Piscium et summa genus haesit ulmo Vidimus flavum Tiberim retortis Iliae dum se nimium querenti -bes; and therefore some have proposed, contrary to the MSS., to adopt palumbis' here. But columbus'-ba,' are the generic terms for pigeons.-'Damae' is both masculine and feminine. Georg. iii. 539: "timidi damae cervique fugaces." 11. superjecto] sibi et terris' adds Lambinus. But sibi' is not wanted. Virgil uses the word (Aen. xi. 625), “ Scopulosque superjacit undam." 13. flavum] This common epithet of the Tiber arose out of the quantity of sand washed down the stream. Aen. vii. 31: "Vorticibus rapidis et multâ flavus arenâ." It has been argued from 'vidimus' that Horace wrote of what he had seen, and therefore the prodigies could not be those at Caesar's death. But he means that his generation had seen the prodigies he refers to, as Virgil says of the eruptions of Aetna: "Quoties Cyclopum effervere in agros Vidimus undantem ruptis fornacibus Aetnam."-Georg. i. 471. 13, 14. retortis Littore Etrusco violenter undis] "its waters driven violently back from its mouth at the shore of the Etrusean sea." So I am inclined to take it, with Orelli, Dillenbr., and others. Some take 'Littore Etrusco' for the Etruscan or right bank of the river, as opposed to 'sinistra ripa' (v. 18). Littus' is used for ripa' (as Forcell. shows) by Virgil, as 'ripa' is used for littus' by Horace (C. iii. 27. 24). But littus Etruscum' means the shore of the Etruscan sea in Carm. Saec. 38, Epod. Ivi. 40, and retortis' can only signify driven back, and that must be from the mouth. Moreover the notion of the reflux of the river seems to have been common. Fea remarks that the overflowings of the Tiber are still by the common people accounted for by the violence of the sea 10 15 20 driving back the stream. That this is an old opinion we learn from the statement of Seneca, quoted by Mitsch., to the effect that a river suddenly overflows its banks, "si crebrioribus ventis ostium caeditur et reverberatus fluctu amnis restitit; qui crescere videtur quia non effunditur." (Nat. Quaest. iii. 26. 1.) 15. monumenta regis] This signifies the palace of Numa adjoining the temple of Vesta, hence called atrium regium (Liv. xxvi. 27), as forming a kind of atrium' to the temple. Ovid (Fasti, vi. 263) thus alludes to this building : 66 : Hic locus exiguus, qui sustinet atria Tunc erat intonsi regia magna Numae;" which he varies a little elsewhere (Trist. iii. 1. 29, sq.): "Hic locus est Vestae qui Pallada servat et ignem : Hic fuit antiqui regia parva Numae." Fea says that the church of Sta. Maria Liberatrice stands on this spot, and that it is proved by certain inscriptions of the Vestal Virgins found there in the beginning of the fifteenth century. 17. Iliae ultorem] Tiber is represented as taking upon himself without the sanction of Jove, and in consequence of Ilia's complaints, to avenge the death of C. Julius Caesar, the descendant of Iulus. Ilia or Rea Silvia (as Niebuhr says the name is to be written, and not Rhea) was said by Ennius, according to the Scholiast Porphyrion, to have been thrown into the Tiber by command of Amulius, and for this reason she is represented as married to that river, though she had been previously betrothed to the Anio, to whom Ovid marries her (Amor. iii. 6. 45, sqq., a beautiful passage). Silius (xii. 543) makes Ilia hide herself in the bosom of her spouse as Hannibal approaches the Anio. That there were two legends, therefore, in this as in most cases, must be admitted. Cruquius' commentator gets rid of the difficulty in true Scholiast fashion by saying that Ilia was buried by the banks of the Anio, which carried her remains away, and washed them into the Tiber; and hence she was said to have been married to the Tiber. Servius (on Aen. i. 277) remarks on Horace's version, which he says is supported by other writers. Claudian is one. Speaking of the Tiber he says, "Palla graves humeros velat quam neverat uxor Ilia, percurrens vitreas sub gurgite telas." (In Prob. et Olyb. Cons. 224.) Jove may be supposed to have disapproved the presumption of the river-god, because he had reserved the task of expiation for other hands and happier means. [As to uxorius, comp. Virgil, Aen. iv. 266. The same division as in u-xorius' occurs in C. i. 25. 