am. See n. O. i., 36, 12.and comp. O. iii., 12, 7. 39. Gramina Martii. See n. O. i., 8, 4; ODE II. This ode was occasioned by the victories won by Augustus, B. c. 15, over the German tribes, and especially the Sygambri, on the right bank of the Rhine. In anticipation of his expected return, Horace was probably requested by Iulus to sing in a Pindaric ode these new triumphs of the emperor. As in the Sixth Ode of the First Book, so here too. the poet pleads the humble character of his own Muse, and defers to Antonius himself the lofty task. The task however he nobly executes, in the very act of declining it, and in the ode which he writes, confers a new "honor" upon Augustus, "better than a hundred statues;" Iulus Antonius was the son of Mark Antony and Fulvia; he married the daughter of Octavia. The ode was probably written in the beginning of the year 14 B. C 3. Vitreo ponto. To the glassy deep. Osborne compares Milton, in Comus: "Glassy, cool, translucent wave." Daturus nomiThe poet, who -5. Am Comp. O. iii., 13, 1; Virg. Aen. 7, 759, vitrea-unda. na. Icarus, whose fall gave a name to the Icarian sea. would rival Pindar, is destined to like failure and disgrace. nis. A common figure, like the metaphors flumen orationis, flumen ingenii, torrens oratio, and others. Cicero, Orat. 12, 39, comparing Herodotus and Thucydides, says: Alter-quasi sedatus amnis fluit; alter incitatior fertur. - 6. Notas; consuetas, accustomed. 7. Immensus; unconfined, transcending the ordinary limits of poetic license. Os with rotundum, magnum, is often used of language. Here in connection with amnis, it seems, as Orelli remarks, to point, in the comparison, to the mouth of the river, where its deepest waters pour into the sea. Quintilian mentions Pindar's beatissimam rerum verborumque copiam. "Pindar foams, and rolls on, unconfined, with his mighty depth of expression." Osborne. Garve gives well profundo ore by mit tiefem Wortstrom. Donandus. Worthy of being presented. In the following lines, 11-24, the poet mentions or indicates four principal species of lyric verse, in all of which Pindar was pre-eminent. - 10. Dithyrambos. The Dithyrambus was a song in honor of Bacchus, of a bold and free charac ter, in respect both to its language and measure. Of this kind of verse, written by Pindar, there is extant but a single fragment. - Nova 9. 19. verba. Particularly compound words, of many syllables, in forming which Pindar indulged the utmost license.- -12. Lege solutis. So described, because in the dithyramb, the poet was not confined to any particular, regularly recurring measures, but wrote at will in every variety. In the word fertur Horace still keeps up the comparison of a river. -13. Deos-canit. The second kind of lyrics; Paeans, in honor of gods, demi-gods, and heroes, such as Theseus and Pirithous, who conquered the Centaurs, and Bellerophon, who killed the fire-breathing Chimaera. -17. Sive quos. The third kind, Epinicia, èπvíkiα, in honor of the victors at the public games, especially the Olympic.—Elea. See note, O. i., 1, 3; also on caelestes comp. in same ode, line 6. Signis. The statues, erected to the honor of victors, at Olympia. 21. Flebili. Alluding to the fourth class of lyric poems, pôvoι, Threni, the dirges. 23. Mores aureos. Translate literally; golden morals. -25. Dircaeum-cycnum. Dircaeum, from the fountain of Dirce, near Thebes, the native city of Pindar. On cycnum compare the introduction to 20th Ode of Book Second.. - Multa; i. e. magna, vehemens ; a strong breeze. -27. Apis. In this image of the swan and of the bee, Horace seems to ascribe genius to Pindar, and only talent to himself; he compares the sublime poetry flowing out, as it were, spontaneously from the one, with the verses wrought out by the other only with laborious effort. - Matinae. Mons Matinus, in Apulia, famous for its excellent honey. 32. Fingo. The regular expression used for the labors of the bee; fingere mel, flavos, like the Greek #λάtteш. All these expressions illustrate the curiosa felicitas of Horace; carpentis, laborem plurimum, operosa carmina fingo. -33. Majore―plectro. Plectrum, the staff, or quill, with which the lyre was struck; here metaphorical; of higher strain. Iulus Antonius is said to have written an epic in twelve books, descriptive of the fortunes of Diomed. - 34. Quandoque. For quandocunque, whenever; comp. preceding ode, 1. 