5 ΙΟ ne parva Tyrrhenum per aequor Ianum Quirini clausit et ordinem natural instrument for arousing 385 toline Jove. It is conjectured from this passage that the standards were deposited in the temple on the Capitol until transferred to the temple of Mars Ultor, dedicated in 2 B.C. Horace's words, however, do not necessitate this conclusion. - derepta poetic exaggeration. — postibus: of their temples. — duellis: cf. 3, 5, 38 and n. 9 f. Ianum Quirini: a variation of the common Ianum Quirinum, the name given the temple as well as the god. The shrine stood near the north end of the Forum. clausit: in 29 and 25 B.C. The gates had then not been closed since the end of the First Punic War. They were shut a third time during Augustus' rule, but the exact year is not known. When Horace wrote the gates were open. evaganti: transitive. Intr. 86. frena, etc. Horace's hope expressed 3, 24, 28 f. is fulfilled. With the expression, cf. Val. Max. 2, 9, 5 freni sunt iniecti vobis, Quirites: lex enim lata est, quae vos esse frugi iubet. 15 20 iniecit emovitque culpas et veteres revocavit artis, per quas Latinum nomen et Italae Custode rerum Caesare non furor et miseras inimicat urbis. Non qui profundum Danuvium bibunt non Tanain prope flumen orti. 12. artis: the virtues; cf. 3, 3, 9. With these statements, cf. Augustus' claims Mon. Anc. 2, 12 legibus novis latis multa revocavi exempla maiorum exolescentia. secured by the polysyndeton in the three preceding. — furor: madness; cf. Epist. 2, 2, 47 civilis aestus. — ira: cf. 1, 16, 9 ff. inimicat: a compound coined by Horace. 21 ff. qui profundum Danuvium bibunt the peoples living by the Danube had not been reduced to complete submission at the time Horace wrote; that was accomplished later. All Horace means is that they were at peace with Rome. edicta . . . Iulia: not in a technical, but a general sense, -the terms set by Augustus. Getae: cf. 3, 24, II. Seres: cf. n. to I, 12, 56. — infidi: cf. Epist. 2, 1, 112 Parthis mendacior. Persae: 1, 2, 22.-Tanain prope flumen orti: cf. 3, 29, 28. This 25 30 Nosque et profestis lucibus et sacris cum prole matronisque nostris virtute functos more patrum duces list of peoples should be compared 25 ff. nos: marking the shift to the Romans' own happy lot. — et profestis . . . et sacris: i.e. every day alike. -lucibus: cf. 4, 6, 42; II, 19. iocosi munera Liberi: the Hesiodic δωρα Διωνύσου πολυynéos. Cf. 1, 18, 7. — cum prole, etc. each in his own home. rite: in prescribed fashion. 29. virtute functos: varying the common vita functos; cf. 2, 18, 38 laboribus functos. Translate, who have done their noble work.- more patrum: modifying canemus. The custom of extolling the virtues of their ancestors in song at banquets was an ancient one among the Romans, according to Cato. Cf. Cic. Tusc. 4, 3 in Originibus dixit Cato morem apud maiores hunc epularum fuisse, ut deinceps qui accubarent canerent ad tibiam clarorum virorum laudes atque virtutes. 30 ff. Lydis: apparently a purely ornamental epithet. — remixto: an unusual word. - tibiis: dative. Anchisen et progeniem Ve neris: i.e. the long line descended from Anchises and Venus; but the special reference is obviously to Augustus, as in C. S. 50 clarus Anchisae Venerisque sanguis. CARMEN SAECVLARE Horace's preeminent art was officially recognized in 17 B.C. by his appointment to write the hymn for the celebration of the ludi saeculares. This festival originated in a worship of the gods of the lower world by the gens Valeria at a spot in the Campus Martius called Terentum (or Tarentum), near the bend in the river not far below the present Ponte San Angelo. In 249 B.C., after the defeat at Drepanum, some fearful portents prompted a consultation of the Sibylline Books: these ordered a celebration of the ludi Terentini, and further directed that the festival should be repeated every hundred years. Thus the gentile cult became a national one. The second celebration was not in 149 but 146 B.C.; the confusion of 49 B.C. must have prevented any thought of the ludi in that year. Apparently Augustus thought of a similar festival in honor of Apollo and Diana for 23 B.C.; this undoubtedly would have taken the form of an appeal to these divinities to avert the misfortune which then threatened the state and the emperor the bad harvest with its attendant hardship and Augustus' sickness (cf. Intr. n. to I, 21 and n. to 1, 21, 6). For some unknown reason the celebration was deferred. The year 17, however, marked the close of the decade for which Augustus in January, 27 B.C., had undertaken the direction of the state. In this ten years the Roman world had revived under the blessings of peace and had seemed to enter on a new era. Augustus proposed to celebrate the close of this period by a revival of the ludi saeculares in new and magnificent form. To obtain religious sanction for his plan he applied to the quindecimviri, the college in charge of the Sibylline Books, who took 110 years as the length of the saeculum,— antiquarians differed as to whether 100 or 110 years was the correct number,—and on this basis pointed to four previous dates for celebrations beginning with 456 B.C.; the one proposed by Augustus was then the fifth, and fell in the last year of the saeculum instead of at its close. Claudius celebrated the festival in 47 A.D., taking the traditional date of the founding of the city as his starting point and reckoning a saeculum as 100 years; Domitian's celebration was in 88 A.D.; that of Antoninus Pius, in 147, marked the close of the city's ninth century. Later celebrations were by Septimius Severus in 204; by Philip in 248 in honor of the completion of the first millennium of the state. Whether there were celebrations by Gallienus in 257 or by Maximian in 304 is uncertain. They were revived by Pope Boniface as papal jubilees in 1300. Augustus, however, made important changes in the nature of the festival. Hitherto it had been a propitiatory offering to the gods of the lower world; now it became rather a festival of thanksgiving for present blessings and of prayer for the continuance of them forever. Pluto and Proserpina were not mentioned, but Apollo and Diana had the most prominent place. Jupiter and Juno were also honored. Zosimus (2, 5) has preserved for us an account of the celebration and the oracle which contains directions for it. This oracle in its present detailed form was unquestionably written for the festival or after it, but is probably based on an earlier production. After the celebration was past, two pillars, one marble, the other bronze, inscribed with a complete record, were erected at the spot Terentum; in 1890 some fragments of the marble pillar were recovered and are now preserved in the Museo delle Therme which occupies a portion of the remains of the baths of Diocletian.1 These fragments and literary notices, especially Zosimus, enable us to trace the course of the festival clearly. The celebration proper began on the evening before June 1; but on May 26–28 the magistrates distributed to all citizens who applied suffimenta, pitchpine, sulphur, and bitumen, for purposes of purification; May 29-31 the citizens brought contributions of grain to the officials to be used by them in paying the musicians and actors. The festival itself lasted three nights and days; the nocturnal sacrifices were at Terentum; the ceremonies by day were at the temples of the several divinities. Augustus, assisted by Agrippa, conducted the entire celebration. On the first night nine black ewe lambs and nine she-goats were burnt whole in sacrifice to the Parcae (C. S. 25 ff.); on the following night consecrated cakes were offered to the Ilithyiae 1 The inscription is best edited by Mommsen in the Ephemeris Epigraphica, 1891, pp. 225-274. For accounts of the festival see also Lanciani in the Atlantic Monthly, February, 1892; Slaughter, Transactions of the Am. Phil. Association, 1895, pp. 69-78; and Harper's Classical Dictionary, p. 974 f. |