11, C. ii. 16. 7.] 21. cives acuisse ferrum] inter se' or in semetipsos' is readily understood. Mitscherlich and others make audiet acuisse' a prophecy, shall hear them sharpen,' whereas it should be rendered 'shall hear of their having sharpened." Horace is lamenting what has been. Persians, Medes, and Parthians are names freely interchanged by Horace. The growth of the Parthian power from the condition of an insignificant dependency to the absorption of nearly the whole of the vast empire of the Seleucidae, is a question of history which need not be entered upon here. It will be borne in mind however reference to the above confusion of Pat the Parthian empire, at the wrote, extended nearly from he Roman province of Syria; and that the Parthians were in the habit of making incursions into that province, which fact is referred to in the last stanza of this ode. Although the name of Augustus, assisted by their own disputes, did something towards keeping them in check, they were held by the Romans to be their most formidable enemies, as the readers of Horace will easily perceive. Augustus meditated, but never carried on war with the Parthians, and the Romans never till the reign of Trajan gained any successes against them. Their empire was broken up and succeeded by the Persian kingdom of the Sassanidae during the reign of Alexander Severus, A.D. 226.-The opening of Lucan's first book may be compared with this ode. 24. Rara juventus] It took years of peace and the enactment of stringent marriage-laws to restore the population of Rome, which was thinned not only by bloodshed but by indifference to marriage and laxity of morals. 25. Quem vocet divum] The passionate appeal of the chorus in Aesch. S. c. Theb., beginning v. 92: rís ăpa þúσetai, tis &p' apkéσεi Deŵy Dear; may be compared with this. Vesta, the tutelary goddess of Rome (Virg. G. i. 499, sqq. "Dii patrii Indigetes, et Romule, Vestaque mater, Quae Tuscum Tiberim et Romana palatia servas "), is represented as deaf to the prayers of her virgins, because Caesar as Pontifex Maximus had particular charge of her temple and rites. So in Ovid she exclaims: "meus fuit ille sacerdos ; Sacrilegae telis me petiere manus.— At quicunqne nefas ausi prohibente deo rum Numine polluerant pontificale caput, Sive tu mavis, Erycina ridens, Heu nimis longo satiate ludo, Morte jacent merita. Caesaris ulcisci justa per arma patrem." (Fast. iii. 699, sqq.) And when Augustus was made Pontifex Maximus Ovid writes (iii. 421): "Ignibus aeternis aeterni numina praesunt Caesaris. Ortus ab Aenea tangit cognata sacerdos Numina; cognatum Vesta tuere caput. Quos sancta fovet ille manu, bene vivitis ignes. Vivite inexstincti flammaque duxque precor." Aeneas was said to have preserved the fire of Vesta and brought her to Rome. Carmina' is opposed to 'prece' as a set formula to other prayers. Carmen' has that meaning in respect to legal or any other formal documents. Liv. i. 26: "Lex horrendi carminis." Epp. ii. 1. 138: "Carmine Di superi placantur, carmine Manes." 31. Nube candentes humeros amictus] So Homer describes him, eiμévos μov repéany (II. xv. 308). Virg. (Aen. viii. 720): "candentis limine Phoebi." Candenti' is the reading of the Scholiasts and one or two old editions. Fea adopts it, and supposes the nubes 'to be a ' nimbus' or glory' round about his head. Graevius' notion that "nube candentes humeros amictus" has reference to the eclipse reckoned among the prodigies at Caesar's death is not worthy of him. But the fault is Bothe's, who edited Graevius' notes from marginal readings in his copy of Cruquius' edition not intended for publication. [The Romans have no active participles of the past tense, and so they use passive participles in some cases, where the accusative receives the action of the verbal notion contained in the participle. Compare C. i. 1. 21, membra stratus;' C. ii. 7. 7, 'coronatus capillos;' Sat. i. 1. 5, 'fractus membra.'] 33. Sive] See i. 3. 16 n. Erycina ridens' corresponds to φιλομμείδης Αφροδίτη. "Iuepos and "Epws were the two sons of Venus. [Venus had a temple on the moun tain Eryx, in the north-west part of Sicily. Cic., In Q. Caecil. c. 17; In Verr. Act. ii. 2. 8.] 