cally called the Arx, as having been traditionally the first hill occupied as a 'stronghold.' On the southern summit was the great temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and the two summits would naturally be termed sacrae arces. The god could hardly indicate his wrath more clearly than by striking with his thunderbolt the very temple erected in his honour.

4. Urbem] when used by itself is always the city, i.e. Rome: urbs and gentes include the whole world, cf. the well-known motto urbi et orbi.

4, 5. terruit...terruit] Horace is fond of this method of connecting stanzas or sentences by the repetition of an emphatic word. Cf. 11. 21, 23 and the next ode, 11. 24 and 26.

6. seculum...] 'The grievous days when Pyrrha bewailed strange prodigies.' Monstrum = monestrum, quod monet: that which warns, a portent, prodigy.

7. Proteus] cf. Hom. Od. 4. 386, Virg. Georg. 4. 395, was the guardian of Neptune's herds of seals.

7, 8. egit visere] This use of the infinitive to express a purpose is of the extremest rarity: Dr Kennedy calls it 'a poetic Graecism occasionally used after verbs implying motion, purpose.' Cf. Plaut. Cas. 111. 5. 48, ego huc missa sum ludere. Horace is singularly fond of employing the infinitive after verbs which do not ordinarily admit it, but I can find no instance strictly parallel with this.

13. vidimus] Notice how the verb, by its abrupt and prominent position, at once brings the mind from the days of the flood to what had actually happened in the sight of living men.

13 ff. vidimus......] Most editors take this 'we have seen the yellow Tiber, its waves hurled violently back from the shore of the Tuscan sea, advance to destroy.. explaining it by reference to an old theory (mentioned in Herodotus 2. 20, Seneca Nat. Quaest. 3. 26) to the effect that floods are due to the wind blowing violently against the mouth of a river and preventing the efflux of its waters. This is objectionable, first, because it is hard to conceive that so absurd a theory was widely prevalent; secondly, because even assuming this theory and assuming litus Etruscum to mean the shore of the Tuscan sea, it is absolutely impossible to conceive how the waves of the Tiber could be said to be hurled back from it. How can a river be driven back, not by the sea, or the wind, but by the sea-coast?

Let the student take a map of Rome and observe how the Tiber flows in a straight line past the Campus Martius until its course is checked by the island of the Tiber and an ugly bend: let him then notice that on the Etrurian side (Tuscum litus) are the lofty slopes of the Janiculan, and on the other (sinistra ripa) the low-lying districts of the Forum Boarium and the Velia, and then let him consider for himself the rendering, 'We have seen (as any citizen of Rome could have seen, without any theory as to the cause of floods) the yellow Tiber (yellower than ever with the flood), its waves hurled back with violence from the (steep) banks on the Etrurian side (against which the whole force of the stream would come), and advance (as they naturally would, checked by the river-bend and the island) to destroy, &c. . Any citizen of London might see the same effect produced by the Thames being driven back from the lofty embankment of the Middlesex shore to flood the humbler dwellings of the Surrey side.

15, 16. monumenta regis templaque Vestae] Numa Pompilius built a circular temple of Vesta and a palace (Regia) attached to it at the foot of the Palatine. Being situated close to the low region called Velia (from velum, a sail) they would stand immediately in the way of the inundation.

17. Iliae] Ilia, or Rhea Silvia, is spoken of as the wife of the river into which she was thrown, and is represented as by the 'importunity of her complaints' (nimium querens) urging her husband to avenge the murder of her great descendant, that Julius whose name recalled her own.

19. uxorius] Used of a husband who is too devoted to his wife, here of the Tiber-god, who is too willing to listen to his wife's wishes.

The third line of a sapphic stanza is so closely connected with the fourth that they read almost as one, and so render the peculiar position of uxorius admissible.

21. cives] Very emphatic, and so suggesting the full idea 'citizens against citizens,' which is also implied by the antithesis quo graves Persae melius perirent.

The whole history of the 1st century before Christ is the history of civil wars; these wars decimated the chief families at Rome: 'the ranks of youth were thinned by the crimes of their sires.' The proscriptions of Marius and Sulla, the battles

of Pharsalia (B.c. 48), Philippi (B.c. 42) and Actium (B.c. 31), would be fresh in every memory.

22. graves Persae] The Persian empire, dating from Cyrus (B. C. 559), was destroyed by Alexander, but the Roman poets use the words Persae and Medi generally with reference to any Oriental people. Here Horace refers to the Parthians, who by defeating and destroying Crassus at Charrae (B.C. 53) and capturing the Roman standards had made a deep impression on the imagination of the Romans.

25. quem....] 'What divinity is the people to invoke for (i.e. to aid) the fortunes of our falling power?'

26. imperium] Not 'empire' in the sense of a country ruled by an emperor, but in the sense of 'military sway,' the only proper meaning of imperium.

