Their rightful gods received. Outspake at last
Perfidious Hannibal: As deer do we,

Meet food for ravening wolves, pursue in haste,
When to escape were utmost victory.

This hardy race, from Troy, by fire laid waste,
After long tossing on the Tuscan main,
Their gods, their sons, their aged fathers led
Hither, to cities of Ausonia's plain:

As doth an oak by ruthless hatchet shred,
On Algid's thickly leaved black forest, gain
E'en from its loss and lopping, and is fed
With strength and spirit by that selfsame steel.
The severed Hydra did not firmlier grow
'Gainst Ercles, grieving o'er his baffled skill:
No greater prodigy did Colchos show,
Neither did Thebes in Echion reveal.

Merged in the deep, they rise with livelier glow:
Encountered, they strike down their conqueror
With plentiful renown, and battles fight
For wives to talk of. Ne'er, as heretofore,

Shall I my boastful envoys expedite

To Carthage. Now, with Asdrubal no more,
Our name's whole hope and fortune take to flight.
Naught is there that the Claudian family
May not achieve. Them Jupiter defends
With grace benign. Prudent sagacity
In war's keen peril upon them attends.'

Vastata Poenorum tumultu

Fana deos habuere rectos.

Dixitque tandem perfidus Hannibal;
Cervi, luporum praeda rapacium,
Sectamur ultro quos opimus

Fallere et effugere est triumphus.
Gens, quae cremato fortis ab Ilio
Jactata Tuscis aequoribus sacra
Natosque maturosque patres
Pertulit Ausonias ad urbes;
Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus
Nigrae feraci frondis in Algido,
Per damna, per caedes, ab ipso
Ducit opes animumque ferro.
Non Hydra secto corpore firmior
Vinci dolentem crevit in Herculem;
Monstrumve submisere Colchi
Majus, Echioniaeve Thebae.

Merses profundo, pulchrior evenit:
Luctere, multa proruet integrum
Cum laude victorem, geretque

Proelia conjugibus loquenda.
Karthagini jam non ego nuntios
Mittam superbos: occidit, occidit
Spes omnis, et fortuna nostri

Nominis, Hasdrubale interempto. Nil Claudiae non perficient manus: Quas et benigno numine Juppiter Defendit, et curae sagaces

Expediunt per acuta belli.

This was written after the German victories celebrated in odes 4 and 14, and was perhaps sent to Augustus in Gaul, whence he did not return to Rome until two years after setting out on his expedition against the Sicambri. Possibly he may have delayed designedly, because it was his policy to make his absence felt; and it may be that Horace's language represented the sentiments of large numbers at Rome who felt the want of that presiding genius which had brought the city through its long troubles, and given it comparative peace.

BEST guardian of the Romulèan race,

Born under gods propitious, from our midst
Absent already for too lengthened space-
Thou to the Senate's sacred council didst
Swift return promise. Now thy course retrace.

Light to thy country, virtuous chief, restore;
For when, like that of spring, thy countenance
Hath shone upon the citizens, with more
Of gracious influence doth the day advance,
A richer brilliance do the sunbeams pour.

As on a stripling, whom the adverse blast
Of the south wind, beyond the watery plain
Of the Carpathian, tarrying there, holds fast,
Nor his loved home permits him to regain
Till more than a full year is overpast—

V. AD AUGUSTUM.

DIVIS orte bonis, optime Romulae Custos gentis, abes jam nimium diu: Maturum reditum pollicitus patrum Sancto concilio, redi.

Lucem redde tuae, dux bone, patriae; Instar veris enim vultus ubi tuus

Affulsit populo, gratior it dies,

Et soles melius nitent.

Ut mater juvenem, quem Notus invido Flatu Carpathii trans maris aequora Cunctantem spatio longius annuo

Dulci distinet a domo,

His mother calls with many a prayer and vow
And many an omen, from the curved sea-strand
Withdrawing not her gaze-even so now,
Smitten with loyal longing, fatherland
Bids Caesar here again his presence show.

For the ox safely rambles through the mead:
Ceres and bountiful Prosperity

Are nourishing the land: with winged speed
Mariners skim the pirate-cleansed sea:
Fidelity holds censure's voice in dread.

Adultery ceases the pure home to stain:
Custom and law's enactment have subdued
That foul offence: child-bearing women gain
Applause for babes of right similitude:
Crime and its punishment are co-mates twain.

While Caesar is preserved to us, who fears
The Parthian? or who the shaggy swarm
Of sons that teeming Germany uprears?
Whom does the ice-bound Scythian alarm?
Who heeds that savage Spain in arms appears?

Amid his own familiar hills, each one

In wedlock with the widowed trees unites

The vine; and joying o'er the day's work done,
Returns thence to his wine, and thee invites,
His second course, as deity, to crown.