ODE VII. TO PLANCUS. This ode is generally supposed to be addressed to L. Munatius Plancus, than whom those versatile times did not engender a more selfish renegade or a more ungrateful traitor. Estré, loath to grant that Horace condescended to immortalise this person (who, however, contrived to make himself important to all parties, and died safe, wealthy, and honoured at least by Augustus, who even conferred upon him Other bards shall extol brilliant Rhodes, Ephesus, or Mytilene, Or Thessaly's beautiful Tempè, Some are whose sole task is to laud the city of Pallas the spotless, Prolonging the hymn into Epic,1 On every side plucking a leaf to garland their brows with the olive ; And many, in honour of Juno, Tell of Argos, the breeder of steeds, and the rich stores of Mycenæ ; But me more have stricken with rapture Than patient Laconia's defiles, than fertile Larissa's expanses The grot of Albunea 2 resounding, The Anio's precipitous rush, the woodlands and orchards of Tibur, All dewy with quick-winding waters. 1 Carmine perpetuo celebrare.' I adopt the interpretation of Orelli, Macleane, and Yonge-a continuous poem, like an epic, culling him the censorship, B.C. 27), thinks that it was some other Plancus, possibly his son, designated as Munatius, Lib. I. Ep. iii. v. 31. Horace, however, in this ode does not ascribe any virtues to the person addressed at variance with the general character of the successful renegade, and only bids him not take grief much to heart, but enjoy himself as much as he could, whether in the camp or at his villa-an admonition which he was not likely to disregard. The measure of the ode takes its name from Alcman. It consists of a complete hexameter alternated with a verse made up of the last four feet of a hexameter. Horace only employs this metre twice again, Book I. Ode xxviii., and Epode xii. CARM. VII. Laudabunt alii claram Rhodon, aut Mytilenen, Moenia, vel Baccho Thebas, vel Apolline Delphos Sunt, quibus unum opus est, intactæ Palladis urbem 1 Undique decerptam fronti præponere olivam. Aptum dicet equis Argos ditesque Mycenas. Et præceps Anio, ac Tiburni lucus et uda all the associations and myths connected with Athens, and formed into a whole like Ovid's Metamorphoses. * Albunea, the Sibyl, who gave her name to a grove and fountain, and apparently to a grotto at Tibur. As the white southern wind oftens clears clouds from a sky at its darkest, Nor teems with a rain that is lasting, So, Plancus, let those weary hours, when life seems but labour and sorrow, Be lulled to their end in the wine-cup; Whether camps with banners ablaze hold thee now, or shall hold thee hereafter The thick-leaved shades of thy Tibur. When from Salamis and from his sire, Teucer was passing to exile, 'Tis said that he crowned with the poplar ' Brows first besprinkled with drops from the strength-giving boon of Lyæus, To friends as they sorrowed thus speaking: Go WE wheresoever a fate more kind than the heart of a parent May bear us, associates and comrades ; Despair of nought, Teucer your chief-of nought under auspice of Teucer, Unerring Apollo predicts us 'A Salamis built on new soil, which Fame shall confound with the lost one ; 2 Brave friends who have borne with me often Worse things as men, let the wine chase to-day every care from the bosom, To-morrow-again the great Waters.' 'Emblematic of courage and adventure. The poplar was consecrated to Hercules. 2 Ambiguam tellure nova Salamina futuram'-a new Salamis, which might in future be confounded with the old one. The new Salamis was in Cyprus. Albus ut obscuro deterget nubila cælo Perpetuo, sic tu sapiens finire memento Molli, Plance, mero, seu te fulgentia signis Tiburis umbra tui. Teucer Salamina patremque Cum fugeret, tamen uda Lyæo Tempora populea1 fertur vinxisse corona, Sic tristes affatus amicos; Quo nos cunque feret melior Fortuna parente, Nil desperandum Teucro duce et auspice Teucro; Ambiguam tellure nova Salamina futuram, 2 Mecum sæpe viri, nunc vino pellite curas This ode has been paraphrased by Henry Luttrell into that elegant and playful satire upon the manners of his own day, called 'Advice to Julia.' The names are clearly ficti By all gods, Lydia, say Why haste to ruin Sybaris thro' loving? Why has the Campus grown To him, of dust and sun so patient,-hateful? 'Mid comates why no more Parades that martial rider, with sharp wolf-bit Why shuns that athlete oil More than the froth of vipers; why no longer He, for so many a feat of dart and discus Where lurks he, as the son of ocean-Thetis From funeral fates in Troy tious. Lurked, they say-hidden, lest to Lycian squadrons If once detected in the guise of manhood? 1 Gallica nec lupatis Temperat ora frenis.' Gallic mouths-horses from Gaul. These were considered very high mettled, but, when well broken-in, so serviceable in war that they were in great request in the Roman cavalry. Lupatis,' a bit, jagged like wolves' teeth. 6 |