'Jocus' is an invention of Horace's. The reasons for appealing to Apollo as the stedfast friend of Troy, and, according to his flatterers, the father of Augustus (not because he was Φοίβος καθάρσιος εις Aeneas and of the Julian family, and Mars Duentzer says), Venus as the mother of as the father of Romulus, are sufficiently obvious. Mercury is selected as the representative of Augustus, because he is the messenger of peace (Ovid, Fast. v. 665): "Pacis et armorum superis imisque deorum Arbiter." 36. Respicis] Cic. (de Leg. ii. 11) proposes the title Fortuna respiciens,' which he explains by ad opem ferendam,' for a temple of Fortune. ludo] See C. i. 28. 17: "Dant alios Furiae torvo spectacula Marti." 39. Mauri peditis] As the African troops were chiefly cavalry, and according to some writers distinguished rather for cowardice than bravery, Marsi has been substituted for Mauri by some editors, on the conjecture of Tanaquil Faber and against all the MSS. But other writers speak more highly of the Mauritanians; and the force of peditis,' which would have no force at all with Marsi, here appears to be that the rider has had his horse killed under him, or has dismounted to attack his enemy hand to hand, or in consequence of a wound. See S. ii. 1. 13: "Aut labentis equo describit vulnera Parthi." On foot the Roman cavalry routed the Hernicans (Liv. vii. 8), and Statorius had no difficulty in forming a very fine body of infantry out of the Numidian soldiers of Syphax (Liv. xxiv. 48). has been conjectured that Horace took the idea from a painting. Bentley has caught up Marsi" as "certissima emendatio." Dacier, the inventor's son-in-law, supports the reading with the assertion that he had seen it in some of the oldest editions. Bentley wishes he had access to those very rare editions, and is afraid this is only a dream that has come to the Frenchman per portam eburneam.' It Sive mutata juvenem figura Serus in caelum redeas diuque : Tollat hic magnos potius triumphos, 41. juvenem] So Augustus is called, though he was forty years old at this time. So Virg. (G. i. 500):— "Hunc saltem everso juvenem succurrere saeclo Ne prohibete." 'Juvenis' and 'adolescens' were used for any age between 'pueritia ' and 'senectus.' Cicero speaks of himself as 'adolescens' at the time he put down Catiline's conspiracy, when he was forty-four years old, and as 'senex,' when he delivered his 2nd Philippic, at which time he was sixty-two. "Defendi Rem publicam adolescens, non deseram se(Phil. ii. 46). But the reader will find many examples in Forcellini, under the articles adolescens' and 'juvenis.' nex دو [43. Filius is supposed by Ritter to be for the vocative.] patiens vocari] A Graecism. "Patiarque vel inconsultus haberi" (Epp. i. 5. 15); Cum pateris sapiens emendatusque vocari" (Epp. i. 16. 30). 44. Caesaris ultor] Estré, a very diligent scholar and candid man, declares himself perfectly unable to account for this language of Horace. It confounds and disturbs, he says, all his notions of Horace's character (Prosop. p. 277). See Introduction to this ode. 45. Serus in caelum redeas] Ovid, Met. xv. 868, sqq. : "Tarda sit illa dies et nostro serior aevo See also Trist. v. 2. 47. The adjective for 46. populo Quirini] Some MSS. have Quirino. But the genitive is the general reading, and corresponds better to the regular form 'populus Romanus Quiritium.' 45 50 49. triumphos] Augustus had ju brated, or was just about to celebrate triumphs on three successive days, victories (1) over the Pannonians an matians, (2) at Actium, and (3) at andria. Triumphos' is governed by as 'pocula' is governed by 'spernit 19); in both which cases we have a sative case and an infinitive mood go by the same verb. 50. pater] The title of 'pater pa was not assumed by Augustus till 752. Ovid addresses him by tha (Fast. ii. 127): : "Sancte pater patriae, tibi plebs, tib nomen Hoc dedit; hoc dedimus no nomen eques. Res tamen ante dedit. Sero quoqu tulisti Nomina jampridem tu pater eras. Hoc tu per terras quod in aethere J alto Nomen habes; hominum tu ille Deum." could be conferred on a citizen, and It was the highest title of honour first given by the Senate to Cicero army had formerly bestowed it on C lus), on the occasion of his suppre Catiline's conspiracy. Juv. viii. 243 "Sed Roma parentem, Roma patrem patriae Ciceronem 1 dixit," where 'libera' seems to mean that senate was no longer free when Aug took the name. See C. iii. 24. 