Spartan Helen was not the sole woman inflamed by
An adulterer's sleek locks; or seduced by the glitter
Of the vestments embroidered in gold,

And the graces and pomp of a prince;

Teucer bent not the first skilful bow of the Cretan; Troy was more than once harassed by valiant besiegers; Other chiefs, besides Sthenelus strong,

Or Idomeneus mighty, achieved

Deeds as worthy as theirs of a Muse to record them;
Not the first was Deiphobus keen, or fierce Hector,
Who has met, without flinching, the blow,
In defence of his children and wife.

Many brave men have lived long before Agamemnon,
But o'er them darkly presses the slumber eternal;
All unwept and unknown, wanting Him-
Making names ever sacred the Bard!

Little differs worth hidden from worthlessness buried;
In the page I shall speak, and the page shall adorn thee;
I will let not, O Lollius, thy toils

Fade in livid oblivion away.

In the converse of life thine the provident wisdom,
Thine, the temper unmoved by the changes of Fortune,
Whatsoever her smile or her frown,

Neither bowed nor elate,-but erect;

The avenger of greedy and fraudful Corruption,
The abstainer from Gold, which draws all to its magnet-
Consul not of the one year alone,

For thy mind must be always in power

'Vate sacro.' 'Sacro' here has the sense of making sacred, consecrating.

2. Secundis

Temporibus dubiisque rectus.'

Rectus needs, I think, the paraphrase in the translation, neither bowed nor elate;' not with head arrogantly lifted up in prosperous nor dejected in doubtful fortune. I agree with Orelli and Macleane in considering that

Non sola comptos arsit adulteri
Crines, et aurum vestibus illitum
Mirata, regalesque cultus

Et comites Helene Lacæna ;

Primusve Teucer tela Cydonio
Direxit arcu; non semel Ilios
Vexata; non pugnavit ingens
Idomeneus Sthenelusve solus

Dicenda Musis prælia; non ferox
Hector, vel acer Deiphobus graves
Excepit ictus pro pudicis

Conjugibus puerisque primus.

Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona
Multi; sed omnes illacrimabiles
Urgentur ignotique longa

Nocte, carent quia vate sacro.1

Paullum sepultæ distat inertiæ

Chartis inornatum silebo,

Totve tuos patiar labores

Impune, Lolli, carpere lividas
Obliviones. Est animus tibi
Rerumque prudens, et secundis
Temporibus dubiisque rectus;2

Vindex avaræ fraudis, et abstinens
Ducentis ad se cuncta pecuniæ;
Consulque non unius anni,

Sed quoties bonus atque fidus

the lines refer to the defeat of Lollius in Germany; and it seems that not only Horace here emphatically seeks to pay tribute to the steadfastness and integrity of his friend's character, but in the concluding stanza to vindicate his courage, and intimate that he was the last man who would have feared death.

Whensoever an arbiter, faithful to justice,

Over what is expedient exalts what is honest,
Awes the briber with one lofty look,

And through hosts clears, victorious, his way.1

It is not large possessions themselves that are blessings;
More rightly called 'blest,' he whose claim to the title
Is the wisdom which puts to their use

All the gifts that he owes to the gods,

He who hardens his soul to reverse and privation-
He who looks upon death as less dread than dishonour-
Never fears, for the friends of his love

Or the cause of his country, to die.

The meaning of these lines seems explained by reference to Lib. III. Od. ii. lines 19, 20,

'Nec sumit aut ponit secures

Arbitrio popularis auræ ;'

i.e., Lollius is not the mere official consul of a single year—he never lays down the insignia of his majestic virtue. It seems to me that the image is still continued through the lines,

6

'Per obstantes catervas Explicuit sua victor arma."

The lictors dispersed opposing crowds to make way for the consul; and arma' here may signify their axes. Yonge renders the passage yet more symbolically, in this eloquent paraphrase: The soul has an independent dignity so long as, true in principle and judgment, it rejects corruption, and bursts in a moral victory through the host of vices.' Ritter insists on construing the lines literally, and refers them to Lollius's military administration of his province.

Judex honestum prætulit utili,
Rejecit alto dona nocentium
Voltu, per obstantes catervas
Explicuit sua victor arma.1

Non possidentem multa vocaveris Recte beatum: rectius occupat Nomen beati, qui deorum Muneribus sapienter uti,

Duramque callet pauperiem pati, Pejusque leto flagitium timet; Non ille pro caris amicis

Aut patria timidus perire.

ODE X. OMITTED.

ODE XI.

TO PHYLLIS.

As Horace had before (Lib. III. Od. xxviii.) invited Lyde to the feast-day of Neptune, so he here invites Phyllis to celebrate the birthday of Mecenas in the Ides of April. The date of the ode cannot be determined, though it may be reasonably conjectured that when he speaks of Phyllis as his last love, he was of an age correspondent with the period at which the Fourth Book was published. Nevertheless this is no sure index; for, as Macleane shrewdly intimates, most men promise the woman they woo that she shall be the last love. To those who insist upon giving literal individual personality to the fictitious names Horace introduces into his poems, this poem would seem written at a much earlier period, since Telephus, that universal ladykiller, is still described as 'juvenis.' But we have already seen that 'juvenis' by no means necessarily signifies a youth. I do not believe, with Macleane, that Telephus

I've a cask of rich Alban wine full in my cellar-
It has passed its ninth year; in my garden, fair Phyllis,
There is parsley for chaplets, and O, in profusion,

Ivy too, ivy,

Thou art dazzling whenever that binds up thy tresses. All my house laughs with plate; clasped around with chaste vervain,

Lo, mine altar stands thirsting the blood of a lambkin

Soon to be sprinkled.

And all hands are at work; here and there run the servants, Men and maids, helter-skelter; the flame mounts in flicker,