17. -35. Per sacrum clivam. The Sacer Clivus was the Clivus of the Sacra Via, the steep Clivus, leading from the top of the Velian ridge which joins on to the Palatine (and on which now stands the Arch of Titus), down to the southeastern angle of the Forum. The ancient pavement of this part of the Sacred Way is still visible. Along this Clivus passed the triumphal processions on their way to the capitol. The Sacer Clivus is sometimes confounded with the Clivus Capitolinus, which was the ascent leading from the other extremity of the Sacred Way up the Capitoline hill. To the Sacer Clivus Horace also alludes in Epod. 7, 7: -Ut descenderet Sucra catenatus via- and Martial, 1, 70: Inde sacro veneranda petes Palatia clivo. See Becker's Rom. Antiqq. i., p. 238; and Classical Museum, vol. 5, p. 235.- 36. Sygambros. A fierce German tribe, who lived between the Rhine and the southern bank of the Luppia, the modern Lippe.· 39. In aurum-priscum ; i. e. aureum seculum priscum, the golden age of old. -43. Reditu. Comp. introd. to the ode. Though expected, Augustus did not return till the year в. c. 13, two years later, being detained by wars in Gaul and Spain. -44. Litibus orbum. On days either of public mourning or of public rejoicing, there was proclaimed what was called a justitium, a suspension of all court-business (justitium indicebatur).- -49. Teque,-procedis. So read the most and the oldest MSS. A single MS. has procedit, a reading which Orelli adopts. The direct address is to Triumphus personified, and Io Triumphe was the shout in which all the citizens joined, as the procession passed on. So in Epod. 9, 21: "lo triumphe, tu moraris aureos 53. Te. The address now returns to Antonius. 54. Solvet; i. e. from my vows; of which is direct mention, 1. 55, in mea vota, for the fulfilment of my vows. -57. Fronte. The horns of the calf are poetically compared with the crescent of the moon, when three days old. -59. Niveus videri. Like the Greek: Aevkds idéodal. The calf was of a dun color, except in a single spot, perhaps on the forehead, which was white.-On duxit, see Hark. 471, II, 3. ODE III As in the 30th Ode of Book Second, the poet here also addresses Melpomene, as his patroness, his cherished Muse. The man, he says, on whom at his birth she looks with friendly eye, wins renown; not indeed in Grecian games (2-5), nor in Roman arms (6-9), but in lyric song (10-12). Himself has Rome, the queen of cities, deigned to rank among her poets; the Roman public awards him the title of master of the Roman lyre. All this belongs to Melpomene—the inspiration, the honor, all is hers (13–24). Dillenburger mentions with approval the opinion of Weber, that Horace wrote this ode to express his joy at the praises which he gained from the emperor and the people, by his Secular Hymn. 3. Isthmius. The Isthmian Games, one of the four Grecian national festivals; so called from the Isthmus of Corinth, where they were celebrated every third year, in honor of Poseidon or Neptune. See Dict. Antiqq., under the word. 5. Curru Achaico. Probably refers to the Olympian chariot-races, as O. i., 1, 3. Achaico for Graeco. 8. Quod -contuderit. For having crushed. The subjunctive with quod, because sae-comae. tudinis. See -11. Spis -17. Tes the action is something only conceived of. See H. 520, II.Thick foliage, as O. i., 21, 5, where see note. note, O. i., 10, 6. Aureae is poetic, as in preceding ode, 1. 23.- -18. Pieri. This use of the sing. number, rather than Pierides, is rare. Ovid has, Fasti, 4, 222, Pieris orsa loqui. Orelli. Quod spiro. Quod is not the acc. of the relative, but a particle. I am moved with poetic inspiration. -24. That ODE IV. This ode and the Fourteenth of this Book celebrate the victo. 'es of Drusus and Tiberius, the sons of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia, and the step-sons of Augustus, over the Rhaeti and the Vindelici. The present ode, though chiefly devoted to the praises of Drusus, yet in the expression Nerones, 1. 28, and in the allusion to the Vindelici, 1. 18, also does honor to Tiberius; while the fourteenth, in a similar manner, is chiefly in honor of Tiberius, but does not omit the name of Drusus. The Rhaeti were defeated by Drusus B. c. 15, and soon after, the Vindelici by the two brothers together. After describing the valor of Drusus (1-24), the poet gracefully extols the careful education of the two brothers by Augustus (25-36), and in the remainder of the ode celebrates the honors of the Claudian family, and especially of Caius Claudius Nero, the conqueror of Hasdrubal, the brother of Hannibal. 