27. virgines sanctae] The vestal virgins, as guarding the eternal fire of Vesta, which was symbolical of the eternity of Rome, would be specially bound to pray for the safety of the state. They took part in all public ceremonies and were regarded as an integral and essential portion of the state. Thus when Horace wishes to say 'while Rome shall last,' he uses the expression dum Capitolium-scandet cum tacita virgine pontifex. Od. 3. 30. 8.

27, 28. minus audientem carmina] Wickham well translates 'turning a deaf ear to their litanies.' Carmen (casmen, from a root KAS, meaning to say) would be applicable to any formula of words chanted or recited.

29. partes]-duty, or task: the 'part' assigned to a man is his duty:' cf. Gk. μépos.

31. nube...] from Hom. 5. 186, vepéλŋ eiλvμévos wμovs; to Apollo or Phoebus, the Sun-god, the phrase is especially applicable.

32. augur] i.e. as the god of Delphi and oracles. Augur is strictly one who interprets the cries of birds, from avis, and garrire, to chatter, Gk. ynpów.

33. Erycina ridens] 'sweetly-smiling queen of Eryx.' Ridenspiλopμeidns. Mt Eryx was celebrated for its temple of Aphrodite, probably built by the Phoenicians to their goddess

Astarte (the Ashtoreth of the Old Testament), whom the Greeks identified with Aphrodite and the Romans with Venus.

35. sive neglectum...] 'Or if thou, our founder, dost regard thy family and descendants.' Auctor, as the sire of Romulus. Augustus had built a temple to Mars Ultor in accordance with a vow made before the battle of Philippi. Respicis is used exactly as our English 'regard:' it means to turn the head round to pay attention to any one.

37. ludo] In bitter irony: the god delights in war, so Od. 3 29. 50, Fortuna is described as ludum insolentem_ludere pertinax. Cf. too the use of spectacula Marti in 28. 17.

38. leves] Notice levis; it is identical with the Gk. Xeos, while levis is identical with ἐλαχύς.

39. Mauri peditis] Some would read 'Marsi' on the ground that the Moors and Numidians were all horsemen, but there is no reason to assume that foot-soldiers were never employed by them. Orelli takes peditis in the sense of 'unhorsed,' and urges that this adds to the force of the picture and gives a reason for the fierceness (acer vultus) the Moor exhibits, but I cannot think that anyone would naturally give such a special meaning to peditis in reading the stanza.

41. sive mutata...] 'Or if thou, O winged son of kindly Maia, dost change thy guise and take upon thee on earth the form of a youth (i.e. Augustus), submitting to be called the avenger of Caesar (Julius).'

iuvenem] Augustus was born в.c. 63, but juvenis includes the whole military age between 17 and 45.

42. ales] because of the petasus and talaria, the winged cap and anklets he wore as the messenger of the gods.

45. serus...redeas] 'May it be long before thou dost return.' Notice the flattery of redeas: Augustus being an incarnate deity does not merely go to heaven, but returns to it as his original dwelling.

50. pater] i.e. pater patriae, the title of which Cicero was so proud: it was only formally conferred on Augustus in B.C. 2, but had been long applied to him before in common talk.

princeps] i. e. princeps senatus, the senator whose name stood first on the censor's list. It was an honorary distinction conferred on the man of most eminent merit in the senate. Augustus received it in B. c. 26, and by the adoption and use of such a modest and republican title he hoped partially to conceal his really despotic authority. Cf. Tac. Ann. 1. 1, cuncta discordiis fessa civilibus nomine principis sub imperium accepit.

51. Medos...inultos] The defeat of Crassus and loss of the eagles was still to be avenged. They were ultimately recovered B. C. 20 by negotiation, an event to which the Roman poets are never weary of alluding.

equitare] The Parthian light horsemen amid their sandy deserts were the dread of the heavy-armed Roman legionaries, who were entirely incapable of resisting their rapid and desultory attacks. Cf. Odes 2. 13. 18, and note on 1. 19. 12. The word equitare conveys also a collateral notion of careering as if in

scorn.

ODE III.

'O ship that conveyest Virgil to Greece, duly deliver up the precious life entrusted to thy care. Bold indeed was the man who first trusted himself to the sea, but his was only one of the many impious attempts which men, such as Prometheus, Daedalus and Hercules, have made to transgress the limits which God in his providence has appointed: the constant renewal of these attempts prevents Jupiter from laying aside his thunderbolts of wrath.'

For Virgil's intimacy with Horace see Sellar's Virgil, pp. 120-126. Virgil and Varius first introduced Horace to Maecenas: Horace speaks of them with singular affection in Sat. 1. 5. 41 as animae quales neque candidiores | terra tulit, neque quis me sit devinctior alter-souls than which never did earth produce purer, souls to which no second man is more closely knit than I am.' Cf. also Od. 1. 24. We only know of one visit of Virgil to Athens, namely in B. c. 19, on the return from which he died at Brundisium Sep. 21. All the Odes of