Nec Coae referunt jam tibi purpurae,

Nec clari lapides, tempora, quae semel

Notis condita fastis

Inclusit volucris dies.

Quo fugit Venus? heu, quove color? decens
Quo motus? quid habes illius, illius,
Quae spirabat amores,

Quae me surpuerat mihi?

Felix post Cinaram, notaque et artium
Gratarum facies? Sed Cinarae breves
Annos fata dederunt,

Servatura diu parem

Cornicis vetulae temporibus Lycen,

Possent ut juvenes visere fervidi,

Multo non sine risu,

Dilapsam in cineres facem.

XIV. AD AUGUSTUM.

QUAE cura patrum, quaeve Quiritium,
Plenis honorum muneribus tuas,
Auguste, virtutes in aevum

Per titulos memoresque fastos

Aeternet, o qua sol habitabiles
Illustrat oras, maxime principum ?

U

How far thy martial prowess may attain
Learnt the Vindelici, from Latian thrall
As yet exempt, when latterly amain,
Drusus, thine armament imperial
Conducting, overthrew once and again
The Brenni fleet, Gerauni, restless race,
And castles crowning frightful Alpine heights.
Anon, inspired by thine auspicious grace,
The elder Nero à great battle fights,
And to the restless Rhaetians gives chase.
Splendid, in sooth, to witness how he smites
Those cheerful devotees of liberty

With dire destruction on the embattled plain.
As lashes the south wind the tameless sea
When clouds are cleft by Pleiads' choral chain,
So prompt to charge the banded foe is he:
So through the fiery conflict spurs amain
His eager steeds. Thus ox-shaped Aufid whirls
(Stream, that the realm of Puglian Daunus laves),
As o'er the cultivated fields he hurls

The fearful deluge of his rabid waves.

When the mailed bands of those barbarian churls Claudius with his impetuous onslaught cleaves, And mowing van and rear, yet losing none On his own side, with corpses strews the ground, Thou troops and counsels lendest, thou thine own Tutelar gods. For when three lustres round Had fully run from the same day whereon Submissive Alexandria was found

Opening to thee her ports and palace lone,

Quem legis expertes Latinae

Vindelici didicere nuper

Quid Marte posses.

Milite nam tuo

Drusus Genaunos, implacidum genus,
Brennosque veloces, et arces

Alpibus impositas tremendis

Dejecit acer plus vice simplici.

Major Neronum mox grave proelium
Commisit, immanesque Raetos
Auspiciis pepulit secundis:
Spectandus in certamine Martio,
Devota morti pectora liberae
Quantis fatigaret ruinis:

Indomitas prope qualis undas
Exercet Auster, Pleïadum choro
Scindente nubes, impiger hostium
Vexare turmas, et frementem

Mittere equum medios per ignes.
Sic tauriformis volvitur Aufidus,
Qui regna Dauni praefluit Apuli,
Cum saevit, horrendamque cultis
Diluviem meditatur agris.
Ut barbarorum Claudius agmina
Ferrata vasto diruit impetu,

Primosque et extremos metendo,

Stravit humum sine clade victor; Te copias te consilium, et tuos Praebente divos. Nam tibi quo die Portus Alexandrea supplex

Et vacuam patefecit aulam,

291

Kind fortune gave thy wars a prosperous end,
And claimed that on thine emprise perfected
Applause and hoped-for honour should attend.
Spaniard till then unconquered, Indian, Mede,
And roaming Scythian, before thee bend
Admiringly, oh thou the guardian dread
Of Italy and dominating Rome!

Thee, Danube, rapid Tigris, mystic Nile
That hides the secret of her infant home;
Thee, monster-breeding sea, that 'gainst the isle
Of distant Britons rolls its deafening foam:
Thee, death-despising Gaul, and Spain erewhile
Unyielding land of hardy sons, obey:

To thee the blood-thirsty Sicambrians,
Dropping their weapons, reverent homage pay.

An appropriate epilogue to the Fourth Book, which is supposed to have been compiled and published by desire of Augustus, mainly for the purpose of giving to the world the Odes celebrating the victories of Drusus and Tiberius, and which, on that supposition, could not conclude better than with an address to the Emperor himself recounting the series of successes whereby he had conferred upon the people the blessings of universal peace.

FAIN had I sung of fights and cities ta'en,
But Phoebus with his lyre rebuked the strain,
Lest my frail bark should take its way
Through Tyrrhene gulf. Caesar, thy sway

Fortuna lustro prospera tertio
Belli secundos reddidit exitus,
Laudemque et optatum peractis
Imperiis decus arrogavit.

Te Cantaber non ante domabilis,

Medusque, et Indus; te profugus Scythes Miratur, o tutela praesens

Italiae, dominaeque Romae!

Te fontium qui celat origines,

Nilusque, et Ister; te rapidus Tigris;
Te beluosus qui remotis

Obstrepit Oceanus Britannis;

Te non paventis funera Galliae,
Duraeque tellus audit Hiberiae :
Te caede gaudentes Sigambri
Compositis venerantur armis.

XV. AUGUSTI LAUDES.

PHOEBUS volentem proelia me loqui
Victas et urbes increpuit lyra,

Ne parva Tyrrhenum per aequor
Vela darem. Tua, Caesar, aetas