Nec Coæ referunt jam tibi purpuræ,1 Nec clari lapides tempora, quæ semel Inclusit volucris dies.2 Quo fugit Venus? heu, quove color? decens Quæ me surpuerat mihi, Felix post Cinaram, notaque et artium Servatura diu parem Cornicis vetulæ temporibus Lycen; Multo non sine risu, Dilapsam in cineres facem, ODE XIV. TO AUGUSTUS, AFTER THE VICTORIES OF TIBERIUS. The introduction to Ode iv. in this book has, sufficiently for the purpose, sketched the outline of the events which led to the composition of this ode. As the former was devoted to By what care can the Senate of Rome, and Rome's people, By what titles, what archives to time, Prince supremest, wherever the sun lights a region Free till then from the law of the Roman. By no even exchange in the barter of bloodshed,' Horror-breathing; then Nero the elder completed All conspicuous he rode where the fight raged the fiercest, In the stubborn devotion to freedom. Through the foe went his way, as the blast o'er the billows When the Pleiads are cleaving the rain-clouds asunder, 1 Plus vice simplici.' This does not mean more than once,' as the scholiasts interpret, 'with double loss to the enemy;' or litera to the praises of Drusus, so the latter commemorates the subsequent and completing conquests of Tiberius, and refers all to the honour of Augustus in the establishment of his empire, and the consummation of his fortunes and his glory. CARM. XIV. Quæ cura Patrum, quæve Quiritium, Per titulos memoresque fastos Æternet, O, qua sol habitabiles Quid Marte posses. Milite nam tuo Alpibus impositas tremendis, Dejecit acer plus vice simplici;1 Spectandus in certamine Martio, Indomitas prope qualis undas Exercet Auster, Pleïadum choro as Macleane renders it, 'with more than an even exchange'-i.e., of blood. And the snort of his war-horse was heard In the midst of the lightnings of battle.1 . As when Aufidus, laving the kingdoms of Daunus, O'er the fields that are rife with the harvest, So in storm, through that barbarous array swept the Nero, On a ground that was strewn with the foemen; But he owed to thyself the resources, the counsels, Had thy reign reached its third happy lustre, When, in crowning thy wish and completing thy glory, Fortune ended the wars which her favour had prospered,3 And established in triumph the peace Of a world underneath thy dominion. Thee the dauntless Cantabrian, before never conquered; Thee the Mede and the Indian, and Scyth, the wild Nomad, Mark in wonder and awe, guardian shield Of Italia, and Rome the earth's mistress. Thee the Nile, unrevealing the source of its waters ; Thee the Danube; and thee the swift rush of the Tigris; Medios per ignes'-i.e., 'per medium ardorem belli' (COM. CRUQ.). 2 Tauriformis Aufidus;' literally, 'tauriform' or 'bull-formed Aufidus.' The image is applied to many rivers by the Greek and Latin poets. Macleane suggests that the branches of so many large streams at the mouths of rivers might have suggested the idea of the horns; but it seems to me that the comparison to the bull in general applies to the blind and senseless violence of the animal, who runs on Vexare turmas, et frementem Mittere equum medios per ignes.1 Sic tauriformis volvitur Aufidus,2 Ut barbarorum Claudius agmina Te copias, te consilium et tuos Et vacuam patefecit aulam, Fortuna lustro prospera tertio Te Cantaber non ante domabilis, Italiæ dominæque Romæ : Te, fontium qui celat origines indiscriminately, trampling and destroying everything in his way-just as the inundation of a torrent does. 3 ' Horace, here addressing Augustus, ascribes it to him as his crowning victory that he has at last got the wish of his heart, which was peace-the peace of the world, subjected to the Roman Empire. The victory of Tiberius was on the fifteenth anniversary of the day on which Augustus entered Alexandria, and, thus terminating the civil war, became supreme. |