Aërias tentâsse domos, animoque rotundum

Percurrisse polum, morituro.

Occidit et Pelopis genitor, conviva deorum,

Tithonusque remotus in auras,

Et Jovis arcanis Minos admissus; habentque
Tartara Panthoïden, iterum Orco

Demissum; quamvis clipeo Trojana refixo
Tempora testatus, nihil ultra

Nervos atque cutem morti concesserat atrae;

Judice te, non sordidus auctor

Naturae verique. Sed omnes una manet nox,

Et calcanda semel via leti.

Dant alios Furiae torvo spectacula Marti:

Exitio est avidum mare nautis.

Mixta senum ac juvenum densentur funera; nullum

Saeva caput Proserpina fugit.

Me quoque devexi rapidus comes Orionis

Illyricis Notus obruit undis.

At tu nauta, vagae ne parce malignus arenae

Ossibus et capiti inhumato

Particulam dare. Sic, quodcunque minabitur Eurus

Fluctibus Hesperiis, Venusinae

F

Leave you in safety so for you abundant streams of gain, Come they from whencesoe'er they may, do righteous Jove ordain,

And Neptune, at Tarentum hailed as guardian deity. But, if you scruple not at fraud, foredoomed erelong to be Visited on your guiltless bairns, then may it chance for you That like neglectful scorn in turn and retribution due Shall be reserved: I shall not be left without vengeful prayer.

No expiatory sacrifice will your offence repair.

What though in such impatient haste-I crave but brief delay;

Sprinkle but thrice the dust on me, then speed you on your way.

In the year 23 B. C. an army was sent by Augustus into Arabia Felix, under Aelius Gallus, Governor of Egypt, and the prospects of plunder which the expedition held out would seem to have induced a number of young men at Rome, and among others Iccius, a man of studious habits, to join it.

So, Iccius, the vast wealth which Arabs store
You covet: and prepare sharp warfare for
Saba's unconquered kings, and plan

Bonds for the dreadful Median.

What gentile girl, whose lover you may kill,
Shall thereupon be servant of your will?

What boy from court with essenced hair
Shall be appointed cupbearer-

Plectantur silvae, te sospite: multaque merces,

Unde potest, tibi defluat aequo

Ab Jove, Neptunoque sacri custode Tarenti.

Negligis immeritis nocituram

Postmodo te natis fraudem committere? Fors et

Debita jura vicesque superbae

Te maneant ipsum. Precibus non linquar inultis; Teque piacula nulla resolvent.

Quamquam festinas (non est mora longa) licebit, Injecto ter pulvere, curras.

XXIX: AD ICCIUM.

ICCI, beatis nunc Arabum invides

Gazis et acrem militiam paras

:

Non ante devictis Sabaeae

Regibus, horribilique Medo
Nectis catenas. Quae tibi virginum
Sponso necato barbara serviet ?

Puer quis ex aula capillis

Ad cyathum statuetur unctis,

Accustomed with his father's bow to fly
Serican arrows? Who will now deny

That headlong rivers may flow back
Uphill, and Tiber change his track;
When you, who better hopes of you had taught,
Panaetus' noble tomes, everywhere bought,
And the entire Socratic family,

Are bartering for Iberian panoply?

Composed perhaps on the occasion of some lady friend of Horace sacrificing, or dedicating a little chapel to the Goddess of Love.

O VENUS, queen of Cnidus and of Paphos,
Leave thy beloved Cyprus, and betake thee
To the fair shrine where Glycera invokes thee,
Sparing not incense.

Let with thee haste thy fervid boy, the Graces,
With their zones loosed, and thy attendant wood nymphs:
Mercury, too, and Youth that scantly courteous

Is when without thee.

Doctus sagittas tendere Sericas
Arcu paterno? Quis neget arduis
Pronos relabi posse rivos

Montibus, et Tiberim reverti; Cum tu coëmptos undique nobiles Libros Panaeti, Socraticam et domum, Mutare loricis Hiberis,

Pollicitus meliora, tendis?

XXX. AD VENEREM.

O VENUS, regina Cnidi Paphique, Sperne dilectam Cypron, et vocantis Ture te multo Glycerae decoram Transfer in aedem.

Fervidus tecum puer, et solutis
Gratiae zonis, properentque Nymphae,
Et parum comis sine te Juventas
Mercuriusque.