Nosque et profestis lucibus et sacris, Cum prole, matronisque nostris, Virtute functos, more patrum, duces, the river Tanais. And let us, both on common and festal days, amidst the gifts of joyous Bacchus, together with our wives and families, having first duly invoked the Gods, celebrate, after the manner of our ancestors, with songs accompanied with Lydian pipes, our late valiant commanders, and Troy, and Anchises, and the offspring of benign Venus. QUINTI HORATII FLACCI ΕΠΟΔΩΝ LIBER V. CARMEN I. AD MECENATEM. Ad bellum Actiacum profecturo comitem se offert. IBIS Liburnis inter alta navium, Amice, propugnacula, Paratus omne Cæsaris periculum Subire, Mæcenas, tuo. Quid nos? quibus te vita* sit superstite Jucunda ; si contrà, gravis? Utrumne jussi persequemur otium Non dulce, ni tecum simul? * Vitâ si superstite. 5 HORACE'S EPODES, OR THE FIFTH BOOK OF THE ODES. ODE I. TO MECENAS. Horace offers to accompany him, on his departure for the Actian expedition. YOU will go, my friend Mæcenas, with Liburnian galleys, amongst the towering forts of Antony's large ships, ready at your own hazard to undergo any of Cæsar's dangers. What shall I do? to whom life may indeed be agreeable if you survive, but, if otherwise, it will be insupportable. Whether shall I, at your commands, pursue my ease, which cannot be pleasing unless in your company? or shall I endure this toil with such a courage as becomes uneffeminate men to bear?—I Au hunc laborem mente laturi, decet Vel occidentis usque ad ultimum sinum Roges tuum labore quid juvem meo, Comes minore* sum futurus in metu, Ut assidens implumibus pullis avis Magis relictis; non, ut adsit, auxilî 10 15 20 Non ut juvencist illigata pluribus 25 Aratra‡ nitantur meis: Pecusve Calabris ante sidus fervidum Lucana mutet pascua : Nec ut superni villa candens Tusculi Circæa tangat mœnia. Satis superque me benignitas tua Ditavit. Haud paravero, Quòd aut avarus, ut Chremes, terrâ premam; * Sim futurus in metu. Heins. 30 Aratra nectantur mea |