oppidius, rich in the possession of an ancient estate, is +reported when dying to have divided two farms at Canusium between his +two sons, and to have addressed the boys, called to his bed-side, [in +the following manner]: When I saw you, Aulus, carry your playthings and +nuts carelessly in your bosom, [and] to give them and game them away; +you, Tiberius, count them, and anxious hide them in holes; I was afraid +lest a madness of a different nature should possess you: lest you +[Aulus], should follow the example of Nomentanus, you, [Tiberius], that +of Cicuta. Wherefore each of you, entreated by our household gods, do +you (Aulus) take care lest you lessen; you (Tiberius) lest you make that +greater, which your father thinks and the purposes of nature determine +to be sufficient. Further, lest glory should entice you, I will bind +each of you by an oath: whichever of you shall be an aedile or a +praetor, let him be excommunicated and accursed. Would you destroy your +effects in [largesses of] peas, beans, and lupines, that you may stalk +in the circus at large, or stand in a statue of brass, O madman, +stripped of your paternal estate, stripped of your money? To the end, +forsooth, that you may gain those applauses, which Agrippa gains, like a +cunning fox imitating a generous lion? + +O Agamemnon, why do you prohibit any one from burying Ajax? I am a king. +I, a plebeian, make no further inquiry. And I command a just thing: but, +if I seem unjust to any one, I permit you to speak your sentiments with +impunity. Greatest of kings, may the gods grant that, after the taking +of Troy, you may conduct your fleet safe home: may I then have the +liberty to ask questions, and reply in my turn? Ask. Why does Ajax, the +second hero after Achilles, rot [above ground], so often renowned for +having saved the Grecians; that Priam and Priam's people may exult in +his being unburied, by whose means so many youths have been deprived of +their country's rites of sepulture. In his madness he killed a thousand +sheep, crying out that he was destroying the famous Ulysses and +Menelaus, together with me. When you at Aulis substituted your sweet +daughter in the place of a heifer before the altar, and, O impious one, +sprinkled her head with the salt cake; did you preserve soundness of +mind? Why do you ask? What then did the mad Ajax do, when he slew the +flock with his sword? He abstained from any violence to his wife and +child, though he had imprecated many curses on the sons of Atreus: he +neither hurt Teucer, nor even Ulysses himself. But I, out of prudence, +appeased the gods with blood, that I might loose the ships detained on +an adverse shore. Yes, madman! with your own blood. With my own +[indeed], but I was not mad. Whoever shall form images foreign from +reality, and confused in the tumult of impiety, will always be reckoned +disturbed in mind: and it will not matter, whether he go wrong through +folly or through rage. Is Ajax delirious, while he kills the harmless +lambs? Are you right in your head, when you willfully commit a crime for +empty titles? And is your heart pure, while it is swollen with the vice? +If any person should take a delight to carry about with him in his sedan +a pretty lambkin; and should provide clothes, should provide maids and +gold for it, as for a daughter, should call it Rufa and Rufilla, and +should destine it a wife for some stout husband; the praetor would +take power from him being interdicted, and the management of him would +devolve to his relations, that were in their senses. What, if a man +devote his daughter instead of a dumb lambkin, is he right of mind? +Never say it. Therefore, wherever there is a foolish depravity, there +will be the height of madness. He who is wicked, will be frantic too: +Bellona, who delights in bloodshed, has thundered about him, whom +precarious fame has captivated. + +Now, come on, arraign with me luxury and Nomentanus; for reason will +evince that foolish spendthrifts are mad. This fellow, as soon as he +received a thousand talents of patrimony, issues an order that the +fishmonger, the fruiterer, the poulterer, the perfumer, and the impious +gang of the Tuscan alley, sausage-maker, and buffoons, the whole +shambles, together with [all] Velabrum, should come to his house in the +morning. What was the consequence? They came in crowds. The pander makes +a speech: "Whatever I, or whatever each of these has at home, believe it +to be yours: and give your order for it either directly, or to-morrow." +Hear what reply the considerate youth made: "You sleep booted in +Lucanian snow, that I may feast on a boar: you sweep the wintry seas for +fish: I am indolent, and unworthy to possess so much. Away with it: do +you take for your share ten hundred thousand sesterces; you as much; you +thrice the sum, from whose house your spouse runs, when called for, at +midnight." The son of Aesopus, [the actor] (that he might, forsooth, +swallow a million of sesterces at a draught), dissolved in vinegar a +precious pearl, which he had taken from the ear of Metella: how much +wiser was he [in doing this,] than if he had thrown the same into a +rapid river, or the common sewer? The progeny of Quintius Arrius, an +illustrious pair of brothers, twins in wickedness and trifling and the +love of depravity, used to dine upon nightingales bought at a vast +expense: to whom do these belong? Are they in their senses? Are they to +be marked With chalk, or with charcoal? + +If an [aged person] with a long beard should take a delight to build +baby-houses, to yoke mice to a go-cart, to play at odd and even, to ride +upon a long cane, madness must be his motive. If reason shall evince, +that to be in love is a more childish thing than these; and that there +is no difference whether you play the same games in the dust as when +three years old, or whine in anxiety for the love of a harlot: I beg to +know, if you will act as the reformed Polemon did of old? Will you lay +aside those ensigns of your disease, your rollers, your mantle, your +mufflers; as he in his cups is said to have privately torn the chaplet +from his neck, after he was corrected by the speech of his fasting +master? When you offer apples to an angry boy, he refuses them: here, +take them, you little dog; he denies you: if you don't give them, he +wants them. In what does an excluded lover differ [from such a boy]; +when he argues with himself whether he should go or not to that very +place whither he was returning without being sent for, and cleaves to +the hated doors? "What shall I not go to her now, when she invites me of +her own accord? or shall I rather think of putting an end to my pains? +She has excluded me; she recalls me: shall I return? No, not if she +would implore me." Observe the servant, not a little wiser: "O master, +that which has neither moderation nor conduct, can not be guided by +reason or method. In love these evils are inherent; war [one while], +then peace again. If any one should endeavor to ascertain these things, +that are various as the weather, and fluctuating by blind chance; he +will make no more of it, than if he should set about raving by right +reason and rule." What--when, picking the pippins from the Picenian +apples, you rejoice if haply you have hit the vaulted roof; are you +yourself? What--when you strike out faltering accents from your +antiquated palate, how much wiser are you than [a child] that builds +little houses? To the folly [of love] add bloodshed, and stir the fire +with a sword. I ask you, when Marius lately, after he had stabbed +Hellas, threw himself down a precipice, was he raving mad? Or will you +absolve the man from the imputation of a disturbed mind, and condemn him +for the crime, according to your custom, imposing, on things named that +have an affinity in signification? + +There was a certain freedman, who, an old man, ran about the streets in +a morning fasting, with his hands washed, and prayed thus: "Snatch me +alone from death" (adding some solemn vow), "me alone, for it is an easy +matter for the gods:" this man was sound in both his ears and eyes; but +his master, when he sold him, would except his understanding, unless he +were fond of law-suits. This crowd too Chrysippus places in the fruitful +family of Menenius. + +O Jupiter, who givest and takest away great afflictions, (cries the +mother of a boy, now lying sick abed for five months), if this cold +quartan ague should leave the child, in the morning of that day on which +you enjoy a fast, he shall stand naked in the Tiber. Should chance or +the physician relieve the patient from his imminent danger, the +infatuated mother will destroy [the boy] placed on the cold bank, and +will bring back the fever. With what disorder of the mind is she +stricken? Why, with a superstitious fear of the gods. + +These arms Stertinius, the eighth of the wise men, gave to me, as to a +friend, that for the future I might not be roughly accosted without +avenging myself. Whosoever shall call me madman, shall hear as much from +me [in return]; and shall learn to look back upon the bag that hangs +behind him. + +O Stoic, so may you, after your damage, sell all your merchandise the +better: what folly (for, [it seems,] there are more kinds than one) do +you think I am infatuated with? For to myself I seem sound. What--when +mad Agave carries the amputated head of her unhappy son, does she then +seem mad to herself? I allow myself a fool (let me yield to the truth) +and a madman likewise: only declare this, with what distemper of mind +you think me afflicted. Hear, then: in the first place you build; that +is, though from top to bottom you are but of the two-foot size you +imitate the tall: and you, the same person, laugh at the spirit and +strut of Turbo in armor, too great for his [little] body: how are you +less ridiculous than him? What--is it fitting that, in every thing +Maecenas does, you, who are so very much unlike him and so much his +inferior, should vie with him? The young ones of a frog being in her +absence crushed by the foot of a calf, when one of them had made his +escape, he told his mother what a huge beast had dashed his brethren to +pieces. She began to ask, how big? Whether it were so great? puffing +herself up. Greater by half. What, so big? when she had swelled herself +more and more. If you should burst yourself, says he, you will not be +equal to it. This image bears no great dissimilitude to you. Now add +poems (that is, add oil to the fire), which if ever any man in his +senses made, why so do you. I do not mention your horrid rage. At +length, have done--your way of living beyond your fortune--confine +yourself to your own affairs, Damasippus--those thousand passions for +the fair, the young. Thou greater madman, at last, spare thy inferior. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE IV. + +_He ridicules the absurdity of one Catius, who placed the summit of +human felicity in the culinary art_. + + +Whence, and whither, Catius? I have not time [to converse with you], +being desirous of impressing on my memory some new precepts; such as +excel Pythagoras, and him that was accused by Anytus, and the learned +Plato. I acknowledge my offense, since I have interrupted you at so +unlucky a juncture: but grant me your pardon, good sir, I beseech you. +If any thing should have slipped you now, you will presently recollect +it: whether this talent of yours be of nature, or of art, you are +amazing in both. Nay, but I was anxious, how I might retain all [these +precepts]; as being things of a delicate nature, and in a delicate +style. Tell me the name of this man; and at the same time whether he is +a Roman, or a foreigner? As I have them by heart, I will recite the +precepts: the author shall be concealed. + +Remember to serve up those eggs that are of an oblong make, as being of +sweeter flavor and more nutritive than the round ones: for, being +tough-shelled, they contain a male yelk. Cabbage that grows in dry +lands, is sweeter than that about town: nothing is more insipid than a +garden much watered. If a visitor should come unexpectedly upon you in +the evening, lest the tough old hen prove disagreeable to his palate, +you must learn to drown it in Falernian wine mixed [with water]: this +will make it tender. The mushrooms that grow in meadows, are of the best +kind: all others are dangerously trusted. That man shall spend his +summers healthy who shall finish his dinners with mulberries black [with +ripeness], which he shall have gathered from the tree before the sun +becomes violent. Aufidius used to mix honey with strong Falernian +injudiciously; because it is right to commit nothing to the empty veins, +but what is emollient: you will, with more propriety, wash your stomach +with soft mead. If your belly should be hard bound, the limpet and +coarse cockles will remove obstructions, and leaves of the small sorrel; +but not without Coan white wine. The increasing moons swell the +lubricating shell-fish. But every sea is not productive of the exquisite +sorts. The Lucrine muscle is better than the Baian murex: [The best] +oysters come from the Circaean promontory; cray-fish from Misenum: the +soft Tarentum plumes herself on her broad escalops. Let no one +presumptuously arrogate to himself the science of banqueting, unless the +nice doctrine of tastes has been previously considered by him with exact +system. Nor is it enough to sweep away a parcel of fishes from the +expensive stalls, [while he remains] ignorant for what sort stewed sauce +is more proper, and what being roasted, the sated guest will presently +replace himself on his elbow. Let the boar from Umbria, and that which +has been fed with the acorns of the scarlet oak, bend the round dishes +of him who dislikes all flabby meat: for the Laurentian boar, fattened +with flags and reeds, is bad. The vineyard does not always afford the +most eatable kids. A man of sense will be fond of the shoulders of a +pregnant hare. What is the proper age and nature of fish and fowl, +though inquired after, was never discovered before my palate. There are +some, whose genius invents nothing but new kinds of pastry. To waste +one's care upon one thing, is by no means sufficient; just as if any +person should use all his endeavors for this only, that the wine be not +bad; quite careless what oil he pours upon his fish. If you set out +Massic wine in fair weather, should there be any thing thick in it, it +will be attenuated by the nocturnal air, and the smell unfriendly to the +nerves will go off: but, if filtrated through linen, it will lose its +entire flavor. He, who skillfully mixes the Surrentine wine with +Falernian lees, collects the sediment with a pigeon's egg: because the +yelk sinks to the bottom, rolling down with it all the heterogeneous +parts. You may rouse the jaded toper with roasted shrimps and African +cockles; for lettuce after wine floats upon the soured stomach: by ham +preferably, and by sausages, it craves to be restored to its appetite: +nay, it will prefer every thing which is brought smoking hot from the +nasty eating-houses. It is worth while to be acquainted with the two +kinds of sauce. The simple consists of sweet oil; which it will be +proper to mix with rich wine and pickle, but with no other pickle than +that by which the Byzantine jar has been tainted. When this, mingled +with shredded herbs, has boiled, and sprinkled with Corycian saffron, +has stood, you shall over and above add what the pressed berry of the +Venafran olive yields. The Tiburtian yield to the Picenian apples in +juice, though they excel in look. The Venusian grape is proper for +[preserving in] pots. The Albanian you had better harden in the smoke. I +am found to be the first that served up this grape with apples in neat +little side-plates, to be the first [likewise that served up] wine-lees +and herring-brine, and white pepper finely mixed with black salt. It is +an enormous fault to bestow three thousand sesterces on the fish-market, +and then to cramp the roving fishes in a narrow dish. It causes a great +nausea in the stomach, if even the slave touches the cup with greasy +hands, while he licks up snacks, or if offensive grime has adhered to +the ancient goblet. In trays, in mats, in sawdust, [that are so] cheap, +what great expense can there be? But, if they are neglected, it is a +heinous shame. What, should you sweep Mosaic pavements with a dirty +broom made of palm, and throw Tyrian carpets over the unwashed furniture +of your couch! forgetting, that by how much less care and expense these +things are attended, so much the more justly may [the want of them] be +censured, than of those things which can not be obtained but at the +tables of the rich? + +Learned Catius, entreated by our friendship and the gods, remember to +introduce me to an audience [with this great man], whenever you shall go +to him. For, though by your memory you relate every thing to me, yet as +a relater you can not delight me in so high a degree. Add to this the +countenance and deportment of the man; whom you, happy in having seen, +do not much regard, because it has been your lot: but I have no small +solicitude, that I may approach the distant fountain-heads, and imbibe +the precepts of [such] a blessed life. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE V. + +_In a humorous dialogue between Ulysses and Tiresias, he exposes those +arts which the fortune hunters make use of, in order to be appointed the +heirs of rich old men_. + + +Beside what you have told me, O Tiresias, answer to this petition of +mine: by what arts and expedients may I be able to repair my ruined +fortunes--why do you laugh? Does it already seem little to you, who are +practiced in deceit, to be brought back to Ithaca, and to behold [again] +your family household gods? O you who never speak falsely to anyone, you +see how naked and destitute I return home, according to your prophecy: +nor is either my cellar, or my cattle there, unembezzled by the suitors +[of Penelope]. But birth and virtue, unless [attended] with substance, +is viler than sea weed. + +Since (circumlocutions apart) you are in dread of poverty hear by what +means you may grow wealthy. If a thrush, or any [nice] thing for your +own private [eating], shall be given you; it must wing way to that +place, where shines a great fortune, the possessor being an old man: +delicious apples, and whatever dainties your well-cultivated ground +brings forth for you, let the rich man, as more to be reverenced than +your household god, taste before him: and, though he be perjured, of no +family, stained with his brother's blood, a runaway; if he desire it, do +not refuse to go along with him, his companion on the outer side. What, +shall I walk cheek by jole with a filthy Damas? I did not behave myself +in that manner at Troy, contending always with the best. You must then +be poor. I will command my sturdy soul to bear this evil; I have +formerly endured even greater. Do thou, O prophet, tell me forthwith how +I may amass riches and heaps of money. In troth I have told you, and +tell you again. Use your craft to lie at catch for the last wills of old +men: nor, if one or two cunning chaps escape by biting the bait off the +hook, either lay aside hope, or quit the art, though disappointed in +your aim. If an affair, either of little or great consequence, shall be +contested at any time at the bar; whichever of the parties live wealthy +without heirs, should he be a rogue, who daringly takes the law of a +better man, be thou his advocate: despise the citizen, who is superior +in reputation, and [the justness of] his cause, if at home he has a son +or a fruitful wife. [Address him thus:] "Quintus, for instance, or +Publius (delicate ears delight in the prefixed name), your virtue has +made me your friend. I am acquainted with the precarious quirks of the +law; I can plead causes. Any one shall sooner snatch my eyes from me, +than he shall despise or defraud you of an empty nut. This is my care, +that you lose nothing, that you be not made a jest of." Bid him go home, +and make much of himself. Be his solicitor yourself: persevere, and be +steadfast: whether the glaring dog-star shall cleave the infant statues; +or Furius, destined with his greasy paunch, shall spue white snow over +the wintery Alps. Do not you see (shall someone say, jogging the person +that stands next to him by the elbow) how indefatigable he is, how +serviceable to his friends, how acute? [By this means] more tunnies +shall swim in, and your fish-ponds will increase. + +Further, if any one in affluent circumstances has reared an ailing son, +lest a too open complaisance to a single man should detect you, creep +gradually into the hope [of succeeding him], and that you may be set +down as second heir; and, if any casualty ahould dispatch the boy to +Hades, you may come into the vacancy. This die seldom fails. Whoever +delivers his will to you to read, be mindful to decline it, and push the +parchment from you: [do it] however in such a manner, that you may catch +with an oblique glance, what the first page intimates to be in the +second clause: run over with a quick eye, whether you are sole heir, or +co-heir with many. Sometimes a well-seasoned lawyer, risen from a +Quinquevir, shall delude the gaping raven; and the fortune-hunter Nasica +shall be laughed at by Coranus. + +What, art thou in a [prophetic] raving; or dost thou play upon me +designedly, by uttering obscurities? O son of Laertes, whatever I shall +say will come to pass, or it will not: for the great Apollo gives me the +power to divine. Then, if it is proper, relate what that tale means. + +At that time when the youth dreaded by the Parthians, an offspring +derived from the noble Aeneas, shall be mighty by land and sea; the tall +daughter of Nasica, averse to pay the sum total of his debt, shall wed +the stout Coranus. Then the son-in-law shall proceed thus: he shall +deliver his will to his father-in-law, and entreat him to read it; +Nasica will at length receive it, after it has been several times +refused, and silently peruse it; and will find no other legacy left to +him and his, except leave to lament. + +To these [directions I have already given], I subjoin the [following]: +if haply a cunning woman or a freedman have the management of an old +driveler, join with them as an associate: praise them, that you may be +praised in your absence. This too is of service; but to storm [the +capital] itself excels this method by far. Shall he, a dotard, scribble +wretched verses? Applaud them. Shall he be given to pleasure? Take care +[you do not suffer him] to ask you: of your own accord complaisantly +deliver up