1. Qualem, etc. In the comparison of Drusus with the eagle and the lion, in verses 1-18, the correlative talem must be supplied with Drusum, 1. 18: qualem-alitem,—qualemve-leonem,-talem Drusum gerentem. Qualem ministrum fulminis alitem. As the winged minister of thunder. So Virg. Aen. 5, 255, calls the eagle the armor-bearer of Jove; and Pliny, Hist. N. 10, 3, 4, describes him as proof against lightning; negant unquam solam hanc alitem exanimatam fulmine. 4. Ganymede flavo. In allusion to the story of Ganymede being carried off by the eagle. Comp. note, O. iii., 20, 16. Flavus; fair, the poetic word for beautiful, like §avdós; often used with coma, crinis, golden, as in O. i., 5, 4. -9. Mox. Observe the connection with olim, 1. 5, and nunc, 1. 11; at first, by and by, now. 10. Demisit. With the force of a present indefinite, as also egit, 1. 12. See note, O. i., 28, 20.– 11. Reluctantes dracones. The commentators compare Pliny, Hist. Nat. 10, 4: Acrior cum dracone pugna―ille multiplici nexu alas ligat, ita se implicans, ut simul decidat; and Virg. Aen. 11; 751. – 14, 15. Ab ubere Jam Lacte depulsum. The weaning of the young of animals is expressed in Virg. Ecl. 7, 15, by depulsus a lacte (agnos), and in Georg. 3, 187, by depulsus ab ubere (equus). In this place Horace chooses to employ both ab ubere and lacte with the same participle depulsus; though lacte adds nothing essential to the meaning of ab ubere dcpulsum, but only shows from the use of what the young lion is deprived, in being forced from his mother's side. Render, then, now weaned from the udder. Some translate ubere as an adjective, agreeing with lacte; but we cannot believe that Horace would have used the same word as an adjective, with which his readers were familiar as a substantive in the expression depellere ab ubere.. -17. Raetis-Alpibus. This part of the Alpine range, still called the Rhaetian Alps, is between the St. Gothard, in Northern Italy, and the sources of the Adige, in the Tyrol. Its name is from the Rhaeti, who lived on its southern sides, and whose territory lay between Lake Como and the river Adige, the northern part of Lombardy, and the southern of the Tyrol. -18. Vindelici. This German tribe were the northern neighbors of the Rhaeti; and their territory extended from Lake Constance through the south of Bavaria, and the north of the Tyrol. Quibus-obarmet. Quibus depends upon obarmet; but we translate such a dative by our possessive; e. g. to whom custom-arms (their) right hands, i. e. whose right hands—custom arms, etc. Unde deductus depends upon quaerere. Obarmet is an unusual 24. Juvenis. Drusus was at -27. Augusti paternus. Au word, which we should not expect to find in Horace. Indeed the passage quibus-sed is so heavy and prosaic, that its genuineness is questioned, even by some of the best critics, who, omitting the whole, propose to read thus: Vindelici; et diu, etc. this time but twenty-three years of age. gustus, after his marriage with Livia, adopted and educated her children, Tiberius and Drusus.-See introduction. 29. Fortibus et bonis. In the ablative case. Dillenburger cites Ovid, Met. 11, 295, genitore creatus, and 13, 615, viro-creatas. 33. Doctrina sed. The poet, though he asserts the influence of a noble ancestry, yet insists upon the necessity of a right education, as essential alike to intellectual and to moral excellence. 35. Utcunque; quandocunque, whenever. 38. Metaurum flumen. The battle of the Metaurus, a river in Umbria, fought in B. C. 207, in which Caius Claudius Nero totally defeated Hasdrubal; a victory which inspired the Romans with fresh courage, and gave a decisive and favorable turn to their affairs.. -41. Alma-adorea. Adorea, sc. donatio, means properly a donative of ador, spelt, grain; given to soldiers after a victory; hence, figuratively, as here, for victory, military glory. Smiled with benignant victory. 42. Ut. Ex quo, from 48. Deos-rectos. "Re-established. The statues were replaced, which had been thrown down by the invaders." Osborne. -49. Perfidus. Horace writes like Livy, concerning Hannibal, and expresses the national sentiment touching their great enemy. Comp. Liv. 21, 4. But modern history is more just to the character of the great Carthaginian. See Arnold's Rom. Hist. vol. 2, p. 195; Schmitz's Hist. p. 195.- -50. Cervi. As stags. The remainder of the ode is one of the finest passages any where to be found, in illustration of the the time when. |