27 n. princeps] Tac. Ann. i. 1, "Cuneta cordiis civilibus fessa nomine principis imperium accepit." 51. equitare inultos] See above, v. 2 CARMEN III. " The date of this ode has been much discussed. It is the chronologists' stumblingblock. If it was written on the occasion of that voyage to Athens from which Virgil only returned to die, the date must be A.U.C. 735. How that interferes with the reckoning of Franke and others may be seen by referring to the introductory remarks to this edition. Franke however denies that this ode has reference to that voyage. He even thinks it doubtful whether it is addressed to Virgil the poet; and though he is in general very acute and judicious, his zeal for the theory he advocates ran away with his judgment when it led him to think that Quintilius, whose death is lamented in C. 24 of this book, is the person here addressed, and that perhaps he was drowned on the voyage, since it is clear, says he, from that ode that he met with an untimely and vio. lent death. Coming from most other people this theory would not be worth mentioning. That it is the resort of an advocate in difficulty is clear on the face of it. He thinks these two odes are closely connected, though the link has been lost to us from the obscurity of the allusions, but he finds a trace of it in the words "Navis quae tibi creditum Debes (v. 6 of this ode); and C. 24. 11, “Tu frustra pius heu! non ita creditum." There is no weight in this argument at all; nevertheless, there is no certainty that the ode was written on the occasion supposed. Virgil may have made or contemplated a voyage before his last, and there is so much difficulty attending the date A.U.C. 735 that I am inclined to think such must have been the case. This leaves the date of the ode in uncertainty. Franke's best argument is, that if the publication of these odes took place after Virgil's death, it must have been immediately or very soon after, even according to the chronology of Kirchner and others who are opposed to him; and that it would have been in the worst taste and feeling to have inserted this ode at such a time. There can be little doubt, I think, but he would have suppressed it, or accompanied it with one expressing his own and the universal sorrow. I cannot imagine a greater mockery than the insertion of an ode addressed to Virgil on the death of his friend, and an ode praying for his safe voyage, at a time when all Virgil's friends must have been bewailing his death, to which no allusion is made in any part of Horace's writings. This last fact would be accounted for if we supposed Virgil to have died during the time when Horace had almost if not entirely suspended this kind of writing. Franke's attempt to show that there was not that mutual affection between Virgil and Horace which would warrant the expressions in this ode is very weak. But others have affirmed the same because Virgil nowhere mentions Horace, and because he did not leave him his literary executor, but chose Varius and Tucca rather than Horace. But Virgil left his Æneid not to be published but destroyed, and there is no reason why he should have chosen Horace for such a purpose. A man may have more friends than executors, and does not always give that office to those he loves best. As for the other argument, if the nature of Virgil's poems be considered, it is not worth noticing. Compare with this ode Statius' Propempticon' to Metius Celer, a most noble and pleasant youth,' whom as he could not accompany he sent upon his way with a beautiful address, suggested partly it would seem by this of Horace (Silv. iii. 2). ARGUMENT. We commit to thee Virgil, O thou ship; deliver him safe on the shores of Attica, and preserve him whom I love as my life; and may the skies and winds prosper thee. Hard and rash was the man who first tempted the sea and defied the winds. In what shape should he fear the approach of death who unmoved could look on the monsters of the deep and the swelling waves and dangerous rocks? In vain did God separate lands if man is to leap over the forbidden waters. So doth he ever |