your Penelope to him, as preferable [to yourself]. What--do +you think so sober and so chaste a woman can be brought over, whom [so +many] wooers could not divert from the right course. Because, forsooth, +a parcel of young fellows came, who were too parsimonious to give a +great price, nor so much desirous of an amorous intercourse, as of the +kitchen. So far your Penelope is a good woman: who, had she once tasted +of one old [doting gallant], and shared with you the profit, like a +hound, will never be frighted away from the reeking skin [of the new +killed game]. + +What I am going to tell you happened when I was an old man. A wicked hag +at Thebes was, according to her will, carried forth in this manner: her +heir bore her corpse, anointed with a large quantity of oil, upon his +naked shoulders; with the intent that, if possible, she might escape +from him even when dead: because, I imagine, he had pressed upon her too +much when living. Be cautious in your addresses: neither be wanting in +your pains, nor immoderately exuberant. By garrulity you will offend the +splenetic and morose. You must not, however, be too silent. Be Davus in +the play; and stand with your head on one side, much like one who is in +great awe. Attack him with complaisance: if the air freshens, advise him +carefully to cover up his precious head: disengage him from the crowd by +opposing your shoulders to it: closely attach your ear to him if chatty. +Is he immoderately fond of being praised? Pay him home, till he shall +cry out, with his hands lifted up to heaven, "Enough:" and puff up the +swelling bladder with tumid speeches. When he shall have [at last] +released you from your long servitude and anxiety; and being certainly +awake, you shall hear [this article in his will]? "Let Ulysses be heir +to one fourth of my estate:" "is then my companion Damas now no more? +where shall I find one so brave and so faithful?" Throw out [something +of this kind] every now and then: and if you can a little, weep for him. +It is fit to disguise your countenance, which [otherwise] would betray +your joy. As for the monument, which is left to your own discretion, +erect it without meanness. The neighborhood will commend the funeral +handsomely performed. If haply any of your co-heirs, being advanced in +years, should have a dangerous cough; whether he has a mind to be a +purchaser of a farm or a house out of your share, tell him, you will +[come to any terms he shall propose, and] make it over to him gladly for +a trifling sum. But the Imperious Proserpine drags me hence. Live, and +prosper. + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE VI. + +_He sets the conveniences of a country retirement in opposition to the +troubles of a life in town_. + + +This was [ever] among the number of my wishes: a portion of ground not +over large, in which was a garden, and a fountain with a continual +stream close to my house, and a little Woodland besides. The gods have +done more abundantly, and better, for me [than this]. It is well: O son +of Maia, I ask nothing more save that you would render these donations +lasting to me. If I have neither made my estate larger by bad means, nor +am in a way to make it less by vice or misconduct; if I do not foolishly +make any petition of this sort--"Oh that that neighboring angle, which +now spoils the; regularity of my field, could be added! Oh that some +accident would discover to me an urn [full] of money! as it did to him, +who having found a treasure, bought that very ground he before tilled in +the capacity of an hired servant, enriched by Hercules' being his +friend;" if what I have at present satisfies me grateful, I supplicate +you with this prayer: make my cattle fat for the use of their master, +and every thing else, except my genius: and, as you are wont, be present +as my chief guardian. Wherefore, when I have removed myself from the +city to the mountains and my castle, (what can I polish, preferably to +my satires and prosaic muse?) neither evil ambition destroys me, nor the +heavy south wind, nor the sickly autumn, the gain of baleful Libitina. + +Father of the morning, or Janus, if with more pleasure thou hearest +thyself [called by that name], from whom men commence the toils of +business, and of life (such is the will of the gods), be thou the +beginning of my song. At Rome you hurry me away to be bail; "Away, +dispatch, [you cry,] lest any one should be beforehand with you in doing +that friendly office:" I must go, at all events, whether the north wind +sweep the earth, or winter contracts the snowy day into a narrower +circle. After this, having uttered in a clear and determinate manner +[the legal form], which may be a detriment to me, I must bustle through +the crowd; and must disoblige the tardy. "What is your will, madman, and +what are you about, impudent fellow?" So one accosts me with his +passionate curses. "You jostle every thing that is in your way, if with +an appointment full in your mind you are away to Maecenas." This pleases +me, and is like honey: I will not tell a lie. But by the time I reached +the gloomy Esquiliae, a hundred affairs of other people's encompass me +on every side: "Roscius begged that you would be with him at the +court-house to-morrow before the second hour." "The secretaries +requested you would remember, Quintus, to return to-day about an affair +of public concern, and of great consequence." "Get Maecenas to put his +signet to these tablets." Should one say, "I will endeavor at it:" "If +you will, you can," adds he; and is more earnest. The seventh year +approaching to the eighth is now elapsed, from the time that Maecenas +began to reckon me in the number of his friends; only thus far, as one +he would like to take along with him in his chariot, when he went a +journey, and to whom he would trust such kind of trifles as these: "What +is the hour?" "Is Gallina, the Thracian, a match for [the gladiator] +Syrus?" "The cold morning air begins to pinch those that are ill +provided against it;"--and such things-as are well enough intrusted to a +leaky ear. For all this time, every day and hour, I have been more +subjected to envy. "Our son of fortune here, says every body, witnessed +the shows in company with [Maecenas], and played with him in the Campus +Martius." Does any disheartening report spread from the rostrum through +the streets, whoever comes in my way consults me [concerning it]: "Good +sir, have you (for you must know, since you approach nearer the gods) +heard any thing relating to the Dacians?" "Nothing at all for my part," +[I reply]. "How you ever are a sneerer!" "But may all the gods torture +me, if I know any thing of the matter." "What? will Caesar give the +lands he promised the soldiers, in Sicily, or in Italy?" As I am +swearing I know nothing about it, they wonder at me, [thinking] me, to +be sure, a creature of profound and extraordinary secrecy. + +Among things of this nature the day is wasted by me, mortified as I am, +not without such wishes as these: O rural retirement, when shall I +behold thee? and when shall it be in my power to pass through the +pleasing oblivion of a life full of solicitude, one while with the books +of the ancients, another while in sleep and leisure? O when shall the +bean related to Pythagoras, and at the same time herbs well larded with +fat bacon, be set before me? O evenings, and suppers fit for gods! with +which I and my friends regale ourselves in the presence of my household +gods; and feed my saucy slaves with viands, of which libations have been +made. The guest, according to every one's inclination, takes off the +glasses of different sizes, free from mad laws: whether one of a strong +constitution chooses hearty bumpers; or another more joyously gets +mellow with moderate ones. Then conversation arises, not concerning +other people's villas and houses, nor whether Lepos dances well or not; +but we debate on what is more to our purpose, and what it is pernicious +not to know--whether men are made happier by riches or by virtue; or +what leads us into intimacies, interest or moral rectitude; and what is +the nature of good, and what its perfection. Meanwhile, my neighbor +Cervius prates away old stories relative to the subject. For, if any one +ignorantly commends the troublesome riches of Aurelius, he thus begins: +"On a time a country-mouse is reported to have received a city-mouse +into his poor cave, an old host, his old acquaintance; a blunt fellow +and attentive to his acquisitions, yet so as he could [on occasion] +enlarge his narrow soul in acts of hospitality. What need of many words? +He neither grudged him the hoarded vetches, nor the long oats; and +bringing in his mouth a dry plum, and nibbled scraps of bacon, presented +them to him, being desirous by the variety of the supper to get the +better of the daintiness of his guest, who hardly touched with his +delicate tooth the several things: while the father of the family +himself, extended on fresh straw, ate a spelt and darnel leaving that +which was better [for his guest]. At length the citizen addressing him, +'Friend,' says he, 'what delight have you to live laboriously on the +ridge of a rugged thicket? Will you not prefer men and the city to the +savage woods? Take my advice, and go along with me: since mortal lives +are allotted to all terrestrial animals, nor is there any escape from +death, either for the great or the small. Wherefore, my good friend, +while it is in your power, live happy in joyous circumstances: live +mindful of how brief an existence you are.' Soon as these speeches had +wrought upon the peasant, he leaps nimbly from his cave: thence they +both pursue their intended journey, being desirous to steal under the +city walls by night. And now the night possessed the middle region of +the heavens, when each of them set foot in a gorgeous palace, where +carpets dyed with crimson grain glittered upon ivory couches, and many +baskets of a magnificent entertainment remained, which had yesterday +been set by in baskets piled upon one another. After he had placed the +peasant then, stretched at ease upon a splendid carpet; he bustles about +like an adroit host, and keeps bringing up one dish close upon another, +and with an affected civility performs all the ceremonies, first tasting +of every thing he serves up. He, reclined, rejoices in the change of his +situation, and acts the part of a boon companion in the good cheer: when +on a sudden a prodigious rattling of the folding doors shook them both +from their couches. Terrified they began to scamper all about the room, +and more and more heartless to be in confusion, while the lofty house +resounded with [the barking of] mastiff dogs; upon which, says the +country-mouse, 'I have no desire for a life like this; and so farewell: +my wood and cave, secure from surprises, shall with homely tares comfort +me.'" + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE VII. + +_One of Horace's slaves, making use of that freedom which was allowed +them at the Saturnalia, rates his master in a droll and severe manner_. + + +I have a long while been attending [to you], and would fain speak a few +words [in return; but, being] a slave, I am afraid. What, Davus? Yes, +Davus, a faithful servant to his master and an honest one, at least +sufficiently so: that is, for you to think his life in no danger. Well +(since our ancestors would have it so), use the freedom of December +speak on. + +One part of mankind are fond of their vices with some constancy and +adhere to their purpose: a considerable part fluctuates; one while +embracing the right, another while liable to depravity. Priscus, +frequently observed with three rings, sometimes with his left hand bare, +lived so irregularly that he would change his robe every hour; from a +magnificent edifice, he would on a sudden hide himself in a place, +whence a decent freedman could scarcely come out in a decent manner; one +while he would choose to lead the life of a rake at Rome, another while +that of a teacher at Athens; born under the evil influence of every +Vertumnus. That buffoon, Volanerius, when the deserved gout had crippled +his fingers, maintained [a fellow] that he had hired at a daily price, +who took up the dice and put them into a box for him: yet by how much +more constant was he in his vice, by so much less wretched was he than +the former person, who is now in difficulties by too loose, now by too +tight a rein. + +"Will you not tell to-day, you varlet, whither such wretched stuff as +this tends?" "Why, to you, I say." "In what respect to me, scoundrel?" +"You praise the happiness and manners of the ancient [Roman] people; and +yet, if any god were on a sudden to reduce you to to them, you, the same +man, would earnestly beg to be excused; either because you are not +really of opinion that what you bawl about is right; or because you are +irresolute in defending the right, and hesitate, in vain desirous to +extract your foot from the mire. At Rome, you long for the country; when +you are in the country, fickle, you extol the absent city to the skies. +If haply you are invited out nowhere to supper, you praise your quiet +dish of vegetables; and as if you ever go abroad upon compulsion, you +think yourself so happy, and do so hug yourself, that you are obliged to +drink out nowhere. Should Maecenas lay his commands on you to come late, +at the first lighting up of the lamps, as his guest; 'Will nobody bring +the oil with more expedition? Does any body hear?' You stutter with a +mighty bellowing, and storm with rage. Milvius, and the buffoons [who +expected to sup with you], depart, after having uttered curses not +proper to be repeated. Any one may say, for I own [the truth], that I am +easy to be seduced by my appetite; I snuff up my nose at a savory smell: +I am weak, lazy; and, if you have a mind to add any thing else, I am a +sot. But seeing you are as I am, and perhaps something worse, why do you +willfully call me to an account as if you were the better man; and, with +specious phrases, disguise your own vice? What, if you are found out to +be a greater fool than me, who was purchased for five hundred drachmas? +Forbear to terrify me with your looks; restrain your hand and your +anger, while I relate to you what Crispinus' porter taught me. + +"Another man's wife captivates you; a harlot, Davus: which of us sins +more deservingly of the cross? When keen nature inflames me, any common +wench that picks me up, dismisses me neither dishonored, nor caring +whether a richer or a handsomer man enjoys her next. You, when you have +cast off your ensigns of dignity, your equestrian ring and your Roman +habit, turn out from a magistrate a wretched Dama, hiding with a cape +your perfumed head: are you not really what you personate? You are +introduced, apprehensive [of consequences]; and, as you are altercating +With your passions, your bones shake with fear. What is the difference +whether you go condemned [like a gladiator], to be galled with scourges, +or slain with the sword; or be closed up in a filthy chest, where [the +maid], concious of her mistress' crime, has stowed you? Has not the +husband of the offending dame a just power over both; against the +seducer even a juster? But she neither changes her dress, nor place, nor +sins to that excess [which you do]; since the woman is in dread of you, +nor gives any credit to you, though you profess to love her. You must go +under the yoke knowingly, and put all your fortune, your life, and +reputation, together with your limbs, into the power of an enraged +husband. Have you escaped? I suppose, then, you will be afraid [for the +future]; and, being warned, will be cautious. No, you will seek occasion +when you may be again in terror, and again may be likely to perish. O so +often a slave! What beast, when it has once escaped by breaking its +toils, absurdly trusts itself to them again? You say, "I am no +adulterer." Nor, by Hercules, am I a thief, when I wisely pass by the +silver vases. Take away the danger, and vagrant nature will spring +forth, when restraints are removed. Are you my superior, subjected as +you are, to the dominion of so many things and persons, whom the +praetor's rod, though placed on your head three or four times over, can +never free from this wretched solicitude? Add, to what has been said +above, a thing of no less weight; whether he be an underling, who obeys +the master-slave (as it is your custom to affirm), or only a +fellow-slave, what am I in respect of you? You, for example, who have +the command of me, are in subjection to other things, and are led about, +like a puppet movable by means of wires not its own. + +"Who then is free? The wise man, who has dominion over himself; whom +neither poverty, nor death, nor chains affright; brave in the checking +of his appetites, and in contemning honors; and, perfect in himself, +polished and round as a globe, so that nothing from without can retard, +in consequence of its smoothness; against whom misfortune ever advances +ineffectually. Can you, out of these, recognize any thing applicable to +yourself? A woman demands five talents of you, plagues you, and after +you are turned out of doors, bedews you with cold water: she calls you +again. Rescue your neck from this vile yoke; come, say, I am free, I am +free. You are not able: for an implacable master oppresses your mind, +and claps the sharp spurs to your jaded appetite, and forces you on +though reluctant. When you, mad one, quite languish at a picture by +Pausias; how are you less to blame than I, when I admire the combats of +Fulvius and Rutuba and Placideianus, with their bended knees, painted in +crayons or charcoal, as if the men were actually engaged, and push and +parry, moving their weapons? Davus is a scoundrel and a loiterer; but +you have the character of an exquisite and expert connoisseur in +antiquities. If I am allured by a smoking pasty, I am a good-for-nothing +fellow: does your great virtue and soul resist delicate entertainments? +Why is a tenderness for my belly too destructive for me? For my back +pays for it. How do you come off with more impunity, since you hanker +after such dainties as can not be had for a little expense? Then those +delicacies, perpetually taken, pall upon the stomach; and your mistaken +feet refuse to support your sickly body. Is that boy guilty, who by +night pawns a stolen scraper for some grapes? Has he nothing servile +about him, who in indulgence to his guts sells his estates? Add to this, +that you yourself can not be an hour by yourself, nor dispose of your +leisure in a right manner; and shun yourself as a fugitive and vagabond, +one while endeavoring with wine, another while with sleep, to cheat +care--in vain: for the gloomy companion presses upon you, and pursues +you in your flight. + +"Where can I get a stone?" "What occasion is there for it?" "Where some +darts?" "The man is either mad, or making verses." "If you do not take +yourself away in an instant, you shall go [and make] a ninth laborer at +my Sabine estate." + + * * * * * + + + +SATIRE VIII. + +_A smart description of a miser ridiculously acting the extravagant._ + + +How did the entertainment of that happy fellow Nasidienus please you? +for yesterday, as I was seeking to make you my guest, you were said to +be drinking there from mid-day. [It pleased me so], that I never was +happier in my life. Say (if it be not troublesome) what food first +calmed your raging appetite. + +In the first place, there was a Lucanian boar, taken when the gentle +south wind blew, as the father of the entertainment affirmed; around it +sharp rapes, lettuces, radishes; such things as provoke a languid +appetite; skirrets, anchovies, dregs of Coan wine. These once removed, +one slave, tucked high with a purple cloth, wiped the maple table, and a +second gathered up whatever lay useless, and whatever could offend the +guests; swarthy Hydaspes advances like an Attic maid with Ceres' sacred +rites, bearing wines of Caecubum; Alcon brings those of Chios, undamaged +by the sea. Here the master [cries], "Maecenas, if Alban or Falernian +wine delight you more than those already brought, we have both." + +Ill-fated riches! But, Fundanius, I am impatient to know, who were +sharers in this feast where you fared so well. + +I was highest, and next me was Viscus Thurinus, and below, if I +remember, was Varius; with Servilius Balatro, Vibidius, whom Maecenas +had brought along with him, unbidden guests. Above [Nasidienus] himself +was Nomentanus, below him Porcius, ridiculous for swallowing whole cakes +at once. Nomentanus [was present] for this purpose, that if any thing +should chance to be unobserved, he might show it with his pointing +finger. For the other company, we, I mean, eat [promiscuously] of fowls, +oysters, fish, which had concealed in them a juice far different from +the known: as presently appeared, when he reached to me the entrails of +a plaice and of a turbot, such as had never been tasted before. After +this he informed me that honey-apples were most ruddy when gathered +under the waning moon. What difference this makes you will hear best +from himself. Then [says] Vibidius to Balatro; "If we do not drink to +his cost, we shall die in his debt;" and he calls for larger tumblers. A +paleness changed the countenance of our host, who fears nothing so much +as hard drinkers: either because they are more freely censorious; or +because heating wines deafen the subtle [judgment of the] palate. +Vibidius and Balatro, all following their example, pour whole casks into +Alliphanians; the guests of the lowest couch did no hurt to the flagons. +A lamprey is brought in, extended in a dish, in the midst of floating +shrimps. Whereupon, "This," says the master, "was caught when pregnant; +which, after having young, would have been less delicate in its flesh." +For these a sauce is mixed up; with oil which the best cellar of +Venafrum pressed, with pickle from the juices of the Iberian fish, with +wine of five years old, but produced on this side the sea, while it is +boiling (after it is boiled, the Chian wine suits it so well, that no +other does better than it) with white pepper, and vinegar which, by +being vitiated, turned sour the Methymnean grape. I first showed the way +to stew in it the green rockets and bitter elecampane: Curtillus, [to +stew in it] the sea-urchins unwashed, as being better than the pickle +which the sea shell-fish yields. + +In the mean time the suspended tapestry made a heavy downfall upon the +dish, bringing along with it more black dust than the north wind ever +raises on the plains of Campania. Having been fearful of something +worse, as soon as we perceive there was no danger, we rise up. Rufus, +hanging his head, began to weep, as if his son had come to an untimely +death: what would have been the end, had not the discreet Nomentanus +thus raised his friend! "Alas! O fortune, what god is more cruel to us +than thou? How dost thou always take pleasure in sporting with human +affairs!" Varius could scarcely smother a laugh with his napkin. +Balatro, sneering at every thing, observed: "This is the condition of +human life, and therefore a suitable glory will never answer your labor. +Must you be rent and tortured with all manner of anxiety, that I may be +entertained sumptuously; lest burned bread, lest ill-seasoned soup +should be set before us; that all your slaves should wait, properly +attired and neat? Add, besides, these accidents; if the hangings should +tumble down, as just now, if the groom slipping with his foot should +break a dish. But adversity is wont to disclose, prosperity to conceal, +the abilities of a host as well as of a general." To this Nasidienus: +"May the gods give you all the blessings, whatever you can pray for, you +are so good a man and so civil a guest;" and calls for his sandals. Then +on every couch you might see divided whispers buzzing in each secret +ear. + +I would not choose to have seen any theatrical entertainments sooner +than these things. But come, recount what you laughed at next. While +Vibidius is inquiring of the slaves, whether the flagon was also broken, +because cups were not brought when he called for them; and while a laugh +is continued on feigned pretences, Balatro seconding it; you Nasidienus, +return with an altered countenance, as if to repair your ill-fortune by +art. Then followed the slaves, bearing on a large charger the several +limbs of a crane besprinkled with much salt, not without flour, and the +liver of a white goose fed with fattening figs, and the wings of hares +torn off, as a much daintier dish than if one eats them with the loins. +Then we saw blackbirds also set before us with scorched breasts, and +ring-doves without the rumps: delicious morsels! did not the master give +us the history of their causes and natures: whom we in revenge fled +from, so as to taste nothing at all; as if Canidia, more venomous than +African serpents, had poisoned them with her breath. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE FIRST BOOK OF THE EPISTLES OF HORACE. + + + +EPISTLE I. + +TO MAECENAS. + +_The poet renounces all verses of a ludicrous turn, and resolves to +apply himself wholly to the study of philosophy, which teaches to bridle +the desires, and to postpone every thing to virtue._ + + +Maecenas, the subject of my earliest song, justly entitled to my latest, +dost thou seek to engage me again in the old lists, having been tried +sufficiently, and now presented with the foils? My age is not the same, +nor is my genius. Veianius, his arms consecrated on a pillar of +Hercules' temple, lives snugly retired in the country, that he may not +from the extremity of the sandy amphitheater so often supplicate the +people's favor. Some one seems frequently to ring in my purified ear: +"Wisely in time dismiss the aged courser, lest, an object of derision, +he miscarry at last, and break his wind." Now therefore I lay aside both +verses, and all other sportive matters; my study and inquiry is after +what is true and fitting, and I am wholly engaged in this: I lay up, and +collect rules which I may be able hereafter to bring into use. And lest +you should perchance ask under what leader, in what house [of +philosophy], I enter myself a pupil: addicted to swear implicitly to the +ipse-dixits of no particular master, wherever the weather drives me, I +am carried a guest. One while I become active, and am plunged in the +waves of state affairs, a maintainer and a rigid partisan of strict +virtue; then again I relapse insensibly into Aristippus' maxims, and +endeavor to adapt circumstances to myself, not myself to circumstances. +As the night seems long to those with whom a mistress has broken her +appointment, and the day slow to those who owe their labor; as the year +moves lazy with minors, whom the harsh guardianship of their mothers +confines; so all that time to me flows tedious and distasteful, which +delays my hope and design of strenuously executing that which is of +equal benefit to the poor and to the rich, which neglected will be of +equal detriment to young and to old. It remains, that I conduct and +comfort myself by these principles; your sight is not so piercing as +that of Lynceus; you will not however therefore despise being anointed, +if you are sore-eyed: nor because you despair of the muscles of the +invincible Glycon, will you be careless of preserving your body from the +knotty gout. There is some point to which we may reach, if we can go no +further. Does your heart burn with avarice, and a wretched desire of +more? Spells there are, and incantations, with which you may mitigate +this pain, and rid yourself of a great part of the distemper. Do you +swell with the love of praise? There are certain purgations which can +restore you, a certain treatise, being perused thrice with purity of +mind. The envious, the choleric, the indolent, the slave to wine, to +women--none is so savage that he can not be tamed, if he will only lend +a patient ear to discipline. + +It is virtue, to fly vice; and the highest wisdom, to have lived free +from folly. You see with what toil of mind and body you avoid those +things which you believe to be the greatest evils, a small fortune and a +shameful repulse. An active merchant, you run to the remotest Indies, +fleeing poverty through sea, through rocks, through flames. And will you +not learn, and hear, and be advised by one who is wiser, that you may no +longer regard those things which you foolishly admire and wish for? What +little champion of the villages and of the streets would scorn being +crowned at the great Olympic games, who had the hopes and happy +opportunity of victory without toil? Silver is less valuable than gold, +gold than virtue. "O citizens, citizens, money is to be sought first; +virtue after riches:" this the highest Janus from the lowest inculcates; +young men and old repeat these maxims, having their bags and +account-books hung on the left arm. You have soul, have breeding, have +eloquence and honor: yet if six or seven thousand sesterces be wanting +to complete your four hundred thousand, you shall be a plebeian. But +boys at play cry, "You shall be king, if you will do right." Let this be +a [man's] brazen wall, to be conscious of no ill, to turn pale with no +guilt. Tell me, pray is the Roscian law best, or the boy's song which +offers the kingdom to them that do right, sung by the manly Curii and +Camilli? Does he advise you best, who says, "Make a fortune; a fortune, +if you can, honestly; if not, a fortune by any means"--that you may view +from a nearer bench the tear-moving poems of Puppius; or he, who still +animates and enables you to stand free and upright, a match for haughty +fortune? + +If now perchance the Roman people should ask me, why I do not enjoy the +same sentiments with them, as [I do the same] porticoes, nor pursue or +fly from whatever they admire or dislike; I will reply, as the cautious +fox once answered the sick lion: "Because the foot-marks all looking +toward you, and none from you, affright me." Thou art a monster with +many heads. For what shall I follow, or whom? One set of men delight to +farm the public revenues: there are some, who would inveigle covetous +widows with sweet-meats and fruits, and insnare old men, whom they would +send [like fish] into their ponds: the fortunes of many grow by +concealed usury. But be it, that different men are engaged in different +employments and pursuits: can the same persons continue an hour together +approving the same things? If the man of wealth has said, "No bay in the +world outshines delightful Baiae," the lake and the sea presently feel +the eagerness of their impetuous master: to whom, if a vicious humor +gives the omen, [he will cry,]--"to-morrow, workmen, ye shall convey +hence your tools to Teanum." Has he in his hall the genial bed? He says +nothing is preferable to, nothing better than a single life. If he has +not, he swears the married only are happy. With what noose can I hold +this Proteus, varying thus his forms? What does the poor man? Laugh [at +him too]: is he not forever changing his garrets, beds, baths, barbers? +He is as much surfeited in a hired boat, as the rich man is, whom his +own galley conveys. + +If I meet you with my hair cut by an uneven barber, you laugh [at me]: +if I chance to have a ragged shirt under a handsome coat, or if my +disproportioned gown fits me ill, you laugh. What [do you do], when my +judgment contradicts itself? it despises what it before desired; seeks +for that which lately it neglected; is all in a ferment, and is +inconsistent in the whole tenor of life; pulls down, builds up, changes +square to round. In this case, you think I am mad in the common way, and +you do not laugh, nor believe that I stand in need of a physician, or +of a guardian assigned by the praetor; though you are the patron of my +affairs, and are disgusted at the ill-pared nail of a friend that +depends upon you, that reveres you. + +In a word, the wise man is inferior to Jupiter alone, is rich, free, +honorable, handsome, lastly, king of kings; above all, he is sound, +unless when phlegm is troublesome. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE II. + +TO LOLLIUS. + +_He prefers Homer to all the philosophers, as a moral writer, and +advises an early cultivation of virtue_. + + +While you, great Lollius, declaim at Rome, I at Praeneste have perused +over again the writer of the Trojan war; who teaches more clearly, and +better than Chrysippus and Crantor, what is honorable, what shameful, +what profitable, what not so. If nothing hinders you, hear why I have +thus concluded. The story is which, on account of Paris's intrigue, +Greece is stated to be wasted in a tedious war with the barbarians, +contains the tumults of foolish princes and people. Antenor gives his +opinion for cutting off the cause of the war. What does Paris? He can +not be brought to comply, [though it be in order] that he may reign +safe, and live happy. Nestor labors to compose the differences between +Achilles and Agamemnon: love inflames one; rage both in common. The +Greeks suffer for what their princes act foolishly. Within the walls of +Ilium, and without, enormities are committed by sedition, treachery, +injustice, and lust, and rage. + +Again, to show what virtue and what wisdom can do, he has propounded +Ulysses an instructive pattern: who, having subdued Troy, wisely got an +insight into the constitutions and customs of many nations; and, while +for himself and his associates he is contriving a return, endured many +hardships on the spacious sea, not to be sunk by all the waves of +adversity. You are well acquainted with the songs of the Sirens, and +Circe's cups: of which, if he had foolishly and greedily drunk along +with his attendants, he had been an ignominious and senseless slave +under the command of a prostitute: he had lived a filthy dog, or a hog +delighting in mire. + +We are a mere number and born to consume the fruits of the earth; like +Penelope's suitors, useless drones; like Alcinous' youth, employed above +measure in pampering their bodies; whose glory was to sleep till +mid-day, and to lull their cares to rest by the sound of the harp. +Robbers rise by night, that they may cut men's throats; and will not you +awake to save yourself? But, if you will not when you are in health, you +will be forced to take exercise when you are in a dropsy; and unless +before day you call for a book with a light, unless you brace your mind +with study and honest employments, you will be kept awake and tormented +with envy or with love. For why do you hasten to remove things that hurt +your eyes, but if any thing gnaws your mind, defer the time of curing it +from year to year? He has half the deed done, who has made a beginning. +Boldly undertake the study of true wisdom: begin it forthwith. He who +postpones the hour of living well, like the hind [in the fable], waits +till [all the water in] the river be run off: whereas it flows, and will +flow, ever rolling on. + +Money is sought, and a wife fruitful in bearing children, and wild +woodlands are reclaimed by the plow. [To what end all this?] He, that +has got a competency, let him wish for no more. Not a house and farm, +nor a heap of brass and gold, can remove fevers from the body of their +sick master, or cares from his mind. The possessor must be well, if he +thinks of enjoying the things which he has accumulated. To him that is a +slave to desire or to fear, house and estate do just as much good as +paintings to a sore-eyed person, fomentations to the gout, music to ears +afflicted with collected matter. Unless the vessel be sweet, whatever +you pour into it turns sour. Despise pleasures, pleasure bought with +pain is hurtful. The covetous man is ever in want; set a certain limit +to your wishes. The envious person wastes at the thriving condition of +another: Sicilian tyrants never invented a greater torment than envy. He +who will not curb his passion, will wish that undone which his grief and +resentment suggested, while he violently plies his revenge with unsated +rancor. Rage is a short madness. Rule your passion, which commands, if +it do not obey; do you restrain it with a bridle, and with fetters. The +groom forms the docile horse, while his neck is yet tender, to go the +way which his rider directs him: the young hound, from the time that he +barked at the deer's skin in the hall, campaigns it in the woods. Now, +while you are young, with an untainted mind Imbibe instruction: now +apply yourself to the best [masters of morality]. A cask will long +preserve the flavor, with which when new it was once impregnated. But if +you lag behind, or vigorously push on before, I neither wait for the +loiterer, nor strive to overtake those that precede me. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE III. + + +TO JULIUS FLORUS. + +_After inquiring about Claudius Tiberius Nero, and some of his friends, +he exhorts Florus to the study of philosophy_. + + +I long to know, Julius Florus, in what regions of the earth Claudius, +the step-son of Augustus, is waging war. Do Thrace and Hebrus, bound +with icy chains, or the narrow sea running between the neighboring +towers, or Asia's fertile plains and hills detain you? What works is the +studious train planning? In this too I am anxious--who takes upon +himself to write the military achievements of Augustus? Who diffuses +into distant ages his deeds in war and peace? What is Titius about, who +shortly will be celebrated by every Roman tongue; who dreaded not to +drink of the Pindaric spring, daring to disdain common waters and open +streams: how does he do? How mindful is he of me? Does he employ himself +to adapt Theban measures to the Latin lyre, under the direction of his +muse? Or does he storm and swell in the pompous style of traffic art? +What is my Celsus doing? He has been advised, and the advice is still +often to be repeated, to acquire stock of his own, and forbear to touch +whatever writings the Palatine Apollo has received: lest, if it chance +that the flock of birds should some time or other come to demand their +feathers, he, like the daw stripped of his stolen colors, be exposed to +ridicule. What do you yourself undertake? What thyme are you busy +hovering about? Your genius is not small, is not uncultivated nor +inelegantly rough. Whether you edge your tongue for [pleading] causes, +or whether you prepare to give counsel in the civil law, or whether you +compose some lovely poem; you will bear off the first prize of the +victorious ivy. If now you could quit the cold fomentations of care; +whithersoever heavenly wisdom would lead you, you would go. Let us, +both small and great, push forward in this work, in this pursuit: if to +our country, if to ourselves we would live dear. + +You must also write me word of this, whether Munatiua is of as much +concern to you as he ought to be? Or whether the ill-patched +reconciliation in vain closes, and is rent asunder again? But, whether +hot blood, or inexperience in things, exasperates you, wild as coursers +with unsubdued neck, in whatever place you live, too worthy to break the +fraternal bond, a devoted heifer is feeding against your return. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE IV. + +TO ALBIUS TIBULLUS. + +_He declares his accomplishments; and, after proposing the thought of +death, converts it into an occasion of pleasantry_. + + +Albius, thou candid critic of my discourses, what shall I say you are +now doing in the country about Pedum? Writing what may excel the works +of Cassius Parmensis; or sauntering silently among the healthful groves, +concerning yourself about every thing worthy a wise and good man? You +were not a body without a mind. The gods have given you a beautiful +form, the gods [have given] you wealth, and the faculty of enjoying it. + +What greater blessing could a nurse solicit for her beloved child, than +that he might be wise, and able to express his sentiments; and that +respect, reputation, health might happen to him in abundance, and decent +living, with a never-failing purse? + +In the midst of hope and care, in the midst of fears and disquietudes, +think every day that shines upon you is the last. [Thus] the hour, which +shall not be expected, will come upon you an agreeable addition. + +When you have a mind to laugh, you shall see me fat and sleek with good +keeping, a hog of Epicurus' herd. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE V. + +TO TORQUATUS. + +_He invites him to a frugal entertainment, but a cleanly and cheerful +one_. + + +If you can repose yourself as my guest upon Archias' couches, and are +not afraid to make a whole meal on all sorts of herbs from a moderate +dish; I will expect you, Torquatus, at my house about sun set. You shall +drink wine poured into the vessel in the second consulship of Taurus, +produced between the fenny Minturnae and Petrinum of Sinuessa. If you +have any thing better, send for it; or bring your commands. Bright +shines my hearth, and my furniture is clean for you already. Dismiss +airy hopes, and contests about riches, and Moschus' cause. To-morrow, a +festal day on account of Caesar's birth, admits of indulgence and +repose. We shall have free liberty to prolong the summer evening with +friendly conversation. To what purpose have I fortune, if I may not use +it? He that is sparing out of regard to his heir, and too niggardly, is +next neighbor to a madman. I will begin to drink and scatter flowers, +and I will endure even to be accounted foolish. What does not wine +freely drunken enterprise? It discloses secrets; commands our hopes to +be ratified; pushes the dastard on to the fight; removes the pressure +from troubled minds; teaches the arts. Whom have not plentiful cups made +eloquent? Whom have they not [made] free and easy under pinching +poverty? + +I, who am both the proper person and not unwilling, am charged to take +care of these matters; that no dirty covering on the couch, no foul +napkin contract your nose into wrinkles; and that the cup and the dish +may show you to yourself; that there be no one to carry abroad what is +said among faithful friends; that equals may meet and be joined with +equals I will add to you Butra, and Septicius, and Sabinus, unless a +better entertainment and a mistress more agreeable detain him. There is +room also for many introductions: but goaty ramminess is offensive in +over-crowded companies. + +Do you write word, what number you would be; and setting aside business, +through the back-door give the slip to your client who keeps guard in +your court. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE VI. + +TO NUMICIUS. + +_That a wise man is in love with nothing but virtue_. + + +To admire nothing is almost the one and only thing, Numicius, which can +make and keep a man happy. There are who view this sun, and the stars, +and the seasons retiring at certain periods, untainted with any fear. +What do you think of the gifts of the earth? What of the sea, that +enriches the remote Arabians and Indians? What of scenical shows, the +applause and favors of the kind Roman? In what manner do you think they +are to be looked upon, with what apprehensions and countenance? He that +dreads the reverse of these, admires them almost in the same way as he +that desires them; fear alike disturbs both ways: an unforeseen turn of +things equally terrifies each of them: let a man rejoice or grieve, +desire or fear; what matters it--if, whatever he perceives better or +worse than his expectations, with downcast look he be stupefied in mind +and body? Let the wise man bear the name of fool, the just of unjust; if +he pursue virtue itself beyond proper bounds. + +Go now, look with transport upon silver, and antique marble, and brazen +statues, and the arts: admire gems, and Tyrian dyes: rejoice, that a +thousand eyes are fixed upon you while you speak: industrious repair +early to the forum, late to your house, that Mutus may not reap more +grain [than you] from his lands gained in dowry, and (unbecoming, since +he sprung from meaner parents) that he may not be an object of +admiration to you rather than you to him. Whatever is in the earth, time +will bring forth into open day light; will bury and hide things, that +now shine brightest. When Agrippa's portico, and the Appian way, shall +have beheld you well known; still it remains for you to go where Numa +and Ancus are arrived. If your side or your reins are afflicted with an +acute disease, seek a remedy from the disease. Would you live happily? +Who would not? If virtue alone can confer this, discarding pleasures, +strenuously pursue it. Do you think virtue mere words, as a grove is +trees? Be it your care that no other enter the port before you; that you +lose not your traffic with Cibyra, with Bithynia. Let the round sum of a +thousand talents be completed; as many more; further, let a third +thousand succeed, and the part which may square the heap. For why, +sovereign money gives a wife with a [large] portion, and credit, and +friends, and family, and beauty; and [the goddesses], Persuasion and +Venus, graced the well-moneyed man. The king of the Cappadocians, rich +in slaves, is in want of coin; be not you like him. Lucullus, as they +say, being asked if he could lend a hundred cloaks for the stage, "How +can I so many?" said he: "yet I will see, and send as many as I have;" a +little after he writes that he had five thousand cloaks in his house; +they might take part of them, or all. It is a scanty house, where there +are not many things superfluous, and which escape the owner's notice, +and are the gain of pilfering slaves. If then wealth alone can make and +keep a man happy, be first in beginning this work, be last in leaving it +off. If appearances and popularity make a man fortunate, let as purchase +a slave to dictate [to us] the names [of the citizens], to jog us on the +left-side, and to make us stretch our hand over obstacles: "This man has +much interest in the Fabian, that in the Veline tribe; this will give +the fasces to any one, and, indefatigably active, snatch the curule +ivory from whom he pleases; add [the names of] father, brother: +according as the age of each is, so courteously adopt him. If he who +feasts well, lives well; it is day, let us go whither our appetite leads +us: let us fish, let us hunt, as did some time Gargilius: who ordered +his toils, hunting-spears, slaves, early in the morning to pass through +the crowded forum and the people: that one mule among many, in the sight +of the people, might return loaded with a boar purchased with money. Let +us bathe with an indigested and full-swollen stomach, forgetting what is +becoming, what not; deserving to be enrolled among the citizens of +Caere; like the depraved crew of Ulysses of Ithaca, to whom forbidden +pleasure was dearer than their country. If, as Mimnermus thinks, nothing +is pleasant without love and mirth, live in love and mirth. + +Live: be happy. If you know of any thing preferable to these maxims, +candidly communicate it: if not, with me make use of these. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE VII. + +TO MAECENAS. + +_He apologizes to Maecenas for his long absence from Rome; and +acknowledges his favors to him in such a manner as to declare liberty +preferable to all other blessings_. + + +Having promised you that I would be in the country but five days, false +to my word, I am absent the whole of August. But, if you would have me +live sound and in perfect health, the indulgence which you grant me, +Maecenas, when I am ill, you will grant me [also] when I am afraid of +being ill: while [the time of] the first figs, and the [autumnal] heat +graces the undertaker with his black attendants; while every father and +mother turn pale with fear for their children; and while over-acted +diligence, and attendance at the forum, bring on fevers and unseal +wills. But, if the winter shall scatter snow upon the Alban fields, your +poet will go down to the seaside, and be careful of himself, and read +bundled up; you, dear friend, he will revisit with the zephyrs, if you +will give him leave, and with the first swallow. + +You have made me rich, not in the manner in which the Calabrian host +bids [his guest] eat of his pears. "Eat, pray, sir." "I have had +enough." "But take away with you what quantity you will." "You are very +kind." "You will carry them no disagreeable presents to your little +children." "I am as much obliged by your offer, as if I were sent away +loaded." "As you please: you leave them to be devoured to-day by the +hogs." The prodigal and fool gives away what he despises and hates; the +reaping of favors like these has produced, and ever will produce, +ungrateful men. A good and wise man professes himself ready to do +kindness to the deserving; and yet is not ignorant, how true coins +differ from lupines. I will also show myself deserving of the honor of +being grateful. But if you would not have me depart any whither, you +must restore my vigorous constitution, the black locks [that grew] on my +narrow forehead: you must restore to me the power of talking pleasantly: +you must restore to me the art of laughing with becoming ease, and +whining over my liquor at the jilting of the wanton Cynara. + +A thin field-mouse had by chance crept through a narrow cranny into a +chest of grain; and, having feasted itself, in vain attempted to come +out again, with its body now stuffed full. To which a weasel at a +distance cries, "If you would escape thence, repair lean to the narrow +hole which you entered lean." If I be addressed with this similitude, I +resign all; neither do I, sated with delicacies, cry up the calm repose +of the vulgar, nor would I change my liberty and ease for the riches of +the Arabians. You have often commended me for being modest; when present +you heard [from me the appellations of] king and father, nor am I a word +more sparing in your absence. Try whether I can cheerfully restore what +you have given me. Not amiss [answered] Telemachus, son of the patient +Ulysses: "The country of Ithaca is not proper for horses, as being +neither extended into champaign fields, nor abounding with much grass: +Atrides, I will leave behind me your gifts, [which are] more proper for +yourself." Small things best suit the small. No longer does imperial +Rome please me, but unfrequented Tibur, and unwarlike Tarentum. + +Philip, active and strong, and famed for pleading causes, while +returning from his employment about the eighth hour, and now of a great +age, complaining that the Carinae were too far distant from the forum; +spied, as they say, a person clean shaven in a barber's empty shed, +composedly paring his own nails with a knife. "Demetrius," [says he,] +(this slave dexterously received his master's orders,) "go inquire, and +bring me word from what house, who he is, of what fortune, who is his +father, or who is his patron." He goes, returns, and relates, that "he +is by name, Vulteius Maena, an auctioneer, of small fortune, of a +character perfectly unexceptionable, that he could upon occasion ply +busily, and take his ease, and get, and spend; delighting in humble +companions and a settled dwelling, and (after business ended) in the +shows, and the Campus Martius." + +"I would inquire of him himself all this, which you report; bid him come +to sup with me." Maena can not believe it; he wonders silently within +himself. Why many words? He answers, "It is kind." "Can he deny me?" +"The rascal denies, and disregards or dreads you." In the morning Philip +comes unawares upon Vulteius, as he is selling brokery-goods to the +tunic'd populace, and salutes him first. He pleads to Philip his +employment, and the confinement of his business, in excuse for not +having waited upon him in the morning; and afterward, for not seeing him +first. "Expect that I will excuse you on this condition, that you sup +with me to-day." "As you please." "Then you will come after the ninth +hour: now go: strenuously increase your stock." When they were come to +supper, having discoursed of things of a public and private nature, at +length he is dismissed to go to sleep. When he had often been seen, to +repair like a fish to the concealed hook, in the morning a client, and +now as a constant guest; he is desired to accompany [Philip] to his +country-seat near the city, at the proclaiming of the Latin festivals. +Mounted on horseback, he ceases not to cry up the Sabine fields and air. +Philip sees it, and smiles: and, while he is seeking amusement and +diversion for himself out of every thing, while he makes him a present +of seven thousand sesterces, and promises to lend him seven thousand +more: he persuades him to purchase a farm: he purchases one. That I may +not detain you with a long story beyond what is necessary, from a smart +cit he becomes a downright rustic, and prates of nothing but furrows and +vineyards; prepares his elms; is ready to die with eager diligence, and +grows old through a passionate desire of possessing. But when his sheep +were lost by theft, his goats by distemper, his harvest deceived his +hopes, his ox was killed with plowing; fretted with these losses, at +midnight he snatches his nag, and in a passion makes his way to Philip's +house. Whom as soon as Philip beheld, rough and unshaven, "Vulteius," +said he, "you seem to me to be too laborious and earnest." "In truth, +patron," replied he, "you would call me a wretch, if you would apply to +me my true name. I beseech and conjure you then, by your genius and your +right hand and your household gods, restore me to my former life." As +soon as a man perceives, how much the things he has discarded excel +those which he pursues, let him return in time, and resume those which +he relinquished. + +It is a truth, that every one ought to measure himself by his own proper +foot and standard. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE VIII. + +TO CELSUS ALBINOVANUS. + +_That he was neither well in body, nor in mind; that Celtics should bear +his prosperity with moderation_. + + +My muse at my request, give joy and wish success to Celsus Albinovanus, +the attendant and the secretary of Nero. If he shall inquire, what I am +doing, say that I, though promising many and fine things, yet live +neither well [according to the rules of strict philosophy], nor +agreeably; not because the hail has crushed my vines, and the heat has +nipped my olives; nor because my herds are distempered in distant +pastures; but because, less sound in my mind than in my whole body, I +will hear nothing, learn nothing which may relieve me, diseased as I am; +that I am displeased with my faithful physicians, am angry with my +friends for being industrious to rouse me from a fatal lethargy; that I +pursue things which have done me hurt, avoid things which I am persuaded +would be of service, inconstant as the wind, at Rome am in love with +Tibur, at Tibur with Rome. After this, inquire how he does; how he +manages his business and himself; how he pleases the young prince and +his attendants. If he shall say, well; first congratulate him, then +remember to whisper this admonition in his ears: As you, Celsus, bear +your fortunes, so will we bear you. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE IX. + +TO CLAUDIUS TIBERIUS NERO. + +_He recommends Septimius to him_. + + +Of all the men in the world Septimius surely, O Claudius, knows how much +regard you have for me. For when he requests, and by his entreaties in a +manner compels me, to undertake to recommend and introduce him to you, +as one worthy of the confidence and the household of Nero, who is wont +to choose deserving objects, thinking I discharge the office of an +intimate friend; he sees and knows better than myself what I can do. I +said a great deal, indeed, in order that I might come off excused: but I +was afraid, lest I should be suspected to pretend my interest was less +than it is, to be a dissembler of my own power, and ready to serve +myself alone. So, avoiding the reproach of a greater fault, I have put +in for the prize of town-bred confidence. If then you approve of modesty +being superseded at the pressing entreaties of a friend, enrol this +person among your retinue, and believe him to be brave and good. + + + +EPISTLE X. + +TO ARISTIUS FUSCUS. + +_He praises a country before a city life, as more agreeable to nature, +and more friendly to liberty_. + + +We, who love the country, salute Fuscus that loves the town; in this +point alone [being] much unlike, but in other things almost twins, of +brotherly sentiments: whatever one denies the other too [denies]; we +assent together: like old and constant doves, you keep the nest; I +praise the rivulets, the rocks overgrown with moss, and the groves of +the delightful country. Do you ask why? I live and reign, as soon as I +have quitted those things which you extol to the skies with joyful +applause. And, like a priest's, fugitive slave I reject luscious wafers, +I desire plain bread, which is more agreeable now than honied cakes. + +If we must live suitably to nature, and a plot of ground is to be first +sought to raise a house upon, do you know any place preferable to the +blissful country? Is there any spot where the winters are more +temperate? where a more agreeable breeze moderates the rage of the +Dog-star, and the season of the Lion, when once that furious sign has +received the scorching sun? Is there a place where envious care less +disturbs our slumbers? Is the grass inferior in smell or beauty to the +Libyan pebbles? Is the water, which strives to burst the lead in the +streets, purer than that which trembles in murmurs down its sloping +channel? Why, trees are nursed along the variegated columns [of the +city]; and that house is commended, which has a prospect of distant +fields. You may drive out nature with a fork, yet still she will return, +and, insensibly victorious, will break through [men's] improper +disgusts. + +Not he who is unable to compare the fleeces that drink up the dye of +Aquinum with the Sidonian purple, will receive a more certain damage +and nearer to his marrow, than he who shall not be able to distinguish +false from true. He who has been overjoyed by prosperity, will be +shocked by a change of circumstances. If you admire any thing [greatly], +you will be unwilling to resign it. Avoid great things; under a mean +roof one may outstrip kings, and the favorites of kings, in one's life. + +The stag, superior in fight, drove the horse from the common pasture, +till the latter, worsted in the long contest, implored the aid of man +and received the bridle; but after he had parted an exulting conqueror +from his enemy, he could not shake the rider from his back, nor the bit +from his mouth. So he who, afraid of poverty, forfeits his liberty, more +valuable than mines, avaricious wretch, shall carry a master, and shall +eternally be a slave, for not knowing how to use a little. When a man's +condition does not suit him, it will be as a shoe at any time; which, if +too big for his foot, will throw him down; if too little, will pinch +him. [If you are] cheerful under your lot, Aristius, you will live +wisely; nor shall you let me go uncorrected, if I appear to scrape +together more than enough and not have done. Accumulated money is the +master or slave of each owner, and ought rather to follow than to lead +the twisted rope. + +These I dictated to thee behind the moldering temple of Vacuna; in all +other things happy, except that thou wast not with me. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XI. + +TO BULLATIUS. + +_Endeavoring to recall him back to Rome from Asia, whither he had +retreated through his weariness of the civil wars, he advises him to +ease the disquietude of his mind not by the length of his journey, but +by forming his mind into a right disposition_. + + +What, Bullatius, do you think of Chios, and of celebrated Lesbos? What +of neat Samos? What of Sardis, the royal residence of Croesus? What of +Smyrna, and Colophon? Are they greater or less than their fame? Are they +all contemptible in comparison of the Campus Martius and the river +Tiber? Does one of Attalus' cities enter into your wish? Or do you +admire Lebedus, through a surfeit of the sea and of traveling? You know +what Lebedus is; it is a more unfrequented town than Gabii and Fidenae; +yet there would I be willing to live; and, forgetful of my friends and +forgotten by them, view from land Neptune raging at a distance. But +neither he who comes to Rome from Capua, bespattered with rain and mire, +would wish to live in an inn; nor does he, who has contracted a cold, +cry up stoves and bagnios as completely furnishing a happy life: nor, if +the violent south wind has tossed you in the deep, will you therefore +sell your ship on the other side of the Aegean Sea. On a man sound in +mind Rhodes and beautiful Mitylene have such an effect, as a thick cloak +at the summer solstice, thin drawers in snowy weather, [bathing in] the +Tiber in winter, a fire in the month of August. While it is permitted, +and fortune preserves a benign aspect, let absent Samos, and Chios, and +Rhodes, be commended by you here at Rome. Whatever prosperous; hour +Providence bestows upon you, receive it with a thankful hand: and defer +not [the enjoyment of] the comforts of life, till a year be at an end; +that in whatever place you are, you may say you have lived with +satisfaction. For if reason and discretion, not a place that commands a +prospect of the wide-extended sea, remove our cares; they change their +climate, not their disposition, who run beyond the sea: a busy idleness +harrasses us: by ships and by chariots we seek to live happily. What you +seek is here [at home], is at Ulubrae, if a just temper of mind is not +wanting to you. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XII. + +TO ICCIUS. + +_Leader the appearance of praising the man's parsimony, he archly +ridicules it; introduces Grosphus to him, and concludes with a few +articles of news concerning the Roman affairs_. + + +O Iccius, if you rightly enjoy the Sicilian products, which you collect +for Agrippa, it is not possible that greater affluence can be given you +by Jove. Away with complaints! for that man is by no means poor, who has +the use or everything, he wants. If it is well with your belly, your +back, and your feet, regal wealth can add nothing greater. If perchance +abstemious amid profusion you live upon salad and shell-fish, you will +continue to live in such a manner, even if presently fortune shall flow +upon you in a river of gold; either because money can not change the +natural disposition, or because it is your opinion that all things are +inferior to virtue alone. Can we wonder that cattle feed upon the +meadows and corn-fields of Democritus, while his active soul is abroad +[traveling] without his body? When you, amid such great impurity and +infection of profit, have no taste for any thing trivial, but still mind +[only] sublime things: what causes restrain the sea, what rules the +year, whether the stars spontaneously or by direction wander about and +are erratic, what throws obscurity on the moon, and what brings out her +orb, what is the intention and power of the jarring harmony of things, +whether Empedocles or the clever Stertinius be in the wrong. + +However, whether you murder fishes, or onions and garlic, receive +Pompeius Grosphus; and, if he asks any favor, grant it him frankly: +Grosphus will desire nothing but what is right and just. The proceeds of +friendship are cheap, when good men want any thing. + +But that you may not be ignorant in what situation the Roman affairs +are; the Cantabrians have fallen by the valor of Agrippa, the Armenians +by that of Claudius Nero: Phraates has, suppliant on his knees, admitted +the laws and power of Caesar. Golden plenty has poured out the fruits of +Italy from a full horn. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XIII. + +TO VINNIUS ASINA. + +_Horace cautions him to present his poems to Augustus at a proper +opportunity, and with due decorum_. + + +As on your setting out I frequently and fully gave you instructions, +Vinnius, that you would present these volumes to Augustus sealed up if +he shall be in health, if in spirits, finally, if he shall ask for them: +do not offend out of zeal to me, and industriously bring an odium upon +my books [by being] an agent of violent officiousness. If haply the +heavy load of my paper should gall you, cast it from you, rather than +throw down your pack in a rough manner where you are directed to carry +it, and turn your paternal name of Asina into a jest, and make yourself +a common story. Make use of your vigor over the hills, the rivers, and +the fens. As soon as you have achieved your enterprise, and arrived +there, you must keep your burden in this position; lest you happen to +carry my bundle of books under your arm, as a clown does a lamb, or as +drunken Pyrrhia [in the play does] the balls of pilfered wool, or as a +tribe-guest his slippers with his fuddling-cap. You must not tell +publicly, how you sweated with carrying those verses, which may detain +the eyes and ears of Caesar. Solicited with much entreaty, do your best. +Finally, get you gone, farewell: take care you do not stumble, and break +my orders. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XIV. + +TO HIS STEWARD. + +_He upbraids his levity for contemning a country life, which had been +his choice, and being eager to return to Rome_. + + +Steward of my woodlands and little farm that restores me to myself, +which you despise, [though formerly] inhabited by five families, and +wont to send five good senators to Varia: let us try, whether I with +more fortitude pluck the thorns out of my mind, or you out of my ground: +and whether Horace or his estate be in a better condition. + +Though my affection and solicitude for Lamia, mourning for his brother, +lamenting inconsolably for his brother's loss, detain me; nevertheless +my heart and soul carry me thither and long to break through those +barriers that obstruct my way. I pronounce him the happy man who dwells +in the country, you him [who lives] in the city. He to whom his +neighbor's lot is agreeable, must of consequence dislike his own. Each +of us is a fool for unjustly blaming the innocent place. The mind is in +fault, which never escapes from itself. When you were a drudge at every +one's beck, you tacitly prayed for the country: and now, [being +appointed] my steward, you wish for the city, the shows, and the baths. +You know I am consistent with myself, and loth to go, whenever +disagreeable business drags me to Rome. We are not admirers of the same +things: henoe you and I disagree. For what you reckon desert and +inhospitable wilds, he who is of my way of thinking calls delightful +places; and dislikes what you esteem pleasant. The bagnio, I perceive, +and the greasy tavern raise your inclination for the city: and this, +because my little spot will sooner yield frankincense and pepper than +grapes; nor is there a tavern near, which can supply you with wine; nor +a minstrel harlot, to whose thrumming you may dance, cumbersome to the +ground: and yet you exercise with plowshares the fallows that have been +a long while untouched, you take due care of the ox when unyoked, and +give him his fill with leaves stripped [from the boughs]. The sluice +gives an additional trouble to an idle fellow, which, if a shower fall, +must be taught by many a mound to spare the sunny meadow. + +Come now, attend to what hinders our agreeing. [Me,] whom fine garments +and dressed locks adorned, whom you know to have pleased venal Cynara +without a present, whom [you have seen] quaff flowing Falernian from +noon--a short supper [now] delights, and a nap upon the green turf by +the stream side; nor is it a shame to have been gay, but not to break +off that gayety. There there is no one who reduces my possessions with +envious eye, nor poisons them with obscure malice and biting slander; +the neighbors smile at me removing clods and stones. You had rather be +munching your daily allowance with the slaves in town; you earnestly +pray to be of the number of these: [while my] cunning foot-boy envies +you the use of the firing, the flocks and the garden. The lazy ox wishes +for the horse's trappings: the horse wishes to go to plow. But I shall +be of opinion, that each of them ought contentedly to exercise that art +which he understands. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XV. + +TO C. NEUMONIUS VALA. + +_Preparing to go to the baths either at Velia or Salernum, he inquires +after the healthfulness and agreeableness of the places_. + + +It is your part, Vala, to write to me (and mine to give credit to your +information) what sort of a winter is it at Velia, what the air at +Salernum, what kind of inhabitants the country consists of, and how the +road is (for Antonius Musa [pronounces] Baiae to be of no service to me; +yet makes me obnoxious to the place, when I am bathed in cold water +even in the midst of the frost [by his prescription]. In truth the +village murmers at their myrtle-groves being deserted and the sulphurous +waters, said to expel lingering disorders from the nerves, despised; +envying those invalids, who have the courage to expose their head and +breast to the Clusian springs, and retire to Gabii and [such] cold +countries. My course must be altered, and my horse driven beyond his +accustomed stages. Whither are you going? will the angry rider say, +pulling in the left-hand rein, I am not bound for Cumae or Baiae:--but +the horse's ear is in the bit.) [You must inform me likewise] which of +the two people is supported by the greatest abundance of corn; whether +they drink rainwater collected [in reservoirs], or from perennial wells +of never-failing water (for as to the wine of that part I give myself no +trouble; at my country-seat I can dispense and bear with any thing: but +when I have arrived at a sea-port, I insist upon that which is generous +and mellow, such as may drive away my cares, such as may flow into my +veins and animal spirits with a rich supply of hope, such as may supply +me with words, such as may make me appear young to my Lucanian +mistress). Which tract of land produces most hares, which boars: which +seas harbor the most fishes and sea-urchins, that I may be able to +return home thence in good case, and like a Phaeacian. + +When Maenius, having bravely made away with his paternal and maternal +estates, began to be accounted a merry fellow--a vagabond droll, who had +no certain place of living; who, when dinnerless, could not distinguish +a fellow-citizen from an enemy; unmerciful in forging any scandal +against any person; the pest, and hurricane, and gulf of the market; +whatever he could get, he gave to his greedy gut. This fellow, when he +had extorted little or nothing from the favorers of his iniquity, or +those that dreaded it, would eat up whole dishes of coarse tripe and +lamb's entrails; as much as would have sufficed three bears; then truly, +[like] reformer Bestius, would he say, that the bellies of extravagant +fellows ought to be branded with a red-hot iron. The same man [however], +when he had reduced to smoke and ashes whatever more considerable booty +he had gotten; 'Faith, said he, I do not wonder if some persons eat up +their estates; since nothing is better than a fat thrush, nothing finer +than a lage sow's paunch. In fact, I am just such another myself; for, +when matters are a little deficient, I commend, the snug and homely +fare, of sufficient resolution amid mean provisions; but, if any thing +be offered better and more delicate, I, the same individual, cry out, +that ye are wise and alone live well, whose wealth and estate are +conspicuous from the elegance of your villas. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XVI. + +TO QUINCTIUS. + +_He describes to Quinctius the form, situation, and advantages of his +country house: then declares that probity consists in the consciousness +of good works; liberty, in probity_. + + +Ask me not, my best Quinctius, whether my farm maintains its master with +corn-fields, or enriches him with olives, or with fruits, or meadow +land, or the elm tree clothed with vines: the shape and situation of my +ground shall be described to you at large. + +There is a continued range of mountains, except where they are separated +by a shadowy vale; but in such a manner, that the approaching sun views +it on the right side, and departing in his flying car warms the left. +You would commend its temperature. What? If my [very] briers produce in +abundance the ruddy cornels and damsens? If my oak and holm tree +accommodate my cattle with plenty of acorns, and their master with a +copious shade? You would say that Tarentum, brought nearer [to Rome], +shone in its verdant beauty. A fountain too, deserving to give name to a +river, insomuch that Hebrus does not surround Thrace more cool or more +limpid, flows salubrious to the infirm head, salubrious to the bowels. +These sweet, yea now (if you will credit me) these delightful retreats +preserve me to you in a state of health [even] in the September season. + +You live well, if you take care to support the character which you bear. +Long ago, all Rome has proclaimed you happy: but I am apprehensive, lest +you should give more credit concerning yourself to any one than +yourself; and lest you should imagine a man happy, who differs from the +wise and good; or, because the people pronounce you sound and perfectly +well, lest you dissemble the lurking fever at meal-times, until a +trembling seize your greased hands. The false modesty of fools conceals +ulcers [rather than have them cured]. If any one should mention battles +which you had fought by land and sea, and in such expressions as these +should soothe your listening ears: "May Jupiter, who consults the safety +both of you and of the city, keep it in doubt, whether the people be +more solicitous for your welfare, or you for the people's;" you might +perceive these encomiums to belong [only] to Augustus when you suffer +yourself to be termed a philosopher, and one of a refined life; say, +pr'ythee, would you answer [to these appellations] in your own name? To +be sure--I like to be called a wise and good man, as well as you. He who +gave this character to-day, if he will, can take it away to-morrow: as +the same people, if they have conferred the consulship on an unworthy +person, may take it away from him: "Resign; it is ours," they cry: I do +resign it accordingly, and chagrined withdraw. Thus if they should call +me rogue, deny me to be temperate, assert that I had strangled my own +father with a halter; shall I be stung, and change color at these false +reproaches? Whom does false honor delight, or lying calumny terrify, +except the vicious and sickly-minded? Who then is a good man? He who +observes the decrees of the senate, the laws and rules of justice; by +whose arbitration many and important disputes are decided; by whose +surety private property, and by whose testimony causes are safe. Yet +[perhaps] his own family and all the neighborhood observe this man, +specious in a fair outside, [to be] polluted within. If a slave should +say to me, "I have not committed a robbery, nor run away:" "You have +your reward; you are not galled with the lash," I reply. "I have not +killed any man:" "You shall not [therefore] feed the carrion crows on +the cross." I am a good man, and thrifty: your Sabine friend denies, and +contradicts the fact. For the wary wolf dreads the pitfall, and the hawk +the suspected snares, and the kite the concealed hook. The good, [on the +contrary,] hate to sin from the love of virtue; you will commit no crime +merely for the fear of punishment. Let there be a prospect of escaping, +you will confound sacred and profane things together. For, when from a +thousand bushels of beans you filch one, the loss in that case to me is +less, but not your villainy. The honest man, whom every forum and every +court of justice looks upon with reverence, whenever he makes an +atonement to the gods with a wine or an ox; after he has pronounced in a +clear distinguishable voice, "O father Janus, O Apollo;" moves his lips +as one afraid of being heard; "O fair Laverna put it in my power to +deceive; grant me the appearance of a just and upright man: throw a +cloud of night over my frauds." I do not see how a covetous man can be +better, how more free than a slave, when he stoops down for the sake of +a penny, stuck in the road [for sport]. For he who will be covetous, +will also be anxious: but he that lives in a state of anxiety, will +never in my estimation be free. He who is always in a hurry, and +immersed in the study of augmenting his fortune, has lost the arms, and +deserted the post of virtue. Do not kill your captive, if you can sell +him: he will serve you advantageously: let him, being inured to +drudgery, feed [your cattle], and plow; let him go to sea, and winter in +the midst of the waves; let him be of use to the market, and import corn +and provisions. A good and wise man will have courage to say, "Pentheus, +king of Thebes, what indignities will you compel me to suffer and +endure. 'I will take away your goods:' my cattle, I suppose, my land, my +movables and money: you may take them. 'I will confine you with +handcuffs and fetters under a merciless jailer.' The deity himself will +discharge me, whenever I please." In my opinion, this is his meaning; I +will die. Death is the ultimate boundary of human matters. + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XVII. + +TO SCAEVA. + +_That a life of business is preferable to a private and inactive one; +the friendship of great men is a laudable acquisition, yet their favors +are ever to be solicited with modesty and caution_. + + +Though, Scaeva, you have sufficient prudence of your own, and well know +how to demean yourself toward your superiors; [yet] hear what are the +sentiments of your old crony, who himself still requires teaching, just +as if a blind man should undertake to show the way: however see, if even +I can advance any thing, which you may think worth your while to adopt +as your own. + +If pleasant rest, and sleep till seven o'clock, delight you; if dust and +the rumbling of wheels, if the tavern offend you, I shall order you off +for Ferentinum. For joys are not the property of the rich alone: nor +has he lived ill, who at his birth and at his death has passed +unnoticed. If you are disposed to be of service to your friends, and to +treat yourself with somewhat more indulgence, you, being poor, must pay +your respects to the great. Aristippus, if he could dine to his +satisfaction on herbs, would never frequent [the tables] of the great. +If he who blames me, [replies Aristippus,] knew how to live with the +great, he would scorn his vegetables. Tell me, which maxim and conduct +of the two you approve; or, since you are my junior, hear the reason why +Aristippus' opinion is preferable; for thus, as they report, he baffled +the snarling cynic: "I play the buffoon for my own advantage, you [to +please] the populace. This [conduct of mine] is better and far more +honorable; that a horse may carry and a great man feed me, pay court to +the great: you beg for refuse, an inferior to the [poor] giver; though +you pretend you are in want of nothing." As for Aristippus, every +complexion of life, every station and circumstance sat gracefully upon +him, aspiring in general to greater things, yet equal to the present: on +the other hand, I shall be much surprised, if a contrary way of life +should become [this cynic], whom obstinacy clothes with a double rag. +The one will not wait for his purple robe; but dressed in any thing, +will go through the most frequented places, and without awkwardness +support either character: the other will shun the cloak wrought at +Miletus with greater aversion than [the bite of] dog or viper; he will +die with cold, unless you restore him his ragged garment; restore it, +and let him live like a fool as he is. To perform exploits, and show the +citizens their foes in chains, reaches the throne of Jupiter, and aims +at celestial honors. To have been acceptable to the great, is not the +last of praises. It is not every man's lot to gain Corinth. He +[prudently] sat still who was afraid lest he should not succeed: be it +so; what then? Was it not bravely done by him, who carried his point? +Either here therefore, or nowhere, is what we are investigating. The one +dreads the burden, as too much for a pusillanimous soul and a weak +constitution; the other under takes, and carries it through. Either +virtue is an empty name, or the man who makes the experiment deservedly +claims the honor and the reward. + +Those who mention nothing of their poverty before their lord, will gain +more than the importunate. There is a great difference between modestly +accepting, or seizing by violence But this was the principle and source +of every thing [which I alleged]. He who says, "My sister is without a +portion, my mother poor, and my estate neither salable nor sufficient +for my support," cries out [in effect], "Give me a morsel of bread:" +another whines, "And let the platter be carved out for me with half a +share of the bounty." But if the crow could have fed in silence, he +would have had better fare, and much less of quarreling and of envy. + +A companion taken [by his lord] to Brundusium, or the pleasant +Surrentum, who complains of the ruggedness of the roads and the bitter +cold and rains, or laments that his chest is broken open and his +provisions stolen; resembles the well-known tricks of a harlot, weeping +frequently for her necklace, frequently for a garter forcibly taken from +her; so that at length no credit is given to her real griefs and losses. +Nor does he, who has been once ridiculed in the streets, care to lift up +a vagrant with a [pretended] broken leg; though abundant tears should +flow from him; though, swearing by holy Osiris, he says, "Believe me, I +do not impose upon you; O cruel, take up the lame." "Seek out for a +stranger," cries the hoarse neighborhood. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XVIII. + +TO LOLLIUS. + +_He treats at large upon the cultivation of the favor of great men; and +concludes with a few words concerning the acquirement of peace of mind_. + + +If I rightly know your temper, most ingenuous Lollius, you will beware +of imitating a flatterer, while you profess yourself a friend. As a +matron is unlike and of a different aspect from a strumpet, so will a +true friend differ from the toad-eater. There is an opposite vice to +this, rather the greater [of the two]; a clownish, inelegant, and +disagreeable bluntness, which would recommend itself by an unshaven face +and black teeth; while it desires to be termed pure freedom and true +sincerity. Virtue is the medium of the two vices; and equally remote +from either. The one is over-prone to complaisance, and a jester of the +lowest, couch, he so reverences the rich man's nod, so repeats his +speeches, and catches up his falling words; that you would take him for +a school-boy saying his lesson to a rigid master, or a player acting an +underpart; another often wrangles about a goat's hair, and armed engages +for any trifle: "That I, truly, should not have the first credit; and +that I should not boldly speak aloud, what is my real sentiment--[upon +such terms], another life would be of no value." But what is the subject +of this controversy? Why, whether [the gladiator] Castor or Dolichos be +the cleverer fellow; whether the Minucian, or the Appian, be the better +road to Brundusium. + +Him whom pernicious lust, whom quick-dispatching dice strips, whom +vanity dresses out and perfumes beyond his abilities, whom insatiable +hunger and thirst after money, Whom a shame and aversion to poverty +possess, his rich friend (though furnished with a half-score more vices) +hates and abhors; or if he does not hate, governs him; and, like a pious +mother, would have him more wise and virtuous than himself; and says +what is nearly true: "My riches (think not to emulate me) admit of +extravagance; your income is but small: a scanty gown becomes a prudent +dependant: cease to vie with me." Whomsoever Eutrapelus had a mind to +punish, he presented with costly garments. For now [said he] happy in +his fine clothes, he will assume new schemes and hopes; he will sleep +till daylight; prefer a harlot to his honest-calling; run into debt; and +at last become a gladiator, or drive a gardener's hack for hire. + +Do not you at any time pry into his secrets; and keep close what is +intrusted to you, though put to the torture, by wine or passion. Neither +commend your own inclinations, nor find fault with those of others; nor, +when he is disposed to hunt, do you make verses. For by such means the +amity of the twins Zethus and Amphion, broke off; till the lyre, +disliked by the austere brother, was silent. Amphion is thought to have +given way to his brother's humors; so do you yield to the gentle +dictates of your friend in power: as often as he leads forth his dogs +into the fields and his cattle laden with Aetolian nets, arise and lay +aside the peevishness of your unmannerly muse, that you may sup together +on the delicious fare purchased by your labor; an exercise habitual to +the manly Romans, of service to their fame and life and limbs: +especially when you are in health, and are able either to excel the dog +in swiftness, or the boar in strength. Add [to this], that there is no +one who handles martial weapons more gracefully. You well know, with +what acclamations of the spectators you sustain the combats in the +Campus Marcius: in fine, as yet a boy, you endured a bloody campaign and +the Cantabrian wars, beneath a commander, who is now replacing the +standards [recovered] from the Parthian temples: and, if any thing is +wanting, assigns it to the Roman arms. And that you may not withdraw +yourself, and inexcusably be absent; though you are careful to do +nothing out of measure, and moderation, yet you sometimes amuse yourself +at your country-seat. The [mock] fleet divides the little boats [into +two squadrons]: the Actian sea-fight is represented by boys under your +direction in a hostile form: your brother is the foe, your lake the +Adriatic; till rapid victory crowns the one or the other with her bays. +Your patron, who will perceive that you come into his taste, will +applaud your sports with both his hands. + +Moreover, that I may advise you (if in aught you stand in need of an +adviser), take great circumspection what you say to any man, and to +whom. Avoid an inquisitive impertinent, for such a one is also a +tattler, nor do open ears faithfully retain what is intrusted to them; +and a word, once sent abroad, flies irrevocably. + +Let no slave within the marble threshold of your honored friend inflame +your heart; lest the owner of the beloved damsel gratify you with so +trifling a present, or, mortifying [to your wishes], torment you [with a +refusal]. + +Look over and over again [into the merits of] such a one, as you +recommend; lest afterward the faults of others strike you with shame. We +are sometimes imposed upon, and now and then introduce an unworthy +person. Wherefore, once deceived, forbear to defend one who suffers by +his own bad conduct; but protect one whom you entirely know, and with +confidence guard him with your patronage, if false accusations attack +him: who being bitten with the tooth of calumny, do you not perceive +that the same danger is threatening you? For it is your own concern, +when the adjoining wall is on fire: and flames neglected are wont to +gain strength. + +The attending of the levee of a friend in power seems delightful to the +unexperienced; the experienced dreads it. Do you, while your vessel is +in the main, ply your business, lest a changing gale bear you back +again. + +The melancholy hate the merry, and the jocose the melancholy; the +volatile [dislike] the sedate, the indolent the stirring and vivacious: +the quaffers of pure Falernian from midnight hate one who shirks his +turn; notwithstanding you swear you are afraid of the fumes of wine by +night. Dispel gloominess from your forehead: the modest man generally +carries the look of a sullen one; the reserved, of a churl. + +In every thing you must read and consult the learned, by what means you +may be enabled to pass your life in an agreeable manner: that insatiable +desire may not agitate and torment you, nor the fear and hope of things +that are but of little account: whether learning acquires virtue, or +nature bestows it? What lessens cares, what may endear you to yourself? +What perfectly renders the temper calm; honor or enticing lucre, or a +secret passage and the path of an unnoticed life? + +For my part, as often as the cooling rivulet Digentia refreshes me +(Digentia, of which Mandela drinks, a village wrinkled with cold); what, +my friend, do you think are my sentiments, what do you imagine I pray +for? Why, that my fortune may remain as it is now; or even [if it be +something] less: and that I may live to myself, what remains of my time, +if the gods will that aught do remain: that I may have a good store of +books, and corn provided for the year; lest I fluctuate in suspense of +each uncertain hour. But it is sufficient to sue Jove [for these +externals], which he gives and takes away [at pleasure]; let him grant +life, let him grant wealth: I myself will provide equanimity of temper. + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XIX. + +TO MAECENAS. + +_He shows the folly of some persons who would imitate; and the envy of +others who would censure him_. + + +O learned Maecenas, if you believe old Gratinus, no verses which are +written by water-drinkers can please, or be long-lived. Ever since +Bacchus enlisted the brain-sick poets among the Satyrs and the Fauns, +the sweet muses have usually smelt of wine in the morning. Homer, by his +excessive praises of wine, is convicted as a booser: father Ennius +himself never sallied forth to sing of arms, unless in drink. "I will +condemn the sober to the bar and the prater's bench, and deprive the +abstemious of the power of singing." + +As soon as he gave out this edict, the poets did not cease to contend in +midnight cups, and to smell of them by day. What! if any savage, by a +stern countenance and bare feet, and the texture of a scanty gown, +should imitate Cato; will he represent the virtue and morals of Cato? +The tongue that imitated Timagenes was the destruction of the Moor, +while he affected to be humorous, and attempted to seem eloquent. The +example that is imitable in its faults, deceives [the ignorant]. Soh! if +I was to grow up pale by accident, [these poetasters] would drink the +blood-thinning cumin. O ye imitators, ye servile herd, how often your +bustlings have stirred my bile, how often my mirth! + +I was the original, who set my free footsteps upon the vacant sod; I +trod not in the steps of others. He who depends upon himself, as leader, +commands the swarm. I first showed to Italy the Parian iambics: +following the numbers and spirit of Archilochus, but not his subject and +style, which afflicted Lycambes. You must not, however, crown me with a +more sparing wreath, because I was afraid to alter the measure and +structure of his verse: for the manly Sappho governs her muse by the +measures of Archilochus, so does Alcaeus; but differing from him in the +materials and disposition [of his lines], neither does he seek for a +father-in-law whom he may defame with his fatal lampoons, nor does he +tie a rope for his betrothed spouse in scandalous verse. Him too, never +celebrated by any other tongue, I the Roman lyrist first made known. It +delights me, as I bring out new productions, to be perused by the eyes, +and held in the hands of the ingenuous. + +Would you know why the ungrateful reader extols and is fond of many +works at home, unjustly decries them without doors? I hunt not after the +applause of the inconstant vulgar, at the expense of entertainments, and +for the bribe of a worn-out colt: I am not an auditor of noble writers, +nor a vindictive reciter, nor condescend to court the tribes and desks +of the grammarians. Hence are these tears. If I say that "I am ashamed +to repeat my worthless writings to crowded theatres, and give an air of +consequence to trifles:" "You ridicule us," says [one of them], "and you +reserve those pieces for the ears of Jove: you are confident that it is +you alone that can distill the poetic honey, beautiful in your own +eyes." At these words I am afraid to turn up my nose; and lest I should +be torn by the acute nails of my adversary, "This place is +disagreeable," I cry out, "and I demand a prorogation of the contest." +For contest is wont to beget trembling emulation and strife, and strife +cruel enmities and funereal war. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE XX. + +TO HIS BOOK. + +_In vain he endeavors to retain his book, desirous of getting abroad; +tells it what trouble it is to undergo, and imparts some things to be +said of him to posterity._ + + +You seem, my book, to look wistfully at Janus and Vertumnus; to the end +that you may be set out for sale, neatly polished by the pumice-stone of +the Sosii. You hate keys and seals, which are agreeable to a modest +[volume]; you grieve that you are shown but to a few, and extol public +places; though educated in another manner. Away with you, whither you +are so solicitous of going down: there will be no returning for you, +when you are once sent out. "Wretch that I am, what have I done? What +did I want?"--you will say: when any one gives you ill treatment, and +you know that you will be squeezed into small compass, as soon as the +eager reader is satiated. But, if the augur be not prejudiced by +resentment of your error, you shall be caressed at Rome [only] till your +youth be passed. When, thumbed by the hands of the vulgar, you begin to +grow dirty; either you shall in silence feed the grovelling book-worms, +or you shall make your escape to Utica, or shall be sent bound to +Ilerda. Your disregarded adviser shall then laugh [at you]: as he, who +in a passion pushed his refractory ass over the precipice. For who would +save [an ass] against his will? This too awaits you, that faltering +dotage shall seize on you, to teach boys their rudiments in the skirts +of the city. But when the abating warmth of the sun shall attract more +ears, you shall tell them, that I was the son of a freedman, and +extended my wings beyond my nest; so that, as much as you take away from +my family, you may add to my merit: that I was in favor with the first +men in the state, both in war and peace; of a short stature, gray +before my time, calculated for sustaining heat, prone to passion, yet so +as to be soon appeased. If any one should chance to inquire my age; let +him know that I had completed four times eleven Decembers, in the year +in which Lollius admitted Lepidus as his colleague. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE SECOND BOOK OF THE EPISTLES OF HORACE. + + + +EPISTLE I. + +TO AUGUSTUS. + +_He honors him with the highest compliments; then treats copiously of +poetry, its origin, character, and excellence_. + + +Since you alone support so many and such weighty concerns, defend Italy +with your arms, adorn it by your virtue, reform it by your laws; I +should offend, O Caesar, against the public interests, if I were to +trespass upon your time with a long discourse. + +Romulus, and father Bacchus, and Castor and Pollux, after great +achievements, received into the temples of the gods, while they were +improving the world and human nature, composing fierce dissensions, +settling property, building cities, lamented that the esteem which they +expected was not paid in proportion to their merits. He who crushed the +dire Hydra, and subdued the renowned monsters by his forefated labor, +found envy was to be tamed by death [alone]. For he burns by his very +splendor, whose superiority is oppressive to the arts beneath him: after +his decease, he shall be had in honor. On you, while present among us, +we confer mature honors, and rear altars where your name is to be sworn +by; confessing that nothing equal to you has hitherto risen, or will +hereafter rise. But this your people, wise and just in one point (for +preferring you to our own, you to the Grecian heroes), by no means +estimate other things with like proportion and measure: and disdain and +detest every thing, but what they see removed from earth and already +gone by; such favorers are they of antiquity, as to assert that the +Muses [themselves] upon Mount Alba, dictated the twelve tables, +forbidding to trangress, which the decemviri ratified; the leagues of +our kings concluded with the Gabii, or the rigid Sabines; the records of +the pontifices, and the ancient volumes of the augurs. + +If, because the most ancient writings of the Greeks are also the best, +Roman authors are to be weighed in the same scale, there is no need we +should say much: there is nothing hard in the inside of an olive, +nothing [hard] in the outside of a nut. We are arrived at the highest +pitch of success [in arts]: we paint, and sing, and wrestle more +skillfully than the annointed Greeks. If length of time makes poems +better, as it does wine, I would fain know how many years will stamp a +value upon writings. A writer who died a hundred years ago, is he to be +reckoned among the perfect and ancient, or among the mean and modern +authors? Let some fixed period exclude all dispute. He is an old and +good writer who completes a hundred years. What! one that died a month +or a year later, among whom is he to be ranked? Among the old poets, or +among those whom both the present age and posterity will disdainfully +reject? He may fairly be placed among the ancients, who is younger +either by a short month only, or even by a whole year. I take the +advantage of this concession, and pull away by little and little, as [if +they were] the hairs of a horse's tail: and I take away a single one and +then again another single one; till, like a tumbling heap, [my +adversary], who has recourse to annals and estimates excellence by the +year, and admires nothing but what Libitina has made sacred, falls to +the ground. + +Ennius the wise, the nervous, and (as our critics say) a second Homer, +seems lightly to regard what becomes of his promises and Pythagorean +dreams. Is not Naevius in people's hands, and sticking almost fresh in +their memory? So sacred is every ancient poem. As often as a debate +arises, whether this poet or the other be preferable; Pacuvius bears +away the character of a learned, Accius, of a lofty writer; Afranius' +gown is said to have fitted Menander; Plautus, to hurry after the +pattern of the Sicilian Epicharmus; Caecilius, to excel in gravity, +Terence in contrivance. These mighty Rome learns by heart, and these she +views crowded in her narrow theater; these she esteems and accounts her +poets from Livy the writer's age down to our time. Sometimes the +populace see right; sometimes they are wrong. If they admire and extol +the ancient poets so as to prefer nothing before, to compare nothing +with them, they err; if they think and allow that they express some +things in an obsolete, most in a stiff, many in a careless manner; they +both think sensibly, and agree with me, and determine with the assent of +Jove himself. Not that I bear an ill-will against Livy's epics, and +would doom them to destruction, which I remember the severe Orbilius +taught me when a boy; but they should seem correct, beautiful, and very +little short of perfect, this I wonder at: among which if by chance a +bright expression shines forth, and if one line or two [happen to be] +somewhat terse and musical, this unreasonably carries off and sells the +whole poem. I am disgusted that any thing should be found fault with, +not because it is a lumpish composition or inelegant, but because it is +modern; and that not a favorable allowance, but honor and rewards are +demanded for the old writers. Should I scruple, whether or not Atta's +drama trod the saffron and flowers in a proper manner, almost all the +fathers would cry out that modesty was lost; since I attempted to find +fault with those pieces which the pathetic Aesopus, which the skillful +Roscius acted: either because they esteem nothing right, but what has +pleased themselves; or because they think it disgraceful to submit to +their juniors, and to confess, now they are old, that what they learned +when young is deserving only to be destroyed. Now he who extols Numa's +Salian hymn, and would alone seem to understand that which, as well as +me, he is ignorant of, does not favor and applaud the buried geniuses, +but attacks ours, enviously hating us moderns and every thing of ours. +Whereas if novelty had been detested by the Greeks as much as by us, +what at this time would there have been ancient? Or what what would +there have been for common use to read and thumb, common to every body. + +When first Greece, her wars being over, began to trifle, and through +prosperity to glide into folly; she glowed with the love, one while of +wrestlers, another while of horses; was fond of artificers in marble, or +in ivory, or in brass; hung her looks and attention upon a picture; was +delighted now with musicians, now with tragedians; as if an infant girl +she sported under the nurse; soon cloyed, she abandoned what [before] +she earnestly desired. What is there that pleases or is odious, which +you may not think mutable? This effect had happy times of peace, and +favorable gales [of fortune]. + +At Rome it was long pleasing and customary to be up early with open +doors, to expound the laws to clients; to lay out money cautiously upon +good securities: to hear the elder, and to tell the younger by what +means their fortunes might increase and pernicious luxury be diminished. +The inconstant people have changed their mind, and glow with a universal +ardor for learning: young men and grave fathers sup crowned with leaves, +and dictate poetry. I myself, who affirm that I write no verses, am +found more false than the Parthians: and, awake before the sun is risen, +I call for my pen and papers and desk. He that is ignorant of a ship is +afraid to work a ship; none but he who has learned, dares administer +[even] southern wood to the sick; physicians undertake what belongs to +physicians; mechanics handle tools; but we, unlearned and learned, +promiscuously write poems. + +Yet how great advantages this error and this slight madness has, thus +compute: the poet's mind is not easily covetous; fond of verses, he +studies this alone; he laughs at losses, flights of slaves, fires; he +contrives no fraud against his partner, or his young ward; he lives on +husks, and brown bread; though dastardly and unfit for war, he is useful +at home, if you allow this, that great things may derive assistance from +small ones. The poet fashions the child's tender and lisping mouth, and +turns his ear even at this time from obscene language; afterward also he +forms his heart with friendly precepts, the corrector of his rudeness, +and envy, and passion; he records virtuous actions, he instructs the +rising age with approved examples, he comforts the indigent and the +sick. Whence should the virgin, stranger to a husband, with the chaste +boys, learn the solemn prayer, had not the muse given a poet? The chorus +entreats the divine aid, and finds the gods propitious; sweet in learned +prayer, they implore the waters of the heavens; avert diseases, drive +off impending dangers, obtain both peace and years enriched with fruits. +With song the gods above are appeased, with song the gods below. + +Our ancient swains, stout and happy with a little, after the grain was +laid up, regaling in a festival season their bodies and even their +minds, patient of hardships through the hope of their ending, with their +slaves and faithful wife, the partners of their labors, atoned with a +hog [the goddess] Earth, with milk Silvanus, with flowers and wine the +genius that reminds us of our short life. Invented by this custom, the +Femminine licentiousness poured forth its rustic taunts in alternate +stanzas; and this liberty, received down through revolving years, +sported pleasingly; till at length the bitter raillery began to be +turned into open rage, and threatening with impunity to stalk through +reputable families. They, who suffered from its bloody tooth smarted +with the pain; the unhurt likewise were concerned for the common +condition: further also, a law and a penalty were enacted, which forbade +that any one should be stigmatized in lampoon. Through fear of the +bastinado, they were reduced to the necessity of changing their manner, +and of praising and delighting. + +Captive Greece took captive her fierce conqueror, and introduced her +arts into rude Latium. Thus flowed off the rough Saturnian numbers, and +delicacy expelled the rank venom: but for a long time there remained, +and at this day remain traces of rusticity. For late [the Roman writer] +applied his genius to the Grecian pages; and enjoying rest after the +Punic wars, began to search what useful matter Sophocles, and Thespis, +and Aeschylus afforded: he tried, too, if he could with dignity +translate their works; and succeeded in pleasing himself, being by +nature [of a genius] sublime and strong; for he breathes a spirit tragic +enough, and dares successfully; but fears a blot, and thinks it +disgraceful in his writings. + +Comedy is believed to require the least pains, because it fetches its +subjects from common life; but the less indulgence It meets with, the +more labor it requires. See how Plautus supports the character of a +lover under age, how that of a covetous father, how those of a cheating +pimp: how Dossennus exceeds all measure in his voracious parasites; with +how loose a sock he runs over the stage: for he is glad to put the money +in his pocket, after this regardless whether his play stand or fall. + +Him, whom glory in her airy car has brought upon the stage, the careless +spectator dispirits, the attentive renders more diligent: so slight, so +small a matter it is, which overturns or raises a mind covetous of +praise! Adieu the ludicrous business [of dramatic writing], if applause +denied brings me back meagre, bestowed [makes me] full of flesh and +spirits. + +This too frequently drives away and deters even an adventurous poet? +that they who are in number more, in worth and rank inferior, unlearned +and foolish, and (if the equestrian order dissents) ready to fall to +blows, in the midst of the play, call for either a bear or boxers; for +in these the mob delight. Nay, even all the pleasures of our knights is +now transferred from the ear to the uncertain eye, and their vain +amusements. The curtains are kept down for four hours or more, while +troops of horse and companies of foot flee over the stage: next is +dragged forward the fortune of kings, with their hands bound behind +them; chariots, litters, carriages, ships hurry on; captive ivory, +captive Corinth, is borne along. Democritus, if he were on earth, would +laugh; whether a panther a different genus confused with the camel, or a +white elephant attracted the eye of the crowd. He would view the people +more attentively than the sports themselves, as affording him more +strange sights than the actor: and for the writers, he would think they +told their story to a deaf ass. For what voices are able to overbear the +din with which our theatres resound? You would think the groves of +Garganus, or the Tuscan Sea, was roaring; with so great noise are viewed +the shows and contrivances, and foreign riches: with which the actor +being daubed over, as soon as he appears upon the stage, each right hand +encounters with the left. Has he said any thing yet? Nothing at all. +What then pleases? The cloth imitating [the color of] violets, with the +dye of Tarentum. + +And, that you may not think I enviously praise those kinds of writing +which I decline undertaking, when others handle them well: that poet to +me seems able to walk upon an extended rope, who with his fictions +grieves my soul, enrages, soothes, fills it with false terrors, as an +enchanter; and sets me now in Thebes, now in Athens. + +But of those too, who had rather trust themselves with a reader, than +bear the disdain of an haughty spectator, use a little care; if you +would fill with books [the library you have erected], an offering worthy +of Apollo, and add an incentive to the poets, that with greater +eagerness they may apply to verdant Helicon. + +We poets, it is true (that I may hew down my own vineyards), often do +ourselves many mischiefs, when we present a work to you while thoughtful +or fatigued; when we are pained, if my friend has dared to find fault +with one line; when, unasked, we read over again passages already +repeated: when we lament that our labors do not appear, and war poems, +spun out in a fine thread: when we hope the thing will come to this, +that as soon as you are apprised we are penning verses, you will kindly +of yourself send for us and secure us from want, and oblige us to write. +But yet it is worth while to know, who shall be the priests of your +virtue signalized in war and at home, which is not to be trusted to an +unworthy poet. A favorite of king Alexander the Great was that +Choerilus, who to his uncouth and ill-formed verses owed the many pieces +he received of Philip's royal coin. But, as ink when touched leaves +behind it a mark and a blot, so writers as it were stain shining actions +with foul poetry. That same king, who prodigally bought so dear so +ridiculous a poem, by an edict forbade that any one beside Apelles +should paint him, or that any other than Lysippus should mold brass for +the likeness of the valiant Alexander. But should you call that faculty +of his, so delicate in discerning other arts, to [judge of] books and of +these gifts of the muses, you would swear he had been born in the gross +air of the Boeotians. Yet neither do Virgil and Varius, your beloved +poets, disgrace your judgment of them, and the presents which they have +received with great honor to the donor; nor do the features of +illustrious men appear more lively when expressed by statues of brass, +than their manners and minds expressed by the works of a poet. Nor would +I rather compose such tracts as these creeping on the ground, than +record deeds of arms, and the situations of countries, and rivers, and +forts reared upon mountains, and barbarous kingdoms, and wars brought to +a conclusion through the whole world under your auspices, and the +barriers that confine Janus the guardian of peace, and Rome treaded by +the Parthians under your government, if I were but able to do as much as +I could wish. But neither does your majesty admit of humble poetry, nor +dares my modesty attempt a subject which my strength is unable to +support. Yet officiousness foolishly disgusts the person whom it loves; +especially when it recommends itself by numbers, and the art [of +writing]. For one learns sooner, and more willingly remembers, that +which a man derides, than that which he approves and venerates. I value +not the zeal that gives me uneasiness; nor do I wish to be set out any +where in wax with a face formed for the worse, nor to be celebrated in +ill-composed verses; lest I blush, when presented with the gross gift; +and, exposed in an open box along with my author, be conveyed into the +street that sells frankincense, and spices, and pepper, and whatever is +wrapped up in impertinent writings. + + * * * * * + + + +EPISTLE II. + +TO JULIUS FLORUS. + +_In apologizing for not having written to him, he shows that the +well-ordering of life is of more importance than the composition of +verses_. + + +O Florus, faithful friend to the good and illustrious Nero, if by chance +any one should offer to sell you a boy born at Tibur and Gabii, and +should treat with you in this manner; "This [boy who is] both +good-natured and well-favored from head to foot, shall become and be +yours for eight thousand sesterces; a domestic slave, ready in his +attendance at his master's nod; initiated in the Greek language, of a +capacity for any art; you may shape out any thing with [such] moist +clay; besides, he will sing in an artless manner, but yet entertaining +to one drinking. Lavish promises lessen credit, when any one cries up +extravagantly the wares he has for sale, which he wants to put off. No +emergency obliges me [to dispose of him]: though poor, I am in nobody's +debt. None of the chapmen would do this for you; nor should every body +readily receive the same favor from me. Once, [in deed,] he [loitered on +an errand]; and (as it happens) absconded, being afraid of the lash that +hangs in the staircase. Give me your money, if this runaway trick, which +I have expected, does not offend you." In my opinion, the man may take +his price, and be secure from any punishment: you wittingly purchased a +good-for-nothing boy: the condition of the contract was told you. +Nevertheless you prosecute this man, and detain him in an unjust suit. + +I told you, at your setting out, that I was indolent: I told you I was +almost incapable of such offices: that you might not chide me in angry +mood, because no letter [from me] came to hand. What then have I +profited, if you nevertheless arraign the conditions that make for me? +On the same score too you complain, that, being worse than my word, I do +not send you the verses you expected. + +A soldier of Lucullus, [having run through] a great many hardships, was +robbed of his collected stock to a penny, as he lay snoring in the night +quite fatigued: after this, like a ravenous wolf, equally exasperated at +himself and the enemy, eager, with his hungry fangs, he beat off a royal +guard from a post (as they report) very strongly fortified, and well +supplied with stores. Famous on account of this exploit, he is adorned +with honorable rewards, and receives twenty thousand sesterces into the +bargain. It happened about this time that his officer being inclined to +batter down a certain fort, began to encourage the same man, with words +that might even have given courage to a coward: "Go, my brave fellow, +whither your valor calls you: go with prosperous step, certain to +receive ample rewards for your merit. Why do you hesitate?" Upon this, +he arch, though a rustic: "He who has lost his purse, will go whither +you wish," says he. + +It was my lot to have Rome for my nurse, and to be instructed [from the +Iliad] how much the exasperated Achilles prejudiced the Greeks. Good +Athens give me some additional learning: that is to say, to be able to +distinguish a right line from a curve, and seek after truth in the +groves of Academus. But the troublesome times removed me from that +pleasant spot; and the tide of a civil war carried me away, +unexperienced as I was, into arms, [into arms] not likely to be a match +for the sinews of Augustus Caesar. Whence, as soon as [the battle of] +Philippi dismissed me in an abject condition, with my wings clipped, and +destitute both of house and land, daring poverty urged me on to the +composition of verses: but now, having more than is wanted, what +medicines would be efficacious enough to cure my madness, if I did not +think it better to rest than to write verses. + +The advancing years rob us of every thing: they have taken away my +mirth, my gallantry, my revelings, and play: they are now proceeding to +force poetry from me. What would you have me do? + +In short, all persons do not love and admire the same things. Ye delight +in the ode: one man is pleased with iambics; another with satires +written in the manner of Bion, and virulent wit. Three guests scarcely +can be found to agree, craving very different dishes with various +palate. What shall I give? What shall I not give? You forbid, what +another demands: what you desire, that truly is sour and disgustful to +the [other] two. + +Beside other [difficulties], do you think it practicable for me to +write poems at Rome, amid so many solicitudes and so many fatigues? One +calls me as his security, another to hear his works, all business else +apart; one lives on the mount of Quirinus, the other in the extremity of +the Aventine; both must be waited on. The distances between them, you +see, are charmingly commodious. "But the streets are clear, so that +there can be no obstacle to the thoughtful."