HORACE,

ODE III. BOOK III.

Augustus had a design to rebuild Troy, and make it the Metropolis of the Roman Empire, having closeted several Senators on the project & Horace is supposed to have written the following Ode on this occasion.

THE man resolv'd, and steady to his trust,
Inflexible to ill, and obstinately just,

May the rude rabble's insolence despise,

Their senseless clamours and tumultuous cries;
The tyrant's fierceness he beguiles,

And the stern brow, and the harsh voice defies,
And with superior greatness smiles.

Not the rough whirlwind, that deforms

Adria's black gulf, and vexes it with storms,
The stubborn virtue of his soul can move;
Not the red arm of angry Jove,

That flings the thunder from the sky,

And gives it rage to roar, and strength to fly.

Should the whole frame of nature round him break

In ruin and confusion hurl'd,

He, unconcern'd, would hear the mighty crack,
And stand secure amidst a falling world.
Such were the godlike arts that led
Bright Pollux to the blest abodes;
Such did for great Alcides plead,
And gain'd a place among the gods;
Where now Augustus, mix'd with heroes, lies,
And to his lips the nectar bowl applies :
His ruddy lips the purple tincture show,
And with immortal strains divinely glow.
By arts like these did young Lyæus rise:
His tigers drew him to the skies;

Wild from the desert and unbroke,

In vain they foam'd, in vain they star'd,

In vain their eyes with fury glar'd;

He tam'd them to the lash, and bent them to the yoke.
Such were the paths that Rome's great founder trad,
When in a whirlwind snatch'd on high,
He shook off dull mortality,

And lost the monarch in the god.

Bright Juno then her awful silence broke,
And thus th' assembled deities bespoke :

Troy, says the goddess, perjur'd Troy has felt
The dire effects of her proud tyrant's guilt;
The tow'ring pile, and soft abodes,
Wall'd by the hand of servile gods,
Now spreads its ruins all around,
And lies inglorious on the ground.
An umpire, partial and unjust,
And a lewd woman's impious lust,

Lay heavy on her, and sink her to the dust.
Since false Laomedon's tyrannic sway,
That durst defraud th' immortals of their pay,
Her guardian gods renounc'd their patronage,
Nor would the fierce invading foe repel;
To my resentment, and Minerva's rage,
The guilty king and the whole people fell.

And now the long protracted wars are o'er,

The soft adult'rer shines no more ;

No more does Hector's force the Trojan's shield,

That drove whole armies back, and singly clear'd the

My vengeance sated, I at length resign

To Mars his offspring of the Trojan line;
Advanc'd to godhead let him rise,
And take his station in the skies;
'There entertain his ravish'd sight
With scenes of glory, fields of light;

[field

Quaff with the gods immortal wine,
And see adoring nations crowd his shrine :
The thin remains of Troy's afflicted host,
In distant realms may seats unenvy'd find,
And flourish on a foreign coast;

But far be Rome from Troy disjoin'd,
Remov'd by seas, from the disastrous shore,

May endless billows rise between, and storms unnum-
Still let the curst detested place, [ber'd roar.
Where Priam lies, and Priam's faithless race,
Be cover'd o'er with weeds, and hid in grass.
There let the wanton flocks unguarded stray ;
Or, while the lonely shepherd sings,
Amidst the mighty ruins play,

And frisk upon the tombs of kings.

May tigers there, and all the savage kind,
Sad solitary haunts, and silent deserts find;
In gloomy vaults, and nooks of palaces,
May th' unmolested lioness

Her brinded whelps securely lay,

Or, couch'd in dreadful slumbers waste the day.
While Troy in heaps of ruins lies,

Rome and the Roman Capitol shall rise

Th'illustrious exiles unconfin'd

Shall triumph far and near, and rule mankind.

In vain the sea's intruding tide

Europe from Afric shall divide,

And part the sever'd world in two:

Through Afric's sands their triumphs they shall

And the long train of victories pursue

To Nile's yet undiscover'd head.

Riches the hardy soldier shall despise,
And look on gold with undesiring eyes,
Nor the disbowel'd earth explore
In search of the forbidden ore;

[spread,

Those glitt'ring ills conceal'd within the mine,
Shall lie untouch'd, and innocently shine.
To the last bounds that nature sets,

The piercing colds and sultry heats,

The godlike race shall spread their arms;
Now fill the polar circle with alarms,

Till storms and tempests their pursuits confine;
Now sweat for conquest underneath the line.
This only law the victor shall restrain,
On these conditions shall he reign;
If none his guilty hand employ
To build again a second Troy,

If none the rash design pursue,

Nor tempt the vengeance of the gods anew.
A curse there cleaves to the devoted place,
That shall the new foundations rase:
Greece shall in mutual leagues conspire
To storm the rising town with fire,

And at their armies' head myself will show
What Juno, urg'd to all her rage, can do.

Thrice should Apollo's self the city raise,
And line it round with walls of brass,

Thrice should my fav'rite Greeks his works confound,
And hew the shining fabric to the ground;
Thrice should her captive dames to Greece return,
And their dead sons and slaughter'd husbands mourn.
But hold, my muse, forbear thy tow'ring flight,
Nor bring the secrets of the gods to light:
In vain would thy presumptuous verse
Th' immortal rhetoric rehearse;

The mighty strains, in lyric numbers bound,
Forget their majesty, and lose their sound.

INDEX

TO VOL. V.

A.

ENEID, compared with the Georgic, 173.
Eneid III. translation of a story in it, 224.
Etna, description of its eruptions, 197, 224.
Albula river described, 215.

Alexander the Great, some of his busts, 10.
Alps, those mountains described, 25.

Amras castle and medals, 63.

Annius Verus, his bust, 14.

Apollo, a figure in brass, 13.

Apostles, how they perpetuated their tradition, 134. And how their

successors preserved it, 144.

Apennine mountains described by the Latin poets, 17.

Appian way, 15.

Aquila, his character, 123.

Aristides, his character, 126.

Arthur, Prince, his statue at Inspruck, 62.

Asti, the frontier town of Savoy, 21.

Augustus, Horace's ode upon his design to rebuild Troy, 293.

B.

Barns in Switzerland, their particular make, 38.

Bear, held in mighty veneration at St. Gaul, 48.

Bees, Virgil's description of them, 190.

Berkley's bombardment of the coast of France, 187.

Berne, its public walks and arsenal, 38. The riches of its canton, 42..

Blenheim battle celebrated, 240.

Bolonia, for what famous, 18.

Boyne battle described, 183, 184.
Britain compared with France, 95.
Brutus, a medal of his, 18.

Cæsar's character, 79.

C.

Calvin, his advice to the Genevois, before he died, 52.

Campaign, a poem, 231.

Cave of Polyphemus described, 226.

Cecilia, a song for that saint's day, 203.

Celsus, how he represented our Saviour's miracles, 120.

Chaucer's poetry celebrated, 206.

Christ, the testimonies of him in Pagan authors, 114, 129.

Christianity, a character of the time when it took its rise, 129. And

of the first converts to it, ibid.,

Christian religion, a treatise of it, 113.

Clitumnus river described, 215.

Congreve, his skill in poetry, 210.

Constance lake, 58.

Corona radialis described, 13.

Cowley's poetry celebrated, 207.