--A builder in heat hurries +along with his mules and porters: the crane whirls aloft at one time a +stone, at another a great piece of timber: the dismal funerals dispute +the way with the unwieldy carriages: here runs a mad dog, there rushes a +sow begrimed with mire. Go now, and meditate with yourself your +harmonious verses. All the whole choir of poets love the grove, and +avoid cities, due votaries to Bacchus delighting in repose and shade. +Would you have me, amid so great noise both by night and day, [attempt] +to sing, and trace the difficult footsteps of the poets? A genius who +has chosen quiet Athens for his residence, and has devoted seven years +to study, and has grown old in books and study, frequently walks forth +more dumb than a statue, and shakes the people's sides with laughter: +here, in the midst of the billows and tempests of the city, can I be +thought capable of connecting words likely to wake the sound of the +lyre? + +At Rome there was a rhetorician, brother to a lawyer: [so fond of each +other were they,] that they would hear nothing but the mere praises of +each other: insomuch, that the latter appeared a Gracchus to the former, +the former a Mucius to the latter. Why should this frenzy affect the +obstreperous poets in a less degree? I write odes, another elegies: a +work wonderful to behold, and burnished by the nine muses! Observe +first, with what a fastidious air, with what importance we survey the +temple [of Apollo] vacant for the Roman poets. In the next place you may +follow (if you are at leisure) and hear what each produces, and +wherefore each weaves for himself the crown. Like Samnite gladiators in +slow duel, till candle-light, we are beaten and waste out the enemy with +equal blows: I came off Alcaeus, in his suffrage; he is mine, who? Why +who but Callimachus? Or, if he seems to make a greater demand, he +becomes Mimnermus, and grows in fame by the chosen appellation. Much do +I endure in order to pacify this passionate race of poets, when I am +writing; and submissive court the applause of the people; [but,] having +finished my studies and recovered my senses, I the same man can now +boldly stop my open ears against reciters. + +Those who make bad verses are laughed at: but they are pleased in +writing, and reverence themselves; and if you are silent, they, happy, +fall to praising of their own accord whatever they have written. But he +who desires to execute a genuine poem, will with his papers assume the +spirit of an honest critic: whatever words shall have but little +clearness and elegance, or shall be without weight and held unworthy of +estimation, he will dare to displace: though they may recede with +reluctance, and still remain in the sanctuary of Vesta: those that have +been long hidden from the people he kindly will drag forth, and bring to +light those expressive denominations of things that were used by the +Catos and Cethegi of ancient times, though now deformed dust and +neglected age presses upon them: he will adopt new words, which use, the +parent [of language], shall produce: forcible and perspicuous, and +bearing the utmost similitude to a limpid stream, he will pour out his +treasures, and enrich Latium with a comprehensive language. The +luxuriant he will lop, the too harsh he will soften with a sensible +cultivation: those void of expression he will discard: he will exhibit +the appearance of one at play; and will be [in his invention] on the +rack, like [a dancer on the stage], who one while affects the motions of +a satyr, at another of a clumsy cyclops. + +I had rather be esteemed a foolish and dull writer, while my faults +please myself, or at least escape my notice, than be wise and smart for +it. There lived at Argos a man of no mean rank, who imagined that he was +hearing some admirable tragedians, a joyful sitter and applauder in an +empty theater: who [nevertheless] could support the other duties of life +in a just manner; a truly honest neighbor, an amiable host, kind toward +his wife, one who could pardon his slaves, nor would rave at the +breaking of a bottle-seal: one who [had sense enough] to avoid a +precipice, or an open well. This man, being cured at the expense and by +the care of his relations, when he had expelled by the means of pure +hellebore the disorder and melancholy humor, and returned to himself; +"By Pollux, my friends (said he), you have destroyed, not saved me; from +whom my pleasure is thus taken away, and a most agreeable delusion of +mind removed by force." + +In a word, it is of the first consequence to be wise in the rejection +of trifles, and leave childish play to boys for whom it is in season, +and not to scan words to be set to music for the Roman harps, but +[rather] to be perfectly an adept in the numbers and proportions of real +life. Thus therefore I commune with myself, and ponder these things in +silence: "If no quantity of water would put an end to your thirst, you +would tell it to your physicians. And is there none to whom you dare +confess, that the more you get the more you crave? If you had a wound +which was not relieved by a plant or root prescribed to you, you would +refuse being doctored with a root or plant that did no good. You have +heard that vicious folly left the man, on whom the gods conferred +wealth; and though you are nothing wiser, since you become richer, will +you nevertheless use the same monitors as before? But could riches make +you wise, could they make you less covetous and mean-spirited, you well +might blush, if there lived on earth one more avaricious than yourself." + +If that be any man's property, which he has bought by the pound and +penny, [and] there be some things to which (if you give credit to the +lawyers) possession gives a claim, [then] the field that feeds you is +your own; and Orbius' steward, when he harrows the corn which is soon to +give you flour, finds you are [in effect] the proper master. You give +your money; you receive grapes, pullets, eggs, a hogshead of strong +wine: certainly in this manner you by little and little purchase that +farm, for which perhaps the owner paid three hundred thousand sesterces, +or more. What does it signify, whether you live on what was paid for the +other day, or a long while ago? He who purchased the Aricinian and +Veientine fields some time since, sups on bought vegetables, however he +may think otherwise; boils his pot with bought wood at the approach of +the chill evening. But he calls all that his own, as far as where the +planted poplar prevents quarrels among neighbors by a determinate +limitation: as if anything were a man's property, which in a moment of +the fleeting hour, now by solicitations, now by sale, now by violence, +and now by the supreme lot [of all men], may change masters and come +into another's jurisdiction. Thus since the perpetual possession is +given to none, and one man's heir urges on another's, as wave impels +wave, of what importance are houses, or granaries; or what the Lucanian +pastures joined to the Calabrian; if Hades, inexorable to gold, mows +down the great together with the small? + +Gems, marble, ivory, Tuscan statues, pictures, silver-plate, robes dyed +with Getulian purple, there are who can not acquire; and there are +others, who are not solicitous of acquiring. Of two brothers, why one +prefers lounging, play, and perfume, to Herod's rich palm-tree groves; +why the other, rich and uneasy, from the rising of the light to the +evening shade, subdues his woodland with fire and steel: our attendant +genius knows, who governs the planet of our nativity, the divinity [that +presides] over human nature, who dies with each individual, of various +complexion, white and black. + +I will use, and take out from my moderate stock, as much as my exigence +demands: nor will I be under any apprehensions what opinion my heir +shall hold concerning me, when he shall, find [I have left him] no more +than I had given me. And yet I, the same man, shall be inclined to know +how far an open and cheerful person differs from a debauchee, and how +greatly the economist differs from the miser. For there is some +distinction whether you throw away your money in a prodigal manner, or +make an entertainment without grudging, nor toil to accumulate more; or +rather, as formerly in Minerva's holidays, when a school-boy, enjoys by +starts the short and pleasant vacation. + +Let sordid poverty be far away. I, whether borne in a large or small +vessel, let me be borne uniform and the same. I am not wafted with +swelling sail before the north wind blowing fair: yet I do not bear my +course of life against the adverse south. In force, genius, figure, +virtue, station, estate, the last of the first-rate, [yet] still before +those of the last. + +You are not covetous, [you say]:--go to.--What then? Have the rest of +your vices fled from you, together with this? Is your breast free from +vain ambition? Is it free from the fear of death and from anger? Can you +laugh at dreams, magic terrors, wonders, witches, nocturnal goblins, and +Thessalian prodigies? Do you number your birth-days with a grateful +mind? Are you forgiving to your friends? Do you grow milder and better +as old age approaches? What profits you only one thorn eradicated out of +many? If you do not know how to live in a right manner, make way for +those that do. You have played enough, eaten and drunk enough, it is +time for you to walk off: lest having tippled too plentifully, that age +which plays the wanton with more propriety, and drive you [off the +stage]. + + * * * * * + + + + +HORACE'S BOOK UPON THE ART OF POETRY. + +TO THE PISOS. + + +If a painter should wish to unite a horse's neck to a human head, and +spread a variety of plumage over limbs [of different animals] taken from +every part [of nature], so that what is a beautiful woman in the upper +part terminates unsightly in an ugly fish below; could you, my friends, +refrain from laughter, were you admitted to such a sight? Believe, ye +Pisos, the book will be perfectly like such a picture, the ideas of +which, like a sick man's dreams, are all vain and fictitious: so that +neither head nor foot can correspond to any one form. "Poets and +painters [you will say] have ever had equal authority for attempting any +thing." We are conscious of this, and this privilege we demand and allow +in turn: but not to such a degree, that the tame should associate with +the savage; nor that serpents should be coupled with birds, lambs with +tigers. + +In pompous introductions, and such as promise a great deal, it generally +happens that one or two verses of purple patch-work, that may make a +great show, are tagged on; as when the grove and the altar of Diana and +the meandering of a current hastening through pleasant fields, or the +river Rhine, or the rainbow is described. But here there was no room for +these [fine things]: perhaps, too, you know how to draw a cypress: but +what is that to the purpose, if he, whe is painted for the given price, +is [to be represented as] swimming hopeless out of a shipwreck? A large +vase at first was designed: why, as the wheel revolves, turns out a +little pitcher? In a word, be your subject what it will, let it be +merely simple and uniform. + +The great majority of us poets, father, and youths worthy such a +father, are misled by the appearance of right. I labor to be concise, I +become obscure: nerves and spirit fail him, that aims at the easy: one, +that pretends to be sublime, proves bombastical: he who is too cautious +and fearful of the storm, crawls along the ground: he who wants to vary +his subject in a marvelous manner, paints the dolphin in the woods, the +boar in the sea. The avoiding of an error leads to a fault, if it lack +skill. + +A statuary about the Aemilian school shall of himself, with singular +skill, both express the nails, and imitate in brass the flexible hair; +unhappy yet in the main, because he knows not how to finish a complete +piece. I would no more choose to be such a one as this, had I a mind to +compose any thing, than to live with a distorted nose, [though] +remarkable for black eyes and jetty hair. + +Ye who write, make choice of a subject suitable to your abilities; and +revolve in your thoughts a considerable time what your strength +declines, and what it is able to support. Neither elegance of style, nor +a perspicuous disposition, shall desert the man, by whom the subject +matter is chosen judiciously. + +This, or I am mistaken, will constitute the merit and beauty of +arrangement, that the poet just now say what ought just now to be said, +put off most of his thoughts, and waive them for the present. + +In the choice of his words, too, the author of the projected poem must +be delicate and cautious, he must embrace one and reject another: you +will express yourself eminently well, if a dexterous combination should +give an air of novelty to a well-known word. If it happen to be +necessary to explain some abstruse subjects by new invented terms; it +will follow that you must frame words never heard of by the +old-fashioned Cethegi: and the license will be granted, if modestly +used: and the new and lately-formed words will have authority, if they +descend from a Greek source, with a slight deviation. But why should the +Romans grant to Plutus and Caecilius a privilege denied to Virgil and +Varius? Why should I be envied, if I have it in my power to acquire a +few words, when the language of Cato and Ennius has enriched our native +tongue, and produced new names of things? It has been, and ever will be, +allowable to coin a word marked with the stamp in present request. As +leaves in the woods are changed with the fleeting years; the earliest +fall off first: in this manner words perish with old age, and those +lately invented nourish and thrive, like men in the time of youth. We, +and our works, are doomed to death: Whether Neptune, admitted into the +continent, defends our fleet from the north winds, a kingly work; or the +lake, for a long time unfertile and fit for oars, now maintains its +neighboring cities and feels the heavy plow; or the river, taught to run +in a more convenient channel, has changed its course which was so +destructive to the fruits. Mortal works must perish: much less can the +honor and elegance of language be long-lived. Many words shall revive, +which now have fallen off; and many which are now in esteem shall fall +off, if it be the will of custom, in whose power is the decision and +right and standard of language. + +Homer has instructed us in what measure the achievements of kings, and +chiefs, and direful war might be written. + +Plaintive strains originally were appropriated to the unequal numbers +[of the elegiac]: afterward [love and] successful desires were included. +Yet what author first published humble elegies, the critics dispute, and +the controversy still waits the determination of a judge. + +Rage armed Archilochus with the iambic of his own invention. The sock +and the majestic buskin assumed this measure as adapted for dialogue, +and to silence the noise of the populace, and calculated for action. + +To celebrate gods, and the sons of gods, and the victorious wrestler, +and the steed foremost in the race, and the inclination of youths, and +the free joys of wine, the muse has alotted to the lyre. + +If I am incapable and unskilful to observe the distinction described, +and the complexions of works [of genius], why am I accosted by the name +of "Poet?" Why, out of false modesty, do I prefer being ignorant to +being learned? + +A comic subject will not be handled in tragic verse: in like manner the +banquet of Thyestes will not bear to be held in familiar verses, and +such as almost suit the sock. Let each peculiar species [of writing] +fill with decorum its proper place. Nevertheless sometimes even comedy +exalts her voice, and passionate Chremes rails in a tumid strain: and a +tragic writer generally expresses grief in a prosaic style. Telephus and +Peleus, when they are both in poverty and exile, throw aside their rants +and gigantic expressions if they have a mind to move the heart of the +spectator with their complaint. + +It is not enough that poems be beautiful; let them be tender and +affecting, and bear away the soul of the auditor whithersoever they +please. As the human countenance smiles on those that smile, so does it +sympathize with those that weep. If you would have me weep you must +first express the passion of grief yourself; then, Telephus or Peleus, +your misfortunes hurt me: if you pronounce the parts assigned you ill, I +shall either fall asleep or laugh. + +Pathetic accents suit a melancholy countenance; words full of menace, an +angry one; wanton expressions, a sportive look; and serious matter, an +austere one. For nature forms us first within to every modification of +circumstances; she delights or impels us to anger, or depresses us to +the earth and afflicts us with heavy sorrow: then expresses those +emotions of the mind by the tongue, its interpreter. If the words be +discordant to the station of the speaker, the Roman knights and plebians +will raise an immoderate laugh. It will make a wide difference, whether +it be Davus that speaks, or a hero; a man well-stricken in years, or a +hot young fellow in his bloom; and a matron of distinction, or an +officious nurse; a roaming merchant, or the cultivator of a verdant +little farm; a Colchian, or an Assyrian; one educated at Thebes, or one +at Argos. + +You, that write, either follow tradition, or invent such fables as are +congruous to themselves. If as poet you have to represent the renowned +Achilles; let him be indefatigable, wrathful, inexorable, courageous, +let him deny that laws were made for him, let him arrogate every thing +to force of arms. Let Medea be fierce and untractable, Ino an object of +pity, Ixion perfidious, Io wandering, Orestes in distress. + +If you offer to the stage any thing unattempted, and venture to form a +new character; let it be preserved to the last such as it set out at the +beginning, and be consistent with itself. It is difficult to write with +propriety on subjects to which all writers have a common claim; and you +with more prudence will reduce the Iliad into acts, than if you first +introduce arguments unknown and never treated of before. A public story +will become your own property, if you do not dwell upon the whole circle +of events, which is paltry and open to every one; nor must you be so +faithful a translator, as to take the pains of rendering [the original] +word for word; nor by imitating throw yourself into straits, whence +either shame or the rules of your work may forbid you to retreat. + +Nor must you make such an exordium, as the Cyclic writer of old: "I will +sing the fate of Priam, and the noble war." What will this boaster +produce worthy of all this gaping? The mountains are in labor, a +ridiculous mouse will be brought forth. How much more to the purpose he, +who attempts nothing improperly? "Sing for me, my muse, the man who, +after the time of the destruction of Troy, surveyed the manners and +cities of many men." He meditates not [to produce] smoke from a flash, +but out of smoke to elicit fire, that he may thence bring forth his +instances of the marvelous with beauty, [such as] Antiphates, Scylla, +the Cyclops, and Charybdis. Nor does he date Diomede's return from +Meleager's death, nor trace the rise of the Trojan war from [Leda's] +eggs: he always hastens on to the event; and hurries away his reader in +the midst of interesting circumstances, no otherwise than as if they +were [already] known; and what he despairs of, as to receiving a polish +from his touch, he omits; and in such a manner forms his fictions, so +intermingles the false with the true, that the middle is not +inconsistent with the beginning, nor the end with the middle. + +Do you attend to what I, and the public in my opinion, expect from you +[as a dramatic writer]. If you are desirous of an applauding spectator, +who will wait for [the falling of] the curtain, and till the chorus +calls out "your plaudits;" the manners of every age must be marked by +you, and a proper decorum assigned to men's varying dispositions and +years. The boy, who is just able to pronounce his words, and prints the +ground with a firm tread, delights to play with his fellows, and +contracts and lays aside anger without reason, and is subject to change +every hour. The beardless youth, his guardian being at length +discharged, joys in horses, and dogs, and the verdure of the sunny +Campus Martius; pliable as wax to the bent of vice, rough to advisers, a +slow provider of useful things, prodigal of his money, high-spirited, +and amorous, and hasty in deserting the objects of his passion. [After +this,] our inclinations being changed, the age and spirit of manhood +seeks after wealth, and [high] connections, is subservient to points of +honor; and is cautious of committing any action, which he would +subsequently be industrious to correct. Many inconviences encompass a +man in years; either because he seeks [eagerly] for gain, and abstains +from what he has gotten, and is afraid to make use of it; or because he +transacts every thing in a timorous and dispassionate manner, dilatory, +slow in hope, remiss, and greedy of futurity. Peevish, querulous, a +panegyrist of former times when he was a boy, a chastiser and censurer +of his juniors. Our advancing years bring many advantages along with +them. Many our declining ones take away. That the parts [therefore] +belonging to age may not be given to youth, and those of a man to a boy, +we must dwell upon those qualities which are joined and adapted to each +person's age. + +An action is either represented on the stage, or being done elsewhere is +there related. The things which enter by the ear affect the mind more +languidly, than such as are submitted to the faithful eyes, and what a +spectator presents to himself. You must not, however, bring upon the +stage things fit only to be acted behind the scenes: and you must take +away from view many actions, which elegant description may soon after +deliver in presence [of the spectators]. Let not Medea murder her sons +before the people; nor the execrable Atreus openly dress human entrails: +nor let Progue be metamorphosed into a bird, Cadmus into a serpent. +Whatever you show to me in this manner, not able to give credit to, I +detest. + +Let a play which would be inquired after, and though seen, represented +anew, be neither shorter nor longer than the fifth act. Neither let a +god interfere, unless a difficulty worthy a god's unraveling should +happen; nor let a fourth person be officious to speak. + +Let the chorus sustain the part and manly character of an actor: nor let +them sing any thing between the acts which is not conducive to, and +fitly coherent with, the main design. Let them both patronize the good, +and give them friendly advice, and regulate the passionate, and love to +appease those who swell [with rage]: let them praise the repast of a +short meal, and salutary effects of justice, laws, and peace with her +open gates; let them conceal what is told to them in confidence, and +supplicate and implore the gods that prosperity may return to the +wretched, and abandon the haughty. The flute, (not as now, begirt with +brass and emulous of the trumpet, but) slender and of simple form, with +few stops, was of service to accompany and assist the chorus, and with +its tone was sufficient to fill the rows that were not as yet too +crowded, where an audience, easily numbered, as being small and sober, +chaste and modest, met together. But when the victorious Romans began to +extend their territories, and an ampler wall encompassed the city, and +their genius was indulged on festivals by drinking wine in the day-time +without censure; a greater freedom arose both, to the numbers [of +poetry], and the measure [of music]. For what taste could an unlettered +clown and one just dismissed from labors have, when in company with the +polite; the base, with the man of honor? Thus the musician added now +movements and a luxuriance to the ancient art, and strutting backward +and forward, drew a length of train over the stage; thus likewise new +notes were added to the severity of the lyre, and precipitate eloquence +produced an unusual language [in the theater]: and the sentiments [of +the chorus, then] expert in teaching useful things and prescient of +futurity, differ hardly from the oracular Delphi. + +The poet, who first tried his skill in tragic verse for the paltry +[prize of a] goat, soon after exposed to view wild satyrs naked, and +attempted raillery with severity, still preserving the gravity [of +tragedy]: because the spectator on festivals, when heated with wine and +disorderly, was to be amused with captivating shows and agreeable +novelty. But it will be expedient so to recommend the bantering, so the +rallying satyrs, so to turn earnest into jest; that none who shall be +exhibited as a god, none who is introduced as a hero lately conspicuous +in regal purple and gold, may deviate into the low style of obscure, +mechanical shops; or, [on the contrary,] while he avoids the ground, +effect cloudy mist and empty jargon. Tragedy disdaining to prate forth +trivial verses, like a matron commanded to dance on the festival days, +will assume an air of modesty, even in the midst of wanton satyrs. As a +writer of satire, ye Pisos, I shall never be fond of unornamented and +reigning terms: nor shall I labor to differ so widely from the +complexion of tragedy, as to make no distinction, whether Davus be the +speaker. And the bold Pythias, who gained a talent by gulling Simo; or +Silenus, the guardian and attendant of his pupil-god [Bacchus]. I would +so execute a fiction taken from a well-known story, that any body might +entertain hopes of doing the same thing; but, on trial, should sweat and +labor in vain. Such power has a just arrangement and connection of the +parts: such grace may be added to subjects merely common. In my +judgment the Fauns, that are brought out of the woods, should not be too +gamesome with their tender strains, as if they were educated in the +city, and almost at the bar; nor, on the other hand; should blunder out +their obscene and scandalous speeches. For [at such stuff] all are +offended, who have a horse, a father, or an estate: nor will they +receive with approbation, nor give the laurel crown, as the purchasers +of parched peas and nuts are delighted with. + +A long syllable put after a short one is termed an iambus, a lively +measure, whence also it commanded the name of trimeters to be added to +iambics, though it yielded six beats of time, being similar to itself +from first to last. Not long ago, that it might come somewhat slower and +with more majesty to the ear, it obligingly and contentedly admitted +into its paternal heritage the steadfast spondees; agreeing however, by +social league, that it was not to depart from the second and fourth +place. But this [kind of measure] rarely makes its appearance in the +notable trimeters of Accius, and brands the verse of Ennius brought upon +the stage with a clumsy weight of spondees, with the imputation of being +too precipitate and careless, or disgracefully accuses him of ignorance +in his art. + +It is not every judge that discerns inharmonious verses, and an +undeserved indulgence is [in this case] granted to the Roman poets. But +shall I on this account run riot and write licentiously? Or should not I +rather suppose, that all the world are to see my faults; secure, and +cautious [never to err] but with hope of being pardoned? Though, +perhaps, I have merited no praise, I have escaped censure. + +Ye [who are desirous to excel,] turn over the Grecian models by night, +turn them by day. But our ancestors commended both the numbers of +Plautus, and his strokes of pleasantry; too tamely, I will not say +foolishly, admiring each of them; if you and I but know how to +distinguish a coarse joke from a smart repartee, and understand the +proper cadence, by [using] our fingers and ears. + +Thespis is said to have invented a new kind of tragedy, and to have +carried his pieces about in carts, which [certain strollers], who had +their faces besmeared with lees of wine, sang and acted. After him +Aeschylus, the inventor of the vizard mask and decent robe, laid the +stage over with boards of a tolerable size, and taught to speak in lofty +tone, and strut in the buskin. To these succeeded the old comedy, not +without considerable praise: but its personal freedom degenerated into +excess and violence, worthy to be regulated by law; a law was made +accordingly, and the chorus, the right of abusing being taken away, +disgracefully became silent. + +Our poets have left no species [of the art] unattempted; nor have those +of them merited the least honor, who dared to forsake the footsteps of +the Greeks, and celebrate domestic facts; whether they have instructed +us in tragedy, of comedy. Nor would Italy be raised higher by valor and +feats of arms, than by its language, did not the fatigue and tediousness +of using the file disgust every one of our poets. Do you, the decendants +of Pompilius, reject that poem, which many days and many a blot have not +ten times subdued to the most perfect accuracy. Because Democritus +believes that genius is more successful than wretched art, and excludes +from Helicon all poets who are in their senses, a great number do not +care to part with their nails or beard, frequent places of solitude, +shun the baths. For he will acquire, [he thinks,] the esteem and title +of a poet, if he neither submits his head, which is not to be cured by +even three Anticyras, to Licinius the barber. What an unlucky fellow am +I, who am purged for the bile in spring-time! Else nobody would compose +better poems; but the purchase is not worth the expense. Therefore I +will serve instead of a whetstone, which though not able of itself to +cut, can make steel sharp: so I, who can write no poetry myself, will +teach the duty and business [of an author]; whence he may be stocked +with rich materials; what nourishes and forms the poet; what gives +grace, what not; what is the tendency of excellence, what that of error. + +To have good sense, is the first principle and fountain of writing well. +The Socratic papers will direct you in the choice of your subjects; and +words will spontaneously accompany the subject, when it is well +conceived. He who has learned what he owes to his country, and what to +his friends; with what affection a parent, a brother, and a stranger, +are to be loved; what is the duty of a senator, what of a judge; what +the duties of a general sent out to war; he, [I say,] certainly knows +how to give suitable attributes to every character. I should direct the +learned imitator to have a regard to the mode of nature and manners, and +thence draw his expressions to the life. Sometimes a play, that is +showy with common-places, and where the manners are well marked, though +of no elegance, without force or art, gives the people much higher +delight and more effectually commands their attention, than verse void +of matter, and tuneful trifles. + +To the Greeks, covetous of nothing but praise, the muse gave genius; to +the Greeks the power of expressing themselves in round periods. The +Roman youth learn by long computation to subdivide a pound into an +hundred parts. Let the son of Albinus tell me, if from five ounces one +be subtracted, what remains? He would have said the third of a +pound.--Bravely done! you will be able to take care of your own affairs. +An ounce is added: what will that be? Half a pound. When this sordid +rust and hankering after wealth has once tainted their minds, can we +expect that such verses should be made as are worthy of being anointed +with the oil of cedar, and kept in the well-polished cypress? + +Poets wish either to profit or to delight; or to deliver at once both +the pleasures and the necessaries of life. Whatever precepts you give, +be concise; that docile minds may soon comprehend what is said, and +faithfully retain it. All superfluous instructions flow from the too +full memory. Let what ever is imagined for the sake of entertainment, +have as much likeness to truth as possible; let not your play demand +belief for whatever [absurdities] it is inclinable [to exhibit]: nor +take out of a witch's belly a living child that she had dined upon. The +tribes of the seniors rail against every thing that is void of +edification: the exalted knights disregard poems which are austere. He +who joins the instructive with the agreeable, carries off every vote, by +delighting and at the same time admonishing the reader. This book gains +money for the Sosii; this crosses the sea, and continues to its renowned +author a lasting duration. + +Yet there are faults, which we should be ready to pardon: for neither +does the string [always] form the sound which the hand and conception +[of the performer] intends, but very often returns a sharp note when he +demands a flat; nor will the bow always hit whatever mark it threatens. +But when there is a great majority of beauties in a poem, I will not be +offended with a few blemishes, which either inattention has dropped, or +human nature has not sufficiently provided against. What therefore [is +to be determined in this matter]? As a transcriber, if he still commits +the same fault though he has been reproved, is without excuse; and the +harper who always blunders on the same string, is sure to be laughed at; +so he who is excessively deficient becomes another Choerilus; whom, when +I find him tolerable in two or three places, I wonder at with laughter; +and at the same time am I grieved whenever honest Homer grows drowsy? +But it is allowable, that sleep should steal upon [the progress of] a +king work. + +As is painting, so is poetry: some pieces will strike you more if you +stand near, and some, if you are at a greater distance: one loves the +dark; another, which is not afraid of the critic's subtle judgment, +chooses to be seen in the light; the one has pleased once, the other +will give pleasure if ten times repeated. + +O ye elder of the youths, though you are framed to a right judgment by +your father's instructions, and are wise in yourself, yet take this +truth along with you, [and] remember it; that in certain things a medium +and tolerable degree of eminence may be admitted: a counselor and +pleader at the bar of the middle rate is far removed from the merit of +eloquent Messala, nor has so much knowledge of the law as Casselius +Aulus, but yet he is in request; [but] a mediocrity in poets neither +gods, nor men, nor [even] the booksellers' shops have endured. As at an +agreeable entertainment discordant music, and muddy perfume, and poppies +mixed with Sardinian honey give offense, because the supper might have +passed without them; so poetry, created and invented for the delight of +our souls, if it comes short ever so little of the summit, sinks to the +bottom. + +He who does not understand the game, abstains from the weapons of the +Campus Martius: and the unskillful in the tennis-ball, the quoit, and +the troques keeps himself quiet; lest the crowded ring should raise a +laugh at his expense: notwithstanding this, he who knows nothing of +verses presumes to compose. Why not! He is free-born, and of a good +family; above all, he is registered at an equestrian sum of moneys, and +clear from every vice. You, [I am persuaded,] will neither say nor do +any thing in opposition to Minerva: such is your judgment, such your +disposition. But if ever you shall write anything, let it be submitted +to the ears of Metius [Tarpa], who is a judge, and your father's, and +mine; and let it be suppressed till the ninth year, your papers being +held up within your own custody. You will have it in your power to blot +out what you have not made public: a word ice sent abroad can never +return. + +Orpheus, the priest and Interpreter of the gods, deterred the savage +race of men from slaughters and inhuman diet; once said to tame tigers +and furious lions: Amphion too, the builder of the Theban wall, was said +to give the stones moon with the sound of his lyre, and to lead them +whithersover he would, by engaging persuasion. This was deemed wisdom of +yore, to distinguish the public from private weal; things sacred from +things profane; to prohibit a promiscuous commerce between the sexes; to +give laws to married people; to plan out cities; to engrave laws on +[tables of] wood. Thus honor accrued to divine poets, and their songs. +After these, excellent Homer and Tyrtaeus animated the manly mind to +martial achievements with their verses. Oracles were delivered in +poetry, and the economy of life pointed out, and the favor of sovereign +princes was solicited by Pierian drains, games were instituted, and a +[cheerful] period put to the tedious labors of the day; [this I remind +you of,] lest haply you should be ashamed of the lyric muse, and Apollo +the god of song. + +It has been made a question, whether good poetry be derived from nature +or from art. For my part, I can neither conceive what study can do +without a rich [natural] vein, nor what rude genius can avail of itself: +so much does the one require the assistance of the other, and so +amicably do they conspire [to produce the same effect]. He who is +industrious to reach the wished-for goal, has done and suffered much +when a boy; he has sweated and shivered with cold; he has abstained from +love and wine; he who sings the Pythian strains, was a learner first, +and in awe of a master. But [in poetry] it is now enough for a man to +say of himself: "I make admirable verses: a murrain seize the hindmost: +it is scandalous for me to be outstripped, and fairly to Acknowledge +that I am ignorant of that which I never learned." + +As a crier who collects the crowd together to buy his goods, so a poet +rich in land, rich in money put out at interest, invites flatterers to +come [and praise his works] for a reward. But if he be one who is well +able to set out an elegant table, and give security for a poor man, and +relieve when entangled in glaomy law-suits; I shall wonder if with his +wealth he can distinguish a true friend from false one. You, whether +you have made, or intend to make, a present to any one, do not bring him +full of joy directly to your finished verses: for then he will cry out, +"Charming, excellent, judicious," he will turn pale; at some parts he +will even distill the dew from his friendly eyes; he will jump about; he +will beat the ground [with ecstasy]. As those who mourn at funerals for +pay, do and say more than those that are afflicted from their hearts; so +the sham admirer is more moved than he that praises with sincerity. +Certain kings are said to ply with frequent bumpers, and by wine make +trial of a man whom they are sedulous to know whether he be worthy of +their friendship or not. Thus, if you compose verses, let not the fox's +concealed intentions impose upon you. + +If you had recited any thing to Quintilius, he would say, "Alter, I +pray, this and this:" if you replied, you could do it no better, having +made the experiment twice or thrice in vain; he would order you to blot +out, and once more apply to the anvil your ill-formed verses: if you +choose rather to defend than correct a fault, he spent not a word more +nor fruitless labor, but you alone might be fond of yourself and your +own works, without a rival. A good and sensible man will censure +spiritless verses, he will condemn the rugged, on the incorrect he will +draw across a black stroke with his pen; he will lop off ambitious [and +redundant] ornaments; he will make him throw light on the parts that are +not perspicuous; he will arraign what is expressed ambiguously; he will +mark what should be altered; [in short,] he will be an Aristarchus: he +will not say, "Why should I give my friend offense about mere trifles?" +These trifles will lead into mischiefs of serious consequence, when once +made an object of ridicule, and used in a sinister manner. + +Like one whom an odious plague or jaundice, fanatic phrensy or lunacy, +distresses; those who are wise avoid a mad poet, and are afraid to touch +him; the boys jostle him, and the incautious pursue him. If, like a +fowler intent upon his game, he should fall into a well or a ditch while +he belches out his fustian verses and roams about, though he should cry +out for a long time, "Come to my assistance, O my countrymen;" not one +would give himself the trouble of taking him up. Were any one to take +pains to give him aid, and let down a rope; "How do you know, but he +threw himself in hither on purpose?" I shall say: and will relate the +death of the Sicilian poet. Empedocles, while he was ambitious of being +esteemed an immortal god, in cold blood leaped into burning Aetna. Let +poets have the privilege and license to die [as they please]. He who +saves a man against his will, does the same with him who kills him +[against his will]. Neither is it the first time that he has behaved in +this manner; nor, were he to be forced from his purposes, would he now +become a man, and lay aside his desire of such a famous death. Neither +does it appear sufficiently, why he makes verses: whether he has defiled +his father's ashes, or sacrilegiously removed the sad enclosure of the +vindictive thunder: it is evident that he is mad, and like a bear that +has burst through the gates closing his den, this unmerciful rehearser +chases the learned and unlearned. And whomsoever he seizes, he fastens +on and assassinates with recitation: a leech that will not quit the +skin, till satiated with blood. + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Horace, by Horace + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF HORACE *** + +***** This file should be named 14020.txt or 14020.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/0